News

Hold On To Me Darling, the Kenneth Lonergan comedy-drama starring Adam Driver, has recouped its initial Off Broadway investment, producers announced today. The $1.8 million production opened October 16 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and concludes its run on Sunday, December 22.

According to producers Seaview, Sue Wagner and John Johnson, the play, directed by Neil Pepe, has sold out every performance since beginning previews September 24.

In addition to Driver, the cast includes Heather Burns, Adelaide Clemens, Keith Nobbs, Cj Wilson and Frank Wood.

Driver stars as Strings McCrane, a self-obsessed country music star thrown into an existential midlife crisis after the death of his overbearing mother.

Margaret Qualley has been to some interesting venues to promote her new film, Drive-Away Dolls.

The actress stopped by Late Night With Seth Meyers where she discussed the project from Ethan Coen and his wife, Tricia Cooke. While chatting with Meyers, Qualley explained that its press tour took her to a vibrator museum in San Francisco.

“It was memorable,” she told the late night host. “You know, I wanted more time there, but I left thinking, like, ‘I don’t know that anyone should put that inside of them.’ Like, those ancient vibrators… It seemed dangerous.”

She and Meyers went on to joke about how the scientists who worked on the technological improvements of more recent vibrators were the “real heroes,” who should have TV shows made about them, instead of those made about people at NASA.

Elsewhere in the appearance, Qualley noted that the film was originally titled Drive-Away Dykes...

A road trip. A mix-up. A fast-talking hero, prone to tossing off bewilderingly verbose sentences. Some criminals who run the gamut from eccentric to psychotic to painfully inept. (Sometimes, they’re all three at once.) Dangerously sudden violence. Dangerously dark humor. Dangerously outrageous hairdos. The feeling that you’re watching a vintage film noir story run through a Looney Tunes filter. You are in the presence of a Coen brothers movie — whaddaya need, a road map?!

Actually, some sort of Gps system would be a blessing for both you, the viewer,...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Ben Thompson on Wbgr-fm on February 22th, 2024, reviewing “Drive-Away Dolls,” a new film from absurdist master Ethan Coen. In theaters beginning February 23rd .

Rating: 4.0/5.0

It’s 1999 and Margaret Qualley is Jamie, a rebellious lesbian who has just broken up with her live-in girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein). She commiserates with another girlfriend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), who is about to take a trip to Tallahassee to see her aunt. They decide to apply for a “drive away” car from Curley (Bill Camp), and he hands the keys over for a car he just received, after he was given instructions to set up the “Tallahassee drivers.” Turns out the car wasn’t intended for the gals, but for two goons (Joey Slotnick and C.J. Wilson) and contained a special package inside that the goons were to deliver to Florida Senator Gary...

Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley in ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ (Photo Credit: Wilson Webb / Working Title / Focus Features)

Spouses Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s Drive-Away Dolls is a crazy and twisted mix of blackmail, murder, and sexually adventurous lesbians, with a healthy sprinkling of “Wtf is going on” humor. There’s literally nothing out of bounds in Coen and Cooke’s screwball comedy/buddy road trip adventure that wears its R-rating like a lusty badge of honor.

The year’s 1999 and lesbian BFFs are ready for a change of scenery. Jamie, who prefers sampling multiple sexual partners even while in a committed relationship, is coming off a bad breakup with her police officer girlfriend (Beanie Feldstein). Which is as good an excuse as any to embark on a road trip. And the sexually repressed, introverted Marian wants to make the trip from Philadelphia to Tallahassee for a little birdwatching.

What could...

Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley in Drive-Away Dolls Photo: Wilson Webb/Working Title/Focus Features In his first foray into narrative film without his brother and collaborator Joel Coen, Ethan Coen keeps it in the family. His partner in Drive-Away Dolls is his wife Tricia Cooke. He produced, wrote, and directed and she produced,...

Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley in Drive-Away DollsPhoto: Wilson Webb/Working Title/Focus Features

In his first foray into narrative film without his brother and collaborator Joel Coen, Ethan Coen keeps it in the family. His partner in Drive-Away Dolls is his wife Tricia Cooke. He produced, wrote, and directed and she produced,...

