Celebrate Dev Patel with "Monkey Man"

by Cláudio Alves

Happy birthday, Dev Patel!

The erstwhile Skins actor turned hottest living Oscar nominee is 34 years old today and, as if to commemorate the occasion, Monkey Man just became available on PVOD. The India-set action movie is Patel's feature directorial debut, though he's more than just the guy calling the shots from the director's chair. The multi-hyphenated artist also produced and wrote the revenge flick. Oh, and he stars in it, too, doing most of his stunts, which resulted in a broken hand on the first days of shooting. Overall, it was a challenging project to bring to fruition, made more so when Netflix dropped Monkey Man in response to its political content. Thankfully, Jordan Peele came to the rescue, guaranteeing the film a theatrical release that, if nothing else, confirmed Dev Patel's promise as a bonafide movie star…

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Sundance: 'Hatching' or Mommy Issues – The Movie

by Cláudio Alves

Motherhood is a subject ripe for horrific extrapolation. Some might regard their offspring as hopeful mirrors, wishing them to be an improved reflection. Disappointment, when it unavoidably comes, is a spiky cruel monster. There are others for whom birthing a mirror is the worst possible fate, the child a magnifying glass of perceived faults. Moreover, the similarity can feel draining, a youthful leech sucking out its mother's lifeforce, a constant reminder of mortality. Hanna Bergholm's Hatching takes these perceptions of motherhood and mixes them with body horror, cranks them up to eleven, and ties everything up in a pink satin bow that reeks of vomit and discarded flesh…

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Quick Take: Gore Vidal on Film

Variety recently announced that Kevin Spacey is to bring Gore Vidal to our screens in a Netflix original film. Directed by Michael Hoffman (dir. The Last Station), Spacey might be the most perfect casting, and judging by some coded, jovial remarks at the Tony Awards this year, may relish a role like this.

Vidal's life has previously been on screen in documentaries: Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia and Best of Enemies, about his combative relationship with William F. Buckley.

Vidal: Writer, bon vivant, public intellectual and unapologetic homosexual has a rich, albeit chequered history in cinema. Screenwriter for the frenzied Suddenly, Last Summer, debauched bloodbath Caligula and his own notorious novel Myra Breckinridge was adapted into X-rated 1970 film.

And as uncredited writer of Ben-Hur, he was responsible for those lingering glances between Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston - not that Heston ever knew that...