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Throughout his speeches for his record-breaking four Oscar wins yesterday (the most amount ever awarded to one person for one film), Sean Baker thanked his team, his distributors, his cast, and his crew, and the sex-worker community, and his dog Bunsen. By the time Anora bagged Best Picture, the orchestra once more striking up Take That’s ‘Greatest Day’, there was barely anyone left to thank. Just as Anora is a fairy-tale story, this was a fairy-tale win for, as Baker said during his final speech, “a truly independent film” made by someone who, a decade ago, was on the verge of jacking it all in.

I first met Baker in 2015, interviewing him for his fifth feature, the transgender sex-worker comedy drama Tangerine, which tore through the screen just as its protagonists tore through Hollywood. Its heroines were hustlers, as was Baker, not that he particularly wanted to be. He...

Claire Denis is known for her portrayal of sensuous themes in her films. The images in a Claire Denis film are filled with human bodies and tight close-ups, and the camera is positioned in such a manner that it seems to caress them softly. Additionally, Denis’ use of music enhances the visuals with an added depth of poetry. Yet, beneath this apparent tenderness lies a brutality. The interesting part is that it doesn’t serve the purpose of shock value but rather emerges as an interior desire inherent to the human condition.

Her 2001 film “Trouble Every Day” is a prime example of this seamless blending of tenderness and brutality. It consists of two separate arcs that converge midway through the film. In one arc, the story follows a newlywed American couple on their honeymoon in Paris. Despite being on his honeymoon, the husband, Shane Brown (Vincent Gallo), a scientist by profession,...

French filmmaker Claire Denis (High Life) made waves in 2001 with the erotic cannibal thriller Trouble Every Day. Now, the auteur is in talks to venture back into cannibal territory to helm crime drama The Soap Maker, Variety reports today.

The English-language film is a remake of the 1977 dark comedy Gran Bollito (Black Journal) by director Mauro Bolognini. The cult film starred Shelley Winters as “a serial killer who cooked the bodies of her victims into soap, cake and cookies.”

What’s even more intriguing is that both The Soap Maker and Gran Bollito are based on the infamous true account of Italy’s Leonarda Cianciulli, a serial killer who emerged in the late ’30s and disposed of her victims’ bodies by incorporating them into baked treats, soaps, and candles. Producers of The Soap Maker have access to Cianciulli’s diary, which was allegedly written in the psychiatric prison where she...

On a Tuesday in February, Hollywood is in the throes of a “Bonfire of the Vanities” moment. Karla Sofía Gascón’s old social media posts, with shocking takes on George Floyd (“a drug addict swindler”) and Islam (“an infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured”), are roiling awards season and have turned the actress into a pariah. But the “Emilia Pérez” star, the first openly trans person nominated for an acting Oscar, is also a tricky subject to satirize.

Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert have ignored the conflagration that has engulfed this year’s standard-bearing #Resistance film. The task is left to Greg Gutfeld, whose eponymous Fox News show has made him the most-watched man in late night.

During a taping of his top-rated “Gutfeld!,” he scrolls through the offending tweets and booms dramatically, “The more I read of these, the more I’m starting to like this broad.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

Vincent Gallo writes, directs, and / or stars in Buffalo ’66, Trouble Every Day, and The Brown Bunny, all playing on 35mm; a print of Twilight screens Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

Dutchman and We Are Universal play in a two-for-one screening.

Japan Society

A six-film Nobuhiko Obayashi retrospective has two final showings on Friday.

Anthology Film Archives

Willem Dafoe: Wild at Heart features films by Schrader, Lynch, Scorsese, and Kathryn Bigelow.

Film at Lincoln Center

A career-spanning Frederick Wiseman retrospective continues.

Museum of the Moving Image

Snubbed Forever continues.

IFC Center

A new 4K restoration of Picnic at Hanging Rock continues; Fire Walk with Me, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Dr. screen; Fargo, The Thing, Irreversible, and House show late.

Film Forum

Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman begins playing in a new 4K restoration; The Little Mermaid screens on Sunday.

Wadzilla director Adam Rifkin is gearing up for yet another eclectic production, accompanied this time by a star-studded cast that will include the somewhat infamous James Franco alongside a plethora of other household names. Entitled Toad, the upcoming project has been described as "a psychedelic stoner comedy" that will put viewers at the center of a trippy, drug-fueled odyssey to Las Vegas and beyond.

Rifkin's Toad follows the shenanigans of Alex and Sam, two down-on-their-luck stoners who end up in the service of menacing crime lord Charles (Robinson), and are subsequently pressured into transporting a mysterious package from LA to Vegas. When Alex and Sam decide to take a peek inside the box, they discover live, psychedelic "acid" toads which promptly begin to overheat, leaving our hapless protagonist duo no option but to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. As a result, Alex and Sam are dosed with extreme amounts of the toads' psychedelic ooze,...

