Movies

Alexander Payne calls editor Kevin Tent his filmmaking partner. The two first met running in the same L.A. film school circles. Tent cut “Citizen Ruth,” Payne’s feature directorial debut, after editor Carole Kravetz Aykanian recommended him. Ever since, Payne has relied on Tent to come in whenever he’s reading scripts, considering projects and, ultimately, edit

“Wonka,” a fantasy musical starring Timothée Chalamet as the eccentric chocolatier, charmed in its box office debut, collecting $39 million over the weekend. It’s a sweet start, as long as the $125 million-budgeted family film has momentum around the holidays. The good news for Warner Bros. is that December releases rarely generate huge opening weekends but

Fact-based action drama “12.12: The Day” won a fourth weekend at the South Korea box office and became the second highest grossing film of the year. The political thriller incurred a steep week-on-week drop in takings, managing only $5.89 million in its fourth weekend, compared with $11.4 million in its third. But it still hogged

Erika Alexander got her start as a teen on “The Cosby Show” before assuming the breakout role of attorney Maxine Shaw on “Living Single.” But it’s her latest performance in “American Fiction,” a satire that critiques our culture’s obsession with stereotypes, that’s put her in a conversation she’s never been in before — that of

Despite having played a wide variety of roles, Barry Keoghan is never seen acting. The 31-year-old native of Summerhill, Ireland, slips so seamlessly into his characters, it’s easy to forget you’re watching a performance. And it’s intended as a compliment — no matter how unsavory the character or fantastical the situation, Keoghan is always completely

With so many Broadway icons — including Christine Baranski, Kelli O’Hara, Michael Cerveris and Nathan Lane, to name a few — starring in HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” Morgan Spector thinks a musical episode of the series is overdue. “You know what we should do? There’s the British tradition of the Christmas special,” Spector tells me

Four-time Academy Award nominee Nathan Crowley grew up in England with his mother reading Roald Dahl stories to him. So he reached a full circle moment when, decades later, he was asked to serve as the production designer on Paul King’s “Wonka,” which offers a heartwarming origin story for Dahl’s iconic chocolatier. “Obviously, the film

The chickens in “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” are sweet. Not just to look at, with their wide eyes and goofy grins, but literally: if you licked the palm-sized clay and silicone bird models they’d taste like sugar. Which makes sense, because they’re coated in it. The puppet makers at Aardman Animations, the stop

Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” has won rave reviews and is tipped to be an Oscars favorite with its satirical portrayal of the exploitation of Black people in media, balanced with sharp comedy and a punch of emotional family drama. Jefferson credits his editor, Hilda Rasula, with striking the right tone for the film. “The thing

Based on the nonfiction book by David Grann, “Killers of the Flower Moon” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, a WWI vet who travels to Oklahoma to work for his wealthy uncle, William King Hale, played by Robert De Niro. It’s the early 1920s, and this part of Oklahoma sits on lots of oil, whose

Oompa loompa doopity doo — here is a box office opening for you. “Wonka” is off to a promising start in North America after earning $14.4 million across Friday and preview screenings. Playing in 4,203 locations, the prequel musical drawing from the twisted Roald Dahl character is also benefiting from golden ticket prices for premium

Cari Beauchamp, a widely respected Hollywood historian and author who was a frequent presence on Turner Classic Movies and a contributor to Variety, has died. She was 74. Beauchamp was a prolific writer who often focused on the stories of female pioneers in the entertainment industry. Among the books she wrote or co-wrote over the

Jason Momoa is no longer feeling too optimistic about playing Aquaman in the future. The actor is reprising his superhero role in Warner Bros.’ upcoming “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which might be Momoa’s swan song as the character on the big screen. Momoa was cast as Aquaman in the DC Universe, playing the character

A judge has thrown out a lawsuit that accused Warren Beatty of coercing a teenage girl into sex in 1973, after the plaintiff’s attorney backed out of the case. Kristina Charlotte Hirsch filed the suit in November 2022 under a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse.

