i killed my bff ( originally titled the neighbor ) is a lifetime television film starring katrina bowden , chris zylka and olivia crocicchia .

it was written by blake berris and danny abel , and directed by seth jarrett .

i killed my bff is inspired by a true story , the murder of anne marie camp by jamie dennis and her husband , michael gianakos , in minnesota in 1997 .

i killed my bff

chris zylka and katrina bowden star in
i killed my bff
on lifetime . ( jarrett creative )
the film based on the unscripted lifetime movie network series “i killed my bff” is set to premiere on june 13 .
this article is about the lifetime television movie . it is not to be confused with the lmn reality television series i killed my bff .
but don ' t think this is the only true bff murder case . lmn ' s i killed my bff series featured many compelling episodes . check out some of the trailers to the episodes below .
man , friendship can be deadly — especially in a lifetime movie . in the network ' s telefilms , friends often cheat , steal , betray , and sometimes even kill . and based on the title , you ' ll know exactly what to expect from the newest tv movie called i killed my bff , premiering on saturday . not only does the movie involve bff - on - bff crime , but it ' s also based on a true story from lifetime movie network ' s reality series of the same name . specifically , i killed my bff the movie is based on an i killed my bff the series episode called
the babysitter .
i got home and tended to my relatively shallow wounds and waited in my bed . i didn’t sleep .
i killed my bff
30 rock ' s
katrina bowden and
rescue me ' s
olivia crocicchia star in this new thriller about a friendship that leads to infidelity and murder . 8 p . m . lifetime
i killed my bff is the hottest new movie by lifetime . i killed my bff , which is loosely inspired or based on a true story , will air tonight on lifetime television . the original telefilm takes its inspiration from their hit true crime documentary series by the same name . the tv series documentary debuted for the first time on march 25 , 2013 on the bio channel , later showing on the lifetime channel . each episode featured the true crime stories of a murderer who killed their best friend . investigation discovery ( id ) also featured the case on an episode of frenemies .
i thought the tittle said
i liked my best friend when i was 11 . . .
haha then i got distracted and reread it and i was like well shit
lifetime’s recreation and dramatization of this case should be an interesting true - story movie for viewers . tune in tonight at 8 / 7c to see how lifetime pulled the movie together based on the case . here is the tease for i killed my bff .
“what are you doing ? ” i shouted , and i guess my subconscious kicked in because i was found myself lowering my arms from a protective position with a giggling mel in front of me .
i was eleven when i killed my best friend . it wasn’t on purpose , of course , and i felt bad about for a long time . i still do , particularly around this time of year . i’ve taken to becoming effectively the world’s most functional alcoholic during the entire month of october . i drown my autumnal anxieties in cheap vodka that burns its way down my throat . you could probably call it a tradition now .
“i’m going home . i don’t want to do this anymore , ” i stood up .
i hope that i make it another thirty years , but i’ll probably tire of this game faster than it does . no matter what happens , i know where i’ll be when i die . i’ll be with the creature that took my friend , burning from the inside out .
in his videotaped confession , justin said the gang was after money and power when michelle was killed .
“no , i don’t want to . i want you to being mel back , ” i demanded , “or i’ll leave . ”
i slowly placed a foot behind me . then another . the monster watched my feet , waiting for the moment i would step out . i kept going until i knew that i was close by the edge . i took a breath and dragged my foot , breaking the line of white that stood between me and death .
i’m sure if i had been paying attention i wouldn’t tripped over the pair of skinny legs that were sticking out in the middle of the hallway . i fell hard on my hands and knees .
the film based on the unscripted lifetime movie network series “i killed my bff” is set to premiere on june 13 . the crime story stars “30 rock” actress katrina bowden and olivia crocicchia from fx’s “rescue me” . inspired by true events , the film follows two inseparable best friends who are eventually torn apart by life circumstances . [ … ]
i made myself get to my feet and look at it . warm blood was running down the side of my face , but i was too scared to turn my back to it . it never blinked , but it twisted mel’s face into an awful smile .
i didn ' t know what ' virgin ' meant when i was eleven . god i feel old
“this prank isn’t very nice , mel , ” i said , untying the ribbons from my wrists .
last night lifetime premiered a new movie called i killed my bff . if you were worried the movie would turn out to be about something other than a character killing their bff , have no fear . that ' s exactly what it was about . unfortunately any suspense about which bff was the killer and which was the victim was sort of ruined , since the promo for the movie featured katrina bowden ( cerie ! cerie ! cerie ! ) holding a shotgun . on the other hand , if you were worried the movie would too closely follow the true story it was apparently based on , it didn ' t .
i couldn’t let her go back . i needed to help my best friend . i put my hand out and cautiously reached for hers . tears were welling in her eyes , but as soon as i got close her face contorted into something monstrous . it lunged at me and i was able to pull myself away with only a shallow scratch across the inside of my wrist .
this story just made my halloween night and made me feel like i celebrated properly . thank you so much
i gave her my hand reluctantly . she used the knife to slice a small cut into my finger and then her own . she let a couple drops of her blood drip into an ornate golden bowl . i followed suit .
to my horror it had reverted back to mel’s visage . my friend’s head was split open and i could see bone . blood poured over half of her face . it roared at me .
i wish i had listened to her . i wish i had just sat back down and let her do whatever she wanted to do even it had been a dumb prank . but i didn’t .
as i ran through mel’s back yard and to my bike i could hear the creature’s roar and just under it , the sound of a little girl’s screaming .
i thought i was on nofap . read until near the end until i thought to press the back button and check .
the trapdoor flew open . the resounding bang made me jump , but i turned on my heel and started towards it .
i ran to the trapdoor and pulled it open only to have it wrenched out of my grasp by some unseen force . it was pulled to hard and so suddenly that i didn’t have time to let go and i fell face first a windowsill , the corner cutting my forehead open .
she had her troubles , but we got through them ; at least i thought we did ,
mrs . jensen said .
she was on the right track . i could trust her again . i did everything in my power to protect my kids . i thought i had it under control .
the night of the killing a demand for keys at a party
how ‘won’t you be my neighbor ? ’ has given birth to mr . rogers fever
i backed up , but there wasn’t far to go in the small space and my back quickly hit the wall . it stood and got very close and i could feel the heat coming from inside its throat . it grabbed my face and used its sticky tongue to lick the blood on my face . it held my face near its mouth and opened it too wide to be natural . a thousand pained screams came from inside .
i refused to let myself look at the monster again when i climbed down the ladder . it had been calling to me using mel’s voice and i knew it had taken on her pitiful form again . i didn’t want to see my best friend among the flames .
i’ve never handled disappointment well , and , while i understood why she had to go , i didn’t want to spend my favorite holiday alone , especially since we had spent weeks planning the day down to the quarter hour .
i had the same thought . maybe because i ' ve seen the skeleton key recently .
but it burned . it felt like the sun was trying to break through my skin , like i was being burned from the inside .
haha same here . i remember asking my mom about it and getting a very vague answer . she isn ' t open about stuff .
i went to a magnet middle school myself . i was checking out schools in 5th grade .
i tried a good two years to get help for jason ,
she said .
i would call the truant officer on my own son . i did that four times . ' hey , do your job , ' i ' d say . ' i want my son to grow up and be someone . ' but when he turned 16 , it was like nobody cared anymore . it was like everybody stopped trying .
i was the only kid in detention that day , so i guess the teacher took pity on me and sent me home after only half the usual time . i gave her a quick “thanks , ” packed up my stuff , and got out of that classroom as fast as i could .
according to the movies based on true stories archives , the lifetime movie i killed my bff is most likely based on one of those episodes which featured the murder case of anne marie camp . camp was murdered by jamie dennis and her husband , michael gianakos , in 1997 . according to court documents , anne camp and jamie dennis were best friends . in fact , the two were so close that anne camp served as the maid of honor at jamie’s wedding . anne was also the couple’s babysitter .
“i’m so sorry ! ” mel said , helping me up . “i wanted to surprise you . ”
i ain ' t worried about going to jail ,
he said between sobs .
i ' m worried about my mom . she might kill me .
the gangs substitutes for a family
the monster kept going back and forth between the pale figure and mel as it stalked around the salt circle . i realized that i wasn’t the one bound by the circle . it was . i knew what i had to do and i knew what it meant .
i turned and saw her , no pale sunken skin or black eyes , on her hands and knees . she looked so sad and helpless . i’d never seen her like that before . it broke my heart .
“i guess so . i’m sorry , ” she said . when i didn’t respond she said , “can you get the assignments from mrs . kee for me ? ”
justin voelkers , who was 18 at the time he killed michelle , had been in and out of trouble at school and with the police . farm life doesn ' t mean safety
“no , it’s not a prank ! i swear ! ” she screamed at me , but i’d had enough .
