Watch the brand new teaser trailer for The Invite below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela’s (Olivia Wilde) marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors, Pina (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places. Have they reignited the spark or lit the match that burns it all down?

Starring ans directed by Wilde, and written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, The Invite is a cheeky, curious and cunning re-interpretation of Cesc Gay’s The People Upstairs, and while little is revealed in this brisk teaser trailer, the breadcrumbs are laid, and what were promised is a cinematic experience that will play with your emotions, and certainly get a reaction out of audiences, with plenty of hijinks and surprises guranteed to startle and shock promised by Wilde.

Having first screened for buyers and press at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, The Invite caused an immediate bidding war, and was dubbed a sensation, and after much back and forth, was acquiired by A24 Films, and having now seen this first teaser trailer, we can unecoiovacalluy confirm that this was a right decision.

 

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With it’s intriguing concept, top-notch cast, and surpise mix of feeling and suspense, The Invite is a piture audiences will be clamoruing to see when it arrives in cinemas this June.

Image: A24 Films

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Alice and Jack Chambers are a young, happy couple in the 1950s, living in the seemingly perfect company town of Victory, California, which has been created and paid for by the mysterious company for which Jack works. Curiosity about the nature of her husband’s work on the secret “Victory Project” begins to consume Alice. Cracks then begin to form in their utopian life as her investigation into the project raises tensions within the community.

With her 2019 teen comedy Booksmart, actress turned director Olivia Wilde took an established genre and found an entirely new sense of narrative and character within it, and it struck a chord with audiences. Now she returns behind the camera with her hypnotic and tension-filled dramatic thriller Don’t Worry Darling and it’s a 180-degree turn for Wilde as a director. And it works. Without wanting to divulge spoilers as this is a film that is best consumed in a single sitting, her film’s narrative is one that toys with its audience and delivers them a tense intellectual workout. Diving into themes of reality, obsession, choice, and free will, Don’t Worry Darling is a film with multiple sides to its narrative and audiences will not be expecting the twists and turns that this picture takes.

Don’t Worry Darling is a classic puzzle box thriller complete with multiple layers and Wilde unravels them with a deliberate intensity that builds in its exhilaration. Contrasting the veneer of perfection with dark and serious secrets, audiences will be caught off guard by her misdirections as a filmmaker and it all leads to one hell of a punch in the end. Wilde also asks a lot of questions of her audience, and I found myself thinking about this film’s characters and their motivations throughout the picture. Don’t Worry Darling has a terrific intellectual subtext to it and there are plenty of interesting ideas that are posed to the audience as this narrative unfurls before them.

As a visual spectacle, Don’t Worry Darling is gorgeous to look upon thanks to the combination of cinematography, production design and costuming. Debonair and glamourous in its presentation, the company town of Victory is a perfect picture of 1950s suburbia, which with its modernist architecture and richly coloured pastel hues is the ideal setting for this narrative to unfold in. Captured in crisp detail by noted cinematographer Matthew Libatique, the setting of Don’t Worry Darling could best be described as ‘manicured’ and this lavish Palm Springs environment bears much influence on the story.

Then there’s the costuming of the picture, courtesy of talented designer Arianne Phillips who styles the picture with a rich combination of colour, fabric and texture and paints the perfect picture of 1950s Hollywood glamour. With their flowing circle skirts and elegant evening wear, the women of Don’t Worry Darling are dressed with a perfect feminine pin-up elegance, while the men are decked out in groovy tennis shirts, chinos and tightly tailored suits that evoke a sense of daring masculine energy. Phillps’ work in costuming is not only gorgeous to look upon, but helps add to the tone and mood of the story and Don’t Worry Darling is without a doubt one of the most stylish films of the entire year.

