Fox Searchlight acquires “Patti Cake$”


FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES ACQUIRES

DIRECTOR GEREMY JASPER’S PATTI CAKE$

Starring Danielle Macdonald, Bridget Everett, Cathy Moriarty, Siddharth Dhananjay,

Mamoudou Athie, McCaul Lombardi, Sahr Ngaujah, Wass Stevens, and MC Lyte

Specialty Arm Acquires Worldwide Rights

 

PARK CITY, UT January 25, 2017 – Fox Searchlight Pictures Presidents Stephen Gilula and Nancy Utley announced today that the company has acquired worldwide distribution rights to first-time writer / director Geremy Jasper’s infectious hip hop debut film PATTI CAKE$, starring Danielle Macdonald, Bridget Everett, Cathy Moriarty, Siddharth Dhananjay, Mamoudou Athie, McCaul Lombardi, Sahr Ngaujah, Wass Stevens, and MC Lyte. The film is an RT Features, Stay Gold Features, Maiden Voyage Pictures presentation of a Department of Motion Pictures production.  It is the new company’s first feature film.  PATTI CAKE$ is produced by Michael Gottwald, Noah Stahl, Rodrigo Teixeira, Dan Janvey, Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Chris Columbus, with Lourenço Sant’Anna, Sophie Mas, Eleanor Columbus, Josh Penn, Jonathan Bronfman, Lon Molnar, Fernando Fraiha, and Bill Benenson serving as executive producers.  The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released in 2017.

“Geremy Jasper has created a personal and specific story which resonates universally and is very entertaining.  Patti Cake$, brought to life by Danielle Macdonald, is a singular, lovable, and highly talented character for whom we root hard. We are proud to bring this beautiful film to the world,” said Utley and Gilula.

“Patti Cake$ is a true labor of love made by a team of people with so much creativity, care, and passion.  Sundance finally got to meet Patti AKA Killa P AKA Danielle MacDonald and now Fox Searchlight will make sure the world does too.  We could not be in better hands,” said director Geremy Jasper.

“We knew from our experience with ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ that Fox Searchlight was the perfect place to introduce the world to an incredible heroine like Patti, and a fiercely talented filmmaker like Geremy,” said producer Michael Gottwald.

PATTI CAKE$ introduces Australian native Danielle Macdonald in a breakout role, as aspiring rapper Patricia Dombrowski, a.k.a. Killa P, a.k.a. Patti Cake$.  Fighting an unlikely quest for glory in her downtrodden hometown in Jersey where her life is falling apart, Patti tries to reach the big time in the hip hop scene with original and affecting music.  Cheered on by her grandmother (Cathy Moriarty) and only friends, Jheri (Siddharth Dhananjay) and Basterd (Mamoudou Athie), Patti also shoulders her mother’s (Bridget Everett) heartaches and misfortunes.    

 

The deal was brokered by Fox Searchlight’s Executive Vice President of Business Affairs Megan O’Brien and Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Co-Productions Ray Strache, with CAA and WME Global on behalf of the filmmakers.

Fox Searchlight Pictures is a specialty film company that both finances and acquires motion pictures. It has its own marketing and distribution operations, and its films are distributed internationally by Twentieth Century Fox. Fox Searchlight Pictures is a unit of 21st Century Fox.

The Founder

Fast Food. Dietitians hate it, society tolerates it, but most people just love to consume it. So when you get a movie about the origins of the most popular fast food restaurant in the world, you know people will eat it up. “The Founder” will be like a satisfying meal, and will fill you up more than two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, and pickles on a sesame seed bun.

“The Founder” is the tale of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) and how a milk-shake machine salesman turned into a fast food titan. Ray is downtrodden and getting along with minimal sales, until learns of two brothers who run a new-fangeled restaurant that carries their last name. The McDonald brothers Mac (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick (Nick Offerman) have started something new and different. Ray wants in on the ground floor.

The brothers very reluctantly agree to Ray setting up franchise McDonald’s restaurants around the country. They have a very tight contract with Ray, and make sure that the emphasis is on quality and speed of service. Ray does great, but he does not let his wife Ethel (Laura Dern) know that he mortgaged the house to get it done. The expanding number of restaurants is not paying Ray enough, due to the tight contract details. Ray meets Harry Sonneborn (B. J. Novak), who explains that Ray should own the land and then lease it to the franchise owner.

