“The way you record “Toy Story,” you’re in a room with the team that has created it. When I went in for my last day of recording, I wanted to have my back to them, because usually you’re facing him so you can look right up and you can talk about it. But I didn’t want to see them and I wanted to pretend they couldn’t see me. When I realized what they were going for, I realized, ‘Oh, this is a moment in history....
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By all accounts, these films have been, more or less, completed, but were curiously absent from the September festivals. You make your own judgments as to why that is the case. I bet a few of them show up at Sundance and the 2023 Berlinale. Maybe a surprise or two will screen at AFI. What is going on with Ira Sachs’ “Passages”? I thought it would for sure show up at Venice and/or TIFF, but it seems as though that film’s producers are now aiming for Berlin....
This also means that we’re likely going to have a Best Picture lineup with much lesser quality than usual. In a final Hail Mary attempt, I am now totally onboard the “Spider-Man: No Way Home” train for one very specific reason: it represents hope for movies. Whether you believe ‘No Way Home’ is a good or bad movie doesn’t quite matter right now. Quality seems an afterthought, especially with the current state moviegoing is in right now....
Now Shatner is taking his aim at the #MeToo movement. In a recent interview with The Daily Mail, the 87-year-old actor accused the movement of becoming too “hysterical” and that he now has to refrain from complimenting women on their “great legs.” He admits to taking part in a three-hour training course on sexual harassment in the workplace. Shatner said: “It’s all about what is harassment. You might say, as I have on numerous occasions, ‘’great legs’ … Just innocuous compliments that one might say to anybody, with no intent of lasciviousness....
It sounds tasteless, but it isn’t. This is a sexy, provocative, and timely statement-— it plays like a 21st century Last Tango In Paris — that isn’t afraid to tackle the complexities of sexual connection in the digital media age. The questions being asked are uncomfortable, but necessary. Has sex been too commercialized by the internet that its principles are now scattershot? Is the definition of intimacy today very different than it was just a decade ago?...
However, as fate has it, a white cop stops them, but this isn’t your average police officer, this one is very racist. After an over-the-top frisk session on Slim, Queen inexplicably decides to scream at the cop, which leads to a gun being drawn and the racist cop being shot and killed by Queen in self-defense. This is where the film lost me. Both of our protagonists decide to run — their decision is frustrating and all-too-facile....
And so, it must be a terrible loss for Pixar that Unkrich has announced his retirement. He’s worked close to 25 years with the toon company. On Friday, Unkrich informed Pixar employees of his decision. “I’m not leaving to make films at another studio; instead, I look forward to spending much-needed time with my family and pursuing interests that have long been back-burnered,” said Unkrich, 51. [via THR] Unkrich also tweeted the letter he sent to his colleagues at Pixar....
The fact of the matter is this: Movie theaters in New York City and Los Angeles remain closed, and to make matters worse, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain are about to enter a world of hurt with their economies headed towards total shutdowns. I’m even hearing the upcoming Berlin Film Festival might be scrapped if cases continue to go up in Germany. With all that being said, Variety is reporting that Warner Bros....
This claustrophobic, but formulaic thriller tries to be a worthy addition to the “bottle movie” genre, but it can’t overcome the fact that it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. This is the kind of film that means to tie your stomach in a knot, but can’t overcome the predictable narrative layout found within the script by Vollrath and writing partner, Senad Halilbasic. Co-pilot Tobias Ellis (Gordon-Levitt) has to deal with his German captain (Carlo Kitzlinger) being wounded and barely conscious after a failed ambush by three Islamist terrorists to take over the cockpit....
In 1840s England, acclaimed fossil hunter Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) meets Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) a young woman suffering from Melancholia (oldspeak for depression) and sent by her husband to convalesce by the sea alongside the famous palaeontologist. The friendship is frosty at first, we soon come to realize it’s not just Charlotte who is depressed, but her new strolling buddy as well — a loner with no interest in conversing with the people around her, including her mother (Gemma Jones) who happens to work with her at the fossil shop she manages....
