Sundance 2009: I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS, Susan Sarandon, Richard Gere

Damon Wise in the London Times:
"Written by the team responsible for the similarly dark Bad Santa and based on a true story, I Love You Phillip Morris is an extraordinary film that serves as a reminder of just how good [Jim] Carrey [above, with Ewan McGregor] can be when he’s not tied into a generic Hollywood crowd-pleaser. His comic timing remains as exquisite as ever, but this is not a loveable rubber-faced rogue. One could argue that, like The Truman Show, this is another film about a lost naif, but when it plays its final hand, I Love You Phillip Morris is really much, much stranger."
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Steven Zeitchik in The Hollywood Reporter:
"One [...]

Sundance 2009 Buzz

Peter Travers in Rolling Stones:
"It begins again. Here I am in Park Cty [sic], Utah, where Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary by trying to bust through the gloom of a nation’s economic crisis and the growing pissy impatience among audiences for any movies that don’t have cute dogs or horror scenes in 3D. What does that mean for indie films of mind and heart? That’s yet to be determined."
Travers follows his introduction with the five movies he’s most eager to watch: Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Tyson, Paper Heart, I Love You Phillip Morris (above, with Jim Carrey), and Big Fan.
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Jeff Vice in Deseret News:
"But for the second straight night, [...]

YES MAN Tops Weak Box Office, SEVEN POUNDS Too Heavy at No. 2

Jim Carrey’s latest comedy, Yes Man, topped the North American box office this weekend with $18.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
In the Peyton Reed-directed film, Carrey stars as a bitter man who decides to change his life by saying yes to anything and everything. For a mainstream Carrey comedy, Man delivered an unusually low-key performance at the box office.

Contrary to Will Smith’s recent films, the drama Seven Pounds failed to score a big opening, debuting with only $16 million at No. 2. Directed by Gabriele Muccino, Seven Pounds follows a desperate IRS agent as he embarks on a quest to forever change the lives [...]

LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS – Jim Carrey

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
Direction: Brad Silberling
Screenplay: Robert Gordon, from Daniel Handler’s books The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window
Cast: Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Jude Law, Timothy Spall, Catherine O’Hara, Billy Connolly, Dustin Hoffman, Craig Ferguson, Luis Guzmán, Jennifer Coolidge, Jaimie Harris
 

 

Three of Daniel Handler’s Gothic tales about three siblings on the run from a ruthless and greedy relative are given the Hollywood treatment in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Not surprisingly, the US$100,000,000+ film boasts first-rate production values, with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s lenses perfectly capturing (and enhancing) the eerie Gothic-ness of production designer Rick Heinrichs‘ preternatural creations.
On the other hand, as befits most Hollywood fare, both [...]

San Diego Film Critics Awards 2004

2004 San Diego Film Critics Society Awards
2004 San Diego Film Critics Society Award winners: December 21, 2004
 

Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake
 

Best Film: Vera Drake directed by Mike Leigh
Best Foreign-Language Film: The Sea Inside directed by Alejandro Amenábar
Best Documentary: Tarnation directed by Jonathan Caouette
Best Animated Film: The Incredibles by Brad Bird
Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
Best Actor: Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Best Actress: Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
Best Supporting Actor: Phil Davis, Vera Drake
Best Supporting Actress: Natalie Portman, Closer
Best Original Screenplay: Mike Leigh, Vera Drake
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Sideways
Best Cinematography (tie): Christopher Doyle, Hero, and John Mathieson, The Phantom of the Opera
Best Production Design: Dante Ferretti, [...]