News

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 is finally here! Max is set to release a variety of new content in April 2025. This includes both returning series and new movies coming to the platform.

‘Y2K,’ a horror-comedy movie, is coming on April 4, starring Rachel Zegler and Jaeden Martell, set during the Y2K scare of 1999. On April 10, ‘Hacks’ Season 4′ returns. On April 13, the biggest Max’s release of the month (year?) is here – ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. ‘The Rehearsal’ Season 2 premieres on April 20. The month ends with ‘Babygirl’ on April 25, an A24 thriller starring Nicole Kidman.

Coming To Max in April 2025

April 1

A Kind of Murder (2016)

A Stolen Life (1946)

Aftersun (2022)

All I See Is You (2017)

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)

April in Paris (1952)

Bad Santa (2003)

Bad Santa 2 (2016)

Black Death (2010)

Brittany Murphy: An ID Mystery (ID)

Chopped After Hours, Seasons 1-3 (Food Network)

Chopped Junior, Food Network, Seasons 6 & 7 (Food Network)

Chopped Next Gen,...

“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...

Bette Davis, one of the best actresses of all time, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress 11 times in her career. Some persnickety Oscar historians might say that she was nominated only 10 times, though, as her nomination for 1934's "Of Human Bondage" was one of the very few write-in votes ever permitted by the Academy. Records show that Davis, although not officially nominated by the Academy, still came in third that year.

Davis only won two Oscars, however. The first was for her performance in "Dangerous" in 1935 and the second was for playing a Scartett O'Hara-like role in "Jezebel" in 1938. Her performance in "Jezebel," Hollywood would eventually learn, was the first in a streak of nominations that would last for five straight years. In 1939, Davis was nominated for her performance in "Dark Victory." 1940 would see her nominated for "The Letter." In 1941, it was for "The Little Foxes," and...

From the moment he stumbled out of the Midwest and into Greenwich Village, Bob Dylan, né Robert Zimmerman, has blurred truth and fabulism in ways that resist the subsequent decades of obsessive study of his life and work. And the best attempts to unpack the artist, from Martin Scorsese’s willfully slippery documentaries to Todd Haynes’s cubist ciné-portrait I’m Not There, have engaged with this tall-tale aspect of Dylan’s life.

At first glance, James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, an account of Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) arrival in New York and rapid ascent to folk stardom, ostensibly follows suit in accepting the mystery of this iconoclastic artist. On an early date with girlfriend Sylvie, the pair see the film Now, Voyager, which she interprets as the story of a woman overcoming her past to become her true self. Dylan disagrees, saying that Bette Davis’s protagonist simply constructs...

Receiving an Academy Award is the pinnacle of any actor's career. While winning is the goal, just being nominated is also an honor. Leonardo DiCaprio is a classic example of an actor who was nominated countless times before finally winning for his performance in The Revenant in 2016, 12 years after he was first nominated in 1994 for What's Eating Gilbert Grabe. It can be a tense waiting game for actors who are nominated several times and continue to lose, especially for those actors who've put their energy into transforming into different characters and getting nominated for stellar performances consecutively.

To say you're a "three, four, or five-time Academy Award-nominated actor" is an especially desirable accolade. When those nominations are one after another, it keeps the actor relevant. Bradley Cooper's Oscar losing streak comprises him being nominated three times in a row for Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and American Sniper from...

Like most movies, The Invisible Man travelled a long and winding road to the silver screen, and perhaps longer and more winding than most. As biographer James Curtis put it in his book James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters, “The gestation of The Invisible Man was the lengthiest and most convoluted of all of James Whale’s films. It involved four directors, nine writers, six treatments, and ten separate screenplays—all for a film that emerged very much in harmony with the book on which it was based.” It was first suggested as a possible follow-up to Dracula (1931), perhaps as a vehicle for new star Bela Lugosi, but was dropped in favor of Frankenstein (1931) due to the complicated special effects it would require. After Frankenstein was an even bigger success, both director James Whale and star Boris Karloff were immediately attached to The Invisible Man and several...

For Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino (“Up”), Steven Spielberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is the defining movie of his life. It’s what sparked his love of movies and film scores, and what started him on his path to becoming a successful composer, all thanks to John Williams’ rousing, orchestral masterpiece.

Giacchino, who most recently scored Taika Waititi’s “Next Goal Wins” and Juan Antonio Bayona’s “Society of the Snow,” and is prepping a remake of the giant ant movie “Them!” as his directorial feature debut, first saw “Raiders” as a 13-year-old in New Jersey when it opened the summer of 1981. He went back about a dozen times and even sneaked a tape recorder into the theater so he could replay it every night. He also had the soundtrack on vinyl and later bought a second LP containing score, dialogue, and sound effects.

