Michael Moore has made quite the controversial career for himself as a liberal documentary filmmaker who focuses on the hot topics plaguing our society and making headlines. And since the man doing both of those things everyday is none other than President Donald Trump, it should come as no surprise that Moore has a new documentary focusing on the reality TV host turned leader of the free world.
Michael Moore’s new documentary is called Fahrenheit 11/9, taking a cue from the filmmaker’s previous George W. Bush skewering title Fahrenheit 9/11. In this case, the numbers in the title refer to the night that Donald Trump was elected President of the United States of America. But what specifically will the documentary focus on? Michael Moore discusses below.
Michael Moore Donald Trump Documentary
Michael Moore appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night, and that’s where he announced that Fahrenheit 11/9 was the official title of his new documentary. Furthermore, the film will get released on September 21, 2018 this fall. Moore wasn’t ready to reveal too much about what the central focus of the film was, besides Donald Trump himself, but he did say that it will feature things that we haven’t seen or heard before.
Thankfully, an official synopsis (via The Hollywood Reporter) gives us a little more insight into the project, but not much:
“Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 is a provocative and comedic look at the times in which we live. It will explore the two most important questions of the Trump Era: How the f**k did we get here, and how the f**k do we get out? It’s the film to see before it’s too late.”
If you watch the clip about from The Late Show at the 1:45 mark, Moore brought a clip from the documentary featuring the filmmaker himself walking into Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, the private country club that has come to be known as the Southern White House. It’s a location where Donald Trump has spent plenty of time, costing taxpayers millions of dollars for transportation and security costs. And apparently Trump was too busy to see Michael Moore.
The scene in question is a throwback to Michael Moore’s documentary Roger & Me, where he visited General Motors headquarters in an attempt to meet its CEO Roger B. Smith at a time when the auto industry was in shambles and the motor company created a devastating economic impact by closing several auto plants in his hometown of Flint, Michigan.
It’s just a taste of what Moore has in store for the documentary, because the filmmaker offered up this threat, “I know Roseanne. And I know Trump. And they are about to rue the day they knew me.” He even references a time when he appeared on The Roseanne Show back in 1998. In that same episode, Donald Trump also happened to appear on the show, congratulated Moore on Roger & Me, and then said, “I hope you never do one on me.” Moore shared a clip from the show back at the end of May:
Frankly, I can’t wait to see what kind of dirt Moore digs up on the man who has spent 118 days of his presidency playing golf at one of his resorts, and every day of the rest of his presidency destroying this country for everyone except racists, sexists, millionaires and Vladimir Putin. Since Donald Trump has no problem tearing apart immigrant families and ruining the lives of hundreds of children, I’m very much looking forward to the downfall of this man and every despicable member of his family and administration.
Oh, and just for good measure, Jon Stewart also stopped by The Late Show with this message for the Orange-in-Chief:
(Welcome to Pop Culture Imports, a column that compiles the best, wackiest, and weirdest foreign-language movies and TV shows streaming right now.)
Welcome back to Pop Culture Imports, lovers of foreign movies and TV shows. It’s nearing the end of June, and hey, what better way to close out Pride Month than to feature an early Ang Lee gay comedy of manners? We’ll round out our list of recommendations with a revival of the beloved anime Cardcaptor Sakura, a documentary about a couple of tortured artists, a devastating Spanish family drama about an estranged family, and Netflix’s latest collaboration with Bollywood.
And now, let’s dive into the best foreign-language movies and shows streaming now.
Ang Lee‘s name today has become synonymous with rich, emotionally charged dramas, but the tender and terribly funny The Wedding Banquet feels worlds away from the prestigious director behind Brokeback Mountain or Life of Pi. Lee’s second feature film is a comedy of manners that hews a little more poignant than its hackneyed premise would have you believe. The Wedding Banquet follows Wai-Tung (Winston Chao), a gay New Yorker who, at the urging of his loving boyfriend Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) attempts to satisfy his parents by entering a phony marriage with a struggling artist looking for a green card (May Chin). But the marriage of convenience suddenly becomes inconvenient when Wai-Tung’s parents show up in America to throw their son a lavish wedding banquet. As you can guess, hijinks ensue.
But The Wedding Banquet is more than its cultural clashes (though the riotous scenes of Chinese parties hit hilariously close to home). Comedy and drama are in a delicate dance in Lee’s masterfully directed film. The characters never descend into stereotypes — Chinese, gay, or otherwise — and Lee adds a layer of deep authenticity to a story that could have otherwise been a run-of-the-mill broad comedy. It’s also super progressive compared to other “gay” comedies of the era (cough, In & Out).
Watch This If You Like: The Birdcage, Eat Drink Man Woman, Love, Simon, celebrating Pride Month for two more days, baby!
