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“The Second Best Hospital in The Galaxy” Trailer Out Now

The doctors are in! Prime Video has released the official trailer for the upcoming adult animated series “The Second Best Hospital in The Galaxy,” coming to the platform late next month.

The new series, produced by Maya Rudolph, Natasha Lyonne, and Danielle Renfrew Behrens’ Animal Pictures, follows Dr. Sleech (voiced by Stephanie Hsu) and Dr. Klak (Keke Palmer), two alien best friends-slash-intergalactically renowned surgeons in the business of rare illnesses, including anxiety-eating parasites, illegal time loops, and deep-space STIs.

Watch the trailer for “The Second Best Hospital in The Galaxy” below:

In addition to Hsu and Palmer, the voice cast will feature Rudolph, Lyonne, Kieran Culkin, Sam Smith, and more. Tracee Ellis Ross, Bowen Yang, Abbi Jacobson, Jay Ellis, Andrew Dismukes, Lennon Parham, Gary Anthony Williams, and John Waters will also make guest appearances throughout the first season, as will...

Medusa Deluxe is a genre-bending movie written and directed by Thomas Hardiman. The A24 film shows us a murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing contest. Medusa Deluxe is a very visual film with some brilliant performances by Clare Perkins, Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Kayla Meikle, Kae Alexander, and Harriet Webb. So, if you loved Medusa Deluxe here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Clue (Prime Video & MGM+) Credit – Paramount Pictures

Synopsis: Here is the murderously funny movie based on the world-famous Clue board game. Was it Colonel Mustard in the study with a gun? Miss Scarlet in the billiard room with the rope? Or was it Wadsworth the butler? Meet all the notorious suspects and discover all their foul play things. You’ll love their dastardly doings as the bodies and the laughs pile up before your eyes.

The Cat’s Meow (Prime Video) Credit – Lions Gate Films

Synopsis:...

In the world of Medusa Deluxe, beauticians wield scissors like knives and hairsprays like pistols. Hairstyling competitions are fraught spaces stacked with talented participants. Anyone can tame an unruly mane, but only a handful can turn it into a work of art.

“I’m in the middle of a Georgian fontange,” one stylist snaps in the opening scene of Thomas Hardiman’s exciting directorial debut. “You can’t just walk away from that shit.” Tensions are high in this dressing room. Outside the door, police patrol the hall. Sirens blare in the distance. The death of Mosca (John Alan Roberts), one of the stylists, has paused the competition and forced a temporary lockdown.

The atmosphere is thick with suspicion. This is a cutthroat bunch, a community whose members convene annually to flaunt their skills and prove themselves. There are public alliances and private allegiances. Betrayals abound, too. Everyone has a theory.

There’s been a scalping at a Northern England hairdressing competition.

It’s all any of the hairdressers — “hair artists” might be a better description, given the towering Marie Antoinette-level coifs and rainbow-colored cascades and expertly sculpted geometric ‘dos they’ve designed — can talk about. The victim is Mosca, the presumed frontrunner before being found dead and mutilated. No one’s canceled the event, however, and his peers are prepping their models for the runway. The show must go on.

As for the suspects — well, where do we start?...

Few, if any, single-shot movies ever justify the conceit. In fact, most of them do their material a disservice through the distraction that emerges naturally from the trickery. In other words, audiences are often put into the position of looking for the seams in the filmmaking, on the hunt for evidence of the artifice. In the case of writer-director Thomas Hardiman’s Medusa Deluxe, though, artifice is the entire raison d’être.

Set within the backstages of a cutthroat hairdressing competition, the film opens with a riled-up Cleve (played with dazzling fire by Clare Perkins) recounting the story’s inciting incident while fussing over a disgruntled model’s coif. Stylist Mosca (John Alan Roberts), presumed to be heavy competition, has not only been discovered dead, but also scalped. The remaining contestants are now sheltering in place and turbo-gossiping about who his presumed murderer could possibly be. At the same time,...

