This is the time of year when the haze around the Oscar race starts to clear up. On paper, Empire of Light certainly looks like it should be contender. It’s British. It’s a period piece. It’s a love story. It stars Olivia Colman. It was directed by Sam Mendes. And judging from the trailer, which was just released today, the film looks like a visual treat.
Will the actual film live up to the hype? We’ll see. As a filmmaker, Sam Mendes can be inconsistent but he’s certainly improved quite a bit since he somehow won an Oscar for the abysmal American Beauty. I am looking forward to seeing and judging Empire of Light for myself.
This week’s edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse trailers is dedicated to Umberto Lenzi, who was born, on this date, in 1931. Lenzi was one of the most prolific of the Italian directors who came to prominence in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. A craftsman at heart, he directed films in every genre. Admittedly, he was never quite the critical favorite that Argento, Margheriti, Deodato, Bava, Fulci, and Soavi were. That’s a polite way of acknowledging that Umberto Lenzi was responsible for a few very bad films. But he directed some good ones, as well. Even if he’s not as acclaimed as some of his contemporaries, I think every Italian horror fan has at least one or two Lenzi films that they will happily defend to the grave.
Today, in honor of Lenzi’s life and work, here are 6 trailers for 6 Umberto Lenzi films! These trailers, by the way, could be considered NSFW so watch them at your own discretion.
Spasmo (1974)
I will be the first to admit that I have shared this trailer quite often on this site. What can I say? I just love the way everyone keeps going, “Spasmo! Spamso!” Spasmo is giallo, one with the a plot that will keep you guessing.
2. The Tough Ones (1976)
Though Lenzi is probably best-remembered for his horror films, he also directed his share of violent, French Connection-inspired crime films. The Tough Ones is a good example.
3. From Corleone to Brooklyn (1979)
From Corleone to Brooklyn is another one of Lenzi’s crime films. While Corleone is a town in Sicily, there’s little doubt that the main purpose of the title was to trick people into thinking that this film was somehow connected to The Godfather.
4. Eaten Alive (1980)
Eaten Alive was one of the many cannibal films that Lenzi directed. This is actually one of the better examples of that rather icky genre. It’s certainly superior to Lenzi’s own Cannibal Ferox. Ivan Rassimov as Jim Jones turns out to be perfect casting. The trailer below is actually an edited version of the original trailer.
5. Nightmare City (1980)
This was Lenzi’s best-known contribution to the zombie genre. Uniquely, for the time, Lenzi’s zombies were fast and clever. The film was not acclaimed when it was originally released but it has since been cited as an influence on many recent zombie films. This is probably Lenzi’s most effective film as a director, even if the ending will probably have you rolling your eyes.
6. Nightmare Beach (1989)
Finally, in one of his final films, Lenzi brought together the spring break genre with the slasher genre. There’s some debate over how much of this film was directed by Lenzi and how much by a mysterious figure known as Harry Kirkpatrick. When I reviewed this film and mentioned the controversy, the film’s star, Nicolas De Toth, replied that Lenzi was definitely the one who directed. As he would definitely be in the best position to know, that’s good enough for me!
Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) reunites his In Bruges stars Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson in TheBanshees of Inisherin. I’m really looking forward to this one. The Banshees of Inisherin places two friends at odds when one decides he’s suddenly had enough of the friendship.
The film also stars Kerry Condon (also from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk, The Eternals)
The Banshees of Inisherin is set to release on October 21st.
Cars is the only PIXAR franchise that has never made me cry. This is largely because it’s about talking cars. It’s easy for me to get emotionally worked up over toys fearing that they’ll be forgotten or WALL-E losing its personality and returning to collecting trash. Don’t even get me started on some of the emotional trauma that I suffered from UP and Inside Out. But Cars …. I mean, I know that cars don’t talk to each other so it’s difficult for me to get too emotionally involved in their issues. In PIXAR’s defense, though, the Cars films have always been pretty honest about the fact that they’re just meant to be silly fun. No one is going to mistake Cars for Toy Story but then again, PIXAR has never asked anyone to.
