News

In her feature directorial debut, Bonus Track, Julia Jackman has created an immensely charming romance. With help from a script co-written by Michael Gilbert and Josh O'Connor that is equal parts silly and sweet, the end result seems impossible to dislike. The central pair are George and Max, played by Joe Anders and Samuel Small, two 16-year-old boys living in small-town England. George is far from academically gifted, but his aspirations lie in the music industry. So, when Max — the son of a famous musician — arrives at his school, the two join forces to prepare a song for the end-of-year talent show.

The drama is relatively low stakes: Max having a famous father makes him the topic of tabloid speculation and George's parents are going through a tumultuous time in their relationship. However, those plot threads could really be anything, as they just work in service of the central romance.

Sunrise Films has set a U.S. release date for “Bonus Track,” the feature directorial debut from director Julia Jackman, written by Mike Gilbert, with a story by Josh O’Connor.

The coming-of-age queer rom-com stars Joe Anders (“1917”) and Samuel Small (“So Awkward”), supported by an ensemble cast including Ray Panthaki (“Boiling Point”), Susan Wokoma (“Enola Holmes”), Jack Davenport (“Ten Percent”), Alison Sudol (the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise) and O’Connor (“Challengers”) in a cameo role.

Set in 2006 England, the story follows 16-year-old aspiring musician George (Anders), who befriends Max (Small), the son of a famous musical duo, as they prepare for a year-end talent show. Their friendship evolves in unexpected ways.

“Bonus Track” made its debut at the BFI London Film Festival and was released in the U.K. as a Sky Original film. The film is an Erebus Pictures and Sky production, in association with Lunapark Pictures and Fortune Films[/link]Fortune Films.

The next project for one of the stars of 2024's spiciest movie yet just got a juicy new update. A new report from Variety revealed that Bonus Track, the queer teen romance starring Joe Anders, Samuel Paul Small, Susan Wokoma, and Ellie Kendrick will be released both theatrically and digitally in October later this year. The film comes from Challengers star Josh O'Connor, who serves as a scribe on the project, with Julia Jackman making her directorial debut. Jackman has previously worked on a series of shorts, but this will be her first time stepping into the spotlight to direct a project of this magnitude.

London film festival

Julia Jackman’s feature debut about two teenagers with a shared passion for music is entertaining and sympathetic if a bit formulaic

Writer-director Julia Jackman is an award-winner for her short films and now makes her feature debut at the London film festival with this teen romcom, based on an idea co-authored by Josh O’Connor – who shows up in an amusing cameo playing a masked graffiti artist and part-time body piercer with a sub-Banksy reverence for his own anonymous glamour. It’s sweet-natured and engagingly laid-back, if a bit televisual and reliant on that time-honoured staple that dates from Richard Curtis’s Love Actually: the end-of-term school show in which a romantic declaration becomes an unscripted part of the programme.

The year is 2006 and, come to think of it, this is the second Lff movie set in 2006, after Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn; perhaps it will...

“The Strays” is centered around the contrasting lives of Cheryl and Neve.

Cheryl, a Black woman in England, faces discrimination and money troubles. Talking to her sister, her struggles with unfair treatment and financial instability come across strongly. Her decision to ignore calls from her spouse and her consideration of going to a hair salon set the stage for the story.

Related: 18 Best Thriller Movies (Ranked by IMDb Votes)

Years later, we meet Neve—a fair-skinned Black woman living what appears to be a perfect life. She’s married to Ian, a white man, and has two biracial kids, Sebastian and Mary. But beneath the surface, there’s a complex tale of self-deception. Neve’s discomfort with her Black identity is evident as she distances herself from her heritage and avoids anything related.

[ Watch on Netflix ]

Neve’s Complex Exterior

Ashley Madekwe plays Neve in ‘The Strays’ (2023)

I’m captivated by how...

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its lineup for the Industry Selects program of films beyond the official fest lineup and available for worldwide acquisition as each gets an in-person screening for film buyers and industry execs.

Leading the selection is director James Marsh’s Dance First, a biopic with Gabriel Byrne playing the literary giant Samuel Beckett and Sandrine Bonnaire, Maxine Peake, Aidan Gillen and Fionn O’Shea also starring; and director Neil Burger’s Inheritance, a thriller that has a woman played by Phoebe Dynevor learning her father Sam (Rhys Ifans) was once a spy, which puts her at the center of an international conspiracy.

