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      in Movies

      Behind the Squirrel Scene That James Gunn, ‘Superman’ Director, Says Almost Got Cut

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      “You’ll believe a man could fly.” That was the tagline for the 1978 “Superman” movie, made when superhero films were so rare that simply watching someone soar through the sky felt magical.Today, though, comic-book movies are commonplace, with flight and other superpowers handed out so liberally that even Annette Bening has blasted energy beams from her hands. (That happened in 2019’s “Captain Marvel.” What, you don’t remember?)James Gunn’s new take on “Superman,” in theaters now, has its fair share of flight scenes and they’re all convincingly done. But the movie’s mission statement has more to do with a pure spirit than a special effect: In the middle of one frenetic action sequence, after noticing a tiny squirrel is in danger of being crushed by debris, Superman leaps into action to rush the animal out of harm’s way.Sure, you’ll believe a man could fly. But would you believe that man would go to the trouble of saving a squirrel?“The squirrel moment is probably one of the most debated,” Gunn told me recently. In early test screenings, some audiences were confused about why Superman (David Corenswet) would prioritize a tiny critter when all of Metropolis was in jeopardy. But to Gunn, that was exactly the point: His cleareyed, upbeat incarnation of Superman prizes saving every life, human or not.“A lot of people were anti-squirrel. They thought it was too much,” he said. “And I think it really comes down to, do you like squirrels or not?”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      In the Spirit of Labubus, Cute Sidekicks Are Taking Over Major Movies

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      In hit after hit, adorable monsters — as chaotic and cuddly as the popular accessory — have fulfilled moviegoers’ need for escapism.This summer has been invaded by a group of adorable furry monsters with sharp teeth. They are known as Labubus, and they are everywhere.The trendy key-ring dolls, from the Chinese purveyor Pop Mart, have received endorsements from Rihanna and Cher, and are omnipresent on social media. In a way, they’ve also infused the movies.Not literally, of course, though I wouldn’t put it past some executive to be developing a Labubu franchise right now. No, it’s more that the spirit of Labubus is everywhere onscreen. The blockbuster business has been overtaken by cuteness — sometimes ugly, chaotic cuteness in the style of the Labubu craze, but cuteness nonetheless.Nearly every major movie released since May features a cute sidekick, there to make audiences coo with delight. The season opened with Disney’s live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” featuring the charmingly manic blue alien, Stitch. It became a box office success in part because of fans’ enduring love for the extraterrestrial with a penchant for causing a ruckus. You could say Stitch is the original Labubu. They do look an awful lot alike.​“Lilo & Stitch,” starring Maia Kealoha, was a box office success in part because of the appeal of Stitch, the lovable blue alien.Disney, via Associated PressIn June, another remake was buoyed by a CGI cutie: Toothless, the title star of “How to Train Your Dragon,” whose oversized eyes and pointy (retractable) chompers have a Labubu-esque quality. Also like Stitch, Toothless looks wild but, at times, acts as a pet, be that a cat or a dog depending on the moment in the story.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Directors Discuss the Film’s Rise and Chart-Topping Soundtrack

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      Maggie Kang, a director of the hit along with Chris Appelhans, was “just trying to make something that I wanted to see: a movie that celebrated Korean culture.”Ever since its release on Netflix last month, the original animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” has burned up the internet — and the charts. The musical fantasy has topped the streamer’s global rankings and inspired countless memes, dance challenges (some even by K-pop stars), themed merchandise and fan art. The film’s equally blockbuster soundtrack has stormed the music charts, with eight of its songs landing in the Billboard Hot 100.“KPop Demon Hunters” follows the members of a fictional K-pop girl group as they juggle demanding careers and fight to save the world from soul-stealing demons. The film’s directors, Maggie Kang (a veteran storyboard artist on films like “Rise of the Guardians” and “Puss in Boots” ) and Chris Appelhans (who directed “Wish Dragon”), spoke about the making of their movie and its unexpected rise as a global cultural phenomenon.Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.Maggie, the story behind “KPop Demon Hunters” was your idea. What convinced you that a film that combines disparate elements like K-pop, animation, traditional Korean art and mythology, and demons could resonate with so many different audiences?MAGGIE KANG Well, nothing did. [Laughs] I was basically just trying to make something that I wanted to see: a movie that celebrated Korean culture. And for some reason, I landed on demonology. I thought the jeoseung saja [grim reapers in Korean mythology] — which is what the boys are at the end of the movie with the black hats and the black robes — was such an iconic image from my childhood that I was very scared of, so I knew that I wanted to feature that. And the thought of demons naturally led to demon hunters. I wanted to see female superheroes that were a lot more relatable, who like to eat and make silly faces. We weren’t trying to make them just pretty, sexy and cool. They had very real insecurities and showed that.Demon hunting is usually done very secretly, so these girls needed a public-facing persona. I was also really wanting to do something K-pop-related. It was like, let’s just see if these two things can go together.“I wanted to see female superheroes that were a lot more relatable, who like to eat and make silly faces,” Kang said.NetflixWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares146 Views

      in Television

      Kenneth Colley, 87, ‘Star Wars’ Actor With a Commanding Presence, Dies

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      A fixture onscreen and onstage, he became a fan favorite as Darth Vader’s ally, Admiral Piett, in “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.”Kenneth Colley, the British character actor whose stone-cold portrayal of Adm. Firmus Piett, Darth Vader’s trusted officer, in the Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back” turned him into a fan favorite and earned him a call back for “Return of the Jedi,” died on June 30 in Ashford, England. He was 87.His agent, Julian Owen, said in a statement that he died in a hospital from complications of pneumonia after contracting Covid-19.Mr. Colley became a memorable screen presence for international audiences who could recognize his dour, stony face even if they didn’t know his name. A versatile supporting actor, he was often tapped to play stern detectives, military men and, on multiple occasions, Adolf Hitler, and had been active for nearly two decades onstage and onscreen before his appearance in “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980).In a 2014 interview, he recalled that when he walked into an office to meet Irvin Kershner, the director of “The Empire Strikes Back,” Mr. Kershner told him he was looking for “someone that would frighten Adolf Hitler.” Mr. Colley, with his gaunt face and steely eyes, fit the bill. Admiral Piett is appointed top commander of the Imperial fleet after his superior is killed by Darth Vader (whose physical presence is played by David Prowse) for his poor judgment. Mr. Colley often said that he saw Admiral Piett as a shrewd operator who followed orders for the sake of survival in Darth Vader’s world. In his interpretation of the character, he reinforced the severity and tension felt in the camp as the Rebel alliance evades capture.The film grossed more than $200 million in its original release, according to the site Box Office Mojo, with Admiral Piett emerging as an unexpected crowd pleaser.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      The Kurosawa You May Never Have Heard Of

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      The great Japanese genre director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose latest film is “Cloud,” has mastered the cinema of psychological fright. Here’s why you should watch his work.“Who are you?” the enigmatic young man central to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 1997 breakthrough horror thriller, “Cure,” repeatedly asks. He’s been accused of hypnotizing people and prompting them to commit gruesome murders.That deceptively simple question might be the paramount concern in the cinema of Kurosawa, the prolific Japanese filmmaker whose unnerving, genre-defying films are often preoccupied with questioning or revealing the true identity of their characters — to us and to them.One could say that Kurosawa is to psychological fright what David Cronenberg is to body horror.Masahiro Toda and Koji Yakusho in “Cure.”Daiei StudiosIn “Charisma” (1999), about a detective stranded in a rural community obsessed with a singular tree, he asks what makes some people special and others just ordinary. In “Cure” (streaming on the Criterion Channel), he ponders whether the victims of hypnosis are innate killers or coerced puppets. And in his chilling 2001 internet ghost story “Pulse” (streaming on Tubi), his young characters wonder if they are alone or just lonely.In each of these narratives, the weight of society influences the individual. Kurosawa seems perpetually interested in that tug of war between our free will and the status quo. The supernatural or eerie elements often read like catalysts that incite an inner reckoning.Haruhiko Kato with Koyuki in “Pulse.”Magnolia PicturesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Inside L.A.’s Vidiots, a Video Rental Store Where DVDs Still Have a Waiting List

