John Requa
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Filmography
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Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)
Plot Characters
"I Love You Phillip Morris" certainly has an interesting story, a gay "Catch Me If You Can," and some good performances, but the filmmakers have tried to cram too much in and their film's title only addresses one of their story lines, one which doesn't even crop up until the film's well underway.
The premise is familiar (think of it as the gay cousin of “Catch Me if You Can”), but the tone stands at attention, weaving between broad acts of deception and intimate declarations of love between these men, who’ve finally found a sense of peace from their hectic lives in each other’s arms.
At times, there's a twisted resemblance to Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can .
It's a frustrating protagonist to have to follow, and he comes with none of the pathos of, for example, Leonardo DiCaprio's similar character in 2002's " Catch Me If You Can ."
If it were more serious, I Love You Phillip Morris might feel something like a wry caper a la Catch Me If You Can.
"Nobody talks about this, but being gay is really expensive," narrates recidivist con man Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) in the gleefully cartoonish, occasionally transcendent I Love You Phillip Morris, which suggests both a middle-aged queer rewrite of Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can and how one of Jean Genet's thieves might've aspired to an Out magazine photo-spread lifestyle in 1990s America.
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
influenced by I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)
Themes
Not since “ I Love You Phillip Morris ” has a film put such a fresh twist on the accepted AIDS narrative, but instead of getting in the public’s faces the way that crazy Jim Carrey comedy did, “Dallas Buyers Club” works its way under their skin.
The whole encounter suggests that writer-director duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have studied not only how con men operate, but also the best of the genre (having already supplied one of its looniest entries with “I Love You Phillip Morris”), channeling the sultry, smooth-jazz vibe of Steven Soderbergh’s “Out of Sight” from the opening scene.
You might have seen Ficarra's and Requa's 2009 directorial debut -- and obvious inspiration for this movie -- "I Love You Phillip Morris," an awkward comic drama based on con man Steven Russell (played by Jim Carrey).
Will Smith and Aussie It Girl Margot Robbie team up in a sleek slice of escapism from directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, the co-writers and directors of I Love You Phillip Morris and Crazy, Stupid, Love.
How did the filmmaking team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa — responsible for the brilliant nastiness of Bad Santa (as writers) and charming sweetness of I Love You Phillip Morris (as writers and directors) — come to this? Focus is unpleasant, humor free, and contrary to accepted codes of movie (and nonmovie) morality.
“Focus” is helmed by the writer/director duo of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who delivered the enjoyable “I Love You Phillip Morris” and “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” which started strong then turned out to be a crazy, stupid mess.
It's all the work of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who wrote the original screenplay for Terry Zwigoff's "Bad Santa," and then turned director with the crafty, unconventional films "I Love You Phillip Morris" (2009) -- another con man story -- and "Crazy, Stupid, Love." (2011), about a pickup artist.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
Directed by Glenn Ficarra
influenced by I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)
Plot
Having directed the wry gay comedy “I Love You, Phillip Morris” last year, Requa and Ficarra have brought their unique combination of gleeful vulgarity, classic wit and perceptive characters to the studio system.
Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa - who let Jim Carrey zoom around like Road Runner and smash their earlier film, I Love You Phillip Morris - handle all the moving parts with the ease of professional jugglers.
Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (“Bad Santa,” “I Love You Phillip Morris”) and scripted by Dan Fogelman (“Tangled”), the film apparently takes its cue from Richard Curtis’ 2003 ensemble hit “Love Actually” and like its predecessor has a great cast.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. is directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the team that directed I Love You Phillip Morris and wrote Bad Santa, so we know from the get-go that the helmsmen share delightfully skewed sensibilities.
That isn’t the tone I was expecting from directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who wrote two of the most hilarious and profane comedies of the last decade (“Bad Santa” and “I Love You Phillip Morris”), but who are this time using a script by Dan Fogelman, who wrote “Cars.”
For all its many problems, “I Love You, Phillip Morris” — the previous film from directorial team Glenn Ficarra and John Requa — offered a more honest, convincing portrayal of how love elevates us while exploiting our human foibles.
He co-founded the super-successful production-distribution company EuropaCorp that’s given us such kinetic actioners as the Transporter series, Taken , District 13 , Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior , plus a remarkable variety of international films of all sorts, even including the occasional respectable indie like Nil by Mouth or I Love You Phillip Morris.