AD
Home Blog Page 1145

Review: ‘Endless’

Alexandra Shipp And Nicholas Hamilton Explore How Far Love Can Reach

By
Jake Sokolsky
-

They say love conquers all, but does that apply at any age? The new supernatural romance Endless tests the boundaries of teenage love. Riley (Alexandra Shipp) was on top of the world. She is one of the top students in her class, has a great internship, and heading to Georgetown for college. On top of all that, she is madly in love with her boyfriend Chris (Nicholas Hamilton). On paper the two of them didn’t make sense. Chris was towards the bottom of the class, drives a motorcycle, doesn’t come from money. Her parents didn’t approve of him or their relationship, but that didn’t matter to Riley. Opposites attract and they were head over heels for each other. At the drop of a hat everything can change. One fateful night Riley is driving a drunk Chris home from a party when they get into an accident.

Riley wakes up in the hospital with some bumps and bruises, but unfortunately the accident claimed Chris’s life. Riley begins to spiral out of control without Chris and blaming herself for his death. Riley’s best friend Jules (Zoë Belkin) tries to be there for Riley and Nate (Eddie Ramos), Chris’s best friend, but their guilt is beginning to consume them. Chris’s mom Leigh (Famke Janssen) also blames Riley for his death, only adding to her overwhelming guilt. However, Chris isn’t really gone – he is stuck walking around with no one being able to see or hear him.

Chris luckily stumbles onto Jordan (DeRon Horton), another deceased person who wasn’t able to move on, or ‘skip’ as Jordan says. Jordan takes Chris under his wing and shows him the ropes. Chris is only thinking about Riley and visits her often, trying to reach her and comfort her. Then one moment, he gets through. Riley has always planned on following in her parent’s footsteps and becoming a lawyer, but Chris questions this. He sees the talent she has with her art and doesn’t want her to give up on that dream. Riley always loved that Chris saw the real her. Their connection over her art is what bridges life and death.

Director Scott Speer and writers Andre Case and O’Neil Sharma do a great job of capturing young love. The chemistry between Shipp and Hamilton seems genuine. They have the audience believing in their connection and feeling for the two of them. Strong support from their costars only helps to bolster Shipp and Hamilton’s performances. The film explores a wide range of emotions and solid acting is key. Endless is framed in a way that we not only experience what Riley is going through, but Chris as well. Spier quickly builds a world for Chris to explore, learning new rules and possibilities. While done hastily, it still works and is not over the top.

Speer employs various techniques to keep the film seemingly fresh and interesting. From a reliance on music, chosen perfectly to match the scene, to interesting camera angles – Speer makes great choices throughout. He is able to find that perfect balance of cinematography, just enough to set scenes apart, but not too much to overpower. There are some shots that will be fresh in the viewer’s minds, long after the credits roll. Clearly Endless doesn’t reinvent the pottery wheel, but there is nothing wrong with another take of a classic tale. Endless pulls at the heart strings, and while it isn’t perfect, is overall a successful story of love and loss.

‘Lost Girls & Love Hotels’ Trailer: Alexandra Daddario Is Caught In The Grip Of Tokyo’s Seedy Nightlife

By
Travis Hopson
-

In looking at the movies I’m most eager for in September that aren’t Tenet, there were a few that really stood out. Obviously, Mulan is high on that list, but the toppers aren’t going to make a bunch of money at the box office. One is Netflix’s The Devil All the Time. The other, and this won’t be a shock to anyone who knows me, is Lost Girls & Love Hotels, a sexy, erotic adventure in Tokyo starring Alexandra Daddario. Unfortunately, I’m going to be waiting for a couple of weeks longer.

Daddario, who many will know from the Percy Jackson movies, True Detective, and Baywatch, plays an American woman experiencing two very different versions of Japan as she seeks to find herself and fill a life that has been unrewarding.  While exploring the city’s provocative nightlife, she gives in to passions with another troubled soul, played by Takehiro Hira.

The film is directed by William Olsson, exploring somewhat similar territory as his 2009 film An American Affair, although involved a Presidential scandal.

