Movies

Character actor Richard Erdman, known to contemporary audiences as perpetual student Leonard on “,” who also had significant roles for more than seven decades in movies and TV shows such as “The Twilight Zone” and “Stalag 17,” has died. He was 93. His friend, film historian Alan K. Rode, reported his death on Twitter. On

Newcomers were no match for Disney’s “Captain Marvel” at the domestic box office The superhero blockbuster soared past the competition, bringing in $69 million in its second weekend of release. Starring Brie Larson, Marvel’s first comic-book tentpole to spotlight a female superhero has now surpassed $265 million in ticket sales domestically. Its second weekend decline

Zhang Yimou’s highly stylized period epic “Shadow” was the numerical winner at Sunday’s Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. It bagged four technical awards. But the major prizes went to Japanese and Korean filmmakers. Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Shoplifters,” a Japanese drama about a family surviving on shoplifting, was named best picture. The film had been the

In Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary,” the big-city Creed family moves to rural Maine, inadvertently buying a plot of land that includes an ancient Indian burial ground. If you inter a beloved feline correctly in the creepy pet cemetery behind their house, it’s liable to come back … different. Same goes for cadavers of the non-cat

March 16, 2019 4:12PM PT News on the “Breaking Bad” movie seems to be coming in fits and starts. At the Sun Valley Film Festival Friday, series star Aaron Paul didn’t confirm whether he was involved in the upcoming movie sequel, which will first air on Netflix and then AMC, as Variety reported in February,

Audiences at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas, are famously enthusiastic, cheering for movies with the same kind of bring-down-the-house applause they show bands at the event’s overlapping music fest — so it can be helpful to know which movies they really loved when the 10-day showcase winds to an end

The second frame of Disney-Marvel’s latest MCU installment, “Captain Marvel,” is set to top the box office with an estimated $70 million. The superhero film already pushed past the $200 million mark domestically after taking in $19 million on Friday for a total of about $215 million. It’s also generated $378 million overseas after jolting

Things go bump in the night — and, as an occasional change of pace, in the middle of the afternoon — with a frequency that will neither surprise nor disappoint genre fans throughout “The Curse of La Llorona,” an efficiently formulaic shocker inspired by the centuries-old Mexican legend of the titular bogeywoman. It’s set in

March 15, 2019 11:58PM PT A tea-cosy “Ghostbusters,” Irish writer-directors Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman’s first feature is a winningly off-kilter comedy. A first feature for the writing-directing duo of Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman, whose prior work has encompassed shorts, music videos, and commercials, “Extra Ordinary” is a kind of tea-cosy “Ghostbusters” that’s consistently

March 15, 2019 11:50PM PT Bratty Millennial and ornery boomer square off in a cartoonishly satirical horror-comedy that’s not nearly as clever as it thinks it is. Intergenerational conflict is only likely to get worse as Millennials grasp a problem-filled future for which they already blame baby boomers, while boomers hone their dislike of what

The rock ‘n’ roll excesses of the ’60s and ’70s are etched into legend. We’re now living through a moment when it seems as if we might one day, you know, be pulling Led Zeppelin tracks from streaming sites because of the scandalous nature of the group’s offstage bacchanals. Yet I somehow doubt it. The

March 15, 2019 8:44PM PT Warner Brothers’ “Shazam!” will hit Chinese theaters on April 5, the same day it premieres in North America. The studio’s last superhero flick to wow mainland audiences was the James Wan-directed “Aquaman,” which made a super-sized $298 million in the country, making it the studio’s top-grossing title in the Middle

’Petra,’ ‘Midnight Family ‘ Win Big at Guadalajara The 34th Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (FICG), boasting a new general director, Estrella Araiza, wrapped March 15 with a bevy of cash prizes spread out among several categories. Documentaries ruled, led by Premio Mezcal best film and best director winner “Midnight Family” by Luke Lorentzen, who also lensed

March 15, 2019 11:14AM PT After a series of meetings with Walt Disney Pictures honcho Alan Horn, fired director James Gunn will return to the Marvel fold. Gunn has been re-hired to direct the third installment in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, the Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana series about misfits who protect outer-space,

March 15, 2019 10:53AM PT Chris Evans narrates this Imax original documentary about heroic dogs trained for rescue missions, emotional support, and sniffing out crime. In a world constantly thirsting for wholesome dog-centric content, the hook of director Daniel Ferguson’s “Superpower Dogs” is an insanely catchy one. Running a museum- and science-center-friendly 47 minutes, this

Tim Burton’s live-action “Dumbo” launches March 29, a remake of the Disney classic that opened Oct. 23, 1941. That film is remembered as one of Disney’s shortest (64 minutes) and sweetest. It should also be remembered as the animated movie that launched Disney’s studio in Burbank — and one that was completed in the midst

March 15, 2019 10:00AM PT “You” star Elizabeth Lail will lead STX Films’ upcoming horror pic “Countdown.” The movie follows a young nurse who downloads an app that claims to predict exactly when a person is going to die. When it tells her she only has three days to live, she must find a way

Don’t tell cinematographer Nancy Schreiber that she’s having a renaissance. That would imply there’ve been slumps in her long career, and she won’t have any of that, even if for a time she was taking smaller jobs as the gaps widened between larger gigs. “It’s never been about the money, for me,” says Schreiber over

Netflix, in an about-face after an outcry over footage in its original film “Bird Box” of a 2013 deadly train disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, said it will now remove the offending segment. “Netflix and the filmmakers of ‘Bird Box’ have decided to replace the clip,” a company spokesman said in an email to Variety. “We’re

The romantic drama “Five Feet Apart” has opened with $715,000 on Thursday night, barely beating previews for the animated film “Wonder Park,” which earned $700,000. Focus Features’ sci-fi movie “Captive State” generated $300,000 on Thursday. The trio of wide openings is expected to be dwarfed by the sophomore frame of Brie Larson’s “Captain Marvel,” which

When it comes to name recognition, few American detectives rank as high as Nancy Drew with audiences, owing to the fact that millions devoured the yellow-spined novels, and no small number of celebs (including executive producer Ellen DeGeneres) went on to credit the character with inspiring them at a young age. As a result, it’s

Given the allusions to literal and thematic Trojan Horses that pepper its third act, one probably shouldn’t be surprised that “Captive State” — which opened cold on March 14 after Focus mysteriously canceled screenings for critics — actually is something of a purposefully camouflaged interloper. Although the TV ads and other promotional material appear to

When FilMart was launched 22 years ago, Hong Kong boasted of its historic role as the preeminent gateway between China and the rest of the world. That message has had to be tempered in recent years as multiple other cities have emerged with claims to be hubs, and there is now huge direct trade between

March 14, 2019 7:22PM PT A “imaginary” childhood friend returns with malignant intent in this inventive psychological-horror thriller. An alter ego gets a little too altering in “Daniel Isn’t Real.” Based on co-writer Brian DeLeeuw’s novel “In This Way I Was Saved,” this strong second feature for director Adam Egypt Mortimer centers on an unhappy

Though his books were seldom issued by major publishing houses, recently deceased author Jack Ketchum has become one of the big screen’s more frequently adapted U.S. novelists. “Darlin’” isn’t based on a Ketchum tome, per se, but it does have a through line to his work: It’s a sequel to Lucky McKee’s 2011 “The Woman,”

The reigning queen of period pieces, Keira Knightley, knows a thing or two about historical clothing. “Lining. Lining is always important,” the Oscar-nominated actress playfully advised on Wednesday at the premiere of her post-WWII drama “Aftermath.” “If you get a lot of itchy stuff always put lining in it. I have learned that from having

March 14, 2019 2:54PM PT Following a backlash from fans, Marvel Studios has added Danai Gurira’s name to the “Avengers: Endgame” poster after it had been missing from the original version. “She should have been up there all this time,” the company tweeted on Thursday. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that Gurira’s name was absent from the

Howard A. Rodman’s upcoming book will be getting the big-screen treatment. “The Great Eastern,” set to be published in early June by Melville House Books, has been acquired by Great Point Media — a London-based content and media company. Rodman, the former Writers Guild of America West president, will also write the screenplay for the

March 14, 2019 1:57PM PT Thief-turned-teacher Zequi competes to save his relationship, and his school, at a beach-resort competition in this dreary sequel. For proof of American cinema’s global reach, look no further than “No Manches Frida 2,” which like its 2016 predecessor hews to a tried-and-true Hollywood comedy formula, albeit one embellished with distinctly

As guests filed into Austin’s Paramount Theatre for the world premiere of “Us” at South by Southwest on the evening of March 8, there was audible whispering about whether Jordan Peele’s latest film would win over fans, critics and, ultimately, Academy voters. His freshman effort, “Get Out,” not only took in $255 million worldwide but