catherine keener Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Who would ever thought that David Schwimmer would helm some drama? Between acting gigs like Friends, helming 10 episodes of the hit show, directing Run Fatboy Run, and even picking up 6 episodes of Little Britain USA, he seemed to be completely focused on comedy. Yet now Variety reports that he will direct Clive Owen and Catherine Keener in a new "dark drama" called Trust.

Schwimmer created the story, which Andy Bellin wrote, and it focuses on the effects an online sexual predator has on a family. But it won't be Owen going back to his creepy Closer ways. Owen and Keener will play the parents of a 14-year-old girl who fell victim to an adult posing as a teenager in a chat room. The young Liana Liberato will play the daughter. There's no word on who the predator will be, but consider the lack of sex pronouns, I've got to wonder if it's a woman, or someone we never see.

Shooting will begin really soon -- next month in Michigan. And then we'll see what a dramatic David Schwimmer world is like. What do you think? Are you intrigued by the thought of Ross, online predators, and Clive Owen with Catherine Keener? Is this a new era -o- Schwimmer?

Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief is the first in a series of young adult novels by Rick Riordan about a kid with dyslexia and ADHD who's also the kid of, you know, the son of Poseidon. As with most of us, he learns all about himself at summer camp -- except instead of mosquito bites and panty raids, Percy finds his camp is full of the sons and daughters of demigods. Since being optioned by Fox 2000 in 2004, it's acquired quite a roster of theatrical demigods to the cast, and its latest additions are pretty swell.

Rosario Dawson (who was the only part of Seven Pounds that didn't make me want to throw a shoe at the screen) is playing a sexy Persephone who gets a little friendly with Percy's BFF Grover, who, as it turns out, is a satyr. Awkward!

Hollywood loves to stereotype people with mental illnesses as being merely quirky, or easy to cure if you just give 'em a lot of the right kind of love. The Soloist aims for a more realistic portrayal, and even tries to build awareness about the problems of homeless people in America. Unfortunately, the overall film isn't compelling, and the plot falls into the easy traps of traditional melodrama.

Steve Lopez's nonfiction book was adapted by Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich, Catch and Release). Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) is always on the hunt for more material to fill his LA Times column space, even cannibalizing his own cycling accident to tell a good story. When he encounters Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) playing violin by a statue of Beethoven, and learns that this homeless man once attended Juilliard, he figures he's hit the columnist jackpot. Little by little he starts to try to "fix" Nathaniel -- finding him a cello and a safe place to play, taking him to symphony rehearsals -- but it's not all that easy. And naturally, Steve's life starts to change too, and he's not sure how to handle it.

I don't know if Chris Columbus' Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief will be the next Harry Potter, but it certainly has a cast that can rival the one living at Hogwarts. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the latest to sign on is the always lovely Catherine Keener, who will be playing Sally Jackson, mother to Logan Lerman's Percy.
Of course, Sally isn't just any ordinary single mother, she's one beloved by at least one Greek god. A forbidden love affair with Poseidon produced Percy, who just might be the boy to fulfill a prophecy. Sally tries to conceal Percy's identity from the gods and from himself, but of course that never works.

The Olympians cast so far include Uma Thurman as Medusa (I know, right?), Pierce Brosnan as Chiron, Melina Kanakeredes as Athena, Kevin McKidd as Poseidon, and Sean Bean as Zeus. They're still looking for a Hades and probably annoyed Clash of the Titans nabbed Ralph Fiennes as theirs.

I share Peter Martin's doubts that this will be the next Potter (I think that's a one time thing), and I'm so-so on the story because it flouts mythological convention and gives the man-disdaining Athena a daughter. But I am a sucker for a lot of the cast members (especially McKidd and Bean), and the idea of McKidd and Keener being so overcome with passion that they flouted the decrees of the gods? That is the stuff Greek myths are made of, so who knows? It might be pretty fun.

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

Awards season has begun, and I doubt you'll be seeing much mention of Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York (115 screens), except possibly in the "production design" categories. And the truth is that the film only partially works; it's quasi-insane in a good way, but it hits upon ideas that were better explored in Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaptation (2002). It does have a great cast, however, and it's a shame that they'll all be overlooked. Philip Seymour Hoffman, of course, will shake it off and probably win some honors for Doubt. He's one of the greatest actors of our time, and we'll probably be watching high-quality Philip Seymour Hoffman movies for decades to come. No, I'd rather focus on the many great women that drift in and out of the film. Thank goodness for them.

Catherine Keener has been nominated for two Oscars (for Being John Malkovich and Capote) and for my money she'd be nominated for her devastatingly funny performance in Hamlet 2. She's clearly smart and amazingly versatile; she can play a bored housewife, but she can also turn men's heads with very little effort. Her gift is that she can hook you and then play with you by switching gears so fast you can't see them. She's lately segued into a series of wonderful character roles and will probably be around for some time.

(Barry Levinson's "What Just Happened?" opened in limited release this weekend, so here's our Sundance review from last January.)

By: Scott Weinberg

If you're a ravenous movie nerd like me, then there's very little in Barry Levinson's "inside baseball" Hollywood movie What Just Happened? you don't know already. If, on the other hand, you don't know a whole lot about studio politics, the angst of test-market screenings, and the tricks that movie-makers (or, more specifically, movie-sellers) will pull just to get a festival screening and a huge opening weekend, then you'll most likely get a whole bunch of chuckles out of the flick. To those who know about this stuff all too well, the comedy should still make for an interesting enough diversion -- thanks mainly to a massive, colorful cast and a few solid jabs that hit Hollywood right in the kisser.

