Friday, November 30, 2012

Your Sister's Sister

Written and directed by Lynn Shelton.

I believe there’s this refreshing feeling when you’re watching a film by Lynn Shelton. It’s like you’re watching something live. Basically, it feels pretty much alive, it’s a recognizable unpredictableness because we usually also know how human beings’ actions are driven by a few things we might share in common. I may transcend notions of reality and fiction, but in some ways, Shelton can do what reality shows are incapable of doing, which can be pretty simple, she not only sounds truer but she also has this more reliable take than the reality show itself. I think more than ever, film, reality television, documentaries share fundamentally a common language and she understands her own very well in order to succeed in the common language.


The story deals with two friends, Jack lost his brother a year ago and he’s still coping with the loss, still finding a balance so Iris decides to send him to a remote cottage on a island in order for him to find himself. When Jack arrives to the house he’s faced with an unpredictability, Iris’s half sister Hannah is in the cottage and it is also recovering from a heartbreak and is also trying to start over. Their mutual share of crisis and tequila leads them to bed. Then Iris arrives to the cottage the next day to their surprise, but she also brings other intentions, she’s in love with Jack.
Gradually, with its slow paced genuine revealing momentsit becomes a triangle in increasing conflict. Emily Blunt is Iris, Hanna’s younger sister, who looks for her comfort and reasoning. It could be said she’s the center. Jack, who’s late brother Iris dated for quite a while is afraid of revealing his affections for Iris because of that but also because he’s afraid he’s not good enough for her. He could also be the center, or better yet, in the middle of this triangle, especially because of the strong bounds between these two sisters. But then should be Hannah, whose life is just starting over and finds herself caught in some conflicts in ways she could have not predicated when she consciously and out of a selfish and vulnerable position slept with her sister’s best friend Jack. So the whole dynamic floats with steam, with passionate chemistry and honest balance. These three actors work beautifully here, they’re amazing. Rosemarie DeWitt is so charming. It’s really refreshing watching Emily Blunt in this position, where she’s wearing her own clothes and such, but it’s really about their integrity and devotion to the project.
So all it takes is a couple of common but fundamental life intricacies that anyone can relate to and then a film like this one becomes twenty times a much richer experience than Friends with Benefits and other joking bullshits.

Cute

Somebody made a Top 50 love stories of the past decade in the small screen...here's the couple placed in first:


Always and Forever.
"Those words shall be associated with Naley from now until the end of time. From start to finish during the show’s nine-season run, the unlikely romance between the obnoxious jock and Tutor Girl unfolded and overcame obstacles like car accidents, teen pregnancy and Chris Keller. They eventually got their dream life with a nice house, great jobs, fantastic kids and everything they could’ve ever hoped for.One Tree Hill was, at its core, a story about love. Love for basketball. Love for music. Love for friends. Love for family. And, most importantly, the true love between Nathan Scott and Haley James."

Jamie

If I'm not nostalgic, what am I?
P.S: Interesting curiosity, I just found out he's getting married!
I hope he's extremely happy and generates lots of babies in the meantime...

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Hi, Lauren

Happy 34th Birthday to you.

McKinnon


Oh god I love her so much. She’s so good!
She’s my favorite thing on SNL today. I honestly liked her since her first show, with her Australian accent and rubbing all over Sofia Vergara’s…



Brilliant.

So Kristen Wigg and Andy Samberg are gone, three new members are in and I've still been enjoying a few sketches, particularly Louis C.K, I freaking loved it.


This shit above was so...I flipped.

Anne Hathaway has some pretty good moments too.

I still can't really judge her performance...


 Obviously, I loooooved this one!

Classic.

Back to Business, Sundance 2013

May in Summer

Cute, mind blowing, dramatic, corny, hunting, bad, depressing, clichés, bizarre and on and on it goes. One thing is certain with the films coming out of a Sundance selection; they’re all of this great variety of quality and amusement.

Sudance 2013:


The Documentary Selection brings themes for all tastes from all over the world.
From killer whales to the Pussy Riots storm to Google, to AIDS, to women's freedom, to Wall Street, to Al Qaeda, to the world behind backup singers and much more.

In the U.S Dramatic Compeition:
Who is missing…where’s Mark Duplass?? Is he not the executive producer, screenwriter, star, director of any film?
Lynn Shelton is back!
Elizabeth Olsen is back with yet another film, and on a different turn Brit Marling is not returning a third time straight.

Afternoon Delight
In this sexy, dark comedy, a lost L.A. housewife puts her idyllic hipster life in jeopardy when she tries to rescue a stripper by taking her in as a live-in nanny. Cast: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, Jane Lynch
Director and screenwriter: Jill Soloway. (Via IndieWire).

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
The tale of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met. Cast: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker, Keith Carradine.
Director and screenwriter: David Lowery.

Concussion
After a blow to the head, Abby decides she can't do it anymore. Her life just can't be only about the house, the kids and the wife. She needs more: she needs to be Eleanor.
Director and screenwriter: Stacie Passon.

Emanuel and the Thruth About Fishes
Emanuel, a troubled girl, becomes preoccupied with her mysterious, new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to her dead mother. In offering to babysit her newborn, Emanuel unwittingly enters a fragile, fictional world, of which she becomes the gatekeeper. Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Jessica Biel, Alfred Molina, Frances O'Connor, Jimmi Simpson, Aneurin Barnard.
Director and screenwriter: Francesca Gregorini.

Fruitvale
The true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family and strangers on the last day of 2008. Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Octavia Spencer, Melonie Diaz, Ahna O'Reilly, Kevin Durand, Chad Michael Murray.
Director and screenwriter: Ryan Coogler.

In the World...
An underachieving vocal coach is motivated by her father, the king of movie-trailer voice-overs, to pursue her aspirations of becoming a voiceover star. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation. Cast: Lake Bell, Demetri Martin, Rob Corddry, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino, Fred Melamed.
Director and screenwriter: Lake Bell.

The Lifeguard
A former valedictorian quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home in Connecticut. She gets work as a lifeguard and starts a dangerous relationship with a troubled teenager. Cast: Kristen Bell, Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr, Alex Shaffer, Amy Madigan, David Lambert.
Director and screenwriter: Liz W. Garcia.

May in the Summer
A bride-to-be is forced to reevaluate her life when she reunites with her family in Jordan and finds herself confronted with the aftermath of her parents’ divorce.
Director and screenwriter: Cherien Dabis.

Kill Your Darlings
An untold story of murder that brought together a young Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs at Columbia University in 1944, providing the spark that led to the birth of an entire generation – their Beat revolution.
Director: John Krokidas, Screenwriters: Austin Bunn, John Krokidas.

C.O.G
In the first ever film adaptation of David Sedaris' work, a cocky young man travels to Oregon to work on an apple farm. Out of his element, he finds his lifestyle and notions being picked apart by everyone who crosses his path. Cast: Jonathan Groff, Denis O'Hare, Corey Stoll, Dean Stockwell, Casey Wilson, Troian Bellisario.
Director and screenwriter: Kyle Patrick Alvarez.

The Spectacular Now
Sutter is a high school senior who lives for the moment; Aimee is the introvert he attempts to "save." As their relationship deepens, the lines between right and wrong, friendship and love, and "saving" and corrupting become inextricably blurred.
Director: James Ponsoldt, Screenwriters: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber.

Touchy Feely
A massage therapist is unable to do her job when stricken with a mysterious and sudden aversion to bodily contact. Meanwhile, her uptight brother's foundering dental practice receives new life when clients seek out his “healing touch.”
Director and screenwriter: Lynn Shelton.

Upstream Color
A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.
Director and screenwriter: Shane Carruth.
Coming soon to Sundance.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

9 Years Later...


Or thirteen years later...or eleven...I don't know, it depends which year you decide to count when the whole ride started.


The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey World Premiere in New Zealand.