Sally Hawkins Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's time to go back into the memory banks a little bit. Remember when Richard Kelly started Darko Entertainment back in September of 2007? The first movie slated to hit production was Dirty Girl, with this psychological thriller called The Box slated to be movie numero dos. Now we're about to see what Kelly has in store for us with his third film, and Dirty Girl vanished into the ether ... until now.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that the movie is still in the works -- now in the hands Ideal Partners, Killer Films, and Paris Film -- and has got its cast: Juno Temple, Sally Hawkins, William H. Macy, and Lisa Kudrow. Marking Abe Sylvia's feature directorial debut, the film focuses on "a high school tramp who runs away with the school's gay, fat kid in his homophobic dad's stolen car." Got all that? Variety chose to lighten the impact a bit by describing it as a film revolving around "a high school tramp who pairs up with a shy and overweight gay teen. Together, they set off to find her real father in California."

Temple is the lead as "dirty girl" Danielle, Hawkins is playing her "reformed slut" mother Sue-Ann, Macy is Sue-Ann's Mormon fiance, and Kudrow will play "Clarke's mousy repressed mother." Let's assume Clarke is the gay teen, and I'll go out on a limb and saying Jeremy Dozier is playing him. THR doesn't mention him at all, and Variety doesn't list his role, choosing to focus on the parental units.

Keep reading -- this ain't all of it, folks.

I have a theory that whether you find Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky utterly annoying or a joy and an inspiration offers an interesting insight to your personality. I once declared in a fit of hyperbole that anyone who didn't love Happy-Go-Lucky or The Brothers Bloom was not anyone I wanted to associate with. I might have also insinuated such people didn't have a soul. And while those statements were rather hasty, I stand by my theory about Poppy, played by Sally Hawkins Maybe you sympathize with Eddie Marsan's angry and needy driving instructor character and think she should have done more to help him. Maybe you think Poppy is another insipid incarnation of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Or maybe you just like structured plots. Me, I was totally happy to trip along with Poppy on her adventures, no matter how nonsensical or ill-advised.

Welcome to Girls on Film -- not as skin-laden as the Duran Duran song, but a new Cinematical column full of female-centric musing, rants, love, and aggravation.

There are two ways you can go with an introductory post -- you can either jump in randomly, or try for something all-encompassing. I was set on the latter, but the challenge is not just stating the obvious. We know that women struggle behind the camera, and we know what they get offered in front of it. But as much as gripes and arguments about women in film are necessary to improve the Hollywood landscape, they're only as good as the moments of praise and adoration. If we can't appreciate the good that's present today, and for that matter, was present yesterday, this cycle will never end because eyes set completely on the future never see the perks of the present.

It's a bad habit that pops up in any part of life -- so much energy is expended on the fight, and it's so easy to fall into an aggravation-filled rant, that we often forget the good. In the world of cinema, it's everywhere. We rant, rightly so, about remakes and sequels, but also forget when they transcend their mundane brethren to become a worthy feature. (The first Fly is wonderful, but can you imagine Hollywood without the remake?) When it comes to women, so much energy is thrown down the toilet ranting about talented women selecting crap -- Sandra Bullock's next dumb comedy, or another romcom about girls fighting over boys (I'm looking at you, Bride Wars) -- that we rarely chatter on about the good. And, if you follow that whole Law of Attraction thing, focusing on the absence is bad, but focusing on the good that's there brings more of it.

Three casting bites, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter:

She may have wowed us all with her kickass teen detective on Veronica Mars, but her big-screen work continues to lack the same verve. On the heels of When in Rome and Couples Retreat, Kristen Bell has signed on to Andy Fickman's You Again. She'll play a woman who finds out that her brother is gearing up to marry the evil girl who made her years in high school a living hell. Not happy with the idea, she tries to find a way to reveal the girl's true evilness to her brother. Aren't there any mysteries to solve? Joel Silver, let Rob Thomas make the film. Bell needs better!

Meanwhile, the wonderful Sally Hawkins, the woman behind Happy-Go-Lucky, has grabbed herself a sci-fi gig. Hawkins, along with Charlotte Rampling, Nathalie Richard, and Andrea Riseborough, have signed onto Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go. This is that sci-fi drama that Keira Knightley signed onto last month, which focuses on three boarding school friends who get a rather shocking surprise as young adults. Unfortunately, there's no word on who these newest cast members will play. Boarding school teachers? The people behind the sci-fi twist?

Lastly, Emily Blunt might not be signing on for a little Russell Brand and Jonah Hill, but Elisabeth Moss, Sean P Diddy Combs, and Rose Byrne sure are. They're the new castmembers added to Get Him to the Greek -- the flick where Hill has to get the wild rocker Brand from London to LA, "becoming introduced to an out-of-control life of hookers and blow along the way." Yay. More hookers. Hollywood definitely doesn't have enough of them. Moss will play Hill's repressed doctor girlfriend (not the kind with Calamitous Intent), Combs will be Hill's record company boss, and Byrne will be Brand's ex, "a Courtney Love-type rocker." Loved Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but this pic has yet to wow me.

The lovely Sally Hawkins, who stole hearts in Happy-Go-Lucky, has lined up a new gig. In fact, it's one that could end up rivaling the likes of Sex and the City, at least as far as titles go. Variety reports that she's signed on for a new film called We Want Sex. But I warn you now: It's NOT that kind of movie.

In fact, this could do the exact opposite of taking "Porno" out of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, making many a sex-loving viewer a wee bit disappointed. See, the film will focus on a 1968 Ford car plant strike when 850 female workers walked out to protest sexual discrimination -- and ultimately helped the movement to get equal pay for women in the workplace.

