Do you ever find yourself really liking an actor or actress even though there isn’t a film of theirs that really thrills you? Margot Robbie is like that to me. I’ve liked her ever since I first saw her in Wolf of Wall Street (even though she wasn’t much more than a pretty face in that one). I’ve only only seen her in a few other things and most of those have been bad (I’m looking straight at you, Suicide Squad) and the things I haven’t seen have not been well reviewed. I did really enjoy her performance in I, Tonya but that’s one movie out of dozens she’s been in and yet if asked I’d say I was very much a fan of hers.
She just has that movie-star presence. Obviously, she’s very attractive, but she’s also got that X-factor, that thing that huge stars have that make people like her and want her to do well. I want her to star in awesome movies. I want to see her in lots of stuff. Which is ultimately why I’m picking Terminal this week even though it got dreadful reviews and was whisked right out of the theaters and into home video before I even knew it was out.
Robbie stars as a mysterious woman who gets mixed up in a dangerous plot hitched by a mysterious employer who has hired two hitmen for a dangerous and mysterious mission. It also stars Simon Pegg and Mike Myers. The trailer has a cool-looking noir feel for it and one reviewer called it a mix between Sin City and Alice in Wonderland. Bad reviews be damned, that sounds like fun to me.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
The Endless: Two brothers receive a cryptic video message inspiring them to revisit the UFO death cult they escaped decades earlier. A supernatural thriller ensues. Unlike Terminal, The Endless has gotten great reviews, has virtually no big-name actors, and was made on the cheap. Maybe I should have picked this instead.
Female Trouble (Criterion Collection): John Waters directed this film from 1974 which stars Waters’ muse Divine as a spoiled girl who runs away from home, gets raped, has a baby, and winds up a fashion model for a pair of beauticians who like to photograph women committing crimes. I’ve not seen it but I assume it will contain the usual mix of John Waters’ trashiness, humor, and extremely low production values. I’m so glad Criterion has started putting out his films.
The Addiction: Arrow Video is releasing this special edition of Abel Ferrara’s urban vampire flick. Davy has our review.
The Curse of the Cat People: I have randomly been hearing lots of great things about Cat People, the 1942 drama about an American man who marries a Serbian immigrant and fears that she will turn into the titular character if they are intimate. Robert Wise co-directed this sequel from a couple of years later, which is now being released by Shout Factory.
The Virgin Spring (Criterion Collection): Ingmar Bergman’s drama about a young woman being brutally attacked and then avenged by her parents stirred controversy when it was first released but is now considered one of Bergman’s many classics.
Spinning Man: Pierce Brosnan, Guy Pearce, and Minnie Driver star in this thriller about a professor whose many affairs with his students makes him the prime suspect when a young woman goes missing.
