James Mangold is no stranger to the musical biopic, having brought Johnny Cash’s story to the big screen with Walk the Line, which got Joaquin Phoenix an Academy Award nomination for that film. Now, Mangold takes on another musical icon with the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. Searchlight Pictures has now released a comprehensive look with the new trailer, as it shows more of Timothée Chalamet‘s performance and the events of Dylan’s life that will be explored.
A Complete Unknown, which stars Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro. The film also co-stars Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz and Scoot McNairy, with the studio also giving it a December 25th wide release. Given how well Chalamet’s Wonka did during the holiday season last year, the studio is likely hoping that lightning will strike twice. The date also gives is peak visibility during award season.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.”
James Mangold directs from a screenplay written by him and Jay Cocks, who is known for working with Martin Scorsese on projects such as Gangs of New York and Silence. Producers on the film include Range’s Fred Berger, The Picture Company’s Alex Heineman, Veritas Entertainment Group’s Peter Jaysen, Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer, Bob Dylan’s longtime representative Jeff Rosen, Chalamet, and Mangold via his Turnpike Films. Michael Bederman, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Andrew Rona are on board as executive producers.
Mangold recently talked about the setting of the film, saying, “It’s such an amazing time in American culture, and the story of Bob’s — a young, 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years…First being embraced into a family of folk music in New York and of course kind of outrunning him at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief.”
Plot: Boston Detective Frank Shaw returns to duty after a career-altering injury leaves him with permanent hearing loss. Tasked with interpreting for Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank), a deaf witness to a brutal gang murder, they find themselves cornered in a soon-to-be-condemned apartment building when the killers return to eliminate her. Cut off from the outside world; these two strangers must lean on each other to outsmart killers they can’t hear coming for their only hope of making it out alive.
Review: Joel Kinnaman has a trend going on these days with his role selection. After starring in last year’s John Woo action flick Silent Night, in which he portrayed a man who loses the ability to speak and goes on a vengeance-fueled rampage, Kinnaman is next headlining The Silent Hour, in which he plays a man who loses the ability to hear. While Silent Night benefited from John Woo’s eye for balletic action, The Silent Hour is closer to something we would expect Liam Neeson to star in. Set predominantly in a single apartment building, The Silent Hour wants to stand out from other formulaic action movies with a protagonist who uses a disability as a superpower, but aside from a solid supporting role from Sandra Mae Frank, The Silent Hour is boring and woefully lacking in any sort of energy.
The Silent Hour opens with Detective Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) enjoying all of the sonic wonders of his life: jazz music, a coffee maker percolating, and all of the world’s noises outside of his apartment. Shaw meets up with his partner, Doug Slater (Mark Strong), to take down a suspect. The guy does not go quietly, leading Shaw on a chase through shipping containers. Shaw listens closely to pinpoint where the suspect is before eventually catching him just as Shaw runs into a car and falls, hitting his head on the ground. Fast-forwarding six months later, Shaw is suffering from hearing loss. He struggles to hear anything, and his hearing adds to the deadening of the world around him. Depressed, the divorced dad cannot even bring himself to attend his daughter’s band recital. Shaw’s partner comes to the rescue and brings him in to help question a deaf witness since the department interpreter is unavailable. Shaw and Slater head to see Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank), who witnessed a murder.
The cops go their separate ways after Shaw and Slater finish, but not before Shaw realizes he has forgotten his phone at Ava’s apartment. He returns to find Mason Lynch (Mekhi Phifer), the dirty cop who Ava witnessed commit the murder, attempting to silence her by faking an overdose. Shaw steps in to rescue Ava, and the pair heads on the run through the apartment building to try to survive. Ava, born deaf, must help Frank come to terms with his injury-induced hearing loss, and together, the two plan to escape and stop Lynch and his cronies from getting away with their crimes. Early on, I expected The Silent Hour to play like a twist on the Dredd and The Raid formula of the apartment building being a caged-in setting full of bad guys and escapes, but the story never really takes advantage of the location. Instead, much of the film shows Shaw making bumbling mistakes like stepping on bubble wrap or not remembering that he cannot hear as he tries to call for help. It borders on ludicrous at the best of times and sloppy writing the rest. The action is usually the bad cops shooting at the good cops as the characters use fire escapes and window ledges to move from one apartment to the next.
