"This is nowhere. It isn't supposed to happen here..." A trailer has debuted online for an indie thriller called I Am Not A Serial Killer, starring young actor Max Records, who starred in Where the Wild Things Are a few years ago. Records, now a teenager, plays a kid in a small snowy town with his own homicidal tendencies, but discovers that an actual serial killer is in town and must track him down to stop him from killing more people. Christopher Lloyd plays the serial killer (not a spoiler but still), and he looks rather creepy. The cast includes Laura Fraser, Karl Geary, Bruce Bohne and Tim Russell. This trailer totally sold me. It has some fantastic cinematography, and the film looks like it's from a completely different time. Here's the first trailer (+ poster) for Billy O'Brien's I Am Not A Serial Killer, found on Vimeo (via Tfs...
- 7/8/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
(L - R) Judy Davis, Adrian Weimers, Nashen Moodley.
The Weinstein Company has shortlisted 21 Australian filmmakers for the Lexus Australian Short Film Fellowship, the largest cash fellowship for short film in Australia.
Judy Davis is presiding over the selection process as jury chair alongside jury members Nashen Moodley (Sydney Film Festival Director) Lexus Australia.s Adrian Weimers, and Australian producers Jan Chapman and Darren Dale..
The jury will select select up to four filmmakers, each of whom will receive a $50,000 Fellowship grant..
The four successful candidates will be announced at the Sydney Film Festival (June 8-19 2016).
The shortlisted filmmakers are:
Alex Murawski (Nsw)
Alex Ryan (Nsw)
Anya Beyersdorf (Nsw)
Billie Pleffer (Nsw)
Brooke Goldfinch (Nsw)
Genevieve Clay-Smith (Nsw)
Hazel Annikki Savolainen (Nsw)
Gene Jacobie Gray (Nsw)
Lucy Gaffy (Nsw)
Tim Russell (Nsw)
Venetia Taylor (Nsw)
Dave Redman (Vic)
David Hansen (Vic)
James Vinson (Vic)
Victoria Thaine (Vic)
Mikey Hill (Vic...
The Weinstein Company has shortlisted 21 Australian filmmakers for the Lexus Australian Short Film Fellowship, the largest cash fellowship for short film in Australia.
Judy Davis is presiding over the selection process as jury chair alongside jury members Nashen Moodley (Sydney Film Festival Director) Lexus Australia.s Adrian Weimers, and Australian producers Jan Chapman and Darren Dale..
The jury will select select up to four filmmakers, each of whom will receive a $50,000 Fellowship grant..
The four successful candidates will be announced at the Sydney Film Festival (June 8-19 2016).
The shortlisted filmmakers are:
Alex Murawski (Nsw)
Alex Ryan (Nsw)
Anya Beyersdorf (Nsw)
Billie Pleffer (Nsw)
Brooke Goldfinch (Nsw)
Genevieve Clay-Smith (Nsw)
Hazel Annikki Savolainen (Nsw)
Gene Jacobie Gray (Nsw)
Lucy Gaffy (Nsw)
Tim Russell (Nsw)
Venetia Taylor (Nsw)
Dave Redman (Vic)
David Hansen (Vic)
James Vinson (Vic)
Victoria Thaine (Vic)
Mikey Hill (Vic...
- 3/23/2016
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
Nobody saw it coming, least of all NFL linebacker Tony Steward Steward's college sweetheart and fiancé Brittany Burns died on Monday, less than two months after being diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer and just weeks after the Buffalo Bills player asked her to be his wife. Her sudden death came as a shock to Steward, Burns' family and their close friend Tim Russell. "It all just happened really fast. There wasn't even time to worry about a time frame, because it was a blink and it was over," Russell tells People. "Out of nowhere it was just getting bad fast...
- 2/5/2016
- by Char Adams, @CiCiAdams_
- PEOPLE.com
Brittany Burns was planning her wedding to her Buffalo Bills player fiancé right up until she died suddenly from ovarian cancer this week, a friend of the couple tells People. Tony Steward proposed to Burns, 26, in December - just days after she was diagnosed with a rare form of the disease. "She was trying to plan [the wedding] while she was going through chemo, but she was always too sick," Tim Russell, Steward's best friend, tells People of Burns. "She thought that when she started getting better they'd be able to plan the wedding, but it didn't happen like that." Burns and...
- 2/4/2016
- by Char Adams, @CiCiAdams_
- PEOPLE.com
Brittany Burns was planning her wedding to her Buffalo Bills player fiancé right up until she died suddenly from ovarian cancer this week, a friend of the couple tells People. Tony Steward proposed to Burns, 26, in December - just days after she was diagnosed with a rare form of the disease. "She was trying to plan [the wedding] while she was going through chemo, but she was always too sick," Tim Russell, Steward's best friend, tells People of Burns. "She thought that when she started getting better they'd be able to plan the wedding, but it didn't happen like that." Burns and...
