Review: ‘Inside’
Guy Pearce And Cosmo Jarvis Star In Charles Williams' Powerful Prison Drama

By
Jake Sokolsky
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Mel Blight (Vincent Miller) has just been transferred from the juvenile prison he has known for years to an adult prison in Inside. As luck would have it, Mel gets assigned to bunk with Mark Shepard (Cosmo Jarvis). He quickly learns that Shepard is one of Australia’s most infamous criminals and despised across the country. Shepard is trying to reform himself and has found religion. In fact he leads sermons at the prison that he involves Mel in almost right off the bat.

Another inmate, Warren Murfett (Guy Pearce), is close to being paroled. The prison staff task him with taking Mel under his wing and essentially keeping him out of trouble. Mel has a fractured relationship with his father and Warren is in a similar situation with his son. Both have the opportunity to fill that hole in their lives with each other. Mel tries to navigate the bonds he is forming with both Shepard and Warren. However there may be anterior motives at play which can throw a wrench in both relationships.

Charles Williams both wrote and directed the film. Inside is Williams feature length debut. He has served in both capacities for projects in the past, however they were all shorts. Williams’s script examines the psyche of prisoners within the system. Several deeper themes are touched upon which serve both as a glimpse into the prison system and to help connect the audience to the characters. That being said, the film features a couple of truly graphic moments that are not for the faint of heart.

Inside splices different timelines, giving the audience background into what has shaped the characters. Williams & co. use colors and shades to help highlight the differences. Warm and colorful imagery for nice memories of the outside and bleak grays for the situation they find themselves currently in. However the jumps seem muddled at times and a bit difficult to follow. The performances by the cast are strong across the board. Inside is an interesting and powerful film, albeit hard to watch at times. It is worth checking out, but temper any expectations for sunshine and rainbows.

‘Collision’: Jake Gyllenhaal To Star In Amazon MGM’s Don Winslow Adaptation

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June 27, 2025

Jake Gyllenhaal to star in Don Winslow adaptation COLLISION

Amazon MGM is jumping in with both feet on Don Winslow adaptations. With Crime 101 already in the works, Deadline reports it has also acquired Collision, based on a short novel in Winslow’s upcoming collection, The Final Score. Jake Gyllenhaal will produce and star in the crime film.

According to the report, Collision “tells the harrowing story of a devoted husband and father with a great life who makes one terrible mistake that sends him to prison, where he must learn how to survive. But that’s only the beginning: When he finally becomes free, he learns why he was protected in prison and is a sent on a mission that will change him forever.”

Add this to an already full slate for Gyllenhaal. Coming up he has Guy Ritchie’s In the Grey, along with his sister Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! He will also return for season two of Apple series Presumed Innocent.

More Winslow adaptations are in the works and you can bet Amazon MGM will be eager to grab the rights to The Final Score, the collection’s title story. Sony Pictures also has Austin Butler starring in an adaptation of Winslow’s City on Fire.

‘Street Fighter’: 50 Cent Cast As Balrog, Andrew Schulz Is Dan In Legendary’s Video Game Movie

By

Travis Hopson

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June 27, 2025

50 Cent, Andrew Schulz join STREET FIGHTER cast as Balrog and Dan

I was holding out on posting this, hoping that somehow Nexus Point News’ report would be wrong. Sadly, THR has confirmed Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson will play Balrog in Legendary’s live-action Street Fighter movie. >sigh< One of the most iconic of the Capcom fighting game’s cast, Balrog is a brutal boxer and bodyguard to primary villain, M. Bison. He was patterned after real-life boxer Mike Tyson, which included giving him the name M. Bison before it was swapped to Balrog when the character was introduced in America.

To Fitty’s credit, he’s carved out a place for himself in the low-budget action/crime movie genre with roles in all three Escape Plan movies, Expend4bles, and loads more that you’ve probably never heard of. There’s an actual 50 Cent Action channel that is number one on Roku, so there ya go.

In a more reasonable move, stand-up comedian Andrew Schulz has joined the cast as comedy character Dan Hibiki, according to Deadline. Dan is a joke character, a parody of SNK’s Art of Fighting characters Ryo and Robert, who were seen as a ripoff of Street Fighter‘s Ryu and Ken. Dan, who wears a fading pink gi and sports a weak facsimile of Ryu and Ken’s Ansatsuken Karate, is portrayed as arrogant, overconfident, yet utterly useless in battle.

It’s an oddly eclectic cast being put together for Street Fighter. Noah Centineo is set to play Ken, with Andrew Koji as his best friend and rival, Ryu. WWE superstar Roman Reigns plays Akuma, their demonic counterpart. Jason Momoa is the feral Blanka, with Callina Liang recently cast as Chun-Li and masked country singer Orville Peck as the high-flying villain Vega.

Bad Trip director Kitao Sakurai is behind the camera, taking over after Danny and Michael Philippou backed out. Dalan Musson, a co-writer on Captain America: Brave New World, wrote the screenplay with filming to begin in August.

As someone who really wants this Street Fighter movie to be taken seriously and to be, y’know, good, the casting of 50 Cent makes my stomach hurt. Especially as Balrog who is likely to have a lot of screen time. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong. Fingers crossed that I am. That said, 50 Cent, Roman Reigns, and Jason Momoa in the same movie is pretty wild.

Review: ‘M3GAN 2.0’
The Killer Doll Is Now An Action Hero As Sequel Awkwardly Switches Genres

By
Travis Hopson
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Blumhouse is pulling a similar trick with M3GAN 2.0 that it did a few years ago when Happy Death Day 2U swapped genres from horror to sci-fi. The sequel to 2022’s hit horror film about the psychotic dancing AI doll has gone in a different direction entirely, becoming a sci-fi action-comedy, like the Temu version of Terminator. It’s pretty fun at times, and it’s still a blast when M3GAN gets to kick some ass. But when those moments of rooting for the former villain are over, the film lacks the witty humor to completely pull off such a drastic change.

Set a couple of years after M3GAN made everybody terrified of murderous AI, the story finds a new killer bot on the scene. AMELIA, which stands for autonomous military engagement logistics and infiltration android, has gone rogue and is looking to destroy everything and everyone. She has sprung from the original M3GAN coding written by Gemma (Allison Williams), who has somehow avoided prison for her part in the chaos and is all apologetic about it now. AMELIA has Gemma on her hit list, and look, she might appear to be a runway model (played by Ukrainian actress Ivanna Sakhno) but this droid is all gas, no brakes. Fortunately, M3GAN’s “spirit” or whatever survived her destruction in the first movie, and with a brand new body she can do what she was always programmed to do, which is keep Cady (Violet McGraw) from harm.

M3GAN 2.0 is a much bigger movie than the first one, and also a lot more ambitious. That’s fine and all, but M3GAN worked because it was a cheesy riff on our obsession with AI which was just starting to explode. But now, AI is a normal part of our everyday life and the gag doesn’t hit as well as it did before. Director Gerard Johnstone takes over screenwriting duties from Akela Cooper who only gets a “Story by” credit this time around. It’s not for lack of trying, but the screenplay isn’t that funny this time around. M3GAN is more sensitive, and she really wants to talk (and occasionally sing Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work”!!!) about all of these human emotions swirling around. She has a nice heart-to-heart with Gemma about what motherhood is all about and it’s more weird than hilarious.

Johnstone is better at capturing physical comedy and action sequences than he is at screenwriting. Supporting players Brian Jordan Alvarez as Cole and Jen Van Epps as Tess have much larger roles this time. Especially Alvarez, whose Cole is sortof the team’s master of disguise. He’s the one forced to dress up and enter dangerous situations he’s not really equipped to handle. There are some really cool fights this time around, including one at an AI Tech Expo that shows Johnstone’s cleverness at staging violence in a way that looks gruesome but can keep a PG-13 rating. In a surprising twist, there’s a lot of love shown to action star Steven Seagal, not only with the preponderance of martial arts in the film but also Cady seeing him as a role model. And of course, M3GAN takes the stage and busts a move, decked out in more lights than a disco ball.

Shifting gears wasn’t the wrong move for M3GAN 2.0. The first movie wasn’t scary, anyway, and most fans were cheering her on to kill as many people as possible. In general, the idea of becoming an action movie is shrewd and gives the franchise a longer lifespan. This awkward first attempt didn’t quite work, but a third movie that upgrades the craziness could be exactly what’s needed.

M3GAN 2.0 is open in theaters now from Universal Pictures.

Review: ‘Sorry, Baby’
Eva Victor Makes Her Stunning Debut In This Personal Dramedy About Recovering From Trauma

By
Cortland Jacoby
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There is something almost unassuming about Sorry, Baby on the surface. From its opening scene, where one friend visits another during a snowy New England winter, it seems like a quiet friendship-driven comedy. But as Eva Victor’s nonlinear narrative unravels, you find yourself completely devastated by the simplicity and relatability of the story and how it is told.

Written and directed by the first-time filmmaker, Victor also stars as Agnes, a young woman who lives in a small, quiet house by herself near the university where she teaches. As mentioned before, she is visited by her best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie). Though the latter is the one who is pregnant, there is concern laced in her voice as she interacts with her best friend. After an uncomfortable, comedic standoff between Lydie and pick-me Natasha (Kelly McCormack) at dinner with their former grad cohort, it becomes clear that something bad happened to Anges.

