Although sharing the pop-culture infused visual schemes of Poonpiriya’s slightly more accomplished “Bad Genius,” the amount of sugarcoated romanticism at work in this latest film of his, not to mention the ridiculously lengthy 138 minute runtime, felt like a marathon to sit through for this writer. There’s more plot here than the film can handle. A road trip filled with a hip soundtrack and irritating nostalgia, not to mention yucky YA cancer drama tropes, “One the Road” continuously switches gears in its narrative, always unsure about its identity....

I was actually speaking to a friend about Michael Sarnoski’s “Pig” last month. I told him, “watch Sarnoski sell out with his next movie.” I just knew it, mostly due to the fact that I thought “Pig” was a tad too on-the-nose for its own good. An overpraised film that wasn’t as gripping as it thought it was, not as nuanced as it purported to be, and mostly held together by a stellar Nicolas Cage performance....

Well, guess what? Those same outlets who disregarded my source two months ago are now reporting that “Soul” may very well, drum roll please, go to Disney Plus. You can’t make this up. The real question one should be asking is why wouldn’t Disney release “Soul,” a major animated Oscar contender, straight to their streaming service? If you remember, the Oscars relaxed their rules of eligibility back on April 28th by allowing streaming content to be able to contend for almost every Oscar category....

The final trailer for “The Rise of Skywalker” was unveiled last night during Monday Night Football. In the 2 minute and 21-second sneak peek we hear Palpatine’s voiceover as lightsaber duels are shown on-screen, including one featuring Rey (Daisy Ridley) vs Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). There was also a particularly intriguing snippet where the gang is about to unplug C3PO who says he “taking one last look” at his friends....

And yet, something different is occurring this time around, this is the first Nolan movie since 2002’s “Insomnia” where a big chunk of his loyal and ardently passionate fan base isn’t totally on-board. That’s happening with “Tenet.” Many believe Nolan, an ardent puzzle-maker who revels in always being one step ahead of his audience, has gone a tad too far with the maze-like complexities of “Tenet.” This is a film that has had many openly admitting they couldn’t understand or follow the plot — compare that to his other most difficult film to follow, “Inception,” which, for all its layers upon layers of dream infiltrations, was seemingly solvable, if you concentrated hard enough and focused on the heavy exposition set forth by the screenplay....

With her background in documentaries (Casting JonBenet), this is Green’s first narrative feature and, to prepare to shoot the Weinstein world, she interviewed people who worked for Hollywood studios and agencies. The work paid off as “The Assistant,” a minimalist and stripped-down narrative, means to build an incredibly realistic and, more importantly, familiar workplace. Jane (Julia Garner, excellent in the restraint she brings to her character) wakes up early every morning to get to the office; her duties for the boss are all over the place, she schedules hotel appointments, cleans revolting stains off his casting couch and acts as a shield between him and his frustrated wife....

Kamiński has been Spielberg’s right-hand man for close to 30 years now, and they’re now teaming up again for their 20th collaboration. Kamiński has signed on as DP for Spielberg’s “The Fablemans,” which is said to be about the director’s childhood in Arizona back in the 60s. He was spotted on-set just a few days ago. “The Fablemans”, which began shooting last month, and will probably be released in 2022, will tell the story of Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle), a character based on the mid-teenaged Spielberg, a striving young filmmaker living with his family in early ’60s Arizona....

However, I just can’t help but root for this film. It proved just how important moviegoing still is in the post-pandemic era. Millions still want to go to cinemas worldwide, and that narrative is an infectious one for not just myself, but the Academy as well. Despite being now available to watch at home digitally, “Top Gun: Maverick” is refusing to leave the Top 5 at the domestic box-office. The Tom Cruise-led blockbuster is headed towards a $5 million weekend, dropping only 17% in its 14th weekend....

