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Jeffrey Wells over at HE says “Guys who routinely see films a couple of weeks ahead of commercial opening are hearing nothing but “radio silence” from WB publicists when they call and ask.” This “radio silence” is obviously of major concern in terms of the sheer confidence the WB might have with the film’s awards chances. The fact that the studio decided to slot the film around Christmas time does offer up a hint of confidence in the film’s box-office prospects, after all, Eastwood has built up a considerable conservative fanbase of movie fans over the years....

This is essentially #MeToo porn. A miserablist tale with no nuance or sophistication. It all amounts to one large stagey screed on female empowerment. I can dig this kind of movie, if done right. Sadly, “Women Talking” is not done right. It’s a chamber piece, with the occasional flashback and quick emotive cut, concerning a little less than a dozen or so Mennonite women congregating inside a barn to discuss their inevitable exit from the abusive men surrounding the premises....

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category, which was won last year by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” include major contenders such as “Toy Story 4,” Frozen II,” “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” “Missing Link” and French submission “I Lost My Body.” The 32 submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are: “Abominable”“The Addams Family”“The Angry Birds Movie 2”“Another Day of Life”“Away”“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles”“Children of the Sea”“Dilili in Paris”“Frozen II”“Funan”“Genndy Tartakovsky’s ‘Primal’ – Tales of Savagery”“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”“I Lost My Body”“Klaus”“The Last Fiction”“The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part”“Marona’s Fantastic Tale”“Missing Link”“Ne Zha”“Okko’s Inn”“Pachamama”“Promare”“Rezo”“The Secret Life of Pets 2”“Spies in Disguise”“The Swallows of Kabul”“This Magnificent Cake!...

Directors also try their hands - and fail - a few times before they can finally make their “magnum opus” that will put their names in the annals of movie history. No director becomes perfect at their first try - sometimes, the early works of moviemakers are painfully bad, other times, they bear the unmissable marks of low budgets and a lack of experience. Some of the top directors of our time have started their careers with movies that are - for lack of a better word - B....

Some of the people I’ve spoken to, who have seen O. Russell’s period piece, are still confused by the plot. The official synopsis released by Disney today says … “The film is set in the ’30s and is a true story that follows three friends who witness a murder, become suspects themselves, and uncover one of the most outrageous plots in American history”In the trailer, shown at ComicCon this afternoon, De Niro questions Bale, Washington and Robbie after they witness the murder....

Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” seems to be the main reason for Netflix amping up their strategy, they know they have a major Best Picture contender in their hands, why wouldn’t they campaign hard for it? These unidentified members of the Academy believe that this is just Netflix marketing itself to filmmakers. “Netflix is pulling a big con,” says another anonymous Academy member of that same branch “They’re trying to buy their presence and identity as a film company without playing by everybody else’s rules....

Not many actors can claim to have worked with great filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson, The Safdies, and Noah Baumbach, but Sandler can. He’s a underrated and gifted. Adding Field to his resume would result in an absolutely intriguing resume. “Tár,” a directorial achievement, is Field’s latest film, his first one in over 16 years. It seems as though he won’t be resting on his laurels and is soon to work on a new film....

Inarritu has refrained from showing a single frame of his film to festival programmers, for now, but is aiming for a major splash. Not much is known about “Bardo” except that it’s a very personal film for the Mexican writer-director ala what Cuaron did with “Roma.” IMDB has the plot exploring ”the political and social modernity of Mexico.” Other notable filmmakers expected for the 79th edition of Venice include Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” Jonathan Glazer’s “ The Zone of Interest,” Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” and Paul Schrader’s “The Master Gardener....

The film nabbed a 48 on Metacritic and stands at a disastrous 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. I really liked the first half of “Amsterdam”, but found the second hour to be a bit too convoluted. I’ll be giving this one another look sooner rather than later. It’s really not as bad the reviews entailed it to be — there’s some very strong directing here and the acting is top-notch. Some critics are starting to come out of the woods defending “Amsterdam....

The miniseries will be titled “Colin in Black & White” and will feature Kaepernick as narrator, according to Netflix. No cast has been announced. The show will consist of six episodes following Kaepernick “as a Black child growing up with a white adopted family and his journey to become a great quarterback while defining his identity.” DuVernay has already teamed up with Netflix for the excellent “The 13th,” a documentary about the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, but also directed and produced the abominable “When They See Us,” a limited series about the Central Park Five which felt too conventional and obvious....

