BUGONIA, the next film from six-time Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe (Element Pictures), Yorgos Lanthimos, Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen (Square Peg), Emma Stone (Fruit Tree), Miky Lee and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko (CJ ENM) (POOR THINGS, THE FAVOURITE, THE LOBSTER, THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER) has landed at Focus Features. Focus will release BUGONIA. with Universal Pictures distributing internationally (exclusively in Korea). The film stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
Two conspiracy obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. The film is written by Will Tracy.
BUGONIA is based on the South Korean sci-fi comedy, “Save the Green Planet” 2003. This English language version was developed by CJ ENM with Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen at Square Peg. The production has been financed by Fremantle and CJ ENM. Producers are Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe (Element Pictures), Yorgos Lanthimos, Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen (Square Peg), Emma Stone (Fruit Tree), Miky Lee and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko (CJ ENM).
Lathimos’ 2023 film Poor Things, won the Golden Lion at the 2023 Venice film festival and earned 11 Academy Award® nominations and took home four wins, including Best Actress for star Emma Stone. Most recently, Kinds of Kindness held its world premiere at the 77th Festival de Cannes and opens theatrically in the U.S. on June 21, 2024.
Focus Features has a stellar lineup of films to be released, this summer, later this year and into 2025.
THE BIKERIDERS from director Jeff Nichols on June 21st, PIECE BY PIECE from Morgan Neville about the life of multifaceted global superstar Pharrell Williams told through the lens of LEGO bricks, Robert Eggers’ reimagining of NOSFERATU, Edward Berger’s thriller CONCLAVE, Sundance-Award winner DÌDI (弟弟)’ (TRAILER) from Sean Wang, Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming crime-thriller BLACK BAG starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender and the highly anticipated third installment of the DOWNTON ABBEY franchise.
Stone is represented by Anonymous Content, WME, The Lede Company and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett and Kole.
Plemons is represented by TalentWorks and attorney David Matlof.
In 2017, the film BUSHWICK was released starring Dave Bautista and Brittany Snow. (Trailer)
BUSHWICK tells the story of twenty-year- old Lucy (Snow) and war veteran Stupe (Bautista). Texas, and other states (mostly Southern) are trying to secede from the U.S., and NYC is being used as a negotiation tool. Lucy meets Stupe after coming up from the subway into the military invasion of Brooklyn. Together they decide to cross the treacherous five blocks of Bushwick – littered with looters, local militias and the invading forces, in order to get home and be reunited with Lucy’s grandmother.
In December 2023, Netflix released a similar, dystopian movie, LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND. (Trailer) After a series of coordinated attacks on the United States from within, a series of bizarre events leaves most of the population isolated from their phones, internet and communications, and leads to a state of confusion. The film stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon and Mahershala Ali. It’s Ali’s character, G. H. Scott, who breaks the bad news that this entire thing could be part of a three-stage process meant to destabilize the United States and start a Civil War. https://www.netflix.com/title/81314956
Hitting theaters this spring is writer and director Alex Garland’s CIVIL WAR and, you guessed it, another foreboding film of what could be coming down the pike next year after the presidential election.
Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Cailee Spaeny, check out the trailer below.
Garland is the director of EX MACHINA and ANNIHILATION, and the writer of NEVER LET ME GO, 28 DAYS LATER and SUNSHINE, so it should be no surprise as to what kind of film is coming from the Oscar-nominated filmmaker.
“19 states have seceded.” “The three-term president assures the uprising will be dealt with swiftly,” and the most chilling, “We’re American, okay? Okay, what kind of American are you? You don’t know?”
Definitely a film not to be missed, CIVIL WAR opens in theaters April 26, 2024.
Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” premiering in theaters around the world on October 20, 2023. Courtesy of AppleTV+
In the 1920s, the people of the Osage Nation became the richest people on earth after oil was discovered under their supposedly worthless land. The money drew ambitious white men and not long after, Osage began to die in a series of suspicious deaths, some of which were clearly murder. Based on journalist David Grann’s bestselling non-fiction book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” Martin Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON turns that non-fiction book into drama that combines elements of romance, mystery, and the history of the 1920s Osage murders, in an epic Western thriller starring Leo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone.
Grann’s non-fiction book details these killings and suspicious deaths, which occurred as fortune-hunting white men found that marrying Osage women was a way to access the Osage Nation’s wealth. Their arrival was followed by a series of brutal, mysterious deaths, first noticed in 1921, but continuing for a long time with little investigation by the local authorities charged with overseeing law enforcement on tribal lands.
