Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Am I Ok? (Stephanie Allyne and Tig Notaro)

A romantic comedy that functions best as a fable of friendship and self-reflection, Am I Ok? is the kind of lightweight, amiable movie that just barely earns the emotional beats at the heart of its story. Set in Los Angeles, it follows the converging life events of two best friends, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) and Jane (Sonoya Mizuno), soul sisters with opposite personalities who tell each other everything—except for the big secrets they’ve been harboring from each other. How they respond to hearing them fuels Stephanie Allyne and Tig Notaro’s gentle and wobbly feature debut. – Jake K-s. (full review)

Where to Stream: Max

Dad & Step-Dad (Tynan DeLong)

Following the stellar comedy Free Time,...

Ellie Foumbi’s Our Father, the Devil is an exceptionally haunting, masterful film. A highlight from both Venice (a Biennale College Cinema selection) and this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, this tour-de-force is destined for indie awards recognition.

Part psychological thriller, part spiritual journey, part cathartic experience, Our Father defies characterization. Foumbi’s script follows the entanglement of two African refugees, Marie (mesmerizing Babetida Sadjo) and Father Patrick (otherworldly Souleymane Sy Savane); despite an unspoken connection to a bloody past, they’ve built new lives in a tranquil French mountain town. A study in contrasts, the film poses profound questions: Where to draw the line between past and present, fear and faith, guilt and forgiveness, the Devil and God?…...

Updated with Best Screenplay Award for Switch, written by Sara Robin: The 19th HollyShorts Film Festival has handed out its awards, including the Grand Prix Best Short Award to We Were Meant To, an honor that comes with a $60,000 prize from Panavision.

Tari Wariebi directed We Were Meant To, set in a reality where “Black men have wings and their first flight is a rite of passage.” The film stars Tim Johnson Jr. The Grand Prix Award qualifies the short for Oscar consideration. Also qualifying for the Oscars are Misan Harriman’s The After, which won Best Live Action Short, Rita Basulto’s Humo (Smoke), winner of the Best Animation Award, and Elisa Gambino’s Every Day After, winner of Best Documentary Short.

‘Humo’

The After stars David Oyelowo and Jessica Plummer. Animated winner Humo, meanwhile, “follows a boy called Daniel, who travels to a dark destination known as the smokehouse.

Babetida Sadjo in Our Father, The Devil

Featuring one of the most powerful central performances of the past year, Ellie Foumbi’s Our Father, The Devil, which is screening at the 2023 Glasgow Film Festival, is the story of a refugee whose quiet life working in a care home in France is thrown into chaos by the unexpected arrival of a man who may have ties to her past. Babetida Sadjo shines as Marie, a woman struggling under the weight of awful secrets, while Souleymane Sy Savane plays Father Patrick, the priest who, one way or another, holds the key to her future.

Having fallen in love with the film when I first saw it, I was delighted to have the chance to chat to Ellie. I told her that I always find it strange the way that people expect refugees who have been through awful things to just be magically okay.

As E3 continues to do its best impression of the “not quite dead yet” gag, Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest is rapidly becoming the premier place for developers and publishers to share their biggest summer game reveals and announcements. If anything, this year may cement the show’s status as a viable E3 competitor or replacement.

That being said, you should know that Keighley has already stated that you should expect this year’s Summer Game Fest show to primarily focus on previously revealed titles. While the phrase “previously revealed titles” covers a lot of ground (more on that in a bit), it still sounds like there may be fewer world-first reveals at Summer Game Fest 2022 than we’ve seen at Keighley-hosted events in the past.

Still, a brief look at some of Summer Game Fest 2022’s confirmed games strongly suggests that this will be one show you won’t want to miss.

From the Runaways to the Teen Titans, I'm a sucker for superhero teen drama in comic book form, so there are few MCU possibilities I find quite as thrilling as bringing in the Young Avengers. The studio has been slowly laying the groundwork to bring these teens together and honestly, I cannot wait! They are not only one of my favorite superhero teams in comics, but also probably the gayest -- hopefully, Marvel doesn't drop the ball here yet again.

