Author

Catherina Gioino

Catherina "Cat" Gioino is a native New Yorker, a huge movie buff and an amateur pizzaiolo. She currently works in transportation policy in New York, and previously was a breaking news reporter for the New York Daily News, and had stints at MSNBC, NY1, PBS and the Queens Gazette-- and was at The Knock since the beginning. When she's not biking around her hometown of Astoria or testing out the train system of another country, you can find her slinging wine and drinks at a friend's local bar.

Film

Billionaires Boys Club. . . Again

by Catherina Gioino
written by Catherina Gioino

Nope, not the two part 1987 film, but a new biopic following the key players of the Ponzi scheme. The Billionaires Boys Club (or shortened to BBC) was an investment club started by Joseph Henry Gamsky, aka, Joe Hunt, in which BBC was originally the restaurant that Hunt dined at, the Bombay Bicycle Club. The club ended up getting the name after Hunt attracted sons from rich families after graduating from the Harvard School for Boys, and it soon turned into a Ponzi scheme where Hunt murdered two people after a con man, Ron Levin, gets involved with the scheme.

Kevin Spacey, Ansel Elgort, Emma Roberts, and Taron Egerton are all set to star in the newest version of Billionaires Boys Club, with Spacey portraying Ron Levin, Elgort playing Joe Hunt, Roberts playing Hunt’s love interest Sydney, and Egerton playing Dean Karny, a tennis professional who was also involved in the entire Ponzi scheme. James Cox, who previously directed Wonderland, is set to direct the script he also co-wrote with Captain Mauzner (who also worked on Wonderland).

The film will be produced by Holly Wiersma, Cassian Elwes, Tim Zajaros, and Chris Lemole, with Lemole and Zajaros acting as executive producers. Also executive producing include Crystal Lourd, Jere Hausfater, and Logan Levy, while the film is being financed by Armory Films.

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Film

‘Baby Driver’ Coming Soon

by Catherina Gioino
written by Catherina Gioino

There’s something funnier about physical gag comedy. Almost all comedies these days are full of conversational humor, full of jokes that characters retort back to one another in an effort to make those comedies all the more hilarious. And then there’s Edgar Wright’s films, like Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and more. If there’s only one thing that could be said about those films, it’s that they use physical humor to make you laugh and possibly choke on that popcorn.

That choking is exactly why we’re excited for Baby Driver, a new film he wrote and directed, starring Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Ansel Elgort, and Jamie Foxx. The film revolves around a crime boss who forces a getaway driver to work for him as one of his employees is a trigger-happy cop killer. Spacey will play the crime lord who has worked his way up to earn that name, while Hamm will play the bank robber who kills cops, and Elgort will play the young getaway driver. Lily James will also play a waitress who acts as the love interest for Elgort, all the while Foxx is signed onto the project but his role is unknown at the current moment.

The film is set to come out March 17, 2017, however, so we’ll have a while to wait before it comes out.

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FilmThe Latest

Why Are Some Questioning The Ghostbusters Reboot?

by Catherina Gioino
written by Catherina Gioino

In September, director of the new Ghostbusters remake Paul Feig tweeted to an annoying heckler of the reboot to “Go f— yourself” in response to his constant bantering on Twitter and remarks against the film. The heckler says it has nothing to do with it being an all female cast, so what is it? What makes this reboot any different than any other unoriginal story that encompasses what Hollywood is made of today? Just for comparison:

  • Do comic book lovers cry about the newest sequel or spin off of an established super hero franchise? (ie, Spiderman, Batman, X-Men, The Avengers, Captain America, Superman, etc)
    • No, but if Hollywood dare makes Wonder Woman into a movie.
  • Do Star Wars and Star Trek nerds cry about reboots and remakes by the same director for both franchises?
    • But if they dare even think of stopping Princess Leia slave figures, God help them

Ok, that’s all I can think of at the moment, but seriously, why do we need to be such a sensitive society where all we think about is the wrongs of society with gender, reboots, films, and MPAA warnings? Why can’t we be like good ol’ Europe and worry about violence in films as opposed to petty stuff that just won’t get anyone anywhere?

*Rant over* But, watch some cool Ghostbusters stunt action below, and remember, reboots are the bread of Hollywood today.

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Film

‘The Hunting Ground’ Reveals The Truth About Rape Culture

by Catherina Gioino
written by Catherina Gioino

It’s no surprise that now more than ever, rape and sexual assault victims are speaking out and bringing their cases to college officials. And it’s also no surprise that colleges are pulling out their entire arsenal in order to hide these rape allegations. Any accusation of that nature would make the college look bad, and it’s even worse for the college when the culprit is a star athlete who brings them millions of dollars.

That sentence was just appalling to write, so I can imagine how it was to read. That’s exactly what the film The Hunting Ground explores. It is a documentary written and directed by Kirby Dick that focuses on several rape victims from colleges all over the United States. Produced by Amy Ziering, it first premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on February 27, 2015. The documentary mostly followed Andrea Pino and Annie E. Clark who were both raped while enrolled at the University of North Carolina. They teamed up to lead a Title IX campaign against the school, which was then taken up by other rape victims at other colleges.

