'A Million Little Pieces' Red Band Trailer: Aaron Taylor-Johnson Is On A Brutal Path To Recovery

Drug addiction can be brutal to watch, but the recovery can be worse. That seems to be the point of A Million Little Pieces, a drama based on the bestselling-but-controversial book by literary charlatan James Frey. While the story it tells may be a giant hoax, we know that millions have been swept up in this one drug addict's journey to find a better life for himself.

The film is directed by Fifty Shades of Grey's Sam Taylor-Johnson, who co-wrote the script with her husband and star, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who looks to be giving a career-best performance. Alongside him in the cast are Billy Bob Thornton, Juliette Lewis, Giovanni Ribisi, Charlie Hunnam, and Odessa Young.

SYNOPSIS: An alcoholic and a drug addict, 23 year-old James has two options: treatment or death. After waking up on a plane with a smashed up face and no memory of the past few weeks, he heads to rehab where he discovers much more than detox and therapy. As James endures the white-knuckle journey of mending his broken body, he heals his broken soul by connecting with other kindred spirits who also yearn and fight for a better life.

A Million Little Pieces opens on December 6th.

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Review: ‘Ma’, Octavia Spencer Chomps Scenery Awesomely In Blumhouse's High School Horror

It doesn’t take much to be sold on the idea of Ma.  Blumhouse movie…check.  Dumb teenagers literally going to the monster’s house…check.  A crazy person with loneliness issues that can turn homicidal in a second… check.  On the surface, this seems just like any B-movie grindhouse horror from years ago.  But Ma actually surprises and proves to be a big deal of fun.

Borrowing heavily from Single White Female, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and even A Nightmare on Elm Street in an interesting way, Ma takes us to small-town America where Maggie (Diana Silvers) is moving from the West Coast with her mother (Juliette Lewis) back to her mother’s hometown after a divorce.  New to town, Maggie doesn’t have any friends besides her mother, but that quickly changes when she makes some new friends Haley, Andy, Chaz, and  Darrell (McKaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, and Dante Brown) who pretty much just want to hang out, drink, and do drugs.  After trying to get an of age person to help them buy liquor (and failing), they run into Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer), on a break from her job as an assistant veterinarian.  Sue Ann at first, refuses them, but then she decides to play ball and help the kids score some booze.  All seems well, right?

Turns out Sue Ann has a Facebook stalking problem, to the point where her boss (Allison Janney also having a bit of fun) has to constantly remind her to get back to work.  Showing why you should always make your profile private, Sue Ann quickly tracks the kids down and gives them a fun offer: come by her house in the middle of nowhere, where they can party in her basement worry-free.  Sue Ann, nicknamed “Ma” has only two rules, no taking the Lord’s name in vain, and never go upstairs to her main house.  Seems fun, right?

Like kids do, they share with friends about all the fun stuff happening at Ma’s, and her home becomes party central for the high school.  Slowly but surely, Ma’s attachment to the core group of kids is turning creepy, especially after a few of them venture upstairs to learn more of her.  This allows us to see a little in Ma’s dark and twisted psyche.  She’s not so much a monster in the sense of being born bad via a Jason, but instead made one through a very unfortunate thing that happened to her in her past a la Francis Dolarhyde.  Even when the kids try and break free from Ma, Ma’s just not ready to let them go.

The story written by director Tate Taylor and Scotty Landes, is somewhat simplistic and you can easily see where everything’s going halfway through the movie leading up to the big reveal.  However, Octavia Spencer elevates the film from just being a standard VOD quality plot to something enticing and compelling through her sheer presence and ability to flip from regular to motherly, to scorned and in pain, to psychotic, to straight up murderous seamlessly with almost no effort.  While the kids in the film go through the motions of a teen horror movie, it’s the adults who play a big role as well as Luke Evans, Missi Pyle, and Juliette Lewis are connected both to the young kids as well as to Ma which helps explain how she is the way she is.  Part of the problem with the film is not deciding if Ma is crazy because of her past, or the rejection of her new teenage friends.  It could probably be both, but the film keeps going back and forth between it being Ma’s past trauma or her present loneliness.

