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      Jesse Plemons Takes Over Lead Role in Martin Scorsese's Film as Leonardo DiCaprio and Scribe Clash

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      WENN

      The former ‘Breaking Bad’ actor has been enlisted to take over the role originally meant for the ‘Titanic’ star after the latter didn’t see eye to eye with the ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ scribe.

      Feb 19, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Actor Jesse Plemons has taken over Leonardo Dicaprio’s lead role in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming drama “Killers of the Flower Moon”.
      DiCaprio had originally been tapped to star as FBI agent Tom White, who is tasked with investigating a series of real-life murders in the Osage Indians community in Oklahoma in the early 1920s, but he clashed with screenwriter Eric Roth and reportedly pushed to be recast as the secondary lead after a series of script rewrites.
      According to The Hollywood Reporter, Plemons, who worked with Scorsese on “The Irishman”, will now step into the shoes of White, pulling out of talks to join filmmaker Jordan Peele’s new movie, due to a scheduling clash.

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      As requested, DiCaprio will play Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of a powerful local rancher portrayed by Robert De Niro, with actress Lily Gladstone recruited as the “Titanic” star’s onscreen wife.
      “Killers of the Flower Moon”, based on the 2017 non-fiction book by journalist David Grann, is set to begin filming in May (21) and will premiere on Apple TV+.
      Eric Roth previously said of his argument with Leonardo DiCaprio, “Leonardo wanted some things changed that we argued about. He won half of them (arguments). I won half of them. So that’s happening.”
      Of the story adapted for the movie, the scribe explained, “It’s the story of Osage Indians, 1921, the poorest people in America who discover oil in this terrible land in Oklahoma, where they’ve been driven to. Then every killer in America comes to kill 184 of them for their money, but this really heroic guy comes in (to help).”

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      ‘The Violent Heart’ Review: Secrets and Lies

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The Violent Heart’ Review: Secrets and LiesA man who witnessed the murder of his sister tries to rebound in this subtle melodrama.Grace Van Patten and Jovan Adepo in “The Violent Heart”Credit…Ricardo Diaz/Gravitas VenturesFeb. 18, 2021, 10:26 a.m. ETThe Violent HeartDirected by Kerem SangaDrama, Thriller1h 47mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.When the elusive melodrama “The Violent Heart” begins, Daniel is a child who idolizes his older sister Wendy (Rayven Symone Ferrell). She is beautiful and gentle, a high school student with the entire world ahead of her. One night, Daniel watches as Wendy climbs into a car he doesn’t recognize. He follows her on his dirt bike, and he’s the only person present when Wendy is shot and killed by a man whose face Daniel never glimpses.Years later, Daniel (Jovan Adepo) is still dealing with the aftermath of this traumatic experience. He’s 24 years old with a criminal record, yet he has started to rebound. But then he meets Cassie (Grace Van Patten), a high school senior who is reeling from the discovery that her father (Lukas Haas) might be having an affair. Newly rebellious, Cassie is quick to assure Daniel that she’s 18 and capable of making her own decisions, and she pursues a relationship with him. Together, the couple begins to talk through their pasts, finding unexpected common ground.[embedded content]The writer and director, Kerem Sanga, has created a world for his characters where messy relationships abound. Secrets are kept, often with good reason. Sanga encourages his actors to underplay the rage and suspicion that lingers beneath their interactions, and he instead uses the movie’s electronic score to build a melancholy, even ominous mood.The movie cultivates an ambient sense that not all is well. Some of these central relationships are inappropriate, even dangerous, but the subtlety of Sanga’s filmmaking allows for big twists to come as a genuine surprise. It makes for a successful manipulation of his audience’s expectations, even if the overall effect is a movie that feels slightly detached.The Violent HeartNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Days of the Bagnold Summer’ Review:

