(L to R) David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in ‘The X-Files’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television.
‘The X-Files’, originally created by Chris Carter, aired on Fox from 1993-2001 before being revived at the network for two more seasons in 2016 and 2018. It starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who investigate cases that lean towards the paranormal and otherwise unusual.
Two movies were made based on the original show, but there’s no word yet on whether either Duchovny or Anderson will appear in any capacity. As for the new potential series’ logline? “Two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
Deadwyler and Patel will be playing a new original characters –– we’re assuming at this point they’ll be the main agents.
Coogler is aboard to write and direct the pilot, but should the show go to series, ‘The Copenhagen Test’s Jennifer Yale will be overseeing it.
Coogler, an avowed fan of the supernatural, has spoken previously to Variety about his feelings for the show:
“Like my relationship with ‘Rocky’ with my dad, ‘The X-Files’ is one of those things with my mom. My mom means the world to me…so this is a big one for me. I want to do right by her and the fans. My mom has read some of the stuff I wrote for it. She’s fired up.”
Opening in theaters on March 21st, ‘The Assessment’ is the sort of thoughtful, low-key but sometimes too dense science fiction movie that largely stays in the indie space since it’s unlikely to attract a giant blockbuster crowd.
Yet it’s somehow reassuring that in an age where IP is king and originality can be scarce at your local cinema, something like this can still hit screens.
‘The Assessment’ probably works best if you like your science fiction with some brain matter behind it; but there is also a deep well of emotion running here.
In the mold of Aldous Huxley in particular, its story of a climate-ravaged world that is struggling to survive in the wake of enormous damage done by mankind, it also posits a society that has adapted to dwindling resources by development of a miracle drug that can ward off disease and slow down aging.
But it’s also a tightly-controlled authoritarian regime where dissent is punishable by exile to the savage wastes outside the habitable domes where those who have the resources and are willing to both contribute and obey dwell.
In reality, though, the movie’s focus is much tighter –– it’s the tale of a couple who wish to have a child (reproduction through any method than some asexual fertilization process following a strict assessment period is forbidden) struggling with the unusual demands of the woman sent to test their suitability to be parents at all.
What transpires is a chaotic, testing battle of wills between the two prospective parents and the assessor, who tests them in ways they probably weren’t expecting; this is more than just checking to see if they’ve baby-proofed the wall sockets.
Script and Direction
Fleur Fortuné, director of ‘The Assessment’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Written by Nell Garfath Cox, Dave Thomas (who collectively work as filmmaking team Mr. and Mrs. Thomas) along with John Donnelly, this is a cold, thoughtful movie that tells its story with enough human emotion to keep it from feeling like a film school test case. We’re introduced to the central pair through their daily lives as scientists and lovers, but the plot proper doesn’t kick in until the Assessor, played by Alicia Vikander arrives.
As director, music video helmer Fleur Fortune, who has also worked on short films, brings a careful touch to the film, which walks the line of being too intellectual with some skill. She has a keen eye for a visual and also gets great work out of some very good actors. There’s a real melancholy to the movie, even as the color palette is warm and inviting.
Elizabeth Olsen brings quiet grace to Mia, one half of the couple looking to reproduce, yet when scenes call for her to explode with anger, frustration or sadness, she’s more than up to those tasks also.
It’s Mia’s journey we’re truly on, from meeting her as a young girl abandoned by her mother to the grown woman who is willing to go to whatever lengths to both help society prosper and achieve her own aims, but comes up against some very tough home truths.
As Aaryan, Himesh Patel is dedicated and subtle, a man who will do anything for his wife, but who finds himself conflicted when the challenge of having the assessor in their home becomes all too strange.
Yet beyond the main pair, this is really Alicia Vikander’s film on a pure performance level. Playing Virginia, the state-appointed assessor whose task it is to decide across seven days whether Mia and Aaryan should get to have a child, she gives a tour-de-force acting class.