While having black woman lead of color can somewhat remind of 2017’s Blumhouse hit Get Out, race doesn’t really factor in this film except in very minor ways.  It’s almost as though the role of Sue Anne was colorblind and Spencer got it because everyone knew she was perfect for this role.  The real horror is high school and the lasting damage it can have on you.  Either way, Octavia shines as she carries out every emotion available in her surplus of skills.  Director Tate Taylor (who worked with Spencer on The Help ) continues to delve deeper in the thriller territory after The Girl on the Train with Ma shows he can play in this territory, and not just cheap jump scares (although there are a few).  Thanks to some good performances (and one exceptional), Ma is one fun thrill ride that rises above its script and gives you your fill.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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'Ma' Trailer: Octavia Spencer Strikes Fear In Blumhouse's Latest Horror

Octavia Spencer and director Tate Taylor are childhood friends, and that friendship has extended into their Hollywood careers, partnering up on both The Help and Get On Up. But who would've predicted their next collaboration would be in Ma, a new horror film from Blumhouse that casts Spencer as a domineering with rules you better not break.

In Ma, Spener plays a lonely woman who invites a group of underage teens into her home so they can drink, but she's got rules for when under her roof. Heaven forbid you break any of them. Looks like Ma enjoys some of the ol' drink herself, and she starts getting way deep into these kids' personal lives. Suddenly, "Welcome to Ma's" doesn't sound so inviting, especially when she starts going all Kathy Bates on her young guests.

I think with any other cast this would be just another movie to see and forget, but we could be talking about Spencer's performance the way people still talk about Toni Collette in Hereditary.

Also in the cast Juliette Lewis, Luke Evans, Missi Pyle, McKaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown, and supposedly Allison Janney is in here somewhere. Ma lets you into her home on May 31st.

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Review: ‘Back Roads’, Alex Pettyfer’s Emotional Directorial Debut

One event has the power to alter the lives of many, setting off a domino effect. Back Roads explores this idea by focusing on the fallout experienced by a family after Bonnie Altmyer (Juliette Lewis) shoots and kills her abusive husband - leaving her oldest son Harley (Alex Pettyfer) to care for his three younger sisters. Harley aspired to go to college and do something with his life, but instead he is stuck working multiple jobs in an attempt to keep his family afloat. Harley is the legal guardian for his three younger sisters – Amber (Nicola Peltz), Misty (Chiara Aurelia), and Jody (Hala Finley). The entire family has suffered through years of abuse and trauma, leaving each of them with their own unique scars and remnants of the past.

Amber being in her upper teens, is naturally full of anger and rage. Amber and Harley constantly butt heads and she finds herself in and out of abusive relationships. Misty has a cold and calculated demeanor, seemingly stripped of a fun and playful childhood. Jody still has a cute childhood innocence, but it may only be a matter of time before this is taken away from her as well. Jody must deal with more than any normal child her age - she gets made fun of at school for what her family has gone through, she knows her mom killed her father and talks about it like it is a typical everyday event, and has experienced visiting her mother in person. All the Altmyer children visit a counselor to talk about their issues, although the only sessions we see during the film are Harley’s. The therapist tries to help them through their difficult ordeals, but there is only so much they can do if the children are not willing to open up.

As Back Roads continues, Harley is beginning to break down. His drinking becomes more frequent, he has spurts of anger, and he experiences panic attacks. Harley blames his mother for putting him in this situation and wishes more than anything that he could just pack up and leave, but he can’t abandon his sisters. Harley finally finds a release for all his negativity through a relationship with one of his neighbors, Callie Mercer (Jennifer Morrison). Callie and Harley engage in an affair while her husband is out of town. As the affair intensifies, so does Harley – becoming more brazen and possessive of Callie. Harley shows up in the middle of the day, demanding to know where she has been, and kissing her when her children are nearby. All the toxicity in the lives of the Altmyer children is bubbling up, and hopefully a healthy outlet can be found so disaster can be averted.

Back Roads is the directorial debut for Alex Pettyfer, who also shoulders the lead for the film. Pettyfer does a fantastic job showing the anguish that the entire Altmyer family is going through. Tawni O’Dell, who wrote the novel, also penned the screenplay along with Adrian Lyne. Back Roads is driven by the strong performances of its cast. Everyone does a fantastic job and displays an incredible range of emotion. Pettyfer uses some interesting camera angles, close ups, and reflections – along with a darkness that shrouds the entire film to enhance the story. Back Roads is an emotional roller coaster, from the opening shot to when the credits begin rolling. It is a powerful film and one that sticks with you long after it is done. This movie is not for children, but I do think it is an important one for adults to see. So when you are ready to be in a glass case of emotion, make sure to check out Back Roads.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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'Back Roads' Trailer: Alex Pettyfer's Directorial Debut Adapts The Oprah Book Club Selection

Once a part of Hollywood's young class of rising stars, Alex Pettyfer has mostly been persona non grata after developing a bad reputation. But he seems to be trying to turn things around now, and part of that movement is embarking on his directorial debut, Back Roads, an adaptation of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club pick authored by Tawni O'Dell.  It's an ambitious effort which finds Pettyfer also stepping in front of the camera, joined by a talented cast.

