Review: ‘American Dresser’, An Unfulfilling Trip Across The States With Tom Berenger

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September 21, 2018

American Dresser tells
the story of John Moore (Tom Berenger), a recent widower with two grown daughters.
John has turned to the bottle ever since his wife, Sandra (Gina Gershon) died of cancer. His family is
falling apart, and his drinking is putting a strain on his relationship with his
two daughters. One day John finds a letter in his wife’s belongings that leads
him to impulsively embark on a cross country road trip to the pacific northwest
on his motorcycle, a trip that him and his wife had planned before she became
ill. John’s longtime friend Charlie (Keith David) is very sick and may have to
have his leg amputated. Charlie convinces John to let him tag along for the journey
– as it may be the last chance he has for the ride of a lifetime – and the two
set off. Before long, Jon and Charlie find themselves in a precarious situation when
John’s bike breaks down. A young hotshot biker named Willie (writer/director
Carmine Cangialosi), who seems to be running from something, comes to their aid
and saves the day. John allows Willie to join the trip, much to Charlie’s
dismay. The three of them continue along the path to the pacific northwest and all
the adventures that lay in their way.

American Dresser
never establishes any significant character development. There are some brief
moments towards the beginning of the film where you can see the anguish John is
experiencing and how his wife’s death is fracturing his relationship with his
daughters. At his wife’s funeral he can’t even bring himself to comfort his
daughter who is falling apart – not being able to find the words to say to help
ease her pain. He wants to be there for her, but just doesn’t know how anymore.
One helpless gaze tells a thousand words about the chasm that exists between
the two of them.

Outside of some scattered brief moments where Charlie
discusses his injury and John relives their moments in the war, American Dresser lacks
at providing any true depth to the characters. John, Charlie, and Willie just go
from stop to stop on their road trip, meeting different people, many absurd,
along the way. There are some dramatic moments and issues the three characters
find themselves in during their trip, but without really connecting with the
characters, it is hard to truly care about the problems that plague them. The
acting leaves a lot to be desired as well. A shaky plot, lack of true care for
any of the characters, and subpar acting is not a recipe for success – you’d be
better off avoiding this trip.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Jamie Foxx And Joseph Gordon-Levitt Starring In Netflix Sci-Fi Film From ‘Catfish’ Directors

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John Nolan

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September 21, 2018

Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman have come a long way since they made “catfishing” part of the lexicon with their breakout film, Catfish. They went on to turn that disturbing doc into a long-running TV series, then directed a pair of Paranormal Activity films, and thrillers Nerve and Viral. But their biggest score is yet to come, as their next film will include the powerhouse duo of Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Joost and Schulman will direct Foxx and Gordon-Levitt in an untitled sci-fi film for Netflix, according to Collider. Here’s how the site describes the plot…

[The untitled film] concerns a drug epidemic that gives people a range of superpowers. The protagonist is believed to be a teenage actress of color who finds herself dealing the drug to help care for her family. Sources say Foxx will play a family man who has suffered a great loss and is desperate to trace the drug’s supply line and find its designer, while Gordon-Levitt will play a beat cop who takes law enforcement matters into his own hands.

Sounds pretty badass and a departure for the directing duo whose films usually have a strong social media angle. They’ll be working from a script by Mattson Tomlin whose work I’m totally unfamiliar with, but this premise holds a ton of potential, especially with that casting. I feel like Foxx could use a hit, even though he was a big part of last year’s Baby Driver. I can’t erase how terrible he was in Sleepless, a bad movie he made a little bit worse. We haven’t seen much from Gordon-Levitt since 2016’s Snowden, unless you watched him in the Amazon series Comrade Detective.

‘Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween’ Trailer Promises Deadly Tricks And Treats

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John Nolan

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September 21, 2018

No no, don’t be confused. They may look a lot alike and one even stars Jack Black, but The House with a Clock in its Walls and Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween are not the same. Black, who was a standout as author R.L. Stine in the first movie, isn’t returning for the sequel but based on all of the previous trailers and this new one, he won’t be missed.

The just-scary-enough-for-kids franchise is based on Stine’s bestselling series of spooky novels, and once again finds many of the author’s creatures leaping into the real world and terrorizing a neighborhood during Halloween. Leading the pack of young stars is Jeremy Ray Taylor, who should find this level of horror a breeze after his role in last year’s adaptation of It.

Here’s the synopsis: In the small town of Wardenclyffe on Halloween Night, two boys named Sonny and Sam find a manuscript in an abandoned house that was previously owned by R. L. Stine called “Haunted Halloween.” When they open it, they release Slappy who plans to create the Halloween Apocalypse with the help of his Halloween monster allies. Now, Sonny and Sam, alongside Sonny’s sister, Sarah, must work to thwart Slappy’s plot before all is lost.

