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‘A Complete Unknown’ Interview: Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro
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The new biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’ opens in theaters on December 25th and chronicles the early life and career of legendary musician Bob Dylan.

Directed By James Mangold (‘Walk the Line’), the film stars Timothée Chalamet (‘Dune: Part Two’) as Dylan, Elle Fanning (‘Maleficent’) as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro (‘Top Gun: Maverick’) as Joan Baez, Ed Norton (‘Motherless Brooklyn’) as Pete Seeger, Scoot McNairy (‘Speak No Evil’) as Woody Guthrie, and Boyd Holbrook (‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’) as Johnny Cash.

Related Article: Movie Review: A Complete Unknown’

(L to R) Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro star in ‘A Complete Unknown’.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of sitting down in-person with Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro to talk about their work on ‘A Complete Unknown’, playing Pete Seeger and Joan Baez respectively, learning to sing and play instruments like their characters, Seeger and Baez’s relationships with Dylan, working with Timothée Chalamet, and what audiences will learn about Dylan’s legacy.

You can read the full interviews below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.

Edward Norton in ‘A Complete Unknown’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Moviefone: To begin with, Edward, can you talk about your approach to playing Pete Seeger and how challenging was it to learn how to play his instruments the same way he played them?

Edward Norton: The music, and fortunately this enormous body of recorded music and a lot of what Pete Seeger did, he did live, and so you get to hear his music, but you also get to hear, he talked to the crowd a lot and his vocal demeanor, his kind of odd formalism, and it was a great access point and there is an amazing amount of footage of him. That was a good place to start, there’s an abundant, recorded visual and auditory library of Pete. I think until you start trying to unpack what he’s doing musically; you don’t realize how much virtuosity he had as a banjo and a guitar player. He’s a monster of a musician, and I’ve played guitar a long time, but I realized in many ways that it was going to be very difficult on the banjo because there’s a lot of modern professional banjo players who don’t even play in the style that Pete Seeger played in. He had this special long-necked, you wouldn’t call it a baritone banjo, but it was a long neck banjo, and he played a picking style that’s very old-fashioned and not a lot of people do anymore. It was an interesting process to navigate the music with our great music supervisor, and James (Mangold) and teachers that I had. It was a challenge is the short answer. That was probably the thing I felt the most. Not anxious, but you really want to get that right. You don’t want to not do justice to what amazing musicians these people were.

Monica Barbaro attends Searchlight Pictures’ ‘A Complete Unknown’ World Premiere on Dec 10, 2024 in Los Angeles.

MF: Monica, I understand you had an opportunity to talk to Joan Baez before you began shooting. How did that help inform your performance and did it put you at ease about portraying her on screen?

Monica Barbaro: Well, I was at a place, we had already started filming, and I just kept having dreams about her. It’d be specifically dreams where we were hanging out, and we kept having a great time. I’d wake up in a good mood, and so I was like, “I think subconsciously something’s telling me that it’s going to be okay, and you should reach out.” I knew at that point that Ed had spoken to her, he knows her, and all I’ve heard is that she’s a very creatively generous person, and so I felt emboldened to reach out. I felt like, if it were Joan, she would reach out. So, I was like, “Okay, this is an exercise also in preparing for the bit of confidence that I think she has.” We just had a beautiful conversation, and she was very generous with her time, and she answered my questions, and I can safely say her memoirs and her documentaries are all very honest. There was nothing that I felt like she was withholding. So that was just wonderful to confirm that the research I had been doing was on the right path, and what she had offered up was true to her experience.

(L to R) Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro in ‘A Complete Unknown’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

MF: Monica, can you talk about the challenges of learning and preparing for all the musical sequences and really matching the sound of your voice to hers?

MB: I think I’ve studied her so intensely that all I hear are the differences. I got to work with a lovely vocal coach and what we talked about was really trying to capture some of the more iconic qualities of her voice, the things that everyone says when they describe her voice, like she has this beautiful, tight vibrato, this sort of angelic sound, which I think comes also from singing in high keys, that I at the time couldn’t sing in. So just getting to the point of having comfortability with those qualities was the thing that I felt like would at least sell that believability early on. I didn’t play guitar either, so I had a great guitar teacher who just doubled down on teaching me her finger picking style. We just tried to formulate some version of Joan with tons of hours of training.

Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unkown’. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

MF: Monica, can you talk about how Baez and Dylan’s relationship is depicted in the film and what it was like working on that with Timothée Chalamet?

MB: I mean, I’m such a fan of his work. I am an even bigger fan now. He’s an incredible actor, and knowing he was a part of this project was a part of what made me want to do it. Also, James Mangold, of course, and the subject matter. But I had complete trust in him. I mean, I had heard some of his recordings as we were preparing, and so I had even duetted with his voice as Bob. But when we met up and had a music rehearsal, I just was completely blown away. He’s an incredible actor, he worked so hard, and to me, he really got a lot of that Bob Dylan essence, and we could just, I think, kind of trust each other’s work, and we could show up as our characters and sort of let the scene unfold. We didn’t spend a lot of time sitting down and figuring out who we thought they were or what we thought this meant. We took our sort of siloed processes and bridged them in the moment in the scenes that you see. James was an incredible advocate for us and leader in that process, and it was just a beautiful, very present experience.

(L to R) Edward Norton and Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unkown’. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

MF: Finally, Edward, can you talk about how Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan’s friendship is depicted in the film and what you hope audiences learn about both of their legacies?

EN: I think in a funny way, I never want to impose an idea. I think an audience should get to have their own relationship with it. Here’s my point. A great filmmaker will leave people with a lot to resolve for themselves and not instruct emotionally, morally or anything. I think James’ done something quite beautiful in this, in that he lets Dylan be Dylan and Pete be Pete, and they have different kinds of integrity. Joan Baez has her own. I think he gives you this portrait of the different types of integrity that a person can have, and he lets them collide with each other. Different people are going to feel very different ways about it all and then go through the prism of their own experiences and their own mentors and their own people they think they did something for. If you get that right, it transcends the fact that these people were musicians. It can be about teachers or anyone who had a mentor or anyone who had an ally who they went sideways with. I think it’s the paradox of people being able to love each other and admire each other and get into cross-purposes with each other that makes it kind of interesting. I think that there was a moment that the film depicts that a lot of people who have great talent and great passion kind of collided with each other. This thing came up and out in the Zeitgeist through Dylan, and then it changed. You know what I mean? I love the way the film sort of almost, it’s like the Beatles breaking up. Everything can’t last. Maybe if anything, it’s like, it’s just the observation of that fact that is poignant.
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What is the plot of ‘A Complete Unknown’?

Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, ‘A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

Who is in the cast of ‘A Complete Unknown’?
- Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan
- Edward Norton as Pete Seeger
- Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo
- Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez
- Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash
- Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie
- Dan Fogler as Albert Grossman
- Norbert Leo Butz as Alan Lomax
- P. J. Byrne as Harold Leventhal
- Will Harrison as Bob Neuwirth
- Charlie Tahan as Al Kooper
Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unkown’. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

List of Biopics Based on Musicians:
- ‘Sid and Nancy‘ (1986)
- ‘The Doors‘ (1991)
- ‘Ray‘ (2004)
- ‘Walk the Line‘ (2005)
- ‘I’m Not There‘ (2007)
- ‘Control‘ (2007)
- ‘Nowhere Boy‘ (2010)
- ‘The Runaways‘ (2010)
- ‘Get on Up‘ (2014)
- ‘Love & Mercy‘ (2015)
- ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ (2018)
- ‘Rocketman‘ (2019)
- ‘The Dirt‘ (2019)
- ‘Elvis‘ (2022)
- ‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody‘ (2022)
- ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story‘ (2022)
- ‘Maestro‘ (2023)
- ‘Bob Marley: One Love‘ (2024)
- ‘Back to Black‘ (2024)
- ‘Girl You Know It’s True‘ (2024)
Buy Tickets: ‘A Complete Unknown’ Movie Showtimes

Buy Bob Dylan Music on Amazon
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December 23, 2024
Movie Review: ‘A Complete Unknown’
Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unkown’. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Opening in theaters on December 25th is the new biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’, which chronicles the early life and career of legendary musician Bob Dylan.

Directed By James Mangold (‘Walk the Line’), the film stars Timothée Chalamet (‘Dune: Part Two’) as Dylan, Elle Fanning (‘Maleficent’) as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro (‘Top Gun: Maverick’) as Joan Baez, Ed Norton (‘Motherless Brooklyn’) as Pete Seeger, Scoot McNairy (‘Speak No Evil’) as Woody Guthrie, and Boyd Holbrook (‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’) as Johnny Cash.

Related Article: Marisa Abela and Director Sam Taylor-Johnson Talk ‘Back to Black’

Initial Thoughts

(L to R) Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Director James Mangold delivers a brilliant and vibrant biopic about legendary musician Bob Dylan that completely captures his complex mystic and iconic music. Mangold wisely focuses on the early part of Dylan’s career, beginning with his arrival in New York, his rise in the folk music scene, and culminating with his controversial choice to “go electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Timothée Chalamet gives a career-defining performance as Dylan and is completely hypnotic in the role. The actor completely embodies the character with the awkward cool and determination of Dylan and is remarkable in the musical sequences, so much so that at times you forget you are not actually watching Dylan. Chalamet’s performance is supported by excellent turns from both Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Ed Norton as folk musician Pete Seeger.

Script and Direction

(L to R) Director James Mangold and Timothée Chalamet on the set of ‘A Complete Unkown’. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

The movie begins in 1963 by introducing us to an awkward young song writer, who has just arrived in New York City and has already adopted the persona of Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet). Dylan’s first move is to visit his hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who is dying in a local hospital. Dylan performs a song he has written for Woody and impresses folk legend Pete Seeger (Ed Norton).

Seeger soon introduces Dylan on the popular New York folk music scene, and while trying to get his first album produced, meets artist Sylvie Russo (Susan Rotolo in real life) played by Elle Fanning, and young musician Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Dylan soon begins having relationships with both women, while his musical career takes off.

Confused by his new success and being labeled “the voice of his generation” by the media, Dylan seeks support from fellow musician Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook). Dylan continues to struggle with his success and pushes to create new music that doesn’t fit into the mold of what Seeger and others want for him. It all culminates with the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan is the headliner and famously causes a riot by using an electric guitar.

Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unkown’. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Based on author Elijah Wald’s ‘Dylan Goes Electric’, the script by Mangold and Jay Cocks is excellent and the choice to focus on the first three years of Dylan’s career rather than a life-spanning biopic was a smart one. Mangold, of course, is no stranger to rock n’ roll biopics having made the Johnny Cash film ‘Walk the Line,’ but in my opinion this is a far superior movie and putting ‘Logan’ aside, may be the best work of Mangold’s impressive career.

Focusing on this specific period allows the director to really examine how Robert Zimmerman became Bob Dylan, and his impact on music and society. 1960s New York comes alive in a vibrant way, and the images shown reflect what we’ve seen of Dylan in that time. Mangold is also able to spotlight the folk music movement of the early 60s, Dylan’s role in that, and how controversial it was in that community when Dylan “betrayed” them and went electric.

Obviously, if you are Dylan fan you will love the music as it is mostly his, with a few traditional songs and music from Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash thrown in. All the big Dylan hits of that time are included such as ‘Masters of War’, ‘Blowing in the Wind’, ‘Maggie’s Farm’, and of course, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. The musical performances are fantastic, and the actors, who sang themselves, remarkably sound like the people they are portraying, especially Chalamet and Barbaro.

Criticism

Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unkown’. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Full disclosure: I’m a self-proclaimed Bob Dylan expert. I’ve personally been studying his music as a fan for the last 30 years and have seen him live in concert easily over 20 times. So, I was ready to be quite critical of the movie, but to be honest, I fell so in love with the characters, the performances, the music and Mangold’s direction, that I really left the theater with very little to complain about.

However, if I had to be critical, at 2 hours and 21 minutes, the movie is a little long. It didn’t bother me much, but I think you could have a much tighter film if you cut 10 minutes or so from the run time. The easiest way to do this would be to cut one or two of the musical numbers. Look, I love ‘Masters of War’, but do we need to see Dylan perform it twice in the same movie?

Also, I understand having Norton perform one of Pete Seeger’s songs at the beginning of the movie to establish who that character is, but also watching him perform at the Newport Festival towards the finale seemed unnecessary. My guess would be that Mangold got a little too precious with the musical performances and didn’t want to “cut any of his babies”, and I totally get that, and in the long run doesn’t really hurt the movie much.

Edward Norton in ‘A Complete Unknown’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

My other small critique would be that the film completely skips Dylan’s seminal 1965 tour of England, which is where he was first introduced to electric guitars. The movie makes mention of the trip before and after it happens, but never took the time to explore it and I have a theory as to why Mangold made that choice.

D.A. Pennebaker’s groundbreaking 1967 documentary ‘Don’t Look Back’ chronicles in real time Dylan’s tour of England, and my guess would be that Mangold did not want to retread that territory. If that is the case, then that was a smart choice, as one of my issues with director Michael Mann’s boxing biopic ‘Ali’ was that the third act was a shot for shot remake of the Oscar-winning documentary ‘When We Were Kings’.

Cast and Performances

(L to R) Edward Norton and Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unkown’. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Mangold has really assembled a wonderful ensemble cast but obviously the movie hinges on Timothée Chalamet’s performance. The young actor who has been excellent in films like ‘Call Me by Your Name’, ‘Wonka’ and the ‘Dune’ series gives his best work to date as Dylan. I would imagine this was a daunting character for Chalamet to play and he completely nails it from beginning to end.

The actor perfectly embodies Dylan, his awkward coolness, and his legendary mystic. His musical performances are astounding and the best compliment I can give him is to say that there were times I forgot I was watching an actor and thought I was really watching Dylan. It is easily one of the best male performances of this year and I would be shocked if he doesn’t at least get nominated for an Oscar, and depending on who else is in the competition, I would imagine he’ll be the frontrunner.

(L to R) Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro in ‘A Complete Unknown’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Also deserving of an Oscar nomination is Monica Barbaro who is incredible as Joan Baez. Not only does the actress look like Baez, but she also sounds exactly like her when she is singing and has excellent chemistry with Chalamet. Their love story, for me, was the heart of the movie. Elle Fanning, who plays Dylan’s other love interest Sylvie, has a bit of a thankless role, as I did feel her character was given short shrift by the script. Regardless, the actress is a ray of sunshine in all her scenes and has wonderful chemistry with Chalamet too.

Ed Norton could also end up earning an Oscar nomination for his work, as the actor gives a quiet yet strong performance as Dylan’s mentor and eventual rival, Pete Seeger. It’s also worth mentioning Boyd Holbrook’s fun performance as Johnny Cash, but with two short scenes, it is basically a glorified cameo. Finally, Scoot McNairy has the difficult job of playing an afflicted Woody Guthrie, and while his performance didn’t quite work for me, the actor made the most of the situation.

Final Thoughts

Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unkown’. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

In the end, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is probably the best version of a Bob Dylan movie we could ever ask for. And it’s important to remember that Bob Dylan isn’t even a real person … he’s a mysterious character that a young Robert Zimmerman created in New York in the early 60s. Given that, director James Mangold has created a biopic that both honors the legend of Bob Dylan, while examining the real man behind the persona, without ruining the mystic that the artist has spent so many decades cultivating.

I expect the film will receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and possibly a nomination for Best Director as well. In a year that saw disappointing biopics of both Bob Marley (‘Bob Marley: One Love‘) and Amy Winehouse (‘Back to Black‘), I can safely say that ‘A Complete Unknown’ is the best biopic about a popular musician we’ve seen in recent years and features a transcending and career-defining performance from Timothée Chalamet.

‘A Complete Unknown’ receives 9 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘A Complete Unknown’?

Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, ‘A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

Who is in the cast of ‘A Complete Unknown’?
- Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan
- Edward Norton as Pete Seeger
- Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo
- Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez
- Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash
- Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie
- Dan Fogler as Albert Grossman
- Norbert Leo Butz as Alan Lomax
- P. J. Byrne as Harold Leventhal
- Will Harrison as Bob Neuwirth
- Charlie Tahan as Al Kooper
‘A Complete Unknown’ opens in theaters on December 25th.

List of Biopics Based on Musicians:
- ‘Sid and Nancy‘ (1986)
- ‘The Doors‘ (1991)
- ‘Ray‘ (2004)
- ‘Walk the Line‘ (2005)
- ‘I’m Not There‘ (2007)
- ‘Control‘ (2007)
- ‘Nowhere Boy‘ (2010)
- ‘The Runaways‘ (2010)
- ‘Get on Up‘ (2014)
- ‘Love & Mercy‘ (2015)
- ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ (2018)
- ‘Rocketman‘ (2019)
- ‘The Dirt‘ (2019)
- ‘Elvis‘ (2022)
- ‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody‘ (2022)
- ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story‘ (2022)
- ‘Maestro‘ (2023)
- ‘Bob Marley: One Love‘ (2024)
- ‘Back to Black‘ (2024)
- ‘Girl You Know It’s True‘ (2024)
Buy Tickets: ‘A Complete Unknown’ Movie Showtimes

Buy Bob Dylan Music on Amazon
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December 10, 2024
Movie Review: ‘Nightbitch’
Amy Adams in ‘Nightbitch’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Opening in theaters December 6th is ‘Nightbitch,’ directed by Marielle Heller and starring Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Snowden, Emmett Snowden, Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, Ella Thomas, Archana Rajan, and Jessica Harper.

Related Article: Amy Adams Talks ‘Nightbitch’ and Developing the Project as a Producer

Initial Thoughts

Movies where characters have no names, and only referred to as “Mother” or other archetypes, always make us suspicious. While it can work in book form, film is a much more visual medium and therefore a more specific one, and while that lack of specificity may make a story on the page more universal or metaphorical, the more concrete language of film may demand a little more out of its characters.

That’s especially true when you set them in a realistic – if also unnamed – time and place, as Marielle Heller’s film ‘Nightbitch’ does. An adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel, the movie stars Amy Adams as a stay-at-home mom (named ‘Mother’) who has given up a career as an artist and pretty much all of her self-identity to take care of her toddler (‘Son’). But Mother’s frustration with her choices manifests itself in some seemingly peculiar ways, leaving ‘Nightbitch’ in an uneasy and not super-successful limbo between satire, allegory, and body horror exercise.

Story and Direction

Marielle Heller on the set of ‘Nightbitch’. Photo By Anne Marie Fox, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Mother (Amy Adams) has given up her career as an artist to stay at home and take of, as she puts it, “a person who will pee in your face without blinking.” Her daily routine with her son – walks in the neighborhood, trips to the supermarket, crafts and games in the house, the same thing every day for lunch – becomes soul-crushingly numbing; she showed her work “at the Modern” once, but is “just dumb now.”

She attends mommy groups at the library but confesses in voiceover that she hates the other moms, all of whom seem to be having a much blissful experience than she is. Meanwhile, the barely present Husband (Scoot McNairy) is off traveling most days for his anonymous job, leaving Mother to take care of Son, run the house, and listen to Husband’s whining about how their relationship isn’t what it was before Son came along. “What happened to my wife?” he asks at one point. “She died in childbirth,” says Mother bitterly.

It is those punishing early days of motherhood that ‘Nightbitch’ (the film) gets right, with director Heller saying that Rachel Yoder’s book impacted her just as she stayed home for several years with her own young children. But while Heller has a great eye for emotional and physical detail in the everyday lives of dysfunctional people (just watch her marvelous ‘Diary of a Teenage Girl’ or the brilliant ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’), she is less sure-footed when ‘Nightbitch’ takes a turn into surrealism with a touch of body horror.
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Mother begins to notice fuzz growing on her back and face, while her teeth seem to sharpen; a bump on the end of her spine soon elongates into what appears to be a tail. Wild dogs begin congregating around her house at night, sometimes leaving her their kills. She herself craves raw meat. And finally one night, Mother changes into a canine form, running on all fours through her nameless suburban neighborhood as if she’s just been released from solitary confinement. She’s free, she’s an animal, she’s a primal force of nature – she’s herself.

Or is she? While such a transformation may work on the page, putting it on film makes it more literal and clunky. We’re never quite sure whether it’s all in Mother’s mind or not, and the earlier, emotionally truthful parts of the story simply don’t sit well with its flights of fancy. At one point, an enigmatic librarian named Norma (the great Jessica Harper) gives Mother a book called “A Field Guide to Magical Women,” suggesting that Mother is part of a long line of women who have “delayed their own greatness” (including Mother’s own mom). But just as things seem to come to a head – both in Mother’s own interior life and in her increasingly strained relationship with Husband – the story comes to a pat conclusion that seems to tie things up in simplistic fashion.

