Month: March 2022

It’s easy — and perhaps a bit lazy — to posture that 2021 was a year like no other. In fact, not only was there a global pandemic, but the angst over film, theater attendance and the future of entertainment went along in lockstep. As the Hollywood awards season marches on with the Critics’ Choice

The Critics Choice Assn. has selected Billy Crystal to receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s ceremony on March 13. A Billy Crystal life achievement reel might look a lot like a history of American showbiz. Crystal’s family roots are embedded in the greatness of American music via his father and his uncle

Have you ever been enjoying a film or TV series, only to suddenly find yourself squinting at the dark screen? Recent releases including “Euphoria,” “The Batman” and “Handmaid’s Tale,” as well as classic films including “Alien,” “Taxi Driver” and “Seven” all utilize dark imagery, but what if the visuals are simply too dark to see

“Power of the Dog” star Jesse Plemons is speaking out about Sam Elliott’s recent rant against Jane Campion’s award-winning Netflix film. “I laughed when I heard. I don’t know why,” Plemons told me at premiere of his new Charlie McDowell-directed thriller “Windfall” on Friday night at the London West Hollywood hotel. ”I haven’t listened to

With no new major releases for the weekend, Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” has an easy path to repeating its top performance at the domestic box office. The DC adaptation grossed an additional $18.7 million on Friday from 4,417 locations, more than enough to maintain the No. 1 position on North American charts. That performance represents

The pop-music world, in many ways, has only gotten angstier (it would be hard to imagine a mood-poet chanteuse like Billie Eilish commanding arenas 20 years ago). But even back in the ’90s, Sheryl Crow was the kind of straight-up, middle-of-the-strike-zone, tasty-licks virtuoso of rock ‘n’ roll good times who seemed to have been put

Way back in 1998, before Marvel made metaverses a household concept, Gwyneth Paltrow starred in a lovely parallel-realities drama called “Sliding Doors,” in which a woman’s life split along two paths, depending on whether or not her character caught a specific train. At the time, juggling these competing fates was considered to be so demanding

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Oscar-nominated “Drive My Car” took eight prizes at the 45th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony, held on Friday at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takawana in Tokyo. In addition to the best picture award, the film won best director (Hamaguchi), best screenplay (Hamaguchi and co-writer Oe Takamasa) and best actor (Nishijima Hidetoshi). The

The SXSW Film Festival delivered a doozy of an opening night presentation with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” on Friday in Austin — offering up a buffet of images for viral memes. Fleshy hot dogs in place of human fingers, a talking raccoon voiced by Oscar winner Randy Newman, butt

Guillermo del Toro and Jane Campion have strong thoughts about filmmaking — both in execution and exhibition — in this modern streaming age. And lucky for us, they’re not afraid to share those opinions. And that’s exactly what they did last fall, for Variety’s “Directors on Directors” issue. Now, in case you missed that conversation

In early 2019, Casey Neistat began filming “Under the Influence,” about 23-year-old YouTube phenomenon David Dobrik, capturing his evolution from prankster to online celebrity with major brand sponsors and tens of millions of followers across social media platforms. But in 2021, the docu took a turn when a Business Insider story documented sexual-assault allegations by

Disney CEO Bob Chapek is facing a major test of his leadership, after the company’s botched response to an anti-gay bill in Florida sparked a staff revolt among LGBTQ employees and their supporters. Chapek apologized to the staff on Friday, saying he should have been “a stronger ally.” But for some employees, who found the

Women filmmakers are taking the reins of their destinies in Hollywood, with many stepping behind the camera and creating stories universal to the human condition. But it has been a slow-moving machine to see these talents recognized at the Oscars, especially in the best director category. In the 94-year history of the Academy Awards, there

The theme of fathers and sons runs through the films of Venezuela-born writer-director Lorenzo Vigas, whose 2015 debut drama “From Afar,” which focuses on a troubled middle-aged man and young hustler in Caracas, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In Vigas’ latest film “El Caja” (“The Box”), which screened Thursday at the

When asked on “The View” this week about filmmakers slamming superhero movies (directors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and more have criticized Marvel films for disrupting exhibition), Marvel Cinematic Universe stalwart Samuel L. Jackson said “it’s easy” for directors to do so “only because people aren’t going to see their movies.” Jackson has

Everybody in the industry seems to like and admire J.K. Simmons, and why wouldn’t they? He’s talented, versatile, dependable and affable. The fan club includes Aaron Sorkin, writer-director of Amazon’s “Being the Ricardos,” for which Simmons is Oscar-nominated as supporting actor. Sorkin’s last seven screenplays have centered on real people, but he tells Variety he

Zoe Saldaña revealed in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly that her former management team “discouraged” her from using her real name once she landed her first major acting role in the 2000 teen drama “Center Stage.” The actor stressed that her team was not trying to be malicious at the time. Saldaña starred in

Shawn Levy has entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The director of “Free Guy” and “The Adam Project” will once again team up with Ryan Reynolds for “Deadpool 3,” the much-anticipated third installment of the comedic action franchise, Variety confirms. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who penned the first two “Deadpool” films, will write the third movie

Nirvana is not quite to Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” as Prince was to Tim Burton’s 1989 version of “Batman.” But even with only one oldie being used instead of an entire new song score, the new film is being identified with primarily one musician, thanks to Kurt Cobain’s “Something in the Way” appearing at prominent