Dreams really do come true. COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on movies an movie releases, especially big blockbusters. But there’s still plenty of room for oddball films to slip through and get a release. And what’s more oddball than a Nicolas Cage-starring sci-fi saga where humanity has to use martial arts to defeat alien invaders? The Cage-fronted Jiu Jitsu is one of our most-anticipated movies of 2020 (and any year to be honest), and now we know when we can see it because it has a release date.
High school English teacher Holly (Azura Skye), the protagonist of writer/director Dean Kapsalis’ debut feature The Swerve, is harried, ignored, and unappreciated in every facet of her life. Her husband (Bryce Pinkham) is self-involved, her sons are brats, her students can’t be bothered, her alcoholic sister (Ashley Bell) mocks her, and even her own mother (Deborah Hedwall) berates her and puts her down.
Sarah Beth Edwards’ Fall Back Down is the cinematic personification of living in a big punk house with a ton of roommates. It’s fun and chaotic, random and strange, frustrating and complicated, full of wild characters, and leads you into all sorts of off-kilter adventures. You’re going to drink too much, you’re going to write some songs, you’re going to wake to find an impromptu show in your basement, you’re going to make out with some people you shouldn’t. And it’s never going to wind up where you expect.
The early trailers gave the impression that writer/director duo Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum was a riff on Octavia Butler’s classic sci-fi novel Kindred. Though the two attempt to tread similar thematic territory, and there are a few other similarities, that’s really where the parallels end. While Antebellum is a gorgeous film to look at, and has admirable goals in mind, it misses on most accounts, falls into all-too-common traps, and the end result plays like an overlong episode of Black Mirror.
A few years back, director Christopher Landon gave us a teen slasher comedy spin on Groundhog Day with Happy Death Day, which was way, way more fun than I anticipated. So yeah, if he wants to do the same with Freaky Friday, I’m game. And here is the first trailer for his attempt at just that, Freaky.