Based on producer Art Linson's book What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line, the film version tells the story of one very successful Hollywood producer, and the ways in which he juggles multiple professional crises, as well as some prickly domestic issues at the same time. Robert De Niro is our movie producer, doing his best "sly" comedic work since (probably) Wag the Dog. John Turturro is the archetypal agent: skittish, shifty, and packing a nasty ulcer. Stanley Tucci is the writer who needs our protagonist for professional reasons, but pursues his ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn) for other activities. Michael Wincott is the drug-infested director whose ultra-edgy film is being mangled by horrifying studio boss Catherine Keener.

I'm of two minds when it comes to this fall's sure-fire awards contender, The Soloist. One half of me is in mild awe that, even in 2008, we find ourselves staring down an awards bid in which a failed journalist and a failed musician help restore one another to their former glory, live life to the fullest, so on, so forth, etc. Yeah, I know it's based from a true story, but that doesn't make it instantly inspirational (well, it does for some).

The other half, however, acknowledges that two talented actors could make something special out of the material, and judging from this new trailer over at Yahoo! Movies, Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx might be just the men for the respective roles. (Oh, and Joe Wright's directing, perhaps out of a need to make a film that didn't involve the melodramatic romances carried out by a character played by Keira Knightley.)

So what do you guys think? Will this be as much of a cross between Resurrecting the Champ and Shine as I suspect it to be, or is your personal performance-hunch-o-meter positively a-tingle?

Here's a movie that deals with death and grief without hysterics, dramatic speeches or showy, Oscar-grubbing performances. Michael Winterbottom's Genova has a logline that sounds maudlin and turgid – after she inadvertently causes a car accident that kills her mother, a young girl starts seeing mom's ghost – but the movie turns out to be understated, down-to-earth, quietly sad. This is Winterbottom's most intimate film since 9 Songs, and one of the highlights of his career.

Genova has the wherewithal to show its characters dealing with loss in ways that aren't inherently cinematic. It would have been very striking, for example, to have the newly motherless children – the teenage Kelly (Willa Holland) and the preteen Mary (Perla Haney-Jardine) – scream, rage at the world, and slam doors in the face of their well-intentioned father Joe (Colin Firth) before concluding that Family Sticks Together. And in a film like this, I would have guessed that Joe would spiral into an alcoholic depression, or perhaps start a tumultuous, guilt-ridden affair with the old college friend (Catherine Keener) who comes back into his life.

Those are the arcs I would have expected to see. But though a couple doors do get slammed, Winterbottom's characters aren't here to amuse us or push our buttons. Their reactions to the tragedy and their ways of adjusting to a new life in the titular city all paint a much more nuanced picture – and the effect is more heartbreaking than any number of manipulative stunts could have achieved.

Suffering from the Hollywood blockbuster blues? Have I got some indies for you! All three are newly available this week on DVD.

Kim Voynar called Vadim Perelman's The Life Before Her Eyes "a lovely, nuanced film packed with imagery, and bracketed by an intriguing storyline." The story revolves around the survivor of a school shooting; Uma Thurman plays her as an adult and Evan Rachel Wood as a teenager. Kim wrote in part: "I'd expect the director's commentary on the DVD to be intriguing." The DVD does indeed feature an audio commentary by the director, joined by production designer Maia Javan. Also included are deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and several other mini-features. A Blu-ray edition is also available.

Kim also reviewed Tommy O'Haver's An American Crime when it debuted at Sundance last year. Based on the true tragedy of teenage Sylvia Likens (Ellen Page) who was "brutally beaten, burned, starved and tortured to death" in 1965 Indiana, Kim said the film was difficult to watch. "The real question ... is not just how the Sylvia Likens case could have happened, but why situations like this happen at all -- and still do." Catherine Keener and James Franco also star. The DVD doesn't appear to have any supplemental material.

On the lighter side, Bharat Nalluri's Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day "is a nearly perfect piece of entertainment for grownups," according to James Rocchi. Frances McDormand plays a down-on-her-luck British governess and Amy Adams essays her employer, an American singer / actress in late 1930s London. The DVD includes a "making of," deleted scenes, and "Miss Pettigrew's Long Trip to Hollywood."

Not long ago the strangest unmarked DVD arrived in my mailbox. Actually, strike that, on it were the words, "What Happened to Bruce Willis?" So I popped it in, and -- whaddya know -- it was a very funny scene from the film What Just Happened? featuring Robert De Niro trying to convince Bruce Willis to shave his obnoxious beard for a movie. Since it first premiered back at this year's Sundance Film Festival (read James' review), I've been waiting to see more from What Just Happened? as it featured a reunion between director Barry Levinson and De Niro, who worked together on the very awesome political satire Wag the Dog.

Now, thankfully, the first full-length trailer for the flick has arrived online (see above or over on Moviefone), and while it definitely appears to have the whole "inside baseball" thing going on, it certainly looks entertaining. Heck, with a cast featuring the likes of De Niro, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, Catherine Keener, John Turturro and Robin Wright Penn, I'd like to think we'll be getting our money's worth from this one. Based on the memoir by producer Art Linson, What Just Happened? follows a Hollywood producer (De Niro) who's struggling to maintain his sanity while juggling his deteriorating personal life and a new movie he's trying to get made. Here's the poster, up there is the trailer -- now tell us what you think ...

What Just Happened? is due in theaters on October 3.