Sundance film festival: thoroughbreds and Bad Education director Cory Finley makes an ambitious misstep with a jumbled comedy about controlling aliens
It’s become a depressingly familiar rite of passage for a director of vim and promise to stumble when they ambitiously decide to adapt a book that should have probably stayed on the shelf. Back in 2018, Blue Ruin and Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier came a cropper when he tried to wrangle William Giraldi’s unwieldy Hold the Dark to the screen. At Sundance in 2020, Dee Rees followed Pariah and Mudbound with a clunky, critically loathed attempt to turn Joan Didion’s The Last Thing He Wanted into a coherent film. And just last year Andrew Dominik and Noah Baumbach made their worst films to date with Blonde and White Noise respectively.
A strong attachment to the source material can of course be a good thing, a passion that...
It’s become a depressingly familiar rite of passage for a director of vim and promise to stumble when they ambitiously decide to adapt a book that should have probably stayed on the shelf. Back in 2018, Blue Ruin and Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier came a cropper when he tried to wrangle William Giraldi’s unwieldy Hold the Dark to the screen. At Sundance in 2020, Dee Rees followed Pariah and Mudbound with a clunky, critically loathed attempt to turn Joan Didion’s The Last Thing He Wanted into a coherent film. And just last year Andrew Dominik and Noah Baumbach made their worst films to date with Blonde and White Noise respectively.
A strong attachment to the source material can of course be a good thing, a passion that...
- 1/25/2023
- by Benjamin Lee in Park City, Utah
- The Guardian - Film News
Over the course of its eight-day run, Fantastic Fest 2018 played host to over 100 feature and short films, and Daily Dead had the opportunity to screen numerous titles while in Austin for all the festivities. Here are my thoughts on three wildly different films I had the opportunity of seeing: Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark, Luz from up-and-coming director Tilman Singer, and the latest from The Greasy Strangler’s Jim Hosking, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn.
Hold the Dark: For his latest movie, Jeremy Saulnier re-teams with Macon Blair to bring William Giraldi’s novel Hold the Dark to life, and while the adaptation features strong performances, stunning cinematography, and perfectly showcases Saulnier’s keen abilities as a storyteller who never shies away from provocative and challenging material, as a whole, I just never really connected with Hold the Dark as a viewer, and its rumination on the...
Hold the Dark: For his latest movie, Jeremy Saulnier re-teams with Macon Blair to bring William Giraldi’s novel Hold the Dark to life, and while the adaptation features strong performances, stunning cinematography, and perfectly showcases Saulnier’s keen abilities as a storyteller who never shies away from provocative and challenging material, as a whole, I just never really connected with Hold the Dark as a viewer, and its rumination on the...
- 10/1/2018
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Hold The Dark is the latest mystery-thriller from Netflix and is based on the popular novel by William Giraldi. Starring Alexander Skarsgard and Jeffrey Wright (Westworld), the mysterious disappearance of three children in a small rural Alaskan village goes from Wolf hunt to human slaughter. This is the latest film from director Jeremy Saulnier but is this Netflix original a solid addition to the streaming service’s mediocre library of originals or does it stand above the rest?
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Watch the 60-second review from One Minute Critic:
You can check out more 1-minute reviews on One Minute Critic's Instagram or Youtube page.
- 9/28/2018
- by Kristian Odland
- GeekTyrant
Five years after he maxed out some credit cards and asked strangers for money on Kickstarter to make “Blue Ruin,” Jeremy Saulnier has leveraged the success of that tense, violent thriller into a formidable career. First, there was the punk death match of “Green Room,” a $5 million Cannes sensation that pitted a cast of young stars against Patrick Stewart and his fortress of pissed off neo-Nazis. As turns out, he was just getting started.
Now, after a curtailed stint behind the camera on the new season of “True Detective,” he’s back with “Hold the Dark,” a murder-mystery so beguiling and ambitious that it became too risky for any traditional production company to finance. Lucky for Saulnier, Netflix was willing to foot the bill.
Adapted from William Giraldi’s novel of the same name, “Hold the Dark” tells the story of a retired and withdrawn nature writer named Russell...
Now, after a curtailed stint behind the camera on the new season of “True Detective,” he’s back with “Hold the Dark,” a murder-mystery so beguiling and ambitious that it became too risky for any traditional production company to finance. Lucky for Saulnier, Netflix was willing to foot the bill.
Adapted from William Giraldi’s novel of the same name, “Hold the Dark” tells the story of a retired and withdrawn nature writer named Russell...
- 9/28/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Jeremy Saulnier on the Catharsis of Making ‘Hold the Dark’ and Creating Conflict Through Performance
After his first feature Murder Party did not attract the attention it deserved, Jeremy Saulnier spent time away from the director’s chair, spending seven years as a cinematographer. For his next film, Blue Ruin, he took a big and quite literal gamble: he and his wife mortgaged their home to fund the subversive, stripped-down take on the revenge thriller. Unlike the bumbling, all-too-human characters at the center of his work, Saulnier came out of the experience on top, with the film premiering at Cannes and taking home the Fipresci Prize. With a newfound momentum, he followed up Blue Ruin with Green Room, a savage and barebones thriller which carried over his love of very human characters who are very out of their element–along with further exploring his gag-inducing special effects, coal-black humor, and tension.
With Hold the Dark, Saulnier widens his canvas in exciting ways, tackling his first...
With Hold the Dark, Saulnier widens his canvas in exciting ways, tackling his first...
- 9/28/2018
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
Over the last few years, we’ve seen an incredible progression for cinematic collaborators Jeremy Saulnier and Macon Blair, from Blue Ruin to Green Room to their latest, Hold the Dark, which ambitiously adapts William Giraldi’s grisly and haunting novel set against the backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness. Starring Jeffrey Wright, Riley Keough, Alexander Skarsgård, and James Badge Dale, Hold the Dark is easily the biggest and boldest offering we’ve seen from Saulnier and Blair yet, delivering up a chilling psychological thriller unlike anything I’ve seen thus far this year.
Hold the Dark recently celebrated its Us premiere at Fantastic Fest 2018, and while in attendance, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with both Blair and Saulnier about why they chose to adapt Giraldi’s novel for their latest project, challenging themselves as filmmakers throughout their careers, how essential Netflix was to getting the film made, and more.
Hold the Dark recently celebrated its Us premiere at Fantastic Fest 2018, and while in attendance, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with both Blair and Saulnier about why they chose to adapt Giraldi’s novel for their latest project, challenging themselves as filmmakers throughout their careers, how essential Netflix was to getting the film made, and more.
- 9/27/2018
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Some filmmakers excel in telling stories; Jeremy Saulnier is better at setting moods. Oh, his movies have narratives: man wants revenge recently-released-from-prison killer of his family (Blue Ruin); punk rock band must get out of neo-Nazi stronghold or die tryin’ (Green Room). But what you tend to remember more than the A-to-b particulars of this 42-year-old Virginia native’s thrillers are the vibes that he marinates his tales of murder and mayhem and vengeance in — all variations of a sort of sickened, curdled sense of dread. He’s also remarkably good at staging moments,...
- 9/27/2018
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
“Hold the Dark” is a perfectly adequate film made by an especially talented director, Jeremy Saulnier. Alternately pulse-racing and somnambulant, it’s a thriller that starts strong before running out of gas.
It begins in the Alaskan wilderness, where three children have recently been killed. The locals suspect the culprit is a pack of vicious wolves. Medora Slone (Riley Keough) has a similar hunch after the disappearance of her son, Bailey (Beckam Crawford).
Enraged and scared, she enlists author Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) to fly cross-country and help track down her missing child. Russell has experience with locating (and terminating) wolves. His acclaimed book details his grisly entanglements.
Also Read: HBO Greenlights 'True Detective' Season 3 With Mahershala Ali and Director Jeremy Saulnier
There’s more: Once Russell arrives in Alaska, Medora explains her situation: That she and her boy were left alone while her husband Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård) fought in the Middle East.
It begins in the Alaskan wilderness, where three children have recently been killed. The locals suspect the culprit is a pack of vicious wolves. Medora Slone (Riley Keough) has a similar hunch after the disappearance of her son, Bailey (Beckam Crawford).
