#screendaily

[jocia92]

Impressions from Berlinale of Dan Stevens' performance as Mr. König in 'Cuckoo'.

Warning: Spoilers for his role/character.

Telegraph

... As he has proved before (in The Guest and The Rental), he’s a real asset in trashy genre fare, and a hoot as a villain: his particular pronunciation of the name “Gretchen” here – as if it had an acute accent on the first “e” – never gets less funny.

Screendaily

... Also a lot of fun is Dan Stevens, chewing his way through his dialogue and a sizable chunk of the Bavarian Alps as Mr König, the resort’s unnerving, unblinking owner.

Deadline

... As chief villain, Stevens has an appealingly quirky, ironic twist to his evil smile that encourages us to think this is all a bit of a lark, really.

Indiewire

... Stevens is clearly having a great time as the movie’s resident Wizard of Oz, a man who appears to control everything but the weather. It’s not at all clear what he’s actually doing — the recurring theme of the film — but his energy is enough to carry the action through its early chapters.

Little White Lies

... The family are warmly greeted by the resort’s cheerfully sinister owner Herr König (Dan Stevens relishing another chance to get weird)

... Dan Stevens is on top form leaning into his knack for playing offputting weirdos ...

Katie at the Movies

... the mustache-twirling of Stevens’ heightened performance (he, accent and all, is in on the fun from the get-go and never lets up in an immensely fun performance) ...

Roger Ebert

... creepy, crawly German Mr. König (an exceptional Dan Stevens)

... But it’s Stevens, who’s often strongest when he turns weird, who is unforgettable, one-upping Andre 3000 as cinema’s premiere flute player. Every choice Stevens makes as Mr. König doubles as a lampoon and a threat, being equally hilarious and sadistic.

Next Best Picture

... Dan Stevens enters the scene, the real shining light of this film, playing the resort owner, Mr König. The underrated actor is so committed to his character’s bit throughout, complete with a German accent and a tiny bird whistle, which he uses as a tool in the twisted experiment. He is simultaneously mysterious and effortlessly funny and brings a heightened energy to the film, letting you know it isn’t taking itself too seriously.

... Dan Stevens commits to this film like his life depends on it.

Variety

... Dan Stevens' hilariously eccentric villain, the second recent showcase for Stevens’ excellent spoken German after Maria Schrader’s “I’m Your Man.” Few are the films and fewer are the actors that can get such sinister mileage out of a character’s insistently Teutonic, semi-sibilant mispronunciation of the name “Gretchen.” 

Hollywood Reporter

... the mad German gyno-meddler is played with undiluted oiliness by Dan Stevens ...

... König is a creep for the ages, and Stevens has a lip-smacking good time being solicitous but casually skeevy ...

... But in Schafer and Stevens, it has two fiercely compelling adversaries.

[denimbex1986]

'...Andrew Haigh‘s “All of Us Strangers” is poised to be the next fantastical film that makes the academy’s voters sit up and take notice. Part romance, part ghost story, the film is loosely based on Taichi Yamada‘s 1987 novel “Strangers.” The story follows Andrew Scott‘s Adam as a writer struggling with his latest project who forms a relationship with Paul Mescal‘s Harry. As their relationship progresses, Adam finds himself drawn to his past and visits his hometown only to find his parents (played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) just as they were the day they died, 30 years ago.

The film has received rapturous praise and currently sits on 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Many of these rave reviews made special mention of the writing.

David Rooney (The Hollywood Reporter) noted: “In Haigh’s script, the circumstances of their separation at a formative time in Adam’s life are written by a cruel stroke of fate. But many queer audiences cut off from their families after coming out will recognize the urge on both sides to rewrite fractured history and share words that were never said.”

Wendy Ide (ScreenDaily) observed: “Haigh’s elegantly elliptical screenplay was adapted from a 1987 Japan-set novel, titled ‘Strangers,’ by Taichi Yamada… All of this chimes, first and foremost, because of the quality of Haigh’s gorgeous, perceptive screenplay. But there’s a harmony in the craft here that complements and elevates the writing.”

