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      The 10 Best Titles Leaving Netflix This Month

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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 10 Best Titles Leaving Netflix This MonthAn array of great movies and TV shows are leaving for U.S. subscribers by February’s end. It’s a short month; stream these while you can.From left, Will Ferrell, Steve Coogan and Mark Wahlberg in “The Other Guys,” from 2010, a kind of bridge for the director Adam McKay between films like “Talladega Nights” and “The Big Short.”Credit…Macall Polay/ColumbiaPicturesFeb. 1, 2021, 4:52 p.m. ETThis month’s batch of Netflix exoduses feature some big names — Eastwood, Scorsese, Soderbergh, Verhoeven — and a variety of pleasures, from cop comedy to gangster sprawl to historical documentary, as well as the erotic thriller that launched a thousand imitators (and parodies).Catch these 10 titles before they leave Netflix in the United States by the end of February. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)‘The Other Guys’ (Feb. 11)Adam McKay began his film career making broadly funny, crowd-pleasing Will Ferrell comedies like “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights”; these days, he is known as the Oscar-winning writer and director of the sharp-edged sociopolitical studies “The Big Short” and “Vice.” This 2010 comedy was the unlikely hinge between those worlds. On its surface, “The Other Guys” is a sendup of buddy cop movies, with Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as second-string New York police detectives. But McKay uses those spoof elements as cover, smuggling in a pointed indictment of the shenanigans that led to financial meltdown, culminating in an informative end credit sequence that now plays like a prologue to “The Big Short.”Stream it here‘Hostiles’ (Feb. 14)Making a Western in the 21st century is a tricky bit of business: It’s a genre knotted up with leftover stereotypes and assumptions, and reckoning with the true legacy of that era, particularly with regard to the genocide of Native Americans, is a bigger job than most filmmakers are willing to accept. This 2017 effort from the writer and director Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart”), on the other hand, deals with those issues head on, focusing on a cavalry officer (Christian Bale) who must put aside his bigotry when he’s forced to escort a dying Cheyenne chief (Wes Studi) back to his Montana home. Cooper refuses to romanticize the era or soft-pedal its brutality. It’s a blunt, difficult movie, but a rewarding one.Stream it hereFreddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga as Norman and Norma Bates in a scene from “Bates Motel.”Credit…Joe Lederer/A&E‘Bates Motel’: Seasons 1-5 (Feb. 19)When A&E debuted this “Psycho” prequel series back in 2013, it sounded like a beating-a-dead-horse situation (especially since the franchise had already yielded three sequels, a TV movie and a remake). But the series quickly came into its own, supplementing its original exploration of the rich psychological dynamic between a young Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga), with expansive story lines about their family history and the town around them. Ultimately, however, the show works thanks to Highmore and Farmiga, who flesh out two of cinema’s most iconic characters into living, breathing, complicated people.Stream it here‘Basic Instinct’ (Feb. 28)The runaway commercial success of this 1992 mystery would kick-start a yearslong cycle of erotic thrillers — steamy, provocative portraits of murderously attractive women and the reckless men who must have them. But few were put together with the kind of sleek style and sweaty sleaze created by the combustible combination of the director Paul Verhoeven and the writer Joe Eszterhas. Its most controversial elements haven’t aged well, yet it remains a case study in the specific skills required to make truly great trash. It also made Sharon Stone a star, and it’s not hard to see why; her work here is a pulse-quickening combination of noir femme fatale, icy Hitchcock blonde and unapologetic MTV-era sexuality.Stream it here‘Easy A’ (Feb. 28)Another Stone — Emma — also became a star, 18 years later, thanks to her work as a big-screen “bad girl,” although in this case, it’s all an act. The director Will Gluck’s clever riff on “The Scarlet