Dark Sky Films releases the long-awaited UHD release of the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the groundbreaking thriller that has often been imitated but has yet to equal. The film arrives in the 4K restored version, complemented by a frightening array of bonus materials.
Directed by Tobe Hooper, Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a classic horror film released in 1974. The film follows a group of friends, played by Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail and Teri McMinn, on a road trip through rural Texas. They stumble upon a family of cannibalistic psychopaths.
The film has a low-budget, gritty style and extreme gore and violence, which boosted its popularity since we’ve had horror films like The Blair Witch Project, Friday the 13th, Halloween and Night of the Living Dead.
The group of friends intends to visit an old family homestead. On their journey, they pick up a hitchhiker who manifests strange behavior. The stranger eventually turns on them, attacking them, which leads to a harrowing chase through the Texas countryside.
They arrive at a farmhouse and meet cannibalistic killers, including the iconic Leatherface with a mask of human skin and a wielding chainsaw. Michael Myers copied the masking technique so beautifully on Halloween.
The horror film was controversial during its release because of its graphic violence, which doesn’t compare to Coen Bros. films or the SAW franchise. Subsequently, the Texas Chain Saw Massacre shines as a cult classic and the most influential horror movie of the genre.
It generated many sequels and remakes, influencing countless horror films that tried to deem worthy.
Disc 1 holds the 4K UHD feature film and four commentary tracks:
Writer-producer-director Tobe Hooper, actor Gunnar Hansen and cinematographer Daniel Pearl
Actors Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger and Paul A. Partain, with production designer Robert Burns
Tobe Hooper solo
Daniel Pearl, editor J. Larry Carroll and sound recordist Ted Nicolaou
Disc 2, a Blu-ray, contains the new, never-before-seen feature-length documentary The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and several featurettes. These include “The Cinefamily Presents FRIEDKIN/HOOPER,” a conversation about the film between Tobe Hooper and The Exorcist director William Friedkin; “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth”; “Flesh Wounds: Seven Stories of the Saw”; a tour of the TCSM house with Gunnar Hansen; “Off the Hook with Teri McMinn”; and “The Business of Chain Saw: An Interview with Production Manager Ron Bozman.”
The generous package I enjoy the most. It has deleted scenes and outtakes, a blooper reel, trailers, vintage TV and radio spots, and much more to thrill fans, old and new.
Respect is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.
“Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you’re doing. If you’re not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.” — Aretha Franklin
Vocal powerhouse and Oscar and Grammy awards winner Jennifer Hudson stars as legendary singer Aretha Franklin in a true story about the “Queen of Soul.” Respect focuses on Franklin’s formative years, in which director Liesl Tommy says that it “contained things the general public doesn’t know about her.”
Watching her journey to become the brilliant musician with Franklin’s original songs, sung by Hudson, was profound to witness. From the beginning, we see a young woman with the most incredible voice in the world. But something was amiss. She needed to find her own voice.
In the film’s production notes, Tommy stated he felt strongly about “showing a meaningful experience of a young Black girl’s childhood.”
I found it interesting that Franklin came from a wealthy family, dominating the film primarily through her father and sisters.
Tommy related to that aspect of Franklin’s life, “As a little girl myself who grew up listening to people talk around the dinner table about fighting for freedom for themselves and for future generations, I know firsthand that it affects your life forever. It’s who you are. Aretha understood that, and it’s what made her art activism. When you talk about the “Queen of Soul,” her church was her activism.”
The movie reminds us of listening to Aretha Franklin. The emotion she sang with and deep feelings she conveyed — she spoke to us. Tommy describes it well, “Millions of people have a beautiful voice, but she channeled her emotions into her music in a way that no one else could.”
R_07374_RC Actor Jennifer Hudson and director Liesl Tommy on the set of RESPECT A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert
The movie tells us who she was and her history of protest music. We see Franklin heal herself through her music. You can feel the depth of who she was as a being, though there is complexity and depth based on her relationships.
As we all know, Aretha Franklin’s voice is the best, most powerful, and culturally significant voice of all time. In the movie, we hear hit songs: “Respect,” “Natural Woman,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” and “Think,” to name a few. They are classics that defined the resistance and resilience of Black people during the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, and the Women’s Movement — and still resonate today at the moment in time where the world is in crisis and need of soulfulness.
The movie shows Franklin being a child music prodigy who grew up with great privilege in a household in Detroit that understood the importance of social protest, racial justice, and community organizing centered squarely in the foundation of the Black church — faith, service, and self-actualization. Respect shows us Franklin’s challenge in navigating and overcoming grief that would become the artistic inspiration. In return, she created musical masterpieces that saved lives and moved culture.
Respect establishes that she was a musical genius when she was a child. You discover she had all those albums that did not become hits at Columbia Records. The movie begins at the church and ends in the church with the journey in between. Tommy tells the story of a woman with the most incredible voice in the world but still doesn’t know what her voice is. “And that was the story that I felt like I wanted to tell, and that was what ended up being the center of the film, the spine of the film.”
Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington in RESPECT A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert
Jennifer Hudson’s portrayal of Aretha Franklin is believable. She sings the icon’s songs herself, which is fantastic but not surprising. Hudson has a powerful voice. But she is not Franklin. She is a depiction of her.
Interestingly, Hudson was Franklin’s opening act one time. “After American Idol, Aretha Franklin was doing a show in Maryville, Indiana, and I wanted to open for her. Everyone knew she did not allow singers to open for her instead of starting her shows with a comedian. And, then, she approved of me to open for her. So, that was a dream, as are the many moments I shared with her.”
Marlon Wayans stars as Ted White and Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in RESPECT A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert
Nabbing that gig as an opening act, as Hudson says, “I find especially now; she has been a huge guide for the structure and spirit of my career.”
Franklin’s niece, Sabrina Garrett Owens, was very close to her Auntie Aretha. And very proud to see Jennifer Hudson take on the role of her aunt. “A lot of it has to do with the similarities between the two [Aretha and Jennifer]. They both grew up in church. They both had that gospel sound to their voices. Jennifer has a wide range, the same as Aretha did. I see a lot of similarities in their style.”
The story begins with her childhood, her father, played brilliantly by Forest Whitaker. Affected by his wife’s death, he anoints Franklin at a young age to be a gospel star and be different and better than the rest.
Knowing that the movie producers, Scott Bernstein and Harvey Mason, Jr. talked with Aretha Franklin on the phone about her story, so she could gauge it as her legacy is astonishing. “So, we knew we were going to end at the ‘Amazing Grace’ live album recording. The spine of the story would be a movie about a father and daughter relationship. And, that gave us a focus to tell the period of her rise, and the origin story of her becoming the ‘Queen of Soul.”’
Written for the screen by Tracey Scott Wilson, the story captures that significant time in Franklin’s life, the sixties and seventies, establishing her relationship with her father, and she meets her first husband. Then, she broke up with her father, her church and had to find her own faith.
She meets Ted White, played by Marlon Wayans. They marry. He manages her career during the early days of her Atlantic Records. “She went from singing standards to, you know, gospel to, okay, let’s go take you into becoming the R&B queen or just the queen period, Aretha Franklin,” according to Wayans. “So he changed the way she dressed and changed her, changed the venues she was playing and changed the record company. He was a catalyst in Aretha’s life.”
Jennifer Hudson shares a different perspective. “The biggest impact on Aretha’s life was her father. I think he is what pushed her towards her legacy and helped her own her gift. There have been times when she didn’t necessarily feel like singing, but it was a calling. He reminded her of that often, and I think that she became like the symbolic first lady of the church in a way. It helped lead Aretha to her ministry and music, one reason why she became so experienced and impactful at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.”
The rest of the talented cast includes Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess and Mary J. Blige.
Blu-ray and DVD Bonus Features:
The Making of Respect: Explore the unique telling of this Aretha Franklin story, what the project meant to all involved and how music played a pivotal role in crafting this film.
Becoming Aretha: Take a behind-the-scenes look at Jennifer Hudson’s incredible transformation into the “Queen of Soul” including her commitment to the character, her connection with the late singer, and why inhabiting the legendary artist felt more like destiny than anything else.
Capturing a Legacy: A celebration of director Liesl Tommy’s artistry and professionalism as the cast and crew express their appreciation and admiration for her and her process.
From Muscle Shoals: Sit down with the cast, crew and some of the original musicians that recorded with Aretha at Muscle Shoals to learn about this crucial time period in Aretha’s life and how it helped propel her evolution.
Exploring the Design of Respect: Production designer Ina Mayhew and costume designer Clint Ramos discuss the research they conducted in order to create the beautiful sets in the film as well as the various custom-made wardrobes that span three decades of style.
Tom McCarthy, director of Oscar-winner Spotlight, began working on Stillwater about ten years before he went into production. He intended to make a thriller set in an indistinct European port city. After one visit to Marseille, McCarthy knew he had found his port. “The layers and textures of the city were undeniably cinematic, and the confluence of cultures and the pace of the seaside metropolis felt like the perfect canvas for the film.”
But, the first draft wasn’t the movie he wanted to make. He felt it lacked dimension, humanity and a point of view. McCarthy felt drawn to the Mediterranean noir genre of writers like Andrea Camilleri, Massimo Carlotto and Jean-Claude Izzo, notably Izzo’s Marseille Trilogy. “Those novels all account for the life around the crime pushing beyond the genre. Ultimately, I wanted my film to do the same.”
McCarthy set the script down, picked it back up about seven years later, and gave it a fresh read. He liked the setup, but his previous concerns remained. “It still wasn’t a script I was prepared to direct.”
And so, he reached out to French writing team Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré and sent them the draft. “We had a very awkward zoom call where they carefully laid out a few fundamental flaws in the approach to the script,” says McCarthy.
He flew to Paris, spent a week in a room together with his co-writers, reimagining the movie, which was the beginning of an eighteen-month writing process, which began in the fall of 2016. Reflecting, McCarthy saw the world had changed drastically. “The United States had taken an alarming turn towards populism, and Americans were becoming increasingly alienated not only from each other but also from the rest of the world.”
Matt Damon’s character, Bill, journeys abroad, as he desperately tries to navigate a new culture, language, and justice system to save his only daughter.
Underlining this story was McCarthy’s fascination with the details of the 2007 Amanda Knox case, where an American student living in Italy was arrested and charged with the murder of her roommate. She was convicted and sentenced to a lengthy prison term, although she maintained her innocence.
Matt Damon stars as “Bill” in director Tom McCarthy’s STILLWATER, a Focus Features release. Credit Jessica Forde / Focus Features
“What was exciting about reimagining the script in the context was the opportunity to subvert expectations of Bill — both as the quintessential ‘American hero’ and protagonist of this story, as well as an outsider entering a community that views him in a certain light.”
Many moments throughout the film, the story reveals Bill as a flawed man who, despite his best efforts, can’t escape his past. As a man from Stillwater, Oklahoma, we see the sternness or solidness of not revealing too much, holding in anger and other emotions just on the surface.
McCarthy starts the movie five years after the prison sentence of his daughter, Allison, played by Abigail Breslin. It’s his umpteenth visit to Marseille, and we see the unraveling of his flaws, forgetting keepsakes for his daughter, discounting his ignorance.
However, during this visit, there is a revelation of fresh evidence that might prove her innocence, thus setting her free and back to America. At this point in the movie, we examine more closely the notion of America’s moral authority in a country and a world where nationalism was on the rise.
McCarthy could have easily followed what audiences, who are conditioned to expect the hero to stop at nothing to protect his family or what he thinks is right. If the movie were a pure thriller, we would applaud Bill’s relentless pursuit of that aim.
