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Bruce Springsteen’s “Jungleland” isn’t actually heard at any point in Max Winkler’s hardscrabble new boxing drama of the same name (even if the Boss still manages to carry most of the emotional payload in the film’s stirring final scene), but simply referencing that epic song about the inescapable beauty of blue-collar life is enough to set the tone. This isn’t just a movie about the sort of hardscrabble Americans who dream themselves to death every day in this country, it’s also — at least to some extent — a swift and punchy Springsteenian meditation on the mythic nature of those dreams, and how they can harden into cliché if left dangling in the night air for too long.

“Jungleland” tells the story of two desperate people who can feel themselves sinking into stereotype, and a third who’s already there and couldn’t possibly care less...

For some, he will always be Pukey Nicholls, the troubled skinhead from Shane Meadows’ This Is England. For other equally early adopters across the pond, he’s James “Cookie Monster” Cook in the British teen show Skins. Maybe you discovered him in the intense prison drama Starred Up, standing toe to toe with Ben Mendelsohn, or first noticed him as the lead in Unbroken, Angelina Jolie’s biopic on lost-at-sea Olympian Louis Zamperini that was supposed to kick Jack O’Connell up the A-list. Oh, and the wounded outlaw in Netflix’s Western miniseries Godless?...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on November 5th, 2020, reviewing the new films “Let Him Go” (in theaters) and “Jungleland” (limited theaters and VOD).

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Let Him Go – George (Kevin Costner), is a retired lawman living with his wife Margaret (Diane Lane) on their Montana horse ranch in the 1960s. Their young adult son had recently died, and his wife (Kayli Carter) remarries and takes their only grandson out of town without telling them. When George and Margaret track down their ex-daughter in law, their grandson’s new family won’t allow them in without a fight. Screenplay adapted and directed by Thomas Bezucha. 4/5 stars.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Jungleland – Charlie Hunnam is Stanley Kaminski, who manages his brother Lion (Jack O’Connell), a prodigious bare knuckle fighter. Stanley has screwed everything up along the way, but a mobster named Pepper (Jonathan Majors) gives...

Director Max Winkler (who co-wrote with Theodore Bressman and David Branson Smith) opens his latest film Jungleland with a great reveal. We meet Stanley (Charlie Hunnam) as he wakes his younger brother Lion (Jack O’Connell) up, staring out the window with a huge grin on his face. He’s talking about the future and how it’s paved with gold. California is in sights, boxing stardom is in reach, and all they have to do is win this fight. So Lion gets out of bed, does some training, and readies to make their dreams come true with his fists. But instead of watching them exit their home, hotel room, or wherever, Winkler moves the camera outside a repossessed building’s door so the Kaminsky siblings can lower themselves out a window.

Lion isn’t therefore a professional fighter. He’s a once promising prospect now relegated to bare-knuckle tickets organized...

'Jungleland' trailer is out now and it packs a hell of a wallop.

Paramount Pictures has released the official trailer for the long-awaited bare-knuckle boxing drama 'Jungleland' which was filmed in and around Fall River.

The film stars Charlie Hunnam as Stanley, brother, and trainer of bare-knuckle boxer Lion (played by Jack O’Connell).

'Jungleland' follows the story of the two brothers struggling to stay relevant in the underground world of bare-knuckle boxing. The two travel across the country for one last high-stakes match that becomes a fight for their lives, along with an unexpected companion (Jessica Barden) after failing to pay back a dangerous crime boss (Jonathon Majors).

While Stanley trains Lion for the fight of his life, a series of unexpected events threaten to tear the brothers apart. However, their love for each other and belief in a better life keeps them going.

I hope you're prepared for an emotional gut-punch because Paramount Pictures just dropped a hard-hitting trailer for Jungleland, starring Charlie Hunnam and Jack O' Connell as two brothers forced to fight for their lives in the face of a high stakes deal gone wrong. Directed and co-written by Max Winkler, with Theodore B. Boseman and David Branson Smith, Jungleland is a…...

Exclusive: Paramount Pictures has acquired the home entertainment and TV licensing rights to three Romulus Entertainment features films: Dreamland starring Margot Robbie, the Charlie Hunnam and Jack O’Connell boxing movie Jungleland, and the Amber Heard-Jonathan Majors-Terrence Howard LA crime pic Gully.

All three movies will be released in select theaters by Vertical Entertainment in conjunction with their release on home entertainment platforms.

“We are delighted to bring these exceptional films to audiences around the world through a combination of home entertainment platforms and television licensing,” said Dan Cohen, President, ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group. “With top-notch casts and creative talent, these films offer gripping stories that will appeal to a wide array of viewers.”

“It’s an honor for our films to stand alongside the rich tradition of cinema that Paramount has put forth for over a century,” said Brad Feinstein, CEO of Romulus Entertainment. “These three...

