The John Wick franchise isn’t going anywhere, don’t you fret about that seemingly “final” fight at the end of Chapter 4. Actually, there is more of that universe than ever with an upcoming spinoff movie, Ballerina, and perhaps the most exciting project, The Continental, a Peacock series that takes us deeper into the mythology than ever before.
Set decades in the past, The Continental centers on a young Winston Scott, who we know will eventually lead the venerable old hotel for assassins. But first, he must navigate a deadly 1970s New York underworld to rescue his brother.
The series stars Mel Gibson, Colin Woodell, Mishel Prada, Ben Robson, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Nhung Kate, Jessica Allain, Ayomide Adegun, Jeremy Bobb, and Peter Greene.
Albert Hughes (Alpha) directs the first and last episode, with Charlotte Brandstrom (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) directing the middle episode.
Here’s the synopsis: The three-part event will explore the origin behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins centerpiece of the John Wick universe through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott, as he’s dragged into the Hell-scape of 1970’s New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Winston charts a deadly course through the hotel’s mysterious underworld in a harrowing attempt to seize the hotel where he will eventually take his future throne.
Peacock will debut The Continental on September 26th, with new episodes arriving weekly.
Sebastián Silva is a Sundance institution unto himself. Since his breakout film in 2009 with The Maid, you can basically count on Silva to always bring his latest projects to Park City. And I have been there for pretty much all of them, including Crystal Fairy (I even interviewed him and Michael Cera a decade ago!), Magic Magic, Nasty Baby, and Tyrel. This year was the first time I’ve missed out on a Silva premiere, as his latest Rotting in the Sun…ummm, well, it’s a bit too out there even for me.
Silva gets more meta than ever with Rotting in the Sun, which sees him playing a stylized version of himself, a filmmaker who hits a gay beach in Mexico in order to unwind. There he meets an influencer played by Jordan Firstman, also as himself, and the two agree to collaborate on a project. But when Firstman goes to Mexico City in search of Silva, he’s nowhere to be found, causing the Instagram celeb to track him down.
I’ll be honest; it’s been diminishing returns with me on Silva projects, so this one didn’t rank high on my must-see list. And judging by this trailer, which features an excessive amount of male junk, it’s never going to be something I go out of my way for.
But Silva is always an interesting filmmaker with a knack for surreal dark comedy. His most devoted fans will likely flock to this one.
Here’s the synopsis: Writer-director Sebastián Silva’s Sundance hit ROTTING IN THE SUN is a darkly funny and refreshingly audacious meta-comedy that skewers the business of filmmaking and our self-obsessed culture. While unwinding at a Mexican gay beach town, depressed director Sebastián Silva meets gregarious Instagram influencer Jordan Firstman (both playing versions of themselves), and Sebastián reluctantly agrees to collaborate on an upcoming project. But when Jordan arrives back in Mexico City, Sebastián is nowhere to be found, and Jordan embarks on a wildly unpredictable, quasi-detective journey.
Rotting in the Sun hits theaters on September 8th.
Utopia and Sumerian have now set a release date for one of the weirdest films to premiere at Sundance earlier this year. Divinity, a sci-fi film exec-produced by Steven Soderbergh and starring Scott Bakula, Stephen Dorff, and Bella Thorne, has been given an October 13th theatrical release.
Divinity debuted at Sundance as part of the NEXT lineup, a category that leans toward experimental styles of filmmaking. Writer/director Eddie Alcazar’s sci-fi film deals with a mad quest for immortality. Also in the cast are Moises Arias, Jason Genao, and Karrueche Tran.
Cypress Hill’s DJ Muggs provides the score alongside Dean Hurley.
Here’s the synopsis: Set in an otherworldly human existence, scientist Sterling Pierce (Scott Bakula) dedicated his life to the quest for immortality, slowly creating the building blocks of a groundbreaking serum named “Divinity.” Jaxxon Pierce (Stephen Dorff), his son, now controls and manufactures his father’s once-benevolent dream. Society on this barren planet has been entirely perverted by the supremacy of the drug, whose true origins are shrouded in mystery. Two mysterious brothers (Moises Arias and Jason Genao) arrive with a plan to abduct the mogul, and with the help of a seductive woman named Nikita (Karrueche Tran), they will be set on a path hurtling toward true immortality.
Soderbergh previously produced Alcazar’s 2018 film, Perfect.
You know what I’m a fan of? Building relationships centered on cake. Let’s meet and enjoy cake. Apparently, this is an actual thing called “cakebarring” where people looking for friendship or love bring cakes to bars and…well, it’s easy to meet folks when you’ve got cake. Such is the premise of Prime Video’s new film, Sititng in Bars with Cake, which stars Yara Shahidi and Odessa A’zion.
Shahidi and A’zion star as best friends who begin a business selling cakes at bars, with the goal of making a few bucks and meeting new people. But when one receives a life-altering diagnosis, the business reaches a new level of importance.
