Tribeca Festival 2021 review: ‘False Positive’ is horrifyingly twisted and now available on HULU.

FALSE POSITIVE

Lucy and Adrian find their dream fertility doctor in the illustrious Dr. Hindle. But after becoming pregnant, Lucy begins to notice something sinister behind Hindle’s charm, and she sets out to uncover the unsettling truth about him.

It took 8 months to get pregnant with my son. In the grand scheme for a lot of women, that isn’t long at all. Since I turned 35 in the first month of my pregnancy, it was deemed a “geriatric pregnancy.” That felt about as awesome as you might imagine. Growing a human being is stressful enough without the constant barrage of opinions. People telling you what you can and cannot eat, how you should parent, and what you should be feeling. It’s super fun. And by that, I mean it sucks, just in case you didn’t catch the heavy-handed sarcasm. Tribeca Festival 21 film FALSE POSITIVE takes all of that anxiety and cranks it to 11. Ilana Glazer and Justin Theroux play Lucy and Adrian, a couple that has a personal connection with a famed fertility doctor. From the moment Lucy gets a glimpse of her baby on the sonogram, she knows something is very, very wrong.

The script does a solid job setting the stage with the misogyny and gaslighting thrust upon pregnant women. While the internet can be their worst enemy (for the love of God, stay away from WebMD) a mother has instincts that she should never ignore. False Positive smartly plays upon those anxieties and adds highly macabre stakes. You’re not quite sure what is real. It’s intensely dark. Ilana Glazer is pitch-perfect at every turn. Cast her in every genre, right now. Justin Theroux is a fantastic foil. You feel the skin-crawling vibe he unleashes once the audience is placed in Lucy’s shoes. His straight man act makes him all the more unsettling. Dr. Hindle is played brilliantly by Pierce Brosnan. His charm and calmness are grossly offputting even through his perfect smile.

False Positive will hit differently for women with or without fertility issues. It will also have a unique reaction from genre fans. It’s a multifaceted feature from director John Lee, who also wrote the script with Ilana Glazer. While the finale is so batshit crazy it may make your head spin, I can attest that you will not be able to get the images out of your head. They are seared into my brain. I’m still shuddering a week later.

https://youtu.be/5WtWjH8GGqE

Hulu & A24 will release

FALSE POSITIVE

as a Hulu Original Film on

June 25, 2021

SXSW 2021 reviews: ‘Language Lessons’ translates universally, and ‘Violet’ silences the voices that haunt us.

LANGUAGE LESSONS

A Spanish teacher and her student develop an unexpected friendship.

Unique, shocking, insightful, complex, beautiful, these are a few words that describe one of the best films from this year’s SXSW virtual festival. Two strangers become connected through chance and a gift of Spanish lessons. Cariño and Adam communicate through zoom, voicemail, genuine human connection. Mark Duplass plays Adam. Unsurprising that he is completely natural and down to earth. You’re instantly enamored with his performance. Natalie Morales is charming and honest. She’s funny and relatable. Their chemistry is the stuff of movie magic.  I would love to see them paired up again and again. They completely work around the entire subject of Covid. This could be happening at any point in time and that’s nice to feel right now. Ultimately, this screenplay is about the human spirit without a filter. Written by Morales and Duplass, and directed by Morales, Language Lessons is profound and revealing. It will touch you in ways you won’t expect. If you are looking to understand a new language, consider help from this experts in B2B transcriptions.

 

VIOLET

A film development executive realizes that “guiding voice” inside her head has been lying to her about everything.

I don’t know if a film could be any more relatable to everyone. My husband used to point out how negatively I spoke about myself. Once I noticed the self-deprecating behavior, I started noticing my mother doing the same thing. It’s a learned behavior. One we permit to exist. Olivia Munn, who wowed me back in The Newsroom, represents so many of us. This issue is ageless, ingrained, suffocating. Her vulnerability and honesty shine and we’re better for it. Justin Theroux‘s voice acting is the dickheaded tone we all know too well. What a fantastic choice. The internal battle of never feeling like we’re enough is universal. In Violet, the visual juxtaposition of handwritten thoughts, like a right-brain/left-brain battle, and Theroux as “The Voice” is perfection. When you finally catch onto the overall picture, it’s really quite genius. It’s telegraphed without our knowledge early on. Writer-director Justine Bateman nails her feature debut. What a complex and carefully curated script. Women, in particular, are going to be locked into this film.

Get Ready for ‘The LEGO NINJAGO Movie’!

A new animated adventure in Warner Bros. Pictures’ LEGO® franchise, The LEGO NINJAGO Movie stars Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Olivia Munn, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Peña, Zach Woods, and the legendary Jackie Chan.

