Zui hao de shi guang / (Three Times) - Movie Review

Zui hao de shi guang / (Three Times) 2005

“Rain and tears
both I shun
for in my heart there’ll never be a sun”
- Aphrodite’s Child

One of the most difficult emotions to capture honestly on film is love. What? But what about all those romantic comedies, dramas, epics, etc? Yes, well, when was the last time you went to any film labeled “romantic” and genuinely felt that the two characters were in love? Besides those cowboys. Almost never, in our expert opinion. Which is why there is great reason to cheer with the U.S. debut of the international critic’s darling “Three Times” by Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien. Hsiao-hsien, a favorite of the Cannes Film Festival where most of his films seem to perennially be up for the Palme D’or, when they are not actually copping the grand honor returns with a movie that examines the courtship ritual surrounding two lovers. Or six. Depends on your point of view.

The trick up his crafty little sleeve is that he has imagined three separate couples throughout the past century and opted to cast the same two actors as the leads in each separate storyline. The film begins in 1966, with a stunning dance around love; continues backwards into 1911 with a look at a star crossed duo and finally ends up in the present day with a feisty young pair of lovers. The time traveling sets of lovers are portrayed flawlessly by Shu Qi and Chang Chen.

“A Time for Love” is the title of the opening act set in and around a local billiards parlor within the industrial landscape of Kaohsiung City. We meet Chen, a young soldier who spends his free time shooting pool with his eye firmly on the young hostess in charge. When his favorite gal departs for a different billiards parlor, his lingering gaze falls upon her replacement, the gorgeous young May. (Seriously, May is played by the stupefyingly gorgeous Shu Qi! What a looker! And those outfits she wears! Tasteful yet kicky. Love!) Soon, they are circling each other in one of the most ravishing and tender depictions of young love we have ever seen depicted on the silver screen.

Hou Hsiao-hsien establishes a tone and pace for the first film that can best be described as that first blush of romance. The camera lingers, never calling undue attention to itself as it flows throughout the scenes. His color palette is filled with the bold patterns and rich colors of mid-60s design elements set against the urban grit of a crowded cityscape. This is not a film that dwells on action, complicated plots or intricate dialogue. It is a film that attempts to explore the emotions surrounding romantic love through its tonality, pacing, ravishing visuals, sound (particularly in its careful selection of music) and the chemistry between its talented young leads.

When Chen and May exchange their first few looks, we feel it right down to our bones. As the edge closer and closer to each others hearts, we were held enraptured in their glow. The first part of the trilogy of films that comprises “Three Times” may be one of the most powerful depictions of love we have ever seen. It was pure bliss from playful start to wistful finish.

“A Time for Freedom”, the second act of the film set in 1911 during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan is the most stylistically daring of the pieces. Taking a cue from its timeframe and his apparent love for cinema, Hsiao-hsien opted to play the piece as a Silent Film! Cheeky devil. It tells the tale of a young courtesan whose friendship with a married diplomat turns to love over the course of their conversations. His sense of pride, respect and honor forbid him confusing his need to satisfy his lust with engendering love. Which is just what the young courtesan needs most from a seemingly caring man who has captured her heart completely. But, as is the case in their time and place they must never reveal their deepest emotions knowing full well it can never become a reality.

And finally, “A Time for Youth” set in present day Taiwan – 2005. We find our time traveling actors portraying two outwardly brash and emotionally stifled young hipsters who careen through the streets of the city on a speeding motorcycle. Their romance, if you can call it that echoes their outwardly careless nature. Jing lives a freewheeling lifestyle and sexuality incorporating her emotionally clinging girlfriend and her bracingly cool boyfriend who vie for her affections. Their love affair – not quite doomed but certainly not flourishing is played against the cool color palette of a neon glow. They express more emotion via text message conversations than they do in person.

While this film dances around the various aspects of love, it absolutely blindsided us with its complex range of emotions. The tender fear of intimacy that the young couple feels in 1966 as they begin to feel each other out is the starting point for the second act. When we meet the Silent Lovers of 1911, we discover two people who are too intelligent and mature to play any adolescent charades as they explore their relationship. When the time tossed duo has reached the present day, any sense of flushed timidity or respectful adoration has been replaced by tactless mind games and animal urges.

