Peggy Guggenheim is a familiar name to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of 20th-century art. Her name is linked with dozens of the century’s most notable artists and writers. She was often directly responsible for discovering them, being the first to show their paintings, to buy them, to sell them, to believe in a painter or sculptor. It is safe to say that without her, the shape of 20th-century art would be much, much different. And the story of her life is nearly as fascinating as the long list of artists she helped foster and flourish. But the new documentary of her life, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, for all its encyclopedic knowledge of her life, never really seems to discover the woman at its core.

More than anything else, what makes Peggy Guggenheim so interesting is that it is built around never before released interviews Guggenheim recorded with her authorized biographer Jacqueline Bograd Weld in 1978 and ’79. Hearing Guggenheim candidly recount the many affairs, sexual escapades, and hardships of her life is refreshing and often deeply humorous. And when Guggenheim gets going, discussing a relationship, or the friendly gossips of Jackson Pollack or Samuel Beckett, it’s hard not to be engrossed.

The film gets rolling with a very long and convoluted history of the Guggenheim family. The details are fascinating, especially considering the impact the family would later have on the art world, but although much of the information revolves around the instability in young Peggy’s home, not much is ever done with the facts over the course of the film. Sure, links can quite easily be drawn between certain aspects of Guggenheim’s life and her childhood, but the film doesn’t seem interested in doing any sort of follow up work. Rather, it strives to plod ever forward, carefully tracing the linear progression of Peggy’s life.

In this respect, the film succeeds. Guggenheim’s life was rich with famous encounters, anecdotes, and art (lots and lots of art). Starting in her 20s, Guggenheim became enthralled with art and the artist’s life. She bounced between New York, Paris, and London, shacking up with artists, picking up pointers, and generally living the life that many would dream of. She opened numerous galleries and collected work by a who’s who of 20th-century painters (many of whom were not yet recognized by the establishment, even derided). And as the world fell into the chaos and terror of World War Two, Peggy and her art defected Europe for New York, and fought back against the senselessness of the violence that engulfed the world.

Throughout, Guggenheim casually remarks upon her numerous affairs, often with men (and sometimes women) who would wind up being some of the greatest minds of the 20th. Like many of the expats of her generation, Peggy was sexually liberated, jumping between relationships and marriages, most of which wound up in one of her many books, like her autobiography Out Of This Century. And while some were destructive or could be seen as failures, what comes across in her interviews with Weld is her absolute joy of being free. It’s a refreshing sentiment.

But what becomes clear after a relatively short time, is that besides the new audio clips, Peggy Guggenheim doesn’t seem to want to offer much more to the conversation. It seems content to simply be a biography, peppered with moments of revelatory knowledge, but mostly stuffed with the highlights (and for good reason: there were a lot of them). Which begs the question, what should a documentary about someone do? Fully recount her life? Hone in on a single aspect or time period? And while there is no correct answer, Peggy Guggenheim feels lacking, in need of an unpacking of its titular subject, or an attempt to make something of the facts.

What lifts the doc above simply being a beat by beat notation of Guggenheim’s life is the vivid art, from a smattering of artists, collected throughout. It’s the very same work that often drove Guggenheim, and to see it on the screen while Peggy recounts one of her many intriguing stories is to better understand her, the relationship between herself and art, and the relationship between life and creation. In her direction, Immordino Vreeland puts her clearly immense knowledge of art on display, vividly bringing together (much like Guggenheim) the paintings that helped define the 20th century.

Peggy Guggenheim is undoubtedly a fascinating subject, a woman who helped to shape the artist world as we know it today, introducing many of the century’s greatest artists. But cramming a life like Guggenheim’s into an hour and a half without something central to focus on leaves Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, sharply put together as it is, feeling overstuffed and cursory; an in-depth scratching of the surface.

Facebook has become ubiquitous. An unavoidable entity of the modern era, it has reshaped how many people view the world, their friends, their social status, and themselves. The new film from Brant Pinvidic, Why I’m Not On Facebook, aims to explore the social media giant that has a restrictive grip upon our lives, and figure out just exactly what Facebook is. And now Way Too Indie’s got an exclusive clip from the film where Pindivic and co. take a look at just how easy it is to manipulate your life on the Internet.

Why I’m Not On Facebook follows Pindivic (who has a wide range of TV producing credits) as he searches for answers after his son asks why he can’t create a profile of his own. Built from interviews, archival news footage, and Pindivic’s eccentric quest, the film explores what Facebook has done to our daily lives, and hints at some of the darker aspects that we might not be aware of.

Check out the exclusive clip and the first trailer below. And feel free to air any Facebook related grievances in the comments.

Why I’m Not On Facebook goes On Demand on November 3rd.

2015, if nothing else, will be remembered as the year of the climate change film. Documentaries and narrative features have long been interested in the subject, but never before has there been such a proliferation (the trend, of course, fits neatly in with the zeitgeist of the moment). And while many of these films have been enlightening, engaging affairs, the sheer quantity assures that not all of them can reach the same water mark. Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything is an example of the latter.

Based upon the international bestseller of the same name by Klein, This Changes Everything is a globe hopping, gorgeously rendered call to action docu-essay. The film opens with the unimaginable deformity that is the Alberta tar sands, the world’s largest oil grab to date, the sort of environmental nightmare that’s worthy of an entire movie, rather than just the segment in this doc. There we meet indigenous locals who reside down river and have been suffering from the inevitable spills and leaks. Heartbreakingly, all they want is to simply be allowed to go onto their own lands to asses the extent of the damage, but time and again their access is refused.

Before much is resolved or truly even textured on the Alberta front, This Changes Everything takes us south to Montana where a young couple in the Powder River Basin are attempting to hold onto their goat farm, battling the encroach of oil fields and pipelines, only to have a spill decimate a portion of their land. Also in Montana are members of the Northern Cheyenne tribe who are attempting to rely entirely on renewable energy.

But again the film jumps, first to Greece where a small community is in a fierce and complicated battle with Canadian mining and drilling companies attempting to exploit the economic crisis. Then it jumps to Andhra Pradesh, where villagers are fighting off a proposed coal-fired power plant that will destroy their wetlands.

Each of these massive, engrossing issues are truncated and packed together with an unwieldy and almost disparate narration by Klein that attempts to reimagine the world’s climate crisis as one of “story.” So, while many films are hacking away at the problem, finding smaller stories as a way in, it is intriguing to see an attempt to completely reimagine the root of the issue (without disregarding scientific fact, of course). The idea is alluring at first, but it falls apart almost instantly and becomes an almost childishly simplistic look at a massive global issue. It offers nothing new to the conversation at all, except to say that perhaps climate change is a good thing because it will make us do something radical. Or something like that.

To say the film around the narration is great might be a bit of an overstatement. Lewis doesn’t seem to have much of an eye for tension in the present (though much of the archive footage is impressive). But, somewhere, beneath the painful and obvious narration that never once adds to anything, is a decent film that seeks to highlight the David and Goliath battles that individuals and communities are waging around the world corporations and governments. Klein’s narration muddles almost everything, though. At best she offers up confusing tidbits about narrative and story, and at worst she makes climate change about herself and everything she (wealthy, white) has learned about the human spirit while galavanting through several impoverished nations.

If nothing else, the film is superbly gorgeous. Lensed by Mark O Fearghail, every location is richly textured and vibrantly alive. And the music by David Wall and Adam White is lush, lending an emotional hand to the film when it fails to mine any of the ripe moments it sets up.

This Changes Everything is by no means an unwatchable film. It’s another necessary endeavor, and another attempt to turn an impossible problem into a manageable issue. And despite its flaws it ends on a beautiful note, with a montage of the many courageous marches and rallies all over the world that urge those in power to finally act on climate change.

In 2005, in the small Finnish town of Eurajoki, construction began on the country’s third nuclear reactor, the first to be built by the Western world since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. The plant, commonly referred to as OL3, was set to join the first two units of the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant, which were situated just outside of town on a small island in the Gulf of Bothnia. In the early years of the project, the town was ecstatic to have won yet another plant. But in the tiresome and decisive years that followed, as the construction fell further and further behind schedule and the cost soared to unprecedented levels, tension rippled through the close-knit community, and a global conversation about the merits of nuclear power versus high carbon-emitting power plants grew fierce. This is the inherently dramatic and timely story that the tepid and tedious The Return of the Atom attempts to capture.

The new documentary from Mika Taanila and Jussi Eerola picks up in the first days of construction, highlighting the energy and eagerness of the small community. A major contract such as the OL3 means jobs and money for these sorts of towns. It also means proudly supplying up to a fifth of Finland’s power. But despite the overall excitement, some live in great fear of the potential death and environmental disaster next door.

Taanila and Eerola follow a handful of key players in the events of the following eight years. They also attempt to map out what sort of town Eurajoki is. Despite their efforts, however, the community remains a mysterious and elusive place. Instead, The Return Of The Atom shadows several employees and committee members fighting to keep spirits high and cost low, as their project unravels beneath them. A former Olkiluoto engineer named Arto Lauri comes out against the plant, seeing nuclear power as a powder keg that will soon destroy his home and the planet along with it.

The trouble is, for all this perfect setup, not much ever really happens. At least not on film. Construction falls almost immediately behind, and Lauri shows up at town hall meeting after town hall meeting to voice his dissent despite the lack of interest from just about anyone else. And time and again, we watch interviewees stare regretfully into the distance as they struggle to continue pushing the plant’s propaganda. But never do we get close to anyone or any particular piece of this complex puzzle. And never do we truly get a chance to explore, let alone even ask, the dire questions related to nuclear power and the encroach of global warming. What we get instead are what feel like dozens of montages of dizzying construction scenes to the pulse and grind of Pan Sonic’s overly serious score—a score that seems to want to imbue the gravity of the situation that the film itself can never quite articulate.

In fact, it feels almost as though Taanila and Eerola, who shot the film over the course of eight years, were always showing up just after something interesting happened. If only we could have spent more time with Lauri. The growth of his obsession, even in the film’s periphery, is heart wrenching: he refuses to give up but never seems to find anyone who will truly listen. His is a character ripe for study, and The Return Of The Atom misses its chance.

Running an overlong 110 minutes, there is the sense that the film, unsure of what it is truly about, is hoping to pack in so much from so many disparate places, that some sum greater than its parts will emerge. The Return Of The Atom is a pressure cooker of a build. At its core, the film is set up to be some sort of thriller, unfolding over nearly a decade, with the hope that something great will have happened by the end. But there never is any moment of confrontation. Lauri is, in a small way, vindicated, but nothing grand ever comes of the strife surrounding the plant (which is certainly no spoiler). Nor is there ever a moment of catharsis.

