Tag Archive for 'Biopic'

How to Watch: “Soul Surfer”

Published on April 12, 2011 in Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Step 1: I’m afraid to say something negative about the Christian-based Soul Surfer for fear of going to hell. So I won’t.

Step 2: Uplift the spirits. While there’s a fair amount of cheesy dialogue and Lifetime TV sensibilities, the film still touches your heart. Soul Surfer is a biopic about real-life pro surfer Bethany Hamilton, who, as a teenager, overcomes many obstacles after losing her arm in a shark attack. Starting when Bethany (AnnaSophia Robb) is a 13-year-old girl, we see she’s someone with an undeniably kind spirit and boundless energy, growing up in Hawaii with surfer parents (Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt). She learns to surf at a very young age with her best friend (Lorraine Nicholson), and the two eventually find themselves on track to becoming pro surfers.

Step 3: When the shark bites… Then tragedy strikes when Bethany is attacked by a shark while surfing, nearly dying after losing 60 percent of her blood. Now with only one arm, she is determined to go back in the water to surf but finds it very difficult. Bethany almost gives it all up. Yet, with the support of her family and her church youth counselor (Carrie Underwood), she embarks on a humanitarian journey to help victims in the 2004 tsunami disaster — and discovers her own courage to live out her dream of being a pro surfer.

Step 4: Move above the common. What delineates Soul Surfer from a TV movie of the week is, of course, the acting. Quaid and Hunt simply add a certain gravitas to the proceedings as the Hamiltons, who have provided a solid family unit. It’s also nice to see Hunt on the big screen again after a three year absence. Let’s hope to see more of her. Robb, best known for her roles in Bridge to Terabithia and Race to Witch Mountain, has the requisite amount of spunk and determination, while also showing what must have been Bethany’s insecurities and fears. Country superstar Carrie Underwood makes her film debut as the Christian youth leader, and I’m sure she played it pretty close to herself. Nicholson, who is Jack Nicholson’s daughter, does a nice job as the friend who witnesses her best friend getting her arm chewed off by a shark. One thing that sort of bothered me was the way the locals went after the shark and killed it (don’t worry, I’m not giving any major plot points away). It really wasn’t the fish’s fault; he thought she was a seal, like in most shark-to-surfer attacks, so why kill it? Poor sharks. But I digress.

Step 5: Move to Hawaii. Director Sean McNamara comes from kids’ TV (Even Stevens), so while he has a handle on the PG-ness of Soul Surfer, he’s not as good with the surfing sequences — at least not when it comes to using stunt doubles effectively. There are many obvious moments in which you can tell it’s not Robb — and even some laughable times when the actress’ face is superimposed on a real surfer in action. And yet, the special effects to hide Robb’s arm are completely believable. Go figure. Ultimately, though, McNamara captures the true spirit of Bethany’s story, managing to bring a big screen feel to what probably should have been a small screen sports flick. Filming in the gorgeous, lush and extraordinarily beautiful Hawaii also helps. I have to admit I walked out of the theater seriously considering chucking it all in, moving there and running a small sundries shop. I don’t surf, so not too afraid of getting a shark bite — and I can always get Netflix for my movie addiction. Who’s with me?!

 

 

How to Interview: Eulogize “The Runaways”

Published on March 24, 2010 in Interviews and Movies. 0 Comments Tags: .

By Robert Sims, Special to TheMovieKit.com

Underage and over the top, The Runaways proved that women could just as easily enjoy the excesses of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Led by singer Cherie Currie and guitarist Joan Jett, The Runaways exploded with the 1976 hit single “Cherry Bomb” and demonstrated that an all-girl teenage band could rock just as hard and partake in self-destructive behavior as any of their male counterparts. Currie left after three albums to pursue a solo and an acting career in such films as Foxes and The Twilight Zone: The Movie, and The Runaways fell apart soon after.

New Moon costars Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart portray Currie and Jett, respectively, in The Runaways, director Floria Sigismondi’s recount of the band’s rise and fall.

At a Q&A following the SXSW screening of The Runaways, Fanning and Stewart joined Currie to talk about turning The Runaways’ cautionary tale into a film.

