Review: 'Birds Of Prey' Goes Full Riot Squad In Wild, Hyper-Violent Atypical Superhero Movie

Is Birds of Prey even a superhero movie? I mean, there's the DC Extended Universe stinger ahead of it, featuring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. But this is no ordinary superhero movie, it shares very little in common with anything we've seen and that's part of what makes it so great. A ridiculously unhinged neon splash of beat 'em up action and rainbow-colored girl power make for one of the most enjoyable comic book movies in years. Call it "fantabulous."

Margot Robbie slips back into the clown makeup and pastel-colored fashion sense of Harley Quinn, the breakout character from 2016's Suicide Squad. The ADD-riddled paramour of Joker is no longer his main squeeze (Jared Leto's version of the villain is barely glimpsed but often referenced), and going solo has only made her more erratic. This plays out in a 4th wall-breaking, quippy, time-jumping, motor-mouthed narration that is both hilarious and patience-testing. We're speed raced through her origin story using a combo of live-action and animation, ending with her basically being thrown out on the street. She handles the break-up like any normal person would, with a lot of tears, a new haircut, eating herself into a food coma, buying a pet hyena, y'know how it goes. She also gets into a LOT of trouble, because now that Joker's no longer protecting her, it's open season on Harley Quinn and she's racked up a murderer's row of enemies.

It's an ingenious point driven home by writer Christina Hodson (Bumblebee, the upcoming Batgirl movie), that Harley Quinn is so used to being under Joker's umbrella that she never once had to think about the consequences of her actions. "A Harley Quinn is meant to serve", she weeps somberly to Dinah Lance aka Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), while indulging at the nightclub of crime boss Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (a flamboyantly Walken-esque Ewan McGregor). Who is Harley Quinn without a master?

She's batshit insane, that's what, only without any guardrails, and the direction by Cathy Yan is appropriately heightened to match her broken psyche. A thin plot emerges involving a dead mob family's priceless diamond, which gets snapped up by teen pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), who is being protected by cop-on-the-edge Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), who enlists Black Canary for help, only to run afoul of vengeful assassin the Huntress  (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, great at playing deadly serious). These vigilante Spice Girls must team up to stop Black Mask and his face-removing thug Victor Szasz (an unrecognizably creepy Chris Messina) from getting their hands on Cassandra.

There is no shortage of toxic men for these gals to beat up on, and Birds of Prey works best when it goes full-on riot squad. The wilder it gets, the better, like a Terminator-esque siege sequence with Harley Quinn shooting up a police station with a bean bag gun full of glitter, or a chase sequence in which she tries desperately to save the one thing in life she still cares for...a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. Quieter moments find Harley Quinn ruminating on her need to break free from the abusive relationships that have defined her (hence the movie's "Fantabulous Emancipation" subtitle), but it would be too much to say these times are especially deep. They're enough to give the talented Robbie a little more to do than bash skulls with a giant mallet and crack jokes. Robbie is totally in sync with this character, and in two short films has elevated her from colorful sidekick to figure of female empowerment...albeit one with a penchant for breaking legs. The contrasts within Harley, that she's a maniacal villain seeking to help an endangered child, mirror the conflicts within all of these women. Each of them must become something new, embrace a different part of themselves, if there's any hope of them working together and surviving. The theme of evolving beyond past traumas is common among male superhero characters (hello, Batman!!) and it's refreshing to see it in a major film with some of DC Comics' best heroines.

Fueled by a roaring soundtrack of stage-setting rock hits ("Barracuda" plays during one notable scene) and manic cinematography by Matthew Libatique, Birds of Prey is undeniably loud and superficially stylish, recalling the early works of Tarantino or his copycats. There's a random Marilyn Monroe music video sequence that feels ripped from a different movie, but y'know what, it works. Yan throws everything against the wall to see what splatters and sticks, and nearly all of it does. If you're going to make a movie from Harley Quinn's fractured personality, this is how you do it. Go big. And that includes the action which includes plenty of slick John Wick-style fights (the plot is pretty similar, too) elevated to Deadpool levels of comic inappropriateness. The violence is brutal, sadistic, and clashes with the overall cartoonish tone. To put a point on it, the little girl dressed as Harley Quinn in front of me had to have her eyes shielded by her mother on more than one occasion.

