News

A television remote used with Charter’s Spectrum TV services. (Courtesy photo)

Charter Communication’s advertising unit Spectrum Reach is expanding its partnership with sell-side ad tech company Magnite that will help buyers access an expanded library of premium linear television and streaming inventory, the companies announced on Tuesday.

Through the partnership, Spectrum Reach will expand its use of Magnite’s programmatic technology to deliver more-personalized ad experiences through the Spectrum TV app. The app allows Spectrum customers who want traditional linear television channels to access that programming through streaming platforms instead of the typical set-top box and cable hookup. Citing Comscore data and ratings from app stores, Charter says Spectrum TV is the highest-rated TV app and most-viewed streaming service when evaluated on an hours-per-household basis.

“Our partnership with Magnite will help our clients unlock the full reach and capabilities of programmatic advertising,” Dan Callahan, the Group Vice President...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSUntil Branches Bend.Amidst a widespread debate on the merit of U.S. state financial incentives for film and television productions, a Georgia bill that would have limited the sale of tax credits was rejected by the Senate Finance Committee. In recent years, those credits have exceeded $1 billion despite findings that the state makes back only 19¢ on the dollar. Four of the thirteen labor guilds bargaining with IATSE have now reached tentative agreements with the AMPTP: Locals 600 (cinematographers), 729 (set painters), 800 (art directors), and 695. IATSE president Matthew Loeb has threatened to strike if a new contract is not in place when the current one expires on July 31.Due to financial constraints, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival will be...

Sr. is a documentary about Robert Downey, the actor’s father, a director who set the standard for the comedy for two decades. It is directed by Chris Smith.

A faithful homage.

About the Documentary

Setting out to spend time with his father, Robert Downey Jr. has produced this documentary. We are given an up and close look at the comedy director’s work, and Jr.’s take on it.

Full of humor yet melancholy, we are given accounts by father and son.

Reviews

“Offers touching father-son scenes predicated on forgiveness and love.”

Dan Callahan: The Wrap

… A noble and consistently entertaining failure.

Kevin Maher: Times (UK) Release Date

December 2, 2022

Where to Watch Sr.

Netflix

With:

Robert Downey Sr.

Robert Downey Jr.

Chris Smith

Paul Thomas Anderson

Alan Arkin

Sean Hayes

Norman LearLawrence Wolf

See full credits >>...

Top executives from Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal, Mntn, Google, GroupM and Fox will join the Variety Streaming Room for a panel titled, “TV Ads 2.0: How the Connected Age Gives Advertising a Second Life” on Nov. 9 at 9:30 a.m. Pt. The virtual conversation, moderated by Variety Co-Editor-in-Chief, Cynthia Littleton, will cover the current and future opportunities of connected TV advertising.

Panelists include Andrea Zapata, EVP Ad Sales Research, Measurement and Insights, Warner Bros. Discovery; Mark Douglas, President and CEO, Mntn; Dan Callahan, SVP of Data Strategy and Sales Innovation, Fox Ad Sales; Matt Sweeney, Chief Investment Officer, GroupM; Kristen O’Hara, Vice President, Agency and Brand Solutions, Google & YouTube; and John Lee, Chief Data Officer, Advertising and Partnerships, NBCUniversal.

As the connected TV space expands, ad-supported premium TV programming is strengthening its position with advertisers as powerful media to expand and engage audiences. As audiences flock to their must-see streaming programming,...

Fox Corp. is expanding its efforts to track viewers who might toggle between its Tubi video-streaming hub and its mainstream broadcast outlet.

The media company has struck a multi-year deal with Innovid that will utilize the ad-tech and measurement firm’s technology to push Fox’s efforts to find new ways to gauge the performance of commercials placed on its media properties, no matter the venue.

“As more viewers engage with content across multiple screens, it remains vital that we continue to work with our ad partners and provide them with the necessary data and insights that further display the value of converged TV and the engaged audiences and concentrated impact Fox delivers,” said Dan Callahan, senior vice president of data strategy and sales innovation at Fox, in a prepared statement. “Our partnership with Innovid is another step forward in expanding and delivering cross-platform measurement solutions that further align with our advertisers’ objectives.

Fox Corporation is moving to offer the advertising of the future.

The company said it struck a partnership with FreeWheel, a Comcast unit that specializes in digital advertising placement and measurement, to offer addressable advertising on content that is viewed within Comcast properties, such as its Xfinity cable service or its Xfinity Flex or Cox Contour devices.

The FreeWheel technology will let advertisers aim to reach specific audiences in video-on-demand content, among other things. The Trade Desk is the first company to take part, and will let advertisers execute addressable guaranteed campaigns on Fox VOD inventory. Fox and FreeWheel expect to unveil additional partners in months to come.

