A writer needs to write, but what is a writer to do when they’ve run out of things to say? For Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), writing about semi-famous celebs from the early 20th-century had earned her a tiny bit of notoriety but not a lot of money, and she’s got cat food to buy and rent to pay. Instead of doing what other writers do which is ultimately decide to write about herself, Lee put a twist on her previous passion. She’d stop writing about famous literary figures and start pretending to be them, by capturing their voice in correspondence.
How in the world is this lucrative? That’s one of the most fascinating aspects of Can You Ever Forgive Me?, what amounts to a strange, darkly comic biopic of real-life writer Lee Israel. Stumbling by chance on a genuine letter of some value, Lee began forging others and selling them back to the community of collectors who cherish such authentic personal correspondence. And Lee was a master at aping the thoughts and witticisms of famously brilliant wordsmiths, including the acerbic tongue of Dorothy Parker. What’s stunning is the ease with which she’s able to pull it off. Sure, she went out and bought some vintage typewriters to get the typeface just right, and it took no small amount of brain power to conjure up clever notes that she knew could bring in big bucks, but shouldn’t there be some sort of authentication process? We’re talking about collectibles that sell in the hundreds to thousands of dollars. “Is there an authenticator for the authenticator?”, Lee asks with some snark at one point in the film, and it’s not a dumb question. The point being that the industry doesn’t really seem to care as long as people buy what they are selling. In the bigger picture, the literary community are just as criminal as Lee for selling what they know to be forgeries.
On a smaller level, there’s a fascinating story to tell about a writer who has fallen so far she’s willing to take second-hand notoriety for her writing. Lee lives in squalor and on the cusp of abject poverty, having burned every personal and professional bridge to such a degree her agent (the always-welcome Jane Curtain) has to remind her she’s got no real prospects. Choosing to drink her problems away, Lee reconnects with the roguish Jack Hock (a terrific Richard E. Grant) who becomes her drinking buddy/criminal accomplice. The script by Nicole Holofcener (originally the director before Marielle Heller took over) finds its greatest and saddest truths in this pair of boozin’ buddies, who have both tumbled so far they barely recognize themselves anymore.
And yet the one thing this film can’t do is give us a reason to like Lee Israel. This despite Melissa McCarthy, straying from the physical comedy that has defined her, doing her best to soften Lee around the edges. It’s a frumpy role that leans hard on McCarthy’s ability to make us care for brash, deplorable characters, but I couldn’t escape the feeling Lee is as self-involved in the end as when we first meet her. In fact, her big revelatory speech at the end amounts to “I don’t regret a damn thang.” Ultimately, Lee does find her own voice and the reward is this adaptation of her memoir, so all of the swindling and backstabbing she did to get here turned out to be worth it, right?
Oh, you somehow thought Clueless was too much of a classic to be remade? As if! Amy Heckerling’s Clueless is such a perfect window into the 1990s, from the cast to the fashion to the lingo, but it holds up as well today as it did back then. Its theme and characters remain universal, but Paramount has decided they need an update from GLOW writer Marquita Robinson, joined by Girls Trip writer Tracy Oliver as producer.
Deadline has the report but doesn’t have anything in details, really. Amy Heckerling’s 1995 film is a loose-knit remake of Jane Austen’s 1815 book Emma, and stars Alicia Silverstone as the singularly-named Cher, a wealthy teen socialite in Beverly Hills who can’t help matchmaking her closest friends. The film featured a ton of recognizable stars including Stacey Dash, the late Brittany Murphy, Jeremy Sisto, and some guy named Paul Rudd. It was such a success a TV series was launched the following year and lasted for three seasons. A stage musical is due to hit Broadway soon, as well.
Paramount released the original movie and they are probably just trying to make the best use of the property, but I really wish they would just create something new. Let’s face it, this new Clueless will probably feature all sorts of social media tie-ins and modern technology, so why not just make an entirely different movie and try to create another original cult classic?
On the plus side there should be 100% less Coolio in this one.
Well, it was a fun thought while it lasted. Earlier this year we learned Spike Lee was in talks to direct Sony’s Nightwatch, which would’ve been part of the same cinematic universe as their hit Venom movie. It would have been a huge move for the veteran filmmaker to helm his first superhero movie, and quite a feather in Sony’s cap following the acclaim he’s receiving for BlacKkKlansman. Sadly, it ain’t happening.
ScreenRant took a moment to ask Spike about Nightwatch, and the famously abrasive director confirmed he was no longer involved with a simple answer: “Nah.”
