News

Plot: A washed-up boxer (Michael Pitt) prepares for the biggest match of his career – his first in ten years – while trying to patch up the various frayed relationships in his life.

Review: Day of the Fight marks actor Michael Pitt’s (billed here as Michael C. Pitt) first leading role in many years. A former heartthrob best known for The Dreamers, the American remake of Funny Games, and his role on Boardwalk Empire, he recently turned up in the underrated Benicio del Toro film Reptile but otherwise has been out of the spotlight for years. If you google his name, you can see that he had to deal with some personal issues we’re not going to dredge up here, but suffice it to say that Day of the Fight offers him a strong star vehicle that could help him make a comeback if the right people see it.

The...

Updated Monday with Wesley Snipes’ statement, below:

Through music and film, Kris Kristofferson has left an indelible mark on fans over the past 60 years.

Following news of the Golden Globe and 3x Grammy winner’s death at age 88 on Sunday, friends and fans alike expressed their appreciation for his decades of talent with heartfelt tributes to Kristofferson.

Kristofferson’s family announced his passing with a statement on Instagram. “We’re all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all,” they wrote.

Barbra Streisand, his co-star in the Oscar-winning 1976 remake of A Star Is Born, paid tribute to the country star on Instagram, writing that he was a “special” and “charming” performer. “It was a joy seeing him receive the recognition and love he so richly deserved,” she wrote.

Jeff Bridges made his unofficial screen debut in John Cromwell's 1951 drama "The Company She Keeps" just over a year after he was born. The son of actors Dorothy and Lloyd Bridges, he steadily proved himself a nepo baby of the finest order upon reaching young adulthood. In the 50 years and change since then, he's done it all, be it squaring off with King Kong, riding a light cycle on The Grid, or seeking compensation for the damage to his prized rug. (It really tied his living room together.) He even snagged a long-expected Oscar for playing an alcoholic country singer in Scott Cooper's "Crazy Heart," a film that arrived on the heels of Bridges portraying the first-ever Marvel Cinematic Universe villain in "Iron Man."

Trying to decide which of Bridges' movies stands out above the rest is a formidable challenge. It's also one that we, thankfully, need not...

“I always try to keep myself three or four months away from whatever physical manifestations a role will demand,” says Tim Blake Nelson. And Nelson has had his fair share of manifestations, from an escaped convict with an uncanny ability to harmonize (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) to a resident villain in early Marvel movie lore (The Incredible Hulk) or a paranoid police officer with a knack for interrogation (TV series Watchmen).

“You’re an actor every day. You’re not just an actor when you’re working. You have to keep your body and your mindset in a state of readiness,” says Nelson. One of his latest incarnations is as an aging boxer, Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski, who trains his grandson and deals with his own health issues, all the while fighting the demons of his past.

Directed by Vincent Grashaw, Bang Bang (check out a clip here), will...

It remains the most joltingly violent, psychosexual grindhouse shocker of the ’80s, directed by a veteran of I Love Lucy and starring a frequently shirtless former teen idol with an epically demented performance by an Oscar nominee. And now, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker can be experienced for the first time ever in Uhd. Jimmy McNichol stars as an orphaned high-school student raised by his strangely overprotective aunt (Susan Tyrrell of Fat City fame) who becomes implicated in a grisly murder investigated by a psychotic police detective (an equally unhinged Bo Svenson of Inglorious Bastards). Seven-time Emmy nominee Julia Duffy (Newhart) and Bill Paxton (in one of his first film roles) co-star in this “jaw-dropping hunk of genre insanity” (Pop Culture Beast) and former Dpp 39 Video Nasty—also known as Night Warning—now scanned in 4K from the original camera negative with six hours of new and archival special features.

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker...

Fred Roos, the casting director turned producer who jump-started the career of Jack Nicholson and collaborated often with Francis Ford Coppola, sharing a best picture Oscar with the filmmaker for The Godfather Part II, has died. He was 89.

Roos died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills, a publicist announced.

It’s part of Hollywood lore that before Harrison Ford became a famous actor, he was laboring as a carpenter to make ends meet. What some might not know is that it was at Roos’ house where Ford was woodworking when the casting director befriended him, eventually pushing him for roles in George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars (1977) and Coppola’s The Conversation (1974).

And it was Roos who convinced Lucas — who had been leaning toward Amy Irving — that Carrie Fisher should portray Princess Leia in Star Wars. (Roos did not have an official role on that film.)

Roos, however,...

Fred Roos, casting director for landmark films such as “American Graffiti” and who went on to have a close relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, including producing best picture winner “Godfather Part II” and “Apocalypse Now,” died Saturday in Beverly Hills. He was 89.

