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Despite critical and audience reception, many fellow filmmakers have had positive reactions to Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project, Megalopolis. Some of his directing peers have glowed about the film in some recent reactions, including Guillermo Del Toro stating, “Francis is still the same bold, fearless, inventive filmmaker that he was in his 20’s. I was Swept by Megalopolis!” and Steven Soderbergh exclaiming, “Wow! This might be the craziest thing ever shot on American soil. Certainly, one of the most sustained acts of pure imagination I’ve ever seen. I dreamt about it all night—it was inspiring!”

Now, famously political director Oliver Stone has spoken about how extraordinary he’s found the film as he talks about his favorite recent watches on Facebook. Stone starts his list saying, “Francis Coppola’s “Megalopolis” (2024). Scoff if you’re of that nature, but I deeply admire his commitment to his vision. On a visual scale,...

Burt Lancaster was an Oscar-winning actor who appeared in dozens of movies until his death in 1994. But which titles are among his finest? Let’s take a look back at 20 of Lancaster’s greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1913, Lancaster got into acting after performing as an acrobat in the circus. He made his movie debut in 1946 with a leading role in the quintessential noir thriller “The Killers” (1946). He earned his first Oscar nomination as Best Actor for Fred Zinnemann‘s wartime drama “From Here to Eternity” (1953), winning the prize just seven years later for playing a fast-talking preacher in “Elmer Gantry” (1960). Lancaster would compete twice more in the category (“Birdman of Alcatraz” in 1962 and “Atlantic City” in 1981).

In the 1950s, the actor decided to chart his own career by forming the production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, which churned out a number of successful titles including the Best Picture-winning “Marty...

So, you've survived the experience of watching the Safdie Brothers' anxiety-inducing gambling thriller "Uncut Gems" without your heart exploding, eh? Admittedly, very few movies can match that film's high-strung sense of mania and tension, but if you're looking for a classic Hollywood flick that operates in a somewhat similar but lower key pitch, we have a recommendation. 

Alexander Mackendrick's "Sweet Smell of Success," a noir drama from 1957, stars the great Burt Lancaster as a powerful New York City gossip columnist whose daily articles are so powerful, they can make or break careers. Tony Curtis ("Some Like It Hot," "The Defiant Ones") plays a low-level press agent striving to graduate from being disrespected to become a big shot, and the story explores the lengths the agent will go -- and the lives he may ruin -- in order to please the writer so he can finally achieve the success he desires.

Whether it be recordings, television, the stage and film, John Lithgow has had one of the most wide-ranging careers of any actor working today.

Lithgow has been nominated for two Academy Awards for his supporting performances (as a mild-mannered banker and a transsexual football player). For television, he has been nominated for 12 Emmy Awards, winning six, and has won two Golden Globe Awards from his five nominations. He has also been nominated for 10 Screen Actors Guild Awards, of which he has won three times. For his stage work, Lithgow has won two Tony Awards (for 1973’s “The Changing Room” and 2002’s “Sweet Smell of Success”) from six Tony nominations. And he has even been nominated for four Grammy Awards for his recording work.

Let’s look back at and rank the 12 greatest film performances from worst to best. Our list includes “The World According to Garp,” “Terms of Endearment,” “Footloose,...

With nearly 1,700 titles in their catalog, it’s hard to discern where exactly to start when exploring the Criterion Collection. To celebrate their 40th anniversary, the company has now made it a bit easier as they’ve unveiled CC40, a 40-film, 49-disc collection retailing for around $640 that is now the new go-to gift for that budding cinephile in your life.

“This monumental forty-film box set celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection by gathering an electrifying mix of classic and contemporary films, and presenting them with all their special features and essays in a deluxe clothbound, slipcased edition,” they note. “CC40’s eclectic selection includes the releases most frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers, actors, writers, and other movie-loving luminaries who have visited Criterion over the years, as documented in our popular Closet Picks video series. Neither a historical survey nor a top-forty compilation, this exciting, personal, unpredictable anthology...

How now, what news: the Criterion Channel’s July lineup is here. Eight pop renditions of Shakespeare are on the docket: from movies you forgot were inspired by the Bard (Abel Ferrara’s China Girl) to ones you’d wish to forget altogether (Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing), with maybe my single favorite interpretation (Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet) alongside Paul Mazursky, Gus Van Sant, Baz Luhrmann, Derek Jarman, and (of course) Kenneth Branagh. A neonoir collection arrives four months ahead of Noirvember: two Ellroy adaptations, two from De Palma that are not his neonoir Ellroy adaptation, two from the Coen brothers (i.e. the chance to see a DVD-stranded The Man Who Wasn’t There in HD), and––finally––a Michael Winner picture given Criterion’s seal of approval.

