Movie Reviews
Kevin Costner defends ‘selfishly’ casting his son in ‘Horizon’ after awful film reviews
![Kevin Costner defends ‘selfishly’ casting his son in ‘Horizon’ after awful film reviews](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kevin-costner-defends-casting-son-84030373.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024)
It’s a family matter.
Kevin Costner is defending casting his son Hayes in his movie “Horizon: An American Saga,” as the film gets critically panned.
The “Dances With Wolves” star and director, 69, cast his 15-year-old son as Nathaniel Kittredge in the first of the four-part, Civil War-era Western without an audition.
“I realize there are so many young actors out there that would just kill to be in this movie,” he told the “Today” show on Monday. “And I don’t want to take those parts away from them just ’cause I can place my own children in.”
“Horizon” currently has a rating of 43% on Rotten Tomatoes.
BBC wrote in their scathing review that a movie “needs to have a plot, a bit of credible characterization, and a structure that preferably includes a beginning, middle and end. ‘Horizon’ doesn’t have any of those.”
Variety slammed Costner’s film as “meandering,” and said it “seldom seems to aim in a clear direction,” while IndieWire said, “These aren’t characters so much as the spokes of a plot in human form, each of their storylines moving as if being pulled by horses across the entire span of the American West.”
The Daily Beast’s headline, meanwhile, declared the film “a misogynistic, racist . . . mess” and critic Esther Zuckerman wrote, “I’m not sure why Costner didn’t turn this into the television project it so wishes to be. Perhaps he just wanted to one up ‘Yellowstone,’ the wildly popular Taylor Sheridan show, on which he played John Dutton, and which he decided to leave. But as a cinematic experience it is aggravating in multiple ways.”
Costner has previously spoken about how “Horizon” is his passion project. He directed, co-wrote, produced and stars in the film, and he risked his home to fund it with his own money.
Set during the pre- and post-Civil War era in the American West, the movie has an ensemble cast including Costner, his son Hayes, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson and Jamie Campbell Bower.
Costner said about his son, “He’s a beautiful boy, and he’s quiet. And I have not shoved my children into the business.”
Hayes is one of Costner’s seven children. The Oscar winner has Annie, 40, Lily, 37, and Joe, 36, with ex-wife Cindy Silva. He has a son, Liam, 26, with Bridget Rooney. And his three youngest children — Cayden, 17, Hayes, 15, and Grace, 13 — are with ex-wife Christine Baumgartner, whom he divorced in February after a messy split.
Costner’s son’s role in “Horizon” required just two weeks of filming, the “Yellowstone” star said.
“But, in a sense, it was a smaller part,” he explained. “I selfishly wanted him with me for the week, two weeks, he was with me. And we would drive to the set every day, and he would whisper.”
Despite Hayes having no acting experience, Costner praised his son’s performance.
“He didn’t have a lot of experience, but he’s really beautiful in the movie,” Costner said.
“It’s a really complicated scene. In the end, there’s a nobility, there’s an absolute fatalness about it. It’s what you don’t want a son to do, and at the end of the day, you’re proud that he would make that choice,” Costner added.
Back in April, the “Yellowstone” star revealed that the character he plays in the film served as inspiration for Hayes’ name.
“I named him after the character I play in this. My character’s name is Hayes Ellison,” he told ET at the time. “And I named Hayes that character. So I was watching him grow up, and I was thinking, ‘Man, I better get with it and make this movie.’ ”
“Horizon: An American Saga” hits theaters June 28.
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Movie Reviews
Kalki 2898 AD Review, USA Premiere Report
![Kalki 2898 AD Review, USA Premiere Report](https://www.m9.news/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/kalki-2898-ad-movie-review.jpg)
Stay tuned for Kalki 2898 AD review and U.S. premiere report.
