“My Penguin Friend” is a new family feature, inspired by a true story, directed by David Schurman, starring Jean Reno, Adriana Barraza, Rocío Hernández, Nicolás Francella, Alexia Moyano and Thalma de Freitas, opening August 16, 2024 in theaters:
“…in a sweeping family adventure, ‘My Penguin Friend’ is a triumphant tale of friendship between a lonely father and a little lost penguin who recharges his spirit and heals his family with an unshakable, ocean-crossing loyalty.
“Humble fisherman ‘João’ has turned away from the world in the wake of tragedy. But when he discovers a penguin drifting alone in the ocean, drenched in oil from a spill, his first instinct is to help.
“To his wife’s dismay, he not only rescues the sea creature, but takes the flightless bird under his wing. For the first time in years João starts to feel joy, even if he cannot fathom just how unbreakable a bond is being formed.
“…in a sweeping family adventure, ‘My Penguin Friend’ is a triumphant tale of friendship between a lonely father and a little lost penguin who recharges his spirit and heals his family with an unshakable, ocean-crossing loyalty.
“Humble fisherman ‘João’ has turned away from the world in the wake of tragedy. But when he discovers a penguin drifting alone in the ocean, drenched in oil from a spill, his first instinct is to help.
“To his wife’s dismay, he not only rescues the sea creature, but takes the flightless bird under his wing. For the first time in years João starts to feel joy, even if he cannot fathom just how unbreakable a bond is being formed.
- 5/18/2024
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Taking a cue from the genre-melding impulse of the music at its heart, They Shot the Piano Player initially gives every appearance of being pure fiction. The plot of this animated film by Spanish directors Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba follows Jeff Harris (voiced by Jeff Goldblum), a journalist from New York City who’s been commissioned to write a book on bossa nova. Immersing himself in the music in preparation for a trip to Rio de Janeiro, he hears a solo by Brazilian jazz pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. and gets sidetracked. The innovator of samba jazz, it turns out, disappeared under suspicious circumstances in Buenos Aires just before the 1976 military coup, and Jeff decides to fill in the blanks.
The setup, then, has all the trappings of a detective story, with an amateur sleuth in obsessive pursuit of an unsolved mystery. In Rio, Jeff’s friend João (Tony Ramos...
The setup, then, has all the trappings of a detective story, with an amateur sleuth in obsessive pursuit of an unsolved mystery. In Rio, Jeff’s friend João (Tony Ramos...
- 11/20/2023
- by William Repass
- Slant Magazine
Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal tackle a tricky balancing act in their new feature, celebrating the intoxicating lilt of the bossa nova and also investigating the devastating brutality of state terrorism. It’s a testament to their talent as filmmakers that, for the most part, they manage to pull it off.
They Shot the Piano Player centers on a kind of ghost: Francisco Tenório Júnior, a leading light of the thriving Brazilian music scene of the 1960s and ’70s who went missing in 1976, while on tour in Buenos Aires. How this keyboard virtuoso, by all accounts a gentle soul with no political ax to grind, became one of the desaparecidos targeted by Argentina’s oppressive regime is the puzzle that drives the movie.
Structured as a journalist’s search for answers, They Shot the Piano Player combines a fictional framing device with documentary material gathered by Trueba over a period of about 15 years,...
They Shot the Piano Player centers on a kind of ghost: Francisco Tenório Júnior, a leading light of the thriving Brazilian music scene of the 1960s and ’70s who went missing in 1976, while on tour in Buenos Aires. How this keyboard virtuoso, by all accounts a gentle soul with no political ax to grind, became one of the desaparecidos targeted by Argentina’s oppressive regime is the puzzle that drives the movie.
Structured as a journalist’s search for answers, They Shot the Piano Player combines a fictional framing device with documentary material gathered by Trueba over a period of about 15 years,...
- 9/19/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Below Deck Down Under second officer João Franco hoped Jezabob wouldn’t make an appearance this season, but his alter ego ended up rearing his ugly head.
Franco referred to Jezabob early this season and told the crew that when he got drunk, his alter ego Jezabob took over and he (and other crew members) wasn’t a fan. Jezabob has no filter and makes harsh remarks. Jezabob is also a bit of a womanizer.
