Official Trailer for Alien Horror 'Caught' Directed by Jamie Patterson

"We never said we would leave." Cinedigm has released a trailer for a freaky horror film titled Caught, from director Jamie Patterson. The film about alien visitors was shot in East Sussex, UK where aliens were sighted in 1967. While on an afternoon walk, two small-town reporters notice a military camp going up on a hilltop. Trying to figure out the truth, they answer their door when two unusual strangers come knocking and find themselves held hostage in their own home. Caught stars Mickey Sumner, Cian Barry, April Pearson, Ruben Crow, Dave Mounfield, and Aaron Davis. This feels like a pretty cool throwback to "Twilight Zone", where the aliens look like regular people, though there's something very strange. Check it.

Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Jamie Patterson's Caught, direct from YouTube:

A journalist couple invite two strangers into their idyllic village home after noticing strange military activity nearby, but what begins as an informal interview soon descends into a nightmarish fight for survival. Caught is directed by English filmmaker Jamie Patterson, of various films including City of Dreamers, Blind Date, Home for Christmas, Winners, and Fractured previously. The screenplay is written by Dave Allsop and Alex Francis. This premiered at the Fantasporto Film Festival last year. Cinedigm will release Patterson's Caught in select theaters + on VOD starting March 30th coming up. Anyone curious?

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Are You Ready for the ‘Lady Bird’ Cinematic Universe?

By Brad Gullickson

Greta Gerwig is looking to return to Sacramento soon.

The cinematic universe has been an obsessive point of conversation for the better part of a decade now. Back in 2008, Iron Man launched a blockbuster endeavor that had competing studios scrambling to replicate. Now, our bodies are automatically compelled into nauseating eye-rolls at the very thought of Bumblebee or The Rock splitting off from their own franchises to start another. Enough is enough. Or is it?

Appearing as a guest on the premiere episode of The A24 Podcast, Greta Gerwig expressed an interest in returning to the same Sacramento in which Lady Bird inhabits.

“I’d like to make a total of four films that take place there, I would like to do a quartet of Sacramento films…it’s inspired by the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan Quartet. She wrote these four books that took place mainly in Naples. They are so great, and I thought ‘Oh I would like to do that.’ This is one part of Sacramento, but there are a lot of different parts of Sacramento that I would like to explore too. I feel like I have the privilege of being from a place…I can actually speak to it with some feeling.”

Part of me already feels like Gerwig has established a cinematic universe with her previous films. Our own Fernando Andrés explored the connections between Frances Ha, Mistress America, and Lady Bird last year, and there is some serious thematic tissue being strung there. However, the idea of Gerwig actually returning to the reality of her Sacramento is an extremely appealing one, and we shouldn’t dismiss the concept of the cinematic shared universe just because we’re sick of hearing about The Avengers.

The reality is that the shared universe is not a new concept. Marvel did not invent the wheel, they just made an unimaginable amount of money replicating their comic book format for the silver screen. Look towards H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos stories. D’Artagnan from “The Three Musketeers” famously cameos in “Cyrano de Bergerac.” The cops and criminals of Elmore Leonard’s underworld frequently hop around the pages of that sprawling, seedy galaxy. Even Stephen King can’t escape Bangor, Maine.

Abbott and Costello excelled when they plummeted into the horrors of the Universal Monsters. Some (like myself) argue that the greatest entry in the whole darn saga is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, in which the comedy duo battle the likes of Glenn Strange’s Monster as well as Bela Lugosi’s Count Dracula. I won’t spoil it for you, but yes, a Wolf Man is involved, too.

I’m all for characters bumping into each other in fictional landscapes. It’s what kept me glued to Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse in the 1990s and had me cackling when Michael Keaton’s Ray Nicolette traveled from Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown into Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight. I even got a thrill recently in seeing Duncan Jones’s Moon have its epilogue within Netflix’s Mute.

So, yeah, I’m all for getting a peek into the future of Lady Bird whenever Gerwig has another California homecoming. If Sacramento is her Bangor, then I’m excited for whatever sense of place inspires her creativity.

The article Are You Ready for the ‘Lady Bird’ Cinematic Universe? appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 - Trailer

Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 - Trailer Video game bad guy Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) and fellow misfit Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman) navigate the vast and dynamic world wide web in search of a replacement part to save Vanellope’s game, Sugar Rush. Directed by: Rich Moore, Phil Johnston Starring: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Taraji P. Henson, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch

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Our Blood Is Wine - Trailer

Our Blood Is Wine - Trailer Filmmaker Emily Railsback and sommelier Jeremy Quinn provide intimate access to rural family life in the Republic of Georgia as they explore the rebirth of 8,000 year old winemaking traditions almost lost during the period of Soviet rule. By using unobtrusive iPhone technology, Railsback brings the voices and ancestral legacies of modern Georgians directly to the viewer, revealing an intricate and resilient society that has survived regular foreign invasion and repeated attempts to erase Georgian culture. The revival of traditional winemaking is the central force driving this powerful, independent and autonomous nation to find its 21st century identity. Directed by: Emily Railsback Starring: Jeremy Quinn, Ramaz Nikoladze, Giorgi Natenadze, Luarsab Togonidze

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Getting Grace - Trailer

Getting Grace - Trailer When a spunky teenaged girl with terminal cancer decides to make her own funeral arrangements, she sets in motion a plan that affects all of those around her in unexpected and positive ways. Directed by: Daniel Roebuck Starring: Madelyn Dundon, Marsha Dietlin, Daniel Roebuck, Duane Whitaker, Dana Ashbrook

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Exclusive Featurette

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Exclusive Featurette THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comedic drama from Academy Award® winner Martin McDonagh (IN BRUGES). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award® winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, commissioning three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award® nominee Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated. Directed by: Martin McDonagh Starring: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish, John Hawkes, Lucas Hedges, Peter Dinklage

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The Redeemed And The Dominant: Fittest On Earth - Trailer

The Redeemed And The Dominant: Fittest On Earth - Trailer Elite athletes take on a series of grueling tests to vie for the title of "Fittest on Earth." Follow the drama as they endure the unknown and unknowable during four of the most intense days of competition in CrossFit Games history. Directed by: Heber Cannon, Mariah Moore, Marston Sawyers Starring: Tia-Clair Toomey, Mat Fraser, Kara Webb, Brent Fikowski, Annie Thorisdottir, Patrick Vellner, Sara Sigmundsdottir, Katrin Davidsdottir

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Words of Wisdom from This Year’s DGA Nominees

With the Oscars coming up this weekend, we gathered some highlights from an in-depth conversation with five of this year’s most-lauded directors.

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Timothée Chalamet Deserves to Win Best Actor

By Valerie Ettenhofer

The young actor’s vulnerability and nuance deserve recognition.

The Oscars are a lot like family dinner at Thanksgiving: both American traditions involve heaps of anticipation as well as begrudging attempts to lower expectations, and both leave many with a vague stomach ache and the feeling that everyone else is wrong. Unfortunately for most movie lovers, the most-anticipated award show of the season is also known for sharing the holiday’s over-reliance on comfort food. Thus, the award season deification of Gary Oldman’s physical transformation and embodiment of Winston Churchill’s mannerisms in Darkest Hour–easily the least interesting of this year’s best picture nominees–comes as little surprise. Biopics and visibly transformative roles have long been accepted as Oscar bait: four of the past seven best picture winners were historical dramas.

Two of the other best actor nominees, Daniel Day-Lewis and Denzel Washington, feel like actors for whom the academy has all but reserved a spot each year. Though their frequent inclusion doesn’t negate their considerable talent, it does make for a less exciting race. On the occasions where actors do seem to be nominated based on name rather than performance quality–as with Washington’s batty, lifeless turn in Roman J. Israel, Esq.–it’s hard not to be bitter about the deserving performers whose spots the Academy gave away the sake of familiarity.

Day-Lewis’ performance as Phantom Thread’s Reynolds Woodcock is as smooth and satisfying as that of a well-oiled machine, and made more effective by endless press coverage framing the film as containing his final onscreen role (I don’t doubt Day-Lewis’ will to retire, but rather his or any actor’s ability to stay retired). In a pleasant surprise, the nominees are rounded out by two relative newcomers, providing much-needed fresh blood in a category that almost always rewards seasoned actors. Daniel Kaluuya, who has actually been putting in work on screen for over a decade, delivered a breakout performance in Jordan Peele’s Get Out. The film has rightfully become a part of the zeitgeist, but Kaluuya’s low-key performance as laid-back but wary Chris is only one element of many that made the film work so spectacularly.

So that leaves Timothée Chalamet. Most moviegoers first saw the 22-year-old actor inhabiting the role of a cool yet insufferable hipster in Lady Bird, then as himself, joyously star-struck and overeager while navigating his first award season circuit before his most buzzed-about film even hit theaters. I’ll admit, before seeing Call Me By Your Name I wasn’t initially impressed by these first two iterations of Timothée. But then I met Elio.

As the lovestruck teenager leading viewers through Luca Guadagnino’s lush adaptation of the novel of the same name, Chalamet commands the screen through pure, at times uncomfortable vulnerability. With a thin frame that courts the line between scrawniness and sexiness, and eyes capable of conveying emotions so muddled that they can’t be described with words, Chalamet is a physical revelation for a filmmaker whose stories thrive on the vitality, the inherent romance of the human form. Guadagnino’s film is above all sensual, tactile, and it’s clear that Chalamet is willing to bear every part of himself–from his tear-stained eyelashes to his summer-ready bare feet–to make Elio come to life.

Elio’s infatuation is reflected in every aspect of the film, from Sufjan Stevens’ ethereal soundtrack to Guadagnino’s and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s character framing, which pushes and pulls the two lovers within the frame like a hypnotic pair of magnets. All of Call Me By Your Name’s elements work in tandem to create the overall impression of butterflies in one’s stomach, beating their wings so hard it aches. And Chalamet’s performance, enriched by these elements but not dependent on them, makes the whole dreamy endeavor work by capturing each embarrassing and sincere facet of young lovesickness.

As Elio, Chalamet is as raw and unvarnished as Day-Lewis is precise and polished. If Day-Lewis’ performance is most at home in a perfectly arranged still shot a la Paul Thomas Anderson, it only makes sense that Chalamet’s exists in a sun-soaked blend of verisimilitude and near-fantasy, an artsy, lackadaisical version of Italy that seems ready-made for long-ago lovers. In Chalamet’s hands, each appearance of Elio–checking his watch in anticipation of a midnight rendezvous, smelling his forbidden crush’s swim trunks, forcefully scrawling down his feelings on a pad of paper and then abandoning it–feels as painful and familiar as revisiting an old diary entry.

First love and first heartbreak are tough things to represent on screen. Biopics can harness all of history as a guidebook, and genre films play with tropes established by their predecessors, but there’s no blueprint for the human heart. We so often get love and youth wrong on screen. Even some of the best coming-of-age films feel more like an echo of an experience than an experience itself, a mash-up of signifiers that don’t lead to a signified. So when a film like Call Me By Your Name comes along, and the feeling its young star evokes is immediate and accessible, it’s worth your attention. And when Timothée Chalamet’s final scene phone call leaves you feeling gut-punched, transported back to some memory of tearful vulnerability in your own life–when he manages to pull down the screen that divides him and you so that it feels like us, together without artifice in this fresh heartbreak–that’s something worth awarding.

The article Timothée Chalamet Deserves to Win Best Actor appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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The Food Oscars

By Lee Jutton

This year, food played almost as important a role in films as people did.

Every year my best friend and I plan a big Oscar party, basically as an excuse to dress up in our best evening wear and cook a bunch of delicious film-themed foods. Some years we’ve had to stretch to come up with dishes that can be connected to the year’s nominated movies — our infamous Ron Howard Chicken Wings stand out as one of the most random — but this year, there has been much cause for rejoicing. For 2017 was a great year for food in film, and especially in the films nominated for this year’s Oscars. In fact, I can’t think of another year in recent memory where so many crucial plot points in movies were also edible.

Without further ado, allow me to pay tribute to the dishes that deserve the most credit for making 2017 a delicious year at the movies.

Most Romantic Source of Protein: The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water offers one of the year’s most surprisingly sweet romances, between a mute cleaning woman named Elisa (Sally Hawkins) and a mysterious sea creature (Doug Jones). In the creature, Elisa finally finds someone who shares her lack of verbal communication and so doesn’t judge her for it, someone who sees her for who she truly is on the inside and not as someone flawed and broken.

After a lifetime of learning how to communicate nonverbally, it makes sense that Elisa is the only person who has the patience and creativity to try and communicate with the creature. She first attempts to make a connection with him by gently offering him one of the hardboiled eggs she brings every day; the eggs have a weirdly erotic connotation, as Elisa uses the time it takes for them to boil every morning to pleasure herself in the bathtub. As the days go by, Elisa brings more and more eggs for the creature and teaches him some of the sign language that she uses to communicate.

It’s kind of strange for two people to fall in love over one of the smelliest sources of protein out there, but strange is the best word to use to describe the romance at the center of The Shape of Water anyways. And thanks to Guillermo del Toro’s loving direction and Hawkins’s masterful performance, it works.

Sexiest Use of Fruit: Call Me By Your Name

Like The Shape of Water, the romance at the center of Call Me By Your Name sounds a bit creepy until you’ve watched the movie. Instead of a woman and a sea creature, it concerns a teenage boy, Elio (Timothee Chalamet) and the hunky older graduate student, Oliver (Armie Hammer), who has come to the family summer house in Italy to assist Elio’s professor father in his research.

