Lulu Wang‘s The Farewell tells the story of Billi, a Chinese-American artist who discovers that her grandmother is dying of cancer. Her initial distress intensifies when she realizes that her family has no intention to tell grandma about the diagnosis, although they do schedule a mock wedding so the family can have one big get-together to say goodbye.
In today’s day and age, movies like The Farewell are a miracle. When even movies based on hit franchises can’t get any traction with critics or the box office, The Farewell, which is continuing to expand in theaters this weekend, has found its place as one of the most emotionally powerful films of year. The film has achieved this success despite taking place mostly in a different language, having no explosions or action scenes, and with a cast devoid of household names (beyond Awkwafina, who is excellent here).
I had a chance to watch The Farewell at the Seattle International Film Festival last month and was fortunate enough to chat with Wang afterward. We talked about the style of the film, the challenges of the Chinese-American experience, and how the power of “no” got the film to where it is today.
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In many ways, Comic-Con is often all about betting on a sure thing. Fans will line up hours, if not days, in advance to guarantee being in the room to see something related to a film series or TV show they love. So what about the newcomers? The fresh projects that snatch up real estate between the big dogs, hoping to hog the crowds at the right moment to convince the hordes that this is the next thing they’re going to love, this is the next thing they’ll line up in advance to see?
Very often, these shows simply vanish. But occasionally, you see something that instantly and immediately feels special. That was very much the case with Amazon’s Undone, an animated series that, quite frankly, looks and feels unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Meanwhile, two new ABC shows, Emergence and Stumptown, revealed that the wild west of streaming is still the place to go if you want something fresh and challenging, because these shows feel carefully calculated to live on basic cable. For one of them, that may not be a problem. For the other…we’ll just have to wait and see.
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(Welcome to Now Stream This, a column dedicated to the best movies streaming on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and every other streaming service out there.)
There’s too much streaming content out there these days. You know it, and I know it. With so many options to choose from, you can easily get overwhelmed at having to pick something to watch. So why not sit back and let me pick for you? My latest streaming column is here to help you find the perfect title to kick back with as the weekend rolls in. These are the best movies streaming right now. Let’s get streaming!
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Last summer, we learned Chronicle Collectibles would be releasing one of the most well-known props from Jurassic Park. No, it’s not a dinosaur, but it just might have the stuff you need to create your own dinosaurs.
The Jurassic Park shaving cream cryo can that Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) uses to steal dinosaur DNA from InGen is now available for pre-order from Chronicle Collectibles, and it looks even better than we thought it would. Check out the Jurassic Park shaving cream cryo can below. Read More »
The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.
In this edition, watch a Captain Marvel VFX breakdown showing the creation of environments, vehicles, characters like Goose the cat, and the transformation of Skrulls. Plus, see what professional musician Penn Jillette thinks of the magic on display in movies like The Prestige and Ant-Man and the Wasp, take a retrospective look at Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Read More »
More light has finally been shed on the big-budget HBO/BBC miniseries adaptation of Philip Pullman’s acclaimed fantasy series His Dark Materials. The highly anticipated second swing at the beloved trilogy after the disastrous 2007 film The Golden Compass came to San Diego Comic-Con Thursday, with cast members Dafne Keen, James McAvoy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Ruth Wilson, along with executive producer Jane Tranter, and writer Jack Thorne.
Find out what we learned from the His Dark Materials Comic-Con 2019 panel below.
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The showrunners and stars of YouTube’s hit Karate Kid sequel television series Cobra Kai appeared at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 to talk about the future of the franchise, and the biggest news to come out of the panel is that Cobra Kai season 3 will see Daniel LaRusso return to Okinawa, Japan, following the path of the Karate Kid Part II. Read on to discover what we learned from the panel discussion. Read More »
Want to see what’s coming in the final four episodes of Agents of SHIELD season six? Did you notice the menacing message in the Young Justice episode titles? Ready for a new Watchmen trailer this weekend? What did some Spider-Man: Far From Home deleted scenes provide for MJ? Who is the first character inducted into the Comic-Con Museum Character Hall of Fame? All that and more in this edition of Superhero Bits. Read More »
Like a rebound after a breakup, HBO is hoping that its small screen adaptation of Philip Pullman‘s beloved fantasy series His Dark Materials will be able to fill the hole that Game of Thrones has left in its wake. And while matching the most popular TV show in history is a tall order for any new show, the good news is that His Dark Materials actually looks like it has such a richly-drawn fantasy world – and a big enough budget – that it might actually be able to hold its own.
The San Diego Comic-Con panel for the series is happening right now, but HBO has already shared a brand new His Dark Materials Comic-Con trailer that looks even more impressive than what we’d previously seen from this series. Check it out below.
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Cool Posts From Around the Web:
Don’t blink. Don’t even blink. Blink, and you’re dead. At least, you’ll be dead in the video game Doctor Who: The Edge of Time, the upcoming virtual-reality game based on the long-running BBC sci-fi series. And okay, you can probably blink (there isn’t a VR technology quite advanced enough to detect blinking yet), but you will still have to follow the Doctor’s other instructions: Don’t turn your back and don’t look away. Because if you do, you could actually lose this game.
As opposed to the other Doctor Who VR adventure that we covered earlier this year, Doctor Who: The Runaway, Doctor Who: The Edge of Time is a proper VR video game that will be coming to various VR-capable consoles this fall. /Film got to play a demo of The Edge of Time at San Diego Comic-Con, and we almost got exterminated in the process.
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