‘The Invitation’ Film Review: Nathalie Emmanuel Can’t Save Cliched Take on Socially Conscious Horror

could he? And even if he can sign on with a freighter taking cargo to Southeast Asia, what can he do when he gets to Saigon?He embarks on the trip at least partly because nobody he knows thinks he’ll actually do it, and he bumbles his way around Vietnam with a bag full of beer that dispenses so many cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon it starts to feel like a cross between a clown car and Jesus’s loaves and fishes. (Chickie and his pals, Catholics all, would either appreciate or be offended by the Jesus comparison.)The point of the movie, of course, is what Chickie learns in Vietnam — that it’s a quagmire, that the good guys and bad guys aren’t as clear-cut as they might have seemed back at the bar, and that Americans are being lied to about what’s happening by their government. But to learn his lessons, he’s got to find his way around a good chunk of Vietnam, hitching rides on military helicopters because the top brass figures that he must be CIA, since a civilian can’t really be wandering around in country.

Every director, it seems, has a deeply personal coming-of-age story to tell, from Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” to Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” to Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma.” And lately every Toronto International Film Festival has made one of those films a centerpiece of its lineup. Last year, it was Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” which won TIFF’s audience award and went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture; this year, it’s Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” which had its world premiere on Saturday night in the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre.Based on Spielberg’s childhood in New Jersey (briefly), Phoenix (longer) and Northern California (for a stormy stretch in high school), “The Fabelmans” is a sweet look back at a boy who was transfixed by the movies from the moment he saw “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1952, and who started his own adventures in filmmaking with the help of his dad’s camera and a Lionel train set in the basement.

At first pass, “The Woman King” recalls those classic Disney animated fables. Though inspired by real-life warriors who guarded the Kingdom of Dahomey in 19th-century West Africa, the film hits many familiar notes: Ancient mythical land! Palace intrigue! Rebellious orphan! Tough-love mentors! Coming of age! Prince charming! Wicked villain! Good vs. evil showdown! It’s just that here, the tropes aren’t metaphors at all and the story isn’t an allegory. In the Sony Pictures release that premiered on Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, Oscar winner Viola Davis stars as General Nanisca, commander of the Agojie, an all-female army, and adviser to the young King Ghezo (John Boyega), who has recently ascended to the throne.

Blake Shelton may be adding an unexpected guest to his tour.

“Don’t Worry Darling” is a mixture of “The Stepford Wives” and “Get Out” is both accurate and deeply misleading. It’s accurate because Olivia Wilde’s satiric and somewhat frantic psychological thriller does borrow from films like “Stepford,” where an idealized community is one in which the women are dolls designed for male satisfaction, and “Get Out,” which uses horror trappings to grapple with timely issues of power and privilege.

th Century, haunted by unspeakable grief under the recent shadow of the Great Famine. As if to tell a bedtime story, a voiceover softly requests us to consider the complete devotion in which the dwellers of “The Wonder” believe in their own truths.

Game Of Thrones, saying it was “never the show that pleased everybody”.The HBO series, which came to an end in 2019 after eight seasons, gave Emmanuel her international breakthrough in the role of Missandei, who acted as an advisor to Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke).Speaking to NME about the show’s controversial end three years later, Emmanuel said: “It was never the show that pleased everybody or had happy endings. When was it ever doing what everyone wanted it to?“Watching it as Nathalie the fan, I have my favourite characters and my own ideas about what happened to them or who I would love more time with.”Among the criticisms of the final season was the death of Missandei – the only leading woman of colour in the show and a former slave – who was graphically decapitated by The Mountain (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson) in front of Daenerys, Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage).Speaking about the backlash to Missandei’s death, Emmanuel said: “I think her killing really speaks to how there can be more than one person of colour on these big budget shows.“I think when we do these shows in the future, we need to have this idea of inclusion at the forefront and a diversity of thought and ideas all the way up the chain.”The first Game Of Thrones spin-off, House Of The Dragon, debuted last month.

Outlander is one of the most iconic romance fantasy shows of recent years, skyrocketing the careers of leads Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan and creating a global fanbase.

EXCLUSIVE: The Fast & Furious franchise and The Invitation actress has signed with APA.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter If three new movies debut in theaters, but nobody goes to see them… That is how Sony’s creepy thriller “The Invitation” managed to top box office charts with a paltry $7 million. Its win comes with some pretty weak bragging rights; it’s the lowest first-place finish since May 2021, when COVID was keeping people at home. Now, it’s not the pandemic that’s preventing audiences from going to theaters, it’s the lack of appealing options. Overall, the domestic box office generated just $54 million over the weekend, the worst collective result in months. And the bad times are expected to continue until at least late September or early October, when “Don’t Worry Darling” (Sept. 23), “Halloween Ends” (Oct. 14) and the comic book adaptation “Black Adam” (Oct. 21) open in theaters. It’s a disappointing finale to an otherwise strong summer at the movies, which fielded plenty of box office hits including “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Elvis.”

“The Invitation” stars Nathalie Emmanuel and Thomas Doherty know how tough it can be to make a horror movie – the long nights, constant state of fear and, surprisingly, the pressure to deliver a spot-on American accent.Emmanuel stars in “The Invitation” as a young woman named Evie, who takes a trip to Europe and soon discovers that she is being wooed – not to be someone’s wife but to be one of the wives … of Dracula himself (Thomas Doherty). (Don’t you hate it when that happens?) What makes “The Invitation” so refreshing is that it reinvents Bram Stoker’s Dracula mythology through the lens of one of his wives, who are mostly seen (in other adaptations) as sexy femme fatales, usually occupying some musty pit in Dracula’s castle.TheWrap sat down with Emmanuel and Doherty to talk about the film, where they revealed their favorite Dracula adaptations (“Bram Stoker’s Dracula” from Francis Ford Coppola rightfully gets a hearty endorsement) and Emmanuel lets us in on how she crafted a flawless American accent.