In Tran Anh Hung’s decadent and indulgent The Taste of Things, Benoît Magimel plays a chateau owner who is heavily involved in the life and work of his cook played by Juliette Binoche. In the opening sequence, which lasts a good twenty minutes, the two work with a fellow houseworker to prepare a lavish meal for Dodin’s (Magimel) dinner guests.
Taking place in 1885 France, the two have worked together for close to thirty years and though they have an established relationship, they never married. Between long and deliciously shot cooking sequences, Dodin discusses his desire to marry Eugénie while she talks about her longing for freedom. It’s after Dodin cooks a multicourse French feast for her, that she starts to reconsider her feelings towards matrimony.
Magimel and Binoche’s chemistry is palpable. Whether it’s longing glances over a boiling pot or just how the two discuss food, you can feel the romantic tension wafting off the screen. Binoche’s Eugénie is more reserved with her words but gives the film its grounding anchor. Magimel is much more dominant, taking up dialogue and camera time but provides a frantic sense of urgency that the narrative needs.
The Taste of Things may have some of the best food porn cinema has ever seen. Cooking sequences last for at least five minutes with minimum dialogue. Hung gives each shot a yellowish-bright warmth that only seems to enhance the food onscreen. By the time Dodin is done making pot-au-feu, you will not only know what it is but how to make it. While these cooking sequences are mesmerizing, the narrative pacing is slow, at times painfully so. There’s an unneeded subplot concerning Napoleon that just diverts the story altogether. Really any throughline that doesn’t have to do with Dodin or Eugénie feels superfluous. At 134 minutes, this makes the runtime feel longer by almost an hour.
France has selected The Taste of Things as its submission for the Best International Feature category at the 96th Oscars. While I personally believe Anatomy of a Fall is a much more groundbreaking movie, there’s a reason Tran Anh Hung won Best Director at this year’s Cannes. It is a visually beautiful movie with an intriguing story that slightly gets away from itself.
Now that artificial intelligence is a part of our normal everyday lives, how does Hollywood go about portraying this long-held boogeyman? It’s just not enough to simply posit a future where AI unleashes deadly technology on all of humanity. So The Beast offers something a little different, where AI instead tries to wipe out all humanity’s strongest emotions.
Léa Seydoux and George MacKay star in the film written and directed by Bertrand Bonello. It’s set in a near future when AI controls all of humanity, and has decided that human emotion is a threat. Seydoux plays a woman who has decided to purge her strong feelings by going back into the past, only for things to go awry when she encounters the man she has repeatedly fallen in love with through many incarnations.
The film is a loose adaptation of Henry James’ 1903 novella, The Beast in the Jungle. Also in the cast are Guslagie Malanda and Dasha Nekrasova.
Here’s the official synopsis: The year is 2044: artificial intelligence controls all facets of a stoic society as humans routinely “erase” their feelings. Hoping to eliminate pain caused by their past-life romances, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) continually falls in love with different incarnations of Louis (George MacKay). Set first in Belle Époque-era Paris Louis is a British man who woos her away from a cold husband, then in early 21st Century Los Angeles, he is a disturbed American bent on delivering violent “retribution.” Will the process allow Gabrielle to fully connect with Louis in the present, or are the two doomed to repeat their previous fates? Visually audacious director Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent, Nocturama) fashions his most accomplished film to date: a sci-fi epic, inspired by Henry James turn-of-the-century novella, suffused with mounting dread and a haunting sense of mystery. Punctuated by a career-defining, three-role performance by Seydoux, The Beast poignantly conveys humanity’s struggle against dissociative identity and emotionless existence.
Kellan Lutz, Kyle Allen, Noah Centineo, McG, the Nee Brothers, Jon M. Chu…these are just a few of the names who have been part of various attempts at a Masters of the Universe movie. And that doesn’t include the many studios who have given it a shot. Warner Bros. had the rights, before giving up and Sony took over for years. They eventually quit, and Netflix swooped in. But when their attempts failed, Amazon/MGM was next and they are still trying to make it happen, and they may have just found their director.
Deadline reports that Laika CEO and Bumblebee director Travis Knight is the top contender to direct Masters of the Universe. If it all goes through, Knight will work from a script by Chris Butler. The two previously collaborated on ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link. They’re currently developing Wildwood, Laika’s latest stop-motion film arriving in 2025.