The film was moving. Pino and Clark shared their heart wrenching stories. Despite speaking out, their college did not act. There were numerous cases where victims spoke out about their situations and their cases were handled in a grossly inappropriate manner. In one case at Harvard Law School, a woman was raped, brought her accuser to the administration, knew her rights and had the rapist removed through expulsion. However, the following semester, the dean emailed her saying that the man had appealed and would be attending the school once again. Another case involved Jameis Winston, a quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who raped a girl and got away with it since he was the star football player for Florida State University at the time. He ended up leading the team to victory and earning the Heisman Trophy as a freshman (making him the youngest college player to do so).

The film really shines a light on all of the wrongs with the college system and how rape is handled on campuses. There are so many wrongs happening, that it begs the question: when will attitudes and perceptions about rape change? After seeing this documentary, you will start asking tough questions about rape and rape culture in America.

Watch the trailer here:

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TV

Jon Stewart And His Four Year HBO Deal

by Catherina Gioino
written by Catherina Gioino

Jon Stewart fans, remain calm. Alas it was a terrible summer. First, Stephen Colbert announced that he would be ending his stint on The Colbert Report. But fans weren’t too worried, since we all knew he would return in the fall to take over for David Letterman. And then the news really hit hard, when Jon Stewart said he was done with The Daily Show. That’s when we freaked out. There was nothing left to turn to. There wasn’t a host opening. There wasn’t a segment in which he could become a recurring correspondent. We were losing someone.

Or so we thought. Stewart has just signed a four year contract with HBO to make all digital content, meaning that it would be streamed online and on HBO GO or HBO NOW and other digital platforms. Stewart is working with OTOY, a graphics company that will produce the videos with him, and although there is a chance he won’t be on camera, he still will narrate them.

As part of the deal, HBO gets “first-look options” for anything that Stewart will do, meaning that if he wants to develop a show or film, HBO gets first dibs. But nonetheless, this will prove helpful to Stewart, HBO, and fans everywhere. Whereas Stewart has stated that the show was an energy drain despite loving it, he can now make short videos that will be all the more accessible to his fans, which tend to lean toward a younger demographic.

 

 

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Film

New Snowden Film Coming Soon

by Catherina Gioino
written by Catherina Gioino

We all were civilized people living two years ago in an overly media drawn world, so it’s no surprise that Edward Snowden is a name synonymous with whistle blowing and government conspiracies. 

And that’s why they’re making a movie about him. But before we get into the details, Nicolas Cage is going to be in this. Who? Perhaps another journalist at The Guardian? Maybe some government employee who can pull off his or her Harvey Keital impression? The possibilities are endless, and we can’t wait just for him alone. 

Oh right, the movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt will star as Edward Snowden, with Shailene Woodley at Lindsay Mills, Melissa Leo as Laura Poitras, Zachary Quinto as Glenn Greenwald, and Tom Wilkinson as Ewan MacAskill. The film will also star Scott Eastwood, Timothy Olyphant, Keith Stanfield, Rhys Ifans, Joely Richardson, and of course, Cage. 

Directed by Oliver Stone, who also wrote the film along with Kieran Fitzgerald, the film is set to come out May 13, 2016. It will detail all of the whistle blowing that Snowden, as a computer program who worked for the CIA and NSA, shared to The Guardian. He shared plenty of classified information about the US government and their surveillance programs around the world, and has now become an advocate for privacy rights. You can watch the trailer below.

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Film

All-female ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ Reboot Starring Sandra Bullock In The Works

by Catherina Gioino
written by Catherina Gioino

I mean, if we already have a Ghostbusters reboot with a whole female cast, why not have Sandra Bullock run her own casino heist?

Now we all loved the original. And I mean the original, with the Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. (in racist undertones) all robbing a casino. And of course, we liked the remake that George Clooney starred in and made with Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.

So obviously it’s time for the female rat pack to emerge. The film, which Clooney will produce, will have Gary Ross of The Hunger Games directing. Over a year in the works, the project is finally getting made, all with Olivia Milch (known for Queen & Country) as the screenwriter, all when Clooney, Steven Soderbergh and Jerry Weintraub came together last fall. And while they had a mild set back with Weintraub’s death earlier this summer, the film is still going on full speed ahead.

The all new female cast film is set to be released in 2017, and this still leaves up for question as to how close the script will be towards the 2001 Clooney film, or what ten other women will star in the film.

 

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FilmThe Latest

‘Bridget Jones’ Baby’ Starts Filming

by Catherina Gioino
written by Catherina Gioino

Sound the alarms– Bridget Jones is having a baby!? As in the socially awkward American with a British accent who magically got both Colin Firth and Hugh Grant is having a baby?

As a side note, I rarely like romantic comedies, let alone romantic movies themselves. That’s why this and 1980s Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movies are a big deal to me.

Filming for Bridget Jones’s Baby started a little over a month ago, on October 2, 2015, in London’s Olympic Park in Pinewood. What seems surprising however is that while Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth return from both original movies, Hugh Grant is nowhere to be seen, neither in filming nor in having his name attached to the film. However, there is a certain Grey’s Anatomy star that was seen smooching Zellweger last month.

That’s right, Patrick Dempsey has signed onto the film, with his role unknown but we can all safely assume that Mark Darcy (Firth) does not enjoy any minute of what’s going on. And considering that this is the first film in the franchise not to be based off of the books by Helen Fielding’s best selling novels, we cannot be entirely sure what the film will be about. All we can do is wait and anticipate.

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