Latest news with #Hitchcockian
Daily Record
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Paramount Plus adds 'one of the most thrilling and bone-chilling films' fans have ever seen
Many suggest that it is one of the best horror sequels ever made Paramount Plus has just added a sequel to its horror collection that's being hailed as a 'masterclass' and even 'better than the first' film. A Quiet Place Part II has recently been incorporated into the streaming platform's catalogue. This means that all the titles in the sci-fi horror series released so far are now conveniently available on one service. This includes the original film, its sequel, and the prequel spin-off titled Day One. While the 2021 release was previously accessible on other platforms such as Sky Cinema and even Channel 4 for a limited period, it is now exclusively hosted on Paramount. Fans can stream it by subscribing to the dedicated app of the streaming service or through an add-on subscription via Amazon Prime Video. The film is the second chapter of the series featuring John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. Krasinski also reprised his role behind the camera, directing the sequel after having directed the original. Known for his portrayal of Jim Halpert in the US Office, he also wrote the script himself, having previously shared writing credits with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, reports Surrey Live. While the film employs flashbacks, the narrative continues from where the first left off in a post-apocalyptic world. Regan (Blunt) and her family discover that their alien predators can be defeated using high-frequency audio. Armed with this newfound knowledge, they embark on a quest to find other survivors. Joining the cast are big names like Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou. The film managed to secure a similarly impressive rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes as its predecessor, scoring 91%. The film garnered acclaim from both critics and audiences, with one reviewer hailing it as "one of the best sequels ever created." Another critic praised John Krasinski's direction, saying: "John Krasinski crafts a masterclass in suspense with Hitchcockian anxiety that would make the master proud." Echoing the sentiment, a fan took to social media to proclaim: "A masterclass in suspense. A Quiet Place II is hands down one of the most thrilling and bone-chilling films that I have ever seen. From start to finish, this movie had me on the edge of my seat, unable to look away even for a second. I would easily give it a terrifying 10 out of 10!". Another enthusiast compared the sequel favourably to a classic, commenting: "In my opinion this is one of the best movie sequels ever made. The second instalment of this series I think is comparable to the movie Aliens by James Cameron. It introduces a lot more action and thrills while remaining faithful to the original and expanding the world. The cast, the story, the directing, the cinematography, the visual effects and the sound design are all incredible. This is also one of the most intense and terrifying movies I've ever seen." The consensus among many was that the sequel surpassed its predecessor. A viewer remarked: "A great sequel to a previous masterpiece of horror. I really never thought that they could top the first one but a Quiet Place 2 is fantastic film!". Echoing the sentiments, a fan concurred: "One of the greatest sequels to an incredible horror/thriller collection. The entire time you're on the edge of your seat with your heart beating as fast as those on screen. There's no way you can watch this movie without being completely invested." A Quiet Place Part II is streaming on Paramount+.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘A Private Life' Review: A Delightfully Paired Jodie Foster and Daniel Auteuil Escape Injury in a Messy but Pleasurable Genre Collision
Caught between sophisticated comedy and silly fluff, between Hitchcockian mystery and zany amateur sleuth caper, A Private Life (Vie Privée) is a lot more fun than it probably deserves to be thanks to the disarming chemistry of its seasoned leads, Jodie Foster and Daniel Auteuil. Rebecca Zlotowski's latest doesn't have the intoxicating sun-kissed sensuality of An Easy Girl or the emotional complexity of Other People's Children, her last two films. This one is too busy careening all over the tonal map for any of that. What it does have is the French director's customary light touch; it's chaos with charm. Foster's French — at least to these ears — sounds impeccable and this is her first feature in the language since 2004's A Very Long Engagement. She jumps into it with a spiky vitality and an unexpected playfulness that buoy the movie as much as Zlotowski's zippy direction. More from The Hollywood Reporter Cate Blanchett, Afghan, Syrian Creators on Fund for Displaced Directors Backing "Surprising Narratives" Kelly Reichardt on 'The Mastermind,' Josh O'Connor and What the '70s Have to Teach Us Today Cannes: Hasan Hadi's 'The President's Cake' Wins Directors' Fortnight Audience Award Her character, Dr. Lilian