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THE VAMPIRE LESTAT: Showrunner Rolin Jones, actors Sam Reid, Jacob Anderson, Zaman Assad, Eric Bogosian talk about the rock and roll vamp – Article

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 23:38:46 +0000

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT, currently debuting new episodes on AMC Sunday nights and thereafter available on AMC+, is actually Season 3 of the network’s INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, which premiered in 2022.

Adapted by executive producer/showrunner Rolin Jones from the late author Anne Rice’s line of VAMPIRE CHRONICLES novels, the first published in 1976, the initial two seasons of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE were largely told from the point of view of vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, played by Jacob Anderson.

In the TV version (brought forward in time so that the present day is our present, rather than the novel’s 1986), Louis is made into a vampire in his native New Orleans by his vampire lover, Lestat de Lioncourt, played by Sam Reid. The two have a passionate if extremely tumultuous relationship over the ensuing century, sometimes deeply bonded and sometimes trying to kill each other. (Right now, they’re in a good place).

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT holds a virtual Q&A panel for the Television Critics Association (TCA) with Jones, Anderson, Reid, and cast members Eric Bogosian, who plays now-vampire journalist Daniel Molloy, Assad Zaman, who plays ancient vampire (and former lover of both Lestat and Louis) Armand, Jennifer Ehle, who portrays Lestat’s mother/fledgling/lover (vampires are complicated!) Gabriella, Delainey Hayles, reprising her role as much-mourned young vampire Claudia and taking on the new character of Claudia’s human doppelganger Regina, and Sheila Atim, who plays Akasha, the oldest vampire, aka Queen of the Damned.

The tone of the first two seasons of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE was, like Louis, reflective and elegiac. This season, THE VAMPIRE LESTAT, based on Rice’s 1985 follow-up novel to INTERVIEW, is shown through Lestat’s more mercurial perspective as he embarks on a career as a rock ‘n’ roll star. In fact, Lestat is narrating the season for us via an up-for-auction set of his autobiographical recordings, titled THE FAILURES, which are being auctioned off in a flash-forward as THE VAMPIRE LESTAT opens.

Reid goes all out when Lestat is singing as frontman for his band. What were some inspirations for his performance style?

As Lestat began his onstage career in eighteenth-century France, Reid observes that it makes sense for the character’s onstage persona to be built in that eighteenth century. It is the French iteration of the commedia dell’arte. That’s where I place him as a performer. And then, anything that goes beyond that is an extension of that character. Because I feel like that’s where he built his stage presence in his space.

“So, I did look at David Bowie, particularly at recordings of the live ‘Cracked Actor’ concerts, mostly to remind myself that he’s not human, that he’s supernatural. You’ve got to make sure that you don’t forget that sometimes, because there is a lot more vulnerability in him this season than we’ve had before. So, I just wanted to make sure we maintain he is a kind of other thing, which I thought David Bowie just does extraordinarily.

“But in terms of his stage presence, I wanted to make sure it still felt theatrical in a way. Because he’s still performing the idea of a rock star, at least in the beginning. As the show progresses, the performance starts to disappear. And then I just really focus on the books and Rolin’s work and the songs that [series composer/songwriter] Daniel Hart wrote, and try and hone in on that, and pull the guy out of those things.”

Hayles and Reid both take on two characters each this season. Hayles plays both the vampire Claudia from the past and her present-day human lookalike, coffeeshop waitress Regina; Reid portrays not only Lestat but also the Eastern European worker Jarda Klapka, hired to be rock star Lestat’s double to keep audiences confuses about whether or not Lestat is really a vampire.

Hayles explains, “I wanted to make Regina extremely different than Claudia, but still have that youthful lust for life and antagonization that I feel like they have enjoy. But the way I did it is, I was just living in the moment of the scene and seeing what came out.

“It was nice to be on location in an actual diner. And it was funny, because I remember being a waitress, and I thought, ‘Oh, God, this is so stressful. I need to get these people their coffee. No, wait, sorry.’ So, being on location helped, and it was a lot of fun to get the opportunity to do that.”

Reid relates that his experience with Jarda Klapka “was mostly physical, because we had a very short period of time to change him around. So, how are we going to make him look different to Lestat? I worked with the makeup artist Tami Lane, and we gave him a monobrow.

“We used my teeth from Season 1, one of the test teeth pieces, and filed the fangs off. They were slightly too big, so the fit gave him a bit of a buck tooth, and Tami painted a gap in the tooth.

“And obviously, we had double wigs going on, which was a really fun thing to do – a wig on a wig on a wig, which kind of felt like what we were doing with the show.”

As for Jarda’s accent, Reid reveals, “Originally, Rolin wanted him to be Swedish. And then I went down working with the dialect coach and doing research. A man of that age from Sweden would probably have gone through military training, would have spoken very good English, and I was like, ‘So, this is the accent.’ And Rolin was like, ‘Oh, no, that’s too clean. I want a thicker accent. So, very last minute, we changed him. He became from the Czech Republic. It was always just trying to bring him down a bit, make sure that he was grounded.”

Reid cites Season 3’s third episode, “Toronto,” as his favorite where Jarda is concerned. “Claudia Llosa, the director, really let me go off on this whole Jarda Klapka [portrayal]. And I’m very grateful to Rolin for bringing it right back.”

We see nearly all the characters as both their human selves and their vampire selves. What is the difference in playing the two?

Bogosian, for one, is happy his character Daniel got turned by Armand at the end of Season 2. “I guess I’ve loved vampires all the way back to Bela Lugosi doing DRACULA, which scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. But it was [from] Frank Langella playing Dracula on Broadway in 1977 that I understood the power in a vampire role.

“And then,” Bogosian continues, “let’s just skip forward to Anne Rice. She asks big questions in her books about immortality, about relationships, about what a person is. I mean, just what makes up a personality? That’s going to be a big part of this season, for sure. I wanted to play classic vampire, guy with fangs, bites people, sucks blood, and that was all I really needed.

“And instead, I ended up being thrown into the seven circles of Hell with this show and all the craziness that comes with it. It’s wonderfully challenging. I never really know what’s going to happen with the scripts that get sent our way, and I’m learning.

“I’m playing this guy who vibrates very close to me, and now he’s a vampire. Even if he wasn’t good at life, he’s a very rational guy and he’s led a rational life. And now, he’s in this very chaotic vampire universe where normal logic does not apply.

“Also, this season, I’m not interviewing Louis anymore, which had a sort of step-by-step, solve-the-mystery thing to it, and [Louis] was trying to help me with it. Now Daniel is interviewing Lestat, who is doing everything he can to throw things in the way of the interview, and it becomes a much more head-banging experience.

