Predictable and overdone, but good dialogues and humor
Cast: Noel Wells, Carly Chaikin, Aya Cash, Josh Radnor
Director: Theresa Bennett
Writer: Theresa Bennett
Cinematographer: Sandra Valde-Hansen
Editor: Yaniv Dabach, Jonathan Melin
Two long-time best friends come into adulthood in very different ways / a coming of age story that avoids stereotypes / good direction, script, personages, and dialogues
Cast: Leighton Meester, Gillian Jacobs, Adam Brody, Gabourey Sidibe, Beth Dover, Abby Elliott, Mark Feuerstein, Kate McKinnon, Greer Grammer
Director: Susanna Fogel
Writer: Joni Lefkowitz, Susanna Fogel
Director of Photography: Brian Burgoyne
Boringly slow and uninspired despite the fancy editing and a very original story that deserves a much better treatment!
Cast: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Kesha Rose Sebert
Director: David Lowery
Writer: David Lowery
Cinematographer: Andrew Droz Palermo
Editor: David Lowery
Composer: Daniel Hart
With its strong but disturbing message, its unconventional camera work. and its very original script, this movie deserves a much more encouraging reaction, but it seems that few critics ventured to see it. Or is it because the pharmaceutical industry has been lobbying around? 🙂
Very original first feature in the trend “cinema-vérirté” / Nice team-work although at times awkwardly amateurish / Pity Kate Davies didn’t find it necessary to provide the viewer with a cinematic conclusion other than a few quotes from Forbes and Vanity Fair.
Cast: Jon Huertas, Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Mark Burnham
Director: Kate Rees Davies
Writers: Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Jon Huertas, Travis Romero
Music by Randy Chance
Cinematography by Steve Romano
Film Editing by Jon Artigo, Vance Crofoot
Good dialogues and humor, with a movie within the movie
Cast: Toni Collette, Thomas Haden Church, Oliver Platt, Ryan Eggold, Ahna O’Reilly, Amy Seimetz, Joanne Woodward, Lynn Shelton, Johnny Depp
Director: Megan Griffiths
Screenplay: Huck Botko, Emily Wachtel
Music by Craig Wedren
Cinematography by Ben Kutchins
Film Editing by Meg Reticker
Just like her first feature, Hamri’s third movie uses romance to break prejudices – this time against non-canon forms of beauty / More formulaic than her first feature / Good performance by Queen Latifah / Same fatherly figure as in her previous two movies 🙂
Cast: Queen Latifah, Common, Paula Patton, James Pickens Jr., Phylicia Rashad, Pam Grier
Directed by Sanaa Hamri
Written by Michael Elliot
Music by Lisa Coleman, Wendy Melvoin
Cinematography by Terry Stacey
Film Editing by Melissa Kent
Weak scenario and messy direction
It’s not easy to understand why Metascore, Rotten Tomatoes, and Slant rate this movie and Something New similarly!!!
Cast: Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrara, Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively, Blythe Danner
Directed by Sanaa Hamri
Written by Elizabeth Chandler
Music by Rachel Portman
Cinematography by Jim Denault
Film Editing by Melissa Kent
“The boy is just white, he’s not a martian!”
Romantic comedy built around the racial divide: a black woman does not accept her feelings towards a white man / great performance by Sanaa Lathan / nice choregraphy
The rom-com part of the movie is handled in the first half hour, which allows Sanaa Hamri an hour time to dig deeper and create tensions by showing subtly how prejudices, family values, differences in humor, etc. interfere in this mixed-race relationship.
“”Something New” delivers all the usual pleasures of a love story, and something more.” [Roger Ebert]
Cast: Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, Mike Epps, Donald Faison, Alfre Woodard, Blair Underwood, Golden Brooks, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Taraji P. Henson, Earl Billings
Directed by Sanaa Hamri
Written by Kriss Turner
Music by Lisa Coleman, Wendy Melvoin
Cinematography by Shane Hurlbut
Film Editing by Melissa Kent
A woman who has been gang-raped when she was young comes to term with her past when she hears what really happened from the one who was her boyfriend at the time. A hard film to watch!
Just like in her preceding movie, music is used to help defining the personage and carrying the emotional content.
Cast: Kim Dickens, Gabriel Mann, Aria Alpert Adjani
Director: Allison Anders
Writers: Allison Anders, Kurt Voss
Music by Sonic Youth
Cinematography by Terry Stacey
Film Editing by Chris Figler
Excellent original music, great personages
Cast: Illeana Douglas, John Turturro, Eric Stoltz, Matt Dillon, Patsy Kensit
Written and Directed by Allison Anders
Music by Larry Klein
Cinematography by Jean-Yves Escoffier
Film Editing by James Y. Kwei, Harvey Rosenstock, Thelma Schoonmaker