When Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, it received a nine-minute standing ovation and shot director Martin Scorsese into Oscar contention.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and newcomer Lily Gladstone, Scorsese’s epic US western crime saga is set at the turn of the 20th century, when oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation.
They became some of the richest people in the world overnight and the wealth of these Native Americans immediately attracted white interlopers who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting to murder.
Based on a true story and told through the romance of Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) and Mollie Kyle (Gladstone), Killers of the Flower Moon (in cinemas October 19) also stars Hollywood veteran Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons (Power of the Dog).
Gracing the cover of the October issue of British Vogue, DiCaprio and Gladstone talk about their mission to bring this 100-year-old story to the big screen.
“It was very important to me to realise these were two sides of the same coin … people of colour that were independently wealthy amid a massive population of incredibly racist white people who want to extract those resources at any cost,” says DiCaprio, who rarely gives interviews and has worked with Scorsese on six films and one short since 2002.
Gladstone – a Native American and a direct descendent of Blackfeet Chief Red Crow – admits she was about to give up acting when she met DiCaprio and Scorsese over Zoom.
“There was no reading,” DiCaprio says.
“Marty just instinctively knew Lily was the one,” he says, turning to Gladstone and saying “there was a truthfulness in your eyes that he saw even over a computer screen”.
“I’ve never known [Scorsese to] meet somebody and then immediately afterwards have this gravitational pull and instinct to say, ‘Let’s not wait another minute’.”
All eyes will be on Scorsese’s three-hour masterpiece, but there’s also some Stallone magic, and a Wall Street true story flick about GameStop.
Expend4bles: October 5
Who doesn’t love an Expendables movie?
Reuniting for another smash and bash are the world’s top action stars Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture and Sylvester Stallone who, yes, have to fight terrorists who have taken possession of nuclear missiles on a cargo ship.
That old chestnut! Works every time on the big screen for the young and old.
For the first time, Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Iwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran and Andy Garcia get involved in the fight, and give “new blood” a whole new meaning.
Stallone, 78, is who we want to see, though, and Statham too, in fight scenes with humans not Megs.
When asked if he felt his age in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter late last year, Stallone says the older he gets, “the more I try to embrace my inner kid”.
“The only way I really feel my age is because I’ve had so many injuries. I’ve had five back operations, three neck fusions, both shoulders done, knees, ankles, fist – you name it.
“It’s been more than 25 times that I’ve been put out. So that I feel. But after I warm-up, I feel really good. I don’t run out of gas.”
The Romance Club – A Royal in Paradise: October 17
A sweet flick for teenagers of a similar style to The Princess Diaries, this is the story of a young New York writer Olivia Perkins (played by Kym Jackson) who is on a deadline for her next romantic adventure novel.
The recent breakup with her boyfriend has left her with writer’s block and a failing belief in love, so her best friend convinces her to go on a holiday together to the tropical Haven Isles in the hope of inspiring her.
On the other side of the world, Prince Alexander is reminded by the Queen of his upcoming duty to marry royalty. Needing some distance, Prince Alexander decides to attend a wildlife rescue gala on Haven Isles.
Guess what happens? They meet, fall for each other, he doesn’t tell her he’s a prince, his mother intervenes and tells her she’s not welcome.
And yes, there’s a happy ending.
The Dive: October 19
The highlight of this dramatic underwater flick is the lead actress, 33-year-old Australian star of Bloom and The Slap, Sophie Lowe.
The storyline is that two sisters go diving at a beautiful and remote location when one sister is struck by a rock, leaving her trapped 28 metres below. With dangerously low levels of oxygen, it is up to her sister to fight for her life.
Dumb Money: October 26
Seth Rogen fans rejoice, as he has finally moved on from Bad Neighbours to play the true story of billionaire hedge fund investor, Gabe Plotkin.
“It’s the story of fortunes made and lost overnight in the David-vs.-Goliath GameStop short squeeze that may have changed Wall Street forever,” reads the official synopsis.
“It offers a scathing, funny and emotional portrayal of how a loosely affiliated group of amateur investors and internet denizens crushed one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street and upended the establishment.”
Also starring Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, America Ferrera, Sebastian Stan and Shailene Woodley, the filmmakers hope viewers “will walk away inspired by the sheer impact that a group of average Joes still indisputably made – especially considering how their work prompted larger conversations about the trading industry in government and beyond”, writes a Time review.
The post October movie guide: <i>Killers of the Flower Moon </i>, Stallone in <i>Expend4bles </i> and Wall Street true story appeared first on The New Daily.
