Posts

Brügger’s “Cold Case Hammarskjöld” follows the story of United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld and the mystery behind his death following a mysterious plane crash in 1961. Was the crash actually meant as an assassination of Hammarskjöld? By investigating the “tragedy,” Brügger stumbles upon a rabbit hole of conspiracies, including the CIA spreading AIDS all over Africa back in the ‘80s. Brügger blends different kinds of documentary storytelling and blurs the lines between journalist and agitator....

[Reviewed at Sundance in January.] Many attempt to mix the outwardly-delicious peanut butter and chocolate tone of comedy and horror, and there are many good ones—“Shaun of the Dead” “Cabin In The Woods,” “Get Out,” the “Evil Dead” films, etc.— but it’s actually a deceptively tricky genre hybrid to get right. For all the classics, much like horror, there’s a lot of cheap, garish junk that gets churned out each year that hurts the overall quality score....

It seems as though Villeneuve isn’t so keen in having “Dune” screeners being sent out to critics because he believes that the film is meant to be experienced on the big screen. Speaking to La Presse, Villeneuve says that he had gone so far as to “[insist] that no one receives a viewing link so that the film can only be seen on the big screen.” The problem is that there was nothing in the contract he signed with Warner Bros that required an exclusive theatrical release....

This poster is terrible. It has that feeling of twee that I worried might infect Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans”. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t imagine it being a bad movie, but it definitely has the potential to be an underwhelming one. The test-screening reactions for “The Fabelmans” hinted at an overall “yeah, it’s good, but not great” vibe to them. I did however speak to one particular person who fell hard for the film, but the three other reactions were mostly positive but with reservations....

We can now add David Gordon Green the horror movie director to that ever-expanding filmography. “Halloween,” his sequel to the similarly-titled 1978 classic (as if the other six sequels never existed), feels like an ’80s/’90s slasher flick… and that’s not a good thing. Forget about the fact that Wes Craven all but mocked the slasher genre into oblivion in 1996 with “Scream,” Green and screenwriter Danny McBride (yes the comedic actor), have decided to go back to the good old nostalgic days, to when movies like “Candyman,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer” “Sleepaway Camp,” and “Prom Night” were castigated by critics but audiences couldn’t get enough of them, until that same audience realized just how godawful those actual movies were....

Stewart, Plaza, and Davis are joined by Alison Brie (!!!), Daniel Levy, Victor Garber, Mary Steenburgen, and Ana Gasteyer. Duvall’s film will debut on Hulu, after the movie’s distribution rights were bought from Sony Pictures in the United States. Pre-COVID, this was going to be released in theaters during the holiday season, but now, well, it’s a freaking Hulu movie. “Happiest Season” premieres as a Hulu Original film on November 25....

Although not much is known about the plot, intel came in yesterday that this fifth instalment of Indy will be a time travel movie. I’ve heard this rumour before and it seems as though it is a legitimate one. This could bring an extra added layer of playfulness to the film. Ford will be 79 by the time the film is released, not to mention that the role is a physically demanding one — is it any wonder that there are doubts if this could actually be pulled off?...

Showalter choosing the “high-concept” comedy “Lovebirds” as his follow-up feature is a peculiar decision. The film will show a couple trying to clear their names after they are framed for a murder. A far cry from the humanist dramedy of ‘Big Sick.,’ which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay back in 2018. Nanjiani co-wrote the screenplay, alongside his wife Emily V. Gordon. Along with Nanjiani, “Lovebirds” also stars Issa Rae (“A Bitter Lime”), Anna Camp (“Pitch Perfect”) and Moses Storm (“Arrested Development”)....

Set in the early ’80s, the story finds Mandy Bloom (Cage) and his girlfriend Red (Andrea Riseborough) leading a loving and peaceful existence in the backwoods of the Pacific Northwest. However, when a satanic cult captures Red, “Mandy” turns into a journey filled with bloody vengeance, and it’s all served by Cosmatos on a plate of hellfire, and brimstone. The result is incredibly hypnotic, an instant cult classic, driven by a death-metal score courtesy of the late brilliant mind of composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, who passed away earlier this year....

