Netflix confirmed today that Beef season 2 is officially moving forward. The new season of the critically acclaimed anthology series will star Oscar Isaac (Scenes From a Marriage), Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman), Charles Melton (May December), and Cailee Spaeny (Alien: Romulus).

Here’s the logline for Beef season 2: “A young couple witnesses an alarming fight between their boss and his wife, triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner.” The season will consist of eight 30-minute episodes. Lee Sung Jin returns to serve as creator, showrunner, and executive producer. Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, and Jake Schreier also executive produce.

The first season of Beef followed “the aftermath of a road rage incident between two strangers. Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a failing contractor with a chip on his shoulder, goes head-to-head with Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a self-made entrepreneur with a picturesque life. The increasing stakes of their feud unravel their lives and relationships in this darkly comedic and deeply moving series.” The series has been picking up plenty of awards over the last few months, including eight wins at the Emmy Awards last month, including Outstand Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Yeun, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Wong.

Our own Alex Maidy was one of those who loved the first season of Beef. “I can think of a few series that can compare with the amount of funny and tragedy in Beef while presenting two equally stellar performances from the lead actors,” Maidy wrote. “Steven Yeun and Ali Wong had already proven themselves talented, but Lee Sung Jin’s Beef elevates them to a new level. Beef is an incredibly engrossing series from the very first scene and is sure to have everyone talking when it premieres on Netflix. Beef is not the series I was expecting it to be based on the trailer, but it is so much better than I was hoping for.” You can check out the rest of Maidy’s review right here.

What do you think of the new cast for Beef season 2?

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Do Oscar Isaac (Dune: Part One, Moon Knight, Ex Machina) and Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman, The Great Gatsby, Saltburn) have beef with one another? No, not exactly. According to Deadline, the duo is negotiating to star in Beef Season 2. While Netflix refused to comment about its status with the Emmy darling, it’s an excellent time to remind everyone that Netflix has not officially announced Beef Season 2. Deadline says the roles that Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan would play for Beef Season 2 were originally for Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, but momentum on them joining the series stalled. Meanwhile, the move to add Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny to the series remains a mystery.

Lee Sung Jin created Beef, which Ali Wong and Steven Yeun led. The show revolves around two people (Wong and Yeun) who let a road rage incident burrow into their minds and slowly consume their thoughts and actions. Their toxic relationship evolves into an all-out war with disastrous consequences. Beef received 14 Emmy nominations, winning 8, including the awards for Outstanding Casting for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Outstanding Directing for a Limited Anthology Series, Outstanding Picture Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Ali Wong, and more.

Oscar Isaac is involved in several projects, including The King of Kings and In the Hand of Dante, which are each in post-production. Isaac voices Jesus Christ in The King of Kings, an animated story about Jesus Christ as told by Charles Dickens through the eyes of a child. In the Hands of Dante follows the dark and violent path of a man who plunges into a metaphorical hell until he reaches paradise in search of his forbidden and impossible love. The cast for In the Hands of Dante is madness, with Gerard Butler, Jason Momoa, Al Pacino, Gal Gadot, Martin Scorsese, and John Malkovich making the trek through the layers of Hell.

Elsewhere, Carey Mulligan is teaming up with Laika Studios for the upcoming stop-motion animated feature Wildwood. She voices Alexandra in the Travis Knight-directed film. The story is told from multiple points of view, and the book features more than eighty illustrations, including six full-color plates. In Wildwood, Prue and her friend Curtis uncover a secret world amid violent upheaval—a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. What begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

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PLOT: An astronaut realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth.
Desperate to fix things with his wife, he is helped by a mysterious ancient creature he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship.

REVIEW: It should no longer be surprising when Adam Sandler stars in dramatic roles. When Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love was released in 2002, Sandler was best known for films like Big Daddy and Little Nicky. Even though Sandler still releases broad comedies like Hubie Halloween and Murder Mystery, the actor has proven his talents in movies like Uncut Gems and Hustle. Adam Sandler’s latest dramatic project is Spaceman, a science-fiction tale set in the void of the solar system. Partnered with Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan and acclaimed director Johan Renck, Spaceman is another solid performance from Adam Sandler that once again proves how good he is given the right material. While the movie itself may not be as good as some of Sandler’s aforementioned dramatic projects, it is still an interesting story about isolation and love.

Based on the novel Spaceman of Bohemia, the film opens with Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler) aboard a vessel on its way past Jupiter to investigate the mysterious Chopra Cloud, a nebula of purple particles that appeared in the sky. An experienced astronaut for the Czech space agency, Jakub has been alone aboard his ship for over one hundred and thirty days. The isolation has begun to eat at Jakub, including a rattling toilet that has prevented him from sleeping. Jakub communicates with Peter (Kunal Nayyar) and his commanding officer, Commissioner Tuma (Isabella Rossellini), but has not heard from his wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan). Unbeknownst to Jakub, Lenka has decided to end their marriage despite being pregnant with their child. As Jakub contends with his loneliness, he reminisces about his love for Lenka as he heads toward the goal of his mission. That is when Hanus appears. Voiced by Paul Dano, Hanus is an alien who looks like a giant spider and can read Jakub’s thoughts.

The introduction of the alien creature initially frightens Jakub, but throughout the film, he forms a friendship with the spider that alleviates his isolation similar to how Tom Hanks had Wilson the volleyball in Cast Away. Hanus probes Jakub’s mind which allows the astronaut to question the decisions that led him to this journey and away from Lenka. On Earth, Lenka struggles with her isolation as she shuts off communication with Jakub even as she confides in Zdena (Lena Olin) about her feelings. The shifting focus between Jakub in space and Lenka on Earth allows for Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan to explore the relationship between their characters through memories and dream-like visions. The surreal and ethereal look of these scenes is the most beautiful part of Spaceman which is anchored in Cold War-era designs for the Earth-based scenes at the Czech mission control and homes of the various characters. The technology on display appears archaic and accentuates the slightly odd look and tone of the film, echoing a similar feel in the film Swiss Army Man which, coincidentally, starred Paul Dano.

Clocking in at an hour and forty-seven minutes, Spaceman employs very deliberate pacing rooted in softly-spoken dialogue that at times comes across as rigid or wooden. I initially found the delivery of the dialogue to feel like it was being translated from a foreign language but this eventually transitions to the scenes taking on an almost poetic quality. Almost everyone aside from Adam Sandler boasts an accent of one kind or another and Sandler’s delivery occasionally borders on a vague European lilt. The European sensibility of the film gives Spaceman a feel unlike any other Sandler project to date, but it often feels like it is masking a weaker film by wrapping it in quirkiness to hide a lack of depth. The middle of act of the film often languishes in repeated moments that drive a wedge between Jakub and his alien friend before bringing them back together as he realizes more about himself. Adam Sandler spends so much of Spaceman alone or acting opposite a CGI creation that the film serves as a showcase for his acting abilities that he struggles to meet. Adam Sandler is quite good in this film but a stronger actor likely would have been a better fit.

Screenwriter Colby Day does not deviate much from the source material, keeping the setting, names, and tone of Jaroslav Kalfar’s novel. This allows director Johan Renck to dive into visual tricks he has not explored much to date. Renck, a veteran music video director, has helmed numerous television series like Bates Motel, VIkings, Bloodline, Breaking Bad, and Halt and Catch Fire but his critical acclaim came after he made 2019’s HBO series Chernobyl. By following up on that stunning project with Spaceman, Renck gets to blend stylistic elements from his music video work with a feature film format. Renck balances out the visual magic of this project, born from cinematographer Jakob Ihre, with a haunting score from composer Max Richter. The music in Spaceman is something quite stirring and when that is played against the dreamy tone of the images on screen, this film feels grander than it actually is. So much of the movie feels like an experiment for Renck as a director that it sacrifices the balance between being an edgy indie film with a mainstream crowdpleaser.

Believe it or not but Spaceman is the weirdest movie of Adam Sandler’s career. As a science fiction drama, the film feels like an arthouse twist on Interstellar and Solaris but through the lens of a filmmaker too reliant on familiar tropes of the genre. Spaceman wants to say something prescient about the human condition and how it relates to loneliness and isolation. But, because it wallows in an existential sadness where the energy of the characters never rises above somber, the movie is just too slow to garner any momentum. Spaceman is not a bad movie but it wastes an opportunity to say something substantial. While it could have benefited from a livelier edit, Spaceman is still an endearing watch with a great performance from Adam Sandler and a heartbreaking one from the always-excellent Carey Mulligan. This movie will not go down as one of Sandler’s defining performances, but it will certainly be an interesting footnote along the way.

Spaceman

AVERAGE

6

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A new trailer has been released for the upcoming existential sci-fi drama from the director of the popular HBO series Chernobyl. Spaceman sees Adam Sandler continuing to explore the more dramatic genre after his acclaimed performance in Uncut Gems and Hustle. In Spaceman, Sandler plays an isolated astronaut who is clamoring for his wife back on Earth. He encounters a mysterious creature, which is presented in the form of a giant spider, although emanates the calm voice of Paul Dano. Netflix shares the newest trailer from the film that is due to hit the “Berlinale Special” programme at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival for its world premiere before streaming on Netflix.

In addition to Adam Sandler, the film also stars Carey Mulligan, Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, with Isabella Rossellini and Paul Dano. Johan Renck directs the movie from a script from writer Colby Day. The producers of the film include Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin, Peter Kiernan, Michael Parets, Tim Headington, Lia Buman and Max Silva. Meanwhile, Ben Ormand, Johan Renck and Barry Bernardi are on board as executive producers.

The official synopsis from Netflix reads,
“Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub (Adam Sandler), realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late. Directed by Johan Renck and based on the novel Spaceman of Bohemia, the film also stars Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, and Isabella Rossellini.”

The director, Renck, is known for his work on the popular acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl. He tells Tudum, “I really wanted to have a performance from him that had nothing to do with the Adam Sandler we all know. I don’t think people understand how [although] he may come across as funny and sweet and all that, he’s very intelligent, really smart, profound.” He also teases a bit of Dano’s Hanuš creature, “Paul was the first thing that came up in thinking about [the creature]. He has this peculiar cadence when he’s speaking, his careful formulation of words, and his very unique voice.”

Spaceman travels onto Netflix on March 1, 2024.

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PLOT: The life of the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) and his complicated, decades-long marriage to Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan).

REVIEW: Maestro is a movie that would never exist were it not for two things: Netflix’s commitment to prestige fare and Bradley Cooper’s all-encompassing passion for the life and work of Leonard Bernstein. You can tell that Cooper spent his life preparing to do his passion project and has thrown his whole being into the film. Cooper hasn’t directed a movie since 2018’s A Star Is Born, because he’s spent all that time preparing for Maestro, and his passion shines through in every second of the film.

Indeed, Bernstein’s life is a fascinating one. He’s still widely considered the most influential musician of the 20th century. He was not only lionized as the first great American conductor who popularized symphonic and orchestral music in mainstream culture but also a widely successful composer. Indeed, his work for West Side Story is a classic, and in his life, he was looked at as a genius who could do no wrong.

While Cooper’s film acknowledges his brilliance and wisely scores the film entirely with his work, that’s not where he chooses to place his focus. Instead, Cooper and screenwriter Josh Singer zero in on his complicated personal life. Like many men of his era, Bernstein was a homosexual who felt he could never be faithful to his orientation and married a woman. His partner, Felicia Montealegre, was herself a giant of Broadway, being a noted actress, and the movie depicts them as soulmates – of a kind.

Yet, the film shows how the lie behind their marriage eventually starts to catch up with them, with Bernstein unable to resist affairs with men, while Montealegre tries to hide the truth from their kids, hoping he’ll be discreet. It’s a love story that’s pretty evocative of its era, as many such marriages existed. Cooper plays Bernstein as wildly charismatic and thoroughly immersed in his life as an artist. While many have taken issue with his artificial nose, it comes off much better in the film than in still images. To Cooper’s credit, you forget he’s acting – he becomes Bernstein, especially in the virtuoso moments where he’s shown conducting.

However, Carey Mulligan’s Montealegre gets just as much of a focus, with it ultimately a tragic story of a woman who loves her husband but knows he’s incapable of ever loving her entirely, as to do so would be to deny who he really is. It’s a situation many women of the era who married gay men suffered, as how could you hate someone for choosing not to live a lie? The movie depicts the ups and downs in their marriage, including a brief detour where Bernstein leaves to live as an openly gay man. But, ultimately, it’s life-affirming in that it shows how, despite everything, Bernstein and Montealegre did love each other and would always support each other in their moment of need.

All this makes Maestro a thoroughly compelling and unique love story. Cooper made an exquisitely crafted film, shot in a mixture of aspect ratios, with half the movie in black and white and half in colour. Cooper is disciplined in the film’s pacing, keeping it to two hours and change. He could have made a three-hour epic but chose to create a more intimate movie, and the result is one of the year’s most impeccably made films. It proves A Star is Born was no fluke, and Cooper is the next great actor-director of our time, similar to one of his mentors, Clint Eastwood.

My only criticism of Maestro, and it’s a nitpick, is that the film focuses so entirely on Bernstein and Montealegre that the supporting players fail to register. The cast is stacked, with Maya Hawke playing their beloved daughter, Matt Bomer playing one of Bernstein’s former lovers, and Sarah Silverman playing his sister. While they each have a solid amount of screen time in retrospect, it almost feels like they’re playing walk-ons, as the movie, being so lean, only really has time to focus on the couple at its center. That’s probably unavoidable, though, and if the alternative was to blow up the running time, Cooper made the right call. Indeed, Maestro is a film full of “the right calls” and the type of movie that sneaks up on you. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it but was profoundly moved when the credits rolled. Indeed, it’s one of the year’s best movies.

Maestro

AMAZING

9

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Adam Sandler‘s exclusive deal with Netflix has included his signature screwball comedies like his recent animated film, Leo, and a coming-of-age dramedy co-starring his family, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. Sandler has also been indulging in more dramatic roles in recent years with films that have involved exploring different facets of basketball, Uncut Gems and Hustle. Now, the streamer has released a first look at a Sandler sci-fi drama, Spaceman, which is based on the novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař. The platform has shared a quick teaser as well as a couple of images.

The film stars Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, with Isabella Rossellini and Paul Dano. Johan Renck directs the movie from a script from writer Colby Day. The producers of the film include Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin, Peter Kiernan, Michael Parets, Tim Headington, Lia Buman and Max Silva. Meanwhile, Ben Ormand, Johan Renck and Barry Bernardi are on board as executive producers.

The official synopsis from Netflix reads,
“Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub (Adam Sandler), realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late. Directed by Johan Renck and based on the novel Spaceman of Bohemia, the film also stars Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, and Isabella Rossellini.”

The director, Renck, is known for his work on the popular acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl. He tells Tudum, “I really wanted to have a performance from him that had nothing to do with the Adam Sandler we all know. I don’t think people understand how [although] he may come across as funny and sweet and all that, he’s very intelligent, really smart, profound.” He also teases a bit of Dano’s Hanuš creature, “Paul was the first thing that came up in thinking about [the creature]. He has this peculiar cadence when he’s speaking, his careful formulation of words, and his very unique voice.”

Spaceman travels onto Netflix on March 1, 2024.

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This episode of Revisited was Written by Cody Hamman, Narrated by Travis Hopson, Edited by Juan Jimenez, Produced by Adam Walton and Chris Bumbray, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Universal Pictures wanted a car chase spectacle that would appeal to fans of their Fast & Furious franchise. What director Nicolas Winding Refn and star Ryan Gosling delivered was something far from that. They made a fairy tale-inspired arthouse thriller with ‘80s vibes, a deliberate pace, and bursts of graphic violence. The film was the 2011 release Drive (watch it HERE) – and it’s time for it to be Revisited.

Drive started as a crime novel that was written by James Sallis and published in 2005. If you’re familiar with the film adaptation, you’ll recognize characters and story elements in the book. It follows a man known only as Driver. He’s a stunt performer by day. At night he uses his driving skills to work as a getaway driver for criminals pulling off heists. He becomes friendly with a single mother who lives in his apartment building. Just in time for her husband to come home from a stint in prison. That husband starts pulling off heists with Driver at the wheel of the getaway vehicle. Things go wrong. People get killed. And Driver ends up having to get revenge. Striking back against career criminals named Nino and Bernie Rose. Sallis wrote the novel with a simple, breezy style that allowed him to wrap up the story in just about one hundred and fifty pages. But he took a nonlinear approach, jumping back and forth in time from chapter to chapter. The book begins after things have already gone wrong. We get back story on the situation and Driver’s life, but the timeline is all scrambled. This makes it a bit difficult to invest in the story or the characters. But there’s a very cool tone to the book that makes it a good read nonetheless.

Drive got a positive review in Publishers Weekly, which led to the film rights being acquired by producers Marc Platt and Adam Siegel. They were drawn to the Driver character, who made them think of legends like Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. The challenge of writing a screenplay based on the novel was given to Hossein Amini. Who had earned an Oscar nomination for writing the 1997 film The Wings of the Dove. The project was set up at Universal, and the studio’s hope was that this could become another car-centric franchise for them. Appealing to the same audience that was coming out to see their Fast & Furious movies. In early 2008, Dog Soldiers and The Descent director Neil Marshall was hired to take the helm. With the role of Driver going to Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman. Marshall was hoping to get Drive into production that summer, and told Variety that Amini had written three amazing car chases. Chases that would also play as dramatic scenes.

