Month: September 2021

In “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain play Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the self-styled Christian TV personalities who did more than anyone else to mold televangelism into a game-changing, culture-shaking, credit-card-maxing industry/cult/diversion. The movie, which is a ticklishly fascinating rise-and-fall saga, was directed by Michael Showalter, who almost always makes

Oscars voters have always loved seeing actors whose startling physical transformations come after countless hours in the makeup chair. After Renée Zellweger (“Judy”), Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”) and Charlize Theron (“Monster”) won Oscars for their impressively-altered looks, Jessica Chastain could be on a similar path for her role as the media-loving televangelist Tammy

MRC has tapped NBCUniversal alum Adam Stotsky as president of the newly created MRC Live & Alternative, which will absorb the operations of Dick Clark Productions. MRC has slowly been phasing out the Dick Clark Prods. moniker. Stotsky will oversee a division that produces major awards franchises including the American Music Awards, Academy of Country

After dazzling the in-person audience at the Toronto Film Festival, writer-director Kenneth Branagh broke down crying over his loosely autobiographical film “Belfast.” Following what was easily the most rapturous response to a festival entry at Toronto’s Roy Thomson hall this year, Branagh was overcome in a Q&A describing the inspiration behind the film. “I started

Ben Best, the co-creator of HBO’s “Eastbound & Down” who also played Clegg in the series, has died. He was 46. Rough House Pictures, which produced “Eastbound & Down,” confirmed the news of Best’s death on Instagram with the caption, “It’s with heavy hearts we say goodbye to our good buddy Ben Best. We lost

German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon, who was murdered in Auschwitz at age 26, and her autobiographical masterwork “Life? or Theatre?,” which was created in a two-year burst in the early 1940s, are the subjects of “Charlotte,” a unique animated biopic drama that marks a career turning point for Toronto producer Julia Rosenberg. Rosenberg first encountered “Life? or

Indian studios T-Series and Reliance Entertainment have partnered for a slate of more than 10 films with a total investment of INR10 billion ($136.2 million). The films will be across across genres and will be a mix of big budget tentpoles as well as mid and small budget films. They are in various stages of

The world premiere of Danis Goulet’s first feature, “Night Raiders,” in Berlin generated positive reviews and led to a U.S. sale to Samuel Goldwyn. But to the Toronto-based, Cree-Métis filmmaker it all felt a little abstract. “I haven’t seen an audience reaction, so Toronto feels like the premiere,” she told Variety during a break from directing the Netflix

Mirjana Karanović, an actor best known for her starring role in Emir Kusturica’s “When Father Was Away on Business” and Jasmila Žbanić’s Golden Bear winner “Grbavica,” is preparing to direct her second feature, “Mother Mara.” This follows her directorial debut, “A Good Wife,” which competed in Sundance’s World Cinema – Dramatic section in 2016, and

“Citizen Ashe,” a new documentary about tennis star Arthur Ashe, is as interested in its subject’s political evolution as it is in his heroics on the court. Ashe was one of the top tennis players in the world for much of the 1960s and ’70s, winning the U.S. Open and the Australian Open and becoming

For the first time in its 46-year history, a Tanzanian film is part of the official selection of the Toronto Film Festival, as Amil Shivji’s “Vuta N’Kuvute” (Tug of War) prepares to bow at the Canadian fest on Sept. 13. Set in colonial-era Zanzibar, “Tug of War” is the story of a young freedom fighter