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Alternate Ending

Alternate Ending was formed when three friends realized that they all shared a passion for movies. Tim had been reviewing films at his old blog Antagony & Ecstasy for over a decade, and Rob & Carrie had found great success with their year-old podcast, when they all decided to combine forces to create a new site, dedicated to their desire to watch and discuss the best (and worst) that cinema has to offer. The result is the website you see before you. What makes Alternate Ending different from all the other film sites on the internet? Well, we humbly suggest that it's the three of us: very different people with very different thoughts about the movie. Too many film sites cater to the same kind of audience, with one overwhelming voice in the writing, but what we treasure at Alternate Ending is diversity: diversity of opinion, diversity in belief about what film should do and how it should do it. We want to celebrate our different opinions, and celebrate yours as well. This isn't a site for people who just want to talk about the latest hot new movies in theaters right this minute. This is a site for people who can't get to the theater until the third week a film is out; a site for people who just want to find something great to stream online after the kids have gone to sleep, a site for people whose favorite pastime is to grab a bunch of classic films on DVD from the library and watch them all weekend. It's a site that believes that every great movie is a wonderful new treasure, whether you see it the night of its premiere or fifty years later. It's a site about discovering good movies, one bad movie at a time.
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Now displaying: October, 2020
Oct 29, 2020

Ten minutes into The True Adventures of Wolfboy, we were triggered.  You see, I usually shut off movies about bullying and Rob is super self-conscious about his body hair (he has the perfect amount of body hair), so when a young kid with hypertrichosis gets verbally abused by some douchebags at a carnival, tensions were high.

About The True Adventures of Wolfboy

The True Adventures of Wolfboy follows a young boy named Paul (Jaeden Martell) who has hypertrichosis, an affliction which causes you to grow hair, everywhere.  He’s living a somewhat sheltered life with his Dad (Chris Messina), who is encouraging him to face society, but not necessarily pushing him the right ways.  I love the idea that he wants so much for his kid to be strong and feel confident, but his approach really does just feel like he’s throwing him to the wolves (yea, I know what I said).  Desperate to find a place where he doesn’t feel so ostracized, his Dad searches out a boarding school for “unique children”.  In response, Paul runs off in search of his estranged mother (Chloe Sevigny) and answers to his family history.  Along the way, Paul’s experiences lead him to relationships that begin to shape a new perspective.

The True Adventures of Wolfboy

About our interview with Martin Krejčí

The most nervous we get for any interview is in the 3 seconds between when you see that the interviewee has joined the meeting, but not yet started their camera.  There’s this flash of self-doubt where you think “oh gawd, what if they think my face is weird, or that my hair is weird, or worse what if they think I look like a BORING MOM THAT DOESN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MOVIES.”  While I feel that way right before all interviews, these feelings are particularly ironic for talking about The True Adventures of Wolfboy.

Martin Krejčí studied documentary filmmaking at Prague's prestigious Academy of Performing Arts before going on to hone his craft on countless critically acclaimed advertising projects. As a result he was named as one of the top ten advertising directors in the world.

The True Adventures of Wolfboy

Martin is a visual conductor who orchestrates many disciplines through his work, and pushes the possibilities of any given script. His keen curiosity and theatrical influences have allowed him to experiment, perfect and surprise us throughout his career – reminding us that film-making is truly an art form.

I’ll also report that at no point in our chat, did I get the sense that he thought my face and hair were weird.

We hope you enjoy our conversation with Martin Krejčí and getting a behind the scenes look at the making of The True Adventures of Wolfboy.

The True Adventures of Wolfboy is scheduled to be released on October 30, 2020, by Vertical Entertainment.

Prefer video? Check it out here.

Oct 28, 2020

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Bride of Alternate Ending! Tim and AE contributor Brennan have joined forces for a monthly Patreon show covering everything horror!

We’re starting out our run with a special Halloween preview on the main feed dicussing the 1975 cult classic THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW!

Topics include unpopular opinions on the live show experience, the largely ignored tributes to 50’s science fiction, whether or not this movie is truly “bad,” and the refractory period of U.S. presidents!

