UK sales outfit WestEnd Films has boarded Constance, a survival thriller starring Diane Keaton, directed by Mark Pellington, whose credits include Arlington Road.
Gersh and Contentious Media represent domestic rights.
Keaton, an Oscar and Bafta winner for her eponymous role in Annie Hall, plays a woman who, stifled by her protective children, engineers a day on her own which goes horribly wrong.
The script is written by Maria Alexandria Beech from a story co-created with Pellington, and produced by Vincent Newman and Tom Gorai. Keaton and Stephanie Heaton-Harris executive produce. The film is being financed by the US’ Contentious Media,...
Gersh and Contentious Media represent domestic rights.
Keaton, an Oscar and Bafta winner for her eponymous role in Annie Hall, plays a woman who, stifled by her protective children, engineers a day on her own which goes horribly wrong.
The script is written by Maria Alexandria Beech from a story co-created with Pellington, and produced by Vincent Newman and Tom Gorai. Keaton and Stephanie Heaton-Harris executive produce. The film is being financed by the US’ Contentious Media,...
- 5/7/2024
- ScreenDaily
Oscilloscope Laboratories is set to release a 4K re-edit of Mark Pellington’s “Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit,” starring Ben Affleck, Rachel Weisz, Rose McGowan, Jeremy Davies and Nick Offerman.
The new cut of the 1997 film was rescanned for 4K and features 50 additional minutes of never-before-seen footage. A new title sequence was also created by Sergio Pinheiro, along with 50 minutes of music from composer Pete Adams.
Dan Berger, president of Oscilloscope, said, “Though shot 25 years ago, ‘Going All the Way’ is as fresh, revelatory, and ahead of its time today as it would have been then. I couldn’t be more thrilled that O-Scope will be able to reintroduce this important gem of independent cinema in a way no one has ever experienced before and to collaborate closely with the entire, impassioned filmmaking team to do so.”
Based on Dan Wakefield’s novel of the same name,...
The new cut of the 1997 film was rescanned for 4K and features 50 additional minutes of never-before-seen footage. A new title sequence was also created by Sergio Pinheiro, along with 50 minutes of music from composer Pete Adams.
Dan Berger, president of Oscilloscope, said, “Though shot 25 years ago, ‘Going All the Way’ is as fresh, revelatory, and ahead of its time today as it would have been then. I couldn’t be more thrilled that O-Scope will be able to reintroduce this important gem of independent cinema in a way no one has ever experienced before and to collaborate closely with the entire, impassioned filmmaking team to do so.”
Based on Dan Wakefield’s novel of the same name,...
- 10/25/2022
- by Michaela Zee
- Variety Film + TV
After his thrilling halftime performance at the 2022 Super Bowl, Snoop Dogg is entering the sports world — on the big screen. The acclaimed rapper is set to star in Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s upcoming sports comedy film “The Underdoggs,” and will produce the movie alongside “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris.
Set for a theatrical release on Oct. 20, 2023, “The Underdoggs” is described by the studio as “The Bad News Bears” in the world of youth football. Snoop Dogg stars as Jaycen Jenning, “2Js,” a former NFL superstar who has a run-in with the law and winds up coaching youth football in lieu of going to prison, in the hopes of relaunching his fledgling career.
“‘The Underdoggs’ is a real personal project for me considering that I’ve been coaching football for 15-plus years with the Snoop Youth Football League that I started with my long-time business partner Constance Schwartz-Morini,” Snoop Dogg said in a statement announcing the project.
Set for a theatrical release on Oct. 20, 2023, “The Underdoggs” is described by the studio as “The Bad News Bears” in the world of youth football. Snoop Dogg stars as Jaycen Jenning, “2Js,” a former NFL superstar who has a run-in with the law and winds up coaching youth football in lieu of going to prison, in the hopes of relaunching his fledgling career.
