Author: Alex Billington

"There's only one man brainless enough to steal from the syndicate." Apple TV has revealed the official trailer for a kooky British comedy series titled The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, which is actually based on a true story. Sort of. Noel Fielding is Dick Turpin, the most dangerous highway robber of the 18th century. The comedy series arrives for streaming starting on March 1st. It is a fictional take on the life of highway robber Dick Turpin – originally Richard Turpin, an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. By the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. This is his story. Though it's all made up, at least most of it is. Co-starring alongside Fielding in the ensemble cast are Ellie White, Marc Wootton, Duayne Boachie, Hugh Bonneville, Tamsin Greig, Asim Chaudhry, Dolly Wells, Joe Wilkinson, Mark Heap, Samuel Leakey, and Kiri Flaherty. This series looks extra peculiar and wonky and weird, just as expected. And I can't ...

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival has wrapped up after another invigorating 10-day in-person event held up in the Utah mountains, along with an online counterpart during only the second half. Now it's time to present our annual Best of the Fest list from the 2024 selection. I was able to catch a total of 51 films this year (my full list on Letterboxd), half of them at screenings in Park City & SLC, the other half virtual screenings. This is my 18th year covering Sundance, and this fest still has a special place in my heart. It was so nice to be back again. I am presenting one big list of my 10 favorite films - a mix of a few documentaries and narrative features. All 10 of these below are worth watching, and I highly recommend seeing them on the big screen whenever it's possible. Watching all of these with an audience really makes a difference. I also recorded a podcast talking about many of the Sundance films (good and bad). Below are my favorites, the films that connected ...

"It was as if the Earth itself was allowing this horror to rise up..." Jagged Edge Productions has revealed the main official trailer for Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood & Honey 2, (or Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood & Honey II), the follow-up to the previous slasher horror involving the former Disney IP honey-loving bear and his friends. The current release date is March 2024, though it might shift once Jagged Edge figures out how to get this into more theaters. In Blood & Honey 2, Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Owl, and Tigger decide to head to the town of Ashdown to get revenge on Christopher Robin for revealing their existence. Even more bloody carnage when the gang shows up! The film stars Tallulah Evans, Scott Chambers as Christopher Robin, Ryan Oliva as Winnie-the-Pooh, and Peter DeSouza-Feighoney as Young Pooh. There's a rumor this sequel will open up the door to more public domain horror, "teasing upcoming Pinocchio, Bambi and Peter Pan-based horror movies." If you didn't watch the first one, don't worry, there's not much going on in either. Official trailer (+ poster) for Rhys Frake Waterfield's Winnie-the-Pooh: ...

"I want the world to know the truth about Frogman..." 🐸 What is it! Where did it come from! Why so frog! Rue Morgue Magazine has revealed the main official trailer for an indie underground horror thriller film titled Frogman, created by filmmaker Anthony Cousins. This first premiered at last year's Telluride Horror Show Film Festival, and will be out to watch on VOD in March. If you're brave enough to encounter the Frogman! They're also releasing a special, limited edition green VHS copy to watch this month (order here). Frogman is a found footage indie horror following three friends who go in search of the Loveland Frogman, and quickly find out that he is more than just a local legend. The film stars Nathan Tymoshuk, Chelsey Grant, Benny Barrett, and Justen Jones. There's not many actual clear glimpses of the freaky Frogman in this trailer, but it does tease this film quite well. Reviews say it features "impressive creature effects. The more the humans invade the Frogman's turf, the more delightfully weird and gnarly things get." Sounds fun. Here's the ...

"To me he is a God." –Lars von Trier. Kino Lorber has revealed a new re-release trailer for Nostalghia, one of the last films Andrei Tarkovsky made in the 1980s just a few years before he passed away. This new 4K restoration of the Tarkovsky classic is set to play in limited theaters starting in February & March around the US. "Nostalghia is not so much a movie as a place to inhabit for two hours." –J. Hoberman. A Russian poet and his interpreter travel to Italy researching the life of an 18th-century composer, and instead meet a ruminative madman who tells the poet how the world may be saved. Tarkovsky said at the time that, "my wish was simply to observe a Russian who comes to Italy and discovers unexpected emotions which regard him... the drama emerges precisely from this clash between this innocent vision of the world and the real conditions of life for a man who is away from his country." It stars Oleg Yankovsky, Erland Josephson, and Domiziana Giordano. There's a brand new trailer and poster ...

"Was I always destined to be interested in men?" Full Spectrum Features has unveiled an official trailer for a film titled Desire Lines, which just premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival a few weeks ago. This hybrid doc film played in the "Next" section, for innovative & unique films that break the mold. It "pushes against binaries—fiction vs non-fiction, reality vs fantasy, public vs private—in order to highlight the fallacy of 'purity' that undergirds colonialist notions of discrete categories of being (or genre)." A trans man travels back in time to an LGBTQ+ archive to understand his sexuality. He encounters his past and present selves during an erotic journey of self-discovery. This hybrid documentary is a tender love letter to the gay trans-masculine community and the legacy that Lou Sullivan, and many unnamed others like him, left behind. Featuring Theo Germaine, Aden Hakimi, and Em Modaff. "Desire Lines is an urgently needed contribution to a sociopolitical landscape in desperate need of empathy, understanding, levity, & freedom." Have a look. Here's the first promo trailer (+ poster) for Jules Rosskam's ...

"I wanted to avoid the artifice of cinema." A24 has revealed a behind-the-scenes featurette for The Zone of Interest, the Best Picture nominated Holocaust film from British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer (of Sexy Beast, Birth, Under the Skin). It premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year, and after opening in December, ended up with a total of five Oscar nominations – including Best Director and Best Sound. This film is about the Nazi commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his family who live inside a nice house located adjacent to this horrible concentration camp in Poland. It stars Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller as the couple, with Freya Kreutzkam, Max Beck, Imogen Kogge, Ralph Herforth. In this featurette, Glazer and his Polish DP Łukasz Żal talk about filming this with cameras hidden in the house, and natural lighting, to make it as authentic and immersive as possible. Yes this is an outstanding film that deserves to be seen on the big screen – to experience the unsettling sound behind this banality of evil story. Here's the behind-the-scenes featurette for Jonathan ...

"You've got the teeth of the hydra upon you." It's finally time. After letting this trailer play in theaters for a month already, Neon has released the teaser trailer for Longlegs online for everyone to watch. It's one of the best modern teaser trailers ever made - a brilliant remix of the Alien text slow title reveal, but this time for an eerie serial killer horror thriller. FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes unexpected turns, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again. Longlegs is the latest film from director Oz Perkins (of The Blackcoat's Daughter, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Gretel & Hansel) - all those creepy teases were leading up to this. The horror film stars Maika Monroe as Lee Harker, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt, Blair Underwood, and Dakota Daulby. This is such a disquiting, frightening, captivating teaser - one of the best of 2024. Makes me insanely curious to find out ...

"Chase your dreams – no matter the distance." Disney+ has revealed the official trailer for a documentary film titled Madu, arriving for streaming on D+ coming up later in March. An inspirational true story of a talented young dancer. The film follows Anthony Madu, the Nigerian boy who became a viral sensation after a video showed him dancing ballet barefoot on a rainy street outside Lagos (as seen here). Madu will premiere on opening night of the 2024 Santa Barbara Film Festival first before its streaming release. The film's subject, Anthony Madu, went viral in 2020, touching the hearts of people around the world after his dance teacher posted a 44-second clip of him dancing. Having never left his home outside of Lagos, Anthony finds himself thrust into a new world where his wildest dreams are suddenly within reach. He's brought up to England to to study at one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the world. This looks a bit like they're trying too hard to make him into a star – when it really should be up to ...