Does the world really need two Ferrari movies in less than five years? To be fair, 2019’s critically acclaimed Ford v Ferrari wasn’t so much about the man as the racing rivalry. Michael Mann’s Ferrari, however, is considerably less interesting and intense for putting its focus on a past-his-prime, befuddled Enzo Ferrari as he juggles business woes and a corrosive love triangle that threatens to destroy everything.
Adam Driver, sporting grey hair, a bit of a ponch, and ever-present shades, plays Enzo Ferrari who is torn between his emboldened wife Laura (Penelope Cruz), who has the rights to the Ferrari business in her name; and his mistress Lina (Shailene Woodley), the mother of his son after tragedy claimed Enzo’s eldest child. It’s 1957 and Enzo is no longer a pedal-to-the-metal guy, at least not in action. While the company struggles against upstart Maserati, who hope to break Ferrari’s speed record, Enzo puts all of his energies into winning the dangerous Mille Miglia in hopes of boosting sales. It’s also a case of personal pride.
If only Ferrari were more about the deadly race, getting the racers ready to endure the most ferocious course in history, where 56 people died throughout its existence. Ferrari only truly comes alive when it steers towards the grim spectacle. Mann captures each grisly collision with macabre fascination but is less interested when Troy Kennedy Martin’s one-note screenplay goes back into cruise control. Enzo’s life just sortof keeps going on despite the horrors of the racetrack. If the point is to show how separated Enzo has become to anything outside of his domestic strife, it only serves to feel like Mann is in a sprint to the finish line.
And honestly, who can blame him for wanting to move on to the next project as quickly as possible? Ferrari, a project Mann had been exploring since 2000, arrives already beyond its expiration date.The far-superior Ford v Ferrari beat Mann to the punch, taking initial star Christian Bale with it, and this is like Mann was left with the scraps to play around with. Because the least interesting things about Enzo Ferrari, this Italian giant of the automotive industry, are his marital issues and business sense.
At least Driver comes well-prepared for the role. The House of Gucci accent remains firmly in place, and he can play stoic and stylish with the best of them. Cruz brings her typical fire to the role of Laura, with an extra dose of venom. Woodley doesn’t have much to do as the clear third leg of this triangle, though. Love is little more than a car wreck’s worth of heartbreak with this trio, but Ferrari only finds passion on the track, and even then, only when the track becomes a horror show.
George Clooney is often regarded as a classic movie star, and his roles tend to reflect that. But so do many of the films in his directorial career, which take on a classic, old Hollywood style such as Good Night & Good Luck, Monuments Men, and now The Boys in the Boat. The inspirational sports drama about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that miraculously defied the odds on the way to championships and the Berlin Olympics, is handsomely made and features postcard-worthy shots of glistening water. With its old-fashioned story of Depression Era triumph it’s probably a movie that your grandpa is really looking forward to, while everyone else in the family goes to see something else with a bit more edge.
A dashing Callum Turner plays struggling University of Washington student Joe Rantz. With no family and no money, Joe is seeking a means of paying the tuition that’s due. He’s a resourceful, affable guy, though. He can fix a shoe using some wadded-up newspaper if he has to. And while he’s stubborn, Joe will eventually head to the nearby soup kitchen to eat. He’s even managed to catch the eye of Joyce (Hadley Robinson), a childhood friend who has been flirting with him for ages.
When a school chum mentions the rowing team, Joe initially has no interest. But when he hears that it offers pay and lodging, he’s in. But first he’ll have to survive the punishing tryouts by coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton), and beat out the hundreds of other poor guys looking to make the squad.
As you probably guessed, Joe does make the team, and soon he and his mates are teaching those stuffy Ivy Leaguers what working-class muscle can do. Even if you don’t know the historical aspects of the story, the screenplay by Mark L. Smith (adapted from Daniel James Brown’s book) offers few surprises. It’s a little odd that a story centered on the team aspects of rowing puts nearly all of the focus on one man, Joe, but it’s also tough to deny that Turner makes for an impressive leading man. The Green Room and Fantastic Beasts actor, a native Englishman, carries himself with poise and makes a striking figure.