Masters of the Universe is probably best known for the 1980s animated series and action figures featuring He-Man. The franchise was also turned into a terrible live-action movie with Dolph Lundgren in 1987.
I kinda feel like the time has passed for He-Man on the big screen. Netflix is doing awesome things with it in the realm of animation with Masters of the Universe: Revelation and Masters of the Universe: Revolution which debuted last month.
Antoine Fuqua isn’t keeping anyone in suspense. With filming having just begun on Michael, his upcoming Michael Jackson biopic, already the first shot of Jaafar Jackson in the title role has been released to the public. And damn if he’s not a spitting image of his late uncle.
“We have assembled an incredible team of artists for this project – hair & makeup, costumes, cinematography, choreography, lighting, everything – and some who knew and worked with Michael are reuniting for this film. But most importantly, it’s Jaafar who embodies Michael,” said Fuqua. “It goes beyond the physical resemblance. It’s Michael’s spirit that comes through in a magical way. You have to experience it to believe it.”
Fuqua is directing from a script by Oscar-nominated writer John Logan. Others in the cast but yet to be seen are Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Miles Teller, and Juliano Krue Valdi.
But clearly this is a potential breakthrough role for Jaafar Jackson, who looks as if he was destined for the part.
There are a lot of shades to Michael Jackson’s life and career. It’ll be interesting to see how the film decides to portray him, and if they go deep or stay surface level.
Michael opens on April 18th 2025.
SYNOPSIS: Michael will bring audiences a riveting and honest portrayal of the brilliant yet complicated man who became known worldwide as the King of Pop. The film presents his triumphs and tragedies on an epic, cinematic scale — from his human side and personal struggles to his undeniable creative genius, captured by his most iconic performances. As never before, audiences will experience an inside look into one of the most influential, trailblazing artists the world has ever known.
Millie Bobby Brown has found a home at Netflix, and she’s not going to walk away very far. The Stranger Things breakout already has one franchise under her belt with Enola Holmes, but she potentially has two more. Coming up is the Russo Bros.’ sci-fi film The Electric State. And after that is the fantasy action film, Damsel, which finds Brown taking up arms against a dragon.
Damsel is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who is best known for 28 Weeks Later, Intruders, and his Oscar-nominated short Esposados. In his first movie in 13 years (!!!), Fresnadillo directs a script by Dan Mazeau (Fast X) that centers on a dutiful princess who agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to learn it was part of a plot by the royal family to sacrifice her to repay an old debt. Locked away in a dungeon with a fire-breathing dragon, she must use everything at her disposal to survive.
The plot and tone of the movie sorta resemble The Princess, a Hulu action flick starring Joey King from a couple of years ago. That’s a really great film, too, if you haven’t seen it.
Also in the cast are Robin Wright, Angela Bassett, Nick Robinson, Ray Winstone, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Brooke Carter.
Here’s the synopsis: This classic tale with a genre-bending twist sees Millie playing Elodie, a dutiful damsel who agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find the royal family has recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. Thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon, she must rely on her wits and will to survive.
Here’s the thing about the Zellner Brothers, David and Nathan. They are basically Sundance royalty, with films including Kid-Thing, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, and Damsel playing at the festival to packed crowd. If they’ve got a film, it’s there. And guaranteed that every year they have one, it’s going to be one of the craziest experiences you’ll have. But nothing they’ve done before goes quite so far into the realm of weird as Sasquatch Sunset.
Yes, the title is apt. The film, almost like an expansion of their short Sasquatch Birthing Journal #2, literally follows a year in the lives of a family of Sasquatch. And there’s no dialogue, either. We follow them as they go about their merry way, eating strange berries, avoiding being devoured by other prey, and staying out of sight of humans. Oh, and fornicating. And looking out for one another. And mourning their losses. And becoming a family.
Yeah, it starts out pretty goofy, but Sasquatch Sunset is ultimately the story of an offbeat family just trying to survive out there in a harsh world.
Did I mention that it stars Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg are underneath a lot of that fur?
If I sound like I’ve seen and loved the film, that’s because I did. But the Zellners don’t make mainstream movies that anyone can enjoy, and trust me this one is definitely an acquired taste.
