“I think one episode of this show was [the same cost as] maybe five of ‘Underground,’” Green said during HBO’s virtual “Lovecraft Country” panel, held during the CTAM Press Tour. “The playground you can play in is incredible. Our production designer said we had 162 sets. The VFX houses we’ve been working with, the makeup special effects places we’ve been working with — they’re some of the biggest. They make ‘Star Wars’ movies....
It turns out that the American writer Patricia Highsmith, whose work inspired such illustrious filmmakers as Alfred Hitchcock and Todd Haynes, was just as prolific and popular with the most interesting women of her time. Women lotharios are hardly as revered as their male counterparts, and even less so for history’s great queer romancers, whose lives are often reduced to their saddest highlights when they’re remembered at all. In centering the writer’s sexuality in her lively and captivating documentary “Loving Highsmith,” filmmaker Eva Vitija does a great service not only to fans of Highsmith’s, but to all of queer history....
Netflix’s brief synopsis for “Mank” reads: “1930s Hollywood is re-evaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane for ‘Orson Welles.’” Fincher’s return to moviemaking after 2014’s “Gone Girl” is headlined by Gary Oldman, recent Oscar winner for “Darkest Hour. “Mank” marks a rare opportunity for Oldman to appear natural on screen and not have to act through any extreme makeup or prosthetics....
The casting of Michael Gandolfini in the iconic role made famous by his late father has given “The Many Saints of Newark” a surge of buzz over the last year. In an interview with Vanity Fair last year, Gandolfini described “Saints” as “an origin story [of Tony Soprano] through the eyes of Dickie Moltisanti, Christopher’s father.” The actor added, “The Tony Soprano we know has this beautiful vulnerability underneath and this rough exterior, but what if we flip that on its side and you watch a creative, hopeful, kind, curious kid get whittled down and formed into what he has to be?...
“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” is the first feature-length take on the beloved children’s character that Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer Camp have spent years developing via three short films and two children’s books, 2011’s “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: Things About Me” and 2014’s “Marcel the Shell: the Most Surprised I’ve Ever Been.” In each iteration of the character, Slate has voiced the eponymous shell and Camp has handled directing duties....
“I was impressed the prequels had their own identity,” Hamill said. “They were criticized because they were exposition-heavy and more cerebral and probably, like he said back in 1976, they weren’t as commercial. It’s a darker story. But in the age of social media, people’s voices are amplified, and I’m shocked at how brutal they can be, not just in the case of ‘Star Wars’ films, but across the board.”...
Billed as “an exuberant portrait of adolescence on the verge of adulthood,” the film “follows a small group of teenagers in Flint, Michigan, during the lead-up to their senior prom — an event that has transcended the typical black-tie affair and become a rare communal opportunity to celebrate the achievements of its youth. The film looks at the significance of the dance in the lives of Flint’s youth, the preparation, and effort involved in participating, and the precarious juncture between expectation and reality....
