Marvel is reportedly making some big changes to their upcoming Avengers films, The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. It’s unclear if they plan to move forward with Jonathan Majors’ Kang as the major villain, or go in a totally different direction. Possibly part of that decision is the recent departure of The Kang Dynasty director, Destin Daniel Cretton. With reports that Marvel wants a single filmmaker to helm both movies, similar to what Joss Whedon and the Russo Bros. have done in the past, a new rumor claims to have a list of contenders.
Take this with a grain of salt as it comes from “scooper” Daniel Richtman, whose track record is as spotty as everyone else who claims to have insider knowledge. He claims that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ Sam Raimi is on the list to helm both Avengers movies. Raimi, of course, is a popular pick known for his Evil Dead films and his trilogy of Spider-Man movies with Sony. He has been rumored in the past to direct Secret Wars, but this would be the first we’ve heard of him taking on two back-to-back.
Also said to be in the mix are the red-hot duo of Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, who have become heavy-hitters at Marvel with Moon Knight, Loki season two, and the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again. They have feature film experience, as well, so it was only a matter of time before Marvel turned to them for something big.
If Marvel’s Kevin Feige has scrambled upcoming plans, the first shoe to drop will be changing The Kang Dynasty title. Look out for that.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on May 1st 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars to follow on May 7th 2027.
If Cruel Intentionsand Brideshead Revisited were burned to ashes then laced with acid and smoked, you’d get the sensation of Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman follow-up, Saltburn. A constantly-shocking look at the sickeningly wealthy and privileged, it’s a film that never fails to titillate with its posh presentation and characters fueled by “fuck you” money and uncontrollable desires. It’s a sophomore effort with all of the brazenness and awareness of Fennell’s debut feature, only turned toward a psychosexual revenge thriller with a venomous edge.
At some point, families are going to learn not to invite Barry Keoghan into their homes. It never turns out well. He plays Oliver Quick, a name that sounds like it was taken from a Dickens novel, a bright, shy intellectual scholarship kid newly enrolled at Oxford where the entrenched rich kids laugh and mock him. Struggling to make friends in this environment, he lucks into a chance encounter with the dreamy, delicious Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi, also seen as Elvis in Priscilla), the desire of every guy and gal on campus. When troubles at home send Oliver into an emotional tailspin, Felix, who has quickly become his best and only friend, invites him to his family’s palatial digs at Saltburn, a literal castle of British grandeur and stature.
Oliver has wormed his way into this eccentric clan with the slippery ease of Tom Ripley. Rosamund Pike is a gas as Elsbeth, Felix’s oblivious, ditzy ex-model mother whose stone-faced line delivery offers the best gags. Richard E. Grant is just as dopey as family patriarch Sir James, suit of armor and all. Felix’s emotionally broken sister Venetia (Alison Oliver) is apparently the eye of all of her brother’s annual visitors. And then there’s Felix’s best buddy and leech, Farleigh (Archie Madekwe), who recognizes in Oliver a fellow moocher with an ulterior motive. Even in a massive castle like Saltburn there can’t be room for them both. Carey Mulligan has a fun glorified cameo as Elsbeth’s attention-seeking friend, Pamela, a sadsack dressed in rainbow colors who has overstayed her welcome.
Using shadows, sharp corners, and an impressive amount of reflective surfaces, Fennell presents Saltburn as a place trapped in its own warped, perverse version of reality. While set in 2006 (we see them watching Superbad at one point), time and place seem lost in a place such as this. We expect extreme hedonistic tendencies but, despite lavish parties and no shortage of sexual escapes, the Catton home is silly but fairly reserved. It’s Oliver’s transgressive actions that push Saltburn over the edge and will test the viewer’s mettle. At times malevolent and charming, Keoghan’s performance is all-encompassing, demanding that he slurp up every drop like Oliver lapping up Felix’s dirty bathwater. It’s not the kind of role you can be non-committal to. Just as Fennell can’t risk going halfway with the full Gothic tone of the film, and yes, that is undoubtedly going to rub some people the wrong way. But the excesses are few and deliberate, revealing details about the perpetrator that help push Saltburn to a wild, unexpected conclusion.
