School Ties: Kent’s Latest Film Doesn’t Make the Grade
If you’re at all familiar with director Billy Kent’s previous film, 2006’s The Oh in Ohio, then his latest effort, HairBrained, will seem like an even greater disappointment. An oddly paced film revolving around mismatched underdogs wading through an overwhelming miasma of collegiate clichés feels far removed from the real world and isn’t charming or engaging enough to achieve the status of a situational parody or satire. Instead, Kent’s screenplay, which was co-written with Sarah Bird and Adam Wierzbianski, presents itself as a potential gimmick that soon reveals itself as nothing more than a cobbled together formula of wan dramatic tension with a grating finale that’s egregiously stale.
Eli Pettifog (Alex Wolff) is a 13 year old genius that’s skipped five grades and is about to enter his freshmen year in college. Sporting an unkempt bowl of gnarly,...
If you’re at all familiar with director Billy Kent’s previous film, 2006’s The Oh in Ohio, then his latest effort, HairBrained, will seem like an even greater disappointment. An oddly paced film revolving around mismatched underdogs wading through an overwhelming miasma of collegiate clichés feels far removed from the real world and isn’t charming or engaging enough to achieve the status of a situational parody or satire. Instead, Kent’s screenplay, which was co-written with Sarah Bird and Adam Wierzbianski, presents itself as a potential gimmick that soon reveals itself as nothing more than a cobbled together formula of wan dramatic tension with a grating finale that’s egregiously stale.
Eli Pettifog (Alex Wolff) is a 13 year old genius that’s skipped five grades and is about to enter his freshmen year in college. Sporting an unkempt bowl of gnarly,...
- 2/28/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
HairBrained is a dumb movie about a smart character named Eli Pettifog, a 13-year-old prodigy that does not have a discernible area of expertise for his talents, except for an encyclopedic mind. In Billy Kent’s prodigy-heads-to-college comedy, we rarely see him reading, studying or behaving like a regular person with an invaluable intelligence. He feels more like a quirky tool ripped off from Max Fischer’s precociousness and other hyperintelligent characters from books and the movies than a fully realized creation. Eli’s wacky, Einsteinian hairdo is his most unique quality.
Alex Wolff, already a multi-talented musician, plays Eli with a sarcastic tone and rarely offers more than a sullen look. In HairBrained, the young prodigy begins classes at Whitman, which he tells the audience is “the 37th best liberal arts college on the East coast.” He is 13 years old on his first day, while dorm neighbour Leo Searly (played by Brendan Fraser,...
Alex Wolff, already a multi-talented musician, plays Eli with a sarcastic tone and rarely offers more than a sullen look. In HairBrained, the young prodigy begins classes at Whitman, which he tells the audience is “the 37th best liberal arts college on the East coast.” He is 13 years old on his first day, while dorm neighbour Leo Searly (played by Brendan Fraser,...
- 2/28/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
Billy Kent's charming HairBrained comes from a long legacy of collegiate comedies but still finds its own identity.
After he fails to get into Harvard, 14-year-old genius and hair farmer Eli (Alex Wolff) must settle for the fictional Whittman College. Ranked the 37th best small liberal arts college on the East Coast, Whittman is home to lovable losers like Leo (Brendan Fraser), a 41-year-old gambler trying to make a fresh start.
The picture's primary relationship isn't so much between Eli and Leo, but rather Eli and the members of Whittman's Collegiate Mastermind Team, who harness his encyclopedic knowledge of useless information in hopes of avoiding getting pounded by the quiz team from Eli's beloved Harvard.
HairBrained avoids becomes a slobs-v...
After he fails to get into Harvard, 14-year-old genius and hair farmer Eli (Alex Wolff) must settle for the fictional Whittman College. Ranked the 37th best small liberal arts college on the East Coast, Whittman is home to lovable losers like Leo (Brendan Fraser), a 41-year-old gambler trying to make a fresh start.
The picture's primary relationship isn't so much between Eli and Leo, but rather Eli and the members of Whittman's Collegiate Mastermind Team, who harness his encyclopedic knowledge of useless information in hopes of avoiding getting pounded by the quiz team from Eli's beloved Harvard.
HairBrained avoids becomes a slobs-v...
- 2/26/2014
- Village Voice
Vertical Entertainment has acquired all Us rights to the college comedy Hairbrained starring Brendan Fraser and Alex Wolff. Premiere Entertainment will handle international sales at Afm.
Billy Kent directed from the screenplay he co-wrote with Sarah Bird and Adam Wierzbianski about a teenage prodigy and Harvard reject who strikes up a friendship at college with a 41-year-old gambler.
Hairbrained is scheduled for release in February 2014.
Bird, Kent and Avram Ludwig produced and Stacy Blain, Stephanie Ingrassia, Tim Ingrassia and Jason Mraz served as executive producers.
