DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Review: Hail, Caesar
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

For a series with a goofy premise — what if talking apes overthrew humanity — the “Planet of the Apes” universe is uncommonly thoughtful, even insightful. Those later virus-ridden installments, a trilogy released between 2011 and 2017, are among the series’ best, and well worth revisiting. The newest film, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” picks up exactly where that trilogy left off: with the death of Caesar, the ultrasmart chimpanzee who has led the apes away from what’s left of humanity and into a paradise. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” directed by Wes Ball from a screenplay by Josh Friedman, leaps forward almost immediately by “many generations” (years matter less in this post-human world), and the inevitable has happened. The apes have fractured into tribes, while Caesar has passed from historical figure to mythic one, a figure venerated by some and forgotten by most.

Persons: —, ”, Caesar, what’s, Moses, ” Caesar, Wes Ball, Josh Friedman Locations: “ Kingdom

☆ ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ Review: War, Undemanding
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I travel by air every couple of months, and always think about a single, burning question: What makes for a great airplane movie? Not movies about being on planes. “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” the latest offering from the director Guy Ritchie, is a perfect airplane movie. But you’ve got to watch something, and for that, we have movies like this one. Ritchie didn’t always make airplane movies.

Persons: Guy Ritchie, shouldn’t, you’ve, Ritchie didn’t, ”, Guy Ritchie’s Organizations: Ungentlemanly

☆ ‘Brandy Hellville’: A New Twist for Cult Documentaries
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

What’s most provocative about “Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion” (streaming on Max), and about the horror show it contends is behind the immensely popular cheap-clothing retailer Brandy Melville, isn’t necessarily its content. Other documentaries have tread similar ground with similar methods — the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” for instance — which is to say that everything in “Brandy Hellville” has been reported before. Documentary participants allege that the company and its leaders, especially co-founder and owner Stephan Marsan, engaged in a host of terrible behaviors ranging from fat-shaming and exploitative practices to really awful racism and sexism. You can read about it all, of course; what the documentary provides is a host of eyewitnesses, including girls who worked in the store as teenagers and men who worked closely with the company to open new stores. Experts and activists also attest to the threat that fast fashion (that is, inexpensive, essentially disposable clothing sold at retailers like Zara, H&M, Shein and Forever 21) poses to global economies and the environment.

Persons: Brandy Hellville, Brandy Melville, isn’t, Abercrombie &, ”, Brandy Hellville ”, Stephan Marsan, Abercrombie Organizations: Netflix, Abercrombie, Abercrombie & Fitch Locations: Zara

“Queen!”It was a Friday night in January, and Snoop Dogg had just rolled into a cocktail party hosted by Donna Langley, NBCUniversal’s chief content officer and studios chairwoman. His shouted greeting, paired with a jaunty deferential dance, seemed to leave her a bit embarrassed. “We’re here to celebrate filmmakers and films,” Langley told the room a few minutes later. Like it or not, this moment in Hollywood history is very much about her. Nolan started his acceptance speech for best director by saying, “Donna Langley — thank you for seeing the potential in this.”

Persons: Snoop Dogg, Donna Langley, “, ” Langley, Langley, Christopher Nolan, “ Oppenheimer, Nolan, “ Donna Langley —, ” Organizations: ”

☆ Best and Worst Moments From the 2024 Oscars
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fittingly for an Academy Awards celebrating 2023, the year of “Barbenheimer,” the movies that made up that phenomenon commanded our attention on Sunday night, too. Most Charming Performance: Ryan Gosling, ‘I’m Just Ken’America’s No. 1 Ken, the “Barbie” star Ryan Gosling — who was also nominated for best supporting actor and presented a tribute to stunt performers with Emily Blunt — brought the house down with his performance of “I’m Just Ken,” one of two nominated “Barbie” songs. Gosling roamed into the audience, getting Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, America Ferrera and Emma Stone briefly on mic. If the Oscars wanted a viral video moment, they sure got it (even though it had been announced in advance).

Persons: “, Ryan Gosling, Ken, ”, “ Barbie, Oppenheimer ”, ‘ I’m, Ken ’ America’s, Barbie, Ryan Gosling —, Emily Blunt —, “ I’m, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben, Adir, Scott Evans, Ncuti, Gosling, Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, America Ferrera, Emma Stone, Mark Ronson, Wolfgang Van Halen, — Alissa Wilkinson Organizations: Hollywood Locations: tuxes

☆ In ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘The Zone of Interest,’ We Hear What We Are
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Both “Oppenheimer” and “The Zone of Interest” tangle with the psychology involved in creating highly efficient killing machines. In both “Zone” and “Oppenheimer,” though, sound plays against image in a way that draws attention to itself, disconcerting the audience. THE DIRECTOR OF “OPPENHEIMER,” Christopher Nolan, has long played around with sound in his films, which are often very loud and propelled by an intense, driving score. (Watching one of his films can feel at times as if you’re immersed in one very, very long montage.) Nolan also prefers not to rerecord actors’ dialogue, leaving them mixed into the sound as they were recorded during the performance, which can make them a little hard to hear.

Persons: “ Oppenheimer, It’s, “ OPPENHEIMER, ” Christopher Nolan, Nolan

☆ ‘Dune’ Fans, Here’s a Documentary That Will Blow Your Mind
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | More About Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

This week sees the release of “Dune: Part Two,” the second installment in Denis Villeneuve’s eye-popping adaptation of the 1965 Frank Herbert novel. Perhaps you’ve seen the Lynch version, which I find kind of charming in its flawed state. But if you’re heading to “Dune: Part Two” this weekend, you owe it to yourself to be acquainted with another “Dune” adaptation that doesn’t technically exist and, somehow, is also larger than life. I’m speaking of the “Dune” we glimpse in Frank Pavich’s 2014 documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune” (streaming on Max). It chronicles the “Dune” adaptation that never happened, the bright dream of the avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (who did make “El Topo” and “The Holy Mountain”).

Persons: Denis Villeneuve’s, Frank Herbert, David Lynch, you’ve, Frank Pavich’s, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jodorowsky, Michel Seydoux, Léa Seydoux, Pink Floyd, Salvador Dalí, Dalí, Christopher Walken, Gloria Swanson, Mick Jagger, Udo Kier, David Carradine, Orson Welles, Paul Atreides, Timothée Chalamet

☆ ‘Spaceman’ Review: What Happened Here?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The occasion for my bout of word nerdery is the Adam Sandler movie “Spaceman,” and for that I thank the film. What’s flummoxing about “Spaceman” isn’t what it is, but why it is. Some bad movies were never going to be good (“Argylle”). Other bad movies never even tried (“Madame Web”). But “Spaceman” is that exquisite rare third thing — an awful movie, a very bad movie indeed, whose lousiness was almost certainly not apparent while it was in production.

Persons: nonplused, flummoxed, fogged, you’re, Adam Sandler, we’ve

☆ Documentary Download: Ukrainian Stories of Sustenance and Strife
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Veselka, the Ukrainian diner on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, is one of the few restaurants in the city that truly deserves to be called venerable, even iconic. Veselka has also become a center for New York’s support for embattled Ukrainians, as shown in Michael Fiore’s new documentary, “Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World.” (David Duchovny narrates.) Veselka’s third-generation proprietor, Jason Birchard, is of Ukrainian ancestry, and many of the staff are from the country as well. The film (in theaters now) starts as a fun story about a New York institution, and its tone is resolutely hopeful and convivial. I wrote about “Navalny,” Daniel Roher’s Oscar-winning documentary that covers his opposition to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, and thought of other films that help illuminate the war in Ukraine years into the struggle.

Persons: Veselka, Michael Fiore’s, David Duchovny, Jason Birchard, Birchard, Aleksei A, “, ” Daniel Roher’s Oscar, Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: Center of Locations: America, New York, Russian, Ukraine

☆ The Documentary Aleksei Navalny Knew We’d Watch After His Death
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In the opening moments of “Navalny,” the Oscar-winning 2022 documentary about the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, the director Daniel Roher asks his subject a dark question. “If you are killed — if this does happen — what message do you leave behind to the Russian people?” the voice asks from behind the camera. It’s like you’re making a movie for the case of my death.” He pauses, then continues. “I’m ready to answer your question, but please let it be another movie, Movie No. Let’s make a thriller out of this movie.”“And in the case I would be killed,” he concludes with a wry smile, “let’s make a boring movie of memory.”

Persons: “, Aleksei A, Daniel Roher, Daniel, ”

☆ ‘The Taste of Things’ Review: Love, Loss and Loins of Veal
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At the center of everything good in the world is a bittersweet kernel: All things pass away. The grandest cathedral, the most vibrant painting, a beautiful harmony, a perfect aperitif — none of it will last forever. Yet somehow it’s also what makes life worth living. This conundrum lies at the heart of “The Taste of Things,” a magnificent culinary romance from the French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung. The couple living the conundrum are Eugénie (Juliette Binoche), a brilliant cook, and the well-known gourmand she works for, Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel).

Persons: Tran Anh Hung, Juliette Binoche, Dodin, aren’t, Eugénie

☆ ‘Perfect Days’ Review: Hanging On
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pay attention to the shadows in “Perfect Days.” Pay attention also to the trees, to the ways Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) looks at them. Hirayama cleans Tokyo’s public toilets for a living, rising before dawn to gently water the seedlings he grows in his home and then drive off to begin his shift. He keeps to a simple routine, the kind so carefully constructed you start to wonder if it’s a bulwark against chaos. They are anchors in time, companions throughout his days, riches rounding out his life. When he brings a book to the bar on the weekend, the proprietor tells him admiringly that he’s such an intellectual.

Persons: Koji Yakusho, Hirayama, Van Morrison, Nina Simone —, stashed, ”

☆ Documentary Download: 3 Celebrity Portraits Worth Your Time
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Pop open the “documentaries” section of your friendly local streaming service, and a bevy of movies about celebrities will greet you. Rockers, politicians, artists, authors, athletes — increasingly everyone you’ve heard of has a documentary, and probably served as a producer on it, too. The appeal of such films is obvious: If you like someone already, you get to hear them talk about themselves. If you know you should like someone, then you’ve got a quick introduction to set you on your way to fandom. The best of these movies tend to do more than tell us about the subject — they tell us what the subject means, in a cultural sense.

Persons: —, you’ve, “ Dario Argento Panico, Bruce Springsteen, Lionel Richie, won’t, “ Dario Argento, Guillermo del Toro, it’s, Judy Blume, ” Organizations: Netflix

☆ For the Most Groundbreaking Oscar Race This Year, Try Documentaries
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Most post-nomination Oscar chatter focuses on surprises and snubs connected to the fiction nominees. But I’m a nonfiction nerd, so for me the documentaries are where it’s at, and in recent years, the picks have grown delightfully unpredictable. Both are artful, and their nominations had seemed assured because, at least in the past, well-made portraits tended to get eyeballs and thus votes. Biographical documentaries are still hugely popular; next to true crime, they’re what’s hot in nonfiction right now, as our recently reviewed releases “June” and “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero” indicate. Don’t look now, but this may be the most groundbreaking category at the awards.

Persons: Michael J, Jon Batiste, “ Lil Nas, Montero Organizations: Fox

☆ ‘Sometimes I Think About Dying’ Review: Life, in Drab Gray
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Her mental tableaux of death look as if they were staged by the artist Gregory Crewdson. She imagines standing alone in a nondescript finished office basement as a giant snake slithers by. She imagines death, essentially, as peace in the midst of ever-changing nature. By day, Fran (Daisy Ridley) dons drab business casual and works in the sort of space that makes the environs of “The Office” seem like a magical wonderland. By night, Fran’s life isn’t much more interesting, but at least she’s in control of it.

