By Robert Goldrich
SANTA MONICA --Director Chris Applebaum–who made a pop culture splash and sparked controversy with last year’s Paris Hilton commercial for Carl’s Jr. out of agency Mendelsohn Zien, Los Angeles–has joined Santa Monica-headquartered Reactor Films for exclusive representation.
At his new roost Applebaum has already helmed a John Frieda beauty products spot for kirshenbaum bond & partners, New York, and at press time was wrapping post on a music video for artist Rihanna promoting the single “SOS.”
Applebaum comes over to Reactor from bicoastal/international Partizan. The helmer told SHOOT that he’s at a point in his career where he’s looking to focus on commercials while continuing to take on select music videos. He also is developing several feature film projects, including Water’s Edge, produced by Constantin Film, Out of the Blue Entertainment and Gruber Films. Applebaum described the suspense thriller as “Deliverance for the MTV generation.”
The chance to have his spotmaking career develop further with the help of executive producer Michael Romersa, and his high regard for Reactor’s directorial roster, which includes Steve Chase, Warren Kushner and Thor Freudenthal, were among the factors attracting Applebaum to the production house. Applebaum said he felt a personal connection with Romersa, akin in some respects to what he had with Steve Dickstein at Partizan. But when Dickstein left that shop, Applebaum began to explore his options and was courted by various companies.
Firmly established in the music clips arena with work for assorted performers (Kid Rock, Natasha Bedingfield, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Jewel, Celine Dion, Nick Carter, Mandy Moore), Applebaum has diversified successfully into spots as evidenced by such credits as Old Spice, Haagen Dazs, Target and Mandalay Bay.
While his work is associated with a young hip vibe, Applebaum has extensive experience spanning 14 years as a director. He started at now defunct Satellite Films, a sister shop to the venerable and since shuttered Propaganda Films. Upon coming aboard Satellite, he was the fourth director there. When he left that company, it had 20-plus directors–while Propaganda’s roster grew to 30 or so helmers. A stint at Los Angeles area house Arsenal followed Satellite. Next Applebaum went to A Band Apart, Los Angeles, where he began to move into commercials as a complement to his music video endeavors. Then came Partizan and a continuing mix of spots and music clips; it was at Partizan that he directed the hot, sexy, buzz-generating Paris Hilton ad for Carl’s Jr.
Applebaum’s body of music video work has gained him a reputation in the fashion/beauty genre. He has helped to shape and present the look for assorted pop culture performers, most notably female artists. In the advertising community, he hopes to make similar inroads into fashion/beauty fare.
Over the years, Applebaum’s videos have garnered multiple MTV Video Award and Music Video Production Association Award nominations. He helmed Semisonic’s clip for “Closing Time,” which went on to become the first video inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The Applebaum-directed “Stacy’s Mom” for Fountains of Wayne was the second video to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Applebaum has had 21 videos reach number one status on MTV, helping to break artists like Fountains of Wayne, Kelly Osbourne and Hilary Duff, and to continue the successful careers of Kid Rock, Spears, Simpson and Jewel, among many others.
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More