Hailee Steinfeld Stars in Coming of Age Comedy 'Edge of Seventeen'

Hailee Steinfeld's been plugging away ever since True Grit in various teenage roles, and now she stars in this one from first time director Kelly Fremon, which is said to be kind of inspired by John Hughes films from the 1980's. She looks fine, but the movie just looks a bit too cute for its own good, or maybe that's the Woody Harrelson character alone. Blake Jenner is actually in this too, which...ick. It comes out on September 30th.

New Poster and Footage Debut for 'Rogue One'

Given the reports of re-shoots going on with this film after studio execs reportedly prefer that the Gareth Edwards directed early cut they saw resemble JJ Abrams' Force Awakens more, I wasn't sure what to think about how this one will turn out. But this new footage looks...interesting, I suppose? Supposedly we're getting looks at Darth Vader and a young Han Solo in it, which...of course we are. Can't let any of these films stand completely on their own, can we? Even the supposed spinoff ones. Felicity Jones gets another awkward line of dialogue, or maybe she just delivers these lines in an odd manner. I didn't think the super self-serious style of the director of the most recent Godzilla movie would be a great match for the Star Wars universe anyway, so it doesn't surprise me if Disney wants what will make them another 2 billion or whatever it is the last one made. The tone here certainly resembles more of a war film.

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Warren Beatty Returns to the Screen in 'Rules Don't Apply'

Warren Beatty hasn't directed a movie since 1998's Bulworth, and he's been wanting to do this film about Howard Hughes for something like 25 years. I never thought it would actually get made, but lo and behold, here's the trailer. It looks a bit rough, but...well, yeah it just looks rough. But if a guy who hasn't made a movie in almost two decades can come back not rusty it'd be amazing, right? We'll see I guess.

Sundance Movie 'White Girl' Gets a Trailer

This one on the other hand, will come nowhere near Oscars, as it mostly looks like an exploitative film about teens and drugs in the vein of 1995's Kids, as it was compared to at Sundance. If the white girl in question looks familiar, it's because she was demon spawn Dana Brody on Homeland. I know it's not fair to hold grudges against actors for characters you absolutely despised, but I can't help it- no offense to Morgan Saylor but when I saw that it was her in this, I cringed. I will not be keeping an eye for this movie.

Oscar Season Kicks Off With Trailer for 'Loving'

Speaking of Oscar contenders, here's one sure to be in the race, at least for acting. Jeff Nichols directs this drama about the couple whose marriage ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court in 1967, when the court finally struck down the remaining bans in southern states against interracial marriage in the famed Loving v Virginia decision. Ruth Negga, known to me from Agents of SHIELD of all things, is said to be the big standout in this, which premiered at Cannes to respectable, if not ecstatic, reviews. Nichols is kind of a muted director overall, in my opinion, so that kind of reaction isn't surprising to me, but you can tell from this that Negga and Edgerton brought their A-game. Be on the lookout for it when it comes out in November.

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone Team Up for Musical 'La La Land'

Well, it's now the time for Oscar season movies to start getting their trailers out there. This will definitely be one of them, from Whiplash director Damien Chazelle, as it was selected to play the opening night of the Venice film festival, which means it will then go on to play the other fall festivals...thinking about last year's Spotlight, that's certainly the way to do it. I'm always wary of throwback movies though- they run the risk of feeling overly artificial and keeping viewers at a distance, like something that plays for a film buff crowd only. And since this is obviously kind of a tribute to 1950's musicals, I wish they would get actors who can actually sing and dance, since those movies were populated by real musical performers like Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, etc. These two won't pull off any kind of genuinely impressive dance or musical numbers, I can tell you that much. It's all on the director, which makes it more of an exercise in style than anything else. But a beautiful one I'm sure.

More Talking Animals in the Trailer for 'Sing'

I think we have an obvious theme for the year 2016 in animation, don't you? And it's also obvious that this will be a huge hit as well, given that it jumps on the Zootopia craze with anthropomorphic animals on top of hit songs and celebrity voices...it can't miss. Who else thinks that this is kind of an excessive trailer though, at four minutes long? Also, this is cutesy stuff all the way, there's no way turns out as good as Zootopia.

Molly Shannon and Jesse Plemons Star in 'Other People'

This movie got a pretty good reception at this year's Sundance film festival, and if nothing else, the acting certainly looks good, especially for Molly Shannon, who I don't believe has ever gotten this much of a showcase role before. It might be worth checking out. And Jesse Plemons sure is making the rounds, isn't he? I think he might actually be the Friday Night Lights cast member that's had the busiest, most varied career ever since that show ended, surprisingly enough.

Teaser Poster for 'Beauty and the Beast' is Exactly What You Expect

Of course, it's the rose. What else would it be? It's a nice poster, but I can't say I'm as excited for this film as everyone else seems to be. Frankly, my wish is that they'd restore the original theatrical version of the cartoon for the upcoming 25th anniversary blu-ray edition in September, but I have a feeling I'm out of luck. The only restoration on the old blu-ray is the extended one, and I can't stand it when the original versions of films are ignored in favor of the ones that were messed with later. Give me my originals, please. This applies to Star Wars too.

Mel Gibson Takes on Drug Dealers in 'Blood Father'

This might be the most Mel Gibson-y movie he's starred in quite some time. On one level it looks like he's doing his best Liam Neeson in Taken, but Gibson setting off to wipe out a bunch of drug dealers who are trying to kill his daughter seems like something a little more tailor-made for him personally. And hey, I heard after this premiered at Cannes that it was surprisingly pretty good, with critics saying it was easily his best lead role in many years. The question is of course is anybody willing to watch Mel Gibson in a movie these days. It's hard to separate him from the insanity in those leaked tapes, isn't it? Blood Father is coming out August 26th.