“Medusa Deluxe” is a British murder mystery film directed by Thomas Hardiman, starring Clare Perkins, Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Kae Alexander, Harriet Webb, Darrell D’Silva, Luke Pasqualino and Heider Ali.

Synopsis

Set in a competitive hairdressing competition, where one of the contestants is found murdered and the remaining contestants must then try to uncover the killer, as rivalries and mistrust build among them.

This whodunit thriller set in a hairdressing competition, was initially released a the Locarno Festival in the summer of 2022, and has since been released in the U.K. Soon you will be able to enjoy this gripping, and by all accounts stylish murder mystery in a theater near you.

Anita-Joy Uwajeh in Medusa Deluxe (2022) Reviews

“It all adds up to something not so unlike one of the competing hair-dos: ornate, effortful and niche, but oddly hard to take your eyes off.” – Danny Leigh, Financial Times

“An arresting and visually stunning achievement,...

A24’s released the official trailer for Medusa Deluxe, a murder mystery from first-time feature film director Thomas Hardiman. The trailer reveals the twisted behind-the-scenes world of a hairstyling competition, with intricate – and bizarre – hairstyles competing with talk of a murderer in their midst.

The film currently sits at 94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes following a festival run. Little White Lies’ Cheyenne Bunsie says “Hardiman makes a directorial debut that successfully injects a fresh, vibrant perspective into the murder mystery genre while still employing the dark dread that stands as its trademark.” And Indiewire’s Marisa Mirabal calls it “an arresting and visually stunning achievement.”

Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Clare Perkins, Darrell D’Silva, Debris Stevenson, and Harriet Webb star. The cast also includes Heider Ali, Kae Alexander, Kayla Meikle, Lilit Lesser, Luke Pasqualino, and Nicholas Karimi.

Kae Alexander and Kayla Meikle in ‘Medusa Deluxe’ (Photo Credit: Robbie Ryan)

A24’s releasing Medusa Deluxe...

A24 is one of the most well-regarded distributors of genre films out there these days, and on August 11th they’ll be bringing the murder mystery Medusa Deluxe to VOD and select theatres. One month out from the release date, a trailer for Medusa Deluxe has arrived online, and you can check it out in the embed above.

The feature directorial debut of Thomas Hardiman, Medusa Deluxe has the following synopsis: Talented, ambitious, and backstabbing hairstylists gather for a competition in England, only to find one of their own murdered before judging can begin. Winding through neon-lit halls and backstage dressing rooms, competitors unspool long-simmering resentments and secrets as they search for the killer among them in this devilishly funny whodunit.

The film stars Clare Perkins (The Outlaws), Kayla Meikle (The Girl Before), Lilit Lesser (To Nowhere), Anita-Joy Uwajeh (Vampire Academy), Kae Alexander (Game of Thrones), Harriet Webb (I May Destroy You...

A trailer lands today for Medusa Deluxe, the feature debut from British writer-director Thomas Hardiman. The film premiered at Locarno last year and subsequently screened at Sitges, BFI London Film Festival and IFFR, among others. Revolving around elaborate hair-dos and a shocking murder, Hardiman’s film is lensed by Robbie Ryan and stars Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Clare Perksins, Darrell D’Silva, Debris Stevenson, Harriet Webb, Heider Ali, Kae Alexander, Kayla Meikle, Lilit Lesser, Luke Pasqualino and Nicholas Karimi. A synopsis for Medusa Deluxe reads: Talented, […]

The post Trailer Watch: Thomas Hardiman’s A24 Feature Debut Medusa Deluxe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

A trailer lands today for Medusa Deluxe, the feature debut from British writer-director Thomas Hardiman. The film premiered at Locarno last year and subsequently screened at Sitges, BFI London Film Festival and IFFR, among others. Revolving around elaborate hair-dos and a shocking murder, Hardiman’s film is lensed by Robbie Ryan and stars Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Clare Perksins, Darrell D’Silva, Debris Stevenson, Harriet Webb, Heider Ali, Kae Alexander, Kayla Meikle, Lilit Lesser, Luke Pasqualino and Nicholas Karimi. A synopsis for Medusa Deluxe reads: Talented, […]

The post Trailer Watch: Thomas Hardiman’s A24 Feature Debut Medusa Deluxe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Set for release on August 11th, we have a look at the trailer for Thomas Hardiman's Medusa Deluxe, "the devilishly funny whodunit set backstage in a hairdressing competition."

