Tag Archive for 'Julianne Moore'

It’s not news that gay and lesbian films struggle to get out of the niche and be seen as mainstream entertainment and make serious box office dollars.  We all know that many films have gay characters, but films that star and are driven by gay people — male or female — are few and far between.  In the last couple of years there have been several high profile and award winning films that told gay stories namely Milk and Brokeback Mountain.  Milk made $31 million on a budget of $20 and won two Oscars.  Brokeback Mountain was way more successful making $83 million on a $14 million budget and wound up winning three Oscars.

But there really hasn’t been a film of the stature that starred a woman or women.  In doing some research in a very unscientific manner (on twitter) the responses I got when asking for the most mainstream lesbian films were: Basic Instinct, Monster, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Hours, Kissing Jessica Stein, But I’m a Cheerleader, Chasing Amy, Bound, Desert Hearts, Imagine Me & You.

Some good, some bad, some terrible and none really big successes.

Desert Hearts while excellent is from the 80s and while Basic Instinct grossed the most, it is not anyone’s example of a lesbian film.  Fried Green Tomatoes grossed $82 million but that was way back in 1991.  Charlize Theron ruled in Monster but that was not a positive movie.  The Hours was Oscar bait and while several of the main characters were lesbians, I wouldn’t call it a lesbian film.  And then there is Boys Don’t Cry which I honestly don’t know how to categorize.

So when I read the news out of Sundance about how well Lisa Cholodenko’s new film The Kids Are All Right played, I got excited. It’s got all the elements for a mainstream hit. Stars, including Julianne Moore, Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo. And it’s a comedy. All too often niche films of any kind take themselves too seriously. It’s about time we got a comedy about lesbian life.

Here’s a report from The LA Times:

Cholodenko’s movie, a late addition to the festival, centers on the drama that ensues after two children of a lesbian couple seek out their birth father. Supporters of the movie — and there are many — say it can sustain both an awards campaign as well as a broad release to an audience that would be taken with the film’s comedic and poignant moments. The movie, which played to a house packed with distribution execs (and whose screening evoked, in some ways, the response to “Little Miss Sunshine” four years ago.

It also described the audience as “giddy.”  Nobody said that about Cholodenko’s previous films which included Laurel Canyon and High Art.

Here’s NY Magazine’s Vulture blog:

But Bening and Moore are the real treats. Bening plays an uptight, wine-slurping doctor and Moore plays her wife, a compost-loving free spirit. They have two kids, an 18-year-old girl (Mia Wasikowska, who will soon play Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland) and a 15-year-old son (Josh Hutcherson) who both reach out to the sperm donor (Ruffalo), who gave his DNA to each mother. Chodolenko shows a warm, funny side and crafts some brilliant chemistry between her two leads, who make an extraordinarily believable onscreen couple. This may turn out to be one of the most significant lesbian films yet made — especially because it’s premiering in the long shadow of Prop 8. (Emphasis mine) But straight marrieds will have little trouble identifying with the undermining, bitching, nagging, teasing, and reconciling, either: Lighthearted and uproariously funny, it’s not at all a gay-marriage film, but just a great film about marriage. Now, back to that question: Who to push for Best Actress?

Distributors are nervous hoping that this could be a Little Miss Sunshine instead of a Friends With Money.  I think that it is time to stop underestimating audiences.  Figure out a way to market this to women and you will make money.  Make it about family, not just a gay family, and people will come.  Make sure people know they will have a good time and not be hit over the head with a diatribe.

The time is ripe for a successful film driven by a lesbian storyline.

As of this morning, there was no distribution deal yet for the film.

Update: As of 12pm EST it looks like the film is going to Focus Features.

Sundance: Annette Bening and Julianne Moore Wow the Fest With a Gay Marriage Drama (NY Mag Vulture)

Sundance 2010: ‘The Kids Are All Right’ becomes a Sundance sensation (LA Times)

“Kids” More Than All Right: Cholodenko Shines At Sundance (IndieWIRE)

Special thanks to The Linster and Dorothy Snarker for their help.

