Considering his hilarious multiple Emmy-winning work on Schitt’s Creek, this markedly different feature filmmaking debut as writer-director-producer and star from Daniel Levy is a revelation — and a welcome one. The appropriately titled Good Grief explores exactly what that name implies, as Levy uses his own experience as an impetus to paint a larger picture of love, loss and grief in all its complexity. But at its heart, this impressive if sometimes tonally dicey story is also about the complications — and importance — of friendship in a scenario that revolves around a trio of BFFs who take a life-changing trip to Paris and get more than they each bargained for.
The opening sets the stage, as we meet Marc (Levy) at a holiday party in the spacious and impressive London apartment, where his flamboyant and successful filmmaker husband Oliver (Luke Evans) is sucking up all the energy.
Marc is an artist (his poignant paintings that play a part in the film’s finale are by Kris Knight) but clearly lives in the shadow of his more famous partner. But it seems to be a life they both love.
In the crowd are Marc’s good friends, the vivacious and lively Sophie (Ruth Negga) and Thomas (Himesh Patel), the latter once a romantic interest for Marc before their breakup and his subsequent relationship and marriage to Oliver. However, tragedy rears its head, as Oliver heads out from the party to grab a cab to the airport and dies in a head-on collision before leaving the street.
The grieving process begins but doesn’t end with the emotional funeral for Oliver, and it all comes to a crescendo a year later and in another holiday season, where friends Sophie and Thomas convince Marc it is time to move on, and one way to do it is to finally read the card Oliver had left him for him as he took off that fateful evening.
In it is far more than he ever bargained for, and to say it provides complications is an understatement. Those only pile up when Marc and Oliver’s lawyer Imelda (Celia Imrie – wonderful) reveals Oliver had a lavish Paris apartment, the existence of which he never shared with his husband. “I guess now is not the time to talk about your will,” she deadpans.
Joined by his two best friends for what they think will be finally a snapping-back-to-life for Marc, the trio heads off for a fun few days to Paris, but unbeknownst to them, Marc is privately on a mission to discover the answer to all the secrets left behind by Oliver, with whom he apparently had an open marriage, a plot point tossed in and given oddly short shrift in Levy’s script.
Although this offers plenty of melodramatic opportunities for Levy, he fortunately resists laying on the soapy elements. It really is just as much a chance to focus on three individuals whose own problems hit the boiling point in different ways that not only reveal truths for each, but also their longtime connection to each other. The balancing act in a movie that is largely about the process and the price of grief is formidable for the debuting filmmaker, who is better known for his comedic chops. But it is just promising enough to make us look forward to where he goes next. The guy is a quadruple threat and an assured talent.
Levy’s ability for directing actors and giving them juicy roles is evident immediately with choice turns by both Negga, sensational as the freewheeling and fun Sophie, and Patel, who is completely believable as he winds himself up in a frenzy at the individual and unexpected actions of his buddies.
It is also a credit to Levy, who lets both of these exceptional actors steal all the scenes they are in. Even though Levy’s Marc is at the center of this, he is somewhat weighed down, having to first play so much grief, and then the complex reaction to the dark situation Oliver has handed him in death.
There are others in the mix as well including Arnaud Valois as Theo, a brief attraction for Marc in Paris that turns into an opportunity to escape the hold Oliver still has on him, and Medhi Baki as Luca, a mystery man with a key to answering some of the unanswered questions.
Emma Corrin also turns up briefly as a performance artist, as does Kaitlyn Dever. But neither has much to do. Evans hits all the right notes as Oliver, even if his presence in the story is felt more offscreen after his character’s early demise.
Paris has never looked more inviting than it does here with Ole Bratt Birkeland’s sumptuous cinematography. The handsome production design of both the London and Paris apartments is perfectly handled by Alice Normington, as are the flashy fashions of costume designer Julian Day. A big shoutout to Rob Simonsen’s music score, and the soundtrack delivered by music supervisor Season Kent, with some terrific songs from the likes Bonnie Raitt, Elton John and especially Neil Young’s haunting evergreen “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.”
Producers are Levy, Megan Zehmer, Debra Hayward and Kate Fenske. Executive producers are Stacey Snider and Caroline Levy.
Title: Good Grief
Distributor: Netflix
Release Date: December 29, 2023 in select theatres; January 5 streaming
Director-screenwriter: Daniel Levy
Cast: Daniel Levy, Ruth Negga, Himesh Patel, Luke Evans, Celia Imrie, Arnaud Valois, Emma Corrin, Kaitlyn Dever, David Bradley, Medhi Baki
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 40 min...
