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Widows, the 2018 crime/thriller by director Steve McQueen, puts its female characters in the spotlight, as four women are forced to work together to clear the debt left behind by their deceased husbands' criminal activities. As well as an awesome premise, the movie stars a kick-ass cast, with Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo making up the titular group of heroines. But despite everything working in its favor, Steve McQueen was frustrated with the studio's lack of support towards the movie's feminist message, and wished the film's marketing was handled very differently.

Appearing at a Q&a at the London Film Festival (attended by MovieWeb), Steve McQueen recalled the frustrating marketing for Widows. The director didn't dive into all the specifics, but discussed the movie's poster. "Just look at the poster," McQueen said. It would be safe to assume that the poster for Widows would feature, well,...

Chicago – Filmmaker Haroula Rose will have a Chicagoland homecoming with her recently released film “All Happy Families” as she appears at a special screening at Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre on October 7th, 2024 (6:30p). The 4.5/5 film (review below) was filmed all in Chicago, and was directed and co-written by Rose. For tickets and more information, click All Happy Fam.

Josh Radnor of “How I Met Your Mother” is Graham, a dejected writer/actor who manages the Landry family two flat in Chicago … his brother Will (Rob Huebel) owns it and has a successful TV show in Los Angeles. When the building needs a new tenant, Graham re-connects with interested party Dana (Chandra Russell) who he used to have a crush on in college. When Will shows up unexpectedly, and their parents (John Ashton and Becky Ann Baker) are also in for a visit, three situational bombshells are about to throw everyone into,...

All Happy Families introduces us to the Landry family of Chicago. At the center is Graham, an aspiring actor and writer, played by Josh Radnor. He’s got his hands full with repairs to the old family home and finding a new tenant.

Enter Dana, an old flame and friend looking for an apartment—perhaps their fondness will rekindle. But Graham’s plans face disruption with the arrival of brother Will, a television star dealing with problems of his own back home.

Adding layers of complexity are their parents, Sue and Roy. Sue is coping with inappropriate behavior from her former boss, while Roy struggles with private demons. Deftly weaving these threads are co-writers Haroula Rose and Coburn Goss, exploring intimacy and heartache within a beloved cinematic form—the dysfunctional family.

Subtly directed by Rose, the characters feel vibrantly real as their stories unfold. With empathy and care, layered social themes emerge from intimate moments.

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “All Happy Families,” a drama/comedy about the common life element of family that all of us must deal with in our own way, co-written by Coburn Goss and Haroula Rose, and directed by Rose. In theaters on September 20th. See local listings,

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Josh Radnor of “How I Met Your Mother” is Graham, a dejected writer/actor who manages the Landry family two flat in Chicago … his brother Will (Rob Huebel) owns it and has a successful TV show in Los Angeles. When the building needs a new tenant, Graham re-connects with interested party Dana (Chandra Russell) who he used to have a crush on in college. When Will shows up unexpectedly, and their parents (John Ashton and Becky Ann Baker) are also in for a visit, three situational bombshells are about to throw everyone into, as author Leo Tolstoy once said,...

“All happy families are alike,” claims the immortal first sentence of Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”; “each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” And while jaded viewers may opine that all indie dramedies about dysfunctional families in the “Little Miss Sunshine” or “The Squid and the Whale” mold are alike, writer-director Haroula Rose’s “All Happy Families” suggests the genre has moved in a more grounded direction. Whether that’s ultimately a better direction remains to be seen.

The focal point of this particular family is Graham (Josh Radnor), an aspiring screenwriter/actor whose older brother Will (Rob Huebel) stars on a hugely popular (and seemingly terrible) TV series. As Will surprises Graham by flying from Los Angeles to Chicago for an unannounced visit to the childhood home they bought together, their mother Sue (Becky Ann Baker) is trying to figure out how to react to her former...

Exclusive: Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has acquired North American theatrical, VOD, and DVD rights to All Happy Families, the dramatic comedy that premiered at Chicago International Film Festival and at Mill Valley Film Festival last fall and just had its Southern California premiere last night at Dances With Films: L.A. independent film festival. Freestyle Digital Media is planning a fall 2024 limited theatrical and VOD release.

