Indie News

Olivier Assayas isn’t satisfied with the version of his new film, the Cuban spy epic “Wasp Network,” that world-premiered at the Venice Film Festival last week. According to a report from Deadline, the French writer/director is taking the film back into the editing bay, even as it plays the Toronto International Film Festival this week. The new cut will be unveiled at the film’s U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival this fall.

“There are a few things that need clarification,” the “Personal Shopper” and “Summer Hours” director told Deadline. “There are a series of fixes I’ll make. I might shorten some parts and lengthen others. The running time won’t change considerably, but it’s about gaining fluidity. I want the film to be understood by those who aren’t aware of the complexities of the local politics. The fixes will be done

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods became one of Hollywood’s most in-demand screenwriting duos after the smash hit that was “A Quiet Place,” the 2018 John Krasinski-directed horror film that earned $340 million worldwide. The success of “A Quiet Place” landed Back and Woods a meeting at Lucasfilm, where executives were courting the duo for potential “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” movies. In an interview with Movieweb, the writers reveal they turned down Lucasfilm in favor of developing original story ideas. Beck and Woods even called out Lucasfilm’s resistance to new franchises to Lucasfilm’s face.

“We went into Lucasfilm in the wake of ‘A Quiet Place’ and they wanted to talk to us about ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Star Wars,’” said Woods. “And we’re like, ‘We wanna talk to you about what is “Star Wars” before it was “Star Wars?” You guys have a responsibility to start a new franchise.

Filmmakers such as Lars von Trier, David Fincher, Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, and Quentin Tarantino often portray the twisted, darker side of humanity with disturbing and cinematically striking results. Clearly influenced by this brand of cinema and the psychological impact it has, director Fred Durst clearly wants to be seen and make movies in this tradition; dark voyeurism that offers intimate entrée to the broken mind.

Continue reading ‘The Fanatic’: An Unhinged John Travolta Can’t Help Fred Durst’s Deep Contempt For Fandom [Review] at The Playlist.

With only an 80-page outline to guide them, there were a lot of blanks to fill when “Endings, Beginnings” director Drake Doremus hired Shailene Woodley to star in the film just two weeks before shooting began. In between casting and shooting, however, Doremus, Woodley, and co-star Sebastian Stan made a two-day road trip up the California coast to the film’s Bir Sur location, swapping life philosophies along the way.

“We ended up driving for five-and-a-half hours and the amount of inside jokes and the vulnerability that came from that drive alone really drove our characters forward,” Woodley said at an “Endings, Beginnings” panel discussion the day after the film’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere. “The first day of filming, we had to be very vulnerable with one another, intimate with one another … I felt like all of us were riding on the same frequency.”

The film chronicles Woodley

Following on the eccentric construction of the first program, where the coherence of a quartet of formally disparate films was established by a shared interest in alternative means of image production, the second slate of Wavelengths shorts traced a much clearer arc, as all six works offered variations on the home movie. Though I found it lesser in quality than the night before, Picard’s curation here was brash and confrontational in a way it rarely is, a charmingly punk gesture to make in primetime on the festival’s first […]

Following on the eccentric construction of the first program, where the coherence of a quartet of formally disparate films was established by a shared interest in alternative means of image production, the second slate of Wavelengths shorts traced a much clearer arc, as all six works offered variations on the home movie. Though I found it lesser in quality than the night before, Picard’s curation here was brash and confrontational in a way it rarely is, a charmingly punk gesture to make in primetime on the festival’s first […]

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 on the day after Christmas, American speculators were presented with the ultimate gift: An opportunity to sell capitalism to one of the largest untapped markets in the history of time. For Russians, however, the shift away from communism was hesitant and fraught with uncertainty, and some of the country’s proudest institutions began to languish without the state-funded support that had allowed them to thrive behind the Iron Curtain. Business relations between the two superpowers were tantalizing in theory, but difficult to make real, and the ice was slower to thaw than many people on either side might have hoped. Of course, that wasn’t a problem for anyone who knew how to skate.

An amusing sequel of sorts to his 2014 documentary “Red Army,” , and some of the most visionary and/or foolish executives of the American sports arena tried to swoop in and save it.