“Obviously, consequences work very differently in your life when you’re immortal.” In Daniel’s universe now, though, “Everybody else has been turned into a vampire, so I guess everyone has the same traumas.”

Anderson agrees. “Yeah. I feel like part of what is so inviting about Anne Rice’s vampires, but also the way that Rolin and [executive producer/writer] Hannah [Moscovitch] and the writers have put it through this prism [where] they’re the most human once they’re vampires. It’s almost like these characters in their human existence didn’t ever quite do the processing, and now they just have to live with themselves forever.”

Reid elaborates, “I always get this wrong, but there’s a quote from one of the books where Rice does say, ‘We never really change over time. We just become more of what we really are.’ So, I think that is the essence – the show does it and the books do it – where we explore who these people were as human beings. There is a lot of unanswered complexity. And then, when you add on an immortal layer, all of the humanity and the issues that surrounded their life, that drove their life to certain points, are amplified. And then that’s their great challenge, to unpick and resolve in some way, on top of dealing with being these supernatural creatures.

“The vampire gives us an artifice to explore humanity, and you can do it on this very large, operatic scale. But actually, it’s just a metaphor. We’re really exploring human things, but we do have a framework of monsters, which allows us to be much more extreme with our actions. So, when they have a fight, they’ll rip each other apart physically, but then get back together again.”

Louis started out as a fairly private individual, but once he gave Daniel the interview, he became a public figure. How does Anderson think Louis feels about how he is perceived?

“I feel like, for Louis, it’s a ‘be careful what you wish for’-type thing. He obviously solicited Molloy into the interview.” Additionally, Louis has become the 566^th richest person on Earth by running a string of businesses that cater to vampires. “He’s not a private person, because he’s turning vampires into an industry. He’s a big capitalist guy.”

On the other hand, Anderson notes, “He does it under a pseudonym and an alias, so Louis is fittingly contradictory about his relationship to his public life, I think. He sort of wants to get all the glory, but it’s ‘look at me, don’t look at me’ classic Louis stuff.”

We see Gabriella almost entirely through Lestat’s eyes, and Ehle states that’s how she plays the character. “What’s important is the story that Lestat’s telling. I think you get a sense of who she is when you see the entire thing. But I think it was just realizing his vision of her. I think who she is [apart from that] is not important for the storytelling.”

Armand is antagonistic to both Louis and Lestat, yet he is beloved by a lot of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE/THE VAMPIRE LESTAT fans. Can actor Zaman address this?

Zaman says, “I think what Rolin and Hannah have done brilliantly from Season 1 to now with Armand’s story is that the vampire Armand has been alive from the beginning and sprinkled in, in a really interesting way that I feel almost is better than going, ‘Let’s really hit an Armand season or episode hard.’”

THE VAMPIRE ARMAND was, in fact, the first book in Rice’s series that Zaman read, “And I was traumatized for weeks after. I was like, ‘This is just too intense, too much.’ I feel like it’s so difficult to navigate how you tell that story sensitively, especially in this day and age.”

Jones describes how the creative team works on the stories. “We’ve been taking a biography for all these characters. If it was written in the later books, we go ahead and read it. A lot of decisions we made about Gabriella are based on some quite later books.”

This season is based primarily on the VAMPIRE LESTAT novel, but Armand is much more present onscreen than he is in the book. Jones says, “We were given circumstances for characters. We’re playing a lot of this as biography written into how Armand would respond to a number of scenes. Anne gave us all these books and we’re looking at them all the time to try to take relevant material and put it here and now.”

Zaman previews, “There are big things from THE VAMPIRE ARMAND that are sprinkled into this season, which is going to be really exciting. But that’s what I love about the sprinkle-ness of it, from Season 1 to 3, is that I feel like, with Armand particularly, there’s so much discourse that I am fascinated by, how the audience – in every camp of Armand, there are really passionate thinkers analyzing what he means to them or what he means to the other characters and all that stuff. I love that discourse. I love that we haven’t definitively given …”

Zaman opts not to finish that sentence and concludes instead, “There’s always room to change and explore him in different directions.”

Should the series continue, will it get as far as Rice’s novel THE VAMPIRE ARMAND, which is set largely in Italy?

Jones says that Moscovitch has particular affection for that book, but “there’s a challenge there. It’s really hard to shoot in Venice.”

“That’s not the only challenge,” Anderson points out.

“That’s true,” Jones replies. “There are a lot of things about that book that some might think are problematic. We think of them as opportunities.”

The mood starts off lighter this year, although we’re warned by all that it won’t stay that way.

Reid asks, “How much have you seen? It gets pretty miserable.”

Jones concurs. “You’re being seduced. It’s going to get about as dark as we’ve ever gone by the end of this [season].”

That said, Jones says the tonal shift is also because this season “is structured around how Lestat wants to tell his story. I think he comes in very confident, thinking he can be glib and fun and keep it at bay. And as he gets deeper and deeper into recording that thing and things are coming up, it begins to change how the story is being told, how you’ll feel about it. It’s just part of an emotional landscape.

For Anderson, even the temporary buoyancy was an acting challenge. “I didn’t really know how to be happy in this show. It was like, the ‘divorce settlement’ scene [where Louis and Lestat face each other with their respective legal counsels-with-benefits] is supposed to be playful. And I was like, ‘Ahh,’ having a meltdown over playing a sort of confident Louis.”

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Zaman warns. “You can’t wait for it to get miserable.”

Reid opines, “What Lestat wants is people to have a good time. He doesn’t want to engage in any sort of trauma or trauma porn or any sort of capacity in which he may have been interpreted in the past. And so, his m.o. is kind of from the books. I think Rolin and Hannah and the team have done an amazing job of replicating that experience when you first go from one book to the other.

“And,” Reid continues, “you get that very extreme whiplash, where you feel like you’ve gone into a much more irreverent, playful space. But then the darkness creeps in very slowly and then takes over. And [Lestat] can’t escape it, either. It’s like he’s constantly crawling out of the grave while it’s being shoveled full of dirt.”

“I’m just going to say one last thing,” Jones contributes regarding the season’s tone. “It is structured around how Lestat wants to tell his story. I think he comes in very confident, thinking he can be glib and fun and keep it at bay. And as he gets deeper and deeper into recording that thing and things are coming up, it begins to change how the story is being told, how you’ll feel about it. It’s part of an emotional landscape. Jacob had a great word for how to describe this season – ‘The Id-yssey.’ It’s very accurate.”

