This review of “Flag Day” was first published after the film’s July 2021 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Sean Penn has served on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, leading the panel that gave the 2008 Palme d’Or to the French drama “The Class.” He’s acted in a number of films that have played the fest, including Terrence Malick’s 2011 Palme winner “The Tree of Life.” And he’s been in the Main Competition section as a director twice in the past, for “The Pledge” in 2001 and “The Last Face” in 2016.
All of that makes him a familiar face on the Croisette — but the last of those films also makes him a Cannes vet with something to prove. “The Last Face” was booed at its Cannes press screening and eviscerated by reviewers, with TheWrap’s Ben Croll calling it “a spectacularly misjudged mix of humanitarian intentions and gonzo-terrible execution.
Sean Penn has served on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, leading the panel that gave the 2008 Palme d’Or to the French drama “The Class.” He’s acted in a number of films that have played the fest, including Terrence Malick’s 2011 Palme winner “The Tree of Life.” And he’s been in the Main Competition section as a director twice in the past, for “The Pledge” in 2001 and “The Last Face” in 2016.
All of that makes him a familiar face on the Croisette — but the last of those films also makes him a Cannes vet with something to prove. “The Last Face” was booed at its Cannes press screening and eviscerated by reviewers, with TheWrap’s Ben Croll calling it “a spectacularly misjudged mix of humanitarian intentions and gonzo-terrible execution.
- 8/18/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
I don't believe I have ever reported the nominees for the International Film Music Critics Association before, but in the spirit of covering more award season news than is probably necessary I figured, "What the hell?" The nominees listed below make up the fifth annual International Film Music Critics Association Awards for Excellence with Wall-e receiving the most nominations including Film Score of the Year, Best Score for an Animated Film, Best Film Composition (for "Define Dancing") and Composer of the Year for Thomas Newman. The other big nominee is Danny Elfman who received the most individual nominations this year with seven: Composer of the Year; Film Score of the Year and Best Documentary Score for Standard Operating Procedure; Best Drama Score for Milk; Best Action/Adventure Score and Best Individual Cue for Wanted ("Success Montage"); and Best Fantasy/Science Fiction Score for Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The International...
- 1/17/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Opens: Wednesday, July 2 (Picturehouse).
Refreshingly sincere and full of wholesome can-do spirit, the first big-screen incarnation of the American Girl doll-and-book series -- the anti-Bratz of collectibles -- offers solid, kid-friendly storytelling. Although it puts a warm gloss on the Great Depression, "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" does so with heart and spunk and a minimum of fuss, particularly in Abigail Breslin's bright title-role performance.
The film's appeal to girls and to mother-daughter duos who are devotees of the source material is a given. But newcomers to the franchise's inspirational history lessons (which include three telefilms) will appreciate the old-fashioned guilelessness of the story. Parents and grandparents, in particular, will be grateful for tween fare that doesn't center on fashionista frenzy.
However bathed in nostalgia, the story's hard-times reverberations are of the moment. Set in 1934 Cincinnati, the film finds indomitable 9-year-old Kit (Breslin in a blond bob, reminiscent of a young(er) Kirsten Dunst) watching her well-to-do neighborhood struck by foreclosures and unemployment. After her father (Chris O'Donnell) heads to Chicago in search of work, Kit's resilient mom (Julia Ormond) opens their home to boarders as she struggles to pay the bills.
The ever-observant Kit retreats to her treehouse typewriter to create articles like "Portrait of a Boarding House", which she fearlessly submits to the editor of the Cincinnati Register (Wallace Shawn), eager to jump-start her career in journalism. But she's also a Nancy Drew in the making, and when a wave of "hobo crimes" affects her household, she and her best friends (Madison Davenport and Zach Mills) set out to solve the burglary. Kit, like the movie itself, is driven by a sense of compassion, and she's determined to prove that the accused, a hobo teen (Max Thieriot) who has been working for food, is not the thief.
Although the emphasis is on entertainment rather than education, the script by Ann Peacock ("The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe") nonetheless is pitched toward younger viewers in its careful explanations and reiterations. Despite sermonizing tendencies, though, the story is not without pleasingly silly business, mainly from the adults in Kit's life, deftly drawn by a strong supporting cast. Besides the lovely Ormond and sputtering Shawn, there's Glenne Headly's nose-in-the air neighbor, brought down a few notches; Joan Cusack's road-skills-challenged driver of a mobile library; Stanley Tucci's traveling magician, entertaining the Kittredge household with living-room levitations; and Jane Krakowski's husband-hunting hoofer.
With the exception of Kit's parents, they're all slightly ridiculous, as adults usually are in kids' eyes, but director Patricia Rozema ("Mansfield Park") never loses sight of their smiling-through-the-tears ache. The balancing act between emotional darkness and cutesy fortitude is constant and apparent, but mainly the film carries it off with poise and earns its heart-tugging payoff.
