Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga starring Anya Taylor-Joy is getting rave reviews from critics. The George Miller film’s screening at the Cannes Film Festival received enough positive word-of-mouth that would pull the audiences to the theaters. While the film has seemingly impressed many, it has a long road to achieve the level of success of its prequel film, Mad Max: Fury Road. The 2015 film was a huge critical and commercial success, with a 97% Tomatometer score.
Anya Taylor-Joy as Imperator Furiosa in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Taylor-Joy’s film also stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke, and the performances of these actors were also commended by the different critics. If Furiosa manages to turn these positive reviews into box office numbers, fans can expect Miller to move ahead with his other dream projects in the franchise.
Anya Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa Receives Largely Positive Reviews From Critics
Furiosa...
Anya Taylor-Joy as Imperator Furiosa in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Taylor-Joy’s film also stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke, and the performances of these actors were also commended by the different critics. If Furiosa manages to turn these positive reviews into box office numbers, fans can expect Miller to move ahead with his other dream projects in the franchise.
Anya Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa Receives Largely Positive Reviews From Critics
Furiosa...
- 5/16/2024
- by Hashim Asraff
- FandomWire
The Greek provocateur seemed to be smiling throughout Oscar night. In the past he’d delivered films with titles like Dogtooth and The Lobster, and his newest, Poor Things, was now stockpiling the statuary even as Hollywood’s filmmaking elite looked on, perplexed.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ code-busting Poor Things was winning not only successive awards (four in all) Sunday but also the exuberant applause from an audience that seemed to welcome change. Even chaotic change.
Oppenheimer won the big prize on Oscar night, of course, but Oscar voters once again demonstrated their support for the product of the filmmaking underclass. The Scorsese-Spielberg-Ridley Scott fraternity looked on while dark horses like Lanthimos, or, a year earlier, the Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert) from Everything Everywhere All at Once, stole the action. Coda from Sian Heder was the surprise of 2022.
Does all this reflect a restive mood? “The power of Poor Things stems...
Yorgos Lanthimos’ code-busting Poor Things was winning not only successive awards (four in all) Sunday but also the exuberant applause from an audience that seemed to welcome change. Even chaotic change.
Oppenheimer won the big prize on Oscar night, of course, but Oscar voters once again demonstrated their support for the product of the filmmaking underclass. The Scorsese-Spielberg-Ridley Scott fraternity looked on while dark horses like Lanthimos, or, a year earlier, the Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert) from Everything Everywhere All at Once, stole the action. Coda from Sian Heder was the surprise of 2022.
Does all this reflect a restive mood? “The power of Poor Things stems...
- 3/14/2024
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
David Bordwell, an influential film scholar and longtime professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, died Feb. 29 after battling a “long illness,” according to the university. He was 76.
Uw-Madison described Bordwell as a prolific researcher, dedicated teacher and passionate cinephile — a man who helped guide “countless colleagues, students, and film lovers to heightened awareness of the medium’s artistic possibilities.”
For more than two decades, Bordwell penned commentaries, produced visual and written essays and interviews for films in the Criterion Collection and was seen and heard on 50 episodes of “Observations on Film Art” on the Criterion Channel, who described him as a “tireless champion of cinema,” in a statement.
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He taught at Uw-Madison from 1973 until his retirement in 2004 and was the university’s Jacques Ledoux Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the time of his death.
Damien Chazelle, Oscar-winning...
Uw-Madison described Bordwell as a prolific researcher, dedicated teacher and passionate cinephile — a man who helped guide “countless colleagues, students, and film lovers to heightened awareness of the medium’s artistic possibilities.”
For more than two decades, Bordwell penned commentaries, produced visual and written essays and interviews for films in the Criterion Collection and was seen and heard on 50 episodes of “Observations on Film Art” on the Criterion Channel, who described him as a “tireless champion of cinema,” in a statement.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Criterion Collection (@criterioncollection)
He taught at Uw-Madison from 1973 until his retirement in 2004 and was the university’s Jacques Ledoux Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the time of his death.
Damien Chazelle, Oscar-winning...
- 3/2/2024
- by Diego Ramos Bechara
- Variety Film + TV
The Current Debate is a column that connects the dots between great writing about topics in the wider film conversation.Crossroads.It was early last March when, after twenty-three years and over two thousand reviews, A. O. Scott announced he would resign from his post as film critic at the New York Times, leaving his readers to wrestle with some cataclysmic prophecies. “The current apocalypse,” he wrote on his way out,… is that streaming and Covid anxiety are conspiring to kill off moviegoing as we have known it, leaving a handful of I.P.-driven blockbusters and horror movies to keep theaters in business while we mostly sit at home bingeing docuseries, dystopias and the occasional art-film guilt trip. Am I worried? Of course I’m worried. The cultural space in which the movies I care most about have flourished seems to be shrinking. The audience necessary to sustain original...
- 1/25/2024
- MUBI
Yet another batch of Dark Sky Films titles have made their way onto Screambox, joining previously dropped classics Willow Creek, Minor Premise, and The Deeper You Dig (details), as well as Ghost Killers vs. Bloody Mary, Landlocked, and Possum (details), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 1 & 2, and Emelie (details), and even Stake Land, Summer of Blood, & Bitter Feast (details).
First, from master of horror Tobe Hooper, Eaten Alive has now taken a bite out of Screambox.
The ’70s killer crocodile flick features The Addams Family‘s Carolyn Jones, a pre-Freddy-Krueger Robert Englund, and Halloween‘s Kyle Richards.
In the film, “Deep in the swamps of Louisiana, disfigured psychotic Judd (Neville Brand) manages a sleazy, decaying motel. Upon learning that one of his guests is a prostitute, he promptly impales her with a pitchfork and tosses her to the crocodile that stalks the nearby waters. This is just the first in a series of slayings,...
First, from master of horror Tobe Hooper, Eaten Alive has now taken a bite out of Screambox.
The ’70s killer crocodile flick features The Addams Family‘s Carolyn Jones, a pre-Freddy-Krueger Robert Englund, and Halloween‘s Kyle Richards.
In the film, “Deep in the swamps of Louisiana, disfigured psychotic Judd (Neville Brand) manages a sleazy, decaying motel. Upon learning that one of his guests is a prostitute, he promptly impales her with a pitchfork and tosses her to the crocodile that stalks the nearby waters. This is just the first in a series of slayings,...
- 12/15/2023
- by Brad Miska
- bloody-disgusting.com
The table is set for Oscar shortlist voting to begin on Thursday. In the documentary feature category, Academy Doc Branch members will be choosing from a buffet of 167 films, among them Frederick Wiseman’s Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros.
The filmmaking legend’s latest documentary reveals in his characteristically meticulous style the workings of several restaurants in rural France owned and operated by the Troisgros family for going on a hundred years. Their signature establishment, Le Bois Sans Feuilles, is acclaimed as one of the finest restaurants in the world, with the Michelin stars (three of them) to prove it.
Carrying on the culinary tradition is chef Michel Troisgros and sons César and Léo (Michel’s wife Marie-Pierre runs a family-owned hotel). Wiseman, who turns 94 in a few weeks, lives for much of the year in Paris, and traveled to the area of Ouches outside Lyon to document the Troisgros’ and the...
The filmmaking legend’s latest documentary reveals in his characteristically meticulous style the workings of several restaurants in rural France owned and operated by the Troisgros family for going on a hundred years. Their signature establishment, Le Bois Sans Feuilles, is acclaimed as one of the finest restaurants in the world, with the Michelin stars (three of them) to prove it.
Carrying on the culinary tradition is chef Michel Troisgros and sons César and Léo (Michel’s wife Marie-Pierre runs a family-owned hotel). Wiseman, who turns 94 in a few weeks, lives for much of the year in Paris, and traveled to the area of Ouches outside Lyon to document the Troisgros’ and the...
- 12/13/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSTrenque Lauquen.Absurdly early as it may seem, the Best of 2023 lists are starting to arrive. The New York Times published top tens by Manohla Dargis and Alissa Wilkinson (only her third published piece as the Times’s newest movie critic after an illustrious run at Vox), Vulture shared lists from Bilge Ebiri and Allison Willmore, and Richard Brody unveiled his impossible-to-hem-in roundup at the New Yorker (we’ll return to his list in the Readings section). There are some consensus picks—among them, Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, Showing Up, and Passages—but there’s an exciting sprawl overall. Meanwhile, Cahiers du Cinéma shared their top ten; Laura Citarella’s Trenque Lauquen was their delightful, well-deserved sleeper choice for film of the year. But...
- 12/7/2023
- MUBI
Here they come again, those holiday perennials. Movies, both good and bad, that year after year find their way back into theaters, onto small screens and deep into stockings that still get stuffed with digital discs.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas. A Christmas Story. Love Actually. It’s a Wonderful Life, of course. A Christmas Carol, ad infinitum. Nutcracker after Nutcracker after Nutcracker.
My personal favorite, released 19 years ago, on Nov. 10, 2004, by Warner Bros., is The Polar Express from the technophile director Robert Zemeckis.
