Watch Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Anima,’ Then Watch These Movies

Netflix continues to get into the short film game, an area that seems perfect for the streaming service, with Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Anima. Sorry, he’s calling it a “one-reeler,” even though it’s just over the length of a single-reel film. Really, it’s a long-form music video, albeit one that links three songs by Thom Yorke from his solo album of the same name: “Not the News,” “Traffic,” and “Dawn Chorus.” Anima follows one romantic narrative thread, though, with Yorke himself playing the protagonist as he attempts to connect with a woman (his real-life partner, Dajana Roncione) he sees on the train.

I’ve never done a Movies to Watch After… curation for a short film, but Anima is such an interesting release and is inspired enough by some classic films while reminding me of some other recent works that I had to give it a try. But because it’s a short, I’ll keep this list brief compared to others.

Suspiria (2018)

Anderson directing and Yorke performing is already a team-up to dream of, but another name is just as important to what’s on screen in Anima: Damien Jalet. The choreographer designed the mechanical modern dance that Yorke and the background players execute brilliantly in Anima. This is Anderson’s first time working with Jalet, but the filmmaker is thanked in the credits of Luca Guadagnino’s recent Suspiria remake. The horror film that happens to feature disturbing dance sequences choreographed by Jalet and a haunting score by Yorke.

Pina (2011) and The Ferryman (2016)

If you’re interested in seeing more of Jalet’s work, Gilles Delmas’ documentary The Ferryman showcases the dancer and choreographer’s work on stage and in between performances presents a fictional narrative featuring Jalet as the titular antlered character. This connective material, which is scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Revenant) and partly created by artist Marina Abramovic, brings the dancers outside into nature and to various locations around the world. It reminds me, as does the choreographed action of Anima, of the mix of stage and on-location dance sequences in Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary Pina, a tribute to Pina Bausch. To bring things around, Bausch inspired some of Jalet’s work in Suspiria, in which Tilda Swinton plays a character said to be modeled after both Bausch and Abramovic.

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Royal Wedding (1951)

One sequence in Anima features Yorke and other dancers seemingly crawling across a floor that occasional changes its slope. They climb or fall depending on steepness, but we never see the change in the platform they’re on, only what it does to the men. The tilted-stage effect employed by Anderson, as Variety‘s Chris Willman acknowledges, is something Fred Astaire would appreciate. The dance film icon made the gimmick famous with his ceiling routine for “You’re All the World to Me” in Royal Wedding. For that, a vertically revolving room set was used, so it’s more elaborate and more impressive if you don’t know how it was done.

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Modern Times (1936)

Among the silent comedians Yorke has been compared to in Anima, Charlie Chaplin is obviously one. While he’s not the most fitting, there is something about the new short that’s akin to one of Chaplin’s late classics: Modern Times. Both movies involve a mechanical choreography representing a kind of worker’s dance. For Anima, it’s that Yorke’s character is part of the day-to-day rat race, while Chaplin is literally a cog in the machine in the most famous sequence of his industrial satire. Unlike the next two relevant silent pictures on this list, Modern Times is more romantic and yet also ends with uncertainty for its pairing as they depart together, Yorke’s experience possibly only a dream and Chaplin’s a kind of flight from reality as well.

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Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)

More than Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton is the silent comedy star who most clearly inspired Yorke’s movements in Anima. Anderson even admits in Willman’s Variety interview, “I just kept saying, ‘More Buster Keaton, more Buster Keaton!'” The one Keaton that dominated my mind while watching Anima also happens to be my favorite of his features. Steamboat Bill Jr. is a bit of a disaster movie that throws Keaton’s character into a hurricane situation. There’s a bit where he keeps trying to walk against the powerful winds, tilting his body just like Yorke and his fellow dancers appear to be doing in the second act of Anima. And while you’re here, you’ll get to see what’s probably Keaton’s most iconic stunt ever in which the facade of a house falls and fortunately he’s standing in just the right place that it doesn’t crush him.

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Manhandled (1924)

In my continued attempt to recognize Harold Lloyd as a relatively forgotten silent comedian, at least compared to more mainstream attention on Chaplin and Keaton, I was going to highlight his 1928 classic Speedy, in which there’s a slapstick subway sequence. But then I thought I’d change things up with something even more obscure. Since Anima‘s title refers to the feminine side of a man, I think it was only fair to include a female comedian anyway. Manhandled is primarily a drama but occasionally it shows off star Gloria Swanson‘s underrated knack for silent comedy. The movie opens with one such sequence not just dealing with her tiredly attempting to make do without a seat on an overcrowded train but also having her own sort of difficulty even entering through the station’s turnstiles.

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Bonus: Daydreaming (2016), Present Tense (2016), and The Numbers (2016)

Anima isn’t Paul Thomas Anderson’s first collaboration with Thom Yorke. The former directed the latter in a trio of music videos for Yorke’s band, Radiohead, off their 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool. While music videos are considered by many to be a format of film, there’s not much to these three compared with Anderson’s new effort for Yorke’s solo project. The video for “Daydreaming” merely follows the singer through doorways to various new locations, not even performing dance moves or stunts. And the videos for “Present Tense” and “The Numbers” just feature Yorke and regular Anderson film scorer Jonny Greenwood sitting and playing the songs.

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Valerie Pachner in New US Trailer for 'The Ground Beneath My Feet'

"Everyone makes mistakes." "Not you." Strand Releasing has debuted the official US trailer for acclaimed Austrian film The Ground Beneath My Feet, also titled Der Boden unter den Füßen in German (which translates exactly to the English title). This premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in competition earlier this year, and has played at a few other international festivals. This new film from filmmaker Marie Kreutzer is "taut psychological thriller reminiscent of Repulsion", about a businesswoman who struggles to keep herself grounded while always on the go trying to manage clients. Valerie Pachner (who also headlines Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life) stars as Lola, along with Pia Hierzegger, Mavie Hörbiger, Michelle Barthel, Marc Benjamin, Dominic Marcus Singer, and Meo Wulf. I caught this film at Berlinale and it's very good, a brutally honest look at how the business life can swallow people up and suck all the life out of them.

Here's the official US trailer (+ poster) for Marie Kreutzer's The Ground Beneath My Feet, on YouTube:

Lola manages her personal life with the same ruthless efficiency she uses to succeed in the business world. She keeps her relationship with her boss Elise a secret, as well as the existence of her older sister Conny, who has a long history of mental illness. But when she receives the news that Conny has attempted suicide, Lola’s secrets begin to unravel into the workplace. As she tries to do what’s best for her sister without jeopardizing all that she’s worked so hard for, Lola slowly finds her own grip on reality slipping away. The Ground Beneath My Feet, originally titled Der Boden unter den Füßen in German, is both written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer, director of the films The Fatherless, Gruber Geht, and We Used to Be Cool previously. This premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. Strand Releasing will open Kreutzer's The Ground Beneath My Feet in select US theaters starting on July 26th this summer.

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Full Trailer for 'The Game Changers' Doc About Vegan Bodybuilders

"This is going to wake a lot of people up." A trailer has arrived for the documentary The Game Changers, which first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. The film is about athletes and body-builders who have switched to a plant-based diet (basically vegan, but that word can scare people away so they don't like to use it). Not only does it challenge the belief that you must eat meat to be strong, but it uses science and actual evidence to show that plant-based diets can lead to better health and better performance overall. "The Game Changers will introduce the world to elite athletes, special ops soldiers, visionary scientists, cultural icons, and everyday heroes. Each on a mission to create a seismic shift in the way we eat and live." The film is executive produced by James Cameron, and features Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about his experiences, along with many other athletes, celebrities, body-builders, doctors, and strength champions. Maybe this will convince a few more people to stop eating meat and switch over to the plant-based lifestyle.

Here's the new official trailer (+ poster) for Louie Psihoyos' doc The Game Changers, from YouTube:

Directed by Oscar-winner Louie Psihoyos and executive produced by James Cameron the film follows the story of James Wilks — elite Special Forces trainer and winner of The Ultimate Fighter —as he travels the world on a quest for the truth about meat, protein, and strength. Featuring some of the strongest, fastest and toughest athletes on the planet, The Game Changers documents the explosive rise of plant-based eating in professional sports, mixing real-time, groundbreaking science with cinematic stories of struggle and triumph. Wilks’ journey exposes outdated myths about food that not only affect human performance, but the health of the entire global population. The Game Changers is directed by American doc filmmaker Louie Psihoyos, director of the doc films The Cove and Racing Extinction previously. This premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. Fathom Events will show The Game Changers doc at a one-night-only event on September 16th, 2019 this fall, before the film is available on VOD after that. Who's interested?

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30 Beautiful Shots From The Movies and Shows of 2019 So Far

The year is far from over. That said, the midway point is a perfect time to look back at the months that have passed and do some reflecting. The world is far from a perfect place, but as always, movies, TV shows, and other video-based art have brought us joy. Needless to say, 2019 has contained its fair share of brilliance thus far. Of course, we’ve endured a few duds as well, but even some of those lesser works have featured moments of beauty that deserve some praise.

With this in mind, we’ve composed a list of shots that caught our eye these past few months. As is the case with all of these lists, we’ve opted for a variety pack. Some of these shots are included because they’re perfectly composed and technically brilliant. Others contain imagery that taps into our emotional core and makes us feel something. On the other hand, some of these shots are simple, fun, and nice to look at. There’s something for all tastes here.

This is not a definitive list as we’ll be uncovering shots we love from 2019 until the end of the year and beyond. By the end of December, we suspect that we’ll have been treated to even more visual splendor that deserves to be celebrated. Until then, though, here are some of the shots that have caught the eye.

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Too Old to Die Young

Cinematography by Darius Khondji
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
From the episode “Volume One: The Devil”

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Love, Death, and Robots

Directed by Alberto Mielgo
From the episode “The Witness”

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The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot

Cinematography by Alex Vendler
Directed by Robert D. Krzykowski

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High Life

Cinematography by Yorick Le Saux, Tomasz Naumiuk
Directed by Claire Denis

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Kingdom

Shot and directed by Seong-hun Kim
From the episode “1.2”

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Chernobyl (2019)

Cinematography by Jakob Ihre
Directed by Johan Renck
From the Episode: “Vichnaya Pamyat”

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There’s Reason to Be Excited About ‘Tone-Deaf’

Millennials are ungrateful, entitled bums. Boomers are responsible for the broken world that’s been inherited by younger folk. Whether it’s a battle between the age groups or those with opposing political ideologies, we’re all supposed to stick to our tribes and refuse to co-exist with the enemy. Sure, maybe that’s an exaggeration about the real world we all live in, but in the nightmarish realm that is Richard Bates Jr.’s imagination, the divide is strong — and deadly.

At least this appears to be the case with Tone-Deaf, the director’s latest horror offering. The story follows Olive (Amanda Crew) as she braces for some downtime in the countryside after losing her job and fleeing from her dysfunctional relationship. Unfortunately, she crosses paths with Harvey (Robert Patrick), an elderly homicidal maniac who doesn’t take too kindly to her generation.

According to the film’s official synopsis, Tone-Deaf “provides a dark critique of the bizarre cultural and political climate that currently exists.” The trailer, meanwhile, is really quite weird and suggests that the movie will really embrace “bizarre” part of said climate. Check it out below (per Saban Films) and see for yourself.

Bates isn’t the household name he should be yet, but he’s made a strong impression among the indie horror faithful during his short career. His movies tend to shift between a variety of genres, tones, and moods, but they all contain a strong personal component that makes them more human and relatable than a lot of the horror fare out there. One of the most interesting aspects of the director’s work, though, is its penchant for pitch-black comedy that arises from some gruesome situations.

His debut feature, Excision, is a gross and disturbing coming-of-age tale cross-pollinated with David Cronenberg-esque body horror. In the film, AnnaLynne McCord plays a social outcast with dreams of becoming a surgeon someday. That’s when she’s not dreaming about experiencing erotic fantasies involving blood, mutilation, and corpses anyway. The film examines awkward teen growing pains and amplifies them to extreme levels. Not every viewer will find humor in this one, but the film is hilarious in a demented way that’s quite reminiscent of Todd Solondz and John Waters’ best sickening movies.

