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Just Jim Reviews

Roberts is a clear talent for the future of British filmmaking - whether it's directing, writing or performing, he's unlikely to disappoint.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2019

Despite being a little rough around the edges, Roberts has made an amusing coming-of-age tale which balances deadpan humour with a dark edge.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 6, 2019

He [Craig Roberts] expertly nails both ambiance and characterization.

Full Review | Feb 15, 2019

Just Jim, with Roberts as Jim, is another coming of age tale, this one enlivened by the appearance of Emile Hirsch as Jim's cool new neighbour and mentor. Slight.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2018

Some of it sticks; some of it doesn't. But there's a huge amount to admire in Roberts' sheer cinematic exuberance, with a determinedly non-naturalistic perspective.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 21, 2017

Craig Robert's film debut takes on the diferent tropes of the teen comedy genre but infuses them with dark and acid humor, making it a much more enjoyable experience. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | May 24, 2016

Roberts is already a singular screen presence, and here acquits himself confidently behind the camera, handling the film's shifting tones with nicely cracked off-kilter humour.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 27, 2015

All over the shop, but much about it is bold and lovable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 24, 2015

There's classy camerawork to recommend, but the story peters out.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 24, 2015

Charisma can only carry the story so far, and the script ultimately lacks enough meat to carry off such a big tonal shift.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 23, 2015

Roberts has instantly established a creative, resourceful vision as a filmmaker, with an aptitude for presenting a story in a unique way, and forming an indelible atmosphere in the process.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 21, 2015

Roberts shows more than enough skill in the film's better sequences to make his future efforts well worth keeping an eye out for.

A dark, erratic, and wacky new entry into the Coming-of-Rage sub-genre, Just Jim is just strange enough for me.

Full Review | Apr 2, 2015

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'Just Jim': Review

By Fionnuala Halligan, Chief Film Critic 2015-03-16T19:02:00+00:00

Dir/scr. Craig Roberts, UK, 2015, 84 mins

Welsh actor Craig Roberts makes his directorial debut with Just Jim , a darkly awkward comedy set in his hometown of Maesycwmmer which premiered at the SXSW festival. A modest feature, both in scale and length (a brief 84 mins), Just Jim stars Roberts himself and Emile Hirsch in a story about a misfit teenager who is befriended by a subversive American neighbour.

As a directorial debut, Just Jim is an encouraging start for Roberts, should he ever wish to give up the day job.

Backed by UK public money and set for a local release through Soda Pictures, Just Jim may draw some attention for its cast and setting, although the theatrical arena could prove a challenge. Whimsical and static and heavily influenced by Lynch, Wes Anderson and Roberts’ Submarine director Richard Ayoade, Just Jim is an ironic comedy which works better when it’s behaving like a drama. Aiming to mine awkward laughs from a stilted, shifting tone, Roberts falters. Directing himself in the title role is an unfortunate extra pressure for a first-timer.

Jim (Roberts) is an alienated, friendless boy who lives in a small town where he’s picked upon by his school-mates and his gym teacher - even his dog runs away. His only friend deserts him to join the in-crowd, and his strange, wooden parents are no help. He desperately seeks approval, but nobody attends his birthday party and the pink-haired object of his affections remains tantalisingly out of reach. Mind you, as played by Roberts, Jim isn’t hugely sympathetic either. Now 25, Roberts has to dig deep to find a 17-year-old’s awkwardness, and not always successfully. Jim spends a lot of time in the local rat-infested cinema, watching strange film-within-a-film The Piper’s Revenge.

It’s a relief then, to everyone, when Dean (Emilie Hirsch), from Pennsylvania, moves in next door. He’s a mysterious James Dean type and could well be Jim’s Piper. “You need to man up a bit instead of being a little bitch,” Dean tells Jim, and soon the older boy is stage-managing Jim’s life, with amusing consequences. Dean inserts himself in situations, ensuring that Jim finishes first in the cross-country run, goes on a date with Jackie (a sweet Charlotte Randall) and has a successful teen party, despite the fact “you have the co-ordination of a cripple”. He even chums up to Jim’s parents.  Dean is not all he seems, however, and Jim may be falling into a Patricia Highsmith-style territory, scuttling the film’s cheery middle act.

