Co-written and co-directed by Tim McCann and Ingo Vollkammer, American Exit is based on a true story that follows Charlie, played by Dane Cook. He is desperate and steals a million-dollar painting from Anton, played by Udo Kier, a disreputable art dealer.
The crime-thriller builds as time is running out for Charlie. He escapes to the California desert with his rebellious teen son, Leo, played by Levi Miller. But when Anton and his henchman come looking for him, the situation explodes into violence, and the third act is filled with revenge and bloodshed.
Co-written and directed by Claire Denis, High Life premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival with strong, positive reviews. The movie is about a group of young people who space travel through a black hole because they are prisoners.
The story unfolds beyond the solar system with the criminals who accepting the mission in space to become the subjects of a human reproduction experiment. They find themselves in the most unimaginable situation after a storm of cosmic rays hit the ship.
It dawns on them they are not returning or it appears so. Very little freedom is available as they wait out their sentence. Despetion and experiments are doled out as the criminals come to terms on how to brutally rebel against the system.
Monte, played by Robert Pattinson, views life as a prisoner differently because he has a baby daughter. He needs to be responsible even though something is looming just out of reach.
A narcissistic jailkeeper, played by Juliette Binoche, brings the emotions to the surface as the prisoners are compelled to respond to her underhanded control.
The cinematography, shared by both Yorick Le Saux and Tomasz Naumiuk, received praises for capturing the space, stars, and nebulae. Denis is a French director, whose style is admired by her peers. “It is important to show how people are feeling, even when they are brutal.”
Jean-Pol Fargeau contributed to the screenplay and worked with Denis in other movies such as 35 Shots of Rum and Beau Travail. Geoff Cox also contributed but it is the first he’s worked with Denis and Fargeau with one other writing credit.
The movie nabbed some nominations and won three awards including Indiewire Critics’ Poll Best Films Opening in 2019.
Directed by Lior Gellar, We Die Young follows a ten-year-old boy named Miguel, played by Nicholas Sean Johnny. Elijah is mixed up with the MS-13 gang in the crime-ridden burg of Washington, D.C. He works as a runner for the gang and is connected to the gang’s ruthless drug lord, Rincon, played by David Castaneda. His big brother Lucas, played by Elijah Rodriguez, desperately wants to keep him safe, so they flee for their lives.
Meanwhile, the brothers befriend a veteran named, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme, who is still traumatized from being in the armed service. Daniel helps them find their revenge against Rincon and the MS-13 gang.
Directed by Julia Hart, Fast Color follows a young black woman, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who is hunted by mysterious forces. Because she has supernatural abilities, she must go on the run when her powers are discovered.
She has nowhere else to go but flees back to her family and the farmhouse she abandoned long ago. A local Sheriff, played by David Strathairn, pursues her. She mends the broken relationships with her mother, played by Lorraine Toussaint, and daughter, played by Saniyya Sidney. It looks like her daughter has superpowers as well.
During this story, the black woman learns that her needed power is always inside her. The movie trailer shows a unique tale. I just hope the third act is worth it.
The following movie clips offer very little about the story. If it is just about the mother coming to terms with her daughter, who has the same ability, then the movie is slow. I hope there is an intense conflict with the local sheriff trying to catch her. If not, then the story is weak.
Three more movie clips were released, showing the movie’s storyline, relationships, and plot points.
Directed by F. Gary Gray, Men In Black: International follows an upstart known as Agent M, played by Tessa Thompson. She joins the group and partners with Agent H, played by Chris Hemsworth. MIB has always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe.
However, in this new adventure, they tackle their biggest global threat to date: a mole in the Men in Black organization.
The movie also stars two stellar actors, Emma Thompson and Liam Neeson. Hemsworth looks yummy.
The third trailer tells us the whole story and what the CGI includes, with Thompson’s character stating at the beginning of the trailer, “We are a rumor.” It looks like a no-brainer and popcorn entertainment.
Chad Stahelski directs Keanu Reeves as John Wick. They return in this third installment – Parabellum – of the non-stop action franchise about the super-assassin Wick. He’s Skyhook with a $14 million price tag on his head and an army of bounty-hunting killers on his heels. The movie trailer shows you precisely what is happening in the movie – just like the other two, but even more. It’s playing on Amazon.
After killing a member of the shadowy international assassin’s guild, the High Table, Wick is excommunicado, but the world’s most ruthless hit men and women await his every turn. The cast, including Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne, Anjelica Huston, and Ian McShane, are extraordinary. I am so excited to see Huston in a movie.
The Taxi clip is a bit odd, and I am not sure what it promotes to the fans of this franchise. Like the trailer, we see a lot of rain in New York City.
The next poster is colorful in an ironic way – too carefree and effervescent. It looks like he is in the tropics when most of the footage I’ve seen is in New York City.
The featurette explains the story to us. I like it. Anjelica Houston is seen briefly, but I love that she is in the movie. I hope her part is more extensive than what appears in the featurette.
Keanu Reeves is hyped about the third installment of the unique action movie. In this interview, he is obviously passionate about his character, the director, the style, and the story.
I chose Mark Dacascos and Asia Kate Dillon’s joint interview because they share Reeves’ working style with the cast and crew. They describe the story so well; it is eight minutes long with so much information in general.
The next featurette shows some astounding moves with the motorcycle chase. Seeing Reeves get so excited about a scene in his movie is fantastic.
