Levity (film)

Last updated

Levity
Levity poster.JPG
Promotional poster
Directed by Ed Solomon
Written byEd Solomon
Produced by Richard N. Gladstein
Adam J. Merims
Ed Solomon
Starring
Cinematography Roger Deakins
Edited by Pietro Scalia
Music by Mark Oliver Everett
Production
companies
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • January 16, 2003 (2003-01-16)(Sundance)
  • April 4, 2003 (2003-04-04)(limited)
Running time
100 minutes
CountriesUnited States
France
LanguageEnglish
Box office$723,040 [1]

Levity is a 2003 drama film directed by Ed Solomon starring Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter, and Kirsten Dunst. The soundtrack was composed by Mark Oliver Everett of the band Eels. Levity was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was the opening film at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival [2] and went into a limited release on April 4, 2003. [3]

Contents

Plot

Manuel Jordan, a man who served nearly 23 years for killing a teenager during an attempted robbery, is released on parole in spite of his objections. After spending his time staring at a clipping of Abner Easley, the boy he killed, he returns to the city he used to live in to find redemption. He ends up living at a community house which is run by Miles Evans, a preacher. He offers Manuel work so he can pay for the room, and Manuel places Abner's photo in his room to remind himself of his crime.

While staying at the community house, he befriends Sofia Mellinger, a wild young woman with no adult figure in her life. Manuel also encounters Adele Easley, the elder sister of Abner. She does not recognize Manuel and in his pursuit for forgiveness, he forms a friendship with her, and their relationship begins to develop.

Manuel gets his chance for redemption when Adele's rebellious teenage son becomes involved in violence. Manuel tries to befriend him and steer him in the right direction, ever mindful of the past.

Cast

Production

Writer and director Ed Solomon crafted the story based on an early experience he had as a tutor for teenagers in prison. "I met this kid who had killed somebody and had been tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison. And he kept a photograph of the person he had killed. The judge had told him to keep this and have it...He would stare at it like he didn’t know it was a human being, like he was trying to take this two-dimensional image and have it become three dimensional. And then he was gone; he turned 18 and he went to the state prison." [4] [5]

Having written the screenplays for comedy films like Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Men in Black , Solomon originally envisioned a lighter take on the story, where Miles and Manual take charge of kids who aspire to be comedians. Solomon wrote the role of Miles specifically with Morgan Freeman in mind. [4]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 34%, based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 5.28/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Levity could really use some, as it's weighted down by dour self-importance and a heavy-handed message." [6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [7]

Todd McCarthy of Variety called it "A half-baked moral fable that suffers from insufficiencies both of narrative concreteness and religious depth." [8] A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote: "The actors, too, bring more realism -- more gravity, if you will -- to the film than its wobbly premise deserves." [9]

Soundtrack

Levity
Film score by
Mark Oliver Everett
ReleasedApril 22, 2003 (2003-04-22)
Recorded2002
Genre Soundtrack
Length35:38
Label Plexi Music
Producer Mark Oliver Everett
Mark Oliver Everett chronology
Souljacker
(2001)		Levity
(2003)		 Shootenanny!
(2003)

The Levity soundtrack was produced by Mark Oliver Everett of Eels. Two of the tracks were used for the film Knocked Up .

  1. "What I Remember Most" – 2:17
  2. "Skywriting" – 2:07*
  3. "Running the Bath" – :31
  4. "Gravity" – 2:18
  5. "Haunted Piano #1" – 2:33
  6. "In Manual's Room" – 1:34
  7. "Taking a Bath in Rust" – 2:28*
  8. "Flashback Rules" – 1:44
  9. "Post-flashback Blues" – 1:19
  10. "Lonesome Subway" – 1:01
  11. "Haunted Organ #1" – 2:39
  12. "Sofia Writing in the Sky" – 2:23
  13. "To Adel Easley/Trouble in the Alley" – 6:40
  14. "Manual's Got a Train to Catch" – 5:04
*Track performed by Eels

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirsten Dunst</span> American actress (born 1982)

Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the anthology film New York Stories (1989) and has since starred in several film and television productions. She has received several awards including nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morgan Freeman</span> American actor and producer (born 1937)

Morgan Freeman is an American actor, producer, and narrator. Throughout a career spanning five decades and multiple film genres, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as a nomination for a Tony Award. He has also been awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2008, an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2011, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2012, and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2018. Freeman is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time.

<i>The Shawshank Redemption</i> 1994 film by Frank Darabont

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American prison drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne, who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, contraband smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding, and becomes instrumental in a money laundering operation led by the prison warden Samuel Norton. William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, and James Whitmore appear in supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sofia Coppola</span> American filmmaker and actress (born 1971)

Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and former actress. She has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Lion, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eels (band)</span> American indie rock band

Eels is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1991 by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett, known by the stage name E. Band members have changed over the years, both in the studio and on stage, making Everett the only official member for most of the band's work. Eels' music is often filled with themes of family, death, and unrequited love. Since 1996, Eels has released fourteen studio albums, seven of which entered the Billboard 200.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Oliver Everett</span> American rock musician