Oh well. Now the question is whether Nightwatch is still a thing at all. It had Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker on board to pen the script, and I suppose the search for a new director is on. Sony may decide to take a wait and see approach. While Venom was huge, they face a much steeper uphill climb with Morbius the Living Vampire. If that doesn’t work out we may see Nightwatch put on the shelf.
My hope is that it happens because Nightwatch, while a D-list Marvel character if there ever was one, has a particularly awesome origin that’s on some Looper meets Spawn shit.
Over ten years ago, Dr. Kevin Trench was attacked by the invisible Camouflage Cadre and rescued by a man called Nightwatch, who drove the Cadre back through a time portal before dying. Trench discovered his rescuer was an older version of himself. When his lover Ashley Croix’s plane was hijacked by A.I.M., Trench donned the Nightwatch’s super-powered battle-suit and confronted the hijackers, but the inexperienced Trench triggered an explosion, killing all aboard. Guilt-stricken, Trench exiled himself and the apparently indestructible battle-suit to a remote island. Croix, who had changed planes at the last minute, later married industrialist Damon Morelle and bore his son, Nolan, whose illness required frequent skin grafts. Financed by the secretive cabal Fold, Morelle initiated Project: Sharkskin to cure Nolan via a nano-technological bodysuit, destined to become Nightwatch’s battle-suit.
Unless you’re completely off social media I’m sure you’ve heard of this year’s surprise Halloween hit, the amazing 10 part series The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. Hitting the streaming giant two weeks ago the series blew up this past weekend, I suppose word started to get around, whatever it was it seemed like EVERYONE was binging the Crain family’s terrifying story. Obviously, three seconds later we all scream for season 2. No spoilers, but if you’ve seen the series you know that things were wrapped up nicely, and that family has been through more then enough…it would almost be sadistic to want to see those folks forced back into those walls. Well, the nice thing about Hollywood is that the employ the most talented writers in the world, and have no problem being as sadistic as your garden variety serial killer (I’m looking at you writers of This is Us). Season 2 is all but guaranteed at this point, that’s not the question. Nope, the story is what we all want to know, will a new family move in? Will something force the Crain’s back under that roof? At this point we don’t know but depending on how you interpret Mike Flanagan’s interview with EW it’s possible Hill House won’t even be featured which, if nothing else, will make the title slightly misleading. From the EW article:
I don’t want to speculate too much about season two until Netflix and Amblin let us know if they want one. What I will say, though, is that as far as I’ve ever been concerned with this, the story of the Crain family is told. It’s done. I think that there are all sorts of different directions we could go in, with the house or with something completely different. I love the idea of an anthology as well. But to me, I felt like the Crains have been through enough, and we left them exactly as we all wanted to remember them, those of us who worked on it.
So, no more Crain Family then? That makes sense, and given the way the series ended there’s an opening for a new family to star with the Crain’s as background or even cameo characters to keep the connective tissue. The part that worries me is the anthology bit. It works great for American Horror Story, but the central theme isn’t a place in that one. Sure Murder House is a place, but it’s not titled Murder House. Is it a big deal? No, and people much smarter then I will be coming up with it…but it just seems odd to me.
Here’s the bottom line, The Haunting of Hill House was some of the best looking, directed, acted, written horror in the last 20 years AND it was genuinely scary, unlike most critically acclaimed horror (The Witch, seriously who thought that was scary?) recently. My point is if the same people make season 2 they could call it Silly Sammy’s Spooky’s Spectacles and it would still be awesome. Time will tell but I would guess you can count on seeing season 2, I just hope that they hold it until October 2019…why release it any other time?
If the country needs saving from a foreign terrorist threat, Scottish actor Gerard Butler is our guy. Talk about outsourcing. The Olympus Has Fallen star has found himself a comfortable niche as America’s hoo-rah hero in a bunch of politically-charged action flicks, but his latest, the long-developing submarine thriller Hunter Killer, is a little bit different. It follows in the tradition of The Hunt for Red October, Crimson Tide, and others, and while it doesn’t compare favorably to those deep sea classics, Hunter Killer‘s got an old fashioned aesthetic that should please fans of Tom Clancy-esque action.