The opening sets the stage, as we meet Marc (Levy) at a holiday party in the spacious and impressive London apartment, where his flamboyant and successful filmmaker husband Oliver (Luke Evans) is sucking up all the energy.
Marc is an artist (his poignant paintings that play a part in the film’s finale are by Kris Knight) but clearly lives in the shadow of his more famous partner. But it seems to be a life they both love.
In the crowd are Marc’s good friends, the vivacious and lively Sophie (Ruth Negga) and Thomas (Himesh Patel), the latter once a romantic interest for Marc before their breakup and his subsequent relationship and marriage to Oliver. However, tragedy rears its head, as Oliver heads out from the party to grab a cab to the airport and dies in a head-on collision before leaving the street.
The grieving process begins but doesn’t end with the emotional funeral for Oliver, and it all comes to a crescendo a year later and in another holiday season, where friends Sophie and Thomas convince Marc it is time to move on, and one way to do it is to finally read the card Oliver had left him for him as he took off that fateful evening.
In it is far more than he ever bargained for, and to say it provides complications is an understatement. Those only pile up when Marc and Oliver’s lawyer Imelda (Celia Imrie – wonderful) reveals Oliver had a lavish Paris apartment, the existence of which he never shared with his husband. “I guess now is not the time to talk about your will,” she deadpans.
Joined by his two best friends for what they think will be finally a snapping-back-to-life for Marc, the trio heads off for a fun few days to Paris, but unbeknownst to them, Marc is privately on a mission to discover the answer to all the secrets left behind by Oliver, with whom he apparently had an open marriage, a plot point tossed in and given oddly short shrift in Levy’s script.
Although this offers plenty of melodramatic opportunities for Levy, he fortunately resists laying on the soapy elements. It really is just as much a chance to focus on three individuals whose own problems hit the boiling point in different ways that not only reveal truths for each, but also their longtime connection to each other. The balancing act in a movie that is largely about the process and the price of grief is formidable for the debuting filmmaker, who is better known for his comedic chops. But it is just promising enough to make us look forward to where he goes next. The guy is a quadruple threat and an assured talent.
Levy’s ability for directing actors and giving them juicy roles is evident immediately with choice turns by both Negga, sensational as the freewheeling and fun Sophie, and Patel, who is completely believable as he winds himself up in a frenzy at the individual and unexpected actions of his buddies.
It is also a credit to Levy, who lets both of these exceptional actors steal all the scenes they are in. Even though Levy’s Marc is at the center of this, he is somewhat weighed down, having to first play so much grief, and then the complex reaction to the dark situation Oliver has handed him in death.
There are others in the mix as well including Arnaud Valois as Theo, a brief attraction for Marc in Paris that turns into an opportunity to escape the hold Oliver still has on him, and Medhi Baki as Luca, a mystery man with a key to answering some of the unanswered questions.
Emma Corrin also turns up briefly as a performance artist, as does Kaitlyn Dever. But neither has much to do. Evans hits all the right notes as Oliver, even if his presence in the story is felt more offscreen after his character’s early demise.
Paris has never looked more inviting than it does here with Ole Bratt Birkeland’s sumptuous cinematography. The handsome production design of both the London and Paris apartments is perfectly handled by Alice Normington, as are the flashy fashions of costume designer Julian Day. A big shoutout to Rob Simonsen’s music score, and the soundtrack delivered by music supervisor Season Kent, with some terrific songs from the likes Bonnie Raitt, Elton John and especially Neil Young’s haunting evergreen “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.”
Producers are Levy, Megan Zehmer, Debra Hayward and Kate Fenske. Executive producers are Stacey Snider and Caroline Levy.
Title: Good Grief
Distributor: Netflix
Release Date: December 29, 2023 in select theatres; January 5 streaming
Director-screenwriter: Daniel Levy
Cast: Daniel Levy, Ruth Negga, Himesh Patel, Luke Evans, Celia Imrie, Arnaud Valois, Emma Corrin, Kaitlyn Dever, David Bradley, Medhi Baki
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 40 min...