This isn’t a sentimental choice, at least not in the conventional sense. It’s just that every time the picture pops up—and its seasonal DVDs are strung merrily across the Internet, from Amazon to Target—it reminds me of an important life lesson. That is: It’s much easier not to be an editor, especially at The New York Times.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas. A Christmas Story. Love Actually. It’s a Wonderful Life, of course. A Christmas Carol, ad infinitum. Nutcracker after Nutcracker after Nutcracker.
My personal favorite, released 19 years ago, on Nov. 10, 2004, by Warner Bros., is The Polar Express from the technophile director Robert Zemeckis.
This isn’t a sentimental choice, at least not in the conventional sense. It’s just that every time the picture pops up—and its seasonal DVDs are strung merrily across the Internet, from Amazon to Target—it reminds me of an important life lesson. That is: It’s much easier not to be an editor, especially at The New York Times.
- 11/20/2023
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
One of Hollywood’s most venerated auteurs has a new movie out this weekend. Will awards season pay attention? That’s the question facing most of these films, which tackle tough topics like Alzheimer’s, the stock market, and gay twincest.
The contender to watch this week: “The Killer”
David Fincher‘s latest has divided critics, with The New York Times‘ Manohla Dargis calling it “boring” and NPR’s Justin Chang declaring it “perfectly paced.” But if you think about it, a lot of Fincher’s work has proved at least mildly polarizing. He often overcomes those divides by the time Oscar nominations are announced, yet “The Killer” might be too cold and grim even for a Fincher flick. Michael Fassbender, at his most effortlessly slick, plays a nameless hitman suffering the consequences of a rare botched job. Fassbender’s fine-tuned performance is complemented by deft editing and another banger...
The contender to watch this week: “The Killer”
David Fincher‘s latest has divided critics, with The New York Times‘ Manohla Dargis calling it “boring” and NPR’s Justin Chang declaring it “perfectly paced.” But if you think about it, a lot of Fincher’s work has proved at least mildly polarizing. He often overcomes those divides by the time Oscar nominations are announced, yet “The Killer” might be too cold and grim even for a Fincher flick. Michael Fassbender, at his most effortlessly slick, plays a nameless hitman suffering the consequences of a rare botched job. Fassbender’s fine-tuned performance is complemented by deft editing and another banger...
- 11/11/2023
- by Matthew Jacobs
- Gold Derby
Apologies to André Bazin, Pauline Kael, and Andrew Sarris, but Roger Ebert was unquestionably the most influential film critic of the cinema's first century. In fact, unless the media landscape is drastically altered over the next few years, he may also wind up being the last film critic who ever truly mattered.
I do not mean this as a put-down of my colleagues. If you actually read film criticism nowadays, you know that there's never been a more thrillingly diverse assortment of voices in this too-cluttered arena. Manohla Dargis, Justin Chang, Scott Tobias, Angelica Jade Bastién, and Bilge Ebiri are must-reads in this house, and I could name a few dozen more who are reliably incisive and original in their thinking. I don't have time to read all of the critics I respect, which is both a frustrating and good thing.
But be honest, do you actually read film criticism nowadays?...
I do not mean this as a put-down of my colleagues. If you actually read film criticism nowadays, you know that there's never been a more thrillingly diverse assortment of voices in this too-cluttered arena. Manohla Dargis, Justin Chang, Scott Tobias, Angelica Jade Bastién, and Bilge Ebiri are must-reads in this house, and I could name a few dozen more who are reliably incisive and original in their thinking. I don't have time to read all of the critics I respect, which is both a frustrating and good thing.
But be honest, do you actually read film criticism nowadays?...
- 9/7/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Italian director Pietro Marcello made a splash at the 2019 Venice Film Festival with the Jack London adaptation “Martin Eden.” That film about an idealistic man’s sentimental and moral education at the turn of the 20th century, distributed in the U.S. by Kino Lorber, more or less introduced the talents of heartthrob Luca Marinelli to Western audiences. Now, Marcello is partnering with the U.S. distributor once more, this time turning his camera on the story of a woman’s coming of age, with “Scarlet.” The cast includes Raphaël Thiéry, Louis Garrel, and newcomer Juliette Jouan. IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for the film, which premiered at the 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, below.
Per the official synopsis, shortly after World War I, veteran Raphaël (Raphaël Thiéry) returns home from the frontlines to find himself a widower and father to an infant daughter. Raised by her father in rural Normandy, the...
Per the official synopsis, shortly after World War I, veteran Raphaël (Raphaël Thiéry) returns home from the frontlines to find himself a widower and father to an infant daughter. Raised by her father in rural Normandy, the...
- 5/8/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
A.O. Scott this week ends his 23-year run as film critic for the New York Times and most movie people are glad to see him go. So is he.
“If the film world is to become relevant again, it needs critics whose work reflects passion and advocacy, and that’s the opposite of Scott,” observes one important filmmaker who fears being quoted.
Besides, he notes, Scott didn’t leave the movies; the movies left Scott.
Related Story Has Quentin Tarantino Found His Next Film In ‘The Movie Critic’? Related Story Quentin Tarantino Reveals That Memorable 'Inglorious Basterds' Character Was Originally Written For Adam Sandler Related Story To Walk Or Watch: Our Critic Sticks With 'Emancipation'
When cinema was “hot,” a critic like Pauline Kael could stir anger or applause in Hollywood simply by walking into a restaurant. Contentious reviews of movies like Midnight Cowboy or Bonnie & Clyde stirred...
“If the film world is to become relevant again, it needs critics whose work reflects passion and advocacy, and that’s the opposite of Scott,” observes one important filmmaker who fears being quoted.
Besides, he notes, Scott didn’t leave the movies; the movies left Scott.
Related Story Has Quentin Tarantino Found His Next Film In ‘The Movie Critic’? Related Story Quentin Tarantino Reveals That Memorable 'Inglorious Basterds' Character Was Originally Written For Adam Sandler Related Story To Walk Or Watch: Our Critic Sticks With 'Emancipation'
When cinema was “hot,” a critic like Pauline Kael could stir anger or applause in Hollywood simply by walking into a restaurant. Contentious reviews of movies like Midnight Cowboy or Bonnie & Clyde stirred...
- 3/23/2023
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
The New York Times’ film critic A.O. Scott is moving to a new beat.
Scott, who has reviewed more than 2,200 films for the Times over the last 23 years, will shift to The New York Times Book Review where he will “write critical essays, notebooks and reviews that grapple with literature, ideas and intellectual life,” according to a memo to Times staff from Sam Sifton, Gilbert Cruz and Sia Michel Tuesday.
“In many ways this is a natural progression,” they added in the note. “Tony was a literature concentrator at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude in 1987, and is a graduate-school dropout in American literature (Johns Hopkins: thank you, next!). He started his journalism career as an assistant to Robert Silvers at The New York Review of Books and was soon contributing reviews there, as well as to Slate and, of course, to Newsday.”
Scott will leave the culture section for the Book Review in March,...
Scott, who has reviewed more than 2,200 films for the Times over the last 23 years, will shift to The New York Times Book Review where he will “write critical essays, notebooks and reviews that grapple with literature, ideas and intellectual life,” according to a memo to Times staff from Sam Sifton, Gilbert Cruz and Sia Michel Tuesday.
“In many ways this is a natural progression,” they added in the note. “Tony was a literature concentrator at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude in 1987, and is a graduate-school dropout in American literature (Johns Hopkins: thank you, next!). He started his journalism career as an assistant to Robert Silvers at The New York Review of Books and was soon contributing reviews there, as well as to Slate and, of course, to Newsday.”
Scott will leave the culture section for the Book Review in March,...
- 2/21/2023
- by Alex Weprin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Twenty years ago, tween-girl cinema thrived. Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, and Amanda Bynes kicked off the junior rom-com eras -- bringing their Disney and Nickelodeon fans along for the ride. Big-screen coming-of-age stories, family sagas, and whimsical made-for-television movies defined youth culture in 2003. Pop music became more accessible to children. Bright colors and Y2K fashion arrived in full force. Kids were paying attention to the media and products advertised to them.
As a person who turned nine in '03, I vividly remember this era of family films. They were hopeful, playful, and rife with young characters seeking adventures. I'll never forget when my sister and I saw our first movies on DVD instead of VHS: "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" and "What a Girl Wants." For millennial fans, Hilary Duff's Italian excursion has been on repeat as a literal soundtrack of our lives. Amanda Bynes' British battle of the debutantes sharpened our rebellious side.
As a person who turned nine in '03, I vividly remember this era of family films. They were hopeful, playful, and rife with young characters seeking adventures. I'll never forget when my sister and I saw our first movies on DVD instead of VHS: "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" and "What a Girl Wants." For millennial fans, Hilary Duff's Italian excursion has been on repeat as a literal soundtrack of our lives. Amanda Bynes' British battle of the debutantes sharpened our rebellious side.