- 2/4/2016
- by Char Adams, @CiCiAdams_
- PEOPLE.com
Reviewed by Kevin Scott, MoreHorror.com
Oculus (2013)
Written by: Mike Flanagan, Jeff Howard, Jeff Seidman
Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Karen Gillan (Kaylie Russell), Brenton Thwaites (Tim Russell), Katee Sackhoff (Marie Russell), Rory Cochrane (Alan Russell), Annalise Basso (Young Kaylie), Garrett Ryan (Young Tim), James Lafferty (Michael Dumont)
Mirrors have always given me the creeps. Your refection showing the toll of time and aging, those tried and true horror tropes of your reflection not being tethered to what you do on the other side of the glass, or the mirror itself being a gateway to another world. So it would be a pretty easy sell to make a movie about an evil mirror. It’s even been done a few times before. I just watched another pretty clever mirror entry with David Warner. It was part of the classic Amicus Anthology “From Beyond the Grave”. He comes under the control...
Oculus (2013)
Written by: Mike Flanagan, Jeff Howard, Jeff Seidman
Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Karen Gillan (Kaylie Russell), Brenton Thwaites (Tim Russell), Katee Sackhoff (Marie Russell), Rory Cochrane (Alan Russell), Annalise Basso (Young Kaylie), Garrett Ryan (Young Tim), James Lafferty (Michael Dumont)
Mirrors have always given me the creeps. Your refection showing the toll of time and aging, those tried and true horror tropes of your reflection not being tethered to what you do on the other side of the glass, or the mirror itself being a gateway to another world. So it would be a pretty easy sell to make a movie about an evil mirror. It’s even been done a few times before. I just watched another pretty clever mirror entry with David Warner. It was part of the classic Amicus Anthology “From Beyond the Grave”. He comes under the control...
- 12/21/2014
- by admin
- MoreHorror
★★★☆☆Oculus (2013), the latest chiller from Salem-born director Mike Flanagan, began life as a short back in 2006. It went on to be widely-praised in horror circles, and now he has adapted into a feature-length supernatural chiller about a pair of siblings that believe that a haunted antique mirror is responsible for their parents' deaths. Split over two time lines, we first meet the Russell siblings in the present day. Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) has recently been released from a psychiatric institute on the eve of his 21st birthday and is reunited with his sister, Kaylie (Karen Gillan). Tim spent the past decade incarcerated following the death of his mother and father (Katee Sackhoff and Rory Cochrane).
- 6/18/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
When I was a kid, I remember watching a made for t.v., kid friendly horror short about a young boy terrorised by the sentient reflection in his bedroom mirror. I can't remember the name of it, but the story, has been burned into my brain as one of the creepiest things I have ever seen, and it was my first brush with the haunted mirror plot device. It has been used by many a horror movie down the years, and here it is again, taking centre stage in Oculus, where it tries to do new things with the well worn trope, with varying degrees of success. Based on director Mike Flanagan's own short, Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man With The Plan, Oculus sees Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites play Kaylie and Tim Russell, siblings whose parents were killed tragically eleven years previously. While Tim has come to believe,...
- 6/14/2014
- by noreply@blogger.com (Tom White)
- www.themoviebit.com
There’s a reason why we can expect a fifth instalment from the prospering Paranormal Activity franchise this Autumn – because it’s triumphantly taking supernatural horror, and bringing it to the one place we feel most at ease, and most safe; our home. It’s a notion now explored by Mike Flanagan in his latest feature Oculus, using a commonly used object – in this instance a household mirror – as a vessel into a dark and deranged world. You may well struggle to look at your own reflection for a good long while after this, at the fear of what you may see. My sincere condolences if you feel that way already.
When Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) is released from a mental institution he was admitted to as a child, he is instantly approached by his older sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan), who is incensed into exonerating her brother, who had been accused of murdering their father.
When Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) is released from a mental institution he was admitted to as a child, he is instantly approached by his older sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan), who is incensed into exonerating her brother, who had been accused of murdering their father.
- 6/10/2014
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Stars: Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackoff, Rory Cochrane | Written by Mike Flanagan, Jeff Howard | Directed by Mike Flanagan
Creepy kids have been a staple ingredient of horror films for a long time and recent examples of the genre such as the Insidious films, Dark Touch, Mama and The Quiet Ones show that our fear of little children doing strange things remains unabated. Oculus reverses this trope by having a pair of plucky siblings combat the forces of darkness embodied in part by their creepy parents.
Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites play Kaylie and Tim Russell, who 11 years previously survived an ordeal which saw their father Alan (Rory Cochrane) go crazy, kill their mother Marie (Katee Sackhoff) and attempt to kill them too. Tim shot their father and for his troubles, ended up spending the intervening years in psychiatric care. Upon his release, Kaylie recruits him in her mission to...
Creepy kids have been a staple ingredient of horror films for a long time and recent examples of the genre such as the Insidious films, Dark Touch, Mama and The Quiet Ones show that our fear of little children doing strange things remains unabated. Oculus reverses this trope by having a pair of plucky siblings combat the forces of darkness embodied in part by their creepy parents.
Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites play Kaylie and Tim Russell, who 11 years previously survived an ordeal which saw their father Alan (Rory Cochrane) go crazy, kill their mother Marie (Katee Sackhoff) and attempt to kill them too. Tim shot their father and for his troubles, ended up spending the intervening years in psychiatric care. Upon his release, Kaylie recruits him in her mission to...