Lost Girls & Love Hotels now opens on September 18th.

SYNOPSIS: “LOST GIRLS & LOVE HOTELS tells the story of an American English teacher named Margaret (Alexandra Daddario) and her nightly pilgrimages through Tokyo’s glittering nightlife in an attempt to forget her painful past and discover new meaning in the arms of a mysterious Yakuza (Takehiro Hira) named Kazu. The provocative tale takes the viewer on a journey through the darkest alleyways of Japan, as their affair tears them apart and reshapes them across Tokyo’s landscape of dive bars, alleyways and three-hour love hotels. In addition to Daddario and Hira, the film also stars Carice van Houten (TV’s “Game of Thrones,” Valkyrie), Misuzu Kanno (37 Seconds, Vise) and Kate Easton (Where’d You Go, Bernadette, You Were Never Really Here). “

Review: ‘Project Power’

Jamie Foxx And Joseph Gordon-Levitt Get High On Superpowers In Netflix's Summer Blockbuster

By
Travis Hopson
-

Having superpowers sounds really cool. You get to fly around, go invisible, shoot fire or ice from your hands. But have you actually read a superhero comic? These miraculous powers are rarely all that they’re cracked up to be, and more often than not, it’s not those with abilities who hold the real power. That theme resonates in Project Power, a high-octane action flick with a bit of New Orleans soul and a cast led by two guys who know a thing or two about comic book movies, Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Netflix continues to assert itself as home for the blockbusters we aren’t getting theatrically because of the pandemic. Project Power hits you in the face right from the break. It’s a pretty ridiculous premise, but a fun one that lends itself to a lot of insane visual effects. Still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is the testing ground for an illegal drug that gives the user superhuman powers for about five minutes. Your satisfaction may vary, however. The wildly unpredictable results could yield something amazing, like the chameleon ability to fade into the background, or you might simply burst into flame and die.

Gordon-Levitt, in a role as close to the Robin we hoped we’d get from him in The Dark Knight Rises, plays Frank, an NOPD officer on the edge, and an occasional user of the drug. Only when he needs it to protect his city, of course. He’s close to a young drug pusher named…well, Robin (Dominique Fishback), who peddles the $500 pills to help her ailing mother. If the city wasn’t already dangerous, mixing in superhuman abilities has only made it worse, and the addicted more desperate to get their fix. Into this combustible mix is Jamie Foxx’s The Major, a mysterious man on a mission either to push the drugs himself, or stop them at the source.

Project Power is directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, the tech and social media savvy duo behind the documentary Catfish and a pair of Paranormal Activity flicks. Their style has always been energetic and full of clever bells and whistles, which they bring to the film. The finest example is a crazy armed robbery sequence where Frank chases down a suspect whose powers allow him to melt into the background like a chameleon. Frank, also on a five-minute kick, races through the city as his target keeps shifting colors, sometimes at breakneck speed.

It’s a wild set piece that sets an off-the-wall tone. Secretive government forces are involved, because of course they are, and their plot mirrors the introduction of crack cocaine into black communities during the 1980s. Project Power isn’t going to shovel any of this stuff at you, but I couldn’t help but see a missed opportunity for a richer, more complex look at what the politically powerful do when the poor gain some power of their own. Screenwriter Mattson Tomlin (of The Batman) focuses on keeping the momentum up while giving his characters time to pick out how their extra-normal would be pretty funny if they weren’t so dangerous. Gordon-Levitt shows off a mean Clint Eastwood impression when Frank’s life is on the line.

Foxx, whose most recent bout with the genre was as Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, gets a better role here as The Major. He gets all of the best fight scenes, including a scorching one against Machine Gun Kelly’s enhanced drug pusher. It may seem that Foxx’s part is pretty lean, eventually there’s more to The Major than we’re first led to believe. At least Foxx doesn’t have to look stupid in blue this time. It was a welcome change that Gordon-Levitt’s selfless Frank wasn’t treated as in over his head, and I really enjoyed Dominique Fishback as the self-reliant, always-hustlin’ Robin. While I could do away with the “aspiring rapper” trope writers always saddle on at-risk black protagonists. Fishback at least tries to make the character her own. I’m always impressed by her ability to believably play any age she’s called upon, depending on the amount of emotional weight placed on her. In the stirring drama Night Comes On she tracks as much older, while here and in HBO series The Deuce her youth is what stands out.