“I think that record,...

It was 1941. Though World War II was already under way, film production was in full swing at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.

Humphrey Bogart was getting ready to shoot “The Maltese Falcon,” while the next year, “Casablanca” would film on Warners soundstages and at the nearby Van Nuys airport, subbing for Morocco. Bette Davis was making “Now Voyager” on the lot after location visits to Lake Arrowhead and Laguna Beach.

At the Warner Bros. Café, the studio’s commissary on the Burbank lot, James Cagney and Rita Hayworth lunched with director Raoul Walsh, while actor and future president Ronald Reagan dined with Olivia de Havilland — just a few of the major stars and filmmakers who could be seen taking a break from the hard work of filming.

These days, studio executives are big on Cobb salads and Kobe beef burgers. But back in the 1940s, the dense one-page menu featured...

The United States had been at war a little over a year when the 15th Academy Awards were presented on March 4, 1943. It was the last year that the awards were celebrated at a lavish banquet; they would be moved to a theater setting in the ensuing years. The impact of World War II can be seen in the films honored, as well as the ceremony itself.

Popular musical star Jeannette MacDonald sang the National Anthem, and newly enlisted military privates Tyrone Power and Alan Ladd unfurled a flag that listed over 25,000 film industry members who had joined the armed forces. Bob Hope hosted the event, which saw one big winner, numerous patriotic choices and the first win for one of the industry’s biggest record-makers. Let’s flashback 80 years to the Oscars ceremony of 1943.

SEEOscar hosts: Performers who have hosted the Academy Awards

Ten movies made the cut for a Best Picture nomination.

The electric chemistry between Rick and Ilsa in "Casablanca" is the stuff of cinematic legend. Thanks to the lead performances from Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, the 1943 romantic drama is remembered as a gem of classic Hollywood, its reputation only growing in the 80 years since its initial release. But although the two leads deserve a lion's share of the credit for the success of the film, the devastating love triangle could never have been carried off half as well without the efforts of its third wheel, Victor Laszlo, played by Paul Henreid. An Austrian-born actor who took Hollywood by storm in the early 1940s, his contributions to the role give it an essential sense of balance -- without his commanding presence, the entire romantic equilibrium would be thrown out of whack.

Convincing A Leading Man To Take A Supporting Role

Getting Paul Henreid to take on the role of Victor Laszlo was no small thing.

It’s last call for a number of excellent Comedy Central series as well as a handful of genuinely great films on HBO Max this month.

On Oct. 31, the Comedy Central shows “Key and Peele,” “Nathan for You,” “Inside Amy Schumer,” “Reno 911!” and “Chappelle’s Show” (the first two seasons) will depart HBO Max, likely heading to Paramount+ at some point in November.

Also leaving HBO Max this month is the Halsey music film “If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power,” as well as the surprisingly great horror prequel “Annabelle: Creation.” Other noteworthy depatures include “Capote,” “High Fidelity,” “Jerry Maguire,” “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” the 1994 version of “Little Women” and the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” movies.

Check out the full list of what’s leaving HBO Max in October below.

Also Read:

Here’s What’s New on Hulu in October 2022

October 6

If I Can’t Have...

A post-James Bond Daniel Craig and Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga currently are shaking things up on Broadway in the latest revival of “Macbeth,” Shakespeare’s tragedy of mayhem, power, murder and madness. The “Scottish play” has a reputation for being cursed because the Bard used real witches’ spells.

It certainly has fallen afoul of the Tony Awards over the years. Negga was nominated but Craig was snubbed. Of the 11 previous stagings of “Macbeth” since the start of the Tony Awards, only the 2008 revival merited nominations for both stars (Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood). Glenda Jackson reaped a bid in 1988 while Christopher Plummer was left in the wings.

The first recorded production of the play in New York was way back in 1768 at the John Street Theatre, which had been built the year before. Though the closing date is unknown, the theater was demolished in 1897. Lewis Hallam, who is the only known cast member,...

Oscar certainly loves mothers. All five of this year’s Best Actress nominees — Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”), Penelope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”) and Kirsten Stewart (“Spencer”) — play mothers. Ditto four out of five supporting nominees: Jessie Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”), Judi Dench (“Belfast”), Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”) and Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”); the fifth contender is Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”).

Actresses love getting maternal sinking their teeth-and sometimes claws-into mother roles whether they be good, bad, ugly or downright evil. Here’s a look at some early memorable mother performances that made Oscars history.

The mother of all mothers was Ruth Chatterton. Though she is not as well-remembered as other actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood, she was extremely popular in the late 1920s and early ‘30s. Though no nominations were officially announced for the second annual Oscars,...

