Movies

The Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam had to forego a physical event for its 50th anniversary edition, but it’s aiming to reach a wider audience with expanded competition sections and showcases that include promising new voices and established filmmakers alike. Under new festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, IFFR has reduced the overall number of films from the

The Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam is celebrating its 50th anniversary under a new artistic director this year, and while the event has been forced online due to the ongoing pandemic, organizers are hopeful that an extended edition in June could see festgoers returning to cinemas this summer. Moving the festival and its IFFR Pro Days

“Lovecraft Country” and “His House” lead Wunmi Mosaku, a BAFTA award winner, has been cast in Gabe Klinger’s fact-based drama “Dreyana Grooms.” The film focuses on 16-year-old Dreyana Grooms, who as a young teenager was implicated in a fatal shooting in Chicago during her summer break from school. The event radically altered the course of

Few producers in Spain have earned more festival prizes than Barcelona-based Luis Miñarro, whose credits range from Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cannes Palme d’Or laureate “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” to Karlovy Vary top prize winner “The Mosquito Net” and Rotterdam Tiger Award winner “Finisterrae.” So Miñarro’s support for Spaniard Ainhoa Rodríguez’s debut feature,

At some point in the distant future, long after nuclear holocaust or airborne plague has wiped out the human race, some film critic (we’re like cockroaches, sure to survive such an apocalypse) will no doubt uncover a list of the projects Nicolas Cage has turned down, and it will finally become clear how the actor

Hope is in the DNA of competitive sports. Comes with it a shot at victory, a rush of optimism for what might follow. The sensation only multiplies through unity — not just with one’s team, but also fans cheering on. Through his profoundly humanistic nonfiction feature debut “Captains of Zaatari,” a moving tale of two

Robin Wright spends most of “Land” alone, but that’s not how her character Edee sees it. Newly widowed and raw with sorrow for reasons left (mostly) unsaid, Edee abandons nearly everything about her old life and buys a cabin on the side of a mountain in Wyoming — barely a shack, really, with no running

NEON strikes again. The indie label has picked up its second film out of this year’s Sundance, nabbing rights to Jamila Wignot’s “Ailey,” a documentary about dancing icon Alvin Ailey. The film debuted on Saturday and offers rare archival footage of performances by the Ailey Company, along with never-before-heard audio interviews recorded in the last

With “Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson had a pretty monumental task to tackle. Not only was the first-time director telling the story of an all-but-forgotten festival that featured some of music’s biggest names, but he did so mid-pandemic — finding a way to streamline 45 hours

Ever since “Man on Wire,” in 2008, more and more documentaries have been using visualizations, staged scenes, and other illustrative methods that are meant to bring a true story to life but, to my mind, often end up getting in the way of it. I tend to prefer my documentaries without a speck of cereal,

John Frey, an actor, screenwriter, director and teacher known for the 2018 film “Cabaret Maxime,” died on Jan. 23 of heart failure. He was 62. Born in the Bronx, Frey graduated from the prestigious William Esper Studio for actors and had a 25-year international career in film, theater and television. Frey’s early theater acting and

Cinema loves an identical twin, or preferably, two. More specifically, cinema — and daytime TV — loves to instill in the 99.7% of the population who are not identical twins, the idea that they are untrustworthy types, prone to switcheroo deceptions and uncanny telepathy. These are not myths that Erin Vassilopoulos cares to dispel with

Movies about the end of the world share a similar DNA: chaos, fire, looting, revelations. But in “How It Ends,” from filmmakers Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein, the apocalypse is as serene and lush as a Southern California spa day. Though spilling over with catharsis and a full manifestation of the lead character’s inner child,

For most childless women of a certain age, regardless of whether parenthood is within their desired ambitions, the world is full of silent, often judgmental reminders about one’s diminishing chances at pregnancy. Perhaps the universe doesn’t throw its hands in the air and stomp its feet on the ground like Marisa Tomei does in “My

“Active Shooter at 12! Hostage negotiation at 1:30! Drug raid at 2:30,” hollers an authoritative voice in a sun-baked concrete yard. The retired police officer who announces this schedule at the start of “At the Ready,” Maisie Crow’s sobering documentary about a community of kids growing up on the Mexican border, isn’t at a professional

It starts in sweltering heat; it ends in freezing weather. And in between, as the temperature gradually drops, Rebecca Hall’s “Passing,” based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, calmly brings the diffuse racial landscape of prohibition-era New York City into crystalline, gorgeously shot focus. This radically intimate exploration of the desperately fraught concept of “passing” —

The creative team behind “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street,” a documentary on the origins of the eponymous beloved children’s show “Sesame Street,” discussed the challenges of bringing the series’ rich history to life. Director Marilyn Agrelo and producers Ellen Scherer Crafts and Trevor Crafts spoke to the Variety Studio presented by AT&T

Radiation exposure was at the forefront of cinematographer Simon Niblett’s mind as he spent time filming Otto Bell’s “The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima.” Bell, who was trying for a baby at the time, was also concerned – they carried radiation monitors. Bell’s documentary Oscar contender, “The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima,” follows a group of local

After a prize-winning short of the same name, Swedish director-writer Ninja Thyberg’s “Pleasure,” a drama unfolding within the shadowy world of the adult film industry, premieres in Sundance and moves on to Goteborg and the Dragon competition for best Nordic film. What inspired the storyline of “Pleasure?” I’ve been working on the topic for a

The filmmaker and stars of “R#J,” a modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic romantic tragedy “Romeo and Juliet,” explored the importance of representation for young people and the unique format of the film. Director Carey Williams and stars Francesca Noel (Juliet), Camaron Engels (Romeo), Diego Tinoco (Tybalt) and Siddiq Saunderson (Mercutio) spoke to the Variety

Would audiences pay to see a new movie on the big screen if they could watch the same title at home from the comfort of their couch? Prior to the pandemic, the response from theater operators and cinema purists would have been a resounding “no.” Yet Hollywood is finding that, at least while a plague

Filmmaker Maisie Crow was visiting a Texas high school to speak to students in a video production class about her career behind the camera when she saw something shocking. A group of teenagers were making their way through the hallways, SWAT team style, brandishing red plastic guns. “I was taken aback,” says Crow. “It was

It’s a popular conception that there’s nothing more boring than hearing about other people’s dreams, which by rights should make James Preble — the meek, cutely mustachioed hero of “Strawberry Mansion” — the unfortunate owner of the world’s dullest job: He’s a tax auditor who has to scan his clients’ recorded dreams for hidden expenses.

The lengthiest interview in “Searchers” takes place toward the conclusion of director Pacho Velez’s warm and well-executed Sundance doc, which focuses on an array of New Yorkers and the dating apps they use. Earlier, when the film introduces 55-year-old Ron, he’s offering a running commentary while scrolling through profiles with little pause: “He looks like

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all worldwide rights to the film “Jockey,” which will premiere on Sunday in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Clint Bentley and written by Bentley and Greg Kwedar, the film stars Clifton Collins, Jr., Molly Parker, Moises Arias, Logan Cormier and Colleen Hartnett. The

Erica Wigg, the main character of Goro Miyazaki’s made-for-TV feature “Earwig and the Witch,” is both a brat and an orphan. Those two traits seldom go together in children’s stories, and the combination provides a modest starting point for this intermittently amusing CG entry from Studio Ghibli — back in business but a shadow of

At its core, the grim, gritty and blood-soaked “Eight for Silver” is a skillfully fashioned yet philosophically thin twist on the werewolf saga. And yet, in the opening moments of Sean Ellis’ dark-hued and gory gothic horror, you might briefly mistake the monster-themed film you’re about to watch for Sam Mendes’ “1917,” with Ellis’ stylish

There are instances in director Carey Williams’ boldly experimental yet wearisome “R#J” that genuinely grasp the essence of romance, identity and existence in the age of social media. Those fleeting but relatable moments feel like major triumphs in Williams’ Gen Z-centric adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” a movie that unfolds almost entirely on electronic screens.

“Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street” has the good fortune to be arriving with about a hundred more built-in advantages than most documentaries. Offering up vintage backstage footage of Jim Henson and Frank Oz operating the Muppets feels a little like Henry Houdini coming back to reveal all his secrets. For parts of

In 1965, the world’s idea of a problematic nun was Maria von Trapp: a black sheep in a white wimple who was booted from her convent for taking the odd hillside hike, enjoying a bit of a sing-along and ultimately getting jiggy with a handsome navy captain. By 1968, life had got a bit more