While a case may be made that the director is implying we have lost our sense of romance over the years and replaced it with pure lust, we think the real glory of this wonderful movie is how Hsiao-hsien manages to incorporate all the emotional ranges within each storyline. The young soldier in Act One is hardly noble in his fluid ability to replace one lovely young lass for another.

The courtesan and client in Act Two understand too well the societal framework for their relationship and dare not cross its boundaries. The two hipsters in Act Three may seem shallow in their inability to communicate on any level besides sexual if it weren’t for the genuine emotion they obviously battle to express and suppress.

What Hsiao-hsien has done is to paint three involving, visually intoxicating and emotionally honest portrayals of the many facets of love. We have never felt so in love with the possibility of young love and the pure spirit of moviemaking in quite awhile. If the film seems to linger too long in places – each act is roughly forty minutes long – it more than compensates by the power of its storytelling. Some of the images are so gorgeous and so heartfelt in their connectedness to the central characters emotions; we can forgive the slight excess. We would gladly have sat through one more scenario all for the glory of bathing in the opening and closing shots that capture this beautiful films essence. One of the loveliest films about love we have ever seen. Bless you all!

Directed by Hou Hsiao Hsien
Written by Chu T’ien-wen

Starring
Shu Qi as May / Courtesan / Jing
Chang Chen as Chen / Mr. Chang / Zhen
Mei-fang as Old Woman
Liao Su-Jen as Madam / Jing’s mother
Di-Mei as May’s mother / Madam
Chen Shih-shan as Haruko / Ah Mei
Lee Pei-hsuan as Hostess / Micky

Cinematography by Mark Lee Ping-Bin
Film Editing by Liao Ching-Song
Costume Design by Wang Kian-Yi (Stylist 1911), Tsai Yi-Tsen (1966), Wu Mei-Hui (2005) and Tan Hsin-Wem
Production Design by Hwamg Wem-Ying
Art Direction by Wang Chih-Liang

Hard Candy - Movie Review

Hard Candy 2006

“Maybe I’ll meet someone
And make him mine
Me, I’ll be just
Fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy Christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down”- from “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”

“Hard Candy” details an encounter between a handsome charming thirtysomething year old single man and a spunky fourteen year old girl. Now if this were set in Kentucky, you might think it’s just another romantic comedy. It isn’t. For you see the fourteen year old girl has a bit of an agenda if you will, on her mind. She is out to snare herself a real life chat room stalking pedophile, hold him hostage for a bit, snip off his manhood and toss him to the curb. And who can’t relate to that scenario. If we had a dime for every date that ended up with bondage, threats to our mortality and shame – we’d be billionaires.

The script is by Brian Nelson and the direction is by David Slade. We think Mr. Slade should be commended for attempting his best to make the experience a cinematic one, filling the screen with saturated color, carefully arranged set ups and dizzying camerawork. Mr. Nelson needs to attend a writers seminar post haste or get out of the house more. While the set up might have been interesting for a half hour NC-17 episode of “The Twilight Zone”, it can barely sustain an hour and a half movie. What does sustain the mood, anxiety and shrillness throughout are the two central performances, up to a point.

Patrick Wilson is the Broadway heartthrob who racked up two Tony Award nominations for his prancing and strutting, moved on to the glorious HBO mini-series adaptation of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” and attempted to conquer the screen with lead turns in the little seen “The Alamo” and the excruciatingly shrill film version of the Broadway warhorse “The Phantom of the Opera”. Here he is allowed to cut loose the reins and tackle head on every emotion known to man. His performance is not only spot on, it is unabashedly raw and manages to hit all the right notes in a screenplay that is all too often off-key.

Ellen Page as the prepubescent terrorist comes mighty close to a star making turn in her gutsy and vitriolic portrayal. All of seventeen when she filmed the part, she is to be commended for her “beyond-her-years” approach to the role. While we think her passion and technique are without question, she lacks that indefinable extra spark that sets a great actress apart from a solid working actress. The notes are there. The music is not.

And the very talented Sandra Oh turns up briefly to portray a slightly nosy neighbor who may or may not know more than she unveils. An Asian Junior League Gladys Kravitz, if you will. Although, after her scene was over we were left with the feeling that she was only there to provide a moments respite from the central action and ultimately useless to the dramatic flow. Still, nice to see you Sandy!