Although many parts of the country are still in the “deep freeze”, many folks are looking ahead to the big thaw and traveling during Spring Break. And it’s only natural that the multiplex will have a new roadtrip romp to get everyone “in the mood”. Oh, but this film differs from those we’ve seen in previous years. First, it’s set in that far-off land of 1999. And rather than a couple of teenage male buddies (or even a group as in Losin’ It), it’s focused on two twenty-something young women. Perhaps, it’s a riff on Where The Boys Are, and you would be very wrong as they don’t care about such a location (ahem). Plus it should be of interest to Cinephiles as this is the first solo directing effort for one half of a much-lauded filmmaking team. He’s actually behind the steering wheel along with these Drive-away Dolls.

Beanie Feldstein, Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Tricia Cooke and Ethan Coen celebrated the premiere of their upcoming queer comedy, Drive-Away Dolls, in New York City on Tuesday night.

The film follows two women, played by Viswanathan and Qualley, as they embark on a road trip to Tallahassee, Florida, but things quickly go awry when they come across a group of inept criminals. Husband-and-wife duo Coen and Cooke co-wrote the script in the early 2000s and tried to get it made then, but struggled with studios wanting to back a lesbian comedy at the time.

“It’s like, what was it that works now that didn’t work then? It’s a lesbian road comedy,” Coen told The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere. “It’s a gay-themed thing that was more difficult to do then. We couldn’t get it done then. People are more receptive to that, it’s less...

Ethan Coen's queer roadtrip film "Drive-Away Dolls" is set in 1997, and feels like an escapee from that era, for better and for worse. On the one hand, it possesses all the impish, make-the-straights-squirm energy of a legit '90s indie lesbian farce. It is not just upfront about its queerness, but confrontationally playful about it. "Drive-Away Dolls" unapologetically and cartoonishly plunges audiences into lesbian basement make-out parties and rowdy gay bars, flinging about cunnilingus jokes, masturbation scenes, and multiple on-screen dildos with gleeful impunity. It's a lightweight, weirdly teen-friendly (but very R-rated) slumber party movie with an upbeat and liberating "be gay, do crime" vibe. It's a queer, hand grenade-shaped squeak toy. 

On the other hand, however, "Drive-Away Dolls" is being released in 2024, and the very fact that it depicts queer characters having queer sex and talking about queer issues isn't nearly as confrontational as it once was. There...

Director Ethan Coen – collaborating with wife Tricia Cooke instead of brother Joel – delivers a disposable but not entirely unentertaining lesbian-centered crime caper comedy in Drive-Away Dolls. With its raunchy sex and vivid violence, the film is more an affectionate tribute to hard R drive-in B movies that more resembles something from the mind of Russ Meyer than anything resembling smart, Oscar-y movies like the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men, Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, Fargo, Blood Simple etc.

Drive-Away Dolls definitely retains the quirkiness of the Coen brand, but key inspirations this time were Meyers’ Motorpsycho, Bad Girls Go To Hell and even something really good like ’50s noir Kiss Me Deadly, with which it shares some plot details.

But “plot” doesn’t really matter much here. Coen and Cooke throw everything against the wall to see what sticks. If it makes narrative sense, it likely is an accident.

The kind of movie made to stumble upon surfing cable at 2 am in a half-awake, half-intoxicated stupor, Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls aims for a lower artistic bar than anything the director (and certainly his brother) has previously approached, which accounts for much of its charm. Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke first completed the script some two decades ago––titled Drive-Away Dykes both then and now, if one goes by the end credits––and the film’s B-movie, pleasure-first appeal lies in the feeling that they simply dusted off a copy and immediately embarked on production. A slapdash narrative populated with eminently likable characters best described as joke-delivering caricatures, this marvelously queer road-trip comedy caper is a fleet-footed ride designed to pack in as much sex, violence, and psychedelic mind trips as an 84-minute runtime will allow.

Set in 1999 to ensure cellphones, Google Maps, and other modern tracking devices don...

Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls certainly pulls from the aesthetic and narrative party bags of noir and road movies. It even indulges the pleasures of high lesbian camp as two friends are drawn into a government-connected conspiracy. But to call it pastiche, a term that could be handily affixed to any number of films by the Coen brothers, is inadequate here given the rollicking, casual, intimate nature of Drive-Away Dolls’s relationship to its generic forebearers. In the classic queer punk tradition of Bruce Labruce, John Waters, and Gregg Araki, Coen’s film knows when to pay homage and when to move to its own rhythm.