2. Cutie and the Boxer – Netflix
Country: U.S., Japan
Genre: Documentary
Director: Zachary Heinzerling
Cast: Ushio Shinohara, Noriko Shinohara.
Picture: Portrait of the artist as an old man, washed up and attempting to reinvigorate his once-promising career with his long-suffering wife by his side. It sounds like an excruciatingly pretentious documentary to sit through, right? Cutie and the Boxer is anything but.
Director Zachary Heinzerling deploys a light hand on a painful subject: that of aging artist Ushio Shinohara, and 80-year-old “boxing” artist who was once proclaimed one of the rising artists of the ’70s New York art scene. Now, barely able to scrape up enough money for rent, Ushio prepares for an exhibit that he is certain will resurrect his career. But his massive ego has led him to overlook his wife of 39 years, Noriko Shinohara, an artist in her own right who had sacrificed her career to become the de facto assistant to “support the genius.” But Noriko is determined to prove herself as an artist as well, creating the alter-ego “Cutie” in a series of illustrations that expose her and Ushio’s troubled marriage plagued by alcoholism and poverty.
Heinzerling brilliantly interweaves Noriko’s quirky illustrated vignettes with old home videos and modern-day footage, painting a sad, powerful, but never pitiful portrait of a marriage that hangs by on a couple’s mutual — and oft-destructive — love for art.
Watch This If You Like: Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Big Eyes, The September Issue, pretending Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind had a happy ending.
Even in anime, nostalgia is the order of the day. But I can’t deny that I didn’t squeal in excitement when I discovered that a new Cardcaptor Sakura series had been released. The innocent and light-hearted magical girl anime — which many U.S. viewers may be familiar with as the heavily censored Cardcaptors — has returned with a new 22-episode season (all episodes available for free on Crunchyroll), and it’s as adorable (and as gay) as ever.
Titled Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, the revival season starts off right where Cardcaptor Sakura ended 18 years ago. Our intrepid heroine Sakura Kinomoto begins her first day at junior with the joyful discovery that her old card-hunting partner, Syaoran Li, had returned from Hong Kong, allowing the two of them to resume their delightful courtship of excessive blushing and long stares. But Syaoran’s return isn’t the only sudden change in Sakura’s life. One night, our favorite cardcaptor experiences a strange nightmare and wakes to find that all her magical cards have disappeared — or gone transparent, to be exact. Thus begins the very familiar formula of Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura fights strange, supernatural phenomena and turn them back into cards. But hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Again, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card is riding heavily on that nostalgia we have for the original series, aping the original’s charming animation style, bringing back the original voice cast, and upping the kawaii appeal to 100. If it were possible, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card is even frothier and more meandering than the original series, dedicating ample runtime to Sakura making cheesecake or choosing her afterschool club. But director Morio Asaka and CLAMP writer Nanase Ohkawa know the reason we keep coming back to this show — it’s not for the fights or even the outfits, but for the sweet slice-of-life moments and budding romance. And it’s most definitely for the homoerotic tension.
Watch This If You Like:Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena, the cutest shit you’ll ever see.
4. Sunday’s Illness – Netflix
Country: Spain
Genre: Drama
Director: Ramon Salazar
Cast: Susi Sánchez, Bárbara Lennie, Greta Fernández.
Sunday’s Illness is a searingly told and achingly felt Spanish drama about an estranged mother-daughter pair who reunite for a strange 10-day experiment. Sunday’s Illness follows the rich and well-off Anabel who, 35 years after abandoning her 8-year-old daughter Chiara, is approached by Chiara with an odd request: to spend 10 days alone together. But the 10-day stay in their old rustic home isn’t the warm reunion the estranged duo expected, with the embittered Chiara constantly playing mind games with her mother and Anabel acting as if she has never had human contact outside of a ballroom.
Slow, dreamy, and exquisitely shot, director Ramon Salazar lends a chilly touch to this neo-Gothic portrait of grief and loss. It’s a masterful family drama that offers no catharsis or semblance of human decency, but still hits you like a gut punch in the end.
Watch This If You Like: White Oleander, Postcards From the Edge, Persona,Hereditary without the horror.
Netflix and Bollywood are turning out to be a match made in heaven. After the streaming service teamed up with Indian filmmakers to deliver the utterly charming Love Per Square Foot (which I featured in my very first Pop Culture Imports column), Netflix has now brought us the fascinating deep dive into female sexuality in India, Lust Stories.