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Article: Article: The executive producers and stars of the newly renamed THE VAMPIRE LESTAT TV series and its new rock and roll roots

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Movie Review: THE ODYSSEY

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 23:38:39 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, John Leguizamo, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Lupita Nyong’o, Benny Safdie, Elliot Page
Writer: Christopher Nolan, based on Homer’s THE ODYSSEY
Director: Christopher Nolan
Distributor: Universal
Release Date: July 17, 2026

Even people unfamiliar with ancient Greek writer Homer’s THE ODYSSEY are tangentially familiar with some of its concepts: the Trojan Horse, the word “mentor” meaning teacher (although in THE ODYSSEY, it’s a proper name), the term “odyssey” itself.

Homer is believed to have written THE ILIAD, about the Trojan War, and THE ODYSSEY, about the journey home, between the eighth and seventh centuries BC. These tales are twenty-four volumes each, set in the thirteenth or twelfth centuries BC.

Due partly to archaeological discoveries in what is now Turkey (Troy in the Bronze Age), it seems that there is a historical basis for THE ILIAD, although Homer threw in a lot of gods and supernatural events.

In Homer’s version, the war itself (covered in THE ILIAD) lasts ten years. The invading Greeks are largely stuck on the beach for a decade outside the walled city of Troy.

The war ends when Greek warrior King Odysseus of Ithaca (Matt Damon), serving under King Agamemnon (Benny Safdie), invents the Trojan Horse, a gigantic “gift of peace” in the name of the goddess Athena, that secretly contains Greek soldiers inside. When the Trojans take the enormous effigy into their city, the Greeks pour out and ransack Troy.

While the Greeks sail home victorious, that’s not the end of the story. In fact, that’s the whole of THE ODYSSEY, as it takes Odysseus another ten years to return home.

Director/screenwriter Christopher Nolan has adapted THE ODYSSEY into a three-hour epic. Among the film’s many virtues is that, despite its hefty running time, it’s never boring. Nolan also brings up issues that have not been highlighted in other adaptations, including Odysseus’s valid concerns that, in winning the war, he may have set in motion the end of civilization as he knows it.

Like a number of Nolan’s other films, THE ODYSSEY jumps around in time, with flashbacks, flashforwards, and multiple plot lines.

In the present, Odysseus is on an idyllic island with the attentive Calypso (Charlize Theron). They are both happy, but Odysseus isn’t sure of where he is or even who he is. While she’s ambivalent about setting her lover free, Calypso tries to help Odysseus recover his memories by having him recount them to her.

We therefore see Odysseus’s many adventures with his men as they attempt to navigate back to Ithaca, with stormy seas, scarce rations, gods and monsters in their way.

Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Odysseus’s adoring and ferociously loyal queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway) must contend with a castle full of suitors. Due to the chief god Zeus’s law of hospitality, the men cannot be ejected without incurring the deity’s wrath. The men, however, insist that since Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, he must be dead and that Penelope should choose one of them as her new husband to be king.

Penelope wants Odysseus or no one. Moreover, she wants her and Odysseus’s son, Prince Telemachus (Tom Holland), to inherit the throne. Penelope is aware the suitors are plotting to kill Telemachus. She must remain vigilant against these schemes, while keeping hope alive without any apparent signs that she’s right to do so.

It’s a lot, but Nolan maintains not only coherence but tone, whether capturing palace politics or Odysseus and his soldiers battling a giant Cyclops. Everything flows together as a unified whole in a glowing enormous fable.

There is no reason to suppose that ancient Greeks spoke with English accents, but that’s what we’re used to in depictions of Ye Olden Times, so it takes a moment to get used to the American accents of most of the characters (including those played by British actors).

Likewise, the use of “mom” and “dad” and other relatively modern words interspersed throughout the dialogue is noticeable but, again, there were surely equivalent informal expressions back in the day. Otherwise, the dialogue is neither too stiff nor too colloquial, suiting the drama without pushing it toward either extreme.

Damon is a quiet, thoughtful Odysseus, diligently trying to doing the right thing and to protect his men, even when they won’t cooperate. Holland is a suitably eager and devout Prince Telemachus. Hathaway has regal backbone as the immovable Penelope. Robert Pattinson gives an air of Shakespearean villainy to Penelope’s chief suitor and an almost unrecognizable John Leguizamo has becoming staunchness as an old servant of Odysseus.

Samantha Morton has a standout segment as an unassuming but vengeful figure, and Zendaya is suitably emotive yet enigmatic as the embodiment of the goddess Athena. Theron doesn’t get much to do but does it well. Elliot Page a has brief but impactful role as the brave soldier Sinon. As for Nyong’o as Helen, she’s fine. Helen of Troy was said to be extremely beautiful, Nyong’o is extremely beautiful, all is well with this casting.

THE ODYSSEY is physically stunning, always intriguing, sometimes moving and even philosophically engaging. For those who want to learn about Homer’s THE ODYSSEY, it absolutely beats reading the Cliff Notes. For those who desire a big, well-thought-out Bronze Age adventure, THE ODYSSEY provides it.

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Movie Review: THE TOWN THAT TAKES

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 21:49:08 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Britt Bankhead, Miles Mussenden, Grace Patterson, Mike Markoff, Nico Tirozzi
Writers: Britt Bankhead & Jon Blaze
Director: Britt Bankhead
Distributor: Atlas Distribution Company
Release Date: July 10, 2026

THE TOWN THAT TAKES begins with the following voiceover: “They say a whole colony vanished in 1587 … only thing they found was a single word caved into a tree, ‘Croatoan’ … The legend talks about a red-eyed demon – takes the form of people you know, steals kids, leaves nothing but silence. I used to think it was just a story. I don’t anymore.”

An emergency vehicle with lights on speeds down forest highway. A house on one side is surrounded by police tape. New-to-town chief detective Douglas O’Shea (Miles Mussenden) arrives on the scene and meets some of his staff, including Detective St. Clair (Grace Patterson) and Lt. Adams (Mike Markoff). There was a fire and there are scorched human remains, along with the word “Croatoan” and unfamiliar markings on the walls.

The fire investigator says this doesn’t seem to be a case of arson, and there’s no sign of how the fire started or what stopped it (as it’s a wooden house, it should have kept burning). This is an intriguing start, and we look forward to learning more, even if the answers are entirely supernatural.

The next day, we meet pre-teen Wyatt Richardson (Nico Tirozzi) by his mother’s grave in a cemetery. His heretofore absent dad, Dean Richardson (Britt Bankhead, who also directed and co-wrote the script with cinematographer/editor Jon Blaze) walks over from his car and says, “Sorry about your mom.”

