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Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” is near plotless, driven by conversation (brilliant screenplay) and a near-biblical dilemma. On a remote Irish island, Colm (a superb Brendan Gleason) suddenly decides to stop talking to best friend Padraic (a never-better Colin Farrell). Why? Nobody, including the audience, knows. It’s an existential character drama that is expertly written and wise beyond words. If I’ve given flack to McDonagh’s films over the years for being none-too-cinematic, well, Banshees resolves that issue with Ben Davis’ luscious images of coastal Ireland....

Playing the son of a New York firefighter killed in a hotel fire, this highly fictionalized riff on Davidson’s life story showcases Apatow’s inability to edit or drive a story forward, ditto his struggle to deepen our understanding of the hero’s journey. It’s a messy, passionate, but ultimately failed attempt at capturing the “spirit” of Davidson’s shtick. Davidson plays Scott, a 20-something, unemployed slacker, still living with his widowed Mom (Marisa Tomei) and sister (Maude Apatow), who is about to graduate and head off to college....

Here’s what I had to say about “The Nest” in my back at Sundance 2020: Sean Durkin’s “The Nest” was met with tepid applause at its world premiere screening last night at the Eccles Theater. It’s not that Durkin’s slow-burn-of-a-movie is bad, actually, it’s quite good, an artfully rendered take on the disintegration of a family. It’s just that the film goes by its own rhythms and may test the patience of restless audiences expecting something that is plot-heavy....

Now a fascinating interview with The New Yorker has Eggers basically admitting studio intervention. It has significantly lowered my excitement for this film. Eggers makes it very clear he did not have much control over the final cut : “The Northman” has a screenplay co-written by Icelandic novelist and poet Sjón Sigurdsson. Expect ambiguously spooky storytelling. The film stars Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Bill Skarsgård, and Willem Dafoe....

I thought the second film, aptly titled “The Souvenir: Part II,” was an improvement over the less involving initial instalment. Both garnered the most glowing of reviews, but far less enthusiastic responses from mainstream audiences. The first chapter has a tepid 6.4 rating on IMDB, an astoundingly bad 36% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a horrendous $1.7 million box-office. If the term “critic-proof” ever existed for a film, this would be it....

In 2013, progressive Cardinal Bergoglio and soon-to-be Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce) paid a visit to conservative Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) so that he could tend his letter of resignation to him. Surrounded by controversy, Benedict shunned it off, saying it was bad timing for his cohort to exit at a time when he was being accused of turning a blind eye on inner corruption at the Vatican. What followed was a debate between two very different mindsets and their particular views on the best path forward for the Catholic Church in the 21st century....

First things first, the Holland-starring “Uncharted” has garnered horrible reviews, a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes is pretty abysmal, but that didn’t stop the film from making $3.7 million in Thursday previews last night. Based on a video game, the film co-stars Mark Wahlberg in a supporting role. “Uncharted” is projected to make $35 million over the weekend. Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

All About My Mother Breaking the Waves Central Station Three Colours: Blue Mulan Ethan Alter (Yahoo News) Terminator 2: Judgement Day Being John MalkovichPerfect Blue Waiting for Guffman Raise the Red Lantern Erik Anderson (Awards Watch) Beau TravailParis is BurningEyes Wide ShutMy Own Private IdahoChungking Express David Ansen (Newsweek) Boogie NightsLAmericaWild ReedsHoop DreamsThree Kings Corey Atad (Freelance) Close-UpThe Truman ShowMagnoliaChungking ExpressBeauty and the Beast Jeffrey M. Anderson (San Francisco Examiner) Crumb Eyes Wide Shut Pulp Fiction Satantango Unforgiven Fernando Andrés (Film School Rejects) MagnoliaBringing Out The Dead OrlandoCrooklynCrash Edwin Arnaudin (Asheville Movies) Malcolm XPulp FictionL....

– Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club Rasputia also displays disturbing conduct that veers close to very non-mainstream stylings. The abusive behavior towards Norbit is one thing, but the maltreatment of her husband goes beyond the norms of conduct — she cheats on him, beats him up, and, really, does everything in her power to make his life a living hell. One can envision Murphy creating Rasputia for the opportunity to camp it up while in drag, but it’s the primordial nastiness that Murphy brings to Rasputia that seems to have rubbed people the wrong way....

