Film
What’s Streaming on HBO Max in September 2020
HBO Max shows no signs of slowing down heading into Fall. September sees the network adding a number of original series, in addition to all kinds of goodies being added to its ever-evolving vault of content. For exclusives, subscribers can look forward to Ridley Scott’s new series Raised By Wolves, the star-studded quarantine comedy Coastal Elites, Luca Guadagnino’s We Are Who We Are, and Jude Law’s latest venture The Third Day. It should also be noted that all five seasons of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! are now available to stream. So, if you’re looking for a good laugh — even if it’s at the risk of a cardiac arrest — by all means binge away, baby. Editors’ Picks Of course, we have to remember, it’s not TV, it’s HBO, and every weekend subscribers get new premieres of last ...
Disastrous Woodstock ’99 is the Focus of a New Netflix Documentary Series
Woodstock ’99 aftermath, photo by Peter R. Barber/AP Despite being envisioned as an event of “peace and love” like its forefather, Woodstock ’99 was a complete shit show. The three-day music festival featuring Limp Bizkit, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, and Insane Clown Posse devolved into squalid havoc, with arson, injuries, and sexual assaults broadcast live on MTV to horrified audiences around the world. It was the subject of a riveting eight-episode podcast produced by The Ringer, and now, it’s getting the Netflix documentary treatment. You thought Fyre Fest was bad? Hold on to your red baseball caps. Deadline reports that the as-yet-untitled docuseries will be produced by London-based Raw, who brought us the bonkers true story film Don’t F**k With Cats. BB...
Possessor Trailer Promises Body-Swapping Tension: Watch
One of the more talked-about genre films out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Possessor. The latest feature from Brandon Cronenberg — yes, the son of that Cronenberg — hits select theaters and in drive-ins on October 9th. Today, Neon has dropped a brand new trailer that promises an uncut version of the film. Featuring an A-list cast that includes Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Sean Bean, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, the film follows corporate assassins who use brain implants to transfer their minds into other bodies to go after high-profile targets. In his Sundance review, our own Clint Worthington wrote, “Like the best of his father’s works, Possessor is meant to provoke and prod at our deepest notions of self and our insecurities about the fleshy meat-bags we find ourselve...
The Mortuary Collection Is Halloween Horror With a Mean Streak: Fantasia Fest Review
This review is part of our Fantasia Festival 2020 coverage. The Pitch: “The world is made of stories…” and they are left behind by the dead. Montgomery Dark (Clancy Brown) is an aging mortician tasked with not only caring for the bodies of his recently deceased clients but for the stories of their deaths. These he collects and keeps in the massive library of his sinister and dilapidated mortuary. After officiating the funeral of a child, he meets Sam (Caitlin Custer), a young woman looking for a job. Her interview takes a turn for the macabre as she asks Montgomery to scare her with his tales, setting the stage for this spooky anthology. It was a Dark and Stormy Night… Set in the vague past, The Mortuary Collection feels like Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark for twenty-somethings with a d...
Nigerians embrace British Council digital library
As part of efforts to restore and encourage a reading culture among Nigerians, the UK embassy’s British Council in Nigeria has launched a globally renowned digital library following temporary closure of its physical libraries. The newly launched digital library is to facilitate self-paced convenient learning, make educational and entertainment resources available and also provide access to numerous IELTS preparation content to support a large number of Nigerian youth and test takers. According to the British Council Country Director, Nigeria and West Africa Lead, Lucy Pearson, for many years, the British Council has been renowned all over the world for its libraries and the closure of its physical libraries in Nigeria was a sad one. Lucy said she is delighted to see the launch of the new B...
Josh Boone Developing Biopic on The Replacements
Here’s something left of the dial: Josh Boone is working on a biopic about The Replacements. In a new interview with Games Radar, The New Mutants and The Stand writer-director confirmed he’s moving from Mid-World to Minneapolis. “When we were shooting The New Mutants, I started working on, with [co-writer] Knate [Lee], we started working on an adaptation of Bob Mehr’s New York Times bestseller Trouble Boys, about the band The Replacements,” Boone shared. Hey, say what you will about the idea, but at least Boone is working from the right source material. Mehr’s 2016 novel is not only a bible for self-respecting ‘Mats fans, but one of the greatest rock and roll biographies of all time. Seriously. Give it a read. Based on Boone’s comments, it sounds like the project is pretty far along. He go...