In its curious way, the film’s formulation of sameness and difference—conveyed through the way that it invokes everything from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! to Kiss Me Deadly, as well as through the yin and yang of fuckgirl Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and the...

Authorship is a major point of contention in queer cinema, so let’s get one thing straight: Ethan Coen’s solo directorial debut is co-written and edited by Tricia Cooke, a lesbian who is also his spouse. Yes, that’s a present tense use of “spouse.” If Cooke and Coen’s unique personal arrangement shocks you, then good luck enjoying a single frame of the married filmmakers’ wildly endearing, decidedly shaggy, and gay as fuck comedy caper. It’s steeped in mismatched genre styles and dark red blood; not to mention, it’s chockful of dildo jokes sure to put a lovable new spin on contemporary audiences’ evolving definitions of found family… member.

Cooked up more than two decades ago with the title “Drive-Away Dykes” in mind, “Drive-Away Dolls” puts an overdue spotlight on Cooke’s indelible impact on the Coen brothers’ filmography. This misadventure in girl-on-girl odd coupling was...

Beanie Feldstein, Margaret Qualley, and Geraldine Viswanathan are stepping out for the premiere of their new movie!

The ladies posed together on the red carpet at the Drive-Away Dolls premiere on Tuesday evening (February 20) held at the AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York City.

Fellow cast member C.J. Wilson was also in attendance along with Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, who co-wrote the screenplay.

Beanie was also joined on the red carpet by his wife Bonnie-Chance Roberts.

Keep reading to find out more…Directed by Ethan, Drive-Away Dolls follows Jamie (Qualley), an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian (Viswanathan) who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.”

The movie,...

"Drive-Away Dolls" just feels like one of those movies that's utterly immune to spoilers. While a wholly original idea from one of our most exciting filmmakers around, the entire premise centers on a pair of misfits who stumble onto a criminal plot involving a mysterious briefcase and subsequently end up with a whole gaggle of bad guys on their tail. If that sounds familiar, well, it's basically a throwback to all kinds of exploitation films from decades past (particularly the '70s genre movies that director Ethan Coen would've grown up on). It also won't fail to bring up comparisons to one of the most celebrated movies of all time: "Pulp Fiction." Well, it looks Coen and his co-writer/partner Tricia Cooke wanted to get out in front of that, as this newest trailer for their wacky-looking comedy proves. And we couldn't be more excited about it.

Honestly, nobody should...

The 'domestic revenge' thriller "A Vigilante", is written and directed by Sarah Daggar-Nickson, starring Olivia Wilde, Morgan Spector, Kyle Catlett, C.J. Wilson, Tonye Patano, Chuck Cooper, Betsy Aidem and Judy Marte, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video:

".... 'Sadie' (Wilde) works as a vigilante, by helping women and children escape abusive homes and family members. She struggles with money, attempting to redeem a life insurance policy on her missing husband. She lives out of a motel room, the wall of which is posted with a map she has been using to search for him. She works out and disguises herself with latex makeup, contacts and a wig, before 'going to work'..."

Click the images to enlarge...

The 'domestic revenge' thriller "A Vigilante", is written and directed by Sarah Daggar-Nickson, starring Olivia Wilde, Morgan Spector, Kyle Catlett, C.J. Wilson, Tonye Patano, Chuck Cooper, Betsy Aidem and Judy Marte, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video:

".... 'Sadie' (Wilde) works as a vigilante, by helping women and children escape abusive homes and family members. She struggles with money, attempting to redeem a life insurance policy on her missing husband. She lives out of a motel room, the wall of which is posted with a map she has been using to search for him. She works out and disguises herself with latex makeup, contacts and a wig, before 'going to work'..."

Click the images to enlarge...

It took writer and director Aaron Sorkin fourteen years after the initial meeting with Steven Spielberg at his house on a Saturday back in 2006 to finally get “The Trial of the Chicago 7” made. And according to Sorkin, it finally came together thanks to former president Donald Trump.

“I don’t want to give Donald Trump credit for anything, but he’s the one who got Chicago seven made,” Sorkin tells moderator Jimmie Briggs at The Wrap’s screening series of the film. “Because he would have these protests, he would have these rallies, and there would be protesters at the rallies, and he would start getting nostalgic about the old days when they ‘Carry that guy out of here on a stretcher,’ ‘I’d like to beat the crap out of him,’ ‘Let’s punch him right in the face.'”

“Suddenly, American and Anti-American was being defined the old stupid way,...

With no fewer than three acclaimed Broadway productions of plays written by Kenneth Lonergan to his credit – This Is Our Youth, Lobby Hero and The Waverly Gallery –actor Michael Cera seems the playwright’s ideal, go-to stand-in, an embodiment of the confusion, awkwardness, deadpan humor and sly charm that helps give Lonergan’s work its punch.

This Sunday, Cera adds another Lonergan work to his resume with a livestream table read of Hold On To Me Darling, a benefit project directed by Neil Pepe that will bring Cera together with two other Lonergan veterans: Mark Ruffalo, whose breakthrough performances arrived with the 1998 Off Broadway premiere of This Is Our Youth and, two years later, the film You Can Count On Me; and Gretchen Mol, who appeared in 2016’s Manchester By The Sea.

A benefit for Los Angeles’ Stella Adler Academy – Ruffalo’s alma mater – Hold On To Me Darling will...

Mark Ruffalo has a clear recollection of the first time he walked into the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in Los Angeles.

“I was living in San Diego and basically just surfing and smoking weed and going nowhere really fast,” Ruffalo tells Variety. “Someone told me I should go study there so out of my desperation and my secret of wanting to be an actor, I took the train up there for an interview with my teacher Joanne Linville.”

He was excited, but also very nervous. He looked around at the photos on the walls of Adler from her various theater work. “Here I am, this kid from Kenosha, Wis., who was dyslexic, could barely read, I barely got through high school and I went in and I talked to Joanne,” Ruffalo says. “She interviewed me for like 10 minutes. She was like, ‘You belong here, darling.’ I never had anyone tell me I belong somewhere.

After an explosive teaser trailer during Sunday Night Football in which Aaron Sorkin declared “the whole world is watching,” Netflix has released a more sentimental and fuller look at the drama of “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” one in which Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman explains what he’s willing to give to keep the revolution going.

“How much is this worth to you, what’s your price,” a reporter asks Hoffman in the trailer. “To call off the revolution? My life,” he replies.

Press also got their first look at “The Trial of the Chicago 7” on Tuesday, as the film figures to be a big Oscar player for Netflix. You would hope so after it boasts a cast that includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, Jeremy Strong, Noah Robbins, Danny Flaherty, Ben Shenkman,...

Following up his directorial debut Molly’s Game, Aaron Sorkin is returning to the director’s chair with his long-gestating follow-up, The Trial of the Chicago 7. Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, and Jeremy Strong, the film depicts a peaceful protest turned violent clash at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and the intense trial that followed.

Once set to be a theatrical release from Paramount, they sold it to Netflix amidst the pandemic and now ahead of an October release, the trailer has arrived. Also starring Noah Robbins, Danny Flahery, Ben Skenkman, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Caitlin Fitzgerald, Alice Kremelberg, John Doman, J.C. MacKenzie, Damien Young, Wayne Duvall, and C.J. Wilson, this first trailer sets the stage for an arena Sorkin knows well: the courtroom drama.

Check out the trailer and poster below.

The Trial of the Chicago 7...

With the election approaching and protests breaking out across America, Netflix has dropped the trailer for The Trial of the Chicago 7, out October 16th on the streaming platform.

The film, directed by Aaron Sorkin, details an anti-war protest, counter-culture at the 1968 Democratic National Convention that turned violent when the police and the National Guard stepped in. The organizers — who included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale — were charged with conspiracy to incite a riot, and what followed was one of the most bizarre trials in U.

The first teaser trailer and poster for Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” just premiered during “Sunday Night Football.” You can watch the video above and check out the poster below.

The 90-second spot gives viewers just a taste of the highly-anticipated film and features a crowd of protestors chanting “The whole world is watching” throughout.

The Trial Of The Chicago 7. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. In select theaters September and on @Netflix October 16. pic.twitter.com/Src0vamIBH

— The Trial of the Chicago 7 (@trialofchicago7) September 14, 2020

The latest film from writer/director Sorkin is based on the true story of a protest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Netflix plans to release the film globally later this year after acquiring it over the summer.

The movie comes from Cross Creek Pictures and is produced by Marc Platt, Stuart Besser, Matt Jackson and Tyler Thompson. The executive producers are Laurie MacDonald,...

After a storied, perhaps divisive career in screenwriting, Aaron Sorkin delivered in his directorial debut Molly’s Game a few years back and now he’s returning with his follow-up behind the camera, The Trial of the Chicago 7. Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, and Jeremy Strong, the film depicts a peaceful protest turned violent clash at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and the intense trial that followed.

Once set to be a theatrical release from Paramount, they sold it to Netflix amidst the pandemic and now ahead of an October release, the first images have arrived. “We didn’t need it to get more relevant, but it did,” Sorkin tells Vanity Fair. “The polarization, the militarization of the police, the fear of Black activists, even the intramural battle between the left and the far left.

Netflix has set an October 16 streaming date for Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, its $56M global pickup from Cross Creek, in what looks to be the first of its 2020-21 awards season contenders.

Paramount, which first had distribution rights to the movie, was eyeing a fall platform release, initially with a limited debut of September 25, then an expansion on October 9 and a full wide release of October 16 — hence Netflix’s drop date keeps with what was originally planned for theatrical prior to this year’s U.S. presidential election.

Cross Creek still is co-producing the film with Netflix.

Directed and scripted by Oscar and Emmy winner Sorkin, the pic follows protest organizers Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which went from a peaceful protest to a violent clash with police and the National Guard. The foursome were charged...

Global release set for later this year on potential awards season heavyweight.

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7 and landed a potential awards season heavyweight in the process.

The streaming platform will release the all-star drama later this year after negotiating the deal with produces Cross Creek Pictures. Paramount had been set to distribute theatrically in the Us before its plans were scuppered by the pandemic. Netflix did not comment on a reported $56m price tag.

Marc Platt, Stuart Besser, Matt Jackson and Tyler Thompson are producing the story of the...

Netflix has acquired the multimillion-dollar worldwide rights to “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” the latest film from writer and director Aaron Sorkin based on the true story of a protest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Paramount was previously the distributor on the film and was meant to release it theatrically in September before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Netflix now plans to release the film globally later this year after acquiring it for about $56 million, according to Deadline.

The movie comes from Cross Creek Pictures and is produced by Marc Platt, Stuart Besser, Matt Jackson and Tyler Thompson. The executive producers are Laurie MacDonald, Walter Parkes, Marc Butan, Anthony Katagas, James Rodenhouse, Nia Vazirani, Thorsten Schumacher, Slava Vladimirov, Jared Underwood, Andrew Robinson, Jan Mcadoo, Maurice Fadida, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Shivani Rawat, Monica Levinson, Ryan Smith, Nicole Shipley, Steve Matzkin and Sarah Schroeder-Matzkin.

Also Read: Netflix in July: Here's Everything Coming and Going

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II,...

Back during his time hosting The Daily Show, Jon Stewart was among the smartest and most biting political satirists out there. Ever since he departed, Stewart’s voice has been missing from the day to day discourse. Now, for his sophomore feature as a filmmaker, he’s tackling a political satire with Irresistible. More mainstream, at least on the surface, than his directorial debut, Rosewater, this is a sneakily effective delivery system for his beliefs. Initially seeming like a broad comedy, Stewart has a subversive streak just beneath the surface, waiting to be sprung on viewers. Hitting VOD services this week, Stewart is about to make his voice heard once again. The film is a political comedy and satire, looking at how the most extreme versions of politics can seep into even a very small town. In the aftermath of the 2016 election, Democrats are looking for a new strategy, and...

Jon Stewart and Steve Carell are back together for Focus Features’ “Irresistible,” and the mini-“Daily Show” reunion might just be as the title suggests.

Stewart wrote, directed and produced the upcoming movie, which stars Carell as a Democratic political consultant who helps a retired ex-Marine colonel (Chris Cooper) run for mayor in a small Wisconsin town. In the process, Carell will have to contend with cows in addition to the other bull that comes with local politics.

The comedy also stars Rose Byrne as Carell’s Republican counterpart and face-licking rival, as well as Topher Grace, Natasha Lyonne, Mackenzie Davis, C.J. Wilson and Will Sasso. Those other five don’t do any face-licking, as far as we can tell.

Also Read: 'Morning Show' Producer Says 'No Update' on Steve Carell Returning for Season 2, But They're 'Exploring' It

Watch the movie’s trailer in the video above. Budweiser is a twist-off,...