- 6/8/2014
- by Jack Kirby
- Nerdly
Oculus takes part in both the present and the past, showing us Tim and Kaylie as children and adults in their struggle against the Lasser Glass. For the latest in our Q&A series, we spoke with Garrett Ryan, who plays the younger version of Tim in this movie, and he told us about playing this character and his experience on set:
Garrett, thank you for taking the time to talk with us about your new movie, Oculus. For starters, could you tell us what it was like acting on a horror movie set? Were there any particular scary moments during filming that you experienced?
Garrett Ryan: Thank you for having me. The sets of horror films are very fun to be on. But surprisingly, it’s never scary to film a horror movie and you can never really tell how terrifying the final product will be. But when...
Garrett, thank you for taking the time to talk with us about your new movie, Oculus. For starters, could you tell us what it was like acting on a horror movie set? Were there any particular scary moments during filming that you experienced?
Garrett Ryan: Thank you for having me. The sets of horror films are very fun to be on. But surprisingly, it’s never scary to film a horror movie and you can never really tell how terrifying the final product will be. But when...
- 4/11/2014
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Walking out of the theater, you can’t help but be disappointed with “Oculus.” That isn’t to say Mike Flanagan’s haunted mirror tale is bad, because it isn’t, but there’s a world of unrealized potential left on the screen. Between Flanagan’s last outing, the no-budget “Absentia,” and a cast that includes geek favorites Karen Gillan (“Doctor Who”) and Katee Sackhoff (“Battlestar Galactica”), you have higher hopes than what you get. The movie begins with Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) getting out of a mental institution where he’s been for eleven years, a good start for any horror movie. His sister Kaylie (Gillan) picks him up and almost immediately attempts to hold him to a promise made when he was ten years old. A haunted mirror possessed their father (Rory Cochrane) and made him kill their mother (Sackhoff), and Tim then shot dear old dad. Kaylie has tracked it down,...
- 4/11/2014
- by Brent McKnight
- Beyond Hollywood
Definitely one of the more original horror movies to hit multiplexes in some time, Mike Flanagan’s Oculus is based on his 2006 short film and does a great job of delivering everything you could want from a paranormal tale about a killer mirror. Flanagan effectively turns his inanimate killer very much into an entity that’s just as deadly as anything with a pulse- a remarkable feat- all while cleverly concocting an intriguing and complicated tale that isn’t afraid to get a little nasty.
The story of Oculus follows siblings Kaylie (Karen Gillan) and Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) as they attempt to reveal the truth about a traumatic childhood event they both suffered decades ago that just so happens to be linked to a centuries-old mirror once owned by their family. Strong-minded Kaylie has spent years searching for The Lasser Glass (a name that the infamous mirror was given...
The story of Oculus follows siblings Kaylie (Karen Gillan) and Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) as they attempt to reveal the truth about a traumatic childhood event they both suffered decades ago that just so happens to be linked to a centuries-old mirror once owned by their family. Strong-minded Kaylie has spent years searching for The Lasser Glass (a name that the infamous mirror was given...
- 4/10/2014
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Editor’s note: Our review of Oculus originally ran during this year’s SXSW, but we’re re-posting it now as the film opens in theaters this weekend. Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) is getting out of the mental hospital because he’s finally been cured. He no longer believes an evil mirror possessed his parents when he was a child leading to his father (Rory Cochrane) murdering his mother (Katee Sackhoff) before being shot down by little Timmy’s own hand. He knows better now and agrees that his dad simply went nuts. His sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan) has stated as such all along and went on to grow up, find a career, and fall in love. But when she picks him up Kaylie makes it clear that the two of them can now put the revenge she’s been planning into action. She’s found the mirror, she’s tracked its deadly history across the centuries...
- 4/10/2014
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The first thing you need to know about Oculus is it's a movie about a haunted mirror. You're going to need to accept that fact before you even buy a ticket or you may as well just stay home. If you're anything like me, you're also going to be saying to yourself, "It's a movie about a haunted mirror, how good can it really bec" It's a matter of lowering expectations to just that right level where this film ultimately never really ends up being all that scary, but still manages to hold our interest despite being just a tick too long. Directed by Mike Flanagan who co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Howard, the duo has given their 2006 short film, Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man with the Plan, the feature treatment. The story centers on two siblings, Kaylie (Karen Gillan) and Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites), who, as children, saw their parents descend into madness,...
- 4/9/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
In the upcoming horror movie Oculus (review), Garret Ryan is relentlessly tormented by Katee Sackhoff. Not a bad gig, right? But let me tell you… this is not the sexy Starbuck "Battlestar Galactica" Sackhoff...
...and it’s certainly not the glamour gal of magazine fashion spreads and red carpet events…
In Oculus the buxom blonde is reduced to a frothing, clawing, lunatic mom who’s out to kill her daughter, Kaylie (Annalise Basso), and son, Tim (Ryan); and she will stop at nothing.