The Young Avengers were introduced in the wake of the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline from Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch. Created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, the team...

The post Every Young Avenger in the MCU So Far appeared first on /Film.

Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic "Dune" is one of the most popular and acclaimed blockbusters to come out of the 2020s -- a box office hit, a critical darling, and the recipient of 10 Academy Awards nominations (with six wins). Following this staggering success, Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment look keen to make Frank Herbert's vast and layered universe the next big media franchise in the vein of "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings." Along with a sequel to Villeneuve's film and a possible threequel, both studios are developing a prequel series titled "Dune: The Sisterhood." 

Here's everything we know about this project so...

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We fully expect our science fiction to transport us to far-off places, to unimaginable alien vistas populated by things beyond our wildest dreams. We actively want to be confronted by the unknown on our flight of fancy. But, even for a genre obsessed with pushing the limits of outer space or the inner space of our minds, it's occasionally possible to boldly go a little too far.

Perhaps it's the theme itself that disturbs our conventional sensibilities, or where an element of horror suddenly emerges where there wasn't any, startling us like an animatronic monster popping up in a ghost train. Maybe it's a sudden shift in tone altering...

The post 14 Sci-fi Movies That Went Too Far appeared first on /Film.

Of all the revival shows that have graced our airwaves in recent memory, "Leverage" probably stands out as one of the more unexpected ones. As we covered a few months ago, the original crime drama series aired on TNT for five total seasons between 2008 and 2012. Because studios these days seem abjectly terrified of greenlighting anything original, we ended up with "Leverage: Redemption" on IMDb TV, which brought back many of the show's original stars while introducing several new characters to help carry on the storyline a decade later. 

Released in two separate batches of eight episodes each in July and October of 2021, IMDb TV waited...

The post Everything We Know About Leverage: Redemption Season 2 So Far appeared first on /Film.

"Ozark" is officially entering its endgame. The popular Netflix crime series has dropped seven episodes of its fourth season with seven more set to conclude the series later this year. The first half of the season included a record number of double-crosses, shady dealings, and master manipulations. The Byrde family, who moved to the Ozarks in the series' first episode under threat of death at the hands of a drug cartel, are now heading up an empire of their own. The family has become proficient at money laundering, and their business begins to grow even as they fracture from within.

Some of this...

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Bobby Shmurda is back with another new single, “Shmoney,” featuring Quavo and Rowdy Rebel.

The track, produced by Tay Keith, finds the three MCs delivering delightfully rowdy, boast-filled verses over hard-hitting trap drums and a simple but menacing, high-pitched synth loop. “Shmoney” arrives with an equally over-the-top music video, set at a wild mansion party where the sun is shining but $100 bills are pouring from the sky.

“Shmoney” is the fourth track Bobby Shmurda has dropped this year following his release from prison in February after a six-year stint on...

The second season will also be the last of "Kevin Can F**k Himself," AMC's hit dramedy starring Emmy Award winner, Annie Murphy of "Schitt's Creek" fame. Murphy plays Allison McRoberts, a disillusioned Massachusetts housewife stuck in a loveless marriage to a petulant manchild named Kevin whose antics of weaponized incompetence and straight up emotional manipulation are pushing her to the brink of insanity. Whenever Allison is shown interacting with Kevin, the show resembles a brightly-lit multi-cam sitcom in front of a live studio audience, complete with laugh track, but when Allison is on her own, the world she knows becomes grim and...

The post Everything We Know About Kevin Can F**k Himself Season 2 So Far appeared first on /Film.

One wouldn't imagine that the intersection of representation and timely ideas about historical monuments in America would be an easy premise to build an entire show around. "Rutherford Falls," however, covers both of those incredibly wide-ranging topics all at once. The Peacock original series premiered earlier in 2021 and comes from the creators of "Parks and Recreation" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," both of which tackled very similarly socially-conscious issues throughout their respective runs. The first season of "Rutherford Falls" debuted to positive reviews and was renewed for a second go-around, proving that these sorts of stories certainly have an audience. For those looking forward to the continuing...

