Tag Archives: Dylan O’Brien

The New York Film Critics Online Honor One Battle After Another

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The New York Film Critics Online have announced their picks for the best of 2015.  The winners are listed in bold.

PICTURE
Hamnet
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
Nuremberg
One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Sentimental Value
Sinners (RUNNER-UP)
Train Dreams

DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP)
Park Chan-wook – No Other Choice
Ryan Coogler – Sinners (WINNER)
Mona Fastvold – The Testament of Ann Lee
Olivier Laxe – Sirāt
Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident
Lynne Ramsey – Die, My Love
Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme
Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
Chloe Zhao – Hamnet

SCREENPLAY
Bugonia
Hamnet
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
It Was Just an Accident (WINNER)
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value (RUNNER-UP)
Sinners
Sorry, Baby
Train Dreams
Twinless

ACTOR
Timothee Chalamet – Marty Supreme (RUNNER-UP)
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Sope Dirisu – My Father’s Shadow
Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon (WINNER)
Lee Byung Hun – No Other Choice
Dylan O’Brien – Twinless
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent
Jesse Plemons – Bugonia

ACTRESS
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (RUNNER-UP)
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet (WINNER)
Kathleen Chalfant – Familiar Touch
Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue
Jennifer Lawrence – Die, My Love
Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
Amanda Seyfried – The Testament of Ann Lee
Emma Stone – Bugonia
Sydney Sweeney – Christy
Tessa Thompson – Hedda

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Michael Cera – The Phoenician Scheme
Benicio Del Toro – One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein (WINNER)
Noah Jupe – Hamnet
Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Pierre Lottin – When Fall is Coming
Paul Mescal – Hamnet
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
Adam Sandler – Jay Kelly
Alexander Skarsgard – Pillion
Stellan Skarsgard – Sentimental Value (RUNNER-UP)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Odessa A’zion – Marty Supreme
Glenn Close – Wake Up Dead Man
Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value
Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good
Regina Hall – One Battle After Another
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value (WINNER)
Amy Madigan – Weapons (RUNNER-UP)
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – Eternity
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

ENSEMBLE CAST
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Hamnet
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP)
Sentimental Value
Sinners (WINNER)
The Testament of Ann Lee
Wake Up Dead Man

USE OF MUSIC
Hamnet
KPop Demon Hunters
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners (WINNER)
Sirāt (RUNNER-UP)
Song Sung Blue
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
The Testament of Ann Lee
Wicked: For Good

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Sinners (WINNER)
Sirāt
Train Dreams (RUNNER-UP)
The Testament of Ann Lee
28 Years Later
Wicked: For Good

DEBUT DIRECTOR
Akinola Davies Jr. – My Father’s Shadow
Harris Dickerson – Urchin
Sarah Friedland – Familiar Touch
Scarlett Johansson – Eleanor the Great
Harry Lighton – Pillion
Carson Lund – Eephus
Charlie Polinger – The Plague (RUNNER-UP)
Kristen Stewart – The Chronology of Water
Constance Tsang – Blue Sun Palace
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby (WINNER)

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER
Odessa A’zion
Everett Blunck
Miles Caton (RUNNER-UP)
Chase Infiniti (WINNER)
Jacob Jupe
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas
Kayo Martin
Abou Sangare
Eva Victor

ANIMATION
A Magnificent Life
Arco (WINNER)
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amelie or the Character of Rain (RUNNER-UP TIE)
100 Meters
Predator: Killer of Killers
Scarlet
Zootopia 2 (RUNNER-UP TIE)

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
It Was Just an Accident (WINNER)
Left-Handed Girl
No Other Choice
Resurrection
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value (RUNNER-UP)
Sirāt
Sound of Falling
The Voice of Hind Rajib
We Will Not Be Moved

DOCUMENTARY
Afternoons of Solitude
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (WINNER)
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cover-Up
My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow
Pee-wee as Himself
Put Your Soul in Your Hand and Walk
The Perfect Neighbor (RUNNER-UP)
The Alabama Solution
2000 Meters to Andriivka

Here Are The 2025 Nominations of the New York Film Critics Online

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here are the 2025 nominations of the New York Film Critics Online!

