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How the Cannes Film Festival ChangedStephanie GoodmanIn New York, watching France đ«đ· Violette Franchi for The New York TimesThe Cannes Film Festival returned after a year off. Unlike other festivals, which went online during the pandemic, Cannes organizers had vowed to wait until an in-person event was possible.All is not exactly back to normal â More
Nicolas Cage plays a reclusive truffle hunter in this fiercely controlled character drama.Shielded by a ratâs-nest beard and layers of decaying clothing, Rob (Nicolas Cage) lives in a rudimentary cabin in the Oregon wilderness with his beloved pig. Together, they forage for truffles that Robin barters for necessities when Amir (an indispensable Alex Wolff) makes his weekly visit. The truffles are bound for high-end Portland restaurants; when the pig is stolen, her owner will be compelled to follow the fungi.âPig,â Michael Sarnoskiâs stunningly controlled first feature, is a mournful fable of loss and withdrawal, art and ambition. Told in three chapters and a string of beautifully delineated scenes, the movie flirts with several genres â revenge drama, culinary satire â while committing to none. Instead, Sarnoski takes us on an enigmatic journey as Robin searches for his pet and revisits a life he long-ago abandoned.Pit stops at an underground fight club for restaurant workers, and at a favorite baker for a prized salted baguette, are both moving and strange, leaving us with more questions than answers. Once, Rob had stature in this world; now, in the words of Amirâs powerful father, Darius (Adam Arkin), he no longer even exists. Yet he and Darius are the same: twin disconsolates, imprisoned by heartbreak. And while âPigâ can at times feel engulfed by its own sullenness, thereâs a rigor to the filmmaking and a surreal beauty to Pat Scolaâs images that seal our investment in Robinâs fate.Cage is superb here, giving Robin a subdued implacability and a voice that initially croaks from disuse and later swells with quiet conviction. When Robin delivers a speech about the madness of choosing profit over dreams, it lands with the full weight of an actor who seems to know whereof he speaks.PigRated R for an extended beat down. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters. More
This hyper-stylized, neon-soaked take on âRomeo and Julietâ tries hard to be slick; too bad itâs so amateurish.Combine edgy action movie clichĂ©s with a hackneyed âRomeo and Julietâ-inspired screenplay and you get âDie in a Gunfight,â a neon-saturated shoot-âem-up that follows a pair of brooding lovers as they fend off their mobster-ish parents.The director Collin Schiffli draws from the hyper-stylized playbook of filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright, and Nicolas Winding Refn, employing comic-book style animation and freeze-frame effects to introduce the filmâs characters, all crazy rich folks and hip, teeth-gnashing hustlers.Its hero is Ben Gibbon (Diego Boneta), a typical bad boy who spends his days cruising around the city, party-crashing, and getting into street fights with his best friend, Mukul (Wade Allain-Marcus), always by his side.But Benâs impetuous ways conceal a broken heart. He longs for fellow malcontent Mary Rathcart (Alexandra Daddario), and when the two fatefully reunite at a swanky soiree, they run off together despite their parentsâ efforts to keep them apart. Cue a series of flashy showdowns and roguish theatrics at strip clubs and dingy movie theaters.Itâs a shame that itâs all so wincingly contrived. The film tries so hard to be slick, but its efforts are both unoriginal and painfully amateurish.Among its biggest missteps is its use of voice-over narration meant to lend the events a mythic quality. But the narration (performed by Billy Crudup, but sounding more like an automated recording) lands jarringly flat against the filmâs loonier beats.Boneta and Daddario at least play their star-crossed lovers with a lasciviously manic glint in their (dilated) eyes, but the formulaic script does them no favors. Itâs a classic case of style over substance, only its style feels awfully passĂ©.Die in a GunfightRated R. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More
Not even the greatest living French actress can redeem this witless crime caper.The police captain, on a date with a translator in his department, tries to compliment her with an observation about her âparadoxicalâ nature. She seems so small and fragile, and yet she possesses such extraordinary self-confidence!The poor guy, whose name is Philippe, doesnât realize who heâs talking to. Not in the fictional universe of âMama Weed,â in which the translator, Patience Portefeux, turns out to be something of a criminal mastermind. And certainly not in the world that the rest of us inhabit. Patience is played by Isabelle Huppert, who has that paradox printed on her business card. Philippeâs insight is so laughably obvious that it indicts the director, Jean-Paul SalomĂ©, for lack of imagination.The list of charges against this watery cafĂ© au lait of a crime caper is extensive â wearisome ethnic stereotypes, cop-movie clichĂ©s, awkward pacing, a labored plot â but the chief transgression is that it wastes the time and talent of one of the supreme screen actors of our time. Huppertâs craft and energy are faultless (Hippolyte Girardot, who plays Philippe, is pretty good too), but the script and the direction undermine her at every turn.Patience, the child of a Jewish mother (Liliane RovĂšre, the beloved Arlette of âCall My Agentâ) and a long-gone Algerian father, works for the Paris police translating wiretaps and interrogations of Arabic-speaking subjects. A big shipment of hashish is making its way from Morocco, and when she learns that her motherâs caretaker (Farida Ouchani) has a son who is involved in the trafficking, she uses her linguistic skills and innate shrewdness to divert the cargo and save the young man from serious prison time.In sudden possession of 700 kilos of contraband, Patience decides to unload it. A widow with two daughters, constant money worries and a vague underworld family history as well as connections to law enforcement, she has both the motive and the resources to become, at least temporarily, a drug kingpin â or queenpin, as the case may be.She adopts the persona of an impatient, entrepreneurial North African matriarch â Mama Weed (âla daronneâ in French) â putting on a hijab, garish jewelry and heavy lipstick and enlisting the services of Scotch (Rachid Guellaz) and Chocapic (Mourad Boudaoud), a pair of bumbling small-timers. She also strikes up an alliance with Madame Fo (Jade Nadja Nguyen), the all-seeing, criminal-minded matriarch of the apartment block where Patience is virtually the only non-Chinese resident.As the rightful owners of the hash close in, along with Philippe and his colleagues, the movie accelerates simultaneously toward melodrama, farce and shoot-em-up without arriving anywhere interesting. There are plenty of so-so movies that Huppert redeems with her presence, but this is just a bad one that she happens to be in.Mama WeedNot rated. In French, Arabic and Yiddish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters. More
BenoĂźt Jacquotâs erotic costume drama envisions the Italian playboy as a weathered sad sack living in exile.The French filmmaker BenoĂźt Jacquot (âDiary of a Chambermaid,â âFarewell, My Queenâ) is a master of costume dramas with an erotic bent. He brings the European period piece down to earth by pitting aristocratic whimsy against the uglier experiences of the working class, and heâs never afraid to visualize the, uh, unseemly biological realities beneath all those pantaloons and hoop skirts.âCasanova, Last Love,â his latest foray into the world of powdered wigs and courtly intrigue, is no exception, though it pales in comparison to his fiery women-fronted films.Jacquot reappraises the notorious philanderer by depicting him not as a raucous pleasure-seeker but a weathered sad sack living in exile. In this world, playboys are pathetic and pitiable, which reads like a plea for modern audiences to cut maligned men more slack.
Framed as a series of flashbacks, the film follows Casanova as he wanders phantom-like around the English court â a much more vulgar place than his usual stomping grounds. He falls for Marianne de Charpillon (Stacy Martin), an alluring but cruel prostitute who claims to have encountered him once before when she was an impressionable 11-year-old girl.Thus begins a desultory cat-and-mouse game that emphasizes the ambiguity of La Charpillonâs intentions, which are complemented by the cinematographer Christophe Beaucarneâs dimly-lit spaces and dreamy, velvet textures.The terrific French actor, Vincent Lindon, usually plays brooding types with a menacing streak but here he imbues his Casanova with subtle poignancy. Itâs an interesting performance that nevertheless transforms Casanova to the point that he is no longer a believable womanizer.Perhaps thatâs the intention: appearances and reputations are deceptive. Though Jacquot throws into question our presumptions about figures like Casanova, as well as vilified women like La Charpillon, he leaves it at that, leaving us wondering what exactly it was all for.Casanova, Last LoveNot rated. In French and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters. More
Proposals for the embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association include adding 50 members to its voting ranks to bring in more diversity and creating a for-profit spinoff company.LOS ANGELES â For months, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the troubled nonprofit organization behind the big-money Golden Globe Awards, has been wrestling with how to reform itself after an outcry over financial, ethical and diversity lapses and NBCâs cancellation of next yearâs Globes telecast.Part of the challenge: Swaths of the entertainment industry â and a few H.F.P.A. members, two of whom quit in protest in recent weeks â have deemed the âtransformationalâ changes proposed by the groupâs board as insufficient. A particular point of contention has been inclusion; the group currently has about 80 members, none of whom are