August 2020 – Page 4 – Movie Retakes

Christopher Nolan & John David Washington Share Behind-the-Scenes Look at Tenet

Warner Bros. has released a new video featuring director Christopher Nolan, protagonist John David Washington along with fellow co-stars and filmmakers sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the highly-anticipated movie Tenet. You can check out the video now in the player below!

The highly-anticipated mystery project will first open in 70 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Spain and the U.K. on August 26, with some territories still yet to receive a release date, while select US cities will see the film open on September 3 ahead of the Labor Day weekend.

Tenet is an international espionage thriller filmed across seven countries. John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) stars, with a supporting cast that includes Robert Pattinson (Good Time), Elizabeth Debicki (Widows), Dimple Kapadia (Fugly), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Michael Caine (The Dark Knight Rises) and Kenneth Branagh (Dunkirk).

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

The director first made an impact in 2001 with his indie film Memento. His next film, Insomnia, was also a modest hit. but it wasn’t until Batman Begins hit theaters in 2005 that Nolan became a box office force in his own right. The Prestige was Nolan’s last movie to gross under $200 million worldwide. His other films include The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Interstellar, and Dunkirk.

Looking to binge-watch some movies? Check out Amazon’s Director’s Collection of Christopher Nolan films here!

Tenet is written by Nolan and will utilize a mixture of IMAX and 70mm film, which is something he’s become famous for. Nolan is the film producer along with his partner Emma Thomas.

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Tremors: Shrieker Island Trailer & Home Media Details Revealed!

Tremors: Shrieker Island trailer & home media details revealed!

The mighty Shriekers are back. more terrifying and deadlier than ever in Tremors: Shrieker Island, the newest chapter of the long-running, fan-favorite Tremors franchise and Universal Pictures has debuted the fist trailer and home media details for its October release! The trailer can be viewed in the player below!

Everyone’s favorite Graboid hunter, Michael Gross (Family Ties, Suits) reprises his iconic role as Burt Gummer along with Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, Blades of Glory) as Burt’s potential protégé in this all-new thrilling and hilarious movie that brings wild new adventures and terrors to the team against the backdrop of a small island in the Tropics filled with magnificent beaches, crystal blue water and lush forests.

When a group of wealthy trophy hunters genetically modify Graboid eggs to create the ultimate hunting experience, it isn’t long before their prey escapes the conﬁnes of their small island and begin terrorizing the inhabitants of a nearby island research facility. The head of the research facility and her second-in-command Jimmy (Heder) locate the one man who is an expert in killing Graboids: the one and only, and now reluctant, Burt Gummer (Gross). Once on board, Burt leads the group in an all-out war against the larger, faster, and terrifyingly intelligent Graboids and the swiftly multiplying Shriekers!

Fully loaded with epic monster attacks, quick-witted humor and outrageous antics, Tremors: Shrieker Island on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital makes its debut timed to the 30th anniversary of the original film and comes packed with exclusive bonus features including a collection of top 30 movie moments showcasing footage from all seven films, a breakdown of the various species of Tremors monsters and a special tribute to Michael Gross from Kevin Bacon, Jamie Kennedy, Ariana Richards and several past and present cast and crew, taking fans deeper into the renowned franchise and legendary world of Tremors.

Celebrate 30 years of the horror-comedy franchise with Tremors 7-Movie Collection, available on DVD on October 20. For the first time ever, new and longtime fans can experience the excitement and adventure of all seven movies in one must-own set including, Tremors, Tremors 2: Aftershocks, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, Tremors: The Legend Begins, Tremors 5: Bloodlines, Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell, and the newest film Tremors: Shrieker Island.

BLU-RAY, DVD AND DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE BONUS FEATURES:

The Monsters of Tremors – Narrated by Burt Gummer himself, this piece gives you everything you ever wanted to know about the world’s most fearsome monsters: Graboids, Shriekers, and Ass Blasters.
Tremors Top 30 Moments – A lot has happened since we first visited Perfection, Nevada. From the biggest laughs, to the most gruesome kills, to Burt’s greatest “Burtisms,” we relive some of the most classic moments from across the franchise.
The Legend of Burt Gummer – Throughout all the years of Tremors, one character has been the common thread. Take a deep dive into the iconic character Burt Gummer, led by the actor who made him a legend, Michael Gross.

Tremors: Shrieker Island is set to hit digital platforms, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD on October 20 with plans to debut it on Netflix soon after from Universal 1440 Entertainment.

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Grillo, Hartnett & Leo Star in Pandemic-Shot Crime Thriller Ida Red

Grillo, Hartnett & Leo star in pandemic-shot crime thriller Ida Red

While many have used the pandemic as a way to shoot new projects remotely, some are filming in safety bubbles and Deadline has brought word that Frank Grillo (Kingdom), Josh Hartnett (Die Hart) and Melissa Leo (The Equalizer) are leading a new crime thriller Ida Red, shot in Oklahoma “closely following Oklahoma and SAG-AFTRA health and safety COVID-19 protocols.”

Written and directed by John Swab (Body Brokers), Ida Red centers on its titular career criminal (Leo) as she battles terminal illness during her 25-year prison sentence in Oklahoma and mentoring her son, Wyatt (Hartnett), to sustain the family business with his uncle Dallas (Grillo). After a job gone wrong, Wyatt’s brother-in-law and local detective Bodie Collier partners with FBI agent Lawrence Twilley to track down those responsible.

Alongside Grillo, Leo and Hartnett, the cast for the film includes William Forsythe (The Rock), Sofia Hublitz (Ozark), Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood0, Mark Boone Junior (Sons of Anarchy), Beau Knapp (The Nice Guys), Slaine (The Town) and Nicholas Cirillo (Outer Banks).

The movie, which is wrapping production in and around Tulsa, is produced by Jeremy M. Rosen (Charlie Says) alongside Swab and Robert Ogden Barnum (Margin Call) for Roxwell Films, while Luke Taylor, Matthew Helderman, Viviana Zarragoitia, Ali Jazayeri, Howard Scott and Joelle Scott are attached as executive producers.

“Undeterred by the pandemic, this is our third consecutive summer shoot here in Tulsa,” Rosen said in a statement. “We could not make these films the way that we want to make them anywhere else. The local production value, support, and incentives make all of the difference.”

(Photo Credits: Getty Images)

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Amazon Prime Video September 2020 TV & Film Titles Announced!

The full calendar of film and TV titles coming to Amazon Prime Video in September has been unveiled, including Season 2 of The Boys, the coming-of-age British comedy Get Duked!, the premiere of the new series Utopia, based on the British series of the same name created by Dennis Kelly, and much more!

New Originals:

● All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur will take sports fans behind the scenes of this illustrious football club during a pivotal season and follow all of the key events, including the arrival of José Mourinho as the club’s new head coach. It will follow not just the brand new epic 62,000-seater stadium in North London and the club’s extensive work in helping to transform the local area but also gain deep exclusive access to a season like no other, including the behind-the-scenes running of the Club and the response to the Premier League shutdown. Streaming August 31

● Get Duked! (2020) follows teenage pals Dean, Duncan, and DJ Beatrootare from Glasgow who embark on the character-building camping trip —based on a real-life program —known as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, where foraging, teamwork and orienteering are the order of the day. Eager to cut loose and smoke weed in the Scottish Highlands, the trio find themselves paired with strait-laced Ian, a fellow camper determined to play by the rules. After veering off-path into remote farmland that’s worlds away from their urban comfort zone, the boys find themselves hunted down by a shadowy force hell-bent on extinguishing their futures. From writer-director, Ninian Doff —making his feature debut after a slew of award-winning music videos and short films for artists including Run the Jewels, The Chemical Brothers, Miike Snow, Migos, and Mykki Blanco —comes an anarchic satire of generational politics, hip-hop-loving farmers and hallucinogenic rabbit droppings that pits the youth of tomorrow against the status quo of yesterday. Get Duked! stars Eddie Izzard, Kate Dickie, Georgie Glen, James Cosmo, and a breakout young cast featuring Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja, Rian Gordon, and Lewis Gribben. Available in HDR. Streaming August 28

● In a more intense, more insane Season 2 of The Boys, on the run from the law and hunted by the Supes, the Boys desperately try to regroup and fight back against Vought. Meanwhile, Starlight must navigate her place in The Seven as Homelander sets his sights on taking complete control. His power is threatened with the addition of Stormfront, who has an agenda of her own. On top of that, the Supervillain threat takes center stage and makes waves as Vought seeks to capitalize on the nation’s paranoia. Available in UHD and HDR. New episodes streaming weekly starting September 4

Additionally, each week on Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys, host Aisha Tyler will be joined by cast, crew, and surprise guests to take a deep-dive look into the latest episode, receive exclusive teasers and hints on upcoming episodes, bask in the spectacular gore, explore the themes and comic book origins, and get to know more about the people behind the show.

● From multi-Emmy award-winning Sinking Ship Entertainment comes an action-packed dinosaur adventure that proves there is nothing more powerful than family. Dino Dana The Movie (2020) finds 10-year-old Dana, who sees dinosaurs in the real world, completing an experiment that asks where all the kid dinosaurs are. However, before Dana can complete the experiment, her new upstairs neighbor (8-year old Mateo) finds Dana’s magical Dino Field Guide, which allows her to see dinosaurs, kicking off a dinosaur journey bigger than anything Dana has ever faced before. When Mateo is dino-napped by the T-Rex, who thinks he’s one of her babies, it’s up to Dana, her older sister Saara, and Mateo’s older step-brother Jadiel to get him back. Along the way, Dana will race through a stampede of Triceratops, take on a Spinosaurus, and ultimately realize that the kid dinosaurs have been right in front of her all along. Streaming September 4

● In anticipation of the 2020 presidential election, All In: The Fight for Democracy (2020) examines the often overlooked, yet insidious issue of voter suppression in the United States. The film interweaves personal experiences with current activism and historical insight to expose a problem that has corrupted our democracy from the very beginning. With the perspective and expertise of Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, the documentary offers an insider’s look into laws and barriers to voting that most people don’t even know is a threat to their basic rights as citizens of the United States. Available in HDR. Streaming September 18

● Utopia is a conspiracy thriller that follows a group of young fans who come together when they discover that the conspiracy in an elusive comic, Utopia, is real. The comic foretells the demise of humanity and the world as we know it, thrusting this group of underdogs to embark on a high-stakes twisted adventure to use what they uncover to save themselves, each other and ultimately humanity. Available in UHD and HDR. Streaming September 25

New to Prime:

● Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman and wickedly funny Will Ferrell star as actors playing Darrin and Samantha in Bewitched (2005), a remake of the iconic television show. Streaming September 1

● In Casino Royale (2006), Daniel Craig’s debut as James Bond, 007 earns his license to kill and faces off against a ruthless financier of terrorists. Streaming September 1

● Sex And The City: The Movie (2008) continues the adventures of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda four years after the series ended, and in Sex And The City 2 (2010), the girls take a vacation to the sun-drenched paradise of Abu Dhabi where they run into many surprises. Both Streaming September 1

