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Depending on how you look at it, “Ponyboi” is either a Trojan horse for exploring nonbinary gender identity or a hackneyed crime movie with a radically unorthodox queer protagonist. Either way, it’s a sordid yet stylish showcase for intersex actor (and activist) River Gallo, who uses “they/them” pronouns and sees the project as an opportunity to educate audiences about the social and psychological aspects of exhibiting both male and female traits in a world that classifies people in one box or the other.

It’s ironic therefore that, apart from Gallo’s category-defying title character, the rest of the ensemble is populated by such familiar stereotypes. Sparkling like a rhinestone in the rough, Ponyboi stands out amid a lineup of cartoon gangsters, tough-guy dealers and gum-smacking prostitutes — lowlifes recycled from a hundred late-night cable movies with superficially similar plots.

Still, cinema history is short on anyone remotely like Gallo,...

Bathed in the soft glow of neon lights, “Ponyboi” reminds us that the point of view from which a story is told can drastically alter the outcome, even if founded on familiar tropes The second feature from Colombian-born director Esteban Arango (Sundance 2020’s “Blast Beat”) is actor and screenwriter River Gallo’s self-conceived star-making project expanded from a 2019 short film of the same title that Gallo also starred in and co-directed themselves. Grounded on Gallo’s Intersex identity, the unapologetic crime saga with flourishes of comedy and romance often comes across as excitingly undefinable.

Few sights can place some of us back in the 2000s with more immediacy than a bedazzled Motorola Razr flip phone, an emblem of Millennial youth. Holding precisely one of those is how we first see Ponyboi (Gallo) in the daylight as he enters Fluff n’ Stuff, a New Jersey laundromat where he is employed both...

Exclusive: Christine Otal has been named Senior Vice President, Production & Development at Macro Film Studios, the company’s President James Lopez has announced.

Otal joins from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, where she served as Senior Vice President of Film. During her time there, she worked on titles including Star Trek IV, a live-action remake of acclaimed anime Your Name at Paramount, Jason Bateman’s The Pinkerton at Warner Bros, an adaptation of Melissa Fleming’s book A Hope More Powerful than the Sea with Paramount and Amblin, and an adaptation of the video game Portal.

The L.A.-based executive previously served as Vice President of Development and Production at Millennium Films, there exec producing The Hitman’s Bodyguard starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, London Has Fallen starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman, Hunter Killer starring Butler and Gary Oldman, and Criminal starring Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones.

There are many stories about the immigrant experience, and when it comes to ones centering on the Latinx community, many of them sadly focus on the trauma of the immigration itself — crossing borders, being threatened by immigration authorities, facing racism as you try to adjust — or on the multigenerational effect of immigration years down the line. But rarely do we see a film about what happens in between these two things, what it’s like after you migrate, after you have found a routine and settled down and adapted to your new home, and the daily struggles of not really feeling like you belong anywhere, feeling fragmented and divided between two places. Lina Rodríguez’s latest film,

This sense of discomfort and disorientation is present already from the opening scene, where we follow Aurora (Noëlle Schönwald), who meets with a white woman and her husband, before stepping into the trunk...

Exclusive: UTA has signed actress and author Diane Guerrero in all areas.

Guerrero currently stars in HBO Max’s Doom Patrol as Jane, a role she’s portrayed across the show’s three seasons.

She is most notably known for her breakout in Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black portraying inmate Maritza Ramos for six seasons. Her portrayal earned her three consecutive Screen Actors Guild awards for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.” Additionally, she appeared as ‘Lina’ in Jane the Virgin.

For the big screen, she most recently starred in Sony Pictures’ Blast Beat and lent her voice to Disney’s Oscar-winning animated feature, Encanto.

Guerrero is an advocate for immigration reform and penned a memoir titled In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, which covers her parents’ detainment and deportation from Boston to Colombia when she was a teen. Additionally, she is a...

Daniel Dae Kim is set to star in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series.

Kim will play Fire Lord Ozai, the ruthlessly driven leader of the Fire Nation who demands that everyone live up to his impossible standards, especially his teenage son, Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu). Ozai’s drive to conquer and unite the world under firebender rule is a family burden — he believes that it’s his destiny to finish a war started by his ancestors.

As a series regular, Kim joins previously cast young leads Liu; Gordon Cormier, who plays Aang; Kiawentiio (Katara); and Ian Ousley (Sokka).

Albert Kim serves as showrunner, executive producer and writer on the series, with Rideback’s Dan Lin and Lindsey Liberatore executive producing, along with Michael Goi. Roseanne Liang is co-executive producer. Goi, Roseanne Liang, Jabbar Raisani and Jet Wilkinson are directing.

