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This November, Hulu is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the surreal action comedy-drama series Interior Chinatown to the Christmas comedy-drama film Nutcrackers. However, for this article, we only included the films that are coming to Hulu this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 7 best films that are coming to Hulu in November 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Aliens (November 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Credit – 20th Century Fox

Aliens is a sci-fi action thriller drama film written and directed by James Cameron. The 1986 film is set in a dystopian future and it follows Ellen Ripley who is sent back to the planet Lv-426 to establish communication with a terraforming colony but when she gets there she is hunted by an Alien Queen who is out for her life. Aliens stars Sigourney Weaver,...

This first Hollywood studio feature with a black female director is a compelling account of a South African who turns against the ruling caste

In the late 80s, there were a number of films about apartheid South Africa that somehow made the black experience dramatically subordinate to white liberal activism. Chris Menges’s A World Apart from 1988 had Barbara Hershey as the white campaigner based on anti-apartheid activist Ruth First; the year before that, Richard Attenborough’s excruciatingly well-intentioned Cry Freedom was supposedly about the friendship between white journalist Donald Woods (Kevin Kline) and Steve Biko (Denzel Washington), but contrived to put Woods at the centre of the action, all but forgetting about Biko. Euzhan Palcy’s A Dry White Season from 1989, now released on Blu-ray, looks on the face of it to be the same sort of thing. And yet this movie is much tougher and shrewder on what...

This story about the production design of “Poker Face” first appeared in the Down to the Wire: Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

Even in a galaxy far, far away, offscreen alliances can be forged that come in handy down the road. Director Rian Johnson had the great good fortune to meet stop-motion legend Phil Tippett while he was working on 2017’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” at Skywalker Ranch near Tippett’s home, and the pairing led to “The Orpheus Syndrome,” one of the most satisfying episodes of Peacock’s sleuth comedy “Poker Face.” In the episode, a hermetic, Tippett-like designer (Nick Nolte), scarred by a filmmaking mishap years prior, finds himself blindsided by the schemes hatched up by his effects-house mogul boss (Cherry Jones), only to have the resourceful Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) interfere when she becomes his assistant.

“The Orpheus Syndrome” had the full blessing of Tippett,...

Camerimage Film Festival, which is devoted to the art of cinematography, is to pay tribute to Peter Biziou. The British cinematographer, who won an Oscar for “Mississippi Burning,” and was BAFTA nominated for “The Truman Show,” will receive the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Biziou, the son of cinematographer-animator Leon Bijou, started his career at an animation company in London. In the mid-sixties, he started to light film sets for commercials and shorts, which helped foster “his innate intuition and his courage to implement innovation,” the festival said. He worked with the likes of Len Fulford, Bob Brooks, Terence Donovan, John Swannell and Frank Budgen.

His work with fashion photographer Robert Freeman brought an invitation for Biziou to be in charge of the visuals on Freeman’s fiction film debut, 1969’s “Secret World,” starring Jacqueline Bisset, which was well-received.

He then worked on Alan Parker’s “Bugsy Malone” (1976), Terry Jones...

Directors interested in important, ambitious subject matter didn’t all go extinct with the rise of the Star Wars Generation. Roland Joffé’s first four features are powerful pictures that tell truths that we ought not to forget, with a couple of Award-winning gems right up front. The star power is here as well — Robert De Niro, Paul Newman, Patrick Swayze. The deluxe collector’s box caps a presentation with new extras for each title: The Killing Fields, The Mission, Fat Man and Little Boy and City of Joy.

Directed by Roland Joffé

Region-Free Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator 194, 185, 186, 187

1984 – 1992 / Color / Street Date December 7, 2022 / 525 minutes cumulative / Available from / au 179.95

Starring: Sam Waterston, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich; Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons; Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia, John Cusack; Patrick Swayze, Om Puri, Pauline Collins.

Cinematography: Chris Menges (2); Vilmos Zsigmond, Peter Biziou

Original Music: Mike Oldfield, Ennio Morricone (3)

Written by Bruce Robinson; Robert Bolt; Bruce Robinson,...

(l-r, foreground) Johnny Depp as Colonel Joll and Mark Rylance as the Magistrate, in Waiting For The Barbarians. Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films.

If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail, the old saying goes, and if you assume everyone is your enemy, they might become exactly that. Waiting For The Barbarians is drama based on J. M. Coetzee’s novel, that presents a cautionary tale about nations or empires sowing the seeds of their own destruction in their search for imagined threats. Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson star in director Ciro Guerra’s powerful adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s classic novel of the same name, in a haunting cautionary tale of empire and cultural misunderstanding, with a striking contemporary echoes.

There is a lot of talent assembled in this film – an Oscar-nominated director, a Nobel Prize-winning author, an Oscar winning cinematographer,...

