All posts by Kenna

Hamilton

“Hamilton” Amazingly from Broadway to Disney

drama, historical, ,

The filmed version of the original Broadway production of Hamilton combines the best elements of live theater, film, and streaming to bring the cultural phenomenon to homes around the world for a thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

With book, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and direction by Thomas Kail, Hamilton is inspired by the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.

Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway, Hamilton has taken the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton and created a revolutionary moment in theatre. This musical has had a profound impact on culture, politics, and education.

Hamilton stars: Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson; Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler; Jonathan Groff as King George; Christopher Jackson as George Washington; Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds; Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton; Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr; Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison; Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton; and Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton.

“I’m incredibly grateful that the world will be able to see this. Theater is a communal artistic experience, and this film is a love letter to live theater,” Lin-Manuel Miranda. 

Capturing the essence of the Broadway show were six camera positions with six camera operators. Additionally, there were three fixed camera positions, one dolly and a Steadicam, a crane and two angles capturing each performance. There was one overhead camera and one at the rear of the stage, strategically hidden in a brick wall. The Steadicam, crane, and dolly were used on the scene the day the audience was not present. They shot 13 or 14 numbers from the 46 numbers in the show.

Director Thomas Kail describes directing Hamilton for the screen, “This film celebrates the work of our extraordinary designers.”

Offering the example with one of the most moving scenes, he says, “Satisfied changes time and plays with the time dynamic. The show doesn’t proceed in a linear fashion. It’s elliptical… it’s not continuous time, but it’s always moving forward, and Satisfied is the first moment in our show where we stop time.” 

The song is also doing more, “What we are doing in that song is setting up the final duel… we’re setting up the bullet, and what we’re able to do on film is be much more subjective with the camera, so it feels a little more like we’re going inside her brain. The cut pattern is quite accelerated, and the camera angles are quite varied, and we did that because we wanted to also break the form in the cinematic language in the same way that we break the form in the theatrical language in the theater.”

Greenland

Exciting Highest Survival Potential in “Greenland” Trailer

action, ,

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh and written by Chris Sparling, Greenland follows a family that struggles for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster. The movie stars Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, and Scott Glenn. It is now streaming on Amazon.

Waugh’s credits include stunt work on such movies as True Romance, Days of Thunder, and Gone in Sixty Seconds. His other credits include screenplays for Snitch, Felon, and Angel Has Fallen, which starred Gerard Butler.

Monumental, Timely Destiny “The Painted Bird” Trailer

based on a book, drama, foreign movie, , , , , , , ,
The Painted Bird

Based on the acclaimed Jerzy Kosiński novel, The Painted Bird is a fastidious 35mm black and white summoning of wild, primitive Eastern Europe at the bloody close of World War II.
The film follows the boy’s journey, entrusted by his persecuted parents to an elderly foster mother. The older woman soon dies, and the boy is on his own, wandering through the countryside, from village to village, farmhouse to farmhouse. As he struggles for survival, he suffers through extraordinary brutality meted out by the ignorant, superstitious peasants. He witnesses the terrifying violence of the efficient, ruthless soldiers, both Russian and German.

In a defining scene, one of the peasants shows him the flight of a captive bird, whom the man has painted and then released back into its flock. Immediately, the bird gets attached and ripped apart because it is different from its fellows. That lesson reinforces all he already knows and will soon know better: the difference is fatal.

But there are rare moments of compassion: a German soldier spares him, a priest intervenes on his behalf, and finally, he becomes the protégé of a Russian sniper, who is kind to the child, but ruthless with the enemy. And there are signs of love. He is seduced by an older girl, finally rediscovering the comfort of intimacy, only to realize that he has been used. When he is miraculously reunited with his weakened father at the end of the war, the boy is cold and impenetrable, hardened by his ordeal. Yet we can still glimpse something of the old, sensitive boy behind the eyes of the new. Perhaps there is hope.

The cast includes Petr Kotlár, Udo Kier, Lech Dyblik, Jitka Čvančarová, Stellan Skarsgård, Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands, Aleksey Kravchenko, and Barry Pepper.

The broken heart gallery

“The Broken Hearts Gallery” Trailers, Poster, Featurettes, and Clips

comedy, romance, , , , , , , , ,

Written, directed and co-produced by Natalie Krinsky, The Broken Hearts Gallery follows Lucy, played by Geraldine Viswanathan, who, for every relationship she had, saves a souvenir from that relationship. 

Watch The Broken Hearts Gallery in theaters

The story follows the always unique Lucy, a 20-something art gallery assistant living in New York City who is also an emotional hoarder. 

After being dumped by her latest boyfriend, Lucy becomes inspired to create The Broken Heart Gallery, a pop-up space for the items love has left behind. 

The idea of a broken heart gallery spreads to other romantic people. They become a part of the movement, making a fresh start, including Lucy, by leaving a trinket of a former relationship. 

You will notice Nick, played by Dacre Montgomery, who is cute and a possible love interest for Lucy as they partner up and create the art gallery. 

Krinsky wrote for TV episodic shows like Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy. The Broken Hearts Gallery appears to be her first feature.

The rest of the cast in this romantic comedy includes Utkarsh Ambudkar, Molly Gordon, Phillipa Soo, Suki Waterhouse, Arturo Castro, Ego Nwodim, Taylor Hill and Bernadette Peters.

You can also catch Viswanathan in Ethan Cohen’s Drive-Away Dolls, a comedy caper also starring Margaret Qualleyan.

Zinger of Astonishing, Urgent “7500” Trailer

action, thriller, , , ,
7500 movie on Amazon

Directed by Patrick Vollrath, 7500 starts as a routine day at work for Tobias, a soft-spoken young American co-pilot on a flight from Berlin to Paris. He runs through the preflight checklist with Michael, the pilot, and chats with Gökce, his flight-attendant girlfriend.

