John Hughes created the blueprint for the American teen movie with this pop-culture phenomenon, finding the humanity in an assortment of high school archetypes.
Wednesday, 3 January 2018
‘Bright’ Sequel Suits Up At Netflix
By Max Covill
The fantasy/buddy cop feature is one of the most successful properties in Netflix history.
While there were reports that Netflix was going to move ahead with a sequel to Bright, now there is confirmation. Today, via social media, Netflix has confirmed that Will Smith is returning with a Bright sequel. Not only is Will Smith going to be returning, but so is his co-star Joel Edgerton. Director David Ayer is also in the fold for the sequel, but the one noticeable exclusion from the original is screenwriter Max Landis. David Ayer will handle script duties for the sequel himself.
According to Netflix, Bright is the highest viewed Netflix film ever on the service within its first week of release and one of the biggest originals (yes this includes sequels) Netflix has ever launched. Currently, Bright is the #1 on Netflix in every country since releasing on December 22nd, 2017. Perhaps those numbers that came out before the new year weren’t so off base. Bright is big business for Netflix despite its monstrous $90m price tag.
Leaked footage of Orc casting confirms the rumors: there will be a sequel to #BrightMovie. http://pic.twitter.com/8ayiDYDfK5
— Bright Film (@BrightNetflix) January 3, 2018
Bright has been a target for critics since its launch, but that obviously hasn’t stopped the feature from becoming one of the biggest titles in Netflix history. Obviously, Netflix is keen on the sequel and no amount of bad reviews will keep audiences away from this original property. Audiences care little about critic reception when all they need to do is press play in the comfort of their home.
The article ‘Bright’ Sequel Suits Up At Netflix appeared first on Film School Rejects.
‘Episode IX’ Could Still Address Rey’s Parents Despite ‘Last Jedi’ Reveal
By Sheryl Oh
There’s still hope for all those Rey parentage theories.
In Star Wars (well, in fandom generally), theories are everything. This is especially true when discussing Rey’s parentage in the sequel trilogy, which has caused some big debates since Lucasfilm’s latest offering, The Last Jedi, seemingly presented an open-and-shut case regarding her parent. But in a recent interview, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has instead hinted at something much more open-ended for Rey.
Needless to say, there are spoilers for The Last Jedi ahead!
We first meet Rey, emphatically played by Daisy Ridley, as an abandoned junkyard scavenger on Jakku desperately waiting for her parents to come back for her. Her first meaningful discussion with any other character onscreen references her “classified” upbringing — how about her past is a mystery. And because Star Wars is big on the family drama, there’s an immediate level of intrigue to this lack of information about her.
In the new interview, Johnson opened up about Rey’s struggles to reconcile her hazy past and her very powerful future, opining that keeping up with the parentage debate would “make life hardest on her,” which makes perfect sense. Johnson was determined to play up the parallels between Rey and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who both experience great shame through parental revelations in the second installments of their respective trilogies. While Luke finds out that the greatest villain he is up against is, in fact, his father, Rey gets nothing for her pining. For a character as undefined as she is in terms of history and legacy, this is her worst nightmare. Johnson states:
“The easy thing would be, ‘Yes, your parents are so and so and here’s your place in the world. There you go.’ The hardest thing she could hear would be […] ‘No, you’re not going to get the answer. This is not going to define you. You’re going to have to find your own place in this world.”
This works well and good for the characters within the story itself, but what of the audience members who were equally invested in figuring out who Rey could possibly be related to? There were (and are) many viewers who were hoping for Rey Skywalker or Rey Solo or even Rey Kenobi. It’s perfectly understandable why fans put so much stock in it: the promotional campaigns for The Last Jedi have especially played up Rey’s evolving sense of self, which includes her past. As aforementioned as well, it’s one of the defining features of the sequel trilogy. Hence, people were bound to leave cinemas disappointed regardless. What more to walk away from The Last Jedi with very little returns on your favorite theory?
All Johnson has to say about this is, “Anything’s still open, and I’m not writing the next film. [J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio] are doing it.”
It’s also worth noting that Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is the one to tell Rey who her parents supposedly are. As many fans are rightfully pointing out, he could very well be lying in order to manipulate her. Johnson told Collider that he believed Kylo to be telling the truth in his reveal, but is wary of being too definitive. “With all of these movies, Obi-Wan’s whole speech about a certain point of view always applies, so I think that you have to always think about the context of how information is given,” Johnson tells the Huffington Post.
