Posts

Ayer’s film was rated PG-13, but Gunn has made it known that he is going for an R-rating here. A lot of the tropes we saw in ‘Guardians’ are in the trailer: subversive humour, zany violence, a hip ‘70s soundtrack and lots of hard-to-describe characters. It could all amount to a nastily rendered good time or a ‘Guardians’ ripoff. “The Suicide Squad” cast list is impressive, including the likes of Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Idris Elba, John Cena, Taika Waititi, Pete Davidson, and Sylvester Stallone as the Groot-like King Shark....

A viral video of the standing ovation Fraser received as the credits rolled in Venice is as emotional as these kind of things get. How can you not root for the guy? I managed to attend a private screening of Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale.” What Aronofsky has created is his least flashy film. Matthew Libatique’s services were not necessarily needed for this film, which is mostly composed of Brendan Fraser’s titular character sitting on a couch or, at times, a wheelchair....

The film’s official synopsis: “Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) narrates his epic and darkly humorous rise from poor villager to successful entrepreneur in modern India. Cunning and ambitious, our young hero jockeys his way into becoming a driver for Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and Pinky (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who have just returned from America. Society has trained Balram to be one thing — a servant — so he makes himself indispensable to his rich masters....

You know you’re in trouble when the biggest laughs in your movie come from a Rob Schneider cameo. “The Wrong Missy” could very well be a hit for Netflix, but mostly because the streaming giant’s audiences have been willing to tolerate, hell embrace, this kind of dumbed-down comedy over the years. Lauren Lapkus plays Missy, a mentally unstable woman, with psychopathic tendencies, who, after a disastrous blind date, ends up joining Spade’s corporate stooge Tim Morris at a resort vacation in Hawaii, after he mistakenly sends an invitation-by-text to her instead of another woman....

Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

Clocking in at 78 minutes, this SXSW-premiered indie relies on Dyer’s priceless facial expressions to tell the story of a naive, but ultimately repressed teenage girl’s discovery of her own sexuality and the repressive religious chains that keep forbidding her from enacting her desires. The result is an amusing, if somewhat slight, exploration of territory that has been dealt with before in films, but not always with this kind of astute honesty and attention to character....

Some of the emails I have gotten from readers who have seen it have not painted the film in too kind a light. The word “dull” was mentioned a few times. Alas, I know this is not supposed to be a film that attempts, in any way shape or form, to coddle to its audience — rather, it’s supposed to be “purposely distancing.” It’s what many like to call a “critic-proof” film: A movie that does not bridge the already formidable gap between critics and normal moviegoers, it only enhances it....

I wrote on 08.06.22: “Kline’s satirical jabs hit where they hurt. His film plays like a millennial “American Splendor,” only better. Shot in 2019, “Funny Pages” was sitting in post-production hell for the better part of three years until none other than the Safdies saved it and then A24 jumped onboard.” The film is opening in over 30 theaters Friday. In NY, it’s not only at Lincoln Center, but also the Angelika....

Netflix has tried hard, very hard, to insert themselves into the Oscar game these last few years. Last year they almost squeezed in a nomination for Dee Rees’ “Mudbound,” and in 2015 Cary Fukanaga’s “Beasts of No Nation”was met with Oscar buzz at Telluride only to fall flat come Oscar nomination day. However, a new era is upon us and “Roma” seems unstoppable. It was, far and away, the most heavily praised film at Telluride and Venice, and will likely garner the same kind of approval at TIFF next week....

I figure this review will get taken down since the embargo doesn’t get lifted until during tomorrow’s Venice premiere. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean “The Son” will get glowing reviews. It just one man’s opinion and some have already complained on social media about Hugh Jackman’s hammy acting in the trailer. Although, that didn’t really bother me. Suffice to say, the campaign for Zeller’s movie is very much under way....

What exactly has Ari Aster created here? I’m being told it’s about a man afraid of the people around him, especially his mom, who randomly punches homeless people and dreams about VERY ODD things (my source would rather I not divulge the specifics, but it’s wild). The film sounds unique, dreamy, surreal and unexplainable. Oh, and it stars the ever-fascinating Joaquin Phoenix, an actor whose unpredictability, on and off the screen, has turned him into one of the most important actors of the 21st century....

