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What’s in Our Queue? ‘Down by Law’Michael CooperIn New York, With France on TVPoetry: ‘The Waste Land,’ read by Alec GuinnessReading about T.S. Eliot’s Wagnerism sent me back to YouTube, yet again, to listen to Alec Guinness read — or, more accurately, act out — “The Waste Land.” It’s a bravura performance — even if he declined to sing the Wagner quotations.Watch it here More
In 2018, the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte honoredoverseas Filipino workers — the women deployed to Dubai, Singapore and other countries as domestic help — as heroes for their hefty contribution to the country’s economy. But in “Overseas,” an observational documentary set in a Philippine training center for such workers, the pupils question this designation. “How can you be a hero when you just work abroad for your own family’s future?” one asks.The exaltation of desperate survival as a moral virtue emerges as the central irony of Sung-a Yoon’s wrenching film. The training center serves as a kind of microcosm. With its pastel-colored walls and labeled rooms (“bathroom,” “kitchen area”), it’s the setting not just for cleaning and caregiving lessons but also role-play exercises that prepare the women for the abuses often meted out by their employers. The trainees commit to these harrowing scenarios with a disorienting sense of play — wearing, for instance, a corny, painted-on mustache while playing the assailant in a sexual assault simulation.[embedded content]With a fly-on-the-wall approach, the movie allows the center’s cruel contradictions to accumulate with a slow burn. If the classes offer the women a cathartic space to acknowledge the indignities of their situation, the instructors are also quick to frame those horrors as obstacles their pupils must “learn” to overcome.Occasional staged soliloquies jar with the film’s delicate vérité approach, but Yoon’s eye for composition remains precise throughout. One image has haunted me for days: The face of Jing, a young woman dreading her impending separation from her family, numbly receiving the results of her psychological evaluation: “Your obedience score is high, which is good if you work abroad.”OverseasNot rated. In Tagalog, Ilonggo and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Watch on Mubi. More
No one would call it a huge leap on the evolutionary ladder, but the animated sequel “The Croods: A New Age” is slightly funnier than its serviceable 2013 predecessor. That movie followed a family of cave persons — whose patriarch was the lunkheaded but big-hearted Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage) — as they left the safety of the rocky alcove they called home and, thanks to the creativity of an outsider, Guy (Ryan Reynolds), embraced more innovative ways of thinking.“The Croods: A New Age,” directed by Joel Crawford, accelerates the Crood family’s clash with modernity. The clan stumbles into a verdant utopia that’s a cross between Shangri-La and Gilligan’s Island. This paradise is maintained by a family called the Bettermans, headed by Hope (Leslie Mann) and Phil (Peter Dinklage), who wear new-age garb and snobbishly show off their advanced ideas, like private rooms, windows and fruit baskets.[embedded content]They also have plans to set up Guy, who has been going steady with Eep (Emma Stone), the Croods’ eldest, with their daughter, Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran), in a subplot that the writers — perhaps because the world’s still-tiny population left them without enough characters to pair off — leave at least partly unresolved.While Dawn and Eep become besties, the dueling dads negotiate the common ground between Grug’s vestigial Cro-Magnonism and Phil’s proto-metrosexuality. Paradoxically, the movie’s energy ebbs as the proceedings turn more antic. The culture clash comedy becomes secondary once “A New Age” introduces a tribe of pugnacious, subtitled monkeys who appear to have a fairly advanced society of their own.The Croods: A New AgeRated PG. Hybrid animals — such as wolf spiders — that might frighten children. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More
For fans of seasonal festivity, the lesbian romantic comedy “Happiest Season” is a three-for-one bargain. It’s set during Christmas, it’ll release over Thanksgiving, and in keeping with Halloween, it’s a monster movie about the horrors that can arise when socializing with straight people.In a charismatic and funny turn, Kristen Stewart stars as Abby, an amiable lesbian who hopes to propose to her girlfriend on a Christmas trip to meet the parents. The only catch is that Abby’s partner, Harper (Mackenzie Davis), has lied about coming out to her uptight family, and she wants Abby to keep up the heterosexual charade. Abby acquiesces to Harper’s wishes, despite the protests of her best friend John (Daniel Levy). For five days Abby fields prying questions, public ex-boyfriends and secret ex-girlfriends — all for the sake of her woefully abashed sweetheart.[embedded content]The movie (streaming on Hulu) was directed by Clea Duvall — perhaps best known for her star turn in the cult film, “But I’m a Cheerleader.” Her “Happiest Season” looks as glossy as a Tinseltown Christmas card; its coming-out plot has traces of decades old Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repression.Yet beneath the holly jolly facade, there is real disdain here for straight people’s cheery conservatism, their preference for smiling silence. This is a story about the self-annihilation queer people face when they mold themselves to straight expectations, told by a lesbian filmmaker working in maybe the most stereotypically heterosexual genre — the Christmas romantic comedy. The movie practically vibrates with its own meta tension.It’s a kick to watch household names like Stewart and Levy (along with Victor Garber and Aubrey Plaza) grapple with questions of queer performance and straight perception. Discomforted, thrilled, I felt gayer for having seen it.Happiest SeasonRated PG-13 for language and references to sex. Running time: 1 hours and 42 minutes. Watch on Hulu. More
In “Uncle Frank,” the writer-director Alan Ball (“True Blood”) combines several overworked genres — the coming-of-age picture, the road-trip odyssey, the angst-filled family-reunion movie — and mostly steers clear of the obvious pitfalls.The film begins in 1969 in South Carolina with the 14-year-old Betty — or rather, Beth (Sophia Lillis), as she takes to calling herself when her cool but mysterious uncle, Frank (Paul Bettany), encourages her to use her preferred nickname. Frank is a professor at N.Y.U., where Beth starts college a few years later. But when she shows up uninvited to a party at Frank’s apartment, she meets Wally (Peter Macdissi), who isn’t, as he first says, Frank’s roommate, but rather Frank’s romantic partner of a decade. Except for one sibling, Frank’s family doesn’t know he’s gay.[embedded content]So when the death of Frank’s father (Stephen Root) sends Frank and Beth south again, they can speak with a new freedom. And as they navigate the contrived travel logistics that Ball has devised (Wally, whom Frank has insisted stay behind, improbably catches up with them in another car, just in time for Frank’s car to break down), flashbacks to Frank’s youth somewhat awkwardly commence, illustrating why he tiptoes around his relatives.Ball has said that “Uncle Frank” was inspired by elements of his family history, and some of the characterization (Frank isn’t perfect but struggles with alcoholism, for instance) feels suitably layered. At other times (anything involving the tyrannical father), “Uncle Frank” tends toward overkill. But Bettany and Macdissi have a wonderful rapport.Uncle FrankRated R. Hidden hurt. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Amazon. More
WENN/Adriana M. Barraza
The comedy movie about a group of lifelong friends competing for a cash prize, which also stars Kevin Dillon, marks the first feature-length directorial debut for the ‘Transformers’ star.
Nov 25, 2020
AceShowbiz – Josh Duhamel will forever be grateful to “Buddy Games” star Dan Bakkedahl for helping him complete his directorial debut on time.
Bakkedahl injured his leg in a water slide stunt but ignored doctors’ advice to rest up and decided the show must go on, so first-time director Duhamel didn’t have to halt the production.
“I flipped over sideways and landed on my leg wrong and it swelled up huge and I had to be rushed to the hospital with an ambulance,” Dan tells WENN. “The doctor said, ‘You can’t go back to work’, but I went back and was on crutches. They had to shoot around my leg being elevated through the rest of the half of the film.”
“I just loved this group and the script so much that I couldn’t imagine not finishing.”
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And Duhamel can’t thank the “Veep” star enough, adding, “Honestly, the fact that Dan was even able to finish that movie saved us because we should’ve probably been shut down. He was that hurt.”
“He came back and we laid him down and iced it, propped him back up for each take, and laid him back down between takes! It was pretty amazing that not only did he continue but he gave an amazing performance despite that.”
Castmate Kevin Dillon was also injured while making the movie about a group of lifelong friends competing for a cash prize.
“Something nicked my nose and I said, ‘Josh, is my nose OK?’ And he’s like, ‘Hold still, hold still…’ They basically had to put a piece of my nose back! There was blood coming down my face. They patched it up and went on to do the shot. It was a very physical movie. We got through it somehow but there were some crazy dangerous moments.”
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Warner Bros. Pictures
Built in a separate section of a studio lot, the secret headquarters of the Caped Crusader features an artificial rock cliff that makes up the outside of the Batcave.
Nov 25, 2020
AceShowbiz – Batman’s secret headquarters is not so secret anymore, at least to fans of the upcoming movie. New photos from the set of “The Batman” have leaked online, giving first look at Matt Reeves’ version of Batcave for Robert Pattinson’s title character.
Aerial shots obtained by Daily Mail revealed production crew of the movie were busily preparing the set in a studio lot on Tuesday, November 24. The distinct building of Batman features an artificial rock cliff that makes up the outside of the Batcave.
The top of the cliffs have been decorated by small trees to exaggerate how large the cliffside actually is. A large pit was built into the makeshift rock face and while what’s inside the Batcave was not visible from the outside, the place is surrounded by large pool of water.
‘The Batman’ set photo revealed Batcave.
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In different section of the studio lot, the crew were transforming the outdoor space into Gotham City. There were a number of buildings which were painted to appear as if they were burnt-out. One part of the set features a large steel gate and doors as part of the Gotham Harbour Iceberg Fishing co., which could be one of The Penguin’s hideouts.
Abandoned cars and piles of rubbish were strewn across the streets to show Gotham City’s grim nature. Meanwhile, a lot of crew members were working on an ice rink which was about to be turned into part of Gotham City, but it was still covered by snow.
“The Batman” recently faced another setback after a stuntman tested positive for COVID-19. According to The Sun, the performer, who was part of a bubble with nine other crew members, may not return to set until 2021 as they all quarantine ahead of the Christmas break.
Filming, however, is still underway as lead actor Robert Pattinson and the film’s crew are unaffected by the positive test. They, however, reportedly admitted that the situation was still “pretty disastrous.”
“The Batman” is currently set for a March 4, 2022 release date.
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