Joanou, Phil(ip) 1961-

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JOANOU, Phil(ip) 1961-

PERSONAL: Born November 20, 1961, in La Canada, CA; son of Phillip and Michelle Joanou; married Kate Hyman (a record company executive), March 19, 1992. Education: University of Southern California Film School, graduated, 1984.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Creative Artists Agency, 9830 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90212-1825.

CAREER: Director of films, including Three o'Clock High, Universal, 1987; (and editor and camera operator), U2: Rattle and Hum, Paramount, 1988; State of Grace, Orion, 1990; Final Analysis, Warner Bros., 1992; Heaven's Prisoners, New Line Cinema, 1996; (and producer) Entropy, Interlight/Phoenician Entertainment/Tribeca Productions, 1999; and Last Chance Dance. Also appeared in film U2: Rattle and Hum, 1988.

Director of episodes of television series, including "The Mission," "The Doll," and "Santa '85," Amazing Stories, National Broadcasting Company (NBC), 1985; "Dead End for Delia," Fallen Angels, Showtime, 1993; and Third Rock from the Sun, NBC, 1996. Director of television specials, including Age Seven in America (documentary; also known as Seven up in America), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 1992; and (also narrator) Fourteen up in America (documentary), Showtime, 1998. Director of final segment of miniseries Wild Palms, American Broadcasting Companies (ABC), 1993.

Director of television commercials; director of music videos, including "One" and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" for U2 and "You Don't Know How It Feels" and "Walls" for Tom Petty. With sister, Jennifer Joanou, owner of design shop and clothing store, Los Angeles, CA.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best student film award, University of Southern California Film School, 1984, for Last Chance Dance.

WRITINGS:

(And director and producer) Entropy (screenplay), Interlight/Phoenician Entertainment/Tribeca Productions, 1999.

SIDELIGHTS: Director and film professor Phil Joanou got his first big break when he was spotted by director and producer Steven Spielberg. On the strength of Joanou's award-winning short film Last Chance Dance, which he made while a student at the University of Southern California Film School, Spielberg hired him as a director at his Amblin Entertainment company. Since then, Joanou has directed films, television shows, commercials, and even music videos. He has also directed two in a series of four planned documentaries tracing the lives of nineteen American children from various socio-economic and ethnic groups. The series started with Age Seven in America, when the children were seven years old, checked on them again in Fourteen up in America when they were fourteen, and will eventually feature episodes about them at ages twenty-one and twenty-eight. "The spirit of these kids made me optimistic," Joanou told Entertainment Weekly's Benjamin Svetkey, "but the contrasts in their backgrounds, the differences in their opportunities, are shocking."

Joanou is also the author of the screenplay for the film Entropy, which he directed and produced. The semi-autobiographical film features Jake, a director who is slowly losing his mind amid career troubles caused by the overbearing producers of his current project. For a time, he finds solace in a whirlwind romance with a glamourous French model, but when she becomes pregnant the relationship falls apart and Jake flies from New York to Las Vegas to marry a guitarist whom he met only the day before. The film is framed as Jake tryies to explain this spur-of-the-moment marriage, and so includes several soliloquies delivered directly to the camera. But as Jake's grasp on reality loosens the film takes a surreal turn. "This shift in perspective leads to some of Entropy's best scenes," including a "realistic yet bizarre scene with a talking, smoking, advice-giving cat," Diane Selkirk wrote on the Apollo Movie Guide Web site.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television, Volume 38, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

periodicals

Adweek Eastern Edition, May 15, 2000, T. W. Siebert, review of "Secrets of a Tobacco Executive," p. 44. American Film, September, 1987, Jill Kearney, "Amazing Story" (How Phil Joanou Went from Film School to Directing in Television), p. 57; September, 1990, Graham Fuller, "Aged in the USA," p. 14.

Christian Science Monitor, February 7, 1992, David Sterritt, review of Final Analysis, p. 14.

Commonweal, March 27, 1992, Richard Alleva, review of Final Analysis, p. 25.

Entertainment Weekly, February 14, 1992, Owen Gleiberman, review of Final Analysis, pp. 34-35; September 4, 1992, Benjamin Svetkey, review of Age Seven in America, p. 56, Mark Harris, review of Age Seven in America, p. 61; May 14, 1993, Ken Tucker, review of Wild Palms, pp. 42-44; July 30, 1993, Lisa Schwarzbaum, review of Fallen Angels, p. 44; May 31, 1996, Ken Tucker, review of Heaven's Prisoners, p. 44; November 15, 1996, Ira Robbins, review of Heaven's Prisoners, p. 80; March 10, 2000, review of Entropy, p. 53.

Interview, July, 1987, "Phil Joanou," p. 105; October, 1990, Randy Sue Coburn and Lara Rossignol, interview with Joanou and Gary Oldman, pp. 138-143; February, 1992, Henry Cabot Beck, review of Final Analysis, p. 78.

Library Journal, March 15, 1991, Randy Pitman, review of State of Grace, p. 128.