Tonight in Hollywood Elle Magazine will host the annual salute to women in Hollywood.  I am looking forward to the day when we don’t need to highlight women because they will have as much power as men, but in reality, women are nowhere near as powerful as the guys.

The women being ackowledged tonight include: Katie Holmes, Zoe Saldana, Emily Blunt, Renee Zellweger, Robin Wright Penn, Julie Andrews, Julianne Moore, and Bonnie Timmerman. (How come there is no link to the Julie Andrews and Bonnie Timmerman pieces?)

The highlight of the issue includes the most powerful women in Hollywood according to Nikki Finke the feared blogger who writes Deadline Hollywood.

Here’s the intro:

Last year I was on ELLE’s Women in Hollywood power list; this year I was asked to write it. That’s ironic, because I hate power lists more than one-size-fits-all spa robes. These influential jobs are not necessarily comparable. Are the casting directors I included more important than the cinematographers and film editors I didn’t? So what I have is a very subjective roster of women I deem essential to a town run by alpha males who don’t play well with others. Women in general do. In case you’re wondering, 2009 was a lousy year for female producers because the Industry has contracted, so they’re MIA here. But there are still some movie moguls standing, and, even better, TV execs are thriving. My favorite category, however, is the “coaches.” The trick in Hollywood is not just getting power, it’s keeping it, and if women need psychic intuition or telephone therapy or wise advice from showbiz legends for an edge, who am I to judge? Well, I am the judge. It’s my list!

Here are some of the categories on THE LIST.

THE TALENT

Tyra Banks, mogulette
So much more than that model show, she seems the likely successor to Oprah both in talk and in other TV programming her production company has cooking.

Beyoncé Knowles, singer, actress
She’s come into her own as an actress (Cadillac Records, Obsessed), pitchwoman extraordinaire (L’Oréal, American Express, Pepsi), and inaugural ball star, and is worth $87 million (No. 4 on the 2009 Forbes richest entertainers list).

Kathryn Bigelow, director, producer
This veteran action director (Point Break, The Weight of Water), unafraid of shocking us, may already have a bead on the Oscar with her latest, The Hurt Locker.

Miley Cyrus, Inc.
Young and gorgeous, rich and bankable, versatile and talented, earns $25 million a year, all in one teen-tween package.

Ellen DeGeneres, comedian, talk show host
She has broken every gay barrier—even Madison Avenue is comfortable with her.

Tina Fey, actress, comedian, writer
She saved NBC’s bacon during the 2008 election with her Sarah Palin bit on SNL and with her Emmy-winning 30 Rock.

Michael Patrick King, writer-director and 2009’s honorary female
He gave us the best years of Sex and the City on TV and can be credited for reviving the chick flick in Hollywood when the movie version grossed $415 million.

Stephenie Meyer, novelist
Delivered Hollywood its hottest franchise in years, the Twilight vampire series. She’s sold 70 million books to date, and the films have grossed $383 million worldwide.

Nancy Meyers, director
One of the few women directors who constantly works (The Parent Trap, What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give) because she’s expert at defining the sexual zeitgeist.

Meryl Streep, actress
She shattered Hollywood’s ageism and sexism; at 60, she’s getting her best and showiest roles.

Continue reading ‘The Most Powerful Women in Hollywood According to Nikki Finke’

The Toronto Film Festival has added more films including Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria as the closing night film. (description from indiewire)

Set between 1836, the year before her ascension, to 1840, the year she married Prince Albert, “The Young Victoria” presents a contrasting image of the woman whose image is widely held as an elderly widow dressed in black. According to a TIFF description, in addition to being a love story and family drama, the film explores the idea of instant celebrity – one minute Victoria is living under virtual house arrest, the next she is the most famous woman in the world.

Here are some other films that focus on women or are women directed: (descriptions from Indiewire)

Cairo Time by Ruba Nadda, Canada/Ireland, World Premiere
Juliette (Patricia Clarkson), a magazine editor, arrives in Cairo to meet her husband Mark (Tom McCamus), a UN official in Gaza. When he is unavoidably delayed, Mark sends his friend and former security officer Tareq (Alexander Siddig) to show her around the city. As she gets used to the customs and rhythm of life in Cairo, Juliette finds herself falling not only for the city’s charms, but for Tareq as well.