Standing front and centre in the middle of Don’t Worry Darling is rising star Florence Pugh who fully steps into the role of a Hollywood leading lady with her turn as the film’s protagonist Alice Chambers. And this film belongs to her. Starting off as the perfect housewife, Pugh’s Alice is blissfully in love with her handsome young husband Jack (Harry Styles) and seems to have it all. But when things start to go astray, an unsettling feeling arises in Alice, and soon she’s in a literal waking nightmare. Pugh taps into the role of the classic Hitchcockian blonde in Don’t Worry Darling, and she’s adept at playing this character who is taken to the edge of madness. She completely disappears into this character, her intensity and focus in the part make a big impression on audiences, and this performance solidifies her as an A-list talent to keep an eye on.

Wrapping his arms around Pugh, both in the figurative and metaphorical sense is Harry Styles as her doting and handsome husband Jack, and Don’t Worry Darling is a full-on u-turn for the pop star turned thespian. With his classic good looks, Styles cuts a very dashing figure as Alice’s perfect husband who’s almost too good to be true. And oh does Jack have his secrets. Delivering a performance that can best be described as two-faced, Styles changes things up as Jack and audiences won’t expect the revelations and actions that his character delivers or the fierceness that they’re presented with.

Finally bringing Don’t Worry Darling full circle is Chris Pine as the charming and capable Frank, Jack’s charismatic boss and mentor who is not all who he seems to be and who engages in a dangerous battle of wills with Pugh’s Alice. Pine approaches the role of Frank with a kind of ‘cat who ate the canary’ quality, and there’s a certain cat-like grace to his performance. Possessed of both perfect polish and action-man swagger, Frank is a man who commands tremendous power and adulation in the seemingly perfect town of Victory and Pine’s performance as Frank makes for a worthy antagonist for Pugh’s Alice to contend with.

Don’t Worry Darling sizzles with kinetic energy, and its mix of puzzle box narrative and vintage glamour is a wonderful treat for audiences. Wilde’s film also contains a ravenous passion for its storytelling, and there’s a hot and sweaty sexuality that adds to the edginess of the narrative, and your heart will start to race when things get steamy. But Wilde’s focus is never gratuitous, and every action of this film feeds into its narrative exploration of ideas of control, reality, and free will, with Don’t Worry Darling asking many curious questions of its audience.

With its classic Hitchcockian thrills, glamourous style, and intense lead performances, Don’t Worry Darling is a film that will take audiences by surprise, and it offers up a very cerebral and frantic cinematic experience.

Image: Warner Brothers Pictures

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Watch the all-new trailer below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack Chambers (Harry Styles) are a young, happy couple living in the seemingly perfect company town of Victory during the 1950s, which is created and paid for by the mysterious company Jack is working for. Curiosity about the nature of her husband’s work on the secret Victory Project begins to consume Alice which leads to cracks in their utopian life as Alice raises tensions within the community during her investigation of the project.

Packed together with breathtaking style and production values, the visual flair of Don’t Worry Darling is the first thing that hits you as soon as you lay eyes on this new trailer, and it’s a film experience unlike anything else out there. But as Wilde draws back the layers that lie behind the glamour, a darker, more dangerous revelation presents itself, and Don’t Worry Darling presents itself as a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat the whole way through.

Florence Pugh again commands the attention of her audience with a gripping performance as the film’s lead Alice Chambers, a young housewife who is living the 1950s dream in the company of Victory, where everything is seemingly perfect. Until it isn’t. Soon suffering feelings of paranoia, Alice falls into a dangerous, twisted spiral as she begins to challenge the authority of Victory’s leader, Frank (Chris Pine) and his perfect doting wife Shelley (Gemma Chan). It’s then that a new nightmare for Alice begins, and this trailer turns up the heat on our central protagonist as her will to survive takes over and she has to do everything in her power to set herself free.

This second trailer for Don’t Worry Darling is a completely different experience from the initial first trailer and heightens the suspense and intensity that Don’t Worry Darling will deliver to audiences. It’s a frenzied watch, and promises a completely original film that audiences will be spellbound by.

Don’t Worry Darling will arrive in cinemas on October 6.

The post Slip into the suspense of Olivia Wilde’s ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ appeared first on SpicyPulp.

