Bucking the trends for ’80s crime films, Neil Jordan’s tale of a low-rung hood attached to a ‘complicated’ call girl becomes a love story about meaningful relationships. Sort of the ‘anti- Travis Bickle,’ Bob Hoskins’ low-class mug discovers emotions and an ability to commit that could even be called Chivalric. Michael Caine chills as an all-too real villain, the boss that doesn’t think Hoskins worthy of a straight answer. Topping it off, cinematographer Roger Pratt makes this possibly the best-looking British crime film in color.
Mona Lisa
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 107
1986 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 104 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 14, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Caine, Clarke Peters, Sammi Davis, Kate Hardie, Zoe Nathenson.
Cinematography: Roger Pratt
Production Designer: Jamie Leonard
Costume Designer: Louise Frogley
Film Editor: Lesley Walker
Original Music: Michael Kamen
Written by Neil Jordan, David Leland
Produced by Patrick Cassavetti,...
Mona Lisa
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 107
1986 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 104 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 14, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Caine, Clarke Peters, Sammi Davis, Kate Hardie, Zoe Nathenson.
Cinematography: Roger Pratt
Production Designer: Jamie Leonard
Costume Designer: Louise Frogley
Film Editor: Lesley Walker
Original Music: Michael Kamen
Written by Neil Jordan, David Leland
Produced by Patrick Cassavetti,...
- 9/18/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Season three of international thriller drama series Departure, headlined by Archie Panjabi, has begun production in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Toronto. Will & Grace alum Eric McCormack has joined the series, produced by Shaftesbury in association with Corus Entertainment, Starlings Television and Red Arrow Studios International.
Departure, whose existing two seasons are streaming on Peacock, was renewed for a third season by Canadian network Global in May. Peacock picked up Seasons 1 and 2, which also starred the late Christopher Plummer, after screening them so it is too early to say if the streamer will also take in Season 3.
Created by Vincent Shiao, with Jackie May serving as showrunner and Canadian Screen Award winner T.J. Scott as director, Departure centers on the mystery of The Queen of the Narrows ferry, destined for St. John’s Newfoundland, which sinks in record time with many of its 500 passangers on board.
The investigation team, led...
Departure, whose existing two seasons are streaming on Peacock, was renewed for a third season by Canadian network Global in May. Peacock picked up Seasons 1 and 2, which also starred the late Christopher Plummer, after screening them so it is too early to say if the streamer will also take in Season 3.
Created by Vincent Shiao, with Jackie May serving as showrunner and Canadian Screen Award winner T.J. Scott as director, Departure centers on the mystery of The Queen of the Narrows ferry, destined for St. John’s Newfoundland, which sinks in record time with many of its 500 passangers on board.
The investigation team, led...
- 9/16/2021
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Departure is returning to Peacock with another mystery to solve.
the streamer has dropped the second season trailer of the intense conspiracy series which follows the ensuing investigation into a mysterious crash of a controversial new high-speed train traveling between Toronto and Chicago.
Departure Season 2 is set to launch on Peacock on August 5.
All six episodes will drop at once, so you can get your binge on with this one.
"Departure season two follows Kendra Malley (Emmy(R) award winner Archie Panjabi) as she's recruited to investigate a new transportation disaster -the derailment of an experimental high-speed train in rural Michigan," reads the official logline.
"Pressure mounts for Kendra and her team to crack the puzzle as the small town reels in shock, and the world demands answers."
"Their investigation reveals a plethora of disconnected events and a range of potential suspects with believable motives: a disillusioned employee, a local anti-technology politician,...
the streamer has dropped the second season trailer of the intense conspiracy series which follows the ensuing investigation into a mysterious crash of a controversial new high-speed train traveling between Toronto and Chicago.
Departure Season 2 is set to launch on Peacock on August 5.
All six episodes will drop at once, so you can get your binge on with this one.
"Departure season two follows Kendra Malley (Emmy(R) award winner Archie Panjabi) as she's recruited to investigate a new transportation disaster -the derailment of an experimental high-speed train in rural Michigan," reads the official logline.