Franco may have kept the Genie in the bottle, but unleashed Jezabob during the final crew night on the town – and it wasn’t pretty.
Why did João turn into Jezabob on ‘Below Deck Down Under’?
Franco had quit drinking after watching how his alter ego insulted and hurt crew members when he was bosun on Below Deck Mediterranean Season 4. He didn’t like who he was when he drank so he curbed a lot of his partying.
Franco referred to Jezabob early this season and told the crew that when he got drunk, his alter ego Jezabob took over and he (and other crew members) wasn’t a fan. Jezabob has no filter and makes harsh remarks. Jezabob is also a bit of a womanizer.
Franco may have kept the Genie in the bottle, but unleashed Jezabob during the final crew night on the town – and it wasn’t pretty.
Why did João turn into Jezabob on ‘Below Deck Down Under’?
Franco had quit drinking after watching how his alter ego insulted and hurt crew members when he was bosun on Below Deck Mediterranean Season 4. He didn’t like who he was when he drank so he curbed a lot of his partying.
- 9/19/2023
- by Gina Ragusa
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Below Deck Down Under second officer João Franco said his girlfriend wasn’t a yachtie when they met. Instead, they started dating and she got into yachting.
Franco recently offered some insight into his relationship with girlfriend Domi Tiesi, especially in light of his short-lived boatmance with chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph.
“Fun fact – we actually met through Tinder in Mallorca,” he captioned a photo on Instagram. “Another fun fact – she did not know what yachting was before we met. And another – we both did not want to be in relationships when we met! And here we are. One more – We’ve already traveled to 33 countries together!!”
Franco and Mace-Ralph had a boatmance when he joined the Below Deck Down Under Season 2 crew in spring 2022. Tiesi initially showed up on Franco’s Instagram timeline during the summer of 2022, after his Below Deck season ended. The couple marked a year of dating...
Franco recently offered some insight into his relationship with girlfriend Domi Tiesi, especially in light of his short-lived boatmance with chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph.
“Fun fact – we actually met through Tinder in Mallorca,” he captioned a photo on Instagram. “Another fun fact – she did not know what yachting was before we met. And another – we both did not want to be in relationships when we met! And here we are. One more – We’ve already traveled to 33 countries together!!”
Franco and Mace-Ralph had a boatmance when he joined the Below Deck Down Under Season 2 crew in spring 2022. Tiesi initially showed up on Franco’s Instagram timeline during the summer of 2022, after his Below Deck season ended. The couple marked a year of dating...
- 9/17/2023
- by Gina Ragusa
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics releases the film in select theaters on Friday, November 24, with a nationwide rollout to follow in early 2024.
The one thing you can’t accuse “They Shot the Piano Player” of is talking down to its audience. Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s animated documentary about the 1976 disappearance of pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. demands your absolute attention with its encyclopedic index of talking heads, and pretty much requires you to have substantial existing knowledge of bossa nova and the South American geopolitics of the 1960s and ’70s. Woe to those who do not. The result is an aggravating missed opportunity to tell a story that absolutely needs to be told to an audience that needs to hear it.
Trueba is a legendary director in Spain. Those who don’t know him for his 1992 Academy...
The one thing you can’t accuse “They Shot the Piano Player” of is talking down to its audience. Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s animated documentary about the 1976 disappearance of pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. demands your absolute attention with its encyclopedic index of talking heads, and pretty much requires you to have substantial existing knowledge of bossa nova and the South American geopolitics of the 1960s and ’70s. Woe to those who do not. The result is an aggravating missed opportunity to tell a story that absolutely needs to be told to an audience that needs to hear it.
Trueba is a legendary director in Spain. Those who don’t know him for his 1992 Academy...
- 9/14/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Bosun João Franco and chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph may be having a playful fling on Below Deck Down Under, but all the signs point to the yachties not still being together.
