If you saw the new Mean Girls musical, then you are already aware of how funny and talented Avantika was as the dopey Karen Shetty. Her song “Sexy” totally stole the film. Well, Avantika is back and going in the complete opposite direction. She’s starring in the new horror, Tarot, and based on the title you probably already know what it’s about.
Well, let me take that back, because Avantika might be perfect as a stupid youngster who underestimates the power of tarot readings and unleashes evil supernatural forces into the world. Isn’t that always the way? Did these people not watch Talk to Me? Or any horror movie for that matter?
Joining Avantika in the cast are Spider-Man‘s Jacob Batalon, Harriet Slater, and Adain Bradley. The film is written and directed Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg. It marks the feature-length directorial debut for both, although Cohen previously wrote the Halle Berry thriller Moonfall. Make of that what you will.
Here’s the synopsis: When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
Nobody is moving at a clip faster than Guy Ritchie right now. With a slew of projects either completed or coming up, both on the big and small screen, Ritchie’s next feature is the WWII action-comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and today a trailer has arrived. Per usual, Ritchie has stacked the roster with stars, and those looking for strict adherence to historical accuracy might as well check out now.
Ritchie reunites with his The Man from UNCLE star Henry Cavill, who plays real-life British figure Gus March-Phillipps, founder of the Small Scale Raiding Force established by Winston Churchill during WWII. Also in the cast are Eiza Gonzalez, Reacher‘s Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusamokun, Henry Zaga, Til Schweiger, with Henry Golding, and Cary Elwes.
Jerry Bruckheimer is aboard as a producer, a sign of the blockbuster scope and expectations for this one. The film is based on Damian Lewis’ book, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops.
Here’s the synopsis: Based upon recently declassified files of the British War Department and inspired by true events, THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE is an action-comedy that tells the story of the first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a small group of military officials including author Ian Fleming. The top-secret combat unit, composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks, goes on a daring mission against the Nazis using entirely unconventional and utterly “ungentlemanly” fighting techniques. Ultimately their audacious approach changed the course of the war and laid the foundation for the British SAS and modern Black Ops warfare.
Also coming up for Ritchie? Adventure film Fountain of Youth with John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, and Eiza Gonzalez. He’s already wrapped on an untitled movie with Jake Gyllenhaal, Cavill, and Gonzalez. Do you get the feeling he likes working with Cavill and Gonzalez? He also wrote and directed Netflix’s series spinoff of The Gentlemen.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare opens on April 19th.
If you go back and read the Punch Drunk Critics review for Jesse Eisenberg’s first featureWhen You Finish Saving The World, there was room for him to improve. Well, he found it in A Real Pain, his second directing effort and the first one he is starring in. While Eisenberg’s script stands out as a heartbreaking and hilarious ride through generational trauma, it’s his costar, Kieran Culkin, who steals the show in a moving and manic performance.
A Real Pain starts at the airport, where the listless Benji is waiting for his cousin, the direct opposite and by-the-book David, to board a plane to Poland to visit their recently deceased grandmother’s homeland. Together, they will join a tour group led by non-Jewish historian James (Will Sharpe) and attended by divorcee Marcia (Jennifer Grey), married couple Diane (Liza Sadovy) and Mark (Daniel Oreskes), and convert Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan).
Our introduction to the Eisenberg character is as you’d expect from the well-known actor. Though Benji won’t pick up the phone, David leaves multiple messages thinking his cousin will be late. It shows his anxiety and history with his cousin. Sure, the scene shows off more of Eisenberg’s writing ability than his acting range, but the sequence sets the tone for the rest of the film.
As the group travels around Poland, Benji makes himself the center of attention. He bonds with Marcia, helping her find solace in her divorce. He helps everyone loosen up by taking a silly picture. While David thinks it’s in bad taste, everyone else soon joins in. Not all of his interactions with the group are positive. He constantly interrupts and isn’t afraid to confront someone without thinking about how his words come off, like telling James that parts of his delivery don’t come off as culturally appropriate.
Culkin can communicate a severe melancholy within Benji that is somehow endearing. We’ve seen flashes of this in his Emmy Award-winning work as Roman Roy in Succession, Benji feels a bit like a spiritual twin to his titular character from Igby Goes Down, especially if the latter never emotionally grew up. A Real Pain is a perfect title because it aptly would describe traveling with this character, but it also would describe the deep unrest he is feeling in his life.
While the film feels like it should be a two-hander between its leads with the occasional volley to Will Sharpe, Culkin takes the ball and runs with it. Though the two, get their confrontation and eventual emotional release, Culkin steals the film. Eisenberg lets him, knowing what a brilliant gem of a performance he’s been given.
A Real Pain will be released by Searchlight later this year.