Steiner, is an American psychoanalyst working out of her home office in Paris. At first glance, she seems like classic Foster material — fiercely intelligent, controlled, professional, a touch guarded. But as Lilian starts unraveling, she becomes impulsive, irrational, emotional, insecure about her work and at times almost ditzy. Coming off her brilliant turn as the haunted, tightly wound police chief in True Detective: Night Country, it's a pleasure to watch Foster loosen up and have fun with a role, getting to exercise comedy chops too seldom tapped in her American projects of recent decades. Just the novelty of watching her act in another language, as a woman in her adopted country long enough to absorb many of the mannerisms yet still markedly different from the locals, is a kick. And when Lilian gets flustered or annoyed and mutters an occasional 'motherfucker' or some other expletive in English, it humanizes her, acknowledging that she doesn't have all the answers. The script, co-written by Anne Berest and Zlotowski, right off the bat throws curveballs at Lilian to inject nagging doubts into her work. She learns that the reason her patient of many years, Paula (Virginie Efira), has missed her last three sessions without canceling is that she committed suicide. She's still digesting that news, asking herself why she saw no red flags, when an angry patient (Noam Morgensztern) bursts in. He aggressively informs Lilian that his many sessions with her to quit smoking were a waste of time and money, but he kicked the habit with just one visit to a hypnotist, freeing him from cigarettes and from her. Lilian makes the mistake of going to Paula's home while family and friends are sitting shiva. She's ordered to leave by grieving widower Simon (Mathieu Amalric), who flies into a rage, shouting that after all the years Lilian had been treating his wife, she should have known something was wrong. Later, he accuses her of over-prescribing antidepressants, leading to the overdose that killed her. Meanwhile, Lilian, who has never been able to cry, starts shedding tears uncontrollably, often without knowing it's happening. She consults her ex-husband Gabriel (Auteuil), an eye doctor whose droll response to seeing her weep for the first time is, 'It suits you.' Lilian seems on better terms with Gaby, as she calls him, than with their adult son Julien (Vincent Lacoste), with whom she's never been close. That emotional block now extends to her infant grandson. Zlotowski inserts a funny montage of patients banging on about their mostly banal issues while Lilian, mortified to appear so unprofessional, dabs at her face with tissues to mop up the almost nonstop waterworks. In a Freudian detour that's arguably the movie's least successfully integrated scene, Lilian tries fixing the tear duct problem by seeing a hypnotist (Sophie Guillemin), who tells her she's in mourning and coaxes the skeptical shrink to return to her mother's womb. Suddenly, the hypnotist is guiding Lilian through a vast red space in another dimension with various doors and stairways. Under hypnosis, Lilian enters a hall where she and Paula are cellists in an orchestra recital in early 1940s occupied France; Julian is one of the uniformed Nazis in the audience and Simon conducts with a baton that becomes a gun. It's like a stoner's take on Truffaut's The Last Metro — enjoyably arch but too loopy to have much relevance beyond the hypnotist's assertion that Lilian and Paula were lovers in a past life. All very Shirley MacLaine. It does, however, stop the weeping, address Lilian's disgust with antisemitism and plant a subliminal hint as to why she was never able to bond with Julian. Not that any of that is clearly articulated. The movie is on more accessible ground back in the real world, where a visit from Paula's pregnant daughter Valérie (Luàna Bajrami) leads Lilian to believe her patient was murdered, either by her daughter or husband. She enlists the help of the amiable Gaby to start tailing them, at the same time listening to her recordings of sessions with Paula for clues. The mostly preposterous mystery thread never acquires much substance despite tossing a lot of balls in the air. Someone breaks into Lilian's apartment and steals the audio file from Paula's final session; suspicions arise concerning an inheritance from a wealthy aunt (screen veteran Aurore Clément, perhaps a nod to Louis Malle's Lacombe, Lucien?); Simon picked up Paula's medication from the pharmacy and possibly tampered with it; and he appears to be leading a double life with another woman and a child tucked away in Chérence, outside Paris. These questions are resolved, more or less, in an anticlimactic wrap-up that yields the relatively meager payoff of Lilian learning to be a better listener and a more accepting mother. But the flimsy plot becomes secondary to the fizz generated every time Foster and Auteuil share a scene — Lilian wired and Gaby supremely chill. They toss badinage back and forth with an ease that rescues the movie, and they exchange looks that point to mutual affection and desire undimmed by divorce. If the messy strands of this genre-blurring film struggle to cohere, the parts that veer toward a remarriage comedy make it enjoyable. A Private Life rolls along at a jaunty pace, frequently prodded by percussive staccato bursts of mononymous composer Rob's whimsical score. The glossy, good-looking production feels like a throwback to French fare from a few decades ago — middlebrow passing for intellectual, mainstream commercial passing for arthouse. But there's a nostalgic appeal to it, boosted by an unlikely middle-aged rom-com dream team in Foster and Auteuil. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Private Life' Review: Fluent in French, Jodie Foster Steers an Upscale, Paris-Set Psychological Thriller
