Coppola’s film explores love, power, greed, change, destiny and hope. It focuses on the obsession with perfection in a world far from flawless. The storyline follows Shakespeare’s themes, the political history of Catiline and Robert Moses’s biography of Robert Caro.
Megalopolis taps literary and historical references such as Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and the spiritual journey of Siddhartha and Greek poet Sappho.
Francis Ford Coppola wrote and directed Metropolis, a science fiction drama. Adam Driver plays Cesar Catilina, an artist whose ingenuity leaps him into a utopian, idealistic future. A genius student, he develops an innovative material called Magalon. He has plans to use it to build a utopian city called Megalopolis. But his ambitions do not go unnoticed with his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito.
Giancarlo Esposito as Mayor Cicero in Megalopolis. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate
Cicero is committed to a regressive status quo that perpetuates special interests, greed and partisan warfare. As new mayor, Cicero inherits a bankrupt administration and plans to orchestrate a casino complex to boost revenue and rectify modern New York City.
Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero in Megalopolis. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate
Nathalie Emmanuel plays Julia Cicero. She is romantically involved with Cesar, tearing her loyalty between her father’s scheme and Cesar’s hope for a better world. Such a rip causes a conflicting chasm, though her independent thinking may help her resolve their differences.
Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero and Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina in Megalopolis. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate
Principle photography took place in Georgia. Yet one scene showing an entrance to Ciero’s home looks like the front of Huntington Gardens Mansion.
However, the story is about a hierarchical society divided between achieving a better society and maintaining the status quo. Coppola compares the Catilinarian conspiracy to today’s America, which is at the beginning of the end.
The rest of the supporting cast includes Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D.B. Sweeney and Dustin Hoffman.
Writer/Director Francis Ford Coppola and Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina in Megalopolis. Photo Credit: Phil Caruso
It is the summer of 1957. Behind the spectacle of Formula 1, ex-racer Enzo Ferrari is in crisis. Bankruptcy threatens the factory he and his wife, Laura, built from nothing ten years earlier.
Their volatile marriage suffered because of the loss of their son, Dino, a year earlier. Ferrari struggles to acknowledge his son Piero with Lina Lardi.
Meanwhile, his drivers’ passion to win pushes them to the edge as they launch into the treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy, the Mille Miglia.
Based on Brock Yates’ 1991 book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Car, The Races, The Machine, with a screenplay by Troy Kennedy Martin, Michael Mann directed Ferrari as a character study unlike anything else the director has done on the big screen.
“… Enzo Ferrari, one of the most famous yet inscrutable and complex men of the 20th century. For Mann, that was a perfect hook. “There is no equilibrium in his life, and that’s the whole point of Enzo Ferrari,” says Mann. “That fascinated me because that’s more like the way life actually is,” Mann continues. “Life is asymmetrical. Life is messy. Life is filled with chaos. Ferrari was precise and logical, rational in everything to do with his factory and race team. In the rest of his life, he was impulsive, defensive, libidinous, chaotic. This asymmetry and wonderful contradiction is what made him and the other characters in this unique story so human to me.”
Adam Driver (Maurizio Gucci) and Lady Gaga (Patrizia Reggiani) in HOUSE OF GUCCI A film about the tumultuous Gucci family fashion dynasty and the murder of the founder Guccio Gucci’s grandson Maurizio Gucci. Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, Jack Huston
Directed by Ridley Scott, House of Gucci follows the headlines of the shocking true story of the family empire behind the Italian fashion house of Gucci. The Blu-ray/DVD comb-pack is now available.
I enjoyed watching the acting, amazing talent, though the pace of the film is slow. Like Scott’s The Last Duel, too much posturing by the actors. But, this is the director and editor’s job of starting the scene later and ending it sooner. I don’t think Scott has lost his touch. Perhaps the lack of pre-screening with audiences is the cause. That we can blame on the pandemic with the closing of the movie theaters.