● Will Smith stars in Gemini Man (2019), a nonstop action thrill-ride from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee. A retired hitman (Will Smith) is forced on the run and finds himself hunted by his ultimate adversary – a younger clone of himself. Streaming September 18

● The Addams Family (2019) is back on the big screen in the first animated comedy about the kookiest family on the block. Funny, outlandish and utterly iconic, the Addams Family redefines what it means to be a good neighbor. Streaming September 22

● Judy (2019) follows legendary performer Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) as she arrives in London in the winter of 1968 to perform a series of sold-out concerts. Streaming September 25

70’s Hits:

● Universally considered the best film ever made about alien visitation to Earth, Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning for Best Cinematography. Power repairman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) has an extraordinary encounter with a strange spacecraft while out on a call. Streaming September 1

● Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep shine in Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979), a contemporary tale of family values and difficult choices and winner of the 1979 Oscar for Best Picture. Streaming September 1

● The Graduate (1967) follows Hollywood darlings Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross as they create one outrageous love triangle in this groundbreaking American film classic. Streaming September 1

● In The Mechanic (1972), and in a role that powered him to stardom, Charles Bronson is an underworld executioner who turns murder into an art form in this ultimate crime chiller that co-stars Jan-Michael Vincent and Jill Ireland. Streaming September 1

New to Rent or Buy:

● Antebellum (2020) stars Janelle Monáe as successful author Veronica Henley as she finds herself trapped in a horrifying reality and must uncover the mind-bending mystery before it’s too late. Available for purchase and rent September 18

● In Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite! (2020), a villain has destroyed the ten-year truce between cats and dogs. Now, a team of high-tech agents will have to use their animal instincts to restore peace between the species. Available for purchase September 15 and for rent September 29

● Guest House (2020) follows a newly engaged couple (Billy Zane and Aimee Teegarden) as the home of their dreams quickly becomes a nightmare, when the previous owner’s friend (Pauly Shore) continues squatting in their guest house. It leads to a turf war that ultimately ruins their house, their marriage, and their lives. Available for purchase and rent September 4

● Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs (2019) is a parody with a twist! The story follows princes who have been turned into dwarfs seeking a lady’s red shoes in order to break their terrible curse, but it won’t be an easy task. Available for purchase and rent September 18

Prime Video Channels Sampling:

● Prime members have access to the first season of select shows on Prime Video Channels at no additional cost to their membership. This list will be refreshed with new shows each month and each first season will only be available for a limited time. Shows streaming September 1 include:

○ A Chef’s Life: Season 1 (PBS Living)
○ Cedar Cove: Season 1 (Hallmark Movies Now)
○ Codename: Kids Next Door: Season 1 (Boomerang)
○ George Gently: Season 1 (Acorn TV)
○ Hero Elementary: Season 1 (PBS Kids)
○ How to Become a SuperStar Student, 2nd Edition: Season 1 (The Great Courses)
○ I’m Dying Up Here: Season 1 (Showtime)
○ Keeping Faith: Season 1 (Acorn TV)
○ Last Hope with Troy Dunn: Season 1 (UP Faith & Family)
○ Nazi Mega Weapons: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries)
○ Stuck With You: Season 1 (Urban Movie Channel)
○ Texas Metal: Season 1 (MotorTrend on Demand)
○ The Blood Pact: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece)
○ The Bureau: Season 1 (Sundance Now)
○ The Celtic World: Season 1 (The Great Courses)
○ The Crimson Field: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece)
○ The Jack Benny Show: Season 1 (Best TV Ever)
○ The Roy Rogers TV Show: Season 1 (Best Westerns Ever)
○ Wrong Man: Season 1 (STARZ)

New in September – Available to Prime members at no additional cost to their membership

August 28

Movies

Get Duked! – Amazon Original Movie (2020)

August 31

Series

All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur – Amazon Original Series (2020)

September 1

Movies

1/1 (2018)
1 Million Happy Nows (2018)
A Birder’s Guide To Everything (2014)
Abe & Phil’s Last Poker Game (2018)
Addicted To Fresno (2015)
Alex Cross (2012)
American Dragons (1998)
Bachelor Lions (2020)
Barney Thomson (2016)
Beach Party (1963)
Bewitched (2005)
Big Time (1988)
Bitter Melon (2018)
Bully (2019)
C.O.G. (2013)
Carrington (1995)
Casino Royale (2006)
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
Dark Matter (2007)
De-Lovely (2004)
Defense Of The Realm (1986)
Die, Monster, Die! (1965)
Don’t Talk To Irene (2018)
Dr. Goldfoot And The Bikini Machine (1965)
Eaten By Lions (2020)
Employee Of The Month (2006)
Enemy Within (2019)
Extreme Justice (1993)
Face 2 Face (2017)
Gas-s-s-s (1970)
I’d Like To Be Alone Now (2019)
I’m Not Here (2019)
Kart Racer (2003
Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979)
Lakeview Terrace (2008)
Lord Love A Duck (1966)
Man Of La Mancha (1972)
Microbe And Gasoline (2016)
Miss Nobody (2010)
Muscle Beach Party (1964)
Music Within (2007)
No Way To Live (2017)
Patriots Day (2017)
Rambo (2008)
Sex And The City: The Movie (2008)
Sex And The City 2 (2010)
Slash (2007)
Slow Burn (2007)
Snapshots (2018)
Sunlight Jr. (2013)
The Bank Job (2008)
The Billion Dollar Hobo (1977)
The Birdcage (1997)
The Dunning Man (2018)
The Festival (2019)
The Go-Getters (2018)
The Graduate (1967)
The Hanoi Hilton (1987)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
The House On Carroll Street (1988)
The Last House On The Left (1972)
The Mechanic (1972)
The Ring Thing (2018)
The Video Dead (1986)
The Visitors (1972)
The Weight Of Water (2002)
The White Bus (1967)
The Woods (2006)
The Yes Men (2004)
To Keep The Light (2018)
The Turkey Bowl (2019)
Twice-Told Tales (1963)
Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls (2007)
Warrior Road (2017)
Weather Girl (2009)
What Children Do (2018)
What If It Works? (2018)
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)
Yongary: Monster From The Deep (1967)
Zoom (2016)

Series

A Chef’s Life: Season 1 (PBS Living)
Cedar Cove: Season 1 (Hallmark Movies Now)
Codename: Kids Next Door: Season 1 (Boomerang)
George Gently: Season 1 (Acorn TV)
Hero Elementary: Season 1 (PBS Kids)
How to Become a SuperStar Student, 2nd Edition: Season 1 (The Great Courses)
I’m Dying Up Here: Season 1 (Showtime)
Keeping Faith: Season 1 (Acorn TV)
Last Hope with Troy Dunn: Season 1 (UP Faith & Family)
Nazi Mega Weapons: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries)
Stuck With You: Season 1 (Urban Movie Channel)
Texas Metal: Season 1 (MotorTrend on Demand)
The Blood Pact: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece)
The Bureau: Season 1 (Sundance Now)
The Celtic World: Season 1 (The Great Courses)
The Crimson Field: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece)
The Jack Benny Show: Season 1 (Best TV Ever)
The Roy Rogers TV Show: Season 1 (Best Westerns Ever)
Wrong Man: Season 1 (STARZ)

September 2

Movies

Hell On The Border (2019)

September 4

Movies

Dino Dana The Movie – Amazon Original Movie (2020)

Series

The Boys – Amazon Original Series: Season 2

September 16

Movies

Blackbird (2020)

September 18

Movies

All In: The Fight for Democracy – Amazon Original Movie (2020)
Gemini Man (2019)

September 22

Movies

The Addams Family (2019)

September 25

Movies

Judy (2019)

Series

Utopia – Amazon Original Series: Season 1

September 28

Movies

Force of Nature (2020)
Inherit The Viper (2020)

September 29

Movies

Trauma Center (2019)

New in September – Available for Purchase on Prime Video

September 4

Movies

Guest House (2020)

September 15

Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite! (2020)

September 18

Antebellum (2020)
Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs (2019)

The post Amazon Prime Video September 2020 TV & Film Titles Announced! appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

The Forty-Year-Old Version Trailer & Key Art Starring Radha Blank

Netflix has released the official trailer and key art for The Forty-Year-Old Version, written by, directed by, and starring Radha Blank (She’s Gotta Have It). You can check out the trailer in the player below as well as the full poster!

Radha, a down-on-her-luck NY playwright, is desperate for a breakthrough before 40. But when she foils what seems like her last shot at success, she’s left with no choice but to reinvent herself as rapper RadhaMUSPrime. The Forty-Year-Old Version follows Radha as she vacillates between the worlds of Hip Hop and theater on a quest to find her true voice.

Winner of the Directing Prize at The 2020 Sundance Film Festival, The Forty-Year-Old Version is a hilariously candid and deeply personal debut from writer/director Blank. A fresh addition to the New York City slice-of-life canon shot in lush black and white 35mm, Blank’s film is an ode to the unfulfilled, and those whose adversity gives them a one-of-a-kind story to tell.

The movie also stars Peter Kim, Oswin Benjamin, Imani Lewis, Haskiri Velazquez, Antonio Ortiz, TJ Atoms, Jacob Ming Trent, Stacey Sargeant, William Oliver Watkins, Meghan O’Neill, Andre Ward, Welker White, and Reed Birney.

The film is produced by Lena Waithe, Jordan Fudge, Blank, Inuka Bacote-Capiga, Jennifer Semler, and Rishi Rajani. The Forty-Year-Old Version will release on October 9.

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August 25 Blu-ray, Digital and DVD Releases

BEGIN SLIDESHOW

August 25 Blu-ray, Digital and DVD Releases

Welcome to ComingSoon.net’s August 25 Blu-ray, Digital HD and DVD column! We’ve highlighted this week’s releases in detailed write-ups of different titles below! Click each highlighted title to purchase through Amazon!

New Movies on Blu-ray/DVD

The King of Staten Island
Scott (Davidson) has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He’s now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach.

Deep Blue Sea 3
As the body count rises, it becomes clear that genectically enhanced bull sharks will end life as we know it. Dive in for the deadliest, bloodiest return to the deep blue sea yet!

The Burnt Orange Heresy
Hired to steal a rare painting, an ambitious art dealer becomes consumed by his own greed and insecurity as the operation spins out of control.

One Night in Bangkok (DVD) (exclusive clip)
In this chilling noir thriller starring Mark Dacascos and Kane Kosugi, a hitman on an all-night murder job hires a female cabbie as his driver. Will she survive? Will he?

Uncle Peckerhead
When a punk band scores their first tour, life on the road proves tough when they hire a man-eating demon as a roadie.

Reissues

Flash Gordon (4K)
Prepare to save the universe with the King of the Impossible! The famous comic strip blasts to life in the timeless sci-fi cult adventure, featuring an unforgettable score by Queen.

