Chris Pine is looking to make a deal to appear in ‘The Catch.’
He’d star opposite Emma Stone.
Universal is producing the new romantic comedy.
Now that Emma Stone has some free time beyond working with director Yorgos Lanthimos on their wild and weird movies, she’s locked down what seems likely to be her next project, a new romantic comedy called ‘The Catch.’
With Universal nabbing the rights to the eventual movie, the rom-com has ‘Brigsby Bear’ director Dave McCary aboard to call the shots, which makes us think this won’t be a straight forward tale of love and relationships.
While many movies with that title tend to chronicle the lives of fishermen, we don’t actually know whether this one will feature scenes set on a trawler (seems unlikely!)
All we really know beyond the rom-com genre is that Patrick Kang and Michael Levin wrote the script and that prolific producer Shawn Levy is among those shepherding it to screens.
Stone’s interest in making this her next movie means it should get moving quickly.
Where else can we see Chris Pine?
Chris Pine plays Edgin in ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ from Paramount Pictures and eOne.
Pine is coming off strong reviews for ‘Carousel’, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, and has a few other movies on the way, including action pic ‘Run the Night’, crime thriller ‘Nowhere Fast’ and sci-fi comedy ‘Alpha Gang’.
(L to R) Leonardo Di Caprio and Director/Writer/Producer Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.
A solo movie for The Muppets’ Miss Piggy is in early development.
Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone are producing and potentially appearing.
Cole Escola will write the script.
Here’s something we’re not sure we –– or, indeed, anyone –– could have predicted. Oscar winners Jennifer Lawrence (‘Joy’) and Emma Stone (‘Poor Things’) are developing a movie about diva-tastic Muppet star Miss Piggy.
“I don’t know if I can announce this, but I’m just going to. Emma Stone and I are producing a Miss Piggy movie and Cole is writing it.”
Cole, in this case, is Cole Escola, who won an Emmy for creating Broadway hit ‘Oh, Mary!’ And this development marks the latest in something of a Muppets resurgence, since a new iteration of ‘The Muppet Show’ is also in the works.
While she’s long been as one of the best-known central Muppet characters, the spotlight-hogging diva didn’t start that way.
Starting as a chorus pig on ‘The Muppet Show,’ Miss Piggy gradually became a bigger part of the series, before becoming an icon in the late 1970s and early ’80s, often performed and voiced by Frank Oz (who also played Yoda in the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy)
Despite Kermit being the star, Miss Piggy has long stolen the spotlight from her froggy beau, and is known for her both her quick temper and kung-fu moves.
Quite what the new movie will be about remains to be seen –– could we see the story of her meteoric rise?
According to Lawrence, both she and Stone are likely to appear in the film.
Where else can we see Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone?
Jennifer Lawrence in ‘Die My Love’. Photo Kimberley French/Mubi.
Lawrence will be back in theaters starring alongside Robert Pattinson in ‘Die My Love,’ which is released on November 7. She’s also attached to various projects including mystery thriller ‘The Wives’ and a movie about the life of novelist and Jazz Age socialite Zelda Fitzgerald during her marriage to author F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2.’ Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
For Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), life is busy. Between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen Stacy (Stone), high school graduation cannot come quickly enough. Peter has not forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen’s father to protect her by staying away, but that is a promise he cannot keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro (Jamie Foxx), emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past.
When notorious womanizer Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) attends his brother Paul’s wedding, he is forced to re-evaluate his behavior as he comes face-to-face with the ghosts of girlfriends past (Stone), present (Noureen DeWulf), and future (Olga Maliouk), along with his deceased uncle (Michael Douglas). The experience changes his attitude and allows him to reconnect with his first and only love, Jenny (Jennifer Garner).
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.
A coming-of-middle-age comedy that chronicles the unlikely friendship between failed author Richard Dunne (Jeff Daniels) and a Long Island teen (Stone) who teaches him a thing or two about growing up, all under the disapproving eye of his long-suffering wife (Lisa Kudrow) and his imaginary Superhero friend (Ryan Reynolds).
Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family.
From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
Shelley (Anna Faris) is living a carefree life until a rival gets her tossed out of the Playboy Mansion. With nowhere to go, fate delivers her to the sorority girls from Zeta Alpha Zeta. Unless they can sign a new pledge class, the seven socially clueless women will lose their house to the scheming girls of Phi Iota Mu. In order to accomplish their goal, they need Shelley to teach them the ways of makeup and men; at the same time, Shelley needs some of what the Zetas have – a sense of individuality. The combination leads all the girls to learn how to stop pretending and start being themselves.
‘Kinds of Kindness’ is a triptych fable, following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
In 1970s London, amidst the punk rock revolution, a young grifter named Estella (Stone), a clever and creative girl, is determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson), a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
Two conspiracy obsessed young men (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) kidnap the high-powered CEO (Stone) of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.
Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is an outcast high schooler abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), his father’s former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.
Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family’s struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Stone) is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around “the help”; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.
England, early 18th century. The close relationship between Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) is threatened by the arrival of Sarah’s cousin, Abigail Hill (Stone), resulting in a bitter rivalry between the two cousins to be the Queen’s favourite.
Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is living the American dream. He has a good job, a beautiful house, great children and a beautiful wife, named Emily (Julianne Moore). Cal’s seemingly perfect life unravels, however, when he learns that Emily has been unfaithful and wants a divorce. Over 40 and suddenly single, Cal is adrift in the fickle world of dating. Enter, Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), a self-styled player who takes Cal under his wing and teaches him how to be a hit with the ladies.
Emma Stone as Olive Penderghast in “Easy A.’ Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
Olive (Stone), an average high school student, sees her below-the-radar existence turn around overnight once she decides to use the school’s gossip grapevine to advance her social standing. Now her classmates are turning against her and the school board is becoming concerned, including her favorite teacher and the distracted guidance counselor. With the support of her hilariously idiosyncratic parents (Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson) and a little help from a long-time crush (Penn Badgley), Olive attempts to take on her notorious new identity and crush the rumor mill once and for all.
Two co-dependent high school seniors (Jonah Hill and Michael Cera) are forced to deal with separation anxiety after their plan to stage a booze-soaked party goes awry.
Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) doesn’t have fears. If he did, he’d kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they’re about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other.
A fading actor (Michael Keaton) best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected.
(L to R) Ryan Gosling as Sebastian “Seb” Wilder and Emma Stone as Amelia “Mia” Dolan in ‘La La Land.’ Photo: Lionsgate.
Mia (Stone), an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
In theaters on October 31st is ‘Bugonia’, which finds Jesse Plemons as Teddy, a man convinced that extraterrestrials from Andromeda have been strategically destroying the human race (and bees) and kidnaps a woman (Emma Stone’s Michelle) he believes is one of the marauding aliens.
At this point, we both know what to predict from a Yorgos Lanthimos movie –– weirdness in abundance, but with a moral core –– and also to expect the unexpected as the Greek filmmaker goes in different directions for his work.
Here, re-teaming for a fourth time with Emma Stone and a second with Jesse Plemons (who appeared in last year’s ‘Kinds of Kindness’, he’s found a suitable subject re-making 2003 Korean conspiracy thriller/dark comedy ‘Save the Green Planet!’
Written by Will Tracy, a ‘Succession’ veteran whose big screen work also includes 2022’s ‘The Menu’, ‘Bugonia’ adapts Jang Joon-hwan’s original script into something that works for both international audiences and Lanthimos’ own sensibilities.
While it occasionally lags in pace, it largely keeps the shocks and the laughs coming, and has you guessing whether Stone’s character really is from another planet or if Plemons is simply supremely delusional.
Lanthimos, working again with cinematographer Robbie Ryan, keeps things mostly grounded, letting the performances do the heavy lifting, but adding in stylish touches that help tell the story.
Stone and Plemons are the focus here, with Stone as hard-charging businesswoman who is by turns icily logical and desperately emotional depending on the situation. She really has found a great collaborator in the director, who keeps pushing her in fascinating new directions.
Plemons, meanwhile, also flourishes, feasting on the role of the twitchy, tortured, lank-haired lead, a man convinced his theories are correct even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary.
But there’s great work too from newcomer Aidan Delbis as Teddy’s cousin/sidekick Don, a young man on the autism spectrum who really wants to go along with Teddy’s plans, but has such a sweet naiveté to how he sees the word.
‘Bugonia’ has more on its mind than the basic clash of conspiracy thriller and farcical comedy you might have predicted, including meditations on the machinations of big pharma and the dire condition of the Earth’s climate.
But it’s all so wrapped in effective entertainment that it never feels like a lecture.
‘Bugonia’ receives 85 out of 100.
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What’s the story of ‘Bugonia’?
Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.
The fourth feature from writer-director Ari Aster – who previously tackled horror in ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Midsommar,’ and psychological surrealism in ‘Beau is Afraid’ – finds the filmmaker pivoting again, this time to a hybrid of political satire, social commentary, and Western tropes.
As one might imagine from reading that ambitious trio of themes, Aster takes a big swing with ‘Eddington’ – in which he stands up a small New Mexico town for an America reeling from COVID and Trumpism – but doesn’t quite connect. In his attempt to say as much as he can about the current state of the nation, Aster doesn’t manage to really say anything except that the situation is kind of hopeless. Despite its excellent visual package and a sturdy set of performances, ‘Eddington’ never quite finds its groove.
Story and Direction
Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
Eddington, New Mexico is the kind of small town that some folks used to colloquially describe as a “wide place in the road”: with a population of just over 2,300 spread out over a sprawling desert landscape and a downtown that is not that lively even on its best days, Eddington is the kind of place where decent people go just to be left alone and live quietly, but which can also breed insularity and incuriosity.
As ‘Eddington’ opens, it’s 2020 and the town is in the grip of the COVID pandemic: the mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), is on the surface a well-meaning liberal who dutifully enforces mask mandates and is advocating for the construction of a high-tech data center to bring Eddington into the 21st century, while the sheriff, Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) pushes back against masking out of a combination of genuine concern for some of his townspeople ( who find it hard to breathe through them, for example) and a festering belligerence toward the kind of governmental authority that he feels verges on overstepping.
So when Sheriff Joe decides he’s had enough and announces his own campaign to unseat Ted, festering tensions in the town – along political, personal, race, and age lines – start to boil over. The town’s younger population, bored and directionless, find their voice in first Black Lives Matter marches and then increasingly incoherent cultural protests (one teen raging over white privilege at the dinner table earns an incredulous “you’re white!” from his exasperated father), while Joe’s more or less incompetent campaign still manages to rattle the slick, unflappable Ted and get more of the town on his side. It doesn’t help matters that Joe’s wife, Louise (Emma Stone) – who once had a dalliance with Ted – is going down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole with her mom Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), with the two of them falling under the spell of an online cult leader named Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler).
Micheal Ward in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
If that sounds like a lot, it is. And for its first half, ‘Eddington’ plays like the political/social satire that the above sets up, with some characters faring better than others in the empathy stakes and a few sporadically funny moments thrown in. At the same time, if a movie centers around a lot of people talking past each other, it had better be as sharply written as possible, and Aster’s script takes more of a kitchen-sink approach than a focused one, resulting in a certain amount of tedium.
And then ‘Eddington’ takes a shocking turn at the halfway point into much darker territory, with murder and a real conspiracy coming into play, and suddenly the movie cannot even find the right tonal balance to make all this hit as hard as possible. Perhaps Aster is trying to say that the kind of cultural and political polarization that’s been racking this nation for the past decade is funny until it isn’t, but all the film gets across by the time it ends is a kind of bleak, dreary nihilism.
On an aesthetic level, Aster is sure-footed and confident. Eddington (played largely by the wonderfully named New Mexico town Truth Or Consequences) is a character unto itself, full of both beauty and death and photographically evocatively by legendary DP Darius Khondji, while the film’s design, scope, and atmosphere all evoke an America that’s teetering on the edge of profound disaster. But while Aster seems to want to fashion a true American epic out of this material, all he pretty much says is that we’re all stupid enough to fall for anything in the end, and the film’s closing scenes become as inarticulate as the youth protests that rock the once-placid town.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Emma Stone and Deirdre O’Connell in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
We have been increasingly disenchanted with Joaquin Phoenix’s last few performances, as he seemed to recycle the same inexpressive, psychologically wounded, emotionally stunted man-child in both ‘Joker’ films, ‘Napoleon,’ and Ari Aster’s brutally unwatchable ‘Beau is Afraid.’ But he turns away from those here with his work as Sheriff Joe Cross, a man who respects the traditions of law enforcement and seems to genuinely believe in doing the right thing and taking people at their word – until he doesn’t, and until the strain of what’s happening in Eddington finally breaks him down.
It’s a tribute to Phoenix’s still-considerable skills as an actor that he makes Joe empathetic even for those who might flinch reflexively from the character, and even when Joe plunges into darkness later in the film, Phoenix still manages to pull out moments that show the man’s shattered humanity. It’s the actor’s best work in a while, even if Joe Cross gets stuck in the nexus of the story’s confused themes.
Pedro Pascal utilizes his effortless presence to effectively portray Ted Garcia’s charisma and camera-ready personality, but we don’t get to see enough of what’s under the skin to truly make the mayor come to life. The same goes for a number of others in the film: Emma Stone, Deirdre O’Connell, and William Belleau – as a Native American police officer from the tribal lands next to Eddington who perhaps sees the truth of what’s happening most clearly – are all excellent, but aren’t provided enough real estate to develop their characters. Luke Grimes and Micheal Ward are also striking as Joe’s deputies, who almost act as the good and bad angels on his shoulders, while Austin Butler is frankly wasted in a role that clogs up the plot even more and really doesn’t need to be there.
Final Thoughts
Austin Butler in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
The closing shot of ‘Eddington’ may reflect the growing divide between those who yearn for a sort of mythical “simpler time” and those who want to push the country forward even at the risk of ignoring or sidestepping the possible dangers. The darkness surrounding that last image may also indicate that the two sides are too far apart at this point, and too willing to go to extreme ends to preserve their notion of what our lives, culture, and society should be.
It’s an evocative shot, and if Ari Aster had brought a little more of that thoughtfulness to the rest of ‘Eddington,’ the bulk of the film might be as haunting. But he piles so much into the movie’s 149-minute running time that we can’t help but be reminded of another overstuffed, would-be epic: Damien Chazelle’s ‘Babylon,’ which went to similar lengths but also seemed to lose its way among its own ambitions. ‘Eddington’ has a lot it wants to say – it just doesn’t know how to say it effectively.
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What is the plot of ‘Eddington’?
In May 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix, along with other select members of the press, in an online roundtable interview. Phoenix discussed his work on ‘Eddington’, creating his character, the rehearsal process, working with the cast including Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone, reuniting with his ‘Beau Is Afraid’ director Ari Aster, and continuing to collaborate with the acclaimed filmmaker moving forward.