Like most teenage boys, Elio is overflowing with hormones, and the steamy summer atmosphere — including a lot of shirtless days by the pool — cranks his desire up to eleven. He embarks on some misguided sexual shenanigans with a local girl, but the true object of his affections is Oliver. It is obvious to the audience that Elio and Oliver are immediately and irresistibly drawn to each other, but the awkwardness and illicitness of their situation mean that it takes most of the summer for them to finally come out and admit how much they want each other. At one point, while waiting in an attic room for a secret rendezvous with Oliver, Elio is so overcome with emotions that he grabs the peach on the table next to him and…well, you can guess the rest.

Call Me By Your Name is an swoon-worthy romance that perfectly captures the overwhelming rollercoaster of emotions that come with one’s first love. The lush Italian scenery and lilting musical score only add to the film’s sensual atmosphere. The peach scene is pretty hilarious — especially when Oliver walks in and finds the violated peach — but it also serves as a surprisingly poignant symbol of how deep Elio’s infatuation with Oliver runs into his bloodstream.

Least Sexy Use of Fruit: Girls Trip

Okay, Girls Trip is not nominated for any Oscars, but anyone who saw the hit comedy about four longtime friends rediscovering how much they mean to each other on a trip to New Orleans knows that Tiffany Haddish’s breakout role as loyal loose cannon Dina was deserving of a nomination. Also deserving of a nomination? Her ability to describe an oddball sex act using a banana and a grapefruit.

Over breakfast, Dina asks her friends if they have ever heard of “grapefruiting.” She then goes on to describe the act, using the fruit on the table as props. Essentially, you scoop out the middle of the grapefruit, put it around a man’s penis, and use it as an aid in performing a blowjob. Dina’s energetic performance of the act, using the banana as a substitute for a man, is impressive, albeit somewhat disturbing. But it’s nowhere near as disturbing as when Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) decides to attempt grapefruiting herself with the sexy young man, Malik (Kofi Siriboe), she brought back to the hotel.

Lisa’s hookup is so well endowed that she has to sneak out of the bedroom to grab not one, but two grapefruits. Before her friends can fully register their shock, Malik comes running out of the bedroom screaming, with only the grapefruits to give him any modesty. It turns out, grapefruiting is less sexy and more…stingy. Like, stingy. The scene is an absolute laugh riot, as is the rest of the film — an ode to female friendship punctuated with enough bawdy humor to make the men of The Hangover blush.

Best Use of Mushrooms for Controlling Men: Phantom Thread

Paul Thomas Anderson’s wonderfully weird ode to the mysterious way some relationships work is also a great food movie. Meals play pivotal roles in Phantom Thread, from the gigantic feast that “hungry boy” Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) orders when he first encounters Alma (Vicky Krieps), the waitress that will become his muse, to the way Reynolds is consistently triggered by Alma’s incredibly loud eating of breakfast, to the moment when Reynolds blows up when Alma cooks him asparagus in a different way than usual. (“Are you trying to kill me?”) Food is consistently used to signify how particular and stubborn Reynolds is in his habits. It is also used, by Alma, to try and rid him of this behavior — at least temporarily.

Frustrated with Reynolds’s unpleasant behavior, which no one else will challenge because they are unwilling to disrupt his genius, Alma sneaks some poisonous mushrooms that she picked into his tea. Not enough to kill him, mind you, but enough to make him sick to his stomach, and to abandon his imperious behavior so that Alma can coax him back to health. Once he is well again, Reynolds is so overwhelmed with gratitude to Alma that he immediately asks her to marry him.

But this is not the last we see of Alma’s mushrooms. In the final act of the film, Alma once again turns to her secret ingredient to force Reynolds to mend his ways. This time, Reynolds realizes mid-bite what Alma has done, and looks up at her in astonishment. But, rather than be furious with her, he is filled with admiration. Even as he gets ready to spend the night puking his guts up in the toilet, he is full of love for Alma. Is this what constitutes a normal relationship? No, but what Phantom Thread does is show us how people who seem unsuited for each other on the surface might work better together, and in more unusual ways, than anyone on the outside looking in could ever know.

Best Use of Mushrooms for Killing Men: The Beguiled

I would never have expected 2017 to give us not one, but two films that featured women feeding men poison mushrooms, but that’s just one of the many reasons why it was such a memorable year at the movies. The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola’s gauzy and pastel-hued remake of the 1971 film starring Clint Eastwood, also allows women to take the power they are given — in the kitchen — and use it to overpower the men that plague their existence.

In this case, the man is an injured Union soldier named John (Colin Farrell) who finds refuge in a mostly abandoned seminary for young ladies in the South. His arrival sends the isolated women into a tizzy, including sly student Alicia (Elle Fanning), romantic teacher Edwina (Kirsten Dunst), and tough headmistress Martha (Nicole Kidman). Sexual tensions ride high, and when an unfortunate incident leads John to become furious the women, they, feeling threatened, begin plotting to get rid of him. So, they plan a big dinner. And they cook up some mushrooms.

Watching John keel over at the dinner table while the film’s ghostly pale blonde women sit serenely around him is simultaneously spooky and hilarious. While there are plenty of issues with The Beguiled — including the way Coppola whitewashes over the racial conflicts inherent in the war her film takes place during — one cannot help but take some morbid joy in the vengeful climax. It highlights how women can be far more dangerous than one might think. 

Best Argument for Going Vegetarian: Raw

Okay, Raw wasn’t even France’s official submission for the Best Foreign language Film Oscar this year (that was BPM, which didn’t cut) but not only was it one of my absolute favorite foreign language films of 2017, it was also the one that centered the most purely on appetites. Specifically, the appetites of young women and how frequently they are made to feel ashamed of those appetites by the powers that be in our society.

Justine (Garance Marillier) is a lifelong vegetarian who follows in the steps of her parents and older sister, Alexia (Ella Rumpf) by entering veterinarian school. While there, she undergoes many intense hazing rituals, including one where she is forced to eat a raw rabbit kidney. She turns to Alexia for help, insisting that their entire family is vegetarian, but Alexia not only denies it, she also eats a kidney herself. From there, things start to get weird.

Justine’s entire body begins to crave raw meat. When Alexia accidentally cuts off one of her fingers with a pair of scissors, Justine eats the finger. Alexia understands these impulses and even goes so far as to crash a passing car so that she and Justine can feast on the passengers within. But while Alexia is willing to own her unacceptable appetites, Justine is terrified of the taboos involved. Eventually, Alexia ends up in an asylum, while Justine attempts to create a normal life for herself in the outside world. But which sister is better off? The one who can be entirely herself, or the one forced to submerge her cravings and present a false face to the outside world? Raw might not involve food in the same way that the films above do, but it addresses hunger in the best way of them all.

The article The Food Oscars appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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The Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film Category Needs a Shakeup

By Farah Cheded

The Academy’s Best Foreign Film category has been dogged by controversy for years. We suggest one potential solution.

