Notizie

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the scripts behind the year’s most talked-about movies continues with the Venice Film Festival-premiering Babygirl, A24’s erotic thriller from writer-director Halina Reijn that stars Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. It hit theaters December 20.

In Venice, Kidman won the Best Actress prize for playing Romy, a high-powered CEO whose life is controlled by structure, tight scheduling and an all-too-keen awareness of how she’s perceived at the heights of a male-dominated field. The one thing she cannot control is her sexual urges that haven’t been fulfilled after 19 years of marriage to her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas).

Romy, trapped in her suppressed desires, is quickly undone after she meets Samuel (Dickinson), an intern at her company who transgresses professional boundaries. This dynamic inadvertently fosters a dominant/submissive power play, providing Romy with an unexpected outlet to explore and indulge her kinks.

Through deliciously playful provocations,...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2024 Venice Film Festival. A24 releases “Babygirl” in theaters December 25.

The worst thing your partner could possibly say to you after sex, after you’ve said “I love you,” is the dreaded “love you.” No “I.” And that’s not the most demoralizing response Romy (Nicole Kidman) has for an amorous confession by her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas) in “Babygirl,” writer/director Halina Reijn’s provocative erotic dramedy that begins and ends with an orgasm. One of them is faked, but in between, this perversely funny and absorbing new film explores the pleasure gap between men and women, and how our inability to talk about sex limits our ability to just do it.

And there’s lots of sex here, with Kidman going raw inside and out for one of her top performances in a career built on risk-taking. That’s...

A rock n’ roll biopic in the tradition of Steven Shainberg’s Fur - An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, Saturn Return (aka Segundo Premio) is, co-director Isaki Lacuesta insists, definitely not a film about Granada-based nineties indie darlings Los Planetas – except that sometimes it obviously is. Like Shainberg, Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez draw on episodes in the life of their subject and on associated concepts as manifested in the popular imagination, building their own story around those. In the process, they test the boundaries of the rock biopic genre itself.

The film is Spain’s official submission to the 2025 Oscars, and unlikely as that may sound given the niche nature of the subject, it’s easy to see why the decision was made. The characters are not very distinct – a woman called May (Stéphanie Magnin) and her bandmates, who simply bear the names the Singer (Daniel Ibáñez) and the Guitarist.

Judy Greer is giving Maggie Gyllenhaal her due as an indie icon.

Greer said during Sony Music Entertainment’s Dinner’s On Me Podcast, hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, that it was Gyllenhaal’s star-making turn in 2002 feature “Secretary” that paved the way for other “quirky” actresses in Hollywood. “Secretary” was directed by Steven Shainberg and starred Gyllenhaal as the eponymous employee of an attorney character played by James Spader; the duo engage in a dom-sub relationship.

“I remember there was this movie that Maggie Gyllenhaal starred in called ‘Secretary’ with James Spader. It’s fucking good,” Greer said. “We were up for the same things a lot. When she got that movie, my first instinct was jealousy because I’m a human being. And I was telling my agent, ‘Oh, I feel very jealous of her and now she’s a star,’ and like, I don’t think I...

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Sanctuary is a psychological thriller directed by Zachary Wigon from a screenplay by Micah Bloomberg. Starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott in the lead role of a dominatrix and Hal, who is soon becoming the CEO of a large corporation and that’s why he wants to end his relationship with the dominatrix as he fears that it will come out later. This starts off a dark and twisted night that will leave you gasping for air. Sanctuary stars Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott. So, if you loved the intensely thrilling story, inappropriate relationships, and compelling characters in Sanctuary here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Secretary (Tubi & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Lions Gate Films

Secretary is an erotic romantic drama film directed by Steven Shainberg from a screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson. Based...

Though James Spader is best known for his recent turn as Raymond Reddington in The Blacklist, the actor has starred in many iconic movies that deserve more recognition. The past few decades have seen Spader rise to prominence with voice work in Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, in the 1980s, '90s, and early 2000s, Spader took on many independent projects in a variety of genres that demonstrated his range as a performer. More often than not, Spader is cast as an unscrupulous character, which allows him to play the villain and have fun with his projects.

James Spader's best movies and TV shows often push boundaries and lean into territory that other films would typically shy away from. Erotic thrillers and intense romantic connections are where Spader shines, as he has a magnetism and enduring chemistry with all his co-stars. One of the major breakthroughs of his career, Sex,...

A laptop sits at the edge of the frame, its glow casting shadows across Romy (Nicole Kidman). Porn is playing. There are glimpses of a woman on all fours, gazing behind her at a man who coaxes her on with sneering encouragement. But the images are less important than the tinny voice emanating from them.