You expect fireworks when you cast Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson and Mark Rylance in a political allegory about a nameless empire that savagely exploits the indigenous people in its desert colony. That the sparks fly only intermittently in Waiting for the Barbarians may be due to the heavy lifting required by the great Colombian director Ciro Guerra (Embrace of the Serpent, Birds of Passage) as he adapts South African author J.M. Coetzee’s 1980 novel to the screen with a first-time script by the Nobel laureate himself. In his first film in English,...

At the core of Waiting for the Barbarians, a surprisingly star-studded new independent release, is a concept that’s worthy of top-tier cinematic execution. Unfortunately, despite solid performances, great cinematography, and strong themes that should resonate, the emotion of it all is held too much at arm’s length. Being an intellectual exercise is all well and good, but if it’s not compelling, what’s the point? Sadly, this one comes up short due to a failure to turn these good ingredients into an enjoyable meal. There are certainly worse options out this week, but there are far better ones, as well, so except this to get lost in the shuffle. The movie is a drama about an officer at an outpost beginning to question his loyalty to the empire. This Magistrate (Mark Rylance) runs an isolated frontier settlement on the border of an unnamed empire with relative ease.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has released the first trailer to Ciro Guerra’s feature film Waiting For The Barbarians. The film stars Academy Award Winner Mark Rylance, Academy Award Nominee Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, and Greta Scacchi. Waiting For The Barbarians was will be released on cable On-Demand & Digital platforms August 7.

The Magistrate (Mark Rylance) of an isolated frontier settlement on the border of an unnamed empire looks forward to an easy retirement until the arrival of Colonel Joll (Johnny Depp), whose task it is to report on the activities of the ‘barbarians’ and on the security situation on the border. Joll conducts a series of ruthless interrogations, which leads the Magistrate to question his loyalty to the empire.

Waiting For The Barbarians was directed by Ciro Guerra (his first English Language film) and written by Nobel Prize winning author J.M. Coetzee, who adapted the screenplay from his own novel. Two-time...

Local Hero

Blu ray

Criterion

1983/ 1.85:1 / 111 min.

Starring Peter Riegert, Burt Lancaster, Peter Capaldi, Denis Lawson

Cinematography by Chris Menges

Written and directed by Bill Forsyth

Beginning with the aptly named That Sinking Feeling in 1979, the Scottish filmmaker Bill Forsyth has produced comedies whose bittersweet humor barely concealed the hurt. “Grin and bear it” was the director’s credo and the marquees tipped his hand – Being Human, Comfort and Joy – though That Sinking Feeling said it all.

Local Hero boasts Forsyth’s most head-scratching title but there’s no mistaking the predicament of the movie’s nominal leading man played by Peter Riegert. Known simply as Mac, he’s just another cog in a Kafkaesque corporate machine, the air-conditioned nightmare of Knox Oil and Gas where Medication Time music wafts through the halls and workers in glass cubicles converse via primitive sign language.

The young executive is affable enough when...

The time feels right for a film adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s “Waiting for the Barbarians,” inasmuch as the undertaking is possible at all. Nearly 40 years after its publication, the South African writer’s slim but scorching allegory for imperialist denial and defeat feels grimly pertinent to a current political milieu in which the hubris of white supremacy is all too prominent. Colombian director Ciro Guerra, meanwhile, is a canny choice of filmmaker to take on the project, scripted by Coetzee himself in the Nobel laureate’s first stab at screenwriting: Guerra’s 2015 breakout film “Embrace of the Serpent” was an anti-colonialist odyssey of eerie, head-scrambling power, with a command of burrowing metaphor and Conradian brink-of-madness atmosphere very much worthy of Coetzee’s novel.

If the across-continents meeting of these two artists — aptly enough, for a story itself set in an indeterminate desert nation that could exist in many a...

Though he’s worked steadily since the turn of the century, Ciro Guerra only ascended into the upper tiers of contemporary world cinema quite recently. With 2015’s “Embrace of the Serpent” and last year’s “Birds of Passage,” the Colombian filmmaker announced and subsequently confirmed himself on the global stage with works that focused on the violent collisions between modernity and tradition in Aboriginal Colombian communities, and then tracked the aftershocks through an often hallucinatory lens.

By way of scale and star-power, “Waiting for the Barbarians” — which stars Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, and Robert Pattinson, claims a Nobel laureate as screenwriter, and premiered in competition in Venice — marks his biggest step forward to date. In terms of artistic success, however, it’s at best a lateral move.

Guerra’s English-language debut finds the filmmaker working in a more subdued register, foregoing the oneiric flourishes of his most recent output for...

The arrival of merciless security officers shatters the peace in a remote colonial outpost in Ciro Guerra’s stately, horrific drama

The Colombian director Ciro Guerra (Embrace of the Serpent) seems interested in the processes by which the west colonised the rest, so it’s fitting that he has cast two big Hollywood stars – Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson – in his latest, premiering ominously on the second to last day of the Venice film festival, when roughly a third of the press corps have decamped to Toronto.

