Posts

The creatives over at Disney and Lucasfilm are desperately trying to do a “course correction” to get back some of the fans they lost from “The Last Jedi,” just in time for the December 20th release of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” The cast and crew are now giving their honest opinions about “The Last Jedi.” We had already heard from Daisy Ridley and John Boyega about their problems with Rian Johnson’s controversial SW film, but now comes an even more important voice criticizing Johnson’s vision: ‘Rise of Skywalker’ director, JJ Abrams....

The film’s been written and directed by Stephen Merchant (this guy really loves to use montages) and is almost, but not quite, saved by an adorably persistent performance courtesy of Florence Pugh (dynamite in “Lady Macbeth”) as Saraya-Jade Bevis aka Paige. Pugh plays it straight, with no over-the-top theatrics, but instead, a wide-eyed kid-like optimism which captures the look, sound and feel of a WWE female champion that is completely out of her league with the company’s brand of feminine “divas....

Last January at Sundance, I had written this capsule review of the film: “Vic, a medical transport driver in Milwaukee, is already late and needs to pickup a wide array of clients all over the city and to make matters worse? It happens to be the same day many roads are closed due to a scheduled political protest. Taking place during the span of 24 hours, “Give Me Liberty” has Vic not only trying to shuttle his “regulars” during one tumultuous day of chaos, but also having to bring his Russian grandfather and émigré friends to a local funeral....

Fertility is not a subject matter that has been depicted this thoroughly and with this much realism on-screen before and so it is no surprise that a lot of it derived from Jenkins’ own private life. “The core emotional experience was my own,” says Jenkins, “My husband and I also did international adoption, but I of course also spoke to other people. The domestic adoption story is from a friend of mine, but the emotional core of the movie I understood because I went through my own emotional journey....

The ragtag crew onboard is composed of married couple Freya (Connie Nielsen) and Gerard (Dougray Scott), old seahand Ciara (Olwen Fouéré), bright architect Omid (Ardalan Esmaili), dimwit Sudi (Elie Bouakaze) and Johnny (Jack Hickey) who quickly catches Siobhán’s lustful green eyes. Call it “Alien” at sea, as Hardima’s predictable body-horror hits familiar notes, but delivers enough jolts to not be totally disposable trash. It’s a midnight movie with a decent amount of artistry in its bones The doom and gloom happens when the ship hits a thud, the engine gets jammed, the radio stops working (of course) and green goo starts spilling into the cracks of the ship’s walls....

Russell has run out of social capital with critics. The movie isn’t as bad as the reviews entail, but it’s also not as good as it should have been. The convoluted nature of the plot makes for a very strangely conceived narrative. There’s a good movie hidden somewhere in there, but I don’t think Russell or his editor, Jay Cassidy, managed to find it. Box-office projections for Russell’s $80 million movie keep going down as well....

The post-screening discussion was with Russell, Christian Bale and moderated by director Adam McKay. Producer Howard Budman announced that “Amsterdam” will have a big screening next week at Manhattan’s Alice Tully Hall. If you go on Letterboxd, there aren’t any post-screenings reviews from the Ross House event, but just a lot of David O. Russell bashing. The press tour for this one should be fun. Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

‘Endgame’ has an abundance of surprises, all jammed into a screenplay written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directed by the Russo brothers, Joe and Anthony. Of course, I will not mention any of the twists here, because part of the fun of ‘Endgame’ is giving yourself in to the Russos’ narrative and letting the twists and turns wash over you like no other MCU movie has before. Yes, “Avengers: Endgame” is, by far, the best ‘Avengers’ movie of the four released, but also one of the very best movies of the MCU....

The embargo had lifted at 3:01AM ET embargo, a perfect time when everyone is asleep and the studio can suppress the response. I don’t blame them. We all expected Chazelle’s silent-era epic to be polarizing. Some will love it and some will hate it. I think I loved it, for the most part. It has its flaws, but it’s very hard not to forgive them, especially when the filmmaking is this punch-drunk gorgeous....

Opening with a literal bang, the private sex tape of a masked Emi involved in kinky sex with a younger lover as her she tried to fend off calls from her husband in the other room— Jude stamps his well-known cinematic “bad boy” reputation into this movie instantly. The sex is hardcore and graphic. The repercussions turn out to be far worse than Emi ever imagined as Emi finds her career and reputation under threat because of the leaked tape....

“How it plays with those not versed in Lucy and Desi lore I don’t know (that helps to see the full level of his achievement) but DAMN. Sorkin is such a master at this. The acting is exceptional but Nicole is extraordinary for so many reasons.” I didn’t even know this was screening for press, let alone finished in the editing room. The film is set to be released on December 10th....

Pete Davidson plays such a burnout in “Big Time Adolescence.” His Zeke has built a friendship with, of all people, his ex-girlfriend’s 16-year-old brother, Mo (Griffin Gluck). As happens at that age, hormones run wild, and you feel invincible to life’s hardships, but having Zeke as a mentor doesn’t stabilize it. After all, Zeke is what you would qualify as a “loser,” permanently guiding Mo’s life into oblivion by drinking, smoking weed, playing video games, and misguidedly (to be kind) convincing his 16-year-old bud to get “Tongue Daddy” tattooed on his chest....

Director Jay Roach’s “Bombshell” takes on these vivid events in sophomoric ways — filming and staring at the obvious, but never getting to the heart of the matter involved. It feels as generic as a TV movie, and only slightly improved by the excellent acting at hand. Carlson (played by a very game Nicole Kidman) lawyers up right before she knows she’s about to get fired by Ailes (a hammy performance from John Lithgow in a fat suit), mostly for not conforming to the Fox agenda — shock, she has the chutzpah of having an anti-gun segment on her show....

Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

The film is supposedly three hours long now. Oddly enough, I’ve been told by a few people to expect to be disappointed by this wackadoodle project. I don’t buy it, I’m sure there will be some fascinating things in this film, but what exactly? What exactly has Ari Aster created here? What I do know is that 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)....

It was almost inevitable that a “Dune” sequel would happen. It grossed a total of $400 million worldwide, surpassing its $165 million budget. The film garnered critical acclaim and a slew of Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. For some reason, Villeneuve didn’t get a Best Director nod. Warner Bros. recently pushed the release date for Villeneuve’s sequel from Oct. 20, 2023 to Nov. 17, 2023. The original cast — Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin — will all be back....

The numbers are in for “Elvis” Thursday previews and they are VERY GOOD. Baz Luhrmann’s film made $3.5 million, just $400,000 less than “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which would eventually gross over $700 million. Word of mouth amongst audiences is also said to be very good. The hype is real for this one. You’ll get people from both red and blue states flocking theaters this weekend. We’re looking at a $35-40 million weekend....

Peter Farrelly’s movie made $4.7 million this past weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. That’s a 121.4% boost from when it placed #11 last week. A big reason for this success is due to its expansion to 1,388 extra screens, taking full advantage of the attention it just got at the Oscars. The film should also celebrate the fact that, according to Deadline, it made $17.1 million in China this weekend....

Audiences seem to be liking ‘Gucci,’ its B+ CinemaScore is impressive enough, but the Letterboxd rating (3.3), and the 7.1 on IMDb are concerning. Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the RT verified audience score which is 88%. Over on the film review side of things, critics reviews are mixed-to-positive in it. A 59 on Metacritic hurts. 61% on Rotten Tomatoes could be the final death mail in its Oscar chances. With all that being said, “House of Gucci” is currently projected to open with 26....

“A movie is very different when you’re writing the script and you’re building a story compared to what the final product is,” Muschietti mentioned at a Junket. “At the beginning, when you’re writing and building the beats of the story, everything that you put in there seems very essential to the story. However, when you have the movie finally edited and it’s 4 hours long, you realise that some of the events and some of the beats can be easily lifted but the essence of the story remains intact....