Switching from bureaucratically efficient to childishly wild in just a few scenes, Vikander here throws herself into the role and brings a truly complicated person to life.
Stealing the one scene in which she appears is Minnie Driver as Evie, who is old enough to remember the time before the world was ravaged and is soundly cynical about humanity’s chances now, not to mention scathingly critical of those who wish to bring more people into it.
It’s a superb turn from the actor, who spins a vision of a world so bleak that you both recoil from it but sometimes find yourself wishing the movie could expand to show it.
‘The Assessment’ will certainly be a tough watch for some; not just because of what happens in the movie, but also because of the subjects it addresses, including the control of women, the battle for resources and the challenges that parents of any type face.
Yet if you allow yourself to sink into its world, you’ll be rewarded.
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What is the plot of ‘The Assessment’?
In the near future, prospective parents must pass an initial test to prove their suitability for parenthood, and then endure a seven-day live-in visit from a facilitator known as the assessor who will put them through the wringer in all kinds of imaginable and unimaginable situations where, at the end, they will either get a passing grade — or not. Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) are assigned an assessor named Virginia (Alicia Vikander), and as they begin the uncomfortable tests, their relationship begins to crumble.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Alicia Vikander and director Fleur Fortuné about their work on ‘The Assessment’, the themes Fortuné wanted to explore, Vikander’s approach to her character, the challenges of performing her child like qualities, and how Fortuné created a visually unique world on screen.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, Fleur, can you talk about your first reaction to this screenplay and the themes that you wanted to explore as a director?
Fleur Fortuné: I think my first reaction, I was like, “Whoa.” Because I felt like I was on the edge of my seat, and even though there was a lot of work, I could see how far I could bring it, and there were so many topics that I found interesting. I think the chamber piece, I love that some of my favorite movies are chamber pieces, even though some are very different. The idea to create an absurd test to decide if people could have kids or not, I didn’t think I had read that idea before. Then the sci-fi element, I could see how I could bring it into a place that was different. So, I think if I read the script and suddenly a lot of ideas come up, I think it’s a good sign.
MF: Alicia, when you first read the script, what was your initial reaction to Virginia, and did you approach playing her?
Alicia Vikander: You’re trying to figure out what this woman’s intentions are and what she might be coming from and if there’s any hidden agenda you don’t know about. I think that was a joy taking on a character like that. But then it’s almost roles within a role. I knew I was able to have this character step into many different versions of herself. Within that, I knew I was going to be able to stretch my acting abilities and do something quite different from anything I’ve done before. So, it was a daunting project, but one that I very much enjoyed.
MF: As an actor, was it challenging to tap into the character’s childlike qualities, or did you find it freeing to be able to go to those places?
AV: I think one of my joys that I love is that It’s like child play. I’ve always loved stepping into characters, trying to get to understand certain behavior, people, emotions, actions, even though you know, they’re questionable. I think when you come to the end of the story, too, I had enough of getting to the core of this character to really know where it all kind of comes from. So, it’s not that it’s anything just plastered on top. Even though it might not look like it at first, it really is kind of grounded from somewhere so that I could begin a journey from there and then do as players on like high-end loud notes as I was able to do in this film. It was work I enjoyed.
MF: Finally, Fleur, can you talk about the challenges of creating this visually unique world on screen?
FF: Very early on when I was reading the script, I always try to think on how I can do it in a different way in something that you haven’t seen before. Because it’s three characters in a room, I didn’t want it to be too cold and too blank and too minimal. I was talking to the production designer and when we were scouting Tenerife, which is a volcanic, very windy, and kind of threatening at the same time. So, you start to think from the story and the universe, the fact that there’s no forest, so you don’t have wood. We were building that, little by little, that. Then I wanted Mia’s universe, each one of them, Virginia, Aaryan, to have to feel the character within the place. They live in a certain way. So Aaryan, I think he’s scared of everything that is real. So, he creates things in the world that feels like completely virtual when there’s like nothing. Mia, she’s the opposite. She has access to a technology that is very advanced, but she chooses to repair and fix stuff and touch things in a very raw and real way. I think the place where Virginia lives that you discover later, you understand a lot there. I wanted to have a lot of her own history and her character and who she is behind the state employee and all that. So, I think it comes from the story, and then you create it visually.
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What is the plot of ‘The Assessment’?
In the near future, prospective parents must pass an initial test to prove their suitability for parenthood, and then endure a seven-day live-in visit from a facilitator known as the assessor who will put them through the wringer in all kinds of imaginable and unimaginable situations where, at the end, they will either get a passing grade — or not. Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) are assigned an assessor named Virginia (Alicia Vikander), and as they begin the uncomfortable tests, their relationship begins to crumble.
(L to R) Himesh Patel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in ‘Greedy People’. Photo: Lionsgate.
Opening in theaters on August 23rd, ‘Greedy People’ comes across like a Coen brothers movie made by people who have not actually seen the siblings’ work, only heard it described by someone who remembered the wrong things.
Though Joseph Gordon-Levitt leads an accomplished cast, the film around them simply can’t find the right gear and is neither as funny nor as impactful as it believes.
Darkly comic crime thrillers are a tricky genre to get right. And yes, while we keep bringing up the Coen brothers, that’s because they effectively mastered it with the likes of ‘Fargo’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’, among others.
Which is not to say that other directors haven’t made it work, but when you have a movie that so clearly wants to stand alongside some of the classics, you need to make sure it really works. It’s regrettable to report that ‘Greedy People’ simply doesn’t. It’s far from unwatchable but scuppered by some serious issues.
‘Greedy People’: Script and Direction
(L to R) Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Himesh Patel in ‘Greedy People’. Photo: Lionsgate.
Writer Mike Vukadinovich is probably better known for TV than movies –– he’s worked on shows such as ‘Kidding’ and Marvel’s ‘Runaways’. Yet his big screen script work has been eclectic, including ‘Rememory’ and contributing to one of the many development drafts of the upcoming ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’.
Here, though, he’s come up with a spin on a familiar concept –– cash found in a small town that has all manner of shysters, grifters and struggling family types willing to go to any lengths to get their hands on it –– and, well, pumped out the latest generic version of said story. There are quirky characters galore, but so many of them feel like bland copies of earlier, better examples. And tonally, the movie is all over the place, seemingly unable to decide if it wants to be wacky, somber or wannabe-insightful about human greed.
Director Potsy Ponciroli, sadly, never overcome the issues of the script given to him. While he gets a handful of solid performances from a game cast, none of it adds up to anything really worth spending much time with. And one moment in particular –– which features the death of an animal played for laughs –– is so unfortunate as to sour reactions to even the most interesting character of the story.
‘Greedy People’: Performances
The one person who truly seems to be having fun here is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who absolutely consumes the role of corrupt cop Terry. Around him, everyone else (except possibly Tim Blake Nelson and, in a brief appearance, Traci Lords) feel like they’re in another movie.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in ‘Greedy People’. Photo: Lionsgate.
A wacky whirlwind of a performance, Terry the cop allows Gordon-Levitt to truly cut loose in a way he’s rarely allowed. And he commits, bringing the foul-mouthed, moral-free law enforcement officer to life with gusto. Yet, as mentioned before, he feels apart from pretty much everyone else, as if he wandered in from another set.
Effectively our audience surrogate leading us into the weird world of the Nantucket island setting, Patel opts mostly for earnest, which sort of works when playing off Gordon-Levitt’s firecracker of a role, but more honestly fits with Lily James (in a ‘Yesterday’ reunion) as his wife.
He’s not bad by any means, but he’s also something of a wet sponge compared to his co-star.