Universal Horror Collection: Volume 6
Get ready for more thrills and chills! Volume 6 of the Universal Horror Collection includes four tales of terror from the archives of Universal Pictures, the true home of classic horror. Boris Karloff stars as a doctor who risks his own life to save the captives of a mad count in The Black Castle. Vengeance is sworn against six men who witness a ceremony where beautiful women turn into serpents in Cult of the Cobra. In The Thing That Couldn’t Die, when a young psychic discovers a box that contains the living head of an executed devil worshiper … heads will roll! A cat witnesses the murder of her owner … and this cat is hell-bent on revenge in The Shadow of the Cat.

Tales From the Darkside: The Movie
From Stephen King, Michael McDowell, George A. Romero and Arthur Conan Doyle comes an all-star horror anthology packed with fun and fright.

Reginald Denny Collection
The Reginald Denny Collection gathers three silent features from the career of the debonair British star: The Reckless Age, Skinner’s Dress Suit, and What Happened to Jones?

Pat and Mike
Oscar-winners Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn ignite the screen in this hilarious war of the sexes.

Without Love
During World War II, lonely widow Jamie Rowan (Katharine Hepburn) helps the war effort by marrying military research scientist Patrick Jamieson (Spencer Tracy).

The Lady Kills/Pervertissima
Remastered, restored and available for the first time on home video anywhere in the world, this new “perverse double bill” from maverick film maker Jean Louis Van Belle contains both the 1972 release PERVERTISSIMA and the 1971 production THE LADY KILLS.

Gemini
This stunning film from director Shinya Tsukamoto is set in Tokyo in 1910. Dr. Yukio Daitokuji (Masahiro Motoki), is a former military doctor who has taken over a successful medical practice from his father. He appears to be living a charmed life: he is respected in the local community and is married to the beautiful Rin (Ryo). His only problem is that she suffers from amnesia, and her past is unknown.

Hollywoodland
The story of the botched investigation into George Reeves’ (TV’s original Superman) mysterious 1959 death in Hollywood, as well as, the actor’s complex relationship with the iconic role that propelled him to stardom.

Suckers
Ever bought a used car from a dealer before? Want to know what REALLY happens behind the scenes? This movie offers some insight through the eyes of one of the dealers.

Hell Bent
Harry Carey flees the law after a poker game shootout, and arrives in the town of Rawhide, where he becomes friendly with local cowboy Cimmaron Bill (Duke Lee) and the kindly dance hall girl Bess Thurston (Neva Gerber), who is tending to her sick mother.

New On Digital HD

Superman: Man of Tomorrow
Follow the fledgling hero as he engages in bloody battles and fights for his life. The world will learn about Superman…but first, Superman must save the world!

Tesla
Ethan Hawke stars as the iconic rebel inventor, fighting an uphill battle to bring his revolutionary electrical system to fruition in this playful and unconventional biopic from Michael Almereyda.

Bombardier Blood (exclusive clip)
An inspirational and emotional journey following Chris Bombardier’s mission to become the first person with severe hemophilia to climb the Seven Summits, the highest mountain on each continent. He’s completed five of the climbs already, but he next faces the big one: Everest.

Hard Kill
A team of fearless mercenaries is hired by billionaire tech CEO Donovan Chalmers to protect a piece of technology that, if exposed, could destroy the world. Their mission becomes even higher risk when Chalmers’ daughter is kidnapped by the extremely dangerous terrorist group The Pardoners, who will stop at nothing to obtain the tech.

TV on Blu-ray and DVD

Taz-Mania: The Complete Third Season (DVD)
The Tasmanian Devil from the classic Looney Tunes family sparks more fiendish escapades in this series as the original teenage party animal from the Land Down Under.

Strike Back: Complete Seventh and Final Season (DVD)
The intrepid warriors of the Section 20 team return for one last adrenalized storyline in the seventh and final season of this iconic action series.

SEAL Team: Season Three (DVD)
Bravo is back and the whole team is reunited! Season three of SEAL TEAM begins with Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz) leading the team on a mission in Serbia, but they question Clay’s (Max Thieriot) readiness after his injuries last year.

Gunsmoke: The Complete Movie Collection (DVD)
All three movie sequels: Return to Dodge, The Last Apache and To The Last Man!

Dead Still: Season 1
Brock Blennerhasset makes a living out of photographing the dead in Victorian Ireland. When a series of murders threatens to sully Blennerhasset’s reputation, a tenacious detective drags him into an investigation of Dublin’s criminal underbelly. Set within the fascinating historical period of postmortem portraiture, this darkly comic series blends murder mystery with delightfully macabre humor.

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Top 10 Best Threequels: Return of the King, The Last Crusade & More

Ah, the threequel. The third and typically last film in a series. Over the years we’ve seen a number of finales drop the ball on their last go — Spider-Man 3, Superman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and even The Godfather Part III, for example — as director’s seem to run out of ideas or run into studio interference that hampers their overarching vision. And yet, there are actually quite a few good, even great Part 3s out there.

Ahead of the release of another highly-anticipated threequel Bill & Ted Face the Music (pre-order here), the boys at Podcast 426 (namely Josh Ames and Bryce Carlile) and I debated over the Top 10 Best Threequels — which you can listen to here — and came up with this list. Full disclosure, none of us have seen Before Midnight, which is why it’s not on here; and most of our choices were based more on what we call the rewatchable factor rather than artistic integrity. Is it a perfect list? Nah. But we all agreed that, if presented with these films, this is the order we would watch them in. Except for Bryce, who had Back to the Future Part III as his No. 1, which neither Josh or I could get behind. Also, we fully expect Zack Snyder’s Justice League to end up on here next year, which could drastically shake up the proceedings.

After looking through the list, feel free to tear apart our suggestions in the comments and tells us which threequels you believe deserve place amongst the greats!

1. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Click here to purchase The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition)!

There are epics and then there are epics. Peter Jackson did the impossible and not only stuck the landing with the big finale to his adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings but ended up making one of the greatest spectacles to ever grace the screen. ROTK is going on nearly 20 years, but the acting remains incredible, the FX, including the still-astounding Gollum, beautiful; and the big finale that sees our brave Hobbits, Sam and Frodo, ascend Mount Doom amidst Howard Shore’s epic score still packs quite the emotional wallop.

2. Die Hard with a Vengeance

Click here to purchase Die Hard with a Vengeance!

Die Hard with a Vengeance is perhaps the most underappreciated sequel of all time mostly because, as critics will say, “It doesn’t take place in a building.” Yet, everything about our third outing with Bruce Willis’ John McClane feels right. From Samuel L. Jackson’s terrific turn as a “good Samaritan” who inexplicably finds himself caught in the action, to Jeremy Irons’ cheeky villain, and the stellar set pieces, including that incredible subway scene, Vengeance stands as not only a fantastic sequel but, the last ten minutes or so withstanding, one of the better (and smarter) action films to ever hit theaters. Is it better than Die Hard? That’s a debate for another day.

3. The Dark Knight Rises

Click here to purchase The Dark Knight Rises!

Save for a rather rushed finale involving quite a few convoluted plot elements, and the bizarre decision to open the film with Batman crippled and retired — a decision that completely thwarts the finale of The Dark Knight as we now know Gotham’s watchful guardian simply went home and took a long nap – Christopher Nolan’s ambitious finale to his Dark Knight trilogy stands as a magnificent film in its own right. While not on par with either of its predecessors, Rises still enthralls with a powerful story centered around Bruce Wayne’s redemption and Gotham’s ultimate salvation; stunning action sequences, including a police chase that ranks among the series best, Hans Zimmer’s impeccable score, and fine performances from its all-star cast. Say what you will about Bane’s muffled dialogue, but Tom Hardy absolutely nails the role and deserves far more recognition than he was given.

4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Click here to purchase Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on Blu-ray!

The safest entry to the Indy series, Last Crusade plods through much of its first act but finally kicks it into gear with the arrival of Professor Henry Jones, who, as played by the legendary Sean Connery, provides a much-needed spark to a rather by-the-numbers flick. We’re a long way from the nightmarish theatrics of Temple of Doom! Oh sure, there are a handful of action sequences to enjoy, the best being a thrilling tank chase through the desert, but it’s the rapport between Connery and star Harrison Ford that truly gives life to Steven Spielberg’s trilogy capper.

5. Skyfall

Click here to purchase Skyfall!

Is Skyfall the best James Bond movie ever? That’s up for debate, but there’s no denying Skyfall ranks amongst the greatest threequels thanks to a strong performance from Daniel Craig — bouncing back to form after a rather lackluster turn in the painfully bland Quantum of Solace — stunning action sequences, a memorable villain (played by scene-stealer Javier Bardem), and the strong chemistry between Craig and Judi Dench that ultimately provides the film an emotional foundation. Director Sam Mendes borrows quite a bit from Christopher Nolan in terms of style and plot which means this will probably be the closest thing to a Nolan-directed James Bond film we will ever see.

6. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Click here to purchase The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Yeah, yeah, technically Sergio Leone’s magnum opus is a prequel, but it’s still a threequel in that it released after both A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. At any rate, this classic Clint Eastwood actioner ranks amongst the finest westerns ever made what with its impeccable photography, thrilling set pieces, and Ennio Morricone’s sensational score. The final showdown at the cemetery is one of the best finales to grace the silver screen.

7. Christmas Vacation

Click here to purchase National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!

In terms of classic films, you can’t get more classic than Christmas Vacation, which remains, perhaps, the best of the Vacation films if only due to Randy Quaid’s incredible comedic performance as Cousin Eddie. Sure, the comedy is more broad than clever and some of the jokes, including a running gag featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as an angry neighbor, don’t work as well as they should, but when the bits hit — the squirrel scene, the sled scene, the house lighting scene, any scene with Quaid – they hit really good.

8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Click here to purchase Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban!

The Harry Potter cinematic franchise had already stalled out after two flatfooted installments that basically adapted the books verbatim. Luckily, acclaimed director Alfonso Cuarón stepped in and guided Prisoner of Azkaban to extraordinary heights that set the bar for the remaining five films. And while the film still follows the JK Rowlings’ source material quite closely, Cuarón still manages to make everything feel fresh and alive. Some of the acting is a little wooden as the young actors adapt to longer takes and a more cinematic style (as opposed to Chris Columbus’ cut-around-the-performance approach), but Azkaban makes up for it with lush visuals, terrific FX, a superb John Williams score, and a story that all but ignores series villain Voldemort and manages to incorporate time travel in an entertaining fashion.

9. Toy Story 3

Click here to purchase Toy Story 3 (Plus Bonus Content)!

Where Toy Story and Toy Story 2 produced carefree adventures, the third entry in beloved franchise delves deeper into the horrifying life of toy-hood as Woody and Buzz must deal with the loss of their owner Andy, who outgrew his playthings long ago, all the while dealing with a murderous pink bear named Lotso. Yikes! This colorful animated caper works mainly due to its loveable characters and Michael Arndt’s sharp screenplay, even if the story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich bites off a little more than it can chew — at one point, our toys are almost incinerated by fire! Which begs questions: What happens when they die? Do they go to Heaven or Hell? Should we care? No matter, the animation is amongst the best produced by Pixar, the Ken doll (voiced by Michael Keaton) is hilarious, and the big jailbreak set piece remains a high point in animated comedy. Just don’t think about it too hard.