But filming didn’t get underway in 2008. Marshall never had the chance to bring those chases to the screen. By 2010, he and Jackman had both left the project. That’s when Platt turned to another actor he was eager to work with: Ryan Gosling. Who was best known for working on dramas. He had never made a movie like the one Drive was envisioned as being, but he was interested in working on an action project. So he signed on – and was given the opportunity to choose the director. Plenty of directors could have taken the material and delivered the sixty million dollar action extravaganza Universal was looking for. Instead, Gosling focused on Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn. Who had made seven movies at that point, all of which had low budgets and limited distribution. The one that had caught Gosling’s attention was the crime drama prison film Bronson. Which starred Tom Hardy, but only had a budget of two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Refn agreed to meet with Gosling and read one of the many script drafts Amini had written. A draft that no longer included the idea that Driver is a stuntman by day. But Refn had the flu and was heavily medicated, so his first meeting with Gosling didn’t go well. He couldn’t communicate. Refn doesn’t drive, since he’s too thrilled by the sensation of speeding to trust himself with a license. So he asked Gosling to drive him back to where he was staying. An hour-long drive they spent mostly in silence. Gosling turned on the radio. REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” started playing. The ill and medicated Refn started singing along while breaking down in tears. He turned to Gosling and said, “I know what this movie is. It’s about a guy who drives around listening to pop music because it’s the only way he can feel.” And in that moment, he got the job to direct Drive.

Refn went to work with Amini to craft the script for his vision of the material. They put Driver’s stunt driver career back in. Whittled out some unneeded elements from the book. Added their own ideas to the story. Reworked the characters – and in doing so, made the rare adaptation that has more emotional substance than the source material. Refn had been reading Grimms’ Fairy Tales to his daughter, and was inspired to turn Drive into a fairy tale set in Los Angeles. As he explained to The New York Times, fairy tales deal in “minimalism; there’s almost no dialogue, it’s all about descriptions of emotions. The characters are always the same: there’s a prince or a knight, an innocent woman who’s extremely beautiful and pure and needs protection, an evil king or a witch. And that is essentially the DNA of the structure of Drive.” He saw Driver as a man who transforms himself into a hero to protect the woman he has fallen in love with. He and Gosling have even referred to Drive as a superhero movie. And since a superhero needs a costume, they got a cool bomber jacket for Driver to wear, with a scorpion on the back. At one point during his mission of vengeance, he even wears a mask. Stolen from the set of the movie he was working on.

Despite the heroics, Drive was clearly no longer going to be a flashy blockbuster. Studios passed on it. The filmmakers had to get independent financing. With a poster of a car engine that looked like a heart, Refn went to Cannes to present the project to potential distributors. His sales pitch was simply, “Drive is going to be like really good cocaine.” That’s all the investors needed to hear. A large portion of the film’s thirteen million dollar budget was raised at Cannes.

A supporting cast was assembled around Gosling. The single mother Driver falls for was meant to be a Latin character named Irina. But she became Irene when Carey Mulligan came in and won Refn over. As soon as he met her, he felt the urge to protect her. Just like Driver wants to protect Irene. Bryan Cranston was given the chance to build his own character as Driver’s troubled mentor Shannon. Oscar Isaac also brought a lot of his own ideas to the character of Standard, Irene’s troubled husband. Albert Brooks was cast against type as crime boss Bernie Rose. Who becomes a conflicted killer when he feels people have to die for his own well-being. Ron Perlman was cast as Bernie’s screw-up business partner Nino. James Biberi’s character Cook works for Nino. Cook brings a woman named Blanche in on a job. Refn was initially looking to cast a porn star as Blanche, but wasn’t impressed by the acting skills of any he met with. So he ended up casting Christina Hendricks. Russ Tamblyn makes a blink-and-miss-it cameo as an underground doctor.

With filming set to take place in Los Angeles over two months in the fall of 2010, Refn rented a house in the city. His family moved in with him – and Hossein Amini moved in as well. So the director and writer would continue working on the script throughout production. As Refn shot the film largely in chronological order. He also moved his editor Matthew Newman into the house so they could cut the footage together there. Carey Mulligan needed a place to stay, so she stayed with them. She baked a carrot cake for her housemates every day. Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman would sit in the back yard, smoking cigars and telling jokes. At night, Gosling would drive Refn around the city, immersed in the atmosphere of the film they were making.