As a spinoff of Suicide Squad, there are stylistic similarities in attitude and atmosphere, but Birds of Prey embraces its crazy and leaves nothing left to chance. While it doesn't all come together perfectly, the gamble pays off in emancipating the film from the confines of a tired genre.

3.5 out of 5

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New 'Birds Of Prey' Clips Have Harley Quinn Battling On Roller Skates

This week Birds of Prey finally comes flying into theaters. Kinda feels like we've been waiting forever for it, thanks to the Gotham City Sirens confusion. The film returns Margot Robbie to the role of Harley Quinn, who is no longer tied down by the Joker (figuratively, although literally is probably true, too), and must team up with an all-new girl gang to survive the threat of Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, played by Ewan McGregor.

Since we know Harley Quinn is entirely unhinged, and this movie is largely seen from her perspective, expect it to get pretty bonkers. In a handful of new clips we get an idea of just how far off the wall this could go, with Harley Quinn battling some of Sionis' goons on a pair of roller skates, swining her mallet around with reckless abandon.

In another clip we see Harley Quinn being interrogated by Sionis and his right-hand-man Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), and in another we see her, along with Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) realizing they must work together. I think this scene also reveals a certain character's death, so beware of spoilers. There's more, including Black Canary breaking out her soulful rendition of "It's A Man's World", giving Smolett-Bell a chance to show what she can do.

Directed by Cathy Yan, Birds of Prey opens February 7th!

new sneak peek of black canary 🔊#BirdsOfPrey pic.twitter.com/ulQfVNbwCL

— ⧗ shey ʬ⁸⁴ LEGENDS DAY! (@LuthorMaximoff) February 4, 2020

New #BirdsofPrey clip from #TheTonightShow 💕#HarleyQuinn #BlackCanary #Huntress pic.twitter.com/UYpgka5wpX

— Birds of Prey (@preyofbirdsdc) February 4, 2020

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'Birds Of Prey' Trailer: Harley Quinn Finally Gets Her Moment To Shine

Warner Bros. has put in the work to move past the unsuccessful Zack Snyder era of DC Comics films, so that guys like me stop beginning every post reminding everyone how their movies sucked hard. Following on the $1B+ of Joker, they hope the next huge hit will be Birds of Prey, which finds Margot Robbie reprising her role as Joker's former squeeze, Harley Quinn.

Of course, the Joker she's breaking away from in Birds of Prey has nothing to do with the Joaquin Phoenix version, but it's still pretty interesting to see two straight films focused on the psychotic couple. The film finds Harley Quinn teaming up with a team of badass ladies including Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) against the sadistic Black Mask, played with relish by Ewan McGregor, and Victor Szasz, played by Chris Messina.

The best thing about this is how much it deviates from Suicide Squad, which is not to say that film wasn't 75% decent. But Harley Quinn should be in the loopiest, most insane film possible and that's what Birds of Prey looks like. Here's hoping that continues when she turns up again in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad.

SYNOPSIS: After splitting with the Joker, Harley Quinn joins superheroes Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord, Black Mask in Gotham City.

Birds of Prey opens February 7th.

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Review: Ben Affleck's 'Live By Night' With Elle Fanning, Chris Cooper, And Zoe Saldana

Sometimes a filmmaker can be a victim of their own success.  Ben Affleck resurrected his career with a directorial turn stronger than almost any actor before him. Gone Baby Gone earned him the praise he had been denied as an actor, which he then rolled into the solid crime flick The Town and finally, a Best Picture win for political thriller Argo. The natural course after achieving that level of success is to pursue a passion project, and therein lays the pitfall of overindulgence (Martin Scorsese has faced something similar with Silence) and lack of perspective.

