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Tag Archives: twilight

NYFF54 Review: ‘PERSONAL SHOPPER’ shows Kristen Stewart is scary good.

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

nyff54-bannerPERSONAL SHOPPERpersonal-shopper-poster

 

  • Olivier Assayas
  • 2016
  • France
  • French and English with English subtitles
  • 105 minutes

Kristen Stewart is the medium, in more ways than one, for this sophisticated genre exploration from director Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria, NYFF 2014). As a fashion assistant whose twin brother has died, leaving her bereft and longing for messages from the other side, Stewart is fragile and enigmatic—and nearly always on-screen. From an opening sequence in a haunted house with an intricately constructed soundtrack to a high-tension, cat-and-mouse game on a trip from Paris to London and back set entirely to text messaging,Personal Shopper brings the psychological and supernatural thriller into the digital age.  An IFC Films release.

kristen-stewart-personal-shopper-stillAfter seeing Stewart and Assayas team up on the NYFF52 film Clouds of Sils Maria, there was doubt that we were in for a unique treat in Personal Shopper. Some might still be skeptical of Stewart’s work if they’ve only been exposed to The Twilight franchise. She admits that it most definitely gave her the option to choose her work. Her indie film roles are nothing short of impressive. Clouds allowed her to be the first American actress to win France’s most prominent Cesar award. Stewart plays Maureen, dealing or not dealing with the death of her twin brother, she floats through life by attending to a spoiled supermodel’s fashion needs all while suspecting her brother is trying to contact her from the beyond. Caught between her own sanity and a murder mystery, Stewart bares all in an emotionally wrought and frightening tale that makes us ponder our own beliefs and life choices. With some of the world’s most beautiful fashion as eye candy, Paris and London as our backgrounds, and the trust Assayas has with his leading lady, I was constantly on edge and intrigued. The pace is great and the use of texting as a major plot point brings technology to the forefront in more than one way. Assasya’ long lingering shots, he admitted in the press conference following the screening, were half by choice and half due to the performance Stewart was giving at any moment in time. Their relationship is very clear as you watch. She is in almost every frame. that is a lot to carry as a young actress, but she 100% owns this film. I was able to ask both Assayas and Stewart if they believed in the paranormal and their answers were perfection. you can watch the footage below. If eerie movies are your thing, then this is most likely one you’re enjoy. If you want to see a gorgeously shot film with a stellar leading lady, this too fits the bill. If you’re open minded about things that are considered other worldly, if nothing else, Personal Shopper begs the question, “Is death the end?”

Press Conference with Olivier Assayas and Kristen Stewart. (I got the final question. Lucky Me.)

Personal Shopper will be in theaters March of 2017 from IFC Films.

Posted in Events, French, Interviews, New York City, Press Conference, Release, Reviews, Trailer, Woman Lead, Women in Film | Tagged Cannes Film Festival, Cesar award, Clouds of Sils Maria, digital age, FilmFestival, ghost story, ifc films, kristen stewart, Liz, london, murder mystery, New York Film Festival, new york film festival, nyff, nyff 2016 liz, nyff liz, nyff2016, NYFF52, nyff54, Olivier Assayas, Paris, Personal Shopper, poster, Review, stills, supernatural, thrlle, twilight | Leave a reply

Liz’s Review: Get raunchy with ‘BALLS OUT’

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

Balls Out posterYou never know what you’re gonna see at Tribeca Film Festival. One out of left field film from last year was BALLS OUT. Wrong sports metaphor in this case since this particular movie revolves around an intramural college flag football league. Starring a rag tag team of hilarious and talented people like Jake Lacy, Kate McKinnon, Nikki Reed, Beck Bennett, Jay Pharoah and many, many more, Balls Out pulls no punches when it comes to the A-typical sports genre movie. Balls out cast stillCaleb (Jake Lacy) is a fifth year senior with law school on the brain and an overbearing and hilariously high-on-life girlfriend (Kate McKinnon). Suddenly finding himself faced with having his future mapped out for him, he begins to reminisce about his freshman year and his flag football team’s- The Panthers- epic win over a douchebag rival team the Titans. Haunted by the how the first game ended with the paralysis of his best friend, Caleb struggles to commit to what makes him truly happy. Balls Out is an unapologetic underdog story, that’s frankly funny as hell. Every single sports cliche you can think of is admittedly thrown in your face. Training montages, two stoner fans acting as the league’s “official announcers”, hidden personal agendas, each Panther member being just slightly too weird for reality, and a rival captain so damn ridiculous you love to hate him. All this is admitted in the actual dialogue. The film never takes itself seriously at any moment, which is what makes it so great. I was not expecting to like this film at all, and it ended up being my favorite comedy of the fest last year.Kate KcKinnon Balls Out stillSo let’s talk performances in Balls Out. Jake Lacy is, for lack of a better phrase, relatively straight laced, in comparison to the rest of the cast. Nikki Reed does an excellent job playing the girl who comes into Caleb’s life just when he needs it most. This was a nice departure for Reed coming off the Twilight series and a great follow up to her quirky performance in last year’s Murder of a Cat. She is cool and fun. Kate McKinnon steals every scene she is in. Since she joined SNL, I have been touting her as the new Amy Poehler. One wide-eyed look from this gal is comedy gold. Newly minted Panther head coach is played by Nick Kocher. Wher has this kis been all my life? He easily flips from just amusing to sidesplitting comedy with the ease of someone twice his age. How is he not in everything right now? Team him up with Chris Pratt, like yesterday. I want over saturation of Kocher immediately. Jay Pharoah and D.C. Pierson‘s narration as the sideline peanut gallery makes the game sequences what they are. Balls Out Beck StillNow, let’s get real  for a moment. Hands down, once again,the star of this film is Beck Bennett. I have been a fan ever since his national AT&T campaign. Believing he is vastly under utilized on SNL, I have been privileged to see his outstanding movie roles thus far. His last film, Beside Still Waters (a MUST see), was on the opposite end spectrum on his testosterone driven revenge obsession in Balls Out. Like McKinnon, each frame he appears in he completely owns. I don’t know how anyone kept a straight face having to be in a scene with him. It makes me wonder how much of his dialogue is improvised. I would imagine the DVD blooper reel with feature him heavily. Cheers to Beck for bring this film over the goal line.

