Every superhero gets an origin story. So, for that matter, do most supervillains. The Apprentice drops viewers into New York circa 1973, when a 34-year-old resident of Queens walked in to the upper-crust establishment on the Upper West Side known as Le Club. He went there in an attempt to impress a young woman. He’d leave having met a well-known lawyer and well-connected member of New York’s elite, who would end up changing his life. The legal eagle was the notorious Roy Cohn. The outer-borough wannabe was Donald Trump.
- 5/21/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Just two years after Anita of “West Side Story” became the first non-white fictional character to inspire multiple Academy Award nominations, three others are on their way to earning the same distinction. As was the case in 1986, 30% of 2024’s female acting Oscar slots could be filled by stars of “The Color Purple,” the new version of which serves as an adaptation of the similarly titled stage musical rather than Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. If Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, and Taraji P. Henson all reap bids for their fresh takes on the parts for which Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Margaret Avery were previously recognized, the overall list of doubly Oscar-nominated fictional characters will expand to include 20 examples.
In “The Color Purple,” Barrino executes the lead role of Celie Johnson, who she initially played on Broadway as a direct successor to 2006 Tony-winning originator Lachanze. As in the book and first film,...
In “The Color Purple,” Barrino executes the lead role of Celie Johnson, who she initially played on Broadway as a direct successor to 2006 Tony-winning originator Lachanze. As in the book and first film,...
- 11/14/2023
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
“Segregation is a ridiculous institution and it makes decent people do ridiculous things,” playwright, actor-director, and activist Ossie Davis told the New York Times on September 24, 1961, four days before his play Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch opened on Broadway, co-starring himself and his wife, Ruby Dee. “Maybe if they can be made to laugh at it they can see how absurd it is.”
Especially on a Great White Way where actors played predominantly to white audiences that had seen few comedies by Black playwrights, let alone satires on segregation, Purlie Victorious must have been a jolting event. Though the play, which ran for nearly eight months on Broadway, begat a film adaptation in 1963 (Gone Are the Days!) and the successful musical Purlie in 1970, Davis’s comedy about an aggrieved “self-made minister” righteously “disembezzling” a racist plantation owner has largely faded from popular memory.
Opening one day...
Especially on a Great White Way where actors played predominantly to white audiences that had seen few comedies by Black playwrights, let alone satires on segregation, Purlie Victorious must have been a jolting event. Though the play, which ran for nearly eight months on Broadway, begat a film adaptation in 1963 (Gone Are the Days!) and the successful musical Purlie in 1970, Davis’s comedy about an aggrieved “self-made minister” righteously “disembezzling” a racist plantation owner has largely faded from popular memory.
Opening one day...
- 9/28/2023
- by Dan Rubins
- Slant Magazine
Peel back the layers of creature feature make-up and look beyond the gaudy, Gaudí-in-a-fishbowl sets, try to dim the swirling burlesque of guts and gore and pleasures of the flesh and you’ll find a rather classic – and classically appealing – Victorian coming-of-age tale at the center of Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.”
That the film remains witty and wise throughout its most lurid stretches makes the Venice Golden Lion contender one of the year’s most unexpected heart-warmers. That the filmmakers lavish commensurate attention on all those bawdy embellishments also guarantees you a bloody good time along the way.
Reteaming with the director who pushed her to new highs in 2018’s “The Favorite,” Emma Stone outdoes herself with a role that deploys her (already considerable) comedic talent to superlative effect. As if born out of a mad-science experiment fusing “Frankenstein” with “Pygmalion,” her turn as Bella Baxter – a peculiar creation with the mind of an infant,...
That the film remains witty and wise throughout its most lurid stretches makes the Venice Golden Lion contender one of the year’s most unexpected heart-warmers. That the filmmakers lavish commensurate attention on all those bawdy embellishments also guarantees you a bloody good time along the way.
Reteaming with the director who pushed her to new highs in 2018’s “The Favorite,” Emma Stone outdoes herself with a role that deploys her (already considerable) comedic talent to superlative effect. As if born out of a mad-science experiment fusing “Frankenstein” with “Pygmalion,” her turn as Bella Baxter – a peculiar creation with the mind of an infant,...
- 9/1/2023
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
It’s February morning in Berlin. “I’m a little out of consciousness,” Christian Petzold explains, a tad frazzled but keen to talk––and Petzold likes to talk. His latest film Afire had premiered the night before and the party had slipped into the wee hours. “There’s Thomas, he was at the party till 6 a.m.,” Petzold explains as his leading man shuffles by, fresh from a round of junkets and looking just a little shellshocked.
