At the midpoint between Bram Stoker turning a Transylvanian folk tale into a literary touchstone and Bela Lugosi inspiring a million I-vant-to-suck-your-blooood imitations, there was Nosferatu, F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent “symphony of horror” about an eccentric Eastern European named Count Orlok with a taste for Type O. The fact that …
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Step into the lobby of the midtown New York offices of A24, the film production company that’s earned its reputation as an auteur-friendly studio and distributor. Walk away from the tidy receptionist’s desk and through the tastefully decorated lobby, past the long, slab-like conference table and the surprisingly comfortable couches …
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“So I just… wait, is Ethan Hawke behind me?” Marielle Heller has just lost her train of thought. She’s sitting in the cafe she frequents enough to be on a first-name basis with the owner, and she thinks the Before Sunrise actor just walked in. To be fair, the Brooklyn …
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Nightbitch, director Marielle Heller’s adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s bestselling novel, shows you its preferred hand — or maybe it’s closer to a pre-furried paw — right from the get-go. A mom, played by Amy Adams, is shopping for groceries with her two-year-old son. She happens to run into the woman …
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A work of profound optimism, an ambitious mishegas staring into the abyss, an experimental theater piece trapped on film, the most bizarre musical of the year in an annum filled with strong contenders for that title — this is only the beginning of possible descriptions for The End, Joshua Oppenheimer’s …
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You will know the most gleeful, instantly gratifying, oh-this-is-going-to-be-good moment in Gladiator II when you see it. The dopamine peak of Ridley Scott‘s long-awaited sequel to his 2000 Oscar-winning epic isn’t the opening battle scene, in which Paul Mescal and his neighbors unleash hell on Roman centurions attacking them. It …
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His name is Lee … Bill Lee. A man slouching toward middle age and suffering the malaise of someone who’s seen it all, heard it all, shot it all into his veins, he’s embraced the dissolute life of an ex-pat. Sporting an endless supply of filthy linen suits and ever-present …
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And a pussycat shall lead them! Flow, the animated film that’s Latvia’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar, kicks off with a beautiful moment of tranquility: A small, black feline, staring wide-eyed at itself in a rippling puddle. It’s somewhere in a forest, surrounded by foliage, and the ambient …
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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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He goes by many names, but you can call him the Jackal. If you need a high-profile target taken out — say, a populist German politician, or the president of France — he’s the man to call. Should you be lucky enough to contact him, much less get this contract …
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