- 1/27/2023
- by Allison McClain Merrill
- Slash Film
When MGM’s Singin’ in the Rain, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s musical valentine to Hollywood’s silent film era as it transitioned into the world of talkies, opened in the spring of 1952, it instantly won over moviegoers. Writing in The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther enthused, “Compounded generously of music, dance, color spectacle and a riotous abundance of Gene Kelly, Jean Hagen and Donald O’Connor on the screen, all elements in this rainbow program are carefully contrived and guaranteed to lift the dolors of winter and put you in a buttercup mood.” The movie went on to become a box office hit, ranking as the 10th highest-grossing film of the year in North America. The Writers Guild awarded Betty Comden and Adolph Green its prize for best-written American musical. The Directors Guild nominated Kelly and Donen for outstanding direction. And the Golden Globe Awards nominated it as best comedy or musical.
- 1/10/2023
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” co-director Daniel Kwan is telling fans of his A24 hit not to get toxic on social media when it comes to film critics snubbing the movie on their “best movies of 2022” lists. Some “Everything Everywhere” admirers stormed Twitter to criticize The New York Times film critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott for leaving the movie off their top 10 lists. Films that did make the cut included Jordan Peele’s “Nope” and foreign films like “Eo.” One fan called Scott “pretentious” and an “upper middle class zealot” for snubbing “Everything Everywhere.”
“I know the end of year discourse on film twitter can be toxic [as fuck] with all of the ‘Best of’ lists that come out, but this really needs to stop,” Kwan wrote on Twitter to outraged fans. “The act of ranking any piece of art is so absurd and should only be seen as an incredibly personal and subjective endeavor.
“I know the end of year discourse on film twitter can be toxic [as fuck] with all of the ‘Best of’ lists that come out, but this really needs to stop,” Kwan wrote on Twitter to outraged fans. “The act of ranking any piece of art is so absurd and should only be seen as an incredibly personal and subjective endeavor.
- 12/8/2022
- by Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
Poland’s Oscar© 2023 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Eo’ directed by Jerzy Skolimowski'Eo' is the first motion picture to turn the spotlight onto the plight of animals as victims of persecution going as far as setting up an analogy to the genocide of the Jewish people.
Twice this is alluded to. First when Eo wanders into the woods and visits ancient gravestones which are marked by Hebrew letters. The second time is at the end after his endless odyssey on earth searching for the one who loved him most and lost him. “Like sheep to the slaughter” is a phase often associated with the Jews who were herded into conditions worse than those of animals, into boxcars and into gas chambers. So we see cattle herded into slaughter.
This is no Bambi. No Disneyification for this Burro. The animal is lovable and one senses its view of the outside world from its actions, one even senses its emotions.
The world is a mysterious place as seen through the eyes of an animal.
On his journey, Eo, a gray donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good
and bad people, experiences joy and sorrow as the wheel of fortune at every turn transforms his luck into disaster and his despair into
unexpected happiness. But never, at any instant, does he lose his innocence.
Watch the trailer here.
The telling of Eo’s story is also particularly Polish featuring the woods of of Jerzy Kosinski’s novel and feature The Painted Bird, the woods of Polansky’s childhood and of countless others who as as children, women and partisans during the war took to the woods as a means of escape. But here the victim has no voice and humans are only the willing and unwilling accessories to his plight as he tries to avoid the pitfalls of the world.
And we feel deeply for Eo who never says a word. What is the magic Skolimowski employs to make this movie so moving?
Jerzy Skolimowski and Eo, played by Taco, Ola, Marietta, Ettore, Rocco and Mela
This is the first movie that the 84-year-old Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski has made in seven years.
His wish was to pay homage to the cinema of Robert Bresson who inspired him to write this modern tale, whose main character is a Sardinian donkey:
“Several decades ago, I said in an interview (I think it was Cahiers du Cinéma) that the only film that moved me to tears was Au Hasard Balthazar (1966). I think I discovered it right after it came out. Since then, I haven’t shed a single tear at the cinema. Thus, what I owe to Robert Bresson is to have acquired a strong conviction that making an animal a character in the film is not only possible, but can also be a source of emotion."
Eo is a poetic work, a metaphorical vision of the world.
“I wanted above all to make an emotional film, to base the narration on emotions, much more than in all my previous films.”
During his career Jerzy Skolimowski has directed very great actors like Robert Duvall, or Jeremy Irons —” two of the most generous with whom I have worked, wonderful beings — but, directing a donkey on the screen, calls for any obviously other springs.”
“Directors use intellectual arguments to get actors the desired effect, use language to provoke their emotions. With my donkey, the only way to persuade him to do anything was tenderness: words whispered in his ear and a few friendly caresses. Raising your voice, showing impatience or nervousness would have been the shortest path to disaster.”
“In Poland we have an animal protection law. Everyone, including the donkeys, can work up to 8 hours on a set. When they shoot, we are responsible for them, they are our actors. We make sure that they do not feel stress during the shots, that they enjoy the work and the contact with the film crew. We also ensure their comfort throughout their presence on set. In this specific case, they were also under the permanent supervision of a veterinarian, which gave us additional assurance for their good health and well-being. During the preparations and during the realization, we ensured that the breaks and the night rest conditions were respected.”
Watch the trailer here.
Eo, in the words of NY Times review by Manohla Dargis, “adheres to the hero’s journey only to deviate drastically from that template. In short, Eo sets off on an adventure, enters a realm of near-supernatural wonder, encounters fabulous and less so forces, experiences challenges and temptations (including a wreath of carrots). He also meets Isabelle Huppert in an Italian villa, though she ignores him. His journey is strange, absurd, exhilarating and terrifying.”
We pity the poor animal and in our pity we should recognize our own cruelty to animals as well as to other human beings who are treated like animals within our own society and in front of our own eyes.
Jerzy Skolimowski worked with Ewa Piaskowska on writing the screenplay, following a now well-established method: “Eo is the third screenplay we have written together. The method is simple: one of us has an idea (in the case of Eo, it was Ewa, in the case of Essential Killing, it was me), then we give ourselves a good session of brainstorming. Then it’s Ewa who takes care of most of the writing, with me making adjustments, whether it’s additions or cuts. We usually write in Polish, then it’s always Ewa who takes
in charge of the English translation.”
The Directors’ Fortnight has shown the films of Skolimowski starting in 1965 with Walkover, his second feature film, acclaimed for its innovative form. “At the time, a young American filmmaker came to congratulate me after the screening of Walkover, and although my English was limited at the time, we instantly became friends. It was Jack Nicholson, who was also discovering Cannes. Smoking a joint with him on the beach that night remains one of my fondest memories from Cannes.”
This is the seventh time in his career that Jerzy Skolimowski has been invited in Competition to Cannes. “Coming back is a bittersweet experience. Many people I have met at the Festival over the years are no longer of this world, others cannot come. I myself have become a bit of a recluse and I feel better in my house in the forest in the middle of nowhere. The world today does not inspire much optimism — a war is raging in Europe. It seems absurd to celebrate the premiere of a movie, with the tragedy unfolding every day in Ukraine.”
Despite its dramatic nature, Eo is also a film rich in funny moments. What makes Jerzy Skolimowski laugh? “I don’t think I’ve laughed heartily in a long time. But I do smile sometimes — especially at my dog, Bufon, for his playfulness, or for the way he tilts his head when he listens to men’s conversations, as if he doesn’t want miss a word.”
International sales agent, Hanway, was founded by Jeremy Thomas who announced his own retirement this year in Cannes. Skolimowski and Thomas have a long-standing relationship that began when Thomas produced his second film Le Cri, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 1978. They also collaborated on Essential Killing, which won the Special Prize of the Jury and the Best Actor Prize at the Venice Film Festival, as well as 11 Minutes, also screened in Competition in Venice.
Says Skolimowski, “Jeremy is a production icon. It’s always been a real privilege to see how he thinks, what he prioritizes, how he makes decisions or works with directors. He is in a separate class.”
Jeremy Thomas was born into a film family — his father and uncle were directors. He started in film laboratories and graduated as an editor, working on many films and eventually editing Family Life by Ken Loach. In 1974, Thomas produced his first film, Mad Dog Morgan by Philippe Mora with Dennis Hopper, then founded Recorded Picture Company. Thomas then produced numerous personal films, including Investigaton of a Passion, Eureka and Insignificance by Nicolas Roeg, and Furyo by Nagisa Ôshima with David Bowie. He eventually founded Hanway as the nternational sales agent for his films.
Hanway and its distributors did not stint on giving the film plenty of festival exposure, a good way to create word of mouth actively as it rolls out theatrically. After debuting in Cannes where Skolimowski won the Jury Prize and the Best Composer Award went to Pawel Mykietyn, it went on to a list of festivals that reads like a a primer for filmmakers to try to follow themselves: Jerusalem, Hong Kong, Hungary’s Miskolc International Film Festival, Toronto, Gdynia, Vancouver, Hamburg, Busan, Rio, London, New York, Mill Valley, Hamptons, Grand Lyon in France, Bergen, Santa Fe, Cologne, Philadelphia, Valladolid, Montclair, Vienna, Geneva, Seville, AFI Fest, Hawaii, Belfast, Tallinn, Ljubljana, MoMa, Taipei’s Golden Horseshoe.
