Middle of Nowhere - Review

MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

Written & Directed by Ava DuVernay

Produced by Howard Barish, Ava DuVernay, Paul Garnes & Tilane Jones 

Cinematography by Bradford Young






Starring
Emayatzy Corinealdi
Omari Hardwick
David Oyelowo
Lorraine Toussaint
Edwina Findley
Sharon Lawrence

Released: October 12, 2012 (USA)

Summary: When her husband is sentenced to 8 years in prison, Ruby drops out of med school in order to focus on her husband's well being while he's incarcerated - leading her on a journey of self-discovery in the process.

REVIEW
Middle of Nowhere is a wonderfully excellent motion picture. Every scene crafted perfectly to show you the loneliness of the lead character Ruby, played with an elegant vitality by Emayatzy Corinealdi. You feel every moment of Ruby’s solitary existence without her husband. Even when she is with her family like her sister, played wonderfully by Edwina Findley, you can feel her loneliness. When she is with her mother, played by the excellent Lorraine Toussaint, you can feel something else. With few words you can tell Mom is not happy with her daughter’s situation, but refuses to really dwell on it…until she is ready to dwell on it. That’s all I’m going to say about that!

Even though there are several supporting characters, this story is all about Ruby. The journey you go along with Ruby is not only through her loneliness, but her resilience in dealing with her husband’s legal case. The phone calls, the visits, the things that are very real in that situation, but not often explored onscreen.

This is a drama so of course there is conflict, but you never feel like it’s over the top. The eventual entanglements that happen throughout the picture feel organic and not forced. There are several revelatory scenes in Middle of Nowhere that are wrought with tension, but never come off as melodramatic. As I stated the performances by Edwina Findley and Lorraine Toussaint are great, but so are those by “Ruby’s men” David Oyelowo, who is building a resume of solid performances and Omari Hardwick in what is probably his best onscreen performance thus far.

Middle of Nowhere is a story featuring an African American woman as its Lead in pretty much every scene. Where do you see that? That’s why I loved Middle of Nowhere, for everything it is, an excellently crafted motion picture and everything it is not, which is pretty much everything else you see in theaters.

COMMENTARY
This film excelled on many levels that may not seem obvious so allow me to make everything clear.

If I was a critic, and I’m not, the title of this review could have been “Middle of Nowhere: Achievement in Darkness”.  Never have I seen such beautifully photographed dark skinned actors.

Allow me to digress into some filmmaker talk. As an African American filmmaker I’ve always been cognizant about how they photograph (actually film) dark skinned actors. They never ever get it right. (Too much light, not enough light, too much make up, not enough makeup etc.)

Now once I read that the cinematographer would be Bradford Young I kind of knew the characters would be in good hands regardless, but I still didn’t know.

See I saw a film Mr. Young photographed called Restless City at the 2011 Maryland Film Festival.

Still from Restless City

As you can tell from the still above the lead protagonist (right) was a dark skinned actor and he and all the other dark skinned actors were photographed beautifully!

When I saw Middle of Nowhere I was like I know Ms. DuVernay didn’t compose this scene with two dark skinned actors—AT NIGHT! Who has the…guts to do that? Ms. DuVernay and it looked GREAT due to Mr. Young.

Emayatzy Corinealdi as Ruby

The framing of the Lead character Ruby to show her loneliness was also great. You can FEEL Ruby’s loneliness through Ms. DuVernay’s direction, the camera allows you to sit there with Ruby as she is alone and through those shots you feel as alone as she does.

The acting was across the board perfect as well. After only two pictures I’m ready to call Ms. DuVernay the “no histrionics” director. LOL. I didn’t detect a false note in the performances (and I usually can).

The screenplay, like the acting was pitch perfect. There were no scenes that didn’t fit and no story nuance that wasn’t covered. Maybe because I’ve studied screenwriting so long, it was the perfect screenplay. Beat to beat, plot point to plot point and NOT to the point of being predictable. The story was straight forward without a million subplots. Like I said in my review, it’s “all about Ruby”.

Lastly, in this era of tablet computers, flat screens and straight to DVD movies every five seconds, through her distribution company AFFRM (African American Releasing Movement) Ava DuVernay has been committed to getting films shown on the BIG SCREEN, as they should be! (More info about AFFRM linked below)

As I said in my review, “I loved Middle of Nowhere for everything it is, an excellently crafted motion picture and everything it is not, which is pretty much everything else you see in theaters.” and therein lies the brilliance of Ava DuVernay and Middle of Nowhere.

