#andrea berloff

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Mother (2023)

The best thing about The Mother is that it gives Jennifer Lopez the chance to play a diffent character than we're used to seeing from her. Turns out she can handle the action thriller stuff pretty well. The film itself is unfortunately more or less what we’ve come to expect from a streaming platform original. It’s well made but ultimately, generic and unmemorable. More content than passion project.

An unnamed U.S. military operative (Jennifer Lopez, whose character is only credited as “The Mother”) gives up her newborn daughter after becoming an informant for the FBI. Initially she was happy to work - and become romantically engaged with - Ex-SAS Captain Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes) and arms dealer Hector Álvarez (Gael García Bernal) but once she found out they were involved in child trafficking, she double-crossed them. Now, they want her dead and no one is safe. Twelve years later, “The Mother” is a recluse living in Alaska when Special agent William Cruise (Omari Hardwick) approaches her. Zoe (Lucy Paez) has been captured by Álvarez's men to draw out their real target. It's a trap, but "The Mother" has no choice.

I can see why the film chose not to give Lopez’s character a name. “The Mother” cares about Zoe but she has no idea how to show it; she’s cold and the only parenting she manages to do is teach the girl extreme survival skills like shooting, trapping, and carving up game once it becomes clear Zoe will have to defend herself from the bad men. "The Mother" was the kind of person who pursued romance once upon a time but now, that’s all gone. Even to her friends, she’s distant. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what's the cause. Giving up her daughter, maybe? Anyway, in execution, the choice not to give her a name makes for some clunky, carefully phrased dialogue. It’s not the only awkward choice. Omari Hardwick’s character is critical to the plot, until about halfway through when he gets dropped and essentially replaced by Zoe. While it’s an unpredictable turn, it minimizes the human connections between our protagonist who, unfortunately, you have a hard time becoming endeared towards. She came to the authorities and said something when she found a shipping container full of children. Cool. Before then, she was selling mines and guns to the kind of people that would round up said children though, so it’s not like she's fully redeemed yourself in our eyes. Even when “The Mother” goes after the men who kidnapped Zoe, it feels like she’s doing it for selfish reasons because she is so unemotional during the whole thing.

On the upside, you hate the villains and seeing them get taken out is satisfying. The “boss battles” are fun - in a nasty sort of way - and varied enough so that seeing "The Mother" and Special agent Cruise take baddies out never gets old. There’s plenty of tension throughout, particularly during the climax. The story moves at a good pace and it's never boring.

The price you're paying for admission to see The Mother - which is essentially nothing since you're already subscribed to the streaming service - is perfect. It's not a bad movie. It's just not memorable. As an action thriller you can throw on the TV to pass some time, it will keep you entertained. I mean that in a good way. (June 10, 2023)

#The mother #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Niki Caro #Misha green #andrea berloff #peter craig #jennifer lopez #joseph fiennes #lucy paez #omari hardwick #paul raci #gael garcia bernal #2023 movies #2023 films

[geekcavepodcast]

The Mother Teaser

An assassin “comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men.” (Netflix)

The Mother stars Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci, and Gael Garcia Bernal. Niki Caro directs from a screenplay by Misha Green, Andrea Berloff, and Peter Craig. The story is by Green.

The Mother hits Netflix in May 2023.

#mother #the mother #jennifer lopez #joseph fiennes #lucy paez #omari hardwick #gael garcia bernal #niki caro #misha green #andrea berloff #peter craig #netflix #TGCLiz

[boomgers]

Hará hasta lo imposible para proteger a su hija… “La Madre”

Basada en una historia de Misha Green, la película gira en torno a Jennifer Lopez, quien interpreta a una asesina profesional que se vio obligada a alejarse de su bebé para protegerla. Ahora, después de pasar años en los bosques de Alaska, saldrá de su escondite para rescatarla.

Estreno: 12 de mayo de 2023 en Netflix.

La película está dirigida por Niki Caro, guionizada por Misha Green, Andrea Berloff y Peter Craig, y protagonizada por Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci y Gael García Bernal.

