Latest news with #suspense
Condé Nast Traveler
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Condé Nast Traveler
The Jaws Guide to Martha's Vineyard, 50 Years Later
I've been a movie fan all my life, and Jaws was, for me, the right film at the right moment in my life: It was fantastically suspenseful, and the sea story that makes up the last third of the film was incredibly exciting. But I think that even 12-year-old me recognized that there was more to it than just 'who's the monster going to eat next?' Or 'how are we going to kill the monster?' As an adult, when I lived far from the Vineyard, watching Jaws was an easy way to 'go home' without having to drive a thousand miles or buy a plane ticket. What's your greatest memory on set? I was on the set for one day in late June, when they shot the 'cardboard fin' scene on State Beach. When the assistant director announced through his bullhorn that 'we need 100 brave people to get in the water and play the crowd,' a friend and I volunteered. My overwhelming memory of it was that the water was incredibly cold and—even far from the beach—extremely shallow, only waist deep. We had to pretend that we were splashing and having fun in water over our heads. When we got the signal to 'panic' and swim for the beach, we acted like we were swimming in deep water; we couldn't stand up until the last possible moment. It took 5 or 6 takes—which felt like 10 or 12—until the director—not Spielberg, probably first assistant director Tom Joyner—was satisfied. Over the last 50 years, so much and so little has changed since Jaws was filmed here at Martha's Vineyard. Pamela Schall/Getty Steven Spielberg, at 27 years old, faced a failing mechanical shark and an unpredictable ocean at Martha's Vineyard. Edith Blake/Martha's Vineyard Museum Why do you think Martha's Vineyard was such a great location for the film? Martha's Vineyard is bigger and more diverse (culturally, geographically, economically) than Amity Island, but it has many of the same qualities: a mixture of working-class locals and wealthy summer people, dependence on tourist dollars, arguments about whether or not to do something that might benefit the community in the long run, but might also hurt tourism in the short term. Filming on the Vineyard made Amity feel like a real place and its residents feel like real people. What special locations around the Vineyard can people still visit to commemorate the film? Downtown Edgartown, which 'played' the village of Amity, still looks very much like it did in the movie. You can walk the same route that Chief Brody takes along Davis Lane, South Water Street, and Main Street as he strides from the police department to the hardware store, and stand on the same docks where the fishermen of Amity showed off their tiger shark. Menemsha, where they temporarily built Quint's shack, and filmed the scenes of the Orca loading and departing, still looks very much like it did. The ferry terminal in Vineyard Haven has two slips instead of one now, but Jaws fans disembarking there last weekend were overheard saying excitedly, 'Oh my God! I feel like I'm walking through that scene in the film where people are arriving for the Fourth of July!' State Beach between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, where the two panic scenes—as well as Chrissie's run into the water on her ill-fated nighttime swim—were filmed, still looks just like it did in 1974. There are no striped cabanas and hot dog stands in the dunes; those were built by the production crew for the film. You can stand on the bridge that the shark swam under to eat the man in the red rowboat (and almost eat Mike Brody). Hundreds of people jump off it every day, despite signs warning you not to. It's now known especially to tourists as 'Jaws bridge,' though some old-timers grumble about that not being the real name.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
The best recent crime and thrillers
Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson (Michael Joseph, £20)The bestselling YA author's first novel for adults has an intriguing premise: thanks to the combination of a blow to the head by an unseen assailant and a pre-existing medical condition, Jet Mason has a week to solve her own murder before a fatal aneurysm rupture. Jet, who comes across as rather younger than her 27 years, has retreated back to the dysfunctional bosom of her wealthy Vermont family after dropping out of law school; she disagrees with the police department's choice of culprit and conducts her own investigation with the aid of childhood friend Billy. As Jet's neighbours, family and the construction business from which the Masons derive their money come under the microscope, secrets and cover-ups are revealed, and it starts to look as if the killer may be very close to home … A propulsive plot, where the pathos is fuel for real suspense, makes this perfect holiday fare – a genuine page-turner for YA and adult readers alike. Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson (Faber, £18.99)Set in Massachusetts, this is a mystery told in reverse order. We know from the first sentence that Wendy is planning to kill her husband Thom, after discovering that he is writing a novel that threatens to expose their darkest secret. It's the last straw: Thom, who is not only sexually incontinent but increasingly prone to getting blackout drunk, has become not only a disappointment but a liability. The narrative, which forms a kind of moral balance sheet, switches between his point of view and Wendy's as it takes us back through almost three decades of marriage, and finally to 1982, when they first met as teenagers on a school trip to Washington DC. It's cleverly done, with seemingly insignificant details emerging in a consequential light once we have knowledge of what happened earlier in the chronology of the pair's lives. Swanson fills in all the puzzle parts meticulously, for a complete picture. The Good Liar by Denise Mina (Harvill Secker, £16.99)Professor Claudia Atkins O'Sheil, MBE, creator of the revolutionary Blood Spatter Probability Scale, is preparing to give a speech at the Royal College of Forensic Scientists, in the full knowledge that she is about to trash her reputation and that of her boss, Sir Philip Ardmore. We then wind back a year to a similar gathering, when the pair are called away to a crime scene: Ardmore's old friend, aristocrat Jonty Stewart, and his fiancee have been found murdered in their smart Regent's Park home. Jonty's ne'er-do-well son is arrested, but Claudia isn't sure that he's guilty, and, as the action moves forward, she begins to have serious doubts about several other things, including the veracity of her creation. Her social trajectory having been as spectacular as her professional one, Claudia is both drawn to and resentful of the privileged world in which she moves, and her attempts to decode its mores as she wrestles with her conscience make this compelling and suspenseful study of complicity and culpability a stand-out read. The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell (Doubleday, £14.99)The Shirley Jackson award winner's novel centres on Korean cartography professor Oghi, who wakes up in hospital after the car accident that killed his wife, unable to move or speak. Released into the care of his mother-in-law, he returns to his marital home, where, confined in bed, he desperately tries to communicate by blinking. The details of the crash are initially unspecified, but as clues emerge as to the state of Oghi's marriage and his conduct at work, it gradually becomes clear that he is not an entirely reliable narrator of his own life, and that his mother-in-law, who may have begun reading her daughter's diaries, is deliberately tormenting him. As well as the literal and sinister hole that Oghi's mother-in-law is busy digging in the garden, metaphorical holes abound in this superbly insidious and atmospheric chiller about caring and cruelty: grief, isolation, helplessness and existential fear. Gunner by Alan Parks (Baskerville, £16.99)Alan Parks's latest novel, the first in a projected series, opens in March 1941, during the Clydebank Blitz. German bombs are also raining down on neighbouring Glasgow when former police officer Joseph Gunner returns after being wounded in action in France. His initial concerns – a bed for the night and how to eke out his precious supply of morphine – are multiplied when the body of a German, mutilated to disguise his identity, turns up in the rubble and Gunner's erstwhile boss asks him for help. When he reluctantly agrees, he soon finds himself embroiled in a high-level conspiracy. There's also the matter of a turf war between rival gangsters and the fact that his brother, a conscientious objector, has absconded from a work camp… The similarities with Parks's 1970s-set Harry McCoy series will certainly please existing fans, but this well-researched historical thriller, which perfectly captures the chaos, danger and moral mess of a world turned upside down by conflict, is sure to attract new ones too.
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
13 new paperbacks for your reading list
In Whitaker's best-selling fourth novel, set in Missouri in 1975, a one-eyed boy named Patch saves the daughter of a wealthy family from the grasp of a serial killer. The bleak repercussions of that incident reverberate for decades, threatening to upend the lives of everyone involved. In Whitaker's best-selling fourth novel, set in Missouri in 1975, a one-eyed boy named Patch saves the daughter of a wealthy family from the grasp of a serial killer. The bleak repercussions of that incident reverberate for decades, threatening to upend the lives of everyone involved. The latest by Moriarty (author of 'Big Little Lies,' 'Nine Perfect Strangers' and other bestsellers) opens onboard a delayed flight from Tasmania to Sydney. Suddenly, an unremarkable woman stands up and begins methodically telling each passenger and crew member when and how they will die. 'In the end, the puzzle — will the predictions come true or won't they? — becomes less interesting than the myriad ways people react when confronted with their ephemerality,' Stephanie Merry wrote in Book World. The latest by Moriarty (author of 'Big Little Lies,' 'Nine Perfect Strangers' and other bestsellers) opens onboard a delayed flight from Tasmania to Sydney. Suddenly, an unremarkable woman stands up and begins methodically telling each passenger and crew member when and how they will die. 