August: Osage County

Started by Mel, November 17, 2013, 06:13:58 AM

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Mel

Synopsis:

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY tells the dark, hilarious and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. Letts' play made its Broadway debut in December 2007 after premiering at Chicago's legendary Steppenwolf Theatre earlier that year. It continued with a successful international run.

The film is directed by John Wells, written by Letts himself, and produced by George Clooney, Jean Doumanian, Grant Heslov, Steve Traxler, and Bob and Harvey Weinstein. The ensemble cast is led by Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.

Trailers:





Release:

August: Osage County premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2013, before being released on December 25, 2013.
Simple mind - simple pleasures...

Mel

Stellar cast for sure. I'm mostly interested, because it was written by Tracy Letts. I love his sense of humour.

There is video from TIFF press conference available. I didn't see more than 2 minutes, because they started introducing characters and so on - was afraid of spoilers.
Simple mind - simple pleasures...

Mel

Wicked - this is most fitting word I can think of to describe "August: Osage County". I have hard time to describe it without spoiling. Looking at trailers you can be under impression that film is of "awkward family reunion" sort. It navigates this ground, yet it goes extra mileage to get out of comfort zone. Trailers are much more positive and happy, than film itself. It is less graphical than other works of Tracy Letts ("Bug", "Killer Joe"), still there are some very strong ideas, which can shake you few times.

Film itself is shaped around females. I was especially surprised by Julia Roberts - this is very unusual role for her. Almost every man in this film is weak or abiding to some degree, which is rare in American cinema I guess. I'm not sure if ensemble is fully utilized here, but I wasn't disappointing by performances.

There is something missing in "August: Osage County", didn't quite figure out what. I'm strongly biased, as I love exploring strange worlds created by Tracy.
Simple mind - simple pleasures...

Alexandro

it was fucking awkward and intense, funny, sad, depressing and twisted.
there's a centerpiece, a long dinner scene which seems to go on forever and gives every actor a turn to shine, which has to be some kind of record. from the moment the scene starts you know stakes are high and it doesn't let go for a second. great, great acting and direction. it almost looks effortless. there's not one actor wasted but as we all know streep, once again, just rejoices like a pig in shit and eats everyone alive. she just keeps hitting home runs, this time the material is strong enough to make her part of an ensemble where surprisingly julia roberts is the standout. I had forgotten about tracy letts being the author. if you have seen killer joe and bug you know this can't possibly be your average "family reunion goes bad" film.