Director Denis Villeneuve fell in love with Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born.” At least that's what he exclaimed as part of Variety’s Directors on Directors series, in which Villeneuve even penned an ode to the film:
Read moreChristian Bale on Meeting Donald Trump: “I think he thought I was Bruce Wayne"
In 2011 Donald Trump visited the set of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy capper “The Dark Knight Rises,” which was filming at Trump Tower. Christian Bale remembers that day very well, especially since Trump invited him up to his office and spoke to the Welsh actor as if he actually was Bruce Wayne.
Read moreDirector Lucrecia Martel Was Approached by Marvel For ‘Black Widow’; Says It's “Really Hard to Watch a Marvel Film" and “Painful to the Ears"
Lucrecia Martel's “Zama” has been crowned the best film of 2018 by over 100+ critics as part of the annual Film Comment Critics poll. The film is a peculiar oddity, a tackling of Spanish history with deliberate inaccuracies. It’s an adaptation of Antonio di Benedetto’s 1956 classic novel but with layers of splattered fiction woven into its story. It's a an achievement of epic proportions for the filmmaker, but don't expect her to go the major studio route anytime soon, especially where Marvel is concerned.
Read moreSAG Nominees: ‘Crazy Rich Asians' and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody' Surprise Nominees, Now Well-Positioned for Oscar
The SAG ensemble award has been linked as a good precursor for the Best Picture Oscar nominees. The annual rate is that 4 of the 5 SAG nominees usually make it onto Oscar's final 7-9 shortlist of films — which makes today's mind-boggling decision to nominate "Crazy Rich Asians," for best ensemble cast, a little bewildering.
Read moreSteven Soderbergh’s ‘High Flying Bird’ Set to Premiere at Slamdance
A shocker announcement greeted us today courtesy of Slamdance, the lower-tier Park City festival, and Sundance rival, announced that not only will Steven Soderbergh be there to accept the annual Slamdance 2019 Founders Award, but will also world premiere his next movie “High Flying Bird.”
Read moreIs ‘Black Panther' Worthy of a Best Picture Nomination? Of Course Not.
In the next few weeks you will no doubt see a real push by the media to present "Black Panther" as a worthy Best Picture contender. All for the sake of progress and a rabid Disney agenda that is expertly pushing this narrative. Don't bite.
Read more‘Solo’ Score Ineligible for Oscar Consideration Because Someone Forgot to Submit It
Variety is reporting that the music for: Solo: A Star Wars Story, with a score from John Powell and themes by John Williams, is ineligible for Oscar consideration because someone, somewhere, missed the deadline to submit it. Yes, the November 15 deadline was not met when it comes to Solo's soundtrack, which was probably the best part of the movie, come to think of it. How and/or why did this happen? We're not really sure, but this just proves how forgettable the movie was, even to Disney bigwigs.
A24's Psychedelic-Horror ‘Climax' Receives March 1, 2019 Release Date
Gaspar Noe's "Climax" will no doubt cause a lot of heads to spin, in both good ways and bad. Many of the reviews have mentioned how it is his best movie, I would have to actually make a case for "Enter the Void" to be his crowning achievement, a film that will stand the test of time. Suffice to say, critics went gaga for it at La Croisette. I really liked it but felt the excess finally caught up to it in its final few moments. That's all fine and dandy. As far as I'm concerned Noe has never made a boring film in his career, although his previous film, the 3D explicit sex film "Love," started to feel pedantic and dull in its second hour, and "Climax" is anything but boring.
Read moreThe Academy Reportedly Considering Having a Host-Less Oscar Ceremony
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences is weighing on a potential host-less Oscars this year after comedian Kevin Hart quit amid a hell-storm of criticism over refusing to apologize for gay jokes he made back in 2009.
Read moreSight and Sound names ‘Roma' Best Film of 2018
I abide by Sight & Sound's newly unveiled list of the the best films of 2018. The annual film poll, unsurprisingly, came to the conclusion that Alfonso Cuaron's “Roma” was the best film of the year. The awards-season dominance of Cuaron's film has been unsurpassed, it has won the top prize with seven different critics groups thus far, including the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Read moreWhere are the next great American directors?
An interesting observation: The '80s and '90s saw a slew of brilliant American filmmakers making their debut. For example, we saw the likes of Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Jim Jarmusch, Oliver Stone, Jonathan Demme, Michael Mann, John Sayles, Gus Van Sant, Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, Joel and Ethan Coen and Kathryn Bigelow, John Hughes andBarry Levinson. The 1990s were even better, due to the indie film movement blossoming into its peak, with the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Darren Aronofsky, Spike Jonze, Todd Solondz, Todd Haynes, Alexander Payne, David O Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, Kelly Reichardt, and Brad Bird,among many others who made their first films that decade.