This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences received a record number of submissions for its Best Foreign Language Film (92, up from 85 last year). Nevertheless, the familiar cry of “snub!” continued to ring out when the shortlisted nine films were announced in December, as it was revealed that high-profile favorites like the Barry Jenkins-backed French entry BPM, Norway’s critical hit Thelma and Cambodia’s BAFTA-nominated First They Killed My Father had failed to make the cut. And then, when the nine were whittled down to the final five in January, Germany’s In the Fade — which had picked up prizes at Cannes, the Golden Globes, and the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards — was conspicuously absent.

This sorry state of affairs is not a new one: at last year’s Oscars, two favorites of the National Board of Review — Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta and the Golden Globe- and Critics’ Choice-winning Elle — didn’t pick up Best Foreign Film nominations. A couple of years prior to that, the Dardenne brothers’ humanity-affirming Two Days, One Night and Xavier Dolan’s Mommy were absent in the category, while the year before that saw a bumper crop of snubs that included Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, Israel’s Venice prize-winning Bethlehem, Chile’s Gloria, Saudi Arabia’s category debut Wadjda and Hong Kong’s The Grandmaster.

The fact that Oscar voters are 72% male, 87% white and, as of 2013 figures, have an average age of 63 may have something to do with why some of the aforementioned movies were passed over — people who fit these kinds of demographics tend to prefer more mainstream films (both in terms of form or subject matter), whereas many of the above movies are decidedly unconventional in content and style. Without detailed voting data, however, we can only speculate as to how voter demographics influence this category. (Regardless, the Academy’s commitment to diversifying its membership is a necessary reform in ensuring the health of this and all other Oscar categories.)

There is another historical trend specific to this category that has indisputably undermined its aims and damaged its reputation, however, and the culprit here is comparably easy to identify: it’s the one-film-one-country rule.

This means exactly what it says on the tin: each country is only permitted to submit one film for consideration in the Best Foreign Film category each year (which film is ultimately submitted is entirely down to the national selection committee of the country of production). Although the reasons behind its implementation are noble – we’ll get to that later – the rule has caused controversy more than a few times since it’s common for one country to produce more than a single fan favorite or critical darling in a year. Take Blue is the Warmest Color, for instance: Abdellatif Kechiche’s much-buzzed-about film lost the chance to compete at the 2015 Oscars to biopic Saint Laurent, which, given the benefit of hindsight, was a bad choice on the part of the French selection committee (Saint Laurent failed to earn even a nomination, a feat Blue would have easily achieved). This example preceded a similar situation at the 2016 Oscars when Jacques Audiard’s deeply affecting Dheepan lost out on the chance to compete to Deniz Gamze Ergüven‘s stunning feature debut Mustang. Three years earlier, Audiard’s Marion Cotillard-starrer Rust and Bone had suffered the same fate when unlikely buddy comedy The Intouchables was submitted by France (Intouchables made the shortlist, but ultimately didn’t feature in the final five nominations).

Whether you prefer one film in each of these pairings or consider them of equal merit, the French example illuminates the recurring problem with the one-film-one-country rule: when more than one exceptional movie is produced by a nation with a robust film industry (like France, Italy, or Japan), deserving films are arbitrarily forced to compete against each other instead of being allowed to shine in their own right. As two of the above examples demonstrate, the (often illogical) national selection decisions can lead to the movie with the most glaringly obvious chance at a nomination losing the submission, and so potential category winners are locked out of the race from the start. (For some non-French examples, the Indian selection for the 2014 Oscars was The Good Road, a surprising pick given the substantial acclaim The Lunchbox was drawing, while Japan passed on Palme d’Or nominee Like Father, Like Son, widely considered the country’s best bet at the Oscars, in favor of The Great Passage in the same year.)

Under the current system, films deserving of submission can also be held hostage by national politics, should it permeate their countries’ selection committees (which are run according to their jurisdiction and entirely separate from the Academy’s exacting rules and regulations). Last year, for instance, Palme d’Or-contender Aquarius was snubbed by the Brazilian selection committee following political statements made by the cast and director on the Cannes red carpet in 2016 that criticised the ongoing impeachment of the then-Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The new government retaliated by appointing the most high profile of the protest’s critics to the Ministry of Culture’s Oscar selection committee, with the move working to the desired effect: Aquarius was rejected in favor of Little Secret, a film that had achieved comparatively less critical success (and which ultimately failed to make the shortlist).

Despite the faults of the one-film-one-country rule, however, repealing it would be both counter-productive to the aims of the Academy and detrimental to the good of movie-loving audiences. The rule was originally implemented to level the playing field so that movie-making leviathans like France, Italy and Spain couldn’t dominate the race regarding quantity, thereby allowing films from smaller countries a (theoretically) equal shot at a nomination and a win. More than just allowing prolific countries a monopoly over the category, abolishing the one-film-one-country rule would also likely have a knock-on effect to the diversity of nominated films — which, as argued above, is something none of the Oscar categories can afford to roll back on. Since the category’s creation sixty-one years ago, around 84% of the winning films have been from Europe. Roughly speaking, the share of total winning films that featured no actors of color in their principal casts is 82%. Given the proximity of these figures, the suspicion that European films equal films about white people generally bears out. As Hollywood itself has begun to diversify its output at long last, repealing this rule could end up being a regressive move that would shut out crucial diverse voices from countries that deserve as high a profile as their more prolific peers. Keeping the one-film-one-country rule, alongside implementing an overhaul of Academy-wide membership, is the best bet the category has for improving its ability to recognize movies that don’t fit the European status quo.

(As a side note, it’s worth recognizing that some European Oscar winners do tell diverse stories and feature actors of color in principal roles, as is the case in Switzerland’s winning entry for 1990, Journey of Hope. On the flip side, however, almost the entire cast of 1969 winner Z — which was classed as an Algerian entry given its joint production credit with France, since 40% of its funding came from the Algerian government and production took place in the country – were white European actors. Thus, what anomalies do exist on either side generally cancel each other out.)

Getting rid of the one-film-one-country rule would not solve the category’s problems; in fact, on its own, it would likely damage the competition regarding diminishing the range of voices recognized. But why not implement a compromise that would both retain the current system’s diversity-shielding strengths while still allowing for recognition of multiple gems from the same country (as in the Dheepan and Mustang case)?

Bringing the maximum number of Best Foreign Film nominations into line with those of Best Picture could be the first step to resolving the Foreign category’s perpetual woes. As it stands, the Best Picture category allows for up to ten nominees, while nominations for Best Foreign Film are capped at five. The César Awards (France’s answer to the Oscars) have parity between their equivalent two categories, so why can’t the Academy Awards? Arguably, given Hollywood’s globally-recognized synonymity with cinema, the Academy has a greater responsibility than other countries to lead by example and make sure they give proper, thoughtful consideration to the rest of the world’s output.