“Advertisers continue to recognize that television remains the best platform for reaching a mass audience in a premium environment and to drive greater brand awareness,” said Dan Callahan, SVP of Data Strategy and Sales Innovation for Fox. “As audience viewing patterns increase across more platforms,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Martha Stewart in In A Lonely Place. Actress Martha Stewart, best known for playing Mildred Atkinson in Nicholas Ray's In A Lonely Place (1950), has died. Check out the new website for listings resource Screen Slate! The website now has sections for specially curated listings and articles, as well as a store featuring surveys and readers. Joaquin Phoenix is officially joining the cast of Ari Aster's next film, Disappointment Blvd. Produced by A24, the film reportedly is “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.” Recommended VIEWINGLingua Franca director Isabel Sandoval's short film Shang-ri Lais the latest of Miu Miu's Women's Tales, now playing on Mubi. The sensual story takes place in California during the Great Depression, and depicts a Filipino farmhand whose strong feelings...

In November at our inaugural Power Women Summit, TheWrap committed to bringing gender balance to our team of film critics.

At the time, I said that we wanted to make sure we walked the walk and set an example by our own actions. We all know that having different a diverse set of views among writers creates a smarter, richer context for the discussion around our popular culture. (More info on that event here.)

For that reason I’m pleased to announce that we have achieved that commitment, and that TheWrap now has an equal number of women as men critics.

Also Read: TheWrap Wins Best Entertainment Website and More First-Place Wins at National Entertainment Journalism Awards 2018

Sharon Waxman committing to gender equity at the Power Women Summit 2018 / Photo by Randy Shropshire

We have added to our esteemed group of writers Yolanda Machado, Candice Frederick and Monica Castillo, who join...

Yen Tan’s emotionally wrought AIDS drama “1985” will see a theatrical rollout from Wolfe Releasing this October, the company announced Wednesday,

The distributor is also eyeing an awards push for lead Cory Michael Smith (“Gotham”), an individual familiar with their plans told TheWrap.

Well-reviewed out of this year’s SXSW Film Festival, the black-and-white film follows a young man who visits his Texas hometown at the holidays for potentially the last time, as he battles the disease at the height of its historical mortality rate.

Also Read: Hollywood So Straight: Studio Films With Lgbt Characters Dropped to Record Low Last Year

“Smith has the kind of very severe male beauty and moral gravity that distinguished the leading men in Jacques Demy’s movies from the 1960s. He has the ability to suggest profound levels of decency and despair while also somehow never losing an astringent quality that keeps some of...

Smackdown in 3 Parts

• The Write-Ups

• Podcast Companion Part 1

And now the conclusion!...

Pt 2 (39 minutes)

On the second half of the Supporting Actress Smackdown podcast we discuss Hal Ashby's debut film The Landlord (1970) starring Beau Bridges and Lee Grant. We theorize about why it's not more famous and what would have happened with the great African-American actress Diana Sands if she hadn't died so soon after the movie. We also make some time for the Best Picture nominee Five Easy Pieces and its abundance of actressing, not just Karen Black!

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Thanks again to the panelists: Mark Blankenship, Dan Callahan, Denise Grayson, Lena Houst, and Bobby Rivers . Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?...

Nathaniel R welcomes Mark Blankenship, Dan Callahan, Denise Grayson, Lena Houst, and Bobby Rivers to talk 1970 at the movies

Pt 1 (35 minutes)

You've read our takes on the five Supporting Actress nominees of 1970, now let's talk the movies they're in. On the first half of the podcast we discuss "cheese with wings" Airport (1970) and what it wrought at the movies and the Oscars. Who was the Mvp among its actresses: Helen Hayes? Maureen Stapleton? Jean Seberg? Jacqueline Bisset? We then turn our attention to another smash hit M*A*S*H (1970) and both its modern filmmaking and its misogyny.

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? ...

The Dark Tower is a film that we’ve had our eyes on for some time. I’m a big Stephen King fan, and though I’d only ever managed to get halfway through The Gunslinger — the first book in the series — I’d always admired its ambition and its loyal fanbase. If the film could somehow find a way to provide a palatable entry point into the dense franchise, it’d be a job well done. however, there were a few red flags along the way.

The trailers, to me, skewed to the underwhelming side. Nothing about it got me terribly excited (not even the gun-toting action from Idris Elba). The incredibly short runtime was also a potential problem. How could you even begin to tackle the mythology with such a short film? Sure, the plan is to continue with more films and a TV show, but at a brisk 100 or so minutes,...

Reviews for “The Dark Tower,” the film adaptation of Stephen King’s novels, are in — and critics say the foundation should’ve never been built. Slamming it as a “small, sad pile of rubble” and a “fantastical faceplant,” critics gave the blockbuster a cumulative score of 21 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. “The 95-minute culmination of years-long efforts to bring ‘The Dark Tower’ to the big screen is a complete disaster, a limp, barely coherent shell of a movie,” wrote TheWrap’s film critic Dan Callahan. Also Read: 'The Dark Tower' Review: Big Screen Adaptation of Stephen King's Gunslinger Epic Misfires For most critics,...

