Film
Morgan Freeman Films COVID-19 Vaccine PSA: “If You Trust Me, You’ll Get the Vaccine”
Despite well over 500,000 reported deaths from COVID-19 in the United States alone and nearly 3 million worldwide, many people are still reluctant to get vaccinated against the highly infectious and devastating disease. In response, the multi-time voice of God and legendary actor Morgan Freeman, has been brought in for a PSA about the vaccine. Watch it below. “I’m not a doctor, but I trust science. And I’m told that, for some reason, people trust me,” the legendary actor says at the beginning of the video, which was created by arts advocacy group The Creative Coalition and the National Blue Ribbon Task Force to stem COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. He continues, “So here I am to say I trust science and I got the vaccine. If you trust me, you’ll get the vaccine. In math, it’s called the distribu...
R.I.P. Paul Ritter, Chernobyl and Harry Potter Actor Dead at 54
Paul Ritter, the English actor known for his roles in the HBO miniseries Chernobyl and films like Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Quantum of Solace, has died at the age of 54. According to a statement released by his agent, Ritter passed away Monday (April 5th) from complications related to a brain tumor. “Paul was an exceptionally talented actor playing an enormous variety of roles on stage and screen with extraordinary skill,” Ritter’s agent said in a statement. “He was fiercely intelligent, kind and very funny. We will miss him greatly.” In Chernobyl, Ritter portrayed Anatoly Dyatlov, the deputy chief engineer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The 2019 mini-series went on to win 10 Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes. On-screen, Ritter will be remembered for his role a...
We Are the Thousand Solidifies Foo Fighters As One of Rock’s Most Inspiring Bands: Review
The Pitch: Anyone who has ever lived in a small town understands the frustration of being constantly passed over by bands in favor of larger markets and bigger venues. While most just grumble about it, there are those dedicated fans who will do whatever it takes to experience a live performance from a treasured artist. For most, that means a road trip. But for marine biologist Fabio Zaffagnini, it meant thinking out of the box in a dramatic and unprecedented way. In 2015, Zaffagnini hatched an elaborate plan to lure his favorite band—Foo Fighters—to his small Italian town of Cesena. Gathering 1,000 local musicians together to simultaneously play one of the band’s songs, Zaffagnini and his crew of enthusiastic friends recorded and released the performance on YouTube in hopes to capture the ...
Godzilla Vs. Kong Sets Pandemic Box Office Record with $48.5 Million Opening
Godzilla vs. Kong (Legendary) In news that will have movie theater operators smiling for days, Godzilla vs. Kong opened in the US this weekend to a massive box office haul of $48.5 million. It marks the biggest domestic opening for a film since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Variety. What makes the news even more impressive is the fact that Godzilla vs. Kong was simultaneously released in theaters and on HBO Max. Despite its streaming availability, as well the reality that some some 40% of theaters in the US remain shuttered (and those that are open are at a reduced capacity), the Legendary blockbuster still managed to triple the previous box office high during the pandemic. Prior to this weekend, Wonder Woman 1984 had the biggest three-day opening with $16.7 million, fol...
LeBron James and Bugs Bunny Team Up in First Trailer for Space Jam: A New Legacy: Watch
After a whole lot of teasing and an even longer wait time, Space Jam: A New Legacy finally has a trailer. LeBron James, Bugs Bunny, and the Looney Tunes crew show off their basketball skills in the clip and set the bar high for the anticipated sequel in the process. Watch it below. James will follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan once again, and this time it’s not just because of his basketball accolades. James is a genuinely good actor — as proven in Trainwreck, his debut role in a movie — and should nail his role playing himself in the sequel to the 1996 smash hit alongside a fictional family: a younger son named Dom (Cedric Joe), an older son named Darius (Ceyair Wright), his daughter Xosha (Harper Leigh Alexander), and his wife Kamiyah (Sonequa Martin-Green). The sequel’s plot revo...
An Animal Ethologist Reviews Godzilla vs. Kong
Godzilla vs. Kong (HBO Max) In the super-sized slugfest Godzilla vs. Kong, now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, two of cinema’s mightiest monster-movie titans go toe-to-toe on a cross-continental rampage, leaving comically outsized destruction in their wake and finally answering the question of which beast can truly claim the title of “king of the monsters.” In one corner, there’s Godzilla, the noble warrior Kaiju, he of the atomic breath, armored scales, and ear-splitting roar. In the other, there’s King Kong, the greatest of the great apes, who can extend one finger in a gentle caress or ball his hands into fists to hurl a fearsome haymaker. That this massive, long-fated melee between giant lizard and giant ape is not a bastion of scientific accuracy somewhat comes with the blockbus...
