After being knocked out by a mysterious thug, Kat comes to and finds a gun pointed to his head. It’s his gun. But is there a bullet left? Why not pull the trigger and see what happens? Suddenly, Kat is forced to recall what happened to every bullet in the gun, hoping that none are left.
You don't need to live in California to know there's a plethora of deadly wildfires consuming the U.S. Take Hawaii, for example, which has been in the news these past months for the deadly flames that have completely devastated Maui and other parts. Oregon is a popular "hotspot" as well, but California comes to mind most of the time, which is probably why Peter Facinelli and Nick Lyon's new film, On Fire, takes place in the Golden State. Disaster movies have been getting produced for decades now, with some being over the top and some being more thoughtful and groundbreaking. On Fire comes off as pretty surface-level, with a formulaic plot structure, but a couple memorable supporting performances help keep the end result moving.
"One ring to rule them all." No, this isn't J.R.R. Tolkien's universe; it's a sci-fi B-movie starring Josh Hutcherson and Morgan Freeman. 57 Seconds — not 56, not 58 — is their latest project, about an unlikely duo occupying a futuristic society where pharmaceutical CEOs rule the world and time-traveling jewelry might just save (or corrupt) civilization as we know it. Sound familiar? 57 Seconds has familiar themes that weave together a rather thin plot about exposing the dark truths behind the most powerful men on Earth.
Sister Yulia’s belly isn’t the first cinematic womb to hold demonic potential.
The key character in “Deliver Us” offers a neat twist on the horror trope. Sister Yulia has not one but two babies on board, and one may be evil incarnate.
Damien, call your agent!
The spiritual shocker serves up a sly twist to the “Omen” template, and it does so with all the bells and whistles of modern horror fare.
“Deliver Us” never achieves a full boil, but the elements prove more than enough to recommend it.
Father Fox (Lee Roy Kunz, the co-writer and co-director) is summoned to visit a Russian nun with a curious claim. Sister Yulia (Maria Vera Ratti) says she conceived twins by immaculate conception, but given her struggles with mental illness those claims seem dubious at best.
Plus, she insists the babies are no mere mortals. One is the Antichrist, while the other is the Messiah.
Father Fox is a curious choice for the assignment. He’s fallen in love and is essentially on his way out of the priesthood and into the arms of his pregnant girlfriend (Jaune Kimmel).
Sister Yulia demands his presence, tying into the film’s collection of spiritual prophecies. Was this birth predicted many years ago? How does one character’s art collection tie into the big picture? And why do we shudder whenever a one-eyed priest (an ominous Thomas Kretschmann) enters the frame?
“Deliver Us” starts with enough old-school gore to make Art the Clown blush. The film’s overall aesthetic isn’t torture-porn adjacent, but when the narrative calls for it, the filmmakers don’t skimp on the body horror.
One good. One evil. @MagnoliaPics The mind-bending new horror film #DeliverUs is available everywhere September 29th https://t.co/gQdn0LB1ia pic.twitter.com/itglkt5aMn
— Lee Roy Kunz (@leeroykunz) September 22, 2023
Kunz and co-director Cru Ennis toy with dream sequences that double as cheap scares, but we there’s more to these moments than we suspect. The duo otherwise turns ordinary elements into nightmare factories, like the way they shoot long corridors, investing them with a supernatural patina.
The story, which begins with an audacious prologue, slows mid-film but finds its footing when the due date approaches.
The film’s most audacious element isn’t its shocking slabs of gore, but an abortion angle sure to anger some and lead to feisty, post-film debates.
Kunz’s character has plenty on his plate before meeting Sister Yulia and her complicated motherhood plans. He’s eager to explore his personal faith beyond the boundaries of the church, one reason he accepts a final assignment from his superiors.
Stalwart character actor Alexander Siddig classes things up as Cardinal Russo, a man torn between prophecy and tending to the single mother’s brood.
RELATED: WHY HORROR MOVIES ARE HAVING A MOMENT
Some subplots cry out for more depth. For example, Father Fox’s beloved runs a small but profitable factory, a company under fire as Sister Yulia’s babies near their birth date. We’re also told society is starting to unravel, an element suggesting, at least for once, that a longer running time wouldn’t hurt.
“Deliver Us” circles back to some “Omen”-esque themes about good, evil and the measures mankind might take to stop the latter from entering the human realm. The screenplay doesn’t belabor the point, nor does the story insult the faithful or diminish its place on this mortal coil.
Nuance abounds, and even characters you suspect offer a one-dimensional morality may surprise you.
HiT or Miss: “Deliver Us” loses narrative momentum mid-film, but a strong cast and powerful themes keep us engaged through the intriguing final act.
The post How ‘Deliver Us’ Puts Fresh Spin on Film’s Demonic Baby Boom appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
Eve Hewson is no longer “Bono’s daughter.”
The actress’ bravura turn in “Flora and Son,” the latest musical drama from director John Carney (“Begin Again”), should squash any “nepo baby” cries.
Permanently.
Hewson’s emotionally bruised character shows how music can heal in ways nothing else can. It’s a recurring theme in Carney’s work, dating back to his 2007 masterpiece, “Once.”
Sadly, “Flora and Son” is the weakest of his musically-charged films to date, but it’s still a warm, winning look at life’s uncertain melodies.
Hewson plays the title character, a single Ma with a wayward son named Max (OrĂ©n Kinlan). He’s sullen and cranky, and he keeps getting arrested for minor crimes around their Dublin neighborhood.
Flora impulsively buys Max a guitar to give him something to focus on besides his budding crime career. He rejects the gift, convincing her to take a few lessons on her own.
After all, her ex Ian (Jack Reynor, “Sing Street”) is a musician. Why not her?
Flora hires an L.A.-based musician named Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to teach her via a Zoom-like connection. Their sessions turn into a series of awkward dates, with chord progressions giving way to personal confessions.
Meanwhile, young Max is making music on his own terms, hopefully to woo the heart of a local teen.
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Carney’s knack for weaving music into the rhythms of modern life remains near-perfect. His films makes us want to grab a paper and pen and start jotting down potential song lyrics.
He makes music accessible, and the hunger to create after seeing his films is almost impossible to resist. It’s a dizzying effect and one reason “Flora and Son” wins us over.
Hewson takes over from there.
The actress turns a potentially off-putting character into someone real and vulnerable. Flora’s first reaction to men is often sexual, and she’s combustible with friends and strangers alike. The film opens with an awkward one-night stand, and the minute she makes a connection with Jeff she turns on the sex appeal in a wildly inappropriate manner.
Why?
Carney’s screenplay isn’t always sure.
Apple TV+ Flora and Son (2023) musical comedy-drama film with Eve Hewson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Oren Kinlan | Soundtrack by Gary Clark, John Carney and Flora and Son Casthttps://t.co/5SLl4Diyjd#FloraAndSon #soundtrack #AppleTV #musical #ST
— Soundtrack Tracklist (@tracklistOST) September 19, 2023
Flora had Max at a tender age, and her life revolves around motherhood. She’d do anything for the lad, but she’s also wondering what life has in store for her. What about her needs, her dreams?
Her exchanges with Jeff offer some clues, and the filmmaker’s trick of staging their sessions as if Jeff is right next to her is a simple, but effective risk.