Project Power is an atypical superhero movie arriving at an abnormal time in the world. It’s a stretch to even call it that because there are no superheroes at all, just people going to superhuman lengths to feel special for five minutes.  There’s a lot more that Project Power could probably say about the plight of neglected communities, but sometimes you just want to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt take a bullet pointblank to the head and get up to keep on fighting.

Logan Lerman Is Lee Atwater, Asa Butterfield Is Karl Rove In James Schamus’ ‘College Republicans’

By
Travis Hopson
-

Lee Atwater. Karl Rove. The names should make any liberal Democrat’s blood boil. Atwater in particular is loathsome to me and has been for a long time. If you saw a recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, you’ll recognize him as the guy who broke down the Republican playbook on coded racist language. Rove is, of course, the mastermind behind some of the Bush era’s worst policies and a win-at-all-costs strategist.

Deadline reports James Schamus will direct College Republicans, a coming-of-age story about the real-life political heavyweights. Playing Atwater is Schamus’ Indignation star, Logan Lerman, with Asa Butterfield as Rove. A fictional character named Kate King will be played by Kristine Froseth. She had a role in the Schamus-produced workplace abuse drama, The Assistant.

Considering Schamus’ powerhouse career as former head of Focus Features, it’s no surprise he’s calling in a few favors on this one.

The film is set in 1973 while Rove and Atwater were members of the College Republicans, with Rove pulling every dirty trick he could find to become its National Chairman, and Atwater right there at his side.

Here’s how the film is described: The film is set in the Summer of 1973, as America witnesses the dirtiest election in its history – for the chairmanship of the national College Republicans club. Young Karl Rove embarks with his not-to-be-trusted campaign manager Lee Atwater on a backroom vote-getting – and vote-stealing – road trip through the South. Among the future Republican titans they form uneasy alliances with — and betray whenever convenient — include Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Jeff Sessions. But when Atwater meets his duplicitous match in a beautiful young Republican operative, their dreams of victory bring them all too close to humiliating, career-ending defeat.

The original plan had been to keep the characters anonymous, but given the current impact these young manipulators still have on our broken government, Schamus changed his mind.

“They were nobodies, but then you realize, that’s Paul Manafort? Roger Stone? Put those names back in,” the director said.

‘Bad Hair’ Teaser: ‘Dear White People’ Director Returns With A Killer Weave Horror Story

By
Travis Hopson
-

You think the humidity is wreaking havoc with your hair? You’ve never had it as rough as the characters in Bad Hair, the anticipated sophomore film from Dear White People writer/director Justin Simien.

Unlike his previous film, Simien veers into horror territory for a movie that explores, with gruesome effect, society’s obsession with beauty. Those ideals more often than not exclude black women, who often feel they must conform to achieve a certain level of success. That’s what makes Simien’s setting of the film in 1989 Los Angeles so relevant, as it was a time of peak style-over-substance, especially in the black entertainment culture.

The film stars Elle Lorraine as Anna Bludso, a low-level producer at a BET-like TV station where she hopes to rise in the ranks. Vanessa Williams plays her new boss who basically tells Anna she needs to ditch the natural look and get a weave if she wants a promotion. Unfortunately, the weave Anna gets has a mind of its own and a thirst for blood.

Also in the cast are Lena Waithe, Jay Pharoah, Kelly Rowland, Laverne Cox, Blair Underwood, Usher Raymond, and Chanté Adams.

Bad Hair debuted earlier this year at Sundance, which is when I saw it and praised Simien for using genre, including a heavy dose of dark comedy, to tackle an issue that black people have been dealing with for generations. I also had a chance to talk with him about the movie, and you can check out that interview here.

Hulu premieres Bad Hair on October 23rd.

‘The War With Grandpa’ Trailer: Robert De Niro Puts A Hit Out On Kids In A Game Of Dodgeball

By
Travis Hopson
-

There’s something about old men going toe-to-toe with precocious kids that movie audiences just love. Whether it’s Home Alone, Dennis the Menace, or any of a number of other films in which a child makes an angry adult look foolish, it’s a staple that will never go away. And now Robert De Niro, a bonafide legend, gets his chance to be the target in The War with Grandpa.

De Niro squares off against Pete’s Dragon actor Oakes Fegley in the comedy from director Tim Hill, who usually prefers his rambunctious stars to be anthropomorphic animals. Hill is the director of Alvin and the Chipmunks, Hop, and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.

SYNOPSIS: Sixth-grader Peter (Oakes Fegley) is pretty much your average kid-he likes gaming, hanging with his friends and his beloved pair of Air Jordans. But when his recently widowed grandfather Ed (Robert De Niro) moves in with Peter’s family, the boy is forced to give up his most prized possession of all, his bedroom. Unwilling to let such an injustice stand, Peter devises a series of increasingly elaborate pranks to drive out the interloper, but Grandpa Ed won’t go without a fight. Soon, the friendly combatants are engaged in an all-out war with side-splitting consequences.

Hard to believe this is the same DeNiro who, just last year, was still icing fools in The Irishman.  At least the trailer has a reference to The Godfather! That’s something to be encouraged about, yeah?

The War with Grandpa opens October 9th and co-stars Christopher Walken, Uma Thurman, Jane Seymour (still looking half her age!), Rob Riggle, Cheech Marin, and Colin Ford.

First Look At Sofia Coppola’s ‘On The Rocks’, Director Talks Reuniting With Bill Murray

By
Travis Hopson
-

It’s usually an excruciating three-year-wait for a new Sofia Coppola film, and right on time following 2017’s underrated The Beguiled, the director is back with her new project for Apple and A24.  On the Rocks stars Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, and returns Coppola back to the small-scale relationship stories of Lost in Translation and Somewhere.

The first images from On the Rocks have arrived, featuring Murray, Jones, and co-star Marlon Wayans. Murray plays Jones’ larger-than-life playboy father, who she struggles to connect with during an adventure in New York.

Coppola and Murray are, of course, familiar with one another from Lost in Translation, a film that earned the actor his only Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Speaking with EW, Coppola talked about reuniting with Murray and her reasons for wanting to do this movie…

“I wanted to do something that was a little bit lighter and more playful with a lot of heart and sincerity.”

“I never thought I could do something with Bill again, because people have such a fondness of him and ‘Lost in Translation. I could never recreate something like that, so I never wanted to touch it. But, all this time has passed, and I loved working with him and I love seeing him in film. We haven’t really seen him as this debonair, playboy father at this stage [of life], so I just had to get over it because now we’re in a different phase [of life].”

On the Rocks hits theaters and Apple TV+ this October.

 

AMC’s August 20th Reopening Plan Includes 15-cent Ticket Prices For One-Day-Only

By
Travis Hopson
-

AMC has once again come up with a reopening plan, after being shuttered for months due to COVID-19. If this sounds familiar…well, that’s because the exhibitor has had multiple plans, all delayed as the virus continued to spike. The goal has always been to have its 600+ theaters fully operational by the time of Tenet‘s release in September, and now AMC has details on their approach, what attendees can expect, and even a nifty little deal to help entice them back.

In an email sent to A-list subscribers, AMC has announced 100 theaters will reopen on August 20th, “and continuing such that about two-thirds of our theatres across the country should be open no later than September 3. The remaining AMC locations will open after we get further clearance from state and local authorities that it is safe to do so.”

September 3rd just so happens to be the date of Tenet‘s release. AMC has been shifting its goals to match the date of Christopher Nolan’s thriller, so this shouldn’t come as any surprise.

After taking some flack for trying to make the wearing of masks optional, AMC backtracked and made them a requirement for customers and staff. Enhanced safety protocols will be in place for the reopenings, with AMC stating they turning to the experts and spending millions to implement them.

