Sci-fi thrillers are generally a tough sell at theaters (See also: Annihilation), so it’s good they’ve found a welcome home over at Netflix. The latest to keep an eye out for is Tau, a sci-fi horror that puts Oscar winner Gary Oldman in the most unusual role of his life, that of a futuristic smart home.
Directed by Federico D’Alessandro, the film finds It Follows star Maika Monroe strapped in for more scares, this time as a young woman kidnapped from a futuristic city, only to wake up inside of a smart home voiced by Tau (Oldman), an artificial intelligence created by Ed Skrein. She’s commanded to do whatever the house says or die, but she finds others in the home and sets forth on a plot to escape. It’s hard to say, but I sense some kind of alliance between Monroe’s character and Tau, so it may be interesting to see how that plays out.
Here’s the official synopsis: A once street-smart grifter, Julia (Monroe) who is the latest victim kidnapped and held captive in a fatal experiment. The only thing standing in the way of her freedom is Tau, an advanced artificial intelligence developed by Alex (Skrein), her captor. Tau is armed with a battalion of drones that automate a futuristic smart house. Tau’s potential is only limited by his understanding of the world he exists in, but Tau is ready for more. Julia, showing resourcefulness and courage, must race against time to bridge the boundaries between man and machine, connect to Tau and win her freedom before she suffers the same fate as the previous subjects.
It’s been a pretty good run for this season on Supergirl. Some story arc got convoluted and unnecessary, but overall, the conflict with Reign and the World Killers made this a strong season for the girl of steel. Last week, Reign returned, this time separate from Samantha, and she is continuing her quest for destroying the earth and remaking it in Krypton’s image as she was created for. After the members of the Daughters of the Night completed their rituals, Reign took the sword and hurled to the center of the earth to complete her task.
The episode begins with everyone trying to hold things together as the world starts falling apart. Kara and her mother get involved, where we finally get to see her mother in action, as they try and save as many people as possible. Mon-El is helping save people as well. James dons his Guardian armor and is saving people near his CatCo office. Even Superman is helping people (off-screen of course… he should come back). Even Imra and Brainiac-5 come back (guess they didn’t go through the time portal back to the 31st Century) come in and help save lives, stopping a massive tidal wave from killing people. James continues helping people when one woman wants to go into the burning CatCo building for her missing child. “Guardian” can’t get her to stop, but “James” can. He removes his mask, and when his employee realizes that the famous vigilante is him, she stops and allows him to rescue her son. But now the cats out of the bag and James will have to deal with his secret identity not being so secret anymore.
Elsewhere, M’yrnn and J’onn are trying to finish the memory transfer ritual so that J’onn knows everything his father (and countless others before him) did. However, with the earth destroying there’s not enough time for everything. M’yrnn does get the chance to share the history of the first Green Martian. Afterwards, the two embrace and say their final goodbyes as M’yrnn then phases into the earth to stop Reign from reaching the center. This leads to the earth-shattering to stop. It looks like the good guys saved the day!
Of course, that was only in the first 5 minutes of the show, so we know more’s in store for our heroes. Sam is still in a coma, and in the dream world where the human side of the World Killers reside, she sees her deceased mother. Of course, Reign killed her mother, so she doesn’t even know her mother’s death. There’s a cloud of suspicion on her mother appearing in this area, and telling her to drink from a specific fountain as one will give her strength, the other will kill her. Sam decides to trust her mother and she doesn’t die.
Back at the DEO, everyone is reeling from their victory of saving the world. Mon-El has a heart to heart with his wife Irma, thanking her for coming back to help them save the day. She reveals to him that she wasn’t a good wife, and he confirms that he wasn’t a good husband. The two amicably agree to go their separate ways and remain friends. Brainiac-5 reveals to Winn that even though they saved the 31 Century, other problems in the timeline have emerged. Brainiac-5’s cousin, Brainiac (the original and a classic dc villain) unleashed a virus to kill all other Artificial Intelligence lifeforms from their timeline. Brainiac-5 tells Winn that he needs his help and he should go to the 31st Century with the Legion. Winn comments that Brainiac-5 always considered him of a lesser intellect. Brainiac-5 reveals a piece of paper he got from the “National Archives” in the 31st Century, which was one of Winn’s ideas. This means that Winn will be considered one of the greatest scientific minds in the future. Winn has a heart to heart with James about leaving everyone in this timeline behind to fulfill his destiny and James assures him he’ll make the right decision.