Of course, we all knew that “Bohemian Rhapsody” would just kick-start a whirlwind of Hollywood rock biopics. Newcomer Austin Butler plays Elvis Presley. Tom Hanks stars as his manager Colonel Tom Parker. The film has a script by “Fifty Shades of Grey” scribe Kelly Marcel. Luhrmann hasn’t directed a feature-length film since 2013’s “The Great Gatsby.” Before that he had a time-capsule-worthy bomb titled “Australia”? Remember that one? Luhrmann’s claim to fame will always be 2001’s “Moulin Rouge” a frenetic and daring musical that took so many risks, but worked magnificently....

Just a week ago, we lacked a frontrunner, a film which the “experts” could altogether align with and say “THAT is our Best Picture winner!” Of course, it all changed when Sam Mendes’ “1917” screened in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston these last few days. Mendes’ film is now the de facto frontrunner. Its 86 Metascore (based on 11 reviews) is a good enough reason to hop on the bandwagon....

You have to go with artistic merit and not the facade-driven notion that if the movie is the first of its genre to have an African-American in the lead, or a female in the lead then it should automatically be overpraised for its outside-the-box political importance. That’s now how it should work and yet many of my colleagues have sunk towards this kind of direction in their writing and judging of filmmaking....

In an exclusive interview with Screen Daily, Frémaux explained that the films highlighted in the Official Selection will also be scheduled for theatrical release between now and the spring of 2021. Although many films decided to take part in this selection process, Frémaux added that some directors, whose films had already been selected for the 2020 lineup, have decided to wait it out and take the risk of being reconsidered for the 2021 edition....

“I met him, one time. We were filming on ‘Batman’ in Trump Tower and he said, ‘Come on up to the office,’” Bale told Variety, “I think he thought I was Bruce Wayne because I was dressed as Bruce Wayne. So he talked to me like I was Bruce Wayne and I just went along with it, really. It was quite entertaining. I had no idea at the time that he would think about running for president....

Nolan goes on to add that Chazelle’s “First Man” is “was never going to be a middle-of-the-road affair. Instead he crafted a masterfully staged re-creation of the space program with utterly compelling physical detail and layers of cinematic immersion that command credence and ensure that the radical and intensively subjective nature of Chazelle’s point-of-view comes as a gradually unveiled shock.” “By equating our most intimate human moments with the great adventure, the film doesn’t diminish the cosmic, it elevates the earthly,” Nolan writes....

Well, it turns out that rumor was indeed true. LaBeouf will be a part of Coppola’s epic, all this as Olivia Wilde is knee deep in a PR nightmare. You gotta love it. This was all confirmed on a recent appearance by LaBoeuf on Jon Bernthal’s podcast. LaBeouf had taken some time off from acting after being criminally charged for misdemeanor battery and petty theft in September 2020. LaBeouf is joining a “Megalopolis” cast that includes Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Forest Whittaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, and Laurence Fishburne....

Criterion technical director Lee Kline was interviewed by IndieWire about their upcoming release of Terrence Malick’s astonishing 2011 achievement “The Tree of Life.” This new extended cut, a 188-minute version, 49 minutes longer than the original, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival next week, but Kline says it’s a whole other new movie. “[the version of ‘The Tree of Life’] that premiered in 2011 at Cannes [was] definitely the definitive version of the film he wanted to make,” said Kline....

I wrote back in September: It’s been six years since Fincher released his last feature, “Gone Girl.” The wait for a new film by the venerable director is finally over, as Fincher is about to release “Mank,” the forthcoming Netflix feature about “Citizen Kane” co-screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz. Gary Oldman is set to play the legendary screenwriter. On a recent appearance in the Pardon My Take podcast, “Mank” screenwriter Eric Roth confirmed that Fincher’s film will be released in October, adding that the director has “made a black and white ‘30s movie, it’s really incredible to see what he’s done....