Halina Reijn’s 2022 English-language debut, Bodies Bodies Bodies, was a slender but enjoyably nasty slasher whodunit that poked around in its Gen Z characters’ heads. The Dutch director’s more complex new film, Babygirl, is an erotic thriller that again considers the ways in which young people are wired differently, knowing what they want and how to get it but maybe also what the rest of us want, too. That’s more of a cheeky side note, however, in the story of a middle-aged woman — played with physical and psychological fearlessness by Nicole Kidman — finding liberation by surrendering to her repressed desires.

Sexy, dark and unpredictable, with a tone that mixes tension and caustic humor, the movie occupies a thematic landscape not so distant from Reijn’s 2019 debut feature, Instinct, about a female prison therapist drawn into a risky infatuation with a rapist. As in that film, Babygirl repeatedly asks...

Mubi has unveiled their February 2024 lineup, featuring Roy Andersson’s little-seen 1991 short World of Glory, Nicole Holofcener’s Lovely & Amazing starring Catherine Keener with an early Jake Gyllenhaal performance, and special Black History Month selections: Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer, Kasi Lemmon’s Eve’s Bayou, Carl Franklin’s One False Move, and more.

Check out the lineup below, including recently added January titles, and get 30 days free here.

Just-Added

American Movie, directed by Christopher Smith | Festival Focus: Sundance

Pieces of April, directed by Peter Hedges | Festival Focus: Sundance

The Blair Witch Project, directed by Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez | Festival Focus: Sundance

But I’m a Cheerleader, directed by Jamie Babbit | Festival Focus: Sundance

Secretary, directed by Steven Shainberg | Festival Focus: Sundance

Medicine for Melancholy directed by Barry Jenkins | First Films First

Antiviral, directed by Brandon Cronenberg | First Films First

Shithouse, directed by Cooper Raiff | First Films First

Age of Panic,...

To celebrate the end of another great year in independent film, Film Independent is re-posting some of our favorite blogs of 2023. And here’s a reminder: there’s still time to make a tax-deductible donation to Film Independent in support of all the hard work our community does year-round. Not a Member yet? Become one by January 5 to watch the nominees for the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards and vote for the winners. Happy New Year!

If you watched our livestream of the Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 4, then you very well know that this year’s ceremony was about way more than just making fun of the 2008 Will Ferrell vehicle Semi-Pro. The 2023 awards show kicked off a year-long celebration of the 30th anniversary of our Artist Development efforts – known on these streets as #AD30. That’s right, ever since Project Involve debuted in 1993, Film Independent Artist Development has been...

The American Society of Cinematographers has announced the honorees for its 38th Annual Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography Gala on March 3, 2024. They are: Don Burgess, ASC; Steven Fierberg, ASC and Amy Vincent, ASC.

Burgess, Robert Zemeckis’ longtime collaborator, will be recognized with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award. While his latest work is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, directed by James Wan, Burgess is best known for shooting Zemeckis’ Oscar-winning Forrest Gump, for which he earned ASC Award and Oscar nominations. The duo have also collaborated on such films as last year’s live-action Pinocchio, Flight, Contact, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, The Polar Express and the upcoming Here.

Burgess’ other credits include Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, the first Aquaman, Brian Helgeland’s 42, Allen and Albert Hughes’ The Book of Eli, Gary Winick’s 13 Going on 30, Jonathan Mostow’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Billy Crystal’s Forget Paris.

From the eight-time Oscar nominee “The Imitation Game” to the Korean revenge thriller “I Saw the Devil,” free streaming service Plex is giving audiences new and varied reasons to keep coming back to its library of over 50,000 titles.

As we ring in October, check out The Streamable’s top picks and build your to-watch list from all of the titles coming to the streamer this month!

Watch Now $0+ / month plex.tv What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Plex in October 2023? “Experimenter” | Sunday, Oct. 1

The gripping biopic “Experimenter” arrives to Plex to start the month. Based on the true story of social psychologist Stanley Milgram, the film focuses on the 1961 behavior experiments at Yale University that tested the willingness of ordinary humans to obey an authority figure while administering electric shocks to strangers, as well as the aftermath of the experiments and the public outcry of their ethics.