Such endeavors for any documentary filmmaker are risky. Taanila and Eerola got in on the ground floor with no idea of what would come of things in Eurajoki. Certainly there would be conflict. Certainly there would be tension. But the question of what else the directors were looking for must be asked. Did they only want to see what would happen? Or did they want to explore the enormous possibilities and immense potential for true disaster (like the one that strikes Fukushima near the film’s close)? The Return Of The Atom is an earnest attempt to record an immensely important and criminally under-discussed moment in the progression of the 21^st century. But it could stand to have been more present for it.

Jason Schwartzman has perfected the alchemy of the self-centered but likable asshole, a petty narcissist out looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places who, despite his hardened outer shell, really does have his heart in the right place. We’ve seen it before, born and arguably perfected during his work with his pal Wes Anderson, the character might have reached its peak in last year’s acerbic Listen Up, Philip. And the truth is, there are few other actors working today who could have made Listen Up, Philip watchable, let alone made audiences root for such a vain prick. But Schwartzman did all that and more. And now, with Bob Byington’s (Somebody Up There Likes Me) 7 Chinese Brothers, Schwartzman is working his magic again, while managing to salvage some of the film around him.

The beats of 7 Chinese Brothers are rather simple. Schwartzman plays Larry, a hard-drinking, hardly working schlub, who spends his days motor mouthing through one-sided conversations with his so-ugly-he’s-cute bulldog, Arrow. Larry’s life is going nowhere, and he seems happy with that. But things take a turn when he’s fired from his serving job for stealing booze and drinking on the job. Judging from Larry’s response, it’s easy to see he’s been here before. In fact, not much in his life changes at first. That same night Larry hits the clubs with his buddy Major Norwood (Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio), pops some pills, and wakes up on his couch the next day. The one thing Larry does right in his life is visit his foul-mouthed grandma (Olympia Dukakis) in her assisted living home. Even as she continues to rebuff his pleas for money, he keeps visiting.

It seems only by chance that Larry winds up working at Quick Lube, vacuuming cars and stealing change. Soon, though, Larry realizes that he likes both this new job and his new boss (Eleanore Pienta) — a feeling that’s complicated by Norwood’s mysterious skills with women.

What’s clear from start to finish is that Larry doesn’t have much of a filter. Time and again he speaks out of line, uttering every humorous and asinine thing that pops into his head. Not only that, but he doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks either. It’s this unfiltered Schwartzman that keeps 7 Chinese Brothers up and running for as long as it does (and the film is brisk, clocking in at 76 minutes).

The narrative, on paper, makes sense and offers Larry some room to grow, but the film seems uninterested in any sort of progression, meandering often. Granted there are films and filmmakers who make this work, building their films to embody the marooned and stagnant characters they have set out to study. But here the story beats that Byington does choose to hit and follow, often do little to help us understand Larry or help him understand himself (with one particular subplot about his boss’ ex-husband and his petty theft being the worst of all).

Films like 7 Chinese Brothers are inherently challenging to make. Most movies are built upon one of two things: the movement of plot or the growth of character. Which is not to say that films about directionless people aren’t valuable or enjoyable (many of Schwartzman’s characters are in fact rather directionless or otherwise inhibited). But rather that the challenge is particularly great to find a way to invest an audience in someone going nowhere and wanting nothing (Larry claims to want a lot but does very little to get any of it). And, arguably, the only reason we invest in Larry at all is Arrow, Schwartzman’s real-life pet and reaction shot master. Not only does Arrow feel like the emotional core of the film, but he also steals damn near every scene he’s in.

On the technical end, the score by Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio is energetic and subdued all at once, bringing a nice forward push that might have otherwise been absent from the proceedings. At times, though, the music seems to take on a life of it’s own, diverging from the scene to become an independent and less resonant song.

Finally, while the film is clearly flawed, the most obvious misstep seems to have been born in the editing room. Pieced together by Robert Greene and Leah Marino, 7 Chinese Brothers doesn’t ever feel clunky or haphazard, but it does feel lost rather often, like chunks of time have been excised or forgotten. While not quite fatal, it is hard not to feel muddled or confounded when you can’t even figure out where the scene is taking place or what sort of odd architecture a building has.

For all the mess that is the film’s final third, 7 Chinese Brothers remains a light-on-its-feet comedy shouldered along by a solid performance from Schwartzman, by turns hilarious, caustic, and ultimately mournful. And while many might find themselves wondering what the point is, it’s hard to flaw a film that, unlike so many, refuses to judge its characters, and refuses to tell them how they ought to be living.

Often, if a person is hearing they may not think about deafness beyond the concept of perpetual silence. It’s rare in the hearing world for deafness to be thought of as Deafness—as an identity and a culture with a fully-formed language, with artists, scientists, philosophers, students, teachers, and doctors. It is not unusual for the birth of a deaf child in a hearing family to be received with “poor thing can’t hear,” while it is highly unusual for the same situation to be a cause for celebration, a chance to learn a new language and enter a new culture. The fact is, the hearing world has long marginalized the Deaf. (Few hospitals actually offer ASL interpreters; even fewer police forces—though both are mandated by law.) No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie touches on the trials of Deaf people in a hearing culture and on the less than perfect education system for Deaf students, all while brandishing the title of being the first feature film made by a Deaf director.

In truth, No Ordinary Hero will be, for most viewers, more of a lesson than just pure entertainment (It should be noted that the film utilizes closed captions for both the hearing and signing impaired). The plot here is a simple one: Superdeafy (John Maucere) is a television star, a hero complete with spandex, a cape and boundless amounts of energy. He parades around the green screen set of his children’s show with his friend Officer Norm (Peter A. Hulne). The only difference between SuperDeafy and other TV superheroes is that SuperDeafy is Deaf, and instead of fighting crime, his main objective is to raise awareness about the Deaf community and give deaf children a program of their own to tune into. The trouble is, the man behind SuperDeafy, Tony Kane, is worried his work is doing more harm than good, turning himself into more of a caricature than a role model. But while this truth eats away at Tony, he’s content to live with it until his life crosses paths with Jacob Lang (Zane Hencker) and his elementary school teacher.

Like Tony, Jacob is Deaf too. Only Jacob is a boy still struggling to understand his deafness, one growing up in a house where his impairment is seen as a weakness by his father (James Leo Ryan). In school, Jacob is falling dangerously behind, as he watches lectures listlessly, learning next to nothing, and getting picked on by nearly everyone in his class. With Jacob’s IEP stuck in gridlock with his parents, his teacher Jenny (Michelle Nunes) sees that it’s time Jacob got some help. Jenny pulls some strings with Officer Norm (who happens to be her sleazy boyfriend) who agrees to do a show with Superdeafy for the school’s diversity day. Things go terribly. Superdeafy is the butt of the skit and a laughing-stock. Jacob is heartbroken. Tony packs away his Superdeafy spandex and quits the show.

From here, No Ordinary Hero takes some interesting turns. The didactic nature of the film (which, it must be said, is a family friendly film) is never buried too deep. In the early runnings, Jacob’s father demands that his wife quit coddling their son by using ASL with him, despite the fact that Jacob can hear next to nothing with his hearing aids in and can’t read lips. Most obvious, though, is the detour cameo of real-life Deaf motocross champion Ashley Fiolek—a “look, you can do anything moment” that would have been nice if it came about organically in the narrative.

After Jacob and Tony spiral into their separate despairs, Jenny picks up the pieces. Quickly, she cobbles together a relationship with Tony—which seems almost fully based off of the fact that she knows ASL (though the two have admirable chemistry)—and breaks through the icy heart of Jacob’s father to get him to sign off on the IEP and allow Jacob into a class with other Deaf students. The oddest turn of all, though, is Tony’s swift dive into the world of local politics.

Failing to reiterate the fact that No Ordinary Hero is the first SAG film to be directed by a Deaf director (Troy Kotsur) and executive produced by Deaf producers, would be short-sighted. But it would also be unfair to hold the film to lesser standards and weigh it down with qualifiers. The cast, stacked mostly with long-time character actors, collectively turn in fine, believable performances, doing the best with what they’ve got to work with from Taly Ravid’s script. The limited budget is clear enough too, most noticeable in the hollow and over lit TV style sets, though Jeff Gatesman’s camera work manages to give the picture a measure of openness and levity. The weakest link is easily the score. When not carried by characterless rock and “feel emotional!” songs, Matthew Atticus Berger’s work leans for the generic “this is a movie” score, matching the narrative bumps beat for beat, blending right into the scenery, doing little to create a tone or anything original.

To write No Ordinary Hero off as a predictable and haphazardly constructed film would be a mistake. The film is flawed, yes. But, arguably, it does what it sets out to do, which is offer inclusive, inspiring entertainment to a deeply underserved community. When Children Of A Lesser God came out in 1986, it was the first film in 60 years to feature a Deaf actor (Marlee Matlin, who pops up here playing herself) in a lead role. To say the statistics have been much better in the proceeding three decades is tough. Last year gave us the excellent and deeply profound The Tribe, a brutal and scarring film that featured an all Deaf cast. Which is to say, maybe we are making progress. Maybe mainstream entertainment that aims to include and embrace Deaf culture is possible. What’s certain is that the current disparity is embarrassing.

The birth of Greenpeace is an unusual, knotty story, rife with conflict, adventure, and the belief in the power of the individual and the image, all balanced perilously upon the notion that things can change. The same can be said about the new documentary How To Change The World, a film charting the accidental inception of Greenpeace through the inadvertent amassing of huge amounts of money, international recognition, and true power to make change in the world. It’s a thrilling documentary, edited with precision, scored with nostalgia, built from archival footage and moving interviews, all of which combine to create a complex and compelling portrait of one man.

Bob Hunter started off as a journalist writing for the Vancouver Sun. A passionate, startling voice, Hunter understood the power of the media from a young age but still felt that his writing was accomplishing little. What he needed to do was act. His chance came at the ushering of Richard Nixon and the nuclear testing on Amchitka island in Alaska. Intending to stop the testing, Hunter found himself amid a ragtag bunch of advocates and academics, including sailor Paul Watson and ecologist Patrick Moore. In the fall of 1971 the group set sail under the moniker of the Don’t Make A Wave Committee. Their goal was to park their tiny boat off the coast of Amchitka and prevent the US government from detonating the nuke.