Roos was both casting director and executive producer on Coppola’s most recent film “Megalopolis” which premiered last week at the Cannes Film Festival. Last year, Coppola posted a photo of Roos with Adam Driver on Instagram and thanked him for his work on the long-gestating epic.

Roos was instrumental in helping stars including Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Carrie Fisher and Richard Dreyfuss get their early notable roles.

His long collaboration with Coppola as producer or co-producer included “The Conversation,” “One From the Heart,” “The Outsiders,” “Rumble Fish,” “The Cotton Club,” “The Godfather Part III,” “Tetro,” “Youth Without Youth” and “Tucker: The Man and His Dream.”

Roos was not credited,...

The Paul Schrader Renaissance began the moment “First Reformed” debuted to the director’s best reviews in at least 15 years, back in 2017. The spiritual trilogy formed around it — “The Card Counter” and “Master Gardener” — have fostered in a new generation’s mind this frankly narrow vision of what constitutes a Paul Schrader movie: men in rooms, pens across diaries, peculiar revenge plots.

It’s likely that audiences anticipating another drama in which a man’s profession comes dressed as the sick soul of America will be baffled by “Oh, Canada,” his newest feature now in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s based on Russell Banks’ 2021 novel “Foregone.” Those well-acquainted with Schrader’s half-century of cinema may find themselves on the edge of bafflement with this film, which uses the last will and testament of documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) as a trickle-down device for 55 years of guilt,...

Cate Blanchett has signed on to star in Alpha Gang, the new comedy from David and Nathan Zellner, the sibling duo behind wacky Sundance entry Sasquatch Sunset.

The two-time Oscar winner is set to star as Alpha One, the leader of an alien gang sent on a mission to conquer Earth. She arrives disguised in human form together with her fellow extraterrestrials, posing as an armed and dangerous 1950’s leather-clad biker gang. But their ruthless plan is disrupted when the gang catches “the most toxic, contagious human disease of all: emotion.”

David and Nathan Zellner will direct Alpha Gang as well as produce. Blanchett and Coco Francini are also on board as producers, through their Dirty Films outfit. Other producers include Ryan Zacarias for Fat City, and Gina Gammell for Felix Culpa. The film is set to being shooting this fall.

“The Zellner brother’s work never fails to surprise and delight us,...

To celebrate the release of Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker available on Special Edition Dual 4K Uhd and Blu-Ray on 13th May, we have a Special Edition Dual 4K Uhd and Blu-Ray to give away!

One of the notorious 1980s video nasties Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker has been lauded as ‘Brilliantly insane’ (Cool Ass Cinema) and a ‘horror gem, well-crafted, ripe for analysis… should not go overlooked (Bloody Disgusting) and now, thanks to Severin Films, you can witness the film like never before. The company announces a brand-new Special Edition Dual 4K Uhd and Blu-ray is set for its UK release on 13 May 2024.

In a surprising change of direction, William Asher – veteran of gentle TV delights such as I Love Lucy and Bewitched – directed one of the most joltingly brutal, psychosexual shockers of the ‘80s, the eye-poppingly violent and demented Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker, which can now be experienced for the first time ever in Uhd.

‘A deeply twisted shocker… You will never, ever, ever find a psychotic she-monster more blood-chilling than Susan Tyrrell’

Coming Soon

‘An excellent shocker… queasy and wildly ahead of its time… Susan Tyrrell delivers a character unlike any other in horror history’

Mondo Digital

‘Tyrrell steals the show… the sight of her… clutching a machete and chasing a poor unfortunate through a stormy night is once seen, never forgotten!… I heartedly recommend you seek out’

Hysteria Lives

One of the notorious 1980s video nasties Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker has been lauded as ‘Brilliantly insane’ (Cool Ass Cinema) and a ‘horror gem, well-crafted, ripe for analysis… should not go overlooked (Bloody Disgusting) and now, thanks to Severin Films, you can witness the film like never before. The company announces a brand-new Special Edition Dual 4K Uhd and Blu-ray is set for its UK release on 13th May 2024.

In a surprising change of direction,...

Actor Jack Huston makes his directorial debut with the drama “The Day of the Fight,” starring Michael Pitt, in Venice’s Horizons Extra. The black and white film, set in the early 1980s, follows Mikey (Pitt) through his day as he prepares for a comeback fight at Madison Square Garden that night. But Mikey is preparing for something much bigger, as the screenplay – written by Huston – delves into his past, his relationships and all the pain, sorrow and joy they bring.

He visits his ex-wife (Nicolette Robinson), trainer (Ron Perlman), best friend (John Magaro) and, in one showstopping scene, his father (played by Joe Pesci), who’s been cut down by dementia and can’t talk or even move on his own, in a nursing home. Pesci uses only his eyes to convey emotions — arguably a bold play by a rookie filmmaker to use the famously animated actor in such a subtle way.

