a perfect man ( 2015 film )
there are no featured reviews for a perfect man (un homme idéal) at this time .
reviewed at dolby 24, may 6, 2015. (in cannes film festival — noncompeting .) running time: 94 min .
orson welles in the third man: ‘dominates the film both by his presence and his absence’ .
a struggling writer finds a shortcut to fame, but a blackmailer threatens to ruin his perfect life .
“the perfect guy” is decent trash that could have been delicious trash with a little more daring. director
woody allen contemplates the perfect murder (again) in a darkly funny, intellectually rigorous campus comedy .
pitch perfect 2 isn’t the only musical starring anna kendrick that comes out in 2015. in the last 5 years, a film adaptation of the successful off - broadway musical that premiered at the toronto film festival in 2014, kendrick and jeremy jordan play an actress named cathy and a novelist named jamie. the story of their five - year relationship is told from two different perspectives: cathy’s in reverse chronological order and jamie’s in chronological order .
an interview with terry gilliam, director of
the man who killed don quixote .
reviewed at amc loews port chester 14, port chester, new york, sept. 11, 2015. mpaa rating: pg - 13. running time: 100 min .
after breaking up with her boyfriend, a professional woman gets involved with a man who seems almost too good to be true .
if you' re looking for the perfect guy, look closer. watch the new thriller with michael ealy, sanaa lathan & morris chestnut. release date: september 11, 2015 tell us what you think of # theperfectguy urltoken urltoken subscribe to sony pictures for exclusive content: urltoken synopsis: the perfect guy follows a woman (lathan) who meets an it expert (ealy), who seems to be the perfect guy. but after a sexually - charged courtship, she sees a violent side of him and dissolves the budding relationship. in a jealous rage and fueled by insane revenge, he disrupts her life
a woman, separated from her unfaithful husband, falls for a younger man who has moved in next door, but their torrid affair soon takes a dangerous turn .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
jared leto confirms he' s a vampire (... in newly announced spider - man spinoff) by katie cameron june 27, 2018
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him. riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you. …
the film has a structure that leads us to an unexpected ending after putting us through a labyrinth of angst. [ full review in spanish ]
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
pitch perfect won millions of teen fans in 2012 with its warmhearted messages of sisterhood and song. first - time director elizabeth banks (who had a small part in the original film) will helm the sequel, which stars returning barden bellas anna kendrick and rebel wilson, along with some new faces .
“the spider totem / ezekiel” the amazing spider - man # 30 - 45, various writer: j. michael straczynski artist: john romita jr .
un homme idéal had its canadian premiere at the fantasia international film festival. here’s hoping it gets international distribution asap .
director yann gozlan creates a film that evoques the work of patricia highsmith, rené clément and even alfred hitchcock. [ full review in spanish ]
t’s established in allen lore that the picture was originally a two - and - a - half - hour solipsistic ramble, with alvy and annie’s fling relegated to a subplot. but in the edit, their relationship was what brought the film to life, and the dead wood was mercilessly cut back. allen’s preferred name for the film he’d originally planned was anhedonia: a greek term for the inability to feel pleasure. there couldn’t have been a less appropriate title for the finished film .
a struggling young author finds a brilliant manuscript written by a recently deceased man. he decides to pass off the work as his own but his newfound life of fame and success is put in jeopardy when a blackmailer comes forward threatening to reveal the truth .
an impetuous film and an update of industrial ways long tested in french cinema focused on crime. [ full review in spanish ]
baker had the perfect qualifications for the office. he has b. a. in psychology and a masters in human services administration, he taught special ed while he was working on his masters, and played an office worker in several ads for office max .
the latest film from writer / director noah baumbach (frances ha, the fantastic mr. fox) will premiere at this year’s sundance film festival. mistress america, starring greta gerwig and lola kirke, focuses on a lonely college freshman whose life is shaken up by her adventurous soon - to - be stepsister .
he first film in which allen directed diane keaton was also, perhaps not coincidentally, the first film to suggest he had more in him than than madcap, gag - driven comedies. (they appeared in a film together before his directing days). that’s not to say sleeper isn’t as madcap and gag - driven as his earliest work: a film about a health food shop owner who falls into a vat of liquid nitrogen and wakes up 200 years later kind of has to be. but allen’s painting with new colours here: romance, melancholy, and even – gasp! – coherent plotting, while the uproarious robot butler sequence showcased his talent for silent - era physical clowning .
. every comic book reader, movie watcher, pop culture bystander and grandparent who’s glanced casually at a standard - definition television in a century that begins with a “2” understands that a young man received a very special bug bite, got cocky, got sad, got responsible and became a wise - cracking superhero icon. it’s modern mythology at this point .
perfect, even, hence the title. besides his looks (and his propensity for shirtless, sweaty pushups), carter is attentive, thoughtful, doting and has a successful career as a high - tech corporate security expert, which will come in handy once he starts making her life a living hell .
