Luca Guadagnino’s terrifically absorbing screwball dramedy features a devastatingly cool leading lady, Josh O’Connor on rallying form and zinging extended dialogue rallies to match
It’s almost too good to be true. Could cinema be witnessing the birth of a stunning new mixed doubles partnership? Last year, Korean-Canadian film-maker Celine Song gave us her wonderful, Oscar-nominated debut film Past Lives, a personal love-triangle movie about a South Korean woman in the US, married to a white American writer, poignantly reconnecting with her Korean childhood sweetheart; the fictional writer, incidentally, has a novel out called Boner. Now Song’s actual white American husband Justin Kuritzkes has written this love-triangle movie, an uproarious screwball dramedy of straight sex and queer tennis: one player, incidentally, is renowned for his large penis.
Some day, film school courses will be devoted to parallel-textual analyses of these two films, and maybe the legendary third wheel...
It’s almost too good to be true. Could cinema be witnessing the birth of a stunning new mixed doubles partnership? Last year, Korean-Canadian film-maker Celine Song gave us her wonderful, Oscar-nominated debut film Past Lives, a personal love-triangle movie about a South Korean woman in the US, married to a white American writer, poignantly reconnecting with her Korean childhood sweetheart; the fictional writer, incidentally, has a novel out called Boner. Now Song’s actual white American husband Justin Kuritzkes has written this love-triangle movie, an uproarious screwball dramedy of straight sex and queer tennis: one player, incidentally, is renowned for his large penis.
Some day, film school courses will be devoted to parallel-textual analyses of these two films, and maybe the legendary third wheel...
- 4/12/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
A new Spike Lee Joint is in the works that will reunite the director with Denzel Washington. Apple Original Films is partnering with A24 on “High and Low,” an English-language adaptation of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa crime film of the same name.
“High and Low” marks the first time Washington and Lee will work together since 2006’s “Inside Man.” It will be their fifth film together in addition to “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Malcolm X,” and “He Got Game.”
The project also brings back together Washington and Todd Black, who produced “Fences,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “The Equalizer” films. Washington previously starred in another Apple and A24 film, Joel Coen’s 2022 “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” which netted Denzel his 10th Oscar nomination.
Production on “High and Low” will start in March. A24 plans to release the film theatrically before it streams on Apple TV+.
“High and Low” is just one of Japanese master Kurosawa’s masterpieces,...
“High and Low” marks the first time Washington and Lee will work together since 2006’s “Inside Man.” It will be their fifth film together in addition to “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Malcolm X,” and “He Got Game.”
The project also brings back together Washington and Todd Black, who produced “Fences,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “The Equalizer” films. Washington previously starred in another Apple and A24 film, Joel Coen’s 2022 “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” which netted Denzel his 10th Oscar nomination.
Production on “High and Low” will start in March. A24 plans to release the film theatrically before it streams on Apple TV+.
“High and Low” is just one of Japanese master Kurosawa’s masterpieces,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Actor, director and playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah has joined the board of Fifth Season-backed production company The Story Collective.
In the role, Kwei-Armah will bring expertise and mentorship to various projects in development as well as nurturing new ideas to bring to screen.
Kwei-Armah is currently the artistic director for the Young Vic theater in London. Previously he served as artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage in Maryland, where he directed Toni Morrison’s “Jazz” and “One Night in Miami,” which was later adapted into a film starring Kingsley Ben-Adir.
He is set to make his directorial feature debut with upcoming film “The Collaboration,” starring Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol and Jeremy Pope as Jean-Michel Basquiat. He directed both the London and Broadway versions of the play. He also co-wrote John Boyega starrer “Breaking” and an episode of “Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle,” on which he was also an exec producer.
In the role, Kwei-Armah will bring expertise and mentorship to various projects in development as well as nurturing new ideas to bring to screen.
Kwei-Armah is currently the artistic director for the Young Vic theater in London. Previously he served as artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage in Maryland, where he directed Toni Morrison’s “Jazz” and “One Night in Miami,” which was later adapted into a film starring Kingsley Ben-Adir.
He is set to make his directorial feature debut with upcoming film “The Collaboration,” starring Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol and Jeremy Pope as Jean-Michel Basquiat. He directed both the London and Broadway versions of the play. He also co-wrote John Boyega starrer “Breaking” and an episode of “Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle,” on which he was also an exec producer.
- 1/11/2024
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
There’s no joint like a Spike Lee Joint, but what other movies does the director love?
Over four decades and 30 films, Brooklyn-raised Lee has established himself as the type of director whose work can’t be replicated. The traits that make a Spike Lee Joint a Spike Lee Joint are easy to spot: the fiery and often political subject matter, the mix of humor with drama, those iconic floaty dolly shots, and an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to stylistic experimentation.
Lee’s fearlessness as a director makes for a fascinating mixed-bag of a filmography. The auteur has at least three undeniable masterpieces under his belt: 1989’s “Do the Right Thing,” a searing drama about police violence and racism; 1992’s “Malcolm X,” an epic starring Denzel Washington as the titular Civil Rights leader; and 2002’s “25th Hour,” the greatest portrait of life in New York after 9/11 put to film. Depending on who you ask,...
Over four decades and 30 films, Brooklyn-raised Lee has established himself as the type of director whose work can’t be replicated. The traits that make a Spike Lee Joint a Spike Lee Joint are easy to spot: the fiery and often political subject matter, the mix of humor with drama, those iconic floaty dolly shots, and an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to stylistic experimentation.
Lee’s fearlessness as a director makes for a fascinating mixed-bag of a filmography. The auteur has at least three undeniable masterpieces under his belt: 1989’s “Do the Right Thing,” a searing drama about police violence and racism; 1992’s “Malcolm X,” an epic starring Denzel Washington as the titular Civil Rights leader; and 2002’s “25th Hour,” the greatest portrait of life in New York after 9/11 put to film. Depending on who you ask,...
- 5/10/2023
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
The word “romantic” doesn’t have much place in cinema these days, serving mostly as a modifier for “comedy.” The term “women’s picture” has also passed out of favor since its ’40s heyday, regardless of the fact that the films that exemplified it usually featured strong female characters and almost always pushed back at the pressures of male-run society. With her feature debut Past Lives, which screened to a double standing ovation this week in the Premieres strand at Sundance, playwright Celine Song has killed two birds with one stone, creating an elegant and unexpectedly mesmerizing character piece that speaks profoundly to the concept of love in the modern age while using an intelligent and ambitious, but still very relatable woman to do so.
Surprisingly, the film comes from A24, whose recent output has been heading in a very different and more genre-focused direction, and also Killer Films, historically known for much edgier fare.
Surprisingly, the film comes from A24, whose recent output has been heading in a very different and more genre-focused direction, and also Killer Films, historically known for much edgier fare.
- 1/22/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
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