Uncertainty (film)

Last updated
Uncertainty
Uncertainty (film poster).jpg
Directed by Scott McGehee
David Siegel
Written byScott McGehee
David Siegel
Produced byScott McGehee
David Siegel
Starring
Cinematography Rain Li
Edited byPaul Zucker
Music by Peter Nashel
Production
company
Distributed by IFC Films
Myriad Pictures (International)
Release dates
September 8, 2008 (2008-09-08) (TIFF)
November 13, 2009
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$36,689 [1]

Uncertainty is a 2008 indie crime drama thriller film written, produced, and directed by U.S. independent filmmakers Scott McGehee and David Siegel and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lynn Collins. It was first released at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

Contents

Distribution rights were acquired by IFC Films and it received limited release on November 13, 2009. It was simultaneously made available to cable viewers via video on demand.

The film was shot in HD on the Arriflex D-20.

Plot

Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Kate (Lynn Collins) are a young couple who have been together ten months. Kate is 11 weeks pregnant. They can't make up their minds where to go on the Fourth of July, [2] or whether to have the baby, so they decide to flip a coin. After Bobby flips the coin, they both run off Brooklyn Bridge in opposite directions. From that moment on two separate storylines are followed.

One storyline takes place in Brooklyn, where Bobby and Kate decide to go visit Kate's family. On the way they pick up a stray dog, whose owner they try to locate. Kate's family has its share of family drama, with an uncle who is institutionalized and suffers from memory loss, a brother who died five years earlier, and a sister who is taking a year off before going to college, much to her mother's dismay.

The other storyline takes place in Manhattan (beginning in Chinatown), where Bobby and Kate find a cellphone belonging to a criminal who values it at $500,000. They try to set up an exchange, but after narrowly escaping pursuit from a killer, Bobby throws the cellphone onto a passing boat.

Both storylines end the next day on a bridge, with the lines "What do you want to do now? / What do we do now? I don't know. I guess we just keep going".

The storylines are also set apart by colors of vehicles and Bobby and Kate's clothing. In the Manhattan/Chinatown storyline, they both wear easily recognizable yellow, a dress for her and a T-shirt for him, and take a yellow cab, while in the Brooklyn storyline, they are dressed in more subtle shades of green and Kate is driving her green car. In the first scene on the bridge, Kate wears the yellow dress from the Manhattan story, while Bobby wears the outfit he'll wear in Brooklyn.

Cast

Brooklyn/Queens

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4 out of 10. [3] On Metacritic the film has a score of 45% based on reviews from 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [4]

Todd McCarthy of Variety magazine called it "Half formulaic and half simply unimaginative." [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinatown, Manhattan</span> Neighborhood in New York City

Manhattan's Chinatown is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center to its south, and Tribeca to its west. With an estimated population of 90,000 to 100,000 people, Chinatown is home to the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. Manhattan's Chinatown is also one of the oldest Chinese ethnic enclaves. The Manhattan Chinatown is one of nine Chinatown neighborhoods in New York City, as well as one of twelve in the New York metropolitan area, which contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, comprising an estimated 893,697 uniracial individuals as of 2017.

<i>10 Things I Hate About You</i> 1999 American film by Gil Junger

10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Gil Junger in his film directorial debut and starring Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larisa Oleynik. The screenplay by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith is a modernization of William Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew, retold in a late-1990s American high school setting. The film follows new student Cameron James (Gordon-Levitt) who is smitten with Bianca Stratford (Oleynik) and attempts to get bad boy Patrick Verona (Ledger) to date her antisocial sister Kat (Stiles) in order to get around her father's strict rules on dating. Named after a poem Kat writes about her romance with Patrick, the film was mostly shot in the Seattle metropolitan area, with many scenes filmed at Stadium High School in Tacoma, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bensonhurst, Brooklyn</span> Neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City

Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd Avenue and on the southwest by 86th Street. It is adjacent to the neighborhoods of Dyker Heights to the northwest, Borough Park and Mapleton to the northeast, Bath Beach to the southwest, and Gravesend to the southeast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Gordon-Levitt</span> American actor (born 1981)

Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his leading performances in 500 Days of Summer (2009) and 50/50 (2011). He is the founder of the online media platform HitRecord whose projects such as HitRecord on TV (2014–15) and Create Together (2020) won him two Primetime Emmy Awards in the category of Outstanding Interactive Program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mott Street</span> Street in Manhattan, New York

Mott Street is a narrow but busy thoroughfare that runs in a north–south direction in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is regarded as Chinatown's unofficial "Main Street". Mott Street runs from Bleecker Street in the north to Chatham Square in the south. It is a one-way street with southbound-running vehicular traffic only.

<i>The Lookout</i> (2007 film) 2007 film by Scott Frank

The Lookout is a 2007 American crime film written and directed by Scott Frank, in his directorial debut, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode, Bruce McGill, and Isla Fisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wild Brunch</span> 2nd episode of the 1st season of Gossip Girl

"The Wild Brunch" is the second episode of the CW television series Gossip Girl. Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage wrote the episode; it was directed by Mark Piznarski. It premiered on CTV, September 25, 2007, a day before The CW's premiere.

