May has finally arrived which means it’s time for those flowers to start popping up, after those torrential April showers. Well, that’s what most folks think of this month, but for movie fans, it heralds the start of the Summer cinema season. And as with most Mays since 2008, the first big flick out at the multiplex is from Marvel Studios. Now they did have a film open just about three months ago, but it was really an appetizer for a big sprawling “multi-hero” epic. Hold up, they’re not getting the “band back together” as in an assembling of Avengers. And the really major team, the “first family,” is still a couple of months away. So, rather than the “A team,” this is more of the “B team”, or for you baseball fans, the minor league “farm” squad. We have seen them all before, and a couple of the characters are true “scene stealers”. So, can these “second-stringers” work together as the THUNDERBOLTS*? Hang on, true believers!
The story begins with one of those “supporting players”, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who is finishing a mission in Malaysia, but just seems to be “going through the motions” (can a former Black Widow have an existential crisis). Afterward, back in the states, she pays a long-overdue visit to her papa Alexei (David Harbour), the former Red Guardian, who now drives a limo, but wants to be “back in the game” freelancing like Yelena. On her way out, she checks in with her employer and requests a more high-profile, “in front of the camera” gig. Her boss agrees to it after the completion of her next job. Turns out Yelena’s boss has a lot on her plate. We then go to Washington, DC, for the impeachment hearing of the CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Seems she’s also the “consultant” for a shadowy tech company OXE Group. A newly elected senator is also in the chamber, James “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan). After the hearing, Valentina instructs her assistant Mel (Geraldine Viswanthan) to make sure her forces converge on a defunct OXE lab site to destroy evidence of past shady experiments. And that’s where Yelena shows up, but she’s not the only one. Soon, the dusty research facility is a battle arena between her, US Agent AKA John Walker (Wyatt Russell), the first intended replacement for Captain America, the density-altering villainess Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who last fought the ANT MAN AND THE WASP. and another former Widow, the mimic assassin Taskmaster (Oleg Kurylenko). Oh, and there’s an unknown there, too. Scrambling in the shadows is the timid, confused young man who goes by “Bob” (Lewis Pullman). Finally, the quartet realizes that they’ve been “set up” by Valentina. So just how will Bucky AKA the Winter Soldier” come into play, along with the Red Guardian? And is there more to Bob than meets the eye? Perhaps these hopeless heroes will be destroyed before they can ever join forces against a common enemy. So who could that be?
So who’s the MVP of this ragtag bunch? I’d say that it’s the always compelling Ms. Pugh as the forlorn ball of energy, Yelina. She positively crackled when paired with her sister Natasha in the BLACK WIDOW solo flick (almost ditto with Kate Bishop in the Disney+ “Hawkeye” streaming show), but that fiery twinkle in her eyes has dulled. Pugh is fierce in the action scenes and funny and heartbreaking as she confronts her losses and her “sins of the past”. She also shows her nurturing side as the protector of Bob, played with a twitchy, mysterious edge by the terrific Pullman. He keeps us anxious as Bob keeps his secrets as we wait for his truth to be revealed. The big comedic scene stealer may again be Harbour as the loud, gregarious Red Guardian, a man trying to recapture all of his former glory, but falling very short as he almost explodes out of his worn-out, dingy uniform. Louis_Dreyfus is also funny as Valentina, which is no great shock, but she surprises us with her devious deceit and manipulations, giving us a very interesting villainess. Plus, she’s the “boss from Hell” with Viswanthan as the abused aide who finally sees Val’s true colors and tries to thwart her schemes. Many fans will be surprised that Stan’s Bucky isn’t really at the forefront of the story, as he uses his spy skills in DC and eventually gets back into super-warrior mode. More interesting is Russell as the bitter, arrogant, and abrasive US Agent, a man who thinks that leadership is a prize due to him alone. Luckily, John-Kamen is there to put him back on his heels with her scathing retorts and withering gaze.
