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      Chloé Zhao, ‘Nomadland’ Director, Encounters a Backlash in China

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Awards SeasonGolden Globes: What HappenedBest and Worst MomentsWinners ListStream the WinnersRed Carpet ReviewAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyIn China, a Backlash Against the Chinese-Born Director of ‘Nomadland’Days after winning a Golden Globe for the film, Chloé Zhao was pilloried online for past remarks about China.Chloé Zhao, the director of “Nomadland,” at the drive-in premiere of the film last year in Pasadena, Calif., last year.Credit…Amy Sussman/Getty ImagesAmy Qin and March 6, 2021, 9:13 a.m. ETWhen Chloé Zhao won the Golden Globe for best director for her film “Nomadland” last Sunday, becoming the first Asian woman to receive that prize, Chinese state news outlets were jubilant. “The Pride of China!” read one headline, referring to Ms. Zhao, who was born in Beijing.But the mood quickly shifted. Chinese online sleuths dug up a 2013 interview with an American film magazine in which Ms. Zhao criticized her native country, calling it a place “where there are lies everywhere.” And they zeroed in on another, more recent interview with an Australian website in which Ms. Zhao, who received much of her education in the United States and now lives there, was quoted as saying: “The U.S. is now my country, ultimately.”The Australian site later added a note saying that it had misquoted Ms. Zhao, and that she had actually said “not my country.” But the damage was done.Chinese nationalists pounced online. What was her nationality, they wanted to know. Was she Chinese or American? Why should China celebrate her success if she’s American?Even a research center overseen by the government-affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences weighed in. “Don’t be in such a hurry to praise Chloé Zhao,” read a social media post by the academy’s State Cultural Security and Ideology Building Center. “Look at her real attitude toward China.”On Friday, censors barged in. Searches in Chinese for the hashtags “#Nomadland” and “#NomadlandReleaseDate” were suddenly blocked on Weibo, a popular social media platform, and Chinese-language promotional material vanished as well. References to the film’s scheduled April 23 release in China were removed from prominent movie websites.It was not a complete blackout. Numerous stories about the movie were still online as of Saturday. And so far, there have been no reports that the film’s China release was in jeopardy. (China’s National Arthouse Alliance of Cinemas, which will oversee the theatrical release, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Searchlight Pictures, the Hollywood studio behind “Nomadland.”)But the online censorship was the latest reminder of the power of rising nationalist sentiment in China and the increasingly complex political minefield that companies must navigate there.Ms. Zhao, left, and the actress Frances McDormand, center, on the set of “Nomadland.”Credit…Courtesy Of Searchlight Pictures, via Associated PressFor years, the central government was the only major gatekeeper for films in China, determining which foreign movies got the official stamp of approval and, ultimately, access to the country’s booming box office. Now, more and more, China’s online patriots can also influence the fate of a film or a company.In many cases, winning over — or at least not offending — those patriots, sometimes derogatorily referred to as “little pinks,” has become another crucial consideration for companies seeking to enter the Chinese market.“There is much more space to punch figures like Chloé Zhao,” said Aynne Kokas, the author of “Hollywood Made in China.”The backlash against “Nomadland” was somewhat unexpected. Aside from Ms. Zhao, the film, which stars Frances McDormand in a sensitive portrait of the lives of itinerant Americans, has little if any connection to China. Though it is said to be a strong contender for the Academy Awards, it was not expected to bring in big Chinese audiences, given its limited theatrical release and its slow pacing.Awards Season More

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      Seth Rogen on Pot, Pottery and Ted Cruz

