Timothee Chalamet had one Hell of a 2017. The young actor kicked things off starring in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, a performance that has made him the youngest Best Actor Oscar nominee in 80 years. But that wasn’t all, as he was also part of Greta Gerwig’s terrific Lady Bird ensemble, and had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him role in Scott Cooper’s Hostiles.
Now Chalamet has landed another high-profile role, this time in his first royal drama. He’ll star as King Henry V in The King, from Animal Kingdom director David Michod and co-writer Joel Edgerton. The film is described as a “modern-day Shakespearean adaptation”, and follows Henry when he takes the throne following the death of his brother. He would lead England through two successful invasions of France, taking total control of the French throne.
Shooting begins in June, and marks the second Netflix movie in a row for Michod. He previously directed Brad Pitt in last year’s War Machine.
Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the fiercest actors around, and for his “final” screen role in Phantom Thread he really brought it. And yet the film was still nearly stolen away from him by the performance of Vicky Krieps, a star-making turn that has us looking forward to what she’s doing next. It’s also got Hollywood looking to sign her to bigger projects, like the upcoming sequel The Girl in the Spider’s Web.
Krieps is now part of a great cast for the sequel to David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon’s Tattoo. She joins Claire Foy who takes over the role of Lisbeth Salander, Sylvia Hoeks as her twin sister, Sverrir Gudnason as Mikael Blomquist, Claes Bang as the villain, plus Stephen Merchant, Lakeith Stanfield, and Cameron Britton. Damn. No word on Krieps’s character yet.
Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead) is behind the camera for The Girl in the Spider’s Web, which is set to open November 9th. You can see Krieps next in The Young Karl Marx, opening later this month. [Variety]
The classic children’s story of a mischievous rabbit named
Peter (voiced by James Corden) and the grumpy old farmer from whom he steals
vegetables. The beautiful images from the storybooks are seared into the
nostalgic minds of most bringing reminders of a simpler time when choosing which
crayon tasted the best was all that mattered. It’s actually sort of surprising
that this took that long to adapt, now that I think about it most recent film
adaptations of children’s stories aren’t so much the classics but rather 80’s
icons of Saturday Morning like the Smurf’s. I took my daughter to see this with
me, she’s 3 so as you can imagine that’s always a gamble but also a great way
to gauge how fun a movie is. If I’m fighting her to stay in her seat after 20 minutes,
it’s a no go. This is kind of putting the review on front street, but she sat
through the whole thing and talked about how she was Flopsy (Peter’s sister,
voiced by Margot Robbie) for the rest of the day.
The story strays a bit from the classic tale as Old McGregor
(an unrecognizable Sam Neil) has a heart attack and kicks it early on, only for
his long-lost nephew, Thomas McGregor (Domnhall Gleeson) to take over the country
manor where Peter steals his dinner. Unfortunately for Peter young McGregor has
the same prejudice to critters that his uncle had and immediately begins trying
to exterminate the rabbits. Enter Bea played by the adorable Rose Byrne, an
eccentric painter who holds the forest critters as her family with the rabbits
Peter, Mopsy, Flopsy, Cottontail, and Benjamin being her favorites. As one
might expect Young McGregor and Bea begin a romance and with that a secret war with
the bunnies as McGregor tries to rid his land of them without offending his new
lady love.
This is not a ground-breaking flick, the story goes exactly
as you would expect it to, for the most part. But it’s a kid’s flick, not Inception, so I don’t take points off
for that. The parts that matter are all in order, the film is legitimately
sweet and funny, one particular running gag about a re-routed electric fence
had me laughing far more then was probably appropriate. The visuals were
astounding, I couldn’t help but to sit and thing, “How is it that this movie
can have these flawless CG animals, yet something like Justice League ends up with a CG bad guy that looks like he’s made
of silly putty?” I’m not technically inclined when it comes to the magic of
film FX but I gotta think if you can make a rabbit look real enough then
nothing else should be that hard. Domnhall Gleeson and Rose Byrne were
wonderful as the film’s main non-CG actors. Gleeson is carving out a niche as
bad guy extraordinaire, but he got to show a little more range this time around
then he did in the recent Star Wars films. Rose Byrne didn’t deliver anything
earth shattering but she played her role as the head-in-the-clouds artist with
a heart of gold perfectly. You really have to sit back and acknowledge the fact
that these actors are acting with nothing in these types of movies to really
appreciate the complexity of their performance. I have to give some credit of
my enjoyment to the setting, the English countryside automatically merits some
appreciation points in my mind, there really is nowhere as serene. My favorite
random movie, Tamara Drewe, is
probably testament to that.