#La Madre #Misha Green #Andrea Berloff y Peter Craig #y protagonizada por Jennifer Lopez #Joseph Fiennes #Lucy Paez #Omari Hardwick #Paul Raci #Gael García Bernal #Películas #Netflix

[scuddish]

DOMHNALL GLEESON as GABRIEL THE KITCHEN 2019 | dir. Andrea Berloff

#been trying to gif him all week bc bark bark bark he's so hot in this #he has lived in my head rent free lately #domhnall gleeson #the kitchen 2019 #*scuddish.gif #tw knife #cw knife #tw gun #cw gun #domhnallgleesonedit #characters #favorites #mine #2022 favorites #underrated

[sheispastelled]

The Kitchen (2019), Directed by Andrea Berloff

[moviesandmania]

THE MOTHER (2023) Action thriller with Jennifer Lopez - teaser trailer

THE MOTHER (2023) Action thriller with Jennifer Lopez – teaser trailer

The Mother is a 2023 American action thriller about an assassin who comes out of hiding to protect her daughter she left earlier in life. Directed by Niki Caro (Mulan; The Zookeeper’s Wife; McFarland USA; A Heavenly Vintage; North Country; Whale Rider; Memory & Desire) from a screenplay co-written by Misha Green, Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig; from a story by Misha Green. Produced by Elaine…

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#2023 #Jennifer Lopez #Joseph Fiennes #Lucy Paez #Netflix #Niki Caro #Omari Hardwick #teaser trailer #The Mother

[arojenniferwalters]

The Mother (2023)[13.2.2024] trailer 2/ 2

Directed by Niki Caro Written by Misha Green; Andrea Berloff

[back-and-totheleft]

Oliver Stone's magnificent 'WTC' is a reminder that even the most horrifying events bring out the good in our society

World Trade Center is likely the one summer release you least want to see. It is, after all, a brutal reminder of the horrifying events of September 11, 2001 — a cataclysmic tragedy that scorched our souls, burned our hearts, and permanently stoked our deepest fears. Why rekindle the awful memory of that day when you can escape into mindless summer fare? But the fact is, World Trade Center is the one film you don’t want to miss. By no means is it easy to sit through, and even though it trades on the notion of hope and heroes, it still manages to depress the hell out of you, recalling a day that left our country — and much of the world — shellshocked beyond comprehension.

There are some critics who say it’s too soon for cinematic dramatizations of the 9/11 events; the collective emotional wounds are too fresh. Even I have still not mustered the courage to sit through United 93, Paul Greengrass’s dramatic supposition of how events played out on the one plane that, due to the courageous efforts of its passengers, didn’t strike its intended target. Despite the fact that I make my living watching movies, I just can’t emotionally confront that movie.

I wasn’t sure I was ready for World Trade Center either, but one can’t run from fears forever. Within the first five minutes — a serene, expertly paced montage depicting a city, Manhattan, starting its daily routine — director Oliver Stone had my attention. By the midway point, he had my admiration, for this is the first time in years that Stone, a sporadically great filmmaker, has made a movie this genuinely absorbing and compelling. With the exception of an appearance by Jesus — an hallucination observed by one of two Port Authority police officers trapped beneath the rubble of the Twin Towers — Stone forgoes his usual cinematic tricks and instead applies a sturdy bricks-and-mortar style of direction, one that places a huge emphasis on drama. He lets the situation, as well as our familiarity with it, carry the film.

The worst thing any filmmaker could have done was to turn the destruction of the towers into a disaster epic (although I’m sure one day some aspiring Irwin Allen will try). The magnitude is there, but it’s the small, human events within that day that hold the most potency. Stone, working from a screenplay by Andrea Berloff, knows this, and he concentrates on the story of those two trapped Port Authority officers, John McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena). Even though we know the outcome — they were two of only 20 survivors rescued from Ground Zero — their story, in Stone’s hands, is as gripping and suspenseful as they come, fraught with angst and anxiety, fear and uncertainty. Stone adds weight by cross cutting from the trapped men to the reactions of their wives, who have no idea whether or not their husbands have survived.

Maria Bello is brilliant as Donna McLoughlin, portraying her with a steady, unbreakable resolve, while Maggie Gyllenhaal imbues pregnant Allison Jimeno with an increasingly edgy panic. Through their reactions, Stone is able to draw out of World Trade Center a stirring, intimate, deeply identifiable reality.

World Trade Center has many astonishing, memorable moments, but is at its strongest during its first act, as the attack occurs. Stone captures the confusion and the inexplicableness of the morning’s events with a master filmmaker’s touch. Once John and Will are trapped, the men have little to do but try and stay awake in hope of rescue, yet you can see it in their eyes: They don’t expect to leave this underground hell alive. Cage is especially compelling — his performance hitting extremes of quiet resignation and primal terror. Pena is less unbridled than Cage, but his fear is no less palpable. The supporting cast includes Stephen Dorff, Frank Whaley, Danny Nucci and Jay Hernandez, who, as a fellow trapped officer, provides the movie’s most heartbreaking moment. Frankly, there is not a single performance in the whole of World Trade Center that rings false. It is a perfectly acted film.

You would expect Stone to create a film that delves into the conspiracy theories of that day — God knows, there are enough of them swirling out there, take your pick — but he puts his ideologies aside, and, for once, simply delivers the goods. Remarkably, he seems to have no political agenda, and he allows himself to be constrained by the facts. Stone’s more interested in celebrating the efforts of the heroes — the hundreds upon hundreds of first responders who lost their lives trying to evacuate the airplane-damaged buildings prior to the collapse — and the heroes who later ventured into the impossibly thick billow of dust and smoke, onto a landscape of twisted steel and broken stone, to find anyone — anyone — who might have survived.

Once McLoughlin and Jimeno are found, there’s the problem of getting them out at great personal risk. But these men — Marines, firefighters, paramedics, police officers — are fearless, fueled by an internal, instant camaraderie, and a instinctive need to do what they do best: good.

”Sept. 11 showed us what human beings are capable of,” says Cage in a voice-over at the movie’s end. ”The evil, sure. But it also showed us the goodness.” It is that goodness Stone — a filmmaker who has been turning over rocks for much of his career examining the unsavory, squiggly things beneath — wants to commemorate most. And it’s a goodness largely forgotten as we’ve gotten past that day.

World Trade Center serves as a reminder that we should never forget the goodness. Because good is what defines the heart, the soul, the essence of America. Let’s pray it won’t take another 9/11 to let that goodness shine bright again.

-Randy Schulman, "Hero Worship," Metro Weekly, Aug 16 2006

#oliver stone #world trade center #metro weekly #reviews

[creativejamie]

“Queens of Crime” / The Kitchen Explained: What’s Up With the Ending?

Pros: adaptation of a comic book not about superheroes, but about mafia clans; production designer’s work; 70s music Cons: some scenes look very pretentious “Queens of Crime” / The Kitchen Genre crime drama, action Directed by Andrea Berloff Starring Melissa McCarthy (Katie), Elisabeth Moss (Claire), Tiffany Haddish (Ruby), Domhnall Gleeson (Gabriel), Jeremy Bobb (Rob), James Badge Dale (Kevin),…

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[yessadirichards]

ReviewJennifer Lopez anchors the action pic ‘The Mother’

LOS ANGELES

The most interesting part of “ The Mother,” a decent if forgettable action pic starring Jennifer Lopez, is the one that is left largely unexplored. The movie is a high-concept thriller that boils down to just a few words: She’s a mother and an assassin. OK, you’re probably thinking, fine.

Misha Green’s script was a hot commodity in 2017, around the time “Wonder Woman” opened, which had left some studios scrambling for action movies fronted by women. There were condescending headlines propping it up as a “female empowerment” script. And, eventually, with Niki Caro signed on to direct and a movie star like Lopez on board to star and produce, it was enough for greenlight and a Netflix budget. The final film also credits Peter Craig and Andrea Berloff for the script.

But history has unfortunately taught us to be suspect of a Mother’s Day rollout. The greeting card holiday is where studios always seem to dump mediocre material that happen to have women at the center. If the movies were better, you start to suspect, maybe they wouldn’t need the lame hook. Happy Mother’s Day! Here’s a woman doing... something!

This is a bit unfair to “The Mother,” which at worst is just what you expect it to be — a mostly generic action trifle that’s very self-serious and wants to be a lot of different kinds of films. Lopez’s character is basically Jason Bourne, James Bond, John Wick and Nikita rolled into one, at least when it comes to her skills which are vast and seemingly just the product of her tours in Afghanistan She’s. Just. That. Good.

After her military service, she’s left with few job prospects so she becomes a guard in Guantanamo and gets entangled, professionally and personally, with a few handsome arms dealers, Adrian (Joseph Fiennes) and Hector (Gael García Bernal). A bit of this is revealed in a brief prologue, in which she gives birth and has to give up the baby before even holding her. It’s for everyone’s safety and her only wish is that the kid gets placed with the most boring, stable family out there — that and that FBI Agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick) sends updates on her birthdays.

There is a “Mamma Mia”-esque mystery about who the father is and an even bigger mystery about if this pregnancy was planned or expected or wanted. And all of this is very interesting in theory. But the movie itself is set 12 years later when Mother learns that the daughter (who does get a name, Zoe) is in danger. This brings her out of her glamorously rugged Alaska retirement and back in action as a superhuman spy/assassin/one-woman army.

At first, Mother denies her Mother-hood to Zoe (Lucy Paez), whose foster parents get about as much character development and screen time as a couple in a cell phone commercial. This is supposed to be a big emotional journey for Mother and Zoe and the viewing audience, but I can’t say this movie ever really convinces you to care about this relationship, which is especially odd because there have been plenty of random pairings of adult assassins and non-blood relation children in movies that I’ve felt invested in. “The Mother” just expects that you’re on board with some essential connection, which Paul Raci (nice to see him again on screen) tries his best to sell.

As expected, Lopez is an athletic and capable action hero (maybe too capable, but that could also be said of most of the guys out there, too). This is taken much more seriously than the over-the-top “Shotgun Wedding” and Caro and her filmmaking team ably capture Lopez in all her glory, whether walking through the Alaskan snow framed by a fur hood, jumping out of multi-story parking garages and sliding over cars in a chase, or dancing with Fiennes in a body hugging dress. It’s all a much better showcase for Caro as a director in this big budget arena than the live-action “Mulan” was.

Lopez’s output has been prolific lately as she and her closest collaborators continue to look for interesting projects for her, undeterred by any Hollywood or societally imposed ideas about movies a woman in her 50s should be making. Romantic comedies, action movies – they’re all fair game, which is great. You just wish the movies could match the ambition.

“The Mother,” a Netflix release currently streaming, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “violence, some language and brief drug use.” Running time: 115 minutes. Two stars out of four.

#yessadirichards

[film-book]

Film Review: THE MOTHER (2023): Jennifer Lopez is Superb in an Action-Packed but Sometimes Implausible Drama https://film-book.com/film-review-the-mother-2023-jennifer-lopez-is-superb-in-an-action-packed-but-sometimes-implausible-drama/?feed_id=71025&_unique_id=6462ee033b139

#MovieReview #AndreaBerloff #EdieFalco #GaelGarciaBernal #JayCardinalVilleneuve #JenniferLopez #JesseGarcia #JosephFiennes #LinkBaker #LucyPaez #MayumiYoshida #MehdiRegragui #MichaelKarlRichards #MishaGreen #Netflix #NikiCaro #OliviaLucas #OmariHardwick #PaulRaci #PeterCraig #RyanCowie #TheMother #ToddMatthews #YvonneSenatJones #ThomasDuffy

[geekcavepodcast]

The Mother Trailer

After 12 years of hiding in the Alaskan wilderness, an assassin has to come out of hiding to protect the daughter she’s never met from vengeful criminals.

The Mother stars Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci, and Gael Garcia Bernal. Niki Caro directs from a screenplay by Misha Green, Andrea Berloff, and Peter Craig. The story is by Green.

The Mother hits Netflix on May 12, 2023.

#the mother #mother #jennifer lopez #joseph fiennes #lucy paez #omari hardwick #paul raci #gael garcia bernal #netflix #TGCLiz

[movienation]

Netflixable? J. Lo Goes Commando -- "The Mother"

In action pictures, “over the top” is rarely a bad thing. A little “ludicrous” is a given. But even by those grade-on-the-curve standards, “The Mother,” the new Jennifer Lopez thriller about an assassin trying to protect the daughter she never knew, is a bit much. Screenwriters Misha Green, Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig mash up the George Clooney assassin-laying-low tale “The American” with…

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[scuddish]

DOMHNALL GLEESON as GABRIEL THE KITCHEN 2019 | dir. Andrea Berloff

#not another sociopathic blorbo bf !!! #i had a domhnall gleeson phase like two years ago and it is resurfacing aaa #domhnall gleeson #the kitchen 2019 #domhnallgleesonedit #*scuddish.gif #tw gun #cw gun #staring respectfully #so glad i finally got a second to gif him bc i will also be staring very long and hard at these #characters #favorites #mine #2022 favorites #underrated

[suchananewsblog]

What Time Will ‘The Mother’ Be on Netflix? How to Watch the New Jennifer Lopez Movie

Jennifer Lopez could also be 53 years outdated, however she seems implausible as a lethal murderer in the Netflix motion flick, The Mother, which is coming to the streaming service this weekend. Directed by Niki Caro, with a screenplay by Misha Green, Andrea Berloff, and Peter Craig, The Mother has Lopez going lethal critical after a sequence of romantic comedy wedding-based movies. As the…

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#Action Movies #Gael Garcia Bernal #Jennifer Lopez #joseph fiennes #niki caro #omari hardwick

[vfxexpress]

The Mother

The Mother is an upcoming American action drama film directed by Niki Caro with a screenplay by Misha Green, Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig, from a story by Green. The film stars Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick, and Gael García Bernal. The Mother is scheduled to be released on May 12, 2023, by Netflix.

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#behindthescenes #breakdown #VFX Breakdown #vfx making #visual effects breakdown #visualeffectsbreakdown #Youtube