Romance movies are usually bubbly and fun. More often than not, the genre is mixed with comedy, giving audiences an easily palatable film to watch for a date night or maybe even with mom at a matinée. However, some romance movies take gambles and offer scenes that are considered risqué and a bit daring. The storyline may be full of trigger warnings, or the nudity may be shocking for some people's sensibilities. R-rated romance movies in particular are the ones to take the biggest risks.

"Risky" is a subjective adjective, but when it comes to romance movies, the ones that qualify are the ones that explore taboo subject matter or feature graphic scenes of sexual content. Some of these films churned up controversy, while others faced backlash from the MPAA that could have affected their marketability and rating when released in theaters. Regardless of why they're risky, these R-rated romance...

The 1990s were a special time for creating some weird and downright bizarre films that pushed every boundary imaginable. It was a decade that started seeing a snowball effect in terms of the advancement of technology and techniques of special effects and visuals that helped provide an outlet for the filmmaker's wildest ideas. Before the time of big-budget franchises and endless sequels, studios were more likely to take risks both in terms of films with weird source material and the way the films were shot, which produced some incredible and extremely odd films.

Many of these movies took weirdness to new heights in almost every aspect of cinema to create some intense, thought-provoking, and mind-bending film experiences. Movies like the shocking Freaked, which presented some grotesque characters and haunting sequences, and Harmony Korines Gummo, which provides a unique and mostly horrifying snapshot of small-town America and its inhabitants. Many films...

Since her sparkling debut in 1995 – in Larry Clark’s Kids – this American original has been an indie cinema favourite, excelling in edgy, complex roles. We pick the standouts

Kudos to Sevigny for fully committing herself to fellating her director and co-star, Vincent Gallo, in the sleaziest, least necessary scene in his downbeat, 1970s-style road movie. Elsewhere, the driving sequences are mesmerising, but I must be careful what I write about the iffy sexual politics since Gallo once called me a “commie lesbian witch”.

James Franco confirmed he still has not spoken with Seth Rogen since their relationship fell apart after Franco was accused of sexual misconduct.

Franco briefly discussed his erstwhile friendship/collaborative partnership with Rogen, as well the years since his “cancellation,” in a new interview with Variety centered around his new movie, Hey Joe.

“I haven’t talked to Seth,” he said. “I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess it’s over. And not for lack of trying. I’ve told him how much he’s meant to me.

Before 2018, you couldn’t go more than a few months without at least one James Franco project hitting theaters or TV. The guy was a workaholic and was everywhere. Just as his career seemed to be hitting its peak, with his movie about The Room, The Disaster Artist, being tipped for Oscar nominations and his HBO show The Deuce a hit, his career hit the skids. After appearing at the 2018 Golden Globes wearing a “Time’s Up” pin, accusations of sexual misconduct were lobbed at the actor, and suddenly he was persona non grata, with everyone, including his former pal and co-star Seth Rogen, seemingly cutting ties with him overnight.

After many years of lying low (although he did film two more seasons of The Deuce), Franco has re-emerged, with him acting now mostly in European fare, such as the Italian-language film Joe, plus a sequel to the French film Largo Winch,...

James Franco is tucked away in the corner of a five-star hotel lobby on Rome’s Via Veneto, sipping an Americano coffee. Wearing a chocolate brown hoodie he proudly says he co-designed, the actor and filmmaker looks relaxed and flashes his signature smile.

He’s in the Eternal City for the Rome Film Festival launch of Italian director Claudio Giovannesi’s “Hey Joe.” In the gritty drama, Franco plays Dean, an alcoholic American WWII vet who winds up back in Naples in the early ’70s in search of a son he fathered there before absconding to New Jersey.

The film is his first to surface on the fest circuit since his career went on hiatus following a now-settled 2019 lawsuit alleging that he sexually exploited young women who took his acting class. As he sips his coffee, Franco and I agree that his character is looking for redemption. Could the same be said of Franco?...

[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in February 2022 and has been updated multiple times since.]

Sex on film is nothing new, and yet unsimulated intercourse in non-pornographic movies has raised eyebrows and drawn eyeballs for decades. From Vincent Gallo’s controversial directing for “The Brown Bunny” to Robert Pattinson’s masturbatory method acting in “Little Ashes,” genuine intimate encounters captured on film — however staged they may be — can pull audiences into the bigger stories their writers and directors are trying to tell.

Catherine Breillat’s first film in 1976, “A Real Young Girl,” adapts her own controversial novel about a 14-year-old exploring her newfound sexuality. Breillat’s later work, 1999’s “Romance,” tells the story of a woman desperately seeking human connection and featured similar scenes, including sadomasochistic sex play.

