#Nicholas Jarecki

[randomluck-ofthe-universe]

Jake.

💙💙

"Crisis" by Nicholas Jarecki (2021)

[olivierdemangeon]

CRISIS (2021) ★★★✮☆

[bkenber]

Richard Gere on Making Us Root for the Bad Guy in 'Arbitrage'

Photography By Myles Aronowitz WRITER’S NOTE: This article was originally written in 2012. Don’t get me wrong, Richard Gere has played many likable characters in movies like “Pretty Woman” and “An Officer and a Gentleman,” but it’s when he plays despicable ones that he truly excels as an actor. The latest example of this is his brilliant performance as Robert Miller in “Arbitrage,” the movie…

[adamwatchesmovies]

Arbitrage (2012)

Arbitrage offers a unique kind of thrill. Usually, a movie makes you sweat because you want to see the protagonist get out of a seemingly impossible jam. You suspect things will be alright (unless it’s a thriller-horror, then all bets are off) but you’re not sure. With this film, it’s the opposite. You want the protagonist to fail, to pay for what he’s done. You suspect things will be alright for him but you’re not sure. Maybe this “bad guy” will lose. While waiting, your stomach will be in knots.

Robert Miller (Richard Gere) is about to sell his hedge fund for millions to James Mayfield (Graydon Carter) but the buyer keeps stalling. Despite his playful exterior, the delayed sale is causing Robert anguish. Financial documents have been falsified. The company he’s selling isn’t worth what he claims it is. If anyone finds out, he will go to jail and his daughter’s professional reputation will be ruined. Things get even more precarious when we find out he’s having an affair.

Richard Gere is excellent in this role. Your instinct is to like him. He’s handsome, charismatic and cool. Why’s everyone causing him so much grief? Then, you start to find out what he’s really like. It’s not that he got one of his assistants to help pick out gifts for his grandchildren, it’s that he fakes caring about them while planning to leave his wife for Julie (Laetitia Casta), a much younger woman he presents as a great artist… while remaining fully aware that her success is entirely because of him. Once he sells the company, he’ll be free to divorce his wife, take the money and run away with Julie. She’ll be a good match for him because her lack of talent will make her completely depend on his money. Like everything else, she'll be something he can manipulate or use. Everyone else's desires and needs are secondary to his. Come to think of it, you’re not even convinced he’s in love with Julie. She could just be a plaything he picked up as a hobby.

Robert's involvement with Julie is threatening to blow up in his face. Meanwhile, there’s this sale he desperately needs to go through. So many things could take him out you’re holding your breath the whole time. His daughter begins investigating the company’s books, a police detective with disdain for the rich (Tim Roth) suspects Miller is shadier than he looks. The walls seem to be closing in, but Miller is always one step of everyone due to an unfair advantage: money. Even if he doesn’t have it in his bank account, his potential to have cash, his reputation and his years in a priviledged position have given him a golden ticket out of just about any jam. Sure, it might mean stepping on a couple of people along the way - Nate Parker plays Jimmy Grant, a black man who stands to lose it all because of his trust in Miller - but even if someone gets mad, Robert has money. He can just throw dollars at the problem and it’ll all be resolved.

Arbitrage fills you with a peculiar kind of despair. This story stops being about some fictional character. It becomes about our world. No matter the outcome, it feels like you lose. If Miller trips up and gets caught, it’ll feel like this whole thing was a fantasy; bread thrown to the masses so they won’t revolt. If he doesn’t get caught, then what hope is there for justice anywhere?

Arbitrage makes a slight misstep during the conclusion by cutting a little bit too quickly - I had to re-watch it to make sure I didn’t miss anything and really “get” what it meant. There's also Miller’s son, who’s so not in this movie he might as well have been omitted. Otherwise, it’s a character study blended with a thriller that’s hard to shake. This is an exceptionally well-written and well-acted film. (On DVD, September 20, 2021)

[addictivecontradiction]

Arbitrage, 2012

[brokehorrorfan]

Hackers will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on August 22 via Shout Select. The 1995 crime thriller is directed by Iain Softley (K-PAX, The Skeleton Key).

Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Renoly Santiago, Lorraine Bracco, and Fisher Stevens star. Rafael Moreu (The Rage: Carrie 2) penned the script.

Hackers has been newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative. Special features (on the Blu-ray disc) are listed below.

