September 2020 – Page 8

Herself Trailer Previews Phyllida Lloyd’s New Drama Film

Herself trailer previews Phyllida Lloyd’s new drama film

The official trailer for acclaimed filmmaker Phyllida Lloyd’s upcoming family drama film titled Herself has been released, featuring a young mother as she tries to find a way to build a home for her and her daughters while facing a custody battle with her controlling ex-husband. Starring Clare Dunne, the film’s U.S. release hasn’t been announced yet but it is set to hit the UK and Irish theaters on Friday, October 16. Check out the video in the player below!

In Herself film, Sandra, on the surface of it, is a young Mum struggling to provide her two young daughters with a warm, safe, happy home to grow up in. Beneath the surface, Sandra has a steely determination to change their lives for the better and when it becomes clear that the local council won’t provide that home, she decides to build it herself from scratch. With very little income to speak of and no savings, Sandra must use all her ingenuity to make her ambitious dream a reality. At the same time, she must escape the grip of her possessive ex-husband and keep him away from her and her girls. The lionhearted Sandra draws together a community of friends to support her and lend a helping hand and it is the kindness and generosity of these people and the love of her young daughters that help build her own strength and sense of self.

The film is being led by Clare Dunne, who worked with Lloyd in Donmar Theatre’s all-female version of Shakespeare’s Henry IV. It also stars award-winning actress Harriet Walter and Game of Thrones alum Conleth Hill.

Herself is directed by Phyllida Lloyd, who is known for her work in 2008’s Mamma Mia! and 2011’s The Iron Lady which both starred Oscar winner Meryl Streep. Lloyd also co-written the screenplay with Malcolm Campbell. It is produced by Rory Gilmartin, Ed Guiney and Sharon Horgan.

The film had its world premiere earlier this year at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Amazon Studios has also acquired the film’s North America distribution rights.

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POLL RESULTS: Which Non-DCEU Movie Characters Should Be in The Flash?

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POLL RESULTS: Which non-DCEU movie characters should be in The Flash?

With both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton already set to return as the Dark Knight for the long-awaited The Flash, ComingSoon.net asked our readers what other non-DCEU portrayals of DC Comics heroes they’d like to see in the film and after a week and nearly 1200 votes, a certain chain-smoking occult expert came out victorious. See the results below!

Which Non-DCEU Movie Characters Should Be in The Flash?

John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) (16%, 183 votes)
Green Lantern (Ryan Reynolds) (13%, 150 votes)
Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) (12%, 144 votes)
Batman (Christian Bale) (12%, 136 votes)
Superman (Brandon Routh) (10%, 118 votes)

Though initially received with mixed reviews from critics and comic book fans alike, Keanu Reeves’ portrayal of Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette, Rick Veitch and John Totleben’s occult detective John Constantine has gone on to achieve a cult following and has many hopeful for his return in some capacity, including the John Wick star himself. The Reynolds-starring Green Lantern was met with much scorn upon its 2011 release, with the star consistently poking fun at it in his Deadpool films, but it appears fans would love to see him return.

Bill Finger and Bob Kane’s Catwoman has been on screen to varying degrees of reception and Michelle Pfeiffer’s turn as the cat burglar and Dark Knight love interest still sits as many’s favorite and with Keaton set to return, it would be a delight to see those two perform together on screen again. It’s hard to imagine Christian Bale returning to the role, especially after the moving send-off for the character in The Dark Knight Rises, but with two Batmen already in the film what’s the harm in bringing in another. As the film and TV worlds have collided on multiple occasions in the DC world, fans got to see Brandon Routh don the cape of the Man of Steel once more in the Crisis on Infinite Earths event and while he is preparing his departure from the world of the Arrowverse, it could be a fun nod to his work on reviving the character for the big screen with a cameo as Superman in the film, even if it’s reused footage from the crossover special.