Black.On Wednesday, an expanded reform plan was presented to the organizationâs members for consideration.Todd Boehly, the chairman of Eldridge Industries, a holding group with assets that include Dick Clark Productions, the decades-long producer of the Golden Globes, presented the complex plan over Zoom. Its core components involve the speedy addition of 50 journalist voters to the current group of about 80, with an emphasis on diversity; the creation of a spinoff, for-profit Golden Globes company in partnership with Eldridge that would be governed by a 15-member board; and tougher and more transparent requirements for reaccreditation as an H.F.P.A. member, which must be done annually.Jesse Collins, a producer whose awards-show credits include the Academy Awards, the BET Awards and the Grammys, and who will produce the next American Music Awards, a Dick Clark production, has agreed to work with Eldridge to advance H.F.P.A. reform. âThis is an exciting opportunity to be part of real change,â Mr. Collins said in an email.Eldridge has gotten involved because the Golden Globes generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for Dick Clark Productions. Eldridge wants to set the Golden Globes up for long-term stability and even growth â possibly by expanding overseas to produce local versions of the show or perhaps turning the flagship ceremony into a multiday event. If the organization moves quickly enough (a long shot considering its recent infighting), Eldridge even believes the 2022 Golden Globes could be salvaged.âWhile we recognize that this is ultimately an H.F.P.A. membership decision, we look forward to investing time and resources to ensure that essential reforms â prioritizing inclusion, transparency and governance â are implemented, creating meaningful change and long-term, sustained success,â Eldridge said in a statement.The H.F.P.A. is expected to vote this summer on various reform proposals. The organization requires a two-thirds majority vote to change its bylaws.In the meantime, those in Hollywood who are pressuring the H.F.P.A. to change â stars, publicists, filmmakers, show creators â will undoubtedly scrutinize the fine print on Eldridgeâs proposal and weigh in. It is unclear, for instance, how the voter-expansion plan will be received.Eldridgeâs suggestion of 50 additional voters would be a 63 percent increase. But those voters would not become members, at least not immediately. That means they would not receive the same financial opportunities as the current members, who would become employees, with rolling terms, of the new for-profit company and have responsibilities that include producing content that can be used to promote the Globes.(A nonprofit H.F.P.A. arm would continue to exist as well, with responsibilities that include charitable giving; the organization says it has given away $45 million over the last 28 years. On Wednesday, Mr. Boehly proposed that the charitable entity expand its mission, including by endowing journalism chairs at one or more historically Black colleges and universities.)The foreign press association has been under fire since February, when a wide-ranging Los Angeles Times article found, among other things, that the group had no Black members, had more than $50 million in cash on hand at the end of October and paid large sums to members for serving on committees. The newspaper has continued to scrutinize the organization, publishing more than 40 articles about its problems and the most recent Globes ceremony.During the Globes telecast on Feb. 28, members of the foreign press association vowed to diversify the group. A set of changes were announced in early May. They included increasing the groupâs membership by 50 percent over the next year and a half and hiring diversity consultants (those initially hired to do the job quit under protest). The association also said it planned to hire a search firm to seek potential candidates to run the group, and had retained a law firm to help carry out the changes.But Hollywood â long willing to turn a blind eye to the groupâs problematic inner workings â pushed back. Netflix declared that it would not work with the organization unless additional changes were made. Amazon and WarnerMedia said the same. Scarlett Johansson said in a statement that the organizationâs news conferences âbordered on sexual harassment,â and Tom Cruise returned his three Golden Globe trophies. A group of more than 100 publicity firms that serve the entertainment industry vowed a boycott.All of that, and the knowledge that the ratings for Februaryâs show dropped precipitously, prompted NBC to cancel the 2022 show.âWe continue to believe that the H.F.P.A. is committed to meaningful reform,â the network said at the time. âHowever, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the H.F.P.A. needs time to do it right.â More