Ultimately, the Don’t Make A Wave Committee failed and the nuclear bomb was detonated on November 6, 1971. But enough attention was garnered by the group that future testing was ceased. So, while Hunter felt he had failed, others saw the cancelation as a success. One thing was clear over everything else, the group had been infected by the desire to create change. Before setting off on their next mission, an attempt to prevent Russian whalers from whaling off the coast of California, a mission that would once again fail in the moment but succeed in the eyes of history, the Don’t Make A Wave Committee changed their name to the now iconic Greenpeace.

How To Change The World is ostensibly a chronicle of Greenpeace’s founding, its fractures, and its eventual rise into a global organization. But it is actually an exploration of Bob Hunter, his passion, his successes and shortcomings, his faults and durability throughout his campaign to save the planet. To flesh out the truths of Bob Hunter—who died in 2005 of prostate cancer—How To Change The World builds itself around Hunter’s writings (brought to life with some wonderful, writerly voiceover work by Barry Pepper) and his cartoons, which offer a levity to the oft morose and unflinching film.

Directed by Jerry Rothwell (Deep Water, Donor Unknown), How To Change The World is a tempered, thoughtful, and adventurous film. Greenpeace is, of course, an organization built on the idea of image—their first major success being capturing the video footage of Russian whalers launching a spear right over Hunter’s head—and Rothwell uses this understanding to his own advantage, highlighting the true control possessed by the seemingly hapless bunch of hippies and draft dodgers that formed the founding group. For those that don’t know the history of Greenpeace (including this writer), Rothwell keeps his cards close to his chest, letting his interviews and archive footage play out chronologically so the twists, turns, deceptions, and manipulations hit with the force of surprise and narrative escalation—a trick many docs try and fail at.

So, while the story unfolds chronologically, lingering with the organization’s first exploits, the film flutters effortlessly between an endless stock of largely unseen archival footage and blisteringly honest interviews with surviving members, many of whom are still sore and bitter about one thing or another from nearly 40 years ago. Where the film falters is with its near reverence for Hunter. First and foremost, Hunter is a man, faulted by design, and at times How To Change The World seems to remember this, mentioning some of his slips and cracks under pressure, but he is mostly portrayed as a saint. Yet as the film unspools Hunter clashes with those he’s closest with, helping incite the splinters that separate many of the founders for good. During all of this, How To Change The World takes Hunter’s side, a bias surely not intended, but clearly present. The result is a film that, while profiling a man deserving of respect and praise, feels a little too reverential in its approach.

After the massive success of Skyfall–the biggest James Bond film ever—it was rather surprising to see all the trouble it took to get Spectre off the ground—especially in today’s sequel driven culture. Originally, Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes said he felt “physically ill” at the prospect of returning to the spy series—even after smashing box office records and racking up awards nods. Rumors swirled around the developing picture for months before it was finally confirmed that Mendes would direct. Now, with a new trailer arriving today, we can all be thankful that he did.

While most of the plot has been kept tightly under wraps, what we do know is, Spectre finds Bond (the only-getting-handsomer Daniel Craig) confronted with a cryptic message from his long-hidden past that leads to an encounter with the mysterious organization Spectre. All the while the new M (Ralph Fiennes) takes on political adversaries to keep the British secret service alive.

Written by the same team behind Skyfall (John Logan, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade) Spectre hopes to capitalize on the reinvigorated tone of the franchise and make another cool billion. To boot, the support here is deep, rounded out by Lea Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Monica Bellucci.

Spectre arrives November 6th.

Jason Schwartzman has always been a bit manic onscreen, his characters often charmingly smarmy. He’s quite possibly the perfect example of “flawed but likable”—which, by the way, is a deep compliment. So, while last year’s Listen Up Philip mixed up the formula a bit, Schwartzman seems to be back in his comfort zone with the first trailer for 7 Chinese Brothers.

The flick follows Larry (Schwartzman) as he’s booted from one job and forced to hunt down another—a large feat for the oft-inebriated slacker. Soon, though, Larry gets a bite at a tire and lube shop and meets Lupe, who just might help him get his life in order.

Written and directed by Bob Byington (Somebody Up There Likes Me), the cast is rounded out by Stephen Root, Olympia Dukakis, and TV on the Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe. The film premiered at SXSW earlier this year to some positive nods, and the trailer promises laughs. But honestly, we’d line up for Schwartzman alone.

7 Chinese Brothers opens August 28th. Check out the first trailer below.

Not too many South Korean films make tidal waves across the Pacific, but even the casual movie goer knows one thing is obvious: South Korea knows genre. From Oldboy to I Saw the Devil to last year’s Snowpiercer, filmmakers like Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho have been churning out one head-turner after another. All of which should make this year’s delightfully madcap thriller A Hard Day from second-timer Kim Seong-hun no surprise at all, especially when it dips into the manic, the absurd, and the violent. For Kim, the film is an exercise in tension—little happens that isn’t directly stoking the flames—and in truth, little more needs to happen. While it’s not the most inventive film in its genre by any means, A Hard Day is deliciously entertaining and nail bitingly executed.

Lee Sun-kyun is Gun-soo, a hot tempered police detective having one hell of a bad day: his wife just filed for divorce, his mother just died, and his office was just raided by internal affairs. But all of those events amount to little compared to the headache he has in store. En route to his mother’s funeral, a slightly tipsy Gun-soo hits a pedestrian. In his blurred state of panic, the morally compromised Gun-soo stuffs the body into the trunk and heads off to his mother’s funeral—meaning he now has to bury two bodies. From there, Gun-soo must seemingly dig himself through the Earth’s core to get out of the hole he’s in.

After disposing of the body and covering the damage to his car, Gun-soo gets the first of many threatening calls by Park Chang-min (Cho Jin-woong), who witnessed the hit and run. Now the mysterious and ubiquitous Park wants the body back, and he’ll do anything to make Gun-soo get it for him. What follows is deranged, darkly hilarious, and hard to believe. Nevertheless, the film works shockingly well, even as it dips into the generic and rings one genre bell after another. The resulting film amounts to a devilish ride that flies by thanks to its accelerated pace.

For the most part, A Hard Day belongs to Lee. A good portion of the film’s 111 minutes focus squarely on Gun-soo’s face, watching him react to the insanity around him. Lee is maliciously excellent at the start as the malevolent, omnipotent detective, abusing his power with straight-faced sarcasm. But once things go sour, Lee’s hysteric, one-note Gun-soo is far less fun to watch. He screams and shouts into his phone, by turns terrified and angry, pushing forward the plot, while leaving his early magnetism and wit behind. The true gem of the film is Cho Jin-woong. His scenery-chewing Park Chang-min steals the screen every time he’s on it, taking pleasure in making fools of those around him and never missing a chance to mess with Gun-soo.

As the film switches gears from plot device to MacGuffin to set piece—a structure designed only to throw more and more obstacles in Gun-soo’s path—it manages to never lose its footing thanks to the crisp writing; the dialogue is surprisingly funny in the most unassuming ways, preferring subtle humour to levitate the despicable behavior often at hand. To boot, Kim Tae-sung’s cinematography makes everything look gorgeous: Seoul is lensed with a dynamic flare, the chase scenes are vibrant, and the cemetery in the rolling hills outside the city looks somber and pastoral.

As a pure thriller, A Hard Day works. All the beats are hit, the editing is kinetic, and composer Mok Young-jin’s pulsing score rises from one fever pitch to the next, helping the action steadily rise toward a chaotic climax. Kim’s direction from his own script is, for the most part, sharp, energetic, and full of promise for the future. His interests are clear, and by taking the film for what it is—instead of what it could be—it’s easy to get caught up in A Hard Day’s thrills.

A Hard Day opens in select theaters on Friday, July 17th, and will expand to Toronto and other cities on Friday, July 24th.

For years, the violence and aggression of Mexican drug cartels have made headlines across America, and by the looks of it this violence has grown progressively worse as more cartels sprout up, clash for territory, and vie for power. Still, few films have spotlighted this conflict as a subject, and while TV has crossed paths with the topic, it’s usually never more than in passing. This year sees several films looking south toward the border, including Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming Sicario and the powerful new documentary Cartel Land.

Cartel Land opens around a smoke-filled barrel, with a group of Mexican meth cookers carefully mixing a large batch of the product. And while it’s hard not to be terrified by their ease and comfort crafting such a toxic substance, a voice over explains that these men have to work here to support their families and stay on the good side of the cartels. They are simply trying to survive, and this stark, gorgeously shot scene sets the tone for what follows. Cartel Land chronicles the near-parallel lives of two men, one Mexican and one American, who pick up arms against the cartels, fighting a war that they believe their governments have forgotten, only to be vilified by the people they are laying down their lives to defend.

In the Mexican state of Michoacan, “El Doctor” Jose Mireles begins a tireless effort to battle the cartels eroding his small town. The militia he forms becomes an overnight success, slowly running the Knights Templar cartel out of one town after another. But as their militia numbers grow, their reliance on Mireles’ charisma and leadership quickly leads to internal strife.

A thousand miles away, across the border in Arizona, Tim “Nailer” Foley, an American vet, founded the paramilitary group Arizona Border Patrol. The group’s original purpose was stopping the steady stream of immigrants crossing the border, but they soon realize that the true problem lies with the same vicious cartels smuggling drugs through the rugged mountains.

Over and again, Cartel Land touches on the senseless violence and countless lives taken for next to nothing by the cartels. Testimonials by fear-stricken people serve as reminders as to why Mireles and Foley continue to fight, even as their power grows and the media and government tarnish them. Director Matthew Heineman, who embedded himself deeply and survived fire fights to capture the film’s footage, builds a compelling and painful picture of two men setting their sights on being the change necessary to save their homes from violence and corruption.

Not only does Cartel Land succeed in sheer bravado of filmmaking and powerful human narrative, it’s a masterfully well-crafted picture. Heineman took home awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography at Sundance, and every frame shows why he deserved to win. Lensed with all the dust and sun expected from Arizona and Mexico, the film is all the more biting for its unflinching nature and the beauty with which all the violence is captured. In one scene, as two known killers are caught and attacked by dozens of raging townspeople, the unwavering depiction of these vilified monsters turning into cowering, terrified men is painful to watch.

One of Heineman’s best tricks here is stripping the audience of a cipher, making it difficult to figure out who to root for. The hard, obvious answer is no one. But watching so many men attempt to do good, only to fail so earnestly, helps, even if only in a small way, to make some sense of the cyclical nature of the war raging in these remote towns and villages.