12 years a slave star lupita nyong’o is set to have a huge 2015: not only is she appearing in the new star wars and jungle book movies, she will also star in and produce (along with brad pitt’s plan b productions) americanah. in the movie based on chimamanda ngozi adichie’s novel of the same name, she and selma standout david oyelowo will play young nigerian immigrants making their way in america .
a young man paying the rent for himself and his lifelong friends at an apartment, ends up flat - broke and resorts to selling marijuana to pay the bills - only to get caught up in the dangerous world of drugs .
25 - year - old mathieu (niney) wants nothing more in the world than to be a renowned, respected author. despite cracking away on his laptop keys every day after working at his uncle’s moving company, he’s just not that good. while cleaning a recently deceased man’s apartment, destiny literally falls into mathieu’s lap. he finds a leather - bound manuscript chronicling the man’s experiences in the algerian war. and the writing is rich, soulful, and moving – everything mathieu’s isn’t .
but this is just the set - up for the film, which gozlan co - wrote with guillaume lemans and, for the dialogue, gregoire vigneron. most of a perfect man is in fact set three years after this initial success, when mathieu has moved into the palatial seaside villa of the family of his girlfriend, alice (ana girardot), a beautiful and young literature expert with whom he had an awkward and perfectly played meet - cute at the press launch of black sand. what alice and her parents (andre marcon, valeria cavalli) don’t know is that vasseur’s impatient publisher has given him a final ultimatum for a first draft of a new novel after having paid several generous advances, which has mathieu worried sick about having to deliver something on par with
his
first work. things become even thornier when someone who knew the dead man starts to blackmail mathieu, whose association with an ostentatiously rich family thus becomes something of a double - edged sword .
like in films such as quicksand and a simple plan, mathieu has to commit increasingly diabolical acts to sustain his new life. he’ll do anything to preserve his new image. niney, who resembles a baby bird, delivers a performance dripping with nuance. mathieu’s a man consumed with anguish and niney encompasses this torture in his tiny, quivering frame. his lies and deeds weigh him down so much that by the end of the film, he looks like an entirely different person .
they were in for something special. at its end they recognised they’d seen a near - perfect work, what we now call a noir classic. the title rapidly entered the language and took on new meanings as the careers of greene as wartime intelligence agent and kim philby as cold war traitor became linked .
it’s a glorious premise, explored by allen and his cast to dazzlingly funny ends. what gives the film its existential bite, though, is a two - part acknowledgement late in the game: firstly, that the beautiful solace film offers is a lie, and secondly, that it doesn’t matter. watching it, you feel (and probably look) like farrow’s heroine: a smiling face in the dark, lit up, flickering, alive .
sanaa lathan is as tough as she is fetching, which is why it’s so disheartening to watch her play a dopey victim for much of “the perfect guy, ” in which her well - to - do professional is terrorized by a new flame who doesn’t take kindly to being dumped. boasting a screenplay by tyger williams that never fails [ … ]
but the most striking influence that occurred to me only decades after first seeing the third man is its likely debt to eric ambler’s the mask of dimitrios, which turns upon a british thriller writer journeying to istanbul to see a brilliant criminal who has disappeared after faking his death. there are several apparent allusions to ambler’s book in the film (including one by ambler’s friend, carol reed, to prewar istanbul in the film’s stage - setting introduction), and greene includes a chapter from the mask of dimitrios in his anthology, the spies bedside book. during an onstage interview with ambler at the national film theatre in he 1990s, i asked him if he’d ever noticed the resemblance. “i have indeed, ” he replied, but sadly i never got around to pursuing the matter, and ambler died soon afterwards .
after alfred hitchcock and his gallic disciple, claude chabrol, has any filmmaker devoted more screen time to contemplating the mechanics of the “perfect” murder than woody allen? his latest, “irrational man, ” adds to a tally that also includes “crimes and misdemeanors, ” “match point” and the little - seen “cassandra’s dream” — only, unlike those films’ homicidal protagonists, the philosophical anti - hero of allen’s 45th feature kills not for love or money, but rather for a kind of existential clarity. that conceit puts a fresh spin on a familiar premise and marks “irrational man” as one of the woodman’s more offbeat and ambitiously weird projects since the fragmented “deconstructing harry” in 1997, though less conventionally entertaining than recent home runs like “blue jasmine” and “midnight in paris. ” arthouse traffic should be decent but modest for the july 17 sony classics release .
natalie portman’s female western, jane got a gun, has been plagued by delays. after rotating through two directors, three villains, three release dates and a lawsuit, the film produced by and starring portman is set to premiere in september .
pixar’s first attempt at a female - centric animated film, brave, was a critical letdown. but hopefully an all - star cast that includes amy poehler, mindy kaling and bill hader will liven up this summer’s inside out, which explores the emotions inside the head of a young girl named riley .
jump cuts abound, straight - to - camera interviews break up the plot, and carlo di palma’s handheld camera whip - pans all over the place, seeming to reel from one accusation or gossip - bomb to the next as this foursome all experiment separately with new lovers: perfect catch liam neeson, aerobics bimbo lysette anthony, impressionable student juliette lewis. it’s woody’s last film with farrow and feels, even more now, like a brutal post - mortem on their whole relationship: he even makes himself the loser .
after wowing opposite tom cruise in the sci - fi war flick edge of tomorrow last year, blunt will star in her own action thriller. in sicario, she plays a young fbi agent that joins a secret cia operation to take down a cartel. josh brolin and benicio del toro also star in the film .
his first post - office venture was going to be a spin - off centering around dwight’s life on shrute farm, but wilson’s glad that didn’t work out, as it gave him the opportunity to try something new. he’s currently starring in (and producing) backstrom on fox, a crime comedy - drama set in portland, based on a swedish book series. he co - stars in the indie film uncanny, which is making the film festival rounds, and the boy, which premieres this month at sxsw .
you will be unrecognizable to yourself today. advanced medical science will mean that you will never be sick. your cells will never age, and so you will never die. people long since dead will be brought back to life. smart drugs, so primitive in their enhancements today, will grant you a perfect mind with a genius iq, for the price of a pill. you will have whatever body you desire .
pam beesly wrapped up her life in scranton pretty definitively. married to jim with two kids, she gave him the kick he needed to pursue his dreams with the grand gesture of selling their house without telling him... much the way he initially bought it without telling her. the perfect match .
sanaa lathan is as tough as she is fetching, which is why it’s so disheartening to watch her play a dopey victim for much of “ the perfect guy, ” in which her well - to - do professional is terrorized by a new flame who doesn’t take kindly to being dumped. boasting a screenplay by tyger williams that never fails to telegraph its every move, david m. rosenthal ’s film is a cheap “fatal attraction” knockoff, complete with a subplot involving the potentially dire fate of lathan’s beloved pet. while no bunnies wind up being boiled, the rest of this second - rate genre effort is a strictly by - the - books affair. despite an appealing trio of leads, it seems likely to entice only those with an unquenchable thirst for thriller cliches .
“this is the part of the movie where you kidnap me and sell my organs, right? ” sanaa lathan ’s character playfully asks michael ealy ’s on their way to an underground nightclub in “the perfect guy. ” nothing nearly so wacky or grotesque goes down in this romantic thriller, but you’ll wish it would .
his newest project is the upcoming indie film fallen stars, but more surprising is his debut single and video “2 be simple, ” which actually got some pretty good reviews. you can find it on youtube .
then there’s orson welles as harry lime, leader of the gang peddling adulterated penicillin in vienna. he dominates the film both by his presence and his absence. he was difficult to pin down, even for his brief appearances. reed used the time shooting at night, while waiting for welles to show up, to experiment with tilted cameras and surreal shadows in narrow, gleaming nocturnal streets that became one of the film’s hallmarks .
a tribute to the late tab hunter, a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .
allen has often shown an interest in stage magic and hypnotism (see also: scoop, magic in the moonlight), but this enthusiasm reached its unfortunate nadir in this dodo of a light comedy, his most expensive film (it cost $ 33m) and by his own reckoning among the worst. his own performance as a wisecracking insurance investigator hypnotised into jewel theft was one problem, but helen hunt doesn' t fare much better as the ruthless efficiency expert he wants off his back. all the film achieves is managing to look lavishly nostalgic for a more sexist era .
transhumanism’s roots stretch all the way back to russian futurism of the late 19th century, when christian mystic philosopher nikolai fyodorov proposed that man’s natural destiny was to take to the stars, to achieve immortality through science, to resurrect the dead with medical technology, and to colonize space. fyodorov’s beliefs came to be known as cosmism. cosmism sought to achieve human perfection, to unite humanity in a commitment to overcome death and master the cosmos, as god had intended. fyodorov’s influence would filter directly down to the establishment of the russian space program in the 1950s and the race to put the first man into orbit .