10. Star Wars — Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Click here to purchase Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (Plus Bonus Content)!

Which is better? Return of the Jedi, ~~Richard Marquand’s~~ George Lucas’ satisfying, though clunky, finale to his original Star Wars saga, or Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas’ satisfying, though clunky, finale to his prequel series? Both films have their high points (Jabba, the final space battle, Luke v Vader v the Emperor; the opening space battle over Coruscant, Order 66, Obi-Wan v Anakin) and low points (the Ewoks, Carrie Fisher’s acting, Han Solo; everyone’s acting, Anakin’s bad day, “I have the high ground!”), but both are ultimately satisfying in their own right. Still, Sith is definitely the more polished of the two with its eye-popping visuals, darker tone, and John Williams’ magnificent score, even if every great moment is matched by an eye-rolling “He killed younglings” bit that unintentionally induces laughs.

Honorable Mentions

Clear and Present Danger

The original Jack Ryan series that started with The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games goes off in spectacular fashion with Harrison Ford thwarting drug cartels and corrupt politicians in this suspenseful action extravaganza.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Paul Greengrass’ finale doesn’t quite capture the visceral thrills of Supremacy, and features action scenes that feel more obligatory than necessary. Still, Matt Damon rocks in the role, and that Morocco fight sequence oozes suspense.

Alien 3: Assembly Cut

The third film in the Alien saga works as a standalone film (as in, separate from Aliens) and earns points for its bleak, nihilistic tone — the movie opens with a child getting drowned — unique visuals, and Elliot Goldenthal’s haunting score, but never achieves the chills of Ridley Scott’s 1979 shocker or the thrills of James Cameron’s action-packed follow-up.

The post Top 10 Best Threequels: Return of the King, The Last Crusade & More appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Netflix Lands Ryan Reynolds Co-Writing & Acting Vehicle Upstate

Netflix lands Ryan Reynolds co-writing & acting vehicle Upstate

As if Ryan Reynolds wasn’t already the busiest man in Hollywood, the 43-year-old performer has added another new project to his upcoming roster with the comedy Upstate, which is being developed as a vehicle for him to star in and co-write, according to Variety.

Plot details are currently being kept under wraps for the project, but Reynolds is set to co-write the screenplay with John August, with whom he previously worked on the 2007 ensemble sci-fi psychological thriller The Nines, August acting as writer/director and Reynolds as the lead on the project.

In addition to co-writing and starring, Reynolds is set to executive produce Upstate via his Maximum Effort production banner alongside August. It marks the latest project Reynolds has added to his production banner after signing on earlier this month to the monster comedy Everyday Parenting Tips at Universal Pictures, based on Simon Rich’s New Yorker short story of the same name, in which he is also set to produce and star.

Upstate is also the latest collaboration between the Deadpool star and Netflix, with Reynolds first partnering with the streaming service for Michael Bay’s 6 Underground and currently is awaiting to resume shooting on the action-comedy Red Notice from Rawson Marshall Thurber (Central Intelligence) and co-starring Dwayne Johnson (Jungle Cruise) and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman 1984).

Alongside his sole feature directorial credit on The Nines, August is well-known for his work scripting a number of major titles over the years including the early 2000s Charlie’s Angels films, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and multiple Tim Burton collaborations including Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie.

(Photo Credit: Jason Mendez/WireImage)

The post Netflix Lands Ryan Reynolds Co-Writing & Acting Vehicle Upstate appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

CS Score Reviews Casper and Chats with Emmy Nominee Amanda Jones

Welcome back, film score lovers! We’ve got an amazing batch of goodies for you to check out this week. First up, we take a deep dive into La La Land’s terrific 2-CD release of Casper and chat with Emmy nominated composer Amanda Jones, who produced terrific work for the Apple original TV series, Home.

The Tax Collector
Michael Yezerski

First up, Filmtrax (via BFD/The Orchard) has just released the original motion picture soundtrack to David Ayer’s hit crime drama The Tax Collector. Composed by Michael Yezerski, the music features a unique blend of acoustic folk, hip hop, and Latin influences. Order your digital copy by clicking here.

Purchase The Tax Collector by clicking here!

Track List:
1. Love Honor Loyalty Family
2. The Tax Collector
3. The Dream
4. A David in Life
5. O Hey Conejo
6. Making It Rain
7. The Nephew
8. In the Bedroom
9. Conejo Collects
10. One Point Six
11. Alexis
12. Reunion
13. Sneaking into the Compound
14. For My Family
15. The Wizard
16. David on Ends

DC’s Stargirl: Season 1
Pinar Toprak

WaterTower Music released the soundtrack to DC’s Stargirl: Season 1 as well, which features epic music from Emmy-nominated composer Pinar Toprak. The composer wanted the score to sound similar to those old-school 1980s Amblin productions and opted to record each episode’s music with a live 60-piece orchestra. The results are quite fantastic!

Purchase the Stargirl: Season 1 Original Television Soundtrack by clicking here!

Track List:
1. The Justice League of America
2. Pat Was Right
3. Rescuing Starman
4. Friendly Folks
5. JSA Files
6. The Cosmic Staff
7. Brainwave Calls Icicle
8. Pat Reviews Files
9. Brainwave Threatens Courtney
10. Leave Blue Valley
11. Elegy for Joey/JSA Hall
12. Rex & Wendi Leave
13. Rick Wears the Hourglass
14. Beth Meets chuck
15. JSA vs. ISA
16. I’m Not Stargirl
17. Henry vs. Henry
18. Fighting Sportsmaster & Tigress
19. ISA Manifesto
20. Justin Needs Help
21. The Christmas Gift
22. Stargirl Destroy the Transmitter

Casper: 25th Anniversary Remastered Limited Edition (2-CD Set)
James Horner

Purchase the score at La La Land Records.

Purchase the digital edition of Casper by clicking here!

We’ve received a number of reissues of James Horner’s music over the last several years, including the brilliant 4-CD 20th Anniversary Titanic set, the 2-CD complete score for Legends of the Fall, and the fantastic 2-CD release of The Rocketeer. This month, La La Land Records saw fit to deliver an expanded version of one of the late composer’s vastly underappreciated works, 1995’s Casper.

First off, this new CD set is fantastic. The sound quality pops and the additional cues make for a terrific listening experience. The entire score clocks in at roughly 72 minutes making for a briskly paced album that blends Horner’s trademark emotional underscore with the same type of wild adventure music he achieved in other family films such as Willow, An American Tale: Fievel Goes West, and We’re Back: A Dinosaur Story.

The film itself is a slog — a bizarre mixture of adult themes and kid-friendly hijinks that, like its main protagonist, never fully materializes despite some exception VFX work. Directed by Brad Silberling, executive produced by Steven Spielberg (who brought along many of his usual collaborators), and starring Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriarty, and Eric Idle, the film opened to mixed critical reception but nonetheless made $287 million against a $55 million budget and continues to be a mainstay Halloween tradition.

Horner had long been Amblin Entertainment’s go-to man with a total of 17 scores recorded for the studio, including An American Tale, The Land Before Time, *batteries not included, Balto and the two big-screen Zorro flicks. Casper is perfectly suited for the composer’s instincts as the story spends a good chunk of its running time exploring the tragic backstories of not only its titular ghostly hero but also its main two protagonists, James and Kat Harvey. Horner composed a lovely melody, often referred to as “Casper’s Lullaby,” to accompany these emotional beats; and uses both piano and choral music to deliver the goods. It’s not hyperbole to say Casper’s theme ranks among the composer’s best.

The new album starts off with bouncy melodies — heard in “Carrigan & Dibs” and “March of the Exorcist” — and a playful family theme before introducing the aforementioned Lullaby roughly midway through the lengthy “No Sign of Ghosts.”

“First Haunting/The Swordfight” is presented as heard in the film and consists of the wacky sounds Horner employed in other family adventures like Jumanji and The Grinch, but swiftly segues into some wild — and fun! — swashbuckling music as the Harveys battle the ghosts. “Casper Makes Breakfast” (and many of the tracks for Casper’s three foul-mouthed uncles) leans on Horner’s swing-style saxophones for its energy; and while these bits are entertaining, the overuse in Horner’s work simultaneously make them less prominent than they did when he first utilized them in Cocoon and *batteries not included.

“Fatso As Amelia” is the first to introduce choral over the Lullaby theme, though the track stops short as Dr. Harvey realizes he’s been duped by the three ghosts.

One of the albums best tracks, “The Lighthouse – Casper & Kat,” is pure Horner. It begins with a light music box melody before the orchestra offers a beautiful rendition of the main theme that gives way to another swashbuckling bit of score as Casper flies Kat to a lighthouse and the two engage in a conversation about the people they’ve lost in their lives. The “Lullaby” is played prominently on piano with soft choral elements reminiscent of Danny Elfman’s superb work on Edward Scissorhands. The track closes on one of Horner’s oft-used sad motifs.

Another great track is “Decent To Lazarus,” a 10-minute cue that begins with another statement of the family and Lullaby themes before the more exciting music takes over during Casper and Kat’s escapades in a secret laboratory.

“Carrigan Crosses Over” features darker underscore with choral elements that, quite frankly, remind one of John Debney’s Hocus Pocus, while “Dad Returns” begins as another rambunctious track but leans on the emotional melodies as Kat tries to bring her father back from the dead. In fact, from here on out, the music shifts into more dramatic fare with tracks such as the exquisite “Casper Gets His Wish” and “One Last Wish.” The Lullaby theme is given a powerful rendition in the former and used more solemnly in the latter, although both tracks lean heavily on choral elements (and familiar music from Cocoon) to really sell the emotion. “One Last Wish” builds towards a powerful climax comprised of rising choir and Horner’s patented piano that truly enchants.

The first CD also features the opening track, “Kids With a Camera,” as presented in the film complete with the classic Casper theme — which too, gets various renditions in its own track “Casper The Friendly Ghost [Score Segments]” that were sprinkled throughout the film. The disc closes with music heard in the teaser trailer — more of the wacky elements heard throughout the album — while the second disc features a remastered copy of the original soundtrack album.

All told, Casper remains one of Horner’s better family scores. Sure, some of the wackier elements grow tiresome but otherwise, Horner knocked it out of the park with this one and delivered a soundtrack that stands with some of his best work during his astonishing mid-90s run.

Interview with Emmy-Nominee Amanda Jones
Composer of Apple TV’s Home

ComingSoon.net: Congratulations on receiving your first Emmy nomination!

Amanda Jones: Thank you so much.

CS: What was your reaction to that news?

Jones: You know, I was excited and definitely shocked. It was a very like, surreal moment. I had entered into four different categories and I’m really happy that one of them worked out, in a sense. So yeah, it was exciting. So it was my first time submitting for an Emmy and I’m really happy. It’s incredible.

CS: So where were you when you heard the news? Were you watching it live, the announcement live or anything like that?

Jones: You know, I wasn’t. It was 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time, and my mom was actually watching, but I kind of didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself to feel that anticipation, so I just kind of was having like a leisure morning. And then, let’s see, about 8:30 a.m. someone called me and it was my publicist and she was like, you’ve been nominated. I was like, that’s crazy.

CS: And was it just business as usual after that?

Jones: [laughs] It was an exciting day for sure! And you know, my phone was blowing up with tons of phone calls and lots of congratulatory well wishes and Apple sent like a floral arrangement.

CS: What was your immediate feeling as soon as you saw that announcement?

Jones: Yeah, I think the feeling was like, I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to describe it. It was almost like getting into college, like the college of your choice, where it’s like, oh my gosh, I did it, like after all this hard work of putting together an application and you have this body of work that you’re really proud of. And then you submit it and it gets accepted. But it’s like a different sort of feeling because it’s like a career achievement. So it’s like, yeah, it’s a unique feeling.

CS: So, now that you’re an Emmy nominated composer, does that change your approach to any of your work at this point?

Jones: No, I just want to continue doing this great work, making everyone happy, but you know, taking on work and projects that I’m like, passionate about. And I’ve been that way in the beginning, so just kind of continuing onward. And I think I’ve found a formula that works and just kind of sticking to it and adapting if I need to. But you know, just kind of staying busy and just keep moving forward.

CS: I listened to the soundtrack and I thought it was great.

Jones: Oh thank you so much. Yeah, there’s a lot of like, cool pads and synths. And I’m using my voice and like, kind of doubling some of those textures, so there’s like a human quality and like, meshed with these synths, and then yeah, I’m playing guitar, bass, piano and then we have drums on there and a lot of fun percussion-like sleigh bells. And yeah, it kind of runs the gamut of just a lot of different ideas and feelings. And yeah, it was a lot of fun to work on.

CS: So what is your process in developing a score for something like Home?

Jones: Yeah so first it starts with like, in-depth creative conversations with the studio, for Apple TV Music team. And then, involves the creative producers. And I’m interfacing most with Doug and Collin. And yeah, we just talked about it for a bit and they were like, we really want you to lean into a songwriter sensibility. Have fun with it. Go big with it. And the way it’s shot, it’s like very cinematic, very slow. I don’t know if panning is the correct word, shots, but it’s very similar to Chef’s Table in the way that every motion is very epic, like opening a door is the most epic thing. It’s like, you know, looking around the room is the most beautiful thing. So they just kind of wanted like a grandiosity for the music that kind of complimented those shots. And so, there was a lot to work with and it was just really well done and I had a lot to play around with and be inspired by.

CS: What was the first track that you would say you worked on?

Jones: So there’s like, two distinctive settings for this episode. We have like, Maine, which is like this wind tree setting. It’s where the sit house is set. And we have this like, cool wintry setting and this warm and beautiful home. And then, separately, there is like a Japan segment. So at the onset, Apple really wanted to make sure there was a clear, sonic distinction between Maine and that setting and then Japan and that setting. And so, what we settled on was Maine being kind of like this cold, folky, wintry space and then the Japan-like, instrumentation is very like, angular and sharper tones and we have like, really cool synths that are just like, probably more treble-y. And they just stand out more in the mix. And the drumming is a lot more, with more attack and it’s a little more aggressive, whereas a folky setting with the drums are kind of doing folk drums, which is kind of more of like, swung and just really chill and like, kick drums. So yeah, it was like, nice to create a distinction between the two. But then there’s a reprise that we hear of the first cue that you hear in Japan. So there’s kind of like a through-line between those spaces. But yeah, it was really important to create distinctive sounds for those two different settings first. And then kind of fill it in and color it in, depending on what setting you were in.

CS: When you’re putting together a score, is there ever a point where you’re like, this is it, this is working? Or is it tense from the moment you start until all the way until the moment you end?

Jones: I guess it’s a mixture of both. I definitely have that feeling of expectations and wanting to make sure everyone’s happy with what I’m creating, but at the same time, I’m also happy with what I’m creating, too. And I’ve been fortunate enough to work on projects where I’ve been able to strike that balance. So I feel like I’ve created something that serves my artistic soul, but also supports what’s happening and a lot of people have signed off on it and they’re like, happy with it. So yeah, there’s an internal pressure to create something beautiful, but then also the expectation of the studio for sure.

CS: My favorite tracks on the album are The House Being Built because I think that one incorporates all the ideas perfectly and the track Pregnant. I just thought that was a really beautiful bit of music. What was the inspiration behind that particular piece?

Jones: Yeah, so this is when — so our subjects are Anthony and Julie. They are the owners and the builders of the house. And so, during this segment, Julie’s pregnant and they are wanting to birth their first childlike, in that home. And they birth like, two of their kids like, in that home. So there was like a time crunch for them to like, finish creating the bathroom and finish creating the rest of the house and creating a space for their children that were coming pretty soon. And so, it was just a beautiful segment that focused on Julie and her experience being pregnant and just kind of like, realizations when you’re pregnant when you’re building a home. And when you’re pregnant, there’s all sorts of restrictions that you have, where you’re not supposed to like, eat certain things or be around certain chemicals. So they were very mindful about what materials they were using with the house. So it was like a very holistic like, delicate process of them finishing their home, but with materials that would be safe for a pregnant woman to be around.

And it was also just this beautiful — they showed photos of her giving birth, so it was just like this really beautiful like, motherly moment that I felt like just needed to have that sort of soundscape to kind of illuminate what her story and her process and her experience having a child at home.

CS: Different composers have different ideas of how they see their role. In your opinion, how would you define your role as the composer?

Jones: I guess I don’t know, maybe just as a collaborator. You know, I just want to create something that the team is just on board with. Like yes, there is an agency I have about myself and the decisions that I’m making, certain creative decisions and seeing if people are receptive to them, but you know, every project I take on, it feels very much like, this like, kind of going back to the DIY days of just like, being very hands-on and collaborative with the entire team. So I just like, welcome any feedback and I’m excited just to have these in-depth musical conversations. And I’m excited to create something new for each project and really explore ideas that haven’t been explored in a sonic sense for that certain medium, so for docs or for TV or for films. I just want to like, explore different sonic spaces that you don’t typically hear with film scores. And I try to get everyone on board at the beginning just to see if we can go down that path. But yeah, just like a fun collaborator is kind of how I see myself.

CS: What would you consider the most challenging aspect of composing music?

Jones: Let me see. The most challenging aspect? You know, I think it might just be getting the gig. I think once you have it, it’s kind of just like, fun. So I think convincing people that you’re the one they should have and include on this collaboration. I think once you get over that hump, I think it’s kind of smooth sailing from there.

CS: What got you into film music?

Jones: Yeah, let’s see. I mean I’ve always been very passionate about music. I started playing piano when I was three and clarinet when I was 10. And then, you know, I came to guitar around 14, 15. And you know my family was very conservative, so they wanted me to go down a more conservative career path. So initially I was going to become a chemist, but then once I went to college, I went to Vassar College, I took some music composition classes, fell in love with it and completely switched my major to music. And so, from there, kind of dedicated myself to doing music as like, a life pursuit. And familial expectation was pretty intense, so whatever I was going to do, I had to do it extremely well. And so, convincing my family that a career in the arts and being successful at doing that was very tricky and unprecedented in our family. You know, I had to do it. It was just, my heart was just drawn to doing music. I can’t stop thinking about it every single day. I hear music in my head. I love it. And so, once I graduated, I moved to Los Angeles. My initial focus was live performance, touring with my band. And it wasn’t until 2014, 2015, where I decided to kind of incorporate film scoring into my like, musical practice.

And I just wanted to do more. I loved writing music with my band. I loved touring, but I just wanted to just do more and have just more aspects to myself as a musician. And so then I kind of like, really did a deep dive into like, what does it take to become a great composer? I probably should learn and study from the best. So I did a couple of internships/music production assistantships with Hans Zimmer, Henry Jackson, John Powell … And so, that was from 2014 to 2016, just being with on-call music production assistants. And let’s see. And then, after that I had the opportunity to work at Lionsgate, which was like a totally out of left field sort of opportunity that presented itself, and as a music coordinator/creative executive.

And that role was like, in their television department hiring composers, like music supervisors, music editors. And they really wanted a musical person to kind of listen through the submissions that were coming in. And I was like, this sounds amazing. I did that for two years. And then, that kind of really helped align my focus into how to approach being a composer. Like having worked on the musical studio side and then experiencing the production studio side, I felt like I kind of gathered this comprehensive 360 view of like, what it takes to write beautiful music, but also what it takes to get the gig and understand the expectations of a studio and managing them.

And so, yeah, 2018, I’ve kind of popped out of the system and just went out on my own. I had the opportunity to do my first feature film, it’s called One Angry Black Man. And this is very timely now. And then so yeah, that was like my first project that was like a feature film. It was like, oh my god, this is my first feature. I can do this. And so, I kept doing a ton of short films. And then, later that year in 2018 I did the pilot for Twenties and that was like, the little hook that I needed to kind of get into the industry.

And so, Lena Waithe was like, the first person to be like, yes, yeah, you can work on my pilot for my TV series I have been developing for 10 plus years. No problem. And I was like, wow, thank you so much. She took a chance. And she does that with a lot of people and it’s really beautiful, like editors and directors, cinematographers. She’s like, so good about bringing on new talent and fresh faces. It’s very inspiring. And so, she was the one that kind of like, ushered me in to that space. And then, from there it was like, no more friction. Now it’s like, I had three television series and almost four, actually, and just a ton of other projects and ads. And it’s been an incredible, wild ride. It’s like episodes for “Home” and an Emmy nomination. It’s been a crazy two years, you know? And all of it is coming out this year.

CS: You went from almost being a chemist to a film composer and now you’re the first African American woman nominated in the Score category.

Jones: Yeah, exactly, for Primetime Emmy.

CS: Yeah, so what’s that like?

Jones: I mean, it’s a lot of feelings at once. It’s bittersweet for sure. On the one hand, absolutely, I’m elated and ecstatic and I can’t believe I’ve been nominated. It’s beyond bizarre that I’m the first one. And so, that’s what makes it bittersweet on the other side of it. I want to kind of make room and space for more women of color to be able to have the opportunity to submit their work and experience the same thing I’ve experienced. So you know, I feel like activism is really important and alongside our work. And I just want to help usher in another generation of people that can experience this. More Emmy nominations, I hope I’m not the last. And I don’t think I will be. So yeah, I’m a co-founder of this group called the Composer’s Diversity Collective, and it’s an amazing group of individuals, where we kind of like, offer mentorship and job opportunities. We have direct communication with studios. And it’s just like a pipeline to help studio staff more diverse voices on their projects.

And so yeah, and when I staff my own projects with additional writers, music editors or any musicians, my team is very diverse. And I think that is kind of like, trickles up, I guess. So ultimately people are working on my projects and then they work on their own projects that are great. And then eventually they can submit their work for consideration, you know, and their own Emmy’s, yeah. So it’s all about just like, leaving the door wide open for the next generation.

CS: After everything that you’ve accomplished, what is the next big thing that you want to tackle? What’s the next big project that you want to tackle?

Jones: Yeah, so I’ve done television series and TV movies, independent features, ads, but I’ve yet to do a studio feature film. So that’s the next kind of echelon I’m excited to enter that space and be considered for those projects, because I know the leap from television to film, even though I’ve done a bunch of independent features, I know that’s something, that’s like, another hurdle studio executives need to wrap their mind around. It’s like, oh, can you handle this medium? So I’m excited to enter into that space and be considered a talent that should be considered.

CS: Congratulations on your nomination. It’s well deserved!

Jones: Yeah, thank you. Thanks for noticing.

The post CS Score Reviews Casper and Chats with Emmy Nominee Amanda Jones appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

New to Stream: The Criterion Channel’s September 2020 Lineup

New to Stream: The Criterion Channel’s September 2020 lineup

The Criterion Channel, a streaming service from the niche home video distributor for film aficionados, has unveiled its lineup of programming for the month of September, which will include Richard Linklater’s groundbreaking drama Boyhood, along with a large roster of contemporary and classic films and double features!

Tuesday, September 1
Sátántangó

One of the towering achievements of modern cinema, Béla Tarr’s newly restored magnum opus, based on the novel by László Krasznahorkai, follows members of a small, defunct agricultural collective who set out to leave their village on the heels of a financial windfall. As a few of the townspeople secretly conspire to abscond with all of the earnings themselves, a mysterious character, long thought dead, returns to the village, altering the course of everyone’s lives. Shot in exquisite monochrome and composed in arresting long takes, Sátántangó unfolds in twelve distinct movements, alternating forward and backward in time, echoing the structure of a tango dance. Tarr’s monumental vision, aided by longtime partner and collaborator Ágnes Hranitzky, is enthralling, and his immersive evocation of rural Hungary as a postapocalyptic world of boozy dance parties, treachery, and near-perpetual rainfall is both transfixing and uncompromising.

Tuesday, September 1
Short + Feature: Super Bowles
You Are Not I and The Sheltering Sky

The writings of modernist literary legend Paul Bowles, an American expatriate who spent the majority of his life in Tangier, inspire two psychologically charged adaptations by singular film artists. Based on a Bowles short story, Sara Driver’s long-lost No Wave touchstone You Are Not I evokes a woman’s fractured mental state through a trancelike procession of haunting, uncanny images. Then, we’re whisked away to the sunbaked landscapes of the Sahara Desert for Bernardo Bertolucci’s sensuous take on Bowles’s celebrated novel The Sheltering Sky, starring Debra Winger and John Malkovich as an American couple whose sojourn to North Africa turns into a soul-shaking existential exploration.

Wednesday, September 2
Two by Dorothy Arzner

Featuring a documentary on Arzner by Katja Raganelli
The only woman to work as a director within the studio system of 1930s Hollywood, Dorothy Arzner was a trailblazer whose fascinating, often subversive films were the product of a sophisticated, queer, protofeminist sensibility that managed to assert itself in spite of the limitations of commercial moviemaking. Both made during the early 1930s at Paramount, where Arzner worked first as an editor before establishing herself as a director during the silent era, these pre-Code gems are two of her finest and most neglected films: Working Girls, a witty and complex tale of female ambition set in a women’s boarding house, and Merrily We Go to Hell, an alcohol-soaked portrait of an open marriage on a downward spiral.

Working Girls, 1931
Merrily We Go to Hell, 1932

Thursday, September 3
The Heiress: Criterion Collection Edition #974

Directed with a keen sense of ambiguity by William Wyler, this film based on a hit stage adaptation of Henry James’s Washington Square pivots on a question of motive. When shy, emotionally fragile Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland, in a heartbreaking, Oscar-winning turn), the daughter of a wealthy New York doctor, begins to receive calls from the handsome spendthrift Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), she becomes possessed by the promise of romance. Are his smoldering professions of love sincere, as she believes they are? Or is Catherine’s calculating father (Ralph Richardson) correct in judging Morris a venal fortune seeker? A graceful drawing-room drama boasting Academy Award–winning costume design by Edith Head, The Heiress is also a piercing character study riven by emotional uncertainty and lacerating cruelty, in a triumph of classic Hollywood filmmaking at its most psychologically nuanced. SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: An appearance by de Havilland on a 1986 episode of The Paul Ryan Show; a conversation between screenwriter Jay Cocks and film critic Farran Smith Nehme; a program about the film’s costumes featuring costume collector and historian Larry McQueen; The Costume Designer, a restored 1950 short film featuring costume designer Edith Head; and more.

Friday, September 4
Double Feature: Spaghetti alla Samurai
Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars

A Japanese chanbara classic inspires a landmark Spaghetti western—and, in turn, a transnational lawsuit—in this one-two punch of visually spectacular action mayhem. Akira Kurosawa’s darkly comic Yojimbo stars the incomparable Toshiro Mifune as a wily masterless samurai who turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage. Mifune’s character served as a template for the Man with No Name played by Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s pulp-operatic A Fistful of Dollars, an international sensation that launched Eastwood to superstardom and prompted Kurosawa and his studio to sue successfully for copyright infringement.

Saturday, September 5
Saturday Matinee: Duck Soup

The marvelous Marx Brothers are at their anarchic best in this wildly hilarious tour de force of comic invention. When Groucho’s Rufus T. Firefly, president of the bankrupt nation of Freedonia, picks a fight with the ambassador of a neighboring country, absurdist militaristic mayhem ensues in what may the finest and funniest of the brothers’ films, directed by irreverent Hollywood craftsman Leo McCarey. Along the way there are outlandish musical numbers, some of Groucho’s most priceless one-liners, and the pure genius of the classic mirror scene, a wordless, three-minute slice of slapstick perfection.

Sunday, September 6
Pre-Code Joan Blondell
Featuring a new introduction by critic Imogen Sara Smith

Classic Hollywood’s consummate scene-stealing sidekick, Joan Blondell enjoyed a successful screen career for nearly five decades, but it was during the anything-goes pre-Code era of the early 1930s—when dames, gold diggers, and good-time girls were cinematic staples—that she reached her zenith. Her vivacious energy and wisecracking persona were perfectly suited to the punchy, fast-paced style of her home studio, Warner Bros., where she was often paired with the similarly brash, dynamic James Cagney in popular hits like the mob film He Was Her Man, the delightfully risqué romantic comedy Blonde Crazy, and the kaleidoscopic Busby Berkeley musical extravaganza Footlight Parade. Whether lending snappy comedic support to a dramatic heavy hitter like Barbara Stanwyck in Night Nurse or showing her range playing a mob boss in the all-too-rare starring vehicle Blondie Johnson, Blondell exuded an irresistible, naughty-but-nice irreverence that was pure pre-Code.

Blonde Crazy, Roy Del Ruth, 1931
Millie, John Francis Dillon, 1931
Night Nurse, William A. Wellman, 1931
The Public Enemy, William A. Wellman, 1931
Big City Blues, Mervyn LeRoy, 1932
The Crowd Roars, Howard Hawks, 1932
Lawyer Man, William Dieterle, 1932
Three on a Match, Mervyn LeRoy, 1932
Union Depot, Alfred E. Green, 1932
Blondie Johnson, Ray Enright, 1933
Footlight Parade, Lloyd Bacon, 1933
Gold Diggers of 1933, Mervyn LeRoy, 1933
Dames, Ray Enright and Busby Berkeley, 1934
He Was Her Man, Lloyd Bacon, 1934

Monday, September 7
Three by Robert Greene

The line between performance and reality is scrambled to provocative effect in the adventurous nonfiction psychodramas of Robert Greene. While the bravura hybrid works Actress and Kate Plays Christine are slippery, multilayered investigations of the craft of acting, Greene’s latest film, Bisbee ’17, uses historical reenactment to connect a shameful chapter of American history to the country’s present. Opening up complex questions about the very meaning of “truth” in documentary, Greene’s fascinating films are alchemical collaborations between director and subject in which artifice is a means to reach authentic human insight.

Actress, 2014
Kate Plays Christine, 2016
Bisbee ’17, 2018

Tuesday, September 8
Short + Feature: Through Her Eyes
Nettles and It Felt Like Love
Featuring a new interview with Nettles director Raven Jackson

Two powerfully intimate films explore the incidents, large and small, that shape women’s lives. With hushed immediacy, Raven Jackson’s award-winning short Nettles poetically evokes a series of “stinging moments” in the lives of young women, many centered around moments of sexual vulnerability. Eliza Hittman mines similar territory in her revelatory debut feature It Felt Like Love, a bracing portrait of a Brooklyn teenager whose rush to grow up leads her down a potentially dangerous path.

Wednesday, September 9
Four Films by Janicza Bravo
A conversation between Bravo and Sam Fragoso, host of the podcast Talk Easy

The director of the audacious festival hit Lemon and the highly anticipated Zola, Janicza Bravo cultivates the unsettling, the absurd, and the hilariously warped. This selection of four of her brilliantly outré shorts—including the award-winning dark comedy Gregory Go Boom, starring Michael Cera—showcases the singular, gonzo sensibility that has made her one of American independent cinema’s most exciting voices. Centered around terminally awkward misfits so cringe-inducing that you can’t look away, Bravo’s surreal, stylistically brash films are by turns bleak and bitingly funny commentaries on loneliness, privilege, and the search for human connection.

Gregory Go Boom, 2013
Pauline Alone, 2014
Woman in Deep, 2016
Man Rots from the Head, 2016

Thursday, September 10
Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Environmental-art superstar Christo, who passed away in May this year, and his longtime collaborator, Jeanne-Claude, transformed the world’s landscapes into epic canvases for their awe-inspiring site-specific installations. Though their staggering achievements—including an enormous curtain hung between two Colorado mountains and a floating fabric walkway built on an Italian lake—were designed to be ephemeral, they frequently inspired filmmakers, particularly documentary masters Albert and David Maysles, to preserve their creations on celluloid. Films like Running Fence, which depicts the artists’ struggle to build a twenty-four-mile fence out of white nylon fabric, and The Gates, about their decades-in-the-making dream to construct a “golden river” of portals in New York’s Central Park, capture the monumental vision, superhuman determination, and unique relationship that drove an extraordinary artistic partnership.

Features
Running Fence, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, 1977
Islands, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, 1987
Christo in Paris, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Deborah Dickson, and Susan Froemke, 1990
Umbrellas, Albert Maysles, Henry Corra, and Grahame Weinbren, 1994
The Gates, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Antonio Ferrera, and Matthew Prinzing, 2008
Walking on Water, Andrey Paounov, 2019

Shorts
Christo’s Valley Curtain, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Giffard, 1974

Friday, September 11
Double Feature: Tears of a Clown
Lenny and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling

It’s no laughing matter: these two unflinching films delve into the self-destructive dark sides of a pair of comedy legends. In Lenny, director Bob Fosse and star Dustin Hoffman bring a live-wire energy to their jagged portrait of controversial, envelope-pushing stand-up Lenny Bruce that cuts between his electrifying prime and burned-out later years. Then, Richard Pryor draws on his own personal demons in the autobiographical Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, a lacerating rise-and-fall showbiz saga and the only narrative feature written and directed by the comedy great.

Saturday, September 12
Saturday Matinee: The Phantom Tollbooth

What could possibly be inside that gigantic, wrapped-and-ribboned box? A tollbooth, a toy car, and adventure! Ride with young Milo (Butch Patrick) through the phantom tollbooth that takes him from the streets of San Francisco into a wondrous world that combines the enchantment of Norton Juster’s beloved children’s book with the sheer visual joy of legendary Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones (codirecting his sole feature film). Bookended by live-action sequences and featuring a stellar voice cast led by the great Mel Blanc, The Phantom Tollbooth brings to life a magical, musical tale of warring kingdoms (one favors words, the other numbers), demons, princesses, and fabulously fantastical creatures—including a tick-tick-ticking “watch” dog!

Sunday, September 13
Directed by Albert Brooks

It’s apt that director, writer, and actor Albert Brooks should have been born Albert Einstein, since his cutting, cerebral, and brutally honest comedies are works of self-deprecating genius. Unafraid of playing unlikable, self-absorbed characters and of putting his own neuroses and obsessions under the microscope, Brooks has directed only a handful of films since the late 1970s, but each is a brilliant, unsparingly funny dissection of the frustrations of the contemporary everyman. Whether satirizing the complexities of dating in Modern Romance, Reagan-era yuppie excess in Lost in America, or the pitfalls of family ties in Mother, Brooks probes the foibles and fallibility of the human condition with a sharp observational eye and sardonic wit that’s as painful as it is hilarious.

Real Life, 1979
Modern Romance, 1981
Lost in America, 1985
Defending Your Life, 1991
Mother, 1996

Monday, September 14
Art and Craft

Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in U.S. history. His impressive body of work spans thirty years and a wide range of styles, from fifteenth-century masters to Picasso to Walt Disney. And while the copies could fetch impressive sums on the open market, Landis isn’t in it for the money. Posing as a philanthropic donor, a grieving executor of a family member’s will, and even a Jesuit priest, Landis has given away hundreds of works over the years to a staggering array of institutions. But when a tenacious investigator threatens to expose his ruse, Landis must confront his controversial legacy and a growing chorus of art-world professionals calling for him to stop. What begins as a gripping cat-and-mouse art caper, rooted in questions of authorship and authenticity, gradually develops into an intimate story of obsession and the universal need for community, appreciation, and purpose.

Tuesday, September 15
Short + Feature: The Dakar Connection
A Thousand Suns and Touki Bouki

Life imitates art as a rising auteur pays homage to a landmark work by her uncle in this snapshot of Senegalese cinema past and present. In 1973, Djibril Diop Mambéty made a splash with Touki bouki, a brash, stylistically freewheeling tale of two young lovers attempting to scheme their way from Dakar to France. Forty years later, Mambéty’s niece Mati Diop revisits the film’s towering legacy in A Thousand Suns, in which she reconnects with Magaye Niang and Mareme Niang, the stars of Touki bouki, and finds that their fates have followed paths curiously similar to those of the fictional characters they played.

Wednesday, September 16
Three by Lucrecia Martel

You can feel the heat in the swelteringly sensorial films of Argentine iconoclast Lucrecia Martel, who, working in a cinematic vocabulary all her own, creates tantalizingly elliptical, shrewdly incisive commentaries on class, religion, and social hierarchy that have established her as one of the twenty-first century’s major filmmakers. In her early critical triumphs La Ciénaga and The Headless Woman, Martel introduced a startlingly original, fully formed sensibility, marked by off-kilter compositions, a tactile sense of atmosphere, and a caustic perspective on the hypocrisies of Argentina’s bourgeoisie. With her latest feature, the hallucinatory literary adaptation Zama, Martel translates her singular vision to the eighteenth century, losing none of her eccentric edge and acerbic bite.

La Ciénaga, 2001
The Headless Woman, 2008
Zama, 2017

Wednesday, September 16
Observations on Film Art #38: Visual Strategies in La Ciénaga

From the very first shot of her very first feature, La Ciénaga, Argentine auteur Lucrecia Martel laid claim to a distinctive, defiantly strange cinematic syntax unlike any other. In this edition of Observations on Film Art, Professor Kristin Thompson examines the surprising choices—uncomfortably tight framing, unusual camera positions, and soft- and out-of-focus lensing—that Martel uses to keep the identities of and relationships between her characters intriguingly opaque and to heighten the film’s stinging critique of bourgeois torpor.

Thursday, September 17
Boyhood: Criterion Collection Edition #839

There has never been another movie like Boyhood, from director Richard Linklater. An event film of the utmost modesty, it was shot over the course of twelve years in the director’s native Texas and charts the physical and emotional changes experienced by a child named Mason (Ellar Coltrane), his divorced parents (Patricia Arquette, who won an Oscar for her performance, and Ethan Hawke), and his older sister (Lorelei Linklater). Alighting not on milestones but on the small, in-between moments that make up lives, Linklater fashions a flawlessly acted, often funny portrait that flows effortlessly from one year to the next. Allowing us to watch people age on film with documentary realism while gripping us in a fictional narrative of exquisite everydayness, Boyhood has a power that only the art of cinema could harness. SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: A making-of documentary spanning the film’s twelve years of production; a discussion featuring Linklater and actors Patricia Arquette and Ellar Coltrane, moderated by producer John Pierson; a video essay by critic Michael Koresky about time in Linklater’s films; and more.

Friday, September 18
Double Feature: Paradises Lost
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) and Tabu (2012)

The shadow of a silent-cinema masterpiece looms large over a twenty-first-century marvel in two visually stunning sagas of doomed passion and colonial tragedy. In the early 1930s, German-expressionist giant F. W. Murnau joined forces with documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty for the landmark docufiction hybrid Tabu, a ravishing vision of flowering love amid the encroaching, destructive forces of Western civilization, strikingly filmed on location in Tahiti. Eight decades later, Portuguese auteur Miguel Gomes took the title and bifurcated narrative structure of Murnau’s film as the starting point from which to spin a sumptuous, exhilaratingly eccentric tale of ill-fated romance in 1960s colonial Africa in his own acclaimed Tabu.

Saturday, September 19
Saturday Matinee: Charlotte’s Web

The most popular children’s book of all time made it to the screen with E. B. White’s heartwarming vision fully intact courtesy of animation powerhouse Hanna-Barbera and the vocal talent of Debbie Reynolds. She plays the beloved spider whose bond with a runt pig yields timeless truths about friendship, cycles of life, and growing up. With handsome hand-drawn animation, songs by Disney mainstays the Sherman Brothers, and a vocal cast that also includes Paul Lynde and Agnes Moorehead, that’s some pig, indeed!

Sunday, September 20
The Films of Agnès Varda
Featuring extensive supplemental features from Criterion’s The Complete Films of Agnès Varda box set

A founder of the French New Wave who became an international art-house icon, Agnès Varda was a fiercely independent, restlessly curious visionary whose work was at once personal and passionately committed to the world around her. In an abundant career in which she never stopped expanding the notion of what a movie can be, Varda forged a unique cinematic vocabulary that frequently blurs the boundaries between narrative and documentary, and entwines loving portraits of her friends, her family, and her own inner world with a social consciousness that was closely attuned to the 1960s counterculture, the women’s liberation movement, the plight of the poor and socially marginalized, and the ecology of our planet. This comprehensive collection is a testament to the radical vision, boundless imagination, and radiant spirit of a true original for whom every act of creation was a vital expression of her very being.

Shorts
Du coté de la côte, 1958
L’opera-mouffe, 1958
O saisons, o chateaux, 1958
Les fiancés du Pont Macdonald, 1962
Salut les cubains!, 1964
Elsa la rose, 1966
Uncle Yanco, 1968
Black Panthers, 1970
Réponse de femmes, 1975
Plaisir d’amour en Iran, 1977
Ulysse, 1982
Les dites cariatides, 1984
7 p., cuis., s. de b. . . . (à saisir), 1985
T’as des beaux escaliers, tu sais, 1986
bl, 2003
Ydessa, les ours, et etc. . . ., 2004
Les 3 boutons, 2015

Features
La Pointe Courte, 1955
Cléo from 5 to 7, 1962
Le bonheur, 1965
Les créatures, 1966
Lions Love (. . . and Lies), 1969
Daguerréotypes, 1975
One Sings, the Other Doesn’t, 1977
Mur Murs, 1981
Documenteur, 1981
Vagabond, 1985
Jane B. par Agnès V., 1988
Kung-Fu Master!, 1988
Jacquot de Nantes, 1991
The Young Girls Turn 25, 1993
One Hundred and One Nights, 1995
The World of Jacques Demy, 1995
The Gleaners and I, 2000
The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later, 2002
The Beaches of Agnes, 2008
Agnès de ci de là Varda, 2011
Varda by Agnès, 2019

Monday, September 21
Streetwise and Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell
Featuring a new introduction with director Martin Bell

In 1983, filmmaker Martin Bell, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, and journalist Cheryl McCall set out to tell the stories of those society had left behind: homeless and runaway teenagers living on the margins of Seattle. The resulting film, the Academy Award–nominated documentary landmark Streetwise, follows an unforgettable group of children who, driven from their broken homes, survive by hustling, panhandling, and dumpster diving. Among the project’s most haunting and enduring faces was Tiny, an iron-willed fourteen-year-old who the filmmakers would continue to track for the next thirty years. Tracing her journey from lost youth to mother of ten children of her own, the long awaited follow-up documentary Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell is a heartrending, deeply empathetic portrait of a woman and a family struggling to break free from a cycle of trauma.

Tuesday, September 22
Short + Feature: All by Myself
The Amateurist + Je tu il elle

Two fearless filmmakers turn the camera on themselves to explore loneliness, solitude, identity, sexuality, and the gaze within self-engineered confines of their own making. In The Amateurist, Miranda July sets up an unsettling relationship between viewer and subject via an increasingly disturbing portrait of a woman whose obsessive, solitary video surveillance of another woman (also played by July) pushes her to the brink of madness. Then, Chantal Akerman plays a woman who ventures out of self-imposed isolation in her uncompromising first feature, which features one of the most daring sex scenes in cinema history.

Wednesday, September 23
Thank You and Good Night
Featuring two short films and a new introduction by director Jan Oxenberg

A lost-and-found revelation from indie film and TV maverick Jan Oxenberg is a docu-fantasy narrative focused on the filmmaker’s hilarious, messy, Jewish family as they prepare to say goodbye to someone they love. Narrated by a cardboard cutout of Oxenberg’s scowling child self, Thank You and Good Night takes us on a journey through the proceedings, attempting to defeat death and never say goodbye. An early Sundance hit but virtually unseen for decades, the film reemerges as a singular, uncategorizable exploration of the meaning of life, death, and the tangled stuff that is a family. In this poignant, hilarious, and complex reflection on letting go, Oxenberg innovatively transforms personal tragedy into universally resonant art that is now claiming its rightful place as a classic of independent cinema. This key touchstone in the evolution of the autobiographical documentary has reemerged thanks to a new restoration and is presented alongside two early short works by Oxenberg that offer a wittily satirical perspective on her experiences growing up as a lesbian.

Restoration by IndieCollect.

Shorts
Home Movie, 1973
A Comedy in Six Unnatural Acts, 1975

Features
Thank You and Good Night, 1992

Thursday, September 24
Corpus Christi

Streaming premiere

Anchored by a stunning performance from newcomer Bartosz Bielenia, this moral tinderbox is an emotionally gripping, darkly humorous portrait of a man on a most curious road to redemption. Following his release from a Warsaw prison for a violent crime, twenty-year-old Daniel (Bielenia) is sent to a remote village to work as a manual laborer. The job is designed to keep the ex-con busy, but Daniel has a higher calling. When one quick lie allows him to be mistaken for the town’s new priest, Daniel sets about leading his newfound flock, inspiring the congregation through his passion and charisma even as he edges toward a dark secret that the community hasn’t revealed in the confessional booth.

Thursday, September 24
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff

Though he would find himself at the forefront of the radical New German Cinema movement, Volker Schlöndorff got his training in France. Apprenticed to such trailblazers as Alain Resnais, Jean-Pierre Melville, and Louis Malle, he became fascinated by the possibilities of filmmaking as a political tool early in his career. His 1966 debut, Young Törless, based on Robert Musil’s acclaimed novel, was not only the first of his many ambitious literary adaptations (often of challenging, supposedly “unfilmable” works), it was also something of a New German Cinema call to arms, a political allegory about Germany’s social history set in a boys’ boarding school at the turn of the twentieth century. More stinging commentaries on the state of Germany-then-and-now followed in the seventies: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (codirected with Margarethe von Trotta, Schlöndorff’s wife at the time), Coup de grâce, and his grandest success, the Oscar- and Palme d’or–winning The Tin Drum, a brilliant adaptation of Günter Grass’s metaphorical novel about the horrors of World War II. Continuing to delve into the traumas of the mid-twentieth century in late-career triumphs like The Ogre and Diplomacy, Schlöndorff looks unflinchingly to the past in order to illuminate the present.

Young Törless, Volker Schlöndorff, 1966
Baal, Volker Schlöndorff, 1970
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta, 1975
Coup de grâce, Volker Schlöndorff, 1976
The Tin Drum, Volker Schlöndorff, 1979
Circle of Deceit, Volker Schlöndorff, 1981
Swann in Love, Volker Schlöndorff, 1984
Death of a Salesman, Volker Schlöndorff, 1985
The Handmaid’s Tale, Volker Schlöndorff, 1990
Voyager, Volker Schlöndorff, 1991
The Ogre, Volker Schlöndorff, 1996
The Legend of Rita, Volker Schlöndorff, 2000
Diplomacy, Volker Schlöndorff, 2014

Friday, September 25
Double Feature: Mall Wonders
Golden Eighties and Nocturama
Featuring a new interview with Nocturama director Bertrand Bonello, whose film Zombi Child is also now playing on the Channel

Don’t look for retail therapy in this pair of super-stylized, shopping-mall-set genre-exploders that balance sleek pop pleasures with a subversive anticapitalist critique. First, Chantal Akerman filters the singing, dancing charms of the MGM dream factory through her singular feminist, formalist sensibility in her fascinatingly offbeat, disarmingly affecting New Wave musical Golden Eighties. Then, Bertrand Bonello choreographs a mesmerizing tale of teenage terrorism in his audacious thriller Nocturama, which features some of the most cunning deployments of pop music in recent cinematic memory.

Saturday, September 26
Saturday Matinee: Pygmalion

Cranky Professor Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard) takes a bet that he can turn Cockney guttersnipe Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) into a “proper lady” in a mere six months in this delightful comedy of bad manners, based on the play by George Bernard Shaw. Directed by both Anthony Asquith and star Howard and edited by future British cinema giant David Lean, Pygmalion was co-scripted by Shaw himself, who won an Academy Award for his work and whose screenplay would later be adapted into the classic Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady.

Sunday, September 27
By the Book

You’ve read—or at least meant to read—the book. Now see the movie. Just in time for the start of school, we’ve collected some of the all-time great page-to-screen adaptations, encompassing English 101 classics like Great Expectations and Lord of the Flies, world-literature masterpieces like War and Peace and Pather Panchali, modern best sellers like The Virgin Suicides and The Hours, and more. While faithful transpositions abound, there are plenty of surprising spins on canonical titles, such as Akira Kurosawa’s Japan-set retelling of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, John Huston’s hallucinatory take on Malcolm Lowry’s “unfilmable” Under the Volcano, and Chantal Akerman’s fascinating postcolonialist reimagining of Joseph Conrad’s Almayer’s Folly. Each is a distinguished work of art in its own right, as worthy of appreciation as its celebrated source.

The Count of Monte Cristo, Rowland V. Lee, 1934
The 39 Steps, Alfred Hitchcock, 1935
La bête humaine, Jean Renoir, 1938
Of Mice and Men, Lewis Milestone, 1939
Great Expectations, David Lean, 1946
The Killers, Robert Siodmak, 1946
Anna Karenina, Julien Duvivier, 1948
Oliver Twist, David Lean, 1948
The Heiress, William Wyler, 1949
The Passionate Friends, David Lean, 1949
The Idiot, Akira Kurosawa, 1951
The Life of Oharu, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952
Robinson Crusoe, Luis Buñuel, 1954
Senso, Luchino Visconti, 1954
Pather Panchali, Satyajit Ray, 1955
Aparajito, Satyajit Ray, 1956
The Burmese Harp, Kon Ichikawa, 1956
Apur Sansar, Satyajit Ray, 1959
The Cloud-Capped Star, Ritwik Ghatak, 1960
Purple Noon, René Clément, 1960
Zazie dans le métro, Louis Malle, 1960
Divorce Italian Style, Pietro Germi, 1961
Lord of the Flies, Peter Brook, 1963
Tom Jones, Tony Richardson, 1963
Charulata, Satyajit Ray, 1964
Woman in the Dunes, Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964
Closely Watched Trains, Jirí Menzel, 1966
War and Peace, Sergei Bondarchuk, 1966
Memories of Underdevelopment, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968
The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970
Dodes’ka-den, Akira Kurosawa, 1970
The Phantom Tollbooth, Chuck Jones, Abe Levitow, and Dave Monahan, 1970
The Little Prince, Stanley Donen, 1974<
Picnic at Hanging Rock, Peter Weir, 1975
The American Friend, Wim Wenders, 1977
The Ascent, Larisa Shepitko, 1977
The Getting Of Wisdom, Bruce Beresford, 1977
Empire of Passion, Nagisa Oshima, 1978
Watership Down, Martin Rosen, 1978
My Brilliant Career, Gillian Armstrong, 1979
Stalker, Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979
The Tin Drum, Volker Schlöndorff, 1979
Wise Blood, John Huston, 1979
You Are Not I, Sara Driver, 1981
Under the Volcano, John Huston, 1984
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Paul Schrader, 1985
My Life as a Dog, Lasse Hallström, 1985
Betty Blue, Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1986
An Angel at My Table, Jane Campion, 1990
The Comfort of Strangers, Paul Schrader, 1990
Europa Europa, Agnieszka Holland, 1990
The Handmaid’s Tale, Volker Schlöndorff, 1990
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Peter Kosminsky, 1992
The Castle, Michael Haneke, 1997
The Sweet Hereafter, Atom Egoyan, 1997
The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola, 1999
The Piano Teacher, Michael Haneke, 2001
The Hours, Stephen Daldry, 2002
Gomorrah, Matteo Garrone, 2008
Almayer’s Folly, Chantal Akerman, 2011
45 Years, Andrew Haigh, 2015
Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt, 2016
Zama, Lucrecia Martel, 2017

Monday, September 28
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes

The contemporary American police state shapes almost every aspect of society—whether we’re aware of it or not. Without ever venturing inside a penitentiary, director Brett Story excavates the insidious, often-unseen influence that prisons—and the American system of mass incarceration—has on communities and industries all around us. From a blazing California mountainside where female prisoners fight raging wildfires to a Bronx warehouse that specializes in prison-approved care packages to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of new prison jobs to the street where Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, this remarkably clear-eyed documentary sheds new light on how a system built on exploitation and racial injustice became woven into the fabric of everyday American life.

Tuesday, September 29
Short + Feature: All This Jazz
When It Rains and Ornette: Made in America

Two jazz-inflected riffs by legendary American independent filmmakers make sweet music together in this double feature in double time. Charles Burnett’s charming short When It Rains follows a trumpeter on a New Year’s Eve odyssey through Los Angeles as he attempts to save a mother from eviction, his quest punctuated by musical interludes that have the rhythmic, improvisational quality of jazz itself. Shirley Clarke brings a similar freewheeling energy to her appropriately idiosyncratic Ornette: Made in America, which blends documentary footage, dramatic scenes, and some of the first music-video-style segments ever created into a kaleidoscopic portrait of free-jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman.

Wednesday, September 30
The Loveless

The first feature by both acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow and future David Lynch producer Monty Montgomery, as well as the screen debut of star Willem Dafoe, this edgy, should-be cult classic puts a furiously subversive spin on the rebel biker films of the 1950s. Dafoe is the pomade-slicked, leather-clad Vance, whose outlaw motorcycle gang roars into a small Southern town en route to the Daytona races, igniting simmering tensions with the locals and setting the stage for a violent standoff. The air of all-American menace is heightened by the jukebox soundtrack courtesy of costar and neo-rockabilly legend Robert Gordon.

The post New to Stream: The Criterion Channel’s September 2020 Lineup appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Month: August 2020

Christopher Nolan & John David Washington Share Behind-the-Scenes Look at Tenet

Tremors: Shrieker Island trailer & home media details revealed!

Grillo, Hartnett & Leo star in pandemic-shot crime thriller Ida Red

Amazon Prime Video September 2020 TV & Film Titles Announced!

The Forty-Year-Old Version Trailer & Key Art Starring Radha Blank

August 25 Blu-ray, Digital and DVD Releases

New Movies on Blu-ray/DVD

Reissues

New On Digital HD

TV on Blu-ray and DVD

Top 10 Best Threequels: Return of the King, The Last Crusade & More

1. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

2. Die Hard with a Vengeance

3. The Dark Knight Rises

4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

5. Skyfall

6. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

7. Christmas Vacation

8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

9. Toy Story 3

10. Star Wars — Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Honorable Mentions

Netflix lands Ryan Reynolds co-writing & acting vehicle Upstate

CS Score Reviews Casper and Chats with Emmy Nominee Amanda Jones

The Tax Collector Michael Yezerski

DC’s Stargirl: Season 1 Pinar Toprak

Casper: 25th Anniversary Remastered Limited Edition (2-CD Set) James Horner

Interview with Emmy-Nominee Amanda Jones Composer of Apple TV’s Home

New to Stream: The Criterion Channel’s September 2020 lineup

The Tax Collector
Michael Yezerski

DC’s Stargirl: Season 1
Pinar Toprak

Casper: 25th Anniversary Remastered Limited Edition (2-CD Set)
James Horner

Interview with Emmy-Nominee Amanda Jones
Composer of Apple TV’s Home