“Flora and Son” offers wonderful sequences, small but wise laughs and the sense that music will once again play a starring role in the finale. Yet the third act plays out in such a conventional fashion it’s as if another, less sophisticated storyteller took over.
Carney’s films marinate in hurt and heartache, and he avoids lazy sentiment at all costs. That makes Flora’s attempts to connect with Max matter. The film’s final moments feel like a quiet, but necessary betrayal of Carney’s instincts.
The director’s music background – he played with The Frames in the early 1990s – allows him to pen songs that heighten the emotional brush strokes. His songs here aren’t as memorable as in “Sing Street” or the sublime “Begin Again,” but they charge select scenes with the appropriate tones.
Now, where’s that scratch pad again?
HiT or Miss: “Flora and Son” lacks the emotional grandeur of John Carney’s best work, but his latest musical odyssey is still well worth a look.
The post Eve Hewson Radiates Star Power in ‘Flora and Son’ appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
With the persona of a profane biker that had no problem being offensive to his crowd, comic Andrew Dice Clay has made a name for himself since the late 1980s on comedy stages all across the United States by borrowing and combining mannerisms from such icons as Sylvester Stallone and Elvis Presley. Riding that fame into other areas of Hollywood, he has also actively starred in many big and small screen productions that span various genres and categories. Most recently though, the former humorist known as The Diceman has bounced right out of an action thriller called God Is a Bullet and into the role of a troubled high school basketball coach in a new movie called Warrior Strong.
Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson reunite on screen for the first time since Pulp Fiction in a breezy black comedy that skewers the pompous art world. The Kill Room has a desperate, Adderall-addicted gallery owner, a beholden hitman, and a Black Jewish baker embroiled in a money-laundering scheme for the mob that hilariously spirals out of control. Graphic murders get an unexpected avant-garde display when fancy elites are enamored by the brutal honesty. The glaring spotlight on their illicit activities stirs up big trouble and forces the mismatched protagonists to concoct an even wackier escape strategy.
If you haven't seen The Boys, you don't know what you're missing out on. The Boys is a brilliantly written R-rated superhero satire that simply has no limits. It's full of over-the-top gore, phenomenal pop culture references and commentary, as well as numerous superhero sexual interactions that many comic book movies and TV series are too scared to tackle. The Boys isn't afraid of going too far; it's not in their vocabulary. The show has delivered many of the most shocking, grotesque, and hilarious TV moments of the past decade, and has accrued a mass audience.
If you are not familiar with James Benning, you may regard the 80-year-old American filmmaker's latest experimental and structuralist piece as nothing more than a surface level showcase into the modern phenomenon known as liminal space. Most of the exterior shots featured throughout Allensworth provide a simplistic, stretched out rural landscape with an eerie, dreamlike atmosphere that is coddled within. In all reality though, a much harsher but memorable message lies in wait for those who decide to go on this visual journey.
After RuPaul’s Drag Race and all of its glittery iterations went super nova, other drag outings followed. Trixie & Katya was festive. Queens of Paradise spotlighted talented drag queens around the world. We’re Here found a place on Max, and generated buzz following three drag queens on the road as they recruited folks to push their limits. Last year, we checked into Trixie Motel. This year, Drag Me To Dinner found popular drag queens competing to see who could toss the best dinner party. And maybe a cosmo or two to boot.
Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose is the bonkers true story of a 1930s British tabloid sensation that captured the public's imagination. Gef, the allegedly verbose critter, lived on the farm of James Irving at Cashen's Gap in the Isle of Man. Simon Pegg stars as Fodor, a famed Hungarian parapsychologist at the time, who attempted to prove that Gef was a hoax perpetuated by the Irving family as a publicity stunt. The film toys with the possibility of Gef's existence through darkly comic reveals, but posits that accepting Gef as real was an individual choice based on an optimistic outlook. There are a few dry chuckles but a slow pace and lack of supporting character exposition ends up detrimental.
Artificial Intelligence is top of mind for just about everyone.
Hollywood fears it. Tech giants crave it. Politicians wonder how they can leverage it against their opponents.
The rest of us worry A.I. will make movies like “The Terminator” into tomorrow’s reality.
“The Creator” has something fresh to say on the subject. To reveal more could undermine the film’s essence, which makes traditional review tactics tricky. Director Gareth Edwards of “Rogue One” fame delivers a cautionary tale, all right, but audiences may not see the blinking red light coming.
Once they do, they may recoil in record numbers.
John David Washington stars as Joshua, introduced as an undercover agent in the film’s opening stages. He’s part of an effort to eliminate A.I. from the planet. A nuclear catastrophe convinced the U.S. government to take a final stand against the onslaught of A.I. robots living among us.
And they are … everywhere … at the start of the film.
The military creates a massive, floating station that seeks out, and eliminates, any signs of A.I. “life.” Joshua, still mourning the loss of his beloved wife (Gemma Chan), leads a strike force to find a weapon that could wipe out humanity.
Except the weapon walks and talks like an adorable pre-teen girl (Madeleine Yuna Voyles).
Is this an immigration parable? A warning about unchecked technology? A peek at our probable future? Here’s guessing it’s all of the above, but Edwards’ vision is uncompromising.
“The Creator” depicts a future where “simulants” walk among us, indistinguishable from humans save the empty, cone-like shape where their ears should be. The CGI is breathtaking and wildly convincing.
That goes for the rest of the production design, a flawless canvas that lets Edwards and co. do whatever they want to tell their story.
That story isn’t as mesmerizing as it appears on paper. The action sequences lack stakes or coherency, and the film’s legion of plot holes keep ripping us out of the experience.
Like, how do you sneak up on A.I.?
It’s just one of many nagging questions “The Creator” won’t address.
The film’s themes, which cannot be shared here without epic spoilers, are both nuanced and maddeningly one-dimensional. That duality does the film few favors. “The Creator” understands the depth of the human experience but too often pretends it doesn’t.
Other elements fascinate, like how easily robots integrate into modern society. It’s seamless and frightening, and our hero personifies that uneasy alliance. Joshua is missing an arm and a leg, but both are perfectly replicated by robotic parts. He’s as good as new.
Technically.
Once again, the effects here are flawless. Even better? They don’t call attention to themselves. The impression is subtle and powerful.
The great Allison Janney is wasted as Joshua’s commander, as is Marc Menchaca of “Alone” fame. “The Creator” is less invested in its human characters, and it shows.
The early sequences are the most powerful. A prologue introducing us to the robot-infested world marries 1950s-style news reels with chilling computer advancements. Our first glimpse of Washington and Chan registers as real, but we’re expected to buy everything that happens later based on that connection.
It’s just not enough.
“The Creator” has plenty in common with the “Avatar” franchise, and not just on a technical level. The visionaries behind them have a view of humanity that may send some audience members scrambling for the exits.
HiT or Miss: “The Creator” offers a brave new vision of the future, but the story stumbles too often to sell it.
The post ‘The Creator’ Has an ‘Avatar’ Problem appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
A disillusioned soldier in a future war with sentient machines chooses to protect their nascent messiah over his country's interests. John David Washington continues to astound in a well-crafted sci-fi thriller with critical pertinent themes. The Creator strikes at the heart of a raging debate over the capabilities and possible threats of artificial intelligence. Will the robots created to make human life easier turn on their masters once self-realization is inevitably achieved? The Creator predicts that humanity's age-old afflictions of ignorance, hatred, and violence will prove to be more destructive than our worst fears.