“Actors are prostitutes because they’re asked to play other feelings,” Breillat told IndieWire. “This prostitution is not profane; it’s a sacred act that we give them.”

John Cameron Mitchell set out to “honor” sex as a pastime for real people,...

The 1989 Beetlejuice cartoon is a hidden gem from the Tim Burton canon. The aesthetic matches Tim Burton's eccentric, gothic style perfectly, while adapting it for a lighthearted children's audience. Even the series' voice actors for Lydia and Beetlejuice are the perfect cartoonish counterparts to Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton.

The Beetlejuice cartoon explores more of the Land of the Dead, though they call it the Neitherworld. The story retains iconic characters, like the sandworms and Delia Deetz, and introduces a bevy of new characters, like Prince Vince and Jacques Lalean. The series spans four seasons and has many memorable episodes worth replaying over and over.

Updated on October 17, 2024 by Mayra Garcia: Following the success of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, fans of this franchise have rediscovered the 1989 Beetlejuice cartoon, an underestimated piece of its time. Anyone wanting to dip into this show should start with these episodes. This list has been...

Throughout history, horror films have always been social activities -- manageable mini-adventures to be experienced in kinship with a friend, a group, a date, a significant other. There's something perennially appealing about sharing a scary and disturbing movie with someone you love, seeing them react alongside you, feeling bound by a collective sense of dread, encouraging each other to shrug off the fight-or-flight instinct, and ride it out when a scene gets too horrifying. A good horror film can even bring people closer. But horror films are seldomly family events.

To be sure, there is a certain logic to watching specific horror movies with family members. The urgency of a survival adventure like "Train to Busan" or "A Quiet Place," the simmering intensity of a creature thriller like "Jaws" or "Alien," the roller-coaster-ride excitement of a game transformed into an exercise in terror in "The Conjuring," or the unspooling mysteries...

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated several times since.

Deserved or not, French cinema has a reputation for being a little racy. From classics like “Belle de Jour” to controversial modern films like “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” French film has consistently pushed the boundaries of sexuality and sensuality onscreen. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the country’s premier film festival Cannes is such an oasis for sexually explicit films, ones that have frequently generated controversy over its history — especially when these films feature unsimulated sexual acts.

Unsimulated sex onscreen at Cannes dates back to at least 1973, when the film “Thriller — a Cruel Picture,” featuring several acts of hardcore unsimulated porn, played at the festival. In the years afterwards, particularly provocative and avant-garde works like “Sweet Movie” and “The Idiots” caused shock at Cannes by presenting audiences with real, unvarnished sexual content.

The Cannes Film Festival is arguably the single most prestigious film festival in all of world cinema. Every year, hundreds descend on the French resort town for two weeks of screenings from some of the film industry’s most respected auteurs. If you want high-quality cinema, or movie star glamour, Cannes supplies all of that in abundance.

But maybe it’s because Cannes is such a shiny beacon atop the cinematic landscape that it’s also so frequently embroiled in massive controversies, in a way that American festivals like, say, Sundance don’t really manage, at least not anymore. It’s not an every year occurrence, but whenever Cannes starts up in May, putting money on something happening to make people very angry is generally the safer bet.

Sometimes, the controversy has to do with the films playing on the Croisette themselves. Take notorious projects like “The Brown Bunny,” a...

When most cinephiles think of Francis Ford Coppola, they think of his miracle run in the 1970s. During that decade, he directed four films, all of them five-star masterpieces: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather, Part II, and Apocalypse Now. Or they think of embarrassments from his for-hire period, including the Robin Williams weepy Jack. Yet those five films hardly encapsulate the entire career of Francis Ford Coppola, which will likely end with the upcoming Megalopolis. Instead the best indication of Coppola as an artist and filmmaker might be found in the most recent movies he’s made, with Coppola having released three self-produced and self-financed pictures every two years between 2007 and 2011: Youth Without Youth, Twixt, and Tetro.

Although they vary in quality, and none top his work from the ’70s, this independent trio captures the experimental and romantic heart that lies at the center of Coppola’s overall oeuvre.

James Franco and Tommy Lee Jones have been cast in the action thriller The Razor's Edge, which begins production June 25. The film follows a mob hitman facing a perilous mission after his daughter's kidnapping. After being cancelled in 2018, Franco is trying to make a comeback with international films from France and Cuba and dark thrillers like The Razor's Edge and The Policeman.

Producer Corey Large announced today, May 13, that actors James Franco and Tommy Lee Jones have been cast in the action thriller The Razors Edge. Demian Lichtenstein (3000 Miles to Graceland) is directing the film from a screenplay co-written by Lichtenstein and Vance Duplechin. Red Sea Media will be handling international sales and will debut the film for buyers at the upcoming March du Film in Cannes. Production starts June 25 in Georgia.

