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      ‘Ernest Cole: Lost and Found’ Review: Chronicling Apartheid and Beyond

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      Raoul Peck looks at the compelling South African photographer, who died in 1990, whose work gets a second life onscreen.Ernest Cole, the groundbreaking South African chronicler of apartheid, died in 1990 in Manhattan. He was 49 and had been in exile since 1966. A new documentary directed by Raoul Peck, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” revives interest in the photographer, who trained his gaze on fellow Black South Africans living with the daily outrages and violent outbursts of a system that controlled their movements but not their meaning.In 2017, a trove of Cole’s work was found in a safe deposit box in Sweden. Amid that cache were the black-and-white images that were featured in his acclaimed photo book “House of Bondage.” First published in 1967, the book guaranteed the then-26-year-old’s banishment from his homeland.Peck makes use of keen observations excerpted from Cole’s writings and moves fluidly between stills (compassionate toward their subjects, damning of the subjugators) as well as quietly captivating photos he took of street life in Harlem and rural life during a road trip to the South in the 1960s and ’70s. The result is an elegantly wrought documentary that pulls off the trick of leaving viewers sated yet also craving more.Like Peck’s James Baldwin film, “I Am Not Your Negro,” this documentary also mixes the subject’s words with the filmmaker’s musings. “The total man does not live one experience,” the actor LaKeith Stanfield says in voice-over, quoting Cole. With its aching recognition of Cole’s creative triumphs and travails (he was, for a while, homeless), Peck’s film stands as a requisite biography, but also a personal homage: The response of one politically conscious artist to the call of another.Ernest Cole: Lost and FoundNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Bread & Roses’ Review: A Spirit of Resistance

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      Three Afghan women struggle for rights in Sahra Mani’s documentary of life under Taliban rule today.When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan three years ago, one of the group’s first orders of business was to systematically erase women’s rights. Girls’ schools shuttered, women were barred from public spaces and female professionals were told not to return to work.“Bread & Roses,” which follows the lives of three Afghan women in the wake of the Taliban’s return to power, does not communicate these prohibitions in voice-over or title cards. Instead, the director, Sahra Mani, makes the deliberate choice to clear the way for her subjects to reach the audience directly, in their own words.Through cellphone footage captured on the fly, the documentary zeros in on three subjects defying their loss of freedom: Sharifa, a former government employee stuck at home because of restrictions to being out in public; Zahra, a dentist taken by the Taliban after protesting for her rights; and Taranom, an activist sheltering in a safe house in Pakistan. Intercutting among scenes of these experiences, the film illustrates the effective options for women living under Taliban rule: house arrest, prison or exile.As the three stories veer off in different directions, the film struggles to coalesce around a clean narrative. It doesn’t help that we often only receive snippets of episodes, with the contexts hazy and the relations among those onscreen uncertain. But while the immediacy of the storytelling may blur out precise details, it excels at building stakes. When, in one memorable scene, young girls address the camera to demand brighter futures, the movie’s message and ongoing mission are thrown into sharp relief.Bread & RosesNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Watch on Apple TV+. More

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      ‘The Black Sea’ Review: Bulgarian Dreams

