In late October, A24 dropped a teaser for their highly anticipated The Brutalist, where glimpses of Brady Corbet’s epic flash by as credits and review pullquotes horizontally crawl across the screen like the VistaVision-format celluloid that ran through the camera to capture the picture. It’s a sharp piece of trailer design that formally evokes the experience of the film as much as it serves as a piece of marketing. The design of the scroll also summons the Bauhaus stylings that inspire the architecture of The Brutalist’s subject, László Tóth (Adrien Brody), highlighting the words on screen around evocations of the […]
by Alex Lei on Dec 17, 2024It’s appropriate that Halina Reijn, the Dutch actress-turned-filmmaker who previously directed the Gen Z whodunnit Bodies Bodies Bodies, would look to ’90s erotic thrillers as fodder for her next feature. After all, her countryman Paul Verhoeven (she has a supporting role in his Black Book) is considered the de facto master of this genre, bringing his penchant for the perverse to Hollywood with pictures such as Basic Instinct. Babygirl, Reijn’s English-language feature debut as writer-director, is less enamored with this bygone era than it is interested in deploying its framework within a personal, subversively feminist perspective. But make no mistake: […]
by Natalia Keogan on Dec 16, 2024After the 1970s grit of X and the Technicolor sheen of Pearl, Ti West and cinematographer Eliot Rockett turn to the 1980s with MaXXXine. Shot with the same combo of Sony Venice and Vantage MiniHawks, the L.A.-set story finds adult actress Maxine Minx’s big break into mainstream films curtailed by a series of giallo-esque murders. With the movie freshly out on VOD, Rockett spoke to Filmmaker about the concluding chapter in the trilogy. Filmmaker: Ti talked in an interview about how MaXXXine is his first film shot in L.A. despite living there for 20 years. X and Pearl were both […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Aug 8, 2024There are few actors more well respected than the preternaturally gifted Julianne Nicholson. Recent notable credits include August: Osage County, Dream Scenario, Mare of Easttown (which won her an Emmy award), and, her latest, playwright Annie Baker’s first film, Janet Planet. In this episode, she talks in-depth about playing Janet in that remarkable film, her elusive preparation process, getting the environment to settle into her body, actually learning how to do acupuncture, why she lets her instinct lead the way, and much more. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify. […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jun 25, 2024World premiering at TIFF before hitting IMAX and theater screens later this fall, the trailer arrives from A24 today for the 40th anniversary 4K restoration of Jonathan Demme‘s Stop Making Sense. The seminal Talking Heads concert film captures the band—comprised of David Byrne, Jerry Harrison and spouses Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, married now for 45 years—performing at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December of 1983. The September 11 TIFF world premiere of the 4K restoration will be followed by a Q&A conducted by Spike Lee with all of the original Talking Heads band members (this should be juicy in its […]
by Natalia Keogan on Aug 17, 2023Just announced yesterday as part of the 2023 New York Film Festival’s Main Slate, a trailer now arrives for writer-director Raven Jackson’s feature debut All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. The film premiered at Sundance back in January and will now hit theaters via A24. (Anthony Kaufman recently penned a piece for our Spring 2023 issue examining how A24 is keeping art films alive, using All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt and a few of the studios other Sundance ’23 acquisitions as case studies.) A brief synopsis reads: A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman’s life in Mississippi, the feature […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Aug 9, 2023Just announced as the world-premiering opening night title of TIFF’s Midnight Madness program, a trailer arrives for Borat director Larry Charles’s latest film Dicks: The Musical. The first musical to be distributed by A24, the film was written by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, based on their stage play Fucking Identical Twins: The Musical. Jackson and Sharp also star in the film, supported by Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Megan Thee Stallion and Bowen Yang. A brief synopsis reads: Two self-obsessed businessmen (Jackson and Sharp) discover they’re long-lost identical twins and come together to plot the reunion of their eccentric divorced […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Aug 3, 2023Ventriloquist demons go viral in Talk To Me, the feature film debut of twin brothers and co-directors Danny and Michael Philippou. While the A24 horror venture marks their first official foray into feature filmmaking, the duo have been uploading action-packed videos onto their YouTube channel, RackaRacka, since 2013. Unlike Kyle Edward Ball, another YouTuber-turned-filmmaker whose chilling feature debut Skinamarink released earlier this year, the Philippou’s prior output wasn’t necessarily horror-focused. To date, their channel is mostly comprised of stunts, comedy sketches, satirical vlogs and prank videos. This decade-spanning commitment to making content is likely what primed the brothers to helm Talk […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jul 27, 2023While rapper Travis Scott stars in Harmony Korine‘s latest film Aggro Dr1ft (announced today as part of the Venice 2023 lineup), today Scott announces another collaboration with Korine (and a handful of other filmmakers): Circus Maximus, the 75-minute visual accompaniment to his forthcoming album Utopia. Scott and Korine direct alongside Gaspar Noé, Nicolas Winding Refn, Lamb director Valdimar Jóhannsson and celebrated artist and music video helmer Kahlil Joseph. A brief official synopsis reads: Prepare to enter Circus Maximus as Travis Scott takes his audience on a mind-bending visual odyssey across the globe, woven together by the speaker rattling sounds of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 25, 2023A trailer lands today for Medusa Deluxe, the feature debut from British writer-director Thomas Hardiman. The film premiered at Locarno last year and subsequently screened at Sitges, BFI London Film Festival and IFFR, among others. Revolving around elaborate hair-dos and a shocking murder, Hardiman’s film is lensed by Robbie Ryan (who’s shot films for Yorgos Lanthimos—including the forthcoming Poor Things—Andrea Arnold, Ken Loach, Sally Potter and many more) and stars Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Clare Perksins, Darrell D’Silva, Debris Stevenson, Harriet Webb, Heider Ali, Kae Alexander, Kayla Meikle, Lilit Lesser, Luke Pasqualino and Nicholas Karimi. A synopsis for Medusa Deluxe reads: Talented, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 12, 2023