'In the end, the puzzle — will the predictions come true or won't they? — becomes less interesting than the myriad ways people react when confronted with their ephemerality,' Stephanie Merry wrote in Book World. Senna's shrewd comic novel, named one of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2024, is about a biracial woman named Jane Gibson who is working on a second novel that has grown a bit too epic for its own good. So she swallows her pride and approaches Hollywood, pitching a sitcom about a mixed-race family. 'What's most rewarding' about the novel, Ron Charles wrote in Book World, 'is how effortlessly Senna keeps the wings of this plot from getting clotted with bits of didactic wisdom or social reproof. … The way Senna keeps this wry story aloft may be the closest paper can come to levitation.' Senna's shrewd comic novel, named one of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2024, is about a biracial woman named Jane Gibson who is working on a second novel that has grown a bit too epic for its own good. So she swallows her pride and approaches Hollywood, pitching a sitcom about a mixed-race family. 'What's most rewarding' about the novel, Ron Charles wrote in Book World, 'is how effortlessly Senna keeps the wings of this plot from getting clotted with bits of didactic wisdom or social reproof. … The way Senna keeps this wry story aloft may be the closest paper can come to levitation.' The latest from one of America's most intellectually curious novelists was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Sadie, a former U.S. intelligence agent, is now a freelancer in southwest France, where powerful agricultural corporations are buying up land and marring the environment. She's tasked with infiltrating a group of radical activists suspected of planning an ecoterrorist attack. Ron Charles wrote: 'The real covert operative here is Kushner, who's never felt more cunning.' The latest from one of America's most intellectually curious novelists was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Sadie, a former U.S. intelligence agent, is now a freelancer in southwest France, where powerful agricultural corporations are buying up land and marring the environment. She's tasked with infiltrating a group of radical activists suspected of planning an ecoterrorist attack. Ron Charles wrote: 'The real covert operative here is Kushner, who's never felt more cunning.' McBride's novel takes place before and during the Depression, in a ramshackle Pennsylvania neighborhood called Chicken Hill, where Jewish immigrants and African Americans cling to the deferred dream of equality in the United States. Moshe Ludlow, a wannabe impresario from Romania, is married to Chona, a polio survivor with a pronounced limp. Moshe has the radical idea to open his All-American Dance Hall and Theater to Black patrons. At the center of the novel is a sweet 12-year-old orphan nicknamed Dodo. For childless Chona, he is an answer to a prayer. In Book World, Ron Charles wrote: 'We all need — we all deserve — this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.' McBride's novel takes place before and during the Depression, in a ramshackle Pennsylvania neighborhood called Chicken Hill, where Jewish immigrants and African Americans cling to the deferred dream of equality in the United States. Moshe Ludlow, a wannabe impresario from Romania, is married to Chona, a polio survivor with a pronounced limp. Moshe has the radical idea to open his All-American Dance Hall and Theater to Black patrons. At the center of the novel is a sweet 12-year-old orphan nicknamed Dodo. For childless Chona, he is an answer to a prayer. In Book World, Ron Charles wrote: 'We all need — we all deserve — this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.' Reid follows up her hit debut, 'Such a Fun Age' (2019), with this novel set at the University of Arkansas, where a visiting professor named Agatha Paul enlists three female students to answer questions for her new work of cultural criticism about weddings. Some of the talk turns to sex, but the real complications and most intimate details involve money and the way unequal economic positions create clashing sets of values. Reid is a master plotter who has engineered a spectacular intersection of class, racism, academic politics and journalistic ethics. Reid follows up her hit debut, 'Such a Fun Age' (2019), with this novel set at the University of Arkansas, where a visiting professor named Agatha Paul enlists three female students to answer questions for her new work of cultural criticism about weddings. Some of the talk turns to sex, but the real complications and most intimate details involve money and the way unequal economic positions create clashing sets of values. Reid is a master plotter who has engineered a spectacular intersection of class, racism, academic politics and journalistic ethics. Vlautin's novel tells the tale of Al Ward, a grizzled guitarist and recovering alcoholic in his 60s looking back on his life, and of his encounter in the present day with a dying horse on an isolated mining claim in the Nevada desert. In Book World, Hamilton Cain wrote, ''The Horse' taps a wealth of influences — Hemingway, Johnny Cash, John Huston's film 'The Misfits' — but Vlautin's cadences and wit are his alone, sharp and bracing, like shots of whiskey.' Vlautin's novel tells the tale of Al Ward, a grizzled guitarist and recovering alcoholic in his 60s looking back on his life, and of his encounter in the present day with a dying horse on an isolated mining claim in the Nevada desert. In Book World, Hamilton Cain wrote, ''The Horse' taps a wealth of influences — Hemingway, Johnny Cash, John Huston's film 'The Misfits' — but Vlautin's cadences and wit are his alone, sharp and bracing, like shots of whiskey.' Over the course of Savas's novel, a married couple attempt to find an apartment in an unidentified foreign city, with the plot structured around their visits to different places that could be home. 