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      In this quietly sweet indie, a Black Brooklynite finds himself stranded in a Bulgarian seaside town, where he finds unlikely redemption“They have dreams in Bulgaria?” Khalid asks a man, hiding from the downpour, in “The Black Sea.” One might say they do: “Like the American dream, but in Bulgarian way,” the stranger responds. In a sense, it’s what Khalid (Derrick B. Harden) has unwittingly found as he tidies up in the cafe he’s cobbled together in a small seaside Bulgarian town.Things move fast and somehow both bizarrely and believably so at the start of this somewhat peculiar but endearing indie directed by Crystal Moselle and Harden. We’re barely introduced to Khalid, a charismatic if unfocused Brooklynite, before he finds himself stranded in Bulgaria after the sugar mama he met on Facebook and came to meet is found dead seemingly the moment he arrives.Grounded by Harden’s natural and loosely charming performance, Khalid treats his nightmare scenario with an alternating sense of anxiety and buoyant, joshing can-do attitude. He gets a job with a town-running bully (who’s also his sugar mama’s son) named Georgi (Stoyo Mirkov), but when things go sideways, he turns instead to Ina (Irmena Chichikova), a local travel agent who gives him a place to crash. He finds his footing, makes friends with locals and starts slinging open-faced grilled cheeses and matcha teas out of a makeshift cafe.The fundamentals of this film are just about as arbitrary as Khalid’s personal journey — it’s not everyday that a low-budget American indie focuses on a stranded Black Brooklynite moving and shaking his way to a new life in small-town Bulgaria. Not that there needs to be a point at all.Regardless, Moselle and Harden work with a subtle naturalistic touch that makes for a quietly sweet movie about unlikely redemption. This is mostly rooted in the partnership between Khalid and Ina, a relationship that, in its avoidance of overt romantics, blossoms and finds meaning in the gentle progression of their closeness.The Black SeaRated R for language and some sexual material. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Vic Flick, Guitarist Who Plucked the James Bond Theme, Dies at 87

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      A busy session musician, he also recorded music for the Beatles’ film “A Hard Day’s Night” and contributed to several hit songs.Vic Flick, a British guitarist whose driving riff in the theme for the James Bond movies captured the spy’s suave confidence and tacit danger, died on Nov. 14 in Los Angeles. He was 87.His death, in a nursing facility, was announced on social media by his son, Kevin, who said the cause was Alzheimer’s disease.The Bond films produced signature catchphrases (“shaken, not stirred,” “Bond, James Bond”) that have been endlessly recited and parodied since “Dr. No,” the first in the series, was released in Britain in 1962. But it was the sound of Mr. Flick’s guitar in the opening credits that helped make the spy thrillers instantly recognizable.During the title credits of “Dr. No,” when moviegoers were introduced to or reacquainted with the works of the author Ian Fleming, who wrote the James Bond books, Mr. Flick’s thrumming guitar sounded out through a brass-and-string orchestra.“The selection of strings available in the late ’50s and early ’60s was abysmal compared to today,” he wrote in his 2008 autobiography, “Vic Flick, Guitarman: From James Bond to The Beatles and Beyond.”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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      Singing ‘Wicked’ Fans Are Anything but Popular

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      Some fans who have attended early screenings of the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical have treated it as a singalong. Not everyone is thrilled.Angela Weir went into a screening of “Wicked” on Monday night ready to be transported to the Land of Oz. But when Glinda (Ariana Grande) began to sing “Popular,” one of the musical’s early numbers, she was not the only one singing.“It started slow. Then people heard each other — it was like they encouraged each other,” Weir said on Tuesday. “It was a beautiful scene, and then you’re taken out of it.”As anticipation builds for the film’s release on Friday, some fans who have attended early screenings have ignored theater norms to sing right along with their favorite characters, much to the chagrin and annoyance of other “Wicked” enthusiasts. Many have taken to social media to issue a strict edict: Shush.As a debate grew on TikTok and Reddit, a possible solution emerged this week: For those who want to join in on the duet “What Is This Feeling?” between Grande and Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, more than 1,000 theaters across North America will host singalong screenings starting on Christmas Day.A representative for Universal said the company would not comment on the debate, and the off-key serenades have continued in the meantime.Weir, 35, said the singing at a screening in the suburbs of Charlotte, N.C., was particularly distracting during the movie’s finale, when Elphaba belts out the show’s most famous ballad, “Defying Gravity.”

      @arweirr i did like it tho #wicked #pleasedontsing #oscars ♬ original sound – Angela 🙂↔️

      @jordycray Time and place! #fyp #foryou #wicked #wickedmovie #arianagrande #cynthiaerivo #musical #popculture #popculturenews ♬ original sound – jordycray 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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      ‘Tuesday,’ ‘The Killer’ and More Streaming Gems