“no , i…i don’t like this game , mel . please stop . you’re really , really scaring me . ”
i agree with you , it was a great read . read the whole thing , and suggested 3 others read it as well . i very much enjoyed the story . i was punting something out that i was sure someone else would . i don ' t think i ' m the one that needs to
grow up
.
“so you’re going to miss halloween ? ” i said . i tried to hide my hurt . halloween that year was on a saturday which meant extra time to finish our costumes and staying up as late as we wanted .
i ' ve never believed in ouija board voodoo , but i ' ve always known never to play with one . my sister and her friend did . it had a mind of its own . have you touched one since ?
my parents had been asleep for a while by the time eleven forty - five rolled around so sneaking out wasn’t an issue . mel made sure to leave a chair outside of my window so we could get back in quickly if we got caught , and then hopped on my handlebars so we could get to her house as fast we could .
then i saw the ouija board in the middle of the room surrounded by the little gifts her aunt had given her . my stomach dropped . i knew that ouija boards were just a silly game and ghosts weren’t real . i’d stopped getting scared of the monster under my bed years ago , but seeing everything mel had set up and her overall anticipation about what she was planning made me very , very nervous .
my hands searched around blindly for anything at all . the first thing i touched was a candle in a glass vase . i grabbed it and smashed it against the monster’s head and ducked away into the salt circle , quickly closing it .
the treehouse erupted in loud bangs . they seemed to be coming from everywhere , like a hundred people were banging their fists against the walls . i covered my ears and cowered .
i immediately forgot any sadness or anger i felt towards her and hugged her as if she was going to fly away again . i hadn’t realized that i actually missed her that much until i saw her . lonely and bored , sure , but actually , legitimately missing her ? it was a new concept .
as of this year , that was twenty years ago , and for twenty halloweens mel has visited me heralded by a kaleidoscope of butterflies . the first year i thought i had been losing my mind and asked my parents to take me to a doctor . when the vision was gone the following day , they said it had only been a grief fueled hallucination . the second year was the same , and then the third . by the fourth year i had learned to just shut myself in my room all halloween night and wait until it stopped .
niki soto , who drives a school bus in calamus and developed a close relationship with with justin , said :
i ' d have him into my house . i just wouldn ' t trust him . there ' s a difference .
1 . oh , the foreshadowing robert : “nothing’s gonna pull me away from my family . ” sarah : “i think we’re going to be very happy . ” what could go wrong ?
hey , i was considered a wash - out for the best hs in my area by age 11 . stands to reason some kids are accepted by that age ( or younger ) .
i went to step out of the circle , but my foot disturbed the salt and separated the line . mel screamed . i looked back at her and saw that she had her head and arms thrown back , mouth wide open . her muscles strained and i could see the blue veins crawling up her throat .
“where is she ? ” was the only think i could think to say . i understood that this wasn’t a prank anymore .
i killed my bff gives new meaning to the word
frenemy
and proves just how thin the line can be between love and hate . in this new series we explore true stories so shocking they have to be seen to be believed . from the woman who sabotaged her best friend ' s parachute to win the affections of a man , to the man who plotted his friend ' s murder over a facebook war of words and the woman who permanently ended a friendship over a twenty dollar dispute . these stories reveal that the most intense and cherished friendships are often the ones that lead to the most tragic and unexpected crimes of passion .
mrs . means said she had never seen any of his fellow gang members until a month before michelle was killed . she saw one of the boys for the first time in the courtroom . history of truancy
the deadly adoption premiere was enhanced hugely by the movie that was on right before it : i killed my bff , based on lifetime’s long - running reality series , starring katrina bowden ( cerie from 30 rock ! ) as the killer . if you blinked , you couldn’t spot where one movie ended and the next began . even if it’s made by comedians ( it was written by the spoils of babylon ‘s andrew steele ) , a deadly adoption looks and feels like the real thing — which is the whole point . you need several thousand hours of dying to belong or deadly vows or the babysitter’s seduction under your belt just to get it .
so . frickn . good . bra - fkn - o . so for the vulgarity , but my brain just can ' t find strong enough words for how good i thought this was !
there ' s a lot of things i have to admit that jason did that i didn ' t know about ,
she said .
i didn ' t even know he knew michelle . later , i heard he went camping with her .
after i had agreed mel went home instead of hanging out . she said that she needed to “prepare for tomorrow . ” i remembered that my mom had said that people grieve in a lot of different ways and not be upset if mel was acting weird for a while , so i let it go and told her good night .
there’s a tapping on my window now . i don’t want to look , because i know what it is . i’ve locked myself in my office sixteen floors up . there’s only one thing that could possibly be out there . i know that , eventually , either curiosity or some sort of twisted nostalgia will make me look over to her and she’ll have her face pressed against the glass with that awful , evil smile stuck on her face . she’ll whisper to me as butterflies ram themselves against the window and fall to the ground dead .
the weekend michelle was killed , jason was supposed to be driving with his mother to visit his sister , who lives 160 miles away . they were going to leave the day before michelle was killed , but jason left home that tuesday , and mrs . means says she did not see him again until he was under arrest in the slaying . she said she had not been concerned about his absence because it was summertime and he was 17 .
i looked down . the planchette on the board was moving so fast i could barely read it . b - u - r - n - i - t - d - o - w - n .
i agree . i also got the impression mel ' s aunt was the one frantically spelling out instructions and warnings on the ouija board .
halloween night , and the first thing i read is this . gonna need to leave a light on , if i can sleep tonight .
wow . you ' re a good writer ! and now , i don ' t think i ' ll sleep tonight . so scary .
once in a while i like to play a game where i ' ll read stories in this sub until there ' s one so scary i need to stop . tonight you win lol . good job .
i was 10 when i first heard the word
hooker .
i asked my mom what it meant . she said ,
a not - very - nice girl .
cue a year and then some of me using
hooker
like grown me uses words like
bitch
or
dick
or
donald trump .
and it was every evening and weekend . it got to a point where my worrywart of a mom even stopped calling mel’s house to remind to be home before the streetlights came on , which wasn’t hard as mel had helped me plan out the most efficient path to and from her house . i biked to mel’s house a few blocks over in the morning , left my bike there , and then walked with mel to school . she didn’t have a bike and hated sitting on the handlebars , so it look a little longer than just riding over , but that was compromise i’d readily made . in the evenings , i’d just keep an eye on the sun set . eventually i had the timing nailed down so a couple of times i waltzed through my front door just as the streetlights started glowing .
why play with the board i remember my friends were fucking round during a scary movie saying if we found one we ' d mess with it . . . next day one was sitting on the curb we said fuck that . . i say find god you need a higher power on your life
seven minutes later i parked the bike in an inconspicuous hiding place and mel practically sprinted in through her backyard and into the trees . i followed her as fast i could , but by the time i reached the top of the ladder mel was already settled into her spot . she was bouncing with excitement .
i think mel visited her mom , too . mel tells me to do things like that . she comes to me , all blood - shot eyes and pointy - toothed smirk , and tells me to end my life to exchange it with hers . that i should be the one burning with the man , not her . my brain knows that it’s not really her ; it’s the creature wearing her face , which seems to be slowly melting as the years go by . my heart , on the other hand , can’t seem to let go of the guilt of leaving her to die in that treehouse .
it was so predictable . it moved toward me fast , but when it fully placed itself inside the circle , i pushed the salt back with my foot and closed it again . it was trapped . mel was trapped , too .
“i’ll hurt her . or i’ll eat her ; the innocent ones are always so tender . i could even ruin her soul . make it dark , make it spiteful and gutless . like you . it should’ve been you , you know . ”
that phrase , “should’ve been you , ” struck me and i stopped . it was right . i should be the one whose soul was lost , not mel’s .
wish i could tell you every thing is gonna get better . unfortunately i don ' t know if that ' s true but what i do know is that you ' ll get better and that ' s what really matters . hang in there buddy
i use wiki 2 every day and almost forgot how the original wikipedia looks like .
“sure , ” i said , dejected , and left her without even saying goodbye .
that blood thing stuck with me . the following class was art and mrs . gardner didn’t seem to appreciate my oil pastel picture . i had made a scene of a kaleidoscope of butterflies ( phrase courtesy of the previous class ) drinking the blood of some poor slain creature , and i got detention in the last class of the day on a friday .
