Neil Jimenez, who won three Indie Spirit Awards for writing River’s Edge and writing and co-directing The Waterdance, has died. He was 62. His sister, Kathleen Serio, said Jimenez died December 11 of heart failure in Arroyo Grande, CA.
Jimenez won his first Spirit Award in 1988 for his screenplay to River’s Edge, the Tim Hunter-directed thriller whose stacked cast included Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye and Dennis Hopper. The 1986 pic about a group of California friends who get ensnarled in a murder and cover-up also won Best Feature at the Spirits that year and was a nominee for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
The Sacramento native went on to pen or co-write the scripts for Where the River Runs Black (1986) and The Dark Wind (1991) and the story for Bette Midler period drama For the Boys (1991). Jimenez’s next project was The Waterdance, which starred Eric Stoltz as...
Jimenez won his first Spirit Award in 1988 for his screenplay to River’s Edge, the Tim Hunter-directed thriller whose stacked cast included Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye and Dennis Hopper. The 1986 pic about a group of California friends who get ensnarled in a murder and cover-up also won Best Feature at the Spirits that year and was a nominee for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
The Sacramento native went on to pen or co-write the scripts for Where the River Runs Black (1986) and The Dark Wind (1991) and the story for Bette Midler period drama For the Boys (1991). Jimenez’s next project was The Waterdance, which starred Eric Stoltz as...
- 12/30/2022
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Neal Jimenez, the American independent filmmaker who won an Independent Spirit Award for writing the 1986 cult classic “River’s Edge,” died on December 11, IndieWire has learned. He was 62 years old.
Jimenez also wrote and co-directed, with Michael Steinberg, the 1992 indie “The Waterdance,” which won Best First Feature and Best Screenplay at the 1993 Spirit Awards. The cause of death was heart failure, said his sister, Kathleen Serio. He lived on a six-acre Arroyo Grande ranch in Central Coast, Calif., where he spent the last decade of his life with family and friends while dealing with paraplegia.
Jimenez also had writing credits on “Where the River Runs Black” (1986), “For the Boys” (1991), “The Dark Wind” (1991), “Sleep with Me” (1994), and “Hideaway” (1995). Early in his career, Jimenez was revered as a script doctor, commanding fees of 100,000 per day on films including 1995’s “Outbreak.” Throughout his career, he was also commissioned to write scripts for Martin Scorsese,...
Jimenez also wrote and co-directed, with Michael Steinberg, the 1992 indie “The Waterdance,” which won Best First Feature and Best Screenplay at the 1993 Spirit Awards. The cause of death was heart failure, said his sister, Kathleen Serio. He lived on a six-acre Arroyo Grande ranch in Central Coast, Calif., where he spent the last decade of his life with family and friends while dealing with paraplegia.
Jimenez also had writing credits on “Where the River Runs Black” (1986), “For the Boys” (1991), “The Dark Wind” (1991), “Sleep with Me” (1994), and “Hideaway” (1995). Early in his career, Jimenez was revered as a script doctor, commanding fees of 100,000 per day on films including 1995’s “Outbreak.” Throughout his career, he was also commissioned to write scripts for Martin Scorsese,...
- 12/30/2022
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Neal Jimenez, a screenwriter and filmmaker whose credits include “River’s Edge” and “The Waterdance,” died of heart failure on Dec. 11 in Arroyo Grande, Calif. He was 62. His works were favorites on the awards circuit, attracting wins in screenwriting categories at ceremonies such as the Independent Spirit Awards and the Sundance Film Festival.
Jimenez wrote and co-directed “The Waterdance” with director Michael Steinberg, and alongside the recognition the film received on the awards circuit in 1993, the autobiographical film was included in the book “The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.” He shared writing credits on five other films: “Where the River Runs Black,” “For the Boys,” “The Dark Wind,” “Sleep With Me” and “Hideaway.”
For more than a decade, he was a sought-after script doctor in Hollywood, being commissioned to write scripts for Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Wolfgang Peterson, Atom Egoyan, Robert Redford, Madonna, Tom Hanks and many others.
