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      ‘Ash’ Review: Deep-Space Horrors

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      In this sleek film by Flying Lotus, Eiza González plays a marooned explorer haunted by the killing of her crew mates.The high-concept sci-fi horror film “Ash,” a hazy story about an amnesiac deep-space explorer who awakens to discover her entire crew was killed, is light on answers but heavy on style.The movie begins with a staggered Riya (Eiza González) surveying the mutilated bodies on the cold minimalist floors and walls of her interstellar outpost. There is an unexplainable gash on her forehead and a robotic system alerting her to abnormal activity happening around her. She and her crew members arrived on this distant planet — a craggy world curtained by cobalt-blue shadows and white embers — in search of a potential new home for mankind, but found something far more sinister. If only she could remember what happened.Though not as adventurous, “Ash,” from the musician-turned-director Steven Ellison, known as Flying Lotus, conjures comparisons to “Alien” and “Mission to Mars.” Its futuristic science: a terraforming planet, celestial alignment, parasitic beings — is equally wonky. Because the fractal script doesn’t aim to provide explanations, this film can be confusing. But that incomprehensibility is part of its aesthetically alluring package.By applying psychedelic medical patches to her neck, Riya is able to channel gruesome memories in loud drips and booming drops, releasing a wave of scratchy, blurred frames recalling melted faces and stomach-churning scenes set to Flying Lotus’s brooding score. When another voyager (Aaron Paul) arrives, this incites further questions whose revelations inspire a grisly third act freak-out; the mesmerizing barrage of gore makes for a memorable display.AshRated R for bloody violence, gore and language. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. More

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      How ‘Moneyball’ and ‘Sugar’ Altered the Baseball Movie

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      Two contemporary films reimagined the stories we tell about the sport.From “Eight Men Out” to “Field of Dreams,” baseball movies are usually enraptured by the past. Steeped in traditions, these films celebrate homespun heroes whose anything-is-possible journeys toward a championship elevate our spirits. But two baseball movies from the last 20 years had something else on their minds that would alter how the sport was looked at onscreen. Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” (2011), based on a true story, and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s “Sugar” (2008), aren’t about tenacious winners or mythic achievements. Instead, they’re fascinated by failure and community.That notable shift defies a subgenre built on uplift. A baseball movie will often spin a yarn about a band of misfits coming together for an unlikely title run (“Angels in the Outfield”). They can also center once-talented players given one more chance at greatness (“The Natural”), or recall life-changing summers (“The Sandlot”). They tout the majesty, poetry, superstitions and purity of the sport, appealing to truisms lodged in our cultural understanding of fairness: three strikes, you’re out and, as Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”Following the Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), “Moneyball” aims to critique an unfair system not by yearning for the past, but by deconstructing the present. Beane is an executive whose small market ball club can no longer compete monetarily with big spenders like the New York Yankees, so he hires the nerdy Yale economics graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) and turns to the teachings of Bill James, a writer who preached sabermetrics as a statistically informed way to maximize talent. Beane and Brand’s unorthodox approach puts them in opposition to the team’s irritable old school manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and the craggy scouts who rely on their ingrained biases to evaluate players.Pitt plays the Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane.Melinda Sue Gordon/Columbia PicturesWhile Beane deconstructs the business of baseball, assembling a stacked roster of discarded players, “Moneyball” the movie also disassembles the subgenre by not really being about baseball. Partway through the film, Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin’s patient screenplay introduces Beane’s young daughter, who hopes the team wins enough for her dad to keep his job. Pitt is wonderful in these scenes, softening Beane’s rigid executive exterior for a kinder, sweeter approach that slowly builds the importance of this father-daughter relationship to the point of Beane turning down a higher paid position with the Boston Red Sox (coincidentally, the A’s are leaving California in 2028 for a lucrative offer to play in Las Vegas).Seeing Beane’s embrace of fatherhood recalls an imperative moment in Ken Burns’s “Baseball.” In that documentary mini-series, Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor, describes baseball as a “community activity,” in which “you find your own good in the good of the whole.” As much as Beane prizes winning in “Moneyball,” his journey becomes about cherishing family.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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      In Alain Guiraudie’s Films, Sex Leads to Unexpected Destinations