Scorsese turns this horrendous bit of history into an epic tale of evil, greed and deceit set in a sweeping Western landscape with one of unexpected love, in a visually lush, moving, tragic film. The film was a hit a Cannes, where it debuted out of competition. The film has resonated with both critics and audiences, but the most positive responses seem to come from those who read the bestselling non-fiction book. There is no need to have read the book to follow the story but it seems that having done so might deepen understanding of the Osage Nation’s plight. Scorsese’s film focuses primarily on this one story, while the non-fiction book takes a broader view.
Scorsese’ movie follows the deaths in one particular Osage family, of which Mollie Kyle is one daughter of the ailing matriarch, played by legendary Native actresses Tantoo Cardinal. Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns from World War I with a war injury that limits the kind of physical work he can do, and comes to stay with his uncle William Hale (Robert DeNiro), known as King, hoping to find work. The uncle has a prosperous ranch within the Osage reservation but his land has no oil. Having lived there so long, King Hale has established friendly ties with the Osage Nation, and even speaks the language, but he is also a powerful man some fear. King sees an opportunity with his handsome but not-too-bright young nephew, and before long he is hinting that his nephew might want to marry one of the Osage women, and even offers some advice when speaking to them.
Ernest listens politely but doesn’t entirely buy his uncle’s idea. Still, in addition to doing odd jobs for his uncle while living in his mansion, Ernest also drives an informal taxi service since most of the Osage don’t drive. While richer Osage have chauffeurs but others just hire taxis like Ernest’s. Waiting for potential fares, he spots and taken by one pretty young Osage woman, Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone). She coolly rebuffs his offer, and his flirtatious advances. Yet, later when she does need a ride and he again badgers her to let him drive her, she begrudgingly gives in.
She remains stand-offish during the ride but over the next days, his persistence and good humor start to amuse her, and she softens. “He’s dumb but he’s handsome,” she tells her sister, shortly before she invites him to dinner at her home, a mansion she shares with her aging mother Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal).
Ernest is truly smitten almost from the start and Mollie eventually falls for him too. The love match certainly is convenient for the uncle who has his own plan for his nephew’s new wife and her family.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro are excellent, essentially playing against type with DiCaprio’s dimwitted Ernest manipulated by DeNiro’s Machiavellian uncle. But the big revelation is Lily Gladstone, in what may be a star-making performance. Scorsese cast Native actors in several roles as Osage, including Lily Gladstone, who is of Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage and grew up on the Blackfeet reservation, but she is also a cousin of British former prime minister William Gladstone. She gave standout performances in small roles in two Kelly Reichert films, CERTAIN WOMEN and FIRST COW, but this larger starring part gives her a chance to really shine. And shine she does, nearly stealing the movie from her more famous costars.
Robert DeNiro’s uncle King is all sweetness and solicitousness when dealing with the Osage, and even his nephew Ernest, most of the time, but he can forcefully, frighteningly pivot if he doesn’t get his way. Even in his smiling mode, DeNiro’s King has an underlying current of menace. The Osage deal with him as a friend in public but when just among themselves, there is fear and growing suspicion. Ernest isn’t the only white man to marry into Mollie’s family, and the family trait of diabetes means that Mollie, her mother and one sister are often sickly, in this pre-insulin era. DiCaprio’s Ernest gives mixed messages about who he is and his true motives, seeming to truly waver between good and bad, although we are never certain, and perhaps Ernest isn’t either.
But as people start to turn up dead, even in Mollie’s family, in freak accidents and even clear murdered but with no suspect found, things grow tense and then frantic. The Osage leaders know the community is under attack but are powerless to stop it.
Several messages and messengers are sent to the federal government back east, alerting them to the murders, with little effect. Finally a representative of the newly-formed FBI appears, in the form of seemingly mild-manner official, played well by Jesse Plemons.
Epic is the right word to describe this drama, as this film runs about three and a half hours. However, the film is so well structured, so involving and gripping, and so perfectly paced, that one does not feel the running time.
The photography is stunning, as are the costumes and careful attention to period details, making the film both an immersive experience and visually pleasing. In an opening scene, oil gushes from the ground, spewing over some Osage men transversing the windswept plain, symbolicly covering them. In another moment, a huge fire fills the screen in a nighttime scene, creating a horrifying image that mirrors the growing panic of the Osage people under attack by the hidden foe. Eventually tTension is so thick as the drama unfolds that both the characters and the audience are on edge.