Pettyfer is actually picking up the reins of a film that has been in the works since 2011, when Adrian Lyne (Unfaithful) was on track to direct it. However, that changed and Lyne sticks around as co-writer along with O'Dell. The story follows Harley, a young man living in a Pennsylvania coal town who must take care of his three sisters while their mother is in jail for murdering their abusive father. Harley must not only deal with being stuck where he is, but he also becomes with the sexy but depressed mother of two who lives down the road.  The object of Harley's desire is played by Jennifer Morrison, joined in the cast by Nicola Peltz, Robert Patrick, and Juliette Lewis.

Back Roads hits theaters on December 7th.

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Review: 'Nerve', Starring Emma Roberts And Dave Franco

Back in 2010, opposite the release of David Fincher's The Social Network, a little documentary called Catfish came out.  The filmmakers, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, told a weirdly riveting story about Ariel's brother, Yaniv, who started an online relationship with a young woman who turned out not to be who she said she was.  The film itself never made much of a splash, but Joost and Schulman turned the underlying concept into a very successful MTV series.

In the meantime, the pair have co-directed a couple Paranormal Activity entries.  Neither was all that interesting, though I'm sure they kept the lights on.  But now they're coming back to familiar ground with an adaptation of Jeanne Ryan's novel, Nerve, about a young woman who gets swept up into a game that blurs the lines between online voyeurism and real-world danger.

NERVE, the game, is billed as "truth or dare, without the truth".  "Players" accept dares, which they must record and broadcast through the app on their phone, for cash prizes.  "Watchers" pay to watch the live-streaming videos, and can even broadcast their own for others to watch if they can find the players performing the dares.

Venus "Vee" Delmonico (Emma Roberts) is the last person her friends would expect to be a player.  She can't talk to the boy she has a crush on, nor can she tell her mother (Juliette Lewis) that she wants to go to CalArts rather than a school in New York City where she could keep living at their Staten Island home.  Sydney (Emily Meade) is more the player type: outgoing, extraverted, and exhibitionistic.  But when Sydney gets a little too pushy, Vee decides to play just one dare, just to prove she can do it.

That dare leads her to Ian (Dave Franco), another player, and then to another dare: go into the city with him.  Roberts and Franco have an easy chemistry, so it's no wonder that the watchers seem to like Vee and Ian as a couple.  They get led into increasingly dangerous situations for ever-larger payouts, both in money and in fame.  And the watchers don't seem to care, so long as they get their vicarious, voyeuristic thrill.

In fact, it seems that the real measure of success in NERVE isn't the money at all, but the social cachet.  Vee may have gotten involved in part because two dares could double the balance of the family checking account, but Sydney was always explicitly in it for the exposure.  There's something seductive about the idea of taking control of the thing that threatens you.  And few things are more threatening to young women today than the ravenous, ever-watchful panopticon of the internet.

Vee has made a habit of avoiding the societal gaze.  Her skill is in photography, placing a camera between herself and the world.  She marks herself as observer rather than an observed, to whatever extent that's possible for a woman.  But in becoming a player she attempts to invert the power of the gaze.  If she's going to be observed -- as when Sydney outs her crush -- then she is going to be in charge of what is observed.  It's the same attempt we see in Spring Breakers and The Neon Demon, both of which share Nerve's argon-purple and mercury-blue palette.

But where the protagonists of those films succeeded to one extent or another, Vee's sense of control seems largely illusory.  NERVE combines the voyeurism of a street-fight on WorldStar with the anarchic, "for the lulz" ethos of a 4chan troll.  It's easy, separated by a screen, to forget the reality of the people we watch.  When Sydney crawls out onto an extension ladder spanning the two wings of a high-rise building, I know that it's being shot with green-screens and and pads just out of frame, and that as vertiginous and risky as the scene appears, Meade is in no real danger.  But the internet plays a strange trick on us, when we see real lives and carefully constructed narratives mediated by the same moving images on the same website.  The distinctions between the two start to blur, and we forget to apply more care and kindness to the real people on the other side of our screen than we do to a toy that exists for our entertainment.

Of course, in order to make this point stand out, the filmmakers have to heighten reality.  Computers become magical, able to do whatever the plot requires of them.  It seems at times that there is a mysterious inner circle behind the game, when I think it's meant to be an entirely emergent property of the watchers.  In a way, this lets them off the hook a bit, as if they were just going along with the really bad ringleaders rather than being personally responsible for the way their choices contribute to the outcomes.