Exclusive: The Max Winkler-directed drama Jungleland — which pairs Charlie Hunnam and Jack O’Connell in a drama about bare-knuckle boxing — is in the ring with Lionsgate on a deal for North American rights. Several distributors have been into this, but I’m told that Lionsgate is the frontrunner in talks to secure a movie that got strong reviews after it premiered at Toronto last fall.

Hunnam plays the manager and O’Connell plays his bare-knuckle boxer brother. They fall into heavy debt to a mobster and are given the chance to wipe the slate clean if they travel to San Francisco and compete in Jungleland — a bare knuckle boxing tournament. And, oh, yeah, they also have to drop off a teen girl at the doorstep of a feared mobster. Failing will mean death. Jessica Barden plays the teen and Jonathan Majors plays the mobster to whom they fall into debt.

The slate of Phyllis Nagy is getting a massive showing of support from some of the biggest names in film and television. More than 300 writers of all levels in the film and TV business, from up-and-comers to superstars, have signed an open letter endorsing Nagy, who is running for president of WGA West, as well as her slate of Craig Mazin, who’s running for vice president, and Nick Jones Jr., up for secretary-treasurer.

Those who have signed the letter include heavyweights Shonda Rhimes, Greg Berlanti, Ryan Murphy, Ava DuVernay, Dan Fogelman, Kenya Barris, Steve Levitan, Damien Chazelle, Courtney Kemp, Aaron Sorkin, David E. Kelley, Akiva Goldsman, Lena Waithe, Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Allan Heinberg, David Benioff, Db Weiss, Alex Kurtzman, Sarah Treem,, Darren Star, Nic Pizzolatto, Scott Frank, Eric Kripke and Alex Gibney.

The list also includes top showrunner John Wells, one of the most respected leaders in the...

There is a healthy variety of new movie packages at the American Film Market, which gets under way today in Santa Monica. As we noted in our preview, there are also some strong holdovers from recent markets (such as Eve and UglyDolls) and pre-existing projects which are being reconfigured with good new cast. Below is a selection of the hottest market debuts.

The depth of projects looks solid on paper. One aspect that isn’t so impressive: the ratio of female filmmakers. Only three of the 25 or so highlight projects below have women directors. A little like in Venice, while the number of female directors remains low there are at least a decent number of new projects with strong female characters and starring roles. These include Breaking News In Yuba County, Misbehaviour, Red Sonja, The Wind, and The Glorias. This is an improvement for a market (Afm) which has been...

Exclusive: David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment has boarded international sales rights to drama Jungleland, starring Jack O’Connell (Unbroken), Charlie Hunnam (Sons Of Anarchy), Jessica Barden (End Of The F***ing World) and Jonathan Majors (White Boy Rick). CAA and Wme will rep U.S.

In Jungleland, a reluctant bareknuckle boxer (O’Connell) and his brother (Hunnam) must travel across the country for one last fight, but an unexpected travel companion (Barden) — the girlfriend of a dangerous mob boss — exposes the cracks in their bond along the way. Mister Smith will launch sales on the project at the upcoming Afm.

Max Winkler (Flower) directs the script he wrote with Theodore B. Bressman and David Branson Smith. Romulus Entertainment financed the pic, which recently wrapped shoot. Producers are Brad Feinstein (Fences), Jules Daly (The Grey), and Scott Free duo Kevin Walsh (Manchester By The Sea) and Ryan Stowell (Manchester By The Sea).

Garrett commented,...

Exclusive: Actor Jonathan Majors has landed a role opposite Charlie Hunnam, Jack O’Connell and Jessica Barden in Jungleland, a film currently in production with Max Winkler at the helm. Winkler is directing from a screenplay he penned with Theodore B. Bressman and David Branson Smith.

Majors co-stars in two films that screening at Tiff; White Boy Rick, the 80s crime drama that stars Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Out of Blue, directed by Carol Morley.

Jungleland follows reluctant bare-knuckle boxer (O’Connell) and his brother (Hunnam) must travel across the country for one last fight, but an unexpected travel companion (Barden) exposes the cracks in their bond along the way.

Brad Feinstein of Romulus Entertainment is producing with Jules Daly of Big Red Films and Kevin Walsh and Ryan Stowell of Scott Free Productions.

It seems like Majors is keeping busy. In addition to the aforementioned Tiff titles,...

Exclusive: Director Max Winkler has started production on Jungleland, the Romulus Entertainment, Big Red Films and Scott Free co-production that stars Charlie Hunnam, Jack O’Connell and Jessica Barden. Shooting began today in Massachusetts, with Winkler directing the script he wrote with Theodore B. Bressman and David Branson Smith. Producing are Brad Feinstein (who co-founded Romulus with Joseph F. Ingrassia), Jules Daly and her Big Red Films banner and Kevin Walsh and Ryan Stowell of Scott Free Productions.

A reluctant bareknuckle boxer (O’Connell) and his brother (Hunnam) must travel across the country for one last fight, but an unexpected travel companion (Barden) exposes the cracks in their bond along the way. Deadline revealed the cast was in talks when it broke Daly’s move from longtime Rsa head to become producer.

Pic shoots in Fall River and New Bedford, Ma, Buffalo, NY, Gary, In, Reno, Nv and San Francisco,...

Stars: Sam Claflin, Shailene Woodley, Grace Palmer, Jeffrey Thomas, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Kael Damlamian, Luna Campbell, Siale Tunoka | Written by Aaron Kandell, Jordan Kandell, David Branson Smith | Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

Setting off on the journey of a lifetime across the Pacific Ocean, Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley) and Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin) are pushed to their limits as they sail directly into one of the most catastrophic storms in recorded history. In the aftermath, Tami awakens to find Richard badly injured and their boat in ruins. With no hope for rescue, Tami must find the strength and determination to save herself and the only man she has ever loved. Adrift is an unforgettable story about the resilience of the human spirit and the remarkable power of love.

Everest director Baltasar Kormákur’s Adrift is a competent and thrilling adventure that both satisfies with high-velocity tension and accentuates the horrors at sea,...

[Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers and reveals the ending of “Adrift.”]

“Adrift” is hardly the kind of movie you might expect to be harboring a massive plot twist. A waterlogged survival thriller about a young woman who’s stranded at sea for 41 days with nothing but her wits and a jar of peanut butter to keep her alive, on the surface it seems like pretty straightforward stuff. We’re talking about a sturdy, tactile little film in which the average scene consists of Shailene Woodley sticking her eye into a sextet or trying to conquer her character’s vegetarianism so that she can stomach a spare tin of Spam — it’s not exactly an episode of “Westworld.”

Besides, there isn’t really much of a mystery about what’s going to happen in the end. “Adrift” tells the harrowing true story of Tami Oldham, and was adapted from a memoir written by Oldham herself, so it’s probably safe to...

It has taken 35 years for Tami Oldham’s compelling survival-at-sea story to make it to the movies, but as I say in my video review (click the link above to watch), it was worth the wait. Sure we have seen similar kinds of stories like this, where one person must face the odds alone against Mother Nature, but when it is well done, as this one is, it is worth taking the voyage.

At 23, Tami (Shailene Woodley) gets the opportunity to sail a yacht from Tahiti to California with her boyfriend Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin), but the vessel rides directly into the eye of a horrendous hurricane and she must find a way for her and the injured and virtually immobile Sharp to survive against all odds alone at sea on a crippled boat. Oldham’s memoir has been brought to the screen in high dramatic fashion by director Baltasar Kormakur, who lets his heavy-action-movie past subside to tell the story as largely a romantic drama set against the unpredictability of nature. It is tough to pull this kind of thing off since in real life their boat drifted for 41 days and that can get kind of monotonous. A key story device involving the injured boyfriend helps, but Kormakur and screenwriters Aaron Kendall, Jordan Kendall and David Branson Smith also find to way to weave in and out of flashbacks in a structure that not only fills in the details of the romantic relationship that flowers in Tahiti but also in leading up to their catastrophe on the open water. The film is able to build suspense based on anticipation of what will happen even after initially opening with the aftermath of the storm, which then leads into the first of the flashbacks. A couple of unexpected twists help enormously.

It also is admirable that the director ruled out shooting the many water sequences in a tank, filming instead on real open-water locations off Fiji and New Zealand. He has much experience and fondness for these kinds of stories, especially a previous sea-survivor film, The Deep, which became Iceland’s Oscar entry in 2012. Clearly he loves putting his actors through the ringer.

With that in mind we can be thankful it has Woodley throwing herself hook, line and sinker into perhaps her most challenging role yet and emerging triumphant. Yes, the romantic angle between her and Claflin smacks of the kind of thing Ya novels thrive on. But this is no Ya story — rather it’s one of courage, fortitude and the will to survive. It takes awhile to get fully to that point, but when it sinks in, Woodley is there to guide us all the way. As Tami, she is a young woman who grew up with a love and special knack for navigating uncharted waters, and Woodley captures that passion effortlessly. Claflin’s character, who gets severely injured during the hurricane, has far less to do in driving the action, but he’s clearly there for eye candy for the large female audience this film is aimed at.

Adrift has been gorgeously photographed by the great cinematographer Robert Richardson, and his experience shows every step of the way. The CGI’d hurricane also is impressively done but is saved largely until the end. This is more a character study of a woman fighting nature and using everything she has in her to do it. Producers are Kormakur, the Kandell brothers, Woodley and Ralph Winter. Stx releases it today.

Do you plan to see Adrift? Let us know what you think.

Stories of people stranded in the wilderness have always been natural fodder for movies, as ideas of being lost in the jungle or shipwrecked at sea tap into a natural anxiety about the smallness of our place in the world, and the uneasy need for co-dependence that it inspires. And yet, without diminishing some formative examples, or paving over the past’s most hideous aberrations (George C. Scott’s “The Savage Is Loose” springs to mind), it seems as though the whole “lost adventurers” genre is just starting to find itself. “Adrift” may be the first of these movies that actually explains this recent phenomenon.

And it’s been a long time coming: In just the last eight years or so, we’ve seen mainstream American movies about a dude getting wedged beneath a rock (“127 Hours”), an older dude getting stuck in wolf country (“The Grey”), and an even...

It seems like every other year, Shailene Woodley gets a feature piece here on the site. Some of that may just be due to when her films opt to come out, but I think there’s more to it than that. Frankly, she’s just such an interesting and talented actress, one goes back to her works a lot. This week, she has a new movie opening in Adrift, which I saw last night and really puts her front and center, but in general, it feels like she’s the sort of talent that bears fruitful discussions. So, that’s what we’ll be doing once again. One of these days she’ll be an Oscar nominee. I still firmly believe in that. This time around, she stars in Adrift, as previously mentioned. It’s a survival drama mixed with a tale of true love. Stx Films describes it as...

Hollywood has had a fairly predictable approach to the combination of boat, sun, sea and starlet, and that is to emphasize skin over substance, and leave the derring-do to the men. But that equation has been getting reworked of late, and the endurance grit of women has edged to the forefront. There are, of course, the shark ordeals both real (“Soul Surfer”) and popcorn-flavored, the gender-equal action ethos of James Cameron, and Disney’s sumptuously empowering Polynesian girl adventure “Moana.”

But the one genre that’s eluded showcasing a strong woman is the lost-at-sea yarn, which has given us memorable adventures in this young century for Tom Hanks (“Castaway”), Robert Redford (“All Is Lost”), and an Indian boy paired with a digital tiger (“Life of Pi”), while largely avoiding stranding a female in open waters for an existentially punishing length.

Until “Adrift,” that is. The poster, which features Shailene Woodley...

Was “Solo: A Star Wars Story’s” disappointing opening a case of franchise fatigue or the result of tentpole overcrowding at the box office? Its sophomore weekend could help crystallize what went wrong and where the “Star Wars” spinoff goes from here.

A strong holdover from the Han Solo origin story would signal that perhaps moviegoers were still barbecuing or catching up on “Deadpool 2” over the holiday weekend, rather than dismissing the storied franchise’s latest outing. The “Star Wars” installment is eyeing between $50 million and $60 million at the domestic box office over the weekend. Even if it reaches the higher part of that range, it’s unlikely “Solo” will hit the second-weekend totals of its predecessors. The first “Star Wars” anthology film, “Rogue One,” made $64 million in its second weekend in 2016, while 2017’s “The Last Jedi” earned $71 million in its sophomore weekend.

Disney and Lucasfilm’s second anthology...

“We’re not gonna die out here.” Coming off one of the most ruthless hurricane seasons in memory, here is the new trailer for Adrift, the survival-at-sea drama starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin from director Baltasar Kormákur. Landlubbers who blanch at the thought of facing a wave the size of an office building might want to look elsewhere.

The based-on-a-true-story logline: As free-spirited sailors Tami Oldham (Woodley) and Richard Sharp (Claflin) set out on a journey across the ocean, they couldn’t anticipate that they would be sailing directly into one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history. In the aftermath of the storm, Tami awakens to find Richard badly injured and their boat in ruins. With no hope for rescue, Tami must find the strength and determination to save herself and the only man she has ever loved.

Aaron Kandell & Jordan Kandell and David Branson Smith wrote...

On the day before the Oscars, the Film Indepdnent Spirit Awards were handed out. In what may be a warm up for the Academy Awards, Get Out took Best Film, marking an excellent night overall for the movie. Impending Oscar winners Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell both won as well for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, while the rest of the winners you can see below… Here are all of the Spirit Award winners: Best Feature “Call Me by Your Name” “The Florida Project” “Get Out” (Winner) “Lady Bird” “The Rider” Best First Feature (Award given to the director and producer) “Columbus” “Ingrid Goes West” (Winner) “Menashe” “Oh Lucy!” “Patti Cake$” John Cassavetes Award – Given to the best feature made for under $500,000. (Award given to the writer, director and producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.) “Dayveon” “A Ghost Story” “Life and Nothing More” (Winner) “Most Beautiful Island” “The Transfiguration” Best Director Sean Baker,...

The 33rd Independent Spirit Awards took place on Saturday, March 3 in Los Angeles. The full winners list is below.

