By Charlene Badasie
| Published 8 seconds ago

The 2018 dark comedy-drama Maniac is streaming on Netflix. Created by Patrick Somerville and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the 10-episode series is a reimagining of the Norwegian series of the same name. It stars Jonah Hill and Emma Stone in the lead roles, supported by a stellar ensemble cast including Justin Theroux, Sally Field, Sonoya Mizuno, Gabriel Byrne, and Jemima Kirke.

Maniac Stars Jonah Hill and Emma Stone

Maniac tells the story of two strangers, Owen Milgrim (Jonah Hill) and Annie Landsberg (Emma Stone), who sign up for a mysterious pharmaceutical trial. Owen is a man struggling with schizophrenia, while Annie is dealing with a traumatic past and a strained relationship with her family. Both are looking for an escape from their troubled lives.

The pharmaceutical trial they join promises to solve all their problems with no complications or side effects. Led by Dr. James K. Mantleray (Justin Theroux), it involves a series of mind-bending, immersive experiences induced by experimental drugs. As Owen and Annie undergo treatment, they bond within a series of interconnected and surreal alternate realities.

A Cure For What Ails You

Maniac begins in New York City, where Owen Milgrim hides his schizophrenia symptoms. After losing his job, Owen joins a trial at Neberdine, a pharmaceutical company, for a new drug that promises to cure all disorders. There, he meets Annie Landsberg, who helps him avoid trouble by pretending to know him. Annie, dealing with her own issues, gets into the drug trial by stealing a badge.

After taking the “A” pill, Annie relives her sister Ellie’s death. Annie, Owen, and another test subject are questioned after the “A” pill test, and Owen reveals his past trauma. When the GRTA supercomputer malfunctions, it links Annie and Owen during the “B” pill test. The malfunction leads to complications in the trial, and Dr. Greta Mantleray (Sally Field) is brought in to fix it.

Well-Received By Critics And Audiences Alike

Maniac received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of Hill and Stone, as well as the ambitious and imaginative storytelling. The series was lauded for its unique visual style, thought-provoking themes, and eclectic approach. The aesthetic draws on influences from the 1980s and incorporates retro-futuristic elements.

The series premiered at the Southbank Centre in London, England, in September 2018, followed by its American debut two days later at Center 415 in Manhattan, New York. Maniac, described as “wild, audacious, addictive” and a “brilliant piece of world-building,” currently holds an 84 percent critics score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes alongside an equally impressive 84 percent audience rating.

A Little Too Cold And Calculating

While the overall consensus was largely positive, Maniac was not without its detractors. Some reviewers felt that the show was too calculated and lacked the thrill of the unexpected despite its mind-bending premise. One critic noted that while incredibly fun to watch, the series becomes emptier the more one thinks about it.

Sill, Maniac serves as a bold and unconventional exploration of the human psyche, marked by standout performances and a distinctive visual flair. The Netflix series is a definite must-watch for fans of the black psychological comedy-drama genre.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 26 seconds ago

Part of what makes Batman’s rogues gallery so compelling is that many of the bad guys in it are surprisingly sympathetic. Mr. Freeze isn’t some generic sci-fi villain, for example; he’s a man on a mission to save his dying wife. Two-Face wasn’t born a monster; rather, a monstrous transformation was forced upon him, breaking his mind. Unless you watched Batman: The Animated Series, though, you may not realize who the most sympathetic villain of all is: Clayface. Once a movie star, he was disfigured and embraced a desperate solution to restore his good looks. Unfortunately, it all went wrong, and his mind embraced the horror that his body had become.

Surprisingly enough, James Gunn decided that a solo Clayface movie should be the third film in the DCU. Obviously, it’s a bold strategy to make a Batman villain movie without Batman, and many fans questioned whether the Superman director had gone a little loopy. Apparently, though, there’s method to Gunn’s madness: the official trailer for Clayface gives us our best look yet at the DC’s first real horror film. With captivating performances and genuinely creepy body horror, this trailer promises to deliver all the scares that comic book fans can handle.