Despite these flaws, the filmmakers do manage to get one thing very right.  Unlike almost any other cautionary tale about the Dangers of the Internet -- Disconnect, Men, Women & Children, Creative Control, and so on -- Nerve sees an up-side.  Vee risks a lot, but she gains a lot too.  She uses her experience in the public eye to learn what she's capable of, and she finds pockets of support among the indifferent masses.

For the mostly-teenage audience that will see this movie, the internet is not going away.  It is a permanent part of their world.  And while their parents' generation might take some comfort in an affirmation of their worst fears -- never mind whether they're valid or not -- all the scaremongering in the world isn't going to unopen Pandora's box.  The digital landscape is one they're going to have to learn to navigate, and that means being reminded of the dangers along with the benefits.  It's tricky, but they have no choice but to accept.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Review: 'Jem and the Holograms' starring Aubrey Peeples, Stefanie Scott, and Juliette Lewis

We're currently in the middle of the greatest period of pop music since the high-water mark of the 1980s.  Pop in the '80s was all glamour and glitter, fashion and fame.  MTV was ascendant, and the backlash from "serious" rock had no purer voice than Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing".  It was also the high point of Saturday-morning cartoons, with massive blocks mixing everything from old Warner Brothers shorts, to Hanna-Barbera classics like Scooby-Doo, to half-hour ads for Hasbro toys like G.I. Joe and Transformers.  It was a natural step for writer Christy Marx to create Jem and tap into the kids' market for the pop music that saturated the culture.

I was a fan of Jem back during that original run.  It was definitely something that, like the Debbie Gibson tape in my Walkman and the Baby-Sitters Club books I checked out of the library, I knew I couldn't admit to in public.  Action scenes aside, Jem was clearly "for the girls", though it wasn't a simple distaff knockoff, like She-Ra was of He-Man.  And yet there was something wonderful about it to me.  The plots were as simplistic and melodramatic as those of the boys' cartoons, but the Holograms' battles with the Misfits were fought with music rather than lasers.  Half the time, the central conflict was about the bizarre love triangle between Jerrica, her boyfriend Rio, and her secret rock-star identity Jem.  As with the best pop music, there was nothing else like it, even as it was like everything else around.

Jem and the Holograms bears only a passing resemblance to Jem.  And, for all my fond memories of the cartoon, that's as it should be.  It was a product of 1980s pop, and it just wouldn't work the same today any more than pop itself is the same today.  So we enlist Jon Chu, director of two Step Up movies and two Justin Bieber concert films, and one of his LXD writers, Ryan Landels, to translate Jem into today's social-media saturated, post-Glee pop landscape.

And, to a large extent, they pull it off.  We've still got Jerrica Benton (Aubrey Peeples), her sister Kimber (Stefanie Scott), and their foster sisters Aja (Hayley Kiyoko) and Shana (Aurora Perrineau).  But Jerrica isn't running her own record label here, she's just a normal girl living with her Aunt Bailey (Molly Ringwald) in a small town in the Central Valley of California.  All that changes when she puts on a wig and makeup and records a song, using her father's nickname for her.  Kimber uploads the video behind Jerrica's back, and by the next day it has exploded across the Internet.

Jerrica is uneasy with her anonymous fame, but when she learns that the family may lose their house she takes an offer from Starlight Music head Erica Raymond (Juliette Lewis) to play three shows in Los Angeles, just as long as her sisters can still be her band.  Erica puts the girls through makeovers and rehearsals, and assigns Rio (Step Up alum Ryan Guzman) to look after them.

And there's Synergy.  Or, as it's rendered here, "S1N3RGY".  In the cartoon, this was a holographic projection system invented by Jerrica's father that altered her appearance so she wouldn't be recognized as Jem.  In the movie, it's a non-functional gadget her father made before he died, which she keeps around as a good-luck charm of sorts.  But when she returns to Los Angeles it comes to life, displaying maps to lead the girls to more of its parts, in a rehash of Earth to Echo.

The story, such as it is, spreads itself too thinly between these pieces.  S1N3RGY is the only thing propelling the narrative forwards, but it's the clumsiest possible MacGuffin, alternating between explicit directions where to go next and irrelevant backstory dumps when we get there.  The same was true of Echo, but the developing relationship between the kids made up for that.  It might have worked better if the new pieces had unlocked new abilities, maybe turning the little robot into something closer to the holographic special effects system that Synergy was.

