See Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in theaters tonight!

Get ahead of the crowds and See Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in theaters TONIGHT!! 

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In Theaters 12/16/16

http://www.fandango.com

Despicable Me 3 Official Trailer

The team who brought you Despicable Me and the biggest animated hits of 2013 and 2015, Despicable Me 2 and Minions, returns to continue the adventures of Gru, Lucy, their adorable daughters—Margo, Edith and Agnes—and the Minions.  Despicable Me 3, directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, co-directed by Eric Guillon, and written by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio, will be released in theaters on June 30, 2017.

The animated film is produced by Illumination’s Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy, and executive produced by Chris Renaud.

In Theaters June 30th 2017

http://www.fandango.com

Joining Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig in Despicable Me 3 is Emmy, Tony and Grammy Award winner Trey Parker, co-creator of Comedy Central’s global phenomenon South Park and the Broadway smash The Book of Mormon.  Parker voices the role of villain Balthazar Bratt, a former child star who’s grown up to become obsessed with the character he played in the ‘80s, and proves to be Gru’s most formidable nemesis to date. 

Genre: 3D-CG Comedy-Adventure                    

Cast: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Nev Scharrel, Steve Coogan, Jenny Slate and Julie Andrews

Directed by: Pierre Coffin & Kyle Balda

Co-Director: Eric Guillon

Writers: Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio

DESPICABLE ME 3 – In Theaters June 30, 2017

Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GruTube |Despikipedia | #DespicableMe3

 

Office Christmas Party

“Office Christmas Party” is directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, who both directed “Blades of Glory” and “The Switch”, as well.  Their strength is comedy but when a movie is good just not good enough, it doesn’t surprise me when I find out there was more than one director.  I can imagine the back and forth they might have about how to go about a certain scene and you can definitely tell when one man’s option should have won over the other.  However, I could be reading into it too much.  Don’t get me wrong.  This is a good, dirty and off-colored little picture, just in time for your holiday cheer, and one you will enjoy watching if you’re a fan of the genre… but had they put a little more effort into originality, you would have applauded the effort and most likely added it to your ever growing pile of every year holiday favorites.  As it is, this is a one time watch and one time only.  It’s your atypical party flick with one advantage… almost the entire cast of SNL has a spot in the film.  Think, “The Hangover”, “Superbad” and the like.  You’ve seen this before but not only have you seen the film, you’ve seen the actors play the same characters time and time again.  I’ll admit, I love it when I see Aniston play a cold, calculated b*tch but wasn’t “Horrible Bosses 2” out not that long ago?

This is a good, dirty and off-colored little picture, just in time for your holiday cheer”
Shari K. Green

Sr. Film Writer and Community Manager, tmc.io

Moving on.  We meet the boss of the company ZenoTek, Clay Vanstone (Miller) and his right hand man, Josh Parker (Bateman) directly before the moment CEO, and Clay’s sister, Carol (Aniston) walks in.  We’ve established that Clay and Parker love to have fun and don’t necessarily adhere to company rules very well, despite the efforts of human resources head, Mary (McKinnon), but Carol is not sweet on the branch, nor is she thrilled with her brother.  Forever the butt of his jokes and constantly reminded by him that he was dad’s favorite, she uses the fact that their father made her CEO and not him, against him.  After this latest visit it’s time to show Clay why.  She will keep the company a success at any cost… even if that cost is him.  After cancelling their Christmas bonuses and party, she gives him two days to turn things around or he would face cuts or possibly branch closing.

His only hopes of saving the branch is to catch a major client, Walter Davis (Courtney B Vance), and to impress him, they throw the party of a lifetime; two birds with one stone.  Proud of himself, Clay is certain it’ll all work out to plan.  What could go wrong?  The employees get Christmas joy and he saves the branch.  What could go wrong?  Everything!  When a fun office party becomes a drunken brawl with alcohol, drugs and pimps having a bad day, what could go right?  Actually, several things do go right, and they are the reasons to see this nonsensical comedy.  The cast is great, T.J. Miller does a good job as he steadily gets drunk and Jillian Bell is hilarious as a pimp with a personality disorder.  The script has its fun moments but it goes overboard at times.  You will cherish the efforts from the cast to stand out, but there’s not enough of a discernible difference between it and films of the genre to say its worth paying a high ticket price for.  This is matinee at best. 

Miss Sloane

From “Shakespeare in Love” director, John Madden, comes “Miss Sloane”, a furiously clever film that has today’s politics in mind but is not its only theme.  It’s the story of a very efficient and skilled, nay cutthroat, lobbyist, Elizabeth Sloane, played by Jessica Chastain, who takes no prisoners when she wants to win for a client, putting any and everything in peril, including friendships, to do so.  One thing the film does more than anything, especially at a time when the country seems to really need it, is make it clear to a filmgoer exactly what a lobbyist does.  Let’s start with the definition of a lobbyist; one who engages in “lobbying”; trying to influence public officials to support a position on legislation.  It’s fairly obvious where the term may have derived from which is from these particular individuals waiting in the lobby outside a public official’s office.  Yes.  A story about a lobbyist just became compelling

Screenwriter Jonathan Perera penned such a monumental script that Madden had to direct and knew right away who to cast.  It’s so intense that he knew the very diverse Chastain had to be in the lead role.  He had been searching for the right project for her and this was it.  Of her as Sloane he told me, ‘Okay, now we have it!’  You’ll agree when you see her transformative performance; the best I’ve seen from her to date. 

This will most likely be considered a political thriller as it centers on the D.C. lives of lawyers and lobbyists but it’s much more.  Sloane is a master manipulator and at the heart of this movie is the ambition within her to win at any cost.  This cold, hard woman who could be placed in any position, anywhere; who would have any ruler at her feet, doesn’t have to be pegged into a certain hole nor does the film.  It’s a thriller, plain and simple and you get to see Chastain work both ends of the spectrum.  I’ll let you discover that on your own.  There is so much I want to tell you but I refuse to spoil it all the same.

“Chastain will get an Oscar nod.  Her character is brilliant and her performance is, possibly, twice as good as the film.”
Shari K. Green

Sr. Film Writer and Community Manager, tmc.io

Madden’s cast is exceptional.  Chastain will get an Oscar nod.  Her character is brilliant and her performance is, possibly, twice as good as the film as she goes deep to find this steely woman inside of her.  Perhaps some of the tedious language of the political rhetoric in the film would have you thinking you’d rather skip this movie.  Don’t make that mistake.  A lobbyist advocating for or against gun control may be a point in the film; it’s no way the main topic but rather a catalyst to move Miss Sloane forward.  The pacing of the movie is such that you’re always consumed, helped by Madden’s foresight to capture you further with the perfectly chosen music so make “Miss Sloane” your choice this weekend at the theatre… no waiting until Netflix for this one.  

jackie

Jackie

“Jackie” is a film about what Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy had to endure directly after the assassination of not just the President of the United States of America, the country she loved so much and the man she most admired, but the assassination of her husband, Jack Kennedy, who was that President.  It’s an accurate portrayal of a woman in agony.  She loses the husband she always had to share with the world and has to share the pain of this, as well.  Nothing can be personal; nothing private.  The delicate nature of the story itself is handled beautifully.  To your joy, what is evident from the first moment she speaks is that Portman will not only get a Best Actress nomination but quite possibly win the Oscar this year.  She is Jackie. 

To begin the film the theatre goes dark and sounds of gun shots fill the house.  It’s November 22, 1963.  Dallas.  We also spend time in 1961 when the First Lady is giving a tour of the White House.  This is broadcast on television and is, some would consider, the defining moment for the American people, who fell in love with Jackie when Kennedy first took office, that she was their queen.  Why we’re flashing back to her life becomes clear when we are suddenly in a room on her estate in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts with “the journalist” (Crudup) from Life Magazine who is there to talk to her for his publication about the assassination and her life since. 

Many have told the Kennedy stories in books and on film but not so have they delved quite so deeply into the woman behind the man especially when it comes to touching the sensitive subject of her life directly after the his death. 

Quite addled, she clings to what she has left of the soon to be past position she held of First Lady with more than high acclaim in the world.  There are key moments in the film where we see her pain and if you’ve done any Kennedy reading you’ll recognize the truth telling of this piece, especially about why she wore her blood-stained dress, ‘Let them see what they’ve done’, and how difficult it became for, not only her, but for the Johnsons’ to get her to leave, which is why I appreciated this movie even more.