Check out the full trailer below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950’s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Chris Pine) — equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach — anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia.

While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the “development of progressive materials,” their wives, including Frank’s elegant partner, Shelley (Chan) get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause.

But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in this paradise?

Taking audiences back to the space-age optimism of the Eisenhower/Kennedy era amidst the groovy 1950s, Wilde introduces audiences to Alice and Jack (Florence Pugh, Harry Styles) a doting young couple, who are deeply in love and who have the world at their doorstep. All of it is in relation to Jack’s work on the top-secret Victory Project, of which Alice is totally oblivious of its actions and which provides for the grand life that they are living.

But as the days go by, and this picturesque suburbia begins to close in around her, Alice starts to begin noticing strange goings-on and she comes under the suspicion of Jack’s boss, the charming, yet steely Frank (Chris Pine) who is far more than he appears to be and whose secret agenda begins to put the two of them in grave danger.

With its stunning production design which is reminiscent of the great Space Age work of the legendary Ken Adams and its gorgeous costuming and hair and make-up, and with a compelling narrative and cleverly crafted characters, Don’t Worry Darling is shaping up to be one of 2022’s most anticipated films and the creepy antagonism of its story only builds out in the trailer and Wilde is planning to take her audience for one hell of a ride with this new feature.

Both Florence Pugh and Harry Styles complement each other fully, and Chris Pine’s shadowy performance is sure to unease audiences, thanks to his cult-like vigour. This trailer paints a truly interesting portrait of what is to come, and audiences will have to hold their breath with everything turn as Wilde flips the switch with Don’t Worry Darling’s narrative and the action of this piece will have you gripping your seat with tension.

Prepare yourself for the thrills to come when Don’t Worry Darling arrives in cinemas on October 6.

The post The first trailer for Olivia Wilde’s ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ is here appeared first on SpicyPulp.

“There is a bomb in Centennial Park. You have thirty minutes.” The world is first introduced to Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) as the security guard who reports finding the device at the 1996 Atlanta bombing—his report making him a hero whose swift actions save countless lives. But within days, the law enforcement wannabe becomes the FBI’s number one suspect, vilified by press and public alike, his life ripped apart. Reaching out to independent, anti-establishment attorney Watson Bryant, Jewell staunchly professes his innocence. But Bryant finds he is out of his depth as he fights the combined powers of the FBI, GBI and APD to clear his client’s name while keeping Richard from trusting the very people trying to destroy him.

Clint Eastwood has been behind the camera now for more than five decades, and his skills as a director ceases to diminish. And now as only Eastwood can he turns his attention to the life of Richard Jewell, a security guard who was hailed as a hero in the aftermath of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing before being quickly vilified as the villain of the event. It’s a story that carries plenty of heavy-hitting drama and its ripe for Eastwood’s directorial eye and his focus on examining American values and society. With a documentary-like focus, along with his simple and to-the-point filmmaking style, Eastwood takes audiences back to 1996 and a brazen media circus that quickly envelops into flames and is ready to destroy an innocent man’s life. Richard Jewell is an important film that explores themes of duty, justice and the media and even though it’s a portrait of the past it’s entirely contemporary in its significance.

Standing front and centre as our protagonist is rising star Paul Walter Hauser and he gives an utterly magnificent portrayal as Richard Jewell. Richard can essentially be described as a simpleton. A slightly eager to please every man who has fantasist like ambitions of working in law enforcement and whose over-zealous enthusiasm for flaunting an authority he does not possess rubs people the wrong way. After initially being labelled a hero he soon finds himself in the crosshairs of a rabid media circus, undergoing a ‘trial by media’ and harassment by overzealous law enforcement. Hauser’s performance makes this film all the more moving as Jewell because he can’t see the facts and isn’t willing to accept that he’s a suspect. It’s painful to see him trying to ‘help out’ the FBI agents who are trying to convict him as he simply doesn’t understand the severity of the situation that he’s been placed in. Hauser’s performance is one that pulls at your soul and when he does eventually pull himself together and starts to fight for his innocence you’re just hoping that he finds a way to pull through and beat a system of seemingly insurmountable odds.