Given the circus-like atmosphere of our current foreign policy, in particular when it comes to Russia, a film like Hunter Killer has to come up with a story crazy enough to beat what we see on a daily basis. Like any good geo-political thriller, the potential stakes are World War III if everything goes to shit, and it looks like a certainty after a Russian sub explodes beneath the Arctic Circle while being shadowed by an American vessel. It isn’t long before our sub is also taken out, and the Pentagon, led by snarling Admiral Charles Donnegan (Gary Oldman, cashing it in) and even-keeled Rear Admiral John Fisk (Common, half asleep), the decision is made to send in rule breaking hunter killer Joe Glass (Butler), to investigate. He’s the classic Butler sensitive badass with a maverick streak; Glass is first introduced to us while he’s out in the wild hunting a buck (tough!!), but he refuses to shoot when he’s got the kill shot (heart of gold!!), and he’s taken aback (humble!!) when ordered to lead a crew down to check out the wreckage.
Of the many suited-up characters populating Hunter Killer, Glass is by far the most interesting although the bar is set pretty low. Most of the ship’s crew consists of anonymous sailors with few lines, other than the token combative first mate, and don’t even bother looking for a female among them. Okay, there might be one. No, you’ll have to turn to Linda Cardellini (in her 100th role this year I think) as NSA agent Jayne Norquist to get the female perspective on all this masculine war-making, but all she really has to add are stern reminders to the boys that she wields some apparent authority. Glass at least comes off like a real leader of men, a quick decision maker, and more than capable at just winging it when need be. When his investigation leads them right into another Russian sub’s trap, exposing a much broader conflict than anyone suspected, he wins over a Russian captain (Michael Nyqvist in one of his final roles) by drawing on their shared experiences beneath the sea. Foreign relations for the win!! Real-world politics are out the window, and despite the title it takes more than just a supply of nuclear torpedoes to end a conflict, although they do help.
In the works practically since the day the novel hit shelves, Hunter Killer went through a long development process that saw multiple directors come and go. Ultimately they settled on newcomer Donovan Marsh, who creates thick tension in the underwater sequences. A great deal of time and expense clearly went into recreating every detail with modern accuracy. Current subs are more wide open and less claustrophobic than the Das Boot tin cans we’re accustomed to seeing on screen, so Marsh makes up the difference by filling each scene with as many officers as possible, recreating the same tense atmosphere. Pretty much everything on the water works, and Marsh crafts some exciting submarine shootouts. What doesn’t work is when the action moves to land, where a crack team of personality-deprived marines sneak into Russia behind enemy lines. There’s nothing memorable about these sequences and we keep wishing Marsh would put us back inside one of those tin cans as soon as possible. The further Hunter Killer goes beneath the surface, the better off it is.
The Arrowverse is kicking off their fall seasons with just the right amount of excitement, political allegory, and everything else we have come to expect and love from those shows. On Supergirl, we are diving deep into the “Make America Great Again” aesthetic, as the season big baddie seems to be a bunch of “humans only” nationalists who are hell-bent on kicking all aliens out of Earth, even if it means through unconventional means. Their latest victory was a propaganda one as they were able to show that the president of the United States was in fact, an alien. On Arrow, Oliver is now serving his sentence as “Inmate 4587.” He’s finding out that life as a prisoner is way different than as the Star City vigilante. Meanwhile, even with the no vigilante’s rule, a newly hooded archer is carrying on the Green Arrow’s legacy, while the rest of Team Arrow is getting used to their new way of life. On The Flash, Barry just discovered that his daughter from the future has come back in time to spend time with him (as he’s still missing is whatever crisis is going to happen). However, a new villain has emerged: a metahuman serial killer known as Cicada. Finally, on Black Lightning, Jefferson is being forced to step down from being principal as he was missing in action during an attack on the school (even though he was there as Black Lightning).
So how did the Arrowverse go this week?
Supergirl: “Fallout”
Thanks to the revelation that President Marsdin was an alien, there is naturally some fallout (hence the title of the episode). The country is divided. In one hand, the president of the United States is an alien who has been lying about who she specifically is, and could be argued that she is part of an alien invasion. On the other, this proves the American Dream, that through hard work and determination, anyone can be the president of the United States, even an alien. Naturally, this is causing problems on both sides of the aisle. There are protests going on in front of the White House. Facing an impeachment, President Marsdin resigns. After meeting with Kara, she’s actually relieved that she no longer has to hide who she truly is, and she maintains her integrity and will not accept a pardon from the new president. It’s tearing the country apart as well, and protests turn violent, forcing Kara to intervene and tell people to stop fighting and talk to each other.
