Two teenagers experience two different family getaways in a bizarre new horror film and Sundance-favorite feature debut. Elsewhere, a florist attempts to escape a cycle of abuse.
One other IT ENDS WITH US THING from the press kit: Part of the scripting process involved seeking notes from a collection of Colleen Hoover superfans to make sure it met their approval. This included the choice of whether or not to include the line "It ends with us" in the dialogue, which the fans apparently ultimately decided. (You'll have to see the movie to find out it if it made it but take a guss.) All this is outside the scope of the review. You write about what's on screen not about how it got there. But it's still pretty interesting.
No doubt this has been already mentioned many times by many people, but I'd like to say how good Dan Stevens is. For a few years he toiled as Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey -- handsome, slightly chubby, milquetoasty. But then he leaves the show and stars in movies like A Walk Among the Tombstones (this was my first Stevens after DA -- almost unrecognizable), The Guest (where he's scary AND funny), Eurovision (bonkers as a Russian singer), and maybe my most favorite so far, I'm Your Man where he plays a robot. I can't wait to see Cuckoo and his flute.
Also, James Le Gros in Good One! In case you missed his recent RR:
I need to see I'M YOUR MAN. This year has had a trio of fun / out there Stevens performances: this one, GODZILLA X KONG, and ABIGAIL. (His accent in the last one is almost as aggressive as the one in CUCKOO.)
Eurovision works like gangbusters because Dan Stevens and Rachel McAdams bring their A games and take their performances as seriously as the most serious Oscar bait drama.
Cuckoo sounds intriguing. I loved seeing The Guest in a full-to-capacity preview screening way back when, so I'm always down to see Dan Stevens as a villain. Also, just FYI, there's a typo in Hunter Schafer's name in the Cuckoo review.
I had a chance to see CUCKOO on Tuesday and had a great time. Glad I'm not the only one who found the mechanics of the whole thing slightly opaque; there was a point, maybe 2/3 into the movie, where I had to take a moment to mentally backtrack and piece things together. I guess that's better than the alternative, but it did kind of take me out of things for a minute.
Seeing the trailer for Cuckoo before Longlegs was the first I’d heard about it. Looking forward to getting out to see that.
It Ends With Us sounds terrible, the ads for it have been popping up during Olympics coverage and I genuinely thought it was going to be a bit and turn into an insurance commercial or something. What the fuck are those character names? Ryle? Atlas Corrigan? It’s like a Jenna Maroney c-plot.
Hollywood must have driven several dump trucks full of money to Dan Stevens's house to try to tempt him to be the generic handsome lead in yet another bland rom com. He'd probably have private island money if he'd just gone with the flow and had Matthew McConnaughey's career circa 1995-2005. Thank god he is much interesting and weirder than that. (And of course I mean "weird" as the absolute highest compliment.) Seeing Cuckoo this weekend, super excited.
A fun fact about IT ENDS WITH US: the production company behind it brought out my hometown theater (Landmark used to own it but moved to another suburb) and now shows only "uplifting" movies (although they revised their mission statement to include "thought-provoking" movies as part of their mission so they could show OPPENHEIMER, KOTFM, and of all movies, FERRARI--uplifting, that car crash!). I'm glad the theater is still open but am sad that kids in my hometown are no longer able to walk over after class ends to catch a matinee of movies that people actually watch (they show a lot of "inspiring" documentaries and movies that don't get programmed elsewhere). Baldoni, btw, is a co-owner of said production company. Unsurprisingly the theater is going all in on this...
Oof. Someone in our book club chose Hoover's book "Verity" as a change of pace from our usual more seriously minded picks and it was one of the worst books I've ever read. Not just bad but embarrasingly horny in a way that makes '80s Cinemax movies seem thoughtful and nuanced. I guess it gets credit for keeping me reading to the end just to see how stupid it could continue to be.
I'm an "airplane" book guy more than a "literature" guy so this is not because of some sort of snobbery on my part. Needless to say I'll be skipping It Ends with Us.
One other IT ENDS WITH US THING from the press kit: Part of the scripting process involved seeking notes from a collection of Colleen Hoover superfans to make sure it met their approval. This included the choice of whether or not to include the line "It ends with us" in the dialogue, which the fans apparently ultimately decided. (You'll have to see the movie to find out it if it made it but take a guss.) All this is outside the scope of the review. You write about what's on screen not about how it got there. But it's still pretty interesting.
