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Exclusive: Dakota Fanning (Ripley), Jake Johnson (Minx) and Cory Michael Smith (Mountainhead) have signed on to star in an untitled romantic drama written and directed by Joe Swanberg.

We’re told the film is set in various locations throughout Alaska, but plot details are under wraps. Fanning, Johnson and Smith also will produce alongside Swanberg and Ashleigh Snead, with Dan Johnson, Kathy Gitibin Parsa and Ariana Parsa serving as executive producers.

The project marks Swanberg’s fourth collaboration with Johnson, following Drinking Buddies, Digging for Fire and Win It All.

Coming off of Netflix’s hit series The Perfect Couple and her first Emmy nomination for her work in the streamer’s miniseries Ripley, Fanning next will team with sister Elle Fanning to produce and star in an anticipated adaptation of bestseller The Nightingale for TriStar, which is slated for release in February 2027. Upcoming, she’ll also be seen starring...

New York indies Cartuna and Dweck Productions have acquired North American rights for Grace Glowicki’s thriller Dead Lover as the first acquisition of their newly announced joint distribution venture Cartuna x Dweck.

The partners acquired the film out of SXSW where the Canadian thriller made its Texas debut after world premiering at Sundance in the Midnight Section.

In between times, the film has also played the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Göteborg Film Festival, with forthcoming stops at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans and the Los Angeles Festival of Movies.

Glowicki also stars in Dead Lover as a lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses. When she finally meets her dream man (Ben Petrie), their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love.

Dead Lover...

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His Three Daughters is a comedy-drama film written and directed by Azazel Jacobs. The Netflix film revolves around three estranged sisters as they reunite in New York City to take care of their ailing father but soon they find themselves fighting with each other due to their past issues and current predicament. His Three Daughter stars Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon, and Natasha Lyonne in the lead roles with Jay O. Sanders, Jovan Adepo, Rudy Galvan, Jose Febus, and Jasmine Bracey starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the heartwarming comedy, dysfunctional family, and compelling characters in His Three Daughters here are some similar movies you should check out next.

This Is Where I Leave You (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Warner Bros.

This Is Where I Leave You is a comedy-drama film directed by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Jonathan Tropper.

Neon, the indie studio behind “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” has tapped the producers of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Jon Read and Allison Rose Carter, to lead their growing production arm. Read and Carter are the co-founders of Savage Rose Films.

The pact comes as Neon has moved more aggressively into developing and producing its own movies, instead of focusing purely on acquiring completed films. The company’s recent foray into production have included Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool,” Bishal Dutta’s “It Lives Inside,” Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions,” Jazmin Jones’s “Seeking Mavis Beacon” and Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo.” This new in-house focus also includes upcoming projects from Joshua Oppenheimer, Boots Riley and David Robert Mitchell. Under the terms of the deal, Neon will have a first-look at Savage Rose Films’ roster of projects while Read and Carter will also run Neon’s productions, reporting to Jeff Deutchman,...

As we continue to explore the best in 2023, today we’re taking a look at the articles that you, our dear readers, enjoyed the most throughout the past twelve months. Spanning reviews, interviews, features, podcasts, news, and trailers, check out the highlights below and return for more year-end coverage as well as a glimpse into 2024.

Most-Read Reviews

1. Body Parts

2. The Exorcist: Believer

3. Barbie

4. Beau Is Afraid

5. Priscilla

6. Suzume

7. Hypnotic

8. No Hard Feelings

9. The Zone of Interest

10. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Most-Read Interviews

1. Claire Simon on Capturing the Female Body and What Sets Her Apart From Frederick Wiseman

2. “I Don’t Think Directors Should Be Amenable”: Erik Messerschmidt on Shooting The Killer and David Fincher’s Simple Process

3. Richard Kelly on Creative Heartbreak, Political Cinema, and Future Projects

4. Christopher Blauvelt on May December, Formatting for Netflix and 35mm, and Life Lessons from Harris Savides

5. Brandon Cronenberg on Infinity Pool,...

Our year-end coverage continues with a look at the best performances of 2023. Rather than divide categories into supporting or lead or by gender, we’ve written about our 35 favorites, period. Find our countdown below and start watching the ones you’ve missed here and here.

35. The Cast of How to Blow Up a Pipeline

The hallmark of a great ensemble is one where each player feels precisely in-tune with the tone and goal of the film, willing to shine in their moment while sharing the spotlight. Perhaps the most even-handed, harmonious example this year is with Daniel Goldhaber’s nail-biting eco-thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Featuring Ariela Barer (also co-writer), Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, and Irene Bedard, it’s a feat of perfect casting, each performance feeling lived-in and an essential piece to the heist puzzle. – Jordan R....

As the arthouse cinema market continues to regain its footing, the list of what may be considered an overlooked film could be quite vast, depending on one’s metrics. For our yearly feature highlighting the 50 best films you might have missed––arriving before our overall top 50 films––we’ve sought to dig deep to find the gems that deserved more attention upon their initial release and have mostly been left out of year-end conversations. Hopefully, with many widely available on a variety of streaming platforms, they will begin to find an expanded audience.

While many documentaries would qualify for this list, we stuck strictly to narrative efforts; one can instead read our rundown of the top docs here. Check out the list below, as presented in alphabetical order.

The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa)

The rare case of a Movie About Nothing whose languorous attitudes collect a world of concern: desire against reality,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa)

Six years after directing his last feature, Dustin Guy Defa returns with The Adults, a film of complicated shared histories and gradually revealing inner lives. With his relatively sprawling Person to Person, Defa followed a wide array of characters over five interweaving storylines. This time he focuses on one family and, closer still, on an unmistakable feeling: that of moving out and growing up, only to return home and realize all that delicately assembled adulthood was merely a façade. Playing out across a leafy town in upstate New York, The Adults follows a trio of siblings as they reunite: the brother who went away and the sisters who did not. – Rory O. (full review)

Where to Stream:...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Having long admired the work of Dustin Guy Defa, I was glad to speak with him on the occasion of two major moments: a) the Criterion Channel’s retrospective boasting nearly all his shorts and features; b) the release of his excellent new film The Adults. Although we had a conversation with him and star Michael Cera at Berlinale earlier this year, the opportunity to go in-depth on a still-young, commendable career––while I experimented with an audio format, i.e. the horrors of letting people hear me ask questions––was simply too intriguing.

For more from The B-Side, you can check out highlights of actors/directors and the films discussed in one place here.

Be sure...

Michael Cera is known for playing characters that thrive from the comedic tone they establish with their awkward presence. The actor will deliver a different kind of performance when he's seen in The Adults, a comedy-drama about a family trying to fix the happy relationships they lost. Dustin Guy Defa directed the upcoming movie, where three siblings are seen together for the first time in many years. During a recent interview with Collider's Taylor Gates, Cera talked about the scene that turned out to be the most difficult sequence to film in the entire project. The actor's answer was unexpected:...

Dustin Guy Defa wanted to tell a very personal story when he came up with the concept for The Adults, a new comedy where a broken family tries to heal what they have lost over the passage of time. Michael Cera plays Eric in the movie, one of the characters directly involved with the conflict. He will have to have honest conversations with his siblings if he wants any chance of them getting along again, but the road towards reconnecting will be tougher than he thinks. During an interview with Collider's Taylor Gates, conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Defa explained why he chose Cera for the role:...

Estranged siblings are forced to address long-held grievances when the oldest brother returns home after years away. The Adults tries your patience as relatable but unlikable characters engage in strange behavior with annoying song and dance routines. No, this isn't a musical, but a subplot has them re-enacting childhood fantasies through weird imaginary personas. To say this gets old and irritating quickly is an understatement. The film is capably acted and realistically depicts the buried grudges we all hold against our family members. There's decent drama between the silliness. The problem is that the bad aspects torpedoes good intentions and significantly affects the pacing.

Eric (Michael Cera) arrives at his hotel in upstate New York. He hasn't been back home to see his sisters since moving to Portland. Eric calls Rachel (Hannah Gross) and awkwardly tries to catch up. He didn't have a clue her boyfriend cheated and dumped her months ago.

Re-releases reliably dot the theatrical calendar and this week have a standout. Oldboy, the 2004 Cannes prize-winner, re-released by Neon on its 20th anniversary restored and remastered, grossed $235k on Wednesday and $150k Thursday — for a total cume $385k on 250 screens heading into the weekend.

San Francisco, NYC and LA, led by Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, are the top-performing cities so far for Park Chan-wook’s classic film — the first screening in U.S. theaters since its original North American release in 2005.

Oldboy follows Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik), who, after being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, is released but must find his captor in five days. The critically acclaimed film is the second installment of Park’s The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and followed by Lady Vengeance (2005). Oldboy won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. It grossed $15 million worldwide, and saw...

This interview took place in June 2023 as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.