Affleck's Live by Night isn't a bad gangster film by any means, it's just overstuffed with egregious flourishes and familiar recalls to just about every mobster movie you've ever seen. At least in the early going, anyway. Affleck does end up correcting course and the film spins into a rousing, entertaining crime yarn full of cool hats, tough dames, and tommy guns. It just takes a while to get there, and the opening act trots out one lousy hard-boiled cliché after another. He plays tough guy Joe Coughlin, a Boston criminal and WWI vet on the opposite side of the law as his father Tom (Brendan Gleeson), a police captain and respected member of the community. It's Joe's time on the battlefield that has shaped his outlook, vowing to live as anti-establishment life as possible.  "I left a soldier, I came home an outlaw", he says in bland, tired voice-over. The early scenes are full of such lazy exposition, as Joe's reckless criminal activities, which include a romantic alliance with another gangster's girl (Sienna Miller, not given much to do), force him out of Boston and down to Miami to start over.

In Florida the film gets a much needed kick in the pants. Penned by Affleck as an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel, the story is suddenly full of kooky religious fundamentalists and Ku Klux Klan members, not the typical foes for the Mob. Joe, along with his right-hand-man (Chris Messina, always reliable even in a thick Boston accent) take control of the bootlegging trade through fear and violence, tricks that worked fine up north. But to hold on to that grip, it'll take a lot more than that. If the local sheriff (Chris Cooper, excellent as always) is giving you trouble, make an example out of his young daughter (Elle Fanning) who has fallen in a seedy crowd of pornographers. There's unexpected gravity to her story when she re-emerges as a religious zealot, championing a cause opposed to Joe's operation. While she presents herself as a pillar of strength, the conversations she has with Joe reveal something broken. She may question the strength of his virtue but hers is in question, too, and it plays out in expectedly tragic results.

In Fanning's character we see a reflection of the transformation also going on within Joe. It plays out in broad strokes like so much of this movie does, but in general he's a crook with a heart of gold. Been there, seen that. You keep hoping to see something deeper than that brought to the table, but instead we are forced to like Joe as opposed to his rivals, all KKK members. Well that's a relatively easy choice. For pure entertainment value it's hard to beat mobsters vs. racists in white sheets, just sayin'. There are long meandering stretches between encounters in which little of consequence happens, and unfortunately that is where you'll find many of the film's great supporting cast. For instance, Zoe Saldana is perfectly fine and has some decent heat with Affleck in the scenes they share, but if her character was dropped completely it would have zero effect on the story. Affleck is solid but he seems out of his element, like he's teleported his contemporary criminal from The Town back in time and given him the same story arc to follow.

There just isn't much new that Affleck's Live by Night has to say about the gangster picture. Perhaps we are attributing loftier expectations than he had for the film, but that's the price he must pay for previous achievements.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Ben Affleck Won't Be Muscled In Final Trailer For 'Live By Night'

By now we've seen many of the movies that will likely end up nominees for a Best Picture Oscar, but one we have yet to see is Ben Affleck's crime drama, Live by Night. Considering his track record as a director it has to be seen as a favorite, and Warner Bros. wants to remind you of that with this new trailer.

Affleck directs and stars in the adaptation of Dennis Lehane's book set in the roaring '20s and centering on Joe Coughlin, a former WWI vet and son of a Boston cop. Despite all of that he stands opposed to the law, breaking Prohibition with a criminal enterprise that stretches down to Florida.

There's every reason to have high expectations here. The cinematography by Robert Richardson is gorgeous, the cast is phenomenal, and Affleck seems to be hitting all of the right notes of the gangster era. This could be great.

Also starring Sienna Miller, Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, Chris Messina, Zoe Saldana and Chris Cooper, Live by Night opens Christmas Day.

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Review: 'Ordinary World' Starring Billie Joe Armstrong And Selma Blair

Behind the coming-of-age story featuring the misunderstood arty young man, the mid-life crisis movie has to be one of the most popular indie subgenres going.  Even the particular punk-turned-dad spin was covered in documentary form by The Other F Word.  But while there might not be much new in Lee Kirk's Ordinary World, it's a sweet little story in its own unassuming way.

