The marketing has been promoting a different movie. What I’m noticing most is how misleading the trailers have been in terms of the tone of the film. We were sold camp, but camp this is not. The film is a dead-serious affair. Also, Gaga doesn’t seem to have as much leading screen time as the trailers suggest. Here are a few reactions from Letterboxd, most likely to be taken down by the site’s moderators in the next few hours: Contribute Hire me...

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This only complicates the hands of major film festivals, who had plans to heavily rely on Netflix content if they would ever go digital. According to Thompson, Netflix choosing to sit this one out and not submit any of their Oscar-bait titles to fall fests has angered many Festival directors. No surprise there, we are most probably going to see a very different edition of these fests, Venice has hinted at doing a more local edition this year, whereas TIFF is said to be doing the same, but with a digital side added for non-locals....

Fox Searchlight did announce today that “Lucy in the Sky” was getting a prime fall release date of October 4th. Does that mean a TIFF or Telluride announcement is imminent? It’s no secret that TIFF accepts just about every fall Hollywood release that is offered to them. Let us all remember that last year they had “Life Itself,” “Jeremiah terminator LeRoy,” “A Million Little Pieces” and “Outlaw King.” ‘Lucy’ could easily be accepted and have a TIFF world premiere if it wanted to, no matter the quality....

It takes hell of a performance to receive the glowing praises of Leonardo Dicaprio, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, but Butler has done just that. All four are Oscar of these actors are Oscar winners, by the way. In Luhrmann’s maddening pop-art statement, Butler gives a consummate performance that defies caricature. Elvis, despite being so open for interpretation, was a very specific iconic — and American — personality, and Butler brings him to life in ways that aren’t stereotypical, but uniquely their own....

“I felt that then; I felt that now,” Schrader said. “You know, this is a very difficult conversation because I have never really respected the Academy for their choices. On the other hand, I’m enormously gratified that they have selected me. So you live in a kind of conflicted world. Where on one hand you say it truly doesn’t matter. And on the other hand you say, ‘Well, I guess it does matter....

Denzel Washington has been seen in recent months meeting with PTA. Whether this has anything to do with a new film remains to be seen. However, why else would they meet? There has also been talk of very low-key auditions occurring in Los Angeles for this new movie. There have also been hints at organized crime elements being a part of this latest draft of the screenplay. PTA takes years between projects so this one might not get into production sooner than we think....

The Spanish-Language “Madres Paralelas” (Parallel Mothers), which will be the legendary director’s 23rd feature-length film, wrapped production this past April and is now set for a September 2021 release in Spain. The director wrote the script during COVID-19 quarantine in Spain, and Penelope Cruz’s role was written specifically for her. According to Almodóvar, it is a drama about “two women who give birth on the same day and who have parallel trajectories”....

The 10 nominated films this year are “Parasite,” “1917,” “Ford v. Ferrari,” “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Joker,” “Knives Out,” “Little Women,” “Marriage Story” and “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.” Of course, one or two of these movies will have to be sidelined when Oscar nominations are announced on January 13th. There are usually 7-9 spots reserved for the Best Picture category, depending on aggregates and percentages in voting, so, if I were a guessing man, I would bet “Little Women” and “Knives Out” will ultimately get the shaft, but, hey, who knows....

“Lightyear,” the 5th “Toy Story” movie, and the prequel to the other four, has been somewhat struggling this weekend at the box-office. The film was projected to bring in $70M-$85M over the 3-day weekend, but Disney is now looking at a $45-$50 million opening. That’s a $30 million negative. Three years ago, “Toy Story 4” opened to $120.9 million. I’ve spoken to more than a few people who were irked by Pixar’s hiring Chris Evans to voice Buzz Lightyear instead of Tim Allen....

Quentin Tarantino’s ninth movie as writer-director will be released this coming July, and will have its world premiere, according to my sources, at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Columbia Pictures has released the first “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” poster, meaning a trailer isn’t too far behind as well. The film takes place in 1969 and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Western TV actor that, alongside his trusty stunt double, played by Brad Pitt, is seeing his star fade and tries to keep hold of his crumbling TV career....

In September of 2014, even more pleasant news, Tarantino announced that he would be taking over full programming duties for the New Beverly. Imagine that, double features, exclusively in 35mm (or 16mm, selected by Tarantino himself. Jen Yamato wrote that “the first double bill the director concocted at the New Bev was a double feature of Paul Mazursky films: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) and Blume in Love (1973)”....

