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Equals feels so familiar because its setup has been in heavy use since the post-World War I era of science fiction. A totalitarian government that controls people’s emotions? That’s Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, George Lucas’s THX 1138, Kurt Wimmer’s Equilibrium, and a litany of other stories far too vast to name off.
Every Tuesday Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Keanu, Mother’s Day, Ratchet & Clank, Papa Hemingway in Cuba, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Viva & A Beautiful Planet.
I have a sneaking suspicion that every actor wants to be in a western, but box office results prove that audiences don’t want to see all those westerns. Sure, slinging on a holster and leaning against a fence looks cool, as one of the promotional photos for The Magnificent Seven proves, but without some sort of twist, people are not buying tickets. True Grit (2010) and Django Unchained are perhaps the only pure westerns to crack $100 million at the U.
Not much is given away in the trailer for The Wait, the first feature from Italian director Piero Messina. A mother connects with her son’s girlfriend before he is due home, and Sicily is given a quality that can be interpreted as either dreamlike or feverish depending on the individual moment. The extra bit of information I’ll give away is that the film takes place over Easter weekend, which adds some hefty religious symbolism to the idea of waiting.
The overbearing mother is like a cartoon to me, something I’ve seen portrayals of but never experienced in real life. My own mother barely comments on my steadfast single life and accepts both what I wish to tell her and what I choose to play close to the vest. It’s always been that way and hence is comfortingly familiar, which I assume is exactly how those on the opposite end of the mother-daughter spectrum describe their relationship like, too.
As someone who literally knows nothing about the character Doctor Strange, I was not expecting a bald Tilda Swinton to punch Benedict Cumberbatch out of his body in this trailer. It was the first time anything about this project reached out and made me interested, so, good job teaser, you served your purpose. I’m certainly not the only one in the dark about this less-than-prominent superhero, whose name is not as self-explanatory as Ant-Man or the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Every Tuesday Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Elvis & Nixon, The Meddler, The Huntsman:
The unsteady career of director Rob Reiner continues with Being Charlie, a family affair that is very much based on real life. His son Nick Reiner wrote the screenplay (along with Matt Elisofon) about his battles with substance abuse, and the fact that he kept his filmmaking family a part of the plot and got his father to direct makes the real-life parallels unavoidable. Hitting this close to home doesn’t always lead to the best films, though, especially when dealing with something that must’ve happened relatively recently (Nick is currently only 22 years old).
Nobody’s hiding how weird and grotesque Tale of Tales is going to be, and oh how delectable it looks. The adult fairy tale has become a well-used genre of late, and while most draw from the toned down Disney versions or the more bloody Grimm style, there’s a host of other sources out there for filmmakers to start from. Taking that less crowded route is Tale of Tales, which is based on a 17th century Neapolitan collection by Giambattista Basile.
As adorably ludicrous as it is to imagine a cat dragging two mild-mannered men into a gang war, it’s clear that there’s more to Keanu than just a strange premise. The name and setup makes it an overt riff on John Wick and the trailer really keys in on racial preconceptions and how wrong they can be. That’s all well and good, but how about that aww-inducing moment when the cat is running to dramatic music and slides into the back of that guy’s leg?
A startlingly quiet release for star Tom Hanks, the trailer for A Hologram for the King is a hard nut to crack. Is it about a white guy finding himself in the desert of Saudi Arabia? A humorous take on culture clashes?
Every Tuesday Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: The Jungle Book, Barbershop:
We knew things would change once Disney got a hold of Star Wars, and as utterly delightful as The Force Awakens was, it was basically the equivalent of clearing the first hurdle in a long race. After all, Disney operates under the ‘keep doing it until everyone hates it’ business model, and the company has made it abundantly clear that fans will be getting new Star Wars movies until they stop turning a profit. The thing is, that’s never been what Star Wars is.
They did it with asteroids, and they did it with Snow White. Now, we’re inexplicably getting two takes on the story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a wealthy New York socialite with a terrible singing voice. The French version, Marguerite, plays more loosely with the facts, while this U.
Before Mads Mikkelsen became an international star as the blood-weeping villain in the James Bond film Casino Royale, he had established himself as one of the most prominent actors in his home country of Denmark, by working with some of the best talent the country has to offer. He got his start on Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher series and has appeared in every film that award-winning Anders Thomas Jensen has directed. To this day, he continues to balance his international work with Danish films, and with Jensen’s return to the directing chair after a ten year absence, Mikkelsen returns as well to keep their long-standing collaboration alive.