A new track off Eminem’s forthcoming studio album “Revival” dropped early Friday, and this one’s all about police brutality against black Americans. “Black boy, black boy, we ain’t gonna lie to you,” the song, “Untouchable” starts. “Black boy, black boy, we don’t like the sight of you.” Throughout the song, he references the death of Freddie Gray, Rodney King and Colin Kaepernick’s protests that have rocked the NFL this year. Eminem juxtaposes those issues with a chorus that goes “white boy, white boy, you’re a rockstar… white boy, white, in you’re cop car…...
- 12/8/2017
- by Ashley Boucher
- The Wrap
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
The Adventures of Tintin (Steven Spielberg)
Leave it to Steven Spielberg to eke more thrills out of an animated feature than most directors could with every live-action tool at their disposal. The Adventures of Tintin is colored and paced like a child’s fantastical imagining of how Hergé’s comics might play in motion, and the extent to which viewers buy it depends largely on their willingness to give...
The Adventures of Tintin (Steven Spielberg)
Leave it to Steven Spielberg to eke more thrills out of an animated feature than most directors could with every live-action tool at their disposal. The Adventures of Tintin is colored and paced like a child’s fantastical imagining of how Hergé’s comics might play in motion, and the extent to which viewers buy it depends largely on their willingness to give...
- 12/8/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 90th Academy Awards®. One hundred seventy films were originally submitted in the category.
The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Mitten Media, Motto Pictures, Kartemquin Educational Films and Wgbh/Frontline.
Director Steve James
A small financial institution called Abacus becomes the only company criminally indicted in the wake of the United States’ 2008 mortgage crisis.
Chasing Coral, Exposure Labs in partnership with The Ocean Agency & View Into the Blue in association with Argent Pictures & The Kendeda Fund. Directed by Jeff Orlowski
Coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. A team of divers, photographers and scientists set out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why and to reveal the underwater mystery to the world.
The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Mitten Media, Motto Pictures, Kartemquin Educational Films and Wgbh/Frontline.
Director Steve James
A small financial institution called Abacus becomes the only company criminally indicted in the wake of the United States’ 2008 mortgage crisis.
Chasing Coral, Exposure Labs in partnership with The Ocean Agency & View Into the Blue in association with Argent Pictures & The Kendeda Fund. Directed by Jeff Orlowski
Coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. A team of divers, photographers and scientists set out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why and to reveal the underwater mystery to the world.
- 12/8/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
By the time directors Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin had finished editing “La 92,” their documentary about the riots in Los Angeles following the 1992 verdict in the Rodney King trial, they’d amassed 1,700 hours of footage. The film gleans from news footage, personal videos, and other sources for a 114-minute film comprised completely of archival footage — no talking heads.
“In a perfect world, we would have had two years to make this, and we had nine months,” Lindsay said following a screening of the film at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series.
Read More:Steve James Says ‘Abacus: Small Enough to Jail’ Was a Purposefully Intimate Look at the 2008 Financial Crisis
Editing a film made up of such upsetting, violent imagery did take a toll, but Lindsay and Martin both said they knew what they were getting into when they signed on to direct the project — and besides, nothing...
“In a perfect world, we would have had two years to make this, and we had nine months,” Lindsay said following a screening of the film at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series.
Read More:Steve James Says ‘Abacus: Small Enough to Jail’ Was a Purposefully Intimate Look at the 2008 Financial Crisis
Editing a film made up of such upsetting, violent imagery did take a toll, but Lindsay and Martin both said they knew what they were getting into when they signed on to direct the project — and besides, nothing...
- 11/30/2017
- by Jean Bentley
- Indiewire
Issa Rae, the creator and star of comedy Insecure, is developing a family drama for HBO with author Angela Flournoy, Deadline reports. The show will center around an African American family living in Los Angeles during the Nineties.
Rae will serve as an executive producer on the as-yet-untitled show, which Flournoy is writing. Flournoy was a finalist for the National Book Award for her debut novel, The Turner House, which chronicled a large Detroit family over the course of several decades.
At the center of Flournoy and Rae's new show are Sheryl and Jackson,...
Rae will serve as an executive producer on the as-yet-untitled show, which Flournoy is writing. Flournoy was a finalist for the National Book Award for her debut novel, The Turner House, which chronicled a large Detroit family over the course of several decades.
At the center of Flournoy and Rae's new show are Sheryl and Jackson,...
- 10/24/2017
- Rollingstone.com
It was a year of scandals, protests and explosive racial tensions. In 1992, riots rocked Los Angeles in the aftermath of the Rodney King trial verdict, the U.S. sent military forces into war-torn Somalia, Mike Tyson was jailed on rape charges, and Bill Clinton was elected to the White House. In cinema this was the year of Basic Instinct, Malcolm X, The Bodyguard, Batman Returns, Bram Stoker’s Dracula — plus a little word-of-mouth hit by a young unknown director: Reservoir Dogs.
But the 1992 release that left a deeper impression on me than any of those listed above was Candyman. A superior...
But the 1992 release that left a deeper impression on me than any of those listed above was Candyman. A superior...
- 10/15/2017
- by Stephen Dalton
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Tragically Hip and Halle Berry brought their films to #TIFF17 on Wednesday night!The Tragically Hip and Halle Berry brought their films to #TIFF17 on Wednesday night!Adriana Floridia9/14/2017 10:46:00 Am
It was an emotional night at the Toronto International Film Festival last night with the premiere of The Tragically Hip's concert documentary, Long Time Running.
The band was in town along with filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier along with thousands of Tragically Hip fans who got a first look at the film. The documentary chronicles the band's legendary final 2016 tour, up until their epic final show. You can see the film starting today at select Cineplex theatres. Click here for tickets and showtimes!
Also in town was Halle Berry, here to promote her new film Kings. The film is directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, who also made the Oscar nominated film Mustang back in...
It was an emotional night at the Toronto International Film Festival last night with the premiere of The Tragically Hip's concert documentary, Long Time Running.
The band was in town along with filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier along with thousands of Tragically Hip fans who got a first look at the film. The documentary chronicles the band's legendary final 2016 tour, up until their epic final show. You can see the film starting today at select Cineplex theatres. Click here for tickets and showtimes!
Also in town was Halle Berry, here to promote her new film Kings. The film is directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, who also made the Oscar nominated film Mustang back in...
- 9/14/2017
- by Adriana Floridia
- Cineplex
Now that “Kings” has premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Kathryn Bigelow is no longer the only female, non-African-American director to make a 2017 movie about a major black uprising in an inner city. Bigelow and “Detroit” have been joined by Turkish-French director Deniz Gamze Erguven, whose film deals with the 1992 Los Angeles riots that began when four Lapd officers were acquitted in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Like “Detroit,” “Kings” drops us in the middle of a conflagration caused by years of harsh treatment and growing anger – and like “Detroit,” it mixes in news footage from...
- 9/14/2017
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The last thing the world needs right now is another star-studded movie about the race riots that scarred 20th Century America. Okay, that’s not entirely true — past trauma can be an indispensable lens through which to see present tragedies, and we sure have plenty of both — but anyone who suffered through this summer’s “Detroit” would certainly be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The halos of celebrity and commercialism tend to obfuscate the potential value of exhuming such terrible events, and that blockage is only compounded by the insistent whiteness that always makes it possible. These films may be made with the best of intentions (and the most humanistic of ideals), but something is invariably lost in translation.
Consider the differences between Justin Chon’s “Gook,” which came out late this summer, and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Kings,” which is slated for release this fall. Both films are about the L.
Consider the differences between Justin Chon’s “Gook,” which came out late this summer, and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Kings,” which is slated for release this fall. Both films are about the L.
- 9/14/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
It has been 25 years since the L.A. riots, an overflowing of racial unrest spurred on by the not guilty verdicts of the police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King. To mark the anniversary, there have been a number of documentaries about it including L.A. 92 and Burn, Motherf*cker, Burn! – unfortunately uncovered by The Film Experience due to access issues. It would be sad enough to watch Sabaah Folayan and co-director Damon Davis’ Whose Streets? in the shadow of that event; a sad indictment that in a quarter of century not much of anything has changed.
However, I sat down to watch this film last night, my digital screener playing in one tab of my internet browser while in another sits a news article about the Charlottesville protests, while in another is Twitter and in another Facebook, both flooded with angry, sad and hopeless words by friends...
However, I sat down to watch this film last night, my digital screener playing in one tab of my internet browser while in another sits a news article about the Charlottesville protests, while in another is Twitter and in another Facebook, both flooded with angry, sad and hopeless words by friends...
- 8/15/2017
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
On March 3, 1991, Los Angeles resident Rodney King was brutally beaten by four Lapd officers, an incident that was caught on tape and spread like wildfire. Charged with assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force, three of the four officers were acquitted of all charges, setting off days of outright anarchy in the City of Angels. Outraged by injustice and continued episodes of racially motivated police brutality, people took to the streets of South Central to…...
- 8/14/2017
- Deadline
In April 1992, Los Angeles went up in flames.
Most of us who lived here should have known something was coming. Ever since the Rodney King trial got underway — and even before that, when video of his beating disabused even cockeyed optimists about the police treatment of African-Americans — it was clear that anger was simmering in this smiling city. Far away from the palm-fringed boulevards and sun-drenched beaches, kept at a safe remove from the air-conditioned cars and airy offices, a far more troubled L.A. coexisted with the idealized version that had graced so many movies. And then...
Most of us who lived here should have known something was coming. Ever since the Rodney King trial got underway — and even before that, when video of his beating disabused even cockeyed optimists about the police treatment of African-Americans — it was clear that anger was simmering in this smiling city. Far away from the palm-fringed boulevards and sun-drenched beaches, kept at a safe remove from the air-conditioned cars and airy offices, a far more troubled L.A. coexisted with the idealized version that had graced so many movies. And then...
- 8/4/2017
- by Stephen Galloway
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The end of the summer movie season is upon us, which normally means a dry spell for studio releases, and while that indeed looks to be the case, this is one of the best months of the year if one digs a little deeper. From European getaways to redneck heists to dramas about riots and terrorism, there’s an abundance of appealing choices at the cinema this August. See our picks below and let us know what you’re most looking forward to.
Matinees: It’s Not Yet Dark (8/4), This Time Tomorrow (8/4), Icarus (8/4), Machines (8/9), After Love (8/9), In This Corner of the World (8/11), The Nile Hilton Incident (8/11), The Wound (8/16), Sidemen: Long Road to Glory (8/18), What Happened to Monday (8/18), Crown Heights (8/25), Death Note (8/25), The Villainess (8/25), and The Teacher (8/30)
15. Lemon (Janicza Bravo; Aug. 18)
Synopsis: A man watches his life unravel after he is left by his girlfriend of 10 years.
Trailer
Why You Should...
Matinees: It’s Not Yet Dark (8/4), This Time Tomorrow (8/4), Icarus (8/4), Machines (8/9), After Love (8/9), In This Corner of the World (8/11), The Nile Hilton Incident (8/11), The Wound (8/16), Sidemen: Long Road to Glory (8/18), What Happened to Monday (8/18), Crown Heights (8/25), Death Note (8/25), The Villainess (8/25), and The Teacher (8/30)
15. Lemon (Janicza Bravo; Aug. 18)
Synopsis: A man watches his life unravel after he is left by his girlfriend of 10 years.
Trailer
Why You Should...
- 8/1/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Of the 14 Galas and 33 Special Presentations, this first announcement includes 25 World Premieres, eight International Premieres, six North American Premieres, and eight Canadian Premieres, including works from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, India, Egypt, and Cambodia.
This year, Tiff offers a refreshed, more tightly curated Festival, with a renewed commitment to bold, director-driven programming, continued support of female filmmakers, and enough star power to fuel 400,000 festival-goers.
Kings by Deniz Gamze Ergüven starring Haile Berry
Today’s announcement cements that the future is female (and so is Tiff’s programming), with Gala films from emerging and established filmmakers that include Kings by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, whose 2015 Festival feature Mustang earned an Oscar nod for Best Foreign Film; Mary Shelley by Haifaa Al Mansour, the first female Saudi director; Dee Rees’ Mudbound, an adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s novel about racial tensions...
This year, Tiff offers a refreshed, more tightly curated Festival, with a renewed commitment to bold, director-driven programming, continued support of female filmmakers, and enough star power to fuel 400,000 festival-goers.
Kings by Deniz Gamze Ergüven starring Haile Berry
Today’s announcement cements that the future is female (and so is Tiff’s programming), with Gala films from emerging and established filmmakers that include Kings by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, whose 2015 Festival feature Mustang earned an Oscar nod for Best Foreign Film; Mary Shelley by Haifaa Al Mansour, the first female Saudi director; Dee Rees’ Mudbound, an adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s novel about racial tensions...
- 7/30/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
It was such a beautiful day. In our exclusive clip from Gook, 11-year-old Kamilla (Simone Baker) helps out the brothers Eli (Justin Chon) and Daniel (David So) during a busy day at the shoe store they own. The scene has a cheerful, fun energy to it, the camera moving around in rhythm with the brothers calling out model numbers to Kamila, who then knows which shoes to grab for the neighborhood customers. The moment becomes poignant in memory later on in the day, when developments take place that will shake everyone in the store and far beyond. Here's the official synopsis: Gook takes place on April 29, 1992 -- the day the La riots started and the day the Rodney King verdicts were announced. Eli...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/14/2017
- Screen Anarchy
The full trailer has arrived for Gook, a drama that studies racial divide and the lines that connect us all. Written and directed by Justin Chon, the film follows two Korean American brothers who own a shoe store and befriend a young African American girl. Everything is smooth until the Rodney King verdict is read, sounding riots and fueling anger in the streets of Los Angeles. With some sharp black and white cinematography and some inspired framing, Gook — which picked up the top award in its Next section at Sundance — looks to be an intriguing and balanced drama.
We said in our Sundance review, “And though Gook is wrapped in this macro-history (televisions and radios play out the verdict in the first act), the narrative stays focused on Eli and his fracturing ties to Daniel and Mr. Kim (Sang Chon), an older Korean storeowner across the street who shares a past with Eli’s family.
We said in our Sundance review, “And though Gook is wrapped in this macro-history (televisions and radios play out the verdict in the first act), the narrative stays focused on Eli and his fracturing ties to Daniel and Mr. Kim (Sang Chon), an older Korean storeowner across the street who shares a past with Eli’s family.
- 6/29/2017
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
Author: Cai Ross
The summer movie season of 1992 opened under a cloud; a dark cloud from the still-smouldering buildings that had burned to the ground during the La riots in April. Racial tension after the disastrous acquittal of Rodney King’s uniformed attackers had reached an all-time high and Hollywood appealed for calm.
Thus, in a touchingly bold demonstration of selfless generosity, Walter Hill’s unremarkable urban thriller, The Looters, was hastily withdrawn and held back until Christmas, re-christened Trespass (memorably starring two Bills – Paxton and Sadler – and a pair of Ices – T and Cube). Elsewhere, it was business as usual.
The Rodney King affair was briefly alluded to in Lethal Weapon 3, the second-biggest hit of the summer and one of only a handful of ‘sure things’ on the menu. Though there were mutterings about the dominance of sequels in the summer movie season, there were weird things afoot in most of the other returnees. Aside from Lethal Weapon 3 – which was essentially a watered down Lethal Weapon 2 with too much added Joe Pesci – the rest of the sequels veered off into strange tangents, with varying results.
Alien 3, for example strayed dangerously far from the template set down by the first two classics. Bravely, it has to be said, David Fincher tried to create a quasi-religious epic, following Scott’s horror movie and Cameron’s war film. Latterly, Fincher’s frustrations and behind-the-scenes interferences became legendary, but audiences didn’t click with his compromised vision and it became the first in a long line of Alien movies to fall a bit flat.
Another major sequel, Honey, I Blew Up The Baby was in fact the complete opposite of 1989’s Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, culminating in the spectacle of a 99 foot toddler stomping through Las Vegas. It was directed without enthusiasm by Grease director Randal Kleiser, reminding audiences once again why no one remembers who directed Grease.
It wasn’t just sequels that dared to be different. One of the strangest mainstream offerings of the year was Robert Zemeckis’s black comedy, Death Becomes Her, which might have been a delicious satire on America’s vain obsession with cosmetic surgery if only Bruce Willis had stopped shouting at everyone like he was trying to prevent a plane crash.
Back in the ‘90s, much more so than today, comedies were a vital part of the summer success story – an inexpensive sop for the grown-ups while their teenage kids watched things explode in Screen 7. There were high hopes for Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn’s Housesitter, which was only a medium-sized hit, despite the bit where Steve Martin sings ‘Tura Lura Lura’ to his dad, and the other bit when his falls over his couch.
Boomerang was a bigger hit and restored some credibility to Eddie Murphy’s career after the crippling one-two punches of Harlem Nights and Another 48 Hours. It was also responsible for one of the great ironic ‘First Dance At a Wedding’ songs, Boys II Men’s The End of The Road.
Nicolas Cage embarked on a three year long career as a romantic comedy star with the rather wonderful Honeymoon in Vegas, famed for its skydiving Elvis finale. Tom Hanks and his Big director Penny Marshall reteamed to great success with wartime baseball comedy A League of Their Own, which also saw Geena Davis giving a star performance and Madonna giving a bearable one. “There’s no crying in baseball!!!” was probably the most quoted line of the summer.
As with City Slickers in 1991, comedy provided the biggest sleeper hit of the summer: Sister Act, with Whoopi Goldberg excelling as a murder witness hiding out in a convent. As with City Slickers, an unwise sequel was hastily made and hastily forgotten. The original though, was the sixth biggest film of the year and is still going strong as a west-end show to this day.
It wasn’t just the many and varied comic tastes of adults that were appeased; semi-literate young people were also provided for by Encino Man (or California Man as we knew it, since we don’t know where Encino is. It’s in California). Noted for Brendan Fraser’s first stab at the big time, this grungy caveman caper will be of interest to young contemporary archeologists keen to investigate who or what Pauly Shore was.
Teenagers were also palmed off with a silly-sounding comedy called Buffy The Vampire Slayer, written by first-time screenwriter Joss Whedon. Starring Kristy Swanson as the eponymous heroine, but marketed as a vehicle for Beverly Hills 90210 heart-throb Luke Perry, the producers had hoped for a chunk of the Bill & Ted audience that Encino Man hadn’t swallowed up. Sadly, they had to make do with a long-running spin-off television show regularly cited as one of the greatest ever made. Gnarly.
The stalking killer thriller phenomenon that started with The Silence of The Lambs and Cape Fear echoed into 1992 with solid hits like Unlawful Entry and Single White Female. Even Patriot Games – a sort-of sequel to The Hunt For Red October with Harrison Ford rebooting Alec Baldwin’s Jack Ryan – for all its CIA espionage and partial understanding of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, was basically a slasher movie, with Sean Bean doing to Harrison Ford what Robert De Niro had done to Nick Nolte the year before. (Sean Bean dies, obviously).
Crimes against the Emerald Isle weren’t restricted to the gratuitous amounts of Clannad in Patriot Games. Tom Cruise’s Irish accent in Ron Howard’s Far and Away was the benchmark for all bad Irish accents until Brad Pitt graciously took the relay baton in The Devil’s Own. The film, shot in glorious 70mm was the biggest risk of the summer and proved to be the dampest squib, considering the star power of Cruise and (then-wife) Nicole Kidman. Despite looking ravishing, the script had all the depth of a bottle-cap. It desperately wanted to be a timeless classic in the David Lean tradition but held up against Unforgiven, which was released in August, Far & Away was shown up as the glorified Cbbc TV special it was.
Unforgiven came out of nowhere. Clint Eastwood’s previous movie, The Rookie, was somehow even worse than 1989’s Pink Cadillac. However, he’d been sitting on David Webb Peoples’ script for years until he was finally old enough to play William Munny. An extraordinary, mature and masterful critique of Western mythology, Unforgiven was hailed as Eastwood’s best work from the get-go, took the summer’s number five spot and would later win a handful of Oscars, including Pest Picture.
So who was the box office champion of Summer ’92? Well, that question was never in any doubt. Tim Burton’s Batman was the cultural phenomenon of 1989, redefining the parameters of box office limitations and merchandise licensing in a way not seen since Star Wars. Speculation as to who Batman would fight next and who would play him/her began immediately. Dustin Hoffman was touted to play The Penguin and Annette Bening was actually cast as Catwoman, before pregnancy forced her to drop out.
On the 19th of June, all was revealed when Batman Returns opened to a spectacular $45m weekend, $5m more than the original. Michael Keaton returned as The Caped Crusader (having split up with the creditably tight-lipped Vicki Vale), while not one but three villains put up their dukes. Danny DeVito played the Penguin as a deformed, subterranean leader of a gang of circus act drop-outs. Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman (perhaps her signature role) was transformed from a clumsy secretary into a vengeful whip-wielding dominatrix. Christopher Walken borrowed ‘Doc’ Emmett Brown’s hair to play new villain, Max Shreck.
Despite the enormous opening weekend, things took a downward turn almost immediately. Audiences expecting more of the same were treated to a dark, nose-bitingly violent combination of German Expressionism, kinky S&M and oversized rubber ducks. The box office the following week dropped by 40%, and there was further controversy when McDonalds had to deal with the ire of horrified parents across America, ‘tricked’ by their Batman Returns Happy Meals into taking their kids to watch Burton’s deranged fairy tale, pussy jokes et al.
The backlash (against what is now considered a unique high-water mark in the superhero genre), meant that Batman Returns wound up making $100m less than its predecessor and it placed third for the year, behind Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, a film so determined to give its audience a familiar experience that it simply changed the first film’s screen directions from Int. Kevin’S House – Night to Ext. New York – Night and reshot the entire script. (The box office crown for the year was taken eventually by Disney’s Aladdin.)
Warner Bros. took evasive action, hiring Joel Schumacher to sweeten the mix, which would help to restore Batman’s fortunes in 1995, before everything, literally absolutely everything went wrong in 1997 and the world had to wait for Christopher Nolan to finish attending Ucl, become a director and save the Dark Knight from the resultant ignominy.
Hollywood was given a crash course in the perils of straying too far from a winning formula in the summer of ’92. Sadly, for a while at least, it learned its lesson.
The post Tamed Aliens, Harmonic Nuns and a Leather Catsuit: Strange Tales from 1992’s Summer of Cinema appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The summer movie season of 1992 opened under a cloud; a dark cloud from the still-smouldering buildings that had burned to the ground during the La riots in April. Racial tension after the disastrous acquittal of Rodney King’s uniformed attackers had reached an all-time high and Hollywood appealed for calm.
Thus, in a touchingly bold demonstration of selfless generosity, Walter Hill’s unremarkable urban thriller, The Looters, was hastily withdrawn and held back until Christmas, re-christened Trespass (memorably starring two Bills – Paxton and Sadler – and a pair of Ices – T and Cube). Elsewhere, it was business as usual.