Joaquin, can you talk about collaborating with director Ari Aster and the costume department to create the look for your character, Joe Cross, and did you take any inspiration from fictional or historical figures?
Joaquin Phoenix: Early on when Ari was still working through the script, we took a trip together to New Mexico, where he introduced me to a few different sheriffs and mayors in some small towns and pueblos, that he had met on a previous trip. There was one man in particular who just looked amazing. I loved how he looked, and he was wearing the white shirt, jeans and boots. I took some pictures of him and then I didn’t really plan on using it, he was just one of several people that I met. Then I went to Mexico to start prepping and worked with Anna (Terrazas) and she had some sketches of the traditional sheriff’s uniform, the brown uniform, and then also the look of the photos that we’d center on this sheriff, which was the jeans and white shirt. Ari and I both felt like the brown uniform was right. So, we went there, and I put that on and then at the end of the fitting, I said, “Do you have any of the white shirts and jeans? Like that other look? So, she pulled it out. Then for the next two weeks, all through rehearsal leading up to literally the day before shooting, me and Ari went back-and-forth over which look was right. A couple days before we started shooting, we did the camera test and just before that camera test, I pulled up a picture I had of the sheriff, and he had these glasses on. I just said, “Do you have any glasses like this?” We put these glasses on during the camera test and we all just went, “Oh, that’s it. There it is”. It was strange how they all came together, but really it was a kind of a last-minute decision and there were times throughout shooting where I wondered whether we made the right choice, but it came alive.
The relationship between your character and Pedro Pascal’s character is really the engine that drives the movie, but you don’t have a lot of screen time together. Can you talk about how you and Pedro approached those scenes to create the depth and energy needed to move the story forward?
JP: Well, they’re all great scenes that are just full of conflict, rumor, hurt feelings and insecurity. It’s like everything that you would want, all the ingredients are there. I think there’s four major scenes with us, maybe. I always felt like I was the beneficiary of the environment or the production design that fuels us. So, one of the early scenes of the movie where I’m talking to him at his bar, and we’re separated by glass. For some reason, when I read the script, I didn’t register that. When I got there that day, it was separated and I go, “Wait, what are we doing? It was literally this like, block. It was a blockage to connecting with him. It seemed like this perfect kind of metaphor that there’s just something that is between us that’s separating us from connecting. Then the scene after I announced that I’m running for Mayor, there was this crazy storm in New Mexico, it was literally sunny and by the fourth take the wind was whipping through and it ultimately ended up hailing. So, I think part of it is like, you’re just trying to be receptive to what is happening and whether that’s an energy on set or what the other actor is doing or something that’s happening in the environment. I just I felt like I had an amazing partner in Pedro, who seemed very clear on who Ted was, particularly I’m thinking about the scene in the supermarket just before I announced that I’m running for mayor. I was not sure of what I was doing at that point. It was early in the shoot, and I didn’t fully understand where I was. I was trying to figure out, like, “Wait, but who am I? What do I do I stand for? What’s important to me?” Of course, in hindsight, I realize that’s exactly what Joe was experiencing. Ted is somebody who thinks that he’s doing exactly what he’s meant to be doing. So, what we were feeling was really kind of matching what was happening. But Pedro, he knew what he wanted, he was so gracious in allowing me to find it, because let me tell you, I was like all over the map. What you’re seeing in that scene is I guess subconsciously, I really worked myself up to into a state of frustration, anger and impotence. For me, I remember that take and there was a take where I acknowledged that people might be filming in the supermarket and it was the first time that that happened, you know, in that take. It just it felt alive, so I had somebody that I was working with that was able to allow that to happen.
(L to R) Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
What did you discover about the character while you were filming that was surprising to you and different than what you initially thought about the character when you first read the screenplay?
JP: Well, it was surprising. I knew my intention was to humanize Joe as much as possible. I hoped that anybody that came in that might have some preconceived idea of who a conservative sheriff in a small town might be, I wanted to challenge those ideas, at least initially. So that was a goal of mine. I have to say that I ended up feeling a great deal of warmth for Joe. I don’t really know how to explain it. I think a certain kind of sadness and, no spoilers, but for him to allow all that dissatisfaction and frustration and pain to manifest in the way that it does, it’s just disappointing. I think maybe he reminds me of so many people in the real world, in those kinds of critical moments that we all face and like, what kind of person are we going to be? So, I think I was initially surprised at how much I cared for him, and then how much his actions disappointed me.
Moviefone: Joaquin, can you talk about your working relationship with director Ari Aster, how that has grown and changed since making ‘Beau Is Afraid,’ and what it was like collaborating with him again on ‘Eddington’?
