Was Nattawut Poonpiriya‘s “Bad Genius” good? No, it was great. It was so great that almost all of the Asia Pacific from India to Australia loved it. It was so great that Bollywood wanted a version of their own, and made “Farrey” in 2023. But like anything that is great about Asian cinema, Hollywood also wants a piece of it. TV and stage writer, J. C. Lee in his debut as a director, offers his “Bad Genius” where he takes what was basic off the original and filled the rest with anything symptomatically Hollywood, including this basicness.
The basicness here means that this is identifiably “Bad Genius” in its core as a narrative — all the plot points are there, all the stakes, and consequences. It is remarkably shorter: some 30 minutes shorter than both the Thai and Bollywood versions. The whole set up remains the same: highschool poster girl and boy...
The basicness here means that this is identifiably “Bad Genius” in its core as a narrative — all the plot points are there, all the stakes, and consequences. It is remarkably shorter: some 30 minutes shorter than both the Thai and Bollywood versions. The whole set up remains the same: highschool poster girl and boy...
- 10/8/2024
- by Epoy Deyto
- AsianMoviePulse
In 1989, Friday the 13th transplanted its hockey-masked slasher from summer camp to concrete jungle for the franchise’s eighth installment, Jason Takes Manhattan. That titular promise was not fully delivered upon: Manhattan was mostly Vancouver and Jason spent much of the running time on a boat full of high schoolers traveling to the city. The newest Scream offers up a similar relocation as Ghostface follows the previous chapter’s survivors from Woodsboro to college. Again, a Canadian city (this time Montreal) stands in for New York. But this time, the killer actually spends the entire running time chasing his victims through […]
The post Ghostface Takes Brooklyn: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on Scream VI first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Ghostface Takes Brooklyn: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on Scream VI first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/22/2023
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In 1989, Friday the 13th transplanted its hockey-masked slasher from summer camp to concrete jungle for the franchise’s eighth installment, Jason Takes Manhattan. That titular promise was not fully delivered upon: Manhattan was mostly Vancouver and Jason spent much of the running time on a boat full of high schoolers traveling to the city. The newest Scream offers up a similar relocation as Ghostface follows the previous chapter’s survivors from Woodsboro to college. Again, a Canadian city (this time Montreal) stands in for New York. But this time, the killer actually spends the entire running time chasing his victims through […]
The post Ghostface Takes Brooklyn: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on Scream VI first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Ghostface Takes Brooklyn: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on Scream VI first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/22/2023
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
After forging a successful partnership on Ready or Not, director of photography Brett Jutkiewicz reunited with Radio Silence — the production collective of co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and producer Chad Villella — on Scream (2022). He then followed the team from rural Woodsboro to the mean streets of New York City to shoot Scream VI.
“I remember watching the original Scream as a teenager and realizing that it was something new and different and special. I hadn’t seen anything like that, and I followed the franchise from there,” he tells me. “Getting the call to actually be a part of it was thrilling. It was a surprise. Matt and Tyler had told me that they had something new but couldn’t talk about it. They were so excited to finally tell me what it was.”
Although he recognized the pressure of working on an iconic franchise with a passionate fanbase,...
“I remember watching the original Scream as a teenager and realizing that it was something new and different and special. I hadn’t seen anything like that, and I followed the franchise from there,” he tells me. “Getting the call to actually be a part of it was thrilling. It was a surprise. Matt and Tyler had told me that they had something new but couldn’t talk about it. They were so excited to finally tell me what it was.”
Although he recognized the pressure of working on an iconic franchise with a passionate fanbase,...
- 3/17/2023
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
This post contains spoilers for "Scream VI."
In the middle of Matt Bettineli-Olpin's and Tyler Gillett's "Scream VI," the character of Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) is relaxing in a rather posh high-rise apartment in New York City when the masked killer Ghostface attacks her. Given the nature of the "Scream" movies, the true identity of Ghostface hadn't yet been revealed, and he could be any number of people. Gale isn't so concerned with the identity of the killer when he appears in her flat, though, and has to run through hallways and hide in small rooms to elude being murdered. It's not distracting that Gale lives in a giant, expensive New York apartment, as she is a successful author whose true crime books were adapted into a popular series of slasher movies.
"Scream VI" was shot by cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz, who shot the previous "Scream" movie, as well as the soulful sports drama "Boogie,...
In the middle of Matt Bettineli-Olpin's and Tyler Gillett's "Scream VI," the character of Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) is relaxing in a rather posh high-rise apartment in New York City when the masked killer Ghostface attacks her. Given the nature of the "Scream" movies, the true identity of Ghostface hadn't yet been revealed, and he could be any number of people. Gale isn't so concerned with the identity of the killer when he appears in her flat, though, and has to run through hallways and hide in small rooms to elude being murdered. It's not distracting that Gale lives in a giant, expensive New York apartment, as she is a successful author whose true crime books were adapted into a popular series of slasher movies.
"Scream VI" was shot by cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz, who shot the previous "Scream" movie, as well as the soulful sports drama "Boogie,...