Best Feature

“Get Out”

Producers: Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele

“Call Me by Your Name”

Producers: Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Rodrigo Teixeira, Marco Morabito, James Ivory, Howard Rosenman

“The Florida Project”

Producers: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, Kevin Chinoy, Andrew Duncan, Alex Saks, Francesca Silvestri, Shih-Ching Tsou

“Lady Bird”

Producers: Eli Bush, Evelyn O’Neill, Scott Rudin

“The Rider”

Producers: Mollye Asher, Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Chloé Zhao

Best Female Lead

Frances McDormand

“Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Salma Hayek

“Beatriz at Dinner”

Margot Robbie

“I, Tonya”

Saoirse Ronan

“Lady Bird”

Shinobu Terajima

“Oh Lucy!”

Regina Williams

“Life and Nothing More”

Best Male Lead

Timothée Chalamet

“Call Me by Your Name”

Harris Dickinson

“Beach Rats”

James Franco

“The Disaster Artist”

Daniel Kaluuya

“Get Out...

“The Big Sick” writers Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon took home top honors at the 2018 Indie Spirit Awards for Best First Screenplay. The married writing team beat out fellow nominees Ingrid Jungermann (“Women Who Kill”), Kogonada (“Columbus”), David Branson Smith and Matt Spicer (“Ingrid Goes West”), and Kris Avedisian with story by Kyle Espeleta and Jesse Wakeman (“Donald Cried”).

This marks the first Indie Spirit Award for both Nanjiani and Gordon. “The Big Sick” won Best Comedy at the Critics’ Choice Awards, and was named one of the American Film Institute’s Top Ten Films of the Year. The duo is nominated for Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards Sunday night. Loosely based on the real-life romance between Nanjiani and Gordon, the film follows a couple who must deal with cultural differences after one of them becomes ill.

Different from the Oscars, the Independent Spirit Awards exclusively celebrates the best of independent cinema.

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon are Oscar underdogs for Best Original Screenplay for their work on the semi-autobiographical romantic comedy “The Big Sick.” but we think they’re clear favorites to win at the Independent Spirit Awards the night before. They get leading odds of 2/13 to win Best First Screenplay at those kudos based on the combined predictions of more than 1,600 users who have made their picks at Gold Derby thus far.

Among those users are nine Expert journalists we’ve polled from top media outlets, and they’re unanimous that Nanjiani and Gordon will prevail: Erik Davis (Fandango), Edward Douglas, Joyce Eng (Gold Derby), Tariq Khan (Fox News), Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Anne Thompson (IndieWire), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Adnan Virk (ESPN) and Susan Wloszczyna (RogerEbert.com). They also have support from five out of six Editors who cover awards year-round for Gold Derby, 22 of the Top 24 Users...

STXfilms will be opening Baltasar Kormákur’s Adrift wide on June 1.

The pic stars Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as avid sailors who set out on a journey across the ocean and encounter one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history. Aaron Kandell, Jordan Kandell and David Branson Smith adapted Adrift from the book Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea by Tami Oldham Ashcraft with Susea McGearhart. Woodley will produce with Kormákur alongside Aaron Kandell and Jordan Kandell.

Currently, there’s nothing scheduled on this weekend, which is in the wake of the Memorial Day frame (which has Disney/Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story). Originally, 20th Century Fox had Deadpool 2 here, which was the same place that Wonder Woman sat last year, but that Marvel pic took a hike to the pre-Memorial Day weekend.

In recent years, studios...

Audrey Plaza headlines Ingrid Goes West, that's in UK cinemas now. Here's our review...

There's a clever bit of storytelling early on in Ingrid Goes West, an Instagram social satire, in which Aubrey Plaza's Ingrid Thorburn double taps images on her feed to like them. We're shown this just once, but the act of her staring blankly at her screen and emotionlessly giving the heart to everything she sees goes on for the duration, less like an addiction and more like muscle memory. That incessant tap tap sound effect is the scary heartbeat underlying this dark comedy.

Right after that first time though, she gets out of her car, tearfully gatecrashes a wedding reception and pepper sprays the bride for not inviting her. It transpires that they're not even real life friends, and somewhere in Ingrid's grief over the recent loss of her mother, she's started to invest more...

Review by Matthew Turner

Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell, Billy Magnussen, Pom Klementieff | Written by Matt Spicer, David Branson Smith | Directed by Matt Spicer

A Single White Female for the Instagram generation, this sharp-edged stalker comedy from co-writer / director Matt Spicer succeeds as both scathing social media satire and jet-black comedy, while maintaining a surprising amount of sympathy for its central character.

Aubrey Plaza plays lonely weirdo Ingrid Thorburn, who spends time in an asylum for pepper-spraying a bride at her wedding, in retaliation for not being invited. It turns out that they were never really friends – the bride was someone Ingrid had followed on Instagram and she’d formed an unhealthy fixation on her after a reply to her comments.

After her release, Ingrid quickly forms a new attachment to Insta-celebrity Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), after reading about her in a magazine profile.

