Sam Raimi is back directing in the superhero genre with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The film follows Dr. Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, as he casts a forbidden spell and opens a portal to the multiverse.
A threat occurs and emerges that may be too big for his team to handle. Other cast members include Xochitl Gomez, Elizabeth Olsen and Rachel McAdams.
This is the extraordinary true story of eccentric British artist Louis Wain, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Wain’s playful, sometimes even psychedelic, pictures helped to transform the public’s perception of cats forever.
Moving from the late 1800s through the 1930s, we follow the incredible adventures of this inspiring, unsung hero as he seeks to unlock the “electrical” mysteries of the world and better understand his own life and the profound love he shared with his wife, Emily Richardson, played by Claire Foy.
Co-written and directed by Will Sharpe, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain follows the extraordinary life of Wain, who painted incredible images of cats. These paintings inspired the public to view cats as domestic pets instead of feral animals that eliminate rodents.
Sharpe describes the challenge of capturing Wain’s inner world as most exciting. “I immediately felt a connection to his pictures, which are full of humor and delightful little details about daily life, but also, sometimes, seemed to have an undercurrent of restlessness and worry, or even sadness.”
“I wanted to take the spirit of those pictures — the wild colors and patterns, the funny tableaux, even the psychedelia — and to fold it into the world of our movie. The more I read about his life, the more I was struck by his courage in facing multiple challenges and how heroically he seemed to face them. It felt like an epic Odyssean life, and I knew there was a story here that could be really uplifting, transporting, and, hopefully, relatable for many people.”
Sharpe’s primary roadmap through the artist’s life came with the love story between Wain and Emily when developing the script.
“I thought the way that the love story was structured, in a slightly unusual and on the surface of it in an unfortunate way, left space for a lot of beauty to be mined,” Sharpe says.
Louis met Emily when she was the governess to his sisters. They had quite a controversial relationship and subsequent marriage. “They had to fly in the face of convention, and there would have been a lot of pressure on them not to be together,” says Sharpe
With the death of his wife so early in his life, Louis Wain’s story also deals with grief, another facet of the love he holds for Emily, which acts as a catalyst for realizations he makes during his later years in life.
“Grief is a theme in this movie, and all of it is tied together under the umbrella of love,” explains Sharpe. “What Louis realizes is that the reason he felt pain is because he loved Emily and that his love for her and Peter (the cat) has inadvertently helped him to appreciate the love that was around him—his friends and family and the people who enjoyed his work.”
Sharpe wanted to present Emily as the person who helped Wain learn what love is — so that he had something to reconnect with at the end of the story.
Cumberbatch feels that Wain’s is a moving story, who leaped at the chance to take the leading role. “I was drawn to him because of his artistry. I also found him incredibly persuasive in a very gentle way. And the fact that he was so talented and lived through so much tragedy, I found that whole journey just extraordinary.”
The rest of the cast includes Andrea Riseborough, Toby Jones, Sharon Rooney, Aimee Lou Wood, Hayley Squires, Phoebe Nicholls, Adeel Akhtar, Asim Chaudhry, Richard Ayoade, Julian Barratt, Sophia di Martino, Taika Waititi, Nick Cave and Olivia Colman.
Written by Tom O’Connor and directed by Dominic Cooke, The Courier is a true-life spy thriller. The story of an unassuming British businessman, Greville Wynne, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history.
At the behest of the UK’s MI-6 and a CIA operative, played by Rachel Brosnahan, he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky, played by Merab Ninidze, to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The movie also stars Jessie Buckley.
Directed by Kevin Macdonald and based on the N.Y. Times best-selling memoir “Guantánamo Diary” by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian inspired the true story of Slahi’s fight for freedom after being detained and imprisoned without charge by the U.S. Government for years.
Alone and afraid, Slahi, played by Tahar Rahim, finds allies in defense attorney Nancy Hollander, played by Jodie Foster, and her associate Teri Duncan, played by Shailene Woodley, who battles the U.S. government in a fight for justice.
The movie is now on Amazon, or you can get the Blu-ray for your library. The cast is strong, and the story is heart-wrenchingly true.
It’s the test of their commitment to the law and their client at every turn. Their controversial advocacy and evidence uncovered by a formidable military prosecutor, Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, uncover shocking truths and ultimately prove that no one can lock up the human spirit.
The rest of the cast includes Zachary Levi and Saamer Usmani.