- 12/29/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Jorge Vargas (‘Snowpiercer’), Tanaya Beatty (‘Yellowstone,’), and Skywalker Hughes (‘Joe Pickett’) are rounding out the previously announced cast of Academy Award winner Andrew Stanton’s In The Blink of an Eye starring Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, and Daveed Diggs. Principal photography has now commenced in British Columbia.
The movie follows three storylines, spanning thousands of years, intersect and reflect on hope, connection and the circle of life. Jared Ian Goldman (Ingrid Goes West, ‘Russian Doll’) produces the pic written and executive produced by Colby Day (Spaceman).
“From the first read I knew Colby Day’s script was special,” said Stanton, “and it has only become more rarified of a project as our team has formed. What a privilege to have such an ideal cast and crew realize this beautiful story.”
“Andrew is a visionary artist whose unique gifts as a storyteller shine in this beautiful film,” added Searchlight Presidents Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum.
The movie follows three storylines, spanning thousands of years, intersect and reflect on hope, connection and the circle of life. Jared Ian Goldman (Ingrid Goes West, ‘Russian Doll’) produces the pic written and executive produced by Colby Day (Spaceman).
“From the first read I knew Colby Day’s script was special,” said Stanton, “and it has only become more rarified of a project as our team has formed. What a privilege to have such an ideal cast and crew realize this beautiful story.”
“Andrew is a visionary artist whose unique gifts as a storyteller shine in this beautiful film,” added Searchlight Presidents Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum.
- 3/30/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro and Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
For most of Hollywood history, the romantic comedy was a staple of theatrical moviegoing. From the glory days of Ernst Lubitsch (“Trouble in Paradise”) and George Cukor (“Adam’s Rib”) in the classical studio era to the onslaught of Julia Roberts, Matthew McConaughey, and Reese Witherspoon vehicles in the 1990s and early 2000s, pretty people saying funny things while falling in love was a consistent and reliable form of big screen entertainment. In the last few years, however, the genre largely moved to streaming, with studio slates leaning disproportionately toward comic book movies and other preexisting IP while reserving slots devoted to more modestly budgeted fare for horror films.
Yet the theatrically released, well-resourced romantic comedy made a glorious return to the big screen in 2022 with “Ticket to Paradise,” director Ol Parker’s hilarious and sweetly moving George Clooney and Julia Roberts vehicle. The movie has many pleasures, from Clooney and...
Yet the theatrically released, well-resourced romantic comedy made a glorious return to the big screen in 2022 with “Ticket to Paradise,” director Ol Parker’s hilarious and sweetly moving George Clooney and Julia Roberts vehicle. The movie has many pleasures, from Clooney and...
- 2/12/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Ali & Ava
British director Clio Barnard re-teams with her long-time producer Tracy O’Riordan for her fourth feature Ali & Ava, a contemporary love story melodrama shot on location in Bradford. Cast in the lead roles are Claire Rushbrook and Adeel Akhtar, with Ole Bratt Birkeland serving as cinematographer. Barnard’s 2010 breakout The Arbor premiered at Tribeca and 2013’s The Selfish Giant received a Cannes berth in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar in 2013 where it took home the Sacd prize. In 2017, Dark River competed in TIFF’s Platform program.
Gist: Inspired by Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Barnard’s latest focuses on intersections of class race and gender concerning its titular characters.…...
British director Clio Barnard re-teams with her long-time producer Tracy O’Riordan for her fourth feature Ali & Ava, a contemporary love story melodrama shot on location in Bradford. Cast in the lead roles are Claire Rushbrook and Adeel Akhtar, with Ole Bratt Birkeland serving as cinematographer. Barnard’s 2010 breakout The Arbor premiered at Tribeca and 2013’s The Selfish Giant received a Cannes berth in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar in 2013 where it took home the Sacd prize. In 2017, Dark River competed in TIFF’s Platform program.
Gist: Inspired by Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Barnard’s latest focuses on intersections of class race and gender concerning its titular characters.…...
- 1/3/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Cracking the surreal visual code of the Simon Stålenhag paintings that inspired “Tales from the Loop” was hard enough for veteran cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth. Their strange aura of a picnic tableau with discarded robots in barren landscapes had to somehow connect with showrunner Nathaniel Halpern’s sci-fi series about restoring humanity in a community deprived of love and intimacy. But the Emmy-nominated Cronenweth made a breakthrough while on location in Winnipeg by shooting exterior night scenes… in subzero temperatures… during Magic Hour.
