Winner of the prestigious People’s Choice Award at TIFF earlier this month, La Bola Negra, the sprawling queer historical epic from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (aka Los Javis) is poised to be Netflix’s heavy hitter this season. I think it’s their best shot at finally winning the Best Picture Oscar sought for so long.
La Bola Negra stars Spanish singer/songwriter Guitarricadelafuente in his feature acting debut, plus Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, Milo Quifes, Lola Dueñas, Julio Torres, Penélope Cruz, and Glenn Close. Calvo and Ambrossi co-wrote the screenplay with Alberto Conejero, based on unfinished work by slain poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, and Conejero’s stage play.
The accolades have been piling up, including Best Director at Cannes, and the Audience Awards at the San Sebastián and Sydney film festivals.
Here’s the synopsis: La Bola Negra tells the story of three generations of men whose lives are intimately connected through desire, pain, and love.
La Bola Negra hits theaters on October 16th before coming to Netflix on December 2nd. You can check out my early review here.
I’ve heard a lot of people referring to Elsinore as “that other Hamlet movie”, alluding to last year’s Hamnet. Simon Stone’s movie is so much more than that, however, as it features Andrew Scott in the performance of a lifetime as Chariots of Fire actor Ian Charleson, as he battles AIDS while starring in Hamlet at London’s National Theatre.
For Charleson, performing Hamlet at the National Theatre was what he had always dreamed of, and he wasn’t going to let a little thing like dying from AIDS stop him. The film is directed by Simon Stone from a script by Stephen Beresford, and debuted at Telluride before playing at TIFF earlier this month.
Also in the cast is Olivia Colman as the doctor treating Charleson and refusing to sugarcoat things for him. Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Sadie Soverall, Juliet Stevenson, Luke Thompson, and Monica Dolan complete an amazing ensemble.
Since seeing Elsinore at TIFF (my review here), I haven’t been shy about predicting Scott’s Best Actor win at the Oscars. I still feel that way, and don’t see anything coming up that could compete with it.
For those near the DMV, Elsinore will be playing at the upcoming Middleburg Film Festival next month, so don’t miss it. Focus Features will then release it into theaters on November 20th.
A big part of Kristen Stewart’s evolution into a respected dramatic actress were her collaborations with Olivier Assayas. The two made two movies together previously: 2014’s Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper two years later. Now they’re finally ready to reunite for another dive into the supernatural with Spiritual World.
Announced by ARTE France Cinéma, Assayas will direct Stewart in Spiritual World, in which she plays Ada, a troubled clairvoyant experiencing mysterious premonitions. Also in the cast is a terrific international ensemble that includes Vicky Krieps, Riley Keough, Wagner Moura, Niels Schneider, and Barbara Sukowa.
Assayas is returning to the realm of the surreal, a theme he previously tackled with his acclaimed Irma Vep series in 2022. He most recently directed Paul Dano in The Wizard of the Kremlin.
As for Stewart, she starred in this year’s stoner comedy The Wrong Girls and Quentin Dupieux’s Full Phil, which debuted at Cannes.
Krieps is one of the most respected actresses in the world following her performances in Phantom Thread, The Dead Don’t Die, Corsage, and Bergman Island. Moura just earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for The Secret Agent. Keough is having a busy year, reuniting with the Zellner Brothers for Alpha Gang, as well as roles in Karim Aïnouz’s Rosebush Pruning, and Butterfly Jam opposite Barry Keoghan.
Filming is expected to last through April 2027, so expect a big festival world premiere to follow.
Finally, after years of on again/off again development of a new Star Wars film led by Daisy Ridley, one finally seems to be moving forward. THR confirms that Jon Watts will direct the first film in Simon Kinberg’s trilogy, with Ridley expected to return as Rey. The first rumors of this development were from Knight Edge Media and scooper Daniel Richtman.
Watts is the director of Marvel’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tom Holland, as well as the creator of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Ridley is expected to return as Rey, but the role will be small initially, with a chance to expand across films. It’s unclear whether other familiar actors, such as John Boyega or Oscar Isaac, will join Ridley.
We learned about Kinberg’s developing trilogy a couple of years ago, and this is the most significant move since then. What we’re learning now is that his story will be Episode X, and the star of a new trilogy picking up after 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.
If you’re wondering what this means for the Rey Skywalker New Jedi Order project between Ridley and director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, it’s apparently been shelved in favor of the trilogy Kinberg is writing. It was announced three years ago at Star Wars Celebration, with a few writers taking cracks at it to no avail.
There are plenty of ties to Disney and Lucasfilm that make Kinberg and Watts an obvious pair to work on Star Wars. Kingberg was previously an exec-producer and co-creator of Star Wars Rebels, and worked on The Force Awakens, as well. Watts directed the Spielberg-esque adventure series Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and obviously, the Spider-Man movies were gigantic for Marvel/Disney.
Lucasfilm hopes to begin production as soon as early next year.
Sundance’s NEXT section generally leans towards films that are a bit more experimental, so I was surprised to see that writer/director Louis Paxton’s delightfully sweet fairy tale The Incomer was about as mainstream as the category gets. The film centers on a brother and sister duo who have lived all alone on an isolated Scottish island for decades, creating their own mythology, communicating with the animals, and building their own little corner of the world. All of this centered around their father’s dying wish, to defend their home from outsiders who might want to take it away.
The always-great Gayle Rankin (of GLOW and The Climb fame) plays the eldest sibling, Isla, and she runs the pants in the family. Her brother, Sandy, played by Grant O’Rourke, is a massive teddy bear of a manchild. Together, they dress up as gulls, dazzle one another with folk tales, and hunt for their meager food each day. Gayle talks to the ominous Finn-men who lurk in the seas, one of whom REALLY wants her to come join him in the watery depths. Oh, and they live in complete fear of the mainland.
Domhnall Gleeson charms as Daniel, a geeky office worker for a government agency charged with relocating people living in unhabitable places. It’s Daniel’s job to evict Isla and Sandy off the island and onto the mainland. Better said than done, as Daniel’s not exactly the most confrontational guy in the world, and the siblings are aggressively against mainlanders.
The Incomer is a charming fish-out-of-water story, but also a vibrant coming-of-age tale about people finding their place in the world. For everyone involved, there’s a need to make a human connection and build a family. While Sandy and Isla nearly kill poor Daniel when he arrives on the island, they eventually warm up to him. Storytelling is a big part of this journey, as well. The siblings have built their entire lives around mythology, and they marvel at Daniel’s new stories…which he can thank J.R.R. Tolkien for.
Most of the humor comes from Daniel trying to teach them about things they’ve never encountered before. He tries to explain the Internet, to no avail, and his attempt to tell them what it means to be a vegan, as they devour a freshly-cooked gull, is pretty hilarious. On the other hand, Isla and Sandy show Daniel what it’s like to live off the land, and to appreciate the things they have that he’s never once had to think about.
The charm only starts to fade in the final stretch, as Daniel’s mean-spirited boss (Michelle Gomez) arrives with an army of goons to pull Isla and Sandy off the island. Fortunately, it quickly recovers with an offbeat sense of humor that reminds of the New Zealand comedies of Taika Waititi. The jokes and the way nature is such a huge part of the story make The Incomer very similar in tone to Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and I think people who like Waititi’s crowd-pleasing stuff will gravitate to this, as well.
The Incomer is in theaters now.
*NOTE: This review was originally part of my Sundance Film Festival coverage.*
Full disclosure, I literally just got back from catching Avengers: Endgame Encore at my nearby theater, in full Infinity Vision with the extra minutes of footage and new scenes bridging to Avengers: Doomsday. It was a smart strategy from Marvel Studios to re-release the film in this manner, accounting for the $26M and #1 spot at the box office. Already #3 all-time domesticallly, the 2019 event now has $884.37M. Internationally, it added a phenomenal $60M, bringing the worldwide total to $2.885M and within striking distance of Avatar for the top spot all-time worldwide. Combined with the all-time record holder Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel is clawing its way back to former glory. In sports terms, Marvel is getting hot at just the right time.
2. Resident Evil– $23.3M/$103.4M
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil took a hefty tumble, dropping 62% for $23M and $103M domestically. Worldwide it’s just shy of $200M after just two weeks.
Paramount Pictures released the David Ayer/Brad Pitt survival thriller Heart of the Beast into 3,435 theaters for $20M. This was on the low end for Pitt, and only $3M shy of what the duo’s previous film together, Fury, did in 2014. Overseas, the film added another $30M for a $50M global total. Despite the slow start, the 87% critical and 93% audience score on RT suggest it could do well over the long haul, especially if there’s Oscar buzz for Pitt’s performance.
Robert Pattinson helped give A24 a solid mid-level hit with Primetime, a dark thriller in which he plays To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen. The film opened with $19M at around 2,800 theaters. The partnership between Pattinson and A24 has been good all year, including the surprising $105M of The Drama.
The best reviewed movie of the week, and one of the best-reviewed animated films of the year, Dreamworks Animation’s Forgotten Island, struggled out of the gate with just $12.8M. This is one of the lowest debuts ever for the studio, and a real disappointment given the huge push it received. On RT, it has a 94% critical and 96% audience score, which makes you wonder what the Hell is going on? I’ve heard minor complaints from a few that they thought the emphasis on two female antagonists of Filipino background was too niche, but I hope that’s not true. It’s too good of a movie to be disregarded for such stupid reasons. If there’s a plus side, it’s that Forgotten Island will certainly be in the Oscars conversation, and the word of mouth is too strong to ignore.
6. Practical Magic– $5.6M/$59.8M
7. Spider-Man: Brand New Day– $4.1M/$950.6M
8. The Odyssey– $3.7M/$616.5M
9. Coyote vs. Acme– $1.9M/$58.3M
10. Daniel and the Fiery Furnace– $1.5M/$6.2M
Also…Amazon MGM released the Mahershala Ali action flick Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (review) to $199K in just six locations. The well-reviewed film has sparked a lot of interest because it teams Ali with director Bassam Tariq, who was to have directed the actor in Marvel’s Blade reboot.