Film legend Anjelica Huston is on the red carpet at the movie premiere. She talks about her character and the culture of the movie.
The featurette shows Reeves and Berry training for the movie. Watching the footage, they got a great workout and had so much fun.
Directed, co-written and produced by Rhyan LaMarr, the screenplay for Canal Street is co-written by Jon Knitter, with additional writing by Adam Key. LaMarr and Knitter wrote the first draft in 2005 at Columbia College Chicago and developed the script together over the next 13 years.
LaMarr remembers, “I would get on the red line and take it from the Southside of Chicago all the way to the end of the line on the Northside, and just people watch and dream up some of the diverse characters we birthed in Canal Street. Chicago, to me, was one of those cities that had caught a bad rap, and I wanted to shine a different light on it through politics and grit. Me and Jon started writing about our different experiences, and that is really how the script began to take form.”
Canal Street is a faith-based, modern-day thriller about a teen, Kholi Styles, trying to get by in an unwelcoming new world. After the mysterious death of a classmate, all eyes fall on Kholi, the new kid at his high school. It’s up to his father, Jackie Styles, an up-and-coming lawyer from the slums of Chicago, to defend his son in court and battle an outraged public before time runs out. Jackie fights to keep his faith and prove his son is not the monster of the world.
Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Replicas is a story created through an idea producer Stephen Hamel shared with Keanu Reeves. Once they discussed and shared ideas, they became enthusiastic about telling a story that raises moral issues – science vs. ethics. “Replicas was born from my interest in the benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations and ethical limitations of using such technologies. Specifically, those human beings may eventually be able to transfer their consciousness from one body to another,” explains Hamel.
Hamel wrote the story, and Chad St. John wrote the screenplay. The story follows William Foster, played by Reeves. After a car accident kills his loving family, he faces enormous intellectual and emotional stakes.
In a daring move by Foster, a neuroscientist who will stop at nothing to bring his family back to life as replicas – does so. The results pit him against a government-controlled laboratory, a police task force, and the physical laws of science.
Alice Eve plays his wife and is best known for her role as Dr. Carol Marcus in Star Trek Into Darkness. The other cast members included Emily Alyn Lind, John Ortiz, and Thomas Middleditch.
Science Fiction is nothing new to Reeves, with significant roles in movies like The Matrix and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. The movie trailer looks pretty darn good.
Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Us follows a family on a summer vacation. The focus of the promotion of this movie is the filmmaker and Oscar winner Jordan Peele. Peele made a name for himself by creating the box office and sleeper hit Get Out.
The horror movie is popular with a strong show at the box office. The Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming on-demand are happening. Now is your chance to see the movie or see it again.
IMDB plot summary says the movie is about a mother and father, who take their kids to their beach house. They are expecting to enjoy time with friends, but their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some visitors arrive uninvited.
On the coattails of his success, Universal Studios says Peele is bringing an original and provocative thriller to the movie theaters. By watching the movie trailer, it appears there is a family on vacation who has an encounter with another creepy family that looks and sounds just like them. The trailer shows screaming, blood, and the family struggling to survive. I am curious about the significance of the scissors, though. They appear in the poster and trailer. The weaving of each character’s profile view is mysterious and unnerving. I am spooked just thinking about this trailer.
The cast is impressive with Lupita Nyong’o, who won the 2019 New York Film Critics Circle for Best Actress, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Madison Curry, Cali Sheldon, and Noelle Sheldon.
The second trailer is better because Nyong’o’s line about coincidences and things lining up means something, like a dark cloud. Creepy! Horror movie fans rejoice. A horror movie intelligently put together to scare the hell out of you.
Moss attended the red carpet premiere of the movie at SXSW. In this interview, she explains why this is her first time seeing the movie. She also talks about working with the director.
Watching these featurettes brings an understanding that Peele’s movies are not just horror movies. They resonate with learned and well-thought-out Hitchcock movies, with an undercurrent of meanings to the overall story and imagery.
Director Peele talks about making horror movies and why he likes making them. The audiences drive him in this direction of moviemaking.
The following featurettes are about Peele as a storyteller and his reasoning behind making this movie. One particular featurette he talks about is “Doppelgangers.” The word is German and means a double walker. The folklore about this phenomenon is a non-biological look-alike, such as a ghost or an evil twin. Doppelgangers are a sign of bad luck.
Peele refers to movies that use the doppelgänger angle, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield comes to mind. The darker version or morally inverse character of his story – is Orlick.
Written and directed by Rodrigo H. Vila, The Last Man trailer lacks the strength needed to entice people to go to the movie theaters and watch it. The trailer is unclear and graining without any direction.
The story follows Kurt, played by Hayden Christensen, who is suffering from the aftermath of being in a war. He is now a vet and dealing with the emotional problems of being in a war and coming home to an unholy, unruly land.
Clearly, the world is wicked and in a state of unrest. A local street prophet, Noe, played by Harvey Keitel, preaches that it will only worsen and predicts a catastrophic storm will strike, making matters even worse.
Kurt heeds Noe’s advice and readies for the apocalyptic storm when he meets sultry Jessica, played by Liz Solari. She, too, believes Noe. The story’s irony is that Kurt finds his life finally coming together as the planet falls apart.
The rest of the cast includes Marco Leonardi, Fernán Mirás, Justin Kelly, and Rafael Spregelburd.
