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They did things differently back in the early days of Hollywood. It all started humbly with the development of "talkies" when synchronized sound was introduced in 1927's The Jazz Singer. The train didn't stop here, however, as new groundbreaking film technologies have been discovered every single year since. From Technicolor, Eastman color, and digital cinema, all the way to 3D and even 4D. The cinema experience is becoming more visually striking and immersive by the second, and it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Despite these advancements making film an interesting medium to track the growth of, some can't help but be nostalgic for the olden days. Fans and filmmakers alike are concerned that these new advancements strip the filmmaking process of the love that made...

“Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” is returning to theaters for its 20th anniversary, starting April 25. For the re-release event, graphic artist Matt Ferguson has created a new poster to celebrate the film.

The film will run in U.S. theaters and select international territories for one week, including new formats like 4Dx. “Revenge of the Sith” is the third film in the “Star Wars” prequel franchise and takes place after the Clone Wars begin. Jedi Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) gets pulled to the dark side of the Force to become Darth Vader as Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Yoda (Frank Oz) are forced to go into hiding.

The cast also includes Samuel L. Jackson, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmid, Christopher Lee, Jimmy Smits, Peter Mayhew, Ahmed Best, Oliver Ford Davies, Temuera Morrison, Anthony Daniels, Silas Carson and Kenny Baker.

Thursday, Feb. 27 ‘The Assessment’ Trailer: Elizabeth Olsen, Himesh Patel and Alicia Vikander...

For thousands of years, it’s been believed that laughter is the best medicine. Unfortunately, it appears that the laughs in the new Netflix comedy “Kinda Pregnant” have been recalled. What’s worse, the side effects include irritation, drowsiness and a very dull headache.

“Kinda Pregnant” stars Amy Schumer, who co-wrote the screenplay, as Lainy Newton. She’s a middle-aged schoolteacher who always dreamed of settling down and being a mother. She also sleeps on a futon with some kind of magical spring system that sends her flying across her apartment, which happens often enough (allegedly — we only see it the once) that she has to keep a pile of pillows in the landing zone.

Believe it or not, this futon will be important later, although not for the right reasons.

Lainy thinks her boyfriend Dave (Damon Wayans Jr.) is about to propose, but it’s the beginning of a romantic comedy,...

The science fiction genre in cinema is roughly one hundred and twenty-five years old, with Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon frequently cited as the film industry's first major work within the genre. While the silent era produced many influential science fiction movies, such as Metropolis, The Lost World, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, for most of the twentieth century, science fiction movies were predominantly B movies.

That all changed in 1977 when Star Wars lit the box office on fire. Ever since, science fiction has remained arguably the most profitable genre at the box office. Currently, 14 of the 25 highest-grossing movies of all time are science fiction movies. However, despite the immense popularity of the science fiction genre, many iconic sci-fi films continue to fly under the radar and have been forgotten by modern audiences. Each film included in this article has under 100,000 ratings on Letterboxd.

Related10 Best Modern...

Cary Grant was one of the world's first major movie stars and cultural icons who is recognized for his improvisational skills, impeccable style, and distinct mid-Atlantic accent. Born Archibald Leach in 1904 in England, Grant was drawn to the theater at a young age and, at the age of 16, he joined the Pender Troupe for their United States tour. After the group's tour, Grant stayed in the States, where he established himself on the American Vaudeville circuit. The actor soon moved to Hollywood, where he started out in crime films before gaining popularity in screwball comedies like His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby.

Everyone assumed that the nominees for the Directors Guild of America’s top DGA Award would include, as they did in Wednesday morning’s nominations announcement, Emilia Pérez’s Jacques Audiard, Anora’s Sean Baker, Conclave’s Edward Berger and The Brutalist’s Brady Corbet.

The question was: Who was going to snag the fifth and final slot?

The aforementioned quartet was recently joined on the Golden Globe Awards’ nominations list by The Substance’s Coralie Fargeat and All We Imagine as Light’s Payal Kapadia; and on the Critics Choice Awards’ nominations list by Fargeat, Wicked’s Jon M. Chu, Nickel Boys’ RaMell Ross and Dune: Part Two’s Denis Villeneuve.

But as exciting and glamorous as those awards shows are, they are actually less reliable predictors of Oscar recognition than the picks of the DGA, which more closely mirrors the directors branch of the Academy, which, in turn,...

