Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to Ethan Hawke’s portrait of Flannery O’Connor, Wildcat, starring and executive produced by Maya Hawke. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival. Oscilloscope will release the film in theaters in the Spring.
Directed and co-written by 4-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, Wildcat tells the story of Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor’s as she ponders the great questions of her writing: Can scandalous art still serve God? Does suffering precede all greatness? Can illness be a blessing?
In 1950, Flannery (Maya Hawke) visits her mother Regina (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at 24 years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father’s life when she was a child and desperate to make her mark as a great writer, this crisis pitches her imagination into a feverish exploration of belief. As...
Directed and co-written by 4-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, Wildcat tells the story of Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor’s as she ponders the great questions of her writing: Can scandalous art still serve God? Does suffering precede all greatness? Can illness be a blessing?
In 1950, Flannery (Maya Hawke) visits her mother Regina (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at 24 years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father’s life when she was a child and desperate to make her mark as a great writer, this crisis pitches her imagination into a feverish exploration of belief. As...
- 1/17/2024
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Ethan Hawke has directed, written and/or acted in quite a few notably esoteric projects throughout his multi-faceted career, and he’s now come up with another in Wildcat. This one makes use of four Flannery O’Connor stories that tie in to aspects of the writer’s difficult life and truly do illuminate aspects of it in clever and plausible ways. The general public would have no clue as to what’s going on in this often perceptively made film that connects with her work, but the episodes are frequently weird, abruptly amusing and almost always cleverly pertinent in some way.
There’s no question but that Wildcat is a small, narrowly focused work that will be of interest mainly to college literature students, southern academics and particular female writers. But kudos to Hawke for putting even a small spotlight on this singular American writer who, while working through dreadful medical ailments,...
There’s no question but that Wildcat is a small, narrowly focused work that will be of interest mainly to college literature students, southern academics and particular female writers. But kudos to Hawke for putting even a small spotlight on this singular American writer who, while working through dreadful medical ailments,...
- 9/2/2023
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
Among the many actors who also step behind the camera to direct, few are more underrated than Ethan Hawke. You can write whole articles on his acting prowess (and we have), but he’s also quite a filmmaker as well. This week, his best narrative feature to date is hitting screens in Blaze, an unconventional biopic of a criminally unknown Austin based musician. You can feel the passion that Hawke has for the topic, as it’s engrained in the film from start to finish. With a tremendous performance by Ben Dickey in the title role, there’s a lot to like here. Blaze, rather quietly, is one of the better independent outings of the summer. The movie is a look at the life of Blaze Foley (Dickey), adapted from his partner Sybil Rosen’s book Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze. Here, the official film synopsis...
- 8/13/2018
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Not unlike its main subject, Ethan Hawke’s Blaze is likeable, long-winded and a little all over the place. Starring musician Ben Dickey as the titular Blaze Foley, this indie biopic feels like a natural follow-up to Hawke’s last directorial effort, Seymour: An Introduction. That documentary examined the life of Seymour Bernstein, a piano teacher with wise life lessons as curated by failure and regret. This film concerns Foley, an Arkansas-born but Texas-raised singer-songwriter who was killed at the young age of 39. Both are ultimately optimistic, though Hawke does well in finding the sour with the sweet.
Beginning at the end, a radio DJ (Hawke, in a cameo) speaks to Townes Van Zandt (Charlie Sexton) and a fellow friend/musician (Josh Hamilton) about Blaze. From here, the film jumps from moment to moment with a confident fluidity. Never linear, always moving. The core relationship quickly reveals itself to be...
Beginning at the end, a radio DJ (Hawke, in a cameo) speaks to Townes Van Zandt (Charlie Sexton) and a fellow friend/musician (Josh Hamilton) about Blaze. From here, the film jumps from moment to moment with a confident fluidity. Never linear, always moving. The core relationship quickly reveals itself to be...
- 1/26/2018
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
An aside: I find it to be a personal obligation to mention the untimely passing of Bill Paxton, whose consistently vivid performances will be sorely missed within the cinematic landscape for years to come and to whom I tip my hat. Fortunately, his hard-bit turn in Nathan Morlando’s slice of rural neo-noir, Mean Dreams, wonderfully encapsulates why he was so damn good. At the same time, I also feel it is my responsibility to look at the film around him, and objectively consider its craft and impact without the need to tiptoe.
Nathan Morlando’s second feature, penned by first-time writers Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, is a thriller both intimate in scale and raw in execution. Casey Caraway (Sophie Nélisse) has just moved into a farmhouse with her father, Wayne (Paxton), who has more bark and bite than their dog — and also happens to be a cop. She soon runs into her neighbor,...
