The New Cars 3 Trailer!

Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need the help of an eager young race technician, Cruz Ramirez, with her own plan to win, plus inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet and a few unexpected turns. Proving that #95 isn’t through yet will test the heart of a champion on Piston Cup Racing’s biggest stage!

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In Theaters June 16th

http://www.fandango.com

A24 and DTV’s The Exception Trailer

From A24 and Direct TV comes THE EXCEPTIONavailable exclusively on Direct TV on April 27, 2017 and in select cities June 2, 2017

A riveting World War II thriller that is filled with espionage and romance in equal measure, The Exception follows German soldier Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) as he goes on a mission to investigate exiled German Monarch Kaiser Wilhelm II (Christopher Plummer). The Kaiser lives in a secluded mansion in The Netherlands, and as Germany is taking over Holland, the country’s authorities are concerned that Dutch spies may be watching the Kaiser.   As Brandt begins to infiltrate the Kaiser’s life in search of clues, he finds himself drawn into an unexpected and passionate romance with Mieke (Lily James), one of the Kaiser’s maids whom Brandt soon discovers is secretly Jewish. 
 
When Heinrich Himmler (Eddie Marsan), Head of the SS, decides to come for an unexpected visit with a large platoon of Nazis in tow, the stage is set for a breathtaking showdown, as secrets are revealed, allegiances are tested, and Brandt is forced to make the ultimate choice between honoring his country and following his heart. 

Directed By: David Leveaux
Written By:  Simon Burke
Produced By: Lou Pitt, Judy Tossell
Starring:  Christopher Plummer, Lily James, Jai Courtney, Janet McTeer, Eddie Marsan
DTV Release Date: April 27, 2017
Theatrical Release Date: June 2, 2017
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rating:  R

In theaters June 2nd

http://www.fandango.com

Kingsman: The Golden Circle Trailer

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Written By: Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn, based on the comic book “The Secret Service” by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons

Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, with Sir Elton John, and Channing Tatum, and Jeff Bridges

 SYNOPSIS

“Kingsman: The Secret Service” introduced the world to Kingsman – an independent, international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, whose ultimate goal is to keep the world safe. In “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” our heroes face a new challenge. When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, their journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US called Statesman, dating back to the day they were both founded. In a new adventure that tests their agents’ strength and wits to the limit, these two elite secret organizations band together to defeat a ruthless common enemy, in order to save the world, something that’s becoming a bit of a habit for Eggsy…

 

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE Official Channels

SITE:http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/kingsman-the-golden-circle 

FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/KingsmanMovie 

TWITTER:https://twitter.com/kingsmanmovie 

INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/kingsmanmovie

#Kingsman

In Theaters Sept. 22nd

http://www.fandango.com

Free Fire Movie Review

Free Fire is another terrific A24 release.  They seem to be cornering the market on must see films.  With outstanding and unique movies such as Room, Locke, The Lobster, The End of the Tour, American Honey and the 2016 Academy Award winning best picture, Moonlight, all which were well received when released, it seems A24 isn’t afraid to take a chance on something out of the norm… and we’re all the better for it.

Much in the same way that Pulp Fiction captured its audience by being surprisingly and overwhelmingly unconventional, Free Fire does that same thing.  If people are telling you to see this film, as I am now, listen to them.

It’s a fun movie with characters that are so well defined they grab you right away and you never once want them to let you go… and they don’t.  The acting is unbelievable.  The talent who worked from this uncommonly witty script was perfectly cast, never dropping character or ever releasing you from the story they’ve pulled you into until the credits roll.

Sharlto Copley and his group play gunrunners selling guns on the black market.  He is almost the singular reason to watch this film.  His Vern is the epitome of the word coward yet he hides behind a thin veneer of self-possessed hooligan that anyone can see straight through.  On this night, they are selling guns to an IRA buyer by the name of Chris (Murphy) and his group.  They are led into an old warehouse to meet Vern by a well-dressed, slick talker named Ord (Hammer) who sets the rules for the meeting.  Not long into the meeting… something goes wrong.  Once this happens, the film becomes a free-for-all where ridiculously hilarious words are exchanged as the two groups begin to also fire at one another.