Special features:

The Keyboard Cowboys: A Look Back at Hackers - Interviews with director Iain Softley, actors Fisher Stevens, Matthew Lillard, and Penn Jillette, costume designer Roger Burton, visual effects artist Peter Chiang, consultants Nicholas Jarecki and Emmanuel Goldstein, and film critic Mark Kermode

Original trailer

While practicing the tricks of the trade, a neophyte hacker accomplishes the nearly impossible: he hacks the highly secured computer at the Ellingson Mineral Corporation. But in doing so, he unknowingly taps into a high-tech embezzling scheme masked by a computer virus with the potential to destroy the world's ecosystem!

Pre-order Hackers.

[adafruit]

Hackers 4k UHD arrived!

DISC ONE (4K UHD): NEW 4K Scan And Restoration Of The Original Camera Negative

DISC TWO (BLU-RAY): NEW 4K Scan And Restoration Of The Original Camera Negative "The Keyboard Cowboys: A Look Back At Hackers" Including Interviews With Director lain Softley: Cast Members Fisher Stevens, Matthew Lillard, And Penn Jillette; Costume Designer Roger Burton; Visual Effects Artist Peter Chiang; Hacker Consultants Nicholas Jarecki And Emmanuel Goldstein; And Film Critic Mark Kermode Original Trailer

[gentlemans-code20]

#MotionPicture - Arbitrage

Arbitrage is a 2012 American crime drama film directed by Nicholas Jarecki and starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth and Brit Marling. Filming began in April 2011 in New York City. It opened in U.S. theaters in September 2012.

[ecsundance]

What is Independent Cinema?

In preparation for our long-awaited trip to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, my fellow film enthusiasts, and I learned a lot about independent films. So, what exactly are independent films, you ask? Let me try to explain what I have learned so far.

When I think of indie films, I think of films that are different from the normal Hollywood style films, those produced by major studios speaking to mainstream ideas. Indie films are more realistic and less escapist and focus on niche subject matter addressing more relevant thematic topics that are important to the filmmaker and important for the world to see. Arbitrage (2012) is such an example, portraying the pitfalls that can come with wealth, power, and privilege. Indie films also use stylistic features. For example, Stranger Than Paradise (1984) was filmed only in black and white, and its scene transitions always cut to black. From an economic perspective, often, these films are low budget as they do not have access to the money the major studios have. An example of this is The Blair Witch Project (1999) which was filmed in eight days costing less than sixty thousand dollars and with only three characters. Also, early indie films did not have much star power but currently, you can find major actors in many of these films like Richard Gere in Arbitrage. This can be for many reasons. Often it is because they believe in the film and its message and so are willing to reduce their salaries to take part in a film that is important for the world to see.

All of this is indeed true. However, in Michael Z. Newman’s Indie: An American Film Culture, he claims that indie films cannot simply be defined in economic, stylistic, or thematic terms but rather, needs to be understood culturally. He states, “It [independent cinema] is most centrally a cluster of interpretive strategies and expectations that are shared among filmmakers; their support personnel, including distributors and publicists; the staffers of independent cinema institutions such as film festivals; critics and other writers; and audiences. All of these different people are audiences who employ these strategies, and it is only because filmmakers are also film spectators that they are able to craft their works to elicit particular responses from the audience. Indie constitutes a film culture: it includes texts, institutions, and audiences. Indie audiences share viewing strategies for thinking about and engaging with the texts—they have in common knowledge and competence—which are products of indie community networks” (Newman 11).

Newman developed three strategies for viewing indie films which relate to three important aspects of independent cinema: character-focused realism, formal play, and oppositionality (Newman 15). “These strategies often overlap with each other and often in mutually reinforcing ways” (Newman 29).

The three strategies are characters are emblems, form is a game, and when in doubt, read as anti-Hollywood (Newman 29).

Characters Are Emblems

This refers to characters representing a segment of the values of society.

An example of this can be found in the film Arbitrage directed by Nicholas Jarecki. Two of the main characters represent the current state of societal behavior today. The main character, Robert Miller, signifies much of what is wrong with today’s society. He uses people to get what he wants. To stay out of prison, he was willing to throw his own daughter under the bus for things that he was responsible for. He likes to be well thought of, however, he is lacking in character.

Contrasting him is Jimmy Grant who is held out as a beacon of hope compared to Miller. He believes in keeping his word. He is not willing to betray Robert to save himself even though the legal threat he faces is entirely Robert’s doing. He has trouble believing that the police would tamper with evidence to convince him to talk. Jimmy is the opposite of Robert and seems to be outnumbered in society. Later in the film when he decides to accept the two million dollars from Robert, he does it with the acknowledgement that his debt is repaid and that he will do something good with the money.

