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      Val Kilmer: Six Memorable Movies to Stream

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      Kilmer’s film career ranged from slapstick comedy to some of the most memorable films of the 1980s and ’90s.Val Kilmer, who died at 65 on Tuesday, donned Batman’s cape, starred as a gunslinger, flew supersonic fighter jets in “Top Gun” and held the screen as a bumbling singer in a slapstick comedy about the Cold War.Kilmer was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1980s and ’90s and then exited stage left for more than a decade. His career was disrupted by throat cancer and a tracheotomy, but he had already left his mark with a series of notable performances.“Once you’re a star, you’re always a star,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2012.Here are six of his most memorable roles:‘Batman Forever’Kilmer replaced Michael Keaton as Batman, stepping into the film franchise as it transitioned from the gloomy atmosphere of Tim Burton to the campier direction of Joel Schumacher. Kilmer’s Caped Crusader in “Batman Forever” (1995) was stoic enough. But the tone of the film was set early, when Batman’s butler, Alfred, asked him if he needed a sandwich as he got into the Batmobile. “I’ll get drive-through,” Kilmer deadpanned.Stream, rent or buy it on Max, Prime, YouTube, Apple TV or Fandango.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At New Directors/New Films, the Faces Tell the Story

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      They’re the great cinematic landscape in stories as diverse as “Familiar Touch,” about dementia, and “Timestamp,” about Ukrainian schoolchildren.In “Familiar Touch,” Kathleen Chalfant plays a woman whose inner life alternately burns bright and suddenly dims. Her character, Ruth, has an inviting smile and natural physical grace, though at times she falters midstep. A former cook and a cookbook author now in her 80s, she lives alone in a pleasant modern home cluttered with shelves of books and just-so personal touches that convey the passage of time in a full, well-lived life. Ruth seems thoroughly at ease in her own skin when she first appears, bustling in her kitchen. She’s preparing lunch for a visitor who, you soon learn, is the son she no longer recognizes.Written and directed by Sarah Friedland, “Familiar Touch” is the opening-night selection Wednesday in the New Directors/New Films festival and a terrific leadoff for the annual event. Ruth’s openly loving and hurting son soon hurries her to his car — she thinks that they’re en route to a hotel — and into an assisted living facility. There, she settles into a new reality as she struggles with her memory, connects with other residents and finds support among the staff. In Chalfant’s mesmerizing, eloquently expressive face, you see both Ruth’s piercing loss and a soul safely settling into the eternal now as her past, present and future fade away.Kathleen Chalfant as a woman with dementia in “Familiar Touch.”Armchair Poetics LLCChalfant’s is just one of the memorable faces in the annual New Directors/New Films series, a collaboration of Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art that gathers movies from around the world. Established in 1972, the event was designed to draw attention to the kind of nonmainstream work that didn’t always make it into commercial theaters. That’s one reason that I always look forward to it; the other is that its programmers take film seriously. That’s clear throughout the lineup, which could use more genre variety, yet, at its finest, offers you personal, thoughtful, imaginative, adult work of the kind that plays in art houses and on more adventurous streamers. These are movies made and chosen by people who love the art.That love is also evident in the great diversity of men, women and children in the program, a variety that underscores the centrality of the human face as the great cinematic landscape. This year, partly because of the dystopian chatter about A.I., I was struck anew by the deep, signifying power of smiles, frowns and sneers, and how watching movies usually means watching other people. No matter if their directors tug at your heart (as in the documentary “Timestamp”) or keep you at an intellectual distance (the drama “Drowning Dry”), these movies present an astonishment of humanity. In selection after selection, old and young visages, some untroubled and others wrenched in pain, bring you face-to-face with the world.“Timestamp” follows Ukrainian classes near the front and in the center of the country.2Brave Productions/a_Bahn/Rinkel DocsWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In ‘The Friend,’ A Great Dane and His Co-Star, Naomi Watts, Learn New Tricks