An adaptation of Jm Coetzee’s 1980 novel, Waiting for the Barbarians tells the story of a magistrate presiding over an unidentified colonial outpost in the middle of the desert, presumably in the first decades of the last century. Gentle-voiced and crinkly eyed and played by Mark Rylance, he sees his comfortable equanimity shattered by the arrival of state security officers. They’re led by Depp,...

Stunt performer who appeared in films including The Mission, Total Recall and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Bronco McLoughlin, who has died aged 80, was the stunt performer seen in one of the most powerful cinematic opening sequences of the past half century. He played the Jesuit priest strapped to a giant crucifix who careers over a waterfall to his death at the start of The Mission (1986), the director Roland Joffé’s epic about 18th-century Spanish Jesuits protecting a South American tribe from Portuguese colonialists seeking slaves.

McLoughlin floated along the rapids until he disappeared over the top of Iguazú Falls, on the border of Brazil and Argentina – by which time a lifelike dummy made by Madame Tussauds had replaced him on the cross. The breathtaking scene – featured on publicity posters – was heightened by Chris Menges’s Oscar-winning photography.

Franco Rosso's Babylon star Brinsley Forde with Ed Bahlman and Dennis Bovell at Bam: "Let's be honest, a film like that had never been done before. We had The Harder They Come, the films from Jamaica, but nothing from the UK." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the Brooklyn Academy of Music before the Us theatrical première of Babylon at BAMcinématek, Brinsley Forde spoke with me about the cast, which includes Trevor Laird, Brian Bovell, Archie Pool, Victor Romero Evans, Stefan Kalipha, Cosmo Laidlaw, Cynthia Powell, T. Bone Wilson, David N. Haynes, Mark Monero, Karl Howman, and Jah Shaka, and the film "presenting a life that the people who were in the movie, extras and all, were totally aware of."

Franco Rosso's powerful feature, with the camerawork of Chris Menges and a score by Dennis Bovell, takes you upfront into a world of survival that remains relevant today. Brinsley brings...

Frank Rosso's Babylon (1980) is showing February 25 – March 26, 2019 on Mubi in the United Kingdom.Impressions of Franco Rosso’s Babylon (1980) extend past the boundaries of its 95-minute running time. Like the dub remixes its London characters’ lives revolve around, the movie plays with re-establishing identity and our experience of time. A narrative document of young, working class male Jamaican-British Londoners, Babylon doles out atmospheric city scenes of their place in the community: sons, brothers, boyfriends, small-time crooks, laborers, music lovers and producers. Privileging viewers with immersion into an insulated, under-documented immigrant community, the film provides a window into their daily lives. We are thrown into conversations and situations, intimately experiencing their patois their interactions with friends, their constant victimization by a dominantly racist white society, and the massive sound system parties they congregate to. A corrective to the British ignorance and fear of Jamaican immigrants, the film’s emphasis is on...

Music legends Dennis Bovell and Ed Bahlman unite before the preview of Franco Rosso's powerful Babylon with Brinsley Forde at BAMcinématek Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

When I arrived with Ed Bahlman (99 Records) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for my conversations with Brinsley Forde and Dennis Bovell, two key figures for Franco Rosso's Babylon, co-written with Martin Stellman, produced by Gavrik Losey, and shot by two-time Oscar winner Chris Menges (for Roland Joffé's The Killing Fields and The Mission), Brinsley, Dennis, and Seventy-Seven founder Gabriele Caroti were standing in the lobby. Ed greeted Dennis and they immediately reconnected by sharing memories of The Slits, Viv Albertine's memoir, Chris Blackwell, Adrian Sherwood, Pop Group, Mark Stewart, Public Image Ltd, Bruce Smith, Neneh Cherry, Linton Kwesi Johnson, the Reggae Lounge, and of course, Ari Up and the making of Cut.

Brinsley Forde shines in Franco Rosso's Babylon Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze...

Director Franco Rosso’s “Babylon” was never released in America. It’s a 1980 film with subtitles and no big-name stars that centers on poor black male youths in London living among neighbors who shout, “Go back to your country!” from their bedroom windows on a regular basis. It’s about their daily resistance to hate and navigating a system that is rigged against them.

The characters speak in Jamaican patois, and there is no white savior. In many ways, it is the antithesis of what mainstream audiences in America were interested in watching at that time. But 39 years later, it finally sees the light of day in U.S. theaters.

Releasing “Babylon” today underscores its unfortunate relevance, though it also makes it vulnerable to criticism shaped by modern society and conversation. For instance, the screenplay by Rosso (who died in 2016) and co-writer Martin Stellman deserves acclaim for highlighting the stories...

Decision to present senior Oscars during commercials derided in open letter.

More than 90 distinguished filmmakers including Oscar nominee Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, Damien Chazelle, Rachel Morrison and Emmanuel Lubezki have blasted the Academy’s plan to present four Oscars including two from senior categories during commercial breaks at the upcoming show.