For Suburban Gothic, the director took a rare detour into feel-good comedy horror. The film follows a pair of twentysomething slackers (played by Matthew Gray Gubler and Kat Dennings) who decide to become ghost hunters when one of their houses becomes haunted by a ghost. While the movie doesn’t fully embrace Bates’ twisted sensibilities, it does explore the idea of millennial disillusionment that appears to be a theme he’s exploring with more savagery in his newest offering. Like his other works, however, Suburban Gothic is a movie that earns laughs through its willingness to address upsetting topics, such as depression and lost souls trying to find some purpose.

Bates’s lighter brand of terror tale didn’t last long. In Trash Fire, he returned to the dark side for a twisted comedy about dysfunctional relationships and religious hysteria. The movie sees Entourage’s Adrian Grenier play an unlikeable prick who decides to try and better himself when he learns that his girlfriend is pregnant. This leads to him trying to make amends with his religious grandmother and horrifically scarred sister (who stopped using the Lord’s name in vain because He killed her parents and set her on fire). It’s another movie that mines humor from the depths of human depravity and even features an outlandishly hysterical scene where granny pleasures herself to televangelism. Enter at your own risk.

Until now, Bates has focused on telling coming-of-age stories in original, strange, and disturbing ways. With Tone-Deaf, he’s observing some larger hot-button issues in the form of a surreal slasher film. There will be some brutality on display for sure, but seeing his daring comedic sensibilities applied to this particular concept will make for some interesting viewing. I imagine that it’s going to please viewers who like their comedy to probe some heated subject matter in an uncompromising fashion. This element, in addition to the director’s originality, is why Tone-Deaf should be on your radar.

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The Violent Satire of ‘Robocop’

It’s easy to look at the surface elements of RoboCop and dismiss the movie as a violent actioner about a crime-fighting robot cleaning up the mean streets of a futuristic Detroit. Equipped with cheesy one-liners and plenty of scenes containing bloodshed and carnage, the film certainly ticks all the right boxes in that regard. Still, anyone who understands RoboCop will agree that the movie is much smarter than its basic premise suggests.

At the time of its making, director Paul Verhoeven and writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner set out to comment on the problems affecting 1980s America. Issues like corrupt politics, violence, unchecked capitalism, economic decline, gentrification, media influence, and the militarization of the police force. The movie is a melting pot of upsetting sociopolitical commentary in addition to being an entertaining sci-fi action romp.

RoboCop himself was created as a reaction to action hero archetypes popularized by the likes of Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood. Similar to their respective heroes in Death Wish and Dirty Harry, RoboCop is all about shooting first and asking questions later. According to Neumeier, the film’s protagonist and his violent nature represents “how ludicrous the [action] genre was becoming.”

Additionally, his simplistic brand of justice — all guns blazing and merciless if need be — also exemplified the unforgiving conservative ideology of Ronald Reagan’s America. Even though the titular machine-human hybrid is a walking parody, he also displays these characteristics pretty straight-laced.

As is the case with most Verhoeven flicks, RoboCop‘s satire is far from subtle. For example, throughout the film, we see several segments of Media Break, a Detroit news program where the smiling anchors comment on horrendous global catastrophes without a shred of sympathy. During these scenes, we’re reminded that the world has become so desensitized to violence that it’s just a common aspect of day-to-day life. Perhaps this is why the movie goes overboard at times when it comes to the gruesome stuff.

Of course, the entertainment we consume is also partly to blame for people’s apathy toward atrocities that don’t affect them. RoboCop drives this point home by treating us to commercials for fake products such as NUKEM, a board game where the objective is to launch missiles at opposing players. Furthermore, as the commercial for the game shows, it’s fun for the whole family. There’s no moral or social responsibility when it comes to making a few bucks.

Naturally, RoboCop’s biggest gripe is with corrupt corporations and capitalism gone awry. In the movie, this notion is represented by Omni Consumer Products, a powerful conglomerate which sells items for virtually every consumer need. They also control Detroit’s law enforcement and treat it like a for-profit business. The problem with this is that they’ve turned the city into a crime-ridden cesspool of human waste. However, the company wants to create a shinier new city down the line, and they employ RoboCop to flush out the undesirables.

Omni can also be interpreted as a metaphor for America’s involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, which saw Colonel Oliver North illegally sell weapons to Iran to help rebels combat Nicaragua’s socialist government. While Reagan’s involvement in the conspiracy is up for debate, many people believe that he was an out of touch imbecile. In the movie, the head of the company is simply referred to as Old Man (Dan O’Herlihy) and is presented as being unaware of the unlawful scheming being carried out by his executives, which includes employing violent mercenaries to do their dirty work.

There’s no denying that RoboCop is a movie that encapsulates the perils of its zeitgeist. That said, watching it today, you can’t help but feel the film’s messages were a sign of things to come. That’s because its vision of the near future was prescient in many ways.

For a start, capitalism is still far from perfect as companies continue to be afforded a wealth of privileges. To name one example of this unfairness, earlier this year CBS News reported that 60 of America’s most profitable Fortune 500 corporations paid no federal income tax in 2018. But given that the current US president has personally used loopholes to avoid paying tax in the past, this news isn’t surprising in the slightest.

Elsewhere, there’s been a rise in the privatization of prisons and mercenaries being hired to serve in the American police state. With the combating of crime now rooted in the financial interests of corporations, the ethics of this type of law enforcement is very questionable. It’s only a matter of time before they invent robot cops to do exact uncompromising justice on criminals.

Of course, the film’s themes pertaining to violence, the media, militarization, and conservatism that lacks compassion are still topical in the current climate. NUKEM is tame compared to modern video games, daily news reports show us cops looking like they’re about to go to war, and Reagan’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric is back in full swing. Maybe RoboCop is a silly action flick to some, but it remains a biting satire that’s proving to be timeless.

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The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movies of 2019 So Far

For more in this series, check out our Mid-Year Report archives.

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Whether it’s to escape from our problems or better understand them, we need speculative fiction more than ever these days. But so far, 2019 hasn’t been delivering on the former. Not only are we midway through the year, but as of the end of June, we’re also basically midway through the summer, the season of blockbuster entertainment that’s traditionally mindless yet still often satisfyingly well-made. Yes, there have been a few good superhero movies this year, but outside of the dependable from Marvel and the surprising from DC, the science fiction and fantasy movies that have resonated thus far have been mostly smaller and/or less successful releases taking us deep into space or far into the future.

Keep reading for a look at 2019’s best sci-fi and fantasy movies so far.