Scorsese also skillfully uses a number of period-appropriate techniques to give us a strong sense of time and place for this moving drama. These include written text in a form that resembles title cards in silent movies of the era, newspaper headlines and newsreel footage in movie theaters referencing the Tulsa Massacre, which overlapped these events, and period appropriate jazz, blues and old-time country music. Towards the end, Scorsese uses a radio drama format in a thrillingly effective scene.
One does not have to have read the excellent non-fiction book to follow this tale of love, betrayal and murder, but having read the book deepens one’s understanding of the history it depicts. The film only lightly touches on details such as that Osage were among the peoples relocated to what would become Oklahoma in the Trail of Tears tragedy. Like the Cherokee, the Osage had made a decision to partly assimilate while retaining parts of their culture, in their own fashion, trading with the white economy and adopting some of white culture such as a written language. The hope was to avoid the annihilation happening to other Native peoples, by becoming “civilized” and working in partnership with whites.
The drama unfolds in stages, smoothly shifting at each step, first a romance and family drama, then a crime drama and mystery, then a courtroom drama. At each pivot point, the characters develop and transform, revealing more of their true nature or being changed by events. The end is both heart breaking and exactly as it should be. It all adds up to a stunning piece of cinema on a unjustly forgotten moment of in the long history of injustices toward Native peoples. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON is a masterpiece movie by a master filmmaker, which seems a likely Oscar winner.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON opens in theaters on Friday, Oct. 20.
A timely account of the plight of Native Americans told through the eyes of a white guy who hates them, HOSTILES is a soft-headed frontier epic that never sparks to life. Despite a promising cast and concept, HOSTILES will have viewers begging to be taken to greener pastures long before its 134-minute duration concludes.
In 1840, Captain Joseph Blocker (Christian Bale) is given the order to escort Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi), a dying Cheyenne war chief, from New Mexico to Montana to be buried on sacred tribal lands. Still harboring a grudge against Yellow Hawk for leading past attacks in which his men were slaughtered, Blocker has spent his life fighting Indians and is renowned for having collected more than his share of scalps. Soon after Blocker and his select group of soldiers begin their journey with Yellow Hawk and his family, they come across a burned-down ranch where they discover Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike) clutching a dead baby. She’s been in shock since her husband and two other daughters were massacred by a band of bloodthirsty Comanche. When they later cross paths with that same gang, Rosalie avenges herself by emptying a revolver into the body of a Comanche. As the group continues their trek, the whites and the Indians begin to bond. The Indian women give Rosalie some clothes to wear and Metz (Rory Cochrane), one of Blocker’s oldest friends, asks for forgiveness from Yellow Hawk for past atrocities he committed against his people. While stopped at a military post, Blocker and his party hear a commander’s wife (Robyn Malcolm) condemn the government and military officials for orchestrating the stealing of Native American lands. As the journey continues, Blocker finds himself gaining respect for Yellow Hawk and falling for Rosalie.
There is nothing overwhelmingly bad about HOSTILES (aside from Rosamund Pike’s performance), but there’s also nothing that inspires the viewer to sit up and take notice. Director Scott Cooper’s film is bogged down by a grim and solemn tone that makes its predictable story interminable. Here’s another blandly-written story of the white man learning wisdom and insight from those who look different. The film wants to present the Cheyenne in a good light, yet for all its sentiments to wax poetic about them tells us precious little about their culture and their way of life. Wes Studi as Yellow Hawk certainly exudes the proper noble presence but he and the other the Indians are props for a dry history lesson about white man problems. In fairness, HOSTILES doesn’t dwell on the themes of bigotry, genocide, and oppression as much as I expected (WIND RIVER, a contemporary story, actually handles some of these issues better). Coopers script pays lip service to these matters but his film concentrates more on artful images punctuated by pseudo-profound monologues more often than on action and the many emotional scenes seem more sappy than genuine.
HOSTILES squanders a good cast. This is the sour, humorless Christian Bale we get in movies like OUT OF THE FURNACE and he isn’t much fun to spend 134 minutes with. Worse is Rosamund Pike, way overplaying the grief. A scene where she’s wailing in agony while unsuccessfully clawing at the ground with her hands to bury her kids (until one of the soldiers hands her a shovel, which she can’t handle much better) is so embarrassingly over-the-top, she seems more deranged than anguished. Jesse Plemmons, Rory Cochrane, and Bill Camp are among the fine actors that are part of this journey. They’re all good but nobody stands out while Ben Foster employs his usual tics to play yet another twitchy villain. Even current hotshot Timothee Calamet makes little impression in a small role as a doomed youngster along for the ride (though I hear he’s good in CALL ME BY ME NAME!). HOSTILES is an underwhelming western that just leaves you wondering why it wasn’t better.