I know, that's not really a sexy sort of theme. So, how does the title come into play? It's a reference to a banner carried during one of their marches. It should've said: "We Want Sex Equality," but it "was only later that they realized the last word had gone missing." One: How do you not notice the absence of the word "equality"? Two: How does no one else notice and bring down the banner? Three: How many moviegoers will get the joke?

This is said to be a "very funny" project, so at least people won't be misguided into dramatic fare, but I still think this could be quite a surprise for many.

Just how far should a film take an inside joke, especially when they're scheming up a title?

Success Stories:
Happy-Go-Lucky (Miramax)
Religulous (Lionsgate)
Ballast (Alluvial/Required Viewing)

One Brit edged out another, as RockNRolla, Guy Ritchie's zippy yet utterfully forgettable "return to form" Brit crime flick, narrowly claimed the #1 spot among limited releases, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. To my mind, though, Mike Leigh's much riskier Happy-Go-Lucky ($20,000 per screen at four theaters) is the surprise winner in the independent world, with a strking lead performance by Sally Hawkins as a preternaturally cheerful schoolteacher who sounds as though she could set teeth on edge as easily as she warms hearts. I'm curious but wary. The film will expand wider on Friday; if you've seen it, is it a tonic for difficult times or a passive aggressive form of torture?

Speaking of possibly unpleasant experiences, I'm also surprised by the excellent returns for Larry Charles' Religulous. The doc has earned more than $6.7 million in just two weeks; A. J. Schnack of All these wonderful things points out that it's the first doc since Michael Moore's Sicko "to score back-to-back multi-million dollar weekends." I grew tired of Bill Maher's smirking, self-righteous ridicule years ago, but perhaps I'm in the minority. If you've seen the doc, are you a big fan of Maher? Or is it the subject matter that made it a must-see?

Lance Hammer's Ballast deserves a big hand. Not only did Hammer write and direct a highly-praised drama, he decided to take on distribution duties as well, opening it at a single Manhattan theater the weekend before last. The earnings were not stunning, but very respectable for picture without stars. It expands to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, Philadelphia and St. Louis before the end of October, according to indieWIRE. Will you check out Ballast if it opens near you?

(Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" opens in limited release this weekend, and so we're reprinting our Telluride review from this past August.)

By: Kim Voynar

With his latest effort, Happy-Go-Lucky, director Mike Leigh takes a departure from the dark mood evoked by most of his films with a charming little tale about an eternally optimistic school teacher, Poppy (Sally Hawkins, previously seen in smaller roles in Leigh's films Vera Drake and All or Nothing), who breezes through life, always seeing the glass half full. Poppy is one of those people who never seems to get down about anything. She smiles at surly strangers, strikes up conversations with people who'd clearly prefer to be left alone, and puts a positive spin on everything.

When her bike is stolen, Poppy shrugs it off and decides to take driving lessons; her driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan, also a Leigh alum from Vera Drake) is Poppy's polar opposite. Some of the film's best moments are when she's interacting with Scott and we have the dramatic tension of his simmering anger to contrast with Poppy's perkiness. Scott is intensely uptight, seems to hate everyone and everything, and adheres firmly to the belief that if only everyone would follow a strict set of rules (his rules, of course), all would be well. Naturally, the two clash.

Today I leave Toronto to head home to Seattle, leaving James Rocchi behind to see the fest through to its exhausting end. It's been a decent fest overall, not great but good. I saw a several films I enjoyed here, including Burn After Reading, Goodbye Solo, and 35 Rhums, as well as a couple of fun midnight picks with JCVD and Detroit Metal City.

I missed being able to see a lot of films I really wanted to see, due to schedule conflicts and the lack of a cloning machine at our hotel that would allow me to be multiple places at once (or at least, the ability to see far enough into the future to foresee which of two films screening opposite each other will be wretched).

It seems that lots and lots of people who attend this fest (I'm talking normal people, not those of us crazy or masochistic enough to work in any aspect of the film business) want very, very much to attend the big parties, and seem to think if they can't get in, they're missing something fun or perhaps even life-altering. There's always a gaggle of scantily clad girls and hipsters hovering around the entrance of these events, hoping to finagle a way to crash the party.

The Telluride Film Festival has wrapped up and we're gearing up for our non-stop coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival, which starts tomorrow. Just in case you missed any of our coverage from the Telluride Film Festival, here's a roundup of what we saw there. Most of these films will also be playing at Toronto as well; if you attended Telluride or are going to TIFF, be sure to let us know which films you love or hate -- we always enjoy hearing what our smart Cinematical cinephiles think about the films they catch at fests.

Slumdog Millionaire (dir. Danny Boyle): Fans of director Danny Boyle's work will find much to appreciate in his latest film, Slumdog Millionaire, a sweeping, hopeful story about a boy in the slums of India who becomes an instant celebrity after he wins millions on India's version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? ... read more

Happy-Go-Lucky, the newest film by director Mike Leigh, has been getting high praise at the Telluride Film Festival for Sally Hawkins' performance as Poppy, a primary school teacher with an optimistic nature. In this clip (see below), Poppy is taking a driving lesson from Scott (Eddie Marsan), a tightly wound driving instructor who's Poppy's polar opposite. The scenes between Poppy and Scott are some of the best and funniest in the film; this one will give you a little taste of it. Happy-Go-Lucky plays at the Toronto International Film Festival before opening in limited release October 10. You can read our full review of the film from Telluride right here.