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☆ ‘Sanctuary’ Review: Who’s the Boss?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Jeannette Catsoulis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Unfolding over one fraught night, “Sanctuary” dances on the border between fantasy and reality. He’s about to find out, though, that this employee will not be pensioned off so easily. If she’s to succeed, she’ll need more than a talent for debasement and humiliation. Sexual but not sexy, “Sanctuary” is fantastically dynamic and emphatically theatrical. The ending feels too smoothly settled, but it at least prods Hal and Rebecca to answer the film’s central question: Where does role-playing end and real life begin?

☆ Johnny Depp emotional after 7 minute standing ovation at Cannes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Johnny Depp was teary eyed after his film’s warm welcome at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday. Video shared on social media by Variety shows a visibly moved Depp during a seven minute ovation for his film, “Jeanne du Barry,” in which he stars as the former King of France Louis XV. It was the actor’s first film project since a defamation trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard last summer. A jury found them both liable for defamation in their lawsuits against each other, but awarded significantly more damages to Depp. “The film is a success, and Johnny Depp [as Louis XV] is magnificent in it.”

☆ Çanakkale: Where ancient Troy sits beside the modern city
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Nick Hilden | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —An enormous wooden horse presides over the marina in Çanakkale, a small port city southwest of Istanbul. The clapboard animal is a mock-up of the Trojan Horse of mythological fame. Çanakkale (pronounced cha-na-call-ay) stands adjacent to the archaeological site that was once the ancient city of Troy, best known as the setting of the Trojan War in Homer’s “Iliad.”A giant wooden horse watches over Çanakkale. Today when you visit Truva – either via car or a short bus ride from Çanakkale – a second model of the Trojan Horse looms at the entrance. “We know that there were many wars that occurred at Troy,” Rose explains.

☆ Ruben Ostlund Doesn’t Want You to Get Too Comfortable
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( A.J. Goldmann | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Contrary to popular belief, thought-provoking cinema can also be popular,” Philippe Bober, one of the producers on “Triangle of Sadness,” wrote in an email. “We want to make uncompromising auteur films but also to embrace the audience,” Mr. Bober continued. He has worked with Mr. Ostlund since 2005. The humor, often acid-laced, that makes the Swedish director’s films so entertaining is often deeply discomfiting — and sometimes downright squirmworthy. This has proved divisive, with some viewers regarding his work as manipulative or downright cruel (“Triangle of Sadness” includes an audaciously long vomiting scene), and others hailing him as an uncommonly perceptive social commentator.

☆ Scarlett Johansson is a full-fledged Disney adult despite that lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Alli Rosenbloom | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Scarlett Johansson may have sued Disney in 2021 for breach of contract, but the “Black Widow” star still is – and always has been – a full-fledged Disney adult. (A Disney adult can be defined in many ways depending on one’s level of fandom, but the term tends to refer to a grown person that is a dedicated Disney fan.) “We had annual passes to Disney World, and I have a real passion for the Disney parks,” Johansson said, adding that the obsession with Disney began when her family lived in Florida for two years when she was younger. The star even said her dream job is to have a “corner office” on the Disney studio lot when she appeared on Bruce Bozzi’s “Table for Two” podcast in 2022. Johansson sued the studio in 2021, alleging Disney breached her contract by releasing “Black Widow,” a 2021 Marvel film she starred in, on home streaming platform Disney+ the same day it was released in theaters.

☆ Summer movie preview 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Dan Heching | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

CNN —Most moviegoers can pinpoint one summer movie – or perhaps, a summer of movies – in their formative years that really and truly cemented their love for going to the cinema, whether it be 1975’s “Jaws,” “E.T. And while streaming has clearly siphoned off part of the audience, particularly for more serious films, what we think of as “summer movies” still have the potential to rake in cash just like the old days. (CNN and DC are both part of the same parent company, Warner Bros. Courtesy Warner Bros. PicturesInitially meant for streaming platforms, this vehicle will herald the cinematic arrival of DC Studios’ first Latino superhero, played by Xolo Maridueña of “Cobra Kai” and “Parenthood” fame. If the fast-paced trailer is any indication, the movie looks sure to whisk those dog days of summer doldrums away quite nicely.