While being driven around Los Angeles, Refn picked up the feeling that the city had an ‘80s vibe to it. So he brought that vibe to the film as well. Presenting the credits in an ‘80s style pink font. And using music reminiscent of ‘80s synthesizer Europop. At first, he had Johnny Jewel of Desire and The Chromatics – which have songs on the soundtrack – composing the score as well. But then higher-ups insisted that Refn needed to have an experienced composer do the music. So Jewel was replaced by Cliff Martinez, and Refn had him compose the electronic score he was looking for. The music and the songs on the soundtrack became some of the most popular elements of the film. With the song “Nightcall” by Kavinsky playing over the title sequence. Letting us know exactly what sort of tone the whole film is going to have. And the song “A Real Hero” by College and Electric Youth matching Refn’s vision of the Driver character.

The shooting script was only eighty-one pages, largely due to the decision to make Driver a man of few words. If he doesn’t have anything to say, he doesn’t speak. He doesn’t make small talk. One reason was because Gosling and Refn wanted to capture the atmosphere of driving along in a car. The spell it puts you under. Talking pulls you out of that spell. His quietness is also evocative of past cinematic heroes. Like the Man With No Name or Max in The Road Warrior. As John Wayne advised, “Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.” Many characters seem tougher by not talking – but in the case of the Driver, his silence makes him seem softer. He does illegal things. He’s surrounded by criminals. But he’s only a driver in the illegal scenarios. He doesn’t even carry a gun. Compared to some of the people he interacts with, he seems like an innocent. The villains played by Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman are his opposites, talkative and loud. And his perceived innocence is important for the first half of the film. Which focuses on the relationship that develops between Driver and Irene.

There is a sweetness to the first half of Drive that was very intentional. Refn wanted it to start out very pure. Inspired by Sixteen Candles, he wanted the scenes between Driver and Irene to present the idea, or the illusion, of perfect love. Pure and simple. Driver’s lack of dialogue was an important part of this. As Refn told Complex, “How I see it, you can’t talk about love. You can only feel love. So almost all of the dialogue needed to be eliminated, because if they talk, it wouldn’t be magical. Their chemistry really needed to be magical for it to truly work.” And it really does. The scenes with Driver and Irene are so pleasant to watch, you almost don’t want to reach the second half of the film. With its action and violence.

But Standard comes home. And when the robbery goes wrong… and the violence comes… Refn doesn’t hold back. Blood is spilled. Heads are smashed and blown apart. Following the fairy tale structure, he needed the film to become dark and moralistic toward the end. For him, the heart of the film is a scene he came up with at the last minute. A scene where Driver and Irene are in an elevator. Driver realizes they’re riding with a dangerous man. So he gives Irene a kiss. The only kiss they ever share. Then he beats the man to death to protect her. For Refn, this scene was representative of the entire movie. It starts off pure and beautiful, then erupts in a psychotic explosion. It also shows that Driver loves Irene so much, he’d rather protect her than be with her. And he’s willing to use any level of violence to protect her.

The action in the movie is rather low-key. After all, it didn’t have much of a budget. Like Neil Marshall said, there are three car chases. Evading the police at the beginning. A chase after the robbery goes wrong. And a scene where Driver goes after Nino on the road. But these are much smaller than they would have been in the bigger budget version with Hugh Jackman. For the post-robbery chase, Refn had one car to crash and one take to capture the stunt… And it was a very underwhelming crash. If there wasn’t a shot of Christina Hendricks in Driver’s car with the crash happening behind her, it would have been a complete loss.

But Drive is a great film even without spectacular action. Featuring excellent performances from the cast. A really cool, retro feel. Mixed with some arthouse presentation. And it tells an emotionally engaging story of doomed love.

Gosling knew they had made something unique and special here. As he told The Playlist, it was supposed to be a commercial movie. But ended up being “some kind of crazy cross between Blue Velvet and Purple Rain.” The fact that it was unique and special allowed it to find an appreciative audience, even if it didn’t seem commercial any longer. It wasn’t a blockbuster, but it did earn over eighty-one million at the box office. A good number for a movie made for less than fifteen million. It developed a strong cult following. And was successful and popular enough for there to be talk of a sequel.

