Fans often wished to see Marvel’s Netflix characters jump the big screen, but there was too much friction between both sides for that to ever happen. With the Netflix deal over and Kevin Feige now in control of everything, there’s no more beef out there and we’re starting to hear about characters debuting on the small screen before appearing in MCU movies.
Speaking with THR, Feige confirmed three characters that will debut in their own Disney+ series before showing up at a theater near you…
“Some characters we’ve announced like She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight you will meet for the first time on a Disney+ show and then they’ll go into the movies but the MCU will now go back and forth. It’s specifically planned the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be in theaters and on Disney+.”
“We are certainly doing cinematic art-level productions for Disney+. The Falcon and The Winter Solider is currently shooting and just yesterday, I got back from the set of WandaVision, which is shooting. All of those characters will undergo transformative, very-exciting changes in that show and go into our movies, so they’ll go back and forth.”
While some have tried to downplay Feige’s previous comments that you’ll need to keep up with Disney+ shows to understand what’s going on in the movies, this statement would seem to confirm it to be the case.
1. Midway (review) – $17.5M
While pretty much all predictions didn’t see this coming Roland Emmerich’s Midway took first place, even if the total take was less then impressive for a movie this size. While the first place finish may sound like a good sign for anyone who’s been praying for the day’s of the big-budget 90’s action epic, ala Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, etc, to return, I wouldn’t get your hopes up just yet. At less then $20M domestic the film still isn’t likely to be in the black at the end of the day.
2. Doctor Sleep (review) – $14.1M
If there was a surprise bigger then Midway taking the top spot this week it would be that Doctor Sleep, the follow up to one of the most iconic horror films of all time, didn’t. I’m not positive the impetus for this film being made now was the success of IT but if it was to further test the waters for a slew of Stephen King remakes then they just took a hard step back.
3. Playing with Fire – $12M
John Cena’s “tough guys unexpectedness stuck with kids” movie, a right of passage for new action stars in Hollywood debuted without screening for critics, so we can’t tell you our thoughts, but it appears the thoughts of most people out there were “nah, I don’t feel like seeing that”.
4. Last Christmas (review) – $11.6M
With a fourth place start to Emilia Clarke’s highly talked about Christmas rom-com I have to start to wonder if there’s a market on the big screen for movies like this. There are no less then 49 romantic and cheesy holiday films debuting on Hallmark, Netflix, and Lifetime in the next month and a half….I guess those are good enough for most people.
5. Terminator: Dark Fate – $10.6M/$48.4M
6. Joker – $9.2M/$313.4M
7. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil – $2.3M/$97.3M
8. Harriet – $7.2M/$23.4M
9. Zombieland: Double Tap – $4.3M/$66.6M
10. The Addams Family – $4.2M/$91M
There’s a lot swirling around about Marvel’s upcoming Hawkeye series, and not a lot of it is good. Questions have been asked about Jeremy Renner’s future in the MCU due to some of the behind-the-scenes domestic shit he’s going through, and presumed co-star Hailee Seinfeld seems about the show, as well. As of now, Disney is still planning to move forward with the series, however this was not the format it was originally intended to be.
Marvel’s Kevin Feige originally aimed for Hawkeye to be a standalone movie similar to Black Widow. When you think about the relationship between those characters, it also makes sense for them to have similarly-styled spinoff movies. However, a new report from Bloomberg says Feige had different ideas, and began pitching Renner and other Marvel stars about Disney+ shows as early as last year during the Avengers: Infinity War premiere. He was concerned about pitching the idea to Renner who already had a deal to do a Hawkeye movie, but was cool with it. “He totally got it and said, ‘Let’s do it,’ ” Feige said.
Hawkeye is due to arrive in fall 2021, and is expected to center on Clint Barton passing the torch to Kate Bishop. In the comics, Bishop takes over the Hawkeye mantle and becomes a founding member of the Young Avengers, the team that Marvel appears to be building for an eventual debut.
It’s getting tough to keep up with all of the Marvel projects out there, now that they’ve expanded over to Disney+. Two of the new shows that were announced earlier this year are She-Hulk and Moon Knight, not exactly a pair of A-listers but sure to make a lot of Marvel fans happy. Well, those shows have both taken big steps forward now that they have actual writers to craft these heroes’ stories.
