Writer-director Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams opens on a nighttime shot of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan skyline in the distance. The year is 1984, and the Twin Towers loom, figuratively and literally, as ghostly figures. Berger’s breathtaking adaptation of Sara Varon’s graphic novel of the same name isn’t about the towers in any specific fashion, but about a world in which change is the only constant, life of any kind is at the mercy of randomness, and joy and melancholy are in ongoing symbiosis. In other words, our world—albeit one populated here, not by humans, but by anthropomorphic, humanoid animals.
Our surrogate in this world is Dog. At home by himself on a summer night, he’s drawn to a television commercial’s beckoning text (“Are you alone?”) and orders the product advertised, initially unseen by the viewer. Robot is soon delivered (some assembly required), and...
Our surrogate in this world is Dog. At home by himself on a summer night, he’s drawn to a television commercial’s beckoning text (“Are you alone?”) and orders the product advertised, initially unseen by the viewer. Robot is soon delivered (some assembly required), and...
- 5/26/2024
- by Rob Humanick
- Slant Magazine
John Krasinski’s “If” presents a menagerie of celebrity-voiced imaginary friends who are in search of existential purpose after their kids grow up and forget them. Enter Ryan Reynolds, who runs a matchmaking service for the “IFs,” who live in a secluded retirement home at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park in Coney Island.
Framestore handled the audacious fusion of live-action and CG animation and VFX (800 shots) spread across their London, Montreal, and Mumbai studios. Led by animation director Arslan Elver and VFX supervisor Chris Lawrence, the team worked closely with director-actor Krasinski to get believable performances out of the IFs on set or in post. Krasinski saw them as visceral, hyper-real puppets. The techniques included stand-ins to help the voice actors deliver full performances, placing the animated characters in the shot with VR, or the use of home-shot reference footage from the animators.
There are three hero characters: Blue (Steve Carell), a sweet,...
Framestore handled the audacious fusion of live-action and CG animation and VFX (800 shots) spread across their London, Montreal, and Mumbai studios. Led by animation director Arslan Elver and VFX supervisor Chris Lawrence, the team worked closely with director-actor Krasinski to get believable performances out of the IFs on set or in post. Krasinski saw them as visceral, hyper-real puppets. The techniques included stand-ins to help the voice actors deliver full performances, placing the animated characters in the shot with VR, or the use of home-shot reference footage from the animators.
There are three hero characters: Blue (Steve Carell), a sweet,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Spoiler Alert: The following review contains some spoilers.
Like a rose blooming amid a minefield, it’s a miracle that Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” exists: a south-of-the-border pop opera about a most unlikely metamorphosis and the personal redemption it awakens in a stone-cold criminal.
With a Palme d’Or to his name and the cojones to tackle his third movie in a culture and language that are not his own (after “Dheepan” and “The Sisters Brothers”), the director of “A Prophet” takes audiences into the macho realm of Mexican cartels, where Manitas del Monte — a fearsome drug lord with a silver grill and a voice like gravel — wants out, not because he’s had a crisis of conscience, but because he’s decided to embrace his true self … as a woman.
Pardon me if I’ve mixed up the pronouns there. Audiard’s dazzling and instantly divisive film — which...
Like a rose blooming amid a minefield, it’s a miracle that Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” exists: a south-of-the-border pop opera about a most unlikely metamorphosis and the personal redemption it awakens in a stone-cold criminal.
With a Palme d’Or to his name and the cojones to tackle his third movie in a culture and language that are not his own (after “Dheepan” and “The Sisters Brothers”), the director of “A Prophet” takes audiences into the macho realm of Mexican cartels, where Manitas del Monte — a fearsome drug lord with a silver grill and a voice like gravel — wants out, not because he’s had a crisis of conscience, but because he’s decided to embrace his true self … as a woman.
Pardon me if I’ve mixed up the pronouns there. Audiard’s dazzling and instantly divisive film — which...
- 5/18/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Clockwise from top left: The Big Lebowski (Universal), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Warner Bros.), Half Baked (Universal/Screenshot/YouTube), Heavy Metal (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)Graphic: AVClub
Congratulations, you’re high (in a state where it’s legal)! Depending on your mood and level of baked, you may find yourself...
Congratulations, you’re high (in a state where it’s legal)! Depending on your mood and level of baked, you may find yourself...
- 4/20/2024
- by Stacie Hougland
- avclub.com
The preview opening of the new exhibit Meet the Stars: 100 Years of MGM Studios and the Golden Age of Hollywood on Thursday night was a crowded, buzzing affair. Held at the Hollywood Heritage Museum in the historic Lasky DeMille Barn across from the Hollywood Bowl, the event showcased the items of over 20 movie collectors. Memorabilia hunters, dressed in fedoras and flirty ’40s dresses, gabbed about their latest finds with others who have a similar passion.
The highlight of the night was when the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to former MGM child star Cora Sue Collins (who played a little Greta Garbo in 1933’s Queen Christina), the last surviving MGM contract player from the 1930s. Sitting at a tableau that recreated a party thrown for her by MGM in 1935, Collins elegantly thanked everyone for their well wishes. Actor George Chakiris was also in attendance, and he posed next to a costume...
The highlight of the night was when the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to former MGM child star Cora Sue Collins (who played a little Greta Garbo in 1933’s Queen Christina), the last surviving MGM contract player from the 1930s. Sitting at a tableau that recreated a party thrown for her by MGM in 1935, Collins elegantly thanked everyone for their well wishes. Actor George Chakiris was also in attendance, and he posed next to a costume...
- 4/5/2024
- by Hadley Meares
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The musical sometimes feels like a relic of a long-dead Hollywood studio system, but it remains a genre that captures movies’ ability to create story worlds that move freely between reality and fantasy. The worst examples come from filmmakers who give license to music, color, and movement to run amok; the best transcend artifice and integrate songs that become expressions of pure character emotion. Musicals offer endless possibilities, but success demands a complete mastery of the medium.
The best movie musicals of all time have faced obstacles as varied as their creators’ styles and tastes. That’s in part because its integration of at least two art forms — music and film always, but sometimes also dance — demands an unusually high-caliber of multi-faceted talent from those attempting its complexities.
After Lee De Forest invented the “talky,” the opportunity oozing from that new tech prompted an industry rush on musicals in the last days of the 1920s.
The best movie musicals of all time have faced obstacles as varied as their creators’ styles and tastes. That’s in part because its integration of at least two art forms — music and film always, but sometimes also dance — demands an unusually high-caliber of multi-faceted talent from those attempting its complexities.
After Lee De Forest invented the “talky,” the opportunity oozing from that new tech prompted an industry rush on musicals in the last days of the 1920s.
- 3/20/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
All Ryan Gosling needed was a 40-piece orchestra, 62 dancing Kens, over 24 gigantic Barbie heads, four “cameo Kens” and a Guns N’Roses surprise to turn his highly anticipated performance of “Barbie” track “I’m Just Ken” into one of the most unbelievable moments in award show history.
After all the protracted speculation about whether Gosling would perform “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars, the news broke in late February that he had been confirmed for a song and dance extravaganza. But in fact, Oscars producers had been talking to Gosling for months.
“Ryan Gosling is a true professional, that man — we met with him on Zooms months ago, talking about that performance,” said Molly McNearney, who produced the show with Raj Kapoor, Katy Mullan and Rob Paine. “Greta Gerwig weighed in creatively as well. He was so committed to it. His choreographer, Mandy Moore, is exceptional — she was on all the calls.