BALLS OUT arrives theatrically and on VOD June 19th.

Genre: Comedy
TRT: 100 min
Camera: RED Epic
Language: English

Rated: R for crude and sexual material, language and some drug use

SYNOPSIS: With graduation, marriage, and an uncertain future on the horizon, fifth year college senior Caleb Fuller (Jake Lacy) decides to do the one thing he vowed to never do again: get the ol’ flag football team back together. Now with the help of his Panther teammates and unorthodox head coach Grant Rosenfalis (Nick Kocher), Caleb must defy all odds and logic if he ever hopes to achieve the intramural football glory he once had. Set in the highly popular world of college intramural sports, BALLS OUT is the epic sports movie for the guys who don’t deserve one.

Posted in Film Festival, Go To The Movies, in theaters, Poster, Release, Reviews, Trailer, Tribeca Film Festival, VOD, What To Watch This Week | Tagged Amy Poehler, Andrew Disney, Balls Out, Beck Bennett, Beside Still Waters, Chris Pratt, D.C. Pierson, FilmFestival, Jake Lacy, Jay Pharoah, June release, Kate McKinnon, Liz, Murder of a Cat, Nick Kocher, Nikki Reed, raunchy, snl, sport comedy, Tribeca Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival 2014, twilight | Leave a reply

If I Chose the Academy Award Winners and Nominees – 2015 edition

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Jeremy Harmon — Leave a reply

I’ve now seen most of the films that had a release in 2014. This makes me more qualified to vote for the Oscars than 97.548% of the Academy’s membership. With the Oscar ceremony occurring tonight, I’ve picked, as I have the previous two years, who I think the nominees and winners should be in the bulk of the major categories. Once again, the foreign film category will be left off because I simply haven’t had access to enough foreign films to make a comment on them. Those that have made it to my neck of the woods, I will say, have been very good for the most part. Read More →

Posted in Features, Jeremy, Lists, Oscars | Tagged a most violent year, ain't them bodies saints, Alejandro González Iñárritu, alex rennie, Alexander Dinelaris, all about eve, american sniper, amores perros, Ana Lily Amirpour, andrea suarez paz, antichrist, aoife kelleher, armando bo, ava duvernay, awful nice, birdman, birth, boogie nights, Boyhood, bradford young, brendan gleeson, calvary, charlotte gainsbourg, citizenfour, damien chazelle, david fincher, David Oyelowo, david schultz, donald rumsfeld, down by law, edward norton, eliza hittman, ellen degeneres, emma stone, errol morris, finding vivian maier, fog of war, Foxcatcher, françois ozon, Frank, gangster squad, ghost dog, gillian flynn, gillian robespierre, glasnevin cemetery, gone girl, grand budapest hotel, henry darger, in the realms of the unreal, inherent vice, it felt like love, iu cinema, james cameron, jenny slate, Jessica Chastain, jessica yu, Jim Jarmusch, jk simmons, joaquin phoenix, john michael mcdonagh, jonathan glazer, Josh Brolin, judd apatow, Julianne Moore, lard von trier, laura poitras, life itself, locke, lyle vincent, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Magnolia, maps to the stars, mark ruffalo, martin cahill, martin luther king jr, melancholia, Michael Keaton, neal patrick harris, Nicolás Giacobone, nymphomaniac, obvious child, one million dubliners, only lovers left alive, party down, Patricia Arquette, paul thomas anderson, pettus bridge, Richard Linklater, robert elswit, robert mcnamara, roger ebert, Rushmore, salt of the earth, scarlett johansson, sean porter, selma, shane carruth, shane mac thomais, snowpiercer, stand clear of the closing doors, Steve James, Still Alice, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, the general, the master, thomas pynchon, Tilda Swinton, titanic, tom hardy, Tom Hiddleston, twilight, under the skin, unknown known, upstream color, walter campbell, we need to talk about kevin, wees anderson, whiplash, yorick le saux, zero theorem | Leave a reply

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