From my 02/02/20 Sundance review: “If you feel like watching ambitious, but unsubtle sci-fi, nothing beats Edson Oda’s “Nine Days,” which is already getting love/hate reactions. This wildly ambitious, but pretentious, narrative feature won the screenwriting award, but if its watered-down and simplified philosophy about life and death may work for some, I found the experience completely nauseating to sit through. Occurring in some purgatory-like place where people’s souls make a pit stop between life and death, Will (Winston Duke) heads a program to choose who will go on and be born with life and who will ultimately fall by the wayside....

Set four years after ‘Busan’ in the port city of Incheon, Yeon immediately introduces us to a TV scientist (cue the exposition) telling us that the zombie virus of the previous film has spread North to the Korean peninsula, where the government has lost all control of the quarantine. Focusing on a downtrodden soldier, his sister, her husband, and their young son, Yeon puts our protagonists in the dilemma of having to accept an offer from mercenaries to go to a zombie-infested zone and retrieve 20 million US dollars from an abandoned truck filled with walking dead who turn blind in the dark — or so the mercenaries falsely claim to this family of four....

An ‘academic paper’ is claiming that half of the criticism on social media that was aimed at director Rian Johnson and “The Last Jedi” was due to ‘Russian trolls.’ That’s exactly what a new academic paper by researcher Morten Bay has claimed to have found. The paper, titled “Weaponizing The Haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation,” says it has found “evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments....

“Stuber,” which world premiered at SXSW last March, stars Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista in, what seems to be, an action-comedy take on Michael Mann’s ‘Collateral.” The newly released trailer has gags that made me chuckle, the chemistry between the two actors will be the driving force of this film, let’s hope it can continue to work for 90 minutes. “Stuber” drives into theaters on July 12, 2019. Contribute Hire me...

“Jordan, we already knew last year, it was inevitable that Warner Bros and Nolan would part ways. The studio lost over $60 million because of “Tenet,” he practically forced their hands to release the movie during the thick of the pandemic.” This comment surprised me. So, you mean to tell me that there was an actual net loss on “Tenet”? It was no doubt a bold move for Warner to release it in August of 2020, many theaters were still closed at that time including the top two film markets (Los Angeles and New York), and those that were open were operating at limited capacity....

“Tenet” will actually open in Canada on Thursday, Aug. 27, even before the U.S. release which is set for select cities on Wednesday, Sept. 2. I bet New York and California aren’t part of the itinerary due in no part thanks to the resident governors of those states. The release of “Tenet” in the U.S. will occur in cities that “have reopened safely.” The first round of openings, starting from Aug....

This new film is said to be a fictional story inspired by the photography of Danny Lyon and his 1967 book The Bikeriders. If you’ve been following Nichols over the years then you know he’s been trying very hard to get this passion project greenlit. “The Bikeriders” is set in the 1960s following the rise of a fictional, midwestern motorcycle club. Seen through the lives of its members, the club evolves over the course of a decade from a gathering place for local outsiders into a full-out gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life....

Sneaking into first place atop this week’s box office chart is newcomer “The Invisible Man”. The $7M production from Universal and Blumhouse stormed to $29M domestically, racking up yet another monetary success for Jason Blum. Many are expecting the film to cash in on this good start and the excellent critical reviews (90% Rotten Tomatoes) to reach numbers similar to other Blumhouse releases i.e. “Happy Death Day” and “The Purge: Anarchy” and reach around $60-70M domestically....

And yet, Speaking to Deadline, ‘Irishman’ producer Jane Rosenthal had to tell the masses the same thing yesterday, calling the movie “slower” than your usual Scorsese mob movie and, quite strangely, stamping some wokeness into it by saying it tackled “male masculinity.” “I’m excited for the world to get to see it,” Rosenthal said. “What will surprise you is, as a Scorsese movie, it is a slower movie. It doesn’t have the kind of intensity, the visual intensity, as a ‘Casino,’ as a ‘Goodfellas....

It’s quite something that Cannes decided Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” a batshit crazy midnight movie, and I’m being subtle here, should make it into competition at this year’s festival. Consider this not a review, but an amalgam of thoughts about the film. Because, otherwise, if I describe what this film is about it would take away the sheer thrill of discovering this movie’s per-minute surprises. Yes, this is a midnight movie through and through, one filled with a suffocating amount of implausibilities that somehow don’t even matter....

Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy