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About 25 years ago I met a fine artist, a painter, on a train trip to visit a mutual friend. We discussed our respective professions/enthusiasms, and she told me that as a rule she hated movies about painters because they were almost uniformly false—to the point of being corny—in their depiction of the act of painting. One exception, she said, was the then-recent “Life Lessons,” the Martin-Scorsese-directed episode of the 1989 “ New York Stories ,” in which Nick Nolte played an abstract painter. That movie got it, she said. I was glad to hear it, as I enjoyed the movie too, but I also said that as someone who had little clue about how painting was actually accomplished, I could enjoy Vincente Minnelli ’s “Lust For Life” regardless.

Writers have less of a hard time with movies about writers, because the act of writing is something that’s somewhat pointless to depict visually, so you kind of can’t go wrong. But there’s also a kind of inherent futility in using a visual medium to convey the interior machinations of the creative act. It’s helpful, then, in concocting movies about writers, to choose or create writers who are oversized personalities, men and women who do a lot more than spend time hunched over a desk wrestling with their own thoughts. The movie “Genius,” directed by Michael Grandage from a script by John Logan , does not lack for those. The central figure, though, is not a writer but an editor, the real-life Maxwell Perkins, a man whose most pronounced eccentricity, it seems, involved almost never taking his hat off. “Genius” is the story of book man Perkins, friend and collaborator to the likes of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who play significant roles here, and the way Perkins took on and tamed the fiery poetic work of North-Carolina-born visionary (or blowhard, depending on which literary critic you consult) Thomas Wolfe.

Perkins is played with reserve, hidden warmth, and scrupulous intelligence by Colin Firth , while Wolfe’s role goes to Jude Law , who is more than well suited to declaim and thunder and be completely madly unreasonable in time-tested crazed-genius style. Perkins spends his days in the very woody offices of Scribner’s, red-penciling such future masterpieces as ”A Farewell To Arms.” In the evening he takes the train home to a handsome secluded home where wait his wife and five lovely, literate daughters. One day his office receives a ragged manuscript that’s more stack than sheaf. “O Lost,” it is titled, and the words that follow that title, about the “lost wandering lonely souls,” somehow grip the taciturn Perkins. When Wolfe drops in at Perkins’ office, the writer is so cluelessly effusive that Perkins can barely get a word in edgewise, not even to tell him that Scribner’s is accepting the oft-rejected novel. The movie then spends a little while simulating how writer and editor honed down the stack to create what would come to be called “Look Homeward, Angel.”

If you have any feel for writing, and I suppose if you particularly have any feel for Wolfe’s writing, you’ll find the exchanges between editor and author exhilarating. Logan’s script, based on A. Scott Berg’s biography of Perkins, is invested in the craft of words like few other movies nowadays, even those ostensibly about writers. And if you have no particular concern for writing, the emotional drama is not insignificant. Nicole Kidman plays Aline Bernstein, a married woman who’s Wolfe’s lover and unofficial patron, and her scorn upon seeing her place in Wolfe’s life become supplanted on account of Perkins’ presence commands attention. As for Perkins, Wolfe starts looking like the son he and wife Louise ( Laura Linney ) very clearly tried for but never had. As success goes to Wolfe’s head, though, Perkins gets inklings that he may have created an ego monster, while Wolfe himself insists that Perkins loosen up and follow him to the places where he finds “the dark rhythms that inspire me.” As for Hemingway ( Dominic West ) and Fitzgerald ( Guy Pearce ), they make their concern and/or disapproval known from the sidelines.

It could be that I see so many dumb movies these days that I’m inclined to cut a lot of slack for one of conspicuous intelligence, but I greatly enjoyed “Genius.” To the extent that it’s made me interested in checking out more Wolfe, who I’ve avoided like the plague since not enjoying his dialect short story “Only The Dead Know Brooklyn.”

I’m not the only one who was at least slightly taken aback, though, by a persistent quirk in the movie’s casting, which is that not one of the Lions of American Literature in this picture was played by, well, an American. Firth is British, Law is British, Dominic West is British, Guy Pearce is Australian and so is Nicole Kidman. “What about Zelda Fitzgerald, you sexist?” I can hear somebody saying. Well, yeah. She IS depicted in the movie also. By Vanessa Kirby . A British actor.

They all do their jobs pretty splendidly though so I can’t really complain. But I did notice. As well you might, too. 

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Genius (2016)

Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and suggestive content.

104 minutes

Colin Firth as Max Perkins

Jude Law as Thomas Wolfe

Nicole Kidman as Aline Bernstein

Laura Linney as Louise Saunders

Guy Pearce as F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dominic West as Ernest Hemingway

Vanessa Kirby as Zelda Fitzgerald

• Michael Grandage

Writer (based on the book by)

• A. Scott Berg

Cinematographer

• Chris Dickens

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'Genius' Offers A High-Toned Look At The Editor-Writer Relationship

David Edelstein

A new film tells the story of book editor Max Perkins, who worked with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe. Critic David Edelstein says Genius "isn't quite ingenious enough."

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The Odd Factual Gaps in Michael Grandage’s “Genius”

Fact-checking a movie that’s based on a true story is a facile way to review it, but “Genius,” the director Michael Grandage’s film about the Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins and his turbulent relationship with the novelist Thomas Wolfe, sticks its chin out and asks for it with a title card that declares it to be “a true story.” Not “based on a true story” or “adapted from a true story,” but the  true gen . What’s more, another card states that the movie is based on A. Scott Berg’s biography “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius.” Yet a glance into the book reveals that the movie departs in important ways from the historical record that Berg, in his superb book, establishes. This fact alone wouldn’t necessarily count against “Genius”; what counts against it is the fact that it’s a superficial, genteel bore of an experience—and that the movie’s meagreness arises precisely from the thinning-out and bowdlerization of its source material.

From the very beginning of the movie, when Wolfe (Jude Law) visits the office of Perkins (Colin Firth) in 1929, with trepidation and a chip on his shoulder, the bond between the two—and the business of literature as such—is nearly evaporated by the simplifications and condensations of the story that Berg tells with a keen sense of the vitality of detail. In the movie, Wolfe delivers a self-pitying speech on his certainty that his book wouldn’t be published; instead, Perkins tells him that Scribner’s will publish it, and soon thereafter editor and author dive in to edit the unwieldy manuscript. The story that Berg tells is much richer—and much more populated. He describes Perkins’s initial dismissal of the manuscript (the novel, then called “O Lost,” would be retitled “Look Homeward, Angel”) and his change of heart, brought about by the infectious enthusiasm of his colleague Wallace Meyer. “Soon he and Meyer were passing pages back and forth and John Hall Wheelock and the rest of the staff were grabbing whole sections at a time,” Berg writes, and that one sentence offers more of a vision of Perkins working in an office with colleagues who have taste and ideas of their own than there is in the entire film. The choice of the book’s new title, meanwhile, changed at the behest of Perkins and his colleagues, came, Berg writes, not from Wolfe’s “aha” moment (as in the film) but from a list that Wolfe submitted and that Perkins and Wheelock perused.

Why do such things matter? Because they provide a sense of the physicality of rather abstract matters. In the course of  a discussion with Berg and the film’s screenwriter, John Logan , published in the Los Angeles  Times , Logan says that he was aware from the start that the project wasn’t typical Hollywood: “It’s about editing books,” i.e., undramatic and physically inactive. Of course, Berg’s book is proof to the contrary—depending, of course, on what constitutes drama. In movies, much of the drama is in the accidental, in the illuminating detail, the peculiar diversion of attention from the crucial into the coincidental—the interplay of necessity and contingency, of grandeur and pettiness, of minor actions and major revelations. Thus there’s more of Perkins in the detail offered by his secretary, Irma Wyckoff, to Berg, that the editor dictated letters copiously throughout the working day—“Mr. Perkins even dictated his own punctuation,” she said—than in the banality of shots of Perkins’s red pencil slicing, sometimes surgically and sometimes swashbucklingly, through typescript.

