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Film School Rejects Reviews Alex of Venice

on April 20, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

Film School Rejects viewed Mary’s new film Alex of Venice at the Tribeca Film Festival and gave their review. You can read highlights of it below and click the link to read it in full:

Mary Elizabeth Winstead has the “one to watch” thing down pat. The former teen actress has now blossomed into one of independent film’s most reliable and relatable leading ladies and her steady rise up the cinematic ranks – from the drunken darkness of Smashed to the dark humor of Faults, with a little The Thing and A Good Day to Die Hard thrown in for a touch of blockbuster fun– has long been someone worth watching, and now. For his directorial debut, actor Chris Messina has quite wisely built a story around Winstead’s charms, setting her up as the eponymous Alex for his Alex of Venice, an amiable outing that serves as yet another reminder that Winstead is more than enough of a draw on her own.

The duo star in the domestic drama as a long-time couple fractured and felled by apparently normal grievances. Alex (Winstead) is a hardcore workaholic, and her career as an environmentally minded attorney both fills the time and doesn’t quite pay the bills. George (Messina) is stuck with home-bound duties, from getting their son Dakota (Skylar Gaertner) off to school, maintaining the house, and even caring for Alex’s dad (Don Johnson, potentially playing himself). Alex may be exacting when it comes to her job, but George appears to be the truly pragmatic one – or, at least, that seems to be the role he’s been shoved into by Alex and the demands of their home life – and when he starts exploding around Alex, their son, and his father-in-law, there’s little question that something is going to fall apart soon.

Winstead can telegraph more with a head tilt or a flicker of her eyes than most of her generation can do with a wild hand toss and a mess of expositional dialogue. She’s consistently and completely engaging as Alex, and the film suffers when we’re not around her and stuck elsewhere. Messina surely knows what he has on his hands here – after all, the best choice he possibly could have made for his first feature was to cast such a capable leading lady – but both he and the film should have held more fast to its own shooting star.

The Upside: Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s performance is the highlight of the film, but both Don Johnson and Katie Nehra also turn in lovely work; the film’s tone is consistent and bright; addresses big issues with an honest spirit.

Final Grade: B-

Alex of Venice Premiere Photos, HuffPo Interview, First Review

on April 19, 2014April 19, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

Yesterday was the world premiere for Mary’s new film Alex of Venice which was held at the Tribeca International Film Festival. Head to the gallery to check out over 60+ photos.

Also, if you missed Mary’s interview with Huffington Post, you can view it below:

Finally, The Wrap caught the premiere of Alex of Venice and had lots of praise for Mary’s work in the film. Click on the link to read it in full.

But this is Winstead’s movie – and while her performance is understated, it reinforces what “Smashed” suggested two years ago: She is a terrific, underappreciated actress adept at bringing life, heart and humor to stories of women trying to cope in difficult circumstances sometimes of their own making, sometimes not.

Messina claims he can’t take credit for Winstead’s performance – “that’s what she did, and we were smart enough to roll the cameras and capture it” – but he also said that he was determined to create the kind of acting enviroment that he finds most satisfying – one that’s not exactly what he’s asked to do on Mindy Kaling’s sitcom “The Mindy Project” and Aaron Sorkin’s drama “The Newsroom.”

Alex of Venice Gallery Updates Movies

New Tribeca Film Festival Portraits

on April 18, 2014April 18, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

Mary is officially in New York and is underway promoting her new dramatic film Alex of Venice. Her first stop was taking part in the Tribeca International Film Festival portraits which you can now view in the gallery!

Be sure to come back later today to check out her HuffPo Live interview where she’ll talk about the film!

Got A Girl Music/News

Mary’s Debut Album to be Released this Summer!

on April 11, 2014April 11, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

According to the web site co-sign.com, Mary’s debut album under the name Got A Girl, featuring Dan the Automator, will be released this summer. The new LP is due out on Bulk Recordings later this year. (Although earlier on the site I read June 10, but the date could change).

Either way, glad to know Mary’s album will be out soon enough! In the meantime, head to the gallery to check out a new promo pic, and be sure to like the band’s Facebook page here and sign up for their mailing list. You can also check out their previously released tracks here.

Exposed

New Details on Exposed

on April 3, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

Spoiler TV has posted new details about Mary’s new ABC TV series Exposed. Set to be a one hour drama based on the Swedish TV series, EXPOSED is a character driven serialized thriller about the relationship between a fugitive whistle blower and an investigative journalist at Rolling Stone. Based on the Annika Bengtzon series of books from the New York Times #1 best-selling author Liza Marklund.

Anna Loach (Winstead) is a fearless investigative journalist for Rolling Stone Magazine. She doesn’t shy away from controversy and her instincts lead her to stories other journalists overlook. Her last expose on police brutality made it onto the cover of an upcoming issue, but her next story may top it.

What starts as an investigation into the death of a foreign-born high school student, leads to deeply troubling truths about local police and underage coerced drug informants. Anna follows the story to Fresno, where she is tracked down by a fugitive whistle blower, alias “Stoya,” who hints at a government surveillance conspiracy so big and so deep, it’s beyond science fiction.

