Still image from Sony Pictures’ THE SPIDER WITHIN: A SPIDER-VERSE STORY, directed by Jarelle Dampier — PHOTO: Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Directed by Jarelle Dampier — Screenplay by Khaila Amazan.
Sony Pictures Entertainment has today released Jarelle Dampier’s animated short film The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story on YouTube (click here to watch it). The animated short film, which originally premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June of 2023, is a part of Sony’s animated Spider-Verse trilogy, and it is set between the events of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse from 2018 and last year’s sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. In the animated short, we follow Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) as he returns home after a stressful day of crime-fighting and being a teenager and is approached by his father Jefferson Davis (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry), who wants to have a father-son night where they watch horror films on the TV and snack on popcorn. Miles, however, is unprepared for this, and he hides away in his room where all his fears manifest in the form of first a shadow and, later, spiders.
Ewan McGregor as ‘Martin’ in NIGHTWATCH — PHOTO: Dimension Films.
Directed by Ole Bornedal — Screenplay by Ole Bornedal and Steven Soderbergh.
A couple of months back, I decided to finally watch something that had been on my watchlist for such a long time, but which I was kind of dreading watching. I am referring to the English-language remake of Ole Bornedal’s Nattevagten, one of the most beloved and iconic Danish horror films. Although there are instances in which an English-language remake or reimagining of a Danish film can result in something akin to an improvement (see Michael Bay’s Ambulance), more often than not, though, English-language remakes of Danish films go one of two ways, either they result in A) a bland copy (though often with a more internationally recognizable cast) or b) an unnecessary remake that is so bad that it ruins the chances of the original reaching a larger audience by mere association. Make no mistake, Dimension Film’s English-language remake of Nattevagten, Nightwatch (also directed by Danish director Ole Bornedal), is not an improvement whatsoever. And, frankly, of the previous A and B options, Nightwatch is decidedly more in the A category. Nightwatch does have a more recognizable cast, but the American product is inferior, less interesting, and, yes, quite bland. This also means that it isn’t the Americanized abomination that I feared, but that, however, doesn’t mean that it is good.
Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides in David Lynch’s Dune — PHOTO: Universal Pictures.
Directed by David Lynch — Screenplay by David Lynch.
With the recent release of Denis Villeneuve’s hotly anticipated Dune: Part Two, it felt right to finally have another look at the first major adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel Dune — i.e. David Lynch’s Dune from 1984. Even after having ‘rewatched it,’ I’m, honestly, still not entirely sure if I had seen this before. I’m pretty sure I watched this when I was a kid and was obsessed with sci-fi (I watched everything), and, as I was watching it, it felt like I had seen a lot of this before. I asked my dad — who showed me Star Wars, Stargate, and whatnot — and he’s pretty sure he showed me Lynch’s Dune as well. But, hey, 7-to-10-year-old-me probably struggled with this as much as moviegoers in the 1980s reportedly did (Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert apparently both hated the adaptation). Now, it’s so interesting to view this after having seen Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation and having read about 300 pages (or so) of the original novel. Now, I don’t want to take anything away from David Lynch because I think he is a very good filmmaker, and he, himself, has essentially admitted that he failed with his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic novel, but, man, let’s just start by saying that Villeneuve’s adaptations are an improvement on Lynch’s film in every conceivable way.
Millie Bobby Brown as Elodie in Damsel — PHOTO: Netflix.
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo — Screenplay by Dan Mazeau.
28 Weeks Later-director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s Damsel is a fantasy film that follows a teenage girl named Elodie (played by Millie Bobby Brown) as she is urged by her father Lord Bayford (played by Ray Winstone) to accept a royal proposal to marry Prince Henry (played by Nick Robinson), the son of Queen Isabelle of Aurea (played by Robin Wright). Although there is initially no spark between the prince and our heroine, whose people need the wealth her marriage would afford them, they warm to each other once they get to know each other. But as the tagline on the poster would have you know, this is no fairytale. After the wedding, Elodie and her new husband Prince Henry are taken out to the mountains where they must take part in an ancient ritual, which reveals the true intentions of the royal family.
Directed by Andrew Haigh — Screenplay by Andrew Haigh.
Loosely based on Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel titled Strangers, Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers follows Adam (played by Andrew Scott), a lonely screenwriter living in a high-rise London apartment building. One night, a drunk neighbor, Harry (played by Paul Mescal), knocks on his door hoping to have a good time with Adam that night. Though Adam refuses, Adam starts getting closer to Harry in the days to come. This is in part because he’s starting to work through some of his issues. Why now all of a sudden? Well, when, one day, Adam takes the train back to his hometown to look at the town he grew up in and around, he is approached by a man (played by Jamie Bell) who turns out to be his father. Adam’s parents died in an accident when he was just a young boy, and yet here is his father — at the exact same age that he was when he passed away. His father invites Adam back to his childhood home where he finds his mother (played by Claire Foy), who is also the same age that she was when she died. Overjoyed to reconnect, Adam and his parents gradually start to open up about things once left unsaid.
(L-R) Emma Stone, Christopher Nolan, and Ryan Gosling at the 96th Academy Awards — IMAGE STILLS: A.M.P.A.S. 2024.
