33-472: Tamara Jenkins (born May 2, 1962) is an American filmmaker and occasional actress. She is best known for her feature films Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Private Life (2018), and The Savages (2007). She received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nomination for the latter. Jenkins was born in Philadelphia , the daughter of Lillian and Manuel Jenkins. Her father is Jewish, and her mother
66-483: A "blind deal" to write any script she wanted, but she sought to get a deal elsewhere after what she characterized as a disagreement over casting. Fox Searchlight picked up the film with a modest budget ($ 8 million) and compressed shooting schedule of 30 days. Starring Laura Linney (who received her third Academy Award nomination for her role) and Philip Seymour Hoffman , the film became a critical success after screening at numerous film festivals, including Sundance and
99-698: A cheap steak at Sizzler for lunch — a ritual regularly suggested by their father as a means of showing affection to his children. The film is loosely based on writer-director Tamara Jenkins' experiences as a youth moving around different apartments in the Beverly Hills area with her lower-middle-class family. Jenkins wrote the script at the Sundance Filmmakers' Lab , where Sundance founder Robert Redford got ahold of her screenplay and expressed interest in producing it. Redford said he related to Jenkins' experiences of having "grown up as an 'outsider'...not at all
132-682: A child. Rolling Stone magazine described the movie as "not only about infertility... a tender but unflinching portrait of a couple in the throes of a midlife crisis." Jenkins was nominated at the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay for the film. Private Life holds a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it Jenkins' highest-rated film on the site. In addition to her work in film, Jenkins' writing has been published in Zoetrope: All-Story and Tin House Magazine . Most recently her essay, "Holy Innocents" appeared in
165-456: A genre label, which was once used by October Films in the late 1990s. Rogue Pictures would be led by the same team who led the standard Focus management. On October 2, 2013, James Schamus was fired from his position as CEO of Focus, with the New York offices being shut down in the process. He was succeeded by Peter Schlessel, whose company FilmDistrict would be merged into Focus and folded into
198-549: A label focusing on the video on demand market with initial plans to distribute 15 films per year, with one film being released per month. As a distributor, Focus' most successful release in North America to date is the 2019 film Downton Abbey , which earned $ 84.5 million during its first weekend at the box office and surpassing Brokeback Mountain , which earned $ 83 million at the North American box office. However, this
231-418: A meeting between the two families, telling Murray he is "their real father" because he sends them money. Vivian snaps and stabs Mickey in the leg with a fork; then Rita admits that she is pregnant. Rita gets on a plane with her now outraged parents. Depressed and dejected, Murray once again packs the kids into his car and they take off. In an attempt to cheer her father up, Vivian suggests that the family stop for
264-484: A member of the club but a sideline observer from the wrong side of the tracks." Redford is credited as an executive producer on the film. Slums of Beverly Hills earned a total of $ 5,502,773 at the domestic box office. On its opening weekend, it garnered $ 125,561 from seven theaters in the United States. On Rotten Tomatoes , the film has an 81% approval rating based on 62 reviews, for an average score of 7/10, with
297-413: A new strategy to "align the acquisition and production of specialty films in the global market". Following this, along with several disappointing box office returns, Schlessel was let go from the company and replaced with Peter Kujawski . In April 2017, Vine Alternative Investments re-acquired the pre-2008 Rogue film library from Focus Features. In August 2011, Focus Features launched Focus World,
330-537: A nice pragmatic approach to sexuality, as in a scene where she consults a plastic surgeon about on-the-spot breast reduction." He also stated, "...basically I enjoyed Slums of Beverly Hills —for the wisecracking, for the family squabbles, for the notion of squatters who stake a claim in a Beverly Hills where money, after all, is not the only currency". San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Ruthe Stein stated, "While touching on serious issues such as loss, this coming-of-age story
363-598: A short film, 1991's Fugitive Love , which screened at the Sundance Film Festival . Afterwards, she completed a congressional mandate associated with PBS to bring diverse programming to public television that was funded by the Independent Television Service. Another black-and-white short, 1993's Family Remains , followed, which received a Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Short Filmmaking at