Sophia Lillis and Hannah Gross could be sisters in real life. The pair have a rapport that seems like it might have developed across years of inside jokes and shared experiences, which makes it easy to see why they work so well as siblings alongside Michael Cera in the movie "The Adults," which hits theaters Aug. 18.

Gross and Lillis play sisters who live together in their childhood home in a suburban town that feels slightly faded, like a memory lived in too long. Rachel (Gross), who took over responsibility for the house after their parents' deaths, works at the local radio station, while Maggie (Lillis) has dropped out of college, claiming it stifled her creativity.

The fractures in the pair's relationship become visible when their older brother, Eric (Cera), arrives for a very brief visit for the first time in three years.

Michael Cera, known for his roles in movies like Superbad, Juno, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, revealed his ambitions to direct and is currently developing his first feature length project. Cera has previously directed three shorts and a mockumentary, showcasing his interest in independent comedy. He also expressed excitement for the upcoming animated series Scott Pilgrim The Anime. Despite his busy schedule, Cera is looking forward to getting back behind the camera and is currently working on developing a new project, described as a mysterious family story. The Adults and Dream Scenario are some of his upcoming acting projects.

During an interview with Decider (conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike), star Michael Cera, revealed that he's hoping to get back into the director's chair with his first feature length project. While chatting with the outlet, the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World star declared his "ambitions to direct.

[Editor’s note: The following interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14, 2023.]

Sophia Lillis was just 14 years old when she signed on for her first major role, playing Beverly Marsh, the heart of the so-called Losers of Stephen King’s seminal horror tome “It,” in Andy Muschietti’s two-film take on the material. It was the kind of star-making gig many other performers would be happy to rest on, well, forever. But eight years on from that first feature, Lillis is eager to keep building her resume, moving away from “child actress” into just “actress” territory.

It helps that Lillis was choosy even when she was a “child actress,” taking on the “It” films, the HBO Gillian Flynn miniseries “Sharp Objects,” the underseen Netflix series “I Am Not Okay with This,” and even one spin as Nancy Drew and another as Gretel (of “Hansel & Gretel” fame). Now aged 21, Lillis has about a dozen onscreen credits to her name, but they all belie...

The Adults.If Dustin Guy Defa’s third feature, The Adults, has all the makings of a breakthrough, it does so not solely due to its enthusiastic reception at the Berlinale or its Universal-assisted distribution deal, but because it’s the first of the 45-year-old writer-director’s films to combine his knack for offbeat characterizations with the kind of deeply felt emotion only sporadically seen in his prior work. Unlike many of his more prolific American contemporaries, Defa’s career has progressed in oddly fitful fashion, with lengthy gaps between features broken up by a number of singular short films that, until now, have best displayed his seriocomic approach to matters of urban millennial angst and alienation. The Adults both extends and expands on these themes in ways that open up Defa’s previously cloistered world of neurotic New Yorkers, eccentric artist types, and emotionally unavailable twentysomethings.Starring Michael Cera,...

These interviews were recorded prior to the SAG/AFTRA strike, in June 2023, as part of the Tribeca Festival. On this special episode of Back To One, actors Sophia Lillis, Hannah Gross and Michael Cera talk about their work in writer/director Dustin Guy Defa’s wonderful new film The Adults. We get a glimpse into each of their general preparation processes before doing a deep dive into their work on this actor-centric production. They each talk about how they built the reality of their complex sibling relationship, why the songs and dances that play such a big part in their characters’ past feel […]

The post The Adults Special Episode with Michael Cera, Sophia Lillis and Hannah Gross first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

These interviews were recorded prior to the SAG/AFTRA strike, in June 2023, as part of the Tribeca Festival. On this special episode of Back To One, actors Sophia Lillis, Hannah Gross and Michael Cera talk about their work in writer/director Dustin Guy Defa’s wonderful new film The Adults. We get a glimpse into each of their general preparation processes before doing a deep dive into their work on this actor-centric production. They each talk about how they built the reality of their complex sibling relationship, why the songs and dances that play such a big part in their characters’ past feel […]

The post The Adults Special Episode with Michael Cera, Sophia Lillis and Hannah Gross first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

It’s February in Berlin and Michael Cera is dodging bullets. What’s it like, one reporter asks, to be a new dad? “It’s like a new obsession,” the actor explains, “it’s all you care about.” Filming Juno? “My memories are very nebulous, but it was fun!” Keeping in touch with Elliot Paige? “We don’t speak very often, but it’s always nice when we get together.“ Can he talk about Barbie? “I’ve been told I would be punished.” Working with Greta Gerwig? “A really confident and very fun and collaborative director.” Being mistaken for Jesse Eisenberg? “He told me he gets that, too!” His dream role? “Zuckerberg?” Dustin Guy Defa chimes in, getting a big laugh, “That would be the best.”