Drive did get a sequel in novel form. The year after the film was released, author James Sallis published a follow-up called Driven. Which finds Driver living in Phoenix under an assumed name, engaged to be married. When his fiancée is killed, he has to go on another rampage of revenge. Refn never read Driven, but he did write his own treatment for a Drive sequel… It just didn’t feel right to him. Drive was a product of the specific circumstances it was made under. They would never be able to duplicate those circumstances. To recapture the magic. They would fail if they tried. So the decision was made to leave Drive as a standalone film. Gosling and Refn went on to make another action movie, Only God Forgives, together… But that didn’t go over nearly as well as its predecessor. To date, Drive remains by far the most popular film Refn has ever made.

We’ll probably never see Driver again. But his one movie still holds up more than a decade later. It works just as well now as it did when it was released. It’s a great film to revisit. To watch Driver fall for Irene all over again. And to see him crack skulls to keep her safe. Fairy tale love stories don’t get any better than that.

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PLOT: Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.

REVIEW: We all have a fascination with the rich. The sordid lives of the aristocratic have always made for brilliant fodder in novels, television, and film. For her second directorial effort, Emerald Fennell has looked into the lives of a clan of rich Brits through the eyes of an outsider. Like Promising Young Woman, Saltburn begins as a dark comedy and an indictment of old money becomes a psychological thriller. With her trademark wit and a stellar cast led by Barry Keoghan in one of his best performances to date, Saltburn is a movie made to be recognized during awards season. The problem is that it is not as good as it should be. Far from being a bad film, Saltburn is missing the dive into the deeper levels of the characters and their motivations and instead relies on surface-level shocks and whipsmart insults that make it feel more like Downton Abbey crossed with Succession.

Set in 2006, Saltburn opens with the first day of classes at Oxford. We meet Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), a scholarship student who has none of the social inroads of his legacy classmates. Relegated to hanging out with fellow outsider Michael Gavey (House of the Dragon‘s Ewan Mitchell), Oliver makes nice with Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) while making enemies with Felix’s cousin, Farleigh Start (Gran Turismo‘s Archie Madekwe). Felix, who is unfailingly nice to Oliver, invites his new friend to parties and eventually, after a tragic call from Oliver’s home, returns to his familial estate of Saltburn. It is at the titular home that Oliver meets Felix’s parents, Sir James Catton (Richard E. Grant), Lady Elsbeth (Rosamund Pike), and his sister Venetia (Alison Oliver). In no time, Oliver becomes entranced by the wealth and access that the Cattons possess, and it is only a matter of time before it transforms him and his ambitions.

Saltburn begins like an English take on The Rules of Attraction, Roger Avary’s debauched adaptation of the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, in showing the cutthroat distinction between the haves and the have-nots. When the narrative shifts to the Catton home, the story enters the upstairs/downstairs world that has been a staple of British stories for decades. But, unlike PBS-friendly Masterpiece Theatre, Saltburn crosses boundaries of taste in every conceivable way, including one of the most shocking scenes of sexual penetration since Call Me By Your Name. There are homoerotic themes in abundance, as the relationship between Oliver and Felix constantly moves back and forth, much in the way the dynamic between Matt Damon and Jude Law pervaded The Talented Mr. Ripley. Much of this rests on the stellar performances of Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, as they own every scene they are in. The supporting players, especially Rosamund Pike and the always-reliable Richard E. Grant, are also very good.

The transition from comedy to thriller works here as well as it did in Promising Young Woman and proves that Emerald Fennell knows how to keep audiences glued to the screen. The problem comes from the fact that the message below the surface is never plied deeply enough to make you think. Promising Young Woman had a lot to say about the male-female dynamic as it relates to sexual assault, but Saltburn does not seem to have as much to say about class warfare as it thinks it does. There are certainly moments where it feels that Fennell will take things to a different level, looking into the rationale behind how status can impact how people interact with those less well-off. Still, instead, she opts to keep the dynamic between classes the same as we have seen many times before. This feels like a wasted opportunity that keeps Saltburn from being the indictment of the filthy rich that it desperately wants to be. This, of course, does not make it a bad movie, but it is not the one it should be.

This is a beautifully shot movie, benefitting from location shooting at an actual estate in England, which is a testament to excess in its own right, thanks to the lensing by cinematographer Linus Sandgren. The score by Anthony Willis and a top-notch soundtrack give Saltburn an aura that echoes the wealth of the characters, but there is something missing in Saltburn. The film’s first act feels imbued with experience as Fennell herself attended Oxford. Her first-hand experience at the revered school likely did not reach some of the same levels as we see here, but her personal history at the school lends authenticity to those sequences. When the story shifts to Saltburn, the crazy levels the story reaches begin to strain credulity. In Promising Young Woman, Fennell used crazy to her benefit, but in this film, some truly bonkers moments will make viewers gasp but never stick around as long as they should.

