New movies and series, giveaways and screenings! It’s an exciting week of announcements with a lot of things happening. Be sure to check them all out below!
Be sure to see what’s coming to Hulu this Fall and be sure to grab your tickets to the Friends Experience while it’s still in town!
Be sure to stay up to date with the latest movie releases!
Metro Detroit Local Events
- The Friends Experience (Now – September 24th)
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Live In Concert (September 24th)
- Funny Girl (September 26th)
- Company (October 17-29)
- Mrs. Doubtfire (November 14-26)
- Chelsea Handler (December 1st)
- A Very Darren Crissmas (December 10th)
- Johnny Cash – The Official Concert Experience (February 2024)
Screenings
Giveaways
- Dreamin’ Wild Digital Copies (9/25)
- Win a copy of The Nightmare Before Christmas with Collectors Pin Set (10/6)
Movie and Series Review
Movie and Entertainment Updates:
World Premiere of A THOUSAND PINES at the NY Latino Film Fest – September 15-24th
A Thousand Pines, a co-production with ITVS and Latino Public Broadcasting, is an engrossing vérité documentary that shows the day-to-day life of migrant workers who labor in America’s lucrative timber industry. The insightful documentary will have its world premiere at the New York Latino Film Festival, taking place September 15-24, 2023, to be followed by other national and international film festivals, and a broadcast premiere on PBS’s Independent Lens in the first semester of next year.
Directed by Noam Osband and Sebastián Díaz, A Thousand Pines is set in the beautiful and sometimes unforgiving landscape of the United States’ national forests. The first documentary to tell the story of workers in the US timber industry follows Raymundo Morales, the foreman of a crew of migrant workers from Oaxaca, Mexico, who depend on the controversial guest worker visa program. Filmed over the course of a year, between their hometown and the US, they must make the decision every year if they will leave their families in rural Mexico, or if they will return for another eight-month season of planting commercial pine forests.
The documentary follows the crew for a year, during an entire season of planting and their short time back home with their families. They struggle to balance the job’s physical demands and its extreme isolation while remaining connected to their families back home. As the season progresses, they become a small family, cooking and caring for each other in order to endure the punishing work.
Raymundo is in his 20th season working for the largest reforestation company in the US. When he began, he was single and had few responsibilities. Now, however, he must balance his obligations to his wife, his children, and his elderly mother with a heart condition, while also tending to the needs and emergencies of the planting crew. For Raymundo, who spends a few months at home during the off-season, his job is both the family’s salvation and its heartbreak.
A Thousand Pines was born out of co-director Osband’s work as an anthropologist investigating American, Canadian, and Mexican tree planters. He worked several seasons in the role to understand the lives of workers inside the US wood production industry, the world’s largest producer of wood and paper products.
With unprecedented access inside the forestry industry and migrant communities, Osband and Díaz, himself an immigrant, take an emotional journey into a never-before-seen world of reforestation workers. Featuring two songs by Grammy-winning singer Lila Downs, A Thousand Pines is a tale of labor and family that shines a light into an underreported aspect of immigration and honors their sacrifices.
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL – In Theaters September 22nd
IFC Films is proud to present THE ORIGIN OF EVIL, a darkly entertaining thriller from queer writer and director Sébastien Marnier (SCHOOL’S OUT, FAULTLESS). The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival and went on to garner further acclaim at notable fests including Toronto, BFI London, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and Frameline’s LGBTQ+ Intl. Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. The film will open in select theaters and on demand on Friday, September 22nd.