<i>Looper</i> (film) 2012 American film by Rian Johnson

Looper is a 2012 American science fiction action-thriller film written and directed by Rian Johnson, and produced by Ram Bergman and James D. Stern. It stars Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Emily Blunt. It revolves around "present-day" contract killers called "loopers" sent back through time by criminal syndicates from the future.

<i>Its Kind of a Funny Story</i> (film) 2010 American film

It's Kind of a Funny Story is a 2010 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, an adaptation of Ned Vizzini's 2006 novel of the same name. The film stars Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, and Viola Davis. It was released in the United States on October 8, 2010, and received generally positive reviews.

<i>50/50</i> (2011 film) 2011 American film

50/50 is a 2011 American comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Levine, written by Will Reiser, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anjelica Huston. The film is loosely inspired by Reiser's own experience with cancer, with Rogen's character Kyle based on Rogen himself. It was filmed from February to March 2010. 50/50 was released on September 30, 2011, and grossed $41 million. It received positive reviews, with particular praise for Gordon-Levitt's performance and Reiser's screenplay.

<i>Premium Rush</i> 2012 American film

Premium Rush is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by David Koepp and written by Koepp and John Kamps. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon, Dania Ramirez, and Jamie Chung. It follows a bicycle messenger chased around New York City by a corrupt police officer who wants an envelope the messenger has. It was released on August 24, 2012 by Columbia Pictures.

<i>Don Jon</i> 2013 film by Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Don Jon is a 2013 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, and Julianne Moore, with Rob Brown, Glenne Headly, Brie Larson, and Tony Danza in supporting roles. The film premiered under its original title Don Jon's Addiction at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2013, and was released in the United States on September 27, 2013. The film grossed $41 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics.

Smash is an American musical-drama television series created by playwright Theresa Rebeck. It premiered in the United States on NBC on February 6, 2012. The series revolves around a fictional New York theater community making new Broadway musicals. In the first season, the focus was on the making of Bombshell, a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. In the second season, the show was split between taking Bombshell to Broadway and the creation and mounting of a contemporary pop musical called Hit List that was about the price of fame. Other fictional musicals that were touched on for which original songs were performed include Beautiful and Liaisons. A few of the songs were written for events outside of the aforementioned musicals.

<i>The Walk</i> (2015 film) 2015 American film by Robert Zemeckis

The Walk is a 2015 American 3D biographical drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by him and Christopher Browne. It is based on the story of 24-year-old French high-wire artist Philippe Petit's walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit, alongside Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale, Ben Schwartz, and Steve Valentine.

<i>The Night Before</i> (2015 film) 2015 American film

The Night Before is a 2015 American Christmas comedy stoner film directed by Jonathan Levine and written by Levine, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter, and Ariel Shaffir. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anthony Mackie as three childhood friends who annually reunite on Christmas Eve in search of the best party in New York City. Lizzy Caplan, Jillian Bell, Mindy Kaling, and Michael Shannon also star.

<i>Snowden</i> (film) 2016 biographical political thriller film by Oliver Stone

Snowden is a 2016 biographical thriller film directed by Oliver Stone and written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald. Based on the books The Snowden Files (2014) by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus (2015) by Anatoly Kucherena, the film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) subcontractor and whistleblower who copied and leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) beginning in 2013. In addition to Gordon-Levitt, the film features an ensemble cast including Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, LaKeith Lee Stanfield, Rhys Ifans and Nicolas Cage. An international co-production of Germany, France, and the United States, principal photography began on February 16, 2015, in Munich.

Kate Gordon Siegelbaum, known professionally as Kate Siegel, is an American actress and screenwriter. She is known for her collaborations with her husband, filmmaker Mike Flanagan, appearing in his films Oculus (2013), Hush (2016), which she also co-wrote, Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), and Gerald's Game (2017), as well as in his television series The Haunting of Hill House (2018), The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), Midnight Mass (2021), and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023). She has been dubbed a "scream queen" due to her work in horror films and television.

<i>Comrade Detective</i> 2017 American/Romanian TV series

Comrade Detective is an American buddy cop series created by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka. The show follows the premise of popular US action/cop-buddy films and television shows from the 1980s and presents the episodes as a fictional lost Romanian television show commissioned by the Communist Party to promote a communist worldview during the Cold War. Every episode was filmed in Romania using local actors and then dubbed into English as part of the effect. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on August 4, 2017.

<i>7500</i> (film) 2019 action-thriller film

7500 is a 2019 action-thriller film written by Senad Halilbašić and Patrick Vollrath and directed by Vollrath in his directorial feature-length film debut. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tobias Ellis, a pilot whose plane is hijacked by terrorists. An international co-production between Austria, Germany, and the United States, filming took place in November 2017 in Cologne and Vienna. The title is in reference to Emergency Transponder Code for "unlawful interference".

References

  1. "Uncertainty". Box Office Mojo .
  2. Brandon Harris (November 11, 2009). "DAVID SIEGEL AND SCOTT MCGEHEE, "UNCERTAINTY"".
  3. "Uncertainty (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  4. "Uncertainty". Metacritic . Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  5. McCarthy, Todd (12 September 2008). "Uncertainty". Variety.