Tag: Elizabeth Debicki

MAXXXINE – Review

(L-R) Mia Goth as Maxine and Halsey as Tabby, in MAXXXINE. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin. Courtesy of A24

Director Ti West and actor Mia Goth are back with a third film in the X horror series. MAXXXINE is a sequel to 2022’s X, while the second in the series, PEARL (also 2022), was a prequel. The first film, X, was a surprise hit at SXSW with audiences and critics, a kind of fun, tongue-in-cheek homage to both horror and porno films of the late 1970s and early 1980s, where the owner of a strip joint and his pals set out in make a porno film titled “The Farmers’ Daughters” at a rural house they have rented from an elderly couple, but without telling the old folks what kind of film they are making. Mia Goth plays in dual roles as one of the actresses in the porno, Maxine, and the elderly farm wife, Pearl. Following the traditions of horror films of that earlier era, their sexual misbehavior is punished by murder and mayhem.

MAXXINE is set in 1985 Hollywood, when the Night Stalker serial killer was roaming the streets. Mia Goth again plays Maxine, the sole survivor of the Texas massacre in the first movie, who is now working in the Hollywood adult film industry under the name Maxine Minx, while concealing her violent past. Maxine is ambitious to make the leap to mainstream movies via horror films, and gets her chance in an audition for “The Puritan II,” a sequel to a horror hit directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki).

The film opens with black-and-white home movie footage of Maxine as a child performing on stage while hear her unseen preacher daddy (Simon Prast), who encourages her ambitions to be the “star” of the church, which sets up a backstory for ambitious Maxine. Maxine’s ambitions to step up to stardom via horror is backed by her agent/lawyer Teddy Knight (Giancarlo Esposito). But her closest friend and confidant is Leon (musician Moses Sumney), a clerk at the X-rated video store under her upstairs apartment. Ambitious and hardworking Maxine has a second job, as a live performer at a peep show, and declines two co-workers’ separate invitations to join them at a party at a fancy house near the Hollywood sign. As the Nightstalker takes more victims and police detectives (Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan) investigate the murders, a mysterious man, wearing black leather gloves, pays to see Maxine at the peep show but reacts with anger at what he sees. Shortly after, a sleazy Southern private detective, Labat (Kevin Bacon), contacts Maxine with a threat to reveal her past if she doesn’t accept his mysterious employer’s invitation to the house under the Hollywood sign.

MAXXXINE is absolutely packed with movie references and shots of icon Hollywood locations, including famous backlot sets, which is actually the biggest thrill in this horror-homage thriller.

As you can guess from the cast, the third film in the series has a bigger budget and hence a more star-studded cast, including Kevin Bacon, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Monaghan and Giancarlo Esposito.

Like the first film, MAXXXINE is less an actual scary horror movie than an homage to horror movies, and to soft porn videos and drive-in fare of the early 1980s era. The Hollywood setting means the filmmakers could include wonderful location shots, such as the set for PSYCHO, and both visual and dialog references to a host of classic thrillers, including CHINATOWN, often with a dark humor twist, such as one with a Buster Keaton impersonator.

Mia Goth again does the good job she did the the first two films, and adding the stars to the cast are a bonus. A particular standout is Kevin Bacon, as the oily New Orleans private detective bedeviling Maxine, in a sleazy version of Jack Nicholson’s character in CHINTOWN (complete with bandaged nose) crossed with a number of gangster film baddies, until he gets his comeuppance via Giancarlo Esposito’s “Better Call Saul”-ish agent/lawyer.

In fact, the too-few moments like that and the many other movie references, along with the chance to see behind to facades of some famous film sets, such as going inside through the doors of the mansion on the hill behind the Bates Motel, are the major thrills in MAXXXINE. Otherwise, the movie is not very suspenseful or scary, and it has less tongue-in-cheek humor or Hammer Film fake bloodiness than the first one (although cheesy Hammer Film effects do get a mention). Of course, there is some gore and violence, but much less than you might expect, and the tension and thrills are sparse, as are the dark humor moments. It’s not the first time an indie film has been diminished by a bigger budget, of course, but audiences expecting the same horror-homage entertainment as the first one are likely to feel let down. However, fans of Old Hollywood and classic thrillers will get some treats in the movie’s tour of backlots and back streets circa 1985.