When it comes to life vs. death, Tim must take matters into his own hands. But just because crazy-mom is dead, it doesn’t mean she’s gone!
Read on to see what Garrett has to say about that and more.
Dread Central: We'd love to know all about Oculus -- who do you play, and what's the story?
Garret Ryan: I play the role of young Tim Russell.
...and it’s certainly not the glamour gal of magazine fashion spreads and red carpet events…
In Oculus the buxom blonde is reduced to a frothing, clawing, lunatic mom who’s out to kill her daughter, Kaylie (Annalise Basso), and son, Tim (Ryan); and she will stop at nothing.
When it comes to life vs. death, Tim must take matters into his own hands. But just because crazy-mom is dead, it doesn’t mean she’s gone!
Read on to see what Garrett has to say about that and more.
Dread Central: We'd love to know all about Oculus -- who do you play, and what's the story?
Garret Ryan: I play the role of young Tim Russell.
- 4/1/2014
- by Staci Layne Wilson
- DreadCentral.com
When Mike Flanagan’s short film “Oculus: Chapter 3 – The Man with the Plan” hit the festival circuit and conjured some buzz, there was immediate interest in turning it into a feature film. Trouble is, because the short involved just one character, the mirror and a few cameras in the room, all of those interested parties insisted on taking a found footage approach to the material, and that’s not the route Flanagan wanted to go. Holding strong to his original intent, Flanagan tucked “Oculus” away for quite some time until Intrepid Pictures came along and let him do it his way. “Oculus” the feature focuses on Kaylie and Tim Russell [ Read More ]
The post SXSW 2014 Interview: Oculus Director Mike Flanagan appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post SXSW 2014 Interview: Oculus Director Mike Flanagan appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 3/17/2014
- by Perri Nemiroff
- ShockYa
Amidst all the Doctor Who lovers preventing Karen Gillan from entering the Stateside theater at this year’s South by Southwest festival, I’m the nerd who gets star-struck when producer Jason Blum walks in. What! I’m a business major, film critic, and a lover of horror – of course my hands are going to clam up when the dude behind Blumhouse Productions walks in to present his latest film Oculus. The truth is though, Jason wasn’t as involved as usual here, so I need to give credit where credit is due – to Intrepid Pictures producer Trevor Macy and director Mike Flanagan. Adapting his own short film, Flanagan attacks show-burn horror through a mystical mirror with horrifying powers, building tension and executing a killer third act filled with ghouls, visual trickery, and a few scares that’ll leave horror lovers with an elevated heart rate.
Mirrors are often used to promote vanity,...
Mirrors are often used to promote vanity,...
- 3/10/2014
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
Mirrors are sort of fascinating -- how they actually work, not just the ways in which mirrors can act as portals, creatures, and harbingers in fantasy and horror stories -- but if you ask a horror movie aficionado about "that movie about the killer mirror, you'll get a response like Mirrors (1995) or (dear lord) one of those awful "Mirror Mirror" junk piles. (I actually kind of liked the Kiefer Mirrors movie; crazy, I know.)
The egotist's best friend has graced many a great horror moment or sequence, but when you decide to center your movie On a mirror, you better be careful; if your mirror doesn't have some substantial humans to bounce off of... it's just an inanimate object. Fortunately, Mike Flanagan's smoothly satisfying new horror film Oculus has two distinct subplots full of interesting characters, and the ominous mirror doesn't only reflect an interesting pair of terrifying tales...
The egotist's best friend has graced many a great horror moment or sequence, but when you decide to center your movie On a mirror, you better be careful; if your mirror doesn't have some substantial humans to bounce off of... it's just an inanimate object. Fortunately, Mike Flanagan's smoothly satisfying new horror film Oculus has two distinct subplots full of interesting characters, and the ominous mirror doesn't only reflect an interesting pair of terrifying tales...
- 3/10/2014
- by Scott Weinberg
- FEARnet
Fans of Garrison Keillor and "A Prairie Home Companion" can join the crew of the popular radio show for a Mediterranean cruise this summer.
The sixth "A Prairie Home Companion at Sea" will set sail from Amsterdam aboard Holland America’s Ms Ryndam August 18. The 11-day cruise will follow the coasts of Spain and Portugal, making stops in Vigo; Lisbon; Cadiz; Tangier, Morocco; Malaga; Valencia and Barcelona.
“It’s a world unlike Lake Wobegon, a world of open-air markets, vineyards, the ghost of Hemingway, and we’ll explore it together with our cast of fine musicians, naturalists and historians and the gentle traditions of Aphc cruises -- the daily glee club, the dance lessons, the book club, the knitting circle, the storytelling evenings, the amateur show, the embarkation sing-along and the last-night dance," Keillor said in a press release.
Prairie Home regulars Tim Russell, Sue Scott, sound-effects man Fred Newman...
The sixth "A Prairie Home Companion at Sea" will set sail from Amsterdam aboard Holland America’s Ms Ryndam August 18. The 11-day cruise will follow the coasts of Spain and Portugal, making stops in Vigo; Lisbon; Cadiz; Tangier, Morocco; Malaga; Valencia and Barcelona.