Alita: Battle Angel

More than 15 years in the making, James Cameron’s pet project, which wound up being helmed by Robert Rodriguez, might have been a perfect alternative to all the underwhelming sequels had it been held for this summer. Instead, US audiences mostly ignored the manga adaption when it released inexplicably on Valentine’s Day.  There’s no denying Alita: Battle Angel has issues, especially script-wise; Cameron productions often do. But as far as spectacle tailor-made for the theatrical experience, there hasn’t been much better this decade, let alone this year. And yes, I’m talking 3D-worthy, the most impressive since Cameron’s own Avatar 10 years ago.

The worldbuilding is visually (if not logically) magnificent. The action is stupendously well-directed. And at its center, behind some occasionally questionable execution from the story and effects teams, Rosa Salazar gives a phenomenal captured performance that’s energetic and endearing as the titular cyborg finding her way through a 26th-century dystopia full of hunter-warriors, literal overlords, and a thrilling sport called Motorball. Thanks to foreign markets, Alita is one of the top-grossing movies of 2019 worldwide, despite disappointing domestically, so hopefully, the teased sequel will still happen.

Pre-order the movie from Amazon

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Aniara

While some foreign countries are making waves with big science fiction blockbusters that look expensive and are sufficiently engrossing, Sweden has come through with something more intriguing yet still awe-inspiring. Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja’s Aniara is not heady sci-fi, just clever and contemplative, ultimately ironic even. Based on Harry Martinson’s epic existential sci-fi poem, itself the pride of Sweden, the film follows a colonial transport ship that loses power and goes off course, drifting through space possibly forever. It’s like a better, more populous Passengers. Actually, forget I brought up that movie. Essentially, it’s Gilligan’s Island with less goofiness, more despair. Also, orgies.

Emelie Jonsson is fabulous in the lead, playing all the stages of adjustment to a crisis as an employee of the ship who operates a form of VR escapist attraction for its passengers until even that resource has been depleted. While never as deep nor lyrical nor scientifically motivated as the source material and not even as curiously or brutally bleak as another title on this list about a one-way interstellar “sarcophagus,” Aniara is a smorgasbord of a film, spanning many eras in its depiction of life on an aimless ark. And kudos to its LGBT representation being so normalized and not relevant to the plot. Between this and its co-production of 2011’s Melancholia, Sweden might just be the best place to find profound sci-fi disaster movies.

Rent the movie on Amazon

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Avengers: Endgame

Last year, Avengers: Infinity War just barely made my list of the best sci-fi and fantasy movies of 2018. And in a tie with Aquaman. When ranked rather than alphabetized, Avengers: Endgame will certainly fare much better. Like Infinity War, it’s a whole lot of movie. It also feels like a series finale for a decade-long TV show that just happened to play out on the big screen over 22 super-sized episodes. To that, it’s a surprisingly satisfying conclusion, wrapping up multiple character arcs and plotlines, including some we didn’t even realize needed such focus — this is, unexpectedly, Nebula’s movie as much as it is Iron Man or Captain America’s.

How and where Endgame will place down the road, both within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and against other comic book and superhero movies overall, is unclear. The Avengers sequel is hardly able to exist on its own. For this year, though, the experience of sitting through its three hours, divided into the three acts of serious drama in melancholic mourning, fun adventures with time-travel fan service, and an overpopulated yet thrilling splash-page of a climax, especially as a follow-up to the messy misery of Infinity War, was outstanding.

See the movie in theaters now

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Captain Marvel

As substantial as Avengers: Endgame was (and maybe is), its MCU predecessor proved to be anything but. Narratively, that is. Outside of the screen, it was a momentous occasion, more so for the billion-dollar-grossing ceiling broken by a woman director (co-helmer Anna Boden) than the fact that Marvel Studios finally delivered a movie with a female lead with its 21st franchise installment. On the screen, it’s a fine standalone tale of a superwoman learning not to hold anything back, presented alongside a Nick Fury origin story plus a showcase for a scene-stealing alien cat. Also, tons of ’90s nostalgia.

Aside from all the references to that decade, the movie also earns marks for feeling like something of a mashup of ’90s action cinema and that era’s indie spirit. It looks like a Marvel movie made by filmmakers who came out of Sundance, and with regular MCU DP Ben Davis, they gave us some of our favorite shots of the year so far. Meanwhile, their screenplay, written with Geneva Robertson-Dworet, subverts expectations whether you’re a comic book expert or casual superhero movie fan, and gives us phenomenal female bonding moments. It could have used more personality, but here’s hoping there will be growth throughout multiple sequels.

Rent the movie on Amazon

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Fast Color

Since the rise of the superhero movie genre as a dominant presence in cinema, plenty of storytellers have explored the idea of what it would be like if costumed crusaders or people with special abilities existed in the real world. Julia Hart’s Fast Color is probably the closest thing to a correct answer. The small, stiff, slow film makes even the similarly plotted Midnight Special look like an epic action spectacular. Gugu Mbatha-Raw takes the lead as a woman on the run from government agents and scientists. She heads back home to reconnect with her mother and the daughter she abandoned years ago.

They have abilities, too. And the effects involved in their powers are very cool and beautiful. Yet this isn’t a film to watch for dazzling magic or astonishing feats or heroes saving the day. Fast Color is mainly a drama about three generations of women who’ve inherited gifts that go back through their family for centuries. They mainly involve breaking things apart and putting them back together, metaphorically reminding me of The Brother from Another Planet (which also happens to co-star David Strathairn). This, too, is a little film with big ideas executed tremendously.

Buy the movie from Amazon

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The Magic of Anticipation in the ‘Annabelle’ Series

The idea of living dolls terrified me as a kid, all starting with the trailer for Child’s Play 2. In it, a Jack-in-the-box’s tinkling music menacingly plays as Chucky’s face comes into frame, intercut with shots from the film. I don’t remember the Star Trek movie it was attached to, but I do recall burying my face in my seat to avoid the insidious hard stare of Chucky. The Hollywood appeal of killer dolls would peak throughout the ’80s and ’90s with the likes of Stuart Gordon’s Dolls, Maria Lease’s Dollie Dearest and my personal unsung favorite, Kevin Tenney’s Pinocchio’s Revenge.