The synopsis for The Razor's Edge reads as follows:

After a mob hitman vows to leave his deadly past behind,...

On the indie side of filmmaking life, Sean Price Williams has seen it all. He’s worked with the Safdies, Alex Ross Perry, Nathan Silver, Robert Green, and Athina Rachel Tsangari, and often more than once. He’s the premier chronicler of New York City independent movies behind the camera, typically shooting on celluloid, and bringing surreal, gritty poetry to character-driven stories that feel on the ground like portraits of versions of ourselves.

One of the most unabashedly movie-loving cinematographers working today, Williams last year moved to directing for the sprawling, scratchy-edged tale of East Coast youth, “The Sweet East,” which remains in theaters and features stars like Jacob Elordi, Simon Rex, Jeremy O. Harris, and Ayo Edebiri.

But even more recently than that directorial debut, he released a “1000 Movies” book via Metrograph Editions, a simple, unadorned paperback that offers, rather than commentary, pages listing his favorite essential films and...

Plot: Dan Lawson, a Chicago detective, travels to Scotland to link up with Scottish Det. Boyd, following the resurgence of a serial killer whose crimes match an unsolved case that he looked into 5 years previous in Chicago.

Review: Ever since David Fincher’s Se7en, I’ve been a fan of the simple premise of a detective hunting down a serial killer. This game of cat and mouse allows for just the right amount of mystery and intrigue that will keep you guessing until the end. I’d argue the big reveal at the end is nearly as synonymous with crime thrillers as cops and criminals. If there’s one thing a good mystery needs, it’s something unexpected. And Damaged certainly has that.

The story follows Detective Lawson (Samuel L. Jackson) as he travels to Scotland to help with a case. Someone is recreating the murders that Lawson investigated back in Chicago five years prior,...

James Franco's attempt to rebuild his image is met with skepticism due to past allegations and controversial film choices. The controversy surrounding his involvement with Vincent Gallo's film raises questions about his judgment and reputation. Despite ongoing career setbacks, Franco's comeback attempts continue, leaving many to wonder if his past will overshadow his future roles.

James Franco has been in the news, and it's not for the right reasons. Along with Vincent Gallo, the actor has had allegations leveled against him that are difficult to defend and bounce back from. It is no wonder he is now attempting to rebuild his image with several upcoming roles on the horizon, even if they are far from his lead actor blockbuster days.

What is Franco trying to do, and will it work? The answers are a bit murky. It turns out that being accused of certain things during the post-...

Recent allegations of misconduct against Vincent Gallo threaten to end his career in the movie industry. Gallo's treatment of actresses during auditions for The Policeman involved degrading comments and intimidation, raising concerns about his behavior. The production company claims that the events were consensual and evaluated by a professional intimacy coordinator, but further investigation will determine the consequences for Gallo.

The following article contains mature themes that some readers may find disturbing.

There's a right way and a wrong to build press for a film, and if the early stories coming out of Rolling Stone Magazine are credible, it could mean disaster for the crime thriller The Policeman. Directed by Jordan Gertner and starring James Franco and Vincent Gallo, the new project has been the target of some alarming claims by at least three actresses, each seeming to corroborate the tone and substance of each other's complaints. Though the...

The last time our writer interviewed him, the drugged up director dozed off then asked for coke. Now sober, he reflects on #MeToo, Italian fascism and his fight for the final cut

The last time I met Abel Ferrara, he dozed off in the middle of our interview then woke up and asked me to score him some coke. It was 1996, and he was in the UK promoting his gangster drama The Funeral – which the actor Vincent Gallo alleged Ferrara had been too blitzed on crack to direct properly – and his vampire horror The Addiction. He was on a roll, his reputation fortified by King of New York, starring Christopher Walken as a flamboyant crime boss, and the gruelling Bad Lieutenant, with Harvey Keitel as a bent junkie cop. Ferrara was the scuzzball Scorsese: no matter how celebrated he became, he never shed the patina of grime from his...

To the surprise of no one, it sounds like Vincent Gallo is still a creep. Or he’s still interested in the most extreme forms of method acting possible—or some combo of the two. It’s up for the reader to judge here, as IndieWire reports (via Rolling Stone) that three actresses have gone to the Screen Actors Guild to file formal complaints against Gallo for creating a hostile work environment during auditions for the upcoming film “The Policeman.” It sounds, as per usual, that the actor took things too far.

Continue reading ‘The Policeman’: Vincent Gallo Reportedly Encouraged Unsimulated Sex Scenes & “Torture Porn Fantasies” During Auditions For Upcoming Serial Killer Pic at The Playlist.

Vincent Gallo and his new film The Policeman are being scrutinized by SAG-AFTRA following the emergence of misconduct complaints against Gallo by multiple female actors, Deadline has confirmed.