For further episodes of this show, join the Alternate Ending Patreon at the $3 tier or above here: https://www.patreon.com/alternateending

Oct 26, 2020

Halloween is almost upon us, which means it's time for our annual dive into the spooky and scary. This year, we're going to be blunt and to the point: our top 5 jump scares in movie history. The simplest, most brutal way a filmmaker can give audiences a good wallop, jump scares sometimes get slagged for being too cheap and artless, but used well, they can be one of the most portent tools in the horror director's arsenal. To prove it, we're going to look at our very favorite examples of the form along with a special guest.

In Worth Mentioning, we cover Borat 2, The Witches and Synchronic.

Oct 24, 2020

Rob and I got into a marital tift the other night because I made the claim that I never lie.  He didn’t agree.  He contests that I omit details in a way that leads people to believe something that isn’t true. That’s not lying right? That’s just a totally healthy need for people to like me.  So, in our interview with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead, this plays out something like this, - “I have to tell you, in the first 2 minutes of Synchronic I was totally getting vibes of Midsommar…” and what I was about to say was “THANK GOD it wasn’t like that, because that movie was the WORST” but Moorehead jumped in to let me know that “If I loved Midsommar… I should definitely check out his film “The Endless” to which I replied, “Ooooh… I’ll definitely have to check that out!” But see, I didn’t say what movie or when I would be checking it out…so see? Not a lie. (Edit: It turns out, I've see The Endless...shhh don't tell)

A bit about Synchronic

Two friends Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) are best friends and are working as paramedics on the night shift.  They begin to encounter a series of strange deaths and people in hypnotic-like states that they link to a new designer drug, Synchronic.

Synchronic

In the mix of all of this Dennis’s daughter Brianna (Ally Ioannides) goes missing and the story unravels the more details about this trending drug and it’s true effects. Time travel!

Steve discovers something about himself that motivates him to buy up all the Synchronic in town to protect others, and to take it himself and chronicle how the pill works with different forms of ingestion, how it causes you to time travel with the goal of  discovering what happened to Brianna.

A bit about our interview with Justin Benson / Aaron Moorehead

Rob was super nervous about talking to the creative duo of Benson and Moorehead because he really admires their collective movie-making skills.  I had only seen parts of two of their previous films, because murder-horror-thrillers always have a way of lulling me into a good sleep.  This isn’t to say I don’t like their movies (I liked Spring), I’m just still an exhausted Mom, at the end of the day.

Synchronic

We really enjoyed catching up with Benson and Moorehead. Admittedly, we had a whole bevy of questions for them that we weren’t able to get to because of time constraints, but we hope you enjoy the time with had with this talented duo!

Synchronic trailer!

https://youtu.be/XGCrg1OAYfs

Synchronic releases on VOD October 23rd!

Oct 21, 2020

The truth is, if I’d known what Cicada was going to be about, I’m not sure I would have watched the film.  I would have read the three sentence synopsis and surmised that it would be too painful, too grueling and that it would break my heart - and it was, and it did.  Though, beyond the stomach-knots and frustrated tears, there is so much beauty and love I would have otherwise missed.  To me, the cliche of having to know pain to know joy is only sometimes true.  There is nothing purposeful or deserving about any of this, which just sort of ends up making me want to go find a few people depicted in this movie and slash their tires, but I digress.

Deep Breaths… Let me tell you about Cicada

(Disclaimer: I was really hoping to find a Wiki link to the plot synopsis, because a writer I am not.  Also, as a straight, cis, white woman, I’m feeling particularly fraudulent.  That said, Cicada deserves to be represented in the best way. And alas, there isn’t a Wiki page, but it’s important to me that you know about this film, so here we go, and I am ever-so sorry in advance.)

Cicada is a queer love story that follows Ben (Matthew Fifer) who is the co-writer/director of the film.  Fifer plays a fictionalized version of himself and allows us to watch the story of his own very personal struggles unfold.  It’s alluded to early on that something has happened to Fifer as a child, through a series of brief flashbacks. The film opens with a pretty intense montage of Ben’s numerous sexual encounters (TMI, but I’ve dated ~4 people in my life, so after the first 20 minutes, it did take me a bit of time to scrape my jaw off the floor).

