Yes No Maybe So: Mortal Kombat (2021)

by Ben Miller

Since 1993, production studios have tried again and again to adapt a video game for movie audiences and again and again they have failed.  Some of these films have been dumb fun (Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider), some have been seriously-minded disasters (Assassin’s Creed), while others have been financially viable misfires (Warcraft) or just outright catastrophes (Super Mario Bros.).

Paul W.S. Anderson tried his hand at it with 1995’s Mortal Kombat to the tune of $122 million worldwide.  Warner Bros, producer James Wan and director Simon McQuoid will try again with the aptly titled Mortal Kombat (2021 version).  The new red-band trailer just dropped, so let’s do a round of Yes, No, Maybe So...

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WGA Nominations -- Good news for late breaking streaming titles

by Nathaniel R

The White Tiger is a surprise nominee at the WGA

The Writers Guild of America will have their awards ceremony on March 21st, 2021 but today they announced their nominations.  It's always a bit tricky to look at this in the context of the Oscars since the eligibility rules are different. Though the WGA also extended their eligibilty period to match with Oscar (as you'll see given a couple of their nominees), several key films each year are not eligible. You can't be nominated for a WGA unleses you're already a member of their guild; in other words at the WGA you'd never get a situation like, say, you had with Parasite winning the SAG Award. Furthermore animated films are not eligible for this prize but are obviously eligible at the Oscars; Shrek was nominated and Pixar has had 7 nominees: Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL•E, Up, and Toy Story 3)

The nominees and Oscar related commentary is after the jump...

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Thoughts on "The Father"...

by Eric Blume

It's difficult to write reviews these days, because it feels like no film is ever actually "released", and all of us are scrambling to find what movies are even available, how they're available, if they're VOD, or on a streaming service, etc.  Sony Pictures Classics might have made a fumble mostly holding back from view director Florian Zeller's The Father, taken from his own play, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman:  if more people could see it, everyone would be talking about it.

The Father is one of those Movies They Don't Make Anymore, i.e., a damn adult drama that challenges your mind and heart.  This is a film where the entire creative team treats the audience with dignity and respect, trusting that you're listening and paying attention, and they will reward you with literate ideas, high drama, and an emotional experience.  But The Father is more than just that:  the storytelling and the visual conceit of the film are surprising and demanding, and it is not a passive undertaking for the viewer...

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Highsmith @ 100: "Carol" is a perfect adaptation

by Cláudio Alves

Patricia Highsmith was born 100 years ago this week. The writer died when she was 74, leaving behind a collection of full of classics. Many of those novels were adapted to the big screen, her mellifluous psychological thrillers most of all. Strangers on a Train and the many stories of Tom Ripley being the most popular. It was through cinema that I discovered the author and ended up falling in love with her prose. I adore how she seduces and stabs, hypnotizing us with beautiful words, undercutting the splendor with her character's monstrousness. 

There was a mysterious softness to Highsmith's poisonous style, an insightful breath of romance that reached its apotheosis with The Price of Salt, later retitled Carol. First published in 1952, the novel was one of the first lesbian romances with a happy ending to see the light of day, making it a revolutionary text in many regards. By 2015, Todd Haynes and Phyllis Nagy finally told that story in celluloid, delivering what's arguably the best cinematic adaptation of a Highsmith novel…

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Review: One Night in Miami

by Matt St Clair

Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami is a wonderful departure from the traditional biopic formula. Instead of focusing on key events from the lives of the famous, One Night in Miami  gives us a fictionalized, night-long conversation four iconic men might have been having at that exact moment in history. The titular night is February 25th, 1964, just after Cassius Clay’s boxing match with Sonny Liston and just before the famous athlete changed his name to Muhammad Ali.   

Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), musician Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and former NFL player Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) gather together in a motel room to discuss the weight they carry as celebrities to help create social change through the Civil Rights Movement. Thanks to the lead actors, along with genius writing by Kemp Powers who adapted his own  play for the screen, we’re able to get a glimpse of the real people behind the iconic personas...

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