Enraged and scared, she enlists author Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) to fly cross-country and help track down her missing child. Russell has experience with locating (and terminating) wolves. His acclaimed book details his grisly entanglements.
Also Read: HBO Greenlights 'True Detective' Season 3 With Mahershala Ali and Director Jeremy Saulnier
There’s more: Once Russell arrives in Alaska, Medora explains her situation: That she and her boy were left alone while her husband Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård) fought in the Middle East.
- 9/26/2018
- by Sam Fragoso
- The Wrap
Take a look at the new 'werewolf' thriller "Hold the Dark", directed by Jeremy Saulnier, based on the novel of the same name by author William Giraldi, starring Alexander Skarsgård, James Badge Dale, Riley Keough and Julian Black Antelope, streaming September 28, 2018 on Netflix:
"...at the start of another pitiless winter, wolves have taken three children from the remote Alaskan village of 'Keelut', including the six-year-old son of 'Medora' and 'Vernon Slone'. Wolf expert 'Russell Core' is called in to investigate these killings and discovers an unholy truth harbored by Medora before she disappears.
"When her husband returns home to discover his boy dead and his wife missing, Vernon begins a maniacal pursuit that cuts a bloody swath across the frozen landscape. With the help of a local police detective, Core attempts to find Medora before her husband does, setting in motion a deadly chain of events..."
Click the images...
"...at the start of another pitiless winter, wolves have taken three children from the remote Alaskan village of 'Keelut', including the six-year-old son of 'Medora' and 'Vernon Slone'. Wolf expert 'Russell Core' is called in to investigate these killings and discovers an unholy truth harbored by Medora before she disappears.
"When her husband returns home to discover his boy dead and his wife missing, Vernon begins a maniacal pursuit that cuts a bloody swath across the frozen landscape. With the help of a local police detective, Core attempts to find Medora before her husband does, setting in motion a deadly chain of events..."
Click the images...
- 9/17/2018
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
After his new film skipped Cannes and Venice, admirers of Jeremy Saulnier’s work were delighted to get a rare chance to see the Netflix-funded Hold the Dark on the big screen before it debuts on the streaming platform next month. Adapted from William Giraldi’s 2014 novel by regular Saulnier collaborator Macon Blair, Hold the Dark is still recognizably the work of the talent behind indie hits Blue Ruin and Green Room. But although there was plenty to discuss, Saulnier preferred to keep away from spoilers when he came to the Deadline studio with cast members Alexander Skarsgård, Jeffrey Wright and Riley Keough.
Explaining the basics, Saulnier told us: “It’s about a retired naturalist, Russell Core [played by Jeffrey Wright], who’s summoned to this remote village on the outskirts of Alaska by a young mother, played by Riley, whose son was presumably taken by wolves. It’s happened before in the village; her son is missing,...
Explaining the basics, Saulnier told us: “It’s about a retired naturalist, Russell Core [played by Jeffrey Wright], who’s summoned to this remote village on the outskirts of Alaska by a young mother, played by Riley, whose son was presumably taken by wolves. It’s happened before in the village; her son is missing,...
- 9/14/2018
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
It gives me no pleasure to slag on Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark; his previous two films, Blue Ruin and Green Room, were good bleak fun, laconic in general, tersely amusing when dialogue emerged. But Hold the Dark has no interest in being fun; it’s much more interested in being taken Seriously, as a Serious Movie, and that’s a very bad trade. I have not read William Giraldi’s source novel, but I conferred with someone who has, who confirmed that many of this movie’s bad ideas — primarily, a heavy metaphorical and literal emphasis on the disastrous invasion of Afghanistan — are organic to […]...
- 9/13/2018
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
It gives me no pleasure to slag on Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark; his previous two films, Blue Ruin and Green Room, were good bleak fun, laconic in general, tersely amusing when dialogue emerged. But Hold the Dark has no interest in being fun; it’s much more interested in being taken Seriously, as a Serious Movie, and that’s a very bad trade. I have not read William Giraldi’s source novel, but I conferred with someone who has, who confirmed that many of this movie’s bad ideas — primarily, a heavy metaphorical and literal emphasis on the disastrous invasion of Afghanistan — are organic to […]...