MAXXXINE opens Friday, July 5, in theaters.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

Mia Goth Goes Hollywood In First Trailer For Ti West’s MaXXXine

A24 has dropped the brand new trailer for writer-director Ti West’s, MaXXXine, the third installment of the X film series.

In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.

Starring Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, with Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Bacon, check out the first look now.

The X series includes an original film, its prequel, and now its star-filled sequel.

Writer-director Ti West (The House of the Devil) followed-up to his hit slasher movie X, with PEARL in 2022. Revisiting the unforgettable character Pearl, the film was about the obsessive old voyeur who relentlessly stalked Mia Goth’s Maxine Minx character across the Texas farm that Pearl never managed to escape. Played in the first film by Mia Goth in a dual role, Maxine/ Pearl explored the dualities and longings of two very different women—a young porn actress in 1979 dreaming of stardom and an octogenarian born at the turn of the last century who yearns for youthful attention.

Pearl remained an indelibly strong, empathetic, even winsome character. Viewed in tandem with X, West’s second installment in the franchise made a poignant statement on aging, regret, and the passage of time. (review)

Written and Directed by Ti West, MaXXXine is produced by Jacob Jaffke, Ti West, Kevin Turen, Harrison Kreiss, Mia Goth.

Director of Photography Eliot Rockett, Production Design by Jason Kisvarday, Editing by Ti West Costume Design by Mari-An Ceo, Sound Design by Karen Baker Landers and Casting by Jessica Kelly. Composer Tyler Bates returns as composer for the third film.

MaXXXine is in theaters on July 5, 2024.
Rated R.

TENET – Review

JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON stars in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action epic “TENET,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon. Copyright: ©2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Hopes for jump-starting the blockbuster movie season delayed by a summer shut-down largely rest on TENET, Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi spy thriller. The description of the film certainly sounds like it would do the trick – a promised a mix of INCEPTION’s intellectually intriguing concept and THE DARK KNIGHT’s technically dazzling action thrills. While we do get the technical dazzle and an intriguing concept, TENET is more a mixed bag overall, and far from one of Nolan’s best.

Christopher Nolan is an amazing filmmaker, an auteur whose best works include MEMENTO, INCEPTION and THE DARK KNIGHT. But not every Nolan has worked, and there are several that did not quite reach their potential. TENET is among this latter group, unfortunately.

Action fans, however, will be thoroughly entertained, even though those who relish the mind-twisting puzzles the director often serves up will feel more frustration. The action starts immediately, with John John David Washington’s unnamed special-ops agent coming in to thwart attempted assassination of a leader, maybe a president, during a classical music concert at a Russian opera house. The sequence wraps up by introducing us to a ticking-time bomb scenario that involves a kind of time travel called inversion, in which events run backwards among other things. The mission also introduces the Protagonist to a code phrase using the word “tenet,” and a host of characters who may or may not be allies or enemies, including a fixer named Neil (Robert Pattinson), as well as a Russian arms dealer Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) and his beautiful estranged wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), and a wealthy contact played by Michael Caine.

There is plenty of James Bond references in this spy thriller, complete with expensive suits, yachts, speed boats, beautiful women, billionaire lifestyle, as well as the witty quips. TENET mixes this throw-back fun with the breathlessly-fast action thriller sci-fi sequences that are cutting-edge contemporary.

The film is technically excellent, with jaw-dropping action and clever plot twists. Action fans should be more that delighted with all that, which is brilliantly executed. The scenes where characters are “inverted” are particularly outstanding The film delivers enough information about what is happening – eventually – to understand what is going on, but audiences could also just lean back and go along for the movie magic ride. For the audiences who want to figure out the puzzle, the situation is less satisfying.