David Ehrlich (Indie Wire) opined: “Haigh tells this potentially maudlin story with such a light touch that even its biggest reveals hit like a velvet hammer, and his screenplay so movingly echoes Adam’s yearning to be known — across time and space — that the film always feels rooted in his emotional present, even as it pings back and forth between dimensions.”

Not surprisingly, “All of Us Strangers” is high up on our Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar chart. It currently sits just outside our predicted five nominees...

This would be Haigh’s first-ever nomination and “All of Us Strangers” would become just the 10th fantasy film this century to reap a bid for its writing and only the fifth adapted screenplay to do so...

...Haigh’s would be the first fantasy film nominated in Adapted Screenplay since 2004. It certainly deserves to be — and there is another reason to believe he can pull off the nomination, too. Acclaimed writer-directors often find nominations in writing categories for films that are snubbed in other categories. It’s a nomination to make up for skipping over them in other categories such as Director or Picture.

We don’t think “All of Us Strangers” will compete in either of those categories so a nomination for Adapted Screenplay could be the perfect way for the academy to recognize Haigh’s work and film. This has happened several times before. In Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson was nominated in 2020 for “Knives Out,” Paul Schrader was nominated in 2019 for “First Reformed,” and Mike Mills was nominated in 2017 for “20th Century Women.” In Adapted Screenplay: Johnson was nominated for “Glass Onion” in 2023, Maggie Gyllenhaal was nominated for “The Lost Daughter” in 2022, and Greta Gerwig was nominated for “Little Women” in 2020. Haigh’s potential nomination would fit right alongside these bids.'

[mrs-stans]

@screendaily: 🗣 "It was a little bit hard to be in a suit," Sebastian Stan says of doing 'Thunderbolts' after playing Donald Trump in 'The Apprentice'

[tomhardyitalia]

📽screendaily on X

Premiere #Venomthelastdancepremiereuk

#TomHardy

[jalwyn21]

hamnet has wrapped filming

https://x.com/Screendaily/status/1840682168915292160?t=oSo_d8VFpICjbdhWUeYzow&s=19

Thanks! But why no more Joe pics 😿

[allthishumanityforfree]

https://twitter.com/Screendaily/status/1750078470120489232?t=YZJEzolgQVMGFVOeH_Vmmw&s=19

Paul-Andrew's hug with each other is different with others

I will forever love this moment. Paul squishes him so hard and they totally wrap around each other. Love how Paul makes himself small for Andrew so they can properly fit together Do we get cheek kisses or whispers in the ear?

[johnschneiderblog]

And in other Lord Huron news ....

The band’s front man, Ben Schneider, has written the score for a full-length movie that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

“The Starling Girl,” directed by Laurel Parmet, is expected to hit theaters around the U.S. next month. It tells the story of 17-year-old Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen). Raised in a fundamentalist Christian community in Kentucky, she’s torn between her piety and her natural human desires.

A review on the SCREENDAILY website says; 

“Scanlen effectively embodies her character’s internal struggles, unable to vocalize her growing frustrations lest she forfeit her purity — which is seemingly her only value. The slow-burn realization that she can keep her faith while also discovering her own truths is also reflected in Ben Schneider’s excellent score, in which upbeat, optimistic notes are undercut by a discordant, ominous hum of discontent.”

You can watch the trailer by clicking on the photo.

