I couldn’t even utter a word, let alone type one, after I saw this past week’s released trailer for Paramount’s upcoming live-action “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie. I mean, it was bad, real bad. Add in an over-acting Jim Carrey, basically spoofing his old self, as the villain et voila you have a potential recipe for disaster at the box-office.
Read more‘Meeting Gorbachev’: Werner Herzog's Fascinating Doc on Former Soviet Leader [Review]
Mikhail Gorbachev’s legacy is that of being the eighth and final President of the Soviet Union, but this often misunderstood leader had a much more significant role in the world stage. Prolific director Werner Herzog‘s powerful documentary “Meeting Gorbachev” tries to paint a picture of a leader haunted by a never fully completed vision of a utopian, capitalist-driven USSR, one which, the director shows, had incredible similarities to today’s European Union.
Read moreIndiana Jones 5 To Be Written By ‘Life Itself' and 'This Is Us' Screenwriter Dan Fogelman?
Slash Film has published a reliable-enough-sourced rumor that Indiana Jones 5, starring a 70-year-old Harrison Ford, will be written by Dan Fogelman of “Life Itself” and “This Is Us” fame. If true, I worry.
Fogelman was the scribe of witty pop-culture-oriented fare such as "Crazy Stupid Love” and the somewhat underrated Disney animated flick “Tangled.” However, his screenwriting filmography does also include below-average entities such as "Danny Collins," "Last Vegas," "The Guilt Trip" and "Cars 3.”
I do need to mention this film again, but Fogelman is coming is just coming off it; Life Itself,” which is, honestly, one of the absolute worst big-studio screenplays of the last few years. Critic April Wolfe described the movie quite well, actually, in her review: "The Crash-meets–Collateral Beauty false-gravitas joke of the year."
If the rumor is correct that he has been hired to rewrite the Indy 5 script, which had previously been worked on by David Koepp and Jonathan Kasdan, then this is a major change in plans Howere, one must logically think that, by hiring him, supposed-director Steven Spielberg and Producer George Lucas have enough confidence in Fogelman, and the pitch that he surely gave to them, so as to know that this cannot, under any circumstances, be another ‘Crystal Skull”-level fiasco. Indy fans have suffered enough since the release of that film.
As mentioned, Spielberg is set to direct, this would be his next film immediately following the currently-in-production “West Side Story.”
‘Longshot' is the Best Studio Comedy of the Year So Far
Jonathan Levine’s “Long Shot” asks us to buy into the concept that Charlize Theron can be attracted to Seth Rogen. Theron plays highly-succesful, 40-ish, Secretary of State Charlotte Field, who is also planning a presidential run for the White House. Rogen is Fred Flarsky — an unemployed journalist hired by Charlotte as her speechwriter, in part because she babysat him when she was in her teens. So, not only is Charlotte such a physically attractive mismatch for Rogen, but she is older than him as well and way more successful. Can this happen in real life? Theron is only six years older than Rogen, but she’s still Charlize Theron, hotness personified, the woman of my dreams, and he’s still Seth effin’ Rogen (not to diss him in any way) — what are the chances of this kind of romance actually happening? The slogan for the film reads “unlikely but not impossible.” At least Levine has the courtesy to admit that a story such as this one is rare.
Read more‘Blinded By The Light’ Trailer: A Love Letter to The Boss
Bruce Springsteen is a God amongst Gods in my world. I worship at the altar of the boss. So, of course, I had a clear-cut bias going into Gurinder Chadha’s “ Blinded By the Light,” and, yes, shockingly, I absolutely adored every minute of its un-shamefully sappy 2 hours. What can you say about a movie that has you smiling ear-to-ear from beginning to end? However, even non-Bruce fans were rather smitten by it at Sundance, where it had its world premiere this past January. This movie is going to be a major crossover hit, I can feel it, I can sense it in my, as Wells would say, insect antennae. I’ll watch it again, I’ll bring my wife, my sisters, my mom, whomever has a love for solid, mainstream filmmaking and has had to deal with me blasting Springsteen’s music on a damn-near weekly basis for years now.
Read moreQuentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' Confirmed for Cannes; Other additions Include Gaspar Noe, Abdelatif Kechiche and Patricio Guzman
Well, I did tell you people not to worry. Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was very much going to be included in this year’s Cannes competition — Tarantino desperately wanted to be there. It was finally confirmed today that, along with Abdellatif Kechiche‘s “Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo,” Tarantino’s movie will indeed play in competition at Cannes in two weeks. It will screen on May 21st, which would mark exactly 25 years since Pulp Fiction had its Cannes debut.
Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux: The film is a “love letter to the Hollywood of his childhood, a rock music tour of 1969, and an ode to cinema as a whole.”
As for Mektoub, which, I was told, includes a prolonged sex scene, Kechiche-style, Fremaux said he “saw the film last Thursday, as it was still being edited, and definitely right in the middle of edits.” Running four effing hours, Intermezzo will screen at the end of the festival “so the DCP has time to get there.”
Gaspar Noé’s “Lux Aeterna” and Patricio Guzmán’s “La Cordillera de los sueños “were also note-worthy additions in today’s lineup announcement. The Noe is supposed to be 50 minutes in length and is a midnight screening. Wowza.
The Most Important Movie of the Quentin Tarantino's Career?
I will be at Cannes next week, but they still haven't announced Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood," despite the fact that, from what I've heard, it will indeed premiere there. I'm just thinking they are taking their sweet-ass time to announce it because this will be such a game-changer for them, in terms of much-needed EXPOSURE in the States. So sad, how American interest in Cannes is waning, to the point where people are complaining there aren't enough movies from the U.S. premiering there -- I mean, how culturally ignorant a nation? Has it stooped that low since Marvel/Disney took over the entire industry?
‘Django Unchained’ Director’s Cut To Be Released By Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino is most likely going to premiere his next movie “Once Upon A Time in America” at Cannes (a few sources have confirmed that to me). However, Tarantino has been busy on a few fronts of late; Netflix has just released a 5-episode director’s cut of “The Hateful Eight” and now he’s revealed, speaking with /Film’s Chris Evangelista, that he also recut “Django Unchained” into a director’s cut:
Read more‘Knock Down the House’: Love Her or Not, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Doc Will Fire You Up [Review]
Young, female, brown, carrying oh-so-terrifying socialist ideals of equality for the underrepresented, and not afraid to speak her mind loudly, U.S. House of Representatives politician and activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez currently has the Washington D.C. establishment quaking in their boots. Laugh if you want to, but there’s absolutely a reason a brand new, relatively inexperienced 29-year-old congresswoman—the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States—has found herself in the crosshairs of Fox News, The Daily Caller, and dozens of alt-right conservative voices. She’s absolutely dangerous to them because she represents a wakeup call to America and a voice of change they desperately want to suppress.
Read more‘Sonic the Hedgehog' Trailer: What the Hell Did I Just Watch?
I can’t un-see what I’ve just witnessed by watching this “Sonic the Hedgehog” trailer. I never thought I'd see a Sonic movie trailer using Coolio’s "Gangsta's Paradise.” Add in Jim Carrey as the villain and you have a movie that feels like to should have been released in 2002.
Read moreMartin Scorsese Defends Netflix: ‘They Came Up With the Money and the Freedom’
I have no problem with Netflix crashing the Oscar game, it could help and push the other major studios to step up their game and actually produce more original content instead of the money-hungry, franchise-obsessed mindset that is currently running rampant in almost every major exec's head.
Read moreOlivier Assayas’ ‘Non-Fiction' is an Amiably Intellectual Exercise on Social Media [TIFF Review]
Leave it to the French to philosophize about Twitter and E-books. That's exactly what Olivier Assayas' "Non-Fiction" dares to do and, for the most part, this small little trifle of a film actually works. Coming off his brilliant "Personal Shopper," Assayas decides to make a more relaxing film this time around. This intermingling of relationships and friendships, set in the publishing world, is just an excuse for Assayas to update Rohmer for the 21st century, but in a minor key.
Read moreIn ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile' the Devil is the Charmer [Review]
Award-winning documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger and late collaborator Bruce Sinofsky were always interested in making films about the way our justice, or injustice, system works; the perpetrators, the victims, the fascination was there seeped into every frame of “Brother’s Keeper” and “Paradise Lost.” However, in “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile,” Berlinger decides to turn his camera towards the charismatic killer and the way evil can easily be shaded by charm.
Read moreCritics' Poll: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road' Named Best Movie of the 2010s
250 critics, programmers, academics, and distributors have spoken.
Read moreCritics Poll: Top 75 Movies of the Decade
The full top 75.
Read more‘Boyz n the Hood' Director John Singleton passes away ...
Variety reported this afternoon that director John Singleton died after being taken off life support. Singleton was 51.
Read moreCannes Jury Will Include Elle Fanning, Yorgos Lanthimos, Paweł Pawlikowski, Kelly Reichardt & More
The jury has been announced for the 2019 Festival de Cannes and this year’s president, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, will have a very nice jury putting him to the task to make the right decisions.
The “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director will be joined by Elle Fanning, Maimouna N’Diaye, Kelly Reichardt, Enki Bilal, Alice Rohrwacher, Robin Campillo, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Paweł Pawlikowski.
Jean-Luc Godard Says He's Working on His Next Film, A Yellow-Vest Drama
88-year-old Jean-Luc Godard has revealed that he is working on a new movie. This all confirms what I have long suspected, that his latest feature “The Image Book” was not going to be his swan song. Of course not, the guy lives to make films, why would he just quit like that? If anything, the creative process is giving him meaning and purpose in his twilight years, much like Woody Allen, actually.
Read moreNo Screenings or Trailer For James Gray's ‘Ad Astra' Spells Trouble for Upcoming May Release
I am not sure what is going on with 20th Century Fox/Disney’s upcoming James Gray-directed “Ad Astra” —an arthouse sci-fi movie, which is supposed to open on May 24th. Many of the film journalists that create buzz around a film will probably be at Cannes between 5.10 thru, at the very least, 5.12, so when can Gray’s film actually screen locally for that press corp? A week before its release? Not a legitimate plan to create buzz.
Read moreThe Participants
Simon Abrams (RogerEbert)
Certified Copy
It's Such a Beautiful Day
Last of the Unjust
Night Across the Street
Under the Skin