JP: I think that we were less cordial, thank God. There’s something, also, when I look back on some of our conversations, it really seems like a family. I was excited by that. I mean, even on ‘Beau’ he was very perceptive, but at this point now, he’s armed fully with information about how I work. He sees things before I’m even aware of them. So, that was great. We had talked. We had started working together and reading through the script a year in advance. So, we’d been through so many discussions about how Joe was going to talk because the very first thing for me when I was reading this script, I just heard this voice. Then we got together, and I was like, “I heard this voice.” He was like, “Well, what is it?” I was like, “I don’t know. I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to physically bring it out. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I just heard it in my head.” So, we just kept talking and occasionally I would try things and we spoke to this dialect coach and we’re like, “We’re not meeting with a dialect coach. What are we doing?” I just really liked trying to figure out who is, but I remember this one moment on set. It was our first official day of shooting, and it was the news conference. I was really struggling. I was nervous, and I felt like there was something missing from the scene. I couldn’t identify what it was exactly. I just knew that it had to do with acknowledging, it’s right after I make the announcement to be mayor, and I needed to acknowledge it somehow. I remember it was super uncomfortable because we were running out of time, and we had to go to lunch. We’d already burnt like an hour. We didn’t have anything yet. So, I was nervous. Then I’m standing in front of the chalkboard and I’m practicing my lines, and Ari’s standing next to me, and he’s going through the lines at the same time. We’re both standing side by side and Ari takes on the feelings, like he’s doesn’t separate from the character. So. he’s doing it and I just feel him and there’s a point where he just made this gesture. Where he put up his hands like, “I’m sorry”, as he was talking. I just was like, “Oh, that gesture, that’s it. That’s Joe.” Joe’s always in the state putting up his hand trying to stop the world, trying to stop the thing that’s happening. Like, everything is falling. He’s losing grasp of his relationship, and this idea of himself and what it is to be a man, and to be an American and to be a man of power. It’s all slipping away from him, and he’s just constantly trying to put up his hands, going, “No, stop. It’s going to be okay.” It was this moment that just unlocked it for me, at least for that scene. It gave me some clarity and that’s just a strong memory that I have.
(L to R) Micheal Ward, Joaquin Phoenix and Luke Grimes in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
Joaquin, this is only your second film with Ari, but already some critics are comparing your work together to that of actor and director pairings like Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro or Spike Lee and Denzel Washington. How do you feel about those comparisons, and is Ari a filmmaker that you see yourself continuing to collaborate with throughout your career?
JP: Well, that is so flattering, but I will not say that we are in the same classes. I’ll speak for myself, I don’t feel like I sit shoulder to shoulder with those guys, but that’s very nice to hear that. I would hope so. I just adore Ari. I love his observations, human behavior, the way that he writes, and just how much he really cares about making films. It’s pure. You know, I’ve worked with like a lot of directors and there’s so many different reasons why people do what they do. But there’s something very pure and innocent about Ari’s love for film and for filmmaking. It’s inspiring and to be honest, at my age after I’ve made so many movies, there is a point, it’s just human where you can grow bored or complacent. Sometimes you don’t have that same natural fuel that you do when you’re 20 years old and you’re trying to make it, and you’re just like so full of drive and ambition. To work with somebody like Ari, where that is still so alive in him, and he sees it in you, that is a gift. So, I love working with him, and I consider him a friend, and yeah, I would absolutely do anything with Ari again, for sure.
Finally, you had an extensive rehearsal period before you began shooting the film. What was that process like for you and did rehearsing with Emma Stone, Luke Grimes and Michael Ward help you find the character?
JP: Yeah, it felt like it was like all these different stages. So initially, I think for the first week of filming, it was just the interior Sheriff’s office, and it was me, Luke and Michael. So, I was able to really focus on and establish that relationship and we’re doing that in real time. We had some rehearsal days, but it’s very hard to rehearse. The set isn’t completely done, you don’t have all the props around. I mean, you’re standing in your own clothes. It’s difficult for me to rehearse like that. So, it’s just about having conversations. Then I went from that to, I believe, Pedro came to town and then that was working with Pedro for a week or so and I was exploring that part of the story. Prior to that, I was just in this mode where I was like, “The whole movie is just me in a sheriff’s station with my two deputies.” That’s what it felt like. Then, there’s this whole other part of the story and so they went into Pedro’s part where so much of what’s at the heart of our relationship and dynamic is Emma’s character. But I haven’t yet seen Emma and worked with her on this film and so there’s things that I’m discovering about her character, my feelings about her character, through scenes with Pedro before Emma even arrives. It sounds confusing and it is at times, but also sometimes is informative. It’s interesting how film schedules work out. Sometimes it’s really to your benefit. By the time Emma came, I think she came on the third week, and I said, “I feel like I’ve been shooting for three months already.” It felt so loaded and full of this history, which felt crucial with her relationship because we’re obviously the people that have the greatest history and the one whose relationship is most troubled from the get-go. So, I was really kind of thankful for how things worked out because I think she arrived, and it was already fraught in in the best possible way.
Editorial Note: Don Kaye took part in the roundtable and contributed to this article.
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What is the plot of ‘Eddington’?
