Sean Penn offers warm "Milk" to movie fans Dec 1, 2008
Yet in the movies, he has shown wide versatility, whether playing a mentally retarded man in "I Am Sam," a jazz guitarist in "Sweet and Lowdown" or a death row inmate in "Dead Man Walking" -- all which earned him Oscar nominations. Harvey Milk may be his best role yet, many critics say. (Reuters)
Fanning is a big girl and a big star now Nov 4, 2008
She has appeared in movies aimed at grown-ups since she broke through at age 6 opposite Sean Penn in 2001's I Am Sam, often paired with an established actor who could benefit from a dose of her worldly yet innocent cuteness. Those who have gained from the Fanning effect include Denzel Washington in Man on Fire, Robert De Niro in Hide and Seek and Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds. (USA Today -- Life)
Dakota can't wait to date Nov 4, 2008
Fanning who shot to fame in 2001 movie 'I Am Sam' alongside Sean Penn said she is embracing the different kinds of roles she is being offered now she is older. She told Today newspaper: "I won't be able to play the same roles as I did when I was six or nine. I'll be 15 in February, and as I get older, the roles will inevitably change. I look forward to that. "I know what I was meant to do and what I want to do and what I love to do. (iAfrica.com)
Love the circus? Love The Beatles? Then youll love a Beatles circus! Oct 10, 2008
After all, you can hear the Fab Four in non-Apple-partnered films (I Am Sam, Across the Universe), songs (The Gray Album), laser shows, AM radio, commercials, malls and elevators everywhere. If you want to know whether you should you see this film, ask yourself if you've seen the Vegas show, plan to or wish you could. (National Post)
Dakota Fanning's a runaway hit at Mill Valley Oct 5, 2008
This marked Fanning's first visit to Mill Valley, but not her first screen appearance at the festival, as Fishkin recalls the 7-year-old Fanning's precocious performance in 2001's "I Am Sam." But she is a little girl no longer and both "The Secret Life of Bees," in which she plays Lily, a motherless 14-year-old who runs away from her abusive father, and the controversial "Hounddog," in which she plays a 12-year-old rape victim and that opens at the Roxie Film Center on Oct. 31, mark the young... (San Francisco Chronicle)
Local theater not showing controversial Hounddog Oct 3, 2008
Now the AMC theater in Braintree is one of 300 in its chain that isn t showing Hounddog, which has generated outrage because of a scene where a teenage boy rapes a 12-year-girl played by 14-year-old Dakota Fanning of Little Miss Sunshine and I Am Sam fame. Set in the deep South during the 1950s, Hiounddog centers around Fanning s character, who idolizes Elvis Presley and believes that if he sees her dance, The King will find a place for her in his entourage. (Braintree Forum, MA)
Bangkok Dangerous Sep 8, 2008
That is not entirely true (and it should be said that watching Cage slum through the National Treasure series is preferable to shielding one's way past Penn's industrial-strength acting in All the King's Men or I Am Sam). No, Cage has always been attracted to dark, difficult roles. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
Nicolas Cage: The anti-Sean Penn Sep 3, 2008
I get my art films from weird French directors like Claire Denis, so frankly Id watch Ghost Rider again exactly one dozen times in a row before sitting through middlebrow, Oscar-grubbing fare like the Penn-starring I Am Sam again. Or the Penn-starring 21 Grams. (MSNBC -- News)
Rice swims all the way to the bank Aug 22, 2008
One scene features a debate about actors playing degrees of "retard" to win awards including Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and Sean Penn in I Am Sam. The executive officer for the NSW Council for Intellectual Disability, Carol Berry, saw Tropic Thunder yesterday and was upset by various elements, including the concept of actors "going the full retard". (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Tropic Thunder AU Review Aug 21, 2008
Elsewhere, the film tramples over the bad-taste line with stabs at portraying the physically handicapped, critiquing Sean Penn's performance in I am Sam and noting that going 'full-retard' never gets you the Oscars. It's that kind of movie. (IGN FilmForce)
Sentinel Morning Update: Safety concerns change bus route notifications Aug 21, 2008
From Rain Man to Forrest Gump to I am Sam, Hollywood films have been accurately portraying the mentally retarded with all of the same emotion and abilities as their other dramatic counterparts. It was a surprise then for Shenk to hear about what was going on in Ben Stillers new comedy Tropic Thunder. (Carlisle Sentinel, PA)