Soon Ray has created a new company to buy land and create franchise owners. The original McDonald brothers are furious that Ray has taken liberties with their concept and product. Ray meets the wife of a new franchise owner named Joan Smith (Linda Cardellini). Before too long, Ray Kroc has bought out the McDonald brothers, divorced Ethel, and married Joan. He had become an unequaled giant in the fast food business.

Michael Keaton does a stupendous job playing Ray Kroc. Here is a story of a man who created a monster-sized business, yet he sometimes was brash, rude and uncaring. He saw what he wanted and took it, regardless if that was a burger chain or someone else’s wife. Yet he thought deep down that everything he did was to make himself, and the country, better.

As the two McDonald brothers, Nick Offerman & John Carroll Lynch also are terrific. They seems to convey and deep sense of pride in what they have accomplished, and each of them always is looking out for the other. They are also stubborn and small-minded. So when the business began to really grow, they rebelled against Ray Kroc instead of working with him.

If there are any problems at all with the movie, it is the ‘side dishes’. Other than the three main characters, the other roles are ‘undercooked’. Laura Dern has not much to do, and Linda Cardellini comes into the picture way too late. B. J. Novak blends into the other minor characters, also, so it is hard to tell him apart.

“The Founder” can also be compared in a way to ‘The Social Network”. Both feature a strong leader who finds a unique concept, and then battles two brothers for the ability to take something brand new worldwide. McDonald’s, like Facebook, is an international brand that took a visionary leader to get it there.

Paterson

“Paterson” is an absolute pleasure to witness.  One feels honored to be on this… ride.  I say this because it is about a bus driver whose story is delicate, even delectable.  It’s fascinating.  Jim Jarmusch turns a seemingly banal and simple life into a complex, contemplative introspective.  Paterson (Driver) drives a bus for the city of Paterson, N.J. but he’s also a poet.  His hero is William Carlos Williams and deep within he holds a dream to be as good as Williams yet never calls himself a poet, therefore stopping any disappointment that may come from negative criticism.

Paterson sees poetry in all things and one of the factors that has you treasure experiencing this life that Jarmusch has displayed for you is how you absorb Paterson’s poetry.  It’s not only spoken by him, whether in his thoughts as he cruises through traffic, or as he walks his dog Marvin (played charmingly by Nellie), but we also see it scrolling across the screen as he speaks in a composed and knowing tone.  It becomes visually embedded in our minds and we crave more.

His poems are perceptive, analytical at times, logical and illogical.  They’re both abstract and they’re ordinary but they’re sublime.  He writes these poems in a notebook, one he keeps to himself, careful they can never be seen.

We are with Paterson for a week of his life.  He has a girlfriend, has a dog and is methodized, unlike girlfriend Laura (Farahani), who is all over the place.  A painter obsessed with the color black one minute, a baker the next; him a structured poet, her a musician… this week, anyway.  The relationship is sound as they balance each other, or so it would seem… perhaps not?  Do they love each other or are they just putting up with one another for convenience sake?  Upon reflection, you realize there’s much more going on than you first thought.  It can be slow in moments but the movie consumes you, more or less.  It is, simply put, poetic.  Once you’ve seen “Paterson” it will stick with you for quite some time.  The alpha male battle he has with Marvin, also the conflict within himself over what or who he is, is gripping to observe.  Driver does such a remarkable job of bringing levels to this character without nearly uttering a word that he seduces you.  I highly recommend you see this film.  You’ll never see Driver as Kylo Ren again.

Trespass Against Us

Set in the countryside of Britain, we are introduced to the Cutler crime family which is run by Colby played by a coarse Brendan Gleeson; who, interestingly enough just played Fassbender’s son in “Assassin’s Creed.”  Colby’s reputation precedes him for a reason as he’s not a very charming fellow and not many challenge him.  The Cutler’s look like a band of misfits or perhaps something you would have spotted in a scene from the movie “Deliverance.”  Even though they have been somewhat successful criminals up to this point, they live in trailers and practically in poverty which finally hits Colby’s son Chad, (Fassbender).  Not that Colby minds what he does for a living.  He has fun when cops chase him through the streets but he’s starting to realize the impact his actions are having on his children and his wife and is struggling with a decision.  He has to break away.  His son Tyson (Smith) is starting to rebel and verbally spar with his dad, spouting exactly what Chad usually hears coming from his father Colby and this doesn’t sit well with him.  Being uneducated, Chad has allowed his father to lead him through his life.  He has always done as ordered but he sees the writing on the wall and waking up to what his and Colby’s limitations truly are, he decides he doesn’t want that for Tyson.  The police are onto his every move but when he wants to try and leave his father’s shadow, he is, too. 

Director Adam Smith, who’s more known for his work on “Doctor Who”, has had mixed reviews on the film festival circuit but having assembled an excellent cast and creating a unique blend of chaos and calm in a crazy world, I think he has a hit on his hands not matter the venue.  There’s something fascinating about Chad and his family that, as the film goes on, you almost catch… like a cold.  At first you’re not sure you have it but when you do, it really ensnares you.  Perhaps it’s the fact that Smith didn’t try to play to the American audience.  It’s authentic in that he doesn’t drop the local, incredibly thick accent, nor does he remove the British jargon that’s in use.  We are in their world.  Luckily for us, we view this world from the extremely gifted lens of Eduard Grau, (“Suffragette”, “The Awakening”, “Buried” and “A Single Man.”  He takes you incredibly deep into the story, bringing you into it by using intimate shots that make you feel like you’re peeking around a corner… hiding where you shouldn’t be; surveying where you have no business.  The scenery is beautiful so there’s no chance you’re looking away.

Shining are the performances.  Lyndsey Marshal is magnificent as Kelly, Chad’s wife, who, through it all, pulls a Tammy Wynette and stands by her man.  Fassbender, though his Chad is raging with testosterone and as tough as nails, is almost sweet at times.  The moments where he’s not fulfilling an illegal act or behaving like a hoodlum, he shows how at peace his character is with the final decision he has made.  A quite difficult one but, as Christ did, he must sacrifice himself for the sake of all of his children.  If you can get through the accents, I’d have to suggest you see this in the theatre if it’s near you but if not, see it as soon as possible, in whatever form possible.

Logan – Final Trailer

LOGAN

Action-Adventure

Release: March 3, 2017

Directed by: James Mangold

Screenplay by:  Michael Green and Scott Frank & James Mangold; Story by: David James Kelly and James Mangold

Produced by: Hutch Parker, p.g.a., Simon Kinberg, p.g.a., Lauren Shuler Donner

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Introducing Dafne Keen

SYNOPSIS

In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces. 

LOGAN Official Channels

SITE: http://logan.movie

INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/wponx/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TheWolverineMovie/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/WolverineMovie

HASHTAG: #Logan

 

In Theaters March 3rd

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Before I Fall

What if you had only one day to change absolutely everything? Samantha Kingston has everything: the perfect friends, the perfect guy, and a seemingly perfect future. Then, everything changes. After one fateful night, Sam wakes up with no future at all. Trapped reliving the same day over and over, she begins to question just how perfect her life really was. As she begins to untangle the mystery of a life suddenly derailed, she must also unwind the secrets of the people closest to her, and discover the power of a single day to make a difference, not just in her own life, but in the lives of those around her–before she runs out of time for good.

Cast: Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, Logan Miller, Kian Lawley, Elena Kampouris, Cynthy Wu, Medalion Rahimi, with Diego Boneta and Jennifer Beals

Directed By: Ry Russo-Young

Screenplay By: Maria Maggenti

Based On The Novel By: Lauren Oliver

In Theaters March 3rd

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Patriots Day

Peter Berg, the director of films such as “Friday Night Lights,” “The Kingdom,” “Lone Survivor” and “Deepwater Horizon,” knows how to draw the truth out of a story and present it in an entertaining, authentic yet sometimes unpleasant way without pulling you too far in or out without questioning his skill and intentions.  Often taking on the challenge of telling true life events, he handles these subjects with great care.  He has proven over and over that he doesn’t exploit people and that he’s legitimate and capable and now with “Patriots Day”, he does so again. 

