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      Shooting Investigators Get Search Warrant for Alec Baldwin’s Phone

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      Detectives are nearly two months into the investigation of how a live round got into a gun that discharged on a New Mexico film set, killing a cinematographer.A judge on Thursday granted the police access to Alec Baldwin’s smartphone, nearly two months into the investigation around how a gun he was practicing with on the set of the film, “Rust,” fired a live round, killing the movie’s cinematographer and wounding its director.Mr. Baldwin said in a police interview on Oct. 21, the day of the fatal shooting in New Mexico, that the gun discharged while he was preparing for a scene in which he takes the old-fashioned Colt revolver out of his shoulder holster and cocks the hammer, according to an affidavit filed in the application for the search warrant. Detective Alexandria Hancock asked Mr. Baldwin and his lawyer to hand over his phone, the affidavit said, but was told to obtain a warrant.The application for the search warrant said that the detective “believes there may be evidence on the phone, due to individuals using cellular phones during and/or after the commission of crime(s).” Detective Hancock, according to the affidavit, “was also made aware there were several emails and text messages sent and received regarding the movie production ‘Rust’ in the course of the interviews.”The search is meant to collect “all information and data from the cellular phone in relation to the production of ‘Rust,’ and any member working on the production.”The application said that Mr. Baldwin was brought into an interview room at about 5:12 p.m. the day of the shooting and that he agreed to speak with detectives after being advised of his Miranda rights. “Alec advised in the scene he slowly takes the gun out of the holster, then very dramatically turns it and cocks the hammer, which is when the gun goes off,” it said. “He said it was supposed to be a ‘cold gun’ so no flash charge or anything should have gone off.”In a television interview earlier this month, Mr. Baldwin said he did not pull the trigger of the gun he was practicing with when it fired a live round. He said he did not fully cock the hammer of the gun, but pulled it back as far as he could and let it go in an action that might have set it off.“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Mr. Baldwin said in the interview with ABC News. “Someone is ​responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”Mr. Baldwin has been cooperating with investigators in the case; the affidavit said the actor had contacted Detective Hancock “numerous times” by telephone and text messages. A representative for Mr. Baldwin did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the search warrant. More

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      ‘President’ Review: Zimbabwe’s Struggle for Democracy

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      In a riveting new documentary, Camilla Nielsson follows the first democratic election in Zimbabwe since 1980.Eight months after Robert Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe autocratically for nearly 30 years starting in 1980, was ousted in a 2017 coup, the nation was set to elect a new president in its first democratic election since the start of Mugabe’s rule.Camilla Nielsson gives viewers a front-row seat to that July 2018 election in “President,” a riveting documentary that follows Nelson Chamisa, a charismatic 40-year-old lawyer, as he runs against Emmerson Mnangagwa, the strongman who unseated Mugabe.Nielsson’s access to Chamisa allows for an intimate look at the Catch-22 of establishing a democracy amid state-sanctioned violence and corruption, and the grit of those fighting for it. The juxtaposition of the candidates’ strategies is apparent when, as both sides arrive at a courthouse for a pivotal case, the camera pans first to the pile of papers with which the opposition will make its case and then to the police stockpiling nightsticks.Chamisa says repeatedly that he is willing to die for his cause. His charisma and connection to the people make him an excellent anchor for the film, reflecting and representing Zimbabwe’s decades-long struggle for a fair democracy. The film includes harrowing images of citizens being beaten, hosed down and shot at by the military and police for demonstrating in support of Chamisa.President Mnangagwa claims victory in the election, despite allegations of vote rigging that are raised by the opposition. It’s a somber end to a film that opens with and is undergirded by Zimbabweans’ hope for change.PresidentNot rated. Running time: 2 hours. In theaters. More

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      ‘Last Words’ Review: Cinema After the End of the World