Anna uses Stoya’s information to unravel the mystery in Fresno, but it becomes clear that the real story is Stoya himself, and the secrets he holds in his head. As her relationship with Stoya shifts from professional to personal, our heroine must question whether his exposure is for the greater good, and at what cost. Her brother, who runs a high tech security firm, warns her that pursuing this story is too dangerous. Whistleblowers are silenced by very ordinary accidents. That night, when her car is blocked on the road, it becomes clear that the people after Stoya go all the way to the top of the government.

They are on to her, but she will stop at nothing to uncover the truth.

Alex of Venice Movies

San Francisco Film Fest Adds Alex of Venice to Line-up

on March 26, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

The 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival has chosen its opening and closing night films.

The fest will open with a presentation of Hossein Amini’s Patricia Highsmith adaptation “The Two Faces of January,” which stars Oscar Isaac, Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst.

The two-week festival will close with Chris Messina’s “Alex of Venice.” The drama features Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Don Johnson and Messina.

The film is scheduled for May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Castro Theatre. More information at www.sffs.org.

The San Francisco International Film Festival takes place April 24-May 8. You can buy tickets for the screening of Mary’s film at the link posted above.

Faults Gallery Updates

New Photos of Mary at Paste Mag’s SXSW Interactive Lounge

on March 17, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

New photos of Mary being interviewed during the South by Southwest Festival in Austin last week have hit the web via the Paste Magazine site. At the event, Mary, Riley and Leland Orser talked about their new film Faults. Stay tuned for the interview, but in the meantime, head to the gallery to check out the new pics!

Exposed Gallery Updates

First Photos of Mary On the Set of Exposed!

on March 16, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

The first photos of Mary filming scenes for her new TV show Exposed have hit the web courtesy of YVR Shoots. According to the site, Mary filmed an exterior scene in Yaletown along with Fran Kranz who plays her tech genius younger brother and walked across Homer Street in take after take as a prop Benny’s Cab drove by.

Mary plays Anna, a journalist who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth and ends up aligning herself with the wrong people to do it. Head to the gallery to check out the pics!

Faults Interviews

New Interviews with Mary About Faults

on March 14, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

Even more interviews with Mary have been posted online discussing her new film Faults. With Shockya, Mary, Riley & co-star Leland Orser talked about the run through process of pulling the project together, the real-life cult deprogramming practices that inspired the film, “Faults” star Jon Gries’ experience in participating in an actual deprogramming effort, the three stages of Winstead’s character, the challenge of shooting a good portion of the movie in a single location, and more. You can view the interview below:

Secondly, Daily Actor caught up with Mary & Leland and you can read some of their interview. Click the link to read it in full.

Can you guys tell me about the movie and your characters real quick?

Leland Orser: Well, I think it’s a black comedy is what I’m saying it is, although at first I thought it was a thriller. I play a down on his luck cult deprogrammer psychologist. I think. And I am… essentially when you meet my character, Ansel Roth, I’m so down on my luck I’ve lost everything. I’ve lost my family, I’ve lost my house, I’ve lost my career, and I’m essentially living out of my car. And that’s when you come into the picture.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Yes. Well, I play a character named Claire who’s in a cult and my parents come to Leland’s character because he is, as I think he’s already said, a sort of… an expert on cults and mind control and deprogramming. And even though he hasn’t done deprogramming in quite some time, they convince him because they’re gonna pay him to kidnap me and deprogram me. She’s sort of mysterious and I don’t really wanna give too much about it away. So I’m gonna keep that part simple.

Did you sort of research anything cult like people or people who have been in cults?

Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Yeah, I think Leland and I both read Ted Patrick’s book, or one of Ted Patrick’s books, which was Let Our Children Go. Is that what it was called?

Leland Orser: Yeah, yeah.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Which was great. And he is sort of one of the people in this time period of the 70s kind of cult boom that loosely inspired Leland’s character. So that was a great book to read. And I tried to watch a lot of videos on YouTube, whatever I could find, specifically from that era of people in cults or people who had just gotten out of cults because there was something I think about that time period that was so specific the way people were just sort of falling like flies into these, you know, cults and sort of the youth particularly why they were so attracted to that idea was interesting to me.

Faults Film Reviews Gallery Updates Movies

We Live Film’s Review of Faults and New Pics

on March 13, 2014 by Jessica Comments Off

We Live Film was recently at SXSW 2014 where they got to check out Mary’s new film Faults. That said, below is there review, along with press pics they took when they were being interviewed. You can see them in the gallery.

Faults is a mysterious little gem from first-time feature film director Riley Stearns. Stearns also wrote the screenplay, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, stars in the film and helped produce it. This was obviously a passion project for them, as Winstead gives one of her best performances yet and Stearns announces himself as a true talent. Claire claims to be involved with a group called “Faults,” which supposedly allows people to see past the ridiculousness of human life and move on into other stages. Roth takes the matters into his hands by taking her for five days and speaking to her in a hotel room. The majority of the film takes place in the room and deals with the process of deprogramming, but it has some twists and turns along the way.

Faults wouldn’t have worked as well if not for the two lead performances. Winstead brings a deepness and darkness to the table that we haven’t really seen from her before. The performance at once invites both creepiness and sympathy, which is a hard thing to pull off. I hope the actress continues to take risks like this.

Score: 3 ½ out of 4 stars (Grade Equivalent for Me: A-)