We recognize Dean as the voiceover provider from the opening. After some squabbing with his own father, who would like custody of the boy, Dean takes Wyatt with him and heads on the long journey back to Georgia.

Wyatt isn’t too thrilled about being with his father, who he addresses by his first name. Trying for some bonding with his son, Dean asks to listen to the podcast on Wyatt’s earphones. It’s about skinwalkers, aka shapeshifters. The podcast says the only way to kill them is decapitation.

At the same time O’Shea and his unit come across a massacre in a convenience store, Dean and Wyatt check into a motel. Wyatt finds a brochure about Roanoke, the site of the lost colony. The desk clerk is perfectly helpful at first, but when Dean returns to ask about bath towels, he notices something strangely wrong with the woman.

Unlike most horror movie characters, Dean doesn’t FAFO. He grabs Wyatt and they race out of the motel, avoiding the front desk.

Right here, we’re ready to award THE TOWN THAT TAKES major points. It’s got a good what’s-going-on-here mystery and a protagonist who demonstrates common sense.

Unfortunately, right about here, the narrative begins to devolve. Neither Dean nor Wyatt ever recall the information from the podcast. This is psychologically understandable.

What’s very much not understandable is how, when two characters get into an off-road wreck, one is somehow found mid-nowhere and taken to the hospital, while the other regains consciousness alone in the upside-down vehicle.

It’s also not explained how the individual who wakes up in the truck knows to look for their missing companion in the emergency room, rather than in the forest near the crash site.

More questions pile up as to why this is happening now, why certain people are being targeted, why the police in what looks like a small town have a sizable SWAT team, and how the current goings-on (which don’t involve a town vanishing overnight) has to do with the legend of the lost colony.

A number of historians now believe that the missing colonists may simply have scattered and integrated into other communities. That can be ignored in the name of storytelling, but it’s harder to overlook the almost literal demonization of some Native Americans here.

It’s not absolutely necessary for a movie that opens with the enigma of Croatoan to put forth a theory relating to it, but it’s tough to get around the mounting incoherence that saps THE TOWN THAT TAKES of its initial momentum.

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Movie Review: THE OUTER THREAT

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 21:49:01 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Constance Wu, Mark O’Brien, Callista Crowe, Isaac Smelcer-Zhang, Oscar Hsu, Murray Furrow, William Fichtner, Jenna Villeneuve
Writer: William Woods
Director: William Woods
Distributor: Quiver Distribution
Release Date: July 10, 2026

THE OUTER THREAT has a solid, twisty science-fiction premise. Written and directed by William Woods, the movie asks the kinds of questions, interstellar, technical and moral, that propelled many ‘50s and ‘60s speculative fiction novels and stories.

In this instance, the driving matter is whether, in the midst of disaster, it’s better to try to restore the status quo or to risk annihilation in the hopes of getting something better than what has come before.

THE OUTER THREAT posits this dilemma on the personal and the societal levels, albeit decisions about both rest mainly in the hands of unmarried couple Michelle (Constance Wu) and Daniel (Mark O’Brien).

Set in the U.S. but shot in Ontario, Canada, THE OUTER THREAT shows us an isolated rural farmhouse. The shed has a basement, where astrophysicist Daniel examines data from a bank of somewhat old-school but still viable equipment.

When Daniel excitedly tries to share the data with Michelle, she doesn’t even want to look at it. Once a talented astrophysicist herself, Michelle has retired to home-school and otherwise spend time with her and Daniel’s two children, teen Francois “Frankie” (Isaac Smelcer-Zhang) and little Maddie (Callista Crowe).

While they’re still living together, Michelle and Daniel are “on a break,” primarily because Michelle is annoyed, with some justification, that Daniel is more focused on his interstellar research than he is on their family.

But when Daniel discovers what appears to be proof of not only interplanetary life but a cooperative civilization on another world, even Michelle is enthralled by the possibilities. But should they share this information? Will it lead to worldwide panic?

For a short stretch, THE OUTER THREAT feels like a low-budget version of DISCLOSURE DAY. But in DISCLOSURE DAY, the aliens are already here, we know they’re good, and that’s the main thrust of what’s happening.

In THE OUTER THREAT, the moment after Daniel tries to apprise a former colleague of what he’s learned, the power goes out – everywhere. Can the aliens really have detected what Daniel is doing so quickly and taken steps to stop him? If not, what could be the explanation? Either way, what should be done?

Wu and O’Brien both give persuasive, committed performances. Oscar Tsu is affecting as Michelle’s father and William Fichtner is moving and chilling as someone who could equally be friend or foe.

Philosophically, THE OUTER THREAT remains interesting throughout, but some details are dubious. Granted, our heroes are in an area with a small population, but it seems like they’d encounter more folks out there looking for answers (even if they wouldn’t have the same head start as Daniel and Co.).

There’s also a problem with the way Michelle is written. While Wu is full of conviction at all times, Michelle’s opinions seem to hopscotch around so that she can counter Daniel, rather than to be part of a consistent set of beliefs.

While Crowe and Smelcer-Zhang are appealing performers, giving so many key moments to the youngsters has the effect of occasionally turning THE OUTER THREAT into a family adventure. This would work better if those sequences weren’t sandwiched between cerebral and verbal sections that aren’t as likely to appeal to youthful viewers.

THE OUTER THREAT is worth seeing and discussing afterwards. It’s just something of an uneven ride.

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Movie Review: PORTRAITS OF THE APOCALYPSE (RESTRATOS DEL APOCALIPSIS)

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 21:48:52 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Paula Manzone, Paula Rubinzstein, Demián Salomón, Natalia Lorenzo, Martina Valmaggia, Lorena Vega, Ezequiel Rodriguez, Rodrigo Raffeto
Writers: Nicanda Loreti, Fabian Forte, Luca Castello
Directors: Nicanda Loreti, Fabian Forte, Luca Castello
Distributor: Cleopatra Entertainment
Release Date: July 14, 2026 (digital, VOD)

PORTRAITS OF THE APOCALYPSE (RESTRATOS DEL APOCALIPSIS) is an Argentine horror film, now available on digital and VOD in either the Spanish-language original or the English-language dubbed version. (This reviewer saw the latter, as it was what was provided.)

Set and made in Buenos Aires, PORTRAITS OF THE APOCALYPSE gives us four separate sequences of roughly the same length, that chart the course of a zombie apocalypse, from inception to added disaster.

There is a bit of a throughline, as one character, or at least the same actor, appears in two segments. Otherwise, three filmmakers each write and direct their own sequence, with all of them collaborating on what is arguably the most emotionally fraught.