The post Everything We Know About Rutherford Falls Season 2 So Far appeared first on /Film.

This will be well-remembered by members of Gen-x and Gen-y, but the 1990s were a ripe time for 1970s nostalgia. There was "The Brady Bunch Movie" in 1996, a wave of '70s genre-inflected indie crime cinema inspired by the popularity of "Pulp Fiction" in 1994. And there was, for its many, many fans, the long-running "That '70s Show," the Fox sitcom with the Big Star theme song. If you don't own a Big Star record yet, rectify that immediately. Also watch the 2012 documentary "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me," 'cause it's good. But I'm not here to talk about Big Star. 

It was announced back in...

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Keanu Reeves is on the record as saying he's "always wanted" to play Wolverine, but has indicated he's too old to bring the semi-immortal superhero to life. (As though everyone isn't well aware that Reeves is secretly a centuries-old vampire masquerading as the nicest guy in Hollywood.) So, in-between eating sandwiches on park benches, he went and did what anyone who really wants to portray an X-Man would do: he co-created his own comic book series about an unkillable warrior battling his way through the ages. With Blackjack! And, well, you know how the rest of the meme goes.

The comic in question, "Brzrkr," hales from Boom! Studios...

The post Everything We Know About Netflix's Brzrkr So Far appeared first on /Film.

Between "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" and "Titanic," James Cameron directed an action comedy starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis called "True Lies." The story follows Schwarzenegger as a government agent struggling to balance his double life as a spy with his familial responsibilities. It was the first film to cost $100 million dollars, was nominated at the Academy Awards in the Best Visual Effects category, earned Cameron a Saturn Award for Best Director, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Jamie Lee Curtis. There have been murmurs of a sequel, as well as a...

The post Everything We Know About the True Lies TV Show So Far appeared first on /Film.

Disney+'s "The Mandalorian," the live action Star Wars series that brought Baby Yoda (Aka Grogu) into our lives, has been greenlit for a third season. A lot happened in the season 2 finale of the show — Grogu headed off with a young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Din Djarin said goodbye to his de facto son and became the owner of the Darksaber.

With things teed up as they are, "Mandalorian" fans were delighted to find out there'd be a third season that will (hopefully) reunite Grogu and Mando. Read on to find out what...

The post Everything We Know About The Mandalorian Season 3 So Far appeared first on /Film.

J Balvin has announced the release of his forthcoming fifth album, Jose, which arrives on September 10th. Accompanying the news on Thursday night, he dropped the video for the new LP single “Que Locura.” J. Balvin’s Jose is the follow-up to Colores, which was released in March 2020.

In the yearning Jose-Emilio Sagaró-directed “Que Locura” (which translates to “What Madness”) visual, J Balvin is on display in an art gallery, as are a number of other live people art installations. The stylish clip showcases a world where humans are put...

Stargirl‘s optimism is still shining bright in Season 2, though two new presences — Eclipso, and The Shade — threaten to darken the young Jsa’s collective doorstep.

Voiced and eventually played by Nick Tarabay (Spartacus, Arrow), “Eclipso is an amazing character, for those who don’t know,” showrunner and Stargirl creator Geoff Johns noted at a recent presser. “He’s from the ’60s and he’s more of a demonic force in the same vein as, like, a Freddy Krueger or a Pennywise. And to have the kids and the adults go up against something like that this season — something that...

Just a few days after British rapper Skepta shared that he’s getting ready to drop a five-song EP called All In, he’s offering the first glimpse at the project with the new single “Nirvana.” The downbeat track sees Skepta sprinkle a little bit of Spanish into his lyrics before handing the mic to J Balvin for a guest verse.

Produced by beatmaker Jae5, the track was inspired by Skepta’s time in Latin America. The Klvdr-directed video plays out like a noir thriller as Skepta enters an opulent...

Eladio Carrión has dropped a remix of his track “Tata.” The new version features guest vocals from Bobby Shmurda and Daddy Yankee. The original song’s collaborator, J Balvin, also appears.

