Trailer: Jack of the Red Hearts with AnnaSophia Robb
Posted on March 12, 2016 at 3:05 pm
AnnaSophia Robb stars as a young woman who accepts a job as a caregiver for an autistic girl in “Jack of the Red Hearts” with Famke Jameson and Scott Cohen.
TrueSpark: Teaching Children and Teens About Character With Quality Films
Posted on September 21, 2014 at 8:22 pm
I am honored to serve on the advisory committee for TrueSpark, which provides quality films and curricula for schools at no cost to use in teaching character.
Parents and teachers who want to learn more can find out how to enroll on the website, which also has information on how to volunteer, donate, or suggest films to be included.
The Way Way Back
Posted on July 5, 2013 at 9:12 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, language, some sexual content, and brief drug material |
| Profanity: | Some strong language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking and drunkenness, drug reference |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Emotional confrontations |
| Diversity Issues: | Insensitive treatment of a person with a disability |
| Date Released to Theaters: | July 5, 2013 |
| Date Released to DVD: | October 21, 2013 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B00DL46ZN8 |
Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, Oscar winners for the screenplay of “The Descendants,” have written, produced, and directed an endearing coming-of-age story called “The Way Way Back,” appearing in it as well. At times it seems there have been as many movies of the summer that changed some adolescent’s life as there have been adolescents to face the daunting challenges of growing up. It is a daunting challenge, as well, to make this story fresh and meaningful, but Faxon, Rash, and their exceptionally capable cast have managed, with a story that is specific enough to feel new but universal enough to hit home.
Liam James plays Duncan, who gives the movie’s title its double resonance as we first see him, facing the back window of an old station wagon driven by his mother’s new boyfriend, riding in the “way back.” We can feel everything he knows, everything that feels like home and welcome and normal to him receding into the distance. He’s looking back.
Trent (Steve Carell), the boyfriend, in the driver’s seat, is looking back, too. He is sizing Duncan up in a primal urge to establish Duncan’s mother, Pam (Toni Collette), as his territory. We see his eyes in the rear view mirror. The tone is friendly, avuncular, even paternal but the words are devastating. He asks Duncan how it rates himself on a scale of one to ten. When Duncan ventures a six, Trent tells him he’s a three. And he expects Duncan to use his time at the beach house to “get that score up.”
Duncan is in teen hell. And his mother’s happiness makes him feel at the same time happy for her and fury and isolation at her inability to see that Trent is a bully and a liar.
Then one day Duncan wanders off and finds a water park called Water Wizz, where he meets an amiable slacker of a manager named Owen (Sam Rockwell). Soon, he is working there. He’s found his home.
It would be so easy to mess this up. Trent could be a caricature. Owen could be idealized. But Faxon and Rash wisely let us understand that we are seeing both of them in slightly exaggerated form through Duncan’s eyes. We know that Trent is not as bad nor Owen as good as Duncan thinks they are. Duncan sees Trent as a liar and a cheat, but does not see him struggle to deserve a woman like Pam. Duncan sees Owen as a courageous free spirit. Owen loves being seen that way, but he knows and we know that he is irresponsible and ashamed of his life. Faxon and Rash, who contribute their own performances of wit and heart, make the movie a safe place for us as Water Wizz is for Duncan.
Parents should know that this film includes drinking, smoking, strong language, drug use, sexual references, infidelity, and bullying.
Family discussion: What did Pam and Trent see in each other? How do the various children and teens in this story respond when they cannot find support and understanding at home? What other stories are examples of this?
If you like this, try: “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Adventureland” (both rated R)
Soul Surfer
Posted on April 7, 2011 at 6:01 pm
Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb) tells us that as a child she spent more time wet than dry. She is the daughter of competitive surfers, home-schooled so that nothing would interfere with her training or her opportunity to go out into the water when the waves were good. And then one morning, when she was 13, a shark bit off her arm up to the shoulder. Determined that nothing could stop her from doing what she loved, she was back on her board a month later.
