Blueprints: "Hereditary"

This week, Jorge dives into how the setting and character introductions made this one of the most unsettling movies in years.

Horror films are far scarier when they are grounded by real fears. Sure, a ghost flying towards you or the sight of a little girl head’s spinning are objectively terrifying. But when a character's terror reflects the way we have felt at dire points, the horror movie seeps into our own lives, suddenly tangible. 

Hereditary is as much of a family melodrama as it is a horror film. Its scariness doesn’t rely on a supernatural force (although there is one), or on gory and violent imagery (though there’s definitely some of that). The horror taps into the dynamics and secrets of family life. It takes regular fraught human emotions and raises them to unbearable levels...

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Links: Johnny Depp, Carmen Jones, Kathy Griffin, Julia Roberts, and More...

• Coming Soon Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and Tika Sumpter to star in Sonic the Hedgehog movie. It's set to be a live action / animated hybrid. Not sure if that means the stars are just mo-capped or what.
• i09 "even the Defenders action figures hate Iron Fist" LOLOL
• Variety first look at Julia Roberts in the Amazon series Homecoming. Apparently she still wants that Emmy. (Bonus points: Sissy Spacek is playing her mother and her dream man from My Best Friends Wedding Dermot Mulroney also co-stars)
• Awards Daily predictions for what will show at Telluride 

• Vulture lists the 55 essential Queer horror films. I've only seen 20 of them. How about you?
• Playbill lists 14 stage favorites you can catch at the movies this summer
• E!News Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black have a new son
• Towleroad Broadway actors redo "We are the World"... I wish I liked this more but it's too light on starpower (only a few legends in comparison to comparative within-their-field legends in the 80s single)  and weirdly makes that American Idol guy Constantine the focus)
• /Film a look back at Lagaan (2001), India's last Oscar nominee
• The Playlist Toni Collette, Kaitlyn Dever, and Merrit Wever (that's quite a trio!) will star in Unbelievable a film adapted from the Pulitzer winning article "An Unbelievable Story of Rape"
• Boy Culture reviews Kathy Griffin's comeback performance at Radio City Music Hall
• THR Jared Leto is going to play Morbius, the Living Vampire in one of those Sony attempts at making a Spider-verse of villain movies
• /Film Netflix ordered a martial arts series Wu Assassins to star Iko Uwais
• Playbill Carmen Jones with Anika Noni Rose taking over Dorothy Dandridge's famous role has been extended through August.
• ...we had our friend Erica review it right here. (I wish it were on Broadway so Anika could win a second Tony!) 

Johnny Depp painting by Matt Mahurin

This Past Week's Must Read (If You Missed It)
Meant to share this a whole week ago but if you haven't yet read Stephen Rodrick's totally absorbing, fascinating, and non-spiteful but damning profile of Johnny Depp, "The Trouble With Johnny Depp" you must. I've been thinking about it all week and mourning the Johnny that once was, from the Edward Scissorhands, Cry Baby, Donnie Brasco, pre-Jack Sparrow days.

Tweetweek: Hereditary and Wonder Woman '84

the most successful people i’ve met:

1. put others first
2. dress for success
3. collect vinyl
4. don’t believe in accidents
5. treat service industry workers well
6. will have the creamed spinach
7. should have said, “Therese, wait”
8. are not ugly people, Harge
9. like the hat https://t.co/MdvYjlMjY4

— Netflix Film (@NetflixFilm) June 14, 2018

After the jump woman of a 1000 faces, all the funny reactions to Hereditary, Wonder Woman 1984, and more... 

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Review: "Hereditary"

by Chris Feil

Hereditary gives so much: a bold lead performance from Toni Collette, genuine skin-crawling scares, and a stream of ominously manicured imagery to obsess over on multiple viewings. And yet its mightiest power is how and when it withholds. Layers revealed in its central family mystery only yield more questions and terrifying unreconciled implications on its descent into madness. You think at first the film is keeping you at arm’s length, when really it is picking you up by the shoulders and placing you down precisely where it knows it will unnerve you most. Letting it get its sadistic claws on you is simply one of the year’s essential cinematic experiences.

The feature debut of writer/director Ari Aster, Hereditary is uncommonly patient in delivering on its horrific promises. The film is less of a slow burn than an enticing bear trap, meditatively luring the audience with all of its pieces before suddenly closing its jaws on us with furious velocity. But that’s the thing about nightmares: rarely do they announce their punishment immediately. Hereditary is as wise and calculating as a demon ready to pounce.

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Soundtracking: "Muriel's Wedding"

by Chris Feil

It’s a sad truth that the closest thing we’ve gotten to Toni Collette starring in a screen musical is Muriel’s Wedding (and Connie and Carla, but that's for another day). The forgotten half-truth is that it isn’t the only screen ABBA musical. Sure, Mamma Mia! actually features full blown singing and dancing, but just because Muriel’s Wedding’s musicality exists in the daydreaming of its heroine, that doesn’t mean we’re spared the delights of a slew ABBA’s biggest hits. But the tunes are so crucial to the film’s identity and omnipresent throughout that it’s a huge missed opportunity that Muriel’s inevitable stage adaptation will never be the ABBA jukebox musical that could have been.

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