I’m totally down for the wave of werewolf movies we are starting to get. We haven’t had a truly good one since, well, I don’t even know to be honest. There had to have been one since the 80s…right? Here’s the thing about waves, not everything you get is right up the middle, some is definitely left of center. See Fido, which came out in the middle of the Zombie craze for an example. The upcoming Shudder Original,Teddy, seems geared up to fill that role for the Lycans.
Teddy, a French Language horror/comedy premiered at last years Cannes Film Festival, where it was bought up by Shudder (whose praises I can’t sing loud enough for the horror community) to be released on their ever more awesome streaming platform. The story itself is pretty generic, it’s the delivery that swings far left (not in the political sense). Here’s the official synopsis:
Teddy tells the story of a rebellious young man whose life starts to change drastically after gets scratched by an unknown beast in the woods.
Normal enough but the trailer shows us something that lies somewhere between An American Werewolf in London and Napoleon Dynamite. This is one of those films that you’re just going to have to judge for yourself. French comedy (is that an oxymoron?) has never been my thing, but it seems to be trying pretty hard. While there isn’t much of the horror aspect shown in the clip below, given the shooting style there’s some real potential for terror if it’s capitalized on.
Teddy is being released on the genre streaming specialist on August 5th, 2021 as part of Shudder’s Summer of Chills lineup which had an amazing entry a few weeks back with Son if you haven’t seen it already.
Simon Templar is coming back, and for real this time. Fans of The Saint, whether it be the hero of Leslie Charteris early 20th-century novels or versions of the character played in adaptations by Vincent Price, Roger Moore, and most recently Val Kilmer, now have a new film to look forward to. This one will be led by Bridgerton breakout, Regé-Jean Page.
THR confirms that Paramount is launching a new reboot of The Saint, with Regé-Jean Page set to star and produce. Kwame Kwei-Armah (of the upcoming John Boyega film 892 and Spike Lee joint All Rise) is penning the script about Robin Hood-esque adventurer Simon Templar, who strikes at the corrupt although his motivations remain a mystery.
It’s unclear who will direct. Just last year Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman) was attached to a version that Chris Pine was set to lead. That has obviously fallen through, but Fletcher could still be involved after he finishes up with the studio’s Godfather series, The Offer.
Page has been on a roll of late, landing roles in the Russo Brothers’ blockbuster The Gray Man, and the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons.
Where have all of the great adventure movies gone? Whatever one thinks of Brendan Fraser now, nobody filled the Indiana Jones shoes better than he did with 1999’s The Mummy and its superior sequel, The Mummy Returns, two great, swashbuckling and hilarious adventures with loads of CGI and even more personality. Disney’s Jungle Cruise wants to be this generation’s version of that, along with a healthy dose of The African Queen, but I’ll wager this is the one time when Fraser gets the pinfall victory over Dwayne Johnson.
Don’t let my Fraser-love fool you; Jungle Cruise is a rip-roaring blast of fun and romance, the kind of escapist fare that families can flock together for and everyone can enjoy. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Hard to believe this guy directed Orphan!), the film takes place in 1916 when unappreciated scientist Lily Houghton, played with spitfire by Emily Blunt, looks to upstage the stuffy men of her field by finding a magic flower that legend says can cure any illness. Her sheepish brother McGregor (Jack Whitehall) dutifully follows behind her, although he’d rather be enjoying a stiff drink or going to a party.
Immediately, we’re shown just how spirited Lily is as she runs circles around her chauvinist colleagues to steal an item crucial to locating the flower, said to be hidden away in the jungles of the Amazon. During her theft, she pisses off German Prince Joachim (a Hans Landa-esque Jesse Plemons) who hopes to use the petal power to aid Hitler’s rise to power. While in South America, she is repeatedly conned and swindled by Johnson’s Frank Wolff, a hulking riverboat captain who scams naive tourists with “dangerous” boat rides.
The film crackles with energy in these early scenes, as Lily and Frank banter back-and-forth in an effort to outwit the other. They aren’t playing on a level field, however. She needs Frank’s help to find the flower, and he’ll do anything for money, even go so far as to unleash a jaguar to tilt the odds in his favor. A lot of time is spent just trying to get Frank’s boat out of hock to the harbormaster (Paul Giamatti), a mini-quest in itself that involves explosions, and fights with bruising thugs on the docks. Frank gives Lily an endearing nickname, “Pants”, because of her liberal fashion sense that befuddled every man she meets. The two simply ooze romantic chemistry, with every jab stuffed with pent-up sexual energy. Even for a Disney flick, it’s pretty palpable.
