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Reality TV Films Blog |
"The Savages" by Zack Roddy
January 21, 2007
Written and Directed by Tamara Jenkins, The Savages follows the dysfunctional Savage family. There's Wendy (Laura Linney) a neurotic, self involved thirty nine year old who is having a passionate affair with a married man. And there's Ben (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a sluggish, self-involved forty two year old whose girlfriend of three years' visa has just expired, and yet he won't marry her because he feels their relationship is "just not at that level" yet. She lives in Manhattan, he in Buffalo. But their lives take a sudden turn when their elder father's girlfriend of twenty years dies, and they are both suddenly put in charge of his care. This proves difficult for the both of these two already weak people, made even more difficult by the fact that their father suffers from dementia. Wendy and Ben now must survive off of each other, and take care of a man that hardly took care of them, and now can hardly remember them.
The Savages often hilarious, and often sad, is an excellent film. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman have excellent chemistry as brother and sister, and the both of them are comedic geniuses. Just their facial expressions in some scenes were enough to put the audience in stitches. Look for The Savages in theatres in the future.
"Weapons" by Zack Roddy
January 21, 2007
Written and directed by Adam Bhala Lough,Weapons takes place over one weekend in the lives of many very different, troubled, teenagers. Sean (Mark Webber) is home from his first year of college and is not surprised to find that his two best friends, Jason (Riley Smith) and Chris (Paul Dano) are doing the same thing that they've been doing since high school getting drunk, high, fighting, and trying to hook up with underage girls. One big change is that Chris has now started to carry a shotgun in the back of his trunk. Meanwhile, Reggie (Nick Cannon), a responsible African American young man, throws his responsibilities and impending job interview to the wayside when he discovers that his beloved younger sister Sabrina (Regine Nehy) has been raped.by Jason. Reggie embarks on an urban odyssey to find a weapon to kill Jason with, and will do anything to exact revenge, leading to an abrupt and unexpected showdown in a fast food restaurant.
Though visually impressive, I can't call Weapons a movie that I enjoyed. Everything about the film just seemed to rushed, there was no back story to the characters, and their choices just seemed too unrealistic. The actors try hard with the material, by I think that their abilities ultimately suffered from the weak script.
"Snow Angels" by Zack Roddy
January 21, 2007
Written and directed by David Gordon Green, the film Snow Angels has made its debut at Sundance. The film centers on three different people in a small Pennsylvania town: there's Annie (Kate Beckinsale), a single mother of a young daughter recently separated from her husband Glenn (Sam Rockwell). He's still madly in love; she's having an affair with her best friend's husband. And then there's Arthur (Michael Angarano) a typical, if not somewhat nerdy teenager used to be babysat by Annie, and is now experiencing his own form of first love with Lila (Olivia Thirlby), a new girl in his school. When Arthur's parent's separate, and Glenn discovers Annie's affair, the three begin a downward spiral, which ultimately lead them to face the bitter and harsh realities of life, ending where nobody could have predicted.
What makes Snow Angels so exceptional is the exquisite dialogue and true-life situations that David Gordon Green provides for his audience, aided by how well he manages his variety of very talented actors.. Already an experienced and talented filmmaker at the young age of thirty, audiences can expect many more great things from Green in the future.
January 20, 2006
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS - Thursday marked the opening night of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
For celebrity-watchers, this event is filled with some of the biggest names in Hollywood and Thursday evening didn't disappoint.
Actress Jennifer Aniston was the biggest name of the night to make her way down the red carpet. She showed up for a screening of her new movie "Friends with Money." She was joined by one of her co-stars in the movie, Joan Cusack.
The festival goes through January 29th.
It's been reported that about 3-thousand films were submitted to the festival, with 194 films planned for screening during the event.
January 21, 2006
Hi, my name is Zack Roddy, and welcome to my first ever BLOG. I am writing this to catalog the events going down this year at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. I attended the festival last year as press when I was fifteen, and I was completely ecstatic to be invited back this year again as press for my high school paper The Bay Eagle.
