Comedy director Jacqueline Dow has joined the roster of New York-based LAIR. Dow is an alum of SHOOT’s 2016 New Directors Showcase. Now is Not the Best Time, an original comedy web series from Dow and Seth Birkan is slated to premiere at the upcoming Slamdance Festival 2021…..
New York-based Hornet has added Vucko to its directorial roster. Vucko is a Toronto-based creative practice specializing in design systems and motion, led by Andrew Vucko who has worked with dozens of brands including Google, Netflix, Strava, Spotify and Viacom. Vucko’s exploits range from fast-paced animation language for Ziply to a geometric exploration in the personal short Design in Motion, to a kaleidoscopic motion system for Spotify Wrapped 2020….
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