- 3/15/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
This post contains spoilers for "Scream VI."
Say what you will about "Scream VI," but it's definitely one of the most suspenseful entries in the entire series. After the third, fourth, and fifth "Scream" movies seemed strangely uninterested in the tense chase sequences that made the first two installments so engaging, this new sequel serves as a welcome return to form. Not only is the film's bodega sequence both brutal and completely unlike anything we've ever seen in these movies before, but then there's the sequence where Ghostface barges through Sam and Tara's apartment like a bull in a china shop. They're a near-unstoppable killing machine, and the characters' only real option is to run away.
But where the sequence really escalates into one of the film's best moments is when Sam (Melissa Barrera), Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), and Anika (Devyn Nekoda) are forced to climb a horizontal ladder into the other apartment,...
Say what you will about "Scream VI," but it's definitely one of the most suspenseful entries in the entire series. After the third, fourth, and fifth "Scream" movies seemed strangely uninterested in the tense chase sequences that made the first two installments so engaging, this new sequel serves as a welcome return to form. Not only is the film's bodega sequence both brutal and completely unlike anything we've ever seen in these movies before, but then there's the sequence where Ghostface barges through Sam and Tara's apartment like a bull in a china shop. They're a near-unstoppable killing machine, and the characters' only real option is to run away.
But where the sequence really escalates into one of the film's best moments is when Sam (Melissa Barrera), Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), and Anika (Devyn Nekoda) are forced to climb a horizontal ladder into the other apartment,...
- 3/15/2023
- by Michael Boyle
- Slash Film
This article contains spoilers for "Scream VI."
City settings can give a bustling yet cold energy to a horror film. Sure, there are millions of people around, but how much can you rely on the kindness of strangers? Unlike previous entries in the meta-slasher film series, "Scream VI" explores this question through dark New York City alleyways and cramped subway cars. In a setting filled with such a mass of bodies, Ghostface has the advantage of hiding in plain sight -- a fact that the film relishes around each shady corner. When the trio of killers strikes in the final act showdown, Radio Silence showcases their flair for knowing how to frame, set up, and linger on each kill sequence. Eye-gouging, thrown television sets, and glass shard stabbings make this entry the most blood-soaked romp yet in the franchise.
Directed by Radio Silence's Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, "Scream VI...
City settings can give a bustling yet cold energy to a horror film. Sure, there are millions of people around, but how much can you rely on the kindness of strangers? Unlike previous entries in the meta-slasher film series, "Scream VI" explores this question through dark New York City alleyways and cramped subway cars. In a setting filled with such a mass of bodies, Ghostface has the advantage of hiding in plain sight -- a fact that the film relishes around each shady corner. When the trio of killers strikes in the final act showdown, Radio Silence showcases their flair for knowing how to frame, set up, and linger on each kill sequence. Eye-gouging, thrown television sets, and glass shard stabbings make this entry the most blood-soaked romp yet in the franchise.
Directed by Radio Silence's Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, "Scream VI...
- 3/15/2023
- by Cass Clarke
- Slash Film
Since the beginning, writer/director Scott Derrickson has had a varied career in horror filmmaking, one that even branched out into the comic book movie juggernaut the MCU and gifted Marvel their most psychedelic film in 2016’s Doctor Strange, To date, his greatest achievement has to be the truly disturbing 2012 Ethan Hawke starring chiller Sinister…until now. As Derrickson re-teams with Hawke for The Black Phone, a film that is undisputedly his greatest work yet as a filmmaker.
Based on the 2004 short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone sees a child abductor/murderer known as ‘The Grabber’ (Hawke) petrify a Denver suburb in 1978. Brother and sister Finney (Mason Thames) and Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) fear for who is next, as Gwen keeps experiencing visions that are coming true. Inevitably The Grabber strikes again, this time capturing Finney, but this lad is not going to play the masked madman’s twisted games,...
Based on the 2004 short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone sees a child abductor/murderer known as ‘The Grabber’ (Hawke) petrify a Denver suburb in 1978. Brother and sister Finney (Mason Thames) and Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) fear for who is next, as Gwen keeps experiencing visions that are coming true. Inevitably The Grabber strikes again, this time capturing Finney, but this lad is not going to play the masked madman’s twisted games,...
