Bang Bang

Drama

Beschikbaar voor VOD: TBA Q1 2026

Regie: Vincent Grashaw

Cast: Tim Blake Nelson (Lincoln, The Incredible Hulk, The Astronaut Farmer, O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Andrew Liner (Vampire Academy), Kevin Corrigan (The Departed, American Gangster), Nina Arianda (Goliath, Greedy People)

De voormalige bokser Bernard "Bang Bang" Rozyski hervindt nieuwe zin in het leven wanneer hij zijn vervreemde kleinzoon gaat trainen. Terwijl hun band groeit, rijzen er twijfels over zijn ware motieven, vooral bij een ex-vriendin die zijn gloriedagen in de jaren ’80 en zijn rivaliteit met haar neef, de huidige burgemeesterkandidaat van Detroit, Darnell Washington, van dichtbij meemaakte. Is Bang Bang’s training altruïstisch, of steekt er wat anders achter zijn razernij?

• Cinemadailyus.com: Nelson carries the film in an exceptional way that enhances it tremendously.
• Filminquiry.com: Part boxing movie, part familial drama, Bang Bang is further proof of Vincent Grashaw’s directorial expertise and confirmation that Tim Blake Nelson’s talent has only grown. It’s a patient, raw, and unique story from a stellar team.
• Theaureview.com: As beautiful as it is bleak, Bang Bang is a healthy reminder of [Tim Blake] Nelson’s status as one of our finest character actors.
• Screenanarchy.com: Tim Blake Nelson packs a knockout punch as a pugnacious (retired) boxer in director Vincent Grashaw's stirring drama. ... Nelson ... makes you believe every word that he says, every glance that he glares, and every punch that he throws.
• Filmobsessive.com: Breathing in his character’s metaphoric and reignited cinders right down to his soul, Tim Blake Nelson outdoes himself as a volatile performer in Bang Bang.
• Awardsradar.com: Bang Bang is a knockout, led by Tim Blake Nelson doing some of his best work to date.

Child of God

Drama, Thriller

Beschikbaar voor VOD: 15 juni 2015

Regie: James Franco

Cast: Fallon Goodson (L!fe Happens), Scott Haze (Venom, Jurassic World Dominion, Sound of Freedom), Tim Blake Nelson (Lincoln, The Incredible Hulk, The Astronaut Farmer, O Brother, Where Art Thou?), James Franco (127 Hours, This Is the End, Veronica Mars)

Sevier County, een district in de uitlopers van de Appalachen in Tennessee, in de jaren '60. Lester Ballard is een gewelddadige, bizarre jongeman met wie het, na het verlies van zijn ouders, van kwaad naar erger gaat. Zonder familie, arm en ontheemd, wordt de sociopaat verstoten door de maatschappij en isoleert hij zichzelf in de wildernis, waar hij langzaam wegzinkt in een dierlijk bestaan. Helemaal van God los, geeft Ballard zich over aan seksuele perversiteiten en gruwelijke wraakoefeningen op de gemeenschap die hem uitbande...

Regisseur James Franco – die zelf ook een rol vertolkt – maakt van het onverfilmbaar gewaande boek van Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) een provocatieve, schokkende parabel die veel gelijkenissen vertoont met het leven en de gruweldaden van seriemoordenaar Ed Gein. De verbluffende vertolking van Scott Haze (As I Lay Dying) werd door de pers bejubeld als "een openbaring" en "macaber, maar memorabel".

• Variety.com: A galvanizing portrait of social and sexual deviance.
• FilmThreat.com: Profoundly intense .. [an] incredible and fierce performance.
• TheGuardian.com: Multi-hyphenate renaissance man James Franco has finally delivered the goods with this great, grisly Cormac McCarthy adaptation. Child of God is a shocking tale of backwoods lunacy and one man's descent into hell.
• HollywoodReporter.com: A pitch-dark hillbilly fever dream... A character study of a figure said to be partly inspired by Wisconsin murderer and body snatcher Ed Gein (also an influence on the killers in Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), the film succeeds on its own terms. That is in large part down to Haze's unstinting commitment to the role.
• Film-forward.com: In a character actor/star making performance, Scott Haze leads a ferocious cast. Macabre but memorable.
• Filmleaf.net: A well-made film, dominated by a once-in-a-lifetime, balls-out performance by Scott Haze as Lester Ballard, the crazed outcast, the titular, protagonist "child of God" (testing the range of that concept) who in the course of the story becomes a cave-dweller, murderer, and necrophiliac.
• Cine-vue.com: Franco (through the excellent Haze) has created a dark portrait of an outcast, lacing it with his own bleak poetry and black humour. 4 out of 5 stars.
• Rollingstone.com: The film's protagonist is Lester Ballard, played by Scott Haze in a performance that can be described for starters as phenomenal. This is ambitious, challenging filmmaking, elevated by Franco's compassion and Haze's revelatory acting. OK, the film trips up on its attempt to lace tragedy with gallows humor. But Franco is out there trying something, balancing literature and cinema in a tightrope act that is never less than exciting to watch.

• Hamptons International Film Festival 2013: Breakthrough Performer - Scott Haze
• Venice Film Festival 2013: Nominated for Golden Lion.