Directed by Ari Sandel (The Duff) with Madison Iseman, Caleel Harris, Avery Lee Jones, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Chris Parnell co-starring, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween opens October 12th.

DC Readers: Attend A Free Advance Screening Of ‘Smallfoot’

By

John Nolan

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September 21, 2018

We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free early screening of Warner Bros.’ new animated film, Smallfoot. Channing Tatum, James Corden, Zendaya, Common, LeBron James, Gina Rodriguez, and Danny DeVito all lend their voices to this twist on the Bigfoot legend!

SYNOPSIS: An animated adventure for all ages, with original music and an all-star cast, “Smallfoot” turns the Bigfoot legend upside down when a bright young Yeti (Channing Tatum) finds something he thought didn’t exist—a human. News of this “smallfoot” (James Corden) throws the simple Yeti community into an uproar over what else might be out there in the big world beyond their snowy village, in an all new story about friendship, courage and the joy of discovery.

This screening takes place on Monday, September 24th at 7:00pm at AMC Mazza Gallerie. If you’d like to attend, simply download an Admit-Two pass at the Warner Bros. ticketing site here. Please remember that all screenings are first come first served and you’ll need to arrive early to ensure receiving a seat. Enjoy the show!

Smallfoot opens in theaters on September 28th.

Final Trailer And Posters For Jacques Audiard’s Western ‘The Sisters Brothers’

By

John Nolan

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September 21, 2018

At 66 years of age, French director Jacques Audiard is better now than ever in his career, and the arrival of his latest film, western The Sisters Brothers, was one of the biggest stories at the Venice Film Festival. Not only does it mark his English-language debut, but the cast is his starriest yet with Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Riz Ahmed. With the film hitting select theaters today, a new trailer arrives that only solidifies this is a must-see this awards season.

In a year of unusual westerns, The Sisters Brothers starts off looking fairly straight forward, but grows in weirdness along the way. Backed by a somber tune you can imagine some dusty cowpoke singing by the fire, the film centers on Eli and Charlie Sisters, played by Reilly and Phoenix, brothers and hired guns hired to kill a wealthy prospector who stole from their boss. It’s their last job, so how do you think it goes?

While we do see some bickering and the vast difference in life goals between the brothers, it’s clear there’s more to the story that is being shielded from the audience. This is one of my most anticipated movies of the year so that’s just fine with me.

Here’s the synopsis: It is 1851, and Charlie and Eli Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly) are both brothers and assassins, boys grown to men in a savage and hostile world. They have blood on their hands: that of criminals, that of innocents…and they know no state of existence other than being gunmen. The older of the two, introspective Eli (Reilly) rides hard with his younger sibling yet dares to dream of a normal life. The younger of the two, hard-drinking Charlie (Phoenix) has taken charge with gusto as lead man on the duo’s assignments. Each increasingly questions, and quibbles with, the other’s methods. The Sisters brothers find themselves on a journey through the Northwest, bringing them to the mountains of Oregon, a dangerous brothel in the small town of Mayfield, and eventually, the Gold Rush land of California – a journey that will test the deadly family ties that bind. But, can it also be the path to rediscovering what remains of their humanity?

The Sisters Brothers opens today in select theaters, expanding into other areas (including DC) on September 28th.

‘The New Romantic’ Trailer: Jessica Barden Leads A Rom-Com Full Of Today’s Top Young Stars

By

John Nolan

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September 21, 2018

It’s been a great year for youthful romantic comedies already this year (if you haven’t watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before do yourself a favor and do it now), and there’s still lot of time left for it to get better. One that has had a lot of people buzzing since it debuted at SXSW is The New Romantic, which features some of the young stars of Riverdale, Jane the Virgin, and more, but is led by rising star Jessica Barden, who I’ll freely admit is my reason for interest.

Barden is probably best known for her role on dark comedy series The End of the F***ing World, but she’s been a favorite of mine since her small roles in The Lobster and Far from the Madding Crowd. The New Romantic marks the directorial debut by Carly Stone, and the story it tells is a familiar one, but with a modern edge. Barden plays a college sex columnist with a boring love life, who decides to flip the paradigm and date an older man. The film co-stars Riverdale‘s Camila Mendes and Hayley Law, Brett Dier of Jane the Virgin, and Avan Jogia of Twisted.

The New Romantic hits theaters on November 9th and VOD four days later.

Review: ‘The Song Of Sway Lake'” Starring Rory Culkin And Robert Sheehan

By

John Nolan

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September 21, 2018

Song of Sway Lake follows Ollie (Culkin), a loner and music collector; and his Russian, vagabond of a friend, Nikolai (Sheehan) as they take one last trip to Ollie’s family’s lake to steal a valuable record that he believes his father, who recently committed suicide, would want him to have.

One of the things that I can say that I loved about the movie was its imagery. I enjoyed the intercutting of flashbacks into moments that were happening in realtime in the movie, it gave it a kind of fever dream-esque feel to it.

I did feel like when it came to the romantic relationship between Ollie and Isadora (McNally) that the movie faltered a bit. I can understand a “love at first sight” relationship, however, at some point there needs to be some sort of grounding conversation or situation that serves as a basis for the relationship that let’s us know what they’re feeling is more than just surface level attraction; with this movie I felt like it came a little too late in the story. I found myself waiting a little too long to understand why it is that these two characters had the feelings that they did for one another.

I do think that when it came to the other relationships in the movie between mother, son, and grandson that the movie fared a lot better. Watching the strained relationship dynamic between Ollie and his grandmother, Charlie (Peil), play out was at times a bit hard to watch because of how clear it is that she’s essentially letting the same problems that plagued her and her son’s relationship (which is one of the factors that we can assume led to his suicide) grab a hold of and affect her relationship with Ollie and there seems to be no remorse. I thought that Mary Beth did a great job playing this hardened and emotionless character.

Because this movie is on the more subtle side I can understand the lack of furor to the overall movie. However, near the end of the movie, the story itself does take on a livelier feel which actually led to me wishing that they had sprinkled just a little bit more of that liveliness throughout the entire movie because it does feel as if the movie is just existing up until those last moments where I felt more of a pulse. If you are a fan of the quiet, indie drama that is more focused on its characters than narrative, then this is probably the movie for you.

Rating: 3 out of 5

‘Birds Of Prey’ Targets Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Sofia Boutella, And More For DC’s All-Girl Teamup Film

By

John Nolan

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September 21, 2018

The next big film to take flight in the DCEU is the all-girl gang teamup, Birds of Prey, which should get started next January. So far the only confirmed casting is Margot Robbie, returning as Suicide Squad breakout Harley Quinn, but now an impressive group of actresses are being considered to join her in the roles of Black Canary, Renee Montoya, Cassandra Cain, and Huntress.

In the mix to play Dinah Lance aka Black Canary are Belle and Beyond the Lights star Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Also up for it are Hidden Figures star and R&B artist Janelle Monae, and Jurnee Smollett-Bell of The Great Debaters. I like the idea of reimagining the character as a black woman, and this is a pretty good trio of contenders deserving of the part.

Up for Helena Bertinelli aka Huntress are a few blockbuster stalwarts; 10 Cloverfield Lane‘s Mary Elizabeth Winstead, The Mummy‘s Sofia Boutella, The Wolf of Wall Street‘s Cristin Milioti, and Margaret Qualley of The Nice Guys. I feel like Boutella always has a leg up when it comes to action-heavy character roles, but Warner Bros. may want to go with a less established actress and build a new star.

Justina Machado of Netflix’s highly-praised One Day at a Time remake is up for the role of Gotham City police detective Renee Montoya. Roberta Colindrez, of Amazon’s short-lived I Love Dick, is also considered in the mix.

Finally, the role of Cassandra Cain is being reimagined as a 12-year-old girl, and an Asian actress is what the studio has in mind for it.

The team will come together to face Batman villain Black Mask, and that’s another role yet to be filled. Don’t expect to see the Dark Knight himself make an appearance, however. For one thing, we still don’t know what’s up with Ben Affleck, but it’s probably a good idea to keep Birds of Prey‘s focus on the ladies. [Deadline, THR, TheWrap]

Michael B. Jordan To Play John Clark In Tom Clancy’s ‘Without Remorse’ And ‘Rainbow Six’

By

John Nolan

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September 20, 2018

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan character has had a long, up-and-down life on the big screen, but seems to be doing pretty well right now in Amazon’s new series. Apparently folks really dig John Krasinski in the role, and that franchise will likely stay on the small screen for a while. Clancy’s written a ton of books with a number of popular characters that Hollywood is dying to put in movies, and now we know one of them is going to be played by Michael B. Jordan. Jack Ryan who?

