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Matt Smith feels like a mess of contradictions. He often comes across as charming and even a little bit goofy, but can also imbue his work with a surprising amount of menace. He's excellent at picking television series to work on, but has appeared in bomb after bomb on the big screen. So what can we make of this actor who seems to be made up of so many different parts?

An aspiring football player, Smith made the switch the acting after an injury sidelined his athletic career. After a string of small roles on television, he landed what would become his big break playing the Doctor on "Doctor Who." Since then, he's taken on a variety of different roles, sometimes the hero and sometimes the villain (and often somewhere in between), appearing in both film and television. And although we're all painfully aware of some of his worst films,...

Perhaps the most interesting fact about Adam Brooks’s Netflix release “The Life List” (2025) is that it was based on a novel. That novel—Lori Nelson Spielman’s 2013 bestseller—was translated into 27 languages across 30 countries, a level of international success that makes the film’s lifeless adaptation even more baffling. A minor character in the movie quips, “There are facts, and then there’s what’s true,” but the truth here is that this narrative is so superficial and weirdly tedious that it never makes for compelling viewing.

The film opens with Alex, the privileged daughter of a wealthy woman dying of cancer, who abandons her passion to take up a role in her mother’s company. After her mother’s death, Alex is stunned to learn that she has been fired and temporarily cut off from her inheritance. The catch? She can only claim what’s hers once she...

With smarter streamlining, “The Life List” could’ve been impactful. As is, the two-hour-plus Netflix original suffers by attempting to blend two predictable storylines into one: a reductive romantic search for The One crammed in alongside a drama about a directionless woman encouraged by her dead mother to rediscover her joie de vivre in order to claim her inheritance. Not only does its narrative momentum stall all too frequently, but our heroine’s completion quests lack the basics to deliver rousing feelings. Worse still, it’s frustratingly more concerned with telling us how she’s financially able to afford having a delayed quarter-life identity crisis in New York City than it is with giving her journey toward enlightenment any genuine, satiating sense of internal transformation.

Droll Alex (Sofia Carson) is stuck in her life, only she doesn’t realize it. She bides her free time in an unglamourous city loft apartment with her longterm,...

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Good Girls is a dark comedy crime drama series created by Jenna Bans. The NBC series follows three suburban mothers going through financial hardships. They soon decide to rob a supermarket, which completely turns their lives upside down as it leads to them getting involved with a dangerous crime boss and the FBI. Good Girls stars Christina Hendricks, Retta, Mae Whitman, Reno Wilson, Manny Montana, Lidya Jewett, Isaiah Stannard, and Matthew Lillard. So, if you loved the biting dark comedy, intense dark comedy, and compelling characters in Good Girls, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

The Sticky (Prime Video) Credit – Amazon MGM Studios

The Sticky is a dark comedy crime thriller drama series created by Brian Donovan and Ed Herro. Based on the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, the Prime Video series follows Ruth Landry,...

Here’s All We Know About Sofia Carson’s The Life List (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Years may come and go, but rom-coms will always be what the audiences truly want. The Life List is the next romantic comedy released by Netflix, and the film stars Sofia Carson as the main lead. Here’s what we know about the upcoming film, including its release date, cast details, and more!

The Life List: Release Date & Cast Details

The Life List will be released on Netflix on March 28, 2025. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Lori Nelson Spielman. As for the film’s cast, Sofia Carson stars as Alex Rose, Kyle Allen plays Brad, Sebastian de Souza is Garrett, and Connie Britton essays Elizabeth.

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José Zúñiga portrays Samuel, Jordi Mollà is Johnny, Marianne Rendón plays Zoe,...

Sofia Carson in The Life List – Picture: Netflix

In March 2024, Netflix confirmed The Life List, a new romantic comedy starring Sofia Carson. The movie is due out on Netflix soon, so we’re here with everything known about it, including the full cast, production updates, plot details, and more on its release date, which is now set for March 28th.

Adam Brooks is on board to both write and direct the project. The Canadian screenwriter and director is no stranger to the romantic comedy space, having written or directed (or both) titles like Definitely, Maybe, and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, plus the Netflix Original movie Nappily Ever After, released in 2018.

This isn’t the first time The Lift List has been attempted to be brought to the big screen. Ahead of the book’s release in 2013, Fox 2000 optioned the film rights for the novel, with Hutch Parker set to produce.

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2024 is almost over, and it was a pretty good year for Netflix and its subscribers because of all the marvelous content we got. In my opinion, it is nothing compared to what Netflix has in store for us for 2025, as some of the most highly-anticipated Netflix original movies will come out in the upcoming year. So, let’s find out which Netflix original movies you should look out for in 2025.