It isn’t the tale of Camelot but a reminder of how it all ended”
Shari K. Green

Sr. Film Writer and Community Manager, tmc.io

Using real clips mixed in with those of director of photography, Stéphane Fontaine, who also shot this years, “Captain Fantastic”, one of my top five for 2016, Larraín creates for us the real trauma that was happening at the time.  The story may not be pretty but it does her justice in a way that it shows not only her vulnerability and vanity but her misery and contempt for what “they” did to her.  Writer Noah Oppenheim tells of one of the darkest times, the story of Jackie planning Jack’s funeral procession.  She wants the world to know that a good man was murdered and much to the chagrin of all around her, she wants the parade to be long and large, one like that of Lincoln.  Being, clearly, a very intelligent woman, she knew her children were at risk so she takes certain precautions with them during this time.

As I previously mention, Portman is fascinating in this role.  Billy Crudup isn’t really given much to do but be a character for Portman to act opposite of.  His character could have been a lamp and it wouldn’t have mattered.  Sarsgaard isn’t the best Bobby but again, the film was not about him; it’s about Jackie and if you want to see a film where only one role is sufficient enough for the film to stand on its own, it’s this.  Only she is truly necessary to move the story along.  This is a must see for anyone who likes biography’s and for anyone who lived through the Kennedy era and like to peek inside the dynasty that once was.  It’s a brave film.  It isn’t the tale of Camelot but a reminder of how it all ended; how one woman suffered through it and how we as a country were never the same.

Getting to Know Miss Sloane With John Madden

madden If you’re a fan of the film “Shakespeare in Love”, the director of that film, John Madden, has a new release this month, “Miss Sloane” and it’s fantastic.  I had an opportunity to sit and have a chat with him.  Here’s that chat.

Shari:  I want to talk primarily about your casting.  Chastain was unbelievably perfect in this role.  How did you know she was the one to cast for it?

Madden:  We’ve worked together before on this film called “The Debt”.  Nobody knew who she was when I cast her in that. She was right at the beginning of her very compressed career and so we wanted to do something together ever since then and have been trading material when it came up, but I never found anything that I thought was absolutely perfect for her that I wanted to do.  Even in the iteration of the script that I read originally, by page five I thought, ‘Oh, this is the one for her.’  So I finished it and sent it to her.

Shari:  So this was a story you felt compelled to do from the moment you read it.

Madden:  I think, to me, there are many, many terrific things about the script and the film.  The script, when it came to me was, mechanically, I’m talking about the mechanics of the storytelling were pretty much in place.  Johnny had written a very cleverly constructed piece.  I wouldn’t say the chronology isn’t exactly the way it is in the film now, certainly the elements in it, the content has developed and there was an amazing character there but it… the character essentially had not developed fully in terms of… what she did was there but what happens to her was not.  And I thought the most interesting thing about the film was to take this character who is, you know, so empowered so powerful so brilliant at what she does, so sought after, so successful but also ruthless, dangerous, heedless of the collateral damage she causes on the way to achieving the goal she sets for herself or somebody had set for her and finding out what’s going on underneath all of that and the price that she is paying personally for that because she has no life at the beginning of the story.  She eats her meals in some godforsaken place simply because it’s functional.  She buys intimacy, she has no friends, she has nothing that we would call a life outside of the world that she’s got; which seemed a fascinating thing to explore particularly in light of what happens and that– what does happen to her and what she does, and what happens as a result of that, is a massive challenge to her.  The core relationships developed as Johnny and I worked on the script … and also adapted, forensically, the political assumptions so we made sure we had those right.   

Shari:  I want to talk primarily about your casting.  Chastain was unbelievably perfect in this role.  How did you know she was the one to cast for it?

Madden:  We’ve worked together before on this film called “The Debt”.  Nobody knew who she was when I cast her in that. She was right at the beginning of her very compressed career and so we wanted to do something together ever since then and have been trading material when it came up, but I never found anything that I thought was absolutely perfect for her that I wanted to do.  Even in the iteration of the script that I read originally, by page five I thought, ‘Oh, this is the one for her.’  So I finished it and sent it to her.

Shari: She was so cold in this role.  Was it hard to get her there?