Read moreFirst Look at J.C. Chandor's ‘Triple Frontier’
J.C. Chandor‘s "Triple Frontier" (Netflix) is most definitely on my must-see list for 2019. I mean, how can it not be? Chandor ("Margin Call," "All Is Lost," "A Most Violent Year") is a first-rate filmmaker that hasn't even hit the peak of his powers yet. He adapts a Mark Boal script here, and has some formidable actors to take the brunt of the work (Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam and Garrett Hedlund.)
Read moreLos Angeles Film Critics Association Names ‘Roma’ Best Picture of 2018
Another week and another Best Picture prize for Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma." What can I say, the most deserving film is sweeping awards season, it has now won the top prize with critics groups inNew York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, and Philadelphia. However, don't expect it to also win the Oscar, no siree. "Roma" is too artsy, too slow and ponder-some for Academy members to jump on that bandwagon. It is still very much a race between "Green Book" and "A Star is Born" as far as I'm concerned.
Read more‘Avengers: Endgame’ Trailer Breaks Record With 289 Million Views in 24 Hours
The just-released trailer for “Avengers: Endgame” earned more 289 million views across streaming platforms in 24 hours, thus becoming the most viewed trailer in 24 hours in movie history.
The trailer, which I completely missed and knew nothing about, was released on Friday at 8am ET, news to me, and eclipsed the previous record-holder, of course it was "Avengers: Infinity War," by almost 60 million views.
Read moreJordan Peele’s ‘Us’ Plot Synopsis Revealed
After giving us the best movie of 2017 ("Get Out") we all were wondering what the next provocation from writer-director Jordan Peele would look like. Plot details for "Us" have been kept very hush-hush, but the plot synopsis has been uncovered [via /Film] courtesy of a few test screenings invites were sent out:
Read moreNick Cannon calls out Hollywood’s “double standard" by posting old homophobic tweets by Schumer, Silverman, and Handler
Nick Cannon is not happy that his friend, Comedian Kevin Hart, was thrown under the bus by the Academy and Hollywood alike. He called out this double standard on Twitter, by zeroing on 3 white, female comedians.
On Friday, Cannon dug up old, anti-gay tweets by Chelsea Handler, Amy Schumer and Sarah Silverman. In these tweets the three comedians use the homophobic f-word. Cannon commented the double standard he saw by tweeting, "Interesting, I wonder if there was any backlash here".
Read moreDirector James Gray: Critics Are Bad at Judging Movies
Director James Gray ("Two Lovers," "The Immigrant"), currently serving as jury president at the 2018 Marrakech Film Festival, thinks critics should not be given as much power at film festivals to criticize movies because, quite frankly, they are bad judges of movie quality:
Read moreBest Actor: Bale, Cooper, Mortensen, Hawke and Malek
It's safe to say that the Best Actor category is probably the easiest acting category to predict when it comes to this year's Oscar nominations. Unless Willem Dafoe's outstanding performance as Vincent Van Gogh in "At Eternity's Gate" does any damage, then we are left with five sure-thing nominees (Bale, Cooper, Mortensen, Hawke and Malek). Who will win is another story. I believe any of the five can nab that Oscar. A case can be made for all of them.
Christian Bale's transformation in "Vice" is stunning; Bradley Cooper can be toasted as the "it-boy" of the industry for writing-directing-producing and starring in a the high-grossing movie "A Star is Born"; Viggo Mortensen is the heart and soul of "Green Book," a crowd-pleasing film that is already being touted as a serious Best Picture contender; Ethan Hawke, well-loved by everyone, has never won an Oscar and his career-best work performance in "First Reformed" could very-well be too irresistible for the Academy to ignore; Finally, Rami Malek's passionate performance as Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the kind of work that launches a career to the stratosphere.
Lena Waithe on Next Oscar Host: “Let’s make sure [whoever hosts], they’re black.”
After Kevin Hart's stepping down as host of the 2019 Oscars, the question remains: who will replace him?
“The Chi” creator and Emmy winner Lena Waithe tells Variety “Let Donald Glover do it,” adding, “Donald would be dope. He’d be funny. I would like that. Let’s make sure [whoever hosts], they’re black.” Waithe continued, “Wanda [Sykes] would be lit. I vote for Wanda or Donald or get Chris Rock back in there. Let’s get Eddie [Murphy] out of the house. I hope it’s somebody black and somebody funny.”
‘Avengers: Endgame’ URL Being Held Hostage; Owner Wants Premiere Tickets, Threatens to Redirect it to DC Page
The trailer for “Avengers: Endgame” was released yesterday, but don't go to www.AvengersEndgame.com because it'll automatically re-route you to 20th Century Fox’s “Deadpool” movie page.
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