Concrete Cowboy Rides Into a Summer of Predictability: Review
The Pitch: Idris Elba has the gravity and laconic cool to make a great cowboy, and clearly Netflix knows this. Before the star-studded Western The Harder They Fall arrives later this year, though, Elba is saddling up for a less traditional take on the genre. Enter Concrete Cowboy. Based on Gregory Neri’s 2009 novel Ghetto Cowboy, the coming-of-age story follows Cole (Caleb McLaughlin), a troubled teenager who’s been sent to stay with his father Harp (Elba) in North Philadelphia for the summer. Harp, as we learn, is involved with a group of Black cowpokes who ride and tend to a stable of horses in the city. Cole takes a liking to this club, but also can’t shake his loyalty to an old friend who sees drug-dealing as his ticket out of the neighborhood. This may sound mildly outlandish, but it’...
Rachel Sennott Is an Anxiety-Ridden Revelation in Shiva Baby: Review
The Pitch: A bisexual college student struggling to figure out her career path (Rachel Sennott) attends a Jewish funeral service with her parents, where she attempts to juggle well-meaning family friends, a run-in with her ex-girlfriend, and an accidental encounter with her sugar daddy. Social Anxiety on Steroids: Never have I wanted to attend a family function less than in Shiva Baby, Emma Seligman’s grand-slam of a feature directorial debut. Old flames, sugar daddies, and painfully awkward altercations with relatives are the sparks that set this 75-minute marathon of full-body-cringe rolling — and from the second Danielle sets foot into the Shiva, neither Seligman nor the torrent of stressors lets up. To create genuine anxiety and stress in an audience is no easy task, and to sustain tha...
Margot Robbie Says Quentin Tarantino Has a “20-Hour Cut” of Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood
Margot Robbie and Quentin Tarantino on the Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood set, photo via Andrew Cooper/Sony We know full well there’s more of the Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood story for Quentin Tarantino to tell. The filmmaker has long teased plans for a four-hour director’s cut, he’s penning a novel that is set to expand the story further, and there’s that dream of an actual Bounty Law TV series. But according to one of the original film’s stars, there’s one particularly long version of Once Upon a Time that could span nearly a full day. Speaking with Variety about her recent film Promising Young Woman, Margot Robbie teased that Tarantino has a 20-hour cut of his twisted tale of ’70s Hollywood. “There’s a 20-hour cut of Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood that would…...
James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad Gets Surprise Second Trailer: Watch
April Fool’s Day has been full of the suspected pranks and goofs, but this is no joke. James Gunn has shared another trailer for The Suicide Squad that features loads of new footage from the upcoming blockbuster. This new preview arrives less than a week after Warner Bros. unleashed the film’s R-rated trailer on audiences last Friday, which is an usual amount of successive promotion for a movie of this caliber. Either way, audiences surely won’t be complaining because this new trailer is stuffed with sneak-peaks of the highly-anticipated entry in the DC Extended Universe. Whereas the last trailer focused on film’s primary Squad members (like Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Idris Elba’s as Bloodsport), this one makes room for a whole slew of kooky side-characters like King Shark, Weas...
Steven Yeun to Star in Jordan Peele’s Next Movie
Fresh off a history-making Oscar nomination, Steven Yeun has been cast to star in Jordan Peele’s next movie at Universal, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Our 2020 Performer of the Year joins Keke Palmer for the feature film, which is due in theaters on July 22nd, 2022. Other details about the project are scarce, aside from Peele serving as its director and producer. Yuen recently became the first Asian American actor to be nominated for Best Actor at the upcoming Academy Awards for his starring role in Minari. In the A24 movie, the Walking Dead actor plays the father of a South Korean immigrant family trying to achieve the American dream in the ’80s. The emotional drama was dubbed our third favorite movie of 2020. Palmer’s most recent film is the 2020 comedy 2 Minutes of Fam...
A24 Releases Trailer for Zola, Stripper Film Based on Viral Twitter Thread: Watch
A24 has released the official trailer for their new movie Zola, which premiered at Sundance in early 2020. The film is based on a viral Twitter thread that tells the true story of two strippers who embark on a treacherous road trip across Florida. Directed by Janicza Bravo and starring Riley Keough as Stefani and Taylour Paige as Zola, who fall in love with one another and trek across the state to see how much money they can make as dancers. The two are joined by Stefani’s erratically violent boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun) and her “roommate” X (Colman Domingo), but shortly into the trip, Zola realizes that Stefani is a sex worker and Derrek is her pimp. The real Zola recounted the wild tale in a famous 2015 Twitter thread that was then adapted into a slightly dramatized R...
