Freaky is a 2020 comedy horror drama film based loosely on the classic 1978 Freaky Friday movie which has been remade several times over the years since. The twist in Freaky is that this time, the protagonist switches bodies – not with her mother – but with a serial killer!
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Let Them All Talk is a HBO Max comedy-drama directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen. The premise of Let Them All Talk revolves around author Alice Hughes (Streep) and her cruise to the United Kingdom (on the Queen Mary 2) to be presented with a prestigious book award. Alice invites two old friends Susan (Wiest) and Roberta (Bergen) along with her favourite nephew Tyler (Lucas Hedges) to accompany her.
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Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma has been adapted numerous times in film, TV and on stage. First time director Autumn de Wilde has done a fabulous job in presenting the latest version of this timeless story. An integral part of Emma’s success is the spot-on casting of the delightful Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role.
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Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, On the Rocks is a drama cum comedy starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones. Murray and Jones play Felix and Laura, father and daughter, caught up in a half-baked scheme to investigate Laura’s husband’s suspected infidelity.
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Director Yuki Kumagai combined his love for pop idols, quirky detectives and zombies to come up with his delightful horror-comedy Tokyo Living Dead Idol.
Why does The Orville even exist?
If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that The Brothers Grimsby (starring Sacha Baron Cohen & Mark Strong as the titular characters) is a pisstake of every Mark Millar movie adaptation!
Better Call Saul is almost Breaking Bad in reverse. Basically, for fans of the latter, we already know ‘Saul Goodman’ as the unscrupulous, immoral shyster lawyer. This prequel/sequel of sorts is telling us the story of how bumbling, inept, down on his luck Jim McGill become Saul Goodman. The best part? There is no rush to get there! The show takes its time to tell Jim’s story first before rushing into Saul. So far, that has meant first class television for the three episodes we have had so far.
Any familiar faces, you ask? Well at the moment we have Jonathan Banks reprising his Breaking Bad role as Mike Ehrmantraut – who we find as a crusty parking attendant.Ehrmantraut is actually instrumental in helping McGill crack the case and save his own bacon. So suddenly our awkward attorney has his very first significant ‘win’ and how it moves from here is anyone’s guess but the show has all the makings of a humongous hit.
Favourite movies of 2014. And why.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy (Directed by James Gunn)
No surprise here. Gunn took an unlikely B-grade space opera comic book story and transformed Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot into a family of heroes fighting for the galaxy. In doing so, Gunn infused comedy and drama brilliantly to convey all the wonder of a ‘real’ comic book experience.
2. Predestination (Directed by the Spierig Brothers)
Sleeper of the year! Low budget scifi at its best. Sterling performances from Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook coupled with a very tightly woven tale makes for an enthralling film. Very faithful to its source material (Heinlein’s -All You Zombies-), Predestination is way up there with all the best ‘mindfuck’ flicks like 12 Monkeys & Inception. Keep a close watch on Michael and Peter Spierig.
3. Nightcrawler (Directed by Dan Gilroy)
An intense study of sociopathic attitudes (as embodied in Jake Gyllenhaal’s Lou Bloom), debutant director Gilroy presents a scathing commentary on the modern law of the urban jungle. In the mind of Bloom, survival of the fittest takes on ominous tones and Gyllenhaal’s masterful performance is both chilling and impressive. Gilroy is another directorial talent to look out for.
Is Spike Jonze’s Her a geek film? One could argue that it is a scifi movie but the elements are so marginal that in fact it’s probably more of a romantic comedy-drama with superficial scifi tropes. BUT. This last week, I have been speaking to my students about the purpose of setting in a story and I could not help but be distracted by the setting of Her.
The premise of Thanks for Sharing is promising enough as it centers around three people undergoing a 12-step process to recover from their sexual addiction. In addition, the strong cast – which includes Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad and Alecia Moore (aka P!nk) – flesh out this intriguing premise well. However, the main problem lies in the third act where the various plotlines descend somewhat into cliche.