Back in Action (January 17) Credit – Netflix

Back in Action is an upcoming action comedy film directed by Seth Gordon, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Brendan O’Brien. The Netflix film follows ex-CIA spies Emily and Matt, who are reluctantly brought back into the action after their real identities are exposed. Back in Action stars Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx in the lead roles with Glenn Close, Kyle Chandler,...

Trans actor Leo is struggling to find his footing in New York. Between endless auditions and an unfulfilling relationship, his days blend together in a haze of uncertainty. But when Eleanor—Leo’s boisterous best friend from college—shows up unannounced, she sweeps him away on a spontaneous trip to the countryside. There, surrounded by rolling green hills and sheltering woods, they hope to rediscover the close bond that time and life changes have threatened.

Arriving at a picturesque lakeside cabin, Eleanor jumps right back into their playful dynamic. For Leo, though, navigating this reunion proves complicated. Gradually asserting his queer identity has necessarily altered their friendship’s dynamic. And glimpses of Eleanor’s own instability hint that her carefree facade may veil deeper agonies.

Noah Schamus’ intimate debut subtlety explores these intimate tensions. Shot on a shoestring budget, Summer Solstice prioritizes nuanced performances over cinematic flourishes. Bobby Salvör Menuez...

Marianne Rendón’s performance in Summer Solstice, Noah Schamus’ “modern twist on the buddy comedy from a queer and trans perspective,” is special in such a rare way that makes shinning a light on it actually detrimental to its effect on the new viewer. Its revelations are small and imbedded in the nuances of the character. It’s how they seem rooted and not created, “lived” and not “played,” that make them extraordinary. On this episode, Rendón takes us back to her training, and how being fed great experimental theater before the classics resulted in a kind of “reverse engineering” of her […]

The post “That’s What Lights Me Up the Most, This ‘Dance’ with the Writer”: Marianne Rendón, Back To One, Episode 304 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Marianne Rendón’s performance in Summer Solstice, Noah Schamus’ “modern twist on the buddy comedy from a queer and trans perspective,” is special in such a rare way that makes shinning a light on it actually detrimental to its effect on the new viewer. Its revelations are small and imbedded in the nuances of the character. It’s how they seem rooted and not created, “lived” and not “played,” that make them extraordinary. On this episode, Rendón takes us back to her training, and how being fed great experimental theater before the classics resulted in a kind of “reverse engineering” of her […]

The post “That’s What Lights Me Up the Most, This ‘Dance’ with the Writer”: Marianne Rendón, Back To One, Episode 304 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Noah Schamus, as many creatives did, used their time unemployed in the pandemic lockdown to write a feature. The result is the warm, wise, and unsentimental “Summer Solstice,” an Éric Rohmer-inspired tale of friendship about trans actor Leo (Bobbi Salvör Menuez) and the whirling dervish in a daffodil dress who lands back in his life, his long-ago and cisgender friend Eleanor (Marianne Rendón).

But beyond lessons learned in the pandemic or years before at Columbia film school during undergrad, “Summer Solstice” writer/director Schamus also learned a great deal from an unlikely source of inspiration: director Greta Gerwig. In 2019, Schamus cut their teeth on a major studio movie as a post-production assistant on “Little Women.”

It ”was incredible to just see the scope of what is possible for a filmmaker who comes from the indie space, from a mumblecore space, who then has stepped up into these sort of enormous and wonderful productions,...

It was an Inside Out specialty weekend, fairly quiet and with a stream of indies films and more wide releases. The schedule is starting to recover from a strike-induced slump that, however, provided oxygen to some indies.

Small films have been competing for screens with majors at arthouses from Alamo Drafthouse to Landmark since theaters reopened post-Covid and the more of them there are, the harder it is. It’s nice to see major back and the broader box office on a solid footing. But it would also be nice to see more indie breakouts like Civil War, Late Night With The Devil, Immaculate, Wicked Little Letters, One Life or Love Lies Bleeding.

“June is crowded” with indies now, says one distributor. And theaters “don’t have space to support indies in a meaningful way.”

Others are heartened by recent wide-release blowouts. “It’s still a tough market. But I...

The only thing more powerful than a first impression is a second one — at least, that’s the bet that “Summer Solstice,” a new anti-romantic comedy from Cartilage Films, makes on itself. Beginning with a character giving an impassioned monologue recounting his gender-affirming surgery, the speech quickly curdles into something pretty tacky, even including the line, “I went from a caterpillar to a butterfly.” But then another voice interrupts: “Okay, thanks. That’s enough.” This has all been in an audition room. And the audition is not going well.

