It’s a big weekend for critically acclaimed indies in limited release as well as a handful of moderate openings, including Richard Gere’s latest film Longing. The provenance of that is unusual as the film from Lionsgate/Grindstone is a Canada-set remake of a 2017 Israeli drama. The original was quite well received, but the film opening this weekend has been thoroughly skewered by critics.
After winning screenplay and audience awards in Israel, the film premiered in Venice, taking the Bnl People’s Choice Award, then played Toronto.
Both versions are written and directed by Savi Gabizon. Characters and story are identical: a successful single American businessman (Gere) meets up with a 20-year-old old flame (Suzanne Clément) and learns that he has a son, and, a beat later, that the young man has just died in a car accident. Trying to process that and find a connection,...
After winning screenplay and audience awards in Israel, the film premiered in Venice, taking the Bnl People’s Choice Award, then played Toronto.
Both versions are written and directed by Savi Gabizon. Characters and story are identical: a successful single American businessman (Gere) meets up with a 20-year-old old flame (Suzanne Clément) and learns that he has a son, and, a beat later, that the young man has just died in a car accident. Trying to process that and find a connection,...
- 6/7/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s not a joke: Ally Pankiw spent 10 years making “I Used to Be Funny” into the dog whistle of a dark comedy for millennial women.
As Pankiw told IndieWire, the film is a “nightmare of what it is to be a young woman in the world,” with Rachel Sennott playing Sam Cowell, an aspiring stand-up comedian grappling with Ptsd after an assault. Sam is haunted by the memories of working as an au pair for teen girl Brooke (Olga Petsa), who recently disappeared. The film premiered at the 2023 SXSW Festival.
Writer/director Pankiw’s debut feature, which already landed her among IndieWire’s female filmmakers to watch list, has topped IndieWire’s must-see films of the summer in part due to the “no-brainer” casting of buzzy star Sennott in the lead role.
“Rachel is such an exceptional talent because she makes everything feel like it’s her, [and] like it’s effortless,...
As Pankiw told IndieWire, the film is a “nightmare of what it is to be a young woman in the world,” with Rachel Sennott playing Sam Cowell, an aspiring stand-up comedian grappling with Ptsd after an assault. Sam is haunted by the memories of working as an au pair for teen girl Brooke (Olga Petsa), who recently disappeared. The film premiered at the 2023 SXSW Festival.
Writer/director Pankiw’s debut feature, which already landed her among IndieWire’s female filmmakers to watch list, has topped IndieWire’s must-see films of the summer in part due to the “no-brainer” casting of buzzy star Sennott in the lead role.
“Rachel is such an exceptional talent because she makes everything feel like it’s her, [and] like it’s effortless,...
- 6/7/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
The Shiva Baby and Bodies, Bodies, Bodies standout goes serious in an uneven and at times frustrating combination of disparate tones and genre
There’s a particular, distinctly online note – dead-eyed, chaotic, teetering between hyper self-consciousness and delusional confidence – that comedian Rachel Sennott can hit so effectively it will temporarily and memorably spark its container: Twitter, where she rose to prominence as a self-aware zillennial comedy It Girl; Bodies Bodies Bodies, where she provided the bulk of the horror comedy’s actual zingers; The Idol, where her bit part as a pop star’s assistant was one of the misbegotten HBO series’ few highlights. As a lead – in Emma Seligman’s claustrophobic feature Shiva Baby and, less successfully, in Seligmans’ follow-up comedy Bottoms – Sennott stretched her shtick but remained most successful in this familiar, self-deprecating zone, though she has hinted at something darker and less irony-pilled.
I Used to Be Funny,...
There’s a particular, distinctly online note – dead-eyed, chaotic, teetering between hyper self-consciousness and delusional confidence – that comedian Rachel Sennott can hit so effectively it will temporarily and memorably spark its container: Twitter, where she rose to prominence as a self-aware zillennial comedy It Girl; Bodies Bodies Bodies, where she provided the bulk of the horror comedy’s actual zingers; The Idol, where her bit part as a pop star’s assistant was one of the misbegotten HBO series’ few highlights. As a lead – in Emma Seligman’s claustrophobic feature Shiva Baby and, less successfully, in Seligmans’ follow-up comedy Bottoms – Sennott stretched her shtick but remained most successful in this familiar, self-deprecating zone, though she has hinted at something darker and less irony-pilled.
I Used to Be Funny,...
- 6/7/2024
- by Adrian Horton
- The Guardian - Film News
Kit Zauhar will adapt “How Should a Person Be?,” the 2010 novel from acclaimed Canadian author Sheila Heti, for the screen. Neon Heart Productions, which previously worked with Zauhar on her second feature “This Closeness,” is developing the book. According to the logline, the film adaptation will focus on “a young artist [who] faces an early mid-life crisis when a new friendship makes her question her marriage and everything else about her current life path.”
Heti is the author of eleven books to date including “Pure Colour,” “Alphabetical Diaries” and “Motherhood,” which was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. “How Should a Person Be? will be the first film adaptation of her work.
Zauhar’s most recent film, “This Closeness,” is a relationship drama that she directed and wrote. It premiered in theaters this week after debuting at SXSW to critical acclaim. Her feature directorial debut, “Actual People,” premiered at Locarno Film Festival...
Heti is the author of eleven books to date including “Pure Colour,” “Alphabetical Diaries” and “Motherhood,” which was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. “How Should a Person Be? will be the first film adaptation of her work.
Zauhar’s most recent film, “This Closeness,” is a relationship drama that she directed and wrote. It premiered in theaters this week after debuting at SXSW to critical acclaim. Her feature directorial debut, “Actual People,” premiered at Locarno Film Festival...
- 6/7/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
For many viewers, the scenes hardest to take in viral streaming cringefest “Baby Reindeer” weren’t the ones of overt stalking or abuse, but those depicting the Doa stand-up comedy of Richard Gadd’s alter ego — moments whose flop-sweating public failure seemed to stretch into tortuous infinity. Canadian feature “I Used to Be Funny” likewise hinges on a paralyzing intersection between stand-up, anxiety and depression. Mercifully, however, here it’s not the protagonist’s stage act that is the cause of massive self-doubt. Instead, it’s a host of external problems that conspire to make her incapable of performing …as well as eating, sleeping and leaving her apartment.
Ally Pankiw’s big-screen debut recalls such prior indie features as “The Big Sick,” “Sleepwalk With Me” and “Obvious Child” in successfully using a comedy milieu to place a leavening frame around some very serious issues. In this case, an aspiring comedian...
Ally Pankiw’s big-screen debut recalls such prior indie features as “The Big Sick,” “Sleepwalk With Me” and “Obvious Child” in successfully using a comedy milieu to place a leavening frame around some very serious issues. In this case, an aspiring comedian...
- 6/6/2024
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Rachel Sennott’s upcoming HBO comedy pilot has added four cast members, Variety has learned.
Odessa A’zion, Jordan Firstman, Miles Robbins, and True Whitaker (“Godfather of Harlem”) are all set to star in project, which was picked up to pilot at HBO in March. Sennot will also star in the series.
The official logline states, “A codependent friend group reunites, navigating how the time apart, ambition, and new relationships have changed them.”
A’zion has also appeared in multiple episodes of the CBS comedy “Ghosts” as well as shows like “Fam” and features such as 2022’s “Hellraiser.” Firstman recently appeared in the Marvel series “Ms. Marvel” at Disney+. Robbins appeared in multiple episodes of the award-winning Amazon series “Mozart in the Jungle.” Whitaker appeared alongside her father, Academy Award winner Forrest Whitaker, in “Godfather of Harlem.”
A’zion is repped by UTA, Luber Roklin, Granderson Des Rochers. Firstman is repped by UTA and Frankfurt Kurnit.
Odessa A’zion, Jordan Firstman, Miles Robbins, and True Whitaker (“Godfather of Harlem”) are all set to star in project, which was picked up to pilot at HBO in March. Sennot will also star in the series.