Starring: Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Clare Perksins, Darrell D’Silva, Debris Stevenson, Harriet Webb, Heider Ali, Kae Alexander, Kayla Meikle, Lilit Lesser, Luke Pasqualino, Nicholas Karimi

Written & Directed By: Thomas Hardiman

"Talented, ambitious, and backstabbing hairstylists gather for a competition in England, only to find one of their own murdered before judging can begin. Winding through neon-lit halls and backstage dressing rooms, competitors unspool long-simmering resentments and secrets as they search for the killer among them, in this devilishly funny whodunit from debut filmmaker Thomas Hardiman."

In Select Theaters And On VOD August 11

The post Watch the Trailer for Medusa Deluxe appeared first on Daily Dead.

The world of competitive hairdressing gets, well, hairy when backstabbing and secrets lead to murder in Medusa Deluxe, A24‘s upcoming single-take whodunit. Today, A24’s unveiled the first trailer, teasing big hair, paranoia, and lethal ambition.

Look for Medusa Deluxe when it opens in select theaters and on VOD August 11.

In Medusa Deluxe, “Talented, ambitious, and backstabbing hairstylists gather for a competition in England, only to find one of their own murdered before judging can begin. Winding through neon-lit halls and backstage dressing rooms, competitors unspool long-simmering resentments and secrets as they search for the killer among them, in this devilishly funny whodunit from debut filmmaker Thomas Hardiman.”

Expect the highly competitive setting to stoke the flames of mistrust with a killer on the loose. With A24 attached, expect an unconventional approach to the murder whodunit format.

I wrote in my capsule review out of Panic Fest, “It’s...

Jodie Whittaker, Tamara Lawrance and Bella Ramsey don prison-issue tracksuits in the first image from their upcoming series “Time.”

“Doctor Who” star Whittaker, Lawrance (“The Silent Twins”) and Ramsey (“The Last of Us”) star as three inmates in a women’s prison in the U.K. in a follow-up to the Sean Bean series of the same name.

Jimmy McGovern returns to pen the second anthology-style season of the show with some actors from the series’ first outing – including Siobhan Finneran as prison chaplain Marie-Louise – reprising their roles. Helen Black co-writes while Andrea Harkin directs.

Also joining the cast are Sophie Willan (“Alma’s Not Normal”), Julie Graham (“Shetland”), Alicia Forde (“Waterloo Road”), Lisa Millett (“The A Word”), Kayla Meikle (“The Capture”), James Corrigan (“This Is Going to Hurt”), Nicholas Nunn (“Clique”) and Maimuna Memon (“Sherwood”).

Set in the fictional, high-security prison Carlingford, Kelsey (Ramsey), Orla (Whittaker) and Abi (Lawrance) arrive...

Bella Ramsey-starring BBC prison drama Time has added BritBox North America as co-producer and revealed more cast plus first-look image (above).

BritBox also co-produced Season 1 of the heartwrenching show, which starred Sean Bean and Stephen Graham and won two BAFTAs in 2022.

Joining The Last of Us star Ramsey, Tamara Lawrance and former Time Lord Jodie Whittaker are BAFTA-award winner Sophie Willan, Julie Graham (Shetland), Alicia Forde (Waterloo Road), Lisa Millett (The A Word), Faye McKeever (The Responder), Kayla Meikle (The Capture), James Corrigan (This Is Going to Hurt), Nicholas Nunn (Clique) and Maimuna Memon (Sherwood).

