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Not Just Agent Smith: Jonathan Groff’s 7 Best TV and Film Roles

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Not Just Agent Smith: Jonathan Groff’s 7 Best TV and Film Roles

Jonathan Groff is one of the stars of The Matrix Resurrections. Some of us have long been obsessed with Groff’s theatrical career. He originated the role of Melchior in Spring Awakening on Broadway and was nominated for his first Tony in 2007. Recently he has starred as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors and he was also King George III in a little show known as Hamilton. He was nominated for a second Tony for Hamilton, as well as a Primetime Emmy. He also has a Grammy Award for the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Hamilton.

But Groff is a man of many talents that extend far beyond the lighted stage. Here is a list of his best roles in TV and film over the past 15 years.

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Frozen

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware of the Disney film Frozen, its sequel, Frozen II, as well as the two shorts Frozen Fever and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. In this successful franchise, Groff voices the character of Kristoff. The beloved ice-man and his reindeer, Sven (also voiced by Groff), ingratiate themselves into our hearts instantly. Kristoff doesn’t immediately win the heart of Anna (Kristen Bell), but he does win it after we see the true colors of Hans (Santino Fontana). This was Groff’s first voiceover role, but not his last. He later voiced roles in The Simpsons, Invincible, and the titular character in the forthcoming Lost Ollie.

Glee

Groff stars as Jesse St. James, who is the on-again/off-again love interest Rachel (Lea Michele). Jesse is the lead vocalist in Vocal Adrenaline, the biggest rival for McKinley High’s New Directions. Jesse and Rachel’s romance is in constant competition with Rachel’s connection to Finn (Cory Monteith). Ultimately Finn is victorious in the love triangle, but Jesse winds up with Rachel in the end, appearing as her husband in the finale. Due to the untimely death of Finn (and Monteith in real life), who knows what would have happened, but Jesse seems to have been there for Rachel during her grief. Jesse could easily be an unlikable character in lesser hands, but with Groff’s soft eyes and warmth, it’s difficult not to empathize with his plight for Rachel’s heart.


Taking Woodstock

In Taking Woodstock, Groff plays Michael Lang in an underrated behind-the-scenes story of how the 1969 music festival actually happened. When the town of Woodstock, NY decides to ban the music festival at the last moment, Lang has to find a new location and accommodations for what’s turning out to be way bigger than he could have imagined. Based on true events, Groff embodies the soft-spoken, but ambitious Lang easily. Groff conveys the stress in pulling such a magnanimous feat altogether and yet remains calm and collected to keep everyone reassured along the way. In nearby Bethel, NY, local resident Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), and a gracious local farmer named Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy) collaborate with Lang and, well, we all know what happened next.

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RELATED: ‘Hamilton’ Review: The Next Best Thing to Being in the Room Where It Happens

C.O.G.

Based on a short story by acclaimed author David Sedaris, C.O.G. is a hidden gem of a movie. Largely autobiographical, the story finds David (Groff) in Oregon finding work as an apple picker. It consists of all the strange characters he meets along the way from insanely religious Jon (Denis O’Hare) to an old farmer named Hobbs (Dean Stockwell). If you’re familiar with Sedaris, it’s easy to see why Groff is the perfect casting for an autobiographical story. He’s a little too trusting and learns the hard way that people aren’t always great. And yet, he is able to find humor in every experience he comes across. Groff’s innocence is only outmatched by his charm and portraying a young-Sedaris type makes for an incredibly enjoyable watch.

The Normal Heart

If you need your heart broken into pieces, this is the movie for you. Based on Larry Kramer’s Tony Award-winning play of the same name, this film is based on actual events during the AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 80s. Groff plays Craig, one of the first in his group of friends to come down with an unidentifiable new virus. Craig’s stay in this world (and this film) is short-lived, but he is a catalyst for the rest of the story to unfold. The main character, Ned (Mark Ruffalo) uses Craig’s journey to begin his activism fighting for funding and basic acknowledgment of the crisis as he grows tired of watching his friends die all around him. This movie is a hard watch, but it is necessary viewing. Groff has the ability to make you care so much for his character in such a short amount of time that his loss is felt so much harder. The Normal Heart took home the Emmy for Outstanding Television movie in 2014.

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Looking

Looking only ran for 2 seasons on HBO, which was not nearly enough. Thankfully, they gave us Looking: The Movie to wrap up all the storylines. Groff plays Patrick, who lives amongst his friends in modern-day San Francisco. He is a video game designer who moved to California from Colorado where he lived a pretty sheltered life. He is shy, naive, and new to the gay scene in the big city. He finds himself in a love triangle with sweet and unassuming Ritchie (Raúl Castillo) and his boss Kevin (Russell Tovey). It’s with the help of his newfound family that he is able to navigate this tricky situation and finally figure out what is best for his future. Being from a small Amish community in Pennsylvania, one can’t help but wonder if Groff had a lot of personal experience to draw from as he fits this role perfectly.


Mindhunter

And now for something completely different. In the mid-1970s, two FBI Agents, Holden Ford (Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), begin interviewing infamous serial killers in prison. They begin a process we currently know as psychological profiling to discover patterns for killers at large. Ford is unlike any of Groff’s other characters. He is extremely book smart and tends to be able to compartmentalize his emotions. However, even the strongest of minds can be messed with by infamous murderers such as Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton), David Berkowitz (Oliver Cooper), and Charles Manson (Damon Herriman). The Season 1 finale encapsulates Groff’s acting range when his character suffers a severe panic attack after a moment of looking death straight in the eyes. This David Fincher series is mesmerizing and there are only two seasons available. They have not committed to a third season at this time, but everyone involved is open to it should the opportunity present itself.


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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

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The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

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Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

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Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

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According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

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To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

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Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

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Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

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