The official logline states, “A codependent friend group reunites, navigating how the time apart, ambition, and new relationships have changed them.”
A’zion has also appeared in multiple episodes of the CBS comedy “Ghosts” as well as shows like “Fam” and features such as 2022’s “Hellraiser.” Firstman recently appeared in the Marvel series “Ms. Marvel” at Disney+. Robbins appeared in multiple episodes of the award-winning Amazon series “Mozart in the Jungle.” Whitaker appeared alongside her father, Academy Award winner Forrest Whitaker, in “Godfather of Harlem.”
A’zion is repped by UTA, Luber Roklin, Granderson Des Rochers. Firstman is repped by UTA and Frankfurt Kurnit.
- 6/5/2024
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
Molly Gordon makes everything better. She was a stand-out among stand-outs in films like Good Boys, Booksmart, and Shiva Baby. Then she showed her talents on the other side of the camera, co-writing/directing the hilarious indie hit Theater Camp. Now she plays Claire on the beloved series The Bear, which is about to drop its third season. On this episode she talks about why she loves improv, how her parents unintentionally formed her comedy sensibilities, getting “buzzed” from in-person auditions, “locking in” with Jeremy Allen White, why she’s always aspiring to a child-like lack of self consciousness, and much more. […]
The post “I Want To Get Back To That Lack of Self-Consciousness I Had as a Kid” Molly Gordon, Back To One, Episode 293 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Want To Get Back To That Lack of Self-Consciousness I Had as a Kid” Molly Gordon, Back To One, Episode 293 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/28/2024
- by Peter Rinaldi
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Molly Gordon makes everything better. She was a stand-out among stand-outs in films like Good Boys, Booksmart, and Shiva Baby. Then she showed her talents on the other side of the camera, co-writing/directing the hilarious indie hit Theater Camp. Now she plays Claire on the beloved series The Bear, which is about to drop its third season. On this episode she talks about why she loves improv, how her parents unintentionally formed her comedy sensibilities, getting “buzzed” from in-person auditions, “locking in” with Jeremy Allen White, why she’s always aspiring to a child-like lack of self consciousness, and much more. […]
The post “I Want To Get Back To That Lack of Self-Consciousness I Had as a Kid” Molly Gordon, Back To One, Episode 293 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Want To Get Back To That Lack of Self-Consciousness I Had as a Kid” Molly Gordon, Back To One, Episode 293 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/28/2024
- by Peter Rinaldi
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Theater Camp director Molly Gordon is on board to helm Small Parts, a reimagining for Searchlight Pictures of Outrageous Fortune, which starred Bette Midler and Shelley Long as rivals.
Gordon, who also stars in The Bear, and co-writer Allie Levitan will do a new take on the 1987 comedy directed by Arther Hiller. Small Parts will center on rival actors who clash on a scrappy indie film set and accidentally find themselves entangled in a game of cat-and-mouse more outrageous than any movie, according to a synopsis from the producers.
The Small Parts project is in development, with Searchlight senior vp of production Taylor Friedman overseeing. For Searchlight, Gordon recently co-directed, co-wrote and starred in Theater Camp, which earned the Sundance U.S. dramatic special jury award for ensemble.
Gordon plays Claire in the second season of The Bear series, opposite Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri. Gordon earned a Screen...
Gordon, who also stars in The Bear, and co-writer Allie Levitan will do a new take on the 1987 comedy directed by Arther Hiller. Small Parts will center on rival actors who clash on a scrappy indie film set and accidentally find themselves entangled in a game of cat-and-mouse more outrageous than any movie, according to a synopsis from the producers.
The Small Parts project is in development, with Searchlight senior vp of production Taylor Friedman overseeing. For Searchlight, Gordon recently co-directed, co-wrote and starred in Theater Camp, which earned the Sundance U.S. dramatic special jury award for ensemble.
Gordon plays Claire in the second season of The Bear series, opposite Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri. Gordon earned a Screen...
- 5/13/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After acquiring Molly Gordon’s Sundance movie Theater Camp for $8M, Searchlight Pictures is back in business with the filmmaker again on the movie Small Parts. The movie is currently in development.
The pic is a new take on the 1987 Shelly Long and Bette Midler blockbuster comedy Outrageous Fortune. In the pic, co-written by Gordon and Allie Levitan, two actresses clash on a scrappy indie movie set accidentally find themselves entangled in a game of cat-and-mouse more outrageous than any movie.
Searchlight SVP of Production Taylor Friedman is overseeing Small Parts, reporting into Searchlight Production Heads Dan Tram Nguyen and Katie Goodson-Thomas.
Gordon co-directed, co-wrote, and starred in Theater Camp, which won the Sundance U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble and was one of 2023’s Top Ten Independent Films by the National Board of Review. Gordon and her co-writers were nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
The pic is a new take on the 1987 Shelly Long and Bette Midler blockbuster comedy Outrageous Fortune. In the pic, co-written by Gordon and Allie Levitan, two actresses clash on a scrappy indie movie set accidentally find themselves entangled in a game of cat-and-mouse more outrageous than any movie.
Searchlight SVP of Production Taylor Friedman is overseeing Small Parts, reporting into Searchlight Production Heads Dan Tram Nguyen and Katie Goodson-Thomas.
Gordon co-directed, co-wrote, and starred in Theater Camp, which won the Sundance U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble and was one of 2023’s Top Ten Independent Films by the National Board of Review. Gordon and her co-writers were nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
- 5/13/2024
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Kit Zauhar’s sophomore feature “This Closeness” follows the promise of her 2021 debut “Actual People,” which demonstrated she could tell an immersive story with few resources. Her microbudget feature “This Closeness,” a Narrative Spotlight premiere of SXSW 2023, is now about to open from Factory 25 on June 7, followed by a Mubi streaming premiere on July 3. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
Per IndieWire’s 2023 SXSW preview, “This Closeness” “wields its lo-fi constraints with tremendous sophistication and insight. The entire story takes place within the constraints of a Philadelphia apartment, booked by a young couple (Zauhar and Zane Pais) for a high school reunion weekend; once there, they find themselves dealing with the awkward loner (Ian Edlund) who lives there. As tensions mount, the movie dances an elegant line between cringe-comedy and erotic thriller, with Zauhar’s character, an Asmr YouTuber, developing an enigmatic bond with their temporary roommate while...
Per IndieWire’s 2023 SXSW preview, “This Closeness” “wields its lo-fi constraints with tremendous sophistication and insight. The entire story takes place within the constraints of a Philadelphia apartment, booked by a young couple (Zauhar and Zane Pais) for a high school reunion weekend; once there, they find themselves dealing with the awkward loner (Ian Edlund) who lives there. As tensions mount, the movie dances an elegant line between cringe-comedy and erotic thriller, with Zauhar’s character, an Asmr YouTuber, developing an enigmatic bond with their temporary roommate while...
- 4/23/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Brooklyn-based indie film distribution and production company Factory 25 has acquired North American theatrical rights on writer-director Kit Zauhar’s sophomore feature This Closeness, which debuted at SXSW 2023.
The film will begin its theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York City on June 7, with further engagements and a worldwide digital release on Mubi on July 3.
The film stars Zane Pais (Margot At The Wedding) and Ian Edlund with Zauhar also starring as she did on her first feature Actual People, which debuted at Locarno in 2021. Factory 25 also released that film. Actress and singer Jessie Pinnick (Princess Cyd) and multimedia artist Kate Williams round out the cast.
Following SXSW, This Closeness screened at the Philadelphia Film Festival, the Champs-Élysées Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival, where it received a special jury mention for best ensemble cast in the New American Cinema Competition.
This Closeness is produced...
The film will begin its theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York City on June 7, with further engagements and a worldwide digital release on Mubi on July 3.