The second part of this potential solution involves incorporating wildcard picks. If the maximum number of Best Foreign Film nominees is raised to nine or ten, then some of these new spots could be reserved for a special committee that wouldn’t be restrained by the one-film-one-country rule. This doesn’t mean that countries would submit more than one entry each; just that, if one should produce more than a single exceptional film in a year (or, indeed, if a country submits none at all) the special committee could sift through non-submitted films – those that have performed well on the festival circuit, for example – and could then allocate them a wildcard nomination on merit. In the examples cited above, this means that, even if internal politics should bar Aquarius from receiving the Brazilian entry spot, the Academy’s special committee could still make it a viable contender. Equally, should France put out more than one deserving movie in a year — as in the Dheepan and Mustang case — they could both earn themselves a rightful place in the final ten-or-so nominations.

Submissions from less prolific filmmaking countries would still be given, at a minimum, the same attention they’re currently receiving from Oscar voters, and Academy-wide membership reforms would help improve on this. Tweaking the system in this way just ensures that outstanding movies like Blue is the Warmest Color and Aquarius get a fair shot at the Best Foreign Language Film prize. Given the embarrassment that has dogged the category for years, a move like this would serve a dual purpose: it would work to repair the Academy’s damaged reputation and rescue worthy movies from falling through the cracks.

The article The Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film Category Needs a Shakeup appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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20 Blaxploitation Films to Close Out Black History Month

By Brad Gullickson

Now, deal ’em up straight – or don’t deal ’em at all.

Melvin Van Peebles was the first filmmaker to prove there were dollars to be had with the African American audience. In 1971, he independently financed Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song when no studio would touch the material. This forced him into a one-man-band scenario, having to produce, script, direct, edit, score, and star in the film. It was a socially political thriller filled with rage against the white hierarchy and would prove to be the template for the Blaxploitation era.

For the next ten years, Hollywood followed in Peebles’ footsteps as a means to fill their pockets. Right on the heels of Sweetback’s was MGM’s Shaft. While that film was well into production when Peebles was shooting Sweetback’s, Shaft’s iconic celebration of cool was originally written for a white hero. Director Gordon Parks cast Richard Roundtree as the title P.I. and Isaac Hayes’ funky soundtrack propelled that film into legend.

Many balk at the label of Blaxploitation. Fred Williamson, who rebuilt his persona throughout this decade, famously rejects this branding whenever a camera is placed in front of him. “Who was being exploited? Not me.” The fact is that Blaxploitation cinema exploits the same stuff that all exploitation movies do – Sex and Violence.

While most films of this era were basic crime stories, you’ll see below that we’ve selected a few oddities as well. Blaxploitation was an eclectic blend of talent and ideas. While mainstream media was desperately promoting the status quo, the filmmakers seen here were tackling the everyday trauma experienced in the community. These films celebrate those willing to fight against our seemingly accepted societal horror.

Across 100th Street (1972)

If I had my own theme music in life, I’d choose the Bobby Womack song of the same name that appears on this movie’s soundtrack. It’s a wonderful song that’s been recycled in movies like Jackie Brown and American Gangster, and when it hits, you know a treat is in store. Speaking of treats, the movie in question here ain’t too bad either, as Yaphet Kotto and Anthony Quinn play a pair of street-smart cops amid a racially tense NYC. The movie opens with a brutal as hell bank heist scene, and from there we’re given a movie that pulls no punches and has a lot of interesting things to say about the era in which it takes place. – Kieran Fisher

The Beast Must Die (1974)

Tom Newcliffe is a millionaire eccentric, avid hunter, and devout believer that one of his acquaintances is a werewolf, so he does what any of us would do in the same situation. He invites the possible suspects to his country estate for the weekend. As expected, a wolf-like creature (it’s a dog) begins killing his guests and winnowing down the pool of possible culprits. Calvin Lockhart as Newcliffe is responsible for injecting the “black” subtext into the film as his wealthy friends are all white (and include Peter Cushing and Michael Gambon). He’s essentially holding them all captive with claims that one of them is a beast, and his efforts are accompanied by a funky, Shaft-like score by Douglas Gamley that feels wholly out of place in a remote British mansion but is there all the same. It’s an oddly fun genre-blender complete with a “werewolf break” where the narrator asks you to solve the mystery. It’s genius. – Rob Hunter

The Big Score (1983)

Fred Williamson stars and directs in this story about narcotics detective Frank Hooks, a cop willing to go to any lengths necessary to bring down his man. Hooks pulls off an elaborate drug bust to capture the head of cocaine ring only to have him get a high priced lawyer and get out on a technicality. As far as Hooks is concerned, this one just got personal. The Big Score came after The Blaxploitation boomer and died down, but you wouldn’t know it. This awesome little title features an all-star list of 70’s genre stars with Williamson sharing the screen with Richard Rountree, John Saxon, D’Urville Martin and the legendary Joe Spinell. Also, worth note is the score from Star Trek composer Jay Chattaway. – Chris Coffel

Black Caesar (1973)

Larry Cohen’s remake of the 1931 film Little Caesar is a standard rags to riches tale about a mobster who rises and falls. It’s a story we’ve seen told a thousand times in crime movies, but the good ones hit the sweet spot, and this is one of the best. Fred Williamson gives what is arguably his best performance as our lead who is hell-bent on taking over the city’s organized crime trade. But as his power and stature grow, he becomes more of a bastard and an overall toxin to the people around him. Their movie also contains a funky James Brown soundtrack that should be considered criminal given its capacity to murder dancefloors. – Kieran Fisher

Black Samson (1974)

“There goes a righteous dude.” Rockne Tarkington is a man of many dashikis. He’s a lion tamer, a street fighter, and a responsible owner of a respectable topless bar. When the mob saturates his neighborhood in smack, Black Samson unites the community against those devils, and the resulting block war is a fist-pumping crowd pleaser. William Smith as the vein popping racist henchman is utterly terrifying in his depravity, and he makes a diabolical foil for Tarkington’s impassioned crusader. Black Samson is an underseen gem of savage villainy versus calm and cool Kendo artistry. – Brad Gullickson

Bone (1972)

You’ll see his Larry Cohen’s name crop up more than once here, and that’s because he makes awesome movies like this gem about a home invader who ends up trying to rob a couple who don’t appear to be as rich as they want the world to believe. He also seduces the wife, because who doesn’t like a bad boy? It’s a masterful directorial debut that boasts some of Cohen’s most biting satire as he tackles themes like racism and class division. Yaphet Kotto plays the home invader, but despite his criminal ways it’s hard to not root for the guy as the people he’s robbing are just downright awful. – Kieran Fisher

Bucktown (1975)

This contemporary Western brings together some of Blaxploitation’s heavyweight stars — Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Thalmus Rasulala — for the ultimate showdown, and it doesn’t disappoint. Fred the Hammer plays Duke, a tough city slicker who visits a hick town to bury his dead brother and take care of his affairs, only to encounter corrupt cops that want a piece of his late sibling’s action. This forces Duke to call some of his city buddies to clear out the pigs, but they turn out to be just as crooked and greedy as the cracker cops, which leads to some gritty rough and tumble. Bucktown is a movie that could benefit from some well-deserved rediscovery. Hence its inclusion here and the performances by some of the genre’s main players rank among the best of their respective careers. – Kieran Fisher

