Soul is an American computer-animated fantasy adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is directed by Pete Docter, produced by Dana Murray and stars the voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Questlove, Phylicia Rashad and Daveed Diggs. The film is scheduled to be released on June 19, 2020.
Bad Boys for Life is an American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Will Smith and starring Smith and Martin Lawrence. The sequel to Bad Boys (1995) and Bad Boys II (2003) and the third Installment in the Bad Boys trilogy, the film follows detectives Lowrey and Burnett reuniting once again when a Romanian mob boss exacts revenge on the duo just as they are about to officially retire.
The Invisible Man: a science fiction psychological horror film written and directed by Leigh Whannell. It is a very loose modern adaptation of both the novel of the same name by H. G. Wells and a reboot of the 1933 film adaptation of the same name. The film stars Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid and Harriet Dyer.
Hala is a 2019 drama film written and directed by Minhal Baig. It was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. It is scheduled to be released in a limited release on November 22, 2019, followed by digital streaming on December 6, 2019, by AppleTV+.
Screen legend Bruce Willis plays Lt. Wakes, a vengeful police detective determined to solve the murders of his partner and informant. Wakes joins forces with Madison (Whelan), a witness injured during the shootings.
Edward Norton Returns to Director’s Chair for 1950s Detective Drama
The last time Edward Norton directed, it was nineteen years ago for a forgotten Ben Stiller romantic comedy called “Keeping the Faith.” Since then, the three time Oscar nominated actor has remained primarily in front of the camera, starring in several iconic movies across the twentieth century and only occasionally dabbling in producing, cinematography, or editing.
On November 1st, however, Norton returns to the director’s chair once again, this time for a gritty, 1950s detective drama based off of a screenplay he wrote. The film is called “Motherless Brooklyn.” It is an adaptation of a 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel by Jonathan Lethem. Norton’s screenplay of the story will go down as his first writing credit.
Starring a Detective with a Disability, Never-Before-Seen on the Silver Screen
“Motherless Brooklyn” is about a private investigator working in mid-twentieth century New York City—Brooklyn, obviously. Played by Norton himself, the private eye is named Lionel Essrog, and despite his daring profession, he is an estranged and lonely man who suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome.
Stuttering, twitchy, and seemingly nervous all the time, Essrog is not your everyday Hollywood protagonist. He is vulnerable and smitten with anxiety, as the movie will show by telling the story from his point of view. Essrog is a new kind of character for Norton as well, for the actor usually plays the serious, smart, but oftentimes devilish lead. Not since “Primal Fear”, where he played a schizophrenic murder suspect, with a severe stutter, has he dabbled in this type of over-the-top character portrayal. That performance was his career debut, and breakthrough, earning a Golden Globe supporting actor win and an Oscar nomination for same.
In the film, Essrog’s only friend is Frank Minna, his mentor played by Bruce Willis. After Minna is murdered, the crux of the story centers on Essrog trying to figure out who done it. Using his condition not as a disability, but as a resource for understanding and analyzing situations, Essrog employs his Tourette’s to his advantage, and they aid him in cracking the case.
Classic Oscar Bait Elements, perhaps, but Will it Play in 2020?
It is a classic detective story with an original twist. Everything about “Motherless Brooklyn” fits in with the bygone noir genre, but instead of having the leading character be overly hard-boiled, he is highly susceptible and must navigate a corrupt urban world while also dealing with his own inner-turmoil.
Alongside Norton and Willis, Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe also star in the film, making the cast pretty star studded. On top of disability, the movie’s themes will also include power, its limits, its ethics, and the layers of depravity that surround it. While the conventional noir genre may be dead in the twenty-first century, those themes have proven themselves timeless. Like any good noir film, “Motherless Brooklyn” is labyrinth-like in its structure and bound to throw a couple of unexpected narrative turns our way.
Although film noir may not be on the brink of a revival, “Motherless Brooklyn” could still be a stimulating project. The movie has clear talent and thematic relevance on its side, and the script is based off of popular source material that feels both familiar and fresh.
