Movies

Five years after her lauded short “And the Whole Sky Fit in the Dead Cow’s Eye” won Sundance’s short film jury award in international fiction, Chile’s Francisca Alegria is bowing her feature debut on Jan. 23 at the Park City, Utah, fest. In “The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future,” Alegria continues to

Black women, along with Native Americans and Alaska natives, are three times more likely to die before, during or after having a baby, and more than half of these deaths are preventable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee take a deep dive into that statistic in

Maricel Soriano (above, left) will star in Rain Valdez’s upcoming trans-led romantic comedy “Re-Live: A Tale of an American Island Cheerleader,” Variety has learned exclusively. As previously reported, “Re-Live” co-writers Rachel Leyco and Valdez (above, right) star as sisters Rochelle and Rowena, respectively. Soriano will play their mother, Thelma. Jhett Tolentino (“Lingua Franca”) will executive

The fear of seemingly harmless strangers that’s heightened during our era of online “relationships” (not to mention COVID) is cannily exploited in actor-turned-writer-director Christian Tafdrup’s “Speak No Evil.” Building on the thorny couple dynamics of his prior features “Parents” and “A Horrible Woman,” this excruciatingly slow-burn thriller has a young Danish family befriended on holiday

If the camera lingered just a little more lasciviously on the opening sex scene, or if we got to ogle the bondage-clad ladies writhing in their glass booths in the underground strip club sequence longer, Chloe Okuno’s smart little feature debut might be said to herald the longed-for return of the lost, lamented erotic thriller.

Album covers used to be mythically important — they could etch the image of a musician forever in your mind’s eye. In “Nothing Compares,” Kathryn Ferguson’s incisive and poignant documentary about the life and career of Sinéad O’Connor, we see the image that was chosen in 1987 for the cover of O’Connor’s first album, “The

From its opening minutes, Martika Ramirez Escobar’s meta-prank “Leonor Will Never Die” aims to scramble the viewers. Leonor Reyes (Sheila Francisco), an elderly retired action film director in Manila who, the title assures us, must have some claim to immortality, pads into view from the knees-down and steps onto a trunk – the universal film

“Free Chol Soo Lee” charts the complicated history of a wrongful-conviction victim who became a figurehead for both Asian-American and prisoners’-rights activists in the 1970s and beyond. Julie Ha and Eugene Yi’s film benefits from ample archival material, as well as latter-day input from surviving interviewees. Even so, it’s a tale ultimately more sad than

There are a whole lot of cigarettes in “Call Jane,” a detail — along with flip bob hairstyles and polyester pantsuits — that demonstrates director Phyllis Nagy’s commitment to the late-’60s period, even as it shows that the movie isn’t trying to tell women what to do with their bodies. Inspired by true events, this

There is something inherently unsettling about an elite university’s aura of vanity. Few other contemporary locations summon such a sense of reverence, exclusivity and historical angst — especially if the college is somewhere in brisk New England and adorned with the Ivy League distinction. Through an unnerving blend of supernatural horror and psychological drama, fiercely

For “Tick, Tick… Boom!” choreographer Ryan Heffington, coming up with the steps for “No More” — the musical’s duet between Jonathan (Andrew Garfield) and Michael (Robin de Jesús) — was a collaborative process. “It was about what felt good on their bodies,” Heffington tells Variety of Garfield and de Jesús, adding that the two are “great

The public considers the Academy Awards as a Hollywood event. True, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is headquartered in Southern California, and most of the best pic contenders are American and/or in the English language. But Oscar history proves they have been an international event from the beginning. In the first year

For Jesse Eisenberg’s feature directorial debut, “When You Finish Saving the World,” he crafted a quirky family dramedy about a woman Evelyn (Julianne Moore) and her “oblivious” son Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard) as they struggle to connect. The movie debuted Thursday as an opening day selection for Sundance 2022 nearly one year to the day after

Two fans filed a federal class action lawsuit on Friday alleging they were duped into renting the 2019 film “Yesterday” because Ana de Armas appeared in the trailer. Conor Woulfe, 38, of Maryland, and Peter Michael Rosza, 44, of San Diego County, Calif., say they each paid $3.99 to rent the movie on Amazon Prime,

You might assume the title is ironic, given that Anna Eszter Nemes and László Csuja’s film is set in the strange, cloistered world of grit, muscle and sinew that is elite women’s bodybuilding. But “Gentle” proves as good as its word, though this quiet, sympathetic portrait of Hungarian competitor Edina (real-life bodybuilder Eszter Csonka) does

Isabel Castro’s feature documentary debut, “Mija,” turns the standard music documentary on its head by instead focusing on the people behind the scenes, in this case 23-year-old music manager Doris Muñoz. When her otherwise successful career hits a road bump, she meets promising Chicana singer Jacks Haupts, with whom she bonds. Both are the first

Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, has acquired rights to psychological horror “Speak No Evil” ahead of its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Playing in the Sundance Midnight section, “Speak No Evil” is written and directed by Christian Tafdrup (“A Horrible Woman”) and is set for release

“Actors on Actors” is back with another star-studded season. Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Andrew Garfield, Kristen Stewart, Jamie Dornan and Ariana DeBose are among the awards-season heavyweights featured on the 15th season of “Actors on Actors,” premiering Feb. 18 on PBS SoCal. Gaga will be paired with a mystery actor, who will be revealed when

Here’s the thing about bank robbery movies: No one ever roots for the bank. The tellers rarely seem like real people; the institutions don’t need the money; the insurance companies take the hit. But even if our sympathies naturally gravitate toward the lawbreakers, seldom has the stick-up guy seemed more sympathetic than the one in

Buenos Aires-based sales agent Meikincine has dropped the trailer for “Sublime,” a film by Argentinian Mariano Biasin, which will world premiere at next month’s Berlinale, playing in Generation 2022. The trailer comes as “Sublime” has sealed its first major territory sales deal, selling to Salzgeber for Germany and Austria.   Produced by Juan Pablo Miller

Noa hates dating, and who can blame her? All the guys she goes out with are creeps. First she has to sit through some awkward dinner, answering the same old questions, while feigning interest in whatever the douchebag du jour wants to talk about. And then comes the part where he inevitably makes a pass,

Longtime producer Mace Neufeld died Friday in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 93. A representative for Mace Neufeld Productions said he died peacefully in his sleep. Born in New York City, Neufeld started in the business as a talent agent, managing comedy and music talents including Don Knotts, Don Adams, Randy Newman and Neil Diamond.

Though Alana Haim has been working with Paul Thomas Anderson for years as he directed music videos for her band Haim, their connection actually goes back further than either of them knew: Her mother, Donna, was Anderson’s art teacher in grade school. “Every time Paul’s movies would be on TV, she’d be like, ‘You know,

“Mission: Impossible” fans will have to wait a little longer to watch Ethan Hunt save the world from imminent destruction. Paramount Pictures will delay the release of the next two films in the long-running spy series. “Mission: Impossible 7,” which was previously supposed to premiere on Sept. 30, will now debut on July 14, 2023.

After teaming for Academy Award winner “Ex Machina” and the upcoming project “Men,” A24 has announced Alex Garland’s latest movie, “Civil War.” Kirsten Dunst is set to star alongside Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Cailee Spaeny in the action film written and directed by Garland. Aside from the fact that the film is set

Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah spent 22 years chronicling the life and career of rapper Kanye West. In October 2019, Coodie, a former stand-up comedian turned music video and documentary director, and his longtime creative partner and co-director, Ozah, successfully pitched the project to Time Studios. Over the last three years they have worked on

When powerhouse vocalist-actor Meat Loaf eulogized composer-producer Jim Steinman last April in Rolling Stone, the singer – who died Thursday at age 74 – said of his “Bat Out of Hell” partner, “We belonged heart and soul to each other. We didn’t know each other. We were each other.” Meat Loaf (born Marvin Lee Aday)

Joe Wright’s “Cyrano” is an adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, the film’s script is penned by Erica Schmidt based on her 2018 stage musical. When Wright wanted to tell the story with Peter Dinklage in the starring role, he called on production designer Sarah Greenwood to scout for locations – Notto,

The BBC’s Storyville strand, which sets out to showcase the world’s best international documentaries, has picked up a new slate of eight films. They will be screened on BBC Four and iPlayer over eight weeks starting Jan. 26. “We’re excited to offer U.K. audiences this eclectic range of documentaries from around the globe,” Philippa Kowarsky,

“The Tiger Rising” spells out its entire plot and overarching theme from the get-go, bluntly articulating its inspirational modus operandi so viewers can remain perpetually ahead of its action. The fact that writer-director Ray Giarratana’s film is based on Kate DiCamillo’s children’s book — and thus intended for young audiences — is hardly an excuse