In May 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
Opening in theaters in limited release on June 21st before opening wide on June 28th is the new anthology film from Oscar-nominated writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos (‘The Favourite’ and ‘Poor Things’) entitled ‘Kinds of Kindness’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Joe Alwyn and Mamoudou Athie about their work on ‘Kinds of Kindness’, their first reaction to the unusual screenplay, the challenges of playing three different characters in three separate stories, working with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, and collaborating with director Yorgos Lanthimos on set.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.
Moviefone: To begin with, Joe, can you talk about your first reaction to reading this screenplay and what did you think of the idea of telling three different stories all with the same cast?
Joe Alwyn: When I first read it, it’s unlike anything I’ve read. I was so intrigued, so baffled, and so excited. The fact that it was split into these three stories as an anthology, I really liked it. It almost felt like an experiment. I don’t know if I completely got it or if I have yet completely got it. But I also really liked his idea of having, as you say, the same cast playing different roles in each one. It felt like a theater troop and there was something playful about that. I was just excited to be invited back into Yorgos’s world. I knew I’d say yes before I’d even read it.
MF: Mamoudou, was it challenging playing three different characters in the same movie?
Mamoudou Athie: Honestly, that was the least challenging thing about it. I mean, that’s just kind of part of the job. It just happened to be protracted in a period where you’re doing it back-to-back to back. But it didn’t feel like any special task. It was just three different characters that I had to work on, which I feel like we’d all done. I mean, in drama school numerous times we were working on three different things at once, and it just so happened that these all somehow tied together in the same universe. But other than that, it was creative situation for the environment and that’s it.
MF: Do you have a favorite character or segment that you worked on?
MA: Well, obviously I have the most to do on the second, so that gave me a lot of opportunity to explore and work with Yorgos and Jesse. So, I guess it’d been the second.
MF: Joe, what is it like being an actor on a Yorgos Lanthimos set?
JA: I mean, he’s brilliant. He doesn’t, in my experience, try and tackle things the way that you might conventionally think he would, or a director would. So, there isn’t really conversation about character or themes or intention or the things that you might expect. But he’s quite blunt and quite direct in a way of getting what he wants in quite a simple, instructive way, which is useful. I think he really encourages a sense of play. He keeps things very light. So even though the stories and characters are often going into dark corners, there’s a real lightness and you feel safe, you might not know exactly what it is that’s going to come out the other end, but you feel safe and willing and wanting to jump in and give it a go.
MF: Mamoudou, what was your experience like collaborating with Yorgos on set?
MA: Oh, he’s the man. I mean, I remember being very intimidated. He’s one of my favorite directors, period. I came in with a lot of reverence. I remember leaving the project like, “Oh, I should have been a lot more irreverent” because it was just so much fun, and it didn’t have to be anything. I imagine the script as kind of like a tome or a bible, but there’s a lot of leeway and there’s a lot of play, and it was just a very fun set. There was a lot of laughs, and I was surprised by how many times we were just cracking up on set.
MF: Finally, Mamoudou, what was it like working with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons on this project?
MA: I’ve had such respect for them, and it’s always nice when people live up to what you hope. Jesse is a real actor, a real actor’s actor, he’s committed and same for Emma. Just the commitment to the work itself. Everything else is secondary. But also, it was fun and easy, and we had just chill conversations. It was just the best working environment with two actors that I could hope for.
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What is the plot of ‘Kinds of Kindness’?
‘Kinds of Kindness’ is an anthology film, with three separate stories that are only loosely connected. The first tells of a man (Jesse Plemons) whose life is dominated by his boss (Willem Dafoe) in extreme ways; the second follows a cop (Jesse Plemons) who is convinced that his wife (Emma Stone), who returns home after being missing and presumed dead, is not who she says she is; and in the third, two people (Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons) hit the road on behalf of a strange cult to find a woman (Margaret Qualley) who’s prophesized to have incredible powers.
Who is in the cast of ‘Kinds of Kindness’?
Emma Stone as Rita / Liz / Emily
Jesse Plemons as Robert / Daniel / Andrew
Willem Dafoe as Raymond / George / Omi
Margaret Qualley as Vivian / Martha / Ruth and Rebecca
For his ninth feature film, ‘Kinds of Kindness,’ Greek director and co-writer Yorgos Lanthimos (working again with his frequent writing partner, Efthimis Filippou) returns to the surreal horror/comedy of earlier works like ‘Dogtooth,’ ‘Alps,’ and ‘The Lobster.’ Not that you could call his recent, Oscar-winning films like ‘The Favourite’ and ‘Poor Things’ conventional, exactly: both still incorporate Lanthimos’ sense of the absurd, his visceral approach to sex and physical violence, and a heightened reality into more linear, accessible narratives.
For ‘Kinds of Kindness,’ however, he’s gone back to the more enigmatic storytelling of his earlier films, skirting the line between dark comedy and outright horror (although more on the comedic side than, say, ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’). Perhaps in a sly wink to the format that spawned cult horror favorites like ‘Dead of Night’ (1945), ‘The House That Dripped Blood’ (1971), ‘Creepshow’ (1982) and more recent entries like ‘Ghost Stories’ (2017) and the ‘V/H/S’ series, ‘Kinds of Kindness’ is an anthology film, telling three loosely connected stories starring the same troupe of actors in different roles.