âAline,â an unofficial biopic of the singer, boasts a singular casting choice that has all of Cannes buzzing.CANNES, France â The Cannes Film Festival is meant to be a holy temple of cinema, a place where sober works from the most respected directors have their first unveiling. But every so often, something completely off-kilter sneaks through, a film so unlike anything at Cannes that it feels out of place ⊠that is, until it steers into its eccentricities so hard that it somehow boomerangs back into auteurism.These out-of-left-field movies often end up being my favorite experiences of the festival, and thatâs why Iâve got to tell you about âAline,â a wild Celine Dion biopic that screened at Cannes on Tuesday night and reduced the audience to giggles. Let me just get this out of the way: Iâm still reeling from the instantly iconic decision of the filmâs 57-year-old actress-director ValĂ©rie Lemercier to play Celine Dion at every age of her life, including as a 5-year-old child.You see a lot of nervy things at Cannes, but this surely takes the cake.âAlineâ begins with a bit of a disclaimer, as the opening title card declares: âThis film is inspired by the life of Celine Dion. It is, however, a work of fiction.â Thatâs why, even though the story follows nearly every element of Dionâs life beat for beat, the main character is instead named Aline Dieu and most of Dionâs best-known songs proved impossible to get the rights to. (Yes, â30 Rockâ fans, weâre dealing with a Jackie Jormp-Jomp situation here.)Like Dion, Aline is born into a large Quebec family where she is the youngest of 14 children. Her public debut as a singer comes early: At 5, Aline takes the stage at her brotherâs wedding and lets loose with an uncannily powerful singing voice. Dion did that, too, but Iâm going to guess there was one crucial difference in real life: When 5-year-old Celine sang at that wedding, she wasnât sporting the face of an AARP-eligible adult.Danielle Fichaud, left, ValĂ©rie Lemercier (yes, the director) and Sylvaine Marcel in âAline.âJean-Marie Leroy/Rectangle Productions/TF1 Films ProductionShrunk to Hobbit size and Facetuned into near-oblivion, Lemercier scampers, preens and unnerves. Iâve never seen anything quite like it: Not âPEN15,â not John C. Reilly at the beginning of âWalk Hard,â not even a fully grown Martin Short playing a psychotic 10-year-old in âClifford.â As a cinematic presence, Preteen Aline looks less like our main character and more like sheâs ready to terrorize Vera Farmiga in the next âConjuringâ movie.Why didnât they just cast an actual kid? Iâm told that as a French comedian, Lemercier has often played children, but âAlineâ takes this shtick several steps too far: The movie is like âBohemian Rhapsodyâ if they shrank Rami Malek and made him play his own teeth. Have you seen those Twitter prompts that ask you to reimagine a classic film with one character replaced by a Muppet? âAlineâ reminded me of that, except the main character is the Muppet and instead of felt, she is made from your nightmares.You may be thinking, âWell, surely this insane 5-year-old portion of the movie doesnât last very long.â Youâre right, because the movie does eventually age Aline up ⊠to 12. Here, Lemercier plays Aline as a gawky introvert thrust into fame after she signs with a manager, Guy-Claude Kamar (Sylvain Marcel). The character is based on Dionâs own producer-manager, RenĂ© AngĂ©lil, whom she met as a preteen and eventually married, and Lemercier frames that problematic pairing as Alineâs greatest aspiration in life.Practically speaking, that means weâre watching a 57-year-old play a 12-year-old with a crush on her 40-year-old manager. I just donât know what to do with any of that! Every time Alineâs mother tries to sever the union, declaring that Guy-Claude is far too old for Aline, I felt like my brain was short-circuiting.Jean-Marie Leroy/Rectangle Productions/TF1 Films ProductionIs Lemercier trying to sanction the romance by playing Aline herself, suggesting that the young woman was simply an old soul? Iâm not sure that tracks, since by the time Aline has become an adult (which is when she and Guy-Claude finally consummate their relationship), Lemercier is still playing her as a sugar-loving, childlike diva.Eventually, you just have to surrender to the absurdity of âAline,â and at least that sense of humor sometimes comes from a knowing place, like when Aline begins her residency in Las Vegas and gets lost in the giant mansion she just bought. After the filmâs central romance is resolved in the first hour, âAlineâ simply skims Dionâs adult life for stand-alone episodes: Sheâs picking a dress for the Oscars! Sheâs taking fertility treatments! Guy-Claude has a ponytail now!But even the filmâs more straightforward dramatic scenes are still tinged with a bit of insanity. It almost canât be helped: After youâve sat through a half-hour of Preteen Aline, nothing feels normal anymore.And maybe thatâs the way âAlineâ ought to be. Cultural figures hardly get more mainstream than Celine Dion, but even her biggest fans would admit that the woman exudes pure camp. I canât explain half of the directorial choices made in âAline,â but at least theyâre so goofy and distinctive that Iâll be thinking about them for years to come. Palme dâOr be damned: In an era where musical biopics are increasingly disposable, I know that âAlineâ will go on and on. More
