John Patrick Shanley
16 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
The Quiet Man (1952)
Directed by John Ford
influenced Wild Mountain Thyme (2020)
Plot Dialogue Visuals
“Wild Mountain Thyme” has some parallels to the John Ford classic “The Quiet Man” with its much locally debated marriage and an American looking to buy into his birthright, but with the exception of the strong female determining its outcome, it’s better to stick with the old ways.
When the trailer for “Wild Mountain Thyme” hit a few weeks ago, it was largely derided as looking like nothing more than a cartoonish portrayal of Irish lives with all the actors sporting ridiculously unconvincing accents (even co-star Jamie Dornan, who actually is Irish) while spouting blather that made “The Quiet Man” looks restrained by comparison.
“Wild Mountain Thyme” is John Ford’s “The Quiet Man” re-imagined as an even more cliched and sentimental Gaelic rom-com.
That is until Emily — who’s damned tired of his wishy-washy vacillations — pushes him into a corner (during a fierce rainstorm that mimics the one in “The Quiet Man”) and demands that he reveal his feelings for her.
A remote farming community congregates around the church, a cemetery and a pub where you almost expect The Quiet Man ’s Victor McLaglen to be ordering a pint.
At the Kendall and available on demand, the film is set in an Ireland so green your eyes may bleed – it was shot in the County Mayo countryside with an opening flyover along the Cliffs of Moher – and in general has a blarney quotient to make “The Quiet Man” look like a documentary.
Derisive reaction to the film's trailer in the Emerald Isle suggests it's less likely to be remembered alongside The Quiet Man than Far and Away , the 1992 Hollywoodized Oirish epic with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, secretly dubbed by wags on the production crew as Fartin' Away .
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Far and away, these are the worst Irish accents since Far and Away .
Strong performances and tight visual construction disguise the fact we’ve seen this all before, from films that explore very similar themes (notably 2008’s Doubt, a more compelling and nuanced work) to films that share degrees of familiarity related to the persecution of innocent people including We Need to Talk About Kevin (2008), The Insider (1999) and Evil Angels (1988).
In John Patrick Shanley's marvellous 2008 film Doubt , we are never absolutely certain whether Philip Seymour Hoffman's popular, humane New York priest is a paedophile or Meryl Streep's vindictive nun is merely motivated by envy.
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
influenced by Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
Characters
Compare Sandler with Tom Hanks in a similar position in Joe Versus the Volcano (1990).
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Directed by Nicholas Stoller
influenced by Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
Plot
Think of the lame “Joe Versus the Volcano” (1990), with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan; or of the shirtless Owen Wilson caper, “The Big Bounce” (2004); or of Anne Heche and Harrison Ford, eying each other warily, then snarling and scrapping, in “Six Days, Seven Nights” (1998).
Although many films and TV shows have dealt with office politics through the years ("Working Girl," "Working") and others have played off the mechanical drudgery of "worker bee" employment and its effects on the worker ("Falling Down," "Joe Versus the Volcano," "Brazil"), the increasing depersonalization of the corporate world and its dehumanizing effects on the employees during the 1990's makes films such as this one that much more timely and easy to identify with.
Coogler sets up rhythm and blues in opposition to Wild Mountain Thyme and songs about Dublin…
Moonstruck (1987)
Directed by Norman Jewison
influenced Doubt (2008), Wild Mountain Thyme (2020), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
Plot Themes
John Patrick Shanley is the Oscar-winning screenwriter of 1987's "Moonstruck" who was last heard from, movie-wise, when his 1990 directorial debut, "Joe Versus the Volcano," flopped so badly it seemed to slam the door forever on his promising career.
Whether in his best work (the Oscar-winning script to “Moonstruck,” Broadway’s “Four Dogs and a Bone”), his worst (the stage stinker “Psychopathia Sexualis”), and even interesting curios like 1990’s Tom Hanks lark “Joe Versus the Volcano,” the playwright/ screenwriter does a lot with one idea.
Though Shanley has been a successful writer for both stage and screen (he won an Oscar for "Moonstruck"), this is only the second film he has directed -- and the first was 18 years ago.
In 1987, there was "Moonstruck," which featured a widowed bookkeeper (Cher) caught between two men - safe and reliable versus tumultuous and passionate.
From thence forward, it's only nominally Shanley's (Moonstruck, Five Corners) semi-autobiographical memoir of the terrors of churchly education — the movie totally belongs to Streep.
Moreso than its pedigree as the latest film by the Oscar-winning writer of Moonstruck , Wild Mountain Thyme follows in the estimable tradition of quaint UK imports that tag into universal laughs or tug enough at the heartstrings to earn a worldwide audience, like Waking Ned Devine , The Full Monty , Circle of Friends , and The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain .
She's at the centre, but the fine supports bolster the narrative, with Viola Davis (Doubt) the stand-out as Liz's best buddy, Delia.
She's already been told that having a child is like 'getting a tattoo on your face' by publisher friend Delia (Viola Davis, "Doubt").
He’s made a handful of movies — he was note-perfect in his debut in a single remorseful scene with Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole, hitting a walk-off the way Viola Davis did in her one big scene in Doubt.
In addition to Butler and the Oscar-winning Foxx, it is astonishing to note that this junk also attracted the Oscar-nominated Viola Davis (“Doubt”) in a small role as the mayor, Bruce McGill ("The Legend of Bagger Vance," "W.”) as the D.A., Colm Meaney (“The Damned United”) as Detective Dunnigan and “24’s” deliciously evil President Logan (Gregory Itzin) as the prison warden.
Talented actors like Bruce McGill, Colm Meaney, and Viola Davis (so powerful in last year's "Doubt") are reduced to serving as cinematic fillers.
In fact, I can think of at least three people in “Law Abiding Citizen” who would have given more interesting performances: Foxx; Colm Meaney, who plays an assistant to Foxx; and Viola Davis from “Doubt,” who plays the entertainingly crabby mayor of Philadelphia.
Viola Davis ("Doubt") makes the biggest impression in the supporting role of the mayor of Philadelphia.
Viola Davis (2008's " Doubt ") exudes power and an underlying sense of unease as the Philadelphia mayor, a woman none too appreciative of her loss of control over her city.
That gives it an automatic cache of precociousness, but after Richard Curtis blew up this cottage industry with increasingly ambitious projects like Four Weddings and a Funeral , Notting Hill and About Time , there’s less value in exploring the idiosyncrasies of accented lovers in contemporary pastoral settings like the Irish countryside in which this film takes place if they’re not melded with some detailed and meaningful character study.
A collection of first-rate actors in subsidiary roles includes Paul Dano as a shaggy science nerd, the superb Viola Davis (Doubt) as a federal intelligence chief, Marc Blucas as June’s slightly dim old beau, and Peter Sarsgaard as Roy’s pursuer.
(Recall Hankís role from Joe Versus the Volcano.)
Because she is played by Viola Davis, a matchless purveyor of moral determination, you can’t help recalling the sequence, in “Doubt” (2008), when Davis went head to head with Meryl Streep over the future prospects of another young man.
At one point the camera pulls up to reveal ahead of him a long, winding road of shuffling bodies trudging to the daily grind, all looking like zombie extras in "Dawn of the Dead."