The filmmaker and stars of “R#J,” a modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic romantic tragedy “Romeo and Juliet,” explored the importance of representation for young people and the unique format of the film. Director Carey Williams and stars Francesca Noel (Juliet), Camaron Engels (Romeo), Diego Tinoco (Tybalt) and Siddiq Saunderson (Mercutio) spoke to the Variety
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The lengthiest interview in “Searchers” takes place toward the conclusion of director Pacho Velez’s warm and well-executed Sundance doc, which focuses on an array of New Yorkers and the dating apps they use. Earlier, when the film introduces 55-year-old Ron, he’s offering a running commentary while scrolling through profiles with little pause: “He looks like
It’s a popular conception that there’s nothing more boring than hearing about other people’s dreams, which by rights should make James Preble — the meek, cutely mustachioed hero of “Strawberry Mansion” — the unfortunate owner of the world’s dullest job: He’s a tax auditor who has to scan his clients’ recorded dreams for hidden expenses.
Filmmaker Maisie Crow was visiting a Texas high school to speak to students in a video production class about her career behind the camera when she saw something shocking. A group of teenagers were making their way through the hallways, SWAT team style, brandishing red plastic guns. “I was taken aback,” says Crow. “It was
Remember what it was like to be a teenager, pent up with so much pulsing emotion it felt like it might come gushing forth from your guts at any given moment? Or, then, a twentysomething trying to embrace adulthood without losing your every scrap of raw nerve? “Dickinson” does, with the kind of visceral urgency
Erica Wigg, the main character of Goro Miyazaki’s made-for-TV feature “Earwig and the Witch,” is both a brat and an orphan. Those two traits seldom go together in children’s stories, and the combination provides a modest starting point for this intermittently amusing CG entry from Studio Ghibli — back in business but a shadow of
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all worldwide rights to the film “Jockey,” which will premiere on Sunday in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Clint Bentley and written by Bentley and Greg Kwedar, the film stars Clifton Collins, Jr., Molly Parker, Moises Arias, Logan Cormier and Colleen Hartnett. The
Clive Davis… talk show host? Well, not exactly. But this year’s version of his annual exclusive pre-Grammy party — now taking place virtually and in two parts, the first of which was Saturday night — did have, as one change among several, not just performances extended conversations that had the legendary music mogul chatting up
At its core, the grim, gritty and blood-soaked “Eight for Silver” is a skillfully fashioned yet philosophically thin twist on the werewolf saga. And yet, in the opening moments of Sean Ellis’ dark-hued and gory gothic horror, you might briefly mistake the monster-themed film you’re about to watch for Sam Mendes’ “1917,” with Ellis’ stylish
From the attack on the United States Capitol to the inauguration of President Joe Biden and all of the COVID-19 developments in between (including a still-rising number of cases in California, a U.K. variant and a very slow rollout of the vaccine), so much has happened since “Saturday Night Live” last aired a new episode
There are instances in director Carey Williams’ boldly experimental yet wearisome “R#J” that genuinely grasp the essence of romance, identity and existence in the age of social media. Those fleeting but relatable moments feel like major triumphs in Williams’ Gen Z-centric adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” a movie that unfolds almost entirely on electronic screens.