Columbia screwballs run between classics to lesser-seens while Nicolas Roeg and Heisei-era Godzilla face off. A Times Square collection brings The Gods of Times Square,...

This year’s Tonys will be held on June 16, so the American Theatre Wing will likely be announcing its Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in the near future. Who do you think should take home this prestigious trophy, which honors an individual’s body of work? It has gone to veteran stage performers, directors, choreographers, playwrights, songwriters, producers and designers. In some years we get multiple recipients.

Last year these honors went to actor Joel Grey and composer John Kander. The following living male Broadway vets have also received this award in the past and thus won’t be chosen again: Paul Gemignani, Alan Ayckbourn, Athol Fugard, Marshall W. Mason, Tommy Tune, James Earl Jones, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Harold Wheeler.

Here are 10 possibilities featured in our poll below, all accomplished men over the age of 65. Vote to let us know who you’d like to see honored. And take a...

Everyone involved with the film adaptation of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” had a lot riding on its success. For star Elizabeth Taylor, this was perhaps her first chance to prove that she could act (certainly the middle-aged Martha was the most demanding role she had ever had). For first-time producer Ernest Lehman, the movie could make or break him as he moved away from writing classics like “North by Northwest” and “Sweet Smell of Success.” And for director Mike Nichols, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” his feature film directorial debut, would either burnish his growing reputation as a boy genius after several smash Broadway hits or prove that he was out of his depth.

The impetus to play things safe must have been strong, and yet none of the film’s major players shied away from choosing the riskier paths. Filming in black-and-white in 1966 was not the indicator of...

A new PBS special features an awards-laden actor celebrating how arts education nurtures and inspires the hearts and minds of students of all ages.

Art Happens Here with John Lithgow follows the six-time Emmy winner sharing his passion for arts education by joining students and teachers at four Los Angeles organizations and diving into four arts disciplines: dance, ceramics, silk-screen printing and vocal jazz ensemble.

Art Happens Here follows Lithgow as he tries his hand at singing, dancing, printmaking and pottery, working alongside and learning from young people whose lives are being transformed by art. It will debut the pubcaster on April 26; watch a trailer here, and see the poster below.

Lithgow visits four organizations that are making a difference in the lives of young people: Self Help Graphics & Art, a pioneering Chicano community organization at the intersection of arts and social justice; the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, a nonprofit...

The newly restored Egyptian Theatre is welcoming a series of festive double features for cinephiles.

The Los Angeles-based theater is transforming into a holiday wonderland for acclaimed features, ranging from “Eyes Wide Shut” to “The Killer.” IndieWire exclusively announces the programming of curated double features that select “favorite new movies paired with classics ready for another moment in the spotlight,” per the Egyptian. The inaugural holiday series reflects on the best films of the year, pairing features with their creative inspirations.

Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” will screen Christmas Day after Netflix’s erotic thriller “Fair Play,” with Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein ode “Maestro” screening side by side with the 1961 film “West Side Story” in Ib Technicolor 35mm from the Academy Film Archive, featuring Bernstein’s music. Natalie Portman pulls double duty with “Black Swan” and Netflix’s “May December,” both screening December 27.

All double-bills are only $13, with...

Days of Wine and Roses, a musical adaptation of the classic 1958 teleplay and 1962 feature film about a married couple struggling to come to grips with alcoholism, will open on Broadway in January starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James reprising their performances from an acclaimed Off Broadway production earlier this summer.

The limited 16-week engagement of Days of Wine and Roses begins previews at Broadway’s Studio 54 on January 6, 2024, ahead of an official opening on Sunday, January 28. This begins previews on January 6, 2024.

The new musical features a book by Lucas, and music and lyrics by Guettel. Michael Greif directs. Additional casting will be announced soon.

The musical received favorable reviews during its Off Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater earlier this summer. The production features choreography by Sergio Trujillo & Karla Puno Garcia, scenic design by Lizzie Clachan, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by Ben Stanton, sound design by Kai Harada,...

The same season that Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson took it virtually upon themselves to help save Turner Classic Movies following a series of layoffs that was pointing to what could have been its demise, the trio are showing just how hands-on they’ll be. For September, the trio has each compiled a list of recommendations that will air on TCM throughout the month. From melodramas and film noirs to tantalizing tales and giant ants, let’s see what Spielberg, Scorsese and PTA have to recommend.

Steven Spielberg’s September TCM picks are: Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life (1959), the sci-fi monster movie Them! (1954), Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man (1956), and two Vincente Minnelli films, musical Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).