Two of the movie’s most expressively significant events prove drastically different in Berg’s report. One involves the suicide attempt, in the Scribner’s office, of Wolfe’s lover, Aline Bernstein (Nicole Kidman), a wealthy woman who was eighteen years older than the writer and who had supported him financially in his lean years. In Berg’s description, Wolfe was speaking with Perkins in his office, and Bernstein was waiting near the elevator. The movie follows this account. Then, however, Berg writes,

When Tom returned to her, Aline had a vial of pills at her lips. He lunged toward her and slapped the bottle from her hands. Aline swooned into his arms. Perkins, suspecting she had already swallowed an overdose of barbiturates, rang the elevator bell for the night watchman, who directed them to a dermatologist working late in her office in the Scribner Building. The doctor counted the pills, phoned the pharmacy, and ascertained that all of them were still there. Thus began a reconciliation of sorts between Tom Wolfe and Aline Bernstein.

In the movie, the scene suggests that Bernstein swallowed at least some pills, and it ends with Perkins ringing for the elevator. The scene that Berg describes is one of exquisite tragicomedy, of the fusion of life-and-death passion with banal accountancy; it’s also a scene in which side characters are incongruously essential. One of the great gifts of classic Hollywood movies is the wealth of character actors playing secondary, tertiary, even fleeting but memorable roles. The absence of Perkins’s colleagues from the discovery of “Look Homeward, Angel,” the absence of the watchman and the dermatologist, is like the absence of flavor, the absence of human richness from a richly peopled life—an omission all the more grievous for Berg’s depiction of Wolfe as a wanderer in the city who went to bars and other public places for the simple pleasure of hearing the voices of a wide variety of people. The genius of the cinema is the art of the heterogeneous—the juxtaposition, in a frame or a scene or a movie or, for that matter, in a single character, of elements that don’t seem to go together but which are nonetheless thrust together by the curious or ironic or diabolical or miraculous course of existence itself. It’s this very heterogeneity, the readiness of filmmakers to open their stories and their films to the fullness of contingency, that lends even the most confected fiction an aspect of documentary.

The oddest gap between the book and the film concerns the event that led to the break between Wolfe and Perkins. The primary underlying story of that break, as cited by Berg, is the only one that’s in the film: Wolfe’s fear of the public and critical suspicion that Perkins was principally responsible for the success of Wolfe’s books—that the editor, not the author, was the genius behind the novels—and Wolfe’s desire to prove otherwise to the world. But the proximate cause of the break, which led to Wolfe giving vent to his resentment of Perkins, had nothing to do with text-editing or with critics’ charges. Rather, the story that Berg tells is a strange and troubling one that reaches far beyond Wolfe’s immediate concerns into the very nature of modern literature and the moral crises of the writer.

Wolfe, as Perkins recognized (as did pretty much everyone who knew Wolfe’s work), drew his characters closely from his own experience. (Perkins and Bernstein ended up as characters in Wolfe’s work, and Bernstein’s furious response to this is a major episode in Berg’s book—“She impulsively visited Perkins to demand justice. Her screams could be heard through the walls of his office”—but a mere fillip in the movie.) In November, 1936, Wolfe’s former landlady, Marjorie Dorman, complained to Perkins about her pseudonymous depiction in a story by Wolfe that had been published in  Scribner’s  magazine. The following month, she sued for libel. Berg mentions a meeting in the publisher’s office between Perkins, Wolfe, and the owner of the company, Charles Scribner, who wanted to settle the suit out of court. The biographer writes of what happened soon thereafter:

Toward the end of the year Wolfe spent an evening with Perkins and ranted about the injustice done him on all hands in this “blank blank country,” while Germany in contrast was “white as snow.” He often spoke of “dear old Adolf” and his SS, who knew what to do with thugs who picked on artists. America was the place, he said, “where honest men were all robbed and bludgeoned by scoundrels.” Then, shaking a finger at Perkins, he shouted, “And now you have got me into a $125,000 libel suit!”

The suit was settled; Wolfe considered it a betrayal by Scribner’s; he soon thereafter vented his underlying resentments toward Perkins in a long letter and, in January, 1937, Wolfe left Perkins and Scribner’s. It’s a story of such startling, shocking power and ugliness that it seemingly screams for inclusion in the film. And yet Grandage and Logan completely omit Dorman, Scribner, and the lawsuit, as well as “dear old Adolf.” Would it have rendered Wolfe unsympathetic or, um, unlikable? At the very least, it’s dramatic. A good screenwriter and a good director would manage to find the context to create empathy for a character in such a state of delusion. For instance, Wolfe was, at the same time, a supporter of the New Deal and President Franklin D. Roosevelt; arguing with Perkins, who claimed to vote Republican in 1936, he cited their differences of political opinion among the charges against Perkins’s editing of his work.

What’s missing from “Genius” is precisely context—the sense that its characters are living in a world. It’s not a matter of conjuring a physical feel for Depression-era New York (though this can be done on a budget—see James Gray’s “The Immigrant’). Nor is it a matter of dragging political discussions into the movie (though Berg details some noteworthy ones between Perkins and Wolfe that could have made for good movie moments). It’s not even a matter of conceiving the story of Perkins and Wolfe, or even of conceiving it in cinematic form, but of thinking about what a story is, as such—the richness and complexity of experience, the enduring power of ordinary facts to provide outsized emotion, the force of character that’s revealed in small actions of great importance. Or, to put it simply, the power of the truth.

The movie’s finest drama, as a result, isn’t the one engaging Perkins and Wolfe but the one involving Perkins and his wife, Louise (Laura Linney). There, it becomes clear that Perkins’s aesthetic sensibility is inseparable from his old-school morality and patrician brusqueness, leaving Louise painfully frustrated. (Berg details her efforts at playwriting in the mid-nineteen-thirties; Katharine Hepburn, her friend, thought highly of her work.) No less than Wolfe, Perkins was the representative of dogmas and prejudices of his time and milieu, and his life, as well as the art of his writers, poses the riddle of beautiful work embodying ugly ideas, of the private misdeeds of public achievers. The characters, literary works, and subjects of “Genius” are of enduring power, yet the movie itself never comes close to conveying that power, let alone sharing in it.

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Film Review: ‘Genius’

Michael Grandage's homage to one of the great unsung heroes of American literature feels lifeless, despite its all-star cast.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Of all the fruits of genius that exist in the world, writing is perhaps the least dramatic to depict onscreen. Where other movies give us mad painters splashing away at canvases or tortured mathematicians scribbling equations on window panes, literary biopics typically fall back on lonely men seated at their desks, wresting sheets of paper from a typewriter, only to crumple each one up and begin again. But great writing isn’t an entirely solitary process, and though Michael Grandage ’s dull, dun-colored “Genius” makes every effort to credit the editor’s role in shaping the century’s great novels, it’s nobody’s idea of interesting to watch someone wield his red pencil over the pile of pages that would become Thomas Wolfe’s “Look Homeward, Angel,” even if the editor in question is the great Maxwell Perkins. While the talent involved should draw smarthouse crowds, the result has all the life of a flower pressed between “Angel’s” pages 87 years ago.

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Over the course of his nearly-four-decade career with Charles Scriber’s Sons, Perkins (played by Colin Firth ) fought hard to bring the best works of Wolfe ( Jude Law ), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Guy Pearce) and Ernest Hemingway (Dominic West) to the general public. Judging by the cast of “Genius,” one might never guess that these literary figures were in fact Americans, as Grandage (that dare-we-say genius of the London stage) has loaded his big-screen debut with the finest British and Australian stars of the Miramax generation, including a reunion of “Cold Mountain” lovers Law and Nicole Kidman , who plays Wolfe’s patron, Aline Bernstein.

