While we’ve come to accept that the arrival of the digital age has changed everything for the blue-collar workforce, the same can be said for criminals. What does a pickpocket do when people are no longer walking around with leather wallets full of cash, but instead money is kept “safely” in digital wallets? John Turturro plays a thief facing that dilemma in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, which earned critical acclaim at Sundance earlier this year.
Written and directed by Noah Segan, the film stars Turturro and a cast of fellow screen veterans including Giancarlo Esposito, Will Price, Tatiana Maslany, Victoria Moroles, Steve Buscemi, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Rian Johnson serves as an exec-producer, as well.
SYNOPSIS: Harry Lehman (John Turturro) is an aging pickpocket who plies his trade with ever-diminishing returns in a drastically changed New York. Wallets stuffed with cash have been replaced by easily canceled credit cards, and Harry struggles to make ends meet as he cares for his disabled wife, Rosie. When he unwittingly purloins and fences a valuable USB stick, Harry finds himself in a race against time to return the loot or face the rage of a vengeful crime family.”
Sony Pictures Classics releases The Only Living Pickpocket in New York on October 16th in LA and NY, before expanding a week later.
The volatile mix of journalism, reality entertainment, and law enforcement took off with shows such as Cops and America’s Most Wanted in the 1980s and 1990s. But it exploded with the arrival of To Catch a Predator in 2004, and recently, as seen in the documentary Predators (review here), there’s renewed interest in exploring how blurring these lines led to catastrophic results for society as a whole. Documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim makes his feature debut with Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as controversial host Chris Hansen, who became the face of how this kind of exploitation could go terribly wrong.
A24 has dropped the first full trailer for Primetime ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, with Pattinson starring as Hansen, an investigative journalist who made television history by exposing the underbelly of sexual predators for all of the world to see.
Without giving too much away about Hansen’s trajectory, he’s a guy who was constantly torn between the pursuit of ratings and doing what’s right legally, and that led to consequences I don’t think he was prepared for.
Pattinson’s joined in the cast by Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Anna Faris, and Phoebe Bridgers.
SYNOPSIS: In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history.
A24 has set Primetime to hit theaters on September 25th.
There are worse things than doing a rom-com version of The Purge. Heck, they did a lowbrow comedy version of it with The Binge (where drinking was legal for just one day) a couple of years ago, and that was pretty terrible. If your idea is to only make sex legal to have once per year, as is the case with Will Gluck’s One Night Only, the best way is to have it be like sex itself. Don’t think about it too much; and if it’s messy then you’re doing something right. Unfortunately, this plucky but exhausting extended “meet cute” takes all of the joy out of sex despite its charming leads, Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner.
Barbaro and Turner’s chemistry is through the roof, and if you can shut out all of the nonsense around them…damn, they’re electric together! Unfortunately, the movie is constantly reminding you just how ridiculous the conceit actually is. Basically, a the government, obviously an extremist right-wing administration like something out of The Handmaid’s Tale, has decreed that sex between unmarried people is legal for just one day each year. There’s a lot of complicated crap about a company that literally brands every human in the country with a tag that rats you out if you’re about to get laid. If this were real, it’d be chaos, dystopia, warfare on the streets. But here, people just kind of accept it. There are a few rebels, but they are portrayed as villains or punchlines rather than as commentary.
The screenplay by Travis Braun simultaneously goes too far into the details, while also not being particularly well thought-out. Either way, it’s a distraction when we should be paying attention to Barbaro and Turner’s magnetism, which is considerable.
Barbaro stars as Allie, a New Yorker with a lovely enough singing voice for humiliating TV ads. Turner is Owen, owner of a pizza restaurant that serves the best pies in the city. Both are hopeless romantics, and when the mandate is lifted, they don’t want just a quick roll in the hay. They want to find the real thing, or something close to it. Making matters worse is that Owen’s girlfriend (Maya Hawke) has decided she wants to sleep with another guy in their apartment…a guy who looks shockingly like Gluck’s Anything But You star, Glen Powell. Keep your eyes peeled for a funny cameo by Powell’s co-star, Sydney Sweeney, as well. The cameos in this movie are pretty great, including rom-com legend Ally Sheedy as Owen’s mom, and Levar Burton as her lover.
Allie and Owen keep crossing paths throughout the night, showing flashes of “Are they The One?” energy. But for the msot part, they are merely chummy with one another, bordering on antagonistic at other times. They are usually trying to sleep with other people, constantly missing the perfect someone right in front of their faces. Classic rom-com tropes, but with a clever twist. Again, One Night Only has a good idea, just executed poorly. Its characters don’t seem genuinely affected by this crazy twist in the way the world works; they’re like visitors from rom-com land dropped into it to act exactly the same way.