More interesting to viewers my age, this marks the first leading role for Billie Joe Armstrong, and he does a pretty good job of it.  In part, this is a role that's all but made for him, in a sort of alternate timeline way.  What if Green Day hadn't caught on the way they did?  That's more or less what happened to Perry (Armstrong).  And while waiting for that big break he met Karen (Selma Blair), and she got pregnant with Salome (Madisyn Shipman), and he started working in the family hardware store in Queens with his younger brother (Chris Messina) while the band went on "indefinite hiatus" for the last ten years.

In a way, Kirk's script resembles a long-delayed coming-of-age story more than it does the usual mid-life crisis.  Perry wakes up one morning, harried by all his usual chores, and finds that his family has forgotten his birthday.  He throws an irresponsible party that his friend and former bandmate (Fred Armisen) blows out of proportion and brings down the ire of The Man.  But instead of a house-ruining teen rager, it's the presidential suite of a nearby hotel, and instead of angry parents it's the hotel's concierge (a surprisingly officious Brian Baumgartner).

I admit, the story doesn't totally hang together.  Why does Perry take a sudden windfall and throw even more of his own money after it to rent the suite?  It's one thing to show him making ill-advised decisions so that we can see his judgement improve, but this one sticks out as so ill-advised and unmotivated that it only makes sense because Kirk wants to play with the "rock band trashes a hotel room" trope.

Perry also doesn't seem to incur any realistic penalties for his actions.  In part this goes back to feeling a bit like an '80s teen comedy, where the upper middle class parents can absorb the cost of whatever damage the kid has done.  A multiple-thousand-dollar hit seems like it should be a bigger deal to a public defender and a semi-employed hardware store clerk with two kids.

But Armstrong has a sweet, slightly dopey affect that makes it hard not to like him.  Which makes it hard not to like Ordinary World, despite its shortcomings.  The whole movie takes on the same aura of ungainly charm that Perry gets from his thick-rimmed glasses and mussed, dyed-black hair.  He may be a little late coming to some of these realizations, but you're at least happy he got there eventually.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Armie Hammer Joins 'Nocturnal Animals', Chris Messina in Talks for 'Live By Night'

Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals is shaping up to be even more impressive than his debut, A Single Man. The Man from UNCLE's Armie Hammer is the latest to join Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kim Basinger and Aaron Taylor Johnson in the adaptation of Austin Wright's novel, Tony and Susan. Hammer will play the husband to Adams' character, a woman who suddenly receives a manuscript of her ex-husband's first book. As she reads, she is drawn into the story of Tony (Gyllenhaal), an ordinary man whose life goes violently off course. [Deadline]

Chris Messina is in talks for Ben Affleck's next directorial effort, an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's Live By Night. The Prohibition-era drama stars Affleck as a police captain's son who rises in the ranks of Boston's criminal underworld. Messina would play Affleck's best friend and right-hand man. Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana, and Elle Fanning co-star with more to be cast soon as filming begins this November for a 2017 release. [Variety]

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Trailer for Joe Swanberg's Star-Studded Relationship Film 'Digging for Fire'

Indie director Joe Swanberg has quickly risen in the ranks from "Mumblecore" stalwart to a filmmaker capable of much starrier projects. The interesting thing about it is that he didn't have to jump to studio films to do it. Drinking Buddies is what many will recall him for, and he's kept up a prolific pace mixing things up with Happy Christmas, All the Light in the Sky, and the fetish thriller 24 Exposures. But his most star-studded film yet, Digging for Fire, debuted this year at Sundance and it definitely has the same flavor of his earlier projects, while exploring domestic issues in a way he's never done before.

Everybody Swanberg ever worked with shows up for this one, plus a few new faces. Starring Jake Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sam Rockwell, Brie Larson, Anna Kendrick, Orlando Bloom, Sam Elliott, Judith Light, Mike Birbiglia, Jane Adams, Ron Livingston, Melanie Lynskey, Chris Messina, and Jenny Slate, the film centers on a husband and wife's troubled marriage and the temptations they face while away from one another for the weekend. Meanwhile the discovery of a gun and a human bone in the backyard has raised some questions that need to be answered.

Digging for Fire hits theaters on August 21st.