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      Typically on movie sets, only big stars get those fancy, oversized trailers for dressing rooms. But on “The Friend” an unknown was a really big star. Even bigger than his fellow actor Naomi Watts.Quite literally: The newcomer, Bing, is the Harlequin Great Dane at the center of “The Friend,” the new film based on Sigrid Nunez’s National Book Award-winning novel. At around 150 pounds, he needed the substantial accommodations between scenes so he could rest and move his pony-like frame without overstimulation. His trailer request was approved.“The Friend” tells the story of a writer named Iris (Watts) who is grieving the death by suicide of her mentor, Walter (Bill Murray). The difficult process of mourning is compounded when she learns that Walter has asked that she look after his dog, the huge Apollo (Bing), who is mired in sorrow himself. Apollo initially is resistant to Iris’s affections, longing for his dead master and taking over her small New York City apartment. Eventually they heal together.When Watts got the script, she was skeptical that the movie would even work.Bing and his co-star, Naomi Watts, in a scene in “The Friend.”Bleecker Street Media“In the film industry we know the old adages: More time, more money if you add animals and children, and this was a small budget in New York City,” she said in a video interview. “What was being presented on the page, it just seemed like, ‘How will we be able to achieve this?’”But the film’s directors, Scott McGehee and David Siegel, were undeterred and set about finding the perfect pup for the part. For that, they went to the veteran animal trainer William Berloni, who also had his doubts. He thought it would be impossible to find a dog that fit the requirements of the role: A black-and-white spotted Dane with his testicles still intact who had a movie-star quality.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Beatles Movies Cast Revealed, Including Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan

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      The director Sam Mendes announced the stars of his four-film series, each told from the perspective of a different Beatle, set to be released in 2028. There has been no shortage of movies about the Beatles. But the director Sam Mendes is embarking on a project that stands apart for its ambition — four films, each from a different band member’s perspective — and now we know who will be playing the Fab Four.The films will star Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, according to Mr. Mendes’s production company.The four films, which will tell the story of one of the world’s most influential and adored bands, will be released together in April 2028, “creating the first bingeable theatrical experience,” the company wrote. In announcing the films last year, Mr. Mendes, the British director best known for films like “American Beauty” (1999) and “Revolutionary Road” (2008), said he was “honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies.”He announced the cast at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Monday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. While the Beatles have been big-screen subjects before — including in Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday” (2019) and Sam Taylor-Johnson’s “Nowhere Boy” (2009) — this is the first time that the members of the band and their estates have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film, according to Sony Pictures.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Best Movies and Shows Streaming in April: ‘Étoile,’ ‘Hacks,’ ‘The Last of Us’ and More

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      “Étoile,” “Government Cheese” and an Oklahoma City bombing documentary arrive, and “Hacks” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” return.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of April’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘The Bondsman’ Season 1Starts streaming: April 3Kevin Bacon plays the hard-boiled Georgia bounty hunter Hub Halloran in this action-comedy, which has a supernatural twist. Hub dies in the opening scene of the first episode, then gets reincarnated thanks to some satanic intervention. He is then given a new job, hunting demons who have escaped from Hell. Created by Grainger David and produced and written by Erik Oleson for the horror-friendly Blumhouse Television, “The Bondsman” features all the gory splatter one might expect from a show about a heavily armed monster-killer. But the series also explores its undead antihero’s complicated personal life, which involves a an ex-wife, Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles), whose budding country music career is being handled by a highly suspicious creep named Lucky (Damon Herriman).‘Étoile’ Season 1Starts streaming: April 24The writer-producer husband-wife team of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino — best-known for “Gilmore Girls” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” — are back with a new series, set in the world of dance, just like their short-lived gem “Bunheads.” Luke Kirby plays the leader of a venerable New York ballet company. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays the leader of a venerable Paris ballet company. When their organizations struggle, they decide to generate some public interest by swapping their top stars. “Étoile” generates comedy and drama from the very different theatrical cultures in Europe and America. The supporting cast is filled with professional dancers, so the ballet sequences should be realistic and dynamic — and not just something to fill the space between the creators’ usual fast-paced, witty banter.Also arriving:April 1“America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation” Season 2April 8“Spy High”April 10“G20”April 17“#1 Happy Family USA” Season 1“Leverage Redemption” Season 3Jon Hamm in “Your Friends & Neighbors,” Season 1.Jessica Kourkounis/Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ Season 1Starts streaming: April 11In this offbeat crime drama, Jon Hamm plays Andrew Cooper, a.k.a. Coop, a swaggering New York money manager who loses everything — including his wife and job — and compensates by becoming a gentleman thief, stealing from his wealthy pals. The show emphasizes the ironic fragility of Coop’s situation, as someone who has lived and socialized with some of the richest people in the United States, yet is suddenly on the verge of going broke. Created by Jonathan Tropper (“Banshee,” “Warrior”), “Your Friends and Neighbors” is about the high-end homes that only some people can access, and about how someone who is trusted enough to be let inside can treat these personal spaces like an A.T.M.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Linda Williams, Who Introduced Pornography to Academia, Dies at 78