Here, he brings us to April of 2013 and the events that occurred at the Boston Marathon.  Sensitively, he introduces many of the characters slowly, leaving you to wonder their position in the chronicled narrative when see them pop up next.  Some characters are going to participate in the marathon and others come in and out for awhile before you are shown their role.  Two stand out right away; the bombers themselves. 

Seeing them sends you back to the day of the attack and not in a positive way.  Anger wells up from somewhere and you’re not exactly sure of what to do with it.  Everyone is set up perfectly by Berg, these two especially.  Tommy (Wahlberg) is a police officer working the Marathon, a duty that he’s given because he is working off a suspension and is now part of crowd control, something he deeply despises.  After the explosions, he steps up to help Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Bacon) with the investigation.  Knowing Boston better than an agent from out of town, he is desperately needed in finding the perpetrators.  I’m sure anyone of the Boston police offers present could do this job but we have to make Wahlberg the hero somehow so this works.  After a command center is set up, video surveillance finds the man who leaves one of the bombs to explode where he set it and they use footage from all the stores in the area to trace is steps.  This is how they discover he didn’t act alone.

The bombings themselves are a ballet of both the cinematography of Tobias A. Schliessler, who often works with Berg, and real footage.  When the runners are rounding the finish line and the explosions occur you practically jump from your seat.  Your heart beats faster, your face turns red and your blood boils.  If you’re on the slightly emotional side, you’ll weep.  If not, you’ll at least have a massive lump in your throat to swallow down.  It’s one thing to see the footage on the news but once he introduces you to people who are about to be the victims of this horrendous act, you find yourself pushing away from the screen and wishing you could warn them to get away from the area.  In this respect he did a very good job of bringing the audience into the story.    

When the Tsarnaev brothers are cornered in a town outside of Boston, it gives Berg a chance to play with the action part of the film and we take a break from the heavy drama its been. Berg is at his best when he’s re-enacting everything from the bombings to the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  He also unveils that the Tsarnaev brothers had more than just the city of Boston in mind to terrorize.  He does take certain liberties but you desperately need him to at this juncture.  You want and need to cheer what happens to the people who are killing innocent men, women and children and would have continued had it not been for the quick responses of investigators and the Boston Police.  It feels good to see them get their man who’s now on death row. 

Overall, the film is incredibly dramatic and suspenseful, especially when Katherine Russell (Benoist), the wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Melikidze), is interviewed.  Berg plays to your emotions and your sense of pride when she’s interrogated by using dialogue given by a character you wish you could be. 
This is a see at the theatre this weekend movie.  I highly recommend it.  After you do, stay seated.  You get to meet a few people through pictures and recorded interviews talking about their experiences and your chest will swell again when the reason Boston Strong was so prevalent is revealed.     

Live By Night

I love a lot of Affleck’s work.  In fact, it’s safe to say I like most of his work.  This one… not so much.  This confounds me because it’s Affleck!  He’s responsible in one way or another for “Good Will Hunting”, “Gone Baby Gone”, “Argo” and “The Town”.  Great films.  He usually has a firm grasp of story but that’s not the case here.  “Live By Night” is more or less all over the place.  To be completely honest, it doesn’t feel like his voice at all.  It can’t sit still so neither can you.  So I wonder… just went wrong?  I can indicate to you a few culprits.  It’s too slow and there are too many plot lines and both are working in concert to single handedly ruin this film.  It feels as if you’re watching a series of different films in one yet starring the same characters.  It’s a mobster/gangster picture but not.  There are moments when it is but, well, not to confuse you, these moments are few and far between.  It’s hard to even categorize this film.

