News

Out of all the big-budget blockbusters Jake Gyllenhaal has landed in his career, the 2004 sci-fi-action piece The Day After Tomorrow most certainly wasn’t one. Although it more or less received some fans’ appreciation, a majority of the critics were still as displeased by it as ever, even though it managed to become a considerable commercial success.

Jake Gyllenhaal. | Credits: Siebbi/Cca-3.0/Wikimedia Commons

Gyllenhaal, on the other hand, was rather disgruntled with the piece himself. While it was one of his initial experiences working on a big-budget project, the actor had quite a few issues with it. As he didn’t hesitate to let known to everyone, one of his biggest problems was his dialogue for the film, which he had a hard time translating to the screens.

Jake Gyllenhaal was Brutally Critical of The Day After Tomorrow‘s Dialogue

Even though it was one of his initial big-budget projects,...

With a career that’s ranged 33 years — over three quarters of his life — Jake Gyllenhaal has covered nearly every type of character, genre, and form, but in a recent interview in The Hollywood Reporter, he said he’s now focused on taking on roles that “freak me out a bit.” Whether that means getting cut and learning to give and take a beating for Doug Liman’s “Road House” remake or wading through the moral and ethical murk of murder and infidelity in the upcoming Apple TV+ mini-series “Presumed Innocent,” Gyllenhaal is game for a challenge.

“The feeling I want to have is, can I do it?” said Gyllenhaal. “That it’s going to ask of me things that I don’t know about myself yet.”

Gyllenhaal attributes this desire push himself further to his sister Maggie. He’ll be taking part in her latest directorial effort, “The Bride!,” a...

Nearly a month after Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech reverberated across Hollywood and caused a wave of controversy, 455 Jewish creatives (and counting) have signed a letter in a show of support.

“We were alarmed to see some of our colleagues in the industry mischaracterize and denounce his remarks. Their attacks on Glazer are a dangerous distraction from Israel’s escalating military campaign which has already killed over 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza and brought hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation,” reads the letter, published amid the continued conflict in the Middle East. “We grieve for all those who have been killed in Palestine and Israel over too many decades, including the 1200 Israelis killed in the October 7 Hamas attacks and the 253 hostages taken.”

The letter is signed by a mix of actors, writers, producers, filmmakers and other creatives. Among those backing Glazer are Joker star Joaquin Phoenix; Killer Films vet Pamela Koffler...

Jake Gyllenhaal Once Admitted Putting A Lot Of Pressure On Himself While Filming Spider-Man: Far From Home (Photo Credit – IMDb)

Road House star Jake Gyllenhaal, born in the Gyllenhaal family, has lived up to the family’s legacy. But there were times when he got overwhelmed while filming, and something similar happened during Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. He appeared in the role of Mysterio and heavily impacted the life of Tom Holland’s character, Peter Parker. The Oscar-nominated actor is known for going the extra mile for his roles.

He lost around 30 pounds for his role in Nightcrawler. However, after that, he decided not to get engrossed in a role further, and the primary reason for it might be his Oscar snub. He was not nominated for the Academy Awards for that part. On the personal front, Jake is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Jake Gyllenhaal are reminding fans of their sweet familial bond. On April 17, the "Everything Everywhere All at Once" actor supported her godson at the premiere of "The Covenant," a thriller film starring Gyllenhaal. Curtis kissed Gyllenhaal on the cheek as they posed on the red carpet together in matching black suits.

At the premiere, Curtis revealed the two have "just gotten to know each other," particularly after spending much of the Covid-19 lockdown together, along with Gyllenhaal's girlfriend, Jeanne Cadieu. Curtis told People the couple lived in her house next door for almost a year. "So singing, acting, sourdough," she said of her godson's lockdown activities. "And he did that test where you do a handstand against the wall and take your shirt off and put it back on." Gyllenhaal hilariously added that he's "still making sourdough" postpandemic.

Curtis, who shares daughters Annie and Ruby with husband Christopher Guest,...

Judd Hirsch is a living legend. Best known for his portrayal of cabbie Alex Rieger, the warm, principled central character of the classic sitcom "Taxi," Hirsch has been effortlessly segueing from television to stage to film and back again for over 50 years. He won two Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Emmys for "Taxi," and two Tonys for his performances in Herb Gardner's "Conversations with My Father" and "I'm Not Rappaport." He received a Best Supporting Actor nomination in 1980 for his portrayal of the tough, yet compassionate psychiatrist Dr. Berger in Robert Redford's "Ordinary People." He probably would've won that year, but he was the victim of category fraud when Paramount opted to run his co-star, Timothy Hutton, in the Supporting Actor category rather than Best Actor, even though the young performer was clearly the lead of the movie. Hutton won, and Hirsch hasn't been nominated since.

The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the participants list for the Dww+ Class of 2024.

IndieWire exclusively reveals that the latest cast comprises Vanessa Beletic, Chloë de Carvalho, Desdemona Chiang, Naomi Iwamoto, Huriyyah Muhammad, Joanne Mony Park, Kerry O’Neill and Roxy Toporowych. Learn more about the new class and read their bios here.

The AFI Dww+ is a year-long directing workshop that supports women and traditionally underrepresented narrative filmmakers through the production cycle of a short film, providing hands-on instruction led by industry experts. The short films completed in the workshop will premiere at the annual Dww+ Showcase in Spring 2024.

“AFI Dww+ is integral to creating a pipeline of highly trained, diverse voices who have the power to drive culture forward and shape the future of the entertainment industry. We are thrilled to welcome this new class of accomplished artists to the AFI Dww+ program and guide them on their journey as directors and storytellers,...

