Laurel Canyon
Cast
Frances McDormand as Jane
Christian Bale as Sam
Kate Beckinsale as Alex
Natascha McElhone as Sara
Alessandro Nivola as Ian McKnight
Directed by
Lisa Cholodenko
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
8/10. Sex, drugs, and rock `n roll. This credo from decades past still
holds for Jane (Frances McDormand). She's a closing-in-on-50
record
producer for a band that includes Fripp (Lou Barlow), Rowan (Russell
Pollard), and, the one that Jane is romantically involved with the
most, Ian (Alessandro Nivola). Her son Sam (Christian Bale) is a
newly graduated psychiatrist and his fianc� Alex (Kate
Beckinsale),
who is also a doctor move in with Jane in Laurel Canyon. She does
many drugs and Sam and Alex have to try to deal with her.
There's basically one reason to see this movie: Frances
McDormand.
She's a versatile actress, and here she's both funny and
disturbing.
She puts in a powerful, grade-A acting job. Also, Bale and Beckinsale
put in great acting jobs as well. This isn't as much a movie as
much
as an acting showcase. The movie per se is good, too, but it's
really
the acting that makes you love it.
It's a drama, but it has many funny moments. I'm not going to
name
them, but there were a good number of them. Something that made this
story believable is the music. There's no tense music in real
life,
so it's only there when it's necessary. It did the movie
good. Also,
the cinematography was great. It made me believe that I was in
Hollywood again.
This is Lisa Cholodenko's second film she wrote and directed
(after
1998's High Art). The script was great; it was touching,
poignant,
and funny. The directing was really good; it looked like it was all
in one shot, which is also kudos to the cinematography. In all art-
house movies like this, all of the movies look the same, and this is
no different. It really is an art-house movie, and not everyone will
love it. But I'm not "not everyone".
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #5
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated R for sexuality, language, and drug use.
Running time: 103 minutes
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