Chloe by Atom Egoyan, France/Canada, World Premiere
Catherine (Julianne Moore), a successful doctor, suspects her husband David (Liam Neeson), a handsome music professor, is cheating on her. To lay her suspicions and fears to rest, she hires an irresistible young woman, Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), to test David’s fidelity. Chloe’s torrid tales of her encounters with David lead Catherine on a journey of sexual and sensual re-discovery. But by opening the door to temptation, she puts her family in great danger.

Cooking with Stella by Dilip Mehta, Canada, World Premiere
A warmhearted social satire about a Canadian diplomat (Lisa Ray) and her chef husband Michael (Don McKellar) who are posted to New Delhi. Upon arrival they inherit a household of Indian servants headed by the charming, totally inspiring – and wily – cook, Stella (Seema Biswas). When Stella agrees to become Michael’s cooking guru, to teach him traditional Indian dishes, little does he know that she’s cooking up a scheme of her own.

Agora
Alejandro Amenabar, Spain North American Premiere
In the fourth century, while Egypt was under the Roman Empire, violent religious upheaval in the streets of Alexandria spills over into the city’s famous library. Trapped inside its walls, the brilliant astronomer Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) and her disciples fight to save the wisdom of the ancient world. Among the group are the two men competing for Hypatia’s heart: the witty, privileged Orestes and Davus, Hypatia’s young slave, who is torn between his secret love for her and the freedom he knows can be his if he chooses to join the unstoppable surge of the Christians.

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits
Don Roos, USA World Premiere
Emilia Woolf (Natalie Portman) is a Harvard law school graduate and a newlywed, having just married Jack, her high-powered New York lawyer boss (Scott Cohen). Her life takes an unexpected turn when the couple loses their newborn daughter. Emilia struggles through her grief to connect with her precocious new stepson William (Charlie Tahan), overcome a rift in her relationship with her father caused by his infidelity, and cope with the constant interferences of Jack’s angry, jealous ex-wife (Lisa Kudrow). An adaptation of an Ayelet Waldman novel, this tearful and terrific tale by writer-director Don Roos proves that even with a pursuit like love, nothing is impossible.

Mother and Child
Rodrigo Garcia, USA World Premiere
This moving drama follows the story of three women (Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington) and the power of the unbreakable bond between mother and child. From writer-director Rodrigo Garcia (Nine Lives), executive producer Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel) and producers Lisa Falcone and Julie Lynn, the film also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Shareeka Epps, Cherry Jones and S. Epatha Merkerson.

The Waiting City
Claire McCarthy, Australia World Premiere
An outwardly happy Australian couple (Radha Mitchell, Joel Edgerton) journey to Kolkata, India to collect their adopted baby, but on arrival finds that the arrangements at the agency have yet to be finalized. They have no option but to wait in this place that, to them, is chaotic and foreign. But as the intoxicating mystic powers of the Indian city pull them each in separate and unexpected directions, the vulnerability of their marriage begins to reveal itself.

and for the YUCK factor (please tell me why women are drawn to make films about misogynist creeps.)

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel by Brigitte Berman, Canada, World Premiere
An intimate look at the outspoken, flamboyant founder of the Playboy empire. With humour and insight, the film captures Hefner’s fierce battles with the government, the religious right and militant feminists. Rare footage and compelling interviews with a remarkable who’s who of 20th Century American pop culture, present a brilliant and entertaining snapshot of the life of an extraordinary man and the controversies that surrounded him.

Lisa Cholodenko

Just read about two new movies where two sets of women play lovers.

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as partners and mothers in The Kids Are Alright.  The film is about their kids’ search for their sperm donor (played by Mark Ruffalo) altering the family dynamic forever.  Film is directed and co-written by Lisa Cholodenko and started shooting this week.

Cloudburst stars Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis as long time lovers who break out of a nursing home and take a road trip.  The comedy starts filming this month in Nova Scotia.

Indie Kids Adopts Cast (Variety)

Dukakis, Fricker Set for Cloudburst (Variety)