It’s crazy to think that a corrupt billionaire with a “populist” message, no political experience whatsoever, and a very public history for being sleazy could ever get elected to lead a country. That would be unthinkable here, of course (*snort*), but Italy made it happen in spades with Silvio Berlusconi, the longest reigning Prime Minister in their history other than some guy named Mussolini. Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino set out to follow his HBO series The Young Pope with Loro, a two-part film about Berlusconi’s wild life and political career, with the first teaser arriving today.
The 30-second clip only offers a brief glimpse at Toni Servillo as Berlusconi, but we do get a sense of the many lavish lifestyle and sex-related controversies that swirled around him. This is a reunion between Sorentino and Servillo, having last worked together on Oscar winner The Great Beauty. He also played a scandalized Prime Minister in Il Divo, also directed by Sorrentino.
Loro is expected to open in Italy in April, but also make its way to Cannes.
There are plenty of amazing things to say about Love, Simon, the new teen romance from Greg Berlanti, best known for DC’s Arrowverse shows. So let’s start with praise for 20th Century Fox for distributing the first major film about a gay teen’s coming out. Think about that. This is 2018, and we’ve seen plenty of movies with gay central characters. We’ve seen Hollywood ‘s occasionally awkward steps towards acceptance and inclusion. Joining the likes of Brokeback Mountain, Blue is the Warmest Colour, and very few others, Love, Simon is an essential step on that journey and among the best representations of a gay love story depicted on screen.
It’s also just a great high school comedy, full of warmth, humor, and characters you could hang out with endlessly. Based on Becky Albertalli’s book, the film stars Nick Robinson as Simon Spier, who on the surface appears to have everything a high school senior could want. He’s handsome, has a family that is intact and that he loves dearly. He’s also got a great group of friends and coffee mates in Leah (13 Reasons Why‘s Katherine Langford), Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr. of The Land), and Abbey (Alexandra Shipp of X-Men: Apocalypse) he has known almost his entire life. There’s just one thing that’s missing, and that’s the freedom to be who he really is. Simon has kept the secret of his homosexuality since figuring it out for himself, always playing the part of the good-looking but aloof guy at school. He’s the best friend but never any girl’s boyfriend.
When another student anonymously comes out of the closet on a school website, Simon sees someone he can finally be himself to. Also anonymously, of course. He begins exchanging emails with his new pen pal, nicknamed “Blue”, but they never reveal their true identities to one another. Simon is just like other teens, daydreaming about his ideal match and wondering who among the people he knows might be “Blue”. When loudmouthed student Martin (Logan Miller) discovers Simon’s secret, he threatens to out him to everyone, forcing Simon to take desperate, even hurtful measures to maintain the status quo.
We haven’t seen a ton from Berlanti as a film director but one thing he excels at is fully realizing how special one’s closest relationships are. This was something he was particularly good at with the underrated Life As We Know It, and we see it again in Love, Simon. Josh Duhamel, a key figure in both movies, shines as Simon’s father and I think he probably represents a lot of dads out there who see their kids a certain way and don’t know how to react when that changes. Jennifer Garner is the most understanding mom EVER, sharing a heart-to-heart moment with Simon that is simply too perfect. Berlanti gives equal time to Simon’s family and friends, as the people in his life that he’s terrified of losing. His friendship with Leah is crucial to the person he is, while his relationships with Nick and Abbey click on different levels. Langford, Lendeborg, and Shipp are all terrific, but so are the rest of the supporting cast including The Flash‘s Keiynan Lonsdale, Tony Hale, and the hilarious Natasha Rodwell as the take-no-prisoners school musical director.
Coming out is still one of those things that requires a certain amount of bravery, no matter what your age. Think how hard it was to truly be yourself in high school, and now add a monumental revelation like this on top of it. Berlanti explores Simon’s fear and anxiety with sensitivity and heart, but also understands that there is a love story to be told here, too. Prone to just as many big, corny declarations of love and longing as any American romantic comedy, it’s refreshing to see them in a movie about a gay lead character. It’s worth noting that in the screening I attended, all of these huge romantic moments and revelations were greeted with cheers and tears (only a few by me, thank you very much) by an audience that has never had the chance to see something like this in a major studio movie before. I long for the day when a film such as Love, Simon is seen as just a terrific movie and not a groundbreaking cultural moment. We’re not there yet, but this is a damn good way to start.