It’s not just protesting at the White House, this is affecting daily life as evidenced at the DEO. Even some soldiers are starting to adopt the human’s only mindset. Alex is forced to resolve a dispute between two soldiers and remind her troops that they are to defend everyone, humans, and aliens the same. While the DEO captured one of the Graves siblings who launched the attack on President Marsdin’s compound, however, he’s not cooperating at all. Meanwhile, Otis’ sister Mercy is working with Agent Liberty to further their plans against the aliens of the Earth. She has managed to secure Kryptonite off of the Dark Web, meaning soon enough, they will attack Supergirl.
Their attack instead is against Lex Corp. Lex Corp has the patent on the image inducing technology that helps aliens mask their true appearance in order to fit in with humans. As Mercy hacks into Lex Corps database to turn off the image inducers, Brainiac-5 is going for a pizza run for the DEO. At the wrong moment, his image inducer turns off, revealing his true form to the staff at the restaurant. The owner then attacks him with a baseball bat. Brainiac-5 was in no danger as evidenced by how easily he is able to avoid being hit by the bat, but he is somewhat taken aback by how quickly the owner turned on him, someone he considered to be friendly. Lucky for him, Catco reporter Nia steps in and yells at the pizza owner for attacking someone.
When Nia returns to Catco, she asks James to write an editorial for Catco to speak up for alien rights and not be bullied. James of course, has shareholders and maintains that Catco’s job is to report the news in situations like these, and not editorialize content. However, she and James later notice a few writers picking on an alien reporter. Nia tells James about her being a transgender and she is all too familiar with being attacked for being who she is, and doesn’t like the same thing done towards aliens. James, later on, decides to write the editorial.
While Lena Luthor is able to stop Mercy’s hack, that doesn’t mean that Marcy isn’t done trying to stop the image inducers. Instead, she launches an attack on L Corp’s headquarters. Lucky for Lena, Kara happens to be there at the same time. Of course, Kara wants to maintain the lie that she isn’t Supergirl to her friend, so she tries to fend off the attackers is the strangest ways possible, and always under the radar. Eventually, Lena is going to have to realize who Kara is, or else she comes across as extremely naïve, and they’ve built her up to be smarter than that. Mercy confronts Lena, and the two fight each other for control of an experimental suit that could be used to fight aliens. It’s a pretty even fight, but it ends when Kara manages to sneak away and return as “Supergirl” and stop Mercy.
All is not good by the end of the episode though. Turns out the anti-alien sentiment has penetrated the DEO and the sympathetic solder has allowed the Graves to escape from their cell. J’onn while looking for his missing friend (who Agent Liberty killed last week) is not having any luck finding her and he manages to find himself at a Trump-style town hall where Agent Liberty is riving up the masses. Yeah, they’re going to have a big problem with him.
Arrow: “The Longbow Hunters”
The episode opens with Oliver after spending some time in solitary confinement. After all, he did deliver one hell of a beating to an inmate last week to show that even though he’s trying to be peaceful, he’ll still mess you up. After all, he is the Green Arrow. After released from solitary, he continues his daily routine. All seems to be normal, except of court he has a hardass guard who continues to mention him by his number sarcastically, and of course, there’s still the trio of criminals who he had locked up.
Out the outside, Felicity has learned that Diaz has hired the Longbow Hunters, who are carrying out some thefts in his name. Fans of the comic book know the Longbow Hunters are longtime Green Arrow enemies, going all the way back to the 80’s, so fans have been eagerly anticipating to see them on the small screen. They arrive and quickly show how badass they could be. They break into an ARGUS facility to get some sort of “super battery,” that if weaponized could cause some serious damage. Diggle, being an ARGUS member, receives the directive that the priority is to recover the weapon, not take down the Longbow Hunters. Knowing ARGUS, they probably could eventually be used as a part of a new Suicide Squad
somewhere down the line.
Felicity’s priority, on the other hand, is stopping Diaz. This puts her at odds with Diggle. He first refuses her help, so she and Curtis go behind his back to try and solve this themselves. After they discover a possible headquarters for the Longbow Hunters, they investigate, only to impede of ARGUS investigation, once again angering Diggle. The two have a spirited debate later on about being on the wrong side of things in this fight.
Meanwhile, Oliver needs to figure out where Diaz is so he can try to keep Felicity safe. He asks the trio of prisoners where Diaz is located, which falls on deaf ears. Lucky for them, the same prison guard that has a big problem with Oliver has also been giving them a hard time. They want Oliver to play prison politics, he has to do them a favor and they will do one right back for him. However, the favor they want is for Oliver to “take out” the prison guard. Although Oliver has killed in the past, it was always in the name of justice, not killing just to kill, or worse, as part of a criminal arrangement. What’s Oliver to do? He needs to know where Diaz is and keep his family safe. Is this a line he’s ready to cross? He tries to find a way around this. He even attempts to warn the guard, who simply doesn’t care. Oliver comes up with a new plan to “take out” the guard, which won’t involve killing him. He purposefully starts a confrontation with the guard and then takes a shank given to him and stabs himself, but makes it look like the guard did it. The guard is quickly arrested by other guards, giving the trio the room they wanted. Maybe they will play ball and help Oliver out. However, he’s going to have to heal first.
Elsewhere, Dinah has discovered that Laurel Lance has ditched her security detachment. Although she is the villainess from Earth-2 pretending to be the honorable Laurel Lance from Earth-1, she (and Dinah) have to keep up the facade. Laurel, also an enemy of Diaz, has been trying to track down one of the Longbow Hunters, Silencer. Silencer has a unique ability. She has technology that renders sound inert, meaning Laurel’s sonic scream isn’t going to do much against her. Dinah manages to track down Laurel just as she is about to face off against Silencer. The fight scene is pretty awesome as it’s in complete silence, thanks to Silencer’s noise-canceling technology. It’s only after Dinah gets involved and uses her sonic scream abilities as well in concert with Laurel that they are able to cancel out Silencer’s field and defeat her.
Although they have a spat about their different missions, Felicity and Diggle have a heart to heart about carrying on Oliver’s mission. Diggle later learns about the location of the Longbow Hunters on a train with the stolen technology. He leads an ARGUS team against them. However, just about all of his team is no match for them. Diggle manages to fend off Kodiak, who uses a giant shield while fighting. Diggle then runs into Diaz on the train and those two engage in a fight as well. Diggle manages to stab Diaz in the chest, but he is forced to make the decision of either getting the technology, or stopping Diaz. Diggle decided on his job, not his emotion, which is the final straw for Felicity. This forces Felicity to stop working with ARGUS and instead team up with someone who will focus on stopping Diaz, the same FBI agent who sent Oliver to prison.
Flash-forward wise, we spend that time with gown up William and older Roy on Lian-Yu. William reveals that he’s gay amidst a conversation, so that’s something that will be revisited as William grows up in our current timeline. Roy tries to get William just leave everything behind, but a determined William wants to know why his device started beeping and telling him to come to the island. Roy then goes to a crate and opens it up to reveal Oliver’s bow and arrows. He then tells William that they are going to need to go to Star City.
Legends of Tomorrow: “The Virgin Gary”
Legends of Tomorrow continues to be the most tongue-in-cheek show within the Arrowverse. Despite the ridiculous premise, the show’s success is due to its sense of humor, and its willingness to be self-referential, and just to go wherever the hell it wants to without being bound by the other shows. The season premiere centering on preventing a massacre at Woodstock is no different.
The episode begins with the Legends doing their last bit of cleanup for all the time aberrations they caused. This one was simple, monitor the Beatles’ “British Invasion” by stopping a time displaces Paul Revere and bring him back to 1776. With that being the last of the time aberrations, they seemed to be free and clear, something that’s bumming Nate and Mick out. With John Constantine warning them about demons coming into the timeline after they allowed Mallus to come from his prison, they were expecting more demons than the dragon head he showed them in the season finale. With a lack of demons, and the time aberrations slowing down, things are being stale.
The Legends get summoned to DC for a surprise party in their honor by the Time Bureau. Sara and Ava spend some quality time together only to be interrupted by John Constantine reminding them that monsters are out there, which she says hasn’t happened. To help with their boredom, Nate and Mick proceed to “rob” a house in DC. Turns out the house is Nate’s parents, and Nate just wanted to steal some of his dad’s expensive alcohol. However, Nate’s parents were there during and not on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. Nate doesn’t have a strong relationship with his father who frowns on his career and life choices. As he and his father are arguing the topic of the “Woodstock Massacre” comes up. Nate realizes that something must be wrong as history doesn’t recall the event as such.
Each of the Legends then goes to 1969 to Woodstock. Ray and Zari think that Nora Dahrk may be committing the murders, and Ray let her escape the Time Bureau because of his friendship with her. Sara wants to see what monsters Constantine was talking about, and Mick and Rory investigate whatever massacre has happened. They have a very funny “Brady Bunch” styled montage of them walking around at the music festival and then they proceed to investigate. Turns out, something is afoul at Woodstock, and comes from the strangest of places. Turns out a unicorn has slipped into 1969. Of course, everyone is infatuated with this mythological animal of beauty. But this being Legends of Tomorrow, things aren’t as they seem. The unicorn’s favorite thing to do is spear people with its horn and then proceed to eat their hearts. This means that this season on Legend of Tomorrow, we’re probably looking at monsters that don’t traditionally appear to us as monsters (as evidenced by next week’s preview of an evil witch in the form of a nice old lady), will be the true threats. The Legends try to stop the unicorn, but it then squirts out some rainbow good at them which proves to be a powerful hallucinogen, causing them to spend a few minutes tripping out of their minds. But since, it’s Woodstock, everyone’s already doing drugs and tripping, so that’s no big deal there.
Sara returns to 1969 with John Constantine for assistance. After all, he is a warlock and has experience in this sort of thing. He tells her that the unicorn uses its good to cause people to hallucinate, and then proceeds to kill them an eat their hearts. In order to counteract it, there are a few things they will need. They get the DNA of Jerry Garcia and a few other things. The last key ingredient they need is a virgin, not a large quantity of them at Woodstock, so they recruit Gary. With Gary (who insists he’s not a virgin after doing “something” with the bisexual Constantine, but he really still is one) used as bait, they lure the unicorn while Constantine uses a spell to send the unicorn back to hell. The Legends once again save the day!
As they return to 2018, Sara realizes that she needs to continue her mission with the Legends and she and Ava will have to wait. Nate tries to make amends with his father over a beer. Constantine refuses to join the Legends, but is then attacked by an unseen entity which tells him “I’m coming for you Johnny”
The Flash: “The Death of Vibe”
The episode opens in Nora’s future as she is walking through the “Flash Museum” as a young girl. While in the museum, she is walking through the “Hall of Villains.” In the present day, she is speaking to Team Flash telling them that although her father has faced a plethora of villains, the scariest on in her opinion was Cicada because he was never caught. She name drops all the DC CW superheroes and says that Supergirl, the Green Arrow, the Legends, and even the League tried to face him and he was never brought to justice. With this being a new timeline than the one she is from, this means that Barry and company will have their work cut out for them.
Nora does have an idea of how to stop Cicada though, something Team Flash didn’t do in her timeline, bring in a Wells for help. Nora tries to bring in Herr Wells (from the Council of Wells) for help. He says that he is too busy to help, but instead, he recommends another Wells, a French detective named “Sherloque Wells.” This is just yet another excuse for actor Tom Cavanagh to once again chomp on the scenery as another outlandish version of his Wells character. Despite doing it countless time, and each subsequent time more ridiculous, it never gets old. Sherloque charges for his services, which Barry agrees as long as they can stop him. Unfortunately, it proves to be the wrong person. They catch a person named David Hersh. Forensic evident exonerates him and Sherloque is forced to admit he cheated in trying to solve the case. He says he has stopped Cicada 36 times, and each time it was David Hersh, so he just thought it was Hersh on Earth-1. This causes Nora to feel even more guilt for messing up the timeline, something Iris and Barry notice.
After a humiliating viral robbery thwarting is captured on social media, Ralph wants to do something to remove that from his mind. He continues to help Caitlin discover the mystery surrounding her father’s supposed death. She confronts her mother, who tells her not to go down this rabbit hole. However, Caitlin proceeds anyway. After breaking into her mother’s facility, she discovers a suicide note her father left, meaning he ended up taking his own life. While this provides Caitlin with some closure. However that is short lived as she found a cryptic message embedded in the note telling her to find him and save him, meaning he’s still alive.
Meanwhile, the real Cicada eyes his next target to kill: Cisco. As he pours through newspaper clippings of Vibe saving the day, he realizes that Joe West is usually on the scene of the crime in the pictures. Cicada realizes that Joe must know who the real Cisco is. As a result, he pays Joe a visit. After he tied Jo up and proceeds to torture him with his dagger’s energy, Cecile wakes up. Luckily for us, her mind-reading powers aren’t gone yet and Joe is able to communicate with her. She presses the emergency button on her phone to let Team Flash know they have a problem. Cisco is the first on the scene, which is just who Cicada was looking for. He jumps in to fight Cisco and they go through one of his breaches, landing is a forest. Because Team Flash still doesn’t have all their resources (thanks to Nora punching the satellite last season), they have no idea where Cisco could be. Sherloque uses deductive logic to help Team Flash figure out which forest Cisco is in and Barry races there to fight. Of course, proximity to Cicada causes Barry to lose his powers and he has to engage in a regular fist fight with him, which causes Barry to start losing. Nora wants to jump into the fight and help right her wrongs, but instead relies on a pep talk Barry gave her about thinking things through. She then comes with a plan. She speeds just out of proximity to him so her powers are still active and throws a bolt of lightning at him. The explosion is also close to Cisco, and Team Flash cannot find him afterward, meaning that he probably died. However, Cisco comes from another breach, meaning he lived. However, Team Flash would like to keep the ruse of his death to throw off Cicada. The whole world now thinks Vibe is dead.
Joe, later on, reveals that he thinks Cicada is a father as evidenced by him talking about family while torturing him. We see Cicada at a hospital for his child in a coma. His daughter’s doctor seems to know who he really is and pleads him to stop, which falls on deaf ears. This could help Team Flash track down who he really is though. Later on, Nora and Sherloque have a quick chat as he’s setting up to stay in the loft (and she with Barry and Iris), and he uses his investigative techniques to question why she really came to the past. He tells her it’s because she wanted to be a hero, or perhaps it’s something else. By both of their faces when she walks away, we know it’s something else.
Black Lightning: “The Book of Consequences: Chapter Three: Master Lowry”
Focusing on the Green Light children (a parable for “crack babies”), the episode begins with one of them overdosing on the drug in a hospital at the same time her powers are starting to kick in. the young lady is confused, scared, and of course, extremely dangerous. She fights off the orderlies and even the police (who surprisingly have their tasers drawn instead of their regular guns), until Black Lightning steps in. he uses de-escalation techniques to calm her down until he is able to then zap her unconscious so that she can be safely apprehended. See cops in real life, that’s what you can do.
The next day Jefferson and Gambi are looking at security footage of the attack on the high school by Tobias, Syonide, and Khalil. Unfortunately, they don’t have any footage as the camera go out as the attack begins. Jefferson realizes that he needs to find Khalil is he’s going to take Tobias down. Next, he attends Freeland High School for his first day as a teacher (instead of as principal), and quickly realizes that changes are coming, and not for the better. As he walks in, he sees metal detectors being installed, something he strongly opposed when he ran things. He then has his first meeting with the new principal, Major Lowery (hence the title “Mastery Lowery”), who is rather dickish in his approach to both the students and towards Jefferson. It’ll be interesting to see what happens between the two of them as Lowery starts to tear apart something Jefferson has built with his blood, sweat, and tears.
Jennifer, who still can’t control her powers has been on “house arrest” and not able to go to school yet. The only “freedom” she has is to be able to go on a run. When she is out running, a woman addresses her by name and strikes up a conversation. As she introduces herself as Perenna and shakes Jennifer’s hand, the two are transported somewhere else. This starts freaking Jennifer out, so Perenna transports them back to where they were. Jennifer confronts her parents who reveal that Perenna is a metahuman therapist recommended by Gambi. At first, Jennifer doesn’t want to work any of this out and is upset with her parents. Eventually, Jennifer realizes that Perenna might be able to help her deal with things and control her powers.
Henderson comes to the crime scene of the dirty copy Tobias killed, finding a burnt-up vehicle and all evidence removed. He realizes that the copy was probably dirty, and there are only a few people in Freeland that could have torched the car professionally. He shares the information with Jefferson as he knows Black Lightning can help. However, since Jefferson kept his vigilante activities a secret, all’s not well with the two of them.
Anissa meets up with Grace. Given their last confrontation when she was out at a bar, she felt is was necessary to talk with the girl she was attracted to before. As the two talk, Anissa realizes that she’s still very attracted to Grace, despite dating the pop singer from last week. Anissa also has other stuff to do. The church still needs help to sue the federal government and the money she stole from the drug dealers last week isn’t enough. She recruits Gambi to be her back up. Although he opposes her doing this at such a high-profile target (seemingly the mob), she doesn’t want her to get hurt. She is able to beat them all and steal their money to give to the church. However, this may come back to bite her.
While investigating the arson, Jefferson learns that Khalil is the one who hired him on behalf of Tobias. This causes Jefferson to visit Khalil’s mother to try and find a way to reach him. Khalil is going through his own problems as Tobias is having him be a more ruthless enforcer to some of his dealers. While shaking them down, one mocks Khalil, who he accidentally kills in his rage. He realizes he’s going down a dark path. Jefferson, later on, confronts Khalil and tries to reason with him with no such luck, or so he thinks. Later on, Henderson reveals to Jefferson that he received a tip (probably Khalil) and have arrested Tobias.
Sometimes it’s all a matter of timing. A couple of years ago True Blood and Big Little Lies star Alexander Skarsgard swung through the trees in The Legend of Tarzan in an attempt to launch him into a blockbuster franchise. It didn’t work, but now he’s getting another shot by joining Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong crossover movie.
Skarsgard will join the previously cast Millie Bobby Brown, Brian Tyree Henry, and Julian Dennison in Godzilla vs. Kong, a sequel to next year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters and part of Legendary’s monster cinematic universe. While we don’t know the plot we can assume Skarsgard will somehow be in the middle of a fight between the Godzilla introduced in 2014’s movie, and the Kong first seen in Kong: Skull Island. He’s expected to play someone who is part of a military unit.
Earlier this year Skarsgard earned an Emmy and Golden Globe for his role in HBO’s Big Little Lies. He also has TV miniseries The Little Drummer Girl from Park Chan-Wook, and was recently seen in Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark.
Directed by Adam Wingard, Godzilla vs. Kong opens May 20th 2020. [Variety]
Been wondering what would be next for Mad Max: Fury Road director, George Miller? Maybe one of those Fury Road sequels or the oft-talked about Furiosa prequel with Charlize Theron? What about that Man of Steel film he was eyeing? Nah, it’s none of those. It’s a romance titled Three Thousand Years of Longing, and it’s going to star Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton. I’ll take it.
Deadline reports Miller will write and direct Three Thousand Years of Longing, a fantasy romance that will star Elba and Swinton. Do we really need to know anything else? No? Good, because there aren’t any plot details, anyway. Well, a genie is apparently involved somehow.
The plan is for filming to begin early next year, and already this has to count as a highly anticipated film. Let’s hope more details emerge soon.
Politics wasn’t something I cared about much as a kid, but there were two politicians who still managed to stick with me. The first was Ronald Reagan, the most visible President the country had ever seen. He was always all over the TV. And the second was Gary Hart, a charismatic figure who had the country in the palm of his hand. I remember him because he was this larger than figure, and then the next day he was just gone. I didn’t understand it at the time but he was victim to the changing landscape of news media and the way politics is covered. If you want an idea of how our current 24-hour news cycle began, Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner is a good place to start.
Hugh Jackman stars as Gary Hart, the Democratic frontrunner for the 1988 U.S. Presidential election. Reitman’s film picks up mere days before the Donna Rice scandal that would rock Hart’s campaign, and follows his efforts to understand a tabloid media that nobody had ever dealt with before. Of course, since there has never been a President Gary Hart you probably know how this story ends, and Reitman takes a fascinating look at the forces which drive this political giant into the shadows.
Also starring J.K. Simmons, Vera Farmiga, Alfred Molina, Ari Graynor, Kaitlyn Dever, Bill Burr, Sara Paxston, Kevin Pollak, and Mamoudou Athie, The Front Runner opens November 6th. Be sure to watch out for my interview with Jason Reitman and the film’s screenwriters.
A Star is Born might not be the only Oscar contender about a singing sensation. There has been a ton of buzz surrounding Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, an ambitious film starring Natalie Portman as a pop singer who experiences a breakdown as she copes with a failing career.
As you’d expect, the trailer focuses heavily on Portman, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Corbet’s film is basically divided up in halves, with Raffey Cassidy playing a younger version of her character, Celeste, as she survives a violent school shooting. Stacy Martin plays Celeste’s sister who helps her overcome that traumatic event, and use it to become an overnight sensation. So we’re talking mass shootings and the dark side of fame that Corbet is looking to explore here. Ambitious stuff, indeed.
Here’s the synopsis: VOX LUX begins in 1999 when teenage sisters Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) and Eleanor (Stacy Martin) survive a seismic, violent tragedy. The sisters compose and perform a song about their experience, making something lovely and cathartic out of catastrophe — while also catapulting Celeste to stardom. By 2017, the now 31-year-old Celeste (Natalie Portman) is mother to a teenage daughter of her own and struggling to navigate a career fraught with scandals when another act of terrifying violence demands her attention.
Also starring Jennifer Ehle and Willem Dafoe, Vox Lux opens December 7th.
