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    'Parasite' Dominates 2020 London Film Critics' Circle Awards

    NEON

    The Bong Joon Ho-directed comedy thriller brings home two top honors from the prizegiving event, while Joaquin Phoenix and Renee Zellweger land acting kudos for their work on ‘Joker’ and ‘Judy’.
    Jan 31, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Comedy thriller “Parasite” landed the top prize at the 40th annual London Film Critics’ Circle Awards on Thursday night, January 30.
    The South Korean movie landed the Film of the Year honour, while Bong Joon Ho was named Director of the Year.
    Bong took the stage at the Mayfair Hotel and thanked his cast and crew for their work on the movie, calling his wins a “huge honour”.
    His film is also up for four awards at Sunday’s (February 02) Baftas – two weeks after it became the first foreign language movie to land the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, picking up Best Ensemble.
    “Parasite” will also compete for six Oscars, including Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay.
    “The Souvenir” and “Marriage Story” were also double winners at the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards, while Joaquin Phoenix and Renee Zellweger took home the top acting prizes for their work on “Joker” and “Judy”, respectively. Both are expected to repeat their wins at the Oscars on 9 February.
    The full list of London Critics’ Circle Film Awards winners is:
    FILM OF THE YEAR: “Parasite”
    FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
    ACTRESS OF THE YEAR: Renee Zellweger, “Judy”
    ACTOR OF THE YEAR: Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”
    BEST BRITISH/IRISH FILM: THE ATTENBOROUGH AWARD: “The Souvenir”
    BRITISH/IRISH ACTRESS: Florence Pugh, “Fighting with My Family”/”Midsommar”/”Little Women (2019)”
    TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, Barbara Ling
    DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR: “For Sama”
    DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR: Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite”
    SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR: Noah Baumbach, “Marriage Story”
    SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR: Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”
    SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR: Joe Pesci, “The Irishman”
    BRITISH/IRISH ACTOR: Robert Pattinson, “The Lighthouse”/”High Life”/”The King (2019)”
    YOUNG BRITISH/IRISH PERFORMER: Honor Swinton Byrne, “The Souvenir”
    BRITISH/IRISH SHORT FILM OF THE YEAR: “The Devil’s Harmony”
    BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH/IRISH FILMMAKER: THE PHILIP FRENCH AWARD: Mark Jenkin, “Bait”
    THE DILYS POWELL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILM: Sally Potter & Sandy Powell

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    Sebastian Stan Appears to Diss Captain America and Bucky's Ending in 'Avengers: Endgame'

    Marvel Studios

    The Bucky Barnes depicter agrees with a fan who is taken aback by the ‘out-of-character writing’ for his character and Steve Rogers’ storyline in the last ‘Avengers’ movie.
    Jan 31, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Sebastian Stan is apparently not a fan of the ending of Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers’ storyline in “Avengers: Endgame”. Almost a year since the movie was released in theaters, the actor has just let his actual feelings be known about Chris Evans’ Captain America passing his shield to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson instead of his longtime friend Bucky.
    The Romanian-born actor posted on Instagram Stories a screenshot of a fan’s complaint on Twitter about the so-called “out-of-character writing” in regards to Steve and Bucky’s friendship in the movie. The fan reacted to a post by Marvel U.K. & Ireland’s official Twitter account which wrote, “Together until the end of the line,” along with a photo of then-skinny Steve and Bucky in his soldier outfit.
    The said fan replied sarcastically to the post, “together until the end of the line. Or until bad, inconsistent, out-of character writing turns Steve Rogers into his own anti-thesis. Shouldn’t it be ‘together until the end of the lie’ now?” Stan added a flushed face emoji over it.
    Apparently understanding Stan’s feelings, “Star Wars” actor John Boyega posted on Twitter, “Welcome Mr Stan ! Welcome,” along with a gif of Emperor Palpatine laughing. Boyega himself has previously shaded the decision regarding the franchise’s handling of Rey, Finn and Kylo Ren relationship in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”.
    Stan has not responded to Boyega’s tweet and it’s not clear if he was just trolling “The Avengers” franchise with his post. Regardless of his apparent shade, the 37-year-old clearly has no issue being a part of the MCU as he’s currently working with Mackie again on Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, for which they reprise their respective role.
    Set after events in the 2019 “Avengers: Endgame”, the upcoming series will also bring back Daniel Bruhl and Emily VanCamp who have previously starred in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War”. The new series is expected to premiere in late 2020.