"Pressure mounts for Kendra and her team to crack the puzzle as the small town reels in shock, and the world demands answers."
"Their investigation reveals a plethora of disconnected events and a range of potential suspects with believable motives: a disillusioned employee, a local anti-technology politician,...
- 7/27/2021
- by Paul Dailly
- TVfanatic
Ben Platt, Tracee Ellis Ross, Daniel Dae Kim, Lola Kirke, Soko, Jermaine Fowler, Ayo Edebiri and Eric Lange have joined B.J. Novak’s new series, now titled “The Premise.”
Premiering on Sept. 16 on FX on Hulu, the half-hour anthology comes from executive producers Novak and Josh Lesher. The first installment’s five episodes — titled “Social Justice Sex Tape,” “Moment of Silence,” “The Ballad of Jesse Wheeler,” “The Commenter” and “Butt Plug” — cover police brutality, sex, gun violence, social media and more.
Previously announced cast include Lucas Hedges, Kaitlyn Dever, Jon Bernthal, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ed Asner, George Wallace, Boyd Holbrook and Beau Bridges.
View first look images below.
Also in today’s TV news roundup:
Dates
Fuse announced that Season 3 of “Made From Scratch” will premiere on Sept. 15. The unscripted series takes viewers into the homes of artists as they cook their favorite childhood dishes with their families. Season 3 stars Becky G,...
Premiering on Sept. 16 on FX on Hulu, the half-hour anthology comes from executive producers Novak and Josh Lesher. The first installment’s five episodes — titled “Social Justice Sex Tape,” “Moment of Silence,” “The Ballad of Jesse Wheeler,” “The Commenter” and “Butt Plug” — cover police brutality, sex, gun violence, social media and more.
Previously announced cast include Lucas Hedges, Kaitlyn Dever, Jon Bernthal, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ed Asner, George Wallace, Boyd Holbrook and Beau Bridges.
View first look images below.
Also in today’s TV news roundup:
Dates
Fuse announced that Season 3 of “Made From Scratch” will premiere on Sept. 15. The unscripted series takes viewers into the homes of artists as they cook their favorite childhood dishes with their families. Season 3 stars Becky G,...
- 7/26/2021
- by Ethan Shanfeld
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Archie Panjabi and Christopher Plummer have been set to lead an ensemble cast in the event thriller Departure. A Canada/UK co-production, the six-part drama will air on Canada’s Global in 2019. Shaftesbury and Greenpoint Productions are producing in association with Corus Entertainment. Starlings Television will co-finance and oversee distribution worldwide.
Created by Vincent Shiao, the conspiracy series follows the mystery of a passenger plane that vanishes over the Atlantic Ocean. Principal photography has just begun in Toronto with filming also to take place in London.
Further cast includes Kris Holden-Ried (Vikings), Claire Forlani (Hawaii Five-o), Rebecca Liddiard (Frankie Drake Mysteries), Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery), Tamara Duarte (Longmire), Peter Mensah (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Kristian Bruun (Orphan Black), Allan Hawco (Caught), Dougray Scott (Snatch), Sasha Roiz (Grimm), Mark Rendall (30 Days of Night), Dmitry Chepovetsky (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), Paris Jefferson (Sunset Contract), and more.
Departure centers on...
Created by Vincent Shiao, the conspiracy series follows the mystery of a passenger plane that vanishes over the Atlantic Ocean. Principal photography has just begun in Toronto with filming also to take place in London.
Further cast includes Kris Holden-Ried (Vikings), Claire Forlani (Hawaii Five-o), Rebecca Liddiard (Frankie Drake Mysteries), Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery), Tamara Duarte (Longmire), Peter Mensah (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Kristian Bruun (Orphan Black), Allan Hawco (Caught), Dougray Scott (Snatch), Sasha Roiz (Grimm), Mark Rendall (30 Days of Night), Dmitry Chepovetsky (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), Paris Jefferson (Sunset Contract), and more.
Departure centers on...
- 11/13/2018
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Nearly 60 international and Canadian producers will head to the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s (Omdc) annual International Financing Forum in Toronto.
The 10th anniversary edition of Omdc’s International Financing Forum (Iff), a feature co-financing market for English-language projects, will run Sept 13-14 during Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 10-20).
The projects include Drama, the third feature to be directed by Oscar-winning Us actress Helen Hunt, written by Justin W. Lo (‘Mistresses’).
Scroll down for more projects
The two-day event includes one-on-one meetings, an industry panel discussion, roundtable meetings, a networking luncheon, and a producers’ opening night networking reception.
Iff partners include Telefilm Canada, UK Trade and Investment (Ukti) and new sponsor Canadian Media Producers Association (Cmpa).
More than 750 meetings will be scheduled for the 37 producer teams (20 Canadian projects and 17 international projects).
In total, 56 producers have been selected to participate in the programme from countries including: Australia, Germany, India, Israel, Spain, Uganda...
The 10th anniversary edition of Omdc’s International Financing Forum (Iff), a feature co-financing market for English-language projects, will run Sept 13-14 during Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 10-20).
The projects include Drama, the third feature to be directed by Oscar-winning Us actress Helen Hunt, written by Justin W. Lo (‘Mistresses’).
Scroll down for more projects
The two-day event includes one-on-one meetings, an industry panel discussion, roundtable meetings, a networking luncheon, and a producers’ opening night networking reception.
Iff partners include Telefilm Canada, UK Trade and Investment (Ukti) and new sponsor Canadian Media Producers Association (Cmpa).
More than 750 meetings will be scheduled for the 37 producer teams (20 Canadian projects and 17 international projects).
In total, 56 producers have been selected to participate in the programme from countries including: Australia, Germany, India, Israel, Spain, Uganda...
- 9/1/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Hot projects new to Screenbase include Joel Novoa’s sequel ID2, Adam Stephen Kelly’s thriller Kill Kane, and action film from Mark McQueen Gunned Down.Joel Novoa’s ID2
Lee Ross, Tamzin Outhwaite, Paul Popplewell, Christine Tremarco, and Linus Roache return in Joel Novoa’s sequel feature.
The film, produced by Sally Hibbin for Parallax and Patrick Cassavetti, is funded by Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund.
Vincent O’Connell returns as the writer for the hooligan drama, which is currently filming in Hull.
Adam Stephen Kelly’s Kill Kane
Filming begins in April on this crime thriller, marking Adam Stephen Kelly’s feature film directorial debut.
Vinnie Jones joined the cast of the film, alongside Sean Cronin, Nicole Faraday, and Sarah Alexandra Marks.
Andrew Jones and Emily Coupland serve as producers for North Bank Entertainment, with Robert Graham executive producing. Independent Moving Pictures and Hood & Co are financing the production.
4Digital Media acquired...
Lee Ross, Tamzin Outhwaite, Paul Popplewell, Christine Tremarco, and Linus Roache return in Joel Novoa’s sequel feature.
The film, produced by Sally Hibbin for Parallax and Patrick Cassavetti, is funded by Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund.
Vincent O’Connell returns as the writer for the hooligan drama, which is currently filming in Hull.
Adam Stephen Kelly’s Kill Kane
Filming begins in April on this crime thriller, marking Adam Stephen Kelly’s feature film directorial debut.
Vinnie Jones joined the cast of the film, alongside Sean Cronin, Nicole Faraday, and Sarah Alexandra Marks.
Andrew Jones and Emily Coupland serve as producers for North Bank Entertainment, with Robert Graham executive producing. Independent Moving Pictures and Hood & Co are financing the production.
4Digital Media acquired...
- 3/20/2015
- by mam27@bu.edu (Monica Mendoza)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: First images released as UK funding body backs sequel to 1995 football hooligan film.
Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund has invested in the sequel to 1995 football hooligan drama I.D.
