“Poolman,” Chris Pine’s directorial debut that had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a pastiche of Los Angeles past and present. It’s a film noirlike “Chinatown” and “L.A. Confidential,” but its characters are the New Age-y, socially conscious, showbiz-adjacent type. The film was supposedly the first to be screened on 35mm at TIFF in years, only to be projected in Dcp due to an unspecified technical issue.
Somewhat recalling “True Romance”-era Brad Pitt, Darren (Pine) is the titular eccentric dude who ritually checks the water levels in the Tahitian Tiki apartments’ pool and meditates while immersed therein. He regularly composes letters using a typewriter to Erin Brockovich about his activist aspirations. He also religiously shows up at city council meetings to complain about the substandard public transit system.
For Darren, city council president Steve Toronkowski (Stephen Tobolowsky) stands in the way of...
Somewhat recalling “True Romance”-era Brad Pitt, Darren (Pine) is the titular eccentric dude who ritually checks the water levels in the Tahitian Tiki apartments’ pool and meditates while immersed therein. He regularly composes letters using a typewriter to Erin Brockovich about his activist aspirations. He also religiously shows up at city council meetings to complain about the substandard public transit system.
For Darren, city council president Steve Toronkowski (Stephen Tobolowsky) stands in the way of...
- 9/14/2023
- by Martin Tsai
- The Wrap
“We wanted to, of course, pay homage to the original, but also kind of make it our own,” explains production designer Erin Magill about the process behind “Dead Ringers,” an Amazon Prime limited series that reimagines the 1988 film directed by David Cronenberg. “It was most important to me to keep that heightened sense of tense thriller and horror throughout, but of course now through this feminist lens and female perspective. And so I think while we took bits of the original, there were a lot of female artists and architects and photographers.” Watch our exclusive video interview with Magill above.
The original “Dead Ringers” told the story of twin gynecologists played by Jeremy Irons. This 2023 version flips the gender script with Rachel Weisz playing both Beverly and Elliot Mantle, who push the boundaries of their field in ways that aren’t always ethical — or legal.
See‘Dead Ringers’ reviews: Rachel...
The original “Dead Ringers” told the story of twin gynecologists played by Jeremy Irons. This 2023 version flips the gender script with Rachel Weisz playing both Beverly and Elliot Mantle, who push the boundaries of their field in ways that aren’t always ethical — or legal.
See‘Dead Ringers’ reviews: Rachel...
- 5/1/2023
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
If it feels like Rachel Weisz has vampire fangs hidden behind the smile of one or the other Mantle twins — she plays both the child-hungry Beverly and the simply hungry Elliot — that’s no accident. Prime Video’s new limited series “Dead Ringers” is designed and lit like the real world, but more so. Whether it’s the backsplash of a kitchen or the gore of childbirth, red on this show pops the way the apple in the Garden of Eden must have: bloody and sensuous and with a magnetic pull of its own.
The world seems to bend and twist around the Mantles’ desires not simply because the brilliant gynecologists have Sackler-esque investors behind them. Production designer Erin Magill creates spaces based on our deepest suspicions about wellness chic and the billionaire class but heightened in a way that provides a sense of how the twins see the world as fodder for their desires.
The world seems to bend and twist around the Mantles’ desires not simply because the brilliant gynecologists have Sackler-esque investors behind them. Production designer Erin Magill creates spaces based on our deepest suspicions about wellness chic and the billionaire class but heightened in a way that provides a sense of how the twins see the world as fodder for their desires.
- 4/21/2023
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Following our top 50 films of 2020 and more year-end coverage, we’re pleased to share personal top 10s of 2020 from our contributors.
Oh, where to begin? There’s usually so much to complain about. Yes, 2020 was rough. It was like if the second half of mother! was directed by three minions in a trench coat posing as McGruff the Crime Dog and then came to life. Even the film world was odd. Stuff got pushed to VOD. Studios delayed tent poles a year back in some cases. In what has to be the longest record since I was three years old, I haven’t been to a theater since March 12. I’m all but sure it’ll be more than a few months before it’s safe (or even possible) to see something again on the big screen, but getting this handful of movies is more than a nice consolation prize.