Prestige TV director Jake Scheier (who also helmed the features PAPER TOWN and ROBOT & FRANK) keeps the multi-character adventure moving at a fairly brisk pace. He manages to balance the big action sequences with intimate emotional exchanges, bringing great depth to these “sideline supers”. Yes, we get the usual MCU carnage on the city streets, but the biggest battles are fought inside the minds of the core teammates. Childhood traumas are built up into a desperate showdown for NYC in the film’s surprisingly dramatic and sometimes touching tender finale. And just to set our heads spinning, screenwriters Eric Pearson and Joanna Caio stun us with some big “turnarounds” sprinkled with lots of keen media satires (love the end credit headline montage prior to the usual bonus scenes, which are pretty big). And it’s all enhanced by the music score from the band Son Lux. This wrap-up of MCU’s “Phase Five” is a tightly-woven dramedy that satisfies while getting us invested in the franchise’s future. It’s a super team tale that doesn’t match the scope of AVENGERS: ENDGAME, but provides an involving look at the psyche of these “upstarts”. And the superb cast led by Pugh and Pullman really brings an electric charge to these THUNDERBOLTS*. Nuff’ said (till July)!
3 out of 4
THUNDERBOLTS* is now playing in theatres everywhere
In 1969 the master of the American western, Sam Peckinpah, directed a stellar cast in THE WILD BUNCH, a controversial film that breathed new life into the genre and broke ground in the realistic portrayal of screen violence. Receiving two Academy Award nominations, this bitter, brutal story of magnificent losers in a dying West remains one of the screen’s all-time classics. An explosive adventure drama about the last of the legendary lawless breed who lived to kill – and killed to live. The cast included William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien. Warren Oates and Ben Johnson.
Now comes a bunch of a different kind. the THUNDERBOLTS* – an unconventional team of antiheroes – Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker. The cast features Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Hannah John-Kamen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus and also includes newcomers to the MCU – Lewis Pullman (The Sentry/Robert Reynolds), Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer and Wendell Edward Pierce.
On Superbowl Sunday, Marvel Studios released a new trailer and poster for the upcoming feature film THUNDERBOLTS*. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart, or find redemption and unite as something much more before it’s too late?
Watch the fun new trailer.
Wow – this is such a good trailer and kudos to whoever cut it together! We’re all excited for THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS movie, but Marvel needs a fun action packed movie to start of the summer. Fans have missed this from a Marvel movie as of late, and this gang has such good one-liners and great chemistry. Plus the trailer gave us a look at The Sentry – one of the most powerful villains in Marvel Comics – who could crush the team. In the comics he’s shown with the power to rip planets in half so the trailer’s emphasis on how the members of the Thunderbolts are not Heroes, not Super, not giving up, makes me want to see even more how all of this will play out.
In THE SENTRY/FANTASTIC FOUR 1 (2001) #1, Bob Reynolds has always been the best friend of Reed Richards. As the Sentry he stood by Mr. Fantastic against Dr. Doom and traveled with him into the Negative Zone. And Reed was the best man at Bob’s wedding! So if the Sentry remembers these monumental moments…why doesn’t anyone else?
Will there be a connection to the Fantastic Four and Earth 616? And how will The Void play into the next phase of the MCU?
The studio also announced the exciting news that Son Lux will be scoring THUNDERBOLTS*. The three-member, American experimental band was Oscar and BAFTA-nominated for their score for 2022’s best picture “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Jake Schreier directs THUNDERBOLTS* with Kevin Feige producing. Louis D’Esposito, Brian Chapek and Jason Tamez serve as executive producers.
Marvel Studios’ THUNDERBOLTS* opens in U.S. theaters on May 2, 2025.
Today, the teaser trailer and poster for the upcoming feature film, “Thunderbolts*” debuted. Marvel Studios and a crew of indie veterans who sold out present “Thunderbolts*,”an irreverent team-up featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) alongside the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits.
The film also returns to the screen Marvel Cinematic Universe characters Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), in addition to some exciting new faces.
Jake Schreier directs “Thunderbolts*”with Kevin Feige producing. Louis D’Esposito, Brian Chapek, Jason Tamez and Scarlett Johansson serve as executive producers.
Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts*” opens in U.S. theaters on May 2, 2025.
Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) are brought together in a surprise encounter that changes their lives. Through snapshots of their life together — falling for each other, building a home, becoming a family — a difficult truth is revealed that rocks its foundation. As they embark on a path challenged by the limits of time, they learn to cherish each moment of the unconventional route their love story has taken, in filmmaker John Crowley’s decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.
In theaters this Fall, check out the brand new and emotional trailer now.
Crowley has directed such films a INTERMISSION, BOY A and BROOKLYN.
The Toronto International Film Festival announced on July 9 that the film will have its World Premiere in September. TIFF 2024 takes place September 5–15, 2024.
Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. Courtesy of Universal
“Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds” is the famous quote from the Bhagavad Gita that physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer spoke upon witnessing the first denotation of a nuclear device, as the world entered the new era of nuclear weapons. OPPENHEIMER is Christopher Nolan’s epic drama about Oppenheimer, his work on the Manhattan Project, and his treatment after the war. The biographical drama starts like a historical thriller and ends like a profound warning to the world, all set against the sweep of history that changed the world.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Nolan’s epic film in fact opens with a reminder of that myth of the man who stole fire from the gods and was punished eternally for his deed. OPPENHEIMER explores the theoretical physicist’s life, particularly his work on the WWII race to build a nuclear bomb before the Nazi Germany, known as the Manhattan Project, and then the post-war aftermath, when Oppenheimer, haunted by the world-destructive weapon that he helped unleash on the world, sought to rein in that danger, which pitted him against a military eager to launch the Cold War arms race, making Oppenheimer a target for communist-hunting investigations.
J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) was the brilliant theoretical physicist who was selected to run the Manhattan Project, the secret U.S. project to beat Nazi Germany to building an atomic bomb. The young physicist is recruited for that job by Lt. General Leslie Groves Jr. (Matt Damon). Oppenheimer seemed an unlikely choice, the New York-born son of a wealthy Jewish family and an autodidact who read literature and poetry, spoke several languages and read the Hindu sacred text, the Bhagavad Gita, in the original Sanskrit, yet Oppenheimer actively seeks the job, eager to help defeat the Nazis, partly because of what was happening to Jewish people in Europe. Oppenheimer shared his family’s left-leaning political views, and even partied with some communists, but none of that was remarkable or uncommon in that time period, when Americans were still unaware of what was really happening in Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Immediately, Oppenheimer realizes the Manhattan Project has an unexpected edge over the Nazis, despite Germany’s over-a-year head start on developing a nuclear bomb. Hitler’s hatred of the Jews will drive the Germans to purge Jewish scientists from their nuclear bomb research, and Oppenheimer, having visited Europe as a student, knows many of the top physicists are Jewish or have Jewish backgrounds or links. Oppenheimer sets out to recruit as many of those Jewish refugee physicists as possible, using Hitler’s hatred against him.
And recruit them he does, including Edward Teller (Benny Safdie), Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh), and Hans Bethe (Gustaf Skarsgard), along with Jewish-Americans Richard Feynman (Jack Quaid) and Robert Serber (Michael Angarano). Enrico Fermi (Danny Deferrari) wasn’t Jewish but his wife was, causing them to flee fascist Italy, and he joins the effort too. Although Oppenheimer knew Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), and the two were friends, he did not invite Einstein to join the project, but Einstein does appear in the film at a couple of points, and has an important part in the film’s powerful ending.
For the secret project, Oppenheimer selects a remote location in the New Mexico desert, Los Alamos, near an area he has vacationed many times, a region he loves. The desert landscape creates a perfect canvas for Nolan to build this thrilling chase for the bomb.
The impressive cast also includes Robert Downey Jr as Lewis Strauss, the non-scientist who heads the Princeton academy that includes Einstein. Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence (as in Lawrence Livermore laboratory) and David Krumholtz as Oppenheimer’s friend Isidor Rabi.. Emily Blunt plays Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, a biologist frustrated by the era’s confining roles of wife and mother, and Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s troubled ex-lover, leftist psychiatrist Jean Tatlock. Many other recognizable faces appear, in a host of small roles.
Nolan’s film, perhaps his best, is a true epic and its length is epic too, at about 3 hours, but OPPENHEIMER is so engrossing and tense that one does not feel the running time. This excellent film has much to recommend it – its riveting and significant content, timely message about ethical consequences of technology, its outstanding performances from an impressive cast (particularly Cillian Murphy), its powerful and largely accurate historical storytelling, plus its visual artistry and technical achievements – to mention a few of its admirable aspects, meaning that it is hard to know where to start in describing the film. Those who know Nolan’s work will find that OPPENHEIMER is very much in his wheelhouse, perhaps the film he was always meant to make.
