Film
Hollywood Will Never Stop Loving the Music Biopic
This past week saw the release of Stardust, a biopic about David Bowie’s first trip to the United States. If you’ve seen any piece of media related to the film, you probably know that the movie was received poorly — to say the least. This isn’t surprising, though. When the film’s first trailer dropped months ago, the film was immediately scorched online for being a very blatant and very poorly executed attempt to piggyback off the recent success of other musical biopics such as 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody and last year’s Rocketman. Whereas those two films at least had the wherewithal to secure the rights to their stars’ likeness and discography, Stardust opted out of either of those things. Even so, the film chugged along on the strength of its premise alone, but mostly because it’s a musical...
Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock Is Joyfully Intoxicating: Review
This review originally ran in September 2020 as part of our coverage of the 2020 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: In London’s West Indian community in 1980, a house party brews. The men haul furniture out to the backyard and bring in huge speakers to replace it, while the women crowd into the kitchen, cooking goat curry and plaintains while singing and laughing with each other. Men and women file in one at a time, paying the bouncer while the DJ pumps in the songs of Carl Douglas, Sister Sledge, Janet Kay — romantic reggae, “Lover’s Rock”. This is the setting for Steve McQueen‘s Lovers Rock, a glimpse into the Blues parties that served as an important space for Black Londoners of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s to find community, solidarity, and love, as a rotating ensemble of characters s...
R.I.P. Dave Prowse, Darth Vader Actor Dies at 85
Dave Prowse, the British actor who portrayed Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, has died at the age of 85. A former champion weightlifter and bodybuilder, the 6-foot-7 Prowse was asked to audition for the roles of Darth Vader and Chewbacca after Star Wars director George Lucas saw him in A Clockwork Orange, where he played as Frank Alexander’s bodyguard, Julian. Ultimately, Prowse tried out for the role of Darth Vader, because as he explained, “everyone remembers the villain.” Prowse filled Darth Vader’s suit for the first three Star Wars movies, including for legendary scenes such as when Darth Vader threw Emperor Palpatine off the balcony. As Lucas wanted a “darker voice,” the character’s lines were later overdubbed by ones read by James Earl Jones in post-production. Fo...
Carrie Brownstein is Making a Heart Biopic
Washington state rockers unite. Carrie Brownstein of the Olympia legends Sleater-Kinney is writing and directing a biopic about the iconic Seattle band, Heart. During a recent interview with SiriusXM’s Lyndsey Parker, Heart frontwoman Ann Wilson revealed that Brownstein — who’s also known for her starring role in the TV series Portlandia — will be telling her band’s story for Amazon alongside producer Lynda Obst (Interstellar, Sleepless In Seattle). “I can’t tell you all about it, because it’s still being written right now,” Wilson said in a clip that was posted to Parker’s Instagram. “I saw the first draft of [Brownstein’s] script, and it’s really cool.” According to Wilson, a few actresses have been considered to play her and her sister Nancy, who sing and perform a few instruments ...
Taylor Swift Announces folklore: the long pond studio sessions Film
Unable to tour due to the ongoing pandemic, Taylor Swift opted instead to write and record her new album folklore. The album’s intimate, lo-fi sonics are largely a reflection of its recording process, as the normally bombastic pop singer was forced to record the 16-track LP in isolation, with collaborators Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff contributing remotely. Now, months after the album’s release, the trio is finally meeting in-person for a live performance of folklore. Premiering tomorrow (!), November 25th on Disney+, folklore: the long pond studio sessions finds Swift, Dessner, and Antonoff holed up at The National’s Long Pond Studio in Hudson, New York, performing tracks from the album live for the first time. What’s more, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon even stops by to sing his duet with S...
