This girl is on fire 🔥
This girl is on fire 🔥
The "John Wick" universe has some new blood.
Ana de Armas makes a strong pitch as Hollywood's top action heroine in "Wick" spinoff "Ballerina" – and she gets strong backup from the hitman himself, Keanu Reeves. The franchise return is the latest major summer movie to check out at the cinemas, though if you're in the mood for something quirkier, there's Wes Anderson's comedy "The Phoenician Scheme" with Benicio del Toro and Mia Threapleton. And if you're looking for something to stream at home, here comes a third season of Netflix's soapy dramedy "Ginny & Georgia."
Now on to the good stuff:
See a fiery Ana de Armas unleashed in 'John Wick' spinoff 'Ballerina'
Ever since her criminally short but movie-stealing scene in the last James Bond outing "No Time to Die," action-movie fans have been waiting for Ana de Armas to be unleashed in a full two-hour film. That time is now, fam: She kicks, punches, shoots and stabs with gusto in "Ballerina," a "John Wick" side adventure that focuses on a dancer/assassin (de Armas) who goes after the cult that murdered her dad. It's a strong effort that conjures the neo-noir feel of the other "Wick" flicks with different kinds of fight scenes and an engaging new lead character. (Peep my ★★★½ review.)
I sat down with de Armas at CinemaCon, the convention of theater owners, to chat about working with Reeves again on "Ballerina," yearning for more action in her career and how they crafted her character's fights to her disadvantages. 'She gets tired and she's overwhelmed and they keep coming at her. And the only thing that keeps her going is the motivation that she has," says de Armas, who also pays tribute to "Ballerina" co-star Lance Reddick.
Introduce yourself to Mia Threapleton's talents in 'The Phoenician Scheme'
Benicio del Toro is a delight as a global arms dealer everyone's trying to kill in the Wes Anderson comedy "The Phoenician Scheme" but so is newcomer Mia Threapleton as the guy's estranged, pipe-smoking nun daughter. Here's a fun fact: She's Kate Winslet's kid. She told my bud Patrick Ryan that she dreamed of being a marine biologist ('I feel far more at home under the water than floating on top of it") but seeing Jodie Foster in "Bugsy Malone" sold her on acting. 'I remember thinking, 'This person is amazing!' I wanted to be her,' Threapleton says.
"The Phoenician Scheme" is a solid entry in Anderson's signature oeuvre, and a new movie means an update to our ranking of Anderson's weird and wonderful films.
Stream Season 3 of Netflix's soapy 'Ginny & Georgia'
Are you like me and need to catch up on Netflix's "Ginny & Georgia"? (My bad, got waylaid by the superb "Department Q"!) My colleague Erin Jensen wrote up a guide to what you need to know about the main characters in Season 3 and what you should remember about Season 2. Arrested matriarch Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey) has apparently killed two husbands and framed her son's abusive dad for embezzlement in order to protect her beloved children, so obviously I need to get on that.
If you're looking for more streaming shows, TV critic Kelly Lawler has a roundup of everything premiering this weekend.
Even more goodness to check out!
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‘Deliciously at odds': Zachary Quinto on embodying the brilliant yet flawed Dr. Oliver Wolf in ‘Brilliant Minds'
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Welcome to , your VIP guide to the best of pop culture for the weekend ahead, curated by the Gold Derby team of experts. (June 6-June 8) , Ryan Coogler's cinema-saving horror epic, is now available to rent or buy on VOD platforms like Amazon. Michael B. Jordan stars as Smoke and Stack, identical twin charming criminals who open up a juke joint in 1930s Mississippi. Everything is going great, until the vampires show up. It's a heady mix of horror, crime, comedy, drama, sex, blues music, Black ownership, family, and a bunch of other genres and themes that makes for the year's most exciting and important movie. 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