Posts

I’m reminded of the ecstatic reactions that Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” received at Sundance 2016. It was almost a cinch for a Best Picture nomination according to many people who saw it during that snowy January. The standing ovation the film got at its premiere was unlike any I had seen before at the festival. Then came the allegations against Parker, and the raves his film garnered at Sundance all of a sudden stopped and quickly turned into pans when “The Birth of a Nation” was released in October....

That’s right, Apple has decided to release Antoine Fuqua’s “Emancipation.” The film was screened for a few African-American groups on Saturday afternoon in DC and I heard it slapped hard. A teaser has also been released by Apple. What’s with the color grading? There are some very faint hints of color, but it looks like black and white — kind of the same look Sarah Polley used for “Women Talking....

Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

With the knowledge that it’s an Oscar player, French critics are fairly kind to The Daniels’ film, albeit not as batshit crazy in love with it as US critics. The film scored a 3.9 rating with critics on AlloCine, the French equivalent of Rotten Tomatoes. Of course, Cahiers du Cinema hated it. Not surprising. Out of 39 tabulated reviews, the film has nine perfect scores. Now, we’re wondering how its box-office will look like come Monday....

Vin Diesel and company are back for “F9” and I honestly couldn’t care less about it. There will be big guns, big muscle, big cars and, really, just big everything because this is America and it’s go big or go home. This ninth chapter will also, I’m just guessing here, end with a big family barbecue where the whole cast is gathered together as the camera slowly rises to the clouds....

The 55-year-old from Brooklyn, New York, has already left behind a legacy in the movie industry, but he isn’t done yet. Adam continues to churn out great movies, so much so there’s often no need to read the description on TV. You know what you’re getting with Sandler, and you know it’ll be great. But he has been known to throw in the odd curveball now and again. Just to remind us that he isn’t a one-dimensional actor or filmmaker....

Horror movie fans have been anticipating Ari Aster’s “Midsommar” ever since the project was announced, right around the time his debut “Hereditary” was about to be released last summer.. A24 has confirmed to IndieWire that the movie will clock in at a rather risky 140 minutes. That is quite the ballsy move on the part of Aster, for his sophomore effort. Not much is known about the plot, but “Midsommar” has been described as a pagan cult horror movie and has this official synopsis over at IW: “Midsommar” stars Florence Pugh and Jake Raynor as an American couple whose mental states and relationship unravel when they decide to vacation with their friends in Sweden....

Greengrass reunites with Tom Hanks to bring us this Western drama following a Texan (Hanks), plying his trade by delivering news to townspeople across the west, who gets caught up in the rescue attempt of a 10-year-old girl (Helena Zengel), orphaned after the killings of the Kiowa tribe members who took her in after they killed her family years earlier. The last time Hanks and Greengrass teamed up for a film was in 2013 for their mostly-excellent “Captain Phillips....

If you think this might be a remake of the Hitchock classic, think again, Wheatley has been adamant that he is not adapting Hitchcock and, instead, going back to the original novel for a fresher take. “I wanted to make something that had more love in it,” Wheatley recently said. “It’s part of trying to investigate other parts of being human. Rebecca has dark elements, and it has a psychological, haunting story within it, but it’s also about these two people in love....

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” uses a meta-universe of alternative Spideys to pull off an unexpected deft and humane comic touch. However, if the story is what I would qualify as “OK,” the visuals are the real sell, the eye-popping frames, concocted by directors Peter Ramsey, Robert Persichetti Jr, and Rodney Rothman and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, has the feel of stepping inside a page-turner. At the end of the day, and no disrespect to the high-leveled CGI in MCU and DCEU films, animation is the best medium with which to honor the style of the comic book art....

It costars stars Elle Fanning, Rebecca Hall and Zlatko Burić, a nice pairing, despite the cliches in the script. Minghella (aka Nick the driver in “The Handmaid’s Tale“) directs “Teen Spirit,” a film that takes place in the world of British pop music competitions, with real visual panache, and a simplicity that makes it go down easy, but that’s the problem. Despite the director’s skill for the visually stimulating, there’s a conventionality to the screenplay that does it a major disservice....

Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

The film, much like last year’s misbegotten “The Current War” tackles the Tesla/Edison rivalry, which was all about the race for modern electricity. Kyle MacLachlan plays Thomas Edison, the genius narcissist who went up against the more lonesome and isolated, but equally brilliant, Tesla (Hawke). Almereyda also directed Hawke in the above-average 2000 version of “Hamlet.” He’s been on a bit of a hot streak lately having delivered festival favorites “Majorie Prime,” and “Experimenter....

Hollywood Elsewhere posted this Hirsch rave : Hirsch plays an elderly uncle on Michelle Williams’ side of the family. Talking about Williams, she’s the other Oscar contender in the film, if we are led to believe the early reactions. Is it bad in asserting that I only really know Hirsch, in film, from “Independence Day,” “A Beautiful Mind” and his indelible 1980 performance in “Ordinary People”? The latter was coincidentally also Hirsch’s last Oscar nomination....

Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film....

If you do finally watch the movie, then you will soon realize that the controversy was unwarranted, since the liberal “elites” who are featured in it and pay top dollar to hunt Bible belt residents for the thrill of it, are arrogant, brash and, quite clearly, the antagonists of the picture. Yes, someone refers to an unnamed president as “our ratfucker-in-chief,” we see texts about using “deplorables” as target practice, but, politics aside, this is a pretty thin and unsubstantial movie....

Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

Read More Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

The 63 second trailer is mostly composed of quotes from critics with just a handful of closeups of Brendan Fraser’s face. To recap, A24 released a trailer, but one that barely shows anything and, to boot, on Election Day. Good job, A24. The Film Stage’s CJ Prince: “A24 dropping the trailer for The Whale on election day…genius move. Like they knew discourse would happen so they dropped it on the one day of the year where they knew another discourse would overpower it....

This is no doubt part of the massive Oscar campaigning Paramount has in store for this film. You’d be a fool not to believe that ‘Maverick’ a very legitimate shot at garnering a Best Picture nomination. Joseph Kosinski’s film has grossed $1.48 billion globally, including $716 million domestically. Its nothing short of a phenomenon. The sensational success of “Top Gun: Maverick” might not have been possible any other year. It came at the absolute right time when moviegoers were, finally, feeling comfortable enough to go back to the movies....