"Sacred Deer" Trailer Kills

Chris here. I take back every complaint I've had about trailers using moody covers of familiar songs, and all thanks to a supremely terrifying use of Ellie Goulding's "Burn" in the new trailer for The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Paired with some chilling and evocative images, the song helps make the trailer as scary as any full film in theatres this year. Yorgos Lanthimos is ready to shake us up again and with even darker laughs than before!

This trailer is a thing of wonder, a certain contender for best of the year for how it quickly grabs you by the shoulders and lingers after its done. It does what so few trailers do: gives us scant plot details while selling us on mood. Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman's immediate reuniting post-Beguiled looks to be even more slippery and poisoned than what they delivered together this year, so it will be exciting to see both performers return to something more outre. Try as I might, I didn't spot Alicia Silverstone's reportedly brief role anywhere here - but trust that we'll be eager for her return!

But my big question mark will be Dunkirk lad Barry Keoghan as the film's pseudo-villain - just how nefarious will he be and could this be one of the major fall breakouts? With the film playing TIFF, expect to hear our thoughts before the film opens right in time for Halloween on October 27!

Cannes Line Up

by Nathaniel R

The Cannes lineup was announced very early this morning (time differences, don'cha know) and we're here to give you details, not just film titles. While TFE doesn't attend ($) we do follow from afar and hope to make the trek some day. The 70th Annual Cannes Film Festival runs May 17th through May 28th.

OPENING NIGHT

Which is a high profile gig but also risky as the knives are often out for a sacrifice to the festival gods to launch the cinextravaganza. 

Ismael’s Ghosts (Arnaud Desplechin)
French auteur Desplechin's latest will be released in the US by Magnolia. It stars French A-Listers Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Mathieu Amalric, and Louis Garrel and revolves around a filmmaker (Amalric) working on a new picture when his long dead lover Carlotta (Cotillard) returns to life sending his life into a tailspin. If you've never seen Desplechin classics Kings and Queen (2004) and A Christmas Tale (2008) get right to that!

THE COMPETITION LINEUP...

Click to read more ...

"We Can't Wait" Pt 2: Most Anticipated of 2017

Before the Oscar nominations tomorrow help put on a cap on 2016, we here at Team Experience are looking to the year ahead. We took a vote on our 17 most breathlessly anticipated movies of 2017 and here are the results. Part one, posted yesterday, included Beauty and the Beast, Coco, and How to Talk to Girls at Parties among others.

Part two after the jump. Our nine most anticipated films of the year...

Click to read more ...

Colin Farrell is nauseated by his new film

Colin Farrell is reteaming with his The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos for The Killing of a Sacred Dear. Filming has just ended on the movie and we probably should not expect it for at least another year. It has this cryptic logline:

A teenager's attempts to bring a brilliant surgeon into his dysfunctional family takes an unexpected turn.

Farrell is the surgeon, Nicole Kidman plays his wife, Alicia Silverstone is the teenager’s mother.

Farrell and Kidman on set

Farrell recently gave an interview to Business Insider, ostensibly to promote this week's Fantastic Beasts,  in which he told us exactly how he felt after reading the script for The Killing of a Sacred Deer:

I’ll wait to see what the film is, but it’s set in a contemporary world, in America, there are hospitals and diners, parks, things that we will recognize and experienced ourselves but yet there’s this similar kind of uneasiness through all the interactions and all the things that take place. It was unnerving reading the script. I kind of felt nauseous after reading it.”

Knowing and loving Lanthimos’ warped sense of the world that he showed not only in The Lobster but also in his first international hit Dogtooth (2009), we are very intrigued. Specially after reading more of what Farrell said:

I can say it’s — ugh, God — it’s eerier than The Lobster. It felt pretty bleak to me. I mean, when I read the script it was extraordinary and to work with Yorgos again was amazing…There are so many interpretations that this film could be approached from. But Yorgos is so specifically minded, he’s so clinical in his direction of the film. He’s really a master I feel, I really do.

Are you intrigued by news of this film?