Saltburn is an accomplished visual film with some biting dialogue. As quotable as it is, Saltburn’s bite is all on the surface. The melodramatic performances from Richard E. Grant and Rosamund Pike are quite good but contrast the more nuanced turns by Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi. Emerald Fennell knows her way around unlikeable characters whom we suspect we should hate but find ourselves drawn to. Keoghan dominates this film and elevates Saltburn from a potboiler to something much more. As good as his performance is, Fennell beautifully directs this movie that ventures from hilarious to depraved, often in the same scene. But when you dig a little deeper, there is not as much there as a production of this caliber should have. Saltburn is a solid sophomore effort from Fennell and cements that she is one of the most talented filmmaking voices working today, but it is not as balanced as her debut film.

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Bradley Cooper is growing into a serious artist with his directorial efforts receiving accolades. His inspirations, however, may be surprisingly less prestigious. Cooper’s sophomore directing and starring project comes in the form of Netflix’s new film, Maestro, in which he plays famous conductor Leonard Bernstein. In addition to directing, Cooper co-wrote the script with Josh Singer. Singer spoke of the film via Netflix’s Tudum, “I think people will see the complexity of marriage and the many forms love can take. I think those are both powerful themes.”

Cooper’s fascination with Leonard Bernstein is far from complex. The actor has revealed that his interest in the maestro can be traced back to cartoons featuring the star characters performing as conductors. Cooper and his co-star, Carey Mulligan, spoke with CBS Mornings about their new project. Cooper revealed, “It started with Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny as a kid, watching them conduct. And asking Santa Claus for a baton when I was about 8 or so, and then, just being obsessed with conducting.” He added, “There was a magical quality that you just do that, and sound comes out, you know, and that’s where it began. And it was just this incredible feeling of being a maestro, really.”

Pulling triple duties as a writer, director and star is a form of conducting all its own. When the star and director of A Star is Born was asked about his crossing over to behind the camera in addition to acting, Cooper says, “It’s all one thing. I really see it as filmmaking. You know, it starts with an idea, and then you write it. And then there’s something in me to be the character.” He would also reveal that he would conduct live for the film and described the challenges of it. “All the orchestra, this is what they’ve done their entire life. And I’m sitting there talking like Leonard Bernstein, directing them. And they’re going, like, ‘Who is this guy?’ You know, and, ‘He’s gonna conduct us?'” Then, he revealed, “And by the way, I messed it up the whole first day.”

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Let the music pull on your heartstrings and allow you to get overcome with emotion as Netflix releases the new trailer for Bradley Cooper’s new directorial effort, Maestro. Not only is this Cooper’s sophomore outing as a director, it’s also his second venture into the world of music and the artists behind it. In addition to directing, Cooper co-wrote the script with Josh Singer. Singer spoke of the film via Netflix’s Tudum, “I think people will see the complexity of marriage and the many forms love can take. I think those are both powerful themes.” The teaser debuted in August, and Cooper faced a bit of a backlash due to his prosthetic nose for the character drawing controversy.

The synopsis of the plot reads,
“Billed as an emotionally epic examination of family and love, Maestro tells the complex love story of Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (Carey Mulligan) — a story that spans over 30 years. Perhaps best known for his score to Broadway’s West Side Story and the classic Marlon Brando film On the Waterfront, Bernstein married the actress in 1951 and went on to share three children with her, with the couple splitting their time between New York and Connecticut. Complicating the dynamic between the duo were the affairs he had over the years, with both men and women, even as they were conducted with Felicia’s consenting awareness. The pair were separated at one point for a period of a year, though they ultimately stayed together until Felicia’s death in 1978.”

The film’s cast includes Carey Mulligan, Bradley Cooper, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, Josh Hamilton, Scott Ellis, Gideon Glick, Sam Nivola, Alexa Swinton, and Miriam Shor. Maestro comes from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Martin Scorsese, Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning, and Kristie Macosko Krieger are on board as producers on the film. Executive producers include Carla Raij, Josh Singer, Bobby Wilhelm, Weston Middleton, and Tracey Landon. Bradley Cooper would co-write the movie’s screenplay with Josh Singer, whose credits include Spotlight, The Post, and First Man.

Maestro will be released in theaters on November 22, before finally heading to Netflix, where it will available to stream on December 20.

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