“It was a problem that we were dealt from the very beginning because of the way the script’s written and the way time passes and having so little time at night to shoot with minors,” Cronenweth said. “But I was amazed at the amount of time we had at dusk once the sun shadows had become soft enough or dropped below the horizon line.”
He proposed turning...
“It was a problem that we were dealt from the very beginning because of the way the script’s written and the way time passes and having so little time at night to shoot with minors,” Cronenweth said. “But I was amazed at the amount of time we had at dusk once the sun shadows had become soft enough or dropped below the horizon line.”
He proposed turning...
- 8/28/2020
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Best known for the unexpectedly soul-shattering San Francisco suicide doc “The Bridge,” indie filmmaker Eric Steel came out and came of age in 1980s New York at a moment just before AIDS devastated the city’s gay community. Such timing must have been surreal, to assume something so liberating about one’s own identity, only to watch in fear and uncertainty as this fraternity of newfound freedom collapsed around him. One can feel the traces of that experience — nostalgia for old-school, in-person sexual discovery, tinged with survivor’s guilt — lurking in Steel’s narrative debut, “Minyan,” a movie about an outsider among outsiders: a closeted kid adrift in Brighton Beach’s Russian Jewish community circa 1986.
Steel took a long time to make his narrative debut, and he comes to the project in the wake of other adolescent tales depicting the same era and milieu, such as Dito Montiel’s relatively...
Steel took a long time to make his narrative debut, and he comes to the project in the wake of other adolescent tales depicting the same era and milieu, such as Dito Montiel’s relatively...
- 3/28/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Director Rupert Goold's Judy, a biopic of the famed American actress, singer and dancer Judy Garland, is based on the play "End Of The Rainbow" by playwright Peter Quilter. It gives us an insight into the last few months of the singer's life.
The film concentrates mainly on the last few months of 1968, when the legendary Judy Garland travelled to London for a series of sold-out stage performances, where she is shown to be in a financial mess, and addicted to drugs and alcohol. Battling a tough, lonely life, she is trying to reunite with her kids. It is her financial desperation that leads her to accept an offer for a series of concerts in London.
Laid in a non-linear narrative, the film zips through the singer's past and present in a fluid manner, with not much of a plot. The film oft flashbacks to one of her biggest triumphs,...
The film concentrates mainly on the last few months of 1968, when the legendary Judy Garland travelled to London for a series of sold-out stage performances, where she is shown to be in a financial mess, and addicted to drugs and alcohol. Battling a tough, lonely life, she is trying to reunite with her kids. It is her financial desperation that leads her to accept an offer for a series of concerts in London.
Laid in a non-linear narrative, the film zips through the singer's past and present in a fluid manner, with not much of a plot. The film oft flashbacks to one of her biggest triumphs,...
- 1/23/2020
- GlamSham
Judy Garland has a special place in Hollywood. The legend is largely beloved, even to this day. From her early days until her last, she was always embraced by at least part of the world, and sometimes…the entire world. This week, after blowing away audiences at the Telluride Film Festival, the biopic Judy brings the last part of her life to the screen. Buoyed by an amazing performance by Renée Zellweger, the movie is better than your garden variety industry tale. Oscar is going to come calling for this one, mark my words. Luckily, it’s solidly entertaining and never once feels like homework. The film is a biopic, centered on the final year of the famous actress/singer’s life. When we meet her, Judy Garland (Zellweger) is essentially homeless, having been kicked out of her hotel room she stays in with her young daughter and son. Bringing...
- 9/25/2019
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Renée Zellweger performs miracles playing Judy Garland: singing her heart out, baring her bruised soul and acting with a ferocity that ultimately rises to a state of grace. Yes, Judy, the well-meaning but wobbly biopic that can barely contain her take on the late Star Is Born star, is pure Oscarbait — ready made for an Academy campaign and rarely soaring to the level of a portrayal that’s a dazzling, deeply felt tribute from one artist to another.
Garland died of an accidental drug overdose in 1969 when she was...
Garland died of an accidental drug overdose in 1969 when she was...
- 9/24/2019
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
If it’s taken so long for a bigscreen biopic of Judy Garland to come to fruition, perhaps it’s because the lady herself warned off any attempts with one of her most famous quotes: “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” It is not, admittedly, a saying that has deterred Hollywood from its ongoing fascination with famous people playing other famous people, though it’s a practice that yields more successful Oscar campaigns than for-the-ages performances: Prosthetically enhanced impersonation, for the most part, isn’t a repeatedly dazzling trick. Yet director Rupert Goold and resurgent star Renée Zellweger have pulled off something unusual and affecting in “Judy”: a biographical portrait in which performer and subject meet halfway, illuminating something of each other in the process.