Comedy generally doesn't age as well as most other genres, but there are still some timeless classics from the Old Hollywood era that can make modern audiences laugh in the 21st century. Many of these older comedies have been recognized as some of the funniest movies of all time, since they have stood the test of time and entertained people for decades, and they're still funnier than the majority of new comedies.

Comedy requires a mutual understanding, so older movies often have dated references that lose their relevance over time. What can be even worse is if an older comedy has some topics that are seen in a poor light by modern standards. Changing social attitudes mean that people's senses of humor also change over time. Only the funniest and most universal Old Hollywood comedies manage to be just as popular these days.

How To Steal A Million (1966) Audrey Hepburn...

The Hawksian group dynamic at play in Hatari!—featuring a crew of game catchers working in Tanzania—is a familiar one, with macho gamesmanship, romantic entanglements, and personality clashes all occurring as each individual excels at their professional role, while also relying on the expertise of those around him or her. Yet, more so than any other Howard Hawks film, Hatari! plays not only like a new spin on the director’s pet themes and motifs, but also as a deliberate fusion of reconfigured moments and gestures from his greatest works.

There’s a mano-a-mano shooting competition between Kurt (Hardy Krüger) and Chips (Gérard Blain) that recalls the famous Red River sequence between Monty Clift and John Ireland, while the piano sing-along scene is much like the one in Only Angels Have Wings. The crew’s leader, Sean (John Wayne), who’s constantly flustered by the sophisticated Dallas (Elsa Martinelli...

Critical consensus is overrated. Rotten Tomatoes may have trained movie-lovers to quantify a movie's worth with a percentage score in recent years, but some of the best movies ever made deeply divided critics and audiences alike. Early Hollywood star Katharine Hepburn made plenty of divisive films in her career, from the John Wayne-led Western "Rooster Cogburn" to her first Oscar-winning film, "Morning Glory," to the bold interracial marriage dramedy "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner." Time Out once called the latter, which earned 10 Oscar nominations upon release, "a wishy-washy, sanctimonious plea for tolerance, directed with Kramer's customary verbosity and stodginess."

It's a truth universally acknowledged that good movies sometimes get trashed by certain critics, but that makes the rare film that achieves complete critical consensus all the more interesting -- if not always necessarily better than the more polarizing films. Plenty of great actors only have one 100% Rotten Tomatoes score under their belt,...

Old Hollywood is associated with glamour and romance, and many of the great classics of the era are still worth watching in the 21st century. Also referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood, Old Hollywood was classified by the studio system, which signed big-name movie stars and directors to multi-movie contracts. There's some debate over when exactly it ended, but New Hollywood emerged at some point during the 1960s.

Since the apogee of Old Hollywood took place from the 1930s to 1950s, it's only natural that some of the era's greatest movies don't hold up so well today. Modern audiences have different tastes, but there are still plenty of classics which are just as enjoyable. Movies like Casablanca, Bringing Up Baby and North By Northwest have stood the test of time, and they are still being watched by people all over the world.

Casablanca (1942) Bogart And Bergman Are Irresistible...

Katharine Hepburn is one of the most well-loved and celebrated actors of all time, both by fans and critics, and her long list of Oscars awards and nominations is proof of this fact. Hepburn was known for her vivacious personality both on and off-screen, as she often played very strong and independent women. This personality made her an icon, and it helped her to continue to push the boundaries in her career. It is no wonder that Katharine Hepburn's movies led her to become one of the most awarded performers.

Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1907, and she began acting in 1928 after becoming interested in acting during college. She began her career in the theater before transitioning to Hollywood, where she found greater success with her first film, A Bill of Divorcement. Hepburn's acting career spanned seven decades, and she starred in some of the most well-known movies from the golden age of Hollywood,...

For decades, Alfred Hitchcock has been regarded as one of the greatest creative directors of all time. As a master of suspense, Hitchcock is mostly unrivaled and Suspicion is certainly no exception. However, after the director was coerced into an ending he was not in favor of, the movie's abrupt final scene made Hitchcock regret casting Cary Grant as his lead actor. The 1941 movie marked the first collaboration between Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant, which became the foundation for their future endeavors. Yet despite this, Hitchcock still called Grant's undoubted talents as an actor into question because of one crucial Suspicion change.

Suspicion is based on the 1932 novel, Before the Fact. Hitchcock's adaptation features Cary Grant, who became the king of classic Hollywood, and mostly remains faithful to the source material. However, Suspicion makes one surprising change in its final moments, leading to a dissatisfying conclusion that the director later regretted.

