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I mean, listen, sometimes these gangsters will be short on money and the Tax Collector, known in the film as “The Devil,” will have to lay the heat on their ass in creatively nasty ways. At least, that’s what the newly-released trailer seems to indicate. LaBoeuf’s Creeper collects his cut from the profits of local gangs’ illicit dealings. However, problems arise when an old rival returns to Los Angeles from Mexico, Creeper’s “tax” business is upended, and people are threatened....

Directed by Brandon Trost, this latest comedy from Rogen also stars Maya Erskine and Sarah Snook. It doesn’t look like the typical stoner project Rogen usually stars in, there seems to be a tad more maturity and heart here. Last we saw Rogen, he co-starred alongside Charlize Theron in last year’s “Long Shot” “An American Pickle” was picked up by HBO Max after Sony gave it up due to the COVID-19 pandemic....

I can’t say I remember much about the generic plot or characters, but the 3D did blow me away back in 2009. It’s still the best use of 3D technology that I’ve ever seen. “Avatar” was a total experience and had to be seen in a movie theatre. All of this to say that ”Avatar” brought in a very nice $10 million to its already record breaking box office numbers....

It’s a very unique moviegoing experience in that the 3D and, really, the overall visual schema is stunning beyond belief. Even moreso than the original. Cameron has waited this long for technology to catch up to his vision and you’ve never seen anything quite like the immersive imagery on display here. The reason why I call this a unique experience lies in the fact that if the imagery pops your eyeballs out, the story itself is rather mundane and unengaging....

HE has some more dirt on “Babylon”: “A flamboyant, epic-scaled, 185-minute version of “Singin’ In The Rain”, but a lot longer with the songs and dancing and smiles taken out. Call it a depravity-tinged survival story about Hollywood transitioning from the silent era to sound, although ultimately spanning three decades (mid 1920s through 1952).” “Vincent Minnelli meets “Fellini’s Satyricon” in jazz-age Hollywood. An epic-sized smorgasbord in which the excesses of “The Wolf of Wall Street” serve the story of “Singin’ in the Rain”....

I saw director Kantemir Balagov’s “Beanpole” at Cannes, and in my review, I said, “In a film that is so disinterested to conforming to accustomed mainstream movie audiences taste and rhythms, and is committed to its sometimes difficult choices, the bold and exacting ‘Beanpole’ sometimes feels damn-near radical.” “Beanpole” tells the excruciatingly grim story of two women dealing with the post-WWII trauma in the Soviet Union, as they work in a hospital filled with traumatized soldiers....

Although Hansen-Løve’s film can be seen as an homage to Ingmar Bergman, that isn’t the point of the film. If anything, this is more about Hansen-Løve than the legendary Swedish director. A meta-romance with obvious parallels to her now defunct marriage with filmmaker Olivier Assayas. Set in Fårö, which Bergman called home for close to 40 years until his death, and now a touristic attraction for cinephiles, the film kicks off with married filmmakers Chris (Vicky Krieps) and Tony (a snidely amusing Tim Roth) arriving at the remote Swedish town for a summer retreat....

IndieWire gives it a C+ grade. THR is mixed, calling it a “snuff” movie. Vanity Fair is mixed. Vulture is mixed. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman really liked it. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw gives it 3/5. I’ll finally be watching “Blonde” at a Toronto press junket next week. There is absolutely no way I risk watching this film for the first time at home on Netflix. It’s the kind of thing that demands to be seen on the big screen....

As expected, Sian Heder’s “Coda” won big. It was the film that helped the festival maintain its relevance during this strange all-virtual edition. Heder’s film was part of a heated bidding war between Netflix and Apple TV, the latter eventually won the streaming rights by shelling a record-breaking $25 million (they overpaid if you ask me). The other big acquisition of the festival was NEON getting the critically acclaimed “Flee,” which ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize in the World Documentary section....

In the dry and acerbic “French Exit,” a comedy of manners directed by Azazel Jacobs, he and Patrick DeWitt have adapted the source material from the Dewitt’s novel of the same name, but to rather mixed effect. In a flashback, Frances — played by a bewitchingly deadpan Michelle Pfeiffer — is shown pulling Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) out of boarding school the same day Frank dies because, it’s quite clear, this selfish individual needed someone new to love her....

Will Smith plays a middle-aged professional assassin named Henry Brogan — a killer pro that’s ready to retire after 72 kills, but the poor dude is sucked back in after he finds out that an employee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) working at his Georgia fishing club is actually an Intelligence Agency operative hired to kill him. There’s no choice but for Henry to go on the run, this time with pilot BFF Baron (Benedict Wong)....

According to an Italian website, composer John Williams let it slip that filming hasn’t actually been completed yet, and that the ending is being rewritten. Williams composed the score for ‘Indiana Jones 5,’ which is supposed to be the final one of his career and he made these peculiar comments during a speech at the famous La Scala theater in Milan to promote his work. It’s not really clear what is going on here....

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“Gunn has closed a deal to pen the script. At this stage, there is no director deal but talks could proceed depending on the outcome.” “Gunn was fired from his Marvel franchise after old tweets from 2008 and 2009 where he made insensitive and controversial jokes about topics like rape and pedophillia were resurfaced by conservative website The Daily Caller.““Suicide Squad” had so much potential but turned out to be a very bad movie....

In my 5.18.19 Cannes review I wrote: “It pains me to say this, but Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory” a meta-infused narrative about the trials and tribulations the director has endured over his life, is an incredibly detached film that is very hard to warm up to. Do I respect it? Immensely. Do I think it warrants additional viewings? Of course. Am I on the fence about it at this very moment?...

The film starts off with a slow-burning depiction of a Mexican family, based on Cuaron’s own childhood in Mexico, that have to deal with the sudden departure of the patriarch. Antonio (Fernando Grediaga) is a renowned doctor, who tells his family that he’s going on a trip to Canada but eventually doesn’t return. A mistress is hinted at, and soon thereafter the children have to deal with being fatherless, and mother Sofia (Marina de Tavira) without a husband....

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This is as baity a movie as we’re going to get this awards season. The ultimate #MeToo movie, this one tackling the New York Times investigative reporters who ousted Harvey Weinstein as a serial predator. “She Said” will probably be more straightforward than Kitty Green’s “The Assistant,” an excellent 2020 movie that used minimal drama to portray Weinstein’s monstrous presence, without even him being a character. Schrader’s film is said to be more accessible....