Actor Jack Huston says two creative sparks convinced him to make his feature directing debut with boxing drama Day of the Fight. The first concerned the premise; the second, his star.

“Several years ago, I was watching Stanley Kubrick’s first film, a documentary short he shot in 1951, also called Day of the Fight,” Huston says. The film famously follows the great Irish American boxer Walter Cartier over the course of an ordinary day as he prepares for a 10 p.m. title bout.

“It’s this amazing glimpse into the real life of a boxer,” Huston explains. “He eats breakfast, he goes to church, he visits his twin brother, he goes around town — and it’s all leading up to a big prize fight. I remember thinking, ‘What a wonderful premise for a deeper narrative to develop.’ As we follow our boxer through his day and meet the people in his world,...

Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.

Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort

Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...

This story about Natasha Lyonne and “Poker Face” first appeared in the Down to the Wire: Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. All actor interviews in that issue were conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began.

In each episode of “Poker Face,” the Peacock series created by Rian Johnson, Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie Cale, a former casino worker on the run from some very bad men, solves murder mysteries in the towns she travels through, aided by her ability to detect when someone is lying. Charlie is no saint, but she lives by a strong moral code.

But let’s let Lyonne explain it in the most Natasha Lyonne way imaginable. “Rian and I have this real shared love of crossword puzzles and puzzles in general — it’s how we pass time together on set between shots,” she said. “So we discovered that Charlie was going to have this...

It’s easy to find sport-specific lists of movies online. From Bodog’s list of the top 5 legendary basketball films — which puts the gritty and ageless White Men Can’t Jump at its #1 spot, and we couldn’t possibly agree more—To others that also cover films, it’s not rare to get a lowdown on the best or the most popular films in a particular sport.

Then there are also perennial lists for sports on film review websites, like Rotten Tomatoes’ list of 30 essential football films, and overall sports lists like IMDb’s all-time highest-rated sports films that can also include films not primarily sports-based. But what is generally lacking is the list of the best films in a select few sports, ones that are the most popular in the UK. Today, we’re going to make that list for you!

For this purpose, we’re going to limit our...

More than a dozen years (plus some change) since she premiered her feature debut Yeast (a 2008 SXSW Film Festival selection), Mary Bronstein is set to direct her sophomore feature If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. A project that first hit our radar back in 2021 is slowly simmering and moving into a possible August production start date. Casting news should trickle in via the trades shortly. Naturally we have Elara Pictures Safdie Bros. producing alongside Sara Murphy and Ryan Zacarias‘ new shingle, Fat City. A24 will distribute.

We could probably insert Ronald Bronstein (who saw his only feature Frownland hit Criterion last year) in some capacity here and possibly see cinematographer Sean Price Williams re-team with Bronstein.…...

Humor, it seems, has returned to the Main Competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. After a few days of mostly serious dramas about Nazis and terrorists and sweatshops, a lighter touch has emerged from a couple of expected sources: first Todd Haynes, a filmmaker with a great range but also a real touch for pulpy material that he shows in “May December,” and now Aki Kaurismäki, the Finnish master of comedy so deadpan that it can take an audience half the movie to figure out that it’s Ok to laugh.

They figured it out when Kaurismaki’s “Fallen Leaves” premiered in Cannes on Monday. With a brisk one-hour-and-21-minute running time, the film is a wry delight whose very restraint is part of the joke. Jonathan Glazer’s Cannes standout “The Zone of Interest” might be a movie without a single closeup, but “Fallen Leaves” is pretty much a...

Begho Ukueberuwa, a director of development at Sara Murphy and Ryan Zacarias’ production company Fat City, has died. He was 27.

Ukueberuwa died Sunday in Providence, Rhode Island, of complications from heat stroke while running a half-marathon.

“We are utterly heartbroken by the recent passing of our friend and colleague. He was joyful, insightful, wonderfully disruptive. He was kind,” Murphy and Zacarias said in a joint statement. “And, more than anything, he loved people and brought them together. Everyone who knew him felt special for the simple fact of knowing him. He was Begho. And there was an immediate camaraderie if you met someone else who knew Begho.”

Ukueberuwa began his career in entertainment as an agent in CAA’s motion picture literary department. He joined the newly launched Fat City in August.

Ukueberuwa was raised in West Windsor, New Jersey, and graduated from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South. He then attended NYU.

Updated throughout: This is news that has come as a shock to many. Begho Ukueberuwa, an executive and former agent, died May 7. He was just 27. Ukueberuwa died of complications from heat stroke while running a half-marathon in Providence, Ri, according to his family.