Love is a complex and multifaceted emotion that can blossom in the most unexpected places and circumstances. Throughout cinematic history, filmmakers have explored the boundaries of romantic relationships, pushing the envelope to portray unconventional and unusual love stories. Some of them are mainstream comedies, and others represent real dramas, but they are united by the common cause of showing the audience that the world of love, romance, and dating is unique, convoluted, often complex, and not as easy or ethereal as we sometimes think of it. Many famous directors tried their hand in this field and succeeded, including Jim Jarmusch, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Spike Jonze to name a few. From dark vampire romance to polyamory to kinky relationships, here are six movies that delve into the realm of unique and unconventional love.

The Dreamers (2003): Exploring Intimacy and Polyamory amidst Turmoil Credit – Fox Searchlight Pictures

This captivating movie is set...

Hollywood has never had a healthy relationship with sex. Torn between leering salaciousness and code-mandated puritanism, the end results on-screen have often been messy, thematically conflicted, and deeply unsexy. Much has been made about the state of on-screen sensuality in 2022 and the blockbuster age, where ultra-muscular and fit bodies are fetishized yet entirely divorced from sex itself. As one viral article published last year in Blood Knife out it, "everyone is beautiful and no one is horny."

Things are improving in small ways, mostly on streaming thanks to shows like "Bridgerton" that undeniably f***, but everything remains pretty limited in terms of what goes on between the sheets. Kink of any kind is still a no-go topic for screens big and small. While the highly profitable adaptation of the much-derided "Fifty Shades" trilogy was sold as a journey into the dark pleasure of Bdsm, the end results were decidedly vanilla and not all that erotic.

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month and amongst the highlights are a Ricky D’Ambrose double bill, including his new film The Cathedral, as well as a trio of films by Maurice Pialat, Gaspar Noé’s Vortex, David Osit’s Mayor, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, an expansion of their Tilda Swinton series, and more.

Also including films by Tsai Ming-liang, Sky Hopinka, Nacho Vigalondo, Anton Corbijn, and more check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

September 1 – Classical Period, directed by Ted Fendt | Ted Fendt Focus

September 2 – 2 Days in New York, directed by Julie Delpy

September 3 – Timecrimes, directed by Nacho Vigalondo

September 4 – Małni – Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore, directed by Sky Hopinka

September 6 – Mayor, directed by David Osit

September 7 – Friendship’s Death, directed by Peter Wollen | The One and Only: Tilda Swinton

September 8 – Hideous, directed by Yann Gonzalez | Brief Encounters

September 9 – The Cathedral,...

Exclusive: Rlje Films has acquired North American rights to Last Looks, an action comedy toplined by Charlie Hunnam and Mel Gibson. Morena Baccarin, Rupert Friend, Dominic Monaghan, Lucy Fry and Cliff “Method Man” Smith also star in the pic, directed by Tim Kirkby (Brockmire) and originally titled Waldo after the lead character in Howard Michael Gould’s L.A. detective novel series on which the film is based.

Rlje Films is planning a February release day-and-date in theaters and on VOD.

Adapted by Gould (Mr. 3000) and named after the first book in his three-book series, Last Looks introduces to the big screen Charlie Waldo (Hunnam), an ex-LAPD superstar who left the force and now lives a life of simplicity and solitude deep in the woods. Alistair Pinch (Gibson) is an eccentric actor who spends his days drunk on the set of his TV show. When Pinch’s wife is found dead,...

Peacock has acquired Civil War, a documentary from director Rachel Boynton whose EPs include Brad Pitt and Henry Louis Gates Jr. The film will bow June 17 on NBCUniversal’s streamer, then premiere on MSNBC in October.

The pic is having a limited theatrical release starting Friday.

Per the logline, Civil War travels across the United States to explore how Americans tell the story of their Civil War. Filmed from President Obama’s final year in office through the present, it interweaves insightful scenes and interviews filmed North and South, painting a uniquely crafted, multi-faceted portrait of the American psyche and the deep roots of its turbulent times. With delicacy and strength, subtlety and determination, the lays bare a nation in denial, haunted by an embittered past and the stories it refuses to tell.

“In this time of reckoning in the country, Rachel Boynton...

‘The Truth’ was the most-viewed title on Curzon Home Cinema from March 20-22.

Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s English and French-language drama The Truth was the most-streamed title on Curzon Home Cinema (Chc) last weekend (March 20-22) according to a top 10 of the most-viewed titles revealed by by the UK platform.

The Truth was set for theatrical release on March 20 via Curzon’s distribution arm but pivoted to an early digital release in the wake of cinema closures. Its release beat the previous best three-day figure on the platform by 66%. No further details of the numbers involved were given.

Celine Sciamma’s...