“It’s a world unlike Lake Wobegon, a world of open-air markets, vineyards, the ghost of Hemingway, and we’ll explore it together with our cast of fine musicians, naturalists and historians and the gentle traditions of Aphc cruises -- the daily glee club, the dance lessons, the book club, the knitting circle, the storytelling evenings, the amateur show, the embarkation sing-along and the last-night dance," Keillor said in a press release.
Prairie Home regulars Tim Russell, Sue Scott, sound-effects man Fred Newman...
- 4/9/2012
- by Rebecca Dolan
- Huffington Post
Did anybody else see the super-special Thanksgiving-tacular episode of Bethenny Ever After last year? Let’s briefly recap. Last Thanksgiving, Bethenny Frankel, the svelte and shrill mistress of margarita, had an intense turkey related meltdown. She moaned and groaned and stomped her tiny little feet, ultimately deciding to stab her assistant in the jugular with a state of the art stainless steel turkey baster. Okay, so that last part may have been slightly fabricated. But the point here is that Bethenny Frankel is a Type A lady with a harsh tongue and an anxious temperament, so if she was really...
- 10/13/2011
- by Shaunna Murphy
- EW.com - PopWatch
Filed under: TV News
Bethenny Frankel has parlayed being a cast member of 'The Real Housewives of New York City' into a flourishing business empire and reality TV show franchise. Now, however, questions are being asked about how "real" her reality show is. Are some scenes faked for the cameras?
Last month Frankel said that she and husband Jason Hoppy were lost at sea off of the Massachusetts coastline for 20 hours: "It was traumatic. Absolutely traumatic."
Sounds scary, right? Well, maybe not. Frankel's rescuer Tim Russell says that she was never lost at sea, or in any danger, and that the whole thing was a phoney, staged for the benefit of the Bravo camera crew on board the boat with her.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments...
Bethenny Frankel has parlayed being a cast member of 'The Real Housewives of New York City' into a flourishing business empire and reality TV show franchise. Now, however, questions are being asked about how "real" her reality show is. Are some scenes faked for the cameras?
Last month Frankel said that she and husband Jason Hoppy were lost at sea off of the Massachusetts coastline for 20 hours: "It was traumatic. Absolutely traumatic."
Sounds scary, right? Well, maybe not. Frankel's rescuer Tim Russell says that she was never lost at sea, or in any danger, and that the whole thing was a phoney, staged for the benefit of the Bravo camera crew on board the boat with her.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments...
- 10/11/2011
- by Catherine Lawson
- Aol TV.
For those who may labor under the illusion that reality TV is real and not staged comes the shock news that Bethenny Frankel.s .lost at sea. story is a load of malarkey. The Bravo TV star allegedly was stranded off Nantucket for 21 hours - a whopper of a tale she spun out to E! Entertainment and even the Ellen DeGeneres. show. Tim Russell . the guy who .rescued. Frankel, husband Jason Hoppy and their boatmates, has come clean about the fishy tale. Russell tells the Jewish Journal he was called by the boat.s captain (also Frankel.s therapist) to tow them into shore after the Coast Guard refused . because the boat was completely functioning and didn.t require a...
- 10/11/2011
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
Bethenny Frankel is fighting back. The former Real Housewives star is throwing water on a claim that her sailing mishap last month was staged for her Bravo reality show. The man who supposedly rescued Frankel from the ordeal says they were never in any danger. What? Frankel first told me that she and her hubby, Jason Hoppy, along with a few others—including her camera crew—were lost at sea in New England for about 20 hours after their boat's Gps malfunctioned. However, Tim Russell, who says he guided the boat back to shore, insists the Gps worked just fine. He told the Jewish Journal that he was called to help them after the Coast Guard refused because the boat...
- 10/10/2011
- E! Online
Screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- Not since Woody Allen's "Radio Days" has anyone created such a cinematic Valentine to the wonderfully imaginative medium of radio as "A Prairie Home Companion". Garrison Keillor, impresario, creator and host of one of radio's longest running programs -- 31 years and counting -- and director Robert Altman are a match made in heaven. To these two Midwesterners, the region's dry, whimsical humor, unfailing politeness and straight-shooting sensibility are as natural as their own skins. There is no artifice or slickness here, just a native, keen intelligence that slyly hides behind homespun wit and verbal slapstick.
Keillor's radio show is, of course, beloved by many and Altman's movie, as Altman movies so often do, comes heavily populated with marquee actors. So the domestic theatrical audience for "Prairie" should be wide and varied. Overseas is a tough call: So much of the movie relies on deep-grained American humor along with puns and word play in English that get lost in subtitles. Nevertheless, an audience here at the Berlinale responded favorably to the music-flavored film even if some of verbal gags fell flat.
Filmed at St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theater in Keillor's home state of Minnesota, "Prairie" essentially puts a radio show much like "A Prairie Home Companion" on film. Backstage, onstage and around the aging theater, the movie (written by Keillor from a story by him and Ken LaZebnik) imagines a fateful final broadcast of a show that has been given the axe by a soulless Texas corporation. (Keillor knows how to pick his villain's state, doesn't he?)