“Relegating these essential cinematic crafts to lesser status in this 91st Academy Awards ceremony is nothing less than an insult to those of us who have devoted our lives and passions to our chosen profession,” the directors, cinematographers and editors – many of whom have won the Academy Award or...

Waiting for the Barbarians

Colombian auteur Ciro Guerra branches out into a high-profile international co-production for his fifth film, an adaptation of South African Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee’s masterpiece Waiting for the Barbarians. Set to star Oscar winner Mark Rylance alongside the likes of Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson, Coetzee’s post-colonial allegory (previously adapted into an opera by Philip Glass) is produced by Andrea Iervolino’s TaTaTu, Olga Segura, Michael Fitzgerald, and Monika Bacardi of Ambi Media Group. Celebrated Dp Chris Menges is lensing the feature.…...

When is a private eye parody not a parody? Stephen Frears’ first feature strikes a delicate balance — its nearly absurd hardboiled lingo outdoes the spoofs, but the story and characters are pitched 100% straight. Albert Finney Is Eddie Ginley, surrounded by a pack of exciting, imaginatively cast actors.

Gumshoe

Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1971 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 88 min. / / Street Date March 19, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Janice Rule, Carolyn Seymour, Fulton Mackay, George Innes, George Silver, Bill Dean, Wendy Richard, Maureen Lipman, Neville Smith, Oscar James.

Cinematography: Chris Menges

Film Editor: Charles Rees

Original Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber

Written by Neville Smith

Produced by Michael Medwin, Albert Finney

Directed by Stephen Frears

At first one thinks it’s a parody, and not a very good one. Then we wonder if Albert Finney is simply taking his Humphrey Bogart imitation out for a walk, as when he...

“War for the Planet of the Apes” from Weta Digital could well be on its way to the elusive VFX Oscar after winning four Ves trophies Tuesday night at the Beverly Hilton (including the top feature prize). Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” won for supporting VFX, Pixar’s “Coco” earned four awards (including VFX for animation), and “Game of Thrones” took home five awards (including VFX for TV).

The “Apes” finale, directed by Matt Reeves, benefited from a Shakespearean performance from Andy Serkis as Caesar, with Weta working its wizardry in much harsher conditions for the performance-captured animation. Not surprisingly, “Apes” additionally won for Caesar, the effects simulations for the thrilling avalanche, and compositing. However, although both “Rise” and “Dawn” captured Ves prizes, neither won the Oscar, so “War” is not a certainty in its race with “Blade Runner 2049.”

Speaking of which, Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner” sequel won two...

You never heard of the Great Glasgow Ice Cream Wars? They weren’t exactly Armageddon, and the gentle director Bill Forsyth makes a radio personality’s involvement with two competing ice cream companies more of a plunge into amiable drollery. If you like Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero you’ll understand the odd, unhurried attitude of this oddball show from 1984.

Comfort and Joy

Region B Blu-ray

Studiocanal

1984 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date February 29, 2016 / At Amazon UK / £ 9.99

Starring: Bill Patterson, C.P. Grogan, Eleanor David, Alex Norton, Patrick Malahide.

Cinematography: Chris Menges

Film Editor: Michael Ellis

Original Music: Mark Knopfler

Produced by Davina Belling, Clive Parsons

Written and Directed by Bill Forsyth

Quick, name some great filmmakers before the 1990s that hail from Scotland. Actually, there are plenty, it’s just that most made their careers and reputations in London, and some later in Hollywood. The home-grown talent Bill Forsyth...

This past weekend, the American Society of Cinematographers awarded Greig Fraser for his contribution to Lion as last year’s greatest accomplishment in the field. Of course, his achievement was just a small sampling of the fantastic work from directors of photography, but it did give us a stronger hint at what may be the winner on Oscar night. Ahead of the ceremony, we have a new video compilation that honors all the past winners in the category at the Academy Awards

Created by Burger Fiction, it spans the stunning silent landmark Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans all the way up to the end of Emmanuel Lubezki‘s three-peat win for The Revenant. Aside from the advancements in color and aspect ration, it’s a thrill to see some of cinema’s most iconic shots side-by-side. However, the best way to experience the evolution of the craft is by...

On the centennial of the Easter Uprising and just a few days past St. Patrick's Day, Whv present's Neil Jordan's biopic epic of Ireland's most beloved patriotic hero -- a militant who stood up to the English occupiers. It's the role that should have cemented Liam Neeson's stardom. Michael Collins Blu-ray The Warner Archive Collection 1996 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 132 min. / Street Date March 22, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Julia Roberts, Alan Rickman, Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson, Charles Dance, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Ian McElhinney. Cinematography Chris Menges Film Editors J. Patrick Duffner, Tony Lawson Original Music Elliott Goldenthal Produced by Stephen Wooley Written and Directed by Neil Jordan

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Irish politics must be in ascendance, as this St. Patrick's Day Warner Bros. has bumped its Irish patriot biopic up to Blu-ray status. A DVD of it came out only a year before. It's...