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Because the actual business of editing — during which Perkins so casually marks up a Hemingway manuscript whose every word might be considered sacred today — can only be expected to hold our interest in brief intervals, Logan’s script focuses on the interpersonal dynamic between this literary gatekeeper and his greatest discovery. (Both Fitzgerald and Faulkner had been published before, whereas Wolfe, who’d been rejected by every company in town, was losing faith that his words “were worth a dime.”)

According to A. Scott Berg’s biography, “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius,” upon which the movie is based, Perkins wasn’t entirely the musty, moth-eaten figure the dubiously accented Firth makes him out to be here. (The actor is either wearing false teeth, choking on a cracker or both.) Perkins was a fighter who put his own reputation on the line for the talents he believed in, and none would have demanded more defending than Wolfe, whose 1,000-page, single-spaced, typewritten first manuscript begins mid-sentence and unfurls in what appears to be a series of endless paragraphs. But gosh darn it, the thing sure does make Perkins’ eyes moisten, and together, they bludgeon it into one of Scriber’s unlikeliest bestsellers, with nary a note of skepticism from the editor’s superiors.

The next book, which Wolfe hand-delivers in a series of crates, is an even more daunting task, running nearly five times as long … and counting, since Wolfe refuses to stop writing. Whipping “Of Time and the River” into shape will take at least nine months of after-hours editing sessions — and more like two years, when all is said and done. It’s enough to raise concerns on the part of both Bernstein and Perkins’ own wife, Louise Saunders (Laura Linney, rendered almost lifeless). The men are not having an affair, of course, but it’s perhaps the best metaphor a screenwriter can find for such an intense professional connection, where a form of love exists on both sides, the sheer intensity of which threatens the romantic partners who feel sidelined by the project.

For this particular storytelling approach to work, however, audiences must also find themselves seduced by the figures in question — a tall order in a movie that’s overwritten, over-scored and wildly overacted by thesps who should all know better. In scenes that effectively seem to have been marinated in music, Law bellows and gesticulates like a barn-raised carnival barker, braying his lines from memory, rather than from the marrow of the tortured poet he’s playing. Though there’s altogether too much of it, Logan has written some splendid dialogue, trying to channel the voice of a writer who couldn’t stop the words from flowing. Pity, then, that most of the time, you just want Wolfe to shut up.

Even Firth’s modesty feels disingenuous, practically pantomimed for effect. Grandage may know how to direct actors for the stage, but this new medium calls for subtlety. When shot in relative closeup, Firth is capable of conveying volumes with the slightest shift of the eye, but here, Grandage gives the character elaborate gestures. To read a letter, he might stand up from his desk, cross his office and shut the door. Watch how uneasy he looks — not so much in character, but in the scene itself — during a trip to a jazz club, where Wolfe requests a lively version of “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton” to illustrate the difference between his style and that of Scriber’s star Henry James.

It’s a turning point in Perkins and Wolfe’s relationship, like the one where he kicks in the window of the tenement where Wolfe wrote “Look Homeward, Angel,” but both characters’ actions feel telegraphed. They don’t look, move or speak like believable people, and the airless sepia look of the film doesn’t help. From its ill-advised tone-setting opener, which fades from black-and-white to the still nearly-monochromatic dust hue that characterizes the rest of the picture, “Genius” is the sort of period re-creation where everyone seems to be wearing 80-year-old costumes. Even Wolfe’s manuscript looks old, like it’s been pulled out of deep storage, rather than written on whatever paper he could get his hands on.

For a film that speaks of writers whose vivid modern voice transformed the shape of American fiction, “Genius” merely reminds us how, for all the excitement critics and readers showered upon him during the day, Wolfe has faded from our must-read lists. He’s a taxing presence, using up all the oxygen in rooms where someone really ought to open the windows. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald and Hemingway (who’ve benefited from far more frequent screen appearances) are reduced to cameos, making one long even for the liveliness their characters brought to “Midnight in Paris.” When Wolfe goes to Paris, he’s merely stepped from one series of drearily set-dressed backdrops to another, where a flower cart and an awning are somehow meant to stand in for Europe.

Of all the characters, the one who seems to take Grandage’s theatricality best is Bernstein, who treats the world as her stage, giving Kidman a chance to camp things up as she pops pills, brandishes a tiny purse pistol and delivers the film’s most unfortunate line: “I don’t exist anymore. I’ve been edited.” The real question was never meant to be which of these two, mistress or editor, gets most of Wolfe’s time, but whether Perkins truly found an unrefined diamond and made it shine, or if Wolfe’s genius was somehow “O Lost” along the way. To answer that, one really ought to be looking to a book, rather than its relatively wooden adaptation.

Reviewed at Soho House, Berlin, Feb. 14, 2016. (In Berlin Film Festival — competing.) MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 104 MIN.

• Production: (U.K.-U.S.) A Lionsgate release of a Riverstone Pictures presentation, in association with Pinewood Pictures, Film Nation Entertainment, of a Desert Wolf Prods., Michael Grandage Co. production. Produced by Michael Grandage, John Logan. Executive producers, James J. Bagley, A. Scott Berg, Tim Bevan, Nik Bower, Arielle Tepper Madover, Deepak Nayar. Co-producer, Tracey Seaward.
• Crew: Directed by Michael Grandage. Screenplay, John Logan, based on the book “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius” by A. Scott Berg. Camera (color, widescreen), Ben Davis; editor, Chris Dickens; music, Adam Cork; production designer, Mark Digby; supervising art director, Patrick Rolfe; art director, Alex Baily, Gareth Cousins; costume designer, Jane Petrie; sound (Dolby Digital), Peter Lindsay; supervising sound editor, Ian Wilson; re-recording mixers, Andrew Caller, Ian Tapp; visual effects supervisor, Adam Gascoyne; visual effects coordinator, Jenny King; stunt coordinator, James Grogan; special effects supervisor, Neal Champion; assistant director, Deborah Saban; casting, Jina Jay.
• With: Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney, Guy Pearce, Dominic West, Vanessa Kirby.

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Genius Reviews

As Perkins and Wolfe discuss the importance of every choice and omission an artist makes in crafting work, it is sad that Genius doesn't know show much evidence of that same consideration.

Full Review | Apr 13, 2021

A great wall separates the producers, writers and directors at present from the kind of mental effort it takes to represent the world in a serious artistic manner. For the most part, unhappily, they have only clichés and guesswork at their disposal.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2021

Michael Grandage could've used his female stars more powerfully-and the whole film smells of Oscar Bait-but the opposites-attract friendship between Perkins and Wolfe is the stuff of literary lore and is more than enough...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 23, 2020

'Genius' looks like a half-baked bread, lacking a solid emotional hook. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 20, 2019

While the film fails to live up to its namesake, it's a starry, solid account of a literary icon and the man who brought him to the world.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 15, 2019

If one thought Rajapattai was Susienthiran's worst film, then here's Genius. A television soap would have been more interesting and less predictable.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2018

Even when taken as a message film, 'Genius' makes the didactic films of Samuthirakani seem livelier.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 25, 2018

A bit of a retread of drunk writer self-destructs tropes, but if you can't resist yet another trip down memory lane with your favorite writers, no matter how many times you may have taken it before, then Genius will give you another chance.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2018

Despite the emotional contrast, the film is enlightening and clear in what it tells and shows. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 30, 2018

For a film about finessing texts, there isn't much finesse in Genius.

Full Review | Oct 14, 2017

The movie is as in love with words and their power as Tom is.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 11, 2017

Genius is a work of admiration and curiosity, but it is simply not a work of genius, so that's regrettable.

