These strikes managed to push the film industry to the extreme, which suffered as much as the lesser-known screenwriters and actors, those who need to work every day to pay their bills. Fortunately for everyone, there was a movie that saved the most tense summer in Hollywood history.
On Thursday night, at the Palm Springs Film Awards, Meryl Streep made a rare public appearance and, in the process, showered praise on Barbie, the movie that saved everything.
No one took her seriously, but Barbie saved them all
Streep, who attended the event to present Carey Mulligan with the International Star Award, took the stage after the previous award was given to Billie Eilish and Finneas for their hit “What Was I Made For?”.
Before presenting the award to Mulligan, Streep said to the duo: “I just want to say to Billie and Finneas that you have delivered the Barbie bomb of love. You saved the cinema last summer and all our jobs. You have brought joy to countless generations and genders of people, and you should ride that wave, kids, until you are old and deserve to be jaded like me.”
Meryl Streep Says 'Barbie' "Saved the Movies Last Summer and All of Our Jobs" https://t.co/RrTpRIJL29
The magazine Entertainment Weekly recently sat down with Zack Snyder to talk about the future of the Rebel Moon universe. That’s where the director revealed that an idea he’s working on is a possible prequel that explores the origins of Motherworld’s leader, Balisarius, which is why they chose “a young actor to play that role”.
Although he says they are not having conversations about any particular project along those lines, “the potential is really incredible.” This is what Zack Snyder said, word for word:
“This has not been confirmed, but I was hoping that if there was ever a spinoff, like a TV series or something, about Balisarius’ youth days, I would love to see a young actor play that role. So we aged him for this. I’m not saying that’s going to happen or that it’s being talked about, but I think he’s such a rich and interesting character and such a great actor that the potential is really amazing. If the story were to continue beyond the two movies we’ve made, his role would increase exponentially, as you can imagine.”
'Rebel Moon' director Zack Snyder calls next year's sequel 'The Scargiver' a "war movie" where "the stakes have risen." See an exclusive sneak peek of what's to come. https://t.co/YEPXhS2ebG
If there is going to be a Balisarius spin-off, it is likely to be several years before it becomes a reality. The Rebel Moon universe is already expanding rapidly.
Following Snyder’s roadmap to expand the franchise’s universe, several prequels are already being developed in different media, such as an animated series, a comic book series, and a narrative podcast.
Ultimately, the fate of the Balisarius spin-off and any similar projects will depend on the performance of Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire in its first 90 days, as well as that of the upcoming Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver.
The Martin Scorsese crime film, originally titled “Killers of the Flower Moon,” will be available for streaming on Apple TV+ next Friday, on…
For all the lovers of good cinema, today is a day of celebration, as we not only know when the latest film by Christopher Nolan, Napoleon, will be released on streaming and Christopher Nolan’s latest film, Napoleon, but we have also been given the release date for the great contender for the 2023 Oscar, The Moon Assassins, on our television.
The film stars Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, and Robert De Niro, and so far has received waves of positive reviews from critics and audiences.
The theatrical release of The Moon Assassins is part of a growing trend by streaming services to first release in theaters and then on platforms.
Meanwhile, other rival streaming companies are also experimenting. For example, Disney has announced that Turning Red, Soul and Luca, three movies released on Disney Plus during the pandemic, will be screened in theaters in 2024.
Netflix also shook things up last year when they released the movie Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in theaters before adding it to their streaming platform.
Great movies and series have been released from January to December, thanks in part to the streaming service war. Here’s a compilation of…
This 2023 has been really good from the point of view of the gaming sector, as well as the audiovisual sector. Great movies and series have been released from January to December, thanks -in part- to the streaming services war.
For all those who want to review 2023 with unknown but good movies, this is your article, the ideal one to read saying goodbye to the year. Thank you for everything, 2023, hopefully 2024 will be just as good.
The best movies of this 2023 that you haven’t seen
Emily
Surely you know who Frances O’Connor is, a familiar face to fans of British period dramas, having played Fanny Price in Mansfield Park (1999) and the main character in Madame Bovary (2000).
So it seems appropriate that she makes her debut as a screenwriter and director with this biopic of Emily Brontë, which takes many creative and amusing liberties to portray the famous author as a rebellious outcast who defies the conventions and restrictions imposed on women of the time to pursue her passion and write the international success that was Wuthering Heights.
Oído por ojo
In 2018, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, British playwright Debbie Tucker Green premiered Ear for Eye at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
This film, Green’s second work, is essentially a filmed version of that staged production, but with an experimental style that effectively conveys what it feels like to live the black experience in the current world, both in England and in the United States, across all generations.
It also serves as an important reminder that “anger” -a feeling that so often, and mistakenly, becomes a weapon- can be just what is needed to drive change.
Something mysterious happens beyond the frame in Godland, by Hlynur Pálmason, but the less you know before entering the film, the better. A Danish priest travels to a remote area of Iceland to help build a new church and get to know – and photograph – the people who inhabit this vast and brutal landscape.
But the more he learns about the place, the further he gets from his mission and his customs. It is a dark movie, no doubt, but it also has moments of humor, which makes it a surprising cinematic experience.
The premise of Memory, by Michel Franco, seems a bit absurd: Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) is a social worker and single mother whose past traumas have led her to carefully construct a world in order to move forward, take care of her son, and keep her struggles with alcohol in the rearview mirror.
On one of her rare night outings, she attends a meeting at her institute and is followed home by a former classmate, Saul (Peter Sarsgaard). When she finds Saul at her doorstep the next morning, it is evident that he is not mentally well and does not remember where he is or how he got there.
In the hands of lesser actors, the staging could be sentimental, but Chastain and Sarsgaard, who are generating Oscar rumors for their performances, elevate the film to unexpected emotional heights.
Past Lives
The first feature film by writer and director Celine Song is a moving romantic drama about Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), two childhood friends in South Korea who lose touch when Nora’s family moves to the United States.
Over the next two decades, they meet again on a couple of occasions, first through social media and video calls, and finally in person in New York, where Nora now lives (and is married). Despite the years that have passed, their connection seems to strengthen as they speak honestly about their lives, the decisions they made, and how things could have been different for both of them.
Past Lives is beautiful in its simplicity, with a range of emotions exchanged with every glance and every small gesture. The film received five Golden Globe nominations, including Best Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress for Lee.
This movie made headlines when it premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. It had a limited release in theaters at the end of March, but it has definitely returned to the spotlight now that the film industry is talking about potential award contenders.
The drama, which spans a decade, follows the life of Inez de la Paz (Teyana Taylor), a convicted thief who, upon her release from prison in 1994, sees her son Terry, who now lives in a foster home. When Terry ends up in the hospital, Inez can visit him calmly and talk to him, where she shares her vivid memory of having been abandoned by her at the age of 2.
Impulsively, Inez asks him if he would like to go back home with her and, when he says yes, the two must reinvent themselves a little to stay together. A Thousand and One is a story about the resilience of family and the unconditional love that exists between parents and children, but it is also a critique of a rapidly transforming and gentrifying New York City.
It is the most anticipated film of 2024 after the premiere was delayed due to the actors’ strike. Now they say that the premiere will be the first of next year…
While we wait to see what Denis Villeneuve has in store for us with his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic science fiction franchise, a new detail about the movie has come to light.
Is Dune Part 2 a movie for adults?
According to the MPAA movie rating website, Dune: Part Two is officially rated as “PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material, and brief strong language.”
While this rating doesn’t reveal much about the actual plot of the movie, it does provide a small hint of what fans can expect. It does make it clear that the movie won’t be overly violent or suggestive, allowing Warner to fill theaters with both young audiences and adults.
Dune: Part Two will explore the mythical journey of Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), who joins Chani and the Fremen on a path of vengeance against the conspirators who destroyed his family.