After all the protracted speculation about whether Gosling would perform “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars, the news broke in late February that he had been confirmed for a song and dance extravaganza. But in fact, Oscars producers had been talking to Gosling for months.
“Ryan Gosling is a true professional, that man — we met with him on Zooms months ago, talking about that performance,” said Molly McNearney, who produced the show with Raj Kapoor, Katy Mullan and Rob Paine. “Greta Gerwig weighed in creatively as well. He was so committed to it. His choreographer, Mandy Moore, is exceptional — she was on all the calls.
- 3/11/2024
- by Meredith Woerner, Michael Schneider, Jazz Tangcay and Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams,” which gets a theatrical release from Neon at an as-yet-unannounced time this year, was one of the animated delights of 2023. The Spanish/French hand-drawn dramedy (adapted from Sarah Varon’s wordless graphic novel) concerns the bittersweet friendship between lonely Dog and Robot, which he buys for company, in a version of ’80s Manhattan populated with animals. It’s garnered awards buzz in a longshot quest for an Oscar nomination this season.
After premiering at Cannes, “Robot Dreams” earned the Annecy Contrecham Award along with The Animation Is Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize. It was also selected as the runner-up for Best Animated Film by both the Los Angeles and Boston Film Critics groups.
Although the Spanish director was enamored with the graphic novel when he read it in 2010, he didn’t consider turning it into an animated feature until after making two live-action films,...
After premiering at Cannes, “Robot Dreams” earned the Annecy Contrecham Award along with The Animation Is Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize. It was also selected as the runner-up for Best Animated Film by both the Los Angeles and Boston Film Critics groups.
Although the Spanish director was enamored with the graphic novel when he read it in 2010, he didn’t consider turning it into an animated feature until after making two live-action films,...
- 1/6/2024
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
One of the highlights of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is Kate Capshaw's energetic and flashy opening musical number. It's a rousing rendition of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" sung in Mandarin against an ever-increasing backdrop of complicated musical numbers harkening back to the heyday of famous choreographer and director Busby Berkeley. The song is a classic, and even appeared during the recent musical episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." In "Temple of Doom," it's a stunningly photographed sequence by Steven Spielberg's cinematographer, the late, great Douglas Slocombe with head-spinning camera moves and eye-popping color.
If you watch that sequence, everything seems to be designed to draw your eye to Willie Scott, just as if you were in the club watching her. While there are many reasons for this the main reason you can't take your eyes off of her is very simple: she's got on a super shiny dress.
If you watch that sequence, everything seems to be designed to draw your eye to Willie Scott, just as if you were in the club watching her. While there are many reasons for this the main reason you can't take your eyes off of her is very simple: she's got on a super shiny dress.
- 8/19/2023
- by Eric Vespe
- Slash Film
For director Anthony Stacchi (“The Box Trolls”), re-energizing the 16th-century Chinese novel “Journey to the West” for Netflix’s animated feature “The Monkey King” meant turning the titular character into something very modern: an antihero. This was supported by executive producer Stephen Chow (“Kung Fu Hustle”), who previously directed a live-action version of “Journey to the West.”
“Stephen Chow has made a career of making heroes out of really unlikeable jerks,” Stacchi told IndieWire. “And you stick with ’em on their journey ’cause you know why they are the way they are, and you’re hoping for them to redeem themselves. So we did that here. He is a selfish, arrogant jerk from the beginning, and that way through the end. But you understand why he’s fighting for acceptance, you know where his anti-authoritarian attitude comes from.”
They also emphasized a goofy tone throughout the journey, in which Monkey King...
“Stephen Chow has made a career of making heroes out of really unlikeable jerks,” Stacchi told IndieWire. “And you stick with ’em on their journey ’cause you know why they are the way they are, and you’re hoping for them to redeem themselves. So we did that here. He is a selfish, arrogant jerk from the beginning, and that way through the end. But you understand why he’s fighting for acceptance, you know where his anti-authoritarian attitude comes from.”
They also emphasized a goofy tone throughout the journey, in which Monkey King...
- 8/18/2023
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
It’s not unusual to see a musical based on a movie or TV show or even a comic. But “Rogers: The Musical” might be the first one created from a throwaway joke in a TV show spun-off from a film series based on comic books. Audiences can now check out the mini-musical, which runs about a tight half hour, at Disney California Adventure’s Hyperion Theater, through Aug. 31. I was lucky enough to witness the opening performance last week, followed by a panel discussion with some of the key creatives.
“Rogers” first came to life in the Disney+ show “Hawkeye,” in which Jeremy Renner’s titular Avenger finds himself taking in a Broadway show with his kids. The show hits a little too close to home, as it turns out to be an adaptation of the life of his friend Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America. The show...
“Rogers” first came to life in the Disney+ show “Hawkeye,” in which Jeremy Renner’s titular Avenger finds himself taking in a Broadway show with his kids. The show hits a little too close to home, as it turns out to be an adaptation of the life of his friend Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America. The show...
- 7/6/2023
- by Jenelle Riley
- Variety Film + TV
Eight minutes into Temple Of Doom, Indiana Jones kills someone by hurling a flaming kebab into his chest. As far as I’m aware, we hadn’t seen such a thing on screen before. Or in real life. It’s outrageous really, an insane thing to do, and to see. But all of Temple Of Doom is loopy. With Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas had made a genuinely classic film, got heaps of acclaim, and now here they were with a follow-up for which they, well, went mad. To which I say: Thank you.
Temple Of Doom is pulpier, funnier, sillier, scarier than Raiders. Each Indy outing is tonally different from the last; this one actually becomes a whole other film halfway through, switching unapologetically from knockabout farce to traumatic nightmare. And for all its faults – which, for all the film’s greatness, are admittedly plentiful – it is,...
Temple Of Doom is pulpier, funnier, sillier, scarier than Raiders. Each Indy outing is tonally different from the last; this one actually becomes a whole other film halfway through, switching unapologetically from knockabout farce to traumatic nightmare. And for all its faults – which, for all the film’s greatness, are admittedly plentiful – it is,...
- 6/22/2023
- by Alex Godfrey
- Empire - Movies
Tl;Dr:
The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour features a dance sequence set to the song “Your Mother Should Know.” Paul McCartney wore a black carnation in the scene while the other Beatles wore red carnations. This caused some fans to think Paul died and got replaced with a body double. The Beatles | Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer
The Beatles‘ Magical Mystery Tour made some fans think Paul McCartney was dead even though he appeared in the film. Paul discussed his feelings about this phenomenon. In addition, he discussed John Lennon’s dancing in the movie.
What Paul McCartney thought of John Lennon dancing in The Beatles’ ‘Magical Mystery Tour’
The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour movie features a dance sequence set to the song “Your Mother Should Know.” In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the “Your Mother Should Know” sequence. “The big prop was that great big staircase that we danced down,...
The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour features a dance sequence set to the song “Your Mother Should Know.” Paul McCartney wore a black carnation in the scene while the other Beatles wore red carnations. This caused some fans to think Paul died and got replaced with a body double. The Beatles | Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer
The Beatles‘ Magical Mystery Tour made some fans think Paul McCartney was dead even though he appeared in the film. Paul discussed his feelings about this phenomenon. In addition, he discussed John Lennon’s dancing in the movie.
What Paul McCartney thought of John Lennon dancing in The Beatles’ ‘Magical Mystery Tour’
The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour movie features a dance sequence set to the song “Your Mother Should Know.” In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the “Your Mother Should Know” sequence. “The big prop was that great big staircase that we danced down,...