“‘The Underdoggs’ is a real personal project for me considering that I’ve been coaching football for 15-plus years with the Snoop Youth Football League that I started with my long-time business partner Constance Schwartz-Morini,” Snoop Dogg said in a statement announcing the project.
- 8/2/2022
- by Wilson Chapman
- Variety Film + TV
Nostalgia, Romans head to Efm.
Jason Moring’s Toronto-based Double Dutch International (Ddi) has come on board to handle two new sales titles in Berlin, boarding international rights to Mark Pellington’s Nostalgia and Romans starring Orlando Bloom.
Nostalgia stars Jon Hamm, Catherine Keener, Bruce Dern and Ellen Burstyn and explores the meaning of objects, artifacts and memories that shape our lives.
Pellington co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Ross Perry, who wrote the upcoming Disney release Christopher Robin, and produced the film with Tom Gorai, his collaborator on Arlington Road. Bleecker Street will release Nostalgia theatrically in North America on February 16.
Romans stars Bloom as a sex abuse survivor whose attacker reenters his life after he is hired to demolish the church where the abuse took place. The man realises forgiveness is his only viable course of action.
Cannes Young Director Award winners Ludwig and Paul Shammasian directed Romans from Geoff Thompson’s screenplay. Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Mark Lane, James...
Jason Moring’s Toronto-based Double Dutch International (Ddi) has come on board to handle two new sales titles in Berlin, boarding international rights to Mark Pellington’s Nostalgia and Romans starring Orlando Bloom.
Nostalgia stars Jon Hamm, Catherine Keener, Bruce Dern and Ellen Burstyn and explores the meaning of objects, artifacts and memories that shape our lives.
Pellington co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Ross Perry, who wrote the upcoming Disney release Christopher Robin, and produced the film with Tom Gorai, his collaborator on Arlington Road. Bleecker Street will release Nostalgia theatrically in North America on February 16.
Romans stars Bloom as a sex abuse survivor whose attacker reenters his life after he is hired to demolish the church where the abuse took place. The man realises forgiveness is his only viable course of action.
Cannes Young Director Award winners Ludwig and Paul Shammasian directed Romans from Geoff Thompson’s screenplay. Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Mark Lane, James...
- 2/11/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Mark Pellington and Tom Gorai return (after 15 years apart) as a directing-producing team with the world premiere of ‘Nostalgia’. ‘Nostalgia’ touches on objects holding dear memories and explores how those holding on to them can also, when the time comes, discard them.
This emotionally charged film is a mosaic of stories about love and loss exploring relationships to the objects, artifacts, and memories that shape lives. In the telling of the stories, we are engaged with our own experiences, our collective need to find meaning in the objects we hold dear. Nostalgia is a film of rare insight and sensitivity, filled with characters as real and recognizable as your friends and neighbors. Before hearing what the stars Joe Hamm and Ellen Burstyn and writer Alex Ross Perry have to say, I present the writer-director, Mark Pellington himself in a candid and personal interview.
Mark Pellington in Palm Springs
He aptly...
This emotionally charged film is a mosaic of stories about love and loss exploring relationships to the objects, artifacts, and memories that shape lives. In the telling of the stories, we are engaged with our own experiences, our collective need to find meaning in the objects we hold dear. Nostalgia is a film of rare insight and sensitivity, filled with characters as real and recognizable as your friends and neighbors. Before hearing what the stars Joe Hamm and Ellen Burstyn and writer Alex Ross Perry have to say, I present the writer-director, Mark Pellington himself in a candid and personal interview.
Mark Pellington in Palm Springs
He aptly...
- 1/24/2018
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The New York-based distributor anounced in Sundance it has acquired North American rights to Mark Pellington’s film starring Jon Hamm, Ellen Burstyn and Catherine Keener.
Kent Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy negotiated the deal for Bleecker Street with UTA Independent Film Group, CAA and Josh Braun of Submarine on behalf of the filmmakers.
Nostalgia explores the process of finding love and solace in the artefacts and memories people share with one another.