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    'The Lion King' Takes Home Top Honor From 2020 Visual Effects Society Awards

    Walt Disney Pictures

    Other winners in film category include ‘The Irishman’ and ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’, while the TV section sees ‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ come out triumphant.
    Jan 31, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Jon Favreau’s photorealistic remake of Disney’s “The Lion King (2019)” was the big winner at America’s Visual Effects Society Awards on Wednesday, January 29.
    The movie won the top award for outstanding VFX (visual effects) in a photoreal feature, as well as in the outstanding creating environment, and virtual production categories.
    Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” won awards for supporting VFX and compositing, while “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” claimed the effects simulations prize and “Alita: Battle Angel” was honoured for animated character in a photoreal feature.
    “Missing Link”, “Toy Story 4”, and “Frozen II” won awards in the animated feature sections, and the visual effects teams on “The Mandalorian”, “Game of Thrones” and “Stranger Things” triumphed in the TV categories.
    Scorsese accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award via video from New York, while Favreau, J.J. Abrams, and Rian Johnson were on hand to present prizes.
    Here are the winners of the 18th annual Visual Effects Society Awards:
    Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal “The Lion King (2019)”, Robert Legato, Tom Peitzman, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones
    Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature: “The Irishman”, Pablo Helman, Mitch Ferm, Jill Brooks, Leandro Estebecorena, Jeff Brink
    Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature: “Missing Link”, Brad Schiff, Travis Knight, Steve Emerson, Benoit Dubuc
    Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode: “The Mandalorian” – “The Child”, Richard Bluff, Abbigail Keller, Jason Porter, Hayden Jones, Roy Cancinon
    Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode: “Chernobyl” – “1:23:45”, Max Dennison, Lindsay McFarlane, Clare Cheetham, Paul Jones, Claudius Christian Rauch
    Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project: “Control”, Janne Pulkkinen, Elmeri Raitanen, Matti Hamalainen, James Tottman
    Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial: Hennessy: “The Seven Worlds”, Carsten Keller, Selcuk Ergen, Kiril Mirkov, William Laban
    Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance; Jason Bayever, Patrick Kearney, Carol Norton, Bill George
    Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature: “Alita: Battle Angel” – Alita; Michael Cozens, Mark Haenga, Olivier Lesaint, Dejan Momcilovic
    Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature: “Missing Link” – Susan; Rachelle Lambden, Brenda Baumgarten, Morgan Hay, Benoit Dubuc
    Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project: “Stranger Things 3” – Tom/Bruce Monster; Joseph Dube-Arsenault, Antoine Barthod, Frederick Gagnon, Xavier Lafarge
    Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial: “Cyberpunk 2077” – Dex; Jonas Ekma, Jonas Skoog, Marek Madej, Grzegorz Chojnacki
    Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature: “The Lion King (2019)” – The Pridelands; Marco Rolandi, Luca Bonatti, Jules Bodenstein, Filippo Preti
    Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature: “Toy Story 4” – Antiques Mall; Hosuk Chang, Andrew Finley, Alison Leaf, Philip Shoebottom
    Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project: “Game of Thrones” – The Iron Throne, Red Keep Plaza; Carlos Patrick DeLeon, Alonso Bocanegra Martinez, Marcela Silva, Benjamin Ross
    Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project: “The Lion King”, Robert Legato, Caleb Deschanel, Ben Grossmann, AJ Sciutto
    Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project: “The Mandalorian” – The Sin, The Razorcrest; Doug Chiang, Jay Machado, John Goodson, Landis Fields IV
    Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature: “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”, Don Wong, Thibault Gauriau, Goncalo Cababca, Francois-Maxence Desplanques
    Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature: “Frozen II”, Erin V. Ramos, Scott Townsend, Thomas Wickes, Rattanin Sirinaruemarn
    Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project: “Stranger Things 3” – Melting Tom/Bruce; Nathan Arbuckle, Christian Gaumond, James Dong, Aleksandr Starkov
    Outstanding Compositing in a Feature: “The Irishman”, Nelson Sepulveda, Vincent Papaix, Benjamin O’Brien, Christopher Doerhoff
    Outstanding Compositing in an Episode: “Game of Thrones” – “The Long Night”: Dragon Ground Battle; Mark Richardson, Darren Christie, Nathan Abbott, Owen Longstaff
    Outstanding Compositing in a Commercial: Hennessy: “The Seven Worlds”, Rod Norman, Guillaume Weiss, Alexander Kulikov, Alessandro Granella
    Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal or Animated Project: “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” – “She Knows All the Secrets”, Sean Mathiesen, Jon Savage, Toby Froud, Phil Harvey
    Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project: “The Beauty”, Marc Angele, Aleksandra Todorovic, Pascal Schelbli, Noel Winzen