Set in the final year before Garland’s death in 1969, “Judy” covers the shambolic London...
Set in the final year before Garland’s death in 1969, “Judy” covers the shambolic London...
- 8/31/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Stars: Andy Nyman, Martin Freeman, Paul Whitehouse, Alex Lawther, Leonard Byrne, Nicholas Burns, Jill Halfpenny | Written and Directed by Andy Nyman, Jeremy Dyson
Adapted from their own supernatural stage play, Ghost Stories is a lovingly crafted horror anthology from writing / directing duo Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson. Inspired by British portmanteau horror films like Dead of Night (1945) and Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), Nyman and Dyson have conjured up a creepy collection of terrifying tales that’s worthy of instant classic status.
Nyman plays Professor Philip Goodman, a TV investigator specialising in debunking the supernatural and exposing hoaxes. An early indication of both Goodman’s character and the nature of his work occurs early on, when he triumphantly confronts a fraudulent psychic just as he’s bringing comfort to a grieving mother who lost her son to leukemia – the confused and anguished expression on her face immediately gives the audience pause.
Adapted from their own supernatural stage play, Ghost Stories is a lovingly crafted horror anthology from writing / directing duo Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson. Inspired by British portmanteau horror films like Dead of Night (1945) and Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), Nyman and Dyson have conjured up a creepy collection of terrifying tales that’s worthy of instant classic status.
Nyman plays Professor Philip Goodman, a TV investigator specialising in debunking the supernatural and exposing hoaxes. An early indication of both Goodman’s character and the nature of his work occurs early on, when he triumphantly confronts a fraudulent psychic just as he’s bringing comfort to a grieving mother who lost her son to leukemia – the confused and anguished expression on her face immediately gives the audience pause.
- 9/1/2018
- by Matthew Turner
- Nerdly
Domhnall Gleeson stars as “Dr. Faraday” in director Lenny Abrahamson’s The Little
Stranger, a Focus Features release. Photo credit: Nicola Dove / Focus Features ©
The title of the historical drama The Little Stranger is the same as an old-fashioned way to reference a baby, as in “awaiting the arrival of a little stranger.” But there are no babies or ones on the way in this dark moody film, although there are some spooky goings-on about children in the dim, misty past, particularly the childhood remembrances of a visitor now returned as a doctor to care for the members of the aristocratic Ayers family in their dark crumbling mansion.
Abrahamson’s previous film was Room, an acclaimed drama that was a scary, taut thriller and a deep psychological drive into the experience of a woman and child held captive for years by an abuser. That drama was so riveting, it is...
Stranger, a Focus Features release. Photo credit: Nicola Dove / Focus Features ©
The title of the historical drama The Little Stranger is the same as an old-fashioned way to reference a baby, as in “awaiting the arrival of a little stranger.” But there are no babies or ones on the way in this dark moody film, although there are some spooky goings-on about children in the dim, misty past, particularly the childhood remembrances of a visitor now returned as a doctor to care for the members of the aristocratic Ayers family in their dark crumbling mansion.
Abrahamson’s previous film was Room, an acclaimed drama that was a scary, taut thriller and a deep psychological drive into the experience of a woman and child held captive for years by an abuser. That drama was so riveting, it is...
- 8/31/2018
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
There’s a single terrifying moment in “The Little Stranger,” an otherwise confused, self-serious drama, that shows real potential: Mrs. Ayres (Charlotte Rampling), the matriarch of a wealthy family, is haunted by a supernatural presence that locks her in a room. A violent force rattles the door as the walls shake with jarring vibrations from every direction. She’s surrounded by an invisible, unknown threat, yet Rampling’s frantic response grounds the circumstances in credible dread. The visceral quality of claustrophobia is rarely so well executed in cinematic terms, but for much of “The Little Stranger,” it’s the material itself that feels boxed in.
The movie flails more than it fails, grasping for possibilities beyond its potential. Director Lenny Abrahamson follows up his acclaimed “Room” with another expressive look at people trapped by phenomena beyond their control, but this time much of the story has been squandered by misguided goals.
