22 Vs Earth Pixar Follows Up Soul With A Prequel Short

Directed by “Soul” editor Kevin Nolting (a Pixar vet for nearly 22 years), the short provided an opportunity to dig more deeply into 22’s aversion to life until she meets jazz pianist Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), who’s determined to return to Earth to play professionally in New York. “All during the making of ‘Soul,’ we wondered why she didn’t want to be born,” said Nolting, who also edited the Oscar-winning “Inside Out” and “Up” for director/chief creative officer Pete Docter....

December 9, 2022 · 3 min · 594 words · Betty Ruiz

A Couple Review Frederick Wiseman Finds The Truth In Fiction

At the age of 92, Frederick Wiseman, the creator of long documentaries, has made a short fiction feature. This begs the question of whether his “A Couple” marks a break from a style established over nearly 60 years, or whether it is a continuation in every way, bar genre technicalities. Wiseman is known for his unobtrusive long takes, naturalistic observations, meticulous focus, and gentle humanism. Faith and patience is required of the viewer as he uses a method comparable to mosaic-building to, piece by piece, assemble a bigger picture of people, places, or institutions....

December 9, 2022 · 6 min · 1140 words · Andre Grant

A Quiet Place Spin Off Directed By Jeff Nichols Coming In 2023

The new film is not expected to be “A Quiet Place Part III,”, but is being described as a feature film broadening the landscape already detailed in Krasinski’s first two features, so expect a new crop of characters to be fighting the sound-based monsters. Nichols’ take on the material is based on an idea by Krasinski. Rumors of a Nichols-helmed spin-off have been chattered about for months; last November, Nichols’ involvement was first reported by Deadline....

December 9, 2022 · 2 min · 355 words · Scott Sorenson

A Wilderness Of Error Director Marc Smerling On Avoiding The Jinx

Smerling has been down this road before when it comes to true crime. He was the producer of the 2015 HBO documentary “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” which eventually saw Durst arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Smerling also served as screenwriter on the Durst biopic that stared Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, “All Good Things,” released in 2010. Looking to dissociate himself from the Durst-ian world, he started the podcast “Crimetown” in 2016....

December 9, 2022 · 5 min · 909 words · Ashley Galassi

After Sherman Review A Lyrical Documentary About A Fading South

And yet, the tragedy of that night is a dream that was deferred. The formerly enslaved would ultimately gain land: parcels not given to them, but purchased in the decades following the Civil War. Amid the arched mossy trees, the sweaty swamps and islands formed by vascular waters, new communities took root. They fished, and they tilled under the cloud of Jim Crow. But most of all, they heard the whispers of the past, both the good and the bad....

December 9, 2022 · 4 min · 820 words · Joan Necaise

Alice Review Keke Palmer Anchors Mix Of Antebellum Blaxploitation

Alice knows there’s something else out there. There has to be. Born and raised on an antebellum plantation somewhere smack-dab in the middle of nowhere Georgia, Alice (Keke Palmer) may have never gone more than a mile or two beyond the boundaries of the Bennet place, but something is calling for her. Blame her evil boss Paul Bennet (a truly chilling and unrecognizable Jonny Lee Miller) who taught his favorite “domestic” how to read early, but only so she could read to him, and who somehow never realized she might use her intellectual curiosity for other ends....

December 9, 2022 · 5 min · 970 words · Larissa Manzione

Another Round Thomas Vinterberg On His Life S Greatest Tragedy

“Another Round” would reunite him with Mads Mikkelsen, following their acclaimed collaboration on “The Hunt,” and serve as the debut performance of Vinterberg’s daughter, Ida. Mikkelsen was playing a disillusioned high school history teacher who confronts a midlife crisis through day drinking, and Ida Vinterberg would play his concerned teen. Vinterberg planned to shoot the movie at Ida’s high school and populate the ensemble with her friends, envisioning a unique seriocomic generational conflict grounded in the naturalism of its backdrop....

December 9, 2022 · 8 min · 1575 words · Wilhelmina West

Bernstein S Wall Review Leonard Bernstein Doc Is Moving Portrait

The compassionate new documentary “Bernstein’s Wall” spends about five minutes on this episode, clearly a headache-inducing one for Bernstein as revealed in archival interviews (“Oh god,” he says, putting his head in his hands) before his death in 1990. But it’s the most fascinating segment in this well-conceived documentary portrait, adoring but hardly hagiographic, which smartly implements no talking heads. Instead, director Douglas Tirola (“Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead”) lets Bernstein tells his own story, in his own words, as a Jew growing up in Boston who became a celebrity among New York’s cultural cognoscenti and, eventually, in Hollywood....

December 9, 2022 · 4 min · 827 words · Mignon Baldon

Billions David Costabile And Daniel Breaker On Wags And Scooter

After playing the perky and hedonistic fan favorite Mike “Wags” Wagner for six seasons on the Showtime, David Costabile knows that better than just about anyone. “There’s a responsibility that you have to the rest of the company to help them focus. If somebody starts fucking around, then everybody wants to start fucking around. There’s a time and a place for it, and there’s plenty of fucking around that we do....

December 9, 2022 · 11 min · 2238 words · Tom Parker

Billions Season 6 Finale An Ending Focused On Power And Who Has It

As far as four-word thesis statements go, “Things you do matter” is about as efficient as they come. When Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) offers that sentiment up to Rian (Eva Victor) as a means of persuasion, it’s an effective blanket statement for the whole of “Billions” Season 6. The would-be benevolent billionaire makes speaks these words as an acknowledgment that none of his own actions come without consequences, however much he thinks he has the means to ignore them....