☆ ‘Queens of the Qing Dynasty’ Review: Secret Soul Mates
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Beatrice Loayza | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The pair make an odd couple, and yet their bond is intuitive, electric. The story kicks off in the aftermath of Star’s suicide attempt, the film’s tone at once bleakly clinical and deadpan absurd. Star, a neurodivergent foster kid with a sardonic sense of humor, clearly doesn’t register the gravity of her actions. Eyes glazed, she seems out of touch with her own body, and she’s not one for rules, like when she’s kicked out of an apartment for opening it to partiers. Walker, captivatingly raw, makes Star both charming and frustrating in her aloofness.

☆ Will Poulter Is Just Getting Used to His Superhero Era
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Kyle Buchanan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“For that to be my introduction to the film industry, I couldn’t have asked for a gentler, nicer, more wholesome experience,” he said. That’s why, now that the tide has turned toward appreciative tweets instead of cruel jokes, Poulter is skeptical about putting any stock into what social media has to say about him. “It shouldn’t inform how I treat myself, because I don’t know those people,” he said. “One of the dangers with social media is we can conflate things that exist online to the real world without even questioning it. We just carry the one and don’t really ask whether it actually adds up at the end of the day.”He smiled.

☆ Five Horror Movies to Stream Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Erik Piepenburg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ruben Broekhuis’s propulsive thriller mixes documentary and found-footage conventions to tell a sinister and unpredictable story about surveillance and the dark web. The young siblings were in a shelter, about to be adopted, when one day Adin mysteriously disappeared. When Elias and Aisha arrive at the shelter with the camera rolling, blows are exchanged as the administrators question the visitors’ motives. But then — and here’s where the film made me sit straight up — the camera’s point of view switches. A knockout final stretch explains most everything, but the film concludes with a too-twisty coda.

☆ ‘Hunger Games’ prequel reveals first look
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —“Every saga has a beginning.”That’s part of the message in the newly released trailer for “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”The prequel for the “Hunger Games” franchise tells the story of Lucy Gray Baird, played by “West Side Story” star Rachel Zelger, and a teenage Coriolanus Snow, played by Tom Blyth. Things get dark quickly in the trailer as Lucy and young Snow try to survive the deadly games. “With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. “With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Based on the book series by Suzanne Collins, the “Hunger Games” franchise has been extremely popular with the first film helping to launch Jennifer Lawrence’s stardom.

☆ ‘Fatal Attraction’ Review: Here’s Why She Did It
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Mike Hale | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

So Alexandra Cunningham (“Dirty John,” “Desperate Housewives”) and Kevin J. Hynes (“Perry Mason”), working with the film’s writer, James Dearden, have reimagined “Fatal Attraction” in myriad ways, none of which are erotic and few of which are thrilling. Dan is up for parole because in this new universe, he has served 15 years for the murder of his stalker, Alex Forrest (Lizzy Caplan). The temporal shifts also serve to educate both Dan and the audience about the noxious privilege and entitlement that precipitated his downfall. But apparently converting “Fatal Attraction” into a reasonably diverting crime drama wasn’t enough to remove the stain of the original. Ellen’s research leads her to reassess the behavior of her father’s murdered nemesis, and the greatest labor this “Fatal Attraction” takes on is its effort to turn Alex into an understandable, even sympathetic, character.

☆ Alec Baldwin Returns to ‘Rust,’ With Fake Guns and Rubber Bullets
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Julia Jacobs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

PRAY, Mont. — By the edge of a steep, snow-dusted gully just north of Yellowstone National Park, Alec Baldwin and the crew of the western “Rust” gathered for their morning safety meeting as filming resumed a year and a half after it had been halted by tragedy. It was anything but routine. “I’ve said it, and I’m going to say it every single time: There are no weapons on set,” Gerard DiNardi, the film’s new first assistant director, reassured the crew on Friday. There are a lot of facsimiles of weapons, from rubber to replicas.”The movie’s new armorer, Andrew Wert, who handles all weapons and ammunition on set, added that even the dummy rounds — the inert cartridges that are used in movies to resemble real ammunition — were made of rubber and wood, and painted gold.