While at times overcooked and full of itself, Saltburn is an extremely entertaining, disturbing, and weird look at the desires of both the rich and the wanting. Fennell has a need to overexplain the conclusion Paul Haggis-style, retreating to clarify past actions when an air of ambiguity is more in keeping with the film’s murky aura. But that isn’t enough to dump a bucket of cold water on the experience. Fennell luxuriates in overabundance and kink, the expert use of score and visual dexterity to set an evocative mood that gives way to lasting dread. Saltburn is imperfect, but like the titular estate it snags you in its grip and doesn’t let go, not that you’d ever want to leave in the first place.
Saltburn is in theaters now. *NOTE: This review was originally part of our 2023 Middleburg Film Festival coverage.*
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes– $28.8M/$98.3M
Snow continued to pile up in the second week of The Hunger Games prequel. The Francis Lawrence-directed film played strong through the Thanksgiving holiday, falling just 35% and adding $28.8M for a $98M domestic total. Worldwide the film has $154M. These were never going to hit the $600M-$800M heights of the original movies, but then Lionsgate doesn’t need them to. They keep the franchise alive and in people’s minds, and this is unlikely to be the last one we see.
Ridley Scott’s big-budget epic Napoleon didn’t exactly meet its Waterloo but it didn’t really conquer, either. It was a $32M haul over the five-day debut, with $78M worldwide. The film will be in theaters, driven largely by IMAX screens, before streaming to Apple where Scott has promised a 4-hour cut of the 2 1/2-hour film. Reviews have been mixed. I personally thought it was pretty bad, but it has plenty of supporters, especially for the lead performance by Joaquin Phoenix.
Disney’s struggles with the 3rd-place finish for Wish, an animated fantasy designed to help celebrate 100 years of classic animation. But with just $31M over five days and falling short of Napoleon, it’s a reminder that things aren’t going well in the House of Mouse. While reviews were okay, a bigger problem might be the marketing which made it unclear what the film was actually about. My descriptor that it’s a celebration of past Disney classics is all most people knew, and they decided largely that it could wait to be seen on Disney+. There in lies another issue, that Disney has been too successful in streaming and it is devouring itself.
4. Trolls Band Together– $17.5M/$64.4M
5. Thanksgiving– $7.2M/$24.1M
6. The Marvels– $6.4M/$76.8M
Disney’s struggles continue with the third week of The Marvels, which only managed $6M and a $76M total stateside. Worldwide, it only has $188M which is a number you expect fro from Marvel after a single weekend. It’s amazing to think that a Marvel movie could lose out domestically against Trolls Band Together, but right now that’s looking increasingly likely. Nothing against Trolls, since I love those movies with all my heart, but they shouldn’t beat Marve.
7. The Holdovers– $2.7M/$12.8M
A slight increase in theaters led to a 2% increase in sales for Alexander Payne’s holiday dramedy, The Holdovers. Genuine awards season buzz has certainly helped, with performances by Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph being eyed for accolades.
8. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour– $2.3M/$178.2M
9. Five Nights at Freddy’s– $1.75M/$136.2M
Universal has to be so pleased with the success of Five Nights at Freddy’s, which has earned $283M worldwide despite simultaneous streaming on Peacock. It’s further proof of the double-edged sword that is Disney+, which is so successful that it has hurt Disney’s theatrical numbers. The same can’t be said of Peacock, and so people feel they need to buy a ticket to see original content in theaters.
An ambitious expansion of 1550 theaters has thrust Emerald Fennell’s provocative thriller Saltburn into the top 10. The numbers still aren’t great, with just $1.7M and an $1100 per site average.
In Our Son, we see the story of a couple, their failing marriage, and the impact it has on them and their child. It’s a story we’ve seen told many times before, but virtually always through the lens of a husband and wife. But in this case, the film stars Billy Porter and Luke Evans as a gay couple, giving this story a fresh spin that comes with increased diversity and inclusion in Hollywood.
The film is directed by Bill Oliver, who co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Nickowitz. Oliver’s previous effort was the 2018 body-double thriller, Jonathan, which starred Ansel Elgort and I remember it being incredibly suspenseful. Worth checking out if you have the time.
Here is the synopsis for Our Son, which also stars, Robin Weigert, Andrew Rannells, Isaac Powell, and Phylicia Rashad:
Nicky (Luke Evans), a book publisher devoted to his work, lives with his husband Gabriel (Billy Porter), a former actor and stay-at-home dad, and their eight year-old son, Owen. Gabriel loves Owen more than anything; Nicky loves Gabriel more than anything. Despite appearances, Gabriel has been dissatisfied with their marriage for some time and files for divorce, leading to a custody battle that forces both of them to confront the changing reality of their love for each other and for their son.