Not wanting to reveal too much of the plot to encourage your interest in seeing this than there needs to be, I will say that if comedy plus action is your thing then there’s no way you can go wrong by giving this movie your full and immediate attention at the theatre today.  Armie Hammer is outstanding handling the dialogue with his brand of dry humor. 

Brie Larson, the only woman in the cast (and don’t think that isn’t addressed) who tries her best to calm the situation, gives the film that ladylike touch of femininity only a brave yet tender woman can bring.  I don’t have the space to tell you about everyone else.  There isn’t one character who’ll disappoint.

I can’t say enough about Free Fall and I do realize that I’ve barely said a thing but you’ll have to trust me on this one… this is insanely funny!  It’s a powerfully strong comedy that centers around an epic shootout where the characters screaming insults back and forth escalate the situation to the point of being barbaric.  It’s genius.  There are so many erratic, off the wall moments in this film that you’ll be turning around planning on seeing it a second time so that you can catch all the ones you missed.  Well done Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump for this magnificent movie.

Born In China Movie Review

In this beautiful Disneynature documentary, we find ourselves in China.  We meet a female Snow Leopard named Dewa, alone with her babies, an over-protective Giant Panda named Ya Ya and her cub Mei Mei, a Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey by the name of Tao Tao, who has anxiety over his new sister and chiru the Tibetan Antelope.  The gorgeous land they live in is an untouched region of China, away from the influence of the human race where animals are left to their own devices where their biggest worries are the elements and sets of teeth or claws belonging to their natural predators, not guns and man.

The film cycles through the four seasons with these four sets of animals.  A bit of a warning, Born in China even touches on the subject of death.  However, to help with what may hurt a little during this time, director Chuan Lu, known as one of the best young directors in China at the moment, reminds us of something the Chinese have always believed in… reincarnation.  This is where the bird the Crane comes in.  They claim the Crane, which he shoots beautifully, carries the soul from this life to the next.  Subscribing to this point of view will help take out the sting a little bit.

What the film seems to be doing is pointing out to us and even educating our kids about the fact that animals aren’t that different from us.  They feel as we do, they love like we do and they have a right to exist, as do we all.  Sometimes people need to be reminded that ours is not the only lives that matter.  Leave it to Disneynature to find an exquisite and entertaining way to send us that message and at what seems to be the perfect time.

The footage took four years for the film crew, living through the difficulties in climate and terrain, to capture these amazing moments for us to witness.  Some images have been captured for the first time which is mindblowing in and of itself.  You’ll enjoy Krasinski narration, often throwing in some of the animals attitudes.  Tao Tao would prefer to hang out with his friends, The Lost Boys than with family when his horrible sister, who steals all of his love, is born.  This is particularly adorable but he learns a hard lesson about his decision.  Ya Ya’s cub rolling down a hill after its first attempt at climbing is too cute but also heartbreaking because you know the anguish Ya Ya is experiencing.  Dawa trying to fight off hunger for her and her cubs is painful to watch as an injury makes the quest for food nearly impossible.

The movie is glorious.  It’s touching and you have to see it on the big screen.  Every moment that the filmmakers spent, waiting through a climate that changed every thirty minutes, is well worth your time seeing, to be a part of and to experience.  Stay during the closing credits.  Here they shared some moments they went through to make this film for you.  Gems await you that are almost as fun as any moment in the film itself.