The story of Reality Winner has been adapted three times now for the screen. The first, Reality, was a 2023 HBO movie starring Sydney Sweeney that followed the former US solider and NSA contractor’s two-hour interrogation by FBI agents for leaking classified documents. It was based on Tina Satter’s play Is This A Room and the script followed official transcripts carefully, though didn’t fully capture the young woman’s personality. The second film was Sonia Kennebeck’s 2023 documentary aptly titled Reality Winner, which covered her case and her life in depth, with interviews from other people charged under the Espionage Act.
At this year’s Sundance, director Susanna Fogel (last year’s Cat Person) brings us another titular film about Reality Winner, this time taking the freed thirty-something’s last name. Winner starts at a formative moment of defiance for our lead character (Emilia Jones) when she frees a bunch of puppies from a mall pet store. Her father, Ron (Zach Galifianakis) looks on proudly while her mother, Billie (Connie Britton), and sister, Brittany (played as an adult by Kathryn Newton), disapprove. These moments of defiance build up as she grows up, learns Arabic languages and joins the military.
She eventually gets a job translating for the NSA, which she relaxes from by putting herself through punishingly hard workouts. If she could stay in a plank for five minutes, the transcript she turned over that day wouldn’t lead to people’s deaths. That sort of thinking drives her to look at the injustices of the world differently. Eventually, the 2016 election happened and she found a classified document indicating that despite government insistence, there was proof Russians interfered in the election. Like the puppies in the mall, she decides to release the document.
Winner leaves out two major plotlines that would give a more complete picture of its subject’s life. The first is the role of The Intercept in her arrest. As the documentary explored, The Intercept failed to protect its source from persecution by the government. In Fogel and Howley’s story, the news outlet is reduced to a few lines of dialogue, which seems to put more of the blame on Winner. The second is the very important detail that Donald Trump was indicted on the same espionage charge that she spent five years in prison for. This goes back to the idea that Reality Winner’s crimes were inherently political and therefore a political stance should have been taken by the filmmakers. Fogel tries her hardest to present this story without a political lens, but in doing so it paints Reality’s actions as somewhat pointless, which if you followed her story, were anything but.
The best thing about Winner is its exploration of Winner’s relationship with her father. Not explored in the previous film or documentary, the history between those two characters provides context into where her political beliefs came from, for the sake of this story and Winner’s story as a whole. That’s something that the documentary doesn’t touch. Galifianakis is obviously known for his broad comedic performances, however, I’ve always believed he’s at his best playing more complicated and somber characters. Similar to his role in It’s Kind of A Funny Story, he brings an intriguing melancholy to his character that draws you in and doesn’t let you go.
Here’s hoping that the real Reality Winner feels that her story has been adequately told between all three films. If we do get another biopic, I hope time can give us a complete and clear picture of her, taking the best part of each film to create an even better biopic in the distant future.
Saoirse Ronan is known for her performances. She’s the kind of actress who can take a bad movie and elevate it (looking at you Foe). The Irish native doesn’t need to do that with her latest project and Sundance standout, The Outrun. The second English language feature from German director Nora Fingscheidt was based on Amy Liptrot’s book of the same name and co-written by both of them. Part addiction biopic and nature narrative, the team-up between these three women takes something that should feel boring or emotionally laborious and turns it into a moving story of survival.
With ambitious editing by Stephan Bechinger, The Outrun jumps before and after Rona’s (Ronan) rock bottom. Cutting between her time in London where her drinking became out of control and her life as a conservationist in the Scottish Orkney Islands, Rona’s life is mixed between before and afters stemming from childhood trauma at the hands of her father (Stephen Dillane).
As she comes back to restart her life sober, she struggles with her mother’s (Saskia Reeves) relationship with God and her father’s mental illness. Her time in London getting her Masters in Biology is marked by her seemingly healthy relationship with Daynin (Paapa Essiedu) which crumbles as her dependence on drinking increases. At times the editing is slightly confusing, as it takes a minute to establish if we are in the present or past. I kept telling colleagues that I believe a better story starting point would have been when she heads to a remote island for work after relapsing with everything else in flashback.
Normally, I believe voiceover is rarely called for. However, Ronan’s narration and the writing provided by Liptrot and Fingscheidt, give a grounding connection to the nature around Rona. The Orkney Islands become another character in the story through this device. It’s ironically sobering to Rona’s reality of dealing with her alcohol addiction
Ronan is at the heart of The Outrun. She disappears in the role. In the last few years, she’s proven her range in grounded work such as Ammonite and On Chesil Beach and in zanier projects like See How They Run and The French Dispatch. As Rona, she has never been more raw and vulnerable. From the anguish in her eyes to her drunken giggle, Ronan packs her performance with purpose and emotion. While the script and Fingscheudt’s direction packs a punch, it’s Ronan you can’t look away from.