- 4/24/2023
- by Matthew Trzcinski
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Warner Bros. has already celebrated its centennial with a segment during the Academy Awards, the publication of a studio-supported book (Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling) and, most recently, a barrage of festivities emanating from Turner Classic Movies. TCM’s programming for all of April is being devoted to Warners films, and at the 14th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, running April 13-16, many studio masterpieces, some recently restored and remastered, will be shown on big screens around town. Here are 10 that this THR Hollywood history buff highly recommends.
Footlight Parade (1933)
Ninety years ago, during the depths of the Great Depression, Americans sought escape from their troubles with light movies like this backstage musical. Directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler and highlighted by some of choreographer Busby Berkeley’s most kaleidoscopic dance numbers, it was a giant hit at the box office.
Footlight Parade (1933)
Ninety years ago, during the depths of the Great Depression, Americans sought escape from their troubles with light movies like this backstage musical. Directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler and highlighted by some of choreographer Busby Berkeley’s most kaleidoscopic dance numbers, it was a giant hit at the box office.
- 4/12/2023
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Fess up: You had no idea John Wick would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Not an inkling. Not a hint. Not even a teeny, tiny clue.
No one could have predicted that a movie burdened with a title taken from the name of its lead character — who is John Wick? Why should we even care? — and that starred an actor who’d been off the public’s radar for a bit, would synthesize a decade’s worth of genre cinema and revolutionize American action movies. Keanu Reeves still looked fit,...
No one could have predicted that a movie burdened with a title taken from the name of its lead character — who is John Wick? Why should we even care? — and that starred an actor who’d been off the public’s radar for a bit, would synthesize a decade’s worth of genre cinema and revolutionize American action movies. Keanu Reeves still looked fit,...
- 3/23/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Bring up Golden Age Hollywood filmmaker Busby Berkeley, and most people conjure his staging of elaborate, kaleidoscopic dance numbers in such films as “Dames” and “Footlight Parade,” Ginger Rogers singing “We’re in the Money” at the height of the Depression in “Gold Diggers of 1933,” or his sinuous camera weaving through dancer’s legs in such hits as Oscar-nominated “42nd Street” (1933).
A three-time Oscar nominee (for Best Dance Direction), Berkeley’s musicals were credited with saving Warner Bros. from financial collapse before he became a key player in Arthur Freed’s unit at MGM, where he propelled the careers of numerous stars, including Rogers, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, and Gene Kelly. Behind the scenes, Berkeley’s life was darker and often tragic — beset by scandal and numerous brushes with the law.
Arguably, Berkeley’s Hollywood artist’s journey is the untold story that “Babylon” wasn’t — and it coincides...
A three-time Oscar nominee (for Best Dance Direction), Berkeley’s musicals were credited with saving Warner Bros. from financial collapse before he became a key player in Arthur Freed’s unit at MGM, where he propelled the careers of numerous stars, including Rogers, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, and Gene Kelly. Behind the scenes, Berkeley’s life was darker and often tragic — beset by scandal and numerous brushes with the law.
Arguably, Berkeley’s Hollywood artist’s journey is the untold story that “Babylon” wasn’t — and it coincides...
- 3/17/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
When "The Big Lebowski" hit cinemas 25 years ago, most people had no idea what to make of it. Sure, it made immediate fans of some, but the movie was met with a heavy dose of bewilderment. In the critical community, this confusion came from the fact that Joel and Ethan Coen were coming off of their Oscar-winning film "Fargo," released just two years earlier. Though they had made plenty of celebrated films prior, "Fargo" was this unimpeachable, darkly funny thriller that could satiate your average audience member and already established Coen fan alike. They crystallized something in that film that made it seem like the brothers would just be building off of its foundation afterward.
But that's not what happened. The Coens took a sharp left turn and made an offbeat stoner comedy that riffed on the classic tropes of film noir. They had become "serious" filmmakers with hardware to show for it,...
But that's not what happened. The Coens took a sharp left turn and made an offbeat stoner comedy that riffed on the classic tropes of film noir. They had become "serious" filmmakers with hardware to show for it,...
- 3/8/2023
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
The man. The myth. The chin. Bruce Campbell is one of the most beloved cult TV and film stars in existence, and he's going to be bringing his special brand of bravado to 22 different U.S. cities starting Wednesday, April 5, 2023. The guy behind Ash Williams of "Evil Dead," Elvis of "Bubba Ho-Tep," and Brisco County, Jr. himself, Campbell will be touring with Bruce-o-rama, a two-part evening that's sure to be a bigger blast than a boomstick to the butt. The shows will start with an interactive game of "Last Fan Standing," a game show where everyone in the audience gets to play and test their knowledge of all things fantasy, horror, sci-fi, superheroes, and gaming. After that, they'll show a cult film of Campbell's and do a pre-screening Q&a.
Tickets are available on the Bruce-o-rama website, with special fan packages available that include a chainsaw autographed by Campbell himself.
Tickets are available on the Bruce-o-rama website, with special fan packages available that include a chainsaw autographed by Campbell himself.
- 3/6/2023
- by Danielle Ryan
- Slash Film
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Sex Appeal"
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu
The Pitch: High school senior Avery Hansen-White (Mika Abdalla) excels in every area of academics. With a laundry list of extracurricular activities, philanthropy efforts, and a 5.00 Gpa, she's ready to take MIT by storm next year. But first, rather than focusing on the time-honored tradition of the senior prom, she chooses to conquer her "nerd prom" instead: a scientific competition that offers the winner a fellowship that sets them up for life.
Thanks to this year's STEMcon prompt, Avery must create an app that solves a problem in her personal life, which is something that she hasn't cultivated since she's preoccupied with academic milestones instead of "superfluous" ones. After finding...
The Movie: "Sex Appeal"
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu
The Pitch: High school senior Avery Hansen-White (Mika Abdalla) excels in every area of academics. With a laundry list of extracurricular activities, philanthropy efforts, and a 5.00 Gpa, she's ready to take MIT by storm next year. But first, rather than focusing on the time-honored tradition of the senior prom, she chooses to conquer her "nerd prom" instead: a scientific competition that offers the winner a fellowship that sets them up for life.
Thanks to this year's STEMcon prompt, Avery must create an app that solves a problem in her personal life, which is something that she hasn't cultivated since she's preoccupied with academic milestones instead of "superfluous" ones. After finding...
- 2/14/2023
- by Ben F. Silverio
- Slash Film
A spiritual kissing cousin of such compellingly campy ’90s Aussie-produced extravaganzas as “Strictly Ballroom” and “Muriel’s Wedding,” director Gracie Otto’s “Seriously Red” disarms and delights as a sensationally spirited concoction that neatly balances unfettered outrageousness and unabashed sentimentality. The beating heart of the entire enterprise is Krew Boylan. As screenwriter, she has created a terrific role for herself. As star, she proves absolutely fearless while illuminating every aspect of a sometimes exhilarating, sometimes exasperating, always endearing protagonist. She works a singularly impressive type of movie magic while simultaneously driving the movie over the top and anchoring the borderline-fantastical narrative in something resembling reality.
Boylan stars as Raylene Delaney, better known as Red, a socially awkward small-town New South Wales realtor with, as she herself admits, “an impulse control problem.” To put it mildly. A fanatically passionate fan of Dolly Parton, she decks herself out as her idol for a company gathering,...
Boylan stars as Raylene Delaney, better known as Red, a socially awkward small-town New South Wales realtor with, as she herself admits, “an impulse control problem.” To put it mildly. A fanatically passionate fan of Dolly Parton, she decks herself out as her idol for a company gathering,...
- 2/10/2023
- by Joe Leydon
- Variety Film + TV
After 40 years, the hopes and dreams of a generation have finally come true: “History of the World Pt. 2” is almost here. Hulu announced on Thursday that TV series — the long-awaited sequel to the classic 1982 Mel Brooks movie — will premiere March 6. And along with that announcement comes the official trailer. Watch that above now.
The 8-episode series launches with the first two episodes on March 6, with two episodes released nightly through March 9.
Like “History of the World Part 1,” the show features a series of irreverent sketches inspired by different historical eras and, if it’s anything like the original film, also parodying the historical epics of Hollywood’s golden age. And like its predecessor, “History of the World Part 2” takes aims at numerous literal and figurative sacred cows.
There’s a sketch about how the Pope (Joe Lo Truglio) and other Church officials conspire in what amounts to a medieval marketing...
The 8-episode series launches with the first two episodes on March 6, with two episodes released nightly through March 9.
Like “History of the World Part 1,” the show features a series of irreverent sketches inspired by different historical eras and, if it’s anything like the original film, also parodying the historical epics of Hollywood’s golden age. And like its predecessor, “History of the World Part 2” takes aims at numerous literal and figurative sacred cows.
There’s a sketch about how the Pope (Joe Lo Truglio) and other Church officials conspire in what amounts to a medieval marketing...
- 1/13/2023
- by Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
As a member of the legendary writing staff of NBC's "Your Show of Shows" in the 1950s, Mel Brooks played a key role in pushing the formal boundaries of television comedy, so it stands to reason that he would be equally adventurous behind the lens of a film camera. Taking his cues from such pioneering entertainments as Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" and H.C. Potter's "Hellzapoppin'," Brooks played broadly to viewers, occasionally breaking the fourth wall to get them involved in the front. He does this multiple times in "Blazing Saddles:" in one instance, he has Harvey Korman's Hedley Lamarr pause his direct-to-camera scheming to ponder to the audience, "Why am I asking you?" There's also the moment where the film's climactic melee crashes into the set of a Busby Berkeley musical, prompting Slim Pickens to blurt out "P*** on you, I'm working for Mel Brooks" before...
- 12/6/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Tuesday, October 18, will mark the 50th anniversary of the Quad Cinema opening its doors in New York City. Over the last five decades, the independent theater has established itself as a haven for cinephiles with its frequent showings of rare films, new restorations of classics, and indie hits. To celebrate the landmark anniversary, the Quad is devoting its Theater U to showing the four films that played when the theater first opened: “Butterflies Are Free,” “Play It Again, Sam,” “Slaughterhouse-Five,” and “The Gang’s All Here.”
Milton Katselas’ “Butterflies Are Free” tells the story of a romance that blossoms between a blind man (Edward Albert) and his neighbor (Goldie Hawn) after the man moves into his first apartment by himself. The film was an adaptation of Leonard Gershe’s hit Broadway play of the same name, with the playwright returning to write the screenplay. Eileen Heckart won an Oscar for...
Milton Katselas’ “Butterflies Are Free” tells the story of a romance that blossoms between a blind man (Edward Albert) and his neighbor (Goldie Hawn) after the man moves into his first apartment by himself. The film was an adaptation of Leonard Gershe’s hit Broadway play of the same name, with the playwright returning to write the screenplay. Eileen Heckart won an Oscar for...
- 10/13/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Dir: Matthew Warchus. Starring: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough. Cert PG, 117 minutes
Miss Honey makes millennials wistful. She was, for many of us, our formative film crush. Embeth Davidtz’s performance, in Danny DeVito’s big-hearted 1996 Matilda adaptation, made us wonder why we couldn’t all be respected as child geniuses by a kindly teacher. As I watched Lashana Lynch play the part for a new generation, I imagined Gen Alpha in 20 years’ time, reflecting fondly on how she – and her wardrobe of sundresses and cardigans – marked the very first time they fell in love.
Lynch’s performance best embodies, in a way, what this latest Matilda is and strives to be: something warm and familiar. Based on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s hit musical, it has no desire to surpass DeVito’s version; it’s content to sit beside it. There’s no attempt...
Miss Honey makes millennials wistful. She was, for many of us, our formative film crush. Embeth Davidtz’s performance, in Danny DeVito’s big-hearted 1996 Matilda adaptation, made us wonder why we couldn’t all be respected as child geniuses by a kindly teacher. As I watched Lashana Lynch play the part for a new generation, I imagined Gen Alpha in 20 years’ time, reflecting fondly on how she – and her wardrobe of sundresses and cardigans – marked the very first time they fell in love.
Lynch’s performance best embodies, in a way, what this latest Matilda is and strives to be: something warm and familiar. Based on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s hit musical, it has no desire to surpass DeVito’s version; it’s content to sit beside it. There’s no attempt...
- 10/7/2022
- by Clarisse Loughrey
- The Independent - Film
Dir: Matthew Warchus. Starring: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough. Cert PG, 117 minutes
Miss Honey makes millennials wistful. She was, for many of us, our formative film crush. Embeth Davidtz’s performance, in Danny DeVito’s big-hearted 1996 Matilda adaptation, made us wonder why we couldn’t all be respected as child geniuses by a kindly teacher. As I watched Lashana Lynch play the part for a new generation, I imagined Gen Alpha in 20 years’ time, reflecting fondly on how she – and her wardrobe of sundresses and cardigans – marked the very first time they fell in love.
Lynch’s performance best embodies, in a way, what this latest Matilda is and strives to be: something warm and familiar. Based on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s hit musical, it has no desire to surpass DeVito’s version; it’s content to sit beside it. There’s no attempt...
Miss Honey makes millennials wistful. She was, for many of us, our formative film crush. Embeth Davidtz’s performance, in Danny DeVito’s big-hearted 1996 Matilda adaptation, made us wonder why we couldn’t all be respected as child geniuses by a kindly teacher. As I watched Lashana Lynch play the part for a new generation, I imagined Gen Alpha in 20 years’ time, reflecting fondly on how she – and her wardrobe of sundresses and cardigans – marked the very first time they fell in love.
Lynch’s performance best embodies, in a way, what this latest Matilda is and strives to be: something warm and familiar. Based on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s hit musical, it has no desire to surpass DeVito’s version; it’s content to sit beside it. There’s no attempt...
- 10/7/2022
- by Clarisse Loughrey
- The Independent - Film
Saucy pre-Code entertainment frequently served up risqué dialogue, with edgy content like promiscuity and drug use. Mitchell Leisen’s 1934 murder mystery goes straight for a supposed family-industry no-no: Broadway-revue near-nudity featuring Earl Carroll’s ‘Most Beautiful Girls In The World’. Victor McLaglen is an inept detective and Jack Oakie a wise-cracking impresario. Gertrude Michael and Kitty Carlisle carry the musical numbers, the most famous being an ode to the still-legal Sweet Marijuana. Showgirls like Lucille Ball possess the daring to don the skimpy costumes, even if they hadn’t yet learned what Marijuana was. Duke Ellington and his orchestra sit in for Ebony Rhapsody, a mixed-race musical number with room for ‘guest dancers from Harlem.’