Vertical and Premiere struck the deal.
Billy Kent directed from the screenplay he co-wrote with Sarah Bird and Adam Wierzbianski about a teenage prodigy and Harvard reject who strikes up a friendship at college with a 41-year-old gambler.
Hairbrained is scheduled for release in February 2014.
Bird, Kent and Avram Ludwig produced and Stacy Blain, Stephanie Ingrassia, Tim Ingrassia and Jason Mraz served as executive producers.
Vertical and Premiere struck the deal.
- 11/1/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
There is never too much collegiate fluff on the American silver screen, as proven by this lightweight romp into adolescent eccentricity. Screened at this year.s yeasty Brooklyn Film Festival, emerging director Billy Kent.s new .HairBrained. is a funny, if not hilarious, exploration of the college eccentric theme. Having taken a few years off since his modestly received .The Oh in Ohio,. Kent has substantially opened up his playing field with this intimate and charming coming-of-age story. Unlike the Parker Posey sexual exploitation of .Oh,. the more universal and genuine phenomena of male bonding is the order of the day in this entertaining junket. Specifically, the uplifting message that no two guys are too weird or alienated to...
- 6/14/2013
- by Ron Wilkinson
- Monsters and Critics
We Are What We Are, breakout starlets, Julia Garner and Ambyr Childers will be attending the Cannes Film Festival. Julia a genre and indie queen in her own rightstarted out with a memorable supporting role in Martha Marcy May Marlene, echoing the trauma to come that Elizabeth Olsen's character endured and recently completed shooting for Sin City: A Dame To Kill For.
Julia recently wrapped Billy Kent's Hairbrained, starring Parker Posey, as well as David Chase's Not Fade Away with James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) and Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire). She can also be seen in Stephen Chbosky's The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.
Ambyr Childers started her career with an established spot on the daytime soap opera All My Children before breaking out in a pivotal role as the daughter of Philip Seymour Hoffman's character in the Oscar Nominated The Master. Recently, Ambyr can be seen in Gangster Squad and will soon be seen in the new Liev Schreiber show on Showtime, Ray Donovan.
In We Are What We Are, a re-imagining of the 2010 Mexican film of the same name, Jim Mickle paints a gripping and gruesome portrait of an introverted family struggling to keep their macabre traditions alive.
A seemingly wholesome and benevolent family, the Parkers have always kept to themselves, and for good reason. Behind closed doors, patriarch Frank (Bill Sage, Boardwalk Empire) rules his family with a rigorous ferver, determined to keep his ancestral customs intact at any cost. As a torrential rainstorm moves into the area, tragedy strikes and his daughters Iris (Ambyr Childers) and Rose (Julia Garner) are forced to assume responsibilities that extend beyond those of a typical family. As the unrelenting downpour continues to flood their small town, the local authorities begin to uncover clues that bring them closer to the secret that the Parkers have held closely for so many years.
Also starring Michael Parks (Django Unchained), Kelly McGillis (Stakeland), Nick Damici (Stakeland), Wyatt Russell (This is 40) and newcomer Jack Gore. Written by Mickle and Damici. The two previously collaborated on the screenplays for Mickle’s first two features, Mulberry Street and Stakeland (winner of the “Midnight Madness” Audience Award at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival).
Produced by Rodrigo Bellott, Andrew D. Corkin, Linda Moran, Nicholas Shumaker and Jack Turner.
Trt: 100 minutes
*We Are What We Are will have it's U.S. theatrical release this Fall through eOne.*
*Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight Premiere:*
May 21st, 2013 9:00Pm @ Theater Croisette
* Cannes Film Festival's Press Screening* May 21st, 2013 11:30Am @ Theater Croisette...
Julia recently wrapped Billy Kent's Hairbrained, starring Parker Posey, as well as David Chase's Not Fade Away with James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) and Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire). She can also be seen in Stephen Chbosky's The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.
Ambyr Childers started her career with an established spot on the daytime soap opera All My Children before breaking out in a pivotal role as the daughter of Philip Seymour Hoffman's character in the Oscar Nominated The Master. Recently, Ambyr can be seen in Gangster Squad and will soon be seen in the new Liev Schreiber show on Showtime, Ray Donovan.
In We Are What We Are, a re-imagining of the 2010 Mexican film of the same name, Jim Mickle paints a gripping and gruesome portrait of an introverted family struggling to keep their macabre traditions alive.
A seemingly wholesome and benevolent family, the Parkers have always kept to themselves, and for good reason. Behind closed doors, patriarch Frank (Bill Sage, Boardwalk Empire) rules his family with a rigorous ferver, determined to keep his ancestral customs intact at any cost. As a torrential rainstorm moves into the area, tragedy strikes and his daughters Iris (Ambyr Childers) and Rose (Julia Garner) are forced to assume responsibilities that extend beyond those of a typical family. As the unrelenting downpour continues to flood their small town, the local authorities begin to uncover clues that bring them closer to the secret that the Parkers have held closely for so many years.
