Notizie

What if Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours” was transformed from something less absurdly nihilistic and Kafka-esque and shifting towards the unexpected romantic comedy genre with a dash of May/December age and cultural differences on top to give it extra flavor and dimension? That’s not exactly what Jay Duplass’ excellent new comedy, “The Baltimorons,” is in total shape—you’d need to add some “Harold & Maude” and the general naturally sublime bittersweet shagginess of Hal Ashby films— but that description of this super eccentric and quirky picture is undoubtedly more accurate than your regular meet-cute romantic comedy.

Continue reading ‘The Baltimorons’ Review: Jay Duplass’ Hilarious May/December After Hours Adventure Is A Super Winning Charmer [SXSW] at The Playlist.

One of the unexpected pleasures of this year’s vast SXSW slate of movies is Bunny, a kind of zany comic throwback to extreme indie New York City-centric movies that find a manic energy and rhythm that lets them exist on their own breathless cloud, with a cast of wacky characters moving in and out of frame in action that takes place almost entirely in an East Village tenement, or outside just in front of it.

In some ways Bunny is an oddball cross of Weekend at Bernie’s, Abbott & Costello, Cheech & Chong and a new-age Marx Brothers movie, plus films of the Safdie brothers (particularly Uncut Gems) all the way back to Hal Ashby’s wonderful directorial debut with 1970’s The Landlord, another NYC tenement movie I kept thinking about watching this stew. Throw them all into a blender and you might have something resembling what first-time director...

Quick LinksWhat is Bulworth About?Warren Beatty's Performance as Jay Bulworth is DivisiveBulworth's Strange, But Positive Critical Reception

When the phrase "divisive performance" is heard, most movie fans will immediately think of someone like Nicolas Cage. However, as a contracted actor with no role in the film's production, talent is often forced to simply follow the director's vision whether or not it lends to a terrible performance. This same logic can be applied to a plethora of controversial performances over the years. Whether it's Tom Hanks in Elvis or Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending, the real blame should be applied to their directors.

Due to this monkey wrench, a more interesting case of a divisive performance comes when the actor in question has creative control over the product. Whether they're the writer, director, or producer, it is endlessly fascinating to know for certain that this eccentric performance was 100% intentional.

Julia Garner will no doubt garner applause for her masterful Criterion Closet picks, ranging from auteurs Spike Lee to Bong Joon Ho. Yet it was two distinct features that propelled the “Ozark” star to personally pursue acting: “All About Eve” and John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence.”

And if those seem like odd pairings, let Garner herself explain.

“The first film that I’m going to pick is my favorite film, ‘All About Eve.’ Bette Davis is incredible. Anne Baxter, who plays Eve Harrington, is incredible,” Garner said during a visit to the Criterion Closet. “I watch this movie at least once a year, sometimes multiple times a year. I just think this is a perfect film, and I think everybody should watch this.”

“All About Eve” stars Davis as an aging famed stage actress, who becomes the object of obsession by her titular fan-turned-protege assistant (Baxter). Joseph L. Mankiewicz...

Sean Baker had a history-making night at the Oscars, winning Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Director, and Best Picture for "Anora," while star Mikey Madison took home the statue for Best Actress for her performance as Ani. As a result, Baker had four opportunities to speak to the world at large through his acceptance speeches, and he came prepared. He encouraged audiences to watch movies on the big screen since independent theaters need support now more than ever, at the same time promoting the importance of independent cinema and telling unique stories. He also, given the subject of "Anora," opened his night by thanking the sex work community.

"I want to thank the sex worker community. They have shared their stories. They have shared their life experience with me over the years. My deepest respect. Thank you — I share this with you," he said. Madison echoed the sentiment in her own acceptance speech,...

Robert “Bobby” Meyers, a founding member of the American Film Market whose half-century-plus career in indie movies, sales and distribution included stints at Columbia, Lorimar, Orion and Village Roadshow, died Sunday at his New Jersey home. He was 90. AFM producer Independent Film & Television Alliance confirmed the news but did not provide a cause of death.

During a long career that started in 1956, Meyers was behind the release of such notable films as Brian De Palma’s Obsession (1976) and Blow Out (1981), Robert Aldrich’s Burt Lancaster starr Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977) and Hal Ashby’s Peter Sellers-led classic Being There (1979).

Born on October 3, 1934, Meyers joined Columbia Pictures International during the 1950s, serving in Paris and Brussels and eventually becoming the European sales manager. He later held executive posts at National General Pictures, Lorimar Motion Pictures, Filmways Productions, Orion Pictures and Village Roadshow, playing a pivotal role in international film sales and distribution.