The movie flails more than it fails, grasping for possibilities beyond its potential. Director Lenny Abrahamson follows up his acclaimed “Room” with another expressive look at people trapped by phenomena beyond their control, but this time much of the story has been squandered by misguided goals.
- 8/30/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Surely the 21st century equivalent to the old Hollywood trope “Let’s put on a show!” is, judging by the movies that get made, “Let’s pull off a heist!” What that says about the evolution of our wish-fulfillment fantasies is a tad worrisome, so it’s refreshing that “American Animals,” which recreates and dissects a real 2004 robbery committed by a quartet of thrill-seeking college kids, grasps that there’s something singularly regrettable in how our popular art glorifies criminality.
And yet, for a good deal of its running time, writer-director Bart Layton’s slick, music-fueled assemblage of recreated narrative and documentary manages to be as deftly comic and suspenseful as the bank job movies from which Layton, and the incident’s perpetrators, took inspiration. Until, that is, the reality of bad decisions and corrosive entitlement act as an all-too-necessary dampener.
The crime was known as the “Transy Book Heist.
And yet, for a good deal of its running time, writer-director Bart Layton’s slick, music-fueled assemblage of recreated narrative and documentary manages to be as deftly comic and suspenseful as the bank job movies from which Layton, and the incident’s perpetrators, took inspiration. Until, that is, the reality of bad decisions and corrosive entitlement act as an all-too-necessary dampener.
The crime was known as the “Transy Book Heist.
- 5/31/2018
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
Uncanny wraiths aren’t the only spectres drifting through “Ghost Stories,” Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s stylish, chain-rattling adaptation of their 2010 British stage smash: The more explicable spirits of William Castle and Amicus Productions hang about, too, in its blend of old-school spookhouse scares and chilly psychological realism. A throwback to the rickety portmanteau structure so prevalent in U.K. horror in the mid-20th century, Nyman and Dyson’s debut feature works niftily as an anthology, threading a slender investigative narrative through a trio of anxious, economically executed tales of unnerving hauntings in contemporary Yorkshire. It’s when the film attempts to bind all three into a more ambitious head trip that things come unstuck: A climactic rug-pull that worked grandly on stage is less satisfying on screen, leaving the film less a banquet than a platter of tasty appetizers — served suitably cold, of course.
That said, it...
That said, it...
- 3/29/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Stars: Andy Nyman, Martin Freeman, Paul Whitehouse, Alex Lawther, Leonard Byrne, Nicholas Burns, Jill Halfpenny | Written and Directed by Andy Nyman, Jeremy Dyson
Adapted from their own supernatural stage play, Ghost Stories is a lovingly crafted horror anthology from writing / directing duo Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson. Inspired by British portmanteau horror films like Dead of Night (1945) and Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), Nyman and Dyson have conjured up a creepy collection of terrifying tales that’s worthy of instant classic status.
Nyman plays Professor Philip Goodman, a TV investigator specialising in debunking the supernatural and exposing hoaxes. An early indication of both Goodman’s character and the nature of his work occurs early on, when he triumphantly confronts a fraudulent psychic just as he’s bringing comfort to a grieving mother who lost her son to leukemia – the confused and anguished expression on her face immediately gives the audience pause.
Adapted from their own supernatural stage play, Ghost Stories is a lovingly crafted horror anthology from writing / directing duo Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson. Inspired by British portmanteau horror films like Dead of Night (1945) and Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), Nyman and Dyson have conjured up a creepy collection of terrifying tales that’s worthy of instant classic status.
Nyman plays Professor Philip Goodman, a TV investigator specialising in debunking the supernatural and exposing hoaxes. An early indication of both Goodman’s character and the nature of his work occurs early on, when he triumphantly confronts a fraudulent psychic just as he’s bringing comfort to a grieving mother who lost her son to leukemia – the confused and anguished expression on her face immediately gives the audience pause.
- 3/16/2018
- by Matthew Turner
- Nerdly
Louisa Mellor Oct 8, 2017
Crazy’s the right word for it. Electric Dreams delivers its most unusual, packed episode yet…
This review contains spoilers.
See related Star Trek: Discovery episode 3 review - Context Is For Kings Star Trek: Discovery episode 2 review - Battle At The Binary Star Star Trek: Discovery episode 1 review - The Vulcan Hello
1.4 Crazy Diamond
Forty-four novels, one hundred and twenty-one short stories, six published volumes of correspondence… nobody could ever say Philip K. Dick lacked for ideas. The same goes for this week’s Electric Dreams, which is, to use a technical term, chocka. There’s environmental collapse, a dystopian level of state control, widespread infertility, implanted consciousnesses, maritime-themed sci-fi architecture, Julia Davis, a gang of piratic teddy boys, Syd Barrett, and a race of chimeric pig-people.