It hardly needs repeating, but director John Carpenter is known for making multiple horror classics, including "Halloween," "The Fog," "Christine," "The Thing," "Prince of Darkness," "In the Mouth of Madness" and "Vampires." Although Carpenter doesn't have a notable, recognizable style or motif in his filmography (apart from recurring actors) he does seem to possess a subtle, natural mastery of filmmaking craft that makes all his films, even the bad ones, imminently watchable.

Carpenter loves horror, of course, but oddly, he's not a horror guy at heart. He possesses an old-world workman's attitude when it comes to filmmaking, just sort of sussing out, by instinct, how to shoot a scene, regardless of genre. Carpenter has given multiple interviews where he's talked about monster movies and sci-fi flicks that inspired him, but moreso, Carpenter talks about the films of John Ford and Howard Hawks, two American filmmakers best known for their high-profile Westerns.

By the end of her career, Katharine Hepburn was considered one of the finest actresses Hollywood had ever seen, but this wasn't the case her entire life. For many years, Hepburn had to fight to be taken seriously at the box office and be recognized for her significant contributions to film. However, as soon as producers and studios began to realize that she was a star, Hepburn was cast in some of the best movies of the 20th century. In a career spanning decades and involving many amazing creative collaborators, Hepburn has a filmography that will never be forgotten.

Whether these movies were singled out during the awards season or made a significant cultural impact, they're the projects that propelled Hepburn forward in her career and are remembered to this day. Many of Katharine Hepburn's best movies were instrumental in making her the performer she became. However, there are also...

One of the all-time most venerated Hollywood directors, Howard Hawks was a master at making movies in every genre under the sun. Whether helming the classic gangster film Scarface, the iconic musical Gentleman Prefer Blondes, the landmark film noir The Big Sleep, or the influential screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby, Hawks had a preternatural understanding of telling stories on the big screen. Of course, his biggest cinematic contributions may reside in the Western film genre.

After making Red River with John Wayne in 1948, Hawks continued working with The Duke throughout their careers. Yet, the glaring similarities between the 1959 Western Rio Bravo and the 1966 Western El Dorado have raised the question among cinephiles are the two movies the same? Did Hawks and Wayne deliberately remake their previous movie or were the story parallels coincidental? To find answers, a side-by-side comparison between them bears closer attention.

Rio Bravo Where to Watchstreamrentbuy

Not...

Modern Family is one of the best modern-day sitcoms. Theres no use arguing it. Its just a fact. The blend of personalities between the Dunphy-Pritchett-Tucker clan creates a hilarious and colorful viewing experience in every episode. Modern Family depicts a blended family, where someones race, sexuality, or gender isnt looked down upon but rather embraced, making it a very forward and inspirational sitcom. Each episode is special in its own right, so it can be hard to narrow down which episode changed the show for the better, but if I had to choose, Id say the show took a big risk with the Season 4 premiere Bringing Up Baby, but that ultimately paid off and changed the show for the better.

It's difficult to determine who the most famous stars in Hollywood history are, but Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are undoubtedly on the list. Like most actors of their generation, Grant and Hepburn partnered on several projects throughout their career, four total, as the studio executives took notice of their onscreen chemistry. Though the popularity and success of these movies varied when they were released, all of them are known as classics and are highly influential in modern-day cinema. While most of these films cast the actors as a romantic couple, their shared comedic timing is what stands apart.

The fact that both Hepburn and Grant were forces of nature on their own meant the dynamic of their characters was often approached through a more contemporary lens.

Many of Katharine Hepburn's best movies were part of a collaboration with Grant, as both of their stars rose around the same time.

With a 54% Rotten Tomatoes score, Reese Witherspoons 2005 rom-com Just Like Heaven stands as a spiritual remake of one of Cary Grants early screwball films. Grant and Constance Bennett star in 1937s Topper as the ghostly Kerby couple who spend their afterlife trying to cheer up their strung-up boss Cosmo Topper. The films quick dialogue and sharp jokes are signature aspects of the screwball genre, and Just Like Heaven employs these techniques with a modern twist. Although not entirely identical from a plot standpoint, these two films share similar themes, characters, and ghost-centric comedy.

These films also fall quite low on Witherspoons and Grants respective career totem poles. Just Like Heaven was eventually revived to cult classic status, especially as a relic of early 2000s rom-coms. Likewise, Topper remains relatively unknown when compared to Grants more popular screwball work like Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, and The Philadelphia Story. Connecting...

