Disney Fires 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Director James Gunn After Old, Controversial Tweets Resurface

James Gunn is no longer part of the MCU and has left "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

The controversy started after comedian Mark Duplass endorsed political commentator Ben Shapiro on Twitter, calling him a “genuine person.” 

In a since-deleted tweet, Duplass told his followers to "pay attention to Shapiro" if they are at all interested in “crossing the aisle.” Suffice to say, the extreme backlash to Duplass was brutal, which forced to actor to post an apology.

Gunn defended his fellow filmmaker while still slamming Shapiro:

“Maybe you disagree with Mark Duplass, which is completely fair (personally I think even Ben Shapiro’s mother should unfollow him). But that doesn’t make Duplass’ point-of-view evil,” Gunn tweeted. 

He ended the Twitter rant by calling Shapiro an “asshole.” adding that “There are a lot of traitors & racists in the country today. Perhaps save the outrage for them.”

This led to Conservative personalities digging up some old tweets in which Gunn joked about the holocaust, pedophelia and rape. Gunn, who has not been shy with his distate for current President Donald J. Trump, has since deleted his Twitter account. 

Gunn tweeted his adieu to Twitter with a final message:

"The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him," said Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn.

"Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor."

Gunn is the brains behind "Guardians of the Galaxy," without him those movies and characters just wouldn't be what they are today. He has been writing the script for "Guardians 3," the movie was expected to be released in 2020. 

Gunn has accused President Donald Trump of being “an operative for a foreign national,” criticizing his zero-tolerance immigration policy, and blamed Republicans for future potential Russian election meddling. 

Actor Mark Duplass apologizes for, since deleted, pro-Ben Shapiro tweet

These days a lot of the more renowned Western philosophers seem to be associated with conservative thinking, but people like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro shouldn't really be simplified in that matter. Accusations of "alt-right," "racist," sexist and "bigot" will always be thrown at these people despite the fact that there really is not any proof for them to label as such. Beware, if you are liberal and do come forward with even a smidge of support for even a tiny little idea/theory these guys come up with, then you stand the chance to be labelled all of the derogatory terms I just mentioned. 

Indie actor Mark Duplass clearly has not gotten the memo, and had to issue an apology to his fans earlier on Thursday after a tweet in which he called Shapiro a “genuine person” with "good intentions."

Duplass has deleted the tweet, which he addressed to his “fellow liberals.” Shapiro's tweet was encouraging open-minded people to follow Shapiro if they are interested in hearing the other side of the argument. 

After deleting his tweet, Duplass wrote an apology: 

“So that tweet was a disaster on many levels. I want to be clear that I in no way endorse hatred, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, or any such form of intolerance,” Duplass wrote. “My goal has always been to spread unity, understanding and kindness.” 

Duplass said he will “make mistakes along the way” because he "moves too quickly when excited about an idea, fails to properly research or doesn’t communicate properly." He went on to add  “I’m really sorry. I now understand that I have to be more diligent and careful. I’m working on that,” Duplass wrote. “But, I do believe deeply in bi-partisan understanding and I will continue to do my best to promote peace and decency in the world right now."

Shapiro fired back not too soon after the 'apology": 

“I want to say thank you to those who reached out with constructive criticism. I have genuinely learned so much and wish everyone all the best.” Shapiro fired back, “So in 24 hours I apparently went from being a person with good intentions to a racist sexist bigot. Twitter toxifies any attempt to cross the aisle. There's no conservative Mark could have recommended who wouldn’t receive the same blowback.”

“Today's Leftist lesson on Twitter: write a nice tweet about someone with whom you disagree politically, get labeled a racist sexist homophobe. Good stuff, guys. Really showing that tolerant streak.” 

Conservative journalist Steven Crowder tweeted, “Don’t worry, @benshapiro. He did the exact same thing with me last year. Appeared twice, got gaslit by the left and acquiesced. It doesn’t matter how kind you are.” New York Times columnist Bari Weiss wrote, “Another successful struggle session. The sin: humbly suggesting people read those they disagree with.”

WB on Snyder “Justice League" Cut: “Who are these people who won’t stop talking about the magical Snyder cut that doesn’t exist?”

The Wall Street Journal decided to tackle the neverending saga of Zach Snyder's "Justice League "director’s cut.