Not that the girls' performances are what really need the boost here.  The standout single "Youngblood" already breathes much-needed life into the movie, and the anthemic "Way I Was" gets a brilliant, Gaga-inspired music video.  The pop soundtrack is probably the best-realized part of the whole movie.  It's not '80s glam, but like I said it's not the '80s anymore.

Like pop music itself, Jem and the Holograms is an assembly of largely unchallenging and inoffensive pieces.  A catchy hook laid on top of a steady backbeat, filled out with some generic lyrics on time-tested subjects, sung by a an affable and attractive young lead, and you might just have a hit that appeals beyond the teen girl demographic it's most squarely targeted at.  And, for all its generic, scattershot approaches, the movie does manage to capture and even update something about the original Jem's concern with identity and facade.  Now more than ever, in a nationally- and globally-connected world, pop and culture are about community and connection.

Jem, here, is not merely a part that Jerrica plays in secret, but a personification of pop's promise of common ground.  She embodies the spirit of everyone who puts themselves out there, saying, "I am in here. Is there anybody out there?  Does anybody else feel the way I do?"  The biggest difference between '80s pop and today is that now we have the internet and social media.  No longer do the ones who don't fit in have to keep to the margins, out there in the cold, getting lonely, getting old.  Sure, there are downsides to this connected world, but Jem is about a place for everyone to belong, from the girl with green hair and every Star Trek novel, to the aspiring performer with a video blog, to the trans kid trying to figure out who she wants to be, to the boy who just wants to like the "girly" things he likes without being tormented over it.

Maybe Jem and the Holograms is clumsy and awkward about the way it says all this.  Maybe it sings better than it speaks.  Maybe I've already grown too old and cynical for that promise to resonate with me, but it's certain to resonate with someone.  And even as old and cynical as I am, I don't have the heart to tell them they're wrong for believing in it, or that something that wants them to believe it is bad.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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The New 'Jem and the Holograms' Trailer gets some Synergy

One of the big complaints about the first trailer for Jon M. Chu's live-action Jem and the Holograms is that it didn't look at all like the '80s cartoon it's based on. Where was Jem's holographic super-computer, Synergy? Instead the film looked like a poorer version of the awesome and underrated Josie & the Pussycats. What's the point of making a Jem movie that fans of the show wouldn't want to see? The latest trailer looks to correct that oversight.

The new Jem and the Holograms trailer introduces a little robot named S1N3RG.Y, that ha similar holographic abilities as the cartoon version. It remains to be seen if the R2-D2-esque droid is responsible for giving Jem her dazzling on stage persona as it does in the cartoon, or if it's just a glorified video camera showing home movies. Aubrey Peeples, Stefanie Scott, Aurora Perrineau, Hayley Kiyoko, Ryan Guzman, Molly Ringwald and Juliette Lewis star in the film which still looks pretty terrible overall. Seriously, who is this movie for? Anyone who knows Jem and the Holograms is too old for what this trailer is promising. Here's the synopsis:

As a small-town girl catapults from underground video sensation to global superstar, she and her three sisters begin a one-in-a-million journey of discovering that some talents are too special to keep hidden.  In Universal Pictures’ Jem and the Holograms, four aspiring musicians will take the world by storm when they see that the key to creating your own destiny lies in finding your own voice. 

Jem and the Holograms opens October 23rd.

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First Trailer for 'Jem and the Holograms' Shows the Cost of Fame

The original '80s cartoon Jem and the Holograms had something of a futuristic quality to it. There were big adventures, frequent action sequences, and a holographic super-computer known as Synergy. But none of that seems to be the case in the live-action film by Jon M. Chu (GI Joe: Retaliation), as the first trailer rocks out in a style that's a lot more grounded.

Aubrey Peeples is lead singer Jerrica Benton aka Jem, who suddenly becomes an overnight sensation along with her sisters Kimber (Stefanie Scott), Shana (Aurora Perrineau), and Aja (Hayley Kyoko). The girls may have hit it big, but the fame comes with problems none of the girls could have anticipated. Basically, this looks like Josie and the Pussycats (which I love) dialed down a couple of notches, and if it helps sell a bunch of Jem action figures Hasbro will be pleased. Chu has proven good at bumping up merchandise sales.

Also starring Molly Ringwald, Juliette Lewis, and Ryan Guzman, Jem and the Holograms opens October 23rd.

