Writer and director Ramin Bahrani returns to the Independent Spirit Awards with “The White Tiger,.” This Netflix film just earned a Best Actor nomination for Adarsh Gourav. The multi-hyphenate Bahrani also adapted Aravind Adiga‘s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name.
“The White Tiger” tells the story of Balram Halwai (Gourav), a young boy from a low Indian caste whose wit and intellect gives promise to a future of upward mobility. After his father’s death he’s forced to remain in his village and take a job in the tea house just to help ends meet for his family. But, determined to escape the trappings of life at the bottom of Indian society, Balram, called a “once in a lifetime white tiger” by a teacher, sets off to Delhi with a plan to be a driver for a wealthy man’s son. When life in the big city...
“The White Tiger” tells the story of Balram Halwai (Gourav), a young boy from a low Indian caste whose wit and intellect gives promise to a future of upward mobility. After his father’s death he’s forced to remain in his village and take a job in the tea house just to help ends meet for his family. But, determined to escape the trappings of life at the bottom of Indian society, Balram, called a “once in a lifetime white tiger” by a teacher, sets off to Delhi with a plan to be a driver for a wealthy man’s son. When life in the big city...
- 2/5/2021
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
The Criterion Collection continues 2021 with a recently rediscovered classic, an established tenet of the conspiracy genre, a horribly underrepresented African filmmaker (evergreen), and two by Ramin Bahrani. Respectfully, those are: Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk; Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View; Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi; as well as Bahrani’s Chop Shop and Man Push Cart.
Check out the cover art and special features below, and see more on Criterion’s website.
New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Joyce Chopra, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-rayConversation among Chopra, author Joyce Carol Oates, and actor Laura Dern from the 2020 New York Film Festival, moderated by TCM host Alicia MaloneNew interview with ChopraNew interview with production designer David WascoKPFK Pacifica Radio interview with Chopra from 1985Joyce at 34 (1972), Girls at 12 (1975), and Clorae and Albie (1976), three short films by ChopraAudio reading of the 1966 Life magazine article “The Pied Piper of Tucson,...
Check out the cover art and special features below, and see more on Criterion’s website.
New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Joyce Chopra, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-rayConversation among Chopra, author Joyce Carol Oates, and actor Laura Dern from the 2020 New York Film Festival, moderated by TCM host Alicia MaloneNew interview with ChopraNew interview with production designer David WascoKPFK Pacifica Radio interview with Chopra from 1985Joyce at 34 (1972), Girls at 12 (1975), and Clorae and Albie (1976), three short films by ChopraAudio reading of the 1966 Life magazine article “The Pied Piper of Tucson,...
- 11/13/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Indie director Ramin Bahrani typically draws notice on the festival circuit with his low-budget character-driven dramas (that include Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, and Goodbye Solo) despite the fact they have no stars to speak of. But for his next feature, formerly titled Heartland but now referred to only as The Untitled Ramin Bahrani Project, he’s leaving obscurity behind, casting stars and noteworthy character actors to fill the roles of his farm-set domestic drama.
While shopping the would-be film at Cannes, Bahrani’s team announced quintessential everyman Dennis Quaid would be taking on the lead role of Henry Whipple, a father whose intense yearning to grow his farm, distances him from his family, which includes a son played by teen-heartthrob Zac Efron. Now that the film has begun production in Illinois, news on the rest of the cast has finally been revealed. THR reports that consummate character actor Clancy Brown...
While shopping the would-be film at Cannes, Bahrani’s team announced quintessential everyman Dennis Quaid would be taking on the lead role of Henry Whipple, a father whose intense yearning to grow his farm, distances him from his family, which includes a son played by teen-heartthrob Zac Efron. Now that the film has begun production in Illinois, news on the rest of the cast has finally been revealed. THR reports that consummate character actor Clancy Brown...
- 10/3/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to the worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch.
This week Cars 2 gives sequels a bad name, and Bad Teacher attempts to cash in on the R-rated comedy wave, while limited release offers A Better Life and discovers Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop. Now, if these features can’t fulfill your need for animated tales of triumph, rotten role models, immigrant-centered drama and sidesplitting tour docs, don’t fret. We’ve got a line up that’s sure keep you on the edge of your seat as you kick back in your AC!
— — —
Cars 2
Larry the Cable Guy returns to voice the buck-toothed pick-up truck Mater, who falls into a world of international espionage as his buddy Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) spins his wheels abroad. Michael Caine, John Turturro and Eddie Izzard join the free-wheelin’ cast.
This week Cars 2 gives sequels a bad name, and Bad Teacher attempts to cash in on the R-rated comedy wave, while limited release offers A Better Life and discovers Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop. Now, if these features can’t fulfill your need for animated tales of triumph, rotten role models, immigrant-centered drama and sidesplitting tour docs, don’t fret. We’ve got a line up that’s sure keep you on the edge of your seat as you kick back in your AC!
