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      How Anthony Hopkins Inhabits ‘The Father’

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      The director Florian Zeller narrates a sequence from his Oscar-nominated drama about a man’s descent into dementia.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.A corridor. A cupboard. A caregiver.These may seem like innocuous elements in the domestic drama “The Father,” but when they change from one scene to another, they throw both the film’s lead character, Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), and the viewer, off balance.That sense of confusion is at the heart of Florian Zeller’s film (nominated for six Academy Awards including best picture), which tells the story of a man suffering from dementia by plunging the audience into his experience.In this breakfast sequence, Olivia Colman plays Anthony’s daughter and she is talking to him about the imminent arrival of a caregiver whom he’d met in a previous scene and who was then played by Imogen Poots. But when that woman arrives, a different actress, Olivia Williams, is playing her.“What I tried to do in ‘The Father’ is to put the audience in a unique position,” the director Florian Zeller said, “as if they were, in a way, in the main character’s head. And as a viewer, we have to question everything we are seeing.”He said he wanted the movie, which was based on his play, to be “not only a story, but an experience, the experience of what it could mean to lose everything, including your own bearings as a viewer.”Read the review of “The Father,”Read an interview with Anthony Hopkins.Read an interview with Florian Zeller about adapting “The Father” for the screen.Watch “The Father” on demand and in theaters.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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      Gina Prince-Bythewood: Movies Won't Be the Same Without the ArcLight

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      For the director Gina Prince-Bythewood, seeing her movie premiere there or just a poster for it on display was a sign that her work mattered. News of the closure hit hard.As the rest of the film industry begins its tentative return to prepandemic normalcy, the announcement that Los Angeles’s ArcLight Cinemas, a chain that includes the Cinerama Dome, would close came as a shock to loyal moviegoers and filmmakers alike. Here, the director Gina Prince-Bythewood (“The Old Guard,” “Love & Basketball”) explains why the news was so devastating. These are edited excerpts.The ArcLight is a place for people who love movies. If you’re a filmmaker, if you love movies, you just appreciated everything that [the ArcLight] put into making it a curated moviegoing experience. They always had the films that we wanted to see, but they also had special screenings of movies that hadn’t been out for years, and a balance between big blockbusters and independent films. They made it an event. We never had to go anywhere else but the ArcLight — because you knew it was an experience every time, and you just didn’t want to cheat on your theater. There was no reason to go anywhere else.Ours was ArcLight Sherman Oaks, which was beautiful. The second you walk in, it’s about film. To the left was this very cool gift shop, which had film memorabilia and books, and then there would be the bar with mixed drinks but also great hot chocolate and coffee. There was a whole costume display from whichever film they were focused on, whether it be “Star Wars” or a period piece. [The concessions stand] was always packed because the food was really good — but there were tons of people working, so the lines moved fast.They had this entire wall of movie posters, and as a filmmaker, you’re always hoping that your poster would show up there. “Love & Basketball” premiered at the Cinerama Dome, and that was incredible to have my first film be at this iconic theater, with the red carpet and the excitement of it, and to see my film up on the marquee. My husband’s film, when he wrote “Get on the Bus,” also played there. To take a picture of the marquee, to have your movie poster be on rotation, it was exciting. And it made you feel like you’re working on something.Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps in “Love & Basketball,” which had its premiere at the Cinerama Dome.New Line CinemaMy husband and I, when we were dating, would go to the movies once a week. Nobody else at the time had assigned seating. You know when you used to go to the theater, and you’d have to get there super early, searching for two spots, and you knew where you’d like to sit and those seats are never available because someone’s there already, and you’re — you know, “Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me”? Here, you picked your favorite seat, you walked in and you sat down. Once we had kids, all of us would go to the exact same seats every time: F25, 24, 23, 22. They allowed us to be near the end, but also to put our feet up on a metal bar right below us. And as you wait, they always have great trivia going up on the screen and movie music playing, and then the usher would come and the experience will begin.All the ushers and everybody who worked there clearly love movies: You could ask them which film they would recommend, and they would go into detail why they loved it. Right before the movie would start, an usher would come to the front of the theater and announce what movie you’re about to see, the running time, the rating and some little tidbit of information about the film. And it was always fun because there would be ushers who were completely shy, and it was probably horrifying for them that they have to do this; others would give these long explanations and you could tell that this was just their moment in the sun.When “Black Panther” came out, we got our seats that we loved two weeks in advance. We knew that it was going to be packed. And the audiences there, there’s just a love of film. So you just knew that you were going to have fun with the crowd as well, because people clap at the end of movies they love and cheer during trailers they’re hyped about. I loved seeing other families going for that same experience, and then being able to talk about it afterward in the lobby. You knew the people were there to see the movie and they respected the filmmaking.To hear that the ArcLight, of all theaters, was shutting down was a shock. It was kind of a blow to that fantasy that we were going to get back to where we were. Streaming has been great during this time, and it was incredible for “The Old Guard” to reach the global audience that it did. But I still love theaters. I love the collective experience of watching a film with people I don’t know who are all feeling the same things.I’m just staying optimistic that someone is going to step up and purchase the theaters. It’s too important to the industry; it’s too important to the audiences; the meaning of it is just too important for it to just go away. I have this fantasy that Netflix or Apple or George Clooney is just going to step up and save it, because it needs to be here. Oprah! We need Oprah. More

