My understanding then was that Nichols coming into this franchise basically meant that opportunities to make personal arthouse films were scarce. The director of “Midnight Special,” “Take Shelter,” “Mud,” and “Loving,” surely deserved better than this. Finally, Nichols has left the franchise amicably. He probably figured it wasn’t up to his talents. Now, he was recently interviewed at Cannes, and is saying that he’s close to directing another film again, and plans to shoot it in fall: It’s been 5 years since “Loving....

Bruno Dumont’s “Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc” tops his list. His picks for 2016 and 2017. Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

There were also calls for him to be digitally removed from the upcoming “Men In Black” movie. The comments were made during a press interview with The Independent this past January: “I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody – I’m ashamed to say that – and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some… ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know?...

With this growth has come influence, the likes of which has been unprecedented in its effects on the greater television environment. Both in terms of traditional television cable and more contemporary online systems like Netflix, YouTube continues to be an industry-defining operation. So, what makes it different, and why is its importance only likely to grow? Amateur Engagement Of all the standout aspects of YouTube, perhaps the most historically important is its ability to support the arrival and engagement of newcomers....

Music to my ears. I have been championing this sexy and mysterious neo-noir since I first laid eyes on it in 2016. In the original version, Tilda Swinton played Marianne, a rock star with voice problems who retreats to a high-end Sicilian villa with her boyfriend (Matthias Schoenaerts). The peace is disturbed when Marianne’s ex, music producer Harry (Ralph Fiennes), turns up with a newly discovered daughter (Dakota Johnson). The film shouldn’t be spoiled further, but just know that this was a very loose remake of the 60s classic “La Piscine” (no relation to the Ozon)....

The 63-year-old filmmaker announced in April 2021 that he was about to make his first film in over a decade, this one a horror film titled “Mother Land.” Having not heard much about this project since it was announced last year, I decided to message Romanek and get an update. He tells me he’s no longer attached to it. In fact, Alexandre Aja is now set to direct “Mother Land....

The one-two punch of “New Order” and “Sundown” have clearly upped Franco’s stock. There is no title yet for this secret project, but Belgian cinematographer Yves Cape (a Franco regular) has been spotted on-set. Franco trying to break into American cinema is major news. His Haneke-style nihilism and gloomy outlook on humanity seems to have struck a chord with US producers. We’ll surely have more details on this project as its production continues on in New York....

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“Extraction” was “viewed” by close to 100 million accounts, followed closely by “Bird Box” (89 million) and “Spenser Confidential” (85 million). A majority of the titles in the top 10 skew towards the action genre that dominated Hollywood in the age before superhero saturation (pre-2008). Most of them have A-list stars, including Sandra Bullock, Mark Whalberg, and Ryan Reynolds, amongst others. Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” which clocks in at 210 minutes, was “watched” by 64....

“[I’m a] filmmaker,” Jones said. “The kinds of films that I made before were about cinema, so they were pretty much in harmony with things like writing criticism and programming other people’s movies. Making ‘Diane’ changed things … I’ve always written scripts, and I’ve always shared them with friends, among them Marty [Scorsese], Arnaud Desplechin and Olivier Assayas — people I’m really close to, [and] it changes your perspective. Watching films by other people — and particularly rejecting films by other people — becomes different....

From what I have heard, the post-production team has been way behind on the effects for the film. It is unusual to see Disney tagged on such a risky project, but here we are. And, by all accounts, it’s not like Gray’s films are Oscar-bait vehicles; he’s a lone-wolf who goes by his own creative juices. The fact that it didn’t show up within the Cannes lineup was because, again, according to sources, the special effects just weren’t ready....

Gerwig’s admirable, but wholly uninvolving, film currently has an astounding 91 Metascore and 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, but watching the film, even after giving it a second shot last week, its earnestness still rings false. “Little Women” has a myriad of feminist ideals, something which wasn’t necessarily added on by Gerwig as much as it has always played a large role in Alcott’s classic of American literature. And yet, critics are acting as if this adaptation is the holy grail, as if Gerwig somehow unearthed newfound thematic resonance that wasn’t there in every other adaptation of Little Women (my personal favorite being Gilligan Armstrong’s 1994 version)....

There’s a lot to sift through here, so I’ll try to be as concise as possible. These are the five main takeaways from this afternoon’s announcement: No “Good Night Oppy” and “SR.” in the Documentary category.“Alcarras” Snubbed from International Feature.“Everything Everywhere All At Once” misses Makeup and Visual Effects. It did however get included in Score, Song and Sound.Taylor Swift’s short film “All Too Well” does not appear in the Shorts category....

Don’t ask me how the “West Side Story” actress has become the frontrunner in her category. Her performance wasn’t better than Rachel Zegler, Mike Faist, or even Rita Moreno’s in her own movie. Again. narrative, narrative, narrative. It’s all about that and DeBose has become a darling of social media and punditry these last few months. Can you seriously pinpoint a scene or moment in “West Side Story” where DeBose stole the show?...

And yet, it’s always fun to speculate way ahead of time when it comes to the Best Director category. Why? Because we want the best filmmakers to win so that they have more freedom to make more movies. It’s as simple as that. Upon request, I’ve decided to update my Best Director contenders list. Clearly, things have changed since I first published in June. I’ve painstakingly tried to decipher through many of the question marks for this year’s fall crop of contenders....

Wilson received backlash after claiming on “Ellen” that her lead role in the upcoming “Isn’t It Romantic?” made her the first plus-size woman to lead a romantic comedy. The problem is that is simply not true at all. She was then called out on social media for forgetting about actresses like Queen Latifah, Mo’nique and, hell let’s put some nice icing on that cake, Ricki Lake. Instead of admitting defeat and saying she was wrong, Wilson doubled-down on Twitter by saying, “Yeah, I of course know of these movies....

Is this another red flag? I sure hope not. I’m highly anticipating Aronofsky’s latest, which is said to be a chamber piece based on Samuel D. Hunter’s play. However, it is already not going to Telluride and New York. More times than not, when a fall film skips both of those festivals then it’s a bad sign. There has been buzz about Brendan Fraser’s performance in the film as a 600-pound man eating himself to death....

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Portuguese actor Joaquim de Almeida (via Cine Tendiha) and John Cleese are supposedly part of the film. There’s also word that, after much speculation, Catherine Deneuve will not be part of the cast (via Allocine). Shooting is planned to wrap in May. If Polanski’s editing is swift enough then we might potentially see it at Venice, that is if Alberto Barbera wants the same headache he got when he premiered “An Officer and a Spy” back in 2019....

In the ‘90s there were no bigger and more influential film critics than “Siskel & Ebert.” Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s decade-spanning review show had them involved in some heated exchanges over the latest releases, but one subject that always bonded them was their love for movies. One exchange, in particular, shows how prophetic they were about the cultural trends, both good and bad, lurking around the corner. Siskel and Ebert both passed away before they could witness the current PC-driven stagnation of free speech in film criticism (and at the movies), but in one particular episode of their show they warned us about a cinematic future which now seems eerily familiar to our present-day....