Howard’s film had received the best test scores in MGM history — earning a 97 in the top two boxes and an 86 “definite recommend”. It was originally set for release on April 15th but then got rescheduled for a prime November 18th date. It’s a dumbfounding decision. It seemed like the kind of movie that could get audience awards at festivals, especially at TIFF. Were the test-reactions uber-inflated? It’s bizarre how this won’t be doing a festival run at all … “Thirteen Lives,” which stars Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen, and Joel Edgerton, is based on the true story of a rescue mission in Thailand, where a group of young boys and their soccer coach were trapped in a flooding maze-like underground cave....

I cringed at every attempt by Hollywood to deliver a Pokémon universe. However, what’s intriguing about this film is that it seems to deliver a genre mashup of science-fiction, neo-noir, and need I mention again, RYAN REYNOLDS. Ok, I’ll stop, but even the film’s look, with a Blade Runner-esque vibe, has me sold. The DP is a Ridley Scott veteran: John Mathieson (“Gladiator,” “Kingdom of Heaven,” “Logan”). The problem is that its director, Rob Letterman, is known to stoop down in low-quality blockbuster fare such as “A Shark’s Tale,” “Monsters vs....

As I’ve briefly mentioned in a few pieces I’ve published over the last few weeks, I’ve spoken to two people who have already seen Todd Field’s “Tár,” both have been glowing it with praise. However, they did not want me to publish their thoughts. I spoke to a third person yesterday who allowed me to post this brief capsule: The Kubrick comparisons are not surprising. Field was in “Eyes Wide Shut” and ensuingly developed a strong friendship with the late Leon Vitali, Kubrick’s longtime personal assistant and closest collaborator....

And so, I was delighted to read that Steven Spielberg is also a fan, not just that, but that he also watched it five times and compared it to the buddy movie to end all buddy movie. From Anthony D’Allessandro’s Deadline write-up titled “How Steven Spielberg Changed the Course For “Green Book”: “Spielberg watched [“Green Book”] at 8AM and called me at 10AM,” said Farrelly. “He flipped and said it was his favorite buddy movie since “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid....

Dee Rees premiered her third feature-length movie, “The Last Thing He Wanted,” with expectations sky high after the double success she had with 2011’s “Pariah” and 2017’s “Mudbound.” The film is based on Joan Didion’s novel of the same name and set during the Reagan-era, where American government was purposely arming both sides of the contra conflict, causing chaotic civil war in Latin America. Anne Hathaway leads the cast as a reporter who becomes involved in the very story she’s trying to break by helping her father (an under-utilized Willem Dafoe) broker an arms deal....

This year, as festival director Jon Cooper bid adieux to a festival he helped boost back again after it was struggling during the aughts, it felt like we were back to the Sundance irrelevance of yore. Don’t get me wrong, there some mighty fine movies that premiered in Park City the last 10 days especially the docs. If anything, if you go decide to attend Sundance you would be doing yourself a great disservice by not having non-fiction films as part of your itinerary....

However, it may soon be canceled. Please take note of the bastshit crazy thinking that went into Robbie Collin’s 6.12 Telegraph essay, “Let’s Not Kid Ourselves — Tropic Thunder‘s blackface joke is no better than Bo’ Selecta.” “Are we still allowed to laugh away unthinkingly at Tropic Thunder? Sorry, but no.” he quips with a straight woke face. Sure, let’s just cancel Robert Downey, Jr. and Ben Stiller for their twistedly hilarious satire, or, better yet, let’s just remove “Tropic Thunder” from all streaming services....

What does that say about how the upcoming fall festivals will look like? We just don’t know. There have been hints at the possibility of limited physical screenings happening for TIFF and Venice, with the rest of the fest being digitally screened in an online platform. Regardless, it’s going to be a very different experience for cinephiles come September Today, in an open letter signed by leaders at the Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and Telluride Film Festival, the leaders of each event have vowed to help each other out, drop the competitive nature and collaborate together to create a cinematic union....