Just then, the alarms go off at the DEO and it’s revealed that Reign is not dead, and they have to go and stop her once and for all. They all head to the Fortress of Sanctuary to face off against Reign and the other evil Kryptonians. While defeating the older superwomen was easy for everyone, Reign is still too strong. Just then, Samantha (out of her coma) comes and stabs reign with her superpowered sword. Afterwards, she launches Reign into a pit of fire. However, as she is drying, she shooter her heat vision all over the place, killing Sam, Mon-El, and Kara’s mother. Realizing that her friends died because she didn’t want to kill Reign, Kara retcons their deaths via time-travel, by using Mon-El’s Legion ring and the Legions time traveling technology to go a few moments back in time to avoid Samantha’s stabbing Reign and instead Samantha forces her evil counterpart to drink from the death side of the well, killing her for good without anyone else getting hurt.
In the aftermath of Reign’s defeat, everyone has their epilogue. James confirms to a reporter that he is, in fact, Guardian with no qualms in a very Tony Stark fashion. Kara’s mother goes back to their Kryptonian asteroid city and bids her daughter farewell. Mon-El realizes that there’s work he has to do in the future and says his final goodbye to Kara. Winn says goodbye to everyone as he heads to the 31st Century with Mon-El. Turns out, Brainiac-5 remains behind and will now be the tech guy for the DEO. Alex realizes that she needs to think about herself and think about a family. However, J’onn instead tells her that he’s stepping down, and he wants her to run the DEO in his stead.
However, Lena is still up to her Luthor schemes and is working on analyzing the black rock from the asteroid city. For what purpose? We’ll have to see next year.
NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Sundance Film Festival. Damsel opens in theaters on June 22nd.
I don’t think the audience here at the Sundance world premiere of the Zellner Brothers’ wacky comedy-Western Damsel knew what to expect. In fact, I know they didn’t from the grunts of disapproval I heard from the folks around me. While they applauded the extended introduction of the directing duo, with a mention to their prior outlandish Sundance offerings including bizarre Fargo riff Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, I don’t think it registered with the crowd that they could get stars like Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska to be in anything quite so weird.
Boy, were they wrong.
Damsel is this year’s Slow West, a comic oater with inspirations pulled deep from the Blazing Saddles well. It’s not a comedy classic like Mel Brooks’ film, and certainly its examination of the pityless Old West frontier are much darker. But for those willing to give it a chance they will find this comedy landscape isn’t so barren.
The “damsel” in this case is no shrinking violet; Penelope (Wasikowska) is a fearsome frontier woman, more than capable of taking care of herself. She’s also particularly good at fighting off men’s advances. But we don’t exactly know that right from the start, after a rip-roaring hootenanny of an opening in which she tears up the dance floor alongside a toothy, unbearably happy Samuel (Pattinson). An odd prologue featuring a hilariously deadpan cameo by Robert Forster sets up the film’s offbeat tone as a warning; this will not be the movie you expect it to be.
The first hour is largely shrouded in mystery, as we mosey along with Samuel and Parson (David Zellner), a priest and local drunk he’s recruited for a heroic mission. Penelope has been abducted into the mountains by a foul brute and Samuel, who may be a few horses short of a full stable, plans to rescue her and marry her on the spot. He’s got the plan all figured, mapped out in the dirt with some horse dung and a few twigs. He’s bought the most beautiful ring and, most importantly, a unique gift in a miniature horse named Butterscotch. Samuel’s arrival in town with the boxed up pony is the first sign that our hero might just be a well-meaning idiot of Quixote-esque proportations.
When Penelope finally re-enters the picture to kick off the second half, the film is instantly hers and the focus rightfully shifts. Here she is, after this bizarre shootout has changed her life and our perceptions of Samuel, surrounded by men who think she is in need of their protection. But every single guy who shows up, whether it’s her kooky brother-in-law (Nathan Zellner) or a curious Native American, only serve to mess things up worse. Her protests only seem to inspire them to pursue her father, except for Parson who is just sort of bumbling along as a punchline.
The Zellners take a gamble by largely playing the film straight, which works to establish its ironic tone. The jokes fly pretty fast but are largely hit or miss. The best gags tend to be visual; Butterscotch is always within view, even during deadly predicaments; the dead tooth sitting smack in the middle of Samuel’s smile. Pattinson is definitely in on the gag; it’s safe to say we’ve never seen him quite like this, playing a man whose stubborness and male ego shroud how dumb he really is. It’s also another feisty performance from Wasikowska, helping the Zellners pick apart at the perceived masculinity of the Old West. The title may be Damsel, but it’s Wasikowska who saves the day when needed most.
Currently sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, the indie thriller Searching has given John Cho some of the best reviews of his career. Suprising is how little talk there’s been for director Aneesh Chaganty, who had to find a way to make a movie told entirely on computer screens consistently engaging. By all accounts that’s exactly what the film does, and we get to see more of Chaganty’s handywork in the new trailer.
Cho stars as a father whose frantic search for his missing daughter leads him to check out her laptop. As he dives further into her social media life, he begins to realize just how little he actually knows about her. It’s a different take on the kidnapping thriller and I can’t wait to finally see it for myself.
Also starring Debra Messing, Joseph Lee, Michelle La, and Sara Sohn, Searching opens August 3rd.
Michael B. Jordan was just coming into his own as a major star when 2015’s Creed hit, but now three years later he’s arguably the biggest name in the upcoming sequel, Creed 2. And that’s saying something since he’s once again sharing screen time with a legend like Sylvester Stallone. Tomorrow the trailer for the anticipated boxing sequel will arrive, but today brings the first poster and the movie’s synopsis which teases a battle for the ages.
The poster you can see above, featuring Jordan as Adonis Creed, the son of Rocky Balboa’s friend and rival, Apollo Creed. Stallone returns as Rocky, with Tessa Thompson also reprising her role from the first movie. Making his comeback to the franchise is Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago, with the storyline expecting to include a fight between his son and Adonis. Here’s the synopsis:
Life has become a balancing act for Adonis Creed. Between personal obligations and training for his next big fight, he is up against the challenge of his life. Facing an opponent with ties to his family’s past only intensifies his impending battle in the ring. Rocky Balboa is there by his side through it all and, together, Rocky and Adonis will confront their shared legacy, question what’s worth fighting for, and discover that nothing’s more important than family. Creed II is about going back to basics to rediscover what made you a champion in the first place, and remembering that, no matter where you go, you can’t escape your history.
With Coogler busy, the directing reins were passed to Steven Caple Jr. who did an excellent job on indie drama The Land. Wood Harris, Russell Hornsby, Florian “Big Nasty” Munteanu, Andre Ward, and Phylicia Rashad co-star. Creed 2 opens November 21st.
While he’s become known of late for his work on Transparent and the new FX series Pose, Silas Howard has long been one of the most influential trans directors in Hollywood. In 2001 he directed the critically-acclaimed By Hook or by Crook, which debuted at Sundance that year and won the Audience Award at SXSW.
Howard returned to Sundance this year with A Kid Like Jake, which tells the story of Brooklyn parents learning how to adjust to having a gender nonconforming son while also trying to get him accepted into private preschool. It’s a serious look at an issue a lot of families are coping with, but have never seen represented on the big screen. The film stars Claire Danes, Jim Parson, Octavia Spencer, Priyanka Chopra, and young Leo James Davis as the son, Jake.
I had a chance to speak with Silas about A Kid Like Jake, his desire to tell this story from the perspective of the parents, which meant less of a visual focus on their son. Silas also talked about his career as a trans director and how things have changed over the years as LGBTQ stories have begun being told with greater frequency and realism.
A Kid Like Jake is in theaters now. You can read our review here and listen to the interview below.
Set years after the historic victory in the original Pacific
Rim, Uprising follows the late
General Pentecost’s son Jake (John Boyega), who has since fallen from grace,
going from a once-promising Jaeger pilot to scrapyard raiding low level thief.
But when an even bigger threat than the original monstrous Kaiju arrives and
endangers humanity, Jake finds that he might be the last hope in saving the
day and stopping the creatures from returning once and for all.
