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<OS -- P\.!
TOTALLY
WOODY!
Arts & Life
\NRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
`Anger'
Management
WOODY ALLEN
"THIS IS ONE OFTHE BEST
MOVIES THAT WOODY ALLEN
HAS EVER DONE. IT IS ABSOLUTE
PERFECTION! THE CASTING IS
FLAWLESS. \NU IS FANTASTIC.
RADHA IS EXQUISITE.
ABSOLUTELY LOVED 17'
.
Former Detroiter Mike Binder writes and directs
dark comedy set in Detroit and its 'barbs.
ITS FULL OF SWEET SLAPSTICK.
BEAUTIFULLY EXECUTED BY
WILL FERRELL AND ALLEN'S
FAST-MOVINGWISE-FOOL
DIALOGUE,WHICH FERRELL
AND MITCHELL BAT BACK AND
FORTH AS WEIGHTLESSLY
AS A SHUTTLECOCK."
Will
Ferrell
Chiwetel
Ejiofor
Amanda
Peet
Jonny
Radha
Lee Miller Mitchell
Chloe
Sevigny
Wallace
Shawn
COMING SOON
www.foxsearchlight.com
REUSED BT wimp! CElfalfrf FOL
Karen Durbin. ELLE
C4.1 CMS Tredel teetri FvFlerprec
SEARCHLIGHT
Milton Avery ■ Harry Bertoia
Charles Burchfield ■ Alexander Calder
Samuel Cashwan ■ Stuart Davis
Lester Johnson ■ Marsden Hartley
Hans Hofmann ■ Richard Lindner
George Rickey ■ Zoltan Sepeshy
William S. Schwartz ■ William Sommer
Hughie Lee-Smith ■ Bob Thompson
The gallery is actively purchasing work by the above mentioned artists.
Please call to set up an appointment.
-
David Klein Gallery
163 TOWNSEND BIRMINGHAM MI 48009
TELEPHONE 248.433.3700 FAX 248.433.3702
HOURS: TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY 11 - 5:30
www.dkgallery.com
929800
Shop
3/17
2005
50
who was a casual acquaintance of
Costner's but thought the actor, no
Special to the Jewish News
stranger to baseball movies, might not
want to go to that well again.
riter-director Mike Binder
Had that been the case, Binder
may have gone to England to
wouldn't have changed the role to
make his latest movie, The
accommodate him.
Upside of Anger, but you can't tell by
"I wouldn't have gotten rid of the rock
looking at it. Detroit native Binder set
radio or the baseball. For me, Kurt
the film in his home city and its sub-
Gibson was one of the greatest things
urbs, drawing on memories and experi-
that happened to Detroit. It was a
ences to craft his darkly comedic screen-
play about a woman (Joan Allen) uneasi- chance for me to put all the stuff that I
remember from Detroit into the movie."
ly dealing with her husband's disappear-
Binder, a 1976 graduate of
ance, her four daughters and her drink-
Birmingham Seaholm High School who
ing-buddy neighbor, a baseball star
grew up in a Jewish family — his par-
turned talk-radio host (Kevin Costner).
ents divorced and he and his brothers
Binder cast himself as the producer of
are the products of a bro-
the radio show, a playboy
ken home — says that the
type who begins a relation-
family aspect of the film
ship with one of the daugh-
"is not very autobiographi-
ters (Erika Christensen) and
cal, but it's got a lot of
has some of the funniest
pieces from my life. It's
scenes in the film.
autobiographical in the
He painstakingly re-creat-
sense that I've experienced
ed his favorite Detroit sta-
a lot of anger. I later found
tion, WRIF-FM, on a
out I spent a lot of time
soundstage, casting the sta-
being upset about some-
tion's radio legend Arthur
thin.. that wasn't real."
"The Grand Poobah"
b kind of mispercep-
That
Penhallow (Baby!) for
tion plays out in a twist
verisimilitude. (Binder paid Mike Bin der as Shep
toward the end of the
tribute to his childhood
Goodman i n "The
movie, when a revelation
experiences at Camp
Upside of A nger."
gives the Joan Allen char-
Tamakwa in his 1993 film,
acter new perspective on
Indian Summer.)
her rather bad behavior.
"I grew up listening to rock 'n' roll on
Binder says he purposely kept the
WRIT I flew [Penhallow] to London
character difficult to like. "The challenge
and built that station in the exact way,"
was trying to stay with the goal of keep-
notes Binder, who modeled Costner's
ing her very real, and for me, that's what
character after childhood Tiger idols.
makes her likable."
"When I was a kid, Denny McClain
was my hero, and years later, he had a
radio show," Binder recalls. "When I
Shifting Tide
was starting as a standup comic, I would
The film is a departure from Binder's
go on his radio show, [but] he wouldn't
best-known effort, HBO's Mind of the
talk about baseball."
Married Man, in that it focuses primari-
Binder gave that character quirk to
ly on women.
Costner's Denny Davies.
"I was kind of tired of writing all these
"If you take Denny McClain and
male characters. I think it might have
Kurt Gibson together, it starts to look a
been a reaction — [to do] something
lot like Kevin Costner," figured Binder,
completely different," muses Binder,
who
nevertheless brings a male perspec-
Gerri Miller is a California-based
tive
to
Upside via Denny Davies and his
freelance writer.
GERRI MILLER
Dennis Dermody, PAPER
Online
the
Eas y
Way...
wwwjewish.com
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