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Back in the 1980s, when the idea of wealthy sociopaths flagrantly breaking the rules was considered hilarious, we got Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the iconic comedy starring Matthew Broderick as the titular teenage rebel.

The movie, of course, finds Ferris skipping class by faking an illness, thanks to the power of mannequins and synthesizers. While most of us would be happy to spend a day off in that sweet bedroom, Ferris, along with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron, heads into Chicago, where he catches a baseball game, visits an art gallery and hijacks a float during a crowded parade that’s happening in the middle of a workday for some unknown reason.

Ferris justifies his deceit by pointing out “life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once and awhile, you might miss it.”

Originally, Ferris’ “day off” was even more improbably packed,...

Sofia Coppola zeroed in on her artistic signatures early on: The very first shot in her debut as a director, the 1998 short film Lick the Star, shows a teenage girl staring pensively out a car window. She did it again with a shot of Kirsten Dunst in a taxi in The Virgin Suicides (actually via her brother, Roman Coppola, who shot second unit). “And then when we were shooting Lost in Translation,” Coppola says over a recent breakfast in a West Village café, “I was like, ‘Roman, can you get the girl-out-the-window shot?...

One dark night, AC repairman Wang Xueming (Eddie Peng) hits a pedestrian with his van, panics, and flees the scene. Tormented by the accident and desperate to escape his feelings of guilt, he approaches the widow, Mrs. Liang (Sylvia Chang) and strikes up a relationship. Meanwhile, her husband’s body is discovered—riddled with bullets. Though he’s determined to piece together the complete events of that fateful night, Wang is also being stalked by a shadowy killer (Lu Xin) who spotted his van at the site of the hit-and-run. To complicate matters further, the detective in charge of the investigation, Chen, becomes obsessed with the case. Years later, the trio remain trapped in a tangled web of memories and lies, desperately searching for a truth that refuses to be revealed.

Are You Lonesome Tonight? is available on DVD and Digital on July 18.

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Just when you thought you couldn’t get enough of Austin Butler’s Elvis voice, the man is back with several more renditions of classic Presley songs, now available on the deluxe edition of the Elvis soundtrack.

The new release — out today, March 7 — adds 15 songs to the already stuffed soundtrack, including four previously unreleased recordings of Presley hits: “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Crawfish” (which was recorded live on set), and “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” Butler also appears on “Fly Away Weave,” a wild interpolation of the traditional “I’ll Fly Away...

Reims Polar, a new international festival set in Northern France and dedicated to police thrillers, has awarded Wen Shipei’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?,” Adikhan Yerzhanov’s “Assault” and Lado Kvataniya’s “The Execution.”

The selection of Reims Polar is curated by Bruno Barde, who is also the artistic director of the Deauville American Film Festival.

“Assault,” a dead-pan thriller set fictional village in rural Kazakhstan and revolving around a school hostage situation, won the festival’s Grand Prize Award. Yerzhanov, a prolific Kazakh director, previously directed “The Gentle Indifference of the World” which played at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2018.

The Reims Polar jury prize went to a pair of feature debuts, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?,” a Chinese film which world premiered out of competition at last year’s Cannes, and Russian filmmaker Lado Kvataniya’s “The Execution,” a thriller inspired by the case of an infamous Soviet-era serial killer.

Heading for release in Asia on January 20, a new trailer for Are You Lonesome Tonight? (original title: Re dai wang shi) paints a properly bleak and moody atmosphere for a Chinese film described as a crime thriller. Directed by Shipei Wen, making his feature debut, the film stars Eddie Peng, Shipei Wen and Sylvia Chang. The official synopsis lays out the story: "On a dark night, Xueming hits a pedestrian with his car and flees the scene. Desperate to escape his feelings of guilt, he decides to approach the dead man's wife, Mrs Liang. "Meanwhile, the body is discovered - riddled with bullets. Chen, the detective in charge of the investigation, becomes obsessed with the case. Years later, all three remain caught in a...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

BenedictionThe lineup has been unveiled for the 2021 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, which will take place over 10 days (September 9-18) both in-person and physically in Toronto, and digitally across Canada. Wavelengths - FEATURESFutura (Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)The Girl and the Spider (Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher)Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)Ste. Anne (Rhayne Vermette)The Tsugua Diaries (Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes)Wavelengths - SHORTSThe Capacity for Adequate Anger (Vika Kirchenbauer)Dear Chantal (Querida Chantal) (Nicolás Pereda)earthearthearth (Daïchi Saïto)Inner Outer Space (Laida Lertxundi)Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson)“The red filter is withdrawn.” (Minjung Kim)Train Again (Peter Tscherkassky)Midnight Madness After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico)Dashcam (Rob Savage)Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot)Titane (Julia Ducournau)You Are Not My Mother (Kate Dolan)Zalava (Arsalan Amiri)TIFF DOCSAttica (Stanley Nelson)Beba (Rebeca Huntt)Becoming Cousteau...

Distracted by a cow he tries to drive past one late evening while on the way to meet his girlfriend, Wang Xueming (Eddie Peng) briefly takes his eyes off the road and runs over a man whose corpse he then – deeply distressed – disposes off in a spontaneous attempt to ‘unsee’ the crime. Or does he? The recap of tragic event gets re-told so many times by Xueming himself that it becomes unclear what had happened to the man whose body police fished out of the river α few days after the incident. The forensic report also contradicts the first in a row of Xueming’s memories – the victim was allegedly not run over by a car, but murdered with two bullets to the head.

“Are You Lonesome Tonight?” screened at Cannes Film Festival

The feature debut by Weng Shipei “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” had its special screening in the official selection of Cannes Film Festival,...

Mubi, the London-based streamer and theatrical distributor that’s been on a buying spree this week in Cannes, has acquired the rights for North America, U.K., and a host of other territories for Kira Kovalenko’s “Unclenching the Fists,” which took home the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, Variety can reveal.

Set in a former mining town in Russia’s North Ossetia region, “Unclenching the Fists” is the story of a young woman, played by Milana Aguzarova, who struggles to escape the stifling hold of the family she both loves and rejects. The film is produced by two-time Oscar nominee Alexander Rodnyansky.

The deal includes all rights for North America, U.K., Ireland, Latin America and India. Wild Bunch International, which is handling the film’s world sales, has also closed deals for France (Arp), Benelux (September Film), Greece (Cinobo), Italy (Movies...

Past winners of the first feature prize include Jim Jarmusch, Mira Nair, Naomi Kawase, Steve McQueen, Houda Benyamina and Lukas Dhont.

The Cannes Film Festival has named French actress Mélanie Thierry as jury president for the 2021 Caméra d’Or award reserved for all first features premiering across Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

”Nothing is as fragile or as miraculous as a first movie. This testifies to the courage and the faith of all the directors who, after such a long period of seclusion, succeeded in providing us with a window on the outside world,...