A sophisticated American in Paris, psychiatrist Liliane Steiner has a habit of recording her sessions. Is it because her patients speak French, and she's afraid of missing a thought? (I doubt much eludes Jodie Foster, who plays the almost Hitchcockian character in her first significant French-language role in more than 20 years.) Or is it because Liliane isn't really listening to these people, whose problems all sounds so frivolous, they practically blend together in a torrent of white noise on the soundtrack of 'Private Life'? In Rebecca Zlotowski's sleek but slippery psychological thriller, Liliane is caught off-guard by the news that Paula Cohen-Solal (Virginie Efira), a woman who failed to appear for her last three appointments, has in fact committed suicide. Liliane didn't see it coming and now she's rattled, wondering what else she might have missed. Paula's death sends Liliane back to her archives, listening for clues, though she's not likely to find the truth there. More from Variety Guillermo Galoe Unpacks His Insider's Vision of a Family Riven by Its Shanty Town's Demolition in Critics' Week's 'Sleepless City' New York Erotic Tale 'Drunken Noodles' Sells to Taiwan, France and Germany for M-Appeal (EXCLUSIVE) Rebel Wilson Escalates Battle With 'The Deb' Producers in 'Bizarre Outburst of Jealousy' After Cannes Yacht Party In fact, Anne Berest and Zlotowski's playful screenplay suggests that much of what Liliane's patients share with her is a kind of invented reality, in which they appear as the heroes or victims of their own stories for their therapist's benefit. To what extent might they be weaving entire fictions, and how much does she actually know of the lives they lead outside her office? That's an intriguing premise for an old-school psychological mystery, the likes of which Hollywood once made in abundance, before the genre migrated to TV. When Liliane shows up at a memorial ceremony for Paula, she's caught off guard when her late patient's husband (Mathieu Amalric) loses his temper and ejects her from the gathering. Apparently, Paula died of an overdose, taking all the medication Liliane had prescribed at once — though Liliane prefers to think that foul play might have been involved. In theory, she should have to answer to the authorities, although Liliane takes it upon herself to investigate, starting with the recordings. If Liliane were seeing a therapist of her own (as in a scene with an ex-mentor played by Paris-based filmmaker Frederick Wiseman), that professional might call it a case of countertransference: Rather than accept her own responsibility or negligence, Liliane looks for another explanation. But her body is sending contradictory messages. For starters, she can't stop crying. It's not out of sorrow, insists Liliane, but a short circuit of some kind in her tear ducts. Liliane's condition seems especially embarrassing for so stoic a woman, unaccustomed to showing the slightest emotion. Though nothing in 'Private Life' looks banal, the sight of Foster's eyes streaming nonstop ranks among Zlotowski's more striking visuals. Liliane's ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil) is a doctor, so she books an appointment, but the crying continues. So Liliane does something she never thought she would, going to see a hypnotist who'd succeeded where she couldn't (convincing one of her patients to stop smoking) and giving herself over to what she'd always considered a quack procedure. Whatever you make of such alternative methods, hypnosis certainly makes the film more interesting, as it gives Liliane access to a vision in which her patient also appears — a flashback to World War 2-era Paris that looks like something out of a Claude Lelouch movie — with the added twist that they might have been lovers in a past life. Could this explain the affinity Liliane feels toward Paula? And might the sight of Liliane's son Julien (Vincent Lacoste) dressed as an SS officer explain her lifelong coldness toward him? The specter of antisemitism isn't just a passing detail, but an issue of personal significance to Zlotowski, who is Jewish. Here, the director implies that Liliane's vision is no less valid a reality than the one Paula was spinning for her, though you might want to brush up on your Lacanian dream analysis before trying to unpack a sequence that recalls such films as 'Dead Again' and 'Spellbound'). There's a deliciously overripe, almost campy quality to much