e’s speaking to the film’s other main character, allen’s documentary filmmaker clifford stern, in the one scene they share, sitting apart from a wedding celebration at the film’s very end. not here the fortune - cookie insights that some of allen’s lesser pictures call philosophy. here he’s thinking deeply about moral choice, the question of whether guilt in your own eyes or the eyes of the world matters more. this bubblingly wise film, rich with beautifully dovetailing metaphors about blindness and conscience and the perils of self - knowledge, has only grown in stature since its release. it is allen on soaring form, gliding so elegantly through its maze of ideas it’s as if the spirit of fred astaire gave it lift - off .
this drama, written and directed by angelina jolie, will reunite the actress and now - husband brad pitt for the first time since 2005’s mr. & mrs. smith. by the sea looks like a much quieter film for the couple, who will star as a married dancer and a writer traveling france in the 1970s in hopes of saving their marriage .
fun fact: in 2008, carell saved the historic marshfield hills general store in marshfield, massachusetts from the wrecking ball, buying it and putting his sister - in - law in charge. rumor has it that he sometimes shows up to man the cash register, but we promise nothing .
f allen’s many mooted returns to form, here’s the film that actually was one: a lacerating comedy of financial and romantic recessions, and his best work since his extraordinary mid - career hot streak came crunching to a halt in the early 1990s. cate blanchett won an oscar for her heart - tightening performance in the title role – a kind of blanche dubois of park avenue brought low by her husband’s economic chicanery. jasmine’s dogged denial of her desperate circumstances is the fire under the film’s feet, and watching her crumble is agonising, thrilling – and, most damning of all, great fun .
since then, he’s appeared in multiple movies, including knocked up, the smurf s, inglourious basterds, saving mr. banks, and the amazing spider - man 2. he’s released two books, a collection of essay - like short stories and a best - selling children’s book called “the book with no pictures. ” he was a consulting producer on the first season of the mindy project, and his brother jessie composes music for it .
( born max o’connor) is a transhumanist philosopher and the ceo of the alcor life extension cryonics foundation. extropy, as more envisioned it, stood in opposition to the natural law of entropy: the inevitable decline of all energy in the universe into disorder and chaos. the extropians believed that man can overcome entropy through technology and practical “rational optimism. ”
michael scott finally got it all. he married his true love holly (amy ryan), they had kids, and he had so many pictures of them that he had to buy a second phone to hold them all. he made dwight’s wedding everything dwight dreamed it could be by showing up just in time to step in as the best man .
produced by thibault gast and matthias weber for 24 25 films, and by wassim béji for wy productions, a perfect man is being co - produced by tf1 films productions and mars films (which will handle distribution in french theatres). pre - purchased by orange cinéma séries, tf1, hd1 and ciné +, the feature has also received backing from angoa, from the cnc ’s support fund for development, and from sofica b media and manon. the eight - week shoot, which is due to wrap on 31 july, will take place in the provence - alpes - côte d' azur region (le pradet, sicié, port carqueyranne and toulon) and in paris. international sales are headed by snd .
a surrogate mom for a couple becomes dangerously obsessed with the soon - to - be father .
allen asks the audience to take a considerable logical leap there — some will, some won’t — but logic is one of the last things “irrational man” has on its mind. (the movie shares its title with a 1958 volume by philosopher and literary critic william christopher barrett, which sought to explain existentialism in lay terms to english - language readers .) for allen — who once joked that he only read kierkegaard and freud so he could get girls — this ranks among his most unabashedly intellectual exercises, with references to dostoevsky, heidegger, kant, sartre and simone de beauvoir that aren’t just clever name dropping, but part of a bigger discussion “irrational man” wants to have about the efforts of writers and thinkers to explain the world, and the vast chasm between theory and practice .
following the success of the heat, melissa mccarthy is teaming up with paul feig (bridesmaids, the heat) again to make the action comedy spy about a cia analyst who goes undercover to infiltrate the world of arms dealers after her partner goes m. i. a. the film stars mccarthy, rose byrne, jason statham and jude law .
fter a run of russet - hued collaborations with cinematographer darius khondji, allen is working here for the first time with the venerable vittorio storaro, and the change has done him the good. a couple of scenes with bobby and vonnie together are the most visually beautiful sequences in an allen film in goodness knows how long. and then there' s
the final installment in the hunger games franchise starring jennifer lawrence as a girl leading a revolution in a dystopian society is set to premiere in november .
a group of medical aid workers in kosovo is kidnapped by a non slavic gang of organ traffickers .
the germans have a term for movies set among the ruins of postwar cities – “ trümmerfilm ” or “rubble films”. notable in this sub - genre are such pictures of the 1940s as t he murderers are among us (wolfgang staudte, 1946) and germany year zero (roberto rossellini, 1948). the third man, deeply influenced by italian neorealism, is arguably the most significant british example, though it has a close contender in reed’s odd man out (1947), shot on blitzed sites in belfast, and charles crichton’s seminal ealing comedy hue and cry (1947). ken adam, production designer on the early bond movies, cut his teeth working on rubble films such as obsession (1949) and ten seconds to hell (1959) .