THR reports Emmy-winning Rick & Morty writer Jessica Gao has been hired to write Marvel’s She-Hulk series, which centers on Bruce Banner’s cousin, Jennifer Walters. Walters gains her green skin and super strength from a blood transfusion from the Hulk, but unlike her cousin she maintains her personality and intelligence. An attorney, she’s often portrayed as the legal representative of the superhero community, known for her fourth-wall-breaking antics and stints as a member of the Avengers and Fantastic Four. I’m hoping her show will be a combo of superheroics and The Practice-style legal shenanigans.
Meanwhile, Moon Knight has added Umbrella Academy creator Jeremy Slater as its head writer. The series centers on Marc Spector, mercenary with split personalities who also serves as the conduit for Egyptian moon god Knonshu. Yeah, it’s as weird as it sounds. This should be a crazy show that will, hopefully, elevate the Batman-esque character to greater notoriety.
When making art, killing your darlings can be hard to do. Sometimes the ideas are just too good and you are too proud of them to condense for the greater good of the piece. Love is Blind, a new romantic independent film starring newcomer Shannon Tarbet, Aidan Turner, Benjamin Walker, Matthew Broderick, and Chloe Sevigny, is the perfect example of what can happen when too many ideas hit the screen. Written by Jennifer Schuur and directed by Monty Whitebloom and Andy Delaney, Love is Blind is loses sight of its point in the midst of its many avant-garde yet cliched troupes.
Bookended by trite and convoluted voiceover, Love is Blind tells the story of Bess (Shannon Tarbet), a young woman who lives with her father (Matthew Broderick) in a small town. She is unable to physically see her mother (Chloe Sevigny), thinking she is dead, despite her father’s and other people’s daily interactions with her. Both mother and daughter are tired of each other, one fed up with being ignored by her child, the other fed up being told that her mother is alive. To process her father’s Parkinson’s disease and her own mental blockage, Bess attends therapy with Farmer Walker, a doctoral candidate on the spectrum, who is experimenting with unconventional therapy methods and patient/doctor relationship boundaries. As she tries to reconcile with her father’s disease and navigate life with the frustration of selective vision, Bess unknowingly crosses paths with Russell Hank (Aidan Turner), a deeply depressed demolition man.
Turner, known for The Hobbitseries and that PBS show Poldark where excruciatingly pretty people with long flowing hair stare out over cliffs into the sea and make out with each other, provides a consistent, maybe even a decent performance if not for his incessant voiceover that is cliché to the cliched power. He’s depressed, unsure about his existence, wanting to die, wanting to become invisible. His prayers are answered when Bess doesn’t seem to see him, the only other person besides her mother that she can’t see. Farmer suggests that Bess talk to the imaginary “Russell.” Russell then is given permission to follow her around, falling in love with her in the process. Soon the desire to be seen and to see what might not be there becomes unbearable, forcing both Bess and Russell to comfort their demons.
Visually there are some moments that work. At one moment Russell picks up Bess, and as we see it from her perspective, it appears that she is floating. Chloe Sevigny appears and reappears during her scenes depending on the vantage point. At one point, the front of a building falls around Russell, ala Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill, Jr. However, the plot and dialogue are all over the place. The dialogue is abrupt and not subtle. Characters bring up random things in the middle of scenes and they don’t really talk or act like human beings. Literally after meeting Russell, Farmer steals his half-eaten burger and eats it. Most of the film’s major issues lie with the characterization of Farmer. He’s overly attached to Bess, stepping over professional boundaries physically and sexually. It clouds the film and would be much better off and more effective if it wasn’t included.
Love is Blind is insulting but with good intentions. It’s insulting to those suffering from mental illness, insulting to patient/therapist relationships everywhere, the autism spectrum storyline doesn’t seem thought out and a shallow caricature of a complex disorder. Though it tries to capture life on the spectrum or with clinical depression, it fails to show them as anything more than quirky broken people with very few redeeming qualities. Shannon Tarbet’s performance gives off more manic-pixie-sex-object than human-woman with deep-rooted familiar issues, not understanding her own reality. The most interesting character, Bess’s mother, isn’t explored fully, wasting Chloe Sevigny’s performance.
While the selective vision conceit is interesting enough, it’s not enough to save the film from trying and failing to fulfill every single indie film troupe; the overworked obsessive, the depressed young man, the manic pixie dream girl, stop motion paper crane scene, black and white scenes to indicate the past, random dance scene. The film feels like a cross between a film’s student thesis film and an alien’s perception of what movie’s should be. That being said it takes a lot of work to make a movie, people put just as much work into the crappy ones that they do into the critically acclaimed ones. With Love is Blind, it could be a case of too much going on in one film, it could be that the filmmakers didn’t know how to kill their darlings and edit some of these ideas down. Clearly, the effort was there, it’s just a shame that the result is not a cohesive vision.
Families deal with tragedies in different ways – it can be
something that brings them closer together, reminding them of what they have
and not necessarily what they lost. Or a tragedy can drive them apart as the grief
overcomes them. Unfortunately, in Strange
But True the Chase family experiences a tragedy and the latter occurs. When
Ronnie (Connor Jessup) passes away in a car accident on prom night, his family
implodes. Five years later and the Chase family is a shadow of it’s former self. Ronnie’s younger brother Philip (Nick Robinson), a once incredibly talented photographer, is
back living at home after an unsuccessful stint in New York. His mother Charlene (Amy Ryan), who was a successful chief librarian, is now
unemployed and divorced from his father Richard (Greg Kinnear) who is living
down in Florida with his new significant other. Tensions are high and none of
them have ever been able to fill the void left after Ronnie’s death.
One day Ronnie’s old girlfriend, Melissa (Margaret Qualley),
comes to visit and she is now pregnant. While Phillip is happy to see her (they
were once close) Charlene wants nothing to do with her and her new life.
Melissa breaks the news that she believes that this child is Ronnie’s. She has
never been with another man and thinks that the pregnancy was just meant to
be. Charlene essentially throws her out of her house, but before leaving
Melissa lets Phillip and Charlene know that she is living on the outside of
town with Bill (Brian Cox) and Gail (Blythe Danner). Phillip and Charlene each
go on their own investigations trying to see if there is really any way that
Melissa can be telling the truth – going down a path that lead to places that
they would have never expected.
Strange But True
has a talented cast and a couple of interesting moments throughout, but all in
all it leaves much to be desired. Director Rowan Athale and writer Eric Garcia
(who penned the screenplay based on the novel by John Searles) are never able
to truly make Strange But True
suspenseful or the edge of your seat thriller that the audience hopes it will
be. The film gets dark and twisted, but it is not enough to salvage this forgettable
flick. Much of the action and suspense (nearly all of it) is backloaded in
the last third or so of the film while the rest just stumbles along. It is
another ‘thriller’ that you’ll do just fine avoiding, there are far better
options out there.
Undoubtedly feeling confident after the Oscars showed Black Panther so much love last year, Disney is going all out with their nominations this year. Not only are they targeting Best Picture and a number of technical awards for Avengers: Endgame, but they are throwing everyone into the mix to get an acting nomination. Basically, if you were an Avenger, you’ve been called to assemble.
So on the list are Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Zoe Saldana, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Scarlett Johansson, and Gwyneth Paltrow. I think you could’ve made the case for Evans being Best Actor, maybe even ScarJo for Best Actress, but Disney is clearly putting everyone up as equals which makes total sense. Endgame‘s record-breaking success wasn’t due to any one actor, just as the Avengers are all meant to be on equal footing. I’m just surprised they didn’t make it 14 and include Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket. He never would’ve been considered, but Rocket was as big if not a bigger part than some of the characters that Disney did put up.
The likelihood is nobody in this list is going to get nominated, and I don’t know big of a true Oscar campaign Disney is going to run for them. Probably not much. I think they’ll throw all of their energy into the Best Picture race, though, as the perfect capper to Endgame becoming the highest-grossing movie of all-time.
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free early screening of Charlie’s Angels. The film is directed by Elizabeth Banks and stars Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska as the latest generation of super spies.
SYNOPSIS: Reboot of the 2000 action comedy based on the 1970s television series. A new generation of private detectives working for the mysterious Charlie.
The screening takes place on Tuesday, November 12th at 7:00pm at AMC Mazza Gallerie. If you’d like to attend, go to the Sony Pictures site here and download a pass good for you and one guest. Please remember all screenings are first come first served and you’ll need to arrive early to ensure seating. Enjoy the show!
(NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Sundance Film Festival.)
Trust me, I understand if the idea of Shia LaBeouf making a movie about his own troubled childhood reeks of some woe-is-me bullshit, an attempt to pass the buck for the problems he’s created for himself. I certainly expected Honey Boy to be that, especially with the gimmicky plan for LaBeouf to play his own father, the source of so much of his grief. But you’ll be surprised to learn that the film is actually quite thoughtful in its exploration of a child actor’s problematic upbringing at the hands of an abusive parent, and that upbringing’s long-lasting impact.
