The 1939 American classic “Gone With the Wind” has been temporarily pulled from HBO Max until further notice. All this after the streaming company got some major flack due to an op-ed by “12 Years A Slave” screenwriter John Ridley which was published in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. The gist of the op-ed has to do with Ridley calling on HBO Max to "consider removing" “Gone With the Wind” from its platform as the film has its "own unique problem." "You see, Ridley writes, the civil war epic, and winner of the 1939 Best Picture Oscar, doesn’t just “fall short” with regard to representation, it’s also a film that ignores the horrors of slavery and “perpetuates some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color."

Next May’s Cannes Film Festival is set to be packed with buzz-worthy titles and you can add another one to that list. Skipping the Venice Film Festival this year will be hometown boy Nanni Moretti, whose “Tre Piani” is now set for a Cannes 2021 world premiere [via Il Fatto Quotidiano]. This is a crushing loss for Venice boss Alberto Barbera, who was counting on Moretti’s film to launch his festival this coming September. Barbera is refusing to go digital and is planning on a live, physical edition of the festival, one which would have hand sanitizer at every corner, face masks, and rooms filled at half capacity. Good luck with that Mr. Barbera.

In light of the recent killing of George Floyd and the worldwide protests, “The Help” has become the most-streamed movie on Netflix the past week, but reaction to that news has been that of backlash and disappointment because, well, much like “Driving Miss Daisy,” Tate Taylor’s Oscar-winning film sugarcoats racism. And now, “The Help” actress Bryce Dallas Howard is joining that fray, talking about the film, but also giving counterprogramming suggestions.

Joel Coen and Frances McDormand recently did an Instagram live interview and spilled some beans about their upcoming Macbeth adaptation (sans Ethan) starring Denzel Washington, and McDormand herself.

Tommy Wiseau wrote, directed, and financed "The Room" back in 2003, a film so bad that it has transcended genres and is now known as a cinematic cult artifact. The film was so fascinatingly inept that it seemed too good to be true. Were Wiseau's intentions genuine? Did he really set out to make a good movie? The answer, as we’ve learned over the years, was a resounding yes.

Is the lockdown on movie theaters finally over? The reopening of cinemas in the US is underway, but to have a film like Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” to open wide you need the two biggest markets, New York City, and Los Angeles, to ease down on lockdown protocols. Well, it seems as though California Governor Gavin Newsom is allowing for movie theaters to reopen as soon as this week.

Many directors will never admit that they are bothered by negative reviews, but getting a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is an embarrassing “accomplishment.” I didn’t expect the latest casualty of this shameful mark to be the new Netflix mob movie “The Last Days of American Crime.” This means that, out of 21 reviews, not a single critic in the world has rated it positively. If you remember, 2018's John Travolta-starring “Gotti” and the 2015 Adam Sandler western-comedy “The Ridiculous 6” were both 0% movies as well. “Gotti” still has the distinction of being the 0% movie with the most reviews to its name (55).

Here’s another haunted house movie for you. Then again, this being the era of low-budget indie horror, there’s always the off-chance that something creative can come out of this tiresome genre (check out next month’s “Relic” as proof). With all that being said, “You Should Have Left” seems to be trying for something relatively fresh and new with the material at hand. My expectations are tame, but hopeful.

Something changed during the last week. The COVID-19 pandemic was replaced in the 24/7 news cycle by the unfortunate and tragic death of George Floyd. The ensuing riots only moved us further away from the pandemic, as if a new event had finally sprung out and the virus was no longer a priority to report on. During this time, we have, in effect, been spared the fear-driven coverage of the virus and started looking at the future, a hopeful one, in which, possibly, just possibly, things could get back to some kind of post-virus normalcy in the coming months.

The BBC has confirmed that Steven McQueen conceived each episode of the anthology mini-series “Small Axe” as its own feature film. We already know that “Lovers Rock” and “Mangrove” were set to be part of the now-canceled 2020 Cannes Film Festival. The movies will debut in the U.S. on Amazon Prime as part of McQueen’s new deal with the streamer, no premiere date has been announced just yet.

After giving us “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” in 2018 and 2019, Ari Aster is already working on a new project. Interviewed by the Associated Students Program Board at UC Santa Barbara, the filmmaker discussed what might be coming down the pipeline for him and it sounds batshit crazy. While he didn’t go into detail about this new movie, Aster did say that it will be a 4-hour “nightmare comedy.

French filmmaker François Ozon has been going at it now for nearly 20 years. His prolific filmography is filled with numerous genre hops and risk-taking endeavors, but also plenty of critical acclaim. From what I am hearing, his now Cannes-stamped new film “Ete 85” is supposed to be one the very best works of his career.

The biggest and best surprise of this year’s Cannes Film Festival lineup of films was the fact that Steve McQueen (best known as the director of “12 Years a Slave,” “Hunger” and “Shame") had two features selected.