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"Stolen" Director and Producer
Anders Anderson and Andy Steinman
By Jonathon Freeman-Anderson

A2 Entertainment Group duo, Anders Anderson and Andy Steinman directed and produced, "Stolen." "Stolen," features Jon Hamm, Josh Lucas, James Van Der Beek, and Rhona Mitra, and will have a limited release in theatres March 19 (in L.A.).

Talk about the process of getting this film off the ground. "We needed a feature to get into the industry, came across the script, and knew that this would be the first step. We knew someone who had an in with Lucas and got him the script. Within 6-8 weeks we were shooting, it was insanely fast." Why do you think it was so quick? "We were running against the strike. We needed to get things running if we were even going to have a film."

How did Josh Lucas get interested in the project? "We have this great script and we have this great contact. We were praying, if he likes it then let's roll it. It made it incredibly stressful. Anders and I grabbed footage from movies and music everywhere. Made a montage and sent that to Josh so we could legitimize ourselves. After we sent him that, it was only a few days and he was on the phone with us."

Did everything work out as planned? "It never pans out the way you planned. When you screw up at least you can say that you had a plan. When you're dealing with low budget, you're not the person really calling the shots and you're trying to work creatively within that. We planned everything and then we planned for what would go wrong. Something new pops out and we were always working on how to make this work. 'Organized chaos' is what it was for pre, post, and on-set production. It's amazing how you try to think of every scenario, but sometimes two scenarios combine. It kind of evens things out when you say, 'I've never seen that happen before on a movie, good and bad.'"

What was the most interesting experience during production, good or bad? "On the great side, the cast was so amazing to have. Everyone involved with the movie was amazing. For first time filmmakers and the first time out, we were so thankful for our talent. The bad side was time. It evened itself out with who we got to work with." Anders seconds that with the cast. "If this was a low budget film with a big director, you could get the cast, but if it wasn't for casting director Stephanie Corsalini, we would have had no one."

What was it like working with Josh Lucas and James Van Der Beek? "Josh was an integral part of the movie. Working with him was amazing, though it was a limited amount of time. It was a tight shooting schedule, but it was awesome. He had many ideas and said that he could really connect with the character. He brought such confidence with everything that it made us feel confident. Lucas would say, 'Hey guys these are sort of things that I've dealt with as an actor' and he has imparted a lot of advice upon us."

"Working with James Van Der Beek, he surprises you because everything he does in a scene you never expect what he'll do with the line. We would say, 'did you see that look he gave us?' He's so good at his craft and to be able to go toe to toe with Josh in 1958 and then put on the makeup and practically a different character where his character becomes totally dark is amazing. Being able to hold himself with Jon and Josh was amazing. The underlying subtlety is amazing. It's borderline shocking. All the subtleties are striking that it becomes art."

How did Van Der Beek get involved? "This movie had some buzz about it, probably because of Josh coming on board. Then, James came in and said 'look what I want to do with this.' We're like 'sure you've got the role.' He's not afraid to take it, throw it out there, and just do it. 'This is what I got.' He approaches on such a practical way with no ego. He's fearless when he first comes out, all the time."

How did the story develop? "Once we got the script, we started working with Glenn Taranto, the writer. We impressed on him what kind of movie we wanted to make and when Josh reassured us in the direction that we wanted to go, we just tweaked the script. During the short pre, throughout production, and even in post, we continually made changes. The original was called "The Boy in a Box." The origins are real somewhere. Glenn's family is involved in the police dept. in Jersey. He was always interested in these stories. To fictionalize it about a cop seeking answers about a child who no one discovers for 50 years was the idea.

Was the writer happy with the changes that made to the script? "Once we came on board we added some elements, and Glenn was smooth with it. Attributed to Glenn, this is his first feature as a writer. He liked what we had to say and the ideas we had and everyone brought something to the table."

Anders added, "Andy and I pride ourselves on being able to collaborate with people. In the end, it's about many people trying to bring an effort together. We want people to feel involved. We add some extra elements and are very honest. We wanted a breakthrough script and Glenn wanted a great producer/director team who could take it somewhere."