December 9, 2022 · 7 min · 1302 words · Joni Gordan

Black Bird Finale Taron Egerton Paul Walter Hauser Fight Unexpected

The show has always been about the dynamic between Hauser’s Larry Hall and Egerton’s Jimmy Keene as they try to suss out each other’s motivations. But with the finale, “You Promised,” Jimmy has to get a confession from Larry by any means necessary. Filming the confrontation between the pair wasn’t something Egerton felt comfortable showing up casual for. “Paul and I had discussed it at length,” Egerton said to IndieWire in a separate conversation....

December 9, 2022 · 4 min · 765 words · Frank Haag

Black Widow Post Credits Scene What It Is And What It Means

Over the course of 13 years and 24 films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise has used the extra space afforded by their generous credits — turns out, it takes a lot of people to make a superhero film — to sneak in all manner of post-credits offerings. From the essential (like the first one, which saw Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury appearing at the very end of “Iron Man” to tout a little something called the Avengers Initiative) to the just plain silly (like after “Captain Marvel,” when Goose the cat hacked up a Tesseract hairball), a Marvel film isn’t ever over until the lights come on....

December 9, 2022 · 7 min · 1289 words · Margaret Barnes

Bob Hearts Abishola Folake Olowofoyeku Interview

“There have been a couple of agents when I was in New York who suggested or advised that I change my name,” she said. “There was an agent that I was with who I liked, so she was the only one whose opinion could have possibly swayed me. But her approach was kind of like, ‘I’m just curious. I’m not saying you should, but have you ever considered it?’ And I’m grateful for that because it was never mandatory....

December 9, 2022 · 6 min · 1218 words · Nicholas Hoffman

Breaking Trailer John Boyega Is A Veteran Bank Robber

“Breaking” tells the powerful story of Marine Veteran Brian Brown-Easley (Boyega), who was denied support from Veterans Affairs and turned to taking an Atlanta bank hostage in 2017. In the trailer, Boyega is an apologetic bank robber who threatens the staff with a bomb. The late Michael K. Williams plays an officer determined to talk Brown-Easley down; Connie Britton also stars as an operative tasked with diffusing the situation. Formerly titled “892,” “Breaking” premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and is distributed by Bleecker Street....

December 9, 2022 · 3 min · 490 words · Chris Infante

Catch And Kill The Podcast Tapes Review Hbo S Doc Bland On Arrival

“Catch & Kill: The Podcast Tapes” is an interesting experiment in that it feels like something that should have come out in the immediate aftermath of Farrow’s book. His podcast actually started in November 2019 and concluded around February 2020, so it’s hard to figure out why, in July 2021, there needs to be a glorified video podcast told as a six-episode series — well, short of corporate greed....

December 9, 2022 · 4 min · 651 words · Maria Toomey

Catherine Called Birdy House Behind The Scenes Interview

But looking at the time period this way is a little bit like extrapolating what an animal looks like based just on its bones — you miss the things that actually give it shape and character and life. Among the many virtues of “Catherine Called Birdy” is that Lena Dunham’s adaptation of the beloved Karen Cushman novel builds a world as spirited and colorful as the film’s protagonist. Production designer Kave Quinn did not need to look too far afield in order to build a version of the fictional town of Stonebridge (in the shire of Lincoln, in the kingdom of England, in the hands of God — and shot on location at Stokesay Castle in Shropshire), turning to illustrated manuscripts from the late 13th century for examples of the period’s color and beauty....

December 9, 2022 · 5 min · 921 words · Rodney Dunn

Chaos Walking Trailer Tom Holland Daisy Ridley

Set in the near future, “Chaos Walking” stars as Tom Holland as Todd Hewitt, a young man living on the distant planet of New World. Todd is raised to believe that a pathogen has killed all the world’s female population and unleashed a special ability called Noise that allows people to hear the minds of humans and animals. Todd is thrust into an adventure after he stumbles upon a patch of silence and meets Viola Eade (Ridley), a woman without Noise who is the key to unlocking secrets for the New World....

December 9, 2022 · 2 min · 297 words · Eduardo Hollenbach

Cobra Kai Review Season 4 Connects Heavily To Karate Kid Iii

“Cobra Kai” is an extension of the 1984 film, “The Karate Kid,” which tells the story of Danny LaRusso, a shy teenager who relocates from New Jersey to Los Angeles, and soon becomes the target of rich golden boy Johnny Lawrence, when they both vie for the affection of Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue). After Danny suffers a brutal beatdown from Johnny, who is part of the feared martial arts team Cobra Kai, Danny trains under the kind and wise Mr....

December 9, 2022 · 4 min · 794 words · Rosalind Howle

Daisy Jones The Six First Look Riley Keough Rocks The 1970S

The “Zola” scene-stealer transforms into fictional ethereal rocker Daisy Jones for the highly anticipated adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel “Daisy Jones & The Six.” Sam Claflin co-stars as tortured songwriter Billy Dunne, frontman of The Six, comprised of Suki Waterhouse, Sebastian Chacon, Josh Whitehouse, and Will Harrison. Camila Morrone stars as Billy’s wife who struggles as Billy grows closer and closer to collaborator Daisy. Timothy Olyphant, Tom Wright, and Nabiyah Be round out the cast....

December 9, 2022 · 3 min · 489 words · Richard Snyder

Dopesick Trailer Michael Keaton S Hulu Series Takes On Big Pharma

Hulu also announced the release date during the show’s TCA panel, setting the premiere for October 13. Per Hulu, here’s the official synopsis: “Dopesick” examines how one company triggered the worst drug epidemic in American history. The series takes viewers to the epicenter of America’s struggle with opioid addiction, from the boardrooms of Big Pharma, to a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA. Defying all the odds, heroes will emerge in an intense and thrilling ride to take down the craven corporate forces behind this national crisis and their allies....

December 9, 2022 · 2 min · 341 words · April Shoemaker