Vincent O´Connell, who wrote the first film centred on a policemen who goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of football hooligans, has returned to write the sequel.
Directed by Joel Novoa (God’s Slave), filming is underway in Hull.
Producers are Sally Hibbin for Parallax (I.D.) and Patrick Cassavetti (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas).
Linus Roache, Simon Rivers and Neil Pearson star alongside Lee Ross, Richard Graham and Perry Fenwick, who all appeared in the original.
The plot centres on a young British Muslim undercover cop (Rivers) who is given the task of shadowing a football gang on their European tours.
Rivers is best known for his three-year stint on BBC1’s Doctors, appearing in more than 400 episodes of the medical soap.
Hugo Heppell, head of...
Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund has invested in the sequel to 1995 football hooligan drama I.D.
Vincent O´Connell, who wrote the first film centred on a policemen who goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of football hooligans, has returned to write the sequel.
Directed by Joel Novoa (God’s Slave), filming is underway in Hull.
Producers are Sally Hibbin for Parallax (I.D.) and Patrick Cassavetti (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas).
Linus Roache, Simon Rivers and Neil Pearson star alongside Lee Ross, Richard Graham and Perry Fenwick, who all appeared in the original.
The plot centres on a young British Muslim undercover cop (Rivers) who is given the task of shadowing a football gang on their European tours.
Rivers is best known for his three-year stint on BBC1’s Doctors, appearing in more than 400 episodes of the medical soap.
Hugo Heppell, head of...
- 3/18/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Veteran UK producer Patrick Cassavetti has boarded Marat Alykulov’s black comedy Lenin?!.
Cassavetti, producer on Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas - agreed to become executive producer on the Kyrgyzstani project following talks in Cannes last month.
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily at this year’s Moscow Business Square (Mbs), producer Joanna Bence of Curb Denizen Productions said that Cassavetti will also offer new ‘perks’ to the ‘Help Bury Lenin?!’ crowdfunding campaign by giving burgeoning filmmakers the chance to receive personal feedback on their past or upcoming productions.
Bence also revealed that German-born, London-based DoP Stephan Bookas - who has worked on Maleficent and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy - is confirmed as cinematographer for the project, which was pitched at the Mbs’s co-production forum last year after having been presented at Busan’s Asian Project Market and Connecting Cottbus in autumn 2012.
Together with Curb Denizen producer partner [link=nm...
Cassavetti, producer on Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas - agreed to become executive producer on the Kyrgyzstani project following talks in Cannes last month.
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily at this year’s Moscow Business Square (Mbs), producer Joanna Bence of Curb Denizen Productions said that Cassavetti will also offer new ‘perks’ to the ‘Help Bury Lenin?!’ crowdfunding campaign by giving burgeoning filmmakers the chance to receive personal feedback on their past or upcoming productions.
Bence also revealed that German-born, London-based DoP Stephan Bookas - who has worked on Maleficent and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy - is confirmed as cinematographer for the project, which was pitched at the Mbs’s co-production forum last year after having been presented at Busan’s Asian Project Market and Connecting Cottbus in autumn 2012.
Together with Curb Denizen producer partner [link=nm...
- 6/23/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- In recent years, the 1950s as viewed and distorted in '50s movies has become a favorite target of contemporary filmmakers, most notably Todd Hayes' "Far From Heaven". So why not throw in zombies? After all, zombies were a staple of '50s horror movies. "Fido" is the cheerful horror/satire that results from this pleasantly twisted thinking.
It's about a boy and his pet Fido -- only Fido isn't a dog but rather a moldering corpse of an Undead male, rendered harmless by a collar manufactured by ZomCom. Isn't that the sweetest thing!
This Canadian film, when released by Lionsgate in mid-June, should reach out to bemused adult audience who enjoy wise-guy satires, so long as the marketing emphasizes that this movie is playing it for laughs not scares.