☆ ‘The Shark Is Broken,’ a ‘Jaws’ Comedy, Plans Broadway Run
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Michael Paulson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“The Shark Is Broken,” a comedy about the making of “Jaws” that stars the son of one of the film’s main actors, will open on Broadway this summer. The play is the brainchild of Ian Shaw, whose father, Robert Shaw, played Quint, the psychotic shark hunter, in the film. Its film set was plagued by problems, some exacerbated by Robert Shaw’s drinking, and the play depicts the fraught relationship between him and his co-stars, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider. In the play, set in 1974, the three men are trapped together on a boat, managing bad weather, (fake) shark troubles and alcohol. The Broadway run is to begin previews on July 25 and to open on Aug. 10 at the Golden Theater.

☆ Alec Baldwin Returns to ‘Rust’ Set as Charges He Faced Are Dropped
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Julia Jacobs | Graham Bowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

PRAY, Mont. — Alec Baldwin was mounted on a chestnut horse in a steep gully in a snow-dusted valley in Montana on Friday, his first day back filming “Rust,” the western whose cinematographer was shot and killed in 2021 when a gun he was practicing with on its set went off. “Set, ready, and … action,” cried Gerard DiNardi, the movie’s new first assistant director, and Mr. Baldwin urged the horse forward, toward a camera rigged on a pickup truck. As Mr. Baldwin returned to the set of “Rust,” prosecutors in New Mexico filed court papers formally dismissing, at least for now, the involuntary manslaughter charges he had been facing in the shooting of the film’s original cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, who was killed outside Santa Fe, where the movie was initially filmed. The prosecutors, Jason Lewis and Kari Morrissey, wrote in their filing in the case of the State of New Mexico vs. Alexander Rae Baldwin III that they were withdrawing the charges against him “since new facts were revealed that demand further investigation and forensic analysis” that could not be completed before a hearing, set to begin on May 3, at which a judge was to rule on whether the charges against Mr. Baldwin could proceed.

☆ Koko Da Doll, Star of Film on Transgender Sex Workers, Is Killed in Atlanta
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Koko Da Doll, who was featured in “Kokomo City,” a documentary about four Black transgender sex workers that won awards at the Sundance Film Festival this year, was fatally shot in Atlanta on Tuesday, the film’s director said. Koko Da Doll, 35, whose name was Rasheeda Williams, “was the latest victim of violence against Black transgender women,” the director, D. Smith, said in a statement. “I created ‘Kokomo City’ because I wanted to show the fun, humanized, natural side of Black trans women,” Ms. Smith said. “I wanted to create images that didn’t show the trauma or the statistics of murder of transgender lives. But here we are again.”The Atlanta Police Department said that it was actively investigating three violent crimes against transgender women this year — the fatal shooting on Tuesday, another fatal shooting on April 11 and a shooting that critically injured a female victim in January.

☆ Fact Check-Footage from film production resurfaces false claims the war in Ukraine is staged
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A video showing armed men in uniforms entering a building while a camera crew film the scene was taken from the production of a film about the war in Ukraine filmed in Latvia. Some users seemingly believe these rumors (tinyurl.com/mreua8vu), while others pointed out the video was taken from a film (tinyurl.com/yhr37xwd). One example is an explosion that takes place around timestamp 0:16 in the clip circulating online and 0:36 in the YouTube video. Claims the war in Ukraine is “staged” are false. Reuters has previously debunked similar claims involving the war in Ukraine (here), (here), (here).

☆ Alec Baldwin: Prosecutors plan to dismiss charges against actor in 'Rust' shooting, Baldwin's attorney tells CNN
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Chloe Melas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Prosecutors in the “Rust” fatal shooting case plan to file a notice to dismiss involuntary manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin, his attorney, Luke Nikas, tells CNN. CNN has contacted the special prosecutor in the Santa Fe, New Mexico case for comment. Baldwin and “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed were both charged with involuntary manslaughter in January. An attorney for Gutierrez Reed has previously said she will plead not guilty. Prosecutors already removed a firearm enhancement charge against Baldwin and Gutierrez Reed, reducing a potential prison sentence from 5 years to a maximum of 18 months.

☆ 'The Mandalorian' season 3 finale review: 'The Return' hits the reset button (SPOILERS)
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers about the seventh episode of “The Mandalorian,” Season 3, “The Return.”CNN —To borrow a line from another Disney+ series, it’s been the Empire all along. It was the kind of cinematic sequence that would surely play well in the planned movie that will capitalize upon this timeline of the “Star Wars” universe. That said, after resolving the fate of Mandalore, the finale essentially hit the reset button on the show’s central premise in the form of happy ending. That involved formalizing the central duo’s bond by having the Mandalorian adopt Grogu, before assuming a new bounty-hunting role focused on pursuing Imperial remnants across the galaxy. Overall, to say the third season wasn’t always neat or pretty would be an understatement.

