Todd Field
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
Suburbia is hell, and serious Hollywood movies from The Graduate to American Beauty have been there to point fingers on the lawns of the damned.
That overrated Oscar winner "American Beauty" set the template for funny-sad movies about angst-ridden denizens of the 'burbs, and now "Little Children" carries it forward.
Clucking hausfraus, midnight football matches and assorted American Beauty residue abounds: the mandatory scream falls to Haley, who is bound to get critical kudos just for the "daring" conception of his character, like Dylan Baker's grim-faced pederast in Happiness.
There are echoes of Magnolia in its winding through a community and American Beauty in addressing suburban angst, but it is more accurate in its subdued characterisations than either.
Its faithfulness to the book was ensured by Perrotta's collaboration on the screenplay and the result, for me, is closer to "American Beauty"'s warped depiction of family than his own "In the Bedroom" of 2001.
And it achieves its art-house bona fides by borrowing from the vengeful-parent motif of the 2001 In the Bedroom.
He fares impressively in the film, which is reminiscent of “Mystic River,” “In the Bedroom” and the crime dramas of David Fincher.
Fully deserving of mention in the same breath as “Seven,” “Mystic River” and “In the Bedroom,” this Sept. 20 Warners release may prove too intense for some viewers, but should ride strong reviews and word of mouth to above-average R-rated returns.
In “In the Bedroom,” a much superior film about a decent, law-abiding man who takes revenge on his son’s killer, the horror was in seeing how a good man could be twisted into a savagery beyond his own comprehension.
The choice to have some omniscient presence narrate everything (and in the upper-class accents of Emma Thompson, no less) is a terrible one; it's the same device Todd Field tried in "Little Children" and it distances us from people we need to feel.
Director Jason Reitman hews very closely to Kultgen's (far superior) 2011 book, with the filmmaker, at the outset, effectively capturing the source material's specific tone and atmosphere (ie it's often quite reminiscent of Tom Perrotta's body of work, Little Children especially).
An ensemble piece sardonically narrated in the third-person by Emma Thompson (think Little Children by way of Thompson's own Stranger Than Fiction), Jason Reitman's Men, Women & Children paints a glum picture of the Internet's hold over the American middle-class.
It’s narration that says “classy,” that says — with a wink, of course — “Americans are fools,” that says, “Hey, fussy voice-over worked for Todd Field’s vaguely similar Little Children.”
Clucking hausfraus, midnight football matches and assorted American Beauty residue abounds: the mandatory scream falls to Haley, who is bound to get critical kudos just for the "daring" conception of his character, like Dylan Baker's grim-faced pederast in Happiness.
Echoing Sam Mendes' American Beauty and Todd Solondz's Happiness, Little Children should be potential Oscar material, thanks to the direction and performances, especially from Winslet and Wilson.
Mary Ann's approach to child-rearing combines a militarism, adherence to protocol and self-satisfaction not seen since "The King and I," and while Sarah tries to conform to the strict rules of snack times and play-dates, she can't manage to subsume herself to the degree required by her cohorts.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced In the Bedroom (2001), Little Children (2006)
Field, whose best-known acting includes roles in Ruby in Paradise and Eyes Wide Shut, gets outstanding performances all around.
BY KIM LINEKIN When Sissy Spacek started reading the script for In the Bedroom by actor-turned-director Todd Field (Eyes Wide Shut, Once and Again), she thought, "This is a nice love story.
The director is Todd Field, a young character actor best-remembered as Tom Cruise's piano-playing friend in Eyes Wide Shut.
Todd Field, an actor ("Eyes Wide Shut") who makes his feature directing debut in the wonderful "In the Bedroom," not only understands that landscape but has a remarkable grasp of how to make it live onscreen.
He was in Eyes Wide Shut and is a regular on the TV show Once and Again.
The film was written and directed by Todd Field, making his feature debut after working as an actor in everything from French Canadian TV miniseries "Lance et Compte" to Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut".
TÁR features some psycho-horror tropes à la Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010), but Field mainly uses these to flatten and obfuscate at every turn.
The story of an illicit love affair that coincides with a presumed pedophile's move to town, "Little Children" is based on a book by Tom Perrotta, who wrote the novel "Election" (Alexander Payne's film was later based on it).
Pedigree: It's from Tom Perrotta, the writer of Election, and writer-director Todd Field (In the Bedroom).
Cowriter (with novelist Tom Perrotta, "Election")/director Todd Fields ("In the Bedroom") shifts from the murky blackness of the human heart exposed by grief that he explored "In the Bedroom" to the unfocused self-centeredness of unformed yuppies with every bit as keen an instinct for what makes people tick.
