Director/cinematographer Michael Schrom, best known for his tabletop/food and packaged goods ad work, has taken his production house Schrom bicoastal with the opening of a studio in Los Angeles. His filmography spans more than 1,600 commercials for clients such as Nikon, Neutrogena, Folgers, Miller, Kraft, General Mills, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Heineken. His company compatriot is executive producer Carl Sturges…..Slim has added director Melissa Silverman to its roster. Clients include Starz/Directv, McDonalds, Revlon and Tuborg Beer, while an Emmy nomination for Nickelodeon adds to awards from D&AD, PromaxBDA and TELLY Awards. Silverman began her career at On Air Promotions at MTV where she conceptualized, wrote and directed campaigns with celebrities including Madonna, Conan O’Brien, Donald Trump and The Foo Fighters….Los Angeles-based Therapy has signed multi-disciplinary editor Lenny Mesina who had been working via Motion Theory/Mirada. He has edited music videos for recording artist giants such as Green Day, Adele, Common and Blink 182, cut content and installation projects such as IBM “THINK”–which was on view at Lincoln Center and took home awards at the 2012 One Show and AICP Show–and spots like Fiat “Get Ready” (which won a 2012 Yellow Pencil for Editing and a D&AD Award) as well as major campaigns for Nike, Target and HP. Mesina also recently teamed up with photographer Craig Stecyk for a video installation in MOCA’s “Art in the Streets” show. In the film realm, Mesina crafted the Grammy½-nominated documentary, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, the celebrated feature documentary Beautiful Losers and is currently completing a documentary on champion boxer and politician Manny Pacquiao, directed by Academy Award½-winning director Leon Gast. Mesina’s move to Therapy is a homecoming of sorts as the editor got his start with EP Joe DiSanto and several Therapy staff members at editorial house Brass Knuckles….
Review: Writer-Director Mark Anthony Green’s “Opus”
In the new horror movie "Opus," we are introduced to Alfred Moretti, the biggest pop star of the '90s, with 38 No. 1 hits and albums as big as "Thriller," "Hotel California" and "Nebraska." If the name Alfred Moretti sounds more like a personal injury attorney from New Jersey, that's the first sign "Opus" is going to stumble.
John Malkovich leans into his regular off-kilter creepy to play the unlikely pop star at the center of this serious misfire by the A24 studio, a movie that also manages to pull "The Bear" star Ayo Edebiri back to earth. How both could be totally miscast will haunt your dreams.
Writer-director Mark Anthony Green has created a pretty good premise: A massive pop star who went quiet for the better part of three decades reemerges with a new album — his 18th studio LP, called "Caesar's Request" — and invites a select six people to come to his remote Western compound for an album listening weekend. It's like a golden ticket.
Edebiri's Ariel is a one of those invited. She's 27, a writer for a hip music magazine who has been treading water for three years. She's ambitious but has no edge. "Your problem is you're middle," she's told. Unfortunately, her magazine boss is also invited, which means she's just a note-taker. Edebiri's self-conscious, understated humor is wasted here.
It takes Ariel and the rest of the guests — an influencer, a paparazzo, a former journalist-nemesis and a TV personality played by Juliette Lewis, once again cast as the frisky sexpot — way too much time to realize that Moretti has created a cult in the desert. And they're murderous. This is Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" crossed with Mark Mylod's "The Menu."
It's always a mistake to get too close a look at the monster in a horror... Read More