Ask any festival programmer about the fastest way to get your film rejected, and they’ll probably say “bad sound.” Filmmakers high on pursuing their vision can forget about sound, but when that happens, it’s the first thing a viewer notices. In other words, good audio can sometimes enhance a film’s storytelling, but bad audio always ruins it. In recent years, filmmaking has become more democratized than ever, a welcome development for the industry....
It seems only right that the star is now getting her very own documentary in the form of R.J. Cutler’s “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” but what might surprise you is just how much more Eilish — and her family, including Finneas and mom Maggie and dad Patrick — happily share in the intimate film. For Cutler, who has long excelled at getting his subjects, from the teenage stars of “American High” to political heavy-hitters in “The World According to Dick Cheney,” Eilish and her family provided another thrilling chance to look inside a world so many want to know more about....
Justin Chon’s overcranked but achingly heartfelt “Blue Bayou” is a case-study in how issue-driven melodramas are a double-edged sword. If done well, these tear-jerkers can emotionally galvanize audiences into grappling with the sort of social injustice that people tend to cry over in the dark of a theater and then leave behind when they re-emerge into the light of day. If done poorly, they risk glazing an urgent problem with a gloss of untruth, and making an all-too-real tragedy from our own backyard feel like the kind of thing that only happens in the movies....
Rafelson was best known for writing and directing “Five Easy Pieces” in 1970, which earned him critical acclaim and two Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. He also produced “Easy Rider” and “The Last Picture Show,” directed the “All Night Long” music video for Lionel Richie, and co-created “The Monkees.” Born in New York City in 1933, Rafelson studied at Dartmouth College and was later stationed in Japan while serving in the U....
“They’ll do anything. They’ve attacked me over everything possible, investigated every business dealing I’ve ever had,” Giuliani told radio station WABC Wednesday afternoon (via The Daily Beast). “And now the idiot Borat is going after me with a totally sensationalized false account of a ridiculous movie I guess that he’s done.” “Now let me tell you why I know this is a hit job that happens because, it’s not an accident that it happens that I turn in all this evidence on their prince and darling Joe Biden who’s one of the biggest crooks in the last thirty years, and since I have the courage to say that I’m the target,” he added....
More importantly, Cruise’s return to the character that propelled him into superstardom 36 years ago also represents a significant advancement for theater recovery. It is the highest initial gross for any non-comic book movie since December 2019. Propelling its success is an audience that’s been slow to return. It is also that rarest of creatures: a standalone film propelled by a star’s draw. Though not the biggest Memorial Day opening, “Maverick” might have had the highest average per-ticket price of any blockbuster (thanks to recent increases, including premium showings)....
“It’s about an hour and a half, which we treated as basically a feature-length Tex Avery cartoon,” said director and co-creator Mike Hollingsworth, a producer on “BoJack Horseman.” The result is just like what you’d find in a “Tom and Jerry” or a Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon. It follows a cat named Rowdy (James Adomian), who tries to steal a priceless piece of art from a museum while attempting to evade a security guard dog named Peanut (Alan Lee)....