Also in the cast are Martha Kelly, Ron Livingston, and the legendary Bette Midler. The film is directed by Trish Sie, known for Pitch Perfect 3 and Step Up All In, and adapted from screenwriter Audrey Shulman’s popular cookbook.
Here’s the synopsis: Inspired by true events, Sitting in Bars with Cake follows best friends Jane (Yara Shahidi) and Corinne (Odessa A’zion) navigating life in Los Angeles in their twenties. Corinne, the ultimate extrovert, convinces her shy-but-extremely-talented home baker best friend Jane to commit to a year of baking cakes and bringing them to bars, with the goal of meeting people and developing confidence–also known as “cakebarring.” During their year of “cakebarring,” Corinne receives a life-altering diagnosis, and the pair face a challenge unlike anything they’ve experienced before. Sitting in Bars with Cake isn’t only a madcap joyride through some of L.A.’s most colorful watering holes, it’s a moving celebration of female friendship, forging identity, and finding joy in the most unexpected places.
Sitting in Bars with Cake hits Prime Video on September 8th.
Growing up as a Black person in Mississippi is already tough. But being a Black woman in Mississippi is even tougher. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is writer/director Raven Jackson’s stunning debut that charts the heartbreaks, love, grief, and hope of a Black woman in Mississippi, from childhood through adulthood.
Featuring a breakout performance by Charleen McClure, a poet making her feature acting debut, the film earned its share of rave reviews out of Sundance. The response has been backed up by the support of Barry Jenkins, who not only produces the film but has been championing Jackson’s screenplay since the Indie Memphis Black Filmmaker Residency for Screenwriting in 2019.
The cast also features Obi-Wan Kenobi breakout Moses Ingram, Reginald Helms Jr., Zainab Jah, Sheila Atim, and Chris Chalk.
Here’s the synopsis: A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman’s life in Mississippi, the feature debut from award-winning poet, photographer and filmmaker Raven Jackson is a haunting and richly layered portrait, a beautiful ode to the generations of people and places that shape us.
In the gorgeous imagery on display you can see Jackson’s photography background at work. This is a beautiful movie that A24 will be bringing to the New York Film Festival before opening in theaters this fall.
Jared Moshe’s Aporia is yet another sci-fi film dealing with time travel, and the ramifications of messing around with it. But unlike many others that use this particular premise, and we’ve seen a few of them already this year, Moshe’s film is a thoughtful consideration of grief and the lengths we’ll go to get beyond it. There are no superheroics here, just ordinary people trying to do what’s right and finding that often no good deed goes unpunished. What’s striking is how little of the typical genre conventions are present, making for a refreshing, emotionally complex take on a familiar idea.
We should be past the point of acting as if Judy Greer is known only for her comedy. Her dramatic skills have long been revealed to be her true strength. She carries Aporia as Sophie Rice, a recent widower whose husband Malcolm (Edi Gathegi) was killed by a drunk drive months earlier. Since then, she and her daughter Riley (Faithe Herman) have become unmoored. The film opens with a touching memory between Sophie and Mal, showing how easily they get along and well they fit together.
It’s just a sad flashback, however. The reality is that Sophie can barely keep it together. Burdened by work and mounting bills, she also deals with the killer’s court trial and the weakness of the justice system. Worse still, Riley is suddenly struggling in school, bullying others, and openly showing disgust of her mother.
At the heart of Aporia is a very simple question. If you could bring a loved one back from the dead, would you do it? But Moshe offers a twist on this because something so extraordinary should be so easy. What if you had to kill another person for your loved one to return? You can see how things could get complicated quickly because that’s the situation Sophie is faced with when family friend Jabir (Payman Maadi) makes her an offer. A refugee from a dictatorial country where his entire family was murdered, Jabir arrived in America and became best friends with Malcolm, both physicists who bonded over their scientific gifts. Those gifts, it turns out, led to the creation of a time machine, one that could bring Mal back into Sophie’s life…at the cost of the man who caused his death.
In most time travel movies we are happy to ignore the details because they muddy things up and ruin our enjoyment. But with Aporia, we’re made to want to know as much as possible. A big part of the reason is the homegrown nature of the device itself, which looks like it was put together with laundry machine parts and baling wire. We barely expect the thing to work; and in fact, it appears to have failed before Malcolm turns up acting as if nothing ever happened.
The real reason we get so invested is the film’s focus on the emotional complexities caused by use of the machine. Sophie has to contend with telling Malcolm what really happened to him, and then there’s what he’ll do once he finds out. Going deeper, the characters tangle with using the device to affect greater change for good. A compelling subplot involves Sophie’s effort to help the widow and daughter of the drunk driver who killed Malcolm, as their family has also fallen into tragedy.