PICTURE
Hamnet
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
Nuremberg
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams

DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Park Chan-wook – No Other Choice
Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Mona Fastvold – The Testament of Ann Lee
Olivier Laxe – Sirāt
Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident
Lynne Ramsey – Die, My Love
Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme
Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
Chloe Zhao – Hamnet

SCREENPLAY
Bugonia
Hamnet
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Sorry, Baby
Train Dreams
Twinless

ACTOR
Timothee Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Sope Dirisu – My Father’s Shadow
Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Lee Byung Hun – No Other Choice
Dylan O’Brien – Twinless
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent
Jesse Plemons – Bugonia

ACTRESS
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Kathleen Chalfant – Familiar Touch
Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue
Jennifer Lawrence – Die, My Love
Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
Amanda Seyfried – The Testament of Ann Lee
Emma Stone – Bugonia
Sydney Sweeney – Christy
Tessa Thompson – Hedda

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Michael Cera – The Phoenician Scheme
Benicio Del Toro – One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Noah Jupe – Hamnet
Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Pierre Lottin – When Fall is Coming
Paul Mescal – Hamnet
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
Adam Sandler – Jay Kelly
Alexander Skarsgard – Pillion
Stellan Skarsgard – Sentimental Value

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Odessa A’zion – Marty Supreme
Glenn Close – Wake Up Dead Man
Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value
Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good
Regina Hall – One Battle After Another
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – Eternity
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

ENSEMBLE CAST
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Hamnet
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
The Testament of Ann Lee
Wake Up Dead Man

USE OF MUSIC
Hamnet
KPop Demon Hunters
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt
Song Sung Blue
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
The Testament of Ann Lee
Wicked: For Good

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt
Train Dreams
The Testament of Ann Lee
28 Years Later
Wicked: For Good

DEBUT DIRECTOR
Akinola Davies Jr. – My Father’s Shadow
Harris Dickerson – Urchin
Sarah Friedland – Familiar Touch
Scarlett Johansson – Eleanor the Great
Harry Lighton – Pillion
Carson Lund – Eephus
Charlie Polinger – The Plague
Kristen Stewart – The Chronology of Water
Constance Tsang – Blue Sun Palace
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER
Odessa A’zion
Everett Blunck
Miles Caton
Chase Infiniti
Jacob Jupe
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas
Kayo Martin
Abou Sangare
Eva Victor

ANIMATION
A Magnificent Life
Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amelie or the Character of Rain
100 Meters
Predator: Killer of Killers
Scarlet
Zootopia 2

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
It Was Just an Accident
Left-Handed Girl
No Other Choice
Resurrection
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sirāt
Sound of Falling
The Voice of Hind Rajib
We Will Not Be Moved

DOCUMENTARY
Afternoons of Solitude
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cover-Up
My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow
Pee-wee as Himself
Put Your Soul in Your Hand and Walk
The Perfect Neighbor
The Alabama Solution
2000 Meters to Andriivka

Here Are The 2025 Spirit Nominations

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Independent Spirit Nominations were announced earlier today.  As always, one should take the Spirit Awards with a grain of salt as a lot of the current Oscar contenders — like One Battle After Another and Hamnet — are not eligible for the Spirit Awards.  That said, Train Dreams is an Oscar contender that is eligible for the Spirit Awards and it had a fairly nice showing today.  I should also note that Peter Hujar’s Day received the most film nominations, with five.

Film Categories

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the producer)

Peter Hujar’s Day
Producers: Jonah Disend, Jordan Drake

The Plague
Producers: Derek Dauchy, Joel Edgerton, Roy Lee, Lucy McKendrick, Steven Schneider, Lizzie Shapiro

Sorry, Baby
Producers: Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski

Train Dreams
Producers: Michael Heimler, Will Janowitz, Marissa McMahon, Ashley Schlaifer, Teddy Schwarzman

Twinless
Producers: David Permut, James Sweeney

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to director and producer)

Blue Sun Palace
Director: Constance Tsang
Producers: Sally Sujin Oh, Eli Raskin, Tony Yang

Dust Bunny
Director/Producer: Bryan Fuller
Producers: Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee

East of Wall
Director/Producer: Kate Beecroft
Producers: Shannon Moss, Melanie Ramsayer, Lila Yacoub

Lurker
Director: Alex Russell
Producers: Galen Core, Archie Madekwe, Marc Marrie, Charlie McDowell, Francesco Melzi D’Eril, Duncan Montgomery, Alex Orlovsky, Olmo Schnabel, Jack Selby

