Redhead Caleb Landry Jones got lucky on his first audition, at age 17. His father took a day off from work and drove him from Garland, Texas, to Dallas for a try-out, then to Austin for a callback with the Coen brothers, for a role as “the boy on the bike” in eventual Best Picture Oscar-winner “No Country for Old Men” (2007). Little did Jones know, as he launched his acting career, that he would join the ensemble on “X-Men: First Class” (2011) or win Best Actor at Cannes for playing a mass murderer in “Nitram” (2021), or that one critic would dub him “a menacing oddball character actor.”
When I read that quote to Jones over Zoom, he paused for a moment and said, “That sounds Ok to me. I heard ‘actor,’ so that sounded good.”
The Coens did Jones a huge favor, he said. “Javier Bardem. Not a bad person to see...
When I read that quote to Jones over Zoom, he paused for a moment and said, “That sounds Ok to me. I heard ‘actor,’ so that sounded good.”
The Coens did Jones a huge favor, he said. “Javier Bardem. Not a bad person to see...
- 3/27/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Luc Besson’s Dogman is in search of some kind of distinctive armature on which to hang its psychoanalytical and philosophical ramblings. Which is ironic considering that Douglas Munrow (Caleb Landry Jones), the paralyzed “Dogman” of the film’s title, makes much ado about having discovered his voice through drag, pontificating on the value of disguises and lip-synching while dressed as Édith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich, and Marilyn Monroe. All the while, Jones plays the dog-loving avenger as a puzzling riff on Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-winning performances as the Joker. It’s a performance that, like much of the film, flits between telegraphing seriousness and wanting to be understood as camp.
Doug was abused and abandoned as a child, and after embracing his ostracization as an adult, he began taking in stray dogs and playing the part of the Pied Piper by having his “babies” burglarize the wealthy and take down criminals.
Doug was abused and abandoned as a child, and after embracing his ostracization as an adult, he began taking in stray dogs and playing the part of the Pied Piper by having his “babies” burglarize the wealthy and take down criminals.
- 3/24/2024
- by Clayton Dillard
- Slant Magazine
Updated with latest: The Venice Film Festival began August 30 with opening-night movie Comandante, an Italian World War II drama, kicking off a lineup for the venerable fest’s 80th edition that includes world premieres of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, David Fincher’s The Killer, Ava DuVernay’s Origins, and new films from lightning-rod directors Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson.
Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films. Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which last year awarded Laura Poitras’ documentary All The Beauty and the Bloodshed its Golden Lion for best film.
Click on the film titles below to read the reviews in full, and keep checking back as we add more movies throughout the fest, which runs through September 9.
Adagio
Section: Competition
Director: Stefano Sollima
Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino,...
Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films. Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which last year awarded Laura Poitras’ documentary All The Beauty and the Bloodshed its Golden Lion for best film.
Click on the film titles below to read the reviews in full, and keep checking back as we add more movies throughout the fest, which runs through September 9.
Adagio
Section: Competition
Director: Stefano Sollima
Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino,...
- 9/10/2023
- by Damon Wise, Pete Hammond, Stephanie Bunbury and Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
“Dogman” director Luc Besson might be a newcomer to Venice, but following his film’s warm reception on Thursday, he’s likely to come back.
Though Besson’s Golden Lion contender polarized critics, with Variety’s Jessica Kiang sparing few words by calling it a “numbskulled nonsense movie,” audience members at the film’s gala premiere opted to spread the love at its world premiere, showering the film and filmmakers with six minutes of sustained applause. That tied the six-minute ovation Venice audiences gave Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” earlier in the evening on the second night of the prestigious festival.
If Besson offered no closing thoughts, the director nevertheless appeared visibly moved, beaming under the spotlight and embracing his cast with bear hugs. Besson shared a particularly tender moment with star Caleb Landry Jones, with whom he developed and honed the central role over the course of a full year before the cameras ever rolled.
Though Besson’s Golden Lion contender polarized critics, with Variety’s Jessica Kiang sparing few words by calling it a “numbskulled nonsense movie,” audience members at the film’s gala premiere opted to spread the love at its world premiere, showering the film and filmmakers with six minutes of sustained applause. That tied the six-minute ovation Venice audiences gave Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” earlier in the evening on the second night of the prestigious festival.
If Besson offered no closing thoughts, the director nevertheless appeared visibly moved, beaming under the spotlight and embracing his cast with bear hugs. Besson shared a particularly tender moment with star Caleb Landry Jones, with whom he developed and honed the central role over the course of a full year before the cameras ever rolled.
- 8/31/2023
- by Ben Croll, Ellise Shafer and Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
No animals were harmed in the making of Luc Besson’s new thriller, Dogman, but plenty of people get mauled, bitten, robbed and attacked, and one guy has his junk put into a serious vice grip, by a pack of extremely well-trained canines.
That being said, the director’s first film since his 2019 femme-driven assasin flick, Anna, is actually one of his least violent movies to date when it comes to bullets and bodies depicted on screen. If there’s violence, it’s predominantly of the domestic and psychological kind, in a story that follows a young man whose childhood traumas transform him into a very unusual sort of superhero: a paralyzed vigilante who dresses in drag, performs incredible lip-syncs of classic European ballads, and rules over a small, fierce army of obedient pups, as if the Joker and Ace Ventura were somehow merged into a single character. Also, he lives in New Jersey.
That being said, the director’s first film since his 2019 femme-driven assasin flick, Anna, is actually one of his least violent movies to date when it comes to bullets and bodies depicted on screen. If there’s violence, it’s predominantly of the domestic and psychological kind, in a story that follows a young man whose childhood traumas transform him into a very unusual sort of superhero: a paralyzed vigilante who dresses in drag, performs incredible lip-syncs of classic European ballads, and rules over a small, fierce army of obedient pups, as if the Joker and Ace Ventura were somehow merged into a single character. Also, he lives in New Jersey.
- 8/31/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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