Kylo’s actions throughout The Last Jedi could all have potentially conflicting motivations anyway, so what exactly can be trusted? To throw my two cents into the ring, my reaction to The Last Jedi‘s non-answer was rather positive because I love the idea of Rey branching off and being powerful without the shadow of the original trilogy. However, I also went into The Force Awakens thinking one thing about Rey’s parentage and then rewatching the film multiple times and forming different opinions, so I’m open to that happening with The Last Jedi too.
Moreover, there are questions to consider, should it be revealed that Rey is actually related to Star Wars royalty in any way. Without the core three from the original trilogy, just how fulfilling would any of the more popular parentage theories be? (Although the likelihood of a Force ghost Luke scene is pretty high.) While it would help to supposedly explain Rey’s strong connection to the Force, is parentage really all that important to her arc going forward? And if Rey is related to someone important but completely random — someone who hasn’t been addressed two-thirds into a trilogy — would it simply come across as shoehorned in Episode IX?
As a standalone, The Last Jedi deals with the grey areas of each character, and it’s great that it works in a looser fashion in the context of the wider Star Wars universe, despite what the intense haters say. For now, it’s probably wisest to leave everything as open-ended as possible for Episode IX. There are still two years of theorizing and fandom wars to go.
The article ‘Episode IX’ Could Still Address Rey’s Parents Despite ‘Last Jedi’ Reveal appeared first on Film School Rejects.
Spooky First Teaser Trailer for Sylvain White's 'Slender Man' Movie
"He gets in your head… like a virus." Sony has released the first teaser trailer for the spooky Slender Man movie, based on the internet meme/myth about a tall, creepy, "slender" man that haunts kids. The whole Slender Man idea has already worked its way into pop culture and reality, so of course they've decided to make a movie about it. And so far this seems like just another horror thriller. Slender Man stars Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Annalise Basso, Jaz Sinclair, Javier Botet, Kevin Chapman, and Michael Reilly Burke. This teaser is way too obvious about covering up the blood and gore in order to get an MPAA approval, and that bothers me more than any of the footage. I am curious to see more, could turn out good.
Here's the first teaser trailer (+ poster) for Sylvain White's Slender Man movie, direct from YouTube:
Slender Man tells the story of a tall, thin horrifying figure with unnaturally long arms and a featureless face, who is reputed to be responsible for the haunting and disappearance of countless children and teens. Slender Man is directed by French-American filmmaker Sylvain White, director of Stomp the Yard, The Losers, and Miserere previously. The screenplay was written by David Birke. This is inspired by a fictional supernatural character that originated as a creepypasta internet meme created by Something Awful forums user Eric Knudsen (also known as "Victor Surge") in 2009. Read more about the history on Wikipedia. Sony will release Slender Man in theaters starting May 18th, 2018 this summer. First impression? Thoughts?
Ingmar Bergman was born on July 14, 1918, and exhibitions and film series celebrating the hundredth anniversary are already underway. “The ultimate auteur, he wrote and directed profoundly personal projects notable for their honesty in tackling . . .
Megalyn Echikunwoke Stars in First Trailer for Comedy 'Step Sisters'
"White people steppin'?!" "I know…" Netflix has unveiled a trailer for an indie comedy titled Step Sisters, a fictionalized feature about a step dancing competition and a sorority. Megalyn Echikunwoke stars as a top-of-the-class woman at a university who is tasked with teaching her "misbehaving, mostly white sorority how to step" but gets into all kinds of trouble when she instead decides to train her rival sorority house to get ready for the competition. The cast includes Matt McGorry, Naturi Naughton, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Marque Richardson, Eden Sher, Lyndon Smith, Gage Golightly, Nia Jervier, and Alessandra Torresani. Unfortunately, this looks pretty terrible, even though there seems to be good intentions behind it. I would recommend just watching the documentary Step instead, about actual step dancers. Have fun.
Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Charles Stone III's Step Sisters, direct from YouTube:
Jamilah Bishop (Megalyn Echikunwoke) seems to excel at everything: She's president of her sorority, captain of the step crew, liaison to the college dean and a star student who is on her way to to Harvard Law School. But when Jamilah is asked to teach a misbehaving, mostly white sorority how to step, success seems impossible. Without telling her own sorority sisters, Jamilah begins training rivals Sigma Beta Beta (SBB) for the "Steptacular" competitive dance competition. Step Sisters is directed by American filmmaker Charles Stone III, director of the films Drumline, Paid in Full, Mr. 3000, and Lila & Eve previously. The screenplay is written by Chuck Hayward (Netflix's "Dear White People"). Netflix will release Charles Stone III's Step Sisters streaming exclusively starting on January 19th, 2018 later this month. Anyone curious?
Tuesday, 2 January 2018
Clothes Make Characters: 2017’s Finest in Costume Design
An exploration of the best movie fashion of 2017.
It’s been a tough, ugly year: in politics, in Hollywood, for women in Hollywood and beyond. But this time of year, it’s customary to remember and celebrate the year’s finest and most beautiful. As hard as it is, list-making can be a therapeutic task: within the confines of a “Best of” list, nothing hideous or unpleasant ever exists. So why not make another one to kick off 2018 right?
This is my third year of compiling my favorite costuming from the past 12 months—I can rightfully call it an annual tradition now. So here they are, the 11 movies that featured clothing I adored the most. For several of them, I singled out a garment and provided insights from costume designers when available. Some of the costumer quotes are directly from my own interviews. In all cases, quotes are properly linked and credited.
But before I dive into it, a couple of caveats: First, I didn’t rank the below list. Instead, I put the films in alphabetical order (unlike the ranked lists I made back in 2015 and 2016). Second, here are some honorable mentions I wasn’t able to include: Wonder Woman (the blue gown), Battle of the Sexes (several ensembles worn by Andrea Riseborough, as well as costumes worn by Elisabeth Shue and Sarah Silverman), Blade Runner 2049 (Ryan Gosling’s Shearling jacket), A Fantastic Woman (sparkly stage gown worn by Daniela Vega), Atomic Blonde (various coats and heels worn by Charlize Theron), Okja (Tilda Swinton’s wardrobe), Their Finest (the menswear-inspired, 1940s clothing of Rachael Stirling), It Happened in L.A. (Dree Hemingway’s wardrobe).
Annabelle: Creation
Costume Designer: Leah Butler
Memorable Fashion: Various ensembles worn by the children.
Few things are scarier in horror than dolls and children. A successful spinoff from The Conjuring universe (still one of the best horror films of this century), the David F. Sandberg-directed Annabelle: Creation has both. And to my delight (and terror), the ensemble of children in the film—a group of mid-1950s orphans re-located to a country home with a dark past—look like dolls themselves through brilliant costuming by Leah Butler. The chief garment must be the vintage nightgown worn by Lulu Wilson when she attempts to throw the Annabelle doll down in a well. Still, I won’t pick just one item of clothing from this film, as the collective costuming is what’s effective in this flick that mostly takes place in and around a stand-alone home. The harmonious richness of the stills above—which includes high-waist baggy trousers, overalls, embroidered sweaters and sweet fit-and-flare dresses—speak for themselves.
Call Me By Your Name
Costume Designer: Giulia Piersanti
Memorable Fashion: Mrs. Perlman’s wardrobe.
Everything about Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, a 1980s-set tale of summer romance, sparkles with sensual beauty. Giulia Piersanti’s subtle period costumes are no exception. A fashion designer by trade, the repeat Guadagnino collaborator avoided going too period-y in order to not do a disservice to the film. She told me, when I interviewed her for Variety last month, “the key was giving a sense of insouciant adolescent sensuality, summer heat and sexual awakening.” For a generous doze of that sensual summer heat in costumes, look no further than the sweat stain on the armpit of Mrs. Perlman’s silk shirt in one daytime scene. Strangely enough, Mrs. Perlman (Amira Casar) doesn’t look unclean or even in need of a fresh shirt in the said scene. Instead, she looks amply put together while embracing the summer heat in the lush garden of her beautiful Northern Italy villa. Throughout the film, Mrs. Perlman sports an ultra-chic wardrobe in an earthy, controlled palette, consisting of browns, mustards, army green shirts, silk bourette shorts and braided belts; all modeled after vintage Armani pieces inspired by Piersanti’s own family photo albums. Piersanti didn’t want Casar’s wardrobe to look “thrown on”. She was going for the Italian fashion of the time, with a bit of American casualness, trying to balance a beautiful shirt with jeans and white sneakers.
Girls Trip
Costume Designer: Danielle Hollowell & (Assistant Costume Designer) Provi Fulp Ramphal
Memorable Fashion: You can’t fire Dina. She won’t have it.
Achievement in contemporary costume design frequently gets ignored in awards season. So let’s take a moment to appreciate the fun, modern-day costuming of Malcolm D. Lee’s Girls Trip. I am a fan of the one-shoulder blue dress worn by the squad’s power figure Ryan (Regina Hall) and the “mosquito net” dress worn by the slightly uptight Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith), but my ultimate pick is the dress worn by Dina (the fearless Tiffany Haddish) when she is first introduced in the film. She simply refuses to be “let go” by her exasperated boss in a bold and daring mini sheath that screams confidence with embroidery, embellishments, geometric patterns and an explosion of colors. Within regards to Haddish’s casting, “We knew what we wanted her to look like, but she walked in and informed everything for us,” says costume designer Hollowell in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “We knew that was Dina and we just went for it with all her choices — bold, bright and everything that New Orleans stands for.” This dress is by Peter Pilotto and retails at, um, $1,920 (OK, definitely out-of-reach for this character.) But perhaps the savvy Dina is a user of RealReal (high-end fashion lovers’ worst kept secret) and got a deal for it, who knows? In any case, if you have a 24-inch waist and $375 burning your pockets, the luxury consignment site currently carries this Peter Pilotto number. (Thanks to Blaq Vixen Beauty for the tip!)
Lady Bird
Memorable Fashion: Lady Bird’s Thanksgiving Dress
I know what you’re thinking: “But the prom dress!” “But the audition dress!” I don’t disagree. In Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, both garments make a purposeful appearance in charting Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson’s journey through her senior year in a Sacramento Catholic high school. But I’ll give the edge to the romantic lace dress here, jointly picked by Lady Bird and her mother at a thrift store for Danny’s grandmother’s Thanksgiving party. This surprising dress doesn’t quite confirm our thus-far perception of Lady Bird: it’s (for lack of a better word) “girly”, pinkish-nude, with a proper 50s-esque silhouette. It instead illustrates her desire to fit in an environment, with a new identity she tries on for a while. Plus, we see her mother alter the dress in a wonderful, brief scene that portrays the multi-talented, scrappy homemaker she is for her financially struggling family. “Danny’s family is Kennedy-esque [in a] classic and traditional way,” costume designer April Napier said when I interviewed her last month. “So she shops at the thrift store [to find something] that would fit into what Danny’s grandmother would buy or like, trying to fit into that stereotype.” The dress not only makes perfect sense for her particular state of mind at that time but also looks beautiful.
Lady Macbeth
Costume Designer: Holly Waddington
Memorable Fashion: The scene-stealing blue dress that imprisons Katherine
When we first meet Katherine (Florence Pugh) in William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth, she is 17 in 19th Century England and getting married to a man much older than her. Later on, “I’m thick-skinned,” she declares to her new husband and an air of chill fills their bedroom in their rural country house made up of unified, quiet colors. So when we first see her in her immaculately sculpted, tight-waisted blue dress with a hoop skirt—either sitting by the window or awkwardly in the middle of a velvet tufted couch—her iciness unmistakably cuts through the screen, establishing her both as an outcast and an outsider, and a strong-headed figure. It’s a dress she wears throughout the film so often that she becomes almost inseparable from the garment (economically used by Waddington) she is caged in when she is indoors. (Outdoors is an entirely different story.) In an interview with Awards Daily’s Jazz Tangcay, actress Pugh talks about Katherine’s imprisoning clothes. “I was excited about putting [a corset] on, and I remembered during the fitting, I had to sort my breathing out. Our bodies aren’t designed for that. It made it easier to understand why Katherine was so annoyed and angry. I loved how our costume designer, Holly Waddington did the costumes. When [Katherine’s] out walking, she’s wearing a waxwork skirt and she can walk with her boots, but when she’s home, she has on this stifling dress that you can’t breathe in. It made so much sense for Katherine because when she’s in her nightwear she’s happiest. So, when the men aren’t there she wears her dressing gown.”
Molly’s Game
Costume Designer: Susan Lyall
Memorable Fashion: Dress worn by Molly Bloom when she takes over the LA game.
In Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game, Jessica Chastain plays Molly Bloom, a real-life entrepreneur who runs a highly exclusive high-stakes poker game for big shots. Her provocative, upscale clothes range from form-hugging bodycon/bandage dresses to those with deep-plunging necklines. But somehow, Susan Lyall’s costuming never objectifies Molly (the film’s female cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen deserves a lot of credit, too.) Instead, the camera portrays a powerful woman, refreshingly comfortable with her sexuality. My Molly’s Game pick is the dress she wears when she first takes over the LA game from Dean Keith. In an email exchange, costume designer Lyall told me that there was a lot of back and forth about this particular costume. Initially, she feared it would be a little too ‘girlie’. But she and Chastain ultimately felt it was the right garment for the atypical moment. “It is by far the frilliest, most feminine of all her looks. By wearing this particular dress, she effectively disarmed the men in the room,” says Lyall. “I knew it was right when she walked on to set, removed her bulky “warm-up” coat and revealed the dress. Jaws dropped.” The dress was off-the-rack, though Lyall can’t recall the label (they had to cut it out, as it was easily seen through the nude mesh.) When asked about the sexual, provocative nature of Molly’s outfits that don’t disrespect her in an objectifying manner, Lyall says she approached Molly’s wardrobe with the idea of a work uniform. “If a dress was particularly plunging, we would add a jacket or her glasses, which would effectively alter the look. By the time the game moved to New York, the clothes were much more sophisticated, the jewelry was really expensive and that in itself demands a certain respect. Like the game she ran, her look was controlled, not messy at all. Jessica Chastain exudes a natural elegance and heightens the respectability of anything she wears. And somehow, that sense of power does not allow objectification and can be intimidating.”
Personal Shopper
Memorable Fashion: The body harness/sheer overlay gown.
In Olivier Assayas’ haunted Personal Shopper, Kristen Stewart plays Maureen, an American temporarily living in Paris. She works as an assistant to a top celebrity, doing her personal couture shopping (they are the same size, so she can try on clothes for her boss although she is not allowed to.) And in her spare time, she goes about her real mission, trying to connect with the ghost of her deceased brother. Maureen is casually cool: she wears minimal-to-no make up, rides around a motorcycle in her jeans, leather jackets and plain, baggy t-shirts and sweaters. But when she puts on her employer’s clothes, like a pair of heels or an embellishment-crusted Chanel dress (the film’s most frequently-used still), you can see an entirely different identity clicking into place on her face. This is especially the case when she wears an absolutely stunning (and thought-provoking) Vionnet body harness with a sheer overlay gown, first while shopping and then in her employer’s apartment, unleashing her beasts and desires within. In an interview with Telegraph, Doering reveals that the harness was specifically requested by Assayas. So he surveyed several couture collections for a harness dress. In the end, he found the right one at Vionnet and Assayas immediately liked it. “We chose black because there is something ambiguous about her personality,” says Doering. “She says she hates the job she is doing and the girl she is picking the things for, but when she comes to desire men, she wants to be that woman she hates.” And when Maureen puts on the harness and the overlay gown, she momentarily becomes her.
Phantom Thread
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges
Memorable Fashion: Cyril’s wiggle dresses throughout
I promise I am not trolling you by picking a dress worn by Cyril Woodcock in Paul Thomas Anderson’s fashion-infused drama Phantom Thread. Sure, many of the designs of ‘The House of Woodcock’—especially Alma’s lavender photo shoot gown with precious Flemish lace—are beautiful and tasteful in a grand, jaw-dropping way. Some of them—especially the first dress made for Henrietta Harding—even have a royal dimension. But the works of the 1950s London couturier, at least to my eye, get somewhat overshadowed by the impeccably tailored wiggle dresses and power skirt suits Reynolds’ intimidating sister wears throughout. Cyril’s preferred silhouette repeats for the duration of Phantom Thread: some of her necklines are draped, her waists are cinched and her skirts tastefully fall beneath her knees in a straight line. She usually wears her pearls in a double-line (once, only once, she triples them.) The consistent dark colors accentuate her porcelain skin and portray a powerful woman who isn’t afraid to put her foot down, run the house with her own set of efficient rules and tell her difficult brother to take it down a notch. If ‘The House of Woodcock’ is the Manderley of Rebecca, she is the quietly-controlling Mrs. Danvers with a cool head on her shoulders. “Don’t pick a fight with me. You won’t come out alive,” Cyril says in one scene. Take a look at her in this still. Can you even dare try her on that?
The Post
Costume Designer: Ann Roth
Memorable Fashion: Katharine Graham’s gold caftan
In Steven Spielberg’s The Post, the gold caftan Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) wears during the phone call scene she decides to publish The Pentagon Papers is instantly iconic. In that scene, she is at a retirement party, caught in an impossible in-between: will she keep her head low or will she act in the interest of the American people, while simultaneously raising her paper’s profile? It’s an unexpected look for a character who, until that scene, wears professional skirt suits, bow blouses and generally conservative garments. Here, Graham sparkles in gold, looking both like a savior and an unflappable power figure at once. In an interview she gave to The Hollywood Report, costume designer Ann Roth says she made every stitch Streep wore and made sure her clothes followed a story arch. “I’m a huge researcher to the point where I have to say it’s too much. I read Katharine Graham’s book and I had met her a few times, and had dinner at Ben Bradlee’s house a few times over the years. She probably went to Garfinckels and there was a lady there who would help her.” She continues, “Caftans aren’t that odd, they are everywhere. That was a nice fabric. I live in New York on Lexington Avenue and right up the street are all the great Indian shops, but I finally found that fabric in Edison, N.J. The caftan wasn’t based on real life. It’s just what I decided.” And what a decision that was!
Wonderstruck
Costume Designer: Sandy Powell
Memorable Fashion: The robe worn by Elaine and Janet.
There is plenty of fabulous costuming to feast your eyes on in Todd Haynes’ Wondestruck, which connects two separate stories—one, set in the 1920s and the other, in 1970s—through an emotional tale of friendship, bravery and family. The 12-time Academy Award-nominated and three-time winning costume designer Sandy Powell richly portrays New York City in both eras with numerous swoon-worthy ensembles worn by street-smart dwellers. But one item from the 1970s segment stood out the most for me. It’s the art-deco robe worn by Elaine (Michelle Williams) and later on by Janet (Morgan Turner), to the confusion of Ben (Oakes Fegley), who mistakes his cousin for his mother in a revelatory scene. When I asked Sandy Powell about this garment earlier in the year for RogerEbert.com, the legendary costumer said they needed an item of clothing that was completely distinctive and recognizable. So she opted in for the robe of an art-deco pajama set from the 20s/30s that would make sense for the scene and would also come off easily. “I was a teenager in the 1970s, there was a real popularity with vintage clothing, Especially ‘20s and ‘30s,” Powell told me. “So, it’s something that a young, bohemian woman would’ve picked up in a thrift store. A fabulous piece of clothing that would’ve cost her nothing.” Well, it would cost a lot more than nothing these days (and vintage clothing from almost a hundred years ago is hard to come by), but it’s a fabulous piece that’s worth spending some time on Etsy for.
The Zookeeper’s Wife
Costume Designer: Bina Daigeler
Memorable Fashion: Antonina Zabinska saves a baby elephant.
Yes, another outfit worn by Jessica Chastain, this time playing a real-life 1940s Polish zookeeper who saved the lives of hundreds of people during World War II. At first glance, there isn’t anything extraordinary about this ensemble worn by Antonina Zabinska in Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife: a form-fitting polka dot blouse with a wide, cowl neckline and a belted, curve-hugging pencil skirt. If anything, she looks like a proper, put-together woman of her time: serving her guests (including the Nazi officer Lutz Heck, whom she meets for the first time) in a courteous and controlled manner, while looking charming and feminine, with her hair appealingly styled with a long piece of ivory ribbon. But the outfit gains a heightened importance when she becomes aware of the trouble in the zoo and needs to save a newborn baby elephant. And all of a sudden, her feminine exterior gets coupled by the relentless fighter she is on the inside, proving that all clichéd exterior perceptions about femininity are incorrect. “Antonina’s daughter, Teresa, told me that in her whole life she never saw her mother wearing pants,” says Jessica Chastain in a behind-the-scenes piece over at the Focus Features site. “It wasn’t easy for me to understand that at first, but then I thought of it as a really beautiful statement. In this world of macho, violent aggression, Antonina was trying to bring softness and femininity and love to everything she did,” she continues. Referring to this outfit as a “1940s femme fatale look that shows Antonina’s immense range, “The real Antonina loved polka dots, and we wanted to introduce them,” says costume designer Daigeler. “I also wanted to show Jessica’s beautiful skin color and so this is why she has this neckline. It was freezing, freezing, freezing cold. But Jessica suffered through it without complaining. She had no problem running with her high heels and tight skirt.”