WSJ spoke to people from the higher echelons of Warner Bros. and, sorry Snyder fans,  it doesn't look there are any plans in releasing the holy grail for many DCEU fans.

Zack Snyder refused to comment, but his spokesperson said that he won’t discuss a director’s cut and hasn't even seen the Whedon-released version in theaters. 

WSJ also confirms that Snyder oversaw all of Joss Whedon’s proposed script changes, but they didn't go through when he was fired from production.

People close to the production also said, regarding the Snyder Cut, “Who are these people who won’t stop talking about the magical Snyder cut that doesn’t exist?”

Male Critics Are Harsher Than Women on Female-Led Films, Study Says

Alternatively, female critics are more lenient than men on female-led films. The open question is which group is actually right.

There is more than double the number of male film critics than female critics. According to a new study, there may be an unwanted bias from these male critics when films directed by women are reviewed. 

According to research released Tuesday by Martha Lauzen of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University:

"Female critics tend to give higher ratings to films with women in leading roles than male critics do: women writers gave an average rating of 74 percent to films starring women, whereas male writers gave those films an average rating of 62 percent. (The study converted stars and other rating systems to percentages.) Those figures leveled off more when men were in leading roles; women critics gave those films an average rating of 73 percent, and men on average rated them 70 percent."

Female critics are also more likely than their male counterparts to review films directed by and starring women — though that might be due to their own preferences — and also mention the names of female directors, and make exclusively positive remarks about their skills and vision."

“For decades, many male directors have benefited from reviews in which they have been described in larger-than-life, almost mythic ways,” Ms. Lauzen said in a statement. “Few women, with the possible exception of Kathryn Bigelow, have enjoyed this same kind of critical treatment.” 

The researchers used data from the aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, and examined some 4,111 reviews written by 341 critics working at print, online and broadcast outlets this past spring. Men made up 68 percent of those reviewers and women, 32 percent. More than four out of five of those critics, male and female, were white."

Venice: “Suspiria," “Roma," “Beautiful Boy," and Others Set to Premeire; No Barry Jenkins.

Variety's Nick Vivarelli is reporting on several sure-things for next week's announcement of the Venice Film Festival.

Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria”
Damien Chazelle’s “First Man”
Alfonso Cuaron's “Roma”
Paul Greengrass’ “Norway”
Felix Van Groeningen's “Beautiful Boy”
Bradley Cooper's “A Star is Born”
Jacques Audiard’s “The Sisters Brothers”
Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favorite”

However, Vivarelli also mentions that Joel Edgerton’s “Boy Erased” and Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk” are both not going to be competing at this year’s festival. I'm more interested in Beale, because that seems to be what most cinephiles are curious about. I'm now thinking that Telluride will have “If Beale Street Could Talk” and that the film might take the risk of snubbing TIFF and Venice. Probably appear NYFF soon afterward? Who knows.

The Venice Film Festival begins August 29. The actual full lineup will officially be announced next week.

Has Dwayne Johnson over-saturated the market?

Dwayne Johnson has been trying to find himself of late, box-office wise. His feud with Vin Diesel didn't help either, which consequentially, whether you want to admit it or not, had Johnson leaving the franchise for a spinoff film within the franchise.  Oy vey.

It doesn't look like Johnson's stock has gone up any higher either. With this spring's failed "Rampage," and this month's "Skyscraper" failing miserably at the box-office, with a paltry $24M opening weekend, this should be of grave concern for the 46 year-old Johnson. Skyscraper's budget was $125 Million. You do the math.

"Skyscraper" makes for Johnson’s lowest debut weekend since "Snitch" in 2013. 

Earlier in the month I brought out the theory that maybe, just maybe, Johnson had over-saturated the market.  That maybe people were starting to get tired of his shtick, who knows, but if he didn't have the surprising success of "Jumanji" we'd seriously be talking about an actor who's market value has indeed gone down.

A Box-Office report dated 7.18.18 by Jack Shepherd with the sub-headline "The actor has appeared in five movies in the last 15 months (plus the TV series Ballers)," says,"These gradually decreasing returns have led to lots of speculation online, the majority of analysts concluding that cinemagoers are just Dwayne Johnson-ed out."

Editor's note: Johnson has most definitely saturated the market, but he still has healthy franchises like "Jumanji," and the "Fast and the Furious" at his disposal. The article does state, more or less, that the actor should beware because he is, in fact, making too many movies at too intense a rate.  

Now back to Shepherd:

"After a slight break, Johnson’s back with three huge movies, all in quick succession: Fast and Furious spin-off Hobbs and Shaw (2 August), Disney’s Jungle Cruise (11) and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle 2 (3 December)."

Yikes.

Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells:

"Could it be that audiences are finally waking up to Hollywood Elsewhere’s longstanding assessment of Johnson, which is that he is fundamentally opposed to making good films and that his default instinct is to topline high-concept action films that are relentlessly stupid and implausible? In short, did audiences steer clear because critics are saying that Skyscraper is so dumb it’ll turn your brain into a volleyball? Are they finally starting to realize that Johnson has repeatedly shown contempt for audiences by making nothing but crap?"

Damien Chazelle’s ‘First Man’ With Ryan Gosling to Open 75th Venice Film Festival

Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle’s space movie “First Man” will open the 75th annual Venice International Film Festival. The film is expected to premiere on Wednesday, Aug. 29.

Other recent Venice openers have included “Downsizing,” “Everest,” “Birdman,” “Gravity,” “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” “The Ides of March,” and “Black Swan.”

Here's what I wrote when the trailer premiered:

Damien Chazelle. The writer-director, only 33, struck gold with the indisputably great "Whiplash," and then "La La Land" happened. By all accounts the latter, a musical starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling triumphed in Venice, Telluride and Toronto, on its way to becoming the front-runner for Best Picture at the Oscars and then poof. "Moonlight" of course won, but not without Chazelle taking a major hit. One of the most dumbfounding things to happen in mainstream cinema these last few years was the backlash that happened to "La La Land."

Why the backlash? Still not sure how it could have transpired, its 93 Metascore would lead to other conclusions, but it became a major whipping boy. Accusations of it being "too white," not understanding jazz, its leads not being able to sing and dance, Chazelle's style over substance direction, lead to it losing the Oscar. I remember when Chazelle was deemed Hollywood's next big thing, now what? Chazelle is not as "hip" as he used to be and his latest feature "First Man," which is about Neil Armstrong's journey to the moon, is not hip at all. It's full-fledged Oscar-bait and we know the Academy just doesn't go for that like they used to.

This trailer has a gritty feel to it, Gosling looks ready to go, Claire Foy as his wife a little less so, and the story? Rather pedantic. We'll see. I adore Chazelle's talent, I really do, but we haven't gone a full 23 years between this and "Apollo 13" without becoming a little sick of this genre. This looks like "The Right Stuff" mixed with the aforementioned Ron Howard-directed mission film. The story of Armstrong himself has always been known as a rather dull, tensionless affair, the man wasn't driven by his personality, no it was what he delivered as an astronaut that counted. All of this makes sense when it comes the time to ask the question why it took 57 years for Hollywood to finally make a movie about the man.

The film, written by “Spotlight” scribe Josh Singer, will be the fourth collaboration between Chazelle and American film composer Justin Hurwitz. However, this also looks like their only film not themed after Jazz or really just music in general.

I posted this on Facebook:

"I don't really know why some folks are excited about this film. I loved Whiplash, liked La La Land but Chazelle might be stretching his talent a little too far with this latest picture. It looks like a melange of "The Right Stuff," and "Apollo 13." Generic is the word I'd use."

‘Silicon Valley’ Actress: Rest of the Cast “Enabled" T.J. Miller's Behavior

When the news hit that T.J. Miller was a bit of a misogynist asshole on the set of "Silicon Valley," well, let's just say, that we weren't that surprised.  As they say, his reputation preceded him and you would hear talk all around the town of his behavior. He was rightfully let go of his acting duties on the HBO show, and thus the controversy surrounding the show was vanquished, or at least we thought.

Now, according to one actress from “Silicon Valley,” not only should Miller be held accountable for his actions, but so should the rest of the male-dominated cast and crew for "enabling" him. 

In a series of tweets, actress-comedian Alice Wetterlund spoke of her experience working with Miller on the set of the popular, award-winning HBO series:

“I hope to not ruin it for you, but TJ Miller was a bully and petulant brat and pretty much everyone who had any power on that (almost all male) set, including the male cast members, enabled him and were complicit in his unprofessionalism. They can fuck off forever,” she tweeted.

