John Cena has more than one movie coming out in August, although it looks like he’ll be causing hilarious chaos in both. One if obviously his role as Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad, but another that many might not have heard about is Vacation Friends. The comedy from Disney’s 20th Century Studios has Cena returning to the same raunchy territory that we saw from him in Blockers, and we all remember how funny he was in that.
Cena stars alongside Meredith Hagner as a wild and crazy couple who befriend another straight-laced pair, played by Lil Rel Howery and Yvonne Orji, while in Mexico. After they all really let their hair down and return home, the level-headed couple are appalled when the unhinged ones suddenly crash their wedding.
The cast includes Lynn Whitfield, Robert Wisdom, and Tawny Newsome, Barry Rothbart, Anna Maria Horsford, and Kamal Bolden. The film was directed and co-written by Clay Tarver (Joy Ride) along with Tom Mullen, Tim Mullen, Jonathan Goldstein, and John Francis Daley. That’s A LOT of writers for something that looks pretty straight forward.
Vacation Friends hits Hulu on August 27th.
In this raw and raunchy comedy, straight-laced Marcus and Emily (Howery, Orji) are befriended by wild, thrill-seeking partiers Ron and Kyla (Cena, Hagner) at a resort in Mexico. Living in the moment, the usually level-headed couple lets loose to enjoy a week of uninhibited fun and debauchery with their new “vacation friends.” Months after their walk on the wild side, Marcus and Emily are horrified when Ron and Kyla show up uninvited at their wedding, creating chaos and proving that what happens on vacation doesn’t necessarily stay on vacation.
How it Ends is not your typical movie about the end of the world. But then, when the filmmakers are Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein, why would you ever want it to be? Whether working together or separate, Lister-Jones and Wein have found humor in exploring the human relationships in films such as Lola Versus, Breaking Upwards, and a personal favorite, Band Aid.
How it Ends turns some of that focus inward, as Lister-Jones plays Liza, who journeys through a mostly-empty Los Angeles alongside the embodiment of her younger self played by Cailee Spaeny. Oh, and it’s the day before the world comes to an end. It sounds like a downer, but as Liza encounters the people who were important to her; friends, family, exes, there’s humor in the attempts to patch things up and finally get this life thing right for the first time.
I had the chance to talk with Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein about How it Ends. The film was shot last year during the pandemic, which caused a number of challenges, not the least of which was gathering the starry cast that includes Olivia Wilde, Fred Armisen, Helen Hunt, and many others. This was a lot of fun, and I hope you’ll check it out.
How it Ends is available in theaters and VOD now. Check out my review here and the interview below.
It can’t be easy to star in your first major film under any circumstances. But to also portray a real-life figure such as Jadin Bell, whose suicide in 2013 brought attention to the impact of bullying on members of the LGBTQ community, the challenge was even greater. By all accounts, rising star Reid Miller met that challenge in Joe Bell, breathing life into the film and becoming its emotional heart.
I had the pleasure of talking with Reid Miller about his performance in Joe Bell, in which he stars alongside Mark Wahlberg and Connie Britton. The film is about Jadin’s father, Joe, who goes on a cross-country journey fueled by grief, in hopes of preventing the spread of hate that ultimately killed his son. Reid talked about his own bullying experiences, and how that informed his portrayal of Jadin. We also discussed working alongside Wahlberg and his hope of making an action movie with him someday in the future.
Joe Bell opens in theaters on July 23rd. You can check out my review here and the interview below!
While Andy Muschietti and his sibling producer Barbara are busy working on The Flash right now, that isn’t stopping them from launching another major project. The duo are teaming up with Charlize Theron for an adaptation of Grady Hendrix’s recent novel The Final Girl Support Group, a horror series headed to HBO Max.
The Final Girl Support Group has a really cool premise, following “a Los Angeles–based therapeutic support group for six ‘final girls’ — survivors of mass-murderer rampages whose experiences inspired the slasher franchises that saturated horror cinema in the 1980s and ’90s, earning them minor celebrity.”
Theron will produce through her Denver & Delilah Films banner, with the Muschiettis doing the same through Double Dream. Andy Muschietti will direct the pilot episode, with Hendrix on board to exec-produce.
Following in the footsteps of James Wan, Muschietti is going back to horror after a superhero diversion. He previously directed the Jessica Chastain horror Mama, as well as It chapters 1 & 2.
The concept of the “final girl” has been explored quite a lot in recent years, and I would say further developed beyond the well-established trope. Films such as Final Girl, The Final Girls and David Gordon Green’s recent Halloween films have explored the impact of female characters within the slasher genre, and are worth looking up if you’re interested in The Final Girl Support Group, as well.
How well do you really know someone? That’s what Netflix is trying to answer in the first official teaser for it’s new miniseries Clickbait.
To answer that question, Adrian Grenier (Entourage, Devil Wears Prada) plays family man Nick Brewer who’s secret may or may not be revealed after he is kidnapped. His capture is broadcast on outline and if 5 million people tune in, he dies.
Joining Grenier is Zoe Kazan (The Big Sick, The Plot Against America), Betty Gabriel (Get Out, Defending Jacob) Phoenix Raei, Elizabeth Alexander, Abraham Lim, Jessie Collins, Ian Meadows, Steve Mouzakis, and Daniel Henshall. The American-Australian production was produced by Tony Ayres (The Slap), Brad Anderson (The Sinner) and David Heyman (Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, Harry Potter, Gravity).
The official synopsis is as follows.
Nick Brewer (Adrian Grenier) is a loving father, husband, and brother, who one day suddenly and mysteriously disappears. A video appears on the internet of the badly beaten Nick holding a card that says “I abuse women. At 5 million views, I die”. Is this a threat or confession? Or both? As his sister (Zoe Kazan) and wife (Betty Gabriel) rush to find and save him, they uncover a side of Nick they didn’t know existed. An eight-episode limited series told from revolving points of view, Clickbait is a compelling, high stakes thriller that explores the ways in which our most dangerous and uncontrolled impulses are fueled in the age of social media, revealing the ever-widening fractures we find between our virtual and real-life personas
*NOTE: This review was originally posted as part of our 2021 Sundance Film Festival coverage. How It Ends is available now in select theaters and digitally.*
The calmest end-of-the-world catastrophe film you’re likely to find, Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein’s How it Endsfollows in the same tragi-funny footsteps of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. The long and short? It’s never too late for self-improvement and closure, even on the streets of Los Angeles on the final day before an asteroid is set to destroy the planet. Featuring a star-studded cast that Lister-Jones and Wein emptied the Rolodex to lure out of quarantine, the film takes some time to get going and meanders a bit, but proves an easy watch.
Lister-Jones co-directs, co-writes, and stars as Liza, who plans to spend her final night on Earth getting high all by her lonesome. She’s talked out of this notion by who we think is a roommate or kid sister (Cailee Spaeny), but turns out to be her younger self. She’s “metaphysical”, as we’re constantly reminded, and she’s not only full of energy but very opinionated. One of the film’s pleasures is the way Lister-Jones and Spaeny come to move and act more like one another as the story goes along.
On this final day, Liza’s younger self is pushing her out into the world to wrap up some loose ends. So this won’t be a time of panic, and actually everybody seems to have just moved into the “acceptance” phase of this catastrophe, it will be a time of reconciliation with her inattentive father (Bradley Whitford), her wayward mother (Helen Hunt), an old friend she left behind (Olivia Wilde), and possibly the guy (Logan Marshall-Green) she loved who got away from her. She’ll have to hoof it through the city streets because, even at a time like this, car theft is still a thing.
While watching How it Ends I kept thinking back to the insane chaos of the recent disaster film, Greenland. This is basically its polar opposite. You’d be hard-pressed to know anything was happening at all. The L.A. chill is in full effect. A guy buys up the weed dispensery and is more than happy to share; a teacher performs her stand-up routine on the street corner, while a break-dancer decides today’s a good day to rock the old school boom box. There’s a certain amount of liberal privilege at play here, for sure, and Liza is definitely a part of that. Her concerns are minor, her hang-ups about not being able to “accept love” sound like something her therapist beat into her head.
The reason we eventually give a shit is the dynamic between Lister-Jones and Spaeny, which is playful more than it is painful, although there is plenty of the latter. The two actresses couldn’t be more different. I expect the quiet, somewhat judgemental humor of Lister-Jones’ excellent Sundance comedy Band Aid, while Spaeny is just boundless energy. The contrast is key, and says a lot about the person Liza has become as an adult.
Although it clocks in at about 90-minutes, there’s plenty of room for trimming some of the excess cameos that go nowhere. Indulgences are plentiful, such as a sudden duet with Sharon Van Etten that stretches about a thousand notes too long. In L.A. where nobody walks anywhere, Liza’s moseying from place-to-place, occasionally bumping into celebrities (It’s Always Sunny cast members are plentiful), can get a little tiresome.
Shot during the pandemic but not directly addressing our current global nightmare, How It Ends is a better cinematic use of this moment than bigger productions such as Locked Down or Songbird. At the very least, we get to see people communicate directly, face-to-face, rather than face the destruction over a Zoom meeting.
When James Wan finished Aquaman, he said it would be some time before we saw a sequel. That film doesn’t arrive until the end of next year, and the time in-between saw Wan return to his horror roots with Malignant, which looks like a reminder that he’s still the guy who gave us Saw, The Conjuring, and Insidious.
Starring Annabelle Wallis, Malignant centers on a woman with terrifyingly violent visions. Upon investigating them, she discovers they aren’t just in her mind, but a terrifying reality that has something to do with her childhood imaginary friend, Gabriel.
