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The latest round of criticism from Tarantino had the filmmaker criticizing the “Marvel-ization” of Hollywood on Tom Segura’s podcast. Of course, this rubbed Liu the wrong way, after all he IS Shang-Chi, but did he really need to make it about race? Liu criticizing filmmakers like Tarantino and Scorsese’s reverence for their love of “golden age” Hollywood is rich. He’s part of a money-grabbing machine (Disney/Marvel) that’s destroying the medium, but he seems oblivious to this fact, he’d rather just mention that his movie made $400 million and stars non-white actors....

Kicking off with archival news footage featuring Muhammad Ali refusing to be drafted, Malcolm X expressing what happens when “you take 20 million black people and make them fight all your wars” and Bobby Seale shelling out facts about the hundreds of thousands of black men who fought in the Civil War, World War II, and Vietnam, “Da 5 Bloods” sets out to be uber-political from the get-go. It’s no surprise at all, especially when you consider Lee’s fervently political filmography, from “Do the Right Thing” to “Malcolm X”, the legendary filmmaker has never been shy to express his mind, even if it meant a scolding from the naysayers....

Read the whole letter from POW! below: Mr. Maher: Comic books, like all literature, are storytelling devices. When written well by great creators such as Stan Lee, they make us feel, make us think and teach us lessons that hopefully make us better human beings. One lesson Stan taught so many of us was tolerance and respect, and thanks to that message, we are grateful that we can say you have a right to your opinion that comics are childish and unsophisticated....

Then ‘Everything Everywhere’ topped our mid-year critics poll, appearing on 40% of the lists submitted. It also became an indie smash at the box-office, and A24’s highest-grossing movie of all-time with a cumulative intake of $101 million. It’s just been that kind of year at the movies Yes, here we are, many months later, and it’s practically a lock. We are being told and, are supposed to believe, that a 142 minute movie about multiverses, taxes, millennial angst and over-the-top visual nothingness is going to be a hit with the AMPAS voting body (average demographic over 50, white and male)....

While researching this project, the original draft was more than 100 titles; narrowing it down to 10 (plus 30 runner-up) was not easy, which is why I encourage you to chime in with your own choices in the comments section. Of course, these types of lists are all relative. Many will wonder why Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail” and Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” aren’t on here, they’d probably be, respectively, #11 and #12....

Of course, like any of the previous years of Cannes, everywhere you looked there were films that you wanted to catch. That means that I didn’t manage to sneak in all the worthy titles into my schedule. No worries, I ended up seeing 38 films and I’ve narrowed them down to the 10 best (in alphabetical order): Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven) “Absolute Verhoeven. Erotic, violent, religiously sinful and absurdist. You have never seen a movie quite like this one....

I’m going to go ahead and reboot my “Best of Pixar” list from a few years back. You can read it here — 24 of their 25 films released are ranked (I haven’t updated it with “Turning Red” yet). Absolutely any list of Pixar rankings should have the following ten films firmly planted inside the top ten (in chronological order): Toy Story (1995)Toy Story 2 (1999)Finding Nemo (2003)The Incredibles (2004)Ratatouille (2007)WALL-E (2008)Up!...

Some marquee Mexican directors you would expect to be on this list (Cuaron, del Toro, Inarittu) were actually eligible for the American one, since the “three amigos,” as they are called, work within the comfy confines of the U.S. studio system. Ditto Yorgios Lanthimos, whose last three projects have been American. And so, after much thought, and deliberation with fellow film journalists, I’ve come to the conclusion that Michael Haneke is the current master of foreign-language film....

According to the released statement from Fantasia head Mitch Davis, Between 600 and 1,200 tickets will be available per screening, which will be geo-restricted and sold only to those with Canadian IP addresses. Many screenings will include live Q&As with filmmakers that Fantasia’s at-home audiences can participate in. The first wave of Fantasia titles will be announced in late May. I do love the protection Fantasia is putting on their films....