Cars on the Road is the latest entry in the franchise. This original series will be premiering on Disney Plus on September 8th. Here’s the trailer:
The upcoming Disney+ original series, Star Wars: Andor, is a prequel to Rogue One, which was itself the fourth prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope. If Andor is a success, I’m sure it will lead to another prequel and then a prequel to that and then a prequel to that and eventually, we’ll have a Star Wars series that takes place right before the Big Bang.
(As you may have guessed from the tone of that last paragraph, I’m a bit skeptical of prequels in general. It’s rare that they’re ever worth the trouble. Better Call Saul is really the only prequel that I can I think of that actually enriches the experience of watching the show from which it was spun off.)
Anyway, Star Wars: Andor will be available to stream on September 21st. Here’s the trailer:
Just to state the obvious, this trailer definitely has a Top Gun feel to it. I imagine that can be said about any film that features aerial combat. Plus, Top Gun: Maverick‘s Glen Powell has a role in this film as well. However, unlike Top Gun, Devotion is based on a true story and it takes place during the Korean War.
Devotion is due to be released in November, which is typically the Oscar season. I have a feeling that, fairly or not, Devotion might be overshadowed by the monster success of Top Gun: Maverick but you never know. Audiences might show their devotion to another film about planes and the pilots who fly them.
There are some people out there (mainly on Twitter) who are convinced that Andrew Dominik’s film adaptation of Blonde will be the first NC-17 film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
Well …. maybe. If I’m skeptical, it’s because I can still remember suffering through Dominik’s previous non-documentary film, Killing Them Softly. That said, Ana de Armas seems like she’s destined to be nominated some day and playing the lead role of Marilyn Monroe in a controversial film adapted from a controversial Joyce Carol Oates novel seems like the sort of thing that will get the Academy’s attention.
Every few years, we get a new version of Pinocchio. Walt Disney was responsible for the best-known version. And then there were a few live action versions that were made in Europe in the 50s and 60s. There was a pornographic version in the 70s that featured the immortal tag line, “This time, it isn’t his nose that grows!” If I remember correctly, there were a few made-for-television versions. Roberto Begnini did a version that I’ve never seen but many people have told me that it’s terrifying.
Well, it’s 2022 and that means that were due a new version. This time, it’s Guillermo del Toro’s turn to bring the tale of a wooden boy to life. His animated version will be released on Netflix in December and, given how much the Oscars have recently embraced del Toro, it seems likely that it will be a contender for Best Animated Feature Film. That’s fine, by me. I like del Toro. Of the latest crop of Best Picture nominees, Nightmare Alley is the one that has really stuck with me. Certainly, it’s stuck with me more than whatever it was that actually won.
Anyone who watched Ti West’s X since it’s release in March were given a glance at Pearl, it’s prequel. I saw the sneak peek teaser when X was featured in A24’s Screening Room, the company’s digital showcase. I thought it was just something tacked to the end of the film, like Albert Pyun’s announcement for Tales of the Ancient Empire at the end of The Sword and The Sorcerer. I thought they were kidding.
Sure enough, here we are.
Pearl takes place years before the events of X, where we get to find out how things progressed to where they ended up. Mia Goth (Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria) returns for this tale, and I’m a little curious to see what they come up with here.
Director Todd Field, who directed two masterpieces (In The Bedroom and Little Children) and then seemingly fell off the face of the Earth, has returned! His latest film is TAR and it’s due to be released on October 7th of this year, just in time to make a potential splash in the Oscar race.
In TAR, Cate Blanchett plays a composer who is recording a symphony. In the just-released teaser below, she smokes in slow motion. Actually, the trailer makes the film look a bit like a horror film. It’s intriguing, though. We’ll see what this is all about in October!
Through the Shattered Lens 