Tag: Movies

September 5 delivers a new perspective on the Munich Olympics hostage crisis

The new film examines the 1972 tragedy from a different lens.

The hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics, also known as the “Munich Massacre,” has been the subject of several movies and documentaries over the years. Steven Spielberg’s Munich from 2005 was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Now, we have a new angle on the devastating terrorist attack.

September 5, a movie from director Tim Fehlbaum (The Colony) and starring Peter Sarsgaard (Presumed Innocent), John Magaro (Past Lives) and Ben Chaplin (Family), looks at the perspective of the ABC Sports broadcasting team as the kidnapping of nine Israeli athletes unfolds.

ABC Sports was on site in Munich for the games, set up adjacent to the Olympic Village. What was expected to be a simple day of sport broadcasting turned into a harrowing experience as producer Geoff Mason (Magaro) and executive Roone Arledge (Sarsgaard) had to navigate the morals and speed of making decisions real-time during an international crisis.

The movie is gripping and will have you on the edge of your seat, despite never leaving the control room. Decisions have to be made on the fly, and the repercussions were literally seen worldwide. The setting itself becomes a character, something that was important to Fehlbaum.

“That’s exactly how we approached it,” the director told For The Win in a recent interview. “We wanted that world to be as accurately and authentically [portrayed] as possible. We also thought that in a in a movie that is about the media, everything that comes along with that, with the technology of television back then, it has to be understandable for the audience.”

Sarsgaard and Magaro are phenomenal, and the supporting cast of Chaplin (Marvin Bader), Leonie Benesch (German translator Marianne Gebhardt) and Benjamin Walker (ABC news anchor Peter Jennings) all bring life to the story.

September 5 is out December 13 in an exclusive release, with the expansion release set for January 17, 2025.

Movie: September 5
Release Date: December 13, 2024/January 17, 2025 
Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Stars: Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Why Wicked just took a step back as an Oscar Best Picture frontrunner

Wicked has more of a hill to climb for Best Picture at the Oscars next year.

If you’re hoping for Wicked to win Best Picture at next year’s Academy Awards, you might want to sit down.

The smash-hit adaptation of the Broadway musical surprisingly took home the National Board of Review’s Best Film award on Wednesday, which puts Wicked well in line to land a Best Picture nomination next month.

Most of the NBR’s recent winners, sans 2020’s Da 5 Bloods and 2014’s A Most Violent Year, over the last decade have gone on to get nominated in the Oscars’ biggest category.

However, only one film since 2008 has actually won Best Picture after winning the NBR’s Best Film honor: 2018’s Green Book.

That puts Wicked at a historical disadvantage, as the NBR’s Best Film award is a rather curious note of bad luck for any Best Picture contender.

The honor only lined up with the Academy in Best Picture during the 2000s on two occasions: 2007’s No Country for Old Men and 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire.

If you’re looking for an idea of how the New York City-based NBR operates, know their Best Film category typically rewards distinctly American films with its top prize and isn’t afraid to honor a blockbuster like it did in 2022 with Top Gun: Maverick and in 2015 with Mad Max: Fury Road. 

Wicked is a classic crowd-pleaser, but it’s also a work of American intellectual property and adapted from a gigantic Broadway show. Best Picture hasn’t gone to a work of IP since 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and hasn’t gone to a Broadway adaptation since 2002’s Chicago. The broadening international impact in the Academy’s voting body doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a film like Wicked winning Best Picture, either, as international voters typically prefer more auteur-driven, arthouse-friendly fare like 2019’s Parasite, 2020’s Nomadland, 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once and 2023’s Oppenheimer. 

However, 2021’s CODA proved how crowd-pleasing films with a musical slant can succeed in Best Picture as of late. But that’s a film firmly grounded in reality and surged late in the Best Picture process.

These historical stats slip up all the time, so don’t assume this as Wicked‘s kiss of death. Meanwhile, the NBR’s inability to predict where Best Picture is going over the years does make you wonder if Wicked has a ceiling.

Wicked is most certainly going to be a popular film at this year’s Oscars, but don’t necessarily count on it as the clear frontrunner. This one has much more to defy than you might expect, and the “NBR Best Film curse” is now one of them. It’ll be one of the contenders, but really don’t call it a lock right now.

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Paul Mescal gushes about Denzel Washington’s charisma and Pedro Pascal’s talent

What an utterly charming set.

Gladiator II storms into theaters today, 24 years after the original. The Ridley Scott sequel has received a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, in part due to the tremendous performances from Paul Mescal (Lucius), Pedro Pascal (Marcus Acacius) and Denzel Washington (Macrinus).

Mescal, who takes on the lead role, had nothing but high praise for his charming co-stars in a recent interview with For The Win.

MORE: Why Paul Mescal sees doubt about Gladiator 2 as only a good thing

“What I thought Denzel’s charisma would be was magnified by about tenfold,” Mescal explained of Washington. “Which sounds like it shouldn’t be a surprise, but when you’re confronted with it, it’s a pretty staggering, incredible thing to be stood across from.”

