movies
Jessica Chastain on Other Mommy and Challenging Sorkin at Box Office
Jessica Chastain is back in Scream Queen territory, playing dual roles in the much buzzed-about horror Other Mommy.
The film, based on Josh Malerman‘s 2024 novel Incidents Around the House, follows a family whose house is haunted by a sinister entity that looks and sounds identical to the mother, with both versions played by the star.
Chastain, whose resumé includes horror films It Chapter Two, Mama and Crimson Peak, has a deep love of the genre, recalling at the new movie’s Los Angeles premiere on Thursday that “when I was a kid going to the movies, it was very rare to see a female character that I looked up to. And then I realized that the horror genre had a lot of incredibly strong women that I could recognize as the women around me in my life. Usually the women defeat the monsters in the genre, they’re the heroes, and the other genres that I grew up with I didn’t see that.”
In the months leading up to its release, Other Mommy has gotten lots of attention online for its campy title and premise, as well as its major jump scares — which were first on display when the trailer debuted in theaters in front of The Odyssey, spooking plenty of moviegoers who were not prepared for the horror moment.
“I got really funny texts from my friends and family who went to go see The Odyssey, because I have a lot of friends who love to go to the cinema, so it was really funny,” Chastain noted of the trailer’s viral impact.
Director Rob Savage also weighed in on that unexpected tie-in, revealing, “The thing that was so insane about launching in front of The Odyssey was the movie was far from finished. My phone was blowing up and we were there in the color grade, in the mix, approving VFX shots, being like, ‘Are we going to make release?’ Working for 18 hours a day to get it done. So it was a nice shot in the arm but it was also like, ‘We better have a movie at the end of it.’”
And despite the attention it has brought, the original title of the film was actually not Other Mommy, but Incidents Around the House to line up with the book. Savage — while lamenting how the internet was “annoyed it wasn’t Other Mother” — explained of the change that Other Mommy was simply “a better title,” and “if we’re trying to create the next iconic horror villain, that’s gotta be the foot you lead with.”
The film has faced some harsh reviews but is still set for a big weekend at the box office, opening against Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Reckoning. Chastain starred in Sorkin’s 2017 film Molly’s Game and is also close friends with Social Reckoning star Jeremy Strong (who takes over from Jesse Eisenberg in the Mark Zuckerberg role), so is she feeling any competition as the two movies debut?
“The funny thing is actually Aaron wrote me an email, he’s the one who brought it to my attention. I don’t know if you know this, he’s a bit of a wordsmith, and he sent me a very fun email about it, that we were going head to head. But no competition,” she teased, though is open to a Barbenheimer-style collaboration. “Can we get Zuck in Other Mommy, doing press together?”
Other Mommy is now playing in theaters.
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movies
Jimmy Kimmel Mourns Talk Show’s Costume Designer Rodney Muñoz
The Jimmy Kimmel Live family is mourning the death of costume designer Rodney Muñoz at age 60.
On Friday, the talk show host paid tribute to the late Emmy winner who designed costume for Kimmel’s ABC talk show since 2002, after a friend of Muñoz announced that he died on Oct. 2.
“Our dear friend and Costume Designer for almost 30 years, Rodney Muñoz, has sadly passed away,” wrote Kimmel on Instagram, sharing behind-the-scenes photos of Muñoz’s work on the show.
“Rodney was one of the most talented people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. He was a funny, surly, hard-working man whose tough exterior hid a huge and generous heart. Rodney helped many of us through difficult times. He was a devoted son, brother, and Uncle; a great baker, and a caring friend. No man saw me in my underpants more,” added Kimmel. “We will miss Rodney as he joins his beloved parents in whatever comes next.”
Kimmel’s post comes after Muñoz’s friend Joe Dietl announced his death last weekend, noting that he suffered “many health issues” in recent years after he was diagnosed with COVID, which required him to be put into a coma and on a ventilator.
Born Sept. 4, 1966 in Los Angeles, Muñoz received his BFA and MFA in costume design at NYU, where he graduated in 1993, before going on to work as costume designer on The Late Show with David Letterman from 1995 to 2000.
Following his work with Kimmel on Comedy Central’s The Man Show, Muñoz became the costume designer for Jimmy Kimmel Live! when it launched in 2003.
His work on the ABC talk show earned him a Primetime Emmy in 2010 for Outstanding Costumes for a Variety/Music Program or a Special.
In addition to working in wardrobe on NBC’s Fear Factor in 2002 and the indie gay series Where the Bears Are from 2012 to 2018, Muñoz also designed costumes for the stage in the off-Broadway shows I Sent a Letter to My Love (1995), The Preservation Society (1996) and Ancient History/English Made Simple (1996).
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movies
Chris Rock Takes Scalpel to L.A. in Misty Green, Rosalind Eleazar Stars
Chris Rock delivers something unexpected with his fourth feature as writer-director, Misty Green, a slice-of-life movie that doubles as a bitter kiss-off to Los Angeles and a ride through the hellscape of working in Hollywood, seen through the titular actress as her once-promising career flickers out. But the surprise isn’t the harshness of Rock’s look at modern L.A., or that the beloved comic, who built his name on real talk about race and politics, would center the film on this woman. It’s the stunning performance he draws from British actor Rosalind Eleazar as the salty, self-sabotaging, washed-up Misty.
