Everybody has one, although we don’t always listen to it. It’s the voice in your head; your mom may have called it the angel on your shoulder. Sometimes that angel is really a devil, corrupting your instincts, your intuition, and even the thoughts you have about your own self-worth. In actress-turned-director Justine Bateman’s film Violet, that voice sounds an awful lot like Justin Theroux, and he’s tearing poor Olivia Munn apart from the inside as she tries to make it in the most judgemental place in the world: Hollywood.
Violet is a fascinating mess, one with valuable insights on mental health, female objectification, sexism, and more. Munn, who has dealt with more than her share of these issues quite publicly, is the perfect choice to play the title character. Violet is a 32-year-old head of production at a major movie studio in Hollywood, the kind of job that one might think affords a certain level of self-confidence. But Violet is completely the opposite. At every turn she doubts herself, devalues her own opinion, and gives in to those who don’t deserve it. She lets her subordinates walk all over her at work. She ignores the obvious romantic feelings she has towards her filmmaker friend Red (Luke Bracey) in favor of a smug Universal Studios exec (Peter Jacobsen) who doesn’t give a shit about her.
So why does she do this? The Committee. That’s the name she gives to the voice in her head that tells her to defy her every whim, and to never be open with anybody. To always keep her armor up, or worse, to drive them away altogether as she does an ex (Simon Quarterman) who has approached her in good faith. Bateman scrawls Violet’s thoughts across the screen in big, bold unmissable cursive. It’s a distraction, and too often an obtrusion into genuinely affecting scenes that need to stand on their own. Worse, this movie literally defines itself by telling you all of the things it could be showing you. Munn is more than capable of pulling off the conflicts within Violet, and pulls off one of her finest performances despite having all of the emotions she needs to portray spelled out for the audience. Bateman, who not only makes her directorial debut but wrote the Violet script, has a good idea that might have been better served with a more experienced hand behind the camera, one that trusts its audience a bit more.
Sadly, when the Guardians of the Galaxy return, they’ll be without Michael Rooker’s blue-skinned Ravager, Yondu. Not that it should come as any surprise given the way things turned out for him in the previous film, but the space pirate definitely won’t be coming back according to director James Gunn.
This is something both Gunn and Rooker have talked about before, with both in agreement that Yondu should stay dead. But it was re-emphasized by Gunn in a tweet to a fan asking the question…
As I’ve said before, Yondu is dead & will stay dead as long as I’m involved with the Guardians. His death means something to people & I’m not about to diminish that. https://t.co/27Xem0vX7l
The fan’s question isn’t totally out of left field. We are talking Marvel superheroes after all, right? They come back all of the time. Just look at Quicksilver…oh wait.
I think Gunn has the right idea, though. Yondu made the heroic sacrifice to save Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Having him come right back would undermine the whole thing.
Gunn recently wrapped up on The Suicide Squad and has turned his attentions to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 which arrives in 2023.
Full disclosure, I seriously dig the 1999 teen comedy She’s All That. It was just a great time for those movies back then, and it’s sad to think this was pretty much the pinnacle of Rachael Leigh Cook’s career, and among the best for Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard, as well. Do we need a remake of it? Not at all. Do we need one with a gender-swapped spin? Definitely not. And do we need it to star some “TikTok sensation” in her acting debut? Of course not. However, we do need the return of Cook and Lillard, which makes things a little bit okay.
The She’s All That remake is titled, what else, He’s All That, and is coming to Netflix. Of course it is. Basically a modernized take on Pygmalion, the story followed a popular high school guy who decided to turn a social outcast into someone cool by befriending her and changing everything about her. He did this by giving her a new fashion sense and encouraging her to be more confident until the truth of his ruse was made public. You bet your ass there were lessons learned about not judging books by their cover and respecting people for who they are. Those lessons are more important than ever right now, so I can see why a remake could make sense.
This new version will flip things around, though, so it’s a cool girl out to change a loser dude. The cast includes the aforementioned TikToker, Addison Rae (who???), plus Tanner Buchanan, Madison Pettis, Peyton Meyer, Isabella Crovetti, Annie Jacob, and Myra Molloy. Cook and Lillard return but as completely different characters, which seems like a missed opportunity.
Back to write the script is the original film’s screenwriter, R. Lee Fleming Jr., who is also responsible for another underrated teen comedy from that era, 2001’s Get Over It. Behind the camera is Freaky Friday and Mean Girls director Mark Waters. Look for He’s All That to hit Netflix later this year, with a trailer likely right around the corner.
When we think of “fear” in horror movies, it’s generally the usual suspects: monsters, serial killers, etc. After all, they tend to generate the most scares as they are fantastical things that exist outside our normal everyday life. When’s the last time you saw a werewolf? That’s why they terrify some people when seen on the big screen. However, when you actually think of fears (or the clinical term of phobias), there are a huge plethora of things that disturb you. Hell, I didn’t even know what trypophobia is, but I sure as hell know that the sight of multiple holes makes me itchy and I desperately hate the visual. Even thinking about holes can fill me with dread! So, there are all sorts of real-life phobias that exist in our real world, and that’s what the Vertical Entertainment film Phobias tries to explore.
Operating as an anthology film, Phobias is directed by 5 different directors as it centers on 5 different types of phobias. Director Joe Sill takes a stab at “Robophobia” (fear or robots, drones, robot-like mechanics or artificial intelligence). Director Maritte Lee Go tackles “Vehophobia” (fear of driving). Director Chris von Hoffmann showcases “Ephebiphobia” (fear of teenagers). Director Camilla Belle explores “Hoplophobia” (fear of guns and firearms). Finally, director Jess Varley films “Atelophobia” (fear of not doing something right or the fear of not being good enough) as well as scenes filmed at the “Outpost 37” location, where mad scientist Dr. Wright (Ross Partridge) is trying to force his patients to relive their fears over and over in the hopes of weaponizing fear as a gaseous weapon. Who does he think he is, Jonathan Crane???
In the first phobia presented: Robophobia, actor Leonardo Nam is a computer programmer who’s constantly bullied and beaten up for being Asian by racist locals in his area (talk about poor timing), when he starts to be contacted by a mysterious AI that wants to “be his friend,” but at the same time, commits heinous crimes on his behalf. The film first seems like it’s solely going to be about Nam’s character, but then he wakes up at a facility where we get to meet the other unwilling patients at the mysterious Outpost 37. In the Vehophobia segment, Hannah Mae Lee plays a young woman who’s having car issues and constantly freaking out after her boyfriend leaves her. At first, it feels like we are going into Christine territory as this car is doing very strange things all on its own, but slowly but surely her backstory is revealed, and we find out that maybe she’s not as innocent as one would believe. The Ephebiphobia portion explores a woman (Lauren Miller Roge) who’s on the receiving end of a home invasion by a bunch of Children of the Corn type of teenagers who are ready to slice and dice her up. As this part of Phobias is explored though it’s revealed that she also is not as innocent in her actions and the kids kind of have a point (they just shouldn’t go on a murderous rampage to make it though). In the Hoplophobia segment of Phobias, reluctant patient Alma (Martina Garcia) is a former SWAT officer who now has severe PTSD after a raid goes bad and she kills an innocent kid for shooting blindly (again, talk about poor timing) and as a result, is now is forced to relive that worst moment of her life and how it affects her everyday life with her son. In Atelophobia, a manager (Macy Gray, yes that Macy Gray) at an architecture firm is dealing with new employees as she demands perfection. She just happens to go through extreme lengths in order to achieve it. As each of the patients has to explore their phobia for the sake of the cruel doctor’s experiments, they decide they have to find a way out of this place.
While each of the segments is directed well by each director and has some strong performances throughout each segment, Phobias has a weird “episode of the week” feel that would work for Black Mirror or some sort of television show that could focus on one phobia each episode, but not as a feature film, especially when it tries to tie everything together at the end. But making it an anthology film that then tries to tie everything together doesn’t work overall. Unfortunately, Phobias definitely has a “too many cooks” feel to it. It is interesting that the premise of the film can also shed light on the idea that there are different phobias that affect people in their everyday lives, and offer a different perspective on mental illness and mental health.
While the gore is well done and bloody when needed, Phobias also doesn’t really deliver in the scare department. For a film to be titled Phobias, it should be scary and perhaps delivers one semi-effective jump scare through its 1 hour 25-minute runtime. In addition, we are supposed to identify with these patients, but as their phobia is explored and we learn each of their backstories, it’s very hard to have sympathy for any of them as they all have done heinous things that led them to end up at Outpost 37. Sure, Dr. Wright and the soldiers detaining them are horrible, but they really aren’t that much better people than their captors. And that’s probably the biggest fallacy with Phobias, there really are no real “heroes” in the film. The only one close is the Robophobia character, and he has a pet AI that kills people for him without his consent. The characters in the film are just a bunch of bad guys that you have to kind of pick, who is more terrible than the other.
Overall, Phobias is challenged to make an engaging film showcasing different talents to provide a new perspective of fear, but unfortunately also tries to do too much and too little at the same time. And the film will probably not have the desired effect that it wants to have.
Phobias is currently available On Demand and in select theaters
Nick Cassavetes’s new film God Is A Bullet just got an all-star cast. Jamie Foxx, January Jones, Maika Monroe, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Andrew Dice Clay just joined the action-thriller.
Based off of Boston Teran’s book of the same name, the project will be written and directed by Cassavetes. Game of Thrones’s Coster-Waldau will play vice detective Bob Hightower who tries to find the ties between his kidnapped ex-wife and daughter and a satanic cult. His character infiltrates the cult with the help of the cult’s only female escapee, played by Monroe. Fox is set to play a character called “The Ferryman.”
“I am excited to get God Is A Bullet into production with my friend and producer/financer, Michael Mendelsohn. It’s a magnificent, ultra-dark work that is somehow both intensely frightening and literate, inspired by true events, with the most amazing cast of actors,” Nick Cassavetes said about the project.
XYZ films and Patriot Pictures are set to present and present the film. Pre-production for God Is A Bullet has already started in Mexico with a May 24 shooting date. [Deadline]
Tom Hiddleston is no stranger to comic book adaptions. This experience will come in handy with his next project. Announced earlier today, Hiddleston will be joining Claire Danes in Apple’s adaption of Sarah Perry’s novel The Essex Serpent.
Danes will play a newly widowed abuse survivor, who relocates from Victorian London to a small village in Essex. She grows increasingly interested in the local superstition of the Essex Serpent. Hiddleston will play Will Ransome, a trusted leaser of the community.
The series marks Hiddleston’s return to TV after starring in The Night Manager and The Hollow Crown. His new series Loki, in which he reprised his role from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for Disney+ is set to air in June.
Danes is taking over the role for Keira Knightley, who left the project for personal reasons. Clio Bernard is set to direct The Essex Serpent with Anna Symon as head writer. Production started March 15th. [Variety]
All rise, all rise, all rise. Matthew McConaughey is headed back to the courtroom. The Texan native is attrached to reprise his role of Jake Brigance from 1996’s A Time To Kill in a new HBO series. Like its predecessor, this new series is based off of a John Grisham novel, A Time For Mercy. The show will take the same name.
The 2020 book is the third Grisham work to center on attorney Jake Brigance, after A Time To Kill and Sycamore Row. In it, Jake must defend a young man accused of killing his mother’s boyfriend. A screenwriter has yet to be announced for the adaption.
The film version of A Time To Kill was one of McConaughey’s breakout roles. His Brigance defended a black man (Samuel L Jackson) on trial for killing two white men who raped his young daughter. Sandra Bullock also starred in the legal drama.
McConaughey is no stranger to HBO legal dramas having starred in the critically acclaimed first season of True Detective with Woody Harrelson.
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Thousands of Donald Trump supporters storm the United States Capitol building following a "Stop the Steal" rally on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. The protesters stormed the historic building, breaking windows and clashing with police. Trump supporters had gathered in the nation's capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Well, that didn’t take long did it? The U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6th is a stain on this country’s democracy and it isn’t likely to ever be forgotten, despite some elected officials’ attempts to move on from it. Not only will the American people never forget where they were when thousands of Trump supporters attempted an armed coup, but Hollywood is going to make sure we remember it with tons of movies and shows on the subject.
And it starts now as The Comey Rule‘s Billy Ray and Shane Salerno are developing a Showtime series on the U.S. Capitol attack. The series will look at the final frenzied days of the failed Trump administration, and at the insurrection from multiple perspectives.
Billy Ray and Shane Salerno were writers on Showtime series The Comey Rule, which dealt with the FBI Director James Comey and his relationship with the previous occupant of the White House. Ray will write and direct the series with Salerno on board as exec-producer.
The investigations into the attack are still ongoing, with hundreds of people arrested and more likely to come. With so much that we just don’t know yet, like which Republicans in Congress aided the attackers before and after, there’s potential for this to be an evolving project right up until it’s ready to shoot. Will there be a character based on the QAnon Shaman? We can only hope. [Deadline]
Jared Leto as the Joker in Justice League.BY ZACK SNYDER.
Could someone tell Zack Snyder it’s okay to just have one version of a movie and that’s it? I’m as big a fan of the Snyder Cut as anyone, but we don’t need another version of it or any footage that somehow didn’t make it in. I mean, the movie is 4-hours long. If something couldn’t make the cut it probably doesn’t need to, and that includes more footage of Jared Leto’s crazy Knightmare Joker.
Snyder had Leto reprise his Suicide Squad role as Joker in an epilogue set in the post-apocalyptic Knightmare future seen by Batman. In a trailer for the Snyder Cut, we see Joker saying a line that begins with “We live in a society…”, a line that Leto actually ad-libbed on set. Well, that scene isn’t in the actual movie, but Snyder tells a YouTuber that it was shot as another ending to the movie that we might see in the black & white Justice is Gray edition…
“There was a version of that. What I was trying to do was…a second for the black-and-white version, for the charity version of the movie. I wanted to…there’s a second ending of the movie, of the Jared Leto scene, just slightly different. I included that line.”
This will probably go on forever; Snyder talking about shit that he nearly put in the movie or was kept from adding. I said it before that he’s just the ultimate fanboy, and will always think of something he wishes he could do. The problem from a Warner Bros. standpoint is that it keeps his fans riled up to see everything, and they won’t let it go.
The Batman/Joker confrontation at the end of the Snyder Cut was ultimately meaningless. A couple of extra lines of dialogue aren’t likely to change that.
We’re happy to offer our readers the chance to win a DVD of Deon Taylor’s hit erotic thriller Fatale, starring Michael Ealy and Hilary Swank.
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