Latest news with #Shanley
Daily Record
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Forgotten movie starring four Hollywood legends but fans have only days to watch
Although currently streaming on Netflix, the star-studded film will depart from the streamer next month Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, Doubt is a 2008 drama that's based on Shanley's Pulitzer-prize and Tony Award-winning 2004 stage play Doubt: A Parable. Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis, Doubt is set in a Catholic elementary school named after St Nicholas in 1964 and tries to confront the issue of sexual abuse within the church. Although currently streaming on Netflix, the film will depart from the streamer on June 4. Having premiered in October, 2008, at the AFI Fest before seeing a wider release in December that year, Doubt earned $51.7 million at the box-office against a budget of $20 million. Although the movie received mixed reviews, Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams were all highly lauded for their performances — each earning an Oscar nomination at the 81st Academy Awards. Doubt was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the awards that year. In fact, it is only the fourth film to date — joining My Man Godfrey (1936), I Remember Mama (1948), and Othello (1965) — which has received four acting nominations without getting a nod for Best Picture. A critic's review of the film calls it: 'An expert film, with a precision and lucidity in its intellectual quandary that few motion pictures can muster, making the experience at once entertaining and full of substance.' Another reviewer says: 'Doubt comes to the screen with a welcome restraint, relying as much on what is unsaid as on what is said and the kind of stylish visual juxtapositions of those suppers.' One critic feels: 'Doubt is simply, engrossingly thought-provoking and, despite its subdued appearance, is one of the brightest films of the year.' Nevertheless, another wasn't left too impressed, writing: 'Doubt looks like some sort of upscale horror film, complete with crows and swirling leaves like The Omen. It's actually a terminally muddled piece of star-studded Oscar-bait.' An audience review for the film states: 'This film will leave you questioning and doubting. No conclusion as you need to draw your own. Streep was excellent in it and the guy who played the priest.' While another lauds its performances: 'Now that we are many years past the film's aggressive Oscar campaign and the endless debates over the film's effectiveness as an adaptation of a massively successful play, I think we can assess it on its own merits. Frankly I think the movie is very clear eyed about what happened and what this all means and the performances are uniformly great.' One viewer, who was not won over by Shanley's offering, writes: 'Critics and audience alike are all luvvy darling how wonderful what performances blah blah blah. I don't get it. There is no reason for Streep's certainty. "She has no ulterior motive and no proof. She is not mad nor is she looking for revenge. The story is fundamentally flawed.' (sic) On the other hand, some felt the acting was the film's only saving grace: 'I love Meryl Streep, and she really saved this film from sending me to sleep. It was very pedestrian and not a great deal happened. "There was a nice atmosphere, though, and I found Amy Adams's character engaging, too.'
The Herald Scotland
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Doubt, A Parable at Dundee Rep review: 'quietly thrilling evocation'
Faith and belief are at the heart of John Patrick Shanley's 2004 play, seen here for the first time in Scotland since 2010. Set in a Catholic school in the Bronx district of New York in 1964, Shanley's play pointedly frames itself a year after the assassination of President John F Kennedy. This is highlighted in an opening sermon by the progressive Father Flynn, who questions putting what is sometimes blind faith in old certainties. This is a red rag for Sister Aloysius, who rules the school with a tight-lipped authoritarianism that won't allow room for any new ways of thinking, whatever Vatican 2 might say. This leads her to embark on a campaign against Father Flynn with the intent of ousting him from office. To do this, she manipulates her young charge Sister James into reluctant complicity with her damning claims regarding Father Flynn's alleged conduct before what is effectively a trial by hearsay ensues. Read more reviews from Neil Cooper: This makes for an intense ninety minutes in Joanna Bowman's concentrated production, as Shanley's spare text is passed between the four people on stage like increasingly poisoned sacraments. Designer Jessica Worrall's brutalist interior provides sanctuary for confession and conspiracy alike, with the only breath of fresh air coming from the occasional glimpse of a tree outside that marks the changing seasons. Each scene is punctuated by dramatic chorales brought to the fore by sound designer Richard Bell in a way that ramps up the play's all too earthly stakes. Ann Louise Ross makes for a deadly and unforgiving Sister Aloysius, with Michael Dylan giving as good as he gets as a steely Father Flynn. As Sister Aloysius turns him into a bogeyman, Emma Tracey lays bare Sister James' awakening from innocent idealism to the harsh realities of the political game she's caught up in. Mercy Ojelade adds further complications to an already volatile mix as Mrs Muller, the mother of the only black child in the school, and whose relationship with Father Flynn kick-starts Sister Aloysius' obsession. In the end, what actually did or didn't happen is never revealed in a quietly thrilling evocation of ideological power plays in which the only thing sacrificed is the truth.
The Courier
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
Review: Doubt: A Parable at Dundee Rep
John Patrick Shanley's 2004 stage play Doubt: A Parable opened off-Broadway and ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play. It's a play with a big reputation and legacy, from Shanley's own 2008 film adaptation starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis, to last year's Broadway revival with Live Schreiber and Amy Ryan. Here Joanna Bowman directs Dundee Rep Theatre's version, which keeps the American backdrop of the original – a Bronx religious school in 1964, where the relationship between a young male priest and a boy in his care is called into question. The chance to see a modern classic on a Scottish stage; although if you'd like a recommendation from outside theatre, Shanley also won an Academy Award for writing the 1987 Cher and Nicolas Cage film Moonstruck. You know you're in for a high standard all round at Dundee Rep, and the performances are predictably powerful. Ann Louise Ross is especially commanding in the central role of Sister Aloysius, a character who flips the role of strict and widely-feared religious disciplinarian – all of which she is – to reveal an innate morality which causes her to not let go when she smells wrongdoing. The way the play manages to be a contemplative, ecclesiastical piece about the meaning of faith and a tense and utterly involving thriller all at once. All the time we're given mixed signals about who to root for – Sister Aloysius seems stuffy and inflexible, while the accused priest Father Flynn is played with easy-going, youthful warmth by Michael Dylan. Emma Tracey's apprentice Sister James, meanwhile, represents a more open, less disciplinarian form of teaching, but does seeing the good make her blind and naïve Jessica Worrall's impressive set is also a character in itself, a vaulted, concrete-effect sepulchre with a panel which reveals the changing seasons outside. You don't like hearing fake American accents in the theatre. Although the reason for maintaining time and setting becomes clear when we discover the boy in question, Donald Muller, is the only black child at the school. Mercy Ojelade cameos as his complex mother, who's prepared to turn a blind eye because she believes education is his only escape to a better life, and in an already powerful play her single scene is a tour de force. At Dundee Rep Theatre until Saturday 10th May.
CBS News
23-04-2025
- General
- CBS News
Pope Francis celebrated with Mass and art at St. John's University in Queens
As people around the world gather to honor Pope Francis, St. John's University in Queens is bringing its community together in both traditional and unique ways. There was moment of prayer and reflection for the the school community on Wednesday with a Mass at St. Thomas More Church in remembrance of the pope, who died on Monday at the age of 88. "He walked humbly and lovingly" In delivering his message, Rev. Brian Shanley, the school's president, spoke on the pontiff's ability to walk alongside people, just like Jesus did with his disciples. "Rather than being a pope way up here, he was a pope that would be right with you in your struggles with your faith and in the church's struggles. He walked humbly and lovingly and that's what I loved about him," Shanley said. Shanley said the pope had a gift for reaching out to young people, which was evident to students like Aidan Heffernan, who's an altar server. "I think it's a great opportunity for young people to get involved. There's still a lot of pain and suffering around the world and my religion helps me focus on the good," Heffernan said. St. John's students express grief through art Ahead of the Mass, students gathered outside the church to express their grief through art, each painting a tile to create a mosaic of the pontiff that offers a different way to reflect. "We're providing space where people can be quiet or they can be engaged; they can have conversations, but it's a healing experience," said Dan Napolitano, director of student services at St. John's Tobin College of Business. "He had such an impact on the Catholic Church, community and the world as a whole," graduate student Julianna Biondi said of Pope Francis. Those sentiments were echoed by Bishop Joseph Espaillat of the Bronx. "It has been a mix of emotions for me. I was named by Pope Francis to be an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York. Very sobering, very real. It was a privilege moment," Espaillat told CBS News New York from Rome, where he was able to pay his respects to Pope Francis at Casa Santa Marta. "To me, personally, [his death] was almost losing a father figure. [He was] a really humble man who loved the Lord and has now gone back home to him."