One of the most frustrating things about this film is there in the first scenes, where muddy sound that muffles dialog, which is delivered at a rapid-fire pace that matches the explosion of action that starts the film. Like INCEPTION, the technology that allows the characters to “invert” time is a black box but those who like the puzzle solving would like to hear more about the premise Nolan is offering. Sadly, between the ultra-fast delivery and mixed accents, plus a background sound of explosions, one can hardly make out what is being said. For many action films, what is said hardly matters but one expects it to matter in a Nolan film.

Besides the sound issue, another challenge is the casting. The central pair in this action-driven spy tale is John David Washington and Robert Pattinson While both actors have turned in nice performances in past roles, not much chemistry every develops between them, and they go from action sequence to sequence with just a few traded quips. John David Washington’s damped-down acting style was fine in BLACKKKLANSMAN but for TENET’s unnamed Protagonist something more emotionally involving is needed. A better choice would have been an actor who could give more subtext, more nuance, would have drawn us into the character more, rather than Washington’s square-jawed noble hero. John David Washington is the son of Denzel Washington, but the father would have been a better fit for the role from an acting perspective, The younger Washington is good looking and has the physique for the hero role but his acting style seems flat here. Pattinson has done some good work in many films but here he is a one-note character, a handsome, smiling cipher who provides whatever backup or miracle fix is needed by Washington’s hero character.

The acting sparks are provided by TENET’s outstanding supporting cast, who offer the most interesting characters and performances. Michael Caine’s brief appearance is memorable, and a nice nod to the Batman films. The best good-and-evil struggle is between Kenneth Branagh’s arms dealer and his estranged wife played by the gifted, under-appreciated Elizabeth Debicki, an actress who is beautiful enough to be a “Bond girl” surrogate and talented enough to steal most scenes. Scenes between Branagh and Debicki just crackle with tension and emotion, a battle of acting talents that are just thrilling to watch.

TENET is a big action film, and therefore is best seen on a big screen, the kind of movie made for that viewing experience. As action entertainment, TENET is good enticement to draw film-goers out to theaters and beats most in that genre. But for serious Christopher Nolan fans who relish the director’s intelligence and intriguing style of films, and are hoping for a repeat of INCEPTION’s magic, TENET doesn’t quite hit the mark. TENET opens Thursday, September 3, in multiple theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY – Review

Who’s ready for a bit, no lots, of culture? No, well let’s sweeten the deal. Yes, you’ll be in the world of odd artists and their deep-pocketed patrons, but the paintings are on the walls of a swanky mansion over in Italy. Hmm, some refinement and a virtual “vacay”. And who are our guides? That’s where the romance sneaks in via a most photogenic pair of European rising stars. Oh, and they’re backed up by a veteran film actor (this is his seventh decade on screen) and an honest to gosh, no debate about it, rock and roll god. Somehow this quartet is connected by the piece known as THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY.

When we meet art critic/author James Figueras (Claes Bang) he’s lecturing a group of English tourists at a bookstore in Milan, Italy. Nobody’s buying his softcover collection of art essays, but he’s approached by a willowy blonde from the states, Berenice Hollis (Elizabeth Debicki). The two go straight from the shop to his “flat’ for a late afternoon romantic “romp”. Instead of sending her on her way, James invites her to join him on a business, now with a bit of pleasure, trip. A wealthy art collector wants him to appraise a new acquisition. The couple motors their way to the Lake Como villa of Joseph Cassidy (Mick Jagger). While Berenice lounges by the pool, Cassidy reveals the real reason for summoning James. It seems that Cassidy is part of an art lover’s group providing a home for reclusive celebrated painter Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland) located not far from the mansion. Getting an exclusive interview with Debney would re-ignite James’ fading art historian career. But what does Cassidy want in return? Over the last fifty years, all of Debney’s works were destroyed in two fires (one at a museum, the other at his studio). He hasn’t produced anything since the tragedies. Cassidy wants James to convince Debney to create one more painting, a one-of-a-kind that would become part of Cassidy’s massive collection. To ensure his help, Cassidy threatens James with a bit of blackmail, a secret that could drum him out of the ‘art world”. Later at the pool, James and Berenice encounter Debney who is familiar with his writings. However, Debney insists that he will have no part of a literary profile. How can James change his mind, let alone convince him to paint once more?