And that’s before the plot even kicks in. Crazy Diamond has packed its hour of screen-time to the rafters.
Crazy’s the right word for it. Electric Dreams delivers its most unusual, packed episode yet…
This review contains spoilers.
See related Star Trek: Discovery episode 3 review - Context Is For Kings Star Trek: Discovery episode 2 review - Battle At The Binary Star Star Trek: Discovery episode 1 review - The Vulcan Hello
1.4 Crazy Diamond
Forty-four novels, one hundred and twenty-one short stories, six published volumes of correspondence… nobody could ever say Philip K. Dick lacked for ideas. The same goes for this week’s Electric Dreams, which is, to use a technical term, chocka. There’s environmental collapse, a dystopian level of state control, widespread infertility, implanted consciousnesses, maritime-themed sci-fi architecture, Julia Davis, a gang of piratic teddy boys, Syd Barrett, and a race of chimeric pig-people.
And that’s before the plot even kicks in. Crazy Diamond has packed its hour of screen-time to the rafters.
- 10/6/2017
- Den of Geek
Domhnall Gleeson and Charlotte Rampling star in period ghost story.
Principal photography is underway in the UK on The Little Stranger, Lenny Abrahamson’s first feature since he was Oscar-nominated for Room.
Shooting will take place in various locations outside of London and in Yorkshire for roughly 10 weeks.
Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter and Charlotte Rampling, the film is a period ghost story that follows a doctor who, during a hot summer in 1948, is called to treat a patient at a haunted country house.
Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France and Switzerland. Focus Features acquired further territories from Pathé and will release in the Us, with Universal Pictures International handling the rest of the world.
Producers are Gail Egan and Andrea Calderwood for Potboiler Productions - which developed the project with Film4 - alongside Ed Guiney for Element Pictures
Executive producers are Cameron McCracken for Pathé, Daniel Battsek for [link...
Principal photography is underway in the UK on The Little Stranger, Lenny Abrahamson’s first feature since he was Oscar-nominated for Room.
Shooting will take place in various locations outside of London and in Yorkshire for roughly 10 weeks.
Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter and Charlotte Rampling, the film is a period ghost story that follows a doctor who, during a hot summer in 1948, is called to treat a patient at a haunted country house.
Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France and Switzerland. Focus Features acquired further territories from Pathé and will release in the Us, with Universal Pictures International handling the rest of the world.
Producers are Gail Egan and Andrea Calderwood for Potboiler Productions - which developed the project with Film4 - alongside Ed Guiney for Element Pictures
Executive producers are Cameron McCracken for Pathé, Daniel Battsek for [link...
- 7/6/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Aidan Gillen excels as a man stepping into his dead brother's shoes in this eerie, Singapore-set drama
The first feature film from writer/ director team Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor was Helen, a breathtaking examination of fluid identity about a young woman playing a missing girl in a police reconstruction. There are clear comparisons with this eerie second feature, in which Aidan Gillen's listless Gerry Devine travels to Singapore in the wake of his brother's death, and winds up wearing his clothes, living in his house, and perhaps rekindling his watery ghost. The dreamy visuals of Ole Birkeland's slowly panning cameras are once again to the fore, conjuring a world of tactile significance in which meaning hovers constantly at the edge of the frame. Gillen is great, his laconic stance thrown off-balance by tragedy, his face apparently struggling to find itself, uncertain of its own expression. Stephen McKeon's score is spine-tingling too,...
The first feature film from writer/ director team Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor was Helen, a breathtaking examination of fluid identity about a young woman playing a missing girl in a police reconstruction. There are clear comparisons with this eerie second feature, in which Aidan Gillen's listless Gerry Devine travels to Singapore in the wake of his brother's death, and winds up wearing his clothes, living in his house, and perhaps rekindling his watery ghost. The dreamy visuals of Ole Birkeland's slowly panning cameras are once again to the fore, conjuring a world of tactile significance in which meaning hovers constantly at the edge of the frame. Gillen is great, his laconic stance thrown off-balance by tragedy, his face apparently struggling to find itself, uncertain of its own expression. Stephen McKeon's score is spine-tingling too,...
