Even when your job is to dream up the interplanetary adventures of a Norse god, you might still want to run off and play pirates. So during the weeks he was editing “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the Marvel movie that opens on July 8, Taika Waititi , its director and co-writer, would occasionally take weekends off for a different journey. He would get outfitted in a flowing gray wig, matching facial hair and temporary tattoos, and don deliciously fetishistic leather gear to portray Blackbeard, the swashbuckling, loin-kindling buccaneer of the HBO Max comedy series “Our Flag Means Death.” This is admittedly not a bad way to spend your spare time, though Waititi did occasionally fret over the trade-offs. As he explained recently, “Sometimes you’re pissed off at life and you’re like, ‘Why did I say yes to everything? I don’t have a social life — I’m just working.’ But then the thing comes out, you see where the hard work goes and it’s really worth it.” On TV, Waititi, … [Read more...] about What Makes Taika Waititi Run and Run and Run?
New movies from taika waititi and others
Louis C.K.’s Secret New Movie ‘Fourth of July’ Is Pretty Damn Terrible
Whether in his popular stand-up or his celebrated FX series Louie , Louis C.K.’s comedy has always been confessional. Yet following the 2017 allegations of sexual misconduct that derailed his career, exposure has been the last thing anyone wants from C.K. —especially given that his final pre-cancellation work, the never-released feature I Love You, Daddy , was a distasteful movie-business satire about predatory pedophilic Hollywood types that aimed to let its maker off the hook for his repellant behavior . Though he’s recently released a couple of tour specials, C.K. now resides on the Hollywood fringe, a pariah whose inner thoughts and feelings, having been revealed as ugly and unkind, no longer seem like welcome fodder for jokey material. Like Woody Allen , whose Manhattan was an inspiration for I Love You Daddy , C.K. has been undone by not only gross real-world conduct but the fact that his artistic life is predicated on autobiographical authenticity. Thus, … [Read more...] about Louis C.K.’s Secret New Movie ‘Fourth of July’ Is Pretty Damn Terrible
Insidious: James Wan and Leigh Whannell of Saw’s New Movie
Eras tend to get the horror movies they deserve, and, though far from perfect, Saw , a modestly budgeted 2004 shocker from the Australian team of writer Leigh Whannell and director James Wan, felt like the right horror film for its moment. Though unrelievedly grim and set for long stretches in a single room, Saw would go on to become an improbably huge success, spawning numerous sequels and helping to set the table for similar films both nastily resonant (such as Eli Roth’s Hostel ) and just nasty (virtually everything else). Indelicately, if not entirely inaccurately, labeled “torture porn,” the style focused on the far reaches of mental and physical distress that the human body could endure. It was the perfect horror mode for a decade that shattered the public consensus on the ethics of torture as a national policy. Torture porn tapped into the underlying fear that the things we were letting happen in the corners of darkened room in the interest of national security might some … [Read more...] about Insidious: James Wan and Leigh Whannell of Saw’s New Movie
New movies to stream this week: ‘The Man From Toronto’ and more
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 Woody Harrelson and Kevin Hart star in "The Man From Toronto," a violent and fitfully amusing buddy comedy/action flick about a hapless nobody from Yorktown, Pa., named Teddy (Hart) who, while vacationing with his wife (Jasmine Mathews) in Onancock, Va., is somehow mistaken for Harrelson's character: a sort of assassin/torturer who carries out nasty assignments for a mysterious handler (Ellen Barkin). The geography-heavy plot - in which Teddy and "Toronto" are forced to work together, despite profound temperamental differences - globe-trots from the aforementioned locales to Utah, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Minnesota, in an adventure that has something to do with a Venezuelan colonel, a bomb and a severed thumb in an empty bag of red-hot cheese puffs. It's a simple-minded exercise in action filmmaking, the kind of thing bored teens might enjoy, or maybe just fans of … [Read more...] about New movies to stream this week: ‘The Man From Toronto’ and more
Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop-Tarts Movie Becomes More Unappetizing, Adds Amy Schumer (And More)
The next Seinfeld is here, but instead of the Soup Nazi , the King of the Pop-Tarts is our food commander. Moreover, our new leading cast includes Melissa McCarthy , Jim Gaffigan , Amy Schumer , and Hugh Grant . So, it’s maybe not Seinfeld , apart from the fact that Jerry Seinfeld is leading the project. In case you missed the news a year ago, or perhaps thought it was just an Onion headline, yes, Jerry Seinfeld is making a movie about the creation of the Pop-Tart. The reportedly $70 million film —I gasped when I read that budget; all that money for a movie about $3 treats?—is inspired by one joke from Seinfeld’s last stand-up special on Netflix . Now, the A-List comic has grabbed the attention of McCarthy, Gaffigan, Schumer, Grant, James Marsden, Jack McBrayer, Tom Lennon, Adrian Martinez, Bobby Moynihan, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, and Sarah Cooper. Whew! The cast list is stacked, but that’s what happens when you’ve got Jerry Seinfeld … [Read more...] about Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop-Tarts Movie Becomes More Unappetizing, Adds Amy Schumer (And More)
‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ Is the Year’s Most Body-Positive Movie
Huge news: The Minions are back, baby! The little gibberish-speaking lads are notoriously divisive amongst adults , who perceive them either as cute little distractions or a symbol of society’s downfall. But when it comes to kids, they can’t get enough. A staggering fact: Despicable Me is the highest-grossing animated franchise in history, earning over $3.5 billion over four films. With each film raking in nearly $900 million on average, it should be no surprise that Despicable Me is number five. Minions: The Rise of Gru is a prequel to the first Despicable Me movie, exploring the origins of Gru (Steve Carell)’s villainy. As an aspiring supervillain, Gru is obsessed with the Vicious 6, a group of villains terrorizing the world, and wants nothing more than to be a part of the gang. Now, this may shock you, but hijinks ensue, and Gru finds himself taking the all-powerful Zodiac stone from the Vicious 6, which, during a madcap chase, he entrusts to Otto, the newest member … [Read more...] about ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ Is the Year’s Most Body-Positive Movie