The anthology film, consisting of four short film segments directed by renowned Indian directors Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, and Karan Johar respectively, addresses sex in a funny and frank way. And though technically Bollywood, Lust Stories has none of the glossy sheen that we associate with the industry. Each of the charmingly authentic four segments — which range from goofy slapstick to poignant romantic dramas — provide us an unvarnished glimpse into the complex sex lives of women in India. The second short segment in particular, which stars Bhumi Pednekar in a virtually wordless performance as a maid having an affair with her employer, is a powerful and heartbreaking dive into class conflicts in India and the country’s obsession with fair skin. While all of the shorts broach taboo subjects like female desire and affairs, it’s not all hard-hitting stuff — Kiara Advani‘s segment lets the actress pull off a raunchy public orgasm bit that would put Meg Ryan to shame.
Watch This If You Like: Love Per Square Foot, Sex and the City, Love, Actually, the deli scene in When Harry Met Sally, the funny parts in the Vagina Monologues.
Disney is shutting down Disneytoon Studios, the longstanding animation division behind Disney’s direct-to-video releases and the Planes franchise.
In the wake of John Lasseter‘s departure from the Walt Disney Co., the company is shuttering the Glendale-based Disneytoon Studios, Indiewire reported. The closure, which will result in the loss of an estimated 75 animators and staff positions, will take place immediately.
“After much consideration, we have made the decision to end production activity and close Disneytoon Studios,” a Disney spokesperson said.
All current projects at Disneytoon have been halted. An untitled feature about the future of aviation from Planes‘ Klay Hall and Bobs Gannaway was removed from its March 2019 theatrical release date, and is no longer in development.
The shutdown comes on the heels of Lasseter leaving his position as chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and DisneyToon Studios following allegations of sexual misconduct. Pete Docter and Jennifer Lee will succeed Lasseter after he departs the company in December of this year. However, Indiewire reports that Disneytoon Studios’ shutdown is unrelated to the Docter and Lee’s promotions, and has been in the works for a while.
Disneytoon is part of a long history of Disney’s direct-to-video sequels. Originally named Disney Movie Toons when it was created in 1988, the division was rebranded Disneytoon in 2004. Disneytoon has produced 47 feature films, most of which where direct-to-video sequels to popular Disney animated films, like The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea,Lion King 1 1/2, and Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. However, the studio has produced some theatrical releases like A Goofy Movie and more recently the Planes franchise — itself a spin-off of Pixar’s Cars.
Lasseter had helped spearhead a new direction for Disneytoon, first with his support of the six-film Fairies franchise (a spin-off series revolving around Tinker Bell), and with the two theatrical Planes releases.
However, with the advent of streaming and Disney’s introduction of its own streaming service, profits in the direct-to-video market are starting to wane, which may have had an impact on Disney’s decision to shutter Disneytoon.
Rumors have been circulating around Hollywood recently that Kathleen Kennedy would be stepping down from Lucasfilm, and that Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige would be coming in to head up the future of Star Wars. Sitting down across from Feige at the Ant-Man and the Wasp junket, I was able to ask Feige about the speculation and put an end to the rumors.
The Rumors
The rumors claimed that Disney is unhappy with Kennedy’s handling of the Star Wars franchise, specifically the numerous problems on the standalone films leading to the lackluster box office of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Kennedy was responsible for hiring Gareth Edwards, Josh Trank, Chris Lord and Phil Miller, and Colin Trevorrow, all of which didn’t work out in some way, costing the company hundreds of millions on reshoots and fixes.
These reports weren’t coming from disgruntled Star Wars fans, but actually reputable sources. The rumor spread so fast among industry types that I received no fewer than five phone calls about it from reputable people around Hollywood. Richard Rushfield’s respected industry e-mail newsletter The Ankler first mentioned the rumblings that Kennedy might exit Lucasfilm by September of this year. Earlier this month, Deadline off-handedly mentioned the rumors that Kevin Feige will be the new president of Lucasfilm, noting that the speculation was “roundly denied.”
The rumored plan was for her to step down in September to semi-retire, which would be a way of saving face. At the time, I followed up on the rumors confirming that Kennedy had no plans to leave Lucasfilm or retire any time soon. But the rumors persisted and began to include Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige’s name as the one who Disney would bring in to head up Lucasfilm and Kennedy. There were even some people claiming that Feige was seen spending some time in the Lucasfilm offices on the Burbank lot.
Kevin Feige’s Denial
In April, I asked Feige when his contract was up with Disney and Marvel, and he revealed that he was approaching the end of his lengthy contract sometime later this year. I followed that up by asking if he had aspirations beyond Marvel, like producing other films. His response was typically vague: “I love making movies. I love making movies. I love being part of movies. I love having a large say in the way that movies are made. And that’s what I wanna keep doing.”
Could Lucasfilm provide this type of playground? Might Feige be getting tired of the comic book universe that he’s been working on in some capacity since the original Bryan Singer X-Men film?
At the Ant-Man and the Wasp junket, I was finally able to ask Feige point blank about the rumors. Will he be involved in the future of Star Wars? The executive’s answer was a shake of his head. He smiled and said:
“No. Only in my backyard with my action figures.”