As the narrative jumps around and we see both women go through their grad program, it is revealed that some sort of assault happened to Agnes at the hands of her advisor, Decker (Louis Cancelmi), a mild-mannered divorcee with a son. Early on, it is mostly handled with humor, like when Lydie asks if Agnes is okay. “Yes, I got a cat,” she replies sardonically. But it’s when Victor indirectly deals with the incident that Sorry, Baby reaches a whole other level.

Victor never shows us what happened. Instead, we see Agnes go into Decker’s home. The camera then opens into a wide shot of the whole house and lingers there for a moment while neighbors walk by. It then cuts to the sun going down, then again when it’s dark. Agnes eventually climbs down the front steps in a rush, clearly frazzled, while Decker kind of looms behind the glass door. The whole scene feels detached but because we are already on Agnes’ wavelength, it is clear what occurred.

Victor’s portrayal of life after that moment is very similar to how life is for many victims of the same crime. It isn’t always trauma-filled and squeezed for drama. Agnes is still affected by it, but there are moments of comedy, of joy, of anxiety. Character actor John Carroll Lynch appears as a stranger trying to calm her down from a panic attack. Lucas Hedges shows up as a fuck buddy Agnes reaches out to in moments of despair. We watch Agnes try to move on and do so successfully at times, and see her reminded of it at others.

Victor ends Sorry, Baby with Agnes talking to Lydie’s new baby. “I’m sorry that bad things are gonna happen to you,” she says. “I hope they don’t. If I can ever stop something from being bad, let me know. But sometimes bad stuff just happens.” To take a concept like that and turn it into an interesting, at times poignantly funny, brilliant debut proves Victor is a cinematic powerhouse in the making.

Sorry, Baby premiered at Sundance and competed in the U.S. competition category. Eva Victor won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.

A24 releases Sorry, Baby into select theaters on June 27 before going nationwide on July 18th. In DC, it opens on July 11th.

DC Readers: Attend A Free Screening Of ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’

By

Travis Hopson

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June 26, 2025

We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free early screening of Jurassic World Rebirth. The film is directed by Gareth Edwards (Rogue One, Godzilla) and stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali.

SYNOPSIS: “Five years after the events of ‘Jurassic World Dominion,’ the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.”

The screening takes place on Monday, June 30th at 7:00pm at AMC Tysons Corner. If you’d like to attend, RSVP at the Gofobo site here! Please remember all screenings are first come first served and you’ll need to arrive early to avoid being dinosaur food. Enjoy the show!

Jurassic World Rebirth opens on July 2nd from Universal Pictures.

‘Bugonia’ Teaser Reveals Yorgos Lanthimos’ Latest Film With Emma Stone

By

Travis Hopson

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June 26, 2025

Focus Features has released the first teaser for Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film with Emma Stone, Bugonia, which will likely be headed to the Venice Film Festival before hitting theaters in October. A loose remake of the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, the story follows two conspiracy theorists who kidnap a powerful pharmaceutical CEO, convinced she’s an alien bent on Earth’s destruction. Yep, sounds like a Lanthimos joint.

Stone plays the corporate CEO and potential alien. Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, and Alicia Silverstone co-star. Lanthimos directs from a script written by Will Tracy, co-writer on The Menu.

The teaser shows Plemons’ character, a paranoid beekeeper, ruminating on Stone’s corporate CEO and the damage she’s doing to the planet, including the bees which are disappearing.

This is Lanthimos and Stone’s fourth movie together following The Favourite, Poor Things, and Kinds of Kindness. They also collaborated on a short film, Bleat, in 2022. The partnership just works, even on a movie that underwhelms as Kinds of Kindness does. They have a combined twenty Academy Award nominations together and there’s no reason to think they won’t get more.

Bugonia opens in theaters on October 24th in select theaters, October 31st nationwide.

‘Eddington’ Final Trailer: Ari Aster’s Paranoid Thriller Hits Theaters On July 18th

By

Travis Hopson

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June 26, 2025

Like him or not, no filmmaker knows how to tap into our deep-rooted fears and anxieties like Ari Aster does. Whether it be about grief , romantic relationships, our mothers, or in the case of Eddington, a global pandemic. A24 has dropped the final trailer for Aster’s anticipated nightmare horror, and all I’ll say is that if you intend to see it, just make sure you take your blood pressure meds.

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Clifton Collins Jr., Amélie Hoeferle, and Micheal Ward, Eddington takes place in a small New Mexico town during the COVID-19 pandemic where paranoia and a battle for control have turned the place into a powder keg.

