“…the curious feeling swam through him that everything was beautiful there, that it would always stay beautiful there…” At one point in Francesco Rizzi’s coolly assured, impressive debut “Cronofobia,” which picked up a first feature competition jury prize in the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, a raspy but sonorous voice reads out Charles Bukowski’s poem “Nirvana”
Movies
Don Lusk, an animator behind “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” and many more classic animated Disney movies, died Sunday morning, according to a Facebook post by Ed Asner’s daughter, Navah Paskowitz-Asner. He was 105. Lusk’s 60-year career touched countless classic works from Disney, where his career began in 1933. There he worked his animation magic
December 31, 2018 10:53AM PT Simon Lereng Wilmont’s deservingly Oscar-shortlisted doc evocatively filters Russo-Ukrainian conflict through the shifting perspective of a pre-adolescent boy. There’s rueful misdirection in the title “The Distant Barking of Dogs,” even if it isn’t strictly inaccurate: For much of Danish docmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont’s stoically compassionate fly-on-the-wall wartime portrait, a steady
December 31, 2018 9:00AM PT Variety will honor actress Emily Blunt at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Friday, Jan. 4 as part of their annual brunch with the festival at the Parker Palm Springs. The brunch is presented by AT&T. The “Mary Poppins Returns” star will receive the annual Creative Impact in Acting
Alfredo Calvino’s Habanero Film Sales has snapped up two dramas by Bolivia’s Gory Patiño, “The Goalkeeper” and “Pseudo,” after spotting them at Ventana Sur. “Habanero’s motto is ‘Awesome stories from Latin American & Caribbean filmmakers.’ We are always looking for films anchored in great storytelling; fresh and unusual perspectives that touch on important issues that
MADRID — “I was six-years-old when they came for my mother. People from the town, Franco supporters,” narrates an old lady, the white-haired, black-dressed Maria Martín, nearly 80 years later, as she is filmed at the beginning of “The Silence of Others” laying simple flowers by the side of a country road. Executed during Spain’s
New local Chinese titles beat Hollywood heavyweights “Aquaman” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” at the box office this weekend, with a remake and a panned sequel leading the pack. Meanwhile, expensive Bollywood flop “Thugs of Hindostan” failed to redeem itself in China, with a weak opening weekend marking the first Aamir Khan flop in China
Film-score buffs had a bonanza of riches to choose from in 2018 — notwithstanding the fact that the soundtrack business is almost unrecognizable from what it was even a decade ago. Instead of farming out their new scores to the traditional soundtrack labels, most studios now retain them for their own in-house labels and generally
With its jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum” made history, and with its current Golden Globes nod for best foreign language motion picture, the film is on its way to marking further milestones. “Capernaum” is on Oscar’s shortlist for foreign-language film, with nominations to be unveiled Jan. 23. The Globes ceremony
“Aquaman” continues to leave competitors in its wake, ruling the global box office for the fourth consecutive week. Warner Bros.’ DC superhero film — directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa — amassed another $85.4 million in 78 international territories this weekend, taking its overseas tally to a massive $560 million. The tentpole also
“Aquaman” easily retained its reign in North American for the second weekend in a row, dominating box office charts with $51.5 million from 4,125 locations. That marks a decline of just 24% from its opening weekend of $72 million and brings the DC superhero tentpole past $188 million in the states. Since it’s a busy time
December 30, 2018 1:14AM PT Legendary Indian filmmaker, Mrinal Sen died of a cardiac failure in Kolkata on Sunday. He was 95. Sen was born in 1923 in Faridpur, British India (now Bangladesh). He debuted in 1955 with “Raat Bhore” and found local acclaim with “Neel Akasher Neechey” (1959) and “Baishey Shravana” (1960). He won
December 29, 2018 10:57PM PT American sports comedy, “Uncle Drew” has netted itself a theatrical release in mainland China, where basketball is a major sport. It will be released in Chinese cinemas on Jan. 11, 2019. Starring hoops legend Kyrie Irving in the title role, the film delivers a story about a team of old-time
One of the many fun things about the Academy Awards race is that it’s an animal that mutates — the mutations being shifts in perception, which have a way of turning into reality. This is supposed to be the winner, and then that suddenly zooms ahead, creating a momentum of expectation that becomes self-fulfilling. (Or
Hong Kong-born action director Ringo Lam, who directed the influential crime film “City on Fire,” has died. Hong Kong media outlets reported the director, who was born Lin Lingdong, was found unresponsive in bed on Saturday by his wife. The 1986 “City on Fire” is considered a landmark film about Hong Kong triads, and won