MaryAnn’s quick take… Bitter, snide, and ultimately brutal, exactly the movie about social media we deserve; a satire that is barely satirical. Aubrey Plaza is hashtag savage. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m desperate for movie about women; love Plaza and Olsen

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

This bitter, snide, and ultimately brutal Ingrid Goes West is exactly the movie about social media we deserve right now. Of course it’s a black comedy, a take-no-prisoners smackdown of mass delusion and fantasy as fostered by the likes — and the Likes — of Facebook and Instagram. It’s All About Eve for the digital age.

Elizabeth Olsen perfectly oozes the bland cloying mush of a generic white girl with aspirations of being anointed the next Gwyneth Paltrow.

Aubrey Plaza (Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Monsters University) is savage as Ingrid Thorburn,...

Chicago – Aubrey Plaza (“Parks and Recreation”) is an actor who always seems to do something memorable in her performances. In “Ingrid Goes West,” she carries an entire movie on her quirky and sometimes disturbing character… that of a bipolar stalker who can’t find balance.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

The interesting element of the film is that they establish that Plaza’s character of Ingrid is unbalanced from the first scene. She viciously attacks someone, and is sent to a mental health facility to do time and rehabilitation. What happens when she is let loose from those restraints is the guts of the movie, and it eventually devolves into an unexpected “anti-hero” story of a person who can’t get what she wants, until she does. As a smaller independent film, co-writer and director Matt Spicer gives it room to breath, and at the same time allows it to express its inevitability. Ten years ago,...

Aubrey Plaza talks social media friendships and Ingrid Goes WestAubrey Plaza talks social media friendships and Ingrid Goes WestBob Strauss - Cineplex Magazine8/17/2017 11:12:00 Am

Aubrey Plaza goes crazy in Ingrid Goes West. But the 33-year-old comic actor — renowned for her ability to make sarcasm, world-weariness and being downright mean hilarious in everything from TV’s "Parks and Recreation" to big-screen broad comedies like 2016’s Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates — also went somewhere else in this cyber-stalking dramedy; deeper and more dramatically into a role than she ever has before.

“This film allowed me to have the screen time to really develop something that is really layered,” says Plaza, wearing a flower-print sundress during a Los Angeles interview. “I don’t get that opportunity that much, and this is all from Ingrid’s perspective, I’m in every single scene in the movie. That’s a lot of...

Matt Spicer’s darkly comedic Ingrid Goes West is a scary, relevant, anti live-in-skin “thriller” dusted with millennial glitter. Dare I hope audiences might silence their phones for 97 minutes and emerge with a new view of their superficial cyber worlds? Social media is no longer a “fad” or “trend,” but a distraction-based lifestyle. Spicer and co-writer David Branson Smith pit the lives we post against the ones we live, because *everything* can’t be “The Best” or #blessed. Followers aren’t always friends, reality is not “filterable” and wired connectivity isn’t healthy “socialization” once addiction sets in. We’ve failed you, internet. Please forgive our prayer hand emoji usage and obnoxious hashtags.

Aubrey Plaza stars as Ingrid Thorburn, an Instagram addict who exhibits fantastical understandings about followers and interactions. Poor Charlotte (Meredith Hagner) merely comments with condolences on one of Ingrid’s posts, then Ingrid maces Charlotte for not...

Let’s start by acknowledging the biggest irony regarding Matt Spicer’s social media satire, “Ingrid Goes West”: As soon as you see it, you’re probably going to post/text/tweet to your friends/family/followers, just to let them know how much you liked it. And how could you not? Spicer and his co-writer, David Branson Smith, know you. They know all of us, with our perpetually typing fingers and updated emojis and Instagrammed avocado toast. (Don’t pretend you hate avocado toast just because it’s over.) It wouldn’t be fair to say that twentysomething...

Social media is destroying our lives – but what if it's not? What if a digital imitation of life is all we can generate? That's the main idea that courses through Ingrid Goes West, a pitch-black comedy that dances around its central theme without ever facing it head on. But oh, the demented, delicious mischief it kicks up.

The antiheroine of the title is played by the one-and-only Aubrey Plaza, who's allowed to go completely off the chain here. Her Ingrid Thorburn never stops tapping "Like" on Instagram, but no one likes her.

Social media stalking turns into full-blown stalking in the comedy Ingrid Goes West. The film stars Aubrey Plaza as Ingrid Thorburn, an oddball who becomes obsessed with Elizabeth Olsen's character Taylor Sloane.

In the new trailer, Thorburn closely follows Instagram influencer Sloane's Instagram posts. Thorburn soon begins to shape her own life around the hashtag-slinging, selfie-loving Sloane, to the point that Thorburn moves to California to be closer to Sloane.

Thorburn goes so far as to kidnap Sloane's dog as a means to befriend her (it works), dyes her...

Just like its millennial protagonists, low-budget dark comedy Ingrid Goes West wants it every way, all the time. It’s both a satire of social-media manners and mores, and one big product placement for Instagram and the like. Likewise, although it pokes fun at the entitled lifestyle of Los Angeleno Westsiders, with their mason-jar candle holders and fair-trade throw rugs, it still buys into the dream of plush property ownership and instant success for minimal effort.

Nevertheless, even though this feature debut for director Matt Spicer, who co-wrote the script with David Branson Smith, is sort of all over the place,...

I don't feel at home in this world anymoreU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeI don't feel at home in this world anymore. (Macon Blair)Directing AwardBeach Rats (Eliza Hittman)Special Jury Award CinematographyDaniel Landin, The Yellow BirdsSpecial Jury Award – Breakthrough Performance Chanté Adams (Roxanne Roxanne)Special Jury Award – Breakthrough Director Novitiate (Maggie Betts)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardMatt Spicer and David Branson Smith, Ingrid Goes WestAudience AwardCrown Heights (Matt Ruskin)Next Audience AWARDGook (Justin Chon)U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury PrizeDina (Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini)Directing AwardThe Force (Peter Nicks)Special Jury Award for EditingKim Roberts and Emiliano Battista, UnrestSpecial Jury Award for Inspirational FilmmakingSTEP (Amanda Lipitz)Special Jury Award for StorytellingStrong Island (Yance Force)The Orwell AwardICARUS (Bryan Fogel)Audience AwardChasing Coral (Jeff Orlowski)The Nile Hilton IncidentWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeThe Nile Hilton Incident (Tarik Saleh)Directing AwardGod's Own Country (Francis Lee)Special Jury Award for CinematographyManu Dacosse, Axolotl OverkillSpecial Jury...

The Sundance 2017 juries and audiences unveiled their picks on Saturday night.

In the grand jury prizes, Macon Blair’s I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore claimed the Us dramatic award and Dina by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini won U.S. documentary.

Tarik Saleh’s The Nile Hilton Incident won world dramatic and Last Men In Aleppo by Feras Fayyad and Steen Johannessen prevailed in the world documentary category.

In the audience awards, Matt Ruski’s Crown Heights and Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral were the favourites in the Us dramatic and documentary strands.

World cinema selections I Dream In Another Language by Ernesto Contreras and Joe Piscatella’s Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower emerged victorious in the dramatic and documentary sections.

“This has been one of the wildest, wackiest and most rewarding festivals in recent memory,” said festival director John Cooper. “From a new government to the independently organised Women’s March On Main...

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close with tonight’s awards ceremony. While we’ll have our personal favorites coming early this week, the jury and audience have responded with theirs, topped by Macon Blair‘s I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., which will arrive on Netflix in late February, and the documentary Dina. Check out the full list of winners below see our complete coverage here.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:

Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:

I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...

“No one is as happy as they seem on Instagram, as depressed as they seem on Twitter, or as insufferable as they seem on Facebook.”

If you’re reading this review, odds are you’ve probably stumbled across that cute axiom (or one of its interchangeable variations) at some point or another in the years since the world submitted itself to the emotional slaughterhouse that is social media. And if you’ve ever had an Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook account of your own, odds are you know just how true that truism tends to be. And yet, for some reason, it still needs to be said. Everybody curates their own image on the internet, but we’re all so good at it that nobody remembers.

As Vonnegut once wrote: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” That guy died three...

Warning: What you’re about to read is something of a Cinderella story.

Matt Spicer had only a couple of shorts under his belt, but when he sent his “Ingrid Goes West” screenplay to his agent, he got a call saying Aubrey Plaza wanted to play the lead — and then, Plaza was such a fan that she helped wrangle co-stars Elizabeth Olsen and O’Shea Jackson Jr. Things went so smoothly, production began just eight months after Spicer sent his agent the script.

And that’s when the trouble started.

The filmmakers lost a full day of shooting after a Santa Clarita wildfire destroyed one of their sets, while a plumbing problem at another location turned a house into a biohazard. Spicer also accidentally walked through a glass door, miraculously escaping with just a single two-inch gash on his arm.

This story has a happy ending: Neon acquired “Ingrid Goes West...

With a generation now largely measuring their self-esteem by the amount of likes on their Instagram feed, the veneer of a perfect life is a sought-after badge of approval. Call it a cynical observation, but the rush of personal achievement via double taps is an addicting one, especially so for Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza), a mentally unstable woman filling the lonely void left by her recently deceased mother with social media stalking. Upon reading an article in Elle, she sets her sights on Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), an Instagram influencer who gets paid by companies to hawk their latest fashionable products. Using the $60,000 left by her mom’s will, she sets off to Los Angeles to hopefully make a new friend and thus begins the escalating deception of Ingrid Goes West.

In his directorial debut, Matt Spicer gets right what so many other films commenting on today’s technology obsession fail...