— — —
Cars 2
Larry the Cable Guy returns to voice the buck-toothed pick-up truck Mater, who falls into a world of international espionage as his buddy Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) spins his wheels abroad. Michael Caine, John Turturro and Eddie Izzard join the free-wheelin’ cast.
- 6/23/2011
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Film Stage
The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that French sweetie pie Léa Seydoux is gonna lay the hammer down on Tom Cruise and his Impossible Mission Force in Mission: Impossible 4: The Voyage Home.
The actress was last seen in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, in both cases cast to-type as a beautful lady of some kind. She will play the "lead female villain" in Brad Bird's extremely international take on the franchise.
Here's a handy M:i 4 Country-to-Actor checklist...
Vietnam - Maggie Q (rumored)
Ireland - Jonathan Rhys Meyers (rumored)
England - Simon Pegg
Sweden - Michael Nyqvist
Russia - Vladimir Mashkov
India - Anil Kapoor
France - Léa Seydoux
West Africa's Djimon Hounsou, China's Jet Li, Mexico's Diego Luna, Pakistan's Ahmad Razvi, and Australia's Paul Hogan are all presumably waiting by their phones to hear Tom Cruise's sweet, sweet voice.
The actress was last seen in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, in both cases cast to-type as a beautful lady of some kind. She will play the "lead female villain" in Brad Bird's extremely international take on the franchise.
Here's a handy M:i 4 Country-to-Actor checklist...
Vietnam - Maggie Q (rumored)
Ireland - Jonathan Rhys Meyers (rumored)
England - Simon Pegg
Sweden - Michael Nyqvist
Russia - Vladimir Mashkov
India - Anil Kapoor
France - Léa Seydoux
West Africa's Djimon Hounsou, China's Jet Li, Mexico's Diego Luna, Pakistan's Ahmad Razvi, and Australia's Paul Hogan are all presumably waiting by their phones to hear Tom Cruise's sweet, sweet voice.
- 10/7/2010
- UGO Movies
Robert here, continuing my series of the directors that shaped the past 10 years. Glad to see the first installment generated lots of conversation and debate. Sticking with my promise to feature young talent along with legends, this weeks subject is Ramin Bahrani.
Number of Films: Three.
Modern Masterpieces: You could make a case for any of them and I’d be inclined to agree with you.For my money, Chop Shop is the winner.
Total Disasters: None.The term “disaster” seems so intertwined with excesses.
Better than you remember: none, unless you remember any as being bad.
Awards: A handful of awards from small film festivals and a little Independent Spirit recognition.
Box Office: Keeps improving though don’t expect any of his films to make a lot of money.Goodbye Solo is the current champ with just over $800,000
Critical Consensus: Critics love him.Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo duke...
Number of Films: Three.
Modern Masterpieces: You could make a case for any of them and I’d be inclined to agree with you.For my money, Chop Shop is the winner.
Total Disasters: None.The term “disaster” seems so intertwined with excesses.
Better than you remember: none, unless you remember any as being bad.
Awards: A handful of awards from small film festivals and a little Independent Spirit recognition.
Box Office: Keeps improving though don’t expect any of his films to make a lot of money.Goodbye Solo is the current champ with just over $800,000
Critical Consensus: Critics love him.Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo duke...
- 10/22/2009
- by Robert
- FilmExperience
Ramin Bahrani is the new great American director. After three films, each a master work, he has established himself as a gifted, confident filmmaker with ideas that involve who and where we are at this time. His films pay great attention to ordinary lives that are not so ordinary at all. His subjects so far have been immigrants working hard to make a living in America. His fourth film, now in preparation, will be a Western. His hero will be named Tom. Well, he couldn't very well be named Huckleberry.
The Old West, too, was a land of immigrants, many of them speaking no English. But Bahrani never refers to his characters as immigrants. They are new Americans, climbing the lower rungs of the economic ladder. There is the Pakistani in "Man Push Cart," who operates a coffee-and-bagel wagon in Manhattan. The Latino kid in "Chop Shop," surviving in a...
The Old West, too, was a land of immigrants, many of them speaking no English. But Bahrani never refers to his characters as immigrants. They are new Americans, climbing the lower rungs of the economic ladder. There is the Pakistani in "Man Push Cart," who operates a coffee-and-bagel wagon in Manhattan. The Latino kid in "Chop Shop," surviving in a...