After endless flirting, Franco and Mace-Ralph finally hooked up. Of course, all this went down even after Mace-Ralph said Franco hurt one of her friends so she was a little spicy toward him when he came on board. But the ice melted pretty quickly for Mace-Ralph, especially when deckhand Culver Bradbury suddenly became interested in new stew Jaimee Neale.
With only a few Below Deck Down Under episodes left, why didn’t João Franco and Tzarina Mace-Ralph stay together?
Does João’s hook-up with Margot Sisson destroy any future with Chef Tzarina?
Production “snuck in” a clip of what appears to be Franco and stew Margot Sisson in a liplock. The clip was so fast it was hard to confirm...
After endless flirting, Franco and Mace-Ralph finally hooked up. Of course, all this went down even after Mace-Ralph said Franco hurt one of her friends so she was a little spicy toward him when he came on board. But the ice melted pretty quickly for Mace-Ralph, especially when deckhand Culver Bradbury suddenly became interested in new stew Jaimee Neale.
With only a few Below Deck Down Under episodes left, why didn’t João Franco and Tzarina Mace-Ralph stay together?
Does João’s hook-up with Margot Sisson destroy any future with Chef Tzarina?
Production “snuck in” a clip of what appears to be Franco and stew Margot Sisson in a liplock. The clip was so fast it was hard to confirm...
- 9/11/2023
- by Gina Ragusa
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Below Deck Down Under viewers were likely surprised when second officer João Franco from Below Deck Mediterranean joined the cast. But he’s not the first crew member to jump series and cast crossovers seem to be happening more and more within the franchise.
So which crew members started in one Below Deck series and jumped ship to another?
‘Below Deck’ crew member crossovers who launched a new series
The original Below Deck series was such a success that production company 51 Minds launched Below Deck Mediterranean. But rather than kick it off with an entirely new cast, they included original chef Ben Robinson to set sail alongside new chief stew Hannah Ferrier and Captain Mark Howard.
Robinson appeared on Below Deck Med once more as the relief chef on season 4. Chef Adam Glick took over on Below Deck Med for seasons 2 and 3. He then became the crossover cast member to launch Below Deck Sailing Yacht.
So which crew members started in one Below Deck series and jumped ship to another?
‘Below Deck’ crew member crossovers who launched a new series
The original Below Deck series was such a success that production company 51 Minds launched Below Deck Mediterranean. But rather than kick it off with an entirely new cast, they included original chef Ben Robinson to set sail alongside new chief stew Hannah Ferrier and Captain Mark Howard.
Robinson appeared on Below Deck Med once more as the relief chef on season 4. Chef Adam Glick took over on Below Deck Med for seasons 2 and 3. He then became the crossover cast member to launch Below Deck Sailing Yacht.
- 9/8/2023
- by Gina Ragusa
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
New Below Deck Down Under bosun João Franco got a less than thrilling welcome from chief stew Aesha Scott because they majorly clashed the last time they worked together.
Franco will replace fired bosun Luke Jones and while he and Scott don’t totally hate each other, she blocked him on social media after they worked together on Below Deck Mediterranean Season 4, especially after Franco referred to Scott as looking like a “Russian prostitute” during the season.
Aesha Scott said João Franco used to flirt with her ‘all the time’
Scott wanted to confront Franco at the Below Deck Med Season 4 reunion, but they didn’t film a reunion that season. At one point Franco made a derogatory comment about Scott’s outfit when the crew was out on the town.
Aesha Scott and João Franco | Mark Rogers/Bravo via Getty Images/ Greg Endries/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty...
Franco will replace fired bosun Luke Jones and while he and Scott don’t totally hate each other, she blocked him on social media after they worked together on Below Deck Mediterranean Season 4, especially after Franco referred to Scott as looking like a “Russian prostitute” during the season.
Aesha Scott said João Franco used to flirt with her ‘all the time’
Scott wanted to confront Franco at the Below Deck Med Season 4 reunion, but they didn’t film a reunion that season. At one point Franco made a derogatory comment about Scott’s outfit when the crew was out on the town.
Aesha Scott and João Franco | Mark Rogers/Bravo via Getty Images/ Greg Endries/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty...
- 8/8/2023
- by Gina Ragusa
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.