Also picked for market screenings in Toronto is Jimmy Warden’s Borderline, set in 1996 Los Angeles and starring Eric Dane, Ray Nicholson and Samara Weaving as a pop star taken hostage; The Home, a horror pic from Purge series creator James DeMonaco, and starring...

Fest also announces Connections, Microsessions, and Spotlight sessions.

TIFF has announced the Industry Selects acquisition titles available to buyers during the festival, a 12-strong roster featuring new work from James Marsh, Rebecca Snow, and Neil Burger.

Gabriel Byrne plays literary giant Samuel Beckett in Marsh’s Dance First alongside Sandrine Bonnaire, Maxine Peake, Aidan Gillen, and Fionn O’Shea. Film Constellation represents worldwide rights and the film will close San Sebastian.

Phoebe Dynevor stars with Rhys Ifans for Burger in Inheritance, a thriller about a woman who uncovers her father’s espionage past. CAA Media Finance handles sales.

Snow (Cheating Hitler:...

This article contains The Strays spoilers.

Netflix is dishing out another horror original, and this time it’s the directorial debut of Nathaniel Martello-White’s The Strays. Feeling like a mix between Parasite and Get Out, the story follows one woman’s picture-perfect life in the suburbs that’s torn apart by the ghosts of her past and her own internalized prejudices.

Ashley Madekwe stars as Cheryl, a Black woman who begins the movie by seemingly escaping an abusive relationship while being on the bottom rung of the housing ladder. It’s a generally miserable existence that’s all-too-common in the United Kingdom. After an opening sequence where she leaves a note about “stepping out,” the story picks up some “years later,” and Cheryl (now going by the name of Neve) has found the grass is greener on the other side. She’s settled into family life and holds down...

The Strays is a thriller movie written and directed by Nathaniel Martello-White starring Ashley Madekwe.

The Strays appears to be a classic tv film with an actress that has been in hundreds of these and, however, the film has a look and theme that is more film centered close to Don´t Worry Darling or Us (the Jordan Peele movie) in its subject, although it is more English in its aesthetics.

Movie Review The Strays (2023)

This movie poses interesting considerations in a thriller, a little like the “new horror” of Peele, with intrigue that basically revolves around a greater vindication, which is entertainment in the form of a nightmare in English suburbia.

However, the great director with his ironies and suspense formulas is absent in this pic. Here the suspense is more horror and the intentions posed in the first third of the movie (especially in the look of the...

A new Netflix thriller came to capital yesterday as The Strays held its UK Premiere at the BFI Southbank. Written and directed by Nathaniel Martello-White, the film stars Ashley Madekwe, Jorden Myrie, Bukky Bakray, Samuel Paul Small, Maria Almeida and Justin Salinger.

The Strays launches globally on Netflix on February 22nd. Colin Hart and Ethan Hart were on the red carpet, here are their interviews.

The Strays Premiere Interviews

Plot:

Deputy head of a private school Neve (Ashley Madekwe) lives with her husband Ian (Justin Salinger), and teenage children, Sebastian (Samuel Small) and Mary (Maria Almeida) in a nice house in an idyllic country town. But her carefully crafted upper-middle-class life begins to unravel with the arrival of two shadowy figures from her past, Abigail (BAFTA Award winner Bukky Bakray) and Marvin (Jorden Myrie).

The post The Strays Premiere Interviews – the cast & crew of Netflix’s dark new thriller tell all appeared first on HeyUGuys.

"There are people out to hurt us!" Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for a British psychological thriller titled The Strays, marking the feature directorial debut of actor Nathaniel Martello-White. He wrote and directed this film, which will be available for streaming this February on Netflix is anyone is intrigued. "A perfect life… a perfect lie… An upper-middle-class woman's perfectly crafted life begins to unravel with the arrival of two shadowy figures in her town." A Black woman's meticulously crafted life of privilege starts to fall apart when two strangers show up in her quaint suburb and begin to mess with her mind. The film stars Ashley Madekwe, Justin Salinger, Michael Warburton, Caroline Martin, Bukky Bakray, Maria Almeida, and Samuel Paul Small. This looks like a made-for-tv suburbia thriller, lacking any style or any original ideas, borrowing so much from Jordan Peele's mind. Might grab the attention of a few viewers.