Given its 1950s setting and retro noir aspects, “Motherless Brooklyn” is not exactly doing anything to combat a whitewashed Hollywood. However, assuming that the movie handles it with appropriate sensitivity, we applaud Norton for bringing matters of disability to the big screen. Let’s hope that he plays the part with the grace it deserves, does right by the misunderstood trope, and perhaps even demystifies a few assumptions about the condition in the process.
Earlier
this year, the struggling movie theater subscription service MoviePass
announced that they would be producing and distributing its first original film
in an effort to combat rising debt. It was a bold tactic, but once we learned
that Bruce Willis had signed on to the project, it seemed more legitimate, and
we became eager to find out what would happen when “10 Minutes Gone” hit
theaters.
“10 Minutes Gone” is directed by Brian A
Miller, a frequent collaborator with Bruce
Willis on movies such as “The Prince,” “Vice,” and “Reprisal.” In
this new movie, Willis will only be taking a co-starring role, the lead going
to Michael
Chiklis of FX’s “The Shield.”
Both of these middle-aged bald actors have
talent, but can they draw in an audience? Chiklis may be recognizable on
television, but he is yet to have a hit on the big screen. Willis is of course
a household name and face, but he is arguably over-saturated in the action
genre. His last few action movies, “Reprisal,” “Air Strike,” “Death Wish,” and
“Act of Violence,” all managed to fly under the radar and underperform at the
box-office despite having his renowned star-status attached to them.
The virtually unknown Kevin Mao and Jeff
Jingle wrote the script for “10 Minutes Gone.” It is the first writing credit
for Mao, who has only been involved in one other short movie as a producer, and
the second writing credit for Jingle, who is best known as a special effects
artist on films such as “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” “Pacific Rim,” and “Cowboys
& Aliens.” It is a daring move for MoviePass to put the story in the hands
of such inexperienced talent, but young minds should of course not be
underestimated, and script can speak for itself.
The plot starts out simple enough, with
Bruce Willis’ crime-boss character curating a team of highly skilled people to
pull off a robbery. The heist is an effort to break into a vault and steal an
unmarked case that supposedly contains something immensely valuable. The team,
which includes Chiklis’ character Frank and his brother Joey, manages to
retrieve the case. However, during the getaway, somebody hits Frank over the
head, knocking him out. When wakes up ten minutes later, Joey is dead, the case
is gone, and he has no idea who is responsible.
Photo / Lionsgate
For the rest of the movie, Frank must track
down whoever took the case. It also becomes a revenge story, though, as Frank
obviously wants retribution for his brother being murdered. Meanwhile, there is
a hint of mystery, for Frank and the audience alike want to figure out not only
who is responsible, but what happened during those crucial ten minutes when
Frank was unconscious.
As the plot progresses, it gets more
complex and nobody can be trusted. Willis’ character remains the heist’s
overlord, but other members of the team become prime suspects in Frank’s
search. Meanwhile, government officials are also after the case, making it so
even those on the right side of the law could be culprits. The trailer also
ends with Chiklis and Willis standing face-to-face as Chicklis sinisterly
remarks “so much for honor among thieves,” so it is quite possible and even
probable that Willis’ character will end up more involved than we think. After
all, if you have Bruce Willis in your movie, you might as well use him to his
maximum potential.
Anyway, the hallowed case in the movie will
probably remain a MacGuffin, and the plot will likely lead to a climactic downtown
shootout between the film’s central characters and the police department. It
will probably be a satisfying, albeit predictable, ending to a pretty standard
film.
Sadly, “standard” will probably not be
enough to save MoviePass. The company, which allows subscribers to see three
movies a month for $90/year, has hit hard times lately. It is unlikely that it
will be able to sustain itself for much longer. While we applaud their audacity
to collaborate and create an original film in an effort to pull themselves out
of financial trouble, it does not look like “10 Minutes Gone” will be anyone’s
ultimate savior.
Given the
limited marketing, generic heist-centered backdrop, and corny trailer featuring
a dated Don LaFontaine-like voiceover, it
unfortunately looks like “10 Minutes Gone” will be no more than just another
title in a long list of forgettable action movies. If that is the case, then MoviePass
will need to find a new way to keep itself afloat.