Ryan Reynolds seems set to play Deadpool for the foreseeable future, but in a recent interview the actor revealed which classic movie star he believes would have been perfect for the role of the Merc With a Mouth. As fans prepare for the final stretch before Deadpool & Wolverine bursts onto cinema screens, both Reynolds and co-star Hugh Jackman has have been taking part in various press interviews to build the hype. While speaking to Turner Classic Movies, Reynolds was asked his thoughts on who could have played Deadpool if the character had been around in a vintage age of film.

Deadpool & Wolverine SuperheroActionComedy Sci-Fi Release Date July 26, 2024Director Shawn LevyCast Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Morena Baccarin, Jennifer Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Brianna Hildebrand, Rob DelaneyMain Genre ActionWriters Shawn Levy, Wendy Molyneux, Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, Rhett Reese, Ryan ReynoldsStudio Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios, 21 Laps EntertainmentTagline Everyone deserves a happy ending.Franchise...

While his name isnt floated around as frequently as contemporaries like John Ford or John Huston, the great director Howard Hawks certainly deserves to be heralded as one of the finest filmmakers in cinematic history. Hawks almost single-handedly created the template for the modern romantic comedy with his classic films His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Director for his work on the classic biopic Sergeant York. While he was a versatile storyteller who often played within many genres, Hawks was able to create a unique style of Westerns that emphasized character development and thematic depth over traditionally satisfying narratives. When pitching his latest Western to his skeptical star, Hawks described his new film El Dorado as no story, just characters.

Terry Kiser and Andrew McCarthy in Weekend At Bernie’sScreenshot: 20th Century Fox

35 years ago this week, Weekend At Bernie’s opened its modest theatrical run. The film grossed about $30 million on a $15 million budget, barely turning a profit when accounting for marketing costs. But you’d never know that...

Plenty of big-name actors were considered for the role of James Bond in Dr. No. Sean Connery was ultimately chosen for the role, and the franchise became a global phenomenon. The actors who were considered for the role could have brought unique interpretations to the iconic character, but various factors led to their exclusion or refusal to participate.

Sean Connery is still considered by many fans to be the ultimate James Bond, but producers considered plenty of other candidates for Dr. No. Connery struck the perfect chord as 007, bringing Ian Fleming's secret agent to life with charm, wit and a hint of danger. He was a tough act to follow, and he was coerced into returning to the franchise for one last ride after George Lazenby failed to live up to his portrayal in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Connery was key to establishing one of cinema's longest-running franchises,...

There aren’t many movies like Cry Baby, just like there aren’t many directors and writers like John Waters. Both are unique and unlike anything that has come before or since.

Cry Baby hit screens at the beginning of a new decade, 1990, and celebrated a time many decades prior. It was skewering of teenage delinquent movies of the 50s with a healthy dose of weird, transgressive and musical theater. The overly dramatic time of a teenager and how rebel films of the 50s took that angst and upped to off the charts.

John Waters grew up with those films, and Cry Baby was his unique and amazing spin on that genre. Cry Baby tells the story of Wade “Cry Baby” Walker and his bizarre family and gang of Drapes. These are the weirdos and outcasts of Baltimore, the ones Waters himself would identify more with than the Squares of the story.

Christopher Reeve will be forever canonized as Superman in film history, and that still might not sell how impressive he is as an actor in that role. Not only is he playing Superman, a ridiculously impossible man who is only tangible through his utter sincerity and the lightest of lifts in his voice to highlight his stage presence, but he's also Clark Kent, the bumbling piece of driftwood that never met a piece of furniture he didn't bang into and makes a drinking game out of how many times he pushes his glasses up his nose. Selling one personality is hard enough for some actors, but playing two such polar opposites so effortlessly is a stroke of genius. While one might think the Clark Kent role would be easier to nail due to how much more extroverted it is by comparison, Reeve still had to put a lot of consideration...

Actress Anya Taylor-Joy has proven herself as one of Hollywood’s most promising young performers. Her work in horror films such as The Witch, Split, and Last Night in Soho has earned Taylor-Joy critical acclaim. As a result, fans of the actress might be surprised by Taylor-Joy’s taste in movies.

Anya Taylor-Joy in 2022’s The Northman

In an interview, Taylor-Joy spoke about the movies she likes to watch, revealing a Jeremy Renner-led film as her go-to option when she feels depressed. At the same time, Taylor-Joy also talked about her other preferred genres and loved films. Here is everything Anya Taylor-Joy stated about her love for Renner’s film and rom-coms.