After earning its strongest reviews yet with 2015’s “Furious 7,” it appears the “Fast and Furious” franchise might be losing some critical momentum. IndieWire’s David Ehrlich calls “The Fate of the Furious” “the worst of these films since ‘2 Fast 2 Furious,’ and it may be even worse than that. It’s the ‘Die Another Day’ of its franchise — an empty, generic shell of its former self that disrespects its own proud heritage at every turn.”

Read More: ‘The Fate of the Furious’ Review: Vin Diesel’s Family Becomes Dysfunctional in Worst ‘Fast and Furious’ Ever

Much more positive is Owen Gleiberman of Variety:

“‘The Fate of the Furious’ is nothing more than pulp done smart, but scene for scene it’s elegant rather than bombastic, and it packs a heady escapist wallop. The fact that it’s the first film in the series to have been made after the death...

Tyler Perry’s “Boo! A Madea Halloween,” the tenth film in Perry’s “Madea” series, will be released in theaters this Friday, and early reviews haven’t been kind to the new comedy horror film. Based on the fictitious Madea Halloween movie from Chris Rock’s film, “Top Five,” the film follows Mabel “Madea” Simmons, played by Perry himself, who winds up caught in the mayhem of Halloween fending off killers and the paranormal all while watching out for a group of misbehaving teens. Below are some excerpts from the latest reviews.

Read More: ‘Boo! A Madea Halloween’ Trailer: Tyler Perry’s Horror Film Looks Wonderfully Insane

The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck says that the film “makes awfully depressing viewing for those who don’t find the concept of a large, middle-aged man in drag inherently funny,” but admits reviewing a “Madea” film is mostly futile.

“At this point,...

“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” entered fall with serious Oscar buzz. But after the curtain was lifted at last night’s Nyff world premiere, director Ang Lee’s excitement for the new technology that brought his story to the screen — with a presentation in 3D, 4k resolution and 120 frames-per-second — appears to have been his undoing. Indiewire’s Eric Kohn gave the film a B-, noting that it’s “just a decent story laced with attempts to make it larger than life.” Reviews across the board greeted the movie with something of a shrug, and critics had many problems with the technology. Some notable industry takes:

The Guardian‘s Benjamin Lee

It’s a strange test subject for this technology and Lee’s two-hour argument that this will be how all films should be viewed in the future is a failed one.

Uproxx‘s Mike Ryan

I never felt like I was watching a movie.

NEWSThe lineup for the 69th Locarno Film Festival has been announced, with new movies by Yousry Nasrallah, Matías Piñeiro, João Pedro Rodrigues (O Ornitólogo, above) and Axelle Ropert in the International Competition, short films by Thom Andersen and Jia Zhangke, and more.Recommended VIEWINGThe trailer for Jeff Nichols' new film Loving, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.A new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, "It's All True," is devoted to American avant-garde director Bruce Conner. The Museum has generously put online the 1996 version of Conner's film Looking for Mushrooms.Recommended Reading"American Horror Story": Ezekiel Kweku's brief, moving and must-read analysis of trying to analyze the proliferating videos of deaths at the hands of the American police:The postmortem, the part we’re going through now, is also tiring. The videos of the death go viral, everyone talks about how shocking it is, which...

“Franco and Harris are blistering as a father and son confronting their past.” — says Dan Callahan of The Wrap on the new thriller The Adderall Diaries.

The Adderall Diaries is A Twisted Journey Through Sex, Drugs, and Lies that Unfolds on Blu-ray™ and DVD on July 5 from Lionsgate

Follow a troubled author’s journey to uncover the truth of his past in the sexy, gritty film The Adderall Diaries, arriving on Blu-ray and DVD July 5 from Lionsgate. Theatrically released by A24, the film stars Academy Award® nominee James Franco (Best Actor, 127 Hours, 2010), four-time Academy Award® nominee Ed Harris (Best Supporting Actor, Apollo 13, 1995), Amber Heard (The Danish Girl), with Cynthia Nixon (HBO’s “Sex and the City”), and Golden Globe® winner Christian Slater (TV’s “Mr. Robot”). Nominated for Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, The Adderall Diaries is written and directed by Pamela Romanowsky (The Color of Time) and executive produced by Robert Redford (A Walk in the Woods). Oscar® nominee James Franco is riveting as a famous but troubled author whose fascination with a high-profile murder case brings his own dark past into focus. Based on the best-selling book by Stephen Elliott,The Adderall Diaries follows one man’s desperate journey through sex, drugs, and lies as he tries to separate fact from fiction and ignite a life-changing romance. Ed Harris and Amber Heard costar in this gritty story about the shocking discoveries that lie beneath the truth.