One of Them Days
Director: Lawrence Lamont
Producers: Deniese Davis, Poppy Hanks, James Lopez, Issa Rae, Sara Rastogi

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000 (Award given to the writer, director and producer)

The Baltimorons
Director/Writer/Producer: Jay Duplass
Writer/Producer: Michael Strassner
Producers: David Bonnett Jr., Drew Langer

Boys Go to Jupiter
Director/Writer: Julian Glander

Eephus
Director/Writer/Producer: Carson Lund
Writer/Producer: Michael Basta
Writer: Nate Fisher
Producers: David Entin, Tyler Taormina

Esta Isla (This Island)
Directors/Writers/Producers: Cristian Carretero, Lorraine Jones Molina
Writer: Kisha Tikina Burgos

Familiar Touch
Director/Writer/Producer: Sarah Friedland
Producers: Alexandra Byer, Matthew Thurm

BEST DIRECTOR

Clint Bentley
Train Dreams

Mary Bronstein
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Lloyd Lee Choi
Lucky Lu

Ira Sachs
Peter Hujar’s Day

Eva Victor
Sorry, Baby

BEST SCREENPLAY

Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin
Splitsville

Angus MacLachlan
A Little Prayer

James Sweeney
Twinless

Christian Swegal
Sovereign

Eva Victor
Sorry, Baby

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Andrew DeYoung
Friendship

Elena Oxman
Outerlands

Alex Russell
Lurker

Syreeta Singleton
One of Them Days

Constance Tsang
Blue Sun Palace

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE

Everett Blunck
The Plague

Rose Byrne
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Kathleen Chalfant
Familiar Touch

Chang Chen
Lucky Lu

Joel Edgerton
Train Dreams

Dylan O’Brien
Twinless

Keke Palmer
One of Them Days

Théodore Pellerin
Lurker

Tessa Thompson
Hedda

Ben Whishaw
Peter Hujar’s Day

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

Naomi Ackie
Sorry, Baby

Zoey Deutch
Nouvelle Vague

Kirsten Dunst
Roofman

Rebecca Hall
Peter Hujar’s Day

Nina Hoss
Hedda

Jane Levy
A Little Prayer

Archie Madekwe
Lurker

Kali Reis
Rebuilding

Jacob Tremblay
Sovereign

Haipeng Xu
Blue Sun Palace

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

Liz Larsen
The Baltimorons

Misha Osherovich
She’s the He

Kayo Martin
The Plague

SZA
One of Them Days

Tabatha Zimiga
East of Wall

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Alex Ashe
Peter Hujar’s Day

Norm Li
Blue Sun Palace

David J. Thompson
Warfare

Adolpho Veloso
Train Dreams

Nicole Hirsch Whitaker
Dust Bunny

BEST EDITING

Ben Leonberg
Good Boy

Carson Lund
Eephus

Fin Oates
Warfare

Sara Shaw
Splitsville

Sofía Subercaseaux
The Testament of Ann Lee

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast

The Long Walk
Director: Francis Lawrence
Casting Director: Rich Delia
Ensemble Cast: Judy Greer, Mark Hamill, Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Tut Nyuot, Joshua Odjick, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Garrett Wareing

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)

Come See Me in the Good Light
Director/Producer: Ryan White
Producers: Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro, Stef Willen

Endless Cookie
Director: Peter Scriver
Director/Producer: Seth Scriver
Producers: Dan Bekerman, Alex Ordanis, Jason Ryle, Chris Yurkovich

My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
Director/Producer: Julia Loktev

The Perfect Neighbor
Director/Producer: Geeta Gandbhir
Producers: Sam Bisbee, Nikon Kwantu, Alisa Payne

The Tale of Silyan
Director/Producer: Tamara Kotevska
Producers: Jean Dakar, Anna Hashmi, Jordanco Petkovski

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)

All That’s Left of You
Palestine, Jordan, Germany, Cyprus
Director: Cherien Dabis

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Zambia, UK, Ireland
Director: Rungano Nyoni

A Poet
Colombia
Director: Simón Mesa Soto

The Secret Agent
Brazil
Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho

Sirāt
Spain
Director: Oliver Laxe

Emerging Filmmaker Awards

PRODUCERS AWARD – The Producers Award, now in its 29th year, honors an emerging producer who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrates the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films. This award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.

Emma Hannaway

Luca Intili

Tony Yang

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 32nd year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. This award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.