Madden:  No.  Not really because I know her and I know what she’s capable of.  We talked a great deal about how that character operated.  She’s very, very smart and because we have a lot of trust between us, that’s a very intuitive process.  She’ll say, ‘I’m not going to tell you what I’m doing in this, you tell me what you think when I’ve done it’ or ‘I don’t know what to do here, should we go this way or that way?’ 

Shari:  I know the answer before I ask but did you ever question your decision?

Madden:  No, she’s got– there are a handful of actors of both sexes in this business who just have the skills of a virtuoso mastery of their instrument, let’s say, like somebody who can play a Mozart concerto perfectly.  She’s in that league without any question whatsoever.  She can do, sort of, anything but the most extraordinary thing is that she can inhabit anything.  There are very few actors that have the range that she has.  When my film, “The Debt” came out, she had done “Tree of Life” by then, some of those came out before our film because did because for various reasons it got delayed, but she had done “The Help”, “Take Shelter”… there was a huge range in there and “Zero Dark Thirty”, obviously, is another side of her, which this has more of an infinity with, I guess.

Shari:  She’s very intimidating as Sloane.  She towers above everyone, whether it’s psychological or not I don’t know but she felt like a giant.

Madden:   She’s, realistically, small in stature but she totally dominates the entire film to the point where you would think she was an exceptionally tall woman, taller than most of them around. 

Shari:  She’s not?!

Madden:  (Laughs) No. No. No.  I mean, she wears heels, obviously in the film, as that character would and quite deliberately but no… and she has a fragility about her that belies the ferocity and so the paradox is that even though she behaves in ways that you pull back from her, shocked by, you still are rooting for her in some way.  I certainly intended that you’d be rooting for her when she begins to make mistakes, because I think it’s human nature to do so but I hadn’t quite anticipated that you might be rooting for her almost from the very beginning, which I think you are; weirdly.

Shari:  I was.

Madden:  Yes.  I’m sure.  And I think women in particular are.  And, you know, it’s partly the way we’ve written the character and it’s also partly the way she does it.

Shari:  I want to see it again and I think seeing it twice is what a lot of people will be doing.

Madden:  Good!  But it’s a different experience when you see it again because now you know so you’re surfing through it differently.

Shari:  Since this touches on the subject of the guns how do you see this film playing in America now that Trump was elected?

Madden:  It’s hard to say, you know, I think… I can’t say I’m entirely happy about this but it seems to me that, that argument is– obviously this movie is, to some extent, a fantasy even because it actually purposes that such a piece of legislation would be under consideration in congress, which was unimaginable before this event, it is now completely unimaginable that there would be any shift in this… and if anything, you might go backwards.  I think, however, the gun issue is not the subject of the film.  The subject of the film, aside from the character study, is the political process itself and, strangely, the film has become richer in terms of what it’s saying now because you’ve seen that process laid bare in such an extraordinary and, sort of, startling way and in ways that we can’t completely track and understand. 

Shari:  Guns aren’t the situation and the political message is there for us to pick up.

Madden:  I think broken politics is something of a truism now but I think it’s never been more demonstrated than right now.  When I say that, I’m very aware that half of the voting population, it was a very low turnout, have got exactly the result they hoped for and that’s an exercise in democracy that I couldn’t and wouldn’t argue with, it’s not my country… but I think we’re witnessing a massive realignment of how politics functions and I can only, myself, lament and express my dismay at where the country appears to be pointed.  The idea that climate change is going to be arrested stopped and moved backwards is shocking and deplorable to me and that is what is being proposed.  As I said, the gun issue is its own thing and I look at that as a primarily, well, exclusively, American issue; I have my own views about it but they’re not relevant in the film but I think it, strangely, the movie plays more strongly– I was shocked after the election thinking, ‘Wow!  Is anyone going to go to the movies?  I don’t feel like going to the movies right now.’  But I think Americans do go to see the movies when they’re disoriented, depressed, dismayed or even jubilant, as some presumably are… and I think it has something to say in that context and so, yeah… it casts some unexpected light on the situation or rather the situation casts an unexpected light on the film… let me put it that way. 

