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He partnered with friends to produce stunning original technology that would give movie viewers an immersive, stadium-like experience.Graeme Ferguson, a Canadian documentarian who cocreated Imax, the panoramic cinema experience that immerses audiences into movies, and was the chief creative force of the company for years, died on May 8 at his home in Lake of Bays, Ontario. He was 91. More
The classically trained actor has been acclaimed for his work onstage. But in ghost stories like “Insidious” and “The Conjuring,” he’s proven to be a master of horror.Ed Warren is sitting in a musty living room in North London, trying to establish contact with a demon. Behind him sits a little girl, said to be possessed. The demon won’t talk, she insists, unless he faces away and gives him some privacy. With his back to the girl, Ed gets down to business. “Now come on out and talk to us,” he says brightly. More
Created by the artist Sophia Al-Maria, the new series resituates Nin’s erotic short story collection in 1955 Morocco, a year before the country threw off its colonialist yoke.The French national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” can resonate differently in an on-screen Moroccan setting. Most famous, perhaps, is the “Casablanca” version, in which the clientele of Rick’s Café sing it loud and proud to drown out the voices of the occupying Germans. More
We have a lot more than just climate change to worry about, argues this nature doc narrated by Sir David Attenborough.“Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet” is a documentary about the end of the world. It focuses on nine planetary thresholds, outlined by the Swedish scientist and environmental science professor Johan Rockstrom, which, if exceeded, life on Earth will no longer be sustainable. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, the perennial voice of the British nature doc, “Breaking Boundaries” is brimming with grim scientific insight and urgent cautionary pronouncements, but its style feels fussy and belabored — as if the end of the world were not dramatic enough. It’s hard to concentrate on land composition and vanishing biodiversity amid the barrage of bizarre visual effects and histrionic music.Streaming on Netflix, Jon Clay’s film presents a variety of credible talking heads to explain such matters as the history of the Anthropocene and the importance of the biosphere, with an emphasis on the dangers facing our planet beyond global warming. To accentuate the seriousness of the situation, these experts lean hard on metaphors — we hear a lot about falling dominoes, tipping points, danger zones, runaway trains, open windows, the sides of coins and, most whimsically, “planetary friends and planetary foes.”The movie visualizes these metaphors tritely, for instance by cutting to a moody shot of a window being shut, and relies extensively on an elaborate C.G.I. visual of featureless humans walking on color-coded pathways, which looks like a commercial for pain-relief medication and to which the film returns constantly, to laughable effect. “Breaking Boundaries” may have interesting — even critical — information to convey about the future of our species and the fate of the planet. But the form is so insane that the message is nearly lost in the muddle.Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our PlanetNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 13 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More
Netflix in the United States bids adieu to a ton of great movies and TV shows in June, including “Scarface” and “Twin Peaks.” Catch these while you can.This month, Netflix in the United States says goodbye to three cult favorite television series, so it might be time for one last binge. Plus, one of the most influential shows in history leaves the service, along with an assortment of family treats, indie dramas and quotable crime classics. (Dates reflect the final day a title is available.) More
The theater chain altogether raised more than $1.2 billion in capital this quarter, thanks in part to Reddit traders, but cautioned that the stock could still sink.It was a conflicted sales pitch: We’re selling new shares of stock, but don’t buy them unless you can afford to lose all your money. Also, free popcorn. More
The Cannes Film Festival announced the movies that will vie for the Palme d’Or in July.PARIS — Sean Penn is a contender for the top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, to be held from July 6 to 17, the organizers announced Thursday. In “Flag Day,” the actor-director plays a con man. More
Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays the unlikely ruler of a jungle kingdom in this corny tale.To play the British adventurer Sir James Brooke in “Edge of the World,” Jonathan Rhys Meyers sets his jaw and fixes his gaze on the middle distance. The performance — stiff, remote, magnificently arrogant — is odd; but, given the howlers of dialogue Rhys Meyers is forced to utter, it also kind of works.“Here I am a stranger, even to myself,” Brooke intones in voice-over shortly after landing on a Borneo beach in 1839. (The hushed Herzogian narration is a regular irritant.) Having fled a military career and messy personal life in Victorian England, Brooke is disenchanted with colonialism, presenting himself as an observer for the Royal Geographical Society. He will spend the next few years fighting pirates, soothing rival princes and quelling a tribal rebellion. Simply observing, apparently, was not the thrill he expected.Yet Brooke’s determination to wean the locals from slavery and headhunting is given an assist when a grateful Sultan appoints him the region’s ruler.“We don’t belong here!” his friend Arthur (Dominic Monaghan) warns. (A fact that, to be fair, has rarely bothered the British.) But Brooke — whose likely homosexuality is teased, then roundly rejected — is too busy wooing a bride and enjoying his elevated status to entertain Arthur’s concerns.Earnestly directed by Michael Haussman from Rob Allyn’s awed script, “Edge of the World” plugs its narrative gaps with corn and cliché. (There’s a possibility both men overdosed on “Apocalypse Now.”) In the most believable scene, a steamship captain (Ralph Ineson) scoffs at Brooke’s pleas for pirate-fighting help while tucking into a full English. The captain wants the country’s riches for the Crown, and, unlike Brooke, he knows it’s only a matter of time.Edge of the WorldNot rated. In English, Malay, Dayak, Cantonese and Arabic, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. Available to rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More