“i’m fiiiiiine , ” the voice cooed . “pleassssse , won’t you sit with meeee ? ”
i remember thinking that none of these items were very hard to come by ; you just had to wave them around and say some funny words and tell your best friend that you were doing dark magic . then i thought that mel was probably playing a prank on me . no way was any of this going to work , but she just wanted to scare me on halloween night . i was angry and every moment she continued on with this i was getting angrier . i didn’t know what else to do , so i just stopped chanting .
thanks for being ( apparently ) the only one who had similar thoughts to what i had .
me too ! i was like this person must be in deep pain . . . . . . . then , i read your comment and felt like an idiot too . . . .
is it bad that i scrolled all the way to the bottom to see a summary . .
in my area we have lots of private schools and lots of magnet schools . it ' s not uncommon for kids and their parents to start stressing as early as fourth or fifth grade .
i grabbed the pieces of fabric mel had used to decorate the place and set them on fire using the candles . the wood caught quickly and i threw everything into it to fuel the fire .
i agree with you . but keep in mind that believable is what you want to believe . most stories here don ' t give me chills , but rather a chuckle . i appreciate that nevertheless .
we got to my house exactly on time and did our best to get all of the hairspray out and grease paint off . by eight o’clock we were in pj’s with a bowl of popcorn watching our favorite horror movie in the living room . it was perfect and i felt so warm inside .
on the seventh year , mel’s mom killed both of the twins , one drowned and one strangled . then she walked to the burned ruins of the treehouse and took a cocktail of rat poison , vodka , and a handful of pills . mel’s dad had a break down and has been in a long - term mental health facility .
dan wulff , coordinator of a neighborhood youth program here , said ,
i think the jensen case made a dent in those stereotypes , but i ' m afraid they ' re still alive and unwell .
that week went by very , very slowly . i’d never had to go to school alone before . we spent so much time together that when one of us got sick , the other caught it , too , so we’d both stayed home from school . i had no one to eat with at lunch or hang out with at recess . sure there were other kids , but i felt on the periphery . i was lonely .
that ' s actually the part that i didn ' t understand . if it was
supposed
to be corrine that got possessed and / or killed , then that makes mel a very bad friend . but mel couldn ' t have known , so it was the demon that said that , but the demon didn ' t know corrine before and couldn ' t really have a preference . the demon could only have read mel ' s mind or something like that .
“ok , then . what first ? ” i asked . mel pulled a giant knife from behind her back .
edit : i would like to clarify that i say this purely as a person who likes to consider all points as well as give others the opportunity to do the same . i am not trying to push any one view on you , but am merely raising opposing points specifically for the purpose of making sure all sides are considered .
i kept misreading mel as mei . either way it works , and some lines feel better as mei imo .
so i paid attention . the movie was pretty boring ; the names of species kept tripping me up . i’m pretty sure i spelled most of them wrong . i did find something interesting , though , was the idea of puddling . when butterflies need food , but for whatever reason it is hard to come by , they land in something moist and draw nutrients and water from it . it can be mud or sitting pool water or even blood .
i didn ' t . the way i read it when the being took over mel she was displaced and ended up on the other side , so she in fact was the one talking corinne through the actions on the board .
i was kind astounded . just a few days ago mel was couldn’t keep herself together enough to talk about it .
i will never understand why in the hell people fuck with ouija boards , all they do is cause fuck shit .
jesus ! i can understand applying to colleges after like 10th or 11th , but that ' s ridiculous ! i do want to say that your story was great ! very well written . i ' m not a big fan of reading long novels , but a detailed story about this would make a great book . including life after the fact of the issues .
i am dying this documentary charts the final days of a terminally ill cancer patient . 10 p . m . national geographic channel
“you provided me with a body and the gift of a soul , ” its breath was heavy . “i want to thank you…properly . ”
your experience gave me body chills for ten minutes straight . i ' ve never had nonstop chills for that long before . quite the experience
michelle and her mother had the usual conflicts , mrs . jensen said , and one particularly bitter battle , when she thought her daughter might be sniffing glue . but mrs . jensen said michelle could not resist the bad - boy charms of the vice lords ; they looked so cool with their tattoos and red gang bandanas . michelle had dated a gang member who was in jail the night she was killed . she considered the vice lords her friends .
youth workers here say that before michelle was killed , white gang members were ignored in a way that black and hispanic gang members were not , even though some of the whites were conspicuous with multiple gang tattoos and clothing adorned with gang insignias . one worker said , for example , that white and black gang members would go shoplifting together , then split up by race , knowing that the shopkeeper would follow the blacks and not pay attention to the whites .
later that evening , i rode to mel’s house after the news vans and police had left . i ignored the caution tape and stood under the remains of the treehouse . mel’s body had been moved , but no one bothered to clean up the puddle of blood that remained . there were butterflies in it , taking what was left of mel’s life for themselves . i still couldn’t help but think , it should’ve been me .
i think she wanted her aunt back and was going to offer up op as an exchange . however , the demon took the wrong girl .
melanie graham was a bright , happy kid . she’d skipped at least one grade and was at the very top of the class . she’d been accepted into every private high school she’d applied to and a couple of them gave her a scholarship . no idea why a kid like that’d want to hang around a kid like me . i was failing at least one of my classes every semester and had visited detention enough times that i had a favorite desk . she always tutored me to at least above passing and waited until detention was over to walk home with me .
lieutenant yerington said the average gang member in the quad cities is a
wannabe tough guy .
for these gang members , bricks , bats and bottles are still the most common weapons . but about 500 teen - agers and adults are listed in the police files as hard - core gang members , the ones mostly involved in serious crime . the six vice lords arrested in the jensen case were not considered to be hard - core gang members until michelle was killed .
i more got the impression that she might have fooled around with the occult , but lived long enough to tell of it . i think the narrator ' s interruption of the ritual is what caused the whole thing . the aunt was super super irresponsible giving her the instructions , but i think it was more excitement to share her experiences in the occult with her niece . she could not have foreseen that another , outside influence would disrupt the ritual .
the only class that made i bothered to pay attention to was science . we were doing a chapter on butterflies all week . the teacher even brought in a bunch of dead ones that were pinned to a piece of styrofoam . on friday she pulled in the big box television that usually meant that the teacher was going put on a movie and do something else . i always interpreted as surprise nap time while mel took notes , but i didn’t have that this class .
jason , who also gave a videtaped confession , was asked by a sheriff ' s deputy if it had been hard for him to eat after michelle was shot . he replied :
no , not really . i was hungry . i wasn ' t even thinking about it .
a ' wrong place ' defense
“please , i can’t go back . it should’ve been you , ” she held her hand out to me . “come into the circle . save me . ”
second . . . nothing i can say will help you . you have already consulted others and everyone tells you that it was not your fault , that you could not have helped her - i agree with them , but if you will not listen to them what is another stranger ' s opinion on the internet ?
the downside to that is your soul won ' t gain peace in the afterlife . . . which , well it ' s bad i ' ll admit .
i fully think that mel and her weird aunt were sister once and have been completing this ritual for possibly generations , amassing power as they collect new bodies .
heather and shane give birth at the same time in the same hospital , and after a disturbing intercutting of their labor screams , we see that they ' ve been placed in the same room . shane gives heather some advice and then threatens to rip out her boyfriend ' s hair ( yep , definitely the killer ) when he comes to see the baby . she also lets heather know about an apartment that ' s opening up where she lives . this is all clearly the perfect recipe for bff - ship , and one year later it ' s smooth sailing between these two . sure would be a shame for anything bad to happen…
i said , ' thank , god , finally , michelle has met a decent boy , '
her mother recalled .
she was so happy .
6 . the child ! my god , who’s watching the child ? because no lifetime movie is complete without an innocent child in danger , there’s a hilarious scene where bridgette helps the daughter onto her new pink bike — and pushes her right into traffic . whew , that was close . let’s keep this our little secret !
it all starts when shane runs into simon ( marco st . john , an american doing a british accent that sounds like he swallowed the cast of mary poppins ) , her late musician father ' s ex - manager . he offers her partnership in the music venue he ' s planning , if she invests $ 15 , 000 . instead of being like , “sorry , i can ' t afford it because my boyfriend and i are poor and we have two kids to support and shouldn ' t be investing money in some fake british guy ' s sketchy business venture , ” she gets really excited and then gets drunk and talks about being an entrepreneur .
that halloween day was almost perfect . the weather was a decent 76 degrees and every plan we had made seemed to fall right into place . my mom took a picture of us in our costumes . mel looked like a lady we had seen selling tarot readings in new orleans when our families vacationed there a few summers ago and i was the bride of frankenstein . i remember being so proud that i got hair to stand up that tall . in the end only a few people got to see our costumes because it looked like everyone had decided to go to the rich neighborhoods for trick - or - treating . initially we were a little disappointed when we saw the desolate streets , but neighbors were a little more generous with the candy since everyone was on the atkins diet no one wanted all that sugar in their house .
i ' m sensing a theme here with all the love triangles . in this one , two men are the best of bros , until a woman comes between them .
justin , in a videotaped confession , never said why he pulled the trigger . he said he had been drunk and had been told
to take care of the bitch
because she knew too much .
i didn ' t look ,
he said .
all i saw was a big flame , a big flash .
the monday before halloween mel was waiting at the end of her driveway for me . her nose was red and stuffy ; i knew she had spent the night crying .
we walked my bike home that day . it took the whole walk to catch mel up on what had happened at school ; who was going to the rich neighborhood for trick or treating , who was going out with who , and what two girls got mad at each other because they learned that they had gotten the same costume .
the next morning my mom cried as she told me that mel had snuck out in the middle of the night . she said that no one knows what happened , but the police seemed to think that she accidentally set a fire in the treehouse and then threw herself out of a window to save herself . she didn’t survive the fall .