SYNOPSIS – In this diabolical Hitchockian thriller, a working class woman named Stéphane (marvelously played by Laure Calamy of Call My Agent!) is on the brink of ruin, with her girlfriend (Suzanne Clément, Laurence Anyways) behind bars, her factory job driving her mad, and her living situation influx. When Stéphane gets in touch with wealthy Serge (Jacques Weber), announcing that she is his long-abandoned daughter, his immediate family are none too thrilled. As Stéphane embarks on an extended visit in hopes of getting to know Serge, she also becomes entangled with the hostile women who share a tense existence in his beautifully appointed mansion by the sea: the restaurateur’s wife (Dominique Blanc), his other daughter (Doria Tillier), a rebellious granddaughter (Céleste Brunnquell), and a strangely off-putting housemaid, all of whom are clearly unsettled by the arrival of Serge’s newly announced heir. But Stéphane is a confident liar with secrets of her own, which writer-director Sébastien Marnier teases out with cool assurance in this wildly entertaining thriller that will keep you guessing all the way to the end.
EXPEND4BLES | IN THEATERS THIS FRIDAY – September 22nd
A new generation of stars join the world’s top action stars for an adrenaline-fueled adventure in Expend4bles. Reuniting as the team of elite mercenaries, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Sylvester Stallone are joined for the first time by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy Garcia. Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give “new blood” a whole new meaning.
Lionsgate and Millennium Media present A Nu Boyana Studios and Templeton Media Production in Association With Grobman Films in Association with Media Capital Technologies.
NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY | On All Major Digital TVOD Platforms Friday, September 22nd
During the Cold War, the CIA secretly raised a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. The six-year operation included an intricate cover story by billionaire Howard Hughes. Drawing on declassified documents and never-before-seen interviews, NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY tells one of the highest-stakes yet least known stories of the Cold War.
UÝRA THE RISING FOREST, September 25th on PBS’ POV Series
Multi Emmy® Award-winning series, POV, illuminates Indigenous contemporary visual artist Uýra in director Juliana Curi’s feature documentary debut, Uýra: The Rising Forest. The lyrical and eye-popping film follows Uýra as they travel through the Amazon forest on a journey of self-discovery using performance art and ancestral messages to teach Indigenous youth the significance of identity and place, and how to confront structural racism and transphobia in Brazil. The inspiring film is produced by João Henrique Kurtz, Curi, Lívia Cheibub and Martina Sönksen, and co-produced by Uýra Sodoma.
Uýra: The Rising Forest, a co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) and Peril and Promise, a public media initiative from The WNET Group, makes its national broadcast premiere on Monday, September 25, 2023 at 10pmET/9C (check local listings) and will be available to stream until December 24, 2023 via pbs.org, and the PBS App.
Now in its historic 36th season, POV continues to share bold, visionary stories as America’s longest running non-fiction series on television. In addition to standard closed captioning for all films, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.
In 1980, the town of Manaus in the Brazilian state of Amazonas had a river running through its center, providing the community with an abundance of fresh water. However, officials began to encourage the dumping of garbage into the river which impacted the health of the community. Now, decades later the artist Uýra conducts a performance piece dressed as a river creature dying in the middle of the debris to the crowds above them.
Director Curi follows Uýra’s journey as it takes them into the lush forests of the Amazon and beyond, gathering a group of LGBT members together through cultural centers and riverside communities. They share ancestral knowledge with Indigenous youth in the Amazon to promote the significance of identity and place, threatened by Brazil’s far right oppressive political regime led by president Jair Bolsonaro and five centuries of severe colonial indigenous policies.
Through dance, poetry, and stunning characterization, Uýra confronts historical racism, transphobia, and environmental destruction, while emphasizing the interdependence of humans and the environment. Visually stunning—with impeccable cinematography by Thiago Moraes ‘Quadrado’—Uýra: The Rising Forest, written by Juliana Curi and Martina Sönksen, blurs the lines between documentary and fiction, showing that it’s possible to address Brazil’s structural violence while honoring the poetic aesthetic and enchantment of the Amazonian territory.
“After watching Juliana Curi’s, Uýra: The Rising Forest, all of us on the American Documentary team knew it was something special,” said Erika Dilday, Executive Director, American Documentary and Executive Producer, POV and America ReFramed. “The film’s cinematic brilliance is breathtaking. Juliana’s emotional intelligence in capturing the intersectionality between queerness, the environment, indigenous youth culture, mentorship and performance art is unmatched. This is a story that we know will transfix our audiences. At a time when misinformation and anti-LGBTQ sentiment has been in headlines across the U.S., it is more important than ever that we put front-and-center stories by and about non-binary artists.”