You just don’t see these type of stories on the screen, big or small. Between this and her last film, I Will Follow, Ava DuVernay has managed to bring to the fore stories of black women that you just will not find anywhere in a visual medium. For that reason alone I think she can be called a fresh voice in the chorus of cinema.


OCTOBER 2017

Live Tweets of the Feature Commentary of Middle of Nowhere with Writer/Director Ava DuVernay and star Emayatzy Corinealdi

LISTEN UP! It’s the Feature Commentary of ‘Middle of Nowhere’ (2012) https://t.co/uV8aWOvkU1 with AVA DUVERNAY and EMAYATZY CORINEALDI pic.twitter.com/YphEFPnbDP

— Nother Brother Ent. (@NotherBrother) October 15, 2017

Our review of I Will Follow

Read all of our posts about AFFRM

Read all of our posts about Ava DuVernay

Happy 70th Birthday Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese

As he was born November 17, 1942, today is Mr. Scorsese's 70th birthday.

Today seems like the perfect time to clear up a fallacy; Martin Scorsese is my favorite director, a fact that is directly attributable to my have studied film. Besides making entertaining films, which is the goal of every filmmaker, the technical achievement in his films are for the most part excellent. 

I consume more media about Scorsese than perhaps any other filmmaker and I’m always amazed at his knowledge of cinema. That’s the main thing I learned from Mr. Scorsese, don’t just watch movies, but break them down and take them apart. To be a master of cinema you must first be a student of cinema. 

Thank You Mr. Scorsese and Happy Birthday.

My Five Favorite Martin Scorsese Films

• GoodFellas
• The Aviator
• Cape Fear
• Shutter Island
• The Wolf of Wall Street

RELATED

My review of one of those Scorsese consumed media 

(Click the graphic to read it)

Read more about Martin Scorsese at Wikipedia here

Baltimore Director's Film Will Have Its World Premiere at The Chicago International Film Festival

The Chicago International Film Festival, which runs from October 11-25, announced their official schedule September 20th.

The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America.

Danny Green

Among the dozens of films which will be presented at this year's festival, will be Baltimore born director Danny Green's second feature film, Mr. Sophistication.

Mr. Sophistication stars Harry Lennix, Tatum O'Neal, Robert Patrick, Richard Brooks, Gina Torres, Rick Fox, Bruce McGill and Paloma Guzmán.

The film deals with "a comedian, Ron Waters, who is a Richard Pryor-type of entertainer who makes commentary about the world rather than one-liners. After a self-imposed exile from Hollywood, Ron is back."

Danny Green, Harry Lennix and the producers Albena Dodeva and Jon Edwards will be present for the screening.

For more info on the screenings see the Chicago International Film Festival, listing for the film here

Check out the Official Website @ http://www.mrsophisticationmovie.com/

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Danny Green is a personal friend of mine and my social network followers will know him as #MyDirectorFriendFromLA because he didn't want me to say too much about the film before he was ready.

I have to state because I was asked, I had nothing to do with the production of the film.  I just supplied my friend with marketing advice. I’ve been sort of a “social media/marketing consultant” for the film after the fact.

I’ve also seen the film and I’ve given him some advice on the trailer and such. I will write a review for the film soon and I will keep it as honest as possible even though he is a friend of mine.

Until then you can check out the film’s star Ron Waters on social media (I had no hand in any of Ron’s stuff online either. That’s all Ron.)
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/ronwatersesq
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ronwatersesq

UPDATE OCTOBER 2012

Harry Lennix 

Excerpt from a October 17, 2012 interview Harry Lennix did with RedEye Chicago

I really enjoyed “Mr. Sophistication.” For Ron Waters, are you naturally that smooth, or did you have to do some research to get to that point?

[Laughs.] Well, first of all, I want to thank you for your review. It’s extremely nice and you were kind to us and we really appreciate it. I’m glad you liked the movie most of all because it confirms some things that we’ve been waiting to hear for a long time. ... We started it about three years ago. To answer your question, Harry Lennix is not [as] smooth as Ron Waters. [Laughs.] When I was a single man I didn’t walk around with a black suit on and a lot of pomade in my hair or anything. I think I have a bit of Ron Waters in me from people I’ve observed. I was never the smooth guy with lines or anything but I’m fairly witty, so I’m probably a little more—I can’t say off the cuff ‘cause Ron’s very off the cuff too. I’m a little more deliberative. [Laughs.] I can focus in a little bit more than Ron.

Danny wrote the part specifically for you. Why do you think he wrote it this way? I’m unclear if this is based on a true story.

