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Tag: laura dern

  • Review: Wrenching and riveting, ‘The Son’ leaves you shaken

    Review: Wrenching and riveting, ‘The Son’ leaves you shaken

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    If you don’t have children, you will likely walk out of “The Son” shaken and deeply moved. If you do have kids, you may have to be eventually pulled to your feet after collapsing into a fetal ball for several hours.

    Writer-director Florian Zeller’s second installment in his trilogy examining mental health is an emotional wrecking ball almost exquisite in its destructive power. If his previous film, “The Father,” needed a trigger warning about dementia, “The Son” needs one for depression and suicide.

    Despite the title, “The Son” is really about the father in this story, Peter, a successful workaholic Manhattan lawyer on his second wife and second child, a newborn. Past and present collide when Nicholas, the 17-year-old son from his first marriage, reaches a crescendo of mental anguish.

    “It’s life. It’s weighing me down. I want something to change, but I don’t know what,” he cries. “I feel like my head’s exploding.”

    But neither dad — Hugh Jackman, in easily his finest work onscreen — nor mom, Laura Dern in another heart-led performance, can seem to help. Zen McGrath plays the son with stunning agony, his hooded eyes flickering as if he’s being hunted.

    Zeller, adapting his play for the screen together again with translator and co-screenwriter Christopher Hampton, grounds everything in an unblinking realism, letting the words carry and avoiding any visual tricks, except for a shaky camera when it focuses on Nicholas.

    One quiet symbol that recurs is of Peter shown often at an elevator bank, his vertical world going up and down. But at his home, the filmmakers show a constant churning washing machine — lines versus circles.

    None of the parents in this high-class world — including stepmom Beth played by Vanessa Kirby — seem to know how to help this young man stuck in a domestic no man’s land or even how to speak to him.

    Jackman’s Peter addresses his son as if he were in a sales meeting (“Soon everything will go back to normal”) and even offers him a fist-bump. He and his mom have a chopped shorthand, with fractured dialogue. (“Call me,” “Don’t…” and “Don’t cry, my little sunbeam.”)

    Restless and in mental pain, the son goes from one parent’s home to another, skipping school and just wandering the city. “What’s going to become of you?” his dad demands, confusing the byproduct for the root issue.

    In one heartbreaking scene, dad, stepmom and son dance in their living room to Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual” and the camera soon closes in on the adults blissfully smiling as they let loose, unaware that the son long ago dropped out.

    The son’s anger at his father for leaving his mother buries the film in guilt that eats away at the dad, who starts to drift off in meetings. He then has a wonderfully tense visit with his own father (Anthony Hopkins, though not playing his same role in “The Father.”) Peter tells him he may turn down a job to care for his son, which his father sees as a dig at his own absentee parenting. “What do you want, applause?” sneers the father. “Get over it.”

    All the while, Nicholas is calling out for help. “I’m not well, mom,” “I’m not made like other people” and “I don’t think I’m ever going to measure up.” He’s cutting himself and has no friends. Viewers will be unable to shake a rising sense of dread, that the son needs something that his parents cannot give him. That love is not enough, as a psychiatrist says.

    The film’s only flashbacks are of a sunny vacation in Corsica back when the first marriage was strong and Nicholas was 6 and first learning to swim. It was dad who encouraged him to make his first tentative strokes alone. Knowing the waves of grief yet to come almost physically hurts.

    “The Son,” a Sony Pictures Classics release opens in New York and Los Angeles on Nov. 25 and will expand to theaters nationwide on Jan. 20, is rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, suicide and strong language. Running time: 124 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

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    MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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    Online: https://www.sonyclassics.com/film/theson

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    Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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  • Laura Dern (sort of) made a cameo on ‘White Lotus’ Season 2 | CNN

    Laura Dern (sort of) made a cameo on ‘White Lotus’ Season 2 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Laura Dern has returned to working with one of her previous collaborators – but you may have missed it.

    The “Jurassic Park” star has a small part in the second season premiere of HBO Max’s ensemble dramedy anthology “The White Lotus,” in a voice role as Dominic Di Grasso’s (Michael Imperioli) estranged wife. (CNN and HBO Max are both part of the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)

    Eagle-eyed viewers (or listeners, as it were) recognized Dern as the voice behind the character, who told off Di Grasso over the phone shortly after he and members of his family arrived at the luxury White Lotus resort in Sicily.

    HBO Max confirmed the casting move to CNN on Monday.

    “The White Lotus” is an Emmy-winning series from writer and creator Mike White that centers on a luxury resort chain and the guests who visit, as well as the staff who run the establishment. The first season, which premiered last year, took place in Hawaii. This season moved the action to Mediterranean Europe.

    White previously collaborated with Dern on the Emmy-nominated HBO show “Enlightened,” which ran from 2011 until 2013.

    While Dern’s character in “White Lotus,” Abby, sounds rather angry and like she won’t be joining her family on their sojourn in Sicily, it’s too soon to tell whether or not she will appear onscreen in the series.

    White has a habit of repeatedly working with his favorite actors – Molly Shannon, who starred in his 2007 film “Year of the Dog,” also appeared in smaller roles on both “Enlightened” and the first season of “The White Lotus.”

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  • And By the Way, Taylorella Is Going Out Tonight: “Bejeweled” Riffs On Cinderella With Cameos Galore

    And By the Way, Taylorella Is Going Out Tonight: “Bejeweled” Riffs On Cinderella With Cameos Galore

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    As Taylor Swift continues her Midnights blitzkrieg, a steady release of music videos for the album is par for the promotional course. And after only freshly releasing the Honey, I Blew Up the Kid meets Alice in Wonderland “Anti-Hero,” Swift has wasted no time (“midnights” speaking to the tick of the clock and all) in gracing her audience with yet another visual accompaniment—this time for “Bejeweled.” Which she also wrote and directed… yet again.