“I’m pretty open about this, and I don’t know if other women on the show had a different experience than me, but it was kind of a nightmare.”

After his exit from the show, the actor was arrested for calling in a fake bomb threat on a train. Miller was arrested and, to boot, he was intoxicated at the time of his arrest. 

As a fan of the show, I do remember Wetterlund having had a small, meaningless role in the series. Come to think of it, It looks like her character, Carla Walton, was scrapped after only six episodes. I do not know if she has the right to really criticize the on-set "enabling," especially if it means she's only appeared in 6 of the show's 60+ episodes, but her accusations to raise valid points about toxic bro culture, such as what happened at VICE.

10 Years Later: ‘The Dark Knight'

When "The Dark Knight" blasted into theaters almost 10 years ago, the big story was Christopher Nolan's seamless, atmospheric direction, which was and still is a landmark of the superhero genre. No, the late Heath Ledger's Joker stole Nolan's thunder. In fact, Ledger's Joker stole the movie from everyone involved, so much so that he won a well-deserved posthumous Supporting Actor Oscar for his work. Of course, Ledger's sudden death, just a few months before the film's release, only brought forth more attention towards his role. Some people thought, and still do, that the actor died because the method acting went a little too far and he, quite literally, became The Joker. Of course, that is pure folktale, on-set photos have shown Ledger in a rather happy mood, chuckling with the cast and crew, but it is no secret that he took his portrayal of the villainous jester very seriously when the cameras did roll.

How did Nolan make it to Hollywood legend with "The Dark Knight"?

In 2001, Warner Bros. announced that Nolan, hot off directing his debut "Memento," was going to direct "Insomnia," a remake of the critically acclaimed Scandinavian film of the same name. Later accounts would indeed confirm that Warner Bros. had given 'Insomnia" to Nolan as a sort of test. They wanted to know if he was ready to undertake a Hollywood movie and if he had the ability "to shoot coherent action within the mainstream studio-system." Suffice to say, they must have liked what they saw because not too soon after "Insomnia," The WB hired Nolan to helm The Dark Knight trilogy. Nolan was just 33 years old when he signed on to this ambitious undertaking.

Commenting on the notion of tackling Batman, Nolan had this to say back in 2003: “All I can say is that I grew up with Batman, I’ve been fascinated by him and I’m excited to contribute to the lore surrounding the character, He is the most credible and realistic of the superheroes, and has the most complex human psychology. His superhero qualities come from within. He is not a magical character. I had a fantastic experience with the studio on ‘Insomnia,’ and I’m keen to repeat that experience.”

"Batman Begins" kick-started it off in 2005, a grim and highly entertaining blockbuster that announced the arrival of a new kind of action movie. Batman's martial arts background had Jason Bourne's stamp written all over it. The every-man hero. 

In what looked like a tit for tat deal with Warner Bros, Nolan followed "Batman Begins" with his own personal project, 2006's mind-bending "The Prestige," which had the writer-director delivering a more personal brand of filmmaking, at least when compared to the epic and vast nature of 'Batman Begins." 

Then, "The Dark Knight" happened.

All Marvel and DC movies today are cash cows, muckrakers that put the bottom line way ahead of any kind of artistic statement; They might be entertaining, but there is no discernible, heavy substance to them, they don't necessarily adhere or parallel our current world. "The Dark Knight" did.

Nolan, along with an extraordinarily effective cast headed by Christian Bale as Batman and, more importantly, the late Heath Ledger as the Joker to haunt your dreams, perfected the genre.

Many have evoked "The Dark Knight" as a post 9/11 depiction of the new world order having gone astray.

In the film, the leader of the free world (Batman) has to make immoral concessions to battle terrorism (The Joker): To defeat his arch-nemesis, Batman has to do unheroic acts of violence, and even starts a spying program on the citizens of Gotham. 

This all leads to the moral question Nolan is asking us: how much evil must one commit to defeat evil? 

The joker, much like Al Qaeda or ISIS, had as a goal to bring Batman down to his law-breaking level; he wanted Batman to violate his own code. Hate to mention it again, but how much evil can a good person do to beat evil?

The Joker, like most terrorists, was an agent of chaos. That was his goal, to watch the world burn and laugh about it. How can you defeat a threat when they possess no moral compass whatsoever?

This battle between Batman and The Joker had some of the most notorious thinkers trying to nitpick the existential dilemmas in Nolan's film. 