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      Vidiots, a holdover from the golden age of VHS, is staging a comeback as a community hub.A companion to T’s 212 series about New York institutions, the 213 column highlights beloved landmarks in and around Los Angeles.In 1985, when Patty Polinger and Cathy Tauber opened their video store, Vidiots, in a former bail bonds storefront a few blocks from Santa Monica beach, the movie rental industry was just gaining momentum. Blockbuster, the mega-chain, opened that same year in Dallas, while smaller rental franchises like Captain Video and Video Station were springing up all over California. Polinger and Tauber, childhood friends who grew up in West Los Angeles, had been working in international film distribution and business management, respectively, when they decided to change course. “We were tired of working in corporate environments that were dominated by men. We wanted to be in business for ourselves,” says Tauber when we met on a recent video call with Polinger.The two friends came across a magazine article detailing the rise of video stores across the country — by the mid-1980s, there were some 15,000 movie rental outlets in the United States — and decided to take a leap. “Neither of us had ever worked retail before. We were in our early 30s and thought we were over the hill,” says Tauber with a laugh. “This was our chance.” When banks wouldn’t give them a loan, they cobbled together money from family. They knew they wanted a neon sign for the storefront but could only afford seven letters. A brainstorming session led to the name Vidiots.Cathy Tauber (left) founded Vidiots in 1985 in Santa Monica, Calif., with Patty Polinger (right). Maggie Mackay (center) is the Vidiots Foundation executive director. Photographed at the Eagle Theatre in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 12, 2025.Carlos JaramilloPolinger and Tauber set out to distinguish their shop as an alternative video store, and one more welcoming than other niche retailers. They didn’t want customers to think that they “had to know every director,” says Polinger. “We were against that snobbery in other stores.” Initially they offered just 800 VHS cassettes for rental ($2.50 per day for members), including the Beatles documentary “Let It Be” (1970) and Jean Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast” (1946). The founders were also determined to make Vidiots — just 1,000 square feet — a community hub of sorts by hosting events. The year after it opened, customers were invited to a late-night gathering with the experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Another early event had Polinger and Tauber baking a breast-shaped cake for the director Russ Meyer, known for campy sexploitation films like “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” (1965). “Many women wore bras for tops and Russ was happy to autograph them,” recalls Tauber.Rare VHS cassettes on display at Vidiots. Many of the tapes are not available to rent because of their fragile condition, but the foundation has plans to digitize much of the collection.Carlos JaramilloThe store held puppet shows and limbo contests and threw a polka party for the documentarian Les Blank. An Elvis impersonator performed after the screening of the documentary “Mondo Elvis” (1984), and musicians from the nearby Venice Beach boardwalk would drop by to play drums on paint cans inside the store. “The vibe at night, especially on the weekends, was a party,” says Tauber.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares159 Views

      in Music

      Alan Bergman, Half of a Prolific Lyric-Writing Team, Dies at 99

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      With his wife, Marilyn, he wrote the words to memorable TV theme songs and the Oscar-winning “The Way We Were” and “The Windmills of Your Mind.”Alan Bergman, who teamed with his wife, Marilyn, to write lyrics for the Academy Award-winning songs “The Way We Were” and “The Windmills of Your Mind” and for some of television’s most memorable theme songs, died on Thursday night at his home in Los Angeles. He was 99.His death was announced by a family spokesman, Ken Sunshine.The Bergmans regularly collaborated with prominent composers like Marvin Hamlisch, with whom they wrote “The Way We Were,” from the 1973 Barbra Streisand-Robert Redford romance of the same name (“Memories/Light the corners of my mind/Misty watercolor memories/Of the way we were”), and Michel Legrand, with whom they wrote “The Windmills of Your Mind,” from the 1968 crime movie “The Thomas Crown Affair,” starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway (“Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel/Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel”).Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in the 1973 film “The Way We Were.” The Bergmans won an Academy Award for the title song, a collaboration with Marvin Hamlisch.Columbia PicturesThey also wrote the lyrics to Mr. Legrand’s score for Ms. Streisand’s 1983 film “Yentl,” for which they won their third Academy Award.The Bergmans were among the favored lyricists of stars like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and especially Ms. Streisand, who in 2011 released the album “What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman.” The album’s 10 tracks included “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “Nice ’n’ Easy,” “That Face” and the title song, none of which were among the numerous Bergman lyrics Ms. Streisand had recorded before. Promoting the album, she described the Bergmans as having “a remarkable gift for expressing affairs of the heart.”Between 1970 and 1996, the Bergmans received a total of 16 Oscar nominations. One year, 1983, they claimed three of the five best-song nominations, for “It Might Be You” from “Tootsie,” “If We Were in Love” from “Yes, Giorgio” and “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” from “Best Friends.” (They lost to “Up Where We Belong” from “An Officer and a Gentleman.”)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More