- 9/28/2013
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Aidan Gillen excels as a man stepping into his dead brother's shoes in this eerie, Singapore-set drama
The first feature film from writer/ director team Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor was Helen, a breathtaking examination of fluid identity about a young woman playing a missing girl in a police reconstruction. There are clear comparisons with this eerie second feature, in which Aidan Gillen's listless Gerry Devine travels to Singapore in the wake of his brother's death, and winds up wearing his clothes, living in his house, and perhaps rekindling his watery ghost. The dreamy visuals of Ole Birkeland's slowly panning cameras are once again to the fore, conjuring a world of tactile significance in which meaning hovers constantly at the edge of the frame. Gillen is great, his laconic stance thrown off-balance by tragedy, his face apparently struggling to find itself, uncertain of its own expression. Stephen McKeon's score is spine-tingling too,...
The first feature film from writer/ director team Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor was Helen, a breathtaking examination of fluid identity about a young woman playing a missing girl in a police reconstruction. There are clear comparisons with this eerie second feature, in which Aidan Gillen's listless Gerry Devine travels to Singapore in the wake of his brother's death, and winds up wearing his clothes, living in his house, and perhaps rekindling his watery ghost. The dreamy visuals of Ole Birkeland's slowly panning cameras are once again to the fore, conjuring a world of tactile significance in which meaning hovers constantly at the edge of the frame. Gillen is great, his laconic stance thrown off-balance by tragedy, his face apparently struggling to find itself, uncertain of its own expression. Stephen McKeon's score is spine-tingling too,...
- 9/28/2013
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ An exotic thriller ensnared within a Lynchian nightmare of confused identities, Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy's follow-up to Helen (2008), Mister John (2013), is a physically and emotionally draining tale of grief, rejection and the yearning to reinvent oneself. When Gerry Devine (Aidan Gillen) hears of the tragic news of his brother's death, he rushes out to Singapore to help with the funeral arrangements. In an odd way, he's thankful of the break, with his marriage going through a particularly tempestuous patch. Once in Singapore, Gerry finds a world of enticing riches and begins to imagine what life would be like here.
Helping his brother's wife, Kim (Zoe Tay), tie-up the loose ends of his bar business, Gerry begins to cogitate on how comfortable this foreign world actually feels, slowly slipping into his brother's former life - at first physically, then psychologically - before spiralling into an inebriated pit of discombobulation.
Helping his brother's wife, Kim (Zoe Tay), tie-up the loose ends of his bar business, Gerry begins to cogitate on how comfortable this foreign world actually feels, slowly slipping into his brother's former life - at first physically, then psychologically - before spiralling into an inebriated pit of discombobulation.
- 6/29/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
by Vadim Rizov
The late British playwright Andrea Dunbar's main claim to fame was her 1982 play "Rita, Sue and Bob Too"—or, rather, the 1987 film version of it, which attracted viewers not necessarily interested in the social problems of life on council estates. Dunbar's unsparing ear for life among disenfranchised citizens in the middle of the U.K. analogue to housing projects was tempered by director Alan Clarke's endless tracking shots, which give momentum and verve to lives lacking either. Followed for 50 feet at a time at remarkable speed, Rita's characters are turned into energetic leads despite a background where thick, Yorkshire-accented variants on "You bastard!" are the most commonly heard refrain. The sheer degree of free-floating hostility is unexpectedly comical in its excess: these are people who clearly enjoy yelling at each other.
Though Rita's view on social problems came via energetic tracking shots, The Arbor director...
The late British playwright Andrea Dunbar's main claim to fame was her 1982 play "Rita, Sue and Bob Too"—or, rather, the 1987 film version of it, which attracted viewers not necessarily interested in the social problems of life on council estates. Dunbar's unsparing ear for life among disenfranchised citizens in the middle of the U.K. analogue to housing projects was tempered by director Alan Clarke's endless tracking shots, which give momentum and verve to lives lacking either. Followed for 50 feet at a time at remarkable speed, Rita's characters are turned into energetic leads despite a background where thick, Yorkshire-accented variants on "You bastard!" are the most commonly heard refrain. The sheer degree of free-floating hostility is unexpectedly comical in its excess: these are people who clearly enjoy yelling at each other.
Though Rita's view on social problems came via energetic tracking shots, The Arbor director...
- 9/6/2011
- GreenCine Daily
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.