Isa Hanway has licensed the film to Sideshow for US (the new kid on the block who is working with Janus on the theatrical release as they did with Oscar Winner Drive My Car. Founded by longtime IFC President Jonathan Sehring and his acquisitions chief Jason Hellerstein, Sideshow is also distributing Cannes films The Eight Mountains, Tori and Lokita, and All That Breathes. Other distriutors include Films We Like for Canada, Arp Selection for France, Soda for Peru and Colombia, Nitrato for Portugal, Rapid Eye for Germany, Applause for Taiwan, DDDream for China, Fine Films for Japan, Front Row for Mena and Iran, Odeon for Greece and The Searchers for Belgium.
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SydneysBuzz by Sydney Levine is about the international film circuit, films from places far and near that you may not hear about often, like Cannes or the newly launched Red Sea Film Festival.
Twice this is alluded to. First when Eo wanders into the woods and visits ancient gravestones which are marked by Hebrew letters. The second time is at the end after his endless odyssey on earth searching for the one who loved him most and lost him. “Like sheep to the slaughter” is a phase often associated with the Jews who were herded into conditions worse than those of animals, into boxcars and into gas chambers. So we see cattle herded into slaughter.
This is no Bambi. No Disneyification for this Burro. The animal is lovable and one senses its view of the outside world from its actions, one even senses its emotions.
The world is a mysterious place as seen through the eyes of an animal.
On his journey, Eo, a gray donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good
and bad people, experiences joy and sorrow as the wheel of fortune at every turn transforms his luck into disaster and his despair into
unexpected happiness. But never, at any instant, does he lose his innocence.
Watch the trailer here.
The telling of Eo’s story is also particularly Polish featuring the woods of of Jerzy Kosinski’s novel and feature The Painted Bird, the woods of Polansky’s childhood and of countless others who as as children, women and partisans during the war took to the woods as a means of escape. But here the victim has no voice and humans are only the willing and unwilling accessories to his plight as he tries to avoid the pitfalls of the world.
And we feel deeply for Eo who never says a word. What is the magic Skolimowski employs to make this movie so moving?
Jerzy Skolimowski and Eo, played by Taco, Ola, Marietta, Ettore, Rocco and Mela
This is the first movie that the 84-year-old Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski has made in seven years.
His wish was to pay homage to the cinema of Robert Bresson who inspired him to write this modern tale, whose main character is a Sardinian donkey:
“Several decades ago, I said in an interview (I think it was Cahiers du Cinéma) that the only film that moved me to tears was Au Hasard Balthazar (1966). I think I discovered it right after it came out. Since then, I haven’t shed a single tear at the cinema. Thus, what I owe to Robert Bresson is to have acquired a strong conviction that making an animal a character in the film is not only possible, but can also be a source of emotion."
Eo is a poetic work, a metaphorical vision of the world.
“I wanted above all to make an emotional film, to base the narration on emotions, much more than in all my previous films.”
During his career Jerzy Skolimowski has directed very great actors like Robert Duvall, or Jeremy Irons —” two of the most generous with whom I have worked, wonderful beings — but, directing a donkey on the screen, calls for any obviously other springs.”
“Directors use intellectual arguments to get actors the desired effect, use language to provoke their emotions. With my donkey, the only way to persuade him to do anything was tenderness: words whispered in his ear and a few friendly caresses. Raising your voice, showing impatience or nervousness would have been the shortest path to disaster.”
“In Poland we have an animal protection law. Everyone, including the donkeys, can work up to 8 hours on a set. When they shoot, we are responsible for them, they are our actors. We make sure that they do not feel stress during the shots, that they enjoy the work and the contact with the film crew. We also ensure their comfort throughout their presence on set. In this specific case, they were also under the permanent supervision of a veterinarian, which gave us additional assurance for their good health and well-being. During the preparations and during the realization, we ensured that the breaks and the night rest conditions were respected.”
Watch the trailer here.
Eo, in the words of NY Times review by Manohla Dargis, “adheres to the hero’s journey only to deviate drastically from that template. In short, Eo sets off on an adventure, enters a realm of near-supernatural wonder, encounters fabulous and less so forces, experiences challenges and temptations (including a wreath of carrots). He also meets Isabelle Huppert in an Italian villa, though she ignores him. His journey is strange, absurd, exhilarating and terrifying.”
We pity the poor animal and in our pity we should recognize our own cruelty to animals as well as to other human beings who are treated like animals within our own society and in front of our own eyes.
Jerzy Skolimowski worked with Ewa Piaskowska on writing the screenplay, following a now well-established method: “Eo is the third screenplay we have written together. The method is simple: one of us has an idea (in the case of Eo, it was Ewa, in the case of Essential Killing, it was me), then we give ourselves a good session of brainstorming. Then it’s Ewa who takes care of most of the writing, with me making adjustments, whether it’s additions or cuts. We usually write in Polish, then it’s always Ewa who takes
in charge of the English translation.”
The Directors’ Fortnight has shown the films of Skolimowski starting in 1965 with Walkover, his second feature film, acclaimed for its innovative form. “At the time, a young American filmmaker came to congratulate me after the screening of Walkover, and although my English was limited at the time, we instantly became friends. It was Jack Nicholson, who was also discovering Cannes. Smoking a joint with him on the beach that night remains one of my fondest memories from Cannes.”
This is the seventh time in his career that Jerzy Skolimowski has been invited in Competition to Cannes. “Coming back is a bittersweet experience. Many people I have met at the Festival over the years are no longer of this world, others cannot come. I myself have become a bit of a recluse and I feel better in my house in the forest in the middle of nowhere. The world today does not inspire much optimism — a war is raging in Europe. It seems absurd to celebrate the premiere of a movie, with the tragedy unfolding every day in Ukraine.”
Despite its dramatic nature, Eo is also a film rich in funny moments. What makes Jerzy Skolimowski laugh? “I don’t think I’ve laughed heartily in a long time. But I do smile sometimes — especially at my dog, Bufon, for his playfulness, or for the way he tilts his head when he listens to men’s conversations, as if he doesn’t want miss a word.”
International sales agent, Hanway, was founded by Jeremy Thomas who announced his own retirement this year in Cannes. Skolimowski and Thomas have a long-standing relationship that began when Thomas produced his second film Le Cri, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 1978. They also collaborated on Essential Killing, which won the Special Prize of the Jury and the Best Actor Prize at the Venice Film Festival, as well as 11 Minutes, also screened in Competition in Venice.
Says Skolimowski, “Jeremy is a production icon. It’s always been a real privilege to see how he thinks, what he prioritizes, how he makes decisions or works with directors. He is in a separate class.”
Jeremy Thomas was born into a film family — his father and uncle were directors. He started in film laboratories and graduated as an editor, working on many films and eventually editing Family Life by Ken Loach. In 1974, Thomas produced his first film, Mad Dog Morgan by Philippe Mora with Dennis Hopper, then founded Recorded Picture Company. Thomas then produced numerous personal films, including Investigaton of a Passion, Eureka and Insignificance by Nicolas Roeg, and Furyo by Nagisa Ôshima with David Bowie. He eventually founded Hanway as the nternational sales agent for his films.
Hanway and its distributors did not stint on giving the film plenty of festival exposure, a good way to create word of mouth actively as it rolls out theatrically. After debuting in Cannes where Skolimowski won the Jury Prize and the Best Composer Award went to Pawel Mykietyn, it went on to a list of festivals that reads like a a primer for filmmakers to try to follow themselves: Jerusalem, Hong Kong, Hungary’s Miskolc International Film Festival, Toronto, Gdynia, Vancouver, Hamburg, Busan, Rio, London, New York, Mill Valley, Hamptons, Grand Lyon in France, Bergen, Santa Fe, Cologne, Philadelphia, Valladolid, Montclair, Vienna, Geneva, Seville, AFI Fest, Hawaii, Belfast, Tallinn, Ljubljana, MoMa, Taipei’s Golden Horseshoe.
Isa Hanway has licensed the film to Sideshow for US (the new kid on the block who is working with Janus on the theatrical release as they did with Oscar Winner Drive My Car. Founded by longtime IFC President Jonathan Sehring and his acquisitions chief Jason Hellerstein, Sideshow is also distributing Cannes films The Eight Mountains, Tori and Lokita, and All That Breathes. Other distriutors include Films We Like for Canada, Arp Selection for France, Soda for Peru and Colombia, Nitrato for Portugal, Rapid Eye for Germany, Applause for Taiwan, DDDream for China, Fine Films for Japan, Front Row for Mena and Iran, Odeon for Greece and The Searchers for Belgium.
Get an email whenever SydneysBuzz comes out, about movies you do not read about everyday.
SydneysBuzz by Sydney Levine is about the international film circuit, films from places far and near that you may not hear about often, like Cannes or the newly launched Red Sea Film Festival.