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      This month’s under-the-radar streaming recommendations include an underrated horror-comedy, an action thrill ride, and two vehicles each for two of our most talented actresses.‘Tuesday’ (2024)Stream it on Max.This mixture of dead-serious drama and imaginative fantasy from the Croatian filmmaker Daina O. Pusic is such a big, weird swing that it’s not surprising audiences didn’t flock to it last summer. And it’s a hard picture to summarize without sounding insane; yes, this is a film where Death, taking the form of an oversized macaw, bobs his head and raps along with Ice Cube’s “Today Was a Good Day.” But if you go along with its wild premise — Death visits a terminally ill teenager (the excellent Lola Petticrew) and her mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in a rare and affecting dramatic turn), and they must grapple with their thorny relationship and what this departure would do to it — it’s quite involving, particularly as Pusic (who also penned the script) gracefully pivots to heart-wrenching poignancy in the homestretch.‘Downhill’ (2020)Stream it on Hulu.Those who prefer Louis-Dreyfus in a more humorous mode will enjoy this comedy of manners from the directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (“The Way, Way Back”), remaking Ruben Ostlund’s 2014 international hit “Force Majeure.” As before, the story concerns a husband and father (played with well-practiced oafishness by Will Ferrell) who responds to a possible avalanche during his family’s ski vacation by fleeing without hesitation, to the shock and consternation of his wife (Louis-Dreyfus). The screenplay (by Faxon, Rash and the “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong) isn’t quite as sharp or subtle as Ostlund’s, but “Downhill” scores plenty of keenly observed points about the fragility of masculinity, and Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus are a well-matched comedy duo.‘The Dead Don’t Hurt’ (2024)Stream it on Paramount+.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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      What Were Your Favorite Movies, TV, Music and Books in 2024?

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      We want to know what stuck with you this year. What were the best things you watched, read and heard?Toward the end of every year, our critics share their thoughts on the best film, television, pop music, classical music, books, art, dance, theater, video games, comedy and so much more.They’ll be doing it again this year. But we also want to hear from you.What was the best TV show, or episode, you watched in 2024? The best movie? Your favorite book of the year? There are four areas of culture and arts that we want to hear from you about, all listed below. Please pick your one favorite in each category and focus on that, or else we’ll be overwhelmed!You can answer one or all of those questions. We plan to publish some of the responses, but we won’t publish any part of yours without following up with you, verifying your information and hearing back from you. And we won’t share your contact information outside the Times newsroom or use it for any reason other than to get in touch with you. More

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      The Reintroduction of Daniel Craig

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      In love, it can be terrifying to show all your cards, to make yourself vulnerable, to let your desire be fully seen. What is offered to another person without reservation can also be taken without recompense. Still, because we want to be loved, we risk it.Maybe we don’t think much about that aspect of love, preferring to dwell — as most movies do — on all the moony, swoony parts. But that dangerous feeling of exposure is the central preoccupation of the new drama “Queer,” and it can’t be explored without a lead actor who is similarly willing to offer himself up.Enter Daniel Craig, 56, our erstwhile James Bond on a bold new assignment.In “Queer,” due Nov. 27 and adapted from a William S. Burroughs novel, Craig plays Lee, an American expat in midcentury Mexico City who becomes enamored with a coolly distant younger man, Allerton (Drew Starkey). Lee is undone by a desire that is reciprocated only in fits and starts, and watching Craig pine so vulnerably packs a pop-cultural punch: Once considered the very face of masculine cool, his visage is now soaked in flop sweat.Though his performance has been earning raves and Oscar chatter since “Queer” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, it may surprise fans to see this side of Craig after watching him play a stoic secret agent for the better part of 15 years. But when I asked the director Luca Guadagnino whether “Queer” is closer to his leading man’s actual sensibility than people might have guessed, he replied, “Every movie is a documentary about the actor playing the character.”If that’s the case, maybe now is the perfect time to be reintroduced to Daniel Craig.“I’m not a method actor, but I’m a nightmare to be with when I’m working,” Daniel Craig said of his intense devotion to his work.Thea Traff for The New York Times“SOMETIMES I FIND it very laughable, the idea of maleness,” he said. It was an early morning in October, and I had met Craig for breakfast at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood to ponder the performance of masculinity. “Most men go through life with this act that they do,” he told me. “But it is an act.”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