No streaming service does a director retrospective like the Criterion Channel, and March offers two masters at opposite ends of exposure. On one side is Michael Mann, whose work from Thief through Collateral (minus The Keep) is given a spotlight; on the other is Alain Guiraudie, who (in advance of Misericordia opening on March 21) has five films arriving. (2001’s duet of That Old Dream That Moves and Sunshine for the Scoundrels have perhaps never streamed in the U.S. before.) Meanwhile, three noirs from Douglas Sirk are programmed alongside a Lee Chang-dong retrospective that features three new restorations.

Showcases will be staged for Dogme 95, Best Supporting Actor winners, and French Poetic Relaism. Welles’ The Trial gets a Criterion Edition alongside Demon Pond; Horace Ové’s newly restored Pressure makes a streaming premiere alongside spruced-up copies of Amadeus, Love Is the Devil, Port of Shadows, and Burning an Illusion, as...

Ready Or Not directors Radio Silence are to pivot from horror to biopic with a film about eccentric radio host, Art Bell. Paul Giamatti is to star.

According to a new report, several studios are vying for the next project from Radio Silence, the horror filmmakers who brought us Ready Or Not, Scream VI and Abigail. The directing duo – individually known as Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett – have so far cut their teeth in the horror genre, but their next feature will instead centre around the life of the late Art Bell. He was a legendary American radio host who would take calls from eccentrics nationwide; every night you’d get odd stories from callers who claimed they were victims of alien abductions, conspiracy theories, supernatural entities or other oddities.

According to the report at World Of Reel, Universal, Amazon, and Warner Bros are all in the race to secure...

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, Tubi is streaming one of the greatest romantic comedies ever — for free. Tootsie, the Dustin Hoffman cross-dressing comedy that ruled the box office in 1982, is now streaming on the free, ad-supported streamer. Tootsie had a difficult journey from page to screen; inspired by a 1970s play written by Don McGuire (Bad Day at Black Rock), it was initially to have been directed by Dick Richards before passing to Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude) over creative differences.

Legendary filmmaker Spike Lee is producing – and may direct – the Hal Ashby-inspired military comedy drama, Liberty.

Spike Lee is a hard-working director who continues to put out searing films that question the status quo. Given the currently febrile nature of America’s cultural and political landscape, the veteran filmmaker seems energised to continue doing what he’s been doing for the last four decades.

Lee is collaborating again with Denzel Washington on High And Low, with filming said to have wrapped, with things proceeding into the post-production phase. A remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller, it doesn’t have an exact release slot yet, but is expected to arrive early this summer.

As for what comes next, trying to navigate through Lee’s long list of projects is somewhat difficult, but one emerging contender is Liberty, a military comedy drama which he’ll produce and may direct. According to Deadline,...

Exclusive: Spike Lee is developing Liberty, a comedic military drama based on a pitch from writers Rebecca Murga and Jalysa Conway, which he’ll produce with an eye to direct, sources tell Deadline.

Said to be in the vein of The Last Detail, Hal Ashby’s Oscar-nominated 1973 Navy dramedy starring Jack Nicholson, Otis Young and Randy Quaid, Liberty follows a group of military cadets on one crazy night in New York City during Fleet Week. This is the second military-themed project Lee has developed with Murga and Conway — a pair of military veterans who will write the script — on the heels of a coming-of-age Rotc drama series for Amazon, on which we were first to report in 2022.

Lee and Steven Jackson will produce for their 40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks, alongside Underground, which reps the writers.

A U.S. Army vet who completed two tours in Afghanistan, Murga has been a...

Carol Kane received her first awards nomination 50 years ago next year. It was a big one, too; after just five years in film, working with directors of the caliber of Mike Nichols and Hal Ashby, Kane was feted by the Academy for her starring role in Joan Micklin Silver’s period drama Hester Street, a film she made in 1975 alongside Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon. Primetime Emmy awards followed in the early ’80s, for James L. Brooks’ hit show Taxi, in which she played the wife of Andy Kaufman’s character Latka Gravas.

Awards-wise, Kane has simmered throughout her career while never quite boiling over. Instead, she focused on the work—as a young actress, she caught the tail end of the New Hollywood of the ’60s, and then quite effortlessly segued into the commercial studio mainstream of the ’80s, making Scrooged in 1988 with Bill Murray. In the ’90s,...

Adrien Brody, Sean Baker, Brady Corbet, and Jim Jarmusch were among the winners and presenters at Wednesday’s New York Film Critics Circle dinner to offer words of support and sympathy to the thousands of Los Angeles residents impacted by this week’s deadly wildfires.

Brody, who won Best Actor for his acclaimed performance in The Brutalist, was overcome with emotion as he accepted the honor.

“To accept something like this when there’s so much suffering in the world. My heart goes out to all the families and the animals and our colleagues,” Brody said while fighting back emotion.“Most of the homes on the west side, the beach side of the [Pacific Coast Highway], are gone. From the Palisades on, this is our community. So I just want to thank and commend the bravery of the first responders, their sacrifices, and their meaningful work, which deserves our recognition tonight.”

