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      Hollywood Writers Strike Is ‘Going to Be a While’

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      The writers and entertainment companies remain far apart on several key issues, including money, and the standoff could last for months.It’s not just posturing: As screenwriters continue their strike against Hollywood companies, the two sides remain a galaxy apart, portending a potentially long and destructive standoff.“Any hope that this would be fast has faded,” said Tara Kole, a founding partner of JSSK, an entertainment law firm that counts Emma Stone, Adam McKay and Halle Berry as clients. “I hate to say it, but it’s going to be a while.”The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 screenwriters, went on strike on Tuesday after contract negotiations with studios, streaming services and networks failed. By the end of the week, as companies punched back at union in the news media, and striking writers celebrated the disruption of shows filming from finished scripts, Doug Creutz, an analyst at TD Cowen, told clients that a “protracted affair seems likely.” He defined protracted as more than three months — perhaps long enough to affect the Emmy Awards, scheduled for Sept. 18, and delay the fall TV season.The W.G.A. has vowed to stay on strike for as long as it takes. “The week has shown, I think, just how committed and fervent writers’ feelings are about all of this,” Chris Keyser, a chair of the W.G.A. negotiating committee, said in an interview on Friday. “They’re going to stay out until something changes because they can’t afford not to.”The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of studios, streaming services and networks, has maintained that it hopes “to reach a deal that is mutually beneficial to writers and the health and longevity of the industry.” Privately, however, member companies say they are prepared to weather a strike of at least 100 days. The most recent writers strike, which began in 2007 and ended in 2008, lasted that long.“It’s fair to say there’s a pretty big gap,” Bob Bakish, chief executive of Paramount Global, told analysts and investors on a conference call on Thursday. Paramount and its CBS subsidiary are prepared to “manage through this strike,” he added, “even if it’s for an extended duration.”Among the writers’ demands is that studios not let artificial intelligence encroach on writers’ credit or compensation.James Estrin/The New York TimesBoth sides have insisted that the other needs to make the first move to restart talks. None are scheduled. For the moment, media companies have turned to contract renewal negotiations with the Directors Guild of America, which start on Wednesday. That contract expires on June 30.Like writers, directors want more money, especially regarding residual payments (a type of royalty) from streaming services, which have rapidly expanded overseas. Before streaming, writers and directors (and other creative contributors, including actors) could receive residual payments whenever a show was licensed, whether that was for syndication, an international deal or DVD sales. In the streaming era, as global services like Netflix and Amazon have been reluctant to license their series, those distribution arms have been cut off.In addition to raises, however, writers want media companies — Netflix, in particular — to make structural changes to the way they do business. The companies — Netflix, in particular — say that is a bridge too far.The W.G.A. has proposals for mandatory staffing and employment guarantees, for instance. The union contends that the proposals are necessary because entertainment companies are increasingly relying on what is known in Hollywood slang as a miniroom. In one example of a miniroom, studios hire a small group of writers to develop a series and write several scripts over two or three months. Because they have not officially ordered the series, studios pay writers less than if they were in a large, traditional writers’ room.And given the relatively short duration of the position, those writers are then left scrambling to find another job if the show is not picked up. If a show does get a green light, fewer writers are sometimes hired because blueprints and several scripts have already been created.