Pic is the story of the Landrys, not the stereotypical Midwestern family. A charming dramedy that stars Fleishman Is in Trouble‘s Josh Radnor as an actor and writer in a slump and still waiting for his big break, whose brother Will (Rob Huebel) is crushing it as a series star. On the weekend before new tenant Dana (Chandra Russell) is due to move into their childhood home, the siblings and their parents...

Director Haroula Rose and screenwriter Coburn Goss put an endearing and relatable spin on family dysfunction in All Happy Families, which recently premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival. The coming-of-age tale is unique in that most of the “coming of age” characters featured are well into middle-age and beyond. The film suggests that anybody can come to terms with life when “shift” happens. And in All Happy Families, there’s a lot of shift.

“I hope people see some of themselves in the film, for better or worse,” said Haroula Rose, who also co-wrote the movie with Coburn Goss. “I like making stories about people and real things, and just staying grounded and authentic. I hope people see something and can empathize with it.”

Nothing like a family gathering to provoke thought on that front, eh? In All Happy Families, the Landry family are forced to come to terms...

Chicago – The City of Neighborhoods is Chicago, and director/co-writer Haroula Rose (with co-writer Coby Goss) has constructed a modern issue “dramedy” set there entitled “All Happy Families,” which has its World Premiere at the 59th Chicago International Film Festival on October 12th, 2023. For tickets and info, click Families.

This comic drama involves a dysfunctional whose youngest son Graham (Josh Radnor), an eternally aspiring actor in Chicago who’s stuck in a funk and living in his family’s crumbling two-flat. When an old college crush (Chandra Russel) comes looking to rent the first floor apartment, while at the same time as his TV star brother Will’s (Rob Huebel) returns home, Graham is faced with a problematic dilemma and returning parents (Colleen Camp and John Ashton) in the mix.

’All Happy Families,’ by Haroula Rose (left inset) with Coby Goss (right), at the 59th Ciff

Photo credit: Chicago International...

Exclusive: Josh Radnor (Hunters), Rob Huebel (The Descendants), Becky Ann Baker (Girls), Chandra Russell (Southside) and John Ashton (Beverly Hills Cop) are set to star in the upcoming comedic drama All Happy Families. The film will shoot in Chicago, Il, and is the sophomore feature from director Haroula Rose (Once Upon a River), who co-wrote the script with Coburn Goss.

Colleen Camp, David Pasquesi, Ivy O’brien, NatalijaNogulich, Antoine McKay, Grammy-winning artist Rodney Crowell, Lena Drake and Eliza Shin also star.

Michael Shannon serves as Executive Producer alongside producers Liz Cardenas, who won an Independent Spirit Award earlier this year for 7 Days, Gotham Award and Independent Spirit Award nominee Ian Keiser, Mary Munez, Haroula Rose and Coburn Goss. A Chicago Media Angels, Neon Heart Productions, Glass Bead FIlms, Lucky Number 8 Productions, Attic Light Films and Pogi Studios production.

“This has been a dream collaboration from the beginning, when Coburn and...

Margo is a Native American teenager living up river somewhere in Michigan in 1977 and who, after a tragic incident, is about to undertake an American odyssey in an indie key. Although first-time feature director Haroula Rose lays on the narration thickly to begin with, when stitching Margo's back story more carefully through the film would have been less clunky, she has a strong grasp of visual storytelling - from the lush riverside landscapes where Margo goes hunting to the honeyed glow cinematographer Charlotte Hornsby gives to much of the action.

Living with her single dad (Tatanka Means), after her mother apparently abandoned them, in the middle of what seems to be a predominantly white community, Margo's ability with a gun has garnered the jealousy of her cousin Billy (Sam Straley) and the attention - not necessarily savoury - of her uncle Cal (Coburn Goss)...

