“Michael Shannon” they said, and I was in. That’s all it took to get my butt in the seat for Midnight Special; I didn’t know any more than that,and didn’t feel I needed to.
I’m not sure I could tell you more than that, even if I wanted to. And I’m not sure you’d believe me anyway.
The plot to Midnight Special unfolds itself slowly. You get dumped into the action fairly quickly, but you don’t know why. Where are we going? What’s happening? You’re in a car with Roy (Shannon), a little boy named Alton, and a man we’re not sure about named Lucas (Joel Edgerton). Everyone’s edgy. It’s clear we’re trying to get away, and in a hurry. Are we being pursued?
There’s a weird church, a culty church, where the parishioners, especially the women in their long out-of-date dresses and braided hairstyles, remind you of a polygamist mormom compound. They call it The Ranch. They worship at night, reciting words you don’t remember from any bible. The Ranch is looking for Alton. Alton has been kidnapped.
Meanwhile, back in that frantic car, Alton is beginning to struggle. Lucas doesn’t know 
what the hell is going on, but Roy seems more familiar. Is he Alton’s father? But do relationships even matter when the boy in question seems to be…displaying certain super powers?
The minute Adam Driver appears on screen in crooked glasses, it’s no longer just a matter of a missing boy. The FBI and NSA are chasing him too, and not to return him to his home. The Ranch believe Alton to be their saviour. The government thinks he’s a weapon. Roy just thinks he’s his son.
Some of your questions will be answered, and some will not. There are a lot of mysteries revealing themselves along the way, and they add to the tension and the sense of urgency. 
I enjoyed the lack of clarity although I admit I wished some of it got wrapped up a little better. There’s a lot of information that gets thrown at us and not all of it has a “purpose.” But it’s so crazy well-acted that this feels like nit-picking. Michael Shannon seems determined, perhaps with divine meaning. Joel Edgerton’s character is more nuanced, and therefore more relatable. He’s clearly invested, but his motives are less certain. The kid, played by Jaeden Lieberher, is already familiar to audiences from the likes of Aloha and St. Vincent. He plays an intriguing mixture of vulnerable and other-wordly that keeps us guessing. This is one kid who’s not a weak link.
Director Jeff Nichols’ vision is ambitious and complex. It doesn’t end quite as satisfyingly as it begins, but it’s an adventure worth embarking upon and I hope that you will.
Katie Holmes attends the Women’s Filmmaker luncheon at Tribeca Film Festival – she’s in town promoting her first feature as a director, All We Had, in which she also stars as a mother struggling to make a better life for her daughter. The film co-stars Judy Greer, Luke Wilson, and Richard Kind.
and the Deep Blue Sea, a movie starring Jason Sudeikis as a grieving architect who befriends a homeless teen and builds a raft to sail across the Atlantic. Co-stars Biel of course, and Maisie Williams, Mary Steenburgen, Paul Reiser. Timberlike is credited with the score, and the supervision of the soundtrack, which really makes me wonder why they look so startled
to have this photo taken. You got all gussied up, you must have known there would be a few cameras on hand, guys! Smile?
ated movie (but a dirty one -not kid friendly!) about two best friends, aspiring screenwriter Elliot and wannabe actor John, whose dreams are evaporating as they approach their 30th birthdays. Desperation is lurking, but there’s more than one way to be famous, right? Features the voices of Paul Rudd, Mike Judge, Patton Oswalt, Hannibal Buress. “It’s not a preachy movie at all, but it is kind of
May-December romance.
to work with? Tom Cruise. Actually, Cruise both as a producer for his “hands-on approach” and for his willingness to be directed as an actor. That’s sounds a hell of a lot more humble than I’ve been giving Cruise credit for. Chris Rock also some great questions passed along by his brother Brian, but the one that caught the audience’s attention was this one: “Can you direct the Fantastic Four? They keep fucking it up!” But Abrams just laughed it off. He doesn’t know how serious we are.
vitality in their neighbourhood of lower Manhattan (Tribeca stands for the Triangle Below Canal St).
up to these events, and lots are eager to lend a hand. Martin Scorsese has curated a Best of New York series in the past, and this year Whoopi Goldberg is helming the animation lineup.
Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, and Anna Paquin are all pushing the History miniseries Roots, and TNT is launching a new drama based off the movie Animal Kingdom, starring Ellen Barkin. Tribeca will also be screening the finale of the show Six Feet Under, with Alan Ball there to provide commentary (this is THE MOST GUTTING television I’ve ever seen) and Julianna Margulies will be toasting The Good Wife’s finale. When the television’s that good, you know the movies are going to be incredible. And we’ll get to those.
storytellers series is. First night: Patti Smith being interviewed by Ethan Hawke. Next: JJ Abrams interviewed by Chris Rock. There are talks with Idina Menzel, Catherine Hardwicke, Tina Fey, Samantha Bee, Francis Ford Coppola, Jodie Foster & Julie Taymor, Alfonso Cuaron, Bahz Luhrmann, and more. It drives me crazy how good these are.
wazoo, but also some throwbacks worth seeing again and again (this year they’re recognizing the 40th (!) anniversary of Taxi Driver, and Scorsese, De Niro, and Foster will all be in attendance). Tribeca Film Festival runs April 14-24th, and Sean and I will only be there for the second half of it, which means we’re seeing only a tiny sliver of all the goodness available. I’m a sad panda about missing Abrams & Rock, but we arrive in time to see John Oliver take on Tom Hanks, and I think I can live with that!
It’s a desperate move made by people anxious to take back their neighbourhood.
McCarthy is, in fact, a tour de force, and “not afraid to be the butt of the joke” according to her speech (invaluable advice from her mother). She’s a frickin national treasure who keeps making very mediocre movies. What gives?
(and am thrilled that she’ll return for the reboot). But falling in love with her on Gilmore Girls means I like her at her bubbly, beautiful best, not as the slob who falls down stairs. And I tend to think that Paul Feig, and most of the film going public, agree with me. The gags and the prat falls are beneath her. We’re tired of such juvenile physical comedy. She’s already proven that she’s better than it, and capable of so much more.
I can’t tell you that The Boss is a great movie, because it’s not. It’s totally uneven. But the thing about “uneven” is that it’s not universally bad either. In fact, it gave me the giggles (Her opening number? A delight. She had me at T-Pain). But then she’d get launched across the room again, her face splat against some unforgiving surface, and I’d be shaking my head again.
I got it. The Boss is unsatisfying, leaving me doubly impatient for this summer’s Ghostbusters reboot – luckily, with Paul Feig at the helm. I have every confidence that she’s going to deliver exactly what I’m hoping for, and here’s why. The big, brash McCarthy character? It’s being played by Leslie Jones. Melissa taking on a straighter character, and I bet that will suit me just fine.
new drug dealers, and doctors the pushers. Pharmaceutical companies are more profitable than any other kind. They make HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars, people get hooked, people die, and nobody ever goes to prison for it.
“business” of selling drugs, and the people who come to see them are customers, not patients.
hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine. Pain relief, cough suppressant, anti-anxiety, sedative. His doctors were questioned but not charged. Mary Kate Olsen was found to be “not a viable target” in an investigation. We don’t know how he got the drugs, only that he took them, in excess, and he died too soon, leaving behind a very young daughter who will never know her father.
Watch it, and let us know what you think. Does Beymer make a good Tony, or would Elvis Presley (the director’s first choice) have done better? And how will Captain America fill the role?
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 