Digging for Fire official Trailer #1 by Movies Trailers

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Review: 'Alex of Venice' Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Don Johnson, and Chris Messina

It's not always easy for an actor to make the transition to directing. Just ask Ryan Gosling whose debut Lost River totally face-planted recently. Sometimes it's best to start simple, or at the very least to stick with a scope that has been an integral part of one's career. Chris Messina, who was an indie stalwart long before he hit it big on The Mindy Project, has stuck to what he knows best with the affectionate and flawed drama, Alex of Venice, a small film that relies on the strength of its core performances.

The chief reason to see the film is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, adding to her recent string of compelling lead roles. With expressive face, wide eyes and easy smile, she always makes you want to champion whatever character she's playing, even the ones that are a bit rough around the edges. Certainly that's the case for Alex, a hard-working environmental attorney with a stay-at-home husband (Messina) and a young son (Skylar Gaertner) she had as a teenager. Alex doesn't see her kid enough; certainly doesn't appreciate her husband enough, and also has to deal with her pot-smoking father (Don Johnson), an actor who can never remember to take his medication. When her husband grows sick of the arrangement and splits, it becomes clear pretty quick just how much he was holding things together. Not that she ever had much of a work/life balance before, but now it's completely out of whack.

You can probably figure where things go. Alex of Venice is a film about starting over, taking chances, and learning to look at life's glass as half-full. That's as new experience and hurdles confront her at every turn. We learn she's only ever had sex with her husband, so suddenly being single opens up a whole new world of opportunities. And her father, who is studying for a stage role in Chekov's dour The Cherry Orchard, is suddenly more absent-minded than your typical stoner. Plus there's the frantic presence of Alex's flighty sister Anya (co-writer Katie Nehra), who sort of fills the gaps taking care of her son.

Messina time in front of the camera clearly has influenced his decisions behind it as he gives the cast room to breathe, allowing them to flesh out the characters in ways the screenplay occasionally doesn't. Being genuine isn't this film's problem; it's small-scale and lovely to look at with characters that are imperfect and vulnerable. A bigger issue is that the screenwriters consistently underplay key moments in Alex's journey of self-discovery. On the one hand it works when she begins dating the handsome defendant (Derek Luke) in her latest case, and the fact he's African-American never comes up once. On the other hand, that she is basically jumping into bed with him a couple of minutes after realizing she's only had sex with one guy trivializes her predicament. While Don Johnson gives another solid turn, and an underplayed one given his recent roles in Cold in July and Django Unchained, but his Alzheimer's storyline here is never fully developed. It's contrasted ham-handedly with his performance in The Cherry Orchard which is about finding new ways to give life meaning.

Winstead and Johnson give the film considerable heart, and they remain the top reasons to seek it out. Alex of Venice is an honest, soulful film and an admirable first effort for Messina. It's a film that is easy to like, but a lack of commitment to the characters' struggles makes it difficult to fall in love with.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Al Pacino Needs Love in First Trailer for David Gordon Green's 'Manglehorn'

With solid reviews for his performances in Danny Collins and The Humbling, Al Pacino's career is back on the upswing. The same can be said for director David Gordon Green, who has left behind the goofball comedies for subtle dramatic work like Joe and Prince Avalanche. Now the two have hooked up for another character piece, Manglehorn, and the first trailer for it is here.

Also starring Holly Hunter, Chris Messina, and Spring Breakers director Harmony Korine, the film stars Pacino as A.J. Manglehorn, a small-town locksmith who can't stop thinking about a long-lost love. Here's the official synopsis:

Reclusive small town locksmith A.J. Manglehorn has never recovered from losing the love of his life, Clara. Fixated on her memory, he feels closer to his beloved cat than the people around him. Still, he forges on with his tenuous human connections, maintaining intermittent contact with his son and taking misplaced pride in a former protégé gone astray, and establishing a cautious friendship with a kind woman from the local bank. As this solitary man approaches the possibility of new love, he finds himself at a crossroads between staying mired in the past and embracing the present.