Conservatives championed the film as their own; "This is about George W. Bush's fight against Al Qaeda!" Whereas, in the other end of the spectrum, liberals were saying, "No, this is our film! It is about standing up for what is morally right in the world.

In the film, Batman’s moral ground is shot to the ground when he decides to bring himself down to the Joker's level and creates a secret, mass surveillance technology to find the terrorist at large. The spying works, but Gotham's entire population, unbeknownst to them, have their phones hacked by a man they thought to be their "hero."  

“Beautiful. Unethical. Dangerous. Spying on 30 million people wasn’t in my job description.” Is how Lucius Fox, Batman's old friend and tech guru, described the system. Moreover, there lies the beauty of Nolan's vision; "The Dark Knight," in its purest essence, was about the paranoia and fear of government vis-a-vis the citizen.

The New York Times' Ross Douthat signified: "It's all about the belief that a compromised order can still be worth defending, and that darker things than corruption and inequality will follow from putting that order to the torch."

It is interesting how the perspective has changed 10 years later. Rewatching "The Dark Knight" feels like a different, altogether spookier, experience. Why? Because we have changed considerably since 2008. We know a lot more than we used to, due to the abundance of information available at our disposal, and, yet, we are much more hopeless and frustrated as a populace. Why? Because of the lack of transparency from our leaders, the endless barrage of lies coming from their mouths. Politicians are being called out for their hypocrisies and crimes, but no justice is being done. The questions “The Dark Knight” asked still remain highly pertinent and relevant.

Nolan's main stylistic influence was none other than Michael Mann's "Heat," "Collateral" and "The Insider."

In order for Christopher Nolan to up the ante with his sequel to Batman Begins, he decided to shift "The Dark Knight" into a crime epic [Via Collider interview]:

“I always felt ‘Heat’ to be a remarkable demonstration of how you can create a vast universe within one city and balance a very large number of characters and their emotional journeys in an effective manner”

“With The Dark Knight, in order to change the scale of the film, we went to a city story—we went to a crime epic. That allows you to look at all these different aspects of Gotham society. There’s a city-based socioeconomic idea behind the film that demands a different visual approach.”

“…so what we chose to do is to tell a very immediate, very linear story, but based on a slight genre shift, going a little more into the crime story, a little more into the kind of epic city stories of films like Michael Mann’s Heat, things like that, which I think achieve great scale, even though they’re confined within one city.”

The trilogy would go on to re-invent blockbuster action movie as well, so much so that Nolan's hand prints and style are still seen in Marvel, DC, Star Trek and Star Wars movies. Of course, with none of the gritty realism involved. No, if you want a better example of "The Dark Knight" influence in today's Hollywood look no further than Denis Villeneuve, a director that has turned out to be the best and most talented at replicating Nolan's sense of space, timing and framing in "The Dark Knight." 

Villeneuve's "Sicario," "Blade Runner 2049" and "Arrival" all banked on that style and felt like they could very much be a part of a Nolan-created universe. 

The Dark Knight" not only ended up making close to 600 million dollars at the domestic box office, but it captured the zeitgeist in a way that very few movies ever would again.

Notes:

"The Dark Knight" topped my list of the 10 greatest superhero movies ever made.

Rumor: Terrence Malick's "Radegund" to Premiere at Fall Festivals

In an interview with the Independent, actor Matthias Schoenaerts discussed his work on “Radegund” with Malick, and it seems like the film will maybe premiere at this year's fall film festivals. According to the Independent, we can expect “Radegund” to premiere either at Toronto or Venice, later this year. 

“Radegund” follows the real-life story of Austrian Franz Jägerstätter, who famously was a conscientious objector and refused to fight for the Nazis during World War II. 

Your liking of Malick, of late at least, will depend very much on whether you liked the last three films of his "Texas nouveau-riche"  trilogy; "Song to Song," "To The Wonder" and "Knight of Cups." It's the same idea, same style, same love triangles, same "wonderment" at nature, same self-congratulatory sense its own existence. I personally hated those films. I thought they were Malick jerk-off sessions. However, the biggest problem for me, when it came to these films, was the fact that he was casting a who's who of Hollywood A-listers, which rendered the films inauthentic in their attempt to attain authentic naturalism. These films featured some of the biggest names in the business: Ben Affleck, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams. Having star wattage, well known faces, did a disservice to what Malick was trying to achieve. You don't buy the romantic yearning these star actors are performing on-screen. Maybe having unknown actors would have benefited the story a little more.

These three films proved to be some of the most disappointing in my lifetime of watching movies. Soul crushing, even, Malick was amaster that could do no wrong before that, with films after film of considerable importance being released throughout his scattered but rich career: "Badlands," "Days of Heaven," "The Thin Red Line," "The Tree of Life" and, althought I'm not a fan," "The New World."

Suffice to say, the Malick-hate hit its goal of de-legitimizing the once legendary director.

These last three films from Malick, although original in their unconventional structure, had the most cliched love stories imaginable, but, more importantly, barely used a script. The word "mess" seems to be the most commonly used word from critics in their reviews.

With all that being said, I am very much looking forward to his next film, "Radegund," which has already wrapped-up shooting and was shot with German actors, all in German with English subtitles, and set in WWII. A departure from his the "Texas nouveau-riche" trilogy.

Malick gave a rare, in-depth Q&A following a screening of “Voyage of Time” at Washington D.C.’s Air and Space Museum (Thanks to And So It Begins…). It seems like the director was excited about shooting with a script again with "Radegund":

“Well, here was a script (in “Voyage of Time,") which was the evolutionary history of the universe [audience laughs]. And lately – I keep insisting, only very lately – have I been working without a script, and I’ve lately repented the idea. The last picture we shot, and we’re now cutting ("Radegund,") went back to a script that was very well ordered,” he said. “There’s a lot of strain when working without a script because you can lose track of where you are. It’s very hard to coordinate with others who are working on the film. Production designers and location managers arrive in the morning and don’t know what we’re going to shoot or where we’re going to shoot. The reason we did it was to try and get moments that are spontaneous and free. As a movie director, you always feel with a script that you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. And with no script, there’s no round hole, there’s just air. But I’m backing away from that style now.”

Alfonso Cuaron's 'ROMA' chosen for New York Film Festival

This fall movie season looks decent enough for me, but there seems to be something missing, a lot of these can turn out to be disappointments if the advanced buzz is any indication. The only film with actually no-holds-barred buzz seems to be Alfonso Cuaron and Netflix' "ROMA," which was supposed to be at Cannes but you, well, you know the rest of the story... Shot in black and white, the film chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s as civil unrest looms.

“ROMA” was supposed to debut at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival in competition, but was pulled after the, now famous, Cannes vs Netflix dispute occured. This was an obvious open slot for fall festivals to pounce on and, given the incredible buzz surrounding the movie, it's a no-brainer that the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced “ROMA” will be the centerpiece NYFF screening at Alice Tully Hall on Friday, October 5, 2018.

In a statement Cuaron spoke about the honor of having his latest chosen for NYFF:

“I am honored ‘ROMA’ has been selected for the Centerpiece slot at this year’s New York Film Festival.  NYFF has a longstanding history of celebrating meaningful and compelling filmmaking and it felt right to return to the festival with ‘ROMA’ —an incredibly personal, illuminating, and transformative project for me.”

The festival also expanded on the little-known plot:

“Set in Mexico City in the early ’70s, we are placed within the physical and emotional terrain of a middle-class family whose center is quietly and unassumingly held by its beloved live-in nanny and housekeeper (Yalitza Aparicio). The cast is uniformly magnificent, but the real star of ‘ROMA’ is the world itself, fully present and vibrantly alive, from sudden life-changing events to the slightest shifts in mood and atmosphere. Cuarón tells us an epic story of everyday life while also gently sweeping us into a vast cinematic experience, in which time and space breathe and majestically unfold. Shot in breathtaking black and white and featuring a sound design that represents something new in the medium, ‘ROMA’ is a truly visionary work.”

The NYFF premiere of "ROMA" will not be its world premiere.  The NYFF premiere is being qualified as a “New York Premiere.” Look for either Telluride or the Venice Film Festival to have the much-sought world premiere of Cuaron's latest epic.

The 2018 New York Film Festival will occur September 28th to October 14th.

‘Assassination Nation’: Social Media Satire Misses The Mark

Excerpts from my mixed review of ‘Assassination Nation’ at this year's Sundance Film Festival:

“Assassination Nation” starts off in deliciously horrific fashion, with a warning about the “sensory assault” that’s about to happen onscreen. “Fragile male egos” are told to brace themselves for murder, bullying, and torture, and a kinetic montage follows teasing all the mayhem that’s about to ensue. If only the film were that exciting."

"Writer-director Sam Levinson’s film sold for $10 million, a record at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. That’s all fine and dandy and not surprising considering the rambunctious audience reaction it garnered earlier in the week at the Midnight screening premiere. But after the dust has settled, this satirical riff on the dangers of social media feels like a non-starter for the horror genre."

"The climax, which has Levinson framing his “badass” sword-wielding girls walking in slow-motion down the streets of their suburban neighbourhood, looking to exact their revenge, is ridiculously overwrought and on the nose, but maybe that’s the point. This is Levinson’s ode to American excess, where nothing comes simply and the potential for society to crumble into chaos is just a mouse click away."

Here’s the official synopsis:

"High school senior Lily and her group of friends live in a haze of texts, posts, selfies and chats just like the rest of the world. So, when an anonymous hacker starts posting details from the private lives of everyone in their small town, the result is absolute madness leaving Lily and her friends questioning whether they’ll live through the night."

“Assassination Nation” is unleashed into theaters on September 21.

Joel Edgerton's “Boy Erased" Tackles Gay-Conversion Therapy

Joel Edgerton will most likely be bringing his Boy Erased (11.2) to TIFF, Venice and, maybe even, Telluride. It does stink of Awards-bait prestige, but, alas, at least we have a mainstream film about, and made for, adults coming our way. 

Lucas Hedges ("Manchester By The Sea," "Lady Bird") starring in it doesn't hurt either. Hedges plays real-life Garrard Conley, "whose experience with Christian gay-conversion therapy was the subject of his 2016 novel, “Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family.”  Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman play Conley's ultra-conservative, and Christian parents. Edgerton is Hedges’ conversion therapist. 

I do hope the film goes much deeper into the gay-conversion process, especially after the Sundance-winning "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" balked at the harder questions. The therapeutic process of gay conversion is, by all accounts, a horrifying experience. You can't sugarcoat it. I hope Edgerton nails it.

Production of “Rub & Tug” Scrapped After ScarJo Exit

As I predicted would happen, after Scarlett Johansson's exit from the production “Rub & Tug,” due to the whole 'ciswashing' controversy, the film has been scrapped and will likely never happen.

According to The Wrap, Johansson's exit “doesn’t look good for the movie,” meaning the project might just die altogether without Johansson's involvement. 

This all goes along with what I said last week,  that the actress’ name was the biggest selling factor for the film's existence. 

This could be a real blow for people complaining that there aren't enough LGBTQ movies being produced in Hollywood. It could also mean that fewer producers will be willing to finance or package films about the Trans community because they would run the risk of causing a backlash. 

Timothee Chalamet rumored to join Denis Villeneuve's "Dune"

In my world, Frank Herbert‘s “Dune” will always be associated with Lynch‘s botched cinematic adaptation. I remember really getting into Lynch around the early '90s but being warned about his take on Herbert's novel. It was said to be the nadir of his career. However, I still gave it a shot because, after all, how bad can it be if it was directed by the "Wizard of Odd" himself. 

I can still remember that feeling of watching it and being totally crushed by how bad "Dune" was. The film didn't work at almost every possible artistic level. 

I know the book is great and deserves better than having a legacy live through the stench of that Lynch adaptation. And so, I welcome Denis Villeneuve‘s ambitious, risk-taking endeavor to take another shot at Herbert on the silver screen.

Deadline's Mike Fleming is reporting that Villeneuve may have found his star lead in Timothee Chalamet.

“Samurai Jack" creator wants to bring back hand-drawn cartoons to big studio animated films

SyFy has "Samurai Jack" creator Genndy Tartakovsky quoted as saying that he wants to bring back hand-drawn cartoons to big studio animated films.

"I think one of the problems he will face is convincing executives that those animations will still produce the profits that 3D animated films are producing. My 2-year-old daughter loves Moana and Frozen, but she is bored stiff trying to watch hand-drawn 2D animation. She actually gets upset if I put on a cartoon that isn’t incredibly rendered like Word Party or Secret Life of Pets have been rendered. She’s been spoiled and I don’t see her changing her mind until she’s old enough to start grasping storylines and dialog intricacies."