Enter for a chance to win the The Adderall Diaries Blu-ray

1. You must have a U.S. mailing address.

2. No purchase necessary.

Now you can own a Free Blu-ray of The Adderall Diaries.We Are Movie geeks has two copies to give away. All you have to do is to leave a comment below and state your favorite James Franco movie (mine is The Interview!)

The home entertainment release of The Adderall Diaries includes audio commentary with the director, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and deleted scenes. The Adderall Diaries will be available on Blu-ray and DVD for the suggested retail price of $24.99 and $19.98, respectively.

Blu-ray/DVD Special Features*

Deleted Scenes Audio Commentary with Director Pamela Romanowsky “The Adderall Diaries: A Director’s Perspective” Featurette

The post Wamg Giveaway – Win The Adderall Diaries Blu-ray – Stars James Franco appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.

“The Boss” might have the potential to dethrone “Batman v Superman” this weekend, but that doesn’t mean it’s Melissa McCarthy‘s best movie by a long shot. Critics are giving the comedy a Rotten Tomatoes score of 19 percent, calling the film something to add to the “pile of mediocrity” and a “catastrophic comic miscalculation,” while one reviewer described McCarthy as “loud and grating and crass and nearly unbearable.” TheWrap’s film critic Dan Callahan wrote, “On the heels of ‘Tammy,’ ‘The Boss’ suggests that McCarthy really needs to regroup and find a project that she doesn’t have to carry all alone,...

A24 dropped their new horror/thriller movie, "The Witch," into theaters today, February 19th, 2016 and all the major, top critics have revealed what their opinions are, and it turns out that their opinions are extremely positive when it comes to this flick, giving it an overall 84 score out of a possible 100 score across 37 reviews at the Metacritic.com site. The film features: Anya Taylor-Joy, Harvey Scrimshaw, Julian Richings, Kate Dickie and Ralph Ineson. We've posted comments from a couple of the critics, below. Bill Zwecker over at the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it an 88 grade. He stated: "This is a very promising first feature by Eggers and showcases some exceptional acting." Robert Abele over at the Los Angeles Times, gave it an 80 grade, stating: "In a way, the movie is a tug of war between the fruits of exhaustive research into old-world madness — which plays out most prominently in the richly...

Woe to you, O Earth and sea, for the Devil sends “The Witch” with wrath…and the critics have met it with exultation. Making his directorial debut, Robert Eggers sent Sundance running to the hills in terror when he premiered “The Witch” there last year, and now his horror film about an exiled Puritan family that gets paid an infernal visit has scored an 86 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes before its wide release on Friday. TheWrap’s Dan Callahan praised the film for taking bold risks with its exploration of religious and sexual themes, calling it “the kind of serious horror.

Quite the episode of the The Cinephiliacs this week! Peter Labuza talks with Jonathan Rosenbaum about Jacques Rivette's Out 1 and more. Also in today's roundup: Rosenbaum on Kira Muratova, Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell on Otto Rippert’s 1916 serial Homunculus, Dan Callahan on Mitchell Leisen, Nathalie Morris on Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going! at 70, an excerpt from a new book on Richard Pryor, an interview with Giorgio Moroder—and remembering Saeed Jaffrey. » - David Hudson...

Quite the episode of the The Cinephiliacs this week! Peter Labuza talks with Jonathan Rosenbaum about Jacques Rivette's Out 1 and more. Also in today's roundup: Rosenbaum on Kira Muratova, Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell on Otto Rippert’s 1916 serial Homunculus, Dan Callahan on Mitchell Leisen, Nathalie Morris on Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going! at 70, an excerpt from a new book on Richard Pryor, an interview with Giorgio Moroder—and remembering Saeed Jaffrey. » - David Hudson...

The centerpiece of New York Magazine's fall preview is Lane Brown's wide-ranging interview with Quentin Tarantino. Also in today's roundup: Richard Brody on how Joe Swanberg and his generation have changed the relationship between actor and director; Fabian Cantieri talks with Tag Gallagher, author of essential books on John Ford and Roberto Rossellini; Eric Hynes on J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry; Dan Callahan on Ruth Chatterton; and we mark the passing of Pierre Jansen, known primarily to cinephiles for his work with Claude Chabrol. » - David Hudson...

The centerpiece of New York Magazine's fall preview is Lane Brown's wide-ranging interview with Quentin Tarantino. Also in today's roundup: Richard Brody on how Joe Swanberg and his generation have changed the relationship between actor and director; Fabian Cantieri talks with Tag Gallagher, author of essential books on John Ford and Roberto Rossellini; Eric Hynes on J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry; Dan Callahan on Ruth Chatterton; and we mark the passing of Pierre Jansen, known primarily to cinephiles for his work with Claude Chabrol. » - David Hudson...

