by Emily Nagle
Halloweekend is off to a spooky start with The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline director’s latest film Wendell & Wild releasing on Netflix today. This ambitious horror comedy starring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele boasts brilliant stop-motion visuals in addition to providing a unique look into grief.
Wendell & Wild looks like nothing else that’s come out this year. It’s got quirky, uniquely designed characters – for example, demon brothers Wendell and Wild have contrasting body shapes that are super cartoonish and exaggerated. There’s also parts featuring ghosts and shadows that give an almost mixed-media look to the film, in the sense that they appear digitally drawn into the shots.
In an era of celebrity voice casts, Wendell & Wild gets bonus points for casting authentic voices for such a diverse group of characters; in addition to the main character being a Black teen girl who’s coming to terms with the death of her parents (voiced by Lyric Ross), there’s also a trans boy who makes fast friends with her due to understanding her loneliness (voiced by Sam Zelaya). The best part of the film’s inclusive cast is that it doesn’t make a big deal out of these differences; the characters are treated as people first, and we jump right into their significance to the story.
Although this movie came out right around Halloween, its message about coming to terms with trauma and grief will resonate any time of year. If you’re a sucker for creative animation – particularly if you’re a fan of eerie stop-motion movies in the same realm as Coraline and The Corpse Bride – or just love all things scary, then Wendell & Wild is the perfect film to satisfy your creepiness craving!
Wendell & Wild is available to stream now on Netflix.
by Emily Nagle
Filmmaker James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad) has been appointed head of DC Studios, making him in charge of all future DC film and television projects. He is joined by producer Peter Safran (Aquaman, Shazam!).
As co-chairmen and CEOs of DC Studios, the two will oversee all of WarnerMedia’s films and shows under the DC umbrella. Having worked with Marvel before on projects including the two Guardians of the Galaxy films, Gunn joined DC to help bring The Suicide Squad to theaters and Peacemaker to small screens across the world.
Warner Bros. Discovery stated in a press release that Gunn and Safran will oversee “the overall creative direction of the DC Universe across film, TV, and animation under a single banner”, as well as “spearhead the development and execution of a long-term plan for the many properties licensed from DC Comics, focused on continuing the tradition of high-quality storytelling for the DC Universe across audio-visual media, while building a sustainable growth business out of the iconic franchise.”
DC’s upcoming projects include Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Flash, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for October 21 – October 23, 2022
5. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile ($4.2 million)
4. Halloween Ends ($8 million)
3. Smile ($8.4 million)
2. Ticket to Paradise ($16.5 million)
1. Black Adam ($67 million)
This past weekend was an exciting one for moviegoers, with two new releases becoming available in theaters. The top-grossing film for the weekend was “Black Adam”, based on the character created by DC Comics. Although it made the number-one spot by a landslide, it has mixed reviews; viewers found that while stars Dwayne Johnson and Pierce Brosnan gave excellent performances, the writing for the eleventh film in the DC Extended Universe was “a little thin in terms of story”.
Coming into second place was “Ticket to Paradise”, which stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts as a divorced couple that reconnects to travel to Bali for the purpose of sabotaging their daughter’s (Kaitlyn Dever) wedding. While it met opening weekend predictions, critics gave it mixed reviews due to a lackluster story that’s described by Sean Collier from Pittsburgh Magazine as, “sort of a Mamma Mia, without ABBA to liven things up.”
by Emily Nagle
Just two days before the “House of the Dragon” season 1 finale premieres on HBO and HBO Max, the episode has been leaked online.
HBO is “disappointed” and will be “aggressively monitoring” the Internet to ensure that copies of the episode stop circulating. An HBO spokesperson said of the matter, “This unlawful action has disrupted the viewing experience for loyal fans of the show, who will get to see a pristine version of the episode when it premieres Sunday on HBO and HBO Max, where it will stream exclusively in 4K.”
They added that the leak apparently came from a distribution partner in Europe, the Middle East or Africa. While this is the first time “House of the Dragon” has been leaked, its predecessor “Game of Thrones” often fell victim to piracy, getting leaked on social media as well as through distribution partners like DirecTV Now.
by Emily Nagle
“Vulveeta” has made its debut at LGBTQ+ film festival NewFest 2022, and is ready to rock your world.
This mockumentary follows a riot grrrl band called Vulveeta that’s reuniting for the first time in 20 years, just in time for former lead singer Grrrilda Beausoleil’s (Maria Breaux) 50th birthday. Grrrilda ghosted the band right before they got big, but now she’s ready to rock again. However, the punk scene has changed drastically since those days, as have her former bandmates.
Former drummer Killer Child (Dakota Billops-Breaux) is working odd jobs to save up for college, rhythm guitarist Gordonx Garcia (StormMiguel Florez) now works in social media, and one of the band members Susan (Ruby Goldberg) refuses to even see the camera crew. Not all of them are thrilled to get the band back together, but it doesn’t matter, because they’ve only got one week to prepare for their reunion show. To add to the excitement, a camera crew is documenting the entire adventure.
This film is entirely improvised, which allows the dialogue to flow better and gives it a more authentic feel. We get to know the characters intimately through confessionals that are reminiscent of reality TV. And much like the punk scene that started back in the 1990’s, it’s got plenty of DIY flair (including the opening credits, which are reminiscent of zines from the time period). For example, KC’s phone vlogs reveal that she’s on board with Vulveeta’s return because it might give her a shot at college.
Not only is “Vulveeta” raw and authentic, but it’s also super empowering! Riot grrrl first started as a feminist movement in the 1990s, but Vulveeta is different in the sense that the band includes trans members. That’s not something you see every day, and in that sense, “Vulveeta” is a bit of an underdog story. We watch this group of people that initially wants to move on from their music days, but then they all get back into it to create something incredible. Check out the trailer below.
by Emily Nagle
In an age where media is powered predominantly by nostalgia, yet another childhood series has been confirmed for a reboot; the first trailer for the second reboot of the British children’s show “Teletubbies” (the last one ran from 2015 to 2018) premiered online today.
Described as a “21st-century refresh” of the series that first aired in 1997, the upcoming “Teletubbies” series boasts an all-new cast: in addition to the Teletubbies themselves, the Voice Trumpets and the iconic Sun Baby are all portrayed by different actors than the original series. Even mischievous vacuum cleaner Noo-Noo has been updated, now sporting a fresh coat of orange, pink, and yellow paint instead of blue.
Narrated by Titus Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Central Park), not much is known about the reboot yet. It appears to have the same content as the original series: the Teletubbies spend their days frolicking around their grassy, hilly home, feasting on Tubby Toast and Tubby Custard, and learning about the world through videos on their belly screens. They are also joined by the Tiddlytubbies, which are baby Teletubbies introduced in the 2015 revival series.
Adults who grew up watching the original show are flocking to Twitter to express their feelings on the upcoming revival, with many of them criticizing the changes made. One specific detail viewers are hung up on is the Sun Baby; more specifically, the animation team chose to simply superimpose the babies’ faces on top of the sun without making it blend in (as opposed to the original series), and many are criticizing this as laziness on the animators’ part.
The “Teletubbies” reboot is coming to Netflix on November 14.
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