Tatti Ribeiro
Director of Valentina

Neo Sora
Director of Happyend

Annapurna Sriram
Director of Fucktoys

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 31st year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. This award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.

Tony Benna
Director of André is an Idiot

Rajee Samarasinghe
Director of Your Touch Makes Others Invisible

Brittany Shyne
Director of Seeds

Horror Trailer: Send Help

Posted on by Arleigh

Send Help is a darkly comedic psychological thriller directed by Sam Raimi. The film centers on two coworkers, Linda Liddle and Bradley Preston, who are the only survivors of a plane crash that leaves them stranded on a deserted island. Two people who shouldn’t be together in the same room must now collaborate to survive. The film looks to play on the two characters darkly comedic battle of wills and wits to what looks like survival of the fittest. The film is a mix of survival drama, sharp psychological tension, and Raimi’s signature style, blending horror and black comedy elements.

The film stars Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle and Dylan O’Brien as Bradley Preston, with a supporting cast including Edyll Ismail, Dennis Haysbert, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, Thaneth Warakulnukroh, and Emma Raimi. Send Help is produced by Sam Raimi and Zainab Azizi, with a screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, and features music by frequent collaborator, Danny Elfman. It is scheduled for theatrical release nationwide on January 30, 2026, distributed by 20th Century Studios.

Film Review: Deepwater Horizon (dir by Peter Berg)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

2016’s Deepwater Horizon tells the story of the 2010 explosion that led to the biggest oil spill in American history.

Owned by British Petroleum, the Deepwater Horizon was an oil rig sitting off the coast of Louisiana and Texas.  A series of explosions, which were found to be the result cost-cutting and negligence on the part of BP, killed eleven men, injured countless others, and led to an 87-day oil spill that leaked 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of America (or the Gulf of Mexico, as it was known back then.  I know, it can be heard to keep track).  I can still remember when the disaster happened.  It was seen as an early test of the “government-can-fix-anything” philosophy of the Obama era and it pretty much proved the opposite.  Private citizens (including Kevin Costner) offered to help and were rebuffed.  The governor of Louisiana was criticized for ordering the construction of barrier islands, even though they were more effective than was that the federal government was offering up.  The CEO of British Petroleum issued a self-pitying apology.  For a generation coming of political age in 2010, witnessing the government’s ineffective attempts to deal with the oil spill was as radicalizing a moment as the COVID lunacy would be for people coming of age in 2020.

In all the chaos surrounding the oil spill, it was often overlooked that 11 people died in the initial explosion.  In all the rightful criticism that was directed towards British Petroleum, the heroic efforts of the workers on the Deepwater Horizon, all of whom risked their lives to try to prevent the disaster from getting worse, were also often overlooked.  To an extent, Deepwater Horizon corrects that oversight, paying tribute to the men on that rig while also portraying the extent of the environmental disaster caused by BP’s negligence.

The film centers of Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) and Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg), two engineers who attempt to warn BP execs like Donald Virdrine (John Malkovich) that cutting costs on safety will inevitably lead to disaster.  Russell, Wahlberg, and Malkovich are all ideally cast, with Russell and Wahlberg capturing the spirit of men who try to do their job well and who live their life by the philosophy of not leaving anyone behind.  Malkovich is playing a corporate stooge, the man who many people blamed for the disaster.  But, to his credit, Malkovich is able to turn Virdrine into a complex character.  Virdrine makes terrible mistakes but he never becomes one-dimensional corporate villain.  Though Deepwater Horizon is dominated by its special effects and the explosion is an undeniably intense scene, the film doesn’t forget about the human cost of the disaster.  Russell, Wahlberg, and Malkovich are supported by good performances from Ethan Suplee, Gina Rodriguez, and Kate Hudson.  (Hudson, in particular, deserves a lot of credit for making her thinly-written role into something compelling.)  Kurt Russell does such a good job of capturing Jimmy’s quiet confidence and his expertise that, the minute he’s injured by the explosion, the audience knows that Deepwater Horizon is doomed.  If even Kurt Russell can’t save the day, what hope is there?

Director Peter Berg specialized in films about ordinary people who found themselves caught up in extraordinary situations.  His well-made and earnest films — like Lone Survivor, Patriots Day, and this one — were rarely acclaimed by critics, many of whom seemed to take personal offense at Berg’s unapologetically patriotic and individualistic vision.  Personally, I appreciate Berg’s pro-American aesthetic.  At a time when we were being told that individuals didn’t matter and that everyone should be content with merely being a cog in a bigger machine, Berg’s films came along to say, “This is what team work actually means.”  It’s been five years since Berg’s last film.  Hopefully, we will get a new one soon.