How did the process of filming in the '50s period and transitions back and forth between the present and past develop? Andy replied, "It was Anders and I, we knew that the transition between the time periods was crucial for the audience. We looked at other movies that did this.We asked what would be a good time, what kind of clues could we leave between the time periods. We thought for the audience; 'It's always cool to make a filmically cool transition, meaning something people in, or from, film school might catch as interesting, but it wouldn't necessarily be great for the movie.' Now, we thought what would be a good way to do both."

How did funding work out? "Funding in the Indie world is always the dance between someone to raise money if you have an actor or trying to raise money to approach an actor. We pooled our resources to talk to investors and then moved to find an actor. How has it been since the full production has finished? "It's like you're continuing to work. You have to think what's the next thing that we need to do to get enough money to get to the next thing and being able to go back to our investors and say that this is where were at now so they'll continue to invest to get the movie home and get distribution. We need to make each step worth it. It's pretty scary."

What was one of the biggest challenges on the production end? Shooting in 35mm, Red, or Super 16, it was the post at the time that didn't make the Red as conducive. As we did the numbers, the 35mm worked best for the time. Knowing that we're going to go to a digital interface, it worked out. It was really helpful. Now, the question is; which one do you want to use? The Red's now much better." What was wrong with the Red at the time that you were looking at it? "It was the post production. You couldn't watch the dailies sometimes. You couldn't keep in a look that you wanted to, you couldn't show it off to anyone, and then, you had to pay so much in the post workflow. Now, though you can simply dial in the look and get what you want, color time dailies. It's great."

How is distribution going? "It's going well. We did get a domestic deal through IFC films and go to four cities, NY, LA, St. Louis, and Lansing, Michigan. It came out pretty well and it's good it didn't sit on a shelf for a long time. Internationally, it is slow. We have sold in Germany and a few others, but the numbers just aren't there as they used to be. So, the guarantees have been as common. Arclight and IFCfilms have been great. To be able to work with them is awesomely fortunate."

What is the future look like for A2Entertainment? "It's a combination of being booked and looking. We have four projects that we're working on, two TV pilots and two features. We're trying to look at new projects as well, and get more work done on "Stolen." We've been on this project for so long."

"Stolen" is an incredible piece of work with a murder-mystery spanning over 50 years featuring amazing performances from all the talent involved. The film crew put work into this film to be more than just another CGI science fiction flashback piece, but have true depth of character, intelligent story arcs, interesting dialogue, and terrific makeup and costume. The cinematography and story development keeps the audience in suspense. The whole film from beginning to end, introduction to looming twist isn't just nice, it's raw and creative capturing footage of talent at the height of their craft's focus and cooperation. It seems it would have been an entertaining and educational experience working as cast or crew on this film.

A2 Entertainment Group duo Anders Anderson and Andy Steinman directed and produced "Stolen." Distribution is by. IFC Films, "Stolen," features Jon Hamm, Josh Lucas, James Van Der Beek, and Rhona Mitra. For more information regarding A2 Entertainment Group, they can be reached at 2337 Roscomare rd., #2-237, LA, CA 90037 or online at A2entertainmentgroup.com.

The Runaways
By Nathan Rabin

Late in The Runaways, Michael Shannon's cold-blooded Svengali Kim Fowley dismisses the seminal '70s all-girl punk band of the title as nothing more than a failed conceptual project. Those are the bitter words of a star-maker cavalierly tossed aside by his own creation, but there's an element of truth to them as well. Like the Sex Pistols, The Runaways combined raw punk anarchy and cynical commercial calculation. They were prefabricated yet authentic, the product of estrogen-fueled rage and a sleazy music-industry lifer intent on exploiting ripe teenage sexuality. There is a fascinating film to be made about Fowley's slick commoditization of adolescent rebellion, but in her numbingly familiar feature-length debut, writer-director Floria Sigismondi apparently isn't interested in Fowley so much as she is in giving rock 'n' roll movie conventions a distaff spin.

A disturbingly precocious, scantily clad Dakota Fanning stars as Cherie Currie, a spooky David Bowie super-fan who more or less stumbles into a gig as the Runaways' lead singer. The dead-eyed talent vacuum that is Kristen Stewart co-stars as Joan Jett, a snarling badass whose tomboy attitude and songwriting perfectly complemented Currie's purring sex kitten onstage, on record, and in bed.