James Gunn and DC Studios have found their Woman of Tomorrow! It took a few weeks, but Gunn has named House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock as his new Supergirl. She’ll take on the role in a future Supergirl movie, and possibly appear elsewhere across the new DCU.
The Wrap confirmed the news of Alcock’s casting. She had been in contention along with CODA star Emilia Jones and Supergirl voice actress Meg Donnelly since January, so this wasn’t a long testing process and did not include Sasha Calle, who played the role most recently in The Flash. Some fans had been hoping she’d stick around, but when Gunn confirmed his Supergirl would be based on Tom King’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic, that idea flew out the window.
This is only the seconf feature film role for Alcock, who previously starred in the 2018 Australian horror, The School.
No director is attached to the movie yet, but a script is being written by Ana Nogueira, who had been hired to write a Supergirl movie for Calle that obviously won’t happen. Because this casting is so early in the process, there’s a good chance we could see Alcock debut in Superman: Legacy, which Gunn plans to shoot this March for a July 2025 release.
Chris Rock has reason to celebrate today! Deadline reports that Rock will develop and direct an English-language remake of Another Round, the 2020 Thomas Vinterberg dramedy that starred Mads Mikkelsen and won Best International Feature award at the Oscars.
The original Another Round starred Mikkelsen as one of four high school teachers who engage in a social experiment to be inebriated all day every day. Why? So they’ll be more creative and energetic for their students. But the plan doesn’t go nearly as planned, affecting their professional and personal lives.
Leonardo DiCaprio is among the producers through his Appian Way label.
Rock will direct and co-write the script, rewriting the first draft by Stuart Bloomberg. This will be Rock’s first time behind the camera since 2014’s critically acclaimed Top Five. He also directed Head of State in 2003, and I Think I Love My Wife in 2007.
Don’t be fooled; Rock is a serious filmmaker and has made directing his priority. He’s also developing an adaptation of Jonathan Eig’s novel King: A Life about Martin Luther King, Jr. There’s also an untitled screenplay that Rock is writing but it’s unclear what that project is at this time.
If there’s one film that everyone was talking about at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, it was Thelma. Written and directed by newcomer Josh Margolin, the heist action comedy gave 94-year-old June Squibb the starring role she’d never received in her decades-long career.
Inspired by a close-call experience with his own grandmother, Margolin’s Thelma follows a 90-something grandmother as she journeys to get back the money scammers took from her. Joining Squibb is the late Richard Roundtree as the Bonnie to her Clyde. Fred Hechinger plays her directionless grandson determined to find her, while Parker Posey and Clark Gregg play his helicopter parents.
There’s a lot to talk about with the film. From it being Squibb’s first starring role to Richard Roundtree’s last to action-packed scooter chases. I had the opportunity to chat with Thelma’s star and director at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where they told me about the love and passion that went into this project.
The SAG-AFTRA delays continue to do a number on Marvel’s Thunderbolts, which is gearing up to start production soon. Ayo Edibiri is the latest to depart the villain film due to scheduling conflicts, and Deadline reports her replacement has already been found. Blockers and The Broken Hearts Gallery star Geraldine Viswanathan has stepped into the open role, which remains a mystery.
This is the second such casting move in recent days, as Lewis Pullman was added to replace Steven Yeun who had also left due to scheduling issues.
Viswanathan joins an ensemble that includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier, Harrison Ford as General Thunderbolt Ross, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Wyatt Russell as US Agent, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster.
So one thing we can surmise is that Viswanathan’s role is a funny one, because she’s replacing Edibiri who is also known for her comedy chops. She had been rumored for the Ms. Marvel role that ultimately went to Iman Vellani, but now she’s officially under the Marvel umbrella.
Thunderbolts is expected to open in July 2025, directed by Jake Schreier. Coming up for Viswanathan is Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls opposite Margaret Qualley, and comedy You’re Cordially Invited with Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon.
Has anyone put together that the trouble always seems to follow the Ghostbusters around? Especially in New York? In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, a sequel to 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the descendants of Egon Spengler have left their small town behind for New York City where, of course, supernatural danger threatens everyone and everything with the cold snap from Hell.
The film brings back the cast of the prior movie, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, McKenna Grace, Celeste O’Connor, and Logan Kim. Now that they’re official Ghostbusters, they’ll reunite the original crew Dan Akroyd, Bill Muray, Ernie Hudson, and even Annie Potts whose Janine Melnitz finally leaves the secretary desk to get in on the action. We even see hated sub-villain Walter Peck, played by William Atherton. And Slimer, too! New additions to the cast include Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt.
With Jason Reitman exiting as director, he passes the torch to co-writer Gil Kenan who directs his first movie since 2021’s A Boy Called Christmas.
Here’s the synopsis: In “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” the Spengler family returns to where it all started- the iconic New York City firehouse- to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes evil forces, Ghostbusters, new and old, must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hits theaters on March 22nd.
