The first trailer for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom finally arrives tomorrow, but before we get our best look at the final DCEU movie, director James Wan is already batting down negative perceptions. Rumors have been flying around about three rounds of reshoots, which obviously does not sound good. But in a piece with EW, Wan downplays the reshoots as having more to do with logistics than the film’s quality…
“We have big actors in this movie, and everyone’s schedule is really hard,” Wan said. “So, we had to break up our shooting schedule into sections. We’ll shoot a bit here now, because this actor’s available, and then we’ll do another shoot now, because this guy’s available. People are like, ‘Oh, they’re doing a whole bunch of different shoots!’ No. If we actually combined them all together, it’s actually not that many number of days at all.”
Wan has dealt with reshoot issues before, in particular with his Conjuring films, and those have turned out to be huge box office hits with generally strong reviews. Wan seems to know what he’s doing, and he’s not wrong that it’s tough to coordinate the schedules of so many A-list actors.
“Additional photography is never a negative thing,” Wan continued. “I find new things and I come up with new ideas. “The Conjuring 2” was the perfect example of me putting the whole movie together and then — bing! — a lightbulb went off in my head, and I go, ‘I know what I need to do.’ Same here as well.”
2018’s Aquaman scored the biggest box office of any DCEU film with $1.4B. Will Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom measure up? We’ll find out when it opens on December 20th.
The band is back together! Well…er, the bands are back together! In Trolls Band Together, the third film in the Trolls franchise, Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake return as the sing-songy couple Queen Poppy and Branch. But it isn’t long before Poppy learns that Branch has a past as part of a boyband, BroZone, with his estranged brothers, and it’s time for a reunion. However, there’s another, even bigger one that will have fans of ’90s pop music salivating.
While they’ve been keeping it secret for a while, it’s official now that Timberlake is reuniting with his N’SYNC crew for the first time in 20 years with the single “Better Place”, which you can hear in the newly-released trailer.
The other members of BroZone are Floyd (Troye Sivan), John Dory (Eric André), Spruce (Daveed Diggs) and Clay (Kid Cudi). Kinda makes you wonder why Dreamworks didn’t just have the members of N’SYNC voice Branch’s siblings?
When Floyd is kidnapped for his musical talents by popstar villains, Velvet (Amy Schumer) and Veneer (Andrew Rannells), Branch and Poppy embark on a journey to rescue him and reunite the brothers once again.
Trolls Band Together opens in theaters on November 17th. You can check out the trailer below, and listen to a preview of “Better Place” here.
Whether you actually know or understand anything about the Gamestop stock craze that erupted out of nowhere and onto the financial pages, the battle lines are drawn clear in Dumb Money, a sort of new-gen version of The Big Short for Redditors. There are the Wall Street hedge fund blowholes who make money when the country is struggling, and thus they invest in companies they expect to fail. It’s called “shorting”, and when those stocks do fail they turn a massive profit. You’ve got Seth Rogen as Gabe Plotkin of Melvin Capital Management, Vincent D’Onofrio as Steve Cohen of Point72, and Nick Offerman’s scowl as the most Darth Vader of them all, Ken Griffin of Citadel LLC.
We hate them immediately. Gabe is throwing a massive poolside party at his palatial digs, whining to Steve over the phone that his tennis court isn’t being installed fast enough. Worse, this is all during the pandemic, and these guys don’t have a care in the damn world. Steve’s pig runs freely around his mansion like bacon isn’t actually a thing that exists.
Dumb Money is smartly packaged into a crowd-pleasing “us vs. them” story pitting the little guys against the Goliath of Wall Street fat cats. The avatar for our righteous anger is Keith Gill aka Roaring Kitty, a modest, dweeby financial analyst who pumps up his beloved Gamestop stock using Reddit and cheesy Youtube videos. You get the feeling he just loves the stock because he spent so much time in their stores buying video games, and that’s okay. It’s kind of endearing, really. With the support of his wife (Shailene Woodley) and constant heckling by his slacker bro Kevin (Pete Davidson), Keith rallies millions of blue collar retail investors to pump up Gamestop and stick it to The Man.
Unlike The Big Short, which infamously used the allure of Margot Robbie to break down the most eye-glazing financial terminology, Dumb Money skirts all of that. Instead, the focus is on a handful of individual people who become Gill’s investor foot soldiers. Unlike Ken Griffin whose net worth stands at approximately $36B, there’s university students and new couple Harmony (Talia Ryder) and Riri (Myha’la Herrold), whose net worth is in the negative due to student loan debt. Others we’re encouraged to root for are Jennifer (Barbie‘s America Ferrera), a nurse and single mom (using the handle StonkMom) whose kids really need braces; and Marcus (Anthony Ramos), a Gamestop employee with big dreams and an asshole boss.