The film stars Zane Pais (Margot At The Wedding) and Ian Edlund with Zauhar also starring as she did on her first feature Actual People, which debuted at Locarno in 2021. Factory 25 also released that film. Actress and singer Jessie Pinnick (Princess Cyd) and multimedia artist Kate Williams round out the cast.
Following SXSW, This Closeness screened at the Philadelphia Film Festival, the Champs-Élysées Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival, where it received a special jury mention for best ensemble cast in the New American Cinema Competition.
This Closeness is produced...
- 4/19/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Rachel Sennott always has her finger on the pulse of indie films, and her latest feature “I Used to Be Funny” is no exception.
The “Shiva Baby,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” and “Bottoms” star leads highly anticipated dark dramedy “I Used To Be Funny,” directed by rising talent Ally Pankiw who has helmed episodes of “Black Mirror” and “The Great,” plus a recent short film titled “Decades of Confusion” for fashion brand Loewe.
Sennott stars as aspiring stand-up comedian Sam Cowell who works as an au pair by day. Yet after the disappearance of Brooke (Olga Petsa), a teen girl she used to nanny, Sam begins to struggle with Ptsd and grapples with whether or not to join the search. The film is split between two timelines as Sam tries to recover from her past trauma and get back on stage while also reliving memories of Brooke.
Writer/director Pankiw marks...
The “Shiva Baby,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” and “Bottoms” star leads highly anticipated dark dramedy “I Used To Be Funny,” directed by rising talent Ally Pankiw who has helmed episodes of “Black Mirror” and “The Great,” plus a recent short film titled “Decades of Confusion” for fashion brand Loewe.
Sennott stars as aspiring stand-up comedian Sam Cowell who works as an au pair by day. Yet after the disappearance of Brooke (Olga Petsa), a teen girl she used to nanny, Sam begins to struggle with Ptsd and grapples with whether or not to join the search. The film is split between two timelines as Sam tries to recover from her past trauma and get back on stage while also reliving memories of Brooke.
Writer/director Pankiw marks...
- 4/11/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Is anyone’s star rising faster right now than Rachel Sennott‘s? Thanks to the success of “Shiva Baby” and “Bottoms,” the comedic actress is attached to several buzzy projects, including “SNL 1975” and Mimi Cave‘s sophomore feature “Holland, Michigan.” But before those, Sennott stars in what could be a star-making vehicle for her, or at least a movie that showcases her singular range and versatility.
Continue reading ‘I Used To Be Funny’ Trailer: Rachel Sennott Is A Comic Grappling With Trauma In New Indie at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘I Used To Be Funny’ Trailer: Rachel Sennott Is A Comic Grappling With Trauma In New Indie at The Playlist.
- 4/11/2024
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
New film celebrities have joined the Cinema for Gaza auction that is raising funds for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map).
The latest auction lots include a signed and framed Malcolm X poster offered by Spike Lee and Paul Mescal donating a signed Aftersun poster. On the experiences side, actress Tessa Thompson is offering to have a beer (or an “O’Douls”) over Zoom with a winning bidder, and Shiva Baby director Emma Seligman will shoot the breeze over tea, again via a Zoom call.
There’s also a Zoom call with Ayo Edebiri, star of The Bear, who is tossing in a list of her favorite places to dine, and a walk-on part in director Gurinder Chadha’s next film.
The biggest memorabilia lot so far is Annie Lennox donating handwritten lyrics to “Sweet Dreams,” her 1983 popular song with Eurythmics, with bids currently standing at £7,700.00 (U.S. $9,720.75)
The...
The latest auction lots include a signed and framed Malcolm X poster offered by Spike Lee and Paul Mescal donating a signed Aftersun poster. On the experiences side, actress Tessa Thompson is offering to have a beer (or an “O’Douls”) over Zoom with a winning bidder, and Shiva Baby director Emma Seligman will shoot the breeze over tea, again via a Zoom call.
There’s also a Zoom call with Ayo Edebiri, star of The Bear, who is tossing in a list of her favorite places to dine, and a walk-on part in director Gurinder Chadha’s next film.
The biggest memorabilia lot so far is Annie Lennox donating handwritten lyrics to “Sweet Dreams,” her 1983 popular song with Eurythmics, with bids currently standing at £7,700.00 (U.S. $9,720.75)
The...
- 4/8/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rachel Sennott has a new show in the works at HBO!
On Monday (March 18), it was announced that the network has ordered a half-hour pilot starring, written and executive produced by the 28-year-old actress and comedian.
Keep reading to find out more…In the untitled project, a “codependent friend group reunites, navigating how the time apart, ambition and new relationships have changed them,” Deadline reports.
Barry alums Emma Barrie and Aida Rodgers will also executive produce the show alongside Rachel.
Rachel most recently starred alongside Ayo Edebiri in the raunchy comedy Bottoms, which she co-wrote with director Emma Seligman, who also directed Rachel in 2020′s Shiva Baby.
Last year, Rachel appeared in HBO and The Weeknd‘s short-lived series The Idol and also starred in the A24 thriller-comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies, which was released in 2022.
It was also recently revealed that Rachel had joined the star-studded cast of the new movie SNL 1975.
On Monday (March 18), it was announced that the network has ordered a half-hour pilot starring, written and executive produced by the 28-year-old actress and comedian.
Keep reading to find out more…In the untitled project, a “codependent friend group reunites, navigating how the time apart, ambition and new relationships have changed them,” Deadline reports.
Barry alums Emma Barrie and Aida Rodgers will also executive produce the show alongside Rachel.
Rachel most recently starred alongside Ayo Edebiri in the raunchy comedy Bottoms, which she co-wrote with director Emma Seligman, who also directed Rachel in 2020′s Shiva Baby.
Last year, Rachel appeared in HBO and The Weeknd‘s short-lived series The Idol and also starred in the A24 thriller-comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies, which was released in 2022.
It was also recently revealed that Rachel had joined the star-studded cast of the new movie SNL 1975.
- 3/19/2024
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
HBO has ordered a half-hour pilot episode starring, written and executive produced by Rachel Sennott (“Bottoms”).
The untitled comedy project’s logline promises “a codependent friend group reunion,” in which the friends “navigate how their time apart, goals and new relationships have changed them,” TheWrap has learned.
“Barry” alums Emma Barrie and Aida Rodgers will executive produce alongside the “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and “Shiva Baby” star.
Sennott most recently starred as Pj, platonic other half to Ayo Edebiri’s Josie, in “Bottoms,” which she cowrote with director Emma Seligman. Seligman also directed Sennott in “Shiva Baby.”
Sennott also appeared alongside Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd in HBO’s “The Idol” as Leia. She starred as Alice in the A24 thriller-comedy, “Bodies Bodies Bodies.”
A graduate from NYU Tisch with a focus in acting, Sennott’s breakthrough performance came from Seligman’s “Shiva Baby,” originally a student film that was adapted into a full-length feature.
The untitled comedy project’s logline promises “a codependent friend group reunion,” in which the friends “navigate how their time apart, goals and new relationships have changed them,” TheWrap has learned.
“Barry” alums Emma Barrie and Aida Rodgers will executive produce alongside the “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and “Shiva Baby” star.
Sennott most recently starred as Pj, platonic other half to Ayo Edebiri’s Josie, in “Bottoms,” which she cowrote with director Emma Seligman. Seligman also directed Sennott in “Shiva Baby.”
Sennott also appeared alongside Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd in HBO’s “The Idol” as Leia. She starred as Alice in the A24 thriller-comedy, “Bodies Bodies Bodies.”
A graduate from NYU Tisch with a focus in acting, Sennott’s breakthrough performance came from Seligman’s “Shiva Baby,” originally a student film that was adapted into a full-length feature.
- 3/18/2024
- by Dessi Gomez
- The Wrap
Exclusive: HBO is betting on another fresh female comedy voice, giving a pilot order to a half-hour starring, written and executive produced by Rachel Sennott.
In the untitled project, a codependent friend group reunites, navigating how the time apart, ambition and new relationships have changed them.
Sennott, who is executive producing alongside Barry alums Emma Barrie and Aida Rodgers, is looking to follow in the footsteps of Lena Dunham (Girls) and Issa Rae’s (Insecure), two other rising female comedy creators/performers whose pilots about twentysomethings navigating life and relationships became hit HBO series.
A 2017 alumna of Tisch School of the Arts, Sennott got off to a hot start, when a student film she starred in, Shiva Baby, got a feature adaptation with her reprising her starring role and executive producing. That led to starring roles in the comedy horror movie Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and teen comedy Bottoms,...
In the untitled project, a codependent friend group reunites, navigating how the time apart, ambition and new relationships have changed them.
Sennott, who is executive producing alongside Barry alums Emma Barrie and Aida Rodgers, is looking to follow in the footsteps of Lena Dunham (Girls) and Issa Rae’s (Insecure), two other rising female comedy creators/performers whose pilots about twentysomethings navigating life and relationships became hit HBO series.
A 2017 alumna of Tisch School of the Arts, Sennott got off to a hot start, when a student film she starred in, Shiva Baby, got a feature adaptation with her reprising her starring role and executive producing. That led to starring roles in the comedy horror movie Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and teen comedy Bottoms,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Africans with Mainframes (Kima Hibbert)
What if electronic music was invented in the 1920s by Black sharecroppers in the American South? That’s the premise of Kima Hibbert’s debut short, in which a reclusive blogger uncovers a major conspiracy surrounding the origins of electronic music.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival. After breaking out there three years ago with Shiva Baby (the movie premiered as a short in 2018 and would have again as a feature in 2020 if not for the pandemic), she made waves last year in Austin with sleeper horror hit Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now Sennott’s back with Bottoms, one of two...
Africans with Mainframes (Kima Hibbert)
What if electronic music was invented in the 1920s by Black sharecroppers in the American South? That’s the premise of Kima Hibbert’s debut short, in which a reclusive blogger uncovers a major conspiracy surrounding the origins of electronic music.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival. After breaking out there three years ago with Shiva Baby (the movie premiered as a short in 2018 and would have again as a feature in 2020 if not for the pandemic), she made waves last year in Austin with sleeper horror hit Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now Sennott’s back with Bottoms, one of two...
- 2/16/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Utopia will launch worldwide sales at EFM on Julie Pacino’s directorial debut I Live Here Now, which has wrapped production and features a cast of Lucy Fry, Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid’sTale), comedian Matt Rife (Natural Selection), and Sheryl Lee (Twin Peaks).
The psychological horror follows a woman (Fry) who finds herself trapped in a remote hotel where the violent echoes of her past come alive, blurring the lines between her darkest nightmares and the waking world.
“I am thrilled to unveil this deeply personal project with Utopia,” said Pacino. “I Live Here Now explores fear and discomfort through the...
The psychological horror follows a woman (Fry) who finds herself trapped in a remote hotel where the violent echoes of her past come alive, blurring the lines between her darkest nightmares and the waking world.
“I am thrilled to unveil this deeply personal project with Utopia,” said Pacino. “I Live Here Now explores fear and discomfort through the...
- 2/1/2024
- ScreenDaily
Jason Reitman is staying mighty busy these days. Less than 24 hours after the release of the latest trailer for "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire," four major casting announcements were made for his next project, "SNL 1975." The film will attempt to tell the true story of what went on behind the scenes before the broadcast premiere of "Saturday Night Live" on NBC, highlighting the real-time bedlam with some of the most legendary names in American comedy. Reitman co-wrote the script with his "Ghostbusters" collaborator Gil Kenan and is basing the story on the firsthand accounts of those who were there. Lest we forget, Reitman's father is the legendary Ivan Reitman, so these comedy titans were the friends and colleagues of the family. If anyone can get serious insight, it's Reitman.
The first wave of cast announcements included some serious heavy hitters, with "The Fabelmans" star Gabriel Labelle landing the role of Lorne Michaels,...
The first wave of cast announcements included some serious heavy hitters, with "The Fabelmans" star Gabriel Labelle landing the role of Lorne Michaels,...
- 1/30/2024
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Love is in the air this February at Prime Video! From the long-awaited espionage comedy series “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” to Jennifer Lopez’s new album companion film “This Is Me…Now: A Love Story,” the streamer is days away from adding dozens of classic and fresh titles to its seemingly endless catalog, including the premieres of many more Amazon Originals like “The Second Best Hospital in The Galaxy,” “Five Blind Dates,” and “The Silent Service.”
Check out The Streamable’s top picks for February on Prime Video, and find out everything coming to the platform this coming month!
30-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month amazon.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Prime Video in February 2024? “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” | Friday, Feb. 2
Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star in the long-awaited spy comedy series about two lonely strangers who land a job working for a mysterious spy agency...
Check out The Streamable’s top picks for February on Prime Video, and find out everything coming to the platform this coming month!
30-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month amazon.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Prime Video in February 2024? “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” | Friday, Feb. 2
Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star in the long-awaited spy comedy series about two lonely strangers who land a job working for a mysterious spy agency...
- 1/30/2024
- by Ashley Steves
- The Streamable
Gabriel Labelle, Cooper Hoffman and Rachel Sennott have been cast in Jason Reitman’s feature SNL 1975 about the early days of Saturday Night Live.
Reitman is directing the film for Sony Pictures about the debut night in October 1975 of the NBC sketch show that is currently airing its 49th season. Labelle, who had a breakout role in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans, is set to play SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
Hoffman (Licorice Pizza) is attached as former NBC executive Dick Ebersol, while Sennott (Bottoms) will play Michaels’ ex-wife Rosie Shuster.
Reitman wrote the script with Gil Kenan, based on the pair’s extensive interviews with all of the show’s living cast, scribes and crew. Reitman and Kenan previously co-wrote Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and its forthcoming sequel, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which hits theaters in March.
SNL 1975 counts Reitman, Kenan, Jason Blumenfeld, Erica Mills and Peter Rice as producers.
Reitman is directing the film for Sony Pictures about the debut night in October 1975 of the NBC sketch show that is currently airing its 49th season. Labelle, who had a breakout role in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans, is set to play SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
Hoffman (Licorice Pizza) is attached as former NBC executive Dick Ebersol, while Sennott (Bottoms) will play Michaels’ ex-wife Rosie Shuster.
Reitman wrote the script with Gil Kenan, based on the pair’s extensive interviews with all of the show’s living cast, scribes and crew. Reitman and Kenan previously co-wrote Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and its forthcoming sequel, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which hits theaters in March.
SNL 1975 counts Reitman, Kenan, Jason Blumenfeld, Erica Mills and Peter Rice as producers.
- 1/19/2024
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘The Fabelmans’ Breakout Gabriel Labelle to Play Lorne Michaels in Jason Reitman’s ‘SNL 1975’ Biopic
Gabriel Labelle is making a career out of portraying legendary creatives.
After playing a version of Steven Spielberg in the auteur’s semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” Labelle is set to star as Lorne Michaels in “SNL 1975,” charting the rise of “Saturday Night Live.” IndieWire can confirm that Cooper Hoffman and Rachel Sennott will co-star; Deadline first reported the casting news.
“SNL 1975” is written and directed by Jason Reitman, with Gil Kenan co-writing based on interviews with “SNL” alum. Reitman, Kenan, Jason Blumenfeld, Erica Mills, and Peter Rice are producing.
“Licorice Pizza” and “Wildcat” actor Hoffman will play Dick Ebersol, and “Shiva Baby” star Sennott is set to portray Rosie Shuster in the biopic.
The logline reads: “On October 11th, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. This is the true story of what happened that night behind the scenes in the moments leading up...
After playing a version of Steven Spielberg in the auteur’s semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” Labelle is set to star as Lorne Michaels in “SNL 1975,” charting the rise of “Saturday Night Live.” IndieWire can confirm that Cooper Hoffman and Rachel Sennott will co-star; Deadline first reported the casting news.