“no , but she’s real sick , ” she said as she wiped her tears away . “we’re flying down today to see her , so i won’t be at school . ”
the way i see it , mel ' s aunt is the one who put both of you in horrible danger . putting such ideas into a young girl ' s head and giving her such dangerous gifts , was blitheringly irresponsible of her . i wouldn ' t meddle with such stuff as an adult , let alone drag a young girl into it .
“no , um . . . my auntie ginger , the one down in new orleans , she…um , ” was all she got out before she broke down into sobs . i remembered auntie ginger . she was the weird aunt . the one that left every conversation with the other participant wondering how much acid she took in the 70s ? that aunt . mel was crazy about her , though . mel loved her weird aunt and had a little shelf dedicated to all of the weird things she had given mel on her visits .
life is filled with murderers and rapists who aren ' t sorry . i ' d say an afterlife with murderers and rapists who deeply regret would be at least a small improvement .
“the first ingredient is virgin blood . it says it right here , ” she used the knife to point at the paper . “i figured that two virgins are better than one . ”
“but they didn’t have auntie ginger’s ritual , ” she said as she pulled a piece of browned , weathered paper from out of her pocket . she handed it to me and , as i looked over the scrawled handwritten notes , said , “she left it for me in an envelope at her house . i think she wants me to talk to her in the afterlife . ”
i have a thought ; it was trapped once , could you trap it again ? set up a permanent salt circle on halloween and hang out until it shows up , you can leave the circle but it can ' t . and then it ' ll never be able to taunt you again . well , until you die , i ' m at a loss on that one .
you asked the right subreddit ! all of richard matheson ' s short stories are amazing . they also inspired stephen king ! as far as king goes , my favorite horror stories from him are it , the shining and doctor sleep , ' salem ' s lot , revival , and his collections of short stories ( just after sunset , nightmares and dreamscapes , etc . ) .
i ' m all for crazy aunts , but this particular one went way too far . it was not your fault . you were a victim of the situation just as much as mel was .
she explained that she couldn’t actually explain it . it was more of a “see it to believe it” type of thing , but she had a pretty meticulous plan already laid out : we wrap up our trick - or - treating by seven o’clock , head over to my house for a sleepover , then sneak out by eleven forty - five and bike over to the treehouse just in time for midnight .
the ritual required specific foreign words to be chanted a specific number of times with a specific set of items . items that mel already had . i didn’t doubt ginger had planned this as a last hurrah for her niece .
lieut . phil yerington of the police department said :
a lot of these kids don ' t have much to cling to . i think these guys were closer as a gang than they were in their own homes .
mel and i both loved the fall . it was a welcome break from the sweltering southern summer . on october first we had a tradition where we’d decorate a treehouse her dad built for us a few yards into the woods behind their house using old decorations our neighbors didn’t want anymore . i’m sure it looked like the halloween section in the hardware store threw up on a tree , but we couldn’t think of anyplace more beautiful to spend our evenings and weekends .
she said justin had a lightning - fast temper and a short attention span .
he ' s not a kid with a bad heart ,
she said .
i ' ve had others that you could actually fear .
i told her that some older kids around school were talking about the ouija boards when she was away . they were saying that they tried to contact john f . kennedy and marie antoinette , but the planchette never moved for them .
i somewhat agree . it could either be that , or that if he hadn ' t of interrupted the ritual the demon would ' ve taken them both . regardless , it ' s the aunt fault that any of this happened .
orthodox saints have eaten small amounts of food , drank small amounts of water , cried , regretted their mistaks and prayed for years , so god will forgive their mistakes . i don ' t think that only deep regret is enough .
it was almost impossible for me and mark to get a bike ride alone ,
mrs . jensen said .
i don ' t understand it . we treated him decent and he turned around and got involved in this .
“oh . ok , well…are you still up for tomorrow ? ” i said , hoping to change the subject to anything but dead aunts stuffed into jewelry . having never seen a dead body before , the idea freaked me out a ton .
3 . the sunblock seduction bridgette pops into robert’s office to say , “i was going to sit out in the patio in the sun and i was wondering if you had any sunblock , ” which is lifetime - speak for “imminent semi - nudity alert . ” asking the man of the house for sunblock is the lifetime - seductress equivalent of breaking up a perfect game by ducking your elbow into the pitch — it’s a cheap bush - league ploy , but it gets the job done .
i’ve consulted several characters in an attempt to understand what happened that night . they vary in degrees of reliability , but they all have pretty much come to the same conclusion : mel would never have been able to leave that treehouse alive . we were kids and whatever entity that had come when mel called upon another realm was particularly aggressive . some said that the only reason i was able to get out was because it just wants to toy with me until it can take me . this is its entertainment .
your remorse is quite palpable . i can feel it in the story you wrote so well . i suppose mel ' s aunt tricked her into the performing the vile ceremony in order to take a human form after her death . butterflies are considered symbolic for a powerful transformation . perhaps mel ' s aunt was ultimately unsuccessful and the butterflies you saw represented mel ' s metamorphosis back into a human spirit that crossed over into an everlasting peace . the visions you have may just be her angry aunt who is stuck in the netherworld .
i mean ' as long as they were sorry ' isn ' t as easy as it sounds though . repentance it ' s more than just an apology , it ' s a deep understanding that what you did was wrong in every way , and earnestly regretting it .
face the nation 2016 election : sen . bernie sanders ( i - vt . ) ; 2016 election : hillary clinton campaign manager robby mook ; 2016 election : sen . lindsey graham ( r - s . c . ) . ( n ) 8 : 30 a . m . kcbs
we don ' t see the white gang members as much but they ' re there ,
mr . currie said .
they ' re a rural phenomenon , a small - town phenomenon and an inner - city phenomenon . i think it ' s only going to grow .
“shane riley and heather thomas become fast friends when they meet in a shared hospital room after giving birth . two years later , one of them will be found brutally murdered . the two young mothers become inseparable as shane strives to make her mark on the world and heather grapples with severe bipolar disorder . though they support each other at first , their friendship is headed for troubled waters . when an investment goes south , shane takes matters into her own hands to secure some fast cash . meanwhile , as heather fights a bitter battle for custody of her daughter , she can’t help but submit to a dangerous attraction to shane’s gorgeous boyfriend . both women will have to make a terrible choice : save your family , or sacrifice your best friend . inspired by true events , this wild , gritty and emotional ride becomes a race against the clock as the audience is kept guessing which friend will be gruesomely killed , and which friend will become a killer herself . ”


a perfect man ( french : un homme idéal ) is a 2015 french thriller film directed by yann gozlan .

the film tells the story of a struggling author who steals the text of a manuscript originally belonging to a reclusive man who recently died .

the film stars pierre niney and ana girardot .

a perfect man ( 2015 film )

there are no featured reviews for a perfect man ( un homme idéal ) at this time .
reviewed at dolby 24 , may 6 , 2015 . ( in cannes film festival — noncompeting . ) running time : 94 min .
orson welles in the third man : ‘dominates the film both by his presence and his absence’ .
a struggling writer finds a shortcut to fame , but a blackmailer threatens to ruin his perfect life .
