Nicole Holofcener - Classic or Dud?

She's quietly amassed a modest, winning body of work, with the pretty good Friends with Money the only weak link. Catherine Keener's done some of her best work with her. I'm going to catch Please Give this week. What's possibly dud is her poor visual sense and lapses into sitcom banality (Friends with Money came closest).

i really like her, and i liked friends with money a lot, however close it came to a sitcom. lovely and amazing was really great

Her movies are the real "Sex and the City" to be honest.

Walking and Talking was my introduction to Catherine Keener, Todd Field, Liev Schreiber, and Anne Heche.

love her.

Walking and Talking is one of my favorite movies of all time.

haven't seen please give yet...maybe i'll do that this week.

tbh i think it's good that she has friends with money in her repertoire. sometimes you need something a little more fluffy, and i think that's kind of what the movie was about, too.

i didn't think friends with money was fluffy exactly. i do find each successive movie of hers more episodic and less narrative-y. less character development in friends with money than in walking and talking, it felt like.

i liked friends with money; i just kind of wished there had been more of it when it was over.

The best I can say about Jennifer Anniston was...she wasn't bad. But it's the only one of Holofcener's pictures in which events build to perfunctory climaxes (Anniston's affair with the obese millionaire is a reprise of Keener's flirtation with the video store clerk in Walking and Talking).

fluffy was the wrong choice of word. it was more easy, as a composition.

the Ugly Guy! <3 Kevin Corrigan.

xpost

love her.

Walking and Talking is one of my favorite movies of all time.

― horseshoe, Sunday, June 27, 2010 6:03 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haven't seen please give yet...maybe i'll do that this week.

― horseshoe, Sunday, June 27, 2010 6:04 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

horseshoe we are so sisterz

Also: I admire her for remaining skeptical of her characters. Keener's women are mostly self-absorbed drips, for ex.

that's kind of her whole thing, isn't it?

her = Keener? Holofcener?

i tend to really hate modern day dramedies now, but when i saw 'walking and talking' i immediately told all of my friends to run out and see it.

i still laugh about the sponge-sniffing scene and think of it every time my sponge reeks

afraid to see 'please give' because i don't really like these kinds of movies, but i guess i will always give nicole holofcener a chance.

Holofcener, studying characters at once flawed and beautiful

xp

At her worst the material doesn't cohere; it floats like a series of sitcom gags. The running joke about the are-they-gay husbands in Friends with Money, say.

ahahaha the sponge scene! "this sponge smells like a hot dog."

i make an endless nuisance of myself quoting walking and talking. the way Liev Schreiber delivers "Oh, hellooo cookies" when he sees the cookie jar at Keener's house is my favorite ever.

xps to Amanda <3

I've always found Schreiber hot, and he was my second- or third-tier mancrush in the late nineties thanks to that string of indie films.

Keener's women are mostly self-absorbed drips, for ex.

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, June 27, 2010 7:10 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

aw, i seriously seriously identify with Keener's character in W & T. i am totally self-absorbed tbf.

xp schreiber is a dreamboat

actually, i had a really awkward viewing moment when i was sharing walking and talking with a good friend, and she was like, huh. "so catherine keener is well-liked but kind of a flaky mess and anne heche is a cold bitch but good at everything. they're like you and me!"

...

I didn't expect this thread to blow up so quickly!

all i ever want to be doing is watching walking and talking tbh. i guess i'll settle for posting about it on the internet.

walking and talking is my actual irl favorite thing to do

anyway, i am going to eat dinner, but nicole holofcener: classic
she's like the paula fox of my generation

preferably with frozen yogurt xp

what else is there, really? apart from walking, talking and frozen yogurt, i mean.

spooning Liev Schreiber

Just thinking of Keener in Lovely & Amazing makes me laugh sometimes. "Mister, this SHIT is PRETTY."

'please give' is really good

im on record abt my deep, sincere, and undying crush on rebecca hall, but she really does kill it here

top-level acting shit generally, but she nails scene after scene, eg when she tells the kid her mother killed herself. doesn't oversell it.

Please Give was excellent.

i watched the 1st three back to back recently, still not seen PG

I finally saw it. Review here if interested. nrq OTM about Rebecca Hall.

fair enough, i practically ws tbh

please give was... ok i guess

i do love rebecca hall

you're ok i guess!

i haven't seen it yet, but i have to reflexively stan for holofcener.

<3

^^would watch holofcener marathon with

thanks horseshoe

oh you

Classic!!

i totally want to be best friends w catherine keener! btw i tried webmailing u abt a week ago horseshoe and it wouldnt send

everybody wants to be friends with catherine keener. that's like her thing.

lol!!!

plax i just webmailed you my other email address!