Some Oscar campaigns are way better than others. Mind you, it’s probably just the luck of the clock that “Lady Gaga Enigma,” the highly spectacular, long-in-the-works show that opened Friday night in Las Vegas, happens to be kicking off in the heart of awards season. Gaga did blurt out toward the close of opening night
Powerful holdovers “Aquaman” and “Mary Poppins Returns” are leading the way as the 2018 domestic box office finishes the year on a record-setting note. “Aquaman” will repeat as the winner of the final weekend of the year with about $52 million at 4,125 North American sites, according to Saturday estimates. That’s a smallish decline of
Netflix’s frightening thriller “Bird Box” scored the biggest seven-day viewership of all the streamer’s original movie releases to date — with just over 45 million member accounts having watched the movie in the first week, the company claimed Friday. The movie bowed Dec. 21 worldwide on Netflix, and became an instant — if traumatizing —
Disney-Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” and “Captain Marvel” are next year’s most anticipated movies, a pair of surveys reveal. “Avengers: Endgame,” the fourth title in the lucrative franchise, led the “most anticipated blockbuster” survey by ticketing service Fandango and came in second in the page view rankings of IMDb users. “Captain Marvel,” starring Brie Larson, placed first
It’s not uncommon to talk about body transformation when you talk about the work of Christian Bale, from his obsessive workout regimen in “American Psycho” to his near-emaciation in “The Machinist.” His 60 lb. weight gain to play Dick Cheney in “Vice,” however, has inspired many a headline as we watched a former Batman shape-shift.
How successful has the 2018 box office been? Let us count the ways. The movie business is on track to hit a global record, and for the first time in a while, North America is to thank. After being diagnosed with severe cases of sequelitis and franchise fatigue, studios were able to lure audiences back to theaters
As the 2018 box office closes with a bang, “Aquaman” is ruling North American moviegoing with $137 million in its first week in theaters. The Warner Bros. tentpole took in $14.6 million at 4,125 locations on Thursday. “Aquaman” has also performed powerfully overseas with $473.6 million since launching on Dec. 7. China has led the
December 28, 2018 9:00AM PT The cast of “Mary Poppins Returns” has been selected for the Ensemble Performance Award by the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The honor will be presented at the festival’s Film Awards Gala on Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Cast members Emily Blunt, Pixie Davies, Nathanael Salah and
Barack Obama may be a couple of years removed from the Oval Office, but the president ex officio is continuing a tradition he started as commander-in-chief of sharing his year-end list of his favorite movies, music, and books. He did not share his favorite shows and streaming series. “It gives me a moment to pause
Uruguayan authorities have created a new Uruguay Audiovisual Fund that offers cash rebates for international productions shooting in Uruguay, as well as extra grants for Uruguayan productions. Announced last week in Montevideo, and part of a new roadmap for Uruguay’s create industries, news of the new Fund comes days after Matías Ganz’s “Los Indefensos,” an
A blindfolded woman, accompanied by two young children, with their eyes similarly bound, guides a rowing boat down a fast-flowing murky river with trees crowding in on either side. It was this image that hooked the attention of Susanne Bier, director of Emmy winner “The Night Manager” and Oscar winner “In a Better World,” leading
After recording its third-highest number in the last 50 years in 2017, French theatrical admissions are on track for a 4% drop this year, with an estimated 201 million sold. In dollar terms, however, the French box office is expected to clock in at about €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion), on par with last year, bolstered
In today’s film news roundup, Peter Jackson’s World War I documentary is performing well, Joan Meyerson is honored and a documentary about President Trump’s mental fitness is in the works. BOX OFFICE Peter Jackson’s World War I documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” is on track to break its own record with $3.1 million at
Movie conglomerate Lotte Cultureworks is poised to become South Korea’s leading distributor for the first time in 15 years. The company is expected to overtake CJ Entertainment, which has dominated distribution in the world’s fifth largest theatrical market since 2003. Lotte’s rise back to the top was driven by its own “Along With the Gods”
In a tangle of lithe limbs and uncombed hair, bonding moments and buried resentments, four half-sisters embark on a road trip across Colombia to bring the youngest of their number to live with an aunt, following the death of their father in “Wandering Girl.” Writer-director Rubén Mendoza’s fourth feature, the deserving Grand Prix winner at