Stranger than Fiction was playing on tv this morning while I was getting ready for work, and I could hardly drag myself away. I’d forgotten how much I really loved this sweet, whimsical, absurdist tale of a buttoned-up and completely anal IRS agent (Ferrell) who begins hearing a prim, British, female voice in his head,…
Read moreAnnihilation
Natalie Portman is Lena, an ex-army molecular biologist who volunteers to enter a mysterious phenomenon called “The Shimmer” in Alex Garland’s Annihilation. This bizarre space seems to swallow all that enter it: drones, wildlife, vehicles, military incursions. One of the things it’s swallowed is Lena’s husband, and she essentially signs up to the mission to…
Read moreThree Billboards Makes America Great Again
“Three Billboards” is polished and impressive “small film” about a grieving mother and her escalating attempts to humiliate a small-town police chief into solving the murder of her teenage daughter. Frances McDormand plays the mom, Mildred Hayes, and the billboards in Ebbing are the site of her campaign. I enjoyed the film, especially Mildred’s rude…
Read moreVeronica and the Release Strategies
Two things. First: Veronica. It’s the latest from Paco Plaza, the Spanish writer-director responsible for the first two [REC] movies. It’s a solid, well-made horror telling the ostensibly true tale of a luckless 15 year old who invites something horrible in after an ill-advised ouija game. The ensuing drama plays out mostly in a small…
Read moreCall Me By Your Name
I grew up, in part, on the edge of a small village in Spain. My teenage years were leisurely and sun-dappled, our dinners alfresco, our conversations multi-lingual. We moved as a small pack of foreign kids – Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Italian – reconvening every summer to flirt, swim, sunbathe, and dance in utterly uncool…
Read moreThe Astonishing Word-of-Mouth Success of The Greatest Showman
Martin Cuff Audience, Movie Marketing, Movie Reviews, Release Strategies, Social Media, Transmedia Marketing
Not so secretly, I loathe Hugh Jackman professional public persona. All a bit hammy and self-aware and “ra-ra theatre major” for my liking. Putting him in a movie called “The Greatest Showman” confirmed all of my very worst assumptions of his overwhelming pride and self-satisfaction. It could not have been any more toxic. Initial reviews…
Read moreThoroughbreds
This is getting really great reviews – which is all the more remarkable since the 28 year old director had never even been on a film set before the first day of filming.
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