Disney+’s Coming-of-Age Comic Book Adaptation ‘American Born Chinese’ Is Overcrowded, But Endearing: TV Review

Academy Award nominee Elliot Page (The Umbrella Academy) is set to star opposite Hillary Baack (Sound of Metal) in Close to You, a new film from BAFTA-winning writer-director Dominic Savage (I Am…), which has wrapped production in Canada.

selectively focuses on the comic book legend’s career and, to a much lesser extent, his personal life, pruning considerable information about his other ventures and legal disputes as seen on Wikipedia. It’s co-produced by Marvel Studios, so the film, which receives its world premiere at Tribeca Festival and streams on Disney Plus on June 16, expectedly sings his praises.   Lee himself posthumously supplies the first-person voiceover narration, albeit indirectly through various archival interviews and speeches given over the years, which filmmaker David Gelb (“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”) has carefully spliced together based on the chronology of seminal events in his lifetime. To illustrate the narration, Gelb has employed conventional archival footage and photos as well as not-so-conventional comic strips and clay figures.

Pageboy, actor Elliot Page has opened up about their past romance with Kate Mara.Page revealed the relationship happened “right after” they came out as gay in 2014. In 2020, Page later came out as a trans man.In an extract from the book shared with People, Page said: “The first person I fell for after my heart was broken was Kate Mara.”“She had a boyfriend at the time, the lovely and talented Max Minghella.

Things were getting hot behind the scenes on “Juno”.

The hype is real. DC’s The Flash may not be the greatest comic book movie ever made, but it comes damn close. Easily the best in the genre since Spider-Man: No Way Home, this fresh, invigorating and hugely entertaining summer treat is as good as it gets when it comes to cinematic takes on superheroes.

Queens Of The Stone Age have announced a 2023 North American tour titled ‘The End Is Nero’ that kicks off in August.The 28-city-date tour will commence in Sterling Heights, Michigan at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre. From there, the band will make stops in Toronto, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York, Atlanta and more.

All right, let’s do this one more time: (cue propulsive, impossibly cool hip-hop beat): in 2018, despite an oversaturation of ‘Spider-Man’ movies, and just two years after Marvel introduced yet another actor as the character in live-action (just two years after ditching the previous guy), Sony did the unimaginable with “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” Not only did they craft a thrilling, ingenious, inventive, highly original, and entertaining ‘Spider-Man’ like never before, they created the best-animated superhero film ever, and arguably one of the all-time superhero films ever.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday. Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Janelle Monae is hitting the road!

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Nearly every mainstream animated feature (and just about every comic-book movie too) sets a tone and visual design that the audience plugs into; the movie, bold and shiny and clever as it may be, won’t deviate much from that. But the images in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” have an intoxicating unpredictability. The film makes you feel like you’re dropping through the floors of a modern art museum on acid, yet there’s a thrilling moment-to-moment logic to it all. The madly eclectic images express something — an eyeball-tickling explosion of quantum physics, or a subliminal nod to some comic-book style from decades ago that’s so retro it’s new, not to mention bedazzling. This feels like it could have been the first movie designed to earn a thumbs up from Andy Warhol and Stephen Hawking.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Sumerian has acquired the North American rights to brutal coming-of-age story “Mascot,” which had its world premiere in January at Slamdance, and its international premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam the same month. Sumerian is planning a limited theatrical release this year under the English title “Fortunate Son.” The pickup marks the second acquisition for Sumerian’s new film and streaming division, which launched this year. Sumerian founder Ash Avildsen said the film is “a dark, brutally authentic and beautifully shot independent film centered around troubled youth in unorthodox households. It will undoubtedly strike a nerve with audiences who appreciate gritty arthouse drama, as it did with me.”

When it was first announced, “I’m A Virgo” was described as a coming-of-age tale about a 13-foot-tall young Black man finally going outside his home and integrating into the larger world. That alone is an interesting story.

Director Ric Roman Waugh’s drab film fumbles and grumbles through Iran, the United Arab Emirates and eventually Afghanistan as the hunt for CIA Agent Tom Harris (Butler) intensifies. “Kandahar,” to its credit, aspires to be deep. Geopolitics come up, as does the Taliban’s mangled interpretation of the Quran, along with ISIS and other aftershocks of American wars in the Middle East.Really, though, it is just another tiresome and impenetrably brooding Gerard Butler movie in which no event seems to matter any more than the next one — and grimaces are mistaken for drama. Before ho-hum Harris goes on the run, he is posing as a utility worker in Iran while attempting to destroy a nuclear plant.

Rachel Seo Chinese folklore gets a Disney spin in “American Born Chinese,” an eight-episode series created by Kelvin Yu, which landed on Disney+ on Wednesday. An adaptation of the 2006 graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, the series centers on Bay Area teenager Jin Wang (Ben Wang), who becomes entangled in a fantastical quest after a new classmate, Wei-Chen (Jimmy Liu), reveals himself to be the son of the Monkey King and recruits Jin to help him search for the Fourth Scroll. Featuring an all-star cast that includes Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Chin Han, Yann Yann Yeo and Sydney Taylor, “American Born Chinese” recontextualizes ancient history for modern audiences both familiar and unfamiliar with the original stories, bringing together the talents of some of the most prominent Asian actors, writers and directors in entertainment.

James Gunn has revealed his favourite comic book movies of all time.The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 director was appointed co-CEO of DC Studios alongside veteran executive Peter Safran in October last year and he is responsible for a host of forthcoming movie adaptations featuring comic book heroes his Superman: Legacy movie.Speaking to GQ magazine he listed his top five film adaptations of comic books.Coming in at five was 2016’s Deadpool.

The journey for Jin Wang in “American Born Chinese” couldn’t have begun at a more opportune time. The protagonist of Gene Luen Yang’s 2006 graphic novel — now a Disney’s eight-episode series from showrunner Kelvin Yu — springs forth when narratives with an Asian identity are stratospheric-high in demand and popularity.

God, what a terrible thing it is to be a teenage girl. A body once free to roam and run and be transformed by the unforgivable rush of hormones, cunning little tricksters pumped through blood in a mad rush to reach the anti-climatic cusp of adulthood.

Cannes Film Festival in as many days, Catherine Corsini’s “Homecoming” is vastly more interesting than that other film maudit, “Jeanne du Barry,” though the pair make for worthy foils.While Maïwenn’s stuffy historical epic drew protests on the Croisette due to the extracurricular activities of its stars, Corsini’s windswept jaunt very nearly didn’t make the trip – the title was omitted from the competition when news of irresponsible on-set practices broke just before the selection was announced. That the lack of oversight involved a minor seemed to seal the project’s fate before a subsequent investigation and the absence of any formal complaints put the title back on track.

The use of body horror allegories in cinema to address the physical, physiological, and mental changes brought on by puberty could hardly be called original. However, by delightfully and intelligently remixing symbols and metaphors Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu refreshes the concept in her zesty debut feature “Tiger Stripes.”  The term “body horror” could in fact be considered a misnomer in this case, as our fierce lead protagonist Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) doesn’t undergo anything as monstrous as growing a car in her belly or a biogun out of her hand.

“It’s important you keep your expectations in check:” In “Stay Awake,” the prescient debut of director Jamie Sisley, we meet two teenage brothers, Ethan (Wyatt Olef) and Derek (Fin Argus), who not only have to deal with the usual problems of adolescence, but also play the role of caretaker to a deeply depressive and self-destructive mother (Chrissy Metz) in the throes of addiction.