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Days of the Bagnold Summer’ Review:Adapted from a graphic novel, this comedy pits a teen against his mother in a battle to get through a long summer together.Monica Dolan and Earl Cave in “Days of the Bagnold Summer.”Credit…Greenwich EntertainmentFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETDays of the Bagnold SummerDirected by Simon BirdComedy1h 26mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Regrettably, this motion picture does not chronicle a book club devoting a season to the works of Enid Bagnold. In fact, no reference is made to the author of “The Chalk Garden” and “National Velvet.”Instead, “Days of the Bagnold Summer,” adapted from the Joff Winterhart graphic novel by the screenwriter Lisa Owens and the director Simon Bird, is a coming-of-age story that aspires to winsomeness and wisdom, but only gets so far.The British Bagnold family of the title here consists of Sue (Monica Dolan), a shy middle-aged single mother, and her son, Daniel (Earl Cave), a teen of zombielike pallor and limp hair. Daniel has a trip to Florida looming; there, he plans to spend time with his father, who’s ditched him and mom. The trip is canceled and the chip on Daniel’s shoulder practically triples in size.[embedded content]Amiably anecdotal, the movie gets wry results from Dolan and other players, including Rob Brydon as a would-be ladies man and Tamsin Greig as a “hipper” mom than Sue.It also takes pleasure in deflating Daniel’s enthusiasms. In one scene, the aimless teen bicycles, at unimpressive speed, through suburban streets to the musical accompaniment of Pure Disgust’s “Agents of the Machine.” We get the irony, or rather, the sarcasm: Metal’s grandiose racket seems completely disconnected from the banal lives endured by some of its listeners. The overall song score is by the more dulcet-toned Belle and Sebastian — the implication is that this is what truly grown-up people listen to.Its reactionary aesthetic aside, the movie’s narrative trajectory is arguably too relaxed. By the end of the summer, it’s nice to see Daniel’s chip has diminished, but it’s slightly befuddling that it seems to have gone away by itself.Days of the Bagnold SummerNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. In theaters and virtual cinemas, and available to rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Silk Road’ Review: A Digital Drug Kingpin’s Undoing

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Silk Road’ Review: A Digital Drug Kingpin’s UndoingTiller Russell’s new fact-based thriller about Ross W. Ulbricht could have been a nail-biter, but ended up a limp snooze.Nick Robinson as Ross W. Ulbricht in “Silk Road.”Credit…Catherine Kanavy/LionsgateFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETSilk RoadDirected by Tiller RussellCrime, Drama, ThrillerR1h 52mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.This maladroit fact-based cyberthriller begins at a branch of the San Francisco Public Library in 2013. As Ross W. Ulbricht — the founder of an online marketplace called Silk Road, where illegal drugs were bought and sold — the actor Nick Robinson lays out, in voiceover, some bold anti-authoritarian sentiment. He mentions “the insurmountable barrier between the world as it is and the world as I want it,” and how his project was about “taking back our liberty.”The movie than flashes back several years. At an Austin, Texas, bar, Ross flexes his pickup chops on Julia (Alexandra Shipp). “You wanna dance?” he asks. “No one else is,” she observes. “Exactly,” he replies. Heavy, man.[embedded content]In many respects, “Silk Road” is an excellent examination of why you should probably never date, or maybe even socialize with, a libertarian. It comes up short in almost every other way, though. In the hands of David Fincher, Michael Mann, Olivier Assayas or Katheryn Bigelow, “Silk Road,” the story of Ulbricht’s outlaw project and how it came to ruin, could deliver thrills and food for thought. Under the aegis of the writer-director Tiller Russell, it delivers limpness.Here, two D.E.A. agents who themselves committed crimes in pursuing the actual Silk Road case are morphed into one composite character, played by Jason Clarke, the one-time star of Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” who looks appropriately befuddled by his current circumstance. Tiller also tries to do Fincher’s “The Social Network” one better, showing Julia’s ultimate rejection of Ross as a trigger for him to conspire to commit murder. Nice overreaction, kid. Compounding other story and directorial missteps are dialogue exchanges such as this: “What if you could create an Amazon for drugs?” “You despise Amazon.” “I love freedom.”Silk RoadRated R for despising Amazon but loving freedom, and other bold moves. Running time: 1 hours 52 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Sin’ Review: Man of Marble