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Review: 'Hellion' Starring Aaron Paul and Josh Wiggins

Stop me if you've heard this one: troubled youth with a derelict parent rebels by, often literally, fighting against the society that has wronged him. These stories are all too common and often find their way into the upper echelons of the festival circuit where they are greeted with acclaim because they fit the mold. Heavy, depressing, bleak, but with one or two stand-out performances, these movies rarely break beyond their boundaries. And if there's one film that encompasses all of that to a tee it's Hellion.

Hellion fits into something I like to call the "festival bubble", which is when perfectly fine movies are given undue credit simply because it's hard to remain objective in that atmosphere. The film is actually quite good and often very moving in its exploration of a young boy in turmoil due to societal pressures and tragic twists of fate, but there's nothing here that hasn't been seen since The 400 Blows wrote the book decades ago. Jacob (Josh Wiggins, a powerful presence) is a teenaged troublemaker in a small Texas town where everybody knows everybody. His younger brother Wes is generally a good kid but is often swept up in Jacob's hell raising that frequently ends in police sirens. They're the sons of Hollis (Aaron Paul), an alcoholic widower still struggling after the death of his wife, and taking care of two growing boys is a problem he isn't equipped to handle.

The law has come calling for Jacob before, placing him in a juvenile delinquent facility with promises of much harder time if he screws up again. But that doesn't stop him in the least, and after wrecking a guy's truck for no good reason, Child Protective Services shows up at the house to investigate. Finding remnants of Hollis' binge drinking, Wes is placed into the custody of an aunt (Juliette Lewis) who promises to give him a more stable home.

Clocking in at just under 100 minutes, Hellion is an awful lot of smoke and no burn so it feels longer than it actually is. Kat Candler directed the film based on a promising 2012 short, and while the family's circumstances aren't expounded upon with the complexity it deserves, the characters are defined nicely by their actions rather than words. Jacob is a motocross racer who hopes winning a big race will fix all of their woes, but for all his good intentions a youthful naiveté remains. Hollis isn't a violent drunk or anything like that. He's a decent, loyal man who is simply out of his depth and has no idea how to keep his family together. Investing in them is easy but Candler never adequately makes clear the stakes for all involved. There are no simple resolutions to be found but Candler brushes aside the notion that Wes may indeed be better off elsewhere. There's never any doubt how things will turn out and when they do it doesn't feel completely earned.

On the plus side, every performance is genuine and Wiggins is an actor we're going to be hearing about for a long time to come. He's the real deal, and shares some intense, subtle moments opposite Aaron Paul. Candler and her cinematographer employ a soft, natural look that emphasizes the film's tenderness nicely. Hellion is a movie you want to be better than it turns out to be, but it doesn't take enough risks to stand out from the pack.

 Rating: 3 out of 5

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Juliette Lewis Finds Synergy with 'Jem and the Holograms'

It only makes sense that a movie like Jem and the Holograms would have at least one actual rocker in the cast, and now with the addition of Juliette Lewis they get that and an Oscar-nominated actress. Pretty sweet combo deal.

Lewis has come aboard Jon M. Chu's live-action version of the "truly outrageous" 1980s cartoon and toys about Jerrica Benton, a young woman who transforms into the mysterious rock star Jem with the use of special earrings. As of now Lewis' role is being kept under wraps but she's plenty of experience leading her own bad, Juliette and the Licks, before going solo in 2009. It's possible Lewis could play one of Jem's rivals in The Misfits, but I'm guessing the popular theory will be she's the voice of Synergy, Jem's powerful holographic supercomputer. In the cartoon, Synergy's voice was of the inventor's wife and took a female form when called upon to physically interact.

Lewis joins Aubrey Peeples as Jem, Stefanie Scott as Kimber, Aurora Perrineau as Shana, Hayley Kiyoko as Aja, and Ryan Guzman as Rio. [Deadline]

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Aaron Paul Struggles to be a Father in Trailer for 'Hellion'

Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul is on the verge of making his mark as a viable big screen star, but efforts like the brainless Need for Speed aren't going to do it. Instead it will likely be his dramatic work that wins audiences over, such as in his previous performance in Smashed, or his Sundance and SXSW festival hit, Hellion. The latter film won raves earlier this year and a big part of it was Paul's performance, and now the first trailer and poster [via ThePlaylist] for it is here.

Paul takes the lead here, again playing an alcoholic so hopefully that's not becoming his "thing", as Hollis, a single father struggling to care for two rebellious boys after his wife's death. As the oldest son Jacob starts to get rowdier, it forces Child Protective Services to remove the younger son Wes to live with his Aunt Pam. Jacob and Hollis must confront their demons and do whatever it takes to get him back.  This looks like a moving, soulful piece of work and hopefully it won't get lost in the shuffle this summer.