of 'Private Life' that's expertly balanced by the intense focus of Foster's performance. Liliane always seems sure of herself, even when we the audience are fairly certain she's barking up the wrong tree. Practically every step of her investigation involves overstepping the ethics of her profession, and yet Foster's conviction never wavers. Would it surprise you to learn that the whole experience provides a much-needed form of therapy for Liliane as well? She's become complacent in her profession, and her personal relationships (with Gabriel, Julien and her newborn grandson) are a shambles. Running around like Nancy Drew from one corner of France to the other reignites something in Liliane. And while the ultimate destination somewhat underwhelms, it's a thrill to see Foster navigating a fully bilingual role, while tossing off the kind of snide remarks only an expat could feel toward the French — a tiny glimpse into Foster's private life, perhaps. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fox News' Peter Doocy once again the victim of fowl play as another rogue bird attacks him
For the second time in a month, Fox News' Peter Doocy found himself the target of an angry bird that decided it'd had enough of the reporter's live on-air report from the White House lawn. Standing in the same spot where a feathered friend dive-bombed him during a Fox & Friends dispatch last month, the network's senior White House correspondent appeared on America's Newsroom to discuss the president's recent demand that the notorious prison at Alcatraz be reopened. Towards the end of Doocy's segment, anchor Dana Perino noticed that the reporter was hunching over at times, prompting her to wonder if he was once again the victim of a Hitchcockian plot come to life. 'Peter, are you dodging birds again?!' Perino exclaimed while a small brown winged creature suddenly came into frame. 'There is a bird,' Doocy screamed as he continued to duck and dodge. 'Yes! I am. I don't know. I need to shave my head. What's going on?!' Cracking up over her colleague being the victim of yet another White House bird attack, Perino noted that the birds were probably attracted to Doocy 'because you're so tall and so cute.' Doocy, for his part, signed off his report by offering up a news-related pun: 'Send the birds to Alcatraz!' Perino's co-anchor Bill Hemmer, meanwhile, urged Doocy to consider wearing a hat during his future dispatches from the lawn. During a similar situation on April 11, Doocy was the victim of fowl play when a bird landed directly on his head while he discussed Trump's comments about the growing trade war between China and the United States. 'A bird just landed on my head! … That is probably so dirty,' Doocy shouted while the hosts of Fox & Friends erupted in laughter. Once the bird flew away, Doocy then implored the president to do something about the feathered menaces circling the White House. 'President Trump, if you are watching upstairs, we've got to do something about these birds,' he exclaimed. 'Where is the park service?!'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fox News' Peter Doocy once again the victim of fowl play as another rogue bird attacks him
For the second time in a month, Fox News' Peter Doocy found himself the target of an angry bird that decided it'd had enough of the reporter's live on-air report from the White House lawn. Standing in the same spot where a feathered friend dive-bombed him during a Fox & Friends dispatch last month, the network's senior White House correspondent appeared on America's Newsroom to discuss the president's recent demand that the notorious prison at Alcatraz be reopened. Towards the end of Doocy's segment, anchor Dana Perino noticed that the reporter was hunching over at times, prompting her to wonder if he was once again the victim of a Hitchcockian plot come to life. 'Peter, are you dodging birds again?!' Perino exclaimed while a small brown winged creature suddenly came into frame. 'There is a bird,' Doocy screamed as he continued to duck and dodge. 'Yes! I am. I don't know. I need to shave my head. What's going on?!' Cracking up over her colleague being the victim of yet another White House bird attack, Perino noted that the birds were probably attracted to Doocy 'because you're so tall and so cute.' Doocy, for his part, signed off his report by offering up a news-related pun: 'Send the birds to Alcatraz!' Perino's co-anchor Bill Hemmer, meanwhile, urged Doocy to consider wearing a hat during his future dispatches from the lawn. During a similar situation on April 11, Doocy was the victim of fowl play when a bird landed directly on his head while he discussed Trump's comments about the growing trade war between China and the United States. 'A bird just landed on my head! … That is probably so dirty,' Doocy shouted while the hosts of Fox & Friends erupted in laughter. Once the bird flew away, Doocy then implored the president to do something about the feathered menaces circling the White House. 'President Trump, if you are watching upstairs, we've got to do something about these birds,' he exclaimed. 'Where is the park service?!'