Each part has its own heading, with helpfully separated credits at the movie’s end.

“Chapter One: Murder at the Crime Scene” is written and directed by Nicanda Loreti. We meet police officer Muriel (Paula Manzone) as she bursts into a drug lord’s shabby lair, only to find several corpses and more blood than should reasonably result from a shootout.

Muriel has a conversation with herself about how she can make this look like she saved the day, thereby get a promotion, and finally be able to afford a pair of Nikes in one payment.

Then a man lurches out of a doorway. Not knowing what viewers know about what it means when someone is moving like that in a zombie movie – or even that zombies exist – Muriel reflexively shoots him in the head.

Thinking she’s committed murder, Muriel then internally debates whether she should flee to Paraguay or to restage the crime scene to make herself look heroic, get that promotion and pay for those shoes.

This is played effectively for dark comedy, as one side of Muriel voices frustration about being stuck in a body with its idiot other persona.

“Chapter Two: Rats,” written and directed by Fabian Forte, takes place in a family home. Elderly Juana (Paula Rubinzstein) lives here with her daughter Natalia (Natalia Lorenzo), Natalia’s husband Pedro – Peter in the English dub – (Demián Salomón), the couple’s teen daughter Jorgelina (Martina Valmaggia) and cat Athena.

When Athena’s attention is attracted by something in the kitchen pantry, Juana is positive that it must be an enormous rat and insists Pedro deal with it, even though it’s two hours before he’s supposed to wake up for work.

Also, Pedro doesn’t feel well, like everybody else on his recreational football team. He’s got a leg injury that he at last explains to the amazed Natalia.

“Chapter Three: Ruby” is written and directed jointly by Forte & Loreti & Luca Castello. It is done as found footage, taking place over the course of several months. Laura (Lorena Vega) has found an old video camera and is reflecting on her past and present for the child she is expecting and plans to call Ruby.

Laura and her brother Sebastian (Ezequiel Rodriguez) are holed up in their childhood home, where they have returned for safety. Sebastian, who goes out to forage, is exasperated by Laura’s documentary efforts. “Talk to me!” he begs, wishing she’d stop talking to the camera/herself. But when they do converse, Sebastian ominously goes on about how he and Laura can’t take care of a baby.

The fourth and final chapter is “King of the Damned,” written and directed by Castello. It asks how things can be made even worse. The answer is: by summoning a demon. The circumstances make it understandable, but there are enough other people around grieving protagonist Pablo (Rodrigo Raffeto) to tell him this is a terrible idea.

Despite the number of filmmakers, there is a consistent artistic vision throughout PORTRAITS OF THE APOCALYPSE, with contained settings, a muted palette and a surprisingly small amount of gore for the genre. The camera usually cuts away right before the inevitable happens, although “King of the Damned” has more blood than the rest.

While “Rats” is somewhat conventional, the other episodes come up with situations that don’t play often in living dead stories. The most impactful is “Ruby,” where the filmmakers create increasing suspense and dread simply through human interaction.

The cast is all good, with Manzone and Vega as standouts.

At just an hour and fifteen minutes, PORTRAITS OF THE APOCALYPSE doesn’t wear out its welcome. It’s an anthology of parts that feel like they add up to a well-done whole.

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Movie Review: EVIL DEAD BURN

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 05:07:52 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Soheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Errol Shand, Maude Davey, George Pullar, Greta van den Brink
Writers: Sébastien Vaniček & Florent Bernard, based on characters created by Sam Raimi
Director: Sébastien Vaniček
Distributor: New Line Cinema/Screen Gems
Release Date: July 12, 2026

The first THE EVIL DEAD was released in 1982, launching the careers of (among others) filmmaker Sam Raimi and actor Bruce Campbell. The film had two direct sequels, 1987’s EVIL DEAD II and 1992’s ARMY OF DARKNESS, both also directed by Raimi and starring Campbell. A three-season TV series, ASH VS EVIL DEAD (2015-2018), executive-produced by Raimi and again starring Campbell, continued the narrative.

The franchise was resurrected for the big screen with a quasi-remake, 2013’s EVIL DEAD, followed by 2023’s EVIL DEAD RISE, and now EVIL DEAD BURN. The latter three have Raimi and Campbell among the producers, but not as immediate creative participants.

The Raimi-directed EVIL DEAD movies centered on Campbell’s Ash, who found himself battling relentless Deadites (think chatty, sadistic rotting undead) summoned by the (fictional) forbidden text THE NECRONOMICON (originally invented by writer H.P. Lovecraft in the 1920s for his Cthulhu Mythos). The Deadites delight in transforming luckless humans into, well, the evil dead.

The first three films and the TV series were splat-stick comedy, with jokes cheek and jowl with the gore.

The subsequent films have flashes of humor, but they are much more focused on straight horror, as well as family drama.

This is absolutely the case with EVIL DEAD BURN, written by Sébastien Vaniček & Florent Bernard and directed by Vaniček.

Here, the family at the center of events is on the verge of imploding, even without demonic intervention.

EVIL DEAD BURN is tangentially related to EVIL DEAD RISE, insofar as the earlier film’s wraparound deposited Deadite Jessica (Anna-Maree Thomas) in a lake. At the start of BURN, two unfortunate fishermen snag a Deadite played by Greta van den Brink, who was Thomas’s stunt double on RISE, so this may be the same character.

Meanwhile, Joseph (Hunter Doohan) is in a dusty upstairs room, curiously perusing clippings, writings, reel-to-reel tape recordings and more amassed by his grandfather. We’ll learn that Grandpa is considered the family flake because he declined to spend time with his wife and daughters in favor of traveling the world investigating the occult.

A recording Joseph’s grandfather left behind conveniently provides us with what we (and Joseph) need in terms of exposition. This includes a bit about the Kandarian dagger, which the Deadites want to obtain and destroy, as it’s the only item that can permanently kill them. Grandad has left it somewhere on the premises.

It’s Joseph’s birthday, and there’s a celebration for him at the party club owned by his older brother Will (George Pullar) and Will’s French wife Alice (Soheila Yacoub). Joseph’s supportive girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan) tries to mediate as Will first condescends to his little brother, then gets into an aggressive fight with Alice.

The argument spills into the club parking lot, where we see further evidence of Will’s controlling, contemptuous and violent personality before he gets into his car and drives away at top speed.

Meanwhile, our lake Deadite has taken to the road, where she easily causes Will to crash. The car erupts in flames.

