Anthony Bourdain was one of the preeminent tastemakers, chronicling travel, cuisine, art, and so much more in his storied career. But before all of that, he was just a young guy trying to figure out who he was and find his place in the world. And it’s that chapter of his story that is told in A24’s Tony, starring The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa in the title role.
Tony is directed by Matt Johnson, the filmmaker behind Blackberry, Operation Avalanche, and most recently, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. The film takes place in 1976 when a 19-year-old Bourdain had a life-changing time working as part of kitchen crews in Provincetown, Mass. The man who would eventually give us Kitchen Confidential, No Reservations, and Parts Unknown was born in this period.
Also in the cast are Emilia Jones, Antonio Banderas, Rich Sommer, and Bugonia‘s Stavros Halkias. Banderas plays the Brazilian restaurateur who takes Bourdain under his wing, a relationship that is clearly central to the story.
Johnson also co-wrote the screenplay with Matthew Miller, Todd Bartels, and Lou Howe.
SYNOPSIS: A 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain travels to Provincetown and stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen, setting off a summer that will shape the course of his life.
A24 plans to release Tony in theaters this August.
Christopher Nolan premiered the new trailer for the summer’s most anticipated film, The Odyssey, at midnight with Stephen Colbert. The film is what appears to be a fairly faithful take on the Homeric poem centered on Odysseus and his plagued journey home following the Trojan War. The footage is, as expected from Nolan, epic in scope. I’m sure I’m not the only fan of Greek mythology who is incredibly excite for this movie to finally arrive. In his conversation with Colbert, Nolan revealed that the film plays out in a “non-linear way”, which should be interesting.
Matt Damon leads The Odyssey as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca who, after victory in the Trojan War, makes a treacherous, decade-long journey home to be reunited with his wife, Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway. Tom Holland also stars as Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, who seeks the truth about his father as Penelope’s many suitors attempt to steal the throne away.
Also in the cast are Robert Pattinson as the bold Antinous, Penelope’s most aggressive suitor; Zendaya plays the goddess Athena, with Charlize Theron as Circe the enchantress, Jon Bernthal as the Spartan king Menelaus, Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Mia Goth as Melantho, Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, and Bill Irwin as the cyclops Polyphemus. Lupita Nyong’o, Will Yun Lee, Corey Hawkins, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, Jovan Adepo, Shiloh Fernandez, Logan Marshall-Green, and more have undisclosed roles.
The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17th 2026, and was shot entirely in IMAX, the first full narrative feature to do so. With a budget said to be in the $250M range, this is a massive undertaking. But Nolan rarely disappoints either critically or at the box office, so perhaps it’s not that much of a gamble for Universal Pictures at all?
Writer/director Geremy Jasper has a couple of music-themed features under his belt. Patti Cake$ remains one of the most electric festival experiences I’ve ever had. He also directed Sadie Sink in O’Dessa, which you may recall was a musical adaptation of the Orpheus & Eurydice myth. Jasper also has some music videos under his belt, which seems particularly relevant considering his next project is a film based on MTV, at one time the ultimate channel for music lovers around the world.
Deadline confirms that Jasper will team up with NEON on a long-in-the-works adaptation of I Want My MTV, based on the book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum.
Jasper will direct and co-write the film alongside Jim Hecht, known for the HBO sports drama series Winning Time.
It’s wild that some of you are too young to remember a time when MTV was more than just a reality TV channel. Almost from the moment it launched in 1981, it sparked a music video revolution that launched thousands of careers and changed the way the world consumed music. That was until it started focusing on animated series like Beavis & Butthead, and of course, reality shows such as The Real World.
Here’s a synopsis of the book: “I Want My MTV” tells the story of the first decade of MTV, the golden era when MTV’s programming was all videos, all the time, and kids watched religiously to see their favorite bands, learn about new music, and have something to talk about at parties. From its start in 1981 with a small cache of videos by mostly unknown British new wave acts to the launch of the reality-television craze with “The Real World” in 1992, MTV grew into a tastemaker, a career maker, and a mammoth business. Featuring interviews with nearly four hundred artists, directors, VJs, and television and music executives, I Want My MTV is a testament to the channel that changed popular culture forever.
Back in 2016, James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now) came close to adapting I Want My MTV. Another attempt had Brett Ratner *shudder* attached. My only question, as I asked at the time, remains the same. Who is gonna play my girl, iconic VJ Martha Quinn? I wanna know.
If this trio of lead actors doesn’t get your attention nothing will. Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell, and Wagner Moura, all Academy Award nominees, are set to star in Art, the new film from City of God and The Constant Gardener director Fernando Meirelles. Wow. I don’t really care what the movie’s about with that group.
Adding even more prestige to Art is the screenplay by Christopher Hampton, a two-time Oscar winner for Dangerous Liaisons and The Father. Hampton adapted the stage play by Yasmina Reza. The story centers on three longtime friends: Serge, Marc, and Yvan. When Serge buys an expensive nearly all-white painting, he and Marc argue over what counts as “art”, putting their friendship to the test. Meanwhile, Yvan gets caught in the middle trying to play both sides.
There’s nothing about this project that I don’t like. Meirelles is one of my favorite directors. The Brazilian also directed The Two Popes in 2019, a film that earned three Oscar nominations. He has two movies coming this year. First is Prime Video’s sci-fi actioner Beast Race, opening in Brazil. That will be followed by Netflix’s heist thriller Here Comes the Flood starring Robert Pattinson, Denzel Washington, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Danai Gurira.
Fiennes and Farrell are always attached to high-profile films such as this. Moura, on the other hand, is hotter than he’s ever been after his performance in The Secret Agent. This is clearly a film with awards season aspirations, so we could see all of these men back in the race again soon.
Dave Franco, who had the body horror Together last summer, and Sophie Wilde of Talk to Me, are teaming up for a new alien invasion thriller with a really cool name. Deadline reports they’ll star in Soon You Will Be Gone And Possibly Eaten, that will be hitting the Cannes market later this month.
The film will be written and directed by Egor Abramenko, known for the 2020 Russian sci-fi film Sputnik, and A24’s upcoming horror, Altar. He’ll direct from a script by Luke Piotrowski and Ben Collins (Hulu’s Hellraiser, The Night House), itself based on a short story Nick Antosca. Antosca is creator of Apple’s Cape Fear series remake.
According to the report, the film follows “Rob and Sabile, a young engaged couple, who head to a secluded mountain resort to take their vows and step into the new chapter of their shared lives. What was planned as a joyous wedding attended by family members takes a different turn when unexpected guests crash the ceremony.”
The film was developed by Anonymous Content, Eat the Cat, and Divide/Conquer and is produced by Anonymous Content, Dawn Olmstead, Anton, Eat the Cat, and Divide/Conquer.
Production on Soon You Will Be Gone And Possibly Eaten begins this summer.
Coming up for Franco is Dave Franco’s road trip comedy Idiots. He most recently starred in the magician heist sequel Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. Wilde will be seen next in Alejandro G. Inarritu’s Digger alongside Tom Cruise this October. She also snagged the lead role in the upcoming Watch Dogs movie based on the hit UbiSoft video games.
Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise have been attached at the hip for years. They’ve worked on ten projects together, beginning with Valkyrie in 2008 and continuing through the most recent Mission: Impossible films. They have been so closely aligned that it was just assumed McQuarrie would be on the shortlist to direct Top Gun 3. However, a new report from The InSneider says otherwise, and suggests the creative partnership might be over.
According to Sneider, McQuarrie was never really in contention to direct Top Gun 3, which is weird considering he co-wrote and produced Top Gun: Maverick. But things have quietly changed between McQuarrie and Cruise. You might have noticed that McQuarrie suddenly has two non-Cruise projects in development: aKing Conan movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and an adaptation of the Battlefieldvideo game with Michael B. Jordan.
The primary reason given for the creative split is that Cruise blames McQuarrie for the underperformance of the last two Mission: Impossible movies. Both had troubled productions, and the latter had a massive budget that skyrocketed to $400M. Meanwhile, the critical response wasn’t great and the box office underwhelming when they were teased as the franchise finale.