Tim Blake Nelson
Nelson –– a Coen stalwart –– definitely knows what he’s doing in this type of movie, ratcheting up the quirk levels and committing to being a scheming weirdo. Yet his role is still relatively small and what happens to him is fairly predictable.
Supporting cast
Around the main characters, there is the typical ensemble of townsfolk and friends/family. All the cast do what they can, some with underwritten roles. Lily James does what she can with the part of Will’s pregnant wife, playing her with a welcome mix of pragmatism, spirit and vulnerability. Traci Lords has a glorified cameo as the housewife (and aggrieved other half to Nelson’s character), whose 911 call sets the film’s plot into motion.
Other notable people deserving of praise? Jim Gaffigan is great in small role (and a big wig) as local assassin-for-hire The Irishman. His delivery and manner are really suited to this sort of movie, and he makes the character believably odd. Ditto Uzo Aduba as the police captain, whose cheery professionalism masks real grief.
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‘Greedy People’: Final Thoughts
‘Greedy People’ is probably best described as a worthy failure. It certainly has some watchable performances, decent lines and a handful of fun scenes, but overall, it just can’t maintain its momentum, nor figure out exactly what it wants to be.
As the body count rises, the tone becomes increasingly tiresome, and while Joseph Gordon-Levitt shines in his role, even Terry becomes grating. If you’re a small-town noir completist, maybe give this a look, but otherwise it never works as well as it might.
‘Greedy People’ receives 5.5 out of 10 stars.
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What’s the story of ‘Greedy People’?
Rookie cop Will (Himesh Patel) and his rogue partner Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) upend their small island town when they accidentally discover one million dollars at a crime scene (of their own making).
After the duo unwisely decides to steal the money, the community’s quirky residents are lured into the mad dash for cash — ranging from an expectant mom (Lily James) to a masseur (Simon Rex) to a shrimp company owner (Tim Blake Nelson) — and everyone learns just how far they are willing to go for the almighty dollar.
(Left) Himesh Patel in Max’s ‘Station Eleven.’ Photograph by Ian Watson/HBO Max. (Right) Aya Cash as Stormfront in season 2 of Prime Video’s ‘The Boys.’ Credit: Jasper Savage. Copyright: Amazon Studios.
Though they certainly seem to be going through more of a rough patch right now, giant movies featuring caped crusaders, men of steel and other costumed characters continue to be a force at the box office.
And while satirizing the idea of superheroes is nothing new –– Prime Video alone has ‘The Boys’ and the animated series ‘Invincible’ –– poking fun at the machinations of companies and people who make movies based on comic book properties is still an idea ripe with promise.
Who better, then to oversee such a project as Armando Iannucci, the British comedian and writer/producer who has brought us the likes of ‘Veep’ and ‘Avenue 5’ and spent years before either show working on politically-skewed series in the UK?
Yet while he will be an executive producer on the new series, ‘The Franchise’, the actual showrunner is Jon Brown, who worked with Iannucci on ‘Veep’ and ‘Avenue 5’ but has also spent years on ‘Succession’.
With HBO ordering the show to series after a successful pilot, the creative team is rounded out by ‘American Beauty’ and ‘Skyfall’ director Sam Mendes, a man more known for producing TV than calling the shots on it, but who did so for ‘The Franchise’.
What is the story of ‘The Franchise’?
Aya Cash as Stormfront in season 2 of Prime Video’s ‘The Boys.’ Credit: Jasper Savage. Copyright: Amazon Studios
According to HBO’s official description, the show follows “the crew of an unloved franchise movie fighting for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe,” while it also “shines a light on the secret chaos inside the world of superhero moviemaking, to ask the question — how exactly does the cinematic sausage get made? Because every fuck-up has an origin story.”
It’ll definitely be taking pot shots at the big comic book-based studios, then, and potentially mega-budget filmmaking in general. Possibly along the lines of Judd Apatow’s satire ‘The Bubble’ last year (though hopefully more successfully).