We Said: “Assuming this
turns out to be a trilogy, because that’s what every blockbuster aspires to be,
Pacific Rim Uprising is a surprisingly upbeat middle chapter without the doom ‘n
gloom. Nobody is going to go home smarter for watching this one but you could
do a Hell of a lot worse. Did you see that last Transformers movie?” Rating: 3.5
out of 5
Steven Soderbergh’s latest thriller tells the story of a
young woman (Claire Foy) attempting to build a new life for herself after an
emotionally damaging case of abuse lead her to relocate to a new city.
Attempting to gain closure she visits what she believed to be a therapist for
counseling, however, she soon discovers that she has accidentally committed
herself to a “voluntary” stay at a shady mental health center. Her stay at the
facility soon gets extended when doctors and nurses begin to question her
sanity. Is she losing her grip on reality or is her former attacker currently hiding
out in the hospital, waiting for her?
We Said: “Unsane is unlike any movie I’ve ever seen. Legendary
director Steven Soderbergh has decided to abandon typical Hollywood filmmaking
styles with this movie. Instead, he shot it all on an iPhone 7 with harsh
natural lighting, and bizarre angles you can only accomplish by throwing your
phone across a room. Now, I’ve seen weird iPhone projects before, just never on
this scale. […]This high profile nature
is part of what makes Unsane so bizarre, and ultimately rather off-putting.” Rating: 2.5
out of 5
With everything going down at DC Films over the last few months, one project that has remained a priority is Todd Phillips’ Joker origin story set in the 1980s. The film looks to have Joaquin Phoenix all sewn up to play the Clown Prince of Crime with Martin Scorsese listed as a producer, making this a project of enormous potential if done right. Now rumors are beginning to emerge about what we can expect, including a possible major casting move teased by That Hashtag Show. Judge accordingly.
The site confirms what we already knew, that this Joker will be set in an alternate Elseworlds-esque universe from the DCEU. What they add is that it could create “an entirely new Joker mythology”, meaning it wouldn’t follow anything from the comic books. I don’t see why that would be a problem since Joker’s origin has been retooled numerous times over the years, just as most DC Comics characters have been.
A character breakdown was also listed, and there isn’t anything truly interesting in it except for the role of Murray Franklin, a 65-75 year old Caucasian male that Robert De Niro may be eyed for. Makes sense considering his long relationship with Scorsese that has produced classic films like Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver, the latter said to be a tonal influence on Phillips’ Joker movie. This is also one of those rumors that sounds too perfect, like it was made up because of how plausible it would seem.
For the full character breakdown just go here. Production on the Joker film is to begin in September, so expect details soon. As always I say to look forward to Comic-Con for major updates.
We’ve already known that a sequel to 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was happening for two reasons. First, it was Sony’s highest-grossing movie ever with $962M, so clearly they would want another one. Second, they’ve already dated it for December 2019. The only thing missing was the official blessing of star Dwayne Johnson, which he has now given on Instagram, of course.
Johnson posted that work on Jumanji 3 is “officially underway”, having apparently been very impressed by a pitch from returning director Jake Kasdan. He also went ahead and confirmed his co-stars Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, and Kevin Hart would all be coming back. Previous writers Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg will return to pen the latest jungle adventure, which Johnson says will kill off Hart’s character in the first 15 seconds. Probably a lie but still kinda funny.
“What’s Goin’ On?”, you ask? Well, not much if you’re waiting for a movie for film based on legendary soul singer Marvin Gaye. Remember that movie Jesse L. Martin (The Flash) was developing a few years ago and even released footage from? Nothing. Jamie Foxx has been working on a TV series on the singer but we haven’t heard anything on that since 2016. Fortunately, Dr. Dre is here to pick up the slack, as the uber-producer has his own biopic on Marvin Gaye in the works.
Variety reports Dr. Dre is “in the early stages” of development on a Marvin Gaye biopic. Details on the film are probably still a ways off but what we do know is that the Gaye estate has already okayed the use of his music. That’s really the first major hurdle that needs to be overcome for a movie like this, and if you can’t get those rights you end up with a stinker like Jimi: All Is By My Side which had all the wrong music.
Gaye’s story is certainly made for the big screen. He helped define the Motown sound in the late ’60s with his album In the Groove which produced his first No.1 hit “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”. He went on to release hit albums What’s Going On, Let’s Get It On, and Midnight Love. In 1984 he was fatally shot by his own father while trying to break up an argument between his parents.
No truth to the rumor Dre is considering Eminem for the lead role, although that would be something.