“We could not approach this story with cartesian and linear perspectives,” said director Juliana Curi. “We realized during the investigation process and filming that poetry and metaphor can have a powerful impact when we talk about socio-cultural issues. And, that this story has the power to break with the false segmentation that divides art films and social justice.”
“Uýra: The Rising Forest has already traveled to indigenous and riverside communities in the Amazon, has been shown in more than 35 film festivals around the world, and now reaches POV, one of the most relevant a communication channel in the world that supports films that can promote social and political change as they dismantle foundational myths that support the homophobic, transphobic and racist mechanisms in our society.”
Uýra: The Rising Forest, made its world premiere at Frameline46: The San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival in 2022, where it won the Audience Award For Best Documentary. It won Best Documentary at the New Filmmakers LA Film Festival, the Grand Jury Award at NewFest’s 34th Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, the Special Programming Award for Freedom at the 2022 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, the Jury Prize at London Film Week, Best Feature Documentary at the 2023 One World Media Awards in the United Kingdom, and was named the Best Indigenous Feature at the 2022 BendFilm Festival.
Works by Uýra are currently being shown at a solo exhibit at the Currier Museum of Art. Uýra uses organic elements (such as foliage, bark, fibers, plumage, and natural dyes) to create elaborate costumes that blur conventional separations between humans, animals, and plants. The hybrid creatures and performance freely move between the forest and the city, ultimately commenting on the impact of anthropocentrism and industrialization.
Uýra: The Rising Forest is a co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), Peril and Promise, a public media initiative from The WNET Group, and POV. The director is Juliana Curi and the producers are João Henrique Kurtz, Juliana Curi, Lívia Cheibub, and Martina Sönksen. The co-producer is protagonist Uýra Sodoma. Juliana Curi and Martina Sönksen are the writers and Thiago Moraes ‘Quadrado’ is the cinematographer. The executive producers are Lívia Cheibub, João Henrique Kurtz, and Erika Dilday, Justine Nagan, and Chris White for American Documentary.
Uýra: The Rising Forest will be available for streaming concurrently with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.
Hulu Original “Love in Fairhope” – New Trailer – Streaming September 27th
If you were given the chance to bring your fantasy love story to life on TV, how would it look? Would it be a picture-perfect fairy tale or something a bit messier? This uniquely unscripted romantic series follows five women at different stages in their lives as they experience reimagined romance in the picturesque small town of Fairhope, Alabama, a tight-knit community where everyone knows everyone else’s business and matters of the heart matter most. In “Love in Fairhope,” real people star in a story inspired by their own where fantasy and reality collide.
STORY AVE – Trailer now Available – Opens in Theaters September 29th
South Bronx teen Kadir (Asante Blackk) is a gifted visual artist who loses his way following the death of his younger brother. Overcome with grief and struggling with the pressures of school and family, he escapes into the thrilling yet dangerous world of graffiti gangs. To prove himself and join his neighborhood’s ruling gang, Kadir tries to rob no-nonsense MTA conductor Luis (Luis Guzmán), but is caught off guard when Luis agrees to give Kadir cash if he’ll sit down to have a meal with him. Following their conversation and the delicate, transformative friendship that grows out of it, Kadir sees for the first time how his artistic talent could lead to a better life.
OBJECTS debuts on North American streaming platforms October 3rd
Objects is a documentary that looks at the connection we all have to the things that keep us tied to our pasts, our memories, and continue to be touchstones for our emotional journeys. The film profiles three people who have grown profound emotional connections to things they came upon, accidentally, at pivotal moments in their lives and have held onto ever since. That trio includes NPR correspondent and former Radiolab co-host Robert Krulwich, who has kept a clump of grass for fifty years, author Heidi Julavits, who has saved and preserved wardrobe from an obscure French actress from the 50s, after the woman’s life became an object of fascination, a puzzle to solve, for her, and graphic designer Rick Rawlins, who among other cherished keepsakes, has safeguarded a sugar egg he received as a child for four decades.