The four artists star in a music video for the remix, which was directed by Jose Sagaro, Jon J Visuals, and Squid. The dynamic clip was shot on the streets of New York City and Puerto Rico, with each artist appearing separately.

“Tata” originally appeared on Carrión’s album Monarca, which arrived in January. Carrión told Rolling Stone earlier...

As the Queensland Government pushes forward with its strategic plan to grow the screen industry in Far North Queensland, it has formally appointed Curtis Pitt as Fnq Screen Champion.

The Speaker of the Queensland Parliament and Member for Musgrave will work with Screen Queensland and key stakeholders to grow investment in the region, including jobs and production infrastructure.

Pitt will be charged with promoting opportunities, building awareness of available funding for local screen practitioners, and chairing a steering group to facilitate delivery of a $6.8 million studio – a recent election promise.

“Beyond its reputation as an agricultural hub and a tourism hotspot, Far North Queensland is increasingly recognised as an attractive destination for local and international film and television production,” said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

“To unlock the region’s potential, in 2019 I was in Cairns with Curtis Pitt to launch the Far North Queensland Screen Strategic Plan, to boost professional capability,...

The statistics of Bandcamp Friday speak for themselves: In the year-plus since the launch of the campaign, during which the platform has waived its revenue share for music purchased on the first Friday of each month, fans have paid artists more than $50 million dollars. “Bandcamp is like my life source,” metal auteur Trevor William Church told Rolling Stone in 2019, no doubt speaking for many creators in the age of meager streaming royalties. Bandcamp Friday continues on May 7th — read on for a slew of recommendations from Rs staffers on what...

A Cliff Too Far: Yimou Navigates Tortured Times in Period Espionage Thriller

Arguably the most successful and prolific of the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, Zhang Yimou shows no signs of slowing down in nearly forty years of making films. While many of his cohorts from the Beijing Film Academy remain steadfast and relevant (including his Palme d’Or winning cohort Chen Kaige), the Golden Bear and two-time Golden Lion winner continues with a new spate of recent projects, including espionage period drama, Cliff Walkers (formerly known as Impasse).…...

Music documentary about the reggaeton superstar opens on Amazon Prime Video May 7

In the music documentary “The Boy From Medellín,” Colombian reggaeton superstar J Balvin is prepping for a massive concert in his hometown of Medellín — a show that will host up to 45,000 people — only for protests to break out in the city’s streets.

The documentary depicts the anxiety and depression that have plagued Balvin for years whenever he’s offstage, but the new decision of whether to amplify the voices of young people protesting and being persecuted by the government leaves him torn about how to use his platform.

“If you speak up, it’s wrong. If you don’t, it’s wrong. So either way, you lose,” a confidant says to him in the trailer. “I don’t want to get into political things because it’s not my thing. I just want to focus on bringing light into the world,...

Hearthstone‘s Forged in the Barrens expansion is quickly proving to be one of the game’s best in years. We’ve already talked about some of the great decks you can build thanks to the expansion’s new cards, but today, we’re going to focus on those cards themselves.

It’s always risky to advise Hearthstone players to spend their dust on a new card right away, but after a little time with Forged in the Barrens, it’s becoming clear that there are a few incredible new additions to Hearthstone‘s ever-expanding card library that you simply need to have.

Some of these cards are good right away and some will almost certainly be valuable in the coming months, but they’re all Forged in the Barrens cards that you should consider crafting if you want to stay competitive.

Sword of the Fallen

Everyone guessed that this...

On Monarca, the Puerto Rican rapper Eladio Carrion stretches the bounds of trap en español without ever abandoning its core. The follow-up to his 2020 debut, Sauce Boyz, Carrion’s latest album riffs on spiky trap corridos, drippy emo-rap, and bludgeoning drill sounds while pulling an unexpected roster of collaborators into its orbit: Reggaeton icon Yandel slides across the drunk desolation of “Discoteca,” while J Balvin barges in out of nowhere for the record’s drill moment, “Tata.” The project is a little darker and more solemn than Sauce Boyz, reflecting...