The Rodney King affair was briefly alluded to in Lethal Weapon 3, the second-biggest hit of the summer and one of only a handful of ‘sure things’ on the menu. Though there were mutterings about the dominance of sequels in the summer movie season, there were weird things afoot in most of the other returnees. Aside from Lethal Weapon 3 – which was essentially a watered down Lethal Weapon 2 with too much added Joe Pesci – the rest of the sequels veered off into strange tangents, with varying results.
Alien 3, for example strayed dangerously far from the template set down by the first two classics. Bravely, it has to be said, David Fincher tried to create a quasi-religious epic, following Scott’s horror movie and Cameron’s war film. Latterly, Fincher’s frustrations and behind-the-scenes interferences became legendary, but audiences didn’t click with his compromised vision and it became the first in a long line of Alien movies to fall a bit flat.
Another major sequel, Honey, I Blew Up The Baby was in fact the complete opposite of 1989’s Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, culminating in the spectacle of a 99 foot toddler stomping through Las Vegas. It was directed without enthusiasm by Grease director Randal Kleiser, reminding audiences once again why no one remembers who directed Grease.
It wasn’t just sequels that dared to be different. One of the strangest mainstream offerings of the year was Robert Zemeckis’s black comedy, Death Becomes Her, which might have been a delicious satire on America’s vain obsession with cosmetic surgery if only Bruce Willis had stopped shouting at everyone like he was trying to prevent a plane crash.
Back in the ‘90s, much more so than today, comedies were a vital part of the summer success story – an inexpensive sop for the grown-ups while their teenage kids watched things explode in Screen 7. There were high hopes for Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn’s Housesitter, which was only a medium-sized hit, despite the bit where Steve Martin sings ‘Tura Lura Lura’ to his dad, and the other bit when his falls over his couch.
Boomerang was a bigger hit and restored some credibility to Eddie Murphy’s career after the crippling one-two punches of Harlem Nights and Another 48 Hours. It was also responsible for one of the great ironic ‘First Dance At a Wedding’ songs, Boys II Men’s The End of The Road.
Nicolas Cage embarked on a three year long career as a romantic comedy star with the rather wonderful Honeymoon in Vegas, famed for its skydiving Elvis finale. Tom Hanks and his Big director Penny Marshall reteamed to great success with wartime baseball comedy A League of Their Own, which also saw Geena Davis giving a star performance and Madonna giving a bearable one. “There’s no crying in baseball!!!” was probably the most quoted line of the summer.
As with City Slickers in 1991, comedy provided the biggest sleeper hit of the summer: Sister Act, with Whoopi Goldberg excelling as a murder witness hiding out in a convent. As with City Slickers, an unwise sequel was hastily made and hastily forgotten. The original though, was the sixth biggest film of the year and is still going strong as a west-end show to this day.
It wasn’t just the many and varied comic tastes of adults that were appeased; semi-literate young people were also provided for by Encino Man (or California Man as we knew it, since we don’t know where Encino is. It’s in California). Noted for Brendan Fraser’s first stab at the big time, this grungy caveman caper will be of interest to young contemporary archeologists keen to investigate who or what Pauly Shore was.
Teenagers were also palmed off with a silly-sounding comedy called Buffy The Vampire Slayer, written by first-time screenwriter Joss Whedon. Starring Kristy Swanson as the eponymous heroine, but marketed as a vehicle for Beverly Hills 90210 heart-throb Luke Perry, the producers had hoped for a chunk of the Bill & Ted audience that Encino Man hadn’t swallowed up. Sadly, they had to make do with a long-running spin-off television show regularly cited as one of the greatest ever made. Gnarly.
The stalking killer thriller phenomenon that started with The Silence of The Lambs and Cape Fear echoed into 1992 with solid hits like Unlawful Entry and Single White Female. Even Patriot Games – a sort-of sequel to The Hunt For Red October with Harrison Ford rebooting Alec Baldwin’s Jack Ryan – for all its CIA espionage and partial understanding of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, was basically a slasher movie, with Sean Bean doing to Harrison Ford what Robert De Niro had done to Nick Nolte the year before. (Sean Bean dies, obviously).
Crimes against the Emerald Isle weren’t restricted to the gratuitous amounts of Clannad in Patriot Games. Tom Cruise’s Irish accent in Ron Howard’s Far and Away was the benchmark for all bad Irish accents until Brad Pitt graciously took the relay baton in The Devil’s Own. The film, shot in glorious 70mm was the biggest risk of the summer and proved to be the dampest squib, considering the star power of Cruise and (then-wife) Nicole Kidman. Despite looking ravishing, the script had all the depth of a bottle-cap. It desperately wanted to be a timeless classic in the David Lean tradition but held up against Unforgiven, which was released in August, Far & Away was shown up as the glorified Cbbc TV special it was.
Unforgiven came out of nowhere. Clint Eastwood’s previous movie, The Rookie, was somehow even worse than 1989’s Pink Cadillac. However, he’d been sitting on David Webb Peoples’ script for years until he was finally old enough to play William Munny. An extraordinary, mature and masterful critique of Western mythology, Unforgiven was hailed as Eastwood’s best work from the get-go, took the summer’s number five spot and would later win a handful of Oscars, including Pest Picture.
So who was the box office champion of Summer ’92? Well, that question was never in any doubt. Tim Burton’s Batman was the cultural phenomenon of 1989, redefining the parameters of box office limitations and merchandise licensing in a way not seen since Star Wars. Speculation as to who Batman would fight next and who would play him/her began immediately. Dustin Hoffman was touted to play The Penguin and Annette Bening was actually cast as Catwoman, before pregnancy forced her to drop out.
On the 19th of June, all was revealed when Batman Returns opened to a spectacular $45m weekend, $5m more than the original. Michael Keaton returned as The Caped Crusader (having split up with the creditably tight-lipped Vicki Vale), while not one but three villains put up their dukes. Danny DeVito played the Penguin as a deformed, subterranean leader of a gang of circus act drop-outs. Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman (perhaps her signature role) was transformed from a clumsy secretary into a vengeful whip-wielding dominatrix. Christopher Walken borrowed ‘Doc’ Emmett Brown’s hair to play new villain, Max Shreck.
Despite the enormous opening weekend, things took a downward turn almost immediately. Audiences expecting more of the same were treated to a dark, nose-bitingly violent combination of German Expressionism, kinky S&M and oversized rubber ducks. The box office the following week dropped by 40%, and there was further controversy when McDonalds had to deal with the ire of horrified parents across America, ‘tricked’ by their Batman Returns Happy Meals into taking their kids to watch Burton’s deranged fairy tale, pussy jokes et al.
The backlash (against what is now considered a unique high-water mark in the superhero genre), meant that Batman Returns wound up making $100m less than its predecessor and it placed third for the year, behind Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, a film so determined to give its audience a familiar experience that it simply changed the first film’s screen directions from Int. Kevin’S House – Night to Ext. New York – Night and reshot the entire script. (The box office crown for the year was taken eventually by Disney’s Aladdin.)
Warner Bros. took evasive action, hiring Joel Schumacher to sweeten the mix, which would help to restore Batman’s fortunes in 1995, before everything, literally absolutely everything went wrong in 1997 and the world had to wait for Christopher Nolan to finish attending Ucl, become a director and save the Dark Knight from the resultant ignominy.
Hollywood was given a crash course in the perils of straying too far from a winning formula in the summer of ’92. Sadly, for a while at least, it learned its lesson.
The post Tamed Aliens, Harmonic Nuns and a Leather Catsuit: Strange Tales from 1992’s Summer of Cinema appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 6/23/2017
- by Cai Ross
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Twenty-five years later, authorities have finally confirmed the identity of the last known victim of the Los Angeles riots, People has learned.