Murder at the Vanities
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1934 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 89 min. / Street Date October 11, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Carl Brisson, Victor McLaglen, Jack Oakie, Kitty Carlisle, Dorothy Stickney, Gertrude Michael, Jessie Ralph,...
Murder at the Vanities
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1934 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 89 min. / Street Date October 11, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Carl Brisson, Victor McLaglen, Jack Oakie, Kitty Carlisle, Dorothy Stickney, Gertrude Michael, Jessie Ralph,...
- 10/1/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This article contains major spoilers for "Don't Worry Darling."
The release of Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling" has been overshadowed by rumors of on-set affairs and rivalries, like something out of the gossip rags during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Florence Pugh carries the film as Alice, a 1950s housewife living with her husband played by a dead-eyed Harry Styles in the utopian desert community Victory. After the death and disappearance of her friend Margaret, she begins to worry that there is something sinister beneath her perfect and glamorous life.
The script unfolds in a puzzling twist that dulls the impact of its critique on gender roles. Wilde has a greater command over her mesmerizing visuals. Working with cinematographer Matthew Libatique (who photographed the visually similar "Black Swan"), "Don't Worry Darling" juxtaposes a slick suburban landscape with Alice's psychedelic hallucinations in images that seem inspired by many classic films.
The release of Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling" has been overshadowed by rumors of on-set affairs and rivalries, like something out of the gossip rags during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Florence Pugh carries the film as Alice, a 1950s housewife living with her husband played by a dead-eyed Harry Styles in the utopian desert community Victory. After the death and disappearance of her friend Margaret, she begins to worry that there is something sinister beneath her perfect and glamorous life.
The script unfolds in a puzzling twist that dulls the impact of its critique on gender roles. Wilde has a greater command over her mesmerizing visuals. Working with cinematographer Matthew Libatique (who photographed the visually similar "Black Swan"), "Don't Worry Darling" juxtaposes a slick suburban landscape with Alice's psychedelic hallucinations in images that seem inspired by many classic films.
- 9/28/2022
- by Caroline Madden
- Slash Film
The trailer for director Olivia Wilde’s new Utopian psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling, set in a parallel 1950s American Dream, suggests a decadent tale of the battle of the sexes within synthetic domestic bliss. Scratch off the gloss and block out the blue skies, and something akin to sinister, cult-induced solitude lurks beneath, complete with a touch of The Matrix ideas thrown in. Like the characters living in the Victory Project, a new experimental community built in a desert, viewers are also invested from the start because we “believe in the mission” this film has set up to deliver from its promised hype – Wilde and lead actor Florence Pugh’s behind-the-scenes squabbles aside.
Pugh plays smart and fun-loving Alice, wife to Harry Styles’ engineer character Jack. The latter goes to work with all the other neighbourhood men like clockwork each morning, waved off by their doting wives, and driving...
Pugh plays smart and fun-loving Alice, wife to Harry Styles’ engineer character Jack. The latter goes to work with all the other neighbourhood men like clockwork each morning, waved off by their doting wives, and driving...
- 9/28/2022
- by Lisa Giles-Keddie
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Dir: Olivia Wilde. Starring: Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, Kate Berlant. 122 mins
Do worry darling. Olivia Wilde’s new film has generated large amounts of negative buzz in advance of its world premiere in Venice today. Its star Florence Pugh appears to be distancing herself from the project amid rumours of a “falling out” between herself and Wilde. Shia Labeouf has disputed Wilde’s claims that he was fired from the production and released a video of the director that seemingly proves his story. The gossip columnists have been in a frenzy about Wilde’s relationship with pop idol Harry Styles, who took over Labeouf’s role. On top of all that are the allegations that Styles was paid three times more than Pugh despite the fact she plays the main character. Morbid anticipation has therefore been building that Don’t Worry Darling...
Do worry darling. Olivia Wilde’s new film has generated large amounts of negative buzz in advance of its world premiere in Venice today. Its star Florence Pugh appears to be distancing herself from the project amid rumours of a “falling out” between herself and Wilde. Shia Labeouf has disputed Wilde’s claims that he was fired from the production and released a video of the director that seemingly proves his story. The gossip columnists have been in a frenzy about Wilde’s relationship with pop idol Harry Styles, who took over Labeouf’s role. On top of all that are the allegations that Styles was paid three times more than Pugh despite the fact she plays the main character. Morbid anticipation has therefore been building that Don’t Worry Darling...
- 9/5/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- The Independent - Film
Stanley Donen's 1952 film "Singin' in the Rain," starring Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, and the obnoxiously chipper Gene Kelly, was once held up in the pages of /Film as the Platonic ideal of movie musicals. It is a certainly a dance showcase of the highest order, and an unapologetic Hollywood nostalgia piece. Silent films are on the way out, sound pictures are on the way in, and singing and dancing are all set to be the future of cinema. "Singin' on the Rain" is also a jukebox musical. The songs are all old standards, including the title number, which came from "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" as did "You Were Meant for Me." "You Are My Lucky Star" was from "The Hollywood Revue of 1936," and "Good Morning" came from Busby Berkeley's 1939 film "Babes in Arms." Kelly and Donen concluded their film with a very, very long -- a Very long...
- 8/21/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Any number of directors could have shot Andrea Seigel’s straightforwardly moving screenplay for “The Silent Twins” and turned out a straightforwardly moving film in the process. It’s hard to imagine any of those movies looking, sounding or feeling quite like the one Agnieszka Smoczyńska has made, however. Based on the desperately sad true story of two intensely connected Black twin sisters failed by Britain’s educational, legal and mental health services in the ’70s and ’80s, this brazen, tear-your-heart-out drama gets the full benefit of the Polish filmmaker’s singular imagination. Layering one wild formal flourish over another — from macabre stop-motion animation to elaborately choreographed musical fantasies — to channel the inner lives of two young women who communicated only with each other, keeping the rest of the world outside their circle, it’s a swing for the fences that sometimes, almost by design, spins out of control.
Whenever that happens,...
Whenever that happens,...
- 5/26/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
“Mr. Ziegfeld says, if I don’t watch my figure, no one else will.”
James Stewart and Judy Garland in Ziegfeld Girl (1941) will be available on Blu-ray June 7th from Warner Archive. It can purchased at the Warner Archive Amazon Store
An amazing all-star cast came together for this beloved classic drama about love and fame, set against the backdrop of the legendary Ziegfeld Follies. Judy Garland, Lana Turner, and Hedy Lamarr–three of the screen’s most glamorous leading ladies-star with James Stewart as young hopefuls seeking fame as a Ziegfeld Girl. Garland portrays Susan Gallagher, who leaves her vaudevillian father to climb the ladder of stardom. Turner portrays Sheila Regan who drops her loyal beau Gilbert Young (James Stewart) for a wealthy suitor, forcing Young to resort to bootlegging to earn the money to win Sheila back, and Hedy Lamarr is the exotic Sandra Kolter. whose quest for...
James Stewart and Judy Garland in Ziegfeld Girl (1941) will be available on Blu-ray June 7th from Warner Archive. It can purchased at the Warner Archive Amazon Store
An amazing all-star cast came together for this beloved classic drama about love and fame, set against the backdrop of the legendary Ziegfeld Follies. Judy Garland, Lana Turner, and Hedy Lamarr–three of the screen’s most glamorous leading ladies-star with James Stewart as young hopefuls seeking fame as a Ziegfeld Girl. Garland portrays Susan Gallagher, who leaves her vaudevillian father to climb the ladder of stardom. Turner portrays Sheila Regan who drops her loyal beau Gilbert Young (James Stewart) for a wealthy suitor, forcing Young to resort to bootlegging to earn the money to win Sheila back, and Hedy Lamarr is the exotic Sandra Kolter. whose quest for...