Exclusive: Emmy nominee Rupert Friend, best known for portraying Peter Quinn on Showtime’s Homeland, has joined Waldo, the Tim Kirkby-directed film based on the novel Last Looks by Howard Michael Gould.

Mel Gibson and Charlie Hunnam star in the pic, about a disgraced Lapd detective (Hunnam) who’s spent the past three years living off the grid. He’s reluctantly pulled back into his old life by a former lover in order to solve the murder of an eccentric celebrity’s wife.

Morena Baccarin, Lucy Fry, Dominic Monaghan, Eiza Gonzalez, Clancy Brown and Jacob Scipio co-star. Andrew Lazar, Brad Feinstein, Christina Weiss Lurie and Steven Shainberg are producing.

Friend can currently be seen as part of the main cast of the CBS All Access series Strange Angel, now in its second season. On the film side, he most recently co-starred in Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor opposite Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively,...

Exclusive: Australian actress Lucy Fry, who played opposite Will Smith in the Netflix film, Bright, has been added to the cast of Waldo, joining Mel Gibson, Charlie Hunnam, and Morena Baccarin.

Tim Kirkby is directing the action-thriller, which follows a disgraced Lapd detective (Hunnam), who’s spent the past three years living off the grid. He’s reluctantly pulled back into his old life by a former lover in order to solve the murder of an eccentric celebrity’s wife.

Dominic Monaghan, Eiza Gonzalez, Clancy Brown, and Jacob Scipio also co-star in the film which is based on the novel, Last Looks, by Howard Michael Gould, who adapted the pic.

Andrew Lazar, Brad Feinstein, Christina Weiss Lurie, and Steven Shainberg are producing.

Fry will soon be seen in Godfather of Harlem, Epix’s straight-to-series crime drama starring and executive produced by Forest Whitaker. She’s repped by Wme, 3 Arts and attorney Craig Emmanuel.

Exclusive: Paul Ben-Victor has been added to the cast of the Tim-Kirkby-directed action thriller Waldo. He joins previously announced cast members Mel Gibson, Charlie Hunnam, Morena Baccarin, Dominic Monaghan, Eiza Gonzalez, Jacob Scipio and Clancy Brown.

Known for his role as Spiros “Vondas” Vondopoulos in HBO’s critically acclaimed The Wire, Ben-Victor will step into the role of Detective Pete Conady in Waldo. The film is based on the novel Last Looks by Howard Gould who also adapted the screenplay. The story follows a disgraced Lapd detective (Hunnam), who’s spent the past three years living off the grid. He’s reluctantly pulled back into his old life by a former lover in order to solve the murder of an eccentric celebrity’s wife. Andrew Lazar, Brad Feinstein, Christina Weiss Lurie and Steven Shainberg serve as producers of the feature.

Ben-Victor is a busy man as he has numerous projects on his plate.

Exclusive: Morena Baccarin is the latest to join the cast of the Tim Kirkby-directed action-thriller Waldo, starring Mel Gibson and Charlie Hunnam. Filming is currently underway. The pic is based on the novel, Last Looks, by Howard Michael Gould, who also adapted the screenplay.

It centers around a disgraced Lapd detective (Hunnam), who’s spent the past three years living off the grid. He’s reluctantly pulled back into his old life by a former lover in order to solve the murder of an eccentric celebrity’s wife.

Dominic Monaghan, Eiza Gonzalez, Clancy Brown, and Jacob Scipio co-star. Producers are Andrew Lazar, Brad Feinstein, Christina Weiss Lurie, and Steven Shainberg.

Baccarin, who is also in talks to join Gerard Butler in STXfilms’ disaster-thriller Greenland, is repped by UTA and Seven Summits Pictures & Management.

Exclusive: Tim Kirkby’s Waldo cop movie continues to add cast with Clancy Brown set to play the role of plain clothes detective Big Jim Cuppy.

Based on the Howard Gould novel, Waldo centers around a disgraced detective (Hunnam) who has been living off the grid in the woods, and is pulled into a big murder investigation when a private eye comes looking for him.

Yesterday it was announced that Dominic Monaghan joined the cast which also includes Baby Driver‘s Eiza Gonzalez and Jacob Scipio. Andrew Lazar, Brad Feinstein, Christina Weiss Lurie, and Steven Shainberg are producing Waldo. Cameras roll this summer.

Brown is also currently shooting the ABC series Emergence which stars Allison Tollman as a sheriff taking in a young girl. Brown’s two-season run on Showtime’s Billions as Attorney General Waylon “Jock” Jeffcoat opposite Paul Giamatti just finished out last Sunday. He’s also wrapped...

