Culture Representation:Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the drama/thriller “I Hate the Man in My Basement” has a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latino and African American representation), mostly representing the middle-class.
Culture Clash: A widower has imprisoned a man his basement.
Culture Audience: This movie will appeal primarily to people who like to discover suspenseful independent movies that are compelling character studies rather than gory revenge thrillers.
Chris Marquette and Nora-Jane Noone in “I Hate the Man in My Basement” (Photo courtesy of Gravitas Ventures)
It won’t be a shock to find out the full reason why seemingly mild-mannered Claude Vaughn (played by Chris Marquette) is secretly imprisoning a man in his basement. The details are revealed about two-thirds of the way into the film. But it’s easy to figure out that revenge is the motive, once it’s established early on in the film that Claude is a lonely widower who’s grieving over his wife’s death, which happened eight months before this story takes place.
Claude, who’s in his 30s, is a salesman at a nondescript office in an unnamed U.S. city. His prisoner is a young man named Logan Kirby (played by Manny Montana), who’s kept chained to the basement by his neck. Claude has such animosity toward Logan that he won’t let Logan finish talking when Logan tells Claude in a pleading voice that he’s sorry and “I didn’t mean to do it.” When Logan still tries to talk, Claude reacts by punching Logan repeatedly in the face. And when Claude gives Logan food, he shoves the food toward Logan on a plate like someone would shove food toward a despised person with a contagious disease.
At work, Claude gives the appearance that he’s trying to move on with his life since his wife’s death. (How she died is revealed later in the movie.) His obnoxious and nosy co-worker Riley (played by Jeffrey Doornbos) sets Claude up on a blind date, so that they can go double dating with Riley and his wife. Claude is reluctant but gives in because Riley is so persistent.
Riley is the type of married guy who wants to hear details of his single co-workers’ love lives. He’s upfront in telling Claude that he thinks it’s time for Claude to get back into the dating scene. And Riley says he chose the blind date for Claude because she came across as “horny” and willing to do whatever.
The date is for a private salsa-dancing class. When Claude first meets his blind date—a chatty and needy redhead named Soria (played by Trisha LaFache)—she immediately gives him a big hug and says in a sympathetic voice, “I’m sorry,” to indicate that she’s aware that his wife has died. But when they get to the small dance studio, Claude and the dance instructor Kyra (played by Nora-Jane Noone) look at each other in a way that makes it obvious that they’re immediately attracted to each other.
Soria is oblivious though, and when she sprains her ankle during the dance lesson, the date is cut short. While Claude drives Soria back to her place, she blurts out that she hasn’t had much luck in her love life lately, because the last three guys she dated were married, but she didn’t know they were married until it was too late. Claude helps Soria into her home, and she immediately lunges at him to plant an aggressive kiss on Claude. He’s so freaked out that he pushes her off and runs out the door.
However, that doesn’t mean he’s not ready to date someone. He drives by Kyra’s dance studio and is terrified to see that she’s outside and has noticed his car drive by, so he ducks down, hoping that she didn’t see him. When this happens again on another day, she signals to Claude to come over.
At first, Claude awkwardly denies that he’d done a drive-by on another day, but then he admits it when it’s clear that Kyra is interested in Claude. She’s funny, sarcastic and witty. And she can also see that he’s very nervous. It isn’t until Kyra says to Claude that she was wondering when he was going to ask her out on a date that he gets up the nerve to ask her if she would be interested in having dinner with him sometime. Of course, she says yes.
Claude has moments of being socially awkward, uptight and emotionally aloof. On his first date with Kyra (at a fast-food Asian restaurant), he finds that her sense of humor makes him feel more comfortable. She opens up and tells him that she’s divorced (she says that she was married for less than a year to a man who was a compulsive masturbator), while Claude tells her that he’s a widower. Kyra thinks he’s joking at first, but is mortified when she realizes that he’s telling the truth. (She doesn’t ask Claude how his wife died.)
After that first date, Claude comes home and tearfully tells his prisoner Logan in one of the movie’s best scenes: “I had a date tonight and I enjoyed it and I feel awful.” It’s a turning point for Claude, because after being numb from grief, he’s starting to possibly feel love again—and it scares and confuses Claude.
Because Claude is starting to feel more vulnerable and human, he begins to treat Logan a little better. He buys Logan better-quality food. (Instead of frozen meals, he starts giving Claude fresh meals.) And later on in the story, he even gives Logan a book to read so his prisoner won’t be bored.
At different points in the story, viewers also find out that Claude has been visiting a police detective named Detective McGee (played by Cyrus Farmer) under the pretense of trying to help find the man whom Claude has been secretly keeping as a prisoner. Based on what McGee says, the man was a low-life criminal who disappeared, which the detective doesn’t find too surprising because of the guy’s dangerous lifestyle. Although it’s not shown in the movie, based on the conversation that McGee has with Claude, he’s become irritated with Claude for being a little too eager to help find this missing person. He tells Claude to let it go and that the police will handle the investigation.
Meanwhile, Claude ends up visiting Logan’s mother, Molly Kirby (played by Robin Dale Meyers), a hard-edged cynic who lives in a trailer. At first, she thinks he’s a detective, but he tells her he’s not. Based on what she tells Claude (“I wasn’t the most nurturing of mothers”), she’s neither surprised nor too concerned that her son Logan has disappeared. As for Logan’s father, Molly laughs when she tells Claude that Logan’s father isn’t in their lives and compares her situation to the women who go on the “Maury” talk show to get paternity tests done. As they near the end of the conversation, Molly asks Claude who he is, and he just tells her his first name.
The reason for Claude trying to insert himself into this missing-person investigation is likely to find out how much information the police might know. But the way it’s portrayed in the movie, it’s clear that he also feels a certain amount of guilt for being responsible for this disappearance.
However, Claude has a ruthless side too, because when he’s alone in his office, he’s shown talking on the phone to clients in an abusive and condescending manner. It’s a psychological tactic he uses to make the clients fear him so he can get what he wants from them. It’s also a look at a well-hidden side to his personality that would be capable of kidnapping and torturing a man.
As the mysterious prisoner Logan Kirby, actor Montana is a standout in the cast. Whatever horrible things that Logan did in his past, Montana brings depth and humanity to the role. He’s able to portray in subtle ways that during his imprisonment, Logan goes on his own journey of painful introspection about his actions and how he reached this point in his life.
Claude also has his own type of reckoning, as he reaches an emotional crisis by hiding this dark secret while unexpectedly entering into this new relationship with Kyra that is bringing some light into his life. The three actors at the center of this story (Marquette, Montana and Noone) do a very good job at portraying their characters. Noone’s portrayal of Kyra brings a lot of comic relief to the film, since Kyra has a sardonic-but-endearing sense of humor.
“I Hate the Man in My Basement” (written and directed by Dustin Cook) is Cook’s first feature-length movie. It’s an intense story that’s worth seeking out if you like movies that explore the dark sides of humanity. Cook has a lot of great potential, considering that the quality of this low-budget indie film surpasses a lot of mindless movies that are released with considerably larger budgets.
If you know a lot about true crime cases where people commit heinous acts and keep terrible secrets, it’s entirely believable how this movie’s characters deal with legal and ethical dilemmas. Although many people might think to themselves that they would never act that way, the moral of the story is that people don’t really know what extreme things they might do until they’re pushed to the edge.
Gravitas Ventures released “I Hate the Man in My Basement” on digital and VOD on March 9, 2020.
Travis Scott at the 2017 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, on April 14, 2017. (Photo by Brian Willette/Coachella)
Carrie Underwood at the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on September 22, 2018. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)
The annual Coachella and Stagecoach festivals in Indio, California, have joined the growing list of events that have been postponed or cancelled because of coronavirus concerns. On March 10, 2020, the concert-promotion company Goldenvoice (which produces Coachella and Stagecoach) announced that it has rescheduled both festivals this year. Both festivals will still take place at the Polo Club in Indio. It’s unknown at this point how much the lineups will remain the same.
Originally scheduled for April 10 to April 12 and April 17 to April 19, 2020, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will now take place October 9 to October 11 and October 16 to October 18, 2020. Artists who had been announced to perform, before the postponement happened, include headliners Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean, as well as Calvin Harris, Big Sean, Lewis Capaldi, Lana Del Rey, Flume, Lil Nas X, 21 Savage and Charlie XCX.
Originally scheduled for April 24 to April 26, 2020, Stagecoach will now take place October 23 to October 25, 2020. Artists who had been announced to perform, before the postponement happened, include headliners Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood and Eric Church, as well as Brett Young, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lil Nas X, Dan + Shay, Alan Jackson, Jon Pardi and Bryan Adams.
In terms of ticket sales, Coachella is the largest-grossing annual music festival in the world. According to Goldenvoice, about 99,000 people per day attended Coachella in 2019. The festival had a record-setting gross of $114.6 million in 2017. The country music Stagecoach averaged 80,000 per day in 2019. Goldenvoice, a private company, did not make public the 2019 grosses for these festivals.
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror flick “Beneath Us” has a cast of white and Latino characters, with the whites representing the upper-class and the Latinos mostly representing the poor and working-class.
Culture Clash: White supremacists who hate undocumented Latino immigrants turn into their rage into something deadly.
Culture Audience: “Beneath Us” follows a lot of horror tropes about serial killers on a murderous rampage, but the movie will primarily appeal to viewers who like horror flicks to have an underlying social message.
Lynn Collins in “Beneath Us” (Photo courtesy of New Mainstream Entertainment)
If movies are a reflection of what’s going in society, then there must be a reason why there’s been a recent surge in movies about people being hunted down and killed just because they’re a certain race or represent a certain class of people. “Beneath Us,” the Brazilian film “Bacurau” and “The Hunt” all arrive in U.S. cinemas in the same month (March 2020). And all three of these movies have plots about white serial killers feeling they need to “eliminate” certain people whom they consider to be “undesirable” to society.
For the horror movie “Beneath Us” (directed by Max Pachman, who co-wrote the movie’s screenplay with Mark Mavrothalasitis), the entire premise of the movie was already revealed in the trailer, so there’s no need to tiptoe and be coy about what this movie’s plot is. The only real spoiler information is revealing who survives in the story and who doesn’t.
Unlike writer/director Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning 2017 horror film “Get Out,” there’s absolutely no subtlety or mystery in “Beneath Us” about who the villains are and why they’re killing people. As seen in the “Beneath Us” trailer, there’s already been a body count before the story began, and the movie is just going to show more people getting killed.
So who are the targets of this murderous mayhem? The beginning of the film shows two Latino men trapped in a filthy underground bunker and trying desperately to get out. Most of the movie then shows how they got into this dire predicament. The title of the movie obviously has a double meaning: The captives are buried alive beneath their captors, and their captors think that their kidnapped prey are “beneath us” in America’s social hierarchy.
In the beginning of “Beneath Us,” viewers see that a young man named Memo (played by Josue Aguirre) is an undocumented immigrant who has recently crossed the border from Mexico into an unnamed U.S. city. He’s come to live with his older brother Alejandro (played by Rigo Sanchez), who also came into the U.S. illegally. Alejandro has been barely scraping by financially, by doing odd jobs that can pay in cash, such as construction and handyman work.
Alejandro has been living in the U.S. for about five or six years. He’s been sending money home to his wife and son in Mexico. Alejandro is also trying to save up enough money to pay for a hefty bribe to bring his wife and son over the border through an illegal underground network. It’s a network that exploits desperate immigrants by charging prices way beyond what most immigrants can afford, in order to smuggle them into the United States.
Upon arriving in the United States, Memo is constantly lectured by Alejandro about how they have to work hard to achieve the American Dream. Memo might have thought that living in the U.S. would be an exciting adventure for him. But he gets a rude awakening, because he and his brother have to spend long days and nights loitering outside certain places with other undocumented immigrants, in the hopes that people will hire them for odd jobs and contractor work.
Alejandro is part of a small group of other undocumented workers who work together on these jobs when they can. Memo joins this group, which includes cocky alpha male Hector (played by Roberto “Sanz” Sanchez) and his meek sidekick Tonio (played by Thomas Chavira). One day, while the four men are hanging out at a parking lot near a home-supply store, they get the attention of Liz Rhodes (played by Lynn Collins), who seems to be in the market for remodeling.
Liz has all the signs of being able to more than afford their services, so Hector approaches her and tells her that she can hire the four of them for a lot less than whatever she’s paying the contractor she originally hired. She looks at them briefly and says yes right away. She then immediately invites them over to her large home and drives the four men there herself. The home is in a somewhat isolated area, with a large field separating the house from the nearest neighbors. (Of course the house is somewhat isolated. This is a horror movie.)
From the beginning, Memo senses that something isn’t right about this woman. For starters, she said yes too quickly. She didn’t seem concerned about getting work references. And she had no qualms about bringing four male strangers into her home without knowing anything about them.
And perhaps out of desperation, the guys didn’t even ask for details about what kind of remodeling they would be doing. Hector just promised her that whatever she needed, they could get it done. Shortly after arriving at the home, Memo finds a building nail that’s encrusted with hair on it.
Meanwhile, Hector has his eye on Liz for a possible fling with this new boss, and he drops some not-so-subtle hints to Liz that he’s open to getting “fringe benefits” while on the job. Hector and Tonio also play Peeping Tom when they spy on Liz from afar in her bedroom window, as she’s toweling off after a shower. Hector’s hope for a sexual encounter with Liz is dashed when her husband, Ben Rhodes (played by James Tupper), arrives home and she kisses him lovingly in the driveway. Ben and Liz have no kids, but they have a German Shepherd that acts as a watchdog.
Hector wonders aloud to his co-workers, “What kind of man lets his woman pick up strangers? We could be psychos.” Memo replies, “How do we know they’re going to pay us?” It won’t be long before the four unlucky men find out who the psychos are.
Through Liz’s conversation with a real-estate agent over the phone and later when he comes to visit, viewers find out that Liz and Ben Rhodes have become rich by flipping houses (remodeling homes to sell them for much higher prices) and have about 10 properties that they’ve flipped so far.
Liz (who’s the dominant partner in the marriage) has the four laborers working non-stop all day and through the night. When they collapse from exhaustion and fall asleep on the property, she wakes them up by turning a water hose on them. Her pleasant demeanor from earlier in the day is completely gone, and she shouts at them that they won’t get paid unless they finish the work.
This is where the Dumb Decisions People Make in Horror Movies start to kick in for “Beneath Us.” Memo tells the other guys that they should all just cut their losses and leave, because he thinks they’re being set up and won’t get paid. But he’s outvoted by the other guys, who think that they’ve already come this far, and all they have to do is finish the work to get the money.
It never occurs to these supposedly experienced laborers that anyone unethical enough to treat them like slaves and make them work non-stop is someone who has no intention of paying. Perhaps the movie wants us to believe that because they’re undocumented immigrants, they’ve left their common sense behind when they crossed the border.
The next day, Tonio accidentally injures one of his hands while using a construction tool. Instead of letting him get medical attention, Liz tells the men that she can’t let them leave because they’ll all get in trouble because of the workers’ illegal immigration status. She tells them that calling an ambulance or taking Tonio to a clinic would require paperwork and identification, and the men admit that they don’t have any of the proper documentation.
And even if they wanted to leave, they couldn’t, as the men soon discover that there’s a high electrical fence surrounding the property that’s ready to electrocute them if they try to climb it. And then Liz and Ben show the men their guns and let them know that they won’t hesitate to use these weapons on them. Liz in particular takes pleasure in demeaning the men and hurling racist insults at them. At any rate, things turn very ugly and bloody very quickly.
As the thoroughly wicked and unhinged Liz Rhodes, Collins sometimes veers into a campy performance. At times, she literally cackles and howls like a witch. You almost expect her to pull out a broom and witch’s hat while toting that gun around. Ben mostly takes orders from Liz, but he’s equally maniacal in his racist and violent agenda. This movie’s showdown of good versus evil is mostly predictable, but there are several moments of tension-filled suspense. It’s clear from the movie’s message that no matter what happens to these characters, the insidiousness of racism isn’t going away anytime soon.
New Mainstream Entertainment released “Beneath Us” in select U.S. cinemas on March 6, 2020.
Culture Representation: Set in early 19th century Oregon, the drama “First Cow” is about an unexpected friendship between a white cook and a Chinese immigrant in a community of white fur trappers, Native Americans and a few white noblemen.
Culture Clash: Conflicts arise between the “haves” and the “have-nots” when the movie’s main characters steal milk from a nobleman’s cow to start their own makeshift bakery business.
Culture Audience: This movie will appeal primarily to people who like arthouse Westerns that take their time to tell a story.
Orion Lee and John Magaro in “First Cow” (Photo courtesy of A24 Films)
Before seeing the Western drama “First Cow,” it helps to be familiar with the work of director Kelly Reichardt. Her previous credits as a movie writer/director include 2016’s “Certain Women,” 2013’s “Night Moves,” 2010’s “Meek’s Cutoff” and 2008’s “Wendy and Lucy.” If you’ve seen any of these or her other movies, then you already know that she has a very deliberate pacing to her films, which take their time for people to get to know the main characters. Many of her movies utilize the power of silence to great effect, which is the opposite inclination of most of today’s films that try to fill up space with witty dialogue or high-octane action scenes.
In other words, if you think Westerns should be about gun battles and conquering frontiers, then “First Cow” is not the movie for you. Instead, the battles in this movie are more understated. They have to do with the everyday struggles that frontiersmen (this story is told entirely from the perspective of the male characters) experienced in the undeveloped territory of early 19th century Oregon. Even in the wild, wild West, they were still constrained by a social hierarchy.
The brief opening scene of the movie takes place in present-day Oregon, when a woman’s dog has dug up something unusual in a wooded area. The unnamed woman (played by Alia Shawkat) discovers that the dog has found two skeletons lying side by side, and one of them has its hand over the other’s hand. At the end of the movie, we find out how those people got there. There’s a quote from William Blake before the opening credits: “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.” It’s something to keep in mind as the story unfolds.
For the rest of the movie, viewers are transported back in time to 19th century Oregon, where quiet loner Otis “Cookie” Figowitz is traveling as a cook with a group of fur trappers, who are dressed like they’re at a Daniel Boone fan convention. One of the trappers is a Scotsman named Lloyd (played by Ewen Bremner), who’s a pragmatist for the group. Not much happens at first, as Cookie does mundane things, such eat yellow mushrooms that he finds in the woods.
But one night, Cookie encounter a naked Chinese man who’s hiding in the woods. The man says his name is King-Lu (played by Orion Lee) and that he’s very hungry. Cookie gives King-Lu a blanket and something to eat and drink. King-Lu then opens up that Russian men are chasing after him because he might have killed one of their men because they accused one of King-Lu’s friends of being a thief. King-Lu says he’s naked because he stashed his clothes in some trees as he was running away. King-Lu thanks Cookie for his help, and the two men go their separate ways.
