Charles Bramesco

In recent years, the poster designers of Hollywood have fallen victim to a viral case of Friedrich fever, aping his epochal painting Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog with their own designs. Everyone who wasn't too hung over to remember Art History 101 in college identified the classical influence on the one-sheet for Star Trek Into Darkness, which sees a shrouded figure gazing out over a wreckage strewn wasteland in place of a churning tempest. And back in summer 2013, the eminently similar poster for After Earth placed the character very seriously named Cypher Raige atop a massive spacecraft in a similar position. Today, that illustrious genre gains yet another entry, courtesy of none other than Christopher Nolan.

With the upcoming dramedy The Last Word, gem of screen and stage Shirley MacLaine takes on the sort of role that actresses over eighty (hell, actresses over fifty) don’t get nearly enough of. She portrays one Harriet Lauler, a retired businesswoman and an objectively insufferable bee-yotch. She’s rude and condescending when not outright abusive to those around her, insistent on controlling everything and commanding everyone. (The most clutch line from the trailer above: when her OB/GYN recalls being told, “If I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you.”) She’s a difficult, contemptible character, and for mature actresses, those are always in short supply.

The aesthetic of the Trolls movie that debuted earlier this year could be fairly described as “everything all of the time.” It’s a whirling hurricane of Day-Glo colors and candy farts and peppy pop tunes and endless Pixy Stix buffets. It plays like the EDM sugar rush of an eight-year-old off his meds, and audiences responded in kind with a massive box-office return. (The #1 FM radio single from Justin Timberlake didn’t hurt matters, either.) Still cruising from his child-geared hit’s success, Trolls director Mike Mitchell has now taken his next project, and it looks like he’s going to be trading the kid-approved MDMA for something a little more… herbal.

Last week, we took note of a new business venture called Screening Room spearheaded by Napster founder Sean Parker. The proposed service would digitally stream the latest major-studio theatrical releases into the confines of private American homes for a hefty estimated fee of $50 on the same day as in-theater premieres, rendering a trip to the local cineplex less necessary than ever. Naturally, this radical new strategy would change the entire face of the industry, and has accordingly raised hackles on the production, distribution, and exhibition sides of Hollywood. As movie theaters struggle to stay relevant and profitable, Parker’s every press conference sounds like a death knell. And this weekend, both sides of this instantly contentious debate dug in their heels on their positions.

Sir George Martin, the legendary music producer colloquially known as the Fifth Beatle for his collaborations with the seminal rock group, has died. Though the cause of death has not been disclosed, a representative from Martin’s management company has confirmed that he passed peacefully at his home in England...

Thor star Tom Hiddleston was sitting for an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times when they sprang the Bond question, and the actor was not shy about his desires.

David Hasselhoff is famous for many things, not all of them good: for holding the Guinness World Record for the highest reverse bungee jump (seriously), for his extended stint as a man willing to have protracted conversations with a car on Knight Rider, for the painful footage of his impotent attempt to consume a cheeseburger while rolling around on the floor in an alcoholic stupor, but most of al

The news of an upcoming remake of Argento’s nightmare fantasia might be cause for concern. But things are off to an awfully auspicious start; during a Q&A yesterday with filmmaker Luca Guadagnino at an Australian screening of his latest film A Bigger Splash, he announced some exciting new plans for his Suspiria remake.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: there’s gonna be a Dark Tower movie. Stephen King’s sprawling Western/mystical sci-fi epic has been Hollywood’s great white whale for some time now, stymieing adaptation efforts from such luminaries as J...

English-language debuts from foreign-language auteurs are always a dicey proposition. In the best cases, the director maintains his or her artistic signature and imposes it on actors domestic audiences recognize in language we can speak, creating a more immediately affecting experience — 2014’s Snowpiercer is a fine example, bringing South Korean master Bong Joon-ho to American audiences. Too often, however, what makes a foreign director’s filmography great can get lost in translation, or snuffed out by overbearing studio heads. With his latest film Louder Than Bombs, Norwegian talent Joachim Trier makes the jump, working in English with such familiar faces as Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne, and Devin Druid. (You know, from the episode of Louie where he smokes pot as a teenager?) Having caught the picture back in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, I come today bearing good news: Louder Than Bombs is the real deal.

Spotlight director Tom McCarthy has something of a spotty record. While balancing a robust career as an actor, McCarthy got started directing such fine dramas as The Station Agent and The Visitor, and earned his first Oscar nomination for co-writing the script for Up. His 2011 feature Win Win was solid, and Spotlight currently has six Academy Award nominations pending (including a Best Director citation for McCarthy himself), and yet there remains a stain on his filmography. McCarthy also helmed 2015’s The Cobbler, a ridiculous, risible Adam Sandler vehicle that felt like a deranged parody of a formulaic studio comedy. If the director was capable of putting his name on that radioactive pile of waste, then nothing’s beyond his reach, awards-season prestige be damned.

Apparently, hosting duties on the horror game show Hellevator (which is a real thing, and very silly) haven’t kept Jen and Sylvia Soska sufficiently busy. The twin-sister directorial team behind the gruesome body-horror nightmare American Mary have now taken on a new feature project that’ll play to their penchant for mutilating flesh...