For stretches, it’s possible to turn your brain off and not think about the things that are wrong with One Night Only. Allie and Owen’s relationship builds as they keep bumping into one another through the evening, sharing embarrassing war stories, gathering trust in one another. Sure, they usually end up ditching the other to try and bang another potential partner, but they always find their way back together and it’s sweet every time they do. They share a slice of pizza, of course they do, and he gets to hear her sing. The basic formula stuff just works.
Like the recent rom-com Eternity, a simiarly high-concept, nifty premise, and with Callum Turner, One Night Only‘s best gags are in the fleshing out of this ridiculous alternate reality. Pete Davidon and Bobby Cannavale shooting a terrible cop thriller on this night because the streets will be empty (that’s not actually true; horny New Yorkers are EVERYWHERE gettin’ it on), a shop owner upcharging on the last condom available because duh, the insane amount of KY jelly product placement, and dating apps becoming more skeevy than ever.
Then One Night Only practically begs you to overthink it, by having one character blame Obama for this ridiculous anti-sex mandate because he swung the ideological pendulum too far. How does all of this affect the LGBTQ community? Other than Allie’s roommate (played by Quintessa Swindell in a throw away role), they are hardly even a consideration. And where do sex workers fit into all of this? Surely there’s like an underground network operating somewhere, right? Like alcohol during Prohibition? Maybe, but the only one we see is a thief who uses the evening to entrap men and rob them blind. Eh.
Through it all, I was willing to give One Night Only a thumbs up until the last five minutes. It’s been a shockingly sex-free film, because Allie and Owen, ultimately, are about fighting against the mandate, or so they say. But they aren’t fighting it at all. By doing exactly what the mandate calls for, following its rules to the tee, they are embracing it. They might be doing it in the name of love, but sex is part of that equation, too. And if you aren’t willing to fight for love, you don’t deserve to have it.
Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow inspired a ton of conversation at Sundance a couple of years ago for its exploration of the impact of consumed media on individual identity, especially at a young age. They return to a similar theme, albeit in the realm of horror, with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. A clear love for the slasher genre runs throughout the film, but also a willingness to tackle transphobic themes in some of the most classic franchises. Schoenbrun proves again to be one of the most unique and insightful voices working in film right now, and if they wanted to, could make a really killer horror movie, too.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma actually has a fictional horror franchise at its core, the Camp Miasma series, which is very much in the vein of Friday the 13th. The original movie was considered a genre classic, but it led to a slew of increasingly cheesy sequels, including a sci-fi riff ala Jason X. That’s where Hacks breakout Hannah Einbinder enters the picture as Kris, an indie filmmaker whose first movie, described hilariously as Psycho from the perspective of the shower curtain, has been hired to reboot the franchise. The original movies have been deemed transphobic, so the studio’s answer to that is hiring Kris largely because she’s LGBTQ. That should calm the woke masses, they figure. It’s not an entirely ridiculous scenario, and like a lot of things in this film, it rings as something Schoenbrun has encountered already.
X-Files legend Gillian Anderson enters the picture as Billy Presley, the final girl of the original Camp Miiasma, who Kris hopes to cast in her movie. Billy has become a recluse, literally living on the old movie set, still designed to resemble a sleepaway camp. Being of a much simpler time, Billy doesn’t understand all of Kris’ high-concept reboot ideas. While they aren’t always on the same page, the two are drawn to one another, and the sexual tension is thick almost immediately. The first half of the movie is largely dedicated to this dynamic, with Schoenbrun engaging in some light-hearted, sexually charged interactions, many of them involving buckets of KFC and bushels of candy.
Whereas I Saw the TV Glow was about sexual identity and finding community, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is about sexual awareness and awakening. For much of the film, Kris is uncomfortable in her own skin. She is completely different around Billy, as the two bond through their mutual obsession with Little Death, the psycho killer from the Camp Miasma films, and a kind of eroticism that comes with being one of his victims. This leads to the film’s most purely enjoyable stretch, where Schoenbrun recreates the movie in the style of nostalgic ’80s and ’90s slashers, with burn marks in the film print and everything. It’s here that we also get some really fun casting choices, such as Severance actor Zach Cherry and Sorry, Baby superstar Eva Victor as actors way too old to be playing horny teens. Sarah Sherman, Quintessa Swindell, and Jasmin Savoy Brown complete an ensemble full of queer representation and community supporters.
Having never watched Hacks but heard of Einbinder’s performances from others, she was a revelation to me. She’s immensely watchable and likable, bouncing between Kris’ stubbornness as a hotshot intellectual filmmaker and the awkwardness which she approaches anything that hits closer to home. Anderson, doing her best Norma Desmond impression, is clearly having a blast and chewing up every scene she shares with Einbinder.