Objects is a playful rejection of the minimalist lifestyle movement, examining the motivations behind the human desire to hold on to things, despite the societal pressure to downsize possessions. The interwoven stories of the three main subjects challenges the notion that holding onto things is inherently negative, and ultimately reveals how the act of preserving things can help us hold on to our place in the world, maintain a sense of self and identity and perhaps even stave off the inevitable toll of time.
SHE CAME TO ME – in Detroit theaters on Friday, October 6th
The wonder and beauty of a fairy tale, the absurdist humor of a classic screwball comedy and the tough and tender naturalism of independent film converge in She Came to Me, the latest feature from writer-director Rebecca Miller.
Just weeks before the deadline for his latest commission, composer Steven Lauddem (Golden Globe® winner Peter Dinklage) has lost the creative spark that brought him international acclaim. At the urging of his ever-patient wife Patricia (Academy Award® winner Anne Hathaway), he searches for inspiration on the Brooklyn waterfront and finds it in Katrina (Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei), a thrill-seeking tugboat captain docked in Red Hook, who soon has Steven questioning everything in his life.
Meanwhile, Patricia is experiencing a spiritual crisis of her own that she conceals under a mask of tranquil perfection. As Patricia and Steven wrestle separately with their doubts, their 18-year-old son Julian (Evan Ellison) embarks on a romance with 16-year-old Tereza (Harlow Jane) which threatens to derail both their futures. Also starring Joanna Kulig and Brian d’Arcy James as the girl’s disapproving parents, She Came to Me is a giddy and unforgettable portrayal of the transformational power of love.
THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER – ‘A Look Inside’ Featurette – In Theaters October 6th
Exactly 50 years ago this fall, the most terrifying horror film in history landed on screens, shocking audiences around the world. Now, on Friday, October 6, a new chapter begins. From Blumhouse and director David Gordon Green, who shattered the status quo with their resurrection of the Halloween franchise, comes The Exorcist: Believer.
Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar® nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; One Night in Miami, Hamilton) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) on his own.
But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia O’Neill), disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.
For the first time since the 1973 film, Oscar® winner Ellen Burstyn reprises her iconic role as Chris MacNeil, an actress who has been forever altered by what happened to her daughter Regan five decades before.
The film also stars Emmy winner Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale, Hereditary) as Victor and Angela’s neighbor, and Grammy winner Jennifer Nettles (Harriet, The Righteous Gemstones) and two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon, Bloodline) as the parents of Katherine, Angela’s friend.
When The Exorcist, based on the best-selling book by William Peter Blatty, was released, it changed the culture forever, obliterating box office records and earning 10 Academy Award® nominations, becoming the first horror film ever nominated for Best Picture.
The Exorcist: Believer is directed by David Gordon Green from a screenplay by Peter Sattler (Camp X-Ray) and David Gordon Green, from a story by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills), Danny McBride (Halloween trilogy) and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by William Peter Blatty.
The film is produced by Jason Blum for Blumhouse and by David Robinson and James G. Robinson for Morgan Creek Entertainment.
The executive producers are Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Stephanie Allain, Ryan Turek and Atilla Yücer. Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse/Morgan Creek Entertainment production in association with Rough House Picures.
AMERICANISH – Theatrical Release on October 6th
Welcome to America: Where dreams come true…ish. A break from the traditional romantic comedy, Americanish highlights different layers of womanhood as they intersect with cultural and societal expectations. Americanish invites viewers into the home and lives of three marriage-aged women as they navigate the often turbulent waters of romance, culture, career, and family. We follow the joys and tribulations of career-driven sisters Maryam and Sam Khan, and their fish-out-of-water cousin Ameera. Set in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, the film follows a relatable and endearing storyline offering a fresh perspective on classic rom-com tropes. Americanish delves into the complexity of trying to both honor and break from cultural traditions while balancing personal values and career goals in a society that does not always accommodate both.
MIRANDA’S VICTIM – In Theaters and On Demand October 6th
Based on true events, in 1963 eighteen-year-old Trish Weir (Abigail Breslin) is kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Her assailant, Ernesto Miranda (Sebastian Quinn), confesses without legal representation and serves a two-year sentence, only to have the verdict later overturned. In the resulting retrial, a determined prosecutor (Luke Wilson) seeks to hold Ernesto accountable for his crimes, despite grueling opposition from Ernesto’s defense attorney (Ryan Phillippe). What follows is a legal proceeding that forever changes the nation’s justice system.
Sick Girl – in Theaters and Digital/On Demand on October 20th
When Wren Pepper (Nina Dobrev) feels her closest friends slipping away, she lets loose a little white lie that snowballs into a colossal, life-altering event. Jennifer Cram’s feature film debut is a hilarious take on the price of insecurity and the rewards of true friendship. Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs), Dan Bakkedahl (Veep), Brandon Mychal Smith (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and Sherry Cola (Good Trouble) join Dobrev in a brilliant comedy you won’t want to miss.
CAMP HIDEOUT – Available On Digital, On Demand October 24th
When mischievous Noah gets himself into trouble with big-city crooks by accidentally stealing a game controller holding secret information, he escapes to a summer camp run by loud, cranky yet bighearted Falco. Though feeling like a fish out of water, Noah begins to create bonds with camp leader Jake and some of the other kids at camp. After the bad guys track Noah down, the camp kids band together to fend them off, turning their woods into a series of booby traps including bees, zip lines, and slippery decks, and teaching Noah a valuable lesson in sticking together.
KING OF KILLERS- Available on Blu-ray™ and DVD on October 31st
Based on a graphic novel by writer-director Kevin Grevioux, King of Killers follows former Agency hit man Marcus Garan (Alain Moussi) as he attempts to unravel the mystery behind a tragic incident. When offered a $10 million contract to eliminate the world’s greatest assassin, Marcus travels to Tokyo to meet the client (Frank Grillo), but discovers other professional killers have been invited as well. Now Marcus and the others must confront this deadly, mythical assassin…or die trying.
FOR ALL MIND KIND S1 DEBUTS ON BLU-RAY DISC™ November 14th
Imagine a world where the global space race never ended. This thrilling “what if” take on history spotlights the high-stakes lives of NASA astronauts and their families.
DISC DETAILS
BLU-RAY DISCS
- 10 episodes presented in High Definition, split across 4 discs
- 5.1 English audio on each episode
JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL S1 DEBUTS ON BLU-RAY™ AND DVD November 14th
Having left the hollers of Kentucky 15 years ago, Raylan Givens now lives in Miami, a walking anachronism balancing his life as a U.S. Marshal and part-time father of a 15-year-old girl. His hair is greyer, his hat is dirtier, and the road in front of him is suddenly a lot shorter than the road behind.
A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway sends him to Detroit. There he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who’s already slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once and aims to do so again. Mansell’s lawyer, formidable Motor City native Carolyn Wilder, has every intention of representing her client, even as she finds herself caught in between cop and criminal, with her own game afoot as well. These three characters set out on a collision course in classic Elmore Leonard fashion, to see who makes it out of the City Primeval alive.
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES | New Trailer and Poster Now Available – In Theaters November 17th
Experience the story of THE HUNGER GAMES — 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, and decades before Coriolanus Snow became the tyrannical President of Panem.
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates. With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake.
All of Us Strangers – In Theaters December 22nd
From director Andrew Haigh. One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam (Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal), which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before. Cast: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, and Claire Foy
Activities
Leo Rice Turtle Treat inspired by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem!
Not only are we celebrating TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM on Digital now, but it’s also #RiceKrispieTreatDay! Make these “Leo” Rice Turtle Treats and click the link to kick off the fun! Cowabunga! https://bit.ly/TMNTMMCrispyRiceTreats