Movies

In a gripping segment on his CNN news show Friday night, anchor Don Lemon opened up as a member of both the African-American and LGBT communities and called for a deeper response from comedian Kevin Hart in renewed controversy over his defunct Oscar hosting gig. Lemon addressed the spectacle of Hart’s Thursday appearance on Ellen

January 4, 2019 8:40PM PT Korean prosecutors have decided not to allow a defamation case against the actress who last year accused film maker Kim Ki-duk of sexual assault, and another against broadcaster MBC’s investigative news show “PD’s Notebook.” The actress, who maintains her anonymity, claimed sexual assault by Kim, and that he slapped her

There are always a slew of familiar faces that pop up every awards season. The former Oscar winner whose latest project has her looking at yet another nomination. Or the actor who seems to be a fixture on the circuit whether his latest performance is on the big or small screen. But often, it’s the

When audiences think about actorly transformations, their first thoughts are often of weight lost or gained, hair grown or sheared, and mannerisms shed or adopted. But even if their silhouette doesn’t quite match a level of physical deterioration commensurate with their character’s malady, or their demeanor isn’t quite befitting of, say, an 18th century courtesan,

To look at Felicity Jones as the young Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the opening scene of “On the Basis of Sex” is to glimpse a microcosm of the next two hours: Outfitted in a 1950s-silhouetted dress, jacket and seamed pantyhose, Ginsberg is one of the few women at a Harvard Law School introductory seminar among

In today’s film news roundup, the M. Night Shyamalanathon is unveiled, Black List founder Franklin Leonard is honored, and “Brown’s Canyon” gets a release. SCREENINGS Alamo Drafthouse and Universal Pictures are launching the M. Night Shyamalanathon, the first-ever marathon screening of the filmmaker’s trilogy of “Unbreakable,” “Split,” and “Glass.” The screenings will take place at

Following a traditional playbook, the movies contending for the best picture Oscar sometimes attempt to justify their worth through an appeal to historical importance. But this year, things have taken a more personal turn, with stories that come from the heart. In Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” for example, the director’s intimate connection to the story of

Richard Marks, an Oscar-nominated film editor for “Apocalypse Now,” best picture winner “Terms of Endearment,” “Broadcast News,” and “As Good as It Gets,” died unexpectedly on Dec. 31 in New York City, his widow, film editor Barbara Marks, confirmed to Variety. He was 75. His other editing credits include “The Godfather: Part II,” “You’ve Got

January 4, 2019 4:43PM PT Kevin Hart’s appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show on Friday drew a terse response from GLAAD, one of the country’s leading LGBTQ advocacy groups. The comedian was tapped to host the Oscars, but stepped down after controversy erupted over a series of homophobic jokes he made in the past. “From

January 4, 2019 3:39PM PT Donald Sutherland plays a judge taken hostage by a psycho who puts him on trial-by-Internet in a “timely” trash thriller with too much on its mind. “American Hangman” belongs to that species of grade-Z movie that’s at once grisly and pretentious. It’s trash with a lot on its mind. Most

There was wall-to-wall star power at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills on Friday, with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Mahershala Ali, and actors ranging from Elsie Fisher (age 15) to Angela Lansbury (age 93), but Spike Lee stole the show at the AFI Awards. In opening remarks, AFI president-CEO Bob Gazzale said everyone was a

It was a starry Friday morning at the Parker Palm Springs, where celebrities ranging from Bradley Cooper to Olivia Wilde to Emily Blunt gathered at the Creative Impact Awards brunch feting the 22nd edition of Variety‘s 10 Directors to Watch. On this year’s list of helmers on the rise: Ali Abbasi (“Border”); Alejandra Marquez Abella

“A Star Is Born,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” “Vice,” “The Hate U Give,” and “Deadpool 2” are among the films nominated for the 34th annual Artios Awards from the Casting Society of America. Simultaneous ceremonies will take place on both coasts on Thursday, Jan. 31, with the Los Angeles awards being held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Actress June

Key parties involved in the annual Oscars telecast are open to the return of Kevin Hart as host, one insider close to the event told Variety, following an alternately contrite and defiant appearance on “The Ellen Show” on Thursday. Leadership at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC, the network that broadcasts

The third frame of “Aquaman” is again leaving rivals under water at the North American box office, with about $25 million for the first weekend of the year, early estimates showed on Friday. “Mary Poppins Returns” has been forecast to finish with about $20 million, while Sony’s launch of the thriller “Escape Room” is coming