The three-parter, which is penned by Jimmy McGovern and Helen Black, will move to life inside a women’s prison called Carlingford, where Kelsey (Ramsey), Orla (Whittaker) and Abi (Lawrance) are thrown together to face an unfamiliar world. With the ever-present threat of violence within its walls, they discover that an unexpected sense of community,...

Stars: Kae Alexander, Clare Perkins, Darrell D’Silva, Kayla Meikle, Lilit Lesser, Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Harriet Webb, Luke Pasqualino, Heider Ali | Written and Directed by Thomas Hardiman

A group of rival hairdressers come together to compete in a regional artistic hair competition. Before the event can finish, one of the competitors is killed, leaving the rest to be confined to their dressing rooms until the culprit is revealed. While they wait, each reveals long-simmering resentments, pent-up grudges, and a treasure trove of personal secrets.

To some, hair is everything. It’s a key vehicle for how we present ourselves to the world, as well as being something we find attractive and compelling about other people. A trip to the hairdresser is a safe haven — it’s a place to make yourself feel better physically as well as emotionally. Thomas Hardiman’s Medusa Deluxe sets out to challenge everything we know about those...

’Across The Spider-Verse’ has now surpassed the lifetime takings of its predecessor after swooping another £4.1m

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (May 19-21)Total gross to date Week 1. Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse (Sony) £4.1m £16.2m 2 2. Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts (Paramount) £2.5m £3m 1 3. The Little Mermaid (Disney) £2.1m £20m 3 4. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney) £511,755 £35.6 6 5. Fast X (Universal) £475,381 £14.3m 4

Paramount’s Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts failed to knock Sony’s Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse off top spot at the UK-Ireland box office after an opening weekend of £2.5m (£3m including previews).

Despite opening in 595 sites, a record for the shapeshifting action franchise,...

Independent titles ‘War Pony’, ‘Medusa Deluxe’ also starting in cinemas.

Paramount’s action blockbuster Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts will look to dominate the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, as the seventh film in the successful franchise.

Directed by Steven Caple Jr., Rise Of The Beasts is set during the 1990s, when a new faction of Transformers – cars that can turn into robots and back again – join the Autobots as allies in the battle for Earth.

Rise Of The Beasts is the first Transformers film for four-and-a-half years, since Travis Knight’s Bumblebee in December 2018. Starting in 595 cinemas, the new...

"All I want to do is cut hair. And they keep dropping." Mubi has revealed an official trailer for Medusa Deluxe, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Thomas Hardiman. This premiered at a handful of film festival last year, including Locarno, Beyond Fest, Fantastic Fest, Fantasy Filmfest, and the London Film Festival. It's set for a Mubi release streaming in Europe, though the US release date hasn't been set yet. A high-stakes hairdressing competition descends into paranoia and chaos after a participant is viciously murdered, in this astonishing faux single-take (with a bunch of long takes) comedy-thriller. Starring Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Clare Perkins, Darrell D'Silva, Debris Stevenson, Harriet Webb, Heider Ali, Kae Alexander, Kayla Meikle, Lilit Lesser, Luke Pasqualino. "Medusa Deluxe is a unique and audacious trip quite unlike anything you’ll experience." It looks like crazy fun, though the boxy aspect ratio doesn't fit. // Continue Reading ›...

Warning: This review contains spoilers for all four episodes of Litvinenko

Truth is stranger than fiction, they say – and Litvinenko shows why this is a gift to crime dramas. So often fictional crime dramas try to be too slick, too perfectly believable, but real life is messier, more mundane, more ridiculous than what most of us can imagine, and all the better for it.

Litvinenko doesn’t muck about, either – after the briefest of glimpses into what normal life looks like for the Litvinenko family in 2006 within five minutes we’re in hospital, and a wan, now-bald Litvinenko (David Tennant) is telling detectives he’s been poisoned, helping them solve his own murder even as he’s dying.

Yes, David Tennant with a Russian accent requires a mighty suspension of disbelief, but if any actor can take such a jarring adjustment and guide us via a convincing, skilful performance to a rapid place of acceptance,...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Fantastic Fest. A24 releases the film in select theaters and on VOD on Friday, August 11.

