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The biggest problem with Pandemic Cinema — an emergent sub-genre largely defined by well-meaning dramas in which famous actors and/or opportunistic up-and-comers struggle with Zoom calls, sterilize their groceries, and otherwise memorialize the morbid tedium of the last 18 months — is that these movies are so hellbent on making us feel seen that they don’t have much to show us in return. Star-studded films such as “Locked Down” and “Together” and festival indies like “The End of Us” all strive to consecrate the surreality of love during the time of COVID, but they’re invariably overwhelmed by the sheer weight of their signifiers....

The docuseries, which consists of four hour-long episodes, will premiere May 5 on Netflix. Here’s Netflix’s synopsis: The hunt for the “Son of Sam” captivated the world in the late 1970s, but the story behind one of America’s most notorious serial murderers is all but forgotten — until now. While the arrest and conviction of David Berkowitz brought the nightmare to an end for many New Yorkers, for journalist and “Ultimate Evil” author Maury Terry, the real mystery was just beginning....

It’s easy to blame studios for not releasing more movies to fill the void, but the reality isn’t that simple. Covid upended production schedules, an increased reliance on special effects led to a massive production backlog, and the capacity for theaters to deliver grosses commensurate with 2019 or earlier isn’t there. When major releases demand a minimum of $30 million in marketing, studios lose incentive for theatrical releases. Related ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Continues Surge, Most Other New Titles Swoon as Holiday Nears End ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Could Reach $600 Million Domestic, $2 Billion Worldwide Related Oscars 2023: Best International Feature Film Predictions The 13 Best Slasher Movies Ever Made, from ‘Candyman’ to ‘Psycho’Domestic theaters managed about $52 million this weekend, possibly a low in this century (before 2020) in actual dollars, and certainly the fewest tickets sold for much longer....

In a new exclusive featurette, courtesy of MGM, Reznor, Ross, and Guadagnino opened up about the influences that went into crafting the film’s unique sound. “When we got the first cut of the film, no music or anything in it, we thought that this was a masterpiece,” Reznor said, emphasizing that his goal was always to find subtle ways to add texture to the understated love story. “We knew that the guitar was going to be the central element,” Ross added....

The 20th edition launched June 9 with the world premiere in all five boroughs of Jon M. Chu’s movie of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “In the Heights,” from relaxed lawn chairs on the Oval in Battery Park to the mask-free 91-year-old United Palace in Washington Heights. Mostly, outdoor venues at The Battery and a reopened Pier 76 at the Hudson River Park were the main attractions during the festival, which offered 56 world premieres out of 66 feature titles....

“All right, my absentee ballot never came, so I just left voting in person, so y’all get out and vote, get out and vote, get out and vote,” Perry said in a video shared with his 6.4 million Twitter followers. The filmmaker appeared in a car outside an unidentified polling place. Perry asked his followers on Monday if anyone else had trouble getting their absentee ballot delivered in the lead-up to the election....

“The first thing you’ve got to get your mind around is, it’s not Spider-Man,” Cameron said. “He goes by Spider-Man, but he’s not Spider-Man. He’s Spider-Kid. He’s Spider-High-School-Kid. He’s kind of geeky and nobody notices him and he’s socially unpopular and all that stuff.” In Cameron’s “Spider-Man,” the superhero’s powers are “a great metaphor” for “that untapped reservoir of potential that people have that they don’t recognize in themselves. And it was also in my mind a metaphor for puberty and all the changes to your body, your anxieties about society, about society’s expectations, your relationships with your gender of choice that you’re attracted to, all those things....