Snow Angels (David Gordon Green, 2008)

[mogwai]

Trailer

[domino harvey]

This looks infinitely better than the Pineapple Express. I mean, that trailer could have been for Baby Geniuses 4 and I'd say the same thing, but still.

[kaujot]

Agreed. I especially like that shot near the end with the snow falling whilst the band is marching.

[Antoine Doinel]

I heard Seth Rogen and Michael Cera have cameos.


Just kidding.

[yoshimori]

The movie is well-acted and has a consistent and subtle comic tone. It reminded me of Flannery O'Connor. Light, perhaps, but my favorite DGG movie so far. Supposed to be released in March, iirc.

[Cosmic Bus]

Glad to see WB finally decided to pick this up. Looks lovely! Now hopefully Pineapple Express tanks and/or is savaged in reviews and DGG never, ever goes in that direction again.

[Antoine Doinel]

Poster

[yoshimori]

Poster

Wow. That poster doesn't capture the tone of the film at all. Nor can I imagine it enticing anyone into the theater. Are the marketers targeting evangelicals? In order to play a joke on them? Baffling.

[chaddoli]

A surprisingly negative review from Ed Gonzalez, who seems to have been drinking Armond White's Kool-Aid lately.

[kaujot]

IGN, that bastion of film criticism, has a less-than-favorable review here.

[tavernier]

The one and only Armond weighs in.

[domino harvey]

The one and only Armond weighs in.

Read the article title at the top of the browser window and closed the browser before it could even finish loading.

[miless]

I do agree with Armond that Green has not created a film, yet, with the power and voice of George Washington... but I do believe he has gone way overboard in dismissing Snow Angels (as usual). I found the film to be a very predictable indie drama, with an atypical third act (but I even saw that coming from a mile away). The religious aspects to Glenn's character (fanaticism), to me, are rooted in his depression. He's grasping at straws. He's looking for something to believe in when everything else is gone. There is a tendency for any American movie (particularly indie films) to portray anyone reading a bible as foolish (this is no exception), but Glenn's character is not truly religious, he's just lost.

on a side note, many times when I see movies with 'white people reading from bibles' in the theater, the response is generally laughter from the audience (as opposed to when 'minorities' read from the bible, which gets a vastly different response). As much as I would love to see a film like Ordet on the big screen, I think that I'd probably cringe with the audience I'd likely see it with, particularly here in Portland (I believe it was Pedro Costa who told a story of watching Ordet in film school, and a bunch of people were snickering and laughing the whole way through. when the film ended the professor told the class that those who laughed would never be filmmakers).
I was quite surprised when the audience was very respectful during (both) screenings of Silent Light (although the lady behind me on the first screening started rustling her safeway bag partway through the last shot... and on the second screening a group of people burst out laughing once the screen turned black)

[John Cope]

As much as I would love to see a film like Ordet on the big screen, I think that I'd probably cringe with the audience I'd likely see it with, particularly here in Portland

I lived in Portland for awhile and, yeah, that sounds about right. The audience for Requiem for a Dream, however, was almost absurdly reverential.

(I believe it was Pedro Costa who told a story of watching Ordet in film school, and a bunch of people were snickering and laughing the whole way through. when the film ended the professor told the class that those who laughed would never be filmmakers)

Wasn't that Straub who made that comment to Costa and his class? It's always fascinating to me that those most willing to dismiss others for their ignorance wear their own as a badge of sophistication and pride. It does make you wonder what these people want to do with cinema if not employ it as a transformative medium, which is ultimately what Ordet is about. They generally seem to want to make films exploring their banal "relationships" under the banner of "realism", a la Swanberg and company or else films about Big Subjects like, uh, Wal-Mart.

and on the second screening a group of people burst out laughing once the screen turned black)

God, that's so depressing.

[miless]

and on the second screening a group of people burst out laughing once the screen turned black)

God, that's so depressing.

Yeah, but I then had a conversation with the woman who sat behind me who thought that it was one of the best films she'd ever seen (and that she couldn't understand why those people were laughing)... she then grew disdainful when she talked of her boyfriend who was waiting in the lobby (she said 'next time I'll have to go with someone more patient').

actually... the most depressing moment at PIFF was everyone's glowing reactions to Mongol, the worst movie of the year. (it was 300 on the steppes)

I agree with you about the whole 'mumblecore' business being banal explorations (except that Bujalski, arguably the movements designer, is quite a learned filmmaker... even if I don't like his films). For all their love of Casavettes, they seem to have forgotten his radical alteration to typical narrative. As it is those mumbelcore kids make films as traditional as a Hollywood rom-com's but without a script, and terrible pacing.

[Cold Bishop]

actually... the most depressing moment at PIFF was everyone's glowing reactions to Mongol, the worst movie of the year. (it was 300 on the steppes)

The Audience Awards in general are god awful.