Heart-swelling music by Alexandre Desplat and sun-kissed cinematography by Martin Ruhe lift Clooney’s efficient storytelling. Like the men at the heart of this film, Clooney’s effort is workmanlike, getting the job done with no fuss. Even when the team makes it to Berlin to face the Nazi crowds with Adolf Hitler himself watching, The Boys in the Boat proceeds steadily, assuredly, but with little thrill. This is the kind of movie that will be shown in classrooms but rarely will it be chosen to be the entertainment.
And you thought Scream VII couldn’t get be more of a mess following the departure of stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega within 24 hours of one another. Now it’s director Christopher Landon who has made his exit, calling the project “a dream job that turned into a nightmare.”
Landon revealed the news on social media, going further in depth with his comments…
“I guess now is as good a time as any to announce I formally exited Scream 7 weeks ago. This will disappoint some and delight others. It was a dream job that turned into a nightmare. And my heart did break for everyone involved. Everyone. But it’s time to move on. I have nothing more to add to the conversation other than I hope Wes’ legacy thrives and lifts above the din of a divided world. What he and Kevin created is something amazing and I was honored to have even the briefest moment basking in their glow.”
Last month, Barrera was fired for social media comments about the Palestine/Israel conflict that the studio deemed to be antisemitic. The next day, Ortega departed the franchise citing conflicts with her Netflix series, Wednesday.
Landon boarded the franchise to direct Scream VII, following a revitalization of the horror by directors Radio Silence with 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI. The match seemed to be a perfect fit, given Landon’s track record with the Paranormal Activity and Happy Death Day franchises.
It remains to be seen where Scream VII goes from here. Writer James Vanderbilt is still around, having written the last two films. He’s said to be figuring out how to move forward following the departures of Barrera and Ortega, and now the loss of his creative partner Landon is another hurdle to contend with.
Luke Kirby, Ashley Madekwe, and Gustaf Hammarsten are the heart of Dr. Death’s second season. Following the medical malpractice and human experimentation of Italian thoracic surgeon Paolo Macchiarini (played by Édgar Ramírez, the season looks at the people and systems in place that helped him succeed in the deaths of multiple people after they received stem-cell-seeded trachea transplants.
Kirby and Hammarsten play a doctor and lab scientist skeptical of Dr. Macchiarini’s success. Madekwe’s character works closely with the doctor and cannot immediately see the consequences of their actions.
I sat down with the trio to talk about why they joined the project, adding a comedic sensibility to a dark script, and facial hair.
Dr. Death season two premieres on Dec. 21. You can find out more about the series here.
Anyone But You should be good. Its director Will Gluck is no stranger to adapting classic literature into the modern romcom format. He did it with Emma Stone in 2010’s underrated Easy A and with Domnhall Gleeson in the Peter Rabbit franchise. However, this modern version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing relies too much on the charms of Glen Powell to overshadow the miscasting of Sydney Sweeney and an awkward, clunky script.
As most romantic comedies do, Anyone But You starts with a meet-cute, where Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney) meet in a coffee shop after the latter needs the bathroom. They flirt, she walks out with toilet paper on her shoe and he is smitten. They spend the rest of the day and night together before Bea leaves early out of habit, only to come back and overhear that their time together didn’t mean anything to him.
Of course, they meet again, this time through Bea’s sister, Halle (Hadley Robinson), and Ben’s family friend, Claudia (Alexandra Shipp), who are engaged. When the couple decides to get married in Australia, their friends and family scheme to get Ben and Bea together to prevent them from ruining it. Exes (Darren Barnet and Charlee Fraser), best friends (Gata), overbearing family members (Rachel Griffiths and Dermot Mulroney), and an Australian surfer’s peehole (Joe Davidson) try to bring them together without destroying themselves.
Director Will Gluck co-wrote the film with Ilana Wolpert, known for her work on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. The dialogue is clunky and pauses appear out of nowhere and do little to expand character development. Shakespeare quotes appear in the foreground to mark development in the story. At times, the script contradicts itself. Shipp’s character says at one point if the troubled couple doesn’t start to behave, her ‘something borrowed’ would be a knife. Her fiance then chimes in that it would also be “shiny and new.”