As for this quartet of players, some are most engaging while others, well, often strain to move the “not as clever as it thinks it is” story. Bang, who most recently was a suave and bloodthirsty Dracula in a Netflix miniseries, bares that script struggle as he tries to make James into a complex compelling protagonist (though other forces seem to compel him forward). We can see his skills at hustling the tourists, but it’s difficult to buy into his “con game” with the upper elites, let alone that this “cool blonde” (a nod to “Hitch”, perhaps) would fall into bed with him so quickly, even as he devolves into a jittery chain-smoking “pill-popper”. Debicki as Berenice (really is that name a staple in small Minnesota villages) has an aloof alluring vibe, comfortable in a modest (well for Milan) studio apartment or gliding about a swanky manor. Still, she can’t make the clunky pillow talk play, but Debicki shines as she opens up her wounded soul to the sympathetic reclusive painter. Maybe that’s because the eccentric artiste is played with great subtlety and “charm to spare” by the still-surprising Sutherland. The years have just made him more compelling as his rich vocal delivery draws us in, setting us up for Debney’s twisted, but often just, moral code of conduct. His supporting role is the film’s biggest strength as is the most welcome acting return after nearly twenty years (so great as the “escort agent” of THE MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS) of Jagger who is the ultimate in silky smooth but sinister civility as the collecting-obsessed Cassidy. His silky compliments put James at ease, easily setting him up for a cruel plunge into crime and deceit ( a coiffed smiling cobra comes to mind). His arena-filling charisma makes this preening puppet-master (dance Jame, dance) the jewel as the heart of this modern noir homage.

Actually a story centered on the relationship between Debney and Cassidy would be most compelling, but director Giuseppe Capotondi is tasked with making the James/ Berenice romance/partnership interesting. It’s not enough to move the plot’s manipulations forward at a breezy clip. Much of that floundering is due to their exchanges in the script by Scott B. Smith adapting the Charles Willeford novel. The attempts at witty by-play fall flat as do the “hammered home” digs at James’ moral flaws (constant flies and bees, that gushing nose bleed). Once the “crime” is in motion we’re left to accept other characters “going along’ with odd bits of business (leave the villa in the dead of night…okay). This leads up to a final “fast forward” denouncement” that feels more contrived than clever. The lush Italian locales are quite lovely, but the attitude toward and fate of one major character just sours almost everything. Except for those performing “pros”, Donald and Mick (maybe too close to the Disney duo). They add the real heat (and color hued heat) to THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY.

2 Out of 4

THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at the Hi-Pointe Theatre

Check Out The Inverted World Of Christopher Nolan In New TENET IMAX Trailer Starring John David Washington And Robert Pattinson

John David Washington is the new Protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s original sci-fi action spectacle “Tenet.”

Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.

©2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
PHOTO CREDIT: Melinda Sue Gordon

Warner Bros. Pictures is distributing “Tenet” worldwide and has slated the film for a July 17, 2020 release.

The international cast of “Tenet” also includes Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clémence Poésy, with Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh. Nolan wrote and directed the film, utilizing a mixture of IMAX® and 70mm film to bring the story to the screen.

“Tenet” is produced by Emma Thomas and Nolan. Thomas Hayslip served as executive producer.

Nolan’s behind-the-scenes creative team included director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema, production designer Nathan Crowley, editor Jennifer Lame, costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson, and special effects supervisor Scott Fisher. The score is composed by Ludwig Göransson.