Only late in the third act does Cartel Land waver, as it tries to wrap up the loose ends of its complex stories, but it nevertheless remains engaging, even as some of its subtleties go out the window, forcing the audience to play catch up with some convoluted but essential details. Unbelievably gorgeous, Cartel Land is an important, complex, and towering portrait of two men raging against the lawless terror inflicted on thousands of innocent lives, and the imposing system that traps all of them.

Cartel Land is now playing in select theatres across the US, and opens July 10th in Toronto at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema.

More than anything else The Princess of France feels like an experiment; of form, of style, and of mood. Written and directed by Matías Piñeiro, and inspired by the work of Shakespeare, the film is a dialogue-heavy, meditative meander through a tangled web of romance in modern-day Argentina; nothing is particularly urgent, nor are the stakes ever raised from the bare minimum.

The Princess of France is Piñeiro’s third film inspired by the Bard’s work following Viola and Rosalinda, and much of the same cast returns. Julián Larquier Tellarini (Rosalinda) takes the ostensible lead as Victor, a young stage director recently returned from Mexico with some money to put on a radio play of Love’s Labour’s Lost, looking to reunite his troupe of female actors.

As Victor starts to slowly reconnect with the actresses, it becomes obvious that things are complicated with current girlfriend Paula (Agustina Muñoz), ex-girlfriend Natalia (Romina Paula), current lover Ana (María Villar of Viola) who is pregnant from another man, and two new women, Carla and Lorena. Getting to the center of this mess takes most of the brief 65 minute run time of The Princess of France; nothing is ever laid out, and as each scene unfolds, another secret tryst or complex yearning of the heart gets revealed. This is both the joy and the bane of the film.

It’s impossible not feel one step behind, especially when scenes begin unwinding and replaying with different characters and only slightly different dialogue. But the quick wit and fast paced conversation between these artistic and culturally tuned in 20-somethings is breathless. Piñeiro keeps everything confined and intimate, panning lazily between faces in a deserted art gallery, a recording studio, a bed, and on the quiet streets of Buenos Aires. Filmed as a series of extended takes with mostly natural light, the film can feel almost as lost as the characters within.

While it’s easy to fall into the lush runs of articulate, sensuous dialogue, it’s hard not to feel the lack of narrative tension. Aside from learning the dynamics of the several relationships only when they matriculate on-screen, not much is unknown or left in suspense except for the funding of the radio play, which never seems to motivate anyone at all. The lack of expectation leaves the film feeling turgid. It’s clear that Pineiro (who, it should be said, is very competent behind the camera) wants us smitten with these lovers and their half-hearted desires. And it’s almost possible, but for one fatal bruise: Victor. Tellarini does Victor service in his wanton sexual philandering and the way casually slinks from bed to bed. But still, we are given so little about the man and what draws so many women to him. His charm is never obvious. Neither is his passion or talent. The tempered waves of the world seem to slap against Victor’s nuanced surface and roll right off, which can make for interesting characters within the right scenario. In The Princess of France, it makes for a tension-free and charmless hour.

Much of this might be moot with non-Spanish speaking American audiences though, as the complexities of translating Shakespeare to Spanish, updating it to a modern Argentinian dialogue, then re-translating it to English via the subtitles, and combining it with lightning quick delivery might make for a potentially alienating experience. It’s unfortunate, because Piñeiro’s film does deserve an audience, even if only to make way for whatever follows next.

What’s clear in The Princess of France is the talent involved. If the film is less than great as a whole, its beauties are clear and particularly striking, especially considering its limited budget. The cast do a lot with what their given, and it’s impossible to ignore the moments where everything falls into place, turning The Princess of France into the shockingly intimate, charmingly breathless film it wants to be.

We’re six years on from Flight Of The Concords, and while many still associate Jemaine Clement with the quintessential show, the Kiwi actor is slowly building a post-show name for himself. After a spat of vocal work and supporting roles, Clement has taken the lead in several winning indies. Earlier this year he starred in the hilarious mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows and now the first trailer has arrived for the forthcoming People, Places, Things.

Clement plays Will Henry, a floundering graphic novelist and professor in New York who is struggling to put his life back together, raise his twin daughters, and get back into the dating world after catching his long-time partner cheating on him with an old friend.

The formula for the film follows some familiar twists and turns, but with Clement up front, the proceedings look to have lots of potential. Written and directed by James C. Strouse (Grace Is Gone, The Winning Season), the support in this one is pretty stacked with Regina Hall, Jessica Williams, Stephanie Allynne, and Michael Chernus.

People, Places, Things won some winning reviews out of Sundance earlier this year, and we just caught it at the LA Film Festival this past weekend. The first trailer certainly has charm, so it’s safe to say we’ll be queueing up for this one on August 14th. Check out the trailer below.

Brad Pitt has a thing for assassin movies, especially ones where two assassins get married and then discover each other’s assassin secrets. The Mr. & Mrs. Smith star is slated to lead Robert Zemeckis‘ upcoming and untitled WWII drama. Recently signed up to join him is French Oscar winner Marion Cotillard. Cotillard is hot off last year’s Two Nights, One Day and this year’s raves at Cannes for Macbeth. And while Pitt hasn’t knocked it out of the park recently, he has continued to turn out solid performances in lesser films (The Counselor, Fury).

The details so far, according to THR, look to have Pitt star as a French-Canadian assassin who meets and falls for Cotillard’s German assassin in WWII Casablanca. It’s only when the two get married that their secret lives are revealed and Pitt must take out his new bride.

As for Zemeckis, he’s had some ups and he’s had some downs, and while many like to point to his failures (The Polar Express, Beowulf) we can’t help but love him for his highs, because boy are they high (the classics Back To the Future and Forrest Gump and the very-good-but-not-quite-classics Cast Away and Flight, among many others). But through it all he has been a director shamelessly interested in playing with the tools of the trade. This year’s upcoming The Walk is no exception, with the Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring film looking to be a stomach turning 3D spectacle.

At this rate as things keep unfolding Zemeckis’ project is shaping up to be something special; Pitt and Cotillard are rarely bad (if ever) and Zemeckis, when good, can be film-classic good. So, for the time being we’re keeping our fingers crossed for this one as we queue up for The Walk on October 2nd.

Hollywood is in dire need for female voices—actresses, writers, and most certainly directors. The women to men ratio of those behind the camera has never been great, and while it has risen in the past several years the peak is still pretty dismal. Roughly 10% of the top grossing 250 films released in a calendar year are directed by women. All of which is what makes Jennifer Kent, the kickass new voice behind last year’s horror sensation The Babadook, all the better. To boot, Kent has lined up her next film: the feature-length adaptation of Alice + Freda Forever.

Based on the nonfiction book by Alexis Coe, Alice + Freda Forever circles around nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell and her bizarre motive for murdering her fiancée Freda Ward in 1892—a murder which stunned the nation. Within days of the murder Alice was declared insane by doctors and her father, and not long after a jury agreed and she was institutionalized.

With all the projects that were surely thrown at Kent after the smashing success of The Babadook, Alice + Freda Forever must certainly be one of the most bizarre and interesting choices, one that seems to make a whole lot of sense. While not an outright horror (though neither was The Babadook), Alice looks to offer Kent the chance to flex some other muscles and keep her weird going—we couldn’t be more excited. Though, frankly, we’d line up for anything Kent chose next.

It was 24 years ago that Kathryn Bigelow‘s Point Break helped cement the rise of the future Oscar-winning director (for The Hurt Locker). The film starred a young Keanu Reeves playing it straight and tough after hamming it up for a few years as the time traveling goof Ted Logan and a long-haired Patrick Swayze as the surfer he was born to inhabit. All in all it’s a good crime flick—though today certain things ring a bit ridiculously: Reeves’ character being named Johnny Utah, the whole “we steal so we can surf” motivation–but it wasn’t ever a mega hit. Of course, to Warner Bros. none of that seems to matter. What matters is name recognition. So, later this year the world will get a glossy and very expensive new Point Break.

The remake has at least been updated a bit—hopefully enough to justify the remake. Point Break 2015 finds Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) infiltrating a team of extreme sports athletes who he suspects of being behind a string of fancy corporate heists (the big changes here being the international setting and that they are no longer just bank robbers).

The film is directed by Ericson Core (Invincible), who also acts as his own cinematographer. Bracey—a mostly untested newcomer, his biggest credit so far being G.I. Joe: Retaliation—is joined by Edgar Ramirez (The Counselor, Deliver Us From Evil) as Bodhi the baddie. Support is given by Teresa Palmer, Ray Winstone, Delroy Lindo.

The big question here is whether anyone cares. It’s been a while since anyone has taken Point Break seriously, and this one looks to be pretty self-serious and unaware. Either way, we’ll try to stay optimistic—it’s always nice to be surprised. Point Break surfs into theaters Christmas day. Check out the first trailer below.

Every since the passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs, a whole slew of movies have set themselves in motion in an attempt to capture some of the magic of the man himself. Only two seem to have come to fruition (not counting the 2013 Funny or Die satire). The first of those two, Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher, popped up in 2013 to mostly horrible reviews and failed to make any lasting impressions. This year brings the second, and much more promising, Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs looks to have a more contained plot than Jobs, with the film taking place backstage at three iconic product launches, crescendoing to the 1998 release of the iMac.

Written by walk-n-talk godfather (and Oscar winner) Aaron Sorkin and directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle, Steve Jobs stars the never-hotter Michael Fassbender as the iconic CEO. Supporting Fassy is a great cast: Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman, Seth Rogan as Steve Wozniak, and Jeff Daniels as John Sculley.

Steve Jobs arrives in the Oscar friendly slot of October 9th. Check out the first teaser for the film below.

America’s drone war is no secret. The media has long been privy to the Air Force’s dirty laundry, and lately movies and TV have caught on as well. What has stayed hazy though are the details, the rules of engagement, the lives of the pilots involved, the kill counts, and who exactly is running the show. Good Kill dares to zoom in on the dark life of a drone pilot and the new, “retaliate first” ethics of war.

Ethan Hawke dons a pair of aviator sunglasses and a flight suit to play Major Tommy Egan, a six tour veteran who has been relegated to flying drone missions from an air-conditioned box outside of Las Vegas. From the start Tommy rallies against being caged on the ground. Being a pilot was his life. It made him happy, and despite the risk, it kept his marriage stable, and him sane. But flying drones has its perks. After landing his UAV Tommy gets to go home to his wife and kids. He gets to barbecue in his Nevada backyard.

Everything changes though when Tommy’s unit, complete with idealist rookie Suarez (Zoe Kravitz), is handpicked to fly special drone missions for the CIA. The ever-present risk of collateral damage is magnified tenfold by the agencies strike first policy, and it isn’t long before Tommy is sinking into the bottle and losing sleep over pulling the trigger. As the operations get more and more ethically blurry, Tommy and Suarez begin to push back against the invisible hand that guides them.

Good Kill, for most of its run time, is as morally pragmatic as a film like this—with such an obvious message—needs to be. The questioning of the government’s drone program is worn openly; characters repeatedly find themselves in debates about the killing of civilians and the creation of extremists. These debates seem to do little for the plot or character, except to show who stands where—as though the soldiers’ banter during their missions wasn’t enough. But Good Kill stays on target. First and foremost it is a film about a man, Tommy, struggling with alcoholism, with keeping his family together, and with the ambiguous necessity of killing innocent people to save American lives.

As Tommy, Hawke is at his brooding best. He’s a man running out of fight, struggling to breathe under the weight on his conscience. It’s a performance that could have been one note, but Hawke manages to make Tommy a fully rounded character (unlike his pure-gruff barkeeper in last year’s Predestination). For all his silence Tommy is still simmering beneath the surface, nursing his dreams of taking flight once again, and still holding onto a happiness he once had.

Written and directed by regular Ethan Hawke collaborator Andrew Niccol (Gattaca and Lord of War when he’s good, In Time and The Host when he’s not), Good Kill is a well crafted drama that functions best when the pilots are hunched before their dazzling array of monitors. The script mines true tension from Tommy, Suarez, and their Colonel (a fine Bruce Greenwood) as they question the orders voiced by an absent Langley, knowing all the while that they will ultimately comply. At home though, as Tommy and his wife Molly (January Jones) try to recapture the spark of their early marriage, and Suarez manages her own romantic feelings, the film falters and the tension crumbles, at least until Tommy can once again take the pilot’s chair. One constant is that the film is richly lensed by Amir Mokri. Everything is sun-baked; the deserts of the war-torn Middle East and dusty Nevada are shot to mirror each other ominously, the view from above suddenly terrifying.

Good Kill is at its best when it is unflinching; while Tommy pushes back against “taking pot shots” at people from the sky, it becomes more and more clear that there isn’t another solution on the table. The war on terror has become a vicious cycle with no end in sight. The only question is who will fight that war. Despite being set five years ago, Good Kill is an urgent film that doesn’t look to serve up answers, but instead to incite debate.

Ed Helms has struck comedy gold. He’s done it on the small screen (The Office) and the big (Hangover), and while his name recognition is fairly high, he has yet to cement any sort of leading man status. This has left him to pick up slack in some pretty dreary films (we’re looking mostly at you, We’re The Millers). But now he’s getting a crack at leading his own ensemble in Vacation, a re-boot of the National Lampoon classic.

From the looks of the first trailer, Vacation promises a pretty straight forward plot to make room for the hijinks that are sure to come: Rusty Griswold (Helms) is all grown up and looking to recreate some of the good ol’ family bonding time that his father, Clark (once again reprised by Chevy Chase) managed to create on their long-past road trip to the infamous Walley World.

Vacation is the directorial debut of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (the writing duo behind Horrible Bosses and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone), which is reason enough to instill some hesitation. But hopefully the stacked supporting cast behind Helms and Chase will make up for it: Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Chris Hemsworth, Charlie Day, Nick Kroll, Keegan-Michael Key and many others are promised to pop up.

So, while we’ve never heard anyone out in the streets calling for more Griswold films, it’s a property with some potentially pre-established fans. And if the first red band trailer is any indication, it doesn’t look to change up the formula too much. We do like Helms, so we’d love to see this surprise us. Vacation hits the road on July 31st.

Vacation Red Band Trailer

Sherlock Holmes is a character that people (at least filmmakers) can’t seem to get enough of. He’s everywhere these days, on big screen and on television. And while those movies and shows vary widely in their scope and story, one thing they all have in common is that the detective they depict is in his prime. But all that is set to change with this summer’s Mr. Holmes.

Mr. Holmes looks to focus on the super sleuth in his twilight years as he spends his days tending to his bees, alone but for the company of his housekeeper and her young son, Roger. Before long Roger and Holmes team up as they revisit the circumstances of his final unsolved case, all while Holmes grapples one last time with the mysteries of life and love.

The great Ian McKellen takes up the lead role in the Bill Condon directed film (hopefully more Dreamgirls than Twilight), and was written by Jeffrey Hatcher. The film premiered at Berlin 2015 to a hefty heap of praise and the official trailer shows off some incredible cinematography, so it’s safe to safe we’re excited for this one.

Check out Mr. Holmes on July 17th.

Mr. Holmes Official Trailer

Woody Allen‘s summer movie has become an annual event. For well over two decades the writer/director has pumped out a film a year from his shoebox of notes–his work ethic has to be admired. But he’s always been hit or miss, and lately the pattern has seen something good pop up every other year (two years ago we got Blue Jasmine, two years before that Midnight In Paris, between those films we got the forgettable When In Rome and the harmless Magic In The Moonlight). So, the question is, will Allen stick to that formula and give us something noteworthy this year?

Irrational Man surely has potential. The film is led by the excellent pairing of Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone, which is more than enough to put tickets in our hands. The always great Phoenix has been on something of a tear of late with his odd ball roles in Her and Inherent Vice, Irrational Man looks to keep up the same sort of wacky/serious vibe.

Like most Allen films, the plot details are scarce: Irrational Man follows a philosophy professor (Phoenix) in the midst of an existential crisis who falls for a student (Stone). As per usual, the film was written and directed by Allen himself (he trusts no one). The small cast is rounded out by Jamie Blackley (If I Stay) and Parker Posey(Grace Of Monaco).

Irrational Man opens July 24th. Check out the very Woody Allen-esque first trailer below.

Irrational Man Official Trailer

The fact that armed drones have changed the face of warfare might not be common knowledge, but drones have wormed their way into pop culture and the general American consciousness; the grainy eagle-eye view popularized by video games, the bulbous head unmistakable, and the panic inducing concept of the Amazon drone. The point is, drones are here to stay, and Tonje Hessen Schei’s new documentary Drone seeks to explore the consequences of fighting a war from 10,000 miles away.

At its heart, Drone is centered in two places: with former drone operator Brandon Bryant as he speaks out against the US governments abuse of power, and human rights lawyers Shahzad Akbar and Clive Stafford Smith as they push to get media attention for victims of drone strikes in the Pakistani province of Waziristan. Spliced into these narratives are dozens of experts, from former military advisors to those who produce drones for the government. The portrait painted over the 79 minute doc (two breezier versions exist: a 58 minute cut, and a 10 minute one) is a tragic and complex one, rooted in the inherent value of human life and how it should be judged in a time of war. The ideas and questions asked are, ultimately, necessary, and have, for the most part, been ignored and swept under the rug—all of which makes Drone feel like a let down.

Schei has worked with humanitarian issues in the past, even directing a film festival based around the subject, and she sticks with it here. The film is pragmatic and refuses to shy away from the toughest questions concerning drones, while never forgetting the tragedy that sparked the war on terror. The trouble is that Drone never quite focuses anywhere. The film stops and starts at random, shifting between Bryant doing a press tour to Akbar and Smith petitioning the high court of Pakistan without any connective tissue. It’s as though Schei had too much to talk about (and all of it should be talked about), but couldn’t quite make it all fit without just tossing it in the bag at random; all of it interesting on its own, but jarred wildly by the constant gear shifts. Neither of the two main threads have much of a narrative either until the final minutes of the film, which keeps the film from becoming grounded or tense in an important way.

Drone is a movie that should be watched, and the conversations therein discussed. It is a well-intentioned film, and it’s packed with the horrific truths of America’s human rights abuses. But there’s a sense that Drone was built around the passion of its ideas (though it shouldn’t be faulted for that), not with any calculated structure or intentional direction. The result is a scatterbrained and tension-less film that still must be watched and talked about.

Johnny Depp has fallen into a bit of a schtick. Since the debut of Captain Jack Sparrow in 2003, Depp has been seemingly happy to suit up in a heavy disguise, lather on a thick accent, and play the loon—to both diminishing returns and larger paychecks (see: three Pirates films with more on the way, Alice in Wonderland, The Lone Ranger, etc.). And, while it’s hard to not be exhausted by the trope, it might not be so bad if his other roles didn’t seem to be getting so lazy (see specifically: last year’s Mortdecai). After all, we did love the guy at one time.

Today, hope seems to be on the way, in the form of the first trailer for September’s anticipated Black Mass. The true crime film will see Depp put on the heavy makeup of the notorious mob boss Whitey Bulger. Black Mass tells the true story of Bulger, the ultra-violent South Boston mobster, who just happens to have a State Senator for a brother, and who just happens to be a long-time FBI informant.

Scott Cooper sat behind the camera on this one, and after 2013’s bust Out of the Furnace, the hope is that he can return to the form of his excellent debut (Crazy Horse). After all, the cast here is tremendous: Benedict Cumberbatch (as Whitey’s Senator brother), Dakota Johnson, Joel Edgerton, Corey Stoll, and Juno Temple.

Based on the first trailer, and all the talent involved, and considering that when Depp is good, he can be one of the best, things are looking pretty good. Head to Black Mass on September 18th.

Black Mass trailer

On March 16, 2013, Sunil Tripathi walked out of his apartment in Providence, Rhode Island, and vanished. The story of his disappearance, though, is only a fraction of the story that he became associated with in the following month. Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi is an ambitious documentary, one not only interested in exploring the viral and ultimately volatile Internet fallout in the hours following the Boston Marathon bombings, but also one not willing to forget the people, the family, and the boy at its center: Sunil himself. The result is a fascinating and heartbreaking piece of cinema, one that highlights how quickly people turn vicious and how, despite everything, love can endure all.

For all of this, Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi is, first and foremost, about Sunil. As his buoyant family describes him, Sunil was a perpetually happy child, a boy who could always be found wearing a grin. He was passionate about music, studying the saxophone methodically, eventually taking his skill to Brown University before becoming a philosophy major. Through here, the film moves quickly, establishing Sunil through interviews with his sister Sangeeta, brother Ravi, mother Judy, and father Akhil, along with a deep archive of photographs, through which we watch him grow into a 22-year-old man. But during his junior year at Brown, Sunil grew distant, and then deeply depressed, as he struggled to finish up the year, and decided not to return in the fall.

Then Sunil walked out of his apartment and into the night. And in the weekend following his disappearance, his family, both immediate and distant, refused to sit idle. Instead of waiting to see what the police would do, they set up an operating base on the Brown campus and began their own search, the scale and magnitude of which was wildly impressive. But the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into a month. The family though was not ready to give up. Then, on April 15, 2013, almost exactly a month after Sunil’s disappearance, the Boston Marathon was bombed. And for a day or so, these two events stayed as separate as they were, until a subreddit dedicated to helping identify the then unidentified Suspect 1 and Suspect 2 made the leap: might Suspect 2 be the missing Brown student? The idea caught like wild fire. Then, Suspect 2 was Sunil Tripathi.

For all intents and purposes, this is where Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi blossoms into a necessary film. For the first half of its run time, we follow the Tripathi family as they refuse to give up hope, ever expanding their search, gaining steam on social media, and trumpeting the importance of love and family. Throughout, director/cinematographer Neal Broffman gives a fierce sense of setting; Providence is gorgeously captured, a sort of constant winter, dark and chilly, the river placid and menacing. Broffman juxtaposes this cold with the warmth of the interviews from Sunil’s family and friends, all of whom are magnetic–Sangeeta and Ravi especially, the familial love obvious. When the film switches gears, it does so nicely. Certain sections uncoil like a thriller, while others act as meditations, looking to meticulously piece together the events following the misidentification and the dark implications of this new crowd-sourced crime fighting era.

And while most of the film fires on all cylinders, it is still, at times, the film of an director early in his career. For instance, all the Fincher-esque blue-tinted shots of Providence make the filtered and awkwardly staged shots of Sangeeta and Ravi staring into the distance stand out noticeably (even when their intention is clear). And while this writer wasn’t bothered by the convoluted set up of interviews following the misidentification, the technique clearly drew attention to itself, probably needlessly, and will likely cause some dissonance among viewers. Nonetheless, the film handled the heavy integration of Tweets and Reddit posts better than most, and, in one scene, incredibly.

A film like this could have gone on longer than its breezy 75 minute run time. It even could have been two films. But what makes Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi so successful is its duality. The film is not just about the poignant disappearance of a troubled young man (one of thousands yearly in the US). Nor is it about the utterly tragic nightmare the collective internet unleashed upon an innocent family in a matter of hours. It’s about both. It’s about Sunny and the future. And, like every good documentary, it asks more questions than it answers. It should be watched, and its questions should be asked. Because, ultimately, it is a film that says, “We’re people and we’re still here.”

Guy Pearce is awesome. When he shows up, we show up, ticket in hand. Even in the smallest roles he has a way of breathing a little something special into the picture, whether it be falling apart around him or a good film he’s just made great (must-sees include: Animal Kingdom and The Rover). Cobie Smulders, on another hand, is something of an unknown factor. How I Met Your Mother was never too good, and never truly terrible, but the role didn’t give her much to work with. And neither has her work in the Marvel universe. Both of these factors are just two of the reasons to take a look at the new trailer for the Sundance 2015 hit, Results.

The log line for Results is rather simple: the film follows  Kat (Smulders) and Trevor (Pearce), two personal trainers who get caught up in the messy life of new-client Danny (Kevin Corrigan). Ideally, humor, maturing, and something heartfelt follow.

Written and directed by Andrew Bujalski (the “godfather of mumblecore”: Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation), Results is his first foray into the territory of professional actors–a trick that’s brought endless returns for other mumblecore vets. Joining the three principals are Brooklyn Decker, Giovanni Ribisi, and Anthony Michael Hall.

The word out of Sundance was quiet, but positive, so count us in. Results arrives May 29th.

Results trailer

Right about now, a few short weeks away from the premiere of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, it’s pretty easy to forget that Marvel‘s got another movie cooking for release this summer in the form of Ant-Man. The film is set to drop July 17th and the second full trailer has arrived (though the first consisted mostly of a voiceover from Michael Douglas, so might as well consider this the first real one).

While most of the plot details are being kept under wraps, what we do know is that Ant-Man follows Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a reformed small time crook, who falls under the mentorship of Hank Pym (Douglas). To save the wildly powerful Ant-Man suit, Lang must put his thieving skills back to work and pull off an impossible heist, all while the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

After all the drama with Edgar Wright finally settled, Adam McKay punched up the script, and Payton Reed (The Break-Up, Yes Man) stepped in to direct. Rudd’s supporting cast is pretty top-notch: Judy Greer, Hayley Atwell, John Slattery, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Pena, and Corey Stroll as Darren Cross/Yellowjacket.

So, there are a ton of questions left unresolved here (most of them being in the vein of, how great would Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man have been?), but Rudd is a lot of fun with the right material, and this trailer shows that he’s been given some room to breathe and be Paul Rudd. And, while this Ant-Man might be a more vanilla, more paint-by-numbers-Marvel-movie than the dream version could have been, we’ll be lining up July 17th to watch two tiny guys fight on a model train set.

Ant-Man Trailer

Shia LaBeouf has become something of a caricature. Once the manic and charming lead for a handful of Spielberg films (Eagle Eye, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull) and another handful of Transformer films, he has gone indie of late, somehow mangling his public persona in the process. Several instances of is antics have seemingly out done the work in his films (the bag incident, every interview in the past two years). But despite all of it, he still manages to be a highlight when he shows up on-screen, turning in some magnetic and intense performances.

All of this goes to say that our interest has been thoroughly piqued by his recent casting in the new Andrea Arnold film, American Honey, her U.S. film debut. Arnold has done killer work on her previous two films, the spellbinding Fish Tank and the gorgeous Wuthering Heights. Not only that, but she drew out a truly fine performance from a not-quite-famous-yet Michael Fassbender in Fish Tank, which we might still consider one of his finest.

Written and directed by Arnold, American Honey will follow a teenage girl who falls in with a traveling sales team and finds a life of heavy partying, lawbreaking, and young love.

So far LaBeouf is the only name attached, with no hint as to who he’ll play. Either way, we’ll buy our tickets on these names alone.

Nystagmus is a disease that you probably haven’t heard of. But the rare eye disorder–coupled with glaucoma–is the jumping off point for the new mother/son relationship drama, Flutter.

The film follows JoLynn (Lindsay Pulsipher of True Blood), a young, semi-single mother struggling to raise her son, Johnathan (Johnathan Huth Jr.), a sea monster-obsessed nine-year-old with a pair of rare eye disorders. To relieve her son of his pain, JoLynn grows and cooks marijuana into edible “medicine.” To take things from bad to worse, JoLynn’s in-laws decide that they can care for Johnathan better and attempt to seek custody.

Written and directed by first-timer Eric Hueber, Flutter is rounded out by several Friday Night Lights alums: Glenn Morshower, Jesse Plemons, and Brad Leland.

The film hits digital and on demand on April 7, and to tide you over until then, we have an exclusive clip that highlights JoLynn’s resigned determination to care for her son her own way.

Exclusive Clip for Flutter

Jack Black is one of the most hit and miss actors working today. Without a doubt he can knock it out of the park, in both hilarious supporting roles and serious leads. But for every Bernie there is a Gullivers Travels. Still, there is something about his manic energy that lends his every role a certain watchability.

For his first big headliner of 2015, Black is hopping on The D Train, a comedy that popped up at Sundance and sees its first trailer debut today.

The D Train stars Black as Dan, a perpetually uncool dude struggling to put together the perfect high school reunion, only to find that no one wants to show. His solution might just lie with his polar opposite, Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), the face of a national commercial. But when Lawless agrees to return home for the reunion, Dan watches his life get quickly taken over by his new pal.

Written and directed by Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul (the writing duo behind Yes Man), the film co-stars the ever-hilarious Kathryn Hahn (She’s Funny That Way, Parks and Rec) and Jeffery Tambor (Arrested Development, Transparent).

So far The D Train has chalked up mixed buzz, but the Black/Marsden team up holds a lot of potential. Check out the trailer below.

As always, the journey to the next Bond film is an interesting one. Before the $1 billion earnings of Skyfall, MGM filed for bankruptcy, leaving everyone to assume it would be a long, long time before we saw 007 again. Obviously, the four-year wait was well worth it, with the Sam Mendes directed film going above and beyond the average blockbuster. We can all be thankful that he’s back for the next round.

Spectre finds Bond (Daniel Craig) and the rest of MI6 still reeling from the aftermath of Skyfall. While struggling to keep the secret service alive, Bond must face off against a menacing organization and find the truth about SPECTRE.

The cast is rounded out by some familiar faces (Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris) and some new to the Bond world (Christoph Waltz, Dave Bautista, and Lea Seydoux). And while the film doesn’t arrive for more than half a year, this first trailer looks gorgeous–thanks mostly to the fine work of Roger Deakins’ replacement, Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).

Check the trailer below. Spectre arrives November, 6 2015.

There are more major blockbusters this year than anyone really cares to count. Almost every franchise worth two pennies is pumping out some form of sequel/reboot/spin-off, save for Indiana Jones (and even that is gearing up for a restart, while also having a documentary based around a shot-for-shot remake opening later this year in the form of Raiders!). No studio wants its property to fade from the minds of ticket buying audiences world wide.

Thus, today comes the first official trailer for the new Mission: Impossible film, with it’s vague new subtitle Rogue Nation.

The plot, at this point, is still deeply under wraps, though adventure, espionage, masks, jumping off of high things, and Tom Cruise running really fast can be expected. What we do know so far though, is that the Impossible Mission Force (still a great name) has been dissolved, leaving the world defenseless against The Syndicate–that is until Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) rounds up the old gang to save the planet (or something).

Christopher McQuarrie (the Cruise vehicle, Jack Reacher) directs, while most the faces from the previous two installments return: Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames. Joining them this time around are Alec Baldwin, Rebecca Ferguson, and Sean Harris.

Rumors of production trouble sprouted up a couple weeks back, with word being that the film needed a new ending, but, by the looks of the trailer, this thing is going to be the mindless fun its meant to be. As long as Tom keeps staying the same age, we’ll keep buying the popcorn.

The financial crisis that struck several short years ago feels like a thing of the past, despite the several sectors still recovering. And despite the continued recovery, movies and TV have steered well clear of the territory for the most part, with some notable exceptions (the excellent Margin Call, the upcoming 99 Homes, and several documentaries). Even fewer of these films focus in on a single family during their struggles. All of this makes the Georgian film, Line Of Credit, all the more surprising.