It is insofar as an amalgamation of personalities and biographical figures, but there was no guy named Ron Waters. It’s our kind of blending, or Danny’s blending, of a guy by the name of Jon Edwards, who actually is one of the producers, Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. So somebody that can flow on stage talking about real events in real time. And is crazy, like most comedians, but has a kind of definite smooth style or veneer that he puts on, this suit of armor. So he’s really a mix of all of those personalities. So in that sense it’s based on real people, although not on a true story so to speak.

How do you think the fact that Danny was writing for you influenced how he wrote the character?

I am not convinced that Danny was writing it entirely for me. Danny says that he wrote this for me, I believe him of course, but I based a lot of the character, in terms of the execution, on Danny Green. So a lot of his rhythm in terms of his way of speech, that’s really Danny Green, or the pronunciation of certain words. That’s my take on how Danny hears it in his head. An actor’s real responsibility I believe and I think the responsibility of at least the theater and practitioners of it is to achieve the vision of the playwright. It may not be exactly what the playwright had in mind, per se, but what was the playwright or what was the writer, what is the story really getting at? What is the essence of it? To that extent I’ve taken on from time to time characters I would otherwise not play just because I could get behind the story, but in this case I was getting behind both a story and a character. I think the story is reflective of a lot of men in our society, particularly black men who need basically to put on a suit of armor. In this case you’ve got this armor of outward civility and so forth but he’s incapable of lying when he’s on the stage. I think that’s the ultimate quest of the artist is to always be in the truth when he’s on the stage.

What Does a Production Designer Do?

From Shadow & Act-

Continuing S&A's mission to give readers glimpses into the worlds of those who contribute their talents to the production and distribution of the many films we all watch and love...

Being a production designer is a lot like being an architect. In fact, it’s usually the easiest way to describe a portion of what I do – and the basic concept of production design.

In the simplest terms, as a designer I create and build sets. I come into a film very early. Much of the time it’s the director, a producer or two, the locations manager and myself. We spend time looking at and deciding on locations, which places fit the tone, texture and mood of the story and characters. We talk about what sets make sense to build on a stage, or what locations we’re able to change the appearance of by augmenting the interior and/or exterior.

For me, a large part of the job is about working with the director to understand the characters; who they are, their habits, the things they love, the things they have aversions to, the people in their lives, past and present, their idiosyncrasies and so on. All of those things and more play an important part in creating the world in which the story lives, and from this world come colors and textures. The manifestation of these elements is always different given the project I’m working on at the time. For example, it could be a period piece, a project that is very stylized, or a drama. It’s about pushing the boundaries of where you think they are, in collaboration with the director, cinematographer, costume designer and property master, ultimately presenting a consistent look and feel from beginning to end.

I’ve been working in the film industry for about ten years, give or take. I started out in the art department, which has always been my focus. The art direction was always what I concerned myself with whenever I watched a film – certainly when I was making my own films. It always resonated with me beyond anything else.

Initially, my goal was to be a set decorator; my idol has and always will be Nancy Haigh (set decorator for the Coen Bros). I worked my way up through the art department and started decorating. On the film “Cleaner,” the director Renny Harlin said to me, “You should be a production designer. You don’t have to know where every two-by-four goes, but you do have to have a vision, and you have a vision and a point of view and it’s pretty amazing.”

Up until that point I had never thought about taking the step towards being a designer. After a couple of years decorating and working with many different designers, observing, asking questions and deciding what I would do and wouldn’t, I made the transition to production designer.

At first, I took a lot of low budget features and short films. I was hungry to work and get the experience under my belt. Over the past two and half years, I've had the pleasure and opportunity to work with several gifted directors with whom I share a similar sense of aesthetic. We've created some memorable moments, playing with colors and ideas. I look forward to our next projects together.

For me it’s really important to be working with great, talented directors who have a clear idea of what they want their story to reveal in look and tone.

Really, the most important thing to me in any film is the story – it’s what makes me want to work on a film. I love quirky films just as much as I love serious drama. I also like dark comedy and I always love a good period piece; all these things play a part in me wanting to work on a project. I love film and enjoy what I do and more and more, I’m finding the journey is ultimately the destination in this industry.

Hannah Beachler

With more than 9 feature film projects on her resume, New Orleans-based production designer Hannah Beachler most recently worked on "Fruitvale" for director Ryan Coogler and producer Forest Whitaker. Octavia Spencer, Michael B. Jordan, Tristan Wilds and Melonie Diaz star in the indie drama that's based on the murder of 22-year old Oscar Grant, who was fatally shot by BART police in Oakland, California.

See her website at http://www.hannahbeachler.com

Think Like A Man - Review

THINK LIKE A MAN

Directed by Tim Story

Produced by William Packer, Glenn S. Gainor, Rob Hardy, Steve Harvey, & Rushion McDonald

Written by Keith Merryman & David A. Newman (Based on the book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey)

Cinematography by Larry Blanford


Released: April 20, 2012 (USA)

Starring:
Kevin Hart as Cedric
Michael Ealy as Dominic
Taraji P. Henson as Lauren
Romany Malco as Zeke
Meagan Good as Mya
Regina Hall as Candace
Terrence J as Michael
Gabrielle Union as Kristen
Jerry Ferrara as Jeremy
Steve Harvey as Himself

Review
As a rule I don’t watch too many romantic comedies or as they are want to be called “rom coms”. Not that I’m against a good romantic comedy, it’s just that they always seem to come off as false, predictable and otherwise maudlin. When I do find one that hits all the right notes I sure recommend it and Think Like A Man is such a film.

Kevin Hart in Think Like A Man

While it definitely follows the rom com playbook, it offered many fresh and innovative takes. The freshest take is the mirthful humor of Kevin Hart. I didn’t know how the stand up comic would fit in in a comedic acting performance, but he did and was hilarious! I didn’t think he would steal every scene he was in, but he did.

The film also found clever ways to introduce Steve Harvey into the film, which at times seemed like an infomercial, but it still somehow works especially when the book is integral to the plot.

In an ensemble comedy there is/are always someone/some people of that ensemble that you don’t really care about, but I liked everyone in the ensemble (all mentioned above) and their romantic pairings.

Michael Ealy and Taraji P. Henson in Think Like A Man

I read on the Nother Brother Twitter account (@NotherBrother) that Taraji P. Henson as “Lauren” and Michael Ealy as “Dominic” had great chemistry and they did! No matter the script, if you can’t find two actors with chemistry in a romantic story all is lost. Fortunately that was not the case here.

Romany Malco and Meagan Good in Think Like A Man 

Even though I liked all the pairings, my favorite was Romany Malco as “Zeke” and Meagan Good as “Mya”. They both gave really great performances which led to them becoming a standout couple for me.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good this picture was and definitely one of the funniest and most enjoyable films I’ve seen this year.

Commentary
Since Think Like A Man’s release in April, I’ve been reading about its fantastic box office success.

Think Like a Man grossed over $33.7 million during its opening weekend, an accomplishment which ended The Hunger Games' four-week run at the #1 spot at the U.S. box office. The romantic comedy film remained on top of the competition during its second week as well, edging out new releases to bring in a still-impressive $17.6 million.

As of June 24, 2012, Think Like a Man has earned $95,326,341 in both the United States and Canada, along with $3,779,136 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $99,105,477. The movie's production budget was $12.5 million.

As of today August 31, 2012 the worldwide gross is $95,722,698 (Sources: Box Office Mojo, MTV News & CNN Entertainment)

I also posted here on the ‘Nother Brother Entertainment blog a link to a great interview the producer of the film Will Packer did right after its release, that laid out his marketing plan for the picture that led to its box office success.

It should come as no surprise then that on June 28, 2012 Screen Gems announced plans for a sequel to be made of the film, with the original screenwriters Keith Merryman and David A. Newman also writing its script. No director, title, nor release date has been given. (Los Angeles Times)

I think the main attribute of the film’s success was that it was you know…actually good. Sometimes a film CAN succeed without a large and well financed marketing plan just for being good. Congratulations to the studio Rainforest Films. (Our congrats on our Facebook page)

The Cinematography of 'Red Hook Summer'

One of the things I was amazed at in the newest Spike Lee Joint Red Hook Summer was the cinematography. 

Poster for Red Hook Summer

Red Hook Summer is a film written and directed by Spike Lee, his sixth in the "Chronicles of Brooklyn" series following She's Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Crooklyn, Clockers and He Got Game. The film was released on August 10, 2012 in the select theatres of the New York City area and was released in other parts of the northeast United States on August 24, 2012. —Wikipedia

Spike said in The Hollywood Reporter "I'd just bought this Sony camera, an F3, and I said, "We've got the means and ways and have to make do. " 

SONY F3 CAMERA

I don't what know type of lens he used (it's all about the lens yo), but the film really looked good! Well the lighting also plays a part in making a film look good as well.

To that end I want to *APPLAUD*  the all around great cinematography by Kerwin DeVonish (pictured below) in REAL locations! 

Kerwin DeVonish

Like many low budget films, everything in Red Hook Summer was shot on location and DeVonish did an awesome job of lighting up and shooting in those locations especially the small church and Red Hook projects apartment the main character lived in. Stills from some of those scenes pictured below.

As a filmmaker I'm always fascinated by the technique of films. I'm even fascinated by the cameras as indicated by my post about the Olympics DiveCam. LOL. 

Besides wanting to see this Spike Lee film, excuse me "Joint", I've been reading about for over a year, I wanted to see how the film would LOOK on such a low budget and this camera Spike bought to shoot it with. 

Seth Shire of the blog Unpaid Film Critic said “Red Hook Summer” has been nicely photographed by cinematographer Kerwin DeVonish.  The movie has been digitally photographed and has an eye popping color palette." I couldn't agree more. 

The colors in Red Hook Summer POPPED. The cinematographer is responsible for creating this look through lighting and lenses. Again DeVonish did a great job doing this. Those apartment scenes and the church scenes were very small locations that didn't look like it allowed enough room to rig lights, but DeVonish did it—to great effect.

ADDITIONAL

You can read more about the Sony F3 camera by clicking the picture below

You can check out Kerwin DeVonish's IMDb profile here

CLICK the button below to read all the news posts about Red Hook Summer at our Sista blog Cool Black Media

Tony Scott (1944 – 2012)

Listen, I’m not going to go and say that Tony Scott (pictured above) was one of my favorite directors because he has passed away. I can say that I had tremendous respect for his body of work and I can call him an auteur…something I don’t say about many directors.

Because I’m a Denzel Washington fan, I have seen every Denzel Washington/Tony Scott directed film and enjoyed every one of them. That’s FIVE films I can say I enjoyed by ONE director and I also can’t say that about many.

Those five films are Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) and Unstoppable (2010). I also enjoyed the Tony Scott films The Last Boy Scout (1991) and Enemy of the State (1998).

My favorite Tony Scott film though is absolutely Man on Fire.

Picture I took of my Man on Fire BluRay and posted online after I read about his death. 

Man on Fire is also one of my favorite Denzel Washington films. Aided by a great screenplay by Brian Helgeland who wrote the screenplays for L.A. Confidential and Mystic River, I think Man on Fire is a magnificent piece of work and Tony Scott’s magnum opus.

I thought Tony Scott imbued Man on Fire brilliantly with Mexican culture through the gritty realism of the setting and its use of Spanish music. According to sources cited at Wikipedia, "20th Century Fox wanted the film to be set in Italy. An early draft of the film script was set in Naples. Scott argued that if the setting would be Italy, then the film would have to be a period piece, since by the 2000s kidnappings became a rare occurrence in Italy. Mexico City became the setting of the 2004 film because Mexico City had a high kidnapping rate."

At first I didn’t get the “tremor effect” in the film, but I grew to not only accept it, but love it! I thought it was the perfect aesthetic for such a film.

The true driving force of Man on Fire though was the chemistry between its two leads Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning. Without their chemistry you would never believe the whole plot of the movie which was the revenge factor. Even though he was personally on a downward spiral, you felt that his love of the little girl gave him something to live for and when she was taken—something to kill for. If you didn’t believe their love it would have just been another empty “shoot em up” picture.

I was looking forward to more films from Mr. Anthony David Scott, but at least we have his visual body of work to watch for years to come. May he rest in peace.

More Man on Fire Trivia  Denzel Washington was cast in this film because of a trip to a doctor. He ran into director Tony Scott in the waiting room of a medical office and the two men started chatting. Scott had not seen Washington in person since they worked together on "Crimson Tide". Scott happened to see Dakota Fanning in "I Am Sam" the night before and seeing Washington made Scott think using of the two actors together. A. J. Quinnell (writer of the source book) had a favorable reception to this adaptation, mainly because the film used many of the book's lines. Quinnell said that usually screenwriters "like to leave their mark on the product." Quinnell added that even though he usually dislikes film adaptations of books, the writers "did a good job with Man On Fire and I loved the chemistry between Creasy and the girl" and "When I first heard Denzel was playing the part of Creasy I missed a couple of heartbeats but he played the part brilliantly. The film is violent and if the anger is not portrayed properly, the result can be awful." In A.J. Quinnell's novel Dakota Fanning's character in Italy was named Pinta. After director Tony Scott's changed the film's setting to Mexico and discovered that "Pinta" is Mexican slang for "whore", he had the name changed to "Pita" and made her full name Lupita. The kitchen scene between Creasy and Pita where she asked him about concubines were mostly ad-libbed by both actors. It started when they "accused" each other of smiling. -Trivia from IMDb and Wikipedia

At Wikipedia Tony Scott

At The Hollywood Reporter

PHOTOS: Tony Scott's Films

From 'Top Gun' to 'Unstoppable' a look at his work. VIEW GALLERY