“Tenet” was filmed on location across seven countries. Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Syncopy Production, a Film by Christopher Nolan, “Tenet.”

www.Tenetfilm.com

©2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
PHOTO CREDIT: Melinda Sue Gordon

Viola Davis and Liam Neeson in WIDOWS Now Available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD


From Academy Award Winner Steve McQueen*, the director of 12 Years a Slave, and from Gillian Flynn, the writer of Gone Girl, comes a powerful thriller with a stellar cast, including Oscar® Winner Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo. Four women — with nothing in common except a debt left by their dead husbands’ criminal acts — conspire to take fate into their own hands.


Also featuring Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall and Liam Neeson, Widows delivers explosive action and gripping suspense! The Blu-ray is packed with nearly 60-minutes of bonus content, with three documentary featurettes filled with in-depth interviews and raw on-set footage detailing the compelling production story of WIDOWS.


Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes®, Widows arrived on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™ and DVD on February 5.


Blu-ray SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Widows Unmasked: A Chicago Story
    • Plotting The Heist: The Story
    • Assembling The Crew: Production
    • The Scene Of The Crime: Locations
  • Gallery


WIDOWS TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Widows 4K Ultra HD™ Specifications
Street Date:                February 5, 2019
Screen Format:          Widescreen 2.39:1
Audio:                         English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 and
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:                    English SDH, Spanish, French
Total Run Time:          129 minutes
U.S. Rating:                R

THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT – Review

Review by Stephen Tronicek

At the bottom of the poster to THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT the tagline reads, “An American Myth.” This is an adept description because The Man Who Killed Hitler (because, no, I won’t make you read that title again) is about the status of the North American myth with all the benefits and downsides intact.

Intelligently, that’s never really brought into the text of the movie, with the story proper being about a man named Calvin Barr (Sam Elliott should have been nominated for this performance), a former Army man now comfortably living in Canada with only his thoughts to the past and uncanny ability to go into murderous fits of rage to disturb him. Soon his comfortable life is disturbed when two government agents come to ask him one question: “Can he kill the Bigfoot?”

To figure that one out, you’ll have to consult the movie…or the title. Again, the gore tinged text of The Man Who Killed Hitler is entertaining but is far from the most interesting thing going on here and it’s good that the movie gets this out of the way in the title. As an examination of myth, it gets a lot more fun.

Within the subtext here, it becomes quickly apparent that what writer/producer/director Robert D. Krzyzewski is using the traditional trappings of certain North American myths to comment on what these myths can do. Barr basically acts as a proxy for the effects of the outdated American Rifleman myth, a myth extolling “virtues of masculinity” like strength, respect, cunning…but also violence, insecurity, and of course the unencumbered glorification of guns. It makes you ask the questions like, “What would really happen to a man who held the killing of Hitler on his shoulders?” and in turn, “What has the myth of the American exceptionalist killing Hitler do to American culture?” This effectively lies the path for the idea that outdated American myths can both give us meaning in our lives but also be harmful, at worst leading to our demise or the demise of everyone around us.

That being said, some of the stretches the film goes to include myths does spread it a bit thin. There’s a love interest (played by Caitlin Fitzgerald, who is so good in everything that her mere presence makes this movie better), that feels like another prop to extol a “love story” myth, that comes off as a bit ignorant in its use. Fitzgerald is good enough that it doesn’t matter, but there’s an element of glorification that maybe pushes things a bit too far.

For a movie that is so hammy and confidently weird, THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT actually decides to say something about the American myths that it co-opts. Under the confident direction and even more confident lead performance, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot, becomes a pleasant divergence, one that might just have something to say.

3 1/2  of 5 Stars

WIDOWS – Review

Viola Davis stars in Twentieth Century Fox’s WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.