A visibly...

I’ve always avoided New Year’s resolutions, but this week I happened to recall one that was brief but resolute: I resolved to quit Hollywood.

And I did. Almost.

That decision seems relevant today for reasons that require a bit of history. Consider January 1975, 50 years ago: It was a Hollywood moment that was the opposite of the present, both in numbers and nuance. It was a great time to be around – and not to be.

The audience was expanding and was determined to get scared: Jaws was a smash. But millions also were welcoming the weirdities of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. TV fans were puzzled over something new called SNL, and music fans continued to discover Elton John (still are).

As box office kept growing, opportunity was abundant. Words like “downsizing” or “contracting” were still unknown.

There were hints of quantum change, but just hints: The Hollywood...

Let’s face it. Theatre has been the most successful place for stories about popular musicians. Alicia Keys’ “Hell’s Kitchen” is selling big on Broadway, as is “Mj.” “A Beautiful Noise,” about Neil Diamond ‘s professional and personal history, had a nice run there, and is touring the country after its run in Los Angeles. We’ve had “Tina,” “Jersey Boys,” The Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud,” Carole King’s “Beautiful” and others. A new musical is being tested now about Frank Sinatra. But the most exciting news arrives this spring, when recent Tony winner Jonathan Groff portrays Bobby Darin.

But movies about musical stars? A mixed bag. (including Kevin Spacey in a bad one about Bobby Darin) Documentaries have been the safest form to chronicle the life of famous musicians: Ones about David Crosby, Joan Baez, Springsteen, and Linda Ronstadt. And, of course, “Woodstock” and Martin Scorsese’s “Last Waltz.

Angelina Jolie is one of the most celebrated actors of her generation, and one of Hollywood's most notable humanitarians. She's done vitally important work on behalf of refugees for the United Nations, and has also taken up for women's rights in the third world. She's an extraordinary person, but it all started with acting -- and overcoming the potential stigma of being what the kids nowadays call a "nepo-baby."

Yes, Angelina Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. Her father was a pivotal actor in the New Hollywood movement of the 1960s and '70s, starring in such trailblazing films as "Midnight Cowboy," "Deliverance," and "Coming Home" (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor). Jolie got her first film role alongside her father in Hal Ashby's ill-fated comedy "Lookin' to Get Out" in 1982, but didn't return to movies until 1993 as the lead...

Letterboxd is the perfect place for people passionate about cinema, including aspiring film reviewers and celebrities. One of the stars of the recently released series Fallout has just joined the Letterboxd community, and there are many other movie stars and filmmakers worth checking out on the platform. Known as the best place to find and recommend new movies, Letterboxd has become an integral element of the film community and the definitive social media for movie enthusiasts

Just like IMDb was in the late 2000s, Letterboxd's movie ratings have become a huge referential for unbiased consensus since the website comprises ratings regardless of whether the user is a wannabe critic or the lead editor of a major media platform. Letterboxd lets users follow and interact with each other through their reviews, create lists, sort their watchlists, and, most notoriously, share their findings, ratings, and opinions about movies from all over the world.

“I have to say I’m stunned. I haven’t been able to make it real in my mind yet,” reflects Carol Kane on her recent awards nominations and wins for the film “Between the Temples.” The veteran star received the Supporting Actress prize from the New York Film Critics Circle and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Supporting Performance for her turn in the Nathan Silver movie, on which she also serves as executive producer. The recognition comes as a welcome surprise because, as she says, “It’s a unique experience at my age to get re-noticed, as it were.” Though she would prefer that she and her co-star Jason Schwartzman “were nominated for things together,” she remains “extremely grateful” and thinks the citations are “like a miracle.” Watch our complete video interview above.

Kane stars in “Between the Temples” as Carla, a woman who, following the death of her husband,...

Between the Temples.On a cold day in Rhinebeck, New York, Ben Gottlieb, the cantor of the local synagogue, walks into a Catholic church. Anxious, and recently widowed, Ben has come to talk about the afterlife. “Yeah, we don’t have Heaven or Hell,” he explains to the priest, pausing sheepishly, “we just have, you know, Upstate New York.” Ben is wondering whether, if he starts believing in heaven, he might be able to “grandfather” his late wife in. “I think that’s more of a Mormon thing,” the priest replies.On a mild day in Eastern Poland, David chases his cousin Benji through a Pkp Intercity train—they haven’t bought tickets. Anxious, and recently bereaved, they have come to Poland on a Holocaust memorial tour, paid for by an allotted sum in their grandmother’s will. “We shouldn’t have to pay for train tickets in Poland—this is our country,...