“SNL 1975” is written and directed by Jason Reitman, with Gil Kenan co-writing based on interviews with “SNL” alum. Reitman, Kenan, Jason Blumenfeld, Erica Mills, and Peter Rice are producing.
“Licorice Pizza” and “Wildcat” actor Hoffman will play Dick Ebersol, and “Shiva Baby” star Sennott is set to portray Rosie Shuster in the biopic.
The logline reads: “On October 11th, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. This is the true story of what happened that night behind the scenes in the moments leading up...
- 1/19/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Utopia has added Dave A. Liu, a veteran executive and investor, as strategic advisor to its CEO and board of directors.
In his new role, Liu will help steer the company’s strategic and financial initiatives. He will also work to amplify diverse voices across Utopia, the indie media company said. Liu has worked in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. He has been an investment banker, entrepreneur, and film producer, raising over $15 billion for hundreds of companies, while creating multiple start-ups and writing a bestselling book, “The Way of the Wall Street Warrior: Conquer the Corporate Game Using Tips, Tricks, and Smartcuts.” Liu also invested in Stampede Ventures and Teg, among other companies.
Co-founded by Robert Coppola Schwartzman and Cole Harper, Utopia says it hopes to leverage Liu’s expertise to strengthen its core business, while enhancing its focus on diversity and inclusion within the film and TV industries. Specifically,...
In his new role, Liu will help steer the company’s strategic and financial initiatives. He will also work to amplify diverse voices across Utopia, the indie media company said. Liu has worked in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. He has been an investment banker, entrepreneur, and film producer, raising over $15 billion for hundreds of companies, while creating multiple start-ups and writing a bestselling book, “The Way of the Wall Street Warrior: Conquer the Corporate Game Using Tips, Tricks, and Smartcuts.” Liu also invested in Stampede Ventures and Teg, among other companies.
Co-founded by Robert Coppola Schwartzman and Cole Harper, Utopia says it hopes to leverage Liu’s expertise to strengthen its core business, while enhancing its focus on diversity and inclusion within the film and TV industries. Specifically,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)
The name Pastor Kim comes up early in Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia. A gentle, aching man, Pastor Kim tells Gavin he has ensured the escape of over 1,000 people from North Korea in the last 10 years. He’s one of the leaders of this Underground Railroad in the area, leading defectors through rivers, mountains, and forests with rods in his neck, rolled ankles, and multiple surgeries plaguing his physical health over the years. Kim becomes the doc’s lynchpin, the character who provides light to the defectors and audience. In short: he’s a hero. – Michael F. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival.
Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)
The name Pastor Kim comes up early in Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia. A gentle, aching man, Pastor Kim tells Gavin he has ensured the escape of over 1,000 people from North Korea in the last 10 years. He’s one of the leaders of this Underground Railroad in the area, leading defectors through rivers, mountains, and forests with rods in his neck, rolled ankles, and multiple surgeries plaguing his physical health over the years. Kim becomes the doc’s lynchpin, the character who provides light to the defectors and audience. In short: he’s a hero. – Michael F. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival.
- 12/1/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Raucous if not reckless, Bottoms is at once earnest and obscene, well constructed in its crudity and often laugh out loud funny. It's a high school-set coming of age queer comedy which sounds like a narrow overlap but it's in the same tradition as Superbad, Anchorman, Fight Club and the Art of Self-Defense.
That might seem an incredibly specific and messy confluence of ideas, but even at my remove from adolescence that seems, still, apposite. Directed by Emma Seligman and co-written with Rachel Sennot it reunites them in something potentially more approachable than the sterling Shiva Baby. Editor Hanna Park and cinematographer Maria Rusche both return too, and while Sennott is on-screen in both she's the only one returning in front of the camera.
In a huge and diverse cast the most common trait is quality. Sennott as Pj and her best friend Josie (Ayo Edebiri) might go through...
That might seem an incredibly specific and messy confluence of ideas, but even at my remove from adolescence that seems, still, apposite. Directed by Emma Seligman and co-written with Rachel Sennot it reunites them in something potentially more approachable than the sterling Shiva Baby. Editor Hanna Park and cinematographer Maria Rusche both return too, and while Sennott is on-screen in both she's the only one returning in front of the camera.
In a huge and diverse cast the most common trait is quality. Sennott as Pj and her best friend Josie (Ayo Edebiri) might go through...
- 11/25/2023
- by Andrew Robertson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Bottoms writer-director Emma Seligman and star Rachel Sennott came up with the idea for the raunchy teen comedy on a white board, putting down “everything we wanted to see in a movie on the board” from “punching” to “vagina” to “knitting,” said Sennott.
The duo, who worked together on Seligman’s debut feature Shiva Baby, were still in school and, “We just went all out, not thinking of any limits,” she said Saturday during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles.
The film was taken up by producer Alison Small and landed at Orion after numerous rejections. Amazon MGM Studios released the R-rated comedy that became a sleeper hit with one of the biggest limited openings of the year, going on to pass $12 million at the box office. Small called it one of the funniest, weirdest and smartest scripts she’d ever read. Everyone passed until Orion Pictures president Alana Mayo said yes,...
The duo, who worked together on Seligman’s debut feature Shiva Baby, were still in school and, “We just went all out, not thinking of any limits,” she said Saturday during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles.
The film was taken up by producer Alison Small and landed at Orion after numerous rejections. Amazon MGM Studios released the R-rated comedy that became a sleeper hit with one of the biggest limited openings of the year, going on to pass $12 million at the box office. Small called it one of the funniest, weirdest and smartest scripts she’d ever read. Everyone passed until Orion Pictures president Alana Mayo said yes,...
- 11/18/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
by Cláudio Alves
It could be a matter of bad taste or intransigence on my part, or the rare contrarian streak rearing its ugly head. Whatever the case or cause, it seems like there's always one major queer film per year I end up despising while the rest of the world falls over itself in praise. Last year, Bros was the foremost example, and I found myself at odds with people whose perspective I respect. In 2023, the honor falls on Bottoms, Emma Seligman's studio-backed follow-up to Shiva Baby's indie success, a sophomore feature that hits the proverbial slump right on. And yet, I feel like I should have loved it. At the very least, I wish I did…...
It could be a matter of bad taste or intransigence on my part, or the rare contrarian streak rearing its ugly head. Whatever the case or cause, it seems like there's always one major queer film per year I end up despising while the rest of the world falls over itself in praise. Last year, Bros was the foremost example, and I found myself at odds with people whose perspective I respect. In 2023, the honor falls on Bottoms, Emma Seligman's studio-backed follow-up to Shiva Baby's indie success, a sophomore feature that hits the proverbial slump right on. And yet, I feel like I should have loved it. At the very least, I wish I did…...
- 11/8/2023
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
‘We all knew what we were getting into!’ Gross-out lesbian comedy Bottoms and its audacious director
Emma Seligman reveals how she made this outrageous romp about schoolgirls setting up a fight club in order to bed cheerleaders – and explains why a ‘really gay’ Marvel movie might be next
Bottoms is a high school movie stuffed with all the great high school movie tropes. There are nerds and jocks, slow clappings, grand gestures on the football field, graffitied lockers and a sad montage that unfolds to the sound of Avril Lavigne’s Complicated. But its leads are Pj and Josie, the “ugly, untalented gays” who set up an after-school fight club with the sole aim of having sex with the cheerleaders. Girls punch each other in the face, teachers read porn magazines in class, everyone pretends to be “empowered” – and, somehow, it still manages to be a feelgood delight. Thrillingly, it may be the least earnest film I have seen in years.
Its director, 28-year-old Emma Seligman,...