In 1965, the world’s idea of a problematic nun was Maria von Trapp: a black sheep in a white wimple who was booted from her convent for taking the odd hillside hike, enjoying a bit of a sing-along and ultimately getting jiggy with a handsome navy captain. By 1968, life had got a bit more
“Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street” has the good fortune to be arriving with about a hundred more built-in advantages than most documentaries. Offering up vintage backstage footage of Jim Henson and Frank Oz operating the Muppets feels a little like Henry Houdini coming back to reveal all his secrets. For parts of
“Mass,” a drama that consists of two couples seated across a table from each other in a placidly sterile church antechamber, discussing the unthinkable (two of them are the parents of a teenage boy who was killed in a school shooting; the other two are the parents of the shooter), is a movie you could
How to introduce an entity as mercurial as Sparks, the band that forms the subject of Edgar Wright’s fantastic, fond, fizzy documentary portrait, to those who don’t know them? With over five decades and 25 albums’ worth of music, sibling frontmen Ron and Russell Mael have been virtually the only constant in a group whose
There might be different ways to quantify who the most successful producer in country music history would be, but Variety‘s Hitmaker of the Month, Scott Hendricks, is certainly in the running, with more than 70 No. 1 singles to his credit in a 35-year discography. What might be easier to quantify is who stands as
Hilton Valentine, the original guitarist for the Animals who played the opening riff on their hit song “House of the Rising Sun,” died on Jan. 29. He was 77. The Animals’ label, ABKCO Music, announced Valentine’s death on their Twitter account. “Our deepest sympathies go out to @HiltonValentine’s family and friends on his passing this
Issues of identity, assimilation and the contemporary Native American experience run deep beneath Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr.’s feature debut, “Wild Indian,” while the surface narrative is one that any filmmaker could have told, albeit in a less original context. Watching “Wild Indian,” I was reminded of “Moonlight,” with its three distinct time periods. “Wild Indian”
“You get used to feeling mediocre,” says one of the merely very bright students in a school full of what he considers “geniuses.” “Try Harder,” Debbie Lum’s simultaneously charming and chastening documentary on the senior class in Lowell High — the majority Asian-American, top-ranked school in San Francisco — takes its cue from its lovable,
The cast and crew of “How It Ends” discussed the “apocalyptic comedy’s” connection to pandemic-era life and the worldwide appeal of the phenomenon that is Timothée Chalamet. Co-writers and directors Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones, along with star Cailee Spaeny, joined Sundance Film Festival’s Variety Studio presented by AT&T TV to discuss the makings of their
In a record-setting purchase, Apple Studios has emerged as the winner of “CODA,” the virtual Sundance sensation about a young hearing girl who grapples with breaking away from her deaf family. The Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht-led studio paid close to $25 million for the film, breaking last year’s recording setting “Palm Springs” sale
India will allow 100% occupancy in cinemas from Feb. 1, the country’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced on Saturday. Cinemas began reopening in October 2020 with 50% occupancy. “Seating arrangement inside the auditorium of the cinemas/theatres/multiplexes is to be allowed upto 100% seating capacity,” read a statement from the Ministry. Exhibition of films, however,
From the daily routines to their common regrets, the life of a nomad is examined superbly in “Nomadland” – especially in the heartbreaking character Dave, portrayed by veteran actor David Strathairn. His performance is just one of the many small yet bright spots of Chloé Zhao’s gorgeous depiction of a long-ignored group in America that
“In the Same Breath” isn’t shot like most documentaries. Towards the beginning of the film, director Nanfu Wang describes the process by which she chose her collaborators, explaining how she contacted camera operators on the ground in Wuhan to see if they would feel comfortable working on a film that exposes the COVID-19 misinformation campaign
While specific plotlines for each “Sex and the City” character in the HBO Max revival are unknown, star Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed the limited series will incorporate the COVID-19 pandemic into show. Speaking to Vanity Fair Friday, the actor said she is eagerly awaiting scripts from showrunner Michael Patrick King, who is leading a writers
Duke Bootee, whose 1982 hit “The Message” changed the tone of hip-hop, died on Jan. 13 of heart failure at his home in Savannah, Ga., the New York Times confirmed. He was 69. Born Edward Fletcher, he began writing “The Message” in 1980, the same year he became a studio musician at Sugar Hill Records,
Sophie Xeon, the Grammy-nominated producer-musician whose pioneering work combined sweet pop melodies with mechanical noises into a genre now known as hyper-pop, died in a climbing accident in Greece on Saturday. She was 34. “True to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell,” a statement from
For more than two decades, Gareth Jones had spent late January and early February in snowy Park City, Utah at the Sundance Film Festival. But on Thursday night, Jones didn’t have to get on a plane to attend the annual film festival. Instead, he drove to the Sidewalk Film Fest and Cinema in downtown Birmingham,
Mandy Patinkin and Lena Dunham have joined German filmmaker Julia von Heinz’s next film, “Iron Box,” about a New York businesswoman who decides to take her aging father back to his native Poland, where she hopes to explore her Jewish roots. In an interview with Variety during last year’s Venice Film Festival following the premiere
Best known for his gripping and visceral work on “High-Rise” and Netflix’s recent “Rebecca,” director Ben Wheatley’s latest Sundance offering “In The Earth” is a return to the bloody, brain-scrambling flicks he cut his teeth on. Wheatley joined his cast Ellora Torchia and Joel Fry at Variety’s Sundance Studio, presented by AT&T, to discuss his