Sarah Polley failed to crash the boys club to land a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director for her work on “Women Talking,” but she did manage to earn one for Best Screenplay for the same film. In the unlikely event she were to win — and we say unlikely because she is picked by few to take home the statuette in Gold Derby’s predictions where she has 4/1 odds, tying her for fourth place — Polley would be the first woman in 17 years to be so honored. It’s a rare enough event in Golden Globes annals that you barely need two hands to count the total number of women (seven) who have been victorious in the category since the Globes started handing them out 75 years ago.

SEEWill Sarah Polley (‘Women Talking’) be the 3rd woman in a row to win Best Director Oscar?

The last woman to win for her...

Maggie Gyllenhaal just earned her second Oscar nomination for writing the screenplay to “The Lost Daughter,” her feature directorial debut. This Best Adapted Screenplay bid follows in the footsteps of only two other women, Emma Thompson and Ruth Gordon, who also earned Oscar kudos for acting and writing. More significantly, however, is that there are now two Oscar-nominated screenwriters in the Gyllenhaal family, with her mother Naomi Foner having earned her own writing bid in the late 1980s.

Foner was a Best Original Screenplay nominee for the 1988 film “Running on Empty,” the Sidney Lumet film that starred River Phoenix in his only Oscar-nominated performance. Like Gyllenhaal with “The Lost Daughter,” Foner was also an executive producer on “Running on Empty.” Gyllenhaal’s nomination this year adds another accolade to the family, following her first bid in Best Supporting Actress for “Crazy Heart” (2009) and her brother Jake‘s only Oscar nomination...

After picking up an Oscar nomination for her adapted screenplay of Elena Ferrante’s novel “The Lost Daughter,” Maggie Gyllenhaal joins a very short list of three women who have been nominated for acting and writing. She previously scored a nod in 2011 for her supporting performance opposite Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart.”

“My mother told me this, so you might have to fact-check it,” Gyllenhaal told TheWrap with a laugh, admitting she wasn’t aware she had just made history. Her mother was correct – only Ruth Gordon and Emma Thompson have been cited in both writing and acting categories in the past. “If that’s true, that is my favorite thing,” Gyllenhaal said. “I’m so thrilled to be in that club.”

And while we’re on the subject of Gyllenhaal’s mother, there’s another bit of history making going on. Gyllenhaal and her mom, Naomi Foner, are the...

Filmmaking is quite literally in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s genes. Her mother is Oscar-winning screenwriter Naomi Foner (“Running on Empty”) who also directed the 2013 drama “Very Good Girls.” And her father Stephen Gyllenhaal has directed such films as 1992 “Waterland,” which featured his daughter, and 1993 “A Dangerous Woman.” But it took time for the Oscar-nominated actress (“Crazy Heart’) to follow in her parents’ footsteps.

“I think that now I have directed, I can see in a way I always was a director,” she noted in a recent American Cinematheque Zoom conversation with Oscar-winner Guillermo Del Toro (“The Shape of Water”). She added, though, it was so deep into her psyche that “it was even a secret for me.” She recently picked up Gotham Independent Film honors for writing and directing her first film, Netflix’s “The Lost Daughter,” starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris and her husband Peter Sarsgaard.

It took playing a woman who is empowered by becoming a film director in HBO series “The Deuce” for actress Maggie Gyllenhaal to imagine becoming one herself. As soon as she did, after binging the books of Elena Ferrante, from “My Brilliant Friend” to “The Days of Abandonment,” Gyllenhaal was inspired to take the plunge. Three years ago, on the verge of her 40th birthday, Gyllenhaal first wrote to Ferrante, asking the Italian author (whose identity is protected by her publisher) to let her option her 2006 novel “The Lost Daughter” for the movies. After a few email exchanges, the writer said yes. But her contract with Gyllenhaal was void, she told the actress, if she didn’t direct the feature herself. (Ferrante explained why in The Guardian.)

Gyllenhaal eventually obtained the author’s blessing on her script — which often departs from the original) —and cast Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favourite...

It took playing a woman who is empowered by becoming a film director in HBO series “The Deuce” for actress Maggie Gyllenhaal to imagine becoming one herself. As soon as she did, after binging the books of Elena Ferrante, from “My Brilliant Friend” to “The Days of Abandonment,” Gyllenhaal was inspired to take the plunge. Three years ago, on the verge of her 40th birthday, Gyllenhaal first wrote to Ferrante, asking the Italian author (whose identity is protected by her publisher) to let her option her 2006 novel “The Lost Daughter” for the movies. After a few email exchanges, the writer said yes. But her contract with Gyllenhaal was void, she told the actress, if she didn’t direct the feature herself. (Ferrante explained why in The Guardian.)

Gyllenhaal eventually obtained the author’s blessing on her script — which often departs from the original —and cast Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favourite...

Olivia Colman is captivating in the first trailer for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter.”

The upcoming drama, based on Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name, stars Colman as Leda, a middle-aged woman vacationing alone and having flashbacks to her days as a young wife and mother (with her younger self played by Jessie Buckley). Gyllenhaal wrote, directed and produced the movie.

In the trailer, Colman, whose character is on a “working holiday,” meets Dakota Johnson’s Nina, telling her she has two daughters of her own. She soon tells the young mother that “children are a crushing responsibility.”

The trailer also gives audiences a glimpse at Buckley, but if anything, it teases the captivating performance Colman delivers that will surely land her in the awards conversation as the race for best actress heats up.

The cast also includes Dagmara Domińczyk as Callie, Peter Sarsgaard as Professor Hardy,...

Exclusive: Late last week in Los Angeles, Jake Gyllenhaal spoke to Deadline about The Guilty, a gritty pandemic-shot contained thriller which reunited him with Southpaw director Antoine Fuqua and which bows this Friday on Netflix, after premiering on select theaters last Friday. This after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. He plays a cop who is up on police brutality charges, on a timeout answering 9-1-1 emergency calls as a dispatcher who catches hold of a serious crisis: a woman has been abducted by her felon husband, with their two kids left behind and in danger. Gyllenhaal and Fuqua spent a dozen days shooting the film during the Covid pandemic.

