Director Todd Solondz leans mainstream
By Sheri Jennings
VENICE, Italy (AP) --Independent filmmaker Todd Solondz is leaning toward the mainstream in his latest film “Dark Horse,” but the irony and insight into dysfunctional families which fans loved in his earlier work remain common place.
Solondz, in a news conference Monday at the Venice Film festival, compared his latest film, starring Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken, to American comedies like “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”
But with the comparison came a warning.
In the movie business “the manchild has been an overused genre,” he said. “Frankly if Dark Horse was the end of those movies I would feel I could go to sleep a happy man,” he said.
He describes “Dark Horse,” about a college dropout mama’s boy called Abe — portrayed by Jordan Gelber — as being imbued with a “kind of melancholy.”
The film — much of which is reminiscent of other work “Happiness” and “Life During Wartime” — charts the story of a boy who doesn’t totally want to grow up. “As much as it’s comedy of sorts, I never really laugh,” Solondz said of the film.
“It’s sorrowful and there is a kind of melancholy … the main character has so many troubles and serious misfortunes that befall him I feel a kind of tenderness for Abe,” he said.
Abe, in his 30s, lives at home and works listlessly at the real estate company of his father, played by Walken. His life is the opposite of his successful brother, a doctor, played by “The Hangover” star Justin Bartha. Farrow plays Abe’s mother.
Abe’s situation is “very symptomatic of a consumerist society where ‘infantilization’ is encouraged,” ventured Solondz.
“Dark Horse” is in the running for the festival’s top honor — the Golden Lion — to be awarded on Sept. 10 at the close of the festival on Venice’s Lido island.
Alec Baldwin Urges Judge To Stand By Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Case In “Rust” Shooting
Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Friday to stand by her decision to skuttle his trial and dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin halfway through a trial in July based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be revived once any appeals of the decision are exhausted.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that there were insufficient facts and that Baldwin's due process rights had not been violated.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers alleged that they "buried" it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Marlowe Sommer described "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct" by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Defense counsel says that prosecutors tried to establish a link... Read More