“Eternals” is an ensemble-driven comic book movie starring the likes of Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee, and Kit Harington. The story takes place after the events of “Avengers: Endgame” and centers on an alien race living on Earth for over 7,000 years who team up to protect humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants. While many cinephiles have wondered how Zhao will approach a big-budget blockbuster, the filmmaker stressed last year she did not approach “Eternals” any differently than “The Rider” or “Nomadland....

But the reality is no director, including Lin, can be on the ground conducting each element. In fact, while Lin was on a soundstage in the U.K. with Vin Diesel and the “F9” cast, stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos’ second unit squad was in Thailand shooting huge action sequences that traverse through a jungle minefield and then down the side of mountain and, eventually, off a cliff. When Lin was on the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, we asked how he keeps his hand in directing the action from — literally — the other side of the globe....

The three high school-aged girls were all born in China but adopted by parents in the United States, and now live in Tennessee and Oklahoma City. After a mail-in DNA test connects them as blood-related cousins, they use social media to bond and eventually join together to travel to China — a place none of them has any firsthand experience of — to examine their past. The uncertainty surrounding their adoption stems from China’s One Child Policy, in effect from 1980 through 2015, which was meant to stimy China’s rapidly swelling population, but ultimately left many children displaced....

“Watching horror films is a disabling experience,” Angela M. Smith, Associate Professor of English and Gender Studies for the University of Utah and author of the book “Hideous Progeny: Disability, Eugenics, and Classic Horror Cinema,” said. “It’s a controlled encounter with discomfort, with the vulnerability of our minds and bodies to images and suggestions that opens us to unwilled transformations.” The horror film revels in the world of deformity and grotesqueness and, to a disabled viewer, that can be confusing in how relatable it is....

“It is presented very honestly, it isn’t tongue-in-cheek at all, and it’s played to the hilt,” Lucas said of the “Attack of the Clones” dialogue. “But it is consistent, not only with the rest of the movie, but with the overall ‘Star Wars’ style. Most people don’t understand the style of ‘Star Wars.’ They don’t get that there’s an underlying motif that is very much like a 1930s Western or Saturday matinee serial....

“Our main priority right now is launching an integrated SVOD service,” CEO David Zaslav said on the earnings call for the June quarter. The plan to combine the two services has long been in the works as a key part of the deal to combine the former WarnerMedia and Discovery, which closed in April. The combined service, which will have both “ad-light” and ad-free versions, similar to HBO Max’s current plans, will launch first in the U....

Little, if anything, has made a difference. Allen’s reputation remains exactly where it belongs — in the trash heap — but in case the once-vindicated auteur thought he could spin, wait out, or once again dodge the charges leveled against him — in the court of public opinion, at least — here comes “Allen v. Farrow,” a four-part HBO documentary series from directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering. The two filmmakers have already crafted a powerful trilogy exposing sexual abuse in various American institutions (“The Invisible War,” “The Hunting Ground,” and last year’s “On the Record”), and while their first docuseries is largely focused on one infamous act, its thorough evaluation is enlightening beyond what happened to this famous family....