I hope he succeeds. 2D animation has always had a certain unique charm unmatched by its 3D equivalent. 

The last full-length Disney film that was drawn using traditional (aka 2D) animation/no computerized assistance? 2011’s "Winnie the Pooh." And, as of right this minute, there are absolutely no plans for a new traditional/2D films from Disney or its rivals. Although, the master of the craft, Hayao Miyazaki did un-retire to make another film, so we do have that to look forward to.

Director Brad Bird ("The Iron Giant") had some interesting things to say about the future of traditional animation last year [Brad Bird Wants to Make a New 2D-Animated Film Someday]: "I actually think it’s a lot more valid than other people do. I think the industry tends to like to think in the narrow sort of mindset of a businessman, and businessman absolutes and movies really exist in a much grayer region of dreams and stuff like that, and instinct is prized in movies, it’s not prized with the businessmen in movies, but movies themselves often reward instinct rather than pie charts. And what has not been done is that there’s been no American animation done on Disney-level quality that has really gone into different genres. For instance, there’s never been a horror movie in animation executed at a Disney-level quality and hand-drawn, I’m not talking about CG I’m talking about hand-drawn, but it doesn’t take a lot to imagine how cool that would be. If you think of the scariest parts of Snow White or Pinocchio or Fantasia with Night on Bald Mountain, you could do something really scary in animation and I think if you did it right, if you did it with all the art that Spielberg did Jaws, I think that it would be an amazing experience because there’s something intuitive about when people are drawing directly with their hands."

"The problem is that every time people have deviated from the Disney playbook in hand-drawn animation, they’ve done so with staff that is nowhere near the Disney-level talent or Disney-level budgets. So you have things like Heavy Metal, which not all of them are great, but a couple of them are really interesting, but they didn’t have the money or the artists to pull them off at the level that maybe they should’ve been pulled off. Whereas in live-action film there are all kinds of new films being done in different genres where people can really execute an idea at a top level. It’s just that animation rewards grooming a team and keeping a team in place. That’s why when studios try to emulate Disney on the quick-and-cheap they always fail because Disney has refined their animation team over years, they have a history of it, people go to Disney and know that there’s going to be a job after the movie, there’s going to be another movie. And when you assemble animation teams the way you do a live-action film, you’re often struggling a bit to get a cohesive team together, so if you have a team that works well together, you’re hoping for another film so that you can refine the team.""But for someone like me who wants to move back and forth between animation and live-action, that becomes its own challenge, but I absolutely think that hand-drawn animation is valid and I actually hope to do one in the future with a large budget and a longer schedule than we had on Iron Giant."

Bruce Willis: “Die Hard" is not a Christmas movie

I always liked the notion that "Die Hard" could be seen as a great "Christmas movie." The atmosphere of the film is filled with Christmas vibes. You have the Christmas songs, the wintry decorations,  and even have the main character writing “Ho Ho Ho” on a villain's corpse. 

Read More: "Die Hard" Celebrates 30 years.

Now, 30 years later, its star Bruce Willis is trying to steal that cozy feeling away from us asWillis, during a Comedy Central roast, declared that "Die Hard" “isn’t a Christmas movie — it’s a goddam Bruce Willis movie.” 

"When Willis had a chance to take the stage, he joked that Norton “rubbed more people the wrong way than Harvey Weinstein”—which should’ve elicited more boos than Rodman’s joke—and then he dared to draw the ire of a very specific branch of fans by declaring, “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.” 

And, that's that.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

Felicity Jones stars as RBG in “On the Basis of Sex"

They need to lose that pop song. 

Am I pumped for this? I can't say I am. This looks like a conventional Hollywood biopic, but it will, no doubt, be heralded for its pertinent and relevant parallels to today's social issues. 

“On the Basis of Sex” is director Mimi Leder’s first feature film in almost 10 years, her past credits include, yikes, “Pay It Forward” and “Deep Impact.” 

She has had a better career in television, even winning two Emmys for “ER” and, for directing several episodes of HBO’s “The Leftovers.” One of the best-directed TV series in the medium's history.

"On the Basis of Sex" stars Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Kathy Bates, Sam Waterston, Jack Reynor, Stephen Root, Cailee Spaeny, and Justin Theroux. It will hit theaters on December 25.