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Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 24-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVDThis uniquely beautiful film--from one of the smartest and most idiosyncratic of contemporary directors, Todd Haynes (Safe, Velvet Goldmine)--takes the lush 1950s visual style of so-called women's pictures (particularly those of Douglas Sirk, director of Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession) to tell a story that mixes both sexual and racial prejudice. Julianne Moore, an amazing fusion of vulnerability and will power, plays a house! wife whose husband (Dennis Quaid) has a secret gay life. When she finds solace in the company of a black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), rumors and peer pressure destroy any chance she has at happiness. It's astonishing how a movie with such a stylized veneer can be so emotionally compelling; the cast and filmmakers have such an impeccable command of the look and feel of the genre that every moment is simultaneously artificial and deeply felt. Far from Heaven is ingenious and completely engrossing. --Bret FetzerA missed flight...a lack of intimacy...guarded secrets... To Catherine (Julianne Moore), every detail suggests that her husband David (Liam Neeson) has been unfaithful. But there's only one way to know for sure. Catherine pays the mysterious Chloe (Amanda Seyfriend), an escort, to seduce her husband. She wants to know exactly how far she can trust him. But soon Catherine finds herself pushed beyond all limits as passions burn and obsessions build. Fr! om Academy Award®-nominated director Atom Egoyan (The Swee! t Hereaf ter, 1997).
"Intriguing, darkly erotic." -Tom Keogh, Seattle Times
"A supercharged erotic thriller!" -Caryn James, Marie Claire
"…a sexually charged drama…" -Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun
"good, dirty fun." -Ain't It Cool News
"devilishly sexy." -Paul Fischer, Dark Horizons
In the erotic thriller Chloe, Dr. Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore, A Single Man) suspects that her husband David (Liam Neeson, Taken) is cheating on her. So she hires an escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried, Mamma Mia!) to offer herself to him, to see how he responds--but Catherine has a surprising response to what unfolds, and Chloe becomes drawn deeply into the doctor's life. Chloe is an atypical "Hollywood" film from Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica), as it features big stars, a script Egoyan didn't write himself (it's by Erin Cressida Wilson, the screenwriter of Secreta! ry), an editing rhythm notably less idiosyncratic than Egoyan films of old, and an ending that feels forced and unsatisfying. But Chloe explores classic Egoyan obsessions: voyeurism, jealousy, and betrayal. As the movie unfolds, the performances are full of rich details, capturing jagged emotional edges that make the somewhat-implausible plot compelling. Chloe doesn't have the uncanny psychological acuity of Egoyan's best films, but anyone who's enjoyed this unique director's earlier work will find much to enjoy. --Bret Fetzer
Stills from Chloe (Click for larger image)
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Freckleface Strawberry and Windy Pants Patrick are as different as can be-but that doesn't stop them from being the best of friends. After all, they have a lot of important things in common, like having families and liking recess and loving books. But the rest of the kids don't see it that way. They think that girls and boys are just too different to be friends. So one day, Freckleface decides NOT to play with Windy Pants Patrick. And he decides not to play with her. And nothing really changes . . . or does it? She still eats lunch and plays and reads books-and so does he. So why don't those things feel fun anymore?
Witty, warmhearted, and brought to life with LeUyen Pham's gentle hilarity, Julianne Moore's latest book celebrates the importance of recognizing-and keeping-a true friend.
down their “donor dad,†Paul (Mark Ruffalo), an unexpected new chapter begins for everyone as family ties are defined, re-defined and then re-re-defined. Fall in love with the big-hearted comedy that critics are calling “one of the best films of the year!â€
(Michael Phillips, At the Movies)If the relationships that anchor Lisa Cholodenko's warmly funny films appear unconventional, their problems--their pleasures--remain universal. In The Kids Are All Right (no relation to the Who documentary), she takes on a suburban Los Angeles family with two teens, Joni (Alice in Wonderland's Mia Wasikowska) and the unfortunately named Laser (Josh Hutcherson, The Bridge to Terabithia), and two mothers, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (an atypically relaxed Julianne Moore), who concei! ved via artificial insemination. Now that she's heading off to college, Laser urges 18-year-old Joni to seek out their birth father, who lives in the area (her name comes from folksinger Mitchell). Though she hits it off with Paul (Mark Ruffalo, effortlessly charming), a motorcycle-riding restaurant owner, Laser has his doubts (troublingly, the 15-year-old's best friend uses "faggot" as an all-purpose epithet). After they introduce Paul to their parents, allegiances start to shift. While Nic, a doctor, serves as breadwinner (and disciplinarian), Jules, a homemaker-turned-landscape artist, provides the nurturing. Paul, on the other hand, lives free from attachments, inciting both curiosity and suspicion. Furthermore, Jules finds him strangely irresistible, which only expands the fissures in her loving, yet unstable union. As with Laurel Canyon, Cholodenko doesn't just create fully rounded characters, but entire communities. In the end, Kids isn't about children! vs. adults as much as the family unit vs. the singular outsid! er. Thou gh the story concludes on a relatively happy note, it's clear where her allegiances lie. --Kathleen C. Fennessy Haunted by the memories of a son her husband swears she never had, a distraught mother's search for the truth leads to a mind-shattering conspiracy of unearthly terror.With a plot that might've been lifted from The X-Files, nothing is quite what it seems in The Forgotten, a psychological conspiracy thriller with Julianne Moore doing fine work as a grieving mother whose nine-year-old son was killed in a plane crash. At least, that's what she's been led to believe, but when even her husband (Anthony Edwards) tries to convince her that she's delusional and never had a child, things start to get very spooky indeed. Dominic West (from HBO's superb series The Wire) plays a similarly traumatized father, and when they witness some very strange events--and a mysterious man (Linus Roache) who might be indestructible--this glorified B-movie ! potboiler directed by Joseph Ruben (best known for Dreamscape and The Stepfather) turns into a preposterous but entertaining trip into The Twilight Zone territory. Featuring Alfre Woodard as an intuitive New York detective and Gary Sinise as a seemingly sympathetic psychiatrist, The Forgotten offers adequate shocks and an intriguing, otherworldly study of tenacious parental instinct. It deserved its mixed reviews, but it's a fun spook-fest for rainy-day viewing. --Jeff Shannon
Freckleface Strawberry loves the Early Bird program at school because it means extra time on the playgroundâ€"except when it rains. Rain means indoor playtime...and facing the school bully Windy Pants Patrick in a bruising game of dodgeball. Ignoring him seems the safest thing, but what's our freckled heroine to do when she's forced to confront the bully alone? Beat him at his own game, of course. A funny, inspiring story about an all-too-common problem that k! ids, parents, and teachers will easily relate to.