Two powerful forces kept her going, Bethany’s passion for surfing and her faith in God. This movie does a better job with the first than the second. The surfing scenes both before and after her injury are gorgeously portrayed, taking us inside the waves so that you will almost feel the spray on your face as the surfers rip around the swells. Writer-director Sean McNamara and the talented surfers on screen convey not just the experience of harnessing the power of the ocean but the thrilling rush of it as well. But he does not bring the same energy to the faith-based part of the film, which feels flat and more dutiful than heartfelt, like a youth group curriculum pulled off the Internet.
One problem is Carrie Underwood, a lovely performer who just does not have the acting skill she needs for Sarah Hill, the youth counselor who guides Bethany both before and after the attack. Perhaps because the film-makers are trying to please both faith and secular audiences, the faith-based elements of the story are thin and vague, reduced to a parable about not being able to see the big picture when you are too close and a trip to a very tidy settlement area in Thailand after the tsunami. The mention of Jeremiah 29:11 is not as significant as her doctor’s reassurance that “the things you are going to have to learn to do differently is extensive but the things you won’t be able to do is small.”
The real turning point is the scene where Bethany receives a prosthetic arm that does not give her the functionality she expected. That is a far greater blow than the original injury because it is only then that she must acknowledge that her loss is permanent. It is only then that she is able to have an honest re-evaluation of her faith, her priorities, and her options. In another sober moment, Bethany’s father (Dennis Quaid) silently matches the bite mark on Bethany’s surfboard with the enormous jaws of a captured shark, confirming that this was the beast that attacked his daughter.
Robb conveys Bethany’s resilience and athleticism. McNamara has a good sense for the rhythms of teen girl friendships (I still think that Bratz is underrated) and the scenes with Bethany and her friends capture the warmth and excitement of young girls on the brink of mastery of skills and the beginning of independence. But like its main character, it really comes alive when it catches the waves.
Interview: AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig of ‘Witch Mountain’
Posted on August 3, 2009 at 3:58 pm
The young stars of Race to Witch Mountain
One of the big challenges of making this movie had to be acting as though you could really see all of the effects that were not added in until later. How did you know what to visualize and where to look?
AnnaSophia: Andy was really great about explaining everything, all the visuals. And a lot of it was there — the only green screen work we did was in the cab.
You had to play characters who looked like human children but in reality were aliens for whom everything on Earth was new and strange. How do you create those characters?
Alexander: It was a really good opportunity for both of us because we had creative freedom to sculpt our own characters. No one really knows what aliens are like so we got to form our own characters.
Did you coordinate with each other to make sure that your characterizations were consistent?
Alexander: We became super-close. Since we were playing not just aliens from the same planet but brother and sister, we had to have to have similar qualities. So we would share our ideas. And then she just shut me down whenever I suggested anything! (laughs)
AnnaSophia: We would go over stuff and talk about it with each other. And his suggestions were great!
How do you create that feeling of excitement and urgency?
AnnaSophia: That is part of what we do as actors. And it is one thing Andy was great about, reminding us to keep our energy up, that you don’t know these these people are following you. Alexander was great about that, helped me keep focused on the fact that we were running for our lives.
Tell me about working with Duane Johnson! I’ll bet he is a lot of fun.
Alexander: Working with Duane is a joy. He is honestly a phenomenal guy, like an older brother to us. It was an inspiration to work with someone who came from so little, achieved so much, and is still such a genuine guy, such a professional.
Who are the actors who inspire you?
AnnaSophia: Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman — I want to go to university like her — Scarlett Johansson, Leonardio DiCaprio isincredible.
Alexander: I agree on all of her choices! Meryl Streep is phenomenal, Leonardo DiCaprio is truly inspirational, a phenomenal actor, Johnny Depp is an amazing amazing actor, unreal, Brad Pitt is another one I admire.
Tell me about Andy Fickman, the director. I saw him at Comic-Con and really enjoyed his enthusiasm.
Alexander: Andy is great — it’s like a toy store exploded in his office. He knows how to surround you in the environment of the story and makes you believe in the project.
Do you believe that there is life on other planets?
AnnaSophia: We have such a large universe, there must be something out there.
Alexander: I totally agree, the options and imagination are limitless, we can’t be the one planet out of all these billions to have life.
I have one copy of the DVD to give away to the first person who writes me at moviemom@moviemom.com with “Witch Mountain” in the subject line. Tell me why you like this movie!