The final act goes a bit off the rails, as Kris and Billy indulge in some wild erotic desires. It’s too meta and over-the-top for its own good, and raises questions about what’s real and what isn’t that don’t necessarily need to be asked at such a late stage. That said, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is, in its own way, a love letter to horror and fans of the genre are going to eat up every bloody morsel. The future is bright for both Schoenbrun and Einbinder, and hopefully we get to see a lot more from them both in the horror space.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma opens August 7th.
Most who know me are aware that I’m not the biggest horror fan in the world, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Eli Roth’s movies. From Cabin Fever, to Hostel, to The Green Inferno, and Thanksgiving, the more gory Roth gets, the more I dig it. This week he hits levels of depravity that we’ve never seen before with Ice Cream Man (review here), a truly twisted nightmare that will scar your happy childhood memories of the neighborhood ice cream truck.
Ice Cream Man has a pretty simple idea at its core. The ice cream man that we all knew and loved as kids…well, what if he’s an evil sonuvabitch bent on revenge? In the film, Ari Millen plays the sneering, mustached villain, whose sweet treats drive the kiddos to insane levels of violence against adults. Roth splatters the screen with guts, severed limbs, and decapitated heads, with all of the violence perpetrated by kids. You can practically hear Roth laughing with sadistic glee.
I had the chance to speak with Eli Roth about Ice Cream Man, a film he distributed himself. Roth explained that this was an idea creeping around in his head for years, and he finally had a chance to make it a reality. We talked about the film’s darkly comic edge, and what it’s like when the school-aged cast are all asked to unleash carnage. What do their parents think about that?
I’m happy to offer DC readers the chance to attend a free early screening of The End of Oak Street, starring Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway. Produced by JJ Abrams, the mysterious sci-fi film is directed by David Robert Mitchell.
SYNOPSIS: After a mysterious cosmic event rips Oak Street from suburbia and transports their neighborhood to someplace unknown, the Platt family soon discovers that their very survival depends on them sticking together as they navigate their now unrecognizable surroundings.
The screening takes place Monday, August 10th at 7:00pm at Regal Majestic. If you’d like to attend, RSVP at the Warner Bros. site here. Please remember, all screenings are first come first served and you’ll need to arrive early to ensure seating. Enjoy the show!
The End of Oak Street hits theaters on August 14th.
Did you think Ready Player Two was dead? Apparently, that’s not the case. Screenwriter Zak Penn, who adapted Ernest Cline’s beloved Ready Player One in 2018 for Steven Spielberg, told The Direct that he’s currently working on the sequel. Updates have been few and far between since plans were first revealed in 2020.
Last we’d heard was from Spielberg himself, who said in 2024 that if he were to return for Ready Player Two, it would only be as a producer. Nothing has changed on that front, as far as I can tell. Spielberg directed the previous movie, a cool mix of video game graphics, live-action, and CG, to over $580M at the box office. Not Spielberg’s biggest hit, but he’d kill for those numbers today.
The film would be based on Cline’s novel, published in 2020. The story picks up after Wade Watts has gained control of the OASIS virtual reality system that has become an escape from a dystopian world. When a new discovery is made that could change the VR experience, Wade and his pals in the High 5 go on another adventure.
It’s unclear if stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Simon Pegg, Lena Waithe, Ben Mendelsohn, TJ Miller, and Mark Rylance would return. Almost certainly not Miller, who is still a Hollywood pariah.
Warner Bros. had planned a 2028 release for Ready Player Two, and if it can manage to get moving by next year, that’s still a possibility.
If you’re asking why there’s a sixth Insidious movie hitting theaters in a couple of weeks, it’s not that hard to figure out. It’s the rare franchise that is getting stronger as it gets older, with 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door earning the most of all with $189M. Titled Insidious: Out of the Further, the film returns Lin Shaye as the series’ popular protagonist, the powerful psychic Elise Rainier.
Starring alongside Shaye is The Haunting of Bly Manor‘s Alice Eve as Gemma, a young mother with the ability to travel into the demonic realm known as The Further. When it’s discovered that Gemma can also bring those lost souls into our world, all Hell breaks loose.
The film is directed by Jacob Chase from a script he co-wrote with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, writer of three movies in The Conjuring universe. Previously, Chase directed the Gillian Jacobs horror film Come Play.
Joining Shaye and Eve in the cast are Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Sam Spruell.
Opening on August 21st 2026, Insidious: Out of the Further follows the box office success of Insidious: The Red Door, which was directed by franchise star Patrick Wilson.