Nathan Morlando’s second feature, penned by first-time writers Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, is a thriller both intimate in scale and raw in execution. Casey Caraway (Sophie Nélisse) has just moved into a farmhouse with her father, Wayne (Paxton), who has more bark and bite than their dog — and also happens to be a cop. She soon runs into her neighbor,...
- 3/16/2017
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
Year: 2010
Director: Bruce McDonald
Writer: Tony Burgess, Erin Faith Young
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Marina Antunes
Rating: 8 out of 10
One of the things that struck me watching Pontypool (review) director Bruce McDonald’s Music from the Big House, one of the four films he directed in 2010, is the raw power of the music. Watching a group of men in the prison yard composing a tune filled me with awe at their ability to create something so beautiful and powerful in the span of a few minutes which isn’t present in many full-length, top 40 albums.
Canadian blues/roots singer Rita Chiarelli started visiting Louisiana State Penitentiary, Aka Angola Prison, a maximum security penitentiary with a tough and sordid history, ten years ago. What first attracted her to the facility was its rich history of music but on her first and subsequent visits, she was impressed by the music...
Director: Bruce McDonald
Writer: Tony Burgess, Erin Faith Young
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Marina Antunes
Rating: 8 out of 10
One of the things that struck me watching Pontypool (review) director Bruce McDonald’s Music from the Big House, one of the four films he directed in 2010, is the raw power of the music. Watching a group of men in the prison yard composing a tune filled me with awe at their ability to create something so beautiful and powerful in the span of a few minutes which isn’t present in many full-length, top 40 albums.
Canadian blues/roots singer Rita Chiarelli started visiting Louisiana State Penitentiary, Aka Angola Prison, a maximum security penitentiary with a tough and sordid history, ten years ago. What first attracted her to the facility was its rich history of music but on her first and subsequent visits, she was impressed by the music...
- 3/15/2011
- QuietEarth.us
"In Louisiana, life means life." At the infamous Angola Prison Farm - once the most feared prison in America - a life sentence also meant a miserable existence and certain death: death within walls you will never leave; violent death at the hands of other inmates or guards; worked to death on the prison farm; death by any available disease; death by court-ordered execution. Now known as the Louisiana State Maximum Security Penitentiary, it is no longer the Angola of old - but life still means life, and even if you're not on death row, hope is hard to come by. Blues musician Rita Chiarelli has travelled to Angola many times in the past decade, as the prison is steeped in blues history (perhaps most famously, Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter is said (likely erroneously) to have garnered a pardon solely because the state governor was so taken with his singing.
- 12/7/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Yesterday, the Genie Awards, Canada's equivalent of the Oscars for those who don't know, were handed out. This year, Polytechnique dominated the Genie Awards and even took the award for Best Motion Picture. However, the presentation of the award on TV and on webcast was too short. Besides, it wasn't a live presentation and not all the awards were shows on TV/webcast. Second Besides: When will a TV network (and not some cable network that few Canadians have) broadcast the Genie Awards? Anyway, without further ado, here's the presentation of the winners.
1. Best Motion Picture
* 3 saisons.
* Before Tomorrow.
* Fifty Dead Men Walking.
* Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* [Winner] Polytechnique.
2. Achievement in Direction:
* Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu for Before Tomorrow.
* Kari Skogland - Fifty Dead Men Walking.
* Charles Officer - Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* [Winner] Denis Villeneuve - Polytechnique.
* Bruce McDonald - Pontypool.
3. Best Original Screenplay:
* Atom Egoyan - Adoration.
* Émile Gaudreault and Ian Lauzon - De père en flic...
1. Best Motion Picture
* 3 saisons.
* Before Tomorrow.
* Fifty Dead Men Walking.
* Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* [Winner] Polytechnique.
2. Achievement in Direction:
* Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu for Before Tomorrow.
* Kari Skogland - Fifty Dead Men Walking.
* Charles Officer - Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* [Winner] Denis Villeneuve - Polytechnique.
* Bruce McDonald - Pontypool.
3. Best Original Screenplay:
* Atom Egoyan - Adoration.
* Émile Gaudreault and Ian Lauzon - De père en flic...
- 4/13/2010
- by anhkhoido@hotmail.com (Anh Khoi Do)
- The Cultural Post
This morning, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (Acct) had announced the nominees for the 30th Genie Awards. For those who don't know, this is the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars. This year, the leader in the race is Polytechnique with 11 nominations. Moreover, the winners will be announced on April 12, 2010.
1. Best Motion Picture
* 3 saisons.
* Before Tomorrow.
* Fifty Dead Men Walking.
* Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* Polytechnique.
2. Achievement in Direction:
* Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu for Before Tomorrow.
* Kari Skogland - Fifty Dead Men Walking.
