david mackenzie Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Jamie Bell makes the best of a bad situation as Hallam, the titular teenage protagonist of Mister Foe, whose anger, resentment and paranoia drive him from his father's remote Scottish Highlands estate to the streets of Edinburgh in search of solace. Hallam's mother recently drowned in the loch behind the house, the apparent victim of a freak boating accident, and his dad (Ciarán Hinds) has moved on and married his former secretary Verity (Claire Forlani), whom he was seeing before his wife's untimely passing and whom Hallam believes is a gold-digging hooker responsible for mom's death. Bell conveys the kid's withdrawn distrust through restless body language and wary glares, while at the same time flashing steely, cocky defiance during Hallam's confrontations with dad and Verity, as well as nonchalant, gregarious charm in the company of others. His performance has a multifaceted vitality to it, equal parts wounded puppy dog and plucky fighter, and might have carried director David Mackenzie's follow-up to Asylum (adapted from a novel by Peter Jinks) were it not for the fact that the film doesn't treat its subject as a real person, but rather as a term paper-ready vessel for narrative themes of voyeurism and Freudian longing.

Last month, I wondered how Jennifer Jason Leigh could sign on for an indie romcom starring Ashton Kutcher -- the man notorious for his bad romantic comedies. She was set to co-star in Spread, the classy-titled indie comedy where Ashton is a serial womanizer and Jennifer would be the thwarted lover -- so, not only a goofy Kutcher movie, but one where he gets to cast her off! But now, however, The Hollywood Reporter posts that one week after signing on, Leigh backed out of the project for undisclosed reasons. Her replacement will be -- Anne Heche.

Rumors suggest that Leigh is pregnant, but you can't help but wonder if she just got cold feet. Production is starting immediately, so it's not like the pregnancy worry would impact things that much right now. As for Heche, well, I'm less surprised about her casting, although maybe a Kutcher film isn't the best thing to follow up her success in Men in Trees. Eh, we'll have to wait and see. Maybe this will be a great romcom, and Jason Dean Hall's script and David Mackenzie's direction will make it all come up roses.

I've got to wonder now... According to IMDb, Laura Linney is attached. What on earth attracted Linney and Leigh to a Kutcher romcom?

I just don't know what to say about this news. It's not like Jennifer Jason Leigh only picks the cream of the crop as far as films go. She has done voices for things like Spawn and Hey Arnold!, but for the most part, she picks decent films or some sort of art house/indie fare. So, what in the world made her decide to co-star with Ashton Kutcher in a sex comedy? Well, it is indie, but that doesn't sound like enough of a qualifier to me.

Variety reports that Kutcher and Leigh will star in the comedy, which has the lascivious name of Spread, and Ashton's Katalyst shingle is producing. The film will "chronicle the adventures of a serial womanizer (Kutcher); Leigh will play a thwarted lover." It's Jason Dean Hall's first feature script, and will be helmed by David MacKenzie, the director behind Young Adam and Hallam Foe. Maybe Ashton nabbed the part because of his production company?

Yeah, I know that I'm being hard on the guy. But really, aside from That '70s Show, or even Dude, Where's My Car?, he's left a wasteland of crappy romcoms -- Just Married, My Boss's Daughter, Guess Who, A Lot Like Love... I'm pretty sure What Happens in Vegas will soon be on the list as well. But you have to give him credit -- he still keeps getting the roles.

Had Hallam Foe played the Sundance festival, it probably would have been one of the more buzzed-about films; its edgy, teenage angst quirkiness doesn't quite seem like it belongs in competition here in Berlin. However, that has not stopped it from pleasing a crowd desperate for a bit more entertainment -- a bit more flavor -- as the festival entered its final days. Following his full-of-life performance in Billy Elliot, Jamie Bell has subsequently gone on to become a warped festival actor -- the kind of guy you get to play "fed up with his dysfunctional neighborhood" (The Chumscrubber) or, in this case, "cross-dressing teen obsessed with his dead mother."

Young Hallam doesn't have many talents; following the suicide of his mother, he spends most of his time camped out in a treehouse built high off the ground on the edges of his father's massive estate. There, he's created a bit of a shrine to mom; collecting her old clothes, pictures, make-up and whatever other memorabilia he could find in an attempt to keep her memory alive. It would appear Hallam only has one hobby: to occasionally smear his mother's old lipstick across his body and spy on those closest to him (including the neighbors) with his binoculars. He'll then frantically scribble his observations down in a diary; his only outlet for emotion.