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      ‘My Spy the Eternal City’ Review: An Explosive Roman Holiday

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      The sequel stars a teenage Sophie (Chloe Coleman), who goes on a school trip to Italy with J.J. (Dave Bautista) as her burly chaperone.Watching the new teen comedy “My Spy the Eternal City,” the attentive viewer may begin to wonder about the role of Anna Faris. The endlessly inventive performer spends the first half of the movie smothering the light of her comedic virtuosity under a bushel of a part as a humorless high school principal.It turns out there’s a legitimate and mildly amusing plot-twist rationale, since the film has bigger aims. Directed by the screen comedy veteran Peter Segal (“The Naked Gun 33 ⅓: The Final Insult,” “Get Smart”), the movie is a sequel to the 2020 film “My Spy,” in which J.J., a C.I.A. operative played by the brawny Dave Bautista, had to protect a girl named Sophie (Chloe Coleman) and winds up as her stepdad.In the sequel, Sophie’s choir goes on a field trip to Italy, for which J.J. will do duty as a chaperone. (There are a lot of shots of Venice and Rome which, while pretty, have that impersonal “second unit” feel.) The trip quickly ensnares the characters in a plot to nuke the Vatican.There are agreeable moments, but also many labored ones, as when Kristen Schaal’s data analyst character advises Sophie on what to do when she starts kissing boys, telling her to “use your tongue like a cleaner shrimp in a shark’s mouth.” (When speculating on what the Vatican’s Wi-Fi password might be, Schall actually lands real laughs.) But too often this muddled movie, which never really settles on a tone, plays its espionage plot points with a dour seriousness that’s at odds with a teen comedy.My Spy the Eternal CityRated PG-13 for language, themes and violence. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime Video. More

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      ‘No Fear, No Die’: Claire Denis’s Noir Comes Home to Roost

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      The French filmmaker’s confident third feature has been largely overlooked. Thankfully, a newly restored version is getting its first New York run since 1992.Most celebrated for “Beau Travail,” her sensuous transposition of Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd” to an African outpost of France’s Foreign Legion, Claire Denis could be the strongest French filmmaker of the post-New Wave generation. She is certainly the greatest risk-taker — unafraid to eroticize her male actors, unleash outré violence, or subsume an elusive narrative in a fiercely lyrical force field.“No Fear, No Die,” made nearly a decade before “Beau Travail,” does all three. Newly restored, the film is now at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, its first New York run since 1992. Few revivals are more deserving.Introduced when Denis was still relatively unknown, as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Eurobeat: Blacks in European Cinema,” the movie was well received at the time. (Caryn James’s New York Times review in 1992 called it “exquisite in its own tough-minded way.”) Still, even as Denis’s stature has grown, her confident third feature has been largely overlooked.“No Fear, No Die” might be described as doubly noir. Set in a sketchy demimonde, it takes its epigraph from the sometime crime writer Chester Himes’s memoir “My Life of Absurdity”: “Every human being, whatever his race, nationality, religion or politics, is capable of anything and everything.” The main characters are two former colonial subjects. Dah (Isaach de Bankolé, featured in several Denis films, including her first “Chocolat”) is from Benin; his partner Jocelyn (Alex Descas) from Martinique.The action is largely confined to a glorified truck stop disco in a dingy Paris suburb. The club’s shady white owner Pierre (Jean-Claude Brialy) plans to use the joint as an arena for cockfights. The sport is illegal in France, if not Martinique, where Pierre formerly lived and, as he makes abundantly clear, enjoyed the favors of Jocelyn’s mother.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 Fancams Get Right About Our Love of Movies (and Stars)

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      When I first saw “Anatomy of a Fall” back at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, I expected that the courtroom drama would be critically acclaimed. I could even imagine an Oscar win. What I did not foresee was the fancams.These vertical video edits of clips focus on a celebrity or character, usually set to pop music. If you want to nitpick, you can also call them fan edits, especially if they involve multiple people onscreen. The fancam phenomenon grew out of the world of K-pop, where enthusiasts often make videos focusing solely on one member of a large band.These days, my feeds are full of film and TV fancams, which I have come to love and seek out. But perhaps the most notable one was from last year and focused on Swann Arlaud in his role as the defense attorney Vincent Renzi in “Anatomy of a Fall.” Set to Rina Sawayama’s song “Comme Des Garçons (Like the Boys),” he runs his fingers through his hair, he lights a cigarette, he stares intensely, he sighs. The music is timed to begin on the lyric “I’m so confident,” thus signaling that Vincent is a bit of a badass. Suddenly, through a savvy bit of editing, a character actor in a serious French drama got the same treatment as a pop heartthrob.There are other “Anatomy of a Fall” fancams, including ones dedicated to Sandra Hüller, who plays the author on trial for the death of her husband, and the sassy prosecutor trying to convict her. But there’s something, dare I say, brilliant about the Arlaud fancam. For one, it’s a little subversive in the way it applies the language of pop music to art cinema. It’s also just an example of good editing in the way it matches Arlaud’s glances and movements to the beat of the song, the lyrics of which further present him as a swaggering star — with a touch of irony, given that he’s a humble, often stressed-out lawyer in the context of the movie.The best fancams have at least some of these qualities. They feature clever, surprising uses of music, highlight films or stars you wouldn’t necessarily expect to get this kind of treatment, and are energetically put together. In that way, the fancam itself has become its own art form and a great platform for cinephiles to show their ardent devotion.The Parisian creator of the Arlaud fancam, who goes by @ginafancam and asked not to share her full name, told me over email: “It’s my way to pay tribute to the film. Some prefer to tell their love of cinema by writing a review, for example, but I prefer to do it by editing.” She added that she was happy that her creation “encouraged people from all over the world to watch a French auteur film.”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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      ‘Aftersun,’ ‘Anomalisa’ and More Streaming Gems

