Today’s film is the 1999 short How Does Anyone Get Old?. The film is written and directed by Janet Mitchell, and stars Melissa Lechner, Mina Badie, Gregg Rainwater, and Mark Ruffalo. Over a career spanning 25 years, Ruffalo has been critically and commercially praised for his work, and his filmography includes roles in features such as 54, Collateral, Zodiac, The Brothers Bloom, and The Avengers. His newest film, titled Begin Again, opens in limited release in American theatres this weekend.
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The post Saturday Shorts: ‘How Does Anyone Get Old?’, starring Mark Ruffalo appeared first on Sound On Sight.
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The post Saturday Shorts: ‘How Does Anyone Get Old?’, starring Mark Ruffalo appeared first on Sound On Sight.
- 6/28/2014
- by Deepayan Sengupta
- SoundOnSight
In the Emmy competition for outstanding competition reality TV show, each series enters a single episode. That, as succinctly discussed here, is perhaps the primary reasons for The Amazing Race's long-time domination. But that, of course, ended this year. While the official Academy nominee list [Pdf] does not mention episodes, The Los Angeles Times reported on the specific episodes, which has also been posted online, as Melissa Sullivan noted in the comments, prompting me to...
- 8/31/2010
- by Andy Dehnart
- Reality Blurred
In poker parlance, Follow the Bitch (also more demurely known as Follow the Queen) is a seven-card stud game. In writer-director Julian Stone's first film of the same name, it's an intended comic look at the high jinks that ensue when a female of the species crashes a guys-only, cigar-chomping, ritual Friday night poker game and successfully calls their collective bluff.
The game proves to be far more unpredictable and involving than the film.
Forced and artificial, the one-set film takes a what-if premise and fails to ante up any tangible dramatic tension or character development. Faced with being dealt a crummy hand, filmgoers will undoubtedly place their bets elsewhere.
You know from the get-go that this particular Friday, sunset-to-sunrise, male-bonding poker marathon isn't going to go quite as planned. For starters, clean-cut Andy (Dion Luther) announces that he's venturing where none of his buddies has dared go before him with plans to get married.
The news doesn't sit well with the obnoxious Bill (Ray Porter), whose apartment has been serving as their weekly venue for a decade. A career curmudgeon, Bill is known to go on back-to-back rants that sound like old Jay Leno rejects. To further complicate matters, it appears that Ty (Michael Cudlitz) and Jerry Maguire wannabe Gordon (Tom Napier) have been secretly carrying on affairs with each other's girlfriends. Meanwhile, the obsessive Karl (David Teitelbaum) falls hard for the pizza delivery girl.
But the biggest upset of the evening comes when Andy's work colleague, the take-no-prisoners Liz (Melissa Lechner), crashes the party and handily beats the boys at their own game. In the process, she also manages to puncture Bill's protective armor, revealing the frightened inner child inside.
Stone fails to substantially differentiate his male characters, who, for the most part, all speak with the writer's voice. The adversarial female, meanwhile, is cut from stock ball-busting material. Her motivations are never made clear, and, as a result, she remains coldly unsympathetic.
On the comedic side, Stone, who also edited the picture, thoughtfully left a little room after the punch lines so audience laughter wouldn't cut into any of the bon mots. His concern, though admirable, proved unnecessary.
The cast is fine, although there's never any convincing sense of camaraderie among these longtime players.
There's an easygoing, budget-conscious scrappiness to the production values -- it was shot in the filmmaker's apartment -- although Dane Davis' faux lounge score quickly grates on the nerves.
FOLLOW THE BITCH
Gurney Releasing
Credits: Director-screenwriter: Julian Stone; Producers: Dion Luther, Brett Schlaman, Julian Stone; Director of photography: Joe Backes; Production designer: Rachel Kamerman; Costume designer: Barbara Inglehart; Music: Dane Davis. Cast: Bill: Ray Porter; Liz: Melissa Lechner; Andy: Dion Luther; Ty: Michael Cudlitz; Karl: David Teitelbaum; Gordon: Tom Napier; Blake/Henry Kissinger: Matt Foyer. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 87 minutes. Color/stereo.
The game proves to be far more unpredictable and involving than the film.
Forced and artificial, the one-set film takes a what-if premise and fails to ante up any tangible dramatic tension or character development. Faced with being dealt a crummy hand, filmgoers will undoubtedly place their bets elsewhere.
You know from the get-go that this particular Friday, sunset-to-sunrise, male-bonding poker marathon isn't going to go quite as planned. For starters, clean-cut Andy (Dion Luther) announces that he's venturing where none of his buddies has dared go before him with plans to get married.
The news doesn't sit well with the obnoxious Bill (Ray Porter), whose apartment has been serving as their weekly venue for a decade. A career curmudgeon, Bill is known to go on back-to-back rants that sound like old Jay Leno rejects. To further complicate matters, it appears that Ty (Michael Cudlitz) and Jerry Maguire wannabe Gordon (Tom Napier) have been secretly carrying on affairs with each other's girlfriends. Meanwhile, the obsessive Karl (David Teitelbaum) falls hard for the pizza delivery girl.
But the biggest upset of the evening comes when Andy's work colleague, the take-no-prisoners Liz (Melissa Lechner), crashes the party and handily beats the boys at their own game. In the process, she also manages to puncture Bill's protective armor, revealing the frightened inner child inside.
Stone fails to substantially differentiate his male characters, who, for the most part, all speak with the writer's voice. The adversarial female, meanwhile, is cut from stock ball-busting material. Her motivations are never made clear, and, as a result, she remains coldly unsympathetic.
On the comedic side, Stone, who also edited the picture, thoughtfully left a little room after the punch lines so audience laughter wouldn't cut into any of the bon mots. His concern, though admirable, proved unnecessary.
The cast is fine, although there's never any convincing sense of camaraderie among these longtime players.
There's an easygoing, budget-conscious scrappiness to the production values -- it was shot in the filmmaker's apartment -- although Dane Davis' faux lounge score quickly grates on the nerves.
FOLLOW THE BITCH
Gurney Releasing
Credits: Director-screenwriter: Julian Stone; Producers: Dion Luther, Brett Schlaman, Julian Stone; Director of photography: Joe Backes; Production designer: Rachel Kamerman; Costume designer: Barbara Inglehart; Music: Dane Davis. Cast: Bill: Ray Porter; Liz: Melissa Lechner; Andy: Dion Luther; Ty: Michael Cudlitz; Karl: David Teitelbaum; Gordon: Tom Napier; Blake/Henry Kissinger: Matt Foyer. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 87 minutes. Color/stereo.
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