Meanwhile, there’s an intriguing new arrival in the area. A well-built female cow has been delivered to local nobleman Chief Factor (played by Toby Jones). The animal is the talk of the community because it’s the first cow to live in the area. The cow is truly considered a luxury, but Chief Factor just keeps the cow tied up to show it off rather than to use the milk to help feed anyone.
Not long after the cow arrives, Cookie and King-Lu run into each other again at a local saloon. King-Lu, who says that the Russians left the area without finding him, invites Cookie back to his place to drink some more. It’s a very modest home (nothing more than a shack), but Cookie (who’s an orphan from Maryland) feels more comfortable here than he does with the fur trappers he’s been living with during his travels in Oregon.
As the two men develop a friendship, they decide to trespass at night on Chief Factor’s property, where the cow is held, and secretly milk the cow, who is gentle and friendly. It leads to them to come up with the idea to make biscuits (called oily cakes) from the cow’s milk and to sell the biscuits to the local trappers.
The biscuits are a delicious, instant hit and they always sell out. Thus starts a pattern: Cookie and King-Lu both sneak onto the property at night. Cookie milks the cow, while King-Lu acts as a lookout. Cookie is the creative cook for the business, while King-Lu is the more entrepreneurial- minded partner who shrewdly thinks up ways to expand their business. He even imagines that they could make enough money to someday buy their own cow. However, Cookie is more hesitant, because he worries about how much longer they can continue to steal the cow’s milk without getting caught.
Their biscuits become so in-demand that their customers sometimes push each other out of the way to buy the food. King-Lu takes advantage of this frenzy by auctioning off the last biscuit to the highest bidder. When people ask what the biscuit’s ingredients are, King-Lu says, “Ancient Chinese secret.” Cookie becomes so attached to the cow that he begins talking to her while he milks her.
Even when the cow’s owner, Chief Factor, shows up to buy some biscuits, he doesn’t detect the taste of milk, and therefore he has no idea that his cow’s milk is being used to make the biscuits. Chief Factor is so impressed with Cookie’s baking skills (Cookie has previous training as a baker) that he hires him to make blueberry claufotis for a dinner party that he’s having.
Chief Factor also invites the two men to his home to present the claufotis to his main dinner guest: an out-of-town visitor called Captain (played by Scott Shepherd), a colleague who thinks that this rough area can’t possibly have sophisticated meals. But when Chief Factor takes Captain, Cookie and King-Lu out to the back of his property to show off the cow, Captain notices that the cow is acting a little to friendly to Cookie.
Riechardt co-wrote the “First Cow” screenplay with Jonathan Raymond, the author of the novel of the same time. There’s a level of authenticity that the movie conveys, because it shows that life in this wild frontier could be filled with stretches of tedium for unmarried, childless men who are focused on trying to make a living and possibly get rich.
It’s that possibility to reinvent themselves as potential wealthy entrepreneurs that keeps them motivated in this harsh environment where they aren’t living a traditional and comfortable life. But just like Gold Rush hopefuls getting blinded by impatient greed, there’s the possibility that Cookie and King-Lu could succumb to the same vice. The heart of the story is the friendship between these two men and whether or not it can survive materialistic temptations.
A24 Films released “First Cow” in select U.S. cinemas on March 6, 2020.
The 34th annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals has been cancelled. The event was scheduled to take place from March 13 to 22, 2020, in Austin, Texas. A public health state of emergency has also been declared in the city of Austin. SXSW includes festivals for music, film and live comedy, as well as a conferences for technology, education and gaming.
Keynote speakers who were announced for SXSW 2020 included Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, Bumble founder/CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, The Blackstone Group’s Jon Korngold, “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King, DJ/producer Diplo, Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs and LightShed founder/creative director Gabo Arora.
Featured speakers were to include T Bone Burnett, Troy Carter, Anil Dash, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Steven Levy, Bob Odenkirk, Maria A. Ressa, Susan Rogers, Angela Roseboro, Jerry Saltz, Rhea Seehorn, M. Night Shyamalan, Nicole Wong, Stephen Colbert, Jack Dorsey, Samantha Bee, Bob Chapek, Jonathan Van Ness, Tarana Burke, Dr. Brené Brown, Dr. Werner Vogels, Lynn Shelton and Jen Wong.
Movies that were supposed to have their world premieres at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival included Paramount Pictures’ “The Lovebirds” (starring Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani), A24’s “The Green Knight” (starring Dev Patel) and Universal Pictures’ “The King of Staten Island,” starring Pete Davidson. The SXSW Film Festival announced that it will still give awards this year in the jury-voted categories. The films in competition are being made available online to jurors. Winners will be announced online and not at an awards ceremony.
Participants in the SXSW Comedy Festival were to include Judd Apatow, Davidson, Samantha Bee, Hannibal Buress, Joel Kim Booster, Thomas Middleditch and Horatio Sanz. And the cancellation of the SXSW Music Festival means that hundreds of upcoming artists will no longer be performing at the event this year.
The cancellation of SXSW is the largest entertainment event so far to be shut down due to coronavirus concerns. SXSW is one of Austin’s biggest sources of revenue, bringing in an estimated $355.9 million in 2019. Approximately 417,400 people attended SXSW in 2019. Over the past 10 years, the festival’s attendance and revenue had continued to grow. However, the costs of a coronavirus outbreak would be much more devastating to people’s health and well-being. Austin is not taking that risk.
“The City of Austin has cancelled the March dates for SXSW and SXSW EDU. SXSW will faithfully follow the City’s directions.
“We are devastated to share this news with you. “The show must go on” is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation.
“As recently as Wednesday [March 4, 2020], Austin Public Health stated that ‘there’s no evidence that closing SXSW or any other gatherings will make the community safer.’ However, this situation evolved rapidly, and we honor and respect the City of Austin’s decision. We are committed to do our part to help protect our staff, attendees, and fellow Austinites.
“We are exploring options to reschedule the event and are working to provide a virtual SXSW online experience as soon as possible for 2020 participants, starting with SXSW EDU. For our registrants, clients, and participants we will be in touch as soon as possible and will publish an FAQ.
“We understand the gravity of the situation for all the creatives who utilize SXSW to accelerate their careers; for the global businesses; and for Austin and the hundreds of small businesses – venues, theatres, vendors, production companies, service industry staff, and other partners that rely so heavily on the increased business that SXSW attracts.
“We will continue to work hard to bring you the unique events you love. Though it’s true that our March 2020 event will no longer take place in the way that we intended, we continue to strive toward our purpose – helping creative people achieve their goals.”
Click here for an updated list of other corona virus-related cancellations and postponements in the entertainment industry.
Culture Representation: Taking place in the beach city of San Pedro, California, the drama “The Way Back” has a racially diverse (white, Latino, African American) cast of characters representing the middle class.
Culture Clash: An alcoholic man, who was a star basketball player in high school, returns to his alma mater as a basketball coach while battling his addiction.
Culture Audience: “The Way Back” will appeal mostly to people who want to see stories about addiction or basketball (and there might be some curiosity over how the story compares to star Ben Affleck’s real-life personal problems), but the movie doesn’t show anything that hasn’t been done before in TV movies of the week.
Janina Gavankar and Ben Affleck in “The Way Back” (Photo by Richard Foreman/Warner Bros. Pictures)
Not to be confused with director Peter Weir’s Soviet gulag-escape drama “The Way Back” (which was released in 2010), the 2020 release of “The Way Back” (directed by Gavin O’Connor) is a drama about an entirely different struggle: alcoholism and coping with the death of a child. Ben Affleck plays Jack Cunningham, a lonely middle-aged guy who’s living a dead-end, self-destructive existence in San Pedro, California. In the beginning of the story, he has a job as a day laborer in construction. When he’s not on the job, he gets drunk at local bars before he heads home, where he lives by himself. Jack is obviously in a lot of emotional pain, but the story unfolds in layers over why he’s in turmoil and why he’s become an alcoholic.
On one of the many days that he’s woken up with a hangover, Jack unexpectedly gets a call to meet with Father Edward Devine (played by John Aylward), the head of Bishop Hayes High School, a Catholic school that is Jack’s alma mater. Father Edward asks Jack if he would like to be the head coach of the school’s basketball team. He’s up front in telling Jack that the team loses almost all of its games, but they could really use guidance from Jack, who was a star basketball player at the school from 1993 to 1995. It’s also the last period of time when the Bishop Hayes basketball team made it to the national finals.
Jack’s immediate reaction is to say no, but Father Edwards pleads with Jack to think it over and call him the next day with his decision. Before he makes that call, Jack spends some time rehearsing the words he’ll say to decline the offer. The next thing you know, Jack is being introduced to the team as the new head coach.
The assistant coach is Dan Espinosa (played by Al Madrigal), an algebra teacher at the school. Dan graduated from Bishop Hayes High School a few years after Jack did. When Dan was a basketball player in high school, he idolized Jack. Dan wasn’t a very good player back then (he mostly stayed on the bench), so he knows his limitations and is excited about working with Jack.
“The Way Back” has two very different trailers. The first trailer, which is the more accurate one, shows how much of a screw-up alcoholic Jack is and how he happens to coach a basketball team. The second trailer takes more of a “feel good” sports angle by playing up the basketball aspects of the movie. There are some thrilling basketball scenes in the film, but the movie is really about Jack’s turbulent journey as an alcoholic.
During the course of the movie, viewers find out that Jack has been separated from his wife Angela (whom he calls “Ange”) for more than a year. Jack has been an alcoholic for several years, but his marriage reached a breaking point after the 2017 death of their only child, an 8-year-old son named Michael. (How he died is revealed in the movie, and it’s an emotional trigger when something similar happens to someone on Angela’s side of the family.)