“the perfect guy” is decent trash that could have been delicious trash with a little more daring . director
woody allen contemplates the perfect murder ( again ) in a darkly funny , intellectually rigorous campus comedy .
pitch perfect 2 isn’t the only musical starring anna kendrick that comes out in 2015 . in the last 5 years , a film adaptation of the successful off - broadway musical that premiered at the toronto film festival in 2014 , kendrick and jeremy jordan play an actress named cathy and a novelist named jamie . the story of their five - year relationship is told from two different perspectives : cathy’s in reverse chronological order and jamie’s in chronological order .
an interview with terry gilliam , director of
the man who killed don quixote .
reviewed at amc loews port chester 14 , port chester , new york , sept . 11 , 2015 . mpaa rating : pg - 13 . running time : 100 min .
after breaking up with her boyfriend , a professional woman gets involved with a man who seems almost too good to be true .
if you ' re looking for the perfect guy , look closer . watch the new thriller with michael ealy , sanaa lathan & morris chestnut . release date : september 11 , 2015 tell us what you think of # theperfectguy urltoken urltoken subscribe to sony pictures for exclusive content : urltoken synopsis : the perfect guy follows a woman ( lathan ) who meets an it expert ( ealy ) , who seems to be the perfect guy . but after a sexually - charged courtship , she sees a violent side of him and dissolves the budding relationship . in a jealous rage and fueled by insane revenge , he disrupts her life
a woman , separated from her unfaithful husband , falls for a younger man who has moved in next door , but their torrid affair soon takes a dangerous turn .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
jared leto confirms he ' s a vampire ( . . . in newly announced spider - man spinoff ) by katie cameron june 27 , 2018
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him . riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you . …
the film has a structure that leads us to an unexpected ending after putting us through a labyrinth of angst . [ full review in spanish ]
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
pitch perfect won millions of teen fans in 2012 with its warmhearted messages of sisterhood and song . first - time director elizabeth banks ( who had a small part in the original film ) will helm the sequel , which stars returning barden bellas anna kendrick and rebel wilson , along with some new faces .
“the spider totem / ezekiel” the amazing spider - man # 30 - 45 , various writer : j . michael straczynski artist : john romita jr .
un homme idéal had its canadian premiere at the fantasia international film festival . here’s hoping it gets international distribution asap .
director yann gozlan creates a film that evoques the work of patricia highsmith , rené clément and even alfred hitchcock . [ full review in spanish ]
t’s established in allen lore that the picture was originally a two - and - a - half - hour solipsistic ramble , with alvy and annie’s fling relegated to a subplot . but in the edit , their relationship was what brought the film to life , and the dead wood was mercilessly cut back . allen’s preferred name for the film he’d originally planned was anhedonia : a greek term for the inability to feel pleasure . there couldn’t have been a less appropriate title for the finished film .
a struggling young author finds a brilliant manuscript written by a recently deceased man . he decides to pass off the work as his own but his newfound life of fame and success is put in jeopardy when a blackmailer comes forward threatening to reveal the truth .
an impetuous film and an update of industrial ways long tested in french cinema focused on crime . [ full review in spanish ]
baker had the perfect qualifications for the office . he has b . a . in psychology and a masters in human services administration , he taught special ed while he was working on his masters , and played an office worker in several ads for office max .
the latest film from writer / director noah baumbach ( frances ha , the fantastic mr . fox ) will premiere at this year’s sundance film festival . mistress america , starring greta gerwig and lola kirke , focuses on a lonely college freshman whose life is shaken up by her adventurous soon - to - be stepsister .
he first film in which allen directed diane keaton was also , perhaps not coincidentally , the first film to suggest he had more in him than than madcap , gag - driven comedies . ( they appeared in a film together before his directing days ) . that’s not to say sleeper isn’t as madcap and gag - driven as his earliest work : a film about a health food shop owner who falls into a vat of liquid nitrogen and wakes up 200 years later kind of has to be . but allen’s painting with new colours here : romance , melancholy , and even – gasp ! – coherent plotting , while the uproarious robot butler sequence showcased his talent for silent - era physical clowning .
. every comic book reader , movie watcher , pop culture bystander and grandparent who’s glanced casually at a standard - definition television in a century that begins with a “2” understands that a young man received a very special bug bite , got cocky , got sad , got responsible and became a wise - cracking superhero icon . it’s modern mythology at this point .
perfect , even , hence the title . besides his looks ( and his propensity for shirtless , sweaty pushups ) , carter is attentive , thoughtful , doting and has a successful career as a high - tech corporate security expert , which will come in handy once he starts making her life a living hell .
12 years a slave star lupita nyong’o is set to have a huge 2015 : not only is she appearing in the new star wars and jungle book movies , she will also star in and produce ( along with brad pitt’s plan b productions ) americanah . in the movie based on chimamanda ngozi adichie’s novel of the same name , she and selma standout david oyelowo will play young nigerian immigrants making their way in america .
a young man paying the rent for himself and his lifelong friends at an apartment , ends up flat - broke and resorts to selling marijuana to pay the bills - only to get caught up in the dangerous world of drugs .
25 - year - old mathieu ( niney ) wants nothing more in the world than to be a renowned , respected author . despite cracking away on his laptop keys every day after working at his uncle’s moving company , he’s just not that good . while cleaning a recently deceased man’s apartment , destiny literally falls into mathieu’s lap . he finds a leather - bound manuscript chronicling the man’s experiences in the algerian war . and the writing is rich , soulful , and moving – everything mathieu’s isn’t .
but this is just the set - up for the film , which gozlan co - wrote with guillaume lemans and , for the dialogue , gregoire vigneron . most of a perfect man is in fact set three years after this initial success , when mathieu has moved into the palatial seaside villa of the family of his girlfriend , alice ( ana girardot ) , a beautiful and young literature expert with whom he had an awkward and perfectly played meet - cute at the press launch of black sand . what alice and her parents ( andre marcon , valeria cavalli ) don’t know is that vasseur’s impatient publisher has given him a final ultimatum for a first draft of a new novel after having paid several generous advances , which has mathieu worried sick about having to deliver something on par with
his
first work . things become even thornier when someone who knew the dead man starts to blackmail mathieu , whose association with an ostentatiously rich family thus becomes something of a double - edged sword .
like in films such as quicksand and a simple plan , mathieu has to commit increasingly diabolical acts to sustain his new life . he’ll do anything to preserve his new image . niney , who resembles a baby bird , delivers a performance dripping with nuance . mathieu’s a man consumed with anguish and niney encompasses this torture in his tiny , quivering frame . his lies and deeds weigh him down so much that by the end of the film , he looks like an entirely different person .
they were in for something special . at its end they recognised they’d seen a near - perfect work , what we now call a noir classic . the title rapidly entered the language and took on new meanings as the careers of greene as wartime intelligence agent and kim philby as cold war traitor became linked .
it’s a glorious premise , explored by allen and his cast to dazzlingly funny ends . what gives the film its existential bite , though , is a two - part acknowledgement late in the game : firstly , that the beautiful solace film offers is a lie , and secondly , that it doesn’t matter . watching it , you feel ( and probably look ) like farrow’s heroine : a smiling face in the dark , lit up , flickering , alive .
sanaa lathan is as tough as she is fetching , which is why it’s so disheartening to watch her play a dopey victim for much of “the perfect guy , ” in which her well - to - do professional is terrorized by a new flame who doesn’t take kindly to being dumped . boasting a screenplay by tyger williams that never fails [ … ]
but the most striking influence that occurred to me only decades after first seeing the third man is its likely debt to eric ambler’s the mask of dimitrios , which turns upon a british thriller writer journeying to istanbul to see a brilliant criminal who has disappeared after faking his death . there are several apparent allusions to ambler’s book in the film ( including one by ambler’s friend , carol reed , to prewar istanbul in the film’s stage - setting introduction ) , and greene includes a chapter from the mask of dimitrios in his anthology , the spies bedside book . during an onstage interview with ambler at the national film theatre in he 1990s , i asked him if he’d ever noticed the resemblance . “i have indeed , ” he replied , but sadly i never got around to pursuing the matter , and ambler died soon afterwards .
after alfred hitchcock and his gallic disciple , claude chabrol , has any filmmaker devoted more screen time to contemplating the mechanics of the “perfect” murder than woody allen ? his latest , “irrational man , ” adds to a tally that also includes “crimes and misdemeanors , ” “match point” and the little - seen “cassandra’s dream” — only , unlike those films’ homicidal protagonists , the philosophical anti - hero of allen’s 45th feature kills not for love or money , but rather for a kind of existential clarity . that conceit puts a fresh spin on a familiar premise and marks “irrational man” as one of the woodman’s more offbeat and ambitiously weird projects since the fragmented “deconstructing harry” in 1997 , though less conventionally entertaining than recent home runs like “blue jasmine” and “midnight in paris . ” arthouse traffic should be decent but modest for the july 17 sony classics release .
natalie portman’s female western , jane got a gun , has been plagued by delays . after rotating through two directors , three villains , three release dates and a lawsuit , the film produced by and starring portman is set to premiere in september .
pixar’s first attempt at a female - centric animated film , brave , was a critical letdown . but hopefully an all - star cast that includes amy poehler , mindy kaling and bill hader will liven up this summer’s inside out , which explores the emotions inside the head of a young girl named riley .
jump cuts abound , straight - to - camera interviews break up the plot , and carlo di palma’s handheld camera whip - pans all over the place , seeming to reel from one accusation or gossip - bomb to the next as this foursome all experiment separately with new lovers : perfect catch liam neeson , aerobics bimbo lysette anthony , impressionable student juliette lewis . it’s woody’s last film with farrow and feels , even more now , like a brutal post - mortem on their whole relationship : he even makes himself the loser .