Our Son hits select theaters on December 8th, followed by VOD a week later.
We’re starting to get some clarity on the future of Star Wars on the big screen. There’s whatever is happening with Taika Waititi’s movie, but more definitively we have a new movie from newly-minted Lucasfilm creative head Dave Filoni that will combine storylines from his Disney+ shows. There’s a movie set thousands of years pre-Skywalker Saga from director James Mangold. And then we have Daisy Ridley returning as Rey Skywalker in a new movie from Ms. Marvel filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. That one came out of left field.
Ridley spoke with Collider about the film, and of course, she couldn’t say much of anything. But what she could do was express her genuine excitement to return as Rey, and to express that she was just as surprised as we were to learn of it…
“It was such a nice reception,” Ridley said about the film’s reveal at Star Wars Celebration. “I was shitting myself before I went on stage, because no one knew I was going to that. No one knew I was going to Celebration, bar like Kathy [Kennedy] and there were a couple of people. I was so nervous. Oh my God. It was such a wonderful reception.”
“I’m very excited. The story is really cool,” Ridley added. “I’m waiting to read a script because, obviously, I don’t have any other updates. It’s not what I expected, but I’m very excited.”
The return of Rey is interesting because she started as such a popular character with a mysterious past that fans invested in. But as the trilogy went on and more was revealed about her, Rey’s story got muddled and fans reacted harshly. This could be a nice reboot of the character that spins her out into some unexpected territory.
It didn’t take long for Melissa Barrera to respond to Spyglass Media firing her from Scream 7over her social media comments regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She issued this statement just a day later:
“First and foremost, I condemn Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. I condemn hate and prejudice of any kind against any group of people.”
“As a Latina, a proud Mexicana, I feel the responsibility of having a platform that allows me the privilege of being heard, and therefore, I have tried to use it to raise awareness about issues I care about and to lend my voice to those in need.”
“Every person on this earth- regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or socio-economic status- deserves equal human rights, dignity and, of course, freedom. I believe a group of people are NOT their leadership and that no governing body should be above criticism.”
“I pray day and night for no more deaths, for no more violence, and for peaceful co-existence. I will continue to speak out for those that need it most and continue to advocate for peace and safety, for human rights and freedom.”
Barrera ended her Instagram stories statement with, “Silence is not an option for me.”
Spyglass concluded that Barrera veered into hate speech with her comments, although there’s some debate about that.
Scream 7 faces a total creative overhaul now, with Barrera gone and the sudden exit of her co-star, Jenna Ortega, over scheduling conflicts with her Netflix series, Wednesday. Options on the table are to bring back the franchise’s top scream queens, Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox.
There’s also talk of having Patrick Dempsey, who appeared in Scream 3 way back in 2000, and is experiencing a hot streak with Thanksgiving and being voted People’s Sexiest Man of the Year.
Basically, it’s back to the drawing board for Scream writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. They wrote the last two chapters that featured Barrera and Ortega, but now it’s time to find Ghostface some new victims. [Variety]
If there’s a universal truth about the films of Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, it’s that nothing is ever quite as it seems. The complicated moral dramas and complex family sagas that Kore-eda has been earning accolades for over the course of years are like guideposts to hopefulness, showing us how to navigate the pain of life with sincerity and grace. In that respect, Monster fits neatly into Kore-eda’s oeuvre, presenting a multi-layered tale that invites the viewers to make judgments for themselves, to bring their own biases and experiences to the table, and to take stock of the fact that life is rarely a tidy thing.
While there’s no centerpiece character to this small ensemble, the three-act story is initially driven by pre-teen Minato Mugino (Soya Kurokawa), whose sudden strange behavior has baffled his mother Saori (Sakura Ando), a widower dealing with grief while trying to keep a roof over their heads. She’s protective of her son, perhaps overprotective as she’s accused of later, but it’s for a reason. Little things about Minato are beginning to scare her; he suddenly cuts his long moppy hair, there’s a scar over his ear, and he begins to probe her with worrying questions like if a person would still be a person if they were given the brain of a pig.
Saoiri does what any mother in her position would do. She knows intuitively that something is happening to Minato at school, and so she stays on him until he admits to it. The boy blames the awkward homeroom teacher Mr. Hori (Eita Nagayama) for abusing him. This leads to a series of confrontations at school with the faculty and cold, reserved principal Makiko Fushimi (Yuko Tanaka), that are less than satisfactory. Their responses are stiff, dismissive, almost alien-like but certainly unexpected from a place of learning, but is clearly commentary on a broken educational system. They confirm what has been happening to Minato, but nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Hori is a giggling buffoon throughout most of the encounters, with the school staff trying desperately to either shut him up or hide him in the closet.