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      An Oscar-nominated father-daughter drama and a stop-motion dramedy are among the best movies hiding in the corners of your subscription streaming services.‘Aftersun’ (2022)Stream it on Netflix.Charlotte Wells writes and directs this stunning memory play, which begins as a wandering account of a divorced father (Paul Mescal) and his 11-year-old daughter (Frankie Corio), on holiday for his birthday; the mood is languid and mellow, capturing the carefree dreaminess of vacation, with nowhere to be and nothing to do. But this is no mere hangout, and Wells expertly deploys brief but affecting flash-forwards to snap the story she’s telling into focus, juxtaposing glowing, nostalgic memories with the cold, tough present. It’s a tour-de-force of instinctive, emotional filmmaking, anchored by the dazzling acting of Mescal (deservedly Oscar-nominated) and Corio (who turns in one of the best performances by a young actor in recent memory).‘Anomalisa’ (2015)Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.The surrealist screenwriter and filmmaker Charlie Kaufman (“Being John Malkovich,” “Synechoche, New York”) directed this puppet-populated comedy-drama with the stop-motion animation specialist Duke Johnson — but this is no “Muppet Movie,” or even a “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Kaufman’s screenplay is populated with his signature brand of neurotic malcontents, here in the form of a depressed motivational speaker (voiced by David Thewlis) on a business trip who meets a sunny young woman (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh) and decides she is the answer to his ennui. Kaufman and Johnson transcend the potential gimmickry of the puppetry artifice, deftly driving home the picture’s delicate themes of isolation and loneliness in a hermetically-sealed world.‘A Love Song’ (2022)Stream it on Hulu.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 to Know About ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ Film Based on JD Vance’s Memoir

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      The 2020 film generally follows the book about the Republican vice presidential nominee’s formative years. But there are significant differences.Before J.D. Vance became the Republican vice-presidential nominee or even ventured into politics, he was best known as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a memoir about growing up in the Rust Belt and Appalachia. Published in 2016, the book became a surprise best seller, offering one kind of answer to those searching for an explanation for Donald Trump’s presidential victory and trying to understand the experience of impoverished white Americans.The success of Vance’s book led to a movie adaptation with Imagine Entertainment winning the film rights in 2017. Netflix eventually spent a reported $45 million to finance the movie, which had a limited theatrical release in November 2020 before moving to streaming soon after. Unlike the book, the film received scathing reviews from critics.Here’s what to know about the movie:Who made “Hillbilly Elegy”? Who stars in it?Directed by Ron Howard with Vance getting an executive producer credit, the film stars Gabriel Basso as Vance. Glenn Close plays his grandmother, Mamaw, a loud, gruff but caring matriarch, and Amy Adams is his mother, Bev, who grapples with mental health issues and substance abuse. The cast includes Freida Pinto as Vance’s wife, Usha.Parts of the film were shot in Middletown, Ohio, where Vance grew up, as well as in Georgia, because of the state’s generous tax incentives.What is “Hillbilly Elegy” about?The film mostly follows Vance’s memoir. It begins with a younger Vance (played by Owen Asztalos) biking along a dirt path, while an older Vance narrates his love for the hill country of Jackson, Ky. Alternating between past and present, the film toggles between Vance’s unstable childhood growing up with Mamaw and a mother struggling with addiction and his adult years as a student at Yale Law School. While competing for a prestigious summer internship, Vance receives a call from his sister, Lindsay (Haley Bennett), who asks him to return home to care for his mother, who has been hospitalized after overdosing on heroin.Glenn Close with Bennett and Owen Asztalos as a young Vance in “Hillbilly Elegy. Lacey Terrell/NetflixWe 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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      Marvel Changes Israeli Superhero Sabra in Captain America Movie