“While the W.G.A. has argued” that mandatory staffing and duration of employment “is necessary to preserve the writers’ room, it is in reality a hiring quota that is incompatible with the creative nature of our industry,” the studio alliance said in a statement on Thursday.Writers responded with indignation. “We don’t need the companies protecting us from our own creativity,” said Mr. Keyser, whose writing credits include “Party of Five” and “The Last Tycoon.” “What we need is protection from them essentially eliminating the job of the writer.”Writers also want companies to agree to guarantee that artificial intelligence will not encroach on writers’ credits and compensation. Such guarantees are a nonstarter, the studio alliance has said, instead suggesting an annual meeting on advances in the technology. “A.I. raises hard, important creative and legal questions for everyone,” the studios said on Thursday. “It’s something that requires a lot more discussion, which we have committed to doing.”Mr. Keyser’s response: Go pound sand.“This is exactly what they offered us with the internet in 2007 — let’s chat about it every year, until it progresses so far that there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said. In that case, have fun on the picket lines, studio executives have said privately: It’s going to be hot out there in July.Over the last week, media companies conveyed an air of business as usual. On Thursday, HBO hosted a red carpet premiere for a documentary, while the Fox broadcast network announced a survivalist reality show called “Stars on Mars” hosted by William Shatner.“3 … 2 … 1 … LIFT OFF!” the network’s promotional materials read.With the exception of late-night shows, which immediately went dark, Mr. Bakish assured Wall Street, “consumers really won’t notice anything for a while.” Networks and streaming services have a large amount of banked content. Reality shows, news programs and some scripted series made by overseas companies are unaffected by the strike. Most movies scheduled for release this year are well past the writing stage.Shares climbed on Friday for every company involved with the failed contract talks; investors tend to like it when costs go down, which is what happens when production slows, as during a strike. If the strike drags into July, analysts pointed out, studios can exit pricey deals with writers under “force majeure” clauses of contracts.“The sorry news for writers is that, in declaring a strike, they may in fact be helping the streaming giants and their parent companies,” Luke Landis, a media and internet analyst at SBV MoffettNathanson, wrote in a report on Wednesday.Writers, however, succeeded in making things difficult for studios over the first week. Apple TV+ was forced to postpone the premiere of “Still,” about Michael J. Fox and his struggle with Parkinson’s disease, because Mr. Fox refused to cross a picket line. In Los Angeles, writers picketed the Apple TV+ set for “Loot,” starring Maya Rudolph, causing taping to halt. In New York, similar actions disrupted production for shows like “Billions,” the Showtime drama. Other affected shows included “Stranger Things” on Netflix, “Hacks” on HBO Max and the MTV Movie & TV Awards telecast on Sunday, which went forward without a host after Drew Barrymore pulled out, citing the strike.“The corporations have gotten too greedy,” Sasha Stewart, a writer for the Netflix documentary series, “Amend: The Fight for America” as well as “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore,” said from a picket line last week. “They want to break us. We have to show them we will not be broken.”Writers went into the strike energized. But a rally at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Wednesday seemed to supercharge the group, in part because leaders from other entertainment unions turned out to support them — and in fiery fashion. During the 2007 strike, writers were largely left to stand alone, while a union representing camera operators, set electricians, makeup artists and other crafts workers blasted the writers for causing “devastation.”Ellen Stutzman, chief negotiator for the writers, received a standing ovation from the estimated 1,800 people who attended the rally. During the session, writers suggested expanding picket lines to the homes of studio chief executives and starting a public campaign to get people to cancel their streaming subscriptions.Some writers realized that Teamsters locals, which represent the many drivers that studios rely on to transport materials (and people), would not cross picket lines. So they started to picket before dawn to intercept them. (The W.G.A. has advised a 9 a.m. starting time.) At least one show, the Apple TV+ dystopian workplace drama “Severance,” was forced to shut down production on Friday as a result of Teamsters drivers’ refusing to cross. More

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      in Television

      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Sam Now’ and ‘Jeopardy! Masters’