It would be easy to simply peg The Mattachine Family as an LGBTQ film. It is that, but so much more, too. Relationships, friendships, and a longing for family command the spotlight in director Andy Vallentine’s heartwarming feature, which he cowrote with his screenwriter Danny Vallentine. Tapping into those universal themes elevates this emotionally rich tale, one that will not only make audiences laugh and cry on different occasions, but also inspire them to reflect on the bounty of good that exists in their lives, especially during life transitions.
Legendary horror author Stephen King has created some of the most haunting and captivating stories of all time. Whether it's books like The Shining, It, Misery, or Carrie, King has created some of the most popular, macabre, and fascinating stories for avid book readers to sink their teeth into, and many of them have been brilliantly reimagined into movies and TV shows. Take classic horror movies like Carrie, Cujo, The Shining, and the Oscar-winning Misery, not to mention King's non-horror movies like The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. Unfortunately, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines doesn't belong in this pedigree.
The man, the myth, the legend. Wait, are we referring to author Roald Dahl or filmmaker Wes Anderson? Many people grew up reading Dahl's timeless stories and watching Anderson's groundbreaking movies. But some might not know Dahl also wrote for adults, like with The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a delightful tale that Anderson has adapted into a unique, modern short film of the same name for Netflix. By modern, we mean that Anderson continues his interest in the literary qualities of film, with this story being told word-for-word by the actors (Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, and Ben Kingsley) on screen.
In between her 1991 coming of age movie Dogfight and her work directing the premiere of a police procedural series called Dark Eyes, filmmaker Nancy Savoca decided to grow an extraordinary story from the traditionalistic seeds of her own background. Originally released into theaters on September 15th, 1993 and never made available to the public again after a limited VHS home video run, Household Saints plays like a handed down fable that does have dated extremities in some of its deepest places but still holds bold morals that will stick no matter which generation watches the film.
Writer/director Brian Duffield paints himself into a corner in “No One Will Save You.”
And, like too many genre storytellers, he never writes his way out.
Don’t blame star Kaitlyn Dever.
The “Last Man Standing” alum delivers a powerful turn, with nary a line of dialogue, that anchors the ambitious thriller. It’s still not enough to paper over nagging questions that balloon in a stupefying third act.
And the less said about the resolution, the better.
Dever stars as Brynn, a young woman living in near isolation. She makes the most of it, crafting a mini town in her expansive home and cooking wonderful meals for one.
She hears someone entering her home one night, assuming it’s your garden-variety hood. Instead, it’s a skinny grey alien who looks like every extraterrestrial sketch we’ve seen over the past 50-odd years.
“No One Will Save You” embraces that UFO trope, but that doesn’t reduce the ick factor. The being moves and talks in ways that burrow under the audience’s skin, along with Brynn’s.
What starts as a slick spin on the home invasion thriller blossoms into something more sinister. This alien isn’t alone, and Brynn’s neighbors have already met them.
Freaky new poster for No One Will Save You, coming to Hulu this Friday. Artist: @cmloweART pic.twitter.com/xUcQdKCo2J
— Bloody Disgusting (@BDisgusting) September 19, 2023
Duffield fleshes out Brynn’s back story slowly, ensuring it’s a critical part of the narrative. Dever does the rest, imbuing every scene with a grittiness that few genre actors can match.
It’s hard to imagine what “No One Will Save You” would be like without her.
Still, the story has to go somewhere, and the deeper into the invasion we go it becomes clear Duffield of “Spontaneous” fame has his work cut out for him.
A smaller-scale thriller might have worked out the story knots. Instead, the film takes some head-scratching turns that actually ratchet down the tension. We’re finally told the secrets behind Brynn’s solitude, but they arrive too late and make little difference in the big picture.
Alien invasions dwarf personal tragedies. Sorry.
Duffield delivers some strong individual scares, suggesting a major talent is at work. The film’s sound design more than makes up for the dearth of dialogue, and Dever registers a fear that’s both relatable and genre friendly.
We’d be scared, too, in her shoes.
FAST FACT: A young Kaitlyn Dever spent all of one month in Los Angeles before snagging the first role for which she ever auditioned. She’s also been home-schooled since the fourth grade.
Brynn is no Mary Sue, but a resourceful young woman scrambling to live another day. She escapes one pickle after another, but eventually we see the screenplay’s strings in the process.
“No One Will Save You” wraps with a tonal compromise that won’t leave anyone satisfied. That leaves us mulling too many plot contrivances for a story that could have been a stunner with a serious rewrite.
HiT or Miss: “No One Will Save You” offers a brilliant turn by Kaitlyn Dever but can’t live up to its potential.
The post ‘No One Will Save You’ Crumbles at Worst Possible Time appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
A wealthy patriarch in a lavish seaside villa. A gaudy wife. His suspicious daughter and her angsty teenage daughter. An intimidating maid. It all may be too much to bear for modest StĂ©phane (Laure Calamy of Call My Agent). But maybe not. After decades of separation, she’s tracked down her long-lost and aging father and desperately wants in. He’s built a family, after all. An incredibly dysfunctional one at that, but a family nonetheless. It’s something StĂ©phane has longed for her entire life. Why not have a go of it? And so it goes in director SĂ©bastien Marnier’s thrilling dark French comedy, The Origin of Evil.
Netflix has been at the top of their game for quite some time now, specifically in terms of original television series. Whether it's with shows like Stranger Things, Cobra Kai, Bridgerton, Orange Is the New Black, Squid Game, and last year's dominant television series from the mind of Tim Burton, Wednesday, Netflix more often than not crushes it when it comes to original television programming. But a show that doesn't receive nearly enough credit as it deserves is the hit UK series Sex Education. Debuting in 2019, Sex Education is a hilarious, stylistic, charming, and of course raunchy good time. It offers a glorious outlet to showcase sex positivity, in perhaps one of the most inclusive TV series of all time.
If A Quiet Place had an on-screen cousin, it would be No One Will Save You. Hulu’s riveting new alien invasion drama contains hardly any dialogue, which amps up the chilling suspense and allows the film to rest on the shoulders of Kaitlyn Dever. The Booksmart and Ticket to Paradise star turns in a powerful performance here as Brynn Adams, a young woman whose tortuous past comes back to haunt her when a mysterious alien invades her home.
A lonely and depressed writer mysteriously reconnects with his deceased parents after unexpectedly falling in love. All of Us Strangers sublimely addresses honest truths long hidden in the shadows. Death's cruel finality leaves a gaping void in the lives of those left behind. Writer/director Andrew Haigh uses supernatural elements to allow a shattered protagonist the opportunity to heal his wounded soul. Your heart will soar and break in a powerfully emotional journey of devastating loss, coming to terms with grief, and finding eventual acceptance in what we cannot change.
There's no yawning with boredom while watching Apple TV+’s new insomniac comedy Still Up. The engaging British series is a breath of fresh air. Remember how you felt when Ted Lasso came around and won you over, or how Shrinking sweetly worked its way into your heart with its touching, sometimes offbeat storylines? It’s like that with Still Up, which should generate some buzz and, let’s hope, receive some love come awards season.