The article Clothes Make Characters: 2017’s Finest in Costume Design appeared first on Film School Rejects.
Jonathan Schaech Talks the Thrills of Zombie Flesh Eating in ‘Day of the Dead: Bloodline’
Jonathan Schaech hopes that this second Day of the Dead remake will celebrate the genius and the gore of George A. Romero.
Jonathan Schaech is a bit of a horror junkie. You may recognize him best from his stint on Showtime’s Ray Donovan, or as that frustrated Wonder in That Thing You Do, but Schaech has slowly built a collection of terrors in his filmography. With his writing partner, Richard Chizmar, he’s adapted various horror short stories for Masters of Horror and Fear Itself, as well as the Ed Gorman thriller, The Poker Club. He’s previously appeared in the Prom Night remake, the 8MM sequel, and in the husband that rocks the cradle thriller, Hush. When given the opportunity, Schaech relishes in the creepy and crawly corners of cinema.
The actor delighted at the opportunity to slap on the latex and transform his handsome visage into the rotting ick of the undead. In Day of the Dead: Bloodline (the second remake of George A. Romero’s 80s classic), Jonathan Schaech is Max, the obsessive psychopath who returns from the dead to further haunt Sophie Skelton’s good doctor. It’s a gift to play two sides of the psychopath coin, but Max also offers Schaech a chance to channel some of his favorite midnight movie monsters. Some of those creatures may be more obvious than others.
The article Jonathan Schaech Talks the Thrills of Zombie Flesh Eating in ‘Day of the Dead: Bloodline’ appeared first on Film School Rejects.
Fantastic ‘Dunkirk’ Fan-Edits Show The Film In New Light
By Max Covill
Dunkirk in real-time and as a B&W silent film showcase new visions.
Although Dunkirk was just released on home video a few days ago, the internet has already taken liberties on Christopher Nolan’s epic war film. Given the quality of the footage and the format of the film, it just screams to be manipulated. These are but two edits of Dunkirk, which will most likely be tempered with much more given its profile.
Video Essayist Nelson Carvajal was frustrated by Nolan’s usage of nonlinear storytelling. Outside of the amazing visuals, the way the movie flows together is the trademark of not only Nolan but perhaps how Dunkirk will always be remembered. The story operates on three storylines that each operate on different lengths of time. The first story lasted over the course of one week, the second over the course of one hellish day, and finally one that only lasted an hour.
Nelson Carvajal made an experiment that took all three timelines and presented them in frames next to each other on screen. He said he got the idea from Mike Figgis’ design of the 2000 film Timecode. This allows the viewer to see everything that is going on while Tom Hardy’s pilot is flying through the skies above Dunkirk.
This is only the beginning of how fans will reimagine Christopher Nolan’s war film.
The article Fantastic ‘Dunkirk’ Fan-Edits Show The Film In New Light appeared first on Film School Rejects.
What the Top Movies of 2017 Should Mean for 2018
Disney live-action fare and female heroes dominated the box office last year.
The box office hits of 2017 looked a lot like the box office hits of the last two years. On the surface, at least.
For the third year in a row, an episode of the Star Wars franchise came in first place on the domestic chart. For the third year in a row, a live-action remake of a Disney animated classic showed up in the top 10. And other top slots were again mostly filled by superhero movies and animated features.
There were some significant differences about the highest-grossing movies of 2017, however. Such as how the top three movies all involve strong women protagonists. Also, how most of those superhero movies were better than usual (and the movies in general, as the top nine all have positive Rotten Tomatoes scores and half of the top 10 having above 90% scores).
Hollywood should take notice. And moviegoers should set their expectations for the future accordingly. For 2018, though, it’s going to just look like the same old stuff all over again.
Firstly, smack in the middle of the domestic top 10 is a horror movie, a very good horror movie. But is It a fluke? Hopefully not, because the genre deserves to see more quality efforts that receive positive reviews and then also do well at the box office. Get Out not being far behind on the chart, in the top 20, is a good sign, too.
This year will see some highly anticipated horror movies arrive, including Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake, but that one may be too arthouse and too long (at almost three hours) to be a smash. There’s also David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s Halloween, but they don’t have a dependable track record these days.
The only thing we know for sure is that the sequel is going to be huge, likely taking a similar slot on the 2019 chart, but then it’s going to look more like a franchise win than a victory for horror movies. Maybe some other significant directors could also give old-fashioned horror — as opposed to blockbuster action horror like The Mummy — a try and keep the genre’s success going.