Dumb Money isn’t especially funny, unless you get off on watching arrogant rich people squirm, which they do. Rogen’s Keith is the target for most of it. He’s the littlest guy on the totem pole and as his company loses billions, he practically starts swimming in flop sweat. Meanwhile, the bulk of the humor on the other side of the battlefield comes from Davidson’s Kevin, who drives DoorDash and eats his customer’s food without a care.
The Gamestop craze really took off in 2021 and Hollywood producers were racing to tell its story before their was a final act. Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo’s blistering script and Craig Gillespie’s swift direction, overstuffed with catchy Megan Thee Stallion needle drops, easily navigate the personal stories while keeping our eyes just as glued on the volatile stock market as the investors themselves. It’s one of the more successful tricks this film pulls off, getting us hooked on the economic roller coaster. We ride the ebbs and flows with them. And while it isn’t exactly cinematic to watch stock numbers go up and down, the performances surrounding it help. We’re right there with them, pissed at the many guardrails put in place to shield those with more money than God, while everyone else fights for scraps.
There’s also a really powerful pandemic story here, arguably one of the best because it isn’t shoved right into our face like so many Covid-era movies did. It’s telling how so few of the Wall Street guys actually wear masks. Meanwhile, Jennifer and Marcus are rarely seen without them, because they both work in what are deemed essential services. Yes, that’s right, Gamestop stores were kept open because they were essential. Just a funny little note that is definitely true. I ventured out into a Gamestop during the worst of it, myself. But that little factoid about Gamestop is also key to what passion for the stock. Not only were we dying for easy forms of entertainment, we were eager for the nostalgia of strip malls and retail stores, which had been devastated by the pandemic and have yet to truly recover.
Dumb Money doesn’t even attempt to be a full and fair representation of the facts, and that’s okay. There are already dozens of projects looking to tell this story from every possible angle, and eventually, there will be one that makes the Wall Street guys look like heroes or something. But Dumb Money is not that film. It has no fucks to give about that side of the story, really, and we get a more entertaining movie for it. There’s more profit to be earned in punching up than punching down.
Dumb Money opens in theaters on September 15th, expanding nationwide on September 29th.
Filmmaking David Slade got off to one Helluva start to his career, directing Elliot Page’s breakout role in Hard Candy, followed by the chilling vampire horror 30 Days of Night, and finally his first blockbuster with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Since then? Slade has done a lot of TV, including Breaking Bad, Hannibal, and American Gods, plus the Netflix interactive movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. But finally, Slade is back with his first feature in years, the fantasy horror film Dark Harvest.
Based on Norman Partridge’s book and adapted by Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves writer Michael Gilio, Dark Harvest takes place on Halloween 1963, when the people of a cursed town rise up to defeat a terrifying urban legend who terrorizes the children.
The film features a mix of newcomers and screen veterans, including Casey Likes, E’myri Crutchfield, Dustin Ceithamer, Elizabeth Reaser, and Jeremy Davies.
Here’s the synopsis: In a cursed town, the annual harvest becomes a brutal battle for survival. On Halloween 1963, Sawtooth Jack, a terrifying legend, rises from the cornfields, threatening the town’s children. Groups of boys unite to defeat the murderous scarecrow before midnight. Richie, a rebellious outcast, joins the run, motivated by his brother’s previous victory. As the hunt progresses, Richie makes a shocking discovery and faces a pivotal choice to break the relentless cycle.
MGM plans to release Dark Harvest in theaters on October 13th. But if you’re near an Alamo Drafthouse, they’ll have a special One Night Only screening on October 11th.
We’re happy to exclusively premiere a clip from the upcoming bromantic comedy, Quicksand, about two best friends who find that being co-best men for their pal’s wedding is more than either bargained for.
Directed and co-written by JohnPaul Morris, the film centers on Ray and Paul, best friends who are entrusted with the solemn, LOTR-esque duty of delivering the ring to the wedding. But when they lose it and it ends up in the hands of a guy who refuses to return it, their risky efforts to get it back leads to a wild series of chaotic events…including getting stuck in quicksand, of course.
In this clip, Paul attempts to pump Ray up to finally talk to his secret crush, who will be at the wedding.
