Author: Alex Billington

"The play is my life! And no one is going to take that from me!" HBO has unveiled an official trailer for The Great Lillian Hall, a brand new HBO Original Movie set for a streaming debut on Max next week. It'll be out to watch on May 31st, which is just around the corner. When beloved Broadway actress Lillian Hall (Jessica Lange) starts forgetting her lines, she must reckon with the sacrifices she made for her career. Hall, a beloved Broadway actress, has never missed a performance throughout her long, illustrious career. Yet in the rehearsals her confidence is challenged. People and events conspire to take away her ability to do what she loves most. The illustrious Jessica Lange star as Lillian Hall in this, joined by Kathy Bates as Edith Wilson, Lily Rabe as Margaret Tanner, Jesse Williams as David Flemming, and Pierce Brosnan as Ty Maynard. While there was a real Lillian Hall, this just a story about a fictional actress, though Lange really makes it all seem real. Another emotional story about a great artist getting ...

"I can feel the inner lives of shapes and colors and sounds and numbers..." Wow that's strange. Max has revealed an official trailer for a wacky comedy series called Fantasmas, streaming this June. It's the latest creation of comedian / writer / actor Julio Torres, who stars in, writes, directs this series after releasing his Problemista film with A24 last year. Fantasmas translates directly to "ghosts" in Spanish, though this series is actually about a golden oyster, or dreams, or other weird things. Torres explores the peculiar world of folktales with a "fresh and unique twist on the classic tale of the lost golden oyster." Ever since he was struck by lightning as a child, he has seen the world in a different light. After experiencing weird dreams, Julio decides to embark on a journey through a surreal, alternate version of New York City. The series stars Torres with Martine Gutierrez, Tomas Matos, & Joe Rumrill. Plus tons of guest stars: Steve Buscemi, Paul Dano, Julia Fox, Alexa Demie, Emma Stone, Aidy Bryant, Bowen Yang, Dylan O'Brien, and others. This ...

Winners of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival awards, including the coveted Palme d'Or, were revealed at a glamorous ceremony in Cannes, France this weekend. The awards included many of my favorite films at the festival, and this year THE BEST film of actually won the top prize. Huzzah!! This doesn't always happen, but I loved Anora and had a feeling it would win ever since the screening on Tuesday earlier this week (read my full review). American filmmaker Sean Baker and his NYC film Anora won the Palme d'Or this year, following up Justine Triet's win for for Anatomy of a Fall last year. Congrats to Sean Baker and star Mikey Madison! I also would've been happy with Rasoulof's The Seed of the Sacred Fig winning, but it took home a special prize. Jacques Audiard's musical Emilia Perez also won two awards, and Jesse Plemons won the Best Actor award for his three performances in Yorgos Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness. I'm impressed and mostly happy with this year's selection of winners from the competition. Recap all the Cannes 2024 awards ...

"Make him pay." Paramount Movies / Republic Pictures have revealed the official trailer for a very cheesy revenge thriller called Hard Home, arriving to watch in June this summer. This is skipping theaters and heading straight to VOD to catch at home if anyone cares. A mother who is deeply saddened by a loss lures her daughter’s killer into her smart home in order to take revenge, and gets involved in a distorted cat-and-mouse game where life and death are at stake. Simone Kessell stars in this action-packed revenge-thriller, another one involving one of these "high-tech homes" that has tons of contraptions (also see: Inside, Tau, Breaking In). In addition to Kessell, this also stars Joseph Millson, Rachel Adedeji, Daphne Cheung, Rosie Day, and Andrew Howard. Should be no surprise that this looks terrible - not even worth a rental. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for James Bamford's film Hard Home, direct from YouTube: Simone Kessell stars in this action-packed revenge-thriller. After the shocking murder of her daughter, a woman turns her high-tech home into a trap for the killer, initiating ...

One of the most anticipated films premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival is The Seed of the Sacred Fig, the latest from acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof. His films have show regularly at festivals – Goodbye screened at Cannes 2011, Manuscripts Don't Burn at Cannes 2013, A Man of Integrity at Cannes 2017; his most recent 2020 film There Is No Evil won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The Seed of the Sacred Fig is especially important and potent because it really upset the Iranian government – they sentenced Rasoulof to eight years in prison as well as flogging, a fine and confiscation of his property just because he made this film. Part of the big question is why – what does it show and why is the Iranian government so afraid of it? Now we know. This remarkable film is about the current events in Iran, mainly the silencing of many women and young protestors who rose up in 2022 by removing burkas in opposition to the government's heinous morality police. Not only does ...