You guys, this trailer for Olivia Wilde’s new movie A Vigilante is here, and it is freaking amazing. This is pretty much my dream, to be a badass vigilante that takes out abusive men on a power trip, giving them a taste of their own medicine, a la Evelyn Couch from Fried Green Tomatoes when she channels Towanda and says, “…And after I wipe out all the punks of this world, I’ll take on the wifebeaters, like Frank Bennett, and machine gun their genitals. Towanda on the Rampage!” Not that I’ve thought much on the subject… but I digress.

Wilde plays the character Sadie, “who has decided to devote herself to removing domestic abusers, using specific methods to obscure her identity and guarantee they won't return to bother their victims ever again.” The cast also includes Morgan Spector, Tonye Patano, Kyle Catlett, and C.J. Wilson. The film...

A Vigilante Trailer Sarah Daggar-Nickson‘s A Vigilante (2018) movie trailer stars Olivia Wilde, Morgan Spector, C.J. Wilson, Kyle Catlett, and Judy Marte. A Vigilante‘s plot synopsis: “A woman once in an abusive marriage frees women from their captors, while hunting for her abuser. Upon receiving a code word, Sadie uses [...]

Continue reading: A Vigilante (2018) Movie Trailer: Olivia Wilde Hunts Down Abusive Husbands to Free Women in Need...

"You start to feel like there's no escape." Saban Films has debuted the first trailer for an indie dramatic thriller titled A Vigilante, the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Sarah Daggar-Nickson. This first premiered at the SXSW Film Festival last year to some strong reviews, and has been playing at smaller fests, arriving in Us theaters this March. Olivia Wilde stars as a woman who has decided to devote herself to removing domestic abusers, using specific methods to obscure her identity and guarantee they won't return to bother their victims ever again. The cast includes Morgan Spector, Kyle Catlett, C.J. Wilson, and Tonye Patano. This is definitely a provocative, and maybe controversial film (depending on your views), where violence is being used for good - but this is what makes it an interesting film worthy of your attention. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Sarah Daggar-Nickson's A Vigilante, form...

Olivia Wilde’s “A Vigilante” has sold to Saban Films, along with DirecTV, at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Sarah Daggar-Nickson wrote and directed the crime drama. “A Vigilante” follows a once abused woman, Sadie (Wilde), who devotes herself to ridding victims of their domestic abusers. Morgan Spector, Kyle Catlett, C.J. Wilson, Tonye Patano, Chuck Cooper, Betsy Aidem, Judy Marte also star.

The film first premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March, and was nominated for a SXSW Gamechanger Award.

Also Read: Netflix Acquires Genevieve Nnaji's 'Lionheart' in Worldwide Deal

“Olivia plays a badass vigilante which is refreshing and relevant while also shining a much-deserved light on domestic abuse,” Saban Films CEO Bill Bromiley said in a statement. “This role shows a side of Olivia that we haven’t seen before and audiences will love.”

“A Vigilante” will be released theatrically by Saban in the first...

Saban Films has teamed with DirecTV to acquire North American rights to Sarah Daggar-Nickson’s A Vigilante at the Toronto International Film Festival. Olivia Wilde stars in the dramatic thriller that made its world premiere at SXSW.

Written and directed by Daggar-Nickson, A Vigilante centers on a once-abused woman who devotes herself to ridding victims of their domestic abusers. Morgan Spector, Kyle Catlett, C.J. Wilson and Tonye Patano round out the cast.

Saban is planning an awards-qualifying run in late 2018. DirecTV will give it a one-month exclusive window on its platform. And then Saban will give A Vigilante a theatrical release ...

Saban Films has teamed with DirecTV to acquire North American rights to Sarah Daggar-Nickson’s A Vigilante at the Toronto International Film Festival. Olivia Wilde stars in the dramatic thriller that made its world premiere at SXSW.

Written and directed by Daggar-Nickson, A Vigilante centers on a once-abused woman who devotes herself to ridding victims of their domestic abusers. Morgan Spector, Kyle Catlett, C.J. Wilson and Tonye Patano round out the cast.

Saban is planning an awards-qualifying run in late 2018. DirecTV will give it a one-month exclusive window on its platform. And then Saban will give A Vigilante a theatrical release ...

Kenneth Lonergan was the latest in the line of celebrities to receive an immortalizing caricature that will grace the walls of the iconic Broadwayrestaurant Sardi's. Also in attendance were Gretchen Mol, Winona Ryder, Matthew Broderick, Tavi Gevinson, J Smith Cameron, Kenneth Lonergan, Cj Wilson, Josh Hamilton, Michael Cera, andLily Thorne.BroadwayWorld was there for the event, check out the photos below...

Manchester by the Sea

Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD

Lionsgate

2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date February 21, 2017 / 39.99

Starring – Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Liam McNeill, C.J. Wilson, Gretchen Mol, Michelle Williams, Matthew Broderick.

Cinematography – Jody Lee Lipes

Film Editor – Jennifer Lame

Original Music – Lesley Barber

Produced by Lauren Beck, Matt Damon, Chris Moore, Kimberly Steward

Written and Directed by Kenneth Lonergan

A major Oscar contender, Kenneth Longergan’s Manchester by the Sea is certainly sobering, yet is nowhere near as depressing as the initial word on the street would have had us believe. We all know of tragedies that happen all the time, things that we go to sleep at night praying won’t happen to us. Bad things happen to people and not all of it is their own fault — accidents, weather-related calamities, sudden catastrophic health issues. The rule of positive thinking tells us to continue onward like herd animals,...

If writer-director Kenneth Lonergan faced an uphill battle with Margaret, his second directorial effort that was hamstrung by editorial and legal issues early on in development, Manchester By the Sea heralds a welcome change in fortunes.

Buoyed by stellar reviews at Tiff and Sundance, Lonergan’s third feature film has sparked awards chatter across the board, with critics showering praise on Casey Affleck’s once-in-a-lifetime performance as Lee, a man haunted by the sudden and devastating death of his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler). Upon returning to his hometown of North Shore, a quaint place he left many moons ago, Affleck’s fragile lead encounters his distant nephew (Lucas Hedges), before reluctantly agreeing to stand as his newfound guardian.

Also starring Michelle Williams as Joe’s estranged ex-wife, Manchester By the Sea has all the makings of a powerful, moving drama about the ways in which we deal with loss. Even in the sombre trailer above,...

Casey Affleck is being honored at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival for his fantastic performance in Kenneth Lonergan's "Manchester by the Sea!" I sat down with Affleck and his co-star, Michelle Williams, for the movie at the Toronto International Film Festival. Take a look at my interview:

And here's the full press release from the Palm Springs International Film Festival:

Palm Springs, CA (November 11, 2016) . The 28th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff) will present Casey Affleck with the Desert Palm Achievement Casey AffleckAward, Actor at its annual Film Awards Gala for his performance in Manchester By the Sea. Each year the festival selects an actor and actress to receive this award. The Film AwardsGala, hosted by Mary Hart, will be held Monday, January 2 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The Festival runs January 2-16.

.Casey Affleck delivers his finest performance in Manchester By the Sea, playing...

Right at the top, I’ll put this out there…Manchester by the Sea is one of my absolute favorite films of the year. This week, audiences will finally understand what my colleagues at the Sundance Film Festival first went over the moon for. From Park City to the Telluride Film Festival to the New York Film Festival, Kenneth Lonergan’s latest has been amassing admirers. It’s well founded love too, as this is just a stupendously great and moving motion picture. Without question, it’s one of 2016’s very best and a surefire Oscar contender. Even if the Academy wasn’t likely to fawn over it, it would be a must see. Being a potential frontrunner in at least one category is just a happy bonus. The movie, at its most simple, is the story of an uncle called upon to care for his teenaged nephew when his brother/the boy’s father,...

Manchester By The Sea Amazon Studios/Roadside Attractions Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B+ Director: Kenneth Lonergan Written by: Kenneth Lonergan Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler, Gretchen Mol, C.J. Wilson Screened at: Dolby24, NYC, 10/13/16 Opens: November 18, 2016 Grand opera and soap opera both thrive on melodrama, but you don’t go to grand opera for the sometimes absurd, melodramatic plots, and you don’t consider soap opera anything but a contrived, artificial look at life. Nuance is the key to a solid story. When a tale can be looked on as authentic, as reflecting real life, there’s nothing wrong with melodrama. Such is the case for [ Read More ]

The post Manchester By The Sea Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

New York Film Festival Director Kent Jones with Manchester By The Sea director/writer Kenneth Lonergan Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The time structure of Manchester By The Sea, starring Casey Affleck with Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler, Michelle Williams, Gretchen Mol, C.J. Wilson, and Lonergan's You Can Count On Me star Matthew Broderick, is less concerned with flashbacks than with braiding the past into the present.

