“Weather Girl” WILL AIR again on Lifetime 

 UPDATE: “Weather Girl” is scheduled to play more than just once on Lifetime network, the next airdate is Saturday, October 3rd – stars Michigan native Ryan Devlin, who went to High School in Grand Rapids area.  I’ll let you know when we get more dates and times.  (Thanks to Ryan’s mom for an update on additional showings !)

“Weather Girl” made its Midwest Premiere June 12/14, 2009 at Waterfront Film Festival and was in limited release in West Michigan starting September 4th for one-week only.

The Plot: A Seattle weather girl freaks out on-air over her cheating boyfriend, the morning show anchor, and moves in with her little brother.

The brother of main character Sylvia is Walt, played by Michigan native Ryan Devlin.  Devlin was (according to IMDB) born in Lansing, graduated from Forest Hills Central High School in 1998, and graduated from Michigan State University. 

My spoiler-free review of “Weather Girl”

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(”Weather Girl” to play one-night only on Lifetime network, Wednesday 9/23 at 9:00pm – stars Michigan native Ryan Devlin, who went to High School in Grand Rapids area)

(”Weather Girl” made its Midwest Premiere June 12/14, 2009 at Waterfront Film Festival and was in limited release in West Michigan starting September 4th for one-week only)

“Weather Girl” is cute and funny, but not great, if you really want to see it you should… but you could wait to rent it and be happier with your decision at home.

Waterfront Film Festival doesn’t have awards, but even if it did, I don’t think “Weather Girl” was good enough to beat out a solid crop of movies.  “Weather Girl” did win at two other film festivals: it won Best Film at Vail Film Festival and Best Feature in Oklahoma City.

“Weather Girl” is more of a 16 and older kind of movie, its not raunchy, but it does have some colorful language and sexual references.

( My spoiler-free review )

Going into it, this movie had several things going for it: the story is set in Seattle (the TV market where I attended college) and its about TV news… the profession I started in before graduating from college.  But there’s something a little bit off… not quite making this movie great… its nice, but not all the characters have depth, and there’s some things about the story that were problematic.

The story of Sylvia (Tricia O’Kelley), a weather forecaster on a Seattle morning show, is cute, funny, and feisty… O’Kelley is the strength of this movie, if she didn’t pull it off, the entire movie would have crumbled.  Unfortunately, as good as she was in this role, this movie still failed to wow the audience.

“Weather Girl” features some well developed characters: brother Walt and his friend Byron… and some shallow characters: Dale, Sherry, and Sylvia’s friends. 

Patrick J. Adams, Michigan native Ryan Devlin, and Tricia O'Kelley in "Weather Girl" courtesy Secret Identity Productions

 The brother of main character Sylvia is Walt, played by Michigan native Ryan Devlin.  Devlin was (according to IMDB) born in Lansing, graduated from Forest Hills Central High School in 1998, and graduated from Michigan State University.

Patrick J. Adams is good as Walt’s friend… and the now-popular comedic actress Jane Lynch (”Role Models”, “The Rocker”, “The 40 Year Old Virgin”, etc.) is good as expected.

But then the performances start to tank… despite names like Mark Harmon, Jon Cryer, and Blair Underwood… luckily the other characters take up a lot less screen time.

Harmon plays Sylvia’s ex-boyfriend Dale, the self-centered prototypical anchorman of the group.  Dale’s co-anchor Sherry (Kaitlin Olson) is also Hollywood’s version of what TV news people must be like… right? 
Wrong… well, maybe right for this story but it was bothersome how dumb (considering Seattle’s market size) and how shallow the characters were and how average the acting behind the other characters was… I never felt like they were real characters… or working at a real TV station… or really living in the real world for that matter. 

THE BOTTOM LINE:

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(This movie made its midwest premiere June 13th at the Waterfront Film Festival, is in limited release and is available on Comcast on-demand)

“The Answer Man” is laugh-out loud funny, a great “R” rated romantic comedy.

Its not your average romantic comedy, but it is classic Jeff Daniels.  And the chemistry between Daniels and Lauren Graham is good.
 

(My spoiler-free review:)

The characters in “The Answer Man” are not all what they seem to be.

Daniels plays Arlen Farber, a reclusive author that wrote a spiritual answer book, who hilariously finds himself in need of some chiropractic help.   The scene with him going for help is classic.

Graham’s character is real and genuine… and the chemistry is great between these two.

Max Antisell, who plays young “Alex” is great… another solid child performance.

One of my favorite lines from the movie is when Farber (Daniels) says “I like kids: short people in a land of giants that rely on imagination and creativity to get by”.

The movie is a nice blend of hilarious and awkwardness as Daniels interacts with the rest of the cast.

The supporting cast of Lou Taylor Pucci, Olivia Thirlby, Kat Dennings, Nora Dunn, and Tony Hale are solid.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

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Michigan native Tom McPhee hits a homerun with “An American Opera”… a documentary that is so moving  and so powerful … but at the same time neutral and not a heavy-handed message piece… a true documentary that opens your eyes to part of the Hurricane Katrina disaster that most of us only heard about.
 