Full Review | Aug 29, 2017

Genius isn't necessarily a mighty movie. But it's a very good one.

Full Review | Jun 20, 2017

If you're looking for a spectacular visual experience, this isn't it. But if you're interested in writers and editors, this film is for you.

Full Review | Mar 15, 2017

Unimaginative literary biopic.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jan 27, 2017

Any film that takes literature this seriously deserves some credit.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 20, 2016

A film about literature that is neither literary nor cinematic and it gives the impression that wants to get away from the solemn to reach the popular, but ends up being superficial. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Dec 19, 2016

A valuable film because of its story and its attractive cultural background, than by its (irregular) artistic results, which owes its most exciting moments to Colin Firth. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Dec 13, 2016

The problem of the film is that the promised magnetism of the story it's hardly found in the screen. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 8, 2016

Genius may have its failings but it glows with a shared wonder of the world and of the written word.

Full Review | Nov 7, 2016

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A chronicle of Max Perkins's time as the book editor at Scribner, where he oversaw works by Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others. A chronicle of Max Perkins's time as the book editor at Scribner, where he oversaw works by Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others. A chronicle of Max Perkins's time as the book editor at Scribner, where he oversaw works by Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.

• Michael Grandage
• A. Scott Berg
• Colin Firth
• Nicole Kidman
• 80 User reviews
• 131 Critic reviews
• 56 Metascore
• 1 win & 6 nominations

• Max Perkins

• Thomas Wolfe

• Aline Bernstein

• Louise Perkins

• F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Ernest Hemingway

• Zelda Fitzgerald

• Julia Wolfe

• Bertha Perkins
• (as Angela Ashton)
• Zippy Perkins
• Jane Perkins
• Peggy Perkins
• Nancy Perkins
• Eleanor, Perkins' Maid

• John Wheelock

• Miss Wyckoff

• Assistant Editor
• James, Mailroom Clerk
• (as Ray Strasser-King)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia A. Scott Berg's biography "Max Perkins: Editor of Genius", on which the film is based, won the National Book Award in 1978.
• Goofs Maxwell Perkins tells Thomas Wolfe his book needs a new title that will appeal to potential purchasers, and gives the example of F. Scott Fitzgerald changing the title of a novel from "Trimalchio in West Egg" to "The Great Gatsby." The real Perkins, as Fitzgerald's editor, certainly would have known that "The Great Gatsby" was a flop upon its release in 1925 and did not sell well until the 1950s.

Aline Bernstein : I don't exist anymore. I've been edited.

• Crazy credits The title "Genius" appears on the screen 9 minutes into the movie.
• Connections Referenced in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Jude Law/Keri Russell/Fall Out Boy (2015)
• Soundtracks Flow Gently Sweet Afton (Sottish traditional) Composed by Jonathan E. Spillman (1873) Performed by London Voices

User reviews 80

• Sep 15, 2016
• How long is Genius? Powered by Alexa
• June 10, 2016 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Official site (Japan)
• Didcot, Oxfordshire, England, UK
• Desert Wolf Productions
• Michael Grandage Company
• Riverstone Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Jun 12, 2016

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 44 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Even at Its Most Dynamic, Genius Is Still a Movie About Book Editing

Is there any profession less cinematic than book editing? I say that with enormous respect, given that my wife edits books (and damn good ones). But in all the years I’ve watched her pore over manuscripts and wrestle over phrasing with authors both grateful and intransigent, and beam when that first printed book arrives in the mail (after so many hassles over covers and flap copy), I’ve never thought, This would make a great movie!

But the new film Genius does a pretty good job of capturing the peculiar drama of the relationship between editors and writers, in this case some of the most revered in American letters: Max Perkins, an editor at of Scribner’s, and, in alphabetical order, authors F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. It’s the bond with Wolfe that occupies most of the movie’s running time. At the start, Perkins (Colin Firth) gets a fat manuscript plopped on his desk — a novel turned down by every other publisher in New York. He reads a few lines, then a few more. He reads on the train to his impressive Connecticut home and over dinner as his wife and kids visibly wilt from neglect. The book is the sprawling first draft of what would come to be called Look Homeward, Angel . Just as Perkins finishes, Wolfe appears at the door, uninvited and unannounced. As played by Jude Law, he’s a disarmingly extroverted Southerner, high on his own persona. And Perkins is oddly smitten.

So how do the filmmakers make editing cinematic? Perkins and Wolfe go mano a mano over booze and cigarettes. They edit while hurrying down the street. They edit in bars. Other male characters in movies play increasingly fierce squash. These guys do increasingly fierce rewrites . A description of a woman’s eyes goes from a logjam of metaphors to the simple observation that they’re blue. And to be fair, Perkins worries aloud near the end of Genius that he has straitjacketed his authors, paring away the passionate excess that made them unique. The movie lets that self-doubt hang, which is a good thing. Editors — even great ones — should always cut with humility.

But if you’re looking for something more than line editing, look elsewhere — perhaps to A. Scott Berg’s 1978 biography, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius . (The title, of course, is a double entendre.) You wouldn’t know from the film what Look Homeward, Angel is about, much less its author’s vision of the universe and the place of humans in it. The focus is firmly on length and on the emotional intensity of the haggling. Wolfe’s high-strung lover, Aileen Bernstein (Nicole Kidman), warns Perkins that he has been seduced and will be abandoned down the road, but Perkins — buttoned up, always wearing a hat — is not a man to worry about such a thing. It is beyond his purview.

Watching Genius , you might have the nagging sense that the most vivid stuff is occurring offscreen, when the other characters leave Perkins and go back to their messy lives. And while that might be the point  — we’ve had plenty of self-destructive author biopics, but none that focused on people who tried to instill discipline in them — it makes for half-baked drama. It doesn’t help that the first-time film director, Michael Grandage (the artistic director of London’s Donmar Warehouse), has gone the British-prestige route. It’s terribly high-toned. And with the exception of Laura Linney in a minor role as Perkins’s wife, a middlebrow playwright, the actors are all Brits and Aussies. It’s as if Americans can’t be trusted to play quintessentially American literary figures.

Firth isn’t bad. In some ways, he’s perfect — as beige as the part demands. Guy Pearce isn’t a bad Fitzgerald, either, although he’s a controlled actor and doesn’t convey what a sniveling wreck the man was at the end of his talent. Dominic West is a solid Hemingway. Kidman gives a brittle, pungent performance as the Jewish costume and set designer who left her husband and two kids for Wolfe, but it seems as if her specialty has become getting by in parts in which she’s totally miscast.

For better or worse, Jude Law carries Genius . Does he overact? Perhaps, but he does suggest that it’s also Wolfe who’s overacting, putting on a grand show to keep his vulnerability at bay. Thank heaven Law gave up the leading-man game and went back to character parts, in which he always goes for broke. But neither he nor Genius is ingenious enough to make you think, We need more movies about editing!

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• By David Fear

Maybe it’s when Thomas Wolfe ( Jude Law ), Southern-lit savant and future bestselling novelist, stands stomping his foot on a rainy, slate-gray street, staring up at the Scribner and Sons building. It might be when Maxwell Perkins (Colin Firth), wielding his red pen over a manuscript in a conspicuously shadowy office, stares at the imposing stack of pages that’s just been dropped on his desk. (It’s a magnum opus that’s been turned down by every publisher in town, he’s told, “but it’s unique.”) Or perhaps it’s when the 20th century publishing deity, who’s taken on the job of shaping this doorstopper tome, lectures Wolfe on the importance of a book’s title. (Cue “Eureka!” moment and a new moniker: Look Homeward, Angel. )

But don’t worry if you can’t pinpoint the exact moment that actor-turned-director Michael Grandage’s drama about the working relationship between these two titans reveals its true nature. Regardless of when your personal “when” happens, there will eventually come a point when you have to face an inalienable fact. This is not a deep-dive exploration of two brilliant, difficult men. This is something that rhymes with “blatant Shmoscarbait,” pure and simple, and it will get worse before it gets better.