 

Catching Up With The Films of 2024: Saturday Night (dir by Jason Reitman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Saturday Night, which presents what I assume to be a highly fictionalized account of the 90 minutes before the 1975 premiere of Saturday Night Live, did the impossible.  It made me feel sorry for Chevy Chase.

Don’t get me wrong.  As played by Cory Michael Smith, Chevy Chase is not presented as being a sympathetic character in Saturday Night.  The film acknowledges his talent as a comedian and that he was the first star to come out of Saturday Night Live.  But he’s still presented as being arrogant, self-centered, rude, and often deliberately self-destructive.  The film portrays Chevy Chase in much the same way that most people describe him in real life.  Chevy Chase has apparently always been a difficult person to work with and, I suppose to his credit, it doesn’t appear that Chevy himself has ever claimed anything different.  But Saturday Night so piles on Chevy that even I felt it went a bit overboard.  It’s one thing to present Chevy as being the arrogant jerk that he’s admitted to being.  It’s another thing to fill the movie with moments in which people stop what they’re doing to tell Chevy that his career is going to start strong and then fade due to his bad behavior.  At one point, the NBC executive played by Willem DaFoe comments that Chevy could host his own late night talk show.  We’re all meant to laugh because eventually, Chevy Chase did host a late night talk show and it was such a disaster that it’s still, decades after its cancellation, held up as a prime example of a bad career move.  But, in the context of the film, it feels a bit like overkill.  It’s one thing to be honest about someone being a pain in the ass.  It’s another thing to repeatedly kick someone while they’re down.  Chevy, much like the NBC censor who is chanted down in the film’s cringiest moment, simply feels like too easy of a target.

Of course, Saturday Night is full of moments that are meant to comment more on the future than on whatever was going on in 1975.  The whole point of the film is that Saturday Night Live, a show that the network has little faith in and which is being produced by a hyperactive visionary (Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels) who seems to be making it up as he goes along, is eventually going to become a cultural phenomenon.  Every time someone tries to convince Lorne Michaels to cancel the premiere or to miss with the format, we’re meant to think to ourselves, “Little do they know that this show is going to be huge for several decades before eventually just becoming another predictable part of the media landscape.” The scenes of Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris) wandering around the set and asking, “What is my purpose?  Why am I here?” may not feel like something that would have happened in 1975 but they’re there because it’s something that people were asking about in 2024.  Watching the film, it helps if you know something about the history of Saturday Night Live.  It helps to know that Dan Aykryod (Dylan O’Brien), John Belushi (Matt Wood), and Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) are going to carry the show after Chevy Chase leaves.  It helps to know that Billy Crystal (Nicholas Podany) is going to become a Hollywood mainstay even after he gets dumped from the premiere for refusing to cut any material out of his act.  It helps to know that the mellow, pot-smoking band leader is actually Paul Shaffer (Paul Rust).  It helps to know that Lorne Michael and Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman, giving one of the best performances in the film) are going to become powerful names in American television.  The film may be set in 1975 but it’s actually about all the years to come.

It’s still an entertaining and well-made film, one that I enjoyed watching.  Saturday Night manages to create the illusion of playing out in real time and director Jason Reitman captures the excitement of being backstage before opening night.  It’s an excitement that everyone can relate to, whether their opening night was on television, Broadway, or just a community theater in their small college town.  The backstage chaos of Saturday Night is wonderfully choreographed and, most importantly, it captures the feeling of being young, idealistic, and convinced that you can change the world.  Reitman also gets good performances from his cast, with Cooper Hoffman, Dylan O’Brien, and Rachel Sennott (playing writer Rosie Shuster) as stand-outs.  That said, the film is pretty much stolen by J.K. Simmons, who has a memorably lecherous cameo as Milton Berle and who provides Chevy Chase with a look at what waits for him in the future.  If the film is never quite as poignant as it wants to be, that’s because Saturday Night Live is no longer the cultural powerhouse that it once was.  If Saturday Night had been released just 18 years ago, before SNL became best-known as the place where Alec Baldwin hides out from bad publicity, it would probably be an Oscar front runner right now.  Released today, it’s just makes one feel a little bit sad.  The show that was built on never selling out eventually sold out.