During the 1970s, American cinema was in the midst of the New Hollywood movement. When the Production Code officially lost all its power in the late 1960s, American films no longer had to abide by the oppressive and restrictive rules that had been in place for the past three decades. The Production Code's dismantling led to an explosion of creativity, particularly in the comedy genre.

In today's cultural climate, comedies do not typically receive the same level of adulation as dramas. However, throughout the 1970s, comedies ranked among Hollywood's most acclaimed genres. Comedies such as M*A*S*H, The Sting, American Graffiti, and Annie Hall each garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, with The Sting and Annie Hall both winning the Oscar's top prize. Filmmakers like Woody Allen, Hal Ashby, and Mel Brooks reigned supreme as some of the best comedy directors working in the United States during the 1970s.

Getting a film made is far easier said than done. That's why most Hollywood movies are based on pre-existing material -- both to try and speed up the process of generating a story itself, and to have some assurance that there's an audience for the story. This mentality has led to truly original movies becoming something of a rarity. Truth is, Hollywood has always looked to existing IP (intellectual property).What's new about today's situation is that the IP they're generally tapping tends to be of a short-form or experiential variety: either remakes, reboots, and legacy sequels to older movies, or TV shows, comic books, and video games.

In the early decades of cinema, however, the main source for adaptations was literature. Where comics, games, TV and other movies are all visual mediums and come pre-loaded with their own imagery, books are a covenant between the author and reader's imagination,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Museum of Modern Art

As the career-spanning Johnnie To retrospective continues, a Samuel L. Jackson series includes Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Jungle Fever on 35mm.

Bam

A Duras-Akerman double bill plays Sunday.

Film at Lincoln Center

NYFF Revivals continues with films by Robert Bresson, Raymond Depardon, and Clive Barker, Compensation, and more.

Film Forum

A George Stevens retrospective begins; restorations of The Devil, Probably and Lancelot du lac continue; Shane screens on Sunday.

Anthology Film Archives

“Kill Yr Landlords” includes work by John Schlesinger, Hal Ashby, and Nikos Papatakis; films by Dovzhenko and Dreyer play in “Essential Cinema.”

Roxy Cinema

Apocalypse Now: Final Cut plays Friday.

Museum of the Moving Image

A Frank Oz retrospective begins; Burden of Dreams and Fitzcarraldo both screen.

Metrograph

Pulp Fiction, There Will Be Blood, The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice, Lolita, and...

Quick Links Blue Thunder Is Perfectly Out-of-Date Roy Scheider Gave a Classic Performance as Frank Murphy John Badham Was Ahead of His Time with Blue Thunder's Themes

Ah, the '80s. It was a time when disbelief was much more easily suspended in movie theaters across America. That led to the Roy Scheider vehicle, Blue Thunder, making an impressive $42 million in 1983, doubling its budget thanks to a helicopter-based action plot that presaged Top Gun by combining a fighter pilot film with new helicopter and computer technology being developed in the early '80s. It was a weird, in-between time when many neo-noir films like 8 Million Ways to Die and To Live and Die in LA were romanticizing the ex-military LAPD officers who dominated Hollywood-adjacent crime films of the rugged '80s. Directors like Hal Ashby and William Friedkin and Blue Thunder director John Badham were trying out a style...

For comedy fans of a certain age, watching VHS copies of the 1982 concert film “Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip” until the tape fell off of the spools was a rite of passage. Until Eddie Murphy‘s “Raw” dethroned it later in the 1980s, it was the most successful stand-up special of all time, and understandably so; marking Pryor‘s return to the stage after the freebasing accident that almost killed him, it was not only hilarious but revealing and poignant — the passage toward the end of the film in which Pryor personifies his crack pipe and acts out his own struggles with it is one of the most potent depictions of addiction ever put on screen.

The problem is that those VHS copies, as well as the blurry transfers on cable television where “Sunset Strip” was a staple for years, captured the greatness of Pryor’s performance but...

With his long hair, sunglasses and bellbottoms, Hal Ashby was the epitome of the 1970s flower child, even though he was a decade older than most of the filmmakers working at the time. Though his flame burned brightly and briefly, he left behind a series of classics that signified the nose-thumbing, countercultural attitude of the era, with a bit of humanism and heart thrown in for good measure. Let’s take a look back at all 12 of his films, ranked worst to best.

Born on September 2, 1929 in Utah, Ashby ambled around before becoming an apprentice editor for Robert Swink, working for Hollywood legends William Wyler and George Stevens. He moved up the ranks to become an editor for Norman Jewison, with whom he shared a fraternal and professional relationship. They cut five films together, including “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” (1966), which earned him his first Oscar nomination,...