I’m not sure where the Oscar conversation for this one is coming from. Having seen the film, I don’t think it stands a big chance at getting Best Picture nominated. Of course, that doesn’t detract anything about It’s quality — which is top-tier. In “Triangle of Sadness,” Ostlund again tackles gender and socio-political games. Briefly, it’s about a group of a dozen or so millionaires who decide to spend their vacation on a cruise yacht....

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Shults’ follow-up was the much anticipated post-apocalyptic set “It Comes at Night” which dealt with an unknown entity killing off humanity. Despite its flaws, Shults slowly creeped us, frame by frame, into his slow-burning web of dreadful horrors. It was a mindbender that slowly revealed itself right up until its final, devastating frame. Now the 30 year-old writer-director is back with “Waves,” which was a surprise hit at the Telluride Film Festival just last week....

Regardless, they’re going to be going for a third Palme with “Young Ahmed,” a new drama which is set to premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival next month. This, their eleventh feature-length film, is a story about a Belgian teenager who plots to kill his teacher after reading the Quran. A producer revealed last year, that the drama was “the tale of the radicalization of a young boy in Belgium....

Also, despite leading in nominations, “Eighth Grade” failed to garner a directing nom for the creator of this brilliant film, writer-director Bo Burnham. Best Feature: Eighth Grade, First Reformed, If Beale Street Could Talk, Leave No Trace, You Were Never Really Here. Best Director: Debra Granik, Leave No Trace; Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk; Tamara Jenkins, Private Life; Lynne Ramsay, You Were Never Really Here; Paul Schrader, First Reformed Best First Feature: Hereditary, Sorry to Bother You, The Tale, We The Animals, Wildlife....

Whoever loaded that gun is in for many lawsuits. It was one bullet that discharged from the prop gun. The bullet went straight through the body of DP Hutchins and into the clavicle of the film’s director Joel Souza. The set was immediately locked down. Ambulance and helicopters arrived. Hutchins died en route in an helicopter. What a tragedy. The main question is who in the living hell loads a real bullet in a prop gun?...

Iñárritu took the time to offer up a scathing screed of the current state of cinema in 2019 [via Variety]. Coming off being President of the Jury at this past May’s Cannes Film Festival, Iñárritu is concerned that movies are moving at too-fast a pace and that our luring 21st century eyeballs cannot keep up with the rhythms made popular by serialized narratives on Television. The filmmaker went on to add that film “needs much more contemplation, a little bit more patience” and to be “more mysterious, more impenetrable, more poetic, more soulful....

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The fact that it was Marilyn Monroe depicted on-screen brought in a hefty amount of bait for people who couldn’t take it that a white male director would tackle such a fervent cinematic icon, and in such a sexual way. To the point where Dominik was accused of misogyny and exploitation. Speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia [via THR], Dominik sharpened his knives for U....

Dominik’s cut is said to be rated NC-17. It was originally set to world premiere at the Venice Film Festival before being pulled out by Netflix late in the game. I broke the Netflix/Dominik dispute in the summer which led to a small online campaign by fans to give Dominik, a major auteur in world cinema, the cut that he so richly deserved. I believe he has it now. Contribute Hire me...

Tom Hanks is in negotiations to play Elvis Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker. Baz Luhrmann is set to direct the biopic about Presley, which is from a script by “Fifty Shades of Grey” scribe Kelly Marcel. Wait? What?! Baz Luhrmann? He hasn’t directed a feature-length film since 2013’s “The Great Gatsby.” Before that he had a time-capsule-worthy bomb titled “Australia”? Remember that one? Luhrmann’s claim to fame will always be 2001’s “Moulin Rouge” a frenetic and daring musical that took so many risks, but worked, for the most part....

Zhao is already shooting her next movie, titled “Nomadland,” and it stars Frances McDormand as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad. Any cinephile worth his or her salt would be foolish not to have this at the top of their must-see lists as “The Rider” was a groundbreaking merging of fiction and non-fiction filmmaking. I was disappointed by the decision of Zhao signing on to a Marvel movie, but we will be getting a final hurrah before she goes down the path of the devil....