At the sparse funeral held at a crematorium, Alice is wearing running shoes, to the great displeasure of her grieving in-laws Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgar (Errol Shand). Susan’s elderly mother Polly (Maude Davey) is in a wheelchair and keeps confusing Susan with Susan’s deceased sibling Bonnie.

Susan and Edgar generally resent Alice and blame her for Will’s death. They also disapprove of Joseph, who they view as a slacker. He hasn’t done a good job of maintaining the isolated two-story family home he’s been given by his parents, and Susan takes a very dim view of Joseph’s investigation into his grandfather’s interests.

So, this is a toxic setup even before Edgar decides he must take one last look at Will in his coffin before the cremation. Then everybody heads back – Edgar is infected, but not “showing” yet – to the house.

From here, EVIL DEAD BURN goes pretty much where we anticipate, and where the subgenre demands, with almost nonstop violence, excellent practical effects, lots of gore, and admirable acting of that encompasses unhappiness, terror, and taunting Deadite glee.

Director Vaniček makes sure to incorporate some of the EVIL DEAD touchstones, including the racing low-to-the-ground shots (using one for a nice in-joke), chainsaws, and some catchphrases. At the same time, there are plenty of new set pieces and types of physical altercations.

With no forcing at all, EVIL DEAD BURN serves as a solid metaphor for both spousal abuse and what happens when parents turn a willful blind eye to the nature of a favored child, to the detriment of everyone and everything in the vicinity.

For those who care about these things (does this really even count as a spoiler?), the dog dies, albeit there’s at least a plot logistics reason here.

There are a couple inconsistencies, like why some people become infected so fast while others take much more time and still others seem immune. Mostly, though, EVIL DEAD BURN does what it’s supposed to do as a horror movie overall and as part of its specific lineage.

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Movie Review: CORPORATE RETREAT

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 10:07:45 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Alan Ruck, Odeya Rush, Sasha Lane, Elias Kacavas, Ashton Sanders, Zión Moreno, Benjamin Norris, Tyler Alvarez, Kirby Johnson, Ellen Toland, Rosanna Arquette
Writers: Aaron Fisher and Kerri Lee Romeo
Director: Aaron Fisher
Distributor: Western Film Services/Passage Pictures
Release Date: May 22, 2026 (theatrical); July 10, 2026 (VOD, digital)

In the vein of 2006’s SEVERANCE (the movie, not the streaming series) and 2017’s THE BELKO EXPERIMENT, CORPORATE RETREAT is a horror movie about what happens when business team-building goes very wrong.

In a flash-forward, we see an isolated compound on a mountain above Los Angeles, where several dead bodies are in the swimming pool and on the floor. These are not the only casualties.

We are then introduced to the upper-echelon executives of Immaculate Pond Technologies, heading toward their weekend event with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Onscreen captions helpfully identify the characters for us.

The company’s general counsel, Cliff (Elias Kacavas), hasn’t mentioned to the others that he’s skipping the group bus and driving up in his own convertible. Likewise, Cliff hasn’t told his girlfriend and traveling companion Ginger (Odeya Rush), a grad student going for her degree in abnormal psychology, that they’re off to a romantic getaway, rather than him dragging her along for this professional obligation.

Gathering at the bus as scheduled are Chief Executive Officer Devin (Benjamin Norris), Chief Financial Officer Carl (Ashton Sanders), Chief Human Resources Officer Billie (Kirby Johnson), Chief Technology Officer Omar (Tyler Alvarez), Chief Revenue Officer Deborah (Rosanna Arquette), and Chief Operating Officer Aubrey (Ellen Toland).

From their cars and clothing, we can tell that Immaculate Pond Technologies is doing very well. With the exception of Deborah, these execs are all Gen Z or millennials.

Reference is made to Arthur (Alan Ruck), who used to dictate what happened on corporate retreat weekends. Without him to boss everyone around, the retreat is being run by two enthusiastic young women, Amber (Zión Moreno) and Lola (Sasha Lane).

Amber and Lola want to lead the execs – plus Ginger, since she’s here – through the Seven Gateways, which they promise will bring spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment.

Director Aaron Fisher and his co-scripter Kerri Lee Romeo aren’t coy. They let us know right away something is way off, not just in the flash-forward, but with a murder that occurs seven minutes in and a lie about it shortly afterward that gives us some idea of who is on what side.

Much of the humor comes from some characters who are completely serious about their out-there notions and even the nature of the dangerous games. Straight-faced jokes and survival tactics are rolled together with violence that is not just graphic but potentially stomach-churning, even for gorehounds. Special effects makeup creator Gary J. Tunnicliffe has wrought moments that may be hard for some audience members to watch. This isn’t a criticism – CORPORATE RETREAT clearly wants to make us wince a lot – but it’s hardcore.

CORPORATE RETREAT unspools with momentum. Things get so wacko so fast that we’re sprinting along with the characters, wondering how any of them, even the antagonists, are possibly going to get out of this maniacal mess.

In a satisfyingly adept cast, Ruck is masterfully bonkers, Young is persuasive as someone who isn’t going down without a fight, and Sanders is affecting as a man who just wants to get home to his family.

CORPORATE RETREAT walks its horror-comedy tightrope nimbly. It services its premise and maintains its tone from start to finish, but it’s not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.

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Movie Review: TIME OF DEATH

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 09:07:39 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Michael Kelly, Kevin Pollak, Dennis Haysbert, Mena Suvari, Jeff Kober, Noel G., Trevor Morgan, Joseph Cotton Smith, Kelen Coleman, Alex Solowicz, Keith Machekanyanga, David Ury, Sir Brodie, CJ Williams, Thomas Parobek
Writer: Jason Rosen
Director: Will Wernick
Distributor: Vertical Entertainment
Release Date: June 12, 2026 (VOD)

TIME OF DEATH has the good sense to cast the great but often-underused Michael Kelly as its protagonist. It also has the benefit of shooting at a real-world 100-year-old prison in West Virginia, which supplies plenty of unsettling atmosphere.

We meet Kelly’s character, Department of Corrections officer Frank Morley, just as he experiences a horrible, guilt-inducing personal tragedy.

Two years later, we’re at the Seneca Ridge Penitentiary, where Warden LaRue (Kevin Pollak) declares that declares inmate Ted Dowling (Keith Machekanyanga) has been granted a 48-hour weekend of freedom –which the warden says will start right now, in the middle of the rainy night.

This seems a little suspicious to both Ted and the guards, but a decree by the warden must be obeyed, so out Ted goes.

Meanwhile, Frank is back on the job, as well as on medication that should not be combined with alcohol (a caution Frank ignores). When the Department of Corrections gets a report of an inmate – that would be Ted – missing from Seneca, Frank sends his trainee Alan (Trevor Morgan) to investigate.