Anyone But You takes from so many other romcoms. The enemies to lovers and fake dating tropes are what love stories are built on and what many other films have done better. Certain crass moments seem to pop up out of nowhere with little transition time. Instead of being charming and funny, like in Trainwreck, they come off as jarring.
Gluck even steals from his own romcoms. Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” plays a major role in the film’s plot, much like the same singer’s “Pocketful of Sunshine” did in Easy A.
Glen Powell oozes charm. Sure, he plays the cocksure d-bag with the heart of gold that he played variations of in Set It Up and Top Gun Maverick, but here he transforms an unsteady script into something workable. He portrays the full extent of his character’s emotions
Sweeney on the other hand, fails to emote much past her doe eyes. When Bea and Ben are on good terms, she plays along with Powell quite well. But when their characters are supposed to be verbally sparring which is most of the film, she can’t keep up much past a one-note bitchy facade. It’s not that she doesn’t belong in Anyone But You, but Bea doesn’t feel like the right for her. Perhaps, she should have switched with Alexandra Shipp, who would have been able to capture the full range of a modern Shakespeare heroine.
Earlier in December, Julia Stiles made headlines by reciting her infamous poem from 10 Things I Hate About You, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. People in the audience teared up with nostalgia. Unlike that adaption and many others like it, Anyone But You lacks the charm and smarts to bring out the best of the original text. Instead, it leaves a mess that even Powell can’t charm his way out of.
Anyone But You is now playing in theaters. Watch the trailer below.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens in theaters today, marking the end of the DCEU once and for all. It’s been a low-key build to the sequel, especially when you consider its predecessor made over $1B billion and received positive reviews. But then, this has been a bad year as multiple DC projects have tanked at the box office, as fans have seemingly checked out before the arrival of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s reboot DC Studios in 2025.
But it’s been a depressing end for star Jason Momoa, who threw himself into the role of Aquaman with gusto and is one of the main reasons for checking out the new film.
Speaking with Fandango, Momoa talked about the end of the DCEU…
“It’s going to be sad because we’re going to be the end of the DCU, and it’s a whole new, you know, what 14 years of that whole universe… It was fun playing him,” Momoa said.
So what’s next? Rumor is that Gunn wants Momoa for the role of Lobo. This is interesting because Momoa was initially thought to be playing that part years ago, only to be recruited for Aquaman. He talked about that, and reveals he wasn’t really into the whole Aquaman thing in the beginning.
“Well, I originally thought I was going to be playing Lobo because I was called in. I auditioned for Batman, and I almost didn’t do it,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘This is silly. It’s not gonna be me. Why am I auditioning for Batman?’ But it was just a run-of-the-mill audition. And then I got called in right after it was announced, and I was like, ‘ah f**k, of course, I’m gonna play the bad guy, cause I’m a big guy, I can kick the sh*t out of those two [Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill] and so I was like, ‘yeah, I’ll come in and beat ’em up and die like I do.’”
“And so, [Zack Snyder was like] do you know who you’re gonna play?” Momoa continued. “And I was like, ‘Lobo, of course, he’s the only one that can fight Batman and Superman,’ and [Zack] was like, ‘What? Lobo? He’s not in this universe,’ and I was like, ‘What? Who the hell am I supposed to play?’”
“I wish he woulda tapped it because he was like Aquaman, and I was like ‘The f*ck are you talking about?’ And I was like, ‘How?’ and he… told me his vision. ‘You’re Polynesian, it would be like this, and you’re this mix, but you live in the ice, and you go to these places, you’re this traveler, and you’ll punch Batman in the face and kiss Wonder Woman, you’re like this renegade.’… And …you gotta give it to Zack; he dreamt up something really… he built this unbelievable character.”
The Lobo thing isn’t set in stone just yet, but if Gunn wants him, Momoa is definitely down for it.
“F*ck yeah, it’s a guarantee you don’t need to worry about that. But I haven’t received that call, so I don’t want to put out any fake news, but if they ever call me to ask him to play him or audition, I’m there.”
Always a bridesmaid, never the bride. Lionsgate has released the trailer for Scrambled, the directorial debut by Leah McKendrick, who also stars in the comedy. She’s joined in the cast by Ego Nwodim, Andrew Santino, Adam Rodriguez, Laura Cerón, Yvonne Strahovski, and Clancy Brown. The film premiered at SXSW to positive reviews.
Here’s the synopsis: Quintessential eternal bridesmaid Nellie Robinson (Leah McKendrick) constantly finds herself between weddings, baby showers, and bad dates. When she begins to feel like the clock is ticking and is faced with bleak romantic prospects, Nellie decides to freeze her eggs — setting her on an empowering journey to a brave new world where she ultimately discovers “the one” she’s looking for might be herself.
McKendrick is a rising star who is currently attached to write the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer legacy sequel. She’s a fresh voice and we could be hearing from her for a long time to come, so this one might be worth checking out.
Obviously, Lionsgate agrees because they’ve set Scrambled for a theatrical release, and not a streaming one. The film hits theaters on February 2nd 2024.
On today’s episode of Cinema Royale, the Snyder House Rules! Okay, well, that’s a bit silly but we are talking about two movies with a Zack Snyder connection, so he definitely rules THIS episode. Chris Bumbray of Joblo.com joins me to talk about Snyder’s massive space epic, Rebel Moon-Part One: A Child of Fire! Snyder’s anticipated Netflix film began life as a Star Wars pitch inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. That brings really lofty expectations, but does it measure up?
And finally, the Snyderverse officially comes to an end this week with the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Jason Momoa returns as Arthur Curry for a battle against a vengeful Black Manta. Snyder doesn’t have anything to do with this movie anymore, but it exists within the DCEU that he started in 2013 with Man of Steel.
Enjoy this bit of silly Snyder fun right before the holidays. There are a ton of good movies out this Christmas season, so get out and enjoy them!
Remember when Guillermo Del Toro was going to do a Justice League Dark movie? Or when JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot was going to run an entire Dark Universe corner of the DCEU? It was a big deal that kept getting teased for years, with projects proposed that were talked about but never actually happened. One of those was a Zatanna film from Saltburn and Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell, and she confirms something that we pretty much already knew: it ain’t ever happening.
Fennell was a guest on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, and revealed that her Zatanna film, which she had been hired to write, is dead as a doornail…
“No, no, it’s not happening. I loved it [though],” she said.
Fennell also revealed that she had been working on Zatanna, about a powerful witch superhero in the occult corner of the DC Universe, prior to her breakout film Promising Young Woman. That’s interesting because the news of her hiring came out after she became a household name.
“This was all before ‘Promising Young Woman,’ actually,” Fennell said. “This was something I was working on before [that film]. It was when J.J. Abrams had just arrived at Warner Bros. and was going to reboot the [DC’s] Dark Universe, and they were going to make this kind of dark villain universe or sort of hero/villain universe.”
But Fennell adds that she enjoyed working with Abrams on the Dark Universe stuff, which included multiple shows, such as a Green Lantern series, a Constantine project, that went absolutely nowhere.
“I thought he was the coolest, and his team at Robot was so cool and interesting and because I love genre of all kinds… I was definitely interested,” she explained. “I was like, ‘I don’t know a huge about the whole superhero genre; it’s not a genre I naturally gravitate towards, so I’d love to know how does one make [a superhero film] like that, for someone like me who doesn’t know so much and wouldn’t necessarily buy a ticket for that first time around. So it was that kinda thing, and Zatanna was a really, really cool character.”
It’s been a recurring theme at Warner Bros. that no regime lasts long enough to get anything done, and Fennell and Abrams had to face that problem. It continues to be an issue; multiple regimes have come and gone during the production of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, for example.
Fennell added, “But just like everything…I did write it, but it was complicated; you know, the regimes changed; it’s the classic studio stuff. J.J. is incredible, his team is incredible, and I wrote in the end a script that was reasonably demented—in a good way, I think. But in the end, the whole universe was… you know, it got changed. And that’s fine; I love writing… it was really fun to do in the end. Whether it would have been remotely makeable… that’s the thing, I was only ever slated to write it.”
