When you're director Rian Johnson you can probably make any movie you damn well want.. After all, despite the backlash from some fans, Johnson's "The Last Jedi," which was coming off his visionary sci-fi "Looper," was critically acclaimed, confirmed his ever-growing talents as a writer-director, and impressed Disney so damn much that they decided to give him sole authority of an entirely brand new upcoming Star Wars trilogy. We also realize that 'Jedi' and 'Solo' had problematic box-office numbers, and that Disney head Bob Iger has confirmed they are “slowing” down the process of releasing more movies post-Episode IX. so, with all that being said, what is Johnson to do in the meantime? How about make an original movie.
Read moreAcademy Invites 842 New Members, Half of Them Women
842 new members have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Half of the new invitees to the film academy are women and 29% people of color. The Academy has thereby doubled its percentage of nonwhite members over the last four years. In 2015, people of color accounted for 8% and in 2019, based on these new invites, that percentage has gone up to 16% If 95% of the invites are accepted, which should be the case, then the film academy will number more than 9,000 members.
And they will still get the winners wrong.
2019 Box-Office Revenue Down 10 Percent; Original Hits Are Nearly Extinct.
Just a few weeks ago, Bloomberg's Anousha Sakoui wrote an alerting piece on the Hollywood’s disappointing summer at the Box-Office. Sakoui opened the piece by stating "more than a month into the summer movie season, one thing has become clear: Many of Hollywood’s sequels, reboots and reimaginings are falling flat."
Read morePaolo Sorrentino’s ‘Loro' Finally Being Released in the U.S.
I can't really say I am a fan of Paolo Sorrentino's cinema, I mean, I do respect it, there's a picturesque quality to his films that is undeniable, but "Il Divo," "The Great Beauty," and "Youth" felt like empty Fellinni-esque exercises. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to his Silvio Berlusconi biopic, starring Toni Servillo as the formerly disgraced Italian Prime Minster.
Read moreOh, Hell No.
2017’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” made a lot of money. It surpassed the $350M mark domestically, making it the 5th highest grossing film of 2017 domestic. It was just $40M shy of the billion dollar worldwide mark — these numbers make it the highest-grossing domestic movie of Dwayne Johnson's career. Oh, and it was also the first December release in twenty years to have a #1 spot in February, last achieved by a little movie called “Titanic” back in February ‘98. So, yeah, “Jumanji” was a big deal and, yet, I didn’t care an ounce for it. Go figure.
Read moreTop 10 Best Plot Twists in Modern Cinema History
It isn’t my fault that this list, and video, which I scripted and B-rolled for WatchMojo back in 2014 mostly contains American movies. Hollywood has always had a knack to try to one-up its audience with gimmickry. Whereas European and Asian filmmakers are not interested as much, because, truth be told, twists are indeed gimmicks, but, sometimes, they can work marvelously well.
Read moreBox-Office: ‘Toy Story 4' on Pace to Only Make Half of What ‘Toy Story 3' Grossed Worldwide
I will not be talking about the average “Annabelle Comes Home” opening ($20.3M). Because, frankly, I don’t really care about the movie enough. I’ve already mentioned “Yesterday” exceeding expectations with a #3 debut this weekend, although the $17M intake is a little less than the $20M I was projecting on Friday. So, no, let’s talk about “Toy Story 4” instead.
Read moreThe Much Talked About Scene in ‘Yesterday'
[If you haven’t seen “Yesterday” then stop reading this article. A key plot point is about to be discussed.]
There’s a moment in Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday” when its protagonist, Jack Malik, knocks on the door of an isolated beach house and a 78 year-old John Lennon (played by Robert Carlyle) answers. The alternate-universe that the film had set-up in it first hour paves the way for this unique moment. It only makes sense for Lennon to still be alive in a world where The Beatles never existed. There is no reason for him to have been shot by a celeb-obsessed stalker.
Read moreWell-Reviewed Indies Are Dying at the Summer Box-Office; Blame the Critics?
People are starting to panic about the complete and total failing of indies at the summer box-office. The list of critically-acclaimed movies that weren’t supposed to bomb is significant: “Late Night,” “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” “Booksmart,” and “The Souvenir.” Then again, although well-reviewed, I don’t particularly find these to be movies that wholeheartedly deserved a wide audience, not even Joanna Hogg’s critically acclaimed “The Souvenir,” which has, according to multiple accounts, become a walkout favorite for movie audiences nationwide. There’s a lot of virtue signaling going on, in case you didn’t notice from that list of films— these are movies that are just not as good as the reviews claim them to be. American audiences have caught on to that, if these were good films then maybe the grosses would be higher. Simple as that.
Read moreDave Bautista Says He'd ‘Rather Do Good Films' Than Star in ‘Fast and Furious’ Movies
I hope Universal Pictures has taken note of Dave Bautista’s recent insult at their most prized and lucrative franchise. On Twitter, a fan asked the “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor if he’d ever want to play the villain in a “Fast and Furious” spinoff starring Dwayne Johnson and John Cena. Bautista’s answer? He’d rather stick to doing ‘good films’
Read moreSpike Lee's ‘Do The Right Thing' Is 30
"My people, my people, what can I say, say what I can. I saw it but didn't believe it, I didn't believe what I saw. Are we gonna live together, together are we gonna live?" — Mister Señor Love Daddy, “Do the Right Thing”
Read more‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ From Director Taylor Sheridan - Starring Angelina Jolie and Jon Bernthal?
I’m hit/miss when it comes to critically-acclaimed writer-director Taylor Sheridan. His movies all encompass the same blueprint, they feel etched in screenwriting 101 tropes. “Sicario” was mostly driven by Denis Villeneuve’s pulse-pounding direction, its sequel ‘Day of the Soldado’ was a total mess; “Wind River” was a snowy letdown, but Sheridan’s more-than-decent directorial debut “Hell or High Water” was a solid neo-western, albeit, a tad overpraised. Suffice to say, you can rest assured, in all of these and future Sheridan opuses, there will always be an unnecessarily elaborated coda stuffed in for good measure.
Read moreAlfred Hitchcock's ‘North By Northwest' Turns 60
Danny Boyle's ‘Yesterday’ Review: A Great Premise Is Squandered By Romantic Subplot
Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday” is first and foremost a Richard Curtis movie — if you don’t know him, Curtis is an expert at writing romcoms which include “Love Actually,” “About Time” and “ “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”
With all that said, If the synopsis of “Yesterday” sounds like an absolute blast on-paper then, hate to say it, it doesn’t meet those expectations on-screen. By now you must have surely seen the ads; failing singer-songwriter Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) wakes up one morning, only to learn that The Beatles never existed and, more importantly, their rich catalogue of songs his for the taking. He ends up being heralded as the guy who wrote “Let it Be,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and other such classics. It’s all set-up quite nicely, in fact, with Boyle’s energetic brand of stylized filmmaking.
However, problems arise in the film’s second act, which has our main protagonist chasing the girl of his dreams, his best friend since the age of seven, which puts The Beatles stuff on pause for mundane romance. Instead of expanding on the ingenious premise, Curtis decides to inject his movie with off-puttingly mawkish sentiment. It’s a missed opportunity which cannot even be saved by the great soundtrack. [C+]
John Waters: The “Gross-Out Comedy" is Dead; Names Gaspar Noé’s ‘Climax’ Best Movie of the Last Year.
I can never get enough of director John Waters — just the sheer fact that he is responsible for making “Pink Flamingos,” one of the most tasteless movies ever created, ranks him way up in my books.
Read morePaul Schrader Attacks Brian De Palma's Artistry: “Brian Is Trite, Brian Is Artistically Weak”
Paul Schrader’s Facebook page is a delirious must-follow for any cinephile out there. The legendary writer-director has a, more or less, “fuck it” attitude towards everything. This could sometimes be a dangerous balancing act, especially when it comes to today’s P.C. attitudes online — I mean, at some point last year, during A24’s “First Reformed” awards campaigning, he was put in “Facebook jail,” as he put it, by the indie studio because of his all-too-honest approach on social media.
Read moreFantasia Film Festival’s Full 2019 Lineup Includes ‘Ready or Not' World Premiere
The 2019 Fantasia Film Festival will be happening in just a few weeks from now (more precisely July 11th), I will be there for full coverage of the event in Montreal, Canada.
Read more‘Cold Case Hammarskjöld’ Trailer: The Best, Most Shocking Documentary You Will See in 2019
I met Danish journalist and filmmaker Mads Brügger in the lobby of the Mariott hotel at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, just to congratulate him on the triumphant documentary he had just screened at the fest.
Read moreJohn Cooper To Step Down as Sundance Head in 2020
I had heard more than a few months ago that John Cooper was going to step down as head director of the Sundance Film Festival. It was, however, only officially announced today that, after just 10 years on the job, Cooper will move into a newly-created “emeritus director” role after the 2020 edition of the festival next January.
Read moreTerrence Malick's ‘A Hidden Life’ Set For Oscar-Ready December 13th Release
When Fox Searchlight nabbed the rights to distribute Terrence Malick's "A Hidden Life" for $13 Million, eyebrows were raised. It is a film so perplexing that even at the "high-brow" Cannes Film Festival there were hundreds of walkouts, you figured they’s go for Oscar. All this, despite the mixed reviews.. The film itself is problematic — you can read my review of it here.
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