We have a pretty mixed bag today with 2 or 3 movies likely to be in the Academy Awards, and some straight to streaming teen comedies. Lets kill some time before the weekend!

1. The Favorite

I’m a fan of historical dramas, and this looks to have a bit of humor twisted in throughout. Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer) is directing this story about two Cousins (Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone) trying to win the favor of Queen Anne (Olivia Coleman). It also stars Nicholas Hoult(Mad Max, X-Men:First Class) and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Game of Thrones). Thats a great crew for this sort of film, and it definitely has my seal of approval.

2. Wonder Park

I’m surpised this hasn’t gotten more hype considering the cast, but non-Disney/Pixar tentpoles certainly have the tendancy to be overshadowed. It was a little confusing based off the trailer, but here is the summary: “A young creative girl named June, finds an incredible amusement park filled with fantastical rides and funny, talking animals called Wonder Park that was abandoned in the woods but soon realizes that the park came from her imagination and she is the only one who can save the magical place and revive the wonder with the help of the animals.” Thats heartwarming enough to get me excited! David Feiss is directing, and he has been involved in some fashion with a ton of animated properties. Josh Appelbaum (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows) is writing, which is where it gets a little weird. The cast includes Ken Hudson Campbell (Armageddon), Jennifer Garner (13 Going on 30, Juno), Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Producers), Kenan Thompson (SNL, Kenan & Kel), Ken Jeong (The Hangover, Community), Mila Kunis (Black Swan, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and John Oliver (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Smurfs) all star which is a pretty notable crew. Nice to see Max from ‘Armageddon’ getting work!

3. Christopher Robin (Trailer #3)

Uncle Chaps admitted on yesterday’s episode of LCB that he wanted to fuck the original Pooh bear that is currently stored in the NYPL, which makes this trailer weird to watch in retrospect (especially when gets “softer”). Pooh is a psycho and wears a shirt with no bottoms, and that lack of modesty is why I am #TeamPaddington. Marc Foster (Quantum of Solace, World War Z) is directing our boy Ewan McGregor (Star Wars, Tainspotting) as well as Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger, Black Mirror), Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond), Toby Jones (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and some more who are primarily voice actors/actresses. I’m a huge McGregor fan and will watch anything he is in, and a movie about a grown man playing with stuffed animals is no exception.

4. Life Itself

God damn bro just take my tears and my money now. It’s only Dan Fogelman’s second job directing, but his first movie ‘Danny Collins’ was above average and one of the better late-era Pacino films. He also wrote ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’ which was a tearjerker, so I have very high expectations for this. That cast looks INCREDIBLE with Oscar Issac (Star Wars, Annihilation), Olivia Wilde (Drinking Buddies, House), Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One, Thoroughbreds), Mandy Patankin (The Princess Bride, Homeland), Antonio Banderas (The Mask of Zorro, Desperado), Annette Bening (American Beauty, The Kids Are All Right) and more. Generational love/tragedy stories always have a special place in my heart, and this might be one of the few non-blockbusters I see opening night.

5. The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Chloë Grace Moretz has been out of the limelight a little bit, but she is a great actress so it is nice to see her get some roles suited to her dramatic ability. Based off the novel of the same name, it’s based around some pray-the-gay-away bullshit camp in the 90’s, and it’s being adapted/directed by Desiree Akhavan in her second project. Her first, ‘Appropriate Behavior’, has a 96% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and follows a similar storyline in repressed gay love. That’s a great resume for a movie like this, and I’m very hopeful for this to follow in the footsteps of ‘Love, Simon’.

6. Patrick

The funniest thing about this trailer is when Ed Skrein says he was late because he was watching Game of Thrones, considering he was in it as Daario Naharis, Queen Daenerys’ fuck toy(For one season anyway). This would be a great TV/Netflix movie, but I’m not sure what its big screen potential is going to be. Longtime director Mandie Fletcher is at the helm with a slew of smaller British actors. It already debuted across the pond and is at 38% on RT with 13 reviews. A romantic comedy revolving around dogs should be an instant home run, oh well.