The rest of the results are as follows:

Batman (Robert Pattinson) (8%, 95 votes)
Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) (8%, 94 votes)
The Riddler (Jim Carrey) (5%, 63 votes)
Steel (Shaquille O’Neal) (3%, 37 votes)
Harvey Dent/Two Face (Billy Dee Williams) (3%, 35 votes)
Robin (Chris O’Donnell) (2%, 29 votes)
Supergirl (Helen Slater) (2%, 26 votes)
Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) (2%, 20 votes)
Batman (Val Kilmer) (2%, 18 votes)
Catwoman (Halle Berry) (1%, 13 votes)
Batman (George Clooney) (1%, 8 votes)

Even before Warner Bros. Pictures had launched the DCEU in 2013, fans of all ages have already enjoyed a varied selection of live-action DC films throughout the years, spanning from 1966’s Adam West-led Batman film, to 1982’s Wes Craven-directed Swamp Thing, and up until Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy.

That’s why, it isn’t difficult to speculate about the probability that Warner Bros. wouldn’t pass up the opportunity of utilizing other iconic characters from the DC film library, especially when The Flash producers have been very vocal about the movie’s role in restarting the DCEU’s continuity that would allow various character iterations to collide.

Warner Bros. first revealed that their Flash film would be inspired by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert’s Flashpoint comic as early as 2017. The studio even went so far as to change the movie’s title to Flashpoint. But following last month’s announcement of the film’s 2022 release date, it doesn’t sound like this is still the case.

It’s probably for the best that the filmmakers are going to make changes to Johns and Kubert’s original Flashpoint arc. After all, the story has already been brought to life in animated form and in the Arrowverse. In 2013, Warner Home Video released Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. A few years later, The CW’s The Flash aired its own version of the story during the show’s third season. With this, it makes sense that Warner Bros.’ film division would want to make something that stands out from prior adaptations. Plus, the timeline tampering could also be used a means of fixing continuity issues within the DCEU.

Set to be directed by IT‘s Andy Muschietti, the Ezra Miller-led Flash movie is now scheduled to be released on July 1, 2022. Miller first portrayed the scarlet speedster in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League.

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All In: Amazon’s Voter Suppression Doc Streaming Free Tomorrow

All In: Amazon’s voter suppression doc streaming free tomorrow

In solidarity with this year’s National Voter Registration Day tomorrow, Amazon Studios has announced that directors Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortes’ documentary film All In: The Fight for Democracy will be available for free viewing on Tuesday, September 22 for 24 hours in front Amazon Prime Video’s paywall. It will also be made available on Amazon’s social media channels including Twitch, YouTube and Twitter. In addition, voting rights activist and former Georgia gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams is set to host watch parties along with Hamilton‘s Lin Manuel Miranda on Twitter at 4PM PT.

In anticipation of the 2020 presidential election, ALL IN: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY 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.

The documentary film was directed and produced by award-winning filmmaker Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortes. It was also produced by Abrams and Dan Cogan. The film recently had its limited theatrical release earlier this month and was soon followed by it digital debut last September 18.

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CS Reviews The Making of Aliens by J.W. Rinzler

What more can be said of James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster Aliens — one of the greatest action flicks of all time, featuring, perhaps, cinema’s most famous action heroine; and boasting any number of long-lasting pop cultural staples including the Alien Queen, the military aesthetic, and the various set pieces that have since been replicated in any number of films? As it turns out, quite a bit. To that end, J.W. Rinzler, author of “The Making of Star Wars,” “The Making of The Empire Strikes Back,” “The Making of Planet of the Apes” and “The Making of Alien” now brings us The Making of Aliens, which delves deeper into the intense production of Cameron’s classic film than ever before, even if a lot of the material is regurgitated from those in-depth making of documentaries currently found on the Alien Quadrilogy Blu-ray set.

Click here to purchase Titan Books’ The Making of Aliens!

Spanning nearly 300 pages and bursting with eye-popping photos, production stills and conceptual artwork, “The Making of Aliens” follows Cameron and then-wife producer Gale Anne Hurd as they traverse the tricky Hollywood landscape to produce a follow-up to Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi shocker.

The most interesting aspect brought forward by this new book is the notion that Aliens was produced like a small film on a tiny budget totaling roughly $18.5 million. That figure actually surpasses the budgets to other hits of 1986, including Top Gun ($15M), Crocodile Dundee ($8M AUD), The Karate Kid Part II ($13M) and Back to School ($11M), all of which earned more at the box office, though, considering Scott’s Alien grossed a whopping $203M against a $10M production budget, you’d think the suits at 20th Century Fox would have allotted more cash to Cameron’s ambitious follow-up. (By contrast, Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie carried a heft $55M price tag making it the most expensive film ever produced to that point.)