Exclusive: Fresh from wrapping the nemesis opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Sony’s Bad Boys for Life, Jacob Scipio is boarding Waldo opposite Charlie Hunnam and Mel Gibson.

The Timothy Kirkby-directed movie follows a disgraced ex-cop who seeks solace by moving to the woods. His quiet life comes to an end when a private eye recruits him to investigate a murder. Scipio is set for the role of ‘Don Q’, a comically menacing villain with a secret. Andrew Lazar, Brad Feinstein, Christina Lurie, and Steven Shainberg are producing. Cameras roll this summer.

Bad Boys for Life centers on the Miami Pd and its elite Ammo team’s attempt to take down Armando Armas (Scipio), a cold-blooded killer and the head of a drug cartel.

Scipio can next be seen as one of the leads in The Outpost opposite Caleb Landry Jones, Orlando Bloom, Jack Kesy and Scott Eastwood.

Gyllenhaal is terrific as a teacher and wannabe poet who exploits a child prodigy in this gripping psychological drama

Maggie Gyllenhaal is just gripping in this, showing us a woman moving through imperceptibly subtle stages from passionate idealism to midlife breakdown and then to something darker still: something that can only be watched through your fingers. It’s the best from Gyllenhaal since her breakthrough performance in Steven Shainberg’s 2002 cult classic Secretary.

Related: Maggie Gyllenhaal: 'There have to be consequences for disrespecting women sexually'...

Stars: Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa, Marin Ireland, Maria Dizzia, Wendell Pierce | Written and Directed by Nicolas Pesce

Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska star in Piercing, a deliciously dark psycho-sexual horror; the second feature from director Nicolas Pesce (The Eyes of my Mother). Adapted from a novel by Ryû Murakami (who wrote the source material for Takashi Miike’s Audition), the film is shot through with a jet-black sense of humour and a sensibility that recalls Steven Shainberg’s Secretary in more ways than one.

Abbott (It Comes At Night) stars as Reed, a new dad who’s first glimpsed psyching himself up to stab his infant daughter with an ice-pick, unbeknownst to his young wife, Mona, played by Laia Costa (Victoria). When a demonic voice from the baby informs him that he knows what he has to do, Reed tells his wife he’s off on a business...

Currently in green light mode on her third feature, formal storytelling will once again receive the boundary pushing nip and tuck inventiveness of Kitty Green who arguably gave us one of the best films of 2017 with Casting JonBenet. Here she makes a move into narrative features with a hot potato item that may make Steven Shainberg’s Secretary feel pedestrian and will certainly bring out the horror from the seductive folklore texts a la Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures. A timely project that saw Green extensively research “hundreds of public records and documents, and conducting scores of interviews, collecting a huge reservoir of impressions of the lived, daily experience of decades of work experience of the hundreds of employees subjected to the work environment dominated by Weinstein,” the Pov will likely be an amalgamation of several of Harvey Weinstein’s assistants (ode to her previous works), and Deadline reported...

Stars: Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa, Marin Ireland, Maria Dizzia, Wendell Pierce | Written and Directed by Nicolas Pesce

Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska star in Piercing, a deliciously dark psycho-sexual horror; the second feature from director Nicolas Pesce (The Eyes of my Mother). Adapted from a novel by Ryû Murakami (who wrote the source material for Takashi Miike’s Audition), the film is shot through with a jet-black sense of humour and a sensibility that recalls Steven Shainberg’s Secretary in more ways than one.

Abbott (It Comes At Night) stars as Reed, a new dad who’s first glimpsed psyching himself up to stab his infant daughter with an ice-pick, unbeknownst to his young wife, Mona, played by Laia Costa (Victoria). When a demonic voice from the baby informs him that he knows what he has to do, Reed tells his wife he’s off on a business...

Industry veteran steps aside after 35 years in business.

Source: Hilary Davis

‘Hilary Davis’

Bankside Films co-managing director Hilary Davis has stepped down after 11 years at the company and is taking a “break” from the industry after 35 years in the business.

The industry veteran will not remain a shareholder at Bankside, which she set up in 2007 alongside company director Stephen Kelliher with backing from Head Gear Films MD Phil Hunt.

Davis, who stepped down at the end of 2017, told Screen: “After 35 years in the film industry at HandMade Films, Alibi Communications, Beyond Films and Bankside Films, I felt it was an appropriate time for me to take a break. I wish everyone well at Bankside Films for their continued success.”

