Some Rami to Love

Look, it's the first image of Rami Malek as the iconic Freddie Mercury in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. The film will be directed by Bryan Singer, who is stepping away from the mutants for once, unless you count Freddie Mercury's mutant lungs / range (four octaves -heeeyyy) which maybe you should. What'cha think?

It's quite a fine image, really. Rami's unique facial structure really plays up the Freddieness once you add that moustache. For what it's worth we are promised that this will not be a traditional biopic (it covers only the formation of the band in 1970 through their Live-Aid performance in 1985). There have been murmurs that the project might not do justice to Freddie's story, or his sexuality, because the surviving members of Queen are totally involved. That's always tricky with true stories when the actual people are involved in telling it.

With deep apologies to Queen, I'm now singing one of my favorite of their hits with new lyrics

All we hear is Rami oh ga ga
Rami oh goo goo
Rami oh ga ga
All we hear is Rami oh ga ga
Rami oh blah blah
Rami oh, what's new?
Rami oh, someone still loves you!

Happy Birthday Herzog

by Jason Adams

Film director Werner Herzog is marking three quarters of a century on this planet today - a planet that he has probably explored the weirdness hidden away at every single obscure corner of. We should cherish him while we have him, people - even if some of his more recent efforts have been iffier than most. Go see every damn one, reviews be damned.

Funnily enough last night I was reading a review of the Twin Peaks finale (no spoilers here, don't worry!) that called that series mastermind David Lynch "American pop culture's answer to Werner Herzog," and I got to thinking about these two directors in relation to each other. Besides Herzog and Lynch easily making my list of Top Five Greatest Living Film-makers I don't usually think about them in relation to each other, but it's not an invalid point.

So here, for Werner's birthday, let's latch him onto the zeitgeist's momentarily hottest art-house auteur, and list three similarities, with one glaring dissimilarity...

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Doc Corner: 'House of Z'

Fashion documentaries have been going downhill ever since Unzipped. Douglas Keeve’s 1995 portrait of Isaac Mizrahi, a box office smash and critical hit, remains the pinnacle of what so many since have attempted. Like Madonna: Truth or Dare, from which it took much inspiration, that riotously funny glimpse into Mizrahi’s world full of design, famous friends, creativity and wickedly self-depreciating neurosis was a perfect storm of sorts between personality, fashion and celebrity that a film about this sort of person ought to be.  

Every year brings us several of these sorts of documentaries. Like the majority of them, Sandy Chronopoulos’ debut feature, House of Z, is easily digestible and barely raises a sweat; a work of celebrity portraiture that fans won’t regret watching, but which offers little beyond what is promised on the tin. Taking the same narrative hook as Unzipped of a talented young designer’s comeback from the precipice of total failure, House of Z is an act of personality redemption for a man whose career nearly fell apart because of his outlandishness and brattish behaviour. This makes it a humble film in many ways, one that deliberately chooses to show its subject as one appreciative of his position.

That also means that it is a humourless one, too; sapped of the fun and the outrageousness and the glamour that should be natural.I can only imagine how fun this film may have been half a decade ago.

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"You Were Never Really Here" First Look!

Chris here. Can you believe the wait for the next Lynne Ramsay film is almost over? We've only had to wait a mere six years this time after the the nine year gap between Morvern Callar and We Need to Talk About Kevin, so maybe we shouldn't complain. But this film is a promising return: Ramsay worked on You Were Never Really Here until the last minute before its Cannes debut, landing both a Best Actor trophy for Joaquin Pheonix and a tie for Best Screenplay (shared with The Killing of a Sacred Deer). And don't expect any dampened intensity from the auteur - Pheonix stars as a vigilante hitman tasked to rescue a young girl from a human trafficking circle.

The film is absent from the fall festival circuit and Amazon has yet to announce a release date, which likely spells out a slightly further wait and spring stateside release. No worry for our European readers as the film will open in a few countries this fall, and we've got a new trailer to go with it. Phoenix is pretty thrilling even in just this brief glimpse, but the trailer also hints at a pulsing score from Jonny Greenwood and gorgeous visuals from director of photography Thomas Townend. Take a look at the bloody and brutal NSFW trailer (fair warning - those who've seen the film say the trailer uses a lot of footage from the climax of the film) and rejoice Ramsay's return!

Labor Day Weekend Didn't Fill Movie Theaters

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (4 Day Labor Day Weekend)
W I D E	L I M I T E D
WIND RIVER	DO IT LIKE AN HOMBRE
1. THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD $13.3 (cum. $58)	1. 🔺 INHUMANS  $1.5 new on 393 screens
2. ANNABELLE CREATION $9.3 (cum. $90.9)	2.  🔺 DO IT LIKE AN HOMBRE  $1.4 new on 382 screens
3. WIND RIVER $7.9 (cum. $20.3) REVIEW	3. 🔺  PATTI CAKE$  $315k (cum. $603k) on 295 screens
4. LEAP  $6.5 (cum. $13)	4.  TRIP TO SPAIN $301k (cum. $623K) on 140 screens

LOGAN LUCKY	I DO... UNTIL I DON'T
5. LOGAN LUCKY $5.6 (cum. $22.6) REVIEW	5. 🔺  MENASHE $272k (cum. $1.3) on 126 screens REVIEW
6. DUNKIRK $5.6 (cum. $180.2) PODCAST | TOM HARDY	6. 🔺 I DO... UNTIL I DON'T  $234k new on 165 screens
7. SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING $4.7 (cum. $325.1)  REVIEW	7. 🔺 VALLEY OF BONES $138K new on 300 screens
8. THE EMOJI MOVIE $3.3 (cum. $81.2) REVIEW	8. A GENTLEMAN  $110k (cum. $385k) on 130 screens
9. DESPICABLE ME 3 $3.3 (cum. $258.8)	9. MAUDIE $109k (cum. $5.9) on 106 screens REVIEW
10. NUT JOB 2 $2.9 (cum. $26.7)	10. 🔺 CROWN HEIGHTS $83k (cum. $167k) on 55 screens
🔺 = new or significant expansion numbers from box office mojo

This was the worst Labor Day weekend for the movie business in nearly two decades! Marvel's Inhumans, a tv series launched in movie theaters, didn't even excite people much. I went to a lakehouse with friends to enjoy the last bit of sun and water but we did rewatch Moana with friends' kids though. 

If you did get to the movies, which ones? If you saw Do it Like an Hombre, please report: was it as dated and homophobic-despite-being-about-how-homophobia-is-stupid as it looked? If you didn't, which films have you been thinking about? I have to admit that Wind River has been rustling around in my mind quite a bit after seeing it so I'm glad it's holding steady with audiences.