Warner Bros. Pictures have announced the award winning and much loved historical epic Michael Collins will be back in Irish cinemas for a limited period in a new digital format from March 18th. The film will be screened in 60 cinemas across Ireland. Michael Collins tells the powerful, turbulent story of one of Ireland's most controversial patriots and revolutionary heroes, known as ‘The Lion Of Ireland’, who leads his countrymen in their fight for independence. Set in the early 20th Century, when a monumental history of oppression and bloodshed had divided Ireland and its people, the film covers the bloody 1916 Easter Uprising, when Irish revolutionaries surrendered to the overwhelming military power of the British forces and Collins was arrested. Upon his release, he takes leadership of the Irish independence movement and strives to create a free and peaceful country.

The Oscar®* and BAFTA nominated film is directed by Neil Jordan (The Crying Game,...

Aidan Quinn will attend the 20th Anniversary celebration of Michael Collins. Aidan Quinn played Harry Boland in Neil Jordan’s definitive film charting Ireland’s struggle for independence. "I'm thrilled to be a part of honoring this remarkable film,” said Aidan Quinn. “It was an absolute privilege to work on and with, this extraordinary group and remains one of my favorite film making experiences." The film will have its 20th Anniversary Premiere on Saturday, February 20th at The Savoy Cinema on O’Connell Street, also attended by Neil Jordan and Cinematographer Chris Menges, followed by an on stage Q&A hosted by Harry McGee. The celebration will also be attended by some of the extras who took part in the film. Michael Collins will be available for the first time on Blu Ray from March 4th in a 20th Anniversary Edition re-mastered with the addition of a new specially recorded...

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of its release in Irish Cinemas and the Centenary of the 1916 Rising, Audi Dublin International Film Festival will host a special event screening of Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins, the definitive film of Ireland’s struggle for independence. The film will have its 20th Anniversary Premiere on Saturday, February 20th at The Savoy Cinema on O’Connell Street, attended by Neil Jordan and Cinematographer Chris Menges, followed by an on stage Q&A hosted by Harry McGee. The celebration will also be attended by some of the 4000 extras who took part in the film. Speaking of her selection of the film, Festival Director Grainne Humphreys said: “I’m thrilled to be able to programme Michael Collins in the Audi Dublin International Film Festival. Everyone remembers the excitement in Dublin when it was being filmed and so many people were part of it as extras. The...

The American Society of Cinematographers has announced the nominees of its Asc Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Theatrical Release. The Awards night will take place on Feb. 14 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

And the nominees are:

Sicario, Roger Deakins, Asc, Bsc

Bridge of Spies, Janusz Kaminski

Carol, Ed Lachman, Asc

The Revenant, Emmanuel Lubezki, Asc, AMC

Mad Max: Fury Road, John Seale, Asc, Acs

Here's the rest of the press release:

.Our members have spoken with a fabulous group of choices,. says Asc President Richard Crudo. .The quality of the work is astounding, and it.s great to see we.re once again at the forefront of giving recognition where it.s due..

.Each of the nominated films represents a different genre and a masterfully distinct visual style,. notes Asc Awards Chairman Daryn Okada. .We look forward to celebrating the extraordinary accomplishments of these nominees in February.

Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox – The Revenant

The Asc has nominated Roger Deakins, Asc, Bsc; Janusz Kaminski; Ed Lachman, Asc; Emmanuel Lubezki, Asc, AMC, and John Seale, Asc, Acs, for the Asc Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Theatrical Release.

The nominated films are:

Sicario, Roger Deakins, Asc, Bsc Bridge of Spies, Janusz Kaminski Carol, Ed Lachman, Asc The Revenant, Emmanuel Lubezki, Asc, AMC Mad Max: Fury Road, John Seale, Asc, Acs

The winner will be announced Feb. 14 at the 30th Asc Awards ceremony.

“Our members have spoken with a fabulous group of choices,” says Asc President Richard Crudo. “The quality of the work is astounding, and it’s great to see we’re once again at the forefront of giving recognition where it’s due.”

“Each of the nominated films represents a different genre and a masterfully distinct visual style,” notes Asc Awards Chairman Daryn Okada.

The 1980s were a quiet period for British auteur Ken Loach, at least as far as film features were concerned. Though he directed six documentaries during the decade (nearly all of them for television), he’d only complete three narratives, none of which were as celebrated as his early works or the prolific period which would follow through the 1990s and 2000s. As the insert essay on this re-release from Julie Kirgo points out, this was a direct result of Thatcher’s government shutting down avenues for Loach to maintain funding for his features. Of the items he managed to get off the ground, his first and only foray (to date) into European filmmaking is 1986’s Fatherland (aka Singing the Blues in Red), a film about an East German musician defecting to the West to escape the political repression of his music. Written by Trevor Griffiths (best known for writing Warren Beatty’s Reds,...