Rounding out the cast are Bruce Dern, Nick Offerman, Amber Tamblyn, John Ortiz, James LeGros, Patton Oswalt, Annalise Basso, Larry Wilmore and Joanna Going.
Alex Ross Perry wrote the screenplay based on an original idea he created with Pellington. Producers are Pellington, Tom Gorai and Braun, while Perry serves as executive producer.
Bleecker Street holds Us rights to Pellington’s The Last Word that gets its world premiere in Sundance on Tuesday and will open on March 3.
“Mark has assembled an incredible cast to share...
Kent Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy negotiated the deal for Bleecker Street with UTA Independent Film Group, CAA and Josh Braun of Submarine on behalf of the filmmakers.
Nostalgia explores the process of finding love and solace in the artefacts and memories people share with one another.
Rounding out the cast are Bruce Dern, Nick Offerman, Amber Tamblyn, John Ortiz, James LeGros, Patton Oswalt, Annalise Basso, Larry Wilmore and Joanna Going.
Alex Ross Perry wrote the screenplay based on an original idea he created with Pellington. Producers are Pellington, Tom Gorai and Braun, while Perry serves as executive producer.
Bleecker Street holds Us rights to Pellington’s The Last Word that gets its world premiere in Sundance on Tuesday and will open on March 3.
“Mark has assembled an incredible cast to share...
- 1/22/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The New York-based distributor anounced in Sundance it has acquired North American rights to Mark Pellington’s film starring Jon Hamm, Ellen Burstyn and Catherine Keener.
Kent Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy negotiated the deal for Bleecker Street with UTA Independent Film Group, CAA and Josh Braun of Submarine on behalf of the filmmakers.
Nostalgia explores the process of finding love and solace in the artefacts and memories people share with one another.
Rounding out the cast are Bruce Dern, Nick Offerman, Amber Tamblyn, John Ortiz, James LeGros, Patton Oswalt, Annalise Basso, Larry Wilmore and Joanna Going.
Alex Ross Perry wrote the screenplay based on an original idea he created with Pellington. Producers are Pellington, Tom Gorai and Braun, while Perry serves as executive producer.
Bleecker Street holds Us rights to Pellington’s The Last Word that gets its world premiere in Sundance on Tuesday and will open on March 3.
“Mark has assembled an incredible cast to share...
Kent Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy negotiated the deal for Bleecker Street with UTA Independent Film Group, CAA and Josh Braun of Submarine on behalf of the filmmakers.
Nostalgia explores the process of finding love and solace in the artefacts and memories people share with one another.
Rounding out the cast are Bruce Dern, Nick Offerman, Amber Tamblyn, John Ortiz, James LeGros, Patton Oswalt, Annalise Basso, Larry Wilmore and Joanna Going.
Alex Ross Perry wrote the screenplay based on an original idea he created with Pellington. Producers are Pellington, Tom Gorai and Braun, while Perry serves as executive producer.
Bleecker Street holds Us rights to Pellington’s The Last Word that gets its world premiere in Sundance on Tuesday and will open on March 3.
“Mark has assembled an incredible cast to share...
- 1/22/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Vertical Entertainment has acquired North American rights to G.B.F, or Gay Best Friend, which closed Outfest 2013 in Los Angeles on Sunday night [21].
Darren Stein directed the high school comedy from a debut screenplay by George Northy.
Sasha Pieterse, Evanna Lynch, Natasha Lyone, Joanna Levesque, Michael J Willett, Paul Iacono, Megan Mullally and Rebecca Gayheart star.
Richard Bever, Stephen Israel, Stein and Northy produced G.B.F. and Jennifer Levine, David Skinner and Tom Gorai served as executive producers.
Peter Jarowey of Vertical Entertainment and Zac Bright of Preferred Content negotiated the deal.
“We look forward to working with [Vertical Horizon] and sharing this film with audiences everywhere,” said Stein.
G.B.F. is expected to open in early 2014.
Darren Stein directed the high school comedy from a debut screenplay by George Northy.
