Tag: Viola Davis

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Film Features Film/TV

Now Playing: Who You Gonna Call?

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Courtesy Sony Pictures)

It’s officially spring, but the weather is looking cool and breezy this weekend, so here’s what’s on tap in movie theaters around Memphis.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Following up on Ghostbusters: Afterlife, this one reunites the cast of Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, and Carrie Coon as the Spengler family who leaves Oklahoma to return to the old firehouse HQ in NYC. They arrive just in time to battle a new supernatural threat that will literally freeze the world with fear. 

Kung Fu Panda 4

Jack Black is back as Po, the Dragon Warrior who is ready to ascend to a higher plane of existence, according to his master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). He takes on a new sidekick Zhen the fox (Awkwafina) to help defeat Chameleon (Viola Davis), the shape-shifting sorceress, and her army of lizards. You can tell she’s bad because she says, “We are not so different, you and I,” to the hero.

Immaculate 

Sydney Sweeney stars as Cecilia, a nun sent to a new convent where something is clearly amiss. When she becomes pregnant, although still a virgin, Father Sal Tedeschi (Alvaro Morte) reveals that the real purpose of this convent is to breed a new Jesus from cloned tissue recovered from one of the nails that pierced the savior’s flesh. What could possibly go wrong? 

A lot. A lot of stuff could go wrong.

Dune: Part Two

But half a billion dollars worth of Frank Herbert fans can’t be wrong! Paul (Timothée Chalamet) fights against his fate alongside his lover Chani (Zendaya) as they battle the Harkonnens’ occupation of Dune, led by the psychotic Feyd (Austin Butler). Denis Villeneuve’s sand wormy sequel is the best sci fi film since Mad Max: Fury Road.

Paul Reubens passed away last summer, but Pee-wee Herman is immortal. Sunday morning at 11 a.m. you can have brunch with Pee-wee at Black Lodge. Breakfast, mimosas, and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure will get your day off to a rollicking start. To get you hyped, here’s one of the greatest scenes Tim Burton ever directed.

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Film Features Film/TV

Air

Matt Damon’s Sonny Vaccaro sits across from Viola Davis’ Deloris Jordan.

It’s newsworthy that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are once again making movies together in 2023. The duo first burst onto the scene in 1998, when their script for Good Will Hunting won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and also saw Robin Williams earn a Best Supporting Actor trophy. Fast-forward 25 years, and the duo is back with their new film, Air. Unlike Good Will Hunting’s coming-of-age plot, Air is a true story: the history of Nike footwear.

Air begins in 1984 when shoe companies Adidas, Nike, and Converse are battling for market share. The three firms are fighting, with varying levels of success, to catch famous athletes’ attention — especially in the NBA, where Michael Jordan is a rising star. Jordan has a clear interest in Adidas and a sponsorship from Converse; Nike, with its 17 percent market share, is an afterthought.

Basketball scout Sonny Vaccaro (Damon) sets out to make Nike a force to be reckoned with. Vaccaro goes way beyond his jurisdiction to create the Air Jordan, the now-legendary sneaker that catapulted Nike to the top table. Although Vaccaro’s risks lead to eventual success, many of the hurdles he encounters threaten the company’s stability and reputation. But in the end, Vaccaro created a new paradigm for celebrity endorsement.

Damon is only one of many familiar faces in Air, along with Chris Tucker, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, and Viola Davis. As a director, Affleck uses each actor’s individual styles to evoke the very real people they’re portraying. One example is Viola Davis’ portrayal of Deloris Jordan, Michael Jordan’s mom. Making most of the decisions for him during that time, Michael Jordan’s parents were pivotal figures who negotiated contracts and dealt with the media. Davis’ firm motherly hand and emotional balance makes you believe Michael Jordan is her actual son. Similarly, Chris Tucker’s portrayal of Nike executive Howard White leverages Tucker’s comedic chops during tense scenarios, while also sincerely conveying the loyalty White had for Vaccaro and Nike.

From the start of the film, Affleck takes the viewer back to the ’80s, with clips of Mr. T and popular infomercials; ’80s hits like Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” soundtrack long drives. Even Affleck’s camera shots look like they came from ’80s films, like the repeated extreme close-ups of Sonny’s face. The bright wardrobe colors worn by Damon made this Gen-Zer run to my grandfather’s closet to find his Members Only jacket.

There’s one thing about the cast list that stands out: Michael Jordan, the man himself, is not in the film. Really? You had a $60-$70 million dollar budget, and you don’t even have a cameo of Michael Jordan? But Air is all the better without him. We get to know Vaccaro as a risk-taking go-getter, although he makes everyone around him anxious. Other minor characters like Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) are given opportunities to shine, especially through Strasser’s arc about his daughter and the risks he wasn’t able to take. Add in Michael Jordan and Air becomes all about him. The movie’s message about taking risks and the qualities that made it special would be overshadowed by the presence of the superstar.

The messages of this movie can be encompassed in one quote which keeps getting repeated: “A shoe is just a shoe until someone puts their foot in it.” This story was just an idea until Affleck and Damon got their hands on it — and made it something special.

Air
Now playing
Multiple locations

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Film Features Film/TV Uncategorized

Now Playing In Memphis: Video Games and Video Art

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Everybody’s favorite plumber-jumper gets a moment in the spotlight. The previous attempt to make The Super Mario Bros. Movie in the 1990s was an epic train wreck, but this one is animated and getting good buzz from audience, if not from critics. The all-star voice cast includes Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Seth Rogan, Fred Armisen, and Keegan-Michael Key, But will it escape the curse of video game adaptation? Spoiler alert: The princess is in another castle. 

In 1984, Nike was a struggling athletic shoe company on the verge of bankruptcy. Then they struck sponsorship deal with a young basketball player named Michael Jordan. Ben Affleck returns to the director’s chair for Air, the origin story of modern sneaker culture, with Viola Davis as Jordan’s mother Deloris and Matt Damon as Nike exec Steve Vaccaro. 

The winner of the 2023 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand And One film is the story of a poor, Black single mother trying to raise her son in New York City. Triple threat Teyana Taylor stars in what is being called the performance of the year. 

Come to John Wick: Chapter 4 for the great Keanu Reeves gun-fu-ing his way through hordes of assassins who disrespected his dog or something. Stay for the scene stealing turn by action movie legend Donnie Yen.  

Nam June Paik was the first, and many say still the greatest, video artist. The Japanese-Korean had a strong connection with Memphis — his last commission, Vide-O-belisk was created for the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. On Thursday, April 14, Crosstown Theater will host the Memphis premiere of a new biographical documentary about the trailblazer, Nam Jun Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

New On The Big Screen: Viola Davis, Pearl, and The Evil Dead

Viola Davis stars as General Nanisca, a real-life African warrior from the 1820s, in The Woman King.

August is traditionally a slow month at the cinema as the summer tentpole season plays out. But this August, we’re also seeing the downstream effects of the pandemic production bottleneck. The surprising upshot is that the dearth of megabudget projects has created openings for a wide variety of new films to hit theaters, many of which are well worth your time.

The biggest release this weekend is The Woman King. Viola Davis is the only Black woman to have achieved the “Triple Crown of Acting” — winning an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony. She’s one of the elite group of actors who have an entire Wikipedia page devoted to listing her awards. Now, at age 57, she finally gets the big action role that all movie stars get these days. Davis stars as General Nanisca, the leader of the Agoji, an all-female group of warriors who defended the West African kingdom of Dahomey. Think The 300, but with Black women.

The surprise success of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out spawned a mini-wave of cheeky murder mysteries. The latest is See How They Run. Yes, we’ve gathered you all together because one of you is a murderer. Maybe more than one. We’re not sure. It’s complicated. This one is set in the 1950s, when a hit play in London is being adapted for a Hollywood movie by director Leo Kapernick (Adrian Brody). When the director turns up dead, Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and rookie Constable Stalker (Saorise Ronan) are assigned to crack the case. The suspects are an all-star cast of pretentious theater people including Ruth Wilson and David Oyelowo. Watch Ronan’s hilarious deadpan in this fun trailer.

Ti West’s X was another surprise hit last spring. Now, the director and his star Mia Goth return with a prequel to that juicy bit of neo-exploitation cinema. Pearl tells the origin story of the elderly killer in X by flashing back to the silent era, where the titular Texan only wants to get out of the sticks and get famous. Early reviews have generated Oscar buzz for Goth, who, as you can see, is absolutely killing it.

It’s Time Warp Drive-In weekend, and if you’re a horror fan, this one is a can’t-miss. Sam Raimi scored the year’s second-biggest box office hit with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. You can see how he got his start with 1981’s The Evil Dead. Now considered a masterpiece of horror, The Evil Dead was shot on a shoestring budget in East Tennessee, and gained a big enough cult following to greenlight a sequel. Evil Dead 2 returned star Bruce Campbell to the Rocky Top hills, this time with more money and more know-how. Just look at this incredible scene, a masterclass in both practical effects and walking the thin line between horror and comedy.

The evening at the Malco Summer Drive-In will conclude with the third Evil Dead film, 1992s Army of Darkness, in which our not-too-bright hero Ash is transported back in time to save a medieval kingdom from the Deadites. Listen up you primitive screwheads! This is how it’s done!