The result is a long (nearly three hours) yet continuously entertaining cinematic hall of mirrors, at times frightening, revolting, and hilarious, with Lanthimos’ ensemble of actors – led, for their third feature together, by Emma Stone – clearly enjoying the exercise. Some viewers may find Lanthimos’ style here too much of a slow burn, while others may be frustrated by the unreality that intrudes in each story and his often cold view of the characters. But this is a rewarding, eerie, and unpredictable look at human behavior and the dark lengths to which people will go to win approval or acceptance.
The single thread that connects the three tales is a character named R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos), who appears at key points in all three narratives yet whose presence is never fully explained. The character also provides the title for each segment. In the first, “The Death of R.M.F.,” Jesse Plemons plays Robert, a man who seems to have it all: a beautiful house, a loving wife (Hong Chau), and a successful career with a boss, Raymond (Willem Dafoe), who seemingly loves him like a son. But early on it’s made clear that Robert’s life is actually controlled by Raymond, down to what he eats, what he reads, and even when he has sex with his wife.
After Raymond gives Robert a task that Robert is simply unable to do, Robert is fired – and his life spirals downward from there. His wife leaves him, he has to sell off prized possessions, and he becomes increasingly desperate in his efforts to win back Raymond’s affection. Things are only complicated when he begins a relationship with a woman (Emma Stone) who also seems to have come under Raymond’s sinister wing.
The control that our employers have over our lives – aren’t we all on call all the time? – is very much taken to an extreme in ‘The Death of R.M.F.,’ but a theme here that recurs mainly in the third segment is our seemingly inescapable need to be accepted. Robert goes to terrible lengths to get back into Raymond’s good graces, and his spiral into near-madness is as disquieting as it is darkly humorous.
There’s a different kind of rejection afoot in ‘R.M.F. is Flying,’ the second and probably least effective of the three stories. Plemons again takes center stage as Daniel, a cop whose wife Liz (Stone) has gone missing on some sort of scientific ocean expedition. He watches videos of get-togethers with their best friends (played by Mamoudou Athie and Margaret Qualley), although the videos are not exactly of backyard barbecues. And then Liz is found and returns home – but Daniel soon begins to suspect that the woman in his house is not his wife.
There is plenty of atmosphere and the same dark humor in this segment, but even for a movie that does not rely on normal logic, its story doesn’t cohere as well as ‘The Death of R.M.F.’ or the third segment, ‘R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich.’ Yet Daniel’s psychological descent, combined with Liz’s apparently odd behavior, is a metaphor for the dynamics in any human relationship: how well do we truly know the person next to us, that we are spending our life with?
Emma Stone steps up to the lead role in ‘R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich,’ playing a woman named Emily who has abandoned her husband and daughter and joined a bizarre cult led by Omi (Dafoe) and his wife Aka (Chau). She and fellow cult member Andrew (Plemons) are tasked with searching for a person prophesized to have miraculous powers, who will become a leader of great importance to the cult.
‘R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich’ sort of comes full circle, focusing on the lengths that people will go to in order to feel like they’re part of something greater than themselves. It’s heavily implied that the women in the cult are allowed only to have sex with Omi, and must undergo purification rituals and face exile if they have sex with others, debasing themselves to stay within Omi’s good graces. There are contrivances along the way (Emily’s need to drive recklessly seems to exist only to serve the plot later on) and, unlike the first two segments, ‘Sandwich’ ends with an abrupt twist ending straight out of O. Henry.
Cumulatively, the stories suggest a world where reality can fray at the edges and unnatural forces can creep in, especially in the second and third tales. Unlike the lush period details of ‘The Favourite’ or the colorful fantasia of ‘Poor Things,’ ‘Kinds of Kindness’ is set in a modern-day milieu, splitting its time between bastions of wealth (Raymond’s offices and home in the first segment) and lackluster, depressing settings (Daniel’s wood-paneled home in the second story, the outside of a hospital late at night).
As in his previous work, Lanthimos is matter-of-fact in his portrayal of violence and sex: the former is abrupt, unpleasant, and inevitable (including one hard-to-watch scene where someone chops off their finger), while the latter isn’t erotic in the usual sense, but primal, urgent, and messy. Lanthimos and DP Robbie Ryan frame it and light it all simply and functionally, often going from wide shots straight to immersive close-ups involving a face or body part.
Kudos also to Jerskin Fendrix for his minimalist, ominous score, which alternates between single plinks on the piano (a la ‘Eyes Wide Shut’) more thunderous, doom-laden chords, and apocalyptic choral bursts. The music both heightens the atmosphere and comments on the action, the latter often to subtly hilarious effect.