- 11/29/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
What with her feature “Don’t Worry Darling” taking a pounding from critics while holding its own at the box office despite barrels of tabloid gossip, rumors of tension on the movie’s set and a barrage of criticism all over social media, actress Florence Pugh hasn’t had it easy lately. Perhaps, however, the scales are starting to balance a bit. Pugh’s period mystery thriller “The Wonder” was released on Netflix on Wednesday, November 16 and — amid a very healthy Tomatometer score of 86 fresh from its theatrical run — rose immediately to the top of the streamer’s global most-watched list.
It took “The Wonder” only 24 hours to zoom into the viewing Top 10 in 74 countries. It’s already number one in 11 of those countries, including the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Mexico. (It’s sixth in the United States.)
The film adapts Emma Donoghue‘s (“Room”) celebrated 2016 novel of the same name,...
It took “The Wonder” only 24 hours to zoom into the viewing Top 10 in 74 countries. It’s already number one in 11 of those countries, including the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Mexico. (It’s sixth in the United States.)
The film adapts Emma Donoghue‘s (“Room”) celebrated 2016 novel of the same name,...
- 11/22/2022
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
Set in 1968 Chicago, five years before the Supreme Court’s revolutionary Roe v. Wade decision, doctors refuse to terminate a potentially life-threatening pregnancy for a suburban housewife named Joy (Elizabeth Banks). In an effort to save her own life, Joy’s journey for a solution leads her to Virginia (Sigourney Weaver), an independent visionary fiercely committed to women’s health, and Gwen (Wunmi Mosaku), an activist who dreams of a day when all women will have access to abortion, regardless of their ability to pay. Joy is so inspired by their work, she decides to join forces with them in “Call Jane.”
The film is distributed by Roadside Attractions and was released in theaters on October 28, 2022. Watch the trailer below.
See 2023 Oscars: Best Actress Predictions
Banks, who is primarily known for her sharp wit in light-hearted fare, takes a serious turn as Joy. The actress has earned three Emmy nominations...
The film is distributed by Roadside Attractions and was released in theaters on October 28, 2022. Watch the trailer below.
See 2023 Oscars: Best Actress Predictions
Banks, who is primarily known for her sharp wit in light-hearted fare, takes a serious turn as Joy. The actress has earned three Emmy nominations...
- 10/28/2022
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
“Till” is classic Academy fare, but it’s currently sitting outside of Gold Derby’s Best Picture top 15, ranking lower than several less favorably reviewed films in our Oscar odds. Because the movie’s only serious play is in Best Actress, pundits are hesitant to predict it will nab one of the 10 slots.
2017’s “The Post” was only nominated for Actress (Meryl Streep) and Picture, but that film underperformed. Owing to its pedigree, “The Post” was predicted in several categories throughout the ’17/18 awards cycle. “Till” doesn’t look as formidable at the outset.
“Coda” had gone into its triumphant night at the Oscars with only Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, and Picture and won each—but as Gold Derby’s Marcus James Dixon and others have argued, that movie probably would’ve been recognized in more categories had enough voters seen it before nominations voting ended. Thanks to Danielle Deadwyler’s roundly lauded performance,...
2017’s “The Post” was only nominated for Actress (Meryl Streep) and Picture, but that film underperformed. Owing to its pedigree, “The Post” was predicted in several categories throughout the ’17/18 awards cycle. “Till” doesn’t look as formidable at the outset.
“Coda” had gone into its triumphant night at the Oscars with only Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, and Picture and won each—but as Gold Derby’s Marcus James Dixon and others have argued, that movie probably would’ve been recognized in more categories had enough voters seen it before nominations voting ended. Thanks to Danielle Deadwyler’s roundly lauded performance,...
- 10/25/2022
- by Ronald Meyer
- Gold Derby
Poland has submitted “Eo” for Best International Film at the 95th Academy Awards. Eo is a gray donkey with melancholic eyes and a curious spirit. He begins his life as a circus performer before escaping on a trek across the Polish and Italian countryside in a journey marked by absurdity and warmth in equal measure. Legendary filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski directs one of his most free and visually inventive films yet, placing the viewer directly in the heart and mind of the four-legged protagonist.
See 2023 Oscars: Best International Feature Predictions [Updated: October 2]
“Eo” was a Palme d’Or nominee and won a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It is scheduled to premiere in New York on November 18 and Los Angeles on December 2. Watch the trailer below.
“It left me shattered…just being there, quietly weeping, with others gave me a sense of communion,” said Manohla Dargis of The New York Times.
See 2023 Oscars: Best International Feature Predictions [Updated: October 2]
“Eo” was a Palme d’Or nominee and won a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It is scheduled to premiere in New York on November 18 and Los Angeles on December 2. Watch the trailer below.
“It left me shattered…just being there, quietly weeping, with others gave me a sense of communion,” said Manohla Dargis of The New York Times.
- 10/6/2022
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
“Blonde” author Joyce Carol Oates, who penned the biographical fiction novel that the Netflix film is based on, has weighed in on the discourse surrounding Andrew Dominik’s controversial portrait of Marilyn Monroe. On Friday, Oates answered some burning questions from fans via Twitter, including about backlash the film has received that it exploits Monroe’s trauma.
Dubbed a fictionalized retelling of the movie star’s life and untimely death, “Blonde” loosely recreates several tragedies during the life of Monroe (Ana de Armas), including the abuse she endured from her mother and the sexual assaults she experienced in Hollywood. In addition to fan outrage on social media, the movie has also been panned by several film critics, including The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis, who wrote in her review: “Given all the indignities and horrors that Marilyn Monroe endured during her 36 years, it is a relief that she didn’t...
Dubbed a fictionalized retelling of the movie star’s life and untimely death, “Blonde” loosely recreates several tragedies during the life of Monroe (Ana de Armas), including the abuse she endured from her mother and the sexual assaults she experienced in Hollywood. In addition to fan outrage on social media, the movie has also been panned by several film critics, including The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis, who wrote in her review: “Given all the indignities and horrors that Marilyn Monroe endured during her 36 years, it is a relief that she didn’t...
- 9/30/2022
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde,” starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, skyrocketed to the top of Netflix’s movie chart after its first day available to stream, but the Nc-17 drama is leaving many subscribers outraged. The film may have been the talk of the Venice Film Festival with its 14-minute standing ovation, but critics and viewers are calling it “sexist,” “cruel” and “one of the most detestable movies” ever made.
“Given all the indignities and horrors that Marilyn Monroe endured during her 36 years, it is a relief that she didn’t have to suffer through the vulgarities of ‘Blonde,’ the latest necrophiliac entertainment to exploit her,” wrote The New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis, who panned the movie in her review.
“Blonde” is based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name and loosely recreates the many heartbreaks and tragedies of Monroe’s life and career,...
“Given all the indignities and horrors that Marilyn Monroe endured during her 36 years, it is a relief that she didn’t have to suffer through the vulgarities of ‘Blonde,’ the latest necrophiliac entertainment to exploit her,” wrote The New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis, who panned the movie in her review.
“Blonde” is based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name and loosely recreates the many heartbreaks and tragedies of Monroe’s life and career,...
- 9/29/2022
- by Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
One problem with being The New York Times—big, lumbering, important—is that you sometimes get in your own way. It happens even when you cover the movies. Every now and then, you find yourself looking at a picture that’s looking at you. And that can be awkward.
Just such a moment is pending, as The Times prepares to deal with She Said, Maria Schrader’s film about the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of Harvey Weinstein and sex abuse by two of its reporters, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.
That was a proud enterprise for the paper, the kind of reporting it’s supposed to do. But past triumph won’t make it any easier for the Times‘ critics and cultural reporters to cover the film when Universal unveils it at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 13, at a world premiere that will find their two colleagues on-stage with the actresses who portray them,...
Just such a moment is pending, as The Times prepares to deal with She Said, Maria Schrader’s film about the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of Harvey Weinstein and sex abuse by two of its reporters, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.
That was a proud enterprise for the paper, the kind of reporting it’s supposed to do. But past triumph won’t make it any easier for the Times‘ critics and cultural reporters to cover the film when Universal unveils it at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 13, at a world premiere that will find their two colleagues on-stage with the actresses who portray them,...
- 9/23/2022
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSKing Lear.Jean-Luc Godard, groundbreaking French-Swiss filmmaker across six decades, died last week at age 91. In the week since, a number of tributes have been shared: among them, Blair McClendon in n+1, J. Hoberman in The Nation, Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, and Richard Hell in Screen Slate. Alternatively, you can find a 2002 essay on Godard by filmmaker and theorist Peter Wollen on Verso's blog, watch a 1988 conversation between Godard and critic Serge Daney, or read this list Godard contributed to the British film journal Afterimage in 1970. Shadow and Act founder Tambay Obenson is fundraising to launch Akoroko, a new platform devoted to African film and television. The platform intends to combine film journalism with “consultation, cataloging, and curated film streaming.”Two posters (below) for the 61st New York Film Festival feature photographs taken by Nan Goldin.
- 9/20/2022
- MUBI
A man who met writer-director Paul Schrader at a campus event at their Michigan alma mater has filed a lawsuit alleging that Schrader later stole his ideas and used them in the film “The Card Counter.”