AT&T seems pretty pleased with how its experiment of releasing new Warner Bros. movies in theaters and on HBO Max has gone so far, which has been mostly to the benefit of its young streaming service.

“What we’ve seen is not only good viewership of those movies on HBO Max, but engagement that followed, that’s been encouraging. So real success with it so far,” AT&T CFO John Stephens said Monday during the virtual Deutsch Bank Media, Internet and Telecom Conference. “We think it’s worked out well for all involved.”

So far, four Warner Bros. films have been released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max: “Wonder Woman 1984,” “The Little Things,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Tom & Jerry,” with “Godzilla vs Kong” next up on March 25.

Warner Bros. took a ton of heat from Hollywood, particularly from director Chris Nolan and the studio Legendary,...

Line-up also includes the new project from two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Walker.

Danish documentary festival Cph:dox has revealed the 35 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event that will take place online-only from April 26-30.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The selection includes new projects from two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Walker (Waste Land), Sundance winners Mads Brügger (Cold Case Hammarskjöld) and Eugene Jarecki (The House I Live In), Berlin Crystal Bear winner Geneviève Dulude-De Celle (A Colony) and Venice Horizons winner Lech Kowalski (East Of Paradise).

Further notable filmmakers include Radu Ciorniciuc, whose Acasa,...

Jinwoo, who resides on a sheep ranch in Hwacheon, Gangwon-do, lives a quiet life with his daughter Seol. Ranch owner Joongman and his daughter Moonkyeong treat them as family. Soon after, Jinwoo’s male friend Hyunmin arrives at the ranch, and reveals that the two have been long-time lovers. They dream of living happily with Seol in this peaceful place. However, with Jinwoo’s twin sister Eunyoung’s visit, the conflict begins. In fact, Seol is Eunyoung’s daughter but Jinwoo has been raising her because Eunyoung disappeared. Like the close-up scene of the sheep wool in the beginning, A Far Place is a story that is not noticed from afar but revealed when looked closely. The local folks, who seemed friendly and gentle, show their true colors, and become exclusive and discriminatory as they learn about the truth of the two men. Even the intentions of family members, who...

“Another ‘Forbidden Fruit’ Exploitation Relic”

By Raymond Benson

Here’s another one, folks! Another entry in the “Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture” series, this time it’s Volume 8. Presented by Kino Lorber in association with Something Weird Video, we have for your pleasure the controversial “hoax” documentary, Ingagi (1930), a shocking example of racism and circus sideshow-style cinematic exhibition.

There have always existed what have been termed in the motion picture industry “exploitation films,” even back in the silent days. The 1930s and much of the 1940s, however, saw a deluge of cheap, not-even-“B” pictures made, usually independently of Hollywood and marketed in guerilla fashion as “educational” adult fare. You know the type. Reefer Madness. Child Bride. Mom and Dad (all previous titles released in the Forbidden Fruit series).

Kino Lorber and Something Weird have been doing a bang-up job on releasing some of the best...

The Zebra is certainly the most energetic of the six contestants still in contention on season 1 of “The Masked Dancer.” He takes to the stage again on January 27. We’ve been fans of his since he first competed on episode 2 and wowed us with his fancy footwork in a routine set to “Magalenha” by Sérgio Mendes. He returned the following week and did even better with his dance to “All My Life” by K-Ci and JoJo.

Forget those guesses by the four judges that the Zebra is someone who came to fame in a boy band like Ricky Martin or Kevin Richardson. Keep reading for all “The Masked Dancer” spoilers, including our theory as to the true identity of the Zebra

See ‘The Masked Dancer’ spoilers: Cotton Candy is …

We are certain that the Zebra is professional boxer Oscar De La Hoya. Don’t agree? Consider the following facts:

The...

Some people have never seen “The Godfather Part III” despite their love for Sofia Coppola, whose career behind the camera emerged from the ashes of her supposedly amateurish performance as Michael Corleone’s doomed teenager daughter in her father’s trilogy-capping epic. This writer had never seen “The Godfather Part III” because of my love for Sofia Coppola.