The idea came to me after Francis Ford Coppola had four of his movies crack our 1970s critics poll. That’s something we have not seen in any of the other polls we conducted from the ’80s, ’90s, ‘00s, and 2010s. It is impossible to find a director that has had more than 5 great movies in a row. Kubrick has done it. Coppola came close. So did Hitchcock. Terrence Malick (if you count the 20 years of inactivity in between)....

As with most lists dating back from a few years, some things have changed. For example, I find The Safdies’ “Uncut Gems” deserves top 10 consideration now. It’s aged very well and opened the door for the “gutter poetry” movement in cinema. I’ve also lost count at the amount of times that I’ve seen “The Social Network,” each viewing expanding on the Next with depth Fincher infused in his zeitgeisty film....

Critics were split on ‘Pikachu’ but its A- CinemaScore and an already well-established Pokemon fanbase came out in full force.“Avengers: Endgame” made 57%, less than last week’s total but still managed to nab an estimated $63 million. Don’t worry about that movie too much folks, ‘Endgame’ has made $2.486 billion worldwide after three weekends. It will sleep well at night. It now is just about $302 million behind “Avatar” on the all-time worldwide total list....

De Palma is said to have been inspired by watching true-life crime programs on television the past three-to-four decades. He also has a Weinstein-inspired film that is currently in pre-production limbo. De Palma is coming off a badly-reviewed release, the 2019 b-movie titled “Domino.” He’s been working on “Sweet Veangance” for three years now. The film is said to NOT be in English, which is a first for the filmmaker....

The latest Cannes update had Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking’” taking one of the few remaining competition slots, but now we’re not entirely sure if she’s in anymore. Maybe it’s Un CertIn Regard now? Cannes boss Thierry Fremaux has stated that it is going to most likely be a 20-21 film competition. We kind of already suspect the following to make it: Broker — Hirokazu Kore-eda Triangle of Sadness — Ruben OstlundDecision to Leave — Park Chan-wookDisappointment Blvd....

Directors set to have new films ready by Cannes include ”Soggy Bottom” (Paul Thomas Anderson)”The French Dispatch” (Wes Anderson) ”Annette” (Leos Carax) ”Macbeth” (Joel Coen) ”The Way of the Wind” (Terrence Malick)”Ahed’s Knee” (Nadav Lapid) ”Blonde” (Andrew Dominik)”Memoria” (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) ”Benedetta” (Paul Verhoeven) ”Blossoms” (Wong Kar-wai)”The Power of the Dog” (Jane Campion)”Petite Maman” (Celine Sciamma)”Bergman Island” (Mia Hansen-Løve)”Chocobar” (Lucrecia Martel)”Les Olympiades” (Jacques Audiard) ”The Souvenir Part II” (Joanna Hogg)”Tre Piani” (Nanni Moretti) ”Triangle of Sadness” (Ruben Ostlund) ”The Hand of God” (Paolo Sorrentino)“Mektoub: Canto Duo” (Abdelatif Kechiche) That’s seven directors who have already won the Palme d’Or....

Lee is the maverick director behind such landmarks as “Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X,” and “The 25th Hour.” He’s been going at it now as a director for more than 30 years. Anything he does should be paid attention to. The “BlacKkKlansman” director had a solid outing with the aforementioned movie in 2018, which was deemed a comeback of sorts after a rough 10-year stretch of films which included “Miracle at St....

“I don’t understand this obsession with American movies. My friend [Venice director Alberto] Barbera didn’t have Kore-Eda’s film, nor Korean, Egyptian or Lebanese movies in Competition. I think a festival must show the cinema of the whole world,” explained Fremaux.” Still we had Spike Lee and John Cameron Mitchell’s film. Venice plays its game and they’re right to screen Netflix movies if Cannes doesn’t take them, they’re also right to play the Oscar card because the press is more obsessed with one night in March than with the six months from July to October....

C.K. — whose career got derailed last year after it was revealed that he was a chronic public serial masturbator – has been trying to mount a comeback by performing stand-up at NYC’s legendary Comedy Cellar club. Of course, if you’re up-to-date with the stand-up comedy world, and social media for that matter, you would know that Gadsby is the Aussie “comedian” whose Netflix special “Nanette,” sparked heavy debate about female and male relations in the #MeToo era....

Boyle confirmed the project while speaking to The Independent.. Even better, he’s teaming up once again with screenwriter Alex Garland – who penned the original movie. Rumors have it that this sequel would take place some 28 months after the events of the original. Garland had discussed the idea of a sequel to IGN in late 2015: “We’ve got an idea. Danny [Boyle] and [producer] Andrew [Macdonald] and I have been having quite serious conversations about it so it is a possibility....