The film centers around Nino (Nino Kasradze), a woman in her 40s trying her best to keep her family afloat. Decades ago her father provided for the family by doing some shady deals with Russia. Now, the cafe below their massive apartment is a ghost town, the money for the children’s private school tuition is nearly tapped, and Nino has knotted herself into a complex hurricane of debt. Week by week she calls on friends for loans, pawns jewelry, and sells everything she can get her hands on, all while trying to keep up the illusion of comfort and stability, urging everyone she borrows from to keep the matters hush-hush.

It’s easy to forget that the rest of the world was hit just as hard, if not harder, by the financial crisis. And while Line Of Credit, writer/director Salome Alexi’s debut feature, serves as a reminder, it unfortunately does little else. The plot is both wildly intricate and exceptionally dull in its narrative trajectory. To pay for a party, Nino pawns a ring. To keep the gas turned on, she borrows from a friend. To get the ring back she sells a tea set. And so goes the movie. Everyone is willing to loan Nino whatever she needs. Some friends go so far as to take out massive loans in their own name for her. This ease with which Nino passes through the world serves to keep the conflict to a lazy-Sunday-morning minimum. And not once do we get to see her doing anything else. Nino is either borrowing or being asked to repay. Simple as that.

But while the film becomes predictable from a mile off, the 84 minute run time keeps it manageable. That, and the beautiful cinematography. Shot by Jean-Louis Padis, Line Of Credit is thick with matte pastels and gorgeously framed shots of the small Georgian town. But while it looks beautiful, the camera never moves and claustrophobia sets in, sucking the life from many scenes–especially those few where Nino is allowed a good time, keeping us glued in place a mile away.

Line Of Credit is a harmless film about a very important and overlooked subject—roughly 14% of Georgian families lost their houses to the mortgage crisis—but it could use something, anything aside of a payout or a payment.

Danny Fields is a name you’ve probably never heard. But his influence, as exemplified by the rock-doc Danny Says, was wildly far-reaching during one of the most pivotal times in music and cultural history. Fields was instrumental in the stardom of some of the biggest bands in the ’60s and ’70s from The Stooges to the Ramones to The Doors, acting as a manager, a publicity director, and a writer and editor of such popular magazines as 16.  Fields was everywhere, so much so that his biography might read more like a who’s-who list of the music world. His story (and the stories in his story) is unprecedented, as is that such a figure, well known in the music industry, could stay so faceless to the world at large. More so than anything else, it seems like director Brendan Toller was interested in giving Danny the credit he has long deserved.

The film starts with some rapid-fire interviews from music legends such as Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper, as all offer quick insights about who Fields was (these churn by so quickly they are easily forgotten). Then, after the title sequence we are taken back and formally introduced to Danny Fields. Fields himself then talks us through his early years and up through college and Harvard Law, where he eventually dropped out and moved to New York. Once there he spent several rogue years of his 20s discovering his sexuality and falling in line with the likes of Andy Warhol at The Factory.

From there Fields began working as a writer and editor, finding an in into the rock world through his pre-established channels and solidifying his ear for the next big thing. Next came his long tenure at Elektra Records, where he worked with The Doors and was instrumental in signing such artists as MC5 and The Stooges (Iggy Pop). After being fired from Elektra he became the manager for the Ramones.

The list goes on, and the name dropping comes fast and heavy throughout Danny Says, which may be its greatest fault. Ostensibly, this is a film about Danny Fields, and on the surface it is. In the early moments of the film there is even a bit of focus on Fields’ personal life, his homosexuality, and his intense drug use. But as the film shifts into Fields’ time in the music industry, almost all aspects of him as a person fall by the wayside, as the focus zooms between micro stories about Jim Morrison, Nico, Edie Sedgwick, MC5, and the insane Iggy Pop. But, while these stories are fascinating glimpses into the antics of the icons of the era, they seem to have very little to do with Fields other than the fact that he was there, trying his best to make records sell and prevent everyone from overdosing. And these stories never quite add up to any sort of overarching narrative. Things, for the most part, seem to unravel chronologically, moving ever forward through the ups and downs, with no real structure in sight.

Danny Says is by no means a bad film. Fields himself is hilarious throughout, as he recounts his roles in some of the biggest moments in music history (at one point he takes credit for The Beatles death threat-laden 1966 tour). But Toller can’t seem to decide what the film is about. Is it about Fields’ influence throughout two pivotal decades? Is it about the artists that Fields worked with? Or is it about the life of Danny Fields himself? At seemingly random junctions, talks move toward legacy, love, aging, and death. But the topics vanish as quickly as they appeared, and another story about Nico or The Modern Lovers begins.

Funded through Kickstarter in 2012 for $20,000, Danny Says is brimming with hilarious stories about the heyday of rock and roll, and does a great job of highlighting the importance of the guy in the back of every photo, the ghost behind the scenes, the credit-less guiding light of modern punk music.

The Foreign Language category at the Oscars is always a highlight. It’s a chance to give some excellent films from all over the world some recognition in a race and ceremony where they wouldn’t normally (unfortunately). This year was no exception, with films clocking in from Poland, Russia, Estonia, Argentina, and Mauritania, with the winner of course being the visually stunning and rather expected, Ida (Poland’s entry).

So while the Oscars tend to splash up some excitement, some of the films still struggle for the spotlight. And today brings the trailer of one of the less talked-about but still highly buzzed Estonian film from director Zaza Urushadze, Tangerines.

Tangerines finds Ivo (Lembit Ulfsak) and Margus (Elmo Nuganen), a pair of Estonian farmers, looking to harvest a wild crop of (you guessed it) tangerines in war-torn Georgia in the early 1990s. After the abandoned village they are clinging to is decimated by a battle, Ivo and Margus rescue and care for a pair of wounded and forgotten soldiers who happen to be from opposing sides of the bloody conflict.

The small cast is rounded out by Giorgi Nakhashidze and Mikheil Meskhi as the Chechen and Georgian soldiers, respectively. Written and directed by Urushadze, the film opens in limited release on April 17. Check out the pulsing new trailer.

In 2011 Michel Hazanavicius skyrocketed to the American consciousness with the delightful and charming silent film throwback, The Artist. The film took home a shelf worth of awards, including the Oscar for Best Director for Hazanavicius and Best Film. Before that film’s premiere Hazanavicius had been mostly working in the same feather-light register with the OSS 117 films. All of this is to say that there must be something rather intimidating about that Oscar looming down from the mantle, because the latest effort from the director is the bruising Chechen War film, The Search.

The Search—inspired by the 1948 film of the same name—takes place in 1999 during the outbreak of the Second Chechen War and opens with a found footage style video made by a Russian soldier that shows the senseless murder of a mother and father. Following the title credits we meet the near-mute 9-year-old, Hadji (newcomer Abdul-Khalim Mamutsjev), who takes his baby brother and flees only to wind up in an orphanage for Chechens run by Helen (Annette Bening). When Hadji can’t stand the presence of so many guns, he sneaks away and is taken in by Carole (Berenice Bejo–teaming up with Hazanavicius again), a non-governmental aid worker trying to get foreign attention for the conflict, and the two become a quick family.

While Hadji’s story is the core driving force of the narrative, two other plot lines are woven in to complete the picture from the opening scene. Kolia (Maksim Emelyanov) is a Russian teenager arrested for smoking pot on the streets of Perm and forced to join the army. His timid nature makes him the whipping boy for the rest of the new soldiers, as well as for the higher-ups, until little-by-little he is broken down and rebuilt by the horrendous monstrosity that is the film’s depiction of the Russian army. The third plotline follows Raissa (Zukhra Duishvili), Hadji’s sister, who is desperate to find her younger brothers. It is this thread, by a long shot, that gives the film much of its burdensome feel.

The essence of the film rests upon Mamutsjev’s shoulders as the young Hadji scrambles to stay alive and cope with his loss while still being a 9-year-old boy. For a large part of his screen-time, Hadji stays mute, and Mamutsjev and Hazanavicius use this silence to heartbreaking effect—mostly early on in the film. Bejo’s (The Artist, The Past) Carole is Hadji’s opposite, a neurotic and fast paced NGO worker who can hardly stop talking. The resulting relationship quickly becomes the emotional core of the entire film.

For the most part, the rest of the cast turns in similar work. Emelyanov is utterly convincing as he seemingly grows hollow and distant and then completely detached over the two-hour plus run time. The notable exception is the normally solid Bening (The Kids Are All Right, American Beauty), who instead of seeming exhausted and rundown by her tireless work, just feels lifeless.

The fact of the matter is, this film is likely a necessary one; how often has a Chechen War found its way into American cinemas? And in Chechen and Russian no less? The stories here are powerful, and, as exemplified by Carole’s interview subjects, by no means unique. The utter confusion and senselessness run rampant.

But that doesn’t stop the movie from stretching its net too wide and becoming overwrought. Much like the heavy-handed early films of this year’s Best Director winner, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (21 Grams, Babel), it’s easy to spot the connections between the seemingly random narratives early on. So, while the mass cold shoulder from the rest of the world, and the horrific human rights abuses that occur carry some sickening heft, Hazanavicius piles it on until characters basically start speaking to the audience— “It’s about understanding they’re alive and they have a right to a better life.” But perhaps this gets at the point. These tragedies undoubtedly do pile up, and back in the day the international community couldn’t be bothered to raise so much as a finger in support of Chechnya. But the film gets lost in its frustration, buried so deep that the proceedings starts to feel laborious, and even the pockets of hope and joy hardly resonate.

Somewhere in this overlong film is a very good and rather important story about the way the world can steal our home and how we still have to find ourselves in the mess; about the unspeakable tragedies that can’t continue going ignored; about how we lose our humanity, and how we find it again. In many ways it feels as though The Searchwas directed by a first-time director, lacking in that effervescent touch Hazanavicius brought to The Artist with such authority.

The Search is out in limited release in Canada today, March 13.

It’s about time. Nick Kroll has been a consistently funny presence everywhere he’s popped up over the last few years (Kroll Show, The League, and as The Douche on Parks and Rec), so it’s safe to say we’re pretty excited to watch him lead a film.

Adult Beginners sees Kroll play Jake, a guy who has recently destroyed his career, lost all of his money, and made some enemies. To get away from it all he sneaks away to his sister’s (the woefully underrated Rose Byrne) to hide out and cool down, only to become the nanny of her baby and clash with her husband (Bobby Cannavale).

The dramedy, co-written by Kroll and directed by Ross Katz, looks to set Kroll a little out of his abrasive comfort zone (though not too far) and place some real emotional heft on his shoulders. So, while comedy and drama can be a tough nut for most films to crack, the supporting cast alone is enough to ease some worry; Byrne (Neighbors, This Is Where I Leave You) and Cannavale (the still-wonderful The Station Agent) both tend to bring searing depth to even the most minor roles (see: The Place Beyond The Pines and Blue Jasmine respectively).