Martin Scorsese went a bit more obscure for his TCM picks, selecting British drama Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), pre-code...

It's been a long road, getting from there to here.

One might recall in June of 2023, it was announced that several key executives and programmers at Turner Classic Movies were callously canned by the new management at their parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. For many, this was tantamount to nixing TCM altogether. CEO David Zaslav made this decision at the end of a string of bad decisions that made him look like the film world's most callous villain. After the weird rebranding of HBO Max to merely Max, it was starting to look like Zaslav didn't give a damn about film history.

It certainly looked that way to Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson, three lovers of vintage film and advocates for the preservation of classics. The trio famously called Zaslav to appeal for the retaining of TCM and the re-hiring of some of their old staff. A...

In the proliferation of subgenres, the media noir is perhaps the rarest. From the ’50s alone, Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, Fritz Lang’s While the City Sleeps, and Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success spring to mind. Just lately, with the exception of Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler (2014), there hasn’t been too much evidence of a renaissance, but Roxine Helberg’s satisfying feature debut taps back into the same dark wells of oral ambivalence corruption and power, casting the excellent Bel Powley as a journalism student who will do whatever it takes to make it in the cut-throat world of TV news broadcasting.

It’s possible that the media noir was supplanted by the white-knight school of journalism movies, which has been going strong since All the President’s Men (1976) and struck Oscar gold as recently as 2015’s Spotlight But that was in the dinosaur print era,...

Brian d’Arcy James, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is a distinguished stage and screen actor and singer who is currently nominated for the best actor in a musical Tony for the 2022-2023 Broadway revival of Into the Woods and who stars opposite Tony winner Kelli O’Hara Off-Broadway in the original musical Days of Wine and Roses.

James is best known for his work on the stage. Over the last 30 years, he has appeared in 15 Broadway productions, garnering Tony nominations in three different decades, specifically for best featured actor in a musical in 2002 for Sweet Smell of Success and best actor in a musical in 2009 for Shrek the Musical; in 2015 for Something Rotten!; and this year for the aforementioned revival of Into the Woods, for which he has already shared a Grammy for best musical theater album. He was also the original King George III...

“It was an extraordinary group of people,” says Brian d’Arcy James as he thinks of his “Into the Woods” co-stars. The actor notes that he was “the new kid on the block” given that the hit revival transferred to Broadway after a limited run at City Center, in which he did not partake. But the all-star cast who welcomed him into the fold. Magic-like chemistry with his fellow actors, combined with the extraordinary lyrics and dialogue of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, created a true fairytale experience for James. Watch the exclusive video interview above.

In the lead role of the Baker, James spent a majority of his scenes with Sara Bareilles as the Baker’s Wife. The pair journey through the titular woods on a quest to break a curse so that they can finally have a child. Their duet on the Sondheim classic “It Takes Two” was a comedic,...

Chicago – When the envelope was opened, containing the name of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards earlier this month, it was veteran actor Jamie Lee Curtis who won the honor. She brought down the house with her memorable “we just won an Oscar” speech.

She tearfully finished with “ … and my mother [Janet Leigh] and my father [Tony Curtis], who were both nominated in different categories, I just won an Oscar.”

Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com has captured both Jamie Lee Curtis and Tony Curtis in his lens, with the Exclusive Portrait of Jamie Lee from 2004 published for the first time. Tony Curtis was photographed during his last trip to Chicago in 2009. He passed away in 2010.

Jamie Lee Curtis in Chicago, circa 2004

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Hollywood “It” couple Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis,...

You wish to have the curse reversed? You’ll need to win a Tony first! Brian d’Arcy James gave an impressive performance as the Baker in the recent revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Into the Woods.” Despite an impressive stage career, James has never won a Tony Award. That could all change thanks to one of the biggest hits of the 2022-23 Broadway season, and he would break a major Tony stat in the process.

James has amassed a whopping 15 Broadway credits over the course of his career, including “Into the Woods.” He scored his first Tony nomination for the musical “Sweet Smell of Success” in 2002 before picking up additional bids as the titular ogre in “Shrek the Musical” (2010) and for the farce “Something Rotten!” (2015).

The actor also had a hand in shaping characters from two Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning musicals. He originated the roles of Dan...

In the new taut new thriller “Sharper” that debuted in theaters Friday in advance of hitting the streaming market February 17 over Apple TV+, John Lithgow has a relatively small supporting role as a hedge fund billionaire named Richard Hobbes. For those who follow the extraordinary Lithgow’s multi-faceted career, the portrayal isn’t really anything terribly unique, aside from the fact he makes it memorable by his sheer talent, charisma and presence. It’s the sort of everyday brilliance we’ve come to expect from an actor who has been doing this for more than half a century and shows no signs at 77 of slowing down.

