Easy guide to production
Film critic Kimberly Gadette, born and raised in movie-centric L.A., believes celluloid may very well be a part of her DNA. Having received her BA and MFA from UCLA's School of Theater, Film & Television, she spent many of her formative years as an actress (film, tv, commercials, stage) before she literally changed perspective, finding a whole new POV from the other side of the camera. You can find her last 300+ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com/critic/kimberly-gadette/). Other than taking the occasional side trip to Cannes or Sundance, you can find her at the movies ... sitting in the dark as usual.
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Mansome is a mullet. Neither long hair nor short; neither here nor there. This Morgan Spurlock documentary about modern masculine grooming habits is neither all-out funny nor seriously thought-provoking. To mangle that famous quote by Gertrude Stein: There is no … [Read more...]
For Cannes aficionados, as well as for all of you planning to stay for some portion of the wild days and nights of the 65th Cannes Film Festival: Presenting a list of "Cannes-Do's and Cannes-Don'ts." Even if you're a veteran, some of the following may resonate: DON'T: Ask filmmakers why their … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) The Cannes Film Festival coming in at second place? Excusez moi? No, not really; Cannes' only instance of secondary status is in its age, with its 1946 beginnings nodding to the senior Venice Film Festival of 1932. Other than that sole exception, Cannes … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Sacha Baron Cohen's character has been described as, "a self-proclaimed lord, he rules over others using mostly his charisma and delegating; i.e., telling other people what they should do, since he certainly has very little ability to lead." Oh, wait, that's the … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Tim Burton's film opens with a thick fog enveloping a centuries-old British harbor. The protagonist's beloved family has been destroyed, victims of an interloper. The protagonist, imprisoned by that same interloper, is finally freed of his shackles and hopes to … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Bonnie and Clyde killed while robbing banks. Natural Born Killers' Mickey and Mallory killed for kicks. And now we get Frank and Roxy who kill because, well, they're somewhat annoyed. While they hadn't planned on taking out that many jerks, once you get into a … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) If Carl from Up bumped into Shirley Valentine on his next balloon trip to India; if Eat Pray Love's Liz Gilbert located a personality; if director John Madden took the delicious rhythms of his Shakespeare in Love ... oh, wait, he did, delivering some of his very … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Wow! Did you hear that deafening sound? Perhaps, due to the fact that The Avengers is already a mega-hit overseas (trumping the U.S. release by one week), it's the blast of an international box office rocketing skyward. Or maybe the explosion is that of a … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) There's supposedly a lot going on in Room 514. Or so we'd like to hope. The subject of interrogation, of course, considering that's the main construct of this minimalist Israeli drama, earning a Tribeca Film Festival Special Jury Mention for its first-time feature … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) On the Mat is nothing less than a documentarian's dream. As an omnipresent fly on the wall during the a 2010-2011 Washington State high school wrestling season, filmmaker Fredric Golding couldn't have wished for more dramatic highs and lows than if he'd written a … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) The most surprising fact about All In, the crazy quilt of the Argentinean comedy in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival, is that it won the award for Best Screenplay. While offering a pleasant time, the film's energy and color reflecting the whirl of a … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Finally. An action film that's more about the characters than the chase ... even though the chase is damn good. Lensed by cinematographer Alex Catalán (who received the Tribeca Special Jury Mention for his work), there's not one shake in this smooth action-cam … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) A vanity project for Jenna Fischer, The Giant Mechanical Man is yet one more in a string of lost thirtysomething comedies, in which attractive, unemployed people bemoan their state and wonder why they don't have a job. Here, we meet Fischer's Janice as she's being … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) It all seems cunningly familiar: damp, cobblestoned streets; gaslights barely cutting through the thick fog; horse-drawn carriages transporting unseen travelers in a populated 19th century city. A scream! A murder! Maybe two! The police, baffled, call … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) In a nod to the protagonist chef (Jason Segel's Tom), let's just say that The Five-Year Engagement engages in the pasta theory of filmmaking: Throw enough starch against the wall, and something's bound to stick. But after awhile, that surfeit of starch is not … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Amid a plethora of maudlin tales about young people cut down by dread diseases, Death of a Superhero rises up as a creative burst of brilliance in an otherwise desolate landscape. It features a wonderfully-measured Andy Serkis (freed from his usual layers of … [Read more...]