* Charles Officer - Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* Denis Villeneuve - Polytechnique.
* Bruce McDonald - Pontypool.
3. Best Original Screenplay:
* Atom Egoyan - Adoration.
* Émile Gaudreault and Ian Lauzon - De père en flic (Father and Guns).
* Charles Officer and Ingrid Veninger - Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* Jacques Davidts - Polytechnique.
* David Bezmozgis - Victoria Day.
4. Best Adapted Screenplay:
* Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Susan Avingaq and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu - Before Tomorrow.
* Kari Skogland - Fifty Dead Men Walking.
1. Best Motion Picture
* 3 saisons.
* Before Tomorrow.
* Fifty Dead Men Walking.
* Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* Polytechnique.
2. Achievement in Direction:
* Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu for Before Tomorrow.
* Kari Skogland - Fifty Dead Men Walking.
* Charles Officer - Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* Denis Villeneuve - Polytechnique.
* Bruce McDonald - Pontypool.
3. Best Original Screenplay:
* Atom Egoyan - Adoration.
* Émile Gaudreault and Ian Lauzon - De père en flic (Father and Guns).
* Charles Officer and Ingrid Veninger - Nurse.Fighter.Boy.
* Jacques Davidts - Polytechnique.
* David Bezmozgis - Victoria Day.
4. Best Adapted Screenplay:
* Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Susan Avingaq and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu - Before Tomorrow.
* Kari Skogland - Fifty Dead Men Walking.
- 3/1/2010
- by anhkhoido@hotmail.com (Anh Khoi Do)
- The Cultural Post
Sebastian Silva's "The Maid" was named best narrative film at the 11th Sarasota Film Festival, which handed out awards Saturday night in Sarasota, Fla.
Ben Steinbauer's "Winnebago Man" took the prize for documentary feature.
The evening also included a filmmaker tribute to the late Hal Ashby.
The prize for best narrative feature included the offer of a U.S. distribution deal from Film Movement, while the doc prize carried with it the offer of distribution from First Run Features.
Prizes in the narrative categories also went to Tze Chun's "Children of Invention," which took the special jury prize, and to cinematographer Steve Cosens, who received the special jury prize for cinematography for "Nurse, Fighter, Boy," which also scored an audience award for best in world cinema.
Director-cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes was awarded a special jury prize for cinematography for the doc "Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be the Same.
Ben Steinbauer's "Winnebago Man" took the prize for documentary feature.
The evening also included a filmmaker tribute to the late Hal Ashby.
The prize for best narrative feature included the offer of a U.S. distribution deal from Film Movement, while the doc prize carried with it the offer of distribution from First Run Features.
Prizes in the narrative categories also went to Tze Chun's "Children of Invention," which took the special jury prize, and to cinematographer Steve Cosens, who received the special jury prize for cinematography for "Nurse, Fighter, Boy," which also scored an audience award for best in world cinema.
Director-cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes was awarded a special jury prize for cinematography for the doc "Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be the Same.
- 4/5/2009
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Snow Cake" tries to wring intimate drama and sweet epiphanies from a collection of oddball characters, peculiar circumstances and doubtful coincidences in a middle-of-nowhere Canadian town. The mental and physical landscape would do justice to an Atom Egoyan film, but in this film, written by Angela Pell and directed by Marc Evans, the key dramatic moments feel as forced as they are predictable.
This low-key Canadian-British production, the opening-night selection for the Berlin International Film Festival, has a chance at art house exposure with its cast of Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss, but theatrical opportunities will be limited.
Mostly, Pell presents characters out of sync with their lives, uncomfortable in their bodies and overly protective of their emotions. There is one live wire, but she must die early for these people to connect at all.
Young and over-caffeinated Vivienne (Emily Hampshire) is the sacrificial lamb in this fiction, a gregarious and talkative hitchhiker who is grudgingly picked up by the sour-faced and incommunicative Alex (Rickman), whose entire body sags under the weight of the baggage of his past.
As the two near her destination, a terrible car accident claims her life but leaves Alex with barely a scratch. Overwhelmed with remorse and guilt, even though the accident was not his fault, Alex seeks out Vivienne's mother, Linda (Weaver), who scarcely reacts to her daughter's death. This, he soon learns, is due to her autism. Only it's the kind of literary autism that allows her to make sagacious observations and funny remarks.
Linda does persuade Alex To stay the night, which turns into several more nights. It's enough time for Alex To begin an unlikely affair with beautiful neighbor Maggie (Moss), who is no more out of place in this environment than a three-star restaurant. And, wouldn't you know it, Maggie, too, has a past.