In an alternative '50s reality, Earth passes through a cloud of space dust that causes the dead to rise from the grave craving human flesh. The Zombie Wars put down this uprising -- you should excuse the expression -- and urban areas, here portrayed as a white, middle-class suburb, are cordoned off from the "wild zones" by security fences. Inside the fences, zombies domesticated by the patented ZomCom collar perform menial tasks for their owners.
Human relationships are made ever so delicate in a world in which a loved one can at the moment of dying turn into a flesh-eating ghoul. Thus, old people cannot be trusted, even a husband and wife maintain weapons for use against outside threats -- and each other -- and a major family expense is a layaway plan for funerals where heads are buried separately from bodies, this being "a funeral you can't come back from."
Trouble seems to find the Robinson household. Young Timmy (newcomer K'Sun Ray) has no friends but enough enemies that his dad Bill (Dylan Baker) views him as a security risk. His beautiful but ignored wife Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) rebels against his wishes by bringing home a pacified zombie (Billy Connolly) to help with chores. She is embarrassed at being the only housewife on the block without her own zombie.
Timmy names the zombie Fido. The zombie rather likes the idea of having a name and a small playmate. But when Fido's collar malfunctions and he eats Mrs. Henderson across the street, trouble looms for the Robinsons. Especially now that the head of security for ZomCom, the overly macho Mr. Bottoms (Henry Czerny), has moved into the neighborhood.
The humor in Andrew Currie, Robert Chomiak and Dennis Heaton's script, which Currie directed, comes from its startling reversal of all rules of normalcy and conformity. Old people get arrested or shot. A pregnancy is greeted with a husband's plaintive cry, "I don't think I can afford another funeral." And the magazine of choice is not Life but Death.
The film also gets mileage out of the suggestion that some zombie owners find other ways to exploit the bodies of the Undead. For instance, Theopolis Tim Blake Nelson) seems awfully pleased with his young and nubile zombie, domesticated only moments after her demise so she is hardly rotting at all. And because Bill seems more interested in golf than bedroom games, Helen wonders if Fido might not be a girl's best friend, too. This leads to such lines as "You crazy, wonderful zombie!" and "I wish I could have known you before you died."
For a one-joke movie, "Fido" does a fine job exploring every possible permutation of that joke. The actresses and young actors seem more in control of their characters than the older male actors, who deliver somewhat overblown performances. Sets, costumes, cinematography and score all ring delightfully true to the era under scrutiny.
FIDO
Lionsgate
TVA presents an Anagram Pictures production in association with Telefilm Canada
Credits:
Director: Andrew Currie
Screenwriters: Andrew Currie, Robert Chomiak, Dennis Heaton
Based on a story by: Dennis Heaton: Producers: Blake Corbet, Mary Anne Waterhouse
Executive producers: Peter Block, Jason Constantine, Patrick Cassavetti, Shelley Gillen, Daniel Iron
Director of photography: Jan Kiesser
Production designer: Rob Gray
Music: Don Macdonald
Co-producers: Trent Carlson, Kevin Eastwood
Costume designer: Mary E. McLeod
Editor: Roger Mattuissi
Cast:
Helen: Carrie-Anne Moss
Fido: Billy Connolly
Timmy: K'Sun Ray
Mr. Bottoms: Henry Czerny
Bill: Dylan Baker
Theopolis: Tim Blake Nelson
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- In recent years, the 1950s as viewed and distorted in '50s movies has become a favorite target of contemporary filmmakers, most notably Todd Hayes' "Far From Heaven". So why not throw in zombies? After all, zombies were a staple of '50s horror movies. "Fido" is the cheerful horror/satire that results from this pleasantly twisted thinking.
It's about a boy and his pet Fido -- only Fido isn't a dog but rather a moldering corpse of an Undead male, rendered harmless by a collar manufactured by ZomCom. Isn't that the sweetest thing!
This Canadian film, when released by Lionsgate in mid-June, should reach out to bemused adult audience who enjoy wise-guy satires, so long as the marketing emphasizes that this movie is playing it for laughs not scares.