- 5/19/2022
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The 1952 classic “Singin’ in the Rain” is hailed by many as one of the greatest films ever made. And yet it has also become the subject of countless myths regarding its production over the past 70 years.
During a press day for the film’s 4K Uhd release, TheWrap asked Patricia Ward Kelly, Gene Kelly’s wife and biographer, what was the biggest myth she could dispel about “Singin’ in the Rain” and she was candid: “Almost everything that you read on the internet.”
Kelly, who is also curator of the Gene Kelly archives, is baffled by the amount of misinformation about the film that continues to perpetuate online. “There’s more mythology out there now than there is factual information about it, and the myths seem to just keep perpetuating. I’ll bust a myth and then somebody will say, ‘Oh that’s not true,’ even though I’ve just...
During a press day for the film’s 4K Uhd release, TheWrap asked Patricia Ward Kelly, Gene Kelly’s wife and biographer, what was the biggest myth she could dispel about “Singin’ in the Rain” and she was candid: “Almost everything that you read on the internet.”
Kelly, who is also curator of the Gene Kelly archives, is baffled by the amount of misinformation about the film that continues to perpetuate online. “There’s more mythology out there now than there is factual information about it, and the myths seem to just keep perpetuating. I’ll bust a myth and then somebody will say, ‘Oh that’s not true,’ even though I’ve just...
- 4/27/2022
- by Adam Chitwood
- The Wrap
An artist doesn’t always know they’ve created the “greatest ever” of something.
Gene Kelly certainly didn’t. And yet many cinephiles would say “Singin’ in the Rain” is the greatest-ever movie musical. Those who are on the fence about it now have another chance to assess: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment just released a 4K ultra-hd Blu-ray restoration of the movie, which Kelly co-directed with Stanley Donen, for its 70th anniversary.
In a new interview with IndieWire, Kelly’s widow and biographer, Patricia Ward Kelly, talked about the idea of cinematic greatness and what exactly it means — including for when we talk about new movie musicals being made today. Are today’s musicals pushing the medium forward the way “Singin’” did? Are they expressing as personal of a vision? Are they trying to do something new?
Though not naming names about specific recent musicals, Kelly thinks her husband would...
Gene Kelly certainly didn’t. And yet many cinephiles would say “Singin’ in the Rain” is the greatest-ever movie musical. Those who are on the fence about it now have another chance to assess: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment just released a 4K ultra-hd Blu-ray restoration of the movie, which Kelly co-directed with Stanley Donen, for its 70th anniversary.
In a new interview with IndieWire, Kelly’s widow and biographer, Patricia Ward Kelly, talked about the idea of cinematic greatness and what exactly it means — including for when we talk about new movie musicals being made today. Are today’s musicals pushing the medium forward the way “Singin’” did? Are they expressing as personal of a vision? Are they trying to do something new?
Though not naming names about specific recent musicals, Kelly thinks her husband would...
- 4/22/2022
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
When someone has just returned to this mortal plane after scaling Mt. Everest, it is perhaps premature to ask them which vast rock they would like to climb next. Yet that’s exactly what we feel obliged to do following news over the weekend that Steven Spielberg—Hollywood’s own veritable Edmund Hillary—is done with musicals after West Side Story.
The revelation came via Variety, which reported about Spielberg attending the PGA Awards Breakfast on Saturday. There, the director and producer had nothing but lovely things to say about his experience of adapting West Side Story to the screen. His efforts have resulted in the musical receiving some of the best reviews in Spielberg’s 21st century career, as well as netting him his eighth nomination for Best Director at the Academy Awards. Nevertheless, Spielberg took the opportunity to say that he was done directing musicals after his first...
The revelation came via Variety, which reported about Spielberg attending the PGA Awards Breakfast on Saturday. There, the director and producer had nothing but lovely things to say about his experience of adapting West Side Story to the screen. His efforts have resulted in the musical receiving some of the best reviews in Spielberg’s 21st century career, as well as netting him his eighth nomination for Best Director at the Academy Awards. Nevertheless, Spielberg took the opportunity to say that he was done directing musicals after his first...
- 3/21/2022
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
The opening of “West Side Story,” both the 1961 and 2021 films, is not a song or a dialogue scene or even a traditional overture; it’s a dance. And it’s not just a dance — it’s a plunge into a world in which street gangs in 1950s New York launch into the air in bursts of aggressive leaps and exhilarating turns. In Steven Spielberg’s reimagining, the Jets rove through their neighborhood as it is being demolished, their tours and pirouettes not only expressing their rage but also a sense of helplessness against larger forces at hand.
The dance in Spielberg’s “West Side Story” is different from what we’ve seen in movie musicals in the last half century. The film marks a stunning retrieval of a relationship between Hollywood, Broadway, and the ballet world not really seen since, well, the original Jerome Robbins-Robert Wise “West Side Story.
The dance in Spielberg’s “West Side Story” is different from what we’ve seen in movie musicals in the last half century. The film marks a stunning retrieval of a relationship between Hollywood, Broadway, and the ballet world not really seen since, well, the original Jerome Robbins-Robert Wise “West Side Story.
- 3/2/2022
- by Luci Marzola
- Indiewire
If you’re easily triggered by 30- to 40-foot props, dance routines with dozens of performers, childish wonder, juvenile humor, drug-trip simulations or just color, by all means avoid “Katy Perry: Play.” “You can come totally sober and still feel high,” Perry says of her phantasmagorical Resorts World Las Vegas residency, already famous for its talking face masks and poo, and dancing mushrooms, toothbrushes and tube socks.
Between the spectacle, glamour, literal bathroom humor and (not incidentally) breezy run-through of some of the indelible pop songs of the last 20 years, “Play” is a captivating, grin-inducing show that you may well wish you could mainline, repeatedly, or at least have captured in shroom form that could be put on sale in the gift shop. But, alas, its oversize pop-art pleasures can only be found in one location, so what happens in Vegas may demand a return trip to Vegas as...
Between the spectacle, glamour, literal bathroom humor and (not incidentally) breezy run-through of some of the indelible pop songs of the last 20 years, “Play” is a captivating, grin-inducing show that you may well wish you could mainline, repeatedly, or at least have captured in shroom form that could be put on sale in the gift shop. But, alas, its oversize pop-art pleasures can only be found in one location, so what happens in Vegas may demand a return trip to Vegas as...
- 2/26/2022
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
Busby Berkeley’s musical comedy extravaganza not only gets away with a social message, it makes one of the best cultural statements ever about the Great Depression. Social upheaval suddenly being a real thing these days, we understand. The story is a romantic backstage musical but The Wolf at the Door is present in the dialogue, the lyrics, everywhere. This might be the sexiest of Berkeley’s musicals, with even star Joan Blondell teasing the nudity; but audiences were floored when the gala curtain number ‘Remember My Forgotten Man’ shouted out a cry for social justice. Warren William, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell & Guy Kibbee star; and this is Ned Sparks’ best role, with additional gold-digging by pert ‘n’ perky Ginger Rogers.
Gold Diggers of 1933
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1933 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date February 8, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell,...
Gold Diggers of 1933
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1933 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date February 8, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell,...
- 2/8/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“Every time you say ‘Cheap and Vulgar’ I’m going to kiss you.”
Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler in Gold Diggers Of 1933 (1933) will be available on Blu-ray February 8th from Warner Archive. It can be purchased at the Warner Archive Amazon Store Here
A Broadway producer has the talent, the tunes, the theater, and everything else he needs to put on a show – except the dough. Not to worry, say Ginger Rogers and the other leggy chorines decked out in giant coins. Everyone will soon be singing “We’re in the Money.” Soon after 42nd Street, the brothers Warner again kicked the Depression blues out the stage door and into a back alley. Mervyn Le Roy directs the snappy non-musical portions involving three wonderfully silly love matches (including Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler). And Busby Berkeley brings his peerless magic to the production numbers, his camera swooping and gliding...
Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler in Gold Diggers Of 1933 (1933) will be available on Blu-ray February 8th from Warner Archive. It can be purchased at the Warner Archive Amazon Store Here
A Broadway producer has the talent, the tunes, the theater, and everything else he needs to put on a show – except the dough. Not to worry, say Ginger Rogers and the other leggy chorines decked out in giant coins. Everyone will soon be singing “We’re in the Money.” Soon after 42nd Street, the brothers Warner again kicked the Depression blues out the stage door and into a back alley. Mervyn Le Roy directs the snappy non-musical portions involving three wonderfully silly love matches (including Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler). And Busby Berkeley brings his peerless magic to the production numbers, his camera swooping and gliding...
- 1/26/2022
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Guardian writers discuss their favourite bits from some of the year’s finest films, from In the Heights to The Power of the Dog to Licorice Pizza
When I say I missed the cinema, specifically I meant I missed seeing musicals on the big screen. While Jon M Chu’s In the Heights was made before the pandemic, his commitment to the supremacy of the production number delivered what our eyes were craving. Naturally, the film opens up the musical’s theatre staging, and it begins with a vast ensemble song of escalating excess, but it’s the 96,000 routine, about a third of the way in, which made the biggest splash and proved the director’s commitment to Technicolor extravagance by way of Busby Berkeley, aqua aerobics and gurning contortionists. Aptly, it’s a song about bragging and wish-fulfilment, in which the cast speculate on how they’d spend a lottery windfall.
When I say I missed the cinema, specifically I meant I missed seeing musicals on the big screen. While Jon M Chu’s In the Heights was made before the pandemic, his commitment to the supremacy of the production number delivered what our eyes were craving. Naturally, the film opens up the musical’s theatre staging, and it begins with a vast ensemble song of escalating excess, but it’s the 96,000 routine, about a third of the way in, which made the biggest splash and proved the director’s commitment to Technicolor extravagance by way of Busby Berkeley, aqua aerobics and gurning contortionists. Aptly, it’s a song about bragging and wish-fulfilment, in which the cast speculate on how they’d spend a lottery windfall.
- 12/24/2021
- by Pamela Hutchinson, Jordan Hoffman, Charles Bramesco, Lisa Wong Macabasco, Simran Hans, Adrian Horton, Scott Tobias, Radheyan Simonpillai, Benjamin Lee, Peter Bradshaw, Andrew Pulver and Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
When Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, it was like a jolt of lightning from out of the past. As with George Lucas’ Star Wars before it, here was a throwback to many of the cinematic touchstones high and low that Baby Boomers grew up with: Saturday morning serials, prestige Oscar winners from yesteryear, and even boys’ pulp magazines were sifted through, borrowed from, and recontextualized into one of the most thrilling action-adventure movies anyone had ever seen. Somehow Lucas, who was a producer on the project, director Steven Spielberg, and the whole Indiana Jones team were able to craft a movie simultaneously retro and new.
Of course the younger generations who were swept up in Indy’s adventures may not have noticed any of this. They were here to see Indy outrun a boulder. And as the years have passed, Raiders of the Lost Ark and the...
Of course the younger generations who were swept up in Indy’s adventures may not have noticed any of this. They were here to see Indy outrun a boulder. And as the years have passed, Raiders of the Lost Ark and the...
- 9/6/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Team Experience has been celebrating Esther Williams Centennial with a three part miniseries. Previously we featured Thrill of a Romance and Neptune's Daughter.
by Cláudio Alves
In some ways, Million Dollar Mermaid is both the quintessential Esther Williams movie and a departure in the screen siren's career. During the 1940s, Williams achieved cinematic stardom through self-knowing exercises in romantic silliness and musical extravagance, lighthearted productions that wore their escapist possibilities as a badge of honor. One can often feel the screenwriter's strain, trying to shoe-horn swimming scenes in stories that could function just as well without them. Even the baseball comedy Take Me Out to the Ball Game had to be retrofitted into having an out-of-place pool number where Williams gets to lip-sync while swimming under the gaze of Busby Berkeley's camera. Consequentially, MGM never presented Williams as a great dramatic actress, preferring to exhalt her natural charms, radiant presence,...
by Cláudio Alves
In some ways, Million Dollar Mermaid is both the quintessential Esther Williams movie and a departure in the screen siren's career. During the 1940s, Williams achieved cinematic stardom through self-knowing exercises in romantic silliness and musical extravagance, lighthearted productions that wore their escapist possibilities as a badge of honor. One can often feel the screenwriter's strain, trying to shoe-horn swimming scenes in stories that could function just as well without them. Even the baseball comedy Take Me Out to the Ball Game had to be retrofitted into having an out-of-place pool number where Williams gets to lip-sync while swimming under the gaze of Busby Berkeley's camera. Consequentially, MGM never presented Williams as a great dramatic actress, preferring to exhalt her natural charms, radiant presence,...
- 8/11/2021
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
New York, New York is a helluva town. The Bronx is up. And the Battery is down. The people ride in a hole in the ground. New York, New York. It’s a helluva town. And it’s also a perfect backdrop for countless Broadway and movie musicals.
And for good reason. The metropolis is a melting pot of cultures and boroughs. Over the decades, the Great White Way has been home to burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway. The town always is brimming with the best writers and composers. Remember Tin Pan Alley?
There is also a romanticism of New York often depicted in these musicals: most of them were shot on sound stages and studio, so they offer an expressionistic, impressionistic, and even surreal look at NYC. Martin Scorsese tipped his out to these studio musicals with his classic 1977 “New York, New York,” starring Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro.
The...
And for good reason. The metropolis is a melting pot of cultures and boroughs. Over the decades, the Great White Way has been home to burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway. The town always is brimming with the best writers and composers. Remember Tin Pan Alley?
There is also a romanticism of New York often depicted in these musicals: most of them were shot on sound stages and studio, so they offer an expressionistic, impressionistic, and even surreal look at NYC. Martin Scorsese tipped his out to these studio musicals with his classic 1977 “New York, New York,” starring Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro.
The...
- 6/24/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Costume designer Mitchell Travers took to the streets to research the looks for “In the Heights,” set in Manhattan’s lively Washington Heights neighborhood. Travers spent hours photographing people — in the morning to see what workers rushing to subway stations looked like, at parks, and in shops. Directed by Jon M. Chu, the musical based on the Broadway hit opens in theaters and on HBO Max on June 11.
“I would see girls fully styled out and think, ‘There’s Vanessa.’ I’d see another kid and think ‘Everything about him could be Usnavi,’ and I’d rob these details from real street styles,” Travers says about seeking inspiration for the principal actors, played by Melissa Barrera and Anthony Ramos.
He ventured into salons under the guise of “looking for a friend,” and in those moments took in details about what people were wearing as they got their hair and nails done.