In this slightly fictionalized account, the LaBeouf character is named Otis and right from the start we are given a literal crash course on the wreckage of his life. A swift, thundering montage by first-time narrative director Alma Ha’Rel begins in 2005 as Otis (played by the ubiquitous Lucas Hedges at this stage) goes from explosive movie set (resembling Transformers, maybe?) to random hookups to drinking, drugs, and finally a car crash that lands him in police custody. Cut ten years earlier and a younger Otis (now played by A Quiet Place‘s Noah Jupe) is taking a creme pie shot to the face for a role he’s shooting in some kids’ show, resembling Disney’s Even Stevens which LaBeouf was a star of.
The flashbacks are inspired by older Otis’ therapy sessions at a rehab for repeat offenders, where he’s been diagnosed with PTSD. Confused about the diagnosis, and wondering how someone like him could have suffered such a trauma, Otis recalls the rocky upbringing by his unstable father James (played with flourish by LaBeouf), a military vet, sex offender, alcoholic, drug abuser, and basically a deadbeat only around because he’s getting paid to be his son’s chaperone. Living together in a shitty rundown motel, Otis and James tangle often, mostly over the uneven power dynamic between them, along with James’ feelings of inadequacy and jealousy towards his son.
While obviously a very personal story for LaBeouf, and getting all of this stuff out on paper must’ve been painful and I hope very cleansing, there’s a lot here that has been done in other movies. We expect James’ humiliation of his son, the occasional bursts of violence on set, relapses, and even abandonment. Meanwhile, the older Otis lashes out at his therapists (played by Laura San Giacomo and Martin Starr) in much the same way James would at stagehands and producers.
In what must’ve been a wild experience for LaBeouf, he plays his own father and breathes into him the frailty that makes him more than just some cruel Mommie Dearest figure. It takes a while to get over the awkward southern accident, thinning hair, and noticeable gut, but once LaBeouf hits a groove he’s absolutely magical. LaBeouf is such an amazing talent that you wish all of the outside stuff would just vanish and he could focus on the work because when he does he’s great. It seems as if he’s getting things back together; some of the finest performances of his career have come recently in American Honey, Borg/McEnroe, and now in Honey Boy. Jupe, who has always shown incredible maturity for an actor so young, may have the toughest role of all capturing Otis’ confidence, strength, and simple yearning to have a father who cares for him.
When Honey Boy sticks to its biggest guns, which is Otis and James’ chaotic relationship, the film pulls you in so that you forget this is LaBeouf’s story. But when LaBeouf ventures elsewhere he’s a less assured screenwriter. A strange subplot between Otis and a young motel prostitute ventures on some unnecessarily sexual territory, and I never quite bought into older Otis’ combative therapy sessions which include scooping chicken poop, giving self-hugs, and screaming in the wilderness. Honey Boy would’ve been better served with a narrower focus on Otis and James as that is the most illuminating aspect by far. However, those issues don’t take away from what is a genuine accomplishment by LaBeouf. It’s worth recognizing that he has mostly stayed out of the limelight and focused on working with some of the best auteurs around, and it has been paying off. Hopefully, people will see this as a continuation of LaBeouf’s evolution into the serious actor he always had the potential to be, and not just some publicity stunt.
The rate which new Apple TV+ projects with A-list stars are being announced is quickly measuring up to Netflix, and that’s just how it’ll be from now on. Both sides will continue to try and one-up the other, but it’s Apple who have landed a major blow with the signing of Ben Stiller and Adam Scott for the new series, Severence.
Variety reports Stiller will direct Scott in the Apple TV+ series, Severence, a workplace thriller about a man who works at Lumen Industries, a company attempting to take work/life balance to a new level. Scott will play Mark, an employee with a dark past trying to put himself back together. Sounds kinda lame, but with Scott and still involved it should be interesting, or at least a little bit funny. Dan Erickson will act as writer and exec-producer.
For Stiller, he’s been spending less time in front of the camera than behind it, directing the acclaimed Showtime series Escape from Dannemora. Scott is an old hand on the small-screen with shows such as Party Down, Parks & Rec, and most recently HBO’s Big Little Lies.
Stiller has directed Scott before in 2013’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I always thought they could easily play brothers and it would be a missed opportunity if something like that doesn’t happen. Maybe Stiller can cameo in his own show?