Earning just $102K from 670 locations was comedy-biopic The Stunt Driver (review), about Canadian daredevil Ken Carter. The film reunites Goon duo of star Jay Baruchel and director Michael Dowse.
Sumerian Films opened in two locations for $18K the misfit comedy The Incomer (review), starring Domhnall Gleeson as a government officer sent to a remote Scottish isle to relocate its only two inhabitants, a brother and sister who despise visitors.
Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter’s dance card is now full. Deadline reports that both have joined Tom Holland’s long-in-the-works Fred Astaire biopic. Qualley will play Astaire’s older sister and first dance partner, Adele Astaire, with Carpenter as his most famous dance partner, actress Ginger Rogers.
Earlier this month, we learned that Qualley was a finalist for the role alongside Monica Barbaro. Chloe East was also in the mix. The role has gone to Qualley, who is having a busy year with How to Make a Killing, Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars and Rachel Morrison’s Love of Your Life. Qualley’s casting makes loads of sense given her ballet background.
Adapted by director Paul King (Paddington) and co-written with Steven Levenson, the Astaire film is based on Kathleen Riley’s biography The Astaires: Fred & Adele. It’s clear that Adele will be a major part of this story, but that Astaire’s time with Rogers will also be a focus. Astaire and Rogers made nine musical films together in the 1930s, including Swing Time and Shall We Dance.
Carpenter is a singer and stage performer who should fit right in. She’s starred in Disney’s Adventures in Babysitting, Clouds, and Tall Girl.
Witches, haunted lighthouses, Vikings, Vampires, nothing is off the table for Robert Eggers. And next up this holiday season is Werwulf, offering the darkest take on werewolf lore that we’ve seen in years.
The medieval horror stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, and Ralph Ineson, several actors that Eggers has worked with in the past. Described as “Eggers’ most visceral and haunting experience yet” and “a harrowing tale of devotion, damnation and the devil within”, Werwulf is getting a big holiday push from Focus Features. It undoubtedly hopes to score the same box office success seen by Nosferatu during the Christmas season in 2024. I think there’s a goo chance of that happening.
The finale of FX’s The Bear won’t hurt anyone in the show’s cast, because opportunities have been coming to them fast and often. The latest to snag a huge role is Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who has joined the stacked ensemble in Michael Mann’s Heat sequel.
The Wrap reports that Moss-Bachrach has joined Heat 2 in the role of Kelso, a character originated by Tom Noonan in Mann’s 1995 original. Guy Pearce had been considered for it until Mann decided to go in a different direction.
Moss-Bachrach joins Leonardo DiCaprio as Chris Shiherlis, Christian Bale as Vincent Hanna, Stephen Graham as neil McCauley, Odessa Young as Charlene, and newcomer María Cid as Gabi. Jason Clarke is also in the cast but not mentioned in the report. The same for Adam Driver, who is expected to play villain Otis Wardell.
It’s a big time for Moss-Bachrach, as the two-time Emmy winner is set to return as Ben Grimm in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. He joined the MCU with last year’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He also reunited with The Bear co-star Jon Bernthal for a Broadway production of Dog Day Afternoon.
Mann’s sequel is set up at Amazon MGM Studios after bouncing around a bit to find a budget he could work with. The film is based on the novel he co-wrote with Meg Gardiner, taking place across two time periods, acting as a prequel and sequel to the 1995 film with young versions of the characters played by Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, and Val Kilmer. In the first period, Chris Shiherlis tries to escape the LAPD after the robbery gone wrong, making his way to Southeast Asia and South America. The other time period is in 1988 Chicago, as McCauley and Shiherlis and their crew nearly encounter Detective Hannah as he pursues a violent gang of home invaders.
I’ve been a fan of Jay Baruchel for a long time, dating back to when Undeclared was my favorite show. Since then, he’s appeared in a number of great films, voicing Hiccup in the How to Train Your Dragon series, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Million Dollar Baby, Knocked Up, and She’s Out of My League, to name a few. Lately, he’s carved out a different niche that I really appreciate. He’s been making distinctly Canadian movies, such as Blackberry, Mile End Kicks, and the TIFF breakout, The Stunt Driver, which opens this weekend.
Baruchel has reunited with his Goon director Michael Dowse for The Stunt Driver, a crowd-pleasing biopic on Canadian daredevil Ken Carter, who attempted to jump a rocket-powered car over a stretch of the St. Lawrence River. The film is adapted by Dowse from the documentary The Devil at Your Heels, which chronicled the attempt.
The film also stars Ed Helms, Laurence Lebeouf, and Ben Foster as Evel Knievel. I was fortunate to attend one of the earliest showings at TIFF, and really enjoyed it. You can check out my review here.
I was fortunate to spend a few minutes talking with Baruchel and Dowse about The Stunt Driver. We talked about the comparisons between Carter and the more famous American daredevil, Evel Knievel. It was Dowse’s drive to tell Carter’s story that got the ball rolling, and we talked about how Baruchel got involved and became just as driven to make it a reality.
The Stunt Driver is open in theaters now. Check out the interview below.