Here’s The Trailer for Flashback!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I have to be honest.

Whenever I see any trailer for a film featuring Dylan O’Brien, my main reaction is one of relief. It doesn’t matter whether or not the film looks like it’s any good or not. Instead, I’m just relieved that Dylan’s still with us and still making movies. It’s only been five years since O’Brien was seriously injured during the filming The Maze Runner: The Death Cure. At the time, some reports speculated that O’Brien might never act again. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Dylan O’Brien is a good actor but I still don’t feel like he’s quite had his breakthrough film. The Maze Runner, for all of its success, always labored in the shadow of The Hunger Games and the Divergent films. Despite being better than the last few Bourne movies, American Assassin was not a hit. Love and Monsters had the misfortune to be released in the middle of a pandemic. Some day, though, Dylan O’Brien will get a project that will really allow him to show the world what he’s capable of doing.

I don’t know that Flashback is gong to be that project but the trailer certainly looks intriguing and properly creepy. Flashback features O’Brien as a man struggling with an unsolved mystery and literally entering his memories in an attempt to try to solve it. It co-stars Maika Monore and will be released on June 4th!

Here’s the trailer:

Love and Monsters (dir. by Michael Matthews)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

love-and-monsters-movie-posterDylan O’Brien is one of those actors that I’ll run to watch anything they’re in. I did so for 2017’s American Assassin, and have been making my way through MTV’s Teen Wolf. The guy oozes charisma, so when I found out his latest film, Love and Monsters, was available both in theatres and on Demand, I scooped it up without blinking.  It’s kind of ironic that both he and his Teen Wolf co star, Tyler Posey, both have films this month (Posey is in Alone, also on demand) where their characters are caught up in apocalyptic nightmares.

Love and Monsters is a lighthearted monster film about stepping out of one’s shell, making some mistakes and growing along the way. O’Brien carries the film with humor and action, along with help from the supporting cast.  It’s still a monster story, but it’s one just about anyone but the youngest of viewers can watch (and even then, it should be okay).

Sometimes, you just have to come out of your shell, which really isn’t easy to do when the world is suddenly populated with giant creatures. Joel (Dylan O’Brien, American Assassin) loves Aimee (Jessica Henwick , Underwater), but they happen to be separated in underground colonies about 90 miles from each other. Everyone manages to survive in their own way, and going up to the surface is particularly dangerous when everything wants to eat you.  Joel does the small work around the underground bunker he’s in – making Minestrone, cleaning up the place – because he can’t handle the monsters outside.. When Joel decides to make the trek to reach Aimee, he has to learn how to survive in a world where everything wants to eat you. Befriended by a dog, Joel meets some friends along the way. Love and Monsters is a near perfect fit for the post Quarantine world. It speaks of isolation, communication over distances, while still hitting some themes on taking some risks (calculated, when possible), and learning to trust one’s instincts.

Love-and-Monsters-Boy and his Dog

Joel (Dylan O’Brien) and Boy (Hero the Dog) navigate the unknown in Love and Monsters. 

The cast for Love and Monsters is so nice. In addition to O’Brien and Henwick, we have a pair of Marvel Alumni in Michael Rooker (Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy), and Ariana Greenblatt (Little Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War) as Clyde and Minnow, respectively. They help to add to the comedy that O’Brien’s already offering.

I think what surprised me the most about Love and Monsters was the look of the monsters themselves. I was expecting something more along the lines of your typical Syfy channel movie fare. The CGI and monster effects in Love and Monsters are pretty good. I would have liked to have seen more monsters, but I really enjoyed it what was offered. Marco Beltrami and Marcus Trumpp also get some kudos for the soundtrack, having worked with Wes Craven and Guillermo Del Toro in the past. The theme for Love and Monsters has a pinch of Hellboy to it, and fits well to Joel and Boy’s (Hero the Dog) adventures.

If there are any problems with the film, I guess it would be that it moves a little faster than anticipated. That’s hardly a complaint. At about an hour and 50 minutes, it moves somewhat fast. Additionally, if anyone’s expecting a full fledged horror film, they might be a bit disappointed. It’s a comedy first, with monsters. As long as you’re not expecting serious horror, it’s great, but the film does have it’s moments of little jumpscares. There’s also the notion that if you’ve already watched How to Train Your Dragon or Zombieland, Love and Monsters might not feel entirely new. It does, however, manage to take what’s going in the world right now with social distancing and reference it without directly saying it has anything to do with it. I feel audiences might relate to Joel’s isolation from that aspect, and his journey based on any trial we’ve ever gone through in learning a new skill or stepping outside of our comfort zones.