But McCarthy examines the personal consequences of Bill pursuing his singular aim. He ultimately gets what he wants, but at what price? What does he sacrifice, and how does that kind of thinking play out in our world today?
He befriends an eight-year-old Maya, played authentically by Lilou Siauvaud. Then he meets her mother, Virginie, played by Camille Cottin. Virginie immediately helps him, which keeps the movie on edge. More and more of Bill’s flaws come to view. We find out that he was never there for his daughter, who lived most of her time with her aunt. Yet, we discover Virginie has a bleeding heart. She saves lost souls, like Bill. Maya becomes Bill’s companion or a second chance to be a good father. The threesome flourishes with Bill, staying in Marseille, hoping to help his daughter.
(Camille Cottin as “Virginie”, Matt Damon as “Bill” and Lilou Siauvaud as “Maya” in director Tom McCarthy’s STILLWATER, a Focus Features release. Credit Jessica Forde / Focus Features
Marseille has a considerable impact on the film, going deep into the city, from the stunning Calanques to the massive Velodrome to the old prison in Les Baumettes. The credit goes to production designer Phil Messina, providing a Marseille canvas intimately and authentically.
Though Marseille is the film’s primary setting, Bill’s past in Oklahoma also plays an essential role in the story and his character development. “We tried to reflect the impact these two places — Marseille and Oklahoma — have on Bill and Allison through the brilliant cinematography of Masa Takayanagi,” says McCarthy
The film starts in Oklahoma shooting with Anamorphic lenses, which enhances the solitude and isolation of Bill, using a shallower depth of field and a wider field of view. Then, Bill steps off the plane in Marseille. However, the camera moves. “It has the kinetic, spontaneous, grittiness of Marseille, which translated to a handheld for much of Marseille,” explains McCarthy.
Then, when we return to Oklahoma at the end of the movie, McCarthy uses spherical lenses with us as if Bill brought something back with him from Marseille. “But our camera became static once again, indicating that Oklahoma, the place, has not changed, just Bill and Allison.
McCarthy shot the film’s last scene with handheld to capture both the sense of intimacy and immediacy. Also, the method deepens the emotional connection to Marseille, a city that continues to haunt them.
The casting of Damon as the central performance anchors Stillwater. It felt like Bill took a profound journey for all its complexities and ambiguities. Breslin holds her own, not playing a glamorous role, though McCarthy gives her some light moments with Maya.
Stillwater doesn’t have a happy ending, but a determined finish that falls on Bill’s shoulders, where he says something like, “You’re my daughter.” And, later, he repeats his daughter’s phrase from an early conversation, “Life is brutal.”
Despite flaws or immorality, we still love our children and will always stand by them.
I wanted a different ending, a happy ending, but McCarthy’s ending makes sense because each scene seamlessly leads to this moment.
McCarthy explains the film is about human nature. “What dictates the decisions we make, and how morality can be corrupted by one’s past, society and love of family. It speaks to what we perceive to be our moral imperative. It’s a story of liberation that addresses the shackles of shame and guilt that keep us rooted in one place. It’s a film that addresses our longing to be loved and needed.”
An Alchemy of Viewpoints – The cast of Stillwater discusses their characters and the research that went into portraying them authentically.
An American in Marseille: The Locations of Stillwater—Much of the authenticity that comes across in Stillwater is because of the dedication of filming on location. Hear from the cast and filmmakers on what it was like filming in places such as the streets of Marseille and the Calanques along the coast.
With Curiosity & Compassion: Director Tom McCarthy – Cast and filmmakers discuss the thought and interest that goes into director Tom McCarthy’s stories and how he uses his natural curiosity about real-life interactions to guide his filmmaking style.
Directed by Michael Tyburski, The Sound of Silence impinges into a symphony of almost undetectable sounds that make up a moment of silence.
The story follows Peter Lucian, played by Peter Sarsgaard. He’s determined to catalogue all of the undetectable sounds. Through his job as a New York City “house tuner,” the hyper-methodical Peter works meticulously to diagnose the discordant ambient noises —produced by everything from wind patterns to humming electrical appliances — adversely affecting his clients’ moods. It’s an intriguing premise to speculate or theorize, and I have heard of the government creating “silent sounds” to influence people without being aware of the sound.
When Peter takes on the challenging case of Ellen, played by Rashida Jones, a lonely woman plagued by chronic exhaustion, Peter discovers the mysteries of the soul, maybe even more significant than the mysteries of sound.
The film is a quietly moving portrait of a harmony-obsessed man learning to embrace the dissonances of human emotion. Sarsgaard has a huge list of impressive credits, such as Jarhead, Shattered Glass, Education and a couple of episodic shows: Dopesick and Interrogation.
Jones is the daughter of Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton. She’s starred in Parks & Recreation, The Social Network and several voiceovers: Spies in Disguise, Klaus and Duncanville TV series.
Written and directed by Benedikt Erlingsson, Woman of War follows Halla, played by Halldóra Geirharðsdótti, who seems mild-mannered and friendly to her neighbors. On the contrary, she is a vigilante against the aluminum industry. At night, she crusades to destroy the polluters and causes of climate change.
The newspapers report the vandalism calling her plight as “The Woman of the Mountain.” Halla is scathing mad using a vicious, yet effective, tirade against the Iceland aluminum industry. Her campaign keeps her functioning “normal” but jeopardizes her dream.
A dream of becoming a mother to an orphaned girl from Ukraine, Halla ups the ante, becoming more daring with her antics to stop the aluminum company. She finds herself fighting against time as she questions whether her second life as a notorious eco-terrorist is worth the sacrifice of her impending motherhood.
Filmed with the vivid backdrop of hills in Reykjavik, Iceland, the movie marks another collaboration with Erlingsson and Geirharðsdótti’s long working relationship. I admire Erlingsson’s ability to infuse drama and comedy while Geirharðsdótti’s knack for subtle points of humor drew me into the story. Her vicious tenacity and heart could have gone overboard but pulled back just in time with the introduction of fabled motherhood and discovering what it signifies to be a hero.
Geirharðsdótti carries the story of Halla, a 50-year-old independent woman with a quiet routine, though she leads a double life as a passionate environmental activist. The humor is subtle but effective as the drama builds, and she becomes bolder and bolder from petty vandalism to outright industrial sabotage. She triumphs pausing the negotiations between the Icelandic government and the corporation building a new aluminum smelter in her region.
The story shifts when Halla receives an unexpected letter confirming the adoption of a child. A little girl who waits for her in Ukraine. As Halla prepares to abandon her role as saboteur and savior of the Highlands to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother, she decides to plot one final attack to deliver the aluminum industry a crippling blow.
The final attack is suspenseful because “What if she gets caught?” Her goal to be a mother is no longer achievable. All her efforts are in vain, yet her crusade is for the children like her adopted daughter—securing a livable planet for the generations to come.
Watching the
movie until the end is worth it, though there are subtitles. DVDs are available
in the States with streaming available on the usual outlets.
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japanese movie Shoplifters is the 2018 Cannes Palme d’Or
Winner and 2019 Academy Award nominee for Foreign Language Film. The movie follows an oddball band of outsiders
on the margins of Tokyo. They demonstrate a fierce loyalty with a penchant for
petty theft and playful ways of making money dishonestly.
The fun and games end with the young son getting arrested. Secrets come to the surface and expose what little stability they did hold below-the-radar existence. They feel strong belief is not the blood that defines a family, but love defines the family. The premise is questioned and discussed throughout the movie
Kore-eda’s credits include Like Father, Like Son and Nobody Knows. Shoplifters movie is similar to these movies as an emotional exploration of the perseverance and tenacity of society’s outcasts and the love that sustains them. It is obvious why the movie won the Palme. The simplicity of the tender storytelling of inviting me to be a part of the imperfect people, showing what an oddball meaning to the family. Perhaps, redefining what a family is by showing a group of misfits similar sharing and behaving similarly to a family connected by blood.
