brad renfro Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Well Cinematical is officially in Park City, Utah for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and to kick-start our coverage we have this exclusive clip from The Informers, which is one of (if not the) largest premiere here this year. Based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis, The Informers follows a week in the life of several seedy individuals -- movie executives, rock stars, a vampire, a kidnapper -- as they mix and mingle in 1983 Los Angeles. With an all star cast including Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Brad Renfro, Amber Heard and more -- The Informers, directed by Gregor Jordan, looks to spread its dirty, erotic stench all over Park City this week. Check out the clip below, which features Mickey Rourke and the late Brad Renfro (in his final role).

For me, it started with the deaths of comedic greats like Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason. Death had become real and tangible, making the world and showbusiness finite. Since then, the numbers have gradually increased. We're slowly walking into the period where memorials and tributes aren't relegated to actors before our time, but to the names and faces that shaped our views of entertainment -- the people who we have spent so much time with on the big screen, and within the comfort of our own homes.

But we're not just losing people to age. 2008 has been a heavy year for Hollywood, losing both rising stars and big names with long careers. Considering the fact that we just lost two more, I wanted to take a moment and look back at this year's shockers. Some of these men were young, some of these men were older, but all of them have left this earth too soon.

There's just something about Bret Easton Ellis' work on the big screen that I love -- the desperation mixed with a backdrop of insidiously upbeat '80s music. We've gotten Less Than Zero, American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction, and now The Informers. Word broke in May of 2007 that the interconnected collection of stories was going to be adapted, and now there's a trailer which you can see after the jump (beware of nudity and foul language).

It's the late Brad Renfro's last role, and one that should prove to be much eerier than Heath Ledger's stint as the Joker. It's got thumbsucking Lou Taylor Pucci as an entirely different sort of character, but Billy Bob Thornton steals just about every clip he's in -- and there's also the likes of Amber Heard, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Rhys Ifans, and Brandon Routh.

It looks like it could be just as good as its predecessors, but here's to hoping that the goodness is balanced with the box office this time around. Have you read the book? Do you think this trailer does it justice? And are you excited about the film?

Last night, as per every year at the Oscars, they take a brief break from all the self-congratulatory back-patting to acknowledge the deaths in the movie industry over the preceding year. As several of our readers (and Scott Weinberg, who was going ballastic on IM about it) noted, Brad Renfro, who died of a drug overdose on January 15 of this year, was mysteriously excluded. The troubled actor, best known for his work in The Client, Apt Pupil, and Bully, had been known to have a drug problem for years, and had a drunk driving and heroin-possession arrest in May 2006, but was supposedly "working hard on his sobriety" at the time of his death.

The In Memorium was supposed to be for everyone who died between February 1, 2007 and January 31, 2008. Heath Ledger, who died a week after Renfro, was included in the montage. No word from the Academy that I've seen yet on why Renfro wasn't included -- an honest oversight? A deliberate sweeping-under-the-red-carpet because heroin was involved? What do you think about Renfro being shut out of Oscar's "In Memorium"?

Every once in a while, we will be inevitably thrown by news of a young actor's death. It happens, but thankfully, not all the time. This month, however, just one shocking week apart, we lost two -- Heath Ledger and Brad Renfro. I don't want to weigh this down with discussions of their death, any pain they might have been dealing with, or the loved ones who mourn them. Instead, let's focus on the footprints they made in the world of film. I could cite the serious achievements of both -- Ledger's Brokeback Mountain or Renfro's Apt Pupil -- but we've had enough pain over the last 10 days. Instead, I want to focus on something happier. Tonight, in memory of two talented actors taken too soon, I give you: 10 Things I Hate About You and Ghost World.


10 Things I Hate About You



Sure, I have a soft spot for The Taming of the Shrew, but with or without Shakespeare's classic play, 10 Things I Hate About You hit the right spots and helped catapult Heath Ledger into stardom. He starred as Patrick Verona, a supposed bad boy who turns out to be the coolest guy in school...well, after he comes to his senses and realizes that a bribe isn't the way to a girl's heart. Nevertheless, he breaks through Kat Stratford's (Julia Stiles) tough exterior and steals her heart while her fluffy sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) tries to figure out if she wants Joey (Andrew Keegan) or Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

While all play their parts well, it was Heath who made the most impact. He made the hokey stuff seem less goofy, and he knew how to portray the cocky, irresistible sparks of the original Petruchio. He made paintball sexy, and over-the-top musical numbers seem devilish instead of desperate. Even Roger Ebert was charmed by Heath's performance.

Patrick Verona serenades Kat Stratford.

Poetry for Patrick.

Bloopers!

I wanted to stick with Heath bits, but I can't resist the flick's beginning, with Allison Janney's sexy writing.

Brad Renfro, 25 year-old star of such films as The Client, Apt Pupil, and Bully, was found dead in his Los Angeles home early this morning, reports the Associated Press. Renfro's lawyer, Richard Kaplan, broke the tragic news. The cause of death is currently unknown, but Renfro had been drinking with friends the night before. Foul play is not suspected. Renfro led a troubled life, and there had been several run-ins with the law over the years, for drugs, DUI, and more. In May 2006, he served ten days in jail after he plead no contest to drunk driving and guilty to attempted possession of heroin. His most notable recent film appearance was opposite Adrien Brody in The Jacket, and he recently completed work on the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation The Informers.

Renfro began acting when he was only twelve years old. At twelve, he played the title role in Joel Schumacher's adaptation of John Grisham's The Client, which starred Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. He was a terrific young actor, and since he was roughly my age, I followed his career from his younger roles in The Cure and Tom and Huck, through more mature fare like Telling Lies in America and Sleepers. My favorite roles of his were later ones: Todd in Bryan Singer's Apt Pupil, Marty in Larry Clark's highly disturbing Bully, and Josh in Terry Zwigoff's modern classic Ghost World. Kaplan tells the AP, "He was working hard on his sobriety. He was doing well. He was a nice person." We at Cinematical mourn the loss of a real talent, and our sympathies are with his family and friends.

Actor Brad Renfro (AKA the kid from The Client) has had sort of a tough week. On Monday he was before a judge for sentencing after pleading guilty to attempted possession of heroin, a charge stemming from his arrest in a December sting operation. Because California has a law that allows non-violent drug offenders to enter treatment rather than the state pen, the judge, in addition to handing down three years of probation and the warning of up to 18 months in jail for a subsequent drug arrest, ordered Refro into a "drug diversion" program.

It turns out, however, that any "Woo hoo! No prison!" celebration following that court appearance was a mite hasty, because when Renfro pleaded no contest yesterday to a November drunk driving charge, he was sentenced to 10 days in prison, another five years probation, and 18 months in (yet another) counseling program. Doh! To his credit, the actor turned himself in on the spot, and began serving the sentence immediately.

Ah, child stars. They're like little, human car wrecks.