Last night, Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 96th edition of the Academy Awards on a night where awards prognosticators felt most of the big awards were already spoken for beforehand. However, conventional prognosticating wisdom did not always win out, as the presenters read out the winners of the Academy’s 23 categories. The early frontrunner and expected Best Picture winner Oppenheimer did, indeed, become the biggest winner of the night with seven total Oscars including wins that saw shatteringly good work from Robert Downey, Jr. and Cillian Murphy earn them their first ‘Little Golden Men.’ Hollywood’s safest bet and — as I liked to call him last night on social media — the ‘Crown Prince of Cinema,’ Christopher Nolan, had his grand coronation as Steven Spielberg passed the baton, awarded him with the Best Director award, and gave him a big hug. For many, that is what the night will be remembered for — i.e. the triumph of the immensely popular biopic and Christopher Nolan who, as some will undoubtedly perceive it, went toe-to-toe with Barbie and came out of the explosion that was ‘Barbenheimer’ with 7 golden statuettes in tow. Indeed, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a hugely deserving winner of all of the awards that the cast and crew went home with (including Best Picture, which was announced in a relatively confusing way by film-legend Al Pacino), but that’s not all the 96th edition of the Academy Awards should be remembered for.
To paraphrase one of Hollywood’s all-time best awards hosts, it is a wonderful day for Oscar! Oscar, Oscar — who will win? In quite a few categories tonight, it seems we already know. But there are some genuine close calls this year with actress, costuming, and production design being particularly interesting. Read on below to find out which films I think will be the big winners tonight, where we all expect Christopher Nolan to be crowned for his achievements as the safest bet in Hollywood when it comes to visionary modern directors.
Adam Sandler as a lonely astronaut in Netflix’s SPACEMAN — PHOTO: Netflix.
Directed by Johan Renck — Screenplay by Colby Day.
Based on Jaroslav Kalfař’s 2017 science-fiction novel Spaceman of Bohemia, Johan Renck’s Spaceman follows Jakub Procházka (played by Adam Sandler), a Czech astronaut, while on a solo mission in space to investigate a mysterious particle cloud nearby Jupiter. His mission is in direct competition with that of a South Korean ship, which is also part of a relatively untraditional space race compared to the real world. By his lonesome on the spaceship, Jakub is feeling the effects of solitude and long-term space travel, and he desires contact with his pregnant partner Lenka (played by Carey Mulligan). Lenka has indeed prepared a video for Jakub to see, but, fearing that Jakub’s depression may worsen if it reaches him, the commander of the Czech space agency, Tuma (played by Isabella Rossellini), prevents it from reaching the most lonely human in space. That is because, in the video, Lenka expresses very clearly that she wants to leave Jakub for good. While Jakub gets lonelier and lonelier as he gradually gets closer to the mysterious particle cloud, he is approached by a massive spider-like alien creature, which has made its way into the spacecraft somehow. The alien arachnid, which is often referred to as Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano), insists that it doesn’t want to harm this ‘skinny human.’ Rather, it wants to investigate our species and help Jakub with his troubled headspace.
Teo Yoo and Greta Lee in PAST LIVES (Screenshot from the trailer) — PHOTO: A24.
On March 1st or 2nd depending on your time zone, the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA / @IFSCritics on Twitter), of which I am a voting member, announced their full list of winners for their awards, which, in this case, celebrated the best in film for 2023. The most nominated films of the year were indeed the wonderful behemoth duo of Barbie and Oppenheimer, and, indeed, one of these films won the most awards here. However, there was another critical darling that took the top award. Below you can read the full list of winning films, performers, artists, and filmmakers.
Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides in DUNE: PART TWO — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve — Screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts.
I don’t know if I’ve ever told this story before, but I have this vivid memory where — when I was probably around the age of ten — I looked up at my mother and asked her a question. I had either just seen The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, or else it was about to come out and I knew it was going to be the last film in the trilogy. With a note of sadness in my voice, I looked up at my mother and asked her something along the lines of “What happens after the Lord of the Rings? Will we ever get anything as good as that ever again?” You have to understand that in those early 2000s, we were being treated to fantasy filmmaking of the highest order with Peter Jackson’s Tolkien adaptations, while Sam Raimi was hard at work on Spider-Man 2 following the success of the first one, and after George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, we all knew that there was only a single film left in the so-called prequel trilogy. At the age of ten, I was blown away by what I was seeing, but I could also see an end to what we were getting. I wasn’t quite sure if this was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of perfect storm for fantasy and blockbuster filmmaking or not. Of course, in the years to come, Hollywood would go on to shovel dozens upon dozens of films with similar aims down our collective pop culture gullet, in an attempt to recapture what was so addicting and marvelous about Jackson, Raimi, and Lucas’ films. Hollywood, we must admit, often failed to recapture that. Now, it’s not like the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or Spider-Man is dead and buried — not by a long shot — but there is an argument to be made that none of those franchises have ever been afforded the same level of creative freedom for its principal filmmakers as was the case back then. So, what did my mother say? Well, with generosity and kindness in her voice, she assured me that, of course, major motion pictures with that sense of scale, scope, and artistry were not going away for good. She assured me that I had so much more to look forward to. My mother was right. Every so often something comes along that both feels like a throwback to the days when creative freedom was to be expected for filmmakers but which also feels like the perfect utilization of modern sensibilities and technical mastery. Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic science-fiction novel Dune is the perfect modern example of that. I feel so lucky. Now more than twenty years after my mother reassured me about the future of filmmaking — though perhaps not in as many words as I put it above — I have had the wonderful opportunity to watch Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Parts One and Two in theaters with my mother, and both times the French-Canadian filmmaker has managed to both transport us to another world full of fantasy and science-fiction wonders, but also remind us — both mother and son in love with film’s transportive power — of the kind of storytelling that we love with all of our hearts.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 