Gyllenhaal is very affable and funny in person, but this chat became so much more about the care and feeding of an actor/producer whose ability to turn in performances with high levels of intensity and testosterone (without chewing...

One of the rare child stars who became just as successful as an adult, Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the best actors working today. Gyllenhaal had a leg up getting his career started thanks to his Hollywood parents, director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, but established himself as a talented performer in his own right with a series of acclaimed performances throughout the '90s.

Gyllenhaal continues to deliver interesting turns in beloved films, earning his first Academy Award nomination for "Brokeback Mountain." After video game adaptation "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" became a box office bomb and earned Gyllenhaal criticism for whitewashing the character...

The post The 15 best Jake Gyllenhaal movies ranked appeared first on /Film.

Video Version of this Article Photo/Video: Jake Gyllenhaal//Disney/Hollywood Insider YouTube Channel Growing Up in Hollywood and Staying Grounded First of all, Happy birthday, Mr. Gyllenhaal! Jake Gyllenhaal was born in 1980 in Los Angeles, California. His father, Stephen Gyllenhaal, is an Emmy nominated director, and his mother, Naomi Foner, is an Academy Award-nominated writer. In an interview with The Guardian, Gyllenhaal recalls director Steven Soderbergh renting a room above their garage before he became famous. Other interesting stories about early encounters with famous people in film include Paul Newman taking him to the race track and teaching him driving safety. Newman is not Gyllenhaal’s godfather, though, which is a fact that is often misreported. His godfather is Academy Award-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit. Needless to say, Gyllenhaal was around the film industry growing up. It doesn’t seem like a far stretch for Jake to find interest in the world of acting,...

Exclusive: This year’s Oxbelly Labs has set creative advisors including directors Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann), Mati Diop (Atlantics), Ulrich Köhler (In My Room) and Lulu Wang (The Farewell), as well as producer-seller Michael Weber, founder of The Match Factory.

The Lab is designer to offer promising international filmmakers the opportunity to work on their first or second feature script, as well as workshop and direct one scene from it, with guidance from industry mentors.

Led by Oxbelly’s artistic director and Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg), the Lab is being hosted online this year.

Returning creative advisors include Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), Michael Almereyda (Tesla), Ritesh Batra (Photograph), Lisa Cholodenko (Olive Kitteridge), Willem Dafoe (Tommaso), Naomi Foner (Running On Empty), Nick Kroll (Big Mouth), Jeff Nichols (Loving), Olivier Père and Eva Stefani (Manuscript).

The Labs were established...

Newly expanded advisor roster spans filmmaking disciplines.

Projects from South Africa, China and Turkey are among 10 selected for the 2020 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs, which have been reconfigured as a digital event amid the pandemic lockdown.

The event will take place on Sundance Co//ab and as always is designed to connect selected filmmaker Fellows with creative advisors and industry mentors across multiple disciplines.

The Directors Lab runs from June 1-19 when filmmakers will participate in a schedule of advisor presentations, scene analysis sessions, directing exercises, one-on-one meetings, and inaugural conversations across a wide range of industry disciplines, including casting,...

In Patrick Brice’s latest Sundance Midnight offering “Corporate Animals,” Demi Moore plays a powerful, all-consuming CEO. Speaking with managing editor Christian Blauvelt at the IndieWire Studio presented by Dropbox, Moore talked about what she keeps in mind when signing on to new projects at this point in her career.

“I do want to be careful not to play into a cliche, which is that all older women are evil, bitter villains, which is one of the next kind of things that needs to be overcome,” Moore said. “We want romance too! We want all those things!”

In “Corporate Animals,” her character Lucy leads a disastrous retreat through some treacherous New Mexico caves. Karan Soni and Jessica Williams play the unwitting employees at her company, who find much more underground than either of them bargain for.

Moore says that the supporting cast and the filming environment helped her realize the...

Margalit Ruth Gyllenhaal, better known as Maggie Gyllenhaal, is an American actress best known for her roles in the films Donnie Darko (2001), Secretary (2002) and The Dark Knight (2008), as well as the television series The Honorable Woman (2014) and The Deuce (2017). She was born in New York City to filmmaker Stephen Gyllenhaal and writer-producer Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal is of Swedish, English, Russian […]

Source: uInterview

The post Maggie Gyllenhaal Bio: In Her Own Words – Video Exclusive, News, Photos appeared first on uInterview.

Image Source: Getty / Mike Pont Jake Gyllenhaal nabbed a feature for Elle this week in support of his new film Stronger, in which he portrays real-life Boston bombing survivor Jeff Bauman. In the profile, Jake admitted to being "nervous" upon meeting the 31-year-old, saying, "It was initially awkward. Inevitably, when you're dealing with a real-life story, there's the knowledge that nothing you can do will ever match what [Jeff] went through." Related44 Pictures of Jake That Will Have You Saying "Gyllenhaal-alujah!" In addition to sharing his thoughts on being set up on dates, Jake also opened up about masculinity and the ever-changing ideas of what it means to "be a man." The 36-year-old, who attended the Women's March on Washington with older sister Maggie in January, also shared the biggest lessons he's learned from the women in his life, including his mother, playwright Naomi Foner. Check out his insightful (and swoon-worthy) quotes below.

These fugitives on the run aren’t innocent young lovers. Still wanted for anti-war violence from years before, an ex-radical couple struggles to remain free just as their children become old enough to think for themselves. Screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Sidney Lumet’s fascinating movie is a sympathetic look at an untenable lifestyle.

Running on Empty

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1988 / Color / 1:85 enhanced widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date June 27, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Christine Lahti, River Phoenix, Judd Hirsch, Jonas Abry, Martha Plimpton, Ed Crowley, L.M. Kit Carson, Steven Hill, Augusta Dabney, David Margulies, Lynne Thigpen, Bobo Lewis, Daniel Dassin.

Cinematography: Gerry Fisher

Film Editor: Andrew Mondshein

Original Music: Tony Mottola

Written by Naomi Foner

Produced by Griffin Dunne, Amy Robinson

Directed by Sidney Lumet

1988 suddenly seems much farther in the past than it did just a few months ago. The small town high school in Running on Empty has a dedicated, classically trained music teacher on the payroll. He earns enough to afford a rather nice house. The public school system is not being undermined, with all the wealthy students going to new kinds of exclusive, alternative schools siphoning off public money. We all have our own ideas about what ‘making America great again’ means, I suppose.

It doesn’t happen any more, but we used to read about ex- radicals from the Vietnam War days surfacing to turn themselves in. Not that many were directly involved in violent acts, but some had lived for decades under assumed identities, while their wanted photos were posted down at the Post Office. Some of them tried to raise families.

“We are all outlaws in the eyes of America.

Everything they say we are, we are.

. . . And we are very proud of ourselves.”

— The Jefferson Airplane

Naomi Foner’s Running on Empty is basically a ‘what comes next?’ chapter in the lives of former political public enemies like The Weather Underground. An unusual family is on the lam. The parents are militant radicals from the Nixon years, who went underground when one of their bombs maimed a janitor. Now they are nearing their forties, and must move from town to town whenever they think the Feds have picked up their trail. The couple chose their life and has accepted the consequences, but where does that leave their growing children, who are likewise forced to live like gypsies under assumed names?

I should think that this good movie would have a tough time in today’s market. If the online mob harps on Wonder Woman for promoting non-traditional values, what would they make of a movie ‘glorifying terrorism?’ Half of America still wants to see Jane Fonda strung up by her thumbs, and death threats for ‘enemies’ singled out on the web are now routine. Our channels of information are so jammed with stories elbowing each other for attention, I don’t think anybody could rouse the general public to even consider the problems of this kind of fugitive. Who has time for scurrilous pleas for sympathy for ‘undeserving’ people, when the public responds better to patriotic pieces about veterans . . . or cute animals?

Always watching for signs of F.B.I. surveillance, young Danny Pope (River Phoenix) alerts the rest of his family through pre-arranged signals. Annie and Arthur Pope (Christine Lahti & Judd Hirsch) abandon their jobs, their belongings and even their dog and flee to a new state with Danny and their other son Harry (Jonas Abry). With new identities they start new lives. Arthur and Annie find off-the-books employment as a cook and a medical receptionist and the boys are enrolled in school with ‘previous transcripts on the way.’ We see the unusual preparations that must be made, with secret arrangements so that any family member can alert the others if they’re found out; we also see that the family is supported to some degree by a network of post-radical (or still radical?) sympathizers, such as a doctor (David Marguiles) who tends to political fugitives. But the Popes are cut off from their own families. Annie’s disapproving father (Steven Hill) can only see her in an extraordinary circumstance arranged by a third party. Potential trouble comes when former comrade Gus Winant (L.M. Kit Carson) drops by. He’d like to sleep with his old flame Annie, and is carrying guns in the assumption that Arthur will agree to rob a bank with him. But a more troubling problem is closer to home. Young Danny has inherited his mother’s musical talent, and his teacher Mr. Phillips (Ed Crowley) is encouraging him to apply to Julliard in New York. Danny is also stuck on Phillips’ teenage daughter Lorna (Martha Plimpton), a girl to whom he might be ready to commit. As far as Arthur is concerned, Danny can’t do any of those things because his first duty is to help his family in the undercover life. Annie doesn’t know what to do. If she leaves her son behind, she may never see him again.

Practically speaking, Running on Empty will only play well to a certain segment of the public. Are you the kind that sympathizes with draft deserters that fled to Canada, or the kind that wants to hand them long terms in prison? The Popes aren’t victims of injustice, at least not directly; they knew what they were doing when they went militant, and the injuries they caused can’t simply be dismissed as youthful idealism. They are also hopelessly associated with fanatics they inspired, like the Sla. And there’s no statute of limitations on armed insurrection. I think almost all of the radical fugitives that went underground are now accounted for. Some served prison time and others got off because courtroom prosecutions would reveal or publicize the government’s own illegal doings. Running on Empty dramatizes what might have been reality for just a few of these ‘outlaws in the eyes of America.’ Some radicals reportedly found it easy to live undetected while still on various Most Wanted lists. Others found ways to turn themselves in, square themselves with the authorities and re-commence academic lives interrupted years before to oppose the government. *

Running on Empty is a fascinating show, with a cast that clearly had to work hard to make their characters believable. Christine Lahti puts up with her bossy, security-minded husband. He himself gets drunk one night and starts shouting his real name loud enough to wake the neighbors. Judd Hirsch and director Lumet know that these can’t be ordinary people. He doesn’t try to make them Ozzie and Harriet types, somehow (sniff!) trapped by their youthful mistakes. No, they’re still promoting various Union and social justice causes here and there, although Arthur must back away whenever he becomes visible enough to appear in a news photo. Every year they celebrate a birthday to Sam, the man struck by their bomb. It’s not a joke, but a ritual so they won’t forget their crime.

At the center of the movie is the cult actor River Phoenix, who graduated briefly to good roles after his appearance as an adolescent space voyager in the fantasy film Explorers. Phoenix is excellent as Danny, a kid raised to never let down his guard. The show begins with Danny detecting a plainclothes tail and executing what must be ‘escape plan 9.’ The family is out of town in a matter of minutes. Danny’s a sensitive, smart guy. If he plays by the rules, he must keep himself a complete mystery to his new girlfriend Lorna. The boy is committed to his family, but feels the pull to go off on his own, where a decent future awaits. In a way, it’s not a situation wholly unique to these former radicals. This must happen all the time when someone breaks away from a strongly structured family, or a religious cult.