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You know the drill: Strong source material, in the form of A. Scott Berg’s National Book Award-winning biography on Perkins, a top-notch screenwriter (John Logan) and a to-die-for A-list cast. Having all the right ingredients doesn’t mean you can’t royally screw up the recipe, however, and the missteps start coming fast and furious even before Law’s manic-hillbilly act wears out its welcome. Every scene seems to be lit in a way that screams “you are watcthing a prestigious period pic” Every exchange seems designed not to reveal character or explore the duo’s right-brain/left-brain partnership so much as provide excuses to cough up clichés and chest-thump. Every opportunity to play Famous Author Karaoke is indulged (Guy Pearce as F. Scott Fitzgerald! Dominic West as Hemingway!) Every very female supporting role is either half-baked or served still-bloody rare. (Laura Linney’s good wife is relegated to either lovingly supportive looks or crowing “what about your kids?!?”; as Wolfe’s spurned lover and cheerleader, Nicole Kidman ‘s sole requirement is to pantomime bitter and brittle. Both deserve better.)

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Even when Genius stumbles upon something dramatically chewy,it can’t seem to resist the temptation to self-destructively deep-six its grace notes. Fretting over a long descriptive passage of Wolfe’s second novel Of Time and the River, the author and Perkins argue over what should stay and what needs to go. One thinks every verb matters; the other wants a simpler, cleaner prose. Firth and Law finally lock into a rhythm, a give-and-take sense of tension and negotiation builds, and for once, the film captures the fine art of kill-your-darlings massacring that is editing. Then Law screams in “I looove you, Max Perkins!” in a caricaturish North Carolina drawl as his friend’s train pulls away, and out come the strings on the score. This is a movie allegedly dedicated to finding the genius buried beneath indulgent clutter. Physician, heal thyself.

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Review: ‘Genius,’ a Portrait of the Man Behind the Equation

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By Neil Genzlinger

• April 23, 2017

National Geographic, a network hoping to fashion itself a new image , has invested quite a lot in “Genius,” its first scripted series, which begins on Tuesday night. The commitment has paid off admirably.

Judging from the first two episodes, this is a skillfully acted, richly detailed historical show that would not be out of place on PBS or a high-end pay-cable outlet. It’s a dramatization of the life of Albert Einstein , who was not the wild-haired caricature that you may have thought, at least not when he was young.

“Genius” intends to be an anthology series about the lives of historical figures who fit the title, and Einstein is a natural choice to kick it off. (A second season was announced last week but not which “genius” will be the subject; the network says that will be revealed during the Season 1 finale.) Not only did he revolutionize physics, but he also lived during calamitous times, including two world wars, and had an eventful personal life.

The 10-episode first season, based on Walter Isaacson’s book “Einstein: His Life and Universe” (2007), weaves those threads together to create a portrait of the very human fellow behind the immortal equation. The premiere opens in Berlin in 1922, when Einstein (1879-1955) was in his 40s and a renowned figure in physics, but it soon flashes back to the 1890s, when Einstein was a student with a restless mind and a knack for irritating his instructors.

The show repeatedly jumps from the older Einstein to the younger, and from one actor to another. The producers made their serious intentions clear with the casting of the older Einstein: It’s Geoffrey Rush , an Oscar, Tony and Emmy winner. But “Genius” has a certain brashness to it as well, and the choice for the younger Einstein embodies it: Johnny Flynn, who was perhaps best known for the cheeky British series “Scrotal Recall” (later retitled “Lovesick”).

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Genius movie review: After a while, the plot turns mind-numbing

Cast: Utkarsh Sharma, Ishitha Chauhan, Mithun Chakraborty, Ayesha Jhulka, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, K.K. Raina Director: Anil Sharma

An orphan, whose parents get killed in communal riots, is raised by a brahmin who lives at an ashram in Mathura, cracks IIT with distinction, and therefore, is a brilliant mind, is offered a key job by the RAW, and seems to be the perfect young lad whom girls swoon over and guys admire. Although pretty young, he seems to be the sharpest at RAW, where as an ethical hacker, he has nearly all his seniors gaping wide-mouthed at his jaw-dropping capabilities.

Quite naturally, he wears loads of attitude on his sleeve, though he also has a heart of gold. Notwithstanding his aplomb and dare-me attitude, a young girl Nandini (Ishitha Chauhan) gets attracted to him in college, and swears undying love for him. In short, there is nothing that he doesn’t have, or cannot achieve!

With everything going perfect for him, there has to be something that awaits his nod, for him to get into trouble. You guessed it right: He has a greater mission at hand, and, as the RAW in-charge, leads a team.

Even as everything goes well, fate has other plans laid out for his future: He is burdened by the killing of his entire team while on an assignment. His world comes crashing down, and an inquiry ensues. But until he doesn’t avenge their death, he can’t live in peace with his love. So he hatches a genius plan.

In the midst of all the dramatic turn of events, we are also informed of his being a great desh bhakt. With almost every conceivable frill that would ensure a certain course of direction and an objective on the part of director Anil Sharma (whose earlier works include the jingoistic Gadar, Elaan-E-Jung) you almost second guess which way the film is headed.

IIT topper Vasudev Shastri (Utkarsh Sharma) whose entry into the engineering college is a breeze, rubs the second ranker, Nandini, the wrong way on the very first day of college. As they cross paths intermittently, Nandini finds him to be beneath her dignity, only to fall head over heels in love.

Later, as a team working on some of the most top-secret tasks with RAW, Vasu suffers a setback and becomes a victim of tinnitus after a physically challenging mission in Porbandar leaves him somewhat disabled. He has to endure a serious underlying medical condition due to damage to the inner ear that leads to high decibel levels of hearing. Doctors pronounce him getting close to becoming brain dead too. He survives multiple bullet wounds during a high-level mission as the head of a division of RAW named TOCSI. The agency’s primary aim is to track MRS (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a dreaded Islamist terrorist who works closely with the ISI. Together with Pakistan, MRS is determined to plant bombs in India, and make the lives of Indians miserable.

The aforementioned details of the plot may give you an idea of the film being very authentic and qualitatively superior. You may have seen juvenile plots converted into watchable fare on screen only for their great production values and believable acting skills of actors. Not in Genius. Here, you cannot ignore its gratuitous jingoistic flavour, shoddy CGI, poor production qualities and some jejune writing. Anil Sharma’s son Utkarsh in the lead will have to start from scratch to learn the basic in acting if he is serious about a career in films. His co-star Ishitha is even worse. For her, a crash course in acting will not even do the needful!

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Genius Movie Review: Utkarsh Sharma's Debut Film Is Anything But 'Genius'!

There's a dialogue in the film which goes like, 'dil se main khelta nahin, aur dimaag se khelne deta nahin.' sadly, neither genius succeeds over winning your hearts nor it's food for your grey cells., recommended video.

'Yahan sauda nahin, sanskaar hote hain aur woh bhi antim,' as Utkarsh Sharma's character Vaasu tries to intimidate a traitor officer into commiting suicide by telling him these lines, you find yourself chuckling with laughter instead. Wait, there are many such moments in Genius, which simply make you wonder why this film even existed in the first place! Trust me, you need to be a real 'genius' to sit through the tacky dialogues, which are dropped like bombs throughout the film.

Genius begins with a botched mission in Porbandar that leaves RAW special agent Vasudev aka Vasu Shastri (Utkarsh Sharma) crippled. But, the man still has patriotism running in his veins, so much so that he even chases a speeding convoy on a bicycle with a limping foot to correct an upside down tricolor on a politician's car. After being labelled 'incompetent' by his seniors, Vasu decides to take the matter in his own hands and complete his unfinished mission.

But before that, the film goes flashback and drops us into the IIT campus because hello, our hero is supposed to be a genius, right? So, he needs to be a part of one of the prestigious institutes of the country. Meanwhile, all those boys who grouse over the lack of love life in engineering colleges, Genius is here to shatter the myth. It's love at first sight for Utkarsh when his eyes meet that of Nandini (Ishita Chauhan). He begins his prem-leela to woo the leading lady. But sorry, hard luck bro! With his heart broken by the woman of his dreams, Vasu finally decides to join RAW. Little is he aware that his life is set to take a drastic turn with the entry of his nemesis MRS (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who too considers himself a genius, but a mad one.

While Anil Sharma's Genius may sound thrilling on paper, it is reduced to mockery when translated on screen. Remember how Abbas-Mustan went wrong with 'Machine'? Anil's latest directorial venture too falls in the same trap. The plot is devoid of logic and the screenplay wobbles throughout the film. The director tries to pack in too many elements in this potboiler. But, none of them strike a chord. The over-the-top dialogues add more to the mess.

Utkarsh Sharma's launch pad turns out to be a damp squib with its messy plot. The young lad's shoulders ain't sturdy enough to carry the burden of this mess. Right from solving a Ribik cube to deactivating a bomb to chanting vedic mantras and pumping bullets, he is our own version of Superman! Ishika Chauhan adds just to the glam quotient. It's disheartening to watch a talent like Nawazuddin Siddiqui hamming to his fullest. The actor looks as confused as the audience. Mithun Chakraborty and Ayesha Jhulka suffer from underwritten roles.

Thankfully, when the acting and direction fails, the picturesque locations are at least appealing to the eyes. Genius has some good music but the songs have been misplaced and act merely as fillers.

There's a dialogue in the film which goes like, 'Dil Se Main Khelta Nahin, Aur Dimaag Se Khelne Deta Nahin.' Sadly, neither Genius succeeds over winning your hearts nor it's food for your grey cells. Stay away from this fare to keep your sanity intact. I am going with one star.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Disney alter ego comedy has positive messages, role models.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Though the movie is intended to entertain rather t

The importance of friendship and teamwork, and wha

Charlie is enthusiastic and determined, passionate

Very little diversity in a story largely about Whi

Some aggression on the hockey rink, often portraye

One gentle kiss between teens.

A few playground insults and teasing, including "s

Parents need to know that Genius is a lighthearted family comedy with positive messages, strong role models, and no iffy content. The story centers around 14-year-old Charlie (Trevor Morgan), a child genius who creates an alter ego in order to make new friends and impress a girl. Made by the Disney Channel in…

Educational Value

Though the movie is intended to entertain rather than educate, kids may be inspired to learn more about science.

Positive Messages

The importance of friendship and teamwork, and what it means to be inclusive. Understanding that people aren't always as they first appear and appreciating the value of honesty and being your true self. What it means to help out your friends and to make amends when you've let people down. Understanding that if you want something to change, you need to do things differently.

Positive Role Models

Charlie is enthusiastic and determined, passionate about both science and sport, with a charming, positive attitude. His deceptive actions are well balanced by his good intentions. Claire is bright, smart, and friendly, demonstrating a natural confidence. Charlie's father is loving, supportive, and proud of his son. Dr. Krickstein is full of respect and admiration for Charlie. Charlie's college roommates are arrogant and sexist at first -- but they grow into warm, likable characters.

Diverse Representations

Very little diversity in a story largely about White, straight, neurotypical, able-bodied, financially-comfortable characters. There are two Black characters in supporting roles.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Some aggression on the hockey rink, often portrayed as slapstick.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

A few playground insults and teasing, including "stupid," "brainiac," "losers," "jerk," and "kick his butt." A hockey coach addresses the male team as "ladies."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Genius is a lighthearted family comedy with positive messages, strong role models, and no iffy content. The story centers around 14-year-old Charlie ( Trevor Morgan ), a child genius who creates an alter ego in order to make new friends and impress a girl. Made by the Disney Channel in 1999 it has a notable lack of diversity among the cast and within the story. There is some teasing and a few insults including "jerk," plus sexist use of the term "ladies" when addressing the all-male hockey team. Themes throughout include the value of friendship and the importance of being yourself, while several characters display positive traits such as enthusiasm, self-confidence, and empathy. While there's nothing inappropriate for younger kids, the content and storyline will probably most appeal to tweens. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

GENIUS tells the story of 14-year-old Charlie Boyle ( Trevor Morgan ), hockey lover and expert in particle physics, who has always struggled to fit in. A science prodigy, he gets a place at college and is tasked with helping a professor with his research into defying gravity. It's a dream come true, but it doesn't make his social life any easier. When he meets schoolgirl Claire ( Emmy Rossum ) at the ice rink, he creates an alter ego -- the much cooler and socially competent Chaz -- and enrolls at Junior High in an effort to get closer to her. Now he needs to use his quick wits and intelligence to juggle two lives -- with mixed results.

Is It Any Good?

A standard Disney offering from the 1990s' TV movie stable, this is nonetheless a charming coming-of-age story with a lighthearted tone. Genius somehow gets away with combining science and sport, making particle physics experiments seem just as exciting as fast-paced ice hockey sequences.

Morgan and Rossum -- both just 13 when this was made -- have a natural flair and snappy chemistry. And while Morgan's alter ego character Chaz will have you cringing throughout, he'll no doubt also elicit a few laughs. There are numerous implausible plotlines -- not least that an eccentric pair of scientists holed up under an ice rink might uncover the secret to defying gravity -- but at its heart this is a story about growing up, first love, and being true to yourself.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the positive messages in Genius . Where do we see the value of friendship, the importance of being yourself, or what it means to be inclusive? Why are these important things to consider in our own lives?

Talk about the concept of being "cool." Why might it affect someone's popularity, confidence, or self-esteem? What do you think makes someone cool?

Do you think Charlie is a good role model? He's hardworking, passionate, and warmhearted but his actions are deceitful. Do his positive traits outweigh the negative? Why media role models matter.

Talk about the lack of diversity . Would you have liked to see more diverse characters? Would that have improved the story? Why is representation important in movies?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : August 21, 1999
• Cast : Trevor Morgan , Emmy Rossum , Charles Fleischer
• Director : Rod Daniel
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Disney Channel Original Movies
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : STEM , Sports and Martial Arts , Great Boy Role Models , Middle School
• Character Strengths : Empathy , Integrity , Teamwork
• Run time : 85 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

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Ravekumar Thirumoorthy 40 1088 days ago

*Genius* in Netflix. Pressured by his dad since childhood and by his boss at work, a man has a breakdown, but finds his rehabilitation at the unlikeliest of places. The message – slow down rather than burn out. Appreciate the bold attempt by the director touching a very sensitive subject. But he could have done better.

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How Gladiator 2 connects to the original movie

Maximus' legacy is still alive.

How Gladiator 2 connects to the first movie

Is russell crowe in gladiator 2.

Gladiator 2 trailer finally shows how deeply it connects to Ridley Scott's original movie, from some returning characters to Maximus' legacy after his death.

The highly-anticipated sequel stars Paul Mescal as Lucius, who we met in Gladiator as the son of Connie Nielsen's Lucilla. In an unexpected turn of events for the son of a Roman noblewoman, Lucius ends up embarking on a journey that echoes the struggles of Russell Crowe's character in the first film.

Directed by Scott, the movie also stars The Last of Us actor Pedro Pascal , Denzel Washington and Stranger Things' Joseph Quinn , with Nielsen reprising her role as Lucilla and Sir Derek Jacobi returning as Senator Gracchus.