Tropic Thunder review: Who left the fridge open? Aug 21, 2008
Ask Sean Penn in I Am Sam, Lazarus says. He went full retard. (Seacoast New Hampshire)
Stiller's 'comedy death camp' Aug 18, 2008
We never wanted it to be OK." Similarly, a subplot involving "Simple Jack" (another film set within Tropic Thunder's bizarro Hollywood universe) treads shaky comedic ground, lampooning such genre standard-bearers as Rain Man and Sean Penn in I Am Sam. Stiller's Tugg breaks action-hero type to play a "mentally impaired farmhand" -- a wild-eyed, bucktoothed simpleton who is repeatedly referred to as a "retard" in Tropic Thunder -- with hopes of winning an Academy Award. "I've never played a... (AZCentral -- Entertainment)
'Tropic Thunder' brings issues about cinema and race back to the fore Aug 17, 2008
Lazarus offers up to Speedman the cautionary example of Sean Penn, who went Oscarless with "I Am Sam." "Never go full retard," he counsels. Of course, if Lazarus had been cast as Simple Jack, he would have gone full frontal lobotomy. (Los Angeles Times)
Special needs advocates not at all amused by new film Aug 16, 2008
Those who go full retard, such as Sean Penn in I Am Sam, get shut out during awards season. Advocates for the mentally disabled seized on the scene and launched a national boycott. (Mason City Globe-Gazette, IO)
'Thunder' stings (that's the point) Aug 14, 2008
Ever see Sean Penn in I Am Sam. Does that excuse use of the word, or the depiction. (AZCentral -- Entertainment)
Movie review: 'Tropic Thunder' offensive, funny Aug 14, 2008
After his character's speech about actors who don't get Oscars when they go "full retard," it's going to be really interesting when Robert Downey Jr. runs into "I Am Sam" star Sean Penn at the next Vanity Fair party. "Tropic Thunder" introduces each main player with a trailer for his next movie. (San Francisco Chronicle)
'Tropic Thunder' stomps on comic turf with heavy shoes Aug 14, 2008
That's how he ends up blowing what might have been the film's sharpest scene, involving Kirk's explanation for why Tugg's performance as a retarded man in "Simple Jack" doomed his chances for an Oscar, an elucidation that includes a clever taxonomy of all the ways it's permissible to play intellectually challenged in Hollywood ("Forrest Gump" is statuette-worthy, though not "I Am Sam") and a grindingly unfunny repetition of the word retard. If Downey - who at this point in his career apparently... (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
'Tropic Thunder' Director/Star Ben Stiller Says Disability Advocates' Planned Boycott Is Unwarranted Aug 12, 2008
The joke, then, is really on people like Dustin Hoffman ("Rain Man"), Sean Penn, ("I Am Sam") and Tom Hanks ("Forrest Gump"), actors who do more harm than good by denying the painful realities of the illness and instead paint their characters as too sunny or bright, Cohen said. "Movies about the mentally retarded is something we talked about for a long time. My grandfather was adopted by a mentally retarded man, a man who shouldn't have been allowed to adopt a kid," Cohen revealed. (VHI.com -- Music News)
Be careful what you wish for Jun 6, 2008
RaggedClaws wrote on Jun 5, 2008 11:09 AM:" Change and hope, and hope and change! We can believe and believe we will, we know not for what, either good or ill! I am Sam, Sam I am, I do not like Green Eggs and Ham!The man is an empty suit. It's just like Kerry's nebulous "plan"? What the hell kind of change? We live in the greatest country in the world BHO, why do you wish to change it, and why do so many idiots want to follow you to do it?Unreal. ". RaggedClaws wrote on Jun 5, 2008 11:10 AM:"... (Rockingham Daily Journal, NC)
Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn Call Off Divorce Apr 11, 2008
Penn won an Oscar for Best Actor for "Mystic River" in 2004 and was previously nominated in the category for "Dead Man Walking," "Sweet and Lowdown" and "I am Sam." He also directed such films as 2007's "Into the Wild.". Wright Penn has starred in such films as "The Princess Bride," "Forrest Gump" and most recently, the motion-capture action fantasy "Beowulf.". (WNBC.com, NY)
5Top: Actresses who could be next Jodie Foster Apr 1, 2008
Steven Spielberg (War of the Worlds, Taken), Sean Penn (I Am Sam), Robert De Niro (Hide and Seek) and Julia Roberts (Charlottes Web) all consider Fanning a colleague. Fanning, now 14, has five films scheduled for release between this year and next. (MSNBC -- News)
Life on a run Jan 23, 2008
But he also produced dramas like "I Am Sam" and "Believe in Me," which was filmed in Clovis after he moved here. Pages: 1. (New Mexico Business Weekly, NM)