The movie’s tension level doubles when Danny takes the forbidden step of telling Lorna everything. How many of us living normal lives (well, reasonably normal lives) could trust our sweethearts with such a volatile secret: “I and my whole family are fugitives from justice. Anybody helping us is a potential accomplice. Just by letting you know, I’m putting you in legal jeopardy. Will you turn me in, or become a criminal with me?”

At this age Martha Plimpton might remind one of a teenage Lauren Bacall. A survivor of Goonies, she is featured in what I think is the best Cannon film, Shy People. Plimpton and Phoenix have several worthy melodramatic romantic scenes to play, and they’re excellent together.

With the ace director Sidney Lumet in charge the strange relationships seem credible, even when the flaky, reckless Gus Winant breezes through. The former radical patriot is now nothing but an outlaw bum. In a nice choice, Gus is played by L.M. Kit Carson, the original fake counterculture hero in the classic experimental faux-documentary David Holzman’s Diary. With dangerous idiots like Gus on the loose, the Popes can’t even consider themselves part of a noble creed. Some of their old colleagues are indeed armed and dangerous.

I don’t think the Popes would stand a chance of evading the cops in today’s security state. One can no longer simply find the name of a dead infant and apply for a new birth certificate and passport. The Popes aren’t hiding in a shack in the woods, but are out and about in the public, working and rubbing elbows with schools and doctors. I guess that back in the 1980s Arthur could become a cook and Annie a receptionist without references, but it’s less likely now, when one can’t buy bubble gum without leaving a data trail. Traffic and security surveillance cameras are now everywhere. Billions of smart-phone photos are taken at public gatherings, and routinely posted on the web. A high-level security agency could be (is?) scanning the web with face recognition software.

Sidney Lumet wrote that his movies Running on Empty and Daniel had the same theme: “Who pays for the passion and commitment of the parents?” This is an even-handed and insightful drama. Lumet made a wide range of great entertainments, and some of the best- ever ‘New York Jewish Liberal Movies.’ He’s also one of the few directors who could take on fundamentally controversial material like this, and continue to maintain a busy career.

The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray of Running on Empty is a good encoding of what was already a very good Wac Mod disc from just two years ago. The improved picture and sound reveals the expected quality of a top Sidney Lumet product. The small town we see is very attractive, a political landscape completely different from the corporate/banking rapacious wasteland of last year’s Hell or High Water. ‘Radicals unselfishly trying to stop a war in 1971’ is still anathema, while Mr. and Mrs. U.S.A. now considers it justifiable for ‘radicals to selfishly try to rescue their ruined finances.’

Madonna is on the soundtrack for a scene in Daniel’s music class. The final James Taylor song Fire and Rain works extremely well in context: “. . . and I always thought that I’d see you again.”

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,

Running on Empty Blu-ray rates:

Movie: Excellent

Video: Excellent

Sound: Excellent

Supplements: none

Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English (feature only)

Packaging: Keep case

Reviewed: June 21, 2017

(5451empt)

* I remember a major case from 2001. A radical who had evaded capture for thirty years finalized arrangements to turn herself in, after a delicate negotiation aimed at running her quietly through the legal system to let her get on with her life. She was reportedly not personally responsible for any violent acts, and under her assumed identity had worked for decades in a socially productive job. I followed her story for a couple of days in the newspaper . . . and then 9/11 happened. In the storm of security-minded post-attack chaos that followed, her story thread just vanished from the media-scape. I don’t have a clue what happened to her next. The timing couldn’t possibly have been worse for a former Enemy of the State.

Visit DVD Savant’s Main Column Page

Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com

Text © Copyright 2017 Glenn Erickson...

Image Source: Getty / Gilbert Carrasquillo Jake Gyllenhaal recently wrapped up his press tour for Life, and now he's back in the spotlight promoting his new documentary, Hondros. On Friday, the handsome actor stepped out with director Greg Campbell, producer Riva Marker, and his godmother, Jamie Lee Curtis, at the film's premiere during the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC. Jake produced the movie alongside Jamie, who is close friends with his parents, director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner. Hondros follows the life and career of famous war photographer Chris Hondros, who was killed in Libya in 2011. "It's a story of the harrowing parts of war, the beautiful stories of humanity that come from war stories, and the gruesome, cold, truthful aspects of war," Jamie told Vanity Fair. RelatedRyan, Blake, and Jake Are the 3 Best Friends That Anybody Could Have Image Source: Getty / Mike Coppola...

As Hollywood falls back in love with movie musicals, bolstered by the reception of such recent blockbusters like “La La Land” and last week’s record-smashing live-action “Beauty and the Beast,” the industry will inevitably be on the hunt for performers who can keep up with demands of the genre. One obvious actor who could go the movie musical route is Jake Gyllenhaal, currently cycling between both film and Broadway.

Over the past few years, the actor has balanced his time between his big screen work and a series of theatrical offerings. The life-long theater lover first dipped his toe in the legit world when he starred in a 2012 Off-Broadway production of Nick Payne’s “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet,” followed in 2014 with his Broadway debut in “Constellations,” opposite fellow Broadway newbie Ruth Wilson.

“I think it’s where I am most joyous,” the actor told...

A Panel on Screenwriting: Features vs. TV Series

There has been an explosion in TV series over the last five years which has opened more opportunities worldwide to writers, directors and producers than feature film writing.