While it can sometimes feel under-written, Roberts’ observations on a place where “the people look miserable but sound happy” is very carefully constructed – he goes in for elaborate framing, courtesy of talented DoP Richard Stoddard and production designer Arwel Jones, constructing a sunny Welsh summer in primary colours and giving the town of Maesycwmmer the air of a heightened fantasy.  Roberts’ parable of teenage bullying boasts some lovely moments, especially in its amusing underwater sequences, but unfortunately struggles for air for good part of the proceedings. As a directorial debut, though, Just Jim is an encouraging start for Roberts, should he ever wish to give up the day job.

Production companies: Vox Pictures

International sales: Visit Films, www.visitfilms.com

Producer: Adrian Bate, Pip Broughton

Cinematography: Richard Stoddard

Editor: Stephen Haren

Production designer: Arwel Jones

Original music: Michael Price

Main cast: Emile Hirsch, Craig Roberts, Aneirin Hughes, Nia Roberts, Richard Harrington, Mark Lewis Jones, Charlotte Randall

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Just Jim review – surreal and darkly funny

Craig Roberts’s directorial debut mixes Dostoevskian paranoia and cracked humour with impressive confidence

T here’s more than a hint of Richard Ayoade in Craig Roberts’s darkly comic directorial debut. Both the teen awkwardness of Submarine (in which Roberts memorably starred) and the Dostoevskian paranoia of The Double are here present and correct. Working from his own script, Roberts plays the titular Jim, a dorky misfit whose life is transformed by the arrival of new neighbour Dean (Emile Hirsch), who teaches Jim to be a rebel. Trips to a rat-pit cinema endlessly repeating the same mock-noir hint that Dean may be partly a Fight Club -style figment of Jim’s cineliterate imagination, although the film’s surreal threads are left deliberately open-ended. With his deadpan Keaton-esque demeanour, Roberts is already a singular screen presence, and here acquits himself confidently behind the camera, handling the film’s shifting tones with nicely cracked off-kilter humour.

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A Welsh teenager will become the cool kid of the town if a deal is made with his new American neighbour. A Welsh teenager will become the cool kid of the town if a deal is made with his new American neighbour. A Welsh teenager will become the cool kid of the town if a deal is made with his new American neighbour.

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• Trivia When Jim is sitting in his room after his birthday party and takes out the lighter, everytime he tries to light it you get a quick flash of Dean's face on the screen, primarily his eyes.
• Soundtracks Domino Performed by Tony Martin Music by Louis Ferrari French lyrics by Jacques Plante English lyrics by Don Raye Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited

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• Runtime 1 hour 24 minutes

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'Submarine' star Craig Robert directs his first movie, the quirkily likeable tale of a bored Welsh lad who meets a cool American hipster

Time Out says

First there was ‘Submarine’, a quirky comedy about a nerdy Welsh teen, whose likeable male lead Craig Roberts has now written and directed his own movie... where he stars as as a nerdy Welsh teen. Thankfully, the two titles are substantially different, ‘Just Jim’ daring to go weirder and wilder than Richard Ayoade’s effort. Its adolescent growing pains play out in Jarmusch-style deadpan as Roberts’ hapless social outcast yearns for the cool girl he can’t have, yet this is also small-town Wales through a Lynchian filter, featuring an eerily deserted fleapit cinema and sundry oddball strangers. Chuck in a historical compendium of US teen-flick motifs, from James Dean attitudes to designer '80s visuals, and that sheer onrush of cinephile enthusiasm is what captivates most. Roberts simply dispenses with caution (check those Jess Franco zooms!), heroically sustaining deliberate ambiguity as to how much of this, not least silver-tongued new American neighbour Emile Hirsch, is actually real. Ultimately, the head-scratcher finale doesn’t exactly satisfy, but there’s endeavour aplenty here announcing a zesty, unruly film-making talent deserving the chance to take the odd misstep.

Release Details

• Release date: Friday 25 September 2015
• Duration: 84 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Craig Roberts
• Screenwriter: Craig Roberts
• Craig Roberts
• Emile Hirsch
• Richard Harrington

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

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Just Jim – Review

With Craig Robert’s first turn as a director out of the way, it’s easy to see why “wunderkind” comes up so much.