Anya Taylor-Joy Reveals the Jeremy Renner Movie She Watches When She Needs Comfort

After making her breakthrough with 2015’s The Witch, actress Anya Taylor-Joy gained mainstream recognition with her starring role in the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit.

There’s something uniquely cinematic about romantic comedies — something that makes them a natural fit for the movies and vice-versa. There’s an intoxicating alchemy that allows us to believe in the magic of meet-cutes, happily-ever-afters, and all the agonizing contrivances that tend to pop up between the two. Love it seems gives storytellers permission to transpose the stuff of operas and fables into the fabric of real (or at least overly glossed but still recognizable) life.

On paper, a film like “Pretty Woman” might be a retrograde fairy tale about a sex worker with a heart of gold and the rich businessman who can afford it, but the chemistry between Julia Roberts and Richard Gere is so explosive that you surrender to the sentiment of it all. Literally nothing in Richard Curtis’ “Love Actually” makes sense if you stop and think about it for even a few seconds. The...

From left: Enchanted (Buena Vista Pictures), When Harry Met Sally (Columbia Pictures), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images)Graphic: The A.V. Club

Chemistry is perhaps the most elusive of all cinematic ingredients. Critics can point to craft in elements like directorial technique, set design, editing, and the...

Hollywood's Golden Age produced legendary acting duos, known for their star power and incredible dynamics. From classic comedy pairings to musical duos and on-screen husband and wife, these duos left a lasting impact. Their collaborations revolutionized genres, shaped contemporary comedy, and showcased the power of on-screen chemistry.

Hollywood’s Golden Age, which lasted from approximately 1927 to 1960, produced some of the greatest acting duos the world of moviemaking had ever seen. Taking place amid the Hollywood studio system, where films were written, produced, and released at a rapid rate, the most marketable thing about a movie was its star power, and nothing drew audiences in more than a beloved pairing. Occasionally surrounded by gossip of lurid affairs, some partnerships had real-life romantic backstories, while others represented incredible dynamics of true friendship and strong working relationships.

Some of the greatest duos from Hollywood’s Golden Age are made up of classic comedy pairings,...

Quentin Tarantino is doubling down on his film criticism, as he not only has his 10th and final feature, The Movie Critic, on the horizon but also has a follow-up to his book Cinema Speculation in the works.

As he revealed on the Pure Cinema Podcast – which frequently promotes goings-on at the Qt-owned New Beverly Cinema – the Cinema Speculation sequel will be his next book. While Tarantino didn’t provide any details as far as when Cinema Speculation II: Electric Boogaloo will hit shelves, he did mention one title he would be covering: Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc? On that movie and its cast dynamics, Tarantino said, “I am a big fan of everybody in this movie, but I’m a particularly big fan of Ryan O’Neal’s job as Howard Bannister. I think it’s one of the great straight-man comedy roles. I think he’s really,...

As he's said frequently over the last few years, Quentin Tarantino is retiring from filmmaking. He has one more movie in the works — "The Film Critic" — and then he's apparently hanging it up. But that doesn't mean the acclaimed filmmaker is going to stop working entirely. For one thing, Tarantino has recently gotten into the book-writing game. He wrote a novelization of his most recent flick, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," and then followed that up with "Cinema Speculation," a collection of essays about several notable American films from the 1970s. The book was full of nerdy insights, and while I didn't agree with everything said — at one point, Tarantino calls Peter Yates' masterful "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" "overrated" — I loved pouring over Tarantino's thoughts on classic (and not-so-classic) films.

If you, like me, enjoyed the book, here's some good news: Tarantino is working on a sequel! The...

While we expect to soon hear some casting news on Quentin Tarantino’s final feature The Movie Critic ahead of a shoot later this year, the small details being doled-out will have to suffice. In the meantime, he joined the latest episode of the Pure Cinema Podcast to promote a forthcoming all-film Ib Technicolor Fest taking place at his newly acquired Vista Theatre in LA. As part of this discussion, he shared the notable update that he plans to write Cinema Speculation Vol. Two, a sequel to his 2022 book of film analysis. He confirmed the book will feature his insights on Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 comedy classic What’s Up, Doc?, and shared a tease. The director also shared quite an interesting take on Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

Speaking about Bogdanovich’s hilarious comedy, which he says “was made for I.B. Technicolor” and is “as close to [Frank] Tashlin as you are going to get,...