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      A coming-of-age documentary from PBS follows Sam Harkness and his family over 25 years, and a new iteration of the popular quiz show premieres on ABC.With network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, May 8-14. Details and times are subject to change.MondayKen Jennings hosting “Jeopardy! Masters.”Christopher Willard/ABCJEOPARDY! MASTERS 8 p.m. on ABC. The “Jeopardy!” champion and co-host Ken Jennings is now the host of the beloved quiz show’s latest iteration. Each episode will feature the current six highest-ranked “Jeopardy!” contestants competing in two games for $500,000 and the Masters champion title. Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach, Andrew He, Sam Buttrey and James Holzhauer appear in the premiere.SAM NOW 10 p.m. on PBS. Shot by Sam Harkness’s half brother, the director Reed Harkness, this documentary follows Sam as he grapples with his mother’s abrupt departure. Through home videos and interviews over 25 years, the film explores concepts of intergenerational trauma, familial relationships and healing as Sam searches for answers and inner peace. Nicolas Rapold’s review for The New York Times called it “a sensitive and surprising“ film “whose emotional reality seems to evolve before your eyes.”TuesdayDANCING QUEENS 9 p.m. on BRAVO. This docu-series follows six amateur dancers as they vie for top spots in the world of Pro-Am ballroom dancing, where professionals are paired with amateur partners for competitions. The six featured women this season range from stay-at-home mothers to businesswomen, all of whom invest their time, money and wits in practice, clothing, makeup, travel and the occasional sabotage in the hope of coming out on top.WednesdayWE NEED TO TALK ABOUT AMERICA 10 p.m. on FUSE. Featuring new and returning first-generation American comedians, this commentary series about the oddities of American pop culture is back for a second season. Gender reveals, eating contests and over the top marriage proposals are among the topics to be dismantled and roasted.THE GAME SHOW SHOW 10 p.m. on ABC. Through interviews with contestants and hosts as well as analyses of the game show genre’s evolution and scandals, this four-part series explores the history and persistence of a variety of American game show formats. The season premiere opens with an examination of the development of the quiz show, and what changes in the audience, contestants and questions asked reveal about American culture. Other episodes explore reality competitions and dating shows.ThursdayFrom left, David Morse, Michael Clarke Duncan and Tom Hanks in “The Green Mile.”Ralph Nelson/Castle Rock EntertainmentTHE GREEN MILE (1999) 8 p.m. on AMC. Adapted from the book of the same name by Stephen King, this Academy Award nominated film from the director Frank Darabont (‘The Shawshank Redemption’) is a death row drama that focuses on the reminiscences of Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), a retired corrections officer residing in an assisted living facility in 1999. The film follows the story of John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), a Black man who has been sentenced to death at “The Green Mile” — the nickname given to Cold Mountain Penitentiary’s death row, where Paul worked in the 1930s — after being convicted of raping and murdering two white girls. As it becomes evident that John is a healer of both humans and animals, and Paul and some of the other officers begin to doubt his guilt. In her review for The Times, Janet Maslin wrote that the film “makes the horrors of the death penalty grotesquely clear,” but that “much of it is very gentle.” She added that the three-hour film’s “unassumingly strong, moving performances and Mr. Darabont’s durable storytelling” make watching it “a trip worth taking.”FridayFrom left, Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron and David Farrar in “Black Narcissus.”Film ForumBLACK NARCISSUS (1947) 6:15 p.m. on TCM. This Golden Globe and Academy Award winning film, adapted from the novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, is a “work of rare pictorial beauty,” according to a review for The Times. It described the movie as “a coldly intellectual morality drama tinged with a cynicism” that hinges on its “provocative contemplation of the age-old conflict between the soul and the flesh.” It follows five nuns attempting to establish a school and hospital in an isolated town in the Himalayas — a mission that goes awry as they each succumb to the pressures of their environment. The film focuses especially on Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) and Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron), and their responses when their faith and morals are tested. The film was banned for four months in 1947 by the National Legion of Decency, a Catholic group, for its erotic themes. In 2020, the story was remade as an FX mini-series.SaturdaySimu Wu in the documentary “Hidden Letters.”Feng Tiebing/Cargo ReleasingHIDDEN LETTERS 8 p.m. on PBS. For Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month, “Independent Lens” presents an exploration of gender relations in modern China through the lens of Nushu, a secret written language developed by women for women centuries ago in southern China. The documentary is structured around the stories of two Nushu practitioners — a divorced museum guide and an engaged musician — and hints at the ways in which the principles of Nushu are still at play today. “‘Hidden Letters’ compels when it dwells in the everyday lives of its two leads, capturing the stray misogyny leveled at them by their partners, fathers, bosses, customers and even strangers,” wrote Devika Girish in her review for The Times. “Like a totem from their ancestors, Nushu evidently helps these women reckon with their own lives and ambitions.”SundayMATCH ME ABROAD 10 p.m. on TLC. This new dating show follows matchmakers based in the Czech Republic, Colombia and Morocco as they work to find connections for seven Americans seeking love overseas. It chronicles the journeys of the singles and their motivations as well as the matchmakers’ perspectives, as they chaperone dates, translate and coach their clients. More

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      Book Review: ‘The Making of Another Modern Motion Picture Masterpiece,’ by Tom Hanks

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      Whimsically chronicling the creation of a Marvel-style movie, “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece” sags under a deluge of detail.THE MAKING OF ANOTHER MAJOR MOTION PICTURE MASTERPIECE, by Tom Hanks. Illustrated by R. Sikoryak.Sidelined by the pandemic, some actors fired up ceramics or sang fragments of “Imagine.” Tom Hanks, one of the most prominent to contract an early case of Covid, bounced back by making a run at the Great American Novel. Alas, it is more Forrest Gump trotting from coast to coast than Sully landing on the Hudson.Titled “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” the book arrives at a crossroads for Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America went on strike this past week, seeking pay increases in an age of streaming and protections from that thundering Godzilla, artificial intelligence. The consequent halt of film and TV production deprives not only audiences, but also the vast number of workers required to get stories onscreen: extras, editors, costume and lighting designers, makeup artists, caterers, drivers, gofers, key grips.“Masterpiece” is a loving homage to those workers, a true insiderly ensemble piece in the vein of “The Player” (written by Michael Tolkin in 1988, directed by Robert Altman in 1992), or Quentin Tarantino’s eventually self-novelized “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.”Minus the murder and gore, of course — this is Tom Hanks.The novel also acknowledges a fading time when leading actors, even avatars of Everyman decency like the author, were royalty: their work shown not in living rooms but red-velvet-swagged “palaces.”It’s framed by one of the outlying courtiers of the industry: a fictional former freelance journalist and reviewer named Joe Shaw. Now teaching creative writing at a minor Montana college, he has been granted access to the set of “Knightshade: The Lathe of Firefall” — a movie based on a comic from a Marvel-like company — along with the Gay Talese-like superpower of narrative omniscience. He recedes after a foreword, like John Ray Jr. from “Lolita.”“Masterpiece” then pans very slowly — with lots of emphatic italics, arch ellipses and a few footnotes — over the full arc of the fake movie’s development. So we begin with the back story of the comic’s writer, Robby Andersen (pen-name TREV-VORR), who had been inspired by an uncle, Bob Falls, a Marine in World War II, and follow a very long yellow brick road through the seemingly triumphant release of “Knightshade” at a fancifully imagined 1,114-seat theater, the Grand Cinema Center in Times Square, where “a fellow in a tuxedo” plays “New York, New York” on a house organ.Charm abounds — again, this is Tom Hanks — but “Masterpiece” is too often a maddeningly excursive endeavor that made me think, more than once, of a Richard Scarry book without the drawings. Alternate titles: “Hollywood: Busy, Busy Town” or “What Do Movie People Do All Day?” (Actually, it does have drawings, by R. Sikoryak: an old-timey comic the boy Robby reads at the corner drugstore, then another he created while working at Kool Katz Komix as TREV-VORR, and then a movie tie-in for “Knightshade,” all fine places to rest one’s detail-wearied eyes.)The novel’s multitude of characters includes Bill Johnson, the writer-director of “Knightshade” (a film more “Iron Man” than “Avengers”); an obnoxious leading man named O.K. Bailey (OKB for short), who’s cast as Firefall; and Wren Lane, who wins the part of Eve Knight, the alter ego of Knightshade, a heroine who like many modern women has trouble sleeping.