In 2016, Esteban Arango enrolled in Hola Mexico Film Festival’s mentorship program, Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today, with a short film — a coming-of-ager about two brothers from Colombia who love metal music and feel disillusioned by the American dream. Arango and his co-writer, Erick Castrillon, needed guidance on adapting the piece into a full-length project, and the pair found that support in the program. “Blast Beat” had its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and is available on Hulu. Now, Arango returns to Hola Mexico (which takes place in Los Angeles through Sept. 25) for a special screening of the film on Sept. 23.

“I always thought that the movies that Hollywood put out about Latino experience were victimizing. We were always portrayed in negative ways,” says Arango, who is based in L.A. “So the most positive thing that came from [Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today] has been creating that community of filmmakers sharing this journey with you.

Multi-platform media company Macro, which focuses on representing the voice and perspectives of Black people and people of color, has promoted two key executives.

CEO Charles D. King has named Poppy Hanks as EVP, film production and development, and Greta Talia Fuentes as VP, film production and development.

Hanks is widely known for her work with a range of writers and directors. She produced Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou, Esteban Arango’s Blast Beat and Alan Yang’s Tigertail, and will next produce Cleopatra Jones for Warner Bros. Pictures.

She executive produced the six-time Academy Award nominated Judas and The Black Messiah, directed by Shaka King, Ekwa Msangi’s Farewell Amor, Angel Kristi Williams’ Really Love, Boots Riley’s Sorry To Bother You, Dan Gilroy’s Roman J. Israel, Esq., Steven Caple Jr.’s The Land, and the multi-Oscar nominated Mudbound that was directed by Dee Rees and sold to...

Macro founder and CEO Charles D. King announced promotions for film production and development executives Poppy Hanks and Greta Talia Fuentes.

Both longtime Macro employees, Hanks has been elevated to executive vice president of film production and development, while Fuentes has been upped to VP at the multi-platform media company.

“Poppy and Greta were members of the original team when I launched Macro six years ago, so there really aren’t enough words to describe my joy in announcing these promotions today,” King said, in a statement announcing the promotions.

“Poppy’s talent for story and her discerning eye have helped hone many of our award-winning films and she has been a trusted friend and colleague for two decades,” King continued. “Greta has grown into a true force in this business, with her strong relationships with artists and her keen ability to identify, package and develop projects all over town.

While the other streaming services set up recurring franchises, Hulu has opted to get a bit more experimental with its original offerings in August 2021.

Hulu’s list of new releases this month is highlighted by three original series concepts with promise. Reservation Dogs premieres on August 9. Co-created by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), this story will follow four indigenous teenagers in Oklahoma as they stave off boredom and adulthood. Next up is Nine Perfect Strangers on August 18. This miniseries, based on a book of the same name, is produced by David E. Kelley and features staggering cast of Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Luke Evans, Samara Weaving, and more.

Only Murders in the Building is likely the biggest thing to look forward to in August though. Premiering on August 31, this comedy stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as three true crime-obsessed friends who stumble into a true crime of their own.

This review was initially published timed to the show’s premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Sublimely specific in content yet boasting wide appeal, Colombian filmmaker Esteban Arango’s “Blast Beat” expands on his short film with the same title (and starring the same co-leads) for a terrific bilingual debut that keenly scrutinizes the American Dream, those who pursue it vehemently, and the ones who reject it as the sole avenue to fulfillment.

Fleeing extortion in Bogota, Colombia, the upper-middle-class Restrepo teen brothers, Carlos Andres (Mateo Arias) and Mateo Adrian (Moises Arias), and their mother Nelly land in sultry Georgia to meet their father, played by Venezuelan-American actor Wilmer Valderrama in a rare but excellent dramatic turn charged with measured warmth and aggravation. It’s 1999, and the Eln armed group wrecks havoc in the South American nation.

Opposing forces fueled by rampant testosterone, the young men maintain a rivalrous relationship which,...

Brothers Moises and Mateo Arias star together in the bilingual film, Blast Beat from Colombian director Estaban Arango. The siblings play brothers from Colombia whose family move to the United States. CineMovie talked to the former Disney Channel actors regarding the film about sibling rivalry amidst the backdrop of immigration issues and the American dream. Watch the video interview below.

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? This week, […]

The post This Week In Trailers: Censor, Ahead of the Curve, Les Nôtres, Blast Beat appeared first on /Film.

Oscar nominee Toni Collette, Damian Lewis, and Owen Teale star in horse racing drama, Dream Horse, from Bleecker Street and Topic Studios.