Jack’s main emotional support system comes from his younger sister Beth (played by Michaela Watkins) and her family, which consists of her husband and pre-teen son and daughter. Jack’s mother has recently moved in with Beth and her family. Over a Thanksgiving dinner that turns argumentative, long-simmering resentments come to the surface.
Jack is somewhat jealous that Beth is doing better in life than he is, and it adds to his feelings of self-loathing. Beth shows concern over Jack’s obvious drinking problem, but he thinks she’s overreacting and being a nag. He’s also annoyed because Angela has recently called Beth, not Jack, to check up on Jack to see how he’s doing.
Eventually, Angela (played by Janina Gavankar) meets with Jack in person to tell him news that he wasn’t expecting to hear: She has a new man in her life (his name is Nick), and her separation from Jack is probably going to lead to divorce. Jack is upset, but he channels his frustrations into his new job as a basketball coach.
As the team’s new coach, Jack is abrasive and prone to cursing a lot. He gets reprimanded multiple times for his foul-mouthed, short-tempered behavior by the team’s chaplain, Father Mark Whelan (played by Jeremy Radin), who’s there for spiritual guidance and to make sure that the team and the coaches follow the school’s moral code of conduct.
There are many expected scenes in the movie of Jack doing the “shouting coach” thing. There are also some basketball scenes using borderline hokey freeze-frames and slow-motion shots that give this film a “TV movie of the week” tone. It’s during the quieter moments, when Jack is alone and facing his demons, that the movie has more emotional resonance.
Under Jack’s leadership, the team predictably starts to win games (as seen in the movie’s trailers), but this isn’t a basketball movie drama like “Hoosiers,” “Blue Chips” or “Glory Road” (all featuring “tough love” coaches), where the biggest thing at stake is a basketball championship. In “The Way Back,” the biggest thing at stake is Jack’s physical and emotional health. As such, the basketball players’ individual personalities aren’t given as much screen time as you might think they would get.
There are some standout players on the team. Brandon Durrett (played by Brandon Wilson), a withdrawn loner, is the most talented player and Jack’s favorite. As the team starts to win more games, Brandon comes out of his shell and gains confidence. He starts to think that he might have a shot at a college scholarship and possibly the big leagues of the National Basketball Association.
However, Brandon’s father Russ (played by T.K. Carter) never goes to see his son play and isn’t very supportive of Brandon’s basketball dreams. When Jack goes to visit Russ at his shrimp fishery job to encourage him to support Brandon, Russ brushes Jack off and tells Jack that basketball is a long-shot, short-lived career that will only disappoint Brandon. He wants to see his son succeed in a job where he won’t be considered “washed-up” by the time he’s in his 40s.
Other players on the team whose personalities are distinct are Marcus Parrish (played by Melvin Gregg), the team’s cocky showoff; sharpshooter Kenny Dawes (played by Will Ropp), who’s a ladies’ man; Chubbs Hendricks (played by Charles Lott Jr.), an overweight guy who’s predictably the team jokester; Sam Garcia (played by Fernando Luis Vega), the guy most likely to give pep talks to the other players; and Bobby Freeze (played by Ben Irving), who’s a solid team player.
In doing publicity for “The Way Back,” Affleck has given candid interviews about the parallels between him and the Jack Cunningham character. Over the past several years, Affleck has been open about his addiction issues (alcoholism and gambling), which were among the reasons for his messy divorce from actress Jennifer Garner, the mother of their three kids. During filming of “The Way Back,” Affleck publicly had a relapse in his alcoholism. And “The Way Back” director O’Connor says that Affleck had a breakdown during a scene in the movie where Jack meets with Angela and confronts his issues. The scene got so emotionally raw, says O’Connor, that he had to cut most of it out of the film.
Although that scene between Jack and Angela is emotional, it’s a lot more muted than what it could be. It didn’t have to be melodramatic, but it’s not a moment where people in the audience will gasp or get so emotionally moved that they’ll start crying—a reaction that happened a lot in the big confrontation scene between the estranged spouses in the 2019 film “Marriage Story,” writer/director Noah Baumbach’s award-winning divorce drama.
Affleck does a very good job in the role, but the movie’s weakest link is that it’s a predictable script (written by Brad Ingelsby) that handles the subject matter in a way that’s been done so many times before in movies and TV shows. That predictability is one of the reasons why it might be difficult to convince people to pay full price to see this movie in a theater. People might be more inclined to wait until “The Way Back” can be seen on a small screen. However, “The Way Back” isn’t a bad way to spend a couple of hours watching a serviceable drama. It’s just not the most essential film about basketball coaches or alcoholism.
Warner Bros. Pictures released “The Way Back” in U.S. cinemas on March 6, 2020.
UPDATE: Because of the widespread coronavirus-related closures of movie theaters worldwide, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has moved up the digital and VOD release of “The Way Back” to March 24, 2020.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Italy and briefly in New York City, the dramatic film “The Burnt Orange Heresy” (which has an all-white cast) tells an intriguing story of secrets and lies in the privileged world of collecting fine art.
Culture Clash: It’s not uncommon for some of the characters to break laws in order to keep up appearances.
Culture Audience: “The Burnt Orange Heresy” will appeal primarily to fans of arthouse cinema who like thrillers about social climbing and people who play guessing games about their true selves.
Claes Bang and Elizabeth Debicki in “The Burnt Orange Heresy” (Photo by Jose Haro/Sony Pictures Classics)
It’s utterly fitting that rare paintings are the fine art that’s the focus of the noir-ish thriller “The Burnt Orange Heresy.” Because just like a blank canvas, many of the characters in the film have personalities and identities that can shift on a whim and can be designed and painted over in a certain way, in order to be appealing to other people. The movie also takes a blistering look at the fickle and highly subjective nature of fine-art collecting, which places more value on brand names and how art pieces are marketed rather than on the art itself.
In the beginning of the story, which takes place mostly in Italy, viewers meet central character James Figueras (played by Claes Bang), a charismatic Brit who’s an art critic and author. He’s single and living alone living in Milan. The movie’s opening alternates between James giving a lecture to a group of about 50 people (mostly elderly tourists) and his cynical rehearsal of his lecture while he’s at home.
During his speaking appearance, James shows an abstract painting and tells a compelling story about the painting’s artist. James says the artist was a young Norwegian man named Nils, who was 16 when the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940. Nils and his twin sister Nora were kept in a concentration camp, and Nils’ portrait paintings for the Nazis were what helped keep the siblings alive. However, Nils was so ashamed that he was forced to do paintings for the Nazis that he vowed never to paint a human or use a paint brush again when he created paintings. (Nora tragically died of consumption in 1955.)
James then says that the painting he has on display during the lecture is the last painting from Nils. He then asks the audience how many of them would want to buy the painting. Nearly all of them raise their hands. James then reveals that he really did the painting, not Nils, and that almost everything he said about the painting and Nils is a lie. James then asks the audience how many of them would still want to buy the painting. Almost no one raises their hand, except for a young woman sitting in the back of the room.
James tells the audience that this deliberate hoax during the lecture was designed to show the audience how someone’s statement about art carries a great deal of weight in how art is valued. He says that it demonstrates the power of the critic and “why you should be careful around someone like me.” It’s a self-serving concept because James is the author of a book called “The Power of the Critic,” which he happily autographs for the tourists who buy the book after his lecture.
The young female tourist at the back of the room who was the only one to raise her hand after the hoax was revealed approaches James after the lecture. They flirt in a way that indicates that they’re sexually attracted to each other. Her name is Berenice Hollis (played by Elizabeth Debicki), and she’s an American visiting in Italy. After some more flirting, it’s no surprise that James and Berenice end up in bed together at James’ place.
The morning after, as Berenice gets ready to leave, she essentially tells James that she had fun, but she sees their encounter as a one-night stand. James offers her an “upper” pill from a stash he keeps in a pill bottle, and she takes the pill. James then tells her that he’s been asked to go to the Lake Como estate of Joseph Campbell (played by Mick Jagger, in his first movie acting role since 2002’s “The Man From Elysian Fields”), a wealthy art collector. James doesn’t really know why he’s been summoned to Joseph’s villa, but he thinks there’s a possible job opportunity in it for him. James impulsively invites Berenice to join him on the trip, even though they barely know each other. Without much hesitation, she says yes.
As James and Berenice take the scenic drive to Lake Como, a voice mail message being left at James’ empty home can be heard in a voiceover. The female caller leaving the message tells James that his check has bounced and to call her back to sort out the issue. All of this happens within the first 15 minutes of “The Burnt Orange Heresy.” Viewers now know three more things about James: He’s got a drug problem, he’s got a money problem, and he’s got a problem with telling the truth. What could possibly go wrong?
When they arrive at Joseph’s grand villa and are waiting for him in the parlor, James comments to Berenice about the paintings hanging on the wall. He smugly comments that Joseph over-paid for one of the paintings, just as Joseph walks in and hears the tail end of the conversation. Despite overhearing James’ insult, Joseph greets them enthusiastically and sizes up his guests immediately.
It’s here that Berenice reveals more about herself than she did when she was alone with James, because Joseph is the one to ask Berenice about her background. Berenice says she’s from Duluth, Minnesota, but she’s vague about what she does for a living. It’s clear that she wants to fit in with her upper-class surroundings, and she might be hiding something about her past.
James and Berenice are invited to dinner with Joseph, who causally says that he married into wealth, and the estate really belongs to his wife, who’s away because she’s traveling with their children. In order to disarm his visitors, who clearly come from a different social class, manipulative Joseph has revealed that he doesn’t come from a rich family, so that his guests will feel more at ease with him. The tactic works. When James and Joseph are alone together, Joseph tells him the real reason why James was invited for a visit.