Mark Vanden Berge alleges in the suit that he met Schrader after a screening of “First Reformed” at Calvin University, a Christian college in Grand Rapids, in February 2018. He says he told Schrader about a treatment he was working on for a film called “Blown Odds,” about a gambler’s search for redemption, and asked Schrader for help developing it into a marketable screenplay.
According to the suit, Schrader told him to email him the treatment. Vanden Berge sent it to him, according to the suit, but never heard back from Schrader directly, though he says he was told that Schrader had received it.
“The Card Counter,” Schrader’s subsequent film, was announced in late 2019. It,...
Mark Vanden Berge alleges in the suit that he met Schrader after a screening of “First Reformed” at Calvin University, a Christian college in Grand Rapids, in February 2018. He says he told Schrader about a treatment he was working on for a film called “Blown Odds,” about a gambler’s search for redemption, and asked Schrader for help developing it into a marketable screenplay.
According to the suit, Schrader told him to email him the treatment. Vanden Berge sent it to him, according to the suit, but never heard back from Schrader directly, though he says he was told that Schrader had received it.
“The Card Counter,” Schrader’s subsequent film, was announced in late 2019. It,...
- 9/3/2022
- by Gene Maddaus
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
It was a typically sunny day when Woody Allen, Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell arrived at the 2007 Venice International Film Festival for the world premiere of Cassandra’s Dream, which screened as part of the fest’s Venice Masters sidebar. But the film itself proved to be one of Allen’s darkest efforts, the tale of two cockney brothers, down on their luck, who agree to commit a murder with tragic results.
Eschewing his usual laughs, Allen defended the grim drama, explaining at a press conference, “I have always felt that life itself is a tremendously tragic event, a real mess. It has comic moments in it. There are moments of pleasure and moments that are amusing, but basically it is tragic. I have always wanted to be a tragic writer — a writer of tragic material. It just so happened that my most obvious strengths have been comic.
It was a typically sunny day when Woody Allen, Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell arrived at the 2007 Venice International Film Festival for the world premiere of Cassandra’s Dream, which screened as part of the fest’s Venice Masters sidebar. But the film itself proved to be one of Allen’s darkest efforts, the tale of two cockney brothers, down on their luck, who agree to commit a murder with tragic results.
Eschewing his usual laughs, Allen defended the grim drama, explaining at a press conference, “I have always felt that life itself is a tremendously tragic event, a real mess. It has comic moments in it. There are moments of pleasure and moments that are amusing, but basically it is tragic. I have always wanted to be a tragic writer — a writer of tragic material. It just so happened that my most obvious strengths have been comic.
- 8/31/2022
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Gregory Peck was angry. As president of the Motion Picture Academy, the star announced he would veto the admission of a new voting member on grounds that he lacked professional qualifications. The Academy was becoming too populist in 1967, he argued. It must retain its elite status.
The individual he wanted to veto was me. In retrospect I wish his ban had been successful but it was soon overturned (details below).
I wonder how Peck, as a stickler for his profession, would respond to recent Academy decisions about its show, its awards and its membership. Witness the new campaign to create an #OscarFanFavorite — a popular film to be selected by Twitter and presented by an Oscar fan. In addition, eight of the 23 awards will be presented prior to the show, then edited for later use on a streamlined live Oscarcast.
With its ever-expanding list of 10,000-plus members, these moves would suggest...
The individual he wanted to veto was me. In retrospect I wish his ban had been successful but it was soon overturned (details below).
I wonder how Peck, as a stickler for his profession, would respond to recent Academy decisions about its show, its awards and its membership. Witness the new campaign to create an #OscarFanFavorite — a popular film to be selected by Twitter and presented by an Oscar fan. In addition, eight of the 23 awards will be presented prior to the show, then edited for later use on a streamlined live Oscarcast.
With its ever-expanding list of 10,000-plus members, these moves would suggest...
- 2/25/2022
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWerner Herzog is set to publish his first novel, a semi-fictional retelling of the story of Hiroo Onda. A friend of Herzog, Onda is a former Japanese soldier known for spending 29 years in the jungle on an island in the Philippines, refusing to surrender at the end of World War II. Penguin Random House states that the novel is written in "an inimitable, hypnotic style—part documentary, part poem, and part dream." Following his erotic nunsploitation film Benedetta, Paul Verhoeven is making the erotic political thriller Young Sinner. The film, according to Verhoeven and RoboCop co-writer Edward Neumeier, will take place in Washington DC and focus on a young staffer "drawn into a web of international intrigue and danger." As this is a Verhoeven film, Neumeir promises that there will be "also be a little sex.
- 12/13/2021
- MUBI
The Oscar-contending documentary The Velvet Underground, about the influential 1960s avant-garde rock band fronted by Lou Reed, has been praised as a “superb testament to a lost world that helped make our own.”
Those words come from New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who listed The Velvet Underground as number three among her choice of the year’s best films—fiction or nonfiction (her colleague A.O. Scott also put it on his top 10 list).
The praise not only recognizes the work of director Todd Haynes—the longtime filmmaker who makes his documentary debut with The Velvet Underground—but his collaborators, including editors Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz, and cinematographer Ed Lachman.
Over the course of his long career, Lachman has shot documentaries and scripted films, and earned Oscar nominations for two of Haynes’ dramatic features, Carol (2015), and Far From Heaven (2002). He says he doesn’t alter his approach to photography...
Those words come from New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who listed The Velvet Underground as number three among her choice of the year’s best films—fiction or nonfiction (her colleague A.O. Scott also put it on his top 10 list).
The praise not only recognizes the work of director Todd Haynes—the longtime filmmaker who makes his documentary debut with The Velvet Underground—but his collaborators, including editors Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz, and cinematographer Ed Lachman.
Over the course of his long career, Lachman has shot documentaries and scripted films, and earned Oscar nominations for two of Haynes’ dramatic features, Carol (2015), and Far From Heaven (2002). He says he doesn’t alter his approach to photography...
- 12/10/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Memoria (2021)Distributor Neon has announced its release plans for Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria: Playing only in theaters, Memoria will be “moving from city to city, theater to theater, week by week, playing in front of only one solitary audience at any given time.”Tilda Swinton and George Mackay will be starring in the next film by Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence). Titled The End, the film has been described as a "a Golden Age musical about the last human family." Co-programmed by James Hansen & Eric Souther, Light Matter Festival is a new "moving-image art festival dedicated to experimental film and media arts." Taking place in Alfred, New York, the festival will be screening films by Simon Liu, Mary Helena Clark, Lynne Sachs, and more. Sylvester Stallone's...
- 10/6/2021
- MUBI
Lewis Klahr's Circumstantial Pleasures is exclusively showing on Mubi starting June 23, 2021 in many countries in the Undiscovered series. Two quotes and an interview segment were sent by Klahr as an introduction to the film."Leaving the seductive mid-century imagery that he’s best known for far behind, 'Circumstantial Pleasures' looks at the raw materials of contemporary life and distills them into a demanding and powerful work of anxiety, alienation, agitation, and abrasion. The film consists of six short works (ranging from two to 22 minutes) that convey the experience of being alive in the 21st century in ways that few other films have…
When 'Circumstantial Pleasures' premiered at Light Industry just as the pandemic’s spread was becoming more evident, a common audience response was how prescient the work was. And it’s true that the images of folks in N95 masks and hazmat suits hit much differently now than...
When 'Circumstantial Pleasures' premiered at Light Industry just as the pandemic’s spread was becoming more evident, a common audience response was how prescient the work was. And it’s true that the images of folks in N95 masks and hazmat suits hit much differently now than...
- 6/23/2021
- MUBI
At the height of the pandemic last year, festival head Thierry Fremaux created a branded Cannes 2020 “official selection” of 56 titles for a festival that did not exist. A year later, Cannes 2021 will be on the ground July 6-17 with 18 months’ worth of selections. It’s a transition year, heading toward a return to full power in May 2022.
For now, that means the bulging global 2021 selection will give critics plenty to write about, but the festival is missing some of the usual red carpet bells and whistles that lures auteurs and celebrities to the Cote d’Azur for flashing photo calls and late-night offshore yacht revels. While many filmmakers are eager to show their work in big movie theaters, there will be fewer people to watch them do it. That could have a trickle-down effect: It’s harder to create a media frenzy over the next “Parasite” when there’s fewer people to be frantic.
For now, that means the bulging global 2021 selection will give critics plenty to write about, but the festival is missing some of the usual red carpet bells and whistles that lures auteurs and celebrities to the Cote d’Azur for flashing photo calls and late-night offshore yacht revels. While many filmmakers are eager to show their work in big movie theaters, there will be fewer people to watch them do it. That could have a trickle-down effect: It’s harder to create a media frenzy over the next “Parasite” when there’s fewer people to be frantic.
- 6/3/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
At the height of the pandemic last year, festival head Thierry Fremaux created a branded Cannes 2020 “official selection” of 56 titles for a festival that did not exist. A year later, Cannes 2021 will be on the ground July 6-17 with 18 months’ worth of selections. It’s a transition year, heading toward a return to full power in May 2022.