Paul Federbush, International Director, Feature Film Programs for Sundance Institute moderated a riveting panel of such TV/ feature writers as D.V. DeVincentes who wrote three episodes of the limited TV series (and exec produced five), “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” which won two Primetime Emmys and the feature “High Fidelity”; Erik Jendresen who won a Primetime Emmy for the miniseries “Band of Brothers” and is now working on a limited series which may go from four segments to eight; Naomi Foner who created “The Electric Company” aimed at children ages 7 to 10 to teach basic reading concepts to its young viewers. She won the Golden Globe for the screenplay and...

Four individuals and one writing team have been selected as winners of the 2016 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition. The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee announced the winners via Livestream today. The fellows will each receive a $35,000 prize, the first installment of which will be distributed at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards Presentation & Live Read on Thursday, November 3, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. For the fourth consecutive year, an ensemble of actors will be reading selected scenes from the winning scripts.

The 2016 winners are (listed alphabetically by author):

Michele Atkins, “Talking About the Sky” (Seattle, Wa)

Spencer Harvey and Lloyd Harvey, “Photo Booth” (Balgowlah, Australia)

Geeta Malik, “Dinner with Friends” (Los Angeles, CA)

Elizabeth Oyebode, “Tween the Ropes” (Sunnyvale, CA)

Justin Piasecki, “Death of an Ortolan” (Los Angeles, CA)

A total of 6,915 scripts were submitted for this year’s competition. Eleven individual screenwriters and one...

Jake Gyllenhaal looked to be in good spirits when he was seen out on a walk with his mom, Naomi Foner, in NYC on Tuesday. The pair stayed close as they crossed the street, and Jake appeared very involved in their conversation, making several hand gestures as they spoke. Most recently, it was announced that the actor would be starring in a one-night-only performance of the musical Sunday in the Park With George to raise money for the New York City Center. He will also be returning to the big screen alongside Amy Adams and Isla Fisher in Nocturnal Animals later this year. Keep reading to see more of Jake's mother-son outing, then flip through his swoon-worthy Hollywood evolution.

Jake Gyllenhaal really just wanted to quack. The Southpaw actor recalled a hysterical story about wanting to be in The Mighty Ducks during a visit to Howard Stern's Sirius Xm radio show on Wednesday, July 22. A working child actor at the time, Gyllenhaal, 34, auditioned for one of the main roles in the 1992 classic and presumably got it. But his parents, director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, didn't let him accept the new gig. "I definitely remember crying on the kitchen counter," Gyllenhaal told Stern, [...]...

For those hoping to break in, the world of screenwriting can seem like a black box. Unless you know industry insiders or have an agent, your first screenplay's journey from Final Draft to production will be an unparalleled challenge. That's why screenwriting organization The Black List teamed up with Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York to answer your burning questions. Read More: 8 Writing Tips From Screenwriting Masters Larry Gross, Naomi Foner, Henry Bean and Andrea Arnold The panelists—Chris Sparling (Cannes 2015 entry "Sea of Trees," directed by Gus Van Sant), Shari Springer Berman ("American Splendor," "The Nanny Diaries," "Ten Thousand Saints"), Michael Zam ("Best Actress") and Lara Shapiro ("The Americans")—joined moderator Franklin Leonard, creator of The Black List, to discuss everything from finding the right agent to when it's time to quit your day job. 1. Do I have to live in L.A. to have a...

★★☆☆☆ Very Good Girls (2014) has all the trappings of an indie coming-of-age story: a hip soundtrack commandeered by musician Jenny Lewis; fresh-faced and innocent actresses; dreamy cinematography; just a dash of drama to appropriately weight the plot. This is all well and good but in a sea of films of this ilk, it gets drowned in its own good intentions. Naomi Foner's first outing as writer and director falls by the wayside very quickly, feeling like a exercise in derivative perceptions on what it means to become a woman. The narrative focuses on Lily (Dakota Fanning) and Gerry (Elizabeth Olsen) who are on their last summer vacation before college.

Sundance Institute has announced the 12 projects selected for the 2015 January Screenwriters Lab set to run from January 16-21.

The Lab is one of the Institute’s 24 year-round residency programmes and in this case will work with a team of creative advisors led by artistic director Scott Frank that includes Kasi Lemmons, John Lee Hancock and Naomi Foner.

“Together with my colleague, Labs Director Ilyse McKimmie, we are honoured to welcome our new group of fellows to the January Screenwriters Lab,” said founding director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program Michelle Satter.

“They represent a broad spectrum of independent vision with stories that reflect our complex world with emotional truth and urgency. The Lab is the beginning of our year-round support for these film-makers. We look forward to working with them throughout the life cycle of the project.”

The projects and fellows selected for the 2015 January Screenwriters Lab are:

Archive (USA), Jonathan Minard (co-writer-director) and Scott Rashap (co-writer...

Eliza Hittman (was love at first sight for her directorial debut It Felt Like Love) and Yung Chang (a docu-helmer best known for the award-winning portrait of modern China in Up the Yangtze) are just two of the dozen folks/projects invited to the upcoming Sundance Institute 2015 January Screenwriters Lab. The labs work as a testing ground of sorts, with Lab Director Ilyse McKimmie seeing to it that the screenwriters are mentored by filmmaking professionals. I’d wager that a good portion of these projects on paper eventually make it onto the big screen (say about 65 to 70 percent) and about 35-40 percent break into the actual Sundance Film Fest. Not unlike her debut picture, Hittman’s potential sophomore pic Beach Rats features NYC borough backdrop and via a teenage vantage point but is sure to stir the pot with tad bit more destruction. After Up the Yangtze, China Heavyweight, and The Fruit Hunters,...