Bottoms is a high school movie stuffed with all the great high school movie tropes. There are nerds and jocks, slow clappings, grand gestures on the football field, graffitied lockers and a sad montage that unfolds to the sound of Avril Lavigne’s Complicated. But its leads are Pj and Josie, the “ugly, untalented gays” who set up an after-school fight club with the sole aim of having sex with the cheerleaders. Girls punch each other in the face, teachers read porn magazines in class, everyone pretends to be “empowered” – and, somehow, it still manages to be a feelgood delight. Thrillingly, it may be the least earnest film I have seen in years.
Its director, 28-year-old Emma Seligman,...
- 11/6/2023
- by Rebecca Nicholson
- The Guardian - Film News
Studiocanal has Samuel Beckett biopic ‘Dance First’.
Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex, Emma Seligman’s Bottoms and Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel are all opening in UK-Ireland cinemas, on a weekend with several well-reviewed films by and about women.
Starting in 150 cinemas through Mubi, How To Have Sex is the debut feature of Screen 2021 Star of Tomorrow Walker. The film follows three British teenage girls on a clubbing holiday in Malia, where one of the group has her first experiences with sex. The cast includes fellow Screen Stars Mia McKenna-Bruce and Samuel Bottomley, with casting director...
Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex, Emma Seligman’s Bottoms and Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel are all opening in UK-Ireland cinemas, on a weekend with several well-reviewed films by and about women.
Starting in 150 cinemas through Mubi, How To Have Sex is the debut feature of Screen 2021 Star of Tomorrow Walker. The film follows three British teenage girls on a clubbing holiday in Malia, where one of the group has her first experiences with sex. The cast includes fellow Screen Stars Mia McKenna-Bruce and Samuel Bottomley, with casting director...
- 11/3/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Rachel Sennott and The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri are excellent as gay teens who set up a fight club in order to win the affections of their school cheerleaders
There are a lot of laughs, a great deal of delirious silliness and what I must insist is a cinephile reference to Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil in this very funny high-school comedy from director Emma Seligman, and starring her co-writer Rachel Sennott, who last worked together on Seligman’s debut feature Shiva Baby. Bottoms is about two gay teen girls and bickering best friends who want to get some sexual experience and it all plays like a moderately scuffed-up and entirely non-heterosexual version of Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart – though no one in this film shows the smallest interest in books, certainly not the teachers.
Pj (Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) hang out, obsessing in a self-harming and masochistic way...
There are a lot of laughs, a great deal of delirious silliness and what I must insist is a cinephile reference to Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil in this very funny high-school comedy from director Emma Seligman, and starring her co-writer Rachel Sennott, who last worked together on Seligman’s debut feature Shiva Baby. Bottoms is about two gay teen girls and bickering best friends who want to get some sexual experience and it all plays like a moderately scuffed-up and entirely non-heterosexual version of Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart – though no one in this film shows the smallest interest in books, certainly not the teachers.
Pj (Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) hang out, obsessing in a self-harming and masochistic way...
- 11/2/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Are you in love with Edgar Wright’s epic 2010 cult classic Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World? Because we know we are. And we know that Emma Seligman, director of the brilliant Shiva Baby and the unmissable upcoming feminist fight-club comedy :a[Bottoms]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/bottoms/' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'} is too – it was a huge inspiration for her whilst making her second feature film. Which is why we are excited to share the news of a special screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World this Sunday at the Odeon Luxe West End in London, followed by an exclusive Q&a between Edgar Wright and Emma Seligman, live and in the flesh!
Tickets for this one-of-a-kind cinema screening are selling fast, and you can get them right :a[here]{href='https://www.odeon.co.uk/ticketing/seat-picker/?showtimeId=155-5365' }. But we also have five...
Tickets for this one-of-a-kind cinema screening are selling fast, and you can get them right :a[here]{href='https://www.odeon.co.uk/ticketing/seat-picker/?showtimeId=155-5365' }. But we also have five...
- 11/1/2023
- by Jordan King
- Empire - Movies
As elevator pitches go, “Queer, feminist :a[Fight Club]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/empire-essay-fight-club-review/' } in a high-school” is a pretty wild one. But if anyone can pull it off, then it’s writer-director Emma Seligman, whose debut feature :a[Shiva Baby]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/shiva-baby/' } took a similarly nuts idea – “young woman’s sugar daddy turns up at a Jewish post-funeral service” – and spun it into a hilarious, cringe-inducing, altogether unforgettable romp. Already a summer hit stateside, Bottoms sees teens Pj (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (:a[The Bear]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/the-bear-season-2/' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'}’s Ayo Edibiri) start a fight-club among the girls at their school, under the ruse of being to teach them self-defence. But what starts off as a hair-brained scheme to lose their virginities soon, inevitably, spirals out of control.
- 10/26/2023
- by Jordan King
- Empire - Movies
The MGM film has grossed a strong $11.9m on release in the US this summer.
Warner Bros has secured UK-Ireland distribution rights to Emma Seligman’s Bottoms, setting a theatrical release date of November 3.
The studio has picked up the UK-Ireland rights from producers MGM.
Bottoms had its world premiere at SXSW in March, before a short festival tour in North America. The high-school comedy follows two outsider best friends who start a self-defence club for women in an attempt to lose their virginities to the cheerleaders they have crushes on.
It is produced by Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman and Alison Small,...
Warner Bros has secured UK-Ireland distribution rights to Emma Seligman’s Bottoms, setting a theatrical release date of November 3.
The studio has picked up the UK-Ireland rights from producers MGM.
Bottoms had its world premiere at SXSW in March, before a short festival tour in North America. The high-school comedy follows two outsider best friends who start a self-defence club for women in an attempt to lose their virginities to the cheerleaders they have crushes on.
It is produced by Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman and Alison Small,...
- 10/10/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
At every instance where something dramatic occurs in Fairhope, I’m reminded of how easy it is for television to make things up. Hulu describes Love in Fairhope as “uniquely unscripted” (whatever that means) and uses the words “reimagined romance” to tell us what the five ladies of Fairhope, Alabama, will be experiencing in this nine-part series. Spoiler alert: The show ends on a huge cliffhanger, and I’m not quite sure where the romance went. There’s something so unsettling about the terrible (sometimes terrifying) acting and unrealistic dialogue between these people that it cannot in any way come across as “real.” Personally, the only reality TV shows I’ve ever watched are fashion or food competitions. Give me 100 Next in Fashion or Masterchef Australia before putting me through this again, I beg. Love in Fairhope almost looks like a 2000s Western fantasy romance, where a CGI unicorn may appear out of the blue,...
- 9/30/2023
- by Ruchika Bhat
- Film Fugitives
Sanctuary is a psychological thriller directed by Zachary Wigon from a screenplay by Micah Bloomberg. Starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott in the lead role of a dominatrix and Hal, who is soon becoming a CEO of a large corporation and that’s why he wants to end his relationship with the dominatrix as he fears that it will come out later. This starts off a dark and twisted night that will leave you gasping for air. So, if you loved Sanctuary here are some similar movies you could watch next.
Secretary (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Lions Gate Films
Synopsis: Before Fifty Shades Of Grey, there was Secretary. James Spader leads this sexy and daring comedy as the original Mr. Grey, a seemingly normal lawyer whose relationship with his new secretary (Maggie Gyllenhaal) descends into a kinky affair that would give nightmares to any human resource director!
Eyes Wide Shut...
Secretary (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Lions Gate Films
Synopsis: Before Fifty Shades Of Grey, there was Secretary. James Spader leads this sexy and daring comedy as the original Mr. Grey, a seemingly normal lawyer whose relationship with his new secretary (Maggie Gyllenhaal) descends into a kinky affair that would give nightmares to any human resource director!
Eyes Wide Shut...
- 9/23/2023
- by Kulwant Singh
- Cinema Blind
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival. After breaking out there three years ago with Shiva Baby (the movie premiered as a short in 2018 and would have again as a feature in 2020 if not for the pandemic), she made waves last year in Austin with sleeper horror hit Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now Sennott’s back with Bottoms, one of two new movies she’s headlining this week, and which adopts many characteristics of an SXSW offering: it’s gay, it’s bloody, and it’s horny. – Jake K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Cassandro (Roger Ross Williams)
Rather than reverting to a traditional biopic structure––i.e. a greatest hits (and...