While Hauser is the central character of Richard Jewell, the heart of the film comes from the presence of Kathy Bates as Jewell’s mother Bobi Lee, and her’s is an especially heart-wrenching performance. Bates’ Bobi Lee is the good neighbour, a perfect picture of wholesome everyday American values who looks after her son and who has raised him with an adherence to a Norman Rockwell type of patriotism and responsibility. Celebrating her son’s heroic turn, she basks in the delight of the good he’s done….until it all turns sour and it’s then that she just can’t deal with it all. With his ‘trial by media’, Richard’s life is torn apart and in turn so is Bobi Lee’s. It’s Bobbi Lee who bears the brunt of the media’s full attack and Bates’ sincere performance and the pain and anguish at having to face down this baying beast gets into your heart and is sure to move you to tears.

Standing next to Hauser’s Jewell in his hour of need is Sam Rockwell as attorney Watson Bryant. And it’s a part and performance that clarifies why Rockwell is one of the most in-demand actors working today. As the irascible, mouthy, and in-your-face Watson, Rockwell jumps off the screen and is a scene-stealer in every single regard. His character is very much the objective centre of this film and as he tries to keep the baying dogs from Jewell’s doorstep, he also has to contend with a system that has blinded itself to the truth amidst an angry mob mentality. As Watson, Rockwell goes toe-to-toe with the other actors in his scenes in Richard Jewell and his hunt for the truth to clear Richard’s name gives this film its substance.

Stepping back from the director’s chair, Olivia Wilde makes a return in front of the camera with Richard Jewell as reporter Kathy Scruggs and she’s a straight-up bitch here. Wilde portrays Scruggs as an overly ambitious, fast-talking egotist who is willing to go to extreme lengths to get what she wants and has no qualms about using people to get there. While she’s the first one to break the Richard Jewell story and swiftly follows through to get more out of it, her hubris gets checked when she discovers that there is no way Jewell could have committed this crime, and she’s left reeling with the fact that she’s condemned an innocent man. Richard Jewell is a film that gives Wilde a challenge when it comes to performance and she rises to meet it.

Bringing the narrative of Richard Jewell together is Jon Hamm as FBI Agent Tom Shaw who feels the full brunt of the Atlanta bombing with it happening on his home turf, and because of this feels indebted to make sure he finds the perpetrator no matter the cost. As Shaw, Hamm takes the gloves off here and his turn as the pursuer crafts him into the role of the villain as he viciously hunts Jewell, even though he’s in all likely innocent. While Eastwood doesn’t out and out vilify Hamm’s Shaw, he does lay it on pretty thick here with Shaw as the idea of law and order left unchecked and which caught up in an unstoppable pressure cooker of hate and obsession, can’t see through to the truth. Hamm doesn’t disappoint in the role, and you can tell that working with Eastwood was a career highlight for the actor, and this most definitely influences the intensity of his performance.

With Richard Jewell Eastwood puts his homeland under a microscope as only he can and examines what happens when due process gets dropped in favour of mob madness. This film is an incredibly harsh critic to the media, and while a definite period piece, we all to often feel the repercussions of a 24-hour news cycle that increasingly favours sensation over the truth. Stylistically, Richard Jewell is a quintessential Eastwood film and is delivered in a similar style to his works like Gran Torino and The Mule, where he tells the story of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times. Richard Jewell is also extremely heavy on the emotion and when the credits do begin to roll there won’t be a dry eye in the house.

Filmmakers don’t get more impressive than the likes of Clint Eastwood and Richard Jewell is another fine entry in his long list of credits. It’s a moving, evocative and extremely relevant film to our current time period and is a must-watch for true cinema aficionados.