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      Alain Guiraudie broke through with “Stranger by the Lake.” In his new movie, “Misericordia,” eroticism and death are also intimately entangled.Carnal urges drive the characters in the films of the French director Alain Guiraudie toward absurd and sometimes dangerous mishaps. In his sexually audacious narratives, which usually play out in the countryside, the temptation of the flesh is a potent catalyst.“I don’t know if you can say that desire is what drives all of cinema, but it’s certainly what drives my cinema,” Guiraudie said via an interpreter during a recent video interview from his home in Paris.That artistic mandate guides his latest picture, “Misericordia,” which opens in U.S. theaters on Friday. When it came out in France, it received eight nominations for the César Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, and was named the best film of 2024 by the renowned French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma.The movie follows Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) as he returns to the small rural town of his youth, where he soon becomes the prime suspect in a murder, while also awakening the lust of the local Catholic priest.For Guiraudie, 60, eroticism and death are intimately entangled. “There are two situations in which we return to our most primitive instincts: sex and violence,” he said. “I see an obligatory connection.”Félix Kysyl and Jacques Develay in “Misericordia.” Like most of Guiraudie’s movies, it is set in the countryside.Sideshow/Janus FilmsWe 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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      ‘Ghostlight,’ ‘Watcher’ and More Streaming Gems

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      A pair of carefully crafted character studies and three female-fronted thrillers are among the gems hidden on your subscription streaming services this month.‘Ghostlight’ (2024)Stream it on Hulu.So few films concern the daily lives of the working class, in any meaningful way, that it’s sort of astonishing when one comes along that feels so embedded there. That’s the case with this heart-tugging drama from the directors Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson (“Saint Frances”), in which a grieving father stumbles into a community theater production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Keith Kupferer is marvelous as the father, beautifully capturing the frustrations and emotional limitations of his class and generation, while Katherine Mallen Kupferer performs modestly as his wife, until a late moment that absolutely clobbers you. And that, in many ways, holds true for the entire movie.‘Goodrich’ (2024)Stream it on Max.“This midlife crisis is no walk in the park, I’ll tell you that,” snorts Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) near the end of this poignant comedy-drama, and while his daughter Grace (Mila Kunis) notes the mathematical improbability that 60-something is “midlife,” the sentiment stands. Andy, the owner-operator of a Los Angeles art gallery that’s seen better days, is in free-fall. His wife has just checked herself into rehab, much to his bafflement (he’s so checked out, he never noticed her addiction), leaving him to care for their elementary-school aged twins himself. Keaton is credited as an executive producer, and it’s easy to see why the project was important to him; the writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer hands him a stellar showcase, a guy who talks fast and thinks faster, and whose inherent likability helps soften his obvious flaws. The result is a poignant examination of getting older and wondering if you’ve lost it — whatever your particular “it” may be.‘Saint Maud’ (2021)Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.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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      Gene Hackman’s Wife Died at Least a Day Later Than Originally Thought

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      Betsy Arakawa made several calls to a medical clinic on Feb. 12, the day after the authorities initially believed that she died.The authorities in New Mexico have recovered evidence that Betsy Arakawa, the wife of the actor Gene Hackman, died at least one day later than they had previously estimated.The New Mexico authorities initially believed that Ms. Arakawa had likely died of a rare viral infection on Feb. 11, because that was when she was last seen publicly and stopped returning email correspondence.But after analyzing her cellphone, investigators learned that Ms. Arakawa had made three phone calls on the morning of Feb. 12, Denise Womack-Avila, a spokeswoman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, said on Monday. She said that Ms. Arakawa had made the calls to a concierge medical service, Cloudberry Health.Dr. Josiah Child, the lead physician there, said in an interview that the clinic called Ms. Arakawa back that morning and scheduled an appointment for that afternoon. He said she had reported feeling congested but that there were no signs of respiratory distress. Ms. Arakawa did not show up for her appointment that afternoon, Dr. Child said.“I suspect that she was starting to feel ill and that’s why she reached out to us,” he said.Ms. Arakawa and Mr. Hackman were both found dead in their secluded home outside of Santa Fe late last month. The state medical examiner concluded that Ms. Arakawa, 65, died from the effects of hantavirus, which is contracted through exposure to excrement from rodents. The virus can cause flulike symptoms before progressing to shortness of breath, as well as cardiac and lung failure.They said that Mr. Hackman, who had Alzheimer’s, spent another week in the house with her body and died Feb. 18 of heart disease.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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      Conan O’Brien to Host the Oscars Next Year, Too