The film also stars Jake Abel, George Young, McKenna Grace, Michole Briana White, Maddie Hasson, Jacqueline McKenzie, and Ingrid Bisu who also co-wrote the script with Wan and Akela Cooper.
Malignant opens in theaters and HBO Max on September 10th.
“Malignant” is the latest creation from “Conjuring” universe architect James Wan (“Aquaman,” “Furious 7”). The film marks director Wan’s return to his roots with this new original horror thriller. In the film, Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.
What is that they say? People love to watch a trainwreck. The Jackass tv series and the box office smash films are evidence of that. The most recent, 2010’s Jackass 3D made $171M worldwide which ain’t bad considering it was just a bunch of dufuses crashing into things and crapping on themselves. But after so much time away do people still want to watch these now-old men hurt one another again in Jackass Forever? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I definitely do.
Johnny Knoxville, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Preston Lacy, Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Ehren McGhehey, and Dave England return for more brutally funny hijinks. But how funny will it be given all that has happened since? Ryan Dunn was killed in a car crash back in 2011, while his best friend Bam Margera spiraled into alcoholism and was fired after being deemed a liability.
All of that said, it’s genuinely great to see these guys back together again. Through all of the chaos, the friendship between them has always come through. You can’t do these sorts of things with anybody other than people you are extremely cool with.
Jackass Forever hits theaters on October 22nd and will follow on Paramount+ 45 days after.
Celebrating the joy of being back together with your best friends and a perfectly executed shot to the dingdong, the original jackass crew return for another round of hilarious, wildly absurd, and often dangerous displays of comedy with a little help from some exciting new cast. Johnny and the team push the envelope even further on October 22 in jackass forever.
After a busy 2017 in which he directed both Alien: Covenant and the troubled All the Money in the World, Ridley Scott is back with perhaps his most ambitious film in years. The Last Duel is based on the true story of France’s last sanctioned duel, and it will pitt Matt Damon against Adam Driver in a 14th-century story of vengeance, honor, and sexual abuse.
Penned by Damon, Nicole Holofcener (Can You Ever Forgive Me), and Ben Affleck who also takes a supporting role, The Last Duel centers on knight Jean de Carrouges who challenges his squire Jacques Le Gris to a duel after his wife accuses Le Gris of rape. Jodie Comer, who also be seen later this year in Free Guy, plays Carrouges wife, with Affleck as a local Count.
A long time in the works, there was once a time when Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games) was planning to direct it. That fell through, and Scott took over in 2019. Filming was delayed while the world was shut down, and now it’s ready to open just in time for awards season on October 15th.
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The historical epic is a cinematic and thought-provoking drama set in the midst of the Hundred Years War that explores the ubiquitous power of men, the frailty of justice and the strength and courage of one woman willing to stand alone in the service of truth. Based on actual events, the film unravels long-held assumptions about France’s last sanctioned duel between Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris, two friends turned bitter rivals. Carrouges is a respected knight known for his bravery and skill on the battlefield. Le Gris is a Norman squire whose intelligence and eloquence make him one of the most admired nobles in court. When Carrouges’ wife, Marguerite, is viciously assaulted by Le Gris, a charge he denies, she refuses to stay silent, stepping forward to accuse her attacker, an act of bravery and defiance that puts her life in jeopardy. The ensuing trial by combat, a grueling duel to the death, places the fate of all three in God’s hands.
In Anne Fontaine’s White As Snow, a beautiful young woman has her life upended by her evil, jealousy stepmother. If it sounds like the start of a familiar fairy tale, that’s the point but this is no story full of magic and fantasy, but an exploration of female sexuality and empowerment from a filmmaker who touched on those subjects in her previous film, Adore.
White As Snow stars the legendary Isabelle Huppert as Maud, the vile stepmother whose jealousy causes her to lash out at her stepdaughter, Claire (Lou de Laâge), who is sent far away to an unfamiliar village. There, Claire experiences as sexual awakening and uses her newfound powers to attract seven dwarfs…er, seven men.
The film was directed and co-written by Fontaine, whose previous films Adore and Coco Before Chanel were also told from the female perspective.
White as Snow opens in theaters on August 13th.
When Claire (Lou de Laâge), a beautiful but reserved young woman unwittingly provokes the furious jealousy of her evil stepmother Maud (Isabelle Huppert), life as she knows it is over. Sent far away from home, Claire awakens, both figuratively and literally, in a small village in the French mountains. As if by magic, her formerly shy demeanor is gone and she is suddenly aware of her feminine power. It’s the beginning of a radical emancipation. As Claire meets the locals and starts to take joy in her sexuality, soon one, two, three… seven men fall under her charm. For the first time in her life she allows herself to indulge in no-strings sex, taking pride in belonging to no one. But then Maud arrives wanting to reconnect, and Claire must decide who to trust—her sophisticated but cold stepmother, or the circle of adoring men that now surround her.
