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As if unleashing all the pent-up narrative impulses tamped down for the hard-bitten minimalism of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Australia’s proudest son George Miller returns to Cannes’ out-of-Competition section with a sumptuous banquet of storytelling in service of storytelling. “Three Thousand Years of Longing” compresses eons of heartbreak, happenstance, and hope into a hotel room tête-à-tête that then re-blooms to the size of the universe, a parable both titanic and intimate in scale as it negotiates one woman’s complacent solitude against the welfare of mythologies dating back to the cradle of civilization.

Continue reading ‘Three Thousand Years Of Longing’ Review: George Miller Returns With A Sumptuous Banquet Of Storytelling [Cannes] at The Playlist.

Mount Meru, one of the tallest mountains in the world, is surrounded by eight seas and eight mountains. It is considered by many to be the center of the universe — physically, metaphysically, and spiritually. But it is probably the hardest mountain to get to, and even harder to stay on. Would you make the trip? Or would you see more by exploring its eight satellite peaks and waters? What if once you get up there, you still don’t feel complete? What will give your life meaning instead?

Pietro (Luca Marinelli at his strongest physically and most complex and tender emotionally) never stops thinking about these questions. It’s all he asks himself as he yearns for the mountains until the summer comes and he can climb the Italian Alps again, with his father – trying desperately to understand a son he can’t see himself in – and best friend, Bruno

Notebook is covering the Cannes Film Festival with an on going correspondence between critics Leonardo Goi and Lawrence Garcia, and editor Daniel Kasman.One Fine Morning.Dear Danny and Leo,It is indeed very good to be back at Cannes—not just because it means seeing an entire slate of anticipated titles, but also because it means endless opportunities to talk about them, both in these correspondences and in person, which I'd missed more than I'd realized. Indeed, there’s so much to discuss that I’ll just dispense with the throat-clearing and get to the movies. Like you, Leo, I found both God’s Creatures and Scarlet productive to consider in relation to each other, what with their shared folktale affinities and archetypal approach to character. The most impressive aspect of God’s Creatures was how Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer managed, for a time, to balance the film's appealing behavioral ambiance,

Margot Robbie is everywhere — and we mean, everywhere.

The founder of critically acclaimed production company LuckyChap Entertainment has starred in some of the biggest auteur films of the decade and produced independent feminist films “I, Tonya” and “Promising Young Woman,” all while making at least one movie per year since 2013.

Robbie landed Oscar nominations for her respective turns in 2017’s Olympic biopic “I, Tonya” and 2019’s “Bombshell,” inspired by the true story of the sexual harassment lawsuit against former Fox News exec Roger Ailes. And don’t forget Robbie’s scene-stealing turn as Harley Quinn that transcended two “Suicide Squad” iterations plus lead spinoff “Birds of Prey,” which Robbie’s LuckyChap produced.

The first look at Robbie as a Mattel doll come to life for Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” almost broke the Internet. But that’s not the only star-studded epic Robbie leads this year.

Below, find out everything Robbie

Anthologies always carry with them a little bit of risk. It’s a steep task to come up with a definable, overarching theme to hold together contributions from different artists, each with their own diverging sensibilities. Fortunately, when you have a title like the Netflix animated series “Love, Death & Robots,” that does most of the heavy lifting.

But another major challenge with anthologies is that, inevitably, some parts of the collection will be more successful than others. They’ll be better focused or more sprawling, denser in their atmosphere or equipped with enough space for the story it’s telling to breathe. The exciting thing about “Love, Death & Robots” is that it has the potential to let its many different creative teams expand their own ideas.

As we’ve written in our reviews of Season 1 and Season 2, this Netflix show hasn’t always capitalized on that promise. Yet,

Sony chairman Tom Rothman gave an update on “Bad Boys 4,” saying despite previous rumors, the film is still slated to star Will Smith and Martin Lawrence and remains in development. The fourth film was announced in 2020 following the success of the third installment, “Bad Boys for Life,” the first movie in the franchise sans director Michael Bay. (“Bad Boys” 3 was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.)

Yet reports in April 2022 hinted that “Bad Boys 4” may have been on hold following Smith attacking Chris Rock at the Oscars. Smith reportedly received 40 pages of a “Bad Boys 4” script ahead of the Oscars. Sony chairman Rothman refuted any claims that Smith’s involvement in the sequel was put on hold.

“No. That was inaccurate,” Rothman told Deadline. “That movie’s been in development and still is. There weren’t any brakes to pump because the car wasn’t moving.

, George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” might have some reservations about the 21st century — the movie often wrestles with the impact that science and technology might have on our ancient sense of wonder — but at the bottom of this tightly bottled epic sits a question that should resonate especially hard with people who have spent too many of the last 3,000 days stuck inside their homes with nothing but “content” to keep them company: Are stories enough to satisfy our lives?