leah (lathan) is a successful california lobbyist whose relationship with dave (morris chestnut) falls apart due to his disinterest in committing to the type of marriage - with - children future that she craves. no sooner has she dropped dave than leah is swept off her feet by carter (michael ealy), a sexy suitor who first meets her at a coffee shop and, following another chance encounter that ends with her literally swooning over his kisses, reveals himself to be everything – devoted, passionate, respectful and interested in starting a family – that leah wants in a partner. in case that wasn’t immediately clear from ealy’s perpetually humble - and - sweet routine (not to mention the film’s title), leah’s friend alicia (rutina wesley) bluntly states, “he might be the perfect guy! ” — thereby cementing the filmmakers’ dedication to making everything about their story as leadenly obvious as possible .
( 2009) (a. k. a
my words, my lies - my love
), based on a novel by martin suter .
cineuropa is the first european portal dedicated to cinema and audiovisual in 4 languages. with daily news, interviews, data bases, in - depth investigations into the audiovisual industry, cineuropa aims at promoting the european film industry throughout the world. welcome to a platform where professionals can meet and exchange information and ideas .
eventually, williams’ script has leah turn the tables on her tormentor, thereby finally allowing lathan to exhibit the gritty ferocity — as demonstrated in films including “blade” and “avp: alien vs. predator” — that makes the accomplished actress more than just a pretty face. unfortunately, it’s far too little too late to salvage “the perfect guy” from its own dull suspense. it may be awash in internet - age fears about surveillance and identity, but at heart, it’s little more than a retrograde b - movie .
a middling entry in allen’s unofficial perfect murder tetralogy (see also: nos 38, 32 and 2), with joaquin phoenix’s existentially impaired philosophy don plotting a broad - daylight poisoning as a means of reclaiming his übermenschian potency. the premise is tightly rigged, though its intellectual reference points (nietzsche and dostoyevsky again ?) feel, at this point in allen’s career, worn very thin indeed. but an odd, un - allen - ish lead performance from phoenix and sunny supporting work from emma stone tickle it to life. (read the full review )
gene hackman, ian holm and martha plimpton feature in the flashbacks and present - day scenes she’s weighing up against each other, trying to work out where her life slid into a rut of barely noticed unfulfilment, and how to escape it. in the film’s most unnerving scene, she bumps into a high - school friend (sandy dennis) who dumps a shocking checklist of grievances in her lap, revealing marion' s long - held view of herself as a kind of mirage .
like steve carell, his career got a big boost on the daily show with jon stewart. he was added to the office cast in 2006 in a recurring role, and had so much in common with the character they wanted to create that a year later they made him a series regular. since then, he’s starred in the hangover trilogy, as well as the lorax, and developed a film with judd apatow, among other projects. coming up, he’s kicking off a new national lampoon’s vacation franchise as rusty griswold, appearing in a naked gun reboot, and will be voicing captain underpants in a movie scheduled for 2017. he’s also in a bluegrass band called the lonesome trio. like andy, helms is also obsessed with a capella music, and plays guitar, banjo, piano and sitar .
i went to see this movie based on various recommendations from friends. inam a sucker for a good thriller. the actor mix is perfect and, even though some parts are predictable, you will definitely enjoy the movie. i loved the main trio and their performances. this movie can be considered a life lesson because you don' t really know who is that you are dating out there. watch till the end, nice twists. i liked that the characters are not typical and that some boundaries are actually pushed in this movie. i went w my bf and a friend and all three of us agreed it is a nice movie, different than all the usual ones .
as will happen with almost every stop zoltan makes on the campaign trail, journalists, photographers, and documentary film crews outnumber the people actually listening to his speeches. at one point, a large group of segway riders in day - glo yellow helmets slowly roll toward us, promising an audience, and then right past us .
ten years ago, the office premiered on nbc. based on the successful uk version created by ricky gervais and stephen merchant, it depicted the day - to - day life of the employees at the scranton, pa, branch of paper company dunder mifflin, as seen through the eyes and camera of a documentary film crew .
there is perhaps another reason why greene might have had certain reservations about the third man. every time you see the film over the years you notice something new. you suddenly become aware, for instance, of the way the strings of the zither at the beginning are later echoed in the cables of the suspension bridge seen from above in the sequence in which the conspirators meet with lime on the danube, and later the wires of the great wheel in the prater pleasure park, where lime and martins are to have their crucial meeting looking down on the world. great spiders’ webs, perhaps, or the strings of giant marionettes ?