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      One of the first to write seriously about a fraught subject, she also played a major role in developing the field of film studies and feminist film theory.Linda Williams, a trailblazing scholar whose research was foundational to the field of film studies and to feminist film theory, and who wrote extensively about pornography, died on March 12 at her home in Lafayette, in Northern California. She was 78.Her husband, Paul Fitzgerald, said the cause was complications of a hemorrhagic stroke she had five years ago.“Linda was there before there was any such thing as feminist film studies,” B. Ruby Rich, the former editor in chief of the journal Film Quarterly, said in an interview. “She played a pivotal role in its development, but she was not orthodox.”Ms. Rich continued: “She did not stay in her lane at a time when people were really guarding boundaries and really policing what others were doing. She was fearless about following her inquiries wherever they would lead. In any branch of academics or scholarship, that is really, really unusual.”A longtime professor of film and media at the University of California, Berkeley, Ms. Williams wrote and edited articles and books on subjects as diverse as surrealism, spectatorship and the television series “The Wire.”She was keenly interested in how various film genres affected the body — for example, the way horror movies could induce shivers — and in her 2002 book, “Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White From Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson,” she explored how the tropes of melodrama figured in widening and narrowing America’s racial divide.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How to Live in the Mall

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      Want your living space a stone’s throw from the Aéropostale and Hot Topic? A new documentary, “Secret Mall Apartment,” will show you the way.When the artist Michael Townsend first told the documentarian Jeremy Workman about the time he and his friends lived in a secret apartment tucked inside the Providence Place Mall, Workman thought he was being punked. Then Townsend pulled out a cracked iPad to show Workman some grainy video. “I just was dumbfounded and blown away,” Workman said in a video interview alongside Townsend. “Then I was, like, instantly, ‘I got to figure out how I could convince him to let me make a documentary on this.’”The result is the new film “Secret Mall Apartment,” which recounts how, between 2003 and 2007, eight artists created a homey apartment in an abandoned space in a shopping center. Using footage the residents had filmed on a tiny camera, Workman places the stunt in the context of the rapid gentrification happening at the top of the 21st century while at the same time relying on some heist-movie conventions. So how did they do it? Here are six steps.1. Find an abandoned space.The Providence Place Mall, in Rhode Island, home to an architectural anomaly, an unused space that caught the eye of an artist while construction was going on.Jeremy WorkmanWhen the mall was being built, Townsend noticed what he called a “nowhere space,” an “anomaly in the architecture” that served no purpose. So when Townsend and his friends decided to camp out at the mall after seeing an ad teasing that the place was so well stocked that it had everything a person needed to live, he sought out that corner as a place to sleep. How did Townsend clock it in the first place? He credited that to a fixation with the notion of space that arose as the mall was going up, part of the gentrification of his Providence, R.I., neighborhood that also resulted in the artists’ space where he lived being demolished.“It’s not just losing the home, it’s also losing historical vertebrae of the neighborhood,” Townsend said. As for the mall, “You couldn’t help but internalize that there was a lot of dead space in that structure,” he said. And thus, the notion of an apartment was born.2. Get a couch.“If you can pick one thing you’re going to move into a space, I’d pick a couch over a mattress, any day,” Michael Townsend said of the apartment where, from left, Colin Bliss and Greta Scheing are relaxing.Michael TownsendWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Stream These 17 Movies Before They Leave Netflix in April