In today's roundup: Dan Callahan on Marcel L’Herbier's L’Argent, Jim Knipfel on Boris Ingster's Stranger on the 3rd Floor, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Kira Muratova, Omar Ahmed on Robin Wood's book about Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy, a discussion about Straight Outta Compton, Dennis Drabelle on Douglas Keesey's new book about Brian De Palma, Robert C. Cumbow on David Lynch's Wild at Heart, a celebration of Maureen O’Hara at 95, David Cairns on Richard Lester, interviews with John Waters, Hubert Sauper and Nadav Lapid—and more. » - David Hudson...

In today's roundup: Dan Callahan on Marcel L’Herbier's L’Argent, Jim Knipfel on Boris Ingster's Stranger on the 3rd Floor, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Kira Muratova, Omar Ahmed on Robin Wood's book about Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy, a discussion about Straight Outta Compton, Dennis Drabelle on Douglas Keesey's new book about Brian De Palma, Robert C. Cumbow on David Lynch's Wild at Heart, a celebration of Maureen O’Hara at 95, David Cairns on Richard Lester, interviews with John Waters, Hubert Sauper and Nadav Lapid—and more. » - David Hudson...

David Bordwell has posted an hour-long talk, "Hou Hsiao-hsien: Constraints, Traditions and Trends." Also in today's roundup of news and views: Richard Brody on Charles Chaplin's Limelight, Dan Callahan on Jean Harlow, David Cairns on a 1944 animated film by Hermína Týrlová, Arielle Bernstein on Noah Baumbach, Katie Hasty's conversation with composer Cliff Martinez, an upcoming exhibition of collages by John Ashbery and Guy Maddin, a teaser from the New York Asian Film Festival and a Kickstarter campaign from John W. Walter for The Earth Moves, a documentary about Philip Glass, Robert Wilson and their landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach. » - David Hudson...

David Bordwell has posted an hour-long talk, "Hou Hsiao-hsien: Constraints, Traditions and Trends." Also in today's roundup of news and views: Richard Brody on Charles Chaplin's Limelight, Dan Callahan on Jean Harlow, David Cairns on a 1944 animated film by Hermína Týrlová, Arielle Bernstein on Noah Baumbach, Katie Hasty's conversation with composer Cliff Martinez, an upcoming exhibition of collages by John Ashbery and Guy Maddin, a teaser from the New York Asian Film Festival and a Kickstarter campaign from John W. Walter for The Earth Moves, a documentary about Philip Glass, Robert Wilson and their landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach. » - David Hudson...

In today's roundup of news and views: Kristin Thompson on La Maison du mystère, a silent serial wildly popular in 1923, David Bordwell on Orson Welles, Dan Callahan on Charles Chaplin, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Roberto Rossellini, Gordon Thomas on Bernardo Bertolucci, Roderick Heath on Luchino Visconti, Andrew Tracy on Ingmar Bergman, Jacob Krell on Clint Eastwood, Tina Hassannia on Asghar Farhadi, Stephen Dalton on Blade Runner, Sebastián Silva on filmmaking, an interview with Olivier Assayas, Richard Linklater on Dazed and Confused—and more. » - David Hudson...

In today's roundup of news and views: Kristin Thompson on La Maison du mystère, a silent serial wildly popular in 1923, David Bordwell on Orson Welles, Dan Callahan on Charles Chaplin, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Roberto Rossellini, Gordon Thomas on Bernardo Bertolucci, Roderick Heath on Luchino Visconti, Andrew Tracy on Ingmar Bergman, Jacob Krell on Clint Eastwood, Tina Hassannia on Asghar Farhadi, Stephen Dalton on Blade Runner, Sebastián Silva on filmmaking, an interview with Olivier Assayas, Richard Linklater on Dazed and Confused—and more. » - David Hudson...

Edited by Adam Cook

Above: there is no news this week more monumental than that of the return of Twin Peaks. In 2016, we'll have nine new episodes, all directed by David Lynch. The 72nd issue of Senses of Cinema is now online, and amidst a plethora of content, features an amazing dossier on "one of the true legends of Australian screen culture," John Flaus. Also included is a piece by Tony McKibbin on a new Alain Robbe-Grillet box set—and in Mubi Us, we're currently hosting a retrospective on the Robbe-Grillet featuring Trans-Europ-Express, L'immortelle, Eden and After, and Successive Slidings of Pleasure. Writing for Reverse Shot, Adam Nayman offers his two cents on Mia Hansen-Love's Eden:

"Time is a weapon in the movies of Mia Hansen-Løve. The gaping narrative holes in the middles of All Is Forgiven, The Father of My Children, and Goodbye First Love are exit wounds,...

Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures released their new action/thriller movie, "Dracula Untold" into theaters yesterday, October 9th, and all the top, major critics have submitted their reviews. I turns out that it didn't really sit well with the majority of them, getting only an overall 38 score out of a possible 100 across 28 reviews at the Metacritic.com site. The movie stars: Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, Diarmaid Murtagh, Dominic Cooper, and Samantha Barks. We've posted blurbs from a few of the critics,below. Gary Goldstein from the Los Angeles Times, gave it a decent 70 score, saying: " As effective and fat-free as its sinewy star, Luke Evans, Dracula Untold proves an absorbing, swiftly comprehensive origin tale." Bruce Ingram over at the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it a 63 score. He stated: "Vlad’s numerous speeches about love, honor and family grow tedious, along with the film’s wooden dialogue in general. And it quickly...

“Dracula Untold” hits theaters this weekend, and if you thought it looked mediocre, the majority of critics who have seen it have confirmed your suspicions. The reboot of the classic Universal movie monster, this time played by Luke Evans (“The Hobbit”), has accumulated a rotten 28 percent approval rating from critics counted on Rotten Tomatoes. Out of 39 reviews currently available, only 11 were favorable. See video: Luke Evans Would Rather Be a Monster Than a Hero in First ‘Dracula Untold’ Clip Although TheWrap‘s Dan Callahan was impressed by first-time feature director Gary Shore's ability to deliver “imaginative” and “inventive” storytelling on the screen,...

Inherent Vice premiered at the New York Film Festival this weekend, and now the first reviews for the film have been posted across the web. Thus far, reviews are relatively positive, though some critics are a little lukewarm -- and others even downright negative -- on Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film. The most common thread among the reviews: the plot, ultimately, doesn't matter, for better or for worse. Sean Hutchinson (Film School Rejects) explains that although the film is filled with jokes and funny situations, "The intentionally convoluted plot may lose viewers who elect to give up on the film rather than engage with the hardboiled hilarity." Additionally, the majority of reviews have praised the film's impressive ensemble cast, the standout being newcomer Katherine Waterston, whom Indiewire's Eric Kohn acknowledged as "the movie's real discovery." On the positive end of the scale, Matt Patches (IGN) called Inherent Vice, "Provocative,...

In his continually eccentric series of extracurricular activities, Steven Soderbergh has posted a black and white version of Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here's what he has to say about why:

"So I want you to watch this movie and think only about staging, how the shots are built and laid out, what the rules of movement are, what the cutting patterns are. See if you can reproduce the thought process that resulted in these choices by asking yourself: why was each shot—whether short or long—held for that exact length of time and placed in that order? Sounds like fun, right? It actually is. To me. Oh, and I’ve removed all sound and color from the film, apart from a score designed to aid you in your quest to just study the visual staging aspect. Wait, What? How Could You Do This? Well, I...

Things That Are Not Cannes-Related

Vanity Fair Leonardo DiCaprio in space: the auction! I love it whenever Katey Rich's inner Titanic fangirl comes out.

Coming Soon Wet Hot American Summer to be a series on Netflix now. And, much better news: its now middle aged original cast members will all be playing high school versions of themselves. Love it. Can't wait to see Paul Rudd's sloppy french-kissing again. That movie is such a scream

Playbill oooh, here's a fun unexpected list. Ten artists that are a Tony Award short of the Egot from Kate Winslet through Julie Andrews and on to um... Martin Scorsese?

Comics Alliance on how Quicksilver, not a major fan favorite superhero, was suddenly a hot property with two major motion pictures in the space of a year

Star-Ledger interviews Dan Callahan on that Vanessa Redgrave book we told you about a couple of weeks ago...

This week's Hit Me With Your Best Shot topic is Michelangelo Antonio's new wave classic Blow-Up (1966) and we're dedicating it to Vanessa: The Life of Vanessa Redgrave, the first biography written about her which is released this week from Pegasus Press. I read an advanced copy on my cruise last month. The author is Dan Callahan, who I know here in New York City and who is a tried and true Actressexual™ (and loved that word the moment Nick and I coined it). He's previously written a book on Barbara Stanwyck so you know he has good taste. Because he values actresses, the biography is more concerned with her gift onscreen and stage than her scandal-laden politics, though those details are there, too. (Dan also picked his favorite shot from the movie for our little weekly viewing party.)

Imagine my surprise when Vanessa Redgrave was barely in the movie! I...

Tim Doyle was asked by Matt Dye of Blunt Graffix to create a poster for the Bijou Metro’s screening of Robocop!

From Doyle- “Robocop is by far one of the most influential films in my little life. I saw it in the theater in 1987 when I was merely 10 years old, and it completely rewired my brain in new and dark ways. And I thank Paul Verhoven for it every single day of my life. Listening to Verhoven’s commentary, he pointed out that for him- Robocop is a Jesus allegory, calling it ‘The American Jesus.’ And in keeping with great American traditions, this Titanium Jesus raises from the grave not for forgiveness, but for revenge. It’s a bloody mess, and brilliant social satire that has yet to be eclipsed in my opinion. The design is obviously lifted from Dali’s Crucifixion Hypercubus- my favorite film meets my favorite Crucifixion depiction.