With the strong performance by Patrick Wilson as Jeff, and the lesser but still impressive turn by Ellen Page as Hayley we had to wonder where the film went wrong. And to this end, we must fall back on our dislike of the scenario and the all too technical focus from the director.

Director David Slade’s visual stylings clearly reflect his music video background. The man does not like to stand still for over two seconds. And while this may have been a logical choice with such a claustrophobic setting as the “victim’s” apartment which dominates the film, it is ultimately too choppy and jostling to inspire the desired sense of dread or terror. If we are too believe that the character of Jeff feels completely trapped in his own home by this wickedly smart and feral young girl, we should not be distracted by the crazed swinging arcs and lighting fast editing moves that continually suggest freedom of movement and vast space. In other words. Hold the fucking camera still for a few minutes, will ya?

As for the screenplay, we understand full well that the nature of online dating and chat rooms have opened up a veritable wolf’s den of pervs out there upon an unsuspecting populace. But if we are to believe some of the more melodramatic moments of the film, it would have been more powerful and commanding to restrict the unbelievable subplots. Although we did enjoy some of the spicy dialogue which landed some well aimed barbs at the current fad of online dating. And whoever is to blame for the horrifically bad visual metaphor of the “Little Red Riding Hood” moment towards the end, should be taken to a lonely shack in the sticks and beaten to death.

There do remain some powerful moments in the film, but we cannot help but think they stem from a very basic human fear of evisceration rather than strong writing and directing. Who would not wince when threatened with a scalpel wielding fourteen year old lecturing you on your sexual proclivities while holding your balls in a vice. And while the notion of a seemingly defenseless young girl being able to physically and mentally turn the tables on a potential predator may seem noble or even heroic in a better screenplay – the underlying manipulations and schemes of Hayley’s are far too contrived to be believed. She sadly emerges to be less and less of a vigilante / heroine and more and more of a “B Horror Movie” mustache twirling ogre who is one “Bwa-ha-ha” knife waving moment away from camp.

And so kids, we must leave you with this morality tale – since clearly this film will not. Patrick Wilson, good. Online sexual predators, bad. Bless you all!

Directed by David Slade
Written by Brian Nelson

Starring
Patrick Wilson as Jeff Kohlver
Ellen Page as Hayley Stark
Sandra Oh as Judy Tokuda

Cinematography by Jo Willems
Film Editing by Art Jones
Original Music by Harry Escott & Molly Nyman
Costume Design by Jennifer Johnson
Production Design by Jeremy Reed
Art Direction by Felicity Nove
Set Decoration by Kathryn Holliday

The Notorious Bettie Page - Movie Review

The Notorious Bettie Page 2006

The near impossible has happened, we actually enjoyed a film featuring a lead performance by Gretchen Mol. Now, for those of you who have no idea who Gretchen Mol is, we can hardly blame you. Since the infamous publicity blitz that helped to prematurely launch her career back in 1998 – Miss Mol has fallen far short of the alleged “It Girl” dreams. We might have felt sorry for the poor bint, if it weren’t for the simple fact that nothing she ever did excited us. And while we enjoyed aspects of “Rounders”, “Celebrity” or “Cradle Will Rock” – they certainly were not on account of her presence. Perhaps the best film in her repertoire was Woody Allen’s lovely comic fable based on a fictional jazz musician “Sweet & Lowdown” – although the brief scene involving our heroine of the day was hardly setting the screen on fire.

Turns out that Miss Mol is a talented actress, perhaps not the next Greta Garbo or Meryl Streep, but certainly capable of delivering a solid performance. And with the new biopic concerning the life of “The Notorious Bettie Page”, she finally begins to deliver on the over pitched buildup she garnered years ago. (Cautionary note to young starlets everywhere, just because your manager and publicist blow a junior editor or two to land you the cover to a national distributed rag – doesn’t mean you will have a career.)

Back to our biopic. As many a perv will tell you, Bettie Page was the ultimate “Pin-up Girl” of the post war years. Her perky talents and saucy charisma helped to pitch many a tents among the nation’s loneliest bachelors and degenerates. And when the theme of the photo shoot became slightly risqué or a tad blue – she was apparently game enough to grab the whip and slap on the ballgag. And honestly, we applaud that gumption. Unfortunately for our heroine, the nation’s leaders held a different viewpoint on pin ups and their place in society. Before you could scream “Uptight cunt!” – the conservative government censors began to officially probe into the sweaty underbelly of the innocuous pin up. (Turns out they were more concerned with the fear that the fictional Batman might be donkey punching his underage ward, Robin on cold nights in the Batcave. But that’s another story.)

