20 articles
‘Moonlight’ Standout Mahershala Ali on the Healing Power of Barry Jenkins’ Oscar Contender: Awards Spotlight
27 minutes ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
As we near the Oscar finish line, a clear frontrunner has emerged in the Supporting Actor category. From its Telluride premiere, Mahershala Ali popped out from Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” ensemble in the beating-heart role of the Cuban-born drug-dealer who nurtures the young boy “Little.”
He shot his pivotal supporting part on three successive weekends in Miami. Ali plays Juan, a drug dealer who takes the fatherless Little under his wing. Little lives with his drug-addicted mother (Naomie Harris) and is bullied at school for being “different,” but Juan and his girlfriend (Janelle Monáe) offer Little a place to feel safe. Juan becomes a much-needed role model, teaches Little how to swim, gives him advice about the world, and offers him acceptance and validation.
“I have had that same experience,” Ali told me, “where there are several people who have come up in my life at the right time and have »
- Anne Thompson
‘The Great Wall,’ Isn’t: Why All Three President’s Day Releases Flopped
58 minutes ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
“The Great Wall” (Universal) fared best among the three new original debuts this week. But at $18 million, it fell short of what was needed to boost this very expensive Chinese production aimed at international markets (while making American audiences see it as nothing out of the ordinary).
Even so, it did better than the disappointing Ice Cube comedy “Fist Fight” (Warner Bros.) or Gore Verbinski’s disastrous “A Cure for Wellness” (20th Century Fox), which barely made the Top 10. But any heft came from decent holdovers from last weekend’s unprecedented trio of $30 million+ openers.
That’s the good news. The bad is this is a Top Ten that compares miserably with 2016, and represents a further decline in year-to-date totals. Even if they aren’t in actual free fall, they’re showing serious weakness.
The Top Ten
(all estimates for the three-day weekend; with school holiday Monday, the order will »
- Tom Brueggemann
This Oscar-Winning 1952 Stop-Motion Short Is Looking Awfully Relevant Right Now
1 hour ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Like a lot of politically charged films, Norman McLaren’s “Neighbours” was controversial upon release and his since come to be regarded as an important classic. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada and the winner of an Academy Award in 1953, McLaren’s eight-minute short can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube. Watch below.
Read More: Oscar 2017 Documentary Shorts: Syria Dominates, But All 5 Explore Humanity Beyond Headlines
The stop-motion short finds two men reading newspapers with opposing headlines in front of their cardboard houses when a flower sprouts at the halfway point between their respective homes. Both are drawn to it, eventually leading to a conflict: They put up a fence and use parts of it as swords, devolving more and more into barbarism as their feud escalates.
Read More: 2017 Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts Review: Humanity Prevails in This Politically Charged Group
“I was inspired to make ‘Neighbours »
- Michael Nordine
‘La La Land’ And ‘Finding Dory’ Among 2017 Cas Awards Winners For Sound Mixing
1 hour ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
The Cinema Audio Society announced the winners of the 2017 Cas Awards last night and, no surprise, “La La Land” took the top prize.
Damien Chazelle‘s movie musical has pretty much dominated awards season and the industry guild honors. It’s nominated for both Sound Mixing and Sound Editing Oscars although the Cinema Audio Society only recognizes Sound Mixing.
Other winners included “Finding Dory,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble,” “Modern Family” and “Grease Live!”
A complete list of nominees and the winners in each category are as follows.
Continue reading ‘La La Land’ And ‘Finding Dory’ Among 2017 Cas Awards Winners For Sound Mixing at The Playlist. »
- Gregory Ellwood
‘Kenan and Kel’ Flashback: Check Out These Vintage Black History Month Promos
2 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
If suggestions that Donald Trump and most others in his administration don’t know who Frederick Douglass was aren’t your preferred way of celebrating Black History Month, Nickelodeon might have something to your liking. Courtesy of the Splat — a programming block that features reruns of such Nick classics as “Doug,” “Rugrats” and “Hey Arnold!” — the network has uploaded several Bhm promos that first aired on “Kenan and Kel” way back when.
Read More: ‘Moonlight’: How Editor Joi McMillon Made Oscar History as the First African American-Female Nominee
One finds the orange soda–loving Kel Mitchell alongside Kenan Thompson (now familiar from his years-long tenure on “Saturday Night Live”) as they discuss Lewis Latimer, who made lightbulb filaments more affordable. Another entrant in the Black Innovators Hall of Fame is Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space (Kel thought it was Uhura from “Star Trek,” because of course »
- Michael Nordine
‘Discreet’ Review: A Dissonant Thriller About The Effects Of Child Abuse — Berlinale 2017
2 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Childhood abuse affects its victims in myriad and often abstract ways. The disparate images and mysterious female voiceover that provide Travis Mathews’ “Discreet” its illusory opening do eventually come together, like the concentric cycles of abuse and pain experienced by its woeful protagonist, Alex (Jonny Mars).
A drifter and filmmaker, Alex travels the country in a dark blue van shooting footage of highways. On a passing visit to his unstable mother, he learns that the man who abused him is living in a small cabin on the outskirts of the rural Texas town where his mother lives. Seeking out the older man, Alex finds a severely incapacitated John (Bab Swaffar), complete with an involuntary twitch in his left arm and a vacant stare.
John is a ghoulish cartoon of a predator; even in his weakened state, his fluffy white beard, ruddy red nose, and lanky frame tower over Alex. Facing »
- Jude Dry
‘Logan’ Could Be One of the Best Superhero Movies Ever Made: Critical Roundup
2 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
The first round of reviews are in for “Logan,” and they’re largely positive. The latest — and supposedly last — Wolverine movie starring Hugh Jackman is currently sitting pretty at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 73 on Metacritic, with IndieWire’s David Ehrlich calling it “better as an agitated Western than as a fading superhero movie (or a listless cross-country chase)” and saying that “the most cantankerous X-Man’s final outing is a scaled-back affair that nevertheless knows how to swing for the fences.”
Read More: ‘Logan’ Review: Hugh Jackman Saves The Best Wolverine Movie For Last
Sheri Linden of the Hollywood Reporter is firmly in the positive camp, too:
“Seamlessly melding Marvel mythology with Western mythology, James Mangold has crafted an affectingly stripped-down stand-alone feature, one that draws its strength from Hugh Jackman’s nuanced turn as a reluctant, all but dissipated hero.”
Time’s Stephanie Zacharek is less impressed:
“…no »
- Michael Nordine
Male Movie Stars Get Almost Twice as Much Screen Time: Report
3 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
There’s now even more data confirming the film industry’s gender inequality. Statisticians at St. Lawrence University have analyzed all 92 Best Picture nominees dating back to 2006 to get a sense Oscar diversity, finding that male leads were onscreen an average of 43 percent of the time compared to just 22 percent for their female counterparts.
Read More: Women Spoke Just 27 Percent of the Dialogue in 2016’s Top-Grossing Movies
The study was led by Michael Schuckers and Bailey O’Keeffe, with the latter pointing out that “the Academy often dismisses films that feature strong female leads in favor of the conventional, Hollywood-approved white male characters,” according to a press release on the team’s findings. Several exceptions have come in the last two years, namely “Hidden Figures,” “Brooklyn,” and “Room.”
While movies directed by men were in line with the average ratio, coming out to 44 percent of screen time for men and 21 percent for women, »
- Michael Nordine
‘La La Land’ Is a World of Steadicam Acrobatics — Watch Ari Robbins at Work
3 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
As you may have heard, there’s this little movie, “La La Land,” that’s flown under the radar since it was released late last year. Damien Chazelle’s musical, which is up for a record-tying 14 Academy Awards, is just a week away from fulfilling its Oscar glory and allowing us to move on to the subject of the other musically inclined film starring Ryan Gosling. In the meantime, check out a brief video showing off the Steadicam work on “La La Land.”
Read More: Yes, Damien Chazelle’s ‘La La Land’ Really Will Win Director and Picture Oscars — Here’s Why
Posted to Instagram by cameraman Ari Robbins, the clip features a scene in which Emma Stone and her cohorts sing and dance their way out of her apartment and onto the streets of Los Angeles. We see both the scene itself and a behind-the-scenes view, the Steadicam rig »
- Michael Nordine
‘La La Land’ and ‘Finding Dory’ Win Sound Mixing Cas Awards
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
As expected, “La La Land” came away with the live-action sound mixing award at Saturday’s 53rd Cinema Audio Society (Cas) Awards. Damien Chazelle’s valentine to Hollywood musicals is now a sure bet to win the Best Sound Mixing Oscar. (Sound Editing is still a race.)
Meanwhile, Pixar’s “Finding Dory” upset Disney’s “Zootopia” for animated feature honors. And HBO’S “The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble” earned the first-ever Cas documentary award.
TV winners included “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” (movie or miniseries), “Game of Thrones,” which grabbed its fourth consecutive award for “Battle of the Bastards” (one-hour), “Modern Family: The Storm” (1/2-hour), and “Grease Live!” (specials),
Oscar-nominated sound engineer John Pritchett (“Road to Perdition,” “Memories of a Geisha”) received the Career Achievement Award and Jon Favreau won the Filmmaker Award for “The Jungle Book’s” innovative sound. »
- Bill Desowitz
Arthouse Audit: ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ Soars as ‘Kedi’ Continues Strong
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
A successful Oscar season is wrapping up, as multiple contenders from the specialty world continuing their long runs. Last out of the gate is Documentary Feature contender “I Am Not Your Negro” (Magnolia) which is rapidly expanding far beyond most similar nominees in an era when most documentaries do not play outside their Oscar-qualifying theatrical runs.
Among limited films, the new releases are mainly niche items without high expectations, and will add little in upcoming weeks. However, strong new Los Angeles dates on the second week of cat documentary “Kedi” (Oscilloscope) showed that its big New York opening was no fluke.
Opening
Everybody Loves Somebody (Lionsgate) – Metacritic: 74; Festivals include: Palm Springs 2017
$1,000,000 in 333 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $3,003,000
The second 2017 release from Lionsgate’s Mexico producing partner Pantelion is a rom-com with a rare female director for this commercial general (mostly Latino) audience. Bilingual, it centers on an Los Angeles-based »
- Tom Brueggemann
‘Moonlight,’ Censored: Here’s How Indian Censors Carved Up Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-Nominated Hit
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
“Moonlight” is one of the most acclaimed films of the last year, and in one week’s time we’ll see if it wins any of the eight Academy Awards it’s nominated for. But not every aspect of Barry Jenkins’ film — which depicts three different stages in the life of a young black man struggling with his sexuality — will be seen in every market, as a document posted to reddit details the cuts and additions made for its theatrical release in India.
Read More: ‘Moonlight’ Has 8 Oscar Nominations, but an Adapted Screenplay Win Is Almost Guaranteed
All of the cuts pertain to the film’s more graphic elements. Every instance of the words “bitch,” “bitches,” “motherfucker” and “dick” have been excised, for example, as have two sex scenes involving the lead character’s homosexuality — both of which are crucial to “Moonlight” as a whole. The cuts amount to 53 seconds total. »
- Michael Nordine
‘The Lego Batman Movie’ Beats ‘Fist Fight’ For The Weekend [Box Office]
4 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Its Presidents Day weekend, and Hollywood offered audiences everything from a weirdo horror movie to an Ice Cube comedy to Matt Damon fighting monsters, but it turns out they just wanted to see more Batman.
Warner Bros. won the holiday stretch as “The Lego Batman Movie” roped in $34.2 million. The audience drop was only 35% which indicates it’s gonna hold on at the multiplex for a while, and the picture will cross $100 million domestic this week.
Continue reading ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ Beats ‘Fist Fight’ For The Weekend [Box Office] at The Playlist. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
There Is No Such Thing As Reality: Hong Sang-Soo Discusses "On the Beach at Night Alone"
6 hours ago | MUBI | See recent MUBI news »
On the Beach at Night Alone © 2017 Jeonwonsa Film Co.Acknowledging the tabloid controversy surrounding Hong Sang-soo’s relationship with the actress Kim Minhee was always a possibility when it came to On the Beach at Night Alone, the director’s latest film. Premiering in competition at the Berlinale on Thursday, it is the first film of Hong’s to feature the actress since Right Now, Wrong Then (2015), the movie which sparked their affair, and a basic plot synopsis initially suggested that the movie’s arc might mirror the trajectory of their relationship. But what was staggering to many of the people who saw it at Thursday’s premiere was the directness and fierceness with which Hong confronts the issue dead-on. Known for his evasiveness in interviews, and for populating a universe with film characters distinguished by their own equivocality, Hong's reputation suggested that he could well have ducked the issue altogether, »
Berlin Film Festival Winners Include ‘The Other Side Of Hope,’ ‘I Am Not Your Negro,’ And More
6 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Another year, and another Berlin Film Festival has wrapped up. It was bit quieter on the ground in 2017 than past years, but as always, a handful of movies shined brightly and are flying home from the prestigious festival with some serious hardware to put on the shelf.
Read More: ‘The Other Side Of Hope’ Is The Aki Kaurismaki Movie We Need Right Now
One movie we missed, and that we’ll certainly have to catch up with the down the line, is Ildikó Enyedi‘s “On Body And Soul” which won the Golden Bear.
Continue reading Berlin Film Festival Winners Include ‘The Other Side Of Hope,’ ‘I Am Not Your Negro,’ And More at The Playlist. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Nominations For Inaugural American Independent Film Awards Revealed
7 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
We know — it’s February and the last thing you want to hear about is another awards show, but believe us when we say that the American Independent Film Awards are different. Generally speaking, the awards season tends to celebrate the best in cinema, with the caveat being that many movies get on the Oscar radar because they have the money and influence behind them helping to make that push. And while the Indie Spirit Awards somewhat the fill the gap of the Oscars, focusing on movies produced outside the studio system for less than $20 million, it still means that worthy films get overlooked.
Continue reading Nominations For Inaugural American Independent Film Awards Revealed at The Playlist. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
‘The Other Side Of Hope’ Is The Aki Kaurismäki Movie We Need Right Now [Berlin Review]
7 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
It’s unlikely that the most culturally ignorant U.S. president in living memory would ever have dreamed of choosing a film by Finnish eccentric Aki Kaurismäki as appropriate Dorito-dinner accompaniment in the White House — for one thing, his borderline illiteracy means the subtitling would probably make him Sad! But if such a downright un-American dish were ever to be on the menu, it’s doubly certain that he would not have chosen “The Other Side of Hope,” Kaurismäki’s wonderful new Berlinale competition title that makes a stonefaced, droll but paradoxically urgent case for a truth that desperately needs to survive these post-truth times: people are people and borders are bullshit.
Continue reading ‘The Other Side Of Hope’ Is The Aki Kaurismäki Movie We Need Right Now [Berlin Review] at The Playlist. »
- Jessica Kiang
‘Power Rangers’: Outcast Kids Morph Into Superheroes In New Trailer [Watch]
7 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Five high-school kids grapple with their newfound superpowers in the action-packed second trailer for “Power Rangers,” Hollywood’s remake of the popular ‘90s TV show. Directed by Dean Israelite, the filmmaker is best-known for the sci-fi thriller “Project Almanac” and drama short “Acholiland.”
The clip opens with a group of five teenage outcasts who have come across a hidden cluster of alien artifacts and discover that they’ve been gifted with extraordinary powers.
Continue reading ‘Power Rangers’: Outcast Kids Morph Into Superheroes In New Trailer [Watch] at The Playlist. »
- Tess Bonn
‘Billions’ Review: A Radical Proposal for Season 2 Fans Won’t Like Right Now, But Could Love Later
7 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
When “Billions” Season 1 ended two things happened: In the narrative, Damian Lewis’ hedge fund manager Bobby “Axe” Axelrod and Paul Giamatti’s U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhodes growled menacingly at each other from the demolished interior of Axe’s formerly luxurious office space. You see, Chuck had convinced Axe there was a bug somewhere on his turf, forcing him to tear it apart himself; wasting time, effort, and anxiety for what amounted to be a decent, if not exceptional, prank.
Jim Harper would be proud, but “Billions” isn’t a comedy. We need to feel the weight of this supposedly high-stakes story, not laugh at it. Once Axe had finished tearing apart his fancy schmancy office, the two started spitting fire at one another, making threats and promises; tossing insults back and forth; exchanging ever-building anger at the very existence of their opponent. But they didn’t say or do anything revelatory. »
- Ben Travers
Why Hollywood Awards Are Failing Independent TV
7 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Aymar Jean Christian is part of the inaugural class of Peabody Fellows, distinguished media scholars who provide fresh perspectives and commentary on behalf of the Peabody Media Center, the outreach and media production arm of the prestigious awards program based at the University of Georgia. He is an assistant professor of communication studies at Northwestern University.
You know you’re a TV nerd when your most anticipated awards announcements are the Writers Guild Awards. TV is a writer’s medium. Every TV fan awaits the Emmys, and some even bother to care about the Golden Globes, but most don’t know the major Guilds give out statues to television producers.
Nerdier still, I’m most interested in the nominees almost nobody writes about: web original short form comedies and dramas.
So while you probably could not imagine my disappointment when the WGA released their nominees for original short-form new media this year, »
- Aymar Jean Christian
20 articles
« Prev | Next »