Joseph has a big secret: A famously reclusive painter has been living in the guest house on the property. Joseph makes James tries to guess who it is before he reveals the painter’s identity. The famous recluse is Jerome Debney, an American who’s somewhat described as the J.D. Salinger of the art world. Jerome had great success when he was young, but he stopped painting and disappeared at the height of his fame in 1968, after his life’s work was destroyed by a fire. Jerome has been such a recluse for years, that many people in the art world believe the rumor that Jerome is no longer alive.
But now, Jerome has been living in close proximity to Joseph, who doesn’t want the recluse to know that Joseph is aware of Jerome’s true identity. How has Jerome been able to make money for all of these years as a recluse? Jerome has been getting his income from grants, according to Joseph.
James has been summoned to the estate because Joseph wants James to try to get an interview with Jerome. And why was James chosen out of all of the art journalists in the world? One of Joseph’s servants had observed Jerome reading one of James’ articles and heard Jerome commenting out loud that James was an art critic whom he admired.
The interview has an ulterior motive: James is supposed to get close enough to Jerome to steal one of the secret paintings that Joseph is sure that Jerome has done while in seclusion. Joseph hasn’t actually seen any such painting, but he’s certain at least one exists. Joseph says that James will be richly rewarded for this theft, which Joseph plans to pass off as a long-lost Debney painting that might be the only one left in the world.
A skeptical James asks Joseph what’s in it for him if he can only get an interview with Debney, but not a painting. Joseph then turns sinister and tells James that he has to get the painting, or else Joseph will reveal information about James that could completely ruin James’ career. (The blackmail details won’t be revealed in this review.) Joseph also tells James that he knows about an embezzlement scandal from James’ past and that James is having financial difficulties because the scandal damaged his career. It’s why a disgraced James has been reduced to barely living in the margins of the art world by giving art lectures to tourists.
The most contrived part of this movie’s story is how James ends up meeting Jerome (played by Donald Sutherland), a man with a refined demeanor, a Southern lilt to his voice and a mysterious past. While James and Berenice are lounging out by the pool, Jerome happens to casually stroll into the pool area and strike up a conversation with these two strangers, as if he’s a neighbor popping over for a visit anytime he pleases. It’s very out-of-character for a man who’s supposedly been hiding from the world for decades, so viewers will have to suspend their disbelief that Jerome just conveniently walked into James’ life in this manner.
However, the movie’s plot isn’t about the search for Jerome, because he’s already been found. When Jerome first meets James and Berenice, Jerome doesn’t know if they’re aware of his true identity as a famous painter. But James can’t hide being star-struck, and he makes it clear that he knows exactly who Jerome is. In turn, when James introduces himself, Jerome recognizes him as the art critic he admires.
James doesn’t waste time in asking Jerome for an interview, but Jerome doesn’t say yes so easily. He makes James do swimming laps in the pool before he’ll give an answer. James is reluctant at first to do the laps, but Jerome tells him that the longer he hesitates, the more laps he’ll have to do to get the interview.
After he’s sufficiently humiliated James, Jerome surprises James and Berenice by inviting them on a boat ride, followed by a meal back at his place. Jerome says that James can interview him during this excursion. The reason for Jerome’s generosity has less to do with James and more to do with Berenice. Jerome is quite taken with Berenice and relishes spending more time with her. And if she’s with another man, so be it. It’s easy to see why Jerome, as a lonely old man who craves female companionship, would agree to do the interview if Berenice is part of the experience.
The interview is the catalyst for some tension-filled twists and turns in the story. More secrets are revealed, and more lies are told. And the resulting actions will make viewers wonder what they would do if they were in the same situation. (The title of the movie is also explained during the story.)
Throughout the movie, director Giuseppe Capotondi skillfully conveys a tone to the movie that accurately reflects how pretentious the main characters are in the film. They appear to be casually blasé about their connections to the power and privilege in the world of highly priced fine art, but underneath, they’re all desperate for something.
James is desperate for a comeback that will make him and rich and famous. Joseph is desperate for a Debney painting that will considerably elevate Joseph’s status in the art world. Berenice is desperate for validation by people who are more sophisticated than she is. Jerome is desperate to find a human connection after years of isolating himself from the world.
All of the actors play their roles very well by convincingly portraying these superficial yet complicated people, who put on airs that they’re wonderful, yet in reality they’re all deeply flawed. Jagger, in particular, seems to take a delicious relish to his role, since he undoubtedly knows many people like Joseph Campbell. Sutherland (who is Canadian in real life) has played the courtly Southern American gentleman before, but his Jerome Debney character is a little more troubled than he first seems to be.
Bang (who is Danish in real life) has perhaps the movie’s most transparent character to viewers, since we see early on that James is prone to corruption, has a drug problem, and is in dire financial straights. However, the way Bang plays him, there are little glimmers of possibility that James isn’t completely selfish and he might actually be falling in love with Berenice. Debicki (who is Australian in real life) adeptly handles the nuances of her Berenice character, who will keep people guessing about her levels of morality and emotional intelligence.
“The Burnt Orange Heresy” screenplay by Scott B. Smith, based on the book of the same name by Charles Willeford, changes the movie’s era and location from 1970s Florida to modern-day Italy. It’s a wise revision because a Lake Como estate is a more glamorous setting befitting a wealthy international art collector. And the art world has changed dramatically since the 1970s, because the stakes are much higher and the brand names of well-known contemporary artists have reached new levels of fame, thanks to the Internet.
At one point in the movie, Jerome talks about the proverbial masks that people put on to hide their true selves and present another version of themselves to the world. He admits to Berenice in a candid conversation how he’s one of those people who’s put on so many layers of masks, he might not know anymore who he really is underneath it all. More than the quest for a rare painting, “The Burnt Orange Heresy” is about the lengths that people will go to keep putting on those masks and the desperation that results if one of those masks threatens to fall off.
Sony Pictures Classics released “The Burnt Orange Heresy” in New York City and Los Angeles on March 6, 2020. The movie’s U.S. release expands to more cities on March 13, 2020.
Today, Quibi unveiled that it will launch with 50 shows, including “Survive,” “Most Dangerous Game,” “Thanks A Million,” “Chrissy’s Court,” “Murder House Flip,” “Last Night’s Late Night,” “The Replay by ESPN” and more on April 6. Full list below.
As an added bonus, Quibi announced it would offer 90 day free trials for a limited time. To unlock the offer, viewers need to visit Quibi.com and sign-up before April 6.
Launching on April 6, Quibi is the first entertainment platform designed specifically for your phone and will feature fresh, original content from Hollywood’s biggest stars and creators.
Quibi will release 175 original shows and 8,500 quick bites of content in the first year alone.
Quibi will offer three categories of content:
1. Movies in Chapters: Big stories told in chapters that are 7 to 10 minutes in length.
2. Unscripted and Docs: This episodic category is food, fashion, travel, animals, cars, builds, music, sports, comedy, talk, variety, documentary and more. All with episodes in 10 minutes or less.
3. Daily Essentials: Curated daily into 5-6 minute quick bites of news, entertainment and inspiration. Quibi’s Daily Essentials will quickly give viewers everything they need to know – and why it matters.
Quibi – which is short for “quick bites” – is built for easy, on-the-go mobile viewing with new episodes of movie-quality shows delivered daily in episodes of 10 minutes or less.
The Quibi app is now available for pre-order.
Quibi will cost $4.99 with ads and $7.99 without ads.
BELOW IS THE FULL LIST OF SHOWS COMING TO QUIBI ON APRIL 6:
MOVIES IN CHAPTERS
Most Dangerous Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icv7FGqZCuA
Desperate to take care of his pregnant wife before a terminal illness can take his life, Dodge Maynard (Liam Hemsworth) accepts an offer to participate in a deadly game where he soon discovers that he’s not the hunter… but the prey. This dystopian action-thriller explores the limits of how far someone would go to fight for their life and their family. Let the games begin.
Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Christoph Waltz
Cast: Sarah Gadon, Zach Cherry, Aaron Poole, Christopher Webster, Billy Burke, Jimmy Akinbola, and Natasha Bordizzo
Writer: Nick Santora
Director: Phil Abraham
Executive Producer: Nick Santora, Phil Abraham
When the Streetlights Go On
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mahQOEbhA7o
After the murder of a beautiful young girl rocks a suburban community, the victim’s sister and her high school peers must struggle to find a sense of normalcy while coming of age in the midst of the murder investigation.
Starring: Chosen Jacobs, Sophie Thatcher, Sam Strike, David Lewis, Mark Duplass, Cameron Bancroft, Tony Hale, Beh Ahlers, Kristine Froseth, Queen Latifah
Writers: Chris Hutton, Eddie O’Keefe
Director: Rebecca Thomas
Survive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0aU0BzlBtI
Jane (Sophie Turner) wants to end it all. Then a plane crash almost ends it for her. Now she’s crawling from the wreckage with the only other survivor (Corey Hawkins) and a new drive to stay alive.
Together they embark on a harrowing journey out of the wilderness, battling brutal conditions and personal traumas in this thrilling drama based on the critically acclaimed novel, SURVIVE, by Alex Morel.
Starring: Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins
Director: Mark Pellington
Writers: Richard Abate and Jeremy Ungar
Flipped
Jann and Cricket think they have what it takes to become TV’s newest house-flipping couple. Unfortunately, a Mexican drug cartel thinks so too. Now the delusional duo has to survive their newest project – renovating the cartel’s mansions.