That look is one that viewers will soon be familiar with when Afire is released this week. Taking place in a secluded house by the Baltic Sea, it shows Petzold at his most sultry and melodramatic. The drama stars Thomas Schubert as Leon, a writer struggling to follow up on the success of his first novel. He travels with a friend for a summer getaway but becomes infatuated with a woman who shares the house with them.
That look is one that viewers will soon be familiar with when Afire is released this week. Taking place in a secluded house by the Baltic Sea, it shows Petzold at his most sultry and melodramatic. The drama stars Thomas Schubert as Leon, a writer struggling to follow up on the success of his first novel. He travels with a friend for a summer getaway but becomes infatuated with a woman who shares the house with them.
- 7/11/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
One of last year’s most resonant films, Aftersun looks at the scratchy dynamics between a father and daughter while on vacation. It’s about memory, the finite nature of the relationships in our lives, and the difficulties of a parent’s diminishing mental health. Charlotte Wells knows where to put the camera in her debut—undeterred from taking risks, from placing her characters outside of the frame, from looking at shadows instead of the people themselves. Aftersun is a rare, tremendous first film, full of heart and focused melancholy; it breaks you down and fills you up simultaneously. The consistent inclusion of camcorder footage, and the fact that it enhances the story rather than becoming a distraction, further...
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
One of last year’s most resonant films, Aftersun looks at the scratchy dynamics between a father and daughter while on vacation. It’s about memory, the finite nature of the relationships in our lives, and the difficulties of a parent’s diminishing mental health. Charlotte Wells knows where to put the camera in her debut—undeterred from taking risks, from placing her characters outside of the frame, from looking at shadows instead of the people themselves. Aftersun is a rare, tremendous first film, full of heart and focused melancholy; it breaks you down and fills you up simultaneously. The consistent inclusion of camcorder footage, and the fact that it enhances the story rather than becoming a distraction, further...
- 7/7/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Emily Ratajkowski has officially exited Hollywood.
The “Gone Girl” actress revealed that following her audition for Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning satire “Triangle of Sadness,” she opted to step away from the film industry as a whole. Lifelong model Ratajkowski got her start onscreen with a two-episode stint on “iCarly” before going on to star in films like “We Are Your Friends,” “Lying and Stealing,” “I Feel Pretty,” and “Easy.”
“But I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m an artist performing and this is my outlet,'” Ratajkowski told the Los Angeles Times. “I felt like a piece of meat who people were judging, saying, ‘Does she have anything else other than her [breasts]?'”
Her last audition was for “Triangle of Sadness” before Charlbi Dean Kriek was cast; the model-actress died suddenly shortly following the film’s release.
Ratajkowski shared that following her first major film role in 2014’s “Gone Girl,...
The “Gone Girl” actress revealed that following her audition for Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning satire “Triangle of Sadness,” she opted to step away from the film industry as a whole. Lifelong model Ratajkowski got her start onscreen with a two-episode stint on “iCarly” before going on to star in films like “We Are Your Friends,” “Lying and Stealing,” “I Feel Pretty,” and “Easy.”
“But I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m an artist performing and this is my outlet,'” Ratajkowski told the Los Angeles Times. “I felt like a piece of meat who people were judging, saying, ‘Does she have anything else other than her [breasts]?'”
Her last audition was for “Triangle of Sadness” before Charlbi Dean Kriek was cast; the model-actress died suddenly shortly following the film’s release.
Ratajkowski shared that following her first major film role in 2014’s “Gone Girl,...
- 4/6/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Since Carlo Collodi first published his account of a little wooden boy who wanted to be real, back in 1883, so many versions of the story have been created that it has become difficult to make a case for definitive one. Indeed, Collodi’s work itself owes quite a bit to the Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, and to the automata of Hephaestus. Following hot on the heels of Matteo Garrone’s faithful yet mischievous 2019 version, it’s a more slimmed-down take on the original with no fox, no cat, and only the bare bones of the original story. In place of that material come a collection of feisty and fantastical phenomena which fans of Guillermo Del Toro’s work will recognise straight away.
Del Toro has a dream cast at his disposal, but perhaps the cleverest choice is David Bradley, who brings an emotional awkwardness to Gepetto which enriches this frequently.
Del Toro has a dream cast at his disposal, but perhaps the cleverest choice is David Bradley, who brings an emotional awkwardness to Gepetto which enriches this frequently.
- 11/27/2022
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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