Coffy (1973)

Coffy Coffin is a nurse who’s sick and tired of seeing young people show up dead or dying from drugs and the violence they attract, and her anger is made personal when her sister becomes one of the unfortunates. Pissed off and armed with guns, attitude, and a penchant for stripping naked Coffy goes on a rampage of revenge. Writer/director Jack Hill sets the story in motion and captures it for all of us to enjoy, but the ride belongs wholly to lead Pam Grier whose energy and personality keep things moving at an exciting pace. From the opening shotgun blast to the head to its even bloodier finale this is an affecting and effective revenge thriller about one person’s quest for justice, and it’s clear how it secured Grier’s stardom onscreen. The action is sharp but messy, the dialogue is fun and quotable, and Coffy is someone we can’t help but root for. – Rob Hunter

Dolemite (1975)

Rudy Ray Moore is bad and mean as the pimp ready to settle the score with the cops and Willie Green! Dolemite may not be the best Blaxploitation has to offer but it may be the most quintessential. From a technical standpoint the film is littered with issues, but those are proudly displayed on screen and help create the film’s charm. Dolemite more than makes up for its issues with attitude, style and sticking it to the man. – Chris Coffel

Five On The Black Hand Side (1973)

Mr. Brooks runs a tight ship both at home and at work, but the seams are starting to show. One son is following leaders of the Civil Rights movement and protesting on the roof, the other is secretly dating a white woman, and his daughter is getting married in an African ceremony complete with tribal outfits. Worse, his wife is done letting him run the household. This early 70s comedy features dialogue, humor, and themes of rebellion against the establishment straight out of far grittier blaxploitation films, but it pairs them all with real warmth emanating from this family towards each other (and away from their jerky patriarch). Plenty of jabs are aimed at whitey and their fellow African Americans alike, and the film’s energy and humor build and move in wonderfully absurd directions while delivering big laughs along the way. Take a break from the hookers, pimps, and blow, and give this joy-filled romp a spin. – Rob Hunter

Friday Foster (1975)

One of the rare comic strip adaptions of the genre, Friday Foster sees Pam Grier’s fashion photographer uncovering a government conspiracy after her lens captures an assassination attempt on the richest black man in America. She partners with Yaphet Kotto’s P.I. and the two chase down Carl Weathers’ hit man. Friday Foster is more of a straight political mystery than a badass body slayer like Coffy or Foxy Brown, but there is no denying the majesty of Grier. After you’ve reached the limit of obsession over her most iconic characters, Friday Foster should be your very next stop. – Brad Gullickson

Hell Up In Harlem (1973)

“I’ve got some funerals to attend.” At the end of Black Cesar, Fred Williamson was gunned down in the street by the murderous agents of whitey. Dead is dead? Naw. Hell Up In Harlem opens with Williamson brushing himself off, stumbling into a hospital, and – all better. The original film is a rudimentary retelling of The Godfather that excels thanks to Williamson’s undeniable charisma. This sequel though? Daaaaammmnn. Forget Don Corleone, Hell Up in Harlem is its own brutal and beautifully weird beast. You’ve got pimps vs. ninjas, a long island scuba assault team, and what might be the longest distance fist fight ever as it takes a whole cross-continental flight for The Hammer to satisfy a beatdown. – Brad Gullickson

JD’s Revenge (1976)

While Blaxploitation films are mostly known for taking the basic elements from your standard crime drama and rebranding them with a primarily black cast, JD’s Revenge was one of the early efforts to take that same concept and give it a horror twist. Glynn Turnman stars as Isaac Hendrix, a young law student in New Orleans well on his way to success. While out with friends one evening, Isaac is a volunteer during a hypnosis act and is hypnotized. The fun and games quickly coming crashing down as Isaac is possessed by the spirit of 1940’s gangster JD Walker. Turnman gives a fantastic performance in which he essentially plays dual roles. – Chris Coffel

Penitentiary (1979)

Leon Isaac Kennedy stars as Martel “Too Sweet” Gordone, a good kid hitchhiking across America when he ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. After being involved in a brawl that leaves one man dead, Too Sweet ends up taking the fall and is sent to prison where he competes in a boxing tournament with the prison’s toughest inmates. While all Blaxploitation films tackle social issues head on, this one is part of the rarer breed that does so with a serious and gritty tone. In many ways Penitentiary created the template for later films like Boyz N The Hood and Menace II Society. – Chris Coffel

Sheba, Baby (1975)

Pam Grier is an icon and the face of Blaxploitation. Anything she touched in the 70’s was absolute gold and Sheba, Baby is no exception. Grier stars as Sheba Shayne a private detective working in Chicago. After her father’s business is attacked by a group of hoods she returns home to Louisville to settle the score. The film co-stars D’Urville Martin in one of his best roles as the baddie Pilot and features one of the best car wash scenes to ever appear in cinema. – Chris Coffel

Slaughter (1972)

After his parents are murdered by the mob, Jim Brown’s badass cop leaves the badge behind and descends into the hell of Mexico to take down the demons responsible. Part Dirty Harry, part Death Wish, all Jim Brown. Slaughter is an exceptional example of tough cop cinema. Of course, every hero needs a great villain, and Slaughter fills that order grotesquely with Rip Torn’s rat-faced hitman. Even when he knows better, he cannot help but spit venom and hate. Torn would rather die in the a wreckage of gasoline and flames then say one last nice word. The rest of the film is peppered with a perfect supporting cast: Stella Steven’s mafioso playmate, Don Gordon’s sideburns sidekick, and Norman Alfe’s confusingly afraid kingpin. An exceptional collection of oddballs, and a leading man of total cool and confidence separate Slaughter from the rest. – Brad Gullickson

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)

The CIA has begun recruiting black Americans, but while the plan is to limit their actual access and responsibilities one new agent has a different agenda. He plays along, does well, and secretly organizes an underground militia armed and trained through connections and ideas he forms at the CIA. Then they begin striking back against America. This is a terrific action/drama that I can’t help but think terrified more than a few people back in the 70s with the mere thought that its themes might catch on in the real world. It takes the black uprising seriously, and while there are action beats the film’s focus feels more operational in its approach to exploring a tactical war. It’s highly engaging but ends far too soon. – Rob Hunter

Tales From The Hood (1995)

An act of police brutality is avenged from beyond the grave, an abusive stepfather gets his comeuppance, a racist senator is targeted by a voodoo-powered doll, and a gangster unmoved by the collateral damage of his actions learns a harsh lesson about black on black violence. Horror anthologies are a weakness of mine, and this one’s approach to genre beats complete with black characters and observations on the black experience is well deserving of far more attention. Writer/director Rusty Cundieff delivers thrills, gore, and laughs with style and memorable visuals. It works beautifully as a straight horror film (again, with laughs), but it’s raised up through its social commentary and criticisms of our ongoing status quo as a nation. Seek it out before the recently announced sequel gets released. – Rob Hunter