“An Officer and a Spy” tells the true story of the Captain Dreyfus case, an embarrassment of justice that shook France to its core. Dreyfus, who was given the death penalty due to the supposed “crimes” he was accused of, was actually an innocent man. As mentioned here months ago, the film is Polanski trying to make parallels between the innocent man and himself, which has not pleased the #MeToo movement’s most vocal backers....

Women and Hollywood founder Melissa Silverstein is quoted in a 5.6 Variety article as saying that the fact that Delon “has publicly admitted to slapping women…has aligned himself with the racist and anti-Semitic National Front…has claimed that being gay is ‘against nature’ should exclude him from being honored. Silverstein went on to add that “by honoring Delon, Cannes is honoring these abhorrent values [despite having] committed itself to diversity and inclusion....

That absentee film streak will likely continue, but not without Jonze dabbling into a Netflix endeavour. Jonze is set to direct an ambitious mini-series for Netflix, according to Puck. Matt Belloni has it going this way: Inject this one into my veins, immediately. I don’t care what it’s about or where it comes from, but Jonze being given a big budget to splatter his vision on a screen is more than enough to have this one high up on our 2023 must-see list....

Of all the major film festivals, the virtual format works especially well for Sundance, especially if it continues to focus its identity on being, first and foremost, an event based on acquisitions, talented young filmmakers, and documentaries. With that being said, the films continue to be screened. It’s quite ballsy of director Oliver Hermanus to want to make an English-language adaptation of the script of Akita Kurosawa’s 1952 masterpiece, “Ikiru....

Almost certainly going to Telluride: Ford v. Ferrari, The Two Popes, The Aeronauts, Uncut Gems, Judy, Motherless Brooklyn, Marriage Story, First Cow, The Truth, Pain and Glory, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Parasite, Varda by Agnes, Beanpole, A Hidden Life, The Report Possibilities: Family Romance LLC, Country Music/Ryman Concert, The Climb, The Good Liar, Untitled Todd Haynes Project, Lucy in the Sky, Seberg The latest updates are as follows: In: “First Cow,” “Beanpole,” “A Hidden Life,” “The Report”Possibilities: Untitled Todd Haynes, “Family Romance LLC Bonus” (Herzog), “The Climb”Out: “Atlantics,” “Bacurau,” “Liberté,” “Martin Eden,” “Oh Mercy!...

With the TIFF announcement coming, along with premiere statuses, we can somewhat scroll through the TIFF lineup and look for labels such as “Canadian Premiere” and “International Premiere” for better clues. Michael Patterson’s Telluride prediction blog will probably be all over this later today, but I’ll get a head-start. This is how Telluride looks right now: Telluride-bound: Bones and All (Luca Guadagnino)TAR (Todd Field)Bardo (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)Empire of Light (Sam Mendes)Women Talking (Sarah Polley)The Wonder (Sebastian Lelio) Telluride-bound Cannes holdovers: Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Armageddon Time (James Gray)Holy Spider (Ali Abassi) One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Love) Unconfirmed possibilities: White Noise (Noah Baumbach)Living (Hermanus)Golda (Guy Nattiv)Pale Blue Eye (Scott Cooper)Close (Luca’s Dhont)Good Night Oppy (Ryan White)Master Gardener (Paul Schrader) Curiously, NOT going to Telluride: Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale”Florian Zeller’s “The Son”Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin”Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter” Tobias Lindholm’s “The Good Nurse”Jafar Panahi’s “No Bears”Stephen Frears’ “The Lost King”Mark Mylod’s “The Menu”Peter Farrelly’s “The Greatest Beer Run”Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Other People’s Children”Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer”Hong Sang-soo’s “Walk Up”Henry Selick’s “Wendell & Wild” Contribute Hire me...

The always-reliable Anne Thompson published her weekly IndieWire column, in it, she has the scoop that the Telluride 2020 program would have included the world premiere of Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland.” The film follows unemployed workers traveling the country as they look for work, with Frances McDormand playing a woman looking for a new job after being hit by the Great Recession of 2008. Zhao’s critically-acclaimed debut feature, “The Rider,” which was about an injured rodeo performer, turned more than a few heads when it premiered at Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight sidebar back in 2018....

Of the 25+ years that I’ve religiously been watching and covering movies, I don’t think I’ve experienced a worse one than this. Going to Cannes in July seemed like a rejuvenation and more than half of my ten best list is composed of films that premiered there. However, when the fall movie season hit, it was such a letdown, with the only film coming out of TIFF, Venice and Telluride meriting praise was Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog....