Review: 'Horns' starring Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple

After graduating from the magical confines of Harry Potter, it would have been easy for Daniel Radcliffe to simply sit back and continue to do what's familiar. Instead we've seen quite the unpredictable streak; embracing his dark side in the Gothic horror The Woman in Black, playing Beat Generation writer Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings, and even venturing into traditional rom-com territory in What If. Horns brings Radcliffe back into the realm of the supernatural, but also into territory he's never tread: film noir, dark comedy, and Greek tragedy.

Directed by Alexandre Aja based on the devilishly fun novel by Joe Hill, Horns is a gear shift not only for Radcliffe, but for the filmmaker as well. Aja has mostly kept busy in the horror genre, but has never really planted a flag in a specific style. So a psychotically tense film like High Tensionfeels nothing like the goofy, exploitative Piranha, which doesn't come close to resembling The Hills Have Eyes. His diverse ability makes Aja perhaps the most obvious choice to handle an odd mix of tones, although the results are a little bit messy in execution.

Radcliffe is Ig Parrish, the suspect in the rape and murder of his girlfriend Merrin, played by Juno Temple in yet another role that finds her as the surreal object of desire. The small-town residents all hate Ig with a passion and believe he's gotten away with the crime; even the local media has him pegged as the killer. But Ig insists he's innocent, drowning himself in alcohol and vowing to avenger Merrin's death by finding the true killer by any means necessary. And as if his prayers had been answered, the following morning sees him waking up with two magical horns sprouting from his head that force others to confess their deepest, darkest sins. Here is where Aja seems most comfortable, indulging in the bizarre and comical side of Ig's investigation into his newfound powers. Basically, Ig brings out the worst in everybody. A hateful bartender wants to burn his own bar to the ground; a pair of cops reveal their deep passion for one another; and a gaggle of news reporters break out into a pier six brawl just to get a scoop. Even Ig's twitchy musician brother (Joe Anderson) is susceptible, but his altruistic childhood friend Lee (Max Minghella) is strangely immune.  The townsfolk's deep-rooted revelations only get weirder by the encounter, and soon Ig has thrown everything and everyone into chaos. Perhaps it's due to our affinity for Radcliffe, but Ig remains a sympathetic character despite his clear enjoyment of the damage he's causing. Or more likely it's because the people he meets are so depraved. Heather Graham is terrific as a fame-whoring waitress who lied to the cops about Ig just so she could get on the news. These people deserve whatever they get, but does Ig deserve to give it to them? The screenplay by Keith Bunin teases but barely considers Ig's use of his satanic gifts.

It's as Aja transitions into serious mode that things get a little messy. Through Ig's drunken flashbacks we're treated to what amounts to a whimsical, nostalgic romance, and while it's beautifully shot it doesn't conform to the dark tidings of the present. As Ig learns more and begins closing in on the suspect, he understandably grows more demonic with rage, and the film begins to embrace its horror aspects fully. But it can't completely escape the silliness of what came before, except during the truly heartbreaking scenes with Merrin's distraught father (David Morse), who believes his daughter was murdered by the man she loved.  Plenty of sinister revelations are to come, and numerous red herrings are thrown out, but other than Ig few of the suspects are interesting enough to be compelling.  That's not a knock on the performances, which are solid all around. This is Radcliffe's show, though, and it's genuinely fun to watch him in something this weird that is clearly aiming for mature audiences. Not only does he drop a lot of F-bombs, he does some truly heinous things that are very un-Harry Potter. With his scruffy beard and sullen eyes, Radcliffe looks like a man who has lost love only to find sadness and rage, and it's a tragic side to the actor that we've rarely had a chance to see. He's great here, but these Horns just aren't as sharp as they could have been.

Rating: 3 out of 5

For more, check out my interview with Alexandre Aja here!  Horns is available now On Demand!