A resourceful girl goes in search of her mother in first-time feature director Haroula Rose’s slice of Americana

Mark Twain meets Winter’s Bone in this slice of Americana from first-time feature director Haroula Rose. It opens with a Terrence Malick-ish monologue by 15-year-old Margo (Kenadi DelaCerna): “I missed momma, the way she smelled of cocoa butter and white wine.” A tough, resourceful teenager, Margo lives in a rundown town on the banks of the fictional Stark river in Michigan – the kind of place where skeletons of old cars pile up in front yards. Her mom ran out a year earlier (“The river stink drove her crazy”), leaving Margo and her Native American dad Bernard (Tatanka Means). And here the voiceover ends, slightly frustratingly, since Margo rarely speaks, and this is the only time that we get much of a hint of her inner life.

She spends...

Native American teen Margo Crane (Kenadi DelaCerna) has never been able to choose her own path through life. She and her father Bernard (Tatanka Means) live on the land of his white half-brother Cal Murray (Coburn Goss) who also owns the industrial plant that more or less keeps their Michigan town afloat. She learned to hunt and fish as a means of survival after her Mom (Lindsay Pulsipher’s Luanne) left them one night saying the Stark River valley would kill her if she didn’t escape it. So now Margo must follow her freshly sober father’s vital rules as she’s racially abused by her cousins and comforted by her uncle—a dynamic that barely masks upcoming trauma to inevitably place her in the same shoes as her estranged mother.

This is where we meet Margo at the start of Haroula Rose’s Once Upon a River, adapted...

The Bentonville Film Festival announced their lineup of gala selections and competition films which includes the world premieres of Joey Travolta’s Carol of the Bells, Haroula Rose’s Once Upon a River. Co-founded by Geena Davis will kick off with a screening of Tom Donahue’s documentary This Changes Everything and a special presentation of the festival’s signature event, Geena and Friends. The fest takes place May 7-11 in Bentonville, Ark.

The fest champions more diversity and inclusiveness in the film industry and beyond. This year’s competition selections includes 15 narrative films, 14 documentaries, and 9 episodic projects. Of the lineup, 81% are female directed and 68% of the selections include a Poc director and/or cast/subject in the forefront.

“This year’s lineup of films truly exemplifies our mission and we are thrilled to highlight the work of female filmmakers, people of color, Lgbtq+, filmmakers, talent with disabilities and more — in other words,...

Stars: Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Liam Neeson, Jon Bernthal, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Coburn Goss, Alejandro Verdin, Bailey Rhyse Walters, Carrie Coon, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell, Molly Kunz | Written by Steve McQueen, Gillian Flynn | Directed by Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen is four for four in terms of cinematic masterpieces after Hunger, Shame, 12 Years A Slave and now, thanks to his latest directorial effort and stunning turn in Widows, cements himself as a master at his craft. Adapted from the British mini-series of the same name with the help of Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn and relocated to the United States in Chicago offering a far more relevant social commentary and far-reaching dramatic thriller that haunts and dispenses an impactful poignancy that sends shivers down to the spine.

Widows was somewhat of a surprising venture for Steve McQueen. A departure of sorts into a mainstream heist thriller that came as...

Steppenwolf Theatre Company launches its 2009-2010 season, exploring the theme of belief, with the world premiere of Fake, written and directed by ensemble member Eric Simonson. Fake features ensemble members Kate Arrington, Francis Guinan and Alan Wilder with Coburn Goss and Larry Yando. Fake plays September 10 - November 8, 2009 in Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted. The press performance is Tuesday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m.

TheLucky Onesby Mike Digiorgio, Writer The lucky ones are anyone in the audience who likes drama about current events but doesn’t want it to be heavy-handed. The Lucky Ones of the title are three Iraq War soldiers back home – two on a 30-day leave, the other out for good. When a blackout leaves them stranded at the airport, they decide to share expenses and a rent a car to get where they need to get. The three soldiers are: Cheever (Tim Robbins), who is returning home to discover he can’t settle into home life because his wife wants a divorce and his kid needs money for college; Colee (Rachel McAdams), who made a promise to a friend killed in action that she’ll bring his guitar to his family; and T.K. (Michael Pena), who is left impotent by his wounds and is on his way to find...