“We are aware of these complaints and are investigating,” said a spokesperson for the guild. “We extensively engaged with production regarding the complaints and, while shooting has wrapped, we continue to monitor and investigate. We also reaffirm our commitment to ensuring a safe and respectful environment on set. Because our inquiry is ongoing, we cannot respond to specifics of the complaint.”

Written and directed by Jordan Gertner, and co-starring James Franco, The Policeman has Gallo playing Golden State killer Joseph James DeAngelo, a serial murderer and rapist who began terrorizing California residents all the way back in the 1970s, only being brought to justice in 2018. The complaints spotlight sexual comments allegedly made by Gallo, the controversial actor known for projects like The Brown Bunny,...

SAG-AFTRA confirms to Variety that it’s investigating the production of Vincent Gallo’s new movie “The Policeman,” in which the controversial star of “The Brown Bunny” and “Buffalo ’66” plays the Golden State serial killer Joseph James DeAngelo. Auditions for the Jordan Gertner-directed film took place in November 2023, and it was filmed in the Portland, Oregon, area in December 2023. According to Rolling Stone, three female actors who auditioned for the film filed a formal complaint to SAG-AFTRA alleging that Gallo was inappropriate toward them.

“We are aware of these complaints and are investigating,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. “We extensively engaged with production regarding the complaints and, while shooting has wrapped, we continue to monitor and investigate. We also reaffirm our commitment to ensuring a safe and respectful environment on set.”

According to the complaint, Gallo said lewd comments to the actors during the audition process. The actors...

Actor allegedly made sexually explicit and unsettling remarks during casting process for serial killer thriller The Policeman

The actor Vincent Gallo is being investigated by the Sag-Aftra union after several women alleged he made inappropriate remarks to them during the casting process for the movie The Policeman.

At least three women reported Gallo to the actors’ union for sexually explicit and unsettling comments he allegedly made during the casting process for the film in November 2023, Rolling Stone first reported.

The Brown Bunny actor Vincent Gallo has been accused of making sexually explicit and threatening comments in auditions with actresses for an upcoming film in a new report in Rolling Stone.

Two actresses who auditioned to play victim roles in The Policeman, a film starring Gallo as so-called “Golden State Killer” Joseph James DeAngelo, filed complaints to actors union SAG-AFTRA after comments that Gallo allegedly made during the casting process. SAG-AFTRA responded by launching an investigation into casting for the film, which is written and directed by Spring Breakers and The Virgin Suicides producer Jordan Gertner and co-stars James Franco in one of his first roles since being accused of sexual and exploitative behavior at his acting school in 2018.

A SAG-AFTRA spokesperson said in a comment to The Hollywood Reporter, “We are aware of these complaints and are investigating. We extensively engaged with production regarding the complaints and, while shooting has wrapped,...

Vincent Gallo is accused of creating a hostile work environment 20 years after his infamous unsimulated sex scenes in “The Brown Bunny” and allegations on the “Buffalo ’66” set.

Gallo, who is set to portray serial killer and rapist Joseph James DeAngelo Aka the Golden State Killer in the upcoming film “The Policeman,” was at the center of at least three formal actor complaints to the Screen Actors Guild. James Franco, who also has previously been accused of sexual misconduct, co-stars in “The Policeman,” which is written and directed by Jordan Gertner.

Rolling Stone reported that during the casting process, a trio of actresses alleged Gallo made inappropriate advances and demanded abuse scenes be “fully improvised” have authentic reactions onscreen.

One complaint alleged that Gallo said, “If I say to suck my dick or I will kill you, I want you, you the person, not you the character, not you the actor,...

When Emily* showed up to her callback audition for a new film titled The Policeman starring Vincent Gallo, she knew it would be intense. In The Policeman, Gallo, who has a reputation for acting in controversial and edgy projects, plays serial killer and rapist Joseph James DeAngelo, also known as the Golden State Killer. The actress was auditioning to play one of his female victims who is raped and killed, and she was aware of the nudity and violence involved, as well as the dark nature of the film itself.

Roger Ebert was a man of his word. He never minced them, and he always stood by them. Over the decades of his career, the world was blessed with a number of rivalries and back-and-forths between Ebert and other figures in the film industry. Highlights include an argument spurred by his damnation of a grimy little horror named Chaos, and the time infamous weirdo Vincent Gallo claimed to have successfully cursed Ebert with cancer in return for a bad review of his movie The Brown Bunny. Although a number of filmmakers have exchanged heated words with Ebert over the years, director Roland Emmerich pulled an entirely different punch in the late '90s with his notoriously bad take on Godzilla. Handled differently, it could have been a good-humored jab that Ebert and his colleague Gene Siskel were amused by. However, the way Emmerich approached his distaste for the pair’s reviews didn’t quite land,...