Directed by Euros Lyn, the film tells the true story of Dream Alliance, an unlikely race horse bred by small town Welsh bartender, Jan Vokes (Collette). With very little money and no experience, Jan convinces her neighbors to chip in their meager earnings to help raise Dream in the hopes he can compete with the racing elites. The group’s investment pays off as Dream rises through the ranks with grit and determination and goes on to race in the Welsh Grand National showing the heart of a true champion.

Rounding out the cast are Joanna Page, Karl Johnson, Steffan Rhodri, Anthony O’Donnell, Nicholas Farrell and Sian Phillips

The film, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, gallops into limited theaters today followed by an on-demand release on...

Blast Beat is a film that, while set in 1999, has a certain pertinence in a contemporary climate. The story is about two Colombian brothers who head to the US, striving to find a way to fulfil the ‘American dream’. The brothers are played by real life siblings Moises and Mateo Arias, and to mark the film’s release we had the pleasure of speaking to them both.

They discuss with us how similar/different they are to their characters, and what it was like swapping their ages around and what that did to their dynamic. They also speak about the value that refugees and immigrants bring to nations and how a diversity of cultures is a thing to be celebrated, now more so than ever. They also talk about their childhood and parents, their own relationship together, and just how fun it is to be part of scenes in a...

Metal music, aerospace engineering, and the American dream collide in the upcoming coming-of-age drama, “Blast Beat.

And as seen in the trailer for the film, “Blast Beat” follows the story of a Columbian family that immigrates to the US to achieve the American dream. The film focuses on two brothers, one a metalhead hoping to land a career at NASA and the other a kid just trying to fit in and finding it difficult in a new country.

Continue reading ‘Blast Beat’ Trailer: The American Dream, NASA & Metal Music Collide In This Coming-Of-Age Drama at The Playlist.

"You're brothers... you're supposed to lift each other up." Vertical Entertainment has debuted an official US trailer for an indie drama titled Blast Beat, which originally premiered at the (last year's) 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The film follows two young brothers from Colombia who struggle to fit into their new lives in suburban America. Blast Beat features an incredible and diverse cast of Mateo & Moises Arias, Daniel Dae Kim, Kali Uchis, Diane Guererro, plus Wilmer Valderrama. The film is a contemporary, Latinx immigration story that also features elements of heavy metal music via the character's interests, hence the film's title. Described as a "terrific bilingual debut that keenly scrutinizes the American Dream, those who pursue it vehemently, and the ones who reject it as the sole avenue to fulfillment." This looks so damn good. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Esteban Arango's Blast Beat, direct from YouTube: On...

National Geographic has lined up the next two stars of its The Hot Zone franchise.

National Geographic, with Scott Free Productions and 20th Television, announced today that Tony Goldwyn and Daniel Dae Kim will star in the next installment of the scripted anthology series The Hot Zone: Anthrax.

As previously announced, Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson will return as executive producers and showrunners, focusing this season’s limited series on the harrowing anthrax attacks of 2001.

Principal photography will begin this winter 2021 in Toronto.

In a timely limited series that depicts the plight and eventual triumph over a National threat, The Hot Zone: Anthrax takes place in 2001, just weeks after 9/11, where the United States was rocked by another deadly act of terrorism.

Letters containing anthrax were sent to unsuspecting victims in Florida, Washington, D.C., and New York. The anonymous assault claimed five lives and caused panic throughout the U.S.

Scandal alum Tony Goldwyn and Daniel Dae Kim are set as the leads in The Hot Zone: Anthrax, the second installment of Nat Geo’s scientific thriller anthology series. As previously announced, Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson will return as executive producers and showrunners for the new installment, which will focus on the harrowing anthrax attacks of 2001. Principal photography will begin this winter in Toronto. The series hails from National Geographic Channel, Scott Free Productions and 20th Television.

The Hot Zone: Anthrax takes place in 2001, just weeks after 9/11, where the United States was rocked by another deadly act of terrorism. Letters containing anthrax were sent to unsuspecting victims in Florida, Washington, D.C., and New York. The anonymous assault claimed five lives and caused panic throughout the U.S. Despite interagency turf wars and many false leads, an unlikely team of scientists, FBI agents and...

Charles D. King’s Macro announced three promotions at the multi-platform media company. Greta Talia Fuentes and Mark R. Wright have been upped to directors of development in the film division, tasked with shepherding a slate of film projects from development through production, while Caryn Lawson has been named chief of staff, focusing on strategic business initiatives for the company.

“Greta, Mark and Caryn have been such star members of the Macro team since they joined the company, and I’m excited to see them develop into the outstanding executives that they are,” King said. “I look forward to continuing to build and grow with them.”

