Book, Film & TV Reviews
Making her debut role in Joe Wright’s beautiful Pride & Prejudice alongside Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan has led some of the biggest and best films of the past few years. She’s since gone onto to star alongside Michael Fassbender in Shame and Ryan Gosling in Drive, as well as leading the BBC TV drama, Collateral.
The latest from Coen Brothers Joel and Ethan, Inside Llewyn Davis follows the week in the life of a young folk singer, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), circa 1961, as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene. Struggling to make it as a musician, Llewyn is faced with many obstacles, many of them of his own doing, including getting between his only real friends Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan).
Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is a literary classic. Set in The Roaring 20’s in the fictional town of West Egg, the story follows a Midwestern war veteran, Nick Carraway, in the summer of 1922, who finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his mysterious millionaire neighbour Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan.
Directed by Baz Luhrmann, this latest adaptation of the book stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy, and Tobey Maguire as Nick.
(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)
Shame and Drive star Carey Mulligan is negotiations this month to star in black comedy thriller Nancy and Danny, which is currently being developed by Indian Paintbrush.
Set in a small town, the project centres on a money-hungry woman (Mulligan) whose big-city dreams failed. In order to land a high school crush, she uses a hapless man as a pawn in a get-rich-quick scheme that quickly goes wrong.
(Published in Issue 6 of my publication In Retrospect)
Directed by Steve McQueen, Shame follows a successful man living in New York City who, behind closed doors, is living a carefully cultivated life as a sex addict. From picking up women with his charming persona in nightclubs, to paying for physical encounters with just about anyone, Brandon (Michael Fassbender) struggles on a day-to-day basis trying to find where his next night, or even minutes, of passion will come from. That is until his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) turns up to live with him indefinitely. Looking for only comfort, Sissy throws her brother’s life into a world of uncertainty as he must deal with each of their damaged lives, whilst also trying to hide and feed his own shameful appetite for sex.
(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)
The first official stills for the novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby have been released this week, showing the main cast of Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Leonardo DiCaprio in their 1920s glam.
The film follows would-be writer Nick Carraway (Maguire) as moves to New York City in the spring of 1922, landing next door to a mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio). Across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Mulligan), Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the lives of the super rich and their deceits.
Continue reading “First Official Stills for ‘The Great Gatsby’”
(Weekly feature written for BritScene)
This week we’re bringing back our weekly feature ‘Brits At The Box Office’, where we pull together all the information you need about the British cinema heading your way over the next seven days. It’s a great week for cinema too, with some brilliant films full of spies, sex addicts, and a little bit of Christmas. What better way to kick off December?
(Written for BritScene)
Fox Searchlight have posted another trailer for Steve McQueen’s Shame on their Facebook this week. Earlier this month we showed you a trailer that included Carey Mulligan’s singing performance of “New York, New York”, but this latest trailer shows the film’s darker yet sexier side of the film, which is the reason the film has been given a NC-17 rating.
Continue reading “Red Band Trailer For ‘Shame’ Shows Its More Provocative Side”
(Written for HeyUGuys)
Set pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire for the novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby have been put online this week, showing the cast filming at Centennial Park on Friday (18th November) in Sydney, Australia.
Baz Luhrmann will be directing the adaptation, which was originally written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. The story follows Nick Carraway who moves to Long Island and is lured into the lavish world of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby.
(Written for BritScene)
The latest trailer for British director Steve McQueen‘s Shame has been released this week, which includes Carey Mulligan‘s singing performance of “New York, New York”.
Shame stars Michael Fassbender (X Men: First Class) as a lonely sex-addict in New York whose ordered lifestyle of one-night stands spirals out of control when his younger sister, played by Carey Mulligan (Drive), moves into his apartment indefinitely.
Continue reading “New Trailer for ‘Shame’ with Carey Mulligan Singing”
(Written for BritScene)
Steve McQueen’s Shame has this week been given a US trailer and a new clip. But it’s not all good news – the controversial sexual drama has also been given the dreaded NC-17 rating because of the extreme amount of male nudity and “shocking” sex scenes.
Shame stars Michael Fassbender (X Men: First Class) as a lonely sex-addict in New York whose ordered lifestyle of one-night stands spirals out of control when his younger sister, played by Carey Mulligan (Drive), moves into his apartment indefinitely.
British director McQueen made it clear that he embraced the NC-17 rating when he made his deal for Fox Searchlight to release Shame, which the film has officially been given this week.
Continue reading “Steve McQueen’s ‘Shame’ Gets US Trailer & New Clip”
(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)
Carey Mulligan gave a stunning performance is last month’s Drive, and is now becoming a face that we look forward to seeing. Fortunately, she’s keeping herself busy in 2012, landing the female lead in Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis and beginning negotiations for a lead role in a project for Spike Jonze.
Inside Llewyn Davis follows a musician trying to make it in the 1960s New York music scene. Mulligan, the lead female musician, will star opposite Oscar Isaac. Whilst it is unknown if Mulligan will be asked to sing in the film, she has certainly proven that she is up to the job in Steve McQueen’s Shame, which is set to be released in January 2012.
Continue reading “Carey Mulligan To Work With the Coen Brothers and Spike Jonze”
(Written for BritScene)
Directed and co-written by Steve McQueen (Hunger), Shame is a remarkable examination of the nature of need and is a raw and realistic look at how we live our lives, which has today finally sees the arrival of its first trailer.
Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) plays a sex addict living in New York City whose ordered lifestyle of one-night stands spirals out of control with the unexpected arrival of his needy sister, played by Carey Mulligan (Drive), for an indefinite stay.
Fassbender starred in McQueen’s debut feature Hunger as well, so hopefully this will be as much of an excellent piece of filmmaking too.
Continue reading “Steve McQueen’s ‘Shame’ Gets a Universal Trailer”
(Read this in my publication In Retrospect – Issue 2)
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive is based on James Sallis‘ 2005 novel of the same name, with screenplay by Hossein Amini. The film is undoubtedly one of the best film’s of 2011, and even received a standing ovation at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Ryan Gosling, who remains unnamed throughout the film, plays a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a getaway driver. He works for Shannon (Bryan Cranston) in a garage, who approaches mobsters Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Perlman) for backing to buy a racecar and have the “Driver” race it. Driver meanwhile becomes involved with his neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her younger son, but as a romantic connection begins to develop, Irene’s boyfriend Standard (Oscar Isaac) is released from prison. Standard still owes an old associate some money, so Driver offers to help out of his concern for Irene. But when it all goes fatally wrong, Driver is left to clean up his mess.
(This was published on Total Film’s website as a series of Film Homepages that they asked their subscribers to write for them).
In a Nutshell:
As three children grow-up, they prepare themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them.
Tagline:
‘Based on ‘The Best Novel Of The Decade” – Time
Never Let Me Go, directed by Mark Romanek, is an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same title. Beginning in the late 1990s, the story is narrated by thirty-one-year-old Kathy (Carey Mulligan) who was brought up at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham school along with her closest friends, Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley). Now a carer of organ donors, Kathy attempts to come to terms with her childhood at Hailsham and the fate that was set out for her and her friends in the wider world.
It has recently been reported that Baz Luhrmann has met with Leonardo DiCaprio, Rebecca Hall and Tobey Maguire with an idea of casting the trio in a new film adaptation of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. At the time of first writing this post, this was all only rumour. Now, a year later in October 2011, filming is underway with an official cast, so carry on reading for a recent update.
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