Starring: Will Forte, Kaitlin Olson, Arturo Castro, Eva Longoria, Andy Garcia
Director: Ryan Case
Writers: Steve Mallory, Damon James
UNSCRIPTED & DOCS
Thanks A Million
Executive Produced by Jennifer Lopez, this emotional and inspiring series features grateful public figures who kickstart a chain of kindness by gifting $100,000 to an unsuspecting individual who must pay it forward.
Across ten episodes, $1,000,000 will be put in the hands of everyday people.
Jennifer Lopez, Kristen Bell, Nick Jonas, Tracy Morgan, Aaron Rodgers, Yara Shahidi, Gabriel Iglesias, Anthony Davis, Kevin Hart and Karlie Kloss will each lead individual episodes of Thanks a Million.
Chrissy’s Court
Real people. Real cases. And real, legally binding decisions. If you thought Chrissy Teigen couldn’t become an actual courtroom judge, you’ve been overruled.
In each episode of Chrissy’s Court, Chrissy Teigen reigns supreme as the “judge” over one small claims case. Chrissy’s mom turned “bailiff,” Pepper Thai, maintains order in the courtroom.
Punk’d
Hosted and Executive Produced by Chance the Rapper, PUNK’D dares to go where no show has gone before. Now that technology can really augment reality, we’re back to pull the boldest pranks on the biggest stars in Hollywood. No one is safe.
Starring and Executive Producer: Chance the Rapper
Murder House Flip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukVp9ZpfEUo
From the Executive Producer of CSI, Murder House Flip is an unconventional new home renovation show that takes on the country’s most infamous homes: the ones known for mysterious murders committed behind their walls. Homeowners turn to high-end renovation experts, Mikel Welch and Joelle Uzyel, to remove the stains of the past and take these homes from morbid to marvelous.
Executive Producers: Josh Berman (CSI, Bones), Chris King (Penny Dreadful), Katherine Ramsland and Star Price (Active Shooter, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition)
Elba v Block
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZunLf3pcMTQ
One of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Idris Elba, and one of the planet’s hottest drivers, Ken Block, are going head to head in a hilarious, action packed rivalry as they pit cars against each other through increasingly outrageous stunts to prove whose car, and which driver, is the best.
Skrrt with Offset
Offset is a big fan of cars. His garage has over 30 sports and luxury cars. This series follows him as he joins his celebrity and rapper friends – like Quavo, Lil Yachty and T-Pain – exploring all things cars.
Guests on ‘Skrrt with Offset’ will include: Cardi B, Chance the Rapper, Dapper Dan, Jay Leno, Quavo and Takeoff from Migos, Lil Yachty, T-Pain and more.
“Quibi will give me a chance to connect with my fans in yet another way,” said Offset. “They don’t know how much I know about cars for real. This platform will let them see there is more to me than just buying cars.”
Host and Executive Producer: Kiari “Offset” Cephus
Nikki Fre$h
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3IRvX9UaIk
Starring and executive produced by Nicole Richie, ‘Nikki Fre$h’ unites her passions for Mother Earth and hip hop into her eponymous alter ego, Nikki Fre$h. Nikki brings a new voice to wellness with a totally fresh style of music – dropping socially conscious and educational rhymes on the world. Nikki Fre$h will interact with real life seekers and consciousness experts to learn ways to better serve our bodies and our planet — while comedically exaggerating those solutions to the edge of sanity
&MUSIC
&MUSIC shines the spotlight on the unsung artists and surprising elements behind the world’s biggest music stars. Each episode will reveal an unprecedented look at a vital behind-the-scenes collaborator that transforms the performance of an iconic musical artist into a cultural phenomenon.
The documentary series will feature the following artists on camera:
· Dance & Music: Scott and Brian Nicholson & Ariana Grande
· Light & Music: Gabe Fraboni & Martin Garrix
· Mind & Music: Ramiro Agudelo & J Balvin
· Audio & Music: Derek Ali aka MixedByAli & YG
· Style & Music: Jasmine Benjamin & Anderson .Paak
· Writing & Music: Andrew Watt & Ozzy Osbourne
Gone Mental with Lior
Lior Suchard is the world’s best mentalist – he literally can read your mind. He teams with a featured celebrity and runs him or her through a string of mindblowing mental stunts.
Featuring Kate Hudson, Ben Stiller, Zooey Deschanel, The Miz (Mike Mizanin), Big E (Ettore Ewen), Sasha Banks, Bayley, Rob Gronkowski, James Corden, and David Dobrik
Singled Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7zyJy588XA
Hosted by Keke Palmer and Joel Kim Booster, “Singled Out” will hook up a new generation of singles, of all genders and sexual preferences, seeking love in 20 bite-sized episodes. Reflective of today’s dating landscape, where everyone is connected, the series will bring online dating to life with a twist — the main dater is linked to the pool of diverse singles through social media.
“I am thrilled to be hosting ‘Singled Out'” said Keke Palmer. “To be able to reimagine this show for my generation and on a new platform is so exciting. Can’t wait for you guys to see what we have in store!”
Gayme Show!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NI1XOJESRQ
Hosted by comedians Matt Rogers and Dave Mizzoni, GAYME SHOW! is a comedic competition show that uplifts and celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. In each episode, two straight contestants are paired with a celebrity “life partner” as they battle head to head in physical, mental and even emotional challenges for the title of “Queen of the Straights.”
Some of the celebrity “life partners” include: Ilana Glazer, D’Arcy Carden, Trixie Mattel, Jon Lovett, Nicole Byer, Rachel Bloom, Guy Branum and more.
Dishmantled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4fx6V7ura0
From the Creator and Executive Producer of Chopped comes DISHMANTLED, a high-octane cooking competition that will literally blow your socks off. Hosted by Tituss Burgess, each episode starts with the cannon-blasting of a mystery food dish into the faces of two blindfolded chefs. They’ll use their culinary prowess to identify the exploded dish and then race against the clock to recreate it. Whichever chef comes closest to the original dish wins a cash prize.
Guest judges include: Dan Levy, Wolfgang Puck, Jane Krakowski, Antoni Porowski, Rachel Dratch, Roy Choi and more.
The Sauce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TCUJZoaQI4
Executive Produced and judged by Usher, THE SAUCE follows dance sensations and hosts Ayo & Teo as they explore the unique dance cultures in cities across the U.S., finding the freshest online talent to compete head-to-head for a cash prize.. Usher will serve as judge for this fresh dance competition series.
You Ain’t Got These
Executive Produced by Lena Waithe, this is not a show about sneakers. It’s a show about sneaker culture. Fitting in. And belonging to something bigger than yourself.
Episodes feature: Carmelo Anthony, Billie Jean King, Hasan Minhaj, Candance Parker, Questlove, Nas, Jazerai Allen- Lord, Kerby Jean-Raymond, Mike Epps, Jemele Hill, Lena Waithe, Josh Luber and Eric Koston
Fierce Queens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpfQfF3BuTY
Presented by Reese Witherspoon, this nature series explores the fabulous females of the animal kingdom. From ant queens to speedy cheetahs, they call the shots in their world and sit at the top of the social hierarchy earning them the title “fierce queens”.
From the multi-award-winning BBC Studios Natural History Unit, this documentary series will bring you the most dramatic natural history stories from a fresh female perspective.
Executive Producer: Jo Shinner
Prodigy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG5St5asH8o
Hosted by Megan Rapinoe, each episode highlights one Prodigy’s unprecedented athletic accomplishments, while also diving deep into their origin stories to introduce the Prodigies to the world in a powerful, unique way. Each episode will inspire not only sports fans, but fans of the human experience, all while honoring the villages that helped them earn the numerous National, World and Olympic Championships they have obtained early in their young careers.
The 2020 Prodigy Class is:
· Jalen Green: #1 ranked high school basketball player in the country
· Sha’Carri Richardson: fastest woman in NCAA track and field history
· Red Gerard: youngest Winter Olympic Gold Medalist since 1928
· Regan Smith: fastest woman in swimming history
· Matthew Boling: fastest man in high school track and field history
· Tyler Adams: member of the USMNT, one of the world’s most promising soccer stars
· Korey Foreman: #1 ranked high school football player in the country
· Chantel Navarro: US Junior National Boxing Team member, 5-time National Champion
Run This City
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFoj613ZZdE
RUN THIS CITY is a series that follows Jasiel Correia II as he navigates his role as the youngest mayor of Fall River, MA ever elected to office. When the FBI indicts him for his former company, Correia vows to fight the charges and be vindicated.
Shape of Pasta
Chef Evan Funke. Italy. And the pursuit of pasta perfection. He’s uncovering the craft and culture behind some rare and forgotten pasta shapes. We dare you not to drool.
Follow Chef Evan Funke’s passion-filled quest to find the last remaining masters of the world’s most beloved food… pasta. Join his whirlwind tour of Italy to keep these traditions alive.
NightGowns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBT5t5Zd4kg
Full of heart, humor, and a hell of a lot of glitter, NightGowns follows Sasha over the course of eight episodes as she adapts her critically-acclaimed Brooklyn drag revue into a full-on stage production – and the biggest drag showcase of her life.
Part performance documentary, part portrait of the artist, we’ll watch Velour work with each member of her uniquely inclusive ensemble to craft the lip-sync performances of their wildest dreams. Each installment draws us to one performer in particular and pulls back the curtain on their life out of drag, their process, and their story, culminating in a made-for-mobile visual expression of their live number, directed by legendary music video director Sophie Muller. The result will be something totally new: live drag, designed for the screen. Eight iconic, shareable, must-watch performances that redefine what drag can be.
Executive Producer: Sasha Velour
DAILY ESSENTIALS
Last Night’s Late Night
From Entertainment Weekly, LAST NIGHT’S LATE NIGHT celebrates late night television every morning with a breakdown of the smartest monologues, best interviews and must-see sketches. This daily recap series highlights the best moments from the previous evening’s shows to determine who won the night and the week!
Quibi also confirmed Heather Gardner will host the daily show.
Host: Heather Gardner
The Daily Chill
By combining guided meditation and awe-inspiring visuals, THE DAILY CHILL takes users on a pathway to calmness. Each episode features a new global destination and, with it, a new ASMR journey to peace.
The Rachel Hollis Show
NYT Best Seller Rachel Hollis helps you level up your life with a daily dose of motivation & inspiration. The show will run once daily, Monday through Friday.
Sexology with Shan Boodram
Created by Corin Nelson and Shan Boodram, SEXOLOGY WITH SHAN BOODRAM features certified sexologist and intimacy expert Shan Boodram as she shows viewers how to navigate the realities of sex, dating and relationships in a world where the rules of love and attraction are often confusing and fluid.
“Relationships and our relationship to our sexuality is a big part of our daily lives, which is why I am over the moon to be a part of Quibi’s Daily Essentials slate,” said Shan Boodram. “Everyone should have access to tools to become their own sex and relationship expert, and with our new daily show, we will be able to provide those necessary tools to Quibi’s audience in a highly engaging format. This is the kind of project I’ve dreamed of being a part of for my entire career.”
Fashion’s A Drag
Model/actress Willam Belli joined by supermodel Denise Bidot kick back with their closest drag queen friends to break down what the hottest celebs are wearing and all that’s happening in the world of fashion.
Hosted by: Willam Belli, Denise Bidot
60 in 6 by CBS NEWS
The longest running and most watched news program on television creates a new edition for a new generation. A rotating cast of dedicated correspondents will tackle one story a week on topics ranging from hard news coverage to politics, lifestyle, pop culture, business, health, and science. We call it, 60 in 6.
The popular and critically-acclaimed podcast, The Nod, is now a daily show on Quibi. Five days a week, hosts Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings dig into the biggest moments and most under-explored corners of Black culture, as told by the actors, musicians, writers, thinkers, chefs, activists, artists, and everyday people who live it. The Nod tells the stories about Black life you won’t see anywhere else.
Around the World by BBC News
Drawing on the BBC’s vast global network, along with its 100-year history of impartial and authentic storytelling, Around the World will ensure that Quibi’s users stay up to date with the most important and illuminating international stories.
Morning Report by NBC NEWS
This fast-paced show gets you up to speed with the most important headlines from around the world, and gives you the context to go deeper on the stories that matter most.
Evening Report by NBC NEWS
A new kind of evening broadcast built on the vast resources of NBC News, and featuring in-depth pieces and explainers to get you up to speed on what matters and why – all before cocktail hour
Saturday Report by NBC NEWS
Each Saturday, NBC News takes you up close to the meet characters driving a story that shapes our world.
Sunday Report by NBC NEWS
The pace of news can be overwhelming – so on Sundays we slow it down: taking a detailed look at a single critical issue.
Pulso News by Telemundo
Pulso News is a daily newscast catering to the English speaking LatinX market, where a proudly bicultural, binational host and a series of diverse LatinX contributors will help portray the diversity of our community and bring the issues that matter to light.
Anchor: Andrea Martinez
For the Cultura by Telemundo
Welcome to ‘For the Cultura,’ where we celebrate our Latinidad while reveling in all things pop culture.
Anchor: Krystal Vega, Freddy Lomeli
Weather Today by The Weather Channel
Weather Today will be a three-to-five minute show airing seven days a week that features the most important weather news stories of the day as well as a national forecast.
Anchor: Jordan Steele
NewsDay by CTV News
CTV News, Canada’s leading news organization, offers two new daily editions of curated news for Canadians. Delivered in a new and innovative way allowing millennials to get smart news they can trust, NewsDay by CTV News and NewsNight by CTV News covers the biggest stories of the day – from politics and business, to health and climate change. NewsDay by CTV News and NewsNight by CTV News stream mornings and evenings on weekdays, and NewsDay by CTV News streams mornings on weekends.
Produced by: Bell Media
NewsNight by CTV News
CTV News, Canada’s leading news organization, offers two new daily editions of curated news for Canadians. Delivered in a new and innovative way allowing millennials to get smart news they can trust, NewsDay by CTV News and NewsNight by CTV News covers the biggest stories of the day – from politics and business, to health and climate change. NewsDay by CTV News and NewsNight by CTV News stream mornings and evenings on weekdays, and NewsDay by CTV News streams mornings on weekends.
Produced by: Bell Media
TSN Sports Show (untitled)
TSN, Canada’s sports leader and #1 sports network, will produce a daily sports information update streaming every morning, 7 days a week.
Produced by: Bell Media
The Replay by ESPN
ESPN’s “The Replay ” will feature daily episodes and breaking news covering the biggest stories in sports.
Hosts: Nabil Karim, Ashley Brewer, Sebastian Salazar
All The Feels by the Dodo
Most days need a moment of pure joy – a happy cry, belly laugh, and a little zen time. Everyday The Dodo curates a new animal story to deliver “All the Feels” to the Quibi audience.
Close Up by E! News
Get ‘Close Up’ with Hollywood – bringing pop culture and celebrity into focus daily. Small screen, big news.
Fresh Daily by Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh Daily by Rotten Tomatoes helps you navigate today’s endless sea of content. A daily conversation around the latest news, reviews and recommendations from the best in television, streaming and film.
No Filter by TMZ: AM
No Filter by TMZ takes you inside the newsroom for a twice-daily entertainment and pop culture show offering the latest in TMZ’s brand of edgy, exclusive content.
No Filter by TMZ: PM
No Filter by TMZ takes you inside the newsroom for a twice-daily entertainment and pop culture show offering the latest in TMZ’s brand of edgy, exclusive content.
Speedrun by Polygon
Speedrun will present a caffeinated, hyperfast injection of the news that the gaming (and gaming adjacent) audience craves, with insightful cultural deep dives into the biggest trending topics including expert analysis, exclusives, recommendations, and beyond.
Hosted by: Jimmy Mondal
Trailers by Fandango
Get all the latest movies and tv/streaming trailers daily, powered by FANDANGO.
Pop5
Pop5, by Mission Control Media, is a daily, fast-paced, and colorful collage of must-know information about pop music today. It will highlight everything that is worth talking about in popular music right now, go behind the scenes with artists and dive into why you like the songs you like.
Hosted by: Tim Kash
Hot off the Mic
HOT OFF THE MIC is a new daily show showcasing today’s hottest established and emerging comedians and their takes on the latest headlines. Released five days a week, the original short form series will be taped at leading comedy clubs across the country, beginning with the legendary Improv in Hollywood.
Culture Representation: Taking place in London and Seaford, England, the emotionally intense drama “Hope Gap” is about a middle-class white family affected by a painful divorce; the estranged couple’s son confides in two friends who are people of color.
Culture Clash: The former couple are at odds because the husband wants the divorce but the wife doesn’t.
Culture Audience: “Hope Gap” will appeal primarily to fans of arthouse cinema who want to see a well-written, well-acted story about the harsh realities of divorce and the effects that divorce can have on an adult child.
Josh O’Connor and Bill Nighy in “Hope Gap” (Photo by Robert Viglasky)
The divorce drama “Hope Gap” begins with gorgeous, sweeping aerial shots of Seaford, a small Sussex city on the South Coast of England. As the camera takes in the picturesque views of the cliffsides and grassy knolls, the movie’s narrator, Jamie Axton (played by Josh O’Connor), reminisces of a simpler time in his childhood. One of his favorite childhood activities was exploring in a cove called Hope Gap, located underneath the cliffs, as his mother would wait nearby on the rocks.
As viewers soon learn, Jamie’s nostalgic memories of Hope Gap are what he’ll have to cling to when he thinks of happier times in his parents’ marriage. And who are his parents? Jamie’s mother Grace Axton (played by Annette Benning) is retired, and Jamie’s father Edward Axton (played by Bill Nighy) is a history teacher at a local high school. Grace and Edward still live in their family home (a cozy Tudor house) in Seaford. Jamie, who’s in his mid-to-late-20s, is their only child, and he lives alone in a small London apartment.
Grace and Edward’s home might look comfortable, but the emotional atmosphere is filled with turmoil. The couple will soon be celebrating their 29th wedding anniversary, and Grace is annoyed that Edward doesn’t really seem to care. She nitpicks over little things—Edward’s hobby of updating Wikipedia articles, how he gets a cup of tea—and the more she nags and prods, the more he seems to shut down emotionally. She’s also angry that Edward doesn’t want to give any input for any plans she might have to celebrate their anniversary.
It’s obvious that Grace wants Edward’s romantic attention, and she’s practically begging him to say all the right things to her. But Edward seems to be paralyzed with not knowing if he can say the right thing, because Grace criticizes so much of what he does. Grace’s constant berating makes him think that he can never do anything right with her. As irritated as Grace seems to be with Edward, she speaks lovingly of Jamie. She tells Edward how much she misses Jamie and how she wishes he would visit more.
It isn’t long before Jamie comes to visit from London. Grace immediately starts in on Jamie about his love life. He’s single and dating, but not in a serious relationship. Grace says she wants him to settle down and get married, and she worries about him living alone. Jamie tells her that he’s comfortable living by himself, and he doesn’t seem to be in a rush to get married and have kids.
Meanwhile, Grace (who’s a very religious Christian and very opiniated) expresses disappointment when Jamie tells her that he’s become an atheist. She tries to enlist Edward in her debate with Jamie about religion, but Edward refuses to take sides. Edward tells Grace that religion isn’t a fact; it’s a belief.
Grace gets even angrier when she and Edward have a tense conversation alone together. She badgers him to tell her what will make him happier. He doesn’t really have an answer for her. He just wants to be left alone. The argument escalates when Grace asks Edward to tell her that he loves her, but he refuses. She gets so upset that she slaps him and turns over the kitchen table in a rage.
All the signs are there that Edward has emotionally checked out of their marriage. However, it still comes as a shock to Jamie the next morning when he finds out that Edward is going to leave Grace that day. Jamie gets the news when Grace has gone to church, and he and Edward are alone together.
Edward tells Jamie that he’s going to leave Grace because he’s fallen in love with another woman, they’ve been having an affair for about a year, and he’s going to move in with her. His mistress’ name is Angela (played by Sally Rogers), and she’s the mother of one of his students. Edward plans to tell Grace this devastating news when she gets home from church, and Edward doesn’t want Grace to be alone in the next few days after Edward leaves her.
It’s then that Jamie realizes that keeping his mother’s company after the breakup is the real reason why Edward invited Jamie over to visit, and Edward basically admits it. A shocked Jamie tells Edward that he wants to leave for a few hours because he doesn’t want to be at the house when Grace gets blindsided by the news. And the breakup goes about as horribly as you’d might expect.
Grace goes through the stages of grief, with denial and anger being the ones that are the hardest for her to overcome. She doesn’t want to give Edward the divorce, even though he’s offered her the house and a generous settlement. Meanwhile, Jamie is angry at his father and mostly takes Grace’s side in the breakup, even though deep down he now knows that Edward had been miserable in the marriage for many years. Jamie decides to spend more time with his mother when he can, so that she won’t feel so alone. He can barely speak to his father, and he doesn’t want to meet Angela.
As Jamie travels and back and forth between London and Seaford, the divorce starts to take an emotional toll on him too, as he sees his mother slide into a deep depression. She’s given up her hobby of collecting poems. She’s stopped caring about her personal appearance and she spends long hours staring into space. Grace also shows signs of mental instability that go beyond depression, because she leaves love notes for Edward around the house, in the delusional hope that he will change his mind and come back to her. And she gets a male Labrador Retriever puppy and names him Edward.
Jamie is somewhat of a loner, but he has two close friends he confides in about his personal problems—a couple named Jess (played by Aiysha Hart) and Dev (played by Ryan McKen). Jess and Dev, who are happily dating each other, offer some insightful advice to Jamie, because they know his dating habits, which is a side of Jamie that his parents’ don’t see. They tell Jamie that as much as he might dislike his father Edward’s seemingly aloof demeanor, Jamie can also be emotionally distant when it comes to romantic relationships, and maybe he needs to open up more.
When Jamie realizes that he’s a lot more like his father than he really wanted to admit, it prompts him to look at his parents’ divorce from a new perspective, and he starts to come to grips with how the failure of the marriage will affect his views on life. “Hope Gap” has a level of heartbreaking authenticity that isn’t seen very much in movies about divorce. That’s probably because writer/director William Nicholson went through something similar when his parents split up after nearly 30 years of marriage.
While so many movies about divorce have the divorced couple fighting over child custody, “Hope Gap” shows the perspective of an adult child of divorce who has to “choose sides” when the battle isn’t over custody but over loyalty. As the family at the center of the story, the three stars of the movie—Bening, Nighy and O’Connor—give admirable performances that are bound to pull at people’s heartstrings and tear ducts.
And the majestic seaside setting of “Hope Gap” (which is beautifully filmed by cinematographer Anna Valdez Hanks) gives added depth to the feelings of isolation, fear and wistfulness that the Axtons experience in the story. The treacherous waves that crash against the cliffs of Hope Gap are an apt metaphor for navigating the often-cruel devastation of divorce and not necessarily knowing how to survive it.
Roadside Attractions and Screen Media released “Hope Gap” in select U.S. cinemas on March 6, 2020. The movie’s digital and VOD release date is May 8, 2020.
Culture Representation: Taking place in a magical world (where almost everyone has an American accent), the main characters of the animated film “Onward” are mythical creatures, but there are some human characters with minor supporting roles.
Culture Clash: A recurring theme in the movie is the conflicts between modern customs versus the magical customs.
Culture Audience: “Onward” is a family-friendly movie that will appeal to anyone who likes an adventurous and heart-warming story.
Ian Lightfoot (voiced by Tom Holland) and Barley Lightfoot (voiced by Chris Pratt) in “Onward” (Image courtesy of Disney/Pixar Animation Studios)
“Onward,” the first original film from Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios since 2017’s “Coco,” won’t be winning any Oscars as “Coco” did, but it’s a solid animated film that will be a crowd-pleaser for people of various generations. The movie (directed by Dan Scanlon who wrote the screenplay with Keith Bunin and Jason Headley) spends most of the film as a Pixar version of a video game. The story is simple and straightforward, involving the main characters doing a series of challenges to get to a coveted treasure item. It isn’t until the last 15 minutes that “Onward” packs an emotional punch that shows the movie is a little deeper than a typical animated film.
In the beginning of the movie, which is narrated by teenage elf Ian Lightfoot (voiced by Tom Holland), viewers learn that the world he lives in used to be filled with magic. But then modern technology took over, and magic became a antiquated custom that has been forgotten by numerous people in the world.
Ian lives with his kind and loving mother Laurel Lightfoot voiced by Julia-Louis Dreyfus) and his goofy older brother Barley Lightfoot (voiced by Chris Pratt). Laurel, who is a widow, has a “good guy” boyfriend named Colt Bronco (voiced by Mel Rodriguez), a centaur police officer. Ian and Barley’s father Wilden Lightfoot (voiced by Kyle Bornheimer) died when Ian was a bay and Barley was about three years old. Ian is about to turn 16, while Barley is 18 or 19. (His mother Laurel mentions that Barley is taking a “gap year.”)
Barley isn’t in school and he doesn’t seem to have a job, so he spends a lot of time at home being the kind of brother who often annoys Ian, who is studious and socially awkward. The two things that Barley is passionate about the most are his beat-up purple van that he’s named Guinevere and his encyclopedic knowledge of historical traditions in magic that hardly anyone around him seems to care about.
Barley also seems to be living in a “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”/”Wayne’s World” time warp, because he dresses and acts like a playful metalhead, just like those movies’ characters of Bill and Ted and Wayne and Garth. Guinevere is also decked out like something out of the late ’80s/ early ’90s, with the bumper stickers to prove it. Ian is often embarrassed by Barley, because he thinks of himself as intellectually superior to Barley, whose behavior is sometimes like a hyper puppy.
In one scene that shows the tension between the two brothers, Ian has worked up the nerve to ask some of his classmates to his upcoming 16th birthday party. He’s delighted when they say yes. But when Barley shows up at Ian’s school, he embarrasses Ian so much that Ian tells his classmates that the party has been cancelled. What Ian doesn’t tell his classmates is he doesn’t want them to be around Barley, who would be at the party.
For Ian’s birthday, he gets a wizard’s staff that his father Wilden had set aside for Ian to get specifically when Ian turned 16. He uses the staff to make a wish to bring his father back to life for 24 hours. But something goes wrong during the spell, and only the lower half of Wilden’s body (from the waist down) has come back to life. The upper half of his body exists but is invisible.
And so begins Ian and Barley’s race against time to find the magical item that will fully transform Wilden Lightfoot back to his normal self. The item that has the power to do that is a rare, mystical gem that’s hidden. For most of the film, Ian and Barley go off on a frantic quest to find the gem in time before their father disappears when the sun comes up. Just like a video game, they have to complete a challenge to get to the next level in the puzzle that will led them to the gem.
Along the way, they meet a lively group of characters, most notably the sassy Manticore (voiced by Octavia Spencer), also known as a restaurateur named Corey. She’s the owner of Manticore’s Tavern, where she has gone to reinvent herself as a “respectable” member of society after having a wild past. Ian and Barley also encounter a biker gang of pixies that clash with the two brothers.
Meanwhile, the story takes on a “Weekend at Bernie’s” vibe when Ian and Barley have to dress the upper half of their father’s body, including making him wear sunglasses, so that they can see him better. Ian and Barley lead him around by a leash-like belt that’s wrapped around his waist. At times it looks a little creepy, but it’s all played for laughs. In his half-body state, Wilden can’t see or talk, but apparently he can hear sometimes. It’s a plot hole that has to be overlooked in order to enjoy this movie.
The visual effects in “Onward” are perfectly fine and much better than most animated films. But compared to other Pixar movies (such as the Oscar-winning “Toy Story” movies, “Up,” “Finding Nemo,” “Inside Out” and “The Incredibles”), “Onward” is on the lower end of the quality scale. And although “Onward” covers a lot of the same ideas that other “race against time” fantasy/adventure stories have done before, near the end of the film, one of the brothers does something slightly unpredictable that affects how he feels about his family. It’s a tear-jerking moment that a lot of viewers won’t see coming. And it wouldn’t be a Pixar movie if there isn’t a scene that’s meant to make people cry.
Disney/Pixar Animation Studios released “Onward” in U.S. cinemas on March 6, 2020.
UPDATE: Because of the widespread coronavirus-related closures of movie theaters worldwide, Disney will make “Onward” available on digital and on Movies Anywhere, as of March 20, 2020, and on the Disney+ streaming service, as of April 3, 2020.