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }At HomeFall in Love: With TenorsConsider: Miniature GroceriesSpend 24 Hours: With Andra DayGet: A Wildlife CameraAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySeth Rogen Is All Fired UpWe already knew about the weed and the tweeting, but when did Hollywood’s most affable schlub get so into ceramics?Mr. Rogen at the offices of Houseplant, his cannabis company, in West Hollywood.Credit…Ryan Lowry for The New York TimesMarch 6, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETSeth Rogen is well aware of the fact that he looks like seemingly one-quarter of the white men in Los Angeles between the ages of 25 and 50.The 6 p.m. bed head. The weeks-past-the-last-trim beard. The could-be-anyone glasses. The ironic T-shirts straining to contain an unapologetic dad bod. It’s a relatable Everydude persona that has won him nearly 100 film and television roles, small and large, over the past two decades.In his breakout 2007 comedy, “Knocked Up,” Mr. Rogen played the directionless stoner who somehow got the girl, and neither could understand why. In “Steve Jobs,” from 2015, he fully inhabited the role of Steve Wozniak, the amiable Apple co-founder who seemed all too content to cede the magazine covers, the billions and, basically, history itself to his swashbuckling partner in the black turtleneck.Mr. Rogen, who is 38 and also a screenwriter, director and producer, long ago transcended the beta male image to become a Hollywood power player. But “ordinary” still serves as a form of camouflage out on the streets.“Before the pandemic, I would wander around L.A. aimlessly without anyone taking pictures of me for months and months and months on end,” Mr. Rogen said. Even fans who recognize him on the streets, he joked, “think I’m just some guy who looks like me.”He doesn’t leave his home in Los Angeles much, but the other day he ventured out to an A.T.M. “Wearing a mask and everything, and someone recognized me,” he said. “It was shocking to me. It just hasn’t happened to me in so long. And if the person who did that is reading this, I’d like to apologize for my reaction. I maybe physically ran away from them.”Mr. Rogen would like to apologize to that fan he maybe ran away from.Credit…Ryan Lowry for The New York TimesTwinning and TweetingAs Mr. Rogen’s shaggy visage filled the screen on a Zoom call from his sun-drenched West Hollywood production office two weeks ago, I vaguely felt like my MacBook screen had turned into a mirror. The hair, the beard, the glasses and the “bod” that I presume we both hope didn’t grow too “dad” during 12 months of idleness. (Mr. Rogen in fact is not a father, which he has said made quarantine easier.)I told him about the time a couple of years ago I checked out a cannabis dispensary in Marina del Rey, Calif., and a woman working the door had a double-take as she checked my driver’s license: “Wait,” she said, “you’re not Seth Rogen?”He responded with his signature timpani-like chortle. “Of all the people who get told they look like me,” he said, “you might look the most like me.”Belying his widely cloned laid-back mien, Mr. Rogen has kept busy during the pandemic, even as large swaths of film and television production went into a deep freeze, along with so much else in the world.As his millions of Instagram followers are well aware, he got seriously into ceramics, posting endless photos of colorfully whimsical vases, soap dispensers and ashtrays. He fashioned them in the garage studio of the home he shares with his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, 38, an actress and director, and their Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Zelda.Mr. Rogen with his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, at the premiere of “Like Father” in 2018.Credit…Michael Kovac/Getty Images For NetflixHe also spent quarantine finishing his first book, “Yearbook,” which Penguin Random House will publish in May. It’s a fragmented memoir made up of comical essays recalling his early stand-up gigs as a teenager, adventures at Jewish summer camp in his native Canada and “way more stories about doing drugs than my mother would like,” per the cover flap.A smoke hound of Willie Nelson proportions, Mr. Rogen has also succeeded in bringing Houseplant, the Canadian cannabis company he started in 2019 with his longtime film partner, Evan Goldberg, to the United States. It will soon sell Mr. Rogen’s first commercial foray into ceramics: a sumptuously packaged ashtray and bud vase set priced at $85 — designed by him, but made in China — that unites his twin passions, jays and clays.Like so many others, he worked remotely, taking calls about film projects 9 to 5. Other than that, it’s been lots of streaming (“The Office,” “The Larry Sanders Show”), lots of pot and lots of tweeting.Mr. Rogen began to trend on Twitter when he squared off in a much-publicized flame war with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas that went on for days following Inauguration Day, suggesting that Mr. Cruz was fit for admiration only “if you’re a white supremacist fascist who doesn’t find it offensive when someone calls your wife ugly,” along with various obscenities.When Senator Cruz later tweeted that Mr. Rogen behaved online like “a Marxist with Tourette’s,” Mr. Rogen responded that he did have “a very mild case” of the syndrome, but he certainly did not back down. Twenty years ago, it would have been hard to tell off a famous stranger in this manner, Mr. Rogen said — “but now, thank God, I can do it. People are always like, ‘You’re like that on Twitter, but if you met him face to face you wouldn’t do that.’ And that is very not true. I would one hundred percent tell Ted Cruz to” … cover your ears, kids!Still LifeMr. Rogen joked on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last April that he had been “self-isolating since 2009.”Mr. Goldberg, a friend since elementary school in Vancouver who speaks with him daily, concurs that Mr. Rogen was “the polar opposite of going crazy.”“As a celebrity who doesn’t like to go out and drink and stuff like that, he’s probably one of the best situated to deal with this. He loves being in his house,” Mr. Goldberg, 38, said. “He loves pursuing his hobbies, he loves watching TV on his couch with his wife and his dog. And that’s it. That’s what he loves. I know he secretly loves being stuck.”With the offices of Point Grey Pictures, their production company, closed, Mr. Rogen and Mr. Goldberg still had plenty to talk about. They are writing a script for the director Luca Guadagnino about Scotty Bowers, a onetime gas station attendant who arranged sexual liaisons for the stars in the silver-screen era.They are also helping produce “Pam and Tommy,” a Hulu mini-series about the rocker Tommy Lee and the “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson, who did for the celebrity sex tape what Fred and Ginger did for the fox trot when an electrician (played by Mr. Rogen) lifted their notorious home movie.The partners prefer Zoom. “We hung out on his balcony one time,” Mr. Goldberg said, “and it was like, ‘Eh, I’d rather see your face on a screen than sit 15 feet apart from each other.”This is not to say Mr. Rogen’s isolation is complete. Occasionally he invited friends over to his garage studio to throw clay. Robert Lugo, an artist who describes himself as a “ghetto potter and activist” on his website, worked with him on learning how to throw larger pieces.Ash and you shall receive: mug-like trays and vases by Houseplant.Credit…Ryan Lowry for The New York TimesStool here: Mr. Rogen on the floor of his office.Credit…Ryan Lowry for The New York Times“Honestly, I was surprised at how much I got from it,” Mr. Rogen said of ceramics. “It’s meditative. It forces you to be very present.”Pulling the first of many deep hits off a large conical joint, Mr. Rogen explained that his wife, who has worked with clay since high school, signed him up for classes a couple of years ago, and he quickly got hooked. While others took up baking during quarantine, Mr. Rogen hunched over one of three pottery wheels in his studio, which has two kilns.Lately he’s been mixing his own glazes and experimenting with textures to achieve, he said, “a sort of Ken Price-ish effect.”The influence of Mr. Price, an influential sculptor and ceramist from Venice, Calif., who died in 2012, hovers over a lot Mr. Rogen’s recent work — the bulbous shapes, nubby textures and playful explosions of color. (To the initiated, that is. Philistines might describe them not unkindly as equal parts Flintstones and Jetsons.)Mr. Rogen keeps some pieces to decorate his home, alongside furnishings by midcentury designers like Hans Wegner. Others he trades to fellow ceramists, or gives to friends. He has no plans for a gallery show but said he is learning to feel comfortable among the Artforum crowd.“I think I always thought of the art and design world as a very fancy-pants place, and I felt like I had no place in it,” he said.That started to change when he helped design and furnish the glassy mansion for “This Is the End,” the 2013 farce he wrote, directed and starred in, with Mr. Goldberg, in which the apocalypse is an uninvited guest at a party thrown by James Franco playing himself, featuring seemingly half the young actors in Hollywood. “I was like, ‘Oh, I have to have a place in it now,” Mr. Rogen said of the design world, “because I have to do it for the movie.’”Jonah Hill, Mr. Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craiig Robinson and Jay Baruchel in “This Is the End.”Credit…Suzanne Hanover/Columbia PicturesAnd ceramics have stimulated his creativity in a new, satisfyingly material way.“One of the things about films is that they occupy no mass or physical space,” Mr. Rogen said. “They are very intangible. And I think what is so nice about making things like ashtrays is they are incredibly tangible, and they are useful. I love films, and films are very useful to me, but they are not useful in the sense that I interact with them dozens of times throughout my day, in a casual sense, as I’m just smoking weed.”The Houseplant ashtray is a textured earth-tone cup that, aside from the bed for the joint on the lip, could double as serving vessel for green tea at a Santa Barbara wellness retreat.“There are probably millions of people who smoke weed all day who are ashing in a mug and shouldn’t be,” Mr. Rogen said.Ashtrays have been out of fashion since the surgeon general’s warning on tobacco began to sink in. So Mr. Rogen scours eBay and Etsy for vintage pieces. He owns a few of the modernist bronze hedgehog ashtrays by the Viennese designer Walter Bosse, as well as a ceramic bear claw ashtray on an iron stand by the designers Georges Jouve and Mathieu Matégot.“But those celebrated the wrong type of smoking, unfortunately,” Mr. Rogen said. He thinks that cannabis is quickly losing its stigma among high-achieving professionals, and that they might prefer fashionable accessories to grungy head shop paraphernalia.“I don’t even drink and I have a martini shaker,” he said. “I have wineglasses, and champagne glasses. If you like music, you have fancy record players. If our headphones get beautiful packaging and beautiful design, why shouldn’t weed-related products?”“What is so nice about making things like ashtrays is they are incredibly tangible, and they are useful,” said Mr. Rogen, sitting outside his office.Credit…Ryan Lowry for The New York TimesUncomfortable ConversationsAmong celebrities, Mr. Rogen is running neck and neck with Snoop Dogg and Woody Harrelson as ambassadors of marijuana use. “I wake up in the morning, I make a cup of coffee, and I roll a joint,” Mr. Rogen said. “I drink my coffee as I smoke my joint, and I continue smoking weed until I go to sleep. I often will wake up in the middle of the night and have a few hits of a joint if I’m not sleeping well.”When Houseplant becomes available by delivery in some cities in California on March 11, customers will be able to choose among three new strains for the American market (two sativas, Diablo Wind and Pancake Ice, and one indica, Pink Moon). Along with the ashtray set, the company will sell a Bauhaus-inflected aluminum block lighter set, and an LP box with music for each strain.But does the world really need another star-powered cannabis brand? In recent months, Jay-Z introduced a line of cannabis called Monogram, and Ice Cube one called Fryday Kush.Kathy Ireland, the model and entrepreneur, rolled out a line of CBD wellness products, as did Travis Barker, the Blink-182 drummer and boyfriend of Kourtney Kardashian. Martha Stewart introduced a line of CBD gummies flavored with Meyer lemon and kumquat.What can this one actor possibly add?Integrity and a commitment to social justice, said Mr. Rogen, who, as a supporter of pro-legalization organizations such as the Marijuana Policy Project, said he intends to do “everything in my power to shine a light on, and to lend a voice to, America’s racist policies in regards to weed.”“We will not shy away from very uncomfortable conversations,” he said, “and always will do whatever we can to remind people that currently there are people in jail in America for weed, and there are people whose lives are being ruined by weed.”Shelf consciousness: An assortment of ashtrays and other tchotchkes in the Houseplant office.Credit…Ryan Lowry for The New York TimesAnd he has no trouble being a spokesmodel.Mr. Rogen won High Times magazine’s Stoner of the Year award in 2007. Snoop Dogg has marveled at his trademark “cross joint” (one joint threaded through another as a crossbar), which Mr. Rogen made famous in his 2008 pot comedy, “Pineapple Express.”With every bong hit, he inches further up the Mount Olympus of marijuana, into the thin — and presumably pungent — air where the spirits of Jerry Garcia and Bob Marley mingle.In the minds of some fans, Seth Rogen is weed and weed is Seth Rogen. And he is totally fine with that.“I’m honored to be associated with weed, honestly,” Mr. Rogen said. “Sometimes people expect me to try to wiggle out from under being a very famous stoner, or someone who, in some ways, is more famous for being someone who smokes weed than anything else that they have done. But truthfully, that is a worthy thing to me. I’m as proud of it as anything.”His debut as a cannabis entrepreneur comes at an opportune time. More and more states are legalizing pot. Voters in Montana, Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota and Mississippi all approved cannabis ballot measures in November.Even so, debate about long-term health consequences rages on, as it has for a half-century. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in 10 marijuana users will become addicted. The figure is one in six for people who start before 18.Mr. Rogen is one of those. His love affair with pot, he said, began in a ravine near Point Grey Secondary School in weed-liberal Vancouver when he was 12 or 13 years old and his friend Saul produced a foot-long bong from the kangaroo pouch of his hoodie.“I was very fascinated by it the first time we did it, and got really high, and wanted to do it again,” Mr. Rogen said. “Every Friday after school we would go to the ravine and smoke weed.”His use got heavier as he rose to prominence in Hollywood.Mr. Rogen and Mr. Goldberg were high as a Mars probe when they made “Pineapple Express.” And “we could just see how cathartic it was for people,” he said. “They finally saw a weed movie that had the same amount of thought put into it that non-weed movies were getting. The subtext was, stoned people made this. And they convinced someone to give them $25 million to make it. And it’s a good movie.”Mr. Rogen is open about the fact that he has been stoned for pretty much every scene in every movie he has ever made. (Even Cheech Marin of Cheech and Chong has said that he never got high while working.)It’s never been an issue. “In general,” Mr. Rogen said, “there is no amount of weed that I can smoke that will make the average person be able to discern that I have or have not smoked weed.”Those who consider marijuana a harmful and addictive drug may wonder if he is willing to live by the words widely, and probably falsely, attributed to Charles Bukowski: “Find what you love and let it kill you.”Mr. Rogen, who says he has researched the health questions to his own satisfaction, does not see it that way.“The world is not a comfortable place for me, and many other people, at times,” he said. Cannabis provides that comfort. It provides “functionality,” he added. “I can’t define it beyond that.”“It is no different to me than wearing shoes or glasses or anything else that I am doing to acknowledge that I am just not fully cut out for the world and need some help,” he said. “Could I walk around in bare feet all day? Maybe. But why?”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      'A Quiet Place 2' Moved Forward From September Release Date to May

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      Paramount Pictures

      The sequel to the critically-acclaimed horror movie ‘A Quiet Place’ is now due to scare moviegoers in May after it was previously pushed back to September.

      Mar 6, 2021
      AceShowbiz – “A Quiet Place 2” is set to hit theatres sooner than expected.
      Filmmaker John Krasinski took to Twitter to share his excitement that the sequel to his 2018 horror flick – which he co-wrote, directed, and starred in alongside his wife Emily Blunt – will now be released on 28 May (21), four months earlier than previously planned.
      The movie was originally due to hit theatres in May 2020, but like most films it was hit by a delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the closure of cinemas.
      “They always say good things come to those who wait. Well… I think we’ve waited long enough,” Krasinski tweeted.
      What’s more, 45 days after its theatrical release, the motion picture will be available to watch on new streaming service, Paramount+.

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      The sequel will follow the same family continuing their fight for survival outside of their hometown, and although Krasinski’s character died in the first movie, he will make an appearance in the sequel through flashback sequences.
      Blunt is back as his wife Evelyn Abbott with Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe as their kids Regan and Marcus.
      New additions include Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou.
      The first picture proved to be a cultural phenomenon with both critics and audiences, raking in over $340 million (£245 million) worldwide on a budget of less than $20 million (£14 million) and nabbing an Oscar nomination for best sound editing.
      Rumor has it, the movie franchise is getting a spin-off. John Krasinski is reportedly involved as a producer. He also came up with the idea for the new story, but Jeff Nichols is reported to write the script and direct the project.

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      Kelly Rowland Hesitant to Watch Britney Documentary Due to Lack of Pop Star's Involvement

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      WENN

      The Destiny’s Child singer admits she hasn’t watched the controversial Britney Spears documentary because the Southern Belle was not involved in the film making.

      Mar 6, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Kelly Rowland is “having a hard time wanting to watch” the recent documentary about Britney Spears’ conservatorship.
      During an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live” and the programme’s “After Show” on Thursday (04Mar21), Kelly explained that she has some reservations about watching the film because Britney didn’t participate in it herself.
      “I haven’t seen the Britney doc. I’m having a hard time wanting to watch it,” she sighed. “I really respect when artists say, ‘This is a documentary, it’s OK to watch this.’ I respect their space and their privacy and their point of view. And their story, what they feel their story is, from their brains, their hearts their mouths. So, I try and respect that.”
      However, Kelly concluded, “But everybody says they really enjoy it, so that’s great.”

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      The Destiny’s Child singer also weighed in on the changing media landscape since Britney’s much-publicised breakdown in 2008, and insisted that social media has a lot more power these days than it ever did back then.
      “Now it’s social media, and social media is people. From her perspective, (the negativity came from) journalists and all these people in the media. But now social media is people. So people need to just be kind. Period,” she said.
      Following the documentary release, Britney received apology from former boyfriend Justin Timberlake.
      The NSYNC member regretted his treatment of Britney and his former Super Bowl collaborator Janet Jackson.
      “I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right,” he said. “I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism.”

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      Lisa Marie Presley Asks Judge to Declare Her Single Amid Long-Running Divorce Battle

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      'Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn' Wins Golden Bear at 2021 Berlinale

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      microFILM

      The social satire movie directed by Radu Jude and fronted by Katia Pascariu has taken home the top prize at this year’s virtual Berlin International Film Festival.

      Mar 6, 2021
      AceShowbiz – The Golden Bear for best film at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival has been won by “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”.
      The 71st edition of the festival ran as an industry-focused, online-only edition from 1-5 March (21), the Competition and Encounters prizes were revealed via a video presentation by the juries, hosted by artistic director Carlo Chatrian.
      The social satire, directed by Radu Jude, was shot in Romania during the summer of 2020 amid the pandemic, and stars Katia Pascariu as a school teacher who finds her career and reputation on the line after a personal sex tape is leaked onto the Internet.
      Romanian filmmaker Jude previously won the best director Silver Bear with “Aferim!”.
      This year, the Berlinale awarded its first ever gender-neutral acting awards, replacing the best actor and actress prizes.

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      Maren Eggert won the inaugural best performance prize for Maria Schrader’s “I’m Your Man”, and Lilla Kizlinger won best supporting performance for Bence Fliegauf’s “Forest – I See You Everywhere”.
      The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s episodic “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”. And Hungary’s Denes Nagy took home a Silver Bear for best director for his feature debut “Natural Light”, about a Hungarian army officer in the Second World War.
      Other winners included; South Korea’s Hong Sangsoo, who best screenplay for Introduction, and Yibran Asuad for editing “A Cop Movie”, directed by Mexico’s Alonso Ruizpalacios, which will soon screen on Netflix.
      This year’s international jury comprised six previous Golden Bear winners: Ildiko Enyedi, Nadav Lapid, Adina Pintilie, Gianfranco Rosi, Jasmila Zbanic, and Mohammad Rasoulof, who watched the films from Tehran as he remains under house arrest.
      The Berlinale is planning to hold a physical awards ceremony to hand out the honours during its Summer Special event, set to run 9-20 June

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      Which Movie Theaters Are Reopening in New York City? Here’s a Guide.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }At HomeFall in Love: With TenorsConsider: Miniature GroceriesSpend 24 Hours: With Andra DayGet: A Wildlife CameraAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhich Movie Theaters Are Reopening in New York City? Here’s a Guide.The state says they can resume operations Friday. Some cinemas are saying not so fast; others are eager to welcome audiences. Here’s the latest.The IFC Center in Greenwich Village will welcome back moviegoers starting Friday.Credit…Calla Kessler for The New York TimesMarch 5, 2021Updated 5:49 p.m. ETAlthough movie theaters in most of New York State were allowed to reopen in October, those in its filmgoing capital, New York City, remained closed because of the pandemic. But early last week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo gave cinemas in the five boroughs the go-ahead, setting an opening date of March 5.Not all theaters are choosing to reopen just yet. Those that do must follow certain guidelines: They are limited to 25 percent of capacity, and an audience cannot exceed 50 people. Moviegoers must wear masks when not eating and must have assigned seats.Certain chains have opened around the country under comparable strictures. AMC plans to open all its theaters this weekend in the city, the country’s second-largest movie market; Regal is holding off until the top market, Los Angeles, reopens. But the guidelines pose special difficulties for New York’s independent theaters and art houses. Below is a roundup of which plan to return on Friday or in the near future and which will stay shut for now.Opening FridayANGELIKA FILM CENTER In the last two decades, Angelika Film Centers have sprung up around the country, but the original Houston Street location, managed by the chain Reading International, will reopen Friday. So will Reading’s two other theaters in the city, the Cinema 1, 2, 3 and the Village East, which have been folded into the Angelika brand and now sell tickets on the same website.“We strongly feel that reopening our cinemas, albeit at a reduced capacity, starts bringing back folks into our cinemas,” Scott Rosemann, the eastern division manager at Reading, said, even if operating now may not generate profits for a while.When you make a purchase online or at a kiosk, the seats surrounding yours will be automatically blocked off to maintain social distance. The theater and its cafe will remain cashless for now to reduce touch points. All screenings will have “preshow greetings” to remind moviegoers of protocols.This weekend, the Angelika will show the likely Oscar contenders “Minari” and “Nomadland,” while Village East will show “Tenet” on 70-millimeter film.IFC CENTER The Greenwich Village theater opens Friday with a robust lineup that includes first-run titles (“My Salinger Year,” “La Llorona,” “The Vigil”); opportunities to catch Netflix features like “Da 5 Bloods” and “Mank” theatrically; and two monthlong series, one called What’d We Miss, featuring acclaimed titles from last year (“Collective,” “Kajillionaire”), and another commemorating the 20th year of IFC Films.“I think everybody was caught a little by surprise by the timing of the announcement” by the governor, said John Vanco, the senior vice president and general manager of the center. The expectation, he said, had been that theaters would open in late spring or summer, and much of the lineup came together over the last week.Some of the rules are similar to other theaters’. But IFC will keep its concession stand closed. In addition, some showtimes will have cheaper tickets to encourage moviegoers to attend at nonpeak times.In perhaps its most distinctive pandemic adjustment, the theater has opted to start features precisely at the listed showtime; if you want to watch the trailers and a short film, arrive early. “We just want people to have kind of control,” Vanco said. “You can see on our website how long a movie is. We run a short film before every feature, and we run trailers like other theaters do, and we would love you to see that stuff. But if you just want to get in and get out,” that’s now possible.NITEHAWK CINEMA These Brooklyn dine-in theaters — in Prospect Park and Williamsburg — are reopening as cinemas on Friday, but they had already reopened as restaurants. “That’s kind of why, even with the short notice, we’ve been able to ramp up to open for the theaters, because it really doesn’t take that many more people to start serving in the theaters,” said Matthew Viragh, Nitehawk’s founder and executive director. Another advantage: The vaccine is available to restaurant workers.Every other row has been blocked off, Viragh said, “and then within the active rows, if you select a seat and purchase those tickets, two seats on either side of you will be blocked off.” At the larger Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park, only five of seven screens will be operational, to make sanitizing the space easier, and both locations will be closed on Mondays for additional deep cleaning. Patrons will be subject to temperature checks, something Viragh said the theaters had been doing for indoor dining. Anyone who has a temperature or is feeling unwell can get a credit.QUAD CINEMA This Greenwich Village theater is reopening Friday with “My Zoe,” “Night of the Kings,” “Supernova” and “The World to Come.” Revival programming, which the Quad had typically put on one of its four screens, will come later, said Charles S. Cohen, the real estate developer who owns the cinema.The precautions will follow government recommendations and will be “pretty much along the lines of what every other theater is doing,” he added. Concessions will be available.Cohen also owns the national chain Landmark, which began opening theaters in August. (The Landmark at 57 West in Manhattan closed for good during the pandemic, a shuttering Cohen attributed to a combination of causes.) The capacity issues in the short term do not faze him. “There are films that need to reach an audience, and we are doing what we can to present those films to the filmgoing community that we think very much enjoys film in a theater,” he said.Still, another of his ventures, the distributor Cohen Media Group, has a backlog of 10 films. The holdup? Waiting for theaters in Los Angeles to return.Opening LaterALAMO DRAFTHOUSE The Downtown Brooklyn location of the dine-in chain has no date for reopening yet, but it will happen in the “very near future,” said Tim League, a founder and executive chairman of the company, based in Austin, Tex. (Separately, the company announced this week that it had filed for Chapter 11 and was undergoing a major financial restructuring, but an Alamo spokesman said that would affect neither the reopening date nor the continued development of new theaters in Lower Manhattan and Staten Island.)