Whatever one thinks about the crumbling Snyderverse and the end of the DCEU, there were definite highlights. One of them was 2018’s Aquaman, the highest-grossing DC Universe movie, beating films with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.Jason Momoa’s brawny, bullish, take on the fish-talking supe was a breath of fresh air and pitch-perfect casting. It was summer popcorn entertainment at the start of winter, and director James Wan played it perfectly. In a way, it makes sense that the DCEU comes to a close with a sequel to its highest-earning movie. If only that sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, wasn’t sunk by reshoots, rewrites, cuts, problematic actors, and more.
In a way, it feels sorta pointless to review Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. It wasn’t designed to be the final part of anything, just the next chapter in what should’ve been a long-running, successful franchise. But after a year in which DC movies have been getting dragged critically and financially, a fresh reboot is being launched by James Gunn. That means no more Aquaman, at least not played by Momoa. And so this film feels like a road going to nowhere. Warner Bros. belatedly added an “Aquman’s Epic Last Stand” tag to its recent promos to give the impression this was always the path, but watching the movie tells you differently. It feels rushed and incomplete, with only Momoa’s enthusiasm and big personality rising in an ocean of mediocrity.
Interestingly, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ignored any connection the underwater hero had to the Justice League. There’s no mention of any other heroes, and he’s presented still as a mystery to the surface world. But then Arthur Curry has a lot on his plate. After dethroning and imprisoning his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), he became king of Atlantis, a job that he hates for all of the bureaucratic nonsense. More importantly, he became a father to the baby boy he shares with his wife Mera (Amber Heard). The opening act of the film plays like a family comedy where the dad is left behind to care for baby all by himself; changing diapers, getting pissed on, lacking in any sleep. Not that Arthur is alone; he’s got Mera and his dad (Temuera Morrison) helping out, but parenting is hard even for superheroes.
Picking up on the B-plot of the previous film, Aquaman’s archnemesis David Kane aka Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) returns to take one more stab at getting some revenge. This time he’s found the powerful Black Trident that grants him increased powers and increased bloodlust. Vowing to destroy everything Aquaman holds dear, he strikes at the heart of Atlantis and the hero’s family.
That’s pretty much the entirety of the plot cooked up by returning screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, working solo this time. In a way, it’s refreshing to have such simplicity in Black Manta’s villainy. He hates Aquaman and wants to destroy him. It’s kinda old school, actually. There’s some other nonsense about rising ocean temperatures but it doesn’t amount to much when Black Manta’s hatred is the real driving force. Aquaman’s only hope for survival is freeing his brother Orm and teaming up with him, creating a Thor/Loki dynamic of sibling rivalry and shaky trust issues.
Speaking of shaky, the production issues seem to have stretched to the visual department, where muddy CGI makes the underwater sequences more murky than they need to be. Unfortunately, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom looks too much like some of the worst DCEU films out there in the special effects department. I don’t like comparisons between Marvel and DC, but the latter has only occasionally found a way to make the images pop like you’re truly seeing a comic book come to life. Marvel has had that skill locked down from the beginning.
Utilizing his well-rounded background in horror and popcorn blockbusters, James Wan delivers action and fright in equal measure. Wan’s shelved The Trench spinoff seems to have inspired some underwater horror sequences where tentacled monsters lurk. Manta’s destructive attack on Atlantis is impressive, including a rapid-fire chase through the slipstream making for a wild roller coaster experience.
However, every time the film seems like it’s finding its footing, something takes you back out of the moment. Strange editing choices suggest a lot of scenes were deleted at the last moment, interrupting the film’s momentum. A lot of these edits were clearly targeted at Amber Heard’s Mera, whose role is drastically reduced to little more than reaction shots, expository dialogue, and one scene meant to write her out for a long stretch. With rumors that Heard and Momoa had problems with chemistry, it’s no surprise they are barely together on screen at all.
What the film has going for it is Momoa. There’s a reason why he’s proven to be the best casting choice in all of the DCEU. With a growl, a smile, and a laugh that booms like the crashing of waves, Momoa is having the time of his life as Aquaman and that feeling can be infectious. If rumors are true that he’ll leave this role and instead play Lobo, a character he has long wanted to be, then we’re all in for a treat. But for now, Momoa’s Aquaman is still a blast to watch and the main reason why spending a couple of hours with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom won’t leave you drowning with regret. It’s just disappointing that Momoa’s final time as King of the Seas didn’t make a bigger splash.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens in theaters on December 22nd.