The central musical acts belong to Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin), the remaining members of what once was a four-sister country music act, and Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly), singing cowboys and rivals in one-upsmanship.
Yolanda's daughter Lola (Lindsay Lohan) distracts herself from her mom's oft-told tales of the theatrical life by penning poems about suicide. Guy Noir, a recurring character on Keillorr's show, is brought aboard here as the program's "security director." As the throwback detective, Kevin Kline mixes Chandler-esque dialogue with more than a touch of Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau.
The broadcast's harried stage manager (Tim Russell, a regular on Keillor's show) and his assistant ("Saturday Night Live"'s Maya Rudolph) are given new ways to break into sweat by the unpredictable cast. And through all the delightful confusion and musical numbers drift two iconic figures: GK (Keillor himself), a benign, unruffled presence who smoothly adapts to all exigencies, and a Dangerous Woman (Virginia Madsen), an angel in a white trench coat, taking the earthly and shapely form of a woman who died listening to the show's broadcast. It was a penguin joke that done her in.
Minor attempts to introduce plot material -- such as an unlikely past affair between Yolanda and GK, the death of a performer and the arrival of the corporate axeman Tommy Lee Jones) -- never lead anywhere. Even the filmmakers seem to forget them moments after their introduction.
No, the movie steadfastly sticks to its radio roots. The comic bits from Streep & Tomlin and Harrelson & Reilly are gems of off-the-cuff humor. Keillor's droll lyrics and jingles for fictional sponsors poke good-natured fun. The toe-tapping musical performances are refreshingly captured by Edward Lachman's mobile camera, all smoothly edited by Jacob Craycroft.
As a character remarks, this radio show is the kind of program that died 50 years ago only someone forgot to tell the performers. Thank God for that.
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Picturehouse
GreeneStreet Films and River Road Entertainment present a Sandcastle 5 and Prairie Home production
Credits: Director: Robert Altman; Writer: Garrison Keillor; Story by: Garrison Keilor, Ken LaZebnik; Producers: Robert Altman; Wren Arthur, Joshua Astrachan, Tony Judge, David Levy; Executive producers: William Pohlad, John Penotti, Fisher Stevens, George Sheanshang; Director of photography: Edward Lachman; Production designer: Dina Goldman; Music: Richard Dworsky; Costumes: Catherine Marie Thomas; Editor: Jacob Craycroft.
Cast: Yolanda Johnson: Meryl Streep; Rhonda Johnson: Lily Tomlin; GK: Garrison Keillor; Dusty: Woody Harrelson; Lefty: John C. Reilly; Lola: Lindsay Lohan; Guy Noir: Kevin Kline; Molly: Maya Rudolph; Axeman: Tommy Lee Jones; Dangerous woman: Virginia Madsen.
No MPAA rating, running time 105 minutes.
BERLIN -- Not since Woody Allen's "Radio Days" has anyone created such a cinematic Valentine to the wonderfully imaginative medium of radio as "A Prairie Home Companion". Garrison Keillor, impresario, creator and host of one of radio's longest running programs -- 31 years and counting -- and director Robert Altman are a match made in heaven. To these two Midwesterners, the region's dry, whimsical humor, unfailing politeness and straight-shooting sensibility are as natural as their own skins. There is no artifice or slickness here, just a native, keen intelligence that slyly hides behind homespun wit and verbal slapstick.
Keillor's radio show is, of course, beloved by many and Altman's movie, as Altman movies so often do, comes heavily populated with marquee actors. So the domestic theatrical audience for "Prairie" should be wide and varied. Overseas is a tough call: So much of the movie relies on deep-grained American humor along with puns and word play in English that get lost in subtitles. Nevertheless, an audience here at the Berlinale responded favorably to the music-flavored film even if some of verbal gags fell flat.
Filmed at St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theater in Keillor's home state of Minnesota, "Prairie" essentially puts a radio show much like "A Prairie Home Companion" on film. Backstage, onstage and around the aging theater, the movie (written by Keillor from a story by him and Ken LaZebnik) imagines a fateful final broadcast of a show that has been given the axe by a soulless Texas corporation. (Keillor knows how to pick his villain's state, doesn't he?)
The central musical acts belong to Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin), the remaining members of what once was a four-sister country music act, and Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly), singing cowboys and rivals in one-upsmanship.
Yolanda's daughter Lola (Lindsay Lohan) distracts herself from her mom's oft-told tales of the theatrical life by penning poems about suicide. Guy Noir, a recurring character on Keillorr's show, is brought aboard here as the program's "security director." As the throwback detective, Kevin Kline mixes Chandler-esque dialogue with more than a touch of Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau.
The broadcast's harried stage manager (Tim Russell, a regular on Keillor's show) and his assistant ("Saturday Night Live"'s Maya Rudolph) are given new ways to break into sweat by the unpredictable cast. And through all the delightful confusion and musical numbers drift two iconic figures: GK (Keillor himself), a benign, unruffled presence who smoothly adapts to all exigencies, and a Dangerous Woman (Virginia Madsen), an angel in a white trench coat, taking the earthly and shapely form of a woman who died listening to the show's broadcast. It was a penguin joke that done her in.