Twilight Time presents Irish auteur Neil Jordan’s 1982 directorial debut Angel (aka Danny Boy) on Blu-ray, an obscurely regarded gem from the great filmmaker. A visually vibrant examination of the entrenched malaise infecting a region in the midst of what’s been referred to as “the troubles” (or the Northern Ireland Conflict, a decades spanning political issue concerning the constitutional status of Ireland in the UK vs. a United Ireland, informed also by religious views and ethnic background), this melancholy revenge drama showcases Jordan’s enduring muse Stephen Rea, as well as themes he’d continue to enhance in subsequent features. Hampered by a lack of developing tension, mostly due to a dramatic catalyst granted more weight than it could possibly wield, it’s certainly a solemn precursor to Jordan’s later masterpiece that decade, Mona Lisa (1986).

Danny (Rea) is a talented saxophonist traveling around with his band to different gigs around Northern Ireland.

Oscar-winning cinematographer worked on Kes, The Killing Fields and The Reader among others.

British cinematographer Chris Menges is to receive a lifetime achievement award at Camerimage (Nov 14-21), the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography.

Menges will attend the 23rd edition of Camerimage in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz to accept the award, introduce screenings of his films and will meet with the festival’s audience.

Across a 50-year career, Menges has won two Academy Awards for Roland Joffé’s The Killing Fields in 1985, for which he also won a BAFTA, and The Mission in 1987.

More recently, he was Oscar-nominated (with Roger Deakins) for his work on Stephen Daldry’s The Reader in 2010.

Menges began his career in the 1960s as camera operator for documentaries by Adrian Cowell and for films like Poor Cow by Ken Loach and If… by Lindsay Anderson.

He returned to work with Loach on Kes, which marked...

With Harrison Ford back as Rick Deckard, Denis Villeneuve in the director's chair, and Ryan Gosling eyeing a key role, the Blade Runner sequel was already in good hands, but now fans have another big reason to get excited, as it was recently announced that cinematographer Roger Deakins joined the film's crew:

Press Release (via The Playlist) -- "Los Angeles, CA, May, 20, 2015 – Twelve-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins will join director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Incendies) on Alcon Entertainment’s sequel to Blade Runner, it was announced by Alcon co-founders and co-ceo’s Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson.

Deakins, who will be presented with the Pierre Angénieux Excellens in Cinematography Award at the Cannes Film Festival on May 22 reteams with Villeneuve on what will be their third feature collaboration, havingpreviously worked together on Alcon’s Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal as well as Villeneuve’s upcoming film Sicario, a drug-trafficking drama starring Emily Blunt,...

Denis Villeneuve to direct sci-fi sequel.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins will join director Denis Villeneuve on Alcon Entertainment’s Blade Runner sequel

Deakins, who will be presented with the Pierre Angénieux Excellens in Cinematography Award at the Cannes Film Festival tomorrow (May 22) reteams with Villeneuve.

It marks their third feature collaboration, having previously worked together on Prisoners and Sicario, which is in Competition at Cannes.

Deakins received his latest Oscar nomination this year for his work on Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. He was previously nominated for Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo, The Man Who Wasn’t There, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men and True Grit; Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption; Martin Scorsese’s Kundun; Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Stephen Daldry’s The Reader, which he shared with Chris Menges; and, more recently, Prisoners and Sam Mendes’ Skyfall.

Film is scheduled...

While we know next to nothing about the plot for the upcoming Blade Runner sequel, we do know that at the very least, it's going to look gorgeous, as renowned cinematographer Roger Deakins has joined the team. Come inside to learn more.

Blade Runner 2 is moving full steam ahead. Just a couple months ago it was announced Denis Villenueve had been hired on to direct the sequel, with Harrison Ford set to return, and it looks like they're starting to build up the rest of the necessary behind the scenes crew to get production moving. Announced at Cannes, Roger Deakins, the cinematographer behind Prisoners, Skyfall, Fargo, and Many others has been hired on as the Dop for the new movie. Deakins has worked with Villenueve on his last two movies, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

The original Blade Runner is still a visually striking movie, and...

By winning the Best Cinematography Oscar for a second year in a row, "Birdman" director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki has joined a truly elite club whose ranks haven't been breached in nearly two decades. Only four other cinematographers have won the prize in two consecutive years. The last time it happened was in 1994 and 1995, when John Toll won for Edward Zwick's "Legends of the Fall" and Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" respectively. Before that you have to go all the way back to the late '40s, when Winton Hoch won in 1948 (Victor Fleming's "Joan of Arc" with Ingrid Bergman) and 1949 (John Ford's western "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"). Both victories came in the color category, as the Academy awarded prizes separately for black-and-white and color photography from 1939 to 1956. Leon Shamroy also won back-to-back color cinematography Oscars, for Henry King's 1944 Woodrow Wilson biopic "Wilson" and John M. Stahl...