Image: Roadshow Films

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Told from a wildly original, fresh and modern perspective, Booksmart is an unfiltered comedy about high school best friends and the bonds we create that last a lifetime. Capturing the spirit of our times, the film is a coming of age story for a new generation.

First time director Olivia Wilde absolutely goes for it here, and her on-screen talent shifts behind-the-camera for one amazing directorial debut. Wilde handles the film’s narrative of “what if two best friends discovered that they did high school wrong, and had one night to make up for it” perfectly, and her narrative allows her plenty of freedom for fun. As a director, she really takes her audience on a journey, as her two protagonists, Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), set out to prove that they are actually indeed capable of having fun. While there’s plenty of whimsy on display here, Wilde’s focus on the girls’ friendship is what really gives the film its soul. Booksmart is an amazing debut for Wilde and I’m well up for seeing her behind-the-camera again as soon as possible because her talents know no limits.

In terms of casting it doesn’t get much better than Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever as Molly and Amy and these two are the complete package. Set up as over-achieving know it all’s at the beginning of the film, you gradually learn that maybe these two aren’t as smart as they think they are, and their discovery that there’s more to life than just achievements and future plans is handled perfectly through these two performers and Wilde’s direction. Feldstein and Dever really deliver on screen with a naturalness to their characters and you certainly buy into the deep friendship that these characters share for each other. However their wild night certainly tests their friendship, and the actresses really bounce off one another with all the crazy drama that they have to contend with. Molly and Amy are a really endearing pair and this is all thanks to the sublime performance of Feldstein and Dever.

While Feldstein and Dever are at Booksmart’s core, if the film does have a scene stealer then it is without-a-doubt Billie Lourd as the extremely eccentrically loud Gigi! This girl might literally be the living embodiment of hedonism gone amuck and her constant presence throughout the film fills Booksmart with a real National Lampoon quality to it. Lourd’s Gigi is definitely the devil on the girls’ shoulders and she’s constantly guiding them in the most strange and savage direction. Gigi’s character really helps to elevate the film’s narrative and she’s an absolute blast!

Those seeking a comedy kick are also in for a real treat with Booksmart, because this film is laugh-out-loud hysterical! Wilde plays fast and loose with the comedy here, and it’s her use of the unexpected and the contradictory that really leaves the audience giggling here. While I can’t dive into the comedy too deeply without running into the risk of spoilers I will say that there were certain key moments, including The Panda scene and Molly and Amy’s interactions with a sketchy pizza delivery guy, that certainly brought out the laughs for me. However, the clincher for the comedy here was definitely the Barbie World scene and the way in which Wilde shot it was just hilarious!

Along with being packed out with sensational comedy, Booksmart is also a very real and heartfelt look at contemporary teenage life and just what it means to be a young person in 2019. While it’s big on the laughs like all teen comedies are, Booksmart, like American Graffiti and American Pie before it, really focuses in on the emotional lives of its characters, and how they’re trying to figure out what the world means to them and just where they sit in it. Wilde’s film is extremely heartfelt and you really feel for Molly and Amy as they suddenly try to live their entire teenage existence in a single night, and have to deal with all of the emotions that come with it. Booksmart is a terrific new entry in the coming-of-age category and it definitely needs to be celebrated for the scope and emotion that it brings to the genre.

Booksmart also features an incredible soundtrack which really elevates the visuals and emotional drama that is present on the screen. Its strong emphasis on music really helps to communicate the film’s narrative to audiences. My personal favourite piece of music from the film is Perfume Genius’s “Slip Away” which is used in a key scene to build out Booksmart’s underlying romantic and dramatic tension, and its seamless integration with the beautifully shot images of cinematographer Jason McCormick really highlight the adolescent experience that the characters are going through. Booksmart absolutely gets its musical score right and it really elevates the emotion and the narrative that Wilde is telling with her film.

Booksmart is a total A+ ride for moviegoers and Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut stands out as one of the most original pieces of cinema seen all year. Audiences will be buzzing after they see this film, and there’s a whole lot of fun to be had.

Image: Universal Pictures

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