Born in 1984 and raised to think of the “Lost in Translation” director as more of an auteur than an actress, I’ve been all the way in on the likes of “Somewhere” and “Marie Antoinette” from the moment Coppola’s movies came into my life, and it always seemed unnecessary — even rude — to dig through the trash and unearth what I understood to be her greatest embarrassment (even if Coppola herself is blasé about the whole thing). It goes without saying that I grew up in the thrall of “The Godfather” and its sequel,...

In a perfect world, TV streaming services would offer a playlist feature – imagine the joyful nerdery of shareable Top 10 episode lists. When it came time for a Christmas binge-watch while you’re wrapping gifts, or spraying pine cones silver, or gently weeping and glugging Advocaat from the bottle, you could fire up hours of comedy specials without having to expend a single calorie of energy on touching the remote.

Until that glorious day comes, this is your next best thing. It’s a directory of the major US and UK 1990s-2010s sitcoms’ Christmas episodes, and where they’re available to stream. If you feel like grabbing your Frasier box set and going from Christmas 1993 to Christmas 2002, stopping at every feel-good Outlaw Laser Robo-Geek moment along the way, here’s the info you need.

Episodes are listed in chronological order, and we’ve tried to stick to Christmas-set stories only,...

In all the excitement surrounding both the confirmed and heavily speculated members of the cast, a lot of people seem to have forgotten that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man 3 has to pick up directly from where Far From Home left off, which was on a massive cliffhanger.

After Jamie Foxx was announced to be reprising his role as The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s Electro and Benedict Cumberatch’s Doctor Strange was confirmed shortly after, almost all of the talk surrounding Tom Holland’s next outing as Peter Parker has focused exclusively on the potential introduction of a live-action Spider-Verse.

Theories are already sweeping the internet about the hows and whys, without even mentioning that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are expected to return in order to have fans everywhere spontaneously combust as all three live-action Spider-Men swing onto the screen together to defeat a common enemy, whoever it turns out to be.

Costumes from Netflix series “The Crown” and “The Queen’s Gambit” are now on display at the Brooklyn Museum’s free virtual exhibition.

The exhibit features several outfits from the women in the two Netflix shows, explaining how their looks evolve over time.

Highlights of the museum collection, curated by Matthew Yokobosky, senior curator of fashion and material culture, includes an ancient Egyptian board game senet, American photographer Arthur Tress’ “Boys on Checker Floor, Far Rockaway, NY,” Guyanese British artist Hew Locke’s “Koh-i-noor” and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II made from plastic toys and trinkets.

The collection is an extension of the museum’s previous exhibitions that connected fashion design with museum objects, including “Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe” (2014), “David Bowie is” (2018) and “Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion” (2019).

The exhibition also features a pre-recorded panel conversation from Binder, Roberts and Yokobosky, who discuss the creative process behind...

Rob Brydon’s quick-wit has charmed us all. But it wasn’t always so simple. Here, he talks about his five children, being prodded by Boris and the moment his fortunes changed…

There are two versions of the comic Rob Brydon: Television Personality and Twickenham Dad. And although the two identities have lived hugger-mugger inside him for decades, occasionally overlapping, “like tectonic plates”, says the 55-year-old, they are rarely seen out in public at the same time. I’m lucky this afternoon that I get to meet both Brydons: the performer, who is polished and smiley if a touch remote, as well as the softer, more relatable father-of-five. It’s Twickenham Dad I meet first. When I come up on Brydon on a London street he is peering through the window of a home-furnishing showroom, taking pictures of a nice bit of garden furniture that’s caught his eye.

This...

Sean Connery, who starred as the iconic James Bond and thrilled audiences in countless other memorable roles, has died at 90. Hollywood immediately started paying tribute to the silver screen legend, remembering him for Bond as well as his other iconic roles and effortless cool.

Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli wrote via Twitter that, “We are devastated by the news of the passing of Sir Sean Connery. He was and shall always be remembered as the original James Bond whose indelible entrance into cinema history began when he announced those unforgettable words — ‘The name’s Bond… James Bond’ — he revolutionized the world with his gritty and witty portrayal of the sexy and charismatic secret agent. He is undoubtedly largely responsible for the success of the film series and we shall be forever grateful to him.”

“The name’s Bond… James Bond” — he revolutionised the world with his gritty...

While “Acasa, My Home” continues to travel the festival circuit – a journey that has included it winning the cinematography award at Sundance, and screening this week at El Gouna in Egypt – and recently secured distribution in North America, its Romanian director Radu Ciorniciuc is hard at work on his next film, “Tata.” Co-directed with “Acasa’s” screenwriter and his partner, Lina Vdovii, it will focus on modern-day slavery.

“It’s about a father who is basically living and working in modern-day slavery conditions,” Ciorniciuc tells Variety. “He was violent to his daughter when she was young and now they meet. She is a journalist and she wants to confront him in Italy, where he works, coming from Moldova. She learns he has been [in this nightmarish situation of modern-day slavery] for the last two decades, and her investigation gives them a platform to explore their broken bond. So once again, it’s a family story,” he says...

Up until a couple of weeks ago, the general assumption was that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man 3 would pick up directly where Far From Home left off, and find Peter Parker on the run while trying to protect his friends and family after having his secret identity revealed to the world by J.K. Simmons’ returning J. Jonah Jameson.

Once it was announced Jamie Foxx would be reprising his role as Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, though, it became clear that Jon Watts’ threequel was shaping up very differently, with speculation instantly beginning about the potential introduction of a live-action Spider-Verse. And when Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange was also confirmed, Spider-Man 3 swiftly became the most hotly-anticipated McU movie on the horizon.

But circling back to the live-action Spider-Verse, and we now have a pretty good idea of how that may look thanks to YouTuber Smasher’s latest video,...

Bartees Strange has ignored musical boundaries his whole life, without even thinking about it. “When I played in hardcore bands, I remember writing songs and throwing in these R&b sections, or a melodic guitar section, and people would be like, ‘Bro, what are you doing? This is a hardcore band,’” recalls the 31-year-old musician. “And I’d be like, ‘You’re right, I’m an idiot, why would that work?’ But those were things that I always felt were natural to the songs. And it’s probably because I...

Exclusive: Fox Entertainment is adding Ocean Village to its animation development slate. The network has given a script commitment to the project, from creator Daniel Cardenas Katz (Deep Space 69), and has ordered a backup script plus animatic supervising, Ocean Village follows the Diaz family as they navigate life in a sun-baked tropical village based on the Florida island where series creator Katz grew up, and experienced his first iguana attack. The Diazes are part-immigrant, blended, multi-cultural, and trying to get by in what would be paradise if it wasn’t for the raccoon gangs, beach bums, crusty retirees and mosquitos the size of cats.

Katz executive produces with Josh Bowen, Managing Director, Blue Ant Media’s animation studio Look Mom! Productions,; Dan Lubetkin; and Nick Weidenfeld. The...

The first captain of the U.S.S. Discovery was Gabriel Lorca, but the twists and turns across Star Trek: Discovery season 1 meant that Jason Isaacs was written out the show by the finale. Still, the Harry Potter actor was one of the most popular parts of the divisive debut run of the CBS All Access series and fans would love to see him return. This time as Prime Lorca, though, rather than the evil Mirror Universe version. And if it was possible, the most obvious place for his comeback would be Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

But is this something that’s on the cards? Intriguingly, when Isaacs was asked about it during a virtual panel at Dragon Con this weekend, he elected to plead the fifth. The star even went on to suggest that he might be giving away a spoiler if he talked about it.

“Taking the fifth.

Chad felt the shadow of heroism after meeting my mom, Rachel.

Both Chad and my father were … I don’t think they would describe themselves as heroes. They’d see themselves as doing their job and doing it the best they can and carrying a weight on their shoulders. There’s so much responsibility when you are a pioneer or when you are playing the role of a pioneer and a hero. It was important to Chad that he get all aspects of this story correct: the strength of my father’s character, how difficult it was to suppress ...