Minor attempts to introduce plot material -- such as an unlikely past affair between Yolanda and GK, the death of a performer and the arrival of the corporate axeman Tommy Lee Jones) -- never lead anywhere. Even the filmmakers seem to forget them moments after their introduction.
No, the movie steadfastly sticks to its radio roots. The comic bits from Streep & Tomlin and Harrelson & Reilly are gems of off-the-cuff humor. Keillor's droll lyrics and jingles for fictional sponsors poke good-natured fun. The toe-tapping musical performances are refreshingly captured by Edward Lachman's mobile camera, all smoothly edited by Jacob Craycroft.
As a character remarks, this radio show is the kind of program that died 50 years ago only someone forgot to tell the performers. Thank God for that.
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Picturehouse
GreeneStreet Films and River Road Entertainment present a Sandcastle 5 and Prairie Home production
Credits: Director: Robert Altman; Writer: Garrison Keillor; Story by: Garrison Keilor, Ken LaZebnik; Producers: Robert Altman; Wren Arthur, Joshua Astrachan, Tony Judge, David Levy; Executive producers: William Pohlad, John Penotti, Fisher Stevens, George Sheanshang; Director of photography: Edward Lachman; Production designer: Dina Goldman; Music: Richard Dworsky; Costumes: Catherine Marie Thomas; Editor: Jacob Craycroft.
Cast: Yolanda Johnson: Meryl Streep; Rhonda Johnson: Lily Tomlin; GK: Garrison Keillor; Dusty: Woody Harrelson; Lefty: John C. Reilly; Lola: Lindsay Lohan; Guy Noir: Kevin Kline; Molly: Maya Rudolph; Axeman: Tommy Lee Jones; Dangerous woman: Virginia Madsen.
No MPAA rating, running time 105 minutes.
- 2/14/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- Not since Woody Allen's "Radio Days" has anyone created such a cinematic Valentine to the wonderfully imaginative medium of radio as "A Prairie Home Companion". Garrison Keillor, impresario, creator and host of one of radio's longest running programs -- 31 years and counting -- and director Robert Altman are a match made in heaven. To these two Midwesterners, the region's dry, whimsical humor, unfailing politeness and straight-shooting sensibility are as natural as their own skins. There is no artifice or slickness here, just a native, keen intelligence that slyly hides behind homespun wit and verbal slapstick.
Keillor's radio show is, of course, beloved by many and Altman's movie, as Altman movies so often do, comes heavily populated with marquee actors. So the domestic theatrical audience for "Prairie" should be wide and varied. Overseas is a tough call: So much of the movie relies on deep-grained American humor along with puns and word play in English that get lost in subtitles. Nevertheless, an audience here at the Berlinale responded favorably to the music-flavored film even if some of verbal gags fell flat.
Filmed at St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theater in Keillor's home state of Minnesota, "Prairie" essentially puts a radio show much like "A Prairie Home Companion" on film. Backstage, onstage and around the aging theater, the movie (written by Keillor from a story by him and Ken LaZebnik) imagines a fateful final broadcast of a show that has been given the axe by a soulless Texas corporation. (Keillor knows how to pick his villain's state, doesn't he?)
The central musical acts belong to Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin), the remaining members of what once was a four-sister country music act, and Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly), singing cowboys and rivals in one-upsmanship.
Yolanda's daughter Lola (Lindsay Lohan) distracts herself from her mom's oft-told tales of the theatrical life by penning poems about suicide. Guy Noir, a recurring character on Keillorr's show, is brought aboard here as the program's "security director." As the throwback detective, Kevin Kline mixes Chandler-esque dialogue with more than a touch of Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau.
The broadcast's harried stage manager (Tim Russell, a regular on Keillor's show) and his assistant ("Saturday Night Live"'s Maya Rudolph) are given new ways to break into sweat by the unpredictable cast. And through all the delightful confusion and musical numbers drift two iconic figures: GK (Keillor himself), a benign, unruffled presence who smoothly adapts to all exigencies, and a Dangerous Woman (Virginia Madsen), an angel in a white trench coat, taking the earthly and shapely form of a woman who died listening to the show's broadcast. It was a penguin joke that done her in.
Minor attempts to introduce plot material -- such as an unlikely past affair between Yolanda and GK, the death of a performer and the arrival of the corporate axeman Tommy Lee Jones) -- never lead anywhere. Even the filmmakers seem to forget them moments after their introduction.
No, the movie steadfastly sticks to its radio roots. The comic bits from Streep & Tomlin and Harrelson & Reilly are gems of off-the-cuff humor. Keillor's droll lyrics and jingles for fictional sponsors poke good-natured fun. The toe-tapping musical performances are refreshingly captured by Edward Lachman's mobile camera, all smoothly edited by Jacob Craycroft.
As a character remarks, this radio show is the kind of program that died 50 years ago only someone forgot to tell the performers. Thank God for that.
