Friday, June 20, 2008

Listening

Authors: Zgamer
Location: Unknown

"Listening”

Produced by: William Vince and Michael Ohoven
Directed by: Rian Johnson
Written by: Rian Johnson

Principal Cast:

Drake Bell as Francis Taylor
Ryan Kelly as Nick Givens
Ashley Tisdale as Christina Turner
Josh Peck as Mike Vernon
Rory Culkin as Will Taylor
Matt O’Leary as Ian Carr
Shia LaBeouf as Alan Peterson
Laura Linney as Miss Emily Taylor
Thomas Hayden Church as Principle Randall Bell
Peter Sarsgaard as Brother Ryan Mitchell
Paul Giamatti as Coach Tyler Stevens

Tagline: "Listen carefully. You might just hear something"

Synopsis: You see a city in Idaho. You see a school, just like any other school. You see kids in the school, going about their business. You think you see nothing special. What you see is not important.

Ignore the illusions your eyes perceive. Go beyond the walls separating the people. Now listen. Hear the desires, the hopes, and the agonies of the people. Hear the turmoil of a good natured but overconfident basketball player (Bell), who is feeling an unfortunate series of repercussions for blowing the whistle on his skilled coach (Giamatti) for possession of child pornography. Hear the confliction of a cheerleader gossip queen (Tisdale), who finds herself strangely attracted to an unpopular intellectual (Peck). And hear the desires of a simple teenager (Kelly), who has been put on suicide watch since he believed he could finally get his parents to notice him that way.

Now go beyond that minds of the young and hear the minds of the old. Feel the issues of a math teacher (Linney), who’s overprotective concern for her freshman son (Culkin) forces her to actually hire a student (LaBeouf) to spy on him. Hear the worry of a Mormon Seminary teacher (Sarsgaard) who is suspicious one of his students (O’Leary) is holding a drug ring within his walls. And hear the burden being laid on the principle (Church), as he has to deal with the responsibility of it all.

Now open your eyes, and watch as these events unfold and unwind.

What the press would say:

Following the success of his acclaimed genre-crossing movie “Brick”, director Rian Johnson heads to the tired roots of the high school movie and turns it inside out to create an entirely fresh and amazing movie. The atmosphere of the school is disturbingly convincing, as the reality of the world meets with the chaos of teen culture with ease. If anything, the extras are responsible for bringing this to life, as there is no trace of “space-filler” acting within the film. Every person, whether higher billed or not, is there own unique character with his or her own agenda in mind. With its gritty camerawork and great locations to compliment this, Johnson has created the most real high school of the high school movies.

Rian Johnson doesn’t just stop with atmosphere, as his brilliant direction is shown in every scene. His handling of every word, _expression and gesture is intelligently realized. The editing, which he did by himself, is a thing of beauty. He expertly weaves in and out of every story and character smoothly so that the pace and audience’s attention match each other. And to top it all off, every character is played out most perfectly with him in charge.

This leads to one of the most amazing aspects of this film: the cast. Each character is brought to life exquisitely by a talented cast. Among the standouts in the younger cast is a surprising Drake Bell, who blends his typecast “cool” attitude with a very in-depth performance. However, the academy may overlook him for some of the more Oscar-ish roles, which includes an amazing Ryan Kelly who goes beyond stereotype to create a sympathetic and relatable character. The adult cast also shows its strength, with Giamatti and Sarsgaard playing very unique characters as if they were really them.

This movie could very well be Johnson’s key to Oscar gold.

Nominations

Best Picture (William Vince and Michael Ohoven)
Best Director (Rian Johnson)
Best Original Screenplay (Rian Johnson)
Best Supporting Actor (Peter Sarsgaard)
Best Supporting Actor (Paul Giamatti)
Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Kelly)
Best Editing (Rian Johnson)
Best Score

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