Sasha Pieterse, Evanna Lynch, Natasha Lyone, Joanna Levesque, Michael J Willett, Paul Iacono, Megan Mullally and Rebecca Gayheart star.
Richard Bever, Stephen Israel, Stein and Northy produced G.B.F. and Jennifer Levine, David Skinner and Tom Gorai served as executive producers.
Peter Jarowey of Vertical Entertainment and Zac Bright of Preferred Content negotiated the deal.
“We look forward to working with [Vertical Horizon] and sharing this film with audiences everywhere,” said Stein.
G.B.F. is expected to open in early 2014.
- 7/22/2013
- ScreenDaily
We were lucky to have worked with producers David Skinner and Tom Gorai on the film Outsourced and thrilled when it was turned into a TV series by NBC. Below the jump is a recent article from the editorial secton of the L.A. Times which is worth reading. Outsourced Episode 17 NBC Op-ed Don't hate 'Outsourced' It's affection, not racism, that fuels the humor in the NBC sitcom about a call center in India. Sacha Dhawan as Manmeet on "Outsourced." (Chris Haston / NBC) By Geetika Tandon Lizardi March 21, 2011 Last pilot season NBC made a crazy move. It…...
- 3/26/2011
- Sydney's Buzz
Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Maria Bello, Simon Beaufoy, and Russell Crowe have teamed up to develop HBO drama project Emergency Sex, based on Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson's nonfiction book "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story From Hell on Earth," about "the larger-than-life exploits of expatriate nongovernment-organization workers who find their sanity tested in the face of atrocities, loneliness and primal desires." Bello (A History of Violence) will star in the project, which is being adapted by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire), who will executive produce with Bellow, Russell Crowe, and John Carrabino. (Hollywood Reporter) NBC has handed out pilot orders to two projects, both hailing from Universal Media Studios. One-hour drama The Cape, from writer Thomas Wheeler (Empire) and BermanBraun, revolves around an ex-cop in Los Angeles who is framed and sets out to become a masked vigilante in order...
- 1/29/2010
- by Jace
- Televisionary
NBC on Thursday picked up two more pilots: hourlong "The Cape" and the comedy "Outsourced."
"Cape," from "Empire" creator Tom Wheeler, is a light drama with a comic book sensibility. Set in a fictionalized version of Los Angeles, it centers on a former cop framed for a crime who becomes the Cape, a masked hero, to clear his name and reunite with his son.
The project, from Ums and BermanBraun, was set up at NBC in the fall with a premium script commitment.
Wheeler wrote the script and is exec producing with Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman.
Based on George Wing and John Jeffcoat's indie movie, "Outsourced" is single-camera office comedy centered on a recently demoted manager of a novelties company who is shipped off to India to manage a ragtag group of customer service reps.
NBC originally developed "Outsourced" during the 2007-08 season with Wing and Jeffcoat writing...
"Cape," from "Empire" creator Tom Wheeler, is a light drama with a comic book sensibility. Set in a fictionalized version of Los Angeles, it centers on a former cop framed for a crime who becomes the Cape, a masked hero, to clear his name and reunite with his son.
The project, from Ums and BermanBraun, was set up at NBC in the fall with a premium script commitment.
Wheeler wrote the script and is exec producing with Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman.
Based on George Wing and John Jeffcoat's indie movie, "Outsourced" is single-camera office comedy centered on a recently demoted manager of a novelties company who is shipped off to India to manage a ragtag group of customer service reps.
NBC originally developed "Outsourced" during the 2007-08 season with Wing and Jeffcoat writing...
- 1/28/2010
- by By Nellie Andreeva
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NBC is heading east with Outsourced, an India-set comedy project to be directed and exec produced by Ken Kwapis based on the indie comedy of the same name.
The single-camera project, which has received a premium script commitment from the network, centers on a customer service manager in Seattle whose department is outsourced to India, and he goes there to train his replacement. The project explores the clash of the Western and Indian cultures and chronicles the manager's romance with a local woman.
