An idealistic attractive young couple acquires a stunning, lifelike robot for guilt free help, but as the three grow closer, their perception of humanity will be altered forever in Life Like, arriving on DVD, Digital, and On Demand on May 14 from Lionsgate. From a producer of Salt and Premonition, this sci-fi thriller stars Drew Van Acker, Addison Timlin, James D’Arcy and Steven Strait. The Life Like DVD includes a behind-the-scenes featurette and will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.98.
In this futuristic thriller, Sophie (Addison Timlin, “Californication”) and James (Drew VanAcker, “Pretty Little Liars”) purchase a lifelike robot to cook and clean at their sprawling new home. At first, android Henry is quiet and hard-working. But as his artificial-intelligence programming kicks in, Henry starts to anticipate the couple’s needs and desires, ones they themselves cannot fully understand. Will Henry’s terrifying behavior destroy Sophie and Julian’s relationship—and their lives?
Stanley Tucci and Addison Timlin, in SUBMISSION. Photo courtesy of Great Point Media/Paladin (c)
Writer/director Richard Levine’s film SUBMISSION is being promoted as a modern updating of the novel “The Blue Angel.” The book was famously adapted into a 1930 film THE BLUE ANGEL by director Josef von Sternberg, a film which made Marlene Dietrich an international star.
In the Dietrich film, a straight-laced, aging professor becomes enamored with a beautiful young singer (Dietrich) in a local nightclub called the Blue Angel. The professor’s obsession with the singer has disastrous results, particularly for him. This forbidden passion is particularly risky for a man expected to set a moral example for his pupils, so he tries to keep it hidden lest he lose his livelihood and reputation, but he is under a compulsion he can’t resist.
In this updated version, the man is still a professor but instead of falling for a nightclub singer, his forbidden sexual obsession is for a student. In both cases, what the professor is doing driven by sexual obsession and is unethical and forbidden by the standards of his times. However, the premise sounds more like an update of “Lolita” than “Blue Angel” but actually, SUBMISSION has only tenuous ties to either and instead is a more timely tale of temptation and sexual harassment.
Stanley Tucci plays the professor, Ted Swenson, a well-respected author teaching at a small college in Vermont. He is a happily married man, whose wife Sherrie (Kyra Sedgwick) is a doctor and they live in a lovely, large house. It is just that Ted is frustrated with his new novel, which is not coming together, and he is kind of bored with quiet academic life too. When the middle-aged professor is approached by one of the students in his creative writing classes, Angela (Addison Timlin), who professes to be a great fan of the professor’s one published novel, he is flattered. She asks him to read and critique the first chapter of a novel she is writing. Swenson is surprised to find the student’s writing is strikingly good although it is also racy, sexual, bordering on pornographic. There is clearly a little envy, as he remains stuck with his own novel, but he soon becomes enamored of both the writing and the writer. Angela suddenly seems to turn up everywhere he goes on campus, proffering compliments or confiding personal tragedies, and also offering more pages to read. The professor starts to lose his professional perspective.
Tucci gives a fine performance as Swenson. The same can be said of the rest of the strong cast, which includes Janeane Garofalo as a friend and co-worker in the English department of the college. The problem with this film is not the actors or the direction but the idea behind the script.
There are plenty of warning signs that Swenson should heed, with scenes where his fellow professors talk about avoiding even the appearance of sexual harassment but Swenson plays little attention. The audience senses early on there is something not entirely honest about this student, but the professor does not see it until he is well mired in the situation. Every time he steps too far over a line, one can sense he knows he knows he is on thin ice. Yet he proceeds anyway.
To be honest, I have not read the novel “The Blue Angel” but I have seen the Dietrich film, and I suspect far more readers are familiar with THE BLUE ANGEL movie than the book. The von Sternberg’s film revolved around sexual obsession but also the social divides and restraints of that era, in which the professor belonged to “respectable society” that was supposed to keep apart from the “morally questionable” underclass world to which the nightclub singer belonged. The divide one should not cross was social as much as anything, in that tale of an inappropriate relationship. In THE BLUE ANGEL, the professor and the singer exist in different worlds. SUBMISSION poses a different morality tale, one of uneven power. The professor in THE BLUE ANGEL may have a respectable position in society, but he does not have the same kind of power over the singer that this professor potentially has over a young student at his college.
This tale of seduction, stupidity and self-destruction purports to be based on THE BLUE ANGEL but viewers are more likely to think of Harvey Weinstein and other recent news stories of sexual harassment and abuse. But instead of “believe women,” the message is this film is the opposite, with the young woman as plotting temptress, the one with an agenda. Making the student in this film such a plotting deceiver gives one a creepy feeling about this film, since it is the common claim of offender that they were enticed. True, the young woman in this story is not innocent but hiding Swensen’s guilt behind THE BLUE ANGEL and its old morality tale about “bad women” does not change that fact that this middle-aged professor, unlike the sheltered soul in the book, should have been worldly and aware enough not to cross that ethical line. When power is uneven, claiming it was consensual does not matter.
SUBMISSION does have one thing in common with THE BLUE ANGEL, in that both are cautionary tales for their time. In the case of SUBMISSION, that message may be that no matter how tempting, men in positions of power should not cross that ethical line with those they have power over – lest they lose all. Unlike that earlier story’s sense of tragedy, this character deserves what he gets.
