Jacqueline Byers as Sister Ann and Lisa Palfrey as Sister Euphemia in Prey of the Devil Photo Credit: Vlad Cioplea/Lionsgate
Directed by Daniel Stamm, Prey for the Devil begins with a global rise in demonic possessions. The Catholic Church reopens exorcism schools to train priests in the Rite of Exorcism. On this spiritual battlefield, an unlikely warrior rises, a young nun, Sister Ann, played by Jacqueline Byers.
Jacqueline Byers as Sister Ann and Posy Taylor as Natalie in Prey of the Devil Photo Credit: Vlad Cioplea/Lionsgate
Although nuns do not perform exorcisms, a professor, played by Colin Salmon, recognizes Sister Ann’s gifts and agrees to train her.
Thrust onto the spiritual frontline with fellow student Father Dante, played by Christian Navarro, Sister Ann finds herself in a battle for the soul of a young girl.
Sister Ann believes the same demon that possesses the girl is the same demon that tormented her mother years ago.
Sister Ann soon realizes the Devil has her right where he wants her, and it wants in.
Written and directed by award-winner Todd Field, Tár is a psychological drama starring Cate Blanchett as a fictional and celebrated conductor and composer.
The movie introduces Tár at the height of her career, as she’s preparing both a book launch and a much-anticipated live performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Over the ensuing weeks, her life unravels in a singularly modern way. The result is a searing examination of power and its impact and durability in today’s society.
Cate Blanchett stars as Lydia Tár in director Todd Field’s TÁR, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features
Set in Berlin, Lydia Tár struggles emotionally with life as she prepares for her symphony recording. Her adopted daughter Petra, played by Mila Bogojevic, gives her emotional support as Lydia comes to terms with being a formidable international classical musician.
Todd Field only had Blanchett in mind for this role. “This script was written for one artist, Cate Blanchett. Had she said no, the film would have never seen the light of day. Filmgoers, amateur and otherwise, will not be surprised by this. After all, she is a master supreme.
“Even so, while we were making the picture, the superhuman skill and verisimilitude of Cate was something truly astounding to behold. She raised all boats. The privilege of collaborating with an artist of this caliber is something impossible to adequately describe. In every possible way, this is Cate’s film.”
Cate Blanchett stars as Lydia Tár in director Todd Field’s TÁR, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features
“Cate and I started our work together in September 2020,” says Field. “She made two other films while she prepared for TÁR. She’d wrap during the day and call me at night, then put in several more hours of work. She learned to speak German, play the piano —yes that’s Cate playing, every note—and performed the most exhaustive amount of research. She’s a real autodidact, and she accomplished more in a year—again while making two other films—than Lydia Tár herself would have in 25. During production, she didn’t sleep.
“After a day of shooting, she’d go straight to a piano, German, American-dialect, or baton technique/beat pattern lesson. She spent her “day off” on a racetrack mapped out to the precise dimensions as the roundabout at Alexanderplatz to rehearse a scene with Nina Hoss while swerving and braking at 60 miles per hour between eight cars driven by stunt people. There was absolutely nothing we could throw at her that she wouldn’t run with. She set the bar for everyone, and we had to do everything we possibly could just to try to keep up with her.”
Blanchett relished the intellectual charge of Field’s script but connected with the story, first, on an instinctual, human level. “I could see there were many, many layers to peel back as I, along with the audience, discovered who this fascinating enigma Lydia Tár was. Todd has created an utterly unique creature.” Blanchett was also fascinated by the script’s rhythmic musical qualities and Todd’s unique approach to depicting the character.
“I am very language focused, and when I read the script, there were many reference points I simply was not familiar with. I knew I needed to understand them inside and out so that the audience would trust that the character knew exactly what she was talking about at all times. Strangely, the audience does not need to know these references at all, they just need to know that Lydia is a genius.”
“I was riveted by this portrait of a woman unravelling, but I also responded to the script on a rhythmic level through the music. Music is often a key for me as an actor for unlocking a character or the atmosphere to finding a connection to the story. Todd’s film was turbocharged for me in this regard.”
Written by Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Paul Brad Logan and Chris Bernier, Halloween Ends as the Halloween franchise arrives again just in time for the fateful holiday.
