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      ‘Concerned Citizen’ Review: He Cares a Lot

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      An Israeli’s guilt over an act of police brutality he indirectly caused is the crux of this drama from Idan Haguel.Ben (Shlomi Bertonov) lives with his boyfriend, Raz (Ariel Wolf), in a gentrifying neighborhood of Tel Aviv. They got a great deal — the apartment would have cost twice as much in a more central area of the city. And Ben has already done his part to spruce up the block by planting a thin tree across the street.So it bugs him when he sees two Eritrean immigrants chatting by the sapling, with one leaning against it in a way that could snap it. He talks with them, and the issue seems resolved. But when Ben spots the man leaning again, he calls the authorities. He lies and says the city planted the tree. A little while later, out of his window, he sees one of the young men savagely beaten by police.The guilt Ben feels over the violence he caused — it may even have been a killing; he initially doesn’t have confirmation of the victim’s fate — is the driving force of “Concerned Citizen,” an Israeli feature from the writer-director Idan Haguel. Did Ben overreact? Is he a secret racist? He mentions the incident to various people, but always fudges the specifics to disavow his involvement. He tries to sell the apartment without Raz’s knowledge.Haguel builds this brief but densely structured film in an interestingly modular, rhythmic way, thanks to a percussive score by Zoe Polanski and occasional, abrupt cuts to black following key scenes. But the movie’s ending is far too easy: It gives Ben a second chance to prove his true values, as if the consequences of his previous failure could be waved away.Concerned CitizenNot rated. In Hebrew, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      Stream These 9 Shows and Movies Before They Leave Netflix in June

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      An eclectic mix of titles are leaving the service for U.S. subscribers by the end of the month. Catch them before they’re gone.In the month to come, Netflix in the United States will bid farewell to an eclectic mixture of genre movies, sketch comedy, reality TV and romantic comedies, as well as a beloved family feature and a documentary exploration of a peculiar corner of the entertainment industry. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)‘Bathtubs Over Broadway’ (June 8)One of the most delightful documentaries of recent years, this 2018 charmer chronicles how the “Late Show With David Letterman” writer Steve Young stumbled onto the long-forgotten world of “industrial musical theater”: original musical productions, created specifically for corporate events and solely to inspire sales, that nevertheless provided steady paychecks and opportunities for performers, composers and designers for decades. What begins as an ironic fringe interest, discovered while sifting through vinyl oddities, becomes something of an obsession for Young, and the film evolves into a quiet love letter to ephemeral art.Stream it here.‘The Mole’: Seasons 3-4 (June 13)One of Netflix most unexpected (but enjoyable) resurrection projects has been the reboot of the reality competition series “The Mole.” The streamer premiered its latest season, hosted by MSNBC’s Alex Wagner, last fall — 14 years after the show’s fifth and presumably final season aired on ABC. And for nostalgia’s sake, it also licensed the third and fourth of the original seasons. Those were the “Celebrity Mole” years, so viewers can enjoy the host Ahmad Rashad (the original host was Anderson Cooper) guiding viewers in the hunt for the saboteur among a group of decidedly mid-2000s celebs, including Stephen Baldwin, Angie Everhart, Kathy Griffin, Dennis Rodman and Frederique van der Wal.Stream it here.‘The Mist’ (June 21)The writer and director Frank Darabont’s third adaptation of Stephen King’s work was a far cry from his earlier, emotionally hefty, Oscar-courting films “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile”; if those were not what we think of as a “Stephen King movie,” this 2007 take on King’s 1980 novella certainly was. Set primarily in the supermarket of a small Maine town enveloped in a mysterious murky fog, the story features supernatural forces, killer creatures and protagonists cracking under pressure. It also features stellar performances from a stacked ensemble (including Andre Braugher, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Thomas Jane and Toby Jones) and one of the bleakest endings to ever sneak its way into a mainstream movie.Stream it here.‘Chappelle’s Show’: Seasons 1-2 (June 30)Say what you will about his current preoccupations (and there is much to say), but there’s no denying the impact, power and sheer comic virtuosity of Dave Chappelle’s Comedy Central sketch series, which scorched cable airwaves for these two brief seasons, from 2003 to 2004. (Chappelle notoriously walked off the show during production of its third season, with only enough material for three episodes in the can.) But in that brief time, a handful of memorable characters and sketches — including Chappelle’s impersonations of Rick James and Lil’ Jon and sketches about a blind Black white supremacist and a celebrity “racial draft” — became immediate comic sensations and pop culture reference points.Stream it here.‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ (June 30)There may have been better early-2000s romantic comedies, but this 2003 hit from Donald Petrie may be the most early-2000s romantic comedy. All of the conventions are present and accounted for: an impossibly gorgeous, opposites-attract central couple (Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey); a plotline centering on a secret wager; Kathryn Hahn stealing scenes as our heroine’s BFF. But what it lacks in originality it makes up for in verve, with Hudson and McConaughey creating considerable sparks and Petrie directing with the proper, light-as-air touch.Stream it here.‘Jerry Maguire’ (June 30)In retrospect, it was really kind of genius — artistically and commercially — of the writer and director Cameron Crowe to combine the most stereotypically “dude flick” (the sports movie) with the most stereotypically “chick flick” (the romantic comedy). Yet by doing so, he proved how simplistic and suffocating such labels could be. In telling the story of a high-powered sports agent (Tom Cruise) whose nervous romance with a single mom (Renée Zellweger) makes him a better agent and a better man, Crowe drafted an unlikely Venn diagram, in which the common concerns of family, integrity and loyalty are of equal weight and audiences can’t help but root for both the underdog team and the unlikely couple.Stream it here.‘Puss in Boots’ (June 30)The “Shrek” movies made untold truckloads of money, but strangely, their most lasting cultural footprint seems to have come in the form of a side character who didn’t even appear until “Shrek 2.” Yet the suave, swashbuckling, Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas, became not only one of the most popular characters in the series but also the star of his own delightful adventures. This 2011 treat offered the expected thrills and giggles for the little kids as well as some Easter eggs for their parents, including Banderas’s reunion with his “Desperado” co-star Salma Hayek and energetic voice performances by the likes of Guillermo del Toro, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Sedaris and Billy Bob Thornton.Stream it here.‘The Taking of Pelham 123’ (June 30)The original 1974 film adaptation of the crime novel “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” was so steeped in the specific circumstances of Fun City-era New York City that it was probably impossible for a remake to reanimate its specific, grimy thrills. But Tony Scott’s 2009 version offers up its own pleasures. Scott’s frequent leading man Denzel Washington brings tormented complexity to the grizzled hero, whose shift at M.T.A. dispatch is disrupted by a madman (John Travolta) whose crew takes over a subway car and holds its passengers hostage. And James Gandolfini is wonderful (and miles from Tony Soprano) as the city’s mayor.Stream it here.‘World War Z’ (June 30)Max Brooks’s 2006 novel about a zombie apocalypse was both a no-brainer for film adaptation (again, it details a zombie apocalypse) and a challenge, as so much of its power came from its epistolary-style, “oral history” structure. Those challenges made for something of a troubled production, and the stories of expensive reshoots and 11th-hour rewrites were so plentiful that it’s somewhat surprising the picture is as coherent as it is — well-crafted, tense and thrilling, alternating effective character beats with chilling set pieces.Stream it here.Also leaving: “Philomena” (June 19), “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” (June 29). More

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      Meet Greta Lee, the Star of “Past Lives”

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      She’s known for playing offbeat characters in “Russian Doll,” “High Maintenance” and “Girls,” but Greta Lee is winning raves for her restrained performance in “Past Lives.” It almost didn’t happen.“I’ve played a lot of larger-than-life people,” Greta Lee said. “This is entirely different. I was really attracted to what that could be, and whether or not I could pull it off.”Chantal Anderson for The New York TimesGreta Lee shines at playing the entrancing oddball, the scene-stealing weirdo you can’t take your eyes off of.Over the years, the actress has channeled Soojin, an entitled, self-absorbed gallerist who thinks she’s poor but isn’t (“Girls”); Hae Won, a nail salon technician who can party with the best of them, in this case, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (“Sisters”); and Maxine, the free spirit on “Russian Doll” caught in an inescapable time loop with her best friend, played by Natasha Lyonne.What Lee hasn’t gotten to play much are characters who are, to use her word, restrained.For many actors, restraint is not necessarily something to strive for. “A lot of times, as performers, we’re fighting this unspoken desire to show you can do something,” she said. “To show that you understand the assignment.”Audiences will get to see a bit more restraint and a lot more of what Lee can do in the A24 drama “Past Lives,” which opens June 2. After years of making the most of small parts, the actress’s talents have long been there to see for anyone with eyeballs, whether she was performing on Broadway (briefly) or in some of TV’s most groundbreaking comedies. All that was needed for Lee to move up was the right role — in this case, her first leading role, one that almost didn’t come her way.In “Past Lives,” she plays Nora, a Korean Canadian playwright who reunites with the childhood sweetheart she left behind in Seoul when her family immigrated 24 years before. The film also stars Teo Yoo (“Love to Hate You”) as Hae Sung, the man who still wonders what might have been, and John Magaro (“Not Fade Away”), as Nora’s husband Arthur, a writer forced to wonder what might have been, too, when Hae Sung comes to New York for a short but affecting visit.Teo Yoo and Lee in “Past Lives.” Initially the roles went to other performers.A24In many ways, Nora is about as far from Lee’s roster of scene-stealing roles as you can imagine: measured and still rather than riotous or offbeat; the humor, when it comes, wry. It’s a breakthrough performance in a film that has already earned rave reviews (The Times described it as “a gorgeous, glowing, aching thing”) after it premiered at Sundance and played the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. The Los Angeles Times called her turn a “career-making performance,” while The Hollywood Reporter singled out the “extraordinary depths” of her portrayal of Nora.“I’ve played a lot of larger-than-life people,” Lee said. “This is entirely different. I was really attracted to what that could be, and whether or not I could pull it off.”The role almost eluded Lee, an experience she related one afternoon in a coffee shop in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. “I felt absolutely certain that it was not going to go my way,” she recalled.IF NORA IS NOTHING LIKE many of Lee’s previous party-girl characters, neither is Lee herself. She’s a mother, for starters, of two young boys with her husband, Russ Armstrong.On set, “Greta is like a Hunter S. Thompson-meets-Fellini character,” Natasha Lyonne said in an interview. “She’s a total original.”And while Lee’s characters can seem infinitely too cool to be seen with you or your friends, she herself isn’t above getting excited about all sorts of things, including how kind and receptive everyone has been about this latest movie of hers. “I’m going to show you,” she said, pulling out her cellphone. She played a tiny clip she had shot on her phone of the blocks-long line at a recent screening of “Past Lives.” “It keeps going! Still going. Still going. Isn’t this completely wild?”Lee, now 40, was born in Los Angeles and spent most of her childhood here. The daughter of Korean immigrants and the oldest of three, she experienced much of her early life as a series of firsts. “I was the first kid to be an American citizen in the family, the first to go to school here, just navigating all these things,” she said. “I always had a burning fire to prove something, either to myself, or to whatever authority figure there was in my life.”Growing up, she loved sports (“there are Olympic wrestlers on my dad’s side”) and musical performance. She played the piano, studied opera, sang Liza Minnelli numbers at the local mall, took modern-dance classes, competed in classical music festivals (and won). “I know a lot of Italian arias and German art songs,” she said.After high school, Lee attended Northwestern University in the hopes of going into musical theater. “Back then it was ‘Miss Saigon,’ ‘South Pacific,’ ‘The King and I,’” she said. “It’s kind of sad to think about now. It was so limited in what it could be. But it was still enough for me to feel like there was something here that I deeply want to be a part of.”For a time, she hustled for any type of role or gig. “I was meeting rejection and obstacles, and I remember feeling constantly like I was falling behind,” she said, recalling the five-year stretch when she booked just a few TV episodes.Still, all that auditioning paid off. In 2010, Lee found herself on Broadway in a revival of “La Bête,” a comedy in iambic pentameter set in the 17th century and starring David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley. Even then, she was multitasking. “I would do that play, and then change out of my corset and walk around the corner to MTV’s ‘TRL’ studios, where I was a VJ.”Supporting parts in celebrated series like “High Maintenance,” “Girls” and “Inside Amy Schumer” followed. In 2019, Lee landed regular roles on the streaming series “Russian Doll,” which finished its second season last month, and “The Morning Show,” which has been renewed for a fourth season.“I think the path I took, as an Asian American woman, was different from what is conventional,” Lee said. “Certain points in my life during this journey didn’t always make sense to other people. But it makes so much sense to me now.”Chantal Anderson for The New York TimesLee read the script for “Past Lives” the following year and was immediately captivated. “It really stood out in terms of what a romantic drama could be,” she said. “It’s not a conventional love story or love triangle. And the woman at the center of the story is really different from others I’ve seen in other films.”Not long after that first read, “I got a phone call from an assistant, asking if I was available for an important meeting” at a restaurant in the Village, she said. “I assumed I had gotten the job!” But the assistant had the wrong number, and it turned out the message, unrelated to “Past Lives,” was for Greta Gerwig.In fact, Lee wasn’t even being considered for the part. For months, Celine Song, the writer and director of “Past Lives,” had been looking at other Noras, other Hae Sungs. “They cast it with two other people,” Lee said.According to Song, the oversight had little to do with Lee herself. The film’s story is loosely based on the true-life reunion of Song, her American husband and her Korean school pal, which took place when the director was 29. “When you’re young, you think that being 29 is so interesting and cool and meaningful,” Song said. “So I was trying to find somebody at 30, or even in their twenties, and Greta, of course, was in her late 30s.”“It was really stupid,” Song admitted.AFTER SONG CAME TO HER SENSES, she contacted Lee. A year had passed since Lee had first read the script, but she still remembered it: her soul-mate film, she called it. Could she meet with Song, via Zoom, that day? After a video audition that stretched on for two and a half hours, with Lee reading key scenes as Song played the two male leads (“Celine makes an excellent Arthur and Hae Sung,” Lee said), Song offered Lee the part on the spot.The film began shooting in summer 2021. To help the actors convey the feeling of being reunited with someone after 24 years, when you’ve only communicated over Skype, Song kept Lee and Yoo apart as much as possible. “She told us, you guys can’t touch,” Lee said.For Yoo, “during the rehearsal process, the instinct is to say goodbye naturally, with a hug,” he said. “And Celine was like, no, no, no, you guys, no touching.” I’m allowed to touch and hug, she told them, but Yoo and Lee got shooed away when they tried.Song insisted that the actors were all in, and that she never had to scold them to keep them in line. “Is that what they’re saying?” she asked, with a laugh. “No, no. I think they wanted to go along with the trick.”Of course the actress balked, Lee said, at least at first. “I was like, we’re all professionals here, and there’s a question of, how much of this needs to be actualized? We’re acting. But I think we all wanted to support her vision of this, and I was also curious to see how this might affect the process.”“It was really visceral, that first moment when we hug each other,” Yoo said. “So I was glad that we were able to capture that, and the audience gets to experience it.”Much of “Past Lives” was filmed in New York, as Nora shows Hae Sung around the city during a particularly dreary, rain-soaked week. The shoot was a reunion for the cast — not with, say, a long-lost sweetheart, but with the city itself. Song and the three leads had all lived in New York when they were coming up. Lee and Yoo had spent years in the East Village as struggling actors: Yoo, above a pizza joint at the corner of Avenue A and St. Marks Place; Lee, above a Thai restaurant in a small apartment she shared with three other women.“I was the first kid to be an American citizen in the family, the first to go to school here, just navigating all these things,” Lee said. “I always had a burning fire to prove something.”Chantal Anderson for The New York Times“We were shooting on the actual streets I lived on in the East Village when I was just starting out as a young 20-something, really desperate for work and trying to make a living,” Lee said. “It’s embarrassing to put it this way, but I guess it did feel somewhat like destiny.”In addition to “Past Lives,” Lee returns this fall as the network executive Stella Bak in the third season of “The Morning Show.” “I think people are really going to be excited about her arc on this season,” Lee said.She’s also set to appear in “Problemista,” an A24 comedy written, directed and starring Julio Torres. Greta plays a painter unfairly maligned by an art critic (Tilda Swinton). The part is small, Torres said, but memorable. “Greta has a way of staying with you even when you haven’t seen a lot of her, which is a very powerful thing to have,” he said.Right now, however, Lee’s focus is on “Past Lives.” All those other experiences she’s gone through, the stage work and revivals, the sketches and half-hour comedies, the TV dramas and voice actor work, she said, have all helped prepare her for this moment.“I think the path I took, as an Asian American woman, was different from what is conventional,” she said. “Certain points in my life during this journey didn’t always make sense to other people. But it makes so much sense to me now.”“I feel like I’ve been working really hard,” she added, “to make sure I was ready for the day when a role like Nora Moon would come my way.” More

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      Best Cannes Red Carpet Looks: Scarlett Johansson, Lily-Rose Depp and More

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      The film festival, which took place over almost two weeks, brought lots of fashion to the French Riviera.There has been a lot of head-turning fashion on the French Riviera lately. Though some of it was spotted on guests at the Monaco Grand Prix (hello Bad Bunny in torso-hugging Jean Paul Gaultier), much of it came from the Cannes Film Festival, which ended on Saturday.As one might expect from a pack of A-list celebrities attending a star-studded festival in a particularly glamorous location, there were lots of gowns and tuxedos. But in contrast to the Oscars or other awards ceremonies, there were many daytime events at Cannes, which gave many festival attendees repeated chances to dress up and take style risks — some of which were more successful than others.There were a lot of outfits that caught our attention during the almost two-week festival, including Jennifer Lawrence’s red Dior gown and flip-flops (most comfortable!); Naomi Campbell’s Valentino dress and flowing pink feathered cape (most ethereal!); and the nearly identical tan linen blazers that David Zaslav, a media executive, and Graydon Carter, an editor, wore as co-hosts of a party for the Warner Bros. movie studio (most coordinated!).But the 20 looks on this list stood out more than most. Some were unexpected, while others were flawless. All, importantly, drew strong opinions.Cool blue.Mohammed Badra/EPA, via ShutterstockHelen Mirren: Most Blue Crush!To match her cornflower-blue Del Core gown (and her nails), the actress wore blue streaks in her wavy silver hair, the colors of which recalled a frothing ocean.This skirt seemed made for shimmying. via Paco RabanneElle Fanning: Most Antique Silverware!The actress’s metallic Paco Rabanne dress was suspended by what looked suspiciously like a piece of cutlery and had a skirt that looked as though it could cut someone who came too close.You can practically hear the tiger’s roar.Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty ImagesFan Bingbing: Most Scenic!Printed on the actress’s Christopher Bu gown was a design featuring a roaring tiger in a bamboo forest that extended onto the dress’s train.A commanding presence.Andreas Rentz/Getty ImagesViola Davis: Most Volume!A towering Afro and a colossal ostrich-feather stole punched up the actress’s otherwise simple Valentino dress.Free the shoulder! Joel C Ryan/Invision, via Associated PressTroye Sivan: Most Negative Space!The singer’s ensemble of Valentino shorts, shoulder-baring shirt and tie advanced a new definition of business casual.Ramata-Toulaye Sy, center, at a screening of her film “Banel and Adama.”Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPA, via ShutterstockRamata-Toulaye Sy: Most Power-Glam!Amid the many penguin suits at Cannes, the director’s wide-leg multicolor Chanel pantsuit was a sartorial unicorn.A look that could be described as (first) lady in red.Joel C Ryan/Invision, via Associated PressNatalie Portman: Most Jackie O.!In oversized cat-eye sunglasses and a belted Dior mini dress (and matching jacket), the actress brought a dose of the former first lady’s style to La Croisette.From left, the spicy boys José Condessa, Jason Fernández and Manu Ríos.Patricia De Melo Moreira/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJosé Condessa, Jason Fernández and Manu Ríos: Most Triple Threat!It seemed impossible that the trio of actors in “Strange Way of Life,” a queer Western directed by Pedro Almodóvar, did not plan their three peek-a-boo Saint Laurent looks in advance.Yellow and green colors helped make the flowers pop.Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesLily Gladstone: Most in Bloom!An understated hairstyle toned down the drama of the actress’s floral Valentino cape dress and three-tiered earrings by Jamie Okuma, a Native American designer.Is that the look of love in their eyes?Mike Coppola/Getty ImagesDua Lipa: Most Accesorized!The singer paired her sleek, one-shoulder Celine dress with accessories that included jewelry, tattoos and her reported boyfriend, the filmmaker Romain Gavras.The flash bulbs surely lit up at this look.Valery Hache/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRawdah Mohamed: Most Smoldering!The model set the carpet ablaze in a Robert Wun gown covered in what appeared to be burn marks. Over her head was a tattered veil that matched the distressed dress.This dress will turn 30 before Lily-Rose Depp, center, does. Kristy Sparow/Getty ImagesLily-Rose Depp: Most Dressing-Her-Age!Or almost her age: The 24-year-old actress’s sequined Chanel mini dress is from 1994, making it a few years older than she.Not your father’s double-breasted suit.Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty ImagesAlton Mason: Most Snatched!Look behind the model’s gloved hands, and you will notice the hourglass silhouette of his double-breasted Balenciaga suit jacket, which was tapered sharply at the waist.Think of this dress as an upside-down exclamation point.Yara Nardi/ReutersScarlett Johansson: Most Trompe l’Oeil!With a contrasting white top and straps, the actress’s pink Prada sheath dress gave the illusion of an exposed bra.It was a nice day for a white wedding dress.Mike Coppola/Getty ImagesJennie Kim: Most ‘I Do!’The Blackpink member was a vision in white — specifically, a Chanel bridal gown made (slightly) less sweet by black tulle poking out from the bodice.A paint job would be one way to freshen up old clothes.Scott Garfitt/Invision, via Associated PressOrlando Bloom: Most Painterly!The green and blue streaks down the actor’s pale Paul Smith suit were a risk — as were the chunky soles on his matching shoes.Ilona Chernobai, left, poured a red liquid over her blue-and-yellow gown on the red carpet.Christophe Simon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIlona Chernobai: Most On Message!As the Ukrainian influencer ascended the festival’s red-carpeted stairs wearing a blue-and-yellow gown, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, she popped balloons filled with a red liquid on her head. Those who witnessed her fashion statement included security personnel, who escorted her off the carpet soon after.She was definitely dressed for a festival. The question is: Which one?Gareth Cattermole/Getty ImagesMarion Cotillard: Most Coachella!Her twee sweater set and pink bleached jorts were textbook festival style — music festival style, that is.Stella Bugbee More

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      Alan Menken on ‘The Little Mermaid,’ New Songs and Revised Lyrics

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      The composer talked revisiting “The Little Mermaid” after nearly 35 years and the similarities between working with Howard Ashman and Lin-Manuel Miranda.Alan Menken composed the musical versions of “Little Shop of Horrors” and “A Bronx Tale,” but he is at peace with being known as a Disney composer.Mostly.“One of the areas where it got to me — you go to the Alan Menken Pandora station, and it’s all these little Disney tunes, and I go, ‘What is that?’” Menken said. Listeners could probably answer him: after all, he’s best known for the scores for beloved Disney animated films like “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and of course “The Little Mermaid.”Menken was speaking by video on a recent morning from his sunlit studio at his home in North Salem, N.Y. At 73, he is an EGOT winner with eight Oscars, 11 Grammys, an Emmy and a Tony prominently displayed in a glass case behind him. It was a few weeks before the release of the live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” and as with Disney’s other live-action and stage adaptations of the classic animated films he scored with the lyricist Howard Ashman, he collaborated with a new partner — in this case the “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda — to add a few more numbers to his original Oscar-winning tunes.In some ways, Menken said, working with Miranda reminded him of his decade-long partnership with Ashman, who died from AIDS in 1991 at age 40.“Sometimes your collaborator goes, ‘Oh, that’s the problem, because this is doing this and it’s overstepping emotionally here,’” Menken said. “It’s something that Howard had. I have those same moments with Lin where I go, ‘He knows.’”(The remake also includes a few adjustments to old songs. A verse in “Poor Unfortunate Souls” urging Ariel to keep quiet was dropped and a line in “Kiss the Girl” suggesting Prince Eric kiss her without asking was changed. Menken has said elsewhere that the filmmakers wanted to avoid suggesting both that the prince “would, in any way, force himself” on Ariel and that young girls might feel they shouldn’t use their voices.)In a recent interview, Menken discussed what it was like to revisit a score he wrote nearly 35 years ago, his experience working with Miranda on new songs and how he learned to embrace being known as a Disney composer. These are edited excerpts from our conversation.DisneyYou have approximately 10 million projects in development, among them “Animal Farm,” “Hercules,” “Nancy Drew” and “Night at the Museum” stage musicals; the live-action adaptation of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”; and a new animated musical film, “Spellbound.” Do you just have a spreadsheet?Yeah, kind of. [Laughs] After a while, you feel like a workaholic.Do you enjoy revisiting your older work, or do you do so more out of a sense of protectiveness?A little of both. These are my babies — I don’t want to walk away from them. Sometimes I’ll think, “What more do we have to say in the telling of this story?” And then it will be incumbent upon me to get to know the director, the book writer, and talk to them about the things they want to add. That’s where it becomes fun for me.What was it like working with Lin-Manuel Miranda on new songs for “The Little Mermaid”?It was a lot of fun — I knew about him because he went to the [Hunter College Elementary School] with my niece, and I would always hear about this little boy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and how he was obsessed with “The Little Mermaid.”Of the three songs we did together, one is more in my and Howard’s wheelhouse, “Wild Uncharted Waters.” It’s a ballad sung by Prince Eric, and it’s the roiling inside him — it’s very emotional. “For the First Time,” which Ariel sings when she gets legs about all the things she’s noticing for the first time, is a real combination of our styles. I had given Lin a fragment from the score from the original animated movie, and he said, “Wait, can we put a 2 against the 3?” [referring to the tempo], and so it got that real rhythmic rub to it. And the one that was much more in Lin’s wheelhouse was “The Scuttlebutt,” which is sung by Scuttle and Sebastian [played by Awkwafina and Daveed Diggs]. I gave him a little Caribbean tune thinking he would lyricize that, and in fact, he rapped over it! It was just one of those moments where you sense somebody’s brilliance.In 1997, David Horn, now the executive producer of PBS’s “Great Performances” series, told The New York Times, “When there’s a Sondheim musical, everyone refers to it as a Sondheim musical. When it’s something Alan has done, they refer to it as a Disney musical.” Do you still mind your shows being known as Disney musicals?I sometimes would have a little resistance to simply being characterized as “Disney composer Alan Menken” because I already had a huge hit with “Little Shop of Horrors” before I went to Disney. And while I was at Disney, I wrote so many other outside projects — the “Christmas Carol” that was at Madison Square Garden for [nearly] 10 years with Lynn Ahrens, [stage shows] “Sister Act,” “A Bronx Tale,” “Leap of Faith,” [the series] “Galavant” — but there is no musical opportunity that is at the level of writing a musical for Disney. If you do your work right, you will have an experience that nothing else can match.What’s your favorite musical of all time?I remember when I saw the original “Chorus Line” — Blew. My. Mind. It pulled back the curtain in terms of the back story of people who work in theater, especially dancers and the ensemble. It was so powerful, and that was the stagecraft as much as anything else. Michael Bennett [the show’s creator] was such a genius.What dream project is still on your bucket list?Howard, before he died, wanted to do a musical based on a Damon Runyon story — [adapted for a] movie called “The Big Street” — and I took a number of cracks at writing it. The problem is, it has an unlikable central character. It’s challenging, and I still want to do it — maybe it should be an opera. I wrote, I think, a brilliant musical with David Spencer, “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” [previously a novel and a movie]. But it’s very hard to get that musical on — it’s thorny and challenging, but I don’t shy away from those. I just have to go with what happens. More

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      ‘The Machine’ Review: A Hard-Partying Comedian Pays for His Sins

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      In a movie extrapolated from one of his stand-up bits, Bert Kreischer is dragged to Russia to face a gory but still comedic reckoning.The star of this picture, Bert Kreischer, is one of those popular stand-up comedians who’s not zeitgeist-adjacent enough to generate much in the way of think pieces or buzz. But in the late 1990s, as a student at Florida State University, he was the subject of a Rolling Stone magazine profile that named him “the top partyer at the Number One Party School in the country.”The late 1990s were a while ago, and today Kreischer is a hefty 50-year-old who looks mildly partied out. That’s part of his shtick — he performs stand-up while shirtless. In “The Machine,” he plays a fictionalized version of himself, initially in a penitent mode — a family man who’s royally ticked off his clan. At his daughter’s 16th birthday party, Bert and his carpet salesman dad, Albert, are accosted, at gunpoint, by the mobster Irina (Iva Babic) and taken to Russia, where Bert is to make amends for his part in a drunken train robbery decades before.This gore-steeped shaggy dog story is extrapolated from an actual Kreischer bit. As they dodge a score of Slavic psycho killers who are after an heirloom Bert stole, father and son hash out their issues (of course).You may wonder, if Kreischer is such a popular stand-up comedian, why he hasn’t done more television and movie acting. Well. Here he hits his marks and stays in his persona lane, but he’s not a performer who can carry a movie. Mark Hamill, as his dad, comes closer to crusty-old-man territory than one might have predicted. He’s practically Wilford Brimley.The director Peter Atencio has gotten reasonable results in the absurdist meta-comedy realm (“Keanu,” for instance), but he can’t cook with these ingredients. Even when the relentlessly salty humor gets fully crass (a dog is thrown out a high window), the product is bland.The MachineRated R for language, gore and extreme partying. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Is ‘May December’ the Most Fun Film at Cannes?