In an alternative '50s reality, Earth passes through a cloud of space dust that causes the dead to rise from the grave craving human flesh. The Zombie Wars put down this uprising -- you should excuse the expression -- and urban areas, here portrayed as a white, middle-class suburb, are cordoned off from the "wild zones" by security fences. Inside the fences, zombies domesticated by the patented ZomCom collar perform menial tasks for their owners.
Human relationships are made ever so delicate in a world in which a loved one can at the moment of dying turn into a flesh-eating ghoul. Thus, old people cannot be trusted, even a husband and wife maintain weapons for use against outside threats -- and each other -- and a major family expense is a layaway plan for funerals where heads are buried separately from bodies, this being "a funeral you can't come back from."
Trouble seems to find the Robinson household. Young Timmy (newcomer K'Sun Ray) has no friends but enough enemies that his dad Bill (Dylan Baker) views him as a security risk. His beautiful but ignored wife Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) rebels against his wishes by bringing home a pacified zombie (Billy Connolly) to help with chores. She is embarrassed at being the only housewife on the block without her own zombie.
Timmy names the zombie Fido. The zombie rather likes the idea of having a name and a small playmate. But when Fido's collar malfunctions and he eats Mrs. Henderson across the street, trouble looms for the Robinsons. Especially now that the head of security for ZomCom, the overly macho Mr. Bottoms (Henry Czerny), has moved into the neighborhood.
The humor in Andrew Currie, Robert Chomiak and Dennis Heaton's script, which Currie directed, comes from its startling reversal of all rules of normalcy and conformity. Old people get arrested or shot. A pregnancy is greeted with a husband's plaintive cry, "I don't think I can afford another funeral." And the magazine of choice is not Life but Death.
The film also gets mileage out of the suggestion that some zombie owners find other ways to exploit the bodies of the Undead. For instance, Theopolis Tim Blake Nelson) seems awfully pleased with his young and nubile zombie, domesticated only moments after her demise so she is hardly rotting at all. And because Bill seems more interested in golf than bedroom games, Helen wonders if Fido might not be a girl's best friend, too. This leads to such lines as "You crazy, wonderful zombie!" and "I wish I could have known you before you died."
For a one-joke movie, "Fido" does a fine job exploring every possible permutation of that joke. The actresses and young actors seem more in control of their characters than the older male actors, who deliver somewhat overblown performances. Sets, costumes, cinematography and score all ring delightfully true to the era under scrutiny.
FIDO
Lionsgate
TVA presents an Anagram Pictures production in association with Telefilm Canada
Credits:
Director: Andrew Currie
Screenwriters: Andrew Currie, Robert Chomiak, Dennis Heaton
Based on a story by: Dennis Heaton: Producers: Blake Corbet, Mary Anne Waterhouse
Executive producers: Peter Block, Jason Constantine, Patrick Cassavetti, Shelley Gillen, Daniel Iron
Director of photography: Jan Kiesser
Production designer: Rob Gray
Music: Don Macdonald
Co-producers: Trent Carlson, Kevin Eastwood
Costume designer: Mary E. McLeod
Editor: Roger Mattuissi
Cast:
Helen: Carrie-Anne Moss
Fido: Billy Connolly
Timmy: K'Sun Ray
Mr. Bottoms: Henry Czerny
Bill: Dylan Baker
Theopolis: Tim Blake Nelson
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/22/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Marco Weber's Atlantic Streamline has acquired the rights to Thomas Thonson's dark comedy Rockwell. The project was brought to the company by Cedering Fox and Patrick Cassavetti, who will produce along with Weber. Streamline executive vp production Vanessa Coifman will executive produce. The story centers on a troubled teen who believes the only cure for his suburban angst is the acquisition of a car. Misunderstood by his dysfunctional parents, he concocts a masterful plan to secure his dream. Chaos ensues as the pieces of his puzzle begin to unravel and his parents become unknowing accomplices in his scheme.