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Katie Aselton Joins 'Sea of Trees'; Yolanda Ross Heads to 'Meadowland'; Heather Graham Casts 'Half Magic'

 Mark Duplass' multi-talented (and extremely funny) wife Katie Aselton (The League, Black Rock) has joined Matthew McConaughey,  Ken Watanabe, and Naomi Watts in Gus Van Sant's Sea of Trees. She'll play McConaughey's mistress in the film about two men who meet in Japan's "Suicide Forest" with plans to kill themselves, but instead embark on a journey of self-discovery. [THR]

I've raved about John Sayle's film Go for Sisters here in the past, in particular the lead performance by Yolanda Ross, and so it's good to see her getting a little bit of attention from others. She's joined the cast of Meadowland, reuniting with her Yelling to the Sky director, Reed Morano. The film stars Olivia Wilde, Elisabeth Moss, Luke Wilson, and Natasha Lyonne in the story of a couple whose son disappears, setting the wife (Wilde) on a dangerous journey in which she seeks a relationship with a neglected boy. Ross will play one of Wilde's colleagues. [Blackfilm]

Heather Graham is set to direct, write, and star in Half Magic, a film she's been developing for awhile and is finally moving forward on. In fact she's up and skipped out on Neil Labute's upcoming stage play in order to focus on the film now that all of the pieces have fallen into place. Co-starring Josh Lucas, the story centers on "a woman who wants a nice guy and great sex, preferably in the same package. "  [Deadline]

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Review: 'Behaving Badly' Starring Selena Gomez and Nat Wolff

A number of really talented people make appearances in the wretchedly unfunny teen sex comedy Behaving Badly; so many that you wonder if a producer has incriminating photos stashed somewhere. Not that there are a lot of expectations for a film so obscure even Selena Gomez's fans don't know it exists, and likely won't have a kind word to say about it even if they do. It's the kind of film where one can sense writer/director Tim Garrick throwing in every half-assed idea he can think of in hopes something works, but when nothing does turning up the raunch is his only fall-back plan.

Nat Wolff, who was excellent as a blind cancer victim in The Fault in Our Stars, must've been blind to agree to this humorless farce that wants to be outrageous and risque but comes up limp. Wolff plays Rick, and in the opening moments we get close-up of his crotch followed by the admission he has somehow contracted crabs. Yep, that's the level of moronic humor that is quickly established and becomes the standard throughout a painful 96 minutes. So what's Rick's deal? He's supposedly a virgin but that's not really a big deal because every hot piece of tail is throwing it his way. That includes his best friend's frisky mom (Elisabeth Shue), a smokin' drug-addled lawyer (Heather Graham), and random prostitutes. His mother (Mary Louise Parker) is a raging drunk, but she also appears as some sort of dominatrix-clad guardian angel. What that's all about is unclear and pointless to the "plot" anyway.

But for all the sex Rick can get he really has eyes for one girl, the saintly Nina (Gomez) who he has had a thing for all his life. She's the model of goodie two-shoes perfection and wholesomeness, certainly too nice for an awkward sex fiend like Rick. Of course she takes a liking to him, anyway, even as he gets neck deep in trouble with the local Mafia. Why's the Mafia in this? You got me. But then again there's not much explanation for Jason Lee appearing as a priest of suspect morals, or Dylan McDermott as a sex-crazed strip club owner. Notice a theme here? Sexual perversion has never seemed so tame, and as Garrick piles on one "outrageous" situation after another it only gets more desperate.

Not helping matters is a completely uninspiring performance by Wolff, and it's hard to tell if he's just bored or terribly miscast. Ultimately it doesn't matter, does it? He actually makes things considerably worse and every scene he's at the center of more painful than the last. Gomez is kind of fun in a squeaky clean misplaced Disney starlet sort of way (kind of like Spring Breakers), but that seems to be the only role she's capable of playing. And I have to admit getting a chuckle from Shue's endless flaunting of her rack, reminding me of her unsung performance in the trashy crime flick, Palmetto. But those are hardly enough reason to suffer through a movie this lazy and lacking in any laughs.  Those who don't run away screaming from Behaving Badly after 10 minutes will spot a brief cameo by Justin Bieber. What drags him into a movie like this? It was shot more than two years ago back when he and Gomez were still a tabloid item. Can't imagine why this has been sitting on the shelf for so long...

 Rating: 1 out of 5

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Daniel Radcliffe Has a Devilish New Look in First 'Horns' Trailer

Hard to believe that in all those years Daniel Radcliffe was Harry Potter he never had occasion to greet his rabid fans at San Diego Comic-Con. This despite there being a sizable number of attendees dressed as Hogwarts faculty and alumni, mixed with the occasional Death Eater. But Radcliffe will be making a trip to Comic-Con later this month, and the film that finally got him there is Horns. To help tease his appearance the first trailer for the film has been released and it promises a Radcliffe you've never seen before.

Horns is based on the popular novel by Joe Hill, and those who have read the novel know he's inherited his dad Stephen King's gift for horror. Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) directs the adaptation which stars Radcliffe as Ig Parrish, who is accused in the rape and murder of his girlfriend. Waking up in the woods after a hard night of drinking, Ig discovers he's sprouted two small magic horns on his head that force others to indulge their worst urges and confess sins. Using his newfound abilities Ig tries to discover the truth behind the crime.

Also starring Max Minghella, Juno Temple, Heather Graham, Kelli Garner, Joe Anderson, and James Remar, Horns opens in the UK on October 31st but has yet to gain a U.S. date. 


Horns Official Teaser Trailer (2014) Daniel Radcliffe Horror HD by Newest Trailer

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Selena Gomez and Nat Wolff are 'Behaving Badly' in New Trailer

The month of August has not been nice to Selena Gomez. Last year she appeared in the laughable car chase flick, Getaway, which ended up on the "crap list" for a lot of folks and deservedly so. This summer she's starring in another film that doesn't look so hot, a comedy titled Behaving Badly, and despite a cast of some pretty big names the film is being dumped into limited release with little fanfare.

Shot in only twenty days about two years ago, the film is an adaptation of Ric Browd's novel, While I'm Dead Feed the Dog, and basically this looks like something that should be on the Disney Channel. The Fault In Our Stars' Nat Wolff stars as 16-year-old Rick Stevens who has the hots for Nina (Gomez), but to win her heart he'll have to deal with a whole cast of crazy characters. Heather Graham plays a sexy attorney, Elisabeth Shue a sexy neighbor, Mary Louise Parker a sexy saint, and...well, you probably get the drift. Dylan McDermott, Jason Lee, Gary Busey, and Cary Elwes co-star.

Behaving Badly opens August 1st, directed by Tim Garrick.

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Review: 'The Hangover Part III', starring Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis

When The Hangover first knocked us out four years ago, it was a complete revelation. Here we are with this fresh, uniquely-structured comedy full of gonzo characters, a wacky premise, and enough quotable lines to make it an instant classic. And to be fair, that's exactly what it was and still is; an instant classic. It made nearly $500M, basically guaranteeing a sequel, which took the fabled Wolfpack to Bangkok for an overly-familiar story most couldn't hang with.  For me it was less interesting and certainly predictable, but hardly an utter failure. No, that distinction was saved for The Hangover Part III, a comedy which is never funny, strains to be offensive, and seems to have replaced its memorable group of trouble-finding buds with lame imposters.

It's worth noting that things haven't been the same since the original film's scribes Scott Moore and Jon Lucas departed, putting the writing reigns in the hands of franchise director Todd Phillips, who apparently has no idea what The Hangover actually is. It's certainly not a crime movie, but what he gives us is essentially Bad Boys-lite, rather than the Wolfpack's latest drug-crazed night on the town. It's classic overcompensation in the worst way. The sequel took so much flack that Phillips has gone completely overboard in wrapping up the trilogy in a completely new way. In that he's successful. The film bears almost no resemblance to the others, but....doesn't that also sort of defeat the purpose? Who wants to see a 'Hangover' movie that isn't The Hangover??

