Category: Movies

Epic Conclusion in ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Blurs Line Between Prey & Predator

This year’s highly anticipated big-screen event, Jurassic World Dominion, takes the audience to a world where dinosaurs live and hunt alongside humans all over the world. Reshaping the future that will determine once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators, the film is about to break the fragile balance that will reshape the future of the planet.

Jurassic World Dominion is the conclusion of that unprecedented three-decade story, and it is, by design, unlike any Jurassic film that has come before. For almost three decades, the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World films, based on characters created by author Michael Crichton and following the debut of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park in 1993, have inspired awe and wonder and terror and exhilaration and unfettered joy in almost every living person who has crossed the threshold of a movie theatre in the past 29 years.

“There is a cataclysmic event in the middle of the trilogy that fundamentally changes everything,” director Colin Trevorrow says. “The dinosaurs are taken off the island and released out into the wider world. It was such an amazing opportunity to be able to explore the consequences of that. Jurassic World Dominion is about the need for us to respect the power of the natural world—if we fail, we’ll go extinct just like the dinosaurs. Not only are we finishing the story begun in 2015 in Jurassic World, but we’re finishing the story that began in 1993 with Jurassic Park. That’s a story that takes all the characters in the saga to tell.”

For the first time, the film does not take place on Isla Nublar, but entirely in our world, and, for the only time in history, the stars of both chapters of the franchise – Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm and Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Park and Chris Pratt as Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing from Jurassic World – are united on screen, joining BD Wong who, as Dr. Henry Wu, who appeared in 1993’s Jurassic Park and now all three Jurassic World films.

For Trevorrow, these characters are central to this film and are the reason for the franchise’s success all these years. “These characters are rich, and the drama is human and real,” Trevorrow.

The fusion of those two casts was long-planned. “We designed this trilogy to bring in characters from Jurassic Park,” Trevorrow says. “We had BD Wong in Jurassic World to assure the audience that this was the same timeline; then we brought in Ian Malcolm in Fallen Kingdom to reassure people that Malcolm is very much paying attention to what’s going on. In Dominion, the legacy cast is as equally involved as Claire and Owen. We don’t just bring them in to exist in some supervisory, parental role. We send them on a true, honest-to-God, scary-as-hell adventure.”

Jurassic World Dominion, from Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, propels the more than $5 billion franchise into daring, uncharted territory, featuring never-seen dinosaurs, breakneck action and astonishing new visual effects that will open in cinemas across the Philippines on June 8.

May 24, 2022
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is peak action filmmaking but its mission feels hollow

I’m naturally wary of reboots, remakes, and what is now called “legacy sequels,” a term coined by box office analysts Gower Street Analytics. The term refers to a “belated sequel” of a very popular film made several decades ago. All of this was discussed in a Guardian article by Andrew Pulver, saying that a very “risk-averse Hollywood” is pouring money into “legacy films” like ‘Top Gun,’ ‘Ghostbusters,’ ‘Jurassic Park,’ and the upcoming ‘Avatar’ sequel to varying results. I’m wary about this because this appeal for nostalgia and fan service truly treats films like products and not creative productions. There’s a checklist that you have ticked off before you can even start working on the film as a creative output.

So I had mixed feelings coming into ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ I am not a legacy fan. I was seven years old when the first film came out and it wasn’t my cup of tea. But I’m a fan of Tom Cruise and one of the sequel’s screenwriters, Christopher McQuarrie (who writes alongside Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer). Was this just going to be a cash grab? Or was Tom Cruise not going to disappoint me by working his magic and making sure this was going to be an experience?

In terms of it being a cinematic experience, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is bar none one of the most thrilling action films I’ve seen in a long while. It’s well-known how the film boasts of having no CGI whatsoever. All the aerial stunts and the acting of the crew in the cockpits of their fighter jets are all shot in real-world situations. The human eye can really spot the difference between what is real and what is CGI in a film and this perception of reality on screen adds to the excitement and energy that is happening on screen.

The film, running at 131 minutes, is full of high-octane aerial stunts and fight scenes. From the training sessions of the new pilots under the tutelage of Tom Cruise’s Maverick to the actual mission, even a person like myself who is indifferent to the appeal of fighter jets and instruments of war, I held my breath and was very much invested in the outcome of these aerial battles.