Miguel Armando Quiroz Ortiz’s charred body was found in the rubble inside a Pep Boys in South L.A. on May 2, 1992, four days after mayhem erupted following the acquittal of four L.A. police officers in the vicious beating of black motorist Rodney King.
More than 2,000 people were injured and 50 people died during the five days of looting, rioting and violence. More than 3,000 fires were set and more than 1,000 businesses were destroyed.
Dubbed John Doe #80, the 18-year-old...
Miguel Armando Quiroz Ortiz’s charred body was found in the rubble inside a Pep Boys in South L.A. on May 2, 1992, four days after mayhem erupted following the acquittal of four L.A. police officers in the vicious beating of black motorist Rodney King.
More than 2,000 people were injured and 50 people died during the five days of looting, rioting and violence. More than 3,000 fires were set and more than 1,000 businesses were destroyed.
Dubbed John Doe #80, the 18-year-old...
- 6/7/2017
- by Christine Pelisek
- PEOPLE.com
Ice Cube isn't about to let Bill Maher's "house n****r" crack stop him from appearing on 'Real Time' ... in fact, Cube's ready to mix it up with Bill over the n-word. Bill's n-word comment won't go ignored either. Sources close to Cube tell us he will Not cancel the appearance, which was scheduled before Maher's controversial joke. Sen. Al Franken was also scheduled, but chose to bail. Cube's not pussy footing around the issue.
- 6/6/2017
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
The dangerous doll from The Conjuring franchise is coming to the West Coast this June, as Warner Bros. will present a special advance screening of Annabelle: Creation ahead of its theatrical release this August, with Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled also announced for the festival.
Press Release: Los Angeles (May 23, 2017)— Today the La Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that also produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced the Gala Screening of New Line Cinema’s Annabelle: Creation, directed by David F. Sandberg and starring Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Lulu Wilson with Anthony Lapaglia and Miranda Otto. Also unveiled today, the panels for Diversity Speaks and the Global Media Makers.
Award-winning film company Focus Features will commemorate its 15th anniversary at the La Film Festival with five movies including revival programming and a newly added advance screening of Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled starring Colin Farrell,...
Press Release: Los Angeles (May 23, 2017)— Today the La Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that also produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced the Gala Screening of New Line Cinema’s Annabelle: Creation, directed by David F. Sandberg and starring Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Lulu Wilson with Anthony Lapaglia and Miranda Otto. Also unveiled today, the panels for Diversity Speaks and the Global Media Makers.
Award-winning film company Focus Features will commemorate its 15th anniversary at the La Film Festival with five movies including revival programming and a newly added advance screening of Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled starring Colin Farrell,...
- 5/23/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Updates throughout A few more details on The Orchard’s acquisition of Kings, a story Deadline broke this morning. After heated bidding following a strong promo reel, The Orchard acquired the Deniz Gamze Ergüven-directed film that stars Halle Berry and Daniel Craig. Kings is described as a drama about a foster family in South Central, set a few weeks before the city erupts in violence following the verdict of the Rodney King trial in 1992. The filmmaker helmed Mustangs…...
- 5/19/2017
- Deadline
Halley Berry and Daniel Craig‘s “Kings” has been acquired by The Orchard, who will release the L.A. riots drama in North America. Written and directed by Academy Award nominnee Deniz Gamze Ergüven (“Mustang”), the deal was closed late Friday in Cannes. It’s set to hit theaters this fall. The film follows a foster family’s arrival to Los Angeles weeks before the city erupts in violence following the 1992 verdict of the Rodney King trial. Also Read: Cannes, Day 3: Good Reviews After Boos for 'Okja'; More Selfie Shame; Gyllenhaal's Dog Day The project was produced and co-financed...
- 5/19/2017
- by Matt Donnelly
- The Wrap
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– The Orchard has acquired the rights to “Kings,” the drama starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig and directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Deadline reports. The film focuses on a foster family in South Central a few weeks before the city erupts in violence following the verdict of the Rodney King trial in 1992.
Ergüven previously directed “Mustang,” which received an Oscar nomination in 2015 for Best Foreign Language Film. Charles Gilbert and Vincent Maraval served as the producers on “Kings.”
Read More: Film Acquisition Rundown: IFC Films Picks up ‘Sweet Virginia,’ Oscilloscope Buys ‘Song of Granite’ and More
– Lionsgate has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the crime-thriller “Dragged Across Concrete” The film will be released by the...
– The Orchard has acquired the rights to “Kings,” the drama starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig and directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Deadline reports. The film focuses on a foster family in South Central a few weeks before the city erupts in violence following the verdict of the Rodney King trial in 1992.
Ergüven previously directed “Mustang,” which received an Oscar nomination in 2015 for Best Foreign Language Film. Charles Gilbert and Vincent Maraval served as the producers on “Kings.”
Read More: Film Acquisition Rundown: IFC Films Picks up ‘Sweet Virginia,’ Oscilloscope Buys ‘Song of Granite’ and More
– Lionsgate has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the crime-thriller “Dragged Across Concrete” The film will be released by the...
- 5/19/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Fair warning: little in this article has a thing to do with pop culture. So, if your intention is to bitch about that after reading this let me do it for you:
Clueless Cow writes: Why is this in Bleeding Cool? Rich, can’t you get a writer to write what matters? He surely does not.
Live with parents at 50 writes: Davis writes an opinion column. Has anyone noticed all the views are his? Who is this guy anyway? I’d like to see my point of view expressed on ComicMix and so would my mom.
Do yourself a favor: stop reading now.
I’m writing this solely for my fans. I may joke I only have two, but I’ve got thousands all over the world. Spare me the “I’ve never heard of you” bullshit. Really? I’m the guy writing this. And you are..?
So, if you...
Clueless Cow writes: Why is this in Bleeding Cool? Rich, can’t you get a writer to write what matters? He surely does not.
Live with parents at 50 writes: Davis writes an opinion column. Has anyone noticed all the views are his? Who is this guy anyway? I’d like to see my point of view expressed on ComicMix and so would my mom.
Do yourself a favor: stop reading now.
I’m writing this solely for my fans. I may joke I only have two, but I’ve got thousands all over the world. Spare me the “I’ve never heard of you” bullshit. Really? I’m the guy writing this. And you are..?
So, if you...
- 5/3/2017
- by Michael Davis
- Comicmix.com
In the 1990s, way before becoming Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon was a Hollywood investment banker, who executive produced Sean Penn’s directorial debut “The Indian Runner” and later invested on “Seinfeld.” During his Hollywood days, Bannon co-wrote a rap musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Roman tragedy “Coriolanus” based on the 1992 Los Angeles Riots,which began on April 29, 1992 following the announcement of the “not guilty” verdict in the Rodney King case. Now, the digital video-based news organization NowThis has staged a reading of the play Bannon co-authored with Julia Jones, titled “The Thing I Am.”
Read More: Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner Vie for Power Over Trump on ‘SNL’ — Watch
Last December, Jones told The New York Times that Bannon came up with the ideas for the play, while she wrote it, mixing Shakespeare’s verse with Los Angeles street talk. However, Bannon would often chime in with “a particularly aggressive line.
Read More: Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner Vie for Power Over Trump on ‘SNL’ — Watch
Last December, Jones told The New York Times that Bannon came up with the ideas for the play, while she wrote it, mixing Shakespeare’s verse with Los Angeles street talk. However, Bannon would often chime in with “a particularly aggressive line.
