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As Nosferatu heads to video-on-demand in the US, we look at how fart jokes and fake penises offer a surprising way into Robert Eggers’ filmography.

If you want an indication of how unlikely Nosferatu’s recent box office success was, look no further than Amleth’s fart in The Northman. In the many thousands of words spent dissecting Robert Eggers’ recent pair of blockbuster classics, few have looked at the director’s fondness for playground humour. Through some strange alchemy of the incredibly mundane and the supernaturally absurd, the two or three shots of passed gas or genitalia in the director’s post-Lighthouse filmography have become oddly central to his more mainstream success. Stop sniggering, this is serious stuff.

The flatulent episode in question comes as the “young pup” (then played by Oscar Novak; later transforming through movie magic into Alexander Skarsgård) is undergoing a memorable coming-of-age ceremony led by...

James Gunn is set to introduce a rebooted DC Universe with Creature Commandos this week, but he contemplated beginning the new cinematic universe using the Caped Crusader. Matt Reeves' The Batman operates in its own Elseworld timeline far away from other superheroes, and it has worked wonders to create a grounded, epic crime saga that audiences have fallen in love with. However, it seems DC Studios did in fact think about putting Robert Pattinson's Batman in the Dcu.

While on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gunn talked about the upcoming Dcu and was asked if he originally thought he might have to implement The Batman into the larger cinematic universe. Furthermore, if he has reevaluated his stance on keeping things separate. Gunn teases that he has "contemplated" everything when it comes to the rebooted universe, and Batman is no exception. However, he reassures fans that he is committed to...

One thing that audiences love about movies is the story's villain. Whether they're zany and charismatic or dark and mysterious, many villains have made their way into being pop culture icons fondly remembered for decades.

And one of the most impressive things a villain can do in a story is beat the protagonists. Although it's only on rare occasions, there are several great movies where the bad guy gets away with it in the end.

The Riddler Sparks the Villainous Revolution in Gotham The Batman (2022)

Reviews for The Batman (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes Score

IMDb Rating

Letterboxd Average Rating

85%

7.8/10

4/5

Batman made his big return to cinemas in 2022 with a gritty noir story, The Batman, helmed by the incredible Matt Reeves. In this Dark Knight outing, Batman solves the mysterious and gruesome crimes of the Riddler, which takes him down the road of solving some of Gotham's most corrupted mysteries. Robert Pattinson...

The Batman actor Barry Keoghan has officially addressed all the whispers about Joker's return in Matt Reeves' superhero universe. James Gunn previously shut down the rumor about Keoghan's Joker getting his own HBO TV spinoff after The Penguin, but the iconic villain is still expected to appear in the epic crime saga at some point. The actor himself has now weighed in on his next potential appearance, and it may make fans queasy about his role in The Batman franchise.

While on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Keoghan was asked about his brief but impressive debut as the Joker in The Batman. As he talked about the importance of the role within the context of previous award-winning performances, he sprinkled some doubt about his next opportunity to play the villain. Although most fans expect him to play a big part in The Batman sequels, it seems Keoghan has yet...

It's unlikely that fans will ever get to see a Poldark season 6, but there are still a few ways the show could continue in one fashion or another. Based on the Poldark novel series by Winston Graham, the British historical drama TV show premiered in March 2015 and lasted until August 2019 with Poldark season 5. The show follows Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner), a British Army vet who served in the American Revolutionary War. When he returns to Cornwall, he finds his estate in ruins and must work to rebuild his fortune.

In his efforts to rebuild, Poldark hires a scullery maid, Demelza Carne (Eleanor Tomlinson), who he eventually falls in love with and marries. A sprawling historical epic, Poldark struggles through a tumultuous time in world history as he tries to keep his family together and return the Poldark name to glory. The final season sees the French threatening to invade England,...

