Posts tagged with “St. Louis”
On Location: George Clooney, Hollywood Take St. Louis Behind the Middle School and Get It Pregnant
George Clooney and director Jason Reitman rapping in my fake snow covered hood. (photo by: Dale Robinette, Paramount Pictures)
St. Louis and its environs finally gets its due as a viable major motion picture production location in Jason Reitman’s new George Clooney Oscar bait (and actually pretty awesome) Up In The Air, a film that not only shot St. Louis-set scenes actually IN St. Louis (gasp), but also used STL as a stand-in for several other locations, including a wedding in suburban Wisconsin, Clooney’s character’s spare condo in Omaha, Nebraska, various cities, airports, etc. A fun and very detailed listing of STL locations used can be found here. (It’s fun! And very detailed.)
St. Louisans pretty much lost their shit as soon as word of the impending production made its rounds last year and never really got their shit back. Production moved right into my very quiet Maplewood neighborhood for a couple weeks—all of the wedding related Wisconsin-set scenes were shot in and out of Maplewood United Methodist Church, exactly two blocks from my crib—and you’ve never seen a happier bunch of Midwesterners, all lined up and gawking at the set (the whole block was cheerily spray painted with a thick layer of fake snow covering houses, trees, and piles of dirt standing in for snow drifts) and eagle eyeing the lot of REAL MOVIE STAR TRAILERS with REAL MOVIE STAR NAMES ON THE DOORS (although I’m pretty Danny McBride could have walked by unnoticed—considering he looks like every dude these people went to high school with). Those who caught a glimpse of Clooney still talk about it in awestruck whispers. Those are some happy weirdos. Some of my family drove into town to stand amongst the throng for a few hours and were shocked that I wasn’t interested in altering my sleep schedule (I sleep SO much!) and joining them. (Weirdos.) I figured a couple casual strolls by the set would suffice. (It did.) Read more »
Hamming It Up Finally A Good Thing
Jon Hamm in Stolen Lives.
[Ed. note: Since our review was posted, Stolen Lives was renamed Stolen. Smoke and mirrors, people--don't be fooled!]
STOLEN LIVES (2009/SLIFF PRE-RELEASE) St. Louisans curious about local boy turned Mad Man Jon Hamm‘s new feature film turned out in sell-out crowds for both SLIFF screenings of director Anders Anderson‘s debut, Stolen Lives. The good news is that Hamm did his family (some of whom were in attendance) proud by grounding what would otherwise be a pretty but routine basic cable crime melodrama with an intense, raw performance as a present day small town police detective investigating a child murder in 1958 that might be connected to the disappearance of his own son nine years ago.
While Hamm’s intense performance, first-time director Anderson’s deft pacing (he knows how to put a scene together), and the ace camera work of director of photography/producer Andy Steinman, help Stolen Lives open powerfully, cracks in the implausible script show early and often. (Hamm’s detective’s jogging route takes him by the working crime scene where the 1958 victim was recovered AND the prison where the man he believes to be the prime suspect for his own child’s disappearance is serving time? And that very suspect/dude just happens to be sitting in the prison courtyard as he just happens to be jogging by? Huh?) Read more »