“Consulting with some of the world’s best scientists and experts at The Clorox Company and current and former faculty of Harvard University’s prestigious School of Public Health, we are investing tens of millions of dollars in our extensive AMC Safe & Clean initiatives.”

Still not enough to get your ticket money? How about $0.15 ticket prices?  To celebrate AMC’s 100th anniversary, select films including Black Panther, The Empire Strikes Back, Ghostbusters, and Grease will go on sale for one-day-only on August 20th at 1920s prices. After that, these classic films will be priced at $5.

This comes on the heels of AMC CEO Adam Aron stating that the cost of increased safety protocols will be passed to you, the paying customer. So look at this as a gift horse which AMC will quickly snatch away and then turn into glue.

‘Justice League’ Star Ray Fisher Claims WB Boss Threatened His Career For Speaking Out

By
Travis Hopson
-

Ray Fisher is not done speaking out. The Justice League star made big news a month ago when he began to run down director Joss Whedon for “gross, abusive, unprofessional” on set during reshoots. He even threw in producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg for contributing to the corrosive work environment. Fisher doubled-down on those comments recently, adding that Whedon is “scared” to defend himself. But the exact allegations against others have been pretty vague, at least until now.

Taking to Twitter, Fisher mentions a specific attempt by Johns to quiet him as a result of his gripes about Whedon’s behavior…

We still don’t know exactly what Whedon did that set Fisher off in the first place. Others have chimed in and backed Fisher up, but the situation is cloudy and will stay that way until somebody decides to really come clean. If a legal process is involved, as Fisher has suggested, it may be a while before we learn what really happened.

Anyway, Johns is no longer a high-powered WB exec, Whedon is persona non grata just about everywhere, and Fisher’s career is looking up with the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. My, how quickly things change.

 

‘The Devil All The Time’ Trailer: Tom Holland And Robert Pattinson Are Born Sinners In Netflix’s Star-Studded Thriller

By
Travis Hopson
-

So at this point you know about the incredible, star-studded cast of Netflix’s The Devil All the Time. It’s just one reason why it may be the ACTUAL most anticipated movie of September and not Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. Certainly, it ranks higher on the must-see list for me. But we shouldn’t ignore the man behind the camera, Antonio Campos, who after three critically-lauded indies in Afterschool, Simon Killer, and Christine, sets off on what could be the film that makes him a household name. If directing an episode of Marvel’s The Punisher didn’t do it, this oughta do it.

After a couple of weeks of being teased with promo images, the first trailer has finally arrived. It starts with Tom Holland’s character, a young man from Ohio, receiving the gift of a battle-worn gun pistol belonging to his father, and immediately we know its days of seeing violence aren’t over.

Holland is joined in the cast by Bill Skarsgård, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Sebastian Stan, Haley Bennett, Harry Melling, Eliza Scanlen, Mia Wasikowska, and Robert Pattinson. You might have heard of them. They’ve done a thing or two.

The multigenerational tale is co-written by Campos and his brother, with Jake Gyllenhaal as a producer. The big names just don’t quit.

The Devil All the Time hits Netflix on September 16th.

SYNOPSIS: In Knockemstiff, Ohio and its neighboring backwoods, sinister characters — an unholy preacher (Robert Pattinson), twisted couple (Jason Clarke and Riley Keough), and crooked sheriff (Sebastian Stan) — converge around young Arvin Russell (Tom Holland) as he fights the evil forces that threaten him and his family. Spanning the time between World War II and the Vietnam war, director Antonio Campos’ THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME renders a seductive and horrific landscape that pits the just against the corrupted. Co-starring Bill Skarsgård, Mia Wasikowska, Harry Melling, Haley Bennett, and Pokey Lafarge, this suspenseful, finely-woven tale is adapted from Donald Ray Pollock’s award-winning novel.

1...1,1441,1451,146...1,883Page 1,145 of 1,883
Want To Advertise With Punch Drunk Critics?
Contact us: info@punchdrunkcritics.com
Facebook Instagram Mail Twitter Youtube
© Copyright 2020 PDC Entertainment