Also starring Michael Parks (Django Unchained), Kelly McGillis (Stakeland), Nick Damici (Stakeland), Wyatt Russell (This is 40) and newcomer Jack Gore. Written by Mickle and Damici. The two previously collaborated on the screenplays for Mickle’s first two features, Mulberry Street and Stakeland (winner of the “Midnight Madness” Audience Award at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival).
Produced by Rodrigo Bellott, Andrew D. Corkin, Linda Moran, Nicholas Shumaker and Jack Turner.
Trt: 100 minutes
*We Are What We Are will have it's U.S. theatrical release this Fall through eOne.*
*Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight Premiere:*
May 21st, 2013 9:00Pm @ Theater Croisette
* Cannes Film Festival's Press Screening* May 21st, 2013 11:30Am @ Theater Croisette...
- 5/20/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Arron Shiver and Meg Steedle have joined the cast of Boardwalk Empire as recurring characters. Shiver will play Dean O'Banion - based on a real-life florist-gangster in Chicago who was also Al Capone's adversary - while Steedle will play a Broadway actress named Billy Kent, reports Deadline. Shiver, whose credits include roles in Fright Night, The Book of Eli and Brothers, can be seen next in A&E's new drama Longmire. Boardwalk Empire is Steedle's (more)...
- 3/12/2012
- by By Kristina Bustos
- Digital Spy
Tammy Blanchard has booked a three-episode arc on the Showtime dark comedy series The Big C. She will play Giselle, a sexy, married, and uninhibited pilates instructor who enters into an unconventional relationship with Cathy’s (Laura Linney) brother Sean (John Benjamin Hickey). Her growing affection for Sean and her adventurous sense of romance fulfills and complicates his life in ways he never expected. Blanchard, repped by ICM and Red Letter Entertainment, was recently seen in Moneyball. She is currently appearing on Broadway in How To Succeed and next stars opposite Kristin Davis in the Lifetime movie Of Two Minds. Arron Shiver and newcomer Meg Steedle have landed recurring roles on HBO’s prohibition-era mob drama Boardwalk Empire. Shiver will play Dean O’Banion, based on the real-life florist-gangster of Prohibition Chicago and Al Capone’s nemesis. Steedle will play Billy Kent, a Broadway actress, the ‘pony,’ the third girl from the left,...
- 3/12/2012
- by NELLIE ANDREEVA
- Deadline TV
- Vareity has announced that the The Deauville Festival of American Film will be honoring New Orleans during their 32nd annual festival opening the first of September. With Sundance celebrating number 25, the Deauville has slated a series of films shaped at their labs as well as ten features all vying for the number one prize. This year's Deauville will showcase a few productions already theatrically released - Thank You For Smoking, Little Miss Sunshine, Twelve and Holding and one world premiere - Todd Field's Little Children. Sharing the "same philosophy" according to Sundance patriarch Robert Redford, The Deauville will host lectures, classes, and discussions similar to its younger Park City sister. In Comp: Dito Monteil's "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," Paul Fitzgerald's "Forgiven," David Slade's "Hard Candy," Todd Field's "Little Children," Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' "Little Miss Sunshine," Laurie Collyer's "Sherrybaby," Hilary Brougher's "Stephanie Daley,
- 8/2/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
NEW YORK -- It's all about orgasms in The Oh in Ohio, first-time feature director Billy Kent's indie sex comedy. Distributor Cyan Pictures nabbed domestic theatrical rights to the film, which features an ensemble cast that includes Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Mischa Barton, Liza Minnelli, Heather Graham and Danny DeVito. Ohio tells the somewhat sordid story of Priscilla (Posey), a Cleveland woman whose life is perfect except for one important detail: she's unable to achieve sexual climax. The frustrating flaw leads her teacher husband (Rudd) into the arms of his student (Barton), and takes Priscilla on a journey to find sexual satisfaction.
- 6/16/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mischa Barton is in final negotiations to join Parker Posey and Danny DeVito in the indie feature The OH in Ohio. Billy Kent is directing. The film tells the story of a young woman (Posey) married to her childhood sweetheart and seemingly blessed with the perfect life, except that she has never had an orgasm. When she leaves her husband, he tries to regain his manhood by pursuing a young student, to be played by Barton (The O.C.). Adam Wierzbianksi wrote the screenplay, and Ambush Entertainment is producing. Principal photography begins this month in Cleveland and Los Angeles. Barton will be seen in the second season of The O.C., debuting next week. Her feature credits include The Sixth Sense, Notting Hill and Lost and Delirious. She is repped by WMA.
- 10/26/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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