September 8 marks the birthday of actor and comic legend Peter Sellers. The British star had achieved acclaim on the stage, in recordings and most famously on the radio, particularly for the “The Goon Show,” the popular comedy series regularly heard on the BBC.

However, it was in film where Sellers achieved his greatest worldwide success. He was nominated for his first Academy Award in 1959 for co-writing and producing the live-action short “The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film.” Sellers also received two other Oscar nominations, as Best Actor for 1964’s “Dr. Strangelove” (from Stanley Kubrick) as well as for 1979’s “Being There” (from Hal Ashby).

Sellers won the Best Actor Golden Globe for “Being There” and was nominated on five other occasions, including three times for “The Pink Panther” series (from Blake Edwards) in which he portrayed bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau, the role for which he will likely be best remembered.

Jeff Bridges was at the height of his powers as a movie star at the tail end of the 1980s, as he had proven to be a huge draw for the general audience and a respected actor among awards voters. Although Bridges had been a part of the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s with his brilliant work in The Last Picture Show and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, he transitioned into appearing in larger budget science fiction spectacles in the 1980s, including Tron and Starman. It was due to the clout that Bridges had within the industry that he was able to take a chance on a risky project, and team up with the legendary filmmaker Hal Ashby to make an old-fashioned neo-noir thriller. Unfortunately, 8 Million Ways To Die was a massive critical and financial disappointment that has a rare 0% approval on Rotten Tomatoes.

September marks Marcello Mastroianni’s centennial, and the Criterion Channel pays respect with a retrospective that puts the expected alongside some lesser-knowns: Monicelli’s The Organizer, Jacques Demy’s A Slightly Pregnant Man, and two by Ettore Scola. There’s also the welcome return of “Adventures In Moviegoing” with Rachel Kushner’s formidable selections, among them Fassbinder’s Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven, Pialat’s L’enfance nue, and Jean Eustache’s Le cochon. In the lead-up to His Three Daughters, a four-film Azazel Jacobs program arrives.

Theme-wise, a set of courtroom dramas runs from 12 Angry Men and Anatomy of a Murder to My Cousin Vinny and Philadelphia; a look at ’30s female screenwriters includes Fritz Lang’s You and Me, McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow, and Cukor’s What Price Hollywood? There’s also a giallo series if you want to watch an Argento movie and ask yourself,...

The 20th anniversary HollyShorts Film Festival is set to honor a quartet of major Hollywood talents, from industry veterans to an up-and-coming star.

Actor Tom Skeritt, actor-director Alden Ehrenreich, director Catherine Hardwicke, and young actress Lexi Underwood will receive laurels at the prestigious Oscar-qualifying festival, which runs from August 8-18.

HollyShorts will present its Luminary Award to Ehrenreich in recognition of his work in front of and behind the camera. Ehrenreich’s directorial debut, Shadow Brother Sunday, screened last year at HollyShorts following its world premiere at Tribeca Festival.

‘Shadow Brother Sunday’

“I was very flattered to have my film Shadow Brother Sunday included in this wonderful festival last year and had a great time meeting all those involved,” Ehrenreich said in a statement. “I am even more flattered – flattered times two – to be chosen to receive this special honor. I am proud to see the Los Angeles film community gather and support each other.

Touché Amoré have announced a new album, Spiral in a Straight Line, arriving October 11th, as well as a Fall 2024 US tour. The band also offered up the lead single, “Nobody’s.”

The trek kicks off after Touché Amoré’s September 26th appearance at the Louder Than Life festival with a hometown Los Angeles gig on October 9th. The month-long run will hit other major cities such as Chicago, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia before wrapping up on November 3rd in Boston. A loaded support bill includes Soul Glo, Portrayal of Guilt, and Soft Blue Shimmer.

Get Touché Amoré Tickets Here

A Live Nation ticket pre-sale for select dates begins Thursday (July 25th) at 10 a.m. local time using the code Strum. General ticket sales start Friday (July 26th) at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster. Fans can also look for deals or get tickets to sold-out dates via StubHub, where your...

Norman Jewison was the Oscar-nominated filmmaker who has tackled a number of controversial topics and social issues in his work, crafting mainstream entertainments with a political point of view. But how many of his titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1926 in Toronto, Jewison cut his teeth in television before moving into directing with a number of light farces, including the Doris Day vehicles “The Thrill of It All” (1963) and “Send Me No Flowers” (1964), her last collaboration with Rock Hudson. His career took a turning point with his first drama, “The Cincinnati Kid” (1965), which also kicked off his collaborations with film editor Hal Ashby, himself a future director. His next film, the darkly comedic “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” (1966), earned him his first Oscar nomination in Best Picture.

He hit the Oscar jackpot the...