Obviously, given that Star Wars: The Last Jedi just jumped to number one for the year, Disney is going to keep making Star Wars movies since even when they aren’t quite as well-received, whether by critics or fans, they dominate. This year, though, due to its summer release date and heavy competition, Solo: A Star Wars Story might be the first time we see a Star Wars installment not top the year since Attack the Clones came in third in 2002. It’ll be in the top five, at least.
Disney is also going to keep making live-action remakes of animated features, since Beauty and the Beast held the top spot for most of the year and is still the champion worldwide. But this year no longer has a recognizable adaptation, given that Mulan has been delayed to 2019. There’s a movie based on the Christopher Robin character from the Winnie the Pooh films but it’s not as easy a sell (and 2017’s Christopher Robin-focused biopic was dead on arrival). Close, though, is the Mary Poppins sequel, which ought to be gigantic.
You can also bet Disney isn’t done making superhero movies. All three of their Marvel Cinematic Universe titles this year — Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor: Ragnarok — landed in the top 10 this year, which is impressive. Disney is also getting its hands on the X-Men series, an installment from which also cracked the top 10: Logan.
In 2018, Marvel could have the same success with three films, Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Avengers: Infinity War, which could very well wind up the number one movie of the year. If there’s one that falls back and merely lands in the top 20, it’s the Ant-Man sequel since the first one wasn’t one of the studio’s biggest.
There will also be an X-Men franchise installment among the chart toppers of the year with Deadpool 2. Two other releases in the series may also do pretty well. There’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which adapts a familiar storyline and also might bring the characters into cosmic territory. And there’s The New Mutants, which combines superheroes and horror, a formula that could be a winning one after what we saw in 2017.
One thing Disney didn’t have as much success with this year was animated movies, its longtime break and butter. For the first time since 2007, the studio’s animated fare didn’t crack the top 10, with Coco being the closest at number 14. This year’s box office wasn’t as favoring of animation in general, though, with only Universal’s Despicable Me 3 finding a place in the top 10. And with its domestic gross being a franchise low.
Disney will do better in 2018 with two promising sequels on the way. Pixar’s Incredibles 2, helmed by the original’s Brad Bird, has the benefit of being a superhero movie, too — plus the first movie was in fifth place for its year. Wreck-It Ralph was number 12 for its year, but the follow-up, Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2, could do better.
Warner Bros. and its DC superhero universe had the other two titles in the top 10, Wonder Woman and Justice League. Although the former was much higher on the chart than their two 2016 efforts that also made the top 10 that year, collectively they were slightly lower with the series’ domestic total this year. Still, the studio is going to look to the phenomenal success of Wonder Woman for its brand going forward.
This year, DC’s only movie is Aquaman, and it doesn’t have any of the appeal that have made their other movies such big hits. It could even suffer due to the disappointment of Justice League. There’s a chance that the oceanic superhero’s first solo movie will be good enough to have legs, but it’ll be surprising if it breaks the top 10 for 2018.
One studio surprisingly lacking in the top 10 in 2017 was Universal. Last year it had two of the biggest animated features, both landing in the 2016 top 10, compared to this year just having Despicable Me 3 low on the chart. In 2015, the studio had Jurassic World, Furious 7, and Minions. They were much more successful overseas, where The Fate of the Furious took second place for the year worldwide.
Universal will have a much better year at home in 2018. They’ve got Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom out this summer, for one thing. And for animation, they’re banking on moviegoers not caring that a new version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is not unnecessary. It’s a good bet.
Below is the current top 10 domestic box office for 2017 (note: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is on track to knock Justice League off this chart very soon) followed by my prediction of what movies will be among the top 10 for 2018.
1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – $533M
2. Beauty and the Beast – $504M
3. Wonder Woman – $413M
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – $390M
5. Spider-Man: Homecoming – $334M
6. It – $327M
7. Thor: Ragnarok – $311M
8. Despicable Me 3 – $265M
9. Logan – $226.3M
10. Justice League – $225.9M
1. Avengers: Infinity War
2. Deadpool 2
3. Solo: A Star Wars Story
3. Black Panther
4. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
5. Incredibles 2
6. Mary Poppins Returns
7. The Grinch
8. Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2
9. Aquaman
10. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
The article What the Top Movies of 2017 Should Mean for 2018 appeared first on Film School Rejects.
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