Lithgow is so consistently superb that we’ve gotten spoiled, but he’s the kind of national treasure that should start collecting lifetime achievement awards in the near future. That doesn’t mean he’s poised to pack it in and call it a career.

A new Broadway season has started, and there are currently seven productions of musicals set to open this fall. Could we be seeing any of them contend at next year’s Tony Awards? Below is an overview of the plot of each musical as well as the awards history of its author, cast, creative team, and the opening and (where applicable) closing dates.

“Almost Famous” (previews begin October 3; opens November 3)

In this stage musical adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s 2000 Academy Award-winning film, William Miller is an idealistic 15-year-old aspiring music journalist. When Rolling Stone magazine hires him to go on the road with an up-and-coming band, he is thrust into the rock-and-roll circus, where his love of music, his longing for friendship, and his integrity as a writer collide.

This musical has a book written by Crowe, who also co-wrote the score with Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tom Kitt.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Before we highlight this week’s picks, I want to give a special shout-out to our newly-launched Twitter account for Michael Snydel’s podcast Intermission. He’s sharing daily, well-curated streaming recommendations, so be sure to give it a follow!

Burial (Ben Parker)

From Tarantino to Mann to Marvel, mining Word War II for fictional storytelling purposes is nothing new in cinema. The latest to take the leap is Ben Parker’s Burial, a staid action thriller following Russian soldiers who are transporting the corpse of Hitler back to their homeland, per Stalin’s request. While Parker suggests some interesting ideas about conflicted nationalism at the end of a war, and he gets the table-setting right when it comes to mood, Burial...

The Paris Theater and the New York Film Critics Circle have unveiled a new bi-monthly screening series to be held at the iconic Paris Theater in Manhattan. Select films will be chosen and presented by NYFCC members, followed by discussions after the screenings. The Paris Theater, one of the oldest arthouse cinemas in the United States, was preserved by Netflix in 2019; the 571-seat theater is the last single-screen theater in New York.

“I’m thrilled about this partnership,” Jordan Hoffman, current chair of the NYFCC, said in an official statement. “Coming to the Paris Theater, the last single-screen cinema in Manhattan, is always a thrill. Its location at the southeast corner of Central Park adjacent to the Plaza Hotel already feels like something out of a movie. I’m excited to see which titles members of the Circle pick, and eager to engage in post-screening conversation. I hope New Yorkers,...

Click here to read the full article.

John Lithgow is set to direct the off-Broadway run of Everything’s Fine, the one-man show from Academy Award and BAFTA nominee Douglas McGrath.

The autobiographical play recounts the actor, writer and director’s life, starting at the age of 14 in Midland, Texas, the town made famous by the 1987 well rescue of “Baby Jessica.” The Emma and Nicholas Nickleby screenwriter will detail some of his most significant remembrances, including the courtship of his one-eyed father and his mother — the latter of whom worked at Harper’s Bazaar for Diana Vreeland and became pals with Andy Warhol — and an eighth-grade teacher who changed McGrath’s life in the most unexpected way.

Everything’s Fine will mark McGrath’s first New York stage performance in more than 25 years. The show serves as Lithgow’s return to directing after more than four decades.

The world premiere is set...

This knockout comedy rates as one of Hollywood’s funniest ever — although it could be ‘cancelled’ any day now, so get ready to deny ever having laughed at it. Ultimate movie star glamour meets the apex of screenwriting hilarity: liberated by 101 cross-dressing jokes Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond jam sly sex innuendo into almost word spoken. We still don’t know how the censors passed one of of Marilyn Monroe’s costumes: Raymond Durgnat described the resulting visual effect as ‘The Hanging Gardens of Marilyn.’ Everybody’s tip top in this one: Jack Lemmon prances, Tony Curtis does his Cary Grant imitation, and Billy Wilder tosses in a score of his favorite 1920s tunes.

Some Like It Hot 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date February 8, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Pat O’Brien, Joe E. Brown.

With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.

Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.

See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020

5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952

After Migration: Calabria,...

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.”

Wonder Woman approves of Robert Pattinson as the new Batman and Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman!

“Rob looks amazing,” Gal Gadot told me last night at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event at the Academy Museum when I asked if she had seen the new “The Batman” trailer. “I love his voice and I love the whole tone of everything.

“And I love Zoë. She looks incredible. She’s a sweetheart. She’s a talented woman,” she continued. “And I’m so happy to have another female as a comrade.”

So when does Gadot think we’ll see an all-female superhero movie with Wonder Woman? “That’s a good question,” she said. “We should ask [DC Films president] Walter Hamada.”

Gadot added with a laugh, “Actually, I’m going to write that in my notes to ask him.”

Unfortunately, former Catwoman Halle Berry...

With it being seven years since his last live-action film, 2014’s The Grand Budapast Hotel, Wes Anderson is hard at work. Following a Cannes premiere, The French Dispatch finally arrives in limited theaters on October 22 followed by a wide release the following week, and he’s already shooting his next film (recently revealed to have the title Asteroid City) outside of Madrid with Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Rupert Friend, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Hope Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Tony Revolori, and Matt Dillon.

As is the case with all of his work, Wes Anderson synthesizes cinema history in his own specific language and for The French Dispatch he has provided a list of influences. As revealed in a promotional book sent to The Flim Stage and styled after the film’s magazine, 32 films are listed that “provided inspiration to the filmmakers,...

TV director Dan Attias discusses his favorite cinematic moments with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

White Dog (1982)

Silver Bullet (1985)

Witness (1985)

The Verdict (1982)

Scent Of A Woman (1992)

The Piano (1993)

The Pawnbroker (1965)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

True Romance (1993)

Infested (2002)

A History Of Violence (2005)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s review, Tfh’s 30th anniversary links

It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary, John Landis’s trailer commentary

Jaws (1975) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion review

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion review

12 Angry Men (1957)

Dodes’ka-den (1970)

Memento (2000)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Other Notable Items

Phillips Club in NYC

Tfh Guru Alan Spencer

Sledge Hammer! TV series (1986-1988)

The Garland in...

Legendary screenwriter and director Shane Black discusses some of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

High and Low (1963)

Hard Times (1975) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Beguiled (1971) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Kino Lorber Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s Twilight Time Blu-ray review

Convoy (1978) – Dennis Cozzalio’s review

8 Heads In A Duffel Bag (1997)

Diner (1982)

The Bodyguard (1992)

12 Angry Men (1957)

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Fist of Fury a.k.a. The Chinese Connection (1972) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary...

Writer, director, producer Nicole Holofcener joins podcast hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss some of her favorite films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Enough Said (2013)

True Romance (1993)

Coming Home (1978)

Bound for Glory (1976)

Hal (2018)

The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)

The Cowboys (1972)

Harold And Maude (1971)

Conrack (1974)

Norma Rae (1979)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Miller’s Crossing (1990)

Naked (1993)

The Short And Curlies (1987)

Short Cuts (1993)

Nashville (1975)

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

The Father (2020)

Carnal Knowledge (1971)

Sex, Lies And Videotape (1989)

Jaws (1975)

Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy (1955)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

World Without End (1956)

Boogie Nights (1997)

Blue Velvet (1986)

Goodfellas (1990)

Adaptation (2002)

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Lolita (1962)

The Shining (1980)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Paths of Glory (1957)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

12 Angry Men (1957)

A Serious Man (2009)

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

Capote (2005)

A History of Violence (2005)

The 400 Blows...

One could have watched the Critics Choice Awards last Sunday and thought they were re-watching the Golden Globes. Same nominees, mostly the same winners, same sweatshirt for Jason Sudeikis. Wait … didn’t the professional entertainment judgers generally blast the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for, well, for being what and who they are?

What happened to early critics’ winners like “First Cow”? How quickly they forget and go with the flow. In fact, this is the time critics — respect or resent them — are currently getting a taste of their own.

Consider “Malcolm and Marie,” the controversial film from Sam Levinson starring John Thomas Washington and Zendaya. It is basically one long argument about whether “that white lady of the L.A. Times” wrote a positive or negative review of Washington’s character’s film, seen through the racial lens. Washington ends his screed by saying he hopes the writer gets “f...

The director of Palmer helps us kick off our new season by walking us through some of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Bloodhounds Of Broadway (1989)

Salvador (1986)

True Believer (1989)

Palmer (2021)

Wonder Wheel (2017)

A Face In The Crowd (1957)

On The Waterfront (1954)

No Time For Sergeants (1958)

The Confidence Man (2018)

Lolita (1962)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The Ghost Of Peter Sellers (2018)

The Marrying Man (1991)

The Ruling Class (1972)

The Krays (1990)

Let Him Have It (1991)

The Changeling (1980)

On The Border (1998)

Murder By Decree (1979)

Bigger Than Life (1956)

The Night of the Iguana (1964)

Fat City (1972)

Angel (1984)

Animal House (1978)

My Science Project (1985)

Lucía (1968)

Paper Moon (1973)

Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

The Great McGinty (1940)

I Married A Witch (1942)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Raging Bull (1980)

Once Upon A Time In America (1984)

The Rider (2017)

The Mustang (2019)

Nomadland (2020)

Murmur of the Heart (1971)

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

The Conversation (1974)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part III (1990)

The Magnificent Ambersons...