Kelliher will oversee management of Bankside going forward and will remain as director. Hunt will continue as MD of both Bankside and financier Head Gear. There are no plans to replace Davis and there was no further comment from the...

What makes a sex scene sexy? More to the point, what makes a sex scene good? That’s become an especially thorny question in recent years, with detailed accounts of what goes on behind the scenes of movies we love complicating our relationship with their most memorable moments (we’re looking at you, “Blue Is the Warmest Color”). And though we’re ever so slowly moving away from the male gaze serving as the default perspective on love, sex, and everything between, there’s still a long way to go.

Read More:The 25 Best Sexy Movies of the 21st Century, From ‘Y Tu Mamá También’ to ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’

Still, there’s been a lot to celebrate over the last 17 years. A number of sex-positive, Lgbtq-friendly, and otherwise forward-thinking filmmakers have directed scenes that are as steamy as they are moving. There’s nothing missionary about the movies below — S&M,...

Sarah Gordon, a former intern on PBS’ “The Charlie Rose Show,” has accused the program’s host of sexual harassment. In an interview with MSNBC, Gordon says Charlie Rose invited her to his apartment in 2002 and asked her to watch a scene from the movie “Secretary” in which the lead character, played by actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, engages in S&M with her boss (James Spader).

Read More:Charlie Rose’s ‘CBS This Morning’ Co-Host Gayle King on Harassment Allegations: ‘You Still Have to Report the News’

“I proceeded to go into the living room and he said I want to show you this scene from this movie,” Gordon said. “He said, ‘Have a seat, relax’ and he proceeded to turn on the film ‘Secretary,’ which is a sexually involved film, involving S&M unfortunately. I guess some people are really into this. I’m not.”

“Secretary,” directed by Steven Shainberg,...

After a long time away from the director's chair, Steven Shainberg (Secretary) is back in fine form with his new thriller Rupture starring Noomi Rapace (Prometheus).

Two Qe faithful's have reviewed the film so far (here and here), but we recently sat down with the director to discuss the film, what excites him about projects and why he's been gone for so long.

Enjoy! [Continued ...]...

Steven Shainberg’s Rupture begins with an image of something I hate – a spider – and ends with another image of something I also hate – another spider. Is there any correlation between my hatred of spiders and my issues with this film? No, I’ve survived the likes of Eight Legged Freaks and Spiders 3D. My qualms are instead with Brian Nelson’s screenplay, based on a half-baked “idea” torn from one single sequence in Tim Miller’s Deadpool. While I might hate surprise spiders, (others do too, so you’re welcome), steadfast direction and tingling thrills are worth any arachnophobia jolts. Alas, these are two things that escape Shainberg’s cold, imprisoning experiment. Two of many.

Noomi Rapace stars as Renee, a single mother living in Kansas City who’s about to conquer her fears! Not in the way she expected, though. Renee’s plans of skydiving are derailed when...

[Editor's note: The inimitable Jason Widgington also review Rupture out of Fantastic Fest in 2016. Spoiler alert, he also liked it.]

Steven Shainberg (Hard Candy) has been out of the director’s chair for quite a while, but it hasn’t stopped his creative juices from flowing. He’s written seven scripts, itching to get them made, and diving head first into sci-fi with his first movie in a decade, Rupture.

Renee (Noomi Rapace) gets abducted on the way to her first skydiving adventure and her captors are oddly scientific in their imprisonment [Continued ...]...

If Steven Shainberg’s career as a director was helped by his Sundance breakthrough “Secretary,” it hasn’t been easy coasting since then. Shainberg followed that film up with the Nicole Kidman– and Robert Downey Jr.-starring “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus,” which, just like “Secretary,” has built up a loyal cult fanbase over the years.

Continue reading ‘Rupture’ With Noomi Rapace Places A Gripping Hold [Review] at The Playlist.

Plot: A single mother (Noomi Rapace) and her son are abducted, and she’s forced to endure a series of tests which her captors hope will unlock a secret within her DNA. Review: Steven Shainberg is an oddball choice to direct a genre film. Best-known for his S&M romance, Secretary, Shainberg, who followed that up with the lofty Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Of Diane Arbus (with Nicole Kidman... Read More...

Filmmaker Steven Shainberg tapped Noomi Rapace for the lead of his thriller Rupture, which had a quick turnaround shoot in Canada. The director said it was all “go go go” for the film, though he ran into a roadblock on the way to distribution. The film joins a somewhat sparse roll-out of new Specialties this weekend as the Tribeca Film Festival eyes its finale in New York. The festival is a launchpad for Well Go USA's Buster's Mal Heart with Rami Malek, which bows in New…...

Opening in theaters and arriving on VOD this Friday is Steven Shainberg’s sci-fi thriller, Rupture, which stars Noomi Rapace as a single mom abducted by a sinister organization that experiments on her while she desperately tries to escape their clutches. Daily Dead recently spoke to Shainberg in anticipation of Rupture’s release, and he discussed what inspired the project, how the aesthetics he established helped serve the story, and his experiences collaborating with Noomi.

You really put Noomi through her paces in this movie, and she’s really great. I'd love to hear about where this idea came from, because the story has some very unexpected twists that I really didn't see coming.

Steven Shainberg: This movie, for me, is rooted in a Japanese film by [Hiroshi] Teshigahara called Woman in the Dunes, which is a very beautiful, incredible movie about a guy who is held captive by a...

Walking into Spiderwebs: Shainberg Returns with Characterless Genre Effort

A decade after the somewhat unwarranted critical drubbing of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006), Steven Shainberg breaks the silence with his first bona fide genre effort to date, Rupture.

Continue reading...

It’s taken ten years, but Secretary director Steven Shainberg has finally followed-up Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. The result is Rupture, a body horror-lite tale about a woman held captive as part of an experiment meant to unlock humanity’s hidden potential to evolve beyond our current state. Written by Brian Nelson (the two share story credit), its script seeks to mess with our expectations as it does its prisoner Renee (Noomi Rapace). We’re to cultivate a sense of paranoia with surveillance dominating the first act to a point where we must scratch our heads at act two’s distinct lack of it to facilitate Renee’s actions. Is this shift an unfortunate plot-hole or merely deflection to distract us? Is it hallucination or reality, trick or mistake?

These are the questions we should ask because they allow us to dig deeper into the events surrounding...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

Even Emma Watson and Tom Hanks May Not Be Enough to Make a Mark As April Ends

The last weekend of April, and the “slower” spring movie season is ending this weekend, leading directly into the start of the lucrative summer box office next week. As has been the case in past years, the last couple weekends in April see a couple movies hoping to bring in any amount of money before the first big summer blockbuster, and other movies that will steal away their theaters. Last weekend was pretty sad, but hopefully a few of this weekend’s movies will fare better.

The movie that stands the best chance at finding an audience this weekend is the tech industry thriller The Circle...

In Steven Shainberg’s inane thriller Rupture, one Renee Morgan (Noomi Rapace) is abducted from a Missouri roadside and taken to a secret lab that looks just like a Halloween haunted house. It’s got gurneys, barred windows, purple lights, extra-large syringes of mad-scientist mystery syrup—the general aesthetic of a place that might be called the Screamatorium or the Shoe Factory Of Terror, but without the sickly sweet smell of glycerin vaporizing in a fog machine. There she is subjected to bizarre experiments by pod-person-esque creeps (played by the likes of Michael Chiklis, Peter Stormare, and Lesley Manville), who occasionally put on binocular glasses and yammer on about genetic codes, fear, and evolution. There are other test subjects, too. One tries to talk to her through a shared vent before what sounds like a drill is put through his eye. And poor Renee—she just dropped off her teenage...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Nicole Kidman, who’s having something of a renaissance moment.

Bottom Line: Nicole Kidman is one of our most fearless actresses. She’s an Oscar perennial who constantly chases challenging material, edginess be damned. Yes, her most recent nomination stemmed from a very mild-mannered role as Dev Patel’s mother in the true-life Australian drama “Lion,” but for Kidman’s career it’s her exceptions that prove the rule.

She broadened her fanbase by producing, with Reese Witherspoon, the hugely popular and topical HBO drama series “Big Little Lies,” in which she co-starred as Celeste Wright, an elegant Monterey mom trapped in a sadomasochistic power struggle of spousal abuse with her husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgard). Critics’ raves and audience reaction will likely push Kidman to...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Nicole Kidman, who’s having something of a renaissance moment.

Bottom Line: Nicole Kidman is one of our most fearless actresses. She’s an Oscar perennial who constantly chases challenging material, edginess be damned. Yes, her most recent nomination stemmed from a very mild-mannered role as Dev Patel’s mother in the true-life Australian drama “Lion,” but for Kidman’s career it’s her exceptions that prove the rule.

She broadened her fanbase by producing, with Reese Witherspoon, the hugely popular and topical HBO drama series “Big Little Lies,” in which she co-starred as Celeste Wright, an elegant Monterey mom trapped in a sadomasochistic power struggle of spousal abuse with her husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgard). Critics’ raves and audience reaction will likely push Kidman to...

