In an earlier interview with The View, Lee shared similar thoughts about both movies. “When they showed that film when I was at NYU, they left out the fact that at the time the Klan was dormant, and this film brought life back to the Klan which directly ended up killing Black folks – but that was not taught […] when you put stuff in historical perspective… in fourth grade we had a class trip, they had just reissued ‘Gone With The Wind’, seeing Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen…myself, my other classmates, we were cringing,” Lee continues....

Lee took a year off last year, but I’m being told he’s now hard at work on his next film, which is a musical based on the the invention of Viagra. Production is set to begin in early 2023. I can confirm the film is titled “Rise” and will very much be told via the musical genre. Tackling the discovery of that little blue pill, the screenplay is written by Lee and Kwame Kwei-Armah....

I haven’t been hiding the fact that this past January’s edition of the Sundance Film Festival was underwhelming. The weakest edition of the 6 last years I’ve attended. That’s ok, festivals are allowed to have “off” years. The fest still managed to produce an Oscar contender in the Best Picture category (“The Farwell”), a critical darling which has absolutely no chance at a nomination (“The Souvenir”), not to mention a slew of Oscar-buzzed documentaries (“Apollo 11,” “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” “Hail Satan,” “Knock Down the House,” “Ask Dr....

Yes, the 2021 edition has shrunk to seven days, and most audiences will experience it far away from the beautiful mountains of Park City, but the number of great movies looks to remain intact. IndieWire had no trouble finding 50 movies that they hope will make the cut in this year’s lineup, ditto IonCinema, which upped the ante with 75 potential Sundance 2021 films. In the meantime, I’ve decided to narrow it down to the biggest names rumored names to premiere their films at the 2021 edition of the festival, which runs January 28 — February 3....

However, I had refrained from posting the ballots of more unknown filmmakers. In total around 435 ballots had been compiled by S&S. That means there are still plenty that we don’t know about, that haven’t leaked. Here’s one that hasn’t been seen yet. It’s Quentin Tarantino’s ballot and it’s as eclectic a collection of films as you might expect from the iconoclast filmmaker. There are a few B-movies inserted alongside classics from Coppola, Spielberg and Scorsese....

The full lineup of the 46th annual Telluride Film Festival will be announced on August 30th. The festival itself starts from August 31st until September 3rd. Telluride Lineup So Far …Ford v. Ferrari, The Two Popes, The Aeronauts, Uncut Gems, Judy, Motherless Brooklyn, Marriage Story, First Cow, Waves, The Climb, Pain and Glory, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Parasite, Varda by Agnes, The Report, A Hidden Life, Beanpole Of note: I do want to acknowledge that, despite most of our sourcing coming directly in-house, Michael Patterson’s passionate and insightful early coverage leading up to the Telluride Film Festival has been nothing short of essential....

This all got me thinking, Director’s Cuts have a redeeming quality about them that makes them an important part of movie history. They are artistic statements through and through, whether it’s Sergio Leone releasing his, once butchered, “Once Upon A Time In America” in its original narrative structure to, more recently, Zack Snyder trying to splatter his original vision with a “Batman vs Superman” Snyder’s Cut. Director’s Cuts are a chance for filmmakers to show what they really wanted to achieve on-screen, warts and all....

This year’s four French filmmakers vying for the Palme d’Or will be Claire Denis (great), Arnaud Desplechin (solid), Leonor Seraille (potential) and Valerie Bruni-Tedeschi (WTF). Truth be told, with the exception of the US, France is probably the second best country in the world for the sheer amount of quality films being produced on a year-by-year basis. With just 8 days to go before the Cannes Film Festival begins, we’ll be celebrating French cinema for the next few days....

I keep defending Allen and will continue to do so. I know it’s the unpopular thing to do, but I don’t believe Mia and Ronan Farrow’s story one bit – they took advantage of the #MeToo movement to exact the revenge they always wanted on Allen. They never forgave him for dating and eventually marrying Soon-yi. If Cannes head Thierry Fremaux wanted to make a statement, he’d have had Allen’s shelved “Rainy Day in New York” premiere at Cannes....

There’s a peculiar note in the messaging: the festival will have 175+ films this year. That’s about the same amount as last year’s pandemic-induced edition, which had 177 films (118 features, 45 shorts and 14 docs). The pre-pandemic numbers in 2019 had a lineup of about 330 films. This is a peculiar development as I was under the impression TIFF was going back to normal business this year. Maybe this is going to be their new normal?...

You can add another potential film to Cannes 2023. Todd Haynes’ “May December,” starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, begins filming this fall. “May December” tells the story of a Hollywood actress (Portman) who travels to the coast of Maine to study the real-life woman (Moore) she’s set to play in a film. Haynes is better known as the auteur behind “Safe,” “Far From Heaven,” and “Carol.” Another female-led picture is not that surprising coming from him....

Ozark Ozark is a very popular show on Netflix that’s about a family trying to survive by gathering enough money for the mobsters. Since you have themes like money laundering and organized crime, it was just a matter of time before gambling was introduced. In the third season, the story takes place in a new casino and explores the underground criminal world even further. It’s a great show that keeps you guessing and always keeps you at the edge of your seat....

Peele’s film is now projected to make around $40-45 million this weekend. Whether you liked it or not, it’s definitely one of the few movies this summer that feels like a major event for cinephiles. What did you think of this ambitious and vast sci-fi epic? I already chimed in on Wednesday with a mixed, but respectable reaction — now, it’s your turn. NOTE: Peele has revealed that his first cut of the film was nearly four hours, which, if you have seen the finished product, completely makes sense....

In the undercooked “Clemency,” this second feature from writer-director Chinonye Chukwu (alaskaLand) — the first black woman to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance — Woodard plays Bernadine Williams, an emotionally restrained (almost a little too restrained) prison warden about to oversee her twelfth execution via lethal injection. The last one she oversaw having wrecked her moral compass and made her think twice about continuing her duties. Williams is now preparing for execution number 12....

Posted on 09.22.20: I am hooked on Spike Lee’s concert documentary “American Utopia.” The film hasn’t even come out yet and I’ve already seen it three times. And I’m not even a big fan of David Byrne or his former band The Talking Heads. Maybe it’s because we live in such tumultuous times, where our spirits need to be lifted by art, music, visual content etc. It’s been a rough year, to say the least, and “David Byrne’s American Utopia” is being released at the perfect time....

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Friedkin was always prone to be a cinematic agent provocateur. Of course, he’s had plenty of duds over his career (“The Hunted,” “Rules of Engagement,” “Jade,” “Blue Chips,” “The Guardian,” “Deal of the Century”) but the sheer amount of voluminous cinematic achievements he’s given us cannot be understated — with his three movie classics during the ‘70s (“Sorcerer,” “The Exorcist,” “The French Connection”) Friedkin changed Hollywood. He’s also given us a 1985 police procedural flick (“To Live and Die In L....

With all these ingredients in place, I expected much more than what I got in “Dark Fate,” a lazy, back-the-basics installment that uses ‘Judgement Day’ as a blueprint for most of its storytelling. Yes, Cameron and director Tim Miller have decided to ‘Force Awaken’ the Terminator franchise. The reason for such a dud, despite all the talent involved, might have to do with the fact that it doesn’t seem like Cameron and Miller really believed in the material....

According to a report from Variety, this will be a new eight-episode series, which will be written and executive produced by Dan Lagana — best known for American Vandal — and Paul Young. The project is being produced by Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios. No additional cast members have been announced as of now. Per Variety: “The story centers around Joe Schreibvogel, a.k.a Joe Exotic, an eccentric, exotic zookeeper in Oklahoma who fights to keep his park even at the risk of losing his sanity....

Bonello’s mixing of genres, coming-of-age, romance, supernatural and horror, makes it difficult for the viewer to truly be sucked into Bonello’s phantasmagoric world. The director’s last film, the excellent “Nocturama,” worked at a higher level because it delved into a fully lived-in but simple and accessible setting, a shopping mall. Bonello’s message in “Zombi Child” seems to be about cultural appropriation, one mixed in with Mélissa’s white, lovesick classmate (Louise Labeque)....