- 5/1/2017
- by Yoselin Acevedo
- Indiewire
Twenty five years ago today, the Los Angeles riots erupted response to the shocking acquittal of four Lapd officers videotaped beating motorist Rodney King the year before. Over six days, 55 people died, 11,000 were arrested, and the city suffered approximately $1 billion in property damages. But the riots profoundly changed the city, laying bare systemic problems of race and class discrimination that had plagued La for decades – problems music artists had been screaming about for years. Warning: explicit lyrics. Dead Kennedys – “Riot” This 1982 song from the San Francisco hardcore punk band was inspired more by unrest in the 60s and 70s, but in.
- 4/30/2017
- by Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
Gook, the second directorial feature from Justin Chon, tells the story of the 1992 Los Angeles riots from a perspective seldom covered in mainstream media: that of Korean Americans, whose own simmering tensions with their African-American neighbors came to a violent head in the aftermath of the Rodney King trial verdict.
Chon, whose acting credits include the Twilight saga, 21 & Over and Seoul Searching, sets his film on April 29, 1992, and bases it in part on the experience of his father, whose shoe store in Paramount, Calif., was looted during the riots. In the story, Eli (played...
Chon, whose acting credits include the Twilight saga, 21 & Over and Seoul Searching, sets his film on April 29, 1992, and bases it in part on the experience of his father, whose shoe store in Paramount, Calif., was looted during the riots. In the story, Eli (played...
- 4/29/2017
- by Rebecca Sun
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
[[tmz:video id="0_wmxgd1zl"]] Sterling K. Brown thinks we've made progress in the 25 years since the L.A. riots ... but there are still huge problems we can't ignore. We got the "This is Us" and "The People vs. O.J. Simpson" star out in Bev Hills, and he says one of the biggest differences between then and now ... people actually believe there's a problem. As you know, today marks the 25th anniversary since the not guilty verdicts in the...
- 4/29/2017
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992 documents the years leading up to the explosive L.A. riots in 1992. This documentary is one of several that have been aired over the last few weeks but Let it Fall takes a slightly different tack and looks at the longer term background to the riots. The acquittal of the policemen who beat Rodney King might have been the spark that set off the riots but the tinder for those flames had been laid down long before. Poverty and lack of education fueled the formation of street gangs and when they connecting with drug...read more...
- 4/28/2017
- by James Wray
- Monsters and Critics
It’s apparently L.A. Riots day — tonight sees the debut of John Ridley’s “Let It Fall,” a documentary pegged to the 25th anniversary of the uprising (which kicked off with the acquittal of the officers caught on video beating Rodney King on April 29th, 1992), on ABC after a brief theatrical run. And the riots will also be captured later in the year with Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Kings” with Daniel Craig and Halle Berry.
Continue reading Watch: First Trailer For Acclaimed Sundance Award-Winner ‘Gook’ at The Playlist.
Continue reading Watch: First Trailer For Acclaimed Sundance Award-Winner ‘Gook’ at The Playlist.
- 4/28/2017
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the Next section where it premiered, Justin Chon‘s Gook takes an intriguing perspective when it comes to depicting Los Angeles on April 29, 1992, when the Rodney King verdict was handed out and the riots began. Specifically, it follows two Korean-American brothers who own and run a fledging shoe store. Ahead of a release this August, Samuel Goldwyn Films have now released the first teaser.
“Warts and all, Gook serves as a perfect example (and reminder) of why the Next Section at Sundance is well worth exploring and reviewing and reacting to, perhaps more than any other slate,” we said in our review. “Chon has a vision and a voice and a good story to tell, full of social relevance and fiery emotion. Something this energetic and cared for is hard to criticize all that much. It’s...
“Warts and all, Gook serves as a perfect example (and reminder) of why the Next Section at Sundance is well worth exploring and reviewing and reacting to, perhaps more than any other slate,” we said in our review. “Chon has a vision and a voice and a good story to tell, full of social relevance and fiery emotion. Something this energetic and cared for is hard to criticize all that much. It’s...
- 4/28/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With the recent heavy media spotlight placed on police brutality, “La 92” does not seem as though it consists of footage from 25 years ago. The new National Geographic Documentary film finds itself immersed in the tumultuous period of the Rodney King trial and riots.
Read More: National Geographic and Jason Silva Tell Humanity’s ‘Origins’ Story – Exclusive First Look
The official synopsis states, “…after the verdict in the Rodney King trial sparked several days of protests, violence and looting in Los Angeles, ‘La 92,’ revisits the period through stunning and rarely seen archival footage.”
The film is produced by two-time Oscar winner Simon Chinn (“Man on Wire”) and Emmy winner Jonathan Chinn (“American High”) and directed by Oscar winners Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin (“Undefeated”), the film looks at the events of 1992 from a multitude of vantage points, bringing a fresh perspective to a pivotal moment that reverberates to this day.
Read More: National Geographic and Jason Silva Tell Humanity’s ‘Origins’ Story – Exclusive First Look
The official synopsis states, “…after the verdict in the Rodney King trial sparked several days of protests, violence and looting in Los Angeles, ‘La 92,’ revisits the period through stunning and rarely seen archival footage.”
The film is produced by two-time Oscar winner Simon Chinn (“Man on Wire”) and Emmy winner Jonathan Chinn (“American High”) and directed by Oscar winners Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin (“Undefeated”), the film looks at the events of 1992 from a multitude of vantage points, bringing a fresh perspective to a pivotal moment that reverberates to this day.
- 4/28/2017
- by Kerry Levielle
- Indiewire
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
The Age of Shadows (Kim Jee-woon)
Eyebrows were raised when it was announced that South Korea will submit the as-yet-unreleased espionage thriller The Age of Shadows for Oscar consideration instead of Cannes hits The Handmaiden and The Wailing. Premiering out of competition at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, writer/director Jee-woon Kim’s return to Korean-language cinema after a brief stint in Hollywood with the Schwarzenegger-starrer The Last Stand...
The Age of Shadows (Kim Jee-woon)
Eyebrows were raised when it was announced that South Korea will submit the as-yet-unreleased espionage thriller The Age of Shadows for Oscar consideration instead of Cannes hits The Handmaiden and The Wailing. Premiering out of competition at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, writer/director Jee-woon Kim’s return to Korean-language cinema after a brief stint in Hollywood with the Schwarzenegger-starrer The Last Stand...
- 4/28/2017
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The New Online Work (N.O.W.) section of the Tribeca Film Festival celebrates a selection of 10 independent filmmakers and their new online creative content. This year’s festival played home to the premiere of the short form series “The Midnight Service,” which debuted last week.
Read More: ‘The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson’ Review: A Stonewall Hero Is Mourned In Fascinating Detective Story — Tribeca 2017 Review
The creators of the series, Dean Colin Marcial and Brett Potter, utilize documentary visual language to reinforce the authenticity of the stories. Each episode varies from “real-life anomalies, notorious criminals, occult pop culture, and first-hand accounts of macabre.”
Marcial and Potter are no strangers to the realm of the indie filmmaking. Marcial was named a 2015 Made in NY Fellow by the New York City Mayor’s Office and is a recipient of the 2017 Tribeca All Access Grant. Potter co-founded production services company...
Read More: ‘The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson’ Review: A Stonewall Hero Is Mourned In Fascinating Detective Story — Tribeca 2017 Review
The creators of the series, Dean Colin Marcial and Brett Potter, utilize documentary visual language to reinforce the authenticity of the stories. Each episode varies from “real-life anomalies, notorious criminals, occult pop culture, and first-hand accounts of macabre.”
Marcial and Potter are no strangers to the realm of the indie filmmaking. Marcial was named a 2015 Made in NY Fellow by the New York City Mayor’s Office and is a recipient of the 2017 Tribeca All Access Grant. Potter co-founded production services company...