Co-written and directed by Sam Mendes 1917, it is an epic drama during the most intense period of World War I. Krysty Wilson-Cairns co-wrote the screenplay with Mendes. They focused on the story based on his singular vision of telling the story of two young British soldiers, Schofield, played by George MacKay, and Blake, played by Dean-Charles Chapman, who are given a seemingly impossible mission. That is what you see happening in the first trailer with Colin Firth as a British commander giving their task.
In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message to stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers—Blake’s brother among them.
When I first saw the title, I thought the movie was about the 1917 revolution in Russia. Any world history fan will tell you that was a significant point. So, it bears in mind that a lot happened in Europe that year.
The movie also stars Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Claire Duburcq, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Mendes won an Oscar for American Beauty and directed two James Bond movies, Skyfall and Spectre.
Mendes takes filmmaking to a new level with continuous shots and storytelling through the countryside without using the exact locations. The featurette shows incredible production value.
After watching the featurette, I view the second trailer differently. The cinematography stands out as one character in the movie.
Three more movie clips are below, and watch the camera keeps rolling; They shot everything in one long take.
The extended featurette sets us up for a rocket ride of a movie.
Two more clips show how the scenes in the movie are continuously one shot.
The following trailer proves we will not get bored watching this movie.
Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejoin, The Current War follows three brilliant visionaries set off in a charged battle for the future hold on electricity. The epic story of the cutthroat competition that literally lit up the modern world told in hush tones is now a motion picture.
Benedict Cumberbatch is Thomas Edison, the celebrity inventor on the verge of bringing electricity to Manhattan with his radical new DC technology. On the eve of triumph, his plans are upended by charismatic businessman George Westinghouse, played by Michael Shannon, who believes he and his partner, the upstart genius Nikolai Tesla, played by Nicholas Hoult, have a superior idea for how to rapidly electrify America using AC current.
The poster is like the first one, but this poster says “Director’s Cut,” and that is fascinating. The movie has not been released, and there is a new version of the movie.
As Edison and Westinghouse grapple for who will power the nation, they spark one of the first and greatest corporate feuds in American history, establishing for future Titans of Industry the need to break all the rules.
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is best known for directing Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Michael Mitnick wrote the screenplay and is also one of the producers of the movie. Mitnick adapted The Giver and scripted the episodic Vinyl.
The movie also stars Katherine Waterston, Tom Holland, Matthew Macfadyen, and Tuppence Middleton.
The next group of movie clips tells the tale of the war between Westinghouse and Edison. From the looks of it, Edison was a greedy man who only wanted fame and money.
Co-directed by Scott Mosier and Yarrow Cheney, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch tells the story of a pessimistic grouch who goes on a mission to steal Christmas, only to have his heart changed by a young girl’s generous holiday spirit. Benedict Cumberbatch provides his voice to the notorious Grinch, who lives a solitary life inside a cave on Mt. Crumpet with only his loyal dog, Max, for companionship. With a cave rigged with inventions and contraptions for his day-to-day needs, the Grinch only sees his neighbors in Whoville when he runs out of food.
The story follows the problem of each year at Christmas. They disrupt his tranquil solitude with increasingly bigger, brighter, and louder celebrations. When the Whos declare they will make Christmas three times bigger this year, the Grinch realizes there is only one way for him to gain some peace: he must steal Christmas. To do so, he poses as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, even trapping a lackadaisical misfit reindeer to pull his sleigh.
The Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming are perfect for the holiday season or anytime. You purchase the discs or stream the movies for your kids. The film is a keeper because kids love to play it over and over again.
I am digging these featurettes. They are so much fun to watch. Cumberbatch’s wit is so dry and funny, a joke.
This movie clip is funny and shows the right side of The Grinch.
This featurette is fun for the kids and parents. It’s Grinch Trivia!
The next poster only shows the Grinch and no dog. Otherwise, the newest poster is pretty much the same.
The two movie clips are so cute and fun to watch. Kids are going to love this movie.
More is added to the story down in Whoville, Cindy-Lou Who—a young girl overflowing with holiday cheer—plots with her gang of friends to trap Santa Claus as he makes his Christmas Eve rounds so that she can thank him for help for her overworked single mother.
The movie trailer shows how the narrative reads like Seuss’ book. Do the cookie reindeer eyes move?
The next poster sets up the holiday theme of the movie.
The cute but straightforward Olympics TV Spot has nothing to do with the movie.