A gang of Variety staffers — Peter Debruge, Owen Gleiberman, Lisa Kennedy, Jessica Kiang, Tomris Laffly, Guy Lodge and Amy Nicholson — have decided that Hitchcock‘s “Psycho” is the greatest movie of all-time. I won’t complain. It’s pretty clear that “Vertigo” has emerged as Hitch’s consensus masterpiece in the last few decades, but “Psycho” is still a great movie — save for its aged last 5-10 minutes which needed to painstakingly explain Norman Bates’ schizophrenia diagnosis to its bewildered 1960 audience....

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“The situation is that dire,” Fithian told Variety. “Overnight, we went from an industry that makes $15 billion a year — $11 billion in ticket sales and $4 billion in concessions — to one that is not going to make a penny for three or four months,” he added. “Most of these theaters, not all of them, but most of them, will go bankrupt if this does not pass,” said Fithian....

“Distributors should stick with their dates and release their movies because there’s no guarantee that more markets will be open later this year,” said Fithian. “Until there’s a vaccine that’s widely available, there will not be 100% of the markets open. Because of that, films should be released in markets where it is safe and legal to release them and that’s about 85% of markets in the U.S. and even more globally....

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Mia Goth reprises her titular role. The film is said to take place in 1985, five years after “X,” as Goth’s Maxine sets out in Hollywood to find fame. Production is said to take around 7 weeks to complete. The question remains whether Maxine will inevitably turn into a murdering psychopath like her doppelgänger Pearl. I bet she does. In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, West gave a little more details abour what fans can expect from the film....

Watching love and dating movies made by Asians can help you if you are trying to get to know their culture. It also helps Asian and non-Asian individuals with topics to talk about when on a date or on dating sites. If you keep reading, you’ll notice that some love movies are a mixture of thrillers or horror movies. That’s Asian cinematography at its finest - unusual style mixtures that work amazingly together....

Back in 2004, Wu released “Saving Face,” a personal rom-com about teenage sexual identity that got a very limited release by Sony Pictures Classics. More than sixteen years later, Wu is back in the director’s chair for her sophomore feature. A Netflix film based on the 1897 play by Edmond Rostand “Cyrano de Bergerac,” Wu goes back to the rom-com genre, tackling a play that’s been adapted to death, but with fresh new eyes, taking on an unconventional love triangle that purposely feels pertinent to today’s world....

You got that? Oh, and it gets worse. The Telegraph gives it 2 stars. A 3/10 from Slash Film, and a total pan from Vanity Fair. The other negative takes come from Variety, Deadline, and Screen Daily. IndieWire’s David Ehrlich is a little kinder on Inarritu’s film, giving it a polite C+ grade. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw is even nicer (3/5) with a semi-positive review. The only rave I’m seeing is from Inarritu’s Mexican compatriot Carlos Aguilar (good writer) who calls it “masterful....

He posted it on the AwardsWorthy message boards this morning: “And every other hour an important cultural French event is being canceled. If you ask me, Cannes is just a matter of time sadly. The Italian scenario is just a matter of a fortnight end probably even less.” I think the problem Cannes has lies in the fest taking place in the Cote D’Azur, which borders Italy. Italy is struggling to contain the virus, and is up there with South Korea, Japan, and China in the number of cases diagnosed....

It has a respectable 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 75 Metacritic score, but one does have to beg to ask the question, what is NEON hiding? The studio behind “Ammonite” has been very nitpicky in regard to screening Lee’s film for critics. That’s all fine and dandy, but, as it turns out, this is the only movie of the fall festival season whose publicists refused to send me a digital viewing link....

Zahia Dehar plays the titular “easy girl,” Sofia, practically nude the entire movie, as she shows the ropes of free sexuality to her naive 16-year-old cousin, Naima (Mina Farid), during one memorable vacation. Sofia, a curvacious and honey-skinned fireball of sexuality, lives in Paris, but she surprises Naima, our main protagonist, and the narrator of the story, randomly showing up, out of the blue, at her cousin’s Cannes villa. It’s not long before two older men, Andres (Nuno Lopes) and Philippe (Benoit Magimel), pine for the girls’ attention on their summer yacht....