Can we talk about the official Oscar site for a minute? The past few years they've really improved it but some things are questionable. Like their live blog of the nominee luncheon being just a series of photos or this weird article about the biggest Oscar surprises evers that seeks to rewrite history and imagine a world where everyone didn't know that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were winning Screenplay for Good Will Hunting. Lmfao. Everyone knew that. But I have to say that I love their nominee questionnaire. Especially the handwritten responses from various celebrities and filmmakers.

Okay, Links

Pajiba Fox News' hilariously dumb war against the "anti-capitalist" The Lego Movie. Hahaha. I swear they get dumber every year over there and they were pretty stoopid to begin with

Glenn Dunks Laura Dern's greatest faces

i09 the cast of Frozen, including Idina, did a live concert. Will Disney...

Balder & Dash Dan Callahan on Alfre Woodard's contribution to 12 Years A Slave

Pixar Times on The Blue Umbrella failing to make the Academy Animated Short finalists

Huffington Post wants a return policy on Dallas Buyers Club's AIDS history

Awards Circuit notices some campaign trickery chez TWC. Fruitvale Station's lead actor is now supporting? and it's screenplay is Adapted. Whaaaa?

Man at Arms crafting Mjölnir, Thor's Hammer

THR on the success of black cinema this year. I'm alarmed at some of these clickbait (racebait?) headlines lately on this topic but i love sentences like "The Butler's success in crossing over is attributed to Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker, mainstream stars who relentlessly promoted the film"... relentlessly sounds so threatening given the context/headline. Lol!

Av Club kicks off a series of "firsties" with Guillermo del Toro. I'm not crazy about his films (I know this is an...

Irene Dunne movies: Five-time Best Actress Academy Award nominee starred in now-forgotten originals of well-remembered remakes In his August 2007 Bright Lights article "The Elusive Pleasures of Irene Dunne," Dan Callahan explained that "the reasons for Irene Dunne’s continuing, undeserved obscurity are fairly well known. Nearly all of her best films from the thirties and forties were remade and the originals were suppressed and didn’t play on television. She did some of her most distinctive work for John Stahl at Universal, and non-horror Universal films are rarely shown now. Practically all of her movies need to be restored; even her most popular effort, The Awful Truth (1937), looks grainy and blotchy on its DVD transfer, to say nothing of things like Stahl’s When Tomorrow Comes (1939), or Rouben Mamoulian’s High, Wide, and Handsome (1937), two key Dunne films that have languished and deteriorated in a sort of television/video purgatory.

The morning’s best writing from around the movie website-o-sphere. Just leave a tab open for us, will ya? “A Director Peers Into His Past” — At 72, Brian De Palma unravels his own phantasmagoria to explain how he crafts suspense. “Julie Harris, 1925 – 2013: A Remembrance” — Dan Callahan profiles an actress who went toe to toe with some of the best of her generation. “Primer for Silent Film Beginners” — Bouncing off Buster Keaton (who bounced off everything), Reddit user Mr_A delivers a simple yet thorough guide to getting started with the soundless greats. “History of Film: Results From the 80s” — At the end of their feature on the decade of Do The Right Thing, Movie Mezzanine lists the ten best as an anti-listicle. “There Has Never Been a Better Time for TV Criticism” — Matt Zoller Seitz is giddy about today’s TV writing. “Why Watching You’re Next Makes You Want to Revisit Home Alone” — Brian Salisbury connects...

The Newport Beach Film Festival

opens today and runs through May 3.

Bertrand Bonello will preside over the Jury for the Nespresso Grand Prize for La Semaine de la Critique (Critics' Week), while João Pedro Rodrigues will be President of the Jury for the Nikon Discovery Award for Short Film. The awards will be presented on Closing Night, May 24, and, once again, here are the lineups they'll be taking in.

Nina Menkes will not only be on the International Jury at the Jeonju International Film Festival, opening today and running through May 4; she'll also be presenting her 1996 feature, The Bloody Child, one of only five films selected to represent 50 years of the Jeonju sister festival, the Viennale.

Michael Guillén previews the lineup of the International Film Festival of Panama, opening today and running through Wednesday.

"12 projects from francophone Sub-Saharan Africa have been selected for Open Doors, the Festival del film Locarno's co-production lab.