‘Nightbitch’ offers up some rich material for both Heller and Adams to mine, and hits upon some stark truths about motherhood – truths that often get buried in society’s rush to make it seem like it must be the ultimate achievement and defining moment in every woman’s life. But the film’s fantastical extension of those ideas doesn’t go very far, and the movie retreats from them almost as soon as it begins to explore them.

The Cast

Amy Adams in ‘Nightbitch’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

We can watch Amy Adams in just about anything, and ‘Nightbitch’ is really a showcase for her. Although Mother is more an idea than a full character in many ways, Adams brings a complexity to this woman that provides the main drive for the film. Mother’s exhaustion, boredom, and inner tension is palpable, as is her barely suppressed – and fully earned – rage when confronted with Husband’s neediness. And when her animalistic tendencies take over, her sexuality comes out unexpectedly as well, simmering, raw, and long-buried but still powerful. Although Adams is hampered by the script’s queasy sort of twilight existence, she still delivers a well-rounded and poignant performance.

Scoot McNairy, playing his second insecure male this year after his turn in the American remake of ‘Speak No Evil,’ does not fare nearly as well as Husband, a one-dimensional punching bag who pretty much deserves every (symbolic) blow he takes. Husband is clueless, unsympathetic, and emotionally absent, which makes his abrupt character turn toward the end of the film feel hollow. McNairy is a good actor who’s not served well by this role, and while Husband certainly represents a certain kind of husband and father (not all, but a lot) who see their role as merely bringing home the bacon while leaving the parenting to their partners, the film’s portrayal comes up short.

Although they’re all pretty thinly-drawn in a way, the women from the mommy group that Mother reluctantly hangs out with are at least fun to watch in a comic sense, and it’s always nice to see our beloved Jessica Harper (‘Suspiria,’ ‘Phantom of the Paradise’) onscreen even if her narrative thread ultimately doesn’t lead much of anywhere.

Final Thoughts

Amy Adams in ‘Nightbitch’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

With award season upon us, there’s a good chance that Amy Adams might land her seventh Oscar nomination for ‘Nightbitch,’ and it would certainly be well-deserved. Whether she can win or not in a field that’s already looking fiercely competitive – with ‘Anora’ star Mikey Madison, ‘Babygirl’ lead Nicole Kidman, and Angelina Jolie from ‘Maria’ all in the running, among others – remains to be seen.

We just wish the movie around her was better. While the more realistic parts of ‘Nightbitch’ are on target much of the time, the film’s more allegorical or fantastical elements just don’t mesh as well, at least on film, and the director is never able to solve that problem. And instead of committing all the way to one direction or the other, ‘Nightbitch’ just kind of quickly wraps things up. Amy Adams’ provocative performance deserves better, but in the end this ‘Nightbitch’ lacks bite.

‘Nightbitch’ receives 6.5 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Nightbitch’?

An overwhelmed and frustrated stay-at-home mother (Amy Adams) begins to seemingly transform into a dog as she yearns to rediscover her own identity.

Who is in the cast of ‘Nightbitch’?
- Amy Adams as Mother
- Scoot McNairy as Husband
- Arleigh and Emmett Snowden as Son
- Zoë Chao as Jen
- Mary Holland as Miriam
- Ella Thomas as Naya
- Archana Rajan as Liz
- Jessica Harper as Norma
‘Nightbitch’ director Marielle Heller.

List of Marielle Heller Movies and TV Shows:
- ‘MacGruber‘ (2010)
- ‘A Walk Among the Tombstones‘ (2014)
- ‘Transparent‘ (2014 – 2019)
- ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl‘ (2015)
- ‘Casual‘ (2015 – 2018)
- ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping‘ (2016)
- ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?‘ (2019)
- ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood‘ (2019)
- ‘The Queen’s Gambit‘ (2020)
- ‘MacGruber‘ (2021)
Buy Tickets: ‘Nightbitch’ Movie Showtimes

Buy Amy Adams Movies on Amazon
December 7, 2024
‘Nightbitch’ Exclusive Interview: Amy Adams
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Opening in theaters on December 6th is ‘Nightbitch’, which was directed by Marielle Heller (‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’), and stars Oscar-nominee Amy Adams (‘The Fighter’, ‘American Hustle’), Scoot McNairy (‘Speak No Evil’), Zoë Chao (‘The Afterparty’), Mary Holland (‘Senior Year’), Ella Thomas (’Desperation Road’), Roslyn Gentle (‘Bombshell’) and Jessica Harper (‘Minority Report’).

Related Article: Amy Adams Joins Jenna Ortega in Taika Waititi’s ‘Klara and the Sun’

Amy Adams talks ‘Nightbitch’.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Amy Adams about her work on ‘Nightbitch’, developing the project as a producer, her approach to playing her character and the difficulties in her marriage, and the challenges of working with children and dogs.

You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Adams and director Marielle Heller.

Amy Adams in ‘Nightbitch’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

MF: To begin with, can you talk about developing this project as a producer and the themes you wanted to explore on screen as an actress?

Amy Adams: Well, I read the novel before there was a screenplay, so I was brought early on to produce it with Sue Naegle and Annapurna Pictures. Then, we immediately got Mari (director Marielle Heller) on board and Mari’s unique perspective and how she brought that unique tone from the novel into the screenplay. I thought the tone was unique. I thought it dealt with so many important issues. It brings up not only motherhood, parenthood, relationships, community, generational trauma, all these things, of course, that I love to dive into. I really wanted to tell this story.

Amy Adams in ‘Nightbitch’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

MF: Can you talk about the frustrations that your character is having with her husband and motherhood in general?

AA: I think as we find her in the film, she’s at this place where she and father (Scoot McNairy) haven’t really communicated effectively how there would be an equitable division inside of the home. She’s taken on the bulk of responsibility of parenthood. What I love about what Mari’s done with the film and how Scoot McNairy plays the father is that he really isn’t the antagonist of the film and nor is motherhood the antagonist. There’s always a conflict of, and I think that feels so human and so true, between feeling lost and feeling like you’ve lost yourself and yet loving the new life that you could create, but not knowing how important communication and community is through that. Again, I think Scoot does such a wonderful job of playing this husband because he is so loving and invested. He just doesn’t know what’s going on and she hasn’t been able to communicate the truth and the depth of her frustration and her loss of self.

Amy Adams in ‘Nightbitch’. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

MF: Finally, there is an old saying that you should “never work with children or animals,” and you do both in this film. What was that like for you?

AA: I said that making this movie was a lot like having a baby. Now that I’m done, I’m like, “It was not hard at all.” But I think in the moment, if I’m really being honest, there were some challenges, but it was such a wonderful experience. These boys, Emmett and Arleigh (Snowden), they’re these twins that we worked with, were so open and kind of reminded me of the natural give and take of acting that sometimes can get away from me in bigger themes. It kind of brought me back to the play of acting, and it was a lot of fun to work with them. They were so beautiful and the whole set rallied around the experience. We had the prop master constantly bringing new things for them to play with, and Mari down here talking to them. It was a full community working with these kids.
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What is the plot of ‘Nightbitch’?