Mark Oliver Everett is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and the frontman of the rock band Eels. Also known as E, he is known for writing songs tackling subjects such as death, loneliness, divorce, childhood innocence, depression, and unrequited love, often from personal experience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Schwartzman</span> American actor and musician (born 1980)

Jason Schwartzman is an American actor and musician. Schwartzman made his film debut in Wes Anderson's 1998 film Rushmore, and has since appeared in six other Anderson films: The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021), and Asteroid City (2023). He also has co-writing credit on The Darjeeling Limited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Jarecki</span> American filmmaker & entrepreneur

Andrew Jarecki is an American filmmaker, musician, and entrepreneur. He is best known for the Emmy-winning documentary series The Jinx. He is also known for the documentary film Capturing the Friedmans, which won eighteen international prizes including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Circle award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He also co-founded Moviefone and created the KnowMe iOS platform.

Revelations Entertainment is an independent movie production company founded by actor Morgan Freeman and business partner Lori McCreary in 1996. Its mission statement, to "reveal truth," drives to company produce thought-provoking entertainment with artistic integrity and "soul."

<i>Brubaker</i> 1980 film directed by Stuart Rosenberg

Brubaker is a 1980 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg. It stars Robert Redford as a newly arrived prison warden, Henry Brubaker, who attempts to clean up a corrupt and violent penal system. The screenplay by W. D. Richter is a fictionalized version of the 1969 book, Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal by Tom Murton and Joe Hyams, detailing Murton's uncovering of the 1967 prison scandal.

<i>The Virgin Suicides</i> (film) 1999 film directed by Sofia Coppola

The Virgin Suicides is a 1999 American psychological romantic drama film written and directed by Sofia Coppola in her feature directorial debut, and co-produced by her father, Francis Ford Coppola. It stars James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, A.J. Cook, and Josh Hartnett, with Scott Glenn, Michael Paré, Jonathan Tucker, and Danny DeVito in supporting roles.

Lori McCreary is an American film producer. She is CEO of the production company Revelations Entertainment, which she co-founded with actor Morgan Freeman.

Morgan J. Freeman is an American film director. In 1997, his debut feature, Hurricane Streets, won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival.

<i>Melancholia</i> (2011 film) 2011 film by Lars von Trier

Melancholia is a 2011 science fiction drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier and starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kiefer Sutherland, with Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling, Jesper Christensen, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård, and Udo Kier in supporting roles. The film's story revolves around two sisters, one of whom marries just before a rogue planet is about to collide with the Earth. Melancholia is the second film in von Trier's unofficially titled Depression Trilogy. It was preceded in 2009 by Antichrist and followed by Nymphomaniac in 2013.

<i>The Bling Ring</i> 2013 film directed by Sofia Coppola

The Bling Ring is a 2013 crime film written and directed by Sofia Coppola featuring an ensemble cast led by Emma Watson, Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Taissa Farmiga, Claire Julien, Georgia Rock and Leslie Mann. It is based on the 2010 Vanity Fair article "The Suspects Wore Louboutins" by Nancy Jo Sales, which dealt with a real-life gang known as the Bling Ring. The story follows a group of fame-obsessed teenagers who use the internet to track celebrities' whereabouts in order to burgle their homes.

The YoungStar Awards, presented by The Hollywood Reporter, honored young American actors and actresses from ages 6–18 in their work in film, television, stage and music. Winners were chosen via a poll of 3,500 entertainment industry insiders who read The Hollywood Reporter. The awards ceremony was held from 1995 until 2000; there was no ceremony in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morgan Freeman on screen and stage</span>

American actor and producer Morgan Freeman has had a prolific career on film, television and on the stage. His film debut was as an uncredited character in the Sidney Lumet–directed drama The Pawnbroker in 1964. Freeman also made his stage debut in the same year by appearing in the musical Hello, Dolly! He followed this with further stage appearances in The Niggerlovers (1967), The Dozens (1969), Exhibition (1969), and the musical Purlie (1970–1971). He played various characters on the children's television series The Electric Company (1971–1977). Freeman subsequently appeared in the films Teachers in 1984, and Marie in 1985 before making his breakthrough with 1987's Street Smart. His role earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Two years later he appeared in war film Glory (1989), and starred as Hoke Coleburn in the comedy-drama Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Freeman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in the latter and also earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

<i>The Beguiled</i> (2017 film) 2017 film by Sofia Coppola

The Beguiled is a 2017 American Southern Gothic thriller film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Thomas P. Cullinan. It stars Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning. It is the second film adaptation of Cullinan's novel, following Don Siegel's 1971 film of the same name.

References

  1. ↑ "Levity". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Sundance Festival Kicks Off with Murderous 'Levity'". Hello. January 17, 2003. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Levity (2003)". AllMovie . Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  4. 1 2 Overstreet, Jeffrey (November 24, 2008). "The Hard Work of "Levity": A Conversation with Director Ed Solomon". Patheos. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  5. ↑ Hepola, Sarah (July 11, 2003). "Seeking Levity". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Levity (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Levity Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  8. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (January 19, 2003). "Levity". Variety.
  9. ↑ Scott, A. O. (April 4, 2003). "FILM IN REVIEW; 'Levity'". The New York Times .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.