Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...
- 3/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Universal Pictures has acquired the rights to Ken Kalfus' short story The Moment They Were Waiting For, setting Matthew Ryan Hoge to write the adaptation and John Crowley to direct. David Heyman is producing via his Heyday Films banner. In the story, a killer is executed, setting in motion a supernatural phenomenon whereby the entire citizenry learns of the date on which they will die. Universal Pictures president of production Donna Langley and director of development Kristin Lowe will oversee the project for the studio.
- 6/13/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- "The United States of Leland" is a complex and often compelling melodrama, at times almost verging on soap opera.
Writer-director Matthew Ryan Hoge in an eye-catching debut is attempting to demonstrate what a slippery slope morality can be. Good people do bad things, sometimes very bad things, and while it is easy to pass judgment from afar, the more one examines a single immoral act, the less certain those judgments become.
This is tricky dramatic stuff, certain to displease some and at times a bit didactic. (It mirrors Sundance's opening-night film, "Levity", both by writer-directors who have worked in juvenile detention centers and strive to make a "monster" comprehensible.) Despite how well made the film is with finely nuanced performances from a stellar cast and a fascinating jigsaw-puzzle narration, its commercial potential is limited. Paramount Classics, which acquired the film during Sundance, will need judicious marketing to reach sophisticated adult viewers.
A murder in a Southwestern community is so seemingly senseless that it makes no sense. Leland Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling), an intelligent but impassive young man, stabs an autistic boy 20 times. He is arrested and sent to a detention center where a teacher, Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle), attempts to penetrate this student's alienation to discover the "why" behind the crime. He does so with an ulterior motive: A struggling writer, Pearl senses a good book in the youth's story.
In conversations between these two and a journal Leland starts writing, the story moves out into the community to survey the fallout of the heinous crime. Several people may have contributed to Leland's mental state, starting with his remote, terribly famous father (Kevin Spacey), a novelist living in Paris who hasn't seen his son in years. Leland's divorced mom (Lena Olin), from whom he has many secrets, struggles to make up for this absence. Then there's Becky (Jena Malone), the victim's sister and Leland's junkie girlfriend, who sends him packing in favor of her drug-dealer lover.
The tragedy has severely impacted the victim's family as the boy's father (Martin Donovan) and mother (Ann Magnuson) cannot cope with their grief. It also upsets the relationship between the victim's older sister (Michelle Williams) and her caring boyfriend (Chris Klein), whose mother died the year before.
Leland's community stretches implausibly to include a family of strangers that takes him on a solo trip to New York. Even here, dysfunctionalism greets him as the wife (Sherilyn Fenn) later discovers her husband's infidelities.
Pearl becomes the character through whom we view the story. As he gains insight into Leland's thinking, Pearl is forced to look at his own life along with the small crimes and misdemeanors he tends to dismiss by declaring, "I'm only human". What, the movie asks, is this connection between humanness and morality?
The "why" never becomes fully clear as it would in a murder mystery. Rather, the lives of these individuals shed light on Leland's psychological makeup and his dark outlook on life. It is a bit of a stretch that everyone is such an emotional mess, but the actors give precise and subtle performances that make the soapier aspects of the narrative credible.
Hoge is admirably supported in his first film by expressive camerawork, editing and design. Paramount Classics might consider toning down that soft-rock soundtrack, though, as it threatens to drown out many scenes.
THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND
Paramount Classics
A Thousand Words presentation in association with MDP Worldwide of a Tigger Street production
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Matthew Ryan Hoge; Producers: Kevin Spacey, Bernie Morris, Palmer West, Jonah Smith; Executive producers: Mark Damon, Sammy Lee, Stewart Hall; Director of photography: James Glennon; Production designer: Edward T. McAvoy; Music: Jeremy Enigk; Costume designer: Genevieve Tyrrell; Editor: Jeff Baetancourt. Cast: Pearl Madison: Don Cheadle; Leland Fitzgerald: Ryan Gosling; Allen Harris: Chris Klein; Becky: Jena Malone; Marybeth: Lena Olin; Albert: Kevin Spacey; Julie: Michelle Williams; Harry: Martin Donovan; Karen: Ann Magnuson.
No MPAA rating, running time 108 minutes.
Writer-director Matthew Ryan Hoge in an eye-catching debut is attempting to demonstrate what a slippery slope morality can be. Good people do bad things, sometimes very bad things, and while it is easy to pass judgment from afar, the more one examines a single immoral act, the less certain those judgments become.
This is tricky dramatic stuff, certain to displease some and at times a bit didactic. (It mirrors Sundance's opening-night film, "Levity", both by writer-directors who have worked in juvenile detention centers and strive to make a "monster" comprehensible.) Despite how well made the film is with finely nuanced performances from a stellar cast and a fascinating jigsaw-puzzle narration, its commercial potential is limited. Paramount Classics, which acquired the film during Sundance, will need judicious marketing to reach sophisticated adult viewers.