Alan finds troubling material, then winds up dead in his hotel room. So, Frank now burdened by this new fatality as well as what happened before, heads to Seneca himself. Frank’s sometimes girlfriend/prison doctor Alison Burrell (Mena Suvari) insists on accompanying him.

One good look around and Frank can tell the prison doesn’t pass code inspection and must be closed down. Warden LaRue doesn’t take this news well. There’s also something else going on that may be supernatural, human corruption, or a combination of both.

Directed by Will Wernick and written by Jason Rosen, TIME OF DEATH makes the most of its eerie surroundings and the disturbed nature of many of the prisoners. Kelly makes us take Frank seriously, so we lean in with what the character is doing.

But part of what makes a mystery successful is its resolution. TIME OF DEATH gives us one that raises more practical questions than it answers, especially around the issue of what certain characters expected to happen.

We also don’t get clarity on why Frank is having psychic flashes. For a while, we think we’ll be able to deduce this from either Frank himself or something about the prison, but by the end, we still don’t get much in the way of hints.

Pollak is pleasantly expansive, Suvari is sincere, and Dennis Haysbert is stalwart as the prison’s head of operations.

TIME OF DEATH is well-acted, good-looking, and keeps us engaged most of the way through, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

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GANGLAND: Actor and executive producer Lou Diamond Phillips on new crime film – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:46:44 +0000

The character of Teddy Sharpe in the new feature drama GANGLAND, opening in theatres and on digital July 10, is not Lou Diamond Phillips’s first go-round playing law enforcement on a reservation. Phillips spent six seasons, 2012-2017, on LONGMIRE as Henry Standing Bear, tribal liaison for the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming.

However, unlike Henry, Teddy is not indigenous. Although he has spent most of his life here, and his wife is a member of the tribe, he is viewed as an outsider on the Thunderstone reservation. As Teddy’s new deputy, fellow outsider Sandra Scala (Dana Namerode), learns, something in Teddy’s past makes him reluctant to arrest people on his beat; he prefers to mediate differences instead. But as a gang war breaks out, Teddy finds himself increasingly backed into a corner by both the criminals and non-reservation county sheriffs.

Phillips, born in Subic Bay in the Philippines, has had a nonstop career in films and television spanning over forty years. He had three breakout roles in movies rapid succession, all as real-life individuals: rocker Richie Valens in 1987’s LA BAMBA, educator Angel Guzman in 1988’s STAND AND DELIVER, and outlaw Chavez y Chavez in 1988’s YOUNG GUNS (reprising the part in 1990’s YOUNG GUNS II).

Since then, Phillips demonstrated his singing skills in his Tony-nominated performance in the 1996 Broadway revival of THE KING AND I. Besides LONGMIRE, Phillips has had series leads on shows including WOLF LAKE, STARGATE UNIVERSE, PRODIGAL SON, and the animated programs ELEANOR OF AVALON and FIREBUDS. He has also directed feature films and television episodes. Additionally, Phillips has written two science-fiction novels in his TINDERBOX universe.

When Phillips gets on a Zoom call to discuss GANGLAND, he explains how he became involved with the film.

“I received a wonderful email from a good friend, Megan Griffiths, who had written and directed THE NIGHT STALKER [the 2016 telefilm in which Phillips portrayed real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez]. We’ve done a number of other projects together since, and she emailed me and said, ‘Listen, I’ve got this dear friend, award-winning director Vincent Grashaw from the festival circuit, and he’s got this script [by Zach Montague, originally titled KEEP QUIET], and you’re his first choice.’

“And so, I was predisposed to like it, because I think Megan has impeccable taste,” which Phillips jokes he believes “because she hired me once. I read the script, absolutely loved it, got on a Zoom with Vincent, we hit it off incredibly.”

This was followed by Grashaw and his fellow producers offering to make Phillips an executive producer, which Phillips calls “very gracious, and allowing me to help shape how the project moved forward.”

Phillips says the first thing he did was “call up my friend Marcus Red Thunder and bring him in as a technical advisor and co-executive producer. Marcus had been my technical advisor on LONGMIRE for six seasons, and I knew that GANGLAND needed his discerning eye, his hardcore cultural accuracy.

“The great thing about Marcus is that he’s often said, ‘Okay, this isn’t a documentary.’ He tends to know what’s going to work for a work of fiction, and yet still be respectful of what the community needs in being represented. So, that was key.”

Other than that, Phillips relates, his executive producer activities were mostly “notes about scripts, and certainly thoughts on casting. I was able to recommend my good friends Irene Bedard and Kimberly Guerrero for roles.”

Phillips is “really happy to have had a hand in creating this. Although I can’t take too much credit. Vincent Grashaw is really the creative force behind all of this, and the guy who physically pulled it together. So, he and our producers, Ran [Namerode] and Angelia [Adzic] and Cole [Payne], were all fantastic.”

Teddy was originally written as Native American, but Phillips felt it would work better if the character was not considered an insider. “That was one of the conversations that we had with Marcus and Vincent – ‘Let’s go ahead and make him who Lou is – [ethnically] ambiguous, an ally, an ambassador.’ I think Marcus had a great point about it – it makes Teddy a perennial outsider. He wants to protect and serve. This is his community. He married into this. But he ain’t blood, and there are those that would push back on that.

“And so, that brought in an interesting dynamic, especially when he brings in Dana Namerode’s character Sandra, who is also not Native, to police this community, and the responsibility that you have to that, the duty that you have to that.

“And also, without any spoilers, this has had blowback on him before. So, there are a lot of layers going on, and what we wanted to do with this was to create a story that not only was authentic, but had a lot of complexity to it, a lot of nuance.”

For someone who is not himself indigenous, Teddy sometimes refers to members of the community as “Indian,” a term that is considered by some to be offensive when used by non-Native Americans.

Phillips laughs and notes, “Even though Teddy makes fun of [people who use the terms], I say ‘indigenous,’ I say ‘native,’ although a number of people, including Marcus, will say ‘Indian,’ James Whitecloud [who plays Bull] will say ‘Indian’ automatically.

For Phillips, “Even when I’m referring to tribes, I will often refer to them as Nations, because they’re sovereign nations. Most of my friends are not necessarily offended by the term ‘Indian,’ but I lead with ‘indigenous,’ to be quite honest, or ‘First Nations,’ as Canada calls them. I think it’s good to be prudent. At least that way, everybody knows you’re coming from a place of respect.”