'The Anthropologists' has received widespread praise since it was published, landing on Barack Obama's list of his favorite books of 2024 and the National Book Critics Circle's fiction longlist. Savas also has a new collection of short stories, 'Long Distance,' out in hardcover this month. Over the course of Savas's novel, a married couple attempt to find an apartment in an unidentified foreign city, with the plot structured around their visits to different places that could be home. 'The Anthropologists' has received widespread praise since it was published, landing on Barack Obama's list of his favorite books of 2024 and the National Book Critics Circle's fiction longlist. Savas also has a new collection of short stories, 'Long Distance,' out in hardcover this month. 'The summer Momma and I share pregnancies, the cottonmouths come crawling out of the marshes.' This opening sentence from one story captures much that is remarkable about Moore's book: intense focus on family ties, vivid Southern setting and confident narrative voice. A reviewer in Kirkus wrote, 'It's likely you'd have to go all the way back to 'Hue and Cry' by James Alan McPherson (1968) to find a debut collection of short stories by a young Black writer as prodigiously humane and finely wrought as this.' 'The summer Momma and I share pregnancies, the cottonmouths come crawling out of the marshes.' This opening sentence from one story captures much that is remarkable about Moore's book: intense focus on family ties, vivid Southern setting and confident narrative voice. A reviewer in Kirkus wrote, 'It's likely you'd have to go all the way back to 'Hue and Cry' by James Alan McPherson (1968) to find a debut collection of short stories by a young Black writer as prodigiously humane and finely wrought as this.' Grossman, best-selling author of the Magicians Trilogy, takes up the Arthurian legend in his marvelous new fantasy. 'Grossman affects a breezy 21st-century style that still allows plenty of room for magic,' Elizabeth Hand wrote in Book World. 'He excels at colorful characterizations and vibrant action scenes, which are legion.' Grossman, best-selling author of the Magicians Trilogy, takes up the Arthurian legend in his marvelous new fantasy. 'Grossman affects a breezy 21st-century style that still allows plenty of room for magic,' Elizabeth Hand wrote in Book World. 'He excels at colorful characterizations and vibrant action scenes, which are legion.' In this history of reality television, Nussbaum shines a light on the people who have made some of the most beloved and most controversial shows, from the executives who green-lit (and turned down) 'Survivor' to the field producers and editors who questioned and defended the ethics of their jobs. Along the way, Maura Judkis wrote in Book World, the book captures some of the interplay of naiveté and sadism that has long characterized reality programming. In this history of reality television, Nussbaum shines a light on the people who have made some of the most beloved and most controversial shows, from the executives who green-lit (and turned down) 'Survivor' to the field producers and editors who questioned and defended the ethics of their jobs. Along the way, Maura Judkis wrote in Book World, the book captures some of the interplay of naiveté and sadism that has long characterized reality programming. In her assiduously researched and impeccably constructed book, Cook grapples with the personal ramifications of the QAnon conspiracy theory for many of its devotees and the people who care about them. 'Cook contributes a vital piece to the vexing QAnon puzzle, chronicling the profound effects on those otherwise average people who have fallen into its grasp and the collateral damage done to those around them,' Jonathan Russell Clark wrote in Book World. In her assiduously researched and impeccably constructed book, Cook grapples with the personal ramifications of the QAnon conspiracy theory for many of its devotees and the people who care about them. 'Cook contributes a vital piece to the vexing QAnon puzzle, chronicling the profound effects on those otherwise average people who have fallen into its grasp and the collateral damage done to those around them,' Jonathan Russell Clark wrote in Book World. In 1985, two White police officers in San Diego pulled over a pickup truck carrying Black men whom the officers wrongly suspected of gang affiliation. The driver of the truck, Sagon Penn, was an expert martial artist who, after a confrontation that quickly escalated, ended up shooting the officers, killing one of them. The ensuing trial and Penn's acquittal exposed — and changed — the police department's relationship with communities of color. In 1985, two White police officers in San Diego pulled over a pickup truck carrying Black men whom the officers wrongly suspected of gang affiliation. The driver of the truck, Sagon Penn, was an expert martial artist who, after a confrontation that quickly escalated, ended up shooting the officers, killing one of them. The ensuing trial and Penn's acquittal exposed — and changed — the police department's relationship with communities of color.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pierson Fodé And Meadow Williams To Topline Michael Caton-Jones' ‘Eternity'
