Movies
[Sundance Review] ‘Arizona’: Danny McBride Goes Southwest and Down
Danny McBride has perfected the endearing asshole character. We enjoy seeing Kenny Powers or Danny McBride (as himself) be unapologetic. In Arizona, he takes it to the next level and actually kills people.
In 2009, the housing crisis hits Arizona hard. Sonny (McBride) confronts his realtor and accidentally kills him. Another realtor, Cassie (Rosemarie DeWitt) witnesses it so Sonny kidnaps her to try to figure out a plan. The hostage crisis escalates until Sonny has killed far too many people to stop now.
Sonny is more sympathetic than the usual McBride character because he’s like so many of us. He believed realtors’ lies about values doubling and taking an adjustable rate, and then they blame us for taking their deal. But he’s still an idiot like the other McBride characters so he makes his own situation worse, and in this scenario deadlier.
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The abandoned housing development is a really stark setting for a horror movie. There’s no one to call for help. There isn’t even police because they never developed the infrastructure before the collapse. So Cassie is truly on her own with Sonny.
The deaths escalate in bloody extravagance, then get Coen Brothersy with accidental shootings, whittling down the already sparse supporting cast. Honestly, as far as Sundance midnight movies go, or horror in general, Arizona is relatively tame. It’s as violent as an R-rated studio movie used to be though. The grossest thing is actually a dog playing in the blood. If dog violence is an issue for you, then you should consider this a warning as it gets worse.
DeWitt is a great final girl, with a badass strut by the end. McBride has no trouble taking his persona to truly dark places. He takes an almost Ash-like beating but by the end, you’ll be rooting for Sonny to go down.
Danny McBride appears in Arizona by Jonathan Watson, an official selection of the Midnight program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Cathy Kanavy.
Fede Alvarez’s (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) Alien: Romulus will be unleashed in theaters nationwide on August 16, and Entertainment Weekly brings us two new images today.
The first image you’ll find below gives us another fresh look at the film’s Xenomorph, with Alvarez promising the outlet that it’s the most H.R. Giger-faithful Xenomorph of them all.
Entertainment Weekly writes, “… Alvarez promises [the Xenomorph’s design] is closer to H.R. Giger’s original creation than any other iteration.” The late H.R. Giger was of course integral to Ridley Scott’s Alien, designing the iconic monster the franchise is centered on.
The other image you’ll find below gives us a look at two of the human characters from Alien: Romulus, Archie Renaux’s Tyler and Cailee Spaeny’s heroine Rain Carradine.
Head over to Entertainment Weekly for their full preview of the upcoming film.
Here’s the full official plot synopsis for Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus, which comes in the wake of Disney reviving the Predator franchise in spectacular fashion with last year’s Prey…
“While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.”
Cailee Spaeny (The Craft: Legacy, Pacific Rim Uprising) leads the cast alongside Isabela Merced, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu.
Alien: Romulus takes place in between the first two films. It’s been described as “an original standalone feature,” one that “will focus on a group of young people on a distant world.”
Fede Alvarez co-wrote the script with Rodo Sayagues (Evil Dead). Ridley Scott is on board as producer for the film, the first movie in the franchise to be released by Disney.
Xenomorph in ‘Alien: Romulus’. 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS
(L-R): Archie Renaux as Tyler and Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine in ‘Alien: Romulus.’. 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS
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