The trailer for the upcoming Netflix limited series Halston confirms two things for me. 1., Ewan McGregor can really do anything and 2., I know absolutely nothing about fashion. Halston follows the rise and fall of the so named celebrity fashion designer who, according to a 2 minute Wiki search I just did, defined the look of the fashionable disco-goer. It appears from the trailer that the story is pretty much par for the course, hunger and talent equals success which leads to money, drugs, sex, fame, and inevitably the downfall. The cast assembled seems to be that of Netflix’s A-game, but McGregor is probably all you really need as he seems to have enveloped himself in the role. Mix in the saucy scene of 70s New York with all of the cocaine fueled nights at Studio 54 that you can handle and you have the recipe for a solid series!
Apple continues to put their money into Tom Hanks as much as possible, which is a pretty damn good investment. After working with him on Greyhound, and the upcoming WWII series Masters of the Air, they’ve now acquired for Apple TV+ his sci-fi film Finch, which had been going under the title Bios.
Finch is directed by Miguel Sapochnik, best known for his work on Repo Men and Game of Thrones. The story centers on an aging inventor, the last human on Earth, who journeys across the country with his dog and a robot he built named Jeff.
Also in the cast are Caleb Landry Jones, Samira Wiley, Laura Harrier, and Skeet Ulrich.
So it’s another road trip movie for Hanks, following on last year’s News of the World. I’m sure Apple is hoping Finch gets similar accolades come awards season, because that’s likely the release date they’ll shoot for. [Deadline]
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free virtual screening of Finding You, starring Rose Reid, Jedidiah Goodacre, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Katherine McNamara, Tom Everett Scott, and Vanessa Redgrave.
Synopsis: FINDING YOU is an inspirational romantic drama full of heart and humor about finding the strength to be true to oneself. After an ill-fated audition at a prestigious New York music conservatory, violinist Finley Sinclair (Rose Reid) travels to an Irish coastal village to begin her semester studying abroad. At the B&B run by her host family, she encounters gregarious and persistent heartthrob movie star Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre), who is there to film another installment of his medieval fantasy-adventure franchise. As romance sparks between the unlikely pair, Beckett ignites a journey of discovery for Finley that transforms her heart, her music, and her outlook on life. In turn, Finley emboldens Beckett to reach beyond his teen-idol image and pursue his true passion. But when forces surrounding Beckett’s stardom threaten to crush their dreams, Finley must decide what she is willing to risk for love.
The screening takes place on Wednesday, May 12th at 7pm EST. If you’d like to attend, simply send an email to punchdrunktrav@gmail.com with “Finding You Screening” in the subject line. We’ll be selecting the first 25 people to respond, so get those entries in quickly! Good luck.
Thomasin McKenzie has a number of standout performances to her credit, from her breakthrough in Leave No Trace, to her crucial role in Jojo Rabbit. But the biggest part to date is what’s next, as she’s set to play Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug in Perfect, the upcoming film from Olivia Wilde.
TheWrap reports McKenzie will play Kerri Strug in Olivia Wilde’s sports biopic, Perfect, which was announced last year. The story follows Strug as she battled through injury during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, landing the famous vault that secured USA a gold medal.
Shooting on Perfect begins next year. McKenzie will be seen in M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller Old, due out this summer. That will be followed by Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho which opens this fall.
A trio of kung fu masters reunites to avenge the murder of their fallen sensei. It’s the set-up for literally hundreds of martial arts movies, but rarely do they have the heart and humor ofThe Paper Tigers. Quoc Bao Tran’s directorial debut is not only funny, but it uses the vengeful scenario to tell a lighthearted story of friendship, overcoming the odds, and finding one’s true self. Oh, and it has some pretty sweet action, too. This one’s not to be missed.
