“They’re all nice for a minute,” says Kitty Green, director of the sizzling thriller The Royal Hotel. She’s talking about the men that make up most of the film’s ensemble cast — Australian miners in a remote, rugged, Outback town — who can pivot from playful pub banter to grinning …
Read More »Leslie Jones: Racist 'Ghostbusters' Trolls Nearly Broke Me
“I don’t like this movie,” the journalist said, “and you’ve got five minutes to prove to me that it is worth watching.” The cast of Ghostbusters was on a press junket somewhere in Europe, and some guy with a German or Scandinavian or Russian accent or whatever had just had …
Read More »Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson Cast Dark Cloud Over Venice
“Judge the art, not the artist.” That is the mantra we hear each and every time someone in the entertainment world is accused of heinous behavior, and it’s one that was repeated by artistic director Alberto Barbera prior to this year’s Venice Film Festival. In an interview with The Guardian, …
Read More »The Dark Side of Barbie: Crime, Racial Issues, and Rampant Sexism
Toward the end of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie, our titular heroine’s (Margot Robbie) journey culminates in the arrival of an unexpected guest: Her creator, the late Ruth Handler (played by Rhea Perlman). Having just spent two hours confronting the reality that Barbies didn’t actually solve all inequality and are, in …
Read More »The Scheming Hollywood Superagent Who 'Played God' With Miss America
Coming on the heels of its eye-opening Secrets of Playboy, which accused the late Playboy honcho Hugh Hefner of being a rapist who was into snuff films and bestiality, A&E is now dropping Secrets of Miss America, a four-part docuseries airing weekly starting July 10. Miss America, for the record, …
Read More »'It Felt Like a Rape': Pamela Anderson on Her Sex Tape Saga
In recent years, the documentary realm has been the place for cultural reappraisals of famous women torn asunder by the invisible hands of misogyny. A series of documentaries and investigative pieces surrounding Britney Spears, coupled with the fan-initiated #FreeBritney movement, led to the end of the pop superstar’s cruel conservatorship. …
Read More »Daisy Ridley Reflects on Life After 'Star Wars' and Overcoming Social Anxiety
Daisy Ridley is running on fumes. She’s just flown in to snowy Utah from the U.K. for two days of screenings and promotion around Sometimes I Think About Dying, her new film premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, before flying back to begin filming on Magpie, a thriller she’s producing …
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