- 7/29/2022
- by Jack Bottomley
- The Cultural Post
It’s fitting that The Black Phone, an adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story, was shot in Wilmington, North Carolina. Forty years ago, it was the fertile imagination of Hill’s father—Stephen King—that birthed the city’s film industry. Needing a sprawling estate for an adaptation of King’s novel Firestarter, Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis settled on an antebellum plantation in Wilmington. Pleased with the experience, De Laurentiis made the coastal town his America base of operations, shooting three more King films there and constructing what is now Eue/Screen Gems Studios—the very soundstages that The Black […]
The post Super 8 Dream Sequences and Jump Scares: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on The Black Phone first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Super 8 Dream Sequences and Jump Scares: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on The Black Phone first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 7/12/2022
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
It’s fitting that The Black Phone, an adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story, was shot in Wilmington, North Carolina. Forty years ago, it was the fertile imagination of Hill’s father—Stephen King—that birthed the city’s film industry. Needing a sprawling estate for an adaptation of King’s novel Firestarter, Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis settled on an antebellum plantation in Wilmington. Pleased with the experience, De Laurentiis made the coastal town his America base of operations, shooting three more King films there and constructing what is now Eue/Screen Gems Studios—the very soundstages that The Black […]
The post Super 8 Dream Sequences and Jump Scares: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on The Black Phone first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Super 8 Dream Sequences and Jump Scares: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on The Black Phone first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 7/12/2022
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Despite the rich texture of its late-1970s setting—the beginning of the latch-key kid era—Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone fails to transcend its central premise. At its heart it is a contained thriller with only a few new ideas. In this adaptation of the fairly straightforward short story by Joe Hill, the specter of disappearing children haunts a North Denver suburb where children seem to grow up too quickly, getting into real fights that in the current day might lead to lawsuits and therapy. Rather than grabbing for ice and calling the lawyers, kids are told to walk it off.
Family violence is a theme running through this film, which focuses squarely on the Shaw family—8-year-old Finney (Mason Thames), 9-year-old clairvoyant Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), and their abusive alcoholic father Terrence (Jeremy Davies). Gwen has visions of the local snatcher that has stolen a few neighborhood children,...
Family violence is a theme running through this film, which focuses squarely on the Shaw family—8-year-old Finney (Mason Thames), 9-year-old clairvoyant Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), and their abusive alcoholic father Terrence (Jeremy Davies). Gwen has visions of the local snatcher that has stolen a few neighborhood children,...
- 6/21/2022
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
In the penultimate season of Stranger Things, the characters find themselves scattered beyond the small town confines of Hawkins, Indiana for the first time, spread out to different, countries and cliques. Winds of change swept into the camera department as well. After three seasons of Red cameras and Leica lenses, the latest batch of episodes employed the Alexa Lf paired with rehoused vintage 1960s glass. The cinematographers wielding those tools have changed too. With original series cinematographer Tim Ives not returning, Caleb Heymann shot seven of the nine episodes, sharing the season’s work with Brett Jutkiewicz (Scream and the upcoming […]
The post “They Referred to a Letter They’d Gotten from Spielberg”: Dp Caleb Heymann on Stranger Things‘s Season 4 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “They Referred to a Letter They’d Gotten from Spielberg”: Dp Caleb Heymann on Stranger Things‘s Season 4 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/9/2022
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In the penultimate season of Stranger Things, the characters find themselves scattered beyond the small town confines of Hawkins, Indiana for the first time, spread out to different, countries and cliques. Winds of change swept into the camera department as well. After three seasons of Red cameras and Leica lenses, the latest batch of episodes employed the Alexa Lf paired with rehoused vintage 1960s glass. The cinematographers wielding those tools have changed too. With original series cinematographer Tim Ives not returning, Caleb Heymann shot seven of the nine episodes, sharing the season’s work with Brett Jutkiewicz (Scream and the upcoming […]
The post “They Referred to a Letter They’d Gotten from Spielberg”: Dp Caleb Heymann on Stranger Things‘s Season 4 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “They Referred to a Letter They’d Gotten from Spielberg”: Dp Caleb Heymann on Stranger Things‘s Season 4 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/9/2022
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In the latest Scream installment, “elevated horror” and “requels” are among the contemporary genre trends affectionately deconstructed. The movie also lobs a little friendly fire toward the 1990s slasher revival that birthed the series—a character quips, “It was really over-lit and everyone had weird hair.” There’s not much cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz can do about the latter, but the former served as a gauntlet thrown down. “When you have a line like that in the script, as a Dp you think, ‘I guess I better not over-light this thing. I don’t want to end up as the butt of my own joke,’” […]
The post “Is That a 58 Degree Dutch Tilt?”: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on Scream first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Is That a 58 Degree Dutch Tilt?”: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on Scream first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 4/11/2022
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In the latest Scream installment, “elevated horror” and “requels” are among the contemporary genre trends affectionately deconstructed. The movie also lobs a little friendly fire toward the 1990s slasher revival that birthed the series—a character quips, “It was really over-lit and everyone had weird hair.” There’s not much cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz can do about the latter, but the former served as a gauntlet thrown down. “When you have a line like that in the script, as a Dp you think, ‘I guess I better not over-light this thing. I don’t want to end up as the butt of my own joke,’” […]
The post “Is That a 58 Degree Dutch Tilt?”: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on Scream first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Is That a 58 Degree Dutch Tilt?”: Dp Brett Jutkiewicz on Scream first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 4/11/2022
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
This past weekend, horror fans all over were introduced to a new era of Scream movies, with the filmmaking collective known as Radio Silence taking over the directorial (and producing) reins for this fifth installment of the popular horror franchise that had been kicked off a little more than 25 years ago now by Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson. During a recent press day for Scream (2022), Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with the directing duo of Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin as well as producer Chad Villella about the pressures of taking on a new Scream film and celebrating the legacy of this franchise as well as Craven’s contributions to the genre as well.