Love and Monsters is a cute surprise of a film that might have you chuckling more than jumping around in your seat, but that’s okay. At least it’s entertaining. I really wouldn’t mind a sequel to this.

Here’s The Trailer For Love And Monsters!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s a monster apocalypse and only Dylan O’Brien can save us!

Listen, I don’t know if the film’s going to be any good or not but we should all be happy that Dylan O’Brien is still with us.  After he was seriously injured during the filming of the the last Maze Runner film, a lot of people thought that he might never return to films.

As for this film, Michael Rooker’s in it and that’s often a good sign.  It looks like it might be fun.  We’ll find out for sure on October 16th!

Film Review: Maze Runner: The Death Cure (dir by Wes Ball)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here are a few good things about Maze Runner: The Death Cure.

First off, and most importantly, Dylan O’Brien is still alive.  When The Death Cure first went into production way back in 2016, O’Brien was seriously injured on the set.  While it’s never really been disclosed just how serious the injuries were, they were bad enough that it took O’Brien several months to recover.  There was even some speculation that his career might be over.  Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.  Last year, O’Brien returned to the screen and gave a superior performance as the lead in American Assassin.  In The Death Cure, O’Brien returns as Thomas and even if the character is still a bit of cipher, O’Brien does a good job playing him.

Secondly, Gally lives!  In the first Maze Runner, Gally was a villain but, because he was played by Will Poulter, he was also strangely likable.  Maze Runner was the first film in which I ever noticed Will Poulter and I have to admit that I’ve always felt that both the actor and the character deserved better than to be casually killed off at the end of the first movie.  Since Maze Runner, Poulter has given great performances in both The Revenant and Detroit.  (He was also briefly cast as Pennywise in It, though the role was ultimately played by Bill Skarsgard.)  In The Death Cure, it is not only revealed that Gally is still alive but he also finally gets to be one of the good guys.

Third, the Death Cure confirms what I felt when I first saw The Maze Runner.  Wes Ball is a talented director.  Despite whatever narrative flaws that the Maze Runner films may have, they’re always watchable.  Death Cure opens with a genuinely exciting action sequence and there are more than a few visually striking shots.

Fourth, Death Cure actually ends the Maze Runner saga.  That may sound like a strange or back-handed compliment but it’s not.  Death Cure resists the temptation to try to milk more money out of the franchise by unnecessarily splitting the finale in two.  I’ve always felt that The Hunger Games made a huge mistake with its two-part finale.  (The first part was good but the second part dragged.)  Divergent appears to be destined to be forever unfinished because the first part of it’s two-part finale bombed at the box office.  Death Cure refuses to indulge in any of that nonsense.  Unfortunately, this also means that Death Cure ends up lasting an unwieldy 142 minutes but still, that’s better than forcing the film into two parts.  With the current YA dysptopia cycle winding down, now is the right time to end things.

Finally, I appreciated the fact that the bad guys in Death Cure were named WCKD.  There’s nothing subtle about that but this isn’t a movie the demands subtlety.  As opposed to many other films based on dystopian YA fiction, The Maze Runner films have always been aware of just how ludicrous they often are.  Unlike the Divergent films or The Fifth Wave, the Maze Runner films have always been smart enough not to take themselves too seriously.

Anyway, as for Death Cure itself, it’s big and noisy and your enjoyment will largely depend on how much you remember about the first two films.  It’s been nearly three years since The Scorch Trials came out, which is an eternity when it comes to a franchise like Maze Runner.  Death Cure pretty much jumps right into the action and if you don’t remember all of the details from the first two films … well, good luck getting caught up!  (Unfortunately, it doesn’t help that, while the first movie was fun, Scorch Trials was a lot easier to forget.)  It’s pretty much a typical tale of YA dystopia, complete with tragic deaths, shocking betrayal, and a chosen one.  If you’re a fan of the previous two films or the books, you’ll probably enjoy Death Cure.  For the rest of us, it’s a bit of a confusing ride but at least there’s a lot of up-and-coming talent on display.