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      In this post-apocalyptic drama, a young man meets the grizzled last guardian of a cinematic archive, played by Nick Nolte.This new film directed by Jonathan Nossiter, adapted by Nossiter from a novel by Santiago Amigorena, begins, in Sun Ra’s phrase, after the end of the world. Addressing the camera directly, a young man named Kal (played by Kalipha Touray in his feature debut), informs us that it’s 2086, and that he has a story to tell “about the end of humanity.” But he soon despairs: “I have nothing to say.”He goes on anyway. An ecological disaster, during which much of Europe is engulfed by water, has stranded Kal’s unschooled generation. He wanders the ruins of Paris alongside his pregnant sister. They come upon reels of celluloid film, their origin the Cineteca di Bologna. Inspired, Kal goes on a pilgrimage.In Bologna, he finds a grizzled character — played by Nick Nolte, a past master in this department — who’s protecting a film archive and maintaining a bicycle-and-hand-crank-operated projector. (In this world, electrical outlets are a thing of the past.) After getting to know each other — the two men make a batch of 35-millimeter film together, a process we are walked through the less wonky steps of — the duo heads to Athens seeking other survivors of the apocalypse.They find characters there. Some are sagelike, some are withdrawn; they’re played by the likes of Stellan Skarsgard and Charlotte Rampling, both regulars in Nossiter’s short filmography.Kal and Nolte’s character show movies to a dwindling population among ancient ruins. This makes for some evocative imagery, as do some films that Kal makes with that new stock. Call the arrangement “Cinema Purgatorio.” The movie’s depiction of age — specifically, age as it affects movie stars — has real potency. This extends beyond its ostensible message, delivered by Kal: “We live and die by the stories we tell each other.” The stronger statement “Last Words” ends up making is that we die no matter what.Last WordsNot rated. In English, Mandinka and French, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘Mother/Android’ Review: How to Protect When You’re Expecting

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      In this sci-fi thriller, a pregnant woman and her boyfriend try to outrun hordes of vengeful robots.“Mother/Android,” written and directed by Mattson Tomlin, offers exactly what it says on the tin. The protagonist, Georgia (Chloë Grace Moretz), is a college student unsure about her relationship with her boyfriend, Sam (Algee Smith), when she discovers she is pregnant. That same night, the servant androids that occupy most well-off American homes (including Georgia’s) collectively glitch and turn murderous, and the country becomes a war zone.There is a mother. There are androids. This film pulls the former off more elegantly than the latter, due in large part to a stunning performance from Moretz.The bulk of the film takes place nine months after that fateful night. The country’s remaining humans occupy the military camps that dot the country, protected from androids by electromagnetic transmitters. Sam and Georgia, now past her due date, hope to flee to Korea via Boston, but they have to brave the wilderness ahead — a.k.a. “No Man’s Land” — first. Unfriendly soldiers, bloodthirsty robots and the pregnancy all complicate their plan.For a movie set during a robot apocalypse, “Mother/Android” offers little in the way of world building. It’s unclear why the androids are revolting or what they want, just as it’s uncertain how America hopes to save itself. This undercooked backdrop is both a blessing and a curse: It offers ample room for the film’s strong emotional core, but it can also be hopelessly distracting. This is a movie about a young woman fighting to create a family for herself against all odds. Also, cyborgs?The androids are effectively creepy (think “Terminator” skeletons mixed with zombies), and Moretz sells Georgia’s turmoil so gamely as to overshadow the ridiculous premise. A standout turn by Raúl Castillo sends the film into a twisty third act. It’s a bizarre movie, but there’s enough action to help you zip through this overstuffed story even if you’re not sure why you (or Georgia, or Sam) are there in the first place.Mother/AndroidRated R for robotics (and dismemberment). Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. Watch on Hulu. More

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      ‘Swan Song’ Review: Second Life

