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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.

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!

Movie Review: The Hustle

The Hustle Lacks Comedic Precision

May 10, 2019 Cortland Jacoby Movie Reviews, Movies

Should remakes exist? Should gender-swapped remakes exist? Obviously, the answer should be yes, if the story is endearing enough and the new adaption would bring a new or unseen perspective to the source material. Most of the time, gender-swapped remakes are flipped from male to female, setting itself up for failure especially if the original is beloved (see 2016’s Ghostbusters). So if you are making a gender-swapped remake focusing on female characters, hopefully, that new adaption would be written and directed by women. Unfortunately, The Hustle is not any of those things and its lack of female perspective shows.

Lauren Beverly talks to Maryland's own Michael Ealy about his role in The Intruder

Michael Ealy Talks about “The Intruder”

May 2, 2019 Lauren Beverly Interviews, Movies

May 3^rd sees the release of “The Intruder,” starring Michael Ealy, Meagan Goode and Dennis Quaid. For those of you who love to be scared, you are in for a real treat. Not too long ago, Michael, who hails from Silver Spring, MD, was in town to promote the movie and I had the opportunity to speak with him about his experiences in the film, his work with Meagan and what he learned from working with Dennis Quaid.

TICKETS TO THE THREE-DAY COMEDY AND MUSIC FESTIVAL ARE ON SALE NOW AT WWW.CLUSTERFEST.COM

“Comedy Central Presents Clusterfest” Announces Casting for Live Reads of “Clueless” and “Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion”

April 30, 2019 TRR News Movie News, Movies

Comedy Central, the #1 brand in comedy, Superfly, the founders of Bonnaroo, and Outside Lands co-producer Another Planet Entertainment, today announced the Live Read castings for cult hits Clueless and Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion at Clusterfest in San Francisco June 21-23. Wildly popular, the Live Reads are dramatic staged readings of popular movie scripts, and past performances have included Spice World, Planes Trains and Automobiles and Wayne’s World. This year they will reach new levels of hilarity with must-see ensemble casts putting their spin on two film favorites. In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Clueless will star Issa Rae (Cher), Amanda Seales (Dionne), Ilana Glazer (Tai), Kumail Nanjiani, star of the upcoming film Stuber (Josh), Chris Redd (Murray) and others. Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion will feature drag queens Trixie Mattel (Romy), Katya Zamolodchikova (Michele) and San Francisco legend Peaches Christ (Heather) with supporting roles filled by Matteo Lane, Nicole Byer and more.

John Singleton Raised Black Children Through Film

April 30, 2019 Kyra Davenport Movies

Like many other Black children who are now millennial adults, John Singleton was a part of my household, my upbringing, my childhood. His cautionary tales opened up a conversation about the world, the ills of society, and what to avoid.

Movie Revue: Avengers: Endgame

Avengers Endgame Finishes Saga in Sincere Nostalgic Triumph

April 28, 2019 Cortland Jacoby Movie Reviews, Movies, Uncategorized

For eleven years Marvel and Disney have not only created an empire with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but they have also tried to create a spoiler-free culture around their releases. Earlier this week, Marvel released a public letter to their fans asking them to not spoil anything from Avengers: Endgame. The film is, not ending the MCU, but ending an era of our main heroes. My point in saying this is that I am going to try to be as spoiler free as possible with this review. One, I don’t want Hawkeye to shoot me down over a movie review and two, the film benefits the viewer going in cold.

The 25th James Bond Adventure Set to Start Principal Photography

April 25, 2019 TRR News Movie News, Movies

GoldenEye in Jamaica. James Bond Producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli today confirmed the start of principal photography on the 25th official James Bond film begins on 28 April 2019. From Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, the film is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his fifth film as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007.