So there you have it – a denial from the man himself.
Kevin Feige’s Relationship With Star Wars
Feige would have made sense on paper. He’s a huge HUGE Star Wars fan, and talking to him over the years, I’ve gotten the sense that Star Wars was his first love before comics. He’s not been secret about his Star Wars love, appearing on The Star Wars Show in April talking about his Star Wars fandom. Around the release of Captain America: Civil War, io9 asked Feige if he ever wanted to make a Star Wars film, and his response is telling of his fandom:
I have two jobs: Running Marvel, being a big Marvel fan, and being a Star Wars nerd. Those are my two jobs. My house is full of Star Wars so I’m as big a Star Wars fan as there is. What’s great is, I’ve often said if I wasn’t making these Marvel movies I’d be waiting in line to see them but, and this must happen to you too, you’re behind the scenes, you see things, and you’re losing the purity of the experience of being a film fan. I’ve not lost that at all with Star Wars and I don’t want to lose that. I saw The Force Awakens at the premiere but I probably knew less than you about the movie. … The closest I have is sometimes, we were doing Doctor Strange in the vicinity where there were some Star Wars things starting to happen and sometimes I’d try to peek around a corner and see a piece of plywood being turned into a ship of some kind and geek out. So I like being the Star Wars fan that I am.
And yes, he certainly knows how to make a connected cinematic universe successful.
Will Kennedy Leave Lucasfilm?
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Kennedy won’t leave Lucasfilm at some point. I’m guessing that the prestigious producer doesn’t want to make Star Wars the remainder of her career in Hollywood. If I were to guess, and this is purely a guess at this point, I would think she will at least oversee the company through the release of J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode 9, completing work on the sequel trilogy she has overseen since the very beginning.
And let’s be clear: if Kennedy was to leave the company, it would have nothing to do with the small but vocal subgroup of Star Wars fans who hated The Last Jedi and have been demanding Kennedy’s head on the block – from what I’ve heard, Disney honcho Bob Iger and all of the executives at the company were delighted with how the film turned out and are excited to work with Rian Johnson further on his planned trilogy.
Here we are just a year later, and Crash is back again! All of us at Vicarious Visions are so excited for the release of our brand-new Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped level, Future Tense, which will be available at no additional charge for PS4 players who own Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
We can’t wait to see your reactions to the new level and watch as you all try (and try, and try) to fully conquer the level, including the bonus area, death route, and of course the platinum relic. But before we talk more about Future Tense, let’s talk about what else PS4 players have to look forward to!
Stormy Ascent
For those of you who bought the game last year, you may or may not have picked up our first DLC level, Stormy Ascent. Stormy Ascent is now also available at no additional charge for all PS4 players; just head to the PlayStation Store and download it!
If you’re just now picking up the N. Sane Trilogy for the first time, Stormy Ascent is a notoriously difficult level that was cut during Naughty Dog’s original development of Crash Bandicoot. Last year, we rebuilt it and released it along with a brand-new bonus area for the level. If you’re a fan of hardcore challenges, you won’t want to miss it!
New game updates
Additionally, fans will notice some new updates to the game starting today. These include improved loading times, as PS4 fans will get to experience our exciting new Nitro loading technology! With this new loading behaviour, the game will start loading level content into memory predictively while you play, in addition to dynamically keeping the most frequently used asset in memory.
The result of these optimisations is that you should typically experience loading times nearly as fast as Crash can say “Woah!” I’m also happy to say that we are bringing HDR support to PS4 and PS4 Pro! If both your TV and console support it, HDR will automatically enable when you start the game.
Future Tense
And finally, most exciting of all we have Future Tense, the first ever brand-new level designed for the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy! We’ve built a difficult, dangerous level full of hidden areas to discover. If you haven’t unlocked all of Crash’s abilities in Warped, don’t worry – you’ll still be able to complete the level. But for the completionists and speed runners, you’re going to want to tackle this level with every ability you’ve got.
Future Tense combines the old with the new. While the focus was to design a brand-new level, we still wanted to give the hardcore Crash Bandicoot fans that are versed in development lore something they could recognize, so we paid homage to the Crash Bandicoot cut Waterfall level in a few ways.
The Waterfall level was based on ascending a giant waterfall in a dense jungle, using logs to launch you higher as you go. Future Tense has you ascending a giant skyscraper in an urban jungle, using elevators to take you to the next floor.
We’ve also added the iconic “Waterwheel” hazard from the cut level, and keen-eyed players may spot an area or two of the level that matches silhouettes from the Waterfall level.
With today’s release of Future Tense, Stormy Ascent becoming available at no additional charge, and the PS4 updates, there are more reasons than ever to jump into the world of Crash Bandicoot! We look forward to seeing you there!