Everyone's past, none of which is nearly as interesting as the filmmakers seem to believe, gets chewed over in the coming days. Then there's a local cop (James Allodi), smitten with unrequited affection for Maggie, lurking ominously in the background, jealously festering over her swift embrace of this lonely drifter. It's a plot line without a payoff.
Performances here feel like performances. Rickman and Weaver have so carefully thought through their roles in such minute physical details that nothing feels spontaneous. By contrast, Moss is warm and natural, but her urban character is so underwritten and alarmingly out of place in this small town that all Maggie can do is act as a catalyst for other people's healing.
Cinematographer Steve Cosens often keeps the camera close as if the world were hemming in these characters. He and designer Matthew Davies make the dusty, snowy town feel as desolate as their lives while Canadian rock band Broken Social Scene supplies a restless musical accompaniment.
SNOW CAKE
Revolution Films/Rhombus Media
Credits:
Director: Marc Evans
Screenwriter: Angela Pell
Producers: Gina Carter, Jessica Daniel, Andrew Eaton, Niv Fichman
Executive producers: Robert Jones, Henry Normal, Michael Winterbottom, David M. Thompson, Steve Coogan
Director of photography: Steve Cosens
Production designer: Matthew Davies
Music: Broken Social Scene
Costume designer: Debra Hanson
Editor: Marguerite Arnold
Cast:
Alex Hughes: Alan Rickman
Linda Freeman: Sigourney Weaver
Maggie: Carrie-Anne Moss
Vivienne: Emily Hampshire
Clyde: James Allodi
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 112 minutes...
BERLIN -- "Snow Cake" tries to wring intimate drama and sweet epiphanies from a collection of oddball characters, peculiar circumstances and doubtful coincidences in a middle-of-nowhere Canadian town. The mental and physical landscape would do justice to an Atom Egoyan film, but in this film, written by Angela Pell and directed by Marc Evans, the key dramatic moments feel as forced as they are predictable.
This low-key Canadian-British production, the opening-night selection for the Berlin International Film Festival, has a chance at art house exposure with its cast of Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss, but theatrical opportunities will be limited.
Mostly, Pell presents characters out of sync with their lives, uncomfortable in their bodies and overly protective of their emotions. There is one live wire, but she must die early for these people to connect at all.
Young and over-caffeinated Vivienne (Emily Hampshire) is the sacrificial lamb in this fiction, a gregarious and talkative hitchhiker who is grudgingly picked up by the sour-faced and incommunicative Alex (Rickman), whose entire body sags under the weight of the baggage of his past.
As the two near her destination, a terrible car accident claims her life but leaves Alex with barely a scratch. Overwhelmed with remorse and guilt, even though the accident was not his fault, Alex seeks out Vivienne's mother, Linda (Weaver), who scarcely reacts to her daughter's death. This, he soon learns, is due to her autism. Only it's the kind of literary autism that allows her to make sagacious observations and funny remarks.
Linda does persuade Alex To stay the night, which turns into several more nights. It's enough time for Alex To begin an unlikely affair with beautiful neighbor Maggie (Moss), who is no more out of place in this environment than a three-star restaurant. And, wouldn't you know it, Maggie, too, has a past.
Everyone's past, none of which is nearly as interesting as the filmmakers seem to believe, gets chewed over in the coming days. Then there's a local cop (James Allodi), smitten with unrequited affection for Maggie, lurking ominously in the background, jealously festering over her swift embrace of this lonely drifter. It's a plot line without a payoff.
Performances here feel like performances. Rickman and Weaver have so carefully thought through their roles in such minute physical details that nothing feels spontaneous. By contrast, Moss is warm and natural, but her urban character is so underwritten and alarmingly out of place in this small town that all Maggie can do is act as a catalyst for other people's healing.
Cinematographer Steve Cosens often keeps the camera close as if the world were hemming in these characters. He and designer Matthew Davies make the dusty, snowy town feel as desolate as their lives while Canadian rock band Broken Social Scene supplies a restless musical accompaniment.
SNOW CAKE
Revolution Films/Rhombus Media
Credits:
Director: Marc Evans
Screenwriter: Angela Pell
Producers: Gina Carter, Jessica Daniel, Andrew Eaton, Niv Fichman
Executive producers: Robert Jones, Henry Normal, Michael Winterbottom, David M. Thompson, Steve Coogan
Director of photography: Steve Cosens
Production designer: Matthew Davies
Music: Broken Social Scene
Costume designer: Debra Hanson
Editor: Marguerite Arnold
Cast:
Alex Hughes: Alan Rickman
Linda Freeman: Sigourney Weaver
Maggie: Carrie-Anne Moss
Vivienne: Emily Hampshire
Clyde: James Allodi
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 112 minutes...
- 2/10/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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.