‘Kinds of Kindness’ is clearly a film made for actors to stretch themselves as much as possible, with all the main actors (with the exception of Hunter Schafer) playing different roles in each segment. The MVP in this case is Plemons, who plays two different needy, insecure men in the first two stories yet manages to create two complete, wholly distinctive performances (also very different from his frightening cameo in ‘Civil War’ earlier this year). He changes himself again in the third story, where he’s more of a supporting player, and his work throughout is nothing less than a tour de force.
Emma Stone, of course, is outstanding as always, with a supporting role in the first segment, a larger one in the second, and the lead in the third. Her character is more enigmatic and less fleshed out in the second story, but she is riveting in the final tale as a deeply damaged woman who has withdrawn so much from the world that she cannot even find any spare warmth for her daughter.
Willem Dafoe is excellent as a malevolent father figure in all three stories (especially in the first and last), while Hong Chau, Margaret Qualley (who does her meatiest work in segment three), Mamoudou Athie, and the rest weave seamlessly in and out of each section of the film like the members of a seasoned stage company able to take on any role in the repertory.
If you have found Yorgos Lanthimos’ work troublesome or even harrowing to sit through in the past, you might have a tough time watching ‘Kinds of Kindness’: there is cruelty (mostly to humans, but also briefly to an animal), callousness, sexual assault, and sadistic behavior. It steps in and out of reality, sometimes jarringly, and it can be frustrating in the way it doesn’t lay out the meaning of everything you see.
Yet the film is also bracing, mind-bending, and utterly unpredictable from start to finish, with the film not feeling its length at all as one gets caught up in the nightmarish surreality that Lanthimos constructs and maintains. Ironically, kindness is found only sparingly in these stories, but that may be more like the real world than anything else.
‘Kinds of Kindness’ receives 8 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Kinds of Kindness’?
‘Kinds of Kindness’ is an anthology film, with three separate stories that are only loosely connected. The first tells of a man whose life is dominated by his boss in extreme ways; the second follows a cop who is convinced that his wife, who returns home after being missing and presumed dead, is not who she says she is; and in the third, two people hit the road on behalf of a strange cult to find a woman who’s prophesized to have incredible powers.
Who is in the cast of ‘Kinds of Kindness’?
Emma Stone as Rita / Liz / Emily
Jesse Plemons as Robert / Daniel / Andrew
Willem Dafoe as Raymond / George / Omi
Margaret Qualley as Vivian / Martha / Ruth and Rebecca
Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons will star in ‘Bugonia’.
It’s Yorgos Lanthimos’ next movie.
‘Bugonia’ adapts 2003 Korean film ‘Save the Green Planet’.
Given that she just won an Oscar working with director Yorgos Lanthimos on ‘Poor Things’ (their second collaboration after ‘The Favourite’), it’s hardly surprising that Emma Stone is looking to reunite with the director, who has become a trusted filmmaking partner.
And the pair is bringing along Jesse Plemons, who stars alongside Stone in the director’s next release, the upcoming ‘Kinds of Kindness’, which just debuted to praise in Cannes and will be in theaters on June 21st.
Lanthimos’ next project (which he’ll get working on soon, since both ‘Poor Things’ and ‘Kinds of Kindness’ were squeezed in in quick succession after success with ‘The Favourite’) is an adaptation of a 2003 South Korean fantasy sci-fi comedy called ‘Save the Green Planet’, focused on alien conspiracy theories and kidnapping.
While we’re surprised to see Lanthimos pivot from his own work (though both ‘The Favourite’ and ‘Poor Things’ were adaptations, one of a previously-written script; the other from a novel), the quirkiness of this one does sound like something he’d tackle.
Assuming it follows the rough story of the original, here’s what we know so far…
Director Joon-Hwan Jang‘s 2003 debut follows Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun), who comes to believe that a number of Korean leaders and top business types are secretly reptilian aliens driving an invasion of his beloved planet Earth.
When he abducts several and absconds with them to a basement command centre to start prying information from their scaly brains, the authorities hire a skilled private detective to track him and his victims down. All the while, Byeong-gu’s devoted girlfriend aids his mission, even as she worries his crusade is born out of his traumatic childhood.
‘Succession’ and ‘The Menu’ veteran Will Tracy (who also created ‘The Regime’ for HBO) wrote the adaptation, which Variety mentions as following two young men who kidnap a female CEO, convinced she is an alien leading an attack. So perhaps the perspective of the female lead has switched this time –– we can certainly see Stone wanting to play a meatier role than the girlfriend of one of the kidnappers.
Besides Lanthimos, the team backing the movie includes director Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen, who developed the project for their Square Peg production company. They’ll produce the movie with Lanthimos veterans Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, alongside Lanthimos, Stone and Miky Lee and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko.
Unlike Lanthimos last couple of movies, which were released (or in the case of ‘Kinds of Kindness’ will be released) by Searchlight Pictures, Focus Features has snapped up the rights to send this one to theaters, with Universal taking most international markets.
When will ‘Bugonia’ be in theaters?
Focus Features has yet to specify a release date for the remake.