the beauty of the screenplay is the way it smoothly moves all the elements into place to suggest how the very sources of mathieu’s happiness slowly turn into liabilities. the young man wanted a literary career more than anything, but he never thought about the necessity and, in his case, sheer impossibility of coming up with a second novel, while his connection with alice’s family is largely based on his
talent ,
( it’s extremely unlikely they would have accepted a working - class mover without any success to his name) .
the phrase he will offer up more than any other is an upbeat, “no worries, ” issued forth as he checks his constantly overflowing inbox, or fields calls from producers and volunteers, or attempts to mediate growing displeasures among his party advisors. zoltan is his own assistant, secretary, receptionist, fundraiser, organizer, numbers man, stumper, and publicist .
he makes the fateful decision to bend his integrity over the writing desk and has his way with it. typing up the dead man’s journal and submitting it under his own name, mathieu becomes the new sensation of french literature. “black sand” is a massive hit and mathieu is thrust into fame and fortune. he even gets his dream girl, alice (ana girardot), whose wealthy family welcomes mathieu with open arms .
ometimes allen has a knack for casting himself ideally, sometimes he doesn’t. despite his terrible wardrobe, beleaguered variety agent danny rose is one of woody’s most snugly tailored roles: instantly funny, a little sad, and right up at the most endearing end of the characters he’s played. it helps that mia farrow, as a girl - next - door with a criminal ex, is such a sweet moll, too: sharp - tongued but vulnerable beneath it. the film is deceptively throwaway, but has a neat nugget of philosophy to cleave to, about loyalty to anyone who has offered you theirs. the warmth of the payoff spreads through you like a ray of sunshine .
in the series finale, angela finally marries dwight, her one true love, after a disastrous marriage to a gay congressman and a short - lived engagement to andy bernard .
llen does pygmalion, complete with a borscht belt greek chorus, although the jumbled, snobbish and emotionally curdled results fall noticeably short of mythic. a well - to - do new yorker (allen) decides to trace the birth mother of his adorable adopted son, and is horrified – plus more than a little turned on – to discover she’s a hooker and porn starlet. mira sorvino gives an oscar - winning, eardrum - tightening turn in a thankless role: the film patronises sorvino’s character relentlessly, and when it works, it’s because the actress heroically refuses to roll over and take it .
in many ways, 2014 was a landmark year for women in film. but don’t expect to see a ton of progress for women in hollywood this year: of the 100 wide - release movies scheduled for this year, only seven are directed by women. still, studios are finally beginning to recognize that making movies that tell women’s stories and draw female audiences is just a good business decision. here are 22 movies made by or starring women that we’re excited to see this year .
the detective mentions getting a subpoena to search a suspect' s apartment. subpoenas are used to obtain records or compel someone to appear in court. if a dwelling is to be searched, a search warrant is the proper item to use. a seasoned detective would know the difference between the two .
the story features an evil, charismatic anti - hero who fakes his own death and makes his home in a viennese sewer, and ends with its dull, perplexed leading man being silently snubbed by the beautiful, unsmiling heroine in a deserted cemetery. this new print does full justice to robert krasker’s dazzling, oscar - winning black - and - white photography and its exhilaratingly forlorn postwar vienna, and it’s accompanied by two excellent documentaries, one about the making of the movie and its afterlife, the other about the career of greene, then at the height of his power as both a novelist and screenwriter .
allen has yet to submit a film entitled “will this do? ”, but anything else comes closest, both in its title and for recycling old tropes about thwarted creativity and being stuck with a pesky, permanently difficult long - term girlfriend (christina ricci) who wants to move her mother in. jason biggs’s character is meant to be an aspiring comedy writer, but allen’s script gives him not one funny line. all of these go to his ageing intellectual mentor, a veritable fount of park - bench philosophical witticisms, played by guess who. go on, have a guess .
she auditioned for saturday night live in 2008 but didn’t make the cut, then tried out for a role on parks and recreation. while she didn’t get that either, it did lead to an audition for the office, where a four - episode guest role turned into a job as a full time cast member, with her sister signing on as a writer for a few seasons too .
in 1994, allen adapted his first professionally produced play – a quick - fire cold war farce in which a family of american tourists are mistaken for spies – for the television network abc. a previous film version had been made in 1969, and apparently niggled away at allen for years, though his own take in no sense redeems it: it looks shatteringly cheap and ugly, while the cast (which includes michael j. fox and julie kavner) have nothing to work with but reheated, three - decades - old schtick .