Costume, makeup and the production design impressed me as well. Overall, the movie sparked my interest in how a family could self-destruct. That is an interesting story to tell. I don’t think Reggiani is totally to blame.
If you want to see some talented actors, see the movie. It’s worth it.
Spanning three decades of love, betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately murder, we see what a name means, what it’s worth, and how far a family will go for control.
The scandal-ridden real-life family drama House of Gucci, the latest film from Scott, the protean director of such classics as Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator and Thelma & Louise.
Recognized and admired around the globe, Gucci is the fashion label of founder Guccio Gucci, who opened his first quality leather goods store in Florence, Italy, precisely one hundred years ago.
In the late 1970s, the story begins at a critical juncture in the famed Italian fashion empire’s history. As the Gucci family’s global reach has broadened, there are have hints of financial improprieties, stifled innovation and a cheapening of the brand. Guccio Gucci’s two sons, the colorful and wily Aldo, played by Al Pacino, and his more conservative and detached sibling Rodolfo, played by Jeremy Irons, oversee the Gucci business.
The tenacious Aldo has no intention of ceding control of the family concern, certainly not to his fanciful son Paolo, played by Jared Leto. He is more interested in becoming a clothing designer. His brother Rodolfo’s timid and overprotected scion, Maurizio, played by Adam Driver, would prefer to study law than assume the mantle of a global fashion empire.
Then Maurizio meets and falls in love with the beautiful and ambitious Patrizia Reggiani, played by Lady Gaga, and marries her against his father’s wishes. Uncle Aldo finds a kinship in the cunning Patrizia. Together, they persuade Maurizio to set aside his legalistic ambitions and join the company, thus becoming the presumptive heir — much to the displeasure of the hapless Paolo, whose design dreams outweigh his talent.
For a short time, the bad blood simmers, and the various members of the Gucci dynasty begin to co-exist. But as Gucci rivals threaten to erode their preeminent place in the quality fashion hierarchy, Patrizia goads Maurizio into staging a coup. After inheriting his father’s position in the company, the couple slowly and stealthily seizes control of the business. They connive Paolo into selling his shares by dangling false promises. And with the help of the family’s financial advisor, Domenico De Sole, played by Jack Huston, shortly after Aldo is released from prison for tax evasion, they buy him out as well.
As sole head of the company, and with a fresh infusion of financing from outside investors, Maurizio is no longer hesitant to revel in his power and the privilege it accrues. Having betrayed his family, he now turns on Patrizia and starts an affair with a childhood friend, Paolo Franchi, played by Camille Cottin.
Her ambitions are thwarted, and her marriage in tatters, Patrizia becomes panic-stricken and desperate. Maurizio files for divorce. She forges a dangerous alliance with a crafty psychic, Pina Auriemma, played by Salma Hayek.
Maurizio launches an ambitious plan to revive the Gucci name and reputation by hiring an up-and-coming American designer, Tom Ford, played by Reeve Carney. A deadly power struggle ensues, and Maurizio is besieged on two sides. The tenacious Patrizia and the company’s investors who abetted by his once trusted advisor, De Sole, attempt to wrest control of the fashion empire from the Gucci family’s hands.
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.
Written and directed by Scott Z. Burns, The Report story played out on the headlines and newscasters had a field day with the conspiracy behind the expose of the evil, brutality at CIA’s Detention Center and Interrogation Program. The movie is a far cry from A Few Good Men.
The Report is a gripping thriller based on actual events. Naive and unrealistic staffer Daniel J. Jones, played by Adam Driver, is tasked by his boss Senator Dianne Feinstein, played by Annette Bening, to lead an investigation of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program, which developed from the aftermath of 9/11.
Jones’ unremitting pursuit of the truth leads to dangerous findings that uncover the lengths to which the nation’s top intelligence agency went to suppress evidence, subvert the law, and hide a brutal secret from the American public.
The next trailer shows a pretty hard subject to explain in a matter of two hours.