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    Linda Hamilton Gets Real About Being Done With 'Terminator' Franchise

    Paramount Pictures

    While she would be ‘quite happy to never return,’ the Sarah Connor depicter does suggest that future movies ‘should definitely not be such a high-risk financial venture.’
    Jan 31, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Linda Hamilton would be happy to “never return” to “The Terminator” franchise – unless she can star in a stripped down smaller film.
    The 63-year-old actress returned to the franchise after nearly three decades for “Terminator: Dark Fate” last year (19), which received strong reviews but disappointed at the box office – putting creator James Cameron’s plans for a trilogy in jeopardy.
    Linda says that she’d be happy to not make another “Terminator” film – but if plans for a new movie go ahead, she insisted it should be less risky financially, with fewer expensive special effects.
    “Something says to me… I don’t know. I would really appreciate maybe a smaller version where so many millions are not at stake,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Today’s audience is just so unpredictable.”
    “I can’t tell you how many laymen just go, ‘Well, people don’t go to the movies anymore.’ That’s not Hollywood analysis; that just comes out of almost everybody’s mouth.”
    Revealing she doesn’t think that she’ll return, Linda adds: “It should definitely not be such a high-risk financial venture, but I would be quite happy to never return. So, no, I am not hopeful because I would really love to be done.”
    “But, if there were something new that really spoke to me, I am a logical person, and I will always consider viable changes.”

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    Blake Lively Considers Reactions to Her 'Rhythm Section' Transformation 'Very Offensive'

    Paramount Pictures

    Speaking to Jimmy Fallon, the star in this Reed Morano-directed action film stresses that the images people mistakenly thought as before and after makeup actually took an hour to produce.
    Jan 31, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Blake Lively has spoken out after fans mistook a set of images from behind the scenes of her new movie “The Rhythm Section” for before and after shots from a make-up session.
    The 32-year-old star plays a grieving widow who sets out for revenge after discovering the plane crash that killed her family wasn’t an accident, and for part of the movie sports a haggard look.
    Blake shared snaps of her changing appearance in the flick online but, speaking on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, she revealed fans completely misunderstood the point of the images – which she found “very offensive.”
    “(The make-up artist) did this really rough look, because my (character’s) family has experienced a lot of tragedy,” she explained. “And then this after I clean up but when I posted it, people were saying, ‘Wow, Blake bravely shows what she looks like before and after makeup.’ ”
    “Some people think that’s what I look like without makeup (pointing at the after picture), which I find very offensive because that takes an hour for her to make me look like that.”
    She added, “I’m sort of vacillating between my vanity, which is like wanting to be like, ‘I don’t actually look like that!’ But also being a feminist and being like, ‘Why do we expect women to wake up looking like this? This isn’t realistic that you wake up this beautiful!’ But I would like people to believe that I wake up looking this beautiful.”
    [embedded content]
    “The Rhythm Section”, also starring Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown, hits cinemas on Friday, January 31.