The complete delight of seeing Viola Davis in the role of an elegantly-dressed, wealthy wife whose sheltered life is suddenly upended by the death of her crime boss husband, played by Liam Neeson, is one of the pleasures of crime thriller WIDOWS. The Oscar-winning actress so often seen in roles as mothers or working-class women, here plays a svelte, elegant, pampered wife, a woman dressed in tasteful expensive clothes and clutching her little dog as she leaves her luxurious Chicago penthouse apartment to spend her day shopping or lunching. It isn’t the way we usually see her but Davis pulls it off with commanding style.

WIDOWS focuses on four women with little in common other than that their husbands were members of a criminal team killed in the commission of a heist. Now faced with threats from another criminal operation, the widows band together for their own heist, in Steve McQueen’s woman-centric crime thriller. But what starts out as a highly entertaining but straightforward crime thriller, morphs midway into something that is also deeper, more meaningful.

WIDOWS does all this while never dropping its driving pace or suspense of the top-tier crime thriller it is. Oscar-winning director Steven McQueen (12 YEARS A SLAVE) co-wrote the script with Gillian Flynn (GONE GIRL), as a updating of 1980s British TV series WIDOWS, in which overlooked women take charge of their own lives. McQueen and Flynn moved the story to Chicago in the present and shot the film on location. The film also features an outstanding cast who craft fully-rounded characters who draw us in.

That is the premise for a terrific crime thriller, and most films would be satisfied with that. But on top of that thriller, WIDOWS explores the issues of widows left struggling after their husband’s death, issues of race and class, and of female empowerment. But even that is not enough for this outstanding film, which then adds in a political campaign between a young white politician (Colin Farrell), the son of a powerful, bullying Chicago political boss (Robert Duvall) in a tight aldermanic race with a black man, Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), the leader of another crime ring looking to expand his power into the political.

Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis) knew her husband Harry (Liam Neeson) was involved in crime but knows nothing else about his business. She also knows nothing of their finances. At first, newly-widowed Veronica is the classic picture of a pampered wife shielded from the real world and practical matters by her protective husband . Flashbacks establish their loving relationship but now alone, Veronica’s grief and vulnerability are conveyed effectively by Davis, delicately clutching her little dog with a dazed, helpless expression. When her husband is killed, her world comes crashing down, flattened not just by her grief but the the jolt of finding she is nearly broke. On top of that, thugs are threatening her, demanding the 2 millions dollars her late husband stole from them, money burned up in the deadly shoot-out that killed him and his crew.

Desperate, Veronica hits on a plan to steal the money, with the help of the other widows of the men in her husband’s criminal team, using plans for a new heist her late husband left behind. When she reaches out the other widows, Veronica find they too are in financial difficulties. Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) is a Latina mother of two small children who discovers that the small shop she runs has been mortgaged by her late husband to loan sharks, who quickly take it all. Blonde-haired Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), a second generation Polish immigrant, was an abused wife under the thumb of her husband Florek (Jon Bernthal), a woman who believes her beauty is all she has to offer the world. Left penniless, her mother (Jackie Weaver) urges her daughter to take up work as a call girl, an idea the usually submissive Alice finds unsettling. The fourth member of the team is Belle (Cynthia Erivo), a hard-working single mother from the projects, who takes any and all jobs she can get, who was Linda’s babysitter and friend as well as a woman of remarkable resourcefulness.

Viola Davis is fabulous as the take-charge Veronica, a force unleashed by her personal tragedy, but all the cast get their chance to shine, creating memorable, distinctive characters who speak to the real world. Elizabeth Debicki may have found her break-out role as Alice, a woman who has an awakening to her own worth and intelligence. Cynthia Ervivo makes a strong screen debut and Rodriguez adds another strong role to her already considerable resume.

All of the characters are complex, and Liam Neeson gets one of his meatier, if small, parts of recent years. Likewise, Colin Farrell and the legendary Robert Duvall deliver compelling, nuanced work as Jack and Tom Mulligan, a father and son locked in a toxic relationship built around political power. Brian Tyree Henry plays the enigmatic Jamal Manning, Jack Mulligan’s African American political opponent for alderman of their majority-black ward, but a man from the same violent crime world as the late Harry Rawlings.

WIDOWS is a film that has it all – a smart script, driving crime thriller energy, memorable characters and something to say about the world we live in.

RATINGS: 5 out of 5 stars

Intense First Trailer Arrives For Steve McQueen’s WIDOWS Starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez And Carrie Coon

L-R: Michelle Rodriguez, Viola Davis, and Elizabeth Debicki star in Twentieth Century Fox’s WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.

Regency Enterprises and 20th Century Fox have released the trailer for WIDOWS, a modern-day thriller set against the backdrop of crime, passion and corruption from Academy Award-winning director Steve McQueen and co-writer and bestselling author of Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn.

Watch the trailer below to get your first look at WIDOWS, opening in cinemas Fall 2018.

WIDOWS is the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Oscar® winner Viola Davis), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.

WIDOWS also stars Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya, Lukas Haas and Brian Tyree Henry.

Liam Neeson and Viola Davis in Twentieth Century Fox’s WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.

Daniel Kaluuya and Brian Tyree Henry in Twentieth Century Fox’s WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.

WIDOWS arrives in theaters everywhere on November 16, 2018.

VISIT THE OFFICIAL SITE:  https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/widows

Viola Davis stars in Twentieth Century Fox’s WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.

L-R: Elizabeth Debicki (back to camera), Cynthia Erivo, Viola Davis (back to camera), and Michelle Rodriguez star in Twentieth Century Fox’s WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.

Robert Duvall in Twentieth Century Fox’s WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.

Colin Farrell in Twentieth Century Fox’s WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.

PETER RABBIT – Review

 

Though we’re still months away from the end of the school year, the studios still hope to entice the lil’ ones into the multiplex on the weekends with big screen adventures based on their beloved characters. Disney, for the last eighty years or so, has had a pretty strong lock on the classic storybook characters, many from the (often twisted) works of the Brothers Grimm, the ole’ “once upon a time” reliables. This has left the other studios to go after other inspirations, grabbing up the rights to lots of fairly recent “kids lit” best sellers. In the last decade we’ve had a franchise with flicks based on the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series (mainly live action). Just last Summer the first of a hopefully long series of “Captain Underpants” CGI movies was released. Going back a bit further, Universal has grabbed a big chunk of the all ages market by acquiring the screen rights to the impressive lists of works penned by Theodore Geisel (AKA Dr. Seuss). While those go back nearly 70 years, a beloved star of a children book series that turns 60 this year, Michael Bond’s Paddington Bear, is now a box office and critical darling (his latest flick is still at 100% at Rotten Tomatoes). Now, just a few weeks after the lauded PADDINGTON 2 (and also mixing live-action actors with computer-animated critters), another children’s book animal “superstar’, still spry at 106, hops into theatres, that scourge of gardeners, it’s PETER RABBIT.

 

The gentle quiet of an idyllic British countryside is once again shattered by another battle in an ongoing war between Peter Rabbit (voice of James Corden) and old Mr. McGregor (Sam Neill). The ill-tempered fearsome farmer has a oppulent garden, really a bountiful buffet for the fearless furball. Peter’s now the main “bread-winner” (or is it “veggie-winner”) for his siblings, triplet sisters Flopsy (vo:Margot Robbie), Mopsy (vo:Elizabeth Debicki) and Cotton-Tail (vo:Daisy Ridley) along with cousin Benjamin Bunny (vo:Colin Moody), after the recent peaceful passing of their Mum and the violent demise of their Pop via McGregor’s deadly rake. Fortunately for the bunny brood, across the way resides the nature-loving artist Bea (Rose Byrne), who tries to protect Peter’s posse from her volatile neighbor. But on this day, Bea is not there to stop McGregor from grabbing Peter by the ears (he just had to retrieve his Dad’s old blue jacket). Before Peter becomes a tasty pie (his father’s fate), time, and a very unhealthy lifestyle, catches up with the gardener. Many miles away, in the heart of London, young Thomas McGregor (Dominhall Gleeson), oversees his staff before the lush department store Harrods opens his doors. Just as he is about to check the bathrooms (uh, you don’t wanna’ know), Thomas is called into the office of the general manager (Marianne Jean-Baptiste). Is it is his long-awaited promotion? Nope, that’s going to a neer-do-well relative of the owner (nepotism triumphs). Of course, Thomas doesn’t take it well, so he’s dismissed and security escorts him out of his beloved store. Alone in his flat, he gets a registered letter saying he has inherited the McGregor estate from an uncle he never knew existed. When he arrives at his new country home, Thomas is annoyed that it’s been taken over by Peter and his forest folk (talk about your “animal house”). Before Thomas can sell the place, he must make sure it’s spotless, with the garden safe and secure from the “vermin”. Ah, but then he meets his lovely neighbor Bea. Though the brief armistice has ended, can Thomas resume the war and defeat Peter’s crew, while wooing the beautiful Bea?

 

 

Dividing the cast between voice and live, Corden leads the pack at the microphone. His Peter’s a bit of braggart, often referring to himself as the hero, but he’s often trying to convince himself that he can survive his feats of “derring do”. It’s in the quieter moments, reflecting on the loss of his parents or calming his siblings, when we get Corden’s contagious charm and energy. Robbie, Ridley, and Debicki get to share in the fun as the squabbling sisters (a running gag has each one claiming to be the oldest, usually by mere seconds). As for those in front of the camera, Gleeson, like Hugh Grant in the last Paddington film, appears to be having a terrific time as the exasperated slapstick villain, literally bouncing off the walls at times. Though mainly known for his dramatic roles, Gleeson displays expert comic-timing (has there been a more regimented “floor-walker” at a retail hub) and graceful physicality during the manic action sequences. And he’s just as funny and more endearing as Bea melts his cold heart (and dissolves that stick up his “you-know”). Byrne lights up the screen , as the nurturing, patience but firm mother figure to all her neighbors, farmer and “furries”. She’s a paint-slinging Poppins trying to stop the mayhem outside her door. She didn’t have much luck with the elder McGregor who played by Neill as a ball of beet-red fury, a charging nightmarish monster. Back in the city, Jean-Baptiste is a most understanding supervisor, even as Gleeson’s rage stomps out his better judgement.

 

Director Will Gluck (EASY A) working from the screenplay he co-wrote with Rob Lieber brings the classic Beatrix Potter characters into the 21st century in a brash, chaotic style. In the first few seconds he thumbs his nose at “cutsey” critter capers by knocking down a quartet of sweetly singing birds, bowling pin style. At times, the hectic pace overwhelms turning the tale into a barnyard riff on HOME ALONE (you’d think that the McGregor line crossed the Fudd dynasty). And as with many “all ages” entertainment, they too often go for the easy “crude” gag (low-hanging britches plus carrot equals…). Yet somehow the film still has a good deal of charm. Another recurring joke concerns a rooster’s crowing (“Look! The Sun Came out again!Wow!”) and another that works concerns a refined pig who loses his manner around snacks. The countryside is dazzling as is the computer animation on Peter and company. A delightful bonus is the use of 2D animation for some flashback sequences, with the bunnies rendered in the manner of Potter’s original book illustrations (the watercolor effects are lovely). But this film comes up short being released just weeks after the glorious wit of that sweet British bear cub (the former has more consistent logic, since Paddington can converse, but Peter and his clan are hazy with sharing words with humans). The lil’ ones will squeal at the “knock-about” antics, and hopefully revisit the literary legacy of PETER RABBIT. That will make all the hare hi-jinks well worthwhile.

 

3.5 Out of 5