Sundance breakthrough “Secretary” kickstarted a career with a lot of potential for its writer-director Steven Shainberg, who followed up the kinky comedy/drama with the Nicole Kidman– and Robert Downey Jr.-starring biopic “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Of Diane Arbus.” That film, just like “Secretary,” built up a cult fanbase over the years, but then Shainberg left the spotlight.

Continue reading Steven Shainberg Talks ‘Rupture,’ Personal Transformation, And More at The Playlist.

​Seth Metoyer,

MoreHorror.com

Writer/director Steven Shainberg became an ​award-winning indie film sensation with 2002's kink masterpiece ​Secretary and now he plans to spank viewers with the sci-fi thriller Rupture.

Ambi Media Group will release the sci-fi thriller Rupture in theaters and On Demand April 28, 2017. The film is currently available exclusively on DirecTV.

Check out the trailer below the official press details.

From The Press Release

"Secretary's Steven Shainberg tackles both sci-fi and horror with great success." - Birth.Movies.Death​.​

Ambi Media Group will release the sci-fi thriller Rupture in theaters and On Demand April 28, 2017. The film is currently available exclusively on DirecTV.

Rupture is directed by Steven Shainberg ​(Secretary, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus) from a script co-written by Shainberg and Brian Nelson​ (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night)​​. The ​​​film stars Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Prometheus), Peter Stormare (The Big Lebowski,...

Trailers are cool and all, but sometimes the best way to sell a movie to an audience isn't to chop the entire thing up into quickly edited fragments, but to instead let a single scene play out. That's the case with Rupture, a new sci-fi thriller starring Noomi Rapace from Secretary director Steven Shainberg.  We're not bagging on its trailer, either, we just think the clip below does everything you need. It's weird, mysterious, disturbing, intriguing and unique. It feels like the introduction to a panic room designed by David Cronenberg. Don't learn any more, just trust us and press play. Now if you're sold, you should know Rupture is currently available exclusively on DirectTV and will hit theaters and on VOD on April 28, 2017. If you do need a...

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If you've had a hankering for an insane movie to watch, there's one on its way called Rupture. This is a psychological horror thriller that stars Noomi Rapace (Prometheus), and it looks absolutely crazy as Rapace finds herself in a terrifying situation. Here's a brief story summary that gives us the basic idea of what goes down, but to get a real sense of what his movie has to offer, watch the trailer!

Rupture follows Renee Morgan (Noomi Rapace), a single mom, who is deathly terrified of spiders. While in route to meet up with a friend, she is violently abducted by a group of strangers. After enduring intense yet strange questioning and examinations, some about her fear of spiders, Renee soon discovers that she is now the subject of an underground experiment. Her captors explain to her that she has a genetic abnormality that can potentially allow her to...

"Don't fight it. Let it happen." Vertical Entertainment has revealed an official Us trailer for the release of the psychological horror-thriller Rupture, from director Steven Shainberg (of the film Secretary over a decade ago, as well as Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus). Swedish actress Noomi Rapace plays an "ordinary woman" and mother of a boy who is randomly abducted on a highway. She wakes up strapped to an operating table and is forced to undergo a series of terrifying psychological experiments. The film also stars Peter Stormare, Kerry Bishé, Michael Chiklis, Ari Millen, Lesley Manville, Percy Hynes White and Morgan Kelly. This definitely does look very freaky, I just want to know what the big twist is. Here's the official Us trailer (+ new poster) for Steven Shainberg's Rupture, direct from YouTube: You can also still watch the original UK trailer for Rupture here, to see even more footage from this film.

Imagine being kidnapped and forced to face your worst fear. That's the unfortunate predicament Renee (Noomi Rapace) experiences in the official trailer for Rupture.

Synopsis: "Rupture follows Renee Morgan (Noomi Rapace), a single mom, who is deathly terrified of spiders. While in route to meet up with a friend, she is violently abducted by a group of strangers. After enduring intense yet strange questioning and examinations, some about her fear of spiders, Renee soon discovers that she is now the subject of an underground experiment. Her captors explain to her that she has a genetic abnormality that can potentially allow her to “rupture” and reveal her alien nature. Renee must find a way to escape before it is too late."

Directed by Steven Shainberg, Rupture stars Noomi Rapace, Peter Stormare, Kerry Bishe, and Michael Chiklis. Rupture will be shown exclusively on DirecTV beginning March 30th, followed by an April 28th theatrical,...