Form is a game

This is defined as how the viewer experiences the film. Here the viewer becomes a player in the movie helping to work through the puzzles.

Both The Blair Witch Project and Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) created films where the viewer is more of a player trying to understand what is happening.

Through Myrick and Sanchez’ immersive style in The Blair Witch Project, the viewer uses their imagination to determine what is really happening throughout the film as the three protagonists pursue their investigation of the reality of the Blair Witch. It is up to the viewer to determine if it is all real or not. The missing map, the piled-up stones, and the stick bundles that the protagonists find all contribute to the thinking that there is something wrong going on. It is a mystery and the viewer, along with the protagonists, is trying to figure it out.

When in doubt, read as anti-Hollywood

This references movies that appear to lack the usual attributes of what we are accustomed to seeing in a movie and therefore, can be considered as anti-Hollywood. Some of these attributes in a typical Hollywood movie include: a happy ending, special effects, background music, more complex camera work, and editing to name a few.

An example of this can be found in Stranger Than Paradise directed by Jim Jarmusch. Here the cinematography is as basic as you can get. Per Winters, the film was “shot on location in purposely drab black-and-white” (Winter 123). The film is shot using one camera. It does not move around in scenes, nor is it repositioned. There is some tilting or zooming but for the most part they are static shots and there is no repositioning of the camera for different angles in the scene. There is no sophisticated editing. The ending of all scenes is cut to black.

The Blair Witch Project written and directed by University of Central Florida film school classmates, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez is another good example. It is evidently lacking in camera setup and what would be considered normal scene shots. The resulting effect makes it seem that the film is unplanned, and it is being shot live as the actors experience it. This is true in the minimal direction the directors have given the actors. Contrast this to the detail and planning of all scenes shot in what we would consider a normal Hollywood movie that has storyboards detailing the proposed shots made up prior to the filming.

These three strategies help us differentiate between mainstream Hollywood movies and independent films.

All in all, I agree with Newman’s claim that indie films cannot simply be defined in economic, stylistic, or thematic terms but rather, need to be understood culturally. Identifying these films requires the use of his methods as it is not as simple as checking off a list of criteria that qualifies a film as indie. How films are accepted culturally compared to mainstream Hollywood movies identifies it as indie.

Hope this has provided you with some insight into what independent cinema is and how you can evaluate it.

Referenced Texts links:

Newman, Michael Z. Indie: An American Film Culture. Columbia University Press, 2011.

Winter, “Stranger Than Paradise,” pp. 121-123.

-Ryan McCormick

[creativejamie]

"Traffic" / Crisis Explained: What’s Up With the Ending?

“Traffic” / Crisis Genre crime thriller Directed by Nicholas Jarecki Cast: Gary Oldman (Tyrone Brower), Armie Hammer (Jake Kelly), Luke Evans (Bill Simons), Evangeline Lilly (Claire), Guy Nadon (Mother), Greg Kinnear (Jeff), Michelle Rodriguez (Garett), Lily -Rose Depp (Emmy), Indira Varma (Madira), Martin Donovan (Laurence), Veronica Ferres (Meg) and others. Студии Les Productions LOD, Bideford…

[loveothislife]

Crisis DVD and Blu-ray release date: April 20, 2021 (Source: Amazon)

[the-fall-of-armie-hammer]

E! News just published another article in covert support of Armie Hammer

Yesterday, E! News published an interview with Paige Lorenze. The framing of the article was so abysmal—so clearly an attempt to whitewash AH's alleged depravity—it led many in this sub to wonder if the media organization was in the tank for the actor.

I regret to inform you that E! News just published another shitshow that lends credence to this theory. (Credit to @switch_ga over at instagram for spotting this.)

The article: Watch Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer take on the opioid epidemic in exclusive Crisis trailer premiere

Exclusive!

I wonder what sleazy quid-pro-quo netted E! this tantalizing 'exclusive' 🤔

A couple of words on the upstanding citizens involved with this production:

Here is a picture of the director, Nicholas Jarecki, with close family friend Ghislaine Maxwell.

If you think I'm kidding about the "close family friend" part, check out sweet Nicky and his dad Henry in the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs.

Cozy!

(I'm too lazy to go through all 73 pages of the logs—the screenshot provided here comes from page 11. If you're curious about whether Nicholas Jarecki appears more than once in the manifests of the Lolita Express, you can consult one of the original court documents here. As AH would say, "Happy hunting!")

