‘Percy Vs. Goliath’ Trailer: Christopher Walken, Zach Braff, & Christina Ricci Take On A Corporate Farming Superpower

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April 1, 2021

The way we farm has changed significantly from the idea that has been planted (no pun intended) in our minds. More often than not, the soil, seeds, and plants are as much a technological invention as any machine, and that comes with all sorts of intellectual property rights and other legal nonsense we don’t want to think about when it comes to food. But those court battles matter, as seen in the trailer for Percy Vs. Goliath, about one farmer’s fight against the corporate giant Monsanto.

Starring Christopher Walken as Percy Schmeiser, the film centers on the aging small-town farmer as he is targeted by multinational agrochemical company Monsanto, who accuse him of using their lab-created seeds for his crops, and they expect payment. The protracted legal battle was key in establishing farmers’ rights, the regulation of transgenic crops, and bringing attention to genetically engineered food.

Also in the cast are Zach Braff (this seems like a movie he would’ve directed, honestly), Christina Ricci, Luke Kirby, Adam Beach, and Martin Donovan. Behind the camera is veteran actor/director Clark Johnson, best-known for directing S.W.A.T., The Sentinel, and episodes of The Wire. To me he’ll always be Detective Meldrick Lewis on Homicide: Life On the Street.

Percy Vs. Goliath opens in theaters and VOD on April 30th.

Academy Award® Winner Christopher Walken*, Zach Braff and Christina Ricci star in the true story of a small-town farmer taking on one of the largest agricultural and food manufacturing corporations. Percy Schmeiser (Walken), a third-generation farmer, is sued by a corporate giant for allegedly using their patented seeds. With little resources to fight the giant legal battle, Percy joins forces with up-and-coming attorney Jackson Weaver (Braff) and environmental activist Rebecca Salcau (Ricci) to fight one of the most monumental cases all the way up to the Supreme Court.

‘Things Heard & Seen’ Trailer: Amanda Seyfried Stars In New Netflix Horror From ‘American Splendor’ Duo

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Travis Hopson

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April 1, 2021

Chances are, an isolated 19th-century farmhouse sold at a remarkably low price has something wrong with it. Like it’s probably haunted. In the movies, that’s never going to be enough to stop some short-sighted folks from buying it anyway, and that’s what happens in the upcoming Netflix thriller, Things Heard & Seen.

The most interesting thing about this haunted horror is the talent attached to it. American Splendor duo Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini directed and wrote the script in a departure from their usual fare. The cast is led by Oscar-nominated Mank star Amanda Seyfried, along with Little Women‘s James Norton, Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer, Alex Neustaedter, Rhea Seehorn, Michael O’Keefe, Karen Allen, Jack Gore, F. Murray Abraham, James Urbaniak, and Ana Sophia Heger.

Things Heard & Seen hits Netflix on April 29th!

Catherine Clare (Academy Award®-nominee Amanda Seyfried) reluctantly trades life in 1980s Manhattan for a remote home in the tiny hamlet of Chosen, New York, after her husband George (James Norton) lands a job teaching art history at a small Hudson Valley college. Even as she does her best to transform the old dairy farm into a place where young daughter Franny will be happy, Catherine increasingly finds herself isolated and alone. She soon comes to sense a sinister darkness lurking both in the walls of the ramshackle property—and in her marriage to George.

Ryan Coogler Further Explains Decision To Return For ‘Black Panther II’: “You Keep Going”

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Travis Hopson

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April 1, 2021

The entire world was devastated by the sudden death of Chadwick Boseman, leaving behind a short but profound legacy as an actor and as a good person. For those who worked with him closest and knew him best, that loss has been tough to overcome, such as Black Panther director Ryan Coogler. The sequel moves on without Boseman, and with Coogler having written a new script that moves on without T’Challa. Exactly how that happens, we have no idea, but Coogler explains to THR his decision to return and tell that story…

“It’s difficult. You’ve got to keep going when you lose loved ones. I know Chad wouldn’t have wanted us to stop. He was somebody who was so about the collective. ‘Black Panther,’ that was his movie. He was hired to play that role before anybody else was even thought of, before I was hired, before any of the actresses were hired.”