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      In this future-set drama, Mahershala Ali plays an ailing father who decides whether or not to clone himself for the sake of his family.Cloning is such an unsettling and outlandish prospect that it naturally lends itself to sinister adventures (and sometimes farce). But “Swan Song,” a science-fiction drama written and directed by Benjamin Cleary, posits a scenario of doubling that’s just as much about acquiring emotional intelligence as it is about reckoning with existential and practical ramifications.Cameron (Mahershala Ali) is an ailing graphic designer who doesn’t have long to live. Loathe to abandon his wife, Poppy (Naomie Harris), and their young son, he secretly undertakes a procedure that will create a replica of himself — physically identical, possessing his memories, yet healthy. But will the double really be Cameron in any meaningful sense, or will he simply be fulfilling Cameron’s role in life? Will his family even notice? And is Cameron OK with that?After an especially scary fainting episode, the switch is set to happen in a secluded compound on a lake, where the caring-but-firm scientist (Glenn Close) assures Cameron that this sort of thing will soon be common. We get a sense of the time period’s science-fiction parameters through a mix of banal and mildly “Black Mirror” details: driverless cars are a rule, talking droids serve snacks on trains, and contact lenses can record and transmit what you see.Cleary’s story walks us through the steps of Cameron’s transition. He meets his new doppelgänger in the flesh — temporarily named Jack — and uploads his memories. Mild comic relief comes from Cameron’s hangouts with a recently transitioned person (Awkwafina) at the compound. We get glimpses of Cameron’s family life and its strains, as well as a flashback to his meet-cute with Poppy, all of it suggesting how grief, belief and love might take on unfamiliar forms with new technological possibilities.But any mind-bending conceit or special effect pales before Ali’s incredibly fine-tuned talents. Playing opposite a digital replica of oneself almost doesn’t merit comment anymore, but Cameron and Jack are an entrancing study in the subtlest shifts in energy and feeling. When Cameron first meets his clone, the welter of apprehension, curiosity and concern is apparent on Cameron’s face, but Ali’s crowning touch is Jack’s faint expression of sympathy toward the man he will replace.Ali’s focus and presence makes us believe that both of these men are equally alive and feeling the brunt of this deeply uncanny predicament. This is less a conceptual thumbsucker than a tightly focused, almost miniaturist drama about moving on. Whenever something goes awry, we worry less about Pandora’s box dystopia than about the psychological toll of Cameron’s limbo. Perhaps more so than any film that’s received the tagline, it’s effectively about being true to yourself.Swan SongRated R for heated language. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. In theaters and on Apple TV+. More

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      ‘The Novice’ Review: A Freshman Effort Worthy of Varsity

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      The obsessive ambitions of a college rower are masterfully orchestrated in a debut feature by the writer-director Lauren Hadaway.In “The Novice,” the impressive debut feature from the writer-director Lauren Hadaway, Alex (Isabelle Fuhrman) is a college freshman who finds purpose in the masochistic ecstasy of team rowing.Alex isn’t suited to the demands of her sport. She’s not as strong as her crew mates, and she’s not as team-oriented as they are either. But she becomes obsessed with rowing, driven to achieve her goal of making the school’s varsity squad, even if her incessant efforts alienate her peers and coaches. Not even Alex’s first queer romance with Dani (Dilone), a confident teaching assistant, can draw Alex out of her fixation. She begins her season as a novice, and threatens to end it as a zealot.Hadaway has crafted a film that thematically and visually resembles Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash,” for which she served as a sound editor. But where Chazelle’s film followed a protagonist with world-class aspirations, the modest scale of Alex’s ambitions keeps “The Novice” more grounded as a character study, and helps the film steer clear of overblown statements about success. The protagonist merely wishes to be the worst rower on her team’s best boat.Without the pressure of narrative grandeur, Hadaway is free to go big in her filmmaking style. She uses maximalist techniques like slow motion, rapid editing and deep space staging to create dreamlike sequences of Alex’s isolation. Fuhrman’s performance matches the filmmaking for its intensity. The movie achieves a surreal allure — at times, it’s hard to pay attention to the dialogue because the images and the sound design are already communicating so much. If the story’s hero can only aspire to the middle of the pack, the beginner behind the camera shows no such limitations.The NoviceRated R for intense sequences of distress, language, brief nudity, and some sexual content. Running time: 1 hours 34 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘A Naija Christmas’ Review: Honoring a Mother’s Wish

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      In this romantic comedy on Netflix, the first son to find a wife inherits the family home. But that task is harder than it might appear.With naughty nods made nice by a few twists, “A Naija Christmas” might seem to be an entertaining albeit middle-of-the-road holiday romantic comedy. Only that road cuts through Lagos, Nigeria.As the Nigerian film industry’s first Christmas comedy since it became a Netflix partner, this romp about three brothers trying to make their mother’s holiday wish a reality is festive and illuminating. The director Kunle Afolayan teases most of the well-worn holiday movie tropes while treating viewers to Naija-flavored themes of class, gender and faith.After a humiliating gathering where her women’s group reminds her of what she lacks, Mama (Rachel Oniga, who died earlier this year) has an arm-twisting proposal for her sons, one intended to nudge them toward marriage and eventually grandchildren. Whichever one of them secures a future wife by Christmas will inherit the family home.This will be no small feat. The oldest son, Ugo (Kunle Remi), is a music producer and a romantic cad. He’s also in debt to a loan shark. Can Ajike (Segilola Ogidan), a nice church girl, alter his path to perdition? The middle son, Obi (Efa Iwara), a nerd, recently devised a too-public proposal to his girlfriend and boss, Vera (Linda Osifo). His jilting went viral. And the youngest son, Chike (Abayomi Alvin), is genuinely smitten with a down-low love interest, whom the comedy coyly teases with a slow reveal.While her menfolk bumble, Mama and her status-conscious women friends prepare for the annual Christmas pageant. This one’s to be held in, as one member says with trepidation, “the ghetto.” Yes, elitism makes more than a cameo here — the movie’s reminder that some attitudes are never in the spirit of the season.A Naija ChristmasNot rated. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. Watch on Netflix. More

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      ‘Fortress’ Review: Die Hard, Emote Hardly

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      A heist takes place in this thriller starring Bruce Willis, but it is audiences that might feel shortchanged.The prolific action director James Cullen Bressack spits out cheap thrillers like bullet casings. His latest sneer-em-up is “Fortress,” and in it, there are two heists afoot. The first concerns the plot: Mercenaries have stormed a secluded retirement community to seize $600 million in cryptocurrency. The second robs the audience: Bruce Willis, enlisted to play the hero, pockets his salary while giving the acting gig his absolute least. At onetime, Willis’s presence boosted a small movie; lately, he’s a liability. “It’s an emergency alert,” Willis’s ex-C.I.A. agent yawns to his estranged son (Jesse Metcalfe) as though sirens mean the postman is at the door. Whatever, on with the gun show.As a distraction, Bressack and the screenwriter Alan Horsnail surround their indifferent lead with tinsel. We get lens flares galore, drums that pound like the marching band of Valhalla High and an endearing effort from Chad Michael Murray as Balzary, the villainous leader of a death squad bringing hellfire upon morning yoga. Balzary enjoys shiny vests, Damascus steel knives and shoulder rubs forced upon his tense hostages.At the same time, a sports-bra clad resort manager (Kelly Greyson) explains that the compound was deliberately constructed on an energy vortex that scrambles Wi-Fi, satellites and drones. By the time Shannon Doherty parades in as a four-star general, it’s tempting to succumb to inanity. (Doherty is tasked to assure everyone that Willis’s character does, in fact, feel the human emotion of pride in his son — he just happened to tell her so off-camera.) But then the film starts droning on and on about wire transfers and allocated funds and registration processes and L.L.C.s, techno babble designed to drag this nonsense into a sequel (which Bressack has already filmed). The hustling director might be the only one to believe it when his own film makes Willis say: “I’m having fun.”FortressRated R for relentless murdering. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More