Superprime–the company recently launched by managing director/EP Rebecca Skinner, managing director/sales Michelle Ross and managing director John Lesher, an Oscar-winning producer for Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)–has signed director Laurence Dunmore whose credits include spots for BMW, Amex, AT&T, adidas, AXE, adidas, Armani. Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Tullamore Dew, and Liberty Mutual (lauded work in the “Responsibility” campaign for Hill Holliday, Boston).
The Axe work combined humor and a fluid visual style, resulting in several awards, including Dunmore’s first Cannes Gold Lion. Adidas, a blend of offbeat comedy, surreal staging and sports celebs, also gained recognition at Cannes as well as a D&AD Silver Pencil. BMW earned an AICP Show honor.
Dunmore’s recent credits include Chobani’s “Love This Life” campaign, a film for Tullamore Dew (which picked up a Silver Lion) and a spot for Bacardi’s Bombay Sapphire which celebrated the botanicals used to create the drink by taking viewers everywhere from Morocco to Java to West Africa to find “the sublime.”
Having worked as a commercial director since 1997, Dunmore made his feature film debut with a 2004 release, the British production of The Libertine, which collected eight British Independent Film Award nominations, including Best Director.
Prior to joining Superprime, Dunmore was at RSA.
Review: Director James Watkins’ “Speak No Evil”
Quick. Has there ever been a horror film set in a country home with a decent cell signal?
Nope, and there's no signal at Paddy and Ciara's house, either, deep in the English countryside. Soon, that land line will be cut, too, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Paddy and Ciara are that fun-but-somewhat-odd British couple whom Louise and Ben, early in "Speak No Evil," meet on their idyllic Tuscan family holiday. Americans based in London, Louise and Ben are at loose ends, with both job and relationship issues. And so, when the new acquaintances write to invite them for a country weekend, they decide to go.
After all, how bad could it be?
Don't answer that. There are many such moments in the first two-thirds of "Speak No Evil," a Hollywood remake of the 2022 Danish film, here starring a deeply menacing James McAvoy. Moments where Louise and Ben, out of mere politeness and social convention, act against their instincts, which tell them something is wrong – very wrong.
Director James Watkins and especially his excellent troupe of actors, adult and children alike, do a nice job of building the tension, slowly but surely. Until all bloody hell breaks loose, of course. And then, in its third act, "Speak No Evil" becomes an entertaining but routine horror flick, with predictable results.
But for a while, it's a way more intelligent film. And the jumpy moments work — I'll confess to literally springing out of my seat when someone uneventfully turned on a power drill.
We begin in stunning Tuscany, where Louise (Mackenzie Davis, in the film's most accessible and empathetic performance) and Ben (Scoot McNairy, all nerves and insecurity) are vacationing with 11-year-old daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler). At the pool, they... Read More