Rising young queer star Amandla Stenberg, whose performance in last year’s underrated The Hate U Give was the kind of nomination-worthy work you’ll be hearing more about as her career develops, is about to pay her teen movie dues in a remake of Fear. If you remember the old weird ’90s, that was the one with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg, the one where he becomes a wildly violent – then murderous — stalker when she decides he might not be her dream guy.
See, back then, this kind of misogynist peril was considered date night entertainment, and so it’ll be interesting to see how a new generation’s version handles the pitfalls of subject matter so ready to be turned into exploitation filmmaking. There’s no word yet on who’ll direct but Straight Outta Compton screenwriter Jonathan Herman will be handling the script. Good idea: make the director a woman. No, seriously.
These days they drop TV shows like Beyoncé drops albums, with next to no warning, ready to make a quick burst of noise and grab your attention before you’re distracted by the next new thing. That seems to be what’s happening with the YA-themed Euphoria, coming up very soon on HBO – and suddenly it’s all we can think about. For starters, because it stars Zendaya and a cast of bright young things – Storm Reid, Maude Apatow, Algee Smith, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney and Austin Abrams – as they navigate all the usual teen tragedies with an updated 2019 sensibility. And because the series has cast trans model Hunter Schafer as a trans character, one we hear becomes romantically involved with Zendaya’s character. Just in time for Pride Month, y’all. We’ll be watching.
Romeo San Vicente is bursting out all over.