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.NEWSThe Souvenir Part II.Equity, the British entertainment industry trade union, has greeted the incoming Labour government—the first in fourteen years, having won in a landslide—with demands for reforms to the government’s arts funding.Meanwhile, across the Channel, snap French parliamentary elections resulted in an upset victory for the leftist coalition Nouveau Front Populaire over Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, which had promised to privatize, at least partially, the national television and radio broadcaster, amid other cutbacks.IATSE has released more details regarding its tentative contract with AMPTP, including allowances and limitations around the use of artificial intelligence.Teamsters Local 399 is still bargaining with AMPTP and may still be far from resolving issues...

The highly anticipated third film in Ti West‘s X trilogy, MaXXXine is finally here, and the fans of the franchise are loving it. With a setting of the 80s when the real-life Night Stalker murders took place, the final film in the X trilogy follows the story of Maxine Minx as she finally gets her big break into the film industry, but when a mysterious serial killer begins to kill the starlets of Hollywood, Maxine’s future in the City of Angels comes into danger. MaXXXine stars Mia Goth in the lead role with Elizabeth Debicki, Halsey, Lily Collins, Sophie Thatcher, Moses Sumney, Kevin Bacon, Michelle Monaghan, Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Farnworth, and Bobby Cannavale starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the glitz, glamour, murder, and mystery in MaXXXine, here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Pearl (Prime Video) Credit – A24

Pearl is the second film...

Robert Towne's early work with Roger Corman led to a successful career in Hollywood, collaborating with Jack Nicholson on iconic films like The Last Detail and Chinatown. Towne's screenplays were known for their gritty realism, sociopolitical commentary, and dark, downbeat endings, shaping the New Hollywood era. Towne maintained a close friendship with Tom Cruise, collaborating on films such as Days of Thunder and Mission: Impossible.

Before legendary Hollywood screenwriter Robert Towne emerged as a leading voice within the New Hollywood movement in the early 1970s, he got his start in Hollywood working for B-movie legend Roger Corman, who hired him to write the low-budget 1960s horror films Last Woman on Earth and The Tomb of Ligeia.

Townes ascendance owed as much to being in the right place at the right time as his prodigious talent. Through Corman, he met fellow Corman alumnus Jack Nicholson in the late 1950s, when...

Ti West’s “MaXXXine” has slashed its way into theaters. And the third film in the trilogy that began with 2022’s “X” and continued with the prequel “Pearl,” is perhaps the installment most steeped in other movies. This is a movie where, when a character is threatening Maxine (Mia Goth), the porn star that survived the events of “X” and now, circa “MaXXXine” is struggling to make it in mainstream Hollywood in 1985, they send her a newspaper clipping with the headline: “The Texas Porn Star Massacre,” a direct reference to Tobe Hooper’s immortal “Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”

And that’s just the beginning of the metatextual delights that make “MaXXXine” so special. We thought that we’d talk about five of the movies that fundamentally inspired “MaXXXine.”

Since we’ll be talking about plot specifics, consider this your mild spoiler warning before we get into it.

“Psycho” (1960) Universal Pictures...

When Nicole Holofcener was coming up in the ’90s, she was celebrated as that rare thing: a female writer-director. Today, she’s no longer a rarity, and she’s still delivering sharp, funny observational comedies about flawed middle-class New York women. But somehow, the breadth and potential of her talent remains elusive.

Hollywood gives her scripts to write and rewrite and polish (for the big bucks). She wrote, with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, “The Last Duel” for Ridley Scott, crafting the Jodie Comer character, and the Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh roles in Marvel’s “Black Widow.” She made more on that three-week assignment than three of her movies combined, she said at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which tributed her this year, playing three of her films for an audience unfamiliar with her work. She’s currently writing for Gillian Anderson and Greta Lee in Disney’s latest iteration of “Tron.

Screenwriter Robert Towne, noted for his Oscar-winning screenplay for the crime thriller “Chinatown’ has died:

Towne started writing screenplays for TV series, before hooking up with low-budget film director Roger Corman on “The Tomb of Ligeia”.

Part of the ‘New Hollywood’ wave of filmmaking, Towne wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplay…

…for director Roman Polanski's “Chinatown” (1974) starring Jack Nicholson.

For director Hal Ashby, he wrote screenplays for “The Last Detail” (1973), also starring Nicholson…

…and “Shampoo” (1975), starring Warren Beatty.

Noted as a script doctor, Towne collaborated on numerous features including “Days of Thunder (1990), “The Firm” (1993) and Brian de Palma’s “Mission: Impossible” (1996).

Click the images to enlarge…...

A great ending can be the hardest thing for a writer. For Robert Towne — who died Monday, having written and reshaped some of the most important films of the 1970s — finding the best way to wrap up a film was a career-long challenge. In the script that earned him an Oscar, the downbeat “Forget it, Jake — it’s Chinatown” finale was famously Roman Polanski’s idea.

And yet, there’s undeniable poetry in Towne’s passing: The Oscar winner died 50 years (and two weeks) after “Chinatown” opened, basking in the fresh round of appreciation that the half-century anniversary brought. Towne was a natural raconteur whose stories were every bit as rich as his screenplays — as evidenced by an in-depth Variety interview that ran last month — and whose best writing often went uncredited.

For those who weren’t around to have witnessed Towne’s transformative impact on American cinema in the 1970s,...

Robert Towne, the screenwriter and director whose Oscar-winning work in the 1974 film Chinatown enshrined him in Hollywood history, has died at the age of 89.

Towne died at his home on Monday, his publicist Carri McClure confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

During his celebrated career, Towne wrote the Hal Ashby films The Last Detail in 1973 and 1975’s Shampoo, receiving Academy Award nominations for both. He also wrote and directed 1988 crime drama Tequila Sunrise — starring Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell, Michelle Pfeiffer — which garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography.

Early in his career,...

While last month saw typically dramatic actor/writer/director Viggo Mortensen share his TCM picks in honor of the release of his western romance film “The Dead Don’t Hurt,” the beloved channel has recruited a filmmaker with a more comedic voice to spearhead its July slate. Having produced for film and television since the early ’90s, Judd Apatow made his directorial debut in 2005 with the critical and cultural smash hit, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” He’s helped build the careers of Seth Rogen, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Kristen Wiig, and many others, while also honoring the careers of those who’ve passed with HBO documentaries “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling” and “George Carlin’s American Dream.”

Apatow’s first picks for the month harken back to his youth, with George Lucas’ coming-of-age hang-out flick “American Grafitti” (1973) airing on July 4 at 3:45am Et and Richard Brooks’ adaptation of Judith Rossner...

Anthea Sylbert, the two-time Oscar-nominated costume designer who worked on Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Carnal Knowledge, Shampoo and Julia before becoming a studio executive and producer, has died. She was 84.

Sylbert died Tuesday in Skiathos, Greece, director Sakis Lalas told The Hollywood Reporter. Lalas just finished a documentary about Sylbert titled, My Life in 3 Acts.

Sylbert partnered with two-time Oscar-winning production Richard Sylbert on eight films and with his twin brother, Paul Sylbert — her first husband and another Oscar-winning production designer — on another three.

“Paul is the more bitter, more angry of the two,” she told Peter Biskind in 1993. “Someone once put it this way: Dick is more of a diplomat. He will put the ice pick somewhere in your back, you’re not quite sure, and you sort of feel tickled; Paul, while facing you, sticks it in your gut. I always used to think that if you put them together,...

Quick Links Hill Shunned a Wealthy Upbringing to Fight in WWII After Hitting Some Speed Bumps, Hill Found Success With Butch and Sundance After Becoming an Oscars Bridesmaid, Hill Won Big Hill Redefined Sports Comedy With Slap Shot After Commercially Lackluster Films, Hill Tired of Hollywood Two Final Flops Saw Hill Kiss Hollywood Goodbye George Roy Hill, despite being criminally underrated, crafted timeless classics like Butch Cassidy and The Sting. Hill's ability to blend comedy and action helped launch stars like Robert Redford, showcasing his unique directorial talent. Hill's refusal to conform to Hollywood led to his eventual departure, but his legacy remains intact through his iconic films.

While many of the 20th Century's most revered directors achieved their fame during the director-driven New Hollywood Era of the '60s and '70s, a few of that period's greatest talents never achieved the same level of name recognition. Filmmakers like...

While he may not be a household name in the vein of Francis Ford Coppola or Martin Scorsese, the brilliant director Hal Ashby was responsible for some of the best films of the New Hollywood era of the 1970s. Ashbys acerbic, yet sincere style of filmmaking offered an authentic look at the human condition, and spoke to disenfranchised audiences who felt neglected by mainstream cinema. Shampoo and Being There are often cited as highlights, but Ashbys 1973 masterpiece The Last Detail proved to be an essential film about the social effects of the Vietnam era. The narrative of The Last Detail inspired director Richard Linklater to make an odd legacy sequel of sorts with his 2017 film Last Flag Flying.

Bruce Dern is a two-time Oscar nominee who shows no signs of slowing down, having most recently appeared in Quentin Tarantino‘s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” (2019). Let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1936, Dern made his film debut with an uncredited appearance in Elia Kazan‘s “Wild River” (1960). He popped up in a number of supporting roles throughout the decade, making a name for himself in exploitation films produced by low-budget king Roger Corman.

Dern hit his stride in the 1970s, when a number of offbeat-looking performers suddenly became leading men. He earned his first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for Hal Ashby‘s Vietnam War drama “Coming Home” (1978), playing a Ptsd-afflicted marine whose wife (Jane Fonda) falls in love with a paralyzed vet (Jon Voight) while he’s deployed.

Dern spent most of his career as a colorful supporting player,...

Quick Links Tarantino Has Found a New Creative Outlet as an Author Tarantino Drafted a Screenplay for The Movie Critic, Then Scrapped It Tarantino Intimates His Fear of Making a Poor Final Film Could Writing and Podcasting Supplant Filmmaking for Tarantino? Quentin Tarantino's detailed creative process and dedication to his craft make him a unique and meticulous filmmaker. The cancelation of The Movie Critic suggests Tarantino may be more comfortable in literature than film at this point. While the fear of making a lackluster final film lingers, Tarantino's newfound pursuits in writing and podcasting hint at a potential shift in his career focus.

"Leave them wanting more, and you know they'll call you back." The lyrical quote is attributed to soul singer Bobby Womack. Those words clearly resonate with Quentin Tarantino, a longtime fan of Womack's music who used Womack's song "Across 110th Street" as the keynote of his film Jackie Brown.

Despite its controversial premise, Hal Ashby's counter-culture cult classic Harold and Maude stands as one of cinema's finest romances, and for good reason. It's a delightful, romantic black-comedy drama flick that delves into the idea of getting into a passionate entanglement without any care or worry in the world. It was a radical statement about what it truly means to display authentic love, regardless of societal norms and circumstances. While it may be difficult for the general viewing public to appreciate the appeal of a love story between a troubled young man and a Bohemian octogenarian, it manages to inevitably suck them in through its innate sensitivity blended with hilarious gallows humor. Absurd, silly, and downright comforting, the endless love of the 1971 picture continues to charm a plethora of movie lovers even those who don't necessarily like love stories in the first place.

Jan Haag, who a half-century ago founded the landmark Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute, has died. She was 90.

The remarkable Haag, who also was an actress, painter, poet, novelist, playwright, writer of travel stories and creator of needlepoint canvases, some of which required hundreds of hours to complete, died Monday in Shoreline, Washington, according to the AFI and the Mb Abram agency.

Haag had directed dozens of educational films for the John Tracy Clinic and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare when she became the first woman accepted into the Academy Intern Program at the AFI in 1970, three years after it was founded by George Stevens Jr.

She was assigned to Paramount’s Harold and Maude (1971), directed by Hal Ashby, then joined the AFI staff in 1971, and among her duties was to administer the nonprofit’s film grant program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Few creative talents have the breadth of a career equal to Lee Grant. The 98-year-old director, actor, and writer has a storied body of work, debuting on screen in 1951 in William Wyler’s Detective Story, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination and Cannes Best Actress win, while also receiving a Supporting Actress Oscar for Shampoo. Grant, who has also appeared in Mulholland Drive, Valley of the Dolls, and In the Heat of the Night, has also set a few records: she’s the oldest living film director, while 1980’s Tell Me a Riddle was the first major American film to be entirely written, produced and directed by women, and she’s the only Academy Award-winning actor to also direct an Academy Award-winning documentary with 1986’s Down and Out in America.

Among the most revelatory repertory cinema I saw last year, the much-deserved 4K restorations of Grant...

The red carpet will soon roll out for the 77th Festival de Cannes. The international film festival, playing out May 14-25, has a distinct American voice this year. “Barbie” filmmaker Greta Gerwig is the first U.S. female director name jury president. Many veteran American helmers are heading to the French Rivera resort town. George Lucas, who turns 80 on May 14, will receive an honorary Palme d’Or. Francis Ford Coppola’s much-anticipated “Megalopolis” is screening in competition, as is Paul Schrader’s “Oh Canada.” Kevin Costner’s new Western “Horizon, An American Saga” will premiere out of competition and Oliver Stone’s “Lula” is part of the special screening showcase.

Fifty years ago, Coppola was the toast of the 27th Cannes Film Festival. His brilliant psychological thriller “The Conversation” starring Gene Hackman won the Palme D’Or and well as a Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury. The film would earn three Oscar nominations: picture,...

Stars: Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston, Brady Hepner, Ian Dolley, Jim Kaplan, Michael Provost, Tate Donovan | Written by David Hemingson | Directed by Alexander Payne

Having not released a film since 2017’s Downsizing, director Alexander Payne follows up what is considered the weakest film of his career with an absolutely wonderful work. At the Barton boarding school, bad-tempered professor Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is forced to remain on campus during the Christmas break to look after a handful of students with nowhere to go – collectively known as The Holdovers. Across the break, he forms a bond with student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) and head cook Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

From the opening moments where the studio logos and ratings title card appear in retro styles, Payne recreates the feel of a ‘70s feature throughout his latest work. The combination of aesthetic and story brings to mind a Hal Ashby film,...