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‘Roman Holiday’ Is the Most Unromantic Romantic Movie

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‘Roman Holiday’ Is the Most Unromantic Romantic Movie

In Roman Holiday (1953), directed and produced by William Wyler, Ann (Audrey Hepburn), A European princess, and Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), a U.S. expat news reporter, spend a day together in Rome going through an extraordinary set of circumstances. The night before they do, Ann takes a sedative then sneaks out of the Embassy, falling asleep on a public bench. Joe finds her and takes her back to his apartment to sleep. The morning after is comic gold. Ann is lowkey delighted reading about her disappearance in the newspaper and the frenzy over it, as Joe realizes that the missing princess is in his home, casually getting ready for the day with no intention to return to said Embassy.

Ann then goes out by herself to a local market and also gets her hair cut, something short, ruthlessly trendy. She reunites with Joe for a dance party on the river, which her barber invites her to. Sure, a kinetic connection of sorts is developing between the two; Wyler gives us soft embraces, tender glances, and french kisses to make that clear. However, something more important is happening.

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Joe’s way of being Ann’s friend is this: he protects her from being discovered and exploited by the paparazzi that day, helping her keep her whereabouts a secret for the time being because he understands she doesn’t want to go back. With the time Ann has, she makes decisions for herself and chats with people as she walks the streets, carefree and incognito. These are important self-provocations for her to experience — what comes through free thinking and communicating — that oppose her restrictive royal, public figure life.

RECENT: Audrey Hepburn’s Top 10 Performances, Ranked

Her friendship with Joe for that twenty-four hours, thus, understands her needs and supports her opening up to these experiences. There is literal beauty to the two of them dancing happily, on the river, a moment she manifests for both of them. Their connection and what adventures they get into are a reflection of Ann’s new freedom. (A police chase on the boat is soon to follow, played for some folly, and Ann and Joe win, gaining a bit more time together.)

Roman Holiday is considered one of the great romance stories of 1950s classic cinema, yet, the film is more making a statement about the profound experience two people can discover by prioritizing their connection and not rushing into romantic couplehood simply because there is attraction there. If you focus on the other person, understand who they are, and feed into their energy, aren’t possibilities for mutual stimulation and individual learning endless as the thing begins?

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The film’s finale, for those who see a story of star-crossed lovers, is easy to read as heartbreak: (spoiler) Ann and Joe do not end up together. In fact, the way in which they do not end up together — their final moment is Joe giving Ann photographs of her during her day, and they hold private smiles in themselves and with each other — reifies the strength of their bond. Letting each other go, as friends, as people who might be something more in a different realm of a lifetime, is less about integrity (I’m looking at you, conscious uncoupling) and more about pure humanity; Ann and Joe understand that what they experienced was the actual gift, and now it’s time for them to each integrate that experience into their lives and move on richer, having lived through what they did.


For Joe, the experience offers a new perspective on expatriate living, incorporating an evolving self-awareness on what it means to be a North American writer based in Western Europe, observing and responding to events in Rome and, by wider context, Italy and the Mediterranean region. There might be ideas around foreign-hood, notions of alienation, and community. For Ann, the day gives her a chance to figure out how to stay connected with the public, that is, people outside the palace. Her desire to feel what is happening in “real,” not just royal, life is clarified. Perhaps, she comes up with community service initiatives or focuses on advancing women’s rights, as part of her work within the Royal family.

And, on a relationship level of lessoning, the film is saying, if two people are attracted, there are options besides couplehood; they don’t even need to be together, physically, to have “won” with each other. Roman Holiday asks us, what is a holiday capable of giving? A holiday, by definition — its etymological meaning is a “holy day” — takes us away from our routine doing. But, what if a holiday gives us an opportunity to access more of the surprising, innermost parts of ourselves that are there all along? Letting go, going deep, is a gift we give to ourselves. If there is someone who vibes at that frequency with you, let that access loose.


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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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