The prequel film we have all been waiting for is finally here and I am really happy to say that it is as brilliant and bombastic as the original film. Obviously, we are talking about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the prequel to George Miller‘s 2015 Mad Max: Fury Road. Directed by Miller from a screenplay by Nico Lathouris and Miller, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga follows the story of a young Furiosa as she is taken from Green Place of Many Mothers and tries to survive in the wasteland while trying to get back home but the war between great biker horde’s warlord Dementus and Immortan Joe makes it harder. Replacing Charlize Theron from Fury Road, Anya Taylor-Joy takes over the role of Furiosa in the prequel film and it also stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Lachy Hulme, John Howard, Angus Sampson, and Nathan Jones. So,...

Monkey Man is one of the most imaginative action films to come out sometimes and it comes from a first-time director who also stars in the lead role Dev Patel. Described as “Indian John Wick,” the action-thriller film follows the story of a young underground fighter who goes on a rampage against the city’s elite to avenge the injustices done by them to his mother and village. Monkey Man also stars Sobhita Dhulipala, Sikandar Kher, Adithi Kalkunte, Makarand Deshpande, Sharlto Copley, Brahim Achabbakhe, Ashwini Kalshekar, Pitobash Tripathy, and Vipin Sharma. So, if you loved the action and heartfelt story told in Monkey Man by the first passionate first-time director Dev Patel, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

John Wick Credit – Lionsgate Movies

Monkey Man is being described as “Indian John Wick,” so this film had to be on this list. Directed by Chad Stahelski, John...

The strange Viking ritual in The Northman - where Amleth and Aurvandil behave like dogs - led some to wonder if the practice was borrowed from history or made up for the film. Director Robert Eggers has gained a reputation for staying true to reality in his storytelling, but he may not always stick to that principle. A great film occasionally calls for embellishment when setting up context or driving a point home. As long as the line between truth and fiction is difficult to spot, a story will not have its impact dulled.

In one of the earliest scenes in The Northman, King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) guides his young son Amleth (Oscar Novak) through a rite of passage. Amleth enters the initiation ceremony as a boy and exits as a man. It's a powerful scene - one of many that earned it a spot on the list of...

There’s much that is fascinating about the Viking culture, largely because of its organized barbarism while feeling incredibly familiar given how much of their legacy has seeped into world culture. Television has certainly explored these people through several series, but it’s been a long time since we had a good, sweeping Viking saga on the silver screen.

Robert Eggers had long been interested in the Viking culture and when he and actor Alexander Skarsgård began discussing working together

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, it became clear that the Vikings were the appropriate subject matter. Like the director, whose work I was unfamiliar with before now, Skarsgård was deeply interested in these people.

Working with historian/writer/poet Sjón, Eggers crafted a story drawn from the actual legends, a tale of revenge similar to the Viking tale that inspired Hamlet. Set in the waning years of the ninth century, The Northman...

In a profile of Robert Eggers published in The New Yorker a couple of weeks before the release of The Northman, Sam Knight called the director’s latest “the most accurate Viking movie ever made.” The 38-year-old’s reputation as meticulous researcher long predates his Scandinavian saga, but the film’s estimated 90 million budget—a huge leap from the director’s first two features, The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019)—means that fastidiousness and attention to detail can now play out on a much larger and more ambitious scale. Co-written by Eggers with the Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón, The Northman borrows from the same Nordic legend Shakespeare drew from for his Hamlet. In Eggers’ retelling, Alexander Skarsgård plays Amleth, a prince on a revenge mission. As a ten-year-old (played by Oscar Novak), Amleth saw his father, King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke), murdered by his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang), who then seized...

After taking a deep dive into Viking culture, storytelling, and the arduous craft of garment making, costume designer Linda Muir was ready to become the medieval Coco Chanel of director Robert Eggers’ “The Northman.” In fact, one of the first things she did was construct an enormous chart to plot all of the scenes and character beats in this “Hamlet” riff on power and vengeance, rooted in the same 12th century Danish historical text adapted by Shakespeare.

“Robert provides me with an incredible amount of information and takes great care in answering my questions and filling me in not just on the backstory of the characters but then how that backstory relates to the sagas, relates to the culture,” Muir told IndieWire. “Then I did my master’s chart so I can look at it all in one go as a game plan. Then, when I understand where those changes should be seated,...