“Sure, she wants to make her bed with a decent chap when the time is right, but the time is never right!” Lane tells Johnson’s assistant, Allicia Mac-Teer, anachronistically (Hanksishly). “Nor is the chap.”Advised to go by “Al” because of sexism, the assistant gets hired after mastering a time management system at community college, “L.I.S.T.eN.,” short for “Let It Settle, Then eNact,” and using it to order Johnson his favorite frozen yogurt. (Pomodoro technique, move over.) Then there is Ynez Gonzalez-Cruz, driver for a Lyft competitor, PONY, whose ingratiation into the “Knightshade” base camp will eventually get her an office of her own and, after years of struggling in the gig economy, a salary that’s “a joke of abundance.”Moviemaking, Hanks would remind us, can be a rising tide, not in the depressing new climate change way, but the old optimistic American lift-all-boats way.He also conveys successfully that this “Business of Show” in the “City of Angles,” as Johnson nicknames it, is thoroughly exhausting, a realm where everyone is Wren Lane, waiting for the golden hour shot, showing up to get fake blood applied at 2 a.m. The word “coffee” appears, by my count, on 85 pages: triple espressos from a Di Orso Negro machine with frothed half-and-half for Mac-Teer; HaKiDo with oat milk for OKB; Pirate drip for a Teamster named Ace Acevido. Highly specific smoothies are fetched; catering tables are lovingly inventoried.“The offerings are both substantial, healthy snacks and stuff that is horrible for you but so very, very much appreciated,” our omniscient narrator shares. Sometimes “Masterpiece” reads like the thank-you speech Hanks, consummate nice guy, would give if granted unlimited time at the Oscars. You might admire its rah-rah spirit, yet still want to press fast-forward.A note on the type: Hanks has spoken and written extensively before, including in The New York Times, about his obsession with typewriters. A different antique model was featured in each of the 17 stories contained in his last book, a collection called “Uncommon Type.” Encountering a vintage Smith-Corona Sterling, Johnson’s chosen instrument, on Page 96 of “Masterpiece,” I rolled my eyes tolerantly.After turning 50 pages more and finding a minor character selling “Royals, Underwoods, Remingtons, Hermes, Olivettis, all in working order,”as if in an Etsy shop, I had to fight a strong urge to close the book, fire up a triple espresso and see if anything was happening in the tiny palace of my iPhone.THE MAKING OF ANOTHER MAJOR MOTION PICTURE MASTERPIECE | By Tom Hanks | Illustrated by R. Sikoryak | 499 pp. | Alfred A. Knopf | $32.50 More

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      Diane Keaton Likes a Messy Comedy

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      The Oscar-winning actress and one of the stars of “Book Club: The Next Chapter” makes friends when making movies and is trying to get to the beach.One of Diane Keaton’s new favorite pastimes is going for walks by herself, taking pictures of abandoned storefronts.“You can see sadness, but you can also look at the attempts that they made when they were selling whatever they were selling,” she said in a phone interview from her home in Los Angeles. “One place will look like one thing, and another, you could tell that it had clothes or some sort of fashion with it. It’s fascinating for me.”Keaton’s solitude is broken up by acting, which creates opportunities for her to make friends and meet new people, including on her latest movie, “Book Club: The Next Chapter.”Out Friday, it is a sequel to the 2018 film “Book Club,” and reunites Keaton and her friends, played by Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen. This time they are coming out of quarantine for a trip to Italy, and the movie is peppered with references to “The Alchemist,” Paulo Coelho’s best-selling novel about a young shepherd in search for treasure and his “personal legend.”“The movie’s fine,” Keaton said. “I did what I could, you know, sort of.”The 77-year-old Oscar-winning actress talked about Goodwill fashion, Miley Cyrus and tortillas. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1Visual BooksI have a whole room full of visual books. They’re engaging in a way that moves me. Somebody recently sent me this amazing book of Lee Friedlander’s photographs, “Lee Friedlander Framed by Joel Coen.” It just takes me back to how the world looked — our world, our country, our cities and people’s homes.2FashionMy interest in fashion goes back to my mother. When I was in junior college, or even younger, and I was consumed by what people were wearing, there were other girls who had more money, and they were able to have clothes that I envied. My mom and I would go around to the Goodwill and we would buy old clothes — an old skirt, a blouse — and she would make it into a better version of that.3The BeachMy father loved the ocean. He would gather us together constantly to explore all kinds of places that have oceanfront. For almost a year, I’ve been trying to buy a beach house. It’s not like it’d be a grand beach house, but everybody’s holding on to their homes. If you go to Laguna Beach, which I love, you can’t buy anything.4FamilyI had this dinner with my children last night, and we were all together, and my daughter’s husband was there. It’s just wonderful that I have that opportunity. Even as a young adult, I really needed my mother and my father a lot. When I had problems, they were there, both of them. I loved them. They were very much an active part of my life.5Miley Cyrus and AsheThese are two really interesting young women who are taking over music, who I have been lucky to encounter and to get to know a little bit. I like both of these two young women because they’re both unique.6My Golden RetrieverI have a golden retriever named Reggie. Somebody gave her to me as a gift. Reggie’s been a bad girl today. I’m so happy that I have enough room out in the backyard for her to just destroy all the plants. Right, Reg? I love that dog. There are things that just take your heart and your breath away.7TortillasI like tortillas. I buy tortillas. Just the tortillas. I slap a bunch of stuff inside of it and I eat it and love it. I love tortillas.8ComediesI do feel more comfortable with comedy than drama. I like the mess of it and that it can kind of crop up on you and then you’re free to play around.9Movie TheatersIt’s been a while since I’ve been to the theater, but I love to go to movie theaters, and it’s been really interesting the way it’s just kind of fallen apart, but now it’s very slowly coming back. I love that. I’m glad it’s coming back.10My Collage WallI have a massive wall of images that I’ve cut out of magazines or that I’ve kept. Right now I’m looking at a picture I cut out of a magazine of Buster Keaton. It’s so great. What a beautiful face. One is of a truck that has a huge sign that these men are trying to hold onto that says, in large letters, “Damaged.” Go figure. More

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      Watch Joaquin Phoenix Make a Run for It in ‘Beau Is Afraid’

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      The writer and director Ari Aster narrates a sequence from his film, in which the lead character navigates his chaotic neighborhood.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.In this early sequence from the bleak comedy “Beau Is Afraid,” the frame is packed with so many gags and references that’s it’s impossible to take them all in.But for the film’s writer and director, Ari Aster, that’s the point.This moment, which has Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) walking, then ultimately running, through his neighborhood, employs a technique called “chicken fat.” In an interview, Aster said that he learned of the term while making the film. Coined by the cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman in reference to the work of the illustrator Will Elder, it involves layering the background with as many visual jokes as possible. Here, that includes signs, graffiti, props and more.The philosophy behind the technique isn’t that everything should be seen, but “that the audience gets the sense of all the detail,” Aster said. “And I think that encourages an even deeper engagement because you see the amount of work that’s gone into building this world.”The scene is also packed with background players. Aster said that each one was “given very specific directives and very specific behavior.” As they pop up in subsequent scenes, they continue to exhibit the same behaviors.The sequence closes out with Beau sprinting down the street to make it to the front door of his building before being caught by his tattooed nemesis.Aster said that Phoenix “was only able to do this a few times because he hurt his ankle pretty early on. And by the time we were done shooting, he was limping around.”Read the “Beau Is Afraid” review.Read a story about a Mariah Carey song that appears in the film.Read an interview with Ari Aster.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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      ‘Queens of the Qing Dynasty’ Review: Secret Soul Mates