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      ‘In the Heights’ Will Premiere at the Tribeca Festival

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      The movie musical is set to play the United Palace in Washington Heights, the neighborhood where the story is set. It will also screen outdoors in all five boroughs.The Tribeca Festival announced Friday that it will open its 2021 edition this summer with the world premiere of “In the Heights,” the eagerly anticipated movie musical conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The event adds a high-profile piece of arts programming to the statewide effort to bring the arts back after an entire year was upended by the coronavirus pandemic.The premiere will be held at the United Palace theater in the Washington Heights neighborhood, where Miranda’s New York tale takes place. And for the first time in the festival’s 20-year history, organizers say their opening-night selection will be screened simultaneously across all five boroughs in multiple open-air venues, meaning that New Yorkers in every pocket of the city will be able to enjoy the film in a setting that poses relatively low risk of spreading the virus.“It is such an honor to open the 20th anniversary Tribeca Festival with ‘In the Heights.’ We’re so excited to welcome them uptown!” Miranda said in a statement. “This will be an unforgettable night at the United Palace. We can’t wait to share this musical love letter to our community, with our community, in our community.”Organizers say the 2021 Tribeca Festival, running June 9-20 and dropping “film” from its name, will be the first big movie event in North America held in person since the pandemic began. Most of last year’s film festivals, including Tribeca, were delayed, postponed, canceled or reimagined because of concerns about mass gatherings during the public health crisis.In a news release, organizers called the Tribeca Festival the “culmination” of NY PopsUp, the statewide revitalization initiative seeking to bring back live performances and help the arts sector in New York.For much of the last year, Broadway was dark, movies theaters were closed and concert halls were empty. But in recent weeks, some arts institutions have begun holding performances outdoors. At the same time, indoor performances have been allowed to resume in New York City with limited capacity. Earlier this month, a Broadway house opened — albeit briefly — for the first time.Still, the pandemic persists. Although many New Yorkers are getting vaccinated, virus variants have emerged, and the city continues to average more than 3,000 new cases per day.The premiere of “In the Heights” will probably spark some amount of joy for weary New Yorkers eager for a vibrant celebration of their city. Adapted from the Broadway show with a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes and music and lyrics by Miranda, the movie stars Anthony Ramos as Usnavi, a bodega owner dealing with the gentrification of his Upper Manhattan neighborhood. Miranda, who starred onstage, takes on a supporting role as the owner of a shaved-ice dessert stand.The musical opened on Broadway in 2008 and was a critical success. It preceded Miranda’s “Hamilton,” a smash stage hit that was filmed and released last year on the small screen via Disney+. Several “Hamilton” alumni appear in “In the Heights,” including Miranda and Ramos.Now “In the Heights” will have its moment away from the stage.“‘In the Heights’ is the quintessential New York story of hard work, resilience, and triumph,” said Jane Rosenthal, the co-founder and chief executive of the Tribeca Festival who is also helping to lead the NY PopsUp effort.“We are proud to feature this film as opening night,” she added, “where it can debut in its hometown in celebration of its New York roots and the Latinx community.” More

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      ‘Arlo the Alligator Boy’ Review: Of Songs and Scales