“I had a family member come to a screening. And she said, ‘I was terrified in the first 30 seconds that this movie was going to be so awful,’” says writer-director Noah Schamus with a laugh.

The scene reorients to introduce Leo (Bobbi Salvör Menuez), a transgender man treading water in the ever-replenishing pool of auditioning New York actors. The performance drops and Leo returns to reality,...

Leo, a 20-something aspiring actor, is navigating a creative crisis in Summer Solstice, the feature debut from writer-director Noah Schamus. More aptly, Leo (Bobbi Salvör Menuez) is frustrated with the reductive and trite roles he is constantly up for, compounded by the reality that these seem to be the only gigs available to him as a trans actor. It appears that much-needed distraction arrives when Elenor (Marianne Rendón), his best friend from college, pays a visit to his NYC apartment on her way upstate for a house-sitting job. After convincing Leo to join her, the duo drive to the Hudson […]

The post “What It Means to be Constantly Coming of Age”: Writer/Director Noah Schamus on Summer Solstice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Leo, a 20-something aspiring actor, is navigating a creative crisis in Summer Solstice, the feature debut from writer-director Noah Schamus. More aptly, Leo (Bobbi Salvör Menuez) is frustrated with the reductive and trite roles he is constantly up for, compounded by the reality that these seem to be the only gigs available to him as a trans actor. It appears that much-needed distraction arrives when Elenor (Marianne Rendón), his best friend from college, pays a visit to his NYC apartment on her way upstate for a house-sitting job. After convincing Leo to join her, the duo drive to the Hudson […]

The post “What It Means to be Constantly Coming of Age”: Writer/Director Noah Schamus on Summer Solstice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Writer/director Noah Schamus takes us on a delightful but sharp-edged jaunt to Upstate New York with their sun-dappled and warmly directed buddy comedy, “Summer Solstice.” The film stars Bobbi Salvör Menuez as a trans actor tumbling through one dead-end audition after another, only to be jolted back to life by the sudden reappearance of a long-ago friend, the straight and cisgender Eleanor (Marianne Rendón). But Eleanor knew Leo before he began transitioning, a process Leo is still going through, much to his own social discomfort about revealing that. The unapologetically queer (and on all sides of the camera) “Summer Solstice” is wise and unsentimental in all the right places, even as its ending hits at a sweeter spot than the otherwise gently sardonic movie that comes before it.

“We’re looking for a transgender man or a transgender woman: Which one are you?” a tasteless casting director asks Leo...

Following a festival tour, Noah Schamus’ directorial debut Summer Solstice will, fittingly, be arriving this summer from Cartilage Films, the indie distributor of another stellar recent directorial debut, Free Time. A tale of a friendship with a queer and trans perspective, the film will open on June 14 at NYCs IFC Center, followed by a June 21 release on LA’s Laemmle Glendale. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has now arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Trans man Leo’s (Bobbi Salvör Menuez) life is a jumble of auditions, acting classes, barista jobs, and situationships, all of which he hopes will amount to more. Unexpectedly, Leo’s college best friend, cisgender and straight Eleanor (Marianne Rendón), calls Leo announcing that she’ll be driving through NYC, and offers to pick him up for an impromptu trip upstate. They embark on the weekend getaway, marking their first time spent together since Leo began transitioning.

"Still me, Eleanor. Definitely still me. Cartilage Films has revealed an official US trailer for an indie drama titled Summer Solstice, set for small art house summer opening in limited theaters this June. The film originally premiered at the 2023 Provincetown Film Festival, as well as the Deauville, Woodstock, and BFI Flare Film Festivals. Summer Solstice centers on Leo, a trans man, and Eleanor, his cisgender and straight friend from college, who embark on an impromptu weekend trip together going upsate. They uncover old secrets, new challenges, and find the answer to the age-old question: can bad sex and good friends mix? Maybe! Maybe not? Starring Bobbi Salvör Menuez as Leo and Marianne Rendón as Eleanor. One early review praises this as "a remarkable little movie about finding emotional maturity through honesty, most importantly with yourself." This looks like it features two lovely lead performances within a heartfelt story. // Continue Reading...

Cartilage Films has acquired worldwide rights to “Summer Solstice,” a new comedy that marks the feature debut of its writer and director Noah Schamus. The movie boasts an ensemble cast led by breakout performances from Bobbi Salvör Menuez (“Under the Silver Lake”) and Marianne Rendón (“Charlie Says”).

The producers are billing Schamus’s film as a modern twist on the buddy comedy, with this one told from a queer and trans perspective. It comes as filmmakers are offering fresh takes on queer stories.