- 4/27/2017
- by Kerry Levielle
- Indiewire
“What more is there to say?” It’s a question that plagues any attempt to wade back into yesterday’s headlines—the stories that have been covered so exhaustively, so round-the-clock extensively, that their every sordid detail is now burned into the public imagination. Indeed, without new information, what more can be said, for example, about the still-unsolved murder of child pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey? And what fresh insight can be gleaned from the caught-on-tape beating of Rodney King and the unrest that rocked Los Angeles after the police officers responsible were acquitted? These are the separate subjects of two movies arriving on Netflix this week, entirely different and yet strangely similar in their unconventional approaches to media milestones of the ’90s. Neither film features a single date-stamp, a single news clip, even a single image of Ramsey or King. Instead, both filter these highly public tragedies through the scrim...
- 4/26/2017
- by A.A. Dowd
- avclub.com
When Kurt Russell stepped into the detective’s uniform for “Dark Blue,” he wasn’t just accepting another movie role. He was taking a stand. He was destroying an image he’d spent two decades building, and turning his back on the American hero audiences had come to recognize at the sight of him.
Becoming a villain sounds kind of heroic, doesn’t it?
It was.
“Dark Blue” is one of those low-budget cop dramas you don’t see made at studios anymore. At a reported $15 million, Ron Shelton’s feature couldn’t even make back its budget. First released at an Italian film festival in mid-December 2002, it was dumped in the U.S. during February 2003 for a cumulative worldwide haul of just over $12 million.
Big surprise. Opening out of awards season, the movie chronicled events leading up and through the Los Angeles riots in 1992, depicting a racially divided city...
Becoming a villain sounds kind of heroic, doesn’t it?
It was.
“Dark Blue” is one of those low-budget cop dramas you don’t see made at studios anymore. At a reported $15 million, Ron Shelton’s feature couldn’t even make back its budget. First released at an Italian film festival in mid-December 2002, it was dumped in the U.S. during February 2003 for a cumulative worldwide haul of just over $12 million.
Big surprise. Opening out of awards season, the movie chronicled events leading up and through the Los Angeles riots in 1992, depicting a racially divided city...
- 4/24/2017
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
A rather flat account of the week of violence that gripped the Us city 25 years ago
To mark 25 years since the Los Angeles riots, Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin put together archive footage comprising newsreels and home videos that document the city-wide carnage that followed two major events in 1991: the fatal shooting of African-American teenager Latasha Harlins by a Korean corner store clerk and, six months later, the brutal beating of African-American Rodney King by four white police officers, caught on video tape. The clerk was convicted but served no jail time; the police officers were initially acquitted. Violence, arson and looting ensued. The use of archive without voiceover means there’s a flatness to the way the events are presented; La 92 shows how these events were reported on TV but lacks its own commentary. It’s an immersive if not particularly edifying experience.
Continue reading...
To mark 25 years since the Los Angeles riots, Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin put together archive footage comprising newsreels and home videos that document the city-wide carnage that followed two major events in 1991: the fatal shooting of African-American teenager Latasha Harlins by a Korean corner store clerk and, six months later, the brutal beating of African-American Rodney King by four white police officers, caught on video tape. The clerk was convicted but served no jail time; the police officers were initially acquitted. Violence, arson and looting ensued. The use of archive without voiceover means there’s a flatness to the way the events are presented; La 92 shows how these events were reported on TV but lacks its own commentary. It’s an immersive if not particularly edifying experience.
Continue reading...
- 4/23/2017
- by Simran Hans
- The Guardian - Film News
The powder keg that exploded 25 years ago in Los Angeles — after the shocking acquittal of the Lapd officers involved in the Rodney King beating — gets the documentary it deserves in John Ridley’s enthralling, heart-rending history “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992.” (The film screens theatrically for one week in New York and Los Angeles before debuting on ABC.) Coming on the heels of a benchmark year for non-fiction movies about America’s ever-simmering racial tensions, from Ezra Edelman’s “O.J.: Made in America” to Ava DuVernay’s “13th” and Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro,” it’s a worthy successor.
- 4/21/2017
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
Twenty-five years after it happened, the violence that wracked Los Angeles in the wake of the acquittal of four Lapd officers who brutally beat Rodney King has become an irresistible source of drama. ABC, Showtime, NatGeo, A&E, the Smithsonian Channel and others are broadcasting documentaries about the event this month, and a couple of those docs are also getting theatrical releases. The longest and one of the richest of the films is “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992,” a chronicle from “American Crime” creator and Oscar-winning “12 Years a Slave” screenwriter John Ridley. A three-hour version of “Let It Fall...
- 4/21/2017
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
From April 27 to May 4, Los Angeles will showcase a wide array of films from that broad geographical area called Asia.
Join the kick-off of the 33rd edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival! Celebrate with some good food, music, and people.
The two shorts programs were curated by Ariel Du, a student at the film school of Chapman University. Feminist Af Shorts Programs / 98 Mins is an intersectional glance at the many facets of women’s experiences from Manila’s red light district to school girls filling the public swimming pool with goldfish: “I am Jupiter I am the Biggest Planet”, “Maria”, Sleep Tight Maria”, “And So We Put Goldfish In the Pool”,”Cocoon”, “Tough”. And the other Wtf Watch These Films which are bound to shock you…
In the context of a shifting America, the plan of the festival is to create spaces for connection and add to the dialogues of change.
Join the kick-off of the 33rd edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival! Celebrate with some good food, music, and people.
The two shorts programs were curated by Ariel Du, a student at the film school of Chapman University. Feminist Af Shorts Programs / 98 Mins is an intersectional glance at the many facets of women’s experiences from Manila’s red light district to school girls filling the public swimming pool with goldfish: “I am Jupiter I am the Biggest Planet”, “Maria”, Sleep Tight Maria”, “And So We Put Goldfish In the Pool”,”Cocoon”, “Tough”. And the other Wtf Watch These Films which are bound to shock you…
In the context of a shifting America, the plan of the festival is to create spaces for connection and add to the dialogues of change.
- 4/20/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
It is 25 years since the beating of Rodney King sparked unrest in La. This documentary is potent and fitting, but prioritises sensationalism over insight
It is 25 years since civil unrest convulsed La in the wake of the acquittal of the four police officers who were caught on camera brutalising black motorist Rodney King – and no less than five documentaries are being released to coincide with the anniversary.
Related: Rodney King verdict sparks La riots: from the archive, 1 May 1992
Continue reading...
It is 25 years since civil unrest convulsed La in the wake of the acquittal of the four police officers who were caught on camera brutalising black motorist Rodney King – and no less than five documentaries are being released to coincide with the anniversary.
Related: Rodney King verdict sparks La riots: from the archive, 1 May 1992
Continue reading...
- 4/20/2017
- by Gwilym Mumford
- The Guardian - Film News
Writer-director John Ridley had long wanted to make a movie about the Los Angeles uprising of April 29, 1992. But even though he won an Oscar for his screenplay for “12 Years a Slave” and created the Emmy-winning ABC anthology series “American Crime” (now in its third season), the subject wasn’t exactly sexy to potential backers. So when ABC came to him with the idea of a documentary timed to the 25th anniversary, he jumped at it.
Read More: ‘Guerrilla’ Review: John Ridley’s ’70s London Black Power Drama Tries to Show All Sides of a Revolution
Ridley was already familiar with many of the key participants in the uprising and interviewed many of them himself for this in-depth look at the forces that led to the explosive anger, looting, rioting and mayhem after a Simi Valley jury acquitted the four L.A. police officers on trial for the vicious beating of motorist Rodney King.
Read More: ‘Guerrilla’ Review: John Ridley’s ’70s London Black Power Drama Tries to Show All Sides of a Revolution
Ridley was already familiar with many of the key participants in the uprising and interviewed many of them himself for this in-depth look at the forces that led to the explosive anger, looting, rioting and mayhem after a Simi Valley jury acquitted the four L.A. police officers on trial for the vicious beating of motorist Rodney King.