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      This hyperactive animated Netflix musical for kids, with messages of empowerment and references to “Midnight Cowboy,” has a lot on its plate.A tiger, a miniature Italian man, a girl with gigantism, a fish with legs, a pink hairball and a redheaded half-reptile walk into Manhattan. That’s the setup of “Arlo the Alligator Boy,” a hyperactive cartoon musical intended for kids on Netflix. The punchline is that the streaming service has already greenlighted a spinoff about this chipper green tyke for a 20-episode series.Our saga begins when baby Arlo’s bassinet drifts from the sewers of Bellevue Hospital to the swamps of Louisiana, where he’s raised by a banjo-playing recluse woman (voiced by Annie Potts) and a farting frog. When a similar trauma happened to the Penguin in “Batman Returns,” he resolved to murder every firstborn son in Gotham. The relentlessly happy Arlo would rather buy everyone an ice cream. He sings his way home in a series of childishly catchy ballads, repetitive both in theme (it’s OK to be weird!) and lyrics (characters want “more, more, more” and pledge to “follow, follow, follow”).Arlo is voiced by the former “American Idol” contestant Michael J. Woodard with a soulfulness that shimmies into a plucky falsetto. He’s joined by a quirky cast that includes Jennifer Coolidge and the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, as tourist-trap operators hellbent on kidnapping Arlo for their Gator X-Perience, and an uninhibited Tony Hale and Jonathan Van Ness as two of Arlo’s aforementioned buddies who can only be described as Hieronymus Bosch doodles for kids.Long before the motley crew crashes the Met Gala, it’s clear that director Ryan Crego is bolting wacky gee-gaws onto a rote plot. Still, several gags pay off: wearable puppies; random lederhosen; rhyming references to the Jason Statham action movie “The Meg”; and, for the rare aficionado of both of kiddie cartoons about self-acceptance and the once X-rated classic “Midnight Cowboy,” a running bit where every New Yorker howls, “I’m walkin’ here!”Arlo the Alligator BoyNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      ‘We Broke Up’ Review: Breaking Up Is Hard to Watch

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      A longtime couple tries to keep their fractured relationship a secret during a family wedding in this melancholic romantic comedy.When the melancholic romantic comedy “We Broke Up” opens, Lori (Aya Cash) and Doug (William Jackson Harper) have been a couple for 10 years. They live together, they still laugh at each other’s jokes. But when Doug asks Lori to marry him, she throws up on the spot. This is the beginning of their end as a couple.The problem for this pair — besides their suddenly strained communication, their differing expectations for a long-term future and the fact that their stable relationship has now reached its breaking point — is the timing of this heartbreak. Lori’s sister Bea is getting married in a few days, and both Lori and Doug are included in the wedding party. The pair agree to attend the wedding and keep their separation a secret from family and friends.The director Jeff Rosenberg tries to maintain a balance between the comedic shenanigans of bachelorette games and rehearsal dinners, and the pain of breaking up. But secondary characters, like Lori’s family members or the fellow wedding attendees, are sketched in a way that leaves them overly broad. Lori and Doug’s smiles through gritted teeth don’t exactly cue the audience to relax into a good time.The film is tense through scenes that might have been funny and maudlin when addressing the emotional stakes for the former couple. The overwhelming impression is that of shrillness. It’s a tone that might be familiar to those who have experienced a broken heart, but this shallow exercise offers meager opportunity for discomfort to transform into either entertainment or contemplation.We Broke UpNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More

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      ‘Monday’ Review: A Year of Love and Its Hangovers

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      Fiery physical contact keeps an expat couple together in Greece, and the sex scenes are enough for a half-dozen movies.This movie’s first image is of a disco ball; the first song on its soundtrack is Donna Summer’s 1977 “I Feel Love.” But “Monday” isn’t a period piece.The director Argyris Papadimitropoulos, who co-wrote the movie with Rob Hayes, understands that for some partyers from the Balearic Islands to the Mediterranean — this movie’s English-speaking soon-to-be-lovers are introduced to each other while getting their freak on in the director’s native Greece — staying young involves nostalgia for a sybaritic era you didn’t actually live through.Mickey (Sebastian Stan), a D.J., and Chloe (Denise Gough), a lawyer, meet cute, and utterly smashed, on a Friday night, and wake up the next morning naked on a beach. They’re hauled off by cops to an embarrassed but not terribly traumatic reckoning with the law. These attractive characters are well past their 20s, which by some lights makes them a hair too old to be carrying on like this. Which is part of the film’s point, in fact.The movie chronicles more than one weekend — it follows the relationship over almost a year, but each sequence kicks off on a Friday and ends on a Monday. Movie enthusiasts who bemoan that contemporary film is bereft of both romance and sex take note: The glue that keeps these two together is fiery physical contact, and the sex scenes are enough for a half-dozen movies.Where their other affinities lie is something of a puzzle, but frequent intoxication can render such questions moot. The director’s semi-skewering of rom-com clichés, including the venerable race-to-the-airport bit, underscores their mutual unsuitability.While “Monday” is not quite as bracing as Papadimitropoulos’s prior feature, “Suntan,” it’s a sharply observed, well-acted picture with a lot of tart detail and a few real stings in its tail.MondayRated R for sexuality, and plenty of it. Language, too. In English and Greek, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Amazon, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More