The 2014 New York Comic Con came to a close over the weekend (October 12), and once again the cosplayers' costumes were of a very high calibre.

From a Lego Thor to inmates from Orange Is the New Black, here are 17 of the best costumes from the convention:

1. Robbie Savage, is that you under there?! An enthusiastic Comic Con attendee does Marvel's Thor.

2. Two fans of Disney Pixar's 2009 animation Up arrive as the old widower and the young Boy Scout.

3. Awww... Comic Con attendee Charles Canedo makes a cute Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy.

4. Three Orange Is the New Black fans come dressed as inmates Nicky Nichols (played by Natasha Lyonne) and Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) plus rookie prison guard John Bennett (Matt McGorry). We think...

5. Comic Con fan Kerri Nugent poses as Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome villain Aunty Entity. With that hair, for a split second we thought it was...

All great debut features come from a place of true inspiration. For Diego Quemada-Diez, those places are dotted all over; with his knockout first film, The Golden Dream, which follows the lives of a group of teenagers as they embark on a mission from Guatemala to the U.S., the elements of his work can be traced back to the director’s influences (of which there are many) while also standing entirely on their own.

He sat down with HeyUGuys for a lengthy chat about the movie, and the political, social and deeply personal aspects that came to shape not only The Golden Dream, but his life.

Warning: this interview contains spoilers.

I found the film to be very powerful, but very sad as well. Did you have any inspirations? Were you thinking of other films while you were making this one?

I’ve been a cinephile all my life,...

We’re getting closer to Hollywood’s night to shine – the Oscars. This year’s nominations are a bevy of brilliant films, performances and crafts, the motion picture industry at its best.

The Academy Awards is the gold standard by which every other awards show is measured, because when it comes to the biggest night in film, nobody does it better than Oscar!

In anticipation of the star-studded night at the Dolby Theatre, the gang at Wamg has chosen their favorite nominees – from the Best Picture and Best Acting categories to the technical categories, here’s a close-up look at our Top 10 Favorite nominees.

Best Picture – American Hustle

By Jim Batts

The Best Picture Oscar usually goes to the film that shines a light on a social injustice, a historical event, or individuals battling injury or disease. The most wildly entertaining (sorry Marty and Leo, but three hours of arrogant...

Marlon Brando in ‘A Dry White Season,’ James Earl Jones in ‘Cry the Beloved Country’: Apartheid movies (photo: Marlon Brando in ‘A Dry White Season’) (See previous post: “Nelson Mandela: Sidney Poitier and ‘Malcolm X’ Cameo Apperance.”) Besides the Nelson Mandela movies discussed in the previous two posts, South Africa’s apartheid has been portrayed in a number of films in the last few decades. Among the most notable ones are the following: Zoltan Korda’s Cry the Beloved Country (1951). Based on Alan Paton’s novel, this British-made film features Canada Lee and Charles Carson as two men struggling to deal with the disastrous consequences of apartheid. Ralph Nelson’s The Wilby Conspiracy (1975). Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine star as, respectively, an anti-apartheid South African activist and a British engineer on the run from South Africa’s secret police, headed by racist Nicol Williamson. Chris Menges’ A World Apart...

"I'm going to kill you… with this spoon." Although it won't be his highest-grossing movie, this flawed but ambitious (and rather peculiar) London-set thriller finds Jason Statham once again broadening his dramatic palette while retaining his trademark homoerotic action base. He plays special-forces soldier turned street-bum "Crazy Joey" who stumbles into a swanky Soho flat that becomes a base from which to rebuild his life, avenge a murder, and play games with his (sexual) identity.

After the lascivious oil-wrestling and male striptease of the Transporter series, the Stath here finds himself surrounded by prominently displayed photos of bound penises. "Are you exclusively gay?" asks a neighbour, to which our hero replies: "Recently I've found myself attracted to nuns" – his relationship with Agata Buzek's Sister of Mercy being one of the film's many oddly upturned generic tropes.

Although the narrative entanglements are overstretched (no surprise from writer/director Steven Knight...

Feature Duncan Bowles 26 Jun 2013 - 06:49

Duncan chats to the director of the new Jason Statham movie about, well, Jason Statham, among other things

Hummingbird (aka Redemption) sees Steven Knight make his feature film directorial debut after several decades in the film and television industry. He’s probably best known in the UK for writing the '90s TV comedy show The Detectives, which starred Jasper Carrott and Robert Powell (which he also directed a few episodes of). Hummingbird marks the third part of his dark side of London trilogy, with Dirty Pretty Things being the first and the David Cronenberg directed Eastern Promises, the second.

Hummingbird revolves around a homeless ex-veteran, Joey Jones (played by our man Statham) who’s given a second chance at a new life, helped in part by his unlikely alliance with a nun, Christina (Agata Buzek). It’s a surprising film in many ways,...

