Category: Movies

“Sometimes the rules that you put on yourself till you’re figuring out how everything works don’t work in your favor.” Beasts of No Nation, starring Abraham Attah as Agu and Idris Elba, is a helluva film, and I couldn’t wait to talk to the director behind it. The Netflix Original Film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival (read my glowing review) but it wasn’t until just last week in New York City that I was able to catch up with writer/director Cary Fukunaga. Not only did he write and direct it, Fukunaga also shot the film as its cinematographer, and produced it. This is very much his film and he even spoke with me about how there were still sound tweaks he was making up to the last minute. This ended up being a fascinating, in-depth discussion about filmmaking with Cary Fukunaga and I wish I could’ve had more time with him. ›››

Continue reading Interview: Filmmaker Cary Fukunaga on Making ‘Beasts of No Nation’

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“I don’t like the tone of your voice!” We’re happy to exclusively debut this new 30-second TV spot for Barry Levinson’s comedy Rock the Kasbah, starring Bill Murray as a down-on-his-luck music manager lost on a wacky tour in Afghanistan. The actual story in this movie is about how he finds a local Afghani girl and brings her on the television show “Afghan Star”, but before he finds her, he loses his original act – played by Zooey Deschanel. She appears in this TV spot in some new footage, as well as Bruce Willis in another bit role. Check out the full-length trailer here and enjoy the TV spot below. Arriving in theaters next week. ›››

Continue reading Exclusive: Fun New TV Spot for ‘Rock the Kasbah’ Starring Bill Murray

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“This generation’s American Psycho.” StudioCanal UK has debuted a brand new official trailer for Owen Harris’ Kill Your Friends, a crazy serial killer-esque movie about a music industry dude who gets a little too crazy in his search. Nicholas Hoult plays Steven Stelfox, an A&R man for the music business who goes to extreme lengths to find the next best act. “Fuelled by greed, ambition and inhuman quantities of drugs, Stelfox lives the dream, as he searches for his next hit record.” This certainly looks very brutal and very wild, but hopefully there’s something to it beyond just all the gratuitousness and excess. The cast includes Ed Skrein, Rosanna Arquette, James Corden, Craig Roberts and Tom Riley. Fire it up and watch out. ›››

Continue reading Watch This: Nicholas Hoult in Killer Full Trailer for ‘Kill Your Friends’

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Some interesting development news regarding a science fiction project we’ve been following for years. Over at Hollywood Reporter, they’re reporting that Austin, Texas-based filmmaker Robert Rodriguez is in negotiations to take over directing Battle Angel, the big sci-fi robot project that James Cameron had been attached to for years. In fact, Cameron is still a part of it, and provides a quote (see below) confirming he’s just so busy with the Avatar sequels that he wants to let Rodriguez do it. If you recall, this is the movie that Cameron says he had to wait years for until the VFX were right, so maybe he has faith that Rodriguez can pull that off now. I’m not entirely sure if I’m particularly excited by this choice, but Cameron likes him. ›››

Continue reading Robert Rodriguez Takes Over James Cameron’s ‘Battle Angel’ Movie

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“I’d like to be able to tell you everything I am thinking… but I can’t.” This is a really powerful trailer for this film. IFC has debuted their official US trailer for Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, which won Best Actor and Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. Those two winners are stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay as Kate and Geoff Mercer. This looks absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time, and I recommend watching the trailer just to be impressed by these performances right there. Then, of course, go see the film in theaters when it opens in December. From one very positive review: “This story is about whether secrets can be survived, whether the knowing or not knowing is more injurious.” ›››

Continue reading Official Trailer for Andrew Haigh’s ’45 Years’ with Charlotte Rampling

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When Suffragette begins, Maud is not one. She’s a working woman, a wife and a mother, going about her life as best she can, trying to be respectful and do as she’s told. Her work is pretty grim but she’s good at it. Instead of using this movie to tell the story of real people, writer Abi Morgan and director Sarah Gavron have created Maud, an amalgamation of many, many stories of real Suffragettes and everything that they endured. They then surround her with a few real stories but these characters remain in the background until needed. You know from the outset there is real truth to this fiction and, with Carey Mulligan at the lead, and Morgan and Gavron behind the scenes, this movie will not hide from the horrors faced. It’s taken a very long time to make a movie about the Suffragettes but the angle chosen is spot on, and entirely worth the wait. ›››

Continue reading London Film Festival Review: Sarah Gavron’s Drama ‘Suffragette’

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Last week at the BFI London Film Festival, English filmmaker Christopher Nolan showed up for a few interesting discussions on film and filmmaking. During one of his chats about the importance of continuing to use real film, as opposed to digital, he briefly commented on the topic of the theatrical experience and how bad it has become. If there’s anyone who knows about and should be listened to when it comes to the theatrical experience, it’s Christopher Nolan, as he has always valued the big screen experience as much as the story, and that’s why his films have such a cinematic feeling. “For some reason, it has become acceptable to say [to audiences] we are providing this empty room with a TV in it and just watch a film.” Oh so true. ›››

Continue reading Christopher Nolan Speaks on Need to Improve Theatrical Experience

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Just when I think we’ve seen every story about World War II that could be told, every story about the horrors of the holocaust, every story about all the different participants in that war, along comes a film that proves that once again how unbelievable it all was and how many stories there are still to tell. Son of Saul is one of this year’s films set during WWII, specifically set at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp near the end of the war. It follows, literally, a Hungarian Jewish man named Saul around the camp as he works as a “Sonderkommando“, an insider who helps the Germans at the camp carrying out their mass murdering in exchange for an extended life at the camp. This film is harrowing, hard to watch at times, but a masterpiece – and I’m talking about this being a best of the decade kind of film, not just best of the year. ›››

Continue reading NYFF Review: László Nemes’s Harrowing Masterpiece ‘Son of Saul’

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“To understand this story, you have to understand where it happened – in the mine!” Today marks the fifth anniversary of the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped 200 stories below ground for 69 days following the disastrous collapse of a copper-mine in Copiapó, Chile. As we all know already, Warner Bros is releasing their big screen version of this story called The 33 in theaters next month. We’ve already featured two different trailers previously, but this featurette is meant to remind everyone of how invested the world was in waiting and hoping for the survival of these trapped miners. Antonio Banderas stars and talks in this video. The cast includes Rodrigo Santoro, Cote de Pablo, Naomi Scott, Juan Pablo Raba & many others. ›››

Continue reading Anniversary Featurette for the Chilean Miner Rescue Movie ‘The 33’

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Whether you know him as the dad from “Malcolm in the Middle” or as Walter White, there’s no denying the chameleon-like acting skills of Bryan Cranston. In Trumbo directed by Jay Roach, he plays the titular character with an outlandish caricature-style panache that anyone else could so easily have turned into pure farce. Thanks to Cranston, however, Trumbo manages to come across as a man driven by the injustice surrounding him. His Trumbo is annoyingly charming and doggedly determined, and his sometimes quietly powerful, sometimes manic and heart-breaking, take on the man is surely one that will spark award interest. ›››

Continue reading London Film Festival Review: Bryan Cranston in Jay Roach’s ‘Trumbo’

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