Netflix has been at the top of their game for quite some time now, specifically in terms of original television series. Whether it's with shows like Stranger Things, Cobra Kai, Bridgerton, Orange Is the New Black, Squid Game, and last year's dominant television series from the mind of Tim Burton, Wednesday, Netflix more often than not crushes it when it comes to original television programming. But a show that doesn't receive nearly enough credit as it deserves is the hit UK series Sex Education. Debuting in 2019, Sex Education is a hilarious, stylistic, charming, and of course raunchy good time. It offers a glorious outlet to showcase sex positivity, in perhaps one of the most inclusive TV series of all time.
Holy Christmas, the Expendables are back! It's the fourth Expendables film to date, in case you didn't notice the "4" boldly sticking out in the new film's official title. Expend4bles brings back fan-favorites Sly Stallone and Jason Statham, but interestingly doesn't include many of the other big names from past films. Expendables 3 was a disappointment, not just for the dulled-down PG-13 violence but also because many of the A-listers on-hand were merely there to give seemingly useless, cheesy cameos. Don't get me started on those Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jet Li moments. One of the few highlights of this fourth addition to the franchise is that every elite mercenary contributes in some way to the team's overall mission, versus just standing around.
Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow is a wildly creative, creepy-crawly whodunit with slick CGI animation and big laughs. The premise has anthropomorphized arachnids, cockroaches, beetles, ants, flies, and locusts embroiled in a period murder mystery aboard a transpacific flight. The miniscule ensemble exists alongside humans but largely remain out of sight. That changes as the clever plot thickens and unwitting bipeds are hilariously tossed into the fray. The film has a degree of complexity that does require a modicum of attention. This isn't a brainless kids adventure for casual viewing.
Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow is a wildly creative, creepy-crawly whodunit with slick CGI animation and big laughs. The premise has anthropomorphized arachnids, cockroaches, beetles, ants, flies, and locusts embroiled in a period murder mystery aboard a transpacific flight. The miniscule ensemble exists alongside humans but largely remain out of sight. That changes as the clever plot thickens and unwitting bipeds are hilariously tossed into the fray. The film has a degree of complexity that does require a modicum of attention. This isn't a brainless kids adventure for casual viewing.
It Lives Inside, the Midnight Audience Award winner from SXSW, expands to wide release September 22, hoping to stake a claim among the flurry of horror films released in fall. Director Bishal Dutta’s freshman outing delves deep into Hindu mythology in a thriller that finds an Indian American teen girl fending off an evil force while also having to reconnect to her cultural roots in India in the process.
The world of 1936 London theater takes center stage in The Critic, director Anand Tucker's latest movie that made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, in fact, marks Tucker's return to feature work in over a decade, the last being 2010's Leap Year. The two couldn't be more different: where Leap Year was a romantic comedy that offered hope and tugged at the heartstrings, tying everything with a Hollywood happy ending, The Critic takes us to the darker corners of desire and ambition, spinning a tale of deceit and greed.
Ever since the release of John Wick in 2014, the franchise has fascinated audiences with teases of the larger world at play. With each sequel, more details about this secret world of assassins were revealed that showcased a hierarchy of power players that was operating just outside the margins. This was always a world so much bigger than that of the title character. Arguably not since the cantina in Star Wars back in 1977 has a single location hinted at a world of stories more so than the Continental Hotel.
Memory achieves the singular feat of being a love story we've never really seen before on-screen that, at the same time, feels immediately familiar. Trauma was a pervading theme among the movies playing at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, and Memory is no different. Writer and director Michel Franco handles the film's heavy subject matter with care, nurturing the characters, particularly the ones played by Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, as they unravel and reveal their darkest truths to each other (and, by extension, to us in the audience). Perhaps more importantly, the film never stops searching for the light, giving us hope in this messed-up world.
Are you a big believer in urban legends? Well, you're not alone. And even if you're not, it's safe to say they're at least a tad intriguing. It's no wonder, then, that there are a plethora of urban legend films out there, based on a wide array of scary conversation-starters. And speaking of scares, a new horror feature called Elevator Game focuses on a particularly spooky legend that runs haywire amidst a fictional crowd of young, budding filmmakers.
There are more true stories about ISIS (or Daesh) than the world's hearts could handle. From the victims to the misguided members, the kidnapped women to the captured cities, the Islamic State and the foreign policy which created it has resulted in near infinite tragedy. America may have pulled out of Afghanistan, but fighting rages on across the Middle East. Even though we no longer discuss Syria and al-Assad, the country is still in turmoil, and the dictator still reigns with blood on his hands.
Remember those terrifying cautionary tales that you were told as a kid? Well, the folk horror genre brings those hauntings to life in terrifying and horrific ways. Many of the best horror movies stem from folklore and mythology. The underrated 2017 film The Ritual, Ari Aster's Midsommar, and Robert Eggers' The Witch are all flawless horror movies, and some of the best in the folklore horror subgenre of recent years. It's a genre that has been around since the dawn of horror (as seen in the 1922 film Häxan), and one we have been so infatuated with ever since.
After the Fire, or Avant que les flammes ne s'Ă©teignent, stokes the burning truth that must be reiterated: though the police are meant to protect us, they don't always do so equally or without prejudice. America continues to unfortunately see evidence of this, from the murder of George Floyd in 2020 to, more recently, the Seattle officer who struck and killed a young woman with his car and whose bodycam footage revealed him "joking" about writing an $11,000 settlement check because, to him, she "had limited value" (via NPR). What's more, it's not a purely American issue; many police institutions around the world are culpable.
The Inventor is a brilliantly artistic stop-motion and 2D animated film about the final years of Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci. The legendary painter, sculptor, scientist, philosopher, architect, and astronomer found himself smack dab in the middle of heretical controversy. Leonardo argued that reason and the practical application of scientific methodology was the path to true enlightenment. His pursuit of forbidden knowledge, especially anatomical research and cadaver dissection, could have been a death sentence from the Catholic Church. In The Inventor, Leonardo leaves Italy for the court of King Francis I of France, but finds that royal vanity and arrogance continues to impede his research.
Ireland has been knocking it out of the park with original films the past couple of decades, from Martin McDonagh's films like In Bruges and The Banshees of Irisherin to last year's The Quiet Girl. 2023 seems to be keeping up Ireland's fantastic repertoire, what with The Black Guelph being one of the most underrated movies of the year, and one of the best films the year has to offer. Now comes Barber, a new mystery thriller led by Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinders star Aidan Gillen, which promises a compelling mystery in the midst of some intriguing and captivating character drama. However, Barber sadly falls flat in that regard.
Modeling is one of the biggest industries in the entire world. And for good reason. Almost everywhere you look, you will see a magazine, billboard, website, pop-up ad, or commercial with a model posing with or for a product to help sell that item. It's a billion-dollar business brimming with famous names and burgeoning stars. Of course, not every single model will become a household name; there are just so many of them. However, four of the most iconic and influential models are undoubtedly Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington, and they happen to be the focus of Apple TV+'s latest limited series.
There are few movies like Saturn Bowling. At least few good ones. Saturn Bowling spends its first half with the film's antagonist, before switching lanes to finally focus on the protagonist as he investigates the horrific crimes committed by the film's villain. This is by no means a spoiler, as the movie's antagonist is shady from the start. It's certainly not the only horror/thriller that puts the film's antagonist front and center; take American Psycho for instance. Like that film, Saturn Bowling succeeds by relentlessly exploring the dark heart of its antagonist at the forefront, captured in an incredible performance.