- 3/22/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Gonzo journalism has deteriorated into bozo cinema in Universal's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". A dunderheadedly inane adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's searing Rolling Stone article published 27 years ago and expanded into a book, the flaccid film is a goon-show version of Thompson's commentary on the craziness of the American Dream.
Nostalgia-crazed baby boomers who remember being glazed and grazed by Thompson's writings way back when will be sorely jilted by this simplistic reduction of the writer's work and experiences to bald-faced buffoonery.
In the slapstick cinematic, Johnny Depp stars as Dr. Thompson, the era's most flamboyant, outrageous journalist whose combative political pronouncements and incendiary volleys against the reigning establishment stoked countercultural fires then burning in college youth. As celebrated and wasted as a lead guitarist, Thompson was known as much for his drug-gorging persona as his colorful, inflammatory writings.
For studio execs too wet-behind-the-ears to remember Thompson's heyday, "Fear and Loathing" was based on Thompson's excursion to Las Vegas, ostensibly to cover an off-road race for Sports Illustrated. As per his custom, he was accompanied by his lawyer, Oscar Zetz Acosta, an activist and fellow substance abuser along for moral and legal support.
For Thompson, Las Vegas was a vast moral, ethical pit -- a microcosm of the warping of America -- and his writings were less about the road race and more blunt broadsides against establishment culture. That his comments and insights were fired and fueled by every known form of illegal substance was part of his legend. Unfortunately, in this lazy distillation, drunkenness and dislocation are the main focus and -- even dopier -- it's played out as variety-show slapstick.
Depp's reeling performance as the addled, brilliant journalist recalls Red Skelton's Clem Kadiddlehopper, when the popular comedian used to rubber-knee his way around stage with silly grins, flailing his arms to latch onto something. In short, "Fear and Loathing" has been dummied down to a "Beer and Foaming" level -- it's merely a one-joke show as Depp and Benicio Del Toro, as the lawyer sidekick, careen from casino to casino.
On a purely comic level, the film doesn't even achieve the loopy hilarity of "Where the Buffalo Roam", in which Bill Murray essayed the antic, gonzo journalist and every now and then captured his peculiar genius. (Remember that great scene where he had the Hispanic maids running around with the couch cushions simulating the Dallas Cowboys' flex defense?)
Unfortunately, Terry Gilliam's encapsulation is merely an uninspired series of stumblebum scenes as Depp and Del Toro crash and slide through the neon nether world of Las Vegas. As befits a project with four credited screenwriters, the story shows its seams. We note some Alex Cox influences, mainly in scenes of vomit and physical breakdown a la "Sid & Nancy," which ring true but are entirely counter to the slap-happy rest of the film.
Visually, "Fear and Loathing" is a disaster. Thompson's delirium and genius, including fits of drug-induced dementia and hallucinations, is visualized in the most banal terms. Lounge lizards and all sorts of reptilian imagery appear, but they seem to have landed straight from a cereal box or theme park, so humdrum and pedestrian are the designs. If Thompson sees this movie, we hope he'll have a couple bottles of Wild Turkey on hand to wash it down.
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS
Universal Pictures
CREDITS:
Producers: Laila Nabulsi, Patrick Cassavetti, Stephen Nemeth
Director: Terry Gilliam
Screenwriters: Terry Gilliam, Tony Grisoni, Tod Davies, Alex Cox
Based on the book by: Hunter S. Thompson
Executive producers: Harold Bronson, Richard Foos
Director of photography: Nicola Pecorini
Production designer: Alex McDowell
Editor : Lesley Walker
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Co-producer: Elliot Lewis Rosenblatt
Casting: Margery Simkin
Lounge Lizards designed by: Rob Bottin
Sound mixer: Jay Meagher
CAST:
Raoul Duke: Johnny Depp
Dr. Gonzo: Benicio Del Toro
Hitchhiker: Tobey Maguire
Uniformed Dwarf: Michael Lee Gogin
Car Rental Agent (Los Angeles): Larry Cedar
Parking Attendant: Brian LeBaron
Reservations Clerk: Katherine Helmond
Running time: 123 minutes...