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      The movie stars Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore as cravenly self-interested women. Its director, Todd Haynes, is relieved that festival audiences are laughing.At the Cannes Film Festival premiere of “May December” this week, something happened in the first few minutes that put director Todd Haynes at ease. It took place at the end of the movie’s second scene, as Gracie (Julianne Moore) gets ready for a family barbecue that will be attended by Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), a famous actress who is preparing to play Gracie in a film.As Gracie crosses her kitchen and opens her fridge, Haynes zooms in on Moore and plays a dramatic music cue. The viewer is on high alert: Something significant is about to happen! Instead, Moore announces mildly, to no one in particular, “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs.” And the Cannes audience burst out laughing.That’s exactly the reaction Haynes was hoping for. Though plenty of viewers will read “May December” in a straightforward way, the subject matter is so juicy that Haynes more than welcomes a playful interpretation.“I was encouraged that the audience felt permission to enjoy the film,” he told me over coffee, “and appreciate it at the same time.”Haynes may be understating things: “May December” is the most fun movie that’s played at Cannes this year, a well-reviewed entertainment that fest-goers have been quoting nonstop since its premiere. There is a whiff of tabloid scandal at its core, since Gracie is loosely based on Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher convicted in 1997 of raping her sixth-grade student Vili Fualaau, whose baby she gave birth to in jail and whom she later married. Gracie and her husband, Joe (Charles Melton), have a similar back story, but when Elizabeth travels to their Savannah, Ga., home to shadow them for a week, they present her with a picture-perfect image of long-married domestic bliss.Still, the strength of their union is predicated on never truly revisiting its origin, and as Elizabeth pokes, prods and asks invasive questions, theirs is a marriage under siege. Gracie will do whatever she has to in order to keep her family together, but Elizabeth is just as determined to crack her facade, and as both women face off in a series of electric encounters, the self-interest that motivates them is often so craven that you can’t help but laugh.“As we were cutting it, it felt funnier than I really knew even reading or shooting the movie,” Haynes said. “We didn’t play it for laughs — it just has a sardonic wit about it.”“I was encouraged that the audience felt permission to enjoy the film,” Todd Haynes said of “May December.”Gonzalo Fuentes/ReutersDoes Haynes agree with the critics who’ve called the film campy? “That was never, ever a term I applied to the script or style of shooting,” he said, though he understood why writers might be tempted to use the word: “‘Camp’ is maybe a too catchall term these days for an excited state of reading things, where you’re encouraged to read something against itself at times. And that’s exactly what I hoped would happen, especially with a sense of pleasure involved, and amusement.”In the festival’s biggest bidding war, Netflix prevailed with an $11 million price that should presage a major awards campaign for Portman, who makes Elizabeth’s fully committed insincerity so compelling.“She was so invigorated and excited — like mischievously so — to play with the expectations that people would bring to the movie,” Haynes said. “At first you think Elizabeth will be our comfortable way in to this sordid back story, and then you start to really re-examine who she is and feel that she is not a reliable narrator.”The film could also be an awards breakout moment for Melton, whose Joe comes to the fore in the final act as he movingly scrutinizes the life path he was locked into as the boy at the center of a tabloid scandal. “We were so lucky to find him for this,” Haynes said of the actor, previously best known for “Riverdale.” (Between Melton and the “Elvis” star Austin Butler — last year’s Croisette breakout — the CW-to-Cannes pipeline has become a real thing.)Haynes has been juggling his duties on “May December” with a career retrospective in Paris that has highlighted films like “Carol,” “Far From Heaven” and “Safe” (the latter two also starring Moore), and he has welcomed each as a distraction from the other. “One has to filter it a bit just to survive it all, and it’s heady looking back at my whole creative life and history,” he said. “I would be in pools of tears otherwise.”The retrospective will soon end with a screening of “May December,” and that feels fitting: This is the most mainstream film Haynes has yet made, but it’s still packed with thematic layers, and Haynes welcomes any interpretation you’ve got, be it serious or funny.“If there’s a thinking process that runs parallel to watching the movie, that’s superb,” he said. More

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      How the New ‘Little Mermaid’ Goes Back ‘Under the Sea’

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      The director Rob Marshall discusses his take on the musical number featuring Daveed Diggs as Sebastian and Halle Bailey as Ariel.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.When the director Rob Marshall took a journey “down where it’s wetter,” he decided to bring a dance company with him.The beloved musical number “Under the Sea” has received a makeover in the new version of “The Little Mermaid,” this time featuring one live performer (Halle Bailey as Ariel) and a host of exotic computer-generated dancing sea creatures flanking her.Narrating the scene, Marshall called it “the most challenging musical sequence I’ve ever created.” He had to figure out how to introduce dance into the scene and make it “feel organic.”To pull it off, he “took a page out of Walt Disney’s playbook.” Disney worked with the Ballets Russes to bring animated sequences to life in “Fantasia.” And here, Marshall worked with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, bringing its members to London to execute the choreography of the scene. Then, CG animators used the company’s dance as a template to animate the movement of the sea creatures.Read the “Little Mermaid” review.Read an interview with Halle Bailey.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More