For now, that means the bulging global 2021 selection will give critics plenty to write about, but the festival is missing some of the usual red carpet bells and whistles that lures auteurs and celebrities to the Cote d’Azur for flashing photo calls and late-night offshore yacht revels. While many filmmakers are eager to show their work in big movie theaters, there will be fewer people to watch them do it. That could have a trickle-down effect: It’s harder to create a media frenzy over the next “Parasite” when there’s fewer people to be frantic.
For now, that means the bulging global 2021 selection will give critics plenty to write about, but the festival is missing some of the usual red carpet bells and whistles that lures auteurs and celebrities to the Cote d’Azur for flashing photo calls and late-night offshore yacht revels. While many filmmakers are eager to show their work in big movie theaters, there will be fewer people to watch them do it. That could have a trickle-down effect: It’s harder to create a media frenzy over the next “Parasite” when there’s fewer people to be frantic.
- 6/3/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Katherine Waterston is as fatigued as anyone by what she describes as “the absence of flow” created by a life lived on Zoom. But even from a virtual interview out of her London home, close to where she’s filming the third “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the actress is poised, curious, and overflowing with openness about her experience filming “The World to Come.”
The ravishing romance takes place in 19th-century upstate New York, where two women (Waterston and Vanessa Kirby) cobble together an intellectual and erotic connection amid the soul-crushing frontier. It’s easily career-best work from this focused, fiercely intelligent performer who first wowed audiences in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice.”
“Paul really did pluck me from obscurity,” she said of her breakout role in the shaggy 2014 Thomas Pynchon adaptation, where she starred as the elusive femme fatale Shasta Fay, ever out of Joaquin Phoenix...
The ravishing romance takes place in 19th-century upstate New York, where two women (Waterston and Vanessa Kirby) cobble together an intellectual and erotic connection amid the soul-crushing frontier. It’s easily career-best work from this focused, fiercely intelligent performer who first wowed audiences in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice.”
“Paul really did pluck me from obscurity,” she said of her breakout role in the shaggy 2014 Thomas Pynchon adaptation, where she starred as the elusive femme fatale Shasta Fay, ever out of Joaquin Phoenix...
- 3/2/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Joan Micklin Silver on the set of Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979). Trailblazing filmmaker Joan Micklin Silver, best known for films Hester Street (1975) and Crossing Delancey (1988), has died. In an interview with Film Comment in 2017, Silver described the will she possessed as a woman filmmaker who wished to spotlight stories about female relationships and women's labor: "I didn’t want to feel like the woman director. I wanted to feel like one of many women directors."The 71st edition of the Berlin Film Festival will be replacing this year's physical event with a virtual European Film Market in March, and a "mini-festival with a series of onsite world premieres" in June.The International Film Festival Rotterdam has also announced the lineup for this year's hybrid multi-part 50th edition, to be presented between February 1-...
- 1/6/2021
- MUBI
Warner Bros. isn’t reporting any official box office results for Wonder Woman 1984 on its opening Christmas Day — which various sources tell us was record-worthy for the pandemic stateside, disastrous by normal marketplace conditions — but various HBO Max users are taking to social media, in particular the @HBOMaxHelp Twitter handle, to voice their grievances over either streaming glitches or problems logging on to the app.
There haven’t been any blackouts yet for HBO Max because of the DC sequel tentpole hitting the service as of 12 p.m. Est yesterday. But should they occur, it’s par for the course whenever a popular title hits streaming (i.e. Netflix’s two-hour outage back in 2016 when Marvel series Luke Cage dropped).
An HBO Max rep tells us this morning, “HBO Max did not experience any significant disruptions.”
One viewer today on the @HBOMaxHelp Twitter reported problems in watching the Patty Jenkins...
There haven’t been any blackouts yet for HBO Max because of the DC sequel tentpole hitting the service as of 12 p.m. Est yesterday. But should they occur, it’s par for the course whenever a popular title hits streaming (i.e. Netflix’s two-hour outage back in 2016 when Marvel series Luke Cage dropped).
An HBO Max rep tells us this morning, “HBO Max did not experience any significant disruptions.”
One viewer today on the @HBOMaxHelp Twitter reported problems in watching the Patty Jenkins...
- 12/26/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe cover for the new issue of Cahiers du Cinema is a patchwork tribute to the erratic year of 2020. Frederick Wiseman's City Hall also tops the Cahiers list of this year's top ten films. Actress and screenwriter Daria Nicolodi, best known for co-writing Dario Argento's Suspiria and appearing in a number of Argento's Giallo classics like Deep Red and Inferno, has died. Recommended VIEWINGAnthology Film Archives is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a showcase of video tributes from a wide range of artists, filmmakers, and scholars, including Bette Gordon, Abel Ferrara, Nathaniel Dorsky, and Michael Snow. They've also made available a free recreation of their inaugural program from November 30, 1970, featuring films by Georges Méliès, Joseph Cornell, Jerome Hill and Harry Smith. The curators of the Museum of Modern Art and the Berlinale...
- 12/3/2020
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: The Hour of the Furnace by Fernando Solanas.Argentinian filmmaker Fernando Solanas, best known for his 1968 documentary The Hour of the Furnace and his manifesto "Toward a Third Cinema", has died. Celine Sciamma has started filming her follow-up to Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The film, entitled Petite Maman, will be filmed by regular collaborator Claire Mathon and will focus on the childhood of two eight-year old kids. Although her adaptation of Denis Johnson's Stars at Noon has been delayed, Claire Denis will be reteaming with Juliette Binoche and Bastards star Vincent Lindon for a still-untitled film. Sean Baker has also confirmed that his "secret movie" called Red Rocket, starring Simon Rex (of the Scary Movie franchise), will complete shooting this month. Recommended VIEWINGStarting on November 16, Jr and Alice Rohrwacher's...
- 11/11/2020
- MUBI
An unconventional Oscar contender for Best Documentary Feature premiered on Netflix on October 2: “Dick Johnson is Dead,” in which filmmaker Kirsten Johnson directs her father, retired clinical psychologist Richard Johnson, in a series of death enactments as a means of coping with his actual impending death. What do critics think of this unique, tragicomic approach to mortality?
Well, they love it. As of this writing the film has a MetaCritic score of 88 based on 21 reviews counted thus far, all of them positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film is just as universally loved with a perfect 100% freshness rating based on 43 reviews. The Rt critics consensus says that the film “celebrates a life with bittersweet humor and grace, offering a deeply resonant perspective on mortality in the bargain.”
SEE2021 Oscars: ‘Crip Camp,’ ‘Boys State,’ ‘Time’ among leading documentary feature contenders
The film is being described as “weird,” “disarming,” “slippery,” “lightly blasphemous and inventive.
Well, they love it. As of this writing the film has a MetaCritic score of 88 based on 21 reviews counted thus far, all of them positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film is just as universally loved with a perfect 100% freshness rating based on 43 reviews. The Rt critics consensus says that the film “celebrates a life with bittersweet humor and grace, offering a deeply resonant perspective on mortality in the bargain.”
SEE2021 Oscars: ‘Crip Camp,’ ‘Boys State,’ ‘Time’ among leading documentary feature contenders
The film is being described as “weird,” “disarming,” “slippery,” “lightly blasphemous and inventive.
- 10/4/2020
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
The Devil All The Time hit Netflix on Wednesday (September 16), with Antonio Campos (2016’s Christine) directing a cast crammed with stars like Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgård, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Sebastian Stan, Haley Bennett, Eliza Scanlen, Mia Wasikowska and Robert Pattinson.
Based on a novel by Donald Ray Pollock, The Devil All The Time is a Southern Gothic, a mix of murder mystery and psychological thriller — with a touch of horror — that focuses on the inhabitants of a town called Knockemstiff, Ohio and their intertwined post-World War II history of murder, adultery, madness, depravity and religious fanaticism.
The 2011 novel was praised by outlets such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly, with French literary journal Lire even naming it the best novel of the year. That made it a natural to be turned into the kind of adult-oriented melodrama that the major studios have largely abandoned,...
Based on a novel by Donald Ray Pollock, The Devil All The Time is a Southern Gothic, a mix of murder mystery and psychological thriller — with a touch of horror — that focuses on the inhabitants of a town called Knockemstiff, Ohio and their intertwined post-World War II history of murder, adultery, madness, depravity and religious fanaticism.
The 2011 novel was praised by outlets such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly, with French literary journal Lire even naming it the best novel of the year. That made it a natural to be turned into the kind of adult-oriented melodrama that the major studios have largely abandoned,...
- 9/17/2020
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
New York Times staffers bitterly complained on social media today after the newspaper’s opinion section ran a column from Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton that called on President Donald Trump to “Send in the troops.”
Cotton, a notoriously pro-Trump supporter, asked the President to mobilize the military to quell civil unrest in many major Us cities. The column was titled Tom Cotton: Send in the Troops.
While Los Angeles and Washington, DC, among other cities, have brought in the National Guard, there are some holdouts resisting troop insertion, including New York City.
Many NY Times staffers began tweeting a similar message in response to Cotton’s column alongside an image of the headline (see below): Running this puts Black @NYTimes staff in danger.:
The Times staffers were a mix of editorial and production, including restaurant critics, graphics producers, culture reporters, tech writers and opinion writer Roxane Gay.