“On that set, he was all about everybody else. Even though he was going through what he was going through, he was checking in on them, making sure they were good. If we cut his coverage, he would stick around and read lines off-camera [to help other actors with their performances]. So it would be harder for me to stop. Truthfully. I’d feel him yelling at me, like, ‘What are you doing?’ So you keep going.”

I feel like Coogler is getting asked this same question a lot. He said pretty much the same thing in another interview just a couple of weeks ago. Questions about the absence of Boseman are understandable and that set is going to be incredibly emotional. I just hope there’s a time when Coogler is allowed to just make the best movie he can and honor Boseman in the way he sees fit.

Black Panther II opens July 8th 2022.

Andrea Riseborough Joins ‘Matilda’ Musical As Mrs. Wormwood

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Travis Hopson

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April 1, 2021

You had me at Andrea Riseborough. The Mandy and Possessor actress has joined the latest adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved book, Matilda. This one will be a musical, with a cast that includes Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, and other new additions Stephen Graham and Sindhu Vee.

Matilda follows the adventures of an extraordinary genius of a girl, who uses her wits and imagination to take a stand against her awful parents and the ruthless principal of her school. The film will be based on the Tony and Olivier award-winning play Matilda The Musical, which will be directed by Matthew Warchus (Pride) and adapted by Dennis Kelly.

Riseborough will take on the role of Mrs. Wormwood, Matilda’s bingo-obsessed mother, with Graham as the child’s disreputable father.

Coming up for Riseborough is starring alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in biopic The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. She also has the supernatural thriller Geechee and David O. Russell’s upcoming film. She was most-recently seen in the SXSW thriller Here Before, which I reviewed here. [Deadline]

‘Demonic’: Neill Blomkamp’s Supernatural Horror Film Arrives This August

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Travis Hopson

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April 1, 2021

It’s been six years since Neill Blomkamp’s last feature film, the robot action flick Chappie. In the time since he’s done plenty of short films and was attached to other projects that went belly up (remember his Alien sequel? Ahhh what might’ve been!), but last year during the pandemic he shot a supernatural horror film while up in Canada. And now that film, titled Demonic, has a distributor in IFC Midnight.

IFC Midnight has acquired the rights to Demonic, and now we’re learning a bit more about the secretive project. Here’s how a press release describes the film:

“In Demonic, a young woman unleashes terrifying demons when supernatural forces at the root of a decades old rift between mother and daughter are ruthlessly revealed in this horror-thriller from director Neill Blomkamp.”

There’s a tight cast on this one, with Carly Pope (Elysium), Chris William Martin (The Age of Adaline), and Michael Rogers (Siren) the only actors listed. Blomkamp directs, produces, and wrote the screenplay.

This is new territory for Blomkamp, moving away from technology-based socio-political thrillers and into the world of horror, but I have a feeling this will be a film with considerably more on its mind than just scares.

Demonic will open on August 20th.

Two ‘Knives Out’ Sequels Head To Netflix In Massive $400M+ Deal, Daniel Craig To Return

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Travis Hopson

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March 31, 2021

Fans of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out will want to send Netflix their thanks, because not only are they getting one sequel to the hit whodunnit, but two of them. Deadline reports the streamer is throwing down a massive $400M+ deal for two Knives Out sequels, with Daniel Craig guaranteed to return as erstwhile detective Benoit Blanc.

There’s all sorts of complicated maneuvering around this one, but here’s the gist: Johnson wrote two sequels to the star-studded mystery Knives Out, which went on to earn over $300M in 2019. That movie was distributed by Lionsgate, who expected to do a sequel, but Johnson had the right to do whatever he want with any follow-ups, and so an auction was quietly held between three streamers: Netflix, Apple, and Amazon. Netflix, which has the deepest pockets around, came out on top.

The first sequel will begin shooting in Greece (!!!) this June, with casting to begin immediately. Will any other characters return, in particular popular ones like Ana de Armas’ Marta or Chris Evans’ Hugh Ransom Drysdale? Probably not, but one never knows. This being a Rian Johnson film we can probably expect his pal Noah Segan to appear as he always does. Maybe even Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Hmmmm…

‘The Staircase’ True Crime Sensation Is Becoming An HBO Max Drama Series With Colin Firth

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Travis Hopson

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March 31, 2021

True crime shows are more popular than ever, whether they be on TV or in podcast form. Netflix has bulked up their extensive library with a number of different documentaries, scoring a hit recently with The Staircase, about the murder case involving author Michael Peterson. The success of that must have perked up the folks at HBO, who have put together some impressive talent on a dramatic retelling.

HBO has announced that director Antonio Campos will direct a drama series based on The Staircase, with Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth starring as Michael Peterson. The eight-episode HBO Max series will center on the unusual circumstances around the death of Peterson’s wife, Kathleen, who he found dead at the bottom of their staircase. All sorts of theories were kicked around, but it gained national attention due to the ridiculous “owl theory”. You should just look it up it’s so dumb.

Campos will direct six episodes, but it’s unclear who will tackle the other two. He’s known for his indie films such as Christine, Afterschool, Simon Killer, and most-recently The Devil All the Time. He had once planned to have Harrison Ford play Michael Peterson but that obviously fell through. Firth was last seen opposite Stanley Tucci in Supernova. This will mark his first TV series gig since Nostromo in 1997.

‘Spirit Untamed’ Trailer: Julianne Moore, Jake Gyllenhaal, And More Voice This Animated Sequel

By

Travis Hopson

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March 31, 2021

If you’ve been waiting anxiously for a sequel to the Oscar-nominated animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, your 20-year wait is now over. The first trailer has arrived for Spirit Untamed, featuring the voices of Julianne Moore, Isabela Merced (formerly Isabela Moner), Eiza Gonzalez, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marsai Martin, Mckenna Grace, Walton Goggins, and Andre Braugher.

Marking the feature debut of director Elaine Bogan, Spirit Untamed is a direct sequel to the 2002 movie and the Netflix series Spirit Riding Free. The story follows a rebellious Mexican girl who finds a kindred spirit in a wild mustang aptly-named Spirit.

While I’m a bit sad John Fusco didn’t get to write this one because he gave the original such an old Western touch, this looks like a fun movie for the kids. Probably won’t get any Oscar nominations but hey, y’never know.

Spirit Untamed opens June 4th.

Lucky Prescott (Isabela Merced, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) never really knew her late mother, Milagro Navarro (Eiza González, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), a fearless horse-riding stunt performer from Miradero, a small town on the edge of the wide-open frontier. Like her mother, Lucky isn’t exactly a fan of rules and restrictions, which has caused her Aunt Cora (Academy Award® winner Julianne Moore) no small amount of worry. Lucky has grown up in an East Coast city under Cora’s watchful eye, but when Lucky presses her own luck with one too many risky escapades, Cora picks up stakes and moves them both back with Lucky’s father, Jim (Oscar® nominee Jake Gyllenhaal), in Miradero. Lucky is decidedly unimpressed with the sleepy little town. She has a change of heart when she meets Spirit, a wild Mustang who shares her independent streak, and befriends two local horseback riders, Abigail Stone (Mckenna Grace, Captain Marvel) and Pru Granger (Marsai Martin, Little). Pru’s father, stable owner Al Granger (Emmy winner Andre Braugher, Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine), is the best friend of Lucky’s father. When a heartless horse wrangler (Emmy nominee Walton Goggins, FX’s Justified) and his team plan to capture Spirit and his herd and auction them off to a life of captivity and hard labor, Lucky enlists her new friends and bravely embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to rescue the horse who has given her freedom and a sense of purpose, and has helped Lucky discover a connection to her mother’s legacy and to her Mexican heritage that she never expected.

Review: ‘Concrete Cowboy’
Idris Elba Rides Tall In A Fascinating Urban Western Saddled With A Bland Coming-Of-Age Story

By
Travis Hopson
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NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Middleburg Film Festival

On some level, I think we always knew there were black cowboys, but depictions of them on the big screen have been practically non-existent. That’s why a film like Posse, which featured a mostly-black cast and was released in 1993, caused such a stir because it disrupts the Hollywood idea of the cowboy as always a heroic white man. What I didn’t know is that black cowboys exist in the cities, and ride horses in the streets and run stables right there on city blocks. Ricky Staub’s directorial debut Concrete Cowboy embeds a fairly ordinary coming-of-age story within this fascinating subculture, but with the help of some great performances leaves you wanting to learn more about these modern-day frontiersmen.

Stranger Things actor Caleb McLaughlin is Cole, a kid who can’t stay out of trouble and his mother had had enough of it. So she scoops him up from the police and drives him from Detroit to stay with his father, Harp (Idris Elba), in north Philadelphia. Harp, like all of his friends and neighbors, is an urban cowboy, running the Fletcher Street stable just blocks away. Cole isn’t about that life at all; one of hard work and responsibility. On the other hand, he reconnects with old pal Smush (Jharrel Jarrome) who offers something different; a life of drugs, crime, fast money, but also a familiarity that Cole is desperately in need of.

Concrete Cowboy sets up a fairly straight-forward narrative for Cole to follow. He rejects the discipline and work ethic that Harp and others try to instill in him through working the stables (aka shoveling horsecrap), and instead slides into a dangerous life running the streets with Smush. He’ll have to learn his lessons the hard way. We’ve seen this story before and Staub, who directs and co-writes the screenplay, doesn’t do much to give it any novelty. The bigger issue is that it also doesn’t do much to flesh out Cole as a character beyond his feelings of abandonment. While McClaughlin does an admirable job in the role, there’s simply not much to Cole for us to take much interest in, other than his connection to Harp.

Where Concrete Cowboy reaches wondrous levels is in Harp’s story and that of the cowboys he surrounds himself with. Mostly played by the real-life riders themselves, their stories are so rich with history that you could listen to them talk for hours and never get bored. At the same time, these people resent the way that lineage has been white-washed, erased so as to never exist. All of this is made tougher by the continued gentrification of the neighborhood, which has ruined the other stables and threatens to wipe them out for good. These cowboys are the last of a dying breed, fighting for a way of life that few know exists, but means a lot to those who do.

It makes you wish Concrete Cowboy focus could have been on them. Elba is a charismatic, quiet force as Harp, who not only feels the weight of the cowboy legacy on his shoulders, but a recognition of Cole’s pain and his part in causing it. The burden he carries is akin to the Old West sheriff who alone is charged with protecting the people of his town. His story and that of the horse-riders of Fletcher Street is what Concrete Cowboy should’ve been ALL about. Fortunately, as the real-life cowboys speak over the closing credits, we’re led to believe that this is just one of many stories and that there are more to come. Let’s hope.

Netflix will open Concrete Cowboy on April 2nd.

‘Together Together’ Trailer: Ed Helms And Patti Harrison Are Having A Baby In Charming Surrogacy Comedy

By

Travis Hopson

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March 31, 2021

There have been plenty of rom-coms on the issue of surrogacy already, but Together Together bucks the usual trends. The film stars Ed Helms as a single man who is hearing his own biological clock ticking, so he hires a woman, played by comedian Patti Harrison, to be surrogate to his child. What looks like a typical genre film actually unfolds in ways that defy our expectations.

Together Together was part of the Sundance lineup earlier this year, and I generally enjoyed it mainly for the performances and for the way writer/director Nikole Beckwith flipped the rom-com script. Rather than this being a story of a romance with a rather unusual start, it actually turns out to be a story of budding friendship, seen from the lens of one awkward guy and a trendy, if aimless, younger woman.

It’s a modest effort that really shines in the central relationship, and is worth seeking out. The film also stars Rosalind Chao, Tig Notaro, Evan Jonigkeit, Anna Konkle, Fred Melamed, and Nora Dunn.

Together Together opens April 23rd and comes to digital on May 11th.

When young loner Anna is hired as the gestational surrogate for Matt, a single man in his 40s who wants a child, the two strangers come to realize this unexpected relationship will quickly challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.