''Blue Car'' is a 2002 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed and written by
Karen Moncrieff
Karen Moncrieff (born December 20, 1963, in Sacramento, California) is an American actress, director and screenwriter. She is best known as the writer and director of critically acclaimed movies ''Blue Car'' and ''The Dead Girl'' '.
Movies ...
. It was the first film she directed and wrote.
The film stars
David Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn (; born January 26, 1949) is an American actor. Known for his leading roles on stage and screen, he has often portrayed historical figures such as Edward R. Murrow, J. Robert Oppenheimer, William H. Seward, and John Dos ...
,
Agnes Bruckner
Agnes Bruckner is an American actress and former model. She began acting in television in the late 1990s and has since appeared in several films, including '' The Woods'', '' Blue Car'', '' Murder by Numbers'', '' Blood and Chocolate'', ''The An ...
,
Margaret Colin
Margaret Colin (born May 26, 1958) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Margo Hughes on ''As the World Turns'' and as Eleanor Waldorf-Rose on ''Gossip Girl''.
Early life
Margaret Colin was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and w ...
, and
Frances Fisher
Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is a British-born American actress. She began her career in theatre and later starred as record executive Suzette 'Red' Saxon in the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Guiding Light'' (1985). In film, she is ...
.
''Blue Car'' had its world premiere at the
2002 Sundance Film Festival, where it was acquired by
Miramax Films
Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey Weinstein, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California.
It was ...
. It was given a
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
in North American theaters on May 2, 2003.
Plot
Meg is a high school senior living in the
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...
area. She uses writing as an outlet for her troubled home life, having been abandoned by her father and now neglected by her mother Diane, whose busy work schedule leaves Meg as the babysitter for her younger sister, Lily. The girls' father does not pay
child support
Child support (or child maintenance) is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child (or parent, caregiver, guardian) following the end of a marriage or other similar relationship. Child maintenance is paid d ...
, causing financial strain for the family. After Meg reads aloud a poem (titled "Blue Car") in her English class, her teacher, Mr. Auster, recognizes her talent and assumes the role of a mentor and father figure for her. He encourages Meg to enter a local poetry competition, which she ends up winning. Mr. Auster recommends she next compete at the national competition in Florida during spring break.
Meg's home life worsens when Lily displays increasingly worrying emotional behavior; she
cuts herself, refuses to eat, and speaks about becoming an angel. After being checked into the psychiatric ward of a hospital, Lily kills herself by jumping out of an open window as she tries to "fly". A distraught Meg finds solace in Mr. Auster, who reveals he lost a son. During their one-on-one poetry tutoring, she learns he is also writing a novel.
When Diane says she does not have the money to pay for her daughter's Florida trip, Meg resorts to stealing. This results in Meg getting fired from her after-school job and her moving out to stay with her friend, Georgia. At Georgia’s place, Meg becomes acquainted with Georgia’s older brother, Pat. When she tells Pat she’s trying to find a way to get to Florida, he offers her a way to make money by stealing prescription drugs. Meg takes up the offer and steals from a pharmacy for him. The following day, Meg discovers that Pat has skipped town with the money.
Meg ends up taking a bus by herself to Florida and sleeps on the beach. On the day before the competition, she spots Mr. Auster with his family relaxing near the water. When she walks over to say hi, his wife Delia invites her to join them. When Mr. Auster is not paying attention, Delia makes a comment to Meg that hints that their marriage is troubled. Later, Mr. Auster walks alone with Meg on the beach and kisses her. They go to a hotel room, where Meg reluctantly has sex with Mr. Auster. He stops after realizing that she is not comfortable with the situation. Meg learns that Mr. Auster has not written a novel at all, and that it was all just a ruse to impress her.
At the competition the following day, Meg leaves her "Blue Car" poem on her chair when she is called to the mic. She recites a new poem in which she subtly denounces Mr. Auster for manipulating her and abusing his authority. In the audience, Mr. Auster and his wife look visibly uncomfortable. After finishing her reading, Meg leaves the auditorium, and, later on the beach alone, she throws the old poem into the water. Meg returns to Ohio and goes to Diane’s apartment, where she has an emotional reconciliation with her mother. Diane leaves Meg a box containing old wedding photos of her and Meg’s father. The next day, Meg, who is now going to live with her father, gets into a blue car with him and they drive off.