A murder in a Southwestern community is so seemingly senseless that it makes no sense. Leland Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling), an intelligent but impassive young man, stabs an autistic boy 20 times. He is arrested and sent to a detention center where a teacher, Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle), attempts to penetrate this student's alienation to discover the "why" behind the crime. He does so with an ulterior motive: A struggling writer, Pearl senses a good book in the youth's story.
In conversations between these two and a journal Leland starts writing, the story moves out into the community to survey the fallout of the heinous crime. Several people may have contributed to Leland's mental state, starting with his remote, terribly famous father (Kevin Spacey), a novelist living in Paris who hasn't seen his son in years. Leland's divorced mom (Lena Olin), from whom he has many secrets, struggles to make up for this absence. Then there's Becky (Jena Malone), the victim's sister and Leland's junkie girlfriend, who sends him packing in favor of her drug-dealer lover.
The tragedy has severely impacted the victim's family as the boy's father (Martin Donovan) and mother (Ann Magnuson) cannot cope with their grief. It also upsets the relationship between the victim's older sister (Michelle Williams) and her caring boyfriend (Chris Klein), whose mother died the year before.
Leland's community stretches implausibly to include a family of strangers that takes him on a solo trip to New York. Even here, dysfunctionalism greets him as the wife (Sherilyn Fenn) later discovers her husband's infidelities.
Pearl becomes the character through whom we view the story. As he gains insight into Leland's thinking, Pearl is forced to look at his own life along with the small crimes and misdemeanors he tends to dismiss by declaring, "I'm only human". What, the movie asks, is this connection between humanness and morality?
The "why" never becomes fully clear as it would in a murder mystery. Rather, the lives of these individuals shed light on Leland's psychological makeup and his dark outlook on life. It is a bit of a stretch that everyone is such an emotional mess, but the actors give precise and subtle performances that make the soapier aspects of the narrative credible.
Hoge is admirably supported in his first film by expressive camerawork, editing and design. Paramount Classics might consider toning down that soft-rock soundtrack, though, as it threatens to drown out many scenes.
THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND
Paramount Classics
A Thousand Words presentation in association with MDP Worldwide of a Tigger Street production
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Matthew Ryan Hoge; Producers: Kevin Spacey, Bernie Morris, Palmer West, Jonah Smith; Executive producers: Mark Damon, Sammy Lee, Stewart Hall; Director of photography: James Glennon; Production designer: Edward T. McAvoy; Music: Jeremy Enigk; Costume designer: Genevieve Tyrrell; Editor: Jeff Baetancourt. Cast: Pearl Madison: Don Cheadle; Leland Fitzgerald: Ryan Gosling; Allen Harris: Chris Klein; Becky: Jena Malone; Marybeth: Lena Olin; Albert: Kevin Spacey; Julie: Michelle Williams; Harry: Martin Donovan; Karen: Ann Magnuson.
No MPAA rating, running time 108 minutes.
- 1/27/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Unveiling a lineup that they found difficult to categorize, Sundance organizers revealed Monday the partial roster of films that have been invited to screen for the 2003 festival in Park City. "In the 13 years I've been doing the festival, it's the least-categorizable year that I've seen," said fest director Geoffrey Gilmore upon announcing the categories of Documentary and Dramatic Competition, American Showcase and American Spectrum. "It's difficult to draw tendencies and themes from these works, especially in Dramatic Competition and the premieres section. Each one of these films is aesthetically different. It's as hard a group to categorize than we've ever had. It's just completely all over the map." That "all over the map" theme is displayed in the Dramatic Competition lineup by such films as Tom McCarthy's The Station Agent, about a dwarf who takes up residence in an abandoned train depot in New Jersey; Matthew Ryan Hoge's The United States of Leland, centering on a troubled teen who murders a retarded boy; the musical summer camp comedy Camp, from director Todd Graff; Shari Springer and Robert Pulcini's American Splendor, about comic book hero Everyman Harvey Pekar; and Mark Decena's Dopamine, about a repressed computer animator who creates an artificial creature and falls in love.
- 12/3/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey is taking a break from acting - to focus on his production company. The Oscar-winning actor is hoping to discover new directing talent and give them the chance to helm movies under his company Trigger Street Productions. Spacey announced his decision at Germany's Berlin Film Festival during press junkets for his latest flick The Shipping News this week. He says, "I've been acting non-stop for four or five years and taking a break is a healthy thing." The Hollywood star's first project will be United States Of Leland, which he co-produces with new talent Matthew Hoge.
- 2/12/2002
- WENN
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.