☆ Alec Baldwin to resume ‘Rust’ production this week
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Chloe Melas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Filming of the movie “Rust” will resume this week. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Rust Movie Productions told CNN that principal photography of “Rust” is set to resume Thursday at Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana. Production on the western starring Alec Baldwin came to a halt in 2021, when cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot when a prop gun Baldwin was holding fired a live round of ammunition during rehearsal. Baldwin and Souza will also return to finish the project, according to Rust Movie Productions. Baldwin and “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed were charged with involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death in January.

REUTERS/Lauren JusticeLOS ANGELES, April 3 (Reuters) - Actor Ben Affleck is hopeful for basketball legend Michael Jordan’s seal of approval after directing the biographical sports film, "Air," which is based on Jordan’s historic deal with the Nike (NKE.N) shoe brand. Affleck plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight and “The Woman King” actor Viola Davis portrays Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan. There was one key role that Affleck and Damon decided not to fill, and it was Michael Jordan’s. “The second you put the camera on an actor and say ‘Hey, it’s Michael Jordan’ and it’s not Michael Jordan, you’re going to lose the audience, so we knew. Michael’s just too famous and means too much to people to try to have someone else play him in a movie,” Damon said.

HONG KONG, March 21 (Reuters) - The screening of "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey", a British slasher film due to be released in Hong Kong this week, has been cancelled after cinemas in the city declined to show it, its distributor said on Tuesday. These 30+ screens in Hong Kong are the only ones with such issues." Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 cracking down on dissent after the city was rocked by anti-government, pro-democracy protests a year earlier. Two films were dropped from Hong Kong's international film festival last year after failing to get approval from authorities. The cancellation comes as Hong Kong hosts the Art Basel contemporary art fair, with authorities eager to promote the city as a vibrant cultural hub.

☆ Her 400-Plus Triathlons Were Hard. Her Oscar Nomination Was Harder.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Jen Murphy | Photographs Erik Isakson For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

If you think completing an Ironman takes perseverance, try getting Hollywood to invest in the retelling of a World War I novel. It took Scottish screenwriter and professional triathlete Lesley Paterson 16 years to see her Oscar-nominated screenplay for “All Quiet on the Western Front” come to life. The persistence paid off, as the film, an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 antiwar novel of the same title, took home seven BAFTAs—the most prestigious British film awards—in February, including for the best adapted screenplay. The “All Quiet” script, by Ms. Paterson, Ian Stokell and director Edward Berger, earned one of the film’s nine Academy Award nominations. The Oscars take place Sunday night.

☆ The Guilt Behind ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Chris Kornelis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Netflix’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ has emerged as an awards season darling, nabbing nine Academy Award nominations. With nine Oscar nominations, including one for best picture, and seven wins at Bafta Film Awards last month, the German-language movie, “All Quiet on the Western Front” is an unexpected hit of the awards season. The film’s director, Edward Berger, hadn’t expected to make it at all.

☆ Woody Harrelson Can Play Anyone. It’s Being Himself That’s Hard.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +17 min

“I’m an A personality and a B facade,” says Woody Harrelson, and that’s as good an explanation for his charm and success as you’re likely to find. I don’t know. I could go hang off one of those big mountaintop-remover coal things, but that’s not going to stop it. I meet with the director, and I’m going to do it — they’re making it for like $500,000 — then the guy just goes with someone else! I have a gluttonous side, and I know that’s not going to help me be a spiritually better person.

☆ ‘Rust’ Will Resume Filming This Spring, Company Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Jennifer Calfas | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

“Rust,” the low-budget Western film that halted production after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set in October 2021, will resume filming this spring. Details of the film’s next steps come after New Mexico prosecutors brought involuntary manslaughter charges against actor and producer Alec Baldwin and the film’s armorer for the on-set shooting that resulted in Ms. Hutchins’s death. It also comes less than a week after the parents and sister of Ms. Hutchins filed a new lawsuit against the production company, Mr. Baldwin and others involved.

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