With “Barbie” now available to stream on Max, director and co-writer Greta Gerwig hit the late night press circuit and revealed on “The Late Show” one of the wildest ideas Ryan Gosling wanted to execute in the film as Ken. One of the character’s most memorable looks in the blockbuster comedy is a white mink

‘Tis the season for streaming! With the holiday movie season in full swing, Netflix is bound to be one of the premiere destinations for movie lovers seeking a bit of Christmas confront. The streaming giant has become a bonafide Christmas movie machine over the last few years, developing its own slate of Christmas movie franchises

Jack Black is patiently waiting for Universal Pictures and Illumination to greenlight a sequel to the animated box office smash “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” “It has been radio silence,” Black tells Variety. “The only chatter has been coming from me, and I don’t even know if I’m allowed to chatter. I’ve been chomping at

Ambition paired with jealousy can be a dangerous cocktail. Especially when gender expectations are thrown into the mix. Prestige offerings, from “Fair Play” and “Oppenheimer” to “Past Lives” and “Lessons in Chemistry,” have mined that tricky terrain this year. “Maestro” and the latest seasons of female-led “Julia” and “The Morning Show” have tackled it as

There’s nothing better than seeing an actor on the silver screen subvert expectations, whether that means being bowled over by a newcomer’s performance or watching a familiar faceeffortlessly shift gears in that person’s career trajectory. This year, a noteworthy number of actors achieved these milestones, playing everything from real people who’ve made an impression to

The jury in Jonathan Majors‘ trial for alleged assault did not reach a verdict by Friday afternoon and will continue on Monday morning. The jurors began deliberating in the late afternoon on Thursday and resumed mid-afternoon on Friday, only giving them about three hours to discuss the case. On Friday, Majors entered the courtroom with

“Kung Fu Panda 4” kicked off with a mighty hi-yah! on Wednesday, as the trailer for the animated comedy racked up more than 142 million views across channels. TikTok was a major contributor to the karate-chopping trailer’s terrific debut, which outperformed comparable Universal titles “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Minions 2,” “Sing 2” and “Puss

INVITING JUST THE RIGHT combination of guests to a party can be nerve- wracking for a good host. Similarly, those casting an ensemble movie know that the precise blend of people can make it a blowout or a bust. For the teams behind “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” “The Iron Claw” and “The

We tend to think that the best movies of the year express something about the spirit of their time. But what about the worst movies? Often, they’re thought of as merely inept. Yet the truth is that bad movies, in their very badness, have their own way of channeling what’s going on around them. Our

James Cameron is sharing one of his favorite moments from “Barbie” with Greta Gerwig, the film’s director and co-writer. It’s America Ferrera’s showstopping monologue, the one that had audiences breaking into applause as her character slams the impossible demands society imposes on women to be successful in ways that don’t threaten men. “You basically sum

Thanks to Christopher Nolan, reports of the death of physical media are greatly exaggerated. One week after the Nov. 21 release of the “Oppenheimer” Blu-ray, Best Buy and Amazon reported that they were completely sold out of 4K UHD copies of the exacting director’s latest film. “It’s unheard of,” says Justin LaLiberty, director of operations

Abby Ryder Forstson was so excited by the possibility of being cast in “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret,” she wrote a letter to the filmmakers expressing how she related to the 12-year-old protagonist at the center of Judy Blume’s beloved book. Then, after being cast, she corresponded with Margaret’s onscreen grandmother, Kathy Bates,

Sony Pictures International Productions and Italy’s Eagle Pictures have announced psychological thriller “Il Corpo” (“The Body”), starring Claudia Gerini (“John Wick: Chapter 2”), as part of their local co-production partnership. Principal photography recently wrapped on the film, which is co-written by its director Vincenzo Alfieri (“Mad Dog”) with Giuseppe G. Stasi, who recently made a splash

If the day ever arrives when a smart director decides to make “Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story,” he should seriously consider casting Callum Turner, the dreamy raw-boned star of George Clooney’s period rowing drama “The Boys in the Boat.” Turner, who is British (he’s best known for his role in the last two

Ava DuVernay returns with “Origin,” a sprawling drama that critics have hailed as the director’s most ambitious and accomplished movie. Those reviews have yet to turn the film into an awards season juggernaut — it was shut out of the Globes, AFI and other early awards — but admirers of “Origin” hope that it will

Discovery-owned Eurosport has acquired streaming rights in 54 countries to Olympic refugee documentary “We Dare to Dream” by Waad Al-Kateab, the Oscar-nominated Syrian director of “For Sama.” “We Dare to Dream” is the story of the refugee Olympic team that competed at the 2020 games in Tokyo, which featured stateless athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan