How to Be | |
---|---|
![]() Slamdance Film Festival Poster | |
Directed by | Oliver Irving |
Written by | Oliver Irving |
Produced by | Justin Kelly |
Starring | Robert Pattinson Rebecca Pidgeon Jeremy Hardy Powell Jones Michael Irving |
Cinematography | Paul Swann |
Edited by | Reuben Irving |
Music by | Joe Hastings |
Distributed by | IFC Films [1] |
Release dates | |
Running time | 84 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £250,000 [5] |
How to Be is a 2008 independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Oliver Irving. It is about a young man named Art, played by Robert Pattinson, in a quarter-life crisis. [3] [6] It premiered in competition at 2008 Slamdance Film Festival on 18 January 2008. [2] It was selected to open the 2008 Strasbourg International Film Festival, where Pattinson received a Best Actor in a Feature award. [7] [8] [9]
Art (Pattinson) is not talented, but aspires to be a musician. He has a dead-end job at a supermarket, despite having a degree (which he doesn't seem to value much). His girlfriend ends their relationship. Art is then forced to move back home with his cold and neglectful parents (played by Pidgeon and Michael Irving). Art buys a book titled, It's Not Your Fault. Upon reading it, he tries to follow the self-help book's advice. He decides to use inheritance money to first buy a car, and then pay for a Canadian therapist, Dr. Levi Ellington (Jones), the book's author, to come to his home in England and help Art get his life on track, about which his parents are less than thrilled.
Despite his unsupportive parents, Art attempts with his new life coach and two slightly unbalanced friends Nikki (Pearce) and Ronnie (White) to find a balance in his life, true happiness, and a good relationship with his parents.
The film also stars Jeremy Hardy as Art's superior at the care centre at which he volunteers.
Casting for the film took more than a year. Initially Simon Amstell was attached to the project. Talking about Pattinson's casting, Irving said: "He understood what we wanted to achieve, he was musical and had completely the right look. To find all those elements was incredible: the final piece in the puzzle." [5]
For his role of awkward and geeky musician in the film, Irving said Pattinson's looks were altered: "I said, 'You're banned from cutting your hair between now and the shoot, we had to give him the most awkward haircut we possibly could, and we cut his trouser length a little bit too high. Things like that played down his apparent good looks." About Pattinson's musical abilities, he added: "He downplayed how good he was, a lot of the time he would turn out to have a really good technique (while playing the guitar and harmonica) and we told him he needed to play it more simply." [4]
Filming took place in early 2007. [5]
How to Be was released in the United States by IFC Festival Direct on 29 April 2009. Leading up to the release, the director, Oliver Irving, took the film on a United States screening tour. The DVD was released first in the United Kingdom on 18 May 2009 and was released in the United States on 17 November 2009. [10]
How to Be Soundtrack : Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Soundtrack album by Joe Hastings & various artists | |
Released | 28 April 2009 (U.S.) |
Recorded | Various times |
Genre | Soundtrack |
Label | Dreamboat Records |
Producer | Joe Hastings and Gary Moore |
The score for the film was composed by Joe Hastings and songs for the album was chosen by music supervisor Gary Moore. The album contain 23-tracks, three original songs performed by Robert Pattinson and by musician-actor Johnny White, who plays Ronny in the film. It also features "Old Man" by Love, "Clear Spot" by Captain Beefheart and "Hammond Song" by The Roches. The album was released by Dreamboat Records on 28 April 2009. [3] [11] [12] [13]
The film received mixed reviews. Geo Euzebio frim Cineplayer criticized said it "seems more of the same: A dramedy about characters and dysfunctional families, with humor and structure based on American independent comedy". She added: "Pattinson's performance is interesting and he hits the pitch with the pseudo-musician who only scratches few chords on the guitar, but still want to live their art." [14]
Peter Debruge from Variety gave the film a negative review: "It is a taxing reminder that middle-class depression ranks among cinema's least engaging topics." [15]
How to Be had its world premiere at the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Honorable Mention. [2] [16] It has since been chosen to appear at:
Accolades | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Award / Film Festival | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
2008 | New Orleans Film Festival | Best Narrative Feature - Audience Award | Oliver Irving | Won [22] |
Slamdance Film Festival | Special Jury Honorable Mention for Narrative Feature | Oliver Irving | Won [16] | |
Strasbourg International Film Festival | Best Actor | Robert Pattinson | Won [7] | |
2009 | George Lindsey UNA Film Festival | Special Jury Honorable Mention for Professional Full - Length Narrative Golden Lion Award | Oliver Irving | Won |
Washington DC Independent Film Festival | Audience Award - Best Feature | Oliver Irving | Won [23] | |
Grand Jury Award - Best Feature | Oliver Irving | Won [23] | ||
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life.
