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Film & Movies

Naomi Watts Pushed Her Body to the Limit for Grueling ‘Lakewood’ – Variety

By Brent Lang, Sep 14, 2021 6:54am PT

From article…

It was an acting challenge that Naomi Watts couldn’t pass up.

In “Lakewood,” the Oscar-nominated star of such grueling exercises in cinematic heroics as “The Impossible” and “King Kong,” spends the bulk of the movie running through the forest, struggling with spotty cellphone reception while trying to make her way to her teenage son’s school, which is under lockdown with an active shooter.

It’s Watts and Watts alone on-screen for much of the film’s 84-minute run time. Not since Tom Hardy had a psychological meltdown via speakerphone in “Locke” has an actor been so isolated and exposed.

“It scared the shit out of me, and that’s always an interesting thing,” Watts tells Variety the morning after “Lakewood” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“I feed off other actors. You rely on your cast. As an actor, you don’t want to be out there on your own. You want to be interacting and reacting. Even if you have a well planned out idea, you need someone to jolt you into another rhythm or another place.”

Source: Naomi Watts Pushed Her Body to the Limit for Grueling ‘Lakewood’ – Variety

Arts & Humanities, Film & Movies, Memories & History, Pleasures

‘Reminiscence’ Movie Depicts A Dystopian Future That’s Not Far Off : NPR

Scott Simon speaks with director Lisa Joy about her tech-noir movie “Reminiscence.” It’s set in a future Miami that’s besieged by heat and rising waters.

August 21, 20218:54 AM ET, Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday

Photo by charan sai on Pexels.com

From transcript:

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The film “Reminiscence” is set in a Miami of rising waters and scorching heat, where people have now flipped the clock to work at night and sleep by day. Nick, a war vet who’s now a private eye, uses a technology that floats people in a tank, so they can relive cherished memories.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “REMINISCENCE”)

HUGH JACKMAN: (As Nick Bannister) You’re going on a journey, a journey through memory. Your destination – a place and time you’ve been before. To reach it, all you have to do is follow my voice.

Source: ‘Reminiscence’ Movie Depicts A Dystopian Future That’s Not Far Off : NPR

Arts & Humanities, Film & Movies, Love & Relationships, Television, Travel

Roadrunner movie: The Anthony Bourdain documentary is no hagiography | SLATE

Roadrunner is a brilliant, sometimes troubling documentary about a brilliant, sometimes troubling man.

Footage of Anthony Bourdain from Roadrunner. CNN/Focus Features

By Dana Stevens, July 13, 202111:03 AM

Within seconds of the opening of Roadrunner, a new documentary from the Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom,Won’t You Be My Neighbor?), the writer, chef, and TV personality Anthony Bourdain is already talking about death.

Sitting at a table with an unseen companion, he says that he has no investment in what happens to his remains after he is gone, except insofar as it might provide “entertainment value” for his body to be, say, fed into a woodchipper and sprayed around the London department store Harrods at rush hour.

Given that Bourdain died by suicide in 2018 during the filming of an episode of his CNN show Parts Unknown in Alsace, France, this mordant joke takes on extra-gruesome meaning—and as a montage later on in the movie shows, it was far from the only time he cracked wise on camera about his own death.

In its mix of playful irreverence and punk-rock attitude, the put-me-in-a-woodchipper-at-Harrods line is pure Bourdain, an example of the way he could charm, seduce, shock, and amuse all at the same time.

Source: https://slate.com/culture/2021/07/roadrunner-anthony-bourdain-documentary-movie-asia-argento.html

Film & Movies, Memories & History

Independence Day Movie 25th Year Anniversary Retro Review | gizmodo

The 1996 Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum alien invasion film reveals new themes on its silver anniversary.

By Germain Lussier, Today 11:30AM

The sheer audacity of the spaceships.
Photo: Fox

It’s been 25 years since the first time I ever bought advanced tickets to see a movie.

I know this because that movie was Independence Day, and it opened 25 years ago this week. After seeing its unforgettable Super Bowl commercial, I immediately became obsessed with the movie and knew I had to see it as soon as possible.

So on July 2, 1996, I walked into the theater optimistic I was going to see something special and the film delivered. In the 25 years since that day, I’ve probably seen it 25 times. Not only has it become my go-to film to watch over the U.S. holiday weekend, anytime it’s on TV, I have to keep it on. It’s funny, exciting, massive, I loved it. I still do, mainly because watching it brings me back to being that geeky teenager seeing an amazing movie on its opening night.

Since July 2, 1996, that’s basically all Independence Day has been to me: an entertaining dose of nostalgia. But revisiting it last week in anticipation of its 25th anniversary I realized it’s so much more. It plays differently with a few decades of life experience under your belt and as much as I adored it in 1996, I may love it even more in 2021.

Source: Independence Day Movie 25th Year Anniversary Retro Review