EXCLUSIVE: Pierson Fodé (The Wrong Paris) and Meadow Williams (Den of Thieves franchise) are set to topline Eternity, an indie blending elements of suspense and romance from This Boy's Life helmer Michael Caton-Jones. Rolling cameras this fall across Italy, Greece, and the Mediterranean, the film has Fodé playing Calvin, a charismatic conman whose life takes a dangerous turn aboard an exclusive yacht cruise. Williams co-stars as Katrine, a powerful and enigmatic woman at the center of the film's intrigue. More from Deadline Netflix Unveils Premiere Date & First-Look Photo For Rom-Com 'The Wrong Paris' Starring Miranda Cosgrove & Pierson Fodé 'Memphis Belle' Filmmaker Michael Caton-Jones To Helm Mediterranean Suspense Romance 'Eternity' Pierson Fodé Latest To Join Lily James In 20th Bumble Film Williams is producing for Diamond Film Productions, alongside Jon Mason for JMason Entertainment, and Jeanette Volturno for CatchLight Studios. Nancy Nayor handled casting. Production kicks off mid-September. Previously best known for a role in action comedy The Man from Toronto, Fodé will soon be seen in a pair of Netflix films: The Wrong Paris, where he stars opposite Miranda Cosgrove, and A Merry Little Ex-Mas, where he shares the screen with Alicia Silverstone. Upcoming, he'll also be seen in Swiped on Hulu alongside Lily James, based on the true story of Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd. He is repped by Innovative Artists and Zero Gravity Management. Seen in the Den of Thieves films, along with titles like Boss Level and After, Williams is repped by JMason Entertainment and Reder & Feig. Best of Deadline 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Emmys, Oscars, Grammys & More Men of Steel: Every Actor Who Has Played Superman - Photo Gallery 'Michael' Cast: Who's Who In The Michael Jackson Biopic
New York Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Cloud' Review: Buyer's Remorse
Just as Yoshii (Masaki Suda), sitting on the bus with his girlfriend, is beginning to dream about a better future early on in 'Cloud,' the camera gradually inches over, and the outline of a dark figure suddenly hovers over him. Things go deathly quiet and Yoshii turns, but the figure has dashed off the bus. It's the kind of breathtaking moment you'd expect from the writer and director Kiyoshi Kurosawa whose breakout masterpiece, 'Cure' (1997), showcased his virtuosic control of tension and atmosphere. That consummate formal ability has one ready to follow the eclectic Japanese auteur wherever this taut suspense might take us, even if, in this latest work, it might end up in some disjointed directions. Here, Kurosawa's story of what might initially appear to be sinister morphs boldly and almost irreverently into a tale of slapstick vengeance that carries with it whiffs of Michael Haneke's 'Funny Games' and Quentin Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs.' Underneath all that is perhaps something sinister still, though not from an expected place. As an online reseller who poaches just about any product he can find to sell at a higher price, Yoshii has recently had a windfall, selling a batch of medical devices. He quits his factory day job and moves to a house in the woods with his girlfriend, hoping to expand his business. Yet, eerie instances have him looking over his shoulder, and his dubious reselling practices begin to attract enemies. The gears switch hard in the film's second half, as Yoshii's karmic retribution comes knocking. But the gunslinging that ensues is not slick nor even particularly gruesome. This is the story of desperate men, pummeled by failure and itching for violent catharsis; although mostly what they get is clumsy death. That incongruence, in the movie's eyes, embodies the distinction and friction between the digital world and the real one. Online, everyone represents either cash to be made (at seemingly every turn of real and present danger, Yoshii is still just thinking of his rinky-dink hustle) or a scapegoat for one's anger. But in the physical world, those visions of revenge play out differently. Often, at decisive moments, these characters take on the persona of a villain, shouting out their machinations like they would on an online forum, only for reality to bluntly knock them over the head. It's a surprisingly funny film in that way, but also disturbing. For all of his genre-bending on display, Kurosawa is interested in something more real and more dark about humanity's capacity for greed and bitterness, and the quiet ways that the internet can further mutate those diseases in us. But that subtext gets muddled in the director's primary desire to construct playful surprises, even if some of which, particularly by the end, can be wonderfully, terrifyingly strange. Ultimately, 'Cloud' is constructing a highway to hell for Yoshii in which the demons are not phantom, but us. CloudNot rated. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes. In theaters.
