First Trailer for TABLE 19 Starring Anna Kendrick

While Fox Searchlight as a studio has become more broad in its releases since the early days of its inception it is still nice to see the logo pop up in front of smaller fare that one hopes will be good based on its promising premise and cast. This could all be true of director Jeffrey Blitz's dramedy, but that January release date sure doesn't help much. Given we are getting the trailer in the midst of summer I was hoping we might see the film release a little earlier, say late September/early October, but while I can't seem to find any reason not to be excited for the film there will always be that release date during what is Hollywood's typical dumping ground month that will hang over its head until I inevitably see the film late in the first month of 2017. Only adding more to the optimistic side of this news though is the fact Table 19 was written by the Duplass brothers who, if you aren't familiar with the name, have been producing quality independent work for the better part of a decade now. The basic premise is catchy: a group of people who barely know the bride and groom find themselves assembled together at what amounts to the reject table at a wedding. Led by the charismatic Anna Kendrick who once dated the brides brother who is now the best man this ensemble comedy looks as if it will tap into some of the small caveats of the wedding ceremony that serve to expose how ridiculous the larger spectacle of such a day can be overblown and ridiculous-especially when you're nowhere near the level of bliss the bride and groom are. That Blitz has helmed episodes of Parks and Recreation, The Office, and the well-reviewed, but quickly cancelled Review is encouraging and only adds to my hope that this could be a truly funny comedy that just happened upon the misfortune of a release date typically occupied by trash. Table 19 also stars June Squibb, Craig Robinson, Lisa Kudrow, Stephen Merchant, Amanda Crew, Tony Revolori, Wyatt Russell, and opens on January 20th, 2017. 

FREE STATE OF JONES Review

It is difficult to know where to begin when discussing the new Matthew McConaughey film, Free State of Jones. The film encompasses such a large canvas spanning nearly fifteen years from the heart of the Civil War in 1862 up until 1876 illustrating how, despite the war being over, many people-especially freed black men and women-were still fighting battles every day. If Free State of Jones is anything it is an admirable piece of work, a beautiful disaster in some ways, but more than anything Free State of Jones doesn't seem to know what to do with or how best to convey all that it so strongly desires to say. Writer/director Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and the first Hunger Games film) has created a two and a half hour epic of sorts, but in the end it still feels as if the movie has more to say. This isn't a good thing and it certainly doesn't do the audience, who have already sat through that extensive run time, much consolation if not some satisfaction. In many ways, Free State of Jones should have been an HBO or FX miniseries that simultaneously chronicled the life of Newton Knight and how he seemingly lived for others as well as his family tree that came about after having children with Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), an African-American who was once a slave. That the feature film version of this story even attempts to go back and forth between the actions of Knight himself as well as eighty-five years into the future where one of his great grandchildren stands trial for being a small percentage African-American and is thus charged with breaking the law for marrying a Caucasian woman is nuts. Sure, the parallels between what Knight was fighting for in 1875 and what his descendants were still dealing with in the 1950's is effective and certainly makes a strong statement about how little has changed despite a considerable amount of time passing-making the main idea of the movie more relevant than ever today-there just isn't room for it here. Going from the midst of the Civil War to our protagonist hiding out in a swamp, to him building a community that forms the basis of his rebellion and eventual secession from the Confederacy, and then going even further into the continued struggles during the Reconstruction period Free State of Jones leaves itself no room to breathe. That said, because there is so much there is a lot of stuff to find interesting as well. It is almost the opposite of that mantra that goes, "It's not what's being said, but how it's said," as Free State of Jones is more focused on what's being said given how it's being said is something of a mess.

First Trailer for IMPERIUM Starring Daniel Radcliffe

After seeing Daniel Radcliffe last week in Swiss Army Man it was difficult to imagine the actor going further out on a limb to distance himself from the role that will always define him and yet now we have a trailer for Radcliffe's next film and while it certainly might not be initially as strange as playing a farting corpse it could definitely prove as challenging. In director Daniel Ragussis' new film, Imperium, Radcliffe plays a neo-Nazi. Before you get too concerned, Radcliffe is actually playing Nate Foster, a young, idealistic FBI agent who goes undercover to take down the radical right-wing terrorist group, but nonetheless-most of what you see in the trailer is skinhead Radcliffe. All of that said, while some aspects look rather generic, the film looks like it has a fair amount of intensity to it and could be a fairly exciting drama if not exactly the type of entertainment one necessarily likes to use to escape. With director Ragussis not having much of a filmography and only this first look trailer to gauge exactly what we'll be getting I can only hope and assume that the film not only tackles the obvious conflicts one would have with going undercover as a white supremacist, but having to deal with the psychology of those who truly believe in and live their lives by what they believe in even if it is as crazy as their own race being superior to another. There are definitely a few moments in the trailer to make us believe this is the case and that much of the film might deal in the contacts Radcliffe's character makes and how the nurturing of these types of individuals only continues to breed ignorant mindsets, but we'll have to wait and see if Ragussis is more of a layered and thoughtful filmmaker or if he is here purely for the action such characters can provide. Imperium also stars Toni Collette, Tracy Letts, Nestor Carbonell, Burn Gorman, Sam Trammell, and opens on August 19th, 2016.

THE SHALLOWS Review

The Shallows is just about what one would expect from a film about a pretty girl getting stranded on a rock as she is threatened by the ominous presence of a great white shark. The film is both a contained bit of biting tension while at the same time relaying little more than schlocky fun. What allows the film to transcend its rather simple and sometimes inferior qualities when compared to the big budget fare it faces during the summer months and become more of what a horror or action auteur might have produced in their early, limited budget days is the combination of both Blake Lively's performance and the sharp, concise direction of Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop, Run All Night). Sure, The Shallows is ultimately a forgettable movie that will stand to leave no lasting impression and may even be disappointing to those who walk in expecting more action and less mood, but considering what the film clearly sets out to accomplish from the get-go it fulfills its goals pretty effortlessly in that Collet-Serra uses the stripped down screenplay from Anthony Jaswinski (Vanishing on 7th Street) as a way to find interesting ways to convey the story. The outline is familiar and the beats we hit are expected, but it is the way Collet-Serra slyly introduces the context of our protagonist's situation and her background that might allow some of the more necessary things that need to be done when under attack by a shark get accomplished. It is the way in which the parts we know are going to happen are so seamlessly set-up that allow us to, despite knowing what is coming, still be surprised when those moments do in fact occur. All of this is to say that while on its most basic of principles The Shallows should be nothing more than a B-movie in the vein of something that goes direct to DVD it is by virtue of the talent involved that it has become more than that: a thoroughly entertaining thrill ride made credible by Lively's presence and made to look like that of a higher class of story by Collet-Serra's inherent ability to add real tension and stakes in an otherwise throwaway narrative.

On DVD & Blu-Ray: July 5, 2016