Jake Ryan“Eighth Grade”Writer: Bo BurnhamDirector: Bo Burnham Former YouTube star and actor Bo Burnham makes his feature film writing/directing debut in “Eighth Grade,” a realistic take on coming of age in the era of social media. In the film, Kayla’s (Elsie Fisher) confidence-building YouTube self-help videos starkly contrast with her own life as an awkward

“The Front Runner”Writer: Matt Bai (screenplay and based upon the book by) and Jason Reitman and Jay Carson (Screenplay)Director: Jason Reitman In “the Front Runner,” big-eyed blonde Sara Paxton plays notorious other woman Donna Rice opposite Hugh Jackman’s dynamic Sen. Gary Hart. Jason Reitman’s political drama revisits the sex scandal that scrapped the promising Democratic

Friday, the Producers Guild of America joined what will soon grow to a blaring chorus of year-end nominations announcements from guilds and industry groups next week. The results weren’t entirely shocking, as the PGA — which has historically shown an affinity to box office successes — rallied behind films like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Crazy Rich Asians,”

The Grammys’ visual media-related categories tend to be buried as you scroll through the list of hundreds of Grammy nominations, but they represent some of the key music flashpoints of the past 12 to 15 months. There was probably no musical moment that put more chills down more spines than Keala Settle and a backing ensemble’s

“BlacKkKlansman,” “Black Panther,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” “The Favourite,” “Green Book,” “A Quiet Place,” “Roma,” “A Star Is Born,” and “Vice” have been nominated for the Producers Guild’s Darryl F. Zanuck Award as the top feature film of 2018. Awards contenders “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “Eighth Grade,” “First Man,” “First Reformed,” and “If

Women in Film LA and Women and Hollywood have joined forces for a social media campaign to support women directors that will launch Sunday, Jan. 6. The campaign, which is entitled #RememberTheLadies, is designed to run until Jan. 14, and the timing of this campaign is no coincidence. January 6 marks the 2019 Golden Globe

Sergio Leone was born Jan. 3, 1929; he would have been 90 this week. Though he directed only seven films, their impact has been wide and long-lasting, including making Clint Eastwood a star.  On Oct. 11, 1967, Variety carried a guest column by Lee Van Cleef shortly before the U.S. bow of “The Good, the

In the 15 years Olivia Wilde has spent in front of cameras, she’s been studying how the other half lives. She’s been doing that on her own time, too, shadowing directors and cinematographers on sets, and trying her hand at directing a short film and two music videos. But it wasn’t until she ran across

Born in China, Lulu Wang moved to Miami when she was 6 — a dramatic shift not only in terms of geography, but culturally as well. This “divide,” says Wang, is a theme that plays out on multiple levels in the director’s Sundance-bound sophomore feature, “The Farewell,” a dry, comedic drama in which a Chinese

While politics weren’t front and center at Thursday’s 30th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival opening night awards gala, presents and honorees still managed to throw in some zingers about the political turmoil facing the U.S. Held at the Palm Springs Convention Center, the star-studded soirée, which kicks off the 11-day fest, was a celebration

A few years from now, there will no doubt be an official name for the explosion of talented Mexican directors breaking through on the international festival circuit — filmmakers a generation younger than such Nuevo Cine Mexicano pioneers as Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron, but every bit as promising in the originality of their vision.

Ever since she can remember, Tayarisha Poe has been drawn to the screen’s most notorious bad guys. Such men as Tony Soprano, Walter White and Michael Corleone. “We allow our own sense of what’s right and wrong to be melded and meshed to fit with these characters because most of us are so ready to have

A respected aesthete best known as head of the New York Film Festival, Kent Jones now finds himself identifying as a different sort of director — the kind who operates behind the camera, as opposed to exercising his power before a projector. “As a critic, I became more and more interested in the nuts and bolts

In a year marked by civil unrest, strikes and the World Cup, France’s box office dropped by 3% to €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) in 2018, according to Comscore France. The number of theatrical admissions went down even further, by 4.3%, to 200.47 million tickets sold, but France remains Europe’s biggest nation of moviegoers, ahead of

BARCELONA — Paris-based Reel Suspects has acquired world rights on the second fiction feature as a director of multi-prized Spanish producer Luis Miñarro, “Love Me Not.” It is produced by Miñarro and Mexican producer Julio Chavezmontes at Piano, whose recent credits take in Sebastian Hoffmann’s Sundance winner “Time Share” and Venice competition player “The Accused.”