As we await for the movie's November release , here's everything you need to know about the story and its many links to Scott's 2000 movie.

What is Gladiator 2 about?

Set nearly two decades after the events of the first film, Gladiator II follows Lucius as he grows up far away from Rome and his mother, after Lucilla sends him to the northern coast of Africa when he is just a child.

In a region called Numidia, just outside of the Roman Empire's reach, Lucius has made a life for himself with his wife and child. However, war comes knocking on his door.

"He's taken root in a seacoast town in Numidia. He's a blue-eyed, fair-skinned man with red hair, and he couldn’t be more different from the inhabitants. It's one of the last surviving civilisations, as the Romans begin to descend in North Africa and take it all over," Scott explained to Vanity Fair .

As it turns out, Rome was not the "dream" Maximus imagined it would be after his death.

The hopeful ending of Gladiator hasn't come to fruition, as a wicked duo of leaders now run the empire. As we see in the first trailer for Gladiator II , Emperor Caracalla (played by Fred Hechinger) and Emperor Geta (Quinn) are dangerous and power-hungry.

Much like in the first movie, a rebellion starts brewing in order to topple their leadership of the Roman Empire, and Mescal's Lucius becomes a key part in it.

His thirst for revenge against those responsible for the destruction of his home is intense, and there's someone who can make use of that rage — powerbroker Macrinus (played by Denzel Washington), an arms dealer who will buy him as a slave and turn him into a gladiator.

And we know how gladiators are capable of defying an Emperor (or two).

Beyond the obvious connection with a grown-up Lucius as protagonist, there are other characters directly linking the sequel to the first movie.

Connie Nielsen reprises her role as Lucilla, who doesn't recognise her son when he arrives at the Colosseum as a gladiator. Almost the same way she didn't recognise Maximus when he fought for the first time in Rome in Gladiator ! We are expecting an epic reveal scene like in the first movie, of course.

Lucilla is now in love with a Roman general, Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who is connected to Russell Crowe's character too — he trained as a junior officer under Maximus. He wasn't featured in the first movie, though.

"This movie has an identity that is shaped by his legacy. It wouldn't make sense for it not to," Pascal told Vanity Fair regarding the connections to Maximus, describing his character as a fighter who "learned from the best, so of course this code of honour is ingrained into his training and into his existence."

"But at the end of the day, he's a different person. And that can't change who he is. Maximus is Maximus, and that can't be replicated. That just makes Acacius capable of different things."

Remember how Lucius wants to take revenge after the destruction of Numidia? Well, Marcus Acacius was one of the key generals who led the Roman forces that day, facing Lucius in the battlefield.

Now, Mescal's character is looking for a rematch in the Colosseum, and the Emperors are happy to send Marcus to his demise if that means the masses will be entertained. Where will Lucilla stand in this rivalry between the two men?

No, Russell Crowe is not in Gladiator 2 .

The actor is featured in the first trailer, though, to remind viewers of his last scene in the first movie. The character died, so the only way he could have been back for the sequel was in a flashback.

However, Crowe has repeatedly denied his involvement in the new movie, even saying he is "slightly uncomfortable with the fact they’re making another one." (via The Independent )

"Because, of course, I’m dead and I have no say in what gets done," he added.

Crowe might not be part of Gladiator II , but his character still has a special place in the story. In the first trailer, we see Nielsen's Lucilla giving his son Maximus' ring. We also see Lucius admiring Maximus' armour and weapons, which are hanging from a wall.

The legacy of Russell Crowe's character seems to be very much alive in the sequel, with his vision of what Rome could be still remembered as a possible and hopeful dream for some of the characters.

As mentioned above, the last connection between Gladiator and Gladiator II is the return of Sir Derek Jacobi as Senator Gracchus, although we don't know how big his role will be for the sequel.

Asked about what Gladiator II is really about, Paul Mescal told Vanity Fair : "What human beings will do to survive, but also what human beings will do to win."

"We see that in the arena, but also in the political struggle that's going on outside of my character's storyline, where you see there’s other characters striving and pulling for power.

"Where's the space for humanity? Where’s the space for love, familial connection? And ultimately, will those things overcome this kind of greed and power? Those things are oftentimes directly in conflict with each other."

Gladiator 2 arrives in cinemas on November 15 in the UK, and November 22 in the US.

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Deputy Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over seven years, mostly for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas . 

Her work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema in the UK. 

She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service .    During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world, and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London.     Now based in the UK, Mireia joined Digital Spy in June 2023 as Deputy Movies Editor. 

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The ‘gladiator ii’ trailer is getting review bombed for three reasons.

The trailer suggests the long-awaited sequel could be a big hit for Paramount, but some fans think way too much about the Roman Empire.

By James Hibberd

James Hibberd

Writer-at-Large

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The action-packed trailer for Paramount’s Gladiator II has racked up 215 million global cross-platform views in just a few days and suggests Ridley Scott might have pulled off his long-awaited sequel to his Oscar-winning 2000 epic. The new film is led by Paul Mescal as a grown-up Lucius and also stars Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington in what looks to be a rousing spectacle.

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Wading into the comments on the video and on X (not recommended), there seem to be three reasons for the backlash — and two are specific to the way the trailer was put together and seemingly not reflective of overall feelings about the film.

First, the trailer, clocking in at over three minutes, is being criticized for seemingly giving away too much. Audiences tend to dislike this — understandably. (Paramount’s official trailer for last year’s Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1 similarly gave away every major set piece.)

The second reason — and this is by far the most cited — is the trailer uses Kanye West and Jay-Z’s “No Church in the Wild.” Some are asking, “Why have rap music in a movie about the Roman Empire?” Admittedly, part of the original Gladiator ’s appeal was that it was unabashedly classical — a throwback to sandal-and-toga epics like Ben Hur and Spartacus . It also had a beloved soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, whose anthem “The Battle” is one of the best action anthems ever written.

Of course, it’s hard to imagine such contemporary music being used during the film’s Ancient Rome sequences, this is just a trailer, so perhaps critics should chill out. Also, “No Church in the Wild” includes the lyric “blood stains the Coliseum doors,” so there is that. But the music protest starts to look a rather dog whistle-y when you get to this next bit.

And here’s where it gets ugly (as you suspected it would). Some of the comments ridiculing the idea of Washington in the film have been racist. And when you combine that with people complaining about a rap song, it looks like another , sadly all too familiar, toxic fandom wave. (For those wondering, and not that it matters, but there were Black people in Ancient Rome — including in positions of power; such as famed Roman officer Lucius Quietus .)

Also, anybody upset about Washington wandering around Ancient Rome is going to have to keep on being upset into next year. Washington is also starring in Training Day director Antoine Fuqua’s upcoming and as-yet-untitled Netflix feature about the Roman-era commander Hannibal, written by original Gladiator scribe John Logan.

One more thing about the Gladiator music: Zimmer opted not to return for the sequel and Harry Gregson-Williams scored the film instead. “It’s really very simple. I’ve done that world. And I think I did it well,” Zimmer previously explained to Curzon about not returning. “And all I’d do is set myself up for either trying to repeat myself, which I don’t want to do, or getting slaughtered by critics who say you didn’t do it as well as you did the first time. We have a gladiator fight in Dune: Part Two , right? We have a gladiator fight in Gladiator obviously, but they couldn’t be more different!” (This from the man who scored four Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but OK.)

Here’s the Gladiator II trailer:

Here’s the original:

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Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD Review

Fresh new look, same old spirit..

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire may have been straight up busted at the box office, but thankfully there’s another spectre-stalking adventure to enjoy this year – albeit a very familiar one. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD – a remaster of the 2013 Nintendo 3DS original that was also known as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon in the US – has arrived on the Nintendo Switch looking better than ever, but almost entirely unchanged as far as its gleeful ghostbusting gameplay is concerned. It is therefore the best way to experience Luigi’s second foray into catching cheeky Caspers, but it’s no longer the best entry in the series since this Dark Moon-based adventure has subsequently been eclipsed by Luigi’s Mansion 3 in 2019.

