Tag: lynn shelton

R.I.P. Lynn Shelton

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SAGIndie Brunch At Cafe Terigo - Park City 2013

Director Lynn Shelton died on Saturday and it hit home for me, for a lot of reasons. First: I really liked her movies, and reviewed two of them on this blog: Sword of Trust and Outside In. They were mellow, lived-in, gentle, kind, and deeply humane. Her characters felt real and her stories always had an interesting shape. She also directed a lot of TV shows I watched, including GLOW, Love, The Good Place, The Mindy Project, New Girl — to name just a few. She came to directing late in life, at age 39, but then she was prolific, directing eight feature films and numerous television shows. She was one of those directors I watched out for; I felt like her best work was ahead of her. I can’t believe she’s dead. She was only 54.

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9 Women-Directed Films I Can’t Wait to See in 2019

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I just updated my list of 2019 movies that are directed by women, and it gave me a chance to think about what movies to watch over the next few weeks–and also to get excited about what’s ahead for the year. So, here’s a preliminary last. Two of these, High Life and My Zoe are repeats from last year, because they didn’t end up being slated for release until this year–but I am still just as eager to see them. . .

sword

SWORD OF TRUST    Writer & Director: Lynn Shelton

This is an ensemble comedy, starring Marc Maron, Michaela Watkins, and Jon Bass among others. I like Shelton’s low-key movies, especially when she does comedy. I’m also a fan of Maron and his WTF podcast. So, I’m here for this one. In theaters March 8.


HIGH LIFE  Writer & Director: Claire Denis

This sci-fi movie is French director Claire Denis’s English-language feature film debut. It revolves around a group of prisoners who have been sent into deep space as a way to shorten their sentences. Apparently, Denis has been trying to make this movie since 2002 and wrote the screenplay with Philip Seymour Hoffman in mind. After Hoffman’s death in 2014, Robert Pattison signed on for the lead. I’m intrigued by the premise and the trailer is so creepy I couldn’t finish watching. In theaters April 12.

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Review: Outside In

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outside in

Outside In opens with the camera looking down on an ex-con, Chris, heading home for the first time in twenty years. Chris (Jay Duplass) sits in the back of a rain-spattered car window, eating a french fry with a dreamy look in his eyes. It’s probably the best thing he’s eaten in a long time. He will soon be delivered to a room filled with people awaiting his return. But there’s only one person he really wants to see: Carol, his old high school teacher, the person who fought hardest for his early release.

Carol is played by Edie Falco, and from the moment we first see her, she radiates goodness, intelligence, longing, and confusion. She’s in as much of a transitional period as Chris. She’s devoted years of her life to disputing Chris’s conviction, and in doing so, has discovered new reserves of intellectual and spiritual energy. She’s also become very close to her former student. She might be in love with him; he’s definitely in love with her. But she’s married, with a teenage daughter. And she’s still teaching at the high school where she first met Chris as an 18-year-old boy. So things are complicated. Continue reading “Review: Outside In” →

March Trailers Roundup

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Here’s a fresh batch of trailers for women-directed movies that will be released in March: Dear Dictator (Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse), Furlough (Laurie Collyer), Madame (Amanda Sthers), Outside In (Lynn Shelton), and A Wrinkle in Time (Ava DuVernay).

 

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