Be sure to read my review of “Miss Sloane”.   You can catch the movie which is out today at a theatre near you.  Jessica Chastain will surprise you with her best performance yet.  Remember, it’s not at all a movie about gun control, only the reason for Miss Sloane to be working.  It’s barely even noticed.  As Madden said, she is the subject.  It’s a great story and one not to miss, especially if you think it’ll be political leaning left or right.  As mentioned in my review, don’t wait for Netflix.  

Transformers: The Last Knight – New Poster!

This summer, rethink your heroes.
 

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT is in theaters June 23,

 Directed By: Michael Bay

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Josh Duhamel, Laura Haddock, Isabela Moner, Jerrod Carmichael and Sir Anthony Hopkins 

#Transformers

2017Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transformersmovie

Twitter: https://twitter.com/transformers 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transformersmovie

Snapchat: TFMovie 

Optimus Prime finding his home planet, Cybertron, now a dead planet, which he comes to find he was responsible for killing. He finds a way to bring the planet back to life, but in order to do so he needs to find an artifact, and that artifact is on Earth

Phoenix Film Foundation Receives Grant

Phoenix Film Foundation to Receive $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

PHOENIX (December 13, 2016) – National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $30 million in grants as part of the NEA’s first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2017.  Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $10,000 to the Phoenix Film Foundation in support of the 2017 Phoenix Film Festival. The Art Works category focuses on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

“The arts are for all of us, and by supporting organizations such as the Phoenix Film Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts is providing more opportunities for the public to engage with the arts,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Whether in a theater, a town square, a museum, or a hospital, the arts are everywhere and make our lives richer.”

“We are thrilled and honored to receive a grant for the first time from the National Endowment for the Arts,” said Phoenix Film Foundation Executive Director Jason Carney. “To receive this grant from such a respected governmental agency is a great step forward for showcasing film as art within Arizona.”

The 2017 Phoenix Film Festival will take place April 6 – 13, 2017 at the Harkins Scottsdale 101 in North Phoenix. As Arizona’s largest film event, the Phoenix Film Festival screens over 175 films from new and emerging filmmakers and holds filmmaking seminars, parties and events for over 25,000 yearly attendees at the Harkins Scottsdale 101. More information about the Phoenix Film Festival and its education programs can be found at phxfilm.com.

The Phoenix Film Foundation, the organization that produces the Phoenix Film Festival, is dedicated to supporting and developing the artistic appreciation, educational opportunities and growth of independent film within Arizona. The Foundation’s primary functions through its programs are to promote the exhibition of independent films and conduct educational programs that teach the art of independent filmmaking, bringing new, emerging and established voices in film to the community

For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

7000 E Mayo Blvd, Suite 1059  – Phoenix, AZ 85054

www.phxfilm.com Email: OFFICE@PHXFILM.com

The Phoenix Film Festival is a program of the

501c3 non-profit Phoenix Film Foundation

The Fate Of The Furious Official Trailer

 On the heels of 2015’s Furious 7, one of the fastest movies to reach $1 billion worldwide in box-office history and the sixth-biggest global title of all time, comes the newest chapter in one of the most popular and enduring motion-picture serials of all time: The Fate of the Furious

Now that Dom and Letty are on their honeymoon and Brian and Mia have retired from the game—and the rest of the crew has been exonerated—the globetrotting team has found a semblance of a normal life.  But when a mysterious woman (Oscar® winner Charlize Theron) seduces Dom into the world of crime he can’t seem to escape and a betrayal of those closest to him, they will face trials that will test them as never before.  

From the shores of Cuba and the streets of New York City to the icy plains off the arctic Barents Sea, our elite force will crisscross the globe to stop an anarchist from unleashing chaos on the world’s stage…and to bring home the man who made them a family.

For The Fate of the Furious, Vin Diesel is joined by a returning all-star cast that includes Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky and Kurt Russell.  In addition to Theron, the series welcomes newcomers Scott Eastwood and Oscar® winner Helen Mirren.  The film is directed by F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) and produced by returning producers Neal H. Moritz, Michael Fottrell and Diesel.

Genre: Action-Thriller                  

Cast: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Helen Mirren, Nathalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky, Scott Eastwood with Kurt Russell and Charlize Theron

Directed by: F. Gary Gray

Writer: Chris Morgan

Based on Characters Created by: Gary Scott Thompson