News for
Noah Baumbach More at IMDb Pro »

2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

3 articles from 2008

---

A Christmas Tale

14 November 2008 11:00 AM, PST | From Pastemagazine.com | See recent PasteMagazine news

Release Date: Nov. 14 (limited)

Director: Arnaud Desplechin   

Writer: Emmanuel Bourdieu, Desplechin

Cinematographer: Eric Gautier

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Emmanuelle Devos, Hippolyte Girardot, Chiara Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud

Studio/Run Time: 
IFC Films, 143 mins.

Complex, pleasing holiday film

A Christmas Tale is a lively, capricious, mischievous ensemble delight—the kind of movie Noah Baumbach would make if he were French and a little more hopeful about humanity. Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon) and Junon (Catherine Deneuve) have three grown children, two of whom (Anne Consigny and Mathieu Amalric, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) have long been estranged. Now, as Junon needs a dangerous transfusion to survive cancer, everyone convenes in the family home to celebrate Christmas together.

Though the film deals with many exceptionally depressing topics (mental illness, hatred, life-threatening disease, lost love, betrayal) director Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queen) never veers into maudlin territory. Instead, with a lightly stylized touch,

(more)

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Opening This Week: Tori Spelling does H.P. Lovecraft, Steve Coogan's sexy Jesus

18 August 2008 6:39 AM, PDT | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news

By Neil Pedley

This week finds Shakespeare meeting Sexy Jesus, a crash course in Czech history alongside a totalitarian demolition derby, apocalyptic sea monsters and Fred Durst trying to get in touch with his fuzzy side.

"Cthulhu"

Director Dan Gildark certainly isn't lacking for confidence. Whereas most first-time filmmakers would turn to the well-worn territory of twentysomethings and their quirky quarterlife crises for subject matter, Gildark has opted to tackle H.P Lovecraft's sprawling, heady, quasi-religious mythos from the short story "Shadow over Innsmouth" instead. Jason Cottle stars as Russ, a history professor who returns home to Oregon to execute his late mother's will and discovers his father is the leader of the coastal town's apocalyptic cult that centers on the fabled Cthulhu, an extraterrestrial deity that exists in a state of torpor at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. When Russ learns a mass sacrifice may be in the offing,

(more)

Neil Pedley

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Chris Eigeman on "Turn the River"

8 May 2008 2:25 PM, PDT | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news

By Stephen Saito

One of Chris Eigeman's favorite performances in his directorial debut, "Turn the River," comes from an actor who has all of three lines and plays a pimply faced donut shop employee who tells his potential customers that he already drank the coffee. It's the kind of droll one-liner that one could easily imagine rolling off Eigeman's tongue during his heyday as the quick-witted star of Noah Baumbach's "Kicking and Screaming" and Whit Stillman's trilogy of "Metropolitan," "Barcelona" and "The Last Days of Disco." But "Turn the River" isn't the intellectual yukfest one might expect from an actor with a reputation for snark and smarts, but rather the heartfelt character study of Kailey (Famke Janssen), a mother forced to give up her son Gulley (Jaymie Dornan), who attempts to raise enough money through hustling at pool and poker to steal him away from his father.

(more)

Stephen Saito

Permalink | Report a problem

---

2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

3 articles from 2008

---