Yes, The Runaways is as filled with soft-core underage lesbian sex as it is with rock-movie clichés, from the montage of rapid-fire ecstatic magazine and newspaper covers that take the group from obscurity to superstardom (in Japan, at least, where the locals have a weakness for young girls in tight pants) to the use of blurry, distorted visuals to convey Currie's ever-deteriorating mental state during the proverbial nightmare descent into booze and pills. Shannon plays Fowley as the P.T. Barnum of the Sunset Strip, a prankish provocateur whose tough love for his protégés looks an awful lot like emotional and verbal abuse. Shannon gives the film an unpredictable, live-wire energy, but as it staggers into its third act, Shannon more or less disappears from the proceedings, and the film focuses intently on Currie (whose memoir inspired the film) and Jett (who executive-produced). The Runaways were the first major all-girl punk band. In honor of this distinction, they're now the first major all-girl punk band to inspire a bleary, excessive, and altogether mediocre big-screen biography.

'GREEN ZONE'
DAMON ULTIMATUM
By Sean Chavel

The unstable region of Baghdad following March 19, 2003 is the subject of Green Zone, the new Iraq military drama which has an action movie pulse and the presence of stalwart Matt Damon, playing Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller who is a man of sweat and non-stopping motion. Following the initial military strikes of Iraq of the invasion date, Miller's team is unable to find any weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on mission searches. This quickly prompts skepticism in Miller's perspective on Pentagon intelligence.

Frenetic action cameras make the promise that this is going to be a desert war movie, but let's not mince words; we're talking about Iraq here. No war movies set in Iraq have done bang-up business at the box office (Best Picture Oscar winner "The Hurt Locker" will make more dough in DVD sales than it did in its theatrical run), and the public has fastidiously avoided documentaries like "No End in Sight" and "Taxi to the Dark Side."

Exception might be made for this Paul Greengrass ("The Bourne Ultimatum") movie which has the charge of an action thriller. But when you take out all the noise it is more of a drama of a military squad at work (conducting routine field work and trying not to kill), and of course, the idea of defiance. Miller stops listening to the brass and begins consulting with CIA man Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) and enlists a born Iraqi who calls himself Freddy (Khalid Abdalla) to guide him on his own expeditions of the truth. The idea of Matt Damon gone rogue is a recipe for successful box office formula, as proven by the Jason Bourne series. As for Hollywood movies putting together a mainstream simplified idea of what went wrong in the early days of Iraq, as starvation and destitution ravaged the people and government anarchy wreaked vast, "Green Zone" is not entirely reliable but it is nevertheless entertaining and gives us a broad overview picture on the subject.

Other than a television clip of the real George W. on CNN, most of the characters are composites of numerous individuals. The most clear-cut wormy official is Greg Kinnear as Clark Poundstone, who is a Defense Intelligence specialist who also does the backwards job of manipulating American public opinion. Amy Ryan is the Wall Street Journalist who is deemed responsible for inaccurate press feedings to American media.

Out to find the definitive truth is Miller, whom at first tracks down various leads through Baghdad for the search of WMD's and then figuring out no matter where he looks he is not going to find any. Instead, he goes on the hunt for one of Saddam Hussein's men who is referred to as "the Jack of Clubs." What doesn't make sense if Miller's over-reliance on Freddy, who can barely get around on his prosthetic leg yet seems to be there every time Miller needs him.

If there are any clips to be made famous from this movie it will be Damon bellowing "Put your game face on" and "Unacceptable" which he invokes with mean but sincere contempt. But the end chase sequence, as excitingly staged as it is and captured by endless multiple angles by Greengrass, becomes dramatically unacceptable - it is simplification and contrivance met at one intersection. Lest be reminded that this is a mainstream entertainment.

What makes "Green Zone" stand out is its amazing location work with its messy and jagged surroundings. Immersed into these locales makes every beat of the film palpitate with high tension. You may not believe five or six scenes (maybe more, depending on how knowledge-detail you are about the Iraq invasion) but you are never bored. Greengrass' frenzied, fast-cutting isn't for all audience digestive systems, but if you enjoy the Bourne's series immediate-to-the-max urgency, then this film will draw you in as well even if you do have contempt for composites and convenient plot structures.

