Ronda Rousey may have successfully transitioned out of MMA into the world of acting and now professional wrestling, but she was hardly the first. That distinction goes to Gina Carano, who in 2011 took her brutal style of fighting to the big screen in Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire. She’s starred in a number of mediocre action flicks since but her most visible stuff has been in support, as her roles in Deadpool and Fast & Furious 6. Now she’s back in a big way by joining Pedro Pascal in Disney’s streaming Star Wars series, The Mandalorian.
The Wrap reports on Carano’s casting, although her role is being kept under wraps. Not that we should be surprised by that. She joins the recently-cast Pedro Pascal in the Star Wars series set in the outer reaches of the galaxy after the fall of the Empire but before the rise of the First Order. If you needed someone who could kick ass like a Mandalorian should, Carano is a safe bet.
Jon Favreau is the writer and creator of The Mandalorian, which should be part of Disney+ when the streaming service launches in late 2019.
*NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Middleburg Film Festival.*
The Negro Motorist Green Book is a pamphlet, a guide used in the pre-Civil Rights era that provides African-American travelers with information on hotels, eateries, and more where they will be welcome. In the Deep South with Jim Crow laws very much in effect, a green book was a necessity, but it’s very much a relic from a time gone by, although recent events would suggest maybe it’s time to bring back a modernized version of the “traveling while black” guide. But for the most part, people nowadays have never heard of a green book, and at this weekend’s Middleburg screening of Peter Farrelly’s hilarious, soulful, and perceptive Green Book its existence anchored the road trip comedy with an unexpected emotional weight.
That its directed by Peter Farrelly, one half of the duo best known for putting Ben Stiller’s splooge in Cameron Diaz’s hair, is just one of many surprises that emerge in this tricky film as it tackles heavy issues with comedy both broad and subtle. Viggo Mortensen shifts into Italian mobster mode as Tony Lip, a New York bouncer with street smart, a mean right hook, and an attitude straight out of The Sopranos or The Godfather. Ironic because the real-life Tony Lip, Anthony Vallelonga, actually appeared in both of those mob classics. It’s 1962 and Tony has no particular love for black people, evidenced by an encounter early on when he throws away glasses of water sipped by two black repairmen in his home. But he also needs a job, and when the offer is made to drive virtuoso pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) through a tour of the South, Tony’s up for it…after convincing the wife (Linda Cardellini) that it’s worth the two-month long absence.
Don is an interesting cat; not only to Tony but to us. We first meet him in his home above Carnegie Hall; a museum of fine antiquities and tribal novelties, the man literally sits on a throne and has a servant at his beck and call. He’s like a real-life T’Challa from Black Panther, with a regal air about him that is as opposite of Tony as it possibly could be. The job requires from Tony more than just skills behind the wheel; he’ll need to be Don’s assistant, chauffeur, but most importantly, his protection.
Mortensen and Ali have chemistry right off the bat, even as their characters are like oil and water. The former brings a certain street-level credibility to the role of Tony, a hard case with a racist streak that could make him tough to like. But he’s honest and surprisingly intuitive, even when he’s being an idiot. Tony’s claim that he is “blacker” than Shirley because he is more familiar with mainstream black musicians is a particularly narrow-minded, but it’s tempered with humor involving their first stop at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. It’s there that Shirley daintily has his first piece of chicken ever, and you can see his distaste at giving in to what he sees as a racial stereotype. But that whole sequence shows us, in tongue in cheek fashion, Shirley’s many conflicts with identity. Unable to fit in with black people who don’t understand his cultured talents, discriminated by the rich white people who pay to hear him play, and prejudiced in other ways soon to be revealed. Shirley is as complicated as Tony is easy to figure out, but as you probably guessed it’s their differences that open up new worlds for them both.
This is classic Golden era filmmaking, jazzy (the soundtrack features multiple hidden gems from the era), and well-produced with aspirations to entertain and enlighten.This isn’t a complicated movie and the trajectory we know before Tony and Don have driven a single mile. We know that Tony will jump into a brawl, maybe two or three, to save Don from racist cops or drunks looking for a fight. We know they will have a big blowup at some point, only to find common ground that brings them back together. That so much of what these two go through parallels the problems of today is indeed heartbreaking, but Farrelly balances it with a dose of humor so it goes down smooth. And this is a really funny movie, like laugh out loud funny from start to finish. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Farrellys as a duo but I like what Peter is doing on his own here, telling a meaningful story about the power of friendship to overcome fear and hatred. None of what happens will surprise you but Green Book isn’t looking to do that, anyway. Sometimes it’s a comfort to have a movie with a happy ending that you know is coming, and yet you still yearn for it. Green Book takes us on a journey we hardly need a map to navigate, and the comfort we feel at the destination is everything we hoped it to be.
*NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Middleburg Film Festival. *
It feels especially timely the arrival of Steve McQueen’s Widows, a breakneck heist thriller about a crew of badass women fighting back against the corrupt, male-dominated political elite. The film marks the director’s return to the big screen after his Best Picture-winning 12 Years A Slave, and shows that he’s more than capable at big studio movie-making with a contemporary message and arthouse sensibilities. This is female empowerment but not in a corny or condescending way. The ladies at the heart of this story were capable long before they had to clean up after the men in their lives.
Based on the Brit miniseries and adapted by McQueen and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, Widows doesn’t mess around. The director’s artistic background immediately comes into focus, hard cuts between an intimate moment shared between Veronica Rawlins (Viola Davis, fiercer than ever) and her husband, Harry (Liam Neeson), and an explosive gun battle during a heist gone south. Within moments, literally before the credits have finished, Harry would be dead and the same for everyone in his crew. Love and violence, domesticity and criminality, all co-mingle as we’re introduced to Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), whose husbands were also killed on that final job.
Hell comes to their doorstep, or more accurately to Veronica’s, when she’s paid a visit by thuggish wannabe politician Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), who says Harry stole $2M from him and it all went crispy in the firefight. Now, alongside his terrifying brother (Daniel Kaluuya) he plans to take that money back from her and whoever else is left alive. Veronica does the only thing she can think to do, which is reach out to Linda and Alice, women she doesn’t know and has never met, to recruit them to complete what would’ve been Harry’s next job. With that money they can pay off Jamal, and have enough left over to move on from the shit their husbands left behind.
Glynn’s screenplay is full of twists and unusual detours. Colin Farrell, the city candidate for alderman, and Robert DuVall as his father and current alderman share a memorable, hilarious, but ultimately pointless exchange about politics that crosses over into an art critique. You admire the bit for being funny, but it’s also just a momentary respite from the usual box-checking that comes with heist movies. They’re here, too: the buying of weapons and getaway vehicles, staking out the target, etc. But where Widows separates itself is in McQueen’s surprising visuals and some downright ingenious, informative camerawork. In one particularly brilliant sequence, we follow Farrell’s upstart politico from a contentious rally in a poor part of town, into a waiting car with his wife, and listen in on their heated conversation from outside the car. Along the way we hear but don’t see the rhetoric ratchet up, but our eyes are always drawn to the neighborhood, watching it shift from the poor ghettos to a much wealthier side of town.
Those moments of technical excellence are met by a firebrand performance by Davis, who as Veronica is forced to adapt to this world of bloodshed and violence. But whether it be out of desperation or pride, she’s all in and so are we for the ride. Flynn’s muscular screenplay pulls no punches, death comes quickly, brutally, and out of nowhere sometimes, but so too are occasional moments of tenderness and understanding. In particular, the relationship between Veronica and Alice, the latter initially coming off like a spoiled brat, evolves in a way that is beautiful, leading to a wonderful payoff in the final act. Like many heist films there is bloat in the story’s middle, and we get the sense Flynn is filling time before the crime is pulled off. In particular with Rodriguez’s character there is some aimlessness, and the same goes for the introduction of Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo as the team’s final member. She comes in almost as an afterthought. The details of Veronica and Harry’s life together prove pivotal, and the manner which a death in their family is seen adds an extra layer of relevance, touching on the subject of police violence.
Widows is a rare bird, indeed; a thriller of blockbuster scope with the artistry of a prestige drama. McQueen and Flynn have pumped high emotional stakes into the heist genre and delivered a powerful film for women about picking up and finding the strength to fight on after tragedy.
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free early screening of Green Book, starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali.
SYNOPSIS: Academy Award® nominee Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises, The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Academy Award® winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Hidden Figures) star in Participant Media and DreamWorks Pictures’ Green Book. In his foray into powerfully dramatic work as a feature director, Peter Farrelly helms the film inspired by a true friendship that transcended race, class and the 1962 Mason-Dixon line.
When Tony Lip (Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on “The Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger—as well as unexpected humanity and humor—they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.
The screening takes place on Monday, November 19th at 7:00pm at Regal Majestic in Silver Spring. If you’d like to enter, simply complete the required steps in the Rafflecopter form below. Winners will be selected on Friday, November 16th and notified by email. Good luck!
Green Book opens in DC on November 16th before going wide on November 21st.
