Superpower director Sean Penn isn’t mincing words in his denunciation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
04.09.2023 - 02:45 / variety.com
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic If the prospect of being stuck in a New York City taxi with two characters for roughly 90 minutes doesn’t sound like your kind of movie, then you’re seriously underestimating “Daddio” writer-director Christy Hall’s ability to keep you riveted for the entire ride. There’s a challenge you could give any first-time filmmaker: Using a yellow cab as the only location, make a film that challenges people’s expectations of how men and women relate to one another.
The key, it turns out is casting (Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn bring “Daddio” to life), hiring a great cinematographer (Phedon Papamichael) and a whole lot of life experience. The film begins when a blond woman (Dakota Johnson) lands at JFK airport, back from a trip that was neither business nor pleasure.
Stepping into the first yellow cab, she glances at her phone, but strikes up a conversation with the driver, which takes audiences on a far different route than they might possibly have imagined. Much of the film’s suspense comes from the sheer pleasure of discovery.
But it’s compounded by the obvious difference in age and gender: Will Clark (Penn), driving his last fare of the night, respect his passenger, or will he make some kind of predatory move on her? Casting Penn brings an immediate tension to the dynamic, the way a child might feel trying to pet an unaccompanied pit bull. Penn’s an actor we associate with aggression and sex, so immediately, the mind races to where such a character might take a woman who, according to his own snap judgment, “can handle yourself.” Hall wants us to second-guess stereotypes — that’s one of the film’s key themes, as two strangers triangulate what they can about one another over a short span of time.
.Superpower director Sean Penn isn’t mincing words in his denunciation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Classics is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Daddio, the Christy Hall-directed two-hander starring Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson. The film established itself as a bright spot in its premiere at Telluride and then at Toronto. SPC will get North America, Latin America and territories throughout Europe and Asia.
Sean Penn and his girlfriend Olga Korotyayeva are enjoying some quality time with friends.
. Now, it seems our girl has turned her attention to another fruit: watermelon. The actor was recently spotted lugging one after a stop by the farmer's market in Malibu, where she has been living with since 2021.
Superpower, Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman’s doc about Ukraine’s fight for freedom, is getting a launch in the war-torn Eastern European country today.
Dakota Johnson is stocking up on some fresh fruits and veggies to kick off her week!
Sean Penn urged the White House to take a more aggressive approach toward arming Ukraine, telling a crowd at a screening of his film Superpower that those who are influencing U.S. policy “need to get out of the pure caution business.”
At this point, we’re almost two years removed from Will Smith‘s infamous on-stage slap of host Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars ceremony. So why is Sean Penn still talking about it? Well, it’s partially to drum up hype for his upcoming doc about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who wasn’t allowed to speak about Russian’s invasion of his country at the Academy Awards that year.
Will Smith‘s slap at last year’s Oscars.In a recent cover story for Variety, the Oscar-winning actor questioned why his peers stood and applauded Smith’s Best Actor win for Kind Richard, just moments after he walked onto the stage and slapped host Chris Rock for making a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s hair.Smith, who is subsequently serving an Oscars ban until 2032, has apologised for his outburst numerous times.“I don’t know Will Smith. I met him once.
Sean Penn is still furious with Will Smith for his Oscars outburst!
Sean Penn was truly angered by Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, the notoriously hot-tempered Sean Penn is questioning why he was jailed for a similar incident.“I don’t know Will Smith. I met him once,” Penn, 63, told Variety in a new interview. He seemed very nice when I met him.
Sean Penn is promoting the new documentary he co-directed, “Superpower”, which focuses on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the stand taken by the Ukrainian people to defend their homeland, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
he told Variety. So he came up with a negotiation he could pitch to studio heads with a camera crew in the room.“So you want my scans and voice data and all that.
Sean Penn is getting candid about politics and the Oscars.
Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer In his new documentary “Superpower,” Sean Penn assesses Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia and the meaning of the word “freedom” in a world gone mad. He’s also revisits his own past with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a moment that Penn calls a dark memory from decades before he would meet up with embattled Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the doc, Penn recalls a 2001 visit to the Moscow Film Festival where his directorial effort “The Pledge” was premiering.
Sean Penn’s house. Small talk is made about how the coffee table in his living room looks like a junk drawer just exploded on it. There are sunglasses, prescription bottles and a device that shoots salt at mosquitoes.
Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn are bringing star power to the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival!
The high-concept elevator pitch description for Christy Hall’s “Daddio” would probably be something along the lines of “‘Locke’ as a two-hander,” or maybe “‘Collateral’ without the killing,” though it’s better than either of those loglines might lead you to believe. The premise is a simple one: Dakota Johnson (never named on-camera) plays a young woman coming home to New York who takes a cab from JFK to her home in Hell’s Kitchen.
It was 22 years ago that Skip Hollandsworth wrote a Texas Monthly article about Gary Johnson, a school teacher who moonlights as a hit man who doesn’t kill people. Now if that doesn’t sound like the formula for a hit movie, you may understand why it has taken so long for Gary’s story to make it to the silver screen, so long in fact that its subject passed away before he could hit the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival where the film is having its World Premiere tonight. Nevertheless Glen Powell never forgot the story and has teamed with Richard Linklater to finally tell it, but it is only “loosely” based on the article. Certain details in the screenplay co-written by Linklater and Powell are made up, and those are the details that actually help make this a hilarious winner, as well as perhaps Linklater’s most commercial movie since School Of Rock. Its quirky true crime element also has a bit in common with Linklater’s Bernie which starred Jack Black. The director seems drawn to this kind of offbeat tale, with some level of truth to it.