Step 1: Tell the story from the perspective of singer Cherie Currie and guitarist Joan Jett

Floria Sigismondi: “When I got the call, they had already gotten the rights to Cherie, Joan and Kim [Fowley, The Runaways’ brilliant but manipulative producer] and Sandy [West, the band’s late drummer], and the other girls didn’t want to be involved. So that’s who I had to work with. Meeting them, they were nicknamed Salt and Pepper, and I was just really drawn to the two of them as the main story. So I mostly focused on the two of them. Just working with the ideas, and everything that had happened, I knew what would stick and what wouldn’t just by the story I wanted to tell, which is basically their friendship in this world and how different they are and how they came together and how special that was.”

Step 2: Know what to edit and condense

Sigismondi: “It was a rollercoaster. I was dancing all kinds of lines of what was important and what could the story possibly live without. It’s hard to capture someone’s life in an hour and 40 minutes, never mind their relationships. It’s more than just one life; you’ve got many other people’s lives. You’ve got real people, still alive. You’ve got fans looking at it in a different way. It’s just finding that line of what characterizes them more than the actual events.”

Step 3: Brush up on rock history

Dakota Fanning: “A lot of people my and Kristen’s age and generation aren’t really familiar with The Runaways. So when I read [the script] I immediately went on YouTube and looked at the Live in Japan videos, and specifically of the band performing ‘Cherry Bomb’ and I watched Cherrie performing ‘Cherry Bomb.’ I think that moment was when I realized that I wanted to do that. When I had my initial meeting to do that, I don’t think I would have been the first person people would have thought to do this role just because people think of me as a lot younger just because I’ve been acting for a long time. I’m really lucky that Floria and everyone believe in me that I could to do it and I hope that I did. So I think watching that video I really drawn to it and I wanted to do something different than I’ve before and that’s what I love about being an actor, being able to transform yourself.”

Kristen Stewart: “I said yes as soon as someone said they’re making a movie with Joan Jett and that’s one of the parts. I said, ‘Yes, totally, I’ll play it.’ There’s a million reasons you do a movie. You make an impulsive decision about something that moves you or whatever and realize what an insane responsibility you now have. Then you want to pass out. I didn’t know about The Runaways, that was mainly the thing, and it’s nice to be able to deliver that story to people our age because they should know. I got to know Joan really well, and I realized there’s a lot more to her than I saw. I really liked Joan.”

Step 4: Already know how to play the guitar

Stewart: “I did, thank God because I only had two weeks to learn songs because we finished New Moon very close to the start of the movie.”

Step 5: Get the moves right

Fanning: “During those two weeks we had band rehearsals and all of the Runaways girls got together and got to know each other and got used to being onstage together. For me, I had to sing the songs, so I had a few voice lessons and I worked with Cherie on the songs. Also, performing ‘Cherry Bomb’ was a really big deal to me and I wanted to do it exactly right. I had to practice that as well.”

Stewart: “We both had Joan and Cherrie by our side all the time. Both of them were telling us they would leave us alone as soon as we didn’t want them to be around anymore. We were telling them that as soon as we overstep boundaries or whatever we will not do that. We could to talk to them. We learned how to play and we got to talk to them about stuff.”

Step 6: Forget your fear of singing

Fanning: “That was one of the trepidations I had about doing it just because I have never thought of myself as a singer…. So when I knew I had to sing, I was really nervous about that I was self-conscious and scared. I found that the only way I can do it is if I’m playing someone else, and if I’m hiding behind a character. So Cherrie, that costume, and all that gave me the strength to be able to do it.”

Step 7: Watch Foxes

Sigismondi: “I looked at that. It was the closest thing I could get to [CC’s] face at that age, so I definitely looked at that. And I think … it’s the closet thing to [CC’s] personality to the person that [she] was at the time.

Cherie Currie: Annie was really me. I started that film right off the heels of The Runways, and I actually told Dakota—because right then, I wasn’t boisterous and in your face like I am now that I’m old. But I told Dakota to look at Foxes because that was where I really was. Annie was me. I don’t know how to act.”

Step 8: Enjoy the experience

Curie: “I’ve been working with Joan since Floria wrote the script…. It’s a dream come true. We got to go into the recording studio to record together for the first time in 35 years. It was as if time stood still. We’ve got so much to be grateful for.”

How to Interview: Hilary Swank

Published on October 26, 2009 in Interviews and Movies. 0 Comments Tags: .

Film Review AmeliaOh, she’s quite easy to talk to – has lots of insightful things to say and is genuinely pleasant. Of course, she’s also really the ONLY choice to play Amelia Earhart, if you ask me. I’ve mentioned before my childhood crush on the Amelia Earhart, having done about five or six book reports on her. Her life – but mostly, her death – endlessly fascinated me. So, when I heard who was starring as Amelia in the latest biopic, and then saw the trailer, I knew they’d hit the nail right on the head.

I have since seen the movie and even though the biopic itself wasn’t as engaging as I wanted it to be, watching Swank portray the famed “Lady Lindy” felt like I was watching the real deal. I mean, she is a spitting image. And yes, Swank is playing another tomboy type, a determined woman who wants to live her life on her own terms. But damn it, if she doesn’t excel at those roles, which has won her two Academy Awards for her performances in Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby. Is another Oscar nomination on the way as Amelia? Hmmm …

Before talking with Hilary, we sat down with Amelia director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake), who gave this little tidbit about the actress playing this iconic role:

“She imbued everything there was to know about Amelia. The cadence, the cocking the head to her shoulder, the hair, the smile – I would say to her ‘Hil, little less Amelia, please. Don’t give me so much Amelia.’ And she just loved that. But what she really brought, and that I can’t direct, is the adrenaline, is the daredevil. She loves to fly, to go to that place that scares her, and then she has the talent and the craft to meet that fear and make it something.”

That sounds about right. When Swank finally came into the room, she seemed fearless, confident – and definitely gushing about the woman she just played onscreen.

Step 1: Be an inspiration
“That’s what is incredible about this movie to me. I’ve never had such an outpouring of people coming up to me, saying, ‘I cannot WAIT to see your film.” [Um, that would be ME] More so than any other movie I’ve ever done. What a lot of people know about Amelia they learn in textbooks and this iconic image of who she was. But I think people also realize that this was a woman in a time when following your dream was a man’s job, and she is an inspiration to us to continue to follow our calling. To take it even a step further, I think this was a person who made no apologies for living the life she wanted to live. And even if she were living in 2009, she’d still be ahead of our time. I think it’s very challenging to live our lives on the path we want, whether you are a woman OR a man. To me, more than anything, that’s what people are responding to and it’s exciting to see. Especially in the difficult economic times we are living in.”

Step 2: Study the famed aviatrix
300px-Amelia_earhart“I know exactly to the minute how footage is out there on Amelia – about 16 minutes of newsreel, mostly of her waving. So a lot of her speaking was limited and what we had was her public persona. I found about 45 seconds of when she didn’t know the camera was on, so I got a little bit of insight into the other Amelia. I didn’t want to parody her, but the accent was very specific, the cadence, the way she carried herself. As it is for all of us. If I was playing YOU, for example, I’d want to break down your exact mannerisms. There were big shoes to fill and I really couldn’t take a lot of fictional licenses that I could probably take if I were playing you. It was daunting.”

Step 3: No, REALLY study her
“There were three things – the newsreels, the literature on her and then the firsthand stuff, her letters and correspondence between loved ones. But I tell you, she was such a private person, as you see, that getting to know what she felt was something you had to read between the lines. Studying her childhood because I think our childhood makes up a lot of who we are and how we carry ourselves in the world. The gifts her parents gave her, her dad encouraging her to explore the world and her sister pushing education.”

Step 4: Then find some surprises
“I didn’t recognize truly how unapologetically [sic] she lived her life. I found it quite remarkable, and at the same time, she wasn’t threatening to people. She didn’t say, ‘Screw you all!’ and leave a bunch of people behind. She really cared about people. The more I read, the more endearing she became. She was a very prolific writer. She was writing poetry at the age of 5! She was definitely someone I wished I could have met and talked to.”

amelia-hilary-swank-and-richard-gereStep 5: Is Amelia stuck on the Lost island?
“I do believe she ran out of fuel. I know there are a lot of different ideas about what happened. Was she kidnapped by the Japanese or stranded on an island? Believe me, during my press, a lot of people say, ‘I really don’t think that’s how you should have ended the movie.’ And I appreciate that there could have been a lot of different ways. Maybe if the movie is successful, we’ll pretend she DID land and do a sequel.”

Step 6: Don’t let anyone stand in your way
“I had one teacher who asked me when was I going to give up my hobby. Look, everyone is going to have an opinion. It’s obviously difficult when you are pursuing your dream and have people trying to dissuade you. I was also told one time I was too ‘half-hour’ when I was trying to get into drama. Some of them – neither of those – can be constructive. The other stuff is silly. You have to learn to decipher what’s constructive, that you can take in and incorporate to be a better actor. As actors, we really do where our hearts on our sleeves, so it’s easy to have that stuff thrown at you be upsetting.”

Step 7: Finally, learn to fly
“I did learn how to fly. You CANNOT play Amelia Earhart and not learn how to fly. And it was just as exhilarating and freeing and exciting as she writes about.”

Step 8: So you get it.
“I totally get it.”

How I Watched “Gorillas” Again…

Published on October 7, 2009 in Movies. 0 Comments Tags: , .

…when I vowed I never would. You know me, I’ll watch a movie over and over until I’m scaring people by quoting the lines before the actors onscreen do.

But there are a few good, even great movies I can only see once, just because I can’t take the sheer emotional roller coaster again. Schindler’s List is one, for example; Holocaust movies are tough but man, that one put me through the ringer. Gone, Baby, Gone is another; that one just makes my guts ache I get so mad.

And then there’s the 1988 Gorillas in the Mist. I’ve always had a tough time watching animals die onscreen. My mother forbade me as a kid to ever watch The Yearling again, since it left me dissolved every time I saw it. As did Old Yeller, Bambi, the Little Drummer Boy‘s donkey dying in that Rankin and Bass animated Christmas special. Remember that? Each one I cried and cried and cried — but I watched them over and over.

Gorillas was another matter. I knew when I walked into the theater in 1988 to see it, there was a better than fair chance I’d be a mess since I read the real-life story of Dian Fossey and her work with endangered gorillas in Rhwanda. I mean, gorillas, in general, KILL me. Those soulful faces. Hell, I even cry at King Kong. What I didn’t expect was how inconsolable I was with Gorillas. When Fossey, played by the brilliant Sigourney Weaver, finds her beloved primate friend Digit decapitated by poachers, I started sobbing uncontrollably — and I continued that way until the end of the credits. My boyfriend at the time didn’t know what to do with me. After I finally calmed down, a day or so later (just kidding but it took awhile), I told myself I couldn’t put myself through that again and thus never saw the film again.

Until now.

Gorillas has been playing on my movie channels, and I thought, “Well, it’s been, like, 20 years. Maybe I could just watch it one more time.” So I did. I teared up when Digit touches Dian’s hand for the first time. And when she has to give up the baby gorilla she nurses back to health to the bad French guy who wants it for a zoo. But when IT started to happen — that awful scene in which Digit is murdered — I couldn’t do it. I switched the channels before the deed, switching back awhile later to see Dian herself murdered. I spared myself an afternoon of exhaustive crying because I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop it. Here’s the hand-touching scene, plus other wonderful gorilla lovin’ moments from the movie:

I guess I am still sticking to my principals. I mean, I know the difference between a good cry and the kind of tear jerking that leaves me sobbing out loud and gulping for words. Not good.

How to Fly with “Amelia”

Published on July 7, 2009 in Movies. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Seems I’m sort of obsessed with cool trailers at the moment, huh? For me, that was always the best part about seeing a movie in the theater — watching trailers to upcoming flicks. But when I starting writing movie reviews and going to press screenings, I lost out on the trailer experience. Sure, I got used to seeing movies for free (which these days is quite a luxury), but it wasn’t quite the same. Thank god now for the Internet and catching any trailer I want — although I still get a kick out of seeing them in the theaters on that rare occasion when I pay for a movie.

Here’s the trailer to the new biopic Amelia. It focuses on the famed 1930s aviator and her amazingly daring feats in an airplane, including her fateful attempt at flying around the world, mysteriously disappearing over the Pacific in 1937. It stars Hilary Swank, looking very much the part but thankfully without much standing with hands on hips, as Amy Adams portrays her in Night at the Museum 2:

Speaking of obsessed, I was a huge Amelia Earhart fan when I was in grade school. I must have read her biography a dozen times (that and Island of the Blue Dolphins) and did at least three book reports on her that I can recall. She fascinated me, especially since neither her body or her plane were ever recovered. Some speculated she flew into a Bermuda Triangle of sorts or perhaps made it to a remote unchartered island to live out her days. Like Lost, let’s say. Whatever happened, it’s a fine mysterious end to an endlessly captivating woman way ahead of her time.