This looks like a low-key, quiet affair that should afford Pacino a chance to really dig into the role. Reviews out of TIFF and Venice were somewhat mixed, though, but if this is half as good as Green's last film, Joe, it will be worth checking out. Manglehorn opens on June 19th.


Manglehorn (2014) - Bande Annonce / Trailer [VOST-HD] by Eklecty-City.fr

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead Starts Over in Trailer for 'Alex of Venice'

It's never too late to take on life with a fresh slate. Many a film have been based around this simple premise of starting anew, and one that received some solid buzz at Tribeca last year was Alex of Venice. Marking the directorial debut of actor Chris Messina, the film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a career-minded mother who must reevaluate her life priorities when her husband (Messina) decides he's had enough.

"From the producers of The Place Beyond the Pines and Half Nelson" is a pretty good place to start, in my opinion. It speaks to a certain humanity that I think is present in this trailer, and by most accounts the performances by Winstead and Don Johnson as her pot-smoking father are terrific. It's also good to see Derek Luke in a supporting role as Winstead's love interest, and that the interracial make up of their relationship doesn't seem to be an issue.

Alex of Venice hits VOD and theaters on April 17th.


ALEX OF VENICE | Movie Trailer HD [2015] by VodTimes.com

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Review: 'Cake' starring Jennifer Aniston, Anna Kendrick, and Sam Worthington

Oh quiet down, Team Jennifer fans: your favorite Friends star wasn't snubbed by the Oscars for her grief-stricken performance in Cake. That's not to say she isn't deserving of some measure of kudos for taking on a role much darker than we've seen since she was briefly an indie darling for The Good Girl. Aniston does deserve credit for that, but the film itself is an inelegant look at misery and depression that holds her back from reaching real emotional depths.

The oddly-titled Cake is just as odd of a nut to crack. At times it's so bleak and humorless that to watch it can be a real drag, but then the next moment it resembles a snarkier version of Spanglish, which is about as lame as that sounds. Aniston takes a break from the lame rom-coms and gives an intermittently powerful performance as Claire Simmons, a woman scarred in just about every way imaginable. Both physically and emotionally she is a damaged woman, who hides her pain by the constant taking of prescription pills and a "who gives a crap" attitude about everything. That includes her treatment of loyal housekeeper Silvana (Adrianna Barrazza), who functions as a sort of cheerful enabler to Claire's negativity. Claire is so terrible she's lost just about everyone: her husband (Chris Messina) has long since moved on; her support group wants her to seek help elsewhere; and even her physical therapist (Mamie Gummer) thinks she's given up.

While the story of an extreme depressive's turn towards redemption can be a powerful one if told with an honest accounting of struggles involved, Cake takes an unnecessarily quirky route and never quite recovers. After nearly killing herself on drugs, Claire begins to see visions of and have combative conversations with Nina (Anna Kendrick), a former member of her self-help group who committed suicide. Nina becomes obsessed with Nina's life, visiting her former home and encountering her widowed husband Roy (Sam Worthington), who seems remarkably open to being stalked by an unstable woman. He doesn't seem to mind that she keeps showing up out of the blue, and Claire doesn't mind using him to make herself feel better. She doesn't mind using anybody, for that matter. Claire is a user, first and foremost.

Claire is also not especially likable. She's not nearly as funny as the screenplay wants her to be, and every attempt to make her so comes across as mean-spirited and selfish. There isn't enough consistency in her character to make us pity her, and it's a complete disservice to Aniston who dives into Claire's grief with both feet. We've never seen her play a character this unhappy, this sour, this defeated by life, and it's startling given the sexy comedic roles she's had of late. While it doesn't rank with some of the more challenging female performances that did get Oscar nominations, Aniston has set herself up for greater dramatic roles in the future. With the warm, comforting Barrazza they make for an interesting oil & water duo to watch when not tripped up by shapeless screenplay. Unfortunately, Cake is an unsatisfying meal too unsure tonally and lacking in any serious revelations on breaking free of despair.

 Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Jennifer Aniston Drinks and Pops Pills in First Trailer for 'Cake'

We've been down this route with Jennifer Aniston before; the one where he takes on a completely stripped down role in an indie feature and turns everybody's head with her acting. That was more than a decade ago with The Good Girl, a film that earned her an Indie Spirit Award nomination and other accolades. Earlier this year Aniston began generating some festival buzz for Cake, which sees her once again stripping down the glamor (rather than just stripping down as in Horrible Bosses 2 or We're the Millers) in taking on the darkest role of her career.

But is the film any good? Well...that's up for debate. While the reviews were split after it premiered at Toronto, the real proof may be that producers failed to find distribution, ultimately being forced to start their own company to release it.  Rarely is that such a good sign. Aniston plays Claire Simmons, an emotionally crippled woman who begins obsessing over the suicide by a member (Anna Kendrick) of her support group. Meanwhile, the self-absorbed Claire begins having an affair with the dead woman's widower, played by Sam Worthington. Adriana Barraza, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Lucy Punch, Chris Messina, Britt Robertson, Mamie Gummer, and the late Misty Upham co-star with Daniel Barnz (Beastly) directing.

We've seen a complete transformation in Aniston as she's embraced her risque side in R-rated comedies, but dramatic roles have been few. The thing is, she's actually pretty good when given the opportunity to branch out into more serious work. Cake may not be the film that gets her any awards contention but it may open the door to other opportunities. After a one-week Oscar qualifying run next month Cake will open in January.



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Ayelet Zurer Eyes 'Ben-Hur'; Anton Yelchin Joins 'Baseballissimo'; Judy Greer is a 'Geezer'

She's already played Superman's mom in Man of Steel, now the gorgeous Ayelet Zurer will be the mother of Ben-Hur in Timur Bekmambetov's remake. She joins a cast led by Jack Huston as the title character, a nobleman forced into slavery after being falsely accused of a crime by his best friend. Oscar-winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) wrote the latest screenplay, with Morgan Freeman and Toby Kebbell co-starring. Despite Zurer coming aboard the search is still on for an actress to replace Gal Gadot, who had to back out due to her Wonder Woman commitments.  [THR]

Jay Baruchel must love his sports comedies. A couple of years ago he co-wrote and starred in the hockey film, Goon, and now he's switching gears to the diamond with Baseballissimo. Baruchel wrote and will star in the film alongside Anton Yelchin, which is about "a rising baseball minor-league player who gets detoured on the way to major-league stardom by pitching for the Peones, a baseball team in Italy." Jacob Tierney (Good Neighbors) will direct. [THR]

The always hilarious Judy Greer (she's great on Married, by the way) will join Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong in Geezer, along with Fred Armisen, Selma Blair, Chris Messina, Dallas Roberts, and Brian Baumgartner. The rock music drama centers on "the mid-life crisis of a husband and father who, on his 40th birthday, decides to revisit his punk-rock past by throwing an extravagant party in the presidential suite of the Drake Hotel—where he encounters his beautiful ex-girlfriend and former bandmates who have since moved on to bigger and better things." Meh. Lee Kirk is directing this one now in New York City.

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Anna Kendrick and Sam Worthington Serve Up 'Cake' with Jennifer Aniston

After a couple of $200M R-rated comedy hits in Horrible Bosses and We're the Millers, Jennifer Aniston is going a different route with the indie drama, Cake. And while director Daniel Barnz (Beastly, Won't Back Down) scored quite a coup getting her to headline the film, the rest of the cast is shaping up to be even more impressive.

According to The Wrap, Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington, William H. Macy and his wife Felicity Huffman, Britt Robertson (Tomorrowland), Chris Messina, Lucy Walters (Shame), Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Camille Mana (Smart People), and Manuel Garcia Rulfo have joined the cast. Patrick Tobin's script wound up on the 2013 Black List and has Aniston playing "an acerbic woman named Claire who becomes fascinated by the suicide of Nina, a woman in her chronic pain support group. As she uncovers the details of Nina's suicide and develops a poignant relationship with Nina's husband, Claire also grapples with her own very raw personal tragedy." Kendrick will play Nina who reappears as a ghost to taunt Claire, with Worthington as Nina's husband.  Messina will be Claire's ex-husband while Huffman is the facilitator of a support group.