Here’s the synopsis: In the misty forests of North America, a family of Sasquatches—possibly the last of their enigmatic kind— embark on an absurdist, epic, hilarious, and ultimately poignant journey over the course of one year. These shaggy and noble giants fight for survival as they find themselves on a collision course with the ever-changing world around them. Starring Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg, acclaimed directors David and Nathan Zellner (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter) bring you the greatest Bigfoot story ever told.
Also starring Christophe Zajac-Denek, and Nathan Zellner, Sasquatch Sunset opens in select theaters April 12th, with a wider rollout on April 19th.
The downside of Sony maintaining its grip on Marvel’s Spider-Man rights is they have a plethora of characters to flush down the toilet. Let me be clear: it wasn’t always this way. The Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy continues to be amazing, and the Andrew Garfield movies are underrated and Sony shouldn’t have panicked with it. But they continue to struggle with their own corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, Venom was bonkers fun that captured the crazy tone of the comics, but that character is already popular and has a ready-made audience. The same can’t be said for Morbius, the upcoming Kraven the Hunter, and the unfortunate Madame Web, which takes multiple fantastic female Spider-heroes and squashes them like bugs on the bottom of a boot.
The hilariously atrocious Madame Web doesn’t even have the decency to be so bad it’s good. Sure, the clunky dialogue, obviously disinterested cast, one actor’s horribly dubbed voice, insufferable teasing of a better movie, and messy plot will have you laughing with your buddies at the ineptitude. But the overwhelming feeling is disappointment over the wasted potential. I’m a fan of all of these characters, and have been reading some of them for years. And the cast is superb…elsewhere. Just not here, given elementary-level scripting by an army of writers who must not have communicated with one another about crafting a singular vision. What the Hell is this movie supposed to be, anyway?
Dakota Johnson, who has become a meme for her apparent disdain for the film, sleepwalks through her role as Cassandra Webb. A clunky intro set in the jungles of Peru establishes that her mother (played by Kerry Bishe) was pregnant with her while on the hunt for a rare spider with incredible healing properties. Tagging along was Ezekiel, played by the typically great A Prophet actor, Tahar Rahim. Turns out, Ezekiel was just a baddie waiting for his moment to strike. He attacks and ultimately kills Cassie’s mom, but not before she’s rescued by some weird jungle spider folks, who are dressed like arts & crafts Spider-Man. They deliver Cassie into the world and then…well, I guess they just ship her back to America through the mail or something. Who knows?
As an adult, Cassie is a New York EMT who can’t connect with other people. We know because of her shitty bedside manner, awkward treatment of kids, and nonexistent sense of humor. Or that could just be the terrible script, which has her and co-star Adam Scott, who plays…well, I’ll leave that reveal alone because Sony thinks they’re clever, bantering with some of the most unnatural human interaction ever. Seriously, the dialogue in Madame Web might’ve been written by AI that was homeschooled by an AI. How did four writers get credited with this?
Part of the problem could be confusion over the setting. While the film begins in 1973 when introducing Cassie’s mom, the story doesn’t get moving until 2003. There’s some talk out there that it was actually set in the ’90s, but was moved up so that fans could draw a closer connection to Sony’s current Spider output. While the musical needle drops are mixed up enough that you can see them trying to have it both ways era-wise, some of the other references are so shoehorned they’re cringe-worthy. In one scene, Cassie for no reason informs us “she’s gotta get home in time for Idol”. Product placement is everywhere, including a gigantic billboard for Beyonce’s “Dangerously in Love” which I guess strokes her ego but also shows that Sony can spend millions on some really terrible Photoshopping. I wonder what was under that billboard in the earliest versions of the film? I bet it was Smash Mouth. After Cassie survives a near-fatal accident, she suddenly gains the ability to see the future. Let’s be honest, it’s a spider-sense even though it’s never named. Madame Web is good about never being clear about anything, probably to avoid the very confusion they are creating.
Ezekiel is a pretty lame baddie all around. He’s used the spider to gain powers similar to Spider-Man. No webbing, but he can poison you with a toxin from his hands. He’s got a suit that resemble’s Spidey’s black Venom costume, which would look much cooler if the VFX weren’t so shoddy. Plagued with terrible visions that three female Spider-heroes will eventually kill him, he uses his vast wealth to have Girls star Zosia Mamet track them down. How? Using cutting-edge facial recognition tech, like this is one of those early Mission: Impossible movies. Poor Zosia Mamet, by the way. She never gets up out of her damn chair. Turns out the three future heroes are current annoying teens:Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced). Ezekiel tries to kill them in the tamest subway attack ever, but Cassie uses her newfound abilities to come to the rescue. Keep in mind that this supposedly brilliant, wealthy villain with advanced technology can’t find three teenagers with no resources at their disposal, and even when he does he looks like a clown and sounds like someone speaking into a fan.
