Stars: Amiah Miller, Elsie Fisher, Rachel Ogechi Kanu, Cathy Ang, Clayton Royal Johnson | Written by Jenna Lamia | Directed by Damon Thomas
Based on the bestseller by Grady Hendrix, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is the 1980s set tales of Gretchen and Abby. They’re typical teen movie friends, they come from different religious, social, and economic backgrounds but attend the same private school thanks to Abby’s scholarship.
But that friendship is threatened by Gretchen’s parents’ plans to move at the end of the school year. But in the meantime, there are better things to do than worry, like spending the weekend at a lakefront cabin owned by their friend Margaret’s parents. Their friend Glee is invited along, Margaret’s boyfriend Wally isn’t but shows up anyway.
When LSD and skinny dipping enter the picture things go south and Abby runs off into the woods. Gretchen goes after...
Based on the bestseller by Grady Hendrix, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is the 1980s set tales of Gretchen and Abby. They’re typical teen movie friends, they come from different religious, social, and economic backgrounds but attend the same private school thanks to Abby’s scholarship.
But that friendship is threatened by Gretchen’s parents’ plans to move at the end of the school year. But in the meantime, there are better things to do than worry, like spending the weekend at a lakefront cabin owned by their friend Margaret’s parents. Their friend Glee is invited along, Margaret’s boyfriend Wally isn’t but shows up anyway.
When LSD and skinny dipping enter the picture things go south and Abby runs off into the woods. Gretchen goes after...
- 9/30/2022
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
Spoken English evolved such useful phrases as “blah blah blah” and “yada yada yada” so that in conversation we don’t have to suffer through numbingly repetitive descriptions of the perfectly obvious. Sadly, no such shorthand exists in the “After” universe, which, now on its fourth instalment, seems dedicated to spinning the already vanishingly wispy romance between good-girl Tessa and bad-boy Hardin, YA fiction’s most colossally boring golden couple, into ever thinner straw. After a placeholder second film (“After We Collided”) and a wheel-spinning third (“After We Fell”), the new episode — which itself ramps up to a face-palming “to be continued” — can’t even charitably be said to be blah. It’s the space between the blahs.
Laboring under the aggravatingly agrammatical title of “After Ever Happy” (hats off if you get the order of those three words right on your first attempt), this desultory go-round picks up at...
Laboring under the aggravatingly agrammatical title of “After Ever Happy” (hats off if you get the order of those three words right on your first attempt), this desultory go-round picks up at...
- 9/5/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
On the surface, the Ya adaptation All Together Now may seem like something Netflix is releasing in an effort to capture the tween market. Sure, it’s adapted from a Ya novel and has an appealing young cast, but the secret weapon here is that it’s made by an old soul in Brett Haley. The filmmaker made his bones directing veteran actors and actresses who were due starring roles, like Sam Elliott and Blythe Danner, before recently moving towards younger skewing casts. Now, this latest effort of his shows how effective material potentially meant for a younger audience can be in the right hands. Haley’s sure nature and talented direction makes this a family friendly but wholly effective work that’s absolutely heartwarming. The film is a drama, based on the novel Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick. Amber Appleton (Auli’i Cravalho) is the kind of...
- 8/26/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
What a wonderful surprise this film is! Rather under the radar, Netflix has released one of the better movies of 2020 so far with All the Bright Places, a tremendously effective and mature adaptation of the Young Adult novel of the same name. Ya titles can often pull their punches and leave you lacking, but director Brett Haley, one of the most underrated storytellers in the business, does not fall into that trap. Along with writer Liz Hannah, he makes this a deeply impactful and moving experience. I’m not sure Netflix knows what they have on their hands here, and that’s a shame. It really deserves a theatrical release, like they afford their prestige flicks. It’s more than good enough for that status. The movie is a teen drama about a pair struggling with emotional scars. Violet Markey (Elle Fanning) and Theodore Finch (Justice Smith) meet when the...
- 2/29/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Sam Elliott as Lee Hayden and Laura Prepon as Charlotte in The Hero.
Photo by Beth Dubber. Courtesy of The Orchard ©
Sometimes one role can define an actor’s career. Sam Elliott plays such an actor in late life, facing his own mortality and coming to grips with his life and career, in the sometimes funny, sometimes touching drama The Hero. The Hero is an intimate personal drama that draws on universal human concerns in a story that is by turns comic, bittersweet or moving. Writer/director Brett Haley’s thoughtful film has the same feel of authenticity as his previous one, I’LL See You In My Dreams, in which Elliott co-starred with Blythe Danner. Like that film, The Hero is a life-affirming film that portrays older adults as fully rounded individuals living in this present world instead of two-dimensional types, human beings with brains, a sense of humor and romantic lives.
Photo by Beth Dubber. Courtesy of The Orchard ©
Sometimes one role can define an actor’s career. Sam Elliott plays such an actor in late life, facing his own mortality and coming to grips with his life and career, in the sometimes funny, sometimes touching drama The Hero. The Hero is an intimate personal drama that draws on universal human concerns in a story that is by turns comic, bittersweet or moving. Writer/director Brett Haley’s thoughtful film has the same feel of authenticity as his previous one, I’LL See You In My Dreams, in which Elliott co-starred with Blythe Danner. Like that film, The Hero is a life-affirming film that portrays older adults as fully rounded individuals living in this present world instead of two-dimensional types, human beings with brains, a sense of humor and romantic lives.
- 6/30/2017
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It’s always a pleasure when the best new release of a given week also happens to be the best film of the year so far. This week, just such an occasion is upon us with the release of The Hero. A truly wonderful flick, this is the sort of picture that reminds you of the power of cinema, especially when a central performance anchors it all. Here, that performance belongs to Sam Elliott, who will absolutely blow you away. This is work that goes beyond awards worthy. It certainly is, but it’s also something that marks a high water mark on an already impressive career. Prepare to be stunned by Elliott and The Hero in a big way. This film is a character study of the highest order. Lee Hayden (Elliott) is an aging movie star with his best work behind him. He was once the star of...
- 6/7/2017
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
IndieWire reached out to the filmmakers behind the feature-length narrative and documentary films premiering this week to find out what cameras they used and why they chose them. Here are their responses.
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Sundance Bible – Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Dramatic Competition & Next
Cory Finley, “Thoroughbred”
Arri Alexa Mini. Panavision G-Series lenses.
The Dp, Lyle Vincent, was very particular about getting a hold of both. They gave us flexibility in shooting and helped create the very precise, high-contrast, and slightly dreamy look we were going for.
Gillian Robespierre, “Landline”
Arri Alexa with some vintage lenses
“Landline” takes place in 1990’s Manhattan. My Dp Chris Teague and I talked a lot about what shooting a period movie from a recent period would look and feel like. Unfortunately, we were not able to shoot on film, and added a texture of LiveGrain during color...
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Sundance Bible – Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Dramatic Competition & Next
Cory Finley, “Thoroughbred”
Arri Alexa Mini. Panavision G-Series lenses.
The Dp, Lyle Vincent, was very particular about getting a hold of both. They gave us flexibility in shooting and helped create the very precise, high-contrast, and slightly dreamy look we were going for.
Gillian Robespierre, “Landline”
Arri Alexa with some vintage lenses
“Landline” takes place in 1990’s Manhattan. My Dp Chris Teague and I talked a lot about what shooting a period movie from a recent period would look and feel like. Unfortunately, we were not able to shoot on film, and added a texture of LiveGrain during color...
- 1/25/2017
- by Annakeara Stinson and Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Into the noisy chaos of summertime at the multiplex, offering a quiet diversion from the super-heroes and natural disasters, is a gentle comedy/drama/romance aimed at a most neglected movie audience: the seniors. Or, the Aarp crowd, if you will. Their favored flicks usually arrive in the later part of the year (for Oscar noms), or in the early Spring/late Winter. The studio execs are often stunned when this demographic embraces a film. Such was the case with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which even inspired a recent sequel in addition to several Us mature pairings like And So It Goes. And in TV-land, those “Golden Girls” continue their popularity in endless reruns. This new film zeroes in on one such “golden gal” (well, she does have three BFFs) and provides a veteran actress of stage, screen, and TV with the role of a lifetime as the main...
- 5/28/2015
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Rob Givens reteams with The New Year director Brett Haley with I’ll See You in My Dreams, a drama starring Blythe Danner as a retired widower suddenly adjusting to the loss of her dog. The film screens in the Premieres section beginning Tuesday, January 27, and below Givens discusses his ongoing collaboration with Haley, why he chose to shoot on the Sony F55, and getting out of the way of the actors. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this […]...
- 1/27/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Rob Givens reteams with The New Year director Brett Haley with I’ll See You in My Dreams, a drama starring Blythe Danner as a retired widower suddenly adjusting to the loss of her dog. The film screens in the Premieres section beginning Tuesday, January 27, and below Givens discusses his ongoing collaboration with Haley, why he chose to shoot on the Sony F55, and getting out of the way of the actors. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this […]...
- 1/27/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.