Matt Singer is the editor and critic of the website ScreenCrush.com. For five years, he was the on-air host of IFC News on the Independent Film Channel, hosting coverage of film festivals and red carpets around the world. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, he’s been a frequent contributor to the television shows CBS This Morning Saturday and Ebert Presents At the Movies, and his writing has also appeared in print and online at The Village Voice, The Dissolve, and Indiewire. His first book, Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular, is on sale now.
Matt Singer
‘Hail, Caesar!’ Trailer: The Coen Brothers Go Back to Hollywood’s Golden Age
Can I buy tickets to Hail, Caesar! yet? Can I preorder the Blu-ray? Too early to add it to my top ten list of the year?
Netflix Is Raising Their Prices…Again
Chill, Netflix.
The cost of a Netflix subscription is getting a 10% hike. In the short term, only new subscribers are affected; they’ll now pay $9.99 for the standard monthly streaming plan, up a dollar from the previous $8.99 price...
George Miller Wants to Make Two More ‘Mad Max’ Movies
The long and winding Fury Road, that leads to ... several more sequels.
‘The Big Short’ Trailer: Four Investment Bankers Walk Into a Global Economic Collapse
Adam McKay’s best known as the director of Will Ferrell comedies like Anchorman and Step Brothers. His films tend to be weird, bizarre, and silly. But his 2010 buddy cop comedy The Other Guys ended on a note that was more outraged than outrageous: Animated infographic closing credits that outlined the reasons and details of the 2008 economic collapse (which was the background of the case investigated in the film by Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s characters).
‘Black Mass’ Review: Johnny Depp as a Wicked Boston Gangster
Jawny Depp can be a great actuh. But at a certain point in the recent past, Jawny seemed to stop looking faw great material and stahted looking faw anything that would affawd him the awppawtunity to put on a crazy wig and speak in a weeuhd accent. In the past few yeeuhs he’s played a vampiyuh with crazy hair and a weeuhd accent, a Native American with a bird on his head and a weeuhd accent, a Canadian detective with a fake nose and a weeuhd accent, a singing wolf with crazy hair and a weeuhd accent, a British art thief with a crazy mustache and a weeuhd accent, and now, in Black Mass, he’s James “Whitey” Bulgah, with thinning hair and a thick Bahston accent. Do you think Jawny even remembuhs what he really sounds like at this point?
Report: ‘Pacific Rim 2’ Has been ‘Halted Indefinitely’
A fascinating new article in The Hollywood Reporter, details a growing battle between Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures, the production company behind films like The Dark Knight, Man of Steel, Godzilla, and Jurassic World. This spat between entertainment titans sounds like it could grow into a full-on war akin to a rumble between giant robots and interdimensional aliens — partly over the studio’s reluctance to make a movie about giant robots warring with interdimensional aliens. That film, of course, is Pacific Rim 2, and according to THR, it’s been “halted indefinitely.”
‘Bridge of Spies’ Trailer: Tom Hanks Stands Tall in Steven Spielberg’s New Legal Thriller
After three years, here’s Steven Spielberg’s follow-up to Lincoln: Another historical drama about freedom and law and essential American values.
‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’ Trailer: Relive the History of Katniss and Prim
As The Hunger Games saga reaches its ends, it’s looking back to its beginning.
‘Demolition’ Review: A Strong Jake Gyllenhaal Performance in a Weak Movie
Naomi Watts’ is the second-billed star in Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition. On the film’s official Fox Searchlight website, her name appears above the title next to Jake Gyllenhaal’s. But she barely appears in the film’s trailer. She’s onscreen for less than one second. She says just three words. (“You miss her?”) It’s almost like the trailer is trying to hide her.
Review: ‘Sicario’ Is One of the Most Intense Movies of the Year
‘Sicario’ is an exercise in prolonged tension like few others. Every moment from the first scene to the last is suspenseful. The opening, a deadly raid on a drug kingpin’s safe house establishes a terrifying precedent: In this film, violence can erupt at any time without any warning, and no one and nothing can be trusted. Having thoroughly unsettled the audience, director Denis Villeneuve keeps viewers on edge with shifty characters, sudden bursts of gunfire, and the careful use of a persistent, pounding score. Remember the scene in Boogie Nights where Alfred Molina is randomly tossing firecrackers at Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly? Sicario is like that scene for two straight hours with no “Sister Christian.” It is intense.
New HBO NOW Releases: September 2015
Aspiring filmmakers. Androids. Cheerleaders. Olympic figure skaters. Dr. Frank N. Furter. Moses.
‘Hitman: Agent 47’ Review: The Hitman’s Name Is Agent 47, So Technically the Title of This Movie is ‘Hitman: Hitman’
Agent 47 is a perfect assassin, designed in a lab to kill with ruthless efficiency and accuracy. Mad scientists tweaked his genetics to enhance his toughness and diminish his emotions, because emotions make people weak. In his line of work — murdering people, all day, everyday, for money — it is better not to feel.
‘Victor Frankenstein’ Trailer: An Igor-y Reboot of the Horror Classic
It’s alive! Again! For the, what, twentieth time?
First ‘Incredibles 2’ and ‘Cars 3’ Posters on Display at D23
Disney’s annual convention dedicated to itself, D23 (named, I assume, after the number of dollars you have left in your bank account after you go and buy lots of cool Disney swag), kicks off today, so expect plenty of news and announcements coming out of Anaheim all weekend...
‘The Hateful Eight’ Trailer: Quentin Tarantino’s Latest, Wanted Dead or Alive
I can’t blame anyone who’s got Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the top of their list of most anticipated movies of the fall and winter. But for me, it’s all about The Hateful Eight.
Winona Ryder Says ‘Beetlejuice 2’ Is Actually Happening
You remember Beetlejuice. That crazy, anarchic ghost guy played by Michael Keaton who materializes in his black-and-white striped suit whenever you say his name three times.
J.J. Abrams Broke His Back Making ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ (Literally)
Harrison Ford might be a superhero. This, according to Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, who was on set for Ford’s unfortunate accident last year, when a hydraulic door broke his leg. (As Abrams’ describes it in the clip above, his ankle was at a, gulp, 90-degree angle to the rest of his body. Ew.) Thankfully, Ford was okay. Then he later got into a plane crash and was mostly okay after that too. Because, again, Harrison Ford is a superhero.
Ivan Reitman: ‘There Is Only One New ‘Ghostbusters’ Movie’
There has been much dispute lately regarding the matter of who, in the event of a ghost-related emergency, ya gonna call.
‘Vacation’ Review: This Sad Sequel Truly Is a Road Trip from Hell
Full disclosure: I missed the last 10 minutes of Vacation. Last night’s press screening started 20 minutes late, then began without any sound, which lead to a 10 minute delay to correct the technical difficulties. With an unbreakable engagement elsewhere, I had to sneak out right before the very last scene. So take this review with as many grains of salt as you’d like. If you think those final minutes might recontextualize everything that came before to transform a generally miserable comedy into a beacon of transcendent hilarity, so be it. Having sat through the previous 90 minutes, I’m of the opinion that nothing short of the long-lost missing footage from Orson Welles’ Magnificent Ambersons could have redeemed this dreadful film.
Michael Jackson Wanted to Play Jar Jar Binks in ‘The Phantom Menace’
In an interview with VICE, Ahmed Best, best known as the man who appeared in three less-than-enthusiastically received Star Wars prequels as the less-than-beloved Jar Jar Binks, says that while he was the one who ended up winning the role, there was a far more famous superstar who really wanted to play everyone’s ninth-favorite Gungan. And that man was Michael Jackson.