The director and star are seated at a roundtable for their new film The Adults. It’s Defa’s first as director in six years,...

The Adults is a family comedy-drama film, but it is R-rated because of its adult language. Written & Directed by Dustin Guy Defa, The Adults follows Eric as he takes a short trip back home to meet his sisters and old friends but the short trip turns into a mess of unresolved familial issues and a trip down the nostalgic lane. Michael Cera is producing and starring in the film. So, if you like The Adults, here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Ride the Eagle (Hulu) Credit – Jtj Films

Synopsis: When a musician’s estranged mother passes away, her last wishes compel him to complete a crazy to-do list in order to claim his inheritance. Starring Jake Johnson, J.K. Simmons, Susan Sarandon and D’Arcy Carden.

Our Idiot Brother (Prime Video & Hulu) Credit – The Weinstein Company

Synopsis: Sisters Liz (Emily Mortimer of TV’s Newsroom), Miranda and Natalie (Zooey Deschanel...

The Adults is a family comedy-drama film, but it is R-rated because of its adult language. Written & Directed by Dustin Guy Defa, The Adults follows Eric as he takes a short trip back home to meet his sisters and old friends but the short trip turns into a mess of unresolved familial issues and a trip down the nostalgic lane. Michael Cera is producing and starring in the film.

So, let’s see what we know about The Adults including its cast, when is it coming out, what is it about, and most importantly where can you watch it.

The Adults – When is it Coming Out? Credit – Variance Films

The Adults is all set to come into your nearest theaters on August 18.

The Adults – How to Watch It?

The Adults is coming exclusively in theaters. So, everybody who has been waiting for a great comedy-drama can enjoy the film in theaters.

It was more than a little heartening to see Roger Corman paid tribute by Quentin Tarantino at Cannes’ closing night. By now the director-producer-mogul’s imprint on cinema is understood to eclipse, rough estimate, 99.5% of anybody who’s touched the medium, but on a night for celebrating what’s new, trend-following, and manicured it could’ve hardly been more necessary. Thus I’m further heartened seeing the Criterion Channel will host a retrospective of Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations running eight films and aptly titled “Grindhouse Gothic,” though I might save the selections for October.

Centerpiece, though, is a hip hop series including Bill Duke’s superb Deep Cover, Ghost Dog, and numerous documentaries––among them Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, making Michael Rapaport a Criterion-approved auteur. Ten films starring Kay Francis and 21 Eurothrillers round out series; streaming premieres include the Dardenne brothers’ Tori and Lokita,...

It was a night of laughs that’s still whispered about in comedy circles. During the last writers’ strike in 2007, Michael Cera hosted a DIY version of Saturday Night Live at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in New York City for around 200 people. The show was comprised of old and/or never-before-seen sketches that had never made it to air, and the entire cast of SNL participated, including the likes of Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph. Norah Jones was the surprise musical...

Exclusive: Filmmaker Tyler Taormina (Ham on Rye) has wrapped production on Long Island on Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point, a Christmas comedy to star Michael Cera (Life & Beth), Elsie Fisher (Barry), Maria Dizzia (The Good Nurse), Francesca Scorsese (We Are Who We Are), Ben Shenkman (Billions), Gregg Turkington (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), Sawyer Spielberg (Masters of the Air) and newcomer Matilda Fleming.

Written by Taormina, Eric Berger and Kevin Anton, the film watches as four generations of the Balsano family gather for what may be the last Christmas in the family home. As they lose themselves in rowdy celebration, cousins Emily and Michelle sneak away to a winter wonderland, where suburban teenagers find their rebellious paradise.

The project hails from Omnes Films and was produced in association with Crypto Castle Productions and Puente Films. Producers included Cera, Krista Minto, Taormina, David Croley Broyles and Duncan Sullivan. The executive producers are Jeremy Gardner,...

Complicated sibling relationships are the basis of Dustin Guy Defa’s The Adults. The film depicts the emotional journey of three siblings — played by Michael Cera, Hannah Gross and Sophia Lillis — reuniting after their mother’s death, a scenario that, while rife with potential conflict, also presents an opportunity for reconnection, understanding and healing. As Defa portrays, such a reunion can cause the distance that has grown between siblings over time to become painfully real.