Faced with the choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he struggles to avert a terrible future that only he can foresee. Dune: Part Two will also feature the return of Zendaya as Chani, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, and Javier Bardem as Stilgar.
Among the new characters will be Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, and Christopher Walker as Emperor Shaddam IV.
If you don’t want us to give anything away, you probably shouldn’t watch it, but if you want to explore it a little Indian style, watch it and let’s chat afterwards.
Explaining the new Indiana Jones trailer
Right at the beginning, we hear Indy say “In 213 B.C., Archimedes built the dial,” to which Helena, probably not in the same scene, adds, “That may change the course of history.”
We also see two characters (maybe Indy, maybe not) open an antique box, and then another character spray lighter fluid on a tablet and set it on fire, revealing a dial of sorts.
Is this the dial of destiny? Maybe, but later in the trailer we see a much more complicated dial that has a sort of smaller key that opens it from the center.
There’s a lot of setup to throw us off, but we know a few things for sure. The sphere is over 2,000 years old and was created by the Greek mathematical and scientific genius Archimedes.
And, for some reason, it seems to disassemble into several pieces. Is it for safety? And how can a sphere change history? Well, put it together – math, science and history being changed? How can someone doing math change history?
We won’t give anything away here as a precaution, but it seems that some of the early rumors about the film’s plot are true, and you can read more about them here.
All the mystery, speculation and years of waiting have almost come to an end. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens on June 30. It’s the end of Indiana Jones as we know him. Cinema will always be indebted to Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford.
He was one of the most influential actors of his time, not only was he handsome and dominated the scene, he was also very charismatic. Helmut Berger has passed away.
Austrian actor Helmut Berger, star of such European cinema masterpieces as Luchino Visconti’s “The Damned” and Vittorio De Sica’s “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis”, has died at the age of 78.
In one of the most historic and creative periods of European cinema, the 1960s and 1970s, Berger carved a niche for himself in the pantheon of stars thanks to a handful of films directed by Visconti, his former romantic partner.
Berger was nominated for a Golden Globe for “The Damned,” which was also nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay in 1970. No less than the late German film master Rainer Werner Fassbinder called it “perhaps the greatest film, the film that I think means as much to the history of cinema as Shakespeare does to the history of theater.”
One of the first bisexual actors to break taboos
Awarded the honorary Teddy Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2007 Berlinale for his innovative creative roles exploring gay and bisexual characters.
Berger’s drag imitation of Marlene Dietrich in “The Damned” led legendary filmmaker Billy Wilder to comment, “Except for Helmut Berger, there are no interesting women today.”
It also influenced Madonna, who said, “I think it’s androgyny, whether it’s David Bowie or Helmut Berger, that has influenced my work the most.”
In his heyday, Berger garnered newspaper attention and was a paparazzi favorite for his wild behavior and heady love life.
His 1998 biography contains his recollections of many of those escapades, which include an eclectic variety of dalliances with both Bianca and Mick Jagger.
Apart from his collaborations with Visconti, Berger had a long and somewhat erratic career, struggling with drug and alcohol addiction for many years.
In the 1980s, her erratic behavior had stalled her film career and she found work as a guest star in nine episodes of the hit U.S. soap opera “Dynasty”.
During the first decade of this century, Berger retired completely from show business to care for his ailing mother.
His last comeback attempt included a 2013 appearance on the German version of “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here”, which ended after only two days due to health problems. He leaves us today, at the age of 78.
It was to be expected, then, that sooner or later the video game that would do justice to Chucky would arrive. After all, this killer doll is always profitable, right?
The 80s and 90s were the perfect breeding ground for psychokiller movies. With the culmination of the cold war and a boom state in the United States, filmmakers knew that a mutant or monster wasn’t scary enough. They had to strike where they could do the most damage to American society: the welfare state. Freddy Krueger was born from the dream, Jason Voorhees from summer camps, Michael Myers from children’s celebration… and Chucky from capitalism itself turned against you.