After a number of competitive bids, Tom Quinn and Tim League’s new distribution banner Neon has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Sundance breakout, “Ingrid Goes West,” following the world premiere on Friday night, TheWrap has learned. Directed by Matt Spicer and starring Aubrey Plaza (“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,” “Parks and Recreation”) and Elizabeth Olsen (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Martha Marcy May Marlene”). Based on a script by Spicer and David Branson Smith, the dark comedy also stars O’Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell, Billy Magnussen, and Pom Klementieff. Also Read: Power Outage at Sundance Fest Theater,...

Tim League and Tom Quinn’s distribution shingle Neon has acquired the North American rights to the dramatic comedy “Ingrid Goes West,” starring Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen. Neon beat out A24 and Netflix, who were also bidding on the film, Variety reports. The acquisition came two days after the film’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Read More: Michael Showalter’s Second Act: How the ‘The Big Sick’ Filmmaker Reinvented His Career — Sundance 2017

Directed by first-time feature director Matt Spicer, who co-wrote the film with David Branson Smith, “Ingrid Goes West” is a dark, dramatic comedy that follows a troubled young woman named Ingrid (Plaza) who becomes obsessed with the Instagram account of a social media influencer named Taylor (Olsen). Ingrid then moves across the country and manages to befriend Taylor, before subjecting to her to some disturbing and even dangerous behavior. The film also stars Wyatt Russell and Billy Magnussen.

I am at my third Sundance Film Festival. These are my reviews. Follow me on Twitter @bayerjeff.

Sundance Film Festival 2017 Reviews

Ingrid Goes West

Plot (courtesy of Sundance):

U.S.A., 2016, 97 min., color

A young woman becomes obsessed with an Instagram “influencer” and moves to Los Angeles to try and befriend her in real life.

Director: Matt Spicer

Screenwriters: Matt Spicer, David Branson Smith

Principal Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell, Billy Magnussen

Review: The films about being obsessed with social media won’t stop. They will keep getting liked, shared and redone. Thankfully, a quality filmmaker, screenwriter and cast will always be able to shine a proper light on the subject and that is exactly what Ingrid Goes West is able to pull off.

Ingrid (Plaza) has just lost her mom and attaches herself on Instagram to anyone who will give her a hint of reason.

Entering its 33rd year, Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its official competition and Next line-ups for the 2017 edition of the festival. At first glance, initial highlights include Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth follow-up Golden Exits and two David Lowery projects (his small-budget A Ghost Story starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara as well as The Yellow Birds, which he co-wrote).

There’s also Beach Rats, the latest film from It Felt Like Love director Eliza Hittman, Obvious Child director Gillian Robespierre‘s Landline, and Blue Ruin and Green Room star Macon Blair‘s directorial debut I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore.

Check out the line-up below and images as they become available.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

The 16 films in this section are all world premieres.

“Band Aid” (Director and screenwriter: Zoe Lister-Jones) — A couple who can’t stop fighting embark on a last-ditch effort...

After Star Wars and Mission: Impossible both went rogue, another feature film will do so as well. In adaptation news, Variety reports the British novel Rogue Male is being turned into a feature with Benedict Cumberbatch set to star, as well as produce the story about a hunter who is tortured and left to die after he attempts to assassinate a dictator. He escapes, and is then hounded by enemy agents and the police in his rural hometown. The script is penned by Michael Lesslie, whose resume include Macbeth and Assassin’s Creed. Also producing with Cumberbatch is Lloyd Levin, Black Sheep Pictures’ Beatriz Levin and Branwen Prestwood Smith. This is not the first time Rogue Male has been adapted to the screen, as Fritz Lang brought it to life with his 1941 film Man Hunt.

In another exciting pairing, Aubrey Plaza is set to star alongside Elizabeth Olsen in director...

Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen will star in dark comedy Ingrid Goes West. Directed by Matt Spicer from a script by Spicer and David Branson Smith, the film follows a young woman named Ingrid (Plaza) who becomes obsessed with a social media star named Taylor Sloane (Olsen) with a seemingly perfect life. When Ingrid decides to drop everything and move west to befriend Taylor, her behavior turns unsettling and increasingly dangerous. Plaza will produce the pic along with Jared Ian Goldman, Star Thrower Entertainment’s Tim and Trevor White and Adam and Robert Mirels through their newly formed 141 Entertainment

read more...

Hulu and Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution announced on Monday that the digital platform has acquired exclusive Us streaming rights to the first four seasons of Showtime’s spy series.

The sixth season of Homeland is scheduled to go into production later this summer. The show was recently nominated for its fourth outstanding drama series Emmy, while Claire Danes earned her fifth nod for lead actress in a drama series.

“[Homeland] has drawn in audiences for years on Showtime and we cannot wait to give even more viewers the chance to watch and discover it on Hulu,” said Craig Erwich, senior vice-president and head of content for Hulu.

Mark Goldblatt has won the run-off election for the open film editors branch seat on the 2016–17 board of governors. Goldblatt returns to the board after a one-year hiatus and joins Carol Littleton and Michael Tronick. He earned an Oscar nomination for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.Lionsgate executives...