he best of allen’s europe - trotting films is the one most in touch with its touristic soul. scarlett johansson and rebecca hall are two young american women who fall for javier bardem’s divorced artist during a catalonian excursion – and like a midsummer night’s sex comedy, it’s the idea of romance as a mini - break for the soul that gives the film its rosily libidinous power. of its unspeakably attractive cast, penélope cruz was the eventual oscar - winner; oftentimes, you sense allen’s just happy to be tagging along for the ride .
ere it is: not just allen' s creative pinnacle, but perhaps the most perfectly assured braiding of comedy and drama in mainstream american film. it feels like the miraculous sweet spot between all of its filmmaker' s many modes and tones – biting without being cruel, profound without seeming sanctimonious, warmly humane without collapsing into goo .
adio days is allen being nostalgic about nostalgia: it’s the kind of film about the olden days they just don’t make any more. the model was fellini’s free - flowing 1973 masterpiece amarcord, with rimini swapped for rockaway beach in queens, where a working - class jewish family buzz and drift through everyday life, while the music of glenn miller and duke ellington crackles comfortingly from the living room set. allen weaves in further stories of stars and wannabes, muddling memory and fantasy. the result isn’t so much a collage as a patchwork quilt .
alice, a twenty - year - old girl of modest origin, lives in bayeux, a small town in normandy. she has an unambitious boyfriend, kevin, and works at the the moment as a salesgirl in a bakeshop... . see full summary »
leslye headland, who directed bachelorette, will premiere her next film, sleeping with other people at sundance. in the movie, jason sudeikis and alison brie star as jake and lainey, friends who lose their virginity to each other in college. the pair meets again 12 years later and realize they have both become serial cheaters and form an unlikely friendship as they one another in a quest to find healthy romantic relationships .
t opens with one of allen’s most vividly written, shot and acted scenes ever, as judy davis and sydney pollack arrive for dinner and announce their separation plans. the way their best friends, allen and farrow, respond – shocked, but also offended – turns this into a rapid marvel of four - way characterisation. this is allen’s most scorching anatomy of marital bonds, a film so bitter, witheringly frank and unsentimental he entirely reinvented his style of shooting and editing for it .
woody’s fourth and, thus far, final london film is a lightly cynical ensemble juggling act, taking in gold - digging, psychic love advice and ambulance - chasing literary plagiarism. josh brolin is well cast as a desperate novelist, but gemma jones has the best of it as the jilted wife of anthony hopkins, whose new girlfriend is a tacky ex - hooker (lucy punch). allen, alas, seems above all of his characters here, and inflicts petty twists of fate on them which feel forced and malicious rather than wise or illuminating .
a gallerist risks her family and flourishing career when she enters into an affair with a talented painter and slowly loses control of her life .
erhaps of all allen’s early comedies, this is the one that could be remade today with the fewest concessions to modern taste. that might be because on its release, it already felt like a film out of time: it’s effectively the marx brothers’ duck soup with a cuban spin (allen’s wilting new york nebbish accidentally becomes a dictator) and survives on its never - ending supply of lunatic gags, thundering past like an express train. it looks cheap, which is funny in itself, and satire and spoofery are crammed in until it bulges at the seams .
allen cast a fond eye back to the hollywood musicals of his childhood for this all - singing, star - stuffed confection, which follows a clan of wealthy manhattanites chasing after love in new york, venice and paris. edward norton, drew barrymore, julia roberts and goldie hawn are among the game cast singing their hearts out. despite those names it was a commercial flop, and its airiness can sometimes play as insubstantial. but when the film works, it really works: not least when hawn defies gravity on the banks of the seine in its magical finale .
conveniently, though, she meets cute not once but twice with a super - handsome guy named carter (michael ealy). after sharing a flirty moment at a coffee shop, their paths cross again at a trendy restaurant when carter swoops in to save leah from a drunk dude’s unwanted advances at the bar. he really is too good to be true
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942, and died a little over five years ago. i owe a good part of my success…
london films achieved the weird distinction of getting no theatrical release in its place of origin, despite the returning presence of scarlett johansson, and hugh jackman in the lead. the reasons are simple: it’s flagrantly disposable, continues allen’s embarrassing love affair with a london that doesn’t exist, and cooks up no intrigue worth bothering with, for all the ins and outs of its thin man - esque plot. the one redeeming feature, surprisingly, is allen himself, in the supporting role of an amusingly befuddled stage magician called the great splendini .
after a weekend at her parents’ house, during which leah’s new beau wins over her dad (charles s. dutton) with front - row san francisco giants tickets, carter loses his cool at a gas station and viciously beats a man he mistakenly thinks is hitting on leah. that violent outburst so rightfully frightens leah that it ends their relationship, and carter takes the development quite badly. as an it expert with all sorts of stalker - ish skills involving security systems and spy cameras, carter quickly becomes a menacing thorn in leah’s side, especially once she reconciles with dave. his attempts to make carter stay away from leah via public threats are as useless as the detectives looking into carter’s behavior, and the restraining order leah eventually gets against him .