Outsourced screenwriters George Wing (50 First Dates) and John Jeffcoat are on board to pen the pilot script. They also will executive produce with Kwapis and the film's producers, Tom Gorai and David Skinner. Alexandra Beattie will serve as co-exec producer.
Kwapis and Beattie's In Cahoots and Universal Media Studios are producing the comedy.
The premise of a romantic comedy about an American man falling for a woman from a different ethnic background draws parallels to another indie film, the smash hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. A half-hour series version of Greek also was sold near the film's premiere in 2002.
The single-camera project, which has received a premium script commitment from the network, centers on a customer service manager in Seattle whose department is outsourced to India, and he goes there to train his replacement. The project explores the clash of the Western and Indian cultures and chronicles the manager's romance with a local woman.
Outsourced screenwriters George Wing (50 First Dates) and John Jeffcoat are on board to pen the pilot script. They also will executive produce with Kwapis and the film's producers, Tom Gorai and David Skinner. Alexandra Beattie will serve as co-exec producer.
Kwapis and Beattie's In Cahoots and Universal Media Studios are producing the comedy.
The premise of a romantic comedy about an American man falling for a woman from a different ethnic background draws parallels to another indie film, the smash hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. A half-hour series version of Greek also was sold near the film's premiere in 2002.
- 10/8/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Talk about your phantom menaces. A paranoid thriller about a conspiracy involving home-grown terrorists, Sony Pictures' "Arlington Road" is scheduled to open domestically May 14 -- five days before you know what -- in a brave but probably doomed counterprogramming move. The gloomy, often powerfully effective film opens today in the United Kingdom.
In his second film, director Mark Pellington ("Going All the Way") has taken on a volatile subject with inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock and Oliver Stone. The result is unsettling because of the often manipulative filmmaking coupled with a fairly plausible premise and scenario. With one of the darkest endings in recent memory, "Arlington" will suffer from dismissive critics and mixed word-of-mouth.
Pellington and crew open the film boldly with an attention-getting moment of horror, when college professor Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) discovers that his neighbor's son (Mason Gamble) wandering in shock with a badly injured hand. Nearly hysterical himself, Michael rushes the boy to the hospital in time and learns that Brady Lang lives across the street with parents Oliver (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl (Joan Cusack) and two young sisters.
While screenwriter Ehren Kurger has perhaps worked in one too many topical reference -- including fictional versions of the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing and the Ruby Ridge, Idaho, debacle -- the central gambit of Michael at first liking the Langs and then coming to suspect Oliver of hiding his true nature keeps the film grounded more or less in reality.
Michael is not in the greatest shape. He panics; he imagines too much; he bends the rules to follow a hunch. In a brief visit to the Langs' home, he notices blueprints for a building and gets the idea that Oliver and Cheryl are part of the secret group he believes was responsible for a devastating bombing in St. Louis.
Michael's girlfriend Brooke (Hope Davis) and son Grant Spencer Treat Clark), who is coping but not happy in the aftermath of a family tragedy, help Michael Keep it together, but also forsake him when he appears to have misjudged the Langs. Grant becomes friends with Brady and joins a Cub Scout-like group, and the mundane conventions of suburban life are shown as reassuring rituals. But there's an ominous atmosphere that the filmmaking accentuates in a successful attempt to make the viewer constantly on guard and uncomfortable.
Unlike "American History X", the ideology of the right-wing, anti-government characters is not given much attention. What little rhetoric we get is from cagey Oliver and conflicted Michael's lectures on the subject. Indeed, Robbins' performance is the best thing in the film -- with Bridges' a close second -- as the tall guy downplays his charisma and yet exudes menace in many subtle ways, from body language to penetrating gazes to the aggressive way he sidetracks Michael early on by admitting to a criminal act as a teenager.
