Assemblog: June 7, 2013

Insidious Chapter 2

New this week on Popshifter: Melissa B. calls the expanded edition of Doris’s Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby “mind blowing and brilliant” and thinks Pokey LaFarge’s self-titled debut is “excruciatingly fine”; Cait wants to remind everyone of Dudley Moore’s musical talents in her review of From Beyond The Fringe; I chat with Jen and Sylvia Soska, directors of American Mary; Chelsea explores the “eclectic style” of Young & Wild; Lisa hopes that After Earth will “represent a step back toward redemption for M. Night Shyamalan”; and Jeff gives his first impressions of “Came Back Haunted,” the new Nine Inch Nails single.

I’ve got lots of trailers to show you this week, but first, here’s a bit of exciting movie news from The Hollywood Reporter. Todd Haynes, director of the brilliant Velvet Goldmine and Far From Heaven (among other films), will be directing Carol, Patricia Highsmith’s “lesbian love story” that follows the lives of two women, who’ll be played by Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska. The Weinstein Company has acquired US rights for the film, which begins filming this October in London and New York. I still haven’t seen Haynes’s Mildred Pierce adaptation, but he gets a lifetime pass from me for Velvet Goldmine, so this is wonderful news.

As you know by now, NBC’s Hannibal has been renewed for a 13-episode second season. Huzzah! If you still aren’t watching Hannibal, here are two great articles about why you should, from Indiewire and Pajiba.

Now for the trailers!

If you, like me, were scared shitless by Insidious, then there is both good and bad news. Insidious Chapter 2 comes out September 13 and there’s a trailer. This is bad news if you don’t like being scared or if you are concerned that the sequel won’t be as good or scary as the original.

I can see a couple of specific things that could be construed as rehashing scares that occurred in the first film, but I’m still looking forward to this movie.

Europa Report is a film I’ve had my eye on for a few months. The trailer has been out for a few weeks, but I wanted to post it because it looks promising and I fear it will get lost in the excitement about Gravity (not to take anything away from that film as it also looks good).

It’s a thriller which takes place in outer space starring Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-Team) and Michael Nykqvist (the Swedish Millennium film trilogy, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol). The film will be available on iTunes/On Demand June 27 and in theaters August 2.

Ben Wheatley’s unpleasantly hilarious Sightseers, which I reviewed for last year’s TIFF, is now in theaters, so it’s only appropriate that we get a trailer for the upcoming A Field In England. This is a period piece, since it takes place in 1648 during the English Civil War. Yet this is Ben Wheatley, so stuffy it is not. (H/T to /Film.)

Another film from TIFF 2012 was Byzantium, a vampire tale from Neil Jordan starring Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan. Jordan is another director who will always interest me because of the wonderful Breakfast on Pluto (not to mention several others). What do you think of this trailer? (H/T to Bloody Disgusting)

The Rambler, which played at this year’s Sundance is currently in limited theatrical release, and will be available on VOD and DVD June 25. It seems to be a particularly non-linear film, so I’ll let the trailer speak for itself. (H/T to Twitch, which lists the release dates and locations.)

Another Sundance film was Don Jon’s Addiction, written and directed by Joseph Gordon Levitt. There was a lot of buzz about the film as well as the explicit porn featured in the movie. The title has now been shortened to Don Jon and apparently some footage has been removed to ensure an R rating. I think my favorite parts of the trailer are the accents from both Gordon Levitt and Scarlett Johansson. The film will be released on October 18.

—Less Lee Moore, Managing Editor