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If you remember, Jeff Sneider, a decent guy that’s also in-the-know when it comes to Oscar buzz, claimed [via tweet] just a few weeks ago, that two African-American-centered movies (Melina Matsoukas“Queen and Slim” and Deston Daniel Cretton’s “Just Mercy.”), which were on absolutely nobody’s radar, may be Oscar contenders. Sneider claimed that “after surveying the awards landscape, chatting with sources & listening to the infamous InSneider gut, [he was] prepared to go way out on a limb & tell [us] in July that one year after the Green Book win, the Oscar will go to one of these two movies....

I’m being told a 2022 release is out of the question and that “Rustin” is still very much a 2023 release. The film stars the ultra-underrated Colman Domingo (check out his brilliant performance in “Zola”). Wolfe directed 2020’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and his upcoming “Rustin” revolves around gay, civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who organized the 1963 March on Washington — the ingredients are most definitely there for prime Oscar bait....

Vieira de Mello (eloquently played by Wagner Moura) was sent to Iraq in 2003 as the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General. The mission? To help the country move forward after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Easier said than done, especially when you have the U.S. constantly on your back, putting pressure at every turn, specifically Paul Bremer (Bradley Whitford), who lead the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) following the invasion....

Not much is known about “Tenet,” Nolan’s upcoming 11th film, but EW does describe it as “an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage.” Its star John David Washington may very well be a James Bond-type of character and Robert Pattinson his intelligence partner. Nolan describes Washington as the “hero” of the film, but the images also give us a look at co-star Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki (“Widows”)....

Playing a man, suffering from Alzheimer’s, who refuses all assistance from his daughter as his mental state deteriorates, Hopkins and director Florian Zeller create an indelible portrait of identity loss. Not knowing which location he is in from scene to scene, Zeller allows us to be sucked into the head of Anthony. This is a harrowing journey that represents the most realistic depiction of Dementia ever put on screen. Anthony lives in a posh London flat, always visited by his caretaker daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman)....

“The Last Thing He Wanted” will be available via Netflix on February 3rd. Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

Riseborough is maybe the most criminally underrated actress working today in American film. When I saw “To Leslie,” as part of my SXSW coverage back in March, I for sure thought that it would become some kind of career breakthrough for her. Sadly, the film has come and gone without much attention. That seems to be a given now with every Riseborough film. Why? She deserves better than this. I had seen around a dozen films from this year’s Austin-based festival....

Did we really need a sequel to “Top Gun”? Of course not. Cruise is desperately trying to build as many franchises to his name as possible, he knows full well that the “star vehicle” is all but a dying breed in Hollywood. Smart guy. Of course, “Top Gun” captured the zeitgeist of an era that’s long, long gone. If anything, Cruise should take some cues from his predecessors like Hackman, De Niro, Pacino who all tackled challenging roles once they hit their fifties....

Supposedly, his projections are saying the coming weekend will be disastrous for Spielberg’s film with a 60% drop in earnings. A $4-6 million second weekend awaits “West Side Story,” which has a budget of over $100 million. The film has thus far made just $12 million domestically and isn’t doing any better overseas, having racked up just $14 million internationally. A lot of people are comparing the tepid box-office for Spielberg’s film to 2017’s “The Greatest Showman,” which opened in early December to an $8 million opening weekend only to get a major boost from word-of-mouth, not to mention its soundtrack topping the music charts....

Hamaguchi’s thoroughly entertaining “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” which has just been released stateside, is a triptych of stories about fate, coincidence, and relationships that underplays its drama for much more satisfying results. There is no formal connection between the tales being told, which makes this film all the more pleasing in its joie-de-vivre to just tell its stories. In the first chapter, we encounter a model called Meiko (Kotone Furukawa) going home in a cab with a friend who starts excitingly gossiping about a man she just started seeing....

The son of Auschwitz survivors, Folman seems more interested here in making a film that could be shown as a history lesson for kids rather than any sort of hard-edged depiction of the horrors that occurred during WWII. A noble attempt from the director of the much-more-adult “Waltz With Bashir,” but a botched one at that. The animation, as with all Folman films, is stunning, placing 2D characters against stop-motion backgrounds....

How much impact will this Sunday’s Globes winners have on the Oscar winners? Well, Oscar voting ends this week, which will also bring the prestigious PGA and DGA nominations — those two voting bodies will turn out to be much better indicators of what’s to come Oscar-wise when the nominations are announced in a few weeks. There are only 90 members within the HFPA voting body (compare that to the 9,000+ voters for the Oscars), but the Globes can still influence the winners, like last year, when “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book” both triumphed despite the social media backlash....

Much like the Oscars, for which the Césars are the French equivalent, outrage has invaded the leading up to the ceremony, with some people freaking out that the organization would give a convicted sexual abuser, like Polanski, recognition. Where was all the outrage in 2003 when Polanski won the Best Director Oscar at the Oscars and received a standing ovation? Leading the backlash in France is actress Adèle Haenel. In a new interview with the New York Times, the star of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and a ”Blue is the Warmest Color,” is downright repulsed by her peers’ recognition of Polanski “Distinguishing Polanski is spitting in the face of all victims....

Earlier today, AMC had announced its safety guidelines for its theater reopenings in July and, much like its other competitors Regal and Cinemark, AMC decided to not make wearing facemasks a requirement. Their reasoning for it was that wearing a facemask was a “political” thing and you could make your own mind in terms of whether you want to wear it or not. You see, ever since Trump’s election, the U....

The legendary singer came to the defense of Michael Jackson, even though acknowledging, and this is where it gets strange, that she “absolutely” believes the two men who accused the pop star of sexually abusing them in the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland.” It all stems from an interview with the Times, where Streisand said Jackson was “very sweet, very childlike” the few times they met and that “his sexual needs were his sexual needs, coming from whatever childhood he has or whatever DNA he has....

It’s set to become Warners’ first original feature of the Warner Bros. Discovery era — a period mobster drama starring Robert De Niro in dual roles. De Niro and the mobster genre go hand in hand and “Wise Guys,” very much intended for theatrical distribution, has been touted as Levinson’s return to big and bold studio filmmaking. However, I don’t know if giving Levinson $50 million to make a movie is the smartest idea, he hasn’t made anything great (theatrically speaking) since 1997’s “Wag the Dog....

What we do know is that Steven Spielberg is set to receive the honorary Golden Bear. Philippe Garrel’s “Le Grande Chariot,” formerly titled “La lune crevée,” now has a French release date set for March 8th, 2023. André Téchiné’s “Les Pieds Sur Terre” is also set for a post-Berlin release. It was announced this summer that Christian Petzold’s “The Red Sky” will be coming in the “Spring of 2023.” That also means a presumed bow at Berlin....

The lineup for 72nd edition of the festival is set to be announced on January 16th. Rumoured to be part of the big show are new films by Claire Denis, Francois Ozon among other prominent directors. No word yet on whether some films will be pulled due to the virtual component. The festival itself is set to launch on February 10th to the 20th. Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

I already reported in July that Claire Denis’ “Fire” was locked for competition, but what else will appear? Don’t be shocked to see Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde” finally being screened at the Berlinale, after much controversy. It’s been many months coming for Dominik’s film, especially since he’s now made peace with Netflix and will get the final cut that he so richly deserves on this film. Expect a possible Sundance bow as well....