“We have started the opening process,” League said of the Brooklyn location. “It’s just a little more complicated for us because we have a big kitchen facility. We have a lot of hiring to do, and we’ve implemented some safety protocols.”Alamo has opened several of its locations across the country at some point since theater closures last March, and it has posted guidelines for moviegoers online. There hasn’t been much change in the number of patrons ordering food, League said, but there have been some changes in the service. The theaters have a reduced menu intended to maintain social distancing for the kitchen staff. Food can be ordered online in advance; pint glasses now have paper lids and silverware is sealed. Of staff training, League said, “We’re treating it like a new venue opening every time we do this.”ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES The city’s premier experimental-film venue, located in the East Village, has no firm date for reopening yet. “We’re going to sort of take it slow and take a wait-and-see approach,” Jed Rapfogel, the theater’s programmer, said, noting that the organization is keeping an eye on factors like the spread of new Covid-19 variants and the availability of vaccines. “I think the first thing that will most likely happen will be one screening a week or a couple screenings a week.”When theaters shut down last March, Anthology had just sent its program notes for the following three months to the printer. Rapfogel still hopes to play some of what was on that “ghost calendar,” including a near complete retrospective of the filmmaker Michael Snow — a “long overdue and major event,” Rapfogel said. But some series, he said, “you don’t want to present until you can have 100 percent capacity.” The theater’s online screening program, which has had many free offerings, remains active.BAM “A reopening date is yet to be determined,” Lindsay Brayton, a spokeswoman for this Brooklyn institution’s film division, said by email. “We’re looking forward to opening with the highest level of safety in place.”FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER “We expect a spring opening will be possible — I can’t tell you if that means April, May or June,” said Dennis Lim, the director of programming for Film at Lincoln Center and the New York Film Festival. The lack of a firm date is a function of several factors. The organization has three screens in two buildings; it is also part of the larger Lincoln Center campus, which remains mostly closed. In addition to making sure that staff can return to work safely, Lim said, “we’re getting feedback from our members about their comfort levels at this stage.”The lineup for the organization’s virtual cinema is mapped out for the next several months; some films could play on both the digital platform and theatrically after the reopening. Down the road, moviegoers may have a chance to top off last fall’s largely virtual New York Film Festival with selections that didn’t make sense to show online: “The Works and Days,” which runs eight hours, and a restoration of the Polish classic “The Hourglass Sanatorium.”FILM FORUM This is the only nonprofit theater in the city that gave a specific date for reopening: April 2. The programming at the Greenwich Village cinema will include “The Truffle Hunters” and the new Pedro Almodóvar short “The Human Voice,” showing with his 1988 film, “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” There will also be a revival of Federico Fellini’s “La Strada.”Karen Cooper, Film Forum’s director, said upgraded HVAC filters had been installed, and the ticketing system had been reprogrammed so that moviegoers can reserve seats online. The concession stand will be closed, and masks must be worn at all times. Expect industrial-strength rubber bands to prevent you from sitting where you shouldn’t.Cooper acknowledged the drawbacks of the state’s 25 percent capacity restriction. “It’s totally not economical,” she said with a laugh. “It’s a bigger money-loser to be open than to be closed. But the bottom line is, we’re a nonprofit. We exist for a purpose. We really believe that our job is to show these movies.”The expansive retrospectives for which Film Forum is famous will have to take a back seat for now, though. “You really can’t show a 40-film festival over a three-week period to houses that are 25 percent capacity,” Cooper said. Also, many archives around the world remain closed.But at least one series disrupted by the pandemic has a chance at a reprise, she said: 35-millimeter prints from The Women Behind Hitchcock, a series that had been set to end last March 19, are still sitting on the floor of the projection booth.MAYSLES CINEMA This Harlem venue has no reopening plans yet “due to continued concern for the health of our community” and the overhead cost of operating a single screen at limited capacity, said Annie Horner, a programmer and spokeswoman for the theater. Maysles Cinema normally seats about 60, which makes the 25 percent cap a difficult proposition.METROGRAPH This Lower East Side two-screen cinema did not comment beyond a statement: “While we can’t wait to see everyone, we must evaluate all the details — safety and logistical — for our team and audiences. We’ll be in touch soon with more updates.” The theater remains closed for now, and it plans to continue streaming titles on its virtual platform after reopening.MUSEUM OF MODERN ART The museum itself reopened in August, but its movie theaters are still closed for now. “The methods we had developed for a potential reopening last summer or fall, when I think all of us were hoping cinemas could reopen, they don’t really apply I think the same way anymore,” said Rajendra Roy, the chief film curator. He cited both advances with vaccines and questions surrounding new variants.While the museum has now had the experience of being open during the pandemic, Roy said, translating what happens in galleries to the theatrical experience isn’t straightforward. “It’s not a direct overlay in terms of procedures and time spent in one area,” he said. The staff has mapped the cinemas and even with the capacity restrictions can fit in a “decent” number of moviegoers. Still, he wants to avoid a situation in which there are “crickets in the room because there’s not a comfort level yet in coming back.” He’s envisioning reopening with something that will be a “delight” to watch on a big screen.In the meantime, MoMA started a virtual cinema in December, and Roy feels “it’s been curatorially representative of what we would hold ourselves to.” (Currently streaming: Two rediscoveries from 1930s France that MoMA had included last year in To Save and Project, a film preservation series.)If the theaters had reopened in 2020, Roy said, “I don’t know that we would have even built the virtual cinema.” Now, “it’s going to be a permanent feature of our offerings.”MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE “Our goal has been to open our entire facility — our theaters and our galleries — in tandem, and to do so this spring,” said Carl Goodman, the Queens museum’s executive director. But moviegoers who are looking for something to watch this weekend can attend the Queens Drive-In in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which reopens for a new season tonight, and which the museum runs with Rooftop Films and the New York Hall of Science. Programming is planned through June, at least.When the museum returns, so will its exhibit “Envisioning 2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey,” which has been extended through September. The disrupted programming that accompanied the exhibit — screenings of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and related films — will also continue.“I’m very, very confident in our airflow adjustments,” Goodman said, adding, “We need staff and visitors to be safe and feel safe.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      'Judas and the Black Messiah' Is the Latest Film to Punt on Politics

