Showing posts with label Ben Wheatley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ben Wheatley. Show all posts

Thursday, April 03, 2025

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Sightseers (2012) 

Carol
: You didn't let him see you do 
number twos, did you Tina?
Tina: Never!
Carol: Mystery, Tina, is a woman's sanctuary.

A happy birthday to the brilliant and funny Alice Lowe -- her performances in Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz and in Ben Wheatley's Sightseers were what initially endeared her to me but then when I saw her second directorial effort Prevenge was when I really fell in love -- in a weird coincidence I finally watched her latest movie Timestalker this past weekend after sitting on it for months and  laughed my fool ass off; you can rent it right here. I'll share the trailer below. She is a delight! Love her.

Monday, August 07, 2023

They Call Me Mr Megs


I suppose people in the summers of the 1980s felt about Sylvester Stallone movies and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies the way I do about Jason Statham movies -- it's just not summer without the dumbest possible version of them hitting my local cineplex. And so perhaps I went easy on Meg 2: The Trench in my Pajiba review which went up over the weekend, but I didn't hate it like many critics to be  doing (it's got a pretty dismal RT rating) right now). I think most people were hoping for a smarter dumb movie since Ben Wheatley was inexplicably directing it, but I remain fine with a dumb dumb movie in such instances. I quibbled with some things, like how I really wish they'd have gotten somebody to work on the dialogue, which is abysmal -- one rework on that front would've fixed so many of its issues, I think. But when the gigantic shark fought the gigantic octopus I just stopped caring, and smiled. 

Friday, April 16, 2021

Do Be A Punk


That photo of professional wrestler turned thespian CM Punk has very little to do with this weekend's movies besides the fact that Mr. Punk (he loves it when I call him that) has a small role in one of them, but whatcha gonna do? Not post that photo? I thought not. Anyway as I mentioned a bit ago this weekend is a very good new movie weekend, and I want to highlight three movies now out that I have reviewed, and which I recommend. Mr. Punk approves!

We'll start with the Mr. Punk movie, which is the horror flick Jakob's Wife. His role in the movie is pretty small, but more than makes up for that with mustache. This is the great Barbara Crampton's movie, and what a blessing that turns out to be -- I saw this flick from Girl on the Third Floor (speaking of CM Punk) director Travis Stevens at SXSW, and reviewed it here. I've been dying to see it again ever since, and will do so this weekend! You should obviously join me.

Next up is the latest horror flick from Rebecca director Ben Wheatley (haha I think I will refer to him as Rebecca director Ben Wheatley from now on), a "psychedelic freak-out folk horror" flick that I reviewed at Sundance, right here. This one won't be to all tastes -- like with several of Wheatley's earlier weirder efforts, it's slow and asks way more questions than it answers -- but you should probably take some drugs and watch it and freak out and shit your pants. That'd be the perfect weekend in 2021.

And finally there is Monday, starring Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough, which I reviewed earlier today at Pajiba. Yes, there's penis. But it's not just penis! I promise. That said yes, I will indeed make the above frame from this film the banner on the top of this here website one day, that I can also promise. Watch these movies, come tell me my opinion was wrong in the comments, and have a great weekend, everyone!

Friday, March 12, 2021

Ancient Phalluses of Doom


The latest psychedelic freak-out  folk-horror from director Ben Wheatley just got a poster (above) and a release date -- In the Earth will hit theaters on April 30th thanks to the folks at Neon. Who is Ben Wheatley, you ask? Ben Wheatley directed Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England, High-rise, Free Fire, and the recent re-do of Rebecca. What is In the Earth, you ask? In the Earth is a pandemic-adjacent horror flick about some scientists stumbling upon some weirdness in some old British woods, and it played at Sundance last month, where I reviewed it, calling it, and I quote, "psychedelic freak-out  folk-horror." If I had to guess I'd guess that we'll be getting a trailer real soon, too. What's a trailer, you ask? Yo, did you assholes hit your heads or what? Go read a dictionary and let me be.

Tuesday, February 09, 2021

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

High-Rise (2015)

Laing: You know, Toby, when I was your age, 
I was always covered in something. Mud, jam, failure... 
My father never associated himself with anything dirty. Or real.
Toby: My father's up there.
Laing: You mean, in heaven?
Toby: Heaven isn't real, stupid.

"Mud Jam Failure" is totally the new title of my auto-biography, I have just decided. Anyway a happy 40th birthday to Tom Hiddleston today -- I'd been trying to not pay a lot of attention to the forthcoming Marvel TV shows but I'm totally digging WandaVision so I will inevitably get sucked into Loki when it comes around. 


It's hitting in May right? Likewise I really thought I'd ignore the Falcon and the Winter Soldier show because as much as I like staring at Sebastian Stan those two characters have always bored me to tears in the films, but then... (god I am easy)...

Wednesday, February 03, 2021

Plowing Thru Sundance


Besides some lingering screenings today of the films that won prizes at Sundance 2021 -- and you can see a list of winners over here; per usual I saw like one of the movies that won awards (and I didn't even like that movie) because my tastes never seem to overlap with such things -- Sundance 2021, the first one I have ever covered, is done. When I get home from work tonight I'm gonna check to see if any of those screenings have tickets left but I doubt it, so I've probably seen all I'm personally going to see. Which was a whole lot. But this post is not actually a wrap-up of Sundance as a whole, because I'm going to have reviews popping up over the next couple of days still, and I'll do a wrap-up once that's done. For now though, this is a catch-up. I shared my first two reviews on Friday -- my review of Human Factors is here and my review of the doc The Most Beautiful Boy in the World is here -- but a ton's gone up since, so let's list 'em! First up at The Film Experience...

... here is my take on Strawberry Mansion, Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney's surreal lo-fi sci-fi romance that brought to mind sprinklings of Michel Gondry.

... here is my take on John and the Hole, a wicked child fable about a boy and his hole and y'all get your minds right out of the gutter right now! Right now.

... here is my take on the period lesbian romance The World to Come starring Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby (plus Casey Affleck and Christopher Abbott as their beards). And yes putting the words "period" and "lesbian" so close together always makes me think of like a moon-cup, doesn't it you?

... here is my take on the doc Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, which is exactly what that title tells you it is. Muppetlicious!

Then we head over to Pajiba, where I've also been reviewing things -- my first Sundance review over there was of the killer horror flick Censor, which played in their Midnight movie series. You can read that one right here. (Psst this was one of my faves.)

... and here is my take on the doc A Glitch in the Matrix, which dives cyber-face-first into the concepts of "Simulation Theory" from the director of Room 237 and The Nightmare.

... and here is my take on the Boyd-Holbrook-starring werewolf flick Eight For Silver, a big disappointment. Boyd barely takes his shirt off! What is this nonsense?

And then finally, for the moment anyway, here's my take on the new Ben Wheatley freak-out called In the Earth, which returns the director to his folk horror roots after the perfume-ad that was his Rebecca re-do.

Anyway that's what's up as of this writing -- there's more
scheduled over the next couple days, so keep your ass tuned.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Good Morning, World


Speak of the devil -- the Rebecca remake is on Netflix now! And already I'm a pain because "remake" really isn't the right word -- it's a new adaptation of the book by Daphne du Maurier, really.  I saw it last night and there are pieces of the book included that Alfred Hitchcock wasn't allowed to touch due to the Hayes Code. But I won't get into specifics because spoilers -- just know we're not talking about a hot make-out sesh between Mrs. Danvers and Rebecca's Ghost or anything. Ben Wheatley made a very PG movie here -- the skin you see here is the most we get from Armie, which is to say not much. But he looks grandly manly stomping around in his big corduroy suits all the same, and that can be enough.

Anyway, the movie, you ask? It's okay! I don't think anybody should feel embarrassed by this, and really that was the biggest fear. It's gorgeously filmed -- like, impossibly so at times. The color palette is surprising and probably the best thing going on -- kind of a Peach Noir, if you will. The film definitely drags on too long at two hours, as some strict-to-book adaptations often do, but given the state of The World I didn't mind getting lost in this gorgeous world among these gorgeous people for that time. My boyfriend looked at his phone at one point and started to say something with the word "Trump" involved and I snapped for him to shush -- I was in an exquisite other-place trance. A perfume commercial with skeletons. It's nice! Anyway hit the jump for a couple more Armie gifs I made...
  

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

You Can See My Hand Through It


The 2020 version of Rebecca, directed by ben Wheatley and starring Lily James & Armie Hammer -- is hitting Netflix tomorrow! Here's the trailer if you missed it -- I haven't been able to see the new film myself yet so I have no toughts to offer just yet, except what I've been saying all along: let's try to go into this thing with an open mind. I'm no longer using any energy crusading against "remakes" -- Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria, masterpiece that it is, totally broke me of that habit. So I dearly hope that Wheatley's indeed able to mine new shit from old shit! We'll all win! Anyway for today I'm looking back at the best thing about Hitch's 1940 classic, Judith Anderson's turn as the infamously lesbionic housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, for my "Great Moments in Actressing" series at The Film Experience -- click on over to read that! It remains the gold standard by which all other creepy queer servants will forever be judged. I do wish Kristin Scott Thomas the best though!

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Armie Hammer Thirty-Five Times


Armie Hammer's on the cover of the new British GQ (thx Mac) and the chat with him in the magazine is mostly dark shit -- typical, given our world, and what he's been dealing with this year. I don't blame him. The part about his COVID quarantine with his family making him feel like an animal with its leg trapped in a snare? Jinkies. Anyway I'm glad he went and got himself some therapy, which he details in the piece, and we only wish the best for our Hammer. (Even if he gingerly steps towards the political both-siderism BS he recently pulled on Twitter, which, Armie, NO.)

Anyway since none of that stuff's fun to quote I considered quoting what he says about his mustache, seen in a couple of the photos -- he calls it "part hairy biker, part 1970s pervert" -- but then I saw the interviewer asks him about the CMBYN sequel and well obviously we need to quote that:

GQ: Any news on Find Me, the follow-up to Call Me By Your Name? 

Armie: Not really. I’ve been talking to Luca [Guadagnino, the director], but we haven’t got into it. I haven’t even read the book. I know Luca hasn’t got a full script yet, although he knows what he wants to do with the story, so I don’t know how similar or dissimilar it will be to Find Me the novel. I know if we end up doing it, it’s more important for me to focus on Luca’s vision than to focus on Find Me. The book will be a supplemental thing. 

GQ:  And the world will keep getting excited about this movie with Timothée Chalamet… 

Armie:  I know! The world will keep getting excited, which is a double-edged sword because the more excited they get, the bigger chances are of them watching and going, “This sucks!” But pressure makes diamonds, so here’s to more pressure! 

Armie any time you need a hug, you come find me, I got a hug, I got two even, for you. (As a related aside -- did y'all see that Timmy & Armie both have mini cameos in Luca's HBO series We Are Who We Are? It's true!) Now let us hit the jump for the rest of this shoot...

Tuesday, September 08, 2020

Which is Hotter?

Now that we've gotten the first trailers for both of Armie Hammer's Fall 2020 projects with Rebecca (see the trailer here) and Death on the Nile (see the trailer here) -- which both have him leaning hard into his Expensive Fella Repertoire -- seems as good a time to pit them in a dapper death match as any! 



bike trail guide

Funny enough these movies are hitting right the eff on top of each other -- Rebecca is hitting Netflix on October 21st while Death on the Nile is hitting... theaters... on October 23rd. Supposedly. There are a few more new shots I've missed, hit the jump for 'em...

I Don't Believe in Ghosts

The trailer for Ben Wheatley's version of Rebecca starring Armie Hammer and Lily James has just checked its bags into the Manderlay of our eyeballs this morning and nananananah I cannot hear you I am excited. Am I the only person excited? I know I am not the only person excited, I am just tired of hearing people whinge over the blasphemy of remakes and hating on Armie, is all. Let's try something else today! I am loving the warm colors...

... which are differentiating it from Hitchcock's masterpiece right off the bat. It often looks like a very expensive perfume commercial, which seems like an absolutely correct way to go to my mind, as far as this specific story goes. I am loving the Ann Dowd!

And then of course...

.... we all knew Kristin Scott Thomas playing Mrs. Danvers was going to be the highlight the second she got cast in the role, and this trailer only underlines that assumption in violent red splashes of ink. Gimme gimme gimme! Here's the trailer:

Rebecca drops on Netflix on October 21st.
Give your thoughts in the comments!



Monday, October 21, 2019

Pic of the Day

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I know it's still early to declare such things but unless Tom Hardy is caught skinny-dipping on the set of the new season of Taboo like he did that first time then I have to think there won't be a picture I enjoy more today than this shot of Armie Hammer (with a mustache!) reunited with his Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino via his Insta.

Armie didn't tag the other two people but I think the woman at the bottom is CMBYN's casting director Stella Rossa Savino -- her Insta was a great source of behind-the-scenes stuff during CMBYN's production; as for the bearded bguy in the middle I feel like I should definitely know I should know who that is, but I'm not sure. Anybody know? I thought it might have been Luca's partner Ferdinando Cito (I can never remember what he looks like) but after a google it is not.

Anyway Armie is either rocking that mustache for the remake of Rebecca directed by Ben Wheatley, which just finished filming -- he's playing Olivier's role and Olivier had quite the stache in Hitchcock's original film -- or the stache is for Kenneth Branagh's remake of Death on the Nile, and I tend to favor the latter being the truth. We already know how integral Branagh sees facial hair to that franchise thanks to that unsightly beast, really more of a living flailing mink, that he himself wore on his face in his 2017 version of Murder on the Orient Express.
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Wednesday, September 04, 2019

Raid Them Tombs, Fellas

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Leave it to me to use a picture only tangentially related to the news story at hand, if it gives me an excuse to stare at Armie Hammer and Jack Reynor anyway (see a similar photo previously posted right here) -- them two become friendly with the 2016 comic actioner Free Fire, directed by Ben Wheatley. Since then Armie was just currently filming Wheatley's remake of Hitchcock's classic Rebecca, while Reynor of course made a bigger name for himself and all of his two thousand parts with Midsommar, and oh right speaking of Ben Wheatley it looks like next on Wheatley's plate will be... 

... the sequel to Alicia Vikander's Tomb Raider? It appears so! Did anyone even see the first Tomb Raider last year? I never did. I thought it flopped? I guess I have to watch it now? I sure won't be missing a Ben Wheatley movie, and it's not like the idea of Tomb Raider isn't malleable enough to be turned good from not good in the right hands. And in the grand tradition of Really Hot Guys co-starring opposite the Lara Croft character Wheatley should definitely probably hire Mr. Vikander to play the villain...


Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Good Morning, World

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The director Ben Wheatley shared this dreamy snap of Armie Hammer on the set of his now-filming Rebecca remake a few days back via his Instagram -- that's the film's script supervisor creeping in the background, as any of us would also be doing. "Armie's in a bed? I'll be right there!" Anyway it's impossible to tell if Armie's in costume or just hanging on the set in his civvies,  and Wheatley doesn't specify -- doesn't that shirt seem contemporary though? Which makes me wonder if they'll be keeping this film period, or updating it to now or now-adjacent. The other looks at costumes that Wheatley has shared -- see here or here -- are way over the top, so I have no idea what's happening. Which is exciting, I suppose!
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Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Jack Reynor’s Cinemania

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While I distract myself from the fact that I'm not getting into any early press screenings of Ari Aster's new horror film Midsommar and it's making me fucking nuts let's take a look at something happy regarding that movie I want inside of me so very hard -- the movie's star Jack Reynor, who you should recognize from Free Fire or the Fassy Macbeth or On the Basis of Sex or one of those Transformers movies I think, point being you should recognize him, has been uncovered as an online cinema buff! He's got an Instagram account, totally separate from his normal Insta, where he reviews movies and judging by a glance through he's got stellar taste, talking lots of giallo and Ken Russell and such; basically he's nerding out over every movie I too love, and I am very much here for it. And so is Armie Hammer, it seems....
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They co-starred in Free Fire On the Basis of Sex, of course...

