It was only a matter of time before we dived into the world of Italian film franchises. To kick things off, we’ll look at the storied La Casa film series, whose entries rarely had anything to do with each other many happened to be known as very different—and not always linked—films. Not one but two key U.S. horror film franchises contributed to the La Casa series. Here we go….
Read MoreThe only thing that could make a franchise trickier than sequels, reboots, and remakes is, well, time travel. So with that in mind, let’s look at apes, robots, and mutants, and try to sort through the continuity when time travel plays a part of the narrative.
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An early box office casualty of the pandemic, Bad Trip was recently released on Netflix nearly a year after its originally scheduled theatrical date. Directed by Kitao Sakurai, the hidden-camera prank comedy spawning from the delightfully deranged mind of star Eric Andre follows the tradition of Sacha Baron Cohen films and the likes of Bad Grandpa. It pieces together a fictional narrative around a series of pranks involving real people with very real reactions. Here, Andre’s character Chris embarks on a road trip from Florida to New York with his best friend Bud (Lil Rel Howery) to confess his love to his childhood crush Maria (Michaela Conlin). They’re unknowingly pursued by Bud’s prison-escapee sister Trina (Tiffany Haddish), whose car they stole for the trip.
Read MoreSequels, reboots, remakes… Where to begin? If you think keeping up with the Marvel movies is overwhelming, wait until you try sorting through these series. We’ve decided to make it simple (well, simpler) with handy series charts.
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Famed filmmaker Terry Gilliam statement on Black Panther made my blood boil. If Mr. Gilliam wanted to trash on the current era of superheroes films, by all means, he should go for it. But there was something targeted, spiteful, and ultimately ignorant about his focus on Black Panther and the choice of words for his criticism. I struggle to reconcile how the person who made accomplished works like Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas could be so far off the mark. Was it bigotry showing? Or just cranky old age? Both? A filmmaker like Ryan Coogler doesn’t need my defense, but I’m offering it anyway because I have a bone to pick with Gilliam.
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A 3D-printed gun with the electronic file needed to produce it available to everyone in the world is more terrifying than the atomic bomb as the materials are so much more easily obtained. The very concept some would argue the internet was made for, others can just as easily argue for restrictions. It’s scary because it’s not just a concept. It’s science fiction made real, and I can’t shake the memory of a certain bleak and unsettling moment from Terminator 2. When Cody Wilson invented this 3D-printed gun, the world changed. The discussion of gun control as it has existed is no longer relevant. But it isn’t just a Second Amendment issue. Wilson’s First Amendment rights are also at stake. Should he be allowed to share the file with the world? Is the government violating his First Amendment rights by trying to stop him?
Read MoreJayne Mansfield helped define a generation of sex appeal in the 1950s with her meteoric rise to fame. Much more than a Marilyn Monroe knock-off, she had a knack for camp that inspired just as many people as her looks. When the sixties rolled along, she struggled to hold onto her fame. The changing culture and her own retreat into domestic life made it difficult to stay in the spotlight. Not long before her truly tragic and horrific death, Mansfield became acquainted with Anton LaVey, the enigmatic founder of the Church of Satan. Just how deep did she flirt with the dark side? And did it bring about her death?
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Brace yourself, True Believers. The Phoenix Force is coming to earth in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, slotted to hit theaters November 2, 2018. Sophie Turner returns as telepathic powerhouse Jean Grey and she’s in for the fight of her life in this big screen adaptation of the classic X-Men story, The Dark Phoenix Saga.
Jessica Chastain, long rumored to be playing Shi’ar Empress Lilandra Neramani, recently confirmed on Twitter she was not playing the intergalactic monarch, but an entirely different character altogether. So what gives? We know Chastain is playing the film’s big bad (cite her Instagram to fellow castmate James McAvoy) and if Lilandra isn’t the film’s villain then who is?
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I’ve made no secret of my love and admiration for Joan Didion. I first read her when I was an editorial assistant at a big publishing house. Blue Valentine was the movie everyone in the bullpen was discussing, and I YouTubed Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams to see how their chemistry translated off-screen (it was pretty epic). Fortuitously, I came across a Nightline segment where Michelle discussed Heath Ledger’s death, and how she read Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking to help cope with his passing. “It didn’t seem unlikely to me that he could walk through a door or could appear from behind a bush,” she said in the interview. “It was a year of very magical thinking.”
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“Play the one where it sounds like the whole studio is going to explode.”
Suzanne Ciani is a woman of great talent who found success in every area of interest she sought to explore. A pioneer of electronic music, her mastery of the modular synthesizer–a instrument in infancy when she discovered it–propelled her to much success in the fields of music and advertising. Her life and career(s) are brought to vivid life in Brett Whitcomb‘s documentary, A Life in Waves.
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