“Summer Solstice” world premiered at Provincetown Film Festival and then went on to screen at New York’s LGBTQ+ film festival NewFest, with additional selections at Mill Valley Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival and Deauville American Film Festival. It will be released in theaters beginning June 14 in New York at the IFC Center with a national rollout to follow.

In “Summer Solstice,” trans man Leo’s (Bobbi...

The art world is a cutthroat and judgemental arena. You’re the cat’s pajamas one day, but you’re old news if you take too long to deliver your next masterpiece. Surrounded by snobbery, bitter wine, and diamond-encrusted vultures waiting to pick your talented bones clean, artists endure a lot to remain relevant, and some would even kill for the chance to keep their spot in the public eye. In today’s The Kill Room trailer, a hitman, his boss, and an art dealer concoct a money laundering scheme that accidentally turns an assassin into an overnight avant-garde sensation.

Nicol Paone directs from a script by Jonathan Jacobson, with Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Joe Manganiello leading the cast, with Maya Hawke, Mike Doyle, Debi Mazar, Matthew Maher, Marianne Rendón, Gionna Daddio, Jennifer Kim, Amy Keum, Brandon Curry, and more.

The Kill Room has the following synopsis: Patrice...

Where to Watch Powered by Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman reunite onscreen for the first time since Pulp Fiction in new film The Kill Room. Directed by Nicol Paone and written by Jonathan Jacobson, the film follows an assassin who gains notoriety in the art world. The official trailer has been released ahead of the film's upcoming release date, showcasing Jackson and Thurman in new and different roles.

A trailer for The Kill Room has been released, featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman reuniting onscreen for the first time since 1994's Pulp Fiction. Directed by Nicol Paone, the upcoming is written by Jonathan Jacobson and tells the story of an assassin who inadvertently becomes a sensation of the avant-garde art world after teaming up with an art dealer for a money-laundering scheme.

Ahead of The Kill Room's release date next month, the Rotten Tomatoes Indie YouTube channel...

Hollywood icons Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson reunite in upcoming comedy thriller "The Kill Room." The film follows an art dealer played by Thurman, who teams up with a hitman and his boss for a money laundering scheme that turns the hitman into an overnight sensation. "The Kill Room" marks the first time Thurman and Jackson have truly shared the screen together.

A Pulp Fiction reunion is underway as Hollywood icons Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson reunite in the newly released trailer for the upcoming comedy thriller, The Kill Room. Coming courtesy of Shout! Studios, The Kill Room also sees Thurman team up with her real-life daughter, Stranger Things star Maya Hawke, in this tale of money laundering, hitmen, and art. You can check out the trailer for The Kill Room below.

The Kill Room has been called “a dark comedic thriller” and follows an art dealer (Uma...

Cast announced includes Marianne Rendón from Mapplethorpe, Charlie Says.

Principal photography has wrapped in Costa Rica on Los Angeles-based goPOP Films’ supernatural drama Bellyache starring Marianne Rendón from Mapplethorpe and Charlie Says.

Van Ditthavong is directing from his screenplay set in present day about a grieving witch who escapes to a cabin alone to give birth.

The filmmakers also announced that besides Rendón the cast includes Ben Michael Brown (East New York), Christine Kellog-Darrin, and Alex MacNicoll.

Bellyache is being financed through private equity and goPOP Films. Producer Brennan O’Donnell has been based in Costa Rica for more than 20 years...

John Swab directs One Day as a Lion, starring Scott Caan and Marianne Rendon. With Frank Grillo and J.K. Simmons.

An American thriller, but with a mild, almost family-friendly aspect to it.

Movie Review

From other films by this director, we expected something much rougher after Little Dixie. Nothing like that, because One Day as a Lion gives us almost the same, but with a much softer tone, as if precisely the title was a kind of parody of what actually happens, which matters little.

A plot that is consciously lost in the setting. Swab wants, as in many of his other films, more to portray the atmosphere of Central America than to tell us a story that lasts. It entertains, it doesn’t overwhelm, it knows how to keep a leisurely pace and say what it wants: let’s not look for the story behind these almost puppet characters,...

Director John Swab has gathered a talented ensemble for his new action comedy One Day as a Lion, which was penned by its leading actor Scott Caan. Following in the footsteps of Tarantino classics and Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, the crime-filled film follows a hitman named Jackie Powers (played by Caan himself) who messes up a job and gets in even more trouble with his would-be target (played by Jk Simmons). One Day as a Lion kicks into high gear when he takes a bored waitress named Lola (Marianne Rendón) as his hostage, only to discover she may be just who he needs to free his kid from jail and get his own life together.

But first, they need to seek help from her hateful but glamorous mother Valerie (played by Virginia Madsen), who has plenty of money but doesn't wish to share it with her daughter. Madsen may...

Lionsgate's newest action comedy, One Day as a Lion, even has a bit of romance going for it. But the multifaceted film's real strength is the group of creatives who came together to make it happen. Directed by John Swab from a screenplay by Scott Caan, who stars in the project as well, One Day as a Lion follows Jackie Powers as he messes up a hit job in pursuit of a higher calling. Namely, he is ready to do what it takes to get his son out of jail, even if he holds a waitress hostage and makes mobsters mad in the process.

One Day as a Lion counts the Coen brothers films and Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66 among its many inspirations, and it's clear the tight-knight cast had fun paying homage to classics. In addition to Caan, One Day as a Lion stars Swab's frequent partner Frank Grillo as Pauly Russo,...

One Day as a Lion is a film that harkens back to a bygone era, recalling classics of the '70s and onwards. The crime drama follows a boxer-turned-hitman named Jackie Powers (Scott Caan) who is clearly in the wrong profession. When his latest job goes wildly awry, he embarks on an accidental adventure with a crafty waitress named Lola (Marianne Rendón) who just might have what it takes to turn his life around.

John Swab directed One Day as a Lion from a screenplay penned by Caan himself, which pays homage to the films of Quentin Tarantino as well as to Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66. It also stars Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, Oscar nominee Virginia Madsen, Taryn Manning, and longtime collaborator Frank Grillo as the dangerous yet hilarious Pauly Russo.

Related: 10 Best Lesser-Known Mob Films, According To Reddit

Screen Rant spoke to Swab about how he collaborated with...

"I'll find Jackie... This time you gotta whack him." Lionsgate has revealed an official trailer for an indie crime thriller titled One Day as a Lion, arriving to watch in early April (in theaters and on VOD). It's the latest collaboration between filmmaker John Swab and actor Frank Grillo, following Body Brokers, Ida Red, and Little Dixie before. Jackie Powers, played by Scott Caan, will stop at nothing to prevent his son from following him into a life of crime. With his mob employer in pursuit, a chance encounter at a roadside diner with a young woman charts a new path. The script is written by Scott Caan, who also stars in it. This crime comedy is a witty homage to Tarantino and the Coen Bros. Also featuring J.K. Simmons, Frank Grillo, Virginia Madsen, Marianne Rendón, George Carroll, and Billy Blair. The fun cast makes this look better than it should,...

The CW’s In the Dark — despite learning that Season 4 would be its farewell run just weeks ahead of the premiere — will give loyal fans a “satisfying” send-off, says series creator Corinne Kingsbury.

Over the drama series’ first three seasons, Murphy Mason (played by Perry Mattfeld) went from lazy receptionist to drunken vigilante detective, drug front proprietor and a woman-on-the-run. In Season 4 (now airing Mondays at 9/8c), Murphy has worked closely with her ex, Max (Casey Deidrick), best friend Felix (Morgan Krantz) and his sister Lesley (Marianne Rendón) to keep herself out of jail for her assorted crimes.

More from...

Murphy is a free woman with some conditions.

In an exciting turn of events on In The Dark Season 4 Episode 6, Murphy's circus of a trial led to Murphy striking a deal with Gene that puts her in more danger than ever.

But it's her chance to avenge Chloe and make some amends for her awful actions.

The entire trial was a hot mess, and they had a ball stretching the limits of credulity with many of the antics and things thrown into the mix.

In reality, there is no way on God's green earth Chelsea would've gotten away with saying everything she did on the stand instead of sticking to the nature of the case.

She couldn't want to accuse Murphy of killing Ben even though she knew her brother was an addict, throw Felix under the bus and accuse him of witness tampering despite her contacting him first, and...

Exclusive: Grindstone Entertainment Group has acquired North American rights to the crime drama One Day as a Lion, written by and starring Scott Caan (Hawaii Five-0), from Roxwell Films. The film currently in production in Oklahoma boasts a starry ensemble that also includes Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Frank Grillo (Captain America and Purge franchises), Michael Carmen Pitt (Boardwalk Empire), Marianne Rendón (Charlie Says), Taryn Manning (Orange Is the New Black) and Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen (Sideways).

One Day as a Lion finds Jackie Powers (Caan) down on his luck and desperate to save his son from juvenile delinquency, a fate he knows all too well. Jackie handles collections for Dom Lorenzo (Pitt) and mob outfit boss Pauly Russo (Grillo); not what he envisioned for his life. Failing to collect from local cowboy legend, Walter Boggs (Simmons), he finds himself on the run with waitress turned hostage, Lola...