Acclaimed narratologist Dr. Alithea Binnie, would like to think so. Once upon a time she was married to a handsome academic, but when that schmuck left her for someone younger, she learned to make peace with her solitude. Being on her own — no partners, no parents, no children — affords a brilliant mind like hers the freedom it needs to flourish (read: travel the planet giving Powerpoint presentations about

All is not well with the Vuillard clan and something’s gone rotten in Roubaix. While their matriarch lies ill, treading the line between the here and the hereafter, the paterfamilias is left to contend with his three headstrong children. Though the youngest, who lives a stable married life, more often than not serves as ballast between more electric older siblings, sparks fly when the other two meet — or at least they would, had the eldest daughter not banished her hard-drinking middle brother from the family.

Sound familiar? Sounds, perhaps, like another Arnaud Desplechin film that premiered once upon a time in Cannes (as nearly all his films do)? Sounds about right.

Though the French auteur has always freely recycled themes and plot points (with more than half the characters in his 14 features carrying the surnames Dedalus and Vuillard), “Brother and Sister” seems more like a retread (and a retreat

The spectacle of Sam Raimi channeling his twisted “Evil Dead” side for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” reaches its peak with the climactic battle between Zombie Strange (the re-animated corpse of Benedict Cumberbatch’s titular wizard) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) at Mount Wundagore.

It’s a ghoulish sight to behold, with Strange’s decaying flesh and demonic black creatures curling around him to form a sinister version of his magical Cloak of Levitation. For Wētā FX, though, it was an opportunity to explore kitschy horror and figure out character beats with a director intent on shaking up the MCU.

“The promise of a spooky Sam Raimi Marvel film had our team pretty jazzed,” said the New Zealand studio’s VFX supervisor Erik Winquist (“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”). “It seemed on the page that this was channeling some of that B-movie horror vibe that Sam was known for,

Update, 5:51 p.m. Et: Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney are also parting ways with “Saturday Night Live” ahead of Season 48. Creator Lorne Michaels previously hinted that this year would be a “year of change” for the live sketch comedy series, as reported by Deadline. The final May 21 episode with these cast members will include a group goodbye with “Russian Doll” star Natasha Lyonne hosting.

Season 47 featured the largest “SNL” cast to date with 21 stars and eight cast members. McKinnon marks a decade with “SNL” since becoming a major breakout star from the sketch series. McKinnon went on to appear in scene-stealing turns in “Bombshell,” Peacock series “Joe vs. Carole,” and upcoming “Barbie.” Bryant, who also joined “SNL” in 2012, starred in critically acclaimed Hulu series “Shrill,” and Mooney had roles in “Arrested Development” and “Spree.” Mooney was part of the “SNL” ensemble since 2013.

Earlier, Published May 20, 4:50 p.

May the standalone superhero films be with you.

Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” marks the return of Ewan McGregor in the titular role, but director Deborah Chow promises the series is more like other IP films rather than previous “Star Wars” installments.

“I think I was the most excited about getting the opportunity to do a character-driven story, in a similar way – it’s a different tone – but something like ‘Joker’ or ‘Logan,’ where you take one character out of a big franchise and then you really have the time and you go a lot deeper with the character,” Chow said at a press conference, as reported by Games Radar. “So, that to me seemed really exciting to get to do in ‘Star Wars.'”

“Obi-Wan Kenobi,” premiering May 27, takes place between films “Revenge of the Sith” and “A New Hope,” with Obi-Wan hiding out in Tatooine and observing a young Luke Skywalker.

Ever since “Parasite” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2019 and then swept that season’s Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and more, Hollywood has wondered what Bong Joon-Ho‘s next project would be. Well, things are beginning to take shape as Warner Bros. announced that more actors have joined Robert Pattinson for the as-yet-untitled new film’s ensemble.

Read More: Robert Pattinson To Star In Bong Joon-Ho’s New Sci-Fi Film

Deadline reports that Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Naomi Ackie will join Pattinson as part of the cast of Bong’s follow-up to his 2019 smash hit.

Continue reading Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo & Naomi Ackie Join Robert Pattinson For Bong Joon-Ho’s Next Sci-Fi Film at The Playlist.

At last, a creature scorned in the eyes of the internet has his chance to go fast.

Prominent among the animated cameos and Easter eggs packed into Disney+’s “Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers” is an appearance from Sonic the Hedgehog. But not the electric-blue Sega mascot as filmgoers have gotten to know him in two feature-length outings — this is the so-called “Ugly Sonic,” the version of the character cast aside after a negative backlash greeted the original trailer for the 2020 video-game adaptation starring Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, and Jim Carrey.

“Chip ’n Dale” director Akiva Schaffer told IndieWire that Ugly Sonic’s inclusion in the film came from a place of appreciation.