For this month’s installment of “TV Terrors” we revisit the animated series adaptation of Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice,“ which aired from 1989 to 1991 on ABC/Fox Network.

In the eighties and nineties, studios were never shy about taking mature intellectual properties and cashing in on them by giving them their own animated spinoffs for kids. Among the rather extensive list were direct G-rated adaptations like “Rambo,” “Conan,” “Ace Ventura,” and even “Police Academy.” One of the most notable, and more widely celebrated adaptations was of Tim Burton’s 1988 hit film Beetlejuice. While the original movie excelled in being as menacing, bizarre, and raunchy as possible, executive producers Tim Burton and David Geffen opted for a more kid friendly variation of the “Ghost with the Most” for the animated series.

Aimed more for the 8-12 Saturday morning cartoon demographic, the animated show thankfully stuck true to much of what made the movie so entertaining.

Model, actress, director and author Elisa Sednaoui has been a regular on the Lido red carpet for years, even hosting the Venice Festival’s opening and closing ceremonies in 2015.

As a model, she’s been a muse for Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Louboutin and the face of numerous campaigns for Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Roberto Cavalli, Ermanno Scervino, Bucellati, and Lacôme, among others. Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino directed her in a commercial for Missoni perfume and she’s one of only a handful of models to appear in two editions of the Pirelli calendar (in 2011 and 2013).

Off the runway, she’s appeared in such features as Sharunas Bartas’s drug smuggling drama Eastward Drift (2010), alongside Vincent Gallo, in Davide Manuli’s sci-fi western The Legend of Kaspar Hauser (2012) and in the 2014 Italian comedy Soap Opera from director Alessandro Genovesi. Behind the camera, she co-directed, with Martina Gill, the 2012 documentary...

The Prime Video fantasy series Good Omens is back for yet another season. Originally meant to serve as a limited series, Good Omens sees David Tennant and Michael Sheen play the roles of Crowley and Azriaphale, a demon and angel, respectively, who reside on Earth as representatives of Heaven and Hell. It was a resounding hit on both BBC Two and Prime Video due in part to the utterly charismatic performances by both Tennant and Sheen.

But before Good Omens, before Jessica Jones, even before a beloved tenure on Doctor Who, David Tennant's first theatrical lead role was in a forgotten romantic dramedy from the late 1990s. Titled L.A. Without a Map, it would be Tennant's second ever film role following a bit part in 1996's Jude, with Tennant starring alongside other big names like Vincent Gallo, Vinessa Shaw, and even Johnny Depp. If you've never seen L.A. Without a Map before,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

Throughout this weekend we’re proudly presenting Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo on 35mm and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People, marking the New York premiere of American Zoetrope’s 4K restoration––further details, including how to get discounted tickets, are here––while Desperately Seeking Susan also plays.

"[The Rain People] is the only time I think of a movie when I'm making a movie. The only one." — Vincent Gallo

We're hosting the New York premiere of American Zoetrope's 4K restoration @RoxyCinemaNYC this weekend, alongside 'Rio Bravo' on 35mm: https://t.co/txwXR32yRm pic.twitter.com/9p6knmwNa8

— The Film Stage (@TheFilmStage) July 27, 2023

Museum of Modern Art

Films by Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis, and Todd Haynes screen on 35mm as part of “Views from the Vault.”

Bam

A series on second features has begun.

IFC...

The Film Stage is elated to announce a double feature at New York’s Roxy Cinema: on Friday, July 28 we’ll introduce Francis Ford Coppola’s 1969 film The Rain People––marking the New York premiere of its 4K restoration––and a 35mm print of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo, both of which continue screening through the weekend.

The Film Stage readers will receive a discounted $12 ticket with mention of our program at the Roxy’s box office. (Don’t be shy––their employees are very nice.) We look forward to seeing you at the movies.

The Rain People—New York Premiere of 4K Restoration

Friday, July 28 at 7:00pm

Saturday, July 29 at 5:45pm

Sunday, July 30 at 8:00pm

“If I could say I could have been in any Coppola film, I would have probably wanted to star in The Rain People.” –– Vincent Gallo

Despite consistent acclaim, The Rain People is...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including the exclusive streaming premiere of Lars von Trier’s The Idiots in a new 4K restoration, Céline Devaux’s anti-romcom Everybody Loves Jeanne, and Tyler Taormina’s Happer’s Comet.