The next six clips show what this man went through to get to the truth of what happened during the CIA’s interrogations of potential terrorists. Driver is so good at conveying the feeling that maybe all his work will be for not.
I am so excited that J.J. Abrams is returning to direct the final chapter of the saga from a galaxy far, far away.
The standard cast is returning with some new faces, including Lupita Nyong’o, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Daisy Ridley, Keri Russell, Adam Driver, Billy Dee Wiliams, and the late Carrie Fisher.
Abrams also co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Terrio, and there appears to be a new Droid.
The red carpet interview with producer Kathleen Kennedy reveals the franchise hasn’t finished yet. Still, the other red carpet interviews with J.J. Abrams and stars talk about this being the last movie of the nine Star Wars movies.
Star Wars is a big box office winner. I side with Kennedy. The space opera stories must continue even if the next one starts with a different group of characters.
The “Special Look” shows the Star Wars past and the movie’s ending. In the middle, we see C-3PO with red eyes. At the end of the footage, we see Rey (or is it Rey) on the Darkside.
The third trailer shows a lot happening in the final movie. All of it is exciting.
Here is a TV spot and yes it advertises to purchase your advance tickets. Not a bad idea considering it will sell out in some locations. The TV spot does offer some clues to the story and new footage. Enjoy!
Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, The Dead Don’t Die takes place in a peaceful town of Centerville. The inhabitants find themselves battling an enormous amount of zombies as the dead rise from their graves.
Focus Featurettes is calling this more “the greatest zombie cast ever disassembled.” The all-star cast includes Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Sara Driver, RZA, Selena Gomez, Carol Kane, and Tom Waits.
Jarmusch worked with both Murray and Driver in Broken Flowers and Paterson respectively.
Watching the trailer is so funny. I bellied laughed and laughed. The cast must have had a great time filming this movie. It’s hilarious.
Co-written and directed by Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman was formerly called Black Klansman. The movie is based on the book by Ron Stallworth called Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime. The true story is a memoir of Stallworth, played by John David Washington, being the first black officer in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 1978, he went undercover to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.
The Stallworth and his partner, played by Adam Driver, penetrate into the Klan. They reach the highest levels and are able to stop a takeover of the city. During his undercover work, he even managed to disruption and stop several cross burnings and other activities of the disreputable hate group.
I watched the movie last night with my family. We were entertained and enlighted on the craziness of bigotry and injustices in the late 70s.
The fact that Jones won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, he wove a skillful story with talented actors playing real people in a messed up system.
Driver, as a non-practicing Jewish cop going undercover in the Ku Klux Klan, is a story in itself. Washington, as the Black man in a world of bigotry even in the police force, holds an even keel to the harshness of his culture.
Jones takes the movie further at the end with clips of contemporary riots in the South. Though I understand his purpose of these final clips, their congruity with the original story is not comforting.
The Blu-ray and DVD hit the street and is available for streaming. If you didn’t get a chance to see the movie yet, you can watch it in the comfort of your own home, and I recommend it.
The cast also includes Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, and Harry Bellefonte. Bellefonte’s seen is heartwrenching as he tells the story of the brutality of the South.
The movie clip shows the comedic undertones.
Interesting movie clip shows how Spike Lee directed a serious comedy. The poster above is silly as well. The movie trailer shows how the movie was filmed in a 1970s style. Obviously, it is a comedy with a strong message.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Logan Lucky follows brothers Jimmy, played by Channing Tatum, and Clyde Logan, played by Adam Driver, trying to reverse a family curse. They set out to execute an elaborate robbery during the legendary Coca-Cola 600 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Take a look at this amazing cast that also includes Seth MacFarlane, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, Katherine Waterson, Dwight Yoakam, Sebastian Stan, Brian Gleeson, Jack Quaid, Hilary Swank and Daniel Craig.
With that, this trailer is so much fun to watch, pure entertainment.
As a TV Spot, this is pretty cool to watch. This is a fun movie to watch.