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Sin’ Review: Man of MarbleThe second feature in recent months from the Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky is a grimy, austere Michelangelo biopic.A scene from Andrei Konchalovsky’s “Sin.”Credit…Corinth FilmsFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETSinDirected by Andrey KonchalovskiyBiography, Drama, History2h 14mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.“Sin” is the second feature from the Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky to reach virtual cinemas in recent months, and it is not nearly as strong or vital as “Dear Comrades!” (still available to rent). An austere, demanding sit, “Sin” — a Russian-Italian coproduction with Italian dialogue — nevertheless has a stubborn integrity in exploring the competing forces of patronage and creative inspiration that Michelangelo confronted in the 16th century.The film depicts the period when Michelangelo (Alberto Testone) worked on the Tomb of Pope Julius II. After Julius dies, the movie’s Michelangelo agrees to make the commission exclusive, effectively setting up a conflict of interest: Julius belonged to the della Rovere family, a rival of the Medicis; and the Medicis, who now control the papacy, are ideally positioned to support Michelangelo going forward. (Those familiar with the players will surely get more out of the film.)[embedded content]Forever requesting money, promising to meet impossible deadlines and ranting about other artists (“He doesn’t know anything about sculpture!” he scoffs more than once of Raphael), Michelangelo appears to have more luck than strategy in pursuing his single-minded artistic ambitions. Half- or perhaps fully mad, and unfailingly surly, he talks aloud to Dante, his inspiration.The emphasis is on agony, not ecstasy — and definitely not on sanitation. Moviegoers may duck to avoid being hit by falling waste. The film finds its pulse, and an image that captures the magnitude of the artist’s obsession, when Michelangelo takes on the Herzogian task of conveying an intact block of marble from a vertigo-inducing quarry in Carrara to lower ground. Even others’ lives won’t stand in his way.SinNot rated. In Italian, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hour 14 minutes. On Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Test Pattern’ Review: Refocusing the Lens on Race and Gender

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Test Pattern’ Review: Refocusing the Lens on Race and GenderShatara Michelle Ford’s lean, smart debut feature confronts us with our presumptions about what rape and victimhood look like — onscreen and in life.From left, Brittany S. Hall and Will Brill in “Test Pattern.”Credit…Kino LorberFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETTest PatternDirected by Shatara Michelle FordDrama, Thriller1h 22mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.“Test Pattern” opens with a bait-and-switch: An ominous glimpse of a man kissing a drunk woman in a dark bedroom cuts to a casual scene at a bar. The woman, Renesha (Brittany S. Hall), a corporate professional, now dances with a different man — Evan (Will Brill), her boyfriend-to-be. The first half of Shatara Michelle Ford’s debut feature, set in Austin, Texas, traces their relationship in an endearingly low-key, mumblecore fashion.But the unease of the opening scene lingers. Did that moment come before or after Evan and Renesha’s meet-cute? Was it an adulterous hookup or something more insidious? By the time the answers arrive, “Test Pattern” has forced us to question our presumptions about what rape and victimhood look like — onscreen and in life.In Renesha’s case it’s a series of subtle gestures. At a girls’ night out, two persistent men ply her and her friend Amber (Gail Bean) with drinks and weed, and one of them quietly takes a woozy Renesha home.[embedded content]That Renesha is Black and both her boyfriend and attacker are white adds unspoken subtext. Supportive but indignant, Evan drags a disoriented Renesha from hospital to hospital — it turns out to be surprisingly hard to find an E.R. with a nurse qualified to administer a rape kit. Evan’s faith in the bureaucracies of health care and law enforcement clash with Renesha’s (ultimately well-founded) resignation, and his actions unwittingly deepen the theft of agency that has left her reeling.“Test Pattern” achieves a lot with very little: The film’s nonlinear editing and cannily scored silences invite our interpretations, locating in them the entanglements of race and gender. Ford pushes us, if not to definitive answers, then to the right questions.Test PatternNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters and on Kino Marquee. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Blithe Spirit’ Review: Dead, but Not Loving It