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      The studio said Sabra, a Mossad agent in comic books, will be “a high-ranking U.S. government official” in its next Captain America movie.When Marvel Studios announced two years ago that it had cast the Israeli actress Shira Haas to play Sabra, a superhero Mossad agent, in its next “Captain America” film, the news was cheered by Israelis and denounced by Palestinians.The studio said at the time that the makers of the film, “Captain America: Brave New World,” would be “taking a new approach to the character,” but did not elaborate.The contours of that reimagined character became clearer on Friday when Marvel released a trailer of the upcoming film. The accompanying announcement made no mention of Sabra as an agent of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, as she is depicted in comic books, but described her as “a high-ranking U.S. government official.”The change drew criticism from some who saw it as diminishing Israeli and Jewish representation onscreen. A headline in Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, proclaimed, “‘Sabra’ Superhero in Marvel’s ‘Captain America’ Stripped of Israeliness Amid pro-Palestinian Backlash,” and one in The Jerusalem Post said, “Marvel removes Jewish superhero Sabra’s Israeli identity for new Captain America movie.”The American Jewish Committee said on social media that Marvel’s “decision to strip the Israeli identity of Sabra is a betrayal of the character’s creators and fans and a capitulation to intimidation. Sabra is a proud Israeli hero, and should be portrayed as such. Taking away such a central part of her identity would be like making Captain America Canadian.”It was not clear whether Sabra — alter ego: Ruth Bat-Seraph — still has Israeli origins in the movie, as her superhero name suggests. “Sabra” is a Hebrew word for a local cactus bush that doubles as an affectionate term for native Israelis. It also the name of a refugee camp in Lebanon where Palestinians were massacred in 1982 by a Christian militia while Israeli troops stood by, though the superhero predated that event. Haas appears only briefly in the new trailer, and a Marvel spokeswoman declined to comment.When Marvel said Sabra would be introduced in this “Captain America” movie two years ago, the prospect drew criticism from Palestinians and their supporters who argued that the comic book character, which dates back to 1980, unduly glorified Israel. The hashtag #CaptainApartheid began to appear on social media.“The bottom line is that to Palestinians, Marvel having an Israeli superhero whitewashes the occupation,” Sani Meo, publisher of This Week in Palestine, a magazine about Palestinian issues, said at the time.In the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, and Israel’s war in Gaza, questions arose anew about how Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney, would handle the character. Newsweek wrote in October that “Marvel’s Israeli Superhero Poses Huge Headache for Disney.”Just what kind of character Sabra will be in the film, which is set to be released in February, remains to be seen. More

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      Celebrating Film Nostalgia With Ooze and Ahhs at Blobfest

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      In 1958, the sci-fi horror film “The Blob,” about a murderous, insatiable and ever-ballooning hunk of alien matter, opened in theaters across the United States. At the time, critics’ appetites for the movie were not as piqued as the onscreen monster’s.In a review for The New York Times, Howard Thompson wrote that “The Blob” was “woodenly presented,” and the “dialogue flattens as fast as the blob rounds.”Not even Steve McQueen in his first leading role could save the plot in Thompson’s eyes.But 66 years later, audiences are still hungry for more. The film became a cult classic, fitting snugly among other camp favorites like “Creature From the Black Lagoon” (1954) and “The Fly” (1958).And in Phoenixville, Pa., where much of the “The Blob” was shot, thousands of fans gathered at the 25th annual Blobfest over the weekend to celebrate with ooze and ahhs.A fire extinguisher parade kicked off the Blobfest celebration.Kat Graves, 22, dressed as Carrie (from the movie of the same name), won first place in the 18 and over category in the costume contest at Blobfest on Saturday.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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      ‘Sound of Hope’ Studio Defends Partnership With The Daily Wire

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      Letitia Wright, the “Black Panther” actor and an executive producer of “Sound of Hope,” had posted her frustration with people using the film for “divisive political purposes.”The studio behind last year’s unexpected hit “Sound of Freedom” defended a partnership with the conservative website The Daily Wire to promote “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot” following complaints by the actress Letitia Wright, an executive producer of the film.“Sound of Hope” is based on the true story of a Christian couple in Texas who adopted 77 children from foster care. The distributor, Angel Studios, framed the film as a spiritual sequel to “Sound of Freedom,” which starred Jim Caviezel as a real-life former federal law enforcement official who combats human trafficking.On the day “Sound of Hope” received its full theatrical release, Matt Walsh, the Daily Wire commentator and podcaster, posted on social media about the inspiration for the movie and added that “leftists are trying to stop Christians from saving more children.”In a series of posts on X, Walsh then condemned states that he said had prevented adoptions by parents who declined to recognize gender transition in children. He detailed two cases involving lawsuits in Oregon and Vermont.Wright, whose acting credits include “Black Panther” and “Ready Player One,” said on social media days later that she did “not condone using this beautiful film for divisive political purposes.”“This story isn’t about politics, it’s about children,” she posted. “It’s about sacrificial love for children who have experienced unthinkable horrors.”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