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Has there been a better, more thoroughly entertaining TV show these last five years? I went thought a slew of worthy titles (“Barry,” “Better Call Saul,” “The Leftovers,” “Atlanta”) and the concluding answer seems to be NO. “Succession” is the current best show on TV, a comedic and dramatic amalgam of 21st-century truth serum. The last season of was an immaculate display of Shakespearean chutzpah on the part of its creators....

Why am I mentioning “The Gray Man”? Because, it’s the most expensive Netflix movie ever made. Estimates have the budget at anywhere between $220-250 million. Now, less than two months before release, there is finally a trailer. The film is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who were Gods at Disney/Marvel for completing the MCU with “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” and “Avengers: Endgame.” In 2019, they released “Cherry,” starring Tom Holland....

Well, here comes the some surprising news today [via Variety] that a fourth Matrix movie is now going to happen. Yes, that’s right, Lana Wachowski is set to write and direct a fourth ‘Matrix’ installment with Reeves and Moss reprising their roles as Neo and Trinity, respectively. No word yet on whether Laurence Fishburne would return as Neo, but chances are, err, fairly low that will happen. “Many of the ideas Lilly and I explored 20 years ago about our reality are even more relevant now....

The villain, Gorr the God Butcher, is played by Christian Bale, a man on a mission to destroy every god in the universe. The Welsh actor is fine here, it’s still a paycheck gig for him, even if he’s quite invested in the role. There’s the occasional offbeat wit to Taika Waititi’s film, the filmmaker brought much of that same self-effacing humor to “Thor: Ragnarok,” but here there are more serious-minded scenes, especially in the second half, which turns out to be a detriment to the first hour’s wackadoodle fun....

So, consider me unsurprised that the upcoming musical “Tick, Tick … Boom!” got a resounding nay from NYFF this year. It happens a lot over in New York. Their tastes are more thoroughly refined to adhere to the high-brow Lincoln Center crowd and there are a very limited amount of movies that can be chosen on a per-year basis. The trailer for “Tick, Tick … Boom!” was released today. The film comes to us from “Hamilton” scribe Lin Manuel Miranda, who actually steps behind the camera for the first time with this film based on the autobiographical musical from playwright Jonathan Larson....

I had spoken to Saulnier earlier last month and asked him about the issues he and Nic had with their collaboration. Referring to his time with Pizzolatto, he jokingly, or not, mentioned that it felt like “Nic had repeatedly stabbed me in the face with a knife.” Yikes. The clash of two creative minds can sometimes involve very nasty business and that seems to be exactly what happened with this latest season of “True Detective....

Season 3 stubbornly focused on a subplot I couldn’t care less about, a husband and wife’s marital difficulties, with a clunky self-seriousness that the grisly B-movie tropes of Pizzolatto’s “charms” as a writer didn’t need. In the end, the Purcell case was interesting enough to keep our attention on the screen for the better part of eight episodes, but there also was a certain lack of satisfaction, as if this was another confirmation that Pizzolatto’s total and utter control of his mise-en-scene is a major problem....

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However, something changed post-2005 as he switched his style into more talky, slow-burning dramas (“Lincoln,” “The Post,” “Bridge of Spies” “War Horse”). Spielberg seemed to be going for old-fashioned Hollywood craftsmanship. I like to think of this as the Victor Fleming/Howard Hawks phase of his career, both his cinematic idols. Now at 71-years of age, Spielberg will release the Tony Kushner-penned remake of the classic musical “West Side Story.” Oh, boy....

Citing “Dark Phoenix” “The Secret Life of Pets 2” “Rocketman" and “Godzilla,” Sakoui hinted at the fact that maybe, just maybe, moviegoers were getting pickier, mostly due to Hollywood studios having “force-fed” them junk all these years. As if Hollywood’s summer box-office numbers couldn’t get any worse, more than two months into the season, we’ve had to add a few more casualties: “MIB: International,” “Shaft.” “Annabelle Comes Home,” “Child’a Play,” and even “Toy Story 4....

