While at Fantastic Fest, it’s not often you find feel-good, heart-warming yarns amid the plethora of films about yakuza, murderers, zombies or other genre staples. But The True Adventures of Wolfboy is as unexpected as it is honest, and it’s a wondrous take on the “it’s ok to be you” type of film. After all, would you have icons of the indie film scene like Chris Messina or John Turturro if it wasn’t a quality story? Didn’t think so. The film is about a 13 year-old boy, Paul (played by prolific young actor Jaeden Martell), who suffers from hypertrichosis — which covers him with animal-like fur. He knows he’s not…
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Gia Coppola’s Directorial Debut ‘Palo Alto’ Brings James Franco’s Short Stories to the Big Screen
James Franco is everywhere these days and up next he’ll star in Gia Coppola’s acclaimed debut feature film Palo Alto. The film screened last year in the Venice, Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals and is based on several linked stories in James Franco’s book of the same name. The story, a James Franco and Rabbit Bandini Productions presentation, chronicles the complicated ties and heightened emotions among a group of high school students. Shy, sensitive April (Emma Roberts) is a popular soccer player and frequent babysitter for her single-dad coach, Mr. B. (James Franco). Teddy (played by Jack Kilmer) is an introspective artist whose best friend and sidekick Fred (Nat Wolff) is…
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G-S-T Quick 5 – Favorite Chris Messina Films
Last week saw the release of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ‘ highly entertaining ensemble indie comedy Ruby Sparks. While high marks go to the directing duo (who also gave us Little Miss Sunshine) and even higher ones going to star/writer Zoe Kazan, this post is an effort to highlight the unsung hero of that charming and highly original film; one Chris Messina. He’s the likable every-man but also has the chops to pull off any and all roles from “that guy” to a capable leading man. Just a solid staple in every film he’s in, his star is steadily rising but he still hasn’t quite broken out yet. In the film world we’ve seen actors like…
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G-S-T Review…Ruby Sparks
Ruby Sparks is the first screenplay from star Zoe Kazan and the film features the highly anticipated return of the husband/wife filmmaking duo who brought us 2006’s mega hit Little Miss Sunshine. Similar in style to their Oscar-nominated feature, this highly original and delightful concept is a rare thing in Hollywood. It’s a sweet, emotional and enjoyable flick that, free of pretense and a visible Hollywood hand, legitimately pulls the audience in without tropes or trite concepts that would unfairly cause many to blindly and inaccurate lying label this as just another “rom-com”. Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) found immense literary success at a young age and like any artist who hits it…
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[USAFF Review]…The Giant Mechanical Man
In Lee Kirk’s indie film The Giant Mechanical Man, two lost individuals find that they are not as alone or hopeless as they think they are. Janice (Jenna Fischer) can’t hold down her temp jobs and Tim (Chris Messina) spends his days as a thankless street performer; a silver painted, dry-wall stilt wearing 9 foot “mechanical man“. When nothing is going right, their paths cross and they prove to be the only one who truly understands the other, especially when the world thinks they’re both nuts. Sure, details aside, this has the set up of many films (indie or otherwise) you’ve seen before: quirky character A meets quirky character B, romance ensues, roll credits.…
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Sweet Trailer…'The Giant Mechanical Man'
From Dallas native Lee Kirk comes this charming and quirky ensemble romantic comedy akin to Little Miss Sunshine or Garden State. Playing the titular Mechanical Man is Chris Messina (one of the standout performances in Devil) as he and Jenna Fischer help each other to realize that in this crazy world it only takes one person to make you feel important. Behold, The Giant Mechanical Man (disclaimer: not a real mechanical man or sequel to The Iron Giant…bummer). Written/directed by Lee Kirk, The Giant Mechanical Man stars Jenna Fischer, Chris Messina, Malin Ackerman, Topher Grace, Bob Odenkirk and Lucy Punch and is set to play at the Tribeca Film Festival next month (hmmm,…
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The Hollywood Fantasy Draft II – "Broken Ties”
Last year Anomalous Material created the Hollywood Fantasy Draft. Man it was so much fun to play Studio Exec for a week or two. Sitting there, waiting, watching, hoping you’d get your top picks (or not) and biting your nails the whole time. Then when you got your choices of director and actors you start out to write the story for them to star in. In the past month or so all participants have been using their awesome picks in very intriguing roles and premises. I haven’t gotten around to them all but I think everyone has fared better in this second run through. Below is the story I came up with…