Fans of The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai will want to seek out The Paper Tigers because they touch on so many of the same themes. Danny (Alain Uy), Hing (Ron Yuan), and Jim (Mykel Shannon Jenkins) are old friends and students of the legendary Master Sifu Cheng (Roger Yuan). As teens they were pretty hot shit, known as the “Three Tigers” for being Sifu’s best and brightest students. But Danny was the best of them all. Nicknamed “8 Hands”, Danny used to pick on a pathetic rival, Carter (Matthew Page), who talked a good game but couldn’t back it up.
Years later, the guys are estranged, not only from one another but from Sifu. Danny has fallen particularly far; a workaholic who can’t find time for his own son, he also lies to his ex-wife just to keep face. It’s not the way Sifu taught him how to be. But in truth, all Three Tigers have fallen far off the path. When Sifu dies under mysterious circumstances, Hing returns to reunite the trio for the funeral, and to uncover what really happened.
The Paper Tigers doesn’t unfold like your typical revenge kung fu movie.The journey opens up the opportunity for Danny, Hing, and Jim to make amends but also to grow up and make good on their responsibility to Sifu. If they are to truly be worthy of his legacy, they’ll have to fight for it, which is where the humor comes in. These guys are out of shape and as likely to break a hip as throw a kick. A whole new crop of fighters have emerged willing to take their place as the new Tigers, but there’s also a deadly killer out there who could be strong enough to take them all down.
What’s fun about The Paper Tigers is the way it blends comedy into some really unique fight sequences. Each character has their own strengths to bring to the table, which makes each battle different. Danny has maybe fallen the farthest, and his losses are pretty embarrassing as he tries to get back in the groove. Jim retired from kung fu and took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and while he looks the most physically imposing, we soon learn that one discipline does not translate to the other. Meanwhile, Hing has grown out of shape and sports a leg brace, but he has skills as a master healer which come in handy for his fights.
“You look like a fat, Asian Mr. Rogers”, Carter tells him, one of many great one-liners that Matthew Page drops. While there’s a ton of comic relief it’s Page who stands out, and makes for a terrific foil as the rightfully pissed-off and arrogant Carter. He enjoys getting a bit of retribution on the guys who tormented him in school, and it shows. But at the same time, he’s respectful of Sifu and kung fu, having built a life dedicated to it, which is a harsh reality the Tigers have to accept.
The Tigers are best when together, and so is the film. As plotting divides them up to deal with individual hurdles, the film begins to lose a lot of its steam. The bad guy they must overcome has an air of danger around him, which is great for the battle to come, but he still comes across as one-dimensional.
Tran stays pretty light on his feet as a filmmaker, deftly switching to a VHS camcorder style during montages of the Tigers growing up, practicing their moves while hip-hop blasts behind them. From a physical standpoint I had a hard time buying that young Jim (played by Gui DaSilva-Greene ) could ever grow up to look like older Jim, but for the most part the casting is really strong all around. All three leads are able to inject so much character into their performances, both in the smaller moments of bonding and into the action.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend The Paper Tigers is especially deep, but it doesn’t need to be. The lessons it teaches about loyalty, honor, and duty are simple ones, told with the care and laughter that punches you right in the feels.
When senior year ends and one graduates, it’s usually the best summer of your life. You have finally made it over that hurdle of the last little bit of high school and are ready to take the world on by storm. Whether that be going to college, trade school, or get a job, for that summer before you have to start making big life decisions, it’s the last moment of you feeling completely invincible. So naturally, you get with your buddies and are ready to tear a new one all summer long. Well, that’s kinda what happens in Here Are The Young Men, but it gets rather dark.
Matthew (Dean-Charles Chapman), Joseph (Finn Cole), and Rez (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) are best buds in Dublin, who after they graduate high school are ready to let loose some steam. It’s clear Joseph is not only the alpha, but also the one who gets into the most trouble as he convinces everyone to destroy their teacher’s car as they are vandalizing their school on their last day. Poor Mr. Landerton (Ralph Ineson) watches them do it after pleading with Matthew to make the right decision as they then run away consequence-free. And so begins the summer. The boys aimlessly hang out together, drinking, and even have Matthew’s friend Jen (Anya Taylor-Joy) tag along with them as the voice of reason.
Unfortunately, everything changes for them after they happen to witness a horrible auto accident that results in the death of a child. For these 3 guys, they have not really seen anything in their lives that deals with life and death, and definitely not right in front of them. Such a thing fundamentally changes them in different ways. Matthew grows closer with Jen and she provides support and comfort for him. Things aren’t as good for Joseph and Rez though, as they have difficulty processing the grief and PTSD after what they witnessed. A lot of drinking and drug use happens. Rez suffers through depression and suicidal thoughts and Joseph’s rage starts to outwardly manifest itself. While Matthew is the least touched of them, their behavior begins to affect him as well as he wants to be their friend, but they are going down different paths.
Things take a real c-change when Joseph goes to America because he wants to be an “alpha male” and be more like how he perceives Americans to be. Here Are The Young Men dips into weird surrealism as Joseph has a talk show fantasy as he interacts with a TV show host (Travis Fimmel) who is defining what a mane “should” be, and it’s all the characteristics of toxic masculinity. When Joseph comes back to Dublin, he’s abusing the homeless and overly aggressive with women (as he attempts drunken rapes more than once). Seeing a young child die has instead made him have less apathy, to the point that he helps orchestrate torture and abuse of a homeless man (Emmett J. Scanlan) in Dublin and even pulls Matthew into it, helping divide their friendship even more.
While a movie delves into the “one last summer” troupe of coming-of-age films rather well, the final act causes Here Are The Young Men to fall flat on its face. The film seems to drift further and further into darker territory more for the sake of shock value instead of to serve the story. By the end of the film (which connects to the opening shot), these guys’ lives have been forever changed for the worse, but it doesn’t seem well earned in the way the film presents itself. Dean-Charles Chapman and Finn Cole give great performances, Anna Taylor-Joy doesn’t have much to do in the film other than play Matthew’s girlfriend and try to pull him back from the edge. If director Eoin Macken tried to be a little more grounded and less experimental (the TV talk show bits didn’t work well at all and were rather distracting), Here Are The Young Men might have worked a little better.
Here Are The Young Men is currently available on VOD.
Tomorrow is May 4th, and if you’re a Star Wars fan that’s more than just another Tuesday. It’s a day when “May the 4th Be With You” t-shirts will be worn by geeks the world over, celebrating Star Wars Day. Any and all means to honor the beloved franchise will take place, and for Disney it’s a chance to market the brand in some cool and clever ways. Like, say, a crossover with The Simpsons.
That’s right, Star Wars and The Simpsons will meet in a new short film titled Maggie Simpson in The Force Awakens From Its Nap. The film arrives tomorrow on Disney+, and of course, centers on toddler Maggie Simpson as she goes on an epic quest where she meets up with some familiar characters from a galaxy far far away…
SYNOPSIS: In a daycare far, far away… but still in Springfield, Maggie is on an epic quest for her stolen pacifier. Her adventure brings her face-to-face with young Padawans, Sith Lords, familiar droids, Rebel scum, and an ultimate battle against the dark side, in this original short celebrating the Star Wars galaxy.
Also debuting tomorrow, appropriately enough, is the first episode ofThe Bad Batch. The animated series follows the souped-up clones last seen in new episodes of The Clone Wars. Dave Filoni is once again behind the show, so fans know to expect greatness from it. Having seen the first couple of episodes, I can say that my fears about it have been cleared away. They still don’t feel like true Star Wars characters to me, but Filoni, smartly, weaves them into a compelling part of history (Order 66) and that’s what has hooked me.
And all is right with the world. When creators say that we should wait for official word on anything before believing what we hear about a Marvel Studios project, this is why they say it. Because when they decide to make something known, they just go for it. And today, not only are we getting our first looks at Eternals, but also reveals of the titles for Black Panther and Captain Marvel 2.
