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Movie Revue: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

DiCaprio Shines as a Hollywood Has-Been in Tarantino’s Endearing “Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood”

July 26, 2019 Cortland Jacoby Movie Reviews, Movies

Hollywood loves movies about itself. Singing in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, La La Land all follow in that tradition. While auteur director Quintin Tarantino has been using his films to comment on show business throughout his last eight pictures, his ninth deals with it directly. Combining the acting expertise of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and a talented cast, Tarantino takes the audience on a long but rewarding ride through Hollywood’s underbelly and what it means to make it in the industry in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.

Movie Revue: "The Lion King

Same Ole Song in The Lion King

July 19, 2019 Derrick Dunn Movie Reviews, Movies

Walt Disney Pictures gives one of its most beloved animated features a modern-day spin in The Lion King, from director Jon Favreau. The voice cast includes Donald Glover (Simba), Seth Rogen (Pumbaa), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Scar), Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (Nala) and, reprising his role from the original version, James Earl Jones as Mufasa. As with the original film, I wasn’t too fond of the remake.

Movie Review: The Farewell

Awkwafina Finds Her Breakout in the Magnificent “The Farewell”

July 19, 2019 Cortland Jacoby Movie Reviews, Movies

There seems to be one independent film a year that captivates critical attention, creating Oscar buzz a full nine months before the Oscar nominations even come out. This year that film seems to be The Farewell. It has everything critics and the Academy loves; representation, brilliant directing, sophisticated but not pretentious feel, based on a true story. However, it’s the film’s bittersweet nature and human story that could propel this film far.

Dean interviews JD McCrary and Shahadi Wright Joseph of The Lion King

McCrary and Wright Joseph Grace Their Presence in DC

July 19, 2019 Dean Rogers Interviews, Movie News

On today’s INTERVUE, it was the year 1994 that the epic Disney movie The Lion King roared its way into our lives. The story, the songs, the magic still resonates with us today. This weekend, we get to experience the magnificent adventure of Simba, Nala, Timon, Pumbaa and the mighty Mufasa all over again with an updated version of the movie. I recently sat down with the youngest stars of the movie, JD McCrary and Shahadi Wright Joseph play the young Simba and Nala. We talked about Read more

Hollywood Comes To Capitol Hill At The 8th Annual Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival, July 29th – August 1st 2019

Special Screening of OFFICIAL SECRETS on Capital Hill

July 17, 2019 TRR News Movie News, Movies

IFC Films’ OFFICIAL SECRETS advanced screening with National Whistleblowers Summit + Film Festival at the National Press Club. Right to left: Gavin Hood, Katharine Gun, Martin Bright.

A pre-Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival publicity rollout began last night with an advanced screening of Gavin Hood’s (Eye In The Sky) new film “Official Secrets” which opens in September 6^th in D.C., at the National Press Club. Special guests included writer and director Gavin Hood and real-life inspirations, whistleblower Katharine Gun (portrayed by Keira Knightley) and journalist Martin Bright (portrayed by Matt Smith). “Official Secrets” screened to a full house with many notable whistleblowers such as Marcel Reid, Sheila White, Robert J. Maclean, Dr. Matthew Fogg and influencers like members of the National Press Club, Government Accountability Project, Project on Government Oversight and staffers from various representatives offices on the hill.

Cortland sits down with Lulu Wang, the Director of The Farewell

Director Lulu Wang on Inspirations and Thought Process Behind ‘The Farewell,’

July 16, 2019 Cortland Jacoby Interviews, Movies

In The Farewell, director Lulu Wang puts her real-life experiences on the big screen. When her family decided to not tell her grandmother that she had stage 4 lung cancer and instead plan a wedding to bring the family together, Wang struggled with that decision and the cultural differences between the American life she had been living and the Chinese way of life that connected her to her grandmother.

Wang first documented this tale on NPR’s This American Life in 2016. Now, Wang has recounted the story in a more emotional way on the big screen, in theaters this Friday. I sat down with the director to talk about her directorial influences for the film, the brillance of actor Tzi Ma, the difficulty of finding an actor to play “you”, and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

Movie Revue: "Stuber"

Catch a Ride with Stuber

July 13, 2019 Derrick Dunn Movie Reviews, Movies

The buddy film genre receives a modern day spin in 20^th Century Fox’s Stuber from director Michael Dowse. Veteran, tough-as-nails LAPD NARC Vic Manning (Dave Bautista) is on a mission to track down a drug trafficker and cop killer Teijo (Iko Uwais). Due to his recent LASIK surgery, Vic cannot drive himself around. Vic decides to force a meek Uber driver by the name of Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) to assist him with his mission.

Stu has his own set of problems including a low paying job at a big box Read more

Movie Revue: "Crawl"

Crawl is a Creepy Good Time

July 13, 2019 Derrick Dunn Movie Reviews, Movies

Director Alexandre Aja collaborates with producer Sam Raimi in Paramount Pictures’ Crawl. The state of Florida is in the midst of a Category 5 hurricane with a mandatory evacuation set in place by the governor. College student Haley Keller discovers that her father Dave is missing and sets out to find him. When Haley finds her dad massively injured, she must find a way to save them both. Not only will Haley have to deal with the rising water from the hurricane, she must also Read more

Dean on the Scene interviews Stuber's stars Kumail Nanjiani & Dave Bautista

Order a Stuber This Weekend

July 10, 2019 Dean Rogers Interviews, Movie News, Movies

Coming to the theatres this weekend is the action-comedy Stuber starring Kumail Nanjiani & Dave Bautista! When a mild-mannered Uber driver named Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) picks up a passenger (Dave Bautista) who turns out to be a cop hot on the trail of a brutal killer, he’s thrust into a harrowing ordeal where he desperately tries to hold onto his wits, his life, and his five-star rating.

During the weekend of AwesomeCon 2019, 20th Century Fox had a special screening of the movie at the National Geographic in Washington DC. Some of the DC fans got a chance to not only see the movie but also stayed around for the Q&A Panel hosted by Toby Knapp of Toby + Chilli Mornings – 97.1 WASH-FM. I was on the red carpet and talk to the two stars about the movie!

Arnold & Morgan Know Their Way to the City by the Bay

June 13, 2019 Dean Rogers Movies

In the second part of “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” INTERVUES, I sat down with two more stars of this amazing film. Rob Morgan plays James Sr., the father of Jimmie played by Jimmie Fails and Tichina Arnold who plays Jimmie’s aunt Wanda. And away we go!