There’s no way around what I’ve been hearing and that ‘Ricardos’ will probably please the middle-aged white male portion of Academy voters (and there are a lot of them). Fact of the matter is that Sorkin is very well-liked in the industry and his “Trial of the Chicago 7” could have easily won Best Picture last year if it weren’t for the indestructible Chloe Zhao narrative that had been built up until then....

My runners-up piece was based on three separate sources, all of whom are members of the NYFCC. For the group to slander me on social media and call me out for “bullshit misreporting” is an absolute indictment of their own elitist attitudes towards “other” journalism. It’s no secret that the group has been adamantly trying to avoid any runners-up from being leaked, at least since 2013 when a member was kicked out for posting the entire vote tally....

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Nicolas Rapold’s latest episode of his podcast, which I highly recommend, had Film Comment/ArtForum’s Amy Taubin as a guest. Taubin skipped Cannes these last two years due to COVID, and on Rapold’s podcast shared some of her NYFF highlights. She couldn’t stop raving about “EO” and had very kind words for Schrader, Simon, Poitras’ latest films. However, she absolutely HATED “TÁR”: I can’t really write about what she particularly thought was “racist” because it would give away the ending....

Leading the fray for the 47th edition of the Annie’s were Disney’s mega-hit “Frozen 2” and Laika’s Yeti adventure, “Missing Link,” with eight nominations each. Netflix’s “Klaus” and DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon: Hidden World” nabbed an impressive seven noms and Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” with six. All the above-mentioned films landed a Best Feature nomination. More importantly, the actual best-animated movie of the year, would be French import and Netflix selection, “I Lost My Body,” surprised with six nominations including one for Best Indie Feature....

The fourth “Thor” movie had a 68% drop in its second weekend, accumulating around $46.5M. That makes the Taika Waititi-directed movie’s second weekend the worst in MCU history, besting (or worsting) the succeeding weekends for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (-67%) and “Black Widow” (-67%). Spielberg warned us about this in 2015: We might now be at a crucial moment in the MCU where only “Spider-Man” can produce pre-pandemic numbers....

After giving us this one-two punch, Aster began working on his next movie. Interviewed by the Associated Students Program Board at UC Santa Barbara last June, the filmmaker discussed what might be coming down the pipeline for him and while he didn’t go into specific detail about this new movie, the writer-director did say that it would be a 4-hour “nightmare comedy. Today, Discussing Film reports that Aster will start filming his new movie “Disappointment Boulevard” in Canada on June 28th....

They also list Terrence Malick’s “The Way of the Wind,” which I tackled earlier this afternoon, as being released this year. So, maybe we will finally see that movie before the end of 2022 There’s no “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” As much as I was mixed on that movie, there is no denying that it was critically-acclaimed, and did well at the box-office (not to mention will probably finish top 3 in our annual mid-year critics poll next week)....

Jenkins announced last December that production on “The Underground Railroad” wrapped after a lengthy 116-day shoot. Wowza. I’m very much looking forward to this one. Especially with Jenkins directing all of the episodes. “The limited series chronicles young Cora’s (Mbedu) journey as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping her Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil....

According to Deadline, Jeff Nathanson, the writer behind the 2019 ‘King’, is back to script the new feature and has already finished his first draft. The first film, directed by Jon Favreau, was horrendously bland, there was none of the excitement and sense of adventure of the original 1994 animated classic. Of course, with Jenkins at the helm for the sequel, there is the slight chance that something special could arise, but I doubt it....

Going by U.S. release date, although I made an exception for the Polanski since it likely won’t be released anytime soon, I’ve assembled a list of 25 movies that have been or will be released in 2020. Curiously, I have a list of 10 undistributed films that I’d like to reveal in a separate article. (1) J’Accuse (2) Bad Education (3) The Truffle Hunters (4) Never Rarely Sometimes Always (5) The Invisible Man (6) Lovers Rock (7) Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (8) Young Ahmed (9) Pieces of a Woman (10) Palm Springs (11) Bacurau (12) White Lie (13) Spree (14) David Byrne’s American Utopia (15) The Nest (16) The Father (17) Promising Young Woman (18) The Assistant (19) Incitement (20) Trial of the Chicago 7 (21) Possessor (22) The Devil All the Time (23) The Lodge (24) Horse Girl (25) First Cow Having now seen “Mank,” “Ammonite,” “Hillbilly Elegy,” and “The Sound of Metal,” there isn’t much left to be screened before this list is finalized....