- 3/25/2009
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
- It comes as no surprise that leading this year’s pack of nominees are Little Miss Sunshine and Half Nelson, but this year’s mix of contenders are a mixed breed coming from films that were showcased a little everywhere – including this year’s Sundance. And the 2007 Independent Spirit nominees are...Feature (Award given to the Producer)"American Gun," Ted Kroeber, producer"The Dead Girl," Tom Rosenberg, Henry Winterstern, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright, Eric Karten, Kevin Turen, producers"Half Nelson," Jamie Patricof, Alex Orlovsky, Lynette Howell, Anna Boden, Rosanne Korenberg, producers"Little Miss Sunshine," Marc Turtletaub, David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf, Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, producers"Pan's Labyrinth," Bertha Navarro, Alfonso Cuaron, Frida Torresblanco, Alvaro Augustin, Guillermo Del Toro, producersFIRST Feature (Award given to the director and producer)"Day Night Day Night," Julia Loktev, director; Julia Loktev, Melanie Judd, Jessica Levin, producers"Man Push Cart," Ramin Bahrani, director; Ramin Bahrani,
- 11/29/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
Little Miss Sunshine, a comedy about a dysfunctional family on an ill-fated road trip, and Half Nelson, a drama about the bond forged between a drug-addicted teacher and one of his students, lead the list of nominees for Film Independent's Spirit Awards, announced Tuesday.
Fox Searchlight's Sunshine and ThinkFilm's Nelson picked up five nominations apiece in the main categories, including best feature. Previously known as the Independent Spirit Awards, the awards, sponsored by Los Angeles-based Film Independent, honor achievements in the indie film scene. The winners will be revealed Feb. 24 at the group's annual awards luncheon, which takes place in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
In the best feature category, Sunshine and Nelson will compete with American Gun, a drama about the proliferation of guns in the U.S.; The Dead Girl, a mystery-thriller about a serial killer's victim; and Pan's Labyrinth, a politically charged fantasy film.
While the awards celebrate American independent cinema, a film qualifies if two of the three principal filmmmakers reside in the U.S., which is why the group included the Spanish-language Labyrinth.
Unlike past years, when some Spirit Awards nominees approached moderately budgeted studio fare, this year's selection hewed more closely to the lower-budgeted indie line. Sunshine, which was produced for about $8 million, has gone on to gross nearly $59 million domestically, while Nelson, which cost less than $1 million, has collected $2.7 million. In all, the group's nominating committees reached out to embrace 41 films, about half of which were produced for less than $1 million.
Past Spirit Award winners Felicity Huffman and Don Cheadle announced the nominees at the Hotel Sofitel in Los Angeles.
"There really is an explosion of talent in the lower-budgeted films," Film Independent executive director Dawn Hudson said. "We saw more submissions of lower-budgeted films and better lower-budgeted films. Independent film is no longer confined to small character dramas. There are political films here, satires, comedies and fantasies. And there's (David Lynch's) 'Inland Empire, ' which combines a lot of them."
Lynch and his frequent collaborator, Laura Dern, were singled out to receive a Special Distinction Award in recognition of their work together running from Blue Velvet through Inland Empire.
Sunshine and Nelson also earned noms for their directors: the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who helmed the comedy, and Ryan Fleck, who steered the drama. Their category also includes the late Robert Altman for A Prairie Home Companion, Karen Moncrieff for Dead Girl and Steven Soderbergh for Bubble.
Dayton and Faris were driving their kids to school -- in a blue van -- when they got the word.
"Our (twin) boys are 11, very into sports and very competitive -- they were cheering," Dayton said, laughing. Added Faris: "It's nice for them to know we are not moving out of our house. It gives them a small sense of security, even though there's no cash prize."
Alex Orlovsky and Jamie Patricof, producers of both Nelson and "Point & Shoot," were nominated for the Axium Producers Award, which rewards emerging producers with a $50,000 grant. Their competition is Julie Lynn, producer of Nine Lives and 10 Items or Less, and Howard Gertler and Tim Perell, producers of Shortbus and Pizza.
"We were all kind of bummed when we didn't get any awards at Sundance -- we got nothing, not even a consolation take-home tote bag," Patricof said. "This is a 180-degree turnaround."
Said ThinkFilm exec Mark Urman: "We're actively engaged in a properly funded and credible campaign for the Oscars in certain categories, and this helps. These nominations are sweet enough on their own, but it's no secret they're part of an even larger agenda."
For best male lead, the Spirit Awards nominated Aaron Eckhart for his lobbyist in Thank You for Smoking, Ryan Gosling for his teacher in Nelson, Edward Norton as a betrayed husband in The Painted Veil, Ahmad Razvi as a Pakistani rock star working as a coffee vendor in New York in Man Push Cart and Forest Whitaker as a high school principal in American Gun.