Jungle Cruise swings, literally in some cases, from action setpiece to action setpiece, with barely a moment to take a breath. There’s a mountain of CGI to wade through, though, and it can be distractingly fake in the way Pirates of the Caribbean often did. But then, this is meant to be in the same in as that other franchise built on an amusement park attraction, so it makes sense Disney is sticking with the well-worn formula. The humor is much the same, Frank is just as much of a character as Jack Sparrow; the only difference is that Blunt’s Lily is really the one steering this ship. It’s her determination, smarts, and bravery that dives into unfathomably weird odds against 400-year-old conquistador/monster hybrids (one played by Edgar Ramirez), dangerous natives, hungry jungle animals, and even a submarine armed with torpedoes.
All of that said, I can’t fathom what went on in the minds of screenwriters John Requa and Glenn Ficarra for them to come up with some of the twists of plot. One, which totally reframes our idea of who Frank is, lowers the stakes drastically at a critical moment when the film needs an added sense of danger. There’s so much comical violence that Jungle Cruise ends up feeling too weightless, like those disposable Jumanji movies Johnson makes, and people absolutely love.
But when Jungle Cruise starts to go off-course, Blunt and Johnson are always there to set things right. Johnson’s oversized personality is right at home in a film that leaps off the screen with vibrant colors boundless energy, while Blunt throws herself into every moment with infectious daring. When things slow down, such as during a heart-to-heart moment with McGregor revealing his love for another man (making him Disney’s first major openly gay character) it hits home because we’ve come to care about this trio of adventurers. There’s no denying that Jungle Cruise is a rocky journey always on the verge of washing up ashore, but Blunt and Johnson are so great together you’ll be aboard for the long haul.
Jungle Cruise opens in theaters and Disney+ Premiere Access on July 30th.
Not that Paul Schrader has anything left to prove with his storied career, but all eyes are on his follow-up to 2017’s First Reformed, which received tremendous reviews all around. That project is The Card Counter, which has only just been announced as part of the upcoming Venice Film Festival lineup, and we didn’t have to wait long to get our first footage.
Oscar Isaac stars in The Card Counter, and as you probably guessed from the title, he plays a gambler, also an ex-military officer, as he’s haunted by the ghosts of past decisions. The film also stars Tiffany Haddish, who continues to work in dramatic spaces lately, plus Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe.
Filming took some detours due to COVID, including one supporting actor testing positive for the virus. But Schrader is an old hand at this point and got the film done quickly once shooting resumed.
The Card Counter opens on September 10th courtesy of Focus Features. I can’t wait.
TV is about to get a little more terrifying. Epix just released its trailer for the new gothic horror show Chapelwaite starring Adrien Brody. Based off of Stephen King’s short story Jerusalem’s Lot, the series follows a father and sea captain who moves his family to Maine and a very haunted house.
Joining Brody in this bloody tale is Schitt’s Creek alum Emily Hampshire as Rebecca Morgan, the family’s governess with a knack for writing. Brody will also be executive producing. Chapelwaite seems to have everything a horror fan would want – vampires, monster babies, worms crawls through veins, beheadings, and scarecrows. Just beware, things are about to get more gruesome.
The official synopsis is as follows:
Set in the 1850s, the Chapelwaite follows Captain Charles Boone (Brody), who relocates his family of three children to his ancestral home in the small, seemingly sleepy town of Preacher’s Corners, Maine after his wife dies at sea. However, Charles will soon have to confront the secrets of his family’s sordid history, and fight to end the darkness that has plagued the Boones for generations.
Hampshire plays Rebecca Morgan, an ambitious young woman who left Preacher’s Corners to attend Mount Holyoke College, and has returned home with an advance to write a story for the new and prestigious Atlantic Magazine. Her writer’s block lifts when Boone arrives in town with his children, and despite her mother’s protests, Rebecca applies to be governess of the infamous Chapelwaite manor and the Boone family in order to write about them. In doing so, Rebecca will not only craft the next great gothic novel, she’ll unravel a mystery that has plagued her own family for years.
Nostalgia is in full swing this summer, the right time to delve back into the movies that we loved as kids. It’s been nearly four decades since Ghostbusters was in theaters, and after one disappointing reboot attempt in 2016, the franchise emerges with a true canonical sequel with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, helmed by Jason Reitman, son of original director Ivan Reitman. On paper, there couldn’t be a better person for the job of securing the franchise’s legacy.