after wowing opposite tom cruise in the sci - fi war flick edge of tomorrow last year , blunt will star in her own action thriller . in sicario , she plays a young fbi agent that joins a secret cia operation to take down a cartel . josh brolin and benicio del toro also star in the film .
his first post - office venture was going to be a spin - off centering around dwight’s life on shrute farm , but wilson’s glad that didn’t work out , as it gave him the opportunity to try something new . he’s currently starring in ( and producing ) backstrom on fox , a crime comedy - drama set in portland , based on a swedish book series . he co - stars in the indie film uncanny , which is making the film festival rounds , and the boy , which premieres this month at sxsw .
you will be unrecognizable to yourself today . advanced medical science will mean that you will never be sick . your cells will never age , and so you will never die . people long since dead will be brought back to life . smart drugs , so primitive in their enhancements today , will grant you a perfect mind with a genius iq , for the price of a pill . you will have whatever body you desire .
pam beesly wrapped up her life in scranton pretty definitively . married to jim with two kids , she gave him the kick he needed to pursue his dreams with the grand gesture of selling their house without telling him . . . much the way he initially bought it without telling her . the perfect match .
sanaa lathan is as tough as she is fetching , which is why it’s so disheartening to watch her play a dopey victim for much of “ the perfect guy , ” in which her well - to - do professional is terrorized by a new flame who doesn’t take kindly to being dumped . boasting a screenplay by tyger williams that never fails to telegraph its every move , david m . rosenthal ’s film is a cheap “fatal attraction” knockoff , complete with a subplot involving the potentially dire fate of lathan’s beloved pet . while no bunnies wind up being boiled , the rest of this second - rate genre effort is a strictly by - the - books affair . despite an appealing trio of leads , it seems likely to entice only those with an unquenchable thirst for thriller cliches .
“this is the part of the movie where you kidnap me and sell my organs , right ? ” sanaa lathan ’s character playfully asks michael ealy ’s on their way to an underground nightclub in “the perfect guy . ” nothing nearly so wacky or grotesque goes down in this romantic thriller , but you’ll wish it would .
his newest project is the upcoming indie film fallen stars , but more surprising is his debut single and video “2 be simple , ” which actually got some pretty good reviews . you can find it on youtube .
then there’s orson welles as harry lime , leader of the gang peddling adulterated penicillin in vienna . he dominates the film both by his presence and his absence . he was difficult to pin down , even for his brief appearances . reed used the time shooting at night , while waiting for welles to show up , to experiment with tilted cameras and surreal shadows in narrow , gleaming nocturnal streets that became one of the film’s hallmarks .
a tribute to the late tab hunter , a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .
allen has often shown an interest in stage magic and hypnotism ( see also : scoop , magic in the moonlight ) , but this enthusiasm reached its unfortunate nadir in this dodo of a light comedy , his most expensive film ( it cost $ 33m ) and by his own reckoning among the worst . his own performance as a wisecracking insurance investigator hypnotised into jewel theft was one problem , but helen hunt doesn ' t fare much better as the ruthless efficiency expert he wants off his back . all the film achieves is managing to look lavishly nostalgic for a more sexist era .
transhumanism’s roots stretch all the way back to russian futurism of the late 19th century , when christian mystic philosopher nikolai fyodorov proposed that man’s natural destiny was to take to the stars , to achieve immortality through science , to resurrect the dead with medical technology , and to colonize space . fyodorov’s beliefs came to be known as cosmism . cosmism sought to achieve human perfection , to unite humanity in a commitment to overcome death and master the cosmos , as god had intended . fyodorov’s influence would filter directly down to the establishment of the russian space program in the 1950s and the race to put the first man into orbit .
e’s speaking to the film’s other main character , allen’s documentary filmmaker clifford stern , in the one scene they share , sitting apart from a wedding celebration at the film’s very end . not here the fortune - cookie insights that some of allen’s lesser pictures call philosophy . here he’s thinking deeply about moral choice , the question of whether guilt in your own eyes or the eyes of the world matters more . this bubblingly wise film , rich with beautifully dovetailing metaphors about blindness and conscience and the perils of self - knowledge , has only grown in stature since its release . it is allen on soaring form , gliding so elegantly through its maze of ideas it’s as if the spirit of fred astaire gave it lift - off .
this drama , written and directed by angelina jolie , will reunite the actress and now - husband brad pitt for the first time since 2005’s mr . & mrs . smith . by the sea looks like a much quieter film for the couple , who will star as a married dancer and a writer traveling france in the 1970s in hopes of saving their marriage .
fun fact : in 2008 , carell saved the historic marshfield hills general store in marshfield , massachusetts from the wrecking ball , buying it and putting his sister - in - law in charge . rumor has it that he sometimes shows up to man the cash register , but we promise nothing .
f allen’s many mooted returns to form , here’s the film that actually was one : a lacerating comedy of financial and romantic recessions , and his best work since his extraordinary mid - career hot streak came crunching to a halt in the early 1990s . cate blanchett won an oscar for her heart - tightening performance in the title role – a kind of blanche dubois of park avenue brought low by her husband’s economic chicanery . jasmine’s dogged denial of her desperate circumstances is the fire under the film’s feet , and watching her crumble is agonising , thrilling – and , most damning of all , great fun .
since then , he’s appeared in multiple movies , including knocked up , the smurf s , inglourious basterds , saving mr . banks , and the amazing spider - man 2 . he’s released two books , a collection of essay - like short stories and a best - selling children’s book called “the book with no pictures . ” he was a consulting producer on the first season of the mindy project , and his brother jessie composes music for it .
( born max o’connor ) is a transhumanist philosopher and the ceo of the alcor life extension cryonics foundation . extropy , as more envisioned it , stood in opposition to the natural law of entropy : the inevitable decline of all energy in the universe into disorder and chaos . the extropians believed that man can overcome entropy through technology and practical “rational optimism . ”
michael scott finally got it all . he married his true love holly ( amy ryan ) , they had kids , and he had so many pictures of them that he had to buy a second phone to hold them all . he made dwight’s wedding everything dwight dreamed it could be by showing up just in time to step in as the best man .
produced by thibault gast and matthias weber for 24 25 films , and by wassim béji for wy productions , a perfect man is being co - produced by tf1 films productions and mars films ( which will handle distribution in french theatres ) . pre - purchased by orange cinéma séries , tf1 , hd1 and ciné + , the feature has also received backing from angoa , from the cnc ’s support fund for development , and from sofica b media and manon . the eight - week shoot , which is due to wrap on 31 july , will take place in the provence - alpes - côte d ' azur region ( le pradet , sicié , port carqueyranne and toulon ) and in paris . international sales are headed by snd .
a surrogate mom for a couple becomes dangerously obsessed with the soon - to - be father .
allen asks the audience to take a considerable logical leap there — some will , some won’t — but logic is one of the last things “irrational man” has on its mind . ( the movie shares its title with a 1958 volume by philosopher and literary critic william christopher barrett , which sought to explain existentialism in lay terms to english - language readers . ) for allen — who once joked that he only read kierkegaard and freud so he could get girls — this ranks among his most unabashedly intellectual exercises , with references to dostoevsky , heidegger , kant , sartre and simone de beauvoir that aren’t just clever name dropping , but part of a bigger discussion “irrational man” wants to have about the efforts of writers and thinkers to explain the world , and the vast chasm between theory and practice .
following the success of the heat , melissa mccarthy is teaming up with paul feig ( bridesmaids , the heat ) again to make the action comedy spy about a cia analyst who goes undercover to infiltrate the world of arms dealers after her partner goes m . i . a . the film stars mccarthy , rose byrne , jason statham and jude law .
fter a run of russet - hued collaborations with cinematographer darius khondji , allen is working here for the first time with the venerable vittorio storaro , and the change has done him the good . a couple of scenes with bobby and vonnie together are the most visually beautiful sequences in an allen film in goodness knows how long . and then there ' s
the final installment in the hunger games franchise starring jennifer lawrence as a girl leading a revolution in a dystopian society is set to premiere in november .
a group of medical aid workers in kosovo is kidnapped by a non slavic gang of organ traffickers .
the germans have a term for movies set among the ruins of postwar cities – “ trümmerfilm ” or “rubble films” . notable in this sub - genre are such pictures of the 1940s as t he murderers are among us ( wolfgang staudte , 1946 ) and germany year zero ( roberto rossellini , 1948 ) . the third man , deeply influenced by italian neorealism , is arguably the most significant british example , though it has a close contender in reed’s odd man out ( 1947 ) , shot on blitzed sites in belfast , and charles crichton’s seminal ealing comedy hue and cry ( 1947 ) . ken adam , production designer on the early bond movies , cut his teeth working on rubble films such as obsession ( 1949 ) and ten seconds to hell ( 1959 ) .
leah ( lathan ) is a successful california lobbyist whose relationship with dave ( morris chestnut ) falls apart due to his disinterest in committing to the type of marriage - with - children future that she craves . no sooner has she dropped dave than leah is swept off her feet by carter ( michael ealy ) , a sexy suitor who first meets her at a coffee shop and , following another chance encounter that ends with her literally swooning over his kisses , reveals himself to be everything – devoted , passionate , respectful and interested in starting a family – that leah wants in a partner . in case that wasn’t immediately clear from ealy’s perpetually humble - and - sweet routine ( not to mention the film’s title ) , leah’s friend alicia ( rutina wesley ) bluntly states , “he might be the perfect guy ! ” — thereby cementing the filmmakers’ dedication to making everything about their story as leadenly obvious as possible .