Additional selections include three films by Wong Kar Wai, a Robert Altman double feature, four works by Jacques Rivette, plus shorts by Mia Hansen-Løve and Yorgos Lanthimos.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

July 1 – Synecdoche, New York, directed by Charlie Kaufman

July 2 – 2046, directed by Wong Kar Wai | As Time Goes By: Three by Wong Kar Wai

July 3 – The Exiles, directed by Kent MacKenzie

July 4 – Ivansxtc, directed by Bernard Rose

July 5 – Un Pur Esprit, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve | Short Films Big Names

July 6 – Contemporary Color, directed by Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross | Turn It Up: Music on Film

July 7 – The Idiots, directed by Lars von Trier...

Exclusive: Actor and online influencer Alexis Ren has signed with WME in all areas.

Ren is best known for her breakout performance opposite Antonio Banderas in the 2022 crime thriller The Enforcer, in addition to having a vast online presence. On Instagram alone, Ren carries over 17 million followers. With WME, Ren will seek new opportunities on-screen in television and film alongside digital, fashion and brand partnerships.

Earlier this year, Deadline reported that Ren has signed on to star in Latency, a gamer action thriller written and directed by James Croke. Ren will join Russian model and actor Sasha Luss in the flick, which follows Hana, a professional gamer who suffers from acute agoraphobia. When Hana receives a new game controller that works by interpreting her brain activity, with the help of her best friend Jen, she experiments with this new device only to soon discover the device may, in fact, be controlling her.

Director John Swab has gathered a talented ensemble for his new action comedy One Day as a Lion, which was penned by its leading actor Scott Caan. Following in the footsteps of Tarantino classics and Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, the crime-filled film follows a hitman named Jackie Powers (played by Caan himself) who messes up a job and gets in even more trouble with his would-be target (played by Jk Simmons). One Day as a Lion kicks into high gear when he takes a bored waitress named Lola (Marianne Rendón) as his hostage, only to discover she may be just who he needs to free his kid from jail and get his own life together.

But first, they need to seek help from her hateful but glamorous mother Valerie (played by Virginia Madsen), who has plenty of money but doesn't wish to share it with her daughter. Madsen may...

Lionsgate's newest action comedy, One Day as a Lion, even has a bit of romance going for it. But the multifaceted film's real strength is the group of creatives who came together to make it happen. Directed by John Swab from a screenplay by Scott Caan, who stars in the project as well, One Day as a Lion follows Jackie Powers as he messes up a hit job in pursuit of a higher calling. Namely, he is ready to do what it takes to get his son out of jail, even if he holds a waitress hostage and makes mobsters mad in the process.

One Day as a Lion counts the Coen brothers films and Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66 among its many inspirations, and it's clear the tight-knight cast had fun paying homage to classics. In addition to Caan, One Day as a Lion stars Swab's frequent partner Frank Grillo as Pauly Russo,...

One Day as a Lion is a film that harkens back to a bygone era, recalling classics of the '70s and onwards. The crime drama follows a boxer-turned-hitman named Jackie Powers (Scott Caan) who is clearly in the wrong profession. When his latest job goes wildly awry, he embarks on an accidental adventure with a crafty waitress named Lola (Marianne Rendón) who just might have what it takes to turn his life around.

John Swab directed One Day as a Lion from a screenplay penned by Caan himself, which pays homage to the films of Quentin Tarantino as well as to Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66. It also stars Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, Oscar nominee Virginia Madsen, Taryn Manning, and longtime collaborator Frank Grillo as the dangerous yet hilarious Pauly Russo.

Related: 10 Best Lesser-Known Mob Films, According To Reddit

Screen Rant spoke to Swab about how he collaborated with...

You can always count on horror to test boundaries, so it’s no surprise that the genre has long explored the taboo of cannibalism. Cannibals are most often associated with exploitation horror, leading to a cannibal horror boon in the ’70s and early ’80s, thanks to Italian horror filmmakers like Umberto Lenzi, Ruggero Deodato, and Joe D’Amato. But as the Video Nasty craze came and went and time evolved the genre, so did the depiction of cannibalism.

The ’90s brought horror’s most common depiction of cannibals out of the jungle and into society, largely thanks to The Silence of the Lambs’ Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). The Academy Award-winning feature adapted Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel and introduced a supporting character so fascinating that he overshadowed the film’s actual antagonist, Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). Protagonist Clarice Starling gets assigned to interview the incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer in the hopes that Dr.

Exclusive: Conservative media firm The Daily Wire has optioned exclusive film and TV series rights to develop and produce an adaptation of Ayn Rand’s dystopian 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, the author’s most heralded work.

The company is planning to produce a series adaptation for distribution on its streaming platform, Dailywire+. Daily Wire co-ceo Jeremy Boreing just announced the deal in a livestreamed town hall address.

Related Story The Daily Wire Staffs Up Kids Division With Hire Of 'Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure' Showrunner As SVP Animation Development & Production Related Story The Daily Wire Will Launch Its First Original Movie 'Shut In' On YouTube For Free Related Story 'Shut In': Release Date, New Trailer & Images Revealed For Daily Wire Thriller With Rainey Qualley, Vincent Gallo

Atlas Shrugged, which has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, depicts a dystopian United States in which private businesses suffer under increasingly burdensome laws and regulations.

Eo (2022).It is not often that a film is made with radical sympathy. Too often, movies ignore the longing and pain of people, excluding their existence in form and feeling from storyworlds. And if such things are acknowledged, the movie will tend to make up for this rarity by overplaying misery and desperation. Jerzy Skolimowski's Eo, a tremendously sad but also overwhelmingly beautiful picture, chooses the radical path. The film is devoted, in body and soul, style and spirit, to sympathizing with another creature, and one who suffers a great deal without exploiting either its pathos or the viewer’s emotional reserves. Skolimowski and his co-writer, producer, and wife Ewa, in the spirit of great compassion, tell the story not of a human creature, but of an animal; and better yet, a donkey.Even with Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar (1966) as a precedent, it’s an unexpected subject,...

Exclusive: Actor and online influencer Alexis Ren has signed on to star in Latency, a gamer action thriller written and directed by James Croke.

Ren will join Russian model and actor Sasha Luss (Anna) in the flick, which follows Hana, a professional gamer who suffers from acute agoraphobia. When Hana receives a new game controller that works by interpreting her brain activity, with the help of her best friend Jen, she experiments with this new device only to soon discover the device may in fact be controlling her.

The film is currently set to begin production on November 21 in Bangkok. Producers include Scott Clayton, Wych Kaosayananda, Gary A. Hirsch, and Jordan Gertner, best known for producing films like Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo 66, Larry Clark’s Bully, and Spring Breakers directed by Harmony Korine.

Red Sea Media shopped the flick to international buyers at the recent American Film Market. Croke...

Exclusive: Russian model and actor Sasha Luss has signed on to star in Latency, a gamer action thriller written and directed by James Croke.

The film is set to begin production November 21 in Bangkok, Thailand, with international sales handled by Red Sea Media at the upcoming American Film Market.

The flick follows Hana, a professional gamer who suffers from acute agoraphobia. When Hana receives a new device to enhance her game by interpreting her brain activity, she begins to wonder if the device is reading her mind or now actually controlling it. Alexis Ren is also set to star.

Producers include Scott Clayton, Wych Kaosayananda, Gary A. Hirsch and Jordan Gertner, best known for producing films such as Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo 66, Larry Clark’s Bully and Spring Breakers directed by Harmony Korine.

Croke has worked in the Australian film and television industry as a production designer and art director.

Toby Amies on Robert Fripp and In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50: “It’s an interrogation into what I find around me and the circumstances in which I find myself and especially the relationships that I observe and I’m involved in.” Photo: Toby Amies

Toby Amies’s perceptive and imaginative In the Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson At 50, captures the essence of the individual current and former members of King Crimson through candid and forthcoming on-camera interviews, sound checks, and the cost of being on the road. The director pulls the curtain back with precision to give us a distinctive look into Robert Fripp the master himself, the groups leader and disciplinarian.

Toby Amies with Anne-Katrin Titze on In The Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson At 50: “I was in a very interesting position making this film because on the...

The femme fatale is alive and well in Los Angeles-set indie “No Way Out,” an old-fashioned noir dressed up in the steamy decadence of an erotic thriller. Trouble is, veteran producer Keith Kjarval’s debut solo screenplay doesn’t provide the kind of memorable characters or sharp plotting needed to punch across a dark crime melodrama. Nor does first-time feature director Azi Rahman’s reasonably stylish walk on the wild side seduce sufficiently as a stylistic exercise, reaching for “Irreversible”-esque shock value without ever seeming very surprising or transgressive.

There’s enough sex and violence here to hold attention for an hour and a half, but the care or conviction to explain why it all happens — let alone why viewers should care — proves elusive. Vertical Entertainment is opening the film on a handful of U.S. theater screens on August 8, simultaneous with release to digital and VOD, where its primary audience will be found.

Gallo stars in this taste-free complaint about America’s decline in Christian values: paedophilia, meth addiction, single momhood – it’s all here

Donald Trump fan Vincent Gallo is out of acting retirement; he’s swapped his slippers for a syringe to play a seedy meth addict in this ropey survival thriller. It’s produced by conservative news website the Daily Wire, which is diversifying into movies in a bid to take on Hollywood’s so-called liberal bias.

Shut In is not for the squeamish; this is a Christian values movie with an unusually high quota of nasty bits. Rainey Qualley plays single mum of two Jessica, a recovering addict not long out of rehab. Jessica is moving out of the rural farmhouse she inherited from her grandmother, too broke to pay the taxes. The script is at pains here to paint pre-siege Jessica as shrill and unlikeable, constantly snapping at...