Drawn from the Us and around the world, participating indie screenwriters will work intensively on their feature film scripts alongside established writers in an environment geared toward "innovation and creative risk-taking," says the Sundance Institute. Led by Artistic Director Scott Frank, Creative Advisors onboard include distinguished writers and filmmakers Naomi Foner, Rodrigo Garcia, Michael Goldenberg, John Lee Hancock, Erik Jendresen, Kasi Lemmons, Walter Mosley, Marti Noxon, Howard Rodman, Susan Shilliday, Zach Sklar, Elena Soarez, Peter Straughan, Joan Tewkesbury, and Audrey Wells. The projects and fellows selected for the 2015 January Screenwriters Lab, with official synopses, are: "Archive" (USA) Jonathan Minard (Co-writer/Director) and Scott Rashap  (Co-writer) In the wake of a virtual affair lived entirely through email and gchat, two lovers face the intangibility and distance that characterized their relationship. A...

Acute portrayals and nice performances by leads Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen as best friends who pledge to lose their virginity before college, helps this mildly racy but ultimately innocuous teen sex film Very Good Girls stay a step or two above the exploitative premise to emerge as something almost worthwhile. Boyd Holbrook also gives more than the role calls for as the handsome street artist who becomes their would-be conquest. His role is believable and even brings out Fanning’s performance, delivering something that could have been icky, but remains tender and even a tad affecting. Olsen is good as well, but Fanning’s always seemed a lightweight before.

The problem with Very Good Girls (besides the 25-year old Ms. Olsen being far too old for this role) is that, despite the sexually tinged subject matter, the script is never fleshed out beyond what’s needed to service the plot.

[Warning: Spoilers ahead for Very Good Girls.] Your first time is often complicated, messy and awkward. At least that was the case for Oscar-nominated screenwriter Naomi Foner and Dakota Fanning, who explore virgin territory in the indie Very Good Girls, which is now in theaters. Foner, who's scripted such films as Running on Empty and Losing Isaiah — and is also Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal's mom — makes her directorial debut with the film, about two teenage best friends, Lilly (Fanning) and Gerri (Elizabeth Olsen), who make a pact to lose their virginity the summer after high school.

read more...

An almost complete waste of a talented cast, and all to, apparently, convince teenaged girls that sex isn’t worth the hassle. Say what? I’m “biast” (pro): love Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning; we need to see this premise more

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Very boring girls, more like. I really wanted to like this tale of two best friends, Lilly (Dakota Fanning: Night Moves) and Gerri (Elizabeth Olsen: Godzilla), in New York City about to go off to different colleges and fretting about the fact that they’re both still virgins. I mean, that’s not really a big deal, even if they’ve convinced themselves that they’re the last sexless dorks on the planet, but okay: guy characters get these sorts of movies all the time. And this is as tedious as most of the guy versions.

Very Good Girls is either a smart movie about families or a dumb movie about teenagers. Or maybe it’s a little of both. It’s allegedly about two Brooklyn teens (played by Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen) trying to lose their virginity one summer, but it’s really about the bonds of family and friendship. I know, I know — that sounds like a load of hooey, but Naomi Foner’s film really does wear its subtext on its sleeve. It’s well acted and psychologically acute, even if what’s actually happening onscreen often feels a lot less interesting than what’s clearly boiling beneath the film’s surface.Lilly (Fanning) and Gerri (Olsen) are inseparable best friends growing up in Ditmas Park, holding the rest of the world with a sort of playful but snotty disregard. They like to ride their bikes out to Brighton Beach and mock the people around them.

The Boyfriend Experience: Foner’s Directorial Debut a Derivative Shard

Screenwriter Naomi Foner makes her directorial debut with Very Good Girls, though her preceding reputation makes this sedimentary, uninspired film even more surprising. Mother of actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Foner penned several of ex-husband Stephen Gyllenhaal’s more notable titles, such as Losing Isaiah (1995) and A Dangerous Woman (1993). Considering the authoritative, complicated, and resilient female characters portrayed famously by the likes of Jessica Lange, Halle Berry, and Debra Winger, this trifling and tedious story of a late adolescent friendship tested by mutual attraction to the same boy seems born from the pen of a novice writing about her only familiar focal point,

In New York City during their last summer before going away to college, best friends Lilly (Dakota Fanning) and Gerri (Elizabeth Olsen) vow to lose their virginity. Gerri has her eyes set on David (Boyd Holbrook), who...

Very Good Girls is a coming-of-age story starring two of the most talented young actresses out there today, so why is it so very hard to like? Almost nothing works in this limp excuse for a drama, from the contrived story to the clichéd characters to the awkward costume design. Even Elizabeth Olsen, horribly miscast, and Dakota Fanning, so vacant she appears translucent, can’t keep such a leaky vessel afloat.

Among Very Good Girls‘ many sins, perhaps the most glaring is that it feels like a movie written for teenagers by an adult who knows nothing about them. In the very first scene, high school seniors and lifelong friends Lilly (Fanning) and Gerri (Olsen) strip down at a public beach in broad daylight and run naked into the waves. I don’t know why. I don’t think writer-director Naomi Foner knows why. The film is filled with bizarre decisions like that,...

Proving she’s a multi-talented young lady, Elizabeth Olsen shows off her vocal chops in the newest clip or “Very Good Girls.”

Olsen’s character hops on stage for an open mic night and covers Rilo Kiley's "Go Ahead” with a gorgeously quirky tone. The band’s frontwoman Jenny Lewis scored the film, which is also directed by her pal Naomi Foner.

In addition to Elizabeth’s singing skills, the clip features a testy moment between Dakota Fanning and Boyd Holbrook’s characters while Olsen sings on stage.

Check out “Very Good Girls” in select theaters on Friday (July 25) and watch the clip in the player above!

Want to watch an Olsen sister sing but don't want to listen to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen perform that "Brother for Sale" song? Photos Tribeca: Nas, Robert De Niro and Susan Sarandon Attend the Film Festival Then you're going to want to check out this clip from the upcoming film Very Good Girls, which features Elizabeth Olsen covering Rilo Kiley's "Go Ahead." It's no musical coincidence: Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis scored the film, which is directed by Lewis' friend, Naomi Foner. Very Good Girls is in select theaters Friday. In addition to Olsen, the movie stars Dakota Fanning, Demi

read more...

