The Rundown: R-Rated Justice League; Pink Dot Bot; Is Promising Young Woman a Comedy?

In today’s Movie News Rundown: Batman has a dirty mouth in the Justice League Snyder Cut; robots roam West Hollywood; Chris Pine is a nerd now; Promising Young Woman is the darkest comedy around.

Batmouth: Zack Snyder tells EW that his HBO Max version of Justice League will likely be R-rated because of violence and profanity. “There’s one scene where Batman drops an F-bomb,” Snyder explains, apparently unaware that “F-bomb” is something only cute precocious children say.

Wait, Why Would the MPAA Rate Something on HBO Max? Well, it turns out Snyder is trying to get the movie released into theaters even as Warner Bros. releases its entire 2021 slate to HBO Max. It’s in the EW story.

Wait, Wasn’t Justice League Already in Theaters? Yes. Here is the backstory of the Snyder Cut of Justice League, for non-nerds.

But Guess Who Is a Nerd Now? Whoa, why is popular boy Chris Pine sitting at the F-bombing dork table? And what’s that in his hand? Twenty-sided dice??? You guys, Chris Pine is starring in a movie based on Dungeons and Dragons, according to Variety, and he’s probably gonna get laughed off the football team.

Or… Does This Mean: D&D is cool?

Can We Get Very Serious for a Moment? Here’s the new trailer for the Chloe Zhao film Nomadland that many critics see as an Oscar lock. Frances McDormand stars as a woman who travels the West in her van after her Nevada town goes bust.

Promising Young Comedy: Promising Young Woman, the excellent first feature from Emerald Fennell, has been submitted to the Golden Globes as a comedy, Variety reports. I saw this at Sundance, and it’s one of my favorite movies of 2020, but the “comedy” designation may seem surprising given the film’s dark plot, involving a once-promising young woman (Carey Mulligan, outstanding) who is now out for revenge. The film is like a Quentin Tarantino movie in that you’ll laugh, but the laughs come less from jokes than from how gutsy and audacious the movie is.

Update: I just listened back to my interview with Fennell and Mulligan from Sundance, and noticed that I praised Promising Young Woman for its “wicked sense of humor.” So I stand corrected, by myself. You can listen to our spoiler-free talk on Apple or Spotify or here:

https://player.acast.com/moviemaker-interviews/episodes/carey-mulligan-and-emerald-fennell-talk-promising-young-woma

Pink Dot Bot: Remember that scene in Magnolia where Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character orders dirty magazines from Pink Dot, the Hollywood convenience store that delivers? If Magnolia had been set in 2020, his order might have arrived via robot. Yes: I’ve twice seen a Pink Dot Bot navigating the streets of WeHo. WeHoVille says the robots are part of a pilot program to deliver things safely and fast. This is right out of Black Mirror, obviously, and I am 100 percent opposed to it, unless Plancha Tacos also gets a delivery bot.

Great, But Can We See That Magnolia Scene? Absolutely.

And Now: Yesterday’s Movie News.