Since its launch in 2015, Macro — which features a film division, television studio, talent and influence management divisions, a representation firm, a branding and creative agency and a venture firm — has focused on promoting and representing the voices of Black, Indigenous and people of color...

Exclusive: Ava Capri (Blast Beat) and Anthony Keyvan (Alexa & Katie) are set for recurring roles on the upcoming second season of Hulu’s comedy series Love, Victor.

Set in the world of the 2018 Love, Simon film, Love, Victor follows Victor (Michael Cimino), a new student at Creekwood High School on his own journey of self-discovery, facing challenges at home, adjusting to a new city and exploring his sexual orientation. When it all seems too much, he reaches out to Simon to help him navigate the ups and downs of high school.

Capri will play a cool free-spirit who is close friends with Benji (George Sear). Keyvan will portray a funny and effusive LGBTQ student at Creekwood at the start of his coming out journey.

Ana Ortiz, Anthony Turpel, James Martinez, Isabella Ferreira, Mateo Fernandez, Rachel Naomi Hilson, Bebe Wood, George Sear and Mason Gooding co-star in the series, inspired by Becky Albertalli’s novel,...

Monday, Oct. 5 Filipina Music Drama ‘Yellow Rose’ Backed by Gold House

Cultural movement Gold House is supporting the Filipina music drama “Yellow Rose” through its #GoldOpen campaign, which backed “Parasite,” “The Farewell,” “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Just Mercy.”

The Sony release, which opens Oct. 9, centers on an undocumented Filipina teen from a small Texas town who fights to pursue her dreams as a country music performer while having to decide between staying with her family or leaving the only home she has known.

The film, directed by Diana Paragas in her narrative feature debut, stars Eva Noblezada and Lea Salonga. Events include a live Twitter watch party on Oct. 8 and a streamed Q&a on Oct. 9 with the “Yellow Rose” cast and Paragas director moderated by Jazz Tangcay of Variety. The campaign also includes efforts to celebrate Filipino American history and Filipino storytellers through Cinema Sala and the Filipino American Historical Society.

Exclusive: NCIS co-star Wilmer Valderrama has renewed his first-look deal with CBS TV Studios, the studio behind the popular CBS drama series. Valderrama stars as Special Agent Nick Torres on NCIS, which was just renewed for an 18th season. He has been on the show since Season 14, with the first-look producing pact running parallel to his acting deal for the show.

Under the first-look agreement, Valderrama has developed several series projects for CBS TV Studios through his Wv Entertainment banner, including Hipster Death Rattle, a dark comedy based on the book by Richie Narvaez, with writer Rafael Agustin and Corinne Brinkerhoff; as well as the previously announced, The Turners, a half-hour single-camera autobiographical family doctors comedy from writer Naomi Ekperigin at ABC with Two Shakes Entertainment co-producing; and Patriots From the Barrio, a WWII drama about a Mexican-American unit, based on the book by Dave Gutierrez, from writer John Covarrubias.

Cinematographer Ed Wu was working on an independent film when he canceled plans for a shoot in Japan because of the growing threat of coronavirus. Now, Wu is contemplating weeks or months with no work, just one of Hollywood’s many below-the-line professionals working in a gig economy that is quickly disappearing. Wu, who has shot indie films like “Sleight” and this year’s Sundance drama “Blast Beat,” already has had $10,000 worth of work canceled, and he’s still waiting to hear word on a pair of projects meant to kick off in May and June. Even the short-term commercial or branded content work he takes on in between features is uncertain, as many businesses have ground to a halt in response to the pandemic. Also Read: A Summer With No New Movies? How the Studios Are Planning for Post-Coronavirus Era “I’m taking it day-by-day. It’s more of...

Lost and Hawaii Five-o alum Daniel Dae Kim, who executive produces and recurred as a physician on The Good Doctor, is heading to another medical drama series in a recurring role.

Kim is joining NBC’s breakout medical drama New Amsterdam as new head trauma surgeon Dr. Cassian Shin. His character will be introduced in April 7 episode “Pandemic”, which echoes real life as the world grapples with the quickly spreading coronavirus.

In the “Pandemic” episode, an unknown, deathly strain of the flu causes chaos at the hospital. Meanwhile, a new doctor’s (Kim) unorthodox medical practices test Sharpe’s (Freema Agyeman) patience.

Now in the second season, in the wake of the ambulance crash that ended season one, medical director Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold) grieves the death of his wife, Georgia, and learns the difficulties of being a single parent – all the while continuing his commitment to solve systemic...

