The first trailer has finally dropped for the upcoming period thriller “Don’t Worry Darling”. The movie has people interested for a number of reasons. It’s the sophomore directing effort for Olivia Wilde whose first film “Booksmart” was a bland copy-and-paste teen comedy that somehow managed much acclaim. But what has me most excited is the compelling cast that features Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, Chris Pine, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, and Wilde herself.
The story surrounds a 1950s housewife (Pugh) who discovers that the seemingly idyllic neighborhood and the husband she adores (Styles) are hiding a deep dark secret. The trailer offers plenty of cool images and a keen sense of style. At the same time it looks a bit scattered, as if it’s trying to be a lot of things all at once. How will it turn out? We’ll see in a few months.
“Don’t Worry Darling” hits theaters September 23rd. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
Liam Neeson has made quite a career out of these breezy modestly budgeted action thrillers. Even though they often hit many of the same beats and usually follow a very similar formula, Neeson makes them work mainly because he’s such a likable fit for those kinds of roles. And starting with 2008’s “Taken,” the charismatic gravelly-voiced Irishman has earned himself a legion of fans.
But there are signs that Neeson’s “action hero” brand could be running out of steam. Look no further than “Blacklight” from earlier this year. It was a case of Neeson and his formula showing their age. The movie was (to put it kindly) a slog and didn’t even make back half of its $43 million production budget. It’s sad to see because Neeson is a good dramatic actor (just check out 2019’s underseen “Ordinary Love” for a more recent reminder). But this leg of his onscreen journey may be winding down.
Yet here we are, only two months removed from “Blacklight,” with yet another Neeson action thriller. This one’s called “Memory” and despite everything I just said, it actually gave me reasons to be optimistic. First, it’s directed by Martin Campbell, the man behind one of my very favorite Bond movies, “Casino Royale” (yes, I know he also did “Green Lantern” but set that one aside for a moment). Second, it sports a compelling supporting cast that includes the often underrated Guy Pearce and Monica Bellucci, known by many for her role in the Matrix films but who has had an impressive career, mostly internationally.
Image Courtesy of Open Road Films
And then there’s the story. Yes, “Memory” offers up several of the same tropes associated with most other Neeson flicks. But this one has an interesting twist. The script (written by Dario Scardapane) is based on a 1985 novel by Jef Geeraerts called “De zaak Alzheimer.” It also borrows from a 2003 Beligian big screen adaptation of Geeraerts’ book called “The Alzheimer Case.” The story centers on a seasoned contract killer and his early- stage dementia. That alone brings the level of humanity Neeson’s last film desperately needed.
As it turns out, “Memory” does play differently from most of Neeson’s catalog. Interestingly, while Neeson is the star, nearly as much time is spent with Pearce who plays an FBI agent trying to make sense of the dead bodies suddenly turning up across his city. His side of the story is mostly a crime procedural. And as you can probably guess, his investigation inevitably puts him on the trail of a cognitively impaired hitman who still possesses “a particular set of skills.”
Neeson plays Alex Lewis, an aging assassin who fulfills contracts for a number of high-paying criminal organizations. The opening scene set in Guadalajara, Mexico shows that he is still more than capable of doing his job. But he’s having memory lapses, which is the last thing you want in such a detail-oriented profession. For that reason he’s ready to get out of the game. But back in El Paso, Alex is quickly reminded by one of his employers that this isn’t a line of work you can just walk away from.
Later Alex is given another contract. But when the target turns out to be a 13-year-old girl named Beatriz Leon (Mia Sanchez), he refuses the job. “I don’t hurt children … ever,” he growls (you gotta love an assassin with principles). It turns out that Beatriz is a key witness in a drug trafficking case being put together by federal agent Vincent Serra (Pearce, brandishing one bad mustache and an even worse haircut).
Image Courtesy of Open Road Films
As expected, Alex’s employers don’t take kindly to his insubordination, and Alex doesn’t take kindly to their attempts at killing him for it. Soon the corpses are stacking up as Alex offers payback to the baddies who put him on their hit list. And he quickly learns that there are some powerful people calling the shots, tops being a prominent real estate mogul named Davana Sealman (Bellucci). But Alex’s memory loss makes him sloppy, and soon both Sealman and Serra are hot on his trail.
As the story unfolds, Campbell is given several narrative threads to tie together. Along the way he tackles a number of themes with varying degrees of success. The movie hits on several things including America’s leaky justice system, our government’s inept handling of the southern border, child sex trafficking, and of course late- age dementia. That last one is the trickiest, but thankfully the movie treats it with the dignity and respect it needs. And Neeson’s portrayal is tempered and subdued, never exaggerating Alex’s deteriorating condition or overplaying it.
As far as the performances, Neeson and Pearce get the bulk of the work and both manage the sometimes shaky material well. Bellucci has a strong presence, but sadly she isn’t given much to do. After them, the performances take a pretty big dive which only accentuates the stock character feel of many of the supporting players. Some elements of the story play the same way — like beats we’ve seen in countless other movies and television shows. But give Campbell some credit. He brings some much-needed drama and grit to a pretty familiar formula. And who knows, maybe there’s still a little life left in these Neeson brand movies.
“The Witch” (2015) and “The Lighthouse” are two movies that undeniably bear the same marks of their creator, Robert Eggers. Both are rooted in Eggers’ interests in folk horror. Both show off a near obsessive level of period detail. And both feel completely original and unlike anything else that may fall close to their ‘genres’. “The Northman” is what you get when those very distinct creative signatures are used to tell a bigger story with a bigger cast and with a much bigger studio budget (in this case nearly $90 million).
Penned by Eggers and Icelandic screenwriter, poet, and novelist Sjón, “The Northman” is a brutal and at times bonkers Viking revenge epic based on the same Scandinavian legend that inspired Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Set in the North Atlantic at the turn of the 10th century, Eggers sits us down in a brawny and violent world, caked in mud and stained with blood. It’s a world where human savagery is more commonplace than anything resembling compassion. And where the supernatural and occult co-exist, allowing the director to veer down some dark and twisted paths.
Image Courtesy of Focus Features
It’s based on the legend of Amleth and opens up with a table-setting prologue that sets this revenge-soaked tale in motion. In it, 10-year-old Prince Amleth (played by Oscar Novak) enthusiastically greets his father, King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke) who is returning home from battle. Wounded and weary, Aurvandill decides it’s time to begin preparing his son to take his throne. With the help of the wild-eyed shaman Heimir (Willem Dafoe), Aurvandill leads his son through a gonzo ritualistic right of passage involving blood oaths, trippy visions and flatulence (it’s the first of several scenes sure to test mainstream audiences).
The next morning, after a night of unconventional bonding, the course of Amleth’s life is forever changed after he witnesses his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang) butcher his father and kidnap his now widowed mother, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman). With Fjölnir’s bloodcurdling command “Bring me the boy’s head!” still echoing through the thick air, Amlith flees by boat repeating to himself a mantra that will burn into his soul and fuel his hate for the rest of the film, “I will avenge you father. I will save you mother. I will kill you Fjölnir”.
The screen fades to black and many years pass. When the image returns we see a much older Almith (played by a hulking Alexander Skarsgård), now a member of a barbaric Viking clan who ravage the Land of the Rus like a pack of ravenous wolves. Here we get one of the film’s more spectacular moments – an incredible single uninterrupted take of the berserkers raiding, pillaging and slaughtering a Slavic village. The intensely difficult and complex sequence sees Eggers and his go-to DP Jarin Blaschke weaving their camera through the chaos and carnage, sucking us into the sheer savagery of the scene. It’s gruesome and unflinching. It’s also incredible filmmaking.
Upon getting word that Fjölnir has now settled in Iceland with Gudrún as his captive wife, Almith stows away on a boat posing as a slave. There he meets a fellow captive who introduces herself as “Olga of the Birch Forest” (Anya Taylor-Joy) and the two form an immediate bond. They arrive at Fjölnir’s settlement and are immediately put to work. But rather than killing Fjölnir and his men like a rabid beast, Almith begins a methodical campaign of physical and psychological terror, brutally picking off his prey one-by-one in the dark of night and sending waves of fear throughout the commune.
Image Courtesy of Focus Features
While Eggers is clearly the architect and his fingerprints are everywhere, the movie succeeds thanks to a fine collective effort. Blaschke’s camera not only captures the ferocity of the action, but also the beautiful yet harsh textures of the Icelandic landscape. There’s also the amazing period richness of Craig Lathrop’s production design and Linda Muir’s costumes. Add to it the pulse-pounding propulsion of Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough’s score.
Of course you also have the cast ably led by Skarsgård. He’s an imposing mix of cold primal rage and quiet intensity. And though aptly (and somewhat comically) described as a “Beast cloaked in man-flesh”, Skarsgård also reveals Almith’s pain and vulnerability. Kidman is a blast, Hawke is as wily as ever, and Claes Bang is pure villain material. They all deliver in spades, but ultimately it’s the creative juices of Robert Eggers that gives “The Northman” its unique identity, from the impeccable detail and design to the wild flourishes and overindulgences. Now where will such a movie land with audiences? That’s the $90 million question. “The Northman” is out now in theaters.
I may not be familiar with the Paul Gallico best-selling novel it’s based on, but I love nearly everything about the first trailer for the upcoming film “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”. Directed by Anthony Fabian, this delightfully whimsical period drama feels plucked right out of the 1950s both in terms of setting and style. And casting the always wonderful Lesley Manville as your lead is icing on the proverbial cake.
Manville plays the titular Mrs. Harris, a widowed cleaning lady from London whose dream of owning her own Christian Dior gown takes her to the City of Lights for a truly life-changing adventure. And if Manville’s casting wasn’t exciting enough, the movie also features Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs, and Lambert Wilson among others. I have no idea how it will turn out, but I love that movies like this are still being made. Now, hopefully it finds an audience.
“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” opens in theaters July 15th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
A few months ago we were given the teaser for the upcoming Blumhouse produced horror thriller “The Black Phone”. Yesterday Universal Pictures gave us another look at the film via its official trailer, and lets just say this thing hits all the right notes. The film is directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, the duo behind “Sinister” and “Doctor Strange”.
“The Black Phone” immediately grabbed my attention with its star, Ethan Hawke. He plays a truly creepy presence – a serial killer who begins swiping children in a small Colorado town. Set in 1978, the film has an intriguing period style, and the story concept itself breeds a particular sense of unsettling horror. But as the trailer shows, it’s Hawke who makes it utterly terrifying. And this is just a small taste. I can’t wait to see how far they go with this.
“The Black Phone” hits theaters June 24th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
Easily one of the most anticipated movies of the year and one of the most sure-thing box office successes of 2022 is the upcoming MCU installment “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness”. While I admit that my fascination with the Marvel Cinematic Universe has waned a bit, this is one that I’ve been really excited about, mainly because of director Sam Raimi. But there’s also a lot of mystery surrounding what all we may see in this wild-looking adventure. To entice us even more, a new poster has popped up and I gotta say I love it. What say you?
DIRECTOR – Sam Raimi
WRITER – Michael Waldron
STARRING – Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams, Michael Stuhlbarg, Xochitl Gomez
Keith & the Movies 