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. That film has aged very well and opened the door for the “gutter poetry” movement in cinema. As far as critics go, a good blueprint would be the massive critics poll I conducted in the summer of 2019, but how about the underrated gems of the past decade?...

Coming off their triumphant “Good Time,” the Safdie Brothers seemed keen in casting Adam Sandler for the lead role in “Uncut Gems,” a passion project that came to fruition thanks to the success of their Cannes hit “Good Time.” Sandler is the lead star in this Martin Scorsese-produced film, which takes place in the corrupt world of New York City’s diamond district. Suffice to say, we’re fascinated to see what the Safdies will do with a higher budget given that all of their other movies were made for next to nothing....

Regardless, today we had that rumor confirmed by Bailey himself, in a statement that read as both a hopeful and cautious assessment of what’s to come for TIFF: “We recognize that in planning for the festival now, there is still uncertainty about what ‘people coming together again’ will look like come September. This is why we are looking at both onsite and digital innovations that will provide options that will deliver for our audiences, support filmmakers and our partners, and bolster the industry,” Bailey said in a statement on Thursday....

“I gotta resist getting emotional because I don’t wanna give it away but this is an incredibly great story. If you’re at all a superhero fan, ‘Infinity War,’ I’m a big superhero fan, that didn’t seem like it was going to work. It was a lot of vignettes that all made sense. This ‘Toy Story 4’ . We’ve only been through it once, there will be several more incantations, but it is so emotional, it’s so funny, it’s so big the idea that they’ve come up with....

Mangold is a great director, but one wonders if the Indiana Jones series has any juice left in its reservoir. The last good movie in the franchise was “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade,” which was released almost 31 years ago. Time to move on. There was a noble attempt at gaining back the relevance of yore in 2008, but it turned out that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” wasn’t that answer....

This has been a landmark year for Disney, what with Avengers: Endgame, The Rise of Skywalker, Frozen 2, The Lion King, Captain Marvel, and Aladdin . No surprise, ‘Endgame’ topped the box office this year, even beating out Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie of all-time. When all is said and done, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” will likely be the fifth-highest earner of 2019 movies, barely squeezing in there, a major disappointment for Disney as the film is projected to make $100 million less than “The Last Jedi” and $400 million less than “The Force Awakens....

This selection presents the best films about gambling, after watching which the audience will at least get dominoes from their shelves. And as a maximum — try their luck in Zodiac Casino Canada. Jim Bennett is a risky guy. During the day, he is a brilliant writer and an excellent teacher, at night — he is an avid gamer. He is deeply entangled in a world where the law is an empty phrase....

Usually, if a movie has a line of dialogue, such as the one above, a red flag should be raised. However, I’m ready to give the benefit of the doubt to Netflix’s upcoming action thriller “Extraction” (04.24.20). The film comes to us from well-known stuntman-turned-filmmaker Sam Hargrave. Hargrave’s resume as a stuntman coordinator is also impressive, having worked with the Russo Brothers on “Avengers: Endgame” and “Captain America: Civil War....

What he does have going to the Lido are Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” Todd Field’s “Tar,” Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Bardo,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones & All,” and, most intriguingly, Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde.” A surprise. Romain Gavras’ “Athena” is said to be one of the more hotly anticipated world entries. I’m most interested in these world titles that might sneak into competition. Will Venice Boss Alberto Barbera accept Roman Polanski’s “The Palace”?...

This was clearly a decision that was made during shooting of the film as the cast/crew had originally said during production that an R-rating was the plan. Director Fleischer was even quoted in saying “That’s the plan … that’s the movie. Our movie wants to honor the comics as close as we can tonally. In the comics, he bites people’s heads off and eats brains. It would be weird to make a movie with Venom if he wasn’t doing that....

I try not to use the word “woke” in any of my writing because it really limits the conversation and debate one might have with any of the social injustice stuff currently going on in the cultural zeitgeist. It’s better to elaborate and discern rather than just say this is “woke” or that is “woke.” With that being said, Walter Hill has just used the word in describing the current trend in American movies....