Laurel Canyon (film)
Encyclopedia
Laurel Canyon is a 2002 American drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko
Lisa Cholodenko
Lisa Cholodenko is an American film and television writer/director. She is best known for her highly acclaimed 2010 comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right which was nominated for a number of awards including four Academy Awards, Best Picture among them.- Career :Having grown up in a Jewish family ,...

. The film stars Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...

, Christian Bale
Christian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....

, Kate Beckinsale
Kate Beckinsale
Kathryn Bailey "Kate" Beckinsale is an English actress. After some minor television roles, she made her film debut in Much Ado About Nothing while still a student at Oxford University...

, Natascha McElhone
Natascha McElhone
Natascha McElhone is an English actress of stage, screen and television, best known for her roles in Ronin, The Truman Show and Solaris. McElhone also plays a leading role in the Showtime series Californication....

, and Alessandro Nivola
Alessandro Nivola
Alessandro Antine Nivola is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Best Laid Plans, Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, and the first two films of the Goal! trilogy.-Personal life:...

.

Plot

Sam (Christian Bale
Christian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....

) and Alex (Kate Beckinsale
Kate Beckinsale
Kathryn Bailey "Kate" Beckinsale is an English actress. After some minor television roles, she made her film debut in Much Ado About Nothing while still a student at Oxford University...

) are a newly engaged couple who move to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 to further their working careers. Sam is a recently graduated psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

, starting his residency
Residency (medicine)
Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident physician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree , Podiatric degree , Dental Degree and who practices...

, while Alex, who comes from a very wealthy background, is finishing her M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

-Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 dissertation on genomics
Genomics
Genomics is a discipline in genetics concerning the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis,...

. The relatively strait-laced, upwardly mobile couple plan to stay at the vacant home of Sam's mother, Jane (Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...

), a free-spirited record producer in the Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California
Laurel Canyon is a canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was first developed in the 1910s, and became a part of the city of Los Angeles in 1923 ....

 section of the City of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.

In a change of plans, however, Jane is still around, recording an album with her boyfriend, Ian McKnight (Alessandro Nivola
Alessandro Nivola
Alessandro Antine Nivola is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Best Laid Plans, Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, and the first two films of the Goal! trilogy.-Personal life:...

), and his band. The film focuses in some depth on the challenge of trying to create successful pop music, showing work on two tracks (both actually written, and previously released, by the band Sparklehorse
Sparklehorse
Sparklehorse was an American indie rock band led by the singer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous.-History:Sparklehorse's first album, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot featuring Bob Rupe of the Silos and Cracker, was a modest college radio success...

). Ian's bandmates are played by noted indie rockers, bassist Lou Barlow
Lou Barlow
Louis Knox Barlow is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion. Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music in the late 1980s and early 1990s...

 and guitarist Imaad Wasif
Imaad Wasif
Imaad Wasif is a Canadian singer, guitarist and songwriter whose music combines elements of both folk and rock music. Wasif’s music has been described as “unbelievably intense with sparkling, raga-influenced guitar and a mystic bent.”...

.

Jane and Ian are in the midst of a fiery romance
Romantic love
Romance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....

, and both producer and band seem more interested in partying than finishing the record. Jane's presence is a source of consternation for Sam, as he and his mother have a somewhat strained relationship, due to their very different mindsets.

Alex, however, is intrigued by the new lifestyle options presented by her soon-to-be mother-in-law; normally hardworking, she begins spending more time with the band and less time working on her dissertation. Her growing fascination with Jane and Ian leads to a scene where the three of them kiss one another while naked in the swimming pool.

Meanwhile, Sam finds himself attracted to fellow resident Sara (Natascha McElhone
Natascha McElhone
Natascha McElhone is an English actress of stage, screen and television, best known for her roles in Ronin, The Truman Show and Solaris. McElhone also plays a leading role in the Showtime series Californication....