View Pictures Here
January 25, 2006
For the first time of the festival, I got to sleep in, and let me tell you, it was glorious. My parents had to take my cousin Dustin to the airport, and they left me behind to catch up on my sleep. When they came back from the airport, we left at 11:30 a.m. to a see a 12 p.m. screening of Stephanie Daley at Eccles theatre, a film starring Tilda Swinton and Amber Tamblyn. The film was excellently done and after the screening I made my way up to the front stage where Amber was answering questions with the director and Tida Swinton. Back when I was a freshman, two years ago, the show Joan of Arcadia frequently filmed at my high school, and Amber starred as Joan, the lead character, so we'd met before when I conducted an interview with her. So today, I walked straight up to her and reintroduced myself, and she recognized me immediately. We talked for a few minutes, catching up, and I told her what an awesome job she did in the movie.
After leaving the theatre, we walked to the Yarrow to see the press screening of the film, Little Miss Sunshine, which turned out to be my favorite film of the entire festival. It starred Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Steve Carrell. The film was about a pudgy little girl named Olive who has entered in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant for children, and the misadventures her family has on a road trip from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Redondo Beach, California. The film was hilarious. Standout roles including Steve Carrell as Olive's uncle who has tried to commit suicide and Paul Dano as her brother who is obsessed with Nietzsche and does not speak, but writes messages on pads of paper. The film has already been picked up for an estimated 10 million dollars, and will be distributed to theatres in 2006.
After Little Miss Sunshine, my parents and I stayed for another film called Right At Your Door, a thriller about a man in Los Angeles who witnesses a bomb explode in downtown L.A., and another at L.A.X., as well as the states of Utah and Arizona. When the bomb turns out to be holding noxious gases, he tapes up his house to block out the poison. When his wife returns home and tries to get in, contaminated, he must make a choice: his wife or his life? The film in itself was pretty good, while some of the acting was a bit over the top at parts, and then the story took a complete 180-degree turn at the end, with an ending that hardly made sense.
At the end of the evening, we ended the festival with Forgiving the Franklins, a hilarious portrayal of a God fearing southern Christian family, who after a car accident, are changed forever, with disaster and hilarity coming soon after. This turned out to be my second favorite film of the entire festival, due to its comedy and controversy and very real idea about what being a good Christian really is. Afterwards I had a chance to meet the director/writer, Jay Floyd, who ended up being a normal, nice guy despite the quirkiness of the movie. We then ended our day at the hotel, as well as our time at the festival. Thank you all for reading this blog, I hoped you enjoyed it.
January 24, 2006
We woke up early this morning to catch an early screening of Forgiven, a political drama starring, written, and directed by Paul Fitzgerald. The film was actually quite well done, all of the actors, although first-time, were very good and natural. Afterwards, we made our way to Sundance Headquarters, where we got the latest press schedule. We then left the Marriott and dropped my dad and Dustin off at the Yarrow, where they saw the documentary, The Giant Buddhas, while my mom and I had lunch and I caught up on my homework.
We walked along Main Street for a few hours, walked into the Slamdance Film Festival and browsed their films for a while, but we mostly tried to star spot. Our luck came later that night, when we walked right into Off The Black star Trevor Morgan and Saturday Night Live comedienne Rachel Dratch. I had a chance to meet both of them, and they have probably been the kindest celebrities we've meet at the festival. Rachel Dratch joked about Saturday Night Live skits with my dad, while I talked to Trevor about Off the Black, and how awesome we both thought the movie was. Afterward we left to go to a 5:30 p.m. showing of the Shorts Program II. There were five really awesome short film documentaries, Rape For Who I Am, a film about South African Lesbians facing persecution and violent assaults, Undressing my Mother (no explanation necessary), No Umbrella-Election Day In The City, a documentary, of an impatient older woman who demands that more booths be sent to cast votes, Range, a documentary about a man trying to get close to his father through his father's work, which is sheep herding, and Mind Over Matter, a heartbreaking story about a father and son who bond while fighting separate diseases, being overweight, and cancer. Every single short was exquisitely done, with beautiful camerawork and interesting documentary concepts.
After the films, we had dinner at a Ruby Tuesday's, and then made our way back to our hotel to end the day, but not before Dustin and my dad finished a short film they had been shooting for the past three days.