"I would've been a painter, but the camera was invented." Samuel Goldwyn Films has released an official trailer for Mapplethorpe - Director's Cut, an updated version of the narrative feature Mapplethorpe, telling the story of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. This originally premiered in 2018, and opened in 2019, but it wasn't the cut that director Ondi Timoner preferred. Mapplethorpe is a renowned photographer who was also feted with a documentary a few years ago, titled Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures. This film is a look at the life of the gay photographer from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his untimely death from AIDS in 1989. Matt Smith stars as Robert, along with Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, Brandon Sklenar, McKinley Belcher III, & Mark Moses. This new "Director's Cut portrays a nuanced portrait of an artist at the height of his craft, along with the self-destructive impulses that threatened to undermine everything he prized.

It would be naive to think the production shutdowns persisting across Hollywood wouldn’t also affect the output of independent artists, and the 2021 Sundance lineup has borne that unfortunate reality out. This year’s virtual event remains an ambitious undertaking — one more in line with the festival’s adventurous, experimental roots than its current trend-setting, Oscar-baiting footprint — but there are fewer films, and yes, fewer series, too. In its fourth year featuring a section dedicated to serialized stories and indie TV pilots, Sundance 2021 has just four shows in its newly titled Indie Series lineup: “4 Feet High,” “Seeds of Deceit,” “These Days,” and “Would You Rather.” That’s exactly half the total in last year’s Indie Episodic program and in line with the 40 percent drop in overall festival offerings.

Other TV-friendly options are scattered throughout the festival’s 11 categories, including “Philly D.A.,” a docuseries on civil rights attorney Larry Krasner...

August’s horror and sci-fi home media releases are kicking off with an eclectic, but fantastic bunch, led by Arrow Video’s special edition release of Alice, Sweet Alice. Raro Video is resurrecting Lucio Fulci’s Touch of Death this week, and if you happened to miss them earlier this year, both The Curse of La Llorona and Charlie Says will be hitting both formats on Tuesday.

Other notable Blu-ray and DVD releases arriving on August 6th include Room For Rent, The Reflecting Skin, St. Agatha, Division 19, Xenophobia, and Pentagram.

Alice, Sweet Alice: Special Edition

A young Brooke Shields meets an untimely end in this religious-themed proto slasher par excellence from director Alfred Sole. On the day of her first communion, young Karen (Brooke Shields) is savagely murdered by an unknown assailant in a yellow rain mac and creepy translucent mask. But the nightmare is far from over - as...

Years after the shocking murders that made the name Charles Manson synonymous with pure evil, the three women who killed for him – Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon), and Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendón)—remain under the spell of the infamous cult leader.

Confined to an isolated cellblock in a California penitentiary, the trio seem destined to live out the rest of their lives under the delusion that their crimes were part of a cosmic plan—until empathetic graduate student Karlene Faith (Merritt Wever) is enlisted to rehabilitate them. Convinced the prisoners are not the inhuman monsters the world believes them to be, Karlene begins the arduous process of breaking down the psychological barriers erected by Manson. But are the women ready to confront the horror of what they did, including the fabled murder of actress and model Sharon Tate (Grace Van Dien)?

Boundary pushing auteur Mary Harron presents a...

Charles Manson was one of the most infamous cult leaders in history, largely due to his loyal followers. While Manson was associated with some of the most gruesome murders in Hollywood in the 1960s, it was actually his cult members who carried out most of the heinous acts. Often referred to as the Manson Family, the cult consisted of a group of hippies (mostly women) who believed in his plans to start a race war.

After helping Manson carry out multiple murders, including that of actress Sharon Tate - who was eight months pregnant at the time - Manson and a handful of his followers were eventually apprehended in October 1969. The group was initially given the death penalty, but when it was abolished in California in 1972, their sentences were altered to life in prison. Though the famous cult leader died on Nov. 19, 2017, many of the remaining members are still serving their life sentences.

Screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. Now in Theaters. This post was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad.

Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, arriving in July, isn’t the first Manson Family murders / Sharon Tate-related movie hitting theaters during the 50th anniversary year of those abominable crimes.

The first out was The Haunting of Sharon Tate starring Hillary Duff, which was largely dismissed as exploitative. The second, newly arrived in theaters, is Charlie Says (Sharon Tate, played by Grace van Dien, is a very minor character in the film). Tarantino’s film will feature Margot Robbie as the doomed actress. And still a fourth picture is coming, a biographical drama called Tate starring Kate Bosworth, though its focus will not be on the actress’s murder. This true crime story is quite obviously all the rage in Hollywood at the moment.

Whether or not...

