Emma Stone was blunt. “Are you okay, man?” she asked Ari Aster after a surprise screening of his latest film, “Beau Is Afraid” at Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Audiences around the country may be asking variations of the same question after they emerge from the occasionally creepy, often hilarious and deeply weird horror-comedy. It’s a movie about a neurotic man (Joaquin Phoenix) with serious mommy issues, who must endure a phantasmagoric odyssey as he labors to get home following a family tragedy. Over the course of his journey he will be kidnapped by a suburban couple (Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan), stalked by a hulking vet with PTSD, menaced by a paint-drinking teenage girl and embraced by an experimental theater troupe. There’s also an animated sequence, as well as a recurring gag involving Phoenix’s distended testicles, plus a sex scene with Parker Posey that may rank among the wackiest ever committed to film. Oh, and did we mention the whole thing is three hours long?

“I want you to go through his guts and come out of his butt,” Aster explained to Stone at the packed Alamo Drafthouse auditorium. Ticket buyers had come to the theater expecting to see a director’s cut of “Midsommar,” Aster’s previous film about a group of graduate students who make an ill-fated visit to a Swedish cult. Instead, in an April Fools’ Day twist, the group was treated to “Beau Is Afraid,” becoming the first public audience to see the film before its April 21 release.

The crowd seemed to love it, though the group was already game to spend a Saturday afternoon watching a longer version of “Midsommar.” The general public may have a tougher time with the film, as people split between the profound and ponderous camps when it comes to this bladder-testing epic. Even Stone, who called “Beau Is Afraid” a “masterpiece,” admitted “When I first saw it I needed hours afterwards to process it.”

The whole film, Aster said, centers around a simple premise. “The joke here for a long time is that Beau is really worried about everything and I’m going to put him a situation that could go wrong in one of 10 ways,” he said. But his movie hinges on asking: “What’s the eleventh way?”

Aster said working with Phoenix, who plays the twitchy, over-medicated title character with a scary level of intensity, was a career highlight for him.

“He’s so beyond committed,” Aster said. “He really makes decisions carefully because when he takes something on it’s his whole life. Every dangerous thing that Beau does, Joaquin did.”

That meant falling down ladders, barreling through forests and crashing through glass doors. The latter stunt left him with a shard of glass in his side.

“I think we did one more take after that,” Aster said. While shooting a tense standoff with Patti LuPone, who plays Beau’s manipulative mother, Phoenix was so exhausted he fainted. “I knew that it was bad because he was letting people touch him,” Aster said.

Phoenix was also on hand, greeting the crowd while outfitted in a black cap and jeans. But he opted to forgo the Q&A.

For Aster, who dreamed of making “Beau Is Afraid” before he made a name for himself with “Hereditary” and “Midsommar,” his new movie represented a chance to mix in more humor with horror. It was also an opportunity to delve into his own anxieties (this is a man who admits choosing where to go for lunch can spark an existential crisis).

“You just want to punish Beau,” Stone told him at the end of the Q&A.

“Yeah,” Aster said with a laugh. “Fuck him.”

Josh Brolin gives a disappointing update regarding Sicario 3. The original 2015 thriller tracked FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), part of an obscure government task force involved in the ongoing war against drugs and the Mexican cartel. In the film, Brolin portrayed CIA officer Matt Graver, who led the mission and was desensitized to a lot of the violence, along with hitman Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro). Upon its release, the movie received praise for its screenplay and cinematography, and a sequel titled Sicario: Day of the Soldado premiered three years later, with Brolin and del Toro reprising their roles.

While a Sicario 3 is reportedly in the works, titled Sicario: Capos, Brolin shared that the film has been a challenge to get made. In speaking with Variety, the actor questioned the sequel’s long wait, noting that people still talk about it, but bluntly admitted it may not happen. Read Brolin’s comments regarding Sicario 3 below:

“‘Sicario 3,’ we’ve been trying to get that right and get that going, but why hasn’t it happened? How long can you wait? A tough movie to get made even though the two made money, and people are asking about it all the time.“

Could Sicario 3 Still Happen?

Given the success of both films, and Brolin’s interest in continuing the series, a third installment still seems possible. Last year, the actor gave an optimistic update on Sicario 3, revealing that a script had been written, but added that there was uncertainty surrounding when it would happen. The first movie, directed by Denis Villeneuve, earned several Academy Award nominations, including Best Cinematography, and though he did not return for Sicario: Day of the Soldado, the sequel generated positive enough reviews and a modest box office haul to begin talks of a third.

The fight against Mexican cartels was at the forefront of Sicario: Day of the Soldado and in Macer’s absence, Brolin’s character became more integral. When Graver was last seen, he had decided to go against orders and save Isabel Reyes (Isabela Merced). He also believed Gillick to be dead, but the ending of Sicario: Day of the Soldado suggests that another movie could have the hitman and Miguel Hernandez (Elijah Rodriguez) work together.

There is a lot of speculation surrounding a potential Sicario 3, including what characters could appear and who would be creating it. It is worth mentioning that Taylor Sheridan, who wrote Sicario, also worked on second film’s script. If he remains attached to the next one, and Brolin and del Toro return, there will be a lot for fans to look forward to.

Source: Variety

Hark! “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” looks to reach the top of box office charts in its opening weekend, besting the sophomore outing of “John Wick: Chapter 4.”

“Honor Among Thieves” scored $15.3 million in its opening day, a figure that includes $5.6 million from Thursday screenings and specialty previews. Playing in 3,855 venues, the fantasy comedy is projecting a finish around $40 million, which would come in at the higher end of estimates heading into the weekend.

That’s a solid figure for “Honor Among Thieves,” which Paramount has thrown support behind with a sweeping press tour and a premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. Along with the studio, Entertainment One (eOne) covered a good fraction of the production budget for the film, which totals about $150 million between the two banners. eOne is a subsidiary of Hasbro, which controls the “Dungeons & Dragons” intellectual property.

The role-playing game adaptation will have to keep drawing audiences to fully justify its price tag. Reviews have been strong, with the film scoring an 89% approval rating from top critics on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. In Variety’s review, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman called the film “at once cheesy and charming, synthetic and spectacular, cozily derivative and rambunctiously inventive, a processed piece of junk-culture joy that, by the end, may bring a tear to your eye.”

Audiences are also a thumbs-up. “Honor Among Thieves” landed an “A-” grade through research firm Cinema Score, indicating that the first round of ticket buyers were amply roused by the adventure. Whether or not the film ultimately ranks as a success in the coming weeks, it’s already secured a happier ending than New Line’s 2000 “Dungeons & Dragons,” which bombed with a $15 million opening and ended with $33 million worldwide.

“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” follows a group of adventurers, including Chris Pine as the singing bard Edgin Darvis, Michelle Rodriguez as the ferocious barbarian Holga Kilgore, Regé-Jean Page as powerful paladin Xenk Yendar, Justice Smith as the wild magic sorcerer Simon Aumar and Sophia Lillis as the tiefling druid Doric. Under the threat of an evil Red Wizard, the unlikely heroes must come together. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley direct.

Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” looks to fall to No. 2 on domestic charts. The Keanu Reeves action epic drew $7.8 million on Friday, on its way to a $28 million haul.

“Chapter 4” should boost its domestic gross to $122.6 million through Sunday. The film has already surged past the North American finishes of the first two “John Wick” entries ($43 million and $92 million, respectively) and has now set its sights on blowing away “Chapter 3 – Parabellum” ($171 million).

Angel Studios opens religious film “His Only Son” this weekend. The release is making a notable dent on domestic charts, looking at a potential third place finish with a projected $5.7 million haul from 1,920 venues. The Christian drama, which follows Abraham after he is commanded to kill his son, has certainly found its audience, landing an “A” grade on Cinema Score.

From there, the charts become a tight race of March leftovers. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “Creed III” looks to draw $5.2 million in its fifth weekend, falling only 30%. The boxing drama, which is now available for purchase on digital platforms, should surpass a $150 million domestic gross in the coming days.

Paramount’s “Scream VI” is projecting $5.1 million for the weekend, down a slim 38% from its previous outing. The slasher’s domestic haul will push to $98 million through Sunday, teetering on notching the coveted $100 million mark.

Elsewhere, Focus Features’ “A Thousand and One” opens in 926 theaters. The A.V. Rockwell drama, which won the grand jury prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, looks to gross $1.7 million in its debut frame. That’s certainly not dead-on-arrival for the foster care drama, which carries a $700,000 production budget, but it does demonstrate how arthouse films continue to struggle in a pandemic-altered theatrical landscape.