The brilliance of Reginald Hudlin’s documentary for Apple TV+ is that it lets him do just that. An incredibly gifted storyteller, Poitier, who died at age 94 in January 2022, opens “Sidney” by saying in voiceover, “I was not expected to live.” Of course we know that Poitier, who was born two months premature, his life hanging by a thread, did live, and lived exceptionally well, touching so many other lives with his groundbreaking Hollywood career....

Per usual, the sketch followed a group of horror enthusiasts on a haunted-house style carnival ride that shows them different horror villains in each room. Classic film characters like Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Pennywise the Clown all showed up in the sketch. But the ride quickly becomes saturated with appearances by David Pumpkins, a man in a pumpkin-patterned suit (who is apparently from Ibiza) and two dancing skeletons. Rather than try to scare the guests, he dances before cryptically asking if they have “any questions?...

The topic arose out of their discussion of Carey Mulligan’s complex turn as Cassie in the Oscar-contending thriller. “We immediately got each other,” Fennell said of her star. “It made making the film so much easier because we had a shorthand. I knew she knew exactly what I was thinking and we could work very quickly between ourselves. I think if it had been anyone else who we hadn’t known before, just physically getting the film made would have been tough because she didn’t need any talking down, she didn’t need any fluffing!...

It wasn’t an easy journey. Here, Jones recounts his history and how it inspired his new project, as told to IndieWire’s Eric Kohn. I grew up in San Antonio, Texas in a film-loving family, but I never thought writing or being part of the film industry was an option for me. We didn’t have a lot of money. There was a time during high school where I was on my own, living in a room at my aunt’s house, holding down two jobs while trying to graduate....

Reprising some of the shenanigans of his lovable “Elf” character, reliable funnyman Will Ferrell plays a jovial ghost of Christmas present opposite a dastardly Ryan Reynolds as a modern day Scrooge. Bolstered by a stellar ensemble, both Ferrell and Reynolds make surprisingly charming showmen, impressing with confident crooning — and even some light choreo. It’s refreshing to see two stars who could have easily phoned it in for the rest of their careers push themselves to try new things....

Korean auteur Hwang Dong-hyuk had written and directed four local features when he intuited that Netflix might be interested in expanding his “Squid Game” screenplay, which had been collecting dust for over a decade, into a series. After a torturously long writing process, and an eight-month shoot that was so stressful that the first-time showrunner and director lost six teeth, Hwang anticipated that his first foray into episodic television might hit big in Korea....

HBO announced Wednesday afternoon that the Oscar-winning star of “The Pianist” is joining the Season 3 cast of “Succession.” Per the network, Brody will be playing “Josh Aaronson, a billionaire activist investor who becomes pivotal in the battle for the ownership of Waystar.” Waystar, of course, is the Roy family’s media conglomerate, which at the end of Season 2 was under siege from outsiders and insiders alike. The official synopsis for the upcoming set of episodes lays out the stakes cleanly: Ambushed by his rebellious son Kendall (Emmy winner Jeremy Strong) at the end of Season 2, Logan Roy (Brian Cox) begins Season 3 in a perilous position....