Smash cut to 2019 and my childhood trauma is still making bank at the box office, kickstarted again thanks to the popularity of Annabelle, the doll introduced in 2013’s The Conjuring. Between the two subsequent Annabelle spinoff films, Brahms in The Boy, the return of Puppet Master, the Child’s Play remake, and countless straight-to-Redbox films like the Robert series, killer dolls are back in a big way.

There is no denying, though, that Annabelle is the new queen of pint-sized horror, and there is one aspect of her films that makes her unique: Annabelle rarely moves. Yes, there are scenes where she appears to move thanks to some clever editing, but we never see natural, humanistic movements as we do with the Zuni doll in Trilogy of Terror.

And while that may disappoint killer doll purists, with Annabelle the dramatic tension is elevated precisely because she isn’t anthropomorphic. It’s in this breaking of form, the doll’s economy of movement, that Annabelle finds her suspenseful strength. We almost mentally dare the doll to move as other scares – a door quietly closing on its own, a stranger walking in the background – flash in our periphery. The suspenseful stillness of the possessed doll leaves us in breathless anticipation of movement, a feeling pervasive through the core of the series’ many scare set pieces, particularly in its first sequel, Annabelle: Creation.

So how can anticipation become so unnerving? Well, think about it, have you ever had anxiety before a big vacation, or through the agony of waiting for test results? Anticipation spikes our stress because we’re left waiting for something, however good or bad, to happen. These primal anxieties come from our innate fight or flight response, and when a horror film taps into this it can elicit a charged reaction from its audience.

This anticipation permeates every scene Annabelle is featured in, crawling under your skin and staying there. But when she does move – like an offscreen head tilt – it’s with a carefully measured economy of movement.

Economy of movement is how an actor can most efficiently use their body to convey emotion, a core concept of Etienne Decroux’s movement theory “Corporeal Mime.” The practice is to show how the body can express both internal and external emotions through physical gestures. You could consider the idea birthed from the performer’s idiom of “I don’t know what to do with my hands!” – too much careless movement, and you give the impression that you are lost on stage, your physical expression losing any punch or meaning.

When an actor or director limits a character’s – or in this case a doll’s – movement in a scene, though, it can imbue the eventual motions with real emotional weight. Annabelle doesn’t need to run around holding a knife to frighten you, because she can generate the same fear with a mere turn of the head. This creeping stillness is meant to prey on our ingrained animalistic anxiety, never letting our guard down just in case we finally catch her moving.

But Annabelle wasn’t the first doll to rely on stillness to scare its audience. That precedent can be traced back to Richard Attenborough’s 1978 cult classic Magic.

Based on a novel by William Goldman, and starring Anthony Hopkins in the dual role of ventriloquist Corky and his dummy, Fats, Magic is a psychologically haunting film more than it is just about an insidious dummy. The stillness that the film utilizes for Fats shares many of the same concepts that make Annabelle work so well, particularly in how the cinematography supports this motionless terror.

In an early scene in the film, Corky snaps at his childhood crush Peggy (Ann-Margaret) over a failed magic trick. Once the trick works, their frustration dissolves into passion. But conspicuously in the foreground, our eyes are drawn to Fats sitting in a chair, the duo a blur behind him as the camera creeps closer to the dummy. The music transforms into a jarring cacophony of noise as we wait — on the edge of our seats — anticipating Fats to move. But he remains still, giving the audience no release from the scene’s anxiety.

Surprisingly, this entire idea is perhaps best actualized in Magic’s trailer, a teaser so frightening to kids in 1978 that it inspired Rodney Ascher’s documentary Primal Screen 39 years later.

While the dummy’s face is animated, Fats remains still, as if controlled by a phantom ventriloquist, speaking with Hopkins’ manic, piercing voice. But it’s in the dummy’s final stillness, his eyes rolled back into his wooden skull, that the horror finally reverberates. Within Fats’ stillness lies the entire film’s unnerving mood.

Ultimately, the biggest trick of all may be our own eyes. There are moments in both Magic and the Annabelle series where the doll doesn’t move, but our eyes trick us into believing it may have, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, “Didja see that?!” beat that feeds off of our own imagination. Because we want to see Fats and Annabelle move, in our heads they almost do.

So, sure, Annabelle and Fats don’t walk around like spooky doll king Chucky, but that shouldn’t be seen as a detraction from the menacing power that lies within this duo’s stillness. Precisely, it is because of their lack of movement that we are on edge throughout their entire films. The killer dolls and dummies may never actually move, but we’ll always be afraid that they just might. And that is truly magic.

The post The Magic of Anticipation in the ‘Annabelle’ Series appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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Review: Danny Boyle & Richard Curtis' 'Yesterday' is Awkwardly Sweet

Seen at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Who doesn't love The Beatles? Wait – don't answer that question. But seriously - The Beatles are the best and their music will live on forever because it's so brilliant. Danny Boyle's latest film Yesterday, featuring a screenplay written by Richard Curtis (of Love Actually, Pirate Radio, About Time), presents a crazy concept: what if suddenly The Beatles didn't exist, no one know who they were, except for one guy. And that guy then played all their songs like they were his own and became famous because they're still brilliant songs. That's the setup for Yesterday, except, this is a Richard Curtis film – which means that, not only is it actually more of a sweet love story, but it's really all about life itself and focusing on what matters rather than giving it up chasing fame and fortune and glory. Just not worth it.

Boyle's Yesterday is an immensely awkward film. Every single scene is awkward, which is the whole point of it. Himesh Patel plays Jack Malik, a lovable-goofball British guy trying to be a musician but no one seems to care about him or his songs (aside from his friend Ellie). He's a very awkward guy – he can never seem to say what he wants to say, and while he's charming, he's still a bit goofy and simple-minded. He is a good musician, though, but just can't get anyone to be interested. Until he wakes up from a bicycle accident and discovers he's the only one who knows who The Beatles are. And thus begins his life's story, suddenly being whisked off into the music industry once people start hearing his music. Despite all of this, the film never really transcends the awkwardness to become anything else greater. Which is a shame because I was hoping this might be a knock out. Once it gets going there's a clunkiness that gets in the way of the sweet love story.