- 9/13/2018
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Jeremy Saulnier was a breakout genre sensation with his taut revenge thriller “Blue Ruin,” but “Green Room” solidified his aesthetic with a punks-versus-skinheads survival story that dovetailed from taut survival drama to war movie. With “Hold the Dark,” he continues that fascinating hodgepodge approach, transforming the eerie backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness into an expansive playground for various genre tropes.
By merging a riveting outdoor survival yarn worthy of Jack London with bloody shootouts and supernatural thrills, Saulnier solidifies an aesthetic steeped in the delicate art of merging many kinds of movies into a formidable whole. It’s not always satisfying — this time, the approach yields a confusing and sometimes convoluted narrative — but Saulnier and screenwriter Macon Blair maintain their gripping atmosphere with a rapid-fire pace, and the relentless experience adheres to its own homegrown beats.
The movie begins with a haunting scenario that would sound absurd if Saulnier didn...
By merging a riveting outdoor survival yarn worthy of Jack London with bloody shootouts and supernatural thrills, Saulnier solidifies an aesthetic steeped in the delicate art of merging many kinds of movies into a formidable whole. It’s not always satisfying — this time, the approach yields a confusing and sometimes convoluted narrative — but Saulnier and screenwriter Macon Blair maintain their gripping atmosphere with a rapid-fire pace, and the relentless experience adheres to its own homegrown beats.
The movie begins with a haunting scenario that would sound absurd if Saulnier didn...
- 9/13/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Jeremy Saulnier’s 2016 breakthrough, “Green Room,” depicted a traveling punk band held captive by a gang of white supremacists in a remote corner of Oregon. For his fourth and most ambitious film, “Hold the Dark,” the director returns again to sinister goings-on within secluded, rural communities, only this time the evil at hand is much more Judge Holden than David Duke. Boasting the sort of shocking brutality and unnerving menace that has become Saulnier’s signature, “Hold the Dark” is also a strangely seductive film, and one that understands the difference between simple plot resolution and catharsis, leading us on a journey into Alaska’s frigid heart of darkness that poses more questions than it answers.
“Hold the Dark” is unflinchingly violent, at times almost excessively so, and yet its starkest act of savagery occurs in the first few minutes, and is all the more haunting for its ambiguity. In...
“Hold the Dark” is unflinchingly violent, at times almost excessively so, and yet its starkest act of savagery occurs in the first few minutes, and is all the more haunting for its ambiguity. In...
- 9/13/2018
- by Andrew Barker
- Variety Film + TV
Hold the Dark Trailer Netflix‘s Hold the Dark (2018) movie trailer stars Riley Keough, Alexander Skarsgård, Jefferey Wright, James Badge Dale, and Macon Blair. Hold the Dark‘s plot synopsis: based on the book by William Giraldi, “Retired naturalist and wolf expert Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) journeys to the edge of [...]
Continue reading: Hold The Dark (2018) Movie Trailer: Jefferey Wright & Alexander Skarsgård Hunt Killer Wolves in Alaska...
Continue reading: Hold The Dark (2018) Movie Trailer: Jefferey Wright & Alexander Skarsgård Hunt Killer Wolves in Alaska...
- 8/21/2018
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Westworld alum Jeffrey Wright is leaving the town of Sweetwater behind and is headed for the northern Alaskan mountains in search of a young boy, as well as the answers that come with his grizzly disappearance. Directed by Green Room and Blue Ruin's Jeremy Saulnier and based off the novel of the same name by William Giraldi, Hold The Dark tells the story of a retired... Read More...
- 8/21/2018
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Whoa! Netflix has just released the trailer for an incredible looking new film called Hold The Dark. It comes from director Jeremy Saulnier, who previously directed the fantastic films Green Room and Blue Ruin. This trailer gives us a glimpse at the Intense, unsettling and disturbing story that follows a man's journey into the wilderness of Alaska to track down a pack of wolves that took the life of a young boy from a small town. Here's the synopsis and impressive cast of the film:
Retired naturalist and wolf expert Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) journeys to the edge of civilization in northern Alaska at the pleading of Medora Slone (Riley Keough), a young mother whose son was killed by a pack of wolves. As Core attempts to help Medora track down the wolves who took her son, a strange and dangerous relationship develops between the two lonely souls.
But when...
Retired naturalist and wolf expert Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) journeys to the edge of civilization in northern Alaska at the pleading of Medora Slone (Riley Keough), a young mother whose son was killed by a pack of wolves. As Core attempts to help Medora track down the wolves who took her son, a strange and dangerous relationship develops between the two lonely souls.
But when...
- 8/21/2018
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Jeremy Saulnier is following up 2015’s genre hit “Green Room” with “Hold the Dark,” a Netflix original film about a man fighting nature to save a young child. Jeffrey Wright leads a starry cast including Riley Keough, Alexander Skarsgård, James Badge Dale, and Julian Black Antelope. Saulnier’s frequent collaborator Macon Blair wrote the screenplay, adapted from William Giraldi’s 2014 novel of the same name. “Dark” will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, and the film debuts on Netflix and in select theaters on Sept. 28.
Saulnier recently spoke to IndieWire about the epic scale of the production.
“There’s scenes in the Iraq War,” he said. “There’s a lot of outback Alaskan landscapes. There’s aerial sequences. We’re dealing with bison and lynxes and wolves and all kinds of creatures. That was great to not build a contained environment and really milk...
Saulnier recently spoke to IndieWire about the epic scale of the production.
“There’s scenes in the Iraq War,” he said. “There’s a lot of outback Alaskan landscapes. There’s aerial sequences. We’re dealing with bison and lynxes and wolves and all kinds of creatures. That was great to not build a contained environment and really milk...
- 8/21/2018
- by William Earl
- Indiewire
“Hold the Dark” director Jeremy Saulnier wasn’t messing around when it came time to followup his tense thriller “Green Room.” First stop: go outside. Saulnier’s 2015 film is mostly set in an eponymous waiting room in a Portland club that just so happens to be a Nazi haven, and follows a punk rock band as they try to get the hell out of it. After months working with such constraints, Saulnier went to the opposite extreme with a thriller set in the Alaskan wilderness and based on the novel of the same name by William Giraldi.
Saulnier told IndieWire he “absolutely” wanted to do something different after “Green Room,” though he laughed when recounting just how different the actual production of “Hold the Dark” proved to be. “Flash forward to me, the cast, and crew in negative 30-degree Celsius weather — be careful what you wish for — but yeah, I wanted to break out,...
Saulnier told IndieWire he “absolutely” wanted to do something different after “Green Room,” though he laughed when recounting just how different the actual production of “Hold the Dark” proved to be. “Flash forward to me, the cast, and crew in negative 30-degree Celsius weather — be careful what you wish for — but yeah, I wanted to break out,...
- 8/17/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
With Murder Party, Blue Ruin and Green Room under his belt, Jeremy Saulnier has been nothing but impressive thus far, and his next is an adaptation of William Giraldi’s bestselling novel Hold the Dark for Netflix. This week, Empire shares the first look image. The site notes, “The film, a Netflix original, casts Westworld star Jeffrey Wright as wolf expert Russell […]...
- 8/9/2018
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Less than a week before the Cannes Film Festival was scheduled to announce its 2018 slate, reports circulated that Netflix pulled several films under consideration in response to the festival’s insistence that competition films must receive a theatrical release in France. “We’re still talking,” Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux wrote in a brief email to IndieWire. “They are still welcome.”
Nevertheless, multiple reports and sources close to the matter suggest that Netflix moved to pull its titles from the festival after Fremaux gave an interview to Le Film Français in late March, reiterating a 2017 rule that would ban Netflix titles from competition. “That’s their economic model, and I respect it,” he said in the interview, referring to Netflix’s commitment to a streaming-only approach. “But we are all about cinema and we wish to have films that play in competition get released in theaters.”
Last year, Cannes played...
Nevertheless, multiple reports and sources close to the matter suggest that Netflix moved to pull its titles from the festival after Fremaux gave an interview to Le Film Français in late March, reiterating a 2017 rule that would ban Netflix titles from competition. “That’s their economic model, and I respect it,” he said in the interview, referring to Netflix’s commitment to a streaming-only approach. “But we are all about cinema and we wish to have films that play in competition get released in theaters.”
Last year, Cannes played...
- 4/7/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
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