Allie Fox isn't your ordinary Hollywood protagonist. It's tempting to pigeonhole the main character of "The Mosquito Coast" as a narrow-minded, arrogant, irritating jerk, but while the descriptions might be accurate, Allie's also remarkably charming, clever, and seems like a well-intentioned (if terrible) father. Throw in Harrison Ford's signature mix of on-screen crankiness and charisma, and you've got someone who isn't quite an anti-hero, but isn't a villain, either.
It'd be fair to describe Allie as a loving yet narcissistic family man who's desperate for his chance to play God — and too arrogant to admit when things spiral out of control — but it's still hard to convey just how charming Allie can be. After all, the man managed to convince an entire community that he was a savior-type figure. He convinced his family to trade the comforts of suburbia for a frontier lifestyle. Few roles seem so nuanced, and...
It'd be fair to describe Allie as a loving yet narcissistic family man who's desperate for his chance to play God — and too arrogant to admit when things spiral out of control — but it's still hard to convey just how charming Allie can be. After all, the man managed to convince an entire community that he was a savior-type figure. He convinced his family to trade the comforts of suburbia for a frontier lifestyle. Few roles seem so nuanced, and...
- 1/9/2023
- by Demetra Nikolakakis
- Slash Film
The morning’s most fascinating articles from around the movie website-o-sphere. Just leave a tab open for us, will ya? “Is this the closets we’ll ever come to seeing Jerry Lewis in The Day the Clown Cried?” — Drew McWeeny lays down some colorful context while drooling over this very rare behind the scenes look at a movie that we will probably never, ever get to see. We can still dream, though. Alex Haley Would Have Been 92 Today. To Celebrate, Watch Him Host Dialogue w/ Black Filmmakers” — Speaking of uprooted video, Indiewire has a brief singing of Happy Birthday for Malcom X autobiography co-writer Alex Haley who spoke with black filmmakers for a short-lived series on Bet. Get ready for vintage Spike Lee. “Revisiting Breaking Bad Season 4: From Periodically Horrible to Full-On Bastard” — Matt Zoller Seitz risks meth mouth to dive into the world of Walter White with the final season on his shoulders. “Four Simple Rules...
- 8/12/2013
- by Scott Beggs
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
In yet another move in its ongoing crusade against piracy, on Wednesday the lobbying organization the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which reps six major studios, launched the new website WhereToWatch.Org, in order to give audiences a "one-stop site to find legal, seamless viewing options." I have to admit that looking at the site, I was gobsmacked by the plethora of online viewing choices. No wonder theater owners are worried. Now if the site was really putting their money into something useful, rather than just offering links to sites where you can search for titles, they'd do what Reid Rosefelt's short-lived but brilliant site SpeedCine did: allow you to search for a title and all the places it was available would come up, with links. Now that would be a resource. This way you have to hunt and peck around. But it's a step in the right direction.
- 5/15/2013
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
"To anyone who was immersed in the fervent cinématheque culture of the immediate post-Salazar era in Portugal, the four films that António Reis, a poet, painter, sculptor, and filmmaker, made with his wife, Margarida Cordeiro, are the stuff of legend," writes Gabe Klinger for Moving Image Source. "Just ask Manoel de Oliveira, Pedro Costa, or Jean-Marie Straub. For those lucky enough to be in attendance, this year's Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea has imported three of the films in gorgeous 35mm from the Cinemateca Portuguesa: Jaime, Trás-os-Montes, and Ana. Born to peasants in rural Portugal and growing up in humble, near-destitute surroundings before migrating to cities (Porto in Reis's scase, Lisbon in Cordeiro's), both adopted a profoundly moral position in their work that the critic Luis Miguel Oliveira sums up with the following equation: film that space, understand those people."
Ken Jacobs and his wife, Flo, will present...
Ken Jacobs and his wife, Flo, will present...
- 5/6/2011
- MUBI
In a fascinating new essay/tribute, indie publicist extraordinaire Reid Rosefelt recounts how the Weinsteins' three-decade journey to awards-season supremacy began with a single, garish step: "They had taken the Brazilian artwork, unbuttoned the top button of Eréndira's blouse and added extra cleavage to Claudia Ohana's chest. Cleavage! I died laughing. I had never seen anything so crass. Would art filmgoers want to see the film more if they believed that Claudia had slightly bigger breasts?" Ha! Anyway, I love the smell of Weinstein mythology in the morning. [My Life as a Blog]...
- 2/7/2011
- Movieline
Awards Campaign: Greg Ellwood criticizes John Lasseter, the chief creative officer for Disney/Pixar, for his decision last year to withdraw his studio’s support for the International Animated Film Society’s annual Annie Awards, which were considered “the Academy Awards for animators before there was ever a best animated feature category on movie’s biggest night.” Lasseter felt that “the group had been inundated with DreamWorks Animation employees who were ‘unfairly’ affecting the outcome of the prizes,” and was spurred to action when, two years ago, DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda” beat Pixar’s “Wall-e” for the best animated feature Annie. Ellwood notes that despite Disney/Pixar’s withdrawal, the Annie nominating committees honored both Disney’s “Tangled” and Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” with best animated feature nominations (along with “Despicable Me,” “How To Train Your Dragon,” and “The Illusionist”), but that its “character animators, production designers,...
- 12/7/2010
- by Mary Skawinski
- Scott Feinberg
Being a publicist can be a thankless gig. You have to wrangle sometimes difficult talent and manage sometimes difficult members of the press (like your writer), you can easily get blamed if a movie doesn't do well, but if it does succeed, chances are you're not going to be one of the main people getting credit.
Reid Rosefelt, who's worked as a publicist and unit publicist for three decades on films from "Desperately Seeking Susan" to "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr." to "Precious," offers some very entertaining insights into his profession at My Life As A Blog. On Sunday he posted an amazing anecdote about what it's like working on a film that you and everyone involved knows is a stinker, based on a comedy he worked on early in his career. I can't point you to it, though, because today he took it down.
Reid Rosefelt, who's worked as a publicist and unit publicist for three decades on films from "Desperately Seeking Susan" to "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr." to "Precious," offers some very entertaining insights into his profession at My Life As A Blog. On Sunday he posted an amazing anecdote about what it's like working on a film that you and everyone involved knows is a stinker, based on a comedy he worked on early in his career. I can't point you to it, though, because today he took it down.
- 10/12/2010
- by Alison Willmore
- ifc.com
Flamethrower Magazine conducted an impressive and extensive interview with underground film raconteur Mike Z about his hoax filmmaking career and his Charles Manson inspired stage show, The Strip Cult, which may become a major musical. The Chicago Underground Film Festival is this week and Hollywood Chicago passionately recommended seeing the opening night film, The Wild Hunt. Chicago Journal ran an overview of the fest. Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips — whom I thoroughly enjoy on At the Movies — wrote a brief preview focusing on Jonas Mekas. Newcity Film liked the Chicago-produced documentary Scrappers. True/Slant also raved about Scrappers. Also in Chicago, the Reader named The Nightingale as the 2010 Best Alternative Film Venue in the city. On Cinema Scope, Michael Sicinski profiles and interviews British experimental filmmaker Ben Rivers, which prompts Making Light of It to offer its own assessment of Rivers’ work. Blake Williams looks at the evolution of the long,...
- 6/27/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
On Monday, SpeedCine founder and CEO Reid Rosefelt goes international with a new language filter, design and features. Stand-up comedy and concert films are now visible on the site, along with a button for new releases. SpeedCine is a powerful search engine for finding available (legal) movies on the web that tells users where and how they are available (free, to rent, buy, or via Netflix’s “watch instantly”). The site carries 23,000 films in its database, with 80,000 links to various websites. SpeedCine currently index 25 websites. Now the site will work anywhere, because it runs geo-code to ascertain a user’s country by IP address, then shows what’s available. Rosefelt is starting with a big push in the UK, which boasts a large number of sites. …...
- 1/11/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
Going a bit against the grain when it comes to piracy discussions, Reid Rosefelt over at the Speedcine blog makes an interesting case why Wolverine's unprecedented leak may have actually helped the film. Rosefelt compares the film's $85 million opening weekend gross against other major release openings throughout 2009, and shows that it actually doesn't stack up too badly. Rosefelt points to a THR post that speculated on how much Wolverine may have lost in its opening weekend as a comparison for his data. Of course, it's impossible to tell how much Wolverine may have lost due to piracy. But it's also similarly difficult to tell how much piracy may have helped the film, should that be the case. The following chart compares Wolverine to other major release openings in 2009: Film Opening (millions) Theatres The Twilight Saga: New Moon $142.8 4124 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $108.9 4293 Wolverine $85 4099 Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince...
- 1/5/2010
- by Devindra Hardawar
- Slash Film
Former publicist Reid Rosefelt resurfaces today with the launch of SpeedCine, a site that acts as a database for legal film viewing and downloading on the web. It's a clever idea. You scan through the titles listed on the site, click one, and you're sent to a page with links to the various viewing options on the 'net. For example, say I want to watch Jeff Lipsky's Flannel Pajamas. One click and I see that I can instantly watch it on Amazon VOD or, if I have a subscription, via Netflix. I can also download to rent from Jaman or Amazon, or download to own from Amazon VOD. Antonioni's Il Grido? I can watch instantly at The Auteurs or download to DVD from EZTakes and iArthouse. Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks? I need a subscription to...
- 3/11/2009
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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