Himesh Patel in Max’s ‘Station Eleven.’ Photograph by Ian Watson/HBO Max.
That is a much bigger question to answer; while the pilot was shot before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes took effect, the series itself will have to wait for them to be resolved before it can get moving in any creative capacity.
Still, given the talent involved, you know HBO will want to get moving on this as soon as possible, especially since it’ll want the series out before the superhero movie genre goes completely off the bubble.
Aya Cash as Stormfront in season 2 of Prime Video’s ‘The Boys.’ Credit: Jasper Savage. Copyright: Amazon Studios.
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Unlike some of his other projects, it doesn’t appear that Levy is starring in this one. And there’s no sign of his father, Eugene, either (though we wouldn’t rule out at least a cameo).
Details are scarce on what roles the cast are taking, but we do at least have some details. Written by Levy, the movie follows Marc Dreyfus. He’s chosen to distract himself from the loss of his mom with a comfortable marriage.
But when his husband also dies unexpectedly, Marc is forced to finally confront the grief he’s tried so hard to avoid, sending him and his two closest friends on a Parisian weekend of self-discovery.
“‘Good Grief’ is a cautionary tale about friendship and loss and all the mess that comes with it when the truth is something you’ve evaded for most of your life,” says Levy. “It’s funny, it’s bittersweet, it’s a project that has helped me work through my own grief. And I hope it does the same for other people as well.”
Negga needs little introduction at this point, but she scored an Oscar nomination for her work in 2016 ‘Loving’ and was excellent in last year’s ‘Passing’.
Ruth Negga to star in director Dan Levy’s ‘Good Grief’ for Netflix. Photo courtesy of Netflix.
Patel broke out in 2019 alternate universe comedy drama ‘Yesterday’, where he played the only person on Earth who remembers The Beatles. He was more recently seen as part of the cast of HBO series ‘Station Eleven’.
Imrie is a British acting stalwart, seen in ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’, its sequel and all three Bridget Jones movies. She also had a key role on FX series ‘Better Things’.
Bradley is primarily known for two big genre roles – sneering Hogwarts caretaker Mr. Filch in the ‘Harry Potter’ movies and the brutal Walder Frey in several episodes of ‘Game of Thrones.’
French actor Valois is less well known in the States, but he has been seen in 2017’s ‘BPM (Beats Per Minute).’
‘Good Grief’ will be a Netflix release (not shocking given Levy’s ties to the streaming service given its support of ‘Schitt’s Creek’) but it doesn’t have a release date set yet.
Luke Evans attends the UK Premiere of ‘Dracula Untold’ at Odeon West End on October 1, 2014 in London, England. Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images.
Naturally, we have no idea what role he’ll play, since all we know about the project is it’s “an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage.”
“Tenet” stars Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kenneth Branagh and Nolan regular Michael Caine. And It may or may not involve time travel. (Given Nolan’s love of playing with timelines, this wouldn’t be the least bit surprising.)
Patel also costars in the British period drama “The Aeronauts,” which is in theaters on December 6 and will debut on Amazon Prime on December 20.
Imagine all the people … not remembering the Beatles. Except for one guy, who’s about to become a superstar thanks to their music.
That’s the premise of Danny Boyle’s upcoming musical dramedy, “Yesterday.” As the trailer lays out, Jack (Himesh Patel) is an struggling singer-songwriter who wakes up after an accident to discover the Beatles never existed.
But he remembers all of their hit songs and starts to pass them off as his own. But Jack’s skyrocketing fame threatens his friendship with the person who always believed in him, Ellie (Lily James).
The script comes from Richard Curtis (“Love, Actually”). Boyle, meanwhile, took on this project after exiting “Bond 25.”
Judging by the trailer, the movie looks like a fun, funny, fizzy combination of Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” and Curtis’ numerous romantic comedies, with Beatles music thrown in for good measure. This could be the sleeper hit of the summer.