Here’s what our reviewer said in her review of the 2013 original:

That sentiment still stands, and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD remains an entertaining journey as spooky as it is silly, its dual-screen setup seamlessly smooshed into a single panel and sharpened to a visual standard that only just falls short of that of Luigi’s Mansion 3. The team at developer Tantalus, which was also responsible for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD in 2021, hasn’t merely boosted the resolution for this remaster, it’s also added noticeably more detailed textures, right down to the reflective sheen on suits of armour and the threads on Luigi’s dungarees. In addition, drastically enhanced lighting means this Switch version’s haunted dioramas have been given enough depth that I didn’t really mourn the absence of the original’s stereoscopic 3D. (Although to be fair, I’m not sure I even used stereoscopic 3D in the first place.)

Luigi's Mansion 2 HD Review Screens

It’s not likely to win any awards for best visual design in 2024, but compared to the 2013 original the difference is night and day. I remember Luigi’s Mansion 2 having a charismatic cast of characters and enjoyably spooky settings to explore, but it was a shock to revisit the 3DS original 11 years after it launched only to have my eyeballs assaulted by enough jagged edges to grate cheese with. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, however, has been polished up to a level that allows the playful nature of its phantom menaces and its many magnificently crafted corridors to really shine on screen.

Those enemies and environments are still effectively the same as they were a decade ago, however. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD features no additional ghosts to bust, levels to search, or bosses to point your Poltergust 5000 at. None of Luigi’s moves from Luigi’s Mansion 3, like his plunger-powered suction shot or his ability to summon the Gummi Bear-like Gooigi, have been retrofitted into this adventure, which makes for a spook-hunting and puzzle-solving experience that preserves the clever level design of the 3DS original, yet one that noticeably lacks the expanded variety of interactions that the series’ third installment enjoyed.

Which 3DS game should Nintendo remaster for Switch next?

It does, however, feature twin-stick controls similar to that of the third game. For whatever reason the original didn’t support the use of the Circle Pad Pro, the bulky Nintendo 3DS peripheral that added a second stick to the system while also making it much more likely to bust a seam in your trouser pocket. This meant that in Luigi’s Mansion 2 on 3DS, the taller Mario brother was stuck facing in one direction anytime you needed him to aim his flashlight or vacuum up a startled soul. That’s no longer the case in this remaster, which allows you to swivel Luigi’s aim around with the right stick. That definitely feels much more flexible and intuitive, and although the difficulty curve here remains pretty gentle – the goofy ghost enemies are more dork souls than dark – I was relieved to find that the control system never frustrated me like it did in the original.

I do wish more had been done to Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s multiplayer, however. Unlike Luigi’s Mansion 3, which allowed two people to play on the same system, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is strictly one player per console, whether you’re playing online or locally on a LAN. The multi-levelled multiplayer mode, Scarescraper (known as Thrill Tower in the original release), is still a lot of frantic, phantom-wrangling fun, but it’s the kind of fun I wish I could share with my kids without having to buy multiple additional Switches and copies of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD in order to enjoy. Sadly, there’s no split-screen support to be found here.

More Great Games with Ghosts

That said, I certainly still had a ghostbusting-ly good time for the dozen or so hours I spent with Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. While I prefer the sprawling, single structure of the third game’s hotel setting, I appreciate that the more compartmentalized levels of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s five distinct environments make it easier to narrow your search for any missed collectibles upon completing the main story. Plus, there are some fantastically phantasmic moments that I’d forgotten about in the decade since I first played it, from the wonderfully puzzle-heavy first boss fight with a supersized spider, to tumbling down a lengthy haunted staircase later on that feels akin to a more G-rated version of the climactic sequence from John Wick: Chapter 4.

With its substantially enhanced graphics and more flexible twin-stick control setup, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is undoubtedly the definitive version of Luigi’s second apparition-filled adventure. If you’re a newcomer to the series – or perhaps you only came onboard with Luigi’s Mansion 3 and are working your way backwards – then there’s plenty of ghostbusting and puzzle-solving fun for you to find in Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s five haunted houses. However, if you’re a fan of the original Nintendo 3DS version and you were hoping for more dramatic gameplay changes or additions, then you may well be a touch disappointed. What’s more, playing this remaster in the wake of the third game may put its limitations in an unfavourable light. All told, though, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is a great installment in Nintendo’s spectre-snaring series, even if it’s not the best one you can play on the Switch.

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Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’: Everything We Know So Far

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Ridley Scott ’s Gladiator follow-up film will step into the box office arena at the end of 2024 with a stacked and strong-looking cast.

The recent reset of Wicked’s release date has put Universal’s movie musical up against Gladiator II in a showdown, not unlike that of Barbie vs. Oppenheimer . Wicked was previously set to compete with Moana 2 the weekend after Thanksgiving.

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‘Gladiator II’ Trailer: Paul Mescal Is Ready For Battle In First Look At Ridley Scott’s Epic Sequel 

Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’ Poster Sees Paul Mescal’s Lucius Prepare For Battle

Both Mescal and Pedro Pascal have made comments about their preparation for the upcoming film, in which their characters fight each other.

Read on for everything we know about Gladiator II :

The sequel film will arrive in theaters on November 22, 2024.

RELATED: Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’ Movie Poster and Images: Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn & Connie Nielsen

Who is in Gladiator II ?

Paul Mescal will star as the main character Lucius, son of Lucilla Connie Nielsen). Nielsen returns to reprise her role from the first film. Pedro Pascal, whose casting was exclusively broken by Deadline , will play General Marcus Acacius. Joseph Quinn appears as Emperor Geta and Fred Hechinger plays Emperor Caracalla. Denzel Washington plays a powerbroker named Macrinus, according to Vanity Fair . Lior Raz and Derek Jacobi will also star.

What is Gladiator II about?

Grown-up Lucius (Paul Mescal) resides peacefully with his family in Numidia, but General Marcus Acacius’ (Pedro Pascal) invasion of the city forces Lucius into slavery. Inspired by Russel Crowe’s Maximus, Lucius decides to become a gladiator and challenge the rule of Emperors Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn).

After Lucius’ first encounter with Acacius in Numidia, the warrior returns to Rome as a gladiator to see that his mother is in love with Acacius, as revealed in Vanity Fair .

Pascal also told VF that he nicknamed Mescal “Brick Wall Paul” in light of their fight scenes.

RELATED: ‘Gladiator 2’ Star Paul Mescal Says He Was “Too Afraid” To Talk To Pedro Pascal & Why Sequel Film Has Him “Stressed”

How does Gladiator II connect to Gladiator ?

Maximus (Russell Crowe) faced Commodus in the gladiator ring in the first film, and though Commodus fatally wounded Maximus, he managed to skewer the emperor before he died, fading into the great beyond to reunite with his slain wife and son. Maximus saved the boy and his mother while avenging his own family, and left a strong impression on the young Lucius, who was co-emperor of Rome alongside Commodus. Lucilla sent her son away to Numidia in between the first and second films, but he doesn’t understand why, and thus there is a rift between the two 20 years later when the second film takes place.

Who is behind Gladiator II ?

In addition to directing, Scott Scott produces with Michael Pruss, Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher off David Scarpa’s screenplay. Paramount will distribute the film.

RELATED: ‘Wicked’ Shifts Earlier In November, Dates Against ‘Gladiator II’: Is Another ‘Barbenheimer’ Box Office Weekend In Store?

Is there a trailer for Gladiator II ?

Yes, the trailer arrived July 9 , and it showcases some epic water battles inside the Roman Colosseum. Watch the trailer below:

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