Eric (Cera) is back in town in order to see his friend’s baby. He’s only there for two days and goes to see his two sisters, Maggie (Lillis) and Rachel (Gross), in the meantime; they’ve been estranged for three years. He has a gambling addiction, Maggie dropped out of college, and Rachel is bitter post-breakup. As children, the trio aspired to be a family music act; now these people couldn’t be...

The summer always proves to be a good time for a charming coming-of-age film, and indie scene alum Michael Cera is due to return in a new, upcoming film of such variety. Per a report from Collider, the first official trailer for light-hearted family drama The Adults has dropped, showcasing a heartwarming yet relatable story of familial strain between estranged siblings due to questionable life choices. However, an awkward yet overdue reunion between the three of them brings them closer again in ways they didn't expect.

Related: Barbie Posters Reveal Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera & Dua Lipa as Mermaid Barbie

The Adults is a comedy drama film helmed by Dustin Guy Defa, who both wrote and directed the project. While mostly known so far for his short film work, Defa previously directed the feature Person to Person, which also starred Michael Cera along with Tavi Gevinson (Gossip Girl...

After a fairly quiet last few years (at least since his iconic brief stint in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return), Michael Cera is back in the spotlight. This July he’ll be seen in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and then in August his reunion with writer-director Dustin Guy Defa following Person to Person will arrive in theaters, not to mention upcoming films by Kristoffer Borgli, Eric Wareheim, and Michael Angarano.

The Adults, which premiered at Berlinale earlier this year and will stop by Tribeca, follows Eric (Cera) as he returns home for a short visit and finds himself caught between reuniting with his sisters and chasing a victory with his old poker group. As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts. While Maggie (Sophia Lillis) attempts to recreate...

"You used to think I was the funniest person in the world..." Variance Films has unveiled an official trailer for the indie comedy The Adults, which initially premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival earlier in the year. It's also playing at the Tribeca Film Festival next in June before opening later in August. The second feature film from filmmaker Dustin Guy Defa after Person to Person, which also starred Michael Cera. The plan to make a trip back home as short as possible begins to unravel as Eric finds himself struggling with balancing the challenging relationship with his two sisters and his addiction to a local poker game. A film about not wanting to grow up. Berlinale describes it as "a shrewd study of the pitiless condition known as adulthood." Starring Michael Cera as Eric, with Hannah Gross, Sophia Lillis, Wavyy Jonez, Anoop Desai, Kyra Tantao, Kiah McKirnan, & Simon Kim.

Michael Cera is back to his old indie tricks in the exclusive new trailer for Dustin Guy Defa’s (Bad Fever) helmed and penned comedy-drama, The Adults. In a story that anyone who’s moved away from home and left conversations and connections with family fall to the wayside, the green band teaser will pull at your heartstrings as Cera’s Eric struggles to reconnect with his sisters during what was initially meant to be a speedy visit.

Dweck Productions has joined Joel Potrykus’ upcoming dark comedy feature “Vulcanizadora” which will star Joshua Burge.

“Vulcanizadora” will be written and directed by Potrykus, marking his fifth feature and fourth collaboration with Burge following “Ape,” “Buzzard” and “Relaxer.” Plot details for the feature have been kept under wraps with production commencing this summer in Michigan. Dweck joins the project as both producer and financier.

“‘Vulcanizadora’ is a mind bending ride of comedy, suspense and utter devastation, and we are thrilled to be producing the bold and daring fifth feature of the great Joel Potrykus,” said Dweck founder Hannah Dweck. “This is the exact type of boundary pushing, genre bending film we love to help bring to the screen. We can’t wait to watch this with an audience.”

Matt Grady, founder of independent film production and distribution company Factory 25, will produce “Vulcanizadora” alongside Ashley Potrykus and Dan Berger.

“I...

Six years after directing his last feature, Dustin Guy Defa returns with The Adults, a film of complicated shared histories and gradually revealing inner lives. With his relatively sprawling Person to Person, Defa followed a wide array of characters over five interweaving storylines. This time he focuses on one family and, closer still, on an unmistakable feeling: that of moving out and growing up, only to return home and realize all that delicately assembled adulthood was merely a façade. Playing out across a leafy town in upstate New York, The Adults follows a trio of siblings as they reunite: the brother who went away and the sisters who did not.

