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Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/junebug.html)
Release Date: August 5th, 2005 (NY)
Cast: Amy Adams (Ashley), Embeth Davidtz (Madeleine), Benjamin McKenzie (Johnny), Alessandro Nivola (George), Celia Weston (Peg), Scott Wilson (Eugene)
Director: Phil Morrison (feature debut)
Screenwriter: Angus MacLachlan (feature debut)
Premise: A dealer in "outsider" art travels from Chicago to North Carolina to meet her new in-laws, challenging the equilibrium of this middle class Southern home.
I was wondering where this thread was. I'll post press in a few days.
I watched Ebert & Roeper this weekend. They both raved about it.
poster looks pretty
man, i will see this if onyl to get wet when i see my boy alessandro nivola...he's hot and underrated as a thespian....i liked him in face/off..
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here ya go: http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/mutiny/junebug.html
This is a very good movie. The kind where you like it the more you think about it. Amy Adams does, indeed, give the kind of performance that steals your heart. She'll be a star.
one day, she'll work with Spielberg...
Quote from: modageone day, she'll work with Spielberg...
Well, one day she'll STAR in a Spielberg movie, anyway.
I saw this the other day and thought it was really, really good. Probably one of my favorites of this year so far. It seemed like Phil Morrison kind of pulled a Todd Solondz by getting a great band (Yo La Tengo) to do the music for the movie and then only using one song and a clip from another in the entire film.
Quote from: Figure 8I saw this the other day and thought it was really, really good. Probably one of my favorites of this year so far.
I concur completely. Somehow, I completely forgot to revisit this thread after seeing the film the other week. But it's extremely good.
I am very comfortable in calling this my favorite film of 2005.
At any rate, the DVD will be released January 17, 2006.
Mark that shit on your calenders, ya'll.
DVD FEATURES
• 10 Deleted Scenes
• Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
• Audio: English 5.0
• Behind the Scenes Featurettes
• Cast Audio Commentary with Embeth Davidtz
• Outsider Art Photo Gallery
• Previews
• Subtitles: French
About the Film
• Stars: Amy Adams, Embeth Davidtz, Ben McKenzie, Alessandro Nivola, Frank Hoyt Taylor, Celia Weston, Scott Wilson
• Director: Phil Morrison
• Producer: Mindy Goldberg, Mike S. Ryan
• Genre: Drama
• CC: Yes
• Color/B&W: Color
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shitty cover but what else is new.
They should have just had a big headshot of Ben McKensie with a big bright sticker saying "Starring BEN McKENSIE from THE O.C.!!!!" along with those festival signs to boost sales among OC fans as well as people who buy anything with festival cred.
As well as a few "FOUR STARS!" and "THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!"s for good measure.
Quote from: grumpus on December 08, 2005, 12:06:46 AM
I am very comfortable in calling this my favorite film of 2005.
Why? have you seen any others?
I agree with this movie. Um. Let's see, I agree that this movie should have been made the way that it was and that all things considered. . .hey have you guys seen Phil Morrison? I like his facial hair and attitude. He didn't do commentary on this DVD but he did for his Sonic Youth video.
Junebug. I thought it was controlled and mature. These two things are becoming important to me; qualities I admire. The beginning was like 'CINEMA TWENTY OH FIVE' with playful film technique and then the film mellowed out and told its story. Morrison let the actors do the walking. He's a good director. There was a lot of restraint in the writing as well.
Come to think of it a lot of under the surface movies are coming out right now. That's fucking fantastic.
Junebug. I liked it a lot.
A quickie review.
