Rivkin, who previously collaborated with Cameron on the first “Avatar” as well as the Cameron-produced “Alita: Battle Angel,” was on “Way of Water” for a total of seven years due to his role in pre-production, when he worked with the art department to put together demonstration reels for the studio. While some of his time was spent working on material for future “Avatar” films, for the most part those seven years were spent on “Way of Water,” which placed incredible demands on the editing team given the performance capture techniques Cameron was using to record his actors’ performances as reference material for the CGI characters that would ultimately populate the film....

The compassionate new documentary “Bernstein’s Wall” spends about five minutes on this episode, clearly a headache-inducing one for Bernstein as revealed in archival interviews (“Oh god,” he says, putting his head in his hands) before his death in 1990. But it’s the most fascinating segment in this well-conceived documentary portrait, adoring but hardly hagiographic, which smartly implements no talking heads. Instead, director Douglas Tirola (“Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead”) lets Bernstein tells his own story, in his own words, as a Jew growing up in Boston who became a celebrity among New York’s cultural cognoscenti and, eventually, in Hollywood....

It’s a fine time to add more items to the X-Men collection. Whether you’re shopping for yourself, or getting a gift for anyone who loves the Marvel mutants, there’s so much to chose from that it can be overwhelming, but we’re here to help. X-Men fans have been through a lot over the years. Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Cyclops, Beast, and the rest of the X-Men crew are still popular characters in the Marvel Universe, though some fans feel that the film franchise has lost its luster, and just as a new class of mutants could be poised to lead the franchise....

That includes the limited drama series “Black Bird,” a true-crime psychological thriller developed and executive-produced by “Gone Baby Gone,” “Mystic River,” and “Shutter Island” author Dennis Lehane. Apple TV+ premieres the first two episodes on Friday, July 8, with one following each week through August 5. Watch the official trailer below. The series is adapted from the memoir “In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption” by James Keene and Hillel Levin....

Marvel Entertainment chief creative officer Kevin Feige discussed the Scarlett Johansson-led “Black Widow,” which will premiere in theaters and on Disney+ on July 9, and the possibility of other Marvel Cinematic Universe characters getting their own prequel films and spin-offs during a recent press conference. “Certainly this film and this story is a particular case for for Natasha,” Feige said, per SlashFilm. “But the notion of exploring the past, present, and future of the MCU is certainly in the cards for all of our characters....

This is nearly double “F9” (Universal), which took in $7.1 million from similar Thursday shows two weeks ago. It went on to gross $70 million for its initial weekend. Under normal circumstances, initial evening shows for Marvel films are among the biggest for “previews.” (The grosses are folded into the Friday result for one number, but usually reported as initial estimates.) Nothing compares to “Avengers: Endgame” in April 2019. It took in $60 million, a record, on its way to $357 million for its first weekend....

The Starz adaptation of the 2018 feature film “Blindspotting” is one of the most audacious and thought-provoking series on television, led by the astoundingly capable Jasmine Cephas Jones. Reprising her role as Ashley from the feature, the series sees Cephas Jones play a woman struggling to raise her young son in the wake of her boyfriend Miles’ (Rafael Casal) recent incarceration. The show’s blend of humor and social commentary has led to several beautiful and unique moments, including Ashley’s numerous spoken word verses to the camera, a crazy trip on mushrooms, and a date between Ashley and her subconscious version of Miles that’s totally romantic....