Jimenez wrote and co-directed “The Waterdance” with director Michael Steinberg, and alongside the recognition the film received on the awards circuit in 1993, the autobiographical film was included in the book “The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.” He shared writing credits on five other films: “Where the River Runs Black,” “For the Boys,” “The Dark Wind,” “Sleep With Me” and “Hideaway.”
For more than a decade, he was a sought-after script doctor in Hollywood, being commissioned to write scripts for Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Wolfgang Peterson, Atom Egoyan, Robert Redford, Madonna, Tom Hanks and many others.
- 12/30/2022
- by EJ Panaligan
- Variety Film + TV
Neal Jimenez, the writer-director behind a string of acclaimed films in the 1980s and 1990s, including the thriller “River’s Edge” and his directorial debut, the semi-autobiographical drama “The Waterdance,” died Dec. 11 from heart failure, his family has announced. He was 62.
Paralyzed in a hiking accident while he was a student at UCLA in 1984, Jimenez paved the way for disability representation with “The Waterdance,” the 1992 drama starring Eric Stoltz as a writer struggling to recover after being paralyzed from the neck down. Based in part on his own recovery, the film was released to critical acclaim and won Best First Feature and Best Screenplay at the 1992 Independent Spirit Awards.
Jimenez also wrote the screenplays for “For the Boys” (1991), “Sleep With Me” (1994) and “Hideaway” (1995 among other things.)
“My brother had a passion for writing and creating. The clack of typing seemed to daily come through his bedroom walls. He had drawers...
Paralyzed in a hiking accident while he was a student at UCLA in 1984, Jimenez paved the way for disability representation with “The Waterdance,” the 1992 drama starring Eric Stoltz as a writer struggling to recover after being paralyzed from the neck down. Based in part on his own recovery, the film was released to critical acclaim and won Best First Feature and Best Screenplay at the 1992 Independent Spirit Awards.
Jimenez also wrote the screenplays for “For the Boys” (1991), “Sleep With Me” (1994) and “Hideaway” (1995 among other things.)
“My brother had a passion for writing and creating. The clack of typing seemed to daily come through his bedroom walls. He had drawers...
- 12/30/2022
- by Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
- 12/20/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
It’s unclear who dubbed Gale Anne Hurd the “First Lady of Sci-Fi,” but it’s a title she owns with every fiber of her being. James Cameron's former confidante (and wife), Hurd started as an executive assistant to Roger Corman before producing such films as "The Terminator," "Aliens," "The Abyss," "Tremors," "The Relic," "Armageddon," Ang Lee's "Hulk," "and "Aeon Flux.” Today, she’s more popular ever, the matriarch and hype woman of the highest rated cable television show, AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” For her undeniable contributions to the world of blockbuster cinema, the Producers Guild of America has announced that it will bestow Hurd with its highest honor. The PGA announced today that Gale Anne Hurd will receive the 2015 David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures. Previous winners include Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson, the producers behind the James Bond franchise, Working Title Films’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner,...
- 10/29/2014
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
Each and every month, we here at Sound On Sight dedicate the entire month to a specific theme. Sometimes we follow an event, an actor, a filmmaker and so on, as decided by our readers who vote on our monthly poll. February of 2013 was dedicated to actor Keanu Reeves. When the results came in, just about everyone was surprised that Keanu won over Steven Soderbergh, who finished a close second. But what has been even more surprising is that our Keanu Reeves marathon is without a doubt the most successful so far – driving in more traffic than the likes of Quentin Tarantino and 007.
Despite the fact that his acting has frequently been ridiculed as wooden, Keanu has always had a magical presence everywhere he appears, both on and offscreen. There is something to be said about a man who dropped out of high-school to follow his dreams of acting, and 27 years later,...
Despite the fact that his acting has frequently been ridiculed as wooden, Keanu has always had a magical presence everywhere he appears, both on and offscreen. There is something to be said about a man who dropped out of high-school to follow his dreams of acting, and 27 years later,...