During the interview, the trio also discussed their approach to Scream (2022)’s opening scene and how it had to live up to the fans’ expectations of what has become such a crucial scene in this series,...
During the interview, the trio also discussed their approach to Scream (2022)’s opening scene and how it had to live up to the fans’ expectations of what has become such a crucial scene in this series,...
- 1/18/2022
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
“Italian Studies” begins on that most minor, familiar but nonetheless disorienting of social embarrassments: You run into a person who knows you, but you cannot for the life of you remember them. For most of us, it’s a simple slip of the memory. For London-based writer Alina, confronted with a blank space in her brain after bumming a cigarette off an apparent stranger, it’s a callback to a longer, more damaging period of dissociation — when, while living in Manhattan, she suddenly forgot who she was for several days. Adam Leon’s minor-key, jaggedly structured indie isn’t concerned with the specific whens, hows and whys of Alina’s out-of-nowhere amnesia, but with the hazy in-the-moment sensation of being struck with it, the sensation of stumbling for the lightswitch in your own mind. That’s a nebulous-sounding dramatic proposition, though as performed by a nervy, live-wire Vanessa Kirby, it becomes a tensely compelling one.
- 1/15/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Ghostface is back, baby! If you know anything about me as a horror fan, then you probably know that Wes Craven is a figure in this genre that has been a huge influence on me for nearly four decades now, and I continue to try and honor his legacy these days through the work that I do as a journalist (especially through our “Cravin’ Craven” podcast series on F This Movie!). That being said, I’ve spent a few years wondering just how I was going to feel seeing someone (or someones in this case) take the helm of the Scream franchise because it ranks right up there for me alongside the Nightmare on Elm Street series, and I didn’t know if my heart was prepared to see anyone else play around in the audacious and innovative cinematic sandbox that Craven and Kevin Williamson first introduced us to back in 1996.
Thankfully,...
Thankfully,...
- 1/12/2022
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
“One minute you’re invisible and the next minute the whole state knows your name.” A young and phantom voice speaks this ominous fact over a rotary phone receiver into the ear of the town’s latest kid who’s gone missing. Isolated in a basement with a single window too high to access and an antiquated phone, Finney Shaw (Mason Thames) accepts his new reality like he does every day in the outside world. He’s used to being the victim of everything kids fear: bullies, the death of a loved one, being unpopular, crossing an abusive caregiver, saying the wrong thing to your crush, even jumping too much while watching a scary movie alone. However, with a little help from beyond the grave, Finney may have just enough fight left in him to face his ultimate fear head-on.
Adapted from Joe Hill’s short story of the same name,...
Adapted from Joe Hill’s short story of the same name,...
- 9/26/2021
- by Marisa Mirabal
- Indiewire
shot piecemeal between July 2018 and April of the following year, Adam Leon’s “Italian Studies” may be set along (and expertly stolen from) the crowded sidewalks of London and New York, but it’s unmistakably suffused with the woozy dislocation and “we have to make something” life-force of a Covid film. No one is wearing masks or social distancing in the heat of lower Manhattan on a summer afternoon, yet Leon’s heroine — a successful author played by Vanessa Kirby at a time just before people on the street would recognize her as one of the gutsiest actresses of her generation, or as anyone at all — is lost in a fugue state that vividly reflects the isolation and uncertainty of the last 18 months.
Alina Reynolds (Kirby) can’t tell if she’s in crisis, or if she’s just confused. She can’t tell if she remembers the world around...
Alina Reynolds (Kirby) can’t tell if she’s in crisis, or if she’s just confused. She can’t tell if she remembers the world around...
- 6/13/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
For subtlety’s sake, it’s better if coming-of-age stories don’t feature subplots in which characters are asked to pen their own autobiographical tales of maturation, and then spend time debating the merits of J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” as well as their personal similarities to its protagonist, Holden Caulfield. That “Boogie” does this is emblematic of its frequent clunkiness. Nonetheless, Eddie Huang’s directorial debut about a Chinese American basketball player trying to balance athletics, romance and parental expectations — elements that should give it a leg up on the competition when it debuts in theaters on March 5.
In Flushing, Queens, Alfred “Boogie” Chin (Taylor Takahashi) strives to realize his dream of making it to the NBA. To facilitate this goal, Boogie — at the behest of his demanding father (Perry Yung) — transfers to City Prep, where he thinks he’ll have the best shot at beating...
In Flushing, Queens, Alfred “Boogie” Chin (Taylor Takahashi) strives to realize his dream of making it to the NBA. To facilitate this goal, Boogie — at the behest of his demanding father (Perry Yung) — transfers to City Prep, where he thinks he’ll have the best shot at beating...