Freckleface Strawberry loves the Early Bird program at school because it means extra time on the playground--except when it rains. Rain means indoor playtime...and facing the school bully Windy Pants Patrick in a bruising game of dodgeball. Ignoring him seems the safest thing, but what's our freckled heroine to do when she's forced to confront the bully alone? Beat him at his own game, of course. Julianne Moore's follow-up to Freckelface Strawberry is a funny, inspiring story about an all-too-common problem that kids, parents, and teachers will easily relate to.
Questions for Julianne Moore
Question: Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully is your second picture book. How does it feel to be a published author?
Julianne More: It feels wonderful to be a published author. I consider myself first and foremost a reader-- I grew u! p loving books more than anything else in my life. I moved a lot, and books were my most steady companions and greatest influence. As a result, I feel pleased and honored to be included in a world that is so meaningful to me.
Julianne More: It was important to me that I create a character who was very much a real child, with a real child’s fears and feelings and sense of herself as an individual in the world. So it is not so much that I see Freckleface Strawberry as a character who is dealing with important "issues," I see her as dealin! g with the very real problem of defining herself in relation ! to the r est of the world--which, of course, is what we all do as we grow up!
Question: You have a wonderful way of infusing your text with humor. Was that intentional?
Julianne More: Gosh, I hope it is funny. I think life is funny, and children are hysterical. I love how literal they are, and how imaginative. Just the idea that children believe that they can make themselves disappear or become a scary monster or convince someone that they are a grown-up when they are clearly just four years old--all of that is so funny to me. I don’t want to be unfair to children about the seriousness of their experience, but sometimes it is the distance from the story that makes it funny. Events that feel tragic can take on a comic cast with some distance--even for a child.
Question: What inspired you to create the character Freckleface Strawberry?
Julianne More: Freckleface Strawberry was a childhood nickname of mine. It was ! a name based on my copious amounts of freckles and long red hair. I found the name tragic and humiliating at the time--but with some distance (see above) it has become wildly amusing. So really these stories are based on my own childhood experiences and a sense of being at the center of my own drama--with a little of my kids' drama thrown in!
Question: What was your favorite thing to do when you were Freckleface's age?
Julianne More: When I was seven, all I wanted to do was ride my bike. It was a purple Huffy, with a banana seat and butterfly handlebars. I rode it everywhere. That, and read.
Question: You have two young children. What role do books and reading play in their lives?
Julianne More: My children have always been read to, and now my older child reads on his own as well. The stories they love reflect so much about them--my son loves books about sports and funny mystery books; my daughter loves a ! story where a child has a problem and then solves it!
!Qu estion: Were you an avid reader as a child? What's your first reading memory?
Julianne More: I loved to read as a child. We moved a lot and reading was something I could always take with me. The first sentence I ever read was in a kid's science book that I read with my mother, and the sentence was, "Mother, Mother," said Bob, "I see a robin."
Question: What writers have influenced you?
Julianne More: In terms of children’s books, I love William Steig, Mo Willems, Kevin Henkes, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Louisa May Alcott--they write books that don’t condescend to the child and that acknowledge their sense of humor. There really are so many great writers--Maurice Sendak, Theodor Geisel, Margaret Wise Brown, and on and on and on...
Julianne More: I found that in writing the book, it was very important for me to locate the voice of the character--not unlike the way I work as an actor--and once I found the voice, it was easier for me to write it.
Question: What did you enjoy the most about the process of creating a picture book? The least?
Julianne More: I think I liked coming up with the character the best, and so far I haven’t disliked anything--it’s all been a lot of fun.
Question: What is your motto?
Julianne More: Perseverance is more important than you think!
Question: What’s your favorite kind of pie?
Julianne More: My favorite kind of pie is lemon meringue--or cherry--I can’t decide.
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