mathieu vasseur (niney) is a solitary, working - class nobody who dreams of becoming a novelist but whose lack of talent forces him to move boxes and furniture all day for a company that’s often asked to empty the houses of dead people without any immediate family. in one such apartment, mathieu finds a diary of a soldier who fought in algeria and who clearly prepared and edited his work for publication. mathieu, frustrated by the refusal of all of france’s major literary houses to publish his own work and clearly aware that the man, like him, has no direct relatives, publishes the diary as the novel black sand and finds immediate success. the fact that he’s only 25, and thus wasn’t even born when the algerian war happened, only makes his story more irresistible for both the press and the literary establishment .
or: the one with kenneth branagh doing his party - trick woody impression, leonardo dicaprio as a bratty a - list star bedding multiple models, and coarse routines with fellatio practised on bananas. it’s the last time allen collaborated with ingmar bergman’s great cinematographer sven nyqvist, whose black - and - white vision of this strained media circus is doubtless designed to remind us of la dolce vita. but the film’s a bitter pill with negligible insights, and sends branagh slavering after far too many gorgeous young starlets (charlize theron, famke janssen, winona ryder) for us to be quite comfortable .
allen’s sourest comedy is one of his more arresting, certainly of the increasingly wayward 1990s: it touches a few raw nerves. the structure is roughly lifted from bergman' s reflections on a life in wild strawberries, as allen’s flailing writer, harry block, is invited back to his alma mater to receive an honorary degree. this trip involves reckoning with the fallout from harry’s failed relationships, not to mention some wacky swerves into sketch comedy – robin williams develops the medical condition of being out - of - focus, and tobey maguire plays a sex - obsessed alter ego. it’s an uneven grab bag, a flawed film à clef with biting and honest moments .
phyllis smith never expected to find herself as an actress on a long - running series. she graduated with a degree in elementary education, then became a dancer, eventually becoming a cheerleader for the old st. louis cardinals football team. after that she spent years as a burlesque performer, but a knee injury derailed her career, so she took a job as a receptionist. eventually she found her way to becoming a casting assistant, and reading with hundreds of different actors at their auditions brought out the actress in her. she was hired to help cast the office, and after enough readings, the writers created the role of phyllis just for her .
a suspensful thriller about identity theft and double crossing with a chilling atmosphere that will get you from start from finish. [ full review in spanish ]
“this is a bank robbery, not a movie, ” complains allen’s virgil starkwell – although in this case, it’s easy to get the two confused. allen rushes into this mock - biopic of a hapless serial crook all puns blazing, with concepts pilfered from chaplin and the marx brothers, and an arsenal of brilliant sight gags, one - liners and physical comedy routines. (for the sheer comic density of the idea, the marching - band cellist might be the best thing he ever did .) it’s his archetypal early, funny film: one may have come earlier, but none were funnier .
poor andy. at the end of the series, he’s still something of a laughingstock after his tearful audition for an a capella show goes viral, but at least he has a job at his beloved alma mater, cornell .
the real angela is also a big cat lover; she’s also a writer and a comedic performer and won an emmy, along with several of her office co - stars, for the web series the office: the accountants .
in 2010), the main character in the story is 25 - year - old mathieu, who has always yearned to become a famous author. it’s a dream that seems out of reach for him because he has never managed to be published, despite his best efforts. in the meantime, he makes a living working at the removals company that his uncle manages… his fortunes turn around one day, when he stumbles across a manuscript by an old, reclusive man who has just passed away. mathieu hesitates, before finally snatching it and signing it as his own... having become the foremost fresh hope for french literature, and with the expectations surrounding his second novel weighing heavier and heavier on him each day, mathieu, who has now found love, is about to be launched into a deceitful and deadly spiral in order to keep his secret under wraps – at all costs…
a perfect man ( french : un homme idéal ) is a 2015 french thriller film directed by yann gozlan . the film tells the story of a struggling author who steals the text of a manuscript originally belonging to a reclusive man who recently died . the film stars pierre niney and ana girardot . 
a perfect man (french: un homme idéal) is a 2015 french thriller film directed by yann gozlan. the film tells the story of a struggling author who steals the text of a manuscript originally belonging to a reclusive man who recently died. the film stars pierre niney and ana girardot.
a perfect man (french: un homme idéal) is a 2015 french thriller film directed by yann gozlan. the film tells the story of a struggling author who steals the text of a manuscript originally belonging to a reclusive man who recently died. the film stars pierre niney and ana girardot.