Oh, where to begin? There’s usually so much to complain about. Yes, 2020 was rough. It was like if the second half of mother! was directed by three minions in a trench coat posing as McGruff the Crime Dog and then came to life. Even the film world was odd. Stuff got pushed to VOD. Studios delayed tent poles a year back in some cases. In what has to be the longest record since I was three years old, I haven’t been to a theater since March 12. I’m all but sure it’ll be more than a few months before it’s safe (or even possible) to see something again on the big screen, but getting this handful of movies is more than a nice consolation prize.
- 12/31/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
Carlo Mirabella-Davis's Swallow is showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries starting October 31, 2020.I am profoundly honored to be introducing my film, Swallow, to the viewers of Mubi’s iconic programming. Swallow follows a woman in a controlling marriage who has pica, the urge to eat dangerous objects. I think of the movie as a tiramisu of genres: body horror, dark comedy, and a domestic drama all rolled into one. Swallow is a film that will frighten you, make you laugh, and make you cry, hopefully fostering a psychologically cathartic experience.The film was inspired by my grandmother, a 1950s homemaker who, as a response to a difficult marriage, developed various rituals of control. She was an obsessive hand washer who would go through four bars of soap a day and 12 bottles of sanitizing alcohol a week. I think she was looking for order in a life she felt increasingly powerless in.
- 10/30/2020
- MUBI
What do IFC Films’ Swallow and Lionsgate’s The Quarry have in common? Production designer Erin Magill. These are two of her most recent projects, which are now available on VOD. While these films are aesthically very different (most of Swallow takes place in Hunter’s stylized house and The Quarry is set against rustic locations in West Texas), they both fit into the same genre of being layered character dramas. This is what drew Magill to these titles and by looking at the rest of her resume, something she thrives at. Another example being Amazon Studios’ Brittany Runs a Marathon. Below
Production Designer Erin Magill Discusses Her Latest Films “The Quarry” and “Swallow”...
Production Designer Erin Magill Discusses Her Latest Films “The Quarry” and “Swallow”...
- 4/29/2020
- by Dan Moore
- TVovermind.com
Editor’s Note: Nathan Halpern is the Emmy-nominated composer behind the scores for “The Rider,” the Oscar-nominated documentary feature “Minding the Gap,” “One Child Nation,” and many other award-winning and critically acclaimed documentaries and independent films. You can read his previous IndieWire essay about collaborating with Chloé Zhao on “The Rider” here.
From the beginning, director Carlo Mirabella-Davis was drawn to the idea that the music for “Swallow” would connect to mid-century Hollywood aesthetics, evoking what he called a “Douglas Sirk-ian kind of callback to the Hitchcock style of filmmaking.” At the same time, this film – set in the modern day – is not a retro exercise. The music needed to be in authentic dialogue with the psychological state of our lead character Hunter (Haley Bennett), whose complex emotional journey takes her to some unexpected places.
More from IndieWireWith Arthouse Shocker 'Swallow,' Haley Bennett Tackles the Feminine Mystique in...
From the beginning, director Carlo Mirabella-Davis was drawn to the idea that the music for “Swallow” would connect to mid-century Hollywood aesthetics, evoking what he called a “Douglas Sirk-ian kind of callback to the Hitchcock style of filmmaking.” At the same time, this film – set in the modern day – is not a retro exercise. The music needed to be in authentic dialogue with the psychological state of our lead character Hunter (Haley Bennett), whose complex emotional journey takes her to some unexpected places.
More from IndieWireWith Arthouse Shocker 'Swallow,' Haley Bennett Tackles the Feminine Mystique in...
- 4/2/2020
- by Nathan Halpern
- Indiewire
Jaanelle Yee's horror comedy short film Sell Your Body headlines today's Horror Highlights, which also includes a Q&a with Swallow production designer Erin Magill, a trailer for The Perished, and details on the Guru del Toro: Maestro of Monsters designer collectible toy, Damnable Tales – A Folk Horror Anthology, Death Drop Gorgeous, and Powerbomb.
Watch the Short Film Sell Your Body: Directed by Jaanelle Yee, the new short film Sell Your Body was released on Alter and can be watched in its entirety below.
"A med school dropout in crippling student debt swipes a wild couple on a dating app to make some fast cash in this modern twist on a classic urban legend."
For more about the film and filmmaker, visit:
https://www.instagram.com/jaanelleyee https://twitter.com/JaanelleYee https://www.facebook.com/sellyourbody... https://filmfatale.tumblr.com/
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Q&a with Swallow Production Designer Erin Magill:...
