Searchlight Pictures thinks they have something special with Poor Things, and for good reason. They also had a previous collaboration between director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone, that film being The Favourite, which went on to earn 10 Academy Award nominations and a victory for Olivia Colman. Can this one replicate that level of success?
The Frankenstein-esque story is an adaptation of Alasdair Gray‘s 1992 novel and stars Stone as Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist. But she has no desire to live her life under his thumb. Instead, she runs off with another man to see the world.
Searchlight Pictures has dropped a new extended trailer, with Stone taking time to explain her character’s journey and motivations.
Joining Stone in the cast are Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, Margaret Qualley, and Kathryn Hunter.
Here’s the official synopsis courtesy of Searchlight Pictures:
From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
Colman Domingo could be in line for his first Oscar nomination for his performance as civil rights leader and March On Washington organizer Bayard Rustin in Netflix’s biopic, Rustin. And now we can look at Domingo as the titular activist in a brand new trailer. Rustin was a key figure in the civil rights movement and helped organize the March on Washington. His struggles ran deep, living life as an openly gay Black man in the 1960s. Not that it ever stopped him from championing what he believed in.
The film is directed by George C. Wolfe, who most recently was at the helm of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom which also included Domingo. Barack and Michelle Obama produce through their High Ground Productions banner, with a screenplay co-written by Milk writer Dustin Lance Black. Domingo is surrounded by an incredible ensemble that includes Chris Rock, Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, Gus Halper, CCH Pounder, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Johnny Ramey, Michael Potts, Lilli Kay, Jordan-Amanda Hall, Jakeem Powell, Grantham Coleman, Jamilah Rosemond, Jules Latimer, Maxwell Whittington-Cooper, Frank Harts, Kevin Mambo, Carra Patterson, Bill Irwin, Cotter Smith, Adrienne Warren, Jeffrey Wright, and Audra McDonald.
Here’s the synopsis: The architect of 1963’s momentous March on Washington, Bayard Rustin was one of the greatest activists and organizers the world has ever known. He challenged authority, never apologized for who he was, what he believed, or who he desired. And he did not back down. He made history, and in turn, he was forgotten. Directed by DGA Award and five-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe and starring Emmy Award winner Colman Domingo, Rustin shines a long overdue spotlight on the extraordinary man who, alongside giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Ella Baker, dared to imagine a different world, and inspired a movement in a march toward freedom.
Rustin opens in select theaters on November 3rd, followed by Netflix on November 17th.
Nowadays, it’s not enough to simply make a television series from a popular movie. No, in the age of streaming, feature-length movies that might’ve performed poorly in theaters are given more footage and broken down into episodic format for easy binge-watching. And the latest film getting this treatment is Baz Luhrmann’s 2008 flop, Australia, which has been expanded and cut into the new Hulu miniseries, Faraway Downs.
The Nicole Kidman/Hugh Jackman is a sweeping romance about an English aristocrat who falls for a cattle rancher in the Australian Outback. When the film was released it came with a lot of fanfare, but ultimately made a little over $200M worldwide on a budget of at least $130M.
However, Australia has lived on as one of those movies that many believe got a bad rap. Following Luhrmann’s more successful films Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, the expectations were perhaps too high for Australia to reach. And so Luhrmann did something to try and fix it during the pandemic, taking left over footage and cobbling it together with the established stuff to construct this six-part series.
Here’s the synopsis: The story centers on an English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) who travels halfway across the world to confront her wayward husband and sell an unusual asset: a million-acre cattle ranch in the Australian Outback called ‘Faraway Downs’. Following the death of her husband, a ruthless Australian cattle baron, King Carney (Bryan Brown), plots to take her land and she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle drover (Hugh Jackman) to protect her ranch. The sweeping adventure romance is explored through the eyes of young Nullah (Brandon Walters), a bi-racial Indigenous Australian child caught up in the government’s draconian racial policy now referred to as the “Stolen Generations.” Together, the trio experiences four life-altering years, a love affair between Lady Ashley and the Drover, and the unavoidable impact of World War II on Northern Australia.
We’ve seen Nicolas Cage descend into madness many times before, but never in such a bleak, Old West setting as he does in Gabe Polsky’s Butcher’s Crossing. An adaptation of John Edward Williams’ grim 1960 novel that explores the madness and myth of the American West, the film offers Cage a rarity for someone at this stage of his career; a new challenge in a new genre. As Miller, the crusty, Ahab-esque buffalo hunter at the center of this frontier tale, Cage is compelling enough to overlook the film’s other shortcomings.
