Justine Seymour on Outfitting the Fleeing Foxes of “The Mosquito Coast”
Clothing isn’t a primary concern for The Mosquito Coast’s misfit Fox family. Broke patriarch Allie (Justin Theroux) invents unsuccessful machines to save the world while scraping by as a handyman/asparagus farmer. His suffering, formerly wealthy wife, Margot (Melissa George), is his primary enabler. Their teenage kids, Dina (Logan Polish) and Charlie (Gabriel Bateman) tolerate their unorthodox home life to varying degrees. In Stockton, where the Foxes live mostly off the grid, the household seems about 15 years behind the times,...
Meet Miss Minutes in Delightfully Weird New “Loki” Teaser
She’s got a southern accent and a cheery disposition, which both add to the delightful weirdness—and creepiness, frankly—of Miss Minutes. She’s something of an onboarding specialist for the Time Variance Authority (TVA), the place Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been sent to at the start of Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ series Loki. Miss Minutes’ job is to catch Loki up before he stands trial for his crime. The crime in question (one of many, many the Asgardian trickster god has committed) was his purloining of the Tesseract—that crucially important magical thingamajig in the Marvel Cinematic Universe—during Avengers: Endgame. ...
Taking Flight with “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” Creator Malcolm Spellman
The success or failure of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier laid heavily upon many folks, but perhaps none as specifically as creator and showrunner Malcolm Spellman. Spellman succeeded in delivering not only a thrilling, six-episode season with cinematic-level action but also a character study of one would-be Captain America in Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier absorbed the narrative traumas Sam had already endured as well as the real-world traumas that Black Americans have been dealing with forever...
The Big Screen Is Back
During the pandemic, there were few cultural institutions more emblematic of the new normal of social distancing and quarantining than the closed movie theater. The darkened theater used to symbolize the start of the movie when you could finally slide your phone into your pocket, settle into your seat, and prepare to enjoy a communal experience with your fellow film lovers. For the past year, the darkened theater symbolized the cessation of normal life. But now, at long last, theaters are back...
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” Director Peyton Reed Shares Set Photo
Just how revolutionary is the technology created for Disney+’s The Mandalorian? It’s being used by major franchises far outside the Star Wars galaxy, from Matt Reeves’s upcoming The Batman for Warner Bros., to Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania for Marvel. The latter became known today, when Reed took to Twitter to share the first photo from the Ant-Man set—which revealed that the production is utilizing technology to help create some of the film’s big effects and locations,...
Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” Will Get An Exclusive Theater Release After All
Last December 4, we wrote about all the Warner Bros. movies that would hit theaters and HBO Max on the same day. For film purists, it was always a little depressing to imagine movies that were designed for the big screen, down to the tiniest detail, going straight to streaming, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune remake was one of those films. Now, WarnerMedia has decided that Dune needs to get an exclusive theatrical release after all...
Cinematographer Alicia Robbins on Filming the “Grey’s Anatomy” Covid Season—During Covid
While there’s little in the way of “good luck” that can be attributed to an ongoing pandemic, there is perhaps a little good timing, in the speedy arrival of a vaccination. For cinematographer Alicia Robbins, she chalks up her arrival as one of the two people chronicling the struggles in Seattle’s fictive-yet-storied Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, from behind a pretty active lens, to both “a stroke of good luck, and good timing.”
“I was working on For The People,...
Costume Designer Laura Montgomery Gets Noir on “Spiral: From the Book of Saw”
The ninth installment of the Saw film franchise, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and in theaters now, takes the series in unexpected new directions. Chris Rock shelves his comedic side for the brash but grim role of Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks, a divorced detective who winds up leading an investigation into a grisly series of murders, wherein the dead are all Zeke’s fellow cops. Working with rookie William Schenk (Max Minghella) and their captain,...
The “A Quiet Place Part II” Cast Talk Tension & Terror in New Video
Director John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place Part II is now only a few weeks away, and a new video from Paramount features Krasinski, his star (and wife) Emily Blunt, and one of the film’s newcomers, Cillian Murphy. Murphy says he was “blown away” by the first film, and he’s of course not alone in that reaction. The video also does a nifty job of giving us a brief sket of the timeline of events, from day 89 since the creatures arrived (depicted in the first film) to day 474 (in the sequel)...
Meet Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius in New “Loki” Clip
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe has expanded to serial form on Disney+, the cast of characters has expanded, too, and some terrific actors have entered the fray. Some of the talented folks to join the Marvel fold include the great Kathryn Hahn as the powerful witch Agatha in WandaVision, a brief but compelling cameo for Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the HYDRA agent Valentina Allegra de Fontaine The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and now Owen Wilson as Agent Mobius M...
First “Snake Eyes” Trailer Teases Henry Golding as the Ninja Warrior
We’ve got our first look at director Robert Schwentke’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, revealing Henry Golding as the titular hero who will ultimately go on to become one of the original members of the G.I. Joe military unit. Snake Eyes has long been the most mysterious member of the G.I. Joe team, the masked warrior who is more comfortable fighting than revealing anything about himself. That looks like it’ll change in Schwentke’s film, of course—you don’t cast the star of Crazy Rich Asians if you’re going to hide him in a mask the whole time...
New “Black Widow” Clip Teases Natasha & Yelena’s Potent Sisterhood
“You got a plan?”
It’s a valid question coming from Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), the sister (of sorts) to Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). Natasha is behind the wheel as she drives the two of them away from a motorcyclist in pursuit. The motorcyclist has a gun and is taking dead aim at the sisters, and Yelena wants to know if Natasha has gamed this scenario out at all. This fresh clip from director Cate Shortland’s Black Widow teases the first big Marvel movie to hit theaters since the pandemic hit more than a year ago,...
“A Quiet Place Part II” Photos Reveal Ambitious Scope of Sequel
Memorial Day Weekend represents a big moment for theaters, theater-goers, and movie lovers. Two of the year’s biggest titles—John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place Part II for Paramount and Craig Gillespie’s Cruella for Disney are hitting theaters on May 28. Add the fact that the CDC has changed their guidance and stipulated that vaccinated people can eschew wearing masks and can gather indoors, and in large groups, under many circumstances signal a major seachange for theaters and those of us eager to see movies on the big screen again...
“Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Free Guy” to Get Exclusive Theatrical Releases
With the CDC announcing yesterday that vaccinated Americans can stop wearing masks and maintaining social distance in most situations, and as we approach a big Memorial Day Weekend that will see a slew of major movies hit theaters, the momentum for a movie theater recovery is in sight. To that end, 20th Century and Marvel Studios have decided to release two of their big titles, Free Guy and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings respectively,...
Future Critics: Abby Alben on Working at Mother & Daughter Entertainment
Abby Alben graduated from UCLA and, like so many people, was eager to find a job in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. What she ended up finding was a career. Alben, our latest Future Critic (although really, she’s more of a Future Producer) began working at the independent production company Mother & Daughter Entertainment. Right before we were set to publish our video interview with her, she was promoted to Head of Digital Media. Not a bad start to her post-collegiate path in the industry...
Director Barry Jenkins Mixes Beauty and Brutality in “The Underground Railroad”
The Underground Railroad has been a long time coming in Barry Jenkins‘ imagination. As a kid growing up in Miami’s rough Liberty City neighborhood, the writer-director pictured literal railroad tracks running beneath the earth. Fast forward to 2014, when Jenkins thrilled to Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and secured adaptation rights even before he’d finished promoting his Oscar-winning Moonlight movie.
After completing If Beale Street Could Talk,...
“The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” Director Kari Skogland on the Evolution of the Hero
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland had her work cut out for her. Direct roughly six hours worth of action (practically two Avengers films’ worth), introduce a brand new location to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Madripool), brand new villains (the Flag Smashers), a brand new Captain America (Wyatt Russell’s John Walker), and continue the long-established character arcs of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan)...
Costume Designer Lizz Wolf on Outfitting The Motley Crew of Superheroes in “Jupiter’s Legacy”
Based on the graphic novels by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely, Netflix’s new superhero epic Jupiter’s Legacy is a century-spanning origin story and contemporary action tale in one. When we meet Sheldon, the Utopian (Josh Duhamel), and Grace, aka Lady Liberty (Leslie Bibb), they seem like any ordinary if well-off older rural couple, drinking wine, clad in plaid and fretting over disagreements with their grown kids.
Shel and Grace, however, are two of the six foundational members of a group endowed with extraordinary powers way back during the Great Depression and tasked since then with using their acquired supernatural abilities to keep the world safe...
“The Green Knight” Trailer Highlights One of the Year’s Most Intriguing Films
“Oh, greatest of kings…let one of your knights try to land a blow against me. Indulge me in this game.” So says the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson), leveling the challenge that lies at the heart of writer/director David Lowery’s hotly-anticipated film. Who should take up the challenge but Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur’s headstrong nephew, a young would-be knight who might not lack courage, but he certainly lacks for epic tales to tell. In the official trailer for Lowery’s The Green Knight,...
Dave Bautista Joins Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out 2”
The first major bit of casting news for Rian Johnson’s sequel to his 2019 hit Knives Out is here—Deadline reports that Dave Bautista is joining Daniel Craig in Knives Out 2, reuniting the pair for the first time since they appeared together in 2015’s Spectre. Netflix scooped up Knives Out 2 and 3 in a deal that was reportedly worth more than $400 million. Johnson will write,...