Elaborate braids, teased curls, and brightly colored dye all mix together at the hands of talented hairstylists prepping their models for an annual hair competition. Similar to the beautiful intricacies of hair styling, writer/director Thomas Hardiman weaves through an intriguing murder mystery with the audience at his mercy. An arresting and visually stunning achievement, “Medusa Deluxe” breaks the framework on storytelling and sheds the skin of a subculture in the process.

Confident and accomplished Cleve (powerfully played by Clare Perkins) is attempting to style the baroque Georgian Fontange on her model as she speculates about the horrific events of the evening with her religious rival Divine (Kayla Meikle). A stylist named Mosca has been found dead and scalped on the premises. Stressed, terrified, and suspicious,...

In “Medusa Deluxe,” the serpents aren’t in the hair, but all around it: a writhing, hissing collective of human predators slinking around the various parlors and platforms of a high-level hairdressing competition. Most are venomous, and at least one is deadly, or so it seems when a star stylist is found, not just murdered but quite literally scalped, the night before his widely expected victory in the contest. That’s the setup for British writer-director Thomas Hardiman’s splashy, hooky debut feature “Medusa Deluxe,” an arch, gossip-fueled murder mystery that delights more in rounding up its many unusual suspects than in any kind of logical, procedural detective work: Whodunnit isn’t a pressing question in a film where everyone is 100 that bitch.

It sounds good on paper, and looks great on screen, thanks in no small part to genius Dp Robbie Ryan — who, following vertiginous collaborations with the likes...

Tom Hardiman’s feature debut “Medusa Deluxe,” which premiered at Locarno on Saturday, has already seduced multiple international distributors with its mixture of humor, grief and competitive hairdressing.

Now Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has sealed further deals for the unusual murder mystery in Spain (Elastica Films), Benelux (Filmfreak), Scandinavia and the Baltics (NonStop Entertainment), Variety has learnt in exclusivity.

As previously reported, A24 has acquired North American rights to the film, produced by Emu Films with the support of BFI, BBC Films, and Time Based Arts.

Mubi holds the rights to U.K./Ireland, France, Latin America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, India and Southeast Asia.

“The buyers are excited about ‘Medusa Deluxe’ because it’s a quirky, original piece of cinema which can appeal to younger audiences, especially since A24 and Mubi will lead the way on global marketing,” said New Europe Film Sales CEO, Jan Naszewski.

Hardiman,...

BFI London Film Festival has revealed its line-up for its second Works-in-Progress showcase, including a documentary about Hong Kong’s draconian National Security law and a TV narrative feature starring Sir Lenny Henry and Malachi Kirby (pictured above).

The showcase will take place on Oct. 9.

It consists of seven recently completed or in production/post-production audio-visual projects from emerging British talent made for cinema, television and immersive platforms.

The audience will include international buyers, festival programmers and, via a secure digital platform, a number of other industry professionals.

The talent selected for the workshop will also, with assistance from the British Council as well as the BFI Lff, get an opportunity to network with various industry players such as buyers, commissioners, producers and programmers via a number of initiatives including a reception for new talent and a producers’ lunch.

2021 marks the workshop’s second year. Last year’s projects included...

State Zero is a seriously impressive 16-minute sci-fi/horror short from first-time director Andrée Wallin. Wallin also wrote the film and handled production design.

The film was produced by Claire Fleming and was shot in London with an international cast, while all exteriors were shot in Stockholm. The VFX is done by Bläck.

Synopsis:

In the near future, the capital of Sweden has turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. We join four soldiers on a routine mission in ‘Zone 3’, with the assignment to investigate an old surveillance tower that just went offline.

State Zero stars Teddy Nicholas, Charles Babalola, Luke Rampersad, Nemanja Oskorus, Megan Shandley, David Young, Aaron Vodovoz and Kayla Meikle.

[Continued ...]...