Devo’s Gerald Casale joins us for a discussion of the movies that made Devo!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Truth About De-Evolution (1976)

Island Of Lost Souls (1932)

Akran (1969)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Fail Safe (1964)

Valley Of The Dolls (1967)

Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970)

The President’s Analyst (1967)

The Atomic Cafe (1982)

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

Village Of The Damned (1960)

Children Of The Damned (1964)

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The Parallax View (1974)

Soylent Green (1973)

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

Rocky (1976)

A Face In The Crowd (1957)

Whisky Galore! (1949)

No Time For Sergeants (1958)

Network (1976)

JFK (1991)

Natural Born Killers (1994)

Lost Highway (1997)

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Expresso Bongo (1959)

Gremlins (1984)

I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)

Other Notable Items

Paul McCartney

Slash

Willie Nelson

Devo

Elliot Roberts

Lorne Michaels

Saturday Night Live TV series (1975- )

Michael O’Donoghue

The Muppets

Neil Young

Walter Williams

Mr. Bill

Richard Myers

George Kuchar

Mike Kuchar

John F.

Above: Self-portrait sketch by Paul Crifo, circa 1970s.Paul Crifo, who passed away on September 22nd at the age of 98, was one of the great movie poster illustrators and art directors of the ’60s and ’70s, but he was also an unsung hero. Over the course of 40 years he illustrated and designed as many as 140 movie posters for Hollywood studios, but unlike peers such as Bob Peak or Robert McGinnis, Paul Crifo never became a marquee name.Crifo rarely signed his artwork. If you search his name on Heritage Auctions (as I did after reading his obituary in Variety last week) only one poster comes up: that for In The Heat of the Night (1967). Crifo could have remained nothing more than a footnote in movie poster history were it not for the efforts of his son Peter and his son’s friend Pete Handelman who have given us an invaluable...

We told you. Remember the rules. You didn’t listen. Now we’re Back with an all new batch of guest recommendations featuring Blake Masters, Julien Nitzberg, Floyd Norman, Tuppence Middleton and Blaire Bercy.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Wild Angels (1966)

Spirits of the Dead (1966)

The Trip (1967)

Mooch Goes To Hollywood (1971)

Stalker (1979)

The Candidate (1972)

The Parallax View (1974)

Network (1976)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

Margin Call (2011)

Death Wish (1974)

Death Wish (2018)

Seconds (1966)

Soylent Green (1973)

Rage (1972)

Assault on Wall Street (2013)

Repo Man (1984)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

The Train (1965)

Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

Strange Brew (1983)

To Have And Have Not (1944)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

Easter Parade (1948)

The Band Wagon (1953)

Guys And Dolls (1955)

On The Town (1949)

Casablanca (1942)

The Dirt Gang (1972)

Back To The Future (1985)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)

My Man Godfrey...

You’ve asked questions. Prepare for the answers.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

The Beguiled (1971)

Tenet (2021? Maybe?)

Smokey Is The Bandit (1983)

Robin Hood (2010)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

The Devils (1971)

Song of the South (1946)

Gremlins (1984)

Dillinger (1973)

Marcello I’m So Bored (1966)

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Big Wednesday (1978)

Swamp Thing (1982)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Payback (1999)

Bell, Book And Candle (1958)

Blowup (1966)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Medium Cool (1969)

25th Hour (2002)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Palm Springs (2020)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Mandy (2018)

The Sadist (1963)

Spider Baby (1968)

Night Tide (1960)

Stark Fear

Carnival of Souls (1962)

The Devil’s Messenger (1961)

Ms. 45 (1981)

Léolo (1992)

The Howling (1981)

Showgirls (1995)

Green Book (2018)

The Last Hurrah (1958)

The Best Man (1964)

Advise and Consent (1962)

The Candidate (1972)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Seven Days In May (1964)

The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

The Man (1972)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Four Lions (2010)

Pump Up The Volume (1990)

Nightmare In The Sun (1965)

The Wild Angels (1966)

The Omega Man (1971)

The Nanny (1965)

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man...

If anyone in Hollywood knows what it takes to get through epidemics, it’s Norman Lloyd. This protean actor was 3 in New York when the Spanish flu erupted in February 1918 and infected some 500 million people, about one-third of the world’s population. It came in four waves, and finally subsided in April 1920.