Fresh off the long-awaited arrival of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (a.k.a. the fabled Snyder Cut), HBO Max has no need to appease fandom culture in April 2021. But the streaming service is gonna do it anyway!

The most notable new release for HBO Max this month is the HBO series The Nevers. This show, created by Joss Whedon, is set in a 19th century steampunk London and finds a sizable portion of the population (predominantly women) having been “Touched” by mysterious paranormal powers. There’s an interesting bit of irony at play here, as HBO Max is following up the Snyder Cut with a show created by his original Justice League replacement. Or at least there could have been an interesting bit of irony here, if Whedon had not bowed out from the show and been enthusiastically left out of the marketing material by HBO.

Read more Movies...

“Hollywood” made sure to put the “golden” in Golden Age of Hollywood. Ryan Murphy’s reimagining of an idyllic, progressive 1940s Tinseltown is an aspirational ideal and it needed the resplendent costumes to match.

“It all started with this idea of the Golden Age of Hollywood, which informed the color palette. It was Hollywood glamour, Golden Age of Hollywood, aspirational. It started with everything being [George] Hurrell-inspired, super glamorous and everything having a golden sheen. So that was the jumping off point for our color palette,” Sarah Evelyn told Gold Derby during our Meet the Btl Experts: Costume Design panel (watch above). “It was like gold, butterscotch, caramel and sort of worked itself into the rest of the rainbow.”

Evelyn, who worked with longtime Murphy costume designer Lou Eyrich on the limited series, turned to some ‘40s classics for inspiration to capture the era’s glamorous vibe, including “Now, Voyager” (1942), “Casablanca...

Composer Max Steiner, whose scores for “King Kong,” “Gone With the Wind” and “Casablanca” placed him in the movie-music pantheon, isn’t much discussed today. He seems to belong to that old-school, pre-synthesizer world of orchestral scoring from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.

But as author Steven C. Smith points out in his engrossing new biography of the three-time Oscar winner, “Music by Max Steiner” (Oxford University Press), the Austrian wunderkind pioneered the art of film scoring and ranks as “Hollywood’s most influential composer.”

His music essentially saved Rko’s “King Kong,” the 1933 giant-ape-wrecks-Manhattan fantasy, forcefully demonstrating the power of dramatic underscore to create mood, propel the action and provide emotional support (and disproving the widely held studio-executive theory that audiences of the time would “wonder where the music came from”).

Steiner went on to score some 300 films over a 35-year career, mostly for Rko and Warner Bros., although...

WASHINGTON -- It was Back to the Future in more ways than one when the Library of Congress added to the National Film Registry the popular 1985 comedy that helped introduce the world to product endorsement and advanced special effects.

Thursday's list of 25 pictures brings to 475 the number of "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant films selected by the Librarian of Congress to be preserved for all time.

The Robert Zemeckis film with its memorable Pepsi push wasn't the only icon of that era selected: Steven Spielberg's 1977 hit "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" also was included.

"We're always a little short on the science fiction genre, and this year we wanted to get more entries from the 1970s," National Film Preservation Board staff director Stephen Leggett said.

Among the films also selected were car-chase classic "Bullitt" (1968); "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), John Ford's last great Western; Kevin Costner's epic "Dances With Wolves" (1990); New York film noir "The Naked City" (1948); Sidney Lumet's claustrophobic courtroom drama "12 Angry Men"; Humphrey Bogart's Hollywood satire "In a Lonely Place" (1950); Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical "Oklahoma!" (1955); the star-studded "Grand Hotel" (1932); William Wyler's "Wuthering Heights" (1939); and the Bette Davis masterpiece "Now, Voyager" (1942).

The films selected aren't necessarily the "best" or most popular films made, the Library noted, but are chosen for their artistic character, historical significance or their reflection of both the good and bad sides of American culture.

While Michael J. Fox's Marty McFly in "Back to the Future" tried to get back to the present day and Richard Dreyfuss' Ray Neary demanded to "speak to the man in charge" in "Close Encounters", the characters most remembered from "Bullitt" might have been a Dodge Charger and a Ford Mustang.

The film's 11-minute chase scene cemented Steve McQueen's iconic status, vindicated British director Peter Yates' decision to shoot the film in San Francisco instead of New York or Los Angeles and turned the Bay Area city into a prime location for movie shoots.

The latest list also bookends one of Hollywood's most enduring genres as two Westerns made 30 years apart made the cut.

"Liberty Valance" explored the end of the Wild West and its takeover by civilization and gave America one of its enduring taglines: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

"Dances With Wolves" comes at the other end of the shelf as it sought to rewrite the myth of the American West and helped revive the Western as a salable genre.