Lovers Rock Gunda First Cow Never Rarely Sometimes AlwaysZappa Swallow Another Round The Assistant Mr. JonesCarlos Aguilar, RogerEbert Wolfwalkers Minari Nomadland I Carry You With Me The Climb I’m No Longer Here Promising Young Woman Sound of MetalLa Llorona Los LobosFernando Andres Kajillionaire Boys State Spree Tesla The ClimbNever Rarely Sometimes AlwaysThe Assistant Mank BacurauShithouseEthan Alter, Yahoo News Kajillioniare I’m Thinking of Ending Things Nomadland David Byrne’s American Utopia Lovers Rock Circus of Books Wolfwalkers The Assistant She Dies Tomorrow The 40-Year-Old-Version Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice I’m Thinking of Ending ThingsThe Wolf HouseThe Vast of NightBeanpoleBacurau Nicholas Bell, IONCINEMA....

As of right now, “Tenet” will be released in select cities on September 2, but Warner Bros. must surely know that the movie won’t be playing everywhere on that day. “Tenet” may not open in L.A. and New York first, but a new report from IndieWire suggests that Nolan’s latest may not even need those two big markets after all. According to the data assembled by IW’s ingenious resident box-office guru, Tom Brueggemann, only Arizona, California, New Jersey, and New York face the possibility of movie theaters not being open by Labor Day weekend....

A young Spielberg was dismissed openly and vocally by Hitchcock —one of his childhood heroes . The Independent shared the story regarding Hitchcock’s disdain for Spielberg and “Jaws”. Spielberg was said to be hugely disappointed in never being able to meet the “Master of Suspense” before he died of poor health in 1980. But this failure to get together was not from want of trying on Spielberg’s behalf. In his audiobook “Tales of Hollywood,” storyteller Stephen Schochet explains that Hitchcock’s morning routine was once “upset by an uninvited young man hovering around the movie set” of his last film, 1976’s “Family Plot....

The “Baby Driver” star plays Theo Decker, a boy taken in by a wealthy family following the tragic death off his mother. The film is based off the bestselling novel by Donna Tartt, however, its adaptation to the big screen has left critics hugely unimpressed, sitting at 26% on Rotten Tomatoes and a measly 40 on Metacritic, with the majority of reviews calling the film ‘fragmented’ at best. And whilst Elgort acknowledged that all the reviews are “great articles”, he also believes critics have “decided that pointing out everything wrong with the film is the best way to write their reviews’....

This has been a very strange year at the movies, with most major theatrical releases either delayed or sent straight to VOD. I decided to poll 50 film critics, all of whom have, more or less, seen every major title this year, and that includes Oscar-contending December releases such as “Soul,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Mank,” and “News of the World.” The results gathered have been nothing short of interesting, fascinating, mind-boggling, you name it....

I have to start assembling my top 10 list for various different critics groups and polls I am a part of. I currently have a list of 14 worthy films. Have not yet seen “Licorice Pizza,” “The Lost Daughter,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “Nightmare Alley,” “West Side Story,” “Cyrano” and “Being the Ricardos.” Cue JB’s insistence that “Dune” absolutely belongs here. In terms of quality and content, it’s definitely been a step up from last year, but I don’t think we’re at a sort of normalcy yet....

Variety has a source close to the film revealing that former White Stripes front-man Jack White was Cooper’s original choice. Yeah, as if “Star is Born” could afford another musician that has no acting background whatsoever. I haven’t been shy in stating that Lady Gaga struggles in the more dramatic sections of the film and that Cooper all but tries to compensate for those flaws by delivering a heartfelt performance as drunkard musician Jackson Maine....

Assayas, who served on the jury with President Robert De Niro, said De Niro was actually “unfamiliar with international cinema” (I’m not surprised there). According to Assayas, only Jude Law and himself believed “The Tree of Life” should have won the Palme d’Or. The majority of the jury members actually wanted the magnificent “Melancholia” and the only reason why they decided to switch it from von Trier to Malick was because of the infamous “Melancholia” press conference where von Trier made some insensitive anti-semitic jokes, saying he understood why Hitler did what he did and could sympathize with the former Nazi dictator....

As we had reported earlier, Keslassy confirms that Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Claire Denis’s films won’t be ready. Also, Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz are among the names that have been discussed so far for Jury President. All we know for certain is that Fremaux is looking for a female Prez. Good stuff all around, but mostly things we already knew about, with a few key titles missing in her piece....

Before presenting the final screening of the festival, Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex,” at the famous DeBussy theatre, the Cannes General Delegate went on-stage to announce that out of the thousands of daily tests administered over the festival’s 11 days, only 70 people tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Fremaux went to add that “this proves that cinemas are not superspreader events,” which was then preceded by a towering roar from the crowd....