Early in Robert Eggers' new film "The Northman," King Aurvandill War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) and his son Amleth (Oscar Novak) enter a mysterious earthen cavern where they are led in a hallucinatory ritual wherein they are encouraged to discover their true animal nature and bring out their destined savagery as conquering Vikings. The ritual is led by Heimir the Fool (Willem Dafoe) who feeds them both a mysterious liquid and partakes himself, leading to the three of them naked on the ground, barking like dogs. 

Eggers' film is likely referencing bog myrtle, an herb that, according to an article...

The post It Was Easy to Get Ethan Hawke to Strip Down and Bark for The Northman, Thanks to Willem Dafoe appeared first on /Film.

The Northman Review — The Northman (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Robert Eggers, written by Robert Eggers and Sjon and starring Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Gustav Lindh, Elliott Rose, Willem Dafoe, Phill Martin, Eldar Skar, Olwen Fouere, Edgar Abram, Jack Gassmann, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Oscar Novak, Jack [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: The Northman (2022): Robert Eggers’ Film is a Violent, Visually Stunning Epic Gem...

Alexander Skarsgård delivers a wholly remarkable performance as the lead in the new film, The Northman, from visionary director Robert Eggers.

On the verge of manhood, Prince Amleth (Oscar Novak) witnesses his father’s (Ethan Hawke) murder at his uncle’s hand. Two decades later, a grown Amleth (Skarsgård), undertakes a quest to rescue his mother (Nicole Kidman) from his murderous uncle and avenge his father.

Director Robert Eggers imbues all of the moodiness and artistic flourish he exhibited in his earlier films such as The Lighthouse (2019) and The Witch (2015). Written along with acclaimed Icelandic author Sjón, Eggers’ script is unrelenting in its portrayal of Amleth’s struggles and associated hardships. But what is refreshing is that it never feels as though Amleth’s sole purpose for existing is to exact revenge for his father. Instead, it plays as though he is more intent on trying to live some sort...

Alexander Skarsgård stars as Amleth in director Robert Eggers’ Viking epic The Northman, a Focus Features release. Credit: Aidan Monaghan / © 2022 Focus Features, LLC. Courtesy of Focus Features

For fans of both director Robert Eggers’ previous film, the historically-based thriller The Witch and the History channel’s TV series Vikings, Eggers has the perfect film. The Northman is a Viking legend of revenge, a thriller packed with Eggers’ signature period-accurate details. While The Witch drew on tales of 17th century witch-hunt hysteria in New England, for thriller drama steeped in historically-accurate details, right down to the accents, The Northman is a tale immersed the culture of 10th century Vikings, which also gets Eggers’ research-based treatment. The Northman is based on the same Norse tale that Shakespeare used for Hamlet, but it departs significantly from the original legend of revenge, to blend in other Norse legends and aspects of Norse culture for another immersive thriller from Eggers.

This review of “The Northman” was first published on April 11, 2022.

Sharpen the swords and prepare the funeral pyres: A Viking is out for bloody revenge in “The Northman,” and the corpses keep piling higher and higher in this trippy action epic from director and co-writer Robert Eggers (“The Lighthouse”).

Written in collaboration with Icelandic author Sjón, “The Northman” is gory, muddy, hallucinatory — and intensely entertaining. An examination of the way that violence begets violence, and a study of how a life devoted to single-minded hatred and vengeance can lead to uncomfortable truths, this is a movie that lives up to every saga comic books and metal bands ever spun about the brutal conquerors of yore.

We open on young Prince Amieth running to tell his mother Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) of the return of King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke), whose arrival is celebrated with a feast that includes japery from court...

The Northman, Robert Eggers’ biggest and most expansive (and expensive) feature to date, is also his best so far. It’s an oft-stunning visual feast and an entertaining peek into Eggers’ instincts as a choreographer not only of historical detail but of bloody action. It is also an instructive example of how the most visionary intentions can’t always enliven an otherwise rote story. The Northman opens in Ad 895, when Amleth, the Northman of the title, is a boy (played at this stage by Oscar Novak). But it is primarily...