... so some familiarity is warranted. But according to one of the Midsommar quick takes I saw on Twitter last night it sounds like Armie (and all the rest of us) is getting his wish...
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Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... taking Armie's pulse.

Thanks to Mrs. Hammer for 'gramming this footage of the hubby taking a shirtless stress test for his "next film" -- unclear whether it's the remake of Death on the Nile from director Kenneth Branagh or the remake of Rebecca from director Ben Wheatley that'll be testing his heart-limits like this but it's good to know he remains, you know, the picture of manly health. (PS look, shelvvvves!)
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Friday, January 11, 2019

10 off My Head: Dunk Me To Hell

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Earlier this morning I made mention of my current Channel Zero obsession. If you're unfamiliar (and you might be given how under the radar this show's been even for me, a horror nut) it's a season-long anthology series on SyFy that's currently on its fourth. So far I've watched the first season (an incredibly strong run of six episodes subtitled Candle Cove and starring Paul Schneider & Fiona Shaw) and I'm a little over halfway through the fourth, having skipped the middle ones, which I'll spin back to next. 

Anyway in the fourth episode of this fourth season, which I just watched last night, there is a weird and scary scene that happens in a high school swimming pool, and as I watched it unfurl a sudden laundry list of "Horror Movie Swimming Pools" popped into my head. They're very much a thing! So why not list some of my faves? Why not, indeed.

10 of the Scariest Swimming Pools in the Movies

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It Follows (2014)

The Fan (1981) (see more here)



High-Rise (see more here)

Shivers (1975)

Cat People (1942)


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There are of course tons more....
So what are some of your faves?


Thursday, November 15, 2018

Last Night I Dreamt...

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My attitude towards remakes has shifted somewhat over the past couple of years - maybe we (unfortunately) can't always expect complete reimaginings like Luca Guadagnino did with his version of Suspiria, but even if the remake just treads the same ground and does so with less impact than the original... the original still exists! A remake doesn't obliterate the existence of the original. I can still see John Carpenter's The Fog and appreciate John Carpenter's The Fog - I can do that now in 4K even - and I don't have to waste a second remembering that time Tom Welling didn't take his shirt off.

Anyway that's all pretext to last night's news that Ben Wheatley, the British director I consider somewhat promising to put it mildly, is set to make a brand new film version of Daphne du Maurier's book Rebecca, which you may recall once won an Oscar for Best Picture when Alfred Hitchcock made a movie out of it in 1940 with Sir Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Replacing those two in Wheatley's version? Armie Hammer and Lily James.

That is good casting, you guys! It took awhile for me to warm up to Lily James but that fully happened last year when she forced Jai Courtney to strip in The Exception, when she ogled Michiel Huisman in that Potato Peel movie whose title I am not writing out again, and, uh, when she larked about with Gary Oldman in a fat-suit. Yes even that last one - I liked The Darkest Hour, even if I do hold a grudge against it in retrospect for stealing Timothee Chalamet's most deserved Oscar statue...

Speaking of (Timmy, not the statue) heyyy Armie. Armie's worked with Wheatley before in the 2016 70s-set shoot-em-up Free Fire (my review here), which Armie was maybe the best part of, although my recollection's a little dim right now and might be colored by how much my appreciation for Armie has, uh, exceeded expectations in the wake of Call Me By Your Name. But you tell me an actor working today who is better suited to play Rebecca's "Maxim De Winter," a callous but profoundly charming rich boy who drags ladies in over their heads. I'll wait. I thought so.

So is a remake of Rebecca a good idea? I'm surprisingly not at all against it. We'll always have Hitch's movie - this won't erase that from existence. And Wheatley's going to make a masterpiece one of these days - he's come close already. And the story could benefit from a modern re-telling - its view on women is awfully of its time, and perhaps they can go full The Handmaiden and give us the full-blown lesbian jazz that Hitch could only wink wink nudge nudge us towards. Which brings me to the most important casting of all...

... who the hell could play Mrs. Danvers???
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