When a bunch of young people head for a cabin on a snowy night in a rural area, what comes to mind? A horror movie? Of course. "Helena from the Wedding," which was filmed with a hand-held camera by Stephen Kazmierski over just twelve days in the upstate New York in the towns of Walton and Hancock rather than in Slovakia or Transylvania, is a horror film, but not that kind. It's about the horror of relationships and the terror of growing not old, but smack into middle age when the expectations, the joys, the fantasies of youth are seen as fleeting and fraudulent. The honeymoon is over long before men and women turn past their mid-thirties, the typical age of the lads and lasses in Joseph Infantolino's movie. One fellow even declares that the literal honeymoon is history after a year.
- 12/29/2010
- Arizona Reporter
The success of this year's Paranormal Activity and The Haunting in Connecticut will surely be paving the way for a year's-worth of tales about spirits going bump in the night. The folks at Rot & Decay Films (a helluva banner name) informed us they are in pre-production on Foreclosure from writer and director Richard Ledes. His film centers around a broken family striving to stay together while the curse and ghosts of a haunted house try to tear them apart. Ledes enlisted cinematographer Steve Kazmierski ( Transamerica ) and composer Robert Miller ( Whip It ) to help him out with a teaser trailer that is now at GhostsDontMoveOut.com (or you can see it below). Michelle Williams and Meat Loaf starred in Ledes' first film, A Hole in One , about a woman who wants a...
- 10/30/2009
- shocktillyoudrop.com
The early line on Homecoming (opening in New York, Los Angeles and Louisville July 17) suggested it’s yet another in the now 22-year-long string of Fatal Attraction knockoffs, with an unbalanced woman developing a deadly fixation on a spoken-for guy. But the movie proves instead to be primarily a derivative of Misery, complete with a scene of painful foot abuse.
Hopes for something a little more creative are briefly raised when the opening titles credit two writers for the “idea” and three more for the screenplay, but as the film goes on, it becomes clear that too many cooks spoiled the broth here, or at least rendered it bland. Matt Long stars as Mike, a former star high-school quarterback who returns to his small, blue-collar home town for Christmas break and a ceremony in which his jersey number is going to be retired. (I’m no football fan or expert,...
Hopes for something a little more creative are briefly raised when the opening titles credit two writers for the “idea” and three more for the screenplay, but as the film goes on, it becomes clear that too many cooks spoiled the broth here, or at least rendered it bland. Matt Long stars as Mike, a former star high-school quarterback who returns to his small, blue-collar home town for Christmas break and a ceremony in which his jersey number is going to be retired. (I’m no football fan or expert,...
- 7/10/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (Michael Gingold)
- Fangoria
On the big screen, "Desperate Housewives" star Felicity Huffman often has been relegated to the supporting category of friend/sister/neighbor. With the poignant and often deliriously funny road-trip feature "Transamerica", she steps into the challenging lead role of a solitary, preoperative transsexual and delivers an extraordinary portrait. The film marks an auspicious debut for writer-director Duncan Tucker, whose fresh, character-driven story-telling should make this December release from the Weinstein Co. an art house favorite.
Whatever it says about the zeitgeist, the theme of unexpected fatherhood has informed the work of a number of filmmakers this year, among them Jim Jarmusch ("Broken Flowers"), Wim Wenders ("Don't Come Knocking") and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne ("L'Enfant"). In this case, the reluctant but curious dad who learns he has a son happens to be a woman in tasteful pastels. The transgender spin avoids gimmickry thanks to Tucker's deft touch and the subtle work of Huffman and the rest of the pitch-perfect cast, especially Kevin Zegers as the lost-and-found offspring.
Gender politics is an element of the film but by no means its subject. Tucker's concerns are loneliness, emotional honesty and the simple need for human kindness. Bree, nee Stanley (Huffman), is self-contained in her little Los Angeles bungalow, and her closest friend is her compassionate therapist, Margaret (Elizabeth Pena). A week before the ultimate surgical step in her gender transformation, she receives a phone call from a 17-year-old New York inmate who claims to be Stanley's son. Single-minded in her countdown to the operating room, Bree dismisses the unwanted disruption, but Margaret refuses to OK the medical procedure until Bree goes to New York to address the matter.
Bree bails out the brooding Toby (Zegers) but hasn't the nerve to divulge why she's there and plays along when he assumes she's a church missionary. A photograph confirms that the boy, a good-looking street hustler who ran away from home after his mother died, is the product of a college coupling, and a sense of responsibility takes hold of Bree. Instead of flying home, she buys a chartreuse station wagon to drive Toby cross-country to Los Angeles, where he expects to find his father living large and hopes to break into movies -- of the San Fernando Valley sort.
Bree maintains her "deep stealth" (living as a genetic female), keeping two secrets from Toby -- her biological history and his. She's a fascinating character, and Huffman brilliantly embodies the complex layers of self-awareness and denial in this prim yet gutsy individual, who each day must paint on a face and put on a voice to become more truly herself. Self-consciousness is a constant, as the film powerfully demonstrates when a child's innocent but discerning question plunges Bree into despair.
As a boy who considers sex his chief talent, Zegers (of the "Air Bud" films and last year's "Dawn of the Dead" remake) conveys Toby's essential sweetness and hunger for real affection, making him much more than just a vain or damaged kid.
Instead of settling into quirky odd-couple shtick, the film is full of unexpected turns, with every character the duo encounters surprising and well observed, from a free-spirited hitcher (Grant Monohon) to a New Mexico rancher (Graham Greene) who gallantly comes to Bree's assistance, more than a bit smitten.