Just Jim marks a new and crucial development in Roberts’ thematic repertoire, showing influences from his previous work as an actor, as well as his own idiosyncratic take on the colourless social reject.

By leading less into a newfound cool, and instead working with the burgeoning sociopath at the centre of all this, Just Jim forgoes the more cliché-ridden loser/kitsch framework of the uncool. While Roberts maintains his outsider quirks, this is a darker breed of outcast.

Roberts is a clear talent for the future of British filmmaking – whether it’s directing, writing or performing, he’s unlikely to disappoint.

RATING: 4/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Craig Roberts, Emile Hirsch, Richard Harrington

DIRECTOR: Craig Roberts

WRITER: Craig Roberts

SYNOPSIS: A social outcast attempts to change his standing with the help of a new, much cooler neighbour.

We greatly appreciate that this press screening of Just Jim  was provided by Soda Pictures.

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Just Jim Review

24 Sep 2015

In his writing/directing debut Brit actor Craig Roberts also stars as Jim, a friendless teen so socially inept even his dog runs away from him. But when a mysterious American (Hirsch) arrives in Jim’s Welsh village promising to make him cool, the fist-bumping coming-of-age tale turns sinister. Roberts’ personal brand of awkward, so effective in Submarine, plays nicely against Hirsch’s slick cigarette-flicking throwback to Jean-Paul Belmondo-esque rogues. But charisma can only carry the story so far, and the script ultimately lacks enough meat to carry off such a big tonal shift. Even so, it’s a promising, if slightly lean, start.

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Directed by Craig Roberts

In a small Welsh town where people talk to themselves we meet Jim, a lonely teenager who is given the chance to increase his popularity when a cool American kid moves in next door. Written and directed by Craig Roberts, who also plays the lead role.

Craig Roberts Emile Hirsch Richard Harrington Mark Lewis Jones Sai Bennett Trystan Gravelle Nia Roberts Aneirin Hughes Helen Griffin Darragh Mortell Richard Lynch Matthew Aubrey Claire Cage Charlotte Randall Callum Hymers Ashley Thoma- Evans Shawna Workman Ryan Owen Jacob Tyler Alys Mason William Thomas

Director Director

Craig Roberts

Producers Producers

Pip Broughton Adrian Bate

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Shaheen Baig

Editor Editor

Stephen Haren

Cinematography Cinematography

Richard Stoddard

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Paul Higgins Adam Partridge Edward Fletcher

Production Design Production Design

Arwel Jones

Art Direction Art Direction

Julia Jones

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Hannah Nicholson

Composer Composer

Michael Price

Sound Sound

Andrew White Richard Lewis Richard Brooks

Costume Design Costume Design

Sian Jenkins

Makeup Makeup

My Alehammar

Vox Pictures

Releases by Date

25 sep 2015, releases by country.

85 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by kai ★★★ 1

2006 alex turner meeting 2013 alex turner

Review by ally 🦋 ★★½

submarine was way better

Review by Nikolas ★★★ 3

Crazy Stupid Love meets Taxi Driver, meets any coming of age movie, meets The Double. Directed by Lynch And Malick.

I did not get it.

Review by hollie amanda ★★★

my new favourite film genre is quirky british coming-of-age dramedy starring craig roberts

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Review by Here Yesterday 🗓️ ★★★

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Craig Roberts' writing and directorial debut, also filmed in his childhood hometown in Wales and playing the lead role. And it's not an amateur effort. It's a pretty strong debut for a 24-year-old.

Quirky, dark and a little bit mean, and even though it doesn't amount to much, I loved seeing Emile Hirsch as the American outsider suddenly appearing in this depressing little Welsh town like a cool James Dean type (coincidentally named Dean) and embroiling himself in the lives of Jim's family. Is he really helping Jim build up his confidence to bring out the 'cool' in him, or is he just out to manipulate everyone because he can?

Well, no spoilers here..

Review by emily ★★★½

lots of rat representation :)

Review by Cheyenne Brown ★★★★

It's official. Craig Roberts is a triple threat! Not only can he act well, but he's a wonderful writer and director, too.

