Movies

Subterms

    More stories

    • 113 Shares169 Views

      in Movies

      Netflix’s ‘Knives Out’ Sequel Headed to Theaters Before Streaming

      by

      “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” will receive a weeklong release in about 600 theaters in the United States a month before it becomes available on Netflix.Netflix is giving theater owners a Thanksgiving present.The streaming giant announced on Thursday that “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” will be released in around 600 theaters across the United States for one week beginning on Nov. 23 before becoming available to stream around the world on Dec. 23.The largest theater chains — AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark — have all agreed to the deal, a first for the top exhibitors. Cinemark screened Netflix films in the past. But Regal and AMC previously refused to work with the company because it would not agree to the exclusive theatrical release periods and financial terms that are usually offered by traditional studios. Terms of the deal for “Glass Onion” were not disclosed.Yet the news now comes as a welcome relief to the industry after the past month, in which theaters generated just $328 million in ticket sales. That was the lowest number in September since 1996, with the exception of the pandemic year of 2020. The original “Knives Out,” starring Daniel Craig as the quirky detective Benoit Blanc, was a sleeper hit in 2019. It cost $40 million to make and grossed $165 million in North American theaters and $311 million worldwide. It was considered a prime example of how studios could successfully release films based on original ideas in theaters.But the chances of replicating that theatrical success seemed to be squashed last year when Netflix plunked down $465 million for the writer-director Rian Johnson to move his star-studded franchise to the streaming service for its next two iterations.“I’m over the moon that Netflix has worked with AMC, Regal and Cinemark to get ‘Glass Onion’ in theaters for this one-of-a-kind sneak preview,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement. “These movies are made to thrill audiences, and I can’t wait to feel the energy of the crowd as they experience ‘Glass Onion.’”The raucous reception for the film at its debut at the Toronto Film Festival last month inspired Netflix to pursue a more expansive theatrical strategy than it had for other films.Whether this development means that Netflix is willing to take a more traditional approach to theatrical distribution remains to be seen. The streaming service said it also did not plan to publicly report how the film did at the box office during its weeklong run. More

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Swimmer’ Review: Tough Competition, In and Out of the Pool

      by

      The writer-director Adam Kalderon renders his film with style and rich psychology.“Competitive sports are a tragedy for the body and soul,” Paloma (Nadia Kucher), the house mother at a dumpy training camp for swimmers, sagely tells Erez (Omer Perelman Striks). He’s sitting in an ice bath after working out too hard, the literal chains on his back during push-ups causing him to collapse in pain. An indelicate visual metaphor, perhaps, but the writer-director Adam Kalderon nonetheless renders his film “The Swimmer” with style and rich psychology. Sweat pools around the athlete’s body and the thin line between ambition and obsession is entrancingly legible on Striks’s face.For Erez, the possibility of an astronomical rise in the world of competitive swimming is on the horizon, just within reach. So is the Olympic dream of his increasingly aggressive and passively homophobic coach, Dima (Igal Reznik). But when Erez finds himself in a somewhat ambiguous tête-à-tête with another swimmer, the almost as good Nevo (Asaf Jonas), he’s torn between what he wants more: sex or success. Dima, ravenous for his own chance at winning, puts the two in psychological warfare with one another.“The Swimmer” distinguishes itself from other L.G.B.T.Q. sports dramas less in what the story is and more in how it’s told. Kalderon and the cinematographer Ofer Inov make Adonises out of the film’s athletes, but the film goes beyond mere marble-body ogling in its equal attention to the physical, psychological and emotional toll that training takes on Erez and Nevo. Kalderon finds the intensity of desire and competition in the cracks of the statue.The SwimmerNot rated. In Hebrew, English and Russian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 24 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle’ Review: Following Orders, for Decades

      by

      Arthur Harari’s film dramatizes the true story of a Japanese officer who continued the fight for 29 years after the Imperial Army’s surrender in World War II.On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan’s wartime emperor, Hirohito, announced the Imperial Japanese Army’s surrender to the Allied Forces in World War II. But for 29 years after this announcement, an officer, Hiroo Onoda, continued to wage war on Lubang Island in the Philippines. The striking film “Onoda” dramatizes the true story of this holdout who persisted for decades after there ceased to be an enemy.Appropriately, “Onoda” moves slowly through its central character’s life story. Onoda (played as a young man by Yuya Endo, with Kanji Tsuda as his older iteration) begins the film as a failed kamikaze pilot, whose life is given purpose by the highhanded Major Taniguchi (Issey Ogata). Taniguchi recruits Onoda to undertake a secret mission, one that Onoda must never surrender. In return, Taniguchi promises that wherever his men go, they will not be abandoned.It’s this promise that fuels Onoda’s faith in the jungles. After the American army decimates the forces on Lubang Island, Onoda becomes the leader of a group of four remaining soldiers. Based on his belief, the group waits for the major’s return, facing rain, starvation and the increasingly bewildered defenses of local Filipino farmers.Despite the film’s wartime setting, there is little talk of politics — in fact, there is little talking at all. Instead, the director, Arthur Harari, chooses to create a psychological portrait of his central character, using images rather than explanations of ideology to tap into Onoda’s mind-set. In training, Taniguchi’s shirt glows titanium white. Sunlight seems to strike faces like a spotlight. The unnatural, painterly quality of the film’s training sequences makes their impression indelible. The light provides wordless, and conveniently apolitical, explanation for why a person might endure nearly three decades (or in cinematic terms, nearly three hours) without action.Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the JungleNot rated. In Japanese and Filipino, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 53 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      Second City to Open Its First New York Outpost