Interview with Justin Barber of Phoenix Forgotten

Phoenix Forgotten is Based on the shocking, true events of March 13th, 1997, when several mysterious lights appeared over Phoenix, Arizona. This unprecedented and inexplicable phenomenon became known as “The Phoenix Lights”, and remains the most famous and widely viewed UFO sighting in history.  Phoenix Forgotten tells the story of three teens who went into the desert shortly after the incident, hoping to document the strange events occurring in their town.  They disappeared that night and were never seen again.  Now, on the twentieth anniversary of their disappearance, unseen footage has finally been discovered, chronicling the final hours of their fateful expedition. For the first time ever, the truth will be revealed…

A week ago, I had the pleasure of chatting a bit with the director of this sci-fi/ thriller, Justin Barber.  He was charming, open and very excited that the release date of his feature was drawing near.  I told him what I thought about the very idea of the film and why I felt that way and he replied that since making the film he’s heard about so many experiences people have had, even his crew, and he tried his best to get the feeling people expressed to him into the movie.  To start us off, I couldn’t help but ask him about himself.

 

Shari: Have you ever witnessed anything?

Justin: I have actually.  It was when I was in a cabin in South Africa with my brother when I was in my twenties.  It was in a rural area and we’re staying in a lodge; it’s kind of rustic.  In the middle of the night, I was awake and reading and my brother was across the room asleep.  A bright light shone into the room.  There were already sheer curtains so I couldn’t see outside but I could definitely see the light source as it shone in and it cast shadows across the room.  It seemed to be from an elevated position, shining down.  And then it shifted.  The light source moved and the shadows swept across the room I just remember distinctly seeing the light move across my brother’s face as he slept.  I didn’t hear anything; I didn’t hear the sound of a truck or anything but after about 3 seconds it was gone.  It freaked me out so much that I rustled him awake.  I felt rather silly.  I don’t know what it was.  In retrospect, it could have been a truck or something with its bright lights and I couldn’t hear it but it definitely freaked me out at the time.

 

Shari: How would you describe the film?

Justin: This movie, at first, is a documentary with a big twist in the middle and it becomes a more straight up found footage ride.  You experience everything through the characters.  If they don’t see it, you don’t see it and in a lot of ways, it makes it scarier from a suspense standpoint.

 

Shari:  What else makes some of your found footage sequences different from the rest?

Justin:  We have some new things you haven’t seen but in the end what elevates the movie is the cast.  I think the cast is really stellar.  The actors did an amazing job with their characters.  They just wanted to make a good movie.  I do like horror movies and movies of this nature because of the suspense and because of the scares but often with this type of movie, the characters don’t seem very memorable.  I wanted to make a movie where the character was more fleshed out and where you care about them more… where they’re a little more distinct so that when they are in the more tense situations, the movie is more powerful.  I think that’s where we succeeded.  I think that characters are a little more original and I think the actors (thinks) the cast was just stellar.  That’s what sets it apart.  In terms of originality, I thought it would be great to make a found footage Close Encounters, the Spielberg movie, but I was also inspired by more contemporary documentaries.  I think we’re sort of in a Renaissance in science-fiction right now which is great to see a lot of original sci-fi in ways we haven’t seen in the past but we’re also in a Renaissance of documentaries.  There’s a lot of cool documentary projects kind of hitting the mainstream in a way they haven’t in the past.  You have Making of a Murderer, you have Jinx, on HBO, so we kind of drill in all of those things in the first half of the movie.  Make it a little bit different than something that’s a shaky cam for ninety minutes, you know? 

 

Shari: A line in the film is that the government has been lying about UFO’s for fifty years.  Do you believe that?

Justin: Well, I put a lot of real people in the movie so there’s a documentary vibe and I had the character Josh ask people, ‘Do you think the government is lying about this?’ Without skipping a beat they were like, ‘Of course.  The government lies about everything.’  That was a very common sentiment from the people on the street who were willing to talk to us.  A lot of it was in Arizona.  We did spend some time in Phoenix trying to get to the bottom of this.  We did treat the subject matter as if we were making a real documentary.  But personally… I think the actual facts always come out later.  Regarding the Phoenix Lights, we are still waiting to see what it really was.  So, do I think there are things they’re not telling us?  Of course, I think that’s the case.  Do I think that they’re covering up actual aliens or actual UFO’s?  I don’t know about that but I do believe that there’s life out there… but I also kinda believe that, you know, often UFO on a radar is a distraction from something else they don’t want us to know.  Look over there, don’t look over here.