Written and directed by Kat Candler with Josh Wiggins, Juliette Lewis, and Deke Garner co-starring, Hellion opens on June 13th.


Hellion by Teaser-Trailer.com

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Review: 'August: Osage County' Starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts

 NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Middleburg Film Festival.

One has to give it up to John Wells. The creator of ER and The West Wing long ago figured out that the best way to make his job easier was to simply put together the finest ensemble possible, drop the camera in a room somewhere, and let his actors work. It paid off with his feature debut Company Men, and he didn't change a darn thing for his follow-up. But the nails-on-a-chalkboard August: Osage County could use a more creative hand to help break it free from Tracy Letts' award-winning play into a version better suited for the big screen.

A rundown of the cast would lead one to believe NOTHING could possibly screw something like this up: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor, Margo Martindale, Sam Shepard, Misty Upham, Juliette Lewis, Julianne Nicholson, Abigail Breslin; all of whom are great and bring the requisite amount of piss 'n vinegar to the tale of the bitter Weston clan. Yet despite terrific performances, August: Osage County is basically a two-hour bitch fest with so many ugly reveals it strains the limits of credibility.

The Oklahoma-based Weston family have been estranged for years; splintered off into various locations where they can presumably loathe one another from afar. The film opens with the head looney in the bin, cancer-stricken drug-addled Violet Weston (Streep), all stringy-haired and maniacal like the Joker, harassing her poet husband Beverly (Shepard, tremendous in a tiny part) as he introduces their new Native American housemaid (Upham). When Beverly vanishes shortly thereafter, the Weston clan comes swooping in from all corners, each bringing a bushel of really ugly secrets and personal problems.

The film mostly follows the troubled Weston women, in particular Violet's three daughters. The oldest one Barbara (Roberts) is trying to hide her separation from husband Bill (McGregor), while their daughter (Breslin) flirts with rebelliousness. Barbara's younger sister Ivy (Nicholson) stayed close to home and is now resentful for it; while the youngest Weston girl Karen (Lewis) arrives from Florida with a sketchy new fiancé (Dermot Mulroney) whose riches can't hide his wandering eye. And really, that's just the tip of an iceberg that's threatening to sink the entire family as they're crammed under one roof in sweltering Oklahoma summer heat (the gauge reads 108 degrees) and allowed to stew in their own juices. Throw in Violet's boisterous sister Mattie Fae (Martindale) and her quarreling with even-keeled husband Charles (Cooper) over their awkward son "Little" Charles (Cumberbatch) and there's barely a moment when something venomous isn't spewing out of someone's mouth.

Dysfunctional families are something we all can relate to, and often find some measure of humor in, but there is so much pure hatred in the Weston family that it's tough to buy into them even talking on the telephone, much less showing up during a tragedy.  In one particularly toxic dinner scene, Violet cuts loose on everyone under her roof, spewing an endless stream of "truths" so painful the festivities erupt into a battle royale Vince McMahon would approve of. And yet it's just the first of many virulent showdowns, each revealing something more awful than the one before to the point where you just become numb to it.

With so much talent involved of course there are small moments that hit just the right notes, during those rare times when people stop screaming and start talking. That's when the actors are given enough room to provide nuance and tone to their words, whether they be words of support or disdain. But Letts, who adapted the screenplay himself, has delivered a hammer of a script that perceives nearly every scene as a nail even when subtlety would be more appropriate. Wells doesn't do much to stray beyond Letts' original vision, which probably works better split up into acts on a stage than it does in a movie where there's no time to catch a breath.  Streep has likely earned herself another Oscar nomination for her snarling, acidic turn as Violet, donning a big ugly wig and cutting loose in a way we haven't seen since The Devil Wears Prada. Actually, Violet would probably chew Miranda Priestly up and spit her out. Roberts is also very good as Barbara, who has grown cold, embittered, and begins to recognize how like her mother she really is. In the underrated category Julianne Nicholson will likely be overlooked because she's not a big enough name, but she's great at capturing the angst most neglected middle children contend with. And old reliable Chris Cooper does what he always does, taking a small role and delivering a stirring moment of emotional truth that cuts through the bullcrap. On the other hand Cumberbatch is woefully miscast as the cowardly "Little" Charles, although it could be because we're so used to seeing him play stronger characters.

As cherished a work as August: Osage County is on the stage, it can't simply be made into a movie without significant tweaking. Whether Wells failed to realize that or was unable to change it really doesn't matter because in the end this film was designed to be an actors' showcase first and foremost.