Director Joseph Kosinski managed to show us the stakes, impress upon us what it takes for our protagonists to succeed, and then give us a dazzling display of explosive, high-energy action scenes that really just gets under your skin. The sound design and mix really helped amplify the tension of these scenes.

For that alone, the film succeeds on such a high level.

^{Photo: Top Gun Movie on Facebook}

And then there’s the fan service that comes in, which doesn’t take away from the movie (fortunately) and adds a certain kind of old-school charm to the film. Val Kilmer returns from the first film for a short cameo that is packed with emotion and meaning. Even suffering from throat cancer, he manages an affecting scene with Cruise that helps reinforce an ongoing theme of the film, which is letting go.

And while the film introduces new characters – and includes Jennifer Connely, who is a character only mentioned but never seen in the original, and Miles Teller, who plays the older version of a character seen in the first film – this is really Maverick’s movie as he must come to terms with being a relic in a world that has moved on from the crazy bravado of the 80s.

^{Photo: Top Gun Movie on Facebook}

Interestingly though, the film manages to find a point of intersection between the past and the future. Maverick may be a relic but he has the skills and the experience that will allow them to succeed in an extremely challenging mission made complicated by technology. Somehow, the film manages to gently nudge the older guard to move on and let the younger set take over; but it still celebrates and values the skills and experience of the veterans and reconciles that they still have something to share and contribute.

My only gripe is that as thrilling and exciting as the film is, and how poignant the lessons it hopes to dramatize through Maverick’s interactions with Connelly’s Penny and Teller’s Rooster, the film gently skirts over the mission parameters and treats it as a generic quest. The mission involves destroying a plutonium cache in an unnamed mountainous country. The geopolitics of this film is completely swept under the rug. NATO approves this attack, they must do it to protect the world from an unnamed nuclear threat. Really, it is just an excuse for the planes to go on air and for some amazing aerial stunts but by doing so it detaches itself from reality.

^{Photo: Top Gun Movie on Facebook}

This film is really just a fantasy. It makes no justification for its act of war and plays neutral by creating an enemy that is neither recognizable nor familiar. And this would have been fine 15 years ago when there was relative peace in the world (or we were all unaware of how bad things were). But the world is torn apart by populist regimes and is still reeling from the war in Ukraine.

The lack of identifiable politics in the film detracts from the realism of the film as it ends up becoming nothing more than a legacy sequel out there to entertain. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It’s still so enjoyable, especially in IMAX where everything is just set to scale. But, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is also a war movie but with no clear enemy. So what does the movie end up standing up for if not just war for the sake of it?

My Rating:

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‘Top Gun: Maverick’ opens in Phillippine cinemas on Wednesday, May 25. Buy your tickets here.

ALSO READ:
Tom Cruise Returns to the Skies in the Long-Awaited Sequel ‘Top Gun: Maverick’
First Reactions to ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Describe it as the “Perfect Blockbuster”

May 24, 2022
WATCH: New Trailer of ‘Elvis’ Explores His Rise to Fame

“I’m gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight.”

Don’t miss Austin Butler and Tom Hanks in THE film of the summer. Check out the new trailer of Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” below and watch the film only in theaters across the Philippines June 22.

About “Elvis”

From Oscar-nominated visionary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ drama “Elvis,” starring Austin Butler and Oscar winner Tom Hanks.

The film explores the life and music of Elvis Presley (Butler), seen through the prism of his complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Hanks). The story delves into the complex dynamic between Presley and Parker spanning over 20 years, from Presley’s rise to fame to his unprecedented stardom, against the backdrop of the evolving cultural landscape and loss of innocence in America. Central to that journey is one of the most significant and influential people in Elvis’s life, Priscilla Presley (Olivia DeJonge).

Starring alongside Hanks and Butler, award-winning theatre actress Helen Thomson (“Top of the Lake: China Girl,” “Rake”) plays Elvis’s mother, Gladys; Richard Roxburgh (“Moulin Rouge!” “Breath,” “Hacksaw Ridge”) portrays Elvis’s father, Vernon, and DeJonge (“The Visit,” “Stray Dolls”) plays Priscilla. Luke Bracey (“Hacksaw Ridge,” “Point Break”) plays Jerry Schilling, Natasha Bassett (“Hail, Caesar!”) plays Dixie Locke, David Wenham (“The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, “Lion,” “300”) plays Hank Snow, Kelvin Harrison Jr. (“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “The High Note”) plays B.B. King, Xavier Samuel (“Adore,” “Love & Friendship,” “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”) plays Scotty Moore, and Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”) plays Jimmie Rodgers Snow.

Also in the cast, Dacre Montgomery (“Stranger Things,” “The Broken Heart Gallery”) plays TV director Steve Binder, alongside Australian actors Leon Ford (“Gallipoli,” “The Pacific”) as Tom Diskin, Kate Mulvany (“The Great Gatsby,” “Hunters”) as Marion Keisker, Gareth Davies (“Peter Rabbit,” “Hunters”) as Bones Howe, Charles Grounds (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “Camp”) as Billy Smith, Josh McConville (“Fantasy Island”) as Sam Phillips, and Adam Dunn (“Home and Away”) as Bill Black.

To play additional iconic musical artists in the film, Luhrmann cast singer/songwriter Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, model Alton Mason as Little Richard; Austin, Texas native Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur Crudup, and artist Shonka Dukureh as Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton.

Oscar nominee Luhrmann (“The Great Gatsby,” “Moulin Rouge!”) directed from a screenplay by Baz Luhrmann & Sam Bromell and Baz Luhrmann & Craig Pearce and Jeremy Doner, story by Baz Luhrmann and Jeremy Doner. The film’s producers are Luhrmann, Oscar winner Catherine Martin (“The Great Gatsby,” “Moulin Rouge!”), Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick, and Schuyler Weiss. Courtenay Valenti and Kevin McCormick executive produced.

A Warner Bros. Pictures Presentation, A Bazmark Production, A Jackal Group Production, A Baz Luhrmann Film, “Elvis” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Join the conversation online and use the hashtag #ElvisMovie

May 24, 2022
Watch the Teaser Trailer of ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’

It’s time to pick a side.

Watch the official teaser trailer for Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One starring Tom Cruise. Coming to theaters 2023.

About Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One

Paramount Pictures and Skydance present a Tom Cruise Production a film by Christopher McQuarrie, Tom Cruise in “MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING – PART ONE”

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, based on the television series created by Bruce Geller. Produced by Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie. Executive produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Tommy Gormley.

Starrring Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, Henry Czerny, Rob Delaney, Cary Elwes, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss, Charles Parnell, Greg Tarzan Davis, Frederick Schmidt.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One is distributed in the Philippines by Paramount Pictures through Columbia Pictures. Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/paramountpicsph/; Instagram at www.instagram.com/paramountpicsph/ and YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsZ7igjHZB-5k8DDM7ilVJw. Connect with #MissionImpossible and tag paramountpicsph

May 24, 2022
Film Facts: 5 Things to Know About ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Tom Cruise returns to one of his earliest Hollywood roles in the long-awaited sequel film, Top Gun: Maverick. As Navy aviator Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, Cruise is back to cruising the skies, but this time he also has to train a new generation of aviators while facing the uncertain future and a piece of the past that haunts him to this day.

Before you see the epic sequel to Top Gun this May 25, here are some facts about the film that you might find interesting.

1. It’s been 36 years since the first film premiered.

Top Gun first hit theaters in 1986 and Tom Cruise was in his early 20s when he first played the role of Maverick. Today, the actor is 59 years old, and his role as a respected aviator turned mentor to the rookies is really fitting given the huge gap between the first film and the sequel. Top Gun is also one of the franchises with the longest gaps between its films, running second to Bambi which took 64 years to have a sequel.

Photo: Netflix

2. Maverick meets the son of his late friend Goose.

Goose is such an important character in the first film, and his impact remains in this sequel. In fact, his son Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw becomes one of Maverick’s mentees, but the past will raise conflict upon their encounter. Rooster is played by Miles Teller, who has appeared in the 2015 Fantastic Four remake and War Dogs.