NEW WAVE: Once Hollywood's bad boy, Sean Penn will chair the jury at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. AFP Jan 3, 2008
The brooding actor had snubbed the Oscars on the three previous occasions he was nominated the third was for "I Am Sam" in 2001 and was an absent focus of the awards in 2003 after paying a controversial pre-war visit to Iraq to condemn the looming war. "I never thought I'd be sitting here today missing Richard Nixon," he said in Cannes in 2004. (iAfrica.com)
Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn divorcing Jan 1, 2008
47, won a best actor Oscar for 2003's "Mystic River," and was nominated for best actor for "Dead Man Walking," "Sweet and Lowdown," and "I Am Sam." His latest directorial effort, "Into The Wild," has received four SAG Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. Wright, 41, is best known for her title role in "The Princess Bride" and for starring opposite Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump.". (CNN -- Showbiz)
Marriage over for Penn Dec 29, 2007
Mr Penn is known for his roles in films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High; Dead Man Walking; I Am Sam and Mystic River, the role that won him an Academy Award for Best Actor. Ms Wright Penn has starred in films such as The Princess Bride, Forrest Gump and Beowulf. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Meet the young 'Debaters' Dec 28, 2007
Favorite movies: "My fun flick of the summer was 'Transformers.' I think a movie that had very powerful acting was 'I Am Sam.' I think watching that film was the first time I became vulnerable.". MOST POPULAR STORIES. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Oprah Receives Producers Guild Award Dec 14, 2007
Previous recipients of the Stanley Kramer Award include "Hotel Rwanda," "An Inconvenient Truth" "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Antoine Fisher" and "I Am Sam.". MMVII The Associated Press. (CBS News)
Films thrive on one musical vision Dec 13, 2007
Vedder, who worked with Penn on "I Am Sam" and "Dead Man Walking" but not as deeply, says creating the nine original songs came quickly after seeing the rough cut of the film in his Seattle living room. "The film was incredibly moving," recalls Vedder. (Variety)
Kucinich has this vote Dec 13, 2007
Sam Dawson wrote on Dec 12, 2007 11:42 AM:" I loved Sean Penn in "I am Sam". " ... vote for Ron Paul wrote on Dec 12, 2007 2:56 PM:" When Ron Paul is president, he will outlaw "I am Sam"! ". (Logan Herald Journal, UT)
Claus and effect Nov 4, 2007
" Like that little Hussein kid Saddam, he just needed a hug. But I digress. Fred Claus, the latest addition to the Santa Claus movie pantheon, begins in the 12th century with the sibling rivalry of a pudgy Nicholas Claus, who gives away his Christmas presents to the less fortunate, and brother Fred, who, unable to compete as a good kid, goes the other way. Nine centuries later, Fred (Vaughn) is a repo man with dubious debts to pay. And Nick (Paul Giamatti)? He's got this job up at the North... (Winnipeg Sun)
Fanning sisters set for 'Keeper' Oct 25, 2007
Pic marks the first time that the girls will work in scenes together on a film; both appeared in "I Am Sam.". The girls are younger than they were in Picoult's novel, but a decision was made to cast them younger because it was age-appropriate for Diaz. (Variety)
* Pfeiffer's fears laid to rest in new movie Oct 18, 2007
Her children were pre-schoolers, and she showed up in a few movies a year, mostly overwrought hankie-flutterers such as I Am Sam, The Deep End of the Ocean and The Story of Us. As her children grew, her output dwindled. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World)
'Samantha Who?' amnesia plot is mind-numbingly forgettable Oct 15, 2007
First, the Dr. Seuss estate nixed the original title, "I Am Sam," and then the replacement title "Samantha Be Good" was changed, too, probably not because of Chuck Berry but because it was just bad. Todd and Ahern had to settle for "Samantha Who?" as they worked hard to bring their show to. (Boston Globe)
All you need is love Sep 13, 2007
As the soundtrack of the 2001 movie I Am Sam proved, Beatles covers can be hit or miss. In Across the Universe, several catchy pop tunes are recreated as lush orchestral pieces for mediocre singers, giving off a bad karaoke vibe. (Boston University Daily Free Press, MA)
Mets have "it," and Braves do not Sep 12, 2007
By I Am Sam, Sam I Am. September 11, 2007 7:57 PM. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Sports)
Television movies for the week of Sept. 9 Sep 9, 2007