2019 has been a very busy year so far for the horror genre, as we’ve been getting a ton of films coming out over the last few months, which can make it hard to keep up. Here’s a look at a trio of projects that I recently had the opportunity of viewing: Mary Harron’s Charlie Says, which arrives in theaters in Los Angeles today, writer/director A.T. White’s Starfish, and In Memory Of from filmmaker Eric Stanze.

Charlie Says: For Charlie Says, filmmaker Mary Harron explores the manipulative spell that the infamous Charles Manson (Matt Smith) cast over his followers, and in this case, three different women—Leslie Van Houten (Hannah Murray), Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendón), and Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon)—who were incarcerated for their involvement in the brutal killings that rocked Los Angeles (and the entire world) in 1969. The trio were incarcerated together, kept away from the general population,...

Everyone always focused on Charlie, the cult leader, the “Helter Skelter” Svengali, the failed musician who had to settle for becoming one of history’s most famous modern representations of human evil. People wrote about him, or they wrote about “the family” as a single unit — the spokes that emanated out from his hub of batshit craziness. Sure, names like Tex Watson and Squeaky Fromme became well-known among folks who viewed serial killers as true-crime celebrities. But whenever most folks talked about the followers that did his bidding, it was...

“Maybe these women are victims too.”

That’s the chin-scratcher at the forefront of Charlie Says, director Mary Harron and her American Psycho collaborator Guinevere Turner’s look into the Manson family – or rather, the women inside the Manson family. Uttered by Karlene Faith (played compassionately and marvelously by Merritt Wever), a grad student who works to revamp the psyches of three incarcerated girls who did their part in the notorious and savage Tate-labianca murders of 1969, the film uses her outsider perspective to form a tragic and empathetic narrative around the three and their ultimately abusive relationship with ringleader Charles Manson (Matt Smith).

The title refers to the trio’s go-to answer whenever Karlene gently questions their seemingly indestructible loyalty. As Leslie Van Houten (Hannah Murray), Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon), and Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendón) spout out some of the mis-truths implanted and endorsed by Manson, such as a race...

"Everything was to teach me something." That's what Linda Kasabian told Joan Didion, a confidante during her first few years after being arrested for helping Susan Atkins, Charles "Tex" Watson, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkel commit murder at the behest of Charles Manson. Didion, like any number of writers, was fascinated by the idea that something like the Manson Murders could just rip a hole in the fabric of time and space. California's crimes had been kept well-hidden from the rich and comfortable and suddenly Manson's snarling face was all over newspapers, and all because they didn't accept him as one of “them.” He wanted to be a singer so badly and no one would give him a record deal, so he sent his followers out to kill the producer Terry Melcher who refused to sign him. By that logic any one famous enough could be next if some...

Some months in advance of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” a film about the Manson murders, comes Mary Harron’s “Charlie Says,” a very strained attempt to understand the motivations of the women who killed for Charles Manson.

“Charlie Says” is based on a book by Karlene Faith, a teacher who started working with three of Manson’s “girls” three years after they were put in prison for murder. The title comes from the constant refrain of these brainwashed young women, who still believe outlandish things that Manson told them about becoming winged elves after a race war.

The sound design is atmospheric and subjective in the first scenes, where we see Leslie Van Houten showering after the stabbing of Leno and Rosemary Labianca, but this subjectivity is abandoned once the film takes us to the Spahn Ranch where Manson holds sway.

Also Read: 'The Haunting...

Matt Smith and Mary Harron's Charlie Says attempts to shift the focus of Charles Manson's mythology to the women he brainwashed.

Charles Manson is having a big year. Actually that moment occurred back in 1969, during a fateful summer he and his cult ended in mass murder. But with the grisly 50th anniversary upon us, we’re getting every sort of cinematic reworking from exploitative dreck like The Haunting of Sharon Tate to whatever the heck Quentin Tarantino is up to these days. Despite being a small, pathetic little monster desperate to act the big man, folks inexplicably can’t let Charlie go.

Charlie Says wisely avoids the cult of worship around Manson and even attempts to do the rare thing and change the often male gaze of the madman to a female one that’s studying the young women he brainwashed into murdering for him. The result attempts...

Matt Smith is taking on his most menacing role yet.

The Crown actor, 36, stars as Charles Manson in Charlie Says, which follows how Manson convinced his so-called family to commit gruesome murders — and what happened to the women afterwards.

The movie, set to hit theaters May 10, is directed by American Psycho‘s Mary Herron and also stars Chace Crawford, Marianne Rendón, Game of Thrones‘ Hannah Murray and Sosie Bacon (Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick’s 26-year-old daughter).

All the actors play the real-life members of Manson’s murderous clan. Manson died while serving life in prison in 2017 at 83.

Murray, Bacon...