This is new territory for Defa. Warmth was in short supply in his debut, Bad Fever. It was absent altogether in his script for The Mountain. Shot on fuzzy 16mm, Person to Person allowed him to show a more benevolent side to his cinema.

Depending on the state of your own family network, the relationship between the trio of grown siblings at the center of “The Adults” may strike you as intensely, skin-crawlingly familiar or quite desolately alien. Either way, Dustin Guy Defa’s determinedly quiet family-reunion drama seeks to be discomfiting, gradually giving the viewer that hollow, lurching, pit-of-the-stomach feeling that either precedes a dreaded encounter or follows a disappointing one. That might not sounds like a good thing, but in the context of this small, expansively sad film, it is one: From that queasiness comes bristly tension, tautening and deepening what otherwise seems a low-key, low-stakes character study, and eventually a sweet, conciliatory sliver of hope too.

Defa’s previous feature, 2017’s meandering, windblown New York City mosaic “Person to Person,” was already a tiny microbudget enterprise, so it wouldn’t quite be accurate to describe “The Adults,” with its more contained ensemble and thematic thrust,...

With this year’s selection, the Berlinale seems to be creating space in the festival calendar, between Sundance and SXSW, for a particular type of American indie: the melancholy, slight, intensely personal and hence rather divisive kind, in which vaguely famous actors—usually the comedic kind—play downbeat iterations of their more familiar selves. It may not be a coincidence that Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg debuted here rather than home turf in 2010, but Dustin Guy Defa’s The Adults, which premiered in the festival’s Encounters strand, makes Baumbach’s problem child seem positively commercial by comparison. Fortunately for all involved, Universal have already picked it up; this is definitely not the type of movie to thrive in today’s marketplace.

It begins in a hotel room, where Eric (Michael Cera) is making plans to see an old friend after three years away. Eric’s attempts to breeze back into...

To this day, I am traumatized by the notion I could have killed my little brother. Six years younger, we had an age difference primed to maximize annoyance, his constant nagging the spark for my first foray with untethered fury. The day he carelessly ripped a hole through the plastic pool I waited years to get was the final straw, and I hit him in the head with the biggest — and heaviest — branch I could find.

Continue reading ‘The Adults’ Review: Dustin Guy Defa’s Dramedy With Michael Cera Is Charming Yet Sometimes Overly Gimmicky [Berlin] at The Playlist.

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival. Variance Films releases the film in select theaters on Friday, August 18.

Sibling in-jokes — often first formed when our brains are still goofy and undeveloped, and honed through the hysteria of spending too much time with somebody who shares your DNA — are often the most absurd and abiding. The silly voices, the elaborate bits, the rehearsed dance routines, the specific style of patter that an outsider would find impenetrable. But what happens when you grow up, and a family tragedy rips you apart? What do you do when you feel obligated to stay in touch with the siblings you still love, but nostalgia for your childhood has suddenly become too painful a memory to indulge in?

Dustin Guy Defa’s “The Adults” is an emotional scream transposed through low-decibel vocal fry — an endearing sibling drama full of cringe comedy that lands a miraculous,...

Michael Cera is at the Berlin International Film Festival for the world premiere this weekend of Dustin Guy Defa‘s “The Adults.” In the film, Cera stars as a man who returns to his hometown as he struggles to reconnect with his two sisters (Hannah Gross and Sophie Lillis) and bridge the gap between his childhood and adult life.

Continue reading Michael Cera Eyes The Charles Portis Novel ‘Masters of Atlantis’ As One Of Two Possible Feature Directorial Debuts at The Playlist.

It’s been two decades since he first broke out as the comically meek George Michael Bluth on TV in Arrested Development and 16 years since he became the cinematic face of hilariously awkward teens as Evan in high-school comedy smash Superbad.

While these are often two of his most talked about roles — together with perhaps Juno and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World — Michael Cera has been quietly amassing an impressively eclectic body of work over the years, appearing in Molly’s Game and This Is the End (as a Rihanna ass-slapping cokehead), voicing Robin in The Lego Batman Movie, earning a Tony nomination for his leading part in Kenneth Lonergan’s Broadway revival of his own play Lobby Hero and even landing one of the wildest cameos on David Lynch’s already wild Twin Peaks revival. Most recently he’s been seen regularly alongside Amy Schumer in her acclaimed rom-com series Life & Beth on Hulu,...

Writer-director Dustin Guy Defa has shared a first-look clip (below) of his feature comedy drama “The Adults,” which will have its world premiere Saturday at the Berlin Film Festival, with stars Michael Cera, Hannah Gross and Sophia Lillis, and Defa in attendance.

The film, which is distributed worldwide by Universal Pictures Content Group, will be releasing internationally on July 3 and in the U.S. on July 4. In Berlin, it plays in the Encounters section.

“The Adults” follows Eric (Cera) as he returns home for a short visit and finds himself caught between reuniting with his sisters and chasing a victory with his old poker group.

As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts.

While Maggie (Lillis) attempts to recreate the intimate world the three of them once shared, Eric and...

The movie year has already unleashed a lot of memorable work, from Sundance breakouts to “M3GAN.” But things are about to get a lot more global. Even as a new Marvel movie opens in theaters worldwide, the Berlin International Film Festival begins on Wednesday to offer a whole lot more. Nestled in between Sundance and SXSW, Berlin is like a firehose of international cinema.

More than 200 films from around the world will premiere at the festival this week, many of which are potential discoveries. Berlin premieres sometimes creep into awards consider (this year’s Oscar nominee “The Quiet Girl” premiered there last year) but can also deliver major new works from rising filmmaker talent. Some of the more promising titles from this year’s lineup speak to its versatility. It’s also a valuable European launchpad for Sundance highlights: The festival’s hit “Past Lives” plays in competition.

From its...

Cast includes Anthony Carrigan.

Evan Rachel Wood, Josh Gad and Anthony Carrigan will star in Alex Winter’s The Adults, on which CAA Media Finance is arranging financing and Rocket Science will launch international sales at the EFM next week.

The feature follows a sister and brother who are barely hanging on in present-day America and whose lives are upended when they discover a body buried in their parent’s basement.

Winter, Scott Kroopf of Many Rivers Productions and Russell Hollander are producing and the executive producers are Connie Tavel. Novellist Michael M.B. Galvin wrote the screenplay.

CAA Media Finance represents US rights.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSNewly-minted Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough in To Leslie.The 95th Academy Awards unveiled their full list of nominees yesterday. Browse the categories and relevant coverage on Notebook to prepare for the ceremony, airing March 12. (Andrea Riseborough made the cut.)On Monday, the Berlinale announced their main competition lineup, including new films by Angela Schanelec, Christian Petzold, Margarethe Von Trotta, and Philippe Garrel. Meanwhile, their Encounters section features new films from Hong Sang-soo, Dustin Guy Defa, Tatiana Huezo, and more. Notebook has the full lineup here.Last Wednesday, January 18, filmmaker, critic, and producer Paul Vecchiali died at the age of 92. Patrick Preziosi summed up a bit of his impact in his Notebook Primer on Vecchiali’s film company, Diagonale, “a solar system of the utopian possibilities of cinematic community.

Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian and executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeck on Monday unveiled the main lineup for the fest’s 73rd edition, which marks the first physical edition in three years.

Berlin’s post-pandemic spirit is clear in its efforts to lighten up the lineup with more audience-friendly titles, several of which are from the U.S., and raise the glamour quotient while maintaining the strong indie vibe and political tone ingrained in the fest’s DNA.

Shortly after announcing the Competition and Encounters sections, they spoke to Variety about the challenges they’ve been grappling with and the closer rapport that Berlin is forging with the U.S. film industry.

Going back to a full physical edition is a big relief, of course. But also a challenge. What have some of your main goals and concerns been?

Rissenbeck: We see the festival partly as a platform for the German and international film industries.

Berlin Film Festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian and executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeck unveiled the International Competition and Encounters lineups on Monday for the festival’s 73rd edition, running February 16-26.

“It’s quite an eclectic selection,” Chatrian told the press conference in Berlin this morning. “You will see we tried to include as many genres and cinematic forms as possible.”

Related Story Berlin Film Festival Lineup: Sean Penn, Philippe Garrel, Margarethe Von Trotta & Christian Petzold In Competition — Full List Related Story Sean Penn Documentary On Ukraine And Volodymyr Zelenskyy To Debut At Berlin Film Festival Related Story Berlin Film Festival: Watch Competition Lineup Revealed Live

The International Competition features 18 titles, 15 of them world premieres, involving 19 different territories. Encounters, the Berlinale’s equivalent of Un Certain Regard which was launched in 2020, will showcase 16 films.

Chatrian has stuck with his love of mixing established names, including Philippe Garrel (The Plough), Margarethe von Trotta...

2023 truly begins taking shape with next month’s Berlinale, which will run from February 16 to February 26 and feature more than a few of our most-anticipated films this year. Among them are Christian Petzold’s Afire (Roter Himmel), starring new muse Paula Beer; Hong Sangsoo’s In Water, which will appear in the Encounters section; and Philippe Garrel’s The Plough, once known as La lune crevée starring his three children Louis, Esther, and Lena, and (judging from the still) his first color feature since 2011’s A Burning Hot Summer. Meanwhile: Angela Schanelec will return with Music, and––six years after the wonderful Person to Person––it’s nice spotting a new feature from Dustin Guy Defa, The Adults.

Find the lineup below and head back next month for our coverage of the festival headed by Kristen Stewart’s jury.

Competition

20,000 Species of Bees (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)

The Shadowless Tower (Zhang...

The Berlin International Film Festival unveiled the competition lineup for its 2023 edition on Monday morning, naming the 18 movies that will compete for the coveted Gold and Silver Bears at the 73rd Berlinale.

Berlinale executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian presented a very international and arthouse-heavy lineup, with a strong focus on politically-charged cinema.

In a late addition, Superpower, Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman’s documentary on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russian invasion of the country and the ongoing war, will have its world premiere in Berlin’s out-of-competition Berlinale Special section. The doc, made for Vice Studios, Aldamisa Entertainment and Fifth Season, is being sold internationally by Fifth Season.

Berlin 2023, taking place a year after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, will have a major focus on Ukraine. Even the festival’s official pin will be in the Ukraine colors of blue and yellow.

In competition, German auteur...

Mubi’s U.S. lineup for next month has been unveiled, including some essential recent releases, notably James Vaughan’s Friends and Strangers, Radu Muntean’s Întregalde, Alice Diop’s We (Nous), the Isabel Sandoval-led short The Actress, Ougie Pak’s Clytaemnestra, and the new restoration of Hong Sangsoo’s Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors.

As part of Pride month and fitting as his latest film arrives, Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night is among the selections, alongside And Then We Danced, Being 17, and Lilting. Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, a pair of films by Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Kim Bora’s House of Hummingbird are also in the lineup.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

June 1 – Wet Sand, directed by Elene Naveriani | Viewfinder | Pride

June 2 – And Then We Danced, directed by Levan Akin | Pride Unprejudiced: LGBTQ+ Cinema

June 3 – Friends and Strangers, directed by James Vaughan | Mubi Spotlight

June 4 – Final Set,...

The U.S. lineup for films coming to Mubi this September has been announced, featuring some of my personal favorites of the last few years, notably Philippe Lesage’s severely overlooked coming-of-age drama Genesis, John Gianvito’s Helen Keller documentary Her Socialist Smile, Joe DeNardo, Paul Felten’s formally thrilling Slow Machine, and Robert Greene’s documentary Bisbee ’17, as well as Jia Zhangke’s latest release Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue.

Also in the lineup is Bill Forsyth’s delightful Gregory’s Girl, Ari Folman’s hybrid feature The Congress, and Manoel de Oliveira’s Visit, or Memories and Confession, which was made in 1982, and only allowed to screen after his death.

See the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

September 1 | Yellow Cat | Adilkhan Yerzhanov | Festival Focus: Venice

September 2 | Visit, or Memories and Confessions | Manoel de Oliveira | Rediscovered

September 3 | Slow Machine | Joe DeNardo, Paul Felten | Mubi Spotlight

September...

While film festivals across the world have had to rethink how to connect with audiences in a time when the theatrical presentation is not a feasible option, many of the top ones have banded together to present an online edition of free programming. Titled We Are One: A Global Film Festival, the event begins this Friday on YouTube and now the lineup has been unveiled.

Each festival, including Cannes, New York, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Toronto, and Tribeca Film Festivals, as well as Annecy International Animation Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival, International Film Festival & Awards Macao, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Jerusalem Film Festival, Mumbai Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, Marrakech International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, and Tokyo International Film Festival, have all made selections, which includes shorts, features,...

Writer/director Joel Potrykus, who broke down the anxieties of the filmmaking process recently for Filmmaker, is doing what a lot of us are doing in this time of quarantine: checking in to see how our friends are doing. Here, in a video by Ashley Young, he lets us eavesdrop as he finds out how folks like director Dustin Guy Defa, Oscilloscope’s Dan Berger, Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo, Indiewire’s Eric Kohn and the harder-to-get writer/director Alex Ross Perry are handling the isolation.