But we know Catherine Keener would be nice to us for a minute or two and then, if we didn't leave her alone, just shoot us down.

Please Give = very ugly film. some laughs.

Lois Smith's cute grandson was nice tho (apparently he was in the American Pies)

whatever happened to the Holofcener marathon?

please give was great, i thought. became obsessed with catherine keener's ridic beautiful face over the course of it.

rebecca hall kind of looks like young molly ringwald but cheekbonier to me

amanda peet

i can't, it's too good

What do you mean by 'very ugly'?

Still one of the best I've seen this year. I just loved Amanda Peet in it.

nicole holofcener movies make me really sad sometimes. like the bit at the end of walking and talking where they're walking downstairs to the wedding. there's this thing she does where at weird moments she focuses on something small and intimate and it like crushes me.

otm

attn: Amanda and others, walking and talking is now available to watch instantly on netflix. ty ENBB for letting me know!

YES
haven't seen it in years, wonder if i would still like it?

YOU WOULD

also i am listening to is this desire? and thought of you. that is the end of my Amanda updates.

:)!!!!

ew
EW
this sponge smells

like a hot dog!

i can't stop smelling it!

Holofcener reminisces about making walking and talking

Studios and independent companies would say it’s too “soft,” which I imagine means “the room is just too girlie.” I thought that was bullshit, but at the same time I didn’t fight what they said was “soft “about it—that there was no big hook and that it was about women.

Amanda Peet is really good in Please Give. Everyone is good in it, but I was most surprised that she was.

she's really touching in it, i feel so much for her character. you know she's a bitch because she's sad.

yeah, she really looks like a beautiful girl I know who, when you meet her you think "what a bitch" but when you get to know her you realize how much that attitude masks a pile of neurotic insecurities. So even though Keener and Platt and Hall and the horrible grandma and Rookie of the Year are all great in it, I was most taken with Peet, like she really got to me.

I don't know why it took so long for me to watch this, considering my affection for Walking & Talking and Lovely and Amazing. Friends w/ Money I liked at first, but it was on tv the other day and I couldn't get with it, possibly because nothing really sticks with me except for Scott Caan being louche and McDormand chewing shit up and running into a door (and that awful gay husband plot). Please Give maybe is her best? It seems so much more cutting and no-bullshit than the others, except I didn't give a shit about the daughter's jeans.

also some times I was watching it, with the furniture store and apartments and the traveling to see "the leaves," I thought this was the most NYT movie ever.

I was pleased to see her name in the credits of a recent Parks and Recreation episode.

Please Give maybe is her best?

yep

worst!

xp yeah I think Mike Schur lauding Please Give after that episode was the reason I finally decided to watch it

I thought this was the most NYT movie ever.

It struck me as the kind of movie Woody Allen used to make - you know, when he was good.

i don't get why people are always so down on friends with money, i really liked it. i watched it with my mam.

it's a good movie, but it's a little trite

so early reports on the new one

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-toronto-2013-nicole-holofceners-enough-said

Partly because I was in just the right mood, I think--not a great first two weeks back to work--but I really liked Please Give. I remember liking Lovely and Amazing and Friends with Money in a very general sense, but not as much as I did Please Give. Still haven't seen Walking and Talking.

All six principals were great. You could single out any of of them--for me, Catherine Keener made the strongest impression. (But I can see why other people focus on Amanda Peet.) Keener's been a really forceful, assertive presence in just about every film I've ever seen her in, so the tentativeness and distractibility of her character here was striking. Two scenes I found especially moving: Keener's attempt to volunteer at the gymnasium (felt I understood her character perfectly there), and Keener and Rebecca Hall right after the grandmother passes away. Couldn't remember where I'd seen the teenage daughter till I checked: Spanglish.

Please Give is probably her most mature, least vague film to date, though I also remember quite liking Lovely and Amazing. Friends with Money never quite coheres, though, and I was especially baffled by the whole business of Frances MacDormand's is-he-or-isn't-he-gay husband? Do New Yorkers, particularly those who work in the fashion industry, really feel the need to remain closeted in the 21st century.

Her latest, Enough Said, looks promising. The idea of James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as an on-screen couple just works to well in theory for it not to work in practice.

I resecreened Please Give last week because I was recently at a party listening to a crush of mine talk about how she frequently gets antiques cheap from craigslist and estate sales from people who don't know better (she's a weekend interior designer). I told she should check out that movie because it's about that sort of thing. Upon revisiting, I'm wondering if I should have kept my mouth shut.