[steelbluehome]

"Stan does a remarkably subtle job of capturing Trump’s mannerism and facial tics . . . while keeping the character appropriately life-sized"

ScreenDaily

‘The Apprentice’: Cannes Review (click for article)

BY TIM GRIERSON, SENIOR US CRITIC 20 MAY 2024

Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong impress in Ali Abbasi’s otherwise lacklustre Donald Trump origin story

Dir: Ali Abbasi. Canada/Denmark/Ireland. 2024. 120mins

What turned Donald Trump into such a polarising figure? The question drives The Apprentice, which charts the rise of the real estate mogul in the 1970s and ‘80s, searching for the seeds of his callousness and megalomania without much success. One cannot fault Sebastian Stan, who plays the insecure entrepreneur during a pivotal period, or Jeremy Strong as Trump’s ruthless lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn. But, despite its welcome restraint, director Ali Abbasi’s English-language debut never has a decisive take on the man whose greed and ambition eventually took him all the way to the White House.

Abbasi’s fourth feature is his third in a row to screen in Cannes. (Border won the top prize in Un Certain Regard in 2018, while 2022’s Holy Spider earned Zar Amir Ebrahimi Best Actress.) Returning to Competition, Abbasi has delivered a suitably sour drama that is certainly timely — Trump will be mounting a campaign to regain the presidency this autumn — and the star power of Stan and Strong (supported by Oscar-nominee Maria Bakalova) will draw curiosity. But what is less clear is how much appetite there will be for a film devoted to a controversial man who will dominate headlines (especially in the US) over the next several months; the film has sold to several territories, with StudioCanal taking the UK/Ireland, but a US deal is yet to be done.

When we first meet Donald Trump (Stan) in the mid-1970s, he is an aspiring mover-and-shaker in New York’s real estate world and is introduced to feared, amoral attorney Roy Cohn (Strong). The blunt ballbreaker takes the admiring Trump under his wing, teaching him the secrets to being a winner. (In short: relentlessly attack your adversaries, always claim victory and never confess to anything.) With Cohn’s guidance, Trump quickly grows his business empire while claiming alluring socialite Ivana Zelnickova (Bakalova) as his bride.

Written by journalist Gabriel Sherman, The Apprentice gets its title from the NBC reality series that restored Trump’s lustre in the 21st century although, in the case of this film, Trump is the one learning the ropes. Initially, Trump and Cohn’s rapport — that of eager disciple and malevolent teacher — sparks what is, in essence, Trump’s supervillain origin story. Cinematographer Kasper Tuxen films in faded, gritty tones, capturing a seedy New York during an era of economic downturn which eventually led to the ‘80s boom.

Abbasi resists humanising his main character, although he and Stan avoid glib caricature. Stan does a remarkably subtle job of capturing Trump’s mannerism and facial tics — the pursed lips, the jerky hand gestures, the cocked head meant to convey toughness — while keeping the character appropriately life-sized. There are nods to how Trump’s unloving father Fred (played with muted chiliness by Martin Donovan) belittled him into becoming a lethal businessman, but The Apprentice argues that it was Cohn’s unapologetically unscrupulous behaviour that inspired Trump to lie, scam and bully his way to success. Not that the picture has any illusions that Trump was an innocent soul corrupted by external forces; he always had a killer instinct.

But despite the film’s appealing textures — production designer Aleksandra Marinkovich and costume designer Laura Montgomery do sharp period work — Abbasi struggles to find a compelling arc in Trump’s ascension. There is some grim fascination to watching an irredeemable egomaniac knock down every obstacle blocking his path. But Trump’s heedless quest never lends itself to deeper revelations about the mogul, nor does it suggest how he symbolises the dark side of so-called American exceptionalism. By striving for realism, The Apprentice ends up dramatically flat, the recitation of Trump’s most infamous incidents — including Ivana Trump’s charge her husband raped her (an accusation she later disavowed) — playing out perfunctorily.

As the ferocious Cohn, Strong is menacingly stripped-down, but once Cohn develops AIDS in the ‘80s he recedes from the narrative, robbing the film of one-half of its most dynamic power couple. (Sadly, Bakalova’s scrappy Ivana is quickly sidelined.) The Apprentice proposes that Cohn, who many considered equally as monstrous, eventually realised to his horror what he had wrought by unleashing his pupil on the world. But that tepid assertion is hard to buy — just a strained attempt at a dramatic crescendo in a film that presents us with The Donald, but fails to put its stamp on him.

