Martin Scorsese co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth and directed Killers of the Flower Moon based on David Grann’s best-selling book.
The film follows Ernest Burkhard, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mollie Kyle, played by Lily Gladstone, in an improbable romance. At the turn of the 20th century, oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation, who became some of the wealthiest people in the world overnight.
The wealth of these Native Americans attracted white interlopers. They manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as possible before committing murder.
The movie also stars Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons.
Directed by Jalmari Helander, Sisu takes place during the final desperate days of WWII in northern Finland. A solitary prospector, played by Jorma Tommila, crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched-earth retreat. The Nazis steal his gold and soon discover they have just tangled with no ordinary miner.
I am not sure what these young ladies are about in the movie. They look tough.
There is no direct translation for the Finnish word “Sisu,” but this legendary ex-commando embodies what Sisu means. He’s a white-knuckled form of courage and incredible determination in the face of overwhelming odds.
And no matter what the Nazis throw at him, the one-person death squad goes to outrageous lengths to get his gold back.
He will if it means killing every Nazi in his path.
Santiago Mitre directs Argentina, 1985, inspired by a true story. The film follows public prosecutors Julio Strassera and Luis Moreno Ocampo, who dared to investigate and prosecute Argentina’s bloodiest military dictatorship in 1985.
Undeterred by the military’s still considerable influence within their fragile new democracy, Strassera and Moreno Ocampo assembled a young legal team of unlikely heroes for their David-vs-Goliath battle.
Under constant threat to themselves and their families, they raced against time to bring justice to the victims of the military junta, a government led by a group of military leaders.
Damien Chazelle, who directed Whiplash, La La Land, now brings us another side of Hollywood, Babylon.
Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.
It’s an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, including an ensemble cast: Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart.
Jovan Adepo plays Sidney Palmer in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.
A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
Written by Michael Reilly, Keith Beauchamp and Chinonye Chukwu, with Chukwu directing, TILL is a profoundly emotional and cinematic film about the true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s, played by Danielle Deadwyler, relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, played by Jalyn Hall.
In 1955, they brutally lynched Till while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
Written and directed by Graham Moore, the Oscar-winning writer of The Imitation Game, The Outfit is a gripping thriller that follows an expert tailor, Mark Rylance. He must outwit a dangerous group of mobsters in order to survive a fateful night.
Zoey Deutch (left) stars as “Mable” and Mark Rylance (right) stars as “Leonard” in director Graham Moore’s THE OUTFIT, a Focus Features release. Courtesy of Nick Wall / Focus Features.
Also starring in the movie are Dylan O’Brien, Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Simon Russell Beale.
Directed by Robert Eggers, who wrote the screenplay with Sjon, The Northman follows a Viking prince, Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgard. Amleth’s mission is to revenge his father’s murder, which becomes his journey from a child to an adult.
The movie takes place in Iceland during the turn of the tenth century.
Young Prince Amleth, played by Oscar Novak, is on the cusp of becoming a man when his father, played by Ethan Hawke, is brutally murdered by his uncle, Claes Bang, who kidnaps the boy’s mother, played by Nicole Kidman. Fleeing his island kingdom by boat, the child vows revenge.
Two decades later, Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgard, is a Viking berserker raiding Slavic villages, where a seeress, played by Bjork, reminds him of his vow to avenge his father, save his mother, and kill his uncle.
Traveling on a slave ship to Iceland, Amleth infiltrates his uncle’s farm with the help of Olga, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, an enslaved Slavic woman — and sets out to honor his vow.
Eggers also directed The Witch, Anya Taylor-Joy’s first movie, The Lighthouse, comes an immersive Viking epic featuring an ensemble cast including Willem Dafoe.
“This is a big, muscular adventure, grander in scale than his previous films,” says Willem Dafoe, who co-starred in The Lighthouse and played the court jester Heimir the Fool in The Northman. “But Robert approaches it with the same kind of detail, creating sets, props and even shots that are made with such precision and care that the pretending on the part of the audience becomes effortless. Inside each shot of this movie, there is a rhythm and a story and a dynamic that’s beautiful on its own. Everything’s there on (the) screen; you don’t simply enter Eggers’ worlds — you get folded into them.”
Directed by Ridley Scott, The Last Duel follows a true story about France’s last sanctioned trial by combat. The story originates from Eric Jager’s book of the same title.
In 1386, Jean de Carrouges, a knight, played by Matt Damon, and Jacques Le Gris, a squire, played by Adam Driver came to blows to the death after Marguerite, the knight’s wife, played by Jodie Comer, accuses Le Gris of raping her, which he denies.
Watch the trailer, and you’ll see Affleck playing Count Pierre d’Alencon, donning blond hair.
If Marguerite’s husband dies, she ends up burning at stake for perjury. The winner of the duel ends up as divine providence.
According to the New York Times article, the movie forms into three chapters based on a video interview with the three writers of the movie version, Damon, Affleck and Nicole Holofcener: Carrouges story, Le Gris story and Marguerite story. The men, according to Damon, took fastidious notes while women did not because they had no public respect nor held any kind of power. Holofcener wrote Marguerite’s perspective, made of whole cloth, the book lacked the wife’s perspective.
Directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Summer of Soul presents a powerful and transporting documentary—part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion.
Over six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park — now Marcus Garvey Park.
The 5th Dimension performing at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, featured in the documentary SUMMER OF SOUL.
Never seen footage and largely forgotten — until now. The movie shines a light on the history of our spiritual well-being. It stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present.
The feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension, and more.
Directed by the late Luke Holland, Final Account is his interviews of nearly 300 elderly perpetrators and witnesses of the Holocaust from the Nazi side.
Such an important documentary that shows how the Nazis viewed their rise over Europe and the atrocities they allowed to happen. Doing nothing is still a transgression, and this movie received praises from prominent newspapers worldwide.
FINAL ACCOUNT by director Luke Holland, released by Focus Features. Courtesy of Focus Features
Final Account premiered posthumously three months after the death of Holland in June 2020.