Interesting indeed. Now that's a focus group with some serious power...
Honestly, it make lot of sense for last line of movie.
But me would vote for it to be included in middle of movie, only if it followed by Ron Howard saying "hey, that name of his movie!"
I'm *really* curious what the argument for NOT having the dialogue would be....
No doubt this has been already mentioned many times by many people, but I'd like to say how good Dan Stevens is. For a few years he toiled as Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey -- handsome, slightly chubby, milquetoasty. But then he leaves the show and stars in movies like A Walk Among the Tombstones (this was my first Stevens after DA -- almost unrecognizable), The Guest (where he's scary AND funny), Eurovision (bonkers as a Russian singer), and maybe my most favorite so far, I'm Your Man where he plays a robot. I can't wait to see Cuckoo and his flute.
Also, James Le Gros in Good One! In case you missed his recent RR:
https://www.avclub.com/james-le-gros-interview-random-roles
I need to see I'M YOUR MAN. This year has had a trio of fun / out there Stevens performances: this one, GODZILLA X KONG, and ABIGAIL. (His accent in the last one is almost as aggressive as the one in CUCKOO.)
I'd never heard of I'm Your Man, so thank you for letting me know this exists!
Eurovision works like gangbusters because Dan Stevens and Rachel McAdams bring their A games and take their performances as seriously as the most serious Oscar bait drama.
Cuckoo sounds intriguing. I loved seeing The Guest in a full-to-capacity preview screening way back when, so I'm always down to see Dan Stevens as a villain. Also, just FYI, there's a typo in Hunter Schafer's name in the Cuckoo review.
Fixed.
Scott, didn't you give Cuckoo 4 stars on Letterboxd?
I did. I ended up revising it down slightly on reflection. Just haven't adjusted the Letterboxd rating yet.
How the hell do you pronounce Ryle? Does it rhyme with Kyle? Or Riley?
The first. And "Atlas" is pronounced as you'd imagine but it's still a very odd name.
As a name, Ryle really riled me up.
But Atlas? I shrugged.
I had a chance to see CUCKOO on Tuesday and had a great time. Glad I'm not the only one who found the mechanics of the whole thing slightly opaque; there was a point, maybe 2/3 into the movie, where I had to take a moment to mentally backtrack and piece things together. I guess that's better than the alternative, but it did kind of take me out of things for a minute.
Seeing the trailer for Cuckoo before Longlegs was the first I’d heard about it. Looking forward to getting out to see that.
It Ends With Us sounds terrible, the ads for it have been popping up during Olympics coverage and I genuinely thought it was going to be a bit and turn into an insurance commercial or something. What the fuck are those character names? Ryle? Atlas Corrigan? It’s like a Jenna Maroney c-plot.
Hollywood must have driven several dump trucks full of money to Dan Stevens's house to try to tempt him to be the generic handsome lead in yet another bland rom com. He'd probably have private island money if he'd just gone with the flow and had Matthew McConnaughey's career circa 1995-2005. Thank god he is much interesting and weirder than that. (And of course I mean "weird" as the absolute highest compliment.) Seeing Cuckoo this weekend, super excited.
A fun fact about IT ENDS WITH US: the production company behind it brought out my hometown theater (Landmark used to own it but moved to another suburb) and now shows only "uplifting" movies (although they revised their mission statement to include "thought-provoking" movies as part of their mission so they could show OPPENHEIMER, KOTFM, and of all movies, FERRARI--uplifting, that car crash!). I'm glad the theater is still open but am sad that kids in my hometown are no longer able to walk over after class ends to catch a matinee of movies that people actually watch (they show a lot of "inspiring" documentaries and movies that don't get programmed elsewhere). Baldoni, btw, is a co-owner of said production company. Unsurprisingly the theater is going all in on this...
OMG, that car crash. I don't think I'll ever forget that...
Oof. Someone in our book club chose Hoover's book "Verity" as a change of pace from our usual more seriously minded picks and it was one of the worst books I've ever read. Not just bad but embarrasingly horny in a way that makes '80s Cinemax movies seem thoughtful and nuanced. I guess it gets credit for keeping me reading to the end just to see how stupid it could continue to be.
I'm an "airplane" book guy more than a "literature" guy so this is not because of some sort of snobbery on my part. Needless to say I'll be skipping It Ends with Us.
Maybe I'm a little simple in my associations, but the Argento movie my mind went to for Cuckoo was Phenomena because of the Alps.