Sam Mendes is trying to get some Social Justice points by making the case for gender-neutral Oscars. His “Empire of Light” was a total awards dud this past year, banking on a clunky rendered race relations story, and now he just sounds desperate.

I’ve mentioned how there are already some films “locked” for a Best Picture nomination, they are “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “TÁR,” “Elvis,” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

I’m hearing a lot of rumblings that Todd Field’s “TÁR” will probably be given the Best Film award by the NSFC, I’d be shocked if it was any other film.

Back in September, I was wondering what was going on with Eli Roth’s “Borderlands,” a video game adaptation from a screenplay he co-wrote with Craig Mazin.

Set during the thick of the pandemic, the first trailer for the COVID-inspired horror movie “Sick” has been released.

Remember, this is the same group that infamously nominated Stanley Kubrick as 1980’s Worst Director for “The Shining.”

Back in April of 2022, a test-screening for “You People,” which has just released a trailer, took place in California. This movie had not been on my radar at all, but a reader sent me a reaction that was a flat-out rave.

More than a month ago I wrote that Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” sequel was in pre-production and ready to shoot in the summer.

If you wanted James Cameron to focus on anything else but ‘Avatar’ then you’re out of luck. He’s basically confirmed that the 3rd, 4th and 5th movies are happening.

Back in August, I had mentioned that Hirokazu Kore-eda had wrapped production on a new movie. The Japanese filmmaker made it official in Tokyo on Friday and even gave us a title: “Monster”.

‘M3GAN’ started off its box-office run with $3M+ in previews on Thursday. Solid reviews helped a lot with a 95% on RT.

Netflix’s WWI epic “All Quiet on the Western Front” leads this morning’s pack with 15 longlist mentions, while “The Banshees of Inisherin” follows with 14.

IndieWire’s box-office guru Tom Brueggmann tends to be pretty spot on in his assessments. His latest piece makes the shocking claim that theater audiences shrank by nearly half in the last 4 years.

A fairly chaotic day in the comments section. I’ve had to sadly temporarily and permanently ban a few users from commenting. I hate to do it, but when enough readers personally complain then there is no alternative.

Luca Guadagnino is revving up his next production: an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ controversial classic novel, “Queer”.

Here’s something absolutely nobody is talking about. Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” has been playing in L.A, Toronto, Chicago, Austin and New York since December 23rd and it’s looking like a total box-office bomb.

Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s “Everything Everywhwere All At Once” has just won another Best Film award, this time it’s from the North Carolina Film Critics Association.

Nicolas Cage’s latest Shaman-like acting feat, this one is called “Renfield,” has a just-released trailer. It hints at another bonkers performance from the actor. In it, Cage plays a supporting role as Dracula. Sold.

There weren’t many movies last year that made us hopeful about the current state of cinema. I can probably count in one hand the amount of titles that made me think that we’re headed in the right direction, Todd Field’s “TÁR” was definitely one of them.

So, there you go. Ari Aster’s “Beau is Afraid” will be released in April, according to A24. We also now have a poster. A trailer is due to be released next Tuesday. I’m guessing a SXSW world premiere could be in the books for this one.