- 4/18/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Writer-director John Ridley had long wanted to make a movie about the Los Angeles uprising of April 29, 1992. But even though he won an Oscar for his screenplay for “12 Years a Slave” and created the Emmy-winning ABC anthology series “American Crime” (now in its third season), the subject wasn’t exactly sexy to potential backers. So when ABC came to him with the idea of a documentary timed to the 25th anniversary, he jumped at it.
Read More: ‘Guerrilla’ Review: John Ridley’s ’70s London Black Power Drama Tries to Show All Sides of a Revolution
Ridley was already familiar with many of the key participants in the uprising and interviewed many of them himself for this in-depth look at the forces that led to the explosive anger, looting, rioting and mayhem after a Simi Valley jury acquitted the four L.A. police officers on trial for the vicious beating of motorist Rodney King.
Read More: ‘Guerrilla’ Review: John Ridley’s ’70s London Black Power Drama Tries to Show All Sides of a Revolution
Ridley was already familiar with many of the key participants in the uprising and interviewed many of them himself for this in-depth look at the forces that led to the explosive anger, looting, rioting and mayhem after a Simi Valley jury acquitted the four L.A. police officers on trial for the vicious beating of motorist Rodney King.
- 4/18/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Morgan Freeman is putting on his producer hat to bring Rodney King’s life to the screen via a limited TV series that will be developed via his Revelations Entertainment shingle. The project will explore King using newly discovered, never-before-seen home video footage that… Continue Reading →...
- 4/17/2017
- by shadowandact
- ShadowAndAct
It's hardly surprising that the Rodney King verdict is the subject of a crop of new TV documentaries on the occasion of its 25th anniversary; the contemporary resonance of the trial and its aftermath couldn't be clearer. From the amateur camcorder footage of King's March 1991 beating by Lapd officers, which went viral on television in the pre-internet age, to the cops' shocking acquittal a year later and the ensuing civil unrest that left more than 50 people dead, the case transfixed a nation and changed the public conversation about race and the justice system.
One of the upcoming docs...
One of the upcoming docs...
- 4/17/2017
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Through a combinationof crazy prolificacy and an accident of timing, John Ridley's name is behind somany hours of television this month that he could program an entire network forthe better part of a day. As it stands, three different Ridley projects willoverlap by the end of April, each a testament to his interest in social justiceand upheaval, from contemporary labor and immigration problems in NorthCarolina to racial upheaval and violence in the early 1970s England and early 1990sLos Angeles. Though Ridley has been working steadily on TV and film for twodecades,...
- 4/14/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Scream Factory brings an under-appreciated horror anthology to Collector’s Edition Blu-ray.
Great horror anthologies are hard to come by these days, but luckily there are still plenty to be rediscovered thanks to home video labels like Scream Factory. 1995’s Tales from the Hood is a highly entertaining blend of horror and social commentary from director Rusty Cundieff (who co-wrote alongside Darin Scott who also co-wrote an earlier horror anthology From a Whisper to a Scream), and it’s now found a new home on Blu-ray. Keep reading as we take a look at the film and new Collector’s Edition Blu-ray.
As with all the best anthology films Tales from the Hood features a wraparound tale (“Welcome to My Mortuary”) from which the individual stories are born, and the script couldn’t have chosen a better setting. Three gang-bangers come to a mortuary to pick up a shipment of drugs, and...
Great horror anthologies are hard to come by these days, but luckily there are still plenty to be rediscovered thanks to home video labels like Scream Factory. 1995’s Tales from the Hood is a highly entertaining blend of horror and social commentary from director Rusty Cundieff (who co-wrote alongside Darin Scott who also co-wrote an earlier horror anthology From a Whisper to a Scream), and it’s now found a new home on Blu-ray. Keep reading as we take a look at the film and new Collector’s Edition Blu-ray.
As with all the best anthology films Tales from the Hood features a wraparound tale (“Welcome to My Mortuary”) from which the individual stories are born, and the script couldn’t have chosen a better setting. Three gang-bangers come to a mortuary to pick up a shipment of drugs, and...
- 4/13/2017
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Things are getting weirder.
On The Good Fight Season 1 Episode 9, Maia met with the FBI about the ponzi scheme, and Diane and Adrian took on another police brutality case.
I'll start with Maia because her storyline carries significant consequences.
But first, how delightful was it to see Jane Lynch? I love everything she does, and this role was no different.
Here, she played FBI agent, Madeline Starkey, who's trying to help Maia recall memories from her teenage years that may or may not shed light on the ponzi scheme. Agent Starkey wanted to know what Maia knew and when.
It's hard to tell whether she's on Maia's side, against her, or just trying to find the truth. I'm leaning toward the latter, though.
But Maia was just a teenager. How much does any teenager know about what their parents are doing? Especially if the parents are running a multi-million dollar company.
On The Good Fight Season 1 Episode 9, Maia met with the FBI about the ponzi scheme, and Diane and Adrian took on another police brutality case.
I'll start with Maia because her storyline carries significant consequences.
But first, how delightful was it to see Jane Lynch? I love everything she does, and this role was no different.
Here, she played FBI agent, Madeline Starkey, who's trying to help Maia recall memories from her teenage years that may or may not shed light on the ponzi scheme. Agent Starkey wanted to know what Maia knew and when.
It's hard to tell whether she's on Maia's side, against her, or just trying to find the truth. I'm leaning toward the latter, though.
But Maia was just a teenager. How much does any teenager know about what their parents are doing? Especially if the parents are running a multi-million dollar company.
- 4/10/2017
- by Tiffany Staton
- TVfanatic
From April 27 to May 4, Los Angeles will showcase a wide array of films from that broad geographical area called Asia.
Join the kick-off of the 33rd edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival! Celebrate with some good food, music, and people. Friday, April 7th, 2017 6pm-9pm Pico House 424 N Main St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Food by The Park’s Finest During the event.
The two shorts programs were curated by Ariel Du, a student at the film school of Chapman University. Feminist Af Shorts Programs / 98 Mins is an intersectional glance at the many facets of women’s experiences from Manila’s red light district to school girls filling the public swimming pool with goldfish: “I am Jupiter I am the Biggest Planet”, “Maria”, Sleep Tight Maria”, “And So We Put Goldfish In the Pool”,”Cocoon”, “Tough”. And the other Wtf Watch These Films which are bound to shock you…...
Join the kick-off of the 33rd edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival! Celebrate with some good food, music, and people. Friday, April 7th, 2017 6pm-9pm Pico House 424 N Main St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Food by The Park’s Finest During the event.
The two shorts programs were curated by Ariel Du, a student at the film school of Chapman University. Feminist Af Shorts Programs / 98 Mins is an intersectional glance at the many facets of women’s experiences from Manila’s red light district to school girls filling the public swimming pool with goldfish: “I am Jupiter I am the Biggest Planet”, “Maria”, Sleep Tight Maria”, “And So We Put Goldfish In the Pool”,”Cocoon”, “Tough”. And the other Wtf Watch These Films which are bound to shock you…...
- 4/5/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of the four L.A. police officers charged with beating Rodney King, National Geographic Documentary Films is presenting a new look at those charged events that reverberated throughout the city.
Directed by Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin — Oscar winners for the 2011 doc Undefeated, about a high school football team — La 92 is set to premiere at New York's Tribeca Film Festival on April 21. It will then have a limited theatrical release in N.Y. and Los Angeles on April 28 before making its television broadcast...
Directed by Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin — Oscar winners for the 2011 doc Undefeated, about a high school football team — La 92 is set to premiere at New York's Tribeca Film Festival on April 21. It will then have a limited theatrical release in N.Y. and Los Angeles on April 28 before making its television broadcast...
- 3/30/2017
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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