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#1732905619861396-503: A teenage girl (Lyonne) struggling to grow up in 1976 in a lower-middle-class nomadic Jewish family that relocates every few months. Fourteen-year-old Vivian Abromowitz's family are penniless nomads , moving from one cheap apartment to another in 1976 Beverly Hills , so that Vivian and her brothers can attend the city's prestigious local schools . Their father, Murray, is a divorced 65-year-old, working as an unsuccessful Oldsmobile salesman whose cars are selling poorly due in large part to
429-452: Is Downton Abbey , which garnered $ 194.3 million at the worldwide box office. Focus Features' films have earned numerous awards nominations, including a total of 175 Academy Award nominations and 35 wins across various categories. However, they are also, infamously, the distributor with the most Best Picture losses, out of 16 nominations as of 2024. Focus Features was formed in 2002 by James Schamus and David Linde and formed from
462-461: Is Italian American . After her parents divorced, her father, a former nightclub owner, took custody of her and her three brothers, moving the family to California to work as a car salesman. She lived in Beverly Hills with her father and brothers, and attended Beverly Hills High for a year and a half. In the 1980s, Jenkins moved to New York City where she performed in various productions, including
495-642: Is curious about sex, likes an apparently-twenty-something neighbor, Eliot, has inherited her mother's ample breasts, and wants a family that does not embarrass her. Vivian's older brother Ben aspires to a show business career. Her father appreciates the attention from his wealthy lady-friend Doris Zimmerman but resists her desire that he send his kids back East to live with his ex-wife. Vivian's younger brother Rickey wishes they could live somewhere where they could have more comforts like furniture and worries about how old their father is. Vivian and Rita are close and sometimes speak in gibberish . Vivian learns that Rita
528-439: Is first and foremost a comedy, and a hilarious one at that. It never strains to be funny. The humor derives from the deadpan responses of family members to circumstances beyond their control." She also wrote, "Set in the mid-'70s, Slums gets the period right, from the burnt orange shag carpet on the floor of the family's temporary digs to the dorky clothes and extreme hairstyles. Even the saleslady who sells Vivian her first bra has
561-485: Is itself a division of its wholly owned subsidiary of NBCUniversal . Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in the United States and internationally. In November 2018, The Hollywood Reporter named Focus Features "Distributor of the Year" for its success behind the year's breakout documentary film Won't You Be My Neighbor? and Spike Lee 's BlacKkKlansman . The studio's most successful film to date
594-405: Is not that serious about attending nursing school, being more interested in re-establishing contact with a guy she met in rehab, and also has no idea what to do with her life. Murray attempts to cover up Rita's lack of progress at nursing school when Mickey asks for progress reports. Eventually, Mickey starts to go off on Murray, frustrated at having to support his brother's family; he explodes during
627-460: Is something in the water.” Private Life , which starred Paul Giamatti , Kathryn Hahn , Molly Shannon , and Kayli Carter , was also written by Jenkins. The film began production in April 2017, and was given a limited release in theaters on October 5, 2018, by Netflix , which also streamed the film. Private Life follows a couple dealing with infertility, and is based on Jenkins’ own struggles to have
660-536: The Toronto International Film Festival . Jenkins was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay . After the success of The Savages, it took Jenkins eleven years to make her third feature film, Private Life . When discussing the more than a decade-long hiatus, Jenkins noted that successful female directors do not often produce films at the same pace as their male counterparts, stating “It’s systemic. It’s gotta be systemic. There
693-413: The energy crisis of the time. Vivian's wealthy uncle Mickey regularly sends the family money to help them survive. When Mickey's 29-year-old daughter Rita escapes from a rehab facility, Murray offers her shelter if Mickey will pay for a plush apartment. Vivian must babysit her adult cousin, ensuring that she attends nursing school and avoids pills and alcohol. However, Vivian has her own problems: she
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#1732905619861726-690: The 1994 Sundance Film Festival. Her debut feature film, 1998's semi-autobiographical Slums of Beverly Hills , which she wrote and directed, played at both Sundance and the Cannes Film Festival . Based on her own experience growing up in Beverly Hills in the 1970s, the film is a dark comedy about a nomadic family in Los Angeles . Using photographs Jenkins had kept from her time at Beverly Hills High School , art director Scott Plauch and production designer Dena Roth were able to create an accurate period depiction of Beverly Hills, while also staying true to