Letter” features Stone as the splendidly named Olive Penderghast, whose entirely fictitious promiscuity turns her into a high school cause célèbre. Bert V. Royal’s screenplay asks properly pointed questions about gender roles and identity while providing juicy roles for a stellar supporting cast (including Lisa Kudrow, Thomas Haden Church, Malcolm McDowell and best of all, Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as Olive’s parents). But the main attraction remains Stone, who puts across the character’s intelligence, wit, self-awareness and self-doubt with charm and poignancy.Stream it here‘The Gift’ (Feb. 28)The actor Joel Edgerton (“Loving”) made his feature debut as a writer and director with this moody, unnerving 2015 psychological thriller. He also co-stars as Gordo Moseley, who tries a bit too hard to ingratiate himself into the life of a former high school classmate (Jason Bateman) and his wife (Rebecca Hall). Edgerton’s crisp screenplay deftly dramatizes the delicacy with which social norms and “good manners” can hide our deepest secrets, and he coaxes a disturbing turn out of Bateman, giving a pre-“Ozark” hint of the darkness lurking beneath his established persona of cheerful ironic detachment.Stream it hereFrom left, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro in “Goodfellas.”Credit…Warner Bros.‘GoodFellas’ (Feb. 28)This 1990 gangster epic from Martin Scorsese seems to come and go from Netflix every couple of months, but it’s going again, so catch it while you can. Ray Liotta stars as the real-life wiseguy Henry Hill, a low-level grinder for a New York crime family whose high-spirited, backslapping life of crime descends into a paranoid nightmare of drugs and death. Robert De Niro is both affable and terrifying as Hill’s mentor, while Joe Pesci won an Oscar for his unforgettable role as a hot-tempered gunman with an itchy trigger finger. (He’s very funny, but don’t tell him that.)Stream it here‘Gran Torino’ (Feb. 28)Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this 2008 drama about a bitter and bigoted Korean War veteran who spends most of his days sitting on the porch of his Detroit home and growling at his Hmong neighbors — until he strikes up an unlikely friendship with young Thao (Bee Vang), and begins to understand the difficulties of Thao’s life. Much as his 1992 masterpiece “Unforgiven” complicated and re-contextualized Eastwood’s many Western films, “Gran Torino” subtly examines the casual racism of the actor’s police dramas, suggesting one of the most quietly daring ideas of his late filmography: that it’s never too late to change the limited ways we see the world.Stream it here‘Haywire’ (Feb. 28)Steven Soderbergh is known for many types of movies — indie character studies, Oscar-winning dramas, crowd-pleasing heist movies — but few thought of him as an action director until he built this vehicle for the mixed martial artist Gina Carano in 2012. Eschewing many of the more irritating techniques of contemporary action cinema (like cut-to-ribbons editing and overpowering music), “Haywire” is essentially a gender-flipped James Bond adventure, with Carano as a for-hire operative who gets burned by her employer (Ewan McGregor) and has to save her own skin. The results are sleek and action-packed, offering the distinct pleasure of watching Carano pick off an all-star cast (including Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender) one by one.Stream it hereDan Lindsay and T.J. Martin’s documentary “LA 92” looks at the 1992 riots in Los Angeles.Credit…Nick Ut/Associated Press‘LA 92’ (Feb. 28)On the 25th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising (following the acquittal of four white police officers who were caught on tape beating a Black motorist, Rodney King), the Oscar-winning documentarians Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin (“Undefeated”) assembled this harrowing ticktock of the protests, rioting and unrest of those days. Jettisoning such documentary standbys as contemporary retrospective interviews and “voice of God” narration, the filmmakers instead rely solely on archival footage from the time. The effect is shattering, creating a visceral immediacy that parachutes the viewer into that earthshaking moment, with no clear resolution in sight.Stream it hereAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Sundance Diary, Part 4: Contending With Snow and Tech Support

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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 storySundance Diary, Part 4: Contending With Snow and Tech SupportThe New York weather adds a Park City ambience, but watching online from home presents un-festival-like obstacles.A scene from Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated “Flee,” about an Afghan refugee in Denmark.Credit…Sundance InstituteFeb. 1, 2021A.O. Scott, our critic at large, is keeping a diary as he “attends” the virtual Sundance Film Festival, which runs through Wednesday. Read previous entries here and here.Sunday, 10 p.m. Eastern time: The arrival of snow in New York definitely adds a taste of authentic Park City-in-January atmosphere, except of course that I don’t have to slog through the blizzard to get to screenings. Which is mostly a relief, even as it removes an essential element of self-congratulation from the festival experience. Critics and journalists like to compete over who can see the most movies in a single day. Four is pretty basic. Five gives you something to feel smug about. Six is impressive, though not everyone will believe you.But at home, watching six movies feels less like a rare and heroic feat of journalistic stamina than an all-too-usual, somewhat pathetic exercise in quarantine self-care, akin to taking in a whole season of “The Great British Baking Show” in one sitting. That isn’t something I’d brag about or even admit to having done. Also not something anyone would pay me to do, I don’t think.Anyway, for the record (and for the money): Today’s viewing included four documentaries and two features. I didn’t make it to the end of each one — walking out of movies is one of the guilty pleasures of festival-going. The highlights were two documentaries about contemporary American adolescence: Peter Nicks’s “Homeroom,” which follows a group of Oakland high school seniors through the tumult of the 2019-20 academic year; and Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt’s “Cusp,” which observes a summer in the lives of three Texas teenagers, Aaloni, Brittney and Autumn.Michael Greyeyes in a scene from “Wild Indian,” directed by Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr.Credit…Eli BornMonday, 11 a.m. Eastern time: This morning I am unable to log onto the Sundance site to catch up on movies I missed over the weekend, a frustration that mirrors the experience of being shut out of a screening, without the trek through ice and snow. While the tech support people process my plea for help, I’m reviewing my notes from the weekend.“Flee,” directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, is an animated documentary organized around the memories of an Afghan refugee living in Denmark. It’s reminiscent of “Persepolis” in some ways — a personal, family story of displacement and self-reinvention set against a background of war and political struggle — but with its own tactful, melancholy aesthetic.“Wild Indian” is a strong debut by Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr., the kind of spare, locally grounded, socially conscious drama that is a Sundance staple. “Passing,” Rebecca Hall’s adaptation of the Harlem Renaissance novel by Nella Larsen, is a subtle, somewhat mannered meditation on race, identity and desire, shot in evocative black and white and anchored by the intriguing lead performances of Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga as childhood friends who re-encounter each other as grown women living on opposite sides of the color line.The glitch has been corrected. Back to the screening room, to make up for lost time — as soon as I shovel some snow.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      A Movie Festival for One, on a Tiny Nordic Island