For a film with as solid of a cast as this, The Silent Hour wastes virtually everyone’s talent. Joel Kinnaman has played a cop so many times that he barely needs to try and emulate law enforcement, but Frank Shaw is so fixated on his hearing loss that it feels like a crutch to force the story along. In contrast, Sandra Mae Frank, who is actually deaf, does a great job playing a woman struggling with her own demons as she tries to stay alive, which now includes trying to make Shaw feel better about his recent hearing loss. Mark Strong is good but underused, while Mekhi Phifer spends more time as a mustache-twirling bad guy who runs around doing nothing, so it feels like they could have cast anyone in the role and saved a paycheck. The film never uses the talent at its disposal to deliver action that rises above shooting around corners or the tension of maybe someone hearing someone else walking around. It comes across as repetitive and just boring.
It is a shame since director Brad Anderson has made several films I have loved, including Session 9, The Machinist, and Trans-Siberian. His last decade of work has been hit or miss, with Beirut starring Jon Hamm a bright spot amongst multiple forgettable genre offerings. Anderson has always had an eye for atmospheric and moody productions, but the Canadian-filmed The Silent Hour has nothing distinctive about it. Based on a script by Dan Hall, I think Anderson tried to salvage some sort of entertainment value from this mess of a story but is left with a plug-and-play template used dozens of times every year with weaker actors in the cast. With Kinnaman and Strong, I had thought this movie could have been at least a casual watch, if not a great one, but it barely registers anything above mediocre at its best moments.
The Silent Hour is neither good enough to consider for a hate-watch nor is it bad enough to be awfully good. Despite a great filmmaker and two capable leading actors, the only worthwhile takeaway from The Silent Hour is the talented Sandra Mae Frank, who should be considered for bigger and better roles in the future. There is no action to speak of in this action movie, leaving it as a drama-less dramatic film. I would say there is an audience for this movie out there somewhere, but that would have to be categorized as Kinnaman or Strong completists who need to check off their Letterboxd viewing requirement as having seen all of the films by either actor.
It was a few years in the making, but Second Sight Films recently sent their 4K and Blu-ray release of the 1986 classic The Hitcher out into the world, and you can pick up a copy of the 4K release at THIS LINK. To celebrate this release, The Guardian got in contact with The Hitcher‘s director Robert Harmon and the film’s star C. Thomas Howell – and found that they both had some interesting things to say about Rutger Hauer’s contribution to the film and his approach to playing the homicidal John Ryder.
Directed by Harmon from a screenplay by Eric Red, The Hitcher has the following synopsis: While transporting a car from Chicago to San Diego, Jim Halsey picks up a hitchhiker named John Ryder, who claims to be a serial killer. After a daring escape, Jim hopes to never see Ryder again. But when he witnesses the hitchhiker murdering an entire family, Jim pursues Ryder with the help of truck-stop waitress Nash, pitting the rivals against each other in a deadly series of car chases and brutal murders.
The film stars Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jeffrey DeMunn, with the late, great Rutger Hauer delivering one of his best performances as the title character.
Harmon told The Guardian, “John Ryder, the film’s hitchhiking serial killer, was originally described by Eric Red as having a damaged larynx, meaning he spoke using an electronic voice box. In those early drafts, he was much more monstrous – just a force of evil. I thought that approach was too simple and wanted to make him more appealing, to suggest there was a heart in there. Ryder is a deliberately ambiguous character – flesh and blood, but with room for a supernatural or mythic reading. While we were making the movie, I’d ask: ‘If Jim Halsey hadn’t been driving down that particular highway in the rain, would anyone have been standing there?’ Initially I was after Terence Stamp to play the hitcher. He turned the part down but years later I ran into him at a party and he said that, having seen the movie, he wished he’d done it. I think Terence and Rutger Hauer have qualities in common. Their eyes are like jewels – they look like they are not of this Earth. … Rutger came to me with an idea for the scene where Ryder lies on the bed in the dark next to Jennifer Jason Leigh as Nash and she assumes he’s Jim. He said: ‘I’d like to read poetry to her.’ I thought: ‘How can that possibly work? She’ll know it’s the wrong voice.’ But I was a very green director and remembered Rutger’s beautiful ‘tears in rain’ scene from Blade Runner. When we rehearsed the scene, Rutger recited his own godawful poetry and I thought: ‘This is the end of my career. I’m dead.’ He finished, came over and said: ‘It doesn’t really work, does it?’ ‘You know what?’ I said, ‘I kind of think you’re right.’ I felt like the luckiest man in the universe.“
Harmon went on to say, “I’ve often seen The Hitcher described as a horror movie, but that’s not a genre I’m interested in. The original script was much more violent and had moments I thought went too far. For example, when Jim finds a severed finger in his burger and fries, the script originally called for an eyeball and a note from Ryder saying: ‘I’ve got my eye on you.’ Still, despite the fight put up by HBO all the way through filming and even into post, there was never any question we weren’t going to kill the girl. So many people have said to me: ‘Oh my god, I had nightmares over that scene where Jennifer was ripped in half. I can’t believe you shot that!’ Well, we didn’t. You see her tied between two trucks and Ryder stepping on the gas and the tires spinning – but then the scene fades out. The movie encouraged audiences to use their imagination.“
Reminiscing about his co-star, Howell told The Guardian, “Rutger seemed to terrify everyone on the production and was pretty much left alone. I think he enjoyed the power he had over people. About three weeks in, he said: ‘I think we should have lunch together.’ I went to his trailer and we sat in dead silence as he chain-smoked filterless Camel cigarettes. After an eternity, I mustered up some courage and in my squeaky teenage voice said: ‘Rutger, what’s your secret to playing bad guys?’ He took a long drag of his cigarette, leaned into my face, slowly exhaled and whispered: ‘I don’t play bad guys.’ I just gathered up my things, thanked him for lunch and backed out of the trailer. That phrase rattled around in my head for years, until I had enough life experience to understand the importance of injecting humanity into villainous roles. There are moments in The Hitcher where Ryder looks at Jim with utter empathy. He expresses fear, too, the full body of emotions. I didn’t question any of Rutger’s improvisations – whether he was scooping a tear off my cheek with a knife, adding a little quartz rock to the handkerchief full of bullets he pushes across the table, or putting pennies in my eyes. The moments he added that weren’t in the script were unexpected gifts.“
To read more about what Harmon and Howell had to say about the making of The Hitcher, click over to The Guardian.
Are you a fan of The Hitcher, and will you be picking up a copy of the 4K release? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and share your thoughts on Rutger Hauer’s performance while you’re at it.
The A24 horror film Heretic, which is coming our way from the writing and directing duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, is set to receive a wide theatrical release on November 15th. The first trailer for the film made its way online a few months ago, the second dropped last month, and now, with the release date just one month away, a third trailer for the film has arrived. You can check it out in the embed above.
Hugh Grant – whose credits include Notting Hill, Love Actually, Wonka, and Unfrosted – stars in Heretic, which has the following synopsis: Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse.
Grant has previously said that he finds villain roles to be “more fun” to play, explaining why he has chosen to play the villain in this scenario. It should be very interesting to watch him take on a diabolic role in a horror movie, and the trailers give a nice preview of the performance he has delivered. He is joined in the cast of Heretic by Chloe East (The Fabelmans) and Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) as the missionaries.
Grant hasn’t done much horror in his career, but he did have a role in Ken Russell’s Bram Stoker-inspired supernatural horror comedy The Lair of the White Worm back in 1988.