Since his debut feature, Human Comedy in Tokyo, in 2008, Kôji Fukada has steadily become one of the most interesting filmmakers working out of Japan in the last decade plus. Many of his features can be characterised by a protagonist or family unit’s apparent stability being upended by one event, a plot development that illustrates how easily and turbulently lives can spiral out of control. In his sophomore feature, Hospitalité (2010), this was played for laughs. In that film, a family printing business is gradually taken over by a former associate who talks his way into a job, moves into […]

Since his debut feature, Human Comedy in Tokyo, in 2008, Kôji Fukada has steadily become one of the most interesting filmmakers working out of Japan in the last decade plus. Many of his features can be characterised by a protagonist or family unit’s apparent stability being upended by one event, a plot development that illustrates how easily and turbulently lives can spiral out of control. In his sophomore feature, Hospitalité (2010), this was played for laughs. In that film, a family printing business is gradually taken over by a former associate who talks his way into a job, moves into […]

“Joker” has taken the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival by storm, but not everything about the acclaimed comic book film sits well with leading star Joaquin Phoenix. The actor’s interview with The New York Times includes a revelation from “Joker” director and co-writer Todd Phillips that Phoenix dislikes the inclusion of Thomas Wayne in the film’s script. The movie’s explicit connection to the DC Comics mythology was Phoenix’s “greatest misgiving” about “Joker.”

“[Joaquin] never liked saying the name Thomas Wayne,” Phillips said. “It would have been easier for him if the movie was called ‘Arthur’ and had nothing to do with any of that stuff. But in the long run, I think he got it and appreciated it.”

Actor Brett Cullen stars in “Joker” as Thomas Wayne. By writing Thomas Wayne into the script, Phillips and co-screenwriter Scott Silver keep “Joker” tied to

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Tuesday.

This week’s question: Who is your favorite TV doctor of all time? (Doctor Who does not count.)

Damian Holbrook (@damianholbrook), TV Guide Magazine

I am not a fan of how TV usually represents doctors. They are mostly either super earnest and “I am going to save you at the risk of my career!” annoying or the “doesn’t play by the rules” rebel who rides a motorcycle down the ER hallway. Both are tired. And don’t even start me on the hard-ass doctors who obviously know everything and show it off while parading a crew of new residents through a massive hospital during the opening of soooooo many pilots. We get it: Their job is their life and they have a secret soft center.

No, I like my doctors like

The world is falling apart, and this fall, the movies are all over it. Extracting trends from new releases often amounts to a fool’s errand, since movies come out at disparate moments for a range of reasons. This year, however, a collection of anxieties reverberate in many of the notable movies launching at the Toronto International Film Festival, and together they make the alarming case that America is losing its mind.

Consider the saga of “Joker.” Director Todd Phillips has elicited curious reactions for transforming the Batman supervillain into a mentally ill loner, in part because few could have predicted such a brooding psychological thriller from the director of “The Hangover.” But in its own disturbing fashion, “Joker” actually functions as a savage media satire about delusions of grandeur driven by a divisive climate that both empowers and mocks extremist views.

With a spindly Joaquin Phoenix at its center,

Films have had a love affair with crime dating back over a century, but the misdeeds showcased are usually a flashy kind that’s grown rare in reality – gangsters, gunplay, and getaways. However, since the financial collapse of 2008, there’s been a realization that white-collar crime often shapes our world to a greater extent, and a subsequent effort by filmmakers has been made to explore more lowkey, opaque financial crimes. White-collar crime proves both the making and unmaking of the title character in Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj’s latest, “The Moneychanger,” a character study of Humberto Brause (Daniel Hendler), a bumbling banker who keeps money flowing for criminals and dictators in 1970s South America.

Continue reading ‘The Moneychanger’: A White-Collar Criminal Gets In Over His Head In Federico Veiroj’s Latest [Tiff Review] at The Playlist.

Meryl Streep has dominated awards shows for decades, making her one of the most iconic actresses to ever appear on the big screen. And yet, her next awards-contending film might be watched by a majority of film fans on their TVs, laptops, or phones. “The Laundromat” is the highly-anticipated legal drama directed by Steven Soderbergh and featuring an all-star cast that includes Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas.

Continue reading Meryl Streep Says Netflix Is “Event-Oriented” & Is Happy Viewers All Around The World Will Enjoy ‘The Laundromat’ at The Playlist.

[Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead for “It: Chapter Two.”]

“It: Chapter Two” has finally hit theaters, and the much-anticipated sequel to last year’s blockbuster Stephen king adaptation did not disappoint. In one of the most exciting developments in director Andy Muschietti’s follow-up, which was written by Gary Dauberman, the pair depart from the original novel to support a long-held fan theory that a major character — Richie Tozier (played by Bill Hader and Finn Wolfhard) — is bisexual. During a terrifying flashback sequence involving clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard), “It: Chapter Two” firmly establishes that Richie is not strictly heterosexual, and that the revelation that he is indeed interested in men is actually one of his biggest fears.

Specifically, he has feelings for Eddie Kaspbrak (played by Jack Dylan Grazer and James Ransone). “It’s actually not really alluded to in the book,” Ransone told IndieWire during a recent interview. “I read the book. It’s a big departure from the book.

Apple TV+ will launch on November 1 and will cost $4.99 per month, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Tuesday. Cook shared details about Apple’s upcoming products and services during a wide-ranging product presentation at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino.

Outside the pricing details and release date, Apple premiered the trailer for “See,” an Apple TV+ series starring Jason Momoa. The sci-fi series focuses on a future Earth where humans have lost their sense of sight and must find new ways to interact and survive after a virus devastates the planet’s population.

Previously announced Apple TV+ shows include “For All Mankind” and “Dickinson.” The former, created by Ronald D. Moore, is an uplifting alt-history show about Nasa’s continuing space race, while the Hailee Steinfeld-led “Dickinson” will offer a modernized, millennial-focused take on 19th century poet Emily Dickinson.

Prepare for a new vision of the future.

See is coming

One of Apple’s biggest upcoming shows is going to space, but it looks like its new service will still have plenty of scale for the stories set on Earth.

“See” is set in a world of the future, where its inhabitants have lost their sight. When Baba Voss (Jason Momoa) helps to welcome a pair of twins, he and the other members of this distant tribe discover that those two children have reversed the generational precedent and can see. In addition to surviving this uncertain landscape, Baba Voss must protect them from outside forces who want to keep the world the way it is.

In his introduction to premiering the trailer, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that production on the series involved contributions from many blind and low-vision individuals in order to approach the subject with care.

The series is written by “Taboo” creator Steven Knight, who also has

There are big gambles in life, and then there’s “See,” one of the first shows to debut on the new streaming service Apple TV+. The show, which hedges its bets with the star power of Jason Momoa and the high-concept plot, reportedly cost a staggering $15 million per episode to make. In the futuristic series, all of humanity has been blind for so many years that they question whether sight itself is just a historic myth.

Continue reading ‘See’ Trailer: Jason Momoa Stars In New Post-Apocalyptic Series Coming To Apple TV+ at The Playlist.

We’ve known for well over a year that Apple was prepping the release of its upcoming streaming service, appropriately titled Apple TV+. However, even with multiple trailers for series premiering on the service, as well as a ton of announced projects, we didn’t even know when Apple TV+ would debut or how much it would cost. Well, until today.

The tech company announced (via Deadline) that the upcoming streaming service would launch on November 1 and feature a $4.99 per month subscription fee.

Continue reading Apple TV+ Directly Challenges Disney+ With November 1 Streaming Launch & $4.99/Month Price at The Playlist.

Combining observational footage with first-person testimonies and expert insights, Jacqueline Olive’s “Always in Season” is the first feature documentary to spotlight recent grassroots efforts to acknowledge the victims of lynching, repair the damage, and reconcile. The film explores the lingering impact of the lynchings of African Americans from over a century, and connects this form of historic racial terrorism to racial violence today.

Surrounded by the trailer homes of a predominantly white neighborhood in Bladenboro, North Carolina, Lennon Lacy was found hanging from a swing set on August 29, 2014. Questions about the scene, including the fact that Lennon was wearing someone else’s shoes, convinced his family and others that, rather than committing suicide, the 17-year-old was lynched. The film puts his mother, Claudia Lacy’s pursuit for justice into a wider historical context, inspiring a powerful discussion about lynching, across racial lines.

As the story unfolds, Lennon’s case,