You don’t have to be an incorrigibly dull, low-wattage flatline type to wake up this weekend and say “let’s go see Despicable Me 3!” But it would help. For those with a passing interest in what’s really happening at the movies over the Independence Day holiday, the only thing to talk about is Baby Driver. … Read more
Edgar Wright‘s Baby Driver deserves a salute for creating something that felt semi-original — a violent, fast-driving action musical of sorts. The presumed goal behind Wright’s recent campaign appearances has been to land a Best Original Screenplay nomination. In a fair and thoughtful world, that notion would still be in play. And maybe it still … Read more
N.Y. Times staffers are in the process of posting their roster of the 100 finest films of the 21st Century. For comparison’s sake, HE is hereby re-posting its own grand list of the 163 best films of the century. Yes, that’s right…one-six-three. HE’s list is all broken up into sections. It over-emphasizes certain years and … Read more
Edgar Wright directing Sydney Sweeney in a new Barbarella flick? Emptiness incarnate. Sweeney’s Barbarella could be one thing with an interesting, probing-mind director, but with Wright at the helm….forget it. From my 10.29.21 review of Wright’s Last Night in Soho: “I had suspected I would probably have a bad time with this, but my God, … Read more
In a sprawling Vanity Fair piece about the forthcoming Obi Wan Kenobi series (Disney +, 5.27), Anthony Breznican devotes a paragraph to the Solo calamity of 2018: “Solo explored Han Solo’s younger years, with Alden Ehrenreich taking on the role of the smuggler originated by Harrison Ford. The film has its admirers, but it made … Read more
For years this photo, taken somewhere in central London during a June 2013 press junket for Edgar Wright‘s The World’s End, has tickled my brain. I can’t get it out of my head. There’s something about the communal gaiety of these obedient Wright fanboys, ecstatic and euphoric about hanging with their hero + their place … Read more
Director-writer pally: “What’s interesting is that despite the forehead-slapping quality of Last Night in Soho…what’s interesting is how the whole industry and especially every young exec…they’re all still lined up to work with Edgar Wright.” HE to director-writer pally: “They don’t care how shitty his films are? Okay, the first two thirds of Baby Driver … Read more
SPOILERS HEREIN: 18 hours ago I saw Edgar Wright‘s Last Night in Soho. I had suspected I would probably have a bad time with it, but my God, it’s dreadful. Mindless, gaudy throwaway trash. Not to mention dull by way of a mind-numbing repetition of a #MeToo mantra — older men with bulging wallets are … Read more
Having premiered a week ago at the Venice Film Festival, Edgar Wright‘s Last Night in Soho (Universal, 10.29) screened last night at the Toronto Film Festival. A cool and sexy time-trip ride during the first hour (visually mesmerizing, transporting ’60s pop tunes), but then it devolves into horror…WHAT ELSE? Welcome once again to the realm … Read more
Yesterday Deadline‘s Michael Fleming reported that four contenders were recently screen-tested for the Elvis Presley role in Baz Luhrmann‘s biopic about the relationship between Presley and Colonel Tom Parker (to be played by Tom Hanks). I’ll tell you right now that three of them aren’t right. Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver, West Side Story) is way … Read more
Three or four days ago Bloomberg’s Virginia Postrel re-posted a solution to the Best Picture Oscar problem (tickets buyers preferring mass appeal or FX-driven popcorn flicks, Academy members preferring to honor movies that are actually good in some kind of profound, refined or zeitgeist-reflecting way) that I think makes a lot of sense. The short-lived … Read more
Alden Ehrenreich was almost certainly chosen to play the rogue-ish Han Solo by producer Kathy Kennedy because she felt obliged to kiss the ring of her longtime boss Steven Spielberg. The famed director discovered Ehrenreich in 2003, when the 28-year-old actor was 14, after seeing him in a Bat Mitzvah video at a party. Spielberg’s … Read more