Taking a page out of Stranger Things, this Ghostbusters is squarely focused on a younger generation battling the paranormal. While Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver are all back reprising their roles, the film is about kids played by Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace, with Carrie Coon as their mother. It’s suggested that Coon’s character has a connection to the original team. Paul Rudd plays teacher Mr. Grooberson, who is something of a ghostbusters super fan.
This is still going to be a tough sell, I think. It’s possible Ghostbusters had its moment back in the ’80s and audiences just aren’t into it anymore. The sweet spot is probably JJ Abrams’ Super 8, which was both Amblin-esque nostalgia and a fun monster movie. Whether Ghostbusters: Afterlife can live up to the classic, we’ll find out on November 11th.
The Witch, Midsommar, Hereditary, The Lighthouse…whenever A24 backs a horror film it’s cause to perk up and pay attention. They are again on the case with Lamb, which continues their fondness for sheep/goat-based thrillers. The film created quite a stir at Cannes where it premiered out-of-competition, mainly due to its bizarre premise.
I don’t want to spoil it, because the new trailer doesn’t put it all out there on the table, but Lamb is damn weird. The film stars Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snaer Gudnason as a childless Icelandic couple working on their sheep farm. Early in the footage we see one of their animals give birth to a lamb, but as the deliberate camera angles shield you from a complete view, you quickly get the sense that something else is up. Is it something demonic? Or is Mother Nature just seriously fucking with them?
Even the new poster keeps the film’s big twist hidden from view…
Lamb is directed and co-written by Valdimar Jóhannsson, joined by co-writer Sjón who worked with Robert Eggers on The Northman. I can see a lot of visual and thematic similarities to Eggers’ breakout film, The Witch.
A24 will release Lamb in theaters on October 8th.
A childless couple in rural Iceland make an alarming discovery one day in their sheep barn. They soon face the consequences of defying the will of nature, in this dark and atmospheric folktale, the striking debut feature from director Valdimar Jóhannsson.
The last couple of Sundance Film Festivals has been very busy for Rebecca Hall. This year she dropped her directorial debut with the acclaimed drama Passing, but it was last year that she starred in the buzz-worthy horror, The Night House. And finally, after more than a year of wait, Searchlight Pictures are set to release the film next month, but not before a new trailer takes us into the titular haunted lake home.
In The Night House, Hall stars as a woman struggling with the death of her husband, while staying in the lakeside house he built for her. It’s there that she begins to unearth secrets about the man she thought she knew, while experiencing dark visions and a mysterious presence.
It’s familiar ground, to be sure, but we should expect a little somethign different from director David Bruckner. He’s quickly risen up the ranks as a genre favorite thanks to his 2007 film The Signal, his “Amateur Night” segment in V/H/S, and the underrated horror The Ritual.
Also starring Sarah Goldberg, Vondie Curtis Hall, Evan Jonigkeit, and Stacy Martin, The Night House opens on August 20th.
Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth (Rebecca Hall) is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. She tries as best she can to keep together—but then the dreams come. Disturbing visions of a presence in the house call to her, beckoning with a ghostly allure. Against the advice of her friends, she begins digging into her husband’s belongings, yearning for answers. What she finds are secrets both strange and terrible and a mystery she’s determined to resolve.
It’s about to get reallll suicidal around here. You know what…that probably wasn’t the best opening line to use here. Anyway, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad will hit theaters stateside, and HBO Max in two short weeks (UK gets it this week, bastards) and though it hasn’t even been released a breakout character is emerging. John Cena’s Peacemaker, who’s essentially a bizzaro-world Captain America. A guy who believe peace should be achieved at any cost, usually that cost being the lives of other people in his way.
Generally speaking, studios wait for fan reaction to start a spin-off series but in this case we knew a Peacemaker series was coming a solid month or two before the film released. Thinking back, it may have even been before the trailer hit. That can only mean one thing, everyone involved is supremely confident that this character is going to break out, hard, from an ensemble cast fully of stars and compelling characters. The few scenes we’ve seen of Peacemaker are funny, no doubt, but I can’t wait to see what makes this character tick.