“Shoplifters might be similar to Nobody Knows in the sense that this film also explores closely the sort of ‘punished’ families we regularly see in news reports. It wasn’t my intention simply to describe a poor family or the lower levels of the social strata. I rather think that the family in the film ended up gathering in that house not to collapse there. I wanted to shine a light on such a family from a different angle,” adds Kore-eda.
Like a voyeur, Shoplifters
draws me into their daily lives through various circumstances developed and bonded
together as a way to survive. Centered in the family’s cohesiveness is achieving
their livelihood through petty theft and grifting. The children of the group
are played beautifully and endearing by Jyo Kairi and Miyu Sasaki. I ponder the
director’s uncanny ability to facilitate the actors as a cohesive metaphor to
the brilliance of life itself.
“I started to think about which elements were unfolded and would be examined deeply after the casting was settled. As a result, this film is packed with the various elements I have been thinking about and exploring these last 10 years. It is the story of what family means, a story about a man trying to be a father, and furthermore, a coming-of-age story of a boy,” explains Kore-eda
The movie is worth watching, but it is in Japanese with English subtitles.
Co-written and directed by Crystal Moselle as her first narrative feature, Skate Kitchen, follows an introverted teenage skateboarder named Camille, played by Rachelle Vinberg. She is from Long Island and meets and befriends an all-girl skateboarding group. The group is New York City-based called Skate Kitchen.
Moselle mentions in an interview, “I was originally going to do a feature documentary film, but after doing the short, and hanging out with Kim Yutani, who is one of the programmers at Sundance, she was just like, ‘Why don’t you do a feature version of this?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re so right.’ I figured out a writer to work with. That January, we didn’t have a script or anything. We kind of just had a summary of what we wanted it to be. We went to Sundance and just started having meetings and financiers, and got the budget.”
In the movie, Camille becomes part of the in-crowd, and estranges from her mother, and falls for a mysterious skateboarder guy named Devon, played by Jaden Smith. Yet, their relationship proves to be trickier to navigate than mastering her skateboarding tricks.
Smith knew Vinberg before they worked on the movie together. They met on social media because Smith saw that Vinberg was a skateboarder and reached out to her. Moselle explains, “One day he hit Rachelle Vinberg up on Instagram! He just thought she was cool because she skateboards and he skateboards and we were like, ‘Oh, he should be in the movie.’ I randomly know his agent, so I was just like, ‘I have this film idea that Jaden might be into,’ so his agent got me a meeting completely separate from Rachelle. And it was months after that. And then I showed him the short film and he was like, ‘Oh I know that girl.’ We wanted his character to really authentically lead into the subculture of New York City skateboarding.
According to production notes, Moselle immersed herself in the lives of the skater girls and worked closely with them giving authenticity to the movie. “I was on the train and I was listening to them just chat, and they were super interesting and they had skateboards, and I asked them, “Would you guys want to do like a video project, something?” We exchanged numbers and when we met up, we just started hanging out and chatting. I just was super inspired by them. I didn’t really know much about being a female skater and how much intimidation they go through. I gave them the opportunity to do this short film with Miu Miu (That One Day) and I pitched them to do the short film. That went to the Venice Film Festival. From there it started to get a lot of attention and gain a lot of traction.”
The movie is gripping and combines poetic, atmospheric cinematography with spellbinding skating sequences. The movie captured my interest because, though I am not a skateboarder, I follow skateboarding movies. The experience of women in male-dominated sport tells the story of a girl who learns the importance of true friendship, loyalty, and self-discovery.
The rest of the cast members are Dede Lovelace, Nina Moran, Kabrina Adams, Ajani Russell, Jules Lorenzo, Brenn Lorenzo, Hisham Tawfiq, and Elizabeth Rodriguez.
The other screenwriters are Aslihan Unaldi and Jennifer Silverman. Moselle offered some insight on working with Unaldi. “There was a certain point in time where we had to shift the story and simplify it a lot more and Aslihan Unaldi came in and worked on it every day for like three months. We completely re-shifted the whole thing. She was really my collaborator on this, but it was all my ideas, and I wrote a lot of the script. I’ve never written a script before and we had to make this happen so quickly, because we had to shoot this film before these girls grew up, because right now they’re already too old for the film.”
Directed by Ben Lewin, Please Stand By introduces the world of Wendy, played by Dakota Fanning, a confusing place. Wendy is an imaginative and resolutely independent young woman. She is a brilliant young woman with autism.
The autism message is upbeat and supports individualism – accept people for who they are. If you don’t, you take away their freedom.
Wendy yearns to leave the steadfast schedule of her group home. She wants to return to a life she had with her sister’s family. They have a new baby, so she needs to prove she can be responsible first before she can live with her sister again.
Wendy is a staunch fan of anything to do with Star Trek. She even spends a great deal of her free time writing fantasy stories, proving she is a capable person.
The movie starts off tilter but we soon learn that Wendy uses her Star Trek filter to understand people. People are an indecipherable code.
The story takes an interesting turn when Wendy learns about a screenplay competition. She is determined to finish her 500-page Star Trek script, so she can enter the competition. If anyone knows about screenwriting, you know 500 pages are about 390 pages too long.
Wendy needs to get the script to Hollywood. The problem is getting it there by the deadline, Wendy must travel hundreds of miles outside her protected boundaries to submit her script in person. The story becomes a road-trip movie.
Wendy has an adorable little dog named Pete. She carries him in her purse with only a few dollars in her pocket. In her terms, she is boldly going where she has never gone before. Her unconventional therapist, played by Toni Collette, is not far behind in hopes of catching up with her. The same for Wendy’s sister, played by Alice Eve.
On her trip, Wendy meets all sorts of people who help her. These are colorful moments in the movie. They all encourage her to follow her dream and find her place in a world she hopes will accept her. She wants to be accept just like everyone else.
Fanning is great as Wendy, and its refreshing to see her work with Collette and Eve.
Directed Mike Birbiglia, Don’t Think Twice follows a member of a popular New York City improv troupe catches the big break forcing the group to reevaluate their success and confront their fears in the hilariously honest movie.
This is a bittersweet movie about the behind-the-scenes look at the lives of six best friend comedians. If you have ever been with an improv group, like I have, you will find this to be one of your favorite films to watch with friends of the same persuasion. It is a funny movie about the angst of chasing aspirations.
I recommend taking a look at the behind-the-scenes featurettes. They add to the hilarity of the movie with a concept of what it takes to bring this whole movie to life. A movie about a six-person comedy team known as The Commune, working together for 11 years, has killed it onstage while waiting for their big break. Without warning, the team finds itself at a crossroads when one of the members becomes a solo success and the rest of the group realizes they may not make it big after all.
The featurette selection also includes Don’t Think Twice: The Art of Improv. It is a brilliant and enlightening piece about the love of improv, which is the heart of the movie. In this featurette, you will be able to explore the philosophy that inspired the world and comedy found within the movie.
My first thought, that is an entertainer’s nightmare. Success is great, but when other members are left out, it can feel like a long drop into the abyss of being no one.
The movie talented, funny and honest cast includes Keegan-Michael, Gillian Jacobs, Mike Birbiglia, Kate Micucci, Chris Gethard, and Tami Sagher.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Jackie is another look at the Kennedy tragedy. How many times can Hollywood tell this story? Which angle of the lens are we seeing the Kennedy lineage this time? Fortunately, Natalie Portman is playing the role of Jackie Onassis Kennedy. It appears in this trailer that we will, once again, relive one of the most important and tragic moments in American history.
The movie follows First Lady, then Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband’s assassination. Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a spiritual portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband’s legacy and the world of “Camelot” that they created and loved so well.
Jackie nabbed several Independent Spirit Awards nominations for Best Feature, Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Female Lead (Portman).
