Name Nicole Holofcener
Born 22 January 1940 Background Nicole is the daughter of Hollywood set decorator. Carol Joffe (Arthur and Presumed Innocent are among her many achievements). Holofcener grew up in New York and Santa Monica. California. before studying film at Columbia University. Her 1996 writer/ director debut Walking and Talking and 2002 follow—up Lovely and Amazing led to her being called ‘the female Woody Allen.‘ She‘s also directed episodes of Sex and the City and Six Feet Under.
What’s she up to now? She's just completed work on her third film, Friends With Money starring Jennifer Aniston. Frances MCDormand. Joan Cusack and Catherine Keener (who has starred in all of Holofcener's films). She is currently penning a script that she claims will ‘surprise’ her legion of fans.
What she says about the plots in her films ‘It's not that I don't try to have a plot. It's not like I think “I'm going to be plotless just to shake things up." It's just that my idea of a plot is different to other people’s. When I sit down, I am thinking what would be exciting to have happen next. I feel that my scripts have a motor and the motor is being charged by the character's plight - obviously not everyone is going to agree with me about that.‘ Interesting Fact Her adopted brother Corry Jolie is African American, and Holotcener used this fact as a story point in Lovely and Amazing. She believes. ‘I think we live in an incredibly racist country and have a racist president. It's embarrassing.’
I Friends With Money is on selected release from Fri 26 May. See review, page 40.
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SLHDEFfilEFK3 X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (12A) 104mm .0
Along with diminishing returns, laws governing sequels include upping the ante and, optionally, losing the original creative talent. The third film in the franchise adapted from Marvel Comics’ most popular title is subject to all three. The primary problem is that it’s far more densely plotted than its predecessors (which were marvels, excuse the pun, of storytelling economy, given the generally flabby nature of blockbusters).
Co-written by Simon Kinberg (hot off the back of Mr and Mrs Smith, but new to the X-Men series) and Zak Penn (returning to superhero territory after X2 and the lamentable Elektra), The Last Stand once again introduces a plethora of new mutant heroes and villains, the most recognisable to fans being Beast (played by Frasier’s Kelsey Grammer, an inspired piece of casting), Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones, uninspired) and Angel (Ben Foster), as well as the previously seen but largely unused Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), and finally a hoard of forgettable super-powered evil-doers.
The first film managed its adversarial mutant teams, lead by telepath Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and master of magnetism Magneto (Ian McKellen), with
economy; the second just about kept the burgeoning cast reigned in. Third time around the role call is too large to do justice to the individual characters. Moreover, their numerous plotlines fail to cohere around the central one - Jean Grey's (Famke Janssen) reincarnation as the apocalyptic Phoenix - slowing the narrative to a dead stop during the second act. Even the series' most popular characters - Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Storm (Halle Berry), are sidelined by the newcomers (which may be intentional: having elevated the original cast to A-Iist status, the X-Men films are, reportedly, becoming too expensive to continue making, hence the introduction of mostly younger, less pricey performers).
Worst of all, The Last Stand sorely lacks the well- designed action set pieces of the previous films (this is a superhero comic book adaptation, remember). What’s missing is the inspired touch of Bryan Singer, who brought his independent filmmaking sensibility to the series. Hollywood hack Brett Ratner (Red Dragon) has no grasp of the material and simply spends lots of bucks on big explosions. Only the film’s first act is worth a look, particularly the intriguing Danger Room sequence. Thereafter, it swiftly sinks under its own weight. (Miles Fielder)
I General release from Fri 26 May.