Very Good Girls is a film one wants to like but can't. It just doesn't work. Lifelong friends Lilly (Dakota Fanning) and Gerri (Elizabeth Olsen) have just graduated from their Brooklyn high school. Lilly is headed to Yale, Gerri is a budding songwriter, and both are virgins. Gerri develops a crush on David (Boyd Holbrook), a photographer-waiter who seduces Lilly, leading to a summertime romance she's afraid to reveal.

Very Good Girls is the directorial debut of Naomi Foner, whose Oscar-nominated script for Running on Empty (1988), starring the late River Phoenix, is a thing of beauty. At age 68, Foner has stepped behind the camera, which is great, but she's written herself a script that's painfully trite.

Lilly's mother (Ellen Barkin) is a shrewish...

Very Good Girls director Naomi Foner with her daughter Maggie Gyllenhaal at the Tribeca Grand Hotel: "My mother has a real passion for the truth." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Naomi Foner's Tribeca Film Very Good Girls stars Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning with Boyd Holbrook, Ellen Barkin, Richard Dreyfuss, Clark Gregg, Demi Moore and Peter Sarsgaard. Maggie Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard, Mamie Gummer and Cary Joji Fukunaga hosted the evening with producer Norton Herrick, designer Nanette Lepore and her daughter Violet, Tali Lennox (daughter of Annie Lennox and film producer Uri Fruchtmann), Stephanie Lacava, Kick Kennedy and Hailey Gates among those attending.

Before the screening, Foner spoke to us about Katharine Hepburn, François Truffaut's Jules Et Jim and the lack of female role models.

Maggie Gyllenhaal on Peter Sarsgaard in Very Good Girls: "You have to use your imagination what it might be like to be directed by your mother-in-law.

Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen plan to lose their v-cards in the new “Very Good Girls” clip. Marking the feature directorial debut for screenwriter-turned-director Naomi Foner (“Running on Empty”), “Very Good Girls” centers on two New York City girls, Lilly (Fanning) and Gerry (Olsen), who (as previewed in the clip below) make a promise to each other that they’ll each lose their virginities in the summer before college. This proves to be an even more difficult challenge for the two friends as they find their friendship being tested when they both fall for the same street artist (played by Boyd [...]

The post Watch: Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen Make Plans in New ‘Very Good Girls’ Clip appeared first on Up and Comers.

Sneak Peek footage and images from writer/director Naomi Foner's new 'coming-of-age' drama "Very Good Girls", starring Elizabeth Olsen ("Avengers: Age Of Ultron"), Dakota Fanning, Demi Moore, Ellen Barkin, Richard Dreyfuss, Peter Sarsgaard and Clark Gregg:

"....best friends 'Lily' (Fanning) and 'Gerry' (Olsen), home for one last New York summer, make a pact to lose their virginity before leaving for college. 

"But when they both fall for the same handsome artist (Boyd Holbrook)...

"... and Lily starts seeing him in secret, a lifelong friendship is tested..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Very Good Girls"...

After playing a wife and mother in Godzilla, Elizabeth Olsen is reclaiming her youth in the coming-of-age drama Very Good Girls. Here she co-stars with Dakota Fanning, and as you can see in the trailer above, both play beautiful girls who are navigating the tricky path from childhood to adulthood. Written by first-time director (and mother to Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal) Naomi Foner, Very Good Girls stars Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen as Lily and Gerry, best friends trying to make the best out of their last summer in New York City before college starts. Having left high school behind, these young women are perhaps too eager to grow up fast, making a pact to lose their virginity before summer's end. But rivalry arises when they both begin to crush on a handsome young artist played by Boyd Holbrook (The Host). Also in the mix is Peter Sarsgaard as a...

Today we have the trailer for the upcoming "Very Good Girls" film, starring Elizabeth Olsen, Dakota Fanning, Boyd Holbrook, Demi Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, Peter Sarsgaard, Clark Gregg, and Ellen Barkin. Check it out below. Plot: Best friends Lily (Fanning) and Gerry (Olsen), home for one last New York summer, make a pact to lose their virginity before leaving for college. But when they both fall for the same handsome artist (Holbrook) and Lily starts seeing him in secret, a lifelong friendship is tested. The new movie is written and directed by Naomi Foner and is set to be released on iTunes on June 24th and select theaters on July 25th. Trailer:...

Ready to take a trip down memory lane?Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen star in the new coming-of-age drama "Very Good Girls," where the on-screen Bff's explore young adulthood -- trying an array of new experiences together, from skinny dipping to plotting to lose their virginity before they start college. Check out the trailer above! Directed by Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal's mom Naomi Foner, "Very Good Girls" also boasts a pretty A-list cast. Fanning and Olsen star alongside Demi Moore, Clark Gregg, Kiernan Shipka, Peter Sarsgaard, Richard Dreyfuss and Ellen Barkin. The film tells the story of two young girls from New York who make a pact to both loose their virginity after graduating high school, but things take a turn for the worst when the pals fall for the same ice cream vendor/street artist (Boyd Holbrook). While we'll have to wait and see who gets him in the flick,...

Sharing the first look at Naomi Foner’s coming of age flick, iTunes released a trailer for “Very Good Girls” on Tuesday (June 3).

Starring Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning, the heartwarming film follows two best friends enjoying their last summer before college in New York City together.

The catch? They make a pact to lose their virginity before heading off to school and happen to fall in love with the same boy, portrayed by Boyd Holbrook.

“Very Good Girls” also stars Demi Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, Peter Sarsgaard, Clark Gregg and Ellen Barkin. It will be available on iTunes June 24 and hits theaters July 25. Watch the trailer above!