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    Things to Do in N.Y.C. This February

    Looking for even more reasons to get out of the house? Visit our Arts & Entertainment Guide at nytimes.com/spotlight/arts-listings.Feb. 1‘Lunar New Year Festival: Year of the Rat’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This daylong celebration includes a parade, performances and family-friendly art activities. (While in the area, head to Rumsey Playfield in Central Park for the free winter sports festival Winter Jam, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; metmuseum.org.Feb. 2BAMkids Film Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. A range of international works, from live-action features to animated shorts, should appeal to children of all ages. A carnival rounds out the weekend-long festivities. Feb. 1-2; bam.org.Feb. 3‘Five Hundred Years of Women’s Work: The Lisa Unger Baskin Collection’ at the Grolier Club. With more than 200 items, the Grolier Club’s latest exhibition documents the history of women making an independent living. Among the works are one of the first books printed by women, a 1478 history of Rome’s emperors and popes, and a copy of Mary Seacole’s 1857 autobiography, the first by a black woman in Britain. Through Feb. 8; grolierclub.org.Feb. 4The Moth StorySLAM at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The writer Dame Wilburn will host this iteration of StorySLAM in which 10 Harlemites will be selected to share their stories on the evening’s theme: “Only in Harlem.” Doors open at 7 p.m.; eventbrite.com.Feb. 5Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ at Le Poisson Rouge. The Brooklyn ensemble Darmstadt performs its interpretation of this 1964 landmark composition ahead of the musician and composer’s 85th birthday this summer. At 8 p.m.; lpr.com.Feb. 6Art in Dumbo’s First Thursday Gallery Walk in Brooklyn. Galleries will stay open late so visitors can browse the Triangle Arts Winter Open Studios and other galleries on their own, or join an Insider’s Tour, a free guided tour of exhibitions on view at Janet Borden and A.I.R. Gallery. (Then stroll along the East River to take in Antony Gormley’s “New York Clearing,” a monumental public work piece called “drawing in space,” at Pier 3 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.) From 6-8 p.m.; artinDUMBO.com.Feb. 7‘Cane River’ at BAM Rose Cinemas. Horace Jenkins died shortly after finishing this 1982 romantic melodrama tackling issues of colorism, the legacy of slavery and deceitful practices against African-American landowners. After a negative was found and painstakingly restored, the film is now getting its theatrical release. Feb. 7-20; bam.org.Feb. 8Animation First Festival at the French Institute Alliance Française. Award-winning features, immersive exhibits, video game demonstrations and more are the heart of this festival. For those Academy Award-minded fans of animation, the Oscar-nominated feature “I Lost My Body” will be shown on Feb. 8 at 11 a.m., followed by a behind-the-scenes panel discussion with the film’s editor, Benjamin Massoubre. Feb. 7-10; fiaf.org.Feb. 9‘Visions of Resistance: Recent Films by Brazilian Women Directors’ at the Museum of the Moving Image. Stories of resilience and uprising are the focus of this series, which pays particular attention to the lives of black Brazilians. Feb. 8 and 9; movingimage.us.Feb. 10‘Hamlet’ opens at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Ruth Negga received rave reviews for her portrayal of Hamlet in Dublin. Now she will reprise the role that she says “cracks you open,” for New York audiences — and it’s a very tough ticket. Feb. 1-March 8; stannswarehouse.org.Feb. 11‘The Mother of Us All’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Virgil Thomson’s opera, with a libretto by Gertrude Stein, is rarely performed. All the more reason to see one of the performances of this work this month. Feb. 8, 11, 12 and 14; nyphil.org.Feb. 12‘Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures’ opens at the Museum of Modern Art. After its inaugural exhibitions, the newly renovated museum begins its rollout of new shows. Among the first up is Lange’s photographs, which sharply reflect the human condition. It’s the first major MoMA exhibition of Lange’s career in 50 years. Feb. 9-May 9; moma.org.Feb. 13Artist Talk and Book Signing: Rachel Feinstein at the Jewish Museum. In her first museum retrospective, the artist and fashion muse Rachel Feinstein presents fanciful works with a core of steel — a balance of the whimsical and the grotesque. On this night she’ll speak about her exhibition, “Maiden, Mother, Crone,” and the inspirations for her art, which underscore that there is no reality without fantasy. From 6:30-8 p.m.; thejewishmuseum.org.Feb. 14‘High Fidelity’ premieres on Hulu. The latest adaptation of Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel, Mike Hale wrote, “gender-switches the record-store-owning, Top-5-list-making protagonist, who’s now played by Zoë Kravitz.” She plays a record store owner in the gentrifying Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. hulu.com.Feb. 1520th anniversary screening of ‘Love & Basketball’ at BAM Rose Cinemas. Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps, and teenage hoop dreams: See Gina Prince-Bythewood’s 2000 classic on the big screen as part of the “Long Weekend of Love” series. Make it a Valentine’s double-feature: “The Photograph,” a new Issa Rae-Lakeith Stanfield vehicle reminiscent of 1990s black love stories, arrives in theaters Feb. 14. bam.org.Feb. 16Irina Kolesnikova in ‘Swan Lake’ at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Russian prima ballerina and the St. Petersburg Ballet Theater make their United States debut in Tchaikovsky’s beloved classic. Feb. 15 and 16; bam.org.Feb. 17‘Dracula’ and ‘Frankenstein’ open at Classic Stage Company. Kate Hamill reimagines Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and Tristan Bernays adapts Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” for this repertory cycle of two Gothic tales. In repertory through March 8; classicstage.org.Feb. 18Toni Morrison’s ‘The Source of Self-Regard’ at 92nd Street Y. André Holland and Phylicia Rashad perform a dramatic reading of the writer’s 2019 nonfiction collection, consisting of works written over four decades that still resonate socially and politically. Morrison would have turned 89 on Feb. 18. At 8 p.m.; 92y.org/event/toni-morrison.Feb. 19‘Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks’ at the Brooklyn Museum. For this exhibition, the artist, who is of Choctaw and Cherokee descent, has selected items from the museum’s collection to be presented alongside his recent work. The result: a rethinking of institutional categorizations and representations of Indigenous peoples and Native American art. (Also on view: “Climate in Crisis: Environmental Change in the Indigenous Americas,” an exploration of the effects of climate change on Indigenous communities. It includes more than 60 works spanning 2,800 years and cultures across North, Central, and South America.) Both shows opens Feb. 14; brooklynmuseum.org.Feb. 20‘West Side Story’ opens on Broadway. New moves and plenty of tattoos: Ivo van Hove’s approach to this beloved musical is finally here. Jerome Robbins’s choreography has been replaced by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s; “I Feel Pretty” is gone; and this production has an intermission-free running time of 1 hour and 45 minutes. Open run; westsidestorybway.com.Feb. 21‘It’s All in Me: Black Heroines’ at the Museum of Modern Art. On the heels of Film Forum’s four-week “Black Women” festival, MoMA presents this intriguing series with works both familiar and obscure, including “The Watermelon Woman,” “Support the Girls,” “Sambizanga” and “Lime Kiln Club Field Day.” Feb. 20-March 5; moma.org.Feb. 22‘Platform 2020: Utterances From the Chorus’ at Danspace Project. “If contemporary dance holds a certain allure yet still seems intimidating,” Gia Kourlas wrote recently, this series “is a way in.” Ideas about performance and protest will be explored by its organizers, Okwui Okpokwasili, a MacArthur recipient, and Judy Hussie-Taylor, Danspace’s executive director and chief curator. Feb. 22-March 21; danspaceproject.org.Feb. 23‘Countryside, The Future’ at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The museum turns over its rotunda to Rem Koolhaas’s long-awaited exhibition. In addressing environmental, political and socioeconomic issues, it will examine changes to what Koolhaas calls the “countryside” — that is, rural areas not occupied by cities. Feb. 20-Aug. 14; guggenheim.org.Feb. 24‘Cambodian Rock Band’ opens at Signature Theater. Lauren Yee’s music-infused work, featuring songs by Dengue Fever, follows a Cambodian-American woman trying to prosecute a Khmer Rouge prison warden. Previews begin Feb. 4; signaturetheatre.org.Feb. 25‘Dana H.’ opens at the Vineyard Theater. Lucas Hnath’s latest is personal: It’s the story of how his mother came to be held captive by an ex-convict who kept her trapped in a series of Florida motels, disoriented and terrified — for five months. Previews start Feb. 11; vineyardtheatre.org.Feb. 26‘José Parlá: It’s Yours’ at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. For his first solo museum exhibition in New York City, Parlá presents new paintings that explore his connection to the Bronx. Expect works that “address the suffering caused by redlining policies, the waves of displacement imposed by gentrification, and structural racism,” according to the exhibition news release. Feb. 26-Aug. 16; bronxmuseum.org.Feb. 27‘Pioneering African-American Ballerinas’ at the Museum at FIT. This event focuses on some of the ballerinas who paved the way for Misty Copeland, who, in 2015, became the first African-American woman to be named a principal at American Ballet Theater. The panelists include Virginia Johnson, now the director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem; Lydia Abarca, first prima ballerina of the Dance Theater of Harlem; Debra Austin, the first African-American female dancer at New York City Ballet; and Aesha Ash, former ballerina with City Ballet. At 7 p.m.; fitnyc.edu/museum.Feb. 28‘Intimate Apparel’ previews begin at Lincoln Center. Lynn Nottage’s 2003 play has been adapted into a chamber opera, with music by Ricky Ian Gordon. Nottage wrote the libretto and Bartlett Sher is directing. Set in 1905 New York, the story follows an African-American seamstress who through letter writing courts a laborer working on the Panama Canal. Previews begin Feb. 27; opening night is set for March 23; lct.org.Feb. 29‘Brendan Fernandes: Contract and Release’ at the Noguchi Museum. A collaboration with the dance and visual artist Brendan Fernandes is the focus of Saturday programming at the museum this month. Dancers engage with Isamu Noguchi’s works as well as with Fernandes’s “training devices.” Saturdays through February; noguchi.org. More