“I’m trying to celebrate him, you know?” he said. “I have a 9-year-old and an 11-year-old, and there’s nothing they’re more excited for than ‘Sonic 2.’ I’ve seen that first ‘Sonic’ so many times.

A silver spoon clunks loudly inside a bowl of beef broth. The meal — well, barely a meal — is served to Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps) twice a day, her diet a strict combination of insipid soup and wafer-thin slices of lemon. The sacrifice is reflected in the ever-shrinking measures of her tightly constrained waste, almost permanently held by a structured corsage pulled with painful might by small-handed maids hired for this very specific task.

Read More: Cannes Film Festival 2022 Preview: 25 Must-See Films To Watch

Sissi, as the Empress is lovingly called, turns idleness into obsession.

Continue reading ‘Corsage’ Review: Vicky Krieps Marvels As Elisabeth Of Austria In Stunning Period Drama [Cannes] at The Playlist.

“Bait,” British filmmaker Mark Jenkin’s breakout feature, could well be considered a horror movie. Set in a quaint little fishing enclave off the Cornish coast, where the ship decks are rickety and the townhouses’ whitewash ever-peeling, the knotty fear of loss is ever-present: of history, of possession, of tradition, of heritage, of liberty. It manifests formally in the deep chiaroscuro of Jenkin’s monochrome images, shot on 16mm film, richly textural, and ever cast in shadow; in the distorted sound mix, voices are heard as if captured through a shoddy synthesizer, like painful memories catching up to the present.

Continue reading ‘Enys Men’ Review: Mark Jenkin Crafts A Wicked, Witchy Folk Freak Horror That Defies Genre [Cannes] at The Playlist.

David Fincher‘s projects with Netflix over the years are manifold. He’s directed episodes of “Mindhunter” and “House Of Cards,” produced “Voir,” a collection of short video essays, and released his 2020 film, “Mank,” on the platform. And while audiences await his latest film, “The Killer,” with Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton, Netflix has another volume of his animation series with Tim Miller to tide everyone over.

Continue reading ‘Love, Death + Robots Volume 3’ Final Trailer: Tim Miller & David Fincher’s Animated Anthology Returns With Another Batch Of Sci-Fi Shorts Today at The Playlist.

Eva Green is betting on Johnny Depp.

The “Casino Royale” alum took to social media to share support for her former “Dark Shadows” co-star Depp amid his ongoing defamation trial with ex-wife Amber Heard.

“I have no doubt Johnny will emerge with his good name and wonderful heart revealed to the world,” Green wrote on Instagram. “Life will be better than it ever was for him and his family.”

The ongoing Depp v. Heard case began after Heard penned a 2018 Washington Post op-ed alleging an abusive spouse. Depp’s former girlfriends Ellen Barkin and Jennifer Grey have recently spoken out over the course of the trial, with Barkin testifying that Depp was “jealous” and “controlling” during their 1998 relationship while filming “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and that the actor threw a wine bottle at her.

Depp’s former partners Winona Ryder and Vanessa Paradis defended Depp in witness statements

IFC Films announced this week that they will reunite with “The Sound of Silence” director Michael Tyburski for his sophomore feature, sci-fi comedy “Turn Me On.” The new movie boasts impressive young talent in leading roles with Bel Powley and Nick Robinson starring.

Continue reading ‘Turn Me On’: IFC Nabs Michael Tyburski’s Sci-Fi Comedy Starring Bel Powley & Nick Robinson at The Playlist.

Victor (Michael Cimino) just wants to start over — just as the end is near.

The third and final season of “Love, Victor” premieres June 15 on Hulu and, this time, also on Disney+ as the streamer expands its older-skewing offerings. Season 2 left off with Victor’s love triangle heating up between his first love Benji (George Sear) and new student Rahim (Anthony Kevyan), who recently came out to his Muslim family after receiving advice from Victor.

As graduation looms and Victor tries to determine who he wants to (re)start a relationship with, the high school senior hopes to just “go back to that perfect moment” of falling in love for the first time.

“A lot of the time, the scariest things are also the most important, like admitting who you love or who you are,” Victor says in the trailer.

The eight-episode final season is based on the “Love, Simon

While “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was a juggernaut at the international box office, earning a massive 1.89 billion globally, it wasn’t 100 certain that “Spider-Man 4” would be moving forward with returning cast members or director Jon Watts. Without contracts signed or a public announcement from the studio, it’s hard to completely bank on everyone coming back.

Now, Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman has told Deadline that while he’s “hopeful” for getting everyone back, including Watts, his tone would suggest nothing is concrete at the moment.

Continue reading ‘Spider-Man 4’: Sony “Hopeful” They Can Coax Jon Watts, Tom Holland & Zendaya To Return at The Playlist.