Posts tagged John Krasinski
“Promised Land” Is a Big Tease
Jan 13th
“A Big Tease”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Promised Land is a film about the controversial subject of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in which an oil and gas company drills into the ground and pumps liquid chemicals into the earth in order to release the oil and natural gas that is trapped in the rocks below the surface.
Matt Damon plays Steve Butler, and he and his partner, Sue, played by Frances McDormand, work for one such company, and their job is to visit the property owners in a small community and purchase the drilling rights on their land so that the company can drill there.
Because of the economy, the property owners, many of whom are farmers, are struggling, and by buying those leases starting at $2,000 an acre, Steve says, “I’m not selling them natural gas; I’m selling them the only way they have to get out.”
Steve and Sue are the best team the company has, having closed out more towns than the team behind them by triple digits, but Steve is under additional pressure for their current assignment, because if he does well, he could get a promotion to a job in the company’s New York City headquarters.
So, we see Steve and Sue come into town, buy the clothes they believe will help the property owners identify with them, and go out on their sales calls.
They also have to overcome the stories about fracking causing some people to be able to light their drinking water on fire and causing the property owners to become sick.
Steve’s argument that fracking is far from a perfect process isn’t enough to refute those stories, and he also has to fight the arguments from Frank Yates, played by Hal Holbrook, a local resident with enough experience to know what he is talking about when he objects to the owners selling their drilling rights.
However, the biggest obstacle that Steve and Sue have to overcome is Dustin Noble, played by John Krasinski, an environmental activist who shows up in town and says that he is from Nebraska where fracking ruined his home town.
Damon and Krasinski wrote the screenplay for this film, which was directed by Gus Van Sant, and I have to warn you that it has a plot twist which might make you disappointed in it.
Promised Land is a big tease.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Promised Land – Movie Trailer
Jan 6th
Promised Land is the new contemporary drama directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Milk). Matt Damon plays Steve Butler, an ace corporate salesman who is sent along with his partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand), to close a key rural town in his company’s expansion plans. With the town having been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, the two outsiders see the local citizens as likely to accept their company’s offer, for drilling rights to their properties, as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job for the duo becomes complicated by the objection of a respected schoolteacher (Hal Holbrook) with support from a grassroots campaign led by another man (John Krasinski), as well as the interest of a local woman (Rosemarie DeWitt). Promised Land explores America at the crossroads where big business and the strength of small-town community converge.
“Away We Go” How Sweet It Is
Jun 24th
How Sweet It Is
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
AWAY WE GO is a sweet little film directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes and starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. Krasinski, of course, is featured in the NBC TV series, “The Office,” and Rudolph was on “Saturday Night Live” for many years.
Here they play Burt and Verona, a nice young couple in their thirties who are about to have their first baby. Verona is six months pregnant.
Although she looks further along than that.
The movie starts with their going to visit Burt’s parents for dinner, who will be the only set of grandparents the baby will have, because both Verona’s parents died long ago.
At dinner, Burt’s parents reveal the surprising news that in June they are going to Belgium to live for two years.
Burt says, “You’re leaving a month before the baby is born?” and his mother says, “We’ve been planning this forever, Guys; you knew that.”
Now, the only reason that Burt and Verona are living where they are is to be near Burt’s parents, but because Burt sells insurance futures, they can live anywhere they want.
So, they decide to go on a road trip to visit friends and relatives in order to choose someplace to live where they can raise their baby.
First up is Phoenix, where they visit a woman whom Verona used to work with and her family. Allison Janney turns in a nice performance as the potty-mouthed Lily, who has a very pessimistic husband and two children who don’t pay attention to her, probably for good reason.
Then they make a quick trip to Tucson, where they visit Verona’s sister before they head up to Madison, Wisconsin, by train.
They have to take the train, because the airline doesn’t believe that Verona is only six months pregnant and won’t let her fly.
In Madison, they visit Ellen and her family, who is a professor at the university. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a wonderful performance as a wacko hippie, but the visit does not go well.
Then they are off to Montreal and a visit with a couple they went to school with, followed by an unplanned trip to Miami to help out Burt’s brother and his sudden crisis.
AWAY WE GO brings to mind another famous saying by Jackie Gleason, and that is “How sweet it is.”
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
