Showing posts with label Lizzy Caplan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lizzy Caplan. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

John Gosling previews the week's new releases (09-07-12).

A relatively quiet weekend with just two major releases, only one of which is out to a substantial number of screens.The Words was written and directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal and follows a young author (Rory) desperately trying to come up with a story. When his latest effort is rejected he happens across an old manuscript in a house in which he is staying with his partner. Finding himself blown away by how good the story is, he sets to work re-typing it, with a view to passing it off as his own. Thanks to 'his' new book, Rory finds himself the sensation of the publishing world and reaps all the rewards that come with it. But when a man connected with the original manuscript comes into his life, the author soon discovers the high price he will have to pay for stealing another's story. The Words marks the directorial debut of Klugman and Sternthal, who received advice on the script from the Sundance Writer's Lab. With funding in place they set to work on casting, with Bradley Cooper taking the lead role of Rory, Zoe Saldana as his wife Dora and Jeremy Irons as the stranger with the potential to expose Rory's deceit. Other members of the cast included J.K Simmons, Dennis Quaid and Oliva Wilde, the last two acting as a framing device for the picture - Wilde interviewing Quaid's character who has himself written a book relating to the events that unfold as the main body of the film. 

Friday, August 17, 2012

Review: Bachlerorette (2012) successfully mixes vulgar comedy and low-key pathos.

Bachlerorette
2012
87 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

There is going to come a point, hopefully in the very near future, where we'll see enough female-centric comedies that each one doesn't feel like some kind of major moment in cinema.  We're not quite there yet, so one could arguably discuss Leslye Headland's Bachlerorette in terms of what it does or does not represent in the ever-quickening trail to gender parity in big-screen comedy. For the record, the film is based on Headland's own play, so anyone accusing the film of being a rip-off of Bridesmaids and/or The Hangover should be smacked on the head right here and now.  If the film serves as any kind of benchmark, it will be as a big-screen that will test the ever-present double-standard in terms of how we respond to female characters.  The film's star trio (Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, and Isla Fisher) are notable in that they are presented as every bit as vulgar, cruel, and socially-clueless as any number of male comedy trios over the last many years.  Will audiences hold them to a higher standard of sympathy and moral purity, or will audiences realize that they are no better or worse than any given Wolfpack? 


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