Predicament

onlyalways wrote:

Amily wrote:Behind the scenes part 2 is now live at http://www.predicamentthemovie.com :#excited#:

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[size=150:2ejya3ip]Hawera becomes tinseltown for film
By KELLY LONEY - Taranaki Daily News
Last updated 05:00 21/08/2010

[size=85:2ejya3ip]PRETTY PICTURE: Actress Rose McIver arrives in
a vintage car at the Predicament film premiere
and smiles for the cameras.

The searchlight lit up Hawera skies, as the Predicament film cast and crew hit the red carpet in South Taranaki last night.

Months of waiting finally came to an end as the film's stars joined the locals to enjoy the film at the charity gala premiere.

Arriving in vintage cars fitting for the film's 1930s setting, the stars were then mixed and mingled at the pre-party in a marquee outside Cinema 2.

Inside both theatres were linked for those attending to hear speeches before the screenings.

Director Jason Stutter apologised for Jemaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords) and Tim Finn who could not make it.

But Stutter decided to phone him anyway, despite it being the wee small hours in New York.

Although bleary from an interrupted sleep, Clement still made the audience laugh, just as he did almost every time he spoke throughout the film.

Stutter said he was rapt to have been able create the Predicament film to match the book and in the home town of its author, Ronald Hugh Morrieson.

"
He sat in his home in Hawera, dreamed up this story that he struggled to get published and now it's going to Hollywood. It's a shame he can't be here to see everyone loving his work."


Co-producer Vincent Burke congratulated Taranaki for putting up money and hosting the film and he acknowledged Morrieson for being the only New Zealand author who has had every novel written made into a film.

"
It was so important to have it filmed where he lived and wrote it,"
he said.

Producer Sue Rogers said loved being back in Taranaki.

"
This is its launch and hopefully lots of people in New Zealand want to see it. The event, the team here is world class."


Predicament is due to be released into cinemas nationwide on Thursday.

onlyalways wrote:

Amily wrote:Behind the scenes part 2 is now live at http://www.predicamentthemovie.com :#excited#:

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[size=150:3f261ba5]The predicament of dialogue
[size=85:3f261ba5]by David Larsen

At least the cinematography is good in this Ronald Hugh Morrieson adaptation.

You know how sometimes a film can earn your instant trust with its opening shots? Sound, art direction, cinematography: you can be wowed by all of them before you’ve had time to blink twice. Or, of course, you can see so much going wrong that your heart immediately sinks to your socks. Jason Stutter’s adaptation of Ronald Hugh Morrieson’s novel Predicament somehow caused me to have both reactions, one after the other.

The full text will be available online on 2010-09-11.

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luckym wrote:You might not want to look under the spoiler tag if you haven't read the book and don't want to know what happens at the end.

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luckym wrote:You might not want to look under the spoiler tag if you haven't read the book and don't want to know what happens at the end.

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onlyalways wrote:

luckym wrote:You might not want to look under the spoiler tag if you haven't read the book and don't want to know what happens at the end.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

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onlyalways wrote:

luckym wrote:You might not want to look under the spoiler tag if you haven't read the book and don't want to know what happens at the end.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

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[url=http:
//www.
facebook.
com/video/video.
php?v=125742417473202&
ref=mf:94nqs13h][size=150:94nqs13h]Jemaine and the audience [HQ][/url:94nqs13h]
by Predicament (videos)
0:56
Jemaine Clement talks about how he hopes the audience will react to Predicament.

Part 3 of Behind the Scenes is now live at http://www.predicamentthemovie.com

Movie opens throughout NZ on Thursday!

Amily wrote:HE IS SO CUTE AND FUNNY ALL THE TIME! :#fit#: :#love3#: :#fit#:

I love how he compliments the [s:169ugv5c]sound[/s:169ugv5c] special effects. :#haha#: :#jem#: :#blowkiss#:

emira wrote:

Amily wrote:HE IS SO CUTE AND FUNNY ALL THE TIME! :#fit#: :#love3#: :#fit#:

:#fit#: :#redlove#: :#fit#: :#redlove#: :#fit#:

[size=150:2n1h97cf]Movie Review: Predicament
By Russell Baillie

Rating: 3/5
Verdict: Tepid fourth adaptation of much-filmed local yarn-spinner

The stories of Ronald Hugh Morrieson helped New Zealand film get up to speed in the 1980s. Of the four novels he wrote in the previous decades, three hit the big screen in quick succession - The Scarecrow and Came a Hot Friday were local hits in 82 and 84, while Pallet on the Floor in 86 went largely unloved.

That Predicament has never made it to the screen indicates its cinematic potential wasn't great.

Unfortunately, the long-awaited result rather confirms this. It's likeable enough around the edges for its attempted recreation of Morrieson's world of 1930s South Taranaki and the amusing scene-stealing performance of Jemaine Clement as the helium-voiced "
Spook"
, one of the various scoundrels involved in its plot of small-town blackmail, murder and madness.

But it's a film of listless energy, and unsteady performances - especially Australian comedian Heath Franklin, who, as head scoundrel Mervyn Toebeck, can't quite cope with verbosity of Morrieson's character.

Director Jason Stutter doesn't lack for visual style - think the Coen brothers' Miller's Crossing or Barton Fink turning up in Hawera (an area where it seems the locals huddle around coal ranges even though it's Christmas).

But Stutter seems less in command of his cast. While Franklin's duplicitous Mervyn isn't convincing, young Hayden Frost as Cedric Williamson, the meek innocent dragged into his new best friend's blackmail scheme, can't quite make his presence felt either.

So it becomes the sort of film where the ratbag lead characters just aren't charming enough to engage the sympathies. And the lethal quandary they find themselves in after blackmailing the various local adulterers comes with no real sense of peril.

A subplot involving Cedric's mute, presumably mad, father Martin (Tim Finn in Monty Python mode) offers some sideline amusement. The tower of scrap he's constructing in the frontyard of their dilapidated mansion is something to see, even if it looks like its builder will burst into Six Months in a Leaky Boat from its crow's nest any minute.

But just as that tower is a creaky and overly ambitious so, too, is the film. It's fitfully entertaining and at least it completes the Morrieson box set. But that's all.

Director: Jason Stutter
Cast: Jemaine Clement, Heath Franklin, Hayden Frost, Tim Finn Director: Jason Stutter
Rating: M (violence and offensive language)
Running time: 98 mins

-TimeOut

[size=150:rmg61gcp]Are Kiwi films treated differently?

When it comes to the role of the film reviewer, I'm with Pauline Kael: The critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.

For those interested in what goes on in the mind of a Kiwi film critic, it's worth noting that we reviewers tend to get beaten up whether we're perceived as being too hard on a film or too kind. I'm sure I've been guilty of both in my time, as has every other film reviewer on the planet. That's the point, a review is not objective - it's one person's opinion.

I think with the maturing of the industry and the longer experience of film critics (especially those working for longer-established media), you get a more realistic view.

The younger and newer the reviewer, the more likely s/he is to want to make a big show of smashing a movie in some wittily lacerating way, or, alternatively, waxing hysterical about some silly old load of cobblers.

I know, I've been there... when you're younger, you know everything. It's only later that you realise you don't even know how much you don't know.

This week we've got Predicament opening, which, in the wake of the phenomenal Jurassic Park-beating success of Taika Waititi's Boy at the Kiwi box office, will be hoping for even a taste of that.

Predicament is the first fully funded feature film from Jason Stutter, the director who brought us the super low-budget Tongan Ninja (funded largely by his credit card) and last year's Diagnosis: Death.

Predicament is far more grown-up, with great production values and a gorgeous Kiwi-gothic feel about it. In 1930s smalltown New Zealand, a dweeby teenager gets caught up in a cunning plot to blackmail local adulterers, but it all goes horribly wrong.

It stars Jemaine Clement, Heath "
Chopper"
Franklin, Tim Finn and newcomer Hayden Frost, who looks a lot like the director...

Rialto Distribution hopes Predicament, its latest New Zealand release, will top $500,000 at the box office. It opens wide on more than 50 screens this week after featuring in the NZ Film Festival.

However, the little Kiwi battler faces some big blue competition. Also opening this week is another movie with local links, a special 3D edition of Avatar with an extra nine minutes of footage that producer Jon Landau says are evenly spread throughout the three-hour blockbuster.

(Hope my five ticket winners got your double passes OK...)

"
The scenes don't just feel like added scenes - they are very organic to the story and embellish it,"
he told The Hollywood Reporter.

[url=http:
//www.
stuff.
co.
nz/the-press/entertainment/film-reviews/4065848/Predicament:rmg61gcp]Here's my review of Predicament.[/url:rmg61gcp]


If you were convinced of the argument that Kiwi films get off more lightly when reviewed by Kiwi critics, then I'm sure Niki Caro will tell you otherwise...

But do tell us what you really think: Are Kiwi critics kinder on Kiwi films?

It's TERRIFIC TUESDAY and a TERRIFIC time to go and see Predicament!
[url=video][/url]

[size=150:lpwath52]Predicament
review

Rated: M (Contains violence and offensive language)

Director: Jason Stutter Staring: Hayden Frost, Heath Franklin, Jemaine Clement, Rose Macyver, Tim Finn

Predicament opened this year’s New Zealand Film Festival. I missed out on seeing it at The Festival, as it was sold out before I could get a ticket. However, the early evening session I went to in its first week of general release was almost empty. I think that’s a dreadful shame, which I can only attribute to a lack of promotion (the same session last week showing Salt was packed). There’s a clue to the humble, low-budget beginnings of this film as the South Taranaki District Council are credited as co-producers… I wonder what the rate-payers of South Taranaki think about that?

In Predicament, the young kiwi writer-director Jason Stutter brings us a pitch-black comic-crime-romp. The film, set in the 1930s, is highly stylised and almost out-Gothics the Gothic-master himself, Tim Burton. The costumes and sets are wonderfully creepy. Everything has a fine layer of dust over it. The colours and dialogue are reminiscent of old classic movies, but with a Kiwi flavour.

Hayden Frost plays the geeky, lonely outcast Cedric, who is befriended by Mervyn, a dodgy conman looking for his next big con (played by Australian, Heath ‘Chopper’ Frankin). Enter Mervyn’s friend Spook (a freakily pale, deadpan Jemaine Clement). The three decide to team up and blackmail the town’s adulterers and fornicators. As this bumbling trio of would-be criminals can’t afford a camera to gather evidence for blackmail, they decide to just invest in a flash, and con their victims into paying up for non-existent photos. Seems like a clever plan, right?

Errr… that is until it all goes horribly wrong, bringing one of them to a sticky end, and leaving the other two to cover up a murder while still trying to extort money from the town rich-kid.

Tim Finn has a supporting role as Cedric’s doolaley father, and he features on the wonderful soundtrack, which lends the film an extra shot of Kiwi-ness.

Over all, I’d say that if you enjoy off-beat dark comedies like Edward Scissorhands, you’ll probably like this film. I thought that it was wryly funny and I loved Jemaine Clement’s creepy-freaky performance. A great little film, which I hope more Kiwis will make the effort to see.

Rating: 3.5/5 Dark, funny, dastardly, absurd, gory – everything you want in a black comedy.

sargifster wrote:Clip 2 is an extract from the film. :#love3#: