Life During Wartime Archives - The Playlist

Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow & Selma Blair Join The Cast Of Todd Solondz’s ‘Dark Horse’; First Details On The Plot

Oliver Lyttelton — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:51:00 +0000

With this year’s “Life During Wartime” proving to be not only a worthy follow-up to its predecessor 1998’s “Happiness,” but also director Todd Solondz’s best film since then, we were glad to hear a few weeks back that the not-exactly prolific helmer was moving forward on another project. “Dark Horse,” described as an ‘edgy character drama,’ was first revealed when we talked to Solondz earlier in the year, and recently, while no details on the plot leaked out, Aasif Mandvi (“The Daily Show”), Justin Bartha (“The Hangover”) and theater veteran Jordan Gelber were rumored to be appearing in some form.

Continue reading Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow & Selma Blair Join The Cast Of Todd Solondz’s ‘Dark Horse’; First Details On The Plot at The Playlist.

Justin Bartha May Join Aasif Mandvi in Todd Solondz’s New Drama, ‘Dark Horse’

Edward Davis — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:02:00 +0000

When we last spoke to Todd Solondz earlier this year about the making of his latest, “Life During Wartime,” the indie filmmaker told us about his upcoming new picture, “Dark Horse.”

Unfortunately at the time, the director could not divulge details about the plot, nor could he reveal the actors he was in discussions with, but as a hint, he did say, “I’m not saying [it’s a] gentler [picture], but I don’t think it’s controversial,” he said.

Continue reading Justin Bartha May Join Aasif Mandvi in Todd Solondz’s New Drama, ‘Dark Horse’ at The Playlist.

Listen: Title Track From Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ By Devendra Banhart & Beck

Kevin Jagernauth — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:36:00 +0000

If you’ve seen Todd Solondz’s latest effort “Life During Wartime,” you may have noticed two variations of the title track song played in the film. One is done acoustically by Shirley Henderson (taking on the role of Joy, once played by Jane Adams in Solondz’s 1998 film, “Happiness”) and a second version plays during the credits, performed this time by Beck and his buddy Devendra Banhart. This version is a bit more upbeat (Banhart’s song “Heard Somebody Say” is also featured in the film) with some subtle electronic beats, but it’s still pretty much a low-key affair.

Continue reading Listen: Title Track From Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ By Devendra Banhart & Beck at The Playlist.

Weekend Box Office: Filmgoers Request Pinch Of ‘Salt’ But Plate Of ‘Inception’

Gabe Toro — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0000

By and large, studios have somewhat agreed to play nice during the major moviegoing periods of the year, agreeing to space out their major releases so that each studio can have their own weekend to themselves, with the other majors and mini-majors offering only smaller counter-programming. As a result, Sony had no real competition opening this weekend against their action thriller “Salt” and it was reflected in a solid opening frame that firmed up Angelina Jolie’s rep as one of Hollywood’s more versatile stars.

Continue reading Weekend Box Office: Filmgoers Request Pinch Of ‘Salt’ But Plate Of ‘Inception’ at The Playlist.

How Meta: Filmmakers & Their Crossover Universes

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:33:00 +0000

Yes, in a slow week like this with a brainless popcorn flick like “Salt” in theaters, the film of the week, at least for us, is Todd Solondz’s bizarre, quasi-sequel, “Life During Wartime” (read two reviews and check out our interview with the director). In the indie picture that comes out today — Friday, July 23 in limited release (NY only, but it’s on VOD too) — Solondz takes characters from the universe he’s created (in this instance, individuals from “Welcome To The Dollhouse” and “Happiness”) and scrambles them together to create another new, bleak, caustic yet funny critique about society and our strange proclivities.

Continue reading How Meta: Filmmakers & Their Crossover Universes at The Playlist.

In Theaters: ‘Salt,’ ‘Ramona and Beezus,’ ‘Life During Wartime’

Hunter McClamrock — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:34:00 +0000

In a welcome change of pace from the testosterone-fueled summer season, girls rule the new releases this weekend at the box office. Angelina Jolie takes a breather from the adoption queue to headline the spy flick “Salt” posing the biggest threat to “Inception” which has been pulling strong numbers all week long. Disney star Selena Gomez headlines the family oriented “Ramona and Beezus,” giving the tweens too young for Edward and Jacob something to look forward to.

Continue reading In Theaters: ‘Salt,’ ‘Ramona and Beezus,’ ‘Life During Wartime’ at The Playlist.

Review: Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ Is A Bizarre Extended Epilogue That Works

Christopher Bell — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:28:00 +0000

And here comes the sequel nobody really asked for, Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime,” a part two to his pedophilia-rape-molestation-masturbation opus “Happiness.” We caught this film at TIFF last year and reviewed it, but decided to reevaluate it upon its release.

“Life During Wartime” picks up with Joy (played by the infinitely fragile Shirley Henderson) at the exact same restaurant with her new husband Allen (Michael K.

Continue reading Review: Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ Is A Bizarre Extended Epilogue That Works at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Todd Solondz Talks Forgiveness & The Liberating Meta-Ness Of His ‘Life During Wartime’ Quasi Sequel

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:22:00 +0000

Indie enfante terrible Todd Solondz pulled off one of the most ambitious film’s in indie cinema this year, at least conceptually.

His latest picture, “Life During Wartime,” — which hits in limited release and VOD this Friday, July 23 — is a quasi-sequel to his films, “Happiness” and “Welcome To The Dollhouse” — which essentially picks up with several characters from these previous films (though mostly “Happiness”) years later and inhabits them in a new milieu (the sunny domesticity of Florida) with the theme of forgiveness filtering throughout (we made a handy cheat sheet last year to tell you the entire new cast and who was playing who).

Continue reading Exclusive: Todd Solondz Talks Forgiveness & The Liberating Meta-Ness Of His ‘Life During Wartime’ Quasi Sequel at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Todd Solondz’s Next Picture ‘Dark Horse’ Shoots This Fall

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:34:00 +0000

Late last week we sat down and chatted with indie filmmaker Todd Solondz, a sweet and articulate man who couldn’t be more different from his darkly comical, provocative and sometimes misanthropic films.

While it took him almost four years to get his latest picture, “Life During Wartime,” made (one iteration with Emma Thompson, Demi Moore, Hope Davis, Paul Dano and Faye Dunaway and an entirely different cast was announced in early 2006, but then fell apart) and prior to that “Palindromes” was a partly self-financed project that struggled to even gain indie-film attention, it appears the filmmaker’s fortunes are changing for the better.

Continue reading Exclusive: Todd Solondz’s Next Picture ‘Dark Horse’ Shoots This Fall at The Playlist.

New Photos & Trailer: Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:20:00 +0000

OK, this official U.S. trailer for Todd Soldonz’s “Life During Wartime” is not very different from the U.K. one released earlier this year, but hey, we also found some new pictures to go along with this post (a new poster was also recently released).

Also as our review from TIFF 2009 notes; while “Life During Wartime” wasn’t completely successful front to back, it is a interesting picture and one worth not only seeing, but discussing.

Continue reading New Photos & Trailer: Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ at The Playlist.

New ‘Life During Wartime’ Poster Is Unremarkable; ‘Kids Are All Right’ Featurette Illustrates Why Film Is A Winner

Edward Davis — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:45:00 +0000

A new poster for Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime” has arrived and it’s basically a more illustrated version of the already released U.K. one, and frankly we liked the English version better (and surely that will sell the picture better too). The film is a quasi sequel to Solondz’s “Happiness” and stars Allison Janney, Ciarán Hinds, Paul Reubens (aka “Pee Wee Herman”) and Ally Sheedy among many others. The boy in the poster is the actor Dylan Riley Snyder.[Vulture]

Vertigo Films is making its second 3D live-action pic based on Novel Entertainment’s children’s property “Horrid Henry.” The first was the $30 million box-office hit “Street Dance 3D.” The character is the second most successful children’s character in the U.K.

Continue reading New ‘Life During Wartime’ Poster Is Unremarkable; ‘Kids Are All Right’ Featurette Illustrates Why Film Is A Winner at The Playlist.

Drama Over? Getting To The Heart of James Van Der Beek’s Missing Scenes In ‘Storytelling’

Edward Davis — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:20:00 +0000

Actors being cast and then dropped from a film at the editing stage is really nothing new, but in the era of modern cinema (last decade or so), no such incident seems to stand out more — aside from the numerous cast members whittled out of Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line” of course — than James Van Der Beek’s gay football character being excised from Todd Solondz’s acidic and screed-ish 2001 film, “Storytelling.”

The film follows two stories about dysfunction and personal turmoil using the college and high school to serve as the background of both narratives (broken up into “Fiction” and “Non-Fiction”).

Continue reading Drama Over? Getting To The Heart of James Van Der Beek’s Missing Scenes In ‘Storytelling’ at The Playlist.