Weirdly fascinated with the idea of dead animals, the film begins with the accidental decapitation of a giraffe thanks to one of Alan's schemes gone wrong. After a heated argument with his father (Jeffrey Tambor), who immediately thereafter dies from a heart attack (sensing a theme here?), Stu, Phil, and Doug (the group's damsel in constant distress) mount an intervention, convincing Alan to go to a rehab facility in Arizona. Think they make it? Of course not. The mistakes of the first film roar back as they are waylaid by Black Doug (Mike Epps), who quickly grows tired of the not-so-subtle racism of the nickname, and a new villain named Marshall (John Goodman), who wants the Wolfpack to track down their manic frenemy, Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong), who has run off with $21M of his gold. “You introduced a virus into my life, Mr. Chow,”he bellows as Doug is taken hostage as collateral because....well, what else is Doug going to do?

Bradley Cooper, who is now all A-list and stuff, seems to recognize that he's too good for this dreck. He sleepwalks through his return as Phil, but maybe that's because the bulk of his character has been reduced to repeating "Who gives a f**k"? until the audience finally agrees with him. Galifianakis has always been a one-trick pony but he's especially uninspired this time, even as Alan takes center stage. Helms is the franchise's secret weapon, but even he is given less to do than normal, although his constantly-startled reactions are still a real hoot. All of the camaraderie that made these guys at least seem like real friends is gone. Without the benefit of alcohol or drugs leaving them in a stupor, these are shockingly uninteresting people. They're all married now and sober, and that's kind of how this entire film is. It's like a recovering alcoholic who now just wants to stay in and watch Wheel of Fortune on Saturday night. Not the least bit fun, and certainly not who you want to spend much time with.

As the action heads to Tijuana, the gang does quickly find Chow, and he's more unbearable than ever. But whereas he used to be something of a random element of psychopathic chaos thrown into the mix, now he's just a screechy, constant irritant. Dogs are killed, cocaine-snorting chickens are gunned down, oh...and familiar characters are murdered in cold blood. Again, does this sound like The Hangover? Homes are busted into, bad jokes fall like a ton of bricks, and there's the sense that maybe this was never meant to be a comedy to begin with. If Phillips' goal was to make a heist film, which is essentially what this amounts to, why not do it elsewhere? There's a certain bravery in upending our expectations, but doing it in the final film of a popular trilogy is misguided at best. Even as Phillips is forging in this new direction, he still wants you to remember everything that made the earlier films memorable. When Phil casually asks Stu if "He's been tested", we instantly remember his brief "encounter" in a Bangkok strip club. It also serves as reminder that the characters used to be the driving force of the humor, but now they're just extras in a dull plot.

There's the hope that a return to Las Vegas, the sinful site of their most raucous escapades, will pump life into the sagging story. Unfortunately, other than the welcome, all-too-brief appearance by Heather Graham, it stays painfully flat. A scene between Alan and the little boy from the first film is cringe-worthy rather than envelope-pushing, and by the time Chow leaps off the top of Caesar's Palace like a sociopathic, drug-addled Asian Batman it's clear this film is running on fumes. Not even Melissa McCarthy, who shows up for maybe five minutes, can illicit much in the way of laughs. Although, she is involved in the film's most raunchy scene, which unfortunately happens during the closing credits....like it was an afterthought.

Whatever. It's over, right? Well...maybe.  Phillips has said repeatedly that this is "The End", but the ending suggests the door could still be open. Hopefully that's not the case. It would be one thing if it was merely forgettable, but The Hangover Part III is actively terrible and a complete buzzkill for anybody who stuck around since the beginning.

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Review: 'At Any Price' starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron

How much does the American Dream cost? What is one willing to give up in order to achieve it? The answer is pretty much right there in the title of acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani's At Any Price, a brilliant morality tale that further establishes him as one of today's finest filmmakers.  Bahrani's first three films, Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, and 2008's Goodbye Solo, told uniquely American stories through the lens of the immigrant experience. But here he turns his insightful eye on the small-town Midwest, where family legacy is of paramount importance, and success is measured by hard work and desire.

What happens when the next generation has no intention of following in prior's footsteps? What happens when the pervasive influence of big business and steeper competition begins to encroach on one's ability to survive? In the heartland of Iowa, Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid) is a reasonably successful farmer, tending land that has been in his family for generations. It's his dream to be the top grower in the entire state, but he's constantly chasing after the top guy (Clancy Brown), who always seems to have the upper hand. After splurging on an extra 200 acres, Henry hopes to pass it off on his sons to tend as their own, but his oldest son Grant has skipped town for parts unknown, and his other son Dean (Zac Efron) has a dream of racing in NASCAR.

Henry wishes Dean were more like him, while Dean isn't as different from Henry as he thinks. They butt heads over everything, and Henry isn't exactly the most attentive listener. He's a salesman through and through, someone who puts on a false smile and is always looking for a way to close a deal. Taught by his father "When a man stops wanting, a man starts dying", Henry cheats on his wife (Kim Dickey) with the sexy Meredith (Heather Graham), and schemes to cheat the giant agribusinesses by reusing his genetically modified seeds. Dean enjoys his life as a big fish in a small pond, hanging out with his girlfriend Cadence (Maika Monroe) and racing the dirt tracks in hopes of winning a contract.

It's a simple story of family melodrama told in the classic, intimate style of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, or better yet, All My Sons. Bahrani has always been good at making the location an integral character in the story, unearthing the many truths and myths of the local culture. He explores, in much better fashion than Matt Damon's Promised Land, the soft underbelly of our farmer class. Swallowed up and twisted by the expanse of industry, what had been a respectable, fundamentally American building block is now just a cold business like any other. You either evolve or die. Destroy the farmer next to you, or be destroyed by him. Their dreams can never be allowed to stand side-by-side with yours. This obsessive need for competition is an integral piece of the intricate puzzle Bahrani weaves, and we see it play out between father and son in many different ways.

Dennis Quaid rarely disappoints, but he gives the performance of his already-great career. The charm we've come to know and love from him is there, but corrupted and phony. He's perfect in every single frame, and the film is made instantly better whenever he's on screen. Contrary to popular belief, Zac Efron can act when given the opportunity, and he does good work here when Dean is enjoying his time as a local celebrity. Efron doesn't do brooding malcontent quite as well when called upon, though. The real find may be Maika Monroe as Cadence. She's had a few small roles here and there, and will appear opposite Emma Watson in The Bling Ring, but her time on screen, whether its with Quaid or Efron, are simply electric. Cadence is a girl many would presume has no future beyond the town's city limits, but she's smarter and more ambitious than is readily apparent.

Bahrani can get a little heavy-handed with the metaphors, and sometimes the melodrama steers into All My Children territory. A final act twist changes the complexion of the entire film in a bad way, piling on one final hurdle that is about ten shades too dark. Bahrani doesn't ask any easy questions, and certainly doesn't offer up any easy answers. Tough, engaging, and brutally honest, At Any Price is one of those quiet gems you hope others will have the opportunity to discover for themselves.

Trav's Tip: Be sure to check out my interview with Ramin Bahrani where he talks about his inspirations for At Any Price, how it relates to his earlier work, and his love of Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master.

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Provocative new poster and trailer for 'About Cherry', starring James Franco and Ashley Hinshaw

The last time we caught up with About Cherry(formerly titled Cherry), the porn-centered film was still seeking US distribution. But with James Franco, Heather Graham, and Dev Patel on board, it was only going to be a matter of time. Deconstructions of the adult entertainment issue are nothing new, but with porn star Lorelei Lee co-writing the script, her insight should make About Cherry a little bit different than all the rest.

Ashley Hinshaw(Chronicle, LOL) is Angelina, an 18-year old girl who ditches high school and heads off to San Francisco with her best friend(Patel), and finds herself lost in the industry. James Franco plays a drugged out lawyer who becomes introduces her into the high life, while Heather Graham is an ex-porn star turned director who sees something of herself in Angelina.

The trailer is definitely provocative, and Lee looks to be using her own vast experience to make a statement about the real power women wield in the porn industry. Directed and co-written by Stephen Elliott, About Cherry hits VOD on August 9th, followed up by a theatrical run starting September 21st. Check out the trailer below...

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