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    4 Film Series to Catch in N.Y.C. This Weekend

    Our guide to film series and special screenings happening this weekend and in the week ahead. All our movie reviews are at nytimes.com/reviews/movies.CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE MEN at Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg (Feb. 1-9). When Issa Rae and John Cho announced the Oscar nominees on Jan. 13, Rae seemed to take a sly dig at the omission of women in the directing category, congratulating “those men” who were nominated. The Nitehawk offers a corrective with this showcase of acclaimed movies from 2019 that were directed by women and maybe even Oscar-worthy. The screening of Céline Sciamma’s exquisitely composed “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (on Tuesday) is already sold out (the film will go into wide release on Feb. 14). Lulu Wang’s unsentimental, autobiographically inspired “The Farewell” (on Wednesday) has been showing in theaters since the summer.718-782-8370, nitehawkcinema.com[embedded content]THE DEVIL PROBABLY: A CENTURY OF SATANIC PANIC at Anthology Film Archives (Jan. 31-Feb. 20). The year is still new, but it seems safe to say that this will be the only film retrospective in 2020 to open with a black mass ceremony led by Lucien Greaves, a founder of the Satanic Temple, at a screening of a 1968 revamp of “Haxan,” a Scandinavian silent about witchcraft with added narration from William S. Burroughs. Greaves also appears in the documentary “Hail Satan?” (showing on Saturday and Feb. 17). However, this series — previewed in October — goes beyond Greaves and his merry satanic pranksters to show that onscreen depictions of the devil have been around since nearly the inception of the medium with films such as “L’Inferno” (on Sunday and Feb. 6), which was adapted from Dante and dates to 1911. 212-505-5181, anthologyfilmarchives.org[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]‘NEW YORK, NEW YORK’ at the Metrograph (Jan. 31-Feb. 6). Martin Scorsese’s 1977 musical rarely turns up in rankings of his greatest films, but watching this stunning new 35-millimeter print, it is impossible to wonder why not. The film, which begins on V-J Day, charts the years-spanning relationship between a pushy saxophonist (Robert De Niro) and a singer (Liza Minnelli) whose love lives and careers never quite seem to connect. The title can be taken literally: Stylistically, the film marries the hard-edged New York of Scorsese’s early pictures to the idealized New York of Hollywood backlots. And the big screen is the ideal place to appreciate the scale and imagination Scorsese brings to bear on the Kander and Ebb numbers, which include “But the World Goes ’Round” and “Happy Endings.”212-660-0312, metrograph.comQUEER LIBERATION TO ACTIVISM at the Museum of Modern Art (through Feb. 5). The full title of this retrospective runs afoul of The New York Times’s guidelines on profanity; suffice it to say that it’s taken from a quotation in the filmmaker Marlon Riggs’s “Tongues Untied” (showing on Saturday and Tuesday), a movie that Wesley Morris described last year as an “unclassifiable scrapbook of black gay male sensibility.” The series, which emphasizes experimental and landmark works, is drawn from gay- and lesbian-themed films in MoMA’s collection. The titles showing include “Portrait of Jason” (on Sunday), Shirley Clarke’s feature-length interview with an African-American hustler who may or may not be performing for the camera, and Fred Halsted’s “L.A. Plays Itself” (on Thursday and Saturday), a rare outright pornographic film that has won admiration from theorists and academics.212-708-9400, moma.org More

