By Creative Media Times

The latest teaser trailer for “Ben Is Back” left us wondering what happens after mother and son reunites on Christmas Eve.

Julia Roberts, who’s had great success in family dramas, and especially following last year’s unexpected massive hit “Wonder,” plays Lucas Hedges’ mother Holly Burns. Hedges recently had a string of successes following Manchester by the Sea, Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

The film looks to be another big acting showcase for the two, and the film’s release date certainly helps its awards season potential. The film will have its world premiere in September at the Toronto Film Festival.

Ben is Back co-stars Courtney B. Vance and Kathryn Newton. Peter Hedges, Lucas’ father, wrote and directed the film. Peter’s directorial efforts include “Dan in Real Life” and “The Odd Life of Timothy Green.”

“Ben Is Back” is set to be released by LD Entertainment, Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions in theaters on December 7. Watch the trailer below.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis:

19 year-old Ben Burns (Lucas Hedges) unexpectedly returns home to his family’s suburban home on Christmas Eve morning. Ben’s mother, Holly (Julia Roberts), is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean. Over a turbulent 24 hours, new truths are revealed, and a mother’s undying love for her son is tested as she does everything in her power to keep him safe. Ben is Back also stars Courtney B. Vance (“The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”) and Kathryn Newton (Lady Bird).”

By Creative Media Times

Amazon Studios

Directed by “Call Me by Your Name” helmer Luca Guadagnino, a clear shift of style for the director, “Suspiria” is a remake of the eponymous 1977 Italian horror classic starring Jessica Harper and directed by Dario Argento. Harper is back the new film in a secondary role.

Dakota Johnson will play Harper’s role as a student who travels to Europe to perfect her dancing in a renowned dance academy, while Swinton will play Madame Blanc, the vice-directress of the academy. Chloë Grace Moretz is the dance student who disappears. The film is scored by Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

“Suspiria” is due out on November 2. Here is the film’s official synopsis:

A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the troupe’s artistic director (Tilda Swinton), an ambitious young dancer (Dakota Johnson), and a grieving psychotherapist (Lutz Ebersdorf). Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.

By Creative Media Times

Academy Award winning director Alfonso Cuaron is back in his first film since sci-fi epic “Gravity.” Netflix has released the first teaser trailer for “Roma,” a story which chronicles a tumultuous year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s.

Said to be Cuaron’s most personal film yet, “Roma” is filmed in black-and-white which perfectly complement’s the film’s ’70s setting.

The much buzzed-about family drama was also written, co-edited, co-photographed, co-produced Alfonso Cuarón and stars Yalitza Aparicio, Marco Graf, Marina de Tavira, Enoc Leaño, Daniela Demesa and Daniel Valtierra.

Roma is set to have its world premiere later this month on August 30, 2018 at the Venice Film Festival, and then followed by screenings at Toronto International Film Festival before it debuts on Netflix and in select theaters this fall, though no specific date has been announced.

Here’s the official synopsis for “Roma”:

A vivid portrayal of domestic strife and social hierarchy amidst political turmoil, ROMA follows a young domestic worker Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) from Mixteco heritage descent and her co-worker Adela (Nancy García), also Mixteca, who work for a small family in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma. Mother of four, Sofia (Marina de Tavira), copes with the extended absence of her husband, Cleo faces her own devastating news that threatens to distract her from caring for Sofia’s children, whom she loves as her own. While trying to construct a new sense of love and solidarity in a context of a social hierarchy where class and race are perversely intertwined, Cleo and Sofia quietly wrestle with changes infiltrating the family home in a country facing confrontation between a government-backed militia and student demonstrators.

https://youtu.be/fp_i7cnOgbQ

By Creative Media Times

Universal Pictures

Peter Farrelly (known for gross-out comedies which he directed with his brother Bobby Farrelly) also wrote the screenplay with Brian Hayes Currie and Nick Vallelonga.

“Green Book” is set to have its world premiere next month at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be released theatrically by Universal Pictures on Nov. 21. Watch the trailer above.

Here is the film’s official synopsis:

When Tony Lip (Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on “The Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger as well as unexpected humanity and humor—they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.

John Carpenter’s “The Fog” to haunt theaters again halloween week. New 4K restoration will roll in October 26 with NYC, LA and Chicago Runs. Screening across U.S. at Alamo Drafthouse Circuit and other venues.

New York based Rialto Pictures will release John Carpenter’s landmark horror movie THE FOG on October 26, in its first-ever major restoration. The horror classic, in a full 4K restoration from Studiocanal, opens October 26 for limited runs at the Metrograph, in New York, Landmark’s Nuart in Los Angeles, and The Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

Additional screenings will occur during the week of Halloween throughout the Alamo Drafthouse circuit and other specialty theaters.

Carpenter’s first post-Halloween venture into the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired, apocalyptic vein that he would continue to mine in films like The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987), THE FOG depicts the seaside California town of Antonio Bay in the grips of an ancient curse and a creeping mist. Drenched in malevolent atmosphere and packing an ensemble cast that includes Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins, Hal Holbrook and the mother-daughter duo of Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis, this is the director at his ingenious, chilling best, servicing a contemporary taste for gore while simultaneously evoking the spirit of Val Lewton.

https://youtu.be/swm90pQgFiQ

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By Creative Media Times

Warner Bros. Pictures

The trailer is cute and uplifting which should delight fans and family audiences. Channing Tatum provides the voice of Migo, a bright and young Yeti who discovers a human, a discovery which could potentially cause uproar and panic in his community.

Karey Kirkpatrick directed the animated comedy adventure film. Also a talented screenwriter, he wrote animated classics “Chicken Run,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and directed 2006’s “Over the Hedge.”

The cast also includes Zendaya, Gina Rodriguez, Danny DeVito, Yara Shahidi, Jimmy Tatro, Ely Henry, and LeBron James.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis:

“Smallfoot” turns a myth upside down when a bright young yeti finds something he thought didn’t exist—a human. News of this “smallfoot” throws the simple yeti community into an uproar over what else might be out there in the big world beyond their snowy village, in an all new story about friendship, courage and the joy of discovery.

From Warner Animation Group, “Smallfoot” is set to be released on September 28, 2018. See the film’s final trailer below.

By Creative Media Times

Sam Rockwell is back in action/comedy turf with “Blue Iguana,” a new comedy heist from Screen Media.

This time, he is teaming up with Parks and Recreation’s Ben Schwartz, and together they play former convicts hired by a laywer (Phoebe Fox of The Woman in Black: Angel of Death) to steal a rare jewel in London, where things go terribly wrong.

The film is Rockwell’s latest following his Oscar winning performance in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” from earlier this year. He also recently appeared in the biopic “Woman Walks Ahead” opposite Jessica Chastain.

Written and directed by British filmmaker Hadi Hajaig, the film co-stars Phoebe Fox, Simon Callow, Amanda Donohoe and Frances Barber.

Blue Iguana is set for release in theaters and On Demand on August 24 through Screen Media Films.

Here’s the film’s synopsis:

Small time crooks Eddie and Paul are in over their heads when a cute London lawyer hires them to steal a rare jewel. Meanwhile, a mullet-haired gangster wants the gem for himself. Bullets and sparks fly in this pond-hopping comedic caper.