GANGLAND’s setting is intentionally ambiguous, Phillips discloses. “Once again, Marcus’s influence, we made Thunderstone a fictional reservation, and we don’t name the tribe, because we didn’t want it to be specific to one community. Gang violence is a problem on a number of reservations throughout the country.

As for where it was filmed, “We shot it in Oklahoma on Cheyenne/Arapahoe land, just outside of Oklahoma City. And so that [provides] veracity. The land itself becomes a character and can’t help but, I think, affect the actors’ performances.”

The temperature definitely had an impact, Phillips adds. “We shot this in January and February, we were out there on the prairie, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. It was not glamorous,” he laughs. “So, there’s a certain amount of desolation, there’s the chill in the air, there’s this feeling that we’re playing characters who are weathered, very literally, and who have to withstand the forces of nature. So, it really, I think, informed all of the actors.”

Teddy has a secret – just like all the other characters Phillips plays. “You want every character to have a back story, to have their secrets, whether or not those secrets are ever revealed. Meryl Streep said she would have a secret that, whether it applied to the script or not, she would have it with her.

“What’s interesting about GANGLAND, even the title covers a lot of territory, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. And once you get into the movie, you think you know what it’s going to be, and I’ve had other people tell me, it just keeps turning on you, it keeps twisting on you, and it’s thought-provoking, and it’s emotionally effective, because there’s so much going on.

“There are some films that they’ll take a hard left, and all of a sudden, you’re going to go, ‘Wow, I didn’t see that coming.’ But when we take a left in this film, it absolutely underlines a lot of what has happened before, and you get where these characters are coming from and you get where they’re hoping to go to. It is about surviving, it’s about resilience, it’s about healing, and all of that wrapped up in what is ostensibly a gang film. It’s not just a gang film.”

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Movie Review: CHAPTER 51

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:07:33 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Abigail Breslin, Allie Marie Evans, Colman Domingo, Charlotte Lawrence, Colin Paolo, Connor Paolo, Dylan Sprayberry, Emily Alyn Lind, Ivan Richardson, John Mocker, Logan Huffman, Mo Abhat, Olivia Wachsberger, Todd Mandel, Tyler Shields
Writer: Tyler Shields
Director: Tyler Shields
Distributor: Cineverse
Release Date: June 23, 2026 (theatrical, digital)

It’s hard to tell exactly what CHAPTER 51 is trying to do. Writer/director Tyler Shields seems to be going for a THIS IS SPINAL TAP mockumentary that mixes true crime and behind-the-scenes examination of the making of a film.

Then again, some of the specifics are so peculiar that we can’t tell if they’re meant as deadpan send-up or things that aren’t fully thought through. Conceptually, some of it is hilarious, but in practice, it seldom hits as actual comedy.

CHAPTER 51 begins with a trailer for DISSIDENT, which looks like a Hitchcockian thriller, billed in its advertising as “the most controversial film ever made.”

Former FBI agent/documentarian Thomas Scott (played by filmmaker Shields) tells us in voiceover, “Between 2018 and 2022, three actresses were murdered during production of the film DISSIDENT by an individual known as the Hollywood Killer. THK attempted a fourth murder on actress Audrey Evans [Allie Marie Evans], who escaped and went on to finish the film. The only evidence that exists is the footage that THK filmed, and outtakes from the film DISSIDENT. The case remains unsolved.”

We then get onscreen credits for various formats in which CHAPTER 51 was actually shot and in which DISSIDENT was ostensibly filmed: IMAX, Panavista, VistaVision, Kodak Super 8, 16MM, 35MM, and 65MM. The segments we see that are meant to be part of DISSIDENT are alternately in luminous black-and-white and radiant ‘50s-style saturated color.

We see DISSIDENT outtakes, the first labeled Day 954 (that’s one long film shoot).

Clips from the film include a sports car burning in the desert, interspersed with other images in various styles, silhouetted footage of a man dressed like a ‘50s detective lighting a cigarette for a tousle-haired femme fatale.

We then get narration from former FBI agent Thomas Scott (filmmaker Shields) in front of a murder board. He says he had the highest success rate, catching every serial killer he ever chased, except for one, THK, who became famous because of the “cinematic nature” of his crimes. “This is the strangest group of suspects I’ve ever seen.”

Thomas them: six-time Oscar winner Christopher Pace (Connor Paolo), the writer/director of the movie; Lawrence Hughes (Logan Huffman), “one of the most respected actors in the world”; Tedd Mankiewicz (Todd Mandel), “the most powerful manager in Hollywood”; former teen heartthrob Dustin Scott (Dylan Sprayberry); Melvin Asher (Mo Abhat), “the biggest box-office star ever.”

“And one of them,” Scott concludes, “could be responsible for the murder of three of the most famous actresses in history – Ava Bergman [Abigail Breslin], Barbara Ball [Olivia Wachsberger], and Greta Daniels [Charlotte Lawrence].”

We soon meet another suspect, original director of DISSIDENT Christopher Demy (Colman Domingo), who walked off the set because he couldn’t take the nonstop abuse from screenwriter Pace.

In real Hollywood, movie directors fire writers all the time. The reverse is almost never true, unless the writer is financing the film (which Pace is not) and/or an executive producer. Since no mention is made of this, it may be that this is an “it goes to eleven” aspect of CHAPTER 51, but it’s handled in a way that makes us scratch our heads rather than laugh.

This tonal ambiguity extends to much of the rest of the film. Investigator Scott solemnly puts DISSIDENT up there in influence with APOCALYPSE NOW and THE WIZARD OF OZ, but what we’re shown doesn’t make us suppose for an instant that this assessment may be correct. Even by parody standards, some of the character egomania is simultaneously overblown and over-familiar.

There are also details that don’t add up, such as Demy getting the main camera operator to keep shooting between takes even when Pace takes over. What does Demy hope to achieve with this, given that he’s not going to have access to the footage? And why does the killer, or killers, shoot the stalking and murders? For that matter, why don’t any of the performers have any personal security?

Domingo is topnotch as the unflappable Demy and Paolo is the epitome of a brat wunderkind as Pace.

In the multiple formats cinematic formats it employs, CHAPTER 51 looks great. However, as a comedy/whodunit, it either outsmarts itself or isn’t smart enough. Either way, it’s more puzzling than entertaining.

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THE VAMPIRE LESTAT: Showrunner Rolin Jones, actors Sam Reid, Jacob Anderson, Zaman Assad, Eric Bogosian talk about the rock and roll vamp – Article

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GANGLAND: Actor and executive producer Lou Diamond Phillips on new crime film – Exclusive Interview

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Movie Review: CHAPTER 51

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