I’ll try and explain the premise.  To start, in voice over, Affleck introduces his character, Joe Coughlin.  He’s a soldier.  He was miserable as a soldier.  The spoiled boy, yes it feels that way, was being told to do terrible things on the battle field and decides that being told what to do wasn’t for him.  He will forever be his own boss so he gathers two friends and they become bank robbers.  We learn that when it comes to Boston, there are two gangs it’s run by; the Irish and the Italians.  Not wanting to become involved with either, for some reason he doesn’t consider himself gangster material but is a criminal… okay, Coughlin, thinks it a good idea to become involved with the girlfriend of the head of the Irish gang, Albert White.  They even appear in public together.  Immediately, you can see that Affleck didn’t think this through. 
You know what’s going to happen and it does.  Along with a butt kicking, he gets set up and spends a few years in prison.  Now hating White, we have a revenge film where he’ll do anything to work against Albert White.  The man who said he’d never work for anyone again is working for the Italians to take over White’s rum distribution… in Florida.  We change again.  Coughlin enlists the help of the Cubans who were once stealing and instead turns them into assets, who now are happy working with him instead of against.      

There are several people trying to take him down but obstacles are easily overcome and Coughlin becomes the king of Tampa.  He also has a new woman, Graciela (Saldana), for whom he has absolutely no chemistry.  God I wanted to buy into this working for him.  It may actually be the worst part of the film.

So moving beyond that, it does, eventually, become a gangster picture again when a double-cross or two are shed and the movie gets exciting.  This is what the film had promised to be and it’s nice that it gets back to its roots but it’s not enough and it’s too little too late. 
However, what’s also good about “Live By Night”, and I’d say what makes it a worthwhile watch for anyone who wants to study good character actors are some of the performances.  Matthew Maher as a member of the KKK is outstanding.  Elle Fanning is memorable as a victim of circumstance.  Also worth mentioning is Robert Glenister as Albert White and Remo Girone as Italian leader Maso Pescatore.  When they’re on screen, you are lost in their performances.  They evoke “The Godfather” when they’re present and are quite impressive.  More of them would have improved the movie but for some reason we’re spread thinly over a few storylines and you become disinterested in everyone entirely.  So, check this out on DVD or wait for VOD, however you get your entertainment these days, but going to the theatre, my preferred outlet, is not my recommendation. 

Gold Advance Screening

OLD is the epic tale of one man’s pursuit of the American dream, to discover gold. Starring Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey as Kenny Wells, a prospector desperate for a lucky break, he teams up with a similarly eager geologist and sets off on an amazing journey to find gold in the uncharted jungle of Indonesia. Getting the gold was hard, but keeping it would be even harder, sparking an adventure through the most powerful boardrooms of Wall Street. The film is inspired by a true story. Directed by Oscar winner Stephen Gaghan (TRAFFIC, SYRIANA), the film stars Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey (INTERSTELLAR, DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET) and Golden Globe nominees Edgar Ramirez (HANDS OF STONE, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN) and Bryce Dallas Howard (JURASSIC WORLD, PETE’S DRAGON). The film is written by Patrick Massett & John Zinman and financed by Black Bear Pictures. Black Bear’s Teddy Schwarzman and HWY 61’s Michael Nozik served as producers alongside Massett, Zinman, and McConaughey. HWY 61 partner Paul Haggis, Richard Middleton and Black Bear’s Ben Stillman are executive producers.

Find your chance to receive special advance movie screening passes below. 

Phoenix, Arizona

Date: Monday, January 23
 Location: Harkins Scottsdale 101
Time: 7:00pm
 [button link=”http://www.gofobo.com/tmcgold” type=”big” newwindow=”yes”]Get Passes[/button]

T2 Trainspotting

T2 Trainspotting is the sequel to the 1996 film Trainspotting. It is directed by Danny Boyle, written by John Hodge and produced by Andrew Macdonald, Danny Boyle, Christian Colson and Bernard Bellew.
T2 Trainspotting is based on the novels Porno and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh and features the original cast of Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle. It will be released in theaters in the UK on January 27, 2017 and in the US beginning March 17, 2017.
T2 Trainspotting First there was an opportunity……then there was a betrayal. Twenty years have gone by. Much has changed but just as much remains the same. Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) returns to the only place he can ever call home. They are waiting for him: Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), and Begbie (Robert Carlyle). Other old friends are waiting too: sorrow, loss, joy, vengeance, hatred, friendship, love, longing, fear, regret, diamorphine, self-destruction and mortal danger, they are all lined up to welcome him, ready to join the dance.

In Theaters March 31st

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