Nostalgia-crazed baby boomers who remember being glazed and grazed by Thompson's writings way back when will be sorely jilted by this simplistic reduction of the writer's work and experiences to bald-faced buffoonery.
In the slapstick cinematic, Johnny Depp stars as Dr. Thompson, the era's most flamboyant, outrageous journalist whose combative political pronouncements and incendiary volleys against the reigning establishment stoked countercultural fires then burning in college youth. As celebrated and wasted as a lead guitarist, Thompson was known as much for his drug-gorging persona as his colorful, inflammatory writings.
For studio execs too wet-behind-the-ears to remember Thompson's heyday, "Fear and Loathing" was based on Thompson's excursion to Las Vegas, ostensibly to cover an off-road race for Sports Illustrated. As per his custom, he was accompanied by his lawyer, Oscar Zetz Acosta, an activist and fellow substance abuser along for moral and legal support.
For Thompson, Las Vegas was a vast moral, ethical pit -- a microcosm of the warping of America -- and his writings were less about the road race and more blunt broadsides against establishment culture. That his comments and insights were fired and fueled by every known form of illegal substance was part of his legend. Unfortunately, in this lazy distillation, drunkenness and dislocation are the main focus and -- even dopier -- it's played out as variety-show slapstick.
Depp's reeling performance as the addled, brilliant journalist recalls Red Skelton's Clem Kadiddlehopper, when the popular comedian used to rubber-knee his way around stage with silly grins, flailing his arms to latch onto something. In short, "Fear and Loathing" has been dummied down to a "Beer and Foaming" level -- it's merely a one-joke show as Depp and Benicio Del Toro, as the lawyer sidekick, careen from casino to casino.
On a purely comic level, the film doesn't even achieve the loopy hilarity of "Where the Buffalo Roam", in which Bill Murray essayed the antic, gonzo journalist and every now and then captured his peculiar genius. (Remember that great scene where he had the Hispanic maids running around with the couch cushions simulating the Dallas Cowboys' flex defense?)
Unfortunately, Terry Gilliam's encapsulation is merely an uninspired series of stumblebum scenes as Depp and Del Toro crash and slide through the neon nether world of Las Vegas. As befits a project with four credited screenwriters, the story shows its seams. We note some Alex Cox influences, mainly in scenes of vomit and physical breakdown a la "Sid & Nancy," which ring true but are entirely counter to the slap-happy rest of the film.
Visually, "Fear and Loathing" is a disaster. Thompson's delirium and genius, including fits of drug-induced dementia and hallucinations, is visualized in the most banal terms. Lounge lizards and all sorts of reptilian imagery appear, but they seem to have landed straight from a cereal box or theme park, so humdrum and pedestrian are the designs. If Thompson sees this movie, we hope he'll have a couple bottles of Wild Turkey on hand to wash it down.
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS
Universal Pictures
CREDITS:
Producers: Laila Nabulsi, Patrick Cassavetti, Stephen Nemeth
Director: Terry Gilliam
Screenwriters: Terry Gilliam, Tony Grisoni, Tod Davies, Alex Cox
Based on the book by: Hunter S. Thompson
Executive producers: Harold Bronson, Richard Foos
Director of photography: Nicola Pecorini
Production designer: Alex McDowell
Editor : Lesley Walker
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Co-producer: Elliot Lewis Rosenblatt
Casting: Margery Simkin
Lounge Lizards designed by: Rob Bottin
Sound mixer: Jay Meagher
CAST:
Raoul Duke: Johnny Depp
Dr. Gonzo: Benicio Del Toro
Hitchhiker: Tobey Maguire
Uniformed Dwarf: Michael Lee Gogin
Car Rental Agent (Los Angeles): Larry Cedar
Parking Attendant: Brian LeBaron
Reservations Clerk: Katherine Helmond
Running time: 123 minutes...
- 5/18/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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