Cary Grant was one of the world's first major movie stars and cultural icons who is recognized for his improvisational skills, impeccable style, and distinct mid-Atlantic accent. Born Archibald Leach in 1904 in England, Grant was drawn to the theater at a young age and, at the age of 16, he joined the Pender Troupe for their United States tour. After the group's tour, Grant stayed in the States where he established himself on the American Vaudeville circuit. The actor soon moved to Hollywood where he started out in crime films before gaining popularity in screwball comedies like His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby.

Ryan O’Neal is dead at the age of 82 after years of health struggles. His son Patrick announced the news on Instagram.

O’Neal was one of the true heartthrobs of the New Hollywood era, making many who saw him in “Love Story,” “What’s Up Doc?,” “Barry Lyndon,” and “The Driver” swoon. He also was much more than a pretty face, showing a capacity to let the great directors of the era mold him into something so much more powerful than his looks. And his life was defined in some ways, also, by heartbreak and misfortune: the loss of his great love Farrah Fawcett in 2009, the years-long legal troubles of his son Redmond, the rupture of his relationship with son Griffin, and fraught connection to his daughter Tatum. He was a prickly icon, someone whose public statements and demeanor defied people to like him. But the films he leaves behind...

Ryan O’Neal, the boyish leading man who kicked off an extraordinary 1970s run in Hollywood with his Oscar-nominated turn as the Harvard preppie Oliver in the legendary romantic tearjerker Love Story, has died. He was 82.

O’Neal died Friday, his son Patrick O’Neal, a sportscaster with Bally Sports West in Los Angeles, reported on Instagram. He had been diagnosed with chronic leukemia in 2001 and with prostate cancer in 2012.

“As a human being, my father was as generous as they come,” Patrick wrote. “And the funniest person in any room. And the most handsome clearly, but also the most charming. Lethal combo. He loved to make people laugh. It’s pretty much his goal. Didn’t matter the situation, if there was a joke to be found, he nailed it. He really wanted us laughing. And we did all laugh. Every time. We had fun. Fun in the sun.”

On the...

Fittingly for a series in which everybody seems to be engaging in some form of Classic Hollywood cosplay, the Rosebud moment in BritBox’s Archie is delivered by an actor playing comedy icon Danny Kaye.

Affecting a stereotypical German therapist accent — accents on top of accents on top of accents is the Archie way — Kaye cautions young Dyan Cannon (Laura Aikman) that her relationship with the more seasoned Cary Grant (Jason Isaacs) is destined for complications with the warning, “Men who have difficult relationships with their mothers always carry it over to the women that they love.”

There’s no reason for Kaye to make such an observation if he hasn’t been watching the two previous hours of Jeff Pope’s four-episode production. But for the series’ actual audience, his analysis will come across as both obvious and superficial — a bit like Archie itself.

Ultimately, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Nancy Meyers has written a love letter to Cary Grant by recommending his screwball comedies and classics like North by Northwest and The Philadelphia Story as part of the December 2023 Turner Classic Movies lineup in her own TCM Picks video.

“He’s a brilliant prototype for a leading man in a romantic comedy certainly. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t think of him sometimes as I’m writing. You can picture him doing it and it makes you better,” Meyers, whose rom-com canon includes box office performers like Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday and What Women Want, tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Her TCM movie picks follow Meyers insisting she has viewed most Cary Grant movies dozens of times, not least to study the iconic star’s slapstick humor and verbal sparring with leading ladies to see beneath his debonair looks and onscreen charisma, to the...

Leighton Meester and Robbie Amell play ex-fiancés in a war to win the title of best ex in Amazon Freevee’s upcoming holiday movie “EXmas,” lending itself to the battle of the sexes themes found in 1930s and ’40s screwball comedies.

“I thought the idea of two exes under one roof really was reminiscent of the films I’ve loved recently, whether it’s a movie like a ‘Bringing Up Baby,’ ‘The Lady Eve’ or ‘The Philadelphia Story,'” director Jonah Feingold told TheWrap, jokingly adding that he “tricked” Freevee and Buzzfeed into making a Cary Grant-esque movie.

In “EXmas,” which is now streaming on Amazon Freevee, exes Ali (Meester) and Graham (Amell) find themselves stuck in the same house after Graham’s family invites Ali for the holidays after Graham tells them he’ll be stuck at work for Christmas. When Graham surprises his family, he’s shocked...

EXmas is a delightful holiday rom-com featuring some classic but relatable tropes. While we may not find our ex at our holiday table, most of us have longed for a holiday like the Stroops share.