As the 1950s progressed, the dawn of the “Playboy” era was just beginning, allowing our heroine a place in their immortal lineage of tits and ass. But our gal Bettie was not to reign for long as the most famed of pin-up girls. Soon she would retire and remove herself from the public eye to lead a very reserved life. In short, she fell off the face of the celebrity map and much like the aforementioned Garbo who walked away from her own legendary status at the tender age of thirty six; her fame grew exponentially larger the more she remained hidden away. But did Bettie Page deserve all the attention given to her?

Director Mary Harron and her co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner had been itching to portray our gal Bettie, for a few years now. At one time, the lovely and talented Miss Turner was set herself to essay the lead. But while time and financial backing may have placed the kibosh on those daydreams, they have produced a tightly written and entertaining biopic on the less than perfect life of Miss Page. One of the many things we enjoyed about “The Notorious Bettie Page” was the heavy use of vintage cityscapes and atmospheric stock footage dropped into the storyline. For in tracing the rise and slow fade out of Bettie, we are taken across various vistas from Nashville to New York City to Miami from the Depression to the late 1950s.

While the real Bettie Page has taken on the status of mythology over the years, we were surprised how textbook biopic fodder her real life was. Part of a large Midwestern brood, a child of divorce and a young victim of abuse her dreams of stardom led her down a path that has chewed up many a young girl in search of fame. Certainly there have been hundreds of thousands of pretty young things that posed for cheesecake shots over the decades, but Bettie Page has emerged as the most famous of them all. After all, she is known primarily as an iconic vision of the post war era. While it is true that she filmed some grainy homemade fetish stag films, the public at large knows her for her trademark bangs and perky breasts.

What remains curious about her tale is the brevity of her contemporary fame and the gradual manipulation of her image to incorporate such lofty ideals as feminism, the sexual revolution and brand marketing. Bettie Page has become an industry over the past sixty years, and it all started with a young woman hoping to escape her tattered past.

In many ways, Gretchen Mol is the perfect choice to eschew the lead role. She too has been saddled with a notorious past and dreams of stardom. Her transmogrification into the mid-century masturbatory fantasy is complete. Not the least for her ability to incorporate a free wheeling sense of sexuality while maintaining a believable innocence. We never question her naiveté, for the director and screenwriter tackle it head on. Bettie may be ignorant of some less than worldly views, but she is perfectly game to learn and master the ability to brandish a whip and slap on the thigh-high-lace-up-boots when necessary. (Pay attention girls, this could come in handy in life. Trust us.)

When the world around her begins to act in shock and dismay to Bettie’s daily craft, she is mystified at the uproar. As far as she’s concerned they were merely harmless pics made for discerning clients. Any perverse qualities attached to the act seem to reflect more on the voyeur than the model, in her opinion. Perhaps Bettie Page was indeed the progenitor for a more fluid sexuality that would be embraced by future generations. Or perhaps she was just a dumb slut who avoided the nine-to-five desk-job doldrums by shaking her moneymaker. Either way, the film seems to present our heroine as a simple lass who let history mold her, instead of taking the lead.

Supported by a cornucopia of acting talent from film, television and the Great White Way – notably indy fave Lili Taylor as a photographer / mentor and David Strathairn portraying a crusading senator (Nice flip flop on his Oscar nominated role of last year.) – Gretchen Mol finally begins to emerge as an actress in her own right. We disagree with the notion that this is a “comeback”, since she never actually arrived to begin with.

Let’s just be happy that Gretchen is up to the job handed to her in such a succinct and well made package by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner. While this may not be a spectacular or epic biopic on par with the best, it remains an entertaining stroll down one of pop history’s steamier sidestreets. Bless you all!

Directed by Mary Harron
Written by Mary Harron & Guinevere Turner

Starring
Gretchen Mol as Bettie Page
Chris Bauer as Irving Klaw
Lili Taylor as Paula Klaw
Jared Harris as John Willie
Sarah Paulson as Bunny Yeager
Cara Seymour as Maxie
David Strathairn as Estes Kefauver
John Cullum as Preacher in Nashville
Matt McGrath as Nervous Man
Austin Pendleton as Teacher
Norman Reedus as Billy Neal
Dallas Roberts as Scotty
Kohl Sudduth as Police Officer

Cinematography by Mott Hupfel
Film Editing by Tricia Cooke
Costume Design by John A. Dunn
Original Music by Mark Suozzo
Production Design by Gideon Ponte
Art Direction by Thomas Ambrose
Set Decoration by Alexandra Mazur

Brick - Movie Review

Brick 2006

The dead girl with secrets. The embittered outsider anti-hero. The aloof crime boss. The thug for hire with the twitchy trigger finger. The femme fatale. The stool pigeon. The man with all the answers. The good time gal who knows more than she should. All of these trademark characters from the “Film Noir” sub-genre of cinema are represented and exemplified in the latest addition to the catalog – “Brick”. With a twist.

From the opening scene of “Brick”, the genre mixing stylized gem by newcomer Rian Johnson, we know we are in for a dark, nihilist trip. We are also aware that this will not be your typical homage to “Film Noir”. For all the main characters are teenagers and the setting is a Southern California high school. While this may at first seem to be a bit of a stretch – we quickly realized that a high school is the perfect backdrop for a cinematic world typically filled with disillusioned outcasts whose alienation from society leads them to commit desperate acts, often involving violence or morally ambiguous motivations that teeter on the edge of guilt or paranoia. In short. Your typical high school.

“Brick” exists in a cinematic wonderland affectionately dubbed “Film Noir” by those nutty Cinéastes. Film Noir is a much misunderstood genre. Typically set in the criminal underworld of gangsters, molls and petty hoods – it derived its heritage from a mix of the “Gangster” flicks of the 30s crossed with the darkly lit and atmospherically framed masterpieces of “German Expressionism” to form a unique art form that is pure cinema. And while many of the great “Films Noirs” are among some of our most treasured movie memories, many incredibly bad films have been made in recent years that claim to be inspired by this elusive genre. We’re looking at you Quentin.

At its dark core, “Film Noir” is as escapist as one can get in Film. The characters are stock creatures that exist in the morally corrupt world of booze, cigarettes, drugs, murder, mayhem and everything else that makes life worth living. We don’t go to see “Films Noirs” to get a slice-of-life moviegoing experience. We go to be entertained and drawn into a netherworld of low-life types who know how to handle a gun, slap a broad and pour a stiff one all in the same frame.

As Brendan Frye, the anti-hero protagonist, Joseph Gordon-Levitt secures his lead as the perhaps the most talented actor of his generation. While many will know him for his sitcom TV past, his breakthrough performance last year in the wonderful film adaptation of Scott Heim’s “Mysterious Skin” laid the gauntlet down for his competition. He was terrific as the hooker with a heart of lead. Here he plumbs the potentially lethal depths of wisecracking anti-hero without resorting to caricature. He also knows how to handle the elliptical jazz rhythms of the intricate language that is the most stunning feature of the screenplay.

“Brick” made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival last year, and has already been hailed as a breakthrough premiere feature for the talented writer, editor and director – one Rian Johnson. While it is still in limited release, it has already split audiences and critics alike for its dense, argot ridden dialogue that definitely takes some getting used to but pays off beautifully in the end. By tipping his hat to the great “Films Noirs” of yore, Mr. Johnson recognizes that the essential link between his teen interpretation and the great ones is the use of an intimate language that bonds the characters to their insular world and provides the passageway for the viewers to steep themselves into this highly stylized cinematic landscape. You don’t have to understand every reference to get the feel, texture and richness of this decidedly made-up but engrossing tale.

But if language were all that Mr. Johnson brings to the table, we would have been better off reading the screenplay. What we enjoyed most was his visual flair and ability to depict a dark and sterile environment that frames the action and still manages to allude to the present day hormonally challenged setting. The high school is series of empty concrete vistas, the crime lord’s lair a refurbished basement office devoid of clutter and hilariously indicative of his youthful status with his doting mother doling out cookies and orange juice to his coterie of thugs. By updating the 1940s dialogue and character types into the present day youthful terrain, Mr. Johnson never falters in finding a cinematic balancing point.