The film concerns a magical realism-style story of a stay-at-home mom (Amy Adams) who sometimes transforms into a dog.

Who is in the cast of ‘Nightbitch’?
- Amy Adams as Mother
- Scoot McNairy as Husband
- Arleigh and Emmett Snowden as Son
- Zoë Chao as Jen
- Mary Holland as Miriam
- Ella Thomas as Naya
- Archana Rajan as Liz
- Jessica Harper as Norma
- Adrienne Rose White as Sally
- Roslyn Gentle as Nana
- Stacey Swift as Frieda
- Darius De La Cruz as Lemuel
Marielle Heller on the set of ‘Nightbitch’. Photo By Anne Marie Fox, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

List of Marielle Heller Movies and TV Shows:
- ‘MacGruber‘ (2010)
- ‘A Walk Among the Tombstones‘ (2014)
- ‘Transparent‘ (2014 – 2019)
- ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl‘ (2015)
- ‘Casual‘ (2015 – 2018)
- ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping‘ (2016)
- ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?‘ (2019)
- ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood‘ (2019)
- ‘The Queen’s Gambit‘ (2020)
- ‘MacGruber‘ (2021)
Buy Tickets: ‘Nightbitch’ Movie Showtimes

Buy Amy Adams Movies on Amazon
December 3, 2024
Movie Review: ‘Speak No Evil’
James McAvoy in ‘Speak No Evil.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.

Opening in theaters on September 13th, ‘Speak No Evil’ takes on the basic concept of a 2022 Danish chiller that has a shocking, politically charged and pitch-black ending and re-imagines it for American audiences in a way that still works.

Though some might argue that the harder edges of the original –– which (spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it) ends with the murder of a child and a couple stoned to death that carries heavy echoes of the Holocaust –– have been whittled down here, there are still plenty of shocks and surprises to keep you guessing.

Related Article: James McAvoy Talks ‘Speak No Evil’ and Playing His Nefarious Character

Does ‘Speak No Evil’ Shout Proudly?

(L to R) Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy) and Paddy (James McAvoy) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

Director Christian Tafdrup’s screenplay for the original film (written with brother Mads) shocked –– and in some cases, appalled those who saw it as part of 2022’s Sundance Film Festival. The big question was whether anyone would ever risk trying to remake it.

Now we have our answer, as the Blumhouse team has stepped up to do just that, with ‘Eden Lake’ and ‘The Woman in Black’ writer/director James Watkins hired to bring his own take and style to the new movie. And while he’s certainly made some big changes, the twisty story, bolstered by great work from the likes of James McAvoy, Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis, certainly makes for an enjoyable tense time at the movies.

Script and Direction

(L to R) James McAvoy and director James Watkins on the set of ‘Speak No Evil.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.

Watkins is no stranger to bleak filmmaking –– after all ‘Eden Lake’ doesn’t exactly end with jokes and smiles. But what he chooses to do with ‘Speak No Evil’ is definitely interesting. Does it completely edge the new movie into justifying the remake completely? Not always, but it’s enough.

Here, he borrows the basic premise of the Danish film –– two families interact in a way that is built on different cultural understandings of politeness and behavior, albeit to a less harsh degree than that of the original, since Americans and Brits share a lot of them. Yet there are other, different themes at play here, including toxic masculinity, guilt, financial struggles and misunderstandings.

His script gives McAvoy in particular some great moments to play, but serves the whole smallish cast well, adding agency to the younger characters that the Danish film did not possess.

On the visual front, the isolated farmhouse and rugged countryside offer interest and drama as the setting, while Watkins and regular cinematographer Tim Maurice-Jones get great mileage out of both the Italian and UK vistas.

Performances

McAvoy has the showiest part, but he’s very well supported by the others, who all enjoy dimensional characters and moments to shine.

James McAvoy as Paddy

Paddy (James McAvoy) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

Paddy is a fascinating character for McAvoy to bring to life, a bubbling, ostensibly charming but often overbearing blend of masculine energy and opinions. Along with Watkins, canny, well-constructed script, he slowly builds the tension until Paddy’s true intentions become clear.

Scoot McNairy as Ben Dalton

(L to R) Agnes Dalton (Alix West Lefler), Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy), and Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

As one half of the couple who befriend Paddy and his wife, McNairy brings big “beta male” energy to Ben, a passive businessman who moved his family to London for his career but has seen his fortunes take a tumble. Like McAvoy, he commits to the role, bringing a nervy energy to the character who fears he may never match up to Paddy –– but has strength where it counts.

Mackenzie Davis as Louise Dalton

Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

Louise might be the most complex character in the movie. A protective mother, a concerned wife but also a fully-rounded human being with her own drives and secrets. And she’s also something of a badass when called upon.

It also doesn’t hurt that Davis and McNairy spent years working together (albeit not playing husband and wife) on AMC TV series ‘Halt and Catch Fire’ and bring their long experience to the on-screen relationship.

Aisling Franciosi as Ciara

(L to R) Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

Though Franciosi’s role is smaller, she also gets some good moments, particularly when the true nature of Paddy and Ciara’s behavior is revealed. She and McAvoy have a great dynamic.

Supporting cast

(L to R) Ant (Dan Hough) and Agnes Dalton (Alix West Lefler) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

While the cast is understandably kept small, there are some other notable performances. Alix West Lefler as Ben and Louise’s daughter Agnes is good in her smaller role, since one of Watkins’ changes from the original is to give the families’ children some more agency. Together with Dan Hough, who makes a strong debut as Ant, Paddy and Ciara’s son, the person who keys Agnes and the others into Paddy’s dark side, all without saying a word. Finally, there is Kris Hitchen as Mike, Paddy and Ciara’s friendly neighborhood pub owner and chef, who turns out to have a similar dark side.

Final Thoughts

(L to R) Agnes Dalton (Alix West Lefler), Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

There will always be those who decry remakes as unnecessary and creatively bankrupt. But when you have a film as inventive and entertaining as ‘Speak No Evil’ turned out to be, it’s a welcome reminder that that’s not always the case.

While it won’t have anyone shocked in quite the same way as the original, the new version is certainly tense and thrilling, and will keep you guessing as it puts its characters through the wringer.

Yes, it’s more straightforward, but it has its own dark charms.

‘Speak No Evil’ receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Speak No Evil’?

A dream holiday in a beautiful country house becomes a psychological nightmare.