Instead, the low budget set up a grueling production that spanned nine months (including postproduction work) and resulted in several firings, a lawsuit by at least one special effects company, and plenty of rifts between the team and its “perfectionist” director. (Although, consensus of Cameron by those involved with the production seems to be he’s a nice guy… just very demanding.) At one point, the production stalled so cast and crew could hash out their issues with Cameron while Hurd and star Sigourney Weaver served as mediators.

The biggest gripes came from Cameron’s intolerance towards the numerous breaks the staff at Pinewood insisted on taking. Indeed, a well-documented account of the famed director’s futile battle to stymy a tea cart from intruding on his production are given even more detail by Rinzler and are fascinating in and of themselves. For Cameron, Aliens represented the turning point of his career. As such, his focus was intense and resolve complete. For everyone else on the production it was just a job; and that lack of synergy led to plenty of bad blood between everyone from the model makers to the main film crew.

Other notes of interest include the casting process. Did you know that Bill Paxton was originally about to join Police Academy 2 when he got the call to do Aliens for much less? Or that the actor made up the famed “We’re on an express elevator to Hell! Going down!” line right before cameras rolled? Or that Fox decided to push most of its marketing dollars towards the long-forgotten SpaceCamp (which went on to gross less than $10M at the box office), mainly due to Aliens’ excessive 2 hour+ run time? Or that, upon completion of his script and deal to direct Aliens, Cameron learned that Fox had yet to approach Weaver to star in the pic and instead wanted Cameron to retool the film for a male lead? Or that Cameron bumped into Ridley Scott during the production (Scott was working on Legend at the time) and awkwardly sidestepped any mention of Aliens?

“The Making of Aliens” contains such unique details, plus a look at Cameron’s early drafts of the screenplay and his concept drawings for the Queen that convinced Stan Winston to jump aboard the production. (Another tidbit: Cameron was developing Terminator, writing Rambo: First Blood Part II and Alien II, as it was then known, in unison and set up separate desks to work on each project. The man is a machine.) There are also interesting notes regarding some of the uniquely designed special effects used to cheat the production cost, which feels a little like a magician revealing his tricks. Once you see Cameron’s sleight of hand, it’s hard not to feel simultaneously impressed by the creativity (a forced perspective shot of the Alien Hive, for instance, is mind blowing) and let down by the B-movie crassness. Readers will certainly come to appreciate Cameron’s ability to turn a feeble budget into an A-grade motion picture that still holds up well to this day, and not just in terms of its astonishing visuals.

There’s also a lengthy section devoted to the film’s marketing campaign that initially left viewers confused — it’s title, in particular, led people to believe it was just more of the original, for some reason — but eventually found traction with the masses, though it was word-of-mouth that ultimately propelled Aliens to over $206M worldwide. (As a side, a majority of film critics at the time, including Roger Ebert, weren’t fond of the flick and felt it was too intense; and too much of a departure from Scott’s “artsy” flick.)

All told, “The Making of Aliens” offers a fascinating look at one of our greatest films and makes for an easy weekend read. That it lacks the drama of Rinzler’s previous deep dives is mainly due to the relatively straight forwardness of the production. Aliens was an intense experience for all, including bodybuilder Jenette Goldstein, who played the tough-as-nails Vasquez and became good friends with actor Mark Rolston (Pvt. Drake) due to long hours of sitting on stools holding their 40 pound M56 Smart Guns — other actors like Paxton and Paul Reiser (Carter Burke) were free to run amok on set, while Michael Biehn (Hicks) did indeed get caught sleeping in-between takes leading Weaver to quip, “There’s my leading man” — but, mostly, many were happy with the final pic and the experience. As such, the enjoyment from “The Making of Aliens: comes from gleaning new insights into the production that cast a whole new light on specific scenes and characters.

Funny enough, had Aliens merely succeeded many in the industry would have shrugged, blamed Cameron and moved on. That the film went on to become one of the all-time classic action adventure films is a damned miracle and a testament to Cameron’s extraordinary abilities as a film director.

