Indie News

The Tribeca Film Festival is less than two weeks away, but this year's 17th annual event has found room to add another movie and TV series.

The festival will host the world premiere of the Lily Tomlin executive-produced Radium Girls, starring Joey King and Abby Quinn. The film is based on the true story of women in the early 20th century who worked at the U.S. Radium Factory painting glow in the dark watches. But by licking their paint brushes, the women ultimately developed cancer. Radium Girls is directed by veteran producer Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler,...

The first quarter of 2018 is behind us, and for the first time, total box office in China beat domestic totals. Grosses for China in Q1 totaled $3.17 billion, compared to $2.85 billion in North America. Those figures reflect a 39 percent increase in China over the same period in 2017. Here, domestic totals fell two percent. On the one hand, none of this is surprising. We’ve long believed that China overtaking North America as the top market was inevitable; at 1.3 billion, it has four times the population.

And while Chinese theaters return a much lower percentage of the gross, American studios have looked to the Far East as a major guarantor of future growth and profits. So maybe this is good news? Not really. Although this quarter probably won’t reflect the full year, China’s success doesn’t bode well because it had almost nothing to do with the studios.

The growth

Girl Talk is a weekly look at women in film — past, present, and future.

The elevator pitch for “Blockers” works pretty well: it’s “Porky’s” for the #MeToo era, “American Pie” with a feminine twist, “Superbad” for parents. But even those easy designations don’t quite capture the dizzy joy of Kay Cannon’s directorial debut. Initially called “The Pact,” the sex-positive sex comedy follows a trio of life-long best friends as they embark on the classic cinematic quest to lose their virginity on prom night. The time, however, the BFFs at the film’s center are all girls (this is a genre that mostly focuses on teen boys, after all), and their plan to take the next step is hampered by their overbearing parents.

The film may be Cannon’s directing credit, but it’s a natural fit for a comedian who first got her start in Chicago’s hopping improv scene,

There are so many different ways “Blockers” could’ve gone sour. The directorial debut of screenwriter Kay Cannon (the “Pitch Perfect” movies), the bare premise of this raunchy comedy follows a gaggle of concerned parents trying to “cock block” — as the title doth (half) suggest — their teenage daughters from losing their virginities on prom night. Portrayed in the wrong light, it’s a potentially problematic, troubling idea for a comedy, one that could be easily be approached uncomfortably, clumsily and or just plain insensitively.

“The Purge” franchise has shown some remarkable legs at the box office since launching in summer 2013. Each entry has outgrossed the previous one, with 2016’s “The Purge: Election Year” becoming the franchise’s highest-grossing title with $79 million. These stats bode well for the next installment, “The First Purge,” which tells the origin story of the entire series.

“The First Purge” is set on the titular event’s inaugural outing. Marisa Tomei stars as the head of the government-backed New Founding Fathers of America, who decide to make all killing legal for 24 hours. The government reckons that The Purge will make people take out all their aggression in one evening, leaving the rest of the year more crime free.

“Burning Sands” director Gerard McMurray makes his franchise debut with the film, making it the first “Purge” film not directed by James DeMonaco. The cast includes Y’Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis,

Like the brightest star of an intricate constellation that would be impossible to find without its light, a great scene tends to provide greater meaning to the movie around it. They all shine in a wide variety of different ways, each the result of its own singular circumstance. Some are chatty, while others are silent; some end a story, while others interrupt it for a striptease set to the Backstreet Boys. Most of the ones that stay with us tend to be self-contained passages that boast their own clear shape, but all of them stand out in our minds, these defining moments always guiding our way back to the films that brought them to us in the first place.

From open-hearted musical numbers to a beguiling aside about the Hebrew letters found carved in a man’s teeth, these are the 25 best English-language movie scenes of the 21st century.

25. “Sideways

In an era when it seems that laws are suspended or remade every minute or every day, a horror movie based around the premise where for just 12 hours justice is thrown out the window seems quaint. But Universal and Blumhouse Pictures are clearly hoping to push some buttons with the latest chapter in “The Purge” series, “The First Purge.”

Starring Y’Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Velez and Marisa Tomei, franchise creator and staple James DeMonaco sticks around as the screenwriter, but passes the director’s chair over to Gerard McMurray (producer of “Fruitvale Station,” director of “Burning Sands“).