But shortly after takeoff, terrorists armed with makeshift knives suddenly storm the cockpit, seriously wounding Michael and slashing Tobias’ arm. Temporarily managing to fend off the attackers, a terrified Tobias contacts ground control to plan an emergency landing.

But when the hijackers kill a passenger and threaten to murder more innocent people if he doesn’t let them back into the cockpit, this ordinary man faces an excruciating test.

The movie is available on Amazon and will not be in movie theaters.

Here is an intense clip, giving you and idea of how the movie plays out.

Urgent and Powerful “John Lewis: Good Trouble” Trailer

biography, documentary,

Directed by filmmaker Dawn Porter, John Lewis: Good Trouble chronicles the life and career of the legendary civil rights activist and Democratic Representative from Georgia. 

Using interviews and rare archival footage, Porter chronicles John Robert Lewis’s 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, healthcare reform, and immigration.

Photo by Tom Lankford, Birmingham News. © Alabama Department of Archies and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group.
On the far right, John Lewis is with fellow protesters at Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Using present-day interviews with Lewis, now 80 years old, Porter explores his childhood experiences, inspiring family and his fateful meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957. In addition to her interviews with Lewis and his family, Porter’s film includes interviews with political leaders, Congressional colleagues, and others who figure prominently in his life.

Bill & Ted Face the Music

Unconditional Last Chance Magic “Bill & Ted Face The Music” Trailer

adventure, classic, comedy, fantasy, science fiction, sequels, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Bill & Ted Face the Music

Directed by Dean Parisot, the franchise returns with writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon—Bill and Ted Face the Music. The film will continue to track the time-traveling exploits of William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. and Theodore “Ted” Logan. Yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny, the now middle-aged best friends set out on a new adventure when a visitor from the future warns them that only their song can save life as we know it. 

Watch Bill and Ted Face the Music

They will also include their daughters, who help them along the way. A new batch of historical figures join the fantasy, and a few music legends seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony to the universe.

Bill & Ted Face the Music
Bill & Ted Face the Music

Dean Parisot also directed Galaxy Quest, and as mentioned earlier, the second installment script is by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon. 

These two guys seem like they are having too much fun time traveling.

The featurette moves quickly through clips of the original movie and the sequel. There are interviews with the director and producers who explain what happens when Bill and Ted are older with daughters a lot like them.

This featurette is fun to watch and talks about the large cast.

Watch You Should Have Left

Obsession Turns Horrific “You Should Have Left” Trailer

horror, thriller, ,

Written and directed by David Koepp is a new psychological thriller called You Should Have Left. Koepp is a legendary screenwriter of popular moneymakers: Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, and Panic Room. The thriller stars Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried as a couple seeking a restful vacation. They pick an isolated location on the edge of the world, only to discover that secrets demand a reckoning and travel with you.

Watch You Should Have Left with Kevin Bacon and Amy Seyfried.
From the same team that brought you “The Invisible Man.”

It is a terrifying, mind-twisting tale about a father who fights desperately to save his family from a beautiful home that refuses to let them leave. The story suggests Stephen King’s The Shining, where a family settles in at a private resort, isolated and with tons of history and ghosts. 

Theo Conroy, played by Bacon, is a successful middle-aged man whose marriage to his much younger actress wife, Susanna, played by Seyfried, is shredding at the seams, frayed by her secretiveness, his jealousy and the shadow of his past.

To repair their relationship, Theo and Susanna book a vacation at a stunning, remote modern home in the Welsh countryside for themselves and their six-year-old daughter, Ella, played by Avery Essex. What initially seems like a perfect retreat distorts into a complete nightmare when Theo’s grasp on reality unravels. He suspects that a sinister force within the house knows more than he or Susanna has revealed, even to each other.

The featurette tells us more about the movie and the sense that Bacon’s character is not to be trusted.

Megan Fox in Think Like a Dog

Promising But Unconventional “Think Like a Dog” Trailer

children movies, drama, family movies, kid movies, , , , , , ,
Enjoy the family movie, Think Like a Dog

Written and directed by Gil Junger, Think Like a Dog comes across as a heartwarming family comedy, which is going directly to Digital, On-Demand and available on Blu-ray (plus Digital) and DVD.

The film stars Gabriel Bateman, Kunal Nayyar, Julia Jones, Janet Montgomery, with Bryan Callen and Todd Stashwick as the voices of “Henry,” Megan Fox, and Josh Duhamel.

Think Like A Dog

The follows a boy named Oliver, played by Bateman, and his dog, involving a science project that will change all of their lives forever. Oliver is a tech prodigy whose middle-school science fair experiment goes awry, creating a telepathic connection between him and his furry friend, Henry. 

The bond brings Oliver and Henry even closer as they join forces to comically overcome complications at school, and help Oliver’s parents, Fox and Duhamel, rekindle their marriage along the way.

Mel Gibson in Force of Nature

Enormous and Mainstream “Force of Nature” Trailer

action, drama, , , , , , ,
Mel Gibson in Force of Nature

Directed by Michael Polish, Force of Nature stars Mel Gibson in an edge-of-your-seat action-thriller that erupts during a violent Category 5 hurricane.

The movie is going directed to streaming and retail.

The story follows a disgraced cop named Cardillo, played by Emile Hirsch, who races to evacuate an apartment building. He comes across Dr. Troy, played by Kate Bosworth, and her retired detective father named Ray, played by Gibson.

When a murderous gang of thieves arrives to rob a wealthy tenant, they must join forces to battle the criminals and escape for their lives before the entire city is deep underwater.