Michael B. Jordan Eulogizes Chadwick Boseman: “I Now Understand How Much of a Legend and Hero YOU Are”
Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan, photo via Instagram Michael B. Jordan has penned a tribute to his Black Panther co-star Chadwick Boseman. Boseman passed away Friday at the age of 43 following a four-year battle with colon cancer. “I’ve been trying to find the words, but nothing comes close to how I feel,” Jordan writes to begin his eulogy. “I’ve been reflecting on every moment, every conversation, every laugh, every disagreement, every hug… everything. I wish we had more time.” “One of the last times we spoke, you said we were forever linked, and now the truth of that means more to me than ever,” Jordan continues. He goes on to credit Boseman for “pav[ing] the way for me. You showed me how to be better, honor purpose, and create legacy. And whether you’ve known it or...
Sylvester Stallone Announces Rocky IV Director’s Cut for Film’s 35th Anniversary
For those who loved the quote “If I can change and you can change, everybody can change,” in Rocky IV, it’s time to put that sentiment into practice. It turns out Sylvester Stallone is working on a special director’s cut of the film for its 35th anniversary on November 27th, notes The Hollywood Reporter, and it will come with a few key upgrades. “For the 35th anniversary, Rocky 4 Is getting a new DIRECTORS cut by me,” the Oscar-winning actor wrote on Instagram on Sunday. “So far it looks great. Soulful. Thank you MGM For this opportunity to entertain.” Unfortunately, there is some bad news. Stallone has removed Paulie’s robot — an of-the-time absurdity that many considered to be a gimmick, but love regardless — from the director’s cut entirely. “The robot is going to the junkyard fore...
Netflix Unlocks Stranger Things, Bird Box, The Two Popes, More for Free Worldwide Viewing
Facing more competition than ever, Netflix is looking for new ways to attract potential subscribers. Among the streamer’s latest initiatives is offering access to some of its biggest titles, including the first episode of Stranger Things, the horror hit Bird Box, and Oscar nominee The Two Popes, which are now available to stream worldwide for free sans a subscription. A total of ten titles have been made available. In addition to those already mentioned, you can check out the Jennifer Aniston-Adam Sandler comedy Murder Mystery, the Spanish-language sensation Elite, Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us, reality-popcorn extravaganza Love Is Blind, iconic actresses Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin squaring off in Grace and Frankie, an...
The Dark and the Wicked Is 2020: Fantasia Fest Review
This review is part of our Fantasia Festival 2020 coverage. The Pitch: Two siblings venture out to their remote family farm, where their father is slowly dying and their mother is unraveling from grief. Something else is happening, though. There’s a darkness behind the sorrow, an evil slowly poisoning the soil… Something Wicked This Way Comes: Grief is on the mind. Thanks to our ensuing pandemic — and really, the collateral damage of our current administration — we’re a populace poisoned with misery. So much so that it’s become an appendage of our day-to-day, something we’ve had to deal with to check in and check out without losing our minds. In a timely twist of fate, grief has also informed some of this year’s most affecting films, be it Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods or Natalie Erika Jame...
Black Panther Director Ryan Coogler Eulogizes Chadwick Boseman: “He Was An Epic Firework Display”
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler has shared a lengthy and extremely heartfelt eulogy for Chadwick Boseman. The Black Panther star passed away Friday following a four-year battle with colon cancer. Coogler begins his tribute by recounting his first encounter with Boseman and how he was immediately compelled to accept Marvel’s offer to direct Black Panther. He later reminisces about Coogler’s dedication to his craft, including his steadfast desire to have his Black Panther character T’Challa speak with an African accent and to have Xhosa as the official language of Wakanda. He also credits Boseman for championing his Black Panther co-stars (“He would come to auditions for supporting roles, which is not common for lead actors in big budget movies”), and for being an inspiring presence...
Brea Grant’s Lucky Gets Blunt on the Ways We Fail Women: Fantasia Fest Review
This review is part of our Fantasia Festival 2020 coverage. The Pitch: On the surface, Lucky is a quirky slasher with an intriguing premise. May (Brea Grant) is attacked night after night by a masked man and no one in her life seems willing or able to help. The elevator pitch for this film must have been relatively simple: “What if you were being attacked and no one cared.” Yet hidden in this premise is a depressing truth and an unflinching look at the experience of dealing with trauma as a woman in America. Grant, who also wrote the script, goes all in on the metaphor, following it long past its logical fallacies to deliver a message that has been coded and hidden for far too long. Lucky may be heavy-handed, but by breaking the boundaries of believability, director Natasha Kermani deliver...