Tucker's astute script and direction weave laugh-out-loud humor into his characters' longing for acceptance, particularly when their journey takes them to the Phoenix McMansion of Bree's family -- whose kitsch collectibles, part of Mark White's excellent production design, supply one of the funniest moments in the film. You don't have to be a transsexual to understand the way Bree's parents (Fionnula Flanagan and Burt Young) and sister (Carrie Preston) feed her self-doubt. But even the wonderful Flanagan's turquoise-bedecked, monstrously materialistic Elizabeth is afforded her humanity because Duncan lets emotions unfold instead of merely scoring points and moving on.
David Mansfield's Americana-tinged score underlines the optimism and the plaintiveness of a journey that's memorably captured in director of photography Stephen Kazmierski's sensitive camerawork.
TRANSAMERICA
The Weinstein Co.
Belladonna Prods. production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Duncan Tucker
Producers: Linda Moran, Rene Bastian, Sebastian Dungan
Executive producer: William H. Macy
Director of photography: Stephen Kazmierski
Production designer: Mark White
Music: David Mansfield
Costume designer: Danny Glicker
Editor: Pam Wise
Cast:
Bree: Felicity Huffman
Toby: Kevin Zegers
Elizabeth: Fionnula Flanagan
Margaret: Elizabeth Pena
Calvin: Graham Greene
Murray: Burt Young
Sydney: Carrie Preston
Arletty: Venida Evans
Hitchhiker: Grant Monohon
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Whatever it says about the zeitgeist, the theme of unexpected fatherhood has informed the work of a number of filmmakers this year, among them Jim Jarmusch ("Broken Flowers"), Wim Wenders ("Don't Come Knocking") and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne ("L'Enfant"). In this case, the reluctant but curious dad who learns he has a son happens to be a woman in tasteful pastels. The transgender spin avoids gimmickry thanks to Tucker's deft touch and the subtle work of Huffman and the rest of the pitch-perfect cast, especially Kevin Zegers as the lost-and-found offspring.
Gender politics is an element of the film but by no means its subject. Tucker's concerns are loneliness, emotional honesty and the simple need for human kindness. Bree, nee Stanley (Huffman), is self-contained in her little Los Angeles bungalow, and her closest friend is her compassionate therapist, Margaret (Elizabeth Pena). A week before the ultimate surgical step in her gender transformation, she receives a phone call from a 17-year-old New York inmate who claims to be Stanley's son. Single-minded in her countdown to the operating room, Bree dismisses the unwanted disruption, but Margaret refuses to OK the medical procedure until Bree goes to New York to address the matter.
Bree bails out the brooding Toby (Zegers) but hasn't the nerve to divulge why she's there and plays along when he assumes she's a church missionary. A photograph confirms that the boy, a good-looking street hustler who ran away from home after his mother died, is the product of a college coupling, and a sense of responsibility takes hold of Bree. Instead of flying home, she buys a chartreuse station wagon to drive Toby cross-country to Los Angeles, where he expects to find his father living large and hopes to break into movies -- of the San Fernando Valley sort.
Bree maintains her "deep stealth" (living as a genetic female), keeping two secrets from Toby -- her biological history and his. She's a fascinating character, and Huffman brilliantly embodies the complex layers of self-awareness and denial in this prim yet gutsy individual, who each day must paint on a face and put on a voice to become more truly herself. Self-consciousness is a constant, as the film powerfully demonstrates when a child's innocent but discerning question plunges Bree into despair.
As a boy who considers sex his chief talent, Zegers (of the "Air Bud" films and last year's "Dawn of the Dead" remake) conveys Toby's essential sweetness and hunger for real affection, making him much more than just a vain or damaged kid.
Instead of settling into quirky odd-couple shtick, the film is full of unexpected turns, with every character the duo encounters surprising and well observed, from a free-spirited hitcher (Grant Monohon) to a New Mexico rancher (Graham Greene) who gallantly comes to Bree's assistance, more than a bit smitten.
Tucker's astute script and direction weave laugh-out-loud humor into his characters' longing for acceptance, particularly when their journey takes them to the Phoenix McMansion of Bree's family -- whose kitsch collectibles, part of Mark White's excellent production design, supply one of the funniest moments in the film. You don't have to be a transsexual to understand the way Bree's parents (Fionnula Flanagan and Burt Young) and sister (Carrie Preston) feed her self-doubt. But even the wonderful Flanagan's turquoise-bedecked, monstrously materialistic Elizabeth is afforded her humanity because Duncan lets emotions unfold instead of merely scoring points and moving on.
David Mansfield's Americana-tinged score underlines the optimism and the plaintiveness of a journey that's memorably captured in director of photography Stephen Kazmierski's sensitive camerawork.
TRANSAMERICA
The Weinstein Co.
Belladonna Prods. production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Duncan Tucker
Producers: Linda Moran, Rene Bastian, Sebastian Dungan
Executive producer: William H. Macy
Director of photography: Stephen Kazmierski
Production designer: Mark White
Music: David Mansfield
Costume designer: Danny Glicker
Editor: Pam Wise
Cast:
Bree: Felicity Huffman
Toby: Kevin Zegers
Elizabeth: Fionnula Flanagan
Margaret: Elizabeth Pena
Calvin: Graham Greene
Murray: Burt Young
Sydney: Carrie Preston
Arletty: Venida Evans
Hitchhiker: Grant Monohon
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/15/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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