Archive for the ‘Comedy Drama’ Category
Monday, December 14th, 2009
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California is at the epicenter of a political and environmental disaster that threatens to destroy the world in this ambitious fusion of comedy, drama, dystopian science fiction, and music from writer and director Richard Kelly, his first film after gaining a cult following with Donnie Darko. In the year 2005, a nuclear attack wipes out part of the state of Texas, and three years later America is a virtual police state, with the government taking control of nearly every part of people’s lives, supposedly for their own good. A German firm has found a way to generate energy using seawater, but both public and private concerns are desperate to prevent the new technology from being introduced in the gasoline-starved United States. A Marxist underground based on the West Coast is determined to bring down the federal government through violent revolution. In this midst of this chaos, we follow a number of stories that continually return to three principle characters. Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock) is an actor famous for his role in action films; he’s trying to secure financing for a new project, but reality keeps mirroring the events in his script and he struggles to hold on to his identity following a bout with amnesia. Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a porn star who is reinventing herself as a television pundit offering her views on politics, contemporary culture, and teenage sex. And Roland Taverner (Seann William Scott) is an L. A. police officer whose identity has mysteriously split in two and he struggles to track down his other half. Featuring a massive supporting cast which includes Mandy Moore, Miranda Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Smith, Amy Poehler, and Justin Timberlake, Southland Tales received its world premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival; director Kelly also created an accompanying series of three graphic novels which chart these events and characters prior to this story. |
| Also Known As: |
Southland Tales |
| Genres: |
Comedy Drama, Thriller, Black Comedy, Ensemble Film, |
| Running Time: |
161:00 |
| Actor List: |
Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Curtis Armstrong, Joe Campana, Nora Dunn, Michele Durrett, Beth Grant, Wood Harris, John Larroquette, Bai Ling, Jon Lovitz, Mandy Moore, Holmes Osborne, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, Lou Taylor Pucci, Miranda Richardson, Jill Ritchie, Zelda Rubinstein, Will Sasso, Wallace Shawn, Sab Shimono, Kevin Smith, Justin Timberlake, Lisa K. Wyatt, Christopher Lambert, |
Posted in Black Comedy, Comedy Drama, Ensemble Film, Thriller | No Comments »
Friday, December 4th, 2009
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Writer/director John August ponders the metaphysical aspects of life and art in an episodic allegory that follows three artists as they embark on a soul searching journey of fate versus free will. When a troubled actor is placed under house arrest in “The Prisoner,” his imagination begins to run wild due to the fact that his spirited publicist and cynical neighbor provide his only link to the outside world. Later, after the planes of reality fold in on themselves during the production of a Project Greenlight-style show which documents the filming of a popular sitcom in “Reality Television,” “Knowing” follows a successful video game designer and his family as they become stranded in the middle of nowhere due to automotive issues. Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, and Melissa McCarthy star in a drama that peels back the layers of reality to ask whether or not mankind really has any control over his ultimate fate. |
| Also Known As: |
The Nines |
| Genres: |
Comedy Drama, Psychological Drama, |
| Running Time: |
99:00 |
| Actor List: |
Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, Melissa McCarthy, Elle Fanning, Dahlia Salem, David Denman, Octavia L. Spencer, Ben Falcone, |
Posted in Comedy Drama, Psychological Drama | No Comments »
Friday, December 4th, 2009
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Trapped in a miserable marriage and blessed with the ability to transform her misery into delicious desserts, a small-town waitress finds her life forever changed by an unplanned pregnancy. Every day, Jenna (Keri Russell) ties on her apron and serves her customers with a smile, and every night she goes to bed knowing that she is one step closer to the day that she can kiss her scarily domineering husband (Jeremy Sisto) goodbye forever. A smart and sassy baker whose extraordinary pies are inspired by her daily trials and tribulations, Jenna fears that her dreams are all but dead when handsome Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion) reveals that she is soon to become a mother. As Jenna begins penning a series of letters to her unborn baby, her life starts to change for the better in ways she never could have imagined. The final film from actress/filmmaker Adrienne Shelly, Waitress debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah just months after the director was discovered dead in her New York City apartment — the victim of a homicide. |
| Also Known As: |
Waitress |
| Genres: |
Comedy Drama, Romantic Comedy, |
| Running Time: |
107:00 |
| Actor List: |
Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Adrienne Shelly, Jeremy Sisto, Lew Temple, Andy Griffith, Edward Jemison, Sarah Hunley, Nora Paradiso, Darby Stanchfield, |
Posted in Comedy Drama, Romantic Comedy | No Comments »