The story isn’t real but he treats it as though it really happened.  There’s actual news footage about the mysterious lights but the rest of it is fiction.  Having the actual news footage to play off of makes his story that much more believable and that much more fun to watch.

 

Shari: People are really going to appreciate your attempt at authenticity.

Justin: Close Encounters was a big inspiration for us but also the movie Catfish.  T.S. (Nowlin, writer) and Wes (Ball, producer) were in their office one night and were really taken with how it (Catfish) felt like this was real, and I’m actually suspect to this day (laughs) but it was that level of authenticity that I respect… and the original Blair Witch had that.  I was really impressed with how believable it was.  So when these kids go missing, law enforcement sets out to find them and we interview people who were involved in that search for these fictional kids but the people I interviewed are real police officers.  One of the guys is a private investigator in Phoenix.  A real private investigator who I made a case file for, which he studied; and then the character in the film who plays a filmmaker, I just did a real interview between them and she asked him these questions pertaining to the case and he went with it.  It was amazing.  We did a lot of things like that to catch the authenticity.

 

Shari: What was the biggest challenge and why?

Justin: Blair Witch was still one of the scariest movies I’ve seen.  That being said, it’s a genre UFO movie and I wanted to do as much practically as possible.  I love the ending of Blair Witch a lot.  I think it’s really full but there were some people that were probably a little put off by it, I think.  So, we just wanted to ride that line a little bit and we wanted to not show everything but it’s a genre UFO movie, you want to have a little bit of a payoff so, we do show… we do have a big finish but I wanted to do as much on camera as possible.  We found this great guy named Joe Pancake.  Joe Pancake is a special effects guy and I got connected to him through one of our guys at ScottFree and he works on huge movies.  I mean, he does big stuff.  He’s the guy you go to when you need a Transformer footprint.  He was willing to help us out with our movie, which is very small.  He went above and beyond what our budget was and helped us with some really cool, practical gags.  The thing about making a found footage movie in this day and age is that the cameras are totally disposable.  I got to destroy a lot of cameras to get some of these gag shots; my apartment is sort of a graveyard of broken cameras, but there are digital sections.   Some things you can’t do in real life, but I always try to at least ground it in a place with the actor where there’s real stuff going on and then add it later into the computer.  In a way, the challenge was that… it was meant to be a documentary and getting the actors to wrap their head around that… it took a lot of work to get them there; getting the authenticity of the modern day documentary moments I think was the most challenging in a way to make it believable but I think we did get there.  As far as with the found footage stuff… in a way that was easier because we did try to make it real for the actors with the practical effects so when they’re playing that fear, they’re able to react to things that are actually happening.

 

Shari: What drew Ridley Scott to the project?

Justin: T.S. Nowlin has worked on other stuff for ScottFree and just happened to be in a position where he could pitch this movie to Ridley and he really liked it.  What I learned in the course of making this movie is that Ridley is really invested in helping young filmmakers.  Conceptually, it was something he really liked.  I think he liked the idea of a found footage Close Encounters.  While I was making this movie, he was making his Alien movie but he was always available to offer his input.  Everybody across the board, from Ridley and the producers at Cinelou, all the way down to the cast and crew… this is the kind of movie that now when I look back I can see everybody in it.  It was a great team effort.  Everybody really contributed in one way or another and that’s something I’m really proud of; how everybody handled it.  From the top down.

 

When I first start talking to the extremely friendly Barber and considering the subject matter, I couldn’t help but mention something from his film that had happened to me in Northern AZ; because it was very similar to what he has his characters experiencing in the film.  I had always thought what I saw was odd and at the time I was frightened but that’s about as far as I go.  I thought it was fun to tell him and now you know so if anything odd has ever happened to you, maybe you’re not crazy?  Maybe we really are being watched.  Never know, right?  Regardless, watching sci-fi thrillers paint a story is a nice, safe way to enjoy the idea.  Phoenix Forgotten comes out today.  Enjoy!

Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer Movie Review

Norman is the new film by Academy Award® nominated director Joseph Cedar.  In my opinion, having been only nominated could change with this absorbing and compelling narrative.  The film is remarkable.  Immediately, the title may lead you astray.  You’ll think this is just a story about a simple, meek and non-threatening older man named Norman Oppenheimer (Gere), which is a brilliant maneuver on the part of Cedar, who also wrote and produced the movie, to set you at ease right off the bat. 
It doesn’t allow for the watcher to be suspicious of any of Norman’s activities.  He seems to be as unassuming as they come.  At the start of the film, Norman is asking his nephew Philip (Sheen) who’s a lawyer, for information on a client.  Philip’s client is necessary for him to set up a deal where he can benefit financially and move up in the political and financial world of New York.  He promises the deal is so good, everyone will prosper, including Philip.  Less than excited about it, the dutiful Philip gives him the name of Bill Kavish (Stevens).  When he tries to speak with him we see the real Norman and his vulnerabilities exposed; he’s a nobody with no experience.  He’s a New York dealer trying to get the right connections hoping to join with the right people so that maybe something will pay off.

The film goes into four Acts.  Each is titled.  The first is, A Foot in the Door, because, a meeting finally does pay off.  He meets Micha Eshel, played by Lior Ashkenazi, who is brilliant in the movie.  Eshel is an up and comer in Israeli politics.  Norman sees Eshel admiring a pair of very pricey shoes and purchases them for him as a favor.  Several years later, we’re into Act Two which is Backing the Right Horse… and we learn that Norman did.  The shoes make it into several inventive and important shots.  When Act Two starts, we see them being worn by the new Prime Minister of Israel. 
We move up from the shoes to the face of the person wearing them and it’s Eshel.  Norman sees him backstage after an event and Eshel instantly recognizes him.  Norman finally has an in with someone in power.  Soon, we see some truly imaginative visuals and editing on the part of cinematographer Yaron Scharf (Footnote) and editor Brian A. Kates (Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Kill Your Darlings) to not only fill in an awful lot of the story in ingenious and stimulating ways but to keep us entertained.  You’ll be absolutely engrossed at what Cedar came up with to cover a few phone calls Norman has to make.

Eventually, a relevant character emerges; Alex Green (Gainsbourg).  She’s cold when Norman tries to get her to open up to him but then reverses it on him and begins to ask him questions… questions he should realize he shouldn’t be answering.  Cedar characters are so well developed, Norman in particular, that you being to worry about him; especially as flaws surface, such as talking about Eshel to strangers and his inability to tell the truth to anyone.  It’s critical to him that he is a friend of an important leader to get favors for one friend or another.  Those lies and promises start to stack one on top of the other.  How he hasn’t had a heart attack by now is beyond comprehension.

Without revealing too much about this provocative film or of who the real Norman is, Cedar does an extraordinary job of getting us to feel for the man he is or who we think he is.  He is compassionate… or is he?  He’s reliable and virtuous… or is he?  He’s a small man trying to get something to finally hit for his friends and finally for himself.  Maybe it has or it hasn’t… all due to a pair of shoes.  This is an amazing film with some outstanding acting.  Josh Charles has a small role but is noteworthy, as well as Gainsbourg but then everyone in this cast does an exceptional job bringing this impressive script to life and you don’t want to miss it.  This is a must see as soon as possible.