Los Angeles Magazine, October, 1990, Merrill Shindler, review of State of Grace, p. 232.

Maclean's, February 17, 1992, Brian D. Johnson, review of Final Analysis, p. 63.

Mademoiselle, December, 1990, Trish Deitch Rohrer, "Joanous Come Lately: Phil and Jennifer Joanou Are the Coolest Brother and Sister Team since Spike and Joie Lee," p. 78.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October-November, 1993, Kathi Maio, review of Wild Palms, pp. 144-146.

New Republic, October 29, 1990, Stanley Kauffmann, review of State of Grace, p. 27.

Newsweek, September 17, 1990, David Ansen, review of State of Grace, pp. 54-56; February 17, 1992, David Ansen, review of Final Analysis, p. 65; August 2, 1993, David Gates, review of Fallen Angels, p. 63.

New York, March 24, 1986, David Blum, "Steven Spielberg and the Dread Hollywood Backlash," pp. 52-61; October 1, 1990, David Denby, review of State of Grace, pp. 56-57; February 17, 1992, John Powers, review of Final Analysis, p. 56; August 2, 1993, John Leonard, review of Fallen Angels, p. 52.

New York Times, April 24, 1988, Patricia T. O'Connor, review of Three o'Clock High, p. H32; November 4, 1988, Janet Maslin, review of U2: Rattle and Hum, pp. 25, C16; September 9, 1990, Jane Alice Kerr, "Phil Joanou," p. H28; September 14, 1990, Lawrence Van Gelder, "Keeping Up," pp. B12, C8, Janet Maslin, review of State of Grace, pp. B10, C8; November 26, 1990, Glenn Collins, review of Age Seven in America, pp. B1, C13; February 24, 1991, Janet Maslin, review of State of Grace, p. H20; August 27, 1992, Vincent Canby, review of Final Analysis, pp. B2, C22; May 17, 1996, Stephen Holden, review of Heaven's Prisoners, pp. B12, C5; June 12, 1998, James Sterngold, "Art and Reality" (Joanou Uses His Own Life in Films), pp. B10, E10; June 26, 1998, Anita Gates, review of Fourteen up in America, pp. B29, E32; April 15, 1999, James Sterngold, "The Low-Budget Realities of Making Indie Films: A Hollywood Director Takes off on His Own, Even if He Can't Get His Movie Distributed," pp. B1, E1.

People, September 24, 1990, Ralph Novak, review of State of Grace, p. 11; February 17, 1992, Leah Rozen, review of Final Analysis, p. 17; May 17, 1993, David Hiltbrand, review of Wild Palms, pp. 13-14.

Premiere, October, 1990, Rob Medich and Sally Weltman, review of State of Grace, p. 66; March, 1991, Caroline Kirk, review of State of Grace, p. 96.

PR Newswire, March 26, 1984, "Phil Joanou to Receive Advertising Award," p. LA12; April 2, 1984, "Advertising Executives to Honor Phil Joanou," p. LA7.

Rolling Stone, September 8, 1988, Jeffrey Ressner, review of U2: Rattle and Hum, p. 26; November 28, 1988, Brian D. Johnson, review of U2: Rattle and Hum, pp. 57-58; October 4, 1990, Peter Travers, review of State of Grace, p. 50; February 21, 1991, Jim Farber, review of State of Grace, p. 45; March 5, 1992, Peter Travers, review of Final Analysis, pp. 77-78.

Shoot, October 11, 1996, James Fadden, "Phil Joanou: A Feature Film Director Puts the Cinema in Spots," pp. S53-54; May 28, 1999, Sandra Garcia, "Phil Joanou Joins Villains," pp. 1-2.

Sight and Sound, June, 1992, Steve Jenkins, review of Final Analysis, p. 41; July, 1996, Philip Kemp, review of Heaven's Pictures, p. 44.

Time, September 24, 1990, Richard Corliss, review of State of Grace, pp. 83-84; March 9, 1992, review of Final Analysis, p. 11.

Us, March, 1992, Lawrence Frascella, review of FinalAnalysis, p. 88.

Variety, September 2, 1987, review of Three o'ClockHigh, pp. 20-21; September 10, 1990, review of State of Grace, p. 54; February 10, 1992, Todd McCarthy, review of Final Analysis, p. 79; August 31, 1992, Carole Kucharewicz, review of Age Seven in America, p. 27; May 20, 1996, Greg Evans, review of Heaven's Prisoners, p. 30; April 26, 1999, Emanuel Levy, review of Entropy, p. 47.

Video Magazine, April, 1989, Shari Roman, "Phil Joanou Meets U2," Ira Robbins, review of U2: Rattle and Hum, p. 58; March, 1991, Jon Young, review of State of Grace, p. 49.

Video Review, March, 1991, Roy Hemming, review of State of Grace, p. 50.

Wall Street Journal, October 8, 1987, Julie Salamon, review of Three o'Clock High, p. 28; September 13, 1990, Julie Salamon, review of State of Grace, p. A14; May 17, 1996, Joe Morgenstern, review of Heaven's Prisoners, p. A12.