Kore-eda, working for the first time in decades from a script not his own, takes a Rashomon-like narrative and weaves a story that is both an intriguing mystery and a sweet coming-of-age story. A blazing fire kicks the story off, lighting up the night sky and setting all of the characters into place. Who set the blaze is one of many questions, but also why Mr. Hori was spotted nearby, embarrassingly, with one of the hostess girls who worked there. We come to find out that quite a few people are connected to the event, and their lives spin out from their in unpredictable ways. One of those is Minato’s classmate, Yori Hoshikawa(Hinata Hiiragi), a sweet-natured, imaginative, effeminate kid who Mr. Hori accuses Minato of bullying. Is Hori saying that just to get even with Minato for getting him in trouble at school? Or is there some truth to it? And why is Mr. Hori insinuating the worst about Saori, a single mother he doesn’t even know?
Using flashbacks and multiple perspectives, screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto weaves an intricate tale of fear and discovery. We learn more about Minato and Yori’s relationship, which is a tangled mess under the best of circumstances. Like children, they don’t always reveal all of themselves to everyone, and even the nature of their friendship is kept a secret. It’s this hidden, possibly romantic, side of themselves that has keep the adults in their lives at a distance, making irrational claims and taking unnecessarily violent actions to learn the truth. But from a child’s perspective, we understand the need for secrecy. The culture of bullying towards boys like Yori is universal. It doesn’t matter whether exploring Japanese or American attitudes. We also get why Minato, who is at the age of learning more about the kind of person he wants to be, would have complicated feelings about his closeness to Yori.
There are no hidden agendas, and nobody is painted out to be the bad guy. But what is true is that people are complicated beings who can do right for all of the wrong reasons, and do wrong for what they perceive to be the right reasons. Following in the footsteps of Kore-eda’s wonderful fantasy film I Wish, frequently escape into a surreal little corner of the world all to themselves where they are free to be as they are. And while we love seeing this side of them, they are kids, after all, and prone to displays of anger, disrespect, violence, and self-harm. So too are the grown-ups, with members of the school more interested in covering their own asses than to listen to the mother of a student. In Monster, nobody comes across as totally innocent, but there are no villains in this story.
No filmmaker gets the most out of child actors than Kore-eda, who has found two gems in Kurokawa and Hiiragi. They capture lively innocence and moodiness of youth, backed by a beautiful score by the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto that is at times melancholic and euphoric, shifting as easily as the emotions of a child.
Kore-eda and Sakomoto are in perfect sync, with Monster echoing the melodramatic aspects the filmmaker often uses as a counterbalance to the weighty, grounded emotions. A raging fire, a heavy rainstorm and a sudden avalanche that threatens to wash away the town and everyone in it. They push the characters along like chess pieces on a board, but also come across as unnaturally forced into an overlong narrative that otherwise feels very sincere and genuine. Monster is an emotionally draining but worthwhile experience. Kore-eda pulls back from the sadness and mistrust of adulthood to remind that the hopefulness of childhood is still there within us.
In the semi-biographical coming-of-age film, Frybread Face and Me, a young man encounters the different generations of women in his family. Obsessed with pop culture, specifically Fleetwood Mac, middle-school-aged Benny is sent to live with his grandmother on the Navajo reservation while his parents sort out their troubled marriage in San Diego. Heartfelt, grounded, and beautifully shot, writer/director Billy Luther earns his storytelling chops in his first narrative feature.
When Benny (Keir Tallman) arrives at the reservation, he and his grandmother (Sarah H Natani) have no way to communicate as he speaks in English and she speaks Diné. His Uncle Marvin (Martin Sensmeier) also lives on the family property taking care of the livestock and bull riding in his spare time. Benny already feels isolated by his parents and his uncle’s traditional masculine ways prove to distance himself from his family.
That is until his aunt drops off Dawn, whom the aunties and uncles unaffectionately call Frybread Face as her complexion is “flat and greasy”. Played by newcomer Charley Hogan, Dawn becomes the forceful go-between for Benny and his grandmother, teaching him the ways of their family and people. Hogan gives a tender and confident performance that makes you question just how old this actress actually is. Tallman’s sweet and contemplative turn as Benny is magnified by his chemistry with Hogan, making the onscreen duo one of the best teams of the year.