Years after the shocking murders that made the name Charles Manson synonymous with pure evil, the three women who killed for him—Leslie Van Houten (Hannah Murray), Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon), and Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendón)—remain under the spell of the infamous cult leader (Matt Smith). Confined to an isolated cellblock in a California penitentiary, the trio seem destined to live out the rest of their lives under the delusion that their crimes were part of a cosmic plan—until empathetic graduate student Karlene Faith (Merritt Wever) is enlisted to rehabilitate them.

Convinced the prisoners are not the inhuman monsters the world believes them to be, Karlene begins the arduous process of breaking down the psychological barriers erected by Manson. But are the women ready to confront the horror of what they did?

Charlie Says premiered at the 2018 Venice Film Festival and will be released theatrically by IFC Films...

The first trailer has been released for the latest film about Charles Manson and the Manson Family called Charlie Says. Matt Smith takes on the role of Manson in the movie and as you’ll see, he seems to disappear in the role.

The film comes from director Mary Harron and screenwriter Guinevere Turner who worked together on the cult classic film American Psycho. They've reunited for this movie that tells the story of the three “Manson Family” women who were sentenced to death in Charles Manson’s infamous murder case.

Here’s the synopsis:

Years after the shocking murders that made the name Charles Manson synonymous with pure evil, three women who killed for him—Leslie Van Houten (Hannah Murray), Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon), and Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendón)—remain under the spell of the infamous cult leader (Matt Smith). Confined to an isolated cellblock in a California penitentiary,...

This summer will bring what we imagine is a fitting double feature with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Mary Harron’s Charlie Says, both exploring a Charles Manson-era Los Angeles. The latter, which will arrive first and captures the infamous cult leader seemingly with more breadth, has now released its first trailer.

Coming from the American Psycho duo of Harron and writer Guinevere Turner, the film stars Matt Smith as Manson, but it’s more specifically about the group of women who fell under his spell. Following a premiere at Venice Film Festival, IFC Films will release the film this May.

Also starring Hannah Murray, Sosie Bacon, Marianne Rendón, Chace Crawford, Suki Waterhouse, Kayli Carter, and Annabeth Gish, see the trailer below.

Years after the shocking murders that made the name Charles Manson synonymous with pure evil, the three women who killed for him...

IFC Films has released the first trailer to Charlie Says, the film which focuses on the females who fell prey to the manipulation of the infamous murderer and cult leader Charles Manson. American Psycho filmmaker Mary Harron directed the film, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival last year.

The Crown‘s Matt Smith plays Manson, starring alongside Emmy winner Merritt Wever, Hannah Murray, Sosie Bacon, Marianne Rendón, Chace Crawford, Suki Waterhouse, Kayli Carter, and Annabeth Gish.

The pic takes place years after the shocking murders that made the name Charles Manson synonymous with pure evil and centers on the three women who killed for him—Leslie Van Houten (Murray), Patricia Krenwinkel (Bacon), and Susan Atkins (Rendón). Confined to an isolated cellblock in a California penitentiary, the trio seems destined to live out the rest of their lives under the delusion that their crimes were part of a cosmic plan...

Since making “American Psycho,” which IndieWire recently named one of the 100 Best Movies Directed by Women, Mary Harron has been relatively elusive to indie film audiences. After making her feature debut with the sadly under-appreciated “I Shot Andy Warhol,” Harron made fewer movies but found success directing a robust slate of prestige television, most recently on Sarah Polley and Margaret Atwood’s “Alias Grace.” With “Charlie Says,” Harron returns to feature films for the first time since 2011 with a decidedly “American Psycho”-like tale, re-teaming with her screenwriter on that project, the great Guinevere Turner.

The official “Charlie Says” synopsis reads: “Years after the shocking murders that made the name Charles Manson synonymous with pure evil, the three women who killed for him — Leslie Van Houten (Hannah Murray), Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon), and Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendón) — remain under the spell of the infamous cult leader (Matt Smith). Confined to...

"We don't talk about our pasts. Our lives started when we met Charlie." IFC Films has released the trailer for Charlie Says, another new film about Hollywood killer Charles Manson. This is the latest film from acclaimed filmmaker Mary Harron, and it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year. The story focuses on three young women who were sentenced to death in the infamous Manson murder case; when the death penalty was lifted, their sentence became life imprisonment. A woman goes into the prison to teach them, and through her we witness their transformations as they face the reality of their horrific crimes - exploring how it all happened in flashbacks with "Charlie". Matt Smith stars as Manson, with Hannah Murray, Sosie Bacon, Marianne Rendón, Merritt Wever, Suki Waterhouse, Annabeth Gish, Grace Van Dien, and Chace Crawford. I'm not the biggest fan of this film, but it does cover...