‘Mrs. Davis’ review: Hog-riding nun battles evil AI in wild dark comedy

Joy Ride was one of the big winners at CinemaCon 2023!

Daniel Radcliffe and his partner Erin Darke seem to be taking parenthood in their stride. It was confirmed last month that the Harry Potter actor, 33, and the Good Girls Revolt actress, 38, were expecting their first child. The pair were said to be thrilled with the news, with sources saying at the time that they ‘can’t wait to become a family of three.

“Nothing in any future I see can replace the communal theatrical experience,” emphasized Lionsgate Motion Picture Chair Adam Fogelson at the top of Lionsgate CinemaCon presentation, which closed out the 2023 Las Vegas confab this afternoon.

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:

Showing her allegiance. Scheana Shay refused to believe any rumors about Raquel Leviss and Tom Sandoval‘s relationship months before their affair made headlines.

Daniel Radcliffe is officially a daddy!

There’s no denying “Midnight Cowboy” is an absolute classic film. Its power is undeniable.

The filmmaking couple Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have earned a reputation for making documentaries about people who accomplish the unthinkable – the no-ropes climber Alex Honnold in the Oscar-winning Free Solo, or the divers of The Rescue who, against all odds, saved a group of Thai kids stranded in a flooded cave.

J. Kim Murphy “Evil Dead Rise” might not be able to vanquish the soon-to-three-peat box office champion “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” but the horror entry is still chainsawing off its own solid opening on domestic charts. The Warner Bros. release earned $10.3 million from 3,402 locations on Friday, a figure that includes $2.5 million in previews. It’s an auspicious start for the horror entry, which now has a strong chance of outperforming its projections, which had pegged the film with a $15 million to $20 million debut heading into the weekend. That’s not too shabby of a haul for a production originally slated to release directly on HBO Max. “Evil Dead Rise” is the fifth installment in Warner Bros. and New Line’s outlandish horror franchise, as well as the first in 10 years. “Rise” is tracking slightly behind its predecessor, which scored an $11.8 million opening day in April 2013, on its way to a $25.7 million debut.

EXCLUSIVE: MVD Entertainment Group has claimed North American rights to the darkly comedic thriller Wrong Reasons, marking the feature debut of writer-director Josh Roush. The film, executive produced by and featuring Kevin Smith (Clerks III, Red State), is slated for release on digital, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD on August 15.

Jordan Moreau Nothing can keep the dead down. “Evil Dead Rise,” the latest movie in the horror franchise created by Sam Raimi, has made $2.5 million in Thursday previews at the domestic box office. It’s a strong start for a horror movie in April, but it won’t be enough to stop the mushroom-powered, meteoric rise of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which is projected to earn another massive haul with $45 million to $50 million in its third weekend. Universal and Illumination’s hit Nintendo adaptation already has $724 million globally and will soon pass “Minions: The Rise of Gru” as the highest-grossing animated movie in the post-pandemic era. “Evil Dead Rise” is expected to scare up between $15 million and $20 million in its opening weekend, with some predictions as high as $25 million. It’s the fifth movie in Warner Bros. and New Line’s “Evil Dead” franchise, which began way back in 1981 with Raimi’s original, low-budget horror hit starring Bruce Campbell as zombie killer Ash Williams. The previous entry, simply titled “Evil Dead,” made $97.5 million from a $17 million budget in 2013.

Florence + The Machine have shared the moody new track ‘Mermaids’, which explores the grey English weather and society’s darker side.The new single arrived today (April 21), and sees the band pair dark and dance-inspired instrumentals with the ethereal vocals of frontwoman, Florence Welch. It also captures the same essence as seen with their latest full-length effort, 2022’s Dance Fever.Produced by Dave Bayley, the densely layered song references mermaids with “sharp teeth” who appear late at night to drink, dance and “sacrifice a human heart”.With lines including: “I remember falling through these streets / Somewhat out of place, if not for the drunkenness /It makes my chest hurt to think of it,” and “shining under lights from shitty clubs and doing shitty drugs / And hugging girls that smelt like Britney Spears and coconuts,” it’s possible that the track hints at Welch’s nine years of sobriety, and explores a darker side of society.The single comes after several weeks of the band teasing new music on social media.

Alison Herman The Holy Grail, a character in “Mrs. Davis” observes, might be the “most overused MacGuffin ever.” From “Monty Python” to “Indiana Jones,” the mythical chalice is an easy shorthand for a magical object that motivates heroes and antagonists alike. Sister Simone (Betty Gilpin), a nun who spends her days mak- ing strawberry jam at an abbey outside Reno, is the latest protag- onist to set her sights on the Grail. She’s been assigned this quest by an artificial intelligence known as Mrs. Davis, which marries the menace of Skynet with the affable mien of Alexa. For reasons both principled and personal, Simone despises Mrs. Davis, but she’s been extended an offer she can’t refuse: If she finds the Grail and destroys it, Mrs. Davis will destroy herself. As the same supporting player notes: “Algorithms love clichés, and there’s no cliché bigger than the quest for the Holy Grail.”

EXCLUSIVE: Blockers actress Geraldine Viswanathan and Joy Ride‘sMeredith Hagner are joining Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon in Nick Stoller’s wedding comedy You’re Cordially Invited, from Amazon Studios.

A.D. Amorosi Ahmad Jamal, one of the most elegant, eloquent and influential pianists and composers in modern jazz, died on Sunday, his wife, Laura Hess-Hey, and his daughter, Sumayah Jamal, told the Washington Pst. The pianist was 92 and died in Ashley Falls, MA, after a battle with prostate cancer. Renowned for his economical and deliberate style, Jamal – born Frederick Russell Jones in Pittsburgh on July 2, 1930 – was an inspiration to jazz giants such as McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Bill Charlap and Miles Davis. The latter famously recorded Jamal’s composition “New Rhumba” for his 1957 album “Miles Ahead.” In his 1989 autobiography, “Miles,” Davis stated that the pianist “knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement, and the way he phrases notes and chords and passages.” Davis is also renowned for saying, “All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal.”

Betty Gilpin & Jake McDorman are stepping out for the premiere of their new Peacock series!

It is hard to look at any movie with “Exorcist” in its title and not immediately think of William Friedkin’s eternal 1973 Oscar-winning horror classic that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Nevertheless there have been dozens of films of various stripes that have tried to conjure their own magic in this sub-genre, but none that have managed to surpass what Friedkin and screenwriter William Peter Blatty did with that brilliant film.

Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) has announced its in-person programming for CAAMFest 2023 which will take place from May 11 to 21. This year’s festival will kick off with Lionsgates’s anticipated comedy “Joy Ride,” directed by Adele Lim. Opening night will be held at The Castro Theater in San Francisco on May 11 with a commemoration during the opening night gala.  “These last few years have deeply altered us and we are only starting to journey towards each other again,” says festival and exhibitions director Thúy Trần. “CAAMFest 2023 is a call to gather so that we may witness each other’s transformations, restore our bonds, and bask in our joys.” 

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Beef” has raised the stakes. Variety has learned exclusively that Netflix and the creative teams behind the new dark comic series have chosen to seek Emmy Awards consideration as a limited or anthology series instead of a comedy, where many pundits had assumed it would campaign. Starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, the series dropped on the streaming platform on April 6, garnering positive reviews from critics and audiences. Currently, the show sits at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and 92% from audiences. Created by Lee Sung Jin, best known for writing and producing HBO’s “Silicon Valley” (for which he received an Emmy nom for outstanding comedy series in 2015), the darkly comical romp was announced in March 2021 and commissioned as an anthology series for Netflix.

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: