Never underestimate the power of music to bring people together, even when the parties in question are deeply conservative Southern Christians and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. In response to a rise in fresh anti-LGBT bigotry, the out-and-proud California choir planned a series of concerts across five of the states with the harshest laws
Movies
In less than two weeks, “Avengers: Endgame” has made more money than any other movie in history except one — “Avatar.” “Avengers: Endgame” surpassed $2.188 billion worldwide in just 11 days, making it the fastest film to surpass $2 billion. It took “Avatar,” the previous record-holder, 47 days to reach that benchmark. That was back
Tribeca Film Festival’s 2019 edition closed out Saturday night with the world premiere of Danny Boyle’s highly anticipated “Yesterday.” The Oscar winning director spoke to Variety about the “great honor” of having his work highlighted among hundreds of films that played over the past two weeks. “Film festivals are crucial, more and more crucial, especially
“Avengers: Endgame” is now the second-biggest movie of all time at the international box office. This weekend, Marvel’s latest juggernaut amassed another $282 million from 55 foreign markets, taking it to $1.569 billion in ticket sales overseas. That puts “Endgame” ahead of “Titanic” ($1.528 billion), and behind only “Avatar” ($2.028 billion) at the international box
May 5, 2019 9:31AM PT Tim Travers Hawkins’ daring documentary on famed whistleblower Chelsea Manning feels incomplete while it paints a hazy portrait of a fascinating subject. With the imprecisely assembled “XY Chelsea,” multimedia artist-cum-filmmaker Tim Travers Hawkins makes a bold yet mostly fruitless attempt to tell the infamous whistleblower Chelsea Manning’s remarkable story. While
Visibility, advocacy, and hope were the big themes Saturday at the 30th annual GLAAD awards, which saw the largest attendance that the ceremony has ever seen with more than 1,300 guests. Madonna was honored with the Advocate for Change Award. She started by saying that 2019 is a “monumental year,” remembering the Stonewall riots which
Disney’s “Avengers: Endgame” continues its unprecedented box office run, assembling another $145 million at the domestic box office during its second weekend in theaters. “Avengers: Endgame” now stands as the second-biggest movie of all time with $2.188 billion worldwide. The Marvel juggernaut became the fastest film to gross $2 billion globally, reach that benchmark in
Disney’s “Avengers: Endgame” has officially surpassed the $2 billion mark in its second weekend in theaters, obliterating the record for the fastest film to reach that milestone. “Avengers: Endgame” is now the second-highest grossing movie of all time with $2.188 billion globally, passing “Titanic” in just 11 days. It took “Avatar,” the previous record-holder for
Hong Kong drama “Still Human” picked up top prizes at the 21st Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy at midnight on Sunday. It was a favorite of both critics and audience. However, the film’s lead actor Anthony Wong, who was also the recipient of the festival’s Golden Mulberry award for outstanding achievement and winner
After being put on the shelf by Amazon, Woody Allen’s “A Rainy Day in New York” is to be released in Italy in the fall via distributor Lucky Red, with other European territories also believed to have closed local distribution deals, a source familiar with the situation told Variety. Following Amazon’s decision to halt the
Pica, or the compulsion to consume things nowhere to be found on the food pyramid — like handfuls of dirt, stray pieces of jewelry, or a juicy double-A battery — serves as a metaphor for one woman’s struggle against the patriarchy in Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ “Swallow.” A bold and unconventional thriller made real by the evolution
The Beatles wrote many of the greatest songs of all time, and they also wrote a lot of the greatest movie songs. To know that, all you have to do is see the title sequence of “A Hard Day’s Night,” which electrifies you from its opening THRUM!!!, or the Beatles blasting the sonic bliss of
You know things are bad for women in Hollywood when there’s one female dog featured in canine cutefest “A Dog’s Journey,” and it still gets to be voiced by Josh Gad. That is, admittedly, an unavoidable consequence of this family franchise’s curious Buddhism-for-beginners premise: the idea that one mind and soul can be carried through
May 4, 2019 5:11PM PT Erin Lee Carr’s upsetting and infuriating doc recounts the reign of sexual-abuse terror perpetrated by USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Dr. Larry Nassar was the prototypical wolf in sheep’s clothing, a respected physician, community figure, and friend who exploited the trust of children and adults alike in order to perpetrate
“Plus One” and “Gay Chorus Deep South” have won the audience awards at the 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival with each receiving a $10,000 cash prize. “Plus One” won the audience award for best narrative feature. It’s directed, written and produced by Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer. Other producers are Jeremy Reitz, Debbie Liebling, Ross
The cast of the new Netflix trauma-dy, “Dead to Me,” came out to support the season one premiere of the series at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica on Thursday night, but everyone seemed to have movies on their minds. “It’s been a crazy three weeks,” said Linda Cardellini, who had back-to-back movie premieres for
Disney-Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” is heading for a stellar second weekend with an estimated $145 million domestically, topping the U.S. box office by an immense margin. Its second frame haul will tack on to its current $1.915 billion worldwide total, bringing it to over $2 billion. Its current total makes it the no. 5 highest-grossing global
Kevin Costner is not happy with what’s happening — or not happening, that is — in Washington, D.C. “The political landscape is unrecognizable to me, and shame on us for being in that spot,” the Oscar winner says. “That could change overnight, not because of a vote, but because people say, ‘I want to try
TORONTO–Hot Docs opening film “Nipawistamasowin: We Will Stand Up,” directed by Tasha Hubbard, won the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at the annual festival’s awards ceremony May 13, where 14 awards and CAN$75,000 ($56,000) in cash and prizes were handed out to Canadian and international films and filmmakers at the Isabel Bader Theater. Hubbard was on
TORONTO – When it comes to the subject of documentary features in brick-and-mortar theaters, the recent run of strong box-office performances is the headline-grabber. But Hot Docs hopes we’ll see more stories in the near future about other cities launching venues similar to its Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, located on Toronto’s bustling Bloor Street corridor, where audiences gather to
America’s striking recent populist turn against immigration in a nation built on immigrants — and the deaf ear turned to the flight from poverty and persecution in the “land of opportunity” — are ironies not lost on “Unsettled.” This latest documentary by Tom Shepard (“Scout’s Honor,” “Whiz Kids”) follows four new arrivals who’ve each escaped
In movies, the ’60s and ’70s were the heyday of adorable kooks (Goldie, Liza), mentally impaired cuddle bears like the hero of “Charly,” and saintly schizophrenic victims like Gena Rowlands in “A Woman Under the Influence.” Mental illness, in general, was viewed through a softer lens than the one we employ today, partly because of
In today’s film news roundup, Will Ferrell’s sports comedy hires a director, Leonard Maltin launches a film festival and Spike Lee’s “Son of the South” fills out its cast. DIRECTOR ATTACHMENT “Fist Fight” director Richie Keen has signed direct a previously announced eSports comedy at Legendary Pictures that has Will Ferrell attached to star. Keen
As documentary pitches go, a study of service dogs and their humans is as critic-proof, in its own way, as a Marvel spectacular: It will have a particular audience at “hello” (or perhaps that should be “heel”) regardless of execution. Which is to say that veteran Dutch docmaker Heddy Honigmann’s “Buddy” doesn’t need to be
WASHINGTON — Edward Zwick’s new movie, “Trial By Fire,” which will screen in D.C. next week before its May 17 release, is coming out amid a potential shift in the politics surrounding the death penalty. California Governor Gavin Newsom put a moratorium on the state’s death penalty in March, suspending executions for the more than
May 3, 2019 2:32PM PT Abandoned features found in the Afghan Film archives shed light on the nation’s short, rocky Communist era. Assembling a few found shards from the recent history of endlessly broken Afghanistan, “What We Left Unfinished” is cultural archaeology of special interest to cineastes. Miriam Ghani’s film spotlights five features that were
In a pre-Cannes Film Festival announcement, Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges and Tracy Letts have signed on to star in the comedy “French Exit.” Rocket Science and Wild Bunch are handling international sales, beginning in Cannes. CAA Media Finance is representing the U.S. rights. The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival opens on May 14. Azazel Jacobs
May 3, 2019 2:24PM PT A lot of people have opinions about the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie trailer that dropped on Tuesday, and none of them are good. That includes John Mathieson, the director of photography for rival video game-based movie “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.” “Funny enough, I was offered [‘Sonic the Hedgehog’] and after watching
The Writers Guild of America has removed the judge assigned to its lawsuit against Hollywood’s four major talent agencies, using its only preemptory challenge. The WGA had asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marc Gross to voluntarily recuse himself from the case earlier this week but Gross refused, leading to the guild using its right
Disney-Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” will continue obliterating records this weekend as the superhero blockbuster heads for at least $175 million in North America, early estimates showed on Friday. “Avengers: Endgame,” which opened with a stunning $357.1 million last weekend, should easily eclipse the record for biggest domestic second weekend of all time, currently held by 2015’s