Adult Beginners came out of TIFF 2014 on a high note, not to mention the trailer is hilarious. Check it out below.

Adult Beginners trailer

Let’s be honest for a minute. We all love George Clooney. He’s funny (Fantastic Mr. Fox), he’s sexy (The American), he’s smart (Michael Clayton), and he makes great movies (Ides of March). We also all love Brad Bird, whether we know it or not (The Incredibles, Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol). Which means we’re all pretty pumped for this summer’s Disney adventure Tomorrowland.

Tomorrowland sees disillusioned genius Frank (Clooney) and teenage scientist Casey (Britt Robertson) team up for a dangerous mission to uncover a secret place in time and space known only as Tomorrowland. For the most part the rest of the details have been kept tightly lidded, but since it’s a Disney movie we’re guessing that spectacle and hope will abound.

But even before we knew anything about this one, we were excited; Clooney is always solid, no matter the film, and Bird knows a thing or two about some good ol’ fashion light-hearted adventure that still leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat (not to mention his two Oscars). Pair that with a pretty wild supporting cast: Robertson, Hugh Laurie, Tim McGraw (?), Kathryn Hahn, and Judy Greer.  We had this one on our list of the 22 features we are most looking forward to in 2015, and it’s safe to say we are only getting more excited with each new trailer (the Eiffel Tower is a space ship!).

Check out the second trailer below:

There are certain films that most movie goers believe don’t need to rebooted/remade/ruined, but Beauty And The Beast is happening whether we like it or not.

So, while there is little hope that the project won’t come to pass and the 1991 animated version can stay the childhood benchmark that it’s been, there is at least some exciting talent signing up. Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, last year’s unnervingly cool The Guest) will join the endlessly charming Emma Watson (The Bling Ring, Noah, Harry Potter). Stevens will play the Beast to Watson’s Belle—a pairing that is obviously in the running for most attractive fairytale couple ever.

Shortly before Walt Disney Pictures confirmed Stevens part, it was revealed that Luke Evans would play Gaston. Evans, quite frankly, is a far less inspired choice than Stevens, having played a baddie in two Fast and Furious pics and starred in the also-unnecessary Dracula Untold. Bill Condon (the forthcoming Mr. Holmes and a pair of Twilight movies) will direct the Steven Chbosky (The Perks Of Being A Wallflower) script.

All in all, we’re staying faithful. Watson and Stevens are both tons of fun and getting to see them play opposite is enough to get us onboard.

Britain has its share of heroes and legends and Mr. Holmes sees two of them finally come together: the extraordinary Ian McKellen and super sleuth Sherlock Holmes.

The twist of premise in Mr. Holmes (because there has to be a twist with how many adaptations are currently going on) is that Sherlock (McKellen) has survived into his twilight years and finally retired to a small village to live the life of a beekeeper (we’re asked to ignore how many times Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle actually killed him off). And while most renderings prefer to focus on more action packed stories of the private detective, Bill Condon‘s film sees Sherlock keeps to himself, wrestle with the mythologic status that his name has taken on, and undertake one final adventure.

Sherlock Holmes movies seem to be a genre all their own these days. So the question is, can Mr. Holmes separate itself enough from the pack (Sherlock, Elementary, the RDJ/Guy Richie films) to really shine? Condon’s record of late hasn’t been stellar (The Fifth Estate, and not one, but two Twilight movies), but McKellen always turns in a captivating performance, and the reviews out of Berlin seem startlingly good. Not to mention the cinematography by Tobias A. Schliessler (Lone Surviver) looks absolutely gorgeous.

Mr. Holmes trailer

It’s tough to think up a TV show that’s been through more drama and turmoil than the former NBC show Community. Even at its peak, Community never had the best ratings. The series was put on hold mid-season in 2011, brought back after die-hard fans established several Twitter and Facebook campaigns, canceled again after it’s 5th season, and saved yet again by a last minute deal with Yahoo last year.

All this cancellation drama was hardly the worst of it, though. After the hilarious 3rd season, series creator Dan Harmon was removed as the showrunner, resulting in the flat and creatively bland 4th season. To make things worse, the season saw the “mutual” departure of Chevy Chase (whose onset antics we won’t get into). When the 5th season finally did come around, Harmon announced his return, only to have the news dampened by the departure of Donald Glover.

Despite the show’s status as a news mainstay, four of the five seasons have been outstanding. The evolution of Community has been unlike anything else on TV, and the show’s spot-on parodies of everything from Law And Order: SVU to Glee, unmatched.

So, for many, today is a great day as the first trailer for the 6th season has finally arrived. And frankly, it looks pretty hilarious (“Frisbees!”). Yahoo is set to premier the 13-episode season with back-to-back episodes on March 17th.

Six seasons and a movie!

The early months of the year tend to be overloaded with dull and empty comedies that happen to be rather light on the actual comedy (see: this year’s Hot Tub Time Machine 2).  But from time to time a real gem can spice up February and March and give us a reason to face the cold (see: last year’s The Lego Movie and The Grand Budapest Hotel).

So, while next week brings along the hopefully-funny Vince Vaughn vehicle, Unfinished Business, it’s the new red band trailer for Get Hard that’s got us holding our sides. The Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart team up has been one to watch for quite some time, if only just because of those two names.

Get Hard sees the always-hilarious Ferrell sleazing it up as a hedge fund manager who has been found guilty of tax evasion. To toughen up for his prison stint he hires the guy who cleans his car (Hart), wrongly assuming that he has served time. If the new, NSFW trailer is anything to go by, laughter ensues.

Catch Get Hard on March 27th.

The keys to the Alien franchise have been handed off and a(nother) sequel is in the works.

Ever since the first Alien film came out in 1979 Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the acid-spitting extra terrestrials have stayed relatively constant attractions on the big screen; there were three sequels that brought Ripley back (each to less satisfying results) before the series was thrown rather randomly together with the Predator. Finally, in 2011 Ridley Scott brought that world back to the public consciousness with Prometheus, the supposed prequel.

Now Weaver as Ripley is coming back for one last claustrophobic battle, with Neill Blomkamp at the helm. Blomkamp, whose latest, Chappie, opens on Friday, is a familiar face in the sci-fi/alien genre, having launched his career with the excellent District 9 (only to follow it up with the subpar, though beautiful, Elysium–a film he says he “fucked up”).

On the press tour for Chappie, Blomkamp has been rather candid about his hopes for his Alien sequel, apparently hinting that he meant to undo the realities of the third and fourth installments (fine by us). But he has since clarified his remarks, telling Allo Ciné that the first two films were simply his favorites and that he wants “to make a film that’s connected to Alien and Aliens. That’s my goal.”

No matter what he plans to do with the series, Blomkamp is an inspired choice, who will, at the very least, push the boundaries of the Alien world, and likely say something semi-important in the process.

Since the birth of film, Shakespeare has been adapted up, down, and sideways. Not only have his plays been filmed, but they have been reworked to better exploit the possibilities of the silver screen; rewritten, retitled, and subtly masked; and thrown, Shakespearian language and all, into the modern era–all to mixed results. The most recent attempt to prove the Bard’s relevance in the 21st century is Cymbeline.

The film, based on the play of the same name and adapted and directed by Michael Almereyda, finds a band of dirty cops fighting an all out war with Cymbeline (Ed Harris) and his pals, reimagined here as a ruthless biker gang. From the looks of the trailer, things seem to go from bad to worse (or if you’ve read the play perhaps you already know). And while the visuals here really do pop, the film scurried out of Venice 2014 with some less-than-positive notices.

The thing that can’t be ignored here though is the incredibly stacked cast. Joining Harris are the familiar faces of Ethan Hawke (fresh off his Oscar nom for Boyhood), Anton Yelchin, Dakota Johnson, (filmed pre-50 Shades Of Grey), Milla Jovovich, Penn Badgley, and John Leguizamo. Color us intrigued.

Cymbeline trailer

Over the past 30 years Blade Runner has done nothing but grow into its current mythological size following its release in 1982. And while the fan base has been constant, the notorious tinkerer that is Ridley Scott has not left it alone, releasing several director’s cuts (each apparently being more director’s cut-y, and a little less or a little more vague–depending on the cut), and talked endlessly about a sequel; even going so far as to postulate about the logic behind Rick Deckard’s (Harrison Ford, who is already on board to return) inevitable aging.

For years Scott’s talk has been just that: talk. But the sequel is finally coming together. To make it a bit more official Denis Villeneuve has now signed on to direct (a role many thought Scott would reprise). And, admittedly, Villeneuve is quite possibly the most surprising and satisfying choices possible for the gig. (Who are we kidding? We gave the press release a round of applause!)

Villeneuve came out swinging for American audiences with his Best Foreign Picture Oscar, Incendies. But it was his 2013 one, two punch of Enemy and Prisoners that solidified his presence in our hearts. And it’s Enemy, the Jake Gyllenhaal (x2) starring film about a man who meets his perfect doppelgänger and watches his life come apart as a result, that so clearly proves Villeneuve is the right man for the job–assuming, of course, that the sequel is permitted to remain the dark and existential film that it must be to follow up Blade Runner and fit in Villeneuve’s oeuvre.

So, while there are a lot of unanswered questions (what will happen to Villeneuve’s other awesome projects he’s got in the pipeline? who will join Ford in the cast?), and filming won’t begin for a full year, this is definitely news to get excited about! Put this one on 2017’s must see list.

To say that John Cusack has been in a slump of late might be an understatement. The actor, who can be undeniably great when given the right material, has become something of a muted Nic Cage, with last year’s Drive Hard and The Bag Man (to name just two). But this year it looks as though the actor might be turning that all around with some far more interesting roles on the horizon. One of which arrives in the form of Love & Mercy alongside the ever great Paul Dano.

The film, directed by Bill Pohlad, is an unconventional portrait of Brian Wilson, the mercurial singer, songwriter, and leader of The Beach Boys. Dano and Cusack share the duties of portraying Wilson, with Dano taking the younger as he battles to preserve the vision of his music during the production of Pet Sounds, and Cusack the elder as he struggles to free himself from the oppressive thumb of Eugene Landy.

Love & Mercy left TIFF 20114 with some solid buzz, and now the teaser trailer is here so we can get a taste for ourselves. With the familiar faces of Paul Giamatti and Elizabeth Banks rounding out the cast, it’s safe to say we’re excited for this one.

Check out the trailer below:

Love & Mercy trailer