There’s an entire subset of bookish young women who’ve gone through a Flannery O’Connor phase (it usually comes somewhere right before or after the Sylvia Plath obsession). With Wildcat, Maya Hawke gets to channel that literary phase into a big-screen story that is half Flannery O’Connor biopic, half adaptation of O’Connor’s short stories. Directed by … Read more
Lily James was made for fairy tales. The English actress, 34, who gained attention on Downton Abbey and made her first big screen splash in Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella, channels her charms into a new kind of fairy tale in Finally Dawn during a never-ending night in mid-century Rome. When Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), a young Italian … Read more
There’s an eternal temptation with public figures to convince ourselves that, because we see and hear them so often, we must actually know them. But listening to someone’s musical output for decades, or watching their every TV appearance, doesn’t necessarily bring us any closer to understanding the movements of their heart or the decisions they … Read more
David Fincher has never been one for sentiment. From Se7en to Zodiac to Netflix series Mindhunter, his work is interested in unpacking the darkest parts of our humanity with the cold precision of an ice pick. His latest The Killer, now streaming on Netflix, is no exception. Based on Alexis Nolent and Luc Jacamon’s graphic … Read more
It’s been 100 years since Walt Disney and his brother Roy launched the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, a small animation house that would grow to become the Walt Disney Company. A century later, Disney has ballooned into a corporate colossus, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate that stretches across film, TV, news, sports, theme parks, cruises, and merchandising. … Read more
A dying sun — that’s the very first image to appear on screen during The Marvels. It hardly needs saying that this is not exactly a happy omen about the current state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, whose once-sterling pop culture reputation has lost quite a bit of shine this year. The superhero franchise’s recent … Read more
If one can name a definitive literary classic of the late 20th century, The Color Purple is surely in contention. The 1982 Alice Walker novel became a celebrated Steven Spielberg film in 1985, introducing the world to Whoopi Goldberg and earning Oprah Winfrey an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Since then, the tale has … Read more
Sometimes you’re craving something sweet — and if that’s all you’re looking for, Wonka offers it, wrapped up with a bow. The film, in theaters Dec. 15, is an origin story for Willy Wonka and his factory, but more pertinently, it’s a fresh start for the character that’s not beholden to the novel or previous … Read more
Live from New York… it’s the story of the very first Saturday Night Live. Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) is directing SNL 1975, a film that chronicles the tense behind-the-scenes drama leading up to the first-ever SNL broadcast on Oct. 11, 1975. Reitman is co-writing the screenplay with frequent collaborator Gil Kenan based … Read more
At first glance, successfully remaking Mean Girls seemed about as likely to happen as “fetch.” But thankfully, the new iteration — complete with a fresh screenplay from Tina Fey (based on her Broadway book…based on her 2004 movie script) — manages to make life with the Plastics pretty darn fantastic. The story is beat for … Read more