Based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill and directed by David Gordon Green, we follow Jamie Lee Curtis, once again, as she tackles, fights and kills Michael Myers. Myers can’t seem to let it go. He continues to hunt them.
It begins after Laurie Strode, played by Curtis, knows he burned up. The rest is pretty much the same.
Directed by Marius Vaysberg, About Fate takes a genuine stab at Rom/Com with Margot Hayes, played by Emma Roberts and Griffin Reed, played by Thomas Mann.
With Christmas in her taillights and her sister’s, played by Britt Robertson, and New Year’s Eve wedding fast approaching, Margot has convinced herself that her boyfriend – the drop-dead-gorgeous (and narcissist supreme), Kip Prescott, played by Lewis Tan is about to pop the question.
No matter that they’ve only been together for three months. No matter that her reliably blunt mother, Judy, played by Cheryl Hines, who, like the rest of the family, has yet even to meet Kip – thinks Margot is simply setting herself up for disappointment, again. Yet she heads to dinner to meet her beau and is ready to say “Yes!” to the proposal.
But as fate would have it, at the same restaurant is where Griffin Reed is planning to propose to the woman of his dreams, the drop-dead-gorgeous nightmare, Clementine, played by Madelaine Petsch, online influencer and local model, that same night.
New Year’s Eve-Eve, the date of his overprotective mother, played by Wendie Malick, said, ‘I do,’ to Griffin’s dad.
Of course, things go anything but according to plan that evening. And with their respective dubious relationships going awry, it’s ultimately down to Margot and Griffin. Fate throws together two perfect strangers – and two perfect soulmates – to see what’s staring them in the face… Namely, each other.
“They felt right together,” says director Marius Vaysberg of the palpable big-screen chemistry between leads Emma Roberts and Thomas Mann in About Fate, which was filmed in and around Boston last summer over the course of 26-days, “There’s this simplicity and humanity about both of them that they connect in a way,” explains the director. “Because of the pandemic, it was hard for the three of us to meet [before filming], so it was a risk that I had to take. But it felt like it was going to work. And it sure as hell clicked as soon as the three of us met in Boston.”
The secret to a brilliant romantic comedy is simple enough, according to screenwriter Tiffany Paulsen, here marking her first collaboration with Marius Vaysberg and her third with Emma Roberts. “You have to want the couple to kiss,” she says with a gracious tip of the hat to her About Fate director for bringing that last element to the screen. “Marius is genuinely one of the loveliest people I’ve ever worked with,” says Paulsen. “He brings a unique warmth, humor and openness that I’ve never experienced with a director. He absolutely knows what he’s doing and what he wants but has no ego in being open to ideas… I loved working with Marius.”
Based on the short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” by A. S. Byatt and co-written and directed by George Miller for the screen, Dr. Alithea Binnie, played by Tilda Swinton, is an academic. She’s content with life and a creature of reason.
While in Istanbul attending a conference, she encounters a Djinn, played by Idris Elba, who offers her three wishes for his freedom. This presents two problems. First, she doubts he is real; second, because she is a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes have gone wrong.
The Djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past. Eventually, she submits and makes a wish that surprises them both.
Directed by and starring Olivia Wilde, Don’t Worry Darling is a clever twist on living in an experimental community. The story follows Alice, played by Florence Pugh, who grows suspicious of her husband, played by Harry Styles, and his company is hiding disturbing secrets.
The story by Shane Van Dyke, Carey Van Dyke and Katie Silberman is a psychological thriller that goes deep into the obscurity of hidden secrets to manipulate those unsuspecting victims.
Also starring are Gemma Chan, Kiki Lane, Nick Kroll and Chris Pine.
Co-written and directed by Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, The Good House follows Hildy Good, played by Sigourney Weaver. Hildy is a wry New England realtor and descendant of the Salem witches.
Thomas Bezucha also co-wrote the script with the directors. Bezucha’s credits include writing and directing Let Him Go and six episodes of the Secret Invasion mini-series.
She loves her wine and secrets, yet her compartmentalized life unravels as she rekindles a romance with her old high-school flame, Frank Getchell, played by Kevin Kline. She becomes dangerously entwined in one person’s reckless behavior.
The situations ignite long-buried emotions and family secrets, propelling Hildy toward a reckoning with the one person she’s been avoiding for decades — herself.
The Good House additionally stars Morena Baccarin and Rob Delaney.