Friday, November 20th, 2009
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Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star as two terminally ill cancer patients who decide to break out of the hospital and live their last days to the fullest in director Rob Reiner’s seriocomic road movie. Edward Cole (Nicholson) is a corporate billionaire who is currently sharing a hospital room with blue-collar mechanic Carter Chambers (Freeman). Though initially the pair seems to have nothing in common, conversation gradually reveals that both men have a long list of goals they wish to accomplish before they kick the bucket, and an unrealized desire to discover what kind of men they really are. But one can’t accomplish such lofty objectives from the confines of a hospital bed, so now, in order to live their lives to the absolute fullest, Edward and Carter will have to make a break for it. With a checklist that includes playing the poker tables in Monte Carlo, consuming copious amounts of caviar, racing the fastest machines on four wheels, and much more, these two terminally ill men will do their best to fit a lifetime of experience into their last remaining days while forging an unlikely, but truly remarkable, friendship. |
| Also Known As: |
The Bucket List |
| Genres: |
Comedy Drama, Buddy Film, Road Movie, |
| Running Time: |
97:00 |
| Actor List: |
Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd, Alfonso Freeman, Rowena King, Rob Morrow, Annton Berry, Jr., Verda Bridges, Destiny Brownridge, Brian Copeland, Ian Anthony Dale, Jennifer DeFrancisco, Angela Gardner, Noel Guglielmi, Jonathan Hernandez, Hugh B. Holub, Andrea J. Johnson, Dawnn Lewis, Jordan Lund, Richard McGonagle, Jonathan Mangum, Karen Maruyama, Amber Mead, Nikki Novak, John O’Brien, Serena Reeder, Christopher Stapleton, Taylor Ann Thompson, Alex Trebek, Roy Vongtama, |
Posted in Buddy Film, Comedy Drama, Road Movie | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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Subversive Italian satirist Marco Ferreri directed and co-wrote (with Rafael Azcona) this grotesquely amusing French black comedy about four men who grow sick of life, and so meet at a remote villa with the goal of literally eating themselves to death. The quartet comes from various walks of life — a pilot (Marcello Mastroianni), a chef (Ugo Tognazzi), a television host (Michel Piccoli), and a judge (Philippe Noiret) — but all are successful men with excessive appetites for life’s pleasures (food is used as mere metaphor here, as graphic as that metaphor becomes). |
| Also Known As: |
La Grande Bouffe |
| Genres: |
Comedy Drama, Black Comedy, Satire, |
| Running Time: |
130:00 |
| Actor List: |
Michel Piccoli, Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Philippe Noiret, Andra Ferrol, Monique Chaumette, Florence Giorgetti, |
Posted in Black Comedy, Comedy Drama, Satire | No Comments »
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
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Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star as two terminally ill cancer patients who decide to break out of the hospital and live their last days to the fullest in director Rob Reiner’s seriocomic road movie. Edward Cole (Nicholson) is a corporate billionaire who is currently sharing a hospital room with blue-collar mechanic Carter Chambers (Freeman). Though initially the pair seems to have nothing in common, conversation gradually reveals that both men have a long list of goals they wish to accomplish before they kick the bucket, and an unrealized desire to discover what kind of men they really are. But one can’t accomplish such lofty objectives from the confines of a hospital bed, so now, in order to live their lives to the absolute fullest, Edward and Carter will have to make a break for it. With a checklist that includes playing the poker tables in Monte Carlo, consuming copious amounts of caviar, racing the fastest machines on four wheels, and much more, these two terminally ill men will do their best to fit a lifetime of experience into their last remaining days while forging an unlikely, but truly remarkable, friendship. |
| Also Known As: |
The Bucket List |
| Genres: |
Comedy Drama, Buddy Film, Road Movie, |
| Running Time: |
97:00 |
| Actor List: |
Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd, Alfonso Freeman, Rowena King, Rob Morrow, Annton Berry, Jr., Verda Bridges, Destiny Brownridge, Brian Copeland, Ian Anthony Dale, Jennifer DeFrancisco, Angela Gardner, Noel Guglielmi, Jonathan Hernandez, Hugh B. Holub, Andrea J. Johnson, Dawnn Lewis, Jordan Lund, Richard McGonagle, Jonathan Mangum, Karen Maruyama, Amber Mead, Nikki Novak, John O’Brien, Serena Reeder, Christopher Stapleton, Taylor Ann Thompson, Alex Trebek, Roy Vongtama, |
Posted in Buddy Film, Comedy Drama, Road Movie | No Comments »
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
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A pair of siblings are forced to set aside their discomfort with one another for the sake of their father in this low-key comedy drama from writer/director Tamara Jenkins. Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) is a struggling playwright living in New York City who works a day job to support herself and can’t shake the feeling that she’s failed as an artist. Wendy isn’t especially happy about her love life either, gaining little self-esteem from her on-and-off affair with oversexed, married neighbor Larry (Peter Friedman). Wendy’s anxieties about her writing career are intensified by the success of her brother, Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who teaches theater history at a college in Buffalo, NY, and has published a number of books. While Jon’s life seems fine on the surface, a case of writer’s block has stalled work on his latest project, and he’s deeply upset that his girlfriend is soon to leave the United States to return to her native Poland. Wendy and Jon don’t get along and prefer not to see one another, but an unfortunate circumstance brings them together — their father, Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco). Elderly Lenny has began showing signs of dementia, and shortly after he takes to smearing his feces on the walls of his Arizona home, his ailing long-term girlfriend suddenly dies. Wendy and Jon have little choice but to fly to Arizona and see what can be done for Lenny, but their long-simmering animosity makes it hard for them to deal with the realities of Lenny’s condition. The Savages received its world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. |
| Also Known As: |
The Savages |
| Genres: |
Comedy Drama, Family Drama, Medical Drama, Domestic Comedy, |
| Running Time: |
113:00 |
| Actor List: |
Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman, David Zayas, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Cara Seymour, Tonye Patano, Guy Boyd, Debra Monk, Rosemary Murphy, Hal Blankenship, Joan Jaffe, Laura Palmer, Salem Ludwig, Sandy Daley, Peter Frechette, Jennifer Lim, Kristine Nielsen, Christopher Durham, Maddie Corman, Cynthia Darlow, Carmen Roman, Nancy Lenehan, Michael Higgins, Madeleine Lee Gilford, Tijuana Ricks, Margo Martindale, Erica Berg, Michael Blackson, Sidn Anderson, Patti Karr, Johnny Bolton, Zoe Kazan, Lee Sellars, Marianne Weems, Tobin Tyler, Debbie Fuhrman, Lili Liu, Max Jenkins-Goetz, |
Posted in Comedy Drama, Domestic Comedy, Family Drama, Medical Drama | No Comments »
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
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Peruvian filmmaker Alberto ‘Chicho’ Durant directs the ensemble film Doble Juego (Con Game). Rafo (Fabrizio Aguilar) is a would-be filmmaker in Lima struggling to pay his bills and support his girlfriend Laura (Mari Pili Barreda). He gets scammed by a Spanish con artist (Fernando Cayo) as part of an elaborate scheme involving several other Peruvians. The film is based on the corrupt administration of President Fujimori. Con Game was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the World Cinema program. |
| Also Known As: |
Doble Juego |
| Genres: |
Comedy Drama, Crime Drama, Ensemble Film, |
| Running Time: |
98:00 |
| Actor List: |
Fabrizio Aguilar, Carlos Alcantara, Mari Pili Barreda, Gianfranco Brero, Fernando Cayo, Katia Condos, Gianella Neyra, |
Posted in Comedy Drama, Crime Drama, Ensemble Film | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
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Feeling as if her life has grown stagnant after all of her friends jump town in search of greener pastures elsewhere, an aimless office worker is urged by a platonic male friend to carve her own path in life and not simply go with the flow like a dead fish. Anthea (Charlotte Gregg) has sat idly by as all of her friends and acquaintances packed their bags in hopes of finding meaning in the big city. While there’s little evidence that any of them really have achieved all of their wildest dreams, dejected twenty-something Anthea, too is beginning to consider the prospect of relocating if for no other reason than to escape the daily drone of her miserable office job. Anthea’s longtime friend Michael (Matt Zeremes) is stuck in his own rut, and is currently doing his best to convince her to stick around the sleepy eastern Australia town. To this point the relationship between Anthea and Michael has been strictly platonic, but as Anthea starts to take the prospect of relocating increasingly serious it begins to appear as if Michael has not been completely honest about his feelings for his downcast friend. |
Posted in Comedy Drama, Romantic Comedy | No Comments »
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
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Following up on his acclaimed debut Absolute Hangover, Petter Naess spins this feel-good drama about a pair of misfits trying to get along with each other and the outside world. Elling (Per Christian Ellefsen) is a neurotic, shy would-be writer who still lives with his mother. That is at least until she dies, and poor Elling is cast of the house by the health department and sent to state institution. While Elling has no experience with the outside world — though he has a very active interior world — his roommate Kjell Bjarne is a sex-obsessed hulk mass of a man raring to get out. Initially, these two wildly different guys get along famously. Only when they move into public housing together do cracks develop in their relationship. Elling refuses to leave the apartment or answer the phone, and tries to restrict Kjell-Bjarne’s movement as well. When the brawny lothario shacks up with the girl next door, Elling goes ballistic with jealousy. Does Elling accept his lack of control of the world or does he retreat into himself? This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. |
| Also Known As: |
Elling |
| Genres: |
Comedy Drama, Odd Couple Film, Black Comedy, |
| Running Time: |
89:00 |
| Actor List: |
Per Christian Ellefsen, Sven Nordin, Per Christensen, Jrgen Langhelle, Marit Pia Jacobsen, Hilde Olausson, Ola Otnes, Eli Anne Linnestad, Cecilie Mosli, Joachim Rafaelson, Per Gorvel, |
Posted in Black Comedy, Comedy Drama, Odd Couple Film | No Comments »