- 3/4/2021
- by Nick Schager
- Variety Film + TV
There are important stories in “Boogie” about young love, about abusive marital and parental relationships, and about navigating Western culture as the child of Asian immigrants, but the film seems determined to be about the rise of a promising high-school basketball player, even though the basketball storyline is the least interesting of the plotlines on display.
Restaurateur and “Fresh Off the Boat” author Eddie Huang makes his feature debut as a writer-director, bringing a great deal of emotional honesty and cultural specificity to the table. But while his approach to the characters and their interactions feel fresh and personal, the entire basketball plot is cobbled together from countless sports-movie clichés.
Japanese-American actor Taylor Takahashi debuts as Alfred, aka Boogie, a high-school senior who carries the hopes and dreams of his Chinese-born parents (played by Pamelyn Chee and Perry Yung) on his shoulders. The film opens with a flashback of his...
Restaurateur and “Fresh Off the Boat” author Eddie Huang makes his feature debut as a writer-director, bringing a great deal of emotional honesty and cultural specificity to the table. But while his approach to the characters and their interactions feel fresh and personal, the entire basketball plot is cobbled together from countless sports-movie clichés.
Japanese-American actor Taylor Takahashi debuts as Alfred, aka Boogie, a high-school senior who carries the hopes and dreams of his Chinese-born parents (played by Pamelyn Chee and Perry Yung) on his shoulders. The film opens with a flashback of his...
- 3/4/2021
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Untitled Adam Leon Project
Gimme the Loot (2012) and Tramps (2016) filmmaker Adam Leon hasn’t made a jump to Sundance yet, but that could very well change with a project that is being kept under wraps. Closely worked on with actress Vanessa Kirby, production took place in March this year. Brett Jutkiewicz who worked on Safdie bros.’ early works is the cinematographer and Andrea Roa is among the producers.
Prediction: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Untitled St. Vincent Project
An editor on Portlandia who made his first solo outing as a filmmaker, Bill Benz worked from a music themed drama co-written by Carrie Brownstein and Annie Clark in May.…...
Gimme the Loot (2012) and Tramps (2016) filmmaker Adam Leon hasn’t made a jump to Sundance yet, but that could very well change with a project that is being kept under wraps. Closely worked on with actress Vanessa Kirby, production took place in March this year. Brett Jutkiewicz who worked on Safdie bros.’ early works is the cinematographer and Andrea Roa is among the producers.
Prediction: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Untitled St. Vincent Project
An editor on Portlandia who made his first solo outing as a filmmaker, Bill Benz worked from a music themed drama co-written by Carrie Brownstein and Annie Clark in May.…...
- 11/13/2019
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
In Ready or Not, a bride spends her wedding night playing a deadly game of hide and seek with her new in-laws, a clan of board game magnates beholden to a curse that requires them to dispose of the newlywed before dawn. The film unfolds almost entirely at the wealthy family’s estate, an opulent expanse shot mainly at the historic Parkwood Estate near Toronto. Ready or Not’s $6 million budget and 26-day shooting schedule are modest for a wide theatrical release, but for cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz the scale is downright gluttonous compared to past efforts like Benny and Josh Safdie’s […]...
- 8/29/2019
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In Ready or Not, a bride spends her wedding night playing a deadly game of hide and seek with her new in-laws, a clan of board game magnates beholden to a curse that requires them to dispose of the newlywed before dawn. The film unfolds almost entirely at the wealthy family’s estate, an opulent expanse shot mainly at the historic Parkwood Estate near Toronto. Ready or Not’s $6 million budget and 26-day shooting schedule are modest for a wide theatrical release, but for cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz the scale is downright gluttonous compared to past efforts like Benny and Josh Safdie’s […]...
- 8/29/2019
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
A little out of nowhere, Ready or Not has gotten on the radar of the film community. A few months ago, a trailer dropped and really caught some interest on the internet. Well, having seen the movie last month, I can vouch for it being worth all the presumed fuss. Not only is the flick a really fun little horror offering, it’s also arguably one of the funniest films of 2019. It’s literally a riot, with one of the best endings of the year, genre be damned. If you have a predilection for dark humor, this is going to be your jam in a big way. The movie is a genre hybrid, set on what should be the happiest day in the life of our protagonist Grace (Samara Weaving). She’s marrying Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien), the love of her life. Beyond that, she’s now entering...
- 8/19/2019
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
In 2014, Kentucky pastor Jamie Coots died after being bit by a rattlesnake during a service at his tiny Middlesboro, Ky church. It was the tenth time the Pentecostal leader had been bitten during his tenure as a snake handler, and the last time he refused medical attention for a poisonous bite. At the time, his son Cody told the local CBS affiliate, “When it’s your time to go, it’s just your time to go.” Such is the faith that guides the kind of Pentecostal snake handlers who populate Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage’s “Them That Follow,” devotees of Christ who interpret the King James Bible to literally encourage them to “take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.”
Deep in Appalachia, the decades-old practice continues in a handful of churches, places just like the one where Coots received his final bite.