Texarkana is the home of several murders that occurred in 1946 by a masked killer that was given the name “The Phantom Killer.” It’s a city made up of two counties – one in Arkansas and one in Texas. Ironically, producers Ryan Murphy and Jason Bum have approached the film THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN in a similar fashion. On the surface the film is a sequel to the 1976 slasher of the same name, and yet, the film often feels like a remake as well including recreations of some of that film’s kills. A meta-sequel/remake is too much of a mouthful to say, so what do you actually call it? Regardless of its label, this new TOWN is worth visiting simply for the sake of it taking a unique approach to bringing to the screen a killer we’ve seen before.
It’s 2013 and the people of Texarkana have gathered for the annual celebration to watch the 1976 film THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN. Jami (Addison Timlin) and Corey (Spencer Treat Clark) sneak off from the outdoor festivities to ignite there own fireworks, but the couple are quickly interrupted when Jami notices a figure watching them in the distance. You can bet that this isn’t just a peeping Tom. The couple is quickly chased through the woods and Corey is killed in front of Jami. What’s more horrific is that the masked killer who resembles the ’76 cinematic killer purposefully lets Jami go. As bodies begin piling up and copy-cat theories surface around town, Jami sets out on her own investigation which leads her to believe that there is more to this real life horror story.
I’ve never been to Texarkana, although I did drive through it to attend Fantastic Fest. It is what you would expect. Small, rural, and not necessarily of this time period. That being said, in the eyes of director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (GLEE, AMERICAN HORROR STORY) the 70’s are all the rage. Every shot, costume, and set drips with retro 70’s style. After seeing scene after scene of this, you are forced to wonder if Texarkana really does look and feel like a blast from the past. There are a few instances where we see a computer or other piece of modern technology. It becomes so desperate in its artistic choices that I rolled my eyes when I saw an old television with dials on the front of it. The fact that the film continually reminds of the date and year at the bottom of the screen doesn’t help this fact.
Cinematographer Michael Goi extends the throwback style even more with the way the film is shot. Soft focus, double-focus, and tracking shots make THE TOWN… look like it was shot by Brain De Palma’s second unit director. I actually enjoyed this aspect more than the preposterous set dressings. As a fan of 70’s thrillers, I couldn’t help but smirk at some of the visual nods and impressive camera work. More often we see modern horror films attempt to recreate the look and feel of the 80’s, so in a way it’s kind of nice to have someone acknowledge a time when movies looked slightly different than reality. The key word there is slightly.
THE TOWN… will appeal to fans of throwback horror and those looking for a grisly night at the theater. The opening scene is especially fun, brutal, and terrifying! The film doesn’t wink at the audience as much as recent remakes like MY BLOODY VALENTINE and doesn’t try to force any unnecessary humor into the story. Fans of the original film will no doubt spot similarities between this and the ’76 film. There’s no attempt made to hide the fact that this is a pseudo-remake, even though it’s a sequel by definition. What mainly sets it apart though is that the tone feels more like a grim murder mystery than a straight-up slasher. Detective work and tedious interviews bog down the last half a little bit, but the story holds your attention enough to keep you guessing who is behind the murders until the final reveal – even if the finale may be the weakest point in the whole bloody affair. It speaks volumes that the point in which the audience reacted the most to was when the classic Orion logo appeared before the film began – a burst of laughter and applause erupted from the crowd. THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN succeeds more at 70’s gimmicks than scares, but at the very least it reminds us of the good ol’ days.
Scheduled for a 2015 theatrical release, here’s a first look at FALLEN. Based on the worldwide bestselling book series by Lauren Kate, Australian filmmaker Scott Hicks (Shine) will direct from a script by Michael Ross.
FALLEN is seen through the eyes of Lucinda “Luce” Price, a strong-willed seventeen-year-old living a seemingly ordinary life until she is accused of a crime she didn’t commit. Sent off to the imposing Sword & Cross reform school, Luce finds herself being courted by two young men to whom she feels oddly connected. Isolated and haunted by strange visions, Luce begins to unravel the secrets of her past and discovers the two men are fallen angels, competing for her love for centuries. Luce must choose where her feelings lie, pitting Heaven against Hell in an epic battle over true love.
FALLEN stars Addison Timlin (Stand Up Guys), Jeremy Irvine (War Horse), Harrison Gilbertson (Need For Speed) alongside Joely Richardson (The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo). Rounding out the cast are Lola Kirke (Gone Girl) along with Sianoa Smit-McPhee (Hung), Daisy Head (Endeavour), Hermione Corfield (Maleficent) and Malachi Kirby (My Brother the Devil).
The original screenplay was adapted by Kathryn Price and Nicole Millard. Scott Hicks behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Alar Kivilo (The Blind Side), production designer Barbara Ling (The Lucky One), editor Scott Gray (Top of the Lake), costume designer Bojana Nikitovic (Marie Antoinette) and Bafta winner key makeup and hair artist Sallie Jaye (Wings of the Dove).
Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray of Mayhem Pictures serve as producers alongside Bill Johnson of Lotus Entertainment and Claudia Bluemhuber of Silver Reel. Jim Seibel and Campbell McInnes of Lotus, Florian Dargel from Silver Reel, Michael Stearns and Ted Malawar of Upstart Crow and Lauren Kate are executive producers. In addition, Todd Murata of Mayhem and Kerry Heysen-Hicks serve as co-producers. Silver Reel is financing the project with Lotus handling foreign sales.
