Archive for the ‘Artisan’ Category
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, Romance, Artisan, Lionsgate Films
Let me begin with a confession: I have not been able to stand Maggie Gyllenhaal as an actress for years. I’m not sure where I got turned off. Maybe Casa de los Babys. Maybe later, with Happy Endings. I definitely couldn’t take her in SherryBaby, and by the time she showed up in The Dark Knight, I had decided she was the worst part of most movies in which she appears.
Basically I feel she tries too hard in really dramatic performances. I also think she’s completely ill-fit for characters with power or demanding professions, such as Rachel Dawes in TDK. Yet I also didn’t wholly believe her right for the flakier, manic-pixie-dream-girl type she plays in Stranger Than Fiction. Honestly, I had some hope for her after seeing her in World Trade Center, but maybe it was just that I find her to be a good crier. And more tolerable when she’s not in the lead.
This was not always the case. My introduction to her was with John Waters’ Cecil B. Demented. I despised the movie, but I developed a crush on this young actress playing the Satanist obsessed with avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger. And I continued to think she was fine in small roles in Donnie Darko and Adaptation. So it was pretty upsetting after eight years for her to go from being the best thing in a movie I hated to the worst thing in a movie I loved.
Continue reading Their Best Role: Maggie Gyllenhaal in ‘Secretary’
Filed under: Action, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Artisan, Lionsgate Films, Home Entertainment
I wasn’t even aware that the rights to Terminator 2: Judgment Day were owned by Lionsgate Films, but as of today the film is available on iTunes. Yes, that is right, Lionsgate titles are now offered through Apple’s download store, almost six months after the studio had originally thought they would be. Back in September, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer announced to investors the deal to release movies through iTunes — one of the first leaks that iTunes would definitely sell movies, in fact. But then a few weeks later Apple’s movie store opened with no Lionsgate titles included, and no word on when they would be available.
I have a feeling that Lionsgate was finally clear to deal with Apple once Wal-Mart announced its own movie download service. Now iTunes has about 400 movies, which is still a lot less than Wal-Mart’s 1,000. Some of the additions today include Total Recall, The Blair Witch Project, Dirty Dancing and Monster’s Ball (which I bet is great for watching on public transportation). Hopefully, we’ll hear from other studios soon. Next, likely, will be an announcement from 20th Century Fox since it was once thought it would be the first non-Disney studio to sign on.
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Filed under: Drama, Independent, Romance, Sports, Artisan, Warner Brothers, Fox Searchlight, Toronto International Film Festival, Fan Rant
(from left to right) Sean Gullette in Pi, Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream, Hugh Jackman in The Fountain, and Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler
I had been writing a rambling introduction to this piece, but to make a long anecdote short, I decided to re-watch the works of writer-director Darren Aronofsky prior to seeing his new film, The Wrestler. Out of more happenstance than planning, I began his first film exactly a day to the minute before this one would end, and now I offer up my thoughts on his career to date. (Who knows what more could come following this: 24 Hours of Fincher? 36 Hours of Boyle? My Dinner with Andre Benjamin’s Idlewild?)