While the lead performance of Joseph Gordon-Levitt provides the solid center to the flick, he is ably abetted by several equally talented youngsters. Lukas Haas is perfectly cast as the club-footed, drug dealing criminal kingpin known casually as “The Pin”. His tall, looming shadow and incongruously elfin features lend him an otherworldly quality that is used to great advantage in his almost constant stillness. He is the looming dark overlord of the acne set. And at the ripe old age of twenty nine when filming “Brick” one has to wonder if there is a “Picture of Dorian Gray” snapshot of Lukas in his attic. Does this kid ever age?

Matt O’Leary as “The Brain”, the go-to-guy on campus for all the answers – provides notable support as the Rubik’s Cube solving geek whose owlish spectacles track the comings and goings of the students involved. Along with Lukas and Joseph, Matt is the most comfortable of all the actors with the tricky dialogue and adds an immeasurable amount of believability to the proceedings. (For a view of the younger Matt’s fine work – go rent the criminally ignored directorial debut of Bill Paxton – “Frailty”.)

These three are the prime stand-outs amongst the actors. The supporting players while perfectly cast for their types register in varying degrees of acting skills. Noah Fleiss as the brutish “Tug” has mastered the required scowl and muscle flexing but lacks the polish to sell his big moment completely.

Nora Zehetner as the femme fatale Laura Dannon is a lovely creature who can certainly fill out her kimono, but misses the mark when it comes to the clinch. Her best scenes involve her presiding over the Google Generation elite at her parent’s monstrously posh home, scene of a masquerade party that serves as the starting point for our hero’s quest for answers. We loved her youthful grace as she first tinkers away at the piano and later quietly seduces our protagonist by candlelight. It is only in her final scene decked out in 40s drag, replete with feather headpiece that her youth betrays the required gravitas.

Emilie de Ravin of television’s “Roswell” and “Lost” fame – has unfortunately been portraying victims for too long, so her brief turn as the doomed Emily Kostach lacks the power but still fulfills the essentials. Although she makes a boffo corpse! (Oh lighten up; we aren’t spoiling any surprises – the beautifully restrained opening scene depicting her untimely demise kicks off the search for answers for our young jaundiced hero.)

Meagan Good saunters across the screen in the kind of role that was Rhonda Fleming’s stacked bread and butter back in the 1940s Noir masterpieces. Here she is sufficiently capable of strutting her stuff and tossing off the one liners, but her character does seem the most forced of all the melded archetypes.

And “Shaft” himself turns up as the Assistant Vice Principal whose watchful eye descends on Joseph Gordon-Levitt in times of need. Whose needs remain in question. But it does provide a nice scene between the two that helps define the scope of the kiddie warfare.

Although when all is said and done, this film remains the brainchild of Rian Johnson. Under his assured eye, several key scenes smolder with visual delight. The baiting and pummeling between our hero and the main thug, who engage in a violent test of wills in an empty parking lot. The brilliantly filmed chase sequence which reverberates with heel to concrete rhythms and crescendos with a literally mind numbing gong. And the junior gangland climax at the kingpin’s lair that settles everyone’s hash in the most unpleasant manner.

“Brick” manages to sell a high concept mix of classic and modern, and while it may stumble a bit and pick up a few bruises along the way it is ultimately a polished film that succeeds on its own merits. It’s labyrinthine language and masterful visuals are as intoxicating and satisfying a cinematic dessert as the aromatic mix of “coffee and pie, oh my!” Bless you all!

(End note: To our fellow Asphalt Jungle dwelling Film Noir fans - great news! Coming soon, a six week retrospective of some of the great Film Noir "B" Films from the 40s to the 60s at Film Forum. Stock up on your smokes and go!)

Written, Edited & Directed by Rian Johnson

Starring
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan Frye
Lukas Haas as The Pin
Matt O’Leary as The Brain
Nora Zehetner as Laura Dannon
Noah Fleiss as Tugger
Emilie de Ravin as Emily Kostach
Noah Segan as Dode
Meagan Good as Kara
Richard Roundtree as Assistant VP Gary Trueman

Cinematography by Steve Yedlin
Film Editing by Rian Johnson
Costume Design by Michele Posch
Original Music by Nathan Johnson
Production Design by Jodie Lynn Tillen
Set Decoration by Shara Kasprack