Drama
Hulu’s The Great Never Lives Up to Its Name: Review
The Pitch: In 18th century Russia, a penniless Prussian noble named Catherine (executive producer Elle Fanning) is betrothed to Emperor Peter (Nicholas Hoult). Catherine, who makes up for what her family lacks in finance with the kind of sick optimism preserved for golden-haired, porcelain-perfect teenage girls in these types of fairy tales, travels across Europe and Asia with wide-eyed hopes of marital bliss, a progressive Russia, and maybe even some pull in court. Of course, as these things go, Catherine’s husband is loutish, childish, and more concerned with drinking himself into a stupor than just about anything else. Catherine is forced to grow up, fast. Their marriage quickly devolves into a battleground. A mere six months in and with all of her dreams shattered in pieces at her feet...
Mark Ruffallo Pulls Heartbreaking Double Duty in HBO’s I Know This Much Is True: Review
The Pitch: Based on the Wally Lamb novel of the same name, I Know This Much is True charts the string of tragedies that surround the Birdsey brothers, Dominick and Thomas (both played by Mark Ruffalo) – identical twins born on New Year’s Eve, 1949, and who seem to have been born to suffer. And they do, through abusive childhoods in the 1950s to the early signs of Thomas’ paranoid schizophrenia in their college years. Cut to 1990, when Thomas, amidst a mental breakdown, lops off his own hand in a public library, a move that gets him institutionalized in a high-security mental facility. Terrified at his brother’s living condition, Dominick works tirelessly to get him out. But in doing so, he’ll have to work through some deep-seated issues of his own. Misery Loves Company: Dere...
Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods Receives Netflix Premiere Date
There’s a new Spike Lee joint heading to your home. Today, the legendary filmmaker announced that Da 5 Bloods, his highly anticipated follow-up to 2018’s BlacKkKlansman, will premiere on Netflix on Friday, June 12th. Starring Chadwick Boseman, Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Paul Walter, and Jean Reno, the film follows four veterans who return to Vietnam searching for the remains of their fallen squad leader — and some treasure. Lee directed and co-wrote the script with Danny Bilson, Paul DeMeo, Matt Billingsly, and Kevin Willmott, the latter of whom aided Lee and Charlie Wachtel on their Oscar-winning script for BlacKkKlansman. Editors’ Picks Check out Lee’s announcement below, followed by its swanky poster, and revisit our 2018 Filmmaker of the Year interview in which the legend dis...
Thousand Pieces of Gold Cast and Crew Reunite for COVID-EODROME on Twitch
COVID-EODROME, a new weekly movie review series for our newly minted Twitch channel, returns to review the latest Video On-Demand releases. Hosted by The Spool’s Editor-in-Chief Clint Worthington and RogerEbert.com’s Scout Tafoya, the show provides some much-needed film criticism for your quarantine. Starting at 2:30 p.m. EST / 11:30 a.m. PST, the series will spotlight three new releases: –First up is Martha Stephens’ new drama To the Stars, which stars Kara Hayward, Liana Liberato, Shea Whigham, Tony Hale, and more. It’s currently streaming on Hulu. –Next up is Coky Giedroyc’s comedic adaptation of Caitlin Moran’s How to Build a Girl, which stars Beanie Feldstein and premieres this weekend on VOD. –And finally, we have Driveways, the final film to star the late Brian Dennehy. It...
Damien Chazelle’s Netflix Series The Eddy Is A Mess Without the Music: Review
The Pitch: The Academy Award-winning wunderkind director Damien Chazelle has made his name largely on films all about jazz, from his 2009 indie debut Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench to 2014’s searing music-school drama Whiplash and to 2016’s widescreen musical throwback La La Land. But with The Eddy, he’s one of the lead behind-the-scenes voices on an eight-episode limited streaming series set largely in a smoky Parisian nightclub whose creative leader is a mercurial ex-jazz pianist (André Holland) with a dark past, a troubled daughter, and thugs threatening him. So, to paraphrase Barton Fink, it’s an Oscar-winning director, one of the best actors of his generation, and Netflix. Whaddya need, a road map? The Language of Music: The first thing to know about The Eddy is that, apparentl...