For Ben, it’s not about who, but more about how much and how often.  Beyond this, Ben feels perpetually ill (you’re unsure if it’s legit or hypochondria, but what matters is that he doesn't feel well) and continuously looks for ways to self-medicate (in ways your Doctor would not recommend).  There is reprieve, as we are introduced to some of Ben’s family. His Mom, Debbie (Sandra Bauleo) is overtly supportive of Ben’s sexuality and his sister, Amber (Jazmin Grace Grimaldi) talks about Ben’s conquests with breezy indifference.

Cicada

In what seems like Ben's next potential sexual encounter, we meet Sam (Sheldon D. Brown), who is the co-writer/director of the film.  Sam is a young Black man who is walking a seemingly endless tightrope of shaping his public persona to align himself for corporate success and getting comfortable with his personal identity as a gay black man.  We also come to find that Sam has not shared his sexuality with his family. While disheartening, it leads to one of my favorite scenes of the movie, when the couple has dinner with Sam’s father (Michael Potts).

Cicada

The meeting of Ben and Sam is where the film pivots.  For a while, the melancholy seems to melt away.  Suddenly you’re swept up in the swirl of fresh starts and the possibilities that come when you meet a person you really connect with.  I would compare what comes next to how I felt watching Before Sunrise.  It's breezy and conversational, you know, when you’re still figuring each others’ favorite foods and colors (before you discover they pre-soak their dishes for 48 hours and they have weird tics about leaving the car keys in a small bowl on your kitchen counter).  You are a fly on the wall of a budding connection and if almost feels as if you're intruding on their intimate experience.

The couple faces a lot together.  Each must grapple with their respective traumas and discover their paths towards emotional and physical healing.

Deeper Breaths… Let me tell you about Matt Fifer

There were only 14 tiny hours between watching Cicada and sitting down to talk to the film’s writer, director and star, whose life the film was based on.  My emotions were still tangled with anger and frustration, hope and admiration.  Fifer was quick to point out that this is not just his story.  It’s Sheldon Brown’s story. It’s co-director Kieran Mulcare’s story.  And you know what, it’s my story too. And it’s your story.  We all have things about ourselves we’re afraid to share, for fear of how people will react.  Our inclination is to think the deeper we bury something the less it will consume us.  But instead, the catharsis ends up being in our vulnerability.

Matt Fifer

I’m still reeling from Cicada’s honesty.

In our chat with Fifer, I wanted to touch on his goals in making the film.  Was it to normalize queer or interracial relationships or was it a personal catharsis for his experienced trauma? Before I had a chance to get there, Fifer was quick to share that this project was something that he needed to do.  His vulnerability. His catharsis.

This was the point in the interview where I almost shared my plans to slash tires and hand out some free knuckle sandwiches, but I kept my cool.

Instead, I offered what I hope you will also offer this film: admiration for the film’s truth and vulnerability and reverence for bringing a voice to those who have not yet found their own.

Oct 16, 2020

When I was in my mid-twenties, I spent my days in a cubical, mindlessly tinkering with the calculator on my desk, figuring out how much I had to save to retire at 40.  Sometimes, I would organize my post-it notes in rainbow color order, and the pens too, if I wasn't too busy.  There was a coffee shop in my building, so every few hours, I'd sucker a co-worker into grabbing a caramel latte with me.  I'm horrified when I look back on these years, I mean, do you have any idea how many calories are in one of those lattes?!

Kourtney Bell on the other hand

Kourtney Bell knew she wanted to become an actress when she was 7. She developed a plan. She got involved in high school theatre.  Bell compromised with her parents, that she could pursue something in Hollywood, as long as it was agreed to that education was on the life plan. From there, Bell went on to study at the University of Michigan and majored in the arts, while balancing a few acting opportunities.  I'm always so envious of people whose goals are so clearly defined.  What I know for sure, is that Kourtney Bell would have absolutely known that multiple caramel lattes a day, wasn't good for anybody.

Chatting with Bell was an absolute delight and she is so clearly poised for success.  

Kourtney Bell

I will say, her polish led me astray a bit.  At one point in the interview we went down the path of childhood Hollywood crushes. Naturally, as a good child of the 90's I said "Devon Sawa"....to which I could see her quickly searching her memory bank, for who the world he is.  A nervous moment later, she met me with "Noah Centineo"...to which I agreed, while frantically searching my phone for a photo. Incidentally, this has turned into my first lie on an interview... 

A bit about Don't Look Back

Don't Look Back is the newest feature written and directed by Jeffery Reddick (writer of Final Destination). This supernatural thriller follows a young woman (Kourtney Bell) who is working through overcoming her traumatic past.  When she finds herself among several witnesses, who see a man fatally assaulted and don't intervene, they find themselves targeted by someone, or something, out for revenge.

The film will push you to self-actualize.  If you were a bystander, witnessing something uncomfortable or even violent, would you step in? Would you run away? Would you film it?  Of course many of us think we would rip open our suit jackets donning the first letter of our name and heroically sweep in to save the day.  But the truth is, for most people, fear would supersede our best intentions.

Oct 16, 2020

If you give me just 2 seconds I'm going to blow your mind.  Love and Monsters is going to be your favorite movie of 2020. There I said it.  Admittedly, it's not mine. But it will be yours.  That's because it's TIED for my favorite movie of the year with Spontaneous. Which, I realize it cheating, but there are no rules around here.

First a bit about Michael Matthews

I have no idea how old Michael Matthews is, but what I'm coming to find is that by the time you're making great movies in Hollywood, you're more than likely just-about my age.  I pressure test this by dropping breadcrumbs for them to disclose their favorite movies.  If they say something like, The Machinist, I'm thinking "hmmm good taste, but favorite?"... if they something like (500 Days of Summer), again I'm thinking "Cute, but you're wrong" and if they say Inception, I just assume they're 15 years old and know nothing of cinema and I hang up on them. Or they're Rob.

But let me tell you what happened, I dropped my breadcrumb.  Matthews throws out Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones and that's when I knew.  We were going to be best friends forever (don't tell him, he doesn't know yet) and that he's probably 37-ish.

Michael Matthews is a South African director whose feature Five Fingers for Marseilles, won the award for best film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards. His film also received 10 nominations, including awards for best film, best first feature film by a director and best cinematography. The film was also nominated for Best Achievement in Directing - Feature Film at 2017 South African Film and Television Awards.  For his role in the production of Apocalypse Now Now, a short film based on the book of same name, Matthews won best short film at the 12th South African Film and Television Awards.

We'll get into the movie in a sec, but Love and Monsters is a massively well-crafted movie.  However, to hear Matthews talk about the movie, it would seem that it's something we could all do.  Just a few drawings here and a few ideas there and POOF... you've got yourself a blockbuster. I of course know this to not be true, as it takes me 45 minutes to put together a 30 second video for social media.

Matthew really was a treat to talk to so we hope you enjoy hearing about the making of Love and Monsters as much as we did!

Now Love and Monsters

I've already told you that it's going to be your favorite movie of this year, so that's probably a bit of a spoiler.  And don't go being one of those contrarian people (like me) who says they don't love it just because I told you, you would.

Seven years after the Monsterpocalypse, Joel Dawson (Dylan O’Brien), along with the rest of humanity, has been living underground ever since giant creatures took control of the land. After reconnecting over radio with his high school girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick), who is now 80 miles away at a coastal colony, Joel begins to fall for her again. As Joel realizes that there’s nothing left for him underground, he decides against all logic to venture out to Aimee, despite the dangerous monsters that stand in his way.

Now onto the monsters. A movie can be made or broken on the quality of its monsters.  Matthew says they're not meant to be fantastical. But sorry, they're fantastical.  They're glowing and beautiful and edgy and scary.  To hear Matthew talk about how the conceptualized these beasts is something you can really feel in the film.

The other real highlight is the casting of Dylan O'Brien, as somebody you probably know from his tough-as-nails character in Maze Runner, seeing him as this tender, insecure guy who is trying to find himself is a mental shift. Paired with the hilarious script and O'Brien's comedic timing, we were laughing the whole way through. Supported by, Ariana Greenblatt, Michael Rooker and Jessica Henwick, the cast felt entirely complete.

Let this trailer wash over your face...

https://youtu.be/-19tBHrZwOM

Love and Monsters is available on streaming October 16th and we can't recommend seeing it enough!

Oct 12, 2020

October is shaping up to be a big month for Netflix original movies, between Radha Blank's Sundance prizewinner The 40-Year-Old Version (premieres 10/9). Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 (premieres 10/16), Ben Wheatley's Rebecca (premieres 10/21), Glen Keane's Over the Moon (premieres 10/23), and maybe, if the right rumors hold, David Fincher's Mank. To commemorate all of these - as well as the fact that we've all been spending 2020 basically watching nothing but streaming shit, and have thus all become experts on the subject - our next episode will be celebrating Netflix's five-year history as one of the American film industry's most prolific studios. Join us as we discuss our picks for the top five Netflix original movies to date, in the hopes that they will soon be joined by more.

In Worth Mentioning, we cover The Personal History of David Copperfield, SCARE ME and Dick Johnson is Dead.

Be sure to take 1-minute to complete our SURVEY to help us get podcast sponsorship! If you fill out the survey, shoot us an email to let us know and you'll have a chance at a free Amazon movie rental to be announced at our next episode!

Oct 4, 2020

Here's the headline, in our interview with Josh Ruben writer/director/star of the new feature SCARE ME, Rob is 95% sure Josh tells him he's good looking. To be sure, you'll need to listen for yourself.  For added hilarity, you can see the live reaction when Rob *thinks* that Josh tells him he's good looking.  Imagine when Charlie sees that he's found the golden ticket.

So SCARE ME...

Two writers of varying success, end up holed up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, after a power outage has thwarted their plans to spend the weekend writing in solitude. To pass the time, the pair decide to have a "scare off" of sorts, to see who reigns as the best storyteller.  Tensions build as feelings of inferiority creep in, for one of the two.

What you'll love is the films clever weaving together of both horror and comedy tropes, that have your heart racing one minute and questioning why you're laughing the next.

Josh Ruben as Fred

SCARE ME is Josh Ruben's first feature film and he has a lot on the line.  For some, that might mean searching for purpose or a sense of life's meaning.  For others, it could be the one shot they're giving themselves before they decide to sell their soul to corporate America (like me).  But no, I'm not talking about any of that.  I'm talking about cold hard cash.  Josh li-ter-ally cashed out his 401K to make this movie.... let's pause there for a second...

...I immediately internalized this information. "What if Rob had a big dream, would I support him cashing out our life savings, because I know it means everything in the world to him?" "Am I the kind of spouse that recognizes that life is short and that we should embrace the now, because we might save our whole lives and then fall off a bridge and never enjoy it?"

After carefully evaluating I decided that no, no I am definitely not that person. <end moment of self-examination>

So back to Josh Ruben.  Josh plays Fred, who you will quickly find is the "lesser" writer.  He's endearing enough, but has a short fuse that keeps his character edgy and unpredictable.  After the interview,  Rob and I have a really honest conversation about which character we were rooting for, and frankly I think our instinctual leanings end up being ironically part of the message the film is trying to send.  I realize that this won't make sense until you go out and watch it, so go stream it on Shudder!

Aya Cash as Fanny

Aya Cash is outstanding.  If you're a The Boys fan (which I am not, but Rob LOVES it), you'll recognize her as the evil and highly unlikeable villain, Stormfront.  In Scare Me, she is playing Fanny, a successful horror writer who's confidence comes accross as both empowering and narcissistic.  Fanny is in the driver seat as she pushes Fred to dig deeper to unearth a truly scary story.

Ugh, I just spent like a good 2 hours trying think of a concise way to summarize this movie and then I realized the trailer does it so much better. Check it out!

https://youtu.be/NeYWT7CnFK0

What we think you'll love about Josh Ruben

Well first, we're sure that you'll love hearing Josh talk about his passion for his film and some of the motivations behind how he structured the film.  We also think you'll find the way he built character chemistry interesting. Most importantly, we think you'll love his hair. I realize that seems shallow, but he does in fact, have that Patrick Dempsey hair thing going on that seems effortless, but it just can't be.

You can find SCARE ME streaming on Shudder now and we highly recommend giving it a watch.

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