Just Jim is an impressive debut. Just Jim is a story of broken, lonely, people dealing with the reality of the world they're in. I found the film to be a different kind of coming of age story- Half witty mumblecore, half psychological thriller. As strange as that sounds, it works. As the characters and situation progress, the film's tone slowly eases into a more serious place.

I instantly fell in love with the clever dialogue. Although the film is depressing and cynical, there is some humor. It's witty despite not having many hilarious moments. In addition to…

Review by David Jenkins ★★★½

Craig Roberts could be our Xavier Dolan (in a good way).

Review by ·˖✩· rianka 🍉✶·˖ ★½ 11

don’t trust an american who moves to a rural welsh village for no reason and gives off strong oliver from cmbyn energy

Review by Lucía 1

josh homme teaching alex turner how be cool

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Review: Just Jim (2015)

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As far as directorial debuts go,  Just Jim is a damn good one.  Craig Roberts  of  Submarine and  22 Jump Street  fame  –  apparently as Spencer in Jump Street … I dunno either. I’m guessing you also spent the whole time staring at Channing Tatum ? But in case you’re having trouble placing him, he’s the Welsh kid from  Tracey Beaker  and Y oung Dracula .

Set in Wales in what appears to be the 1970s, but mixed with hints of the decades that followed, we can see that the mise-en-scène was telling us something (you know how films like to do that) about the village  Just Jim  is set in; locked in time, unable to move on and, more importantly, unwilling to. Setting the particularly drab scene very well.

Jim is your run of the mill ‘different kid’, bullied, beaten, and downtrodden. Roberts plays this excellently, aided a lot by his acting talent, but also a lot by the fact that his face is, in his own words, “very round” and nowhere near as structured as his devilish companion, Dean ( Emile Hirsch ). Hirsch is given the character of “cool American dude come to swoop in and make the bumbling valley boy as cool as an American”, thus finally proving to the world that Americans are 1000% cooler than the Brits; I mean  thank God  someone finally said it!!

But despite this slightly cliched plot point the rest of it is marvellously original. To be honest Roberts’ spin on the familiar story-line is pretty refreshing anyways – probably because he’s Welsh! The scenery of the film is beautifully bleak, the kind of shots you’d see on  Countryfile , of rolling hills, and babbling brooks, but the tone of the film turns it all into this warped version of what we’re seeing; our eyes are tricked in to seeing beauty as beast, and idyllic as isolated.

You can expect the clever shots you’d see in most Indie films – this one actually funded by BBC Films, but lets go with Indie! There’s the two-shot of one person, often expressing an empty space. The handheld slo-mo following shot that follows a character down a road (over the hills, and far away), only for them to look back over their shoulder, rain falling; and everyone gets a hipster hard-on for the meaning and artistry – present company included. But that’s why we love these films, and that’s why we keep coming back to them. The lighting of this film was clever, a lot of single lit scenes, a lot of shadow, and unless Wales is genuinely that grey then the whole thing seems to have been graded just a little bleaker.

There are a few scenes thrown in that I’m guessing you could class as meta but they didn’t really fit in or mean anything – which is the exact description of what meta is, right? However, these scenes bugged me a bit; they seemed unnecessary and on the whole just style over substance. Roberts was most probably playing safe, and sticking to the artsy-fartsy-Indie-windie rule booky-wook –  Russel Brand ‘s new autobiography about how no one gives a shit about him anymore. Which is understandable considering this is his first go at it, but most of the underwater scenes could’ve been cut, and it seems ridiculous to even have to mention that this film has underwater scenes… or is it a reference to Submarine? Ohhhh Craig Roberts you clever meta-mother.

So as I was saying the underwater scenes really were a stroke of artistic genius; worth the ticket price just for them alone.

I didn’t know what to expect from the film, it’s billed as a comedy and the blurb we were given at the screening made it seem like a pretty standard buddy movie. So when I was greeted with distant parents, stylised sets and dialogue I thought, “ah, it’s a dark  comedy!” And what with being very trendy I was well prepared to laugh at vaguely humourous exchanges and shots of people eating a Mr. Whippy by a recycling bin that’s been graffitied with the words “FUCK OFF.” But thankfully, I didn’t have to. The dialogue, acting, and graffiti in this film are all genuinely very funny and require no sense of irony to be able to enjoy.

But this is where Just Jim lulls you in to a scene of false security, I was snuggled in, popcorn in hand (I had to provide my own), ready for the UK’s answer to Superbad . But my friends, this never happened.

In reality what I witnessed was a portrayal of socio-psychopathy, betrayal, and mind boggling. Every time you think you’ve got it sussed you’re just flat out told “WRONG! go again… WRONG!” I took AS-Level psychology, I’ve read American Psycho   and   Fight Club , so when it comes down to psychoanalytical pieces of film or writing I’m quite well versed – as in two books and half an A-Level better than you are! But even I, one of the great thinkers of our time, couldn’t quite figure this one out. Never fear though, as thankfully you’re not left in the dark and (nearly) all is revealed as the film goes on. Dean’s real intent with Jim, what’s up with Jim’s parents, and more importantly what’s up with Jim!

Just Jim is a brave, emotional, exciting, joy of a film; all its faults and cliches can be forgiven, mostly for the sheer enjoyment of it. Roberts, if he can keep it up, is well on his way to establishing himself as Britain’s best unknown talent, maybe never having the success of a Benedict Cumberbatch or  Eddie Redmayne but with just as much talent and probably even more diversity. Emile Hirsch knocks out another solid Emile Hirsch performance – playing an American, incredibly – a role he was born to play! Just Jim won’t break records and it probably won’t ever get the coverage it deserves, but if you are given the opportunity to see it, then I urge you to grab that chance and clear your schedule – although at a running time of 84 minutes I wouldn’t take the whole night off.

Discussion feed

• Sep 30, 2015

Directed by Craig Roberts

Starring Craig Roberts, Emile Hirsch & Charlotte Randall

Film review by Monica Jowett

Craig Roberts, known for starring in Richard Ayoade’s quirky Submarine, stars, writes and directs his first film Just Jim. The dark comedy shows an outcast teenager Jim (Craig Roberts) in a Welsh village whose incredible awkwardness stops him from fitting in with anyone. Then Dean (Emile Hirsch) moves in next door, the American who will make him cool and fit in.

Jim is defined as odd from the start, as he has no friends at school; his parents ignore him and even his dog runs away from him. He wallows in self-pity, until he meets Dean, the smoking, leather jacket-wearing American who doesn’t fit in the dreary Welsh town either but seems to exude coolness through his nonchalant personality. Dean manages to turn Jim’s popularity around quickly, making him win school races, date Jackie (Charlotte Randall) the girl he has pined over for months and turning his look to that of James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.

Emile Hirsch as Dean is all Jim wants to be. Played as though he might not be real, until he meets Jim’s parents who immediately fall for the confident, alluring American, so much so that Dean manages to manipulate their image of their own son and starts to ruin Jim’s new cool image before it has even solidified. Though Hirsch’s character leaves as quickly as he arrives into the story and he is always shrouded in mystery, he adds a level of appeal to the film.

For a directorial debut, and also writing the script and starring, Roberts has made a good start for his first film. His quirky self-deprecating humour that worked well in Submarine carries on here, but falling a little flat at times. He also proves he can handle being behind the camera, creating the Welsh town of Maesycwmmer, Roberts’ home town and filming Just Jim to be as odd as his character and using some interesting camera shots that zoom in to the close ups, helped by Director of Photography Richard Stoddard.

A low key comedy that creates some laughs at Jim’s lack of function in the world around him, the film may have worked better as a drama, as Jim’s character goes full circle and suggests standing out and being cool might not be what it’s cracked up to be.

Head over to our Podcast page for Andy Furlong's alternative take on Just Jim and for more film reviews.

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Release date

25 th September 2015

Sure to interest anyone who enjoyed 2010’s Submarine , in his directorial debut Craig Roberts directs, writes and stars in Just Jim , the story of a misfit teenager coming of age in suburban Wales. Sound familiar? While both may be similar in premise and protagonist, unlike Ayoade’s quirky tale of young love, Just Jim is darker, stranger and takes many more risks.

Just Jim starts conventionally enough: Jim (Roberts) is a teen loner – he is completely friendless and mercilessly bullied at school. When his dog, his sole companion, disappears, he is left hopeless and depressed. That is until he returns home to find a new neighbour, Dean (Emile Hirsch). A cool, chain-smoking American, he makes Jim his project and attempts to make him popular. As things begin to work out, Jim is delighted, until his new friend turns against him and becomes dangerous. Manipulating Jim’s parents, Dean is set to destroy Jim’s life unless he can find a way to fight back.