Who is in the cast of ‘Speak No Evil’?
- James McAvoy as Paddy
- Mackenzie Davis as Louise Dalton
- Scoot McNairy as Ben Dalton
- Aisling Franciosi as Ciara
- Alix West Lefler as Agnes Dalton
- Dan Hough as Ant
(L to R) Ant (Dan Hough), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), and Paddy (James McAvoy) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

Other James McAvoy Movies:
- ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe‘ (2005)
- ‘The Last King of Scotland‘ (2006)
- ‘Atonement‘ (2007)
- ‘Wanted‘ (2008)
- ‘X-Men: First Class‘ (2011)
- ‘Trance‘ (2013)
- ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘ (2014)
- ‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘ (2016)
- ‘Split‘ (2016)
- ‘Atomic Blonde‘ (2017)
- ‘Deadpool 2‘ (2018)
- ‘Glass‘ (2019)
- ‘Dark Phoenix‘ (2019)
- ‘It Chapter Two‘ (2019)
- ‘The Book of Clarence‘ (2024)
Buy Tickets: ‘Speak No Evil’ Movie Showtimes

Buy James McAvoy Movies on Amazon
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September 14, 2024
‘Speak No Evil’ Exclusive Interview: James McAvoy
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Opening in theaters on September 13th is the new psychological thriller ‘Speak No Evil’, which was directed by James Watkins (‘The Woman in Black’) and is a remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name.

The movie stars James McAvoy (‘X-Men: First Class’ and ‘Split’), Mackenzie Davis (‘Terminator: Dark Fate’), Scoot McNairy (‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’), and Aisling Franciosi (‘The Last Voyage of the Demeter’).

Related Article: James McAvoy Making Directorial Debut with ‘California Schemin’’

James McAvoy stars in ‘Speak No Evil’.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of sitting down in-person with James McAvoy to talk about his work on ‘Speak No Evil’, his first reaction to the screenplay, his approach to his character and his motivations, working with the cast, and collaborating on set with director James Watkins.

You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy and director James Watkins.

(L to R) Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

Moviefone: To begin with, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and why did you want to be part of this project?

James McAvoy: There are two things. I really liked the fact that there was this couple that were good people, and they were unhappy, and they had a relationship that you would never wish on your worst enemy. Then you’ve got these bad people who are so incredibly deeply, passionately in love, and you know they’re having sex every other minute, and It’s the kind of relationship you could only dream of. I thought that was such a good juxtaposition to have the bad people be the thing you aspire to, and the good people be the thing you would never want to be.

MF: Can you talk about your approach to playing Paddy and what are his true motivations?

JM: I mean, his motivations are completely selfish and self-serving, and he’s a complete narcissist, and he’s a sociopath. He’s toxically masculine and happy about it, which is the key thing I think, was that as much as he’s all these bad things, he does have one thing that not everybody does. Lots of good people don’t have this. He has the secret to being happy. He’s got loads of rage issues, he’s got loads of anger, all that, and he’s abusive and he’s manipulative, but he’s happy and that is such a draw for people to be around. You can go like, how’s that person got there? I want to get there because so many good people don’t have that capacity, it seems.

(L to R) Agnes Dalton (Alix West Lefler), Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

MF: What was it like working with Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy?

JM: Mackenzie and Scoot were incredible, as was Aisling who played Ciara, Paddy’s wife, but I think Louise played by Mackenzie is less vulnerable. She sees the problem that Paddy could present much earlier. Ben is played by Scoot, and he gives an incredible performance. Scoot is much more like Paddy in real life than I am, not sociopathic or dangerous, but he’s a man of the woods. He hunts and he can fix things and can build his own house. He’s much more Paddy than me, and he plays this injured, kind of hurt masculine creature so well, and so he’s much more vulnerable. If Paddy’s like a lion searching the herd for the lame beast that he can take down the easiest, when he sees Ben, he’s like, “That’s our mark. That’s who we want”. He’s just so ripe for the brainwashing that Paddy wants to perform.

MF: The film deals with some dark subjects but also includes kids in the cast, what was it like working with them on set?

JM: They were great. They had the summer of their lives. It was like two kids, similar age, running about a big farmstead with loads of countryside around us, searching for bugs and doing arts and crafts and doing class, and then coming in every now and again and doing a really messed up scene about abuse. So, it was interesting and strange to see just how relaxed and okay they were. We were constantly checking in with them, constantly checking in with their families and their chaperones to make sure everything was okay. But they seemed great, and so professional, admirably professional like up there with Saoirse Ronan when she was 12 years old professional. They were brilliant.

(L to R) James McAvoy (as Dalton) and Director James Watkins on the set of ‘Speak No Evil’.

MF: Finally, what was James Watkins like to work with as a director on set?

JM: He’s free, open, really welcoming of ideas and suggestions, but at the same time, tightly calibrating and orchestrating this tightrope walk, which on one side of it has a lot of comedy, and then the other side has a lot of scares and fear and horror, but you can’t really jump either side until the end of the movie. You’ve got to stay on that tightrope so that both things are always possible. But he was brilliant. He had it so tightly wound.
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What is the plot of ‘Speak No Evil’?

A dream holiday in a beautiful country house becomes a psychological nightmare.

Who is in the cast of ‘Speak No Evil’?
- James McAvoy as Paddy
- Mackenzie Davis as Louise Dalton
- Scoot McNairy as Ben Dalton
- Aisling Franciosi as Ciara
- Alix West Lefler as Agnes Dalton
- Dan Hough as Ant
(L to R) Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy) and Paddy (James McAvoy) in ‘Speak No Evil’, directed by James Watkins.

Other James McAvoy Movies:
- ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe‘ (2005)
- ‘The Last King of Scotland‘ (2006)
- ‘Atonement‘ (2007)
- ‘Wanted‘ (2008)
- ‘X-Men: First Class‘ (2011)
- ‘Trance‘ (2013)
- ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘ (2014)
- ‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘ (2016)
- ‘Split‘ (2016)
- ‘Atomic Blonde‘ (2017)
- ‘Deadpool 2‘ (2018)
- ‘Glass‘ (2019)
- ‘Dark Phoenix‘ (2019)
- ‘It Chapter Two‘ (2019)
- ‘The Book of Clarence‘ (2024)
Buy Tickets: ‘Speak No Evil’ Movie Showtimes

Buy James McAvoy Movies on Amazon
September 10, 2024
First Official Picture of Timothée Chalamet in Bob Dylan Movie
Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in director James Mangold’s ‘A Complete Unknown.’ Photo: James Mangold’s Twitter Account.

Preview:
- The first official image of Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown’ has landed.
- Director James Mangold posted the picture in response to a flood of paparazzi set images.
- This new movie will chronicle a key early part of Bob Dylan’s career.
Thanks to the recent one-two punch of ‘Wonka’ and ‘Dune: Part Two’, Timothée Chalamet’s celeb-obsession-ometer is naturally high right now. So with him out and about in New York shooting the new film ‘A Complete Unknown’, there has been a paparazzi feeding frenzy for images of the young star playing a scruffy 1960s-era Bob Dylan.

To head off more, filmmaker James Mangold, who is directing the new movie, has released his own image of Chalamet, plus one of the clapper board from the movie, via social media.

Photo by JM w/ Leica SL3
Summicron-SL APO 50mm
2.8 1/160 ISO 12500@searchlightpics pic.twitter.com/Gm1P4rtenp

— Mangold (@mang0ld) March 27, 2024

What’s the story of ‘A Complete Unknown’?

(Left) Bob Dylan in director D. A. Pennebaker’s documentary ‘Don’t Look Back.’ Photo: Leacock-Pennebaker, Inc.