Last fall, Ukueberuwa was appointed to head up development across film and television for Fat City, the then-newly launched production company of Sara Murphy and Ryan Zacarias based at Anonymous Content with a first-look deal.

“We are utterly heartbroken by the recent passing of our friend and colleague. He was joyful, insightful, wonderfully disruptive. He was kind,” said Murphy and Zacarias in a joint statement. “And, more than anything, he loved people and brought them together. Everyone who knew him felt special for the simple fact of knowing him. He was Begho. And there was an immediate camaraderie if you met someone else who knew Begho. Our...

“Matt Dillon comes across like a young Brando or James Dean.” —Houston Post

Coolness Personified As Matt Dillon Stars In Mvd Rewind Collection’S ‘Liar’S Moon’ Making Its Long-awaited Debut On Blu-ray Through Mvd Entertainment Group. –The 1982 Teen Drama On Blu-ray Coming February 2022.

Here’s a trailer for the restoration:

Matt Dillon (The Outsiders) stars in this tender tale of love’s first promise… and its enduring strength. Dillon plays Jack Duncan, an athletic, hardworking boy from the small town of Noble, Texas. Jack is happy just enjoying himself with the local boys, until he meets Ginny Peterson (Cindy Fisher), the town’s wealthiest young lady. Despite their obviously different backgrounds, Jack and Ginny fall desperately in love. Even though their parents have forbidden them to meet, Jack and Ginny sneak out, and finally elope, hoping to find happiness far from their hometown. But theirs is a love that falls...

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.

The Hottest August (Brett Story)

Where better than New York City to make a structuralist film? Cities are iterative, their street grids diagrams of theme and variation, and New York most of all—with its streets and avenues named for numbers and letters and states and cities and presidents and Revolutionary War generals spanning an archipelago, intersecting at a million little data points at which to measure class, race, culture, history, architecture and infrastructure. And time, too—from this human density emerge daily and seasonal rituals, a set of biorhythms, reliable as the earth’s, against which to mark gradual shifts and momentary fashions. Summer is for lounging on fire escapes, always, and, today, for Mister Softee. Yesterday it was shaved ice.

Hello, everyone! To kick off this month’s horror and sci-fi home media releases, we have an eclectic array of titles coming out this week. In terms of recent genre films, Rlje Films is releasing both Lucky by Natasha Kermani and Simon Barrett’s Seance on Tuesday, and if you’re a fan of the original Transformers movie (like this writer is), Shout! Factory has put together an incredible-looking Steelbook to celebrate the film’s 35th anniversary as well.

Arrow Video is keeping busy with two different sets of genre classics with their Sergio Martino Collection and The Daimajin Trilogy, and Code Red is showing some love to Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker this Tuesday with a special edition Blu-ray release.

Other titles headed home on August 3rd include Night Feeder, Dead Again, It Wants Blood, and Tailgate.

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker Aka Night Warning: Special Edition

Terror begins when a...

Next month’s lineup at The Criterion Channel has been unveiled, featuring no shortage of excellent offerings. Leading the pack is a massive, 20-film retrospective dedicated to John Huston, featuring a mix of greatest and lesser-appreciated works, including Fat City, The Dead, Wise Blood, The Man Who Would Be King, and Key Largo. (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre will join the series on October 1.)

Also in the lineup is series on the works of Budd Boetticher (specifically his Randolph Scott-starring Ranown westerns), Ephraim Asili, Josephine Baker, Nikos Papatakis, Jean Harlow, Lee Isaac Chung (pre-Minari), Mani Kaul, and Michelle Parkerson.

The sparkling new restoration of La Piscine will also debut, along with Amores perros, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Cate Shortland’s Lore, both Oxhide films, Moonstruck, and much more.

See the full list of August titles below and more on The Criterion Channel.

Abigail Harm,...

The director of Palmer helps us kick off our new season by walking us through some of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Bloodhounds Of Broadway (1989)

Salvador (1986)

True Believer (1989)

Palmer (2021)

Wonder Wheel (2017)

A Face In The Crowd (1957)

On The Waterfront (1954)

No Time For Sergeants (1958)

The Confidence Man (2018)

Lolita (1962)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The Ghost Of Peter Sellers (2018)

The Marrying Man (1991)

The Ruling Class (1972)

The Krays (1990)

Let Him Have It (1991)

The Changeling (1980)

On The Border (1998)

Murder By Decree (1979)

Bigger Than Life (1956)

The Night of the Iguana (1964)

Fat City (1972)

Angel (1984)

Animal House (1978)

My Science Project (1985)

Lucía (1968)

Paper Moon (1973)

Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

The Great McGinty (1940)

I Married A Witch (1942)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Raging Bull (1980)

Once Upon A Time In America (1984)

The Rider (2017)

The Mustang (2019)

Nomadland (2020)

Murmur of the Heart (1971)

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

The Conversation (1974)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part III (1990)

The Magnificent Ambersons...