Trouble Man (1972)

Robert Hooks is Mr. T, a poolhall fixer hired by Paul Winfield to prevent a ring of thieves from knocking over his clandestine poker game. Of course, things are not what they seem, and T is framed for a killing he did not commit…and proceeds to commit plenty of other killings to get to the bottom of the inner city mystery. Robert Hooks is the coolest cat on the planet. Every line of dialogue is delivered with icy confidence. Men want to be him, and women want to be with him. I’m sure men would take a shot too if T swung that way. Earnest as hell, Trouble Man has no room for your irony. Criminally underrated, if you want to understand the appeal of blaxploitation then look no further. And as The Falcon in The Winter Soldier already knows, the Marvin Gaye soundtrack is stellar. – Brad Gullickson

Truck Turner (1974)

Isaac Hayes is perhaps most famous for gracing the iconic Shaft soundtrack with his soulful voice — it’s the musical equivalent of a warm hug — but he was a fine actor as well. In this movie, he plays the titular character and spends the majority of the time chasing down suckas and avoiding assassins who have been employed by Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols), a vengeful widow who is also a pimp. It’s a simple story, sure, but Hayes also spends a substantial portion of the movie shirtless, showing off his glorious gut. That’s art in its purest form right there and I want to be like Truck when I grow up. – Kieran Fisher

The article 20 Blaxploitation Films to Close Out Black History Month appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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21 Things We Learned from Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ Commentary

By Rob Hunter

“Here are some canted angles, some Dutch angles.”

I’ve been a fan of Kenneth Branagh’s acting for years now having enjoyed him in everything from Dead Again to Dunkirk to his under-appreciated Wallander series, but his directing choices have been a bit more hit (Much Ado About Nothing) and miss (Sleuth). His latest film sees him dual-wielding his talents as both director and actor, and the results are pretty damn entertaining.

Keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary track for…

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Commentators: Kenneth Branagh (director/actor), Michael Green (screenwriter)

1. The Scott Free production logo reminds Green of the sketches producer Ridley Scott will doodle if he’s enjoying his conversation with you.

2. Branagh chose to shoot the movie on 65mm film because he believes “it immerses you in the story viscerally with these colors.”

3. This is Green’s favorite Agatha Christie novel.

4. The opening scene set at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall was filmed in Malta. Branagh promises the balcony scene was actually filmed in Malta too with real boats and ocean water as a backdrop despite how “perfectly blue and saturated” that it looks like an f/x composition shot.

5. Branagh compliments Green on Poirot’s (Branagh) transition from his showmanship of deduction to his enjoyment of the “backstage” characters of a favorite restaurant.

6. The character of Pilar Estravados, here played by Penelope Cruz, is an invention of Green’s but with a name borrowed from Christie’s Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. She has a false name in that tale, something Green homaged here.

7. They scouted the real Orient Express and found themselves shifting from pure giddiness to more practical concerns as they began planning how to take the best advantage of its interiors.

8. The Fragilite cake scene — the exchange between Poirot and Edward Ratchet (Johnny Depp) — was filmed over a day and a half, and in addition to improvisation, the scene also required numerous bites of cake. He says Depp “is absolutely unafraid of a world most actors live in fear of which is eating onscreen.”

9. Christie commonly included facts in the first third of a novel that was meant to either be remembered by readers as legitimate clues or simply distracted by. The trick, and one of her great talents was in keeping readers guessing as to in which category each piece of information belonged.

10. The discovery of Ratchet’s murder is shot as a nod to Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial ‘M’ for Murder with the overhead view. “The result is to make what was a human story shot in the horizontal suddenly rather forensic, rather inhuman, rather mathematical.”

11. Branagh really walked atop an actual train for the scene where Poirot does the same, and despite the addition of a safety wire he found it properly terrifying “for this 56-year-old actor.”

12. The train car corridors in the film are “slightly wider” than the real Orient Express ones to accommodate cast and crew.

13. Branagh says certain “colleagues” voiced concern while filming the overhead scene revealing the body and the myriad of clues because he wasn’t shooting any coverage (close-ups) for any of it. He wasn’t interested in CSI-like close-ups. “I wanted to offer up in this big screen format all the things. They’re still there in the picture, so the watch is still there, the wounds are still there, Johnny Depp’s face is still there.”

14. Depp asked Branagh to apologize to Derek Jacobi (who plays Edward Henry Masterman) for him after filming their scene together “because I had to shout at him, I don’t want to shout at Derek Jacobi.”

15. Branagh points out a Dutch angle shot (and clarifies they’re actually “Deutsche” angles because they’re from German expressionism. “It’s something I enjoy enormously. I remember getting a lot of grief myself because we used many of them in Thor, and for me, it was about expressing the panels in comic books, but I know some people feel it’s a bit of an affection.”

16. Christie was among the first British citizens to surf standing up on the board?!

17. The chase between Poirot and Hector MacQueen (Josh “Action” Gad) originally extended to a foot race across the ice, but the scene was cut.

18. Branagh mentions that “if” they get the opportunity to follow the film up with Poirot’s adventure on the Nile that audiences will learn more about the detective’s lost love Katherine. Happily, for fans, 20th Century Fox has already green-lit Death on the Nile.

19. The shot of the suspects seated at the long table in the tunnel is an obvious and clear visual nod to “The Last Supper,” but Branagh and Green point out it’s more than just a disconnected image. The famous painting features the apostles and a single traitor, Judas, and the implication here is that a single killer sits among the gathering.

20. They had a mile of real track built for their real train at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England.

21. The line at the end regarding a murder on the bloody Nile was Green not only suggesting a sequel to the studio and audiences but also his “tip of the hat to Mr. [Christopher] Nolan and his first Batman film where he tells us ‘of course this is just the beginning.'”

Best in Context-Free Commentary

“Hercule Poirot is more than the sum of other people’s reactions.”

“I want to dress as Daisy Ridley for Halloween every year.”

“Where were you the day the end credits for The Abyss started?”

Buy Murder on the Orient Express on Blu-ray from Amazon.

Final Thoughts

Too many folks dismissed this movie for various reasons — including due to the familiarity of its plot (?) — but it’s a damn fine piece of entertainment. It’s smart, well-acted, picturesque, and highly effective in its denouement. Both Branagh and Green are highly enthusiastic about the film and characters, and they offer plenty of insight into its production. It’s a solid listen, and I’m already excited about Poirot’s next adventure.

Read more Commentary Commentary from the archives.

The article 21 Things We Learned from Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ Commentary appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Teaser Explores The Horror of the Internet

By Brad Gullickson

“The bunny gets the paaaaancake…” What fresh hell is this?

Disney’s sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 loads into theaters this Thanksgiving, and if its new teaser trailer is any indication, that feels more like a threat than something to celebrate. The first film is a wry, retro blowout fueled by our obsessive nerdom for classic arcade games. The follow-up looks to force the old school into the modern hell of the internet, and I found this trailer to be absolutely menacing. You better mentally prepare yourself for this one, folks.

