UPDATE: An official press release has been issued regarding the Blade Runner sequel and the discussions with Hampton Fancher to write the script. Read it in full below the Prometheus sequel info ...  If you haven’t  read or seen enough of  Ridley Scott’s upcoming Prometheus yet, the Alien filmmaker was recently the focus of a four-page article at THR. In the piece, Scott reveals even more spoilers for the project (why is he so intent on spoiling his own film before audiences have even had a chance to see it? I’d love to be the writer who got to sit down with him and ask that question…), but if you can’t wait a few more weeks to experience it for yourself, dive in now. While Prometheus hasn’t even hit theaters yet...
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As important as it is to accept a movie on its own terms, those terms have to make sense. Battleship is the kind of movie you feel dumber after watching, if only because you expended energy trying to figure out its terms, only to discover there are none present at all. Peter Berg, who earned lifetime benefit of the doubt for The Rundown, has crafted a well-meaning but half-witted wannabe blockbuster that somehow over-explains everything without saying anything at all, much less making a damn lick of sense. About as thoughtful and complex as one might expect of a movie based on a board game, Battleship is the sort of summer movie that’s so dumb and unengaging that it scuttles audience expectations for the entire movie season. Taylor Kitsch (John Carter) plays Alex Hopper, a...
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Girls on Film is a weekly column that tackles anything and everything pertaining to women and cinema. It can be found here every Thursday night, and be sure to follow the Girls on Film Twitter Feed for additional femme-con. When Hysteria hit TIFF last year (review here), I was apprehensive. Though it focused on women’s issues, starred Maggie Gyllenhaal, and featured a female filmmaker (Tanya Wexler), the film seemed wrong – irk-inducing wrong. It was framed as light, goofy, rom-com fare. At every turn press materials revealed goggled men peering closely at a woman’s vagina, and old, priggish women writhing as orgasms descended. The film seemed to be feeding into the hysteria myth rather than debunking it. It didn’t help that it wasn’t the first...
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In Theaters Beyond the Black Rainbow Where: New York and Los Angeles; expanding soon. What: A troubled woman is confined at an institute founded to help people achieve happiness and contentment through unusual, drug-fueled treatment. Why Go: One of my top picks from last year’s Fantastic Fest, the debut from director Panos Cosmatos is filled with eye-popping delights. As I wrote in my review, “the movie plays like a dream, or maybe a nightmare, or perhaps a fantasy -- or, possibly, all three mashed together and pureed into its own creation.” It cries out to be seen in a theatre.   Hysteria Where: New York and Los Angeles; expanding soon. What: A doctor in Victorian England invents the world’s first vibrator. Why Go: From all reports, the...
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