We have to give a lot of credit for the film’s success to
James Corden as the titualar hare, Peter really comes to life with Corden’s sarcastic
yet sincere delivery, he creates a real personality for Peter that jumps of the
screen and is right in line with what you probably imagined Peter to be like
when reading the books, Daisy Ridley, Colin Moody, Margot Robbie, and Elizabeth
Debicki were also wonderful voicing Peter’s entourage/family. I don’t really
have much negative to say, maybe more of a warning, but there are some dark
moments in the film that I viewed as funny but depending on what you let your
kids in on at a certain age may cause some unwanted questions. Particularly
surrounding Death, the entire premise is based off not just McGregor dying in his
garden in the opening scene but also Peter’s entire motivation is surrounding
his father being caught and cooked by McGregor. Just something to be aware of
going in, it’s handled mostly in a funny way but I can see how some would want
to avoid it depending on your child’s age.
I can honestly say I’m looking forward to July when this
movie inevitably hits Netflix and I have to watch it 357 times over a span of
three weekends thanks to my kids, or at least I’m looking forward to the first
day before it wears out it’s welcome on me.
Peter Rabbit is in theaters everywhere, Today, February 9th, 2018
The new film Entanglement is wonderfully dark
comedy. And when I say dark, I mean dark.
For example, the film opens with a surprisingly comic and light-hearted montage
of our hero Ben (Thomas Middleditch), a young man just coming off of a
particularly rough divorce, trying and failing to commit suicide in a boarder-line
slapstick fashion. The film then follows Ben’s bumpy road to recovery, as he
tries to pinpoint exactly what it is that’s missing from his life, and at what
point he lost it.
Ben thinks he finds the answer when he discovers that he
almost had an adoptive sister, but his parents had to give her up when he was
born. With the help of his supportive and offbeat neighbor (Diana Bang) he
manages to track down her adoption records and begin his quest to find his
missing almost-sibling, a quest that leads him to meeting enigmatic free spirit
Hannah (Jess Weixler).
Through Hannah, and the would-be-incestuous relationship
they begin, Ben finally starts to see his life through a new filter and opens himself
up more to the possibilities the world presents him with.
Now, before you go crying “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”, let me
assure you that Entanglement subverts this trope at every turn. Although Ben
views Hannah as the solution to his problems, we’re never really supposed to
ourselves. We don’t see Hannah through rose colored glasses, we instead see her
through the distorted viewpoint of Ben, a man suffering from severe mental
health issues. As whimsical and bright eyed as their story may be, there is
always an undercurrent of seriously handled depression to the scenes between
Hannah and Ben. The movie truly does not take any shortcuts at showing us how
hard recovery can be on a person who’s suffering, and their relationship and
scenes together reflect this perfectly.
I was honestly very surprised by how much I was affected by Entanglement.
Everything form the worldly and philosophical side of the film, exploring the
unnoticed connections of the universe and fate, to the more broad comedic notes
it hits just really got to me. And that’s saying nothing of the film’s third
act, which caught me entirely off guard.
Overall, I really loved the film. It’s small and quiet and
dark, but also funny and sweet and most of all, beautiful. This is a movie that
revels in the offbeat beauty of life, seen through the eyes of a very damaged
person, and it’s incredibly powerful to watch.
Becks is a film about a mid-30’s woman who after breaking up with her girlfriend ends up temporarily moving back home to live with her devoutly Catholic mother. It’s back at home where she deals with coming to terms with the end of her relationship, her continuously strained relationship with her mother, trying to figure out what her next steps should be, and the introduction of an unexpected relationship. This story is inspired by singer/songwriter Alyssa Robbins, who drove the original score for the film
Driven by the characters of the story, this film truly shines with its acting. The movie itself doesn’t really pick up until we see the first interaction between Becks (Lena Hall) and Elyse (Mena Suvari ) where we are able to catch a glimpse of the budding interest that the characters have for one another and can feel comfortable in hypothesizing that this is the “unexpected” relationship that Becks finds herself in. It’s from here on out, with each passing scene in the film we start to feel more and more comfortable with these characters becoming invested in their story by the film’s end.
Though, the story itself relies on the cliches of the bored housewife, a struggling musician, parents opposing their kids’ sexuality; it still feels fresh in a way that I don’t know that I can necessarily explain except maybe chalking it up to because the story no matter how many cliches are involved, is still rooted in the stories of the underrepresented.
The film as a whole still isn’t without its faults, the addition of Becks’ brother to the story doesn’t really do anything for the story at hand. Though, I don’t mind ambiguous endings, this film’s ending left me more than a bit confused solely because I didn’t really understand the reasoning behind Beck’s decision. I think I have an inclination of where the filmmakers where going with it, but I think that if that were the case, then they could’ve fleshed out that theme a little better throughout the story. With all that being said, Becks if nothing else, will find its way into being the subject of people’s interest because of its feeling of authenticity in its story and portrayals.
Becks releases in theaters and VOD February 9, 2018
The premise for Alex Ross Perry’s Golden Exits sounds like the setup for either an intense emotional drama or a comedy of manners. If only it were. Perry, an indie darling whose films TheColor Wheel, Listen Up Philip, and Queen of Earth filtered through various genres the lives of impulsive, unhappy, and talkative people. But with Golden Exits he’s less concerned with the things sad, disappointed people say and do as he is with what goes unsaid and undone. His commitment to inactivity reaches criminal levels, making this one tough slog to power through.
To be honest, I don’t even remember this playing at Sundance last year, and I can only guess the screenings saw floods of walkouts. Who wants to sit through a festival movie that’s so darn morose? Golden Exits follows the miserable lives of anxious, upper-middle class Brooklynites who see their worlds disrupted with the arrival of Naomi (Emily Browning), a pretty Australian in her ’20s. She’s there to study under Nick (Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz, the one bit of terrific casting), an archivist working on the estate of his late father-in-law at the behest of his snobby, overbearing sister-in-law Gwen (Mary-Louise Parker). Chloe Sevigny plays Alyssa, Nick’s wife and probably the most depressing therapist in the entire state of New York. She’s worried about Naomi’s arrival because Nick has a history of unfaithfulness, although it’s tough to see why anybody would be interested in him. Nick and Alyssa barely speak; they wander in and out of rooms not even acknowledging one another. This drives her anxiety through the roof. He seems perfectly comfortable keeping to himself in his cramped office full of dusty old documents.
Golden Exits is 90-minutes but it feels like three torturous hours, as one awful character after another takes advantage of Naomi in different ways emotionally. A furry Jason Schwartzman plays Buddy, a record exec who met Naomi years earlier and now sneaks away from his wife (Analeigh Tipton) to spend time with her under the guise of innocent “catching up”. That’s how all men treat Naomi; they idolize and fetishize her until they realize how unattainable she is, then they demonize. The women are no better, eyeing her with suspicion and projecting their own fears and insecurities upon her. It would be fine if any of the characters actually did something, but Perry is content to have them deliver long, gloomy monologues that leave little to the imagination. When it’s implied that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, one character replies with “The grass is dead – I’m covered with salt.”
That’s fine, you stick with that. I’ll be over here heading for the exits.
Nobody wants to accept the power of Grayskull. It’s another setback for the Masters of the Universe movie as David Goyer, who came aboard to direct late last year, has backed out due to “other commitments.”
The live-action film based on the popular Hasbro toyline has been in the works for years through various studios and with numerous creators attached. First it was Kung Fu Panda‘s John Stevenson, followed by G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon M. Chu. He seemed like the perfect choice given his familiarity with successful toy adaptations, but that fell through and Charlie’s Angels director McG replaced him. There hasn’t been any casting during this whole process, either.
Goyer will be busy developing a sci-fi miniseries based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, so he’ll be way too busy for a film project of this size. His script may still be used, however, and he’ll stick around as an exec-producer, but Sony will need to rush to find a new director and meet the planned December 18th 2019 release date. [Variety]
Throughout this season of Arrow, Cayden James has been our ultimate heel. After all, you don’t cast “Ben Linus” himself, Michael Emerson, for no reason unless he’s going to be the ultimate foil. He’s laid his plans carefully and concisely throughout the past twelve episodes. After breaking escaping prison, he’s taken his time to enact his revenge against Oliver and Star City, forcing Team Arrow to disband, obtaining a weapon of mass distraction, and threatening to hold the city hostage. This week, the deadline draws near as he’s about to destroy the city. Only Oliver, Team Arrow, and the Outsiders are able to try and stop him.
The episode begins with four hours remaining until Carden James is to detonate the bomb and kill everyone in Star City. We know that his main motivation is to get vengeance on Oliver because he believed that the Oliver killed his star athlete son as collateral damage from his Green Arrow vigilante activities. Oliver discovered that when his son died, he was not even in town, but the evidence he saw says otherwise. Of course, this means that the video has been doctored, the same way it was when he was outed as the Green Arrow four months ago. However, James doesn’t believe him, so he’s moving forward with his plan.
Felicity’s former Helix fried/foe Alena temporarily joined Team Arrow to provide additional Overwatch tech support on trying to decode who doctored the video of James’s son’s death. Through their extensive (and quick) hacking and analysis of the video, they determined that the real killer was a hired assassin, who of course, ended up dead later on. Oliver took this news to James in the hopes that he would call off the bomb. Thanks to a certain scarlet speedster getting Oliver and Diggle to speed into James’ path, they manage to show him the video. After reluctantly seeing the death of his son, he realizes that the video was doctored, meaning someone in his inner circle is responsible for it. His cabal isn’t as tight-knitted as he would have thought. That doesn’t mean that he is willing to call of the bomb just yet. James tasks Oliver with finding his three former compatriots and bringing them to him, so that he can interrogate them. If Oliver doesn’t do it in time, the bomb will still go off.