This is what it would look like if Michael Bay directed a romantic musical. Though this doesn't have nearly enough explosions or mind-boggling drone shots to really live up Bay's movies. Beating Hearts is a big, epic, flashy, cheesy, nearly-three-hour long French love story thriller made by a French filmmaker named Gilles Lellouche. He last directed an absurd comedy called Sink or Swim that played at Cannes 2018, and somehow he was able to secure a Main Competition slot this year at Cannes with his latest titled L'amour ouf in French (or just Beating Hearts in English). For some reason, before its premiere the movie was being referred to as a musical – but it's not really a musical. More of an epic, sweeping romance like Romeo + Juliet with two big dance sequences and tons of famous songs used in it. But there's no singing and it's not a classic musical, it's a drama about two lovers in France. The story is lifted from the classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, following young lovers who get split apart for 12 ...

"There's nothing a retired governor can do about the Soviets..." ShowBiz Direct has revealed a trailer for a movie called Reagan, a brand new biopic about the 40th President of the United States of America. This will open in theaters at the end of August this summer. Actor Dennis Quaid stars as Ron, who worked as an actor before getting into politics. "I've always been told bits and pieces of the stories of Ronald Reagan's life, but this movie puts the whole story together. I've played quite a few real people over the years, and I like to play them from their point of view, without judgment. It was a big challenge for me to get behind the public persona of the man and also to move beyond my own feelings of admiration for him." Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, the film was shot in Oklahoma and in California at Reagan’s beloved Rancho Del Cielo and on Air Force One. The film follows Reagan from his humble beginnings to the glitz & glamour of Hollywood, and finally ...

"To be an artist is to speak your truth as loudly as you can." Picturehouse has revealed an official trailer for a documentary film titled Frank Miller: American Genius, opening soon. This film originally premiered back in 2021 at the Rome Film Festival but has laid low since then. Now it's finally out in June - playing at Cinemark theaters one night. "My life has been driven by a relentless passion for drawing and storytelling, and it's also led to incredible friendships and experiences along the way," states Frank Miller (creator of Daredevil: Born Again, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Sin City, 300). "Sharing this passion with the fans is what matters most and that’s why I’m incredibly excited to bring this film to audiences all across the nation in June." Frank Miller: American Genius explores the near half-century career of Frank Miller, the legendary comic book artist and writer, and features interviews and cameos from his admirers, students, and collaborators, including Neal Adams, Robert Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Jim Lee, Zack Snyder, Stan Lee, and more. It's produced, ...

"Are you having a good time?!" HBO has revealed an official trailer for Ren Faire, a docu series streaming on Max starting in June this summer. Who doesn't love the Renaissance Faire?! This doc series goes even further and builds a narrative around the main characters at the Texas Renaissance Festival. Who will claim the king's throne? A fantastic and farcical succession battle of Shakespearean proportions. Blending verité with fantasy, Ren Faire — a three-part docu-fantasia arriving this summer — invites you behind the curtain of the famed Texas festival to reveal a tense and comical succession drama. Featuring individuals self-styled as Shakespearean characters, the series details an epic power struggle between an actor, a former elephant trainer, and a kettle-corn kingpin – all vying to claim George's throne. As King George's idiosyncrasies mount, the tension over who will be chosen ascends to increasingly operatic heights, against a backdrop where the employees imagine themselves in a real-life "Game of Thrones." Ha ha. This looks super crazy and fun and wacky and of course something that'd only happen in Texas. My ...

"Let it roll!!" Sony Pictures has debuted a final official trailer for the funny Garfield movie, which is playing in theaters today. They're really hoping this will be a hit with a final marketing push! The Garfield Movie is directed by Mark Dindal, the animation filmmaker also behind The Emperor's New Groove and Chicken Little. The amusing plot has Garfield reuniting with his long-lost father, a scruffy street cat, then ending up involved in a high-stakes heist with him. Starring Chris Pratt as the voice of the sarcastic, lasagna-loving tabby, alongside the voices of Samuel L. Jackson as his father Vic, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, and Ving Rhames. This new trailer doesn't feature much footage - it's only a clip playing over and over of Garfield with Odie on a robot vacuum going back and forth. That's it. With the "Let It Roll" song made for the movie playing in the background. I get it, but this is such a bad trailer. Nothing funny about this. Just show any actual footage and it would ...