There’s an unexpected timeline diversion in Just Jim , which sets a strange tone from early on: love interest Jackie (Charlotte Randall) is addicted to her early 2000s Nintendo, but characters are dressed in fashions ranging from the 50s to the 90s. While it may be Roberts’ novel attempt at indicating the weirdness of Jim’s world, it feels like experimental filmmaking, which, coupled with odd lighting set-ups and intense close-ups, almost recalls a student film. At only 24, Roberts has achieved a great deal in creating such a grand feature film, but there are occasions when tighter writing or less exploratory cinematography wouldn’t go amiss.

In spite of this, there are strong performances, particularly from Hirsch, who plays a crazed (possibly professional) psychopath, and Roberts, doing what he does best: misfit Welsh teen. The story does manage to be compelling and funny at times too, with the improbable events that Dean incites. It is pleasingly dark: Roberts takes his audience to places others may fear to go, which indicates good things to come from this young filmmaker. It is a jarring, interesting black comedy that takes risks whenever it can, but it may have benefited from a little polishing and safety training.

Sarah Sutton

Just Jim is released nationwide on 25 th September 2015.

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DVD Review – Just Jim (2015)

January 4, 2016 by Robert W Monk

Just Jim , 2015.

Written and Directed by Craig Roberts. Starring Emile Hirsch, Craig Roberts, Ryan Owen, Charlotte Randall, Nia Roberts and Aneirin Hughes.

A socially awkward Welsh teenager has his life altered forever when an enigmatic American moves in next door.

Impressing with its range of influences and studious attention to detail, Just Jim is a strikingly stylish directorial début from actor Craig Roberts ( Submarine ). It is his willingness to display all of his favoured genres and tropes that is simultaneously the film’s biggest draw and also its most obvious fault.

There is a film buff’s energy and dedication to cinema surrounding the feature which is both endearing and impressive, but occasionally grates with its exuberant wish to display all of the filmmaker’s cinematic concerns. Also written by and starring Roberts, the film is an intriguing feature and it will be interesting to see how this talent develops.

The semi-autobiographical piece focuses on Jim, a school boy and film geek living in a lonely Welsh town. The only break from being bored and bullied comes from regular visits to the town’s cinema, where they play the same noirish film repeatedly. The film seems to be a channel into Jim’s imagination, as before long a cool rebel looking American (Emile Hirsh) named Dean (as in James, presumably) of the biker type moves in next door. The two develop a kind of intense teacher/pupil relationship with Dean attempting to coach Jim in how to be cool, talk to girls and be a hit at parties.

From then on in the film is a struggle between the two, and the story becomes gradually more intense and dark as the two personalities continue to clash. Indeed, a strong implication of the psychological story – given his cinematic obsessions – is that Dean has been dreamt up by Jim to liven up his dull existence.

While there is much to celebrate in Just Jim and Roberts looks set to have an interesting career one is sometimes left thinking that less could have been more…

Flickering Myth Rating  – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert W Monk   is a freelance journalist and film writer.

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by  Craig Roberts

This is the story of a loner. Jim, 16, has no friends and is a bit weird. His childhood friend, Michael, has left him for the cooler crowd and Jim is pushed to the edge when his dog dies. Jim’s life changes dramatically when Dean moves next door. Dean is older, American and on the run. He has movie star good looks and is everything Jim would like to be. Dean offers Jim friendship, a makeover and lessons in how to be cool. Jim finally realizes that he is being taken to the dark side. All Jim wants is for something exciting to happen. By the end he realizes that his life was fine the way it was. And he is happy with fine.

more about: Just Jim

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 Gets Bizarre First Look

Part of the script has also released online..

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is officially on the way , and thanks to a new teaser, fans have a better idea of what to expect from the sequel.

Scott Cawthon, the creator of Five Nights at Freddy's, took to X/Twitter to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the original video game and shared a few posts from the production of the upcoming movie, which is a sequel to the 2023 film adaptation starring Josh Hutcherson as a security guard who takes on possessed mascots.

One of the posts shows the work being carried out at Jim Henson's Creature Shop to create animatronic Bonnie. The four photos reveal how the puppet is coming along, and it's safe to say it looks decidedly creepy and faithful to the rabbit animatronic in the game — much like all of the monster mascots in the first film .

Let's top off the day with four more images from the amazing Jim Henson's Creature Shop! pic.twitter.com/RL9RNYGZIY — FNAF-ScottGames (@FNAF_ScottGames) August 8, 2024

In a separate post , Cawthon announced his plans to leak one page from the Five Nights at Freddy's 2 movie screenplay, which he did in a follow-up post . However, to make it more interesting, he released it "alongside three fake screenplay pages," leaving it "up to the fanbase to figure out which page is real."

pic.twitter.com/dCxDOlDcoU — FNAF-ScottGames (@FNAF_ScottGames) August 8, 2024

Fans immediately started sharing their guesses, with page four of the script proving the most popular choice. "The Fourth one seems like a real screenplay, in my opinion," one person wrote beneath the post, with a second person confidently adding : "It's definitely four. The fourth is real. I will bet on this."

A third chimed in : "Leaning towards four, it feels like something that was stripped from a larger mass, doesn't seem to be a parody and doesn't have odd specifics that feel like they were written to sound like a fnaf script. The vagueness makes it feel meaningful. I could be very wrong tho."

Details of the much-anticipated sequel have been slim, but more leaks and teasers will likely surface ahead of its release in December 2025.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter here .

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West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice in fight to keep historic hotel amid U.S. Senate campaign

FILE - The Greenbrier Hotel, a five-star resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., is seen on Nov. 30, 1998. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, is in a fight to keep his iconic Greenbrier Hotel. (AP Photo/Jon C. Hancock, File)

FILE - West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice delivers his State of the State address, Jan. 10, 2024, in Charleston, W.Va. Justice, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, is in a fight to keep his iconic Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, File)

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, is in a fight to keep his iconic Greenbrier hotel.

A legal notice announcing a public auction for the luxury resort near White Sulphur Springs due to unpaid debts was publicized in the West Virginia Daily News Wednesday — only the latest development in the Justice family’s financial woes.

Justice, who owns dozens of companies and whose net worth was estimated by Forbes Magazine to be $513 million in 2021, has been accused in numerous court claims of being late in paying millions of dollars he owes in debts for family businesses and fines for unsafe working conditions at his coal mines .

He began serving the first of his two terms as governor in 2017, after buying The Greenbrier, which has hosted U.S. presidents and royalty, out of bankruptcy in 2009. The PGA Tour held a tournament at the resort from 2010 until 2019.

His family also owns The Greenbrier Sporting Club, a private luxury community with a members-only “resort within a resort.” That property was scheduled to be auctioned off this year in an attempt by Carter Bank & Trust of Martinsville, Virginia, to recover more than $300 million in business loans defaulted by the governor’s family, but a court battle between the Justice family and the bank delayed that process.

Wednesday’s notice said the auction involves 60.5 acres — including the hotel itself and the adjacent parking lot — and is scheduled for August 27 at 2 p.m. at the Greenbrier County Courthouse in Lewisburg.

A spokesperson for Justice said the impending auction is not a state government matter and the governor’s office wouldn’t comment. Campaign staff did not return an email from The Associated Press Thursday.

In a statement to West Virginia MetroNews, Justice attorney Bob Wolford accused lender JPMorgan Chase Bank of aligning with the Democrats “to undermine the next Republican Senator from West Virginia.”

The statement said that the Justice family originally secured a $142 million loan in 2014 from JPMorgan Chase and that only $9.4 million in debt remains after payments made as recently as June of this year. On July 1, the governor was notified by JPMorgan Chase that it had sold Justice’s loan to Beltway Capital Management, which declared it to be in default.

A U.S. Senate financial disclosure report filed by Justice on July 13 — after the loan was sold to Beltway — identified The Greenbrier debt to be between $25 million and $50 million.

“Let me be clear that the Greenbrier will not be sold, and the Justice family will take all necessary action to ensure that there will not be any adverse impact on their ownership of the Greenbrier or the Greenbrier’s operations and the ability of the Greenbrier to continue to provide world class service for its guests will be uninterrupted,” Wolford told MetroNews.