Realizing that he can’t do it himself, Oliver asks the Outsiders to help him find Anatoly, Dragon, and Black Siren. The problem is that with Black Siren killing Vigilante last week, Dinah is hell-bent on getting justice: i.e.: she wants to kill her. At the same time, Quinten is convinced that there is some piece of his daughter in her Earth-2 counterpart and he wants to save her somehow. Oliver and company get Diaz and Anatol, while the Outsiders manage to capture Earth-2 Laurel. Once they have all three, they tell James, who wants them to meet up at an old theater where the bomb is also located. However, Oliver’s son William also hears this info and doesn’t want to lose his dad like he did his mom, so he shows up there as well.
At the big showdown, James confronts all three and is willing to set off the bomb. Black Siren falsely confesses, but James (like all of us) isn’t buying it. After her proximity to James detonator de-powers her power dampening collar, a fight breaks out between all the groups. Black Siren and Black Canary fight it out while Curtis and Renee take on Dragon and Anatoly. Oliver is left with James. His son briefly gets involved and even remembers his own son who dies (all this episode’s flashbacks focus on Cayden James being an absentee father who ended up imprisoned which led to his son dying). Finally blaming himself, he’s ready to set off the bomb, but Oliver uses an arrow at the last moment to spear him in the arm, stopping him from setting it off. Dragon and Anatoly manage to escape while Dinah manages to shoot Black Siren, but Quinten helps her escape with the hope that she will turn a new leaf.
Cayden end up locked behind bars and even willing to Help Oliver recover the ransomed money as well as point out where Anatoly and Dragon could possibly be. That’s when the real bad guy is finally reveals. Dragon, who this season seemed like small player finally lays his cards on the table. With a few cops on his payroll, he manages to freely enter the police station and confronts Cayden. There, he reveals that it’s a better idea to take over the city, than to blow it up. The whole time, he’s been playing Cayden James, Oliver, pretty much everyone. With Oliver under investigation and Team Arrow broken up, the city’s ripe for the taking. The only other person in his way is Cayden James. He then proceeds to kill him in the police station, and now our real big bad has finally been revealed.
Arrow is also going on a hiatus until March 1st, but when it returns, Team Arrow will finally face off against their former teammates, the Outsiders.
When Iron Man hit like a Tony Stark smart bomb in 2008, nobody could have predicted what its arrival meant. Not only was the film a smashing success, although its $585M seems quaint now, but it heralded in a new era for the way Hollywood makes blockbuster movies. Ten years and over $13B in revenues later and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the strongest brand in the world. Period. And that’s cause for celebration.
Last October, Marvel gathered in secret more than 80 of the MCU’s past stars and filmmakers for an awesome class photo taken during the shoot for Avengers: Infinity War. The timing was perfect as the film marks the end of an era for Marvel Studios and the start of what they hope will be another decade of dominance.
Gathered for the occasion were Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pratt, Chadwick Boseman, Brie Larson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Holland, Sean Gunn, Hannah John-Kamen, Zoe Saldana, Angela Bassett, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kurt Russell, Danai Gurira, William Hurt, Karen Gillan, Emily VanCamp, Tessa Thompson, Don Cheadle, Dave Bautista, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, Evangeline Lilly, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Frank Grillo, Letitia Wright, Laurence Fishburne, Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Stan, Ty Simpkins, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Benedict Wong, Michael Rooker, Vin Diesel, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeff Goldblum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Stan Lee, Scott Derrickson, Trinh Tran, Alan Taylor, Brad Winderbaum, Louis Letterier, Jon Watts, Sarah Finn, James Gunn, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Joss Whedon, David Grant, Mitchell Bell, Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Jeffrey Ford, Peyton Reed, Jonathan Schwartz, Stephen Broussard, Ryan Coogler, Jeremy Latcham, Nate Moore, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Taika Waititi, Erik Carroll, Ryan Meinerding and Craig Kyle.
Check out a video commemorating the event below. And do your part to make all of these folks richer by going to see Black Panther on February 16, followed by Avengers: Infinity War on May 4th.
The rise of the antiheroes is here. I made reference to it in today’s earlier post about the Venom trailer, but now DC Comics’ Lobo, another comic book character who rose to prominence during the antihero era may be getting his crack at the big screen, with a surprising choice to possibly direct it.
According to The Wrap Michael Bay is in talks to direct Lobo, based on the chain-smoking intergalactic bounty hunter frequently compared to Wolverine. Bay seems pretty deeply involved in this, too, as his participation depends on the script by Jason Fuchs, who previously wrote Wonder Woman and…Pan. The director has gone so far as to provide Fuchs with some notes to help out with the screenplay. No truth to the rumor his points in the margins read, “More ‘splosions and hawt babes!”
