Man in the Chair (2007)
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47% of critics liked it
(36 reviews) -
69% of users liked it
(913 ratings)
A young man learns something about making his fantasies into reality from an older man who has already been there in this coming-of-age drama. Cameron (Michael Angarano) is a teenage film buff living in Los Angeles who dreams of making movies himself someday, an ambition that doesn't impress his… More A young man learns something about making his fantasies into reality from an older man who has already been there in this coming-of-age drama. Cameron (Michael Angarano) is a teenage film buff living in Los Angeles who dreams of making movies himself someday, an ambition that doesn't impress his parents very much. Cameron doesn't have many friends beyond fellow outcast Murphy (Joshua Boyd), and wealthy and popular classmate Brett (Taber Schroeder) takes great pleasure in making Cameron's life miserable. A major film school in L.A. has announced a competition for young filmmakers, but while Cameron has talent and ideas, Brett has the money to buy film stock and rent equipment, and Cameron wonders if he stands any chance at all. One evening, while attending a screening of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil at a revival theater, Cameron sees an elderly man who shouts at the screen about his old pal Orson. Cameron is thus introduced to Flash Madden (Christopher Plummer), who worked as a lighting man during the Golden Age of Hollywood and really did work with some of the most respected names in the business, including Welles. While cranky Flash doesn't much care for Cameron at first, in time he sees a kindred spirit in the movie-mad teenager, and offers his technical know-how and sources of equipment to the would-be director. Flash also introduces Cameron to Mickey Hopkins (M. Emmet Walsh), a former screenwriter who helped script a number of silver-screen classics but is now living in a shabby old folks' home, and in Hopkins, Cameron finds the inspiration for just the sort of movie he wants to make. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Michael Schroeder
- Written By
- Michael Schroeder
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy
PG-13,
- In Theaters
- Dec 7, 2007 Wide
- On DVD
- Apr 1, 2008
- Studio
- Outsider Films
Critic Reviews
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Derek Adams, Time Out
A fair-to-middling contemporary fantasy drama that, despite its surfeit of flashy effects, is mildly charming in the way it addresses the injustice of old folk having to live out their final years in decrepit homes.
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Tasha Robinson, Chicago Tribune
By salvaging a troubled script with deep, committed, touching portrayals, Plummer and Walsh help prove Schroeder's points about how Hollywood isn't just the province of the rich, young and pretty.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
The movie works so hard at juggling its clichés that it fails to generate interest in its story.
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, Los Angeles Times
Though they can't transcend writer-director Michael Schroeder's pointed contrivances, the actors tap into something achingly true in this valentine to Hollywood's below-the-line crafts people and society's castoffs.
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, Los Angeles Times
[An] elegant documentary.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
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Cast
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Christopher Plummer
as Flash Madden
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Michael Angarano
as Cameron Kincaid
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M. Emmet Walsh
as Mickey Hopkins
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Robert Wagner
as Taylor Moss
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Joshua Boyd
as Murphy White
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Mimi Kennedy
as Mom Kincaid
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Mitch Pileggi
as Floyd
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Tracey Walter
as Mr. Klein
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Taber Schroeder
as Brett Raven
- Jody Ashworth
- John Rezig
- George Murdock
- Margaret Blye
- Francesca Roberts
- James O'Connell
- Ellen Geer
- Allan Rich
- Julia Vera
- Peter Dennis
- Brad Grunberg