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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 storyA Movie Festival for One, on a Tiny Nordic IslandSweden’s Goteborg Film Festival has taken social distancing to the extreme, offering one attendee a week on a barren island, with only the competition films for company.Lisa Enroth, an emergency nurse, will spend a week in an isolated lighthouse keeper’s cottage, watching the 70 movies in competition at the Goteborg Film Festival.Credit…Ines Sebalj for The New York TimesFeb. 1, 2021As they do at the opening of any star-studded film festival, photographers scrambled for position, training their lenses on the spot where audience members would alight. But when the first — and only — guest of honor arrived, she was clad not in a tuxedo or sparkly gown, but in jeans and an orange puffer jacket (designer unknown). There was no red carpet beneath her feet, only bare frozen ground. And instead of sauntering into a plush cinema buzzing with celebrities, she climbed into a speedboat and zipped off across the frigid water to a tiny island where she would settle in for the first premiere.As festivals around the world grapple with the pandemic, the Goteborg Film Festival, which opened in Sweden’s second largest city on Jan. 29, hasn’t so much accepted social distancing as escalated it. Over the course of the coming week, it will hold screenings in two urban venues for just one festival attendee. And it has also sent a single viewer to a tiny, barren island in the North Atlantic to watch the 70 films in competition — alone.Hamneskar, a rocky outcrop some 25 miles from Goteborg, was nicknamed Pater Noster by sailors who would recite the Lord’s Prayer as they neared its treacherous waters.Credit…Ines Sebalj for The New York TimesSome festivals, like Venice’s in September, have faced the pandemic as diminished versions of their normally glitzy selves, with alternately seated theaters and mandatory temperature checks. Others, like Sundance and the Berlinale, now pushed until March 2021, have gone entirely digital, offering streaming access to films and other events. Some organizers are postponing their festivals, crossing their fingers that further down the line pandemic regulations will allow for a more usual festival experience: On Jan. 27, the Cannes festival announced that it would take place in July, rather than its customary May.But at Goteborg, the Nordic countries’ most important festival, organizers have made an unusual virtue of necessity. “So many people who have been home alone, unable to meet friends or family, have turned to cinema for company and comfort,” said the festival’s artistic director, Jonas Holmberg. “We wanted to experiment with that, to isolate that feeling, and take it to the extreme. So we thought, ‘Why don’t we isolate the person on a small island with nothing but films?’”As the only country in Europe to resist a formal lockdown, Sweden has followed its own path through the pandemic, neither recommending mask use nor shutting down schools until December, when a disproportionately high mortality rate from the disease forced it to change strategy.But much of the country has complied with guidelines issued by the government, and after months of even voluntary social distancing and lockdowns, a wintry week alone on an island with only movies for company might seem the last thing most people would need. Yet when an evocative online video announced the contest, over 12,000 people applied for the solo experience. On Jan. 19, the festival selected Lisa Enroth, a 41-year-old emergency nurse from the town of Skovde, in southern Sweden, as the winner.Some of the films Lisa Enroth will have the opportunity to see while on Pater Noster, from left: “Tove,” “Conference” (a film from the Social Distances section), “The Conversations of Donkey and Rabbit” (a short film from the Lockdown Cinema section), “Pleasure,” “Incredible Thoughts of a Woman on a Tier” (a short film from the Lockdown Cinema section) and “Another Round.”Credit…via Goteborg Film Festival Like health care workers everywhere, Enroth has found the past several months stressful. “Every day at the hospital we’ve been dealing with so much,” she said. “With all the patients, and all the new protocols, I’ve never felt so unisolated in my life.”So when she saw the video’s call for applications, she didn’t hesitate. “Alone in nature, on an island? Plus movies? I was like, ‘Yes, I need this.’”The hospital agreed to give Enroth time off (“My boss is a movie buff,” she explained) and on Jan. 30, a boat brought her to Hamneskar, a rocky outcrop some 25 miles from Goteborg that was nicknamed Pater Noster by sailors who would recite the Lord’s Prayer as they neared its treacherous waters. There, she took up residence in the former keeper’s cottage that sits aside the island’s cast-iron lighthouse, and settled in for the movie marathon.During her time on Pater Noster, Enroth will have access to the 70 films screening at the festival, which include the Finnish Oscar contender “Tove,” Thomas Vinterberg’s acclaimed “Another Round” and the Goteborg native Ninja Thyberg’s “Pleasure,” all of which are competing for best Nordic film. International films in competition include Emma Dante’s “The Macaluso Sisters,” set in Sicily, and Charlène Favier’s “Slalom,” about elite downhill skiers abused by their coach. There is also a separate section, called Social Distances, featuring films created in response to the pandemic, and one called Lockdown Cinema for short films made in quarantine.Streamed through the festival’s website and available to the public, all of the films have scheduled premiere times online. But a handful of viewers are also having their own unusually isolated encounters with them. Coinciding with each online premiere, the films will also screen at Goteborg’s Draken movie theater (capacity 708) and the Scandinavium arena (whose 12,000 seats normally host concert goers or hockey fans) for a single viewer who has won a seat through a raffle.A screening for one (in this case, Lova Lakso) at the Draken movie theater in Goteborg.Credit…Ines Sebalj for The New York TimesAt each venue a red carpet leads the viewer to the assigned seat. And although popcorn is not available, other enjoyments may be. “In some cases,” hints the festival director Holmberg, “it may be possible the filmmaker will be there to present the film.”By staging one-person viewings in iconic locations, Holmberg hopes to preserve some of the sense of occasion that an in-person festival generates. But here again, the festival organizers are experimenting. “We want to see, how does being alone affect the film experience? What happens when you’re doing nothing besides watching the film?” he said.Although she will post a daily video diary on a dedicated page of the festival website, Enroth has agreed to eschew all other forms of communication and entertainment — no phone, no books — during her time on Pater Noster. She said that she wasn’t worried about getting lonely, but didn’t rule out the possibility she may “start talking to the furniture.” And, like Holmberg, she was also interested to see how her week on the island changes the experience of watching films. “The first day, it’s just ‘Oh, I’m alone, watching a movie.’ But a few days in, I might be like, ‘OK, these people are my only company. What if I hate them?’” she said.But for the self-professed science fiction fan (her favorite movie is “The Never Ending Story”), even that will be a welcome escape. “I love watching movies, because it makes me let go of work and everything else that’s going on right now,” Enroth said. “It’ll be great to be surrounded by someone else’s reality.”“Alone in nature, on an island? Plus movies?” said Enroth. “I was like, ‘Yes, I need this.’”Credit…Erik Nissen JohansenAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Jared Leto Gets Candid About Hesitancy to Play Villain in 'The Little Things'