January 23, 2006
Today we woke up at 7:30 a.m. to get to a screening of In Between Days, a drama about an Asian girl just getting accustomed to being Americanized. This movie was really bad. The thing I hated about it most was the main character, Aimie. All she did throughout the entire film was moan and complain about how crappy her life is in over dramatized letters to her father. After the movie, my cousin Dustin and I went to Sundance headquarters, and had breakfast in the Hotel diner. After breakfast, Dustin and I met backup with my parents, and we saw writer/director/actor Sam Shepard leaving the hotel to get into his car. We got to meet him, he was there promoting his movie, Don't Come Knocking.
We left Headquarters, and walked up and down Main Street for a few hours, popping in and out of stores and other venues. Outside of the Slamdance entrance, we saw actor Paul Giamatti and had the opportunity to meet him. He was here supporting two new movies, The Hawk is Dying, and The Illusionist. On the way to an interview I had scheduled at 3:30 p.m., my dad and I were stopped on the sidewalk by television members of the Sundance Channel and questioned about what we though about music in the movies. When we arrived at the place of my interview, a Sundance hotspot called The Queer Lounge; I had the opportunity to get my picture taken with writer/director/producer/actor Kevin Smith (best known for his film Clerks, which made it's debut at Sundance), who was a really cool guy.
At 4:15, I started my first interview of the festival with Samantha Kutrzman-Counter the director, and Lara Spotts, the writer, of the short film One Sung Hero. The film is the hilarious portrait of Sara Sparrow, a copy machine salesperson by day, and a music missionary by night, who tries to uplift others through song. Sara meets a formidable foe in Nancy Nosenchuck, a reporter, who Sara must bring into the divine light of karaoke. What ensues is a very sweet and very original film, which features a very talented cast including Tenacious D's Kyle Gass, Saturday Night Fever's Donna Pescow, and Mad TV's Joy Gohring and Nicole Sullivan. After the interview, I had a chance to meet Sherrybaby's Bridget Barkan, the actress who plays' Sherry's (played by Maggie Gyllenhaall) sister in law, Lynette. She was awesome, and I had the opportunity to take my picture with her.
On our way to dinner we saw actor's Dennis Quaid and John Malkovich heading up Main Street, and first season winner of the Apprentice Bill Rancic was actually eating at the same restaurant as us. And if that wasn't enough celebrity sightings, we ran smack dab into film critic Roger Ebert, who was gracious enough to pose in a picture with me. We then headed back to the hotel where Dustin and my dad worked on a short film of our time here at Sundance. Later that night we headed down to Salt Lake City for the screening of the horror movie Subject Two. The only thing horrifying about this movie is the dialogue and the acting. The camera work was beautiful though, and that was what saved this movie from being total trash. Afterward, we headed back to Park City to end our long day for an early rise tomorrow.
January 22, 206
After waking up at 7:00 a.m. (groans), my parents and I went to see a nine a.m. press screening of the Maggie Gyllenhaall drama, Sherrybaby at the Yarrow Theatre. The film was quite depressing, when everyone left the theatre, there was none of the normal chitchat, just a dead quiet. I myself did not like the film, too many unfortunate things happened to the main character. It was totally unreal. After leaving the Yarrow we returned to Sundance Headquarters at the Marriott, where we picked up the newest press-screening schedule.
After leaving headquarters, we walked along Main Street, star spotting, but unfortunately, we saw none. After a lunch at Red Banjo Pizza (I don't recommend you go, the service is terrible), we went to the first press conference of the festival at the restaurant Cisero's. There were so many cool people there that I met, who talked about their short films, their feature films, their documentaries, but mostly about themselves. What was great was that they all treated me like their equal, not like some six year old with wide goo goo eyes. We left the junket at around 4:30 to pick up my cousin, Dustin, who will be spending three days with us, from the airport.
After we dropped off Dustin's things at the hotel, he, my dad, and I attended the press screening of The Proposition, an Australian Outback Western film written by former Australian rock star Nick Cave, and starring Guy Pearce. This film was exquisitely done, with beautiful photography and excellent acting. After the film, the three of us drove down Main Street, where everything was closed down for the night. What I've noticed about the festival is that over the years, things have become more and more exclusive. Of all the places that were open, there were humongous lines outside of them, also showing that people will do to get in on the action, including standing outside in weather at ten degrees Fahrenheit. After a quick dinner at Taco Bell, we ended our night at the hotel.