The film celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and a brand-new 4K restoration, supervised by director of photography Agnès Godard and approved by the director, is being released. Even better, the restoration of this 1999 classic is getting a Virtual Cinema release. I wrote about the film back in 2015: “It’s no coincidence that this war movie bears many similarities to another female-directed dissection of male ego and testosterone: Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker....
The film has a rebellious 14-year-old Becky (Wilson) being brought by her father to a weekend getaway at a lake house in an effort to have her get along with his new fiancee Kayla (Amanda Brugel), and her little boy Tye (Isaiah Rockliffe) as part of the bargain. The problem is Becky wants none of that, she’s still grieving over her mom’s death to cancer. Becky is the sullen kid who has her reasons for being so isolated, she repeatedly watches old phone videos of her dying mom, a well-intentioned but flattening attempt by the directors at upping the ante in emotions, not to mention ground their main character with some kind of emotional heft — it doesn’t work....
We value out cinematographer over here at WoR, almost as much as we do auteur filmmakers. Lindgren is one of the best young talents in the biz, his camerawork in Damien Chazelle’s “First Man,” and “La La Land” was top-notch. “Bond 25” started shooting this week in Norway and will be using both Panavision and IMAX 65mm cameras. According to IndieWire the film has the working title “Eclipse” and will be Daniel Craig’s fifth and final outing as 007....
Lyne is the filmmaker most associated with the erotic thriller genre in the ‘80s and ‘90s — “Fatal Attraction,” “9½ Weeks,” “Flashdance,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Lolita” and “Unfaithful” — all featuring erotic sex and dark thrills. However, ever since 2002’s “Unfaithful” he has been M.I.A. What happened? I’m not sure, but 17 years after his last movie, Lyne is back with his most (accidentally?) comedic film. I was very much looking forward to this adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, this one starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas....
We all knew Walter White (Bryan Cranston) wasn’t going to play a major role in this “sequel,” because, after all, he had met his demise in the series’ finale. However, being chained up by neo-Nazis and forced to cook the infamous blue meth he was so good at making took a toll on Jesse. Yes, he escaped, but he’s now damaged, a tortured soul haunted by the demons he left behind....
Just in case you’re not keeping track, The Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All At Once” has so far won critics honors in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles (TIE), Southeastern, Washington, Utah, St. Louis, Indiana, Dallas, North Texas and Philadelphia. A major momentum boost has occurred for ‘Everything Everywhere’ these last few weeks, there’s no doubting that. It’s even now at #1 on Gold Derby’s pundits consensus chart. It’s no longer Steven Spielberg’s “Tge Fabelmans,” which has held on to the top spot since it screened at TIFF in September....
The Thomas Kail-directed version of the Tony Award-winning musical has been critically-acclaimed to no -ends by critics and viewers alike, but it seems to not meet the Academy’s standards for either the narrative or documentary categories. The rule reads as follows: “Works that are essentially promotional or instructional are not eligible, nor are works that are essentially unfiltered records of performances.” The movie stars Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Christopher Jackson, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Okieriete Onaodowan, Anthony Ramos and Phillipa Soo....
Taking place just a few days before Christmas, Abby (Kristen Stewart) is set to propose to girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis), on Christmas morning no less, only to learn that her future in-laws haven’t a clue about their daughter’s preference for women, let alone that Abby even exists. And so begins this situational rom-com from DuVall as things go from bad to worse for Abby, who has to now pretend she’s somebody she’s not, all in the while trying to score points with Harper’s father, Ted (Victor Garber), who’s running for mayor in their small Pennsylvania town, Harper’s Mom, Tipper (Mary Steenburgen), a trophy wife, and Harper’s humorless and unhappily-married older sister, Sloane (an acerbically amusing Alison Brie)....
Howard is Hollywood royalty at this point, and the Netflix-backed “Hillbilly Elegy,” a family story based on Vance’s upbringing in rural Ohio, is destined to tug at the hearts of mainstream viewers looking for a feel-good drama in these dire days of pandemic blues. The film also features a fierce mother-daughter rivalry, one etched in the blood of Appalachian hillbilly-dom. Amy Adams and Glenn Close play the duo and they deliver the goods — I wouldn’t be shocked if one, or even both, of these actresses gets Oscar recognized come nomination time next Spring....