), who is unapologetically interested in him as well. They share one first kiss while returning from an informal interns' meeting, around the same time Alex has her first tryst with Jane and Ian in the pool. Some time later, while Alex attends Jane and Ian's party held in a crowded hotel suite to celebrate the band's new album release, Sam and Sara meet in a parking lot and, in a conversation filled with sexual tension, they declare their attraction for one another.

The situation strains Sam and Alex's relationship almost to the point of breaking by the end of the film. After the party has finished and the three of them are left alone in the suite, Ian tries to "finish", in his words, his encounter with Alex and Jane, but the latter decides against it and the threesome
Threesome
A threesome is a group of three engaged in the same activity. In relation to a sexual activity a threesome refer to the activity involving three people of any gender or sexual orientation...

 does not take place. Upon returning home after his conversation with Sara, Sam decides to go to the hotel and discovers Jane, Ian, and Alex scantily-clad in the bedroom; in a fit of rage he repeatedly punches Ian, hits his mother with the elbow as she tries to split the fight and leaves the hotel, but Alex chases him down the street and professes her love for him.

The next morning, the situation seems back to normal again. But Sara phones Sam and tells him she can't control her heart, as opposed to what he told her the day before. Sam watches his surroundings, postpones any further conversation and takes a moment of reflection. Credits run.

Cast

  • Frances McDormand
    Frances McDormand
    Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...

     as Jane
  • Christian Bale
    Christian Bale
    Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....

     as Sam
  • Kate Beckinsale
    Kate Beckinsale
    Kathryn Bailey "Kate" Beckinsale is an English actress. After some minor television roles, she made her film debut in Much Ado About Nothing while still a student at Oxford University...

     as Alex
  • Natascha McElhone
    Natascha McElhone
    Natascha McElhone is an English actress of stage, screen and television, best known for her roles in Ronin, The Truman Show and Solaris. McElhone also plays a leading role in the Showtime series Californication....

     as Sara
  • Alessandro Nivola
    Alessandro Nivola
    Alessandro Antine Nivola is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Best Laid Plans, Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, and the first two films of the Goal! trilogy.-Personal life:...

     as Ian McKnight
  • Lou Barlow
    Lou Barlow
    Louis Knox Barlow is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion. Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music in the late 1980s and early 1990s...

     as Frip
  • Imaad Wasif
    Imaad Wasif
    Imaad Wasif is a Canadian singer, guitarist and songwriter whose music combines elements of both folk and rock music. Wasif’s music has been described as “unbelievably intense with sparkling, raga-influenced guitar and a mystic bent.”...

     as Dean
  • Russell Pollard
    Russell Pollard
    Russell "Russ" Pollard is an American rock musician, who has been a member of Sebadoh, The Folk Implosion, Alaska!, and Everest.-Biography:...

     as Rowan
  • Mickey Petralia as Mickey
  • Melissa De Sousa
    Melissa De Sousa
    Melissa De Sousa is an American actress. De Sousa was born in New York City, New York of Panamanian descent. She is an Afro-Latino.-Early life:...

     as Claudia

Background

Lisa Cholodenko
Lisa Cholodenko
Lisa Cholodenko is an American film and television writer/director. She is best known for her highly acclaimed 2010 comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right which was nominated for a number of awards including four Academy Awards, Best Picture among them.- Career :Having grown up in a Jewish family ,...

 stated that the film was inspired by the Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

 album Ladies of the Canyon
Ladies of the Canyon
Ladies of the Canyon is Joni Mitchell's third album, released in 1970. Its title refers to Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, a center of popular music culture in Los Angeles during the sixties...

. Jane was inspired by Mitchell herself. Ian's backing band in the film is performed by The Folk Implosion
The Folk Implosion
The Folk Implosion was an American indie rock/lo-fi band founded in the early 1990s by Lou Barlow and John Davis. It was initially a side-project started by Barlow to explore different territory than that being canvassed with his primary band at the time, Sebadoh...

.

External links

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