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by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
For everybody who loved the DESCENDANTS with George Clooney, but thought it was too sad, or loved SIDEWAYS with Paul Giamatt but not that comedic mean streak of Alexander Payne, here comes something to really love.
It’s called DOWNSIZING from Paramount, directed by Payne and co-written with Jim Taylor. This new comedy stars Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Kristen Wiig and Hong Chau from INHERENT VICE.
If it sounds like “Honey, I ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Mel Gibson comes back from traffic court, lol, okay too soon. Mulligan. Mel Gibson comes back from his Hollywood resurrection this year with his six-pack Oscar-nominated movie HACKSAW RIDGE (2016), that won two Oscars for sound mixing and editing, to join son of anarchy Mark Wahlberg and deviant nice guy Will Ferrell in DADDY’S HOME 2, their hit franchise reteam.
But he’s not alone in the father-figure star power value-add. Beloved ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Raise your hand if you think Soairse Ronan should have won Best Actress for BROOKLYN. Anyone? Yes, it’s an exercise in futility since Ronan was only a nominee in 2016. Lucky for her, Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut LADY BIRD, from A24 films and just shown at the Telluride Film Festival, is where Soairse gets redeemed.
Or, you could say given a second chance to make a first impression as an emerging woman trapped ins...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Guess what George Clooney and wife Amal named their twins? Romulus and Screamus. Just kidding, actually they have normal names: Ella (think Fitzgerald) and Alexander. But that’s old news. The breaking news is the images coming out of the Venice International Film Festival. It's not kid pics so much as the SUBURBICON photo call and red carpet shots.
SUBURBICON is Clooney’s new adventure in filmmaking. It stars Matt Damon as ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Jeremy Renner so far, except for his turn in Affleck’s THE TOWN where he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2011, has not been known for switching up his game. Until WIND RIVER, co-starring Elizabeth Olsen with Graham Greene that is.
Even as Renner received a Best Actor Oscar nom for HURT LOCKER in 2010, there was almost a built-in plausibility to that character. In WIND RIVER, there’s a built-in implausibility to...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Ever wonder how much the world has changed since the half century mark? Take the case of the Edmond O’Brien noir D.O.A, released in 1950, then jump to the Dennis Quaid-Meg Ryan remake in 1988. Now step into the 2017 reboot, DEAD ON ARRIVAL. Written and directed by Stephen C. Sepher, this is one of the independent films that debuted at this year’s Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF).
DEAD ON ARRIV...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Friday night for the next three weeks just got a little more exciting now that Focus Features is a teenager. The Comcast-owned movie label plans to gift the public three great first-run features from the past on Aug. 25, Sept. 1, and Sept. 8.
All in celebration of their 15th anniversary in the business, the trio of star-vehicles will be shown for free on Facebook LIVE.
Big names include Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Carrey, Elijah Wood, Mar...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Maybe you’ve never heard of Ai Weiwei, who turns 60 on Aug. 28. Once a pro blackjack player, Weiwei still takes huge gambles as China’s best-known living artist, conceptual artist, and filmmaker who is often jailed or at odds with his government.
There’s a link to his timeline and bio below. But for tomorrow Aug. 19, which the United Nation declared “World Humanitarian Day” back in 2003, Weiwei’s new fil...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Who will never look at tiki torches the same? Oh, it’s #Charlottesville flashbacks, that mob who tried to destroy the reputation of the Commonwealth of Virginia, home to more US Presidents than any other state
.
That old tourist ad slogan “Virginia Is For Lovers” has now been flipped on its head. What are we to do?
Well, First Run Features President Seymour Wishman has a few ideas. This came to my inbox this morning, likely sa...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Holy Toledo, sometimes an insider Hollywood story is so good, you see how the game is played.
Jessica Chastain in MOLLY'S GAME
So once upon a Batman, and a few-movies-ago Spiderman, the caped one and the web slinger became poker fanatics, like super fanatics, in a snake-pit-named Hollywood club’s back room, a club once owned by a Pirate.
True story, plus there’s an ex-Olympic skier with the same name as a character from James ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Some good news Down South as Channing Tatum, who stars in LOGAN LUCKY directed by Steven Soderbergh, has gotten James Bond to dye his hair blonde — "Dye Another Day" would be a great 007 title -- wait, that's not real news.
Even though Daniel Craig’s surprise Hillbilly-meets-Okie mega-cameo as Joe Bang in this movie is quite a towhead, the real news? Well, over a ways yonder in Tennessee the cast of LOGAN, which will b...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
One hot week in August leading up to a full moon, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 7, there was a kind of ground zero for the D-word from Hollywood to Silicon Valley. We’re talking hot-button issues inclusion, fairness, and equity under the heading of Diversity. If you haven’t heard what happened, a recap is in order.
Here’s a timeline: on July 31 “CBS This Morning” covers a new USC Annenberg study that cites “inclusion c...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
After eons of human existence, or a short hop since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960’s, we still haven’t learned how to do two things well: Die or Divorce. Even with Gwyneth Paltrow’s co-opted “Conscious Uncoupling,” the recent so-called shock split of Chris Pratt and Anna Faris, that followed Ben & Jen, and Brangelina. Life, art, and pop culture peel back one common truth: we don’t know what to d...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
If you’re old enough to remember when MIT had a virtual glove and Jaron Lanier threw together a little company called VPL, you’re probably ahead of the game. Suffice it to say, while READY PLAYER ONE (RP1) is the first big bang BO Hollywood VR blockbuster attempt, the weird road to virtual reality headsets and handsets began somewhere in the mid-80’s.
Or you could peg Thomas Zimmerman in 1982 with a ‘wired glove’ p...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Want some film news? Okay. This lazy heat of summer meets Summerstorm Entertainment (Germany) with an announcement about the Henry James adapt THE ASPERN PAPERS now shooting in Venice, Italy.
They've added Jonathan Rhys Meyers to a cast that already includes some marquee names, notably Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, and Poppy Delevingne, as well as a newcomer, Morgane Polanski.
What? You've heard that last name before somewhe...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
You can literally pin down three “F” words to describe nearly every Darren Aronofsky film from his early work in PI (1998) to best-loved film REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000) to Mickey Rourke in THE WRESTLER (2008) to Natalie Portman’s Oscar-winning turn in BLACK SWAN (2010) to obsessive Russell Crowe in NOAH (2014). Fixated. Fragile. Freakish. Herein lies the latest work by this Harvard-trained filmmaker, MOTHER!, complete with an exc...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
What do we know about 29 year-old Canadian actor Michael Cera? Well, he was 16 on hit TV show “Arrested Development” and brought that wise-old-young-man sensibility to alternative-feeling benchmark films like NICK & NORA’S INFINITE PLAYLIST and SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD. Add odd roles in JUNO with Oscar nominee Ellen Page, and the zeitgeist turn in SUPERBAD that same year, 2007, he seemed poised to be a coming-of-age fixture...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Hey, so Ben Stiller is back. Ignore that casual pop opening. (Smiley face.) It’s just in keeping with Stiller’s upcoming starrer from Amazon Studios, BRAD’S STATUS.
You can Google up what this remade actor has been up to personally, because it shows in his work.
Those are real tears, and this is a heartfelt movie, despite the toss-away title.
BRAD'S STATUS is directed by Mike White, the guy who brought us SCHOO...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Everyone from Iran to Serbia seems to be bent on letting me know there’s a Gore Vidal biopic in the works starring Kevin Spacey. And while Gore would definitely think Kevin Spacey is hot, one wonders what he would make of another *damnable biopic,* especially about himself now dead since July 31, 2012.
He died on my birthday, in keeping with his sour and sweet tone since we met at an event in Beverly Hills.
We had collaborated on a...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
This opener from ONLY THE BRAVE’s official notes says it best: “All men are created equal... then, a few become firefighters." Josh Brolin stars with Miles Teller to bring the Granite Mountain fire epic to life. Expect this movie to drop Oct. 20, when the summer heat is gone. It’s based on an article by Boston Phoenix alum Sean Flynn, who wrote “No Exit” for GQ magazine upon which ONLY THE BRAVE is based.
Should...
By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Summer is when the blood is up, so this is perfect timing for the convergent efforts of two famous daughters, Megan Ellison and Amy Redford, to bring justice to the humans behind the superhero capes. And it’s directed by a woman, Angela Robinson.
What the what, you may say?
PROFESSOR MARSTON & THE WONDER WOMEN, starring Luke Evans and Rebecca Hall, is the smoking hot ménage à trois, allegedly a true story, behind the Wo...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
It’s fitting that Leslie Zemeckis is in Italy when we decide to do an interview, because the word burlesque is derived from Italian roots in “burla,” meaning mockery, to poke fun yet shine a spotlight on sexuality.
Actor, writer, documentarian Zemeckis has just come out with a line of burlesque emojis inspired by a project she did on Lili St Cyr, among other performers, but the line from her Showtime documentary BEHIND THE BUR...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Nothing like a rousing World War II “never surrender” movie to lift the spirits from current political events; thus comes DARKEST HOUR, set for release from Focus Features on Nov. 22, the day US President John F. Kennedy was shot, not a coincidence one guesses.
“You can’t reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth,” bellows Gary Oldman as a very convincing and Oscar buzzy Winston Churchill. And he is backed u...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Who imagines surreal lush worlds like French director Luc Besson? This is a man who could plead The Fifth Element in any court of World Cinema, lol. And now, VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS, the much-anticipated Dane DeHaan starrer with runway oddity Cara Delevinge drops July 21 worldwide from EuropaCorp and STXfilms.
The crew prepares for a scene with star Cara Delevingne (center) of Luc Besson's "Valerian and the City ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
You could say it’s a sweaty little secret, but in ninety-nine percent of all enduring Hollywood blockbuster smash hits, inevitably some man will break into a sprint to save his life. Consider Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow as a running man, from himself and various Admirals, Captains, Dead Men, and “natives.” Recall the beach scene in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise where he breaks full tilt chased by cannibals, who us...
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Johnson Quendrith 
