DVD Features:
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 1 hours, 41 minutes
- Video: Color
- Released: July 15, 2003
- Originally Released: 2003
- Label: Sony Pictures
- Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
- Packaging: Keep Case
- Aspect Ratio: Full Frame - 1.33
- Aspect Ratio: Widescreen - 1.85
- Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- DTS - English
- Additional Release Material:
- Featurette
- Trailers
- Audio Commentary: Lisa Cholodenko - Director
- Text/Photo Galleries:
- DVD-ROM Features:
Performers, Cast and Crew:
Entertainment Reviews:
New York Times - 03/07/2003
"...It confirms the filmmaker's talent as an acutely observant chronicler of upscale bohemian subcultures....LAUREL CANYON is superbly acted..."
USA Today - 03/07/2003
"...[A] compelling tale of a free-spirited record producer, played with perfect pitch by Frances McDormand..."
Entertainment Weekly - 03/14/2003
"...[McDormand] makes Jane ripe, real, and irresistible..."
Movieline's Hollywood Life - 03/01/2003
"..The film succeeds as a sharp comedy of manners....All the actors do an excellent job -- particularly McDormand..."
Film Comment - 03/01/2003
"...There are stand-out performances, particularly from McDormand. And Indie-rock aficionados will drool as they watch the real-life Folk Implosion play the music of Sparklehorse..."
Chicago Sun-Times - 03/28/2003
"...McDormand is ascendant..."
Los Angeles Times - 03/07/2003
"...The best part of LAUREL CANYON is McDormand's sexy, tough performance, which creates a terrific gravitational pull..."
Total Film - 12/01/2003
"...The helmer again displays her skill with actresses by eliciting a cracking turn from Frances McDormand..."
Sight and Sound - 12/31/2003
"McDormand is ravishing in every way..."
Uncut - 12/01/2003
"LAUREL CANYON is an understated, shrews film....Grand."
Wall Street Journal - 07/09/2010
"There's a nice, time-warpy quality to Lisa Cholodenko's second feature. Everyone in it is transformed..."
Product Description:
Just out of Harvard medical school, Sam (Christian Bale) and his fiancée Alex (Kate Beckinsale) seem destined for a life of privilege. Intending to find an apartment of their own in Los Angeles--where Sam will do his residency and Alex will complete her dissertation--they decide to stay temporarily with Jane (Francis McDormand), Sam's free-spirited, record producer mother who never provided straight-arrow Sam with the stability he so obviously craves. Jane has just left her longtime lover for Ian (Alessandro Nivolo), the young British musician whose band she is producing. At the expense of her studies, Alex gradually becomes entranced by Jane's carefree, pot-smoking ways--as well as by Ian--at the same time that Sam encounters temptation at the hospital in the form of Sara (Natasha McElhone), a beautiful young resident.
Lisa Cholodenko's (HIGH ART) film uses an unconventional mother-son relationship to examine how parents' decisions affect our lifestyle choices as adults. Playing the flipside of her role in ALMOST FAMOUS, McDormand imbues Jane with the appropriate libertine's spirit, an attitude that she finally turns her back on when it finally gets in the way of her son's future. An effective score by Craig Wedren and memorable songs by Sparklehorse lend authenticity to the film's music biz backdrop.
Plot Keywords:
Family Crises |
Hollywood |
Los Angeles, California |
Music (General) |
Pop / Rock |
Theatrical Release
Production Notes:
- Theatrical Release: MARCH 7, 2003 (NY/LA)
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