No word on when filming will begin or how this will fit into Kendrick's schedule. She has Pitch Perfect 2 coming up, and recently wrapped Disney musical, Into the Woods. She had three movies at Sundance that are all expected to drop some time this year: Joe Swanberg's Happy Christmas, Life After Beth opposite Dane DeHaan, and Marjane Satrapi's The Voices.

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Harmony Korine, Holly Hunter, and Chris Messina Join David Gordon Green's 'Manglehorn'

Whether one appreciated David Gordon Green's smallish buddy comedy Prince Avalanche (our own Rocky Hadadi sure didn't), it at least represents a stylistic return to form for the director. Once an indie darling thanks to films like George Washington and my personal favorite of his All the Real Girls, Green pulled a fast one on his fans by directing stoner flicks Pineapple Express, The Sitter, and the abysmal Your Highness. At the very least it marked him as a cinematic chameleon, and lately he's been going back to his roots a little bit.

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins Her Husband for 'Faults'; Leads Chris Messina's Directorial Debut

When she's not busy busting out a funky tune as one half of her Got A Girl collaboration with Dan the Automator, Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been jumping from mainstream films to indie projects, and finding a good deal of success with both. She recently made a cameo in A Good Day to Die Hard, and has the Adam Scott comedy A.C.O.D. coming up later this year. This summer she'll reteam with Smashed director James Ponsoldt for a small but pivotal role in The Spectacular Now, and now she's joining two more indie projects that should keep her busy for awhile.

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Review: 'Argo' directed by Ben Affleck

A little known fact about Ben Affleck is that he majored in Middle Eastern affairs while attending college, so the turbulent region has long been in the back of his mind. But was it always his plan to make a movie about it? Much less centered on one of the weirdest periods in U.S. foreign affairs history? Doubtful, but Argo does prove Affleck has a keen understanding of the political snake pit the U.S. found itself in during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. He also understands how to craft it into a thrilling, relevant, and darkly amusing crowd-pleaser.

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Review: 'Ruby Sparks', starring Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan

Leave it to Zoe Kazan to craft the best summer romance since (500) Days of Summer. The indie darling has been on the cusp of finding a larger audience for years, with supporting roles opposite Meryl Streep, Zac Efron, and Michelle Williams, but it's been in smaller budgeted films like The Exploding Girl where she's found her surest footing. With Ruby Sparks, she's proven to be a multi-hyphenate of rare ability: producing, starring, and penning a whimsical script that can best be described as Kaufman-esque.

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Trailer Time: 'Celeste and Jesse Forever', starring Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg

Hey, Neil Sadaka had it right with his song, "Breaking Up is Hard to Do". It sucks, and movies about separating couples are usually gloomy, heartbreaking affairs. Occasionally you get a comedy that tries to find a silver lining, but for the most part....yep, they're pretty harsh. The only thing that's worse is breaking up and going through that whole song and dance of trying to remain friends. Too many feelings, some pure and others wildly conflicting, that stand to get in the way. It's those battling emotions of love and anger, joy and jealousy that make up the trailer for Celeste and Jesse Forever.

Emerging out of Sundance with a ton of high praise, the film stars Rashida Jones(who also co-wrote the script) and Andy Samberg as the titular couple, who met in high school and married well before their time. Now hitting their 30s, they decide to go their separate ways and seek a divorce, despite often appearing to be perfect for one another. They resolve to remain friends, but when the reality of being apart hits them both, feelings of regret and a desire to reclaim what was lost come flooding back. Of course it doesn't go smoothly, as other relationships get in the way, but the trailer shows a nice mix of hilarity and sadness that is usually very hard to balance. Jones looks to be in top form, but I'm still not sold on Samberg. He's been out of his depth in everything outside of SNL. Ari Graynor, Chris Messina, co-writer Will McCormack, and Elijah Wood co-star. Lee Toland Krieger(The Vicious Kind) directs.

Celeste and Jesse Forever opens on August 3rd. Check out the trailer below....

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