Jordan will play popular Clancy character John Clark in two adaptations, Without Remorse and Rainbow Six, the latter will be familiar to fans of the best-selling video games. This will be an attempt to launch a brand new Clancy franchise with Jordan as the centerpiece. Clark is basically the polar opposite of Jack Ryan. He’s the action hero guy; an ex-Navy Seal turned CIA operative who is usually the guy who gets thrown into the frey while Ryan sits at his desk. He’s appeared in 17 Clancy novels and was primarily seen as a supporting character, but eventually began taking on a primary role. Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber have portrayed Clark on the big screen already.

Back in 2012 Paramount began development on a pair of Clancy movies. One became Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit with Chris Pine, and the other was supposed to be Without Remorse. At the time Tom Hardy was in talks to play Clark, but everything fell through when Shadow Recruit failed.

So while Jordan getting his own franchise is great news, knowing Akiva Goldsman will be in charge of it is like being doused in cold water. Goldsman’s best days as a creative force are long behind him. His award-winning screenplay for A Beautiful Mind was in 2001, and ever since he’s mostly wrote or produced crap. Paramount loves him, though, and put him in charge of their Transformers franchise right from the beginning. If you saw his directorial debut Winter’s Tale you’d never think that guy would work again it’s so awful. Fortunately, Jordan is also producing and I think past experience tells us he will take a very active hand creatively.

Without Remorse will be where everything begins, and the next step is to find a writer and director for it. The combination of Jordan and the popular Clancy universe is going to be very hard for a filmmaker to pass up, so don’t expect a long wait. [Variety]

‘Life Itself’ Is Getting Sh*t On By Critics, And Dan Fogelman Is Pissed About It

By

John Nolan

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September 20, 2018

Any time you invest a lot of yourself into something creative and put it out there to the masses, it really hurts when the audience thinks it fucking sucks. The only thing you can do is grow a thick skin and let it bounce off, because criticism isn’t going to go away, it’s just a part of life. You’d think people in the movie and TV industry would be used to it, but that’s not always true. Dan Fogelman may have a hit show in NBC’s This is Us, a show I’m sure takes its share of heat each week, but the reviews for his new movie are what have him fuming, and he wants the world to know how pissed he is.

See, Life Itself is getting hammered by critics. Right now it sits at just 12% among Rotten Tomatoes critics and fluctuating. It was 9% just 10 minutes ago, I swear. And any time you have a movie this universally reviled, critics like to really flex their muscles, max out on the amount of shit they can dump on it. Of the quotes listed on the front page that made me chuckle, USA Today’s Brian Truitt scores with “A stuffed turkey that wastes most of its noteworthy ingredients…”. And National Post’s Chris Knight nails it with “Never trust a movie that uses the term “unreliable narrator” more than six times.” Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers was clearly not a fan, asking “How do you rate a cinematic black hole that doesn’t deserve a single star? Do you simply give it five eyerolls?”

Another guy on the front page that I’ve learned to really trust is Travis Hopson of Punchdrunkcritics.com, who says “Life itself may be unpredictable yet sadly Life Itself is anything but.”

I like that guy.

Anyway, in an interview with TooFab, Fogelman blames white male critics for the bad reviews and the total destruction of film criticism as we know. I blame white men for a lot of shit, too, but this seems excessive. Here’s what Fogelman had to say…

“I think that something is inherently a little bit broken in our film criticism right now. I also think it’s somewhat broken in our television criticism, I think that the people with the widest reach are getting increasingly cynical and vitriolic and I think there are a couple of genres and a couple of ideas that they [attack, which] doesn’t speak to not just a mainstream audience, but also a sophisticated audience.”

“I think a couple of the early reviews that have come out about this movie [‘Life Itself’] feel so out of left field to everybody who’s a part of this movie and to people who have been screening this film for the better part of a year now to both fancy filmmakers, critics, and audiences. There’s a disconnect between something that is happening between our primarily white male critics who don’t like anything that has any emotion.”

To be fair, there’s been a lot of talk recently about white male film critics reviewing movies they have zero cultural connection to. This subject reared its ugly head with Ava DuVernay’s panned A Wrinkle in Time, and we’ve seen Rotten Tomatoes try to correct course by flooding their ranks with every critic under the sun, all in the name of diversity.

But if Fogelman thinks it’s only a bunch of white dudes who think his movie is shit…well, he’s got another think coming. I’m African-American and my review is probably one of the harshest out there. I wanted to rip my eyeballs out.

Of the 50 listed critic review for Life Itself, 20 of them are by women. The film only has 6 positive reviews in all, which means ladies think it’s shit, too. Men and women can’t agree on much, but thinking Life Itself is a terrible movie? That’s something we can all find common ground in.