Laurence T. Fessenden is an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer. He is the founder of the New York based independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix. His writer/director credits include No Telling, Habit (1997), Wendigo (2001), and The Last Winter, which is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He has also directed the television feature Beneath (2013), an episode of the NBC TV series Fear Itself (2008) entitled "Skin and Bones", and a segment of the anthology horror-comedy film The ABCs of Death 2 (2014). He is the writer, with Graham Reznick, of the BAFTA Award-winning Sony PlayStation video game Until Dawn. He has acted in numerous films including Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Broken Flowers (2005), I Sell the Dead (2009), Jug Face (2012), We Are Still Here (2015), In a Valley of Violence (2016), Like Me (2017), and The Dead Don't Die (2019), Brooklyn 45 (2023), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Twilight is a 2008 American romantic fantasy film directed by Catherine Hardwicke from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. It is the first installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as Bella Swan, a teenage girl, and Edward Cullen, a vampire, and focuses on the development of Bella and Edward's relationship and the subsequent efforts of Edward and his family to keep Bella safe from another coven of vampires.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead is a 2009 American independent film written and directed by Jordan Galland. The film's title refers to a fictitious play-within-the-movie, which is a comic reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and its aftermath and whose title is a reference to the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The cast includes Devon Aoki, John Ventimiglia, Kris Lemche, Ralph Macchio, Jeremy Sisto and Waris Ahluwalia. The film stars Jake Hoffman. An original musical score was composed and performed by Sean Lennon.
"Lips Like Sugar" is a single by the English rock band Echo & the Bunnymen, which was released in August 1987. It was the second single from their eponymous fifth studio album (1987).
Dan Mirvish is an American filmmaker and author, best known as the co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival and co-creator of the Martin Eisenstadt hoax during the 2008 Presidential election.
Shih-Ching Tsou is a Taiwan-born film producer, director, and actress. She co-directed the film Take Out (2004) with Sean Baker. She also produced Baker's other films Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), The Florida Project (2017) and Red Rocket (2021).
Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson is an English actor. Known for starring in both big-budget and independent films, Pattinson has ranked among the world's highest-paid actors. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and he was featured in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list.
The Scenesters is a 2009 art-house black comedy film written and directed by Todd Berger. The film was made by Los Angeles–based comedy group The Vacationeers and stars Blaise Miller, Suzanne May, Jeff Grace, Kevin M. Brennan, Todd Berger and Sherilyn Fenn. The film was shot in July 2008 in Los Angeles, California, United States, and premiered on October 23, 2009, at the 16th Annual Austin Film Festival.
David Michôd is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is best known for directing the critically acclaimed crime drama Animal Kingdom (2010) and dystopian drama The Rover (2014). He also co-wrote Hesher (2010).
James Tate Ellington is an American actor. He portrayed Aidan Hall, the best friend of Tyler Hawkins in the 2010 romantic drama film Remember Me.
Burke Roberts is an American underground film director and multimedia artist. His work has been exhibited at numerous international film festivals, fine art galleries, museums and independent cinemas.
Joshua Safdie and Benjamin Safdie are independent American filmmakers and actors based in New York City, who frequently collaborate on their films. They are best known for writing and directing the crime thriller films Good Time (2017), starring Robert Pattinson, and Uncut Gems (2019), starring Adam Sandler.
Uberto Pasolini Dall'Onda is an Italian film producer, director, and former investment banker known for producing the 1997 film The Full Monty and directing and producing the 2008 film Machan and the 2013 film Still Life.
The Rover is a 2014 Australian dystopian Western drama film written and directed by David Michôd and based on a story by Michôd and Joel Edgerton. It is a contemporary western taking place in the Australian outback, ten years after a global economic collapse. The film stars Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, and features Scoot McNairy, David Field, Anthony Hayes, Gillian Jones, and Susan Prior. It premiered out of competition in the Midnight Screenings section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2014.
Maps to the Stars is a 2014 internationally co-produced satirical drama film directed by David Cronenberg, and starring Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson, Olivia Williams, Sarah Gadon, and Evan Bird. The screenplay was written by Bruce Wagner, who had written a novel entitled Dead Stars based on the Maps to the Stars script, after initial plans for making the film with Cronenberg fell through.
Life is a 2015 biographical drama film directed by Anton Corbijn and written by Luke Davies. It is based on the friendship of Life photographer Dennis Stock and American actor James Dean, starring Robert Pattinson as Stock and Dane DeHaan as Dean.
The Childhood of a Leader is a 2015 historical drama film, co-written, co-produced and directed by Brady Corbet, in his feature film directorial debut. It is loosely based on Jean-Paul Sartre's short story of the same name, published in 1939 in a collection entitled The Wall. Corbet co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Mona Fastvold.
The Batman is a 2022 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Batman. Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Films, 6th & Idaho, and Dylan Clark Productions, it is a reboot of the Batman film franchise. Directed by Matt Reeves from a screenplay he wrote with Peter Craig, it stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne / Batman alongside Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell. The film sees Batman, in his second year fighting crime in Gotham City, uncover corruption with ties to his own family while pursuing the Riddler (Dano), a mysterious serial killer targeting the city's elite.
{{cite web}}
: Check |url=
value (help)