Doesn't Catherine Keener essentially have the same job in both Please Give and The 40 Year Old Virgin?

She has an Ebay store in 40YOV, and a high-end antique furniture dealer in PG, so...almost?

Was able to find Walking and Talking through my library system.

I just noticed W & T is on Netflix instant in the US.

looks like the new one is her best reviewed? AO Scott flipped. I suspect Gandolfini make get a memorial award or two.

the trailer made my skin crawl but as noted upthread I'm a fan.

Please Give = very ugly film. some laughs.

Lois Smith's cute grandson was nice tho (apparently he was in the American Pies)

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, November 30, 2010 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What do you mean by 'very ugly'?

― She Got the Shakes, Sunday, December 19, 2010 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For the first time I thought she tipped over into the Whiny Urban White Entitlement Crap ppl were always ready to accuse her of.

ok i can see that, though i like it a lot. which of hers do you prefer?

I wouldn't go quite so far as Andrew on PG, but close:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/please-give/4790

I'm middle-aged, all the others kinda blend in; the first two? obv Jake Gyllenhaal as video-store jailbait worked for me.

ppl were always ready to accuse her of.

Did anyone actually accuse her of this anywhere?

well, see the link above

I'm middle-aged, all the others kinda blend in; the first two? obv Jake Gyllenhaal as video-store jailbait worked for me.

― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, September 18, 2013 3:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

does she have more than one movie where there's a video store love interest? (kevin corrigan in walking and talking)

slight mistake by morbs -- should be photo-developers jailbait

Jesus, that Slant review.

i don't think he wears his hair that long anymore

but what about it? I found every character in Please Give eminently slappable.

Her best movie? Gandolfini's line readings are ideal.

The last ten minutes are meh, as you might expect.

My review.

dug this. part of walking and talking revolves around a similar 19th century coincidence/contrivance, feel like gentle talky improbability is underused in ~the modern cinema~.

the daughters (his, hers, the friend) were excellent as well.

The pain and regret with which Gandolfini shades his four-word response in the last third — which I won’t repeat but everyone who’s seen Enough Said knows which sentence I mean

lol i dont and i just saw it

good movie though. i liked how Holo undercut the moment where keener gave jld some fresh chervil. nice sendoff for gandolf

Armond happy!

Holofcener comes close to Mike Leigh’s poignancy–and on her own terms. Enough Said is both a sit-com breakdown and an indie-movie breakthrough.

http://cityarts.info/2013/09/20/bitch-slapstick/

damn

there is one more Gandolfini perf btw

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1600196/combined

As I was leaving the cinema, I heard one woman say to a friend that she quite liked it, but she couldn't believe how banal their conversations were. "When they first got together it was OK but as it went on there was zero chemistry between them". I felt like intervening.

No one is writing relationships like this. So great. Makes me cross to see a one-dimensional film like Blue Jasmine get so much attention when something of this richness and subtlety is also in cinemas.

and 93 minutes!

my favorite film of the year to date

For me it might be a tie between this and The Act of Killing, which would make quite the double bill.

Don't know that I liked Enough Said as much as Please Give, but I liked it a lot. Quibbles: the 20-30 minutes after they meet is a good romantic-comedy, but a romantic-comedy nonetheless--not a genre I have much use for. Also knew the exact tone the ending would strike long before it arrived. Anyone would.

But I cared what happened, most of the humour clicked for me ("Blessings..."), and I found Julia Louis-Dreyfus's world falling apart moving. (Reminded me of Mia Farrow's moment of helplessness in Hannah and Her Sisters.) Some of JL-D's performance was filtered through my 10,000 hours of watching Seinfeld--there was just the right amount of Elaine there for me. I've never watched The Sopranos, so that wasn't a factor; I'm sure it would be for many people.

saw this today. beautiful stuff; i loved how natural and real it felt without making a point of being 'real' the way a lot of movies are. like there's no grossouts or anything. and the moments between gandolfini and dreyfus where he seemed to take her by surprise with something he said, she just laughed so naturally with him

great great great

this film self-diagnoses 15 minutes before the end when JL-D says "I'm the idiot."

I liked Gandolfini's character, so one more than Please Give.

NH now makes sitcoms for the NPR set

"now"

I think you mean Woody Allen though

him for the seniors, her for the 40s/50s

she does soft-pedal the satirical elements of Keener's poet, between "blessings" and "friends with Joni"

oh I dunno: Keener's line readings suggest she (Keener) knows her character's been gently poked.

well that's another flaw

you're no good with haiku

sez you

Really liked this. Possibly the best Holofcener to date, though let me rewatch Lovely and Amazing and Please Give sometime and get back to me.

