Mix in Monica Bellucci as the Jeffrey Epstein-esque queenpin of a child prostitution ring, Guy Pearce — no stranger to stories about anterograde amnesia — as a mustached FBI agent prone to wearily saying things like “Memory’s a motherfucker,” and pliable source material (the 2003 Belgian thriller “The Alzheimer Case”) that’s enriched by its new setting along Texas’ southern border, and it sounds like the recipe for a solid little programmer....

Drive will be seen Christmas Day in the four-episode prequel to the Netflix series “The Witcher: Blood Origin” as Seanchaí, a shapeshifting, time-traveling storyteller. The character may also pop up in future seasons of the main “Witcher” universe, with Season 3 starring Henry Cavill for the last time before Liam Hemsworth replaces him. But Driver doesn’t understand all the uproar about the recasting. “We come from this tradition of ‘Doctor Who’ where the Doctor regenerates,” Driver pointed out to EW in a recent interview....

The top film this weekend has, at times, taken more than $100 million, and usually at least $50 million. That’s despite the usual competition of pre-holiday events vying for attention. Normalcy would also include the release of major films, more than 4,000 theaters playing the biggest hits, and not to mention the absence of a pandemic killing more than 3,000 people a day. Things are different this year: Fewer than 40 percent of theaters are open, with 150 less than even last weekend....

The official synopsis for “Montana Story” describes the film as “a neo-Western with an emotional tremor hiding beneath it. Two estranged siblings (Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague) return home to the sprawling ranch they once knew and loved, confronting a deep and bitter family legacy against a mythic American backdrop.” The trailer shows Richardson and Teague attempting to sell their family’s ranch in an attempt to cover their dying father’s medical bills, attempting to make ends meet while processing childhood trauma from their complicated relationships with both him and each other....

There’s nothing wrong with a marketing tactic, and the stunt might lead some people to learn more about AMC’s overarching strategy. However, this is the world’s largest exhibitor announcing its return to business after being waylaid by the ongoing pandemic. By trumpeting one-day, 15-cent ticket pricing at approximately 100 locations — which allows audiences to see blockbuster classics like “Ghostbusters,” the same films that played drive-ins all summer — it reads as an industry addressing an existential crisis with a William Castle gimmick....

Last year, the National Board of Review honored Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” with its top prize for Best Film. It marked the rare time where the NBR top winner did not go on to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. During the 2010s, “A Most Violent Year” was the only winner not to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. NBR winners such as “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Hugo,” “Her,” “Manchester by the Sea,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and more all broke into the Academy’ Best Picture race, with 2018 NBR winner “Green Book” winning the Oscar for Best Picture....

Equity analysts at Wells Fargo, in this case a team led by Steven Cahall, applauded Netflix for “using every arrow in the quiver” in a continuing turnaround from the first half of 2022. For starters, content is “clearly improving,” they wrote, which alone helps reduce churn. “The hits never seem to stop coming over any reasonable period,” Cahall wrote of the world’s leading streaming service. Well, there was that one dark period....