- 3/1/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
River’s Edge
Directed by Tim Hunter
Written by Neal Jimenez
USA, 1986
River’s Edge is probably best known as a bewildering showcase for some of the strangest performances of 1980s cinema. Featuring Keanu Reeves, Crispin Glover and Dennis Hopper in an already puzzling film about the murder of a teenage girl and the apparent apathetic reaction of the city’s youth, River’s Edge tackles the question of society’s moral decay. Opening on a foggy California morning, this first sequence is our first look at an already cold, naked and dead teen. Lying in the grass, by the river’s edge, she becomes the symbol of the youth’s moral corruption. The boy, who strangled her, sits by her body rocking but apparently unperturbed by the crime he just committed.
It’s hard to say what aspirations Tim Hunter first had when he made the film and whether...
Directed by Tim Hunter
Written by Neal Jimenez
USA, 1986
River’s Edge is probably best known as a bewildering showcase for some of the strangest performances of 1980s cinema. Featuring Keanu Reeves, Crispin Glover and Dennis Hopper in an already puzzling film about the murder of a teenage girl and the apparent apathetic reaction of the city’s youth, River’s Edge tackles the question of society’s moral decay. Opening on a foggy California morning, this first sequence is our first look at an already cold, naked and dead teen. Lying in the grass, by the river’s edge, she becomes the symbol of the youth’s moral corruption. The boy, who strangled her, sits by her body rocking but apparently unperturbed by the crime he just committed.
It’s hard to say what aspirations Tim Hunter first had when he made the film and whether...
- 2/17/2013
- by Justine
- SoundOnSight
Billed as “The most controversial film you’ll see this year,” Tim Hunter’s murder mystery won best feature and best screenplay (Neal Jimenez) at the 1986 Independent Spirit Awards. Reeves co-stars with Crispin Glover, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck and Dennis Hopper in this story of a group of high-school friends who discover that one of them has killed his girlfriend. While the leader of the group (Glover) works to keep the slaying a secret, others want to go to the police.
Choice Quotation:
Layne (Glover): This is like some f—-n’ movie. Friends since second grade, f—-n’ like this (crosses fingers) and then one of us gets himself in potentially big trouble, and now we’ve gotta deal with it; we’ve got to test our loyalty against all odds. It’s kind of … exciting. I feel like … Chuck Norris, y’know?
12 Best Keanu Reeves Movies: #6
12 Best Keanu Reeves...
Choice Quotation:
Layne (Glover): This is like some f—-n’ movie. Friends since second grade, f—-n’ like this (crosses fingers) and then one of us gets himself in potentially big trouble, and now we’ve gotta deal with it; we’ve got to test our loyalty against all odds. It’s kind of … exciting. I feel like … Chuck Norris, y’know?
12 Best Keanu Reeves Movies: #6
12 Best Keanu Reeves...
- 4/8/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Billed as “The most controversial film you’ll see this year,” Tim Hunter’s murder mystery won best feature and best screenplay (Neal Jimenez) at the 1986 Independent Spirit Awards. Reeves co-stars with Crispin Glover, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck and Dennis Hopper in this story of a group of high-school friends who discover that one of them has killed his girlfriend. While the leader of the group (Glover) works to keep the slaying a secret, others want to go to the police.
Choice Quotation:
Layne (Glover): This is like some f—-n’ movie. Friends since second grade, f—-n’ like this (crosses fingers) and then one of us gets himself in potentially big trouble, and now we’ve gotta deal with it; we’ve got to test our loyalty against all odds. It’s kind of … exciting. I feel like … Chuck Norris, y’know?
12 Best Keanu Reeves Movies: #6
12 Best Keanu Reeves...
Choice Quotation:
Layne (Glover): This is like some f—-n’ movie. Friends since second grade, f—-n’ like this (crosses fingers) and then one of us gets himself in potentially big trouble, and now we’ve gotta deal with it; we’ve got to test our loyalty against all odds. It’s kind of … exciting. I feel like … Chuck Norris, y’know?
12 Best Keanu Reeves Movies: #6
12 Best Keanu Reeves...
- 4/8/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
There are performances whose brilliance doesn't become evident until an actor has amassed a body of work big enough for us to examine with a critical eye. At a turning point in Wesley Snipes' career came The Waterdance, a small drama about paraplegics from directors Neal Jimenez and Michael Steinberg. Snipes was hot off of New Jack City, and about to spend the next ten years as one of America's leading action movie stars. The Waterdance marks Snipes' last appearance as a working character actor before moving on to movie stardom in 1992's White Men Can't Jump, and re-examining his role as Raymond Hill in the film reveals a versatility that Snipes seems to have actively shunned by choosing projects that portrayed him primarily as a hard-ass action hero.