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      HBO Max

      Taking on the role of suspected serial killer Albert Sparma in John Lee Hancock’s new movie, the ‘Suicide Squad’ actor reveals he has since found an interesting part of playing the character.

      Feb 1, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Jared Leto originally turned down “The Little Things” because he didn’t want to play another villain.
      The 49-year-old actor admitted he was initially hesitant to take on the role of suspected serial killer Albert Sparma in John Lee Hancock’s new movie but the director convinced him that the character would be fully rounded.
      He told The Hollywood Reporter, “Well, my first thought was to say no. I wasn’t sure about playing a murder suspect or potential villain again. But after talking to John, there seemed to be an amazing opportunity. If we could make this heavy on character and make this a really transformative role, I could be interested in having this be the last walk on the dark side of the moon, but only if we could really push it as far as possible. He was open to that and excited. So I just went to town.”
      “With this, I really wanted to see how complete of a character, from head to toe, from the way that I carried my feet to the way that I spoke – I really wanted to push the boundaries a bit to see how far we could walk toward that line without crossing it.”

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      And the “Suicide Squad” star enjoyed playing a complicated character like Sparma.
      He said, “That was an interesting part of it. Not only do we have the script, but we have to write the script underneath the script. How does Albert Sparma know where to be? How does he have this information? Is he guilty? Is he not? All of these big questions that we had to kind of create a logic board for, which we did.”
      “But the physical part of it … The voice was a big key into the character, developing the walk, the research and conversations with criminology experts. I examined FBI transcripts and interrogations. It was quite intense, quite heavy, but really fascinating. For a bit – it starts to take its toll after a while.”
      “The Little Things”, also starring Denzel Washington and Rami Malek, is in cinemas and streaming on HBO Max.

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in February

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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 Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in FebruaryEvery month, streaming services add a new batch of titles to their libraries. Here are our picks for February.Jan. 31, 2021, 5:03 p.m. ETNote: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our twice-weekly Watching newsletter here.Waldorf, left, and Statler in a scene from “The Muppet Show.”Credit…DisneyNew to Disney+‘The Muppet Show’ Seasons 1-5Starts streaming: Feb. 19Fans of the puppeteer and filmmaker Jim Henson have been waiting a while for his TV series “The Muppet Show” — perhaps his most enduring masterpiece — to arrive on a subscription streaming service. For five seasons and 120 episodes between 1976 and 1981, Henson and his team of writers, craftspeople and performers brought joy and whimsy to the small screen, through the conceit of a low-rent variety show run by high-strung weirdos. From its catchy songs to its string of A-list guest hosts (including pretty much every big-name entertainer of the era), “The Muppet Show” helped define the popular culture of its time while always remaining family-friendly. The complete series has never been released on any home video format and isn’t currently running on any U.S. cable network, so this addition to Disney+ is a major event.Also arriving:Feb. 19“Flora & Ulysses”Feb. 26“Myth: A Frozen Tale”Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson in “Bliss.”Credit…Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Amazon StudiosNew to Amazon‘Bliss’Starts streaming: Feb. 5In his films “Another Earth” and “I Origins,” the writer-director Mike Cahill has pondered big ideas — alternate universes, the existence of God — via muted character studies which skirt the edges of science fiction. In his latest movie, “Bliss,” Owen Wilson plays Greg, a mopey divorcé who is in the middle of one of the worst days of his life when he meets Isabel (Salma Hayek), a homeless eccentric who convinces him they are living in a computer simulation, controlled with the help of special crystals. Is she right? Or are Greg and Isabel both mentally ill drug addicts? Cahill keeps this question unanswered for as long as possible, while making both scenarios seem plausible. What results is a strange trip through multiple realities, moving at a faster pace than Cahill’s earlier films but still ultimately concerned with the existential angst of ordinary people.‘Tell Me Your Secrets’Starts streaming: Feb. 19The secrets in the title of the mystery/suspense series “Tell Me Your Secrets” are buried deep, and unearthed slowly over the course of the show’s 10-episode first season. Across multiple interwoven plotlines, the creator Harriet Warner follows three main characters: a woman in hiding (Lily Rabe), a mother (Amy Brenneman) doggedly fighting to find out what happened to her long-missing daughter and a psychopath (Hamish Linklater) offering his help to law enforcement to atone for old crimes. The sometimes surprising and often grim details of the connections between these people and the mistakes they are trying to make up for drive the narrative of a crime show that’s about how hard it is for the victims of violence and trauma to move on with their lives.Also arriving:Feb. 12“The Hunter’s Anthology”“The Map of Tiny Perfect Things”Feb. 19“The Boarding School: Las Cumbres”Andra Day, center, as Billie Holiday in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”Credit…Takashi Seida/Paramount Pictures/HuluNew to Hulu‘Nomadland’Starts streaming: Feb. 19Likely to be a strong contender at the Academy Awards this year, the slice-of-life drama “Nomadland” is a vivid and emotionally affecting depiction of a growing American subculture: people who live in mobile homes and roam the country, working a succession of seasonal jobs. Frances McDormand plays a recent widow who had worked most of her life at a plant that closed and who now has to adjust to living on the road, with the help of some fellow travelers who’ve turned their paycheck-to-paycheck circumstances into a quasi-communal lifestyle. The writer-director Chloé Zhao — loosely adapting Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book — avoids big confrontations and heavy plotting, instead emphasizing the everyday stresses and unexpected wonders of a life on the edge.‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’Starts streaming: Feb. 26The source material for the historical drama “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” sets it apart from a typical biopic. Instead of covering one person’s entire life, the director Lee Daniels and the screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks have adapted passages from Johann Hari’s book-length exposé, “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs,” in which the author uses profiles of a few well-known addicts, including Billie Holiday, and dealers to critique the ways some governments have tackled the narcotics trade. The Grammy-nominated R&B singer Andra Day gives a bracing performance as the jazz legend Holiday, who so scandalized the establishment with the anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit” that — according to this raw and hard-hitting film — some reactionaries in the U.S. government conspired to use her drug habit to stifle her.Also arriving:Feb. 1“Possessor”Feb. 12“Into the Dark: Tentacles”Feb. 13“Hip Hop Uncovered”Feb. 25“Snowfall” Season 4A scene from “Earwig and the Witch” from Studio Ghibli.Credit…Studio Ghibli/HBO MaxNew to HBO Max‘The Investigation’Starts streaming: Feb. 1The accomplished Danish screenwriter and director Tobias Lindholm tackles a bizarre recent true-crime story in “The Investigation,” a six-part mini-series about what happened after the Swedish journalist Kim Wall’s dismembered corpse was found scattered around Koge Bay in Denmark in 2017. Lindholm doesn’t dramatize the incident itself, which eventually led to the arrest and conviction of the entrepreneur Peter Madsen, who had invited Wall to interview him on his submarine right before she went missing. Instead, he follows the two cops on the case (played by Soren Malling and Pilou Asbaek) as they doggedly pursue the gruesome clues, sacrificing their personal lives in the name of justice. “The Investigation” is a different kind of procedural, detailing how the time it takes to build a case weighs heavy on both the victim’s family and the detectives.‘Earwig and the Witch’Starts streaming: Feb. 5The animators at Japan’s venerable Studio Ghibli make their first foray into full computer animation with this adaptation of a novel by Diana Wynne Jones, whose book “Howl’s Moving Castle” was previously adapted by Ghibli’s co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. His son Goro directed “Earwig and the Witch,” the story of a plucky and bossy 10-year-old orphan adopted by a pair of curiously gruff adults who teach her more about her birth family’s history with rock ’n’ roll and the occult. Fans of the Miyazakis and Ghibli may balk initially at the look of this film, which is different from classics like “Spirited Away” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” But “Earwig” covers similar themes of spiritual wonder and youthful independence, and there’s something distinctive about Goro Miyazaki’s visual style, which is much simpler than Pixar’s fine detail.‘Judas and the Black Messiah’Starts streaming: Feb. 12In 1969, Fred Hampton — the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party — was killed during a police raid on his Chicago apartment following an extended federal law enforcement campaign to tag him as a dangerous radical. In the political drama “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Daniel Kaluuya gives a knockout performance as Hampton and is matched scene-for-scene by Lakeith Stanfield as William O’Neal, a small-time crook recruited by the FBI to inform on the Panthers. The writer-director Shaka King and the co-writer Will Berson capture the revolutionary fervor of the times, subtly noting the parallels to today in the raging arguments about overzealous cops and systemic racism. The film focuses on Hampton’s complex, passionate and surprisingly open-armed political philosophies, as well as on the circumstances that forced a man who might otherwise have been a devout disciple to betray him.Also arriving:Feb. 2“Fake Famous”Feb. 4“Esme & Roy”“The Head”Feb. 18“It’s a Sin”Feb. 22“Beartown”Feb. 26“Tom & Jerry”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Timothee Chalamet to Reunite With 'Call Me by Your Name' Director for Horror Movie

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      WENN

      The ‘Hot Summer Nights’ actor has been cast in a new horror love story called ‘Bones and All’ which will mark his second collaboration with filmmaker Luca Guadagnino.

      Jan 31, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Actor Timothee Chalamet is poised to reunite with filmmaker Luca Guadagnino on a new horror love story.
      The “Call Me by Your Name” collaborators are in talks to work on “Bones & All”, with Chalamet and “Waves” actress Taylor Russell starring as movie lovers.
      Few details are known about the project, but Guadagnino will direct from a script written by Dave Kajganich, the man behind his previous films “Suspiria” and “A Bigger Splash”, reports Deadline.

        See also…

      Chalamet and Guadagnino have been seeking out new movies to collaborate on since their hit 2017 gay romance “Call Me by Your Name”, with the pair also discussing potential ideas for a sequel, which is still in the early stages of development.
      “Call Me by Your Name” received numerous nominations at the prestigious awards including Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Timothee Chalamet also picked up Best Actor win at the numerous pre-Oscar awards although he missed out at the Academy Awards.
      “There’s just some dark energy at these things, and this time around I felt like I could see it,” he said when asked about his thoughts on the snub, suggesting those behind the prizegiving didn’t regard him as being worthy. “And yet I’m thinking, ‘Why isn’t this going the exact same way?’ ”
      “I’m not gonna be bashing my head against a wall trying to prove that I’m an actor,” he said while reflecting on bagging the Oscar nomination. “The train can run over my leg and leave a track forever, and yet the point of entry for me… That’s a good feeling.”

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      Philippa Goslett Replaces Joss Whedon on HBO’s ‘The Nevers’ More

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      Ethan Hawke to Receive Calls from the Dead in 'The Black Phone'

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      WENN

      The ‘Boyhood’ actor has been tapped to play a lead role in the upcoming movie, which marks his second collaboration with ‘Doctor Strange’ helmer Scott Derrickson.

      Jan 31, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Ethan Hawke has reportedly been cast in “The Black Phone”.
      According to Deadline, the actor is set to reunite with director Scott Derrickson – with whom he worked on 2012 horror “Sinister” – on the upcoming Blumhouse flick, based on a short story by Joe Hill.
      Hawke will join Anthony Davies – thus far, the only other announced cast member – in the movie.
      Filming is set to get underway in North Carolina in February (21). A synopsis for the film teases, “John Finney is locked in a basement that’s stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead…”

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      This project will mark Hawke’s ninth collaboration with producer Jason Blum, as they have also worked on the likes of “The Purge” and “The Good Lord Bird” in the past.
      Ethan Hawke has also been tapped for Marvel series “Moon Knight”. He joins Oscar Isaac who will play Marc Spector – an elite soldier and mercenary who fights crime after he becomes a vessel for Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon.
      The project is just one of the many series in development at the Mouse House streaming service following the conclusion of Phase Three of Marvel Cinematic Universe.
      The other projects include “WandaVision” starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” starring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, “Loki” starring Tom Hiddleston, “What If…?” starring Jeffrey Wright, “Ms. Marvel” starring Iman Vellani, “Hawkeye” with Jeremy Renner set to reprise his role and Hailee Steinfeld added in the supporting role, and “She-Hulk” with Tatiana Maslany attached to play the main heroine.

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