Deep in Appalachia, the decades-old practice continues in a handful of churches, places just like the one where Coots received his final bite.
- 8/1/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Snakes have long been fodder for cinematic nightmares, but combine them with oppressive Christian conservatism and you have an even more harrowing scenario. This sets the stakes for Them That Follow, which tells the tale of Pentecostal snake handlers in the outskirts of the Appalachian mountains and the faith-testing consequences they are faced with when one in their isolated circle commits a “sin.” Intended to be a character-focused, grounded look at this way of life, the drama can’t help but feel like it’s stuck in first gear until an over-the-top finale, when it’s far too little, too late.
Alice Englert plays Mara, daughter of Pastor Lemuel (Walton Goggins). While she attends their secluded service in a nearby barn and seems to follow the path laid before here, she holds a secret. She is pregnant with the child of Augie (Thomas Mann), who once was a part of...
Alice Englert plays Mara, daughter of Pastor Lemuel (Walton Goggins). While she attends their secluded service in a nearby barn and seems to follow the path laid before here, she holds a secret. She is pregnant with the child of Augie (Thomas Mann), who once was a part of...
- 2/3/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The first feature from Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage, Them That Follow is a gothic drama set in rural Appalachia, grounded in the unusual context of a Pentecostal church with a heavy emphasis on snake handling. Following its premiere, the film—which stars Olivia Colman and Walton Goggins—has been acquired for worldwide distribution by Sony. Via email, Dp Brett Jutkiewicz spoke to his work crafting the film’s visual language. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this […]...
- 2/1/2019
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The first feature from Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage, Them That Follow is a gothic drama set in rural Appalachia, grounded in the unusual context of a Pentecostal church with a heavy emphasis on snake handling. Following its premiere, the film—which stars Olivia Colman and Walton Goggins—has been acquired for worldwide distribution by Sony. Via email, Dp Brett Jutkiewicz spoke to his work crafting the film’s visual language. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this […]...
- 2/1/2019
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Anchored by an enviable cast that includes Oscar nominee Olivia Colman, “Them That Follows” sinks its teeth into religious fanaticism in an isolated Appalachian mountain community, where an animal’s instinctual reactions are interpreted as a test of faith. Marking the feature debut of directors Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage, this tense, slow-burning drama premiered Sunday afternoon at the Sundance Film Festival.
Oppressively restrained, actress Alice Englert (“Beautiful Creatures”) stuns in the role of Mara, a young woman who acts as a quiet conduit for insight into the Pentecostal snake-handling church that her father runs. We meet her at a point in her life when steadfast, solid devotion has started to show cracks of doubt, as an explosive secret consumes her. Torn between Augie and her soon-to-be husband Garret, Mara feels confused while surrounded by men and women who only deal in absolutes and certainties.
Atop the food chain in this expectedly misogynistic,...
Oppressively restrained, actress Alice Englert (“Beautiful Creatures”) stuns in the role of Mara, a young woman who acts as a quiet conduit for insight into the Pentecostal snake-handling church that her father runs. We meet her at a point in her life when steadfast, solid devotion has started to show cracks of doubt, as an explosive secret consumes her. Torn between Augie and her soon-to-be husband Garret, Mara feels confused while surrounded by men and women who only deal in absolutes and certainties.
Atop the food chain in this expectedly misogynistic,...
- 1/28/2019
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
It takes up to 48 hours to die of a rattler bite. For the Pentecostal snake handlers of Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage’s debut, “Them That Follow,” that’s two days to pray, bicker, and wonder if your faith might be poisonous. Augie (Thomas Mann) was born doubtful. But up on this Appalachian mountain, he’s the only one who is. His devout parents, Hope and Zeke (Olivia Colman and Jim Gaffigan) have grudgingly started to accept his apathy. But his secret childhood sweetheart Mara (Alice Engler) is considering marrying dweeby zealot Garret (Lewis Pullman) to please her dad (Walton Goggins), the reptile-obsessed preacher.
This patriarchal, anti-science church in the woods lit by a stark neon cross does not come off well. Yet in Poulton and Savage’s empathetic script, the only villain is Satan, who the locals blame for everything from asthma to sex. The parishioners believe in...
This patriarchal, anti-science church in the woods lit by a stark neon cross does not come off well. Yet in Poulton and Savage’s empathetic script, the only villain is Satan, who the locals blame for everything from asthma to sex. The parishioners believe in...
- 1/28/2019
- by Amy Nicholson
- Variety Film + TV
Arri’s dominance in scripted narrative filmmaking would appear to have somehow only grown at Sundance this year. IndieWire polled 50 of the 55 features playing in four sections, and 41 of those 50 films shot using Arri’s Alexa Mini. A handful of films either mixed the Mini with the more built out Alexa Xt or the shoulder-friendly Amira, or relied solely on the Amira and Xt, both of which utilize the same sensor to capture images as the Mini. Meanwhile, the Michelle Williams-starrer “After the Wedding” went with the larger format Arri camera, the Alexa 65, which was recently used by Alfonso Cuaron on “Roma.”