The Waterdance stars Eric Stoltz as Joel Garcia (a surrogate for paraplegic screenwriter Jimenez) as he struggles to heal from...
The Waterdance stars Eric Stoltz as Joel Garcia (a surrogate for paraplegic screenwriter Jimenez) as he struggles to heal from...
- 7/15/2010
- by John Gholson
- Cinematical
- Quick Links Complete Film Listing: Premieres Dramatic Comp: Docu Comp: World Dramatic Comp: World Docu Comp: Spectrum: Park City at Midnight: Short Film Programs January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); Artist Spotlight: Pierre Huyghe a collection of short films by the French multimedia artist rarely seen outside of museum or art gallery contexts.The Last Dining Table (South Korea), directed and written by Gyeong-Tae Roh, an evocation of the issues of environmental pollution and family values decay in a minimalist/surrealist style. Offscreen (Denmark), directed by Christoffer Boe and written by Boe and Knud Romer Jorgensen, about an actor making an intensely private home movie about himself. World premiere.Phantom Love (U.S.), directed by Nina Menkes, a surreal tale about the personal liberation of a woman trapped in a family. Shot in Los Angeles and Rishikesh, India. World premiere. Slipstream (U.S.), directed and written by Anthony Hopkins,
- 1/18/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
'For the Boys
''For the Boys'' should primarily play for the girls. This big, fluffy, red-white-and-blue Bette Midler blazer should strut out with a snazzy boxoffice gait for 20th Century Fox. While this All Girl Productionwill likely dazzle enough mature girls to carry it to a ''Beaches''-level boxoffice tide, its somewhat soapy constitution and its often shallow sweep of the last 50 years of U.S. war and social history will swamp many viewers.
The best part of ''Boys'' is, well, the girl herself, Midler as Dixie, a smart-talking, smooth-singing USO entertainer shot straight to fame by her World War II performances.
This Dixie, as you'd guess, is no wallflower: She's a smart, sassy, Mae West-type dynamo who not only sees the big picture but has got the moxie to kick in the pants anyone who can't see beyond their own self-interest; in this case, her senior song-and-dance partner, Eddie Sparks (James Caan), who's never quite tapped into the notion that World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam and all other ''limited engagements'' were not just mere backdrop to the main event, namely his patriotic performances for the troops.
While it's tempting to blast off a 21-popcorn-box salute to the filmmakers for attempting to tell a compelling personal story through the prism of the last 50 years of U.S. history, it's discomforting to view wholesale sequences that reverberate with about as much depth as a Desert Storm victory parade.
For the most part, namely the personal story segments, as Dixie and Eddie hit their high notes and scrape their bottoms, screenwriters Marshall Brickman, Neal Jimenez and Lindy Laub's script rings true, snapping with energetic humor and picking up the colors and uncertainties of the different times.
Unfortunately, this ambitious film is weighted down by its over-bulky, 145-minute frame; director Mark Rydell, while wonderfully pinpointing many grand-scale particulars in his scope, also allows the film to wallow in redundant, superficial sap.
Despite ''Boys' '' bloated nature, it's full of oomph, namely Midler, who struts her considerable stuff to the staccato-steppin' max. While she's at her funnest when dropping bawdy bombs on all the stuffed shirts, Midler's acting range is clearly as wide as her vocal range. The dark torment of Dixie's waning years, when she feels she's lived beyond her time, are deeply touching -- a testament to Midler's capacity to reach down and get to her character's low notes.
Caan, while somewhat uncharismatic as the young Eddie Sparks, similarly pulls off a solid performance: Caan reveals the wondrous, as well as the hideous, components to this superficial showman's successes. Lending solid support is George Segal as the duo's brainy, underappreciated writer.
In this big-bunting production, technical contributions are generally superior, with bars and stripes to costume designer Wayne Finkelman for the cross-all-wars threads and to composer Dave Grusin for the big-band blasts.
FOR THE BOYS
20th Century Fox
An All Girl Production
A Mark Rydell Film
Producers Bette Midler, Bonnie Bruckheimer, Margaret South
Director Mark Rydell
Screenwriters Marshall Brickman, Neal Jimenez, Lindy Laub
Story Neal Jimenez, Lindy Laub
Executive producer Mark Rydell
Co-producer Ray Hartwick
Director of photography Stephen Goldblatt
Production designer Assheton Gorton
Editors Jerry Greenberg, Jere Huggins
Costume designer Wayne Finkelman
Music Dave Grusin
Executive music producer Joel Sill
Musical sequences devised by Joe Layton
Casting Lynn Stalmaster
Sound mixer Jim Webb
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Dixie Leonard Bette Midler
Eddie Sparks James Caan
Art Silver George Segal
Shephard Patrick O'Neal
Danny Christopher Rydell
Jeff Brooks Arye Gross
Sam Schiff Norman Fell
Luanna Trott Rosemary Murphy
Running time -- 145 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
The best part of ''Boys'' is, well, the girl herself, Midler as Dixie, a smart-talking, smooth-singing USO entertainer shot straight to fame by her World War II performances.
This Dixie, as you'd guess, is no wallflower: She's a smart, sassy, Mae West-type dynamo who not only sees the big picture but has got the moxie to kick in the pants anyone who can't see beyond their own self-interest; in this case, her senior song-and-dance partner, Eddie Sparks (James Caan), who's never quite tapped into the notion that World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam and all other ''limited engagements'' were not just mere backdrop to the main event, namely his patriotic performances for the troops.
While it's tempting to blast off a 21-popcorn-box salute to the filmmakers for attempting to tell a compelling personal story through the prism of the last 50 years of U.S. history, it's discomforting to view wholesale sequences that reverberate with about as much depth as a Desert Storm victory parade.
For the most part, namely the personal story segments, as Dixie and Eddie hit their high notes and scrape their bottoms, screenwriters Marshall Brickman, Neal Jimenez and Lindy Laub's script rings true, snapping with energetic humor and picking up the colors and uncertainties of the different times.
Unfortunately, this ambitious film is weighted down by its over-bulky, 145-minute frame; director Mark Rydell, while wonderfully pinpointing many grand-scale particulars in his scope, also allows the film to wallow in redundant, superficial sap.
Despite ''Boys' '' bloated nature, it's full of oomph, namely Midler, who struts her considerable stuff to the staccato-steppin' max. While she's at her funnest when dropping bawdy bombs on all the stuffed shirts, Midler's acting range is clearly as wide as her vocal range. The dark torment of Dixie's waning years, when she feels she's lived beyond her time, are deeply touching -- a testament to Midler's capacity to reach down and get to her character's low notes.
Caan, while somewhat uncharismatic as the young Eddie Sparks, similarly pulls off a solid performance: Caan reveals the wondrous, as well as the hideous, components to this superficial showman's successes. Lending solid support is George Segal as the duo's brainy, underappreciated writer.
In this big-bunting production, technical contributions are generally superior, with bars and stripes to costume designer Wayne Finkelman for the cross-all-wars threads and to composer Dave Grusin for the big-band blasts.
FOR THE BOYS
20th Century Fox
An All Girl Production
A Mark Rydell Film
Producers Bette Midler, Bonnie Bruckheimer, Margaret South
Director Mark Rydell
Screenwriters Marshall Brickman, Neal Jimenez, Lindy Laub
Story Neal Jimenez, Lindy Laub
Executive producer Mark Rydell
Co-producer Ray Hartwick
Director of photography Stephen Goldblatt
Production designer Assheton Gorton
Editors Jerry Greenberg, Jere Huggins
Costume designer Wayne Finkelman
Music Dave Grusin
Executive music producer Joel Sill
Musical sequences devised by Joe Layton
Casting Lynn Stalmaster
Sound mixer Jim Webb
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Dixie Leonard Bette Midler
Eddie Sparks James Caan
Art Silver George Segal
Shephard Patrick O'Neal
Danny Christopher Rydell
Jeff Brooks Arye Gross
Sam Schiff Norman Fell
Luanna Trott Rosemary Murphy
Running time -- 145 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 11/15/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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