When the previous trailer was released a couple of weeks ago, I speculated that this would be a movie where Phoenix and Pascal take center stage. But now that I’ve seen Eddington, it’s really Phoenix’s movie with everyone else part of the ensemble filling out this toxic little town that has become polarized to its own destruction.

SYNOPSIS: May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

Eddington opens in theaters on July 18th.

Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Social Network’ Sequel Is Officially Happening

By

Travis Hopson

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June 26, 2025

Aaron Sorkin to write and direct THE SOCIAL NETWORK PART II

It’s safe to say that public perception of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg has changed over the years, but especially recently as he’s sucked up to Donald Trump and the extreme right, especially in the run-up to January 6th. Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher’s 2010 Oscar winner The Social Network looks very different now than it did then. Sorkin has been teasing the possibility of doing a sequel, and now it’s official.

Deadline reports Sorkin is writing and directing The Social Network Part II for Sony Pictures. The film will be based on “Wall Street Journal‘s The Facebook Files by Jeff Horowitz, an explosive series of articles published in October 2021 that exposed the inner workings of — and multiple harms caused by — the world’s largest social network.”

It was Sorkin’s rapid-fire writing, Fincher’s stylish direction, and a breakthrough performance by Jesse Eisenberg that made “the Facebook movie” a hit, winning three Academy Awards and earning $226M. That film was based on Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Millionaires, and painted Zuckerberg as a dangerous but ultimately sympathetic figure. It’s doubtful the sequel will be so kind.

The new film, which won’t be a direct sequel, will take a look at Facebook’s impact on January 6th, teens, preteens, and other countries.

It’s unclear how big of a role Zuckerberg will have in this story and whether Eisenberg would even consider returning.

Sorkin has directed just three films in his career, beginning with Molly’s Game in 2017, followed by The Trial of the Chicago 7 in 2020, and 2021’s Being the Ricardos which I swear I forgot even existed.

Josh Brolin Set To Star in The Running Man This Year

By

PunchDrunkCritics

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June 26, 2025

One of the hottest trends in Hollywood right now is to search through classic pictures of the 1980s and 1990s and revitalise them for modern audiences. The Running Man is the latest movie to get this treatment, with Edgar Wright taking on the project this time.

Unlike a lot of reboots and remakes, though, this film is set to ignore the Arnold Schwarzenegger offering from 1987 and be more of a direct adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name. Josh Brolin is the biggest name attached to the project, but it will also include Glen Powell and Michael Cera.

Second Adaptation of Stephen King’s Novel

Brolin will be playing the role of the fictional show’s producer in this new adaptation of The Running Man. The upcoming film will stick more closely to the premise of King’s 1982 book, which he released under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Wright has already said that he wants to honour the novel’s bleak vision of a dystopian society, something he believes wasn’t achieved fully with the first movie.

For this to work, it will need one of the best character actors in the world in the role of the ruthless Dan Killian (changed from Damon Killian in the previous picture). Richard Dawson played the character last time in his final ever screen role, and Brolin will want to honour his performance while delivering his own take on the narcissistic character.

What Else is Brolin Working On?

Brolin continues to be one of the busiest actors in the business, and The Running Man isn’t the only picture he’ll be starring in this year. One of the most exciting projects he’s involved in is Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which is currently in post-production and slated for a December release on Netflix. He’ll also be in the horror film Weapons this year, and The Dog Stars in 2026.

Among the various projects Brolin has been rumoured to be involved in, there’s also talk of the actor returning to where it all began. Brolin’s first ever big screen part came in The Goonies in 1985, and the legacy of Richard Donner’s picture still lives on today. Indeed, 40 years later, there have been a whirlwind of different adaptations, from Flash-based online games to a recently proposed spin-off show about the making of a shot-for-shot remake of the film. Furthermore, the Goonies slot game is up there among the top listed slots and bingo titles at online bingo sites, giving more demographics an entry point to the online version of the classic ball draw. All of this disparate merchandising coincides with a lot of campaigning for there to be a new offering in the franchise.

According to the latest reports, The Goonies 2 will be happening, with legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg attached as producer. Brolin has already confirmed that he’ll return to the franchise that kickstarted his career, along with some of the other famous faces from that adventure. It will be great to see those cast members reunited again after all this time.

As for right now, The Running Man looks to be the most exciting project to see Brolin in this year. Wright has a knack for bringing his own unique twist to his films, and the new version is unlikely to be anything like the last. Brolin could be key in defining the direction that this one goes in, and he’s likely to bring some nuance to the villainous role of Dan Killian.