Film-maker whose documentaries allowed the subjects to speak for themselves

The documentary film-maker Michael Grigsby, who has died aged 76, strove to convey the experiences of ordinary people, and those on the margins of society. His subjects ranged from Inuit hunters in northern Canada and North Sea fishermen to Northern Irish farmers, Vietnamese villagers and, most recently, ageing American veterans of the Vietnam war.

He made more than 30 films – many of them for Granada TV's World in Action and Disappearing World – which were marked by the way in which they allowed their subjects to speak for themselves. Taking his films back to the communities he had filmed for their approval became a vital part of Grigsby's process of securing trust. Some – like the Inuit – would subsequently use his films to explain their lives to outsiders.

Grigsby's questions were never heard and he abhorred commentary, preferring brief captions or the overlaid voices...

This article is dedicated to Andrew Copp: filmmaker, film writer, artist and close friend who passed away on January 19, 2013. You are loved and missed, brother.

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Looking at the Best Actor Academy Award nominations for the film year 2012, the one miss that clearly cries out for more attention is Liam Neeson’s powerful performance in Joe Carnahan’s excellent survival film The Grey, easily one of the best roles of Neeson’s career.

In Neeson’s case, his lack of a nomination was a case of neglect similar to the Albert Brooks snub in the Best Supporting Actor category for the film year 2011 for Drive(Nicolas Winding Refn, USA).

Along with negligence, other factors commonly prevent outstanding lead acting performances from getting the kind of critical attention they deserve. Sometimes it’s that the performance is in a film not considered “Oscar material” or even worthy of any substantial critical attention.

Jameson Cult Film Club | Between The Lines | Borderlines Film Festival | Pier Paolo Pasolini

Jameson Cult Film Club, Liverpool & Sheffield

Twenty years before he had the budget to film men shooting each other on horses, Quentin Tarantino had to resort to filming men shooting each other in warehouses. But while Django Unchained has been praised as a bracing return to form, these special "immersive" screenings celebrate the movie that established Tarantino's form in the first place: Reservoir Dogs. By "immersive", they mean screening the movie in a warehouse setting, decked out like an extension of the movie, with characters (watch out for the psychotic Mr Blonde), themed catering and even recreations of the movie's more memorable moments (bring spare ears). It's all free as well, though you'll have to register quickly.

Camp & Furnace, Liverpool, Wed; Gibb Street Warehouse, Birmingham, Thu

Between The Lines, London

This promises to be a ground-breaking festival...

Lionsgate has acquired U.S. and U.K. distribution rights to Im Global’s “Hummingbird,” the latest Jason Statham thriller, the studio announced Friday. The film stars Statham as a war veteran trying to diguise himself as an upper class Londoner. When his girlfriend is killed, he must embrace his violent past and track down the murderers. It will be the directorial debut for Steven Knight, the Oscar-nominated writer of “Eastern Promises.” Oscar-nominated producer Paul Webster (“Atonement,” “Eastern Promises”) is also on board, as is Oscar-winning cinematographer Chris Menges (“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” “The...

Stephen Daldry's new film is buffed, polished, and as deplorable as its source material. A good bet for an Oscar then, says John Patterson

I don't know how Stephen Daldry does it. He has conducted yet another masterclass in the confection of high-tone, middle-brow Oscar bait and has succeeded triumphantly. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, manipulative and fraudulent at every level, has its nominations in place and is on the road to the Academy Awards. And that is exactly what was meant to happen. Rarely have I seen a movie as maniacally fine-tuned to drive the voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences into orgasms of approbation and applause. It may not carry home the statuettes, but no one can say they didn't try everything.

Daldry – already bedazzled unto blindness by glib, overrated books like Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Bernhard Schlink's schlocky bestseller The Reader...

At each of the last three Oscars, there has been a trio of first-time nominees for Best Cinematography. Of this year's leading contenders only Guillaume Schiffmanis, who lensed "The Artist," is new to the game. Past champs in the mix include Janusz Kaminski, Chris Menges, Wally Pfister and Robert Richardson. And there are plenty of past nominees, led by Emmanuel Lubezki, looking for their first win.  Kaminski, who regularly collaborates with Steven Spielberg, is a contender for "War Horse." He won Oscars for Spielberg's war epics "Schindler's List" (1993) and "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) and was a nominee for "Amistad" (1997) and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (2007). Back in 2008, Menges was cited (alongside Roger Deakins) for Stephen Daldry's "The Reader." He and Daldry have worked together again on "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.&qu...

With an absolute sensitivity to the people and events surrounding 2001's terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is an emotionally staggering adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's novel of the same name. Director Stephen Daldry has taken Eric Roth's (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) screenplay and crafted a film that will have you welling up early and often as it not only manages to be respectful of the events and the millions of lives that were affected, but it's done in such a way that the tears are earned rather than merely the result of the tragic event at the film's core.

Set one year after the September 11th attacks, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close follows the story of young Oskar Schell (played to perfection by Thomas Horn) after he lost his father (Tom Hanks) in one of the Towers. Oskar held...