( 2009 ) ( a . k . a
my words , my lies - my love
) , based on a novel by martin suter .
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eventually , williams’ script has leah turn the tables on her tormentor , thereby finally allowing lathan to exhibit the gritty ferocity — as demonstrated in films including “blade” and “avp : alien vs . predator” — that makes the accomplished actress more than just a pretty face . unfortunately , it’s far too little too late to salvage “the perfect guy” from its own dull suspense . it may be awash in internet - age fears about surveillance and identity , but at heart , it’s little more than a retrograde b - movie .
a middling entry in allen’s unofficial perfect murder tetralogy ( see also : nos 38 , 32 and 2 ) , with joaquin phoenix’s existentially impaired philosophy don plotting a broad - daylight poisoning as a means of reclaiming his übermenschian potency . the premise is tightly rigged , though its intellectual reference points ( nietzsche and dostoyevsky again ? ) feel , at this point in allen’s career , worn very thin indeed . but an odd , un - allen - ish lead performance from phoenix and sunny supporting work from emma stone tickle it to life . ( read the full review )
gene hackman , ian holm and martha plimpton feature in the flashbacks and present - day scenes she’s weighing up against each other , trying to work out where her life slid into a rut of barely noticed unfulfilment , and how to escape it . in the film’s most unnerving scene , she bumps into a high - school friend ( sandy dennis ) who dumps a shocking checklist of grievances in her lap , revealing marion ' s long - held view of herself as a kind of mirage .
like steve carell , his career got a big boost on the daily show with jon stewart . he was added to the office cast in 2006 in a recurring role , and had so much in common with the character they wanted to create that a year later they made him a series regular . since then , he’s starred in the hangover trilogy , as well as the lorax , and developed a film with judd apatow , among other projects . coming up , he’s kicking off a new national lampoon’s vacation franchise as rusty griswold , appearing in a naked gun reboot , and will be voicing captain underpants in a movie scheduled for 2017 . he’s also in a bluegrass band called the lonesome trio . like andy , helms is also obsessed with a capella music , and plays guitar , banjo , piano and sitar .
i went to see this movie based on various recommendations from friends . inam a sucker for a good thriller . the actor mix is perfect and , even though some parts are predictable , you will definitely enjoy the movie . i loved the main trio and their performances . this movie can be considered a life lesson because you don ' t really know who is that you are dating out there . watch till the end , nice twists . i liked that the characters are not typical and that some boundaries are actually pushed in this movie . i went w my bf and a friend and all three of us agreed it is a nice movie , different than all the usual ones .
as will happen with almost every stop zoltan makes on the campaign trail , journalists , photographers , and documentary film crews outnumber the people actually listening to his speeches . at one point , a large group of segway riders in day - glo yellow helmets slowly roll toward us , promising an audience , and then right past us .
ten years ago , the office premiered on nbc . based on the successful uk version created by ricky gervais and stephen merchant , it depicted the day - to - day life of the employees at the scranton , pa , branch of paper company dunder mifflin , as seen through the eyes and camera of a documentary film crew .
there is perhaps another reason why greene might have had certain reservations about the third man . every time you see the film over the years you notice something new . you suddenly become aware , for instance , of the way the strings of the zither at the beginning are later echoed in the cables of the suspension bridge seen from above in the sequence in which the conspirators meet with lime on the danube , and later the wires of the great wheel in the prater pleasure park , where lime and martins are to have their crucial meeting looking down on the world . great spiders’ webs , perhaps , or the strings of giant marionettes ?
the beauty of the screenplay is the way it smoothly moves all the elements into place to suggest how the very sources of mathieu’s happiness slowly turn into liabilities . the young man wanted a literary career more than anything , but he never thought about the necessity and , in his case , sheer impossibility of coming up with a second novel , while his connection with alice’s family is largely based on his
talent ,
( it’s extremely unlikely they would have accepted a working - class mover without any success to his name ) .
the phrase he will offer up more than any other is an upbeat , “no worries , ” issued forth as he checks his constantly overflowing inbox , or fields calls from producers and volunteers , or attempts to mediate growing displeasures among his party advisors . zoltan is his own assistant , secretary , receptionist , fundraiser , organizer , numbers man , stumper , and publicist .
he makes the fateful decision to bend his integrity over the writing desk and has his way with it . typing up the dead man’s journal and submitting it under his own name , mathieu becomes the new sensation of french literature . “black sand” is a massive hit and mathieu is thrust into fame and fortune . he even gets his dream girl , alice ( ana girardot ) , whose wealthy family welcomes mathieu with open arms .
ometimes allen has a knack for casting himself ideally , sometimes he doesn’t . despite his terrible wardrobe , beleaguered variety agent danny rose is one of woody’s most snugly tailored roles : instantly funny , a little sad , and right up at the most endearing end of the characters he’s played . it helps that mia farrow , as a girl - next - door with a criminal ex , is such a sweet moll , too : sharp - tongued but vulnerable beneath it . the film is deceptively throwaway , but has a neat nugget of philosophy to cleave to , about loyalty to anyone who has offered you theirs . the warmth of the payoff spreads through you like a ray of sunshine .
in the series finale , angela finally marries dwight , her one true love , after a disastrous marriage to a gay congressman and a short - lived engagement to andy bernard .
llen does pygmalion , complete with a borscht belt greek chorus , although the jumbled , snobbish and emotionally curdled results fall noticeably short of mythic . a well - to - do new yorker ( allen ) decides to trace the birth mother of his adorable adopted son , and is horrified – plus more than a little turned on – to discover she’s a hooker and porn starlet . mira sorvino gives an oscar - winning , eardrum - tightening turn in a thankless role : the film patronises sorvino’s character relentlessly , and when it works , it’s because the actress heroically refuses to roll over and take it .
in many ways , 2014 was a landmark year for women in film . but don’t expect to see a ton of progress for women in hollywood this year : of the 100 wide - release movies scheduled for this year , only seven are directed by women . still , studios are finally beginning to recognize that making movies that tell women’s stories and draw female audiences is just a good business decision . here are 22 movies made by or starring women that we’re excited to see this year .
the detective mentions getting a subpoena to search a suspect ' s apartment . subpoenas are used to obtain records or compel someone to appear in court . if a dwelling is to be searched , a search warrant is the proper item to use . a seasoned detective would know the difference between the two .
the story features an evil , charismatic anti - hero who fakes his own death and makes his home in a viennese sewer , and ends with its dull , perplexed leading man being silently snubbed by the beautiful , unsmiling heroine in a deserted cemetery . this new print does full justice to robert krasker’s dazzling , oscar - winning black - and - white photography and its exhilaratingly forlorn postwar vienna , and it’s accompanied by two excellent documentaries , one about the making of the movie and its afterlife , the other about the career of greene , then at the height of his power as both a novelist and screenwriter .
allen has yet to submit a film entitled “will this do ? ” , but anything else comes closest , both in its title and for recycling old tropes about thwarted creativity and being stuck with a pesky , permanently difficult long - term girlfriend ( christina ricci ) who wants to move her mother in . jason biggs’s character is meant to be an aspiring comedy writer , but allen’s script gives him not one funny line . all of these go to his ageing intellectual mentor , a veritable fount of park - bench philosophical witticisms , played by guess who . go on , have a guess .
she auditioned for saturday night live in 2008 but didn’t make the cut , then tried out for a role on parks and recreation . while she didn’t get that either , it did lead to an audition for the office , where a four - episode guest role turned into a job as a full time cast member , with her sister signing on as a writer for a few seasons too .
in 1994 , allen adapted his first professionally produced play – a quick - fire cold war farce in which a family of american tourists are mistaken for spies – for the television network abc . a previous film version had been made in 1969 , and apparently niggled away at allen for years , though his own take in no sense redeems it : it looks shatteringly cheap and ugly , while the cast ( which includes michael j . fox and julie kavner ) have nothing to work with but reheated , three - decades - old schtick .