When IndieWire named the 20 best directed television dramas of the 21st century, Steven Soderbergh’s Cinemax series “The Knick” ranked in the #3 position. Suffice to say, Soderbergh knows a thing or two about masterful TV direction, so consider his latest tweet about Donald Glover’s “Atlanta” to be extremely high praise indeed.

Soderbergh took to his Twitter page following the April 5 episode the FX series, entitled “Teddy Perkins,” to praise the series with a bold affirmation. The half hour has been praised by critics as one of the series best, with IndieWire’s own Hanh Nguyen giving it a perfect A grade in her review, and Soderbergh agrees with the acclaim.

“Tonight’s episode of ‘Atlanta’ is the most beautifully photographed half hour of TV I’ve ever seen,” Soderbergh wrote. “In addition to being completely bananas.”

The episode centered exclusively on Lakeith Stansfield’s Darius, who visited an old

The Cannes Film Festival is still more than two months away, but we’re already starting to get a sense for how the year’s highest-profile film festival will shape up. The past few days brought a pair of big updates: Opening night entry “Everybody Knows,” the Spanish language debut from Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, combines a world-class director with the star power of Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. That should surprise no one. More heads were turned with the news that “Solo: A Star Wars Story” will play in an out of competition slot as well. So does this mean that the young Han Solo movie, beset with problems that included the firing of the original directors is…you know, good? It’s too early to say, but there are some clues worth digging through at this point.

These revelations are among the topics in the latest episode of Screen Talk,

“I can fix that” These are words we hear Pascal (Johnny Flynn) speak to Moll (Jessie Buckley) during their first meeting. These words may sound familiar since it was a phrase Sam repeated to Kate in “Holes,” but don’t get all excited. There’s a possibility that this love story is headed in the same dreadful direction as Sam and Kate’s. Well, maybe not that far, but it doesn’t look like “Beast” is going to have much of a happy ending.

The Chinese film market strengthens at a breakneck pace, hurling to become the world’s largest. The evolution process of the domestic film market entails myriads of partial operations, such as consolidating the film industry, building viable film infrastructure (the year 2016 witnessed an explosion of screens, as an average of 26 new screens appeared daily), and having strong partners and financial backing. The creative and financial capital accumulates in the film industry and fuels the cinematic renaissance over mainland China. In global ranking, the Chinese film production is among the top three, ranking behind India and U.S.A.However, as with most things, China’s rise to dominating the film market has its casualties: Independent filmmakers. The buck of arthouse films’ inability to be officially circulated stops with the state apparatus, not the film industry, notably the board of censors or the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and

Last year Ann Dowd stunned Emmy viewers by upsetting Chrissy Metz in this category. Both will be back in the mix along with “Game of Thrones” regular Lena Headey who qualifies this time around. The field should be fierce, but will any of the presumed nominees simply not make the cut? [Posted April 6]

Frontrunners

Millie Bobby Brown, “Stranger Things”

Ann Dowd, “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Lena Headey, “Game of Thrones”

Vanessa Kirby, “The Crown”

Thandie Newton, “Westworld”

Chrissy Metz, “This Is Us”

Almost there

Uzo Adbua, “Orange Is The New Black”

Alexis Bledel, “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Maisie Williams, “Game of Thrones”

Constance Zimmer, “UnReal”

Winona Ryder, “Stranger Things”

Longshots

Aubrey Plaza, “Legion”

Yvonne Strahovski, “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Sophie Turner, “Game of Thrones”

Outstanding Comedy Series

Outstanding Comedy Series

Outstanding Limited Series

Outstanding Reality-Competition Series

“Cars are an outlet for people to get over things and pass the time,” one participant in the new Netflix series “Fastest Car” says as he drives around his neighborhood. That quote is certainly true for some of his fellow drivers, the individuals who make up the talent pool for this new quasi-competition series, but the show is more interested in cutting against some of those kinds of generalizations. From the cars that people drive to the circumstances that each of these racers come from, these are episodes that aren’t just made from interchangeable parts.

Each episode does follow the same basic format: tracking four cars from their individual garages to an episode-closing quarter-mile race. The catch is that one of the four is an internationally recognized supercar (a Lamborghini Aventador, a Ford GT40), while the others are “sleepers,” souped-up versions of cars that would normally barely make it

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from “Atlanta” Season 2, Episode 6 titled “Teddy Perkins.”]