Photo: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ trailer

3. The Iceman is back.

Val Kilmer also returns in the sequel as Maverick’s rival-turned-ally, Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. As the trailer reveals, it was actually Iceman who requested for Maverick to lead the Navy’s new roster of promising aviators. In an interview with People, Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer said that Cruise really wanted to have Kilmer back for the sequel. Top Gun: Maverick was filmed after Kilmer recovered from throat cancer.

Photo: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ trailer

4. Tom Cruise & the cast were really filmed from inside the cockpit.

In the original movie, the cast members were filmed in the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat, but only Tom Cruise had usable footage because the other actors struggled with that setup. But this time, the actors are now able to film in the cockpits of the F/A-18s in flight, acting and speaking their lines of dialogue, thanks to months of training.

Photo: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ trailer

5. Convincing Tom Cruise to star in Top Gun wasn’t easy.

In an interview with Variety, Bruckheimer said that Tom Cruise was always their choice to play Maverick, but convincing him to star in the film wasn’t easy. But when the Blue Angels at a Naval Air Facility in California took him for a ride, doing all kinds of stunts in an F-14, Cruise was convinced that he had to be in the movie.

Photo: Paramount Pictures

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ opens in Phillippine cinemas on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. Book your seats ahead and buy your tickets here.

May 23, 2022
New Movies This Week: Downton Abbey: A New Era, and more

Plan your week ahead and choose which among these movie openings this May 18, 2022 you’ll see on the big screen first.

Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon

Adventure, Animation, Comedy

Directed by José Zelada and Richard Claus, it centers on an adventurous girl named Ainbo who, with her spirit guides, set out to save her jungle paradise in the Amazon from loggers and miners. It features the voices of Lola Raie, Bernardo De Paula, Naomi Serano, Alejandra Gollas, Joe Hernandez, and Dino Andrade.

BUY TICKETS

Downton Abbey: A New Era

Drama, Romance | 2hrs 7mins

Directed by Simon Curtis, it is the sequel to the 2019 movie Downton Abbey. It follows the Crawley family who goes on a grand journey to the South of France to uncover the mystery of the dowager countess’ newly inherited villa. It stars Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, and more.

BUY TICKETS

Father Stu

Biography, Drama

Written and directed by Rosalind Ross, the biographical drama centers on Stuart Long, a boxer-turned-Catholic priest suffering from inclusion body myositis. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Mel Gibson, Jacki Weaver, and Malcolm McDowell.

May 18, 2022
‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ to Screen Exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas

Downton Abbey: A New Era, the much-anticipated cinematic return of the global phenomenon reunites the beloved cast as they go on a grand journey to the South of France to uncover the mystery of the Dowager Countess’ newly inherited villa.

The film is directed by Simon Curtis and written by Julian Fellowes. The entire cast is returning for this new big-screen chapter, led by Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Penelope Wilton. Joining them are new cast members Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West.

Julian Fellowes talks about “Downton Abbey: A New Era” in the following Q&A:

Where are the Downton characters at the beginning of this new movie?

At the end of “Downton Abbey: The Motion Picture” it was clear that Mary was really taking over as the boss at Downton and that’s a theme we go with throughout this second film. One of the jobs of being in a hereditary business is to accept that it is hereditary and there comes a time when your usefulness is diminished and the moment has come to hand on to the next generation. Edith’s marriage to Bertie is going well and she has now given birth to a boy but in a rather modern sense, running Brancaster and motherhood is not quite enough for her. She needs an activity that draws on her brain and something outside the family unit. Cora and Robert’s job in the first film was to host the King and Queen, which they did with good grace. They both have a more difficult emotional journey in this film. I wanted to give all the characters more to do this time round and I am rather pleased with the way it turned out.

When you are writing, how conscious are you of the balance of drama and humour?

The sort of comedy that I like is real-life comedy and in our day to day lives we all know people who are funnier than others. Those people have the gift of coming up with phrases that are funny but they don’t remove you from what’s going on around you so in that sense you can return to the truth of the narrative situation without any difficulty. That is the level of comedy that sits well in an ongoing family saga like Downton and of course, for that, you need certain members of the cast to be talented with comedy lines. I was lucky with Maggie Smith, because I’d worked with her a few times before and the character I wrote that she played in “Gosford Park” was quite similar to Violet Grantham in “Downton.” Maggie has many gifts and one of them is that she can be very funny one minute, and two minutes later have you crying and she can shift gear without changing into someone else. She remains very true to the character.