January 21, 2006
We woke up at around seven this morning to get dressed and ready to see the nine a.m. press screening of Off The Black, a dramedy starring Nick Nolte and Trevor Morgan. The film was very well done, and it was good to see Nick Nolte in this modest independent film, instead of some big budget studio film. After that, we went to the box office and picked up all of our tickets for the rest of the week. At 2:00 p.m., I attended a press screening of Open Window, a drama starring Robin Tunney as a rape victim, and Joel Edgerton as her estranged fiancé. Despite the serious subject matter, the movie was so poorly written that during the most serious of scenes, the audience would burst out laughing. The only good thing about the film was the fact that I sat behind hailed film critic Roger Ebert at the screening, which is like, totally awesome.
After the film, I met up with my parents on Main Street, where the three of us had dinner together at the Main Street Café. Just as we sat down to eat, Trista and Ryan of The Bachelorette sat down right behind us. They were trying to be discreet, and failing miserably, for everyone in the restaurant was whispering about them. After dinner, we walked down Main Street, and in front of a Fred Segal store, there were tons of celebs. I got my picture taken with actor D.B. Sweeney, and with Fox 11 news anchor Jean Morales. We saw Rob Lowe, but he was too snobby, refusing to take pictures with his fans.
We returned to the Yarrow Theatre, where we saw the press screening of Somebodies, a surprisingly hilarious film about a small town boy, and his misadventures with his family, friends, and girlfriend. Although the camera work was pretty bad, it was all made up for with humor. An hour later we attended the press screening of Come Early Morning a dramedy starring Ashley Judd and written and directed by actress turned writer/director Joey Lauren Adams. The film was very well done, and Ashley Judd gave an inspired performance. What was so cool about this press screening, though, is that right as we sat down, anchorman for KTLA channel 5 news, Sam Ruben, sat right behind us. After the press screening, he was kind enough to have his picture taken with me. We ended our eventful day back at the hotel after a quick stop at Wendy's for a midnight snack.
January 20, 2006
We began our day with a quick breakfast at the hotel, and then my dad and I attended the press screening of Lucky Number Slevin, a murder mystery starring Josh Hartnett and Bruce Willis, at 9:00 a.m. The film turned out to be quite excellent, and it was all my dad and I could talk about for the rest of the morning.
After picking my mom up from the hotel, the three of us attended the press screening of a documentary called Iraq In Fragments which was a truly visceral, amazing, and sad film. It really opens your eyes to how the Iraqi people feel about America's invasion of their country. Afterwards we went to the Marriot, where we got tickets to see two movies, Off the Black, with Nick Nolte, and Come Early Morning, with Ashley Judd.
After leaving the Marriot, we walked along Main Street in Downtown Park City. On Main Street, it's either get moving, or get out of the way. There are HORDES of people walking down the streets every day, and if you look closely, you'll catch a few celebs. My mom, dad and I saw Gregory Smith of the television show Everwood, and Jason Isaacs and Scott Caan of the movie Friends With Money, within thirty seconds of one another. After dinner, we walked to the headquarters of the Slamdance Film Festival, which is a festival of films that did not qualify for the Sundance Film Festival. There we saw actor Crispin Glover, who was being interviewed. We then ended our day back at the Best Western. Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog. Peace out.
January 19, 2006
My parents and I arrived in Park City, Utah, where the festival is always held, at about 12:30 p.m. this afternoon, and checked into our hotel (The Best Western). After picking up my press pass at the Marriot Hotel where headquarters is, we attended a press conference celebrating the opening night of the festival at 2:30 p.m., which featured the innovator of the festival himself, Robert Redford! He was literally, like, five feet from where my parents and I were sitting. With him was the director of the festival, Geoffrey Gilmore, and Nicole Holofcener, a writer/director who had a film called Friends With Money, starring Jennifer Aniston, premiering that night. I had the opportunity to talk to Ms. Holofcener and get my picture with her.
After the conference, we returned to Sundance Headquarters at the Marriot and I got my mom and dad each their own guest passes, which would now allow them each access to anything that I have access to, which includes press screening, parties, press conferences, etc. At 6:30 that night, the three of us attended the press screening of Friends With Money, which, to my surprise, actually turned out to be really hilarious, with great performances by Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack, and Catherine Keener. We had dinner, and then ended our day back at the hotel.
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