Month: June 2020

Just a few minutes past the midway mark of “The Outpost,” director Rod Lurie re-creates the Battle of Kamdesh, and for nearly the next hour of this intense, immersive modern-day combat thriller, audiences experience how it must feel to be caught in a sustained Taliban siege on a virtually indefensible location in Afghanistan. Situated at
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Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” swept the 7th Platino Xcaret Awards, winning best Ibero-American film, as well as the best director and screenplay for Almodovar. It also took home three other awards: Original music for Alberto Iglesias, editing for Teresa Font and best actor for Antonio Banderas, Oscar-nominated for his role in Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical opus. Relegated
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With an overdue reckoning on racism happening nationwide thanks to the renewed #BlackLivesMatter movement, it’s hard to imagine someone whose legacy would warrant a more urgent cinematic tribute than John Lewis, a true American civil rights icon. Currently serving his 17th term as a member of Congress, the 80-year-old U.S. Representative has always been at
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is giving Oscar voting privileges to talent agents. The organization announced on Monday that the Board of Governors voted to reclassify the membership status of Artists’ Representatives (agents) from Associates to Members-at-Large. As Members-at-Large, agents will now have voting privileges. This reclassification will apply to 111 current
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Joko Anwar scored Indonesia’s highest-grossing horror hit ever with “Satan’s Slaves,” a remake-slash-prequel to Sisworo Gautama Putra’s beloved if campy 1980 original. Already another big success at home, his followup “Impetigore” is likewise a rebooting tribute to past celluloid horrors, given the familiar feel to its tale of a prodigal-daughter heroine returning to a native
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Twitch has temporarily kicked Donald Trump off the streaming service, citing violations of its policy against “hateful conduct.” In a statement, Amazon-owned Twitch said, “Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch. In line with our policies, President Trump’s channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending
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ABC has made a range of decisions on its remaining pilots this season, which were all shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, the network is scrapping its pilots for the dramas “The Brides” and “Thirtysomething(else)” and the comedy “Valley Trash.” The news is surprising for “The Brides” — a female-led vampire soap opera with
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A week ago, I hopped on a Zoom call not knowing what to expect. The Town Hall-style conference was for a newly formed non-profit organization called The National Independent Talent Organization, or NITO (www.nitolive.org). I knew there would be a solid showing of people on this call, figuring maybe around 40 to 50 attendees from
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Variety veteran Justin Kroll is set to join Deadline next month as senior film reporter. Kroll will cover all aspects of the film industry for Deadline, which is a corporate sibling of Variety under parent company PMC. He will segue to Deadline as of July 20, reporting to Mike Fleming, co-editor-in-chief. “Justin has humbled me
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The Indian government has blocked TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps in the wake of ongoing border tensions with China. In recent weeks, India and China have been at loggerheads over border disputes over the Galwan Valley in the territory of Ladakh. An Indian government statement noted “raging concerns” with regards to data security and
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Benny Mardones, best known for his 1980 hit “Into the Night” — which cracked Billboard singles charts three separate times — died at his home in California on June 22 after a 20-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, his producer Joel Diamond confirmed to Variety. He was 73. The singer was born Ruben Armand Mardones in Cleveland,
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Dave Portnoy, the pugnacious and pot-stirring founder of Barstool Sports, defiantly hit back at “cancel cops” who resurfaced clips of him using racist language including the N-word in past videos. The Barstool videos have been circulated by the Resist Programming account on Twitter in the past several days, gaining wider attention after The Atlantic contributing
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