7. Exctinction

For anyone new here, I’m going to give this the same disclaimer we give every Netflix movie. The fact that it is essentially a free movie gives it major points, regardless of production value and the other factors that go against movies released by streaming platforms. It sort of reminds me of ‘Knowing’ with some parts of ‘Battle Los Angeles’, both of which are great-bad movies. Ben Young(Hounds of Love) is directing with Michael Pena (End of Watch, Ant Man), Lizzie Caplan (Cloverfield, Mean Girls) and Mike Coulter (Luke Cage, Girls Trip) all co-starring. It’s not a bad crew by any means, but a sci-fi movie of this concept might be sort of dependent on SFX, and theirs looks just ok based on the trailer. It’s worth noting that this was supposed to be released by Universal this January, but it was released without explanation by the studio.

8. Sierra Burgess Is A Loser

Take notes, ‘Patrick’, because this is a quintessential Netflix movie. A modern retelling of the play ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’, which is definitely something I had heard of before reading a summary on the movie, this is directed by rookie Ian Samuels and it’s big stars are Shannon Purser (Stranger Things, Wish Upon), Lea Thompson (Back to the Future, Howard the Duck), and Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Speed). I’m a well documented Barb hater. That deranged campaign to bring her back and make her a thing was so god damn annoying.

That said, this is basically the perfect role for her. I’m curious how the story goes too, because the odds of her number being that close to the hottest girl in schools are so astronomically low it’s maddening. Was it a prank or something? I NEED TO KNOW!

9. Colette

I LOVE Kiera Knightly and think she is one of the most undersung actresses in the businesses. Her career gets reduced to her role in the Pirates franchise by a lot, forgetting that she starred in ‘Atonement’, ‘Pride & Prejudice’, ‘The Duchess’, ‘The Imitation Game’, ‘Love Actually’ and a lot more. She will be portraying Colette, a real life author who ghost wrote a very successful series of books for her husband. It’s an interesting subject for director Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice, Quinceañera) who also wrote the script. The supporting casts are mostly smaller English actors and actresses, but most notable is motherfucking McNulty himself, Dominic West!

Hearing him go “Bloody hell!!!” cracks me up and yes, I know he is English. It doesn’t matter one bit. Just like Andrew Lincoln from ‘The Walking Dead’, we have officially appropriated him as an American.

10. Mary Queen Of Scots

Similar to ‘The Favorite’ except with 200% higher chances of winning an Oscar, this looks to be maybe one of the best tellings of the infamous cousin rivalry between Mary and Elizabeth I, one of the greatest monarchs in English history. Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn, Ladybird), Margot Robbie (Wolf Of Wall Street, I, Tonya) star with the supporting cast of Jack Lowden (Dunkirk, Calibre), David Tennant (Doctor Who, Broadchurch) and Guy Pearce (Memento, L.A. Confidential). Josie Rourke has the wheel on a Beau Willimon (Ides of March, House of Cards) script which is extremely promising all around. I would be absolutely shocked if this doesn’t get nominated in at least 2 categories.

11. The Package

Another perfect movie for Netflix, the trailer reminds me of ‘Without a Paddle’. Jake Szymanski (Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates, Brooklyn 99) is directing, and the one person I recognize off this sample is Geraldine Viswanathan, who was phenomenal in ‘Blockers’. A bunch of teens be havin sex, doin booze, and apparently cutting their own dicks off. What’s not to love?

12. Little Italy

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK!!!! Hayden Christensen is BACK baby!!! This looks outstanding and we here at LCB have been on the hype train since May.

We had to triple check this poster when we saw it because we were positive it was made up. My favorite thing about this trailer is that basically none of it is Italian. They basically slapped a brown wig on Roberts and Christiansen and thought “Ok, our work here is done’. Lucky for them, it will only be the second biggest cinematic L for Italians this year after ‘Gotti’.

13. Galveston

I’m a big Ben Foster fan, and this is his second project I’ve recently gotten wind of after ‘Leave No Trace’ that has me excited to see him. This is directed by longtime actress Mélanie Laurent who you might remember from ‘Inglorious Basterds’ and ‘Now You See Me’. The script is a Nick Pizzolatto joint, which is maybe the more enticing element. He wrote the first season of ‘True Detective’, which is some of the best TV ever made. HOWEVER, Max Kellerman, he also made the second season of ‘True Detective’, which is some of the worst TV ever made. We have Elle Fanning (Super 8, Maleficent) starring as well in this thriller that debuted at SXSW to a 50% RT rating off 6 reviews.

That’s all for this week, don’t forget to subscribe to Lights, Camera, Pod, follow us on Twitter, follow us on Instagram and join in on the conversation on our Reddit.