Persons: Fran, Gregory Crewdson, Daisy Ridley Locations: “, Pacific

☆ ‘The End We Start From’ Review: A Watery Apocalypse and a New Beginning
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-18 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The first apocalypse recorded in more than one ancient text is, after all, a deluge. But there is such a thing as too much symbolism, and “The End We Start From,” adapted from Megan Hunter’s acclaimed best-selling novel, is drowning. The action starts in a bathtub that’s slowly filling for a woman (played by Jodie Comer and identified in the credits only as “Woman”). As the water fills the bathtub inside, the world is filling up with water outside. But they’re only permitted to enter because R’s parents live there, and because they have a two-day-old baby in the car.

Persons: ”, Megan Hunter’s, Jodie Comer, Joel Fry, Noah Locations: London, Venice, England

The world first met Cady Heron, Regina George and the Plastics when “Mean Girls” hit movie theaters in 2004. Written by Tina Fey and based on a nonfiction book about social dynamics among high school girls, “Mean Girls” tells the story of a formerly home-schooled 16-year-old who becomes entangled with a group of popular students at her new high school. Its stars became famous, its quotable lines were ubiquitous and young people started wearing pink on Wednesdays. This month, a new version of “Mean Girls” has hit cinemas. Alissa Wilkinson, a film critic, and Alexis Soloski, a culture reporter, discuss their relationships with “Mean Girls,” how the world has changed since the original movie and what the new “Mean Girls” has to say to audiences today.

Persons: Cady Heron, Regina George, Tina Fey, Alissa Wilkinson, Alexis Soloski Organizations: Plastics

☆ ‘Mean Girls’ and the New (Home-Schooled) Kid in Class
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

I was a junior in college when “Mean Girls” first hit theaters, and the joke tickled me because I’d spent the last few years trying to figure out hierarchies myself: I’d been home-schooled, just like Cady. Well, not just like Cady. I left my private school after the fifth grade to be home-schooled, and a number of the communities my family dipped into along the way were similar to the gun-toting, dinosaur-loving kids from the movie. (The first time I really felt like my youth was represented onscreen was last year’s documentary series “Shiny Happy People.”) I went to seminars where we were taught that dinosaurs did roam the earth at the same time as humans, that the fossil record was designed by God to mess with scientists, and a whole lot of other things.

Persons: I’d, Cady Organizations: “

☆ ‘The Book of Clarence’ Review: Messiahs Wherever You Look
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-11 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The subject of a Jesus movie is technically Jesus. Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” paints a heavily Catholic, heavily bloody image of a suffering hero. “The Jesus Film,” produced for evangelistic purposes, takes its text entirely from the biblical account, attempting to render a literalist version of a savior. “The Book of Clarence” is something entirely different than these and dozens of other renderings. As with that series, “The Book of Clarence” is a highly ambitious attempt at relatability, with an added reverence for the old-school “Ben-Hur”-era Hollywood biblical epics.

Persons: Jesus —, —, Mel Gibson’s, Franco Zeffirelli’s “ Jesus of Nazareth ”, “, ”, William Wyler’s “ Ben, Hur, Jesus, Clarence ”, you’ve, “ Ben, Jeymes Samuel Organizations: Angel Studios, CW

☆ The Year’s Best Movies
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-03 | by ( Ian Prasad Philbrick | More About Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I found myself at the movies this year more often than last. And though neither metric has yet rebounded to prepandemic levels, it finally feels like the movies are, in some sense, back. Maybe it was the monotony of at-home streaming or just the desire to finally get off the couch. A quick scan of The New York Times’s list of the year’s best movies makes the point. The films, picked by the critics Manohla Dargis and Alissa Wilkinson, span a number of genres, including dramas and biopics.