It features charismatic stars, including Robbie Amell as Grham and Leighton Meester as Ali. Michael Hitchcock and Kathryn Greenwood were hilarious and Graham’s holiday-obsessed parents.

Jonah Feingold loves directing com-coms, and he’s had great success with his two prior films, Dating in New York and At Midnight. We were excited to speak with him about how he directed Amazon Freevee’s EXmas.

Feingold spoke with us during a recent virtual press day about which holiday films inspired him, how he selected the cast, and how essential the family dynamics were to this film.

Check it out below.

Hi Jonah. I’ve heard you love rom-coms. How did you get involved in EXmas? Did...

Meg Ryan has returned to rom-coms, but sadly, even one she co-wrote and directed is not worthy of her charm. Ryan co-stars alongside David Duchovny in “What Happens Later,” based on the play “Shooting Star” by Steven Dietz. Ryan co-wrote the script along with playwright Dietz and Kirk Lynn; the film marks her sophomore directorial effort following 2015’s WWII drama “Ithaca.”

In the film, Ryan and Duchovny play two halves of the same whole — literally. Both star-crossed characters are named W. Davis, which the script reminds audiences every ten minutes or so in metronome-like precision. The first W. Davis, William, who goes by Bill (Duchovny), is a former poet and songwriter-turned-stockbroker whose youthful artistic hopes are rekindled after running into his ex-girlfriend, Willa (Ryan). Their bickering turns to banter turns to, yes, an inevitable return to romance as both W. Davises are stuck in a podunk airport 25 years after last seeing each other.

Judy Nugent, the former ’50s child actor who co-starred with Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession, Annette Funicello in the popular Annette serial on ABC’s The Mickey Mouse Club and flew in the arms of George Reeves’ Superman in a 1954 episode of The Adventures of Superman, died of October 26 cancer, surrounded by family at her ranch in Montana. She was 83.

Her death was announced in a family statement released by daughter-in-law Anne Lockhart, the Chicago Fire actor and daughter of Lost in Space star June Lockhart.

A Los Angeles native – she was the daughter of MGM prop man Carl Nugent – Nugent had already appeared in a handful of uncredited roles, including in the 1951 film Angels in the Outfield, when she landed her breakthrough role as Donna Ruggles in the 1949-52 TV series The Ruggles, an early family sitcom starring comic actor Charles Ruggles (Bringing Up Baby). Nugent played the twin...

He may be the greatest horror director of all time (just ask Jordan Peele), but John Carpenter’s film taste skews farther away from the genre than you might expect.

Born in 1948 in Carthage, New York, Carpenter grew up with a love of cinema, watching Howard Hawks westerns an early age, and started making short films with an 8mm camera before he started high school. He studied at Western Kentucky University and University of Southern California, before dropping out of the latter after a short he made, “The Resurrection of Broncho Billy,” won an Oscar.

Now with a sudden amount of prestige, Carpenter made two little seen projects “Dark Star” and “Assault on Precinct 13,” both now critically acclaimed, before really breaking out with 1978’s “Halloween.” Starring a young Jamie Lee Curtis, the independent film became a massive hit, grossing $70 million, turning main villain Michael Myers into a horror icon,...

“Moonlighting” was more than a watercooler show. It was an obsession. Episodes were taped and rewatched. And for good reason. There had never been a anything on the small screen like the 1985-89 ABC romantic screwball comedy detective series. The rapid-fire dialogue recalled such Howard Hawks’ classics as 1938’s ‘Bringing Up Baby” and 1940’ “His Girl Friday.” Fourth walls were broken. There was a black-and-white episode and even and wild and crazy take on William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” That was just the tip of the innovations.

Creator and executive producer Glenn Gordon Caron told me in a 2000 L.A. Times interview that ABC didn’t give him total freedom when it came to the episodes: “The truth is no one let me do everything. I just did it. Ignorance is bliss. There were rules and I chose not to listen to anybody. At a certain point, the network said- ‘This is working.

When it comes to the 2003 film School of Rock, the performance everyone always praises is Jack Black as protagonist Dewey Finn. And why wouldn't one heap endless praise on Black's work here? It's the ultimate distillation of his comedic style, as perfect a microcosm of a performer's persona as Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby or Will Ferrell in Elf. Within Dewey Finn, Black delivers the greatest iterations of his classical confident-but-clumsy antics. However, this personality, which is often quite hysterical, is extra engaging here because Black plays Finn as being sincerely invested in the lives of the kids he teaches. Other actors would’ve suffocated this character in cynicism and man-child vulgarity. Finn is flawed and often selfish, but he’s also totally believable when he’s giving pep talks to the various youngsters about their issues.

The first trailer for What Happens Later makes it clear the title isn’t supposed to have a question mark at the end. Meg Ryan, a queen of romantic comedies back when rom-coms were smiled upon by audiences and studios, returns to the genre as co-writer, director, and star, teaming with David Duchovny to tell the story of a former couple who find themselves stuck together in an airport.

“It has a relationship to movies from the ’40s, like Bringing Up Baby, in terms of the banter and the rhythm of things and a lot of that era of filmmaking,” explained Ryan in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “Nora Ephron used to say about rom-coms that they were really a secretly incredible delivery system to comment on the times, and we do that in this movie.”

David Duchovny and Meg Ryan in ‘What Happens Later’ (Photo Credit: Bleecker Street)

The...

Meg Ryan is returning to (and revamping) the rom-com genre.

The iconic star of “When Harry Met Sally” and “You’ve Got Mail” co-writes, directs, and stars in “What Happens Later,” based on Steven Dietz’s play “Shooting Star.” Dietz and playwright Kirk Lynn penned the script along with Ryan.

The official synopsis reads: Two ex-lovers, Bill (David Duchovny) and Willa (Ryan) get snowed in at a regional airport overnight. Indefinitely delayed, Willa, a magical thinker, and Bill, a catastrophic one, find themselves just as attracted to and annoyed by one another as they did decades earlier. But as they unpack the riddle of their mutual past and compare their lives to the dreams they once shared, they begin to wonder if their reunion is mere coincidence, or something more enchanted.

Ryan reflected on the inspirations for “What Happens Later” during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “It has a relationship to movies from the ’40s,...

“It has a relationship to movies from the ’40s, like “Bringing Up Baby,” in terms of the banter and the rhythm of things and a lot of that era of filmmaking,” Meg Ryan told EW this week of her new rom-com, “Whatever Happens.” And yes, Ryan used to be the queen of rom-coms and knows a thing or two about the genre, but for this film, she makes her sophomore directorial follow-up, helming and starring in the movie.

Continue reading ‘Whatever Happens’ Trailer: Meg Ryan Returns To The World Of Rom-Coms In A Directorial Debut Co-Starring David Duchovny at The Playlist.

Meg Ryan; David Duchovny Screenshot: Bleecker Street/YouTube Romantic comedy lovers, our queen has finally returned. After a long hiatus, Meg Ryan—When Harry Met Sally’s Meg Ryan, Sleepless In Seattle’s Meg Ryan—has returned to the genre that made her a household name. And in What Happens Later,...

Meg Ryan; David DuchovnyScreenshot: Bleecker Street/YouTube

Romantic comedy lovers, our queen has finally returned. After a long hiatus, Meg Ryan—When Harry Met Sally’s Meg Ryan, Sleepless In Seattle’s Meg Ryan—has returned to the genre that made her a household name. And in What Happens Later,...

While her directorial debut Ithaca arrived nearly a decade ago with not too much fanfare, Meg Ryan is back this fall in a genre she knows well. The rom-com What Happens Later follows ex-lovers Bill (David Duchovny) and Willa (Meg Ryan), who get snowed-in at a regional airport overnight. Ahead of an October 13 theatrical release from Bleecker Street, the first trailer and poster have now arrived.

“Indefinitely delayed, Willa, a magical thinker, and Bill, a catastrophic one, find themselves just as attracted to and annoyed by one another as they did decades earlier. But as they unpack the riddle of their mutual past and compare their lives to the dreams they once shared, they begin to wonder if their reunion is mere coincidence, or something more enchanted,” the synopsis reads.

“It has a relationship to movies from the ’40s, like Bringing Up Baby, in terms of the banter and the...

Meg Ryan returns to the rom-com genre in her upcoming film "What Happens Later," also serving as the film's director and co-writer. The movie explores the relationship between Willa (Ryan) and Bill (Duchovny), two estranged lovers who are snowed in at an airport terminal. "What Happens Later" adds a new twist to the rom-com genre by focusing on older characters and delving into their past while still maintaining a romantic and sexy atmosphere.

“I’ll have what she’s having.” That famous, unforgettable line from When Harry Met Sally is quite apropos because romantic comedy fans will be eager to see what Meg Ryan is serving up in her new rom-com What Happens Later. Arguably the queen of the rom-com, thanks to her performances in When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail, Ryan teams up with The X-Files star David Duchovny this time around.

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