In the past, director Tim Brown made it his prerogative to dive right into the deep end of various genres. Take his 2017 creature feature horror film, Devil in the Dark, compared to his 2021 family movie, Buckley’s Chance, which followed a boy and his dog in the Australian outback. Almost as if trying to find a comfortable sweet spot between the two, Brown has now landed in the cinematic space of a violent yet fuzzy action-comedy production that centers around criminal organizations and grandfathers with secret pasts.
There's a mind-bending short film from 2011 called The External World, with a ridiculously simple logline worthy of note: "A boy learns to play the piano." The filmmaker clearly had a sense of humor because the expansive project featured a seemingly endless inventory of side characters and subplots that ultimately all come together at the end. I felt a similar vibe watching Warm Blood, an experimental new feature that hits the masses this week.
No matter where you may fall on the spectrum of faith, it cannot be denied that religion — Christianity, in particular, as is the subject of The New Boy — can be equally beautiful and frightening. On one hand, there's something inspiring about the way in which faith can be used as a guiding principle for kindness, a means of fostering community, and a way of making sense of the world. On the other hand, of course, we have seen across history — and currently are seeing — the weaponization of religion, with faith becoming a source of justification for violence (whether physical or through dangerous rhetoric).
In Flames may be marketed as a horror film, but, in actuality, it is so much more than that. Indeed, for a film that's currently making its global festival run — it made its world premiere at Cannes earlier this year before arriving at the Toronto International Film Festival for its North American premiere — horror fundamentally serves as a universal entry point for audiences who might be watching a Pakistani film for the first time. Once seated, audiences will find that while In Flames fulfills its promise of thrills, it also offers a story brimming with heart.
If there’s one documentary you must see this fall, place Invisible Beauty on the top of your list, and not just because it’s exceptional, moving, engaging, and thought-provoking. It will also give you an opportunity to meet a rare kind of human being, one whose outlook on life and vibrant determination to combat racism within the modeling industry is something to behold. Directed by Bethann Hardison herself and FrĂ©dĂ©ric Tcheng, the genius French filmmaker behind Dior and I and Halston, Naomi Campbell is on board as one of the many executive producers.
Horror anthology movies are not anything new. For decades, we have seen the horror genre pump out numerous anthology movies that tell many different short stories that are not always wholly connected to the films main plot. Films like Trick' R' Treat, The ABC's of Death, and VHS are just a few of the many examples of great horror anthologies. It's an underrated genre, with few masterpieces but lots of pretty great films. Keeping that tradition alive is the 2023 horror anthology, Satanic Hispanics.
Ready to raise your coffee mugs and smile for Season 3 of The Morning Show? Hold that thought. Apple TV+’s Emmy- and SAG-winning drama has a brand-new groove in season three, sending its beleaguered characters into new territory. That also gives these UBA Network folks more to consider, personally and professionally, as they experience life-changing shifts with a drop of a dime. Par for the course for this often frenetic yet never dull series.
In a world where unlimited information — and, by extension, misinformation — can be accessed with a single click, the objective truth has become elusive. All it takes is one charismatic leader to twist a truth into a lie for millions of people to then adopt that lie as truth. History has taught us that that's precisely how Hitler rose to power, stoked hatred, plunged the world into war, and committed the darkest atrocities imaginable.
It’s impossible to hate a movie about immigrants embracing the American dream.
Even “Flamin’ Hot,” which turned the “inspired by a true story” phrase upside down, showcased the hustle and heart it takes to fulfill this country’s promise.
“A Million Miles Away” falls squarely in this genre, and the character in question actually did what the movie suggests (phew!). Jose Hernandez left Earth for space, fulfilling a lifetime dream against every odd you can imagine.
What starts with cliches and hokum slowly gives way to something profound. This isn’t just an immigrant’s success story. It’s a tribute to marriage.
Young Jose Hernandez (Juan Pablo Monterrubio) bounces from field to field with his migrant family members. It’s the late 1960s, and Mexicans like Jose work the crops that find their way to dinner tables nationwide.
It’s back-breaking labor, but the Hernandez clan does it without complaint. They have little choice.
Money is scarce and so, too, is opportunity. The lad can’t help dreaming big, and his loyal teacher (Michelle Krusiec) sees something special in the boy as his gaze reaches for the stars.
Awwwwww.
Except these opening sequences feel so familiar, so mechanical, that we’re left thinking we’ve stumbled into an old-school, made-for-television film.
New episode with Rick Telles on his new Amazon Prime film documenting the life of NASA astronaut JosĂ© HernĂ¡ndez starring Michael Peña called "A Million Miles Away," General Hospital, Rick Springfield, MTV Road Rules, VH1 Surreal Life, and so much more… https://t.co/EWfJIv0ybx pic.twitter.com/6ohNW8ZsXf
— Scott Williams (@scottwilliamsib) September 8, 2023
The story gets a bounce when we flash forward 15 or so years. Jose is now a young man, played by a 47-year-old Michael Pena. At least “Private Parts” had Howard Stern directly address why a 40-something actor was playing a college student.
Here, we wince watching Pena pretend to be young without de-aging or other screen tics. It doesn’t help that Jose’s on-screen parents appear untouched by the years.
Huh?
We also see a clueless white person assume Jose is a janitor, not an engineer, even though the young man is perfectly dressed and wears a tie. How many janitors show up to work looking like that?
Woke Alert!
“Million” comes to life the minute Jose meets Adela (Rose Salazar), a car salesperson who connects with the shy engineer. Their courtship is so old school it hurts, but Jose refuses to let anything get in the way of their romance.
Jose still has dreams of soaring above the earth, and it may take a miracle for that to happen.
Few films capture the sacrifice and wonder of marriage quite like “A Million Miles Away.” It’s not about infidelity or fights over too many late night poker games. They’re a unit, a couple juggling parenting responsibliies and their dueling dreams.
The film treats Adela’s restaurant dreams as background fodder, which is a mistake. What’s far richer is how she isn’t treated like “The Wife” but an integral part of Jose’s story. We expect Pena to bring something special to a film like this.
Salazar is more than his match here.
The actors have a wonderful, lived-in chemistry that’s hard to reproduce. The screenplay takes their marriage, and the various challenges, seriously. That gives dramatic heft to Jose’s quest to reach the stars, knowing it won’t matter if he comes home to a broken marriage.
“A Million Miles Away” doesn’t shy away from film formulas, but in treating the elements beyond Jose’s space dreams with the gravity they deserve, the biopic rises above the competition.
HiT or Miss: “A Million Miles Away” takes time to warm up, but when it does it’s a poignant ode to the power of dreams and the institution of marriage.
The post ‘A Million Miles Away’ is the Marriage Mash Note We Needed appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
They don't make Westerns how they used too, right? Compared to movies like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, 1960s The Magnificent Seven, and Once Upon a Time in the West, Westerns nowadays just don't boast the same energy as they used too. Don't get us wrong, we have seen some great ones over the last two decades. 2010's True Grit is easily one of the best modern Westerns of the 21st century, alongside movies such as 3:10 to Yuma and the horror cult classic Bone Tomahawk. That's without mentioning the Quentin Tarantino love letters to the Westerns of the past, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight.