Marvel Studios has dropped a welcoming teaser, celebrating the entire MCU family as fans head back into theaters. Featuring footage from Black Widow and Shang-Chi, it also includes our first footage from Eternals, directed by Oscar-winning Nomadland director Chloe Zhao. The starry cast includes Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, and more, most glimpsed in this very brief promo. That’s followed by reminders of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love & Thunder, and then the big news.
The footage concludes by revealing Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as the title of the upcoming sequel, due to open on July 8th 2022. That’s followed by The Marvels, which is the new title for Captain Marvel 2. It makes sense considering we know to expect appearances from Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel, and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau. That film arrives on November 11th 2022.
Ant-Man & the Wasp: QuantuMania is teased for February 17th 2023, followed by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on May 5th 2023, and then a Fantastic Four logo but still no release date.
Landing Florence Pugh for your film is a very big deal right now, as she’s red-hot after only a few years on the public radar. But that’s what happens when your resume has Little Women, Midsommar, and Marvel’s Black Widow on it. So this is quite a coup for award-winning filmmaker Sebastián Lelio, who has cast Pugh in his next film, an adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder.
Deadline reports Pugh will star in The Wonder, based on Donoghue’s novel published in 2016. Adapted by Alice Birch, who wrote Pugh’s breakthrough role in Lady Macbeth, the story “is set in Irish Midlands, 1859 and follows an English nurse, Lib Wright (Pugh), who is summoned to a tiny village to observe what some are claiming as a medical anomaly or a miracle – a girl said to have survived without food for months. Tourists have flocked to the cabin of eleven-year-old and a journalist has come down to cover the sensation.”
Lelio is on a bit of a hot streak himself. Ever since his 2013 film Gloria, Lelio has been rolling with Oscar winner A Fantastic Woman, followed by 2018’s underrated drama Disobedience, and 2019’s remake Gloria Bell. He makes movies about strong, complicated women and always gets the best out of his performers, which makes the pairing with Pugh pretty damn exciting.
This will be next for Lelio, pushing aside his sci-fi movie Bride with Scarlett Johansson. As for Pugh, she’s currently shooting Olivia Wilde’s next directorial effort Don’t Worry Darling, and has Zach Braff’s Good Person coming up. Of course, we’ll see her first in Black Widow this summer.
Some of you may have heard of Arrow star Stephen Amell’s forays into professional wrestling. But if you haven’t actually seen him in action? Let me tell you, if he wanted to be a wrestler he’d be one of the greats, that’s how amazing he was in the ring. For a while I actually thought he’d quit acting and join All Elite Wrestling with his pal Cody Rhodes, but instead Amell is putting his in-ring skills to use on the Starz series, Heels, which looks absolutely incredible.
Now I have to subscribe to Starz, dammit.
The wrestling series stars Amell alongside Alexander Ludwig, playing small-town brothers attempting to make their dreams come true as professional wrestlers, with one as the “babyface” or good guy, and the other the “heel” or villain.
The cast also includes Alison Luff, Chris Bauer, Super Bowl champion James Harrison, Allen Maldonado, Kelli Berglund, Mary McCormack, David James Elliot, and Phil Brooks aka CM Punk as a wrestler known as Ricky Rabies.
Michael Waldron, known for his work on Loki, Rick & Morty, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, created the series.
Heels debuts on August 15th!
The drama series also stars Alison Luff as Staci Spade, Jack’s wife who learns that she has to contend with the emotional stakes her in-laws have invested in their wrestling goals and the demands it puts on her family; Mary McCormack as Willie Day, Jack’s business partner and the logistical brains behind the local wrestling organization; Kelli Berglund as Crystal Tyler, Ace’s valet, and love interest; Allen Maldonado as Rooster Robbins, one of the best wrestlers in the circuit who always has something to prove and always backs it up; two-time Super Bowl champion James Harrison as Apocalypse, a been-around-the-block journeyman wrestler who’s been at it for decades and has no illusions of fame or glory; and Chris Bauer as Wild Bill Hancock, a larger-than-life former wrestling star who is now a high-level pro wrestling scout.
