Posted on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 by David Chen
When I hear the name John Wells, I think of paramedics hurriedly rushing onto the scene of an accident, arriving just in time to barely save someone’s life. I fondly recall verbose walk-and-talks in the halls of the Bartlett White House. And I remember following the romantic lives of skilled doctors in a Chicago E.R. In short, this man is partly responsible for some of the most thought-provoking, thrilling television ever produced.
Wells directed a movie called The Company Men that premiered at Sundance this year. With an all-star cast featuring Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, and Tommy Lee Jones, The Company Men follows the lives of three men as their company is torn apart amidst a recession. The film is a personal portrait of job loss, and while its scope is relatively small, the talent of the performances is not. Affleck, Cooper, and Lee Jones all manage to cpature the pain and humiliation of economic struggle with pathos and humor. The stories feel personal and subtle, even to a fault; few things particularly “dramatic” happen during the movie, and while the film can occasionally feel aimless, its depiction of joblessness also feels deeply rooted within vagaries of our reality. Thus, while there were no helicopter crashes or gun-shot wounds in The Company Men, Wells proves that as a director, he can smoothly make the transition to film (a medium he’s already very familiar with as a producer) and tell a story with nuance and skill. You can click here to hear a couple more thoughts about the film or watch the film’s trailer.
After the break, I chat with John Wells about what inspired him to make The Company Men, true stories of job loss, and whether or not The Company Men is really an independent film.
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Posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 by David Chen
I was a huge fan of John Wells’ work in E.R. and The West Wing, so when I heard that he would making his film directorial debut at Sundance with The Company Men, I was pretty excited. Add to that an all-star cast featuring Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, and Rosemary DeWitt and you have a recipe for success, right? Find out after the break if we thought The Company Men was any good.
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Since I’m in Park City, a day before the 2010 Sundance Film Festival officially begins, I thought I’d do a round-up of the films I’m most looking forward to this year at the festival. Attending Sundance, you have to put a list together of the movies you want to see the most. Sometimes you’re lucky and you pick something that becomes the buzz of the fest — Super Size Me, Little Miss Sunshine, Rocket Science, or (500) Days of Summer. And sometimes your choices are just dead wrong, for example, last year The Informers was on the top of my must see list. But by the end of the fest, the film was my most hated movie of the year.
So these predictions are in now way definitive. They are very subjective, films that caught my interest. I usually stick to more narrative films (over documentaries) and often see more English language films. I have my little sub genres which I always feel drawn to, for instance, I usually love coming of age stories. And if they are set in the 1970’s or 1980’s, all the better. Minimalistic one-room thrillers also interest me.
This year doesn’t have many obvious breakout choices, but had a lot of solid looking films. If you’ve been actively reading the site over the last month, then you’ve probably checked out a bunch of the Sundance photo and trailer previews and you might recognize a bunch of these films. The following 18 selections are also in no particular order. Lets take a look at my choices for this year’s festival (and it might be fun to revisit this list at the conclusion of the festival, to see how right or wrong I was).
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A teaser trailer/musical montage/sizzle reel for John Wells‘ The Company Men has been discovered on vimeo (via this article on AICN). The film, which will screen at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Premieres category, tells the story of three men trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing at a major company, and how that affects them, their families and communities over the course of one year.
The film stars Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello, Craig T Nelson, and Rosemarie DeWitt. This is the feature directorial debut of Wells, who is best known for writing and producing hundreds of episodes of both ER and The West Wing. A lot of people are interested to see what he will be able to do with a feature film. It’s also worth mentioning that eight-time Academy Award nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins shot the film. Watch the teaser trailer, embedded after the jump.
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John Wells‘ The Company Men will screen at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Premieres category. The film tells the story of three men trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing at a major company, and how that affects them, their families and communities over the course of one year. The film stars Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello, Craig T Nelson, and Rosemarie DeWitt.
This is the feature directorial debut of Wells, who is best known for writing and producing hundreds of episodes of both ER and The West Wing. A lot of people are interested to see what he will be able to do with a feature film. It’s also worth mentioning that eight-time Academy Award nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins shot the film.
Read More »
Maria Bello and Craig T Nelson have joined the independent drama The Company Men. I haven’t written about this film on /Film yet, so I thought I’d take the opportunity with this last minute casting news.
Written and directed by John Wells, the film tells the story of three men trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing at a major company, and how that affects them, their families and communities over the course of one year. Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper and Rosemarie DeWitt have already been cast.
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