First The Rider, then this, and now this?! That trinity of indie glory may anoint Chloé Zhao as the filmmaker I'm most fascinated by right now. The Rider, which I ranked #4 on my Top Ten List for 2018, was a moving breakthrough of small indepedent cinema on multiple levels, not the least of which is [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=118&v=eSLe4HuKuK0 Just when I was ready to let it go, Frozen II pulls me back in. Despite my love for the original Frozen, the pop culture zeitgeist that blew up into a phenomenon became too saturated. Then what really left me cold was that lame Christmas episode tagged onto the front of Coco, followed by [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=134&v=nr2g8zRwX4Q We're all tired of the over-burdened superheroes, already, and Shazam! knows it. As this latest featurette shows, the comedy-driven Big-style entry from DC chucks angst for awe, and is fueled by a spirit of OMG NO WAY fun. Starring Zachary Levi in the title role and Jack Dylan Grazer (IT) as his middle school [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Girzu81oS8Q An inevitable biopic -- arguably even long overdue -- the movie about Middle Earth creator J.R.R. Tolkien has finally be made. The film's first teaser trailer reveals...pretty much what you'd expect, if not exactly, as it juxtaposes real-life events (from serving in WWI to his time as a student at Oxford) against visions of [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=58&v=fOJ9YhY9v0Q I think I know why the previews for the new live action Aladdin movie look so bad: Disney seems to have put all of their best artists on the live action Dumbo. Okay, obviously that's not the case, but the stark difference in quality (not to mention originality between the two sets of previews starts with [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=58&v=7hHECMVOq7g When the first teaser for the Mouse House's live action Aladdin premiered, I said, "Disney's going to have to do a lot better than this with their next, first full trailer..." Well this may only be a new TV spot (above) and not a full legit trailer, but it's certainly not doing better. If [...]
Roma just became the film to beat. Despite winning 7 awards over all, The Favourite did not emerge from the BAFTAs (The British Academy of Film & Television Arts) -- a.k.a. the British Oscars -- as the favorite for a Best Picture win later this month at Hollywood's Oscar gala. That would appear to be Roma, [...]
Released: February 8, 2019 Runtime: 105 minutes Program: Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts for 2018 (Parental Discretion strongly advised; not suitable for children) During every Oscar ceremony, there’s a stretch of categories with nominees that virtually no one has ever heard of, let alone seen: the shorts. Divided into three competitive groups – Live Action, Animated, and Documentary – [...]
**1/2 out of **** Rated TV-MA (for strong language, some sexuality) Released: February 8, 2019, on Netflix Runtime: 90 minutes Directed by: Steven Soderbergh Starring: Andre Holland, Zazie Beetz, Melvin Gregg, Bill Duke, Jeryl Prescott, Sonja Sohn, Kyle MacLachlan, Zachary Quinto My review of High Flying Bird, for The Tulsa Voice. The latest film from director Steven Soderbergh (Erin [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=106&v=IBz7FUlZPXI Previous trailers for the live action Dumbo movie (this one and this one) have definintely felt like a Disney movie, but the new international trailer really feels like a Tim Burton movie -- not in a dark way, but more like a "sentimental sympathy for the freakish outcasts" Edward Scissorhands kind of way. Dumbo opens [...]
I Can't Unsee That Movie: film news and reviews by Jeff Huston 