Cage towers onto the screen; head shaved bald, riding horseback and covered in buffalo pelts. He saunters into the titular Kansas town of Butcher’s Crossing in 1874, a tiny speck where a man can make a fortune in the fur trade if he’s gutsy (and lucky) enough to survive the hunts. Miller is one of those who can; although he’s got bigger aspirations. The buffalo herds have begun to thin out, but Miller has long known of a secret spot where they roam thick and free. The only problem is he can’t get anyone to finance such a journey, much less tag along for spoils that may not come.
Enter Fred Hechinger(The White Lotus) as Will, who has left behind the civilized life and Harvard education to see the real world. He’s our naive guide into this unpredictable, cutthroat world, and Miller spots it right away. Enticing the boy with lofty stories about this mythical buffalo hiding spot, Miller convinces him to pony up the money and join the hunt. Will isn’t paying attention to everyone warning him against Miller’s crazed notions. Nor does he wonder why the only people Miller can recruit for this trek are his longtime pal Charley (Xander Berkeley), an ancient, one-armed Bible-thumper and drunkard; and Fred (Jeremy Bobb), a sketchy skinner with a foul mouth and worse attitude. Fred does not have high hopes that any of this will pay off.
Polsky, a documentary filmmaker making his narrative directing debut, impressively captures the awe-insiring expanse of the Old West; it’s danger and beauty lit by an array of natural colors. You can easily understand why someone like Will would be enthralled with exploring such a place, but also how it could mold someone like Miller into the person he is revealed to be. The brutal journey does eventually lead to the motherlode that Miller spoke of. Buffalo herds stretched out for what appears to be hundreds of miles, you can practically see the hunters’ mouths watering at the lucrative rewards.
Those with a weak stomach for cruelty towards animals will want to avoid what happens next. As Miller begins taking down the buffalo with one buckshot after the next, the bodies and the pelts stack up quick. But no matter how many he kills, Miller just won’t stop. Surrounded by literal mountains of animal corpses for weeks past the hunt’s end date, the men understandably grow bitter, angry, and violent.
It’s a fun role for Cage, who gets to chomp scenery (and the occasional pipe) while spouting off zen wisdom about the buffalo, while also gunning them down with clinical precision. Miller isn’t all that tough to figure out. I think we all sense early on that he’s a bit crazy, and casting Cage sorta gives it away right from the jump. He’s still a lot more interesting than Will, who is so thinly-drawn that he comes across like a dope rather than a smart kid out of his depth.
One wishes Polsky had more resources to play around with, because what’s lacking in Butcher’s Crossing is a sense of how arduous this quest really is. It turns out to be rather easy, short of a brief stint thirsting for water and the discovery of an outpost murderously overrun by tribal warriors. If you’re going to send Miller on this Ahab-like pursuit, we really need to feel what he’s going through to achieve it, and what it means to him.
Butcher’s Crossing could use more fire in its belly, but Polsky does a solid job of navigating the film’s many different narrative turns. What begins as a sort of Old West take on the “one last job” heist flick, evolves into a tense psychological thriller that shows the harsh reality of the pioneer lifestyle. Cage, who is surprisingly restrained for such a colorful role, should bring a lot of attention to the film that it otherwise wouldn’t have received. This is definitely a good thing because Polsky’s intentions are honorable, shooting the film on Blackfeet Nation tribal land. The Blackfeet have done more than anyone to save the American Buffalo from near-extinction due to hunters just like Miller. There’s no glorifying of the hunt in Polsky’s film at all. Rather, it’s sad to watch these men destroying such natural beauty for the sake of cold profits. When Fred, the seediest and most surly of the bunch, laments the wanton buffalo massacre, it’s the last gasp of a dying breed that knows it will leaving nothing but a legacy of death.
Butcher’s Crossing opens in select theaters on October 20th.
Synopsis: A journey that takes one man into the bowels of black magic in Mexico City.
In Curandero, Federal Agent Magdalena (Gizeht Galatea) recruits a local curandero (native healer/shaman) named Carlos (Carlos Gallardo) to purify a police station after its been cursed by Castaneda (Gabriel Pingarron) during his escape. Losing his faith in the gifts he has, Carlos soon finds himself quickly immersed in a Satanic cult’s black magic rituals in the back alleys of Mexico City.
