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While you can't claim we're in a full-fledged renaissance, there's no denying there's been an uptick in queer frontier films in recent memory. With obvious highlights like Brokeback Mountain and The Power of the Dog, Pedro Almodóvar's upcoming film Strange Way of Life, and whatever the hell Zorro: The Gay Blade was, the concept of gay frontier explorers isn't a new concept at all; it