A 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, 2023A lived-in, swooning memory piece on the intersection of roads taken and missed, Celine Song’s Past Lives is as confident as filmmaking debuts come. “I needed to invent the way that this movie should be made. I wanted it to be the first movie of its kind to be made,” Song tells me recently during an interview at the Madison Square Park—one of the locations of her film—over a picnic of petits fours and sparkling lemonade. “I think that every filmmaker pursues this when they approach a new project,” she continues. “I needed this to be something that stands on […]
by Tomris Laffly on Jun 2, 2023It’s no surprise that Nicole Holofcener prides herself in thinking that she can always tell when people are lying to her about her work. After all, she’s as observant as writer-directors come, able to portray even the slightest nuances in idiosyncratic human behavior across the likes of Please Give, Friends with Money, and Enough Said. “There are certainly some tells,” she says, during a recent Zoom interview with Filmmaker on her latest feature You Hurt My Feelings, centered on the white lies we tell loved ones about their work in order to, well…not hurt their feelings. “The bad ones are […]
by Tomris Laffly on May 25, 2023A24 has dropped the trailer for Problemista, the feature debut from writer-director-star Julio Torres, which first premiered at SXSW earlier this spring. Torres, who previously worked as a writer on SNL before co-creating and starring in the bilingual HBO comedy Los Espookys, plays an immigrant from El Salvador who takes on a taxing freelance gig as an esoteric artist’s (Tilda Swinton) assistant in the hopes of securing a visa so he can reside in the US long-term. The film also stars RZA, Greta Lee and is narrated by Isabella Rossellini. An official synopsis reads: Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer […]
by Filmmaker Staff on May 24, 2023A highlight of this year’s Sundance Film Festival and New Directors/New Films, the trailer arrives for writer-director Savanah Leaf’s debut feature Earth Mama. The film stars Oakland rapper Tia Nomore in her first acting role, playing a pregnant mother in the Bay Area with two children in foster care who she must fight to regain custody of. Earth Mama also stars Erika Alexander, fellow rapper Doechii and Euphoria season two addition Dominic Fike (who’s similarly a musician-turned-actor). In his dispatch from New Directors/New Films, Nelson Kim wrote: Earth Mama is earnest social realism of a kind that may seem familiar on […]
by Filmmaker Staff on May 16, 2023One of the most trendsetting costume designers working today, Heidi Bivens’s work on the edgy teen drama Euphoria mixes vintage pieces, subcultural styles and up-and-coming designers in surprising and visually dynamic ways. Her looks have captivated the show’s young viewers: Euphoria-inspired fashions can be found all over social media, and now her influential designs have been immortalized in a new book, Euphoria Fashion. Written by Bivens and published by A24, the book features interviews, essays from journalists and imagery of the designer’s creations featuring fun facts about her inspirations and the symbolism of various outfits. It’s a striking showcase for […]
by Abbey Bender on Apr 17, 2023The trailer for A24’s latest buzzy horror title, twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou’s Talk To Me, has finally landed after a pretty extensive festival run. The film had a special preview screening last year at the Adelaide Film Festival in the brothers’ native Australia, followed by its world premiere at Sundance back in January. It’s since screened at SXSW and was the secret screening at the Overlook Film Festival a week and a half ago. Despite receiving raves from audiences, the first trailer for Talk To Me is keeping specific plot details under wraps. Without spoiling too much, here’s […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 11, 2023After premiering at Sundance earlier this year, a trailer and release date have arrived for Nicole Holofcener‘s latest, You Hurt My Feelings. The film stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who previously starred with James Gandolfini in Holofcener’s 2013 effort Enough Said) as a struggling author and instructor at the New School in Manhattan who receives unexpected negative feedback about her forthcoming book. Also starring are Tobias Menzies, Owen Teague, Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed and Jeannie Berlin. In my review out of Sundance, I wrote: The real crux of the film’s story involves Beth overhearing her therapist husband Don (Tobias Menzies) voicing his […]
by Natalia Keogan on Mar 21, 2023A trio of celebrated and highly distinctive breakout movies at this year’s Sundance Film Festival—Raven Jackson’s visionary All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Savanah Leaf’s heartrending Earth Mama and Celine Song’s gripping Berlin Competition selection Past Lives—share a few conspicuous elements: They were all debut features made by women of color, they each display an impressive mastery of their forms and they were all backed by A24. A24 has been celebrating one of its biggest years ever—a record 18 total Oscar nominations and its highest grossing film in Everything Everywhere All At Once—but amidst the genre mashups, prestige star vehicles and […]
by Anthony Kaufman on Mar 16, 2023With the 40th anniversary of Jonathan Demme’s impeccable Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense on the horizon, A24 has announced a worldwide theatrical re-release of the film, which has been remastered in 4K. While dates have yet to be announced, it’s likely that the restoration’s theatrical run will tie into the band’s forthcoming deluxe vinyl reissue of the soundtrack, which will hit shelves on August 18. Notably, the vinyl reissue will also feature two previously unreleased tracks: “Cities” and “Big Business/I Zimbra.” Tied into the announcement is a brief teaser that depicts David Byrne picking up his iconic “big suit” […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 16, 2023