We are shook and yet in awe. “Atlanta” made good on the promise of violence and danger that was laid out in the opening moments of the season with Thursday night’s installment “Teddy Perkins.” The fact that FX announced the episode would air without commercial interruption (and – to the horror of TV critics – without an advance screener) should have been the first indication that something extra special was in the offing. This would turn out to be one of the most disquieting episodes of horror to ever grace a comedy series.

In the Darius-centric episode, “Atlanta’s” mumbling dilettante (Lakeith Stanfield) arrives at a stately but careworn mansion to pick up a special piano with colored keys from Teddy Perkins and Benny Hope, two brothers who shared a musical past and, as viewers soon learn, an abusive father. As the episode wears on,

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from the Season 6 finale of “Project Runway All Stars.”]

Even before the latest winner of “Project Runway All Stars” heard the words “You’re in,” he had already made history. Dubbed the Fantastic 5, the show’s group of finalists all happened to be men of color, a first for the show. The Top 5 designers included Edmond Newton, Stanley Hudson, Fabio Costa, Ken Laurence, and winner Anthony Williams.

Williams spoke to IndieWire about what it meant to be part of the Fantastic 5 in such a public platform:

“Not only does that send a message globally about [gay] men of color… and what we could do and what we can accomplish as we stand together, but I think even vocally and within our own individual communities, it shows people that even today, there is strength in numbers,” said Williams. “Everybody can’t go to the march, but I can lead the march wherever I am. And not a march just for men of color,

Al Pacino and Barry Levinson have become a bit of a dream team for HBO, partnering on past films for the pay cable network including “Phil Spector” and the Jack Kevorkian story “You Don’t Know Jack.”

Now, they’re behind this Saturday’s “Paterno,” with Pacino once again playing a controversial, and much maligned, real-life figure. Pacino and Levinson said they frequently end up at HBO because, in all honestly, the movie studios aren’t making the kind of character films that are their specialty.

“We’re able to do certain kinds of films that you might not be able to do otherwise,” Levinson said. “The theatrical world is much more adventure action type of things, and these are much more personal, more intimate stories.”

Levinson also noted that thanks to the reach of a network like HBO, “you get a real audience. If you were to take the

Discounted-ticket subscription service MoviePass acquired ticket-buying app and website Moviefone in a $23 million deal. “Our subscribers want to know more and more about movies,” said MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe. “They don’t want to get their recommendations from Rotten Tomatoes, they want to get it from fellow subscribers.”

Founded in 1989, Moviefone began as an automated hotline for callers seeking showtimes. Within several years, the internet rendered 777-film largely obsolete; the phone service was terminated in 2014. Moviefone, which also provides reviews and entertainment news, now receives 6 million unique visitors per month.

According to Thursday’s Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the purchase consists of $1 million cash and less than $8 million in common stock shares, with additional warrants in place from Helios and Matheson Analytics, MoviePass’ parent corporation. It’s a fraction of the $388 million that AOL paid for Moviefone in 1999. AOL is now owned by Verizon, and Moviefone had been housed

A young man goes missing in Brooklyn after researching a controversial writer in Ricky D’Ambrose’s peculiar feature film “Notes on an Appearance,” which premiered this year at the Berlin Film Festival and is part of the New Directors/New Films Festival. Despite D’Ambrose’s unique storytelling style, the film never fully presents a coherent narrative.

A young man, David (Bingham Bryant) moves from Chappaqua to Brooklyn to help his college friend Todd (Keith Poulson) in a research project on the controversial political writer Stephen Taubes.

Can Alec Baldwin go back-to-back after winning last year? He’s likely a nominee, but we’re not convinced he’s the lock he was in September. Most intriguing about this category is the fact Emmy favorites Sean Hayes and Tony Shalhoub should crash the party (and in Hayes case return to a category he won in 2000 and was nominated for six other times). And if the Television Academy loves “Glow” as much as we think they do Marc Maron should earn his first Emmy nod.

Anne Hathaway is calling out fat-shamers in advance of a weight gain she is planning for an upcoming film role. The Oscar winner took to her Instagram page to send a message to anyone who is going to fat shame her in the coming months, telling them, “It’s not me, it’s you.” Hathaway accompanied her message with a time-lapse video of her working out in the gym.

“I am gaining weight for a movie role and it is going well,” Hathaway wrote. “To all the people who are going to fat shame me in the upcoming months, it’s not me, it’s you. Peace xx. Ps- I wanted to set this to Queen’s ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ but copyright said no. Continued peace xx.”

Hathaway currently has a number of projects in development, including “The Hustle,” which is the female-fronted remake of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” and the