      by

      Long a staple of Chicago, the improv and sketch company plans to open a theater and training center in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn next year.The founders of Second City, the storied comedy theater, took its name from essays by The New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling, who skewered Chicago as inferior to his hometown. Now, more than 60 years later, Second City has found a home in New York.The improv stage and training center, based in Chicago since 1959, announced on Thursday that it would open a location in New York City for the first time. Over the decades, Second City has opened outposts in Toronto and Hollywood, which are still in operation, as well as in Detroit and Las Vegas, which have closed.Starting next summer, the institution that was an early home for performers such as Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert and Keegan-Michael Key will also have a physical location in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, the company said.“As we came out of the pandemic and saw the resurgence of our stages and our consumer demand and the fact that we’re selling out every night, it became more immediate for us to start thinking about expansion,” said Ed Wells, Second City’s chief executive, who recently joined the company from the nonprofit organization that produces “Sesame Street.”“New York just feels obvious,” he said.The expansion will include a main stage for performances, a stage for students, a restaurant and classrooms, the company said. It said that New York, after Chicago and Hollywood, was its third-largest market for virtual classes.Comedy institutions have struggled during the coronavirus pandemic because of lengthy closures and the slow return of audiences. About a year into the pandemic, Second City was sold to a private equity group based in New York — the first time the company had changed ownership since the 1980s.Upright Citizens Brigade, the storied improv and sketch comedy hub, cited “financial strain” when it closed its two Manhattan locations in 2020, leaving a segment of New York’s up-and-coming talent wanting a brick-and-mortar training center.The last couple of years have been a period of transformation for Second City. In addition to the financial challenges of the pandemic, there were complaints in 2020 from performers of color who told stories of being marginalized and tokenized. The company’s chief executive and executive producer, Andrew Alexander, resigned as a result, and the leadership pledged to “tear it all down and begin again.”Second City’s new leadership included Parisa Jalili, the chief operating officer, and Jon Carr, an improv veteran and the company’s second Black executive producer, who has since left the company. They said last year that they were working to become a more equitable institution with more diverse performers, as well as to expand the company’s reach. More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Piggy’ Review: A Bullied Teenager Gets an Unexpected Assist

      by

      As violent as it is thoughtful, this Spanish movie dissects the webs of shame and secrecy that bullying breeds.The teenager Sara (Laura Galán) is comfortable with sharp knives and death: She helps out in her father’s butcher shop, after all, and they often hunt together. As we watch a trio of mean girls mercilessly mock Sara because she’s overweight, it’s natural to expect a brutal payback — that the poster for this Spanish movie depicts the lead drenched in blood might be another clue. But while “Piggy” does take a gory turn, it’s also a left one: The director Carlota Pereda carefully sets up our expectations only to subvert them.Right after her tormentors steal her clothes while she’s enjoying a solo swim at the local outdoor pool, Sara watches them being abducted by a mysterious stranger (Richard Holmes). That man, hulking and grunting, is an agent of chaos, his motives unknown and his actions seemingly arbitrary. He is simultaneously terrifying and fascinating to Sara, who has plenty of reasons to at least fantasize about violent retribution. But she is not the victim-turned-avenging angel so often found in horror movies or thrillers, and instead emerges as a complicated protagonist who makes mistakes and is not always easy to like. So is her well-intentioned mother (Carmen Machi), who thinks Sara must diet to avoid taunts.Pereda, who also wrote the script, is not afraid of psychological and moral ambiguity: It’s obvious that she is on Sara’s side — the bullying scenes are much harder to watch than the bloody ones — but she also knows that shame, guilt and secrecy fester into messy situations and messy people.PiggyNot rated. In Spanish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Visitor’ Review: Let the Wrong One In

      by

      A young husband discovers that a series of old paintings holds a sinister secret in this derivative creeper.Where would supernatural thrillers be without the small town? Only there can inbred eccentricities bloom and the weird goings-on in Mabel’s back yard remain unremarked upon. The setting is such a cliché that any time we see a big-city transplant grow increasingly aware that his straw-sucking neighbors are acting a bit funny, we’re just waiting for the bonfire in the woods and the upside-down cross.In that sense at least, Justin P. Lange’s “The Visitor” does not disappoint, and genre fans will have no trouble singing along with the movie’s narrative beats. Robert and Maia (Finn Jones and Jessica McNamee) have arrived from London to settle in Maia’s childhood home in a fictitious American town. Maia’s father has died, further straining a marriage that’s already wobbly from an earlier tragedy. So Robert, at least, is in no mood for a visit to the local pub, where everyone from the forbidding pastor to the too-friendly barmaid is looking at him askance. There’s also the small matter of the oil painting in the attic, a man who’s the spitting image of Robert though, disappointingly, is not called Dorian Gray. He’s called “The Visitor.”Filmed in and around New Orleans, “The Visitor” isn’t a terrible movie, just a tired one. Stuffed with bugs, frogs, snakes and silly costumes, it trundles along smoothly enough as Robert learns that his likeness has popped up in multiple paintings, once in a Confederate uniform. Maia, though, seems oblivious to the weirdness, basking in her new pregnancy and the attentions of the townsfolk, who are giving off distinct “Rosemary’s Baby” vibes. Yet Robert, ignoring the sudden deaths and obligatory warnings to leave town, is determined to figure things out. The audience, unfortunately, already has.The VisitorNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

    • 63 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Hinterland’ Review: Murderers Among Us

      by

      Stefan Ruzowitzky’s film sets a serial-killer mystery in Vienna after the ravages of World War I and employs some dazzling blue-screen backdrops.The backdrops are the star attraction in “Hinterland,” a post-World War I serial-killer mystery directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. Stretched across panoramic wide-screen, the eye-popping film portrays 1920 Vienna as a pullulating Old World metropolis, its buildings reeling at canted angles, its streets hosting grotesque violence.Perg (Murathan Muslu) is a returning P.O.W. who yearns for the wife he left behind and gets drawn into investigating some baroque murders. This chiseled ex-cop feels forgotten, as we are repeatedly reminded; everyone around him is scrambling to survive or in thrall to an “ism” (communism, anarchism, opportunism). Ruzowitzky, who directed the Academy Award-winning World War II drama “The Counterfeiters,” has a taste for the dark bargains of war and its aftermath, though here he mostly musters a neo-noir mood of regret.Perg figures out that the killings have something to do with grisly decisions made by soldiers during the war. The screenplay for “Hinterland” then clicks a little too abruptly into its grooves to sit with all the story’s implications, as we follow the cat-and-mouse machinations of the investigation and Perg’s missed-connection romance with a forensics doctor, Theresa (Liv Lisa Fries, a “Babylon” star).But the hypervivid visuals remain a feat, shot almost exclusively on blue screens (with much credit due to the digital art director, Oleg Prodeus). Expressionist painters like Ludwig Meidner spring to mind, as does Lars Von Trier’s post-World War II journey into the abyss, “Europa,” with its own looming back-projections and moral swamps. If only the story of “Hinterland” felt as engrossing and alive as its setting.HinterlandNot rated. In German, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

    • 75 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Redeem Team’ Review: Squad Goals

      by

      A documentary looks at the 2008 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team and its mission to bring back gold after a humiliating loss.As narratives of national uplift go, the 1992 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball consortium, known as the “Dream Team,” was one of the most shamelessly contrived. Once international players started to get the hang of hoops, how was America to maintain hegemony? Blitz them with the cream of the professional crop. This strategy wasn’t foolproof. A humiliating loss to Argentina in 2004 deprived the United States of the gold. This aggression would not stand.“The Redeem Team,” a documentary about the 2008 squad that was charged with getting the Americans back to the top spot, is smart in not asking the viewer to feel too bad for the 2004 group. The Argentine player Pepe Sanchez nailed the issue right after the match: “This is a team sport. You play five on five, not one on one.”Taking charge for the 2008 run is the Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, a figure both respected and despised (the team member LeBron James is frank: “Growing up in the inner city, you hate Duke”). Krzyzewski makes teamwork the priority, and he holds to that even when he brings aboard Kobe Bryant, then a notorious lone wolf.The movie, directed by Jon Weinbach, offers several eye-opening mini-narratives on the way to a rematch with Argentina. Doug Collins, a member of the U.S. team in 1972, speaks to the 2008 players about his painful experience in a game arguably stolen by the Soviet Union. Bryant softens up his old friend Pau Gasol, a member of Spain’s team, the better to execute a shocking “who’s the boss” move on the court. The intimidating presence of Argentina’s ace shooter Manu Ginóbili causes no small concern. While no realistic observer of American sports could call this movie inspirational, these sequences definitely make it engrossing.The Redeem TeamNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More