The Promise Movie Review

“The Promise” is a big-budget, professional production that looks at World War I and how the Ottoman Empire mistreated the native Armenian population in Turkey. It is not a common topic in the movies to delve into the roots of genocide and ethnic cleansing. But Terry George has written and directed this subject before (in “Hotel Rwanda”) about the ethnic killings in Rwanda in 1994. With this movie, he makes a strident point of the cruelty of the Turks regarding the minority Armenians.

Prior to the start of World War I, many small villages in Turkey had many Armenians, and from one village came Mikael (Oscar Isaac). He wanted to study medicine, so he agreed to marry into a wealthy family and use the dowry money for schooling in Constantinople. While he is there, he stays with his rich uncle. He hires a young woman named Ana (Charlotte Le Bon) to tutor his children. Ana is Armenian, but she has grown up with her father in France. Makael and Ana meet, and both are attracted to each other.

Ana spends her time with Chris Myers (Christian Bale), who is an American reporter for the Associated Press. He is there to cover the tensions as the world comes to war. Once that war is declared, Turkey finds an ally in Germany. Turkish government officials find it easy to tighten down on all non-Turks, and they are especially hostile to the Armenians. Many villages are ransacked, and all non-Turks are jailed. Mikael tries to get a student exemption, but he instead gets put into a work camp.

Mikael finds a way to escape and he gets back his village. His mother Marta (Shohreh Aghdashloo) makes him marry the girl in the village he had agreed to marry. Mikael was secretly in love with Ana, but he knows he must make good on his promise. Turkish troops get deeper into the outlaying lands to scour and destroy more villages, and Mikael’s village is on the list.

Ana and Chris Myers had spent time fleeing the chaos in Constantinople. They found a missionary clinic in the hills, where the pastor in charge was secretly taking orphans to a nearby port and getting the children out of Turkey. Mikael’s wife is pregnant and she needs medical help, so they wind up at that same clinic. He again meets Ana and Chris, but he says he must stay with his family and the village. But the villagers are slaughtered, and there is nothing there for Mikael.

They travel to find the village with the port and the boats for the children. But the Turkish forces had destroyed the port and the village, and the people are wandering out into the hills. Chris is captured the Turks and it takes a visit by the U.S. Ambassador (James Cromwell) to get his free. Chris runs into a French destroyer captain (Jean Reno) and convinces him to use his artillery power to fight off the Turks. That will give the people fleeing the country a chance to stay alive.

The subject matter is difficult, because war enters Turkey and gives them all the room they need to quietly exterminate the Armenian people. There is a lot at stake; the story of the three people on the screen is shadow of what misfortune hits the country as a whole. The three main characters are mostly well-defined.  Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, and Christian Bale play the roles with a lot of empathy for the pain all around them. They are at times proud, and frightened, and shell-shocked, and worn down and then happy to meet up again. Love is found and lost in the shadows of war.

The movie is paced a little slow in some area, and the overall length might have been cut down a little bit. There a lot of characters over the course of the movie and many of those who are the main group or in the immediate surrounding group, they all tend to blur into a fuzzy stereotype. The Turks and almost all bad, and the Germans are all mean and stuck-up. The occasional American is noble and good-hearted, and the French need to be talked into doing the right thing.

There are some minor flaws in the movie. But in the long run, it is an honest and heartfelt effort to tell a story about World War I that normally gets pushed aside. But don’t expect the movie to be a box office smash (in Turkey).

 

After the Storm Movie Review

In Phoenix, exclusively playing at Harkins Shea 14

“After the Storm” is a film by Japanese director and writer Hirokazu Koreeda. This work is a family-centered look at the life of a middle-aged man who thinks that his life should have turned out differently. There are a lot of regrets in his life, and he wishes to have things the way he would like them to be. But that is not how it is to be…

Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) had written a prize-winning novel in his youth, and married a woman named Kyoko (Yoko Maki). They had a boy named Shingo (Taiyô Yoshizawa), and then his life took a turn for the worse. There was little interest in the writer Ryota, and he could only get offers to ghostwrite stories for manga graphic novels. Ryota gambled away most of his savings, and Kyoko divorced him and took Shingo.

Soon after his father dies, he meets with his elderly mother Yoshiko (Kirin Kiki). She has a low-class standard housing apartment with few luxuries. She lives on her small pension but she seems to be happy. Ryota thinks that his older sister Chinatsu (Satomi Kobayashi) has been coming over to visit his mother so she can borrow money. But Ryota is always broke, and he never has enough to pay his child support.

Ryota works part-time at a detective agency, and he says it is for doing ‘research’ for his next novel. But it pays him just enough to pay the rent and gamble away the rest. He uses the job to go undercover and spy on his ex-wife Kyoko, to see whom she is dating. She is involved with a man who runs a very successful real estate firm.

Ryota and his sister Chinatsu visit their mother just before a violent typhoon hits the city. Kyoko and their son Shingo are also there that night. Chinatsu and her family leave to get home before the storm. Ryota, Kyoko, and Shingo have to spend the night at Yoshiko’s apartment. Yoshiko thinks that Kyoto and Ryota might have another chance together, but that will not happen. Shingo and Ryota have a time to bond as father and son.

Yoshiko gets to say things that sound profound and wise, such as “You can’t find happiness until you’ve let go… of something.” What you decide to let go of, I guess that is up to you…

This is a leisurely-paced movie. The most exciting sequence is during the storm, when they are running around a playground searching for missing lottery tickets. There is no flashy camera work or take-your-breath-away special effects. Things like would take away the quiet honesty of this film. The dialogue is in Japanese, and there are subtitles, so it takes some concentration to watch and adsorb the nuances of the characters.

So this might not be everybody’s cup of hot green tea and rice cakes. But if you can appreciate a small family drama that treats you like an adult, then you could enjoy seeing “After the Storm”.

Shooting Starts on “A STAR IS BORN,”

SHOOTING STARTS ON “A STAR IS BORN,” STARRING

BRADLEY COOPER AND STEFANI GERMANOTTA (LADY GAGA)

Film Marks Cooper’s Directorial Debut

 

BURBANK, CA – Filming begins today on Warner Bros. Pictures’ reimagining of the musical “A Star is Born,” starring Bradley Cooper and introducing Stefani Germanotta, known across the globe as Oscar-nominated music superstar Lady Gaga, in her first leading role in a major motion picture.  Four-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper (“American Sniper,” “American Hustle,” “Silver Linings Playbook”) is helming the film, marking his directorial debut.

Cooper plays Jackson Maine, a country music star who is on the brink of decline when he discovers a talented unknown named Ally (Germanotta).  As the two begin a passionate love affair, Jack coaxes Ally into the spotlight, catapulting her to stardom.  But as Ally’s career quickly eclipses his own, Jack finds it increasingly hard to handle his fading glory.

In addition to playing Ally, Germanotta, who earned her Oscar nod for the song “Til It Happens to You” from “The Hunting Ground,” has composed and will perform original songs in the film.  The main cast also includes Andrew Dice Clay and Sam Elliott.

“A Star is Born” is being produced by Bill Gerber, Jon Peters, Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips and Lynette Howell Taylor; with Basil Iwanyk and Ravi Mehta serving as executive producers.  The screenplay is by Will Fetters & Bradley Cooper and Eric Roth, based on a story by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson.

Collaborating with Cooper behind the scenes are Oscar-nominated director of photography Matty Libatique (“Black Swan”), production designer Karen Murphy, three-time Oscar-nominated editor Jay Cassidy (“American Hustle,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Into the Wild”), and costume designer Erin Benach.

“A Star is Born” is being filmed entirely in Southern California.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents A Jon Peters Production, A Bill Gerber Production, A Joint Effort Production, “A Star is Born.”  Slated for release on September 28, 2018, the film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.