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    ‘Miss Americana’ Review: Taylor Swift, Scathingly Alone

    “Miss Americana” is 85 minutes of translucence with Taylor Swift. There’s more in it — and more to it — than you usually get with these pop superstar portraits. I, at least, don’t recall loneliness being such a predominant condition for Swift’s peers as it is, here, for her. Not long after the movie doles out a deluxe rise-to-the-top montage, we hear Swift ask no one in particular, “Shouldn’t I have someone to call right now?” This from a woman who’s famous — notorious, actually — for her squad of besties. Otherwise, it’s lonely up there. Even the man she says she’s seeing is a figment in this movie, cropped from images, a hand-holding blur, a ghost.On Grammy nomination day in the winter of 2018, a camera watches from a low angle as Swift sits in sweats alone on a sofa and hears from her publicist that her perturbed sixth album, “Reputation,” has been omitted from three of the big categories. She’s stoic. She’s almost palpably hurt. But Swift’s songwriting treats hurt as an elastic instrument, and she resolves in that moment of snubbing, “I just need to make a better record.” And the movie watches as she writes and records “Lover,” another album eventually rejected by the string-pullers at the Grammys.Along the way, Swift does a lot of ruminating and recounting, a lot of arguing and apologizing on her own behalf. She’s rueful about sitting out the 2016 presidential election and failing to mobilize her millions of fans and followers against Donald Trump’s candidacy. So “Miss Americana” is also about an apolitical star waking up to herself as a woman and a citizen. She wants to spend her “good girl” credit to decry the scorched-earth-conservative Senate campaign that Marsha Blackburn was running in Tennessee, Swift’s adopted home. Her management team deems this unwise. The team, at that symbolic point, is two slouchy, old white men who counter their client’s raging passion with financial and prehistoric umbrage. Bob Hope and Bing wouldn’t let their politics dent ticket sales 50 percent. It’s part of strong stretch of the movie that argues that Swift’s own experience with a handsy (and consequently litigious) radio personality helped push her off the fence — a passage that culminates with the most stressful sending of an Instagram post you’re likely to see from a star.[embedded content]Swift’s success rate as an activist is nominal; Blackburn is currently sitting through impeachment arguments with 99 other senators. But what’s bracing about this film, which Lana Wilson directed, is the way it weds Swift’s loneliness and her arrival at empowerment. That’s at least how I’m receiving her support last summer of pro-gay legislation that culminated in the video for her hit “You Need to Calm Down.” It teemed with famous queer people, and watching its partial making in this movie made me understand that she was campaigning not just for gay rights, but possibly for new friends.Swift is revealed as being surrounded by men of different generations. Some co-create her music. Some oversee her career. Only with the producer Jack Antonoff do we catch a spark of collaborative lightning. The few meaningful connections with women involve her mother and a visiting childhood friend (Abigail, the wronged protagonist of the Swift classic “Fifteen”) — and Wilson.Her movie proceeds in a kind of vérité approach. It opens with an adult Swift awash in the declarations of her girlhood diaries and rarely departs from seeing the world as Swift does, and I left it with a new sympathy for a woman who polarizes people. The urge that notoriously overcame Kanye West, in 2009, to hijack her acceptance speech at the Video Music Awards stands in for a national vexation. And all she did that night was win. It’s the winning, of course, that vexes. But the movie conjures up that moment and her response to the press immediately after, and you feel like you’re watching a foundational trauma. Swift was 19.At the other extreme is a different trauma, normal only for the famous: Folks who camp outside of Swift’s Manhattan apartment building and shriek as she exits; who, upon seeing her backstage, tearfully come apart; who so adore her that they need her as an unwitting accessory to their surprise marriage proposal. We’re supposed to call these people fans. But the ones who turn up here tend toward the most disturbing adulation. She tells the singer Brendon Urie that a man broke into her apartment and slept in her bed.VideotranscriptBackbars0:00 More