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Aaron Paul Is A 'Hellion'; Joel Edgerton Directs 'Weirdo'; Luca Calvani In 'The Man from UNCLE'

* As Breaking Bad rolls into the final stretch, Aaron Paul has been making bigger moves into feature film, starring in last year's Smashed and leading the upcoming Need for Speed. Now he's set his next project, Hellion, which marks the directorial debut of Kat Candler. Paul will be joined by Juliette Lewis in the indie drama, based on Candler's short film set in a small Texas refinery town and officially described as: “All hell breaks loose when seven-year-old Petey is left with his hell-raising brothers.  But things go from bad to really, really bad when Dad gets home.” 

*  Joel Edgerton is set to make his directorial debut on Weirdo, an indie drama he'll also write and take a co-starring role in. Talking to Screen Daily, Edgerton says “It’s about a guy who is forced to face the past when it comes back in the form of an old school friend. But he continually lies about it (the past) and it haunts him in a bad bad way." Edgerton was recently in Toronto for the premiere of Felony, which he wrote and starred in, and he recently wrapped the plagued western, Jane Got a Gun.

* Guy Ritchie has found his villain for the 1960s-set spy flick, The Man from UNCLE, and it's Italian actor Luca Calvani. He'll play a wealthy shipping heir and Nazi gold smuggler, taking on espionage agents Solo and Kuryakin, played by Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer. Hugh Grant, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, and Jared Harris co-star, with production beginning just a few days ago. Calvani isn't generally known to American audiences, but he had a role opposite Clive Owen in The International.

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Abigail Breslin and Juliette Lewis set for 'August: Osage County'

With Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, and Chris Cooper set for John Wells' adaptation of August: Osage County, it looks like one role we thought was filled is still in some question. A few days ago we learned that Andrea Riseborough(W.E.) was up for the role of Karen, the youngest of the Weston siblings. Now Deadline reports Juliette Lewis has entered negotiations for the part.

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Chloe Moretz packs heat in the new poster for 'Hick'

Looking like Chloe Moretz's Hounddog movie(look it up), Hick debuted at last year's Toronto Film Festival to mixed reviews and the promise of an awkward marketing campaign. Directed by Derick Martini(Lymelife), the film has Moretz playing small town Nebraska girl who runs away from her alcoholic parents to hitchhike to Las Vegas. There she commits armed robberies with a sexy, drug addicted criminal(Blake Lively), and is pursued by a creepy drifter(Eddie Redmayne) with ulterior motives that might just be sexual in nature.

A new poster for the film has been released ahead of the planned May 11th release, featuring Moretz and the trusty pistol she carries on her cross country journey. From colleagues I know who have seen it, they say some of the sexual and physical turmoil experienced by Moretz's character is tough to watch. Check out a clip of Hick below....

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Sure Shots: Hellraiser remake; Eddie Marsan; Juliette Lewis

* I can't be the only one a little amazed that anybody cares about The Weinsteins planned remake of Hellraiser. Sure the original Clive Barker film could be considered a classic, but since then how many God awful sequels have there been? Seven? Eight? Most never even get a sniff of a theatrical release. So what makes anyone think this'll be any better? Last we'd heard, the Drive Angry duo of Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer were going to direct what is intended to be a PG-13(booo!!!!) version. Now Shocktilyoudrop reports that the duo appear to be backing out, stating that it was "unlikely" they'd be taking the job.

* British actor Eddie Marsan has slowly built up his Hollywood cred after toiling away on TV for the first few years of his career. I first noticed him in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, which he then quickly followed up with a solid supporting turn in the underappreciated 21 Grams. Lately he's been finding time to mix quieter indie roles(Happy Go Lucky, Tyrannosaur) with larger blockbuster stuff(Sherlock Holmes), and now he's set to make his directorial debut(is every actor directing nowadays?) with Pell Mell, an updated version of Shakespeare's Richard III. It will be set in 1960s London, with Marsan both writing the script and planning to star. [Screen Daily]

* I've always sorta had a thing for Juliette Lewis. Can't explain it. She's not really hot, but she has a sortof skanky appeal that makes me gravitate to her movies. Now her rock music career? That's another story entirely. Barely heard a note of it, and don't really have any desire to. However it looks like I'll have to put all that aside now as she's apparently working on a documentary about her time with her two bands, The New Romantiques and Juliette and the Licks. She plans on dropping it on us at next year's Sundance Film Festival. To be honest I'm just glad to see her as a film's focus again, since she's been relegated to supporting player for what seems like forever. [Variety]

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