OPPENHEIMER is divided in two parts, which Nolan labels “Fission” and “Fusion,” for the pre-bomb and post-bomb world. The epic starts out as biography and a gripping thriller, as the young Oppenheimer ascends and the Manhattan Project races to build the first atomic bomb. Post-war, it shifts to taut drama about his fall, as the now-famous Oppenheimer is haunted with guilt over giving mankind the power to destroy the world, and seeks use his fame to limit nuclear weapons, which angers the Pentagon, eager to start the arms race, and makes him the target of a investigation in the rising tide of the Cold War and a shifting political climate. The pivot point between these two parts is the testing of the first nuclear device, Trinity, in which what had been theoretical suddenly becomes horrifying reality, prompting that famous quote from Oppenheimer.
The film jumps back and forth in time, as Nolan film’s sometimes do, and has three threads it follows. But there is no trouble following the narrative, even if the significance of a single scene might not be immediately clear, and the director aids that by presenting one of these threads is in black-and-white. Two of the thread are focused on Oppenheimer, before and after the Trinity nuclear test, while the third, in black-and-white, is centered on a Congressional hearing to confirm Lewis Strauss for a cabinet-level post. What that thread has to do with the story is not clear until later in the film, but it’s significance is powerful.
From the start, ethical and moral questions are part of the equation. Why try to create the most destructive weapon ever seen? In one scene, the physicists debate that question but one fact looms over all: Hitler’s Germany is already working on such a weapon. If they can’t be stopped, the next best thing is to get the weapon first. “I don’t know if we can be trusted to have such a weapon but I know the Nazis can’t,” Oppenheimer says in the film.
The film’s pivotal moment is the test of the first nuclear device, the Trinity test, where what had been only theoretical becomes devastatingly real, and changes the world forever. It is a heart-stopping, showstopper sequence that is the cinematic highlight as well as pivot point of the film, where the realization of the true significance of what they have done causes Oppenheimer to utter that famous quote. Nolan handles this immersive sequence with brilliance, giving the audience an unsettling feeling of being there in the moment. The lack of awareness of the danger of radiation actually poses is one reason some scenes are so harrowing to watch.
The scenes of the detonation are riveting but the film does not include footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as the story is told from Oppenheimer’s view and it is not something he witnessed. Once the two bombs are created, they are whisked away, and Oppenheimer learns about their use and targets the same time and way as everyone else- on the radio. Instead, there is a sequence after the bombs are dropped, where Oppenheimer speaks to the Manhattan Project scientists and staff. As he speaks, shots of the jubilant people in the crowd sometimes slowly morph into images that suggest the bombs’ victims, a haunting, horrifying effect that reflects Oppenheimer’s inner turmoil at that world-changing moment.
Post-war, Oppenheimer finds himself suddenly famous but consumed with guilt, and tries to use that fame to press for limits on nuclear weapons, hoping the horror of the atomic bombs will put an end to all wars. But not everyone has grasped how the world has been transformed by the new technology, and Oppenheimer fails to see the shifting political landscape of the coming Cold War, making him a target.
The post-war second half adopts a deeper, more thoughtful tone, more like a courtroom drama, as it examines how Oppenheimer was treated after the war. Suddenly, Oppenheimer is world famous, and the scientist tries to use that fame to press the government of the nation he served so well to take seriously the danger of new power unleashed on the world. He wants them to grasp, as one character notes in the film, that this is not a weapon but a new reality for the world. But even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the devastating effects of ionizing radiation emerged, many do not see it. Instead, Oppenheimer’s activities, particularly his opposition to the development of a hydrogen bomb, angers the Pentagon, focused the dawning Cold War and arms race.
The film basically gets the history and science right, although it is careful not to overload the audience with the latter. However, this is important to note this is basically biography, told from the subject’s view, and not a definitive exploration of the Manhattan Project and the resulting bombings. That means that some may feel that there are things it overlooks or doesn’t cover in sufficient depth but historical completeness was never the intent of the film. As the film depicts, Oppenheimer did not pick the targets, and after the Trinity test, all control is taken out of his hands. Oppenheimer learns about the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the same way every American did, on the radio.
Much of the reason the film is so immersive and gripping is how Nolan shot the film, which is analog, on 65mm film in large-format15-perf IMAX, with ten times the resolution of standard film, and the highest resolution film ever used. This is a must-see epic that is best seen on an large IMAX screen. In 19 lucky locations around the U.S., it is also being shown in 70mm format, the best choice.
Oppenheimer’s lack of understanding of the political shift underway post-war as the Cold War dawns is illustrated in a scene where he meets President Truman (Gary Oldman). The physicist wants to take the opportunity to speak out against developing the more-powerful hydrogen bomb, but Truman isn’t open to that topic. Frustrated, Oppenheimer tells Truman he feels he has “blood on his hands” a grave error in speaking to the President who ordered the dropping of those bombs, who abruptly ends the meeting.
The scene also illustrates the way in which Oppenheimer became his own worst enemy in the post-war world he helped create, as well as the target of an angered Pentagon, a theme further expanded as Oppenheimer faced an investigation about renewing his security clearance, where questions about his pre-war left-leaning political associations, once considered inconsequential, were raised anew in the commie-hunting atmosphere. The film culminates in a powerful sequence that brings all its threads together and leaves us stunned.
OPPENHEIMER seems a sure thing for Oscar nominations, an engrossing, brilliant epic that mixes a rise-and-fall biography of a complicated genius, with tremendous ticking-clock historical thriller followed by a revealing drama about a struggle over a technology with the power to destroy the humankind, and the ethical choices around it.
There was a chance that when they pushed that button, they’d destroy the world.
Get a behind-the-scenes, six minute look at OPPENHEIMER with Christopher Nolan, the cast and filmmakers.
Experience the movie on the largest screen possible July 21.
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, OPPENHEIMER is an IMAX®-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.
The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. Oscar® winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
Academy Award® nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence. Oppenheimer also stars Oscar® winner Rami Malek and reunites Nolan with eight-time Oscar® nominated actor, writer and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh.
The cast includes Dane DeHaan (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Dylan Arnold (Halloween franchise), David Krumholtz (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises).
L to R: Florence Pugh is Jean Tatlock and Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan.
OPPENHEIMER is filmed in a combination of IMAX® 65mm and 65mm large-format film photography including, for the first time ever, sections in IMAX® black and white analogue photography.
Nolan’s films, including Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy, have earned more than $5 billion at the global box office and have been awarded 11 Oscars and 36 nominations, including two Best Picture nominations.
OPPENHEIMER, written and directed by Christopher Nolan
Now that we’re a few days into Spring and the temps are rising and the sun’s breaking through, it’s easy to forget that for many it’s always dark, cold, and gloomy no matter what’s displayed on the calendar. Just as the movie theatres are slipping into escapist blockbusters a new drama isn’t waiting for the somber. late in the year, “award time”. It is worth seeking out as it’s a showcase for two acclaimed actors. One is a “star on the rise”, gaining a reputation for compelling work over several genres. The other is a screen veteran, an Oscar winner who has achieved iconic status over the last five decades. The story that brings them together poses an interesting and very complex question: can someone whose act of carelessness resulted in a fatality, ever possibly be thought of as A GOOD PERSON?
When we meet Allison (Florence Pugh). her future looks bright and shiny. The twenty-something is a pharmaceutical rep and a pianist/lounge singer (a “side hustle”). But she’s most excited about her upcoming nuptials to the adoring Nathan (Chinaza Uche). Soon after their engagement party, she’s driving Nathan’s sister Molly and her hubby Jesse to her wedding gown fitting. While maneuvering through construction zones on the busy highway Ally glances down at her phone, when a backhoe lurches into her lane leading to tragedy. When she awakes, Ally’s in a hospital bed with her single mom Diane (Molly Shannon) hovering over her. Before she can stop him, an over-eager state trooper bursts into the room and drops a bombshell on Ally: she’s the only survivor of the accident. Across town, Nathan and Molly’s retired policeman widowed papa Daniel (Morgan Freeman) gets the same news as he’s dropping his granddaughter Ryan (Celeste O’Connor) off at her high school. Cut to several months later as Ally now lives with her mom (the engagement crumbled) who implores her to get off the couch and get a job as they battle over Ally’s increasing reliance on prescription painkillers. When her docs “cut her off”, Ally becomes desperate to “score”. Meanwhile, Daniel is so frustrated as the caregiver to the angry rebellious Ryan that he’s about to “fall off the wagon”. When Ally finally hits “rock bottom”, she asks Diane to contact her dad about paying for a rehab facility. As he’s completely MIA, Ally bicycles to a local church to attend an addiction support meeting. Inside she’s stunned to see….Daniel, who begs her to stay. Could this chance reunion lead to defeating their inner demons and be part of the healing process, or perhaps a friendship?
After being universally praised in last year’s flawed fantasy flick DON’T WORRY DARLING, Ms. Pugh (I’m not calling her Miss Flo, as a leaked phone video call revealed during that PR mess). proves how her considerable talents can take flight with much better material. Ally is a complex, troubled figure but never a victim, as Pugh shows how her physical and emotional scars are slow to heal. We see her in the depths whether literally wrestling with her Mom over “Oxy” or degrading herself at a neighborhood pub with a cruel former classmate (a very good Alex Wolff), but Pugh conveys this as her much-needed “wake-up” call, though her heavy-lidded eyes show us that she’s not out of the fog quite yet. With her new support team, Ally goes past the “survivor” role to real maturity and self-reliance. A big part of that is her initially hesitant relationship with Daniel, and could Pugh ask for a more compelling scene partner than the forever fantastic Freeman? After dropping in for cameos in too many forgettable action flicks, it’s great to see him sink his teeth into this “meaty meal” of a man, reminding us of his deserved regard amongst his acting peers. Freeman does bring some humor to the grizzled ex-cop, especially in dealing with a modern team (loved his “crate” gag), but Daniel has his own challenges as he tries to push through the ever-closing walls of regret and remorse. Like Ally, he must contend with the damage he’s inflicted on others, particularly his son Nathan. Uche is superb as the young man whose grief over the loss of his sister is acerbated by the horrors of his past, still bearing the never-healed cruelty of his father. But he shows how his healing may start with the ending or at least ease the rift. Speaking of parent/sibling squabbles, how great is it to see the comedy powerhouse Shannon flexing her dramatic muscles as Ally’s often flighty (Her “Etsy” plan is hilarious), but steely strong mother Diane? Often wearing her “work duds” (company logo shirt and khakis), she goes from “walking on eggshells” to firmly giving her kin a “kick in the keister”. Kudos also to O’Connor as the often exasperating furious Ryan and Zoe Lister-Jones as the support group’s compassionate but tough (she has a keen BS radar) Simona AKA “Mama”.
It seems logical that this impressive stellar cast would be brought together by another actor, as Zach Braff steps behind the camera to guide them through his screenplay. Making expert use of the New Jersey locations, Braff captures the gritty working-class spirit of the area’s neighborhoods. Though a brutal accident puts the story in motion, he prefers to treat it as bursts or snippets of a waking nightmare for Ally, effectively illustrating how the brain reacts to such intense trauma. Plus he allows the characters to frustrate us, to let their interactions get ugly and often “messy”, as they sometimes fall into old destructive patterns. Save for a convoluted near-catastrophe in the city which brings most of the characters careening together (and violence threatens), Braff avoids the melodrama, opting to show how time can really heal (perhaps the third act is too reliant on montages). He’s made a solid foundation, but it’s the ensemble led by the inspired pairing of Pugh and Freeman that is the real strength of A GOOD PERSON.
Now, what would make this most “magical time of the year” more magical? How about a return visit from several of our favorite fairy tale friends? Oh, but hold up, this new release isn’t another animated romp with those two green lovebirds and their donkey BFF. But you’re close as its focus is another pal of theirs. It’s not his first solo outing, rather it’s a long-awaited (eleven years) follow-up. And talk about magic, it’s the big goal of him and all the other characters in PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH. En Garde, kitty-cat…
After a brief prologue telling us about the legendary “wishing star” we’re tossed into the midst of a raucous party thrown by everybody’s “favorite fearless hero”, Puss in Boots (voice of Antonio Banderas), And wouldn’t you know it, the owner of the “locale estate” makes an unexpected return. The ensuing “throw-down” with his security team awakens the sleeping nearby “mountain giant”. Naturally, only Puss can take it on, but the battle to save the village lands him in a doctor’s office. That doc (or is he a vet) informs Puss that he just died. Ah, but he’s gifted with nine lives and that was only…number eight. The “prescription” is to high-tail to the quiet confines of Mama Luna’s Cat Rescue Haven. Ah, but that’s not for Puss, so it’s off to the cantina for lots of “dairy shots” and an encounter with a sinister bounty hunter, the Big Bad Wolf (Wagner Moura). Puss barely escapes with his last life and heads to Mama Luna’s (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) where he’s “domesticated” and buries his swashbuckling attire. He also befriends a feisty pup posing as a cat, Perro (Harvey Guillen). It’s not long before adventure finds him as the place is invaded by the “crimin’ family” of Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, and Samson Kayo), who think that Puss has the secret map to the aforementioned “wishing star’. After the quartet leaves (they don’t recognize the tamed Puss), he, along with Perro, tracks them to the lair of evil collector “Big” Jack Horner (John Mulaney), just as his “trackers” bring him that mystical map. But before Puss or Goldie’s team can swipe it, the map’s nabbed by Puss’s former “flame”, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek). After an awkward reunion, Pussy, Kitty, and Perro dash away to the star’s location, the “Dark Forest”. Of course Goldie, the Bears, and Jack (with his “Bakers’ Dozen) are hot on their furry tails. Can the heroic trio reach the star before the others? And will Puss use its power to restore his eight lives?
After more than a decade away from the role, Banderas still charms us with his over-confident swagger, though it’s tinged with fear over the cat’s looming mortality. Oh, he belts out the opening tune nicely. Hayek goes toe (er…) paw to paw with him with her fierce determination and supreme ‘smarts”. Guillen is a sweet, endearing sidekick to the bickering exes. Mulaney’s a terrific pompous kingpin with no moral compass, always ignoring a tiny cricket creature who implores him to “do right”. Pugh, Colman, Winstone, and Kayo are a great mix of the classic fable tinged with a Guy Ritchie-still cockney hoodlum squad out for a “pinch”.
Luckily the film looks as great as it sounds thanks to the sprightly directing duo of Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado. They’ve smartly moved away from the “close to reality” designs of the SHREK series and gone for more caricatured humans, especially Horner, Mama Luna, and the Doc. Ditto for the new supporting critters with an expressive trio of bears and a really scary wolf who’s doubly deadly with a pair of sharp “mini-scythes”. The backgrounds are lush and the colors truly pop (particularly as Horner uses his “unicorn horn” arrows). Making the story seem to burst out of the screen is the filmmakers’ approach to the big action set-pieces, as the characters become jagged-edged projectiles and their settings give way to a deluge of speed lines and flares of color bursts, perhaps inspired by anime and the “Spider-Verse”. The tiniest of tots make get spooked by the bounty wolf, but they’ll giggle at the antics of the new “PIB Team player” (he dubs them “Team Friendship”), Perro. Though he’s down to his final one, there’s still lots of life, and laughs, left in PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH. Go, go gato!
3 Out of 4
PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH opens in theatres everywhere on Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.
The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. Oscar® winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
Academy Award® nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.
Oppenheimer also stars Oscar® winner Rami Malek and reunites Nolan with eight-time Oscar® nominated actor, writer and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh.
The cast includes Dane DeHaan (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Dylan Arnold (Halloween franchise), David Krumholtz (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises).
The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan.
Oppenheimer is filmed in a combination of IMAX® 65mm and 65mm large-format film photography including, for the first time ever, sections in IMAX® black and white analogue photography.
Nolan’s films, including Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy, have earned more than $5 billion at the global box office and have been awarded 11 Oscars and 36 nominations, including two Best Picture nominations.
Florence Pugh follows up her successes in BLACK WIDOW, LITTLE WOMEN and MIDSOMMER with a role as a housewife in a candy-colored 1950s-style planned community in DON’T WORRY, DARLING, actor-turned-director Olivia Wilde’s second feature and her follow-up to BOOK SMART. Harry Styles plays Pugh’s husband Jack, who works at a isolated desert research facility doing mysterious top-secret work, while Alice (Florence Pugh) stays home cleaning, shopping and drinking poolside with the other wives at their home in the planned suburban community of Victory.
The film opens with a wild cocktail party, with the women in cinched waist ’50s dresses and men in the era’s casual shirts, downing martinis like water in a chic mid-century ranch house. The next morning, the smiling wives cook breakfast before sending their men off to work in a synchronized exit of candy-colored, chromed cars from the desert subdivision, before the wives start on their day of housework and shopping.
Something DON’T WORRY DARLING does brilliantly is capture the mid-century period look, from the tiny-waisted, full-skirted dresses in colorful floral patterns to sleek chrome-trimmed light wood furniture to the “futuristic” chrome-trimmed cars. Other fine mid-century period touches in the sets and the spot-on look of the subdivision houses and yards complete the image. The impressive art direction and Florence Pugh’s strong performance, showcased well by director Olivia Wilde, are the main reasons to see this clever if imperfect science fiction drama-thriller. A nicely underplayed, sympathetic performance by Harry Styles adds a perfect grace note.
The “Stepford Wives” vibe is palpable right from the start, with all the smiling conformity and polished surface perfection, so we know something must be lurking under the surface. The film quickly creates the look and feel of a Douglas Sirk movie crossed with Sam Mendes’ 2008 REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, of a conformist, male-centric world that seems perfect on the surface – at least for some – but walking a tight-rope of hidden tensions. “Ideal” planned communities like this one were a real thing in the ’50s and early ’60s, born of post-WWII optimism, where everything was planned out and color-matched, with people who fit in as exactly as the coordinating-color mid-century ranch houses. That this community development is isolated in a remote desert locations next to the facility where the men all work (and it is only the men who work), where a company is doing some kind of secret work, completes the picture. There are hints of a big project the company works on, maybe a military contract, and again, the Manhattan Project and Cold War nukes spring to mind.
The prosperous planned community is led by Victory’s charismatic CEO Frank (Chris Pine) and his elegant wife Shelley (Gemma Chan). Director Olivia Wilde also appears in the film as a neighbor named Bunny.
But only a few minutes in, and one scene upends some of our assumptions about Victory. Alice and her neighbor wives are participating in an exercise class when a Black woman bursts in. Everyone turns and stares, and we expect racist outrage typical of the segregated 1950s. But no, they all know her, she is a neighbor named Margaret (Kiki Layne), and what is causing the dropped jaws is her distraught emotional state. Clearly, she is losing it but it is not sympathy that greets her but a gossipy, get-a-grip discomfort. Apparently she has been struggling with a trauma but the community would rather it be covered up and ignored, so they can get back to cocktail hour in typical ’50s style.
The scene reveals things may not be quite what they seem but even if we are not in the past, there is still plenty of the era here. And there is more to come in this science fiction tale. DON’T WORRY DARLING is a clever idea, and although not everything is perfect in this film, Florence Pugh darn well is.
Florence Pugh is the main reason to see this film (along with the polished art direction), although it does offer an interesting sci-fi fantasy tale with a femme-centric bent. Pugh dominates every scene, capturing the right combination of dewy young ’50s housewife innocence and a sense of a person with more depth, heart and curiosity than some of the other Stepford-like wives. While the other wives are unrelentingly critical of the neighbor who is losing it, Pugh’s soft-hearted Alice wants to extend more understanding and even tries to reach out to her on her own. But what the troubled neighbor says is both confusing and disturbing, and involves breaking some of the Victory company’s fundamental rules, rules that are required of families working on their secret project and are conditions of the well-paid, comfortable life in the planned community.
While the husbands drive cars to work, the wives ride a trolley, which takes them to the town’s shopping, schools, gym and so forth. The trolley travels out to the edge of town, beyond which is desert, which they are told is dangerous. They are told not to venture into it, for their own safety, and also not to approach Victory’s headquarters. lest they endanger the secret work. There are sometimes earthquake-like events, and the specter of something like underground nuclear weapons testing looms, but questions are forbidden under the secrecy rules.
We watch as Pugh’s Alice’s open heart, curiosity and her previously untapped brains lead her down paths that threaten to uncover what is hidden and upset. More cracks in the facade open with the arrival of a new couple, with Sydney Chandler as Violet, a shy, dark-haired Audrey Hepburn-ish wife.
Pugh handles Alice’s shifting emotional state and evolving character with impressive mastery. As we see Pugh’s Alice drawn into the mystery, her husband Jack becomes unsettled. While Jack remains supportive and loving, others in the community start to change. Harry Styles is perfect in the role of Jack, stepping back and letting the powerhouse Pugh shine, by not getting in her way. Early in this film’s development, there was talk of casting Shia LaBeouf in this role, an actor who likely would have battled Pugh for audience attention, but the right casting choice was made. Harry Styles’ sweeter, low-key performance makes a more poignant and effective film.
However, not everything is perfect in Olivia Wilde’s sci-fi drama, a big departure from her first BOOK SMART, and the film starts stronger than it finishes. Close attention is needed to what is said in later scenes to unravel the mystery but the story is resolved well in the end.
Still, DON’T WORRY DARLING is a worthwhile film, as Florence Pugh continues her rocket rise with another strong performance, and Olivia Wilde demonstrates her skill with a film that is a marked departure from her first. Add in a nice performance for the Harry Styles fans (including a surprise dance sequence) plus visual delights of the polished mid-century landscape and a femme-empowering sci-fi tale, and you get entertainment value enough to satisfy.
DON’T WORRY DARLING opens Friday, Sept. 23 in theaters.