Dumb Money tells the astonishing true story of a "David vs. Goliath" financial revolution that rocked Wall Street and caused a global media firestorm during the pandemic. Keith Gill, played superbly by Paul Dano, was a Mass Mutual financial analyst working from home near Boston. He became a working class hero through a series of YouTube videos under the moniker Roaring Kitty. Gill believed that GameStop, the brick and mortar video game retailer, was being purposely undervalued by billion dollar hedge funds. They were "shorting" the stock by betting that its price would plummet, thus opening the company to the possibility of a predatory takeover where it could be broken up and sold.
From Sideways and Nebraska to The Descendants and even his previous film Downsizing, you can trace a fascination with American livelihood across all of Alexander Payne's movies. He has a knack for imbuing the sharpest (and, at times, darkest) of humor in his characters' suffering, and The Holdovers is no different. Hilarious and heartfelt, it might be premature, though no less certain, to say that Payne has crafted one of the best movies of the year that is also destined to become a holiday classic. It made its American premiere just last month at the Telluride Film Festival, and at its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, it's already proven to be ahead of the pack.
Kenneth Branagh's third outing as Agatha Christie's Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot is a captivating murder mystery with bona fide horror scares. A Haunting in Venice, adapted from the 1969 novel Hallowe'en Party, will send shivers down your spine as a devilish plot twists and turns along a supposedly supernatural path. Poirot, the epitome of reason and logical deduction, faces a spellbinding test of his investigative abilities when unexplainable events lead to a baffling series of murders. The beautifully shot Italian settings coupled with superb performances from a venerated, all-star ensemble delivers frightening fun and cinematic splendor.
Hercule Poirot has an almost supernatural knack for solving murders.
That makes “A Haunting in Venice” a natural extension of the character’s old-school universe.
“Venice,” adapted from Agatha Christie’s “Hallowe’en Party,” offers a horrific twist on the genre, and it’s more than an agreeable fit. Murders abound, as do things that go bump in the night. It’s all orchestrated with aplomb by star/director Kenneth Branagh.
Poirot’s gargantuan mustache has been downgraded, but there’s nothing small about the pleasures in Branagh’s third outing as the celebrated sleuth.
Our mustachioed hero has settled into a cozy, if lonely, retirement in Italy as the story opens. No more murder mysteries for him. It’s about leisure, first and foremost.
His tranquility gets a nudge from an old friend.
Ariadne, a mystery author played by Tina Fey, wants her old pal to debunk a local mystic who holds phony seances to trick the locals.
Or so she assumes.
Could this mystic, played with a detached air by Michelle Yeoh, actually hold the key to the afterlife? Will Hercule find himself drawn back to his particular set of skills? And what happens when a dead body inevitably appears?
Hercule’s arrival means someone won’t live to see the final credits.
We’ll share no more but know that Branagh’s Hercule remains a deliciously droll figure unlike any on screens today. He’s smart but self-aware, a touch arrogant but with a nagging sense for the common man.
Ariadne has his number, and their banter may be the film’s sublime selling point. Michael Green’s screenplay isn’t brilliant, but it’s wise and clever when the scenes demand it. That could be with the Hercule-Ariadne playful bickering or the sense that this particular mystery will test even Hercule’s considerable talents.
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“Venice” could use some more star power. Maybe we’ve been spoiled by “Death on the Nile” and “Murder on the Orient Express,” but another larger-than-life player could have spiked the cinematic punch.
Jamie Dornan plays a widower trying to care for his precocious son, but his morose presence weighs down some of the fun. Dornan’s character suffers from PTSD, as does Hercule, a subplot that does add gravitas to a nimble mystery.
You won’t solve the puzzle in play, and when Hercule starts putting the pieces together you’ll marvel at the script’s ingenuity.
What sets “Venice” apart is the production design and cinematography. Branagh’s vision is so knowing, so keenly aware of the genres he’s combining that even the quietest scenes hum with vitality.
This film is gorgeous to behold, like a haunted house where no expense is spared to leave visitors unmoored.
The new Hercule Poirot films are a minor miracle in today’s Hollywood. They’re neither splashy nor rushed, and they take great care to tell old-fashioned stories the old-fashioned way.
Long may Branagh’s Hercule reign.
HiT or Miss: “A Haunting in Venice” lacks the star power of previous Kenneth Branagh mysteries, but it’s still a jolly good time.
The post Branagh’s ‘Haunting in Venice’ Offers a Spooky Good Time appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
Beauty and trauma collide in Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan's Seven Veils, which made its world premiere at the 2023 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. Starring Amanda Seyfried, the film marks a reunion between her and Egoyan, almost 15 years since their first collaboration, Chloe. In fact, Chloe and Seven Veils make for an interesting double feature: shot and set in Toronto, both films examine the dark recesses of human psychology and see Seyfried playing women navigating hidden truths about themselves.
Those with siblings know that, for better and worse, you can always count on them to, among many things, be there in the wake of tragedies — to point out your shortcomings, to be a shoulder to cry on, to remind you of your awkward childhood, to judge you for your life choices and, more often than not, to drive you up the wall. Perhaps that's why, from a storytelling standpoint, sibling dynamics inherently carry the potential for some of the richest, tensest, and most complex narratives one could create. It's why family drama films are so captivating: nobody knows you, and simultaneously misunderstands you, quite like family.
Warning: This article discusses a film that deals with heavy topics, including torture and rape.Megalomaniac, the newest release from Belgian filmmaker Karim Ouelhaj, follows Martha and FĂ©lix, the two adult children of the Butcher of Mons, a notorious Belgian serial killer who was responsible for the murders of five women throughout the 1990s. As adults, FĂ©lix has turned to killing, following in his father's footsteps, and Martha has become reserved, mentally ill from years of abuse from those around her.
Seeking out our roots is sometimes easier said than done. Is the voyage overseas worth a possible prison sentence with no end in sight? That's the foundation of a new passion project by Michael Goorjian (Party of Five, SLC Punk), the writer-director-star who plays an American returning to the place of his ancestors: Armenia. The kicker? The year is 1948, and it's a Soviet republic amid the aftermath of World War II. Inspired by real events, Amerikatsi (translated as "The American") is a strong comedy-drama that's sometimes hard to watch, due solely to the tough subject matter, but never fails to deliver on the heart.
You won’t be screaming "Opa!" with glee after seeing My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, but there is enough feel-good charm in writer/director Nia Vardalos’s third go-around in her Big Fat Greek Universe to keep you satiated. For a while, anyway. It would have been great if the third time was a charm for the Portokalos family, but alas, how we find that family here and the story they’re given to exist in simply doesn’t work.
Freedom's Path is a brutal Civil War drama about the horrors of slavery, an unlikely friendship, and the courageous few who risked death to run the Underground Railroad, a secret network that shepherded escaped slaves to the northern states. The film, gut-wrenching at times with its unflinching portrayal of racial oppression, regrettably treads into melodrama as characters stay rigidly defined to support the narrative's agenda. Pacing also becomes an issue as excessive flashbacks and an overly stylized approach stretches an already long runtime. That said, its powerful themes and unvarnished truth lessens the flaws for a worthwhile viewing experience.