Watch the Short Film Sell Your Body: Directed by Jaanelle Yee, the new short film Sell Your Body was released on Alter and can be watched in its entirety below.
"A med school dropout in crippling student debt swipes a wild couple on a dating app to make some fast cash in this modern twist on a classic urban legend."
For more about the film and filmmaker, visit:
https://www.instagram.com/jaanelleyee https://twitter.com/JaanelleYee https://www.facebook.com/sellyourbody... https://filmfatale.tumblr.com/
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Q&a with Swallow Production Designer Erin Magill:...
- 3/25/2020
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
“Swallow” opens behind the blonde head of a young woman as she stares out at a placid lake, in a Hitchockian shot that recalls moments of “Vertigo” that loom behind the golden swirl atop Kim Novak’s own head. With his first feature, writer/director Carlo Mirabella-Davis interrogates just that kind of Hitchcockian movie: the one where a male auteur terrorizes his leading lady through voyeuristic content and form. Haley Bennett stars as Hunter, a blonde afflicted with a self-destructive impulse to consume inedible household objects, putting her character, and the actress, through the emotional wringer.
But Mirabella-Davis imbues his take on the myth of the feminine mystique, here gone awry in the form of a housewife coming undone, with hope, redemption, and female agency often missing from movies like “Vertigo” or “The Birds.” In this vision, Hunter suffers a buried, distinctly female trauma that, by the end of the film,...
But Mirabella-Davis imbues his take on the myth of the feminine mystique, here gone awry in the form of a housewife coming undone, with hope, redemption, and female agency often missing from movies like “Vertigo” or “The Birds.” In this vision, Hunter suffers a buried, distinctly female trauma that, by the end of the film,...
- 3/5/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Haley Bennett was 19 when she made her film debut as pop star Cora Corman in 2007’s “Music and Lyrics.” About nine years later, after appearing in about a dozen more movies, she was hailed as Hollywood’s next big starlet for her starring role opposite Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt in the 2016 remake of “The Magnificent Seven” and for her work as the mysterious Megan in “The Girl on the Train,” the adaptation of the novel of the same name.
Despite the success and the spotlight, the now-32-year-old actor says she never felt particularly welcome in the full filmmaking process until “Swallow,” her new drama from first-time feature film writer-director Carlo Mirabella-Davis, in theaters March 6. Not only does Bennett star in the movie, but the indie also marks her producing debut.
“Immediately when I came on, I was invited, literally invited [by Mirabella-Davis], to take a more creative role in helping to shape the story,...
Despite the success and the spotlight, the now-32-year-old actor says she never felt particularly welcome in the full filmmaking process until “Swallow,” her new drama from first-time feature film writer-director Carlo Mirabella-Davis, in theaters March 6. Not only does Bennett star in the movie, but the indie also marks her producing debut.
“Immediately when I came on, I was invited, literally invited [by Mirabella-Davis], to take a more creative role in helping to shape the story,...
- 3/4/2020
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival has wrapped for 2019 and the complete list of award winners has been announced, including Daniel Isn't Real for "Best Picture" in the horror feature category and Travis Stevens' Girl on the Third Floor winning "Best Gooey Effects." Also in today's Horror Highlights: My Girlfriend the Serial Killer Indiegogo details, Pumpkin Spice Podcast season finale episode details, and The Spirit Gallery's new DVD and limited VHS info.
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2019 Awards Announced: "The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival closed out their fourth edition on October 24th with a sold-out screening of Joe Begos’ Vfw. The Screening was hosted at Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park with Director Joe Begos, Writer Max Brallier, and cast members Stephen Lang, Tom Williamson and Linnea Wilson in attendance.
This year the festival featured over 100 films and events across Brooklyn at Nitehawk Cinema, Cobble Hill Cinema, Ifp Made in NY Media Center...
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2019 Awards Announced: "The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival closed out their fourth edition on October 24th with a sold-out screening of Joe Begos’ Vfw. The Screening was hosted at Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park with Director Joe Begos, Writer Max Brallier, and cast members Stephen Lang, Tom Williamson and Linnea Wilson in attendance.
This year the festival featured over 100 films and events across Brooklyn at Nitehawk Cinema, Cobble Hill Cinema, Ifp Made in NY Media Center...
- 10/28/2019
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
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