A lot of filmmakers point to the New Hollywood movies of the 1970s as influences, but few directors have internalized and applied the lessons of the era as effectively as Max Winkler, whose new feature Jungleland recalls seminal studies of masculinity in crisis like John Huston’s Fat City and Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail. The movie follows bare-knuckle brawler Lion (Jack O’Connell) and his older brother Stanley (Charlie Hunnam), broke siblings looking for a way out of their desperate circumstances. They think they’ve found it when a local underworld figure offers to clear their debts if they chaperone a young […]

The post "The Hardest Thing to Do is to Pick Up the Dolly Track When the Shot's Not Right": Max Winkler on Jungleland first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

A lot of filmmakers point to the New Hollywood movies of the 1970s as influences, but few directors have internalized and applied the lessons of the era as effectively as Max Winkler, whose new feature Jungleland recalls seminal studies of masculinity in crisis like John Huston’s Fat City and Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail. The movie follows bare-knuckle brawler Lion (Jack O’Connell) and his older brother Stanley (Charlie Hunnam), broke siblings looking for a way out of their desperate circumstances. They think they’ve found it when a local underworld figure offers to clear their debts if they chaperone a young […]

The post "The Hardest Thing to Do is to Pick Up the Dolly Track When the Shot's Not Right": Max Winkler on Jungleland first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Max Winkler’s “Jungleland” is a throwback to the kind of character-driven, road movies that Hollywood hasn’t made much since the glory days of the 1970s moviemaking.

It’s the story of two drifter brothers who are so desperate to escape their dead-end lives that they accept an offer to ferry a young woman (Jessica Barden) across the country to a degenerate criminal. The film, which opens Friday, stars Jack O’Connell as Walter “Lion” Kaminsky, a bare-knuckle boxer, and Charlie Hunnam as Stanley Kaminsky, his corner-man and manager, who is better at plunging the family into debt than scoring big paydays.

On the eve of the film’s release, Winkler spoke to Variety about the movies that inspired “Jungleland,” why “King Arthur” convinced him to cast Hunnam as the down-and-out Stanley, and his go-for-broke effort to score the rights to a Bruce Springsteen song.

What drew you to this story?...

Even prior to the pandemic, Technicolor was developing a new mobile post suite app called TechStream, because remote color timing and sound mixing — particularly for episodic TV — had become too expensive and inconvenient. Fortunately, for HBO’s “Perry Mason,” TechStream was launched just in time to finish the Depression-era origin story, starring Matthew Rhys as Erle Stanley Gardner’s legendary defense attorney.

“The idea was to have a [real-time] product that was simple and flawless to operate,” said Pankaj Bajpai, Technicolor VP, finishing artist and business development. “If you can use an iPhone, then that was the requirement that would allow people to collaborate, especially when working on episodics, where DPs can’t physically be with you in the color suites. Now, of course, with the pandemic, all of a sudden we can’t live without Zoom and Teams. But a year ago, the way I was doing remote grading sessions...

From the people that brought you Pandemic Parade chapters 1-8, comes yet another thrilling episode featuring Jesse V. Johnson, Casper Kelly, Fred Dekker, Don Coscarelli, Daniel Noah, Elijah Wood and Blaire Bercy.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Wondrous Story of Birth a.k.a. The Birth of Triplets (1950)

Contagion (2011)

The Omega Man (1971)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

The Last Man On Earth (1964)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Innerspace (1987)

The Howling (1981)

The Invisible Man (2020)

The Sand Pebbles (1966)

Where Eagles Dare (1969)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Goldfinger (1964)

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)

Murder On The Orient Express (1974)

Dr. No (1962)

From Russia With Love (1963)

Bellman and True (1987)

Brimstone and Treacle (1982)

Richard III (1995)

Titanic (1997)

Catch 22 (1970)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966)

The Graduate (1967)

1941 (1979)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Jaws (1975)

The Fortune (1975)

Carnal Knowledge (1970)

Manhattan...

Act Like a Man is a column examining male screen performers past and present, across nationality and genre. If movie stars reflect the needs and desires of their audience in any particular era, examining their personas, popularity, fandom, and specific appeals has plenty to tell us about the way cinema has constructed—and occasionally deconstructed—manhood on our screens.Contemplating the lifelong brilliance of the 71-year-old Jeff Bridges, one thing seems certain: he’s not at risk of being forgotten. At the very least, he will likely be forever synonymous with the Dude, a lovable, beardy, schlepping character who espouses stoner philosophy and helped make The Big Lebowski (1998) an all-time cult favorite. The Dude may abide so well that it’s become easy to obscure the fact that Jeff Bridges has been doing strange and fascinating things on screen for nearly every decade of his life—in arguably better and...

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, whose latest feature There Is No Evil premieres in the Berlinale’s competition today, has issued a statement criticising his government for continuing to impose a travel ban upon him. “I am sorry that I will not be able to come to Berlin to watch the film alongside the audience; however, the right to choose between being present or absent at the festival is simply not mine. Imposing such restrictions very clearly exposes the intolerant and despotic nature of the Iranian government,” Rasoulof said. Kaveh Farnam, Farzad Pak, and Mani Tilgner, producers of There Is No Evil, added, “We are truly delighted and grateful that There Is No Evil has been selected and will premiere at the festival’s main competition. However, we must express our deepest regrets and loudest frustrations at the limitations faced by the creator of this outstanding work of artistry. We feel...

When I think about the American New Wave, I’m always traveling through the vast open roads of North America, its forever-changing landscapes and mythical American dreams, with all its bittersweet promise. Sonically speaking, I’m in that space, too. So much of the New Hollywood cinema is vast Americana; Death Valley and desert-hot gas stations, the ultimate nihilistic road movie. But so much of it is everywhere else too; sleek Manhattan apartment blocks, the old Wild West, and the outer regions of space. In my head it’s a mixtape of philosophical and artistic ideas, one of cinema’s counter-culture melting pots where more questions are raised than answered and the plot is not driven by a desire for resolution.This mix was dreamed up as a mixtape: driving across state lines, re-adjusting the radio station on the dashboard as the trip moves further towards a destination that is unknown.

The 20th installment of AmericanaFest is in full swing in Nashville. While evening showcases and parties get most of the attention, the conference portion of the festival is just as rich a resource for incredible music, as well as insight into how it’s made.

On Thursday afternoon, NPR Music hosted a special “Turning the Tables” event at the Country Music Hall of Fame as part of the festival’s official programming. NPR Music’s Ann Powers moderated a panel featuring Carlene Carter, Shawn Colvin, Amythyst Kiah, and Maria Muldaur,...

In Max Winkler’s “Jungleland,” Jack O’Connell and Charlie Hunnam have a very familiar movie-sibling dynamic, playing brothers respectively “good” and ne’er-do-well, tough guys in the brutal business of boxing who’ve been knocked around a bit too much by life in general. This may inevitably recall the fairly recent likes of “The Fighter” and “Warrior,” excellent movies with other fine lead actors that likewise tipped hat to the gritty ’70s cinema of “Fat City” and “Rocky” — which in turn cast a critical yet longing gaze back to palooka dramas from Hollywood’s golden age.

“Jungleland” isn’t as good as any of those above-named films, but it’s good enough to make you wish it weren’t just so incredibly redolent of them. It’s the kind of enterprise that has everything but a single fresh idea, or even moment. It’s a very serious film in...

All-American race car mania is alive and well in this excellent Jeff Bridges movie, a true biographical story researched by Tom Wolfe. Junior Johnson needs a future beyond running moonshine for his father, and finds it climbing the rungs of success in the stock car racing game. This may be the most satisfying saga of its kind, and it helped prove that Bridges was a star.

The Last American Hero

Region ? Blu-ray See Below

Explosive Media

1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date March 28, 2019 / Der letzte Held Amerikas / Available at Amazon.de

11.92 Euros Starring: Jeff Bridges, Valerie Perrine, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Gary Busey, Art Lund, Ed Lauter.

Cinematography: George Silano

Art Director: Lawrence G. Paull

Film Editors: Robbe Roberts, Tom Rolfe

Original Music: Charles Fox

Written by William Roberts from stories by Tom Wolfe

Produced by John Cutts, William Roberts

Directed by Lamont Johnson

Catching up with older Jeff Bridges movies is never a bad idea,...

<-- Geraldine Page would like to know why you didn't vote on the Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1972? Our annual summer series looking at old Supporting Actress races kicked off its summer season with a discussion of the 1972 film year with a really cool panel so please read, listen, and share.

Smackdown Dates For Your Calendar

• April 28th Smackdown Of 1972

Poseidon Adventure, The Heartbreak Kid, Pete 'n' Tillie, Fat City, Butterflies are Free

• June 2nd Smackdown Of 2001

Iris, Gosford Park, A Beautiful Mind, In the Bedroom

• June 30th Smackdown -Tba

• July 28th Smackdown -Tba

• August 25th Smackdown -Tba

Pssst. We're still negotiating years and panelists for the three late summer events so stay tuned...

