If you were a kid during the 1990s then there is a very good chance you saw the 1995 movie The Indian in The Cupboard. The movie followed a young boy named Omri who is given an old wooden cupboard and a plastic figurine for his birthday. Although these both seem like ordinary objects, he quickly realizes that there’s more to them than they seem. When he puts the figuring in the cupboard, the toy comes to life. Although the film didn’t do well at the box office, it was popular among young viewers and it thrust the movie’s young
Whatever Happened To Hal Scardino?...
Whatever Happened To Hal Scardino?...
- 12/11/2021
- by Camille Moore
- TVovermind.com
John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep.
#24 —Lee, a frazzled single mom and aspiring hairdresser who reunites with her ailing sister.
John: Marvin’s Room begins with a slow outward zoom of assorted pill bottles and other medical paraphernalia scored to whimsically upbeat music that immediately establishes the film’s split personality between dysfunctional family comedy and sentimental illness drama. We soon learn that the titular Marvin is the bedridden and near-death father of Bessie (Diane Keaton) and brother of Ruth (Gwen Verdon), three members of a looney Floridian family. No sooner than Marvin’s illness and medical routine is introduced, Bessie is herself diagnosed with leukemia by Dr. Robert De Niro (who also produced the film). He recommends that Bessie's family members be tested for a possible bone marrow transplant. This diagnosis is the film’s engine, reuniting her with her sister Lee (Meryl...
#24 —Lee, a frazzled single mom and aspiring hairdresser who reunites with her ailing sister.
John: Marvin’s Room begins with a slow outward zoom of assorted pill bottles and other medical paraphernalia scored to whimsically upbeat music that immediately establishes the film’s split personality between dysfunctional family comedy and sentimental illness drama. We soon learn that the titular Marvin is the bedridden and near-death father of Bessie (Diane Keaton) and brother of Ruth (Gwen Verdon), three members of a looney Floridian family. No sooner than Marvin’s illness and medical routine is introduced, Bessie is herself diagnosed with leukemia by Dr. Robert De Niro (who also produced the film). He recommends that Bessie's family members be tested for a possible bone marrow transplant. This diagnosis is the film’s engine, reuniting her with her sister Lee (Meryl...
- 6/14/2018
- by John Guerin
- FilmExperience
Meryl Streep Meryl Streep, nominated as Best Actress in a Motion Picture for her performance as the controversial former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady, attends the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards, which was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/WireImage.) Meryl Streep lost the SAG Award to Viola Davis for her performance in Tate Taylor's The Help. Coincidentally, Davis was featured opposite Streep in John Patrick Shanley's Doubt (2008) — for which Streep won her first (and so far only) SAG Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture. Streep and Davis' competitors this year were Glenn Close as a 19th-century Irishwoman passing for a man in Rodrigo García's Albert Nobbs, Tilda Swinton as the mother of a young mass murderer in Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin,...
- 2/1/2012
- by D. Zhea
- Alt Film Guide
The only tactful answer that Bessie can give to queries about how her father, who has long been bedridden with a stroke, is doing is to muster "he's still with us." That's the mournful reality of "Marvin's Room", a powerful and sobering look into dying and death. Boasting superb performances from Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton as two very different sisters who are brought together by a deadly disease, this Miramax film is a bracingly strong human drama.
Although its sobering subject matter may prove too difficult for casual holiday viewers, the film's many strengths will carry it far by word-of-mouth. Likely award nominations for Streep and Keaton, as well as positive reviews, will rejuvenate its long-term commercial prognosis.
As sisters, Lee (Streep) and Bessie (Keaton) couldn't be more different: Lee is vain and self-absorbed, while Bessie is plain and care-giving. They haven't seen each other in nearly 20 years -- single mother Lee has been raising two boys in Ohio, while Bessie has tended to their bedridden father (Hume Cronyn) in Florida. Like most estranged relations who only get together at funerals and weddings, it's an overpowering personal occasion that brings the two together. Bessie has been diagnosed with leukemia and needs a bone-marrow transplant, and only Lee or her offspring, as blood-related donors, can help.
A surface diagnosis of such a story line might lead one to suspect that the plot of this "disease" movie might be occluded by sugar, schmaltz and other sweetly unnatural particles, but "Marvin's Room" is a stunningly vital story of human need and selfless sacrifice. Screenwriter Scott McPherson, who has adapted the work from his own play, has created a hauntingly identifiable family situation and peopled it with characters whose needs and imperfections are completely realistic. While the characters are put to their ultimate tests when facing this life-and-death situation, their actions are altogether believable. Characters truly struggle, some more successfully than others, in dealing with the harsh hands that life, and now death, have dealt them.
Jerry Zaks' direction, combining a sharp clinician's eye with a soft consoler's heart, brings to life the very marrow of this hard subject. The performances are very special, particularly those by Streep and Keaton. As the chain-smoking, hardened Lee, Streep's nervous mannerisms and domineering attitude show an insecure woman who lives in constant terror of her needs.
Keaton's performance is similarly brilliant. The supporting players also reveal their characters' nerve endings, particularly Gwen Verdon and Robert De Niro. Hal Scardino, as the younger son, who attracts our attention while absorbing the frustrations of all his elders.
Powered by subtlety, "Marvin's Room" is a brilliantly constructed film, highlighted by Piotr Sobocinski's muted pastel colorings and invigorated by Rachel Portman's spare score.
MARVIN'S ROOM
Miramax Films
A Scott Rudin/Tribeca production
Producers Scott Rudin, Jane Rosenthal,
Robert De Niro
Director Jerry Zaks
Screenwriter Scott McPherson,
based upon his play
Executive producers Tod Scott Brody,
Lori Steinberg
Co-producers David Wisnievitz, Bonnie Palef, Adam Schroeder
Director of photography Piotr Sobocinski
Production design David Gropman
Editor Jim Clark
Costume design Julie Weiss
Casting Ilene Starger
Music Rachel Portman
Sound mix Danny Michael
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lee Meryl Streep
Hank Leonardo DiCaprio
Bessie Diane Keaton
Dr. Wally Robert De Niro
Marvin Hume Cronyn
Ruth Gwen Verdon
Charlie Hal Scardino
Bob Dan Hedaya
Dr. Charlotte Margo Martindale
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Although its sobering subject matter may prove too difficult for casual holiday viewers, the film's many strengths will carry it far by word-of-mouth. Likely award nominations for Streep and Keaton, as well as positive reviews, will rejuvenate its long-term commercial prognosis.
As sisters, Lee (Streep) and Bessie (Keaton) couldn't be more different: Lee is vain and self-absorbed, while Bessie is plain and care-giving. They haven't seen each other in nearly 20 years -- single mother Lee has been raising two boys in Ohio, while Bessie has tended to their bedridden father (Hume Cronyn) in Florida. Like most estranged relations who only get together at funerals and weddings, it's an overpowering personal occasion that brings the two together. Bessie has been diagnosed with leukemia and needs a bone-marrow transplant, and only Lee or her offspring, as blood-related donors, can help.
A surface diagnosis of such a story line might lead one to suspect that the plot of this "disease" movie might be occluded by sugar, schmaltz and other sweetly unnatural particles, but "Marvin's Room" is a stunningly vital story of human need and selfless sacrifice. Screenwriter Scott McPherson, who has adapted the work from his own play, has created a hauntingly identifiable family situation and peopled it with characters whose needs and imperfections are completely realistic. While the characters are put to their ultimate tests when facing this life-and-death situation, their actions are altogether believable. Characters truly struggle, some more successfully than others, in dealing with the harsh hands that life, and now death, have dealt them.
Jerry Zaks' direction, combining a sharp clinician's eye with a soft consoler's heart, brings to life the very marrow of this hard subject. The performances are very special, particularly those by Streep and Keaton. As the chain-smoking, hardened Lee, Streep's nervous mannerisms and domineering attitude show an insecure woman who lives in constant terror of her needs.
Keaton's performance is similarly brilliant. The supporting players also reveal their characters' nerve endings, particularly Gwen Verdon and Robert De Niro. Hal Scardino, as the younger son, who attracts our attention while absorbing the frustrations of all his elders.
Powered by subtlety, "Marvin's Room" is a brilliantly constructed film, highlighted by Piotr Sobocinski's muted pastel colorings and invigorated by Rachel Portman's spare score.
MARVIN'S ROOM
Miramax Films
A Scott Rudin/Tribeca production
Producers Scott Rudin, Jane Rosenthal,
Robert De Niro
Director Jerry Zaks
Screenwriter Scott McPherson,
based upon his play
Executive producers Tod Scott Brody,
Lori Steinberg
Co-producers David Wisnievitz, Bonnie Palef, Adam Schroeder
Director of photography Piotr Sobocinski
Production design David Gropman
Editor Jim Clark
Costume design Julie Weiss
Casting Ilene Starger
Music Rachel Portman
Sound mix Danny Michael
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lee Meryl Streep
Hank Leonardo DiCaprio
Bessie Diane Keaton
Dr. Wally Robert De Niro
Marvin Hume Cronyn
Ruth Gwen Verdon
Charlie Hal Scardino
Bob Dan Hedaya
Dr. Charlotte Margo Martindale
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 12/9/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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