What do you hope audiences will take away from “Downton Abbey: A New Era”?

I’m part of a dying breed who believes that one of the jobs of the entertainment industry is to entertain. I want people to watch Downton and enjoy it. I want them to go to this movie, have a nice time – laugh and cry, then go out and have a decent dinner and get back home and feel they’ve had a really good evening. That’s my goal and if people ask is it enough to just entertain, then the answer is yes. I also hope that every now and then we can make them think about the disparity of backgrounds in an equal society, or make them think of the difficulties of being homosexual in a period when it was still illegal. We touch on those sorts of subjects but that’s not the prime purpose of the film. The purpose of the film is to give the audience a really good evening out.

Watch “Downton Abbey: A New Era” on May 18 exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas – Glorietta4, Greenbelt 3, Bonifacio High Street, Ayala Malls Feliz, U.P. Town Center, Trinoma, Ayala Malls Vertis North, Marquee, Harbor Point, Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Alabang Town Center, Ayala Center Cebu, Centrio, Ayala Malls Capitol Central, Ayala Malls The 30^th and Ayala Malls Solenad.

May 17, 2022
Tom Cruise Returns to the Skies in the Long-Awaited Sequel ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Thirty-six years after portraying Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun, Tom Cruise returns to the iconic role that catapulted him to global superstardom, with the long-awaited sequel, Paramount Pictures’ Top Gun: Maverick (in Philippine cinemas May 25).

“I’d thought about a sequel to Top Gun for all these years,” says Cruise. “People had asked for a sequel for decades. Decades. And the thing I said to the studio from the beginning was: ‘If I’m ever going to entertain this, we’re shooting everything practically. I’m in that F/A-18, period. So, we’re going to have to develop camera rigs. There’s going to be wind tunnels and engineering. It’s going to take a long, long time for me to figure it out.’ For years, people had said, ‘Can’t you shoot [the movie] with CGI?’ And I always said, ‘No. That’s not the experience.’ I said, ‘I need to find the right story. And we’re going to need the right team. This movie is like trying to hit a bullet with a bullet. I’m not playing.’”

On the original movie, although Cruise was filmed in the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat, his castmates weren’t so successful in their endeavors. “We had other actors up there, flying,” says legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “Tom was the only one we had usable flight footage for. We had tons of footage of the other actors in the air with their eyes rolling back in their heads. This time, thanks to Tom, all the actors on Top Gun: Maverick became accustomed to the fundamentals and mechanics of flight and G-forces, because of all the training they did months in advance. Unlike the first film, our actors are actually in the cockpits of the F/A-18s in flight, acting and speaking their lines of dialogue.”

Cruise says there is a “majesty and beauty” in flying an airplane. “It’s both using and defying nature,” he says. “And playing Maverick again, at a different stage of his life, has been an incredible experience for me. Maverick is still Maverick. He still wants to fly Mach 2 with his hair on fire. But you see the transition that Maverick undergoes. The pressure of him losing his best friend, the responsibility he feels about that and how he has carried that with him. This film is about family and it’s about friendship and it’s about sacrifice. It’s about redemption and the cost of mistakes.”

And that emotion hasn’t just been up on screen, but behind the scenes, on a journey that has taken the makers of Top Gun: Maverick both back in time and forward, into new frontiers in filmmaking. “What we have achieved with the aerial sequences is genuinely something that people will never have seen before,” says Cruise. “We’ve trained actors to be able to fly and perform in real F/A-18s. And, to do that, we took the greatest fighter pilots in the world [from the U.S. Navy] and we taught them about movies – the pilot and the actor had to work as a team. This is the sophistication of the aerial sequences. No one’s ever done this, ever.”

It’s not just pride that Cruise feels, though. Top Gun: Maverick isn’t just a movie – it’s a destination. A culmination of everything he has learned in his 40 years in this business (Cruise’s debut, Endless Love, was released on July 17, 1981), this is a story he’s been building towards. A love letter to aviation, for sure. But a love letter to movies too.