In this big-screen NINJAGO adventure, the battle for NINJAGO City calls to action young Master Builder Lloyd, aka the Green Ninja, along with his friends, who are all secret ninja warriors. Led by Master Wu, as wise-cracking as he is wise, they must defeat evil warlord Garmadon, The Worst Guy Ever, who also happens to be Lloyd’s dad. Pitting mech against mech and father against son, the epic showdown will test this fierce but undisciplined team of modern-day ninjas who must learn to check their egos and pull together to unleash their inner power of Spinjitzu.

Jackie Chan (Rush Hour) stars as Master Wu; Justin Theroux (Megamind 2) is Garmadon; Dave Franco (Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) plays Lloyd; and Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse) is Lloyd’s mom, Koko. Making up the secret ninja crew, Fred Armisen (“SNL”) voices Cole; Abbi Jacobson (Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) plays Nya; Kumail Nanjiani (Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates) is Jay; Michael Peña (Ant-Man) is Kai; and Zach Woods (“Silicon Valley”) voices Zane.

The LEGO NINJAGO Movie marks the feature film directorial debut of Charlie Bean (“Tron: Uprising”). The screenplay is by Hilary Winston & Bob Logan & Paul Fisher, story by Kevin Hageman & Dan Hageman and Hilary Winston & Bob Logan & Paul Fisher, based on LEGO Construction Toys.

The LEGO NINJAGO Movie is produced by Dan Lin, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Roy Lee, who previously collaborated on the worldwide box-office phenomenon The LEGO Movie, along with Maryann Garger (Flushed Away). Serving as executive producers are John Powers Middleton, Seth Graham.

The LEGO NINJAGO Movie opens September 22, 2017

Review: Emily Blunt tries to save ‘The Girl on the Train’

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In The Girl on the Train, the best-selling “thriller” from Paul Hawkins, Rachel watches a couple from the train on her commute into the city every day. One day, she notices the woman is embracing another man than her husband. The woman, Megan, disappears that night. This starts a series of events where Rachel inserts herself into the life of Megan and makes one bad decision after another. Just when you think she won’t go any lower, it gets worse. Was she responsible for Megan’s disappearance?

I tried. I really did. I had three separate friends who told me they LOVED the book and they couldn’t put it down. I was bored. I almost stopped reading halfway through but felt I should at least see it to the end to give it a fair shot. I was very interested to see if I would enjoy the film adaptation.

In the book, time is spent building up each character, but in a movie, that luxury does not exist. Shortcuts toward character-building for Rachel didn’t convey the cringe-worthy decisions she made over and over again. She is an alcoholic ex-wife who won’t stop harassing her ex-husband. She consistently makes inappropriate decisions that not only mess up her own life but interferes with those around her. Emily Blunt as Rachel in the movie worked, but it’s not the same character.

As for the other characters, there really wasn’t enough backstory to really get a good sense of it all. Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) is the new wife of Rachel’s ex-husband and looks terrible as a blonde. Her level of panic in response to Rachel is not underlined enough. To her, Rachel is the ex-wife who won’t stop calling, texting and seeing her husband and has a terrible propensity for violence.

Megan (Haley Bennett) in the book is mature but lost. She is competitive and strong, yet has an emotional weakness. Megan in the movie is immature and vies for any man’s attention. This interpretation bothered me the most. It’s too convenient.

The men? Oh, they are totally one dimensional. Neither brings anything to their characters. Justin Theroux is almost comical and Luke Evans doesn’t seem to know how to play his character.

Don’t worry about seeing this in the theater. Skip it and catch it on Netflix or HBO.

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Stiller and Wilson Officially Announce ‘Zoolander 2’ at Paris Fashion Week!

Zoolander 2 At The Paris Fashion Week

Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) walked the runway at the Valentino Women’s Collection Fall/Winter 2015-16 Fashion Show during Paris Fashion Week on March 10, 2015 in Paris, France to officially announce the start of production on Zoolander 2, which Paramount Pictures will release in theaters on February 12, 2016.

Both actors showed up in style as Stiller wore a custom Night Butterflies brocade suit with hand-embroidered overcoat and black Creeper shoes, while Wilson sported a Silk Continent print Pajama suit with Double Cashmere overcoat and Open sneakers.

The film, which will shoot in Rome from a script by Stiller co-wrote with director Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder). Supporting cast is said to include Will Ferrell, Penélope Cruz, Jonah Hill,  Cara Delevingne and Christine Taylor.

If you missed the show in real time or want to watch it again, you can do so at http://live.valentino.com

#Zoolander2

 http://facebook.com/ZoolanderMovie

Pictures from the event are included below:

Zoolander 2 At The Paris Fashion Week

Zoolander 2 At The Paris Fashion Week

Zoolander 2 At The Paris Fashion Week

Zoolander 2 At The Paris Fashion Week

Zoolander 2 At The Paris Fashion Week

Zoolander 2 At The Paris Fashion Week