Definitely Eat BEFORE You Watch The Trailer

The Clayface trailer reveals a slightly tweaked origin story for main character Matt Hagen. Instead of being a more established actor, he’s a young, rising star with his entire career ahead of him. Instead of getting injured in a car accident like in Batman: The Animated Series, he is attacked by a local crime boss who leaves the actor’s beautiful face scarred and deformed. Hagen connects with a scientist who is working on an experimental procedure that could restore his famous face. At first, it works; however, it doesn’t take long for his body to start breaking down, transforming Gotham’s latest actor into its latest supervillain.

The trailer is very solid and will go a long way towards restoring the faith of fans nervous about the failure of Supergirl. Previously, those fans were asking the obvious question: if DC had such trouble creating a successful superhero film (something they had done many times before), how bad would their first horror film be? However, this trailer hints at an ambitious, well-crafted movie that will potentially blow us away. It looks so good, in fact, that we can forgive some of its more trope-y elements, like including a creepy, slowed-down version of a popular song (“Do You Realize??” by the Flaming Lips). 

A Killer Leading Man

What does the trailer do well? For one thing, Clayface leading actor Tom Rhys Harries does an amazing job as the titular character. His passion is palpable, and he really sells the idea that this rising star is in over his head at every turn. That helps make Clayface a more sympathetic character, of course: like most real-life villains, this fictional character is a victim of circumstances beyond his control. Furthermore, the road to his personal hell is paved with actions that most of us would take in his place, including taking desperate measures to get his old life back.

Aside from Harries’ excellent performance, the best thing about this Clayface trailer is how fully it leans into body horror. Now, these kinds of frights aren’t for everyone, but if you love the filmography of David Cronenberg, you’ll like what you see here. Shots of our protagonist’s scarred face are truly jarring, and it’s tough not to wince in sympathetic pain when watching his body writhe and transform. The creepy climax, though, is when his eyes start getting covered by his skin. Trust me: you’re going to scream into your hand when you see him bust the scissors out!

Body Horror Is Back On The Menu, Boys

The performances, music, and gross-out special effects come together to create a perfectly unsettling vibe. Gotham’s aesthetic is one of glamorous decay, one that channels the colorful excess of Batman Forever and the grimy bleakness of Joker. The creepy song does its job to keep you on the edge of your seat as you await the revelation of each new terror. The Clayface trailer is peak horror perfection: you can’t look away, even as you know that everything is going to get worse for every single person you see onscreen.

Obviously, this is just a trailer, and its good editing doesn’t mean the film will be good (remember, Supergirl had tight trailers, too). However, this is a movie I’ve had faith in ever since I heard that horror auteur Mike Flanagan was writing the script. Looking at the trailer, that faith has been rewarded, as the whole movie looks just as eerie and unsettling as I hoped it would. Will the final film live up to this trailer and the general hype? We’ll find out when Clayface oozes into theaters on October 23.  

By Robert Scucci
| Published 43 seconds ago

In preparation for Focker-in-Law‘s Thanksgiving release, I’ve been slowly revisiting the Meet the Parents franchise because, generally speaking, I like it. I most recently reviewed Little Fockers because I knew it was the franchise’s low point and wanted to get it out of the way. I saw it in theaters, barely remembered it because it was so inconsequential, and all it made me want to do was revisit the first two films because they’re both great.

I was initially apprehensive about revisiting 2000’s Meet the Parents, a film I’ve probably seen a dozen times, because I was worried it wouldn’t hold up. The thing is, Meet the Parents is a masterclass in miscommunication and escalation, making it one of the best widely released romantic comedies of its era. Meet the Fockers builds on that energy and makes for a fantastic sequel, though my memory could be deceiving me until I give it a proper rewatch.