Bolstering the gentle look at class divisions and demonization of the have-nots is Peter Cosco's production design, which brings to life somewhat sanitized soup kitchens and hobo camps as well as 1930s middle-class comfort, complete with quaint vintage gadgets. Cinematographer David Boyd casts the proceedings in an apt burnished light.
Word-of-mouth should be chipper in the movie's limited release in five markets this weekend before it goes wide July 2.
Production: Picturehouse and New Line Cinema present in association with HBO Films a Goldsmith-Thomas production in association with Red Om Films. Cast: Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, Chris O'Donnell, Jane Krakowski, Wallace Shawn, Max Thieriot, Willow Smith, Glenne Headly, Zach Mills, Kenneth Welsh, Madison Davenport, Joan Cusack, Stanley Tucci. Director: Patricia Rozema. Screenwriter: Ann Peacock. Executive producers: Julia Roberts, Marisa Yeres. Producers: Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Lisa Gillan, Ellen Brothers, Julie Goldstein. Director of Photography: David Boyd. Production Designer: Peter Cosco. Music: Joseph Vitarelli. Co-Producers: Jodi Goldberg, Terry Gould. Costume Designer: Trysha Bakker. Editor: Julie Rogers. Rated G, 100 minutes.
Refreshingly sincere and full of wholesome can-do spirit, the first big-screen incarnation of the American Girl doll-and-book series -- the anti-Bratz of collectibles -- offers solid, kid-friendly storytelling. Although it puts a warm gloss on the Great Depression, "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" does so with heart and spunk and a minimum of fuss, particularly in Abigail Breslin's bright title-role performance.
The film's appeal to girls and to mother-daughter duos who are devotees of the source material is a given. But newcomers to the franchise's inspirational history lessons (which include three telefilms) will appreciate the old-fashioned guilelessness of the story. Parents and grandparents, in particular, will be grateful for tween fare that doesn't center on fashionista frenzy.
However bathed in nostalgia, the story's hard-times reverberations are of the moment. Set in 1934 Cincinnati, the film finds indomitable 9-year-old Kit (Breslin in a blond bob, reminiscent of a young(er) Kirsten Dunst) watching her well-to-do neighborhood struck by foreclosures and unemployment. After her father (Chris O'Donnell) heads to Chicago in search of work, Kit's resilient mom (Julia Ormond) opens their home to boarders as she struggles to pay the bills.
The ever-observant Kit retreats to her treehouse typewriter to create articles like "Portrait of a Boarding House", which she fearlessly submits to the editor of the Cincinnati Register (Wallace Shawn), eager to jump-start her career in journalism. But she's also a Nancy Drew in the making, and when a wave of "hobo crimes" affects her household, she and her best friends (Madison Davenport and Zach Mills) set out to solve the burglary. Kit, like the movie itself, is driven by a sense of compassion, and she's determined to prove that the accused, a hobo teen (Max Thieriot) who has been working for food, is not the thief.
Although the emphasis is on entertainment rather than education, the script by Ann Peacock ("The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe") nonetheless is pitched toward younger viewers in its careful explanations and reiterations. Despite sermonizing tendencies, though, the story is not without pleasingly silly business, mainly from the adults in Kit's life, deftly drawn by a strong supporting cast. Besides the lovely Ormond and sputtering Shawn, there's Glenne Headly's nose-in-the air neighbor, brought down a few notches; Joan Cusack's road-skills-challenged driver of a mobile library; Stanley Tucci's traveling magician, entertaining the Kittredge household with living-room levitations; and Jane Krakowski's husband-hunting hoofer.
With the exception of Kit's parents, they're all slightly ridiculous, as adults usually are in kids' eyes, but director Patricia Rozema ("Mansfield Park") never loses sight of their smiling-through-the-tears ache. The balancing act between emotional darkness and cutesy fortitude is constant and apparent, but mainly the film carries it off with poise and earns its heart-tugging payoff.
Bolstering the gentle look at class divisions and demonization of the have-nots is Peter Cosco's production design, which brings to life somewhat sanitized soup kitchens and hobo camps as well as 1930s middle-class comfort, complete with quaint vintage gadgets. Cinematographer David Boyd casts the proceedings in an apt burnished light.
Word-of-mouth should be chipper in the movie's limited release in five markets this weekend before it goes wide July 2.
Production: Picturehouse and New Line Cinema present in association with HBO Films a Goldsmith-Thomas production in association with Red Om Films. Cast: Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, Chris O'Donnell, Jane Krakowski, Wallace Shawn, Max Thieriot, Willow Smith, Glenne Headly, Zach Mills, Kenneth Welsh, Madison Davenport, Joan Cusack, Stanley Tucci. Director: Patricia Rozema. Screenwriter: Ann Peacock. Executive producers: Julia Roberts, Marisa Yeres. Producers: Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Lisa Gillan, Ellen Brothers, Julie Goldstein. Director of Photography: David Boyd. Production Designer: Peter Cosco. Music: Joseph Vitarelli. Co-Producers: Jodi Goldberg, Terry Gould. Costume Designer: Trysha Bakker. Editor: Julie Rogers. Rated G, 100 minutes.
- 6/19/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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