Written by Robert Rodriguez, this story has his creative signature all over it. However, the execution lacks his stylized polish. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t good, it’s just different. It seemed like the director was trying to capture that gritty realism of El Mariachi but ended up creating something that more closely resembled a telenovela. Utilizing seizure inducing flashes of demonic imagery filmed through what looked like broadcast studio cameras, this film just felt kind of slightly off. If you can get past that though, the story is actually quite interesting. At its heart, it’s a story of redemption. With the protagonist learning to trust his gifts passed down by his father through the many trials he’s presented battling a Satanic cult leader. Sub-story aside, I’m all for taking a deep dive into ritualistic black magic in the heart of Mexico City. That’s a genre I’d like to explore deeper.
I will give props to the director though for accomplishing what he managed to do with a small-ish $3,000,000 budget. The scenery was dark and gritty, the practical effects were done very well (not so much with the cgi, but that can be overlooked), and it was well acted. I’m sure with a little more money and maybe a different director at the helm, I would have liked this better but it was a satisfactory flick. Nothing stood out as good or bad, just average all around.
I do want to point out that the stream I caught was entirely in Spanish but subtitled so be prepared. If you want to catch this one for yourself, it’s currently streaming on Paramount+ as of this writing.
Join me again tomorrow as we continue our horror journey down the rabbit hole.
Let me start by saying I haven’t seen 13 Cameras or its sequel 14 Cameras before seeing the latest film in the horror series 15 Cameras. The horror-thriller series focuses on a creepy voyeuristic landlord who in addition to being obsessed with watching his tenants, he also likes to kidnap, imprison, and murder them. However, in the latest sequel 15 Cameras, writer PJ McCabe and director Danny Madden shift their focus to a young married couple that has purchased one of the houses of the famous “Slumlord,” and their own strange obsessions with him start to grow.
In 15 Cameras we are introduced to Sky (Angela Wong Carbone) and Cam (Will Madden), a young couple who have just moved into their new duplex. They are excited about this chapter in their lives in their new home. They got it surprisingly cheap… because it happened to be one of the “murder houses” owned by “The Slumlord” (James Babson) from the previous two films. As True Crime is now all the rave, both Sky and Cam endlessly watch a streaming show about the actual murders from the two films. While it’s weirdly fun for both of them to watch it, it has become a strange obsession for both of them, and from different angles.
One day Cam is working on the water heater in the house, and he notices a hidden door in the boiler closet, that leads to a basement that showcases live cameras throughout the house. To top it off, he and Sky just rented out part of their home to two young college women (Shirley Chen and Hanna McKechnie). Now while Cam and Sky’s marriage is fine, he starts to spend a great deal of his time “people watching” through the hidden camera system that The Slumlord left behind. Even so far after watching the coeds talk about needing a guy making the first move, he sends one of them a picture of his member and becomes obsessed with them. 15 Cameras has Cam start exhibiting some of the same behavior that The Slumlord has.
At the same time, Sky is starting to become extremely obsessed with the streaming show about The Slumlord. When her sister Carolyn (Hilty Bowen) moves in to escape her abusive partner, she hooks her into it and literally starts the show all the way from the beginning. It gets strange as she’s making popcorn to watch real-life footage of The Slumlord’s murders. Sky’s obsession feeds into paranoia as well as she suspects there are still cameras throughout the house, which Cam wants to keep a secret so he can keep spying on his wife, her sister, and their tenants. Even though the True Crime documentary they are watching says that The Slumlord is dead, a strange white van keeps driving past their home. As both Sky and Cam think it might be The Slumlord who probably faked his death, they both become scared that he may still be out there, and he may be coming after them.
As 15 Cameras comes to its conclusion, it has a choice to make. It could have had Cam become the new obsessive version of The Slumlord and perhaps be driven to murder just like he was, or the film could have The Slumlord return and continue his murderous rampage. I won’t spoil you too much about which direction it takes, but it should have probably taken the other one. However, one great aspect of 15 Cameras is that you actually don’t have to have to see the previous two films as this one works well as a standalone film on its own. The audience spends 90% of their time with this couple and it explores their own stranger voyeurism instead of the monster they are focused on, and that’s actually the more interesting story.
15 Cameras is currently available in select Los Angeles theaters and on VOD.
While his breakout role in 1917 thrust him into the spotlight, actor George Mackay has largely avoided big studio roles in favor of challenging performances in smaller films. Now you can add Femme to the list, a queer revenge thriller that promises to be quite the topic of conversation.
Mackay stars alongside Misfits actor Nathan Stewart-Jarrett in the feature-length version of directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s short. The story follows a closeted gay man who, along with his friends, brutally attacks Jules, a drag artist on the streets of London. Jules eventually recovers, then spots his attacker in a gay sauna, and takes this as an opportunity to get some vengeance.
The film also stars Aaron Heffernan, John McCrea, Asha Reid, Peter Clements, Antonia Clarke, and Moe Bar-E.
Here’s the synopsis: With his performances as Aphrodite Banks, Jules has a place among London’s celebrated drag artists. One night after a show, he steps out to get some cigarettes and is brutally attacked by a guy out with a gang of blokes. Although Jules is able to recover physically, he withdraws from the outside world, traumatised. Months later, he recognises his attacker by chance in a gay sauna. Without make-up and wrapped only in a towel, Jules is able to approach the other man incognito and find out who he is. He begins an affair with the closeted homosexual Preston in order to take his revenge.
Femme has a UK date on December 1st but a stateside release has yet to be confirmed. Expect that to change soon.
For Lena Headey, her last major TV role was as Cersei Lannister on HBO’s Game of Thrones, which was obviously a huge success. And while her small-screen career has been something of a mixed bag (The Sarah Connor Chronicles, anyone?), there’s always the hope that Headey can strike gold once again. Certainly, that’s the hope for Beacon 23, a new sci-fi series headed to MGM+ next month.
Headey stars alongside Stephan James in the adaptation of Hugh Howey’s series of books. Howey is also the author behind Silo, which was recently turned into a hit series over on Apple TV+. So this guy has a proven track record for appealing to genre fans.
Beacon 23 takes place in the 23rd century and follows a government agent and a former soldier who become trapped at the end of the known universe inside of a Beacon, a lighthouse for intergalactic travelers.
The series was created by Zak Penn, whose track record in this field is also pretty good as the writer of Ready Player One and Free Guy.
Here’s the synopsis: Beacon 23 takes place in the farthest reaches of the Milky Way and follows Aster, a government agent, and Halan, a stoic ex-military man, whose fates become entangled after they find themselves trapped together inside one of many Beacons that serve as a lighthouse for intergalactic travelers. Every Beacon is run by one highly trained human and a specialized Artificial Intelligence. Aster mysteriously finds her way to the lonely Beacon-keeper Halan, and a tense battle of wills unfolds. Halan begins to question whether Aster is friend or foe, as her ability to disguise her agenda and motives could make her a formidable opponent.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone have famously had a friendly career rivalry, so when Netflix recently made a documentary on Arnold, you knew Stallone couldn’t be far behind. And so we have Sly, a new doc that looks at one of the true action icons and biggest Hollywood stars of all-time.
As seen in the trailer, Sly offers a fuller look into Stallone’s life and career, which goes well beyond the action roles of the ’80s and ’90s. A consummate filmmaker, Stallone’s underdog story began when he wrote Rocky as a means of feeding himself, and the film went on to earn 10 Oscar nominations and to win Best Picture. Of course, Stallone would channel that success into a franchise, then went on to play multiple iconic characters in Rambo, Staying Alive, The Demolition Man, and more. But as with many successful careers, Stallone suffered significant personal cost, as well.
Here’s the synopsis: For nearly 50 years, Sylvester Stallone has entertained millions with iconic characters and blockbuster franchises, from Rocky to Rambo to The Expendables. This retrospective documentary offers an intimate look at the Oscar-nominated actor-writer-director-producer, paralleling his inspirational underdog story with the indelible characters he has brought to life.
Sly is directed by Thom Zimny (Springsteen on Broadway), and hits Netflix on November 3rd.
Just two years removed from his somewhat underrated The Tender Bar, George Clooney is back with his latest effort as a director, showing that he’s picking up the pace. The Boys in the Boat tells the true underdog story of the 1936 Olympic rowing team, represented by the working-class crew from the University of Washington.
The film is led by Joel Edgerton as coach Al Ulbrickson, and Callum Turner as rowing champion Joe Rants. Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) adapted the screenplay from Daniel James Brown’s book.
Here’s the synopsis: The Boys in the Boat is a sports drama based on the #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction novel written by Daniel James Brown. The film, directed by George Clooney, is about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. This inspirational true story follows a group of underdogs at the height of the Great Depression as they are thrust into the spotlight and take on elite rivals from around the world.
The Boys in the Boat opens in theaters on Christmas Day.
