Time tugs strangely on the sleeve of “Sweet Thing,” a heartfelt, hopeful yet slightly hollow black-and-white coming-of-ager from American indie stalwart Alexandre Rockwell (“In the Soup,” “Pete Smalls Is Dead”). A lively, bittersweet meditation on an impoverished childhood that is still rich in innocence and imagination, it feels old-fashioned in a way that does not
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A riveting and radical act of empathy, with actress Deragh Campbell’s unforgettably embodied portrayal of mental instability as the eye of its storm, Canadian director Kazik Radwanski’s astonishing third feature (after “How Heavy This Hammer” and “Tower”) is a brief, bracing burst of microbudget indie filmmaking at its most powerful. “Anne at 13,000 ft” might
The Olympics? Canceled. Coachella? Canceled. SXSW, Tribeca, movie theaters and Broadway? All canceled. The coronavirus has forced us all to adapt and adjust. Whether it’s working from home or watching for local businesses to open again, there are still many questions and uncertainties. In Hollywood, that has also meant that TV shows and movie productions
March 27, 2020 10:52AM PT U.K. entertainment industry union Equity has pledged £1 million ($1.2 million) to support its members who have been affected by the pandemic-induced industry shutdown. Equity is asking for more donations, stating that the vast majority of its 47,000 members earn modest sums and do not have savings as a fall-back
March 27, 2020 6:30AM PT Hours after municipal authorities in Shanghai gave more than 200 cinemas the green light to re-open Saturday, national-level Chinese authorities on Friday ordered all theaters throughout the country shut again, likely due to concerns over renewed coronavirus threat. Around 500 theaters across the country had attempted to re-open, but seen
Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony said that the coronavirus has not – yet – caused it to change its financial guidance it has provided for the financial year, which ends in just a few days. Its games unit has escaped lightest so far. But the movie business at Sony, and in Asia, continues to
“Uncorked” kicks off on a delicious note of culture clash. As hectoring hip-hop pounds over the opening credits, the movie cuts back and forth between the owner of a Southern barbecue joint preparing the day’s fixins — grilling the pork ribs, stirring the tangy red sauce — and California vintners working their chem-lab alchemy to
There are a lot of classic ingredients that go into a banana split. So it seems appropriate that “Banana Split” includes all the tasty components of a good, fun, soulfully smart summer-after-senior-year teen flick. It’s got sharp-tongued dialogue and fresh appealing actors who know just how to deliver it. It’s got an anthropological eye for
More than 200 cinemas in Shanghai will re-open Saturday after nearly two months of enforced shutdown to stop the spread of coronavirus, Chinese authorities said Thursday. This makes the metropolis of more than 24 million one of China’s first major tier one cities to re-open multiplexes to the public, after others in more far-flung regions
In today’s film news roundup, Jennifer Hudson’s “Respect” is moved back two months, another film festival is postponed and “Lupin the Third: the First” and “Raising Buchanan” find distribution. RELEASE DATE MGM has moved the release date of Jennifer Hudson’s Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” from Oct. 9 to late in the awards seasons with a
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the globe, Hollywood has been brought to a standstill. TV and movie productions have been put on hold, as the industry — along with millions in other businesses — is social distancing. One such project that’s been paused is “The Last Duel,” Ridley Scott’s upcoming drama set
Neon, the U.S. distributor behind Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar winner “Parasite,” has won domestic rights to “Pig,” a revenge thriller from Nicolas Cage and first time filmmaker Michael Sarnoski, Variety has learned. The Tom Quinn-led company came out ahead in a heated bidding war that ignited last week involving numerous competitors, sources said. The deal
The cameras may have stopped rolling two weeks ago, but Hollywood’s headaches only stand to intensify in the coming weeks and months as the industry tentatively looks ahead to the day when studios will be back in business. From “The Matrix 4” to “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” the coronavirus pandemic has
March 26, 2020 11:02AM PT Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” will begin streaming on Hulu on Friday, March 27, the streamer announced. Neon and Hulu acquired the movie out of the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it premiered in competition and won the Queer Palm and best screenplay. In the United
We love movies about women in peril. From “Gaslight” to “King Kong” to Jennifer Lopez with a ridiculous haircut in “Enough,” audiences will almost always pay to watch a woman stare helplessly as a doorknob slowly turns, or hold her breath as a shadow looms next to where she is hiding. But as much as
While speculation mounts about whether the Cannes Film Festival will be postponed to late June, organizers addressed frequently asked questions, such as why it chose to delay the event rather than cancel it. The festival said it plays a key role in the economy of world cinema and “when the decision to cancel the event
The U.K. has finally announced an economic relief package for freelancers not in employment after much of the country’s creative industries shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced a new self-employed income support scheme on Thursday. Self-employed individuals can claim 80% of their average income over the last three
London-based documentary distributor Dogwoof has acquired dog documentary “Stray,” which was slated to bow at April’s now-postponed Tribeca Film Festival. The doc specialist has picked up world rights to the Turkey-set film, which also marks Dogwoof’s first dog-centric sales documentary. The doc takes a canine’s eye-view of the streets of Istanbul, and follows three dogs
tDriven by excellent reviews, steady word-of-mouth and an energetic marketing campaign, Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” was, by many measures, 2019’s most surprising success story. The class-conscious South Korean thriller earned more than $50 million at the U.S. box office and became the first foreign-language film to win the Oscar for best picture. As the film
Ellen Page is now calling the shots from behind the camera. The “X-Men” star makes her directorial debut with “There’s Something in the Water,” the new Netflix documentary she co-directed with Ian Daniel about the impact of environmental racism on marginalized communities in her native Canada. “Environmental racism is essentially the disproportionate placement of landfills,
Viaplay, the thriving streaming service owned by the Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group), is set to launch in Iceland on April 1. Viaplay is already a leading streamer in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. With the upcoming roll-out in Iceland, the service will available in all five Nordic countries. The Viaplay series and movies package
March 26, 2020 2:24AM PT U.K. theater chain Cineworld Group has decided not to go ahead with the planned redundancies first announced last week after all their sites, including Picturehouse screens, shuttered due to the coronavirus crisis. In an internal memo to staff circulated Wednesday night and seen by Variety, Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger wrote:
China has re-opened a portion of its cinemas as it emerges from its coronavirus shutdown. But they’re far from back to business as usual. After nearly 60 days of closures, more than 500 cinemas — around 5% of China’s total — re-opened last weekend. Yet without exciting product yet to push, they remain comically empty.
“Tape,” a guerrilla indie drama that confronts some of the ways sexual harassment has been embedded in the entertainment industry, begins with Rosa (Annarosa Mudd) getting ready to go undercover — but really, she’s dressing for battle. After rigging herself up with a hidden camera, she mutilates her body in homage to Lavinia in “Titus
The National Association of Theatre Owners commended the U.S. Senate’s bipartisan agreement to provide economic relief to the exhibition business and other industries that have had to close their doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Senate leaders and the White House reached a deal early Wednesday morning on a $2 trillion stimulus package, which includes
In today’s film news roundup, Canada’s largest LGBTQ film festival gets postponed, the commercial industry’s health plan addresses the coronavirus pandemic and Margaret Qualley’s “A Head Full of Ghosts” finds a home. FILM FESTIVAL Inside Out, Canada’s largest LGBTQ film festival, has postponed this year’s 30th anniversary edition to Oct. 1-11 due to the coronavirus
As the coronavirus pandemic forces global audiences into their homes and film and television production grinds to a halt, unsold independent films have become attractive options for distributors seeking fast content, numerous industry insiders tell Variety. Streamers including Apple TV Plus, Hulu, Amazon Prime and the major studios are showing renewed interest in finished films
AMC Theatres, the nation’s biggest cinema chain, furloughed more than 600 corporate employees after the coronavirus outbreak forced movie theaters across the country to close. The action extends to every corporate AMC staff member, including chief executive officer Adam Aron. While AMC locations are closed, employees will have reduced working hours at reduced pay, or
Movie theaters have endured world wars, depressions and recessions, and the advent of everything from television to streaming. But COVID-19 and the public health crisis it has generated around the globe represent an existential threat to the cinema business like no other. In a matter of days with the accelerating spread of the contagion, most
Endeavor has laid off roughly 250 staffers across its portfolio of businesses, sources told Variety, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to paralyze Hollywood. Pay cuts are being evaluated for all remaining employees, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel said in a memo on Wednesday. The majority of staff cuts have hit IMG Academy, a sports education facility,