Michael has a grudge against the FBI for a crucial error that resulted in the death of his wife, an agent. A Peckinpahesque flashback of the shootout is a severe sequence of sickening, up-close-and-personal violence. Bureaucracies and bombers are the enemies. Still friends with an FBI agent (Robert Gossett) who won't risk his job to help him, Michael on his own investigates Oliver's background and finds several suspicious things, including a name change.
Eventually the noose tightens and Michael's worst fears are realized. The movie steers headlong into an apocalyptic resolution that may not win points for plausibility and coherence but certainly sends one home in a grim mood. The widescreen film is always interesting visually, but Angelo Badalamenti's uneven score is over-the-top, like too much of the movie.
ARLINGTON ROAD
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Screen Gems presents
In association with Lakeshore Entertainment
A Gorai/Samuelson production
Director: Mark Pellington
Screenwriter: Ehren Kurger
Producers: Peter Samuelson, Tom Gorai, Marc Samuelson
Executive producers: Tom Rosenberg, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Ted Tannebaum
Director of photography: Bobby Bukowski
Production designer: Therese Deprez
Editor: Conrad Buff
Costume designer: Jennifer Barrett-Pellington
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Casting: Ellen Chenoweth
Color/stereo
Cast:
Michael Faraday: Jeff Bridges
Oliver Lang: Tim Robbins
Cheryl Lang: Joan Cusack
Brooke Wolf: Hope Davis
Whit: Robert Gossett
Brady Lang: Mason Gamble
Grant Faraday: Spencer Treat Clark
Dr. Archer Scobee: Stanley Anderson
Running time -- 115 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
In his second film, director Mark Pellington ("Going All the Way") has taken on a volatile subject with inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock and Oliver Stone. The result is unsettling because of the often manipulative filmmaking coupled with a fairly plausible premise and scenario. With one of the darkest endings in recent memory, "Arlington" will suffer from dismissive critics and mixed word-of-mouth.
Pellington and crew open the film boldly with an attention-getting moment of horror, when college professor Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) discovers that his neighbor's son (Mason Gamble) wandering in shock with a badly injured hand. Nearly hysterical himself, Michael rushes the boy to the hospital in time and learns that Brady Lang lives across the street with parents Oliver (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl (Joan Cusack) and two young sisters.
While screenwriter Ehren Kurger has perhaps worked in one too many topical reference -- including fictional versions of the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing and the Ruby Ridge, Idaho, debacle -- the central gambit of Michael at first liking the Langs and then coming to suspect Oliver of hiding his true nature keeps the film grounded more or less in reality.
Michael is not in the greatest shape. He panics; he imagines too much; he bends the rules to follow a hunch. In a brief visit to the Langs' home, he notices blueprints for a building and gets the idea that Oliver and Cheryl are part of the secret group he believes was responsible for a devastating bombing in St. Louis.
Michael's girlfriend Brooke (Hope Davis) and son Grant Spencer Treat Clark), who is coping but not happy in the aftermath of a family tragedy, help Michael Keep it together, but also forsake him when he appears to have misjudged the Langs. Grant becomes friends with Brady and joins a Cub Scout-like group, and the mundane conventions of suburban life are shown as reassuring rituals. But there's an ominous atmosphere that the filmmaking accentuates in a successful attempt to make the viewer constantly on guard and uncomfortable.
Unlike "American History X", the ideology of the right-wing, anti-government characters is not given much attention. What little rhetoric we get is from cagey Oliver and conflicted Michael's lectures on the subject. Indeed, Robbins' performance is the best thing in the film -- with Bridges' a close second -- as the tall guy downplays his charisma and yet exudes menace in many subtle ways, from body language to penetrating gazes to the aggressive way he sidetracks Michael early on by admitting to a criminal act as a teenager.
Michael has a grudge against the FBI for a crucial error that resulted in the death of his wife, an agent. A Peckinpahesque flashback of the shootout is a severe sequence of sickening, up-close-and-personal violence. Bureaucracies and bombers are the enemies. Still friends with an FBI agent (Robert Gossett) who won't risk his job to help him, Michael on his own investigates Oliver's background and finds several suspicious things, including a name change.