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Blithe Spirit’ Review: Dead, but Not Loving ItDan Stevens stars as a writer taunted by the ghost of his dead wife in this grating adaptation of the 1941 play.Dan Stevens and Leslie Mann in “Blithe Spirit.”Credit…Rob Youngson/IFC Films Feb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETBlithe SpiritDirected by Edward HallComedy, Fantasy, RomancePG-131h 35mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.A comedy that’s more screw-loose than screwball, Edward Hall’s “Blithe Spirit,” a ludicrous adaptation of Noël Coward’s 1941 stage play, reimagines its source material as little more than a slip-and-fall farce.Dan Stevens stars as Charles, a near-parody of a blocked writer who’s introduced literally eating the words he has just typed. Commissioned to write a screenplay of one of his best-selling novels, Charles is desperate: Bedeviled by bedroom dysfunction (“Big Ben’s stopped chiming,” he whines to a friend), he hopes to find inspiration by inviting a disgraced psychic (Judi Dench) to host a séance in his imposing Art Deco mansion.[embedded content]What gets released, though, is not what Charles expects as the ghost of his first wife, Elvira (Leslie Mann), killed in a riding accident years earlier, moves in and takes umbrage at her replacement (Isla Fisher). Elvira, visible only to Charles and the audience, and blessed with a well-stocked ghostly wardrobe, is anything but blithe: Wrecking the garden and throwing knives at the help, she proves as hard to get rid of — and about as entertaining — as black mold.Propelled by tiresome characters and tortured setups, “Blithe Spirit” (originally filmed by David Lean in 1945) is a dated curiosity. Merging upper-crust twittery with hocus-pocus nonsense not even Dench can sell, the dialogue encourages Elvira to nag and everyone to over-emote. Surplus buffoonery and a new ending add nothing to the original, leaving us with a movie that obsesses over death while showing all too few signs of life.Blithe SpiritRated PG-13 for spiked drinks and saucy dialogue. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play and Vudu. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘I Care a Lot’ Review: The Art of the Steal

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Pick‘I Care a Lot’ Review: The Art of the StealNasty people do terrible things in this wildly entertaining Netflix caper about guardianship fraud.Rosamund Pike in “I Care a Lot.”Credit…Seacia Pavao/NetfilxFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETI Care a LotNYT Critic’s PickDirected by J BlakesonComedy, Crime, ThrillerR1h 58mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Bookended by towering stilettos and a guillotine-blade bob, Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) strides through “I Care a Lot” with the icy confidence of the inveterate fraud. Her racket is guardianship: identifying powerless retirees, having them falsely declared mentally incompetent and herself appointed their legal conservator.A network of enablers — including an unscrupulous doctor and an oblivious judge — grease the grift as Marla and her personal and business partner (Eiza González) happen upon Jennifer (Dianne Wiest). With a healthy nest egg and no apparent relatives, Jennifer is a “cherry”; and one chilling, all-too-believable sequence later, she has been secured in an assisted-living facility and her considerable assets liquidated. Marla, however, is about to discover she has messed with the wrong old lady.[embedded content]An unexpectedly gripping thriller that seesaws between comedy and horror, “I Care a Lot” is cleverly written (by the director, J Blakeson) and wonderfully cast. Marla is an almost cartoonish sociopath, and Pike leans into her villainy with unwavering bravado. And Wiest is sly perfection: Watch as Jennifer, drugged and smirking, spits an unprintable curse at her tormentor before putting her in a headlock. But it’s the introduction of an inscrutable Russian gangster (Peter Dinklage, all cool intelligence and wounded-puppy eyes) that gives Marla a worthy foil and the plot a reason to climax.With its ice-pick dialogue and gleefully ironic title, “I Care a Lot” is a slick, savage caper with roots in a real-world scam (as an episode of the Netflix series “Dirty Money” recounts). An overlong, somewhat mushy middle section made me fear Blakeson was losing his nerve. I was wrong.I Care a LotRated R for killing, cursing and elder abuse. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes. Watch on Netflix.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More