759-460: The artists' colony in Saratoga Springs, New York , to work on the screenplay that would eventually become 2007's The Savages . For this tragicomedy about a dysfunctional family dealing with the aftershocks of its patriarch's elderly dementia, Jenkins took inspiration from her experiences with her grandmother and father, both of whom were in nursing homes with dementia . Jenkins' father, who
792-762: The autobiographical element which is key to the film's success. Starring Alan Arkin , Natasha Lyonne and Marisa Tomei , Slums of Beverly Hills was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards (Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay). Jenkins took a nearly decade-long hiatus to complete her next feature film. In the nine-year gap between her two films, she worked on an eventually abandoned screenplay about photographer Diane Arbus . Before returning to her next feature film, Jenkins branched out to explore theater, essay publications, and nonprofit film and TV work. In 2003, she directed The New Group 's theater production of A Likely Story , written and performed by David Cale . Shortly after her marriage, Jenkins went to Yaddo ,
825-554: The book Lisa Yuskavage: Small Paintings 1993-2004 . She has also directed theater at The New Group , worked with teens creating a sex-education film for the nonprofit organization Scenarios, and directed a series of public service announcements for Amnesty International . Jenkins has been married to fellow screenwriter, Jim Taylor , since 2002—himself an Academy Award winner for Sideways (2004), among other nominations. They have one daughter and live in NYC as of 2019. The couple co-wrote
858-463: The divisional merger of USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine , as well as several assets of the Vivendi -affiliated film studio StudioCanal . USA Films was created by Barry Diller in 1999 when he purchased Interscope Communications , certain assets of the film division of Propaganda Films , October Films and Gramercy Pictures from Seagram and merged the three labels together; USA Films
891-533: The first national tours of Chicago , Les Miserables , and Cats , as well as the 1993 Broadway Revival of My Fair Lady . She enrolled in the graduate filmmaking program at New York University 's Tisch School of the Arts in the 1990s. Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship for filmmaking, Jenkins also attended the Sundance Institute Screenwriting and Filmmakers Lab. Jenkins began her career with
924-412: The overly made-up look of the time. The Abramowitzes' behavior when they go out to eat—complaining about the service and that there's too much salt in the food—may seem to border on a Jewish stereotype. But it's also dead-on." Focus Features Focus Features LLC is an American independent film production and distribution company , owned by Comcast as a division of Universal Pictures , which
957-522: The screenplay for the 2018 film, Juliet, Naked (adapted from Nick Hornby 's homonymous novel ), along with Evgenia Peretz—sister of the film's director, Jesse Peretz . Slums of Beverly Hills Slums of Beverly Hills is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tamara Jenkins , and starring Natasha Lyonne , Alan Arkin , Marisa Tomei , David Krumholtz , Kevin Corrigan , Jessica Walter , and Carl Reiner . The story follows
990-443: The site's consensus describing the film as "Warm, real, and hilarious". Reviewers have praised the 1970s production design, the humor, and the acting as "dead-on". Roger Ebert awarded the film three out of four, and said of lead actress Natasha Lyonne, "[she] has the film's most important role, and is the key to the comedy. She does a good job of looking incredulous, and there's a lot in her life to be incredulous about. She also has
1023-534: The trade name High Top Releasing. This became effective in January 2014, and several titles developed under FilmDistrict would be released under Focus. Under Schlessel, the company began to acquire films with a wider commercial appeal, much like his previous company. In May 2015, Gramercy Pictures was revived by Focus as a genre label, that was on action, sci-fi, and horror films. In February 2016, Focus merged with Universal Pictures International Productions as part of
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1056-631: Was led by Scott Greenstein . Universal Focus was the specialty film arm of Universal Pictures that was created in 1999 as Universal Classics, which was led by Paul Hardart and Claudia Gray, to replace the October Films label in order to get a group of titles to be distributed by USA Films, focused on the marketing of niche-based acquisitions by Universal Pictures International , Working Title , WT2 Productions, Revolution Films and DNA Films , and eventually rebranded into Universal Focus by 2000. In March 2004, Focus Features revived Rogue Pictures as
1089-460: Was much older than Jenkins’ mother, first needed care when she was in her 30s. Additionally, Jenkins built upon her theater work at The New Group, departing from her previously straight dramas to something far more absurd. The film layers a bright, doll-like color palette upon a bleak and often morbid story, relying on the savage wit of her screenplay to tie the film together. The project was initially with Focus Features , which she says had given her
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