“I would see girls fully styled out and think, ‘There’s Vanessa.’ I’d see another kid and think ‘Everything about him could be Usnavi,’ and I’d rob these details from real street styles,” Travers says about seeking inspiration for the principal actors, played by Melissa Barrera and Anthony Ramos.
He ventured into salons under the guise of “looking for a friend,” and in those moments took in details about what people were wearing as they got their hair and nails done.
- 6/3/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
The Weeknd won a leading 10 awards at Sunday night’s Billboard Music Awards, including the climactic top artist trophy presented as the climax of the night, followed by the late Pop Smoke with five, and BTS and Bad Bunny with four apiece.
Accepting one of several awards on-camera earlier in the evening, the Weeknd promised a change of stylistic pace to come in his future album and performance cycles. “The after hours are done and the dawn is coming,” he vowed. At another point, he made a joke after beginning with a slight show-of-religiosity fake-out. “I’d like to thank God… that I don’t have to wear that red suit anymore,” he said.
One of the performance highlights of the three-hour telecast was a pre-recorded music video — shot in the enormous Arcadia mall parking lot, with foothills and the racetrack in the background (despite host Nick Jonas’ promise that...
Accepting one of several awards on-camera earlier in the evening, the Weeknd promised a change of stylistic pace to come in his future album and performance cycles. “The after hours are done and the dawn is coming,” he vowed. At another point, he made a joke after beginning with a slight show-of-religiosity fake-out. “I’d like to thank God… that I don’t have to wear that red suit anymore,” he said.
One of the performance highlights of the three-hour telecast was a pre-recorded music video — shot in the enormous Arcadia mall parking lot, with foothills and the racetrack in the background (despite host Nick Jonas’ promise that...
- 5/24/2021
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
Critics are singing the praises of Jon M. Chu’s colorful, joyous and jubilant “In the Heights,” with at least one critic saying that the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s stage production is “the best Hollywood musical in years,” with another arguing it’s even better than the play.
Many of the early reviews of “In the Heights” — which hits theaters and HBO Max on June 11 — are unanimous in their praise of the film’s celebration of community and Latinx representation on screen.
“With ‘In the Heights,’ Chu delivers the Latino equivalent of his previous box office smash ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ and knocks it out of the park. It’s a layered story but a feel-good one that will invite many rewatches,” TheWrap’s Monica Castillo writes in her review. “‘In the Heights’ can represent many things for many different viewers. It can be a story about ambitious, hard-working people chasing their dreams.
Many of the early reviews of “In the Heights” — which hits theaters and HBO Max on June 11 — are unanimous in their praise of the film’s celebration of community and Latinx representation on screen.
“With ‘In the Heights,’ Chu delivers the Latino equivalent of his previous box office smash ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ and knocks it out of the park. It’s a layered story but a feel-good one that will invite many rewatches,” TheWrap’s Monica Castillo writes in her review. “‘In the Heights’ can represent many things for many different viewers. It can be a story about ambitious, hard-working people chasing their dreams.
- 5/21/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
There’s a casual decadence to the films of Jon M. Chu, an energy about them that is irresistible to watch. Whether the director is indulging in absurd magic tricks, grandiose weddings, riveting action, or exquisitely choreographed and performed song-and-dance numbers, there is an almost effortless extravagance to his work as a filmmaker. Having been suited to spectacle from the get-go, his adaptation of In the Heights is proof that the movie musical isn’t dead––it simply needed a little flavor.
From its opening notes, In the Heights feels like a breath of fresh air, its upbeat first number not just introducing its characters, but inviting viewers to be a part of the community being highlighted. Chu begs the audience to step up and dance along, with the endlessly charismatic Anthony Ramos taking the lead as Usnavi, the film’s narrator and owner of a bodega in Washington Heights.
From its opening notes, In the Heights feels like a breath of fresh air, its upbeat first number not just introducing its characters, but inviting viewers to be a part of the community being highlighted. Chu begs the audience to step up and dance along, with the endlessly charismatic Anthony Ramos taking the lead as Usnavi, the film’s narrator and owner of a bodega in Washington Heights.
- 5/21/2021
- by Juan Barquin
- The Film Stage
The Producers
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1967 / 1.85:1 / 88 min.
Starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder
Cinematography by Joseph Coffey
Directed by Mel Brooks
At his most unrestrained, Mel Brooks would have made Voltaire blush. Would such uninhibited comedy survive under the gaze of today’s self-appointed blacklisters? The answer can be found in the success of that very uninhibited Amazon darling—not to mention Academy-approved—Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, the film documents the latest diplomatic outreach of Kazakhstan’s most enthusiastic xenophobe, Borat Sagdiyev. For the past twenty five years Cohen has sicced this deeply racist, anti-Semitic, and somehow weirdly lovable doofus on civilization’s bad actors up to and including bottom-feeder extraordinaire, Donald Trump. Cohen infiltrated much of Maga-world for Borat’s latest adventure which was highlighted by a full-body impersonation of Trump (in a Coppertone-colored skin suit), and a hotel room encounter with the slimy Rudolph Giuliani at his most slithery.
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1967 / 1.85:1 / 88 min.
Starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder
Cinematography by Joseph Coffey
Directed by Mel Brooks
At his most unrestrained, Mel Brooks would have made Voltaire blush. Would such uninhibited comedy survive under the gaze of today’s self-appointed blacklisters? The answer can be found in the success of that very uninhibited Amazon darling—not to mention Academy-approved—Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, the film documents the latest diplomatic outreach of Kazakhstan’s most enthusiastic xenophobe, Borat Sagdiyev. For the past twenty five years Cohen has sicced this deeply racist, anti-Semitic, and somehow weirdly lovable doofus on civilization’s bad actors up to and including bottom-feeder extraordinaire, Donald Trump. Cohen infiltrated much of Maga-world for Borat’s latest adventure which was highlighted by a full-body impersonation of Trump (in a Coppertone-colored skin suit), and a hotel room encounter with the slimy Rudolph Giuliani at his most slithery.
- 5/18/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Editor’s note: Before he founded and became CEO of the Universal-based animation factory Illumination, Chris Meledandri was tasked with building an animation division at Fox. Early on, the president of Twentieth Century Fox Animation in 1998 acquired Blue Sky Studios for the studio. The Westchester, NY-based animation company might have started as an adjunct to Fox’s Hollywood animation operation, but that changed when Meledandri gave Blue Sky the room to grow, and the result was the multibillion-dollar Ice Age franchise. Meledandri, who would start Illumination and hatch another multibillion-dollar franchise in Despicable Me. Here, he laments the decision by Disney to shutter Blue Sky and celebrates its origins.
Hearing the sad news of the closing of Blue Sky Studios brings back the memories of our journey together. It was 1996 and I was running the animation division at Fox.
Hearing the sad news of the closing of Blue Sky Studios brings back the memories of our journey together. It was 1996 and I was running the animation division at Fox.
- 2/16/2021
- by Chris Meledandri
- Deadline Film + TV
Go back and watch the music video for Sia’s “Chandelier” if you haven’t seen it in a while. The Australian singer-songwriter’s hit about using the word “party” as a verb to feel momentarily free (“One two three/One two three/Drink”), followed by the next-day comedown (“Here comes the shame, here comes the shame”), is a complicated tune if you know her history. The clip, however, is simple, really: 11-year-old Maddie Ziegler dances in a spare apartment. That’s it, but it’s a lot. She’s wearing a blond-bob wig,...
- 2/12/2021
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
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