Production companies: Scythia Films, Profile Pictures, Tailored Films

International sales: Rocket Science, jls@rocket-science.net

Producers: Daniel Bekerman, Jacob Jarek, Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde, Louis Tisne, Ali Abbasi

Screenplay: Gabriel Sherman

Cinematography: Kasper Tuxen

Production design: Aleksandra Marinkovich

Editing: Olivia Neergaard-Holm & Olivier Bugge Coutte

Music: David Holmes & Brian Irvine, Martin Dirkov

Main cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Martin Donovan, Maria Bakalova

[lcndonboysstuff]

Not the last anon but there's a description in screendaily's review

thanks!

There is a very real date rape sequence, in which Joe Alwyn plays a part which will forever banish the actor’s good-guy persona.

oh

[2o3dinge]

The pandemic brought us Farrelleto back (kinda): 2021, the year of The Batman and House of Gucci and faked Italian accents

2021/22 was a Farrell/Leto year first and foremost due to the stellar make-up work by Mike Marino (@ prorenfx on Instagram) and his frequent collaborator Göran Lundström (@ effexstudios_goran) who created the stunning masks for Colin's Penguin and Jared's Paolo. The Batman shoot ended about the time that House of Gucci's started, so for Lundström these were back to back jobs. Because of their unrecognizable appearances in their roles, Colin and Jared were constantly mentioned together on social media for the most part of 2021/22. That was fun while it lasted.

By now, I think that it's not quite a coincidence. If you listen to Jared and Colin, you might get a feeling that they, too, talked about it — with each other…

Jared Leto about “the idea of a mask” I’ve heard about actors who didn’t have the character until they put on the shoes. In this case, I was sent the script for another part; when I read the script, I really connected with this character and I saw a lot of opportunity for heart and humor. Once I started doing the research, I [knew] this was going to be a pretty intense transformation. And I love immersive work. I love the idea of a mask. In the earliest theater, actors would wear masks. It’s not only a disguise — a mask also reveals. My job is to create a life behind the mask, and Göran’s job is to find humanity in the mask. It’s not just about how well he puts together some chemicals or chooses the right colors. It’s really about creating an individual. THR, December 7, 2021

Jared Leto about taking the chance to channel his own grandfather in House of Gucci The Dallas Buyers Club Oscar winner — who is speaking to Screen International prior to the death of that film’s director Jean-Marc Vallée — was originally considering a different part in House Of Gucci, but after reading the script fell in love with Paolo, the black sheep of the Gucci family who ends up turning on his relatives after his dreams of becoming a designer are thwarted. “I could relate to Paolo’s desire to be taken seriously as an artist, his desire to be heard, his desire to create something special and share it with the world,” says Leto. “He reminded me a lot of my grandfather, who had a kind of mischievous charm to him and was gregarious and full of life and laughter. In my life I can be quite reserved and quiet unless I’m on stage [with his band 30 Seconds To Mars], so I love that Paolo was virtually singing and dancing all the time.” Screendaily, January 2022

Jared Leto about having permission to “go completely fucking crazy” on set Leto let Scott know that he wanted to work with him years back at the 2003 Morocco Film Festival. They’d run into each other. And Scott was on the set of “Blade Runner 2049.” After asking to play Paolo instead, Leto spoke to Scott on the phone. “I basically told him I was going to go completely fucking crazy if we were going to this,” he said. “He was going to have to take the cuffs off and let the lunatic run around the asylum, in a way.” IndieWire 2021/2022

Colin Farrell talking about all the things Jared Leto talked about — the idea of masks, shadows and having the permission to let loose without judgment Look I only had as I said five or six scenes or seven scenes, and I wasn't quite I was at the early stages of looking at what I felt, I could do or bring to it, I was at a bit of a loss and then when I saw what Mike did, the whole character made sense to me, I swear to God, I saw what he did, and I just went okay, okay, and I got really excited about this all that to say that most of — if anyone ever thinks what I do in Batman is a decent performance, I'll gladly take 49% of the credit, I — honest to God, I'm not—I’m not joking you, cause there's — you know mask work? And like Jung used mask work and certain eastern philosophies have used mask work, it’s a very powerful way to allow the shadow to have permission; the shadow that exists in all of us to have permission because you're aware that you're not gonna be judged, that you feel protected from, you know, the awful rule of judgment that man inflicts upon each other. Well, that's gone and so the sense of I—you know, conventional logic would say, maybe with a full face covering you, that it would be limiting that it would, you would feel constricted… it was 100% the opposite! It was so f—damn liberating, it was so liberating, and I felt so free, and I felt like, and I may be proven wrong, I felt like it was impossible to be too big — cut to: Farrell is too big— but like I had such, Mike gave me such permission to just explore you know behaviors by the brilliance of the work that he did, Mike Marino… Happy sad confused Podcast, July 2021

It’s not only that, but Colin and Jared approached their characters, Oz and Paolo, similarly - the kind of similar I perceive as essentially the same ...

Colin said Oz is a variation of Fredo from the ‘Godfather’. Fredo served as “emotional reference”.

Jared conceived his Paolo as a mixture of his own “cheeky” grandfather - which he admits - and the real Gucci imbued with Fredo-like motivation.

It makes a lot of sense, for both!

Also on a personal level in regard to Colin’s and Jared’s struggles to be taken seriously as artists, one of the great themes of both of their careers, I figure.

It’s kind of amusing to think about Al Pacino playing Jared’s father in HoG, so the ‘Godfather’ inspiration went full circle ;)

[ladyaislinn]

Was Rufus in Austria filming, p3

»The Illusionist«?

NO! The picture of Vienna in the 19th century is perfect, although both the exterior and interior shots were shot in the Czech Republic for budget reasons. the illusionist making of

Rufus Sewell as Crown Prince Leopold is similarly splendid, delivering arestrained but subtly inflected performance that puts flesh on a character thatmight otherwise have been merely, screendaily com The Briton Rufus Sewell (who can portray a monarch better than an Englishman?) portrays the Crown Prince Leopold as an unsympathetic who shows signs of some mental problems. ~ myfanbase de

[tom--22--felton]

#Repost @feltonfan_norway First look at Tom Felton and Amanda Crew in 'Some Other Woman'. (ScreenDaily) The film follows a woman whisked away to a tropical island by her husband’s work. As months turn to years and unable to leave, she finds her life slowly taken over by another woman. #tomfelton via SoundofSeries on Twitter https://www.instagram.com/p/Co32gTCKZEN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[notafunkiller]

Hmm, I see everyone buzzing about her AMD post, but what I caught was an article about the Independent Film Tax Credit getting the official green light from the UK government on her story, courtesy of ScreenDaily. And let’s not forget the mid-filming pic of her latest flop movie on her feed! Am I missing something, or are we all reading these posts differently?

Oh, or maybe you mean she’s just trying to grab some attention for her new flop by posting on the same day as Seb’s movie premiere? Classic move! 😏

.

[mrs-stans]

@Screendaily: Sebastian Stan on the Donald Trump mannerisms that stuck around after ‘The Apprentice’ “It was a little bit hard to be in a suit” #LFF

[derlejoe]

Philip Barantini

sources:

cineuropa

screendaily

davidreviews

el espanol

latestly

mubi

[indiespacesite]

The Centrepiece interview: Killer Films chief Christine Vachon on the fluctuating state of indie film

Killer Films producer Christine Vachon talks to Wendy Mitchell of ScreenDaily about her experience as a producer, her love for stories, and the ever-changing state of indie films.