Everyday People
HBO Films
NEW YORK -- Filmmaker Jim McKay, known for his well-observed, miniaturist dramas of New York life ("Girls Town", "Our Song"), has come up with another winner in this drama about the imminent closing of a beloved Brooklyn diner. Touching on themes of race relations, gentrification and upward mobility, "Everyday People" resonates with generous warmth for all of its complicated characters. The film serves as the opening-night attraction for this year's New Directors/New Films series, co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Taking place over the course of a single long day, the film is set at Raskin's, a fictional Brooklyn diner bearing no small resemblance to the legendary Junior's (it was actually filmed at another N.Y. dining institution, Ratner's, on the Lower East Side). Ira (Jordan Gelber), the diner's young Jewish owner, is closing a deal to sell the struggling restaurant to a real estate consortium, represented by Ron (Ron Butler), an aggressive black businessman who believes that the intended redevelopment will serve to upgrade the depressed area.
Arthur (Stephen McKinley Henderson), Raskin's maitre d' and longest-lasting employee, is given the task of informing the staff that their jobs will last but three more weeks, and the news is predictably not taken well. Particularly irate is Sol (Stephen Axelrod), a former doctor who became a junkie and went to prison and who counts on his admittedly menial employment to help him keep his life together.
As the news resonates among the staff, we are introduced in greater detail to the various characters, including cashier Joleen (Bridget Barkan), a single mother trying to make ends meet; waitress Erin (Sydnee Stewart), who's working to support herself while she pursues her dream of becoming a poet; Betty (Iris Little-Thomas), Erin's mother, a successful businesswoman; and kitchen worker Samel (Billoah Greene), who's about to begin college.
Perhaps the film's most arresting figure is Akbar (played in riveting fashion by Reg E. Cathey), a customer who spends his days in front of the restaurant hawking ribbons promoting black identity and haranguing passersby.
McKay's screenplay, developed from improvisational workshops with dozens of actors conducted by the filmmaker and executive producer Nelson George, has its stereotypical aspects -- certainly, the central story line feels overly familiar -- but it has an undeniable authenticity in its characterizations and situations and an empathy that is all too rare even in independent cinema. The ensemble cast, featuring a mixture of veterans and newcomers, deliver nary a false note in their performances, and Russell Lee Fine's cinematography evocatively captures the diner's Old World ambiance.
NEW YORK -- Filmmaker Jim McKay, known for his well-observed, miniaturist dramas of New York life ("Girls Town", "Our Song"), has come up with another winner in this drama about the imminent closing of a beloved Brooklyn diner. Touching on themes of race relations, gentrification and upward mobility, "Everyday People" resonates with generous warmth for all of its complicated characters. The film serves as the opening-night attraction for this year's New Directors/New Films series, co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Taking place over the course of a single long day, the film is set at Raskin's, a fictional Brooklyn diner bearing no small resemblance to the legendary Junior's (it was actually filmed at another N.Y. dining institution, Ratner's, on the Lower East Side). Ira (Jordan Gelber), the diner's young Jewish owner, is closing a deal to sell the struggling restaurant to a real estate consortium, represented by Ron (Ron Butler), an aggressive black businessman who believes that the intended redevelopment will serve to upgrade the depressed area.
Arthur (Stephen McKinley Henderson), Raskin's maitre d' and longest-lasting employee, is given the task of informing the staff that their jobs will last but three more weeks, and the news is predictably not taken well. Particularly irate is Sol (Stephen Axelrod), a former doctor who became a junkie and went to prison and who counts on his admittedly menial employment to help him keep his life together.
As the news resonates among the staff, we are introduced in greater detail to the various characters, including cashier Joleen (Bridget Barkan), a single mother trying to make ends meet; waitress Erin (Sydnee Stewart), who's working to support herself while she pursues her dream of becoming a poet; Betty (Iris Little-Thomas), Erin's mother, a successful businesswoman; and kitchen worker Samel (Billoah Greene), who's about to begin college.
Perhaps the film's most arresting figure is Akbar (played in riveting fashion by Reg E. Cathey), a customer who spends his days in front of the restaurant hawking ribbons promoting black identity and haranguing passersby.
McKay's screenplay, developed from improvisational workshops with dozens of actors conducted by the filmmaker and executive producer Nelson George, has its stereotypical aspects -- certainly, the central story line feels overly familiar -- but it has an undeniable authenticity in its characterizations and situations and an empathy that is all too rare even in independent cinema. The ensemble cast, featuring a mixture of veterans and newcomers, deliver nary a false note in their performances, and Russell Lee Fine's cinematography evocatively captures the diner's Old World ambiance.
- 7/9/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Everyday People
HBO Films
NEW YORK -- Filmmaker Jim McKay, known for his well-observed, miniaturist dramas of New York life ("Girls Town", "Our Song"), has come up with another winner in this drama about the imminent closing of a beloved Brooklyn diner. Touching on themes of race relations, gentrification and upward mobility, "Everyday People" resonates with generous warmth for all of its complicated characters. The film serves as the opening-night attraction for this year's New Directors/New Films series, co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Taking place over the course of a single long day, the film is set at Raskin's, a fictional Brooklyn diner bearing no small resemblance to the legendary Junior's (it was actually filmed at another N.Y. dining institution, Ratner's, on the Lower East Side). Ira (Jordan Gelber), the diner's young Jewish owner, is closing a deal to sell the struggling restaurant to a real estate consortium, represented by Ron (Ron Butler), an aggressive black businessman who believes that the intended redevelopment will serve to upgrade the depressed area.
Arthur (Stephen McKinley Henderson), Raskin's maitre d' and longest-lasting employee, is given the task of informing the staff that their jobs will last but three more weeks, and the news is predictably not taken well. Particularly irate is Sol (Stephen Axelrod), a former doctor who became a junkie and went to prison and who counts on his admittedly menial employment to help him keep his life together.
As the news resonates among the staff, we are introduced in greater detail to the various characters, including cashier Joleen (Bridget Barkan), a single mother trying to make ends meet; waitress Erin (Sydnee Stewart), who's working to support herself while she pursues her dream of becoming a poet; Betty (Iris Little-Thomas), Erin's mother, a successful businesswoman; and kitchen worker Samel (Billoah Greene), who's about to begin college.
Perhaps the film's most arresting figure is Akbar (played in riveting fashion by Reg E. Cathey), a customer who spends his days in front of the restaurant hawking ribbons promoting black identity and haranguing passersby.
McKay's screenplay, developed from improvisational workshops with dozens of actors conducted by the filmmaker and executive producer Nelson George, has its stereotypical aspects -- certainly, the central story line feels overly familiar -- but it has an undeniable authenticity in its characterizations and situations and an empathy that is all too rare even in independent cinema. The ensemble cast, featuring a mixture of veterans and newcomers, deliver nary a false note in their performances, and Russell Lee Fine's cinematography evocatively captures the diner's Old World ambiance.
NEW YORK -- Filmmaker Jim McKay, known for his well-observed, miniaturist dramas of New York life ("Girls Town", "Our Song"), has come up with another winner in this drama about the imminent closing of a beloved Brooklyn diner. Touching on themes of race relations, gentrification and upward mobility, "Everyday People" resonates with generous warmth for all of its complicated characters. The film serves as the opening-night attraction for this year's New Directors/New Films series, co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Taking place over the course of a single long day, the film is set at Raskin's, a fictional Brooklyn diner bearing no small resemblance to the legendary Junior's (it was actually filmed at another N.Y. dining institution, Ratner's, on the Lower East Side). Ira (Jordan Gelber), the diner's young Jewish owner, is closing a deal to sell the struggling restaurant to a real estate consortium, represented by Ron (Ron Butler), an aggressive black businessman who believes that the intended redevelopment will serve to upgrade the depressed area.
Arthur (Stephen McKinley Henderson), Raskin's maitre d' and longest-lasting employee, is given the task of informing the staff that their jobs will last but three more weeks, and the news is predictably not taken well. Particularly irate is Sol (Stephen Axelrod), a former doctor who became a junkie and went to prison and who counts on his admittedly menial employment to help him keep his life together.
As the news resonates among the staff, we are introduced in greater detail to the various characters, including cashier Joleen (Bridget Barkan), a single mother trying to make ends meet; waitress Erin (Sydnee Stewart), who's working to support herself while she pursues her dream of becoming a poet; Betty (Iris Little-Thomas), Erin's mother, a successful businesswoman; and kitchen worker Samel (Billoah Greene), who's about to begin college.
Perhaps the film's most arresting figure is Akbar (played in riveting fashion by Reg E. Cathey), a customer who spends his days in front of the restaurant hawking ribbons promoting black identity and haranguing passersby.
McKay's screenplay, developed from improvisational workshops with dozens of actors conducted by the filmmaker and executive producer Nelson George, has its stereotypical aspects -- certainly, the central story line feels overly familiar -- but it has an undeniable authenticity in its characterizations and situations and an empathy that is all too rare even in independent cinema. The ensemble cast, featuring a mixture of veterans and newcomers, deliver nary a false note in their performances, and Russell Lee Fine's cinematography evocatively captures the diner's Old World ambiance.
- 4/13/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
HBO will visit 'Brooklyn' diner
HBO has greenlighted Brooklyn, an HBO Films original movie about the interactions among the diverse group of visitors and workers at a struggling Brooklyn diner during a single day. Jim McKay (Our Song) wrote the script, inspired by personal experiences submitted by viewers via e-mail, and will direct. The film's ensemble cast includes Reg E. Cathey (HBO's Oz), Iris Little-Thomas (HBO's Boycott) and up-and-comers Bridget Barkan, Ron Butler, Jordan Gelber (Riding in Cars With Boys), Billoah Greene (Levity), Stephen Henderson and poets muMs (Oz) and Sydnee Stewart. Brooklyn native Nelson George, Sean Daniel and Caldecot Chubb are executive producing Brooklyn, with Effie T. Brown producing. Filming has begun, with an aim for a 2004 premiere.
- 4/25/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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