Stars: Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Gustav Lindh, Elliott Rose, Willem Dafoe, Phill Martin, Eldar Skar | Written by Robert Eggers, Sjon | Directed by Robert Eggers

Robert Eggers creates worlds you can feel, and worlds that feel like they can reach out and feel you back. From his first chilling tale The Witch (2015), and his maddening dream that followed in The Lighthouse (2019), Eggers has once again crafted a world that you can’t take your eyes away from.

The Northman blends our world with the mythic, mystical world of Norse mythology. A world that conjures both madness, and delightful daring as we follow Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) on a blood-soaked revenge quest that embodies both the madness and mythicality from Eggers’ previous work. From the eyes of a young boy (Oscar Novak) to “many years later”, Amleth vows revenge on his uncle (Claes Bang) after he kills...

There’s a touch of Tolkien to Robert Eggers’ latest, from mythical swords and entwined destinies to a final battle in the heart of a raging volcano. This isn’t a surprise, given Tolkien’s love for Norse mythology, and unsurprising too is the film’s passing resemblance to Ridley Scott’s revenge-fuelled Gladiator. But to compare The Northman to films past is to do it a disservice.

Eggers’ tale of brutal, Viking revenge stands alone, thrashing around in a phantasmagoric blur of rituals, bloodshed and mythology. Even if the story may feel well-worn, its execution is bold, visually expansive, and largely triumphant.

The story begins with the young prince Amleth (Oscar Novak) relishing in the return of his all-conquering father, King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) and battle-hardened uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang). It’s no real spoiler to say this happiness does not last, and Amleth is soon forced to flee for his life,...

For The Northman, co-writer/director Robert Eggers transports audiences to the year 895 Ad for his epic Viking tale fueled by vengeance, betrayal, and blood. At the start, we’re introduced to King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke), who is returning from battle and welcomed warmly by his wife, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), and his young son and heir to the throne, Amleth (played by Oscar Novak). After undergoing a rite of passage that helps young Amleth continue his journey towards adulthood, Aurvandil’s devious brother, Fjölnir (Claes Bang), decides to betray his family by mercilessly slaughtering his brother and kidnapping Queen Gudrún as a means of claiming her as his own. Amleth manages to escape before Fjölnir’s henchmen can kill him, and as the young man leaves everything and everyone he knows behind, Amleth makes a promise to himself that one day he will avenge his father’s murder and rescue...

Whether the dread-inducing rituals of witches or a turpentine-fueled descent into hysteria, Robert Eggers’ cinema is of unflinching immersion. Trapped in the center of symmetrical frames and surrounded by immaculate production design, the only escape for his characters’ fury seems to be bounding off the screen onto the audience themselves. The effect oscillates between entrancing and grating, wearing one down until there’s no choice but to succumb to the mania and plunge into the madness. A considerable step up in scope, his third feature The Northman gratefully bears scant touches of a compromised vision, delivering a bloody, visceral Viking epic that utilizes a simple revenge template as the canvas to examine the contradictions of a hero’s journey.

“I will avenge you, Father. I will save you, Mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir.” These already-memed few sentences are all the synopsis one needs, setting up the story developed by...

Three features in, it’s beginning to look as if the much thrown around and overused term, “visionary,” can be applied with a great deal of justification to writer-director Robert Eggers. His new film The Northman follows in the footsteps of his two previous efforts, The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019), both of which created wholly immersive, fully detailed portraits of life in specific historical settings while exploring the thin line between the natural and the supernatural.

The Northman takes much the same direction, only in the most epic scale that Eggers has worked with yet. Set in 10th-century Scandinavia and Iceland, the film is truly breathtaking in its scope, its detail, and, again, its completely immersive quality. You don’t doubt for a second that you are anywhere but the time and place in which the film is set. And like its predecessors, The Northman also suggests that any barrier...