Before this starmaking turn, Eleazar built a stateside profile on Apple TV’s Slow Horses alongside Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas. She spent four seasons on the critics’ darling as Louisa Guy, a disgraced, mourning MI5 agent. Before that, she appeared in the BBC’s Howards End as Jacky Bast, and in between these prestigious TV roles she worked on English stages, having trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
That varied résumé was a fitting prelude to Misty Green, a chaotic drama that’s messy, complicated and unapologetic, just like the one-time starlet it follows for a week or so as she moves through Los Angeles watching her life unravel.
“She’s so incredibly complicated and contradictory, and you know she’s difficult to get on board with, because she’s so self-destructive,” Eleazar told the audience at this year’s New York Film Festival, where the film premiered this month. “But I have a lot of compassion for people that sort of go out into the world with so many layers of protection. Because they’ve experienced so much hurt and so much pain that they’re constantly fighting, and it’s not necessarily pleasant to be around. But those are the sort of characters that make you want to unpack and figure out what, like, what is it? What makes her go out into the world with such a fierce exterior.”
Over just under two hours, Rock searches for what’s behind Misty’s destructive streak as, on the cusp of losing her housing, she escalates the damage she does to herself. She tells off her agent, then tries to seduce him. She runs into industry types she still resents and has frank conversations with a fellow has-been starlet (Anna Kendrick, doing great work). Then comes a reckless, cocaine-fueled night of sex in a restaurant bathroom with a longtime “friend,” played against type by Adam Driver. (The film makes clear they’re not real friends at all.) It sends her down her darkest path yet.
The decision Misty makes as the film enters its third act is partly precipitated by her bipolar kind-of brother, her lone touchstone to a troubled childhood that’s kept frustratingly vague. As played by the great Daniel Kaluuya, he gives some initial hope that Rock is about to offer a cutting portrait of the mental health crisis among Black Americans. Unfortunately, like the plundering of his heroine’s psyche, it falls by the wayside, and the brother’s story is shoehorned into an unnecessary serial killer subplot.
With occasional photo montages suggesting the perpetual problems of modern L.A., the film is also teeming with characters who fit the most blasé perceptions of Angelenos. Rock clearly has something to say about the city, and it ain’t nice. At NYFF, the comedy icon clarified his beef.
“L.A. is America in a way,” Rock told the crowd at Lincoln Center. “It’s the best of times. It’s the worst of times. It’s the weather and the palm trees and homeless people everywhere, man. Just like, Magnolia. It’s like wow — Skid Row and Rodeo Drive are seven miles apart. So I try to capture all of that.”
Rock, who drifts in and out of the film as a filmmaker, a phantom from Misty’s past and a potential lifeline to a Hollywood future, has been established for more than three decades. His astute stand-up and withering, spot-on insights into race, relationships and celebrity have influenced countless comedians and writers.
As a director, he has made just four films: the comedies Head of State, I Think I Love My Wife and the critical hit Top Five, and now Misty Green. He has described the new one as about the “soul-sucking” nature of Hollywood and who gets redemption. That’s what Misty is seeking throughout, whether she realizes it or not.
“I always felt that acting isn’t the right profession for Misty; even though you’re talented at something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that is the right profession for you,” Eleazar said. “And I think for someone who has her own mental health issues and is also a functioning addict, she actually needs a job that provides a routine, and she needs a slightly smaller life, and a life that’s going to give her a bit of peace.”
At the premiere, Rock offered a related thought.
“It’s important to live in the now,” he said. “It’s that weird thing when you get success at something, especially the way show business is set up right now. You can talk about something you did 30 years ago for a long time. You can do that, but some people have worked, and some people need to live now.”
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movies
‘SNL UK’ Cold Open Features Prince William & Prince Harry Face-Off
The warring Windsors took center stage in the SNL UK cold open.
It was Prince William (Freddie Meredith) and Kate Middleton (Annabel Marlow) vs Prince Harry (Jack Shep) and Megan Markle (Ayoade Bamgboye) at Sandringham, as the family members were fooled into reuniting by the dastardly Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (George Fouracres).
“Look, this is where your grandpa asked if I was related to Beyoncé,” Markle quipped as she reacquainted herself with her surroundings. Harry replied: “Classic. And over here, this is where he asked if I was related to him.”
Enter William and Kate. “If it isn’t Prince Ginger Pubes,” Prince William said. “I told you not to call me that because you know I don’t have a comeback,” responded Harry. “Oh look, William, it’s the woman from Suits,” Middleton chimed in. Harry’s retort: “She’s not on Suits anymore. She doesn’t do anything anymore.”
The reunion was interrupted by King Charles, Camilla, and later a snivelling Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as Fouracres declared: “Did somebody say Pizza Express Woking?!”
When the King dropped the Prince from Andrew’s name, Mountbatten-Windsor growled: “That’s Prince Andrew to you.” Larry Dean’s King Charles clapped back: “Andrew, enough is enough. You’re arrogant. You’re entitled. You represent an outdated institution that has had centuries of war, tax evasion, and slavery, and that’s all great, but you have also been accused of terrible things, and that’s where I draw the line.”
A grovelling Andrew replied to his brother: “I swear, I never believed for one moment that my actions would have consequences.”
Danny Dyer hosted SNL UK Season 2’s fourth episode, with music from Sasha Keable.
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