Luther is probably best known for his 2006 documentary Miss Navajo which looked at the life of an Indigenous beauty pageant contestant as she competed for the titular title. His most recent work includes writing for the AMC+ detective drama Dark Winds where he also directed a 2023 episode. In Frybread Face and Me, Luther has full control over the story and manages to create a quietly moving narrative that highlights the vital role women take in indigenous communities. He uses his documentary background throughout the film, but it is highlighted in the scenes where Benny’s grandmother is weaving.
The director smartly picks and chooses when and where to subtitle the Navajo language, depending on where Benny is in his journey. The more he connects to it, the more we know as an audience. Luther struggles to keep the pace of the narrative and parts of the dialogue feel unpolished, but Frybread Face and Me’s message of community and maternal love outshines its flaws.
Frybread Face and Me opens in select theaters and will stream on Netflix starting 11/24.
At this point, it might be a good idea to scrap Scream 7 altogether. Jenna Ortega, the red-hot actress who was a major draw in the rebooted Scream and its sequel, Scream 6, will not be returning for the next film. And before you ask, no, this doesn’t have anything to do with the firing of her co-star Melissa Barrera just hours ago.
Deadline reports that Ortega’s busy schedule shooting Wednesday, her hit Netflix series in which she plays Wednesday Addams, will prevent her from returning for Scream 7. With no script in place and a second season of Wednesday coming up, not to mention additional shooting on the Beetlejuice remake she’s a part of, Ortega simply won’t have the time.
Most importantly, Ortega is a huge star now and can make these kinds of bold moves. She can do pretty much whatever she wants.
The timing is purely coincidental that it comes just after Barrera was fired from Scream 7 for her pro-Palestine comments on social media. Ortega and Barrera played sisters Tara and Sam Carpenter who come under attack by a new Ghostface serial killer.
So where does Scream go from here? Perhaps a renewed effort to bring back former star Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott? Even if she does return, it would be tough to explain the absence of Ortega and Barrera
Disney has always maintained that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. Now in their one-hundredth year as a studio, they are fully cashing in on that idea with the release of their latest feature, Wish. Filled with songs you’d expect from the iconic brand and plenty of easter eggs from its past catalog, the film doesn’t necessarily stand on its own or break any new ground but it doesn’t need to.
Our hero for Disney’s latest 95-minute adventure is Asha (Ariana Debose), a young woman living in the kingdom of Rosas with her grandfather Sabino (Victor Garber), and mother Sakina (Natasha Rothwell). Instead of having a dead mother like many Disney protagonists do, they switched it up and she and her family are grieving her father.
Asha, we find she does all she can to help her village which continues to be a safe haven for refugees and founded by wizard-King Magnifico (Chris Pine) and ruled with the help of his wife Amaya (Angelique Cabral). On their eighteenth birthday, every citizen gives their life’s dream to the king, who watches over them. In exchange, the citizens promptly forget their wishes and Magnifico grants one a month.
When we first meet Asha, she is eager to become Magnifico’s apprentice and though her friends are skeptical, she believes she has what it takes to help others. Of course, her job interview with the king does not go well and she learns that the King does not intend to grant most of the wishes, and instead wants to keep them for himself. Frustrated, Asha sings her frustration to the night sky, summoning an adorable star to come help her and the city fulfill her destiny.
Wish was directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, the former of whom wrote and co-directed Frozen with Jennifer Lee, who is also a co-writer here. She is joined by co-writer Allison Moore, who is new to the Disney-verse and is mostly known for writing sci-fi thrillers and intense TV dramas.
The plot feels like a Disney movie. Every event, character, and song feels like a shade from another property. Some of this is by design, characters are named for characters in other projects, Asha’s friends are reimaginings of the dwarves from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, at one point she looks exactly like Cinderella’s fairy godmother. Asha is your typical Disney heroine with no discerning character traits from any of the fictional women the brand has brought us before. However, Ariana DeBose perfectly sounds and embodies a Disney princess/heroine so at least the performance is worth hearing.
A lot of the backstory, especially Magnifico’s feels underwritten and explained which seems to get written off by the sentiment, “Well, it doesn’t matter. Look at this easter egg from this other film you liked.” Wish doesn’t feel new or innovative in any way but between talking animals and songs you can belt to, a true Disney fan won’t care.