Kalki 2898 AD is releasing amid gigantic expectations, and director Nag Ashwin has taken on a huge challenge that could elevate him to the elite league of pan-India directors, if he delivers a film that opens to unanimous blockbuster talk. Stay tuned for the Kalki 2898 AD movie review and the first report from the USA premiere.
Cast: Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone, Disha Patani and others
STORY – SCREENPLAY – DIALOGUES – DIRECTION: Nag Ashwin
Direction Team: Nayanatara Manchala, Sahen Upadhyay, Akhil Reddy, Srinivas Eetha, Laxman Vihari, YJ Sai Charan, Prakeerthi Uppalapati, Kumar Vamsi
DOP: Djordje Stojiljkovic
Music: Santhosh Narayanan
Additional Sound Design: Kingshuk, Anirban
Editor: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Production Designer: Nitin Zihani Choudhary
Art Director: Anil Jadhav, Santosh Shetty, Velu, Rembon
Concept Art Team: Immortal Collective
Concept and Storyboard Artist: Venu Gopal
Stunts: King Solomon, Andy Long, Peter Heins, Satish, Anbariv, nick powell
Colorist: Andres Delgado, Prashant Sharma
Producer: C.Aswini Dutt
Co Producers: Swapna Dutt & Priyanka Dutt
U.S. Distributor: Prathyangira Cinemas
Kalki 2898 AD Movie Review by M9
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Movie Reviews
All the Long Nights: meditative return by Small, Slow But Steady director
![All the Long Nights: meditative return by Small, Slow But Steady director](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/og_image_scmp_review/public/d8/images/canvas/2024/06/25/a5eed69f-3223-43cf-9552-3e468fca5ca7_fc962e04.jpg?itok=S0rvmSXz&v=1719290464)
3/5 stars
The fate of the universe does not always need to hang in the balance to create compelling drama. Sometimes, something as simple as garnering a better understanding of a colleague can prove sufficient, as is the case in Sho Miyake’s new drama.
Adapted from Maiko Seo’s novel of the same name, All the Long Nights follows two young people whose prospects in the adult world have been cut short by disorders that affect their everyday experience.
Misa (Mone Kamishiraishi) suffers from extreme premenstrual syndrome, which triggers mood swings so violent that she was forced to quit her previous office job.
Meanwhile, Takatoshi (Hokuto Matsumura) is hobbled by debilitating panic attacks, which have had a similarly negative impact on his professional aspirations.
These two lonely souls meet when Misa moves back home to be close to her ailing mother (Ryo), and gets an administrative job at a small company that distributes science equipment for children.
Initially, Misa and Takatoshi have little in common, their eccentricities and peccadillos even causing a degree of tension and irritation between them.
But when Misa discovers that Takatoshi takes the same herbal medication as she does, it sparks a growing understanding and empathy between the two of them, which only grows when they team up to collaborate on a planetarium project.
Miyake’s film conjures an affectionate portrayal of sleepy suburbia, exemplified by the low-stakes challenges of small-business office culture that unfolds at a gentle, unhurried pace, as one has come to expect from Japanese dramas of this ilk.
Where this film differs from many of its contemporaries, however, is in the absence of such archetypal clichés as romance or illness. Misa and Takatoshi’s relationship remains defiantly platonic throughout, with neither party ever threatening to overstep their boundaries or behave inappropriately.
Instead of a story about finding a kindred spirit with whom to explore the boundless expanse of the universe, All the Long Nights is a tale of curiosity and understanding.
Both characters strive to learn more about their colleague’s physiological disorder to better inform themselves, but also so that they might become a more valuable and empathetic friend to the other.
![A still from All the Long Nights.](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/06/25/66f8eb82-2111-4979-b7d7-34413fccd5d9_a66cec46.jpg)
The performances are understated but also effective, unburdened by the need to resort to histrionics to advance the narrative.
Undeniably, Misa and Takatoshi come to depend upon one another as a crutch for coming to terms with their own issues, but Miyake’s proposal that this connection need go no further is as honest and refreshing as they come.
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