Essentially the Idiot Plot put to valuable use: the deception is a plot machination, of course, but I'd argue that it is as much of a result of class embarrassment as it is of new-relationship jitters; Eva's as much in love with the idea of having a richer, cooler, classier friend as she is of the idea of falling in love again, so how can she, now having a friend in common with Joni Mitchell, possibly accept her new friend's leftovers? The performances are all lovely on down to the daughter and her friend, though I got a bit weary of Toni Collette and Ben Falcone's characters pretty quick. Also, when the screen fades to white five minutes towards the end, I was honestly surprised that the movie wasn't over. Surprised, though not necessarily disappointed--I'll take this ending when I like the characters this much.

otm

I thought this was great. I enjoyed how it tweaks the conventions of romantic comedy by realistically portraying how romance looks from middle age but manages to be sweet and funny too. Both leads ooze tons of charm too.

Multiple reliable sources all indicate that her newest is a dud. I’ll probably skip it; its not like I’m looking for another opportunity to be annoyed by Ben Mendelsohn.

A disappointment. I don't get Mendelsohn.

He’s terrible in Rogue One and Ready Player One, the only two things I’ve seen him in. Granted, those aren’t good movies, but reviews of this film tend to single out his performance as a problem (Mendelsohn “plays [his character] like a benign Dr. House,” writes Bill Chambers).

Maybe it’s the Tarrytown location but I kept thinking of the HBO show Divorce, and how Thomas Haden Church would have been an improvement

The film’s ok, though - it’s just nowhere in the league of any of the previous 5. And I don’t understand why it needed to look so ugly.

liked Mendelsohn in Starred Up; maybe he should just play prison dads.

Yeah I think he made a conscious effort to move away from just playing criminals a few years ago but he was good at it!

it's not very good at all, no. numerous problems including Mendelsohn, also why do I give a fuck about these people, also the editing is bad.

She was interviewed on Bullseye last week, and while I thought Jesse was a little too fawning (not the first time), they got into the "unlikeable characters" thing.

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510309/bullseye

maybe I'll give it a listen. it wasn't that they were unlikeable to me, it was more that...it didn't do a good job making me care. you're plopped into a situation with little context. honestly it seemed like maybe there were bit chunks of the screenplay excised. and even what's there...there are just weird transitions, everything seems rushed, like someone edited a lot of pauses out between people talking to crunch it into time.

Holofcener co-wrote Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the Melissa McCarthy film (the director, Marielle Heller, did Diary of a Teenage Girl a few years ago, which I think I liked better than Eighth Grade). I didn't know a thing about Lee Israel going in. Very low-key--a little too much so, I'd say, for such a tabloid story--and I found her buyers were suspiciously easy marks. (It's 1991, mind you, and maybe I've seen those clowns on Pawn Stars too many times--I was waiting for one of Israel's customers to say, "Just let me get my guy down here to take a look at it.") I'm normally immune to the sappiness of scenes like the last one between McCarthy and Richard Grant, but they carried it off well.

I don't think The Land of Steady Habits has ever gotten a screening here.

I quite enjoyed it, one of the more legit American queer films in recent memory.

(Ben Mendehlson is) terrible in Rogue One and Ready Player One, the only two things I’ve seen him in.

I can’t imagine ever watching those, but he’s good to v good in The Year My Voice Broke (1987), The Big Steal, Metal Skin, Idiot Box (all ‘90s) and Animal Kingdom (2010). The only thing I’ve seen him in since was a Statham/Deniro nothingness filmed in Australia - it’s possible he’s lost it, or straight up doesn’t bother in American stuff.

can you ever forgive me was great

I was lukewarm on Can You Ever Forgive Me?, but I think I liked all the films I've seen that she directed herself. (She also did some Six Feet Under episodes.) I've seen the trailer for You Hurt My Feelings a few times, and as such things go, looks promising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20GWk5cWPBs

New one is legit good, maybe great. Probably her funniest? JLD has some absolutely miraculous reaction shots, and her depressedly eating a cookie on a $10K couch is perfect

and 93 minutes!

As a comedy, I wish this had been funnier--I smiled here and there but only laughed once or twice. (To be fair, people around me were laughing a lot--sometimes howling, which doesn't really help when you're not feeling it yourself.) I liked the more serious side of the film better, and could relate to lots. Jeannie Berlin seems very busy these days.