"When I wrote 120 Malay Movies I tried to watch all of the 34 movies that P Ramlee directed. I almost succeeded." Amir Muhammad (The Last Communist, Malaysian Gods) would eventually see 33; Sitora Harimau Jadian (1964) seems to have been lost. He tells us the story of how he came upon what amounts to P Ramlee's own novelization of Sitora Harimau Jadian, "describing what happens in his movie, scene by scene. The book is slim, only 124 pages, and I'm glad it was also fleshed out with pictures from the movie (which might be the only chance we will ever get to 'see' it)." He gives us a sample and then announces that he's republishing the book, which will be out next month and already has a fan page.

Another book. Today's review of Geoff Dyer's Zona comes from Nathan Rogers-Hancock at Cinespect.

Reading. Alex Ross Perry (The Color Wheel) once managed a...

A red letter day. There's a new Senses of Cinema out and it opens with the first part of Daniel Fairfax's interview with Jean-Louis Comolli, who edited Cahiers du cinéma from 1965 to 1973. Senses editor Rolando Caputo: "At the time, Cahiers was undergoing its so-called 'Marxist-Leninist' phase, with a heavy overlay of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory." And Slavoj Žižek would have been in his late teens, early 20s. At any rate: "Put simply, at stake was the demystification of the 'cinematic apparatus' to demonstrate how ideology was both embedded within the technology of cinema and an effect of its representational modes."

Fairfax: "Having steadily made films over the last 40 years — including the magisterial series on the French electoral machine, Marseille contre Marseille (1996) — Comolli has also pursued a prolonged theoretical pre-occupation with the cinema, which, in various ways, is profoundly defined by his earlier participation in Cahiers. Refreshingly, he has never sought to repudiate his radical past,...

"With The Deep Blue Sea," writes Nick Pinkerton in the Voice, "the great British director Terence Davies returns to the postwar period — though in a sense, he has never left. Born in 1945, Davies's cinema is defined by a mixed pity and fondness for the world of yesterday, a past he seemingly finds impossible to put behind him or to do without. The era's hypocritical propriety and quivering repression has most frequently been held up for 'enlightened,' Pleasantville-style condescension, but Davies is a great historical filmmaker because he feels the period too intimately to mock its rituals and mores, knows that no progress occurs without loss."

A retrospective of Davies's work is running at New York's BAMcinématek through March 27, while Sing, Memory: The Postwar England of Terence Davies opens today at the Harvard Film Archive and runs through March 26. On March 28, The Long Day Closes (1992) opens for a week-long run at New York's Film Forum.

For the tenth edition of Film Art: An Introduction, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson are partnering with Criterion to present Connect Film, an hour-long set of twenty videos on various aspects of filmmaking addressed in the now-classic textbook. Above: "Elliptical Editing in Vagabond (1985)." Kristin Thompson: "Most of the other Connect examples illustrate the chapters on the four types of film technique: mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, and sound. There's also a short documentary about digital animation."

More books. You may remember that Dave Kehr is quite an admirer of the writing of Arlene Croce, a dance critic for the New Yorker from 1973 to 1998. She's also the author of The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book and, in the new issue of the New York Review of Books, she reviews Todd Decker's Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz and Kathleen Riley's The Astaires: Fred and Adele. As the Boston Globe's Mark Feeney writes,...

Andrzej Żuławski does not like the title of the first retrospective of his work in the Us. Hysterical Excess: Discovering Andrzej Żuławski opens tommorrow and runs through March 20 at New York's BAMcinématek. At the top of his piece for the New York Times, J Hoberman allows the director to explain his objection and then suggests himself that the "word to best describe the Żuławski oeuvre might be 'awful' in its root sense of inspiring dread. Exuding charm and urbanity on the phone, Mr Żuławski is nonetheless an auteur to be approached with trepidation. His movies are seldom more than a step from some flaming abyss, with his actors (and audience) trembling on the edge. Typically shot with a frenzied, often subjective moving camera in saturated colors that have the over-bright feel of a chemically induced hallucination, these can be hard to watch and harder to forget."

Bam's presenting all 12 features...

Hollywood Before the Code: Nasty-Ass Films for a Nasty-Ass World! runs from today through Thursday at the Roxie in San Francisco and Dennis Harvey has a fun preview in the Bay Guardian. A snippet: "March 4 offers a shocking double dose of pure white femininity finding themselves in, ahem, 'Yellow Peril' — miscegenation being something Hollywood could only begin to embrace a few decades later. Frank Capra's atypically erotic The Bitter Tea of General Yen, with Barbara Stanwyck alllllmost surrendering the white flag to a 'charismatic Chinese warlord' (Swede Nils Asther, eyes narrowed), has become a minor classic since flopping in 1933. No such luck for The Cheat (1931), a remake of Cecil B DeMille's 1915 shocker that was part of Paramount's brief, failed attempt to make stage sensation Tallulah Bankhead a movie star. Her gambling-addicted socialite gets branded (literally) in lieu of repayment not by the original's Far East businessman (dashing Sessue Hayakawa...