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Mike Schulz discusses the possibility with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra of an Oscar for Previews, the last Tim Burton film he’s fallen in love with (as opposed to merely enjoying), and the shock reveal that, in the original Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton was on-screen a total of sixteen minutes (get out!), before getting down to the meat of the matter — other movies!
They are:
- Alien: Romulus (dir Fede Álvarez, starr Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu), the seventh film out of the Alien franchise. Compared to the preceding sequels, this “inter-quel” (which is mean to slot after the events of the first Alien and before those of Aliens) was very enjoyable. It’s not without flaws, mind you — they’re just not egregious enough to pull you completely out of the narrative. Well, there’s a bit of fakery involving the use of a character from Alien that has since passed away in real life — that’s problematic. . .
- Dìdi (dir Sean Wang, starr Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen, Chang Li Hua, Stephanie Hsu, and Spike Jonze). Plotless coming-of-age story set in 2008 involving a Taiwanese-American thirteen-year-old boy, with some raunchy touches here and there. Worth it.
- My Penguin Friend (dir David Schurmann, starr Jean Reno, Adriana Barraza, Rocío Hernández, Nicolás Francella, Alexia Moyano, and Thalma de Freitas). Based on a true story about a guy who saved a penguin from an oil slick and wound up establishing a weird bond. The story takes place within the heartbreak of the life of the man, played by Reno, which may be a bit much for some young viewers. For those who’ve got a handle on Life’s heavier aspects, this is a can’t-miss outing.
As for previews:
- Blink Twice (dir Zoë Kravitz, starr Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan, Geena Davis, and Alia Shawkat). Nothing good has ever come out of the words “private island,” and presumably Kravitz’s film won’t challenge the physics of it. Schulz calls it “already my favorite film of the Nineties” (based on the cast), before Levora adds “only delivered thirty years too late.”
- Strange Darling (dir JT Mollner, starr Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr). A cat-and-mouse serial-killer thriller. That’s never been done.
- The Forge, a biblical drama (dir Alex Kendrick, starr Cameron Arnett, Priscilla Shirer, Aspen Kennedy, Karen Abercrombie, TC Stallings, BJ Arnett, Ken Bevel, Benjamin Watson, Jonathan Evans, Jerry Shirer, and Tommy Woodard). Schulz will consider himself lucky if he’s able to cram in the majority of the films on the list, and doesn’t seem downcast about the possibility of missing this.
- The Crow (dir Rupert Sanders, starr Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston, Josette Simon, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajila, Isabella Wei, and Jordan Bolger). A franchise that’s been sequeled to death and embalmed in TV gets a reboot.
- The biographical drama Sing Sing (dir Greg Kwedar, starr Colman Domingo, Sean San José, Paul Raci, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, David “Dap” Giraudy, Patrick “Preme” Griffin, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez, and Sean “Dino” Johnson). Every member of the cast with a nickname is playing younger versions of themselves when they were serving sentences at Sing Sing Penitentiary. The reviews have been off the chain, and Schulz plans to catch it at the Last Picture House.