Beck and Woods’ previous credits include A Quiet Place (they wrote the original script), Haunt (as writers/directors), Nightlight (writers/directors), Spread (writers/directors), the “Adam Driver vs. dinosaurs” movie 65 (writers/directors), and an episode of 50 States of Fright (writers/directors). They also (alongside Mark Heyman) received writing credits on the Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman – which happened to star Sophie Thatcher, who turned in a great performance in a movie I thought was just okay overall.
JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the opportunity to watch Heretic earlier this month and gave the movie a 7/10 review that can be read at THIS LINK. He said Grant “radiates fiendishly clever intelligence, and he’s given a sadistic streak I didn’t see coming, which feels bold for a mainstream horror flick.”
What did you think of the third trailer for Heretic? Will you be watching this movie when it’s released in November? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Whether it be Robert Rodriguez making El Mariachi for just $7,000 or Godzilla Minus One looking like a big Hollywood epic with only a $15 million budget, it’s quite the feat when filmmakers are able to stretch a dollar. This year’s Venice Film Festival darling, A24’s The Brutalist, is a 3-and-a-half-hour drama shot on 70mm and it was made for under $10 million. The Brutalist was a sensation at this year’s Venice Film Festival, garnering a 12-minute standing ovation and winning the Silver Lion, which goes to the film’s director, in this case Brady Corbet. Although originally known as an actor (notably giving a terrific performance in Michael Haneke’s Funny Games remake), Corbet has been making his mark behind the camera. He co-wrote The Brutalist with longtime partner Mona Fastvold.
According to Deadline, Corbet would explain how he made this film with such a budget at a CAA screening. He made sure to note, “We’re not reinventing the wheel. The reality is that we would have been happier and more comfortable if we had more money.” He expounded, “It came at a great personal, physical expense at times because the number of sleepless nights in the last seven years. You have to have blind faith for getting this thing which is completely malnourished across the finish line.” One of Corbet’s advantages was to use the benefits of tax credits when shooting the film in Hungary.
Corbet explained, “We were shooting in a country where things would cost what they really should cost. Hungary is not that cheap where we shot. It’s cheaper than New York City where we spent $1M in transpo on the last movie.” He added, “We want to be in control of how sand is moved around in the box. We think money is frequently misspent; a reality that all of us exist in. I don’t think I’m overstepping by saying that. But also to make this movie for this amount of money meant that it was a real sacrifice from our HODs (heads of departments).”
JoBlo’s Chris Bumbray loved the film and stressed that the 70mm should be experienced when he said in his review, “However, it also demands to be seen theatrically, as more than any movie since Oppenheimer, it’s been designed to be enjoyed as a cinematic event – and those belong on the big screen. Hopefully, audiences can see it how intended, as this is pretty close to being a masterpiece.”
The Brutalist is slated for a December 20 limited release.
When it was announced that two high-profile Martin Scorsese films – one a biopic of Frank Sinatra, the other on Jesus – were being postponed, it led people to wonder what exactly was going on, with some thoughts leading the mind to consider: Is Martin Scorsese retiring? Well, Marty is here to tell you that he doesn’t plan on going anywhere.
Appearing at the Museum of Cinema in Turin, Martin Scorsese told the crowd, “I’m not saying goodbye to cinema at all. I still have more films to make, and I hope God gives me the strength to make them.” OK, so that whole “gives me the strength” statement does feel a bit uneasy, but considering the level of passion and drive that Scorsese still has – the guy released a three-and-a-half hour epic just last year, the same he turned 81 – we really don’t have any reason to worry.
Martin Scorsese’s Frank Sinatra biopic has been on the table for years, with the latest iteration set to star Leonardo DiCaprio as Ol’ Blue Eyes and Jennifer Lawrence eyed for Ava Gardner, a figure featured in Scorsese’s The Aviator two decades ago, as played by Kate Beckinsale. Scorsese, as we know, has a history of bringing real-life stories to the big screen; but will the Sinatra biopic ever make it or will it go the way of his once-planned films on George Gershwin, Teddy Roosevelt and Alexander the Great?
As for his film on Jesus, Martin Scorsese – who has frequently incorporated themes of Catholic guilt into his films and at one point considered becoming a priest – did at least get a fix with his controversial 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ. This film, however, would be based on Shūsaku Endō’s novel and hope to bring something fresh to the subject. On it, he said, “I’m trying to find a new way to make it more accessible and take away the negative onus of what has been associated with organized religion. Right now, ‘religion,’ you say that word and everyone is up in arms because it’s failed in so many ways. But that doesn’t mean necessarily that the initial impulse was wrong…”
Whatever Martin Scorsese does decide to do next, we’re just glad that he will, as he so often feels like one of the last of his kind.
What do you want to see Martin Scorsese do next? Do either of these projects fit the bill or do you hope he chooses another?
THR reports that Chad Stahelski is producing The Professionals. When I read the title, I initially thought this might be a remake of the 1966 Western starring Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin, but no. The project is said to be a cross between John Wick and Clue. I can get down with that.
The film follows “a group of contract killers stranded in an English countryside estate when one of them is murdered and the remaining group has to solve the death.” Stahelski will produce alongside Alex Young and Jason Spitz, his partners at 87Eleven, as well as Jason Michael Berman and Jordan Moldo of Mandalay Pictures. Hunter Perot, grandson of the late Ross Perot, wrote the initial draft of the screenplay. Madison Turner, a stuntman-turned-writer and son of longtime stunt performer Tierre Turner, is now tackling the script.
Chad Stahelski has plenty of projects on his slate, including a reboot of Highlander. The project has spent years in development, but at long last, it finally seems to be moving forward. Earlier this summer, Stahelski said that he was slated to start shooting early next year. “We start shooting in January in Scotland, that’s why I go right after I leave. I go to Scotland on Monday to do the final location scout. It’s another opportunity to do a property that I love,” he said. “I love what it’s about, I love working with immortality and love stories through time. I think it’s a good way to take a great period piece, and sci-fi, and mix them together.“
Stahelski also produces the upcoming John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, which stars Ana de Armas as a young woman with killer skills who sets out to get revenge when hitmen kill her family. The film will hit theaters on June 6, 2025.
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday may be one of the most divisive movies in the Friday the 13th franchise, but I’m sure fans would jump at the chance to own the film on 4K Ultra HD. There have been rumblings that Arrow Video might be working on a 4K release of the sequel, which director Adam Marcus has confirmed.
“I just supervised the 4K restoration, Color timing and clean up with cinematographer William Dill,” Marcus revealed on X. “It’s the uncut version and it’s never looked better.” It’s not clear when Jason Goes to Hell might be released, but I’d imagine we’ll hear a more official announcement before too long. Arrow Video released a 4K version of the Friday the 13th remake just last month.
Jason Goes to Hell is frequently seen as the black sheep of the franchise. It was the first Friday the 13th film to be released by New Line Cinema after Paramount Pictures sold them the rights to the character. After the critical and commercial failure of Friday the 13th Part VIII:Jason Takes Manhattan, the new team went in a very different direction. Unfortunately, this new direction didn’t go over well with fans. The physical version of Jason Voorhees we know and love barely appears in the film. Much of it follows Jason’s spirit as it possesses various people to continue his killings. In order to resurrect himself, Jason has to possess a member of his bloodline, but he can also be permanently killed by a magical dagger wielded by one of his relatives.
While the film was panned by fans and critics, it does have its moments, including some stand-out gore sequences and the great Steven Williams as Creighton Duke, an over-the-top bounty hunter who just so happens to be a Voorhees expert.
Adam Marcus has also been working on a documentary about the making of Jason Goes to Hell, titled Hearts of Darkness: The Making of the Final Friday. The project has been in the works for several years but was officially completed earlier this spring, with Marcus now in the process of figuring out distribution and screenings.
Would you like to add Jason Goes to Hell to your 4K collection?