Junebug (2005)
Sometimes a movie is all about one performance, the announcement of a rising star or the glorious second coming of a confirmed idol. In 2002, Maggie Gyllenhaal "arrived" by leaving her calling card with "Secretary." Besides rather hating the film, Gyllenhaal still hasn't done anything to clue me in on what the hubbub was all about. The same cannot be said of Amy Adams, whose glowing performance in the 2005 film "Junebug," now available on DVD, is woven with the fibers of untapped talent. As Ashley, the terminally pregnant, overlooked Madonna of a dysfunctional Southern family, Adams crafts a character who is essentially very simple; almost one-dimensional. When Ashley's brother-in-law (Alessandro Nivola) and his new bride (Embeth Davidtz) arrive so Ashley's sister-in-law can woo an eccentric, racist local artist (surreptitiously named David Wark, an in-joke for film buffs), Ashley attaches herself to the exotic, British art dealer at the hip. She takes her to the mall, does her nails, asks inappropriate personal questions and does so with all the open innocence of a child who still hasn't accepted that her pet caterpillar never emerged from its cocoon because she didn't poke pinholes in the lid of the jar.
Starved for attention but too Christian and too generous to demand it, Ashley is struck dumb with the attention Davidtz's exotic Madeleine pays her out of common decency. It's a complex portrayal of an underwritten character. The other forgotten member of the household is the father, Eugene, played with absentminded grace by Scott Wilson, a performance that complements Adams' note-for-quiet-note.
"Junebug" is a meandering slice of Southern life that racks up dozens of astute little observations without ever scratching beneath the surface. While there is perhaps more to say about what the film means or may say about "family," it isn't important. Director Phil Morrison's film is not about Ashley but for the viewer, she is the center of the galaxy. Adams' stunning performance will be spinning round your head long after the sardonic yodel of the film has faded away.
By the way, Will Oldham is in this. He's one of the 3 art scout people at the beginning. I hadn't really noticed until I watched it the second time and saw his name in the credits.
This is one of my favorites from a lackluster year. This would be in my top 10 of any year, but this year it's either 2 or 3. I dunno, I didn't really make a top 10 list, but I do know that I loved this movie, and bought it as soon as it came out on DVD. It's such its own thing in its own world that, even if this isn't the masterpiece of all times, I was deeply involved for every minute of it. Adams's performance was magnificent, but I disagree that the movie is just a house for her performance. Her performance fit in this movie perfectly the way a person like Ashley fits in a world like the one Junebug creates.
I felt that this movie took the time and effort to establish a relationship with me, and I really appreciated that. There were odd, delicate flavors that I felt honored to experience. I guess that's a strange way to describe the experience of seeing the movie, but that's how I felt. Or maybe I'm just hungry.
Grade: A.
This film is so incredible. The nuance of Southern culture is perfectly captured. My favorite scene was where the Pastor buddy prayed and then they sang. This film is so smart. And Ashley is such a sweetheart. The kid from the OC is channeling some Russell Crowe via Heath Ledger in Brokeback, though that came out later. He was good, cast was great. So impressive.
Q&A: Morrison Makes His Debut in 'Junebug'
"Junebug" was one of 2005's most critically acclaimed films. Director Phil Morrison and screenwriter Angus MacLachlan returned to their rural hometown near Winston-Salem, N.C., and skillfully examined universal themes. The result is a funny, bittersweet, thoughtfully presented story.
The Associated Press spoke with Morrison about dysfunction, North and South and Meet Me In St. Louis.
AP: In his review of 'Junebug,' Roger Ebert said the tone is everything. How did you establish and maintain that tone?
Morrison: The way I did that was to behave during the making of Junebug like I was an audience member to kind of see directing a movie as being the most privileged audience member of the movie. Also, I think it helped that in advance of shooting the movie I gave everybody in the cast and crew tons of music and even poems I had put together that were kind of meant to feel the same way as the movie.
AP: So everyone was on a similar wavelength?
Morrison: Hopefully. I think we couldn't have made the movie if we hadn't gathered everyone on a similar wavelength. It wasn't a sense of, 'We gotta make this movie no matter what and even if people can't be involved, we'll just get somebody else.' There was a time when Celia Weston (who plays Peg) wasn't going to be available and it was like, 'OK, then we just won't make it.' And it wasn't just like we were going to postpone it. It really meant that we had to accept the fact that if we couldn't make it right then, we wouldn't make it at all. But I would have rather not made it at all than made it without Celia. So it was kind of just being patient.
AP: The film is filled with great lines like 'God loves you just the way you are, but too much to let you stay that way.'