With the passing of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, fans are eager for any further opportunities to see him on screen. So far we’ve heard that his cameo in Avengers 4 has already been shot, and that goes for Captain Marvel, as well. But there’s one Marvel movie next year that Lee won’t be a part of, and sadly it’s for one of his greatest creations: the X-Men.
Based on an EW report, Lee never got around to shooting a cameo in next year’s X-Men film, Dark Phoenix. It’s suggested the movie’s “grounded” and “gritty” approach may have been the reason for keeping Lee out. That’s as good a reason as any, and it’s not as if he appeared in every X-movie for 20th Century Fox. He last had a cameo in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, but also showed up in the 2000 original and 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand.
Even if EW is correct and Lee was never intended to be part of Dark Phoenix, it’s sad that he couldn’t make one final appearance alongside his beloved mutants. Dark Phoenix hits theaters on June 7th 2019.
Part sci-fi, part body horror, part psychological thriller, Bill Oliver’s Jonathan is a compelling twist on the old Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde formula. Duality is at the heart of this particular story, and we’ve seen it play out in thousands of different ways before. Even Marvel’s Incredible Hulk plays with the idea of two distinct personalities existing in the same entity, with the Freudian Id/Super-Ego battling it out for dominance. But Jonathan is a little bit different, as the two halves know of one another’s existence and live in relative harmony. Oh, and they are actually siblings rather than complete strangers.
Is simple sibling rivalry enough to break such a fragile balance? That’s just one of the many questions raised by Oliver in his suspenseful, deeply engrossing film which gives Ansel Elgort one of his most complex performances in a dual role. He plays both Jonathan and John, brothers who share one single body with each holding dominance for 12 hours. Jonathan is the responsible one, basically living like a hermit when he’s not building up an impressive career as an architect. When we first see him he’s recording a video message for John, and that’s when we learn they update each other about all of the day’s happenings just to avoid any confusion. Jonathan even cooks John dinner. When John takes over he indulges in what the night offers him; he’s impulsive, he’s making friends, going out to bars, and meeting women. When Jonathan realizes the fatigue he’s feeling is abnormal, he knows John is up to something. They have a certain set of rules. No girlfriends. Tell each other EVERYTHING. No lying. And did I mention “no girlfriends”?
Of course, it’s a woman. It’s always a woman. John has been hanging out with Elena (Suki Waterhouse), who doesn’t suspect what’s going on. When Jonathan, who has hired a detective (Matt Bomer in a weird cameo) to find out the truth, confronts John it leads to a break in their relationship. John disappears, stops making videos, and stops contacting Jonathan in any way. But can these two halves really exist without the other? Or are they forever co-dependent despite their attempts to establish independence?
The film’s first act can feel a little bit like a boring version of Memento, with John and Jonathan spending the bulk of their time ticking explaining details of the daily routine. Jonathan, in particular, is flat and personality-free, which is the point but since things are mostly seen from his perspective it doesn’t make for entertaining viewing. All of that changes when John disappears and Jonathan’s world starts to crumble out of loneliness. He begins reaching out to Elena, becoming friends with her and then much more than that. If they were normal brothers in separate bodies would Jonathan even consider doing something like that? How deep does his obsession with John run that he’s begun sniffing around his ex-girlfriends? Since we tend to see things through Jonathan’s eyes it leaves a lot of blank spaces to fill, some of which are picked up by Dr. Naiman (Patricia Clarkson), a neurologist who has been treating the brothers since childhood. If the first half of the movie is about Elena breaking up the brotherly bond, the second half is about their complicated feelings towards Naiman, and her conflicted feelings towards them.
As tensions mount and the situation grows increasingly desperate, Oliver and his trio of screenwriters always keep the film grounded in some kernel of truth. Never does it spin out of control or lean too heavy on sci-fi or horror elements, although both of those genres are clearly inspirations. John/Jonathan react out of a desire for individual expression, but at the same time, it’s something they can never truly achieve. One of their rules is that they will always be one another’s best friend, but how can that be when there can be no shared experience? If Jonathan has a bad day, he can’t call up John on the phone or go out with him for a drink. When the brothers hurt one another, can there truly be reconciliation without direct confrontation? How easy is it to forgive when you see the cause of your pain every time you look in the mirror?
Elgort is a hit-or-miss actor for me, as he seems to rise and fall with the quality of the material. It’s more than just the messy hair and loose-fitting clothes that differentiate his split performances here. The way he moves and talks is different. John slouches on the couch and delivers his video messages with a slang the straight-arrow Jonathan can only furrow his brow at.
Oliver sells out his intriguing premise a little bit in the final act, taking a lot of choice from his characters with a sudden, unnecessary twist. At the same time, he all but telegraphs how things will end for John/Jonathan, when it had been completely uncertain for so long. Still, Jonathan is a gripping, somber tale about the brotherly bond and the danger in being unable to grow independent of it.
If you haven’t already heard the name Danielle Macdonald…well, then I was wrong about last year’s Patti Cake$ being her breakout film. Macdonald was truly phenomenal in the hip-hop coming of age story, and it has led her to much bigger projects with bigger stars. Dumplin‘ finds Macdonald switching gears from rap to the soulful sounds of Dolly Parton for an uplifting comedy alongside Jennifer Aniston.
Directed by Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses), Dumplin‘ stars Macdonald as a small-town Texas girl tired of living in the shadow of her mom, a former beauty queen who runs her own pageant. As a form of protest, she decides to enter the pageant herself, sparking a movement to reexamine traditional notions of what is beautiful.
The film is powered by the sounds of Dolly Parton (including new tracks and fresh versions of her classics), so your mileage may vary on the soundtrack. I like Macdonald in this kind of role, where she gets to overcome the odds and challenge expectations. It’s a good place for her, and I think this is an especially good time for this story as beauty pageants all over the country are changing their criteria. I get a Whip It/Patti Cake$ vibe, too, and that’s a combination definitely worth being excited for.
Also starring Odeya Rush, Luke Benward, and Dove Cameron, Dumplin‘ hits Netflix on December 27th.
The last time Room breakout Jacob Tremblay teamed with director Mike Flanagan it was for the famously-maligned horror Before I Wake, which went through years of Hell before it actually got released by Netflix. Chances are their reunion for Doctor Sleep will find a much easier path, seeing as it’s a sequel to Stephen King’s classic, The Shining.
TMZ reports Tremblay has joined the cast of Doctor Sleep, which will star Ewan McGregor as an adult Danny Torrance. While it’s unconfirmed, there’s a better than average chance Tremblay is playing a younger version of Danny, who is gifted with a special power known as “the shining.” The sequel’s story finds Danny protecting Abra (Kyliegh Curran), who has the same gift. Rebecca Ferguson plays cult leader Rose the Hat, with Carl Lumbly, Bruce Greenwood, Alex Essoe, and Zahn McClarnon in other roles.
Here’s the synopsis from King’s novel: On highways across America, a tribe of people called the True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, the True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the steam that children with the shining produce when they are slowly tortured to death. Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel, where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant shining power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to this icon in the Stephen King canon. Doctor Sleep opens January 24th 2020.
As a longtime WWE fan who watches Paige on Smackdown Live every Tuesday night, I’ve been looking forward to this trailer for Fighting With My Family. The WWE Studios effort is different from the other knuckle-headed flicks from the brand Vince McMahon built; it’s a biopic based on Paige’s life growing up as part of a wrestling family. It’s especially poignant the timing of it considering the recent injury that put Paige on the shelf and ended her career. Fortunately, the trailer looks like it will do her story the justice it deserves.
Paige is played by rising star Florence Pugh, who is joined by Nick Frost and Lena Headey as her parents, both professional wrestlers in their own right, and Jack Lowden as her brother Zack. When Paige and Zack are recruited to tryout for the WWE, it causes a rift when only she is seen as having the talent to make the cut. Of course they also get some big time help from other WWE superstars, and it doesn’t get much bigger than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Interestingly, the film is directed by actor Stephen Merchant, most recently seen in last week’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web and Logan. He also has at least a tiny role in the film, seen during the dinner table scene. I wasn’t sure how Pugh would be in the role but she definitely has Paige’s look down, and when she warns “How about I shove your head up your ass?” it sounds exactly like something she would say.
Also starring Vince Vaughn, Fighting With My Family opens February 14th 2019.
Tributes to the late great Stan Lee continue to roll in, and undoubtedly they will continue for a long time to come. Today Stan “The Man” is honored by the house that he helped build, Marvel Entertainment, in a touching video tribute that pays homage to his life and career. Of particular interest will be the interviews with a much-younger Stan Lee, because I think we’ve grown accustomed to him as a much older man. It’s fascinating to see him when he was young, hopeful, and energetic, only to realize that he stayed that way through the end. The man was truly remarkable.
Check out that video tribute below, followed by a more remembrances. Take note of the words by Fantastic Four director Josh Trank, who feels that he was a disappointment for not doing justice to Stan’s characters.
Though you could say I let him down, Stan Lee kept in touch. Today we say goodbye to one of the greatest creative icons in history, someone who always reminded us his humanity was not a secret identity. Rest in peace, Stan. ❤ pic.twitter.com/ZreHPPMiZ3