The âGuardians of the Galaxyâ director talks about the Twitter controversy that got him temporarily fired from Marvel, and his crossover to the DC franchise.One day in July 2018, James Gunn discovered that he was trending on Twitter and not for a good reason. Gunn, the filmmaker behind Marvelâs âGuardians of the Galaxyâ science-fiction series, had tweeted many deliberately crude jokes about the Holocaust, the 9/11 attacks, AIDS, pedophilia and rape. Now they had been resurfaced, steering waves of criticism his way. Gunn was fired from a planned third âGuardiansâ movie and he believed his career was over. âIt seemed like everything was gone,â he said recently.Gunn publicly apologized and his âGuardiansâ stars, including Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, rallied to his defense in an open letter. In March 2019, Gunn was hired back to the film franchise.Gunn had spent the months after his firing reflecting on himself while also working on an unexpected opportunity: Warner Bros. had tapped him to make a movie in its own superhero universe based on DC Comics characters. His entry, âThe Suicide Squad,â which he wrote and directed, chronicles a motley team of criminals, including the marksman Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and the saboteur Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), selected by the ruthless Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to complete a seemingly impossible mission.âThe Suicide Squad,â which will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6, follows the 2016 film âSuicide Squad,â written and directed by David Ayer, which was a commercial success but not well received by critics. Gunnâs take preserves the violence while adding further layers of outrageousness and absurd characters like the Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), the fish-human hybrid King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) and a malevolent alien starfish called Starro.As Gunn explained, âThereâs a sort of magical realism that we come into this film with. Yes, itâs weird to see a walking shark. But itâs not as weird as it would be in our universe.âGunn, whose credits include the low-budget genre satires âSlitherâ and âSuper,â spoke in late June in a video interview from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he is working on âPeacemaker,â a TV spinoff of âThe Suicide Squadâ starring that jingoistic adventurer played by John Cena.The 54-year-old Gunn has let his spiky hair go white and grown a tidy accompanying beard, giving him a look thatâs more mad scientist than industry upstart. But he remains chastened by his brief exile from Marvel. Speaking of âThe Suicide Squad,â he said, âThereâs dark humor in it, but the emotional part is there, too. I feel as if I was communicating my whole being.âGunn discussed his firing and rehiring by Marvel, the making of âThe Suicide Squadâ for DC and his perspective on the two superhero franchises. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.Gunn with Idris Elba among the cast and crew of âThe Suicide Squad.âJessica Miglio/Warner Bros.How did you first learn that you had been fired from Marvel?It was conveyed to me by Kevin Feige [the Marvel Studios president]. I called Kevin the morning it was going on, and I said, âIs this a big deal?â And he goes, âI donât know.â That was a moment. I was like, âYou donât know?â I was surprised. Later he called me â he himself was in shock â and told me what the powers that be had decided. It was unbelievable. And for a day, it seemed like everything was gone. Everything was gone. I was going to have to sell my house. I was never going to be able to work again. Thatâs what it felt like.Did the experience make you more careful about what you say, whether on social media or in general?Yes and no. Iâm more considerate of peopleâs feelings today. I had talked about this a lot before those tweets were [resurfaced]. They are awful things, thatâs what my sense of humor was back then. But before this ever happened, I realized that I had closed myself off to things I thought were schmaltzy because I didnât want to be vulnerable. This attitude â I can make a joke about anything, look how great I am â thatâs just not the fullness of me as a human being. And I learned that long before I got called out for the tweets.The term wasnât as prevalent at the time, but do you think you were a victim of what people now call âcancel cultureâ?I understand peopleâs preoccupation with that term. But itâs such a bigger issue than that. Because cancel culture also is people like Harvey Weinstein, who should be canceled. People who have gotten canceled and then remain canceled â most of those people deserved that. The paparazzi are not just the people on the streets â theyâre the people combing Twitter for any past sins. All of that sucks. Itâs painful. But some of it is accountability. And that part of it is good. Itâs just about finding that balance.When you see someone else now being punished for things theyâve posted online, are you sympathetic?Even when the person has done something terrible, I still feel sympathy for that person. Because Iâm a compassionate person and itâs part of my faith. Sometimes things get taken out of context. And sometimes somebody did something when they were in college â itâs 20 years later, theyâve lived a great life, itâs just too much. And then sometimes you read, oh, well, what he did was pretty awful.When did you start to realize that things werenât quite as dire? Did the public support of your âGuardiansâ actors make the difference?You do not understand the immensity of it until youâre in the middle of it. For a guy who feels like heâs done most things by himself and hasnât had a lot of backing from anyone, ever, and has had to claw my way from B movies to where I am today, you donât expect people to have your back. As somebody who does have a difficult time taking in the affection or the love of others, to have everybody around me â my girlfriend, my parents, my family, my manager, my publicists, all of the actors Iâve worked with â to have them come to my side and be there for me, that was an eye-opener for me. I felt really fulfilled and loved in a way that I had never felt in my entire life. And when Warner Bros. comes to me on the Monday after it happens and says, we want you, James Gunn, you think, wow, that feels good to hear.Asked about the nihilistic feel of âThe Suicide Squad,â Gunn pushed back: âFor me itâs about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections.âAlana Paterson for The New York TimesSo while youâre in the midst of this potential scandal, Warner Bros. comes to you and asks if you might be interested in Superman, their flagship DC character?They proposed that to me. Toby Emmerich [the Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman], he works out with my manager, and every morning he would say, âJames Gunn, Superman. James Gunn, Superman.âHow did you land on âThe Suicide Squadâ instead?At that time I said I canât commit myself to something right now. It was traumatic. I had to deal with myself. I just have to take a step back. So I took the different possibilities of projects I could work on, and for a month, every day I worked on a different project. I really wanted to make sure that whatever I was going to write was going to be a great story, and if it worked out and I felt like directing it, I could. âSuicide Squadâ was just the one that came to life immediately.Were you a fan of the comics?I really loved [the writer] John Ostranderâs take, which was taking these Z-grade villains and throwing them into black-ops situations where they were totally disposable and they wouldnât come out alive. I loved âThe Dirty Dozenâ as a kid. Itâs that same concept, mixed with a DC comic.How much were your choices defined by what youâd seen in the previous âSuicide Squadâ film?Not at all. I wanted to create what I thought of as the Suicide Squad. For me to react to Davidâs movie would make it the shadow of Davidâs movie. I wanted it to be its own thing completely. When Warner Bros. said they wanted me to do this, I watched the first movie for the first time, and I called them back and said, what do I have to keep from this movie? And they said, nothing. They said, listen, we would love it if Margotâs in the movie but she doesnât have to be. You could come up with all new characters or you could keep all the same characters.The previous film had a few big stars who arenât returning. Did you explore bringing back Jared Leto as Joker or Will Smith as Deadshot?Joker, no. I just donât know why Joker would be in the Suicide Squad. He wouldnât be helpful in that type of war situation. Will â I really wanted to work with Idris. It is a multi-protagonist film. We go off for a while with Margot, and Daniela [Melchior, who plays Ratcatcher 2] is the heart of the film in a lot of ways. But if thereâs one protagonist, itâs Idris. And I wanted somebody who had that gruff, âUnforgivenâ-type feeling about him. This guy who had been reduced from being a bigshot supervillain â he took Superman out of the sky â who is now scraping gum off the floor at the beginning of the movie. He absolutely doesnât want any part of it â he just has accepted this is his life. And I just think that character is Idris Elba.âThe Suicide Squadâ features a motley team culled from the DC universe, including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, second from right), all led by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, center). Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros. This will be the third film, after âSuicide Squadâ and âBirds of Prey,â to try to find a place for Harley Quinn in DCâs movie universe. How do you see the character?For me, Harley Quinn belongs on the wall next to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk. Most of my career has been writing characters who existed in the comics but werenât well-defined personalities, and having to create their cinematic personalities, whether itâs Star-Lord or Drax or Groot, who were all very different in the comics. Harley was pretty incredibly written by Paul Dini from the beginning, and so to be able to capture the essence of that character â her chaotic, sweet nature â and give her her due as the trickster and allow her to go wherever she wants, was surprising even to me as a writer.Did you take a certain pleasure in bringing back Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and letting her get her hands as dirty as some of the superhero characters?She has no qualms about doing that whatsoever. Sheâs just the sweetest person in the world and Waller is scary. When sheâs on set and that turn happens, I am literally afraid to come in and give her a note because of the look in her eyes. It is incredibly intimidating. She comes up to here [holds hand at height of his neck] on me. But it is. Sheâs amazing.Thereâs a built-in dispensability to your concept of âThe Suicide Squadâ that cuts against a studioâs desire for repeatable franchise films. Was it your goal to make the most nihilistic superhero movie of the modern era?I donât think itâs nihilistic. For me itâs about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections. My mission statement was just to make the most fun film I could and not balk at anything. I knew I had a chance that very few filmmakers have ever had, which is to make a huge-budget film with no holds barred in terms of the plot, the effects, the sets. I felt a responsibility to take chances.What if, after a yearlong pandemic, mass audiences arenât ready for a movie with so much wanton death and destruction?I actually think the emotion and the humor help to even off the harsher aspects of it. I think itâs a perfect movie for now. Itâs just a matter of where are we going to be with Covid and being safe. [âF9â] did great, so Iâm hopeful thereâs a real appetite for it. I was talking to my 80-year-old mother this morning. She wants to come see it. Iâm like, Mom, this movie has a lot of sharks ripping people in half in it. [Gentle voice] âI know, I donât care, Jimmy.â Sheâll love it.Does it seem strange that the DC films can encompass movies like âThe Suicide Squad,â which unabashedly earns its R rating, and also movies like âShazam!,â which are more family-oriented?I think itâs great. That is the one of the ways in which DC can distinguish itself from Marvel. What I do is very different from what [the âAnt-Manâ director] Peyton Reed does, itâs very different from what [the âIron Manâ director Jon] Favreau did, itâs different from Taika [Waititi, the director of âThor: Ragnarokâ]. But not as different as âShazam!â and âSuicide Squad,â however. I think the current batch of folks over at Warner Bros. are really interested in building out a world and creating something thatâs unique to the filmmakers. Weâre in a strange time, so anything can happen.Gunn with Michael Rooker (as the blue-skinned Yondu) on the set of âGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.âChuck Zlotnick/Marvel/DisneyYouâre the first director whoâs made films for both Marvel and DC â[Fake cough] Joss Whedon. Iâm the first one to receive a directing credit on the Marvel and DC movies. [Laughs.]Do you see major differences with how Marvel and DC approach their film franchises?Yes, but not as many as people probably think. Thereâs no doubt Kevin Feige is way more involved with editing than people are at Warner Bros. He gives more notes. You donât have to take them and I donât always take them. Then again, I had more problems. If you saw the first cut of âGuardiansâ 1, it had more problems, because that was my first time making something so gigantic and thereâs some learning to what works and what doesnât, carving away the excess stuff. The truth is, as Marvel goes on and Kevin Feige starts to amass ownership of half of all film in general, heâs more spread out.Are you free to make more films for DC going forward or are you exclusive to Marvel?I have no clue what Iâm going to do. For me, âGuardians 3â is probably the last one. I donât know about doing it again. I do find, because of the ability to do different stuff in the DC multiverse, itâs fun. Theyâre starting to really resemble their comic books. The Marvel Universe has always been a little more cohesive, and DC has always had more great single runs. They had The Dark Knight Returns. They had Watchmen. They had The Killing Joke. They had Alan Mooreâs Swamp Thing. The fact that they did âJoker,â which is a totally different type of movie, that to me is cool. Iâm very excited about Mattâs movie [âThe Batman,â from Matt Reeves]. Theyâre getting some really good filmmakers involved. Theyâre always going to be hit or miss â I just donât want them to get boring.You got your start in the world of low-budget cinema. Do you think you might return to something thatâs smaller and faster to make?I love toys and the explosions and the cameras, frankly. I love to be able to work on a big playing field. If I had a smaller, more intimate thing that I wanted to do, I would definitely do that. Right now I really just want to nap, but I still have another major motion picture to make before that. I canât wait to see the Marvel gang again â those people are my family. Itâs so much different than people on Twitter. Everybody is significantly nicer. More