'BOUNTY HUNTER'
IN A WORD STAGGERING, IN A SECOND WORD AWFUL
By Sean Chavel

The word staggering is an odd double-sided one that can be used in two ways. The first way reminds me of when I discovered the mind-expanding films of Oliver Stone in my youth, or what I felt like after Darren Aronofsky's first couple of pictures that I found so visually sensational that experiencing them became an out of body experience. It's also a word that can be used disparagingly. Indeed I found the new Gerard Butler/ Jennifer Aniston comedy The Bounty Hunter to be staggering, as in staggeringly awful. After it was over, I felt more than askew but actually frazzled - in an intensely agitated sort of way.

The genre is romantic comedy but the effect is feel bad, argh, so many negative emotions are conveyed in this movie. Butler ("The Ugly Truth" rings a bell) and Aniston ("Management" rings a bell) are divorcees that find themselves cuffed to each other in a plot that could be solved in fifteen minutes before being squeezed out into one hundred and eleven minutes. Butler, as ex-cop Milo Boyd, is now a bounty hunter assigned to track down his ex-wife Aniston, as Daily News reporter Nicole Hurley, who has jumped bail.

The plot takes place up and around New Jersey and New York, and not cross-country, like that DeNiro bounty hunter classic "Midnight Run" (1988). So it should be a rather short escort job but instead it is stretched-out to gratuitous lengths (shouldn't the car ride be less than an hour to police headquarters?). But instead of reaching destination, they throw the dice at an Atlantic City casino and also get shot at by goons on the highway. All this and ugly banter and not to mention proposed tattoo chair torture is what protracts the length.

What also rings a bell is the act of violence towards women, but also in store is persistent violence against wimpy, horny men. Jason Sudeikis ("SNL" current cast member) comes close to making the wimpy, horny and desperate guy almost funny but doesn't quite pull it off even though his nerdy mustache is promising. But didn't we come to the movie for a dose of machismo?

The real man of the movie, the marquee pull, is Butler with his buff meatloaf charisma. To his credit, Butler seems to have taken the cotton balls out of his mouth and talks more normal in this movie. He still has problems as an actor with conveying concern for anybody on the screen other than himself.

Aniston, with her meticulous suntan and sleeveless tops and skirts attire, is a generally attractive actress who is playing yet another woman who doesn't play victim so easily. Although he-man Butler is the one who immediately locks her into a truck within minutes of meeting up with her in the movie. In a calmer mode, before bedtime, he handcuffs her to the least comfortable spot on the bedpost.

Now there are some people who wouldn't recognize the violence towards women is perpetrated in this movie because they have become way too desensitized to see (generic) violence when it happens, and those are probably the same people who saw "Alice in Wonderland" and thought it was "beautiful." We live in a pop culture zeitgeist right now when mean and malicious is what prevails as hip, and in a time when most people have never seen what a nice movie looks like.

All of this must sound like I objected to "The Bounty Hunter" because it is offensive in its objectivity of women, random violence, and violence against horny nerds. No, I object because the film is so idiotic that it makes "Ms. Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous" look crime-smart and savvy in comparison. Cathy Moriarty and Peter Greene look lost and disinterested as the bad guys navigating a non-sensical plot that has something to do with a key figure whose fake suicide was actually a murder.

What is supposed to happen at a romantic comedy is feel-good, as if you need to be reminded. And in this tale of ex-spouses who scuffle with each other, and spit insults, and then find commonality, rebirth and renewed love in their relationship, is not feel-good. I imagine it is enough to make you want to fall out of love with the person next to you at the theater, in resentment of that person for dragging you to this staggeringly awful movie.

'GREENBERG'
NO GREEN PEACE
By Sean Chavel

Greenberg is a movie about repellant people that just so happens to be fascinating, but only if you are into movies about extreme head cases. "I am really trying to do nothing for awhile," Ben Stiller says, "I am doing nothing deliberately." Stiller, as the title character Roger Greenberg, hasn't been doing anything for years. He's in his forties now, and hasn't been on the verge of success since he was 25, when he almost signed a record deal but refused to cave in on the label's compromises. The movie isn't about his music.