‘Agora,’ ‘The Killer Inside Me’ & ‘Life During Wartime’ Get Summer Release Dates

Kevin Jagernauth — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:00:00 +0000

For those of you looking for a bit of a reprieve from the onslaught of CGI at the multiplex this summer, your local arthouse just might have the fix you’re looking for as release dates for three highly anticipated films have been slotted for the hazy, lazy days of summer.

First up, Alejandro Amenábar’s “Agora” has been penciled in for a May 28th release by Newmarket Films. The film, which got a tepid reception at Cannes last year though became a smash hit in Spain, stars Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella and depicts Hypatia’s struggle to save the wisdom of the ancient world while embroiled in a love triangle.

Continue reading ‘Agora,’ ‘The Killer Inside Me’ & ‘Life During Wartime’ Get Summer Release Dates at The Playlist.

New U.K. Trailer & Poster For Todd Solondz’ ‘Life During Wartime’; Hear The New Beck & Devendra Banhart Song Too

Edward Davis — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:15:00 +0000

While we have seen footage from the film during its 2009 Venice Film Festival bow — where it won a screenwriting award — this is, for all and intents and purposes, our first real look at Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime,” his quasi weird sequel to 1998’s “Happiness.”

From what we understand (and or based on what we’ve written in the past), the film centers on the lives of several of the characters in “Happiness,” plus a few from 1995’s “Welcome To The Dollhouse” (Solondz’s crowing achievement thus far in this writer’s opinion) and revolves around the themes of forgiveness, which was once the working title of the film.

Continue reading New U.K. Trailer & Poster For Todd Solondz’ ‘Life During Wartime’; Hear The New Beck & Devendra Banhart Song Too at The Playlist.

2010 Anticipated: 30 Films We’ve Already Seen

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:27:00 +0000

Yes, the obsessive comprehensive look at films from 2010 continues, but this time it’s slightly different. Alright, we don’t anticipate these films, because, well, we’ve already seen them. But you probably do. Here’s 30 films we’ve already seen and that are probably fairly high on your most anticipated 2010 list if you’re a film festival goer and a cineaste. However, not all of them turned out as great as we had hoped. Buyer beware with some.

Continue reading 2010 Anticipated: 30 Films We’ve Already Seen at The Playlist.

IFC Films To Release Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ In The Summer

Rodrigo Perez — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:03:00 +0000

Man, another film we had on the brain (you’ll see tmw in another 2010 preview piece we’re doing) and were wondering when it was going to get picked up.

Sales at TIFF 2009 were pretty slow this year and that was a given in this shaky film climate. Buyers were tentative and took a wait and see approach, but with a new fiscal year on the books, distribs do seem to have some extra cash at hand.

Continue reading IFC Films To Release Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ In The Summer at The Playlist.

TIFF ’09 Review: ‘Life During Wartime’

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:25:00 +0000

Indie enfante terrible Todd Solondz has been talking about his quasi-sequel variation to 1999’s “Happiness” for several years now.

At one point circa 2006/07 it was supposed to star Emma Thompson, Demi Moore, Hope Davis, Paul Dano and Faye Dunaway several other name actors, but obviously that one never happened.

It went from being titled “Life During Wartime,” to untitled, to “Forgiveness,” and then back to the original (based of a famous Talking Heads song).

Continue reading TIFF ’09 Review: ‘Life During Wartime’ at The Playlist.

TIFF ’09: Day Two

Katie Walsh — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:07:00 +0000

A bit more sleep and a shower (finally) makes it all go down somewhateasier, but the on-the-run food and increasing carpal tunnel syndrome issues don’t help. Also, obey the cardinal rule: avoid other festival-going friends: you will talk and drink and be merry and hours and hours of precious writing time is gone, never to be recovered.

But Day 2 was certainly the best so far with two decidedly great pictures. The first was The Weinstein Company’s scooped up festival buzzer, Tom Ford’s exquisite “A Single Man,” which is as terrific as they say it is.

Continue reading TIFF ’09: Day Two at The Playlist.

Beck & Devendra Banhart Soundtrack Credits Of Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:17:00 +0000

We just got out of a screening of Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime” — perhaps not the return-to-form you’ve been hearing about, nor that much more mature, but a bit of a devilish delight nevertheless. It did just win a screenwriting award in Venice.

But anywho, Solondz evidently wrote a song called, “Life During Wartime,” that’s performed twice during the film. Once acoustically by Shirley Henderson (taking on the role of Joy, once played by Jane Adams in Solondz’s 1998 film, “Happiness”) and a second time in the credits, performed this time by Beck and his buddy Devendra Banhart.

Continue reading Beck & Devendra Banhart Soundtrack Credits Of Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ at The Playlist.

First Look Scenes: New Clips From Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:21:00 +0000

There’s no trailer yet to Todd Solondz’s quasi-sorta-sequel to “Happiness,” his latest effort which has screened in Venice and is titled, “Life During Wartime,” but we do now have this extended mini-documentary or European TV segment that does show many clips from the film including scenes with Allison Janey, Shirley Henderson, Paul Reubens, Michael Lerner, and Ally Sheedy among others.

The conceit of this one is old characters from the Solondz milieu — “Happiness,” “Welcome To The Dollhouse” — and casting entirely new actors to play the parts (who’s who?

Continue reading First Look Scenes: New Clips From Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ at The Playlist.

Venice Thoughts: Herzog’s ‘Lieutenant’ & ‘My Son,’ Solodnz’ ‘Wartime’ & More…

Rodrigo Perez — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Reviews from various films at the Venice Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival — both currently in progress are….ok, not flying in fast and furious like we expected, but more like trickling in at a moderate pace (maybe it’s the economy and less writers to carpetbag the events).

Variety weighs in on Todd Solodnz’s “Life During Wartime,” and are surprisingly positive after shellacking almost anything in sight lately that hasn’t appeared to be accessible or commercial (“The Road,” Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans“).

Continue reading Venice Thoughts: Herzog’s ‘Lieutenant’ & ‘My Son,’ Solodnz’ ‘Wartime’ & More… at The Playlist.

‘The Road,’ Todd Solondz’s ‘Wartime’ & Herzog’s ‘Bad Lieutenant’ Added To Telluride ’09 Line-Up

Rodrigo Perez — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:48:00 +0000

The 2009 Telluride Film Festival starts tomorrow! Woo, the wacky, hippie-like film festival in Colorado is only for those with large wallets and risk-taking, adventurous attitudes as the festival doesn’t announce its line-up until the day before. Imagine you booked flight and accommodations to Colorado and the line-up wasn’t to your taste? God, we really don’t live that life of luxury.

But those that are going early are in for a treat and will get a North American early sneak-peak at films playing at the Toronto International Film Festival like Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime,” and John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” which we’ve actually seen, but have to hold review until… Telluride reviews hit?

Continue reading ‘The Road,’ Todd Solondz’s ‘Wartime’ & Herzog’s ‘Bad Lieutenant’ Added To Telluride ’09 Line-Up at The Playlist.

Todd Solondz Calls ‘Life During Wartime’ A “Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder” Film

Rodrigo Perez — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:03:00 +0000

Ready to be punished with the brutal black and unforgiving humor of a Todd Solondz picture?

His new one, a “a quasi-sequel variation” to 1999’s “Happiness” stars many of the same characters in that film (plus a few from ’95’s “Welcome To The Dollhouse” too), only new actors are starring in the roles. Example: Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar from “The Wire”) is playing the skeevy, perverted character that Philip Seymour Hoffman played in the original (we’ve mapped out all the new actors playing old characters here).

Continue reading Todd Solondz Calls ‘Life During Wartime’ A “Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder” Film at The Playlist.

13 Most-Anticipated Picks From TIFF ’09

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:35:00 +0000

One can surely do more than 10-15 picks for the Toronto International Film Festival each year and there are surely about 35-40 films on our radar, but we only have so much time and can only be in so many places at once. So we thought we’d whittle this down to the core of what we’re really anticipating in 2009. You’ll have to note things that we’ve already seen this year, at the Cannes Film Festival or otherwise are not on this list, but pictures like, Jane Campion’s “Bright Star,” Bong Joon-Ho’s “Mother,” Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces,” and to a slightly-lesser extent Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” — plus non-Cannes pic Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” — are all still must-see pictures (even if all of them aren’t front-to-back perfect).

Continue reading 13 Most-Anticipated Picks From TIFF ’09 at The Playlist.

New Script Synopsis Reveals What ‘Happiness’ (& ‘Dollhouse’) Characters Are Transposed Onto Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:55:00 +0000

We could have easily done this via the script that we’ve had for months, but this seemed just a lot easier (and that was a lot of hard work). Earlier today we revealed some first look photos of Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime,” a weird sort-of sequel to “Happiness,” where some of the same characters return, but none are played by the original actor in the 1998 film. A brand new synopsis has been revealed which basically (easily) tells us who is who.

Continue reading New Script Synopsis Reveals What ‘Happiness’ (& ‘Dollhouse’) Characters Are Transposed Onto Todd Solondz’s ‘Life During Wartime’ at The Playlist.