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Picturehouse
GreeneStreet Films and River Road Entertainment present a Sandcastle 5 and Prairie Home production
Credits: Director: Robert Altman; Writer: Garrison Keillor; Story by: Garrison Keilor, Ken LaZebnik; Producers: Robert Altman; Wren Arthur, Joshua Astrachan, Tony Judge, David Levy; Executive producers: William Pohlad, John Penotti, Fisher Stevens, George Sheanshang; Director of photography: Edward Lachman; Production designer: Dina Goldman; Music: Richard Dworsky; Costumes: Catherine Marie Thomas; Editor: Jacob Craycroft.
Cast: Yolanda Johnson: Meryl Streep; Rhonda Johnson: Lily Tomlin; GK: Garrison Keillor; Dusty: Woody Harrelson; Lefty: John C. Reilly; Lola: Lindsay Lohan; Guy Noir: Kevin Kline; Molly: Maya Rudolph; Axeman: Tommy Lee Jones; Dangerous woman: Virginia Madsen.
No MPAA rating, running time 105 minutes.
BERLIN -- Not since Woody Allen's "Radio Days" has anyone created such a cinematic Valentine to the wonderfully imaginative medium of radio as "A Prairie Home Companion". Garrison Keillor, impresario, creator and host of one of radio's longest running programs -- 31 years and counting -- and director Robert Altman are a match made in heaven. To these two Midwesterners, the region's dry, whimsical humor, unfailing politeness and straight-shooting sensibility are as natural as their own skins. There is no artifice or slickness here, just a native, keen intelligence that slyly hides behind homespun wit and verbal slapstick.
Keillor's radio show is, of course, beloved by many and Altman's movie, as Altman movies so often do, comes heavily populated with marquee actors. So the domestic theatrical audience for "Prairie" should be wide and varied. Overseas is a tough call: So much of the movie relies on deep-grained American humor along with puns and word play in English that get lost in subtitles. Nevertheless, an audience here at the Berlinale responded favorably to the music-flavored film even if some of verbal gags fell flat.
Filmed at St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theater in Keillor's home state of Minnesota, "Prairie" essentially puts a radio show much like "A Prairie Home Companion" on film. Backstage, onstage and around the aging theater, the movie (written by Keillor from a story by him and Ken LaZebnik) imagines a fateful final broadcast of a show that has been given the axe by a soulless Texas corporation. (Keillor knows how to pick his villain's state, doesn't he?)
The central musical acts belong to Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin), the remaining members of what once was a four-sister country music act, and Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly), singing cowboys and rivals in one-upsmanship.
Yolanda's daughter Lola (Lindsay Lohan) distracts herself from her mom's oft-told tales of the theatrical life by penning poems about suicide. Guy Noir, a recurring character on Keillorr's show, is brought aboard here as the program's "security director." As the throwback detective, Kevin Kline mixes Chandler-esque dialogue with more than a touch of Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau.
The broadcast's harried stage manager (Tim Russell, a regular on Keillor's show) and his assistant ("Saturday Night Live"'s Maya Rudolph) are given new ways to break into sweat by the unpredictable cast. And through all the delightful confusion and musical numbers drift two iconic figures: GK (Keillor himself), a benign, unruffled presence who smoothly adapts to all exigencies, and a Dangerous Woman (Virginia Madsen), an angel in a white trench coat, taking the earthly and shapely form of a woman who died listening to the show's broadcast. It was a penguin joke that done her in.
Minor attempts to introduce plot material -- such as an unlikely past affair between Yolanda and GK, the death of a performer and the arrival of the corporate axeman Tommy Lee Jones) -- never lead anywhere. Even the filmmakers seem to forget them moments after their introduction.
No, the movie steadfastly sticks to its radio roots. The comic bits from Streep & Tomlin and Harrelson & Reilly are gems of off-the-cuff humor. Keillor's droll lyrics and jingles for fictional sponsors poke good-natured fun. The toe-tapping musical performances are refreshingly captured by Edward Lachman's mobile camera, all smoothly edited by Jacob Craycroft.
As a character remarks, this radio show is the kind of program that died 50 years ago only someone forgot to tell the performers. Thank God for that.
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Picturehouse
GreeneStreet Films and River Road Entertainment present a Sandcastle 5 and Prairie Home production
Credits: Director: Robert Altman; Writer: Garrison Keillor; Story by: Garrison Keilor, Ken LaZebnik; Producers: Robert Altman; Wren Arthur, Joshua Astrachan, Tony Judge, David Levy; Executive producers: William Pohlad, John Penotti, Fisher Stevens, George Sheanshang; Director of photography: Edward Lachman; Production designer: Dina Goldman; Music: Richard Dworsky; Costumes: Catherine Marie Thomas; Editor: Jacob Craycroft.
Cast: Yolanda Johnson: Meryl Streep; Rhonda Johnson: Lily Tomlin; GK: Garrison Keillor; Dusty: Woody Harrelson; Lefty: John C. Reilly; Lola: Lindsay Lohan; Guy Noir: Kevin Kline; Molly: Maya Rudolph; Axeman: Tommy Lee Jones; Dangerous woman: Virginia Madsen.
No MPAA rating, running time 105 minutes.
- 2/12/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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