Eventually the noose tightens and Michael's worst fears are realized. The movie steers headlong into an apocalyptic resolution that may not win points for plausibility and coherence but certainly sends one home in a grim mood. The widescreen film is always interesting visually, but Angelo Badalamenti's uneven score is over-the-top, like too much of the movie.
ARLINGTON ROAD
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Screen Gems presents
In association with Lakeshore Entertainment
A Gorai/Samuelson production
Director: Mark Pellington
Screenwriter: Ehren Kurger
Producers: Peter Samuelson, Tom Gorai, Marc Samuelson
Executive producers: Tom Rosenberg, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Ted Tannebaum
Director of photography: Bobby Bukowski
Production designer: Therese Deprez
Editor: Conrad Buff
Costume designer: Jennifer Barrett-Pellington
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Casting: Ellen Chenoweth
Color/stereo
Cast:
Michael Faraday: Jeff Bridges
Oliver Lang: Tim Robbins
Cheryl Lang: Joan Cusack
Brooke Wolf: Hope Davis
Whit: Robert Gossett
Brady Lang: Mason Gamble
Grant Faraday: Spencer Treat Clark
Dr. Archer Scobee: Stanley Anderson
Running time -- 115 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 3/19/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A solid feature directing debut by award-winning music videomaker Mark Pellington and an excellent showcase for several up-and-coming actors, "Going All the Way" has only a few awkward moments as it illuminates the dilemma of a decidedly awkward Midwestern protagonist on the threshold of manhood in the transitional early 1950s.
Shown in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, the Gramercy Pictures release is a high-profile independent that will probably struggle to find the audience it deserves in the jammed theatrical market. Over time, though, it will go far with discerning viewers who don't mind a little hot-and-heavy sex with a probing character study.
Advertised as an ensemble comedy-drama in the same league as "Inventing the Abbotts", "Going All the Way" is a different kettle of Americana. Based on screenwriter Dan Wakefield's popular 1970 novel of the same name, the story centers on Korean War-era veteran Sonny Burns (Jeremy Davies) in Indianapolis.
Although surrounded by a perfect supporting cast - including Ben Affleck, Amy Locane, Rachel Weisz, Rose McGowan, Jill Clayburgh and Lesley Ann Warren - Davies ("Spanking the Monkey", "The Locusts") delivers a knockout performance as introverted Sonny, who never got further than Kansas City in the Army and struggles with depression upon his return home. It's his good fortune to cross paths with former schoolmate Gunner (Affleck), who drinks sake and has no trouble attracting girls.
One is immediately sympathetic toward Sonny when he's smothered by the attentions of his religious mother (Clayburgh) and high school sweetheart (Locane), while he clearly longs for an ideal female that he initially encounters in the curvaceous form of Gunner's wild bachelorette mother (Warren). Unable to look anyone in the eye for long and barely able to form sentences, Sonny is so nerdish on the surface that one is caught by surprise when he proves to be sexually voracious and not at all unliberated.
But he has a dark, scattered interior dialogue that we are privy to in heated moments, and he lacks the confidence that keeps Gunner on course to escaping the doldrums of Middle America. As the pair go drinking and looking for the next "fuckathon," Gunner's macho persona is shown to be a front for his desire to be taken seriously, while Sonny seems to be quietly working on his approach to life.
Both are in for major changes and challenges when Gunner hooks up with East Coast collegiate beauty Marty (Weisz), his match in sex appeal and a cultural liberator. At a fateful dance, her friend Gail (McGowan) brings out the lion in mousy Sonny, but he experiences manic highs and lows that reveal the depths of his problems.
Not at all catering to the MTV crowd but with a hot soundtrack of vintage tunes, "Going" is a well-realized adaptation that takes time out for wickedly funny details and interludes with colorful secondary characters. But it convincingly moves into potent drama and captures the sometimes dreadful confusion and conflicts of the era.