The article ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Teaser Explores The Horror of the Internet appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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Could Margot Robbie’s ‘Dangerous Odds’ Be the Next ‘Molly’s Game’?

By Sheryl Oh

The ‘I, Tonya’ Oscar nominee continues to prove she’s a fabulously versatile actress, this time for a sports wagering biopic.

Welcome to the era of Margot Robbie. Despite being a relatively young actress and producer, she has had one of the most satisfying career trajectories in recent years. But even after going from regular cast member in the Australian soap opera Neighbours to starring in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, Robbie still refused to be typecast.

Since her breakout role in the latter, Robbie has starred in both indies (Z for Zachariah) and blockbusters (The Legend of Tarzan) and was actually the best part about Suicide Squad. She is now also an Oscar-nominated actress for I, Tonya, which she produced through her company, LuckyChap. Robbie has taken control of her narrative with smart film choices, and she continues to champion women-led stories with exciting new projects.

Like this one: Deadline announced that Dangerous Odds, initially announced with Robbie in the lead three years ago, has finally found a financier in Bold Films. The actress will star as Marisa Lankester, a former cleaning lady who became an illegal sports betting empire boss. Dangerous Odds will be based on Lankester’s memoir of the same name, which details her key role in the first offshore gambling operation, turning the business of bookmaking into a billion-dollar organization. Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton) will pen Dangerous Odds but there is no set director at this time.

Per a statement from Robbie’s production company:

“We are building LuckyChap off of a passion to tell female-driven stories that feel original, unique, and rebellious in nature. We found all of this in Marisa’s story and couldn’t be more excited to partner with Bold Films and 360 to bring ‘Dangerous Odds’ to the screen.”

An onscreen portrayal of Lankester — who is touted as “a female Scarface” by Bold Films CEO Gary Michael Walters — seems primed to join the likes of Molly Bloom, who was played by Jessica Chastain in Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut Molly’s Game. Both women delve into the criminal underworld in an attempt to better their circumstances and are defined by both their admirable tenacity against institutions of power and their rather glaring imperfections (…they broke the law). These female characters are slow to get their due onscreen, and it’s about time. It’s also wonderful that Robbie is next to take up the mantle after Chastain.

Robbie has proven herself to be fully capable of playing both sympathetic and suspicious in her multi-layered performance as Tonya Harding. I, Tonya features notoriously unreliable narrators, but you can’t help but be intrigued by them individually. The film definitely puts audience perceptions and judgements to the test, with Robbie standing out among the bunch by depicting Harding’s own versions of the truth with such glee and enthusiasm. That being said, she also manages to find the core of understanding and realness in Harding, especially by the end of the film. Robbie’s portrayal is fascinating, lovable, infuriating, and heartwarming. There’s very little doubt that Robbie could transpose such varied qualities in a unique way when playing Lankester too, having played heroes and villains and many things in between at this point.

Dangerous Odds already ticks all the right boxes to pique fan interest, even despite the similarities that the film could have compared to Molly’s Game. I, Tonya could have been a much more mediocre if it had been treated as your typical sports biopic. But clearly Robbie’s input as producer draws talented and beguiling directors and writers to projects. Director Craig Gillespie and writer Steven Rogers brought Tonya Harding to life with enough quirks to keep the film vivacious with a dark edge. Berloff could very well write a great script for Dangerous Odds after absolutely nailing the character-driven hip-hop epic Straight Outta Compton alongside co-writer Jonathan Herman.

The intrigue of Lankester’s story paired with Robbie’s skills as an actress and her box office draw is kind of a match made in cinema heaven. Robbie is setting herself up to be an unstoppable force and we’re happily along for the ride.

The article Could Margot Robbie’s ‘Dangerous Odds’ Be the Next ‘Molly’s Game’? appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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‘I Am Paul Walker’ to Document the Life of the Late Action Star

By Sheryl Oh

The makers of ‘I Am Heath Ledger’ will immortalize the ‘Fast and the Furious’ actor in documentary form.

Derik Murray of Network Entertainment has been hard at work bringing documentaries based on famous people to screens everywhere. Films such as Facing Ali and I Am Bruce Lee evolved into series of films that have consistently been made for the better part of a decade. Most recently, Murray produced I Am Heath Ledger and I Am Sam Kinison, both released last year. Yesterday, Deadline reported that the next installment in the “I Am…” documentary franchise will be based on the life of action star Paul Walker.

Adrian Buitenhuis, co-director of I Am Heath Ledger and I Am Sam Kinison, will reunite with Murray to helm I Am Paul Walker for Paramount Network. Like the previous documentaries, I Am Paul Walker will feature interviews with the people in Walker’s life, including his castmates and friends. According to producers, the documentary will also focus on Walker’s life outside of acting, touching on his efforts as a philanthropist. The film is clearly an attempt to present the man instead of the myth to the world.

What draws the “I Am…” series together is the sense of closeness that the producers and directors try to foster in these films about legendary icons. The films are promoted as a way for audiences to get to know their idols; with such intimate, first-person titles, how could they not be? While this is a rather barefaced ploy to attract hardcore fans, the fascination and mystery surrounding these public figures remain and could possibly draw in some more lukewarm spectators. Many of these movies also focus on subjects who’d passed away rather young, adding the twinge of bittersweetness to their content.

But that is pretty much the only real commonality between the “I Am…” films, as they’re obviously based on vastly different people. In the case of I Am Sam Kinison, the documentary is an in-depth look at Kinison’s life as a comedian, and a problematic, volatile one at that. Despite input from his friends and family, the film does gloss over Kinison’s more unsavory work and only barely attempts to explain the kind of darkness that infused his humor. Newsday opined that I Am Sam Kinison “isn’t about condemnation but celebration” and was definitely made of fans who already laughed as well as raged along with Kinison and his brand.

Of course, not everyone has a stash of home movies for directors and producers to sift through, and without such, the Walker documentary could turn out less personal and focused than it should. Murray and Buitenhuis truly hit a goldmine with Ledger’s home movies. These extra tidbits highlight Ledger’s relatable persona, making an otherwise rather ordinary documentary stand out. In looking for similar touchstones for I Am Paul Walker, the focus on Walker’s activism — his passions for ocean and marine life, as well as the philanthropic work he did in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake — could create the kind of intimacy that tugs at heartstrings and also depicts Walker the person, not just as a celebrity.

Celebrities enchant audiences with their public personas, and as the Kinison documentary shows, sometimes there’s no getting to the root of one’s motivations beyond indulging in the bare minimum of explanations for their behavior. In contrast, I Am Heath Ledger manages to draw out Ledger’s personality a little more between regular interviews and third-person accounts of his life, making it a better tribute to the actor. It is highly likely that I Am Paul Walker will draw from both the Kinison and Ledger docs in content and style, but here’s to hoping for more of the latter.

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