Jeff Bridges grew up with show business in his veins. His father, the late Lloyd Bridges, was a gregarious sort who not only loved the making of movies, but the selling of them as well. He would encourage his children to give it a go. “This is a great life,” he would tell them.

Still, like any rebellious kid, the younger Bridges — who will receive the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 6 — was resistant to chasing his father’s chosen trade. He wanted to be a musician instead, or an artist. “I had maybe 10 movies under my belt before I thought I could do this for the rest of my life,” he said in 2009.

Eventually the passion kicked in. Six decades into a movie career that technically began when he was a 6-month-old infant on...

Updated Announcement: Due to unforseen circumstances we have to reschedule the 1972 Smackdown. It will now be held on Sunday, September 30th. So if you still want to play along you have until Thursday, September 27th to get your votes in.

Supporting Actress Smackdown, Sunday September 30th

Jeannie Berlin, The Heartbreak Kid Eileen Heckart, Butterflies are Free [iTunes | Amazon] Geraldine Page, Pete N' Tillie Susan Tyrrel, Fat City [iTunes | Amazon] Shelley Winters, The Poseidon Adventure [iTunes | Amazon]

You (the collective you) are the final panelist for each smackdown so your votes count toward the outcome. To vote e-mail us with 1972 in the subject line and a 1-5 heart rating for whichever performances you have seen.

I have no inkling who might win this one so it could be a nail-biter. I love that None of them are from best picture nominees that year so you know they all made it on the strength of either their work or their reputation.

Need a laugh? Paul Newman shoots people, hangs others and runs a judiciary speed trap for unwary outlaw vagrants. John Huston’s picture is a slack, passably amusing interpretation of writer John Milius’s career- boosting screenplay. A slow-going exercise in ‘printing the legend, only funnier,’ it’s recommended just to take in Stacy Keach’s memorable albino menace, ‘Bad Bob.’

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date July 17, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Paul Newman, Victoria Principal, Ava Gardner, Jacqueline Bisset, Ned Beatty, Tab Hunter, John Huston, Anthony Perkins, Stacy Keach, Roddy McDowall, Anthony Zerbe, Dick Farnsworth, Terry Leonard, Matt Clark, Bill McKinney, Steve Kanaly, Bruno The Bear, Michael Sarrazin.

Cinematography: Richard Moore

Film Editor: Hugh S. Fowler

Original Music: Maurice Jarre

Written by John Milius

Produced by John Foreman

Directed by John Huston

When John Huston movies are good,...

To be honest, I didn't feel that good before I finally started watching John Huston's adaptation of Leonard Gardner's novel the other night, but afterward, it was only the sheer exhaustion of a long day's work that allowed me to close my eyes and fall asleep. It is a downer, man. Gardner's novel, which was originally published in 1969, caught the eye of producer Ray Stark, who passed it along to director John Huston. The two had worked together on The Night of the Iguana (1964) and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1969), the latter starring Marlon Brando. Reportedly, Huston wanted Brando to star in Fat City, but when that didn't work out, Stacy Keach got the nod. Some three decades into his directing career,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Later this week, fans of Greta Gerwig’s wholly charming brand of cinema are in for a very big treat when her solo directorial debut “Lady Bird” arrives in limited release. Already lauded on the festival circuit and considered something of an Oscar contender in a slew of categories, the film draws much of its inspiration from Gerwig’s own coming-of-age in suburban Sacramento. Featuring Saoirse Ronan as the eponymous Lady Bird (sure, her birth certificate says “Christine,” but the whipsmart high school senior doesn’t have much time for such restrictions), the film follows the restless teen as she comes to grips with the push-pull of home, family, friends, and boys, all as she’s about to go enter full-scale adulthood.

While Gerwig has been a bit cagey on the exact parallels between Lady Bird and herself (at a recent New York Film Festival press conference, the filmmaker said,...

Richard Condon and John Huston’s show is like a gangland version of Moonstruck, bouncing effortlessly between earnest romanticism and cynical satire. Hit man Jack Nicholson is a brass-knuckle Romeo, and Kathleen Turner’s mysterious bicoastal Juliet has nothing but surprises for him. Near the end of his career, Huston’s direction is as assured as can be.

Prizzi’s Honor

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1985 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date August 29, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Street Date September 16, 2003 / 14.95

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia, John Randolph, William Hickey, Lee Richardson, Anjelica Huston.

Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak

Production Designer: Dennis Washington

Film Editors: Kaja Fehr, Rudi Fehr

Original Music: Alex North

Written by Janet Roach, Richard Condon from his novel

Produced by John Foreman

Directed by John Huston

Who said that John Huston slacked off in his later years? True, his Annie could be fairly re-titled as Gambling Debts Paid,...