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Tiffany Haddish Joins Nicolas Cage’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Tiffany Haddish joins Nicolas Cage’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

As if the bizarre action-dramedy didn’t already have a star-studded roster, the Nicolas Cage-led The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent has expanded its cast with the addition of Grammy-nominated and Emmy-winning comedian Tiffany Haddish (Bad Trip).

The Unbearable Weight of a Massive Talent will see Nicolas Cage portray a version of himself desperate to get a role in a new Tarantino movie while also struggling with a strained relationship with his teenage daughter. As he makes his way through life, he also talks to an egotistical version of himself from the ’90s who railroads him for making bad movies and not being the same star he was at the time, now dealing with a mountain of death and making an appearance at the birthday party of a Mexican billionaire that is a huge fan.

In a long-standing battle against one of the largest criminal organizations in Europe, Haddish plays the role of Vivian, an eccentric rogue government agent who forces superstar Nicolas Cage to go undercover in a crazy, offbook, last ditch effort to bring them down for good.

While bonding with the man, who hopes to show Cage a script he’s been working on, the actor learns from the CIA that the billionaire is actually a drug cartel kingpin who has kidnapped the daughter of a presidential nominee and is recruited to get intelligence. The predicament gets worse when the billionaire brings Cage’s daughter and ex-wife for a reconciliation and he must take on the role of a lifetime to save their lives.

In addition to Cage and Haddish, the cast for the film includes Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, Wonder Woman 1984) and Emmy nominee Sharon Horgan (Game Night, Catastrophe). The film is eyeing a fall production date and a 2021 release date.

The Unbearable Weight of a Massive Talent will be directed by Tom Gormican, who co-wrote the script with Kevin Etten. The film will executive produced by Etten and Kevin Turren along with Cage and Mike Nilon through their Saturn Films banner.

The script is set to include nods to various Cage works including Leaving Las Vegas, Face-Off and Gone in 60 Seconds and reportedly has tones of Adaptation, which Cage starred in, as well as Jean-Claude Van Damme’s JCVD and the Hollywood caper Get Shorty.

(Photo Credit: Tommaso Boddi/FilmMagic)

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Tenet Sequel Possibilities Teased by John David Washington

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Tenet: John David Washington opens up about potential sequel

With the theatrical release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in full swing, Golden Globe nominee John David Washington has finally opened up about returning for a potential sequel. In a recent interview with Esquire, when asked about the sci-fi film’s ending, Washington immediately expressed his excitement for the possibility of doing a Tenet sequel in the future!

“In my mind, that’s a yes!” Washington said. “We will be doing this again, we’ll see you in a couple of years. In reality, I don’t know. Chris does what he wants. Maybe he has something that he’s developed for years that he wants to do next, maybe he’s been inspired by something else he sees and wants to do that, I don’t know. I hope we get to do it again, I hope we get to explore more, because I think we found something really unique.”

Even though the film’s ending sure does set up the story for a potential sequel, the chances of Nolan making a follow-up is somehow slim because the acclaimed director isn’t very known for making sequels to his previous films such as Inception, Interstellar and Dunkirk. The only sequels he has ever made were for The Dark Knight trilogy, which is expected for the superhero genre.

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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Superman and Wonder Woman Themes Will Get New Spin in Snyder Cut

Junkie XL Says Superman and Wonder Woman Themes Will Get New Spin in Snyder Cut

In a recent interview with Forbes, Tom Holkenborg -aka Junkie XL- shed a little more light on his score for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which he promises will feature new takes on Wonder Woman’s and Superman’s themes!

“Besides the Man of Steel theme for Superman and the theme for Wonder Woman, which I have given a new spin, all the other themes for this movie are brand new,” he revealed. “Some of them I did the groundwork on four years ago, but as you grow as a composer, you look at what you did and maybe have a better way of doing it now or a better idea. It was inspiring. I would get an idea in my downtime and think, ‘Oh, let’s rework this thing. Let’s do that.’ Because I knew for a while that this was coming, I had the time and space to shape it into its best possible form.”

For those unaware, one of the aspects of Zack Snyder’s Justice League to get the axe was Junkie XL’s music. The composer provided additional music for Man of Steel before co-scoring Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice alongside Hans Zimmer. He was set to score Justice League and has said that his soundtrack was completed before WB replaced Snyder with Joss Whedon. As a result, Holkenborg was kicked off the project and the theatrical cut of the superhero epic arrived with an all new score by Danny Elfman that, for some reason or another, incorporated Elfman’s Batman theme as well as bits of John Williams’ Superman.

The final result was a decidedly underwhelming score that paled in comparison to the music heard in Snyder’s previous films. Thankfully, the Snyder Cut plans to incorporate Junkie XL’s original music, which means we will likely get to hear Zimmer’s iconic Superman theme once more. Rejoice!

Fueled by the hero’s restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Justice League sees Bruce Wayne enlist the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

Justice League, which features a screenplay from Chris Terrio from a story by Snyder and Terrio, stars Affleck as Batman, Cavill as Superman, Gadot as Wonder Woman, Momoa as Aquaman, Miller as The Flash, Fisher as Cyborg, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, with J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, and Amy Adams as Lois Lane.

Released in November 2017, the film earned mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, praising the action and performances from Gadot and Miller while criticizing every other aspect of the film, namely the inconsistent tone that many fault Joss Whedon (The Avengers) for after taking over directorial duties from Snyder. With a large budget of $300 million and a break-even point of $750 million, the film is considered a box office bomb having grossed only $658 million.

Junkie XL previews his Justice League theme! Wow!#DCFanDome #TheSnyderCut pic.twitter.com/UDW668Q22t

— The Zack Snyder Bible (@ZackSnyderBible) September 12, 2020

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CS Recommends: RBG & More!

CS Recommends: RGB & More!

CS Recommends: RBG & More!

Stuck inside? Don’t know what to watch/read/play/listen to? ComingSoon.net has got you covered. In this week’s CS Recommends our staff gives you solid tips on the best media to consume during your downtime, including RBG and more! Check out our picks below!

MAX EVRY’S RECOMMEND: RBG and On the Basis of Sex

Click here to purchase the hit documentary RBG!

Click here to purchase the biopic On the Basis of Sex!

The nation mourns the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman ever appointed to the prestigious seat. Her death at age 87 marks the end of a remarkable 27-year tenure in the United States’ highest court, despite her years-long cancer battle. Film fans have two primary sources with which to celebrate the life of the feminist icon known in some circles as The Notorious R.B.G, namely the lauded 2018 documentary RBG as well as the biopic On the Basis of Sex starring Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer from that same year. Betsy West and Julie Cohen, who directed RBG, released a statement this evening…

“Like so many Americans, we are crushed by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” West and Cohen said jointly. “Even had she not become a Supreme Court Justice, Ginsburg earned a place in history for what she did to win equality for American women. When we asked her several years ago how she wanted to be remembered, she said with characteristic modesty, ‘Just as someone who did whatever she could, with whatever limited talent she had, to move society along in the direction I would like it to be for my children and grandchildren.’ ”

KYLIE HEMMERT’S RECOMMEND: Prisoners

Click here to purchase!

Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated mystery thriller Prisoners features some of Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal’s best performances onscreen. The story follows Jackman’s character as he takes matters into his own hands after his daughter and her friend go missing while Gyllenhaal’s Detective Loki pursues multiple leads as the pressure mounts to solve the case and find the missing girls. Boasting a fantastic ensemble cast (including Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, and Paul Dano), the character-driven drama explores the darkest corners of human nature, particularly how seemingly good people can sometimes cross irredeemable lines when driven by anguish, revenge, and desperation.

GRANT HERMANNS’ RECOMMEND: Lethal Weapon Season 1

Click here to purchase!

As we gear up for the exciting return of Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and Richard Donner for a fifth installment in the hit action-comedy film franchise, I think it’s high time we go back and give Fox’s small-screen adaptation of Lethal Weapon a second chance, namely its first season. Arriving on the heels of the lackluster TV adaptation of Rush Hour, I had no expectations for a series based on one of the best buddy cop films in the genre and found myself very surprised by how well the pilot worked and to see how it just continued to bloom and improve from episode to episode really made the show an absolute joy to watch week to week, especially for the chemistry between stars Damon Wayans and Clayne Crawford. Combining explosive action, outrageous comedy and a further evolution of its fan-favorite duo than the films generally had time for, Lethal Weapon was truly an outstanding series for both fans of the franchise and newcomers.

MAGGIE DELA PAZ’S RECOMMEND: Election (1999)

Click here to purchase!

Starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick, Election centers around a high school election where an overachieving senior named Tracy Flick tries her best to become the student body president. However, her easy path to victory gets immediately undermined due to her teacher Jim McAllister’s unreasonable resentment against her. To give Tracy a run for her money, Jim encourages popular football player Paul Metzler to also run for presidency. As Jim gets distracted with the election and his childish hate towards Tracy, he doesn’t seem to realize that his personal life is also getting affected by it.

This 1999 black comedy film is easily one of Witherspoon’s best performances before becoming a full-fledged A-lister she is known today. Her effective portrayal of a determined and egotistic know-it-all student would definitely make the audience get annoyed with the character while also at the same time, making her a favorite among its cast. As for Broderick, it’s funny and ironic to see him portray a role that is the total opposite of his iconic 80s’ character Ferris Bueller.

Even though the film had a poor box office performance, it still garnered critical acclaim and had earned director Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. In addition to Witherspoon and Broderick, it also featured Chris Klein and then break-out star Jessica Campbell, who both also gave charming performances as Paul Metzler and Tammy Metzler. However, like other early high-school comedy films during the 80s up to the 2000s, this film does feature a few red-flagged moments. But despite that, it is still an entertaining movie that will appeal to people who are obsessed with old teen films such as Mean Girls. With only two months to go before the upcoming U.S. presidential election, I think now is the perfect time for you to check out or revisit Election!

JEFF AMES’ RECOMMEND: Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered

Click here to purchase!

On the heels of that stunning Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War trailer this week, I decided to go back and revisit an old friend: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare — the 2007 classic that, for me at least, truly established COD as one of the best gaming franchises on the market. Thanks to a remastered edition that greatly improves the graphics and overall gameplay, Modern Warfare continues to pop and surprise unlike any other for roughly 7-10 hours, depending on your finger abilities. It’s simplistic gaming at its finest, free from the depressing tones of modern-day titles like The Last of Us Part II and the shoddy, even perplexing, glitch-infested gameplay of Marvel’s Avengers. In Modern Warfare, players need only pick up their gun of choice and blast the holy Hell out countless bad guys in a myriad of missions executed amidst eye-popping locales. In terms of simple entertainment, you can’t get much better!

ComingSoon.net recommends all readers comply with CDC guidelines and remain as isolated as possible during this urgent time.

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Alone Review: A Simple Yet Exhilarating Survivalist Thriller

Rating:

8/10

Cast:

Jules Willcox as Jessica

Marc Menchaca as Man

Anthony Heald as Robert

Jonathan Rosenthal as Eric

Directed by John Hyams; Written by Mattias Olsson

Click here to rent Alone!

Alone Review:

The survivalist thriller genre has seen everything from the most basic of events to convoluted motivations and leaps in logic and often times it’s truly at its best when it’s at its simplest and though Alone‘s more stripped-down exercise in the genre may feel a bit familiar, it proves to be exhilarating nonetheless.

Jules Willcox (Netflix’s Bloodline) stars as Jessica, a grief-stricken widow who flees the city in an attempt to cope with the loss of her husband. When Jessica is kidnapped by a mysterious man and locked in a cabin in the Pacific Northwest, she escapes into the wilderness and is pursued by her captor. The key cast includes Marc Menchaca (Ozark, The Outsider) and Anthony Heald (The Silence Of The Lambs).

The film starts out fairly routine, a woman embarks on a journey to a new life on her own, estranged from her opinionated mother while still trying to stay connected with her father and suffering from a heartbreak of some kind. Through a handful of cell phone videos and dialogue, we come to somewhat learn why and though it’s supposed to act as a sympathetic connection for viewers with Jessica, it doesn’t prove as effective as it could. With only one moment of breaking down into tears and the rest of the film seeing her skirt around the topic in conversations, it just doesn’t quite feel as believable or moving as it should for getting audiences to root for the protagonist.

That being said, Jessica is mostly a blank slate of a character that audiences can see as a neutral ground so that when someone as quietly suspicious and simultaneously brutal as the unnamed man comes along, we know who to side with. This certainly comes to life brilliantly thanks to the performance of Marc Menchaca, who just chews up every bit of scenery he has both before and after he reveals his true intentions and remains a compelling villain to watch as the film progresses and he becomes more and more detestable.

Another major factor that really keeps the film a thrill to watch is the beautiful direction from Hyams, mostly known for his work as a cinematographer, for helming the final two installments in the Universal Soldier franchise and TV direction. Be it from his time directing 45-minute long episodes on television or a couple of 90-minute indies, the filmmaker shows a strong grasp on pace and atmosphere, keeping the film moving at a brisk pace while allowing Jessica to go through the wringer while coming to grips with her own strength, not to mention he keeps every shot of the film looking pretty breathtaking without any kind of extravagant angles or IMAX-quality cameras being used.

The action in the film is also all very well-executed, taking a minimalist approach to its special effects with the most mild of gore and violence and yet it’s all played to such strong effect that every punch, every broken branch lodged in a body, every knife slice, it all feels real and actually more believable than most big-budget pics with similar injuries. We’re not seeing our protagonist limp for a few minutes then magically shake off her wounds, we actually see her fight to power through the pain to come out victorious in this game of cat-and-mouse and it is an absolute thrill to watch and also begs for more filmmakers to put Jules Willcox in genre-leading roles as with a little more expansive of material, she could join the ranks of recent great final girls including Samara Weaving, Imogen Poots and Jessica Rothe.

Alone is a movie whose only true flaws come in its feelings of familiarity and reliance on formula, but it takes these seeming drawbacks and mostly uses them to create a taut, chilling and thrilling genre pic that is beautifully shot, very well-performed and intricately designed with its usage of sound.

The post Alone Review: A Simple Yet Exhilarating Survivalist Thriller appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

CS Video: Co-Writer/Director Antonio Campos on The Devil All The Time

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CS Video: Co-writer/director Antonio Campos on The Devil All The Time

ComingSoon.net got the opportunity to chat with co-writer and director Antonio Campos (Christine, The Sinner) to discuss his work bringing the Southern gothic crime drama The Devil All The Time to life, which is now available to stream on Netflix. Our interview can be viewed in the player below!

Based on Donald Ray Pollock’s 2011 novel, The Devil All the Time film is set in rural southern Ohio in a town called Knockemstiff over the course of two decades and surrounding a cast of dark and bizarre characters, including a serial-killing couple, a faith-testing preacher and a corrupt sheriff.

Pick up a copy of the book here!

In Knockemstiff, Ohio and its neighboring backwoods, sinister characters — an unholy preacher (Robert Pattinson), twisted couple (Jason Clarke and Riley Keough), and crooked sheriff (Sebastian Stan) — converge around young Arvin Russell (Holland) as he fights the evil forces that threaten him and his family. Spanning the time between World War II and the Vietnam war, director Antonio Campos’ The Devil All the Time renders a seductive and horrific landscape that pits the just against the corrupted.

The film will be led by MCU stars Tom Holland (Impossible, Spider-Man: Far From Home) and Sebastian Stan (Captain America: Civil War, I, Tonya) along with Robert Pattinson (Good Time, The Batman), Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), Bill Skarsgard (It), Haley Bennett (The Girl on the Train), Jason Clarke (Pet Sematary), Riley Keough (It Comes at Night) Eliza Scanlen (Little Women), Harry Melling (Harry Potter films) and Pokey LaFarge.

The Devil All the Time is directed by Antonio Campos who also co-wrote the adaptation with Paulo Campos. It is produced by Randall Poster (Destroyer), Riva Marker (Wildlife) and Jake Gyllenhaal through their Nine Stories Production, marking Gyllenhaal’s second collaboration with Netflix after the horror-thriller Velvet Buzzsaw. Max Born also produces with Jared Ian Goldman, Marc Hammer, and Annie Marter executive producing.

The movie is now available to stream on Netflix!