Gosling, whose chances of snaring a corresponding Oscar nom received a boost, said: "We watched (the nominations) on streaming video on our computer, and it was coming through very stutteringly. It was fun to see Don Cheadle say 'Half Nelson' so many times."...
Fox Searchlight's Sunshine and ThinkFilm's Nelson picked up five nominations apiece in the main categories, including best feature. Previously known as the Independent Spirit Awards, the awards, sponsored by Los Angeles-based Film Independent, honor achievements in the indie film scene. The winners will be revealed Feb. 24 at the group's annual awards luncheon, which takes place in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
In the best feature category, Sunshine and Nelson will compete with American Gun, a drama about the proliferation of guns in the U.S.; The Dead Girl, a mystery-thriller about a serial killer's victim; and Pan's Labyrinth, a politically charged fantasy film.
While the awards celebrate American independent cinema, a film qualifies if two of the three principal filmmmakers reside in the U.S., which is why the group included the Spanish-language Labyrinth.
Unlike past years, when some Spirit Awards nominees approached moderately budgeted studio fare, this year's selection hewed more closely to the lower-budgeted indie line. Sunshine, which was produced for about $8 million, has gone on to gross nearly $59 million domestically, while Nelson, which cost less than $1 million, has collected $2.7 million. In all, the group's nominating committees reached out to embrace 41 films, about half of which were produced for less than $1 million.
Past Spirit Award winners Felicity Huffman and Don Cheadle announced the nominees at the Hotel Sofitel in Los Angeles.
"There really is an explosion of talent in the lower-budgeted films," Film Independent executive director Dawn Hudson said. "We saw more submissions of lower-budgeted films and better lower-budgeted films. Independent film is no longer confined to small character dramas. There are political films here, satires, comedies and fantasies. And there's (David Lynch's) 'Inland Empire, ' which combines a lot of them."
Lynch and his frequent collaborator, Laura Dern, were singled out to receive a Special Distinction Award in recognition of their work together running from Blue Velvet through Inland Empire.
Sunshine and Nelson also earned noms for their directors: the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who helmed the comedy, and Ryan Fleck, who steered the drama. Their category also includes the late Robert Altman for A Prairie Home Companion, Karen Moncrieff for Dead Girl and Steven Soderbergh for Bubble.
Dayton and Faris were driving their kids to school -- in a blue van -- when they got the word.
"Our (twin) boys are 11, very into sports and very competitive -- they were cheering," Dayton said, laughing. Added Faris: "It's nice for them to know we are not moving out of our house. It gives them a small sense of security, even though there's no cash prize."
Alex Orlovsky and Jamie Patricof, producers of both Nelson and "Point & Shoot," were nominated for the Axium Producers Award, which rewards emerging producers with a $50,000 grant. Their competition is Julie Lynn, producer of Nine Lives and 10 Items or Less, and Howard Gertler and Tim Perell, producers of Shortbus and Pizza.
"We were all kind of bummed when we didn't get any awards at Sundance -- we got nothing, not even a consolation take-home tote bag," Patricof said. "This is a 180-degree turnaround."
Said ThinkFilm exec Mark Urman: "We're actively engaged in a properly funded and credible campaign for the Oscars in certain categories, and this helps. These nominations are sweet enough on their own, but it's no secret they're part of an even larger agenda."
For best male lead, the Spirit Awards nominated Aaron Eckhart for his lobbyist in Thank You for Smoking, Ryan Gosling for his teacher in Nelson, Edward Norton as a betrayed husband in The Painted Veil, Ahmad Razvi as a Pakistani rock star working as a coffee vendor in New York in Man Push Cart and Forest Whitaker as a high school principal in American Gun.
Gosling, whose chances of snaring a corresponding Oscar nom received a boost, said: "We watched (the nominations) on streaming video on our computer, and it was coming through very stutteringly. It was fun to see Don Cheadle say 'Half Nelson' so many times."...
- 11/28/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Man Push Cart Man Push Cart is the debut feature from American/Iranian writer/director Ramin Bahrani. It follows the day-to-day cycle of New York City street vendor Ahmad (played by newcomer Ahmad Razvi) as he ekes out a living operating a pushcart on a city sidewalk, selling coffee, tea, bagels, donuts and muffins. He leaves for work everyday by 2:00 a.m., carrying a propane by his side the way many carry a briefcase. He does not have a van to bring his cart between overnight storage to his corner, so he pulls it by hand, dragging the massive shiny metal box alongside traffic every morning, an image Bahrani states is a direct correlation with Albert Camus’s seminal essay “The Myth of Sisyphus.” Bahrani combines Camus’s unmistakably keen observation and explorative thinking with a visual beauty and avant-garde approach to filmmaking reminiscent of Jay Leyda’s 1931 A Bronx Morning,
- 9/14/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
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