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Notebook‘Judas’ Is the Latest Political Movie to Punt on PoliticsBoth “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “BlacKkKlansman” are rooted in issues of radicalism vs. the system, but the dramas rely on morally opaque characters that undermine the stories.Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) onstage, and Bill O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), an F.B.I. informant, in beret. Was O’Neal actually a supporter of the Black Panthers?Credit…Glen Wilson/Warner BrosMarch 5, 2021Updated 5:43 p.m. ETAt the beginning of the fact-based drama “Judas and the Black Messiah,” an F.B.I. informant named Bill O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), wearing a slate gray suit and matching tie, sits in front of a camera. He’s being interviewed for the documentary series “Eyes on the Prize II,” and an unseen questioner asks, “Looking back on your activities in the late ’60s, early ’70s, what would you tell your son about what you did then?” What he did then was abet the police killing of the Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. O’Neal’s expression is guarded; his eyes flit to the right and his lips part ever so slightly, but no words come out.The film thus begins with an open question: How does O’Neal account for his actions?It’s a question the movie examines but doesn’t actually answer; “Judas” does not even give an indication that it has its own take. Despite the great performances and otherwise entrancing narrative, there’s a flaw in the storytelling: The moral opacity of the character of O’Neal fails to give us any true sense of the personal stakes involved and hinders the film’s ability to connect to current politics. In this way, “Judas” recalls another recent biographical drama about an undercover agent that punts on politics: Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” from 2018.In that film, a Black detective named Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) teams up with a white Jewish officer (Adam Driver) to infiltrate a local Ku Klux Klan chapter in 1970s Colorado. When Ron goes undercover at a Black Panthers rally, he gets involved with a student there named Patrice, who eventually discovers, to her disgust, that he’s a police officer. “Ron Stallworth, are you for the revolution and the liberation of Black people?” Patrice asks, but Ron deflects, saying, “I’m an undercover detective with the Colorado Springs police. That’s my j-o-b, that’s the truth.”As an undercover police officer, John David Washington, right, with Adam Driver, deflects questions about his beliefs.Credit…David Lee/Focus Features, via Associated PressBut that’s not just a deflection on Ron’s part; it’s a deflection by the film as well. Though Ron insists that he nevertheless cares about the Black community, Patrice has a point. As a Black police officer, how complicit is he with the system? His politics aren’t spelled out, and Washington’s acting is too wooden to reveal what Ron thinks of the radical Panthers.At the rally he watches intently, but it’s unclear whether his gaze reflects his attraction to Patrice, a real interest in the politics or a shallow admiration for the pageantry of the proceedings, the flair of the rhetoric and the energy of the participants. There’s a sense that both Ron and the film see the Panthers and the Klan as comparable political extremes, just positioned at opposite ends of the spectrum, and that neither is righteous or effective — though the film shies away from conveying this with more confidence and clarity.As a director known for taking risks, Spike Lee is surprisingly moderate when it comes to this film’s politics, never allowing his protagonist to cross over to the side of the revolution. In an effort to remain faithful to the conventional cop-film genre, “BlacKkKlansman” embraces the belief that not all cops are rotten. Ron has faith in the system; he has his buddies, and they’re fighting a group of violent white supremacists, so we too invest ourselves in these good cops and their fight for justice. But of course, by the end, when Ron’s superior tells him to drop the K.K.K. case, Ron is surprised to find that the institution of which he’s a part is fundamentally flawed.While “BlacKkKlansman” maintains faith that the system might prevail thanks to a few good cops, “Judas” openly recognizes that the system is broken and veers more closely to sympathy for the Panthers’ cause without explicitly promoting or denouncing it.“Judas” distinguishes itself by providing a nuanced look at the Panthers, not simply their militant actions but also their community initiatives. And like many of the characters themselves, the film is captivated by the charisma of its Black messiah, Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya, who won a Golden Globe on Sunday for his performance). He brings his usual steely intensity to the role; it’s like watching a game of chicken between him and the camera, so resolute is his gaze and so palpable his attention when he cocks his head to the side like a challenge.Hampton is not the real focus of the film; Shaka King’s direction and Kaluuya’s performance give him such depth and appeal that he steals the spotlight. But the film begins and ends with Bill O’Neal. He is our eyes, his path is what leads us to Hampton — he should be the film’s real focus. And his ambivalence and internal conflict about betraying Hampton, despite his being the propulsive force behind the film’s tension, lack a clear motivation.Bill dances around the issue of his motives and politics, whether he’s working for the F.B.I. or the Panthers. The agent he reports to, Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons), interrogates Bill about his stances on the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, but Bill shrugs off the questions, saying he’s never thought about them. Whether he’s in earnest or lying to stay safe is unclear. In a later scene, an undercover Mitchell observes Bill at a rally and concludes that this operative must actually be invested in the movement — either that or he’s a terrific actor.Daniel Kaluuya, left, Ashton Sanders, Algee Smith, Dominique Thorne and Lakeith Stanfield in a scene from “Judas and the Black Messiah.”Credit…Glen Wilson/Warner Bros.And that’s part of the problem too — that Bill does seem to be an Academy Award-worthy actor, and Stanfield, who is such a careful, cerebral actor, delivers a performance that is almost too perfect. With just a sideways glance or a subtle movement of his mouth he immediately conveys a switch of role, cluing us in yet again that despite Bill’s seeming devotion to the Panthers, this is all a performance, one that confounds not just Agent Mitchell and Fred Hampton but us as well.It’s possible that we’re meant to see Bill as an opportunist, so politics are irrelevant. But for a film so blatantly political, that seems unlikely.It’s strange that these dramas opted for noncommittal protagonists because both clearly want to engage with the real world — with history and modern-day events. “BlacKkKlansman” includes footage of the deadly Charlottesville Unite the Right rally the year before the movie was released, and the epilogue of “Judas” includes details about Hampton’s partner and son and their continued involvement with the Panthers, along with footage of the real O’Neal from “Eyes on the Prize.”Perhaps one reason these otherwise politically outspoken (and liberal-leaning) films are reluctant to take a stance involves actual history, a fear they might misrepresent the real flesh-and-blood men they depict. And perhaps it is symptomatic of a lack of imagination that despite their gestures toward the present, “Judas” and “BlacKkKlansman” don’t dare expound on Black radical politics or negotiate what these politics — or even ambivalence — could mean in the context of the real-life climate in which the films were released.O’Neal with his F.B.I. handler, played by Jesse Plemons.Credit…Warner BrosEither way, the films underestimate the depth of their protagonists and the awareness of the audience. In the argument between Patrice and Ron or the meetings between Bill and his F.B.I. handler, King and Lee could have forced their respective protagonists to confirm their views on radical activism vs. the law enforcement system and negotiate their positions in the larger narrative of the history within that divide, but “Judas” and “BlacKkKlansman” shuffle away, tails between their legs.In the “Eyes on the Prize” footage, the real O’Neal sits in front of the camera, in that slate gray suit and tie, and is asked the question we heard in the beginning: “What would you tell your son about what you did then?” There’s the pause and the eyes shifting to the right. His response, when it comes, is indecipherable: “I don’t know what I’d tell him other than I was part of the struggle, that’s the bottom line.” He then says that “at least” he “had a point of view,” though he doesn’t state exactly what that was.That O’Neal, who committed suicide in 1990 on the same day “Eyes on the Prize II” premiered, is the film’s Judas is appropriate. In the Bible, the end of Judas’s story is unclear. In one gospel he hangs himself out of guilt for betraying Jesus. In another there’s no account of his guilt, but he dies in what seems an act of divine punishment. Did Judas betray the Messiah for those 30 pieces of silver alone, or did he have other reasons? Did he regret the action afterward, and if so, was it for his role in the murder of another human being or for a more personal betrayal of his own beliefs, that he offered up the man he honestly believed was the messiah?O’Neal’s final words in the clip are, “I think I’ll let history speak for me.” That’s where O’Neal and these two otherwise good films were wrong. History has no mouthpiece of its own; it can only speak through the interpretations of those who tell the stories of the past. And if those stories intend to also speak to our present, they must speak with conviction. They must take a stance.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The American Academy of Arts and Letters Unveils Expanded Roster