If Halloween is indeed "gay Christmas," as it is lovingly called by many folks in the LGBTQ+ community, then My Animal makes for a solid teaser. Directed by Jacqueline Castel and written by Jae Matthews, both of whom are making their feature film debuts here, My Animal follows Heather (played by non-binary actor Bobbi Salvör Menuez) as she moves through her small northern town as an outcast, trying to keep her darkest secrets from coming to light. Tomboyish and desperate to play on her town's all-male hockey team, not only is Heather secretly queer, but she is also a werewolf (the product of a family curse).
The plot of The Nun, which was released back in 2018, was rather straightforward, if you're being kind, or undercooked, if you're being more critical. It boils down to a priest and a nun investigating a haunted abbey with a delivery-boy, with the backstories of the trio only lightly touched upon. By contrast, The Nun II is positively stuffed with plot and subplots, though that's not necessarily a bad thing if you can do it right.
We didn’t need a third helping of the “Big Fat Greek Wedding” franchise.
Series star and creative force Nia Vardalos doesn’t argue otherwise. Her third film in the saga, which she wrote and directed, is another excuse to celebrate Greek culture and share mini-stories from the Portokalos clan.
Your appetite for the threequel depends on a willingness to accept sub-sitcom gags and plot developments with little heft or gravitas.
The threequel opens with the family’s aging matriarch (Lanie Kazan) detailing the film’s plot. Toula (Vardalos) and her brood must jet to Greece so they can share the patriarch’s journal with his childhood friends.
Kazan’s character literally says this out loud.
So off they go, visiting the land where Papa Gus (the late Michael Constantine) once roamed, eager to fulfill his dying wish.
Except the story isn’t laser focused on that plotline. Instead, we’re treated to lighter-than-air subplots which often resolve themselves in minutes.
Running gags abound, and while none overstay their welcome they don’t draw many laughs the first time around. The humor here is obvious, broad and inconsequential. The original film, as corny as it was warm, delivered big belly laughs.
The franchise no longer even tries to match that feat.
The Greek vistas are wonderful and for some worth the price of admission. Still, the country has been showcased to greater effect in other films – even 2020’s “The Trip to Greece.”
Vardalos’ direction is perfectly suited to the material … and that’s neither a compliment nor a dig. her on-screen husband John Corbett looks either distracted or bored at times, as if he got the reunion invite but wasn’t sure what to make of it.
We also get endless hugs, cute nods to Greek culture and the biggest question of all. If the extended brood loves Greece so much, why did it take three movies to visit the actual country?
Andrea Martin does what she can to steal her scenes as Aunt Voula, but the screenplay does her few favors.
A few moments connect, like Toula and Nick discussing who should be the “head” of the family now that their father is gone. It’s a moment the actors sell with quiet dignity.
The film offers a soupcon of woke in the form of Victory (Melina Kotselou), the Greek town’s mayor who happens to be non-binary. The script, again, screams its intentions during one clunky sequence. That’s where the woke starts and happily stops.
It’s hard to get grumpy about a generic sequel like this third “Wedding.” The cast is having a blast and the sense of camaraderie is profound. Plus, it’s still rare for a mainstream comedy to toast Greek culture nearly 20 years after the first “Wedding” rocked Hollywood.
HiT or Miss: “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” offers another round of amiable chaos from Toula and company, an agreeable tale that’s impossible to hate but easy to forget.
The post ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3’ Offers Less of the Same appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
Good Boy immediately lures you in from its very first frame. Christian (Gard Løkke) is preparing food. He lives alone. Well, there is his dog, Frank. But Frank is a different kind of canine — the human kind. The kind that wears a life-size puppy suit/pajamas and a doggy head while he walks around on all fours and behaves like a well-trained pet. What madness is this, you wonder? Some kind of perverse puppy play? Yes and no. Writer/director Viljar Bøe’s film is part thriller, part dark comedy, and part edgy dating nightmare once Christian starts seeing Sigrid (Katrine Lovise Ă˜pstad Fredriksen).
When it comes to international horror films, very few streaming services do the subgenre justice like Shudder does. Offering a vast selection of top-quality international movies, the horror-centric platform has added some game-changing genre giants over the last few years, including Indonesia's Impetigore, Mexico's Tigers Are Not Afraid, and Guatemala's La Llorona. The most recent addition to Shudder comes from Malaysia, with Dain Said's Blood Flower. The film was also written by Said, along with Ben Omar and Nandita Solomon, and stars Idan Aedan, Bront Palarae, and Nadiya Nissa.
When was the last time a movie shocked you?
We’re not talking about a torrent of blood and guts, or the umpteenth improbable plot twist. Imagine a scene that completely catches the viewer off guard.
We get such a moment in the Scandinavian import “Good Boy,” one of the year’s nastiest surprises. The less said about the story, the better, but just know it touches on dating mores, cultural upheaval and, of course, the oldest canard in the dating handbook.
Must love dogs.
Sigrid (Katrine Lovise Ă˜pstad Fredriksen) just wants to meet a nice man, and she thinks she struck gold with Christian (Gard Løkke). He’s tall, handsome, a whiz in the kitchen and, as she learns later, obscenely rich.
There’s just one catch (and there always is, right?).
Christian lives with a grown man who pretends to be a dog named Frank. Yes, Frank wears a furry blue/gray dog costume complete with a snout. It’s not remotely convincing, but his constant panting and fidelity to the part sure is.
Deal breaker you say? Not to Sigrid, who is a bit of a mess but desperate to be open to any new experience. The film’s commentary on dating tropes and our collective tolerance is delicious and understated.
Sigrid pushes forward, spending more time with Christian and even scratching Frank behind his fake ears.
At this point, we crave more information about the Christian-Frank dynamic, which is why the plot summary portion of this review is officially over.
Just know first-time filmmaker Scandinavian filmmaker Viljar Bøe tells his story with maximum efficiency while letting the key players reveal themselves in tantalizing bursts.
Sigrid is always late, spends too much time on her phone and isn’t sure where her studies will take her. She’s still a kind, soul open to almost anything.
That trait will come in handy.
Christian is a control freak, but there’s a sadness to his immaculate exterior. It may explain his unique living arrangement.
“Good Boy” unleashes its surprise mid-movie, turning a tightly coiled curiosity into a profoundly entertaining affair.
There’s a catch here, too.
Twisted Scandinavian Horror GOOD BOY, premiering at @FrightFest ahead of it's UK Digital release.. https://t.co/of1zocqQl6 pic.twitter.com/iBxIreMPYh
— Simon (Dark Angel) (@RealmofHorror) August 16, 2023
The film’s third act requires an extreme suspension of disbelief, but if you consider the surreal setup it doesn’t take much effort. It’s far easier to get lost in the story, one that feels vibrant and open to interpretation.
Is this a commentary on the male/female dating dynamic? Our willingness to accept almost any cultural deviation for fear of being labeled a hater, or worse? Does “Good Boy” slay the PatriarchyTM far better than “Barbie” ever could?
It’s hard to get “Good Boy” out of your head. Even better? It’s impossible to look away once Frank enters the frame.
HiT or Miss: “Good Boy” brims with meaty topics, all wrapped in a brisk, 80-minute tear.