Cast
Production
Karen Moncrieff wrote the screenplay for the film thinking it would not be produced because it was so "uncommercial", but it won the
Nicholl Fellowship The Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting is a fellowship program founded in 1986 to aid screenwriters. It is administered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
History
Gee Nicholl, widow of producer Don Nicholl, worked w ...
from the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
in 1998.
The role of Auster was written with David Strathairn in mind. Moncrieff named the character Auster because she saw a photo of the author
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), ''Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), ''The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The Broo ...
and thought Strathairn resembled him.
''Blue Car'' was filmed primarily in
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
, with two days in
Oxnard
Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. On California's South Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the 22nd-most-populous city in California. Incorporated in 1903, Oxnard lies approximately west ...
, California.
Principal photography, which began in June of 2001, took 20 days.
Reception
Release
''Blue Car'' premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
It was acquired by
Miramax
Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California.
It was initially a leadi ...
for one million dollars and given a limited theatrical release on May 2, 2003. It also screened at the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
.
Home media
''Blue Car'' was released on DVD on October 14, 2003 in the United States and Canada.
Critical reception
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 89 reviews. The website's critical consensus states that the film is "a cautionary tale that rings true." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
In a positive review, Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' compared Moncrieff to Scottish filmmaker
Lynne Ramsay
Lynne Ramsay (born 5 December 1969) is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films '' Ratcatcher'' (1999), ''Morvern Callar'' (2002), '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011), and '' You Were N ...
, writing "Each has a knockout storytelling voice and works with a raw, innately feminine strength that scrubs away the soapy film from sad sagas." Writing on David Strathairn's performance, Stephen Holden of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said his "complex, exquisitely nuanced portrayal of a man who goes over the line allows his character to be both hero and villain, sometimes at once."
Agnes Bruckner was lauded for what many critics called a breakout performance.
Mark Caro of the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' wrote Bruckner "delivers an indelible portrait of a girl on the brink of womanhood finding her own artistic voice and sense of purpose."
Though some critics, like
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...
of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', cited the film's more melodramatic turns as drawbacks, they still praised the film as sensitively directed and well-acted.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave the film 3 and 1/2 stars out 4.
He decried the film's
R rating, reasoning the film has "no nudity, no explicit sex and only ordinary adolescent language", and lamenting the fact that young people who would benefit from seeing this "valuable cautionary tale" would not be able to see it.
Claudia Puig of
''USA Today'' wrote, "Primarily a character study, ''Blue Car'' has the feel of a novel in which the characters linger in one's memory well after the book has been read," and that the film "is like an unpolished sapphire, at once harshly realistic and resplendent."
The film was also ''
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
''
's pick for "sleeper hit of the fall."
Awards and nominations
*
Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...
** New Directors Competition -
Karen Moncrieff
Karen Moncrieff (born December 20, 1963, in Sacramento, California) is an American actress, director and screenwriter. She is best known as the writer and director of critically acclaimed movies ''Blue Car'' and ''The Dead Girl'' '.
Movies ...
(nominee)
*
Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with Poly(methyl m ...
**
Best First Screenplay - Karen Moncrieff (nominee)
**
Best Female Lead -
Agnes Bruckner
Agnes Bruckner is an American actress and former model. She began acting in television in the late 1990s and has since appeared in several films, including '' The Woods'', '' Blue Car'', '' Murder by Numbers'', '' Blood and Chocolate'', ''The An ...
(nominee)
*
Woodstock Film Festival
The Woodstock Film Festival is an American film festival that was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto with the goal to bring high quality independent film to the Hudson Valley region. The festival takes place each fa ...
** Honorable Mention for Best Feature Film - Karen Moncrieff (won)
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{Karen Moncrieff
2000s teen drama films
2002 films
American teen drama films
2000s coming-of-age drama films
Films about educators
Films about writers
Films directed by Karen Moncrieff
2002 independent films
Films about scandalous teacher–student relationships
Films about child sexual abuse
Films about suicide
Films set in Ohio
Films shot in Ohio
2002 directorial debut films
Miramax films
2002 drama films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films