Beauty, we’re told, is in the eye of the beholder. There are some types of beauty that go beyond the subjective, however — the kind that stops traffic, turns modest men into Tex-Avery-style wolves and have entire feature films centered around them. This is the category that the title character …
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It’s the laugh that gets you. Roughly halfway through Armand, the debut feature from Norwegian filmmaker Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, we watch someone fall apart. A mother has been called into a parent-teacher conference. Her name is Elisabeth, she’s an actor of some renown, and is now largely associated with a …
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“The city takes time away from you,” an unseen voice says, near the beginning of Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light. “You’d better get used to impermanence.” The city in question is Mumbai, which an opening montage presents as a monsoon-season metropolis filled with clashing dialects, crushes …
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Andrea Arnold’s Bird starts off with what might feel like a wee bit of a feint: A 12-year-old named Bailey (Nykiya Adams) is filming a flock of seabirds on her phone. They’re gliding high above the beaches in the British county of Kent, near the bunker-like apartment building where Bailey …
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A rich guy purchases the services of a sex worker for a one-week “girlfriend experience,” which turns into something even better than the real thing — does this sound familiar? Rewind back to 1990, and you can see how, given the right combination of casting, sitcom-level humor and materialistic wish …
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The first big laugh in Rumours hits before the opening credits have even finished rolling: “The producers would like to thank the G7 leaders for their support and consultation during the making of this movie.” As political bloggers, chronic doomscrollers and any conspiracy theorist with access to the internet will …
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“When did you first feel cancelled by your age?” You knew that some variation of this question would be asked — it was really just a question of when, and if it would come before the inevitable query about all that nudity. Seven minutes into the Cannes Film Festival press …
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Once upon a time in Hollywood, Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) was a star whose Walk of Fame plaque was a prime tourist attraction and nonstop selfie backdrop. Now, Sparkle hosts a fitness morning show that carbon-dates back to the 1990s. Her odious, sexist boss, Harvey (Dennis Quaid) — we’re sure …
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Do androids dream of electric sheep? A better question: What if their R.E.M. cycles were filled with the same wish-fulfillment scenarios and sweaty-palm nightmares that the rest of us have, as thoughts of love and loneliness and hopes and fears danced through their metallic heads? Based on Sarah Varon’s 2007 …
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Kelly Rowland is setting the record straight about her Cannes Film Festival interaction. Earlier this week, footage of security guards rushing Rowland (and her defending herself) at the Marcello Mio red carpet went viral. On Thursday, the Destiny’s Child star explained what exactly happened and why she “stood [her] ground.” …
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