About Top Gun: Maverick

After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose”.

Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Top Gun: Maverick stars Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis with Ed Harris.

The film is written by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, based the characters created by Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie and David Ellison.

Top Gun: Maverick is distributed in the Philippines by Paramount Pictures through Columbia Pictures. Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/paramountpicsph/; Instagram at www.instagram.com/paramountpicsph/ and YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsZ7igjHZB-5k8DDM7ilVJw. Connect with #TopGun and tag paramountpicsph

May 17, 2022
The End of an Era: a Review of ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’

I have been an avid fan of the series ‘Downton Abbey‘ since it first came out back in 2010. I have seen all six seasons (the series is available on Netflix) when they came out and even caught the movie that was released in 2019. So watching a new ‘Downton Abbey’ movie has the same feeling as that of coming home. I’ve lived (and loved) these characters for over 20 years now. It has been three years since the last film and I don’t remember much about it. But just after ten or fifteen minutes into the sequel, ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era,’ everything just came rushing back.

For those who have loved these characters, it’s really like having a family reunion.

While series creator Julianne Fellowes is still the scriptwriter and Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge producing, Simon Curtis takes over the directing helm. Even with a new director, the movie still feels like the series. Curtis seems very much aware of the little details of each character and their dynamics with each other that he manages to capture it in such a seamless manner.

After all, even with its soap opera-ish narratives, the true joy of watching any ‘Downton Abbey’ content, whether it’s the series or the movies, is its dignity and elegance and the deep relationships of these characters. A lot of the stories in the show are familiar and universal. What makes these characters so endearing is their interactions with each other.

The whole cast has returned and they fit back into their roles effortlessly. The slight changes are evident – Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) has come to fully accept her role as the head of Downton Abbey despite the absence of her adventurous husband; Edith (Laura Carmichael) is happier and more confident; Tom Branson (Allen Leech) feels most at ease now with the family having found someone of his own through Lucy (Tuppence Middleton); Carson (Jim Carter) is struggling with retirement while Barrow (Robert James-Collier) has come into his own as Downton Abbey’s new butler, and the like – and we just pick up from where we left off in the last film.

^{Photo: Universal Pictures}

At a hundred and twenty-five minutes, ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era” begins like just any other episode of the series but as the story unfolds, it starts to become clear that there seems to be a finality to all of this. The story happens in two parts working simultaneously.

The first story is set in a villa in the south of France, which Lady Violet (Maggie Smith) inherited from an old suitor over 50 years ago who has just passed away. Lady Violet has given the villa to Sybil, Tom’s daughter. Invited by the suitor’s son and wife, the family must uncover the mystery of such an expensive inheritance from a suitor Lady Violet had only met for just a week.

The second story is set in Downton Abbey when a film production wants to use the manor as a set for a movie. While the idea is considered “crass” and too lowly for such a distinguished house, the payment for rent would greatly help to maintain the expensive manor and Lady Mary agrees. The arrival of film stars into the manor turns everything upside-down, including another potential suitor for Lady Mary, who is questioning whether her husband truly loves her or not.

^{Photo: Universal Pictures}

When Downton Abbey first came out in 2010, it was deemed as a study between class divisions – the lives and troubles of the people “upstairs” (the upper class) and those “downstairs” (the lower class) – it was a way to peer into, dissect, and criticize the complex class system of Britain.

As the seasons of the show progressed, it became clear that series creator Julian Fellowes was showing how unnecessary and even backward this idea of such a class system is. There is just as much goodness and nobility in the people downstairs and just as much prejudice and untoward behavior from the people upstairs. I have always felt that Fellowes has been criticizing this class system but he also treats it with such love and reverence.

In ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era,’ he once again brings in more elements that question this system. The “crass movie people” that have come into Downton Abbey juxtaposes the changes in the film industry from silent film to film with sound (the ‘talkies’) with that of the class system; it is a sign that the world is moving forward. On the other hand, the story in the South of France puts into light the question of dynasties when the secret behind the relationship of Lady Violet and her suitor puts Lord Grantham’s (Hugh Bonneville) whole life into question.

^{Photo: Universal Pictures}

While the film (and the whole series) can serve as a study and criticism of this British elitist class system, the way it treats its characters of high rank and status with so much care and love is now a little uncomfortable for me as I am now older and more aware of these systems of inequality. What saves ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ is how wonderfully familiar these characters have become and that at the very center of this movie – and the whole series, for that matter – is the warm and tender heart at its core. There is elegance, grace, dignity, and goodness in all the stories of ‘Downton Abbey.’

In this current world that seems so crazy and messy and chaotic, ‘Downton Abbey’ becomes a breath of fresh air. It is a pleasant watch that brings you back to the days when everything felt more civil, more polite. And for that, I will always treasure this show and its movies.

My Rating:

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‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ opens in Phillippine cinemas on Wednesday, May 18, released exclusively at selected Ayala Malls Cinemas. Buy your tickets here.

ALSO READ:
Film Facts: Five Things to Know About ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’

May 17, 2022
Film Facts: Five Things to Know About ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’

Good news, Downtonians! Next up on the big screen is ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era,’ opening exclusively at selected Ayala Malls Cinemas. The Philippines is also getting it two days before its U.S. release!

In the new film, the well-loved characters from the popular six-season British drama series ‘Downton Abbey‘ journey to the South of France, where they uncover the mystery of the Dowager Countess’ newly inherited villa.

Before we experience the historical drama of the Crawleys on the big screen once more, we’re giving you some fun facts about this latest installment to the ‘Downton Abbey’ franchise to get you excited to head to the cinemas.

1. ‘A New Era’ is a follow-up to the 2019 feature film, ‘Downton Abbey’

Photo: Universal Pictures

The first film followed the lives of the series’ characters around 18 months from its finale episode. The Crawley household was presented a challenge – a visit from the King and Queen of England. In ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era,’ they are now in the roaring twenties, with everything moving towards modernity. The Dowager Countess, portrayed by Maggie Smith, inherits a new villa located in the south of France. Meanwhile, a filmmaker wants to direct a motion picture in Downton Abbey, receiving mixed reactions from everyone in the household.

2. The film sequel is still penned by ‘Downton Abbey’ award-winning creator Julian Fellowes

Julian Fellows, the scribe behind the upper-crust stories of the British drama, is once again writing the film’s screenplay. If you’re a fan of posh period settings similar to ‘Downton Abbey,’ then Fellows’ other shows like ‘The English Game’ on Netflix and ‘The Gilded Age’ on HBO GO would definitely be your cup of tea.

3. Directing the film sequel is Simon Curtis, who is married to Elizabeth McGovern, who plays Cora Crawley

Elizabeth McGovern as Cora Crawley and Laura Carmichael as Edith Pelham
Photo: Universal Pictures

This isn’t the first time the English director is working with his wife on the big screen. In 2015, Simon Curtis directed Woman in Gold, a biographical drama film starring Helen Mirren, where Elizabeth McGovern played a judge.

4. The main cast of ‘Downton Abbey’ all return for the movie sequel

Penelope Wilton as Isobel Grey, Baroness Merton and Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham
Photo: Universal Pictures

Some of your favorite characters returning to the big screen are Maggie Smith (Dowager Countess), Hugh Bonneville (Robert Crawley), Elizabeth McGovern (Cora Crawley), Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary Talbot), Laura Carmichael (Edith Pelham), and Jim Carter (Charles Carson).

5. This is the first time the cast is filming on location in France

Image: www.rocabella.fr

Aside from the filming in Highclere Castle in Berkshire (the ancestral home of Downton), they also filmed ‘A New Era’ on location in the south of France. According to this interview with the film’s location manager, the villa that the Dowager Countess comes into possession of is Rocabella, located in Le Pradet, France. Director Simon Curtis mentions in another interview that there was a big possibility they couldn’t film on location due to the border closures in France during the pandemic, so they prepared a Plan B of locations in the UK for French scenes. It’s a good thing they were able to pull through because just by looking at the Rocabella website, we’re already stunned by its beauty!

ALSO READ:
Good to Be Home: A Review of ‘Downton Abbey’

‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ opens in Phillippine cinemas on Wednesday, May 18, released exclusively at selected Ayala Malls Cinemas. Buy your tickets online here!

May 17, 2022