Norman has no particular memories of that plague, as he was kept indoors by his parents. And indoors he remains now, at the cozy, quiet, tree-enshrouded house on the far west side of Los Angeles that he’s owned since 1948. His wife Peggy died in 2011, but he has no shortage of friends (his annual November birthday party attracts up to 100 people) and keeps to a regular schedule under the supervision of a nurse and assistant who look after his daily needs. And, no, he isn’t working anymore; the last film he acted in was Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck five years ago.

A group of young, scrappy and brilliant writers penned some of the most accomplished dramas presented live during the Golden Age of TV in the 1950s. Writers such as Paddy Chayefsky, J.P. Miller (“The Days of Wine and Roses”), Reginald Rose (“Twelve Angry Men”), Tad Mosel (“The Haven”), James Costigan (“Little Moon of Alban”) and Horton Foote.

But the most influential and best-known of these writers was Rod Serling, who became a superstar as not only creator and writer but host of the landmark 1959-1964 CBS sci-fi/fantasy anthology series “The Twilight Zone,” for which he won two Emmys for his writing. “The Twilight Zone” and even his less successful 1970-73 NBC anthology series “Night Gallery” has overshadowed his earlier work for which he won three Emmys for his writing.

Among his earliest work was the 1953 “Kraft Television Theatre” presentation “A Long Time Till Dawn,” which gave a 22-year-old James Dean...

Make way for the parade! Featuring Brian Trenchard-Smith, Eli Roth, Katt Shea, Thomas Jane, our very own Don Barrett and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Screams of a Winter Night (1979)

Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game Of Death (1975)

I Think We’re Alone Now (2018)

The Rhythm Section (2020)

Atomic Blonde (2017)

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)

The Ipcress File (1965)

Funeral In Berlin (1966)

Extraction (2020)

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

The Mermaid (2016)

Oklahoma! (1955)

Singin’ In The Rain (1953)

Nightcrawler (2014)

I Think We’re Alone Now (2008)

Ghetto Freaks a.k.a. Sign of Aquarius (1970)

Hostel (2005)

Cabin Fever (2002)

Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)

The Movie Orgy (1968)

Gremlins (1984)

The Goonies (1985)

Hell of the Living Dead a.k.a. Night of the Zombies (1980)

Troll 2 (1990)

In The Land Of The Cannibals a.k.a. Land of...

The Oscar

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1966/ 1:66:1 / 120 min.

Starring Stephen Boyd, Tony Bennett, Elke Sommer

Written by Harlan Ellison

Directed by Russell Rouse

Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success is a great movie with two career-best performances from Burt Lancaster as a malignant gossip columnist named J. J. Hunsecker and Tony Curtis as press agent Sidney Falco – “a real louse.” The third star of the show is surely the screenplay by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets – a lyrical pastiche of streetwise slang that sizzles like “a pocketful of firecrackers.”

Hunsecker – What’s this boy got that Susie likes?

Falco – Integrity – acute, like indigestion.

Hunsecker – I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.

And so on. Mackendrick’s Broadway melodrama is a tale of bright lights and the big city so some hyperbole is expected. But Lehman and Odets were performing...

Ten years ago, Netflix was an innocuous DVD-by-mail company, the Marvel tsunami was just testing the water with “Iron Man” and “Thor,” and the “Star Wars” empire still belonged to George Lucas, not Disney. The only celebrity to become President of the United States was “Bedtime for Bonzo” star Ronald Reagan, Amazon was a place you went to buy cheap books not the biggest spender at the Sundance Film Festival, and “the cloud” was something Carl Fredricksen’s CG house floated above rather than the way people screen Pixar movies.

Lest those descriptions make you feel nostalgic, keep in mind that, apart from “Twilight,” Hollywood movies were mostly being made by and about white men. Audiences found their voice over the last decade, letting the industry know how they felt — and studios listened, or started to at least, as criticisms of #OscarsSoWhite and #TimesUp sparked seismic change in the industry.

For nearly two decades, Edward Norton has been trying to realize his passion project — a film version of Jonathan Lethem’s landmark 1999 novel Motherless Brooklyn. Now the film is here, sporting a few signs of artistic struggle, but nonetheless an ardent and ambitious triumph for writer-producer-director-star Norton. You might think multi-hyphenate Norton would err on the side of hat-in-hand faithfulness in adapting Lethem’s bestseller about an unlikely New York private detective with Tourette syndrome. Not the case. Norton has moved the novel’s 1990s setting backwards to 1957 (yup, the...