he best of allen’s europe - trotting films is the one most in touch with its touristic soul . scarlett johansson and rebecca hall are two young american women who fall for javier bardem’s divorced artist during a catalonian excursion – and like a midsummer night’s sex comedy , it’s the idea of romance as a mini - break for the soul that gives the film its rosily libidinous power . of its unspeakably attractive cast , penélope cruz was the eventual oscar - winner ; oftentimes , you sense allen’s just happy to be tagging along for the ride .
ere it is : not just allen ' s creative pinnacle , but perhaps the most perfectly assured braiding of comedy and drama in mainstream american film . it feels like the miraculous sweet spot between all of its filmmaker ' s many modes and tones – biting without being cruel , profound without seeming sanctimonious , warmly humane without collapsing into goo .
adio days is allen being nostalgic about nostalgia : it’s the kind of film about the olden days they just don’t make any more . the model was fellini’s free - flowing 1973 masterpiece amarcord , with rimini swapped for rockaway beach in queens , where a working - class jewish family buzz and drift through everyday life , while the music of glenn miller and duke ellington crackles comfortingly from the living room set . allen weaves in further stories of stars and wannabes , muddling memory and fantasy . the result isn’t so much a collage as a patchwork quilt .
alice , a twenty - year - old girl of modest origin , lives in bayeux , a small town in normandy . she has an unambitious boyfriend , kevin , and works at the the moment as a salesgirl in a bakeshop . . . . see full summary »
leslye headland , who directed bachelorette , will premiere her next film , sleeping with other people at sundance . in the movie , jason sudeikis and alison brie star as jake and lainey , friends who lose their virginity to each other in college . the pair meets again 12 years later and realize they have both become serial cheaters and form an unlikely friendship as they one another in a quest to find healthy romantic relationships .
t opens with one of allen’s most vividly written , shot and acted scenes ever , as judy davis and sydney pollack arrive for dinner and announce their separation plans . the way their best friends , allen and farrow , respond – shocked , but also offended – turns this into a rapid marvel of four - way characterisation . this is allen’s most scorching anatomy of marital bonds , a film so bitter , witheringly frank and unsentimental he entirely reinvented his style of shooting and editing for it .
woody’s fourth and , thus far , final london film is a lightly cynical ensemble juggling act , taking in gold - digging , psychic love advice and ambulance - chasing literary plagiarism . josh brolin is well cast as a desperate novelist , but gemma jones has the best of it as the jilted wife of anthony hopkins , whose new girlfriend is a tacky ex - hooker ( lucy punch ) . allen , alas , seems above all of his characters here , and inflicts petty twists of fate on them which feel forced and malicious rather than wise or illuminating .
a gallerist risks her family and flourishing career when she enters into an affair with a talented painter and slowly loses control of her life .
erhaps of all allen’s early comedies , this is the one that could be remade today with the fewest concessions to modern taste . that might be because on its release , it already felt like a film out of time : it’s effectively the marx brothers’ duck soup with a cuban spin ( allen’s wilting new york nebbish accidentally becomes a dictator ) and survives on its never - ending supply of lunatic gags , thundering past like an express train . it looks cheap , which is funny in itself , and satire and spoofery are crammed in until it bulges at the seams .
allen cast a fond eye back to the hollywood musicals of his childhood for this all - singing , star - stuffed confection , which follows a clan of wealthy manhattanites chasing after love in new york , venice and paris . edward norton , drew barrymore , julia roberts and goldie hawn are among the game cast singing their hearts out . despite those names it was a commercial flop , and its airiness can sometimes play as insubstantial . but when the film works , it really works : not least when hawn defies gravity on the banks of the seine in its magical finale .
conveniently , though , she meets cute not once but twice with a super - handsome guy named carter ( michael ealy ) . after sharing a flirty moment at a coffee shop , their paths cross again at a trendy restaurant when carter swoops in to save leah from a drunk dude’s unwanted advances at the bar . he really is too good to be true
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942 , and died a little over five years ago . i owe a good part of my success…
london films achieved the weird distinction of getting no theatrical release in its place of origin , despite the returning presence of scarlett johansson , and hugh jackman in the lead . the reasons are simple : it’s flagrantly disposable , continues allen’s embarrassing love affair with a london that doesn’t exist , and cooks up no intrigue worth bothering with , for all the ins and outs of its thin man - esque plot . the one redeeming feature , surprisingly , is allen himself , in the supporting role of an amusingly befuddled stage magician called the great splendini .
after a weekend at her parents’ house , during which leah’s new beau wins over her dad ( charles s . dutton ) with front - row san francisco giants tickets , carter loses his cool at a gas station and viciously beats a man he mistakenly thinks is hitting on leah . that violent outburst so rightfully frightens leah that it ends their relationship , and carter takes the development quite badly . as an it expert with all sorts of stalker - ish skills involving security systems and spy cameras , carter quickly becomes a menacing thorn in leah’s side , especially once she reconciles with dave . his attempts to make carter stay away from leah via public threats are as useless as the detectives looking into carter’s behavior , and the restraining order leah eventually gets against him .
mathieu vasseur ( niney ) is a solitary , working - class nobody who dreams of becoming a novelist but whose lack of talent forces him to move boxes and furniture all day for a company that’s often asked to empty the houses of dead people without any immediate family . in one such apartment , mathieu finds a diary of a soldier who fought in algeria and who clearly prepared and edited his work for publication . mathieu , frustrated by the refusal of all of france’s major literary houses to publish his own work and clearly aware that the man , like him , has no direct relatives , publishes the diary as the novel black sand and finds immediate success . the fact that he’s only 25 , and thus wasn’t even born when the algerian war happened , only makes his story more irresistible for both the press and the literary establishment .
or : the one with kenneth branagh doing his party - trick woody impression , leonardo dicaprio as a bratty a - list star bedding multiple models , and coarse routines with fellatio practised on bananas . it’s the last time allen collaborated with ingmar bergman’s great cinematographer sven nyqvist , whose black - and - white vision of this strained media circus is doubtless designed to remind us of la dolce vita . but the film’s a bitter pill with negligible insights , and sends branagh slavering after far too many gorgeous young starlets ( charlize theron , famke janssen , winona ryder ) for us to be quite comfortable .
allen’s sourest comedy is one of his more arresting , certainly of the increasingly wayward 1990s : it touches a few raw nerves . the structure is roughly lifted from bergman ' s reflections on a life in wild strawberries , as allen’s flailing writer , harry block , is invited back to his alma mater to receive an honorary degree . this trip involves reckoning with the fallout from harry’s failed relationships , not to mention some wacky swerves into sketch comedy – robin williams develops the medical condition of being out - of - focus , and tobey maguire plays a sex - obsessed alter ego . it’s an uneven grab bag , a flawed film à clef with biting and honest moments .
phyllis smith never expected to find herself as an actress on a long - running series . she graduated with a degree in elementary education , then became a dancer , eventually becoming a cheerleader for the old st . louis cardinals football team . after that she spent years as a burlesque performer , but a knee injury derailed her career , so she took a job as a receptionist . eventually she found her way to becoming a casting assistant , and reading with hundreds of different actors at their auditions brought out the actress in her . she was hired to help cast the office , and after enough readings , the writers created the role of phyllis just for her .
a suspensful thriller about identity theft and double crossing with a chilling atmosphere that will get you from start from finish . [ full review in spanish ]
“this is a bank robbery , not a movie , ” complains allen’s virgil starkwell – although in this case , it’s easy to get the two confused . allen rushes into this mock - biopic of a hapless serial crook all puns blazing , with concepts pilfered from chaplin and the marx brothers , and an arsenal of brilliant sight gags , one - liners and physical comedy routines . ( for the sheer comic density of the idea , the marching - band cellist might be the best thing he ever did . ) it’s his archetypal early , funny film : one may have come earlier , but none were funnier .
poor andy . at the end of the series , he’s still something of a laughingstock after his tearful audition for an a capella show goes viral , but at least he has a job at his beloved alma mater , cornell .
the real angela is also a big cat lover ; she’s also a writer and a comedic performer and won an emmy , along with several of her office co - stars , for the web series the office : the accountants .
in 2010 ) , the main character in the story is 25 - year - old mathieu , who has always yearned to become a famous author . it’s a dream that seems out of reach for him because he has never managed to be published , despite his best efforts . in the meantime , he makes a living working at the removals company that his uncle manages… his fortunes turn around one day , when he stumbles across a manuscript by an old , reclusive man who has just passed away . mathieu hesitates , before finally snatching it and signing it as his own . . . having become the foremost fresh hope for french literature , and with the expectations surrounding his second novel weighing heavier and heavier on him each day , mathieu , who has now found love , is about to be launched into a deceitful and deadly spiral in order to keep his secret under wraps – at all costs…