Tag Archives: Joel Edgerton

“Thirteen Lives” Gripping True Story from Ron Howard

Of late, Ron Howard has directed a couple of documentaries and is now taking on a true story about a soccer team and their coach trapped in a Thailand cave. Some say the incident is the greatest rescue mission in history.

Watching the trailer shows how intensely Howard’s style comes through with two powerful actors, Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell. Joel Edgerton also brings a lot of strength to the movie.

Imagining what it took to film this movie in Thailand is fantastic. Included is a photo of Howard directing the boys. The climate looks grueling. What is Ron Howard drinking?

Director Ron Howard on the set of THIRTEEN LIVES, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Credit: Vince Valitutti / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures © 2022 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Thirteen Lives will play on Amazon Prime a week after it hits the theaters, so get ready to stream. As most moviegoers know, Amazon purchased MGM, and here is one of Amazon’s first releases from the buyout.

The film recounts the amazing true story of the tremendous global effort to rescue a Thai soccer team who became trapped in the Tham Luang cave caused by an unexpected rainstorm. Faced with insurmountable odds, a team of the world’s most skilled divers can uniquely navigate the maze of flooded, narrow cave tunnels.

They join up with Thai forces and over 10,000 volunteers to attempt a harrowing rescue of the twelve boys and their coach. With impossibly high stakes and the entire world watching, the group embarks on their most challenging dive yet, showcasing the limitlessness of the human spirit.

“Boy Erased” Trailer, Movie Clips, Featurette & Poster

Directed by Joel Edgerton, Boy Erased is based on a memoir of a teenage boy whose parents encouraged him to attend a gay-deprogramming through a Christian-sponsored program. 

The movie stars some hefty actors like Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe and Oscar-nominated Lucas Hedges. Openly gay singer and songwriter Troye Sivan plays one attendee of the church-sponsored program.  In the trailer, Sivan appears to keep up with the other talented actors, and I am happy for him. 

The movie isn’t about being gay and accepting homosexuality. It’s about accepting your child or people.  Parents can mold their children into being what they want to be. I know it is cliche,  but parents have to accept who their children are and love them unconditionally.

This isn’t an anti-religion movie because, truly, it is about loving and caring for people and letting people be who they are.

Edgerton is an actor, and this is the fifth movie he’s directed.   He also wrote the screenplay based on Garrard Conley’s book Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family.

The featurette shows how much Edgerton is respected for directing this movie.

These two movie clips pretty much say what the movie is all about. Great acting, watch the clips and you will see what I mean.

The movie clip shows Troye Sivan playing a boy at the church-sponsored program.

The movie trailer tells the story and the frustration the boy and parents went through and the outcome we will find out when we watch the movie.

Gringo Trailers and Poster

Directed by Nash Edgerton, Gringo looks like a lot of fun and action starring  David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Joel Edgerton, Amanda Seyfried, Thandie Newton, and Sharlto Copley.

 

“Red Sparrow” Poster, Trailers, TV Spot

I will pick up the book and give it a read before watching the movie. My daughter took ballet for 10 years, and it is a demanding, alluring, and disciplined art.

Directed by Francis Lawrence, Red Sparrow follows Dominika Egorova, played by Jennifer Lawrence, when she suffers a career-ending injury, Dominika, and her mother faces a bleak and uncertain future. That is why she finds herself manipulated into becoming the newest recruit for Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people like her to use their bodies and minds as weapons.

After enduring the perverse and sadistic training process, she emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow the program has ever produced. Dominika must now reconcile the person she was with the power she now commands, with her own life and everyone she cares about at risk, including an American CIA agent who tries to convince her he is the only person she can trust.  The thriller also stars, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeremy Irons.

Another interesting note is the movie is based on a book series, and I wonder if the next book in the series will be produced.

The Blu-ray/DVD hit the streets with streaming at the usual platforms.  I am not sure how the movie did at the box office. If you haven’t seen it, now is the time to take a look. I find the storyline interesting because it is based on a book written by a former government operative.  In interviews, they claim he based it on his experiences in the secret intelligence agency.

Here is the TV Spot. Like all TV Spots, it’s a bit short.

The second trailer tells us the story of a ballerina turn spy in Russia. The trailer also tells us who is starring with Jennifer Lawrence.

Here is the first movie trailer but it doesn’t say much, which is why I am interested in reading the novel.