Co-written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is set in the influential New York music scene of the early ’60s.

It follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts — his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation — culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
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Who else is in ‘A Complete Unknown’?

Edward Norton as Miles in ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’ Photo: Courtesy Netflix.

In the new movie, Edward Norton plays fellow folk musician Pete Seeger (a role that initially went to Benedict Cumberbatch before scheduling issues forced him to drop out), Elle Fanning is appearing as a character based on university student and artist Sylvie Russo, who was an early big love of Dylan’s, while Monica Barbaro is Joan Baez.

The cast also includes Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy, Dan Fogler, Will Harrison, Charlie Tahan, P.J. Byrne, Eli Brown, Nick Pupo, Big Bill Morganfield, Laura Kariuki, Eric Berryman, David Alan Basche, Joe Tippett, and James Austin Johnson.

One person not in the movie? Chalamet’s ‘Dune’ co-star Austin Butler, who famously got his own big break playing another huge music icon in ‘Elvis’.

Here’s how Chalamet joked to Butler about him appearing, as reported by NME:

“I wish you were in it! There’s an Elvis character in the Johnny Cash biopic ‘Walk the Line’. It’s really brief, it’s very brief, but I was kind of wishing we could create a musical cinematic universe.”

What else is Chalamet working on?

Timothee Chalamet at a fan event for ‘Wonka.’ Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

While the actor doesn’t have any roles officially lined up after the Dylan pic, he’ll likely return for ‘Dune: Messiah’ as and when director Denis Villeneuve is ready to make the next chapter in the successful sci-fi saga.

But Warners, pleased with the box office hauls of both ‘Wonka’ and ‘Dune: Part Two’, has now signed a deal with the star, which will see the studio collaborating with him on movies he’ll lead and produce, much as it recently did with ‘Barbie’s Margot Robbie and her LuckyChap company.

Related Article: Director Denis Villeneuve Talks ‘Dune: Part Two’ Casting and Production

When will ‘A Complete Unknown’ be in theaters?

Chala-maniacs will have to be patient for this one, as Searchlight Pictures has yet to set a release date for the movie.

Director James Mangold’s ‘A Complete Unknown.’ Photo: James Mangold’s Twitter Account.

Other Movies Similar to ‘A Complete Unknown’:
- ‘Sid and Nancy‘ (1986)
- ‘The Doors‘ (1991)
- ‘Ray‘ (2004)
- ‘Walk the Line‘ (2005)
- ‘I’m Not There‘ (2007)
- ‘Control‘ (2007)
- ‘Nowhere Boy‘ (2010)
- ‘The Runaways‘ (2010)
- ‘Get on Up‘ (2014)
- ‘Love & Mercy‘ (2015)
- ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ (2018)
- ‘Rocketman‘ (2019)
- ‘The Dirt‘ (2019)
- ‘Respect‘ (2021)
- ‘Elvis‘ (2022)
- ‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody‘ (2022)
- ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story‘ (2022)
- ‘Bob Marley: One Love‘ (2024)
Buy Bob Dylan Music on Amazon
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March 27, 2024
Official Trailer For Season 2 of ‘Invincible’ Debuts At NYCC
Preview
- ‘Invincible’ Season 2 official trailer unveiled during New York Comic Con
- Season 2 trailer teases multi-verse and dimension jumping
- Who are the new characters in season 2?
It’s been over two years since the season one finale of ‘Invincible’. Finally, the second season is just around the corner. The first four episodes will air on November 3rd, with four more episodes releasing in early 2024.

The animated sequel sees the return of Steven Yeun as Mark Grayson/Invincible, J.K. Simmons as Nolan/Omni-Man, Sandra Oh as Debbie, Gillian Jacobs as Atom Eve, Zazie Beets as Amber Bennett, Walton Goggins as Cecil, Jason Mantzoukas as Rex Splode, Khary Payton as Black Samson, Seth Rogen as Allen the Alien, and Ross Marquand as the Immortal.

Steven Yeun as the voice of Mark Grayson in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

The series, created by Robert Kirkman, premiered its first season on March 25, 2021. Before it was adapted into an animated series, ‘Invincible’ was a comic book series published by Image Comics.

The teaser trailer for season 2 was released on July 21, 2023, announcing the premiere date as well as returning and new voice talents. The official trailer was released during Prime Video’s panel at New York Comic Con.

Related Article: 35 Best Seth Rogen Movies of All Time!

What Is Season 2 of ‘Invincible’ About?

J.K. Simmons as the voice of Omni-Man in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Season 1 left us with Mark and his dad Omni-Man engaged in a brutal battle. The fight resulted in Omni-man fleeing Earth, and Mark Grayson was left clinging to life. Once Mark has healed in a special hospital. He and his mom Debbie went home to resume their lives, telling everyone that Nolan had passed away in an explosion.

In season 2, we’ll be introduced to new characters as Mark/Invincible faces new enemies, as well as his internal fear that he will turn out just like his father, “When I was a kid, I always wanted to be my dad.” says Mark in the trailer. “What if that happens?”

It seems like things will become quite devastating in this season. Toward the end of the trailer, a destroyed city sets the background as Mark appears on a large screen broadcasting a message to the people of Earth, “the more you resist, the worse this gets. And if you think you can stop us, don’t forget – I’m invincible.”

Brand New Threats

Kevin Michael Richardson as the voice of the Mauler Twins and (Center) Sterling K. Brown as the voice of Angstrom Levy in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

“For some, the pain will never fade.” The battle between Invincible and Omni-Man may be over for the time being, but as new threats arise while Mark tries to rebuild his life. One of the new villains this season is Angstrom Levy, voiced by Sterling K. Brown. Angstrom Levy is from the comics and has the ability to travel to other universes – so it looks like there’ll be some dimension-hopping this season.

Another character from the comics to be introduced in the upcoming season is the Shapesmith, and just as his name suggests, has the ability to shape-shift. He is a Martian and made his first appearance in Invincible issue #18 in 2004.

Shapesmith in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

New voice talents joining Sterling K. Brown include Peter Cullen, Rob Delaney, Calista Flockhart, Phil LaMarr, Luke MacFarlane, Tatiana Maslany, Scoot McNairy, Jay Pharoah, Ella Purnell, Tim Robinson, Ben Schwartz, Rhea Seehorn, Lea Thompson, Paul F. Tompkins, Shantel VanSanten, and more.

‘Invincible’ is created by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley. Executive producers for the series are Robert Kirkman, David Alpert, Catherine Winder, Simon Racioppa, Margaret M. Dean, Rogen and Evan Goldberg, with Helen Leigh and Walker as co-executive producers.

Steven Yeun as the voice of Mark Grayson in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

(L to R) Walton Goggins as the voice of Cecil Stedman and Steven Yeun as the voice of Mark Grayson in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Gillian Jacobs as the voice of Atom Eve in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Seth Rogen as the voice of Allen the Alien in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

(L to R) Ross Marquand as the voice of The Immortal, Jason Mantzoukas as the voice of Rex Splode, Zachary Quinto as the voice of Robot, Bulletproof, Melise as the voice of Dupli-Kate, and Grey Griffin as the voice of Shrinking Ray in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Steven Yeun as the voice of Mark Grayson in ‘Invincible’ Season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Movies Similar to ‘Invincible’:
- ‘Superman‘ (1978)
- ‘Spider-Man‘ (2002)
- ‘Superman Returns‘ (2006)
- ‘The Avengers‘ (2012)
- ‘The Amazing Spider-Man‘ (2012)
- ‘Man of Steel‘ (2013)
- ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming‘ (2017)
- ‘Justice League‘ (2017)
- ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem‘ (2023)
Watch ‘Invincible’ on Amazon
October 17, 2023
Why Shawn Mendes Loves ‘Lyle, Lyle Crocodile’

Shawn Mendes stars in ‘Lyle, Lyle Crocodile.’

‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,’ a live-action adaption of the beloved children’s story by author Bernard Waber, is currently playing in theaters and features musician Shawn Mendes as the voice of the title character.

The new movie, which was directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, follows Josh (Winslow Fegley), who after moving to New York City befriends a singing crocodile named Lyle and tries to protect him from the evil Mr. Grumps (Brett Gelman).

But in order to save his new friend, Josh and his parents (Constance Wu and Scoot McNairy) must team up with Lyle’s charismatic owner, Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem).

Shawn Mendes recently spoke about the new movie, his character, how he relates to him, why Lyle sings, and the music and the humor of the movie.

@moviefonemedia Why Shawn Mendes Loves ‘Lyle, Lyle Crocodile’ #lylelylecrocodile ♬ original sound – Moviefone

You can read his full comments below or click on the video above to watch Shawn Mendes talk about ‘Lyle, Lyle Crocodile.’

To begin with, what makes Lyle a unique character?

Shawn Mendes: Lyle is just wanting to have a family, and feel at home and feel connected to people, which is a very beautiful concept for me. I think that’s what makes him so lovable and just so relatable. Because I think he’s like, “Yeah, this spotlight is beautiful and it’s cool, but it’s really love, that’s the reason that I sing and is when I feel comfortable. When I feel accepted is when I want to sing.” I think it’s a genius and universal feeling. So, I just think I relate to him a lot.

Why does Lyle only communicate in song?

SM: Ultimately, Lyle sings because he loves it. He loves music and you can see how music is his language. It’s the way that he’s communicating to the humans in the film, which I also feel like I relate to a lot. I think he is just doing it to communicate his love. I feel like that’s similarly to how humans make music. That is the way that it comes through the best is when it’s about communicating truth and communicating love.

Lyle takes a trip through New York in Columbia Pictures ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.’ Photo: Courtesy of Sony Pictures.

Can you talk about the movie’s humor?

SM: Oh, the movie is extremely funny. It actually took me by surprise how funny it was because his demeanor as a crocodile is so relaxed and small. But there’s these moments where he lets out these big roars. But they’re out of excitement, not out of him trying to scare you. I was howling because it’s hilarious. I love it.

Finally, what was it like working on the movie’s music with Oscar-winning composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul?

SM: Paul and Pasek are genius and I think they are so incredibly collaborative too. The entire time they just always wanted me to feel like I was connecting to something that was my truth. But you don’t realize because it’s connected to a movie. There’s so much you’re digesting. You don’t realize how complex, and how smart and how beautiful these songs are.

How lyrically astonishing they are and how much effort they put into them. When you’re in the recording studio going through the songs, that’s when you really start to have an eye-opening experience to how amazing they really are. It just felt like an honor and felt like a privilege to be able to work with them on this movie. I feel like they are truly two greats of their generation.

Lyle the crocodile in Columbia Pictures ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.’
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October 14, 2022
‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ Interview: Javier Bardem

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Opening in theaters on October 7th is the live-action/animated musical comedy ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,’ which is an adaption of the beloved children’s story by author Bernard Waber.

Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, the new movie stars musician Shawn Mendes as the voice of Lyle, an anthropomorphic saltwater crocodile who can’t talk but can sing!

After moving to New York City with his family, Josh (Winslow Fegley) befriends Lyle and tries to protect him from the evil Mr. Grumps (Brett Gelman). Now, in order to save Lyle, Josh and his parents (Constance Wu and Scoot McNairy) must team up with Lyle’s charismatic owner, Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Oscar-winner Javier Bardem about is work on ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,’ why he wanted to make the movie, playing Hector P. Valenti, the challenges of acting opposite an animated character, and musician Shawn Mendes voice performance.

Javier Bardem as Hector P. Valenti in Columbia Pictures ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.’

You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Bardem, Brett Gelman, Scoot McNairy, Winslow Fegley, and directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon.

Moviefone: To begin with, this is a different type of role than what you usually play. What interested you in taking on this character and being involved in this project?

Javier Bardem: Well, many things. First of all, to be able to be in a movie that is not the kind of movie I’m used to do, and explore that world, but most important to be in a movie that my kids want me to do because they will love the idea of me playing a role in front of a crocodile that sings. So that was a big part of it.

But at the end of the day, what attracted me the most is the story at the heart of the story, the core of it, which is the relationship between the family and the crocodile. What that beautiful, loving, caring, funny animal brings to the family and the joy of it. To be able to be in a movie that’s about joy and magic and music.

MF: Can you talk about how Hector and Lyle first meet?

JB: Well, there’s a whole story. I am the owner of the crocodile, and we’ve done lots of shows together, but then he grew. He got bigger and bigger, and then we have to make some decisions, and that’s where the movie takes a different direction. But I cannot say anymore because it will be a spoiler.

(L to R) Lyle meets Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem) for the first time in Columbia Pictures ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.’

MF: What was your reaction when you heard musician Shawn Mendes would be voicing Lyle?

JB: Shawn Mendes is amazing. The way he sings is so beautiful. His voice and his range are crazy good. The crocodile with his voice is so tender, it’s so sweet, and it’s so nice. But also, he’s strong. When he needs to be strong, it’s like, “Wow.” That gives a different layer and very deep layer to the crocodile.

MF: Can you talk about the challenges of acting opposite an animated character?

JB: There were three different things. One, there was a fellow actor dressed like a crocodile with cables, lights and things that will later be computerized. Then there was a tiny little doll when he was little, which was very cute. Then there was the emptiness. It was the empty space. Most of it was empty space, and that’s tough, but that’s also fun in the sense that you have to put your imagination to work. That’s fun to do. That’s what we do for a living, and to really be able to see it and feel it.

MF: Finally, how did you prepare to play Hector P. Valenti and what was your approach to the character?

JB: Well, there’s still a lot of preparation in order for me to be able to move and sing, let me tell you. That’s not an easy task. So, it took a lot of time for me to be able to feel at ease with the choreography and the singing. But that’s the good part of being surrounded by people who do great things around you, is that they teach you how to do it.

Javier Bardem stars as Hector P. Valenti in Columbia Pictures ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.’
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October 5, 2022