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      When a young woman hospitalized after a suicide attempt forms a bond with an international student, they create a different kind of relationship.The wonderfully bizarre Canadian drama “Queens of the Qing Dynasty” understands queerness the way that bell hooks did: as a “self that is at odds with everything around it.” Directed by Ashley McKenzie like a dream — or a bout of dissociation — the film is a love story, absent sex or romance, about a teenage psychiatric patient in Nova Scotia, Star (Sarah Walker), and a Shanghainese exchange student volunteering at the hospital, An (Ziyin Zheng). The pair make an odd couple, and yet their bond is intuitive, electric.The story kicks off in the aftermath of Star’s suicide attempt, the film’s tone at once bleakly clinical and deadpan absurd. Star, a neurodivergent foster kid with a sardonic sense of humor, clearly doesn’t register the gravity of her actions. Eyes glazed, she seems out of touch with her own body, and she’s not one for rules, like when she’s kicked out of an apartment for opening it to partiers. Eventually, she is institutionalized.Walker, captivatingly raw, makes Star both charming and frustrating in her aloofness. The cinematographer Scott Moore shoots in close-ups that blur at the edges, while the eerie sound design by Andreas Mendritzki gives the frosty Cape Breton location the feel of life on Mars, approximating Star’s dazed point of view.An, a poised international student with bladelike long nails, dreams of transitioning, and — through a kind of buddy system — connects with Star, regaling her with stories of ancient Chinese courtesans, scheming, glamorous dames who never have to work. The two communicate by text: An sends singing videos with their face prettified by a filter; Star, a stream-of-consciousness barrage of messages and voice mail messages that usually go unacknowledged. She doesn’t seem to mind and An isn’t driven away by them, either. They part and reunite and part again.Estranged from their communities, the two embody a different kind of relationship, and McKenzie doesn’t rely on the usual uplifting messaging and strained empowerment arc to humanize An and Star. In one beautifully uncanny scene, the duo stop by a virtual reality gaming studio and, equipped with headsets, plug into the fantasy, playing as flying sorcerers as they shoot the breeze. Their friendship remains mysterious, yet the film, as if by witchcraft, makes their connection feel palpable and true.Queens of the Qing DynastyNot rated. In English, Mandarin and Russian, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hour 2 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Review: ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It?’ Probably a Lot

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      Two childhood friends navigate cultural differences in this pleasantly uncontentious romantic comedy.A glossy lesson in how to pour nontraditional content into a traditional rom-com mold, Shekhar Kapur’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” shapes competing notions of happily-ever-after into comfort food. And in case we’re unclear about its middle-of-the-road ambitions, Kapur also gives us a film-within-the-film whose title is “Love Contractually.” Accordingly, anyone who takes longer than 10 minutes to forecast the ending simply doesn’t get out of the house enough.Moving between graceful London locations and a vibrant celebration in Lahore, Pakistan, the story centers on Zoe (Lily James), an English documentary filmmaker, and her childhood friend, Kazim (Shazad Latif), a British-Pakistani doctor. She is a chronic right-swiper on disappointing men; he considers love at first sight a mental health issue and has opted for an arranged marriage to a shy Pakistani beauty (a wonderfully nimble Sajal Ali). Kazim’s journey to the altar, Zoe decides, will make a perfect topic for her new documentary.Written by Jemima Khan, channeling some of her own experiences as the former wife of a Pakistani prime minister, “What’s Love” bundles its perky-sweet tale in Kapur’s signature visual sumptuousness (courtesy of the cinematographer Remi Adefarasin). Bland conversations about love and longing, and a mostly sunny tone, neuter potential conflict in a movie that neither promotes nor disparages arranged marriage. Sadly, its most divisive feature is a grating turn by Emma Thompson as Zoe’s attention-hogging mother, whose behavior is often embarrassing and usually inappropriate.By contrast, the lovely Shabana Azmi gives Kazim’s mother a droll, knowing dignity. “Not too dark,” she warns, instructing a matchmaker on her daughter-in-law preferences. Apparently the filmmakers made the same choice.What’s Love Got to Do With it?Rated PG-13. No sex, they’re British. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters. More