Oh, Italy. As beautiful as that country is, it still has a lot of work to do when it comes to taming down the misogyny that is quite apparent all around that country. After all, they've all but refused to go along with the #MeToo movement and even had an Italian director strut down the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival with a "Harvey Weinstein is Innocent" T-shirt.
Read moreSoon-Yi defends Woody Allen, says Mia Farrow abused her
A Soon-Yi Previn interview, courtesy of Vulture, has Woody Allen's wife of 30-odd years defending her husband. Suffice to say, it didn't please Ronan Farrow as Mia Farrow's son immediately rebutted with his own statement. Jesus Ronan, let her speak.
Soon-Yi admits in the interview that "what's happened to Woody is so upsetting, so unjust." She's, of course, referring to accusations by Allen's adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, that she molested by her father back in the early '90s.
Read more'Free Solo' has the greatest mountain-climbing sequence ever put on film [TIFF]
Earlier on in "Free Solo," rock climber Alex Honnold's brain is scanned to assess the activity in the Amygdala, the part of the human brain which triggers stress and fear, and the results are astonishing: there is barely any activation in Honnold's scans. This stuns the doctors but they do understand why that might be the case; you see, Honnold is a free solo climber — he climbs without safety ropes — and he is crazy enough to attempt a trek up the 3,000-foot cliff of El Capitan in California's Yosemite National Park without safety ropes, of course.
Read moreOscars Cancel 'Popular Film' Category After Backlash
Variety is reporting that the Academy has axed the 'Best Achievement in Popular Film' category.
Their reason? It “merits further study.” No doubt the actual reason has to do with the backlash that occurred after they announced the new category last month, which prompted speculation that it was created solely to prevent 'Black Panther' from nabbing a Best Picture nomination. Well, now it will most probably be nominated for the big prize. Plan failed.
Read moreGuillermo del Toro convinced Alfonso Cuaron to direct "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"
It is not surprising that the best, most expertly made movie of the 'Harry Potter' franchise is "The Prisoner of Azkaban." All credit must go to the best director to have ever helmed a Potter movie: Alfonso Cuarón. The director of "Children of Men," "Gravity" and "Y Tu Mama Tambien" used his visual, errrr, wizardry in the 2004 movie to make something unmistakably unique. This is when the Potter books got dark, grittier and went a completely different direction.
Read moreXavier Dolan's next movie will be the Quebec-produced "Matthias & Maxine"
Xavier Dolan’s English-language debut “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan” will premiere at TIFF next week and the buzz so far been stilted by production issues, which included the total axing of Jessica Chastain's role during the editing process. Despite all that, 'Donovan' still has a fantastic cast which include Natalie Portman, Kit Harrington, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, and Jacob Tremblay.
Read morePaul Greengrass' shaky handheld camera is back in "22 July"
Paul Greengrass made the use of handheld camera 'hip' in Hollywood with his 'Bourne' movies and, by all accounts, he should most definitely be put on a list of the most influential action filmmakers of the 21st century. His films make you feel like you are really there, in the thick of the action. His very best work ("Captain Phillips," "United 93," "Blood Sunday," "The Bourne Supremacy"), heroic stories of unimaginable horror with edge of your seat thrills, reinforced the importance of the handheld camera, as a way to bring ultra-reality, at the movies.
Read more'Crazy Rich Asians' Tops Box-Office for Third Week in a Row, passes $100M mark
'Crazy Rich Asians' keep chuggin' along at the weekend box-office. For a third weekend in a row the John Chu-directed picture topped the box-office by not really losing much momentum and making close to $22M over labor day weekend. The lack of major new releases definitely helped in that regard, 'Asians' has now made $112M domestically, a hell of an accomplishment, especially for a film touted as the having an All-Asian cast, unheard of in Hollywood as its been close to 25 years since the last film to feature such a cast (1993's "The Joy Luck Club.")
Read moreItalian Filmmaker Decides to Wear a Homemade "Weinstein is Innocent" T-Shirt at Red Carpet Premiere of 'Suspiria'
“One person's craziness is another person's reality.” ― Tim Burton.
When it comes to bad ideas, this might just take the cake. Director Luciano Silighini Garagnani showing off his homemade "Weinstein is Innocent" T-shirt during the red carpet premiere of Luca Guadagnino's "Suspiria" at the Venice Film Festival. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a joke, but now people know who he is.
Alfonso Cuarón's 'Roma' Will Most Probably Land Netflix Its First Ever Best Picture Oscar Nomination, But It's Only the Beginning of a New Era at the Movies
Netflix and Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” will be nominated for Best Picture come next year's Oscars. You can put it in the bank. Nothing is going to stop this film on its tracks to nabbing a nomination. It's the only film so far this fall festival season (Venice and Telluride) that feels like it has earned the distinction of being called a "masterpiece."
Read moreDave Bautista: 'I don't know if I want to work for Disney anymore'
Criterion's Release of ‘The Tree of Life’ Is Not a Director’s Cut, but a Whole Other Movie
In the category of what-the-hell-was-he-thinking type of ideas, this might take the cake.
Criterion technical director Lee Kline was interviewed by IndieWire about their upcoming release of Terrence Malick's astonishing 2011 achievement “The Tree of Life.” This new extended cut, a 188-minute version, 49 minutes longer than the original, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival next week, but Kline says it's a whole other new movie.
Read moreMedia coverage mostly negative on Louis C.K's return to stand-up
Don't we just live in a wonderful world, filled with unity, zen-like attitudes and non-judgmental medias. Of course, that's all baloney and you know it. Take for example the case of Louis C.K.
The 50-year-old comedian was shunned from the industry last fall when reports started to filter through mainstream news that, well, he liked masturbating in front of women in his dressing room. A rather perversely surreal act on the part of the actor/director/comedian.
Read moreTrailer for 25th Anniversary Re-Release of ‘Schindler's List'
Universal released a new trailer for the upcoming 25th-anniversary re-release of Steven Spielberg's masterpiece, "Schindler's List." A 1993 Best Picture winner, the film is one of the most astonishing depictions of the Holocaust ever put on celluloid, right up there with Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah" and Alain Resnais "Night and Fog." Spielberg's film, shot in beautiful black and white by his longtime DP Janusz Kaminski, told the true story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a factory owner in Nazi-occupied Poland.Schindler saved over 1,200 Jewish lives by striking a deal with the Nazis to employ Jews in his factory and consequentially saving them from being sent off to the gas chambers.
Read moreWoody Allen Will Not Release A Movie This Year, This Hasn't Happened Since 1981
I haven't spoken about Woody Allen for quite some time now. You know by now how I feel about the way the venerable writer-director has been treated on social media. All but shunned, with his future as a filmmaker now being questioned. The bad press he has gotten has resulted in his latest film, the Amazon-produced “A Rainy Day in New York,” being stuck in post-production limbo with no release date in sight.
Read moreTwo-Thirds of the Year Gone. Here Are the 30 Best Movies of 2018 so far
2018 releases:
The Tale
Burning
Leave No Trace
Custody
BlackKklansman
Eighth Grade
A Quiet Place / Hereditary
Cold War
The Ride
The Wife
Three Identical Strangers
Searching
Tully
Sorry To Bother You
Mission: Impossible — Fallout
Won't You Be My Neighbor
Isle of Dogs
Whitney
You Were Never Really Here
Game Night
The Guilty
Lean on Pete
Red Sparrow
Ready Player One
After Everything
Paddington 2
The Polka King
Godard Mon Amour
Capernaum
The House That Jack Built
2019 releases:
Dogman
Cam
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Climax
Border
Happy as Lazzaro
Girl
Aykan
On Her Shoulders
Ash Is Purest White
The Wild Pear Tree
Hirokazu Kore-Eda's “Shoplifters” wins the Palme d’Or
The closing night ceremony of the 71st Cannes Film Festival happened yesterday, but I was already on a flight back to Boston when President Cate Blanchett and her group of jurors including Lea Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Ava DuVernay, Denis Villeneuve and more decided that Hirokazu Kore-Eda's “Shoplifters” was the Palme d’Or winner. Kore-Eda was at Cannes previously with seven different efforts, and “Like Father, Like Son” even won the Jury Prize in 2013. Apparently, the jury decision was unanimous. “No blood was shed,” said Blanchett.
Palme d’Or
Shoplifters, dir: Hirokazu Kore-Eda
Grand Prize
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Jury Prize
Nadine Labaki, Capernaum
Special Palme d’Or
Jean-Luc Godard, Image Book
Best Actor
Marcello Fonte, Dogman
Best Director
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War
Best Screenplay
TIE
Alice Rohrwacher, Happy As Lazzaro
Nader Saeivar, 3 Faces
Best Actress
Samal Yeslyamova, My Little One
Caméra d’Or
Girl, dir: Lukas Dhont
Short Film Palme d’Or
All These Creatures, dir: Charles Williams
Special Mention: On The Border, dir: Wei Shujun
Why Wonder Woman Should Not Be Nominated For Best Picture
Warner Brothers will be focusing on an Oscar campaign for “Wonder Woman” this fall. They, of course, are the studio that produced it and own the DCU universe. I can only imagine how badly they would love to have a DCU film nominated for Best Picture, but it seems like they are going a little too far with this campaign. The consensus this past June was that “Wonder Woman” was the first “good” film from the DCU. Ok, fine, that doesn’t say much really. It seems WB might be, mightily, overreaching by pretty much implying that they believe “Wonder Woman” is Best Picture material. The backlash will no doubt happen because, well, “Wonder Woman” just isn’t that good. I can list 30 films that were released this year that were better than Patty Jenkins’ film. Hell, it’s not even close to being the best superhero movie of the year. That honor goes to James Mangold’s “Logan,” which, in fact, does deserve a Best Picture nomination.
To say that this was a very poorly thought-out PR move from WB would be an understatement. When "Wonder Woman" was released this past June, people made it out to be the second coming. Yes, it's miraculous that a comic book movie was made with a female director at the helm and an actress as its leading star and yet, its flaws are very present for all to see, including a third act that completely spins out of control with the usual CGI bang, that we've come to expect from a DCU, filled with bad shots, bad CGI and no human touch whatsoever. As for the directing, yes it was good, but not Oscar-worthy. Patty Jenkins didn't deserve to go 15 years between her last movie, "Monster," and "Wonder Woman." I want her to make more movies in the future and I am ecstatic that she is being given so much power for the just announced sequel to "Wonder Woman" set for July of 2019.
There's a very good reason why comic book films don't get Oscars. They are pulpy, silly in concept, and usually shaky in terms of quality for critics/adults, hell, even "The Dark Knight" had a somewhat infuriating last 20 or so minutes, but it's still a great, momentous movie. A woman should, of course, be nominated for Best Director but only when the picture is truly worthy of it or, more implicitly, when something artistic and truly groundbreaking as a work is accomplished. Why should we fast-track progress just because it feels good to be a part of it, that's just dishonest, pandering, and actually works against progress? All this teaches people is that quality is not important, it's who you are (or what you were born as) that matters. In fact, despite my objection at "Wonder Woman" and Jenkins being rewarded, I really hope three female directors are remembered come awards time with nominations: Kathryn Bigelow for "Detroit," Julia Ducourneau for "Raw," Dee Rees for her upcoming "Mudbound."
What do you think about Wonder Woman's Oscar chances? Give us your take in the comments section below.