Affleck, in a truly magnificent performance, lets us feel the two lives of Lee Chandler, before and after his world plummets from one state of being into another. Upon the untimely death of his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler), Lee returns to Manchester-by-the-Sea and learns that he has been named sole guardian of his 16-year-old nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges).

Kyle Chandler and Casey Affleck as Joe and Lee Chandler

Kenneth Lonergan's tuneful, stirring, and often very funny dialogue and the great performances are also aided by...

I think it’s pretty hard to argue that Jake Gyllenhaal isn’t among the absolute top tier of actors in Hollywood right now. For the last few years, he’s been delivering one tremendous performance after the other. He hasn’t yet connected with the Academy on that second Oscar nomination so far, but was close with Nightcrawler for sure. This week, he has another strong performance to submit for consideration in Demolition, a quirkier movie than usual for him, but a fascinating one, to say the least. It has received mixed reviews so far, but I’m quite fond of it, and actually would list it as one of my favorite films of the year. With the release upon us, I felt it was only appropriate to discuss the flick a bit. The film is a quirky dramedy centering around how we deal with grief. Davis (Gyllenhaal) is...

The tagline for Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea should be: Just walk in the theater, start crying, and never stop. The writer-director’s latest is a simple, well-told story of a man who cannot shake his past. There isn’t a ton of plot — the movie is easily summarized as: a man returns to his hometown after his brother dies and is confronted by memories of his past. But there is a great script, lovely cinematography, great direction, and a slew of richly-drawn characters, with performances that do them justice.

Casey Affleck plays Lee Chandler (“The Lee Chandler?” people in the town of Manchester by the Sea are always asking before we know why he’s notorious), a man who really does not have it together. He lives alone in a one room basement apartment, does not relate to other people well, and is violent and volatile. Then...

"The persistence of grief and the hope of redemption are themes as timeless as dramaturgy itself," begins Variety's Justin Chang, "but rarely do they summon forth the kind of extraordinary swirl of love, anger, tenderness and brittle humor that is Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan’s beautifully textured, richly enveloping drama about how a death in the family forces a small-town New Englander to confront a past tragedy anew." We're gathering reviews of Lonergan’s followup to You Can Count on Me and Margaret starring Casey Affleck, Michele Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, C.J. Wilson, Heather Burns, Tate Donovan, Josh Hamilton, Anna Baryshnikov, Matthew Broderick and Gretchen Mol. » - David Hudson...

"The persistence of grief and the hope of redemption are themes as timeless as dramaturgy itself," begins Variety's Justin Chang, "but rarely do they summon forth the kind of extraordinary swirl of love, anger, tenderness and brittle humor that is Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan’s beautifully textured, richly enveloping drama about how a death in the family forces a small-town New Englander to confront a past tragedy anew." We're gathering reviews of Lonergan’s followup to You Can Count on Me and Margaret starring Casey Affleck, Michele Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, C.J. Wilson, Heather Burns, Tate Donovan, Josh Hamilton, Anna Baryshnikov, Matthew Broderick and Gretchen Mol. » - David Hudson...

Read More: Gawker Media's Jalopnik Film Festival is Accepting Submissions (and Volvo Wants to Help You Make a Car Film)  The Jalopnik Film Festival, now in its third year, is motoring west to Los Angeles for the weekend of September 25-26.  The festival, devoted to all-things automobile, will feature a full day of documentary and narrative films at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Titles slated for screening include Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt's "Havana Motor Club," Adam Carolla's "Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman" and "Steve McQueen: The Man and Le Mans." John Frankenheimer's "Ronin" and George Miller's original "Mad Max" will also be getting the big screen treatment.  The festival will include a reader-submitted short film competition, judged by Carolla, L.A. Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson, filmmaker Jeff Zwart and TV personality Spike Feresten.  Read More: Here Are All the Movies Opening Today, May 22;...

Giants owner Steve Tisch is putting a ton of trust in his players, because he says the team will Not ban them from using fireworks ... despite Jason Pierre-Paul's gruesome injury. Tisch was out in Bev Hills when we asked him if they've considered adding fireworks to the list of high risk activities they don't want players doing in the off-season. Remember, Tisch's star De mangled his right hand in a 4th of July accident...