Everyone comes off poorly in this. Dakota Johnson wasn’t meant for this sort of role and she clearly didn’t like doing it. Her wheelhouse is something like Cha Cha Real Smooth, a challenging mix of drama and humor with a bit of an edge. Sydney Sweeney looks way too old to play a teenager, no matter how short they make her skirt. O’Connor and Merced, both fine actresses, aren’t given enough to work with. At least they were allowed to use their own voices…lookin’ at you Tahar Rahim. Fire your agent.
Madame Web brings a bunch of really popular Spider-heroes together in a tease of a fun all-female team-up flick. I should note that this is one of the many regurgitated ideas that Sony had from back in the Andrew Garfield years that they are pretending is new. But they don’t give you any of that. This is barely a superhero movie. Trailers tease glimpses at the heroes to come: Spider-Woman, Arana, Julia Carpenter in their familiar costumes. If you pay to see the movie based on that, be prepared for about 30 seconds of enjoyment. It’s a chase movie, one in which Dakota Johnson chauffeurs a trio of snot-nosed kids around in a taxi cab while fleeing the most inept psychopath in all of NYC, and that’s saying something!
There are times when Madame Web feels like someone is pulling a prank on us. Like the excruciating amount of time spent watching Cassie teach the girls CPR. Or when Mike Epps is introduced into the movie only to be written out 90 seconds later. Or when Emma Roberts, another actor gone to waste, repeatedly teases the name of her child, a fairly significant character in the Spider-Man universe, in a manner that seems to be for us and makes no sense in the context of the film. Madame Web is a total joke of a movie, and if Sony had aspirations of a franchise, the joke is ultimately on them. The final showdown takes place in a fireworks factory, with so many explosions Michael Bay would be jealous. And somehow through all of that, the film still manages to have no spark.
The prevailing wisdom is that the more “unauthorized” a Hollywood biopic, the more truthful and real it can be. But does complete honesty always make for a more entertaining movie? Ultimately, that’s going to be the goal of any film, to entertain the people who paid to see it, without compromising the reality of who the subject was. Bob Marley: One Love might be the most “authorized” musical biopic in recent memory. The Marley clan are all over this thing as producers. Ziggy Marley, Bob’s son, introduces the darn thing. And rest assured that his larger-than-life father has the edges rounded out on his incredible but short life of making music that spread the principle of Rastafarianism: peace, love, and unity.
A sanitized view of the events surrounding Bob Marley can’t obscure the fascinating complexities within the man, nor can they hide the soulful performance by Kingsley Ben-Adir as the reggae legend. This is hardly a life-to-death docudrama. It’s set in 1976 when Bob Marley, played by the esteemed actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, who already played one Black icon, Malcolm X, in One Night in Miami, is at the height of his popularity and influential power. Jamaica is in turmoil; ripped apart by political strife and gang warfare, with each side fighting for control. Marley hopes to put on a peace concert to bring the people together in the idea of one love. But the concert, apolitical in nature, has nevertheless made Marley a target for death. His wife Rita (Lashana Lynch) warns him that he’s not taking the threats seriously enough. Sure enough, before the concert can take place, gunmen attack his home. Marley is shot but will live; Rita is shot in the head and is lucky to survive. Another reason to rock some thick dreads.
The film largely centers on the next two years, as Marley flees Jamaica for London. There he experiences discrimination from the police and the punk rockers, but it’s also where he and his band begin to shape his iconic record, “Exodus”. Mainly, this is the period when Bob Marley begins to transcend music to become the messianic figure he is looked at as today. The film explores the many contradictions that comprise Bob Marley: a man still confused by the absence of his white father who preaches a message of cultural unity. We see him as a family man who protects and cares for his large family, but at the same time he’s less than faithful to Rita who has been by his side literally since childhood. The film only lightly touches on his infidelity and his fathering of kids with other women. He’s also a political firebrand who nevertheless tries to stay out of the fray for fear of division. It’s a tough space to occupy, and while the film tries to present the most glowing version of Bob Marley, the edges still come through and that’s what makes him compelling. Such is the richness of his life that even a Hollywood movie, and a screenplay credited to four different writers, can bury all that he is.