We found out today we won’t have to wait too long as HBOMax has announced that the solo outing will premier on January 16, 2022. The first three episodes will all drop at once before reverting to a weekly release schedule. Outside of that, details are scarce. We know that James Gunn, Jody Hill, Brad Anderson, and Rosemary Rodriguez are directing and we did get episode titles which, hopefully, are a bit more enlightening after seeing the film, those episodes are titled:
A Whole New Whirled
Best Friends Never
Better Goff Dead
Stay tuned here for all the latest and look for Peacemaker on HBOMax, January 16, 2022
The MAGA Dude Takes Marseilles!!! Or as it is actually known, Stillwater, is a mixed bag of many different genres, only some of which are effective. Partially inspired by the Amanda Knox case, the film finds Damon as Bill Baker, a roughneck, white-collar American guy, with the tats and goatee to prove it, who travels to France to be near his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin), imprisoned five years prior for the murder of her French-Arab girlfriend. The case was a global scandal. Bill is clearly not a guy given to public attention. He’s an oil rigger and construction guy, who like many is facing economic struggle. He does not fit in the very liberal country where his daughter is being held.
Stillwater never misses a beat in reminding us of this. Bill is such an American stereotype that the French people he meets will make jokes at his expense, ask him how many guns he owns (Two! How scandalous!) and if he voted for Trump. Bill is a joke, but director Tom McCarthy and a trio of screenwriters never make him a hateful man. Rather, he’s actually someone we come to feel a certain amount of empathy for because of his unflinching desire to protect his daughter.
When we meet Bill he’s settled into a familiar routine. Despite limited resources, he travels to Marseilles, books a room at the cheapie Best Western, and makes his way through the prison system so he can spend a few minutes with Allison, maybe do some of her laundry. This time, she requested: take a letter to her attorney to reopen the case because of new evidence suggesting a local named Akim was the true killer. When the lawyer refuses, Bill decides he wants to play detective, find this Akim guy, and get Allison set free.
Stillwater totally would’ve been a Liam Neeson-esque thriller about a dad with a particular set of skills in different hands. But Bill’s talents don’t run that deep. He can fix things, could probably be a pretty good bruiser. Plus, he can’t navigate the country without drawing attention to himself. Fortunately, he quickly befriends a young girl, Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) and her altruistic mother Virginie (Camille Cottin), who become his support and lifeline. Virginia and Bill couldn’t be more different; she’s very progressive and a theater actress. Bill has never seen a play in his life. But he cares for Maya, perhaps in a bid to be a better father than he was to Allison (it’s suggested he was pretty awful). Soon, they form their own little makeshift family and Bill finds his corner of happiness in this unfamiliar place.
This idea of building family wherever one can find it is a recurring theme from McCarthy, seen in previous films The Visitor, The Station Agent, and Win Win. Those films didn’t have the whole “hunting a possible murder suspect” angle to them, however, and the styles clash doesn’t quite work. Stillwater is most affecting when exploring Bill and his unexpected family unit, while tangling with the guilt he feels over his part in Allison’s situation. Furthermore, there’s doubt that begins to creep in whether she’s truly innocent, as she repeatedly asserts. The scenes Bill shares with Virginia and Maya smooth over some of his rough edges and make us forget about the politics we assume he has. Nothing Bill ever does is outwardly racist; it’s possible that’s because this story takes place five years into Allison’s incarceration, but the prejudice we see always comes from the supposed liberals making fun of the dumb American.
However, every time the plot stumbles back into Bill’s investigation and awkward attempts to reconcile with Allison, Stillwater comes to a screeching halt. As I’ve said before, McCarthy is such a seasoned hand at the heartwarming dysfunctional family drama that you can’t help but wonder what this film could have been without the thriller aspects. Damon is such a likable figure that you immediately feel empathy for Bill, but it’s not a role he’s naturally attuned with, either. Instead, it’s the luminous Camille Cottin who steals every scene as Virginia breaks through Bill’s hard exterior through sheer kindness. It doesn’t completely change Bill’s aggressively American tendencies, but she shows the understanding that he’s always been missing and certainly couldn’t express himself.
It’s unclear what Stillwater is ultimately about. It’s not really about Amanda Knox, it’s callously not at all about the Arab girl who died. There’s an attempt to remain as free of harsh political commentary as possible, when taking a stance would’ve served so much better. Instead, just as Stillwater never fully commits to a tone it never fully commits to a theme, either. Serious issues are glossed over, including an act of bodily injury that just comes and goes. Allusions to Europe’s class and race struggle, and how it mirrors America, are suggested but never followed through. When all is said and done, and a couple of head-snapping twists change our perception of everyone, it leaves you wondering whether the point is that there is no point, that the ideological divide is too vast to ever fully be mended.