Mescal wasn’t short of compliments for Pascal, either. “He’s an extraordinary talent, and he wears it so lightly. He’s just a wonderful person… it’s wonderful to be in his company, and I think he’s extraordinary in the film.”

If it seems like too much charisma one set, it’s possible that’s the case.

“It’s a lot for someone to try and absorb, yeah,” Mescal said with a smile.

Gladiator II is in theaters nationwide November 22.

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Does Wicked have a post-credits scene?

Is there a post-credit scene after Wicked?

It’s time to head back to Oz for the film adaptation of the Broadway hit Wicked.

The long-awaited film is now playing in theaters, leaving fans of the musical and Wizard of Oz lore in general excited to see Elphaba and Glinda’s origin story on the big screen.

However, should you hang out during the credits to see if there’s one last scene before the lights come up?

Not this time around. While there is technically a post-credit movie waiting for you next November when the second half of Wicked hits theaters, there is not any extra scene at the end of this first installment.

If you want to stick around and hear the end credits music, that’s fine and dandy. Just don’t expect a tease for the second film or an extra scene.

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For the love of Oz, please do not sing the Wicked songs when you go see the movie

You will not be popular if you sing Wicked songs during the movie.

Something Wicked this way…sings?

Rather than just recline in the comfy theater seat, eat some Goobers and soak in the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked, The New York Times reports that some Wicked fans are treating early screenings of the film as their personal sing-along space.

Oh yes. People are going to a movie theater, a place where thousands of public announcement videos have aired before movies to encourage you to please just shut up for two hours and enjoy the show, and belting out their favorite Wicked songs as if they’re auditioning for a community playhouse.

As much as rampant cell phone use and idle chatter are heinous crimes in the filmgoing space, loudly singing a Broadway tune around other people who have absolutely no desire to hear your voice is a cardinal sin of going to the movies. It is a gross violation of a sacred space. It is just flat-out wrong.

Sure, historically, people have sang songs in theaters in the past. That’s typically reserved for midnight movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show or specifically designated sing-along screenings.

Hearing a theater major loudly belt “Popular” right next to you while you’re just trying to drink your Diet Coke and enjoy the IMAX movie you paid good money for is like having someone blow cigarette smoke in your face while you’re trying to enjoy a nice steak dinner.

If it’s really that important to you to sing Wicked songs loudly with strangers, Universal will be offering sing-along screenings starting this Christmas. It’s then when you can dress like your favorite Wicked character and sing all the songs you want in a public space with other people without driving the rest of us bonkers.

For the love of Oz, please don’t do it before then. This is going to be one of the most packed houses this holiday season at the movies, and there are a lot of people who just want to hear trained professionals sing the songs. No disrespect, but if you’re getting such an outrageous itch to sing the Wicked songs loudly at the movies, you’re probably not a trained professional.

Just wait until Christmas to open your pipes and sing at the movies. We all pay a good amount for the movie ticket, and we all deserve the decency to enjoy the movie in silence. If you defy that silence and use the movies as your personal audience to sing, you deserve to be splashed with water.

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Why the Wicked movie only covers Act 1 of Broadway show

Here’s why the highly-anticipated Wicked movie is set to cover just the first half of the story.

Broadway fans have been clamoring for years for a film adaptation of the extremely popular musical Wicked and finally, that dream is set to become a reality on Friday.

Wicked, staring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, tells the story behind The Wizard of Oz before Dorothy Gale’s arrival on the scene. The show, and soon to be movie, follows Elphaba before she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West and her friendship with Glinda the Good Witch during their time at school.

While Wicked the movie may clock in at over two hours and 40 minutes — approximately the same run time as the musical — fans will have to wait until next year for the second part of the story, as the 2024 film will cover just Act 1 of the show. The decision is a controversial one, but was seemingly made so nothing major was cut from the final product.

Plus, according to director Jon M. Chu, trying to follow up the climactic showstopper “Defying Gravity” that ends Act 1 was an exercise in futility.

“The truth is we tried for some time to make it one movie, even if it had to be one very long movie. But we kept running into two problems. The first is that even as a very long single movie, it required us cutting or omitting things that we wanted to include and that we think fans of the show and the story will appreciate.

Secondly, we found it very difficult to get past ‘Defying Gravity’ without a break. That song is written specifically to bring a curtain down, and whatever scene to follow it without a break just seemed hugely anti-climactic. So, for these two reasons, plus the excitement of doing something that’s never been done before with a musical, we have decided to do two movies.

Of course, when it’s all done, if it doesn’t work that way, we’ll have to figure something out. But we strongly believe that this is what’s best for our story, our show, and our fans.”

So, now you know!

Why Paul Mescal sees doubt about Gladiator 2 as only a good thing

The Gladiator II star knows that expectations can be a good thing.

Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic Gladiator is widely regarded as a nearly perfect film. Russell Crowe’s turn as Maximus was a career defining moment, and Joaquin Phoenix was phenomenal as the utterly unhinged and ambitious Commodus.

Twenty-four years later, Scott is ready for the movie’s sequel to hit theaters. Gladiator II releases on Friday, November 22, bringing the audience back into the world of ancient Rome, the Colosseum, and emperors. Paul Mescal takes over in the lead role, and the charismatic actor knows that viewers might have reservations about touching the franchise again.

“I weirdly see the reservations as a positive thing, because it means that the film has a legacy,” Mescal said in a recent interview with For The Win. “I’m biased, but I think from what we’ve experienced from the first kind of reviews is that people who did go in with a kind of reservation, a lot of those people were brave enough to say, ‘Hey, I went in with these reservations,’ but the film has has really, really worked on them.”

With a “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it appears as though the sequel is connecting with fans. With high-octane action and outstanding performances from Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal, it’s easy to see why. Still, Mescal wants fans to still keep the skepticism going into the movie.

“So anybody who has reservations, hold on to them, do whatever, but I can hopefully assure you that within the first three or four minutes of the film that you’ll be put at ease.”

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Why the gloriously stupid Brothers is the hidden comedic gem of 2024

Brothers is a gloriously stupid hidden gem. It’s on Amazon Prime Video now.

Twenty years ago, a movie like Brothers would open on a blustery October Friday, make about $15 million on opening weekend, play for about a month as a modest word-of-mouth success and eventually hit Blockbuster shelves for high schoolers to sneak-rent for a howler of a weekend evening with friends.

Far more Farrelly Brothers than Coen Brothers, Brothers is the kind of stupid crime comedy we used to get in bulk, back in the days film studios realized that people enjoyed watching funny movies in theaters with other people.

The cruel irony and/or sign of the times for Brothers is that it opened to little fanfare on Amazon Prime Video last month and has skipped out of the public consciousness as yet another movie skipped over on the routine streaming search. May it not be so, not with the perfect Thanksgiving movie ready to fire up with the adult members of your family you love but can’t always stand to be around.

Brothers is gloriously stupid, a movie so cartoonish and buffoonish that it hides in some pretty relatable themes about how you can’t choose your family, but sometimes, it’d be nice if they chose you for once.

Comedies like this have always been unfairly dinged for their lack of sophistication, as if aiming for the low-hanging fruit to make you belly laugh is some sort of genre crime. Brothers functions perfectly as both a silly farce and an excellent showcase for normally stoic actors to flex their funny bones.

Josh Brolin, Peter Dinklage and Glenn Close aren’t typically the people you see in Happy Madison-y movies, but getting them in a comedy directed by Palm Springs‘ Max Barbakow and written by I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore‘s Macon Blair should’ve been heralded as a grand arrival.

Brolin and Dinklage are irresistible together, as the former plays dorky dad far better than you’d expect and the latter in a refreshingly low-life mode we don’t normally get to see him in. Marisa Tomei shows up for a wacky few scenes, and this is one of the last times we’ll get to see the late, great M. Emmet Walsh show up in the kind of supporting role where he always thrived.

Some NSFW language to follow. 

However, the film belongs to recent Oscar winner Brendan Fraser. Fraser has always been a genius at finding his groove in any comedic setting. He’s perfectly capable of playing the smartest and dumbest person in the room, often in the same scene. Here, he gives what just might be the most hysterical performance of his career, one so wild and free in a way we haven’t seen Fraser in so, so long.

Combining the drool-mean menace of Rugrats‘ “Big Boy” Pickles and the foolish tenacity of a yippy puppy that can’t control its bladder, Fraser transforms himself into a Looney Tunes failson goon for the ages. Quite literally every single one of his scenes is funny, throwing in off-kilter line deliveries and gleefully reckless physical comedy to create a go-for-broke performance that is so special.

It’s one of the great recent post-Oscar performances, one so free of any ego and so in love with its own idiocy. Fraser is having unreal amounts of fun again in a good comedy, a wonderful sign nature really is healing.

If you want to turn your brain off for just a bit and enjoy a studio comedy with good actors and wily creative minds behind the camera, Brothers is an oasis in the desert. We need more stupid, mid-budget comedies like this, ones that aren’t doing anything new to make you laugh but still get the giggles in spades.

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Ariana Grande and Jimmy Fallon hilariously re-enacted an infamous The Wizard of Oz meme

“She came down in a bubble, Doug!”

Wicked hits theaters next week, and anticipation is wildly high for Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation of the popular (see what we did there?) musical. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo lead a star-studded cast that includes the likes of Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum.

Grande joined late night host Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show on Thursday night, and the duo decided to recreate an absolutely iconic Wizard of Oz related meme before the show for social media.

In the clip, Grande and Fallon brought the 2018 argument to life, flawlessly delivering lines like “You’re going to look at me and tell me that I’m wrong?” and “She wore a crown, and she came down in a bubble, Doug!”

Absolute perfection.