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      A few popular franchises are leaving this month for U.S. subscribers, including the first three “Karate Kid” movies. Catch these before they leave.Several noteworthy franchises — including family classics, sports favorites and buddy comedies — are leaving Netflix in the United States this month, alongside some thoughtful sci-fi, rowdy female-fronted comedies, a hit horror reboot and more. (Dates reflect the first day titles are unavailable and are subject to change.)‘Elysium’ (April 1)Stream it here.After the surprise success (and Academy Award nominations) of his brainy 2009 science fiction-action hybrid “District 9,” the writer and director Neill Blomkamp leveled up — bigger budget, bigger studio, bigger stars (including Matt Damon and Jodie Foster) — for this dystopian future tale. Damon stars as Max, an Everyman doing his best in a bombed-out Los Angeles circa 2154, trying to save his own life when he is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. Blomkamp can’t quite recapture the explosive propulsion of his debut feature, but Damon is a sturdy hero, and the director creates a convincingly junky future.‘Happy Feet’ / ‘Happy Feet Two’ (April 1)Stream “Happy Feet” here and “Happy Feet Two” here.George Miller boasts one of the most strikingly split personalities of his filmmaking generation, veering between blistering action epics like the “Mad Max” series and warm family efforts like the “Babe” films and these charming animated tales of a tap-dancing penguin named Mumble. He is voiced with charisma and sensitivity by Elijah Wood, who makes the character a stand-in for every outcast kid who harbored a special talent. Robin Williams provides his signature wild wit in support, while Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman delight as Mumble’s not-always-supportive parents.‘Interstellar’ (April 1)Stream it here.When Christopher Nolan directs a space epic, you can be certain it won’t be just a space epic. His 2014 blockbuster isn’t merely science fiction; it is a thought-provoking and often heartbreaking rumination on mortality, family and the sacrifices we don’t regret until it’s too late. Matthew McConaughey turns in one of his most sensitive performances to date as an astronaut sent on a complex mission of alien communication, while Anne Hathaway turns what could have been a drab sidekick role into a wrenching portrait of regret.‘The Karate Kid I, II and III’ (April 1)Stream “The Karate Kid” here, “The Karate Kid Part II” here and “The Karate Kid Part III” here.The popularity of the spinoff series “Cobra Kai” has made the “Karate Kid” movies a fairly dependable presence on Netflix; one hopes their disappearance will be short-lived. The 1984 original remains one of cinema’s great underdog movies, as Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) moves to sunny Southern California from New Jersey, falls hard for a rich girl (Elisabeth Shue) and gets on the wrong side of a school bully (William Zabka), ultimately seeking out the unconventional martial arts training of the mysterious Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita). The 1987 sequel and 1989 three-quel offer diminishing returns, but even at its weakest, the series is carried by the charisma and camaraderie of Macchio and Morita.‘Miss Congeniality’ (April 1)Stream it here.Sandra Bullock crafts one of her most physically inventive performances — all thrown elbows and twisted ankles — as Gracie Hart, a messy and clumsy yet brilliant F.B.I. Special Agent who must go undercover as a beauty pageant contestant to foil a terrorist plot. Bullock gives the goofy premise her all, almost convincing us that she is an ugly duckling before the inevitable glam reveal; Michael Caine and William Shatner gleefully steal scenes as her makeover master and the pageant’s memorable emcee.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More