The film stars Tanner Presswood, Simón Elías, Mia Hagerty, Kelsey Ramirez, Melissa O’Brien, Vince Sarowatz, Melissa Kendell, and Tommy Hills. Quicksand opens on September 19th in select theaters and digital.
SYNOPSIS: Ray and Paul are best friends and co-best men in their buddy’s wedding. But when they lose the ring just days before the wedding, their fateful road trip to get it back accelerates into a loud exploration of life, love, and how to not die.
Professional wrestling is a global form of entertainment, and every culture has its unique version of it. But one thing you can count on no matter where they grapple, it’s an especially masculine sport with a…complicated view of homosexuality. In the Mexican world of Lucha Libre, queer performers, or exoticas, are there to be humiliated, always to lose and look bad doing it. But that was before groundbreaking queer wrestler Saúl Armendáriz came along and, through sheer force of will and unshakeable confidence in himself, began to change the culture.
Saúl’s story is captured with all of his unbreakable spirit, fabulous humor, and nifty wrestling in Roger Ross Williams’ joyous film, Cassandro. Gael García Bernal gives a career-best performance as Saúl, a Lucha Libre performer who is sick and tired of being the masked loser El Topo. He’d rather be himself, all of himself; but to do that would be to flaunt his homosexuality to an audience long-taught to hate people like him. Williams, an Oscar-winning documentarian and Sundance veteran who was last here with 2016’s Life, Animated, takes us right into the spectacle, the ritual, and the homophobia of Lucha Libre.
But that aspect of the sport, Lucha Libre literally translates to “freestyle wrestling”, was never for Saúl. When not in combat, he flaunts his sexuality openly, dismissing the macho dudes who haunt the same bars and have no problem launching into gay slurs. Saúl’s sense of self-confidence is unshakeable, something he gained from his mother Yocasta (Perla de la Rosa), who has spent years enduring the judgment of others for the long-running affair she had that produced her son.
So Cassandro works as both a terrific mother-son underdog story, and a powerful expression of LGBTQ confidence in a culture steeped in rigid gender roles, religious fanaticism, and hyper-masculinity. The thing about Saúl is that he doesn’t just want to be a twig getting pummeled by his ox-life opponents. He wants to tell stories, to bring a bit of poetry to Lucha Libre. So he partners up with Sabrina (Roberta Colindrez) aka Lucha star Lady Anarquía, to learn a new way to fight as an exotica.
Lucha Libre and American wrestling share a lot of the same biases when it comes to queer representation. The difference is that we’ve frequently had male superstars who tapped into their feminine side, such as Gorgeous George, forcing the male-dominated audience to confront their feelings. In nearly all of these cases, the wrestler is portrayed as a villain, or a heel, someone to be hated. But in the case of Cassandro, the flamboyant personality that Saúl adopted, he was too good to be hated for long. He proves such an impeccable showman with unmatched charisma and silliness, that even those who wanted to hate him would soon begin chanting his name. The first rule of any wrestling promoter is to listen to the fans, and it isn’t long before Cassandro, an exotica, is winning matches left and right. This is not only unheard of in Lucha Libre, it’s also dangerous and threatens to put Saúl in danger from those who aren’t ready for this kind of cultural shift.
As Cassandro grows more popular, it becomes harder to keep Saúl’s biggest secret. That’s the sexual relationship he has with married luchador Gerardo (Raúl Castillo) aka El Comandante. Some of the film’s most poignant, and smolderingly sexy scenes are between Saúl, who is comfortable in his sexuality and wants a partner to match, and the closeted Gerardo who wants to keep his family and livelihood. Both would vanish in a heartbeat if the secret ever got out.
All of the relationships that Saúl has are nurturing in some way. The closeness between him and Yocasta is almost more sibling-like than mother and son. They have their own language, share the same cigarettes, watch the same telenovelas, and also have some of the same vices when it comes to men. There’s also a really fun, flirty friendship with shady promoter’s son Felipe, played by rapper Bad Bunny, that yields some interesting turns. Bad Bunny’s role here is bigger than it was in Bullet Train and he continues to show that he can do no wrong it seems.
So how about the in-ring action? Williams, who profiled Saúl years ago on another project, really gets a handle on the energy and dazzling athleticism that is so central to Lucha Libre. Bernal is in fantastic shape, too; he’s a small, wiry ball of lightning and fabulousness, performing hurricanranas and moonsaults with apparent ease. Wrestling fans watching closely will be more than satisfied by what they see between the ropes, and in Williams’ presentation of the men and women who call Lucha Libre their life. There is throughout Cassandro a deep respect that shines through in the details.
Williams’ script, which he co-wrote with David Teague, fails to show how deep the resentment for Cassandro really went. It’s teased early and often, but nothing ever really arises from it. Instead, the focus is on keeping the film light-hearted and uplifting. The crowd takes to him easily and without much fuss, which doesn’t feel genuine.
Of course, this being a wrestling movie, there has to be a climactic showdown. Cassandro reaches the pinnacle with a main event bout in Mexico City against El Hijo del Santo, son of the legendary luchador El Santo. This personal and professional highlight means a bit more for Saúl, who harbors bittersweet memories of watching El Santo matches with his father. Being recognized and respected by the Son of Santo, who represents all of the cultural intransigences that will prevent Cassandro from being champion, is more of a reward than victory could ever bring.
While Williams hammers the film’s theme a bit hard in the final moments, Cassandro is never less than a moving tale of queer triumph in the face of bigotry, and a dynamic powerhouse of athleticism and theatricality.
Cassandro opens in select theaters on September 15th, followed by Prime Video streaming on September 22nd.
It’s no surprise that we haven’t seen Gareth Edwards since he directed Rogue One. That production turned out to be pretty turbulent, with reports that he had even been replaced by Tony Gilroy who finished the cut we saw in theaters. Who knows how much of that is true, but it’s clear he needed a break and it would take something special for him to return. That film is the sci-fi epic The Creator, which takes place in a future where man and robot are in conflict.
Speaking with SFX Magazine, Edwards talked about his reason for directing The Creator, and the benefits of working with a smaller budget than he had for Rogue One and Godzilla…
“I got to make a very low-budget science fiction film with Monsters, and I realized there were some serious advantages to having no money,” he said. “It was kind of a shock to have all the money you could ever want, and still be limited. I felt like if I could somehow get that big bag of cash and send it back in time to me when I was making Monsters, the possibilities would have been infinite. And so, in a weird way, I was trying to find that kind of scenario again. I was as much interested in the process of how to make the film as I was the idea.”
The budget for The Creator was somewhere around $80M, which is still pretty significant. In the newly-released final trailer, you can see that every dollar was well spent. The world that Edwards has created looks incredible, mixing sleek, futuristic tech with others that appear to be from earlier eras.
While previous footage has focused on the human vs. robot action in a society where androids are fighting for their right to survive, this trailer centers on the bond between a man, a special forces agent played by John David Washington, and the android child he has been sent to destroy, played by newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles.
Also in the cast are Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, Allison Janney, Veronica Ngo, and Ralph Ineson.
The Creator opens in theaters and IMAX on September 29th.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio don’t come cheap, and Apple really needs Killers of the Flower Moon to make back some of that reported $200M budget. Just last month they took steps towards that by setting a global theatrical release in October. And now today they’ve dropped yet another trailer for the anticipated film, even though it probably doesn’t need any more teasing at this point.
Seriously, just give us the damn movie already.
DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, and Brendan Fraser star in the adaptation of David Grann’s book about the 1920s murders of wealthy Osage Nation people after oil is found on their tribal lands. This trailer does offer a different look at the film with some new footage, but seriously, this movie just needs to get here. Give it to us.
Killers of the Flower Moon hits theaters on October 20th.
As we move beyond the halfway point of Ahsokawith the episode five episode titled “Shadow Warrior”, I find myself wishing the show was only six episodes in length. Not because it has been bad; quite the contrary. But because the lingering mystery of General Thrawn and Ezra Bridger’s whereabouts has dragged on for too long. The episodes, while highly entertaining and packed with geeky details for Star Wars die-hards, nevertheless follow the same general structure. This one doesn’t buck the trend all that much, although it does offer something meaningful in the return of the World Between Worlds, and a jaunt into the past led by Anakin Skywalker.
The episode’s title is significant. A slight twist in the wording and “Shadow Warrior” could easily be “Phantom Menace.” As we all know, the prequel film The Phantom Menace was the canonical first appearance of Anakin Skywalker, and he returns, played by a de-aged Hayden Christensen, to confront his former padwan Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) after her losing battle against Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson). And in the World Between Worlds, Anakin assures her that she did indeed lose. So why is she there? What does Anakin want from her? To complete Ahsoka’s training, he says. “Live or die”, Anakin says before challenging her to a lightsaber duel that she initially refuses to fight. But this is Ahsoka. She does fight. She even gets the upper hand for a moment, before Anakin pulls a trick out of his bag and she goes tumbling into…where?