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe American Academy of Arts and Letters Unveils Expanded RosterFor the first time in more than a century, the society is adding new spots for members, with a diverse group of cultural figures.From left, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Joy Harjo, Wynton Marsalis and Betye Saar, who are among the new members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.Credit…John Lamparski/Associated PressMarch 5, 2021, 5:19 p.m. ETThe American Academy of Arts and Letters, an honor society of leading architects, artists, composers and writers, announced 33 new members on Friday as part of an effort to expand and diversify.Among them are the painter Mark Bradford, the poet Joy Harjo, the artist Betye Saar and the composer Wynton Marsalis and the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates.Founded in 1898, the institution had capped membership at 250 since 1908; members are elected for life and pay no dues. In addition to adding 33 members, the academy announced it is going to grow to 300 by 2025. Its move to diversify comes as the arts reckon with issues of race, inclusion and social justice.“The board of directors is committed to creating a more inclusive membership that truly represents America and believes that expanding the Academy’s membership will allow the Academy to more readily achieve that goal,” the organization said in a statement.Early on after its establishment, the organization — which now administers more than 70 awards and prizes, totaling more than $1 million — was mainly made up of white men, like Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent and Mark Twain. Previously, new members could only be elected after the death of existing members.“That the doors of the institution have opened to a more representative membership is symbolic of a cultural shift that is long overdue,” Harjo said in an email to The New York Times.“Every culture has contributed to the restoration, remaking and revisioning of this country,” she added. “Together we are a rich, dynamic story field of every shade, tone and rhythm.”The academy is ushering in its most diverse group as institutions across the nation have reckoned with racial justice, equity and inclusion in the last year. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced a $5.3 million program to distribute curated collections of books to prisons across the country last June and later pledged $250 million to help reimagine the country’s monuments and memorials to include the histories of people who have been marginalized. In January, the Library of Congress also announced a Mellon-funded initiative to expand its collection and encourage diverse outreach for future librarians and archivists.Employees at other arts organizations are also airing their issues with the gatekeepers of high arts: a coalition from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Opera, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and other New York-based cultural institutions issued an open letter on social media regarding the “unfair treatment of Black/Brown people” last year, demanding “the immediate removal of ineffective, biased Administrative and Curatorial leadership,” among other requests.The academy only includes American architects, artists, writers and composers. Among the new additions, who are not in these categories, are honorary members, like Mikhail Baryshnikov, Spike Lee, Unsuk Chin and Balkrishna Doshi.All of the new members will be inducted on May 19 via a virtual award ceremony.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More