SYNOPSIS: In Insidious: Out of the Further, Amelia Eve stars as Gemma, a young mother raising her daughter in the house she grew up in who discovers she can travel into The Further, the purgatorial realm of lost souls at the heart of the Insidious universe. When something evil comes after her, Gemma discovers an ability that changes everything: she doesn’t just enter The Further, she can bring what lives there back to the real world. Once the demons realize her power, our world becomes their playground.
Fans hoping Spider-Man will get some love in the upcoming Avengers movies just got a bit of good news. Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton revealed to The Wrap that writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers were recruited to do rewrites on Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Could we see some of Peter Parker’s plot threads picked up in those films?
So how did all of this come about? According to Cretton, when rewrites were needed on Brand New Day, McKenna and Sommers were unavailable because of their Avengers work. It’s the first we’ve heard of anybody writing those films other than Stephen McFeely, a frequent collaborator with the Russo Bros.
With them busy elsewhere, Challengers writer Justin Kuritzkes was brought in and worked side by side with Cretton. That news was revealed back in June.
“When Justin came in, he brought fresh eyes and a new perspective, and he’s clearly got a different perspective with the way that he writes,” Cretton said.
While Kuritzkes didn’t get a full screenplay credit, Cretton says “he was with me every day throughout the entire process to the end of the movie, and he wrote some of the most beautiful scenes in our movie.”
Kurtizkes wrote for Zendaya in Luca Guadagnino’s tennis rom-com, Challengers, and that may have had something to do with his hiring. He also wrote for Daniel Craig in the acclaimed drama, Queer, and is just a great writer overall. Hopefully, he sticks around Marvel for a while.
Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18th, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on December 17th 2027.
Eli Roth gets his kicks by taking the things you love and turning them into gory nightmares. You can’t go on vacation anymore without worry that you’ll stumble into a Hostel-like situation, camping trips might turn into a freakish Cabin Fever scenario, and Thanksgiving will never be the same again. Now Roth has turned his attention to one of our most wholesome childhood memories, getting a sweet frozen treat from the ice cream truck. Ice Cream Man is the realization of a decades-long idea that Roth’s had to turn the ice cream truck guy into a devious villain the likes of Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. Except, this slasher is more like the Pied Piper, using the tasty goodies as a means to turn children into the most violent killers Roth has ever put on a screen, and I want you to think about the ground that covers because it’s significant.
Yes, the extreme violence perpetrated in Ice Cream Man is 100% committed by children, which only makes it more disturbing. And we’re not just talking about simple deaths here. Roth goes to some seriously twisted places to stretch out the titular concept, such as having kids dishing out an adults’ brains with an ice cream scoop. This is Terrifier levels of carnage, to the point that it’s numbing by the time the credits roll.
Roth is at least playing on a darkly comedic level with Ice Cream Man. The film starts like an easygoing summer comedy ala The Sandlot. An all-American suburban neighborhood, kids playing baseball, school bullies, playgrounds, not a cloud in the sky, and, naturally, the ice cream man. Played by Ari Millen with a sadistic glint in his eye and creepy thin mustache, this guy is more interested in sickening vengeance than in dishing out King Cones.
Like those tainted chicken nuggets from 2014’s Cooties, the treats served up in Ice Cream Man turn the kiddos into murderous zombies, their faces and clothes smeared with melted delights and blood alike. They turn their aggression against the adults, the real targets of Ice Cream Man’s wrath for past sins. Teachers get their heads, limbs, and guts shredded by chainsaws; some of them have their innards used as jump ropes, and it actually gets more disgusting from there. Not all of the kids turn, however. A handful, including one kid who is lactose intolerant, avoided the ice cream man’s wares, and must try to stop this massacre while avoiding having ice cream literally shoved into their mouths.
Ice Cream Man is Roth’s sickening idea of a good time, and I have to admit, I had a good time with it, too. Even as the film is basically a single idea stretched to the 90-minute breaking point, it’s just a blast to see Roth in all of his NC-17 glory again. He’s been way too watered down with mediocre mainstream fare of late, such as the awful Borderlands and kiddie flick The House with a Clock in its Walls. The timing is unfortunate, though, as it arrives as we’re experiencing a wave of smart, elevated horrors such as Obsession, Backrooms, and Weapons, which it bears some surface similarity to. It must’ve made it rough for Roth to find the film a home, which is why he created The Horror Section banner to distribute it himself.
That said, there’s still a place for unabashedly grotesque, low-budget stuff like Ice Cream Man that takes carnage to ultimate levels of absurdity. Like too much dessert before dinner, the sheer amount of bloodshed threatens to spoil the whole meal, but for fans operating on Roth’s demented level, there’s enough to savor.