R.I.P. Daria Nicolodi, Italian Horror Icon Dies at 70
Italian horror icon Daria Nicolodi has died at the age of 70. Nicolodi’s daughter, actress Asia Argento, confirmed her mother’s passing in a statement. “Rest in peace beloved mother. Now you can fly free with your great spirit and you won’t have to suffer anymore. I will try to go on for your beloved grandchildren and especially for you who would never want to see me so grieved. Even if without you I miss the ground under my feet, and I feel I have lost my only true point of reference. I am close to all those who have known and loved her. I will always be your Aria.” Nicolodi will be remembered for her on-screen collaborations with her one-time partner, Dario Argento. She starred in several of Argento’s films, including Deep Red (1975), Inferno (1980), Tenebrae (1982), Phenomena (1985...
Donald Trump Retweets Bizarre Randy Quaid Posts to Bolster Election Hoax Claims
Between Rudy Giuliani’s cartoonish press conferences and vast swaths of the Republican apparatus urging Donald Trump to concede the election to Joe Biden, our president’s #StopTheSteal campaign has been, as many of us expected, a farcical failure. Yesterday, Trump so much as admitted defeat by authorizing his team to begin the formal transition to Biden’s administration, but as many of us also expected, Trump will never rhetorically concede defeat, and that delusional stubbornness has forced him to reach deep into the bench of supporters who endorse his detached worldview. Enter Randy Quaid. The 70-year-old actor is best known for his character Cousin Eddie in the National Lampoon’s Vacation franchise, but he himself has become the target of some national lampooning in ...
Diane Keaton: Watching Recut Godfather: Part III Was “One of the Best Moments of My Life”
Next month brings the release of Francis Ford Coppola’s recut of The Godfather: Part III, now titled Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. The famed director has already finished the edit, and even screened it for a number of the film’s stars. As far as first reviews go, Diane Keaton’s couldn’t be more glowing, as she called watching the new version easily “one of the best moments of my life.” December 20th marks the 30th anniversary of the third installment of The Godfather series, a movie that was less than favorably received by critics and moviegoers upon release. To honor the pearl jubilee, Coppola decided to tinker with the film to highlight previously overlooked parts and give “a more appropriate conclusion” to the beloved trilogy. He reordered scenes, swap...
A Holiday Gift Guide for Horror Hounds
As the song goes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year — well, second to Halloween. Although spooky season is sadly behind us, that doesn’t mean horror hounds have to put away the creepy for Christmas. No, no, they just have to add more. For most fans of the macabre, the holidays present an exciting opportunity to grab even more gore from the store — and most companies are hip to this by now. Whether it’s masks or figurines, shirts or blankets, there’s something for every horror hound. What used to be a super niche market is now a metropolis of merchandise, and it can admittedly be overwhelming picking and choosing what goods to get without breaking the bank. That’s why we put together this here ghoulish guide. Because, if you couldn’t tell, Consequence of Sound has a predilection for ...
‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’ Director Radha Blank Receives Sundance Institute’s 2020 Vanguard Award
Source: Rich Fury / Getty Radha Blank, the brilliant creator behind Netflix’s The Forty-Year-Old Version, has a growing collection of impressive awards and nominations ever since breaking into the film space this year, and her latest win is worth every bit of bragging rights. Last week, the Sundance Institue announced that the multi-hyphenated filmmaker will be this year’s recipient of the prestigious 2020 Vanguard Award for her directorial work on the film. In the wake of the lockdown, Sundance Collab, an online platform for creators across the globe, will host a special event in her honor on December 2 featuring Octavia Spencer, an advisor to Blank at the Institute’s Labs. “It’s a thrill to be acknowledged by my Sundance Institute family, who’ve been behind me from the very beginni...
What’s Streaming on Netflix in December 2020
Netflix is unwrapping some big gifts in December 2020. The shiniest box under the proverbial tree is David Fincher’s Mank. The filmmaker’s first feature in six years stars Oscar winner Gary Oldman as legendary Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the drama that surrounded his work on Citizen Kane. Another star-studded feature is Ryan Murphy’s The Prom, a fish-out-of-water comedy that finds Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Keegan-Michael Key putting on a Broadway production in a small town. That should keep the family business. Elsewhere, there’s the highly anticipated Selena: The Series, the fourth season of Big Mouth, the fourth and final season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and the de facto seasonal docuseries The Holiday Movies That Made Us. EditorsR...