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      Mr. O’Brien received high marks for his work as the emcee of the 97th Oscar telecast this month. It was his first time hosting the show.Conan O’Brien will reprise his Oscar hosting duties next year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday morning, in one of the earliest renewals for an Oscar host.The news comes after Mr. O’Brien received high marks for his work as the emcee of the 97th Oscar telecast, which delivered a five-year ratings high for ABC this month. It was his first time hosting the show.“The only reason I’m hosting the Oscars next year is that I want to hear Adrien Brody finish his speech,” Mr. O’Brien said in a statement, referring to Mr. Brody’s five-minute oration after winning the Oscar for best actor.The show’s producers, Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney, will also return for a second year. And the ceremony’s executive producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, will be back for a third consecutive year. The ceremony will be held on March 15, 2026.The job of hosting the Oscar telecast is often a thorny one. The comedian Chevy Chase called it “the most thankless job in the world.” The hosts rarely get credit when things go right — and are often held responsible when things go wrong.In the past few years, the academy has tried to shore up the assignment early, though it didn’t announce its most recent hosts until the November before the March telecast. Jimmy Kimmel signed on for his fourth and final turn in November 2023, and Mr. O’Brien was named in November 2024.“Conan was the perfect host — skillfully guiding us through the evening with humor, warmth and reverence,” Bill Kramer, the academy’s chief executive, and Janet Yang, the group’s president, said in a statement. More

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      Gene Winfield, Whose Cars Starred in Film and on TV, Dies at 97

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      He was know for modifying cars with innovative metal work and paint jobs, and for building vehicles like the Galileo shuttle for the original “Star Trek” series.Gene Winfield, a hot rodder and prominent car customizer who built fanciful vehicles for “Star Trek,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and other television series and for films like “Blade Runner” and “Sleeper,” died on March 4 in Atascadero, Calif. He was 97.His son, Steve, said he died in an assisted living facility from metastatic melanoma. He had also been diagnosed with kidney failure.Mr. Winfield began to attract national attention in the late 1950s with a two-door 1956 Mercury hard top called the Jade Idol.According to the custom car website Kustorama, he transformed the Mercury for a customer by adding features like handmade fenders rolled in aluminum in the front end; headlight rings made from 1959 Chrysler Imperial Crown hubcaps; a television set integrated into a new dashboard; and a steering column taken from an Edsel.The restored Jade Idol in Salinas, Calif., in 1981. Mr. Winfield first attracted national attention in the late 1950s with the car, a customized two-door 1956 Mercury hardtop.David GrantAutomobile magazine described the Jade Idol as having “a sharklike presence that represented a new direction in customs.”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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      Gemma Chan Gets Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ More as She Gets Older

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      The actress, now starring in “The Actor,” talks about Schubert, “In the Mood for Love” and other art, food and pets that she loves.After captivating audiences as the glamorous Astrid in “Crazy Rich Asians,” Gemma Chan was sent quite a few scripts with dignified but unhappy wives.She sensed trouble ahead.“There’s a danger of being typecast,” she said. “But I’m still a work-in-progress pushing back on that. I want to do something different and show something different and tell a different story.”Her new film, “The Actor,” directed by Duke Johnson, checked those boxes. Chan plays Edna, a costume designer in a factory town and the romantic interest of an amnesiac.She had loved Johnson’s haunting animated movie “Anomalisa,” and she responded similarly when she read “The Actor.”“Then I spoke to Duke about how he planned to shoot it, which was in quite a different way to anything that I’ve shot before,” she said. “Quite experimental, bringing elements that were quite theatrical and quite stylized.”Chan has also wrapped “Josephine,” with Channing Tatum, about an 8-year-old who witnesses an assault. And she is producing her own work: an adaptation of the “Rise of the Empress” fantasy book series for Amazon Prime Video, and an unconventional history of Anna May Wong, considered to be the first Chinese American movie star.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