It’s not like Cruise and McQuarrie are bitter rivals or anything. They remain “friendly” and may even work together again, but for now it seems they are taking a break.
Disney easily stole the crown from the King of Pop with The Devil Wears Prada 2’s $77M domestic opening. The long-awaited sequel, reuniting stars Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt, strutted down the runway with triple the box office debut of its 2006 predecessor, and scored a massive $233M worldwide. It makes sense for the film to be a huge winner internationally, where much of the fashion world is focused. At this rate, it should easily surpass the $326M haul of the first movie, perhaps in the next few days.
2. Michael– $54M/$183.8M
Michael dropped 44% in its second week for $54M and a $183M domestic total. Globally, the Jackson biopic has $464M and still a long way to go if it hopes to pass Bohemian Rhapsody‘s $903M.
3. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie– $12.1M/$402.6M
4. Project Hail Mary– $8.5M/$318.3M
5. Hokum– $6.4M
Cracking the top 5 was the Adam Scott horror flick, Hokum, from Oddity director Damian McCarthy. NEON opened the buzzy film in 1,885 theaters and earned $6.4M. I’ve been hearing good things about this one for months, but they didn’t screen it for us here so I’ll catch up with it later. The RT score is in the 80s from both critics and audiences, which is a good sign.
Andy Serkis’ animated adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian novel Animal Farm opened with $3.4M. The Angel Studios release was marred by poor reviews from critics, with it sitting at just 25% on RT. I didn’t care much for this dumbed down take on Orwell’s complex political allegory, even I see what Serkis was trying to do.
Renny Harlin followed his trilogy of The Strangers with a different kind of horror, Deep Water. The film returns the Deep Blue Sea director back into the realm of shark thrillers, earning $2.1M for Magenta Light Studios in the process. Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, and Molly Belle Wright lead the cast. Reviews have been pretty good, with critics holding it at 76% on RT and audiences at 79%.
9. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea– $1M
10. The Drama– $908K/$46.9M
Also…Rapper/director RZA released his fourth directorial effort, the grindhouse revenge film One Spoon of Chocolate (review), into 636 theaters and earned $636K. The film stars Shameik Moore as a military vet and ex-con who returns home to find his town overrun by a murderous gang that preys on Black men. Reviews have been pretty woeful, with just 36% of critics digging it on RT.
Certainly, I’m not in the target demo for The Devil Wears Prada 2. I don’t especially care for couture and and the glamourous world of high fashion. The original 2006 movie isn’t something I hold in much regard, and if you were to watch it now, it’s like it came from a different planet where fashion magazines ruled and those who covered the scene were adjacent to an elite society most of us could only dream of. The sequel, which brings back all of the principle characters, easily could’ve been a simple nostalgia piece that gave fans more of what they loved. That’s definitely what I expected it to be. But credit to everyone involved, it’s actually quite a bit more insightful than that, and recognizes that the world is a very different place; people are struggling, journalism is fighting for survival, and culture magazines such as Runway are needing to evolve, as does its infamously prickly leader, Miranda Priestly.
Meryl Streep returns as the iconic Miranda, the Anna Wintour-esque director or Runway fashion magazine. She’s even more of an old battle ax than before, but times have changed. Her position is no longer as assured as it once was. Magazine sales have slipped, things have gone digital, and Miranda has to look over her shoulder not to receive any HR violations for her contemptuous treatment of staffers. She’s managed to hold on to her job thanks to the support of magazine chairman Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman), but finds that position tenuous when she runs a glowing feature on a clothing brand that covertly runs sweatshops. With Runway on the verge of collapse, Irv hires Miranda’s former assistant, Andy, played again by Anne Hathaway, to come in as the new Features editor where she can help clean up its public image.
Andy is in a different place than she was twenty years ago. She left fashion and got into hard journalism, writing stories that mattered but nobody read. On the same day she and her team win an award for their work, they are all unceremoniously laid off by text. So her acceptance speech turns into a rant against those billionaires who have turned journalism into a for profit industry, with the hard working reporters and staff seen as just numbers on a balance sheet. She goes viral for this screed, and it makes her the perfect voice to help rebrand Runway. Of course, this puts her at odds with Miranda, who barely seems to remember Andy at all. But when Irv is suddenly out of the picture and his Bezos-esque son begins tearing down everything that made Runway great, Andy and Miranda will have to figout out a way to work together if the magazine is to survive.
While The Devil Wears Prada 2 is smarter and more enjoyable than it has any right to be, it’s also less whimsical and funny. That said, those who come for the amazing outfits worn by outrageously beautiful people in exotic locales will have plenty to enjoy. The one who seems to be enjoying it the most is Stanley Tucci as the lovably droll Nigel, always the best dressed guy in any room. He’s still there dispensing sage, if somewhat acidic, advice to Andy, and of course, standing by Miranda’s side through thick and thin. We also see the return of Emily Bunt as Emily Charlton, Miranda’s icy former assistant and Andy’s rival, who has taken over as a senior exec at Dior and is soon to marry Benji, a lame billionaire bro played by Justin Theroux. Somehow, they managed to turn Theroux, once strapping and charismatic, into a clone of Leisure Suit Larry. The transformation is jarring, to say the least.
Actually, other than Nigel, the men in this movie are incredibly lame. For some reason, all of these powerful, brilliant, and beautiful women are attracted to dufuses; it’s like watching an episode of The King of Queens. Andy forms an unexpected relationship with Peter, a cheery Australian contractor punching way above his weight. The script does him no favors in painting him as a simp. When Andy, fresh off a rough day at work, lashes out at him in a very Miranda-esque way, he slinks away and practically begs for her to stay in his life. Lucy Liu also has a small role as Sasha Barnes, Benji’s ex-wife who has become a cultural icon for rebuilding herself after leaving that loser behind. Kenneth Branagh has a small role as Miranda’s husband, a violinist with a sensitive soul, but he doesn’t have much to do but be a sounding board for her.
With cameos by Donatella Versace, Lady Gaga, Heidi Klum, and an extensive trip to Dolce & Gabbana’s Milan Fashion Week, the film is like entering a world of extravagance that is reserved for the elite of the elite. However, Aline Brosh McKenna’s screenplay recognizes that, even amongst them, these fashionistas are at the whim of the billionaires who fund them, and it can all go away with the stroke of a pen if it means saving money or earning greater profits. Look at what someone like Jeff Bezos has done to The Washington Post. He bought this massive journalistic institution and has stripped it down to the bare bones. They still do journalism there, somewhat, but is hardly the force it once was. Stuff like that is happening all over the world, not just here.
Hathaway, Streep, Blunt, and Tucci all slip back into their roles gracefully, almost like they never left them. In almost every case it’s also like they haven’t aged a day, a fact that should make us all jealous. A decision to smooth out Miranda’s rough edges to make her more sympathetic doesn’t feel true to the character, but it’s balanced by Andy who remains hopeful, ambitious, and yet realistic about the profession she has chosen. The same can be said about The Devil Wears Prada 2, an indulgent but honest look at those who live a life of luxury that can go out of fashion at any moment.
I’m happy to offer DC area readers the chance to attend this weekend’s free screening of The Sheep Detectives. Written by The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin, this woolly murder mystery stars Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon with Hong Chau and Emma Thompson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, and Rhys Darby.
SYNOPSIS: In this witty, new breed of mystery, George (Hugh Jackman) is a shepherd who reads detective novels to his beloved sheep every night, assuming they can’t possibly understand. But when a mysterious incident disrupts life on the farm, the sheep realize they must become the detectives. As they follow the clues and investigate human suspects, they prove that even sheep can be brilliant crime-solvers.
The screening takes place on Saturday, May 2nd at 11:00am at AMC Georgetown. If you’d like to attend, RSVP at the MGM 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 Sheep Detectives opens in theaters on May 8th.
One has to give it up to Renny Harlin; he knows what his audience expects from him and he usually delivers it. A filmmaker who has been making entertaining schlock for decades, Harlin’s movies were integral to my love of movies growing up. How many times did I watch Cliffhanger and Ford Fairlane? Quite a lot. But there was also 1999’s Deep Blue Sea, a ridiculously trashy hunk of chum about super-smart sharks trying to eat LL Cool J or something. It’s a cult classic for a reason; and undoubtedly Harlin gets asked about it all of the time. Perhaps that’s part of the reason he took on another shark movie, Deep Water, as a knowing wink to all of those fans nostalgic for his brand of over-the-top survival movie.
The truth is that Deep Water has been in the works for well over a decade. Originally planned as a sequel to 2012’s Bait 3D, the film was scrapped in 2014 for being too similar to a real-life tragedy, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. It sat on the shelf for years until Gene Simmons, yeah THAT Gene Simmons, teamed up with another producer to make Deep Water the first film in their new production banner. The only disappointing thing is that we don’t get Simmons on screen punching a Great White in the nose or anything.
Harlin was brought on at that point, and following the lukewarm reception to his The Strangers trilogy, it’s a welcome return to form and a more sizable production. Deep Water is led by Aaron Eckhart as a First Officer for Northeastern Airlines which, judging by the looks of it, might be a spinoff of the bankrupt Spirit Airlines. Ben Kingsley is his Captain, a cynical ladies’ man who loves karaoke and hitting on the young flight attendants who…apparently think he’s charming? Eckhart is a bit of a rebel, which is why he’s never achieved Captain status despite his age. A young girl, Cora, played by impressive Omaha actress Molly Belle Wright (who I interviewed last week), has something smart to say about it, too, but Eckhart tells her life is full of “diversions” and this is one of them. They’ll be facing another major diversion on a flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai.
In true disaster movie fashion, we’re whipped quickly through the passenger list to draw the thinnest of emotional connections to them. I have to say, old people and Americans come off looking terribly in this. There’s an American sports team with a hotheaded teammate who drunkenly gropes a woman from a Chinese team, only for her best friend and crush to get bullied for defending her. Then there’s Dan, played by Insidious actor Angus Sampson, who’s one of those aggressively hostile, entitled passengers who belittle the staff, smoke in the non-smoking areas, and sneak an electronic device in his baggage that, shocker, overheats and causes the plane to explode.
Plane crashes are always thrilling, but a Renny Harlin-directed plane crash is chaotic devastation to the point of becoming its own horror movie. It’s not enough that holes are blown in the plane and passengers sucked right out into the sky, but everything, and I mean everything, comes dislodged and begins flying around the cabin. The beverage cart has never been so dangerous, as bottles and everything that isn’t nailed down hurtle through the air to smash into passengers’ faces. An attempt to land in Guam goes awry, and they are forced to make a crash landing in the middle of the ocean. Of the 257 people aboard, roughly 30 of them survive, the waters thick with corpses.
All of that blood in the water? It’s like somebody ringing the dinner bell to a bunch of hungry sharks. The plane is in pieces, life rafts are in the water, and everyone is scrambling to get aboard SOMETHING in order to survive. The old people, God bless ’em, are quick to sacrifice themselves for the next generation. Okay, maybe they don’t come off so terribly, after all. Kingsley’s character is kind of a douche, and there’s an old lady who calls her seatmate a “5” because he’s got a thing for one of the hot young stewardesses. She’s kind of an a-hole, too, but she does look out for the kiddos when the time comes. Dan is still a prick, though, and clearly a believer in “every man for himself” when it comes to lifeboat etiquette.
Harlin doesn’t mess around and try to make Deep Water something that it’s not. Mako sharks are swarming, and when you see one, it’s only a matter of time until someone gets a bit taken out of them. Harlin serves up passengers like fish food, making this a more gory experience than a high-tension thriller. The performances are nothing to write home about, but Eckhart and Wright share a couple of poignant scenes together, as Cora handles the guilt of shunning her new stepbrother and stepmom, both now missing and presumed dead. Her situation forces Eckhart’s character to reevaluate his own domestic struggles. It’s not much, but it’s something. Deep Water isn’t Jaws; it’s not even Open Water, but if watching sharks on a feeding frenzy is your thing, you could do a lot worse.