Ben-Adir did tons of research to perfect his portrayal of Bob Marley; the cadence, the way he moves, his spirit. The actor slips easily into the role. You see how he can be both humble and a celebrity pop icon almost in the same breath. We see him at play, enjoying games of soccer with his friends, and moments later he’s in the studio jamming out on guitar, conducting his band to musical heights, and implementing electric guitar to develop a brand new reggae sound. As if possessed by a higher spirit, Ben-Adir dances uncontrollably on stage, lost in the music and the message. At all times, his Bob Marley feels like a figure who is meant for a greater calling.
You don’t need me to tell you that the music is incredible, with One Love having full use of the Marley catalog. That said, you wish the film was expansive enough to show us more of Marley’s rise to greatness, and the fusion of rock, ska, and rocksteady sounds that influenced his style of music. We see some of it in flashback, and there’s a really fun sequence where a young Bob Marley and his early group The Wailing Wailers cram into a sketchy studio and crank out their uprising hit “Simmer Down” to an ecstatic producer. You want more of the electricity of that moment. Much of One Love feels a bit muted and somber by comparison, as if weighed down by the gravity of Marley’s persona.
Some would say that for the first major Hollywood movie centered on the rise of reggae and Bob Marley, there should be loftier goals than to merely be an entertaining presentation of a revered figure. Maybe that’s so. Undoubtedly there will be a bigger movie somewhere down the line that goes further in depth. Through the Marley sound and the fury of Ben-Adir’s performance, Bob Marley: One Love does what it set out to do; to spread his message of love to an audience who may have never heard it, and to reinforce it within those who have.
Bob Marley: One Love opens in theaters on February 14th.
There was little doubt that the success of Cobra Kai could bring about conversations of continuing the theatrical run of one of the best known underdog sports film franchises of all time, The Karate Kid. What surprised me was that they decided not to ignore the Jackie Chan led reimagining and instead have chosen to lean into it with an announcement spot starring both Ralph Macchio. A new franchise set needs a new star, so a global search was launched to find the teen that would headline what is sure to be a blockbuster film. The search is over and Ben Wang of American Born Chinese fame has been given the go ahead to wax on.
There’s no clear information on where the plot could go, though I’m sure by the time the final season of Cobra Kai finishes we’ll have some idea. Still….I’m racking my brain and can’t put together how one would incorporate the Jackie Chan version with the 80s version, while still playing in the same universe as the events of Cobra Kai. We do know that the story will take place on the east coast, so that answers why the cast of the smash hit Netflix show will be nowhere around…but it doesn’t answer how Daniel LaRusso fits in. After all, he’s got some pretty solid roots laid down in SoCal and at least one kid still in High School so he can’t bow out of the Valley just yet.
Time will tell, but I think we can rest assured that the story being put together must be one epic tale to spin and bring these two legends together.
Check out the original global casting search announcement below and make sure to keep checking in her for the latest.
It’s been a while since the Wachowskis have teamed up on a film together. While they did the Netflix series Sense8, the last feature as a duo was 2015’s Jupiter Ascending. Since then, they’ve gone separate ways. Lana went solo on The Matrix Resurrections in 2021, a movie I swear to God I remember nothing about anymore. And now it’s Lilly’s turn, as she is preparing to make her solo directing debut with comedy Trash Mountain.
Collider confirms that Wachowski will direct the queer dramedy, Trash Mountain, written by and starring Fargo actor Caleb Hearon. Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) is aboard as a producer. Hearon co-wrote the screenplay with Ruby Caster.
The story “follows a gay Chicago man in his 20s who must return to rural Missouri to deal with the death of his father — an obsessive hoarder who has left a house full of items, some valuable and some not so, to pick through.”
Wachowski previously served as showrunner, writer, and a director on the series Work in Progress, which ran for two seasons on Showtime.
Lilly Wachowski said in a statement: “When my pal Caleb Hearon sent me ‘Trash Mountain,’ I leapt at the chance to direct it. So beautiful and sad and funny! Queer representation and stories are vital at this time as we are being shoved further into the margins. Our amazing writers, Caleb and Ruby are a shining light in all this dang darkness.”