The Alexa chip won over cinematographers years ago with its filmic feel and naturalist color reproduction, while the indie world has been quick to adapt to the smaller bodied Alexa, the Mini, for not only its lower prices tag (at least compared to the Xt), but also...
The Alexa chip won over cinematographers years ago with its filmic feel and naturalist color reproduction, while the indie world has been quick to adapt to the smaller bodied Alexa, the Mini, for not only its lower prices tag (at least compared to the Xt), but also...
- 1/26/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Though major studios used to crank them out by the truckload, today the movie musical is a fairly infrequent occurrence — not just because they’re commercially risky but because the genre itself is an inherently ambitious undertaking. Ranging from “Once” to Damien Chazelle’s pre-“La La Land” romance “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,” there have been some moderately successful attempts at making indie musicals on a micro-budget, but the question still lingers of whether audiences are willing to accept a modern movie in which people sing out their emotions.
In a risky departure from a résumé otherwise dominated by broad comedy, Josh Klausner gives it a stab with “Wanderland.” Different though it may be from his 1999 debut “The 4th Floor” — a quasi-horror thriller with surreal touches — this oddball effort is more an exercise in low-key quirkiness set in a slightly alternative universe where everything but our protagonist is a little “off.
In a risky departure from a résumé otherwise dominated by broad comedy, Josh Klausner gives it a stab with “Wanderland.” Different though it may be from his 1999 debut “The 4th Floor” — a quasi-horror thriller with surreal touches — this oddball effort is more an exercise in low-key quirkiness set in a slightly alternative universe where everything but our protagonist is a little “off.
- 4/20/2018
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Built into the independent, Civil War-set feature “Men Go To Battle” was an inherent production challenge: How do you recreate the Civil War on a micro-budget? Director Zachary Treitz had always known to pull it off he’d need to lean on the historical reenactment of the Battle of Perryville.
“Because it was the 150th Anniversary of Perryville, Civil War reenactors were having a national event, which meant instead of having hundreds, they had thousands of men and women replaying the events of the key battle,” Treitz told IndieWire in a recent interview.
Treitz lobbied the reenactment leaders for months to convince them to allow filming, but there was concern the filmmakers would interfere with the allusion of re-living the events.
Read More: James Franco’s Movie Column: Civil War Meets Mumblecore in ‘Men Go To Battle’
“These are men who sleep on the ground in rainy 30 degree weather and...
“Because it was the 150th Anniversary of Perryville, Civil War reenactors were having a national event, which meant instead of having hundreds, they had thousands of men and women replaying the events of the key battle,” Treitz told IndieWire in a recent interview.
Treitz lobbied the reenactment leaders for months to convince them to allow filming, but there was concern the filmmakers would interfere with the allusion of re-living the events.
Read More: James Franco’s Movie Column: Civil War Meets Mumblecore in ‘Men Go To Battle’
“These are men who sleep on the ground in rainy 30 degree weather and...
- 7/7/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Editor’s Note: “Men Go To Battle” is not your normal micro-budget independent film. The story of two Kentucky brothers set against the backdrop of Civil War is a perfect example of how resourceful low budget filmmakers can be, as director Zachary Treitz and his small band of collaborators creates a vibrant and credible-looking period drama. The film is much more than an inventive recreation of period, it is also an exercise in taking a modern approach to story and filmmaking to cut through the layers of historical embellishment to make a direct and intimate film that is as relatable as any set in 2016.
In the first of a series of articles about the film, cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz talks about how he approached shooting “Men” and how he tackled the challenge of shooting in the low light, pre-electricity world of 1861.
Read More: How To Make a Period-Set Feature Film For...
In the first of a series of articles about the film, cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz talks about how he approached shooting “Men” and how he tackled the challenge of shooting in the low light, pre-electricity world of 1861.
Read More: How To Make a Period-Set Feature Film For...
- 7/6/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Mumblecore and the period drama have (somehow) come together, and the result is far better than people who are generally allergic to the subgenre may expect. On a miniscule budget, writer-director Zachary Treitz and his crew have laid out a fully realized recreation of the South during the American Civil War — and it’s more than convincing recreations of an era’s aesthetic. Where many historical films are concerned with the movers and shakers of well-known events, Men Go to Battle is all about the micro view. It tells a story that happens to be set against a volatile backdrop, but is more about what it was like to live day-to-day in such a time.
Here is where the mumblecore sensibility comes in. The actors all adopt that brand of low-key physicality and manner of speech, favoring naturalism above all else. The plot, too, is of the loosey-goosey, incident-based nature beloved by indie film.
Here is where the mumblecore sensibility comes in. The actors all adopt that brand of low-key physicality and manner of speech, favoring naturalism above all else. The plot, too, is of the loosey-goosey, incident-based nature beloved by indie film.