Persons: I’m, Manohla Dargis, Alissa Wilkinson, Wes Anderson, Steve McQueen, Rockwell, Celine Song, ”, Martin Scorsese Organizations: Office, Osage Locations: York, Chilean

I saw hundreds of new films with a variety of plots and styles made on every imaginable scale and budget. The movies have ostensibly been at death’s door at least since the shift to sync sound, which isn’t to undersell the industry’s business woes. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” was “cursed,” read one headline; “‘Mission: Impossible 7’ falls short of expectations,” ran another. The moaning in the trades gave way to klaxon horns when much of SAG-AFTRA went on strike on July 14. This year also reminded us that a mass audience will happily get out of the house for movies without superheroes.

Persons: Manohla, Rockwell, Martin Scorsese, shutdowns, Topsy, “, bullish, Indiana Jones, ”, AFTRA, Barry Diller, “ Barbie ”, “ Oppenheimer ” Organizations: Yahoo, Sundance Film, Writers Guild, SAG, Paramount, Marvel Locations: Cannes

☆ ‘Eileen’ Review: Sudden Fire, Sudden Danger
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | More About Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

McKenzie’s accent is a bit wobblier than Hathaway’s, but once you’re over that hump, the pair are thrilling together. McKenzie plays Eileen as a wide-eyed girl in arrested development who might have been an ingénue if she’d ever had a moment to sparkle. That’s you, Eileen. Oldroyd’s cold but keen eye for women pushed to the edge of a nervous breakdown by boorish, violent men meets rich ground here. Not just Eileen, but Rebecca and several other female characters are not good or angelic women, and yet they’ve clearly bent themselves to fit molds made by men.

Persons: McKenzie, Eileen, she’d, You’re, Rebecca, Radcliffe, She’s, —, she’s, William Oldroyd, Macbeth, ”, Florence Pugh Organizations: Harvard Locations: England, Moshfegh

☆ ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Review: Hayao Miyazaki Has a Question for You
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

That blurred distinction is a hallmark of Miyazaki, whose films (among them “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away”) are windows into the subconscious. In interviews collected in the book “Starting Point: 1979-1996,” Miyazaki referred to a universal “yearning for a lost world” he refused to call nostalgia, since even children experience it. But that heron (voiced by Masaki Suda) keeps appearing, luring him toward the tower, taunting him with forbidden knowledge. (Robert Pattinson voices the heron in an English-language version that features Christian Bale, Gemma Chan and many others.) Even by his standards, though, “The Boy and the Heron” is enigmatic, at least regarding plot.

Persons: Miyazaki, ” Miyazaki, ”, we’ve, “, Mononoke ”, “ It’s, Masaki Suda, Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Gemma Chan, isn’t, — Locations: Miyazaki’s, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Japan

☆ Are the 'Avatar' movies animated? Here's why the Oscars don't think so.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A viral tweet over the weekend started a debate around the "Avatar" movies and animation. The tweet asserts that "Avatar: The Way of Water" should be considered an animated film at the Oscars. And, last week, it was nominated for best visual effects at this year's Oscars — an award that the first "Avatar" movie won 13 years ago. "Avatar is an animated film and should've been put in the animated film category," tweeted artist Matthew Robert Davies, who's worked on TV shows "Roy" and "The Adventures of Paddington." It would be hard to argue that the "Avatar" movies could not be mistaken for live action.

☆ 'Avatar: The Way of Water' makes the visual effects in Marvel movies and other blockbusters look amateur
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In an interview with ComicBook.com last week, the filmmaker threw shade at the visual effects in Marvel movies, comparing them to those in "Avatar: The Way of Water," his long-awaited sequel to the first "Avatar." After a year of Marvel movies and other big-budget tentpoles whose looks didn't impress me, the movie was a breath of fresh air. That same month, a VFX artist who has worked on Marvel movies wrote a scathing essay for Vulture, alleging that Marvel overworks VFX houses and demands last-minute changes. The reality is that the problems with Marvel movies are a reflection of the state of big-budget movies in general. Audiences are already realizing that these premium formats are the best way to see "The Way of Water."

Search resuls for: "Alissa Wilkinson"

25 mentions found