The quest for a director to helm the 25th James Bond movie may finally be over. After a few weeks of speculation, Danny Boyle has confirmed he’s at least writing the movie’s script, and may have actually confirmed he’s directing it at the end of the year.
While attending a screening of his FX series Trust, Boyle spoke with Metro about Bond 25 and confirmed his involvement, but stops short of officially saying he will be behind the camera. He also mentions the musical comedy he’s working on with Richard Curtis (Love Actually) that will come first no matter what…
“We are working on a script right now. And it all depends on that really. I am working on a Richard Curtis script at the moment. We hope to start shooting that in 6 or 7 weeks. Then Bond would be right at the end of the year. But we are working on them both right now.
We’ve got an idea, John Hodge, the screenwriter, and I have got this idea, and John is writing it at the moment. And it all depends on how it turns out. It would be foolish of me to give any of it away.”
I’m not going to go as far as other sites by saying Boyle is confirmed to direct Bond 25. He sure sounds like he wants to and has made plans for it, but as he himself says, “it all depends on how it turns out.”
That includes winning over Bond producers and Daniel Craig with Hodge’s screenplay. Boyle is the only reason they are willing to delay filming so long, and if the script isn’t up to snuff then they’ll fall back on the script by franchise regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.
So let’s look at this in a half glass full way. Danny Boyle would look to be on board to direct Bond 25 and have it done in time to hit the November 2019 release date.
While it does appear that Edgar Wright is planning some kind of followup to Baby Driver, his Twitter announcement of Baby Driver Vol. 2: The Score for a Score is no confirmation. It is instead more of what you loved about his outstanding musical car chase/heist movie/love story, which is the incredible soundtrack.
There was so much great music crammed into every moment of Baby Driver that it couldn’t all possibly fit in just one soundtrack. So Wright has gathered up what was left, along with a few surprises, unreleased and exclusive tracks, and Steven Brice’s score which has never been released before now. We don’t know a lot about what will specific songs will be included, but based on Wright’s Twitter comments we can expect at least one brand new track from DJ Kid Koala and another of Baby’s Mixes.
Featuring an as yet unreleased @kidkoala song too. Another of Baby’s mixes.
Star Wars is forever, and apparently so will debate about The Last Jedi be. But with the arrival of Rian Johnson’s film on digital, Bluray and DVD in a couple of weeks, it gives us the opportunity for more insight into the director’s thinking about the controversial decisions he made. Included in the bonus features if the documentary The Director and the Jedi, offering a behind the scenes look at the making of The Last Jedi.
Directed by Anthony Wonke, the film captures a number of intimate moments on set between Johnson, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, the late Carrie Fisher, and most notably Mark Hamill, whose feelings about the direction taken with Luke Skywalker have been quite public. It sure looks like things between them went okay, but maybe the film will provide a more complete look at their working relationship.
Check out the trailer below and see the whole thing by purchasing Star Wars: The Last Jedi digitally now or on Bluray/DVD on March 27th.
Kristen Stewart continues to be on a hot streak, taking one exciting and challenging role after another. Stewart’s next role will find her as activist and legendary actress Jean Seberg in the star-studded political thriller, Against All Enemies. She’ll be joined by Anthony Mackie, Jack O’Connell, Margaret Qualley, and Colm Meaney.
Directed Una helmer Benedict Andrews, from a script by Edge of Tomorrow 2 writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, the film centers on Seberg, a mainstay of the French New Wave, who became a target of the FBI COINTELPRO surveillance program due to her support of the Black Panther Party. Seberg was in a romantic relationship with activist Hakim Jamal, a powerful figure within the Black Power movement. O’Connell plays the FBI agent assigned to surveil Seberg, but finds that their fates are dangerously interwoven. Many believe Seberg’s activism led to her being blacklisted from Hollywood, as she suddenly stopped acting at the peak of her career while the FBI was publicly defaming her character. She died young, aged 40 by a possible suicide in 1979.
This is a perfect role for Stewart who is still the only American actress to ever win France’s Cesar Award. She’s also spent the last few years of her career working quite a bit with French director Olivier Assayas on Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper. [Deadline]
This casting makes me very happy. Three of my favorite actresses, Emma Roberts, Baby Driver‘s Eiza Gonzalez, and Patti Cake$ star Danielle Macdonald are coming together for sci-fi thriller Paradise Hills.
The film marks Alice Waddington’s directorial debut and features a script by Brian DeLeeuw, Sofia Cuenca, and Colossus director Nacho Vigalondo. The film stars Roberts as Uma, the daughter of a magnate who commits suicide after his company is targeted for hostile takeover by a predatory billionaire named Son Prescott. Prescott decides to marry Uma, but only after kidnapping and sending her to Paradise Hills, a private sanitarium where she is to have her mind systematically destroyed. Gonzalez will play Amarna, a tough Paradise Hills resident who might be Uma’s only hope in escaping the nightmare.
No word on when filming begins, but you can see Gonzalez next in Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel and Robert Zemeckis’ untitled film starring Steve Carell.
We can debate the value and impact of Rotten Tomatoes all day, but the review aggregation site isn’t going anywhere and will remain a force in Hollywood. While there are a number of criticisms that can be levied against it, one undeniable fact is that it’s still mostly dudes that make up their Top Critics. Some studies say as many as 70% of Rotten Tomatoes’ Top Critics are male. And so one website is hoping to do something to level the playing field.
Enter Cherry Picks, a new website that will feature reviews exclusively by women. The idea was hatched by Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes, who told IndieWire that their aim is for Cherry Picks to provide a “system that more accurately represents the range of critical and audience opinion, along with high-quality content from both established and new critical female voices” with “a new and nuanced approach to critical aggregation with women at its center.”
Yeah, okay.
Their rating system will differ from Rotten Tomatoes’ binary (and problematic) Fresh/Rotten system that has become such easy shorthand for studios and moviegoers alike. Cherry Picks will use a system that has four levels to it, but I think is just as reductive and silly as Rotten Tomatoes’ is.
Bowl of Cherries: Great. Must see.
Pair of Cherries: Good. Recommended.
Single Cherry: Mixed. You might like it, you might not.
The Pits: Self-explanatory.
Sorry, but I feel like this is a well-meaning but misguided idea. Not that I have anything against an all-female movie review site. I think it’s great to have more female critics getting their insights out there and I know a bunch of them here in DC who deserve more attention. But don’t tell me that you’re trying to “accurately represent the range of critical and audience opinion”. That’s not what you’re doing. Rotten Tomatoes may be mostly male critics, but Cherry Picks is ALL women. They aren’t representing a range of anything.
Plus, I get the sense that this site will also be appealing exclusively to women. Bailey told THR“We’re creating a platform where women can go to and see what other critics that are their gender think about art and media.”
Women were probably going to be the primary audience anyway, just be straight-up about it. The plan is for Cherry Picks to launch later this year. I’m assuming since CherryPicks.com is already taken by an Asian tech site they’ll be using something else as their destination.
Battle of the Sexes not enough big screen tennis action for you? Then maybe Borg vs. McEnroe will satisfy those court cravings with a drama detailing one of tennis’ most heated rivalries. Shia LaBeouf stars as the fiery John McEnroe with Swedish star Sverrir Gudnason as Bjorn Bjorg, who were constantly battling for the mantle of #1 men’s tennis player throughout the 1970s and into the ’80s.
The film is directed by Janus Metz Pederson and made its premiere last year at TIFF, earning some high marks for LaBeouf as a potential comeback vehicle. He knows a thing or two about being a bad boy of his profession, but what he really needs right now is a film to remind people how good of an actor he can be when not pulling publicity stunts fueled by his personal demons. This looks like it could be his best, possibly last, chance to do so. Here’s the synopsis:
BORG VS. MCENROE tells the story of the epic rivalry between Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg (Gudnason) and his greatest adversary, the brash American John McEnroe (LaBeouf), which came to a head during the 1980 Wimbledon Championships.
Borg vs. McEnroe hits theaters and VOD on April 13th.
The latest trailer for Adrift is out and it’s genre bending images has me anticipating a romance film for the first time that in recent memory. Starring Sam Claflin and Shailene Woodley, who are both right out of the Nicolas Sparks Center for Romantic Movie Casting, pull you into just what you think it will be until BOOM rocked like a hurricane. Then just when you think this movie is going to be less The Notebook and more Open Water the inspirational music kicks in and you realize this flick is not going to bend to one particular genre. This is what I’m talking about, why do you need a genre? Real life never has a genre so why should film? Take me places! It looks like that is exactly what Adrift is going to do when it hits theaters!