Every seemingly innocuous setup in Meet the Parents has a satisfying payoff, and not a single gag is wasted or rushed. Most importantly, the first two films, especially Meet the Parents, still feel fresh because it’s our first time spending time with these characters. Learning about their individual personalities and how they interact with each other is where most of the comedy comes from. Little Fockers isn’t nearly as memorable because it plays more like a “here we go again” kind of film, whereas its predecessors get their laughs by actively developing these characters while introducing multiple conflicts.

The Quick And Dirty Rundown

On its face, Meet the Parents is your typical rom-com about a man trying to win the approval of his girlfriend’s parents, and then it goes completely off the rails. 

Ben Stiller’s Greg Focker wants to propose to his girlfriend, Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo), not knowing that her father, Jack (Robert De Niro), is a former CIA interrogator with an uncanny ability to sniff out deception. While visiting the Byrnes’ home for the weekend, Greg learns this firsthand, kicking off a series of incidents that not only make him look like a fool, but also like a total psychopath. It also introduces us to the “circle of trust” that Jack has created for his family, implying that if that trust is breached, the consequences will be dire.

Here’s how things go for Greg in Meet the Parents: the airport loses his luggage, forcing him to borrow clothes from the Byrnes family. It’s a simple conflict, but when the airline allegedly finds his luggage and accidentally ships the wrong bag to the Byrnes’ house well into the second act, it backfires spectacularly. Greg is generally an honest guy, but he’s completely intimidated by Jack. Whenever Jack grills him on literally any topic, Greg nervously blurts out a white lie. Those lies compound exponentially, making Jack believe that everything coming out of Greg’s mouth is deceptive.

Pam throws Greg’s pack of cigarettes onto the roof in one of the earliest scenes because Jack sees smoking as a “sign of weakness,” and we see how disastrously that decision turns out during the rehearsal dinner for Pam’s younger sister Debbie (Nicole DeHuff) and her fiancé Bob (Thomas McCarthy). The disaster involves a heavily lacquered altar hand-built by Pam’s ex-fiancé Kevin Rawley (Owen Wilson), who, in Jack’s mind, is the man who got away from his favorite daughter.

Greg’s medical qualifications are repeatedly called into question because he willingly works as a nurse despite acing his MCATs and supposedly being able to pursue any career in medicine that he wants. Then Jack’s cat, Mr. Jinx, takes an immediate dislike to Greg, and Jack finds a marijuana pipe in Greg’s coat pocket shortly after an awkward conversation about Peter, Paul and Mary’s hit song “Puff, the Magic Dragon.” Jack never once stops to consider that the pipe might belong to Denny (John Abrahams), his own son, who owns the jacket.

These exchanges make Greg look like the worst person imaginable in Jack’s eyes, and they make you cringe because all he really needs to do is stop and explain himself for 10 seconds, something he never properly does at any point in Meet the Parents.

Every Single Setup Pays Off

This might sound like comedy writing 101, but my biggest gripe with lesser films is that they follow a painfully obvious setup-to-punchline formula. Somebody says, “Don’t press the red button,” and then three seconds later, somebody presses it.

Meet the Parents does the exact opposite. It plants little seeds from the very beginning, with the humor coming from how much later something is going to blow wildly out of proportion for Greg. The cheap champagne he buys pops open and shatters Jack’s mother’s urn sitting on the mantel, which is the very same urn Greg joked about earlier because he thought it was one of Jack’s sleek new nanny cams.

The debate over whether a cat can flush a toilet culminates in a septic overflow on the day of the rehearsal dinner, and suddenly it’s Greg against his potential new father-in-law’s special little guy. Every first-act exchange that initially feels like a passing comment comes back in the worst possible way, making it impossible for Greg to save face.

Watching Meet the Parents was a breath of fresh air after forcing myself through Little Fockers because this is the real deal. Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller’s characters are still reading the room and just beginning to figure each other out. By the time we get to the third film, it’s “been there, done that, how do we milk this cat?” Luckily, Meet the Parents, which is currently streaming on Netflix alongside the rest of the franchise, tells you exactly how to milk a cat because, according to Greg, you can milk anything with nipples. Just don’t tell Jack.