The thing is - Yesterday is not really about The Beatles or their music. Yes, it's a nice way to remind us how important and impactful their music was/is. But that's just part of the concept - which is fun as a setup for the film. But, since it is a Richard Curtis film, it's truly about love and life and focusing on what matters and ignoring all the distractions and not being tempted by money and all that. Which is great. There's quite a bit of social commentary worked into this - in small (nuanced) ways and in big (obvious) ways. So many scenes feature distractions - mostly cell phones and interruptions from other characters. They're showing us how often we're overwhelmed and distracted by so much else going on nowadays. There's also a few good scenes about how great talent is often overlooked because of, surprise surprise, how someone looks. Early on he tries playing The Beatles songs in pubs but people still don't care, because he's still that same awkward guy.

The core of the film is, of course, the love story. And if anyone is upset by this film because it makes some cliche choices in the way it handles this love story, rather than focusing on the music story, they're missing the point entirely. Pretty much every film that Richard Curtis has written/made is about how your true love is someone right there in front of you, just waiting for you to realize this, not some person out there who will only find you once you're rich and/or famous and/or successful and/or grown up and/or more experienced (or whatever). Lily James plays Ellie, Jack's friend for most of his life. And from very early on it's obvious that these two will struggle to admit their feelings for each other, and that they need to go through this big life-changing event to realize that, but still. At the end of it all they understand and they do come together and it's sweet and nice and – yes – we still need these love stories. A tiny dose of romantic encouragement.

The rest of the film is amusing and mostly enjoyable, but I hate to admit I don't think I'll be rewatching this one that often. And I love Danny Boyle's films and rewatch many of them often. One thing I do very much appreciate in it is how blatantly Kate McKinnon's manager character Debra states how vile and poisonous (and greedy) the music industry is – and how evil chasing money is. It's as unsubtle as can be, and is a good slap in the face with truth that somehow works in the film. Yes, people love music, but he learns his lesson and realizes that good music means so much to so many people and is best when shared, not profited off of. It's far & away not the best music film, but there's a sweetness to Yesterday that makes it a pleasant, satisfy film. "All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?"

Alex's Karlovy Vary 2019 Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter - @firstshowing

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A hundred years ago, and less, at Cinema Ritrovato ’19

DB here:

Hundreds of films, thousands of passholders, sweltering heat (105 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday). Dazzling tributes to Fox films, Youssef Chahine, Eduardo De Filippo, Henry King, Felix Feist, silent star Musidora, sound star Jean Gabin, and other themes. Many filmmakers from Africa, South Korea, and Europe, as well as master classes with Francis Ford Coppola and Jane Campion.

Yes, Cinema Ritrovato is on steroids this year.

And as we always say: There are so many tough, indeed impossible, choices. Kristin has been faithfully following the African series, while I’ve hopped between restored and rediscovered Hollywood classics and the films from 1919. Today I’ll report a bit on the latter, with an addendum on a major filmmaker’s ave atque vale.

 

1919 bounty

Song of the Scarlet Flower (1919). Production still.

In the end of the 1910s, the feature-length format had become well-established, and a bevy of directors in Europe and America were launching their careers. Abel Gance, Victor Sjöström, Mauritz Stiller, John Ford, Raoul Walsh, Cecil B. DeMille, Lois Weber, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart, Mary Pickford, and many other figures had already made impressive work. 1919 brought us some outstanding titles. There was von Stroheim’s Blind Husbands, Griffith’s Broken Blossoms and True Heart Susie, Lubitsch’s Madame DuBarry, along with the lesser-known Victory of Maurice Tourneur, the first part of Sjöström’s Sons of Ingmar, and the overbearing, delirious Nerven of Robert Reinert.

Bologna showed none of these. Its massive 1919 lineup featured some classics in restorations, notably Capellani’s The Red Lantern (starring Nazimova), Dreyer’s debut The President, and Stiller’s Herr Arne’s Treasure. As a sidebar there was the 1919 Italian serial I Topi Grigi, a fun sub-Feuillade exercise in crooks and chases with some nifty shots. And there were a great many fragments and short films from that year, including a Hungarian entry by Mihály (Michael) Kertész (Curtiz).

Less known than Stiller’s official classics is The Song of the Scarlet Flower, a wonderful open-air drama about a young farmer’s wanderings and his heart-rending romances with three women. In a new digital version, it emerged as one of the most sheerly beautiful films I saw at Bologna. The central action sequence, in which the hero dares to ride a log through rapids to the very edge of a waterfall, gained even greater tension thanks to the swelling orchestral score by Armas Järnefelt–the only original score to be preserved for a Swedish silent.

 

1919, German style

Der Mädchenhirt (The Pimp, 1919). Production still.

Then there were two remarkable German films unknown to me, both by directors better known for later work. Der Mädchenhirt (The Pimp) was by Karl Grune, most famous for The Street (Die Strasse, 1923). The plot follows a shiftless young man who casually becomes a pimp and pulls women into prostitution. Introducing the film, Karl Wratschko pointed out that many Weimar films warned of sexual misbehavior, and certainly the young hero of this film gets ample punishment for his sins.

Stylistically, Der Mädchenhirt was typical of much European cinema of the late ‘teens, when the tableau style, which promoted intricate staging with few analytical cuts, was losing force. Grune mostly handles action in ensemble shots broken up by axial cuts to closer views. If German filmmakers weren’t quite as editing-prone as other European directors, that may be because they didn’t have access to American models. Not until January 1920 were Hollywood films of the war years imported into Germany.

Another film carried this moderate continuity style to an intriguing extreme. Tötet nicht mehr! (Kill No More!) framed a plea against capital punishment within a family drama. Sebald, the son of a by-the-book prosecutor, falls in love with the daughter of a former prisoner. When Sebald is cast out by his father, the couple take up a theatrical career playing Pierrot and Colombine. But then Sebald blocks the theatre director from seducing his wife, so the director blackballs them and they can’t get work in other shows. Visiting the director, Sebald quarrels with the man and kills him. He’s arrested, tried, and sentenced to death.

Tötet nicht mehr! displays some remarkable visual qualities. Cross-lighting in the climactic prison scenes sculpts Sebald, the priest, and the lawyer Landt in a bold variety of ways.

Director Lupu Pick (Sylvester, 1924) uses this dramatic lighting to enhance the tableau-plus-axial-cut approach. The police are examining the crime scene and questioning Sebald. A depth composition gives us the corpse in the lower foreground, the detectives in the middle ground, and way in the back, the barely-visible face of Sebald perched between the shoulders of the two central men.