The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.Uncut GemsDear Kelley and Fern,When one is in the thick of a film festival, surrounded on all sides by movie after movie after movie, the caffeine jolt of coffee may not be enough to keep up your energy; you may need a film that throttles you. If you want to be grabbed by the throat, then I’ve got just the movie for you: Josh and Benny Safdie's Uncut Gems. Like the brothers’ last two features, Heaven Knows What (2014) and Good Time (2017), it’s a showboating immersion into a gritty but resiliently existent side of New York that is nowadays rarely set to film. And like Good Time, their collision of Robert Pattinson with a borough-based B-film, Uncut Gems is driven by the monomania of its protagonist, Harold Ratner,...

“Loro” is the definitive Paolo Sorrentino film to date. It’s brash, stylish, and silly. It oscillates back and forth between horny and human, profound and misguided. It’s a glorious mess. That it exists in the #MeToo era is a miracle. That it manages to evolve beyond a dick-swinging affair is even more miraculous.

In the vein of “The Great Beauty,” “Youth” and “The Young Pope,” the film is sprawling and idiosyncratic. This time Sorrentino centers his story on Silvio Berlusconi, the infamous medial mogul and former prime minister of Italy. But this is not your standard cradle-to-grave biopic.

The film toggles back and forth between Silvio and Sergio, a youthful businessman determined to impress Silvio. Sergio works primarily as a glorified pimp, trafficking escorts to bribe politicians for permits and favors. When he’s not knee-deep in a line of cocaine or anonymous women, he has ambition. The...

John Lithgow has joined the cast of the upcoming FX drama pilot “Old Man” alongside previously announced lead Jeff Bridges, Variety has learned. In addition, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Spider-Man: Far from Home” director Jon Watts has come onboard to direct the pilot and executive produce the series.

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Thomas Perry, the series centers on Dan Chase (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and has been living off the grid since. When an assassin arrives and tries to take Chase out, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past.

Lithgow will play Harold Harper. Described as intelligent and tough with deep reservoirs of compassion and ruthlessness, Harper is called back to service by the FBI after suffering a terrible personal loss. He has a complicated past with rogue fugitive Chase, which makes him...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Film at Lincoln Center

“Another Country: Outsider Visions of America” offers films by Demy, Resnais, Antonioni, Varda and more.

IFC Center

The rather staggering Abbas Kiarostami retrospective continues, with screenings of the Koker trilogy and more.



Quad Cinema

Jacques Rivette’s masterpiece Joan the Maid has begun screening in a fantastic-looking 4K restoration.

Metrograph

Written by Paul and Leonard Schrader,...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Films by Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, and Naruse kick off a retrospective of Japanese actress Machiko Kyō.

The Pasolini retrospective continues.

Streetwise and its follow-up, Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell, begin a run.

The restoration of A Bigger Splash continues screening, while the ’90s indie film Chalk has been restored.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

Burt Lancaster in Frank and Eleanor Perry's The Swimmer (1968), based upon the John Cheever short story. Courtesy of Film Forum.For decades, film critics and academics interested in the classical Hollywood cinema have been dutifully studying the canonized big stars—Cary Grant, Garbo, the Hepburns, Bogart and Bacall, Dietrich and Crawford and Monroe—while downplaying one of the most highly varied and fascinating careers of any studio actor: Burt Lancaster. Now, New York’s Film Forum is giving us a great excuse to revisit this actor’s towering body of work—emphasis on “body.” From big-name classics like Louis Malle’s Atlantic City (1980) and John Frankenheimer’s Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) to little-known masterpieces like Carol Reed’s Trapeze (1956) and Luchino Visconti’s late decadent chamber drama Conversation Piece (1974), a meaty, healthy range of Burt is on display for the next four weeks, between July 19 to August 15.Serious film talk...

Above: Italian 4-fogli for Birdman of Alcatraz. Artist: Renato Casaro.Starting today with a week-long run of Robert Siodmak’s The Killers, New York’s Film Forum is hosting a 4-week, 37-film retrospective of one of the great he-men of Hollywood. With his square jaw, gymnast’s physique, and megawatt grin, Burt Lancaster (1913–1994) must have been a boon to movie poster artists and over the years he was drawn or painted by many great affichistes. I could have curated a post on just the Italian renditions of Lancaster alone: over the years he was painted by Ercole Brini, Anselmo Ballester, Luigi Martinati, Renato Casaro, Averardo Ciriello, and many more. To mark the retrospective I have selected 50 of my favorite illustrated images of the indelible star, from his brooding film noir youth (though he was actually 33 when he made his debut in The Killers), through his serious thespian mid-period to his...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Film at Lincoln Center

A retrospective of 21st-century debuts is underway, with two-for-one packages doubling some of today’s best working filmmakers.

A free screening of Martin Scorsese’s After Hours is held at Governor’s Island tonight.

A Bigger Splash has screenings.

Museum of the Moving Image

The expressively named “Barbara Hammer, Superdyke” looks...