West Virginia Democratic Party officials said in a statement that the resort’s foreclosure is not the result of a political stunt, as the Justice family’s attorney contends.

“It is a direct consequence of his own financial incompetence,” they said.

JP Morgan Chase declined to comment.

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‘hollywood black’ review: justin simien’s mgm+ docuseries digs deep — but not deep enough — into african american film history.

The 'Dear White People' director is joined by the likes of Ava DuVernay, Ryan Coogler, Gabrielle Union, Giancarlo Esposito and more in the four-hour project.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

Chief Television Critic

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Justin Simien ‘s Hollywood Black , an edifying if focus-challenged four-part docuseries about the central yet under-appreciated African American contributions to cinema history, comes with a couple of semi-contradictions.

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Full of fascinating conversations with fascinating people and packed with interest-piquing clips, Hollywood Black nevertheless falls well short of resembling a definitive documentary on the subject. But even well-informed viewers are bound to come away with several insights and a few overlooked texts to seek out.

The Dear White People and Haunted Mansion director, who filters all four hours through his own presence as a thoughtful narrator and excitable on-screen moderator, opines that in film school, classes tend to go from Oscar Micheaux to blaxploitation to Spike Lee, “and that’s it.” Leaving aside that the field of study has changed dramatically since Simien was in film school, there’s no quibbling with his professed aspiration: “I want everyone to rethink cinema history, because whoever controls cinema, controls history.”

Simien argues that Black talent was part of the Hollywood machinery from the industry’s inception, even if it was “hidden in plain sight.” That means positioning Micheaux’s as one of the first true independent filmmakers, introducing viewers to should-be-legendary performer Bert Williams, viewing The Birth of a Nation through its blockbuster racism, and positioning Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer in the tradition of minstrelsy. Nothing here is revolutionary, but it lays a foundation for an understanding of an industry in which controlling, appropriating and stoking fear about Black bodies and voices have always been been integral to the business. 

What the documentary isn’t nearly as good at is talking about the artistry. For every film like Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust — its formal majesty and ample influence laid out in exceptional detail — there are a dozen films and figures that Simien showcases more nebulously. You’ll come away understanding why Micheaux has an obligatory piece of those introductory film courses, and some young viewers will probably note, “I ought to watch some Oscar Micheaux films” — but for whatever reason, Simien can’t steer the conversation to why anybody would want to. In other words, the films sometimes get lost in a continuum of influence and necessity to an informed discourse, rather than being recognized for their aesthetic or rhetorical merits. This produces either gaps or oversights; for example, Marlon Riggs is acknowledged more in terms of how Tongues United was important to Simien than in terms of Riggs’ body of work itself. Which, in turn, makes it less likely that neophytes will be informed enough to seek out Riggs’ films.

Simien and company have conversations that are funny and smart and revealing, especially when people are willing to challenge some of his points (DuVernay and Prince-Bythewood), instead of nodding along chummily. The figures who have taken the most active steps to push the industry toward inclusivity through initiatives and mentorship opportunities give the most substantive insights — not that there’s anything wrong with the lighter and more emotional responses from the likes of Gabrielle Union or the pointed observations of a W. Kamau Bell, who has been the MVP of more cultural documentaries than I can count. 

Maybe it’s just the broadness of Simien’s early pronouncements that make the constraints of his corrective a little disappointing. With only four hours to work with, it’s easy to understand why certain high-profile figures are discussed but not present to discuss themselves. Spike Lee, Barry Jenkins and Pam Grier are just a few people whose absence I pondered, if not lamented. Tyler Perry, who was recently the subject of his own Amazon documentary , might not have felt the need to do more self-promoting, and the available talent sings his praises so thoroughly and unconditionally — even Simien, who mocked Perry mercilessly in Dear White People — that he isn’t necessary. 

And how do you do a documentary about revolutions in Black storytelling without even a tiny salute to television and the opportunities that medium has presented, both for the doc’s on-screen talent and for several directors who might have had only one feature but have become prolific on TV?

That said, if Simien’s main thesis is that there are stories yet to be told in most accounts of Black Hollywood, it’s probably some sign of progress that he ends up leaving so much unexplored.

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