GOING ALL THE WAY
Gramercy Pictures
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents
a Tom Gorai/Lakeshore Entertainment production
A film by Mark Pellington
Director Mark Pellington
Screenwriter Dan Wakefield
Producers Tom Gorai, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Executive producers Tom Rosenberg,
Ted Tannebaum, Michael Mendelsohn
Director of photography Bobby Bukowski
Editor Leo Trombetta
Production designer Therese DePrez
Costume designer Arianne Phillips
Music tomandandy
Casting Ellen Chenoweth
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sonny Burns Jeremy Davies
Gunner Casselman Ben Affleck
Buddy Porter Amy Locane
Gale Rose McGowan
Marty Rachel Weisz
Alma Burns Jill Clayburgh
Nina Casselman Lesley Ann Warren
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Shown in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, the Gramercy Pictures release is a high-profile independent that will probably struggle to find the audience it deserves in the jammed theatrical market. Over time, though, it will go far with discerning viewers who don't mind a little hot-and-heavy sex with a probing character study.
Advertised as an ensemble comedy-drama in the same league as "Inventing the Abbotts", "Going All the Way" is a different kettle of Americana. Based on screenwriter Dan Wakefield's popular 1970 novel of the same name, the story centers on Korean War-era veteran Sonny Burns (Jeremy Davies) in Indianapolis.
Although surrounded by a perfect supporting cast - including Ben Affleck, Amy Locane, Rachel Weisz, Rose McGowan, Jill Clayburgh and Lesley Ann Warren - Davies ("Spanking the Monkey", "The Locusts") delivers a knockout performance as introverted Sonny, who never got further than Kansas City in the Army and struggles with depression upon his return home. It's his good fortune to cross paths with former schoolmate Gunner (Affleck), who drinks sake and has no trouble attracting girls.
One is immediately sympathetic toward Sonny when he's smothered by the attentions of his religious mother (Clayburgh) and high school sweetheart (Locane), while he clearly longs for an ideal female that he initially encounters in the curvaceous form of Gunner's wild bachelorette mother (Warren). Unable to look anyone in the eye for long and barely able to form sentences, Sonny is so nerdish on the surface that one is caught by surprise when he proves to be sexually voracious and not at all unliberated.
But he has a dark, scattered interior dialogue that we are privy to in heated moments, and he lacks the confidence that keeps Gunner on course to escaping the doldrums of Middle America. As the pair go drinking and looking for the next "fuckathon," Gunner's macho persona is shown to be a front for his desire to be taken seriously, while Sonny seems to be quietly working on his approach to life.
Both are in for major changes and challenges when Gunner hooks up with East Coast collegiate beauty Marty (Weisz), his match in sex appeal and a cultural liberator. At a fateful dance, her friend Gail (McGowan) brings out the lion in mousy Sonny, but he experiences manic highs and lows that reveal the depths of his problems.
Not at all catering to the MTV crowd but with a hot soundtrack of vintage tunes, "Going" is a well-realized adaptation that takes time out for wickedly funny details and interludes with colorful secondary characters. But it convincingly moves into potent drama and captures the sometimes dreadful confusion and conflicts of the era.
GOING ALL THE WAY
Gramercy Pictures
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents
a Tom Gorai/Lakeshore Entertainment production
A film by Mark Pellington
Director Mark Pellington
Screenwriter Dan Wakefield
Producers Tom Gorai, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Executive producers Tom Rosenberg,
Ted Tannebaum, Michael Mendelsohn
Director of photography Bobby Bukowski
Editor Leo Trombetta
Production designer Therese DePrez
Costume designer Arianne Phillips
Music tomandandy
Casting Ellen Chenoweth
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sonny Burns Jeremy Davies
Gunner Casselman Ben Affleck
Buddy Porter Amy Locane
Gale Rose McGowan
Marty Rachel Weisz
Alma Burns Jill Clayburgh
Nina Casselman Lesley Ann Warren
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/17/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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