'Under the Volcano' screening: John Huston's 'quality' comeback featuring daring Albert Finney tour de force As part of its John Huston film series, the UCLA Film & Television Archive will be presenting the 1984 drama Under the Volcano, starring Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, and Anthony Andrews, on July 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Los Angeles suburb of Westwood. Jacqueline Bisset is expected to be in attendance. Huston was 77, and suffering from emphysema for several years, when he returned to Mexico – the setting of both The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Night of the Iguana – to direct 28-year-old newcomer Guy Gallo's adaptation of English poet and novelist Malcolm Lowry's 1947 semi-autobiographical novel Under the Volcano, which until then had reportedly defied the screenwriting abilities of numerous professionals. Appropriately set on the Day of the Dead – 1938 – in the fictitious Mexican town of Quauhnahuac (the fact that it sounds like Cuernavaca...

Tuesday, the National Board of Review will announce its best films of the year, the first in what will be many year-end best-of lists from critics’ groups. And as Oscar season comes into full effect, there’s no film that could use the vote of confidence more than David Mackenzie’s contemporary Texas western, “Hell or High Water.”

With its robust-but-not-recordbreaking Metascore of 88, “Hell or High Water” (CBS FIlms/Lionsgate) is both an entertaining genre piece and a thoughtful art film. It’s an excellent piece of work, but it’s not a film that telegraphs its Serious Intentions — and that’s where the critics could lend it some needed gravitas. It may or may not be an advantage that the modern frontier heist thriller is the highest-grossing independent film of the year ($27 million) —and just hit Blu-ray and DVD release. The critics may want to give it a boost...

Tomorrow, the National Board of Review will announce its best films of the year, the first in what will be many year-end best-of lists from critics’ groups. And as Oscar season comes into full effect, there’s no film that could use the vote of confidence more than David Mackenzie’s contemporary Texas western, “Hell or High Water.”

With its robust-but-not-recordbreaking Metascore of 88, “Hell or High Water” (CBS FIlms/Lionsgate) is both an entertaining genre piece and a thoughtful art film. It’s an excellent piece of work, but it’s not a film that telegraphs its Serious Intentions — and that’s where the critics could lend it some needed gravitas. It may or may not be an advantage that the modern frontier heist thriller is the highest-grossing independent film of the year ($27 million). The critics may want to give it a boost — or decide that other less successful or newer films need their help.

By John LeMay

Fat City, released in 1972, was something of a “rebound” film for beloved director John Huston, whose previous two films had been flops. Based upon the 1969 novel by Leonard Gardner (who also wrote the screenplay), Fat City follows Stacy Keach as Billy Tully, a small time boxer who never made it big who is living in squalor. When Billy makes a rare return visit to the gym, he meets Ernie (Jeff Bridges, hot off of a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Last Picture Show). Billy sees some potential in the teenager’s boxing ability and suggests he go see his old manager, Ruben (Nicholas Colasanto—the future “Coach” on Cheers). Ernie does as told, and soon finds himself under Ruben’s optimistic wing, while Billy’s life further deteriorates when he begins an affair with an alcoholic wreck named Oma (Susan Tyrell, who would herself secure a...

Earlier this month, when Vanilla Ice announced via Twitter that he was boldly defying instructions to evacuate his Florida home in the face of Hurricane Matthew, it not only inspired what had to be the greatest (and possibly also the most depressing) tweet ever made by the Florida Democratic Party, but it also made one hope that it might really be a sneaky promo for an upcoming Weather Channel series wherein the rapper and reality TV star goes head to head with natural disasters.

Alas, "The Ice Storm" (or whatever...

Chris Pine kept fixating on a single image. "I had this picture in my head," the 35-year-old actor recalls, his voice echoing over a speakerphone from Austin, Texas. "It was two guys on a porch, real rustic. One of them is sitting, the other is standing, kind of leaning on one of the porch's columns. Both are sort of staring out in the distance while the sun's going down." He stops for a second, then continues. "I just kind of got into my brain after I read the script. It...

Crazy has always tapped a main vein in horror films; if it didn’t we would be stuck watching films of people being pranked or wronged, who laugh it off and become dentists instead (with all due respect to Corbin Bernsen). Now, of particular interest to me is when the sins of the flesh meet that fracture of the mind; where the lascivious and the lurid tangle in sweaty, blood stained sheets. And 1982 coughed up a doozy (in character and content) with Night Warning, a tale of a very protective aunt who doesn’t want to see her nephew leave the nest.

Also known as Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (a cool title, but neither relate to the story at all), Night Warning was distributed by Comworld Pictures in early ’82 (but didn’t go wide until early ’83) and garnered some good reviews while passing by audiences. Why? Because it was just...