- 11/12/2015
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
Now that Kodak is out of bankruptcy, it wants to reassure filmmakers that they are still in the business of making movies. "We will be making film for the forseeable future," Bob Mastronardi, sales and technical manager, Kodak, said yesterday during "Want the Film Look? Shoot Film," a Kodak-sponsored panel during Ifp Film Week. "I want to reinforce the fact that film is still here and we are still here." Despite the prevalence (and affordability) of digital, there are still films being shot on film, including some of the best indies of recent years, such as "Beasts of the Southern Wild, "Fruitvale Station," and "Blue Jasmine." "In this day of everything digital, it seems like film is never even considered," said Mastronardi. "If you are interested in doing your project on film, you should consider film." The panelists included cinematographer Brian Rigney Hubbard ("Circumstance"), producer Nekisa Cooper ("Pariah"), cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz ("Daddy Longlegs") and director.
- 9/18/2013
- by Paula Bernstein
- Indiewire
Directors: Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie Starring: Ron Bronstein, Frey and Sage Ranaldo Cinematographers: Brett Jutkiewicz, Joshua Safdie Studio/Run Time: Tk, 100 mins. Unconventional parenting Is Lenny Sokol the coolest dad ever? Or is he a walking hazard who exposes his often unruly twin boys to risks most parents would consider unthinkable, if not prosecutable? Both, actually. This autobiographical film by brothers Ben and Joshua Safdie (The Pleasure of Being Robbed) is a freewheeling, totally bugged-out portrait of a father whose love is inseparable from chaos....
- 4/30/2010
- Pastemagazine.com
This past decade has seen a decline in most facets of American independent cinema. Arguably the one real growth, change or movement would be that of the so called "mumblecore" crowd; an inter connected slew of young filmmakers that share the burden of making no to low budget features, primarily shot on video, usually about the trials and tribulations of twentysomthing relationships. Hipster junk some might say.
I'm by no means an expert on "mumblecore" but I can say with some confidence that Josh Safdie's 16mm feature The Pleasure Of Being Robbed is not mumblecore, re-modernist cinema or "New Sincerity" as some might dub it. Safdie and his filmmaking collective "Red Bucket" are having way too much fun making their own little world to probably even remotely care about movements, or categorization... thank god.
The only American film to play the 2008 director's fortnight at Cannes, The Pleasure Of Being Robbed...
I'm by no means an expert on "mumblecore" but I can say with some confidence that Josh Safdie's 16mm feature The Pleasure Of Being Robbed is not mumblecore, re-modernist cinema or "New Sincerity" as some might dub it. Safdie and his filmmaking collective "Red Bucket" are having way too much fun making their own little world to probably even remotely care about movements, or categorization... thank god.
The only American film to play the 2008 director's fortnight at Cannes, The Pleasure Of Being Robbed...
- 2/16/2010
- Screen Anarchy
I've been posting links to stuff I've found around the web mostly on our Twitter feed these days, but this deserves its own blog post: Red Bucket Films, the home of filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie as well as Brett Jutkiewicz, Alex Kalman, Sam Lisenco and others, has launched a new version of their website. And it's not just a design refresh — it's got a bunch of new stuff on it, including "Talk Show," four episodes of Red Bucket's "TV Party"-like downtown interview show. The first guests are filmmaker Ronnie Bronstein, National Scrabble Association's John D Williams, and musician Rebecca Schiffman There's other stuff on the site too: a store, where you can buy shorts compilations, artist books, and posters; The Power of Katsu, a film...
- 10/7/2009
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
IFC nabs 'Robbed' before Cannes
In the first acquisition news to emerge from the 2008 Festival de Cannes lineup, IFC Entertainment is in final negotiations to pick up "The Pleasure of Being Robbed", the only American film selected for the Directors' Fortnight section.
Writer-director Joshua Safdie's comedic and atmospheric feature debut follows a young woman (co-screenwriter Eleonore Hendricks) as she travels through New York City, finding pleasure in "borrowing" the belongings of others. Submarine Entertainment is repping sales of the film, which is produced by Safdie, Brett Jutkiewicz, Zach Treitz and Sammy Lisenco.
The feature, shot in an impressionistic style on 16mm film, premiered at last month's South by Southwest Film Festival. It will serve as the Fortnight's closing-night film. "Robbed" also marks a final triumph for SXSW producer Matt Dentler, who recently exited the festival to join Cinetic Media's digital-rights management arm.
Writer-director Joshua Safdie's comedic and atmospheric feature debut follows a young woman (co-screenwriter Eleonore Hendricks) as she travels through New York City, finding pleasure in "borrowing" the belongings of others. Submarine Entertainment is repping sales of the film, which is produced by Safdie, Brett Jutkiewicz, Zach Treitz and Sammy Lisenco.
The feature, shot in an impressionistic style on 16mm film, premiered at last month's South by Southwest Film Festival. It will serve as the Fortnight's closing-night film. "Robbed" also marks a final triumph for SXSW producer Matt Dentler, who recently exited the festival to join Cinetic Media's digital-rights management arm.
- 4/28/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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