“Surreal...
Cotton, a notoriously pro-Trump supporter, asked the President to mobilize the military to quell civil unrest in many major Us cities. The column was titled Tom Cotton: Send in the Troops.
While Los Angeles and Washington, DC, among other cities, have brought in the National Guard, there are some holdouts resisting troop insertion, including New York City.
Many NY Times staffers began tweeting a similar message in response to Cotton’s column alongside an image of the headline (see below): Running this puts Black @NYTimes staff in danger.:
The Times staffers were a mix of editorial and production, including restaurant critics, graphics producers, culture reporters, tech writers and opinion writer Roxane Gay.
“Surreal...
- 6/4/2020
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
The Cannes Film Festival is living on this month thanks in part to The New York Times, which gathered 23 of the world’s most prominent filmmakers to share with critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott their best memories from attending the world’s most prestigious festival. Two of the wildest Cannes stories belong to Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie, the brothers behind indie favorites “Heaven Knows What,” “Good Time,” and “Uncut Gems.” Only the Safdie brothers would have Cannes stories that would make for pretty amazing Safdie brothers movies.
Benny Safdie first attended Cannes in 2008 to world premiere his short film “The Acquaintances of a Lonely John” at Directors’ Fortnight. Benny got fined by a police officer for riding a motor scooter without a helmet and had to go to the police station to pay it off. A man named Jean-Marie Beulaygue was the chief of police at the time...
Benny Safdie first attended Cannes in 2008 to world premiere his short film “The Acquaintances of a Lonely John” at Directors’ Fortnight. Benny got fined by a police officer for riding a motor scooter without a helmet and had to go to the police station to pay it off. A man named Jean-Marie Beulaygue was the chief of police at the time...
- 5/15/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is one of the latest film festivals to announce its cancellation, as it will be moving its edition to July 2021. The Oscars have announced changes to the rules of next year's Awards ceremony, including "temporarily" eased restrictions on films debuting through streaming or VOD. Recommended VIEWINGSofia Bohdanowicz's new short, The Hardest Working Cat in Showbiz, adapts the essay of the same name by critic and filmmaker Dan Salitt. The film, which explores the filmography of the prolific cat actor Orangey, also stars Salitt and his cat Jasper. You can now watch parts of Ilya Khrzhanovsky's controversial Dau online. The massive project, which is divided into twelve chapters that follow residents of a scientific community in Soviet Russia, can be viewed with an online ticket. Read our review of two Dau chapters,...
- 4/29/2020
- MUBI
“I have some big news,” the Los Angeles Times lead film critic Kenneth Turan tweeted on Wednesday. “After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.’ Looking forward to what’s to come.”
The outpouring of praise for Turan, who is 73, was intense and immediate. “The maestro takes a bow,” responded The New York Times lead film critic A.O. Scott on Twitter, who himself stepped down from full-time daily criticism on March 15 for one year, leaving that task to his fellow lead critic Manohla Dargis. In his case, taking the title of Critic at Large as he writes “bigger, cross-topic essays,” per The Nyt,...
The outpouring of praise for Turan, who is 73, was intense and immediate. “The maestro takes a bow,” responded The New York Times lead film critic A.O. Scott on Twitter, who himself stepped down from full-time daily criticism on March 15 for one year, leaving that task to his fellow lead critic Manohla Dargis. In his case, taking the title of Critic at Large as he writes “bigger, cross-topic essays,” per The Nyt,...
- 3/26/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
“I have some big news,” the Los Angeles Times lead film critic Kenneth Turan tweeted on Wednesday. “After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.’ Looking forward to what’s to come.”
The outpouring of praise for Turan, who is 73, was intense and immediate. “The maestro takes a bow,” responded The New York Times lead film critic A.O. Scott on Twitter, who himself stepped down from full-time daily criticism on March 15 for one year, leaving that task to his fellow lead critic Manohla Dargis. In his case, taking the title of Critic at Large as he writes “bigger, cross-topic essays,” per The Nyt,...
The outpouring of praise for Turan, who is 73, was intense and immediate. “The maestro takes a bow,” responded The New York Times lead film critic A.O. Scott on Twitter, who himself stepped down from full-time daily criticism on March 15 for one year, leaving that task to his fellow lead critic Manohla Dargis. In his case, taking the title of Critic at Large as he writes “bigger, cross-topic essays,” per The Nyt,...
- 3/26/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
A few days before the 92nd Academy Awards ended with what was possibly the most seismic Best Picture winner of this young century, over at the L.A. Times, Justin Chang wondered whether the Oscars needed a Parasite win more than Bong Joon-ho’s nominee needed the coveted statuette. “A best picture Oscar will not make 'Parasite' a greater movie than it is, and a loss will not diminish its greatness,” for the crucial question was ultimately one for the Academy to answer:Do Oscar voters want to make this kind of history? Does an academy that has made sweeping efforts to diversify its ranks and broaden its international reach over the past few years actually care about achieving the logical outcome of those efforts? Will the membership ever acknowledge that cinema is and always has been a global medium, that no national cinema has a monopoly on greatness...
- 2/14/2020
- MUBI
With Oscar ballots filed, we’re forging ahead with our third annual series of interviews with Academy voters from different branches for their candid thoughts on what got picked, overlooked, and overvalued this year.
Best Picture
Nine is too many. This was a lackluster year. I struggled to come up with five. We know the Academy is all about the actors, the largest group of people who dominate and decide everything!
“Parasite.” It’s an invigorating movie to watch. Bong Joon Ho took me places I didn’t think I was going to go. The performances are great. The story it told at this moment in time of the haves and have-nots was fascinating. The humor, we need humor! In all this grimness. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has humor within the story. Even “The Irishman” has moments of humor; it helps to leaven the grimness. I liked “Parasite” the best.
Best Picture
Nine is too many. This was a lackluster year. I struggled to come up with five. We know the Academy is all about the actors, the largest group of people who dominate and decide everything!
“Parasite.” It’s an invigorating movie to watch. Bong Joon Ho took me places I didn’t think I was going to go. The performances are great. The story it told at this moment in time of the haves and have-nots was fascinating. The humor, we need humor! In all this grimness. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has humor within the story. Even “The Irishman” has moments of humor; it helps to leaven the grimness. I liked “Parasite” the best.
- 2/8/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
With Oscar ballots filed, we’re forging ahead with our third annual series of interviews with Academy voters from different branches for their candid thoughts on what got picked, overlooked, and overvalued this year.
Best Picture
Nine is too many. This was a lackluster year. I struggled to come up with five. We know the Academy is all about the actors, the largest group of people who dominate and decide everything!
“Parasite.” It’s an invigorating movie to watch. Bong Joon Ho took me places I didn’t think I was going to go. The performances are great. The story it told at this moment in time of the haves and have-nots was fascinating. The humor, we need humor! In all this grimness. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has humor within the story. Even “The Irishman” has moments of humor; it helps to leaven the grimness. I liked “Parasite” the best.
Best Picture
Nine is too many. This was a lackluster year. I struggled to come up with five. We know the Academy is all about the actors, the largest group of people who dominate and decide everything!
“Parasite.” It’s an invigorating movie to watch. Bong Joon Ho took me places I didn’t think I was going to go. The performances are great. The story it told at this moment in time of the haves and have-nots was fascinating. The humor, we need humor! In all this grimness. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has humor within the story. Even “The Irishman” has moments of humor; it helps to leaven the grimness. I liked “Parasite” the best.
- 2/8/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Critics were already stunned and perplexed when Robert Downey Jr. chose to follow-up his stint in the Marvel films to star in “Dolittle,” and they’re even more confused after seeing the film that they’re calling a “calamity for the ages” and a “haphazard mess.”
Universal Pictures’ “Dolittle,” a family-friendly adventure comedy from director Stephen Gaghan based on Hugh Lofting’s beloved children’s character who can talk to animals, has just a 13% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 67 reviews. Critics who saw the film have called attention to its extensive reshoots and revisions, though for some even that doesn’t explain how much they hated it.
And perhaps unlike Universal’s other CGI-heavy and furry misfire “Cats,” “Dolittle” might not even fall into so-bad-its-good territory.
Also Read: 'Dolittle' Film Review: Robert Downey Jr. Can Talk to the Animals, But You'll Wish He Wouldn't
“Every frame, every cut feels off.
Universal Pictures’ “Dolittle,” a family-friendly adventure comedy from director Stephen Gaghan based on Hugh Lofting’s beloved children’s character who can talk to animals, has just a 13% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 67 reviews. Critics who saw the film have called attention to its extensive reshoots and revisions, though for some even that doesn’t explain how much they hated it.
And perhaps unlike Universal’s other CGI-heavy and furry misfire “Cats,” “Dolittle” might not even fall into so-bad-its-good territory.
Also Read: 'Dolittle' Film Review: Robert Downey Jr. Can Talk to the Animals, But You'll Wish He Wouldn't
“Every frame, every cut feels off.
- 1/16/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
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