Wilmer Valderrama and the cast of “Blast Beat” dropped by TheWrap Studio at Sundance to discuss the coming-of-age immigrant story that unapologetically confronts the reality of growing up between cultures.

“We’ve been talking about this for a second and I think it’s been an ongoing conversation in Hollywood,” said Valderrama. “I feel like there’s a major urgency to try to tap into the immigrant story.”

“From a border story, to an immigrant story, as universal as they may be no matter what your origin is, it all ties into something and I think that Hollywood is understanding that there is an urgency to tell the stories. But also as urgent as it is, it is also critical to champion the ideas that really tap into the conversation, that the opinion can be of the audience,” added Valderrama.

Also Read: 'The Assistant' Director Kitty Green Says...

In 2020, arguably, no concept is more ripe for scrutiny and interrogation than the quickly eroding and antiquated, notion, or illusion, of the American dream. These days, films focused on the plight of immigrants tend to go straight to horror—the soul-crushing dehumanizing story of being stripped of identity and being treated like garbage—and with good reason given the global climate and refugee crisis that’s rocked the planet.

Continue reading ‘Blast Beat’: Sibling Rivalries & An Interrogation Of The American Dream [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

Sibling rivalry seldom gets treated with any seriousness in modern mainstream cinema. This makes Esteban Arango’s new coming-of-ager Blast Beat quite the rarity on first glance. Brothers in name only, metal head Carly (Mateo Arias) and skater punk Teo (Moises Arias) can hardly share the same space together without going to war over something. The former is a mathematical genius that dreams of becoming a Nasa scientist in the United States, while the latter has talent to be a great artist but seems happiest committing petty crimes and tagging city walls in their native Bogotá.

This tenuous familial relationship is made even more so because of Colombia’s violent political climate in 1999. Government forces are waging war against guerilla outfits in the jungle as corruption runs rampant in the cities. After experiencing an upper-middle class existence for much of their life, the two wayward teens are thrust into an uncomfortable moment of transition.

Back home in Bogota, teen brothers Carly and Mateo — played by siblings (and Disney Channel veterans) Mateo and Moisés Arias — are metal-blasting, skateboard-riding punks, and reluctant partners in crime. Carly, the sensible one, can’t prevent Mateo from dynamiting a dollhouse. But he’ll swoop in, hair flapping like a vampire’s cape, to rescue his younger brother from the cops — and then scold Mateo himself.

“Blast Beat,” an earnest dual coming-of-age drama written and directed by Esteban Arango, who co-wrote the script with high school friend Erick Castrillion, monitors the brothers’ misfit adventures when their upper-middle-class family is forced to move from Colombia to the outskirts of Atlanta. Arango, a Colombian himself, emigrated to the states in the late ’90s, when the film is less-than-convincingly set. (At least Cannibal Corpse T-shirts are the eternal metalhead uniform.)

The boys don’t fit into the suburbs. Their classmates seem unable to...

The Colombian high school senior at the center of director Esteban Arango's first feature, Blast Beat, is defined to equal degrees by his prodigious gift for engineering science, his dream of working at Nasa and his love of death metal. That last passion prompts the title, and cues the tireless bursts of aggressively thrashing musical breaks and montages that punctuate the action. Otherwise, it adds little to this pedestrian drama about a Latino family seeking political asylum in the U.S. while navigating the cultural shift. There's plenty of potential here to bring original insights to the immigrant experience,...

The Colombian high school senior at the center of director Esteban Arango's first feature, Blast Beat, is defined to equal degrees by his prodigious gift for engineering science, his dream of working at Nasa and his love of death metal. That last passion prompts the title, and cues the tireless bursts of aggressively thrashing musical breaks and montages that punctuate the action. Otherwise, it adds little to this pedestrian drama about a Latino family seeking political asylum in the U.S. while navigating the cultural shift. There's plenty of potential here to bring original insights to the immigrant experience,...

Exclusive: Emmy-nominee Elizabeth Mitchell, Willow Shields, and Lochlyn Munro (Riverdale) have signed on to star in When Time Got Louder, a coming-of-age indie drama from first-time feature director Connie Cocchia.

Piper Curda, Ava Capri (Blast Beat) and newcomer Jonathan Michael Simao also co-star in the film which was written by Cocchia.

It follows Abbie (Shields) as she departs for college, leaving her parents Mark (Munro) and Tish (Mitchell), and her brother Kayden (Simao) who has autism and is non-verbal. As she explores her newfound independence with her roommate Jen (Curda) and falls in love with a girl named Karly (Capri), Abbie is torn between her new life and the guilt of leaving her brother as her family struggles to care for him in her absence.

Cocchia, who has a brother impacted by autism,...