Morrison: Well, there's a story behind that line. That line wasn't in the script. There's this really great church in Winston-Salem, where we shot the movie and is my hometown, called Green Street Methodist church. Kelly Carpenter, the minister there, said that line a couple of weeks before we started shooting. Amy Adams and I were there at that service. When he said that everybody laughed and we decided Ashley had to say that in the movie somewhere. So he gets credit for that line.
AP: Martin Scorsese says that making a movie is one giant endless labor pain. Was 'Junebug' a difficult shoot?
Morrison: For me it was. And it was important for me to try to have it not be painful for other people just for the sake of the tone and spirit of the final movie. I'd be lying to you if I said I was having a great time. I know what Mr. Scorsese's talking about when he says that. It's stressful, there's a lot to worry about and every day, every moment almost, things are not going the way you predicted they would. You have to figure out a way to have what happens in front of the camera be, or at least feel like, what you wanted in the beginning.
AP: 'Junebug' has been seen as a study of social differences between North and South.
Morrison: I accept that. I think it would be silly of me to say I don't know what they're talking about, but that wasn't really what the movie was meant to be about. The movie came out around the time that people were still talking about Red States and Blue States and people saw the movie and that's something that they saw in it even though we weren't really meaning to press that.
AP: Ashley and Madeleine have been getting well deserved praise, but I find George fascinating in both his loyalty to his family and his detachment from his family. Do you feel close to George in any way?
Morrison: I hope that I don't behave the way he does. But at the same time I can relate to his circumstances. I don't think that he behaves responsibly. I think that in these couple of days when the movie takes place, he's not particularly responsible. I think he's a little bit lazy. I don't think he helps people out that much.
AP: But in the hospital Ashley says to him, 'You make me feel better more than anyone else and you don't even say anything.'
Morrison: But maybe Ashley needs that extra helping hand that everybody needs. I don't want to sound like I'm beating up on him in this conversation but I think he is just a little bit frozen. He kind of has two different personas and if he had been home without Madeleine I think he would have been much more comfortable. And when he is with Madeleine without his family I think he could be very comfortable. But having them both there, he wonders, 'Which person am I supposed to be? The one that I created over time with my family or the one I've created for my wife?'
AP: What are some of your favorite films?
Morrison: I love 'Meet Me In St. Louis,' it's about family and it was inspiring to me. I love Charles Burnett's 'To Sleep With Anger,' it definitely had an influence on 'Junebug.' I love Jonathan Demme's 'Citizen's Band' and 'Melvin and Howard' because I think they're so funny. I really wanted Junebug to be funny.
Thanks Mac.
you guys are doing the same thing to this film like broken flowers and maria full of grace...this is nothing new or special...all three of those films are way overrated...its a shame for junebug b/c i was excited to see nivola..i've like the gyy since face/off...i was young and thought he was just cool....so, them i saw this crap and while i liked his performance the overall film is boring...and too quirky...and people are making a big deal out of the adams character...i think the reason why is b/c hollywood critics arent use to seeing a woman in the south doing the famous "southern hospitality" thing..nomally they see southern woman in derogatory light...like fat, three teethed, alchoholic,crack whores...etc....the film is very unsatisfying...but i thought that embeth davidtz was gorgeous...
or i could have that same disease that kept pete from liking lost in translation....
Quote from: pyramid machine on February 07, 2006, 02:48:47 PM
or i could have that same disease that kept pete from liking lost in translation....
Bad taste is more of a condition than a disease.
Quote from: pyramid machine on February 07, 2006, 02:48:47 PM
or i could have that same disease that kept pete from liking lost in translation....
you probably don't. i've only been interested in seeing this since it got released on dvd and people still remember it (oscar noms, best of lists). i had bet against that when it was in theatres forever ago but the overall positivity and lastingness through to this year i figured it might be pretty good. my expectations are back to not expecting much which probably works in the films favor. i guess we'll see whenever the damn film gets off a "Long Wait" from netflix where it's been for weeks at the top of my queue.
dude I've got Christopher Doyle on my side. who do you have on your side against this Junebug? (me)
It didn't feel to me like Junebug went out of its way to be quirky at all. And yeah, that probably means my life is more like Junebug than someone else who thinks this one is quirky and thinks Me and You isn't at all. Normal - it's getting harder to pin down you know. I want to say Junebug had everyday people who made everyday decisions and that I never once felt they were even a little weird but maybe that's because I'm from Ohio and people are kind of like those people while nothing at all like Me and You people. Which is good, it's good cinema is diversifying. Me, I'm on Junebug's side.
I agree with what neon is saying about the Adams character, but I'm confused because he first called the film quirky. So which is it, that she's a fraction of reality often mislooked or she's weird?
I'm with Neon on this one. My responce after watching the film was so null and void I couldn't even bring myself to write a negative review. The film inspired no feelings in me at all. Its not that the film is even quirky. Its just very regional. So regional in fact I imagined members of the filmmakers family and friends were the only ones who could thoroughly enjoy watching this movie.
Quote from: pyramid machine on February 07, 2006, 02:48:47 PM
i think the reason why is b/c hollywood critics arent use to seeing a woman in the south doing the famous "southern hospitality" thing..nomally they see southern woman in derogatory light...like fat, three teethed, alchoholic,crack whores...etc
I'm no hollywood critic, but I live in the south. And this film is so truthful it's beautiful. the scene where the neighbor waves to the British woman (it's late, I"ve forgotten names) says it all. also, the baby shower.
Not that I'm siding with GT and NEON, because I didn't think the film was 'quirky' or 'regional', but I guess I missed what all the praise is about. It felt like the film missed the balance between laughing at the characters (the painter, the brother) and appreciating the 'offness' of the others (the father, the sister-in-law); and the balance between a fish-out-of-water story and a disfunctional family story. I guess I couldn't figure out what the film was trying to be.
Quote from: MacGuffin on March 03, 2006, 11:42:52 PM
Not that I'm siding with GT and NEON, because I didn't think the film was 'quirky' or 'regional', but I guess I missed what all the praise is about. It felt like the film missed the balance between laughing at the characters (the painter, the brother) and appreciating the 'offness' of the others (the father, the sister-in-law); and the balance between a fish-out-of-water story and a disfunctional family story. I guess I couldn't figure out what the film was trying to be.
It's eerie how exactly identical that is to the opinion a friend of mine expressed upon seeing the film recently. I remember thinking it neither regional nor quirky--I guess I took it more in a post-election red-state/blue-state exploration way, and I remember being impressed at the delicacy and the nonchalant quality of it all. No character was judged in the way they might've been. I remember it being very slice-of-life and gentle, interested in all the characfters and not really vehement enough about anything to need to strike a balance (which could, I suppose, be its own criticism if one thinks that way of going about it is boring or a copout).
BUT--I haven't seen it since its release, so I'd have to revisit it to be more articulate. Which I might do soon, though I have so many other movies to catch up on. I really need to see the pre-
Piano Teacher Haneke films and
Walk the Line before going back to something so recent.
the fact that the film takes place in the South is I guess just a bonus. It could work in any sort of super suburban, hermetically sealed setting. These people are bored and quiet and have extremely high pressures to maintain minute social norms, or to at least avoid being different. The British lady loses from the get go because she is so different. I think the beauty comes from the OC guy, believe it or not, in the scene where he sees (shit I've completely forgotten what it is) whatever animal on the television and frantically, angrily starts to try and record it for his wife. That he could apparently care less, but becomes almost violent about this one thing that he knows may bring some happiness to his wife, I just found it so poignant.
I don't think one should look for what this film is trying to be. Everything I love, I love in the things we learn about the people, that the main guy, although he seems to be a douchebag, can sing beautifully and is well-known for it. We discover it as his British fiancee does. This movie is so beautiful because these people are so sad but trying to be happy.
i'll add another 'eh' on the pile. it seemed typically sundance film to me: some good parts surrounded by a less good film. it's worth a rental but not much else.
no, the pod theory is an eh. This film is beautiful.
it's a meerkat
it didnt bother me. i enjoyed myself while i was watching it, but like so many sundance films it was just totally forgettable. by the end it just didnt say anything to me. it was kind of like 'so what?'
I saw this movie a second time the other day and I just wanted to reiterate how wonderful it is. Nuanced is the word. It's not that Me and You and Everyone We Know beats you over the head with anything (comparisons to this and Squid and the Whale because to me, they are the most similar stylistically -- Squid being more sarcastic and dry, Me and You being more ethereal), but this film is just so subtle in some of the things it does with actions of its characters that it requires at least two viewings to fully appreciate. It will never see any "best of all time" lists, and it won't even break that many top ten lists this year (probably because it's so subtle), but I still can't stop thinking about it.
It's not just the matter of Amy Adams wonderful performance, because everyone was great in the film. It was the wonderful screenplay, and the direction by a newcomer, Phil Morrison. I will elaborate on that: he was able to utilize minimal resources and capitalize on them. He was able to get out of his actors just what performance he was looking for with each line, gesture, facial expression. The father was a prime example, but the two sons were key here as well. There's no point in talking about Amy Adams because her performance was so amazing, but these three men who surround her during the film point to what makes it work. The father knows everything even though he says nothing. This is shown in his little actions, little lines here and there that shows he's aware of his daughter's emotions, wants, and needs. Ditto with Johnny, in the most telling scene of the film: when he tries and fails to tape the meerkat documentary for Ashley. There's also the matter of the masturbation scene, juxtaposed with Johnny and Madeline's scene reading Huck Finn at the table and Johnny coming on to her. They all want something but are unable to go for it because of an inability to expresss it. Madeline has triggered something in all of them with her exotic nature, though.
Some of you ask, "So what?" Here's one possible answer: all the greatest films are about human nature. They pose questions, make you think, and while they may not be able to answer them, they come damn near close. This film shows a common juxtaposition, a fish-out-of-water story, and sprinkles it with touches that brings to life these characters that aren't caricatures by any means.
Quote from: onomabracadabra on April 14, 2006, 04:49:48 AM
Some of you ask, "So what?" Here's one possible answer: all the greatest films are about human nature. They pose questions, make you think, and while they may not be able to answer them, they come damn near close. This film shows a common juxtaposition, a fish-out-of-water story, and sprinkles it with touches that brings to life these characters that aren't caricatures by any means.
A late responce, but....
What questions does this film pose? What thoughts does it make you think about? The general "human nature" bid isn't convincing me. This is not to say the film doesnt have personal meaning for you, but I'm looking for more detail.
I think people too easily accept these types of film. They are about everything and nothing at all. They are quiet and make no attempts to rock the boat. When people are asked why they think they are good they point out all the over top films and ask, 'Why not?'. OK, I want someone to actually answer 'why' because a film just representing the opposite of what is manufactured isn't necessarily good.
South bound
As his debut family drama, Junebug, opens in the UK, director Phil Morrison talks to Geoffrey Macnab about his admiration for Mike Leigh, the eccentricities of his hometown and why southern US audiences are too polite to be honest about his film
Source: film.guardian.co.uk
Phil Morrison's likable debut feature, Junebug, shares the same benign attitude toward its characters as its pregnant heroine, Ashley, played by the Oscar-nominated Amy Adams. "God loves you just the way you are, but too much to let you stay that way," she tells her boorish husband, in a line borrowed from a Methodist preacher that could serve as a motto for the movie itself.
Set in the Deep South, Junebug begins in Meet the Parents style, with ambitious young Chicago art dealer Madeline (Embeth Davidtz) visiting and utterly failing to connect with her new southern in-laws. She is savvy, sophisticated, extremely knowledgeable about art, but completely inept when it comes to making small talk. Her self-centred young husband (Alessandro Nivola) does nothing to help her bridge the divide.
Morrison's little corner of North Carolina, where he grew up, is full of folk who (at least to outsiders) look very eccentric. There is the man who likes to "holler", a champion yodeller who is shown early on in full song. Then there is the local artist, a self-educated idiot-savant who specialises in apocalyptic paintings of the American civil war (full of blood, severed heads and penises). A frosty-faced neighbour is played by one of the director's former schoolteachers.