This is all preceded by the arrival of General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) on the planet Seatos. Ahsoka is missing, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) is missing, and there’s no sign of Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), Baylan Skoll, or any clue to Thrawn’s location revealed by the destroyed star map. We do get confirmation that Hera’s son Jacen (Evan Whitten), who is in tow with loyal droid Chopper, is Canun Jarrus’ kid and that he too has Force powers. Shortly after finding a solemn Huyang (voiced by David Tennant), Jacen senses something in the raging seas below. He can hear lightsabers clashing when nobody else can. Hera, continuing to defy New Republic orders, orders her X-wing squadron, including Captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) to widen their search and damn anybody who tries to stop them.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka has entered a sort of waking dream or something. She comes to as her younger self in the middle of a pitched battle during the Clone Wars. Anakin is leading her into the fight, even calling this younger Ahsoka (played by Ariana Greenblatt, who played young Gamora in Avengers: Endgame) by her old nickname, “Snips”. So what’s this all about? What’s this lesson he’s trying to teach her? This episode is written and directed by series creator and Star Wars guru Dave Filoni, but I think he misses the mark a bit if he was trying to make this point clear. My guess, as Anakin tries to teach Ahsoka how to be both a soldier and a leader, is that she is meant to learn that the Jedi or more than just one thing. They have been called warmongers, appeasers, and worse. They are imperfect, as Ahsoka well knows. She famously quit the Jedi Order after being falsely accused of a crime during The Clone Wars‘ fifth season. Like Skoll, she lost her faith in the Jedi Order. And now, if she’s going to stop a returning Thrawn and rebuild the Jedi Order, she’s going to need to accept that being a Jedi defies any single label.
That’s my best guess. I could be completely wrong.
After her experience in the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka is rescued from the waters and brought aboard Hera’s ship. It takes her a day to recover, but when she does, Ahsoka uses her Force sensory powers (often seen in the video games, but rarely if ever outside of them) to get an idea of how to track Sabine’s whereabouts. Good thing flying overhead are the space whales, the Purrgil, who share a deep connection with Ezra. Taking a leap of faith, Ahsoka and Huyang fly their ship into the welcoming mouth of the largest Purrgil just before it blasts off into hyperspace for parts unknown.
I’m not going to lie; the final shot of whirling stars left in the wake of the Purrgil’s leap into hyperspace gave me chills! I wanted the next episode RIGHT NOW, and didn’t want to wait another week for the next chapter. My God, Industrial Light & Magic really showed off this episode. I think more than any other episode this one looked feature-film worthy. Everything from the Purrgil to the World Between Worlds, to Ahsoka’s hazy flashback sequence looked astonishingly good.
One thing I’ve stressed about each episode is that they are very light in plot, and thus forward momentum moves slowly. While on paper it seems like there isn’t a lot that happens, in execution there are tons of things that are just super cool. Seeing Ahsoka’s part in the Clone Wars really makes that era feel palpible and important to the overall mythos again. I still think there’s a tendency by casual viewers to dismiss the animated stuff, but this went a long way in connecting it to the current Filoni-era Mando-verse stuff. It was great seeing young “Snips”, sporting her green lightsaber, and showing that fierce spirit that we recognize in her adult self. I won’t lie, at first I thought the Purrgil stuff was going to be really dopey, and that they’d fly into its mouth and be greeted by a cross-seated Ezra saying “What took you so long?” Thankfully, that did not happen.
With three episodes of Ahsoka to go, I really hope to see the pace kicked into high gear. If the war against Thrawn is going to come, let it come.
Has this felt like a really quiet year for Marvel or what? With only two releases up to this point, the results have been mixed. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was well-received and made $844M worldwide, which is pretty good. But does anyone even remember Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania and the $476M it struggled to earn? It’s felt like the audience’s focus has turned to the numerous Disney+ shows instead. And that puts The Marvels in an interesting position because it springs from the recent Ms. Marvel series starring Iman Vellani.
Vellani returns as Kamala Khan, joined by Brie Larson as Carol Danvers and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau in a story that finds the heroes’ powers getting all mixed up just as they need them to face the Kree.
Also in the cast are Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis, Seo-Jun Park, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, and Samuel L. Jackson. The film is directed by Nia DaCosta, known for the recent Candyman revival.
Frankly, Marvel could use a hit, and it would be a huge disappointment if DaCosta’s biggest studio movie didn’t live up to expectations. Fortunately, Marvel is also giving The Marvels a decent push, starting with this new sneak peek footage and IMAX poster ahead of its release on November 10th.
