The social media embargo has been lifted for Paul Greengrass’ “News of the World” (12.25.20). This is a cautionary tale told via conventional, albeit mostly-successful, terms. The older, white and male contingent of the Academy are going to dig the hell out of this one.

Director Thomas Vinterberg was part of the Dogme 95 movement, which unearthed, among other people, Lars Von Trier. However, both filmmakers couldn’t be more different. Yes, Vinterberg employs the same shaky camerawork and improv-style dialogue as von Trier, but in a much more accessible and conventional fashion. Despite all that, Vinterberg has managed to give us two very good movies out of the eight he’s so far directed in his career: his 1998 debut “The Celebration” and 2013’s “The Hunt.”

I’m late to the ballgame here, but I was really trying hard not to comment on N.Y. Times film critics A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis’ piece titled “The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century (So Far)“. The list was clearly motivated by woke aspirations and I honestly don't think it should be taken any more seriously than a random film blogger’s own list of the best actors working today (cue mine below), alas, it’s The Times, which means people are uniformly taking these acting picks to heart.

It’s been 3 years since Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return” changed the TV landscape forever, but, more importantly, signaled the return of a true master. How could Lynch follow up an achievement as monstrous as ‘The Return’? Well, how about making another TV series.

I can never get enough of director John Waters — just the sheer fact that he is responsible for making “Pink Flamingos,” one of the most tasteless movies ever created, ranks him way up in my books.

IndieWire’s Anne Thompson, always reliably in-the-know, is hinting that director Mike Mills’ upcoming “Cmon Cmon” may very well premiere at next January’s digital edition of the Sundance Film Festival.

Every November, as Thanksgiving nears, I tend to start looking at the possibilities that may show up at the Sundance Film Festival. This upcoming 2021 edition of the Park City event will be the first in-person one I miss in almost a decade. No worries, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Sundance has hibernated into digital format for the coming edition.

I received some backlash for my A- review of Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” last year. Part of the flack is, I guess, having my review quoted on the film’s Wikipedia page - That just set my email into overdrive. I first saw Scorsese’s film at the New York Film Festival world premiere in September of 2019, despite some reservations I thought it was a fantastic achievement, calling it “Scorsese’s eulogy to Gangster cinema.”

Looking back on the 25 most anticipated movies of 2020 list we posted back in February, only 8 of the 25 titles chosen got released this year. Pathetic. This will now surely amount to an incredible array of marquee titles being released in 2021 (if normalcy actually seeps into our world, but who knows about that).

One major studio that hasn’t suffered through this neverending pandemic is Netflix. In fact, the streaming giant’s arsenal of content this year could give them the most best picture nominations from any studio in history, a record held by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which scored five nods at the ninth Academy Awards in 1937.

Clint Eastwood has proven time and time again how he’s still a major attraction for moviegoers. “Richard Jewell,” “The Mule,” “Sully” and “American Sniper,” were all released within the last six years, with a considerable amount of tickets sold. It also helped that the films themselves were fantastic, straight-shooting dramas that could only be made by an old-school veteran of the craft such as Eastwood.

Maybe it's too early to speculate about the 2021 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, but this pandemic won’t last forever, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is realistic to believe that we may be watching films on the Croisette in 7 months time, especially with a Vaccine just right around the corner. With all that being said, if we consider all the holdouts from this year’s canceled event, and add them to all the current productions set to wrap in the next few months, you have the makings for one hell of an official competition next year.