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival. After breaking out there three years ago with Shiva Baby (the movie premiered as a short in 2018 and would have again as a feature in 2020 if not for the pandemic), she made waves last year in Austin with sleeper horror hit Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now Sennott’s back with Bottoms, one of two new movies she’s headlining this week, and which adopts many characteristics of an SXSW offering: it’s gay, it’s bloody, and it’s horny. – Jake K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Cassandro (Roger Ross Williams)
Rather than reverting to a traditional biopic structure––i.e. a greatest hits (and...
- 9/22/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Brother Fucker
After an amazing August filled with unusual titles like Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers, Shiva Baby, and Stoker, last week Trace and I kicked off our latest theme month on Erotic Thrillers. First up: DePalma’s Dressed to Kill.
For week two, we’re headed into unorthodox territory with a contemporary example: Paul Feig‘s bisexual suburban noir, A Simple Favor.
In the film, Anna Kendrick plays mommy Vlogger Stephanie, who befriends enigmatic and enrapturing Emily (Blake Lively). On the surface, Emily has a perfect life: a wardrobe to die for, a hot husband in Sean (Henry Golding), and a high powered job. But when Emily goes missing and Stephanie is left to pick up the pieces, the apologetic single mother suddenly finds herself playing amateur detective to solve the case.
What she discovers is pure Erotic Thriller…albeit wrapped in the glossy candy-colored spectacle of suburbia.
Be...
After an amazing August filled with unusual titles like Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers, Shiva Baby, and Stoker, last week Trace and I kicked off our latest theme month on Erotic Thrillers. First up: DePalma’s Dressed to Kill.
For week two, we’re headed into unorthodox territory with a contemporary example: Paul Feig‘s bisexual suburban noir, A Simple Favor.
In the film, Anna Kendrick plays mommy Vlogger Stephanie, who befriends enigmatic and enrapturing Emily (Blake Lively). On the surface, Emily has a perfect life: a wardrobe to die for, a hot husband in Sean (Henry Golding), and a high powered job. But when Emily goes missing and Stephanie is left to pick up the pieces, the apologetic single mother suddenly finds herself playing amateur detective to solve the case.
What she discovers is pure Erotic Thriller…albeit wrapped in the glossy candy-colored spectacle of suburbia.
Be...
- 9/18/2023
- by Joe Lipsett
- bloody-disgusting.com
Anyone who knows and loves a theater kid understands that they can be… a little much. To their credit, theater kids accept and embrace this reputation. Both the excessiveness of theater kids and their willingness to celebrate their extremities can be seen in the comedy Theater Camp, directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman. After winning over critics and earning a strong, if limited, return in theaters, Theater Camp has come to Hulu.
Based on a short film that Gordon and Lieberman made with Ben Platt and Noah Galvin, Theater Camp features a group of theater kids trying to save their camp from the founder’s jerky son, who wants to sell it off for something more profitable. Both self-aware and sincere, Theater Camp is a love letter to the over-the-top nerds who can sing every word of A Chorus Line and know that Andrew Rannells was in Street Sharks.
Based on a short film that Gordon and Lieberman made with Ben Platt and Noah Galvin, Theater Camp features a group of theater kids trying to save their camp from the founder’s jerky son, who wants to sell it off for something more profitable. Both self-aware and sincere, Theater Camp is a love letter to the over-the-top nerds who can sing every word of A Chorus Line and know that Andrew Rannells was in Street Sharks.
- 9/14/2023
- by Joe George
- Den of Geek
It’s only delightful to witness the attention Linda Evangelista receives when she arrives at any event these days: The legendary supermodel and breast cancer survivor has been enjoying a public comeback that began to roll out slowly when she appeared on the cover of British Vogue in 2022, but ramped up to klieg light level when she was joined by Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell on the September 2023 cover of American Vogue. What does Evangelista think about this sudden burst of attention and adulation? “That I should’ve left the house sooner!” she exclaimed with a laugh to The Hollywood Reporter at Tuesday night’s Kering’s Second Annual Caring for Women Dinner at The Pool in New York City.
The annual fundraiser, produced by the Kering Group to benefit a trio of women-focused causes, was more than enough reason to venture out, she added. “I have felt so much love this week,...
The annual fundraiser, produced by the Kering Group to benefit a trio of women-focused causes, was more than enough reason to venture out, she added. “I have felt so much love this week,...
- 9/13/2023
- by Laurie Brookins
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Ultimate Time Capsule.
We closed out August with a look at the horror elements in the non-horror film Shiva Baby, the trans empowerment of Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers, and Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut Stoker. Now, our first episode of September kicks off a month themed after one of Joe’s favorite sub-genres: the erotic thriller!
First up is Brian De Palma‘s controversial masterpiece Dressed to Kill.
Dressed to Kill sees high-priced sex worker Liz Blake (Nancy Allen) witness a mysterious woman brutally slay homemaker Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson). The police think Liz is the murderer and the real killer wants to silence the crime’s only witness, putting Liz in a tough situation. Only Kate’s inventor son, Peter (Keith Gordon), believes Liz. Peter and Liz team up to find the real culprit, who has an unexpected means of hiding her identity and an even more surprising motivation to kill.
We closed out August with a look at the horror elements in the non-horror film Shiva Baby, the trans empowerment of Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers, and Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut Stoker. Now, our first episode of September kicks off a month themed after one of Joe’s favorite sub-genres: the erotic thriller!
First up is Brian De Palma‘s controversial masterpiece Dressed to Kill.
Dressed to Kill sees high-priced sex worker Liz Blake (Nancy Allen) witness a mysterious woman brutally slay homemaker Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson). The police think Liz is the murderer and the real killer wants to silence the crime’s only witness, putting Liz in a tough situation. Only Kate’s inventor son, Peter (Keith Gordon), believes Liz. Peter and Liz team up to find the real culprit, who has an unexpected means of hiding her identity and an even more surprising motivation to kill.
- 9/11/2023
- by Trace Thurman
- bloody-disgusting.com
Though “Daddio” is an intimate chamber piece between Sean Penn as a taxi driver, and Dakota Johnson as a passenger trying to get from John F. Kennedy airport to Hell’s Kitchen, it focuses on a near universal issue, especially coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We don’t talk to each other anymore, and we’re terrified of talking to people that are different from us,” said director Christy Hall to IndieWire.
This love letter to New York, and the power of human connection, was the screenwriter and playwright’s spec script that got her the job running acclaimed Netflix YA series “I Am Not Okay With This,” a job that paired her with executive Ro Donnelly. “‘Daddio’ was forever in my mind, so when I left Netflix I was like, ‘God, that role is so perfect for Dakota.’ We made it happen,” said the producer who runs TeaTime Pictures with the star.
This love letter to New York, and the power of human connection, was the screenwriter and playwright’s spec script that got her the job running acclaimed Netflix YA series “I Am Not Okay With This,” a job that paired her with executive Ro Donnelly. “‘Daddio’ was forever in my mind, so when I left Netflix I was like, ‘God, that role is so perfect for Dakota.’ We made it happen,” said the producer who runs TeaTime Pictures with the star.
- 9/10/2023
- by Marcus Jones
- Indiewire
One of the downright hilarious comedy films of the year so far is Bottoms, filmmaker Emma Seligman’s teen sex romp about a pair of lesbian high school pals, Pj (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), who have never done the deed — and are desperate to. Pj and Josie have the hots for popular girls Brittany (Kaia Gerber) and Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) respectively, and so, they decide to start an all-female fight club in an effort to get laid. Our film critic, David Fear, called it “the horniest, bloodiest...
- 9/6/2023
- by Marlow Stern
- Rollingstone.com
St(r)oker.
