Our Very Own | |
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Directed by | Cameron Watson |
Written by | Cameron Watson |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Roberto "Tito" Blasini |
Edited by | Brian Anton |
Music by | John Swihart |
Production company | GADA Films [1] |
Distributed by | Miramax |
Release date |
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Running time | 106 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1 million (estimated) [1] |
Our Very Own is a 2005 American independent coming-of-age drama film directed, co-produced, and written by Cameron Watson. It stars Allison Janney, Cheryl Hines, Jason Ritter, Hilarie Burton, Beth Grant, and Keith Carradine. The film follows five teenagers in Shelbyville, Tennessee whose dreams of a better life have been inspired by the success of the Hollywood actress Sondra Locke.
Our Very Own premiered at the LA Film Festival on June 22, 2005. [2] It had its television premiere on December 11, 2006 and was released on DVD on July 3, 2007. At the 21st Independent Spirit Awards, Janney was nominated for Best Supporting Female for her performance in the film.
Set in Shelbyville, Tennessee in 1978, the film centers on high school student Clancy Whitfield, whose family is facing financial ruin due to his father Billy's inability to hold a job because of his drinking. His mother Joan desperately is trying to make ends meet while their dining room furniture is repossessed and the bank is threatening to foreclose on the house. She finds herself the subject of gossip but supported by Sally Crowder, her friend since childhood.
A rumor that former resident Sondra Locke will be returning to town to attend the annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration and the opening of her film Every Which Way but Loose at the local movie house has Clancy and his friends Melora, Bobbie, Ray, and Glen eagerly anticipating her arrival. In the hope she'll see it and help them escape their small town and achieve fame of their own, the quintet decides to present a musical tribute to her at the Chamber of Commerce-sponsored talent show. Their performance is applauded wildly by the audience, but they have less success meeting the elusive Locke.
Robert Koehler of Variety called the film "a sensitive if not fully developed dramatization of the downside of the American Dream" and added, "An authentic sense of place - as well as a stirring performance by Allison Janney leading an impressive cast - aid an otherwise light and unresolved novelistic film." [3] Derek Armstrong of TV Guide wrote the film "just so happens to be one of the most warmly nostalgic hidden treasures of 2005", and that Watson has "got a real sense of these people -- how they carry on humorously mundane conversations at the greasy spoon diner, and how they push each other in shopping carts as the main source of Friday-night entertainment." [4]
The movie was named Best Feature Film at the Bluegrass Independent Film Festival, [5] won an award for Ensemble Acting at the Sarasota Film Festival, [6] and garnered Prism Awards for Allison Janney and Keith Carradine. [7] Janney was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female but lost to Amy Adams in Junebug . [8] [9]
Shelbyville is a city in and the county seat of Bedford County, Tennessee. The town was laid out in 1810 and incorporated in 1819. Shelbyville had a population of 20,335 residents at the 2010 census. The town is a hub of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry and has been nicknamed "The Walking Horse Capital of the World".
Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress. Known for her performances across the screen and stage, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and seven Primetime Emmy Awards, in addition to nominations for two Tony Awards.
David Carradine was an American actor, director, and producer, whose career included over 200 major and minor roles in film, television and on stage, spanning more than four decades. He was widely known to television audiences as the star of the 1970s television series Kung Fu, playing Kwai Chang Caine, a peace-loving Shaolin monk traveling through the American Old West.
Keith Ian Carradine is an American actor. In film he is known for his roles as Tom Frank in Robert Altman's Nashville, E. J. Bellocq in Louis Malle's Pretty Baby, and Mickey in Alan Rudolph's Choose Me. On television he is known for his roles as Wild Bill Hickok on the HBO series Deadwood, FBI agent Frank Lundy on the Showtime series Dexter, Lou Solverson in the first season of FX's Fargo, Penny's father Wyatt on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, and U.S. President Conrad Dalton on the CBS political drama Madam Secretary.
Sandra Louise Anderson, professionally known as Sondra Locke, was an American actress and director.
Hilarie Burton, also known as Hilarie Burton Morgan, is an American actress. A former host of MTV's Total Request Live, she portrayed Peyton Sawyer on The WB/The CW drama One Tree Hill for six seasons (2003–2009). Post One Tree Hill, Burton starred in Our Very Own, Solstice, and The List. She has also had supporting or recurring roles in television series, including her role as Sara Ellis on White Collar (2010–2013), Dr. Lauren Boswell on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy (2013), Molly Dawes on the ABC drama series Forever (2014), and Karen Palmer on the Fox television series Lethal Weapon (2016). Burton is currently a co-host on the Drama Queens podcast along with her former One Tree Hill co-stars, Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz.
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Alan Steven Rudolph is an American film director and screenwriter.
Cameron Watson is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. His first role was Bart Fallmont in the 1991 TV miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion.
Siân Heder is an American filmmaker who is best known for writing and directing the films Tallulah and CODA. CODA earned Heder an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur.
Bobbie's Girl is a 2002 Irish comedy-drama television film directed by Jeremy Kagan and starring Bernadette Peters, Rachel Ward, Jonathan Silverman, and Thomas Sangster. The plot is about two women leading a comfortable, quiet life running a pub in Dublin who are suddenly confronted with a series of health and family crises.
Wittgenstein is a 1993 experimental comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Derek Jarman, and produced by Tariq Ali. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and Japan, the film is loosely based on the life story, as well as the philosophical thinking of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. The adult Wittgenstein is played by Karl Johnson.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is a 1968 American film adaptation of the 1940 novel of the same name by Carson McCullers. It was directed by Robert Ellis Miller. It stars Alan Arkin and Sondra Locke, who both earned Academy Award nominations for their performances. The film updates the novel's small-town Southern setting from the Depression era to the contemporary 1960s. The film is recognized by the American Film Institute in AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated.
Isle of Forgotten Sins is an American South Seas adventure film released on August 15, 1943 by PRC, with Leon Fromkess in charge of production, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and featuring top-billed John Carradine and Gale Sondergaard, whose performance in one of 1936's Academy Award for Best Picture nominees, Anthony Adverse, earned her the first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
I, Tonya is a 2017 American biographical sports mockumentary black comedy film directed by Craig Gillespie from a screenplay by Steven Rogers. It follows the life and career of American figure skater Tonya Harding and her connection to the 1994 assault on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. The film states it is based on "contradictory" and "totally true" interviews with Harding and her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, suggesting they are unreliable narrators. This means the viewer must decide for themselves whether to see the film as the truth or as a version concocted by Harding herself. It features darkly comedic interviews with the characters in mockumentary style, set in the modern day, and breaks the fourth wall. Margot Robbie stars as Harding, Sebastian Stan as Gillooly, and Allison Janney as Harding's mother LaVona Golden. Julianne Nicholson, Caitlin Carver, Paul Walter Hauser, and Bobby Cannavale also star.
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