Junebug hones in on social embarrassment and class tension in much the same way as Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party or Life Is Sweet. Morrison, it turns out, is a fervent admirer of Leigh and recently went to see his new play, Two Thousand Years in London. "What is really special about it, and that was inspiring to me, is his compassion for everyone - as opposed to this political hierarchy of compassion that depends on economic circumstance," Morrison enthuses. "That's what Mike Leigh taught me. This idea that we're all alike, and that's what is good, is bullshit. What you learn from him is, no, no, we're vastly different. The more we look at each other, the more we realise that we are vastly different - but that's no reason not to have understanding and compassion for each other. I don't think the world is easy for anybody."
Morrison, who is 37, acknowledges that Junebug may appear to peddle stereotypes of the Deep South, but argues that the film is "burrowing" beneath the cliches. "Movies that claim they dispel stereotypes, all that they actually do is avoid them," he reflects in his laidback drawl. "That's fine as long as they avoid stereotypes in a way that is truthful and honest - and not a matter of self-consciously making this guy who lives in the south a Rhodes scholar."
Besides, he might add, his film is even-handed, as alert to the foibles of a character such as Madeleine, the art dealer, as it is to those of the Southern Baptists in Winston-Salem. There is something moving and heroic about the way Morrison's characters strive to overcome their differences. The least sympathetic figure is the one audiences might normally be expected to identify most closely with - the good-looking, socially confident George (Nivola). "He doesn't try," Morrison says disapprovingly. "He shuts down and doesn't take much responsibility for anything."
By complete contrast, American audiences have been rooting for the ingenuous, ever-optimistic Ashley. "At first glance, she is unbelievable," the director says of a character who sees the bright side in everything. "The script demanded that Ashley behave in ways that sometimes we forget people do behave. People read it and said that it was really entertaining, but that in a movie supposed to resemble real life, she can't ask nine questions in a row without waiting for an answer!"
Amy Adams, who played Leonardo DiCaprio's breathless fiancée in Catch Me If You Can, plays Ashley beautifully, and without a hint of condescension. It's a performance that has won her countless nominations and best supporting actress awards at film festivals across the US. There is a wonderful moment early on in the film, when she is first introduced to Madeline. "I was born in Japan," her new sister-in-law tells her. "You were not!" Ashley, who has never left her home town, replies, as if this is the most astounding thing she has ever heard.
Junebug began life as a play by Morrison's childhood friend, Angus MacLachlan, and was set almost entirely within the kitchen of the family home. Morrison says that what he warms to in MacLachlan's writing is its enigmatic, quietly provocative tone. "He raises questions which I don't know the answers to. But I know where to search for the answers."
Morrison grew up in Winston-Salem but moved to New York to study film. Prior to Junebug, he was best known for shooting pop promos for bands such as Sonic Youth and the Lemonheads, but now says he feels he has little flair for three-minute music videos.
What distinguishes Junebug from most other debut features is how oblique it is. Morrison doesn't try to dazzle us with flashy camera movements or hip dialogue; if this is a comedy, it is a very subtle and slow-burning one. The director is bemused that some audiences have laughed at the hollering scenes in the movie, and briefly thought of deleting it when he heard people chuckling. "I didn't think for a moment that that was going to be funny to people, but it is," he says. "But, OK, let the chips fall where they may." He doesn't really know what North Carolina audiences think of his film. "The only way I'll find out if they didn't like it is on the internet. They'll never tell me to my face, especially down there: everyone is really polite."
Unlike many young indie film-makers with an early hit on their hands, Morrison doesn't seem remotely ambitious. It is well over a year since he finished Junebug, and he is still not in any hurry to embark on a new film. "I'm probably going to take it pretty slowly," he says. "I don't feel that I have to be making a movie constantly. I tend to never do anything immediately."
He is based in New York, but still sees himself as a southern film-maker. "I think about living down there a lot. It [the art scene] is really fertile." In the meantime, he would rather "make no movie at all" than direct something just for the sake of it. Besides, he adds, there are plenty of decent film-makers around. "There are so many good movies out there waiting to be seen that if I'm not the one who ends up making them, I'm not really going to sweat about it."