Charles Bramesco
First ‘Okja’ Trailer Unveils a Lovable Mutant Monster
At the risk of editorializing: Bong Joon-ho rules. The South Korean filmmaker has made a name for himself as a master of off-kilter takes on well-worn genres, most recently transforming the post-apocalyptic action flick into an intricately designed work of Communist agitprop with Snowpiercer. He took on the cop procedural with Memories of Murder, but his most beloved work may be the 2006 creature-feature The Host, in which a shaggy river monster terrorizes the citizens of Seoul. His newest feature will see him returning to the grandly ignoble tradition of movies about supernatural beasties, and with the first trailer having recently surfaced online, we’ve gotten a fleeting look at this lovable freak of nature.
Will Smith Assumes the First ‘Bright’ Teaser Won’t End Well
David Ayer, director of the newly-minted Academy Award-winner Suicide Squad (there’s a phrase I don't ever see my fingers getting comfortable with), has already begun work on his next film. Will the new project Bright also win an Academy Award like Suicide Squad did last night, which was real and not a dream we all had? We have no way of knowing, but it could happen. Evidently anything can happen, because Suicide Squad won an Academy Award last night. As in, one more award than Martin Scorsese’s career-defining religious epic Silence. So today, look upon the first teaser for Bright and bow before your new King of Oscars, for it is David Ayer.
‘La La Land’ Gets David Lynch-ified in Creepy Mashup Trailer
Humor me for a moment — is Damien Chazelle‘s old-school romantic musical La La Land really all that far removed from the cinema of David Lynch? Like the avant-melodrama triumph Mulholland Dr., Chazelle’s film is obsessed with the artifice that defines both Los Angeles and the entertainment industry around which it was built. Both films revolve around a pair of people inexorably drawn to one another, linked even as they drift apart due to the vicissitudes of circumstance. Both Lynch and Chazelle are fond of stylistic breaks from reality, exploring a dreamlike or otherwise surreal plane beyond this dimension. Hell, “here’s to the ones who dream” might as well be the mission statement of Lynch’s entire filmography.
‘MST3K’ to Crack Wise Once Again on Netflix in April
It was back in July that the news of an impending return from everyone’s favorite B-movie mockery program Mystery Science Theater 3000 first broke. Fans of Manos: the Hands of Fate and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians were atwitter with excitement for a revival of the long-running program last seen in 1999, breathlessly speculating on which schlock gems would get roasted this time around. And while the fodder for the upcoming eleventh season has yet to be named, Netflix has finally announced a release date and included a new press photo of the whole wisecracking robotic gang.
See New Teasers for Disney’s ‘Avatar’ Theme Park, the Trippiest Place on Earth
So long as you’re not bothered by the ruthless capitalistic spirit of six-dollar bottled water and don’t stumble into the clandestine torture facility concealed within the giant EPCOT globe, everyone loves Disney’s amusement parks. They earned the title of Happiest Place on Earth through a militant doctrine of mandated cheer, and with a new amusement park based on James Cameron’s unkillable sci-fi series Avatar opening soon, they’ll add the distinction of Trippiest Place on Earth to their pedigree. Today brings two brief sneak peeks at the facility set to open this summer, and it’s like you can already hear the hallucinating 20-year-olds begging to be let off the ride.
Sam Jackson and John Goodman Face Off in Tense New ‘Kong: Skull Island’ Clip
Summer movie season starts a little earlier every year, and in 2017, it has consumed May, April, and even our beloved March. Logan will kick off the big-budget bonanza in the first weekend of March, and then cede the floor to the gargantuan Kong: Skull Island the weekend after. Even so, these two releases in particular inspire hope rather than dread when reflecting upon the studio-fronted franchise releases encroaching beyond their summer stomping grounds. All the previews have suggested that these two films will have something original to bring to the table, and the latest clip for Kong: Skull Island confirms that if nothing else, we’ll have some delectable character acting to enjoy.
Amandla Stenberg Risks It All for Love in ‘Everything, Everything’ Trailer
“It’s like Me Before You meets Bubble Boy.” While I am confident that this is not how things went down in the pitch meeting for the upcoming young-adult-geared romance Everything, Everything, the description’s still fundamentally accurate. Amandla Stenberg (a rising star with credits in The Hunger Games, Birth of a Nation, and Beyoncé’s Lemonade visuals on her CV) stars as Maddy, a #teen who has spent her entire life within the safe, climate-controlled confines of her tech’d-out home. And just as love eventually drew Jake Gyllenhaal out from his insulated plastic bubble, so too does a crushworthy hunk drive Maddy to venture out into the world. Will she say some snappy one-liner drawing a distinction between living and actually having a life? You bet she will!
The Thunder God’s Roommate Darryl Returns in New ‘Team Thor’ Short
It doesn’t matter if you’re some regular schmo or the Asgardian God of Thunder, living by yourself can get a little lonely. Thank Odin for Darryl, then, the milquetoast desk-jockey roommate of the Avengers’ resident hammer-thrower Thor. We first met the mild-mannered pencil-pusher in a short called “Team Thor,” directed by upcoming Ragnarok helmer Taika Waititi and bundled as an extra with the Captain America: Civil War home media release. That amusing glimpse into the tensions between the two cohabitants was a fan favorite, not to mention a brief preview of the comic sensibility that What We Do in the Shadows (another film about roommates sniping at one another) director Waititi would bring to the Marvel universe.
Scarlett Johansson Won’t Be Controlled in Latest ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Trailer
The government is not to be trusted, not at present and certainly not in the trippy future Japan of Ghost in the Shell. Major Motoko Kusanagi (Scarlett Johansson) has been led to believe that she endured some manner of terrible accident in life, and the police department salvaged her body by augmenting it with cybernetic implants. In exchange for a second chance at consciousness, all she has to do is devote herself to fearlessly cleaning the street of crime and to surrender what’s left of her free will; naturally, she has some doubts about this. And when she meets an enigmatic stranger warning her that all is not what it seems, her whole understanding of who the bad guys are starts to shift.
‘Star Wars’ Theme Park Coming to a Galaxy Far Away (Orlando) in 2019
Just as the nation’s mushroom-takers have begun to hit up their connections in preparation for this May’s opening of the lush, psychedelic new amusement park Pandora — The World of AVATAR, yet another attraction has appeared on the horizon. At present, Star Wars superfans can immerse themselves in the fantasy universe with the series of films, novels, spin-off films, animated television programs, various board games, and Disneyland’s popular Star Tours ride. But some diehards demand more, a fuller and more transportive experience. And Disney CEO Bob Iger has some great news for them. (And less-great news for everyone else.)