Child’s Play was released in 1988 and grossed 44 million at the time (about 115 million with inflation), kicking off a new slasher saga that, by now, has six sequels, a reboot and a TV series that continues the movies. It was to be expected, then, that sooner or later a video game would arrive that would do justice to Chucky. After all, this killer doll is always profitable, isn’t it?
May 2011. TikGames, an indie games company that has published versions of Monopoly, dominoes or Mahjong for computers and consoles, announces a crowdfunding with the conviction that they will succeed. ‘Chucky: Wanna Play?’ was a playable version of ‘Child’s Play’ for which they needed an extra $925,000. They already had $500,000 and the rights, but they needed more to make a game that was really worthwhile.
A year and a half later, in October 2012, a Kickstarter appeared promising a hack-n-slash starring Chucky. A gore-filled adventure in which the doll would kill random victims in all the absurd and creative ways you can imagine, including slashing them in the face. You may be wondering why we’re not telling you anything about the plot. Well: of the $925,000 they were asking for they got… 585 from 19 people. Oops.
Crowdfunding doll
One can assume that in TikGames were not very happy with the result and they themselves canceled the Kickstarter and the game, whose demo was lost until it appeared for Xbox 360 emulators. The studio went on to do other things like ‘Scarygirl’, published by Square and rumored to have a movie sooner or later, or the games starring emojis ‘DurantEmoji’ and ‘ZaynMoji’.
For his part, Chucky did get his own game in 2013, although, of course, it was most disappointing: a simple ‘Temple run’ with the doll as the protagonist titled ‘Slash & Dash’ in which you could kill security guards using knives, screwdrivers, hooks or hammers. For whatever reason, it was neither liked nor did it ever live up to the original saga.
Luckily, children’s least favorite doll had better luck in the world of comics and amusement parks. Who knows? If Jason could have had his contemporary version to play with various friends/victims, why would we discriminate against a doll… no matter how diabolical?
Now, with the film about to be released in theaters in Japan, there is a character who has changed his name… Luckily
He may not be the most beloved character in the entire ‘Super Mario Bros‘ saga, but he was there from the beginning. Literally. Foreman Spike, Mario’s enemy in ‘Wrecking Crew‘ (which came out a few months before the first of the platformers) has only appeared in three games before making the jump to the Mario brothers’ movie. But now, with the film about to be released in theaters in Japan, the character has changed his name… Luckily.
Spike’s gaming life consists only of ‘Wrecking crew’, ‘Wrecking crew 98’, a sequel for SNES that never left Japan, and ‘Mobile Golf’, a game of the sport in question for Game Boy Advance starring Mario in which he was an unlockable character and that, indeed, did not leave Japan either. Perhaps that’s why, after not appearing in 21 years, his supporting role in‘Super Mario Bros: The Movie‘ has given a lot to talk about.
Among other things, because it disproves a common theory, which is that he simply became Waluigi. It is a theory that makes sense: the mustache and the nose are practically the same. This role posed another problem more important than fan theories for Nintendo: the character, who has been called Blackie in Japan since 1985, will now be renamed Spike, according to a tweet posted by Nintendo, very concise but leaving no room for doubt.
“The name in ‘Super Mario Bros: The Movie,’ which will be released on April 28, 2023, will also be ‘Spike.'” Nintendo has not provided any explanation on the matter but it doesn’t take a sharp eye to figure out that ‘Blackie’ may have racist overtones. Rather than a move to equalize marketing across countries, it seems like an attempt to watch their backs. It is no less true that the character remained forgotten in the collective memory, so it does not seem that it will cause more than a few complaints.
Of course, we will have to see what happens with the enemies that are already called Spike, born in ‘Super Mario Bros 3’ and that have already lasted until today. At the same time, the ‘Super Mario Bros’ movie has already grossed almost 900 million worldwide and does not seem to be willing to slow down the accelerator. Come on, whatever name it has, we have Nintendo for a while. Ya-hoo!