Dare we say aloud what "Greenberg" is about or what Noah Baumbach's last movie "Margot at the Wedding" was about? Hmm, no it takes too much nerve off the bat to say what it is really about. But I'll offer my two cents later. Let's first say that Roger's aforementioned key quote, as implemented in the trailer, could be the attraction for audiences. Coming out of Stiller's mouth, it sounds like a funny idea for a movie.

This is not a typical Ben Stiller movie (think 180 degrees opposite of "Zoolander.") It is funny, but understand, it is mordantly funny. Most obviously is when Roger drafts letters to Starbucks and American Airlines as to why their superficial trendiness or small oversights in customer satisfaction merits renovation. The rest of the film's humor is not so obvious, nor would some audiences find it funny at all. Not unless one has a taste for mordant humor.

Roger has just flown in from New York to housesit for his brother Phillip in the Hollywood Hills while he and his wife vacation in Vietnam for six weeks. The regular caretaker is the attractive and slightly plump blonde Florence (Greta Gerwig), nearly twenty years younger, whom Roger immediately leeches on. They are close to sharing intimate relations on a first and then second occasion, but then after Roger tells her "that is the dumbest story I've ever heard…" and "why tell me that?" he walks out on her with extremely bitter body language.

Other attempts in connection include former band mate Ivan (Rhys Ifans), the cool guy who might just be a little too beaten down by the man for Roger's sake, and Beth (Jennifer Jason Leigh) whom while on a lunch date makes the insinuation that it certainly will not be followed by a future dinner date. The body language she exhibits, panting the restaurant staff for the check, is priceless. She's trying not to be rude to Roger, but she is, but it is for her better self-preservation.

The house dog Mahler gets sick, perhaps from rat poison that the gardener's laid out on the grass. You can sense the large panic and distress in Phillip over the phone (you forget what Phillip looks like in the movie since the camera views only one side of the conversation). But Roger insists that Mahler will be okay, that he can handle the vet, and the animal hospital and that nothing will happen to Mahler. But Roger doesn't drive. This means he has to call and rely upon Florence.

What a lovely, kind and attractive girl Florence happens to be. Roger keeps coming onto her, pressing onto her, then cruelly stepping away with a caustic insult. Florence is way too good for Roger, or for any of the Rogers in the world. Mordantly funny, in a way, that she is just too good of a person to ever say "no" to somebody. In a way, she is one to get stepped on and stepped on but always apologizes but never receives an apology. She is four years out of college, she explains, and feels that she is of no value in the world.

From a wider perspective all Roger has to do is to be a responsible house sitter for six weeks, watch the dog, and not cause any harm to anybody. But he can't handle that little, as he causes much harm to others and to himself. This is the kind of harm that is less visibly apparent. When a couple of visitors throw a house party blowup regardless to permission, instead of Roger shooing people away he joins in on the drug usage, and other carnivalesque acts. Then he hurts his friends feelings, callously and cowardly, before retreating to his own self-loathing.

What is similar to Baumbach's lead protagonist Roger as to Nicole Kidman as Margot in his last picture, is that both of them seek love and then engender cruel rejection of the people they sought love from. Similar also is their willingness to show sensitivity and tenderness for the sake of appearing as if they have those qualities, and then turning off those qualities when it doesn't directly benefit them. These are the definitions of borderline personality disorder, a mental disorder that is not mentioned out loud and clear in Baumbach's films, and yet this is what he has been exploring thematically within his films.

Then again I am not a head doctor, only a film critic. So I may have misspoken. It is not conventional for a film critic to make a diagnosis on mental disorders. I looked up dozens of reviews on the web however on "Margot at the Wedding" (more insufferable, less engaging than this new film) and a small percentage of reviews willingly marked Kidman's character as a borderline personality disorder case.

I do however want to quote the long deceased Francois Truffaut. "I demand that a film express either the joy of making cinema or the agony of making cinema." With "Greenberg" Baumbach somehow gets you to laugh at the agony. Roger is a neurotic raging bull.

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