Breaking Bad has always kept fans on edge with black humor, inescapable pickles and miraculous getaways. But with the premiere this month of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, it’s theaters and studios that may be nervous. Camino reached nearly 8.2 million viewers its opening weekend, according to data from the ratings company Nielsen. The …
One of the beauties of Breaking Bad TV series was that no truth occurred without consequences: dead bodies needed disposing; stolen money had to be laundered; sins did not go unpunished. And so it goes with El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, the searing new film from Netflix and series creator Vince Gilligan. Taught, tense …
Joker may be the most anti-comic comic-book movie ever set to film. Violent, grim and deliriously unconcerned with superhero tradition, Joaquin’s rubber-bodied portrayal of Batman’s arch nemesis has, like Heath Ledger’s performance before him, permanently altered the definition of a comic-book villain. Directed by Hangover and Old School veteran Todd Phillips, Joker is a superhero …
In the Shadow of the Moon is the sum of many parts that don’t quite add up. Part crime noir, part action film and part sci-fi adventure, Moon resembles The Terminator cross-pollinated with Seven, yet never quite matching either film’s punch. Director Jim Mickle has balanced genres before, with standout movies including Cold in July …
Zach Galifianakis to Matthew McConaughey: “All right, all right, all right. Sorry, I was just reading the box office returns for your last three movies…Of all the things you can win an Oscar for, how surprised are you that you won one for acting?” Aesthetically speaking, Between Two Ferns: The Movie isn’t much to look …
Hollywood could use a hero. After a forgettable summer at the box office, the movie industry is looking for an autumn resurgence in ticket sales. With the box office at $3.9 billion for summer 2019, Hollywood registered its second-worst season in theaters in 12 years. And coming back to match last year’s pace won’t be …
In 1980, while promoting his film The Shining, Stanley Kubrick gave a rare interpretation of one of his movie endings — in this case the 1921 photo at the end of the film that suggested that Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) had been part of the Overlook Hotel for decades. “The ballroom photograph at …
(Warning: series spoilers ahead) The last time we saw him, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) was barreling through a chain-link gate in his El Camino, half-laughing, half-crying after being sprung from his neo-Nazi captors by Walter White (Bryan Cranston) in a drug house bloodbath in the Breaking Bad finale. But where did Jesse go? Did Walter …
In 2013, Steve Coogan starred in a gem of a movie, Alan Partridge, about a self-centered disc jockey struggling with age, sagging ratings and the looming reality that a new generation had left him behind. While he played an egomaniac, the film deftly offset Partridge’s boorishness with sincere British charm — along with perhaps the best …
Netflix has been thriving on the woman-in-peril sub-genre of filmmaking. It found an unexpected smash in Birdbox, starring Sandra Bullock as a mother fleeing unseen demons. It bought the TV show You, a half-season flop about a stalker boyfriend, from the Lifetime network and turned it into a series already greenlit for a second season. Which …
The Hollywood Bowles 