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      ‘Beate’ Review: Bad Habits

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      Factory workers and nuns team up to make lingerie in this half-baked comedy from Italy.In “Beate,” (“Blessed”) lingerie factory workers and an order of nuns team up against a treacherous businesswoman threatening to outsource their jobs and remodel the convent into a hotel resort. It’s an intriguingly outlandish formula for a potentially empowering tale of female collaboration. Unfortunately, this half-baked comedy from Italy dozes off at the wheel.Spunky single mother Armida (Donatella Finocchiaro) rallies her crew of seamstresses into starting their own lingerie company when their employer abruptly gives them the boot via text message. Covertly using the factory’s equipment, they eventually hit the jackpot by designing luxury garments adorned with scraps of beaded embroidery procured from the nunnery.The director Samad Zarmadili cobbles together this underdog story like a slapdash sitcom episode. We’re supposed to be tickled at the notion of foul-mouthed working women laboring alongside brides of Christ (assembling racy intimates, no less!), but the film remains yawningly polite and prudish. The sole provocateur is Armida’s lover (Paolo Pierobon), a second-rate harlequin who winkingly delivers salacious sales pitches to potential buyers.Despite its attempts to deliver a message about collective power, the film hardly veers away from its leading lady, whose back story also feels random and perfunctory. Finocchiaro’s feisty performance is sabotaged by a script that scrambles her character’s motivations, while an out-of-left-field personal dilemma dulls the climactic fallout (and the entire point of the movie, really).At best “Beate” is a curious artifact that vaguely nods at the history of Italian fashion manufacturing, the country’s Catholic heritage, and the human consequences of rampant privatization. But maybe that’s giving it too much credit.BeateNot rated. In Italian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas. More

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      ‘In the Earth’ Review: Grassroots Horror

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      Ben Wheatley gets back to basics with this horror movie conceived during the pandemic.Movies evolve, and one day it will be possible to look at “In the Earth” and not see the contingencies of pandemic filmmaking. The director, Ben Wheatley, started writing it at the beginning of the lockdown in Britain, and elements of the finished product — the outdoor setting; references to quarantine, a third wave and a disease ravaging a city; the actors’ surgical masks at the beginning — bear unavoidable hallmarks of the past year.Viewed now, the film’s resourceful, even ingenious solutions to problems double as distractions; as those diminish, some of what is potent about the movie may also subside. What will be left is a back-to-basics effort from Wheatley, who has lately dabbled in splashy literary adaptations (J.G. Ballard in “High-Rise,” Daphne du Maurier in last year’s remake of “Rebecca”) but earned his cult reputation straddling horror and dark comedy in lower-budget fare like “Kill List” and “A Field in England.”Now the setting is a forest in England. “In the Earth” trails Alma (Ellora Torchia) and Martin (Joel Fry) on a mission to meet up with Dr. Olivia Wendle (Hayley Squires), who is about a two-day walk deep into the woods. Her communications have stopped, and we’ve been told that “people get a bit funny” out there. Dr. Wendle’s research — involving trees connected and controlled in a network that behaves like a brain — sounds more than a tad peculiar.But reaching her isn’t easy. Alma and Martin stumble on an abandoned tent whose occupants may have been murdered. They are jumped at night by someone who steals their shoes. They encounter Zach (Reece Shearsmith), a back-to-nature survivalist who keeps his social distance until — in two displays of debatable first-aid skill — he gets far closer to Martin than Martin would like. Zach’s insistence, as he wields an ax for surgery, that he’s acting in Martin’s best interest makes for one of the funnier gags, and the characters’ repeated claims that there is no time to get to a hospital become almost a gallows joke.Wheatley, who led hit men into a den of occult ritual in “Kill List,” isn’t one to let coherence get in the way of a good high concept. Expecting “In the Earth” to reconcile its influences (is this a plague movie, a folktale or science fiction?) is missing the point. As a glue, the movie employs a moody synth score from Clint Mansell, composing in a vein reminiscent of John Carpenter, whose presence hovers over several story developments. (Alma’s method of breaching a dangerous, encircling fog owes something to both versions of “Village of the Damned.”)The director operates with a faith that almost any plot element can be assimilated in a climactic freakout of editing. (Wheatley did his own.) And if the bigger picture of “In the Earth” doesn’t appear fully realized — this is a movie not just of the moment, but perhaps rushed to meet it — it would be difficult, this year, for at least some of its atmosphere of isolation-induced madness not to inspire a chill.In the EarthRated R. Blunt medical instruments. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More