    Riffing on Cinderella because it’s a tale that automatically gets associated with midnight, Taylor fancies herself the cleaning “house wench” of the narrative, scrubbing the floor as her three stepsisters a.k.a. the Haim sisters, Lady Danielle (wants the ring), Lady Este (wants the title) and Lady Alana (wants the d***), traipse in discussing the impending ball. But Lady Danielle laments that, instead of just showing up and being able to look hot, a talent competition has been incorporated into this year’s festivities.

    Taylor, literally down at heel scrubbing puke off the floor, then overhears that the winner gets the keys to her own castle. “Taylorella” perks right up as her descriptive caption reads, “House Wench Taylor (wants the castle).” And we all know Swift loves a good castle reference. For example, on “New Romantics,” she sang, “I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me.” Later, on “Call It What You Want,” she lamented, “My castle crumbled overnight” and “They took the crown, but it’s alright.” Then there was the “kingdom” allusion on the Kanye-shading “Look What You Made Me Do,” wherein she says, “I don’t like your kingdom keys, they once belonged to me.”

    It’s clear in “Bejeweled” that she’s determined to take them back, along with her independence, even if being tied to Joe Alwyn with an invisible string somewhat detracts from that. And yes, many believe one of the engagement-oriented Easter eggs (that odious term) Swift has planted in the video comes from the mouth of Laura Dern, who plays her stepmother, saying, “I simply adore a proposal. It’s the single-most defining thing a lady could hope to achieve in her lifetime.”

    After her stepmother and stepsisters continue to prattle on about how she can’t go to the ball, dropping in other Swiftian keywords like “exile” and “snake,” Taylorella waits for them to leave before breaking the fourth wall and smiling at the audience. A knowing smirk that infers the “Bejeweled” lyric, “And by the way, I’m goin’ out tonight.” That she is, as Taylorella enters a magically-appearing elevator (of the ilk that reminds the viewer of the one featured in Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” video with DaBaby… before he was briefly cancelled for making homophobic comments) after a stopwatch descends into her hand ticking off seconds beneath the words “exile ends.”

    All at once in a bejeweled cape, Taylorella happily enters the elevator and hits the number three button, just one of many hints that have prompted fans to determine she next plans to re-record her third album, Speak Now (not to be confused with Lindsay Lohan’s far more culturally impactful Speak). Taken to a room that looks like something out of a Yayoi Kusama exhibit, it’s filled with nothing but jewels (both on the floor as a pathway and suspended in mid-air) as Taylorella walks across them like Jesus walking on water (and yes, many do view Swift with his level of worship).

    Back on the art deco elevator, Taylorella then heads to the fifth floor, where, of all people, Dita Von Teese awaits. Citing her as one of the most iconic performers in an interview with Jimmy Fallon, Swift accordingly lists her as the “Fairy Goddess” in the credits, taking lessons on how to execute her signature “The Martini Glass” performance in a scene that is peak “women supporting women.” Once she apprehends the arcane knowledge of burlesque, Taylorella takes the elevator to the thirteenth floor (yet another number rife with meaning for the chanteuse). This is where the ball awaits, and where she will showcase her newfound talent for the Queen and the Prince.

    Against a backdrop of cogs and wheels, Taylorella herself sits on a clock in bejeweled burlesque attire, taking the spotlight at the fête—much to the dismay of her stepsisters. Watching from the sidelines is Pat McGrath as “Queen Pat,” with the caption, “Queen Pat was impressed. Prince Jack [of course, played by none other than Swift’s bitch, Jack Antonoff] was forced to propose to House Wench Taylor.”

    Posing next to Prince Jack with her giant key to her very own castle, Taylorella then goes poof as the additional caption needlessly explains, “She ghosted. But kept the castle.” This written as Taylorella, looking more Bridgerton than Cinderella, walks out on the balcony of her new “pad” to witness the sight of dragons breathing fire at the towers. The implication being that the outside world is still trying to tear down her perfect kingdom—or is it that they’re now “on her side” and protecting it? Only time will tell, but knowing the “pratfalls” of being a celebrity, it’s likely the former.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Actors Who Took the Longest Break Before Returning to Iconic Roles

    Actors Who Took the Longest Break Before Returning to Iconic Roles

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    It’s hard to always predict which movies are going to live on as classics. While you might assume something like Star Wars was always destined for greatness, the truth is that you never really know which movies are bound to become pop culture touchstones. The actors in these movies don’t know, either — what starts off as a one-time movie deal might turn into a lucrative franchise run. In other cases, a movie sequel or reboot may lie dormant for several years, and when it finally does happen? Those actors prepare to return to a role they haven’t touched in decades.

    Since Hollywood can be so unpredictable, it’s never quite clear what the future holds for a movie franchise. In some situations, a franchise completely starts fresh with new characters. This creates the opportunity for the original actors to come back and make a cameo. There are some movies, however, where those original actors serve as the leads of that sequel — a good example would be Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as Harry and Lloyd in 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To. There’s something undeniably special about seeing an actor reappear as a certain character so many years — even though they may look a bit older, they still bring the same energy to the table.

    For some performers, one iconic role becomes the gift that keeps on giving. No matter how much time goes by, that character will always be a defining part of their career. These actors returned to their roles decades after their first appearance on screen.

    13 Actors Who Returned To Iconic Roles Decades Later

    What Happened To Your Favorite Child Actors After They Left Hollywood

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    Claire Epting

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