If you still think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, consider the findings of an investigation commissioned by Harvard into Epstein's relationship with several skeezy (and potentially criminal) professors at the university.

The 2020 Harvard report revealed that, long after Epstein had been barred from campus and from making donations to a select group of professors, the dead pedophile continued to pour money into the coffers of his intellectual buddies. He hid this fact from the university by making the donations through his associate Leon Black, a hedge funder, and something called the Falconwood Foundation.

The Falconwood Foundation, it turns out, was, up until recently, the name of the Jarecki family charity. (The link is to a conservative organization, but the information provided is solid and clearly presented. I opted for this instead of linking to 990 tax forms.)

Okay, but most of the compromising material so far pertains to Nicholas Jarecki's dad, Henry. Sins of the father and all that. Is there anything else that's sketchy about the people involved in this movie?

Why, I'm so glad you asked!

Nicholas Jarecki's upcoming movie, Crisis, was financed by a man named Mohammed al Turki. His name keeps cropping up in blind items accusing him of being a pimp and a svengali.

Those are merely allegations. What is proven, though, is that al Turki was behind that obscene influencer junket to Saudi Arabia in December 2019. You know the one: the 'music festival' that served as a failed attempt to whitewash Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses—including the time Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman instructed his henchmen to dismember a journalist.

Speaking of dismemberment, I wonder what convinced golden boy Armie Hammer to sign up for the trip and post so glowingly about it on social media.

AH was so excited about traveling to the Saudi kingdom that he took his faithful crony Tyler Ramsey along for the ride. (The thing I love most about that picture, by the way, is it inadvertently reveals that the then-still-married Armie took off his wedding ring to go on a trip to the other side of a world mere days before Christmas. Dad of the year!)

Ed Westwick was there too. I wonder if he and Armie bonded over their alleged fondness for raping.

But anyway, back to Crisis, a movie conceptualized and directed by Nicholas Jarecki. It's not the first of Jarecki's projects to be financed by al Turki. That distinction probably goes to 2012's Arbitrage, which—fun fact!—guest-starred Nate Parker. It's quite the professional network we got here.

Parker, if you didn't know, would go on to direct Birth of a Nation, starring him and Armie Hammer. The director's career was on the up-and-up until it took a swift nosedive when revelations emerged that Parker and the movie's screenwriter, Jean Celestin, were once accused of gang-raping a young woman. The alleged victim eventually died by suicide. The real victim, however, was Armie Hammer, because this whole unfortunate situation meant he lost out on an Oscar nomination.

A few days ago, I left this comment on Nick Jarecki's insta. He promptly deleted it.

In case you're wondering what my mention of a title change (from Dreamland to Crisis) is in reference to, you can read all about how Nicholas Jarecki, cinematic auteur, stole his movie's subject matter and title from an award-winning book by the incomparable Sam Quinones. It seems Jarecki missed the day in film school where they taught students that you're supposed to purchase the movie rights from authors if you want to cash in on their work.

Quinones trolled Jarecki so hard on Twitter that the beleaguered director was forced to change the title. Now, it seems, Jarecki and his backers are trying as hard as possible to push their movie out into the world despite the Armie Hammer-shaped PR nightmare on their hands. Crisis is set for release February 26.

The E! Entertainment Network, it seems, is trying to help the effort along.

But a word to the wise and the not-so-wise: the more my fellow journalists try to brush this horror show aside, the harder I'll work to expose their asses.

(X)

ETA: original poster has now edited to correct the media source was Entertainment Weekly, and not E! News. (X)

[addictivecontradiction]

Arbitrage, 2012

[thecurvycritic]

Crisis Intersects Three Lives Plagued By Opiod Abuse

Star power times three puts opiod abuse center stage in Nicholas Jarecki's film #Crisis #opiods #podcast

When news hit that Michael Jackson had died from a Fentanyl overdose or when Prince was found in an elevator unconscious from the exact same drug, questions circled around doctors prescribing this drug and the ease at which it is readily available to not only celebrities, but housewives, teens or those seeking to cop a high by any means necessary. Opiod abuse is a constant, uncomfortable, and…

[theluworld]

A crazy ensemble cast here with Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, Evangeline Lilly, Greg Kinnear, Michelle Rodriguez, Lily-Rose Depp, Luke Evans and @KidCudi, we predict that Nicholas Jarecki's Dreamland might shore up at Sundance.

https://twitter.com/ioncinema/status/1328744996292456448