One detective walks to the distant background to question Sebald. Anybody else would have staged this bit of action in the better-lit zone on the left, where a detective talks with his colleagues. Instead, far back, a single pencil-line of light picks out the edge of Sebald’s face and body.

An axial cut-in presents a tight two-shot of the cop and Sebald–again, made stark and tense by the lighting.

The plot of Tötet nicht mehr!  is a generational one, starting with the tragedies befalling the woman’s father. These scenes introduce the sympathetic lawyer Landt, who tries to help the family throughout its troubles. Landt becomes the vehicle of the film’s message against capital punishment, which gets full airing in the boy’s trial.

In the films of the 1910s, courtroom scenes tend to be more heavily and freely edited than others. This is largely because of the need to cut among judges, jury, witnesses testifying, lawyers pontificating, and the onlookers. Pick exploits the situation with dozens of shots of participants. We also get optical point-of-view shots showing Sebald awaiting the jury’s verdict by staring at the doorknob of the jury room. There’s even a “lying flashback,” which dramatizes the prosecutor’s inaccurate reconstruction of the quarrel that led to the crime.

Most impressive, I think, is the pictorial progression in Landt’s impassioned plea to the jury to let Sebald escape execution. Among many reaction shots and reestablishing framings, Landt is rendered in increasingly close shots as he addresses the judges and the jury–and us.

     

     

The textural lighting and the ruthless elimination of the background reminded me of the trial scene of André Antoine’s Le Coupable of 1917, run at an earlier installment of Ritrovato.

There were plenty of other 1919 films on display, several of which I have yet to see. But this should give you an indication of the service that Cinema Ritrovato continues to render to the cause of understanding film history.

 

Not so long ago

The Widows of Noirmoutier (2006).

Film history close to our time was the subject of Varda par Agnès, the filmmaker’s last statement on her career. Prepared during her final years of life and produced by her daughter Rosalie Varda, it’s a poignant and revealing account of what mattered to her in her work. It showed Varda’s wry, playful humor and her commitment to treating social issues in intimate human terms. It’s a body of cinema that grows ever more important each year.

Varda par Agnès also showed her characteristic sensitivity to overall form. It’s framed by bits of her talking to audiences in master classes, so she becomes the narrator. Some stretches are chronological, going film by film, but just as often the links are associational. The  women of Black Panthers (1968) remind her of the abortion activists of One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977). That’s about the friendship of two women, which suggests by contrast a film about a woman alone, Vagabond (1985). The beach of Vagabond summons up the plenitude of Le Bonheur (1965). And so on.

This might seem rambling, but it’s not. Varda explains that she often conceives her films with a strict structure–the strung-together tracking shots of Vagabond, the tight time frame and spatial coordinates of Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962). Varda par Agnès splits about halfway through, flashing back to Varda’s early still photography and adroitly linking that to her emergence as a “visual artist.”

She began mounting expositions like L’Îl et Elle, which housed cinema cabins (big transparent cubes made of ribbons of 35mm film) and Widows of Noirmoutier. Around a central image of collective grief, small screens show shows women sharing the everyday details of life without a partner. In just this clip, it’s almost unbearably touching. Apart from the resonance with Varda’s devotion to Jacques Demy, I was reminded of Chekhov’s line: “If you’re afraid of loneliness, don’t get married.”

 

We’ve been so busy with films, and queueing for films, that we’ve had little time to blog about our visit. Later entries will have to come after we’ve left Cinema Ritrovato.

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Thanks as usual to the Cinema Ritrovato Directors: Ceclia Cenciarelli, Gian Luca Farinelli, Ehsan Khoshbakht, Marianne Lewinsky, and their colleagues. Special thanks to Guy Borlée, the Festival Coordinator.

The complete score for Song of the Scarlet Flower is available on CD and streaming.

For Varda’s last visit to Cinema Ritrovato, go here. We discuss Varda’s career and Kelley Conway’s in-depth study of it here. See also Kelley on Varda at Cannes. A forthcoming installment of our Criterion Channel series is devoted to Vagabond.

For more on the stylistics of 1910s films, see the category Tableau Staging. I discuss The President in the Danish Film Institute essay, “The Dreyer Generation.”

The Criterion Collection’s magnificent Bergman collection wins Best Boxed Set at the annual DVD awards, Cinema Ritrovato 2019. Congratulations to producer Abbey Lustgarten and all her colleagues!

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Tuki Jencquel Introduces His Film "Está Todo Bien" ("It's All Good")

Tuki Jencquel's Está Todo Bien ("It's All Good") is showing June 29 – July 28, 2019 on MUBI in the United States in partnership with the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

We filmed Está Todo Bien between May 2016 and August 2017; before the migrant crisis, before economic sanctions and before Venezuela became international news. Things would get worse, but already then medicine shortages were affecting almost every Venezuelan with a health condition. As we were shooting, the Venezuelan health minister went on an international PR tour to hail what she described as the "the best public health system in the world." On government media, the denial of the health crisis was ubiquitous. The stark discrepancy between the official narrative and the reality for ordinary Venezuelans was so big that it needed to be addressed in the film. 

The easy way would have been to juxtapose the scenes of the struggling protagonists with footage of government statements and propaganda on TV. This would have made a very obvious statement; however, I believe that it would also have created a ridiculing effect and carried the risk of making a Manichean film. But still, the concept of denial was important. I discussed this with my protagonists and told them that according to the government, they had to be liars and performers of fake news. I somehow wanted to play with this idea and turn it around and I asked them if we could present their stories as dramatizations in a theater as if they were just that, actors on a stage. The government could deny reality, but not the right of citizens to dramatize their reality as if it were fiction.

My insensitive proposal was rejected, of course. As it happens, around the same time, through a close friend, I met a trained psychodrama therapist. Psychodrama is group therapy based on role play, role reversal, and dramatization. The entire process is guided by a trained therapist and is carried out in a safe environment. It was perfect: in exchange for therapy I would get the drama scenes. Whatever issues the participants wanted to address during the therapy was up to them. I would not in any way interfere in the process, except for choosing the location: a stage. This time my protagonists consented. We filmed the first session on a Saturday morning in December 2016. They loved the process for its powerful cathartic effect. All the psychodrama scenes in the film are from this one session. Several months later we did a second session which we did not use in the film, but worked as a follow-up for them. Unfortunately, we could not do any more sessions, because like millions of other Venezuelans, several protagonists have also had to migrate abroad. Sadly, Rebeca who was living in Italy thanks to a sponsorship, did not survive her third bone marrow transplant. She left us on April 11, 2019.

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Vítej Zpět! The 54th Karlovy Vary Film Festival in Czechia is Underway

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Camila Mendes in First Trailer for Drug Smugglers Drama 'Coyote Lake'

"There's certain things that once you get into, you can never get out of." Cranked Up Films has released an official trailer for an indie crime drama titled Coyote Lake, based on the real life Falcon Lake, a reservoir on the Rio Grande (on the Texas-Mexico border) along a dangerous drug smuggling route that has become synonymous with cartel violence and mysterious disappearances over the years. The film tells the story of a mother and her teenage daughter, who run a boarding house where they drug, rob, and kill drug-runners who stay there - trying to rid the world of bad people one by one. Until they get taken hostage one night by two injured cartel gangsters. Starring Camila Mendes (from "Riverdale", The New Romantic), along with Adriana Barraza, Andrés Veléz, Manny Pérez, Charlie Weber, and Neil Sandilands. This seems like an intense thriller that presents many different compelling moral quandaries to consider. Take a look.

Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Sara Seligman's Coyote Lake, direct from YouTube:

Coyote Lake, inspired by the real life Falcon Lake, is a reservoir on the Rio Grande along a dangerous drug smuggling route that has become synonymous with cartel violence and mysterious disappearances. It is there that Teresa and her teenage daughter, Ester, run a boarding house where they routinely drug, rob and drown the unsuspecting drug-runners and human traffickers who stay the night. Teresa justifies the killings to her daughter, claiming they are ridding the world of bad people and saving the stolen money to leave Coyote Lake and start anew. But when they are taken hostage themselves by two intruding cartel gangsters, their dark routine is interrupted. Ester begins to develop feelings for one of their captors, Teresa's lies are eventually exposed, and their lives are turned on their heads in an explosive and violent conclusion. Coyote Lake is directed by first-time filmmaker Sara Seligman, making her feature directorial debut after a few shorts previously. The screenplay is by Thomas James Bond and Sara Seligman. Cranked Up will release Coyote Lake in select theaters + on VOD starting August 2nd, 2019 this summer. Anyone?

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Official Trailer for 'Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan' Action Movie

"Stay strong, protect your mates. You're Delta company!" Transmission has debuted the first Australian trailer for an Australian action movie titled Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, from director Kriv Stenders (Blacktown, Dark Frontier, Red Dog, Kill Me Three Times). This is Australia's take on a Michael Bay-esque military action movie, set during the Vietnam War. In August of 1966, in a Vietnamese rubber plantation called Long Tan, 108 young and mostly inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers fight for their lives against 2,500 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers. It's a harrowing, inspiring, intense story of survival against all odds. "Outnumbered. Outgunned. Never Out of Courage." Starring Travis Fimmel, Luke Bracey, Richard Roxburgh, Daniel Webber, Alexander England, Aaron Glenane, Nicholas Hamilton, Myles Pollard, Matt Doran, Stephen Peacocke, Aaron L. McGrath, Mojean Aria, Emmy Dougall, and Uli Latukefu. Looks pretty much like every other big military survival movie.

Here's the first official trailer for Kriv Stenders' Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, from YouTube:

Late afternoon August 18, 1966 South Vietnam – for three and a half hours, in the pouring rain, amid the mud and shattered trees of a rubber plantation called Long Tan, Major Harry Smith and his dispersed company of 108 young and mostly inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers are fighting for their lives, holding off an overwhelming enemy force of 2,500 battle-hardened Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers. With their ammunition running out, their casualties mounting and the enemy massing for a final assault, each man begins to search for the strength to triumph over an uncertain future with honour, decency and courage. Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan is directed by Australian filmmaker Kriv Stenders, of The Illustrated Family Doctor, Blacktown, Boxing Day, Dark Frontier, Red Dog, Kill Me Three Times, Why Anzac, Red Dog: True Blue, and Australia Day previously. The screenplay is written by Stuart Beattie and James Nicholas & Karel Segers & Paul Sullivan & Jack Brislee. Transmission will open Danger Close in Australia starting August 8th. There's no US release yet; expected late this year.

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Incredible Third Trailer for 'Hobbs & Shaw' Starring Johnson & Statham

"We're going to need cars, and guns." Universal has revealed a third & final official trailer (first and second) for Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the unbelievably badass new Fast & Furious "spin-off" movie focusing on the two characters in the title - Luke Hobbs (played by Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (played by Jason Statham). Made by the director of John Wick (co-director), Atomic Blonde, and Deadpool 2, this is shaping up to be one of the most entertaining summer action movies. And it will be in theaters in just over a month! In this Fast & Furious spin-off continuation, lawman Hobbs and outcast Shaw form an unlikely alliance when a cyber-genetically enhanced villain threatens the future of humanity. The killer full cast includes Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Eddie Marsan, Joe Anoa'i, plus Helen Mirren. This is looking so awesome, and even though it's so fake, I'm still super pumped to see this on a big screen.

Here's the third official trailer for David Leitch's Hobbs & Shaw, direct from Universal's YouTube:

You can still watch the first trailer for David Leitch's Hobbs & Shaw here, or the bonkers second trailer.

Ever since hulking lawman Hobbs (Johnson), a loyal agent of America's Diplomatic Security Service, and lawless outcast Shaw (Statham), a former British military elite operative, first faced off in 2015's Furious 7, the duo have swapped smack talk and body blows as they’ve tried to take each other down. But when cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton (Idris Elba) gains control of an insidious bio-threat that could alter humanity forever — and bests a brilliant and fearless rogue MI6 agent (Vanessa Kirby), who just happens to be Shaw’s sister — these two sworn enemies will have to partner up to bring down the only guy who might be badder than themselves. Hobbs & Shaw is directed by former stuntman turned action filmmaker David Leitch, co-director of John Wick, and the director of Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2 previously. The screenplay is written again by Chris Morgan. Universal Pictures will release Leitch's Hobbs & Shaw in theaters everywhere starting August 2nd coming up soon this summer. Your most anticipated?

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