Relativity Media has released the first trailer for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut Don Jon.  Gordon-Levitt stars in the comedy as a contemporary, porn-addicted Don Juan-type who attempts to reform himself.  I caught the film at Sundance and it’s really funny and marks the start of what looks to be a very, very promising directorial career for Gordon-Levitt.  This trailer does a great job of conveying the film’s tone and the style that Gordon-Levitt has crafted, as quick editing, music, and repetition are used frequently to present some of the film’s situations, especially with regards to the porn.  While the trailer does give away a couple of the pic’s best comedic surprises (like the cameos), there’s also a sweet sincerity to Don Jon that’s only hinted at here, and the performances from Gordon-Levitt, Johansson, Moore, and Danza are all top-notch.  I expect the film will be a major crowd-pleaser when it hits theaters later this year.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer, click here to read Matt’s review of the film from Sundance, and click here for Steve’s interview with Gordon-Levitt and the cast.  The pic also stars Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Jeremy Luke, Rob Brown, and Brie Larson.  Don Jon opens on October 18th.

The indie dramedy The English Teacher tells the story of Linda Sinclair (Julianne Moore), a 40-year-old, unmarried high school English teacher in small town Pennsylvania. With no children and no relationships to speak of, her life is uncomplicated, which is just how she likes it.  Her greatest passion and her biggest fulfillment comes from helping her impressionable young students discover their own creative voices, until a former star student (Michael Angarano) returns and threatens to undo it all.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, co-stars Julianne Moore and Michael Angarano talked about how they came to the project, what they enjoyed most about playing their characters, and how much they enjoyed the experience of working with each other.  Julianne also spoke about the next film she’ll be shooting, Maps to the Stars, directed by David Cronenberg, while Michael spoke about how he’s shooting the remake of Heat with Jason Statham, and they both talked about why Hollywood loves remakes, and what might entice them to working in a really great role on cable television.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

A few new images from director Kimberly Peirce’s (Boys Don’t Cry) adaptation of the Stephen King novel Carrie have made their way online.  For those unfamiliar, the film revolves around a young girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) who discovers she has telekinetic powers and who is abused at home by her ultra-religious mother (Julianne Moore) and tormented at school by her peers.  Matching the quality of Brian De Palma’s previous film adaptation is a tall order, and the recent full trailer for Carrie promised that Peirce isn’t holding back on the intensity of the story.  It remains to be seen if this adaptation can confidently stand alone, but the prospect of some epic stand-offs between Moretz and Moore is certainly promising.

Hit the jump to check out the new images.  The film also stars Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday, Ansel Elgort, Alex Russell, and Gabriella Wilde.  Carrie opens on October 18th.

The cast is finally coming together for director David Cronenberg’s next film.  Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis star Robert Pattinson has long been attached to appear in Maps to the Stars, and now THR reports that Julianne Moore, John Cusack, and Sarah Gadon (A Dangerous Method) are set to round out the cast.  Written by Bruce Wagner (Wild Palms), the film is described as a ghost story that “offers a critique of celebrity-obsessed society in Los Angeles,” the latter of which is quite a popular topic in film culture at the moment with Sofia Coppola’s similarly-themed film The Bling Ring set to hit theaters this summer.

There’s no word on the characters that the aforementioned actors will play, but production is set to begin in July in Toronto and Los Angeles with Entertainment One Films onboard to finance and distribute the indie.  Cronenberg previously stated that he was hoping to nab Viggo Mortensen to star in Maps to the Stars as well, but one assumes Cusack ended up taking that role instead.

Screen Gems has released the first full trailer for director Kimberly Peirce’s (Boys Don’t Cry) upcoming remake Carrie.  Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, the film revolves around a young girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) who discovers she has telekinetic powers and who is abused at home by her ultra-religious mother (Julianne Moore) and tormented at school by her peers.  This full trailer gives us a much better idea of what Peirce’s vision for the story looks like (it’s almost too revealing), and it’s clear that this Carrie is going to be quite intense.  There’s a bit of a superhero bent to the scenes in which Carrie is discovering her powers, and Peirce doesn’t look to be holding back when it comes to the more violent aspects of the story.  The highlight, though, is the scenes between Moretz and Moore, which promise to be sufficiently disturbing.  Matching the quality of Brian De Palma‘s masterful 1976 adaptation is a tall order, but hopefully Peirce brings an intriguing angle to her iteration of the King classic.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday, Ansel Elgort, Alex Russell, and Gabriella Wilde.  Carrie opens on October 18th.

The first trailer for director Craig Zisk’s comedy The English Teacher has been released online.  The film stars Julianne Moore as a high school English teacher whose life takes a turn when one of her favorite students (Michael Angarano) returns to his hometown as a failed playwright.  The teacher convinces her former pupil to stage the unproduced play at her school, but all does not go according to plan.  The comedy appears to be of the screwball variety, with plenty of pratfalls and physical comedy on full display in this here trailer (plus a solid David Mamet joke thrown in for good measure).  There does seem to be a strong emphasis on character, though, and it should be interesting to see how the numerous relationships teased in this clip play out in the full film.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins, and Nathan Lane.  The English Teacher opens on May 17th.

The first images from director Craig Zisk’s (The Big C) comedy The English Teacher have been released.  The film stars Julianne Moore as a high school English teacher whose life takes a turn when one of her favorite students (Michael Angarano) returns to his hometown as a failed playwright.  The teacher convinces her former pupil to stage the unproduced play at her school, and all does not go according to plan.  The film sounds like a nice character-centric piece, and I’m interested to see what kind of tone Zisk has settled on when a trailer comes our way.

Hit the jump to take a look at the images.  The film also stars Lily Collins, Greg Kinnear, and Nathan Lane.  The English Teacher opens on May 17th.

A new trailer has been released for the dramedy What Maisie Knew. The story centers on 6-year-old Maisie (Onata Aprile), who is dealing with the divorce of her rock icon mother (Julianne Moore) and art dealer father (Steve Coogan).  Maisie’s life becomes more complicated as she’s bounced around between her parents’ new partners, Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgard) and Margot (Joanna Vanderham), respectively.  The trailer tries to go for an uplifting tone, but really it all comes off as kind of confused.  The film played at last year’s TIFF, but I didn’t hear any buzz on it, so it fell by the wayside even though I like the cast.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  What Maisie Knew opens this spring.

The Oscars picture is starting to emerge.  Last night, Argo won the Producers Guild Award for Best Picture, and tonight Ben Affleck‘s drama has won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.  With tonight’s win, Argo is slowly moving towards being the first film since Driving Miss Daisy to win Best Picture at the Oscars even though the director didn’t pick up a nomination.  Like Driving Miss Daisy, Argo will have managed the incredible task of directing itself.  The night’s other film actor winners included Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence, Tommy Lee Jones, and Anne Hathaway.  It will be interesting to see how these will match up with the Oscar winners.  Over on the TV side, Downton Abbey broke Homeland‘s awards-streak by picking up Best Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

Don Jon’s Addiction is much like its eponymous character: not much depth but quick, confident, amusing, and oddly endearing.  The entire film quickly boils down to its core concept in the span of its frenetic intro: the eponymous character is afraid of intimacy.  So who’s going to tear down that emotional wall?  How will he learn his lesson?  How can a lothario clearly based on “The Situation” from Jersey Shore ever learn to love?  Director, writer, and star Joseph Gordon-Levitt knows his character inside and out, backwards and forwards, and finds the sweet, vulnerable heart of a guy who keeps Kleenex in business.

I should probably admit my political bias up front: I enthusiastically voted for Barack Obama back in ‘08. That said, I’m not ashamed to confess I was equally riveted that same year by Republican candidate John McCain’s competing campaign, particularly any and all parts having to do with his running mate, Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Like most college-educated individuals – hell, any-educated individuals – I couldn’t take my confused eyes or bleeding ears off this bizarrely overconfident and suspiciously under-qualified woman who might end up our next president, should her white-haired running mate get elected and, well, croak. Matt Damon famously compared the whole scenario to “a really bad Disney movie.” To me, it was a potential horror flick. Thankfully, Obama won the election and, four years later, HBO Films has turned the near debacle into a thrilling political drama, which you can now see “from your house” on Blu-ray and DVD.  My review after the jump the Game Change Blu-ray after the jump.

The 2013 Golden Globes have just wrapped up.  I only watched the last hour of the ceremony because the Globes no longer have their awards season power due to voting schedule changes.  Reading tweets and Facebook posts, it seems like it was a fairly entertaining show (keep an eye out for Jodie Foster‘s acceptance speech for her Lifetime Achievement Award).  As for the winners, they were very “Globes” in that they were more populist choices that are unlikely to have much bearing on the Oscars.  Argo may have had a good night at the Globes by winning Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director, but I still think Lincoln is the picture to beat when it comes to the Academy Awards, especially since Ben Affleck was snubbed for the Best Director Oscar nomination.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

Warner Bros. has released the first images from their upcoming fantasy-adventure film, Seventh Son.  The plot follows mystical knight Father Gregory (Jeff Bridges) and his apprentice Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) and their fight to defeat the evil witch, Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore) and her followers.  The title comes Ward’s character who is the “seventh son of a seventh son” and thus has special “chosen one” powers.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Olivia Williams, Djimon Hounsou, Kit Harington, Antje Traue, and Alicia Vikander.  Seventh Son opens October 18, 2013.

Last week, Steve attended the American Film Market (AFM) and was able to bring back some first images, posters, and synopses for a handful of upcoming projects.  One such film happens to be the Liam Neeson-fronted action thriller Non-Stop, for which we now have the first detailed synopsis.  The story takes place during an international flight on which Neeson is an Air Mashal.  His character begins to receive a series of text messages from someone who threatens to kill a passenger every 20 minutes until $150 million is transferred into a secret account.

Neeson reunites with Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra for the pic, which is described as a mix of a mystery, actioner, and a Hitchcockian thriller.  Moreover, Collet-Serra has assembled a surprisingly top-notch cast that includes Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, and Michelle Dockery.  Hit the jump to read the full synopsis, which includes more detail.