Robert Pattinson

2022 - 3 - 3

Barry Keoghan - Paul Dano

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The New Yorker"

“The Batman” and “Ultrasound,” Reviewed (The New Yorker)

Matt Reeves's movie pits the latest actor to don the Batsuit against an all-star array of villains, but self-seriousness crowds out much chance of fun.

“Ultrasound” is adapted by Conor Stechschulte from his own four-volume graphic novel, and it’s the kind of brain bender that, like “The Shining” (1980) and “Barton Fink” (1991), persuades you that a hotel corridor is the most worrying place in the world. As in Gotham, you detect the hand of fate, but who is dealing that hand is another matter. Pattinson’s allure, before which I am as helpless as anyone else, springs from the fact that, in keeping with his godlike exterior, he is a light knight as well as a dark one; what he brought to Nolan’s “ Tenet,” in 2020, was not just fine tailoring but a casual comic élan. (“Don’t be so dramatic,” he said, when planning a plane crash.) “The Batman,” to its shame, and to the deep detriment of its leading man, turns out the light. “I am the shadows.” Hogwash. What the Batman cannot admit is that, were a nice day ever to dawn in Gotham, he would be revealed for what he is: a fantasist, too old for his teen-age doominess, with zero social life, a suit of armor that makes it impossible to go to the bathroom, and not enough to do. Such is the media’s obsession with Pattinson, since he left the “Twilight” zone, that this new role is naturally seen as crowning his career; for an actor who has worked with David Cronenberg, the Safdie brothers, and Claire Denis, though, portraying the Batman is not a coronation. Under stormy conditions, at the start of Rob Schroeder’s “Ultrasound,” a motorist named Glen (Vincent Kartheiser) gets a flat tire. To be fair, I did enjoy the sight of one vehicle emerging from a fireball in pursuit of another, yet somehow, thanks to the frenzied editing and the hammer blows of the musical score, I saw it coming. You begin to wonder what the point of “The Batman” is, beyond the sustaining of its gloomy mood. Hence the baddies who thronged Christopher Nolan’s “ Dark Knight” trilogy, and hence, likewise, the cast that has been convened by Reeves. We have John Turturro as a mob boss; Peter Sarsgaard, at his most sleepy-sleazy, as the local D.A.; Colin Farrell, larded with prosthetics, as the Penguin; and Paul Dano as the Riddler, a villain so mystifying that he leaves a question mark in the froth atop his cappuccino. Rich kid, orphaned in his youth, vows to clean up the dirty metropolis—a mission that he shares, incidentally, with Travis Bickle, in “ Taxi Driver” (1976), the difference being that Travis is not too proud to crack a smile. One could argue that the hard work of everyday governance makes for stale viewing (though admirers of “Parks and Recreation” would disagree), yet there are times in “The Batman” when a short disquisition on, say, steam-based graffiti removal would come as a relief. If the job of the Bat is to round up the rats, then the director needs to supply high-quality vermin.

Here's Where Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart Are Now Years ... (StyleCaster)

Why did Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart break up? Here's the "Twilight" couple's split reason and where they are now after cheating rumors.

Just talking to an obsessive fan.” A source told HollywoodLife in 2022 that Pattinson’s inner circle have been “pressuring” him to “propose” to Waterhouse. “His friends and family anticipate an engagement soon and his family has been pressuring him to propose to her for some time,” the insider said. Stewart also confirmed her friendship with Pattinson in a 2019 interview with Variety, where she reacted to his casting as Batman. “I feel like he’s the only guy that could play that part,” she said. A source told Us Weekly at the time that the two were “having problems” and “fighting a lot.” Another insider reported at the time that the two argued “about the cheating, about how selfish she always is, about how moody she always is.” They throw all those feathers from a pillow into the sky and you’ve got to go and collect all the feathers.” In an interview on The Howard Stern Show in 2019, Stewart called Pattinson her “first love.” We were together for years, that was my first [love],” she said. I’ve never really been the most casual person.” She also told Stern that it was “weird” to talk about her relationship with Pattinson because she’s never had full permission to “say what happened.” “Because I was so self-conscious about seeming like an attention-seeker,” Stewart said before adding. A source told Us Weekly at the time that Pattinson was “really depressed” after learning of the infidelity. Two months later, in September 2012, a source told Us Weekly that Stewart and Pattinson “had a dramatic makeup” and were back together. The breakup came a year after Stewart was accused of cheating on Pattinson with her Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders. The accusations came after Stewart was photographed kissing Sanders—who was married to model Liberty Ross at the time, with whom he shares two children—in Los Angeles. “It seemed like they couldn’t get enough,” a photographer told Us Weekly at the time. “This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I’m so sorry.” Sanders, for his part, also issued his own statement in which he apologized to his wife and children for the “pain” he caused. Stewart, who described her relationship with Pattinson as “young and stupid,” also told the magazine about what attracted her to him. “I said, ‘Okay, let’s go do the biology scene where you guys first meet.’ So we went to my kitchen table for that scene and you could see pretty quickly that they were vibing off of each other.” Pattinson and Stewart started dating in 2009 after meeting on the set of the first Twilight movie, in which they played love interests, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. “It was so clear who worked,” Stewart told The New Yorker in 2021 about her first chemistry read with Pattinson. “‘I was literally just, like . . .’” She mimicked a swoon.

How 'The Batman' with Rob Pattinson can save the box office (Los Angeles Times)

With 'The Batman,' director Matt Reeves and star Robert Pattinson set out to reinvent an iconic 80-year-old character — and throw a much-needed lifeline to ...

There is a sense that maybe we’re starting to be on the back side of it, and “Spider-Man” and “Venom” and other superhero movies working is very encouraging for us. I really hope that we are one of the movies that can prove that there still is a viable theatrical film business. You want to believe that that big-screen experience, which was the reason we wanted to make movies in the first place, is still going to exist. I remember shooting the scene where Jayme Lawson [who plays a Gotham mayoral candidate] is giving that speech about how we need to rebuild not just our city but our faith in institutions and each other. I loved Matt’s work on the “Planet of the Apes” movies so much, and a lot of Matt’s work. Reeves: I started working on the script in 2017, so it was a long time ago. Does that raise the pressure even higher on this film to prove that movies still matter? “When you go into a Batman movie, you just have to kind of harden yourself in the beginning,” said Reeves, who had earned the job largely on the strength of his two critically and commercially successful installments in the “Planet of the Apes” series. But over the five years you spent working on this film, the real world has felt increasingly chaotic, fractured and out of control. The same as Bruce putting on the suit, you go into this kind of strangely simplistic state where you can really just focus on one thing. There’s something about this kind of self-imposed torment that I always found really interesting and also inheriting a life that you’re not entirely sure you want but also feel like you cannot give up at all. Arriving at a moment that’s fraught with peril and anxiety not just for the movie business but for the entire world, “The Batman” has received largely positive reviews from critics.

Our definitive ranking of modern movie Batmen, from Michael ... (The Washington Post)

Robert Pattinson makes his superhero debut in "The Batman." How does he stack up against Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck and others?

The shape-shifting Bale — playing the only modern live-action Batman to complete a trilogy arc — helped bring the superhero into the “real” world of director Christopher Nolan’s grounded approach. Keaton was more than up to the assignment, inhabiting a shadowy and often silent Batman who intimidated with imagery (those winged bat silhouettes!) and dark whispers. A highlight: Bale delivered one of the best Batman movie lines ever — “It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me” — with fitting dramatic flair. “And so I just started writing the movie for him without knowing if he’d ever want to play the role.” So can the actor who first gained global fame playing a tween-friendly vampire now bring the gravitas as a bare-knuckled Bat-freak skulking in the aesthetic of Nirvana-backed noir? The mid-’90s question was crucial: Who could take over the role after Keaton? For his first outing, Schumacher decided the Dark Knight should be inhabited by blond ambition. The Caped Crusader might be narratively unkillable, but director Joel Schumacher’s 1997 Batman — he of the infamous rubber nipples, more prominent than on Val Kilmer’s 1995 suit — sure drove the big-screen franchise into dormancy till halfway into the next decade. In two films, of course, Keaton would set the standard for the role. Oh, well — we’ll always have the Sad Affleck meme. Oh, if only Affleck had first received a solo Batman movie like the other actors on this list. Without getting so serious, here is our freewheeling assessment of the Dirty Half-Dozen: Even in an era before social media, the pre-trailer casting criticism managed to spread like fear through Gotham.

Robert Pattinson 'counted 'sips of water' to film 'Batman' shirtless ... (New York Post)

To take on the titular role of “The Batman” one actor made sure he had less of a physique to pat down. As the days of shirtless acting drew near, ...

He realized the character was “just way bigger” than him, akin to “wearing a crown.” “I had about three months before the movie started, and then you’re working out before and after work all the time,” he told People on “The Batman” premiere red carpet Tuesday night. “It’s got an elemental power to it.”

Twilight made Robert Pattinson better prepared to play The Batman (Polygon)

Robert Pattinson's portrayal of Edward Cullen made him perfect for the role of Batman — not the other way around.

It’s unclear how much time, Pattinson spends as Bruce Wayne in The Batman. It could be that there’s nary a gallery opening, charity ball, or public date with a socialite to obfuscate his secret identity in the film. It’s all about the drama; the commitment to the bit — whether that be saving yourself for 108 years before finding the love of your life, or having a shirtless sword fight in the desert with Ra’s al Ghul even though you’re in love with his daughter. They’re both tortured bad boys on the outside, but super sad and in need of a hug on the inside — need I go on? And if this version of Batman were actually the subject of a paranormal romance? Yes, Batman is a Byronic hero and, as someone who spent four years of his early career channeling that energy, Robert Pattinson is uniquely suited to take on the role. Sure, sometimes he has a softer side buried deep deep down, but on the outside it’s all brooding in the halls of Forks Community High School — or on the edge of tall buildings.

Robert Pattinson explains what motivated him into constantly ... (The Independent)

Actor previously said he was ignoring his strict fitness regime as it 'sets a precedent'

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Even James Dean – he wasn’t exactly ripped.” Robert Pattinson has said he was “motivated” to work out for his role in The Batman due to “shame”.