At its Cannes debut yesterday BlacKkKlansman was met with a rapturous response and a 10-minute standing ovation, with many saying Spike Lee’s movie captures the zeitgeist, using a true story from the past to talk about modern race issues and the bigotry of the Trump era.
Here’s the synopsis: ‘From visionary filmmaker Spike Lee comes the incredible true story of an American hero. It’s the early 1970s, a time of great social upheaval as the struggle for civil rights rages on. Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes the first African-American detective on the Colorado Springs Police Department, but his arrival is greeted with skepticism and open hostility by the department’s rank and file. Undaunted, Stallworth resolves to make a name for himself and a difference in his community. He bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan.
Posing as a racist extremist, Stallworth contacts the group and soon finds himself invited into its inner ‘circle. He even cultivates a relationship with the Klan’s Grand Wizard, David Duke (Topher Grace), who praises Ron’s commitment to the advancement of White America. With the undercover investigation growing ever more complex, Stallworth’s colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), poses as Ron in face-to-face meetings with members of hate group, gaining insider’s knowledge of a deadly plot. Together, Stallworth and Zimmerman team up to take down the organization whose real aim is to sanitize its violent rhetoric to appeal to the mainstream.
‘Produced by the team behind the Academy-Award® winning Get Out, BlacKkKlansman offers an unflinching, true-life examination of race relations in 1970s America that is just as bracingly relevant in today’s tumultuous world.’
The film hits cinemas in August. Take a look at the trailer below. [Read more…]
Terry Gilliam’s quest to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote made has been so beset by disasters that it spawned a feature-length documentary about it, 2002’s Lost In La Mancha. In case you don’t know the story, after several years of trying to get it off the ground, the movie finally went into production in 2000, with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort starring. However very quickly a combination of factors, ranging from Rochefort getting seriously ill to a storm wrecking the sets, meant to the whole thing had to be called off.
We hadn’t heard about this film before, so we figure it needs every little bit of help it can get. I expect you’ll only be able to find it in tiny little art cinemas though when it’s released in December.
A few years ago, director Magic Mike and Ocean’s 11 helmer Steven Soderbergh announced that he wasn’t going to direct any more feature films. However, as with his many earlier threats to retire, it’s turned out to be premature, as he’s now returning with Logan Lucky, his first film since 2013. The new movie has been described as being a bit of an anti-Ocean’s 11, with people going on a heist but stripping out the glamour.
A few years ago, director Magic Mike and Ocean’s 11 helmer Steven Soderbergh announced that he wasn’t going to direct any more feature films. However, as with his many earlier threats to retire, it’s turned out to be premature, as he’s now returning with Logan Lucky, his first film since 2013. The new movie has been described as being a bit of an anti-Ocean’s 11, with people going on a heist but stripping out the glamour.
If you were hoping for the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi to give you a full rundown of the plot, you’ll be disappointed. Instead – and as most expected – it’s more about teasing the movie and getting people excited. Plot-wise, all we learn is the Rey will be practicing her Jedi skills and that the bad guys think the Jedi should end.
Although Sylvester Stallone’s skills as an actor have often been debated, it’s often forgotten that he’s also an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a pretty decent director. However, his jaunts behind the camera have been fairly irregular, with the last being 2010’s The Expendables.
Martin Scorsese has been attached to Silence for years. However he kept putting it back, to the point where it briefly ended up in court as some of the backers felt he was essentially preventing it from actually getting made by never getting round to making it, but keeping himself attached to helm.