Celebrity Interview & Review: There’s Always Woodstock Review - A Chick Flick Reminiscent of the Nora Ephron Classics

“There’s Always Woodstock,” from Gravitas Ventures and Sunrise Films, bring to the screen romantic comedy, filled with all the drama of modern life, the twists and turns, pitfalls and stumbles on the path to finding the one.

 

Written and directed by Rita Merson, “There’s Always Woodstock,” stars Katey Segal, Allison Miller, Brittany Snow, Ryan Guzman, Jason Ritter and Rumer Willis.

“There’s Always Woodstock” opens as life for Catherine, played by Allison Miller, a NYC music publicist and her perfect celebrity fiancé, played by Jason Ritter, couldn’t be happier by all accounts.

Within minutes of opening Catherine, after being given the firm’s biggest client (Brittany Snow) to babysit, failed in their eyes miserably and was subsequently fired she arrives home early to find her perfect finance in the shower with his Monday lover. The stunning revelation sent her box of office trinkets into the shower and running to a friend.

Catherine, still unsure of the next path decides to leave Manhattan and all its old memories, the cheating fiancé, and at 23 “her whole life” to regroup in the farmhouse her parents, Woodstock rabbits, built after the acid, mud, and lust faded.

“There’s Always Woodstock,” of course, centers on the iconic town in upstate New York where in August 1969 the world converged on this tiny town and turned it into a three day, rock and roll, love in fest always remembered, as time often erases the jagged edges, one of those defining moments of  generation.

Flash forward fifty years as the memories of that weekend nee that moment in time, fuels this small community mixing modernized Manhattanites too young to have thrown in the towel, and old timers still tossing back the shots so to live with clarity the memories in the mind.

This is where we meet Emily, played by Rumer Willis, a bartender, happy, although longing for a music career, she pours for the crowd who ventures, good bad or indifferent to the karaoke mic and has made a home in Woodstock, away from the crowd and guards the locals with a caring roughness which is how she meets Jody.

Picture early Meg Ryan, quirky, with endearing eccentricities, our pixie, Jody, wears her heart on her sleeve in all the wrong places, and at 23, believes the jack rabbit romp she is accustomed is the best life has to offer and of course it doth love make.

Enter our Tom Hanks in our post Nora Ephron era, a handsome, charismatic, professional, mentally together, okay an evolved Nora Ephron hero, which allows our champion to be  . . .well perfect; Handsome, a doctor, well known in our little town, happy to be close enough to the “big city” and far enough away not to be bothered.

The two meet, of course, as our daughter of Woodstock royalty, Catherine, a hidden singer, after three too many from our heavy pouring Emily is singing Karoke. Even with the magic of movies it is difficult to believe that the moment is endearing, drunk and foolish, even in the sparsely filled bar.

Somehow love sees through with clarity and our hero has found love. The next twenty or so minutes are the hits and misses necessary to build the romantic possibilities while pixie fixes the house, meets the locals and begins to really enjoy the life north of the rat race.

“There’s Always Woodstock,” also stars Katay Segal as the iconic Joan Baez character, someone who knew Catherine’s parents and cared for them with as much affection as the season allowed.

Of course, the life lesson that love is often found where you least expect it and what will you do when it shows up and is not lost while our characters find new life in the shadow of the old.

“There’s Always Woodstock,” a great first date flick, won’t have the box office run as the early romantic dramady’s of the 1990’s, and still it captures the attention, holds on, introduces enough characters along that way to keep things interesting and ends, of course, after the requisite will they won’t they cliffhanger, with love.

Rumer Willis Interview Part 1

Having the chance to interview Rumer Willis, Emily in “There’s Always Woodstock,” and daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, I found her interesting and, coming from a life of media and press invasion, deeply guarded. A singer, Willis is filled with passion for her first love, music.

Rumer Willis, in a supporting role as Emily the bartender is stunning. The DP catches her, in group scenes where she seems to be lost in her character and we see a beauty. Put it this way, her very famous parents may have made getting in the acting door somewhat easier, but she has real talent, not talent disguised by a famous name.

It would have been remiss of me not to ask about her very famous parents, which I did, and she graciously tossed the question back at me, which as a family they have felt the sting of tabloid and gorilla journalism, and as she agreed my question was “very broad.” I was hoping for a inside glimpse of a family favorite memory.

Falling prey to those who wish to derail potential she explained she was told that she “was difficult on set.” After pressing her for a little more about when she felt that she was difficult she explained that while she never felt she was difficult those around told her.

The camera is enamored with her. Describing favorite’s scenes in the movie, her assessment of the best moment where not of her singular scenes but moments when she was a background player in a bigger scene. Those scenes portrayed are obvious as they seem to catch her relaxed and stunning in simplicity.  

My interview with Willis follows, separately, in its entirety.

“There’s Always Woodstock” open November 14, 2014 and is worth seeing.

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