"Little Children" is far from a bad movie, but it's not as deep and subtly disturbing as Fields' " In the Bedroom " or as infernally funny as Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's film adaptation of Perrotta's novel Election.
A good measuring stick would be Alexander Payne's Election (1999), which was also adapted from a novel by Tom Perotta and was a good deal tighter and more fearless; that movie sustained its biting humor, while Little Children can't quite decide on a tone.
Todd Field's second feature film, like his debut "In the Bedroom," is another adaptation, but this time, he collaborated with the novel's author Tom Perrotta ("Election"), which helps instill more overt humor into what is essentially a dark and quirky character drama.
Field -- who acted in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" -- has mentioned the great director's "Barry Lyndon" as an influence here, though Kubrick's "Lolita" is closer in spirit to "Little Children's" beady, satiric take on sexual compulsion.
But not the type of cruelty reserved for the black and white senses of a Hollywood movie. Tár isn’t Whiplash‘s Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). She’s many things, but she’s not Abigail Hill from The Favourite or Nathan Bateman from Ex Machina.
Although Whiplash is a completely different film, TÁR is what Whiplash would have been if it followed the J.K. Simmons character rather than that of Miles Teller.
In the line of Terrence Fletcher from Whiplash and Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, TÁR contributes an iconic character to film history in the form of Lydia Tar, with an undeniably memorable performance by Cate Blanchett.
The performance brings to mind Kevin Bacon's similarly-themed "The Woodsman" and it grounds the film in a way none of its other characters can.
Then there’s Jackie Earle Haley, who was a big star back in the 70’s after appearing in The Bad News Bears (one of my all time favorite films).
More importantly, the movie signifies one of the greatest Hollywood comebacks, maybe ever, as actor Jackie Earl Haley, best known for his '80s bad boy roles in "The Bad News Bears" and "Breaking Away," creates a sympathetic character out of the creepy McGorvey.
Field -- who acted in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" -- has mentioned the great director's "Barry Lyndon" as an influence here, though Kubrick's "Lolita" is closer in spirit to "Little Children's" beady, satiric take on sexual compulsion.
With all the makings of a great drama, "Unfaithful" borrows the best elements from "In the Bedroom" and ends up using them to their worst.
In the way it shows how complacency and convention can make bad things happen to decent people, this movie might tempt comparisons to In the Bedroom.
Without giving away too much of the plot, the character-driven first half of the film (much of it dedicated to the wonderful scenes of Lane and Gere tiptoeing around the truth), gives way to a plot-driven second half that resembles the overwrought histrionics of In the Bedroom.
I could have had about six extramarital affairs in the time it took to watch Unfaithful, a film that (d)evolves with Darwinian slowness from an air of bland diversion into some truly unsettling sexual politics, and tumbles from that already low plateau into an ersatz In the Bedroom , in which an emotionally distant husband and wife attempt to salve their suffering marriage with the odd balm of felony brutality.
It starts to feel like a discarded early draft for "In the Bedroom."
Campos is probably aiming for a poignant alienation effect, giving voice to characters who barely know their own feelings, a la Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and Todd Field’s Little Children .
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan
influenced by In the Bedroom (2001)
Themes
The various and venerable spirits of “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Ordinary People” and “In the Bedroom” may hover over this movie in wintry setting and theme, but “Manchester by the Sea” is very much its own singular, seething creation.
On top of Sleeping Beauty, Little Children is another feature that Lawson looks to have taken inspiration from but it had fewer compromises.
Based on some of the projects he has been responsible for helping to get off the ground (A History of Violence and Little Children), you’d think he know how to handle characterization or delivery a touch better.
There’s even a clever cameo from Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) as a contest winner who can’t figure out what to do with his giant check.
The Tropics are the type of team that draw crowds in the tens, but consummate promoter Moon keeps the locals interested with contests like the $10,000 free throw (which, much to his consternation, local stoner Dukes (Jackie Earle Haley, "Little Children") actually pulls off) and choreographed half time entertainment featuring the Tropics in sea creature costumes.
Also a gas in smaller roles: Will Arnett as a smoking/drinking/swearing color commentator, Andrew Daly as his stiff partner and former Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley ("Little Children") as a shirtless white-trash fan.
The film also looks very good; cinematographer Antonio Calvache, who previously worked with Todd Field on In the Bedroom (2003) and Little Children (2006), gives the images an edge and depth that heighten the material.
(Antonio Calvache of "Little Children" and "In the Bedroom" is the cinematographer.)
In other words, something like 2006’s Little Children this motion picture certainly is not.