The post Why ‘Good Boy’ Does What Few Films Can appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
Director David Lancaster is back in the driver’s seat once more with a new documentary about an iconic motorcycle designer and manufacturer, Speed Is Expensive: Philip Vincent and the Million Dollar Motorcycle. Through the many pieces of archival footage from Vincent’s time, audio recordings of the man himself, as well as sit-down conversations with many of the people who were a part of his life, viewers can now take an unprecedented and grand look into one of the most determined minds of the early 20th century. Changing the world’s view on motorcycle design as well as setting records all over the world with his record-breaking bikes, Lancaster does not shy away from the challenges that came into the British motorbike designer’s life either.
If you’re expecting a just-sit-back-and-get-spooked experience with The Changeling, only half of your expectations will be met. The highly anticipated new Apple TV+ series has its own expectations, and much of them are placed upon the audience. Be prepared to work your mind as you attempt to put together all the creative puzzle pieces here. Chances are, you may give up half-way through its frenetic eight-episode run, but you’ll miss out on the payoff, which raises more questions than it answers.
No, this isn't Bored to Death, Jason Schwartzman's beloved comedy series on HBO. Far from it. While watching Beaten to Death, be prepared to wince, shield your eyes, and cry out in secondhand pain. With such an explicit film title, you might be able to guess just what happens to the lead character throughout the frightening Australian film's tight duration. It seems to drag on, however, given the hard-to-watch gory sequences that overrun this B-movie from co-writer and director Sam Curtain. We're often begging for a glimmer of hope or even comic relief, but you've been warned here that it doesn't exactly come.
Chilean director Pablo LarraĂn has a past of telling stories centered around historical figures, and turning them into euphoric experiences full of tension, suspense, and prestige. His work is simply unlike anything we have seen in the biopic genre before. His filmography includes the likes of the Oscar-nominated biographies Spencer and Jackie, starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana and Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy, respectively, and he also made a beautiful biopic about the poet Pablo Neruda. His films, although critically acclaimed, can be fairly divisive. Many love these movies, and others just don't. So, will LarraĂn's latest outing, El Conde, a satirical horror comedy which debuted at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, unite the community, or will it receive LarraĂn's usual reception?
Estranged sisters attempting to rekindle their relationship suffer a catastrophic accident while exploring an underwater cave. The Dive is a harrowing, real-time thriller that guarantees this author will never set foot in scuba gear. Tense action scenes are juxtaposed with regretful memories and fantasy retellings of what could have been. The protagonists' love for each other is brought to the forefront by a situation neither could have ever imagined. The drama does run a little thick, but the life or death scenario keeps you gasping for air until the credits.
Joseph Ruben’s “The Good Son” (1993) gives us mixed feelings right from the start.
The opening credits’ font and Elmer Bernstein’s score suggest a tender family drama, akin to “My Girl” (1992), both of which star Macauley Culkin. The twist is that, whereas Culkin became a massive star from the PG-rated mega-blockbuster “Home Alone” (1990), and “My Girl” is best remembered for the shocking tragedy surrounding his onscreen character, “The Good Son” was something else altogether.
Ruben’s film was famous for positioning Culkin, among the biggest and youngest movie stars in the world, in the lead of an R-rated psychological thriller where he would play a 1990’s variant on “The Omen” (1976).
Understandably, lots of kids attended the film’s opening weekend and were horrified that their star was murdering people on screen, as opposed to setting up wacky/ghastly traps for the deserving Wet Bandits.
Film periodicals reported that Culkin was receiving a giant paycheck to star in “The Good Son,” but also that the film was a part of family deal making, as the star’s father wouldn’t allow his son to make another commercial vehicle (the second “Home Alone”) without stretching in a non-comic role.
Hence, here’s Culkin, acting alongside Elijah Wood and failing to keep the would-be Hobbit from stealing his big dramatic movie from him.
Wood plays Mike, whose mother has passed and is sent to stay with his cousin Henry (Culkin), who needs a friend and a partner for the havoc he’s about to unleash on his household.
Even the poster felt like a bad call, with a tight picture of a smiling Culkin, under a tagline that read “Evil Has Many Faces.” Informing your audience that you’re not supposed to like the most endearing child star of his generation seemed like a stretch.
The Good Son. This movie traumatized me as a kid because I loved Macaulay Culkin after Home Alone. Plus it’s not like he’s supernatural evil, he’s just regular person evil in a kid. pic.twitter.com/LsWcrne6di
— Shoshana Kessock
(@ShoshanaKessock) June 1, 2023
Culkin’s introductory scene, where he emerges wearing a mask not out of place in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” (1992), poses a problem; is he too cute to be playing such an evil character or is the character too evil for an actor so cute?
Coming only a year after “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992), this far-too-early career stretch for Culkin fascinates in its unsteady attempts to embrace the darkness of the story.
Wood carries the film, and the premise is lean and direct enough to provide for entertaining trash. The problem is that it’s Wood who provides the film’s center, and not Culkin’s look-how-bad-I-am turn, that powers the movie.
Culkin’s self-aware line readings were funny in “Uncle Buck” (1989) and “Home Alone” but come across as amateurish here. Perhaps he and Wood should have swapped roles. Culkin has some good moments, but his self-conscious acting is a stark contrast to the always believable Wood.
Ruben is a good director, but he nailed this kind of material in “The Stepfather” (1987), which also sported a perversely riveting concept (based on a horrific true story) and was anchored by Terry O’Quinn’s unforgettable performance.
Too light for horror movie fans and too sick for children, “The Good Son” has none of the bite of the Damien Thorn films (any of them) and can’t hold a candle to latter like “Joshua” (2007), the best version of this genre of movie.
Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood on the set of the movie The Good Son. 1993 [1200×941] pic.twitter.com/HstPixXPXt
— Historyland (@HistoryIand) August 22, 2023
“The Bad Seed” (1956) is cited as a key in this subgenre, but Ruben’s film wants to go all-in and embrace the madness of “Bloody Birthday” (1981) and “The Children” (1980) but keeps pulling back.
There is social commentary and parental reflection to gauge within these types of movies, but the story’s twisted potential is softened by an overly safe approach.
It’s a weird experience watching “The Good Son,” in that we want the film to get much gnarlier but cringe whenever the film is cruel enough to suggest that Kevin McCalister would stoop to killing a dog for fun.
The screenplay is by Ian McEwan and likely would have played better without the stunt casting. McEwan’s novel, “The Comfort of Strangers,” became a jolting Christopher Walken-led 1990 Paul Schrader drama.
I had an especially strange experience seeing “The Good Son” in a theater on opening night.
It was playing on multiple screens and the usher accidentally sent my father, brother and I into a sold-out theater where there were almost no seats left and the film was 20 minutes from finishing.
The three of us sat down, got to hear the adorable young star declare “Don’t f— with me” to a theater full of gasps and, just a few scenes later, the movie was over.
We realized what had happened, and my dad arranged for us to see the film from the beginning. Yet, seeing the film in its entirety was almost exactly like watching the extremely truncated version: we’re there to watch Culkin majorly misbehave and do really bad things, then the movie is over.
The perverse attraction of the film was present in either experience.
In the final scene, a mother makes a choice that allows for a feel-good voice over before the end credits. Had the mother made the trickier, more dramatically richer choice of choosing to save a different kid, it would have made for a darker, more thought-provoking conclusion.
Everything about “The Good Son” is like that – as ugly as this gets, it barely earns its R-rating and soft peddles a story that needed filmmakers unafraid of whom was playing the very bad seed.
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