TV Movies: Sept. 9-15. G = General audiences PG = Parental Guidance PG-13 = Not recommended for preteens R = Restricted audience. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
Sony exploits its Beatles catalog Sep 7, 2007
"I Am Sam" (2001), for example, used a sprinkling. But the sheer range and quantity of the wall-to-wall songs in "Universe" is unprecedented. (Variety)
Looking for credibility in The Business Sep 3, 2007
Enter Kathleen Robertson, the savvy Hamilton-born blond who has what must be the industry's most eclectic resum from Maniac Mansion to Beverly Hills, 90210 to Dog Park to Psycho Beach Party to Scary Movie 2 to I Am Sam to Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story. Not only is Robertson the top-billed star of The Business, she is also one of its executive producers. (Toronto Star)
Samantha Who; Life is Wild; Aug 11, 2007
Samantha Who; Life is Wild. Samantha Who; Life is Wild. (Suite101.com)
Vedder Goes Solo For 'Into The Wild' Soundtrack Jul 4, 2007
Vedder and Penn have been friends for more than a decade; the Pearl Jam frontman previously contributed music to the soundtrack for Penn's 1995 film "Dead Man Walking" and also recorded a cover of the Beatles' "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" for 2001's Penn-starring "I Am Sam.". "Into the Wild," which is based on Jon Krakauer's book of the same name, opens Sept. 21 in U.S. theaters. (MediaWeek.com)
Because I Said So May 3, 2007
Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson have had success before in comparable manipulative territory, albeit with a surplus of sappiness, via contributions to Stepmom (about divorce and cancer) and I Am Sam (about disability and fatherhood) respectively. Because I Said So shows they have little idea about human relationships unaffected by profound obstacles. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Russian Doll Mar 21, 2007
Whatever your stance on child actors in general, your feelings on exploiting their inherently cute, helpless features to manipulate moviegoers are probably stronger (case in point: I Am Sam). Add to the mix an orphan narrative, and your sentiments may easily be summed up in a resounding There s no way in hell I m seeing that. (San Antonio Current, TX)
Plots, news hit home once you're parenting Feb 27, 2007
I also recently ran across the 2001 flick "I am Sam," in which Sean Penn portrays a man with the intelligence of 7-year-old who has to fight for custody of his daughter because authorities don't believe he can properly care for her. Now, my family is not homeless, and no one is trying to take my son away. (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, VA)
No excuse for Because I Said So Feb 3, 2007
As written by Karen Leigh Hopkins (Stepmom) and Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam), most of these roles are simply unplayable. Milly, a motormouth who snorts like a hyena and declares everything to be great, is just as awkward and needy as her mother says she is. (MSNBC -- Movies)
Call for ban on 'child rape' film Jan 25, 2007
Fanning has had major roles in films including 2001's I Am Sam with Sean Penn and War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise in 2005. SEE ALSO 22 Jan 07 | Entertainment 19 Jan 07 | Entertainment 30 Nov 06 | Entertainment 18 Jan 07 | Entertainment 17 Nov 06 | Entertainment 20 Jan 06 | Entertainment. (BBC News -- Entertainment)
Little girl, big money: why Miss Fanning divides the fans Jan 14, 2007
Her breakthrough came when, aged seven, she was cast opposite Sean Penn as the smart daughter of a mentally disabled man in I Am Sam. Since then, she has played opposite a series of heavy-hitters Robert De Niro in Hide and Seek, Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds and Denzel Washington in Man on Fire cementing her status as not only a reliable cutie who can look much younger than she is, but a substantial dramatic actress. (The Age, Australia -- Entertainment)
And Our Nominees Are... Jan 14, 2007
(Lifetime achievements should go to Sean Penn in I Am Sam or Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. Watch and see if Rinko Kikuchi , who plays a deaf girl in Babel, gets the nod over the unafflicted competition. (New York Post -- Entertainment)
Dakota Fanning 'Rape' Film Heads to Sundance Jan 3, 2007
That's because the character played by 12-year-old actress Dakota Fanning, who made her mark six years ago in "I Am Sam," is raped onscreen. Kampmeier doesn't show the actual rape, but it's quite clear, from sources who've seen the film, that as scripted and directed, the scenes in question are going to cause as big if not bigger uproar than when Brooke Shields played a pre-pubescent prostitute in Louis Malle's classic "Atlantic City.". (Fox News -- Views)