[miless]

The Audience Awards in general are god awful.

yeah (and they're always the films that are coming out in theaters a week after the festival), although I did hear from Pam (one of the heads at the NW Film Center) that the programmer's favorite film was Silent Light... so I at least know that there will be a handful of those 'slow art movies' to wet my appetite.

[s.j. bagley]

'cinematical' review.

[Ovader]

The actress LITA LLEWELLYN gave this account in the newsletter of a Filmmakers' Co-op of her experience working on the film.

Since Silver Wave (provincial film festival), I have shot the film version of Memory Keeper's Daughter with Dermot Mulroney, Emily Watson and Gretchen Mol, was featured in New York's film magazine called Big with Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale for Snow Angels that opened in LA last Friday so we should see it here in the next 6-8 weeks in Theatres.

As well, I acted in the Film Co-op's training television series film, Back In your Arms over the last 2 months. I played Audrey, the lead character in a beautifully written, heart rendering story of lost love and what could have been.

'Snow Angels' is a movie based on a book by Stewart O'Nan. It is directed by David Gordon Green, and stars Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Nicky Katt and Michael Angarano. Rockwell and Beckinsale portray a recently divorced couple with a daughter, who were high school sweethearts. Angarano plays a teenager, who used to be baby-sat by Annie (Beckinsale). The movie follows the lives of several people, including Annie and Glenn (Rockwell), Arthur (Angrano) and his parents, and others as some relationships are built and others are destroyed.

When I was cast as Tricia Farr, I was ecstatic...she is a great character and I knew I'd get to work with these amazing people, plus be Nicky Katt's girlfriend! The whole process was amazing, David was patient with the casting process, you could really tell he was taking his time to get exactly what he wanted. He was a great director that way and a dream to work with. He explained everything he wanted and always loved talking about the character of Tricia and where she was coming from as well as going. He is extremely passionate and loves every minute of what he is doing...his enthusiasm is contagious and a dream for an actor! Who doesn't love exploring like this and really getting into the inside of someone you are portraying??

Shooting was great, my scenes were all shot in Halifax. David is big on working together and hanging out before shooting. I'll never forget the night Nicky Katt called me at my place on Spring Garden Rd. in the middle of a wild snowstorm. We planned to meet at a local quiet pub which was just across where I lived, which was across the Public Gardens. I could barely see where I was going and the whole time I am thinking to myself, "what are you doing Lita? Oh, just walking over to have a beer with Nicky Katt." He was great, and we had a lot of laughs...we have a bedroom scene so he was really supportive and sweet and funny. He and David really like their fart jokes, which can break some tension if a girl's gotta get her groove on!

As well, Kate was sweet, Michael was a doll and everyone super to work with! I loved every moment of it and have not had the pleasure of seeing it yet. Warner Brothers premiered it at Sundance to fantastic reviews...so I hope everyone enjoys!!!

[a.khan]

David Gordon Green blogging about the film and the anxiety of "self-promotion."

[kaujot]

Roeper and some guest critic liked it. The review is up on the Ebert at the Movies tv site. Or whatever it's called.

[chaddoli]

An excellent shot and reverse shot that have had me going back and forth on the significance of this Green film. I think overall it is a below-average misstep that will hopefully lead to greater glory. All of the haters need to stop using this film to further a retroactive dismissal of George Washington, an essential film of the 2000s.

Reverse Shot article and review.

[Barmy]

This is an excellent film. Beckinsale's only tolerable perf other than Last Days of Disco. She's actually quite good. Yeah, it's a bit "indie". For me the most interesting characters were shoved into the background, but I found that perversely appealing. The teenager's Mom was awesome.

[domino harvey]

What is it about indie dramas that causes them to get so sidetracked? This might have been a great film at some point in the preproduction, but the subplot with the kid, his girlfriend, and his separated parents had nothing new to say. Oh look, here's adults who can separate and not

SpoilerShow

kill each other. Um, most adults who separate or experience tragedy don't end up involved in a murder-suicide, so this didn't really need a counter-point.

Oh look, here's uninteresting teenage lovers who are starting the same way as the ex-lovers in the main thread. Only they seem like every other young couple ever, so why is a third of the movie devoted to them? The primary action of the film was disappointingly unfocused, and wasn't helped by Green, who kept leaving scenes at the moment they should have begun. Pretty pictures of snow and slow moving cameras are not exactly fresh approaches to all this either. Sam Rockwell was, as usual, better than his material.

[bearcuborg]

^For me, the subplot with the kids was the most interesting thing about this film. At least that story line was free the narrative conventions that bogged down the main plot. There was something carefree about it...the awkwardness of it that made it the only notable thing for me.

It's funny to see how this thread started off praising Snow Angels and dissing Pineapple Express, both prior to their release. In the end, Pineapple was the one I preferred of the two - I wouldn't have thought so.