“An American Opera” drops us right in the disaster zone that is Louisiana, and the audience stays there through the heartbreaking, yet motivating stories that came out of the effort to rescue as many pets as possible.

As Director/Producer McPhee told me weeks before the screening at Waterfront Film Festival, he originally went to Gonzales, Louisiana to “answer the call” and help out the people in that community.   But as we see in the opening scenes that set the stage for the documentary, his plan to to help out by taking still photographs of the displaced pets and creating a catalog of them became more than a small task… the rescue of abandoned/missing/lost pets BEFORE the storm hit was a big task… that becomes monumental AFTER the storm.

Complimented by a supercharged soundtrack, McPhee does a fabulous job of staying “zoomed out” to give us the big picture while systematically “zooming in” his film to the small, but impactful personal stories that came out of the disaster.   He really hits home while weaving in the story of one couple separated from their pet and the challenges they go through.

And that’s why I’m warning you on two fronts… this movie is emotionally gripping, and weeks later, the stirring emotions and difficult images are still with me… but they are emotions and images that may be difficult for you to ignore because they are inspiring and motivating and remind us that there are still people out there trying to make the world a better place… even for our four-legged friends!!!

For that and the efforts of the subjects of this film to rescue 25,000 pets… this truly is the greatest pet rescue ever…. and one of the best documentaries I have seen in years.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

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Covering my first Film Festival

UPDATED with links to my interviews with actress/activist Daryl Hannah (”Fierce Light”)… actor Jason Ritter (”Peter and Vandy”)… and director Peter Callahan (”Against the Current”).

ORIGINALLY POSTED June 16th:

So… its been a couple days since the 2009 Waterfront Film Festival wrapped up… and I’m still pumped.

Sure I battled connectivity all weekend (bad cell phone reception and internet connections) drove more than 380 miles back and forth from Grand Rapids to Saugatuck (sometimes back and forth in the same day)… and never had more than 6 hours sleep a night during a 4-day period, BUT….  BUT…. I am not complaining… just some explanation on the delay of this blog and others related to the WFF.

 While covering my first film festival I got to see 10 movies, most making making their Midwest or Michigan Premieres:

On Friday, I saw 3 movie screenings (“The Baker”, “Dare”, “Official Rejection”), attended 3 more movies on Saturday (“Women in Trouble”, “An American Opera”, “The Twenty”), and then I broke a personal record for movies watched at theater/venue in a day on Sunday, seeing 4 really good films (“The Answer Man”, “Weather Girl”, “Against The Current”, “Peter and Vandy”).   My favorites were “The Baker”, “The Answer Man”, “Peter and Vandy”   and the documentary “An American Opera”… but there were also soo many good looking films that I couldn’t make it to because of time conflicts or being sold out (”Jesus People”).

 I also interviewed actress/activist Daryl Hannah, Michigan documentary director TomMcPhee (”An American Opera”), director Peter Callahan (”Against the Current”), director Jay DiPietro (”Peter and Vandy”) and actor Jason Ritter (”Peter and Vandy”)… enjoyed Q&A with director Sebastian Gutierrez (”Women in Trouble”) and director/actor Chopper Bernet (”The Twenty”).

2009 broke the attendance record with ticket sales of more than 16,000 (up from 2008’s 14,000), day and weekend pass sales were also up, and more people attended the seminars than in years past.

It was great hanging out with die hard movie fans and I am thankful for all the assistance from the great volunteers at Waterfront Film Festival!!!

My reviews are in the works… and we’ll be posting more interviews from the weekend in the next few days.

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Michigan filmmaker Tom McPhee’s “An American Opera”

Documentary Filmmaker and Michigan Native Tom McPhee spent more than 3 years on this project to document the pet rescue in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

McPhee’s “Man Smiling Moving Pictures” is based in Ann Arbor, MI.

The award-winning film, titled “An American Opera” has made the rounds at other festivals and will play at the Waterfront Film Festival June 13th at 11:30am.

Check out my interview/preview of “An American Opera” in our entertainment section.

The documentary will also be screened July 2nd at The Harbor Theater in Muskegon at 6:15pm and July 19th at The Grandville Public School Auditorium at 2:15pm. Screenings of “An American Opera” will partially benefit local animal charities.

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Holland’s Hopwood DePree gets Governor’s Appointment

Today, Hopwood DePree of Holland’s TicTock Studios and co-founder of the Waterfront Film Festival was appointed by Governor Jennifer Granholm to the Michigan Film Office Advisory Council.

DePree will represent a wide variety of projects in film, the producing of TV programs and commericals, and other related business… his term runs until September 30, 2009.

The appointment, announced in a press release from the Governor’s Office says that “The Michigan Film Office Advisory Council, formerly the Michigan Film Commission, is responsible for advising the office, the fund, the governor, and the Legislature on how to promote and market Michigan to film, television, digital media, and related industries. The council may make inquiries, studies, and investigations, hold hearings and receive comments from the public.”

Make us proud Hopwood !