We closed out August with a look at the horror elements in the non-horror film Shiva Baby and the trans empowerment of Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers. Now, we’re looking at Park Chan-wook‘s English-language debut (which was written by queer screenwriter and actor Wentworth Miller): 2013’s Stoker.
Stoker sees India (Mia Wasikowska) grieving after the death of her father (Dermot Mulroney). She is given no solace, not even from her unstable mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman), until her Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), whom she never knew existed, comes to live at their family home. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, and RSS.
Episode 245:...
We closed out August with a look at the horror elements in the non-horror film Shiva Baby and the trans empowerment of Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers. Now, we’re looking at Park Chan-wook‘s English-language debut (which was written by queer screenwriter and actor Wentworth Miller): 2013’s Stoker.
Stoker sees India (Mia Wasikowska) grieving after the death of her father (Dermot Mulroney). She is given no solace, not even from her unstable mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman), until her Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), whom she never knew existed, comes to live at their family home. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, and RSS.
Episode 245:...
- 9/5/2023
- by Trace Thurman
- bloody-disgusting.com
Everyone remembers their first R-rated movie. Maybe you snuck into a theater trying to pass as 17, or maybe your parents didn’t care for censorship. Either way — whether it’s a movie with gore, expletives or nudity — that first experience leaves an impression.
Max Handelman, who co-founded Brownstone Productions with his wife, Elizabeth Banks, recalls watching John Landis’ “Kentucky Fried Movie” and “Animal House” in his youth. His colleague Alison Small, head of film at Brownstone, distinctly recalls watching “White Men Can’t Jump” with her family and seeing “American Pie” in a packed theater with friends.
Now, Handelman and Small have found success trying to rekindle that experience for a new generation of moviegoers, with two of this year’s stand-out R-rated comedies: “Cocaine Bear” and “Bottoms.”
That has been an uphill battle. For years, most R-rated comedies have struggled to connect at the box office, from “Joy Ride” and...
Max Handelman, who co-founded Brownstone Productions with his wife, Elizabeth Banks, recalls watching John Landis’ “Kentucky Fried Movie” and “Animal House” in his youth. His colleague Alison Small, head of film at Brownstone, distinctly recalls watching “White Men Can’t Jump” with her family and seeing “American Pie” in a packed theater with friends.
Now, Handelman and Small have found success trying to rekindle that experience for a new generation of moviegoers, with two of this year’s stand-out R-rated comedies: “Cocaine Bear” and “Bottoms.”
That has been an uphill battle. For years, most R-rated comedies have struggled to connect at the box office, from “Joy Ride” and...
- 9/5/2023
- by Jaden Thompson
- Variety Film + TV
“The Equalizer 3” is still on track to earn the second-biggest Labor Day opening weekend in history with an estimated $42.3 million.
While the holiday isn’t traditionally a box office draw, Denzel Washington’s assassin-thriller surpassed the previous Labor Day debut runner-up: Rob Zombie’s 2007 “Halloween” remake, which grossed $30 million through Monday. Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” still holds the Labor Day crown with a $94.6 million four-day opening in 2021.
Nevertheless, “Equalizer 3’s” three-day domestic figure of $34.5 million is nearly the same as its predecessors. The 2015 original grossed $34 million in a traditional three-day frame, while the 2018 sequel scored $36 million. With a $70 million production budget co-financed by Tsg and Eagle Pictures, Columbia Pictures’ “Equalizer 3” is targeting a similar performance by the end of its run. The third installment earned an “A” grade on CinemaScore and holds a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaking of box office milestones,...
While the holiday isn’t traditionally a box office draw, Denzel Washington’s assassin-thriller surpassed the previous Labor Day debut runner-up: Rob Zombie’s 2007 “Halloween” remake, which grossed $30 million through Monday. Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” still holds the Labor Day crown with a $94.6 million four-day opening in 2021.
Nevertheless, “Equalizer 3’s” three-day domestic figure of $34.5 million is nearly the same as its predecessors. The 2015 original grossed $34 million in a traditional three-day frame, while the 2018 sequel scored $36 million. With a $70 million production budget co-financed by Tsg and Eagle Pictures, Columbia Pictures’ “Equalizer 3” is targeting a similar performance by the end of its run. The third installment earned an “A” grade on CinemaScore and holds a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaking of box office milestones,...
- 9/4/2023
- by Michaela Zee
- Variety Film + TV
Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is adamant about his decision to place six Italian movies in this year’s 23-title festival lineup. “Nobody accused the French of chauvinism because they had seven French films in competition in Cannes this year,” Barbera quipped to a snarky Italian reporter when the Venice lineup was announced in July, though he did concede, “It’s true that in the past I have not done this.” Indeed, Barbera’s previous limit on Italian movies in competition for the Golden Lion was five titles last year, which some local critics considered a stretch.
More importantly, the Venice chief pointed out that he presently sees Cinema Italiano at a particularly favorable juncture largely thanks to the fact that Italians are making movies with bigger budgets, “which means greater quality and the ability to compete in international markets, and to travel beyond our borders,” he said.
More importantly, the Venice chief pointed out that he presently sees Cinema Italiano at a particularly favorable juncture largely thanks to the fact that Italians are making movies with bigger budgets, “which means greater quality and the ability to compete in international markets, and to travel beyond our borders,” he said.
- 9/4/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Are Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott the Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro of queer indie cinema? That remains to be seen, but their second feature "Bottoms" definitely has the potential to be the sleeper hit of August. "Bottoms" is about Pj (Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), two lesbian high school seniors desperate to get laid before college. So, they start a women's self-defense club, hoping to hook up with the cheerleaders who join.
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film employed a staggered rollout. It opened in just 10 locations across the U.S. on August 25, 2023, taking in $516 thousand, enjoying a boost from great buzz (read /Film's review here) and discounted $4 tickets on August 27, aka National Cinema Day.
A week later, it opened wide across 715 theaters, and its momentum hasn't dissipated. Though "The Equalizer 3" was the box office king of Labor Day Weekend, "Bottoms" looks to make a healthy gross too...
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film employed a staggered rollout. It opened in just 10 locations across the U.S. on August 25, 2023, taking in $516 thousand, enjoying a boost from great buzz (read /Film's review here) and discounted $4 tickets on August 27, aka National Cinema Day.
A week later, it opened wide across 715 theaters, and its momentum hasn't dissipated. Though "The Equalizer 3" was the box office king of Labor Day Weekend, "Bottoms" looks to make a healthy gross too...
- 9/3/2023
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Denzel Washington’s bloody assassin-thriller “The Equalizer 3” debuted at the top of box office charts with $34.5 million over the weekend and an estimated $41 million through Monday’s Labor Day holiday.
It’s the second-biggest Labor Day opening weekend in modern times, though the holiday isn’t known for bringing people to the movies. After the record-holder Marvel’s 2021 blockbuster “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, the next highest-grossing Labor Day debut is Rob Zombie’s 2007 “Halloween” remake.
Still, the turnout for “Equalizer 3” speaks to Washington’s status as a box office draw. It landed an “A” CinemaScore from audiences and holds a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is the highest of the trilogy.
The film added $26.1 million at the international box office for a global start of $60.6 million. The three-day domestic figure is nearly the same as its predecessors; 2014’s “The Equalizer” debuted to $34 million and 2018’s...
It’s the second-biggest Labor Day opening weekend in modern times, though the holiday isn’t known for bringing people to the movies. After the record-holder Marvel’s 2021 blockbuster “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, the next highest-grossing Labor Day debut is Rob Zombie’s 2007 “Halloween” remake.
Still, the turnout for “Equalizer 3” speaks to Washington’s status as a box office draw. It landed an “A” CinemaScore from audiences and holds a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is the highest of the trilogy.
The film added $26.1 million at the international box office for a global start of $60.6 million. The three-day domestic figure is nearly the same as its predecessors; 2014’s “The Equalizer” debuted to $34 million and 2018’s...
- 9/3/2023
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
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