MAJOR SPOILERS for Joker: Folie à Deux. The much anticipated Joker sequel is now playing in theaters, but unlike the first movie, it doesn’t look as though fans will help it become another billion-dollar success story. Joker: Folie à Deux has proven to be rather divisive, with the ending in particular coming under fire.
If you’ve seen the film, you know that the sequel finds Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) stabbed to death by a fellow inmate, who promptly carves a Glasgow smile into his own face. It was a shocking end for the character, proving that Fleck was never going to become the Joker we know and love. Joker: Folie à Deux director Todd Phillips spoke with Entertainment Weekly to break down the ending and explain why Fleck ultimately rejects his Joker persona.
“He realized that everything is so corrupt, it’s never going to change, and the only way to fix it is to burn it all down,” Phillips said. “When those guards kill that kid in the [hospital] he realizes that dressing up in makeup, putting on this thing, it’s not changing anything. In some ways, he’s accepted the fact that he’s always been Arthur Fleck; he’s never been this thing that’s been put upon him, this idea that Gotham people put on him, that he represents. He’s an unwitting icon. This thing was placed on him, and he doesn’t want to live as a fake anymore — he wants to be who he is.“
Phillips continued, “The sad thing is, he’s Arthur, and nobody cares about Arthur.” The director added that Lady Gaga’s character never refers to him as Arthur until their final interaction. “[She’s] realizing, I’m on a whole other trip, man, you can’t be what I wanted you to be,” he said.
Given the ending to Joker: Folie à Deux, it makes all the more sense why Phillips has said that he doesn’t intend on returning for Joker 3. “It was fun to play in this sort of sandbox for two movies,” he said, “but I think we’ve said what we wanted to say in this world.“
Our own Chris Bumbray wasn’t a fan of the sequel, feeling that it only exists because the first movie made a boatload of money. “Perhaps Joker was too big of a hit not to get a sequel, but watching Joker: Folie à Deux, you get the distinct feeling that this was an exercise in style for Phillips rather than a sequel that HAD to be made,” Bumbray wrote. “As it is, though, this Joker sequel spins its wheels and winds up being an often dull courtroom movie livened up by occasional flights of fancy into musical numbers. Those sequences are the best in the film, as without them, this would feel like a wholly unnecessary epilogue to what was originally a pretty powerful film.” You can check out the rest of Bumbray’s review right here, and be sure to let us know what you think of the film as well.
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Michael Keaton playing Batman in the original Tim Burton movie, but at the time, Keaton was considered a risky choice. Burton naturally looked at other actors to star in Batman, and that included Terminator star Michael Biehn, who said that he came close to snagging the role.
“I went in and met Tim Burton over at Warner Bros, and back in those days, they were just meetings, they weren’t auditions. I would just go in and meet,” Biehn said in a recent episode of the Just Foolin’ About with Michael Biehn podcast. “But I was very good at telling people how good I was going to be at this role, how I was going to play it, I was going to do this, I was going to do that, sometimes some of the dialogue would slip in, I’ve done that many many times.“
Biehn continued, “I did that with Tim Burton, and Tim Burton, I guess, liked me quite a bit. Tim Burton had me in again, and it was an important enough meeting that Ed Limato (Biehn’s agent) came in with me. We sat and talked with Tim Burton for about an hour. Of course, he ended up casting Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. But Limato told me that [Burton] had two choices: it was either that choice or me and Robin Williams [as the Joker].“
Although Jack Nicholson was the studio’s preferred actor for the Joker, Robin Williams was actually offered the part, only for Warner Bros. to snatch it away in what Williams believed was an attempt to force Nicholson’s hand. Pairing Williams with Biehn would have given us something quite different, and it’s hard not to imagine what could have been.
As Biehn wasn’t a big comic-book fan, he didn’t seem too upset about missing out on the role. However, the actor concluded by praising Matt Reeve’s The Batman. “I f***ing love that movie,” he said. “I thought that was extremely, extremely well done. I liked that one a lot.“
