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If this particular case is uncommonly illustrative of the situation at hand, that’s because of the disconnect between the specialness of the movie and the indifference with which it was dropped into the bottom of the streaming world’s biggest ocean. It’s understandable that most critics and Netflix subscribers have never heard of “A Sun,” but it’s telling that Netflix itself didn’t seem to be aware of the movie when Variety Chief Film Critic Peter Debruge — one of only nine people whose review of the film is listed on Rotten Tomatoes — began emailing the company’s publicists about it in September (in fairness to them, the pandemic has disrupted the usual festival-to-streaming pipeline, and “A Sun” has been denied many of the opportunities for exposure it might have received otherwise)....

What we don’t know is how big Cannes will be. France’s own entry guidelines continue to evolve with the pandemic, and many countries still don’t know if they’ll be able to travel. However the practicalities play out, Cannes has thrown down the gauntlet with this year’s selection. It doesn’t emphasize movie stars, and it may not fuel constant Oscar buzz, but it compensates with work that’s passionate about cinema and some of its greatest contemporary filmmakers....

While “Avatar: The Way of Water” director James Cameron is in a race against Marvel movies in terms of VFX digital effects, Nolan opted not to use computer-generated effects for the upcoming atomic bomb origin story “Oppenheimer.” That’s right: Nolan literally blew things up. “I think recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear weapon detonation ever] without the use of computer graphics was a huge challenge to take on,” Nolan told Total Film (via Games Radar)....

The Chicago Tribune’s negative “Citizen Kane” review was published under the pseudonym “Mae Tinee” and accompanied with the headline “Citizen Kane Fails to Impress Critic as Greatest Ever Filmed.” The review was published a few days after “Citizen Kane” first started rolling out into theaters in 1941. The critic branded the movie “a flop” and wrote that the film’s noir-inspired visuals and use of shadows “gives one the creeps.” “It’s interesting....

DANA HARRIS-BRIDSON: This was a busy week for Covid in Hollywood. We saw the guilds and producers tentatively negotiate a short-term deal that appears to be double-jointed in its flexibility: It simultaneously relaxes Covid protocols while “allowing” producers to require vaccinations in Zone A on sets. Meanwhile there’s a 15.7 percent positive test rate in Clark County, Nevada, where Las Vegas plans to host CinemaCon next month. In the U.K., A24’s “The Green Knight” was pulled from theatrical distribution two weeks before release in response to rapidly rising Covid fears — even though the country removed virtually all restrictions just a few days ago....

During an interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” with her friend and “Murder on the Orient Express” co-star Josh Gad, Ridley walked viewers through the history of changes that were made to Rey’s parentage throughout the production of her “Star Wars” trilogy. It turns out the earliest iteration of Rey had her being the offspring of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was one of the more popular fan theories floating around after the release of “The Force Awakens....

Based on the novel “I Diavoli” by Guido Maria Brera and acquired by The CW after its spring 2020 debut in Italy, “Devils” follows the psychological chess match that transpires between Massimo Ruggero (Alessandro Borghi), the head of trading at one of the world’s most important investment banks (the fictional NYL), and his mentor, NYL’s CEO Dominic Morgan (Patrick Dempsey, not quite in McDreamy form here), after Dominic appoints another colleague over Massimo, following a bitter promotion battle....