The Winchesters are back at work shooting Supernatural‘s final episodes — and we’ve got a first look straight from the set.

Filming on the long-running CW drama’s final two episodes resumed in Vancouver on Aug. 18, the humorously-dubbed Spn Tape Ball Instagram account confirmed late Tuesday. The accompanying image features stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki seated near each other in the Men of Letters bunker, while the masked tape ball is on the opposite end of the table. “When their Covid test results come in before yours,” reads the cheeky caption.

More from TVLineThe 100 Recap: Has Bellamy Gone Beyond the Point of Redemption?...

As someone whose attention span has been obliterated by the internet and video games, I loved Star Trek: Short Treks. The idea behind it is to explore strange and more imaginative stories within the Trek universe that might not work as episodes of an ongoing series. They all function as standalone tales, come in at about ten to twenty minutes long and feature a variety of genres and styles.

Now, the six-episode second season of Short Treks is available to watch for free on CBS.com, CBS mobile apps and on YouTube. The release comes as the show picks up an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series, with CBS wanting to get as many eyes as possible on it in hopes of scoring that award.

All the episodes are worth watching, too, though my picks are: “The Trouble with Edward,” which brings back the classic Original...

In an unexpected pairing and surprising announcement, Searchlight Pictures, has slated “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino to direct the dramatic adaptation of the Matt Tyrnauer-directed documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood.” The twist? Searchlight also set Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogan to adapt and write the screenplay.

Read More: The Best Films Of 2020… So Far

“Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” is a 2017 documentary from Matt Tyrnauer, originally based on Scotty Bowers’s 2012 tell-all book “Full Service.” Searchlight obtained the rights to the narrative adaptation of the documentary last year.

Continue reading Luca Guadagnino To Direct ‘Scotty & The Secret History of Hollywood’; Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogan Writing Script at The Playlist.

A Mexican version of “The Masked Singer” is coming to Univision this August, the Spanish-language broadcast network announced Friday.

Hosted by Omar Chaparro, “¿Quién es la Máscara?” (The Masked Singer) will “capture the audience’s hearts as it introduces 16 celebrities who will have to sing in creative costumes,” according to Univision. “Led by assorted clues, the ‘investigators’ will seek to guess what celebrity is hiding behind each mask. Among the famous participants there will be singers, actors, TV hosts and others playing the roles of characters, such as: Bumblebee, Eagle, Chameleon, Catrina or Fancy Skeleton, Zebra, Deer, Rabbit, Rooster, Cat, Owl, Martian, Minotaur, Monster, Panda, Fish and Fox.”

The panel of investigators for “¿Quién es la Máscara?” includes Yuri, Carlos Rivera, Consuelo Duval and Adrian Uribe, with Kiara Liz set to “present exclusive content” on the show.

Also Read: 'The Masked Singer' Season 4: Here's Everything We Know...

Six-year-old Bridger Walker is definitely the hero of the week. After a dog charged at his four-year-old sister, he pulled her out of the way and bore the brunt of the attack, resulting in him receiving several bites to the face and multiple stitches. When asked by his aunt why he did what he did, he simply said: “If someone had to die I thought it should be me.”

They’re words that you could easily imagine coming from the mouth of a superhero, and indeed, Walker is a big fan of the Avengers and the McU. The boy’s selflessness quickly went viral, too, resulting in Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey Jr. sending videos praising him for doing the right thing – Evans even promised to send the boy an exact replica of Captain America’s shield. But this latest one might be the best so far.

See...

Seven months after Gary Larson teased the return of The Far Side, the cartoonist has delivered his first new comics in 25 years.

Earlier this week, a section called “New Stuff” appeared on Larson’s recently relaunched website, the New York Times reported. Contained within were three new single-panel comics from Larson, his first Far Side comics since retiring from the long-running syndicated series on December 31st, 1994.

Larson also wrote a letter to fans detailing how a “clogged pen” resulted in his first comics in 25 years; when his website relaunched in December,...