Entertainment News Boom

A clever example of creativity thriving within the strict protocols of the coronavirus pandemic, tense confinement thriller “Oxygen” plays like “Buried” in outer space: a ticking-clock sci-fi survival drama centered on a single character (“Inglourious Basterds” star Mélanie Laurent) trapped in a spiffy, coffin-like cryochamber with critically low reserves of breathable air. The blank-brained “bioform”

Producer-director Margaret Byrne is developing an eight-part docuseries, “Fighting Time,” following a retired homicide detective and dozens of Latino and Black men who allege they were framed for murder, Variety has learned exclusively. Byrne’s latest feature, “Any Given Day,” screens this week in the International Spectrum competition at Hot Docs. The Chicago-born multi-hyphenate has spent

“Economic inequality” is a phrase that not long ago was seldom heard outside various ivory towers. But in recent years, the proliferation of billionaires, contrasting shrinkage of the middle class and livable wages, not to mention Big Money’s ever-increasing political clout, have all dragged that concept into popular awareness. Conservatives have fought back by renewed

Those who complain “immigrants are stealing our jobs” hardly seem likely applicants for the jobs held by protagonists in “Fruits of Labor” — such as cleaning other people’s houses or working the graveyard shift in a food processing plant. Constant hard work doesn’t seem to bring the American Dream much closer for this Mexican American

Veteran composer Vanraj Bhatia, who provided the soundtrack to India’s new age cinema movement of the 1970s and 1980s, has died in Mumbai. He was 93 and is understood to have been in poor health for some time. Born in Bombay, as the metropolis was known as then, in 1927, Bhatia studied at the Royal

Since we’ve already had faith-based features involving football (“Woodlawn,” “Facing the Giants”), baseball (“Where Hope Grows”), basketball (“Slamma Jamma”), boxing (“Carman: The Champion”), competitive skateboarding (“Hardflip”) and even mixed martial arts (“The Fight Within”), it was doubtless inevitable that someone would produce a movie where the Lord works in mysterious ways on the golf course.

Huayi Brothers, China’s longest-standing privately-owned film studio, has notched its third consecutive year of losses despite producing the world’s highest grossing film in 2020, its annual report showed. The company’s revenues for 2020 fell by 33% year-on-year to $232 million (RMB1.5 billion) while net losses hit $162 million (RMB1.05 billion). The figures continue a losing

Overlong and erratically paced, Brendan Kyle Cochrane’s New York City-based “Equal Standard” opens with a self-conscious scene that heavy-handedly hints at an impending tragedy. There in the sun-dappled kitchen of the happy Jones family, Detective Chris (Tobias Truvillion), Sergeant Jackie (Syleena Johnson) and their adorable daughter lovingly go about their rosy morning routine, while an

The 1978 theft of Charlie Chaplin’s coffin from its rural Swiss resting place was the kind of bizarre case — equal parts absurd caper and poignant story of human desperation, escalating wildly and ending with peace restored — that you’d expect to have been the subject of at least one hefty true-crime movie. Instead, it

When H shows up for work in Guy Ritchie’s “Wrath of Man,” no one at Fortico Security has much reason to suspect he might have any motive other than protecting the cash for the armored-truck outfit. The new guy — who looks an awful lot like the bald bloke from the “Crank” and “Transporter” movies

Italy’s David di Donatello Awards historically have been dominated by men in the key best picture, film, and producer categories. And this year is no exception. All told, out of a total of 145 movies vying for the top Italian film prizes 17 are directed by women, which amounts to a mere 12%. Women account

In the new movie “Here Today,” Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish play an unlikely duo who form a May-December friendship. Off-screen, the comedy stars have grown just as close. In fact, when Haddish celebrated her bat mitzvah in late 2019 with a star-studded shindig, Crystal was in attendance alongside Wanda Sykes, Common, Jimmy Kimmel, Chelsea

The New York City courtroom in which, 17-year-old honors student Steve Harmon stands accused of felony murder, isn’t the customary dark wood and tan walls affair. “Monster” there’s a reason beyond stylish production design for the palette of grays. For the involving, nuanced drama — a Sundance 2018 competition title starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. —

Jimmy Rich, who served as Robert Downey Jr.’s assistant since 2003, has died. He was 52. Downey, 56, shared the news of the “terrible and shocking tragedy” on his Instagram page, where he revealed Rich was in a fatal car accident on Monday night around 8 p.m. The pair first worked together on 2003’s “The