Aporia follows these normal, grieving people as they make one compromise after another, without fully comprehending the impact. Of course, all of these changes to the timeline have a disastrous snowballing effect, but the film doesn’t give in to wild displays of action or visual effects. Aporiastays perfectly low-key and grounded, with Greer giving one of her finest performances as a mother and wife just trying to do what’s right for her family in the face of overwhelming sorrow. Gathegi, always such a soulful, expressive actor, is perfectly cast as Greer’s husband Malcolm. Even when he’s not on screen his presence lingers, and we feel the depth of Sophie’s loneliness without him.
Exploring moral questions with an intricacy rarely seen from the genre, Aporia is a welcome breath of fresh air and a showcase role for Judy Greer. While the final frame leaves us hanging with an unsatisfying fade-to-black, it does little to diminish truly rewarding sci-fi that leaves us with a lot to ponder.
With Blue Beetle arriving in just a couple of weeks, Warner Bros. is getting the hype train rolling with a pair of new clips. Each clip features star Xolo Maridueña as Jamie Reyes, who gains a powerful suit of armor when an alien Scarab enters his life. Or more accurately, gets under his skin.
Both scenes are from early on in the movie, as the scarab first attaches itself to a shocked Jamie, who must then take a leap of faith in order to trust the Scarab’s “presence” and abilities.
The film is directed by Angel Manuel Soto, who has a whole trilogy of Blue Beetle films planned if things go well. Blue Beetle will be part of James Gunn’s new DCU and could be sticking around for the long haul. If that’s going to happen, this first movie needs to break the recent slump DC has been in.
When horror movies hit it big, we sorta expect them to have sequels. It would be weird for them not to. However, it’s always good to see one that comes out of nowhere and wins genre fans over, earning the launch of a franchise. That’s what’s happening with Talk to Me, a film that emerged out of Sundance with a ton of buzz, and after just a few weeks in theaters is now getting a sequel.
A24 doesn’t do sequels often, really only investing in The Souvenir Part II, plus Ti West’s X/Pearl/MaXXXine trilogy. But they are making that kind of commitment for Talk to Me, with the next movie already in development.
The movie currently in theaters stars Sophie Wilde as a troubled young woman who attends a party where she joins in on a seance using the severed hand of a dead medium. Making a connection to the other side, she fails to disconnect in time and now something evil wants to stay in our realm.
Not much is known about the sequel other than Danny Philippou Michael Philippou will return to direct, with Bill Hinzman joining Danny on the screenplay. The Philippou brothers are also attached to a live-action Street Fighter movie, so we’ll have to see which takes the pole position for them.
Natalia Dyer just can’t leave the evil stuff along, can she? The Stranger Things star is leaving Hawkins and the Upside Down behind, but has found just as much demonic trouble in Salem in the Russo Brothers-produced horror, All Fun and Games.
Dyer stars as one of a group of teens in Salem who must to battle an evil demonic spirit that forces them to play twisted versions of favorite childhood games where the goal isn’t to win, but to survive.
Asa Butterfield of Ender’s Game and Sex Education has an ‘X’ carved into his forehead, while another character finds a cursed knife that unleashes the malevolent spirit into the world.
The film also stars Annabeth Gish, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Laurel Marsden, and Kolton Stewart. Eren Celeboglu and Ari Costa make their directorial debut, while co-writing the script with JJ Braider.
Here’s the synopsis: A Russo Brothers’ ABGO production starring Natalia Dyer and Asa Butterfield, All Fun and Games explores the elements of cruelty inherent in children’s games – Flashlight Tag, Hangman, Hide & Seek – and what happens when the games go too far. When a group of teens find a cursed knife in the woods, they unleash a malevolent demon that will not rest until it’s claimed all of their lives and souls in a terrifying deathmatch.
All Fun and Games hits theaters and VOD on September 1st.
Oh boy, I’ve been waiting…and dreading, the eventual release of writer/director Chloe Domont’s brilliantly twisted Sundance hit, Fair Play. Imagine an erotic corporate thriller in the vein of classic Michael Douglas movies, but with all of the gender and workplace politics that are such hot-button issues today. It’s a truly messed up movie that will make you look at Alden Ehrenreich in a different light, while possibly heralding Bridgerton actress Phoebe Dynevor’s arrival on the main stage.
The film starts with an engagement. Ehrenreich and Dynevor star as a New York couple who are madly in love. They also work at the same high-powered firm, where he is a rising star on the verge of a big promotion. Nobody at work knows about their romantic situation. But when the job instead goes to her, it sends their relationship, both at home and in the workplace, spiraling uncontrollably.
This movie goes to some wild places, and you will not know where it’s headed. As I said in my review from Sundance…
“Domont crafts a complicated, but wildly entertaining knockout of a film exploring how fragile a relationship built on money and power can be…The screenplay expertly balances a number of spinning plates that are threatening to topple over.”
Also starring Eddie Marsan, Rich Sommer, and Sebastian de Souza, Fair Play opens in theaters on September 29th followed by Netflix on October 13th.
