Friday Flicks: ‘Ready Player One’, ‘Love After Love’, ‘Best Friends’
Happy Friday, folks! We hope you’ve got your popcorn ready and your film eyes steady because we’ve got some treats in store for you. But first, let’s take a look at some of this week’s happenings in the entertainment world.
First up, as Stanley Kubrick‘s sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey turns 50 years old in 2018, Festival de Cannes announced this week it will mark the occasion by hosting the world premiere of an unrestored 70mm print of the movie, introduced by Christopher Nolan. As a result, the media has been abuzz with Spielberg fever (us included) going over all the reasons why the king of one point perspective is so great.
In other news, our fave actor / creator / all round badass – Donald Glover – tore into Marvel after it was announced he, his brother Stephen, and FX would no longer be involved in Deadpool: The Animated Series. The Glover brothers were supposed to serve as showrunners for the animated take on the Marvel antihero. Glover dispelled rumors he was “too busy to work on Deadpool” by posting a 15-page script for his finale episode of the show that basically destroys Marvel and highlights a trend for post-racial virtue signalling in the TV industry (read more about this here).
Over to the big screen and Wes Anderson’s not had the best week with regards to his recent release, Isle of Dogs. The famed director received a flurry of criticism for alleged racial stereotypes and for “marginalizing Japanese culture”. And here we were thinking it was just a cute stop-motion movie about love & dogs.
But enough about racist dogs and racist superhero franchises and super-director homages. Let’s look ahead to better things: it’s finally time to sit back and take a two-day break with some of the best indie flicks hitting the cinemas. Read on for FD’s picks for the best movies to catch this weekend.
Ready Player One (Warner Bros. Pictures)
on wide theatrical release now
We’ve been waiting for this one for a while, folks. From filmmaker Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) comes the action adventure sci-fi flick Ready Player One, filled with enough pop culture Easter eggs to keep you hunting for days. Based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, the film is set in 2045 in a world on the brink of chaos and collapse. However, the nation has found salvation in the Oasis – an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the Oasis, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. Stars Tye Sheridan (Mud), Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom), Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead), and Rylance (Bridge of Spies).
Gemini (Neon)
on limited theatrical release now
Aaron Katz (Land Ho!) is here with an atmospheric neo-noir that’ll make you realize why you should never meet your heroes. Centered around an awful crime that tests the complicated relationship between a personal assistant and her Hollywood starlet boss, chaos takes over when the assistant travels across LA trying to unravel the mystery while staying ahead of a determined policeman. Stars Lola Kirke (Gone Girl), Zoë Kravitz (Mad Max: Fury Road), and John Cho (Star Trek).
The Last Movie Star (A24 Films)
on limited theatrical release now
Get ready for some warm fuzzies because this film brings all the feels. Vic Edwards (Burt Reynolds) was the biggest star in Hollywood, but now he’s in his eighties, he worries he’s a bit past it. Convinced by an old friend (Chevy Chase) to accept an invitation to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at a two-bit film festival in Nashville, he goes. Although it’s not quite what he expected, the trip launches him on both a hilarious fish-out-of-water adventure and an unexpectedly poignant journey into his past. Even the trailer will bring a heartfelt tear to your eye.
Love After Love (IFC Films)
on limited theatrical release now
Andie Macdowell (Sex, Lies, and Videotape) absolutely nails the role as a woman whose husband (Gareth Williams) passed away, providing an honest view of what happens after the death of a loved one. While her character Suzanne finds new beginnings, so do her two grown sons (Chris O’Dowd & James Adomian) who come to terms with their own pursuits of creating families.
After Louie (Freestyle Releasing)
on limited theatrical release now
Directed by Vincent Gagliostro, After Louie follows Sam (Alan Cumming) – an artist and activist from Act Up who lived through the early years of HIV / AIDS and subsequently struggles with survivor’s guilt. Still shrouded in a dark cloud from the past, he is perplexed by a younger generation of carefree gay men until he strikes up a relationship with the seductive young Braeden (Zachary Booth).
Best F(r)iends: Volume One (Summit Pictures)
on limited theatrical release now
Oh boy, folks. This is it! Tommy Wiseau & Greg Sestero (The Room) a.k.a. the filmmaking dream team are back with another jaw-droppingly bizarre feature titled Best F(r)iends: Volume One. The ironic thing is, this is exactly what Wiseau set out to do with Sestero – make big budget movies that filled up theater seats. While the path towards this goal wasn’t quite as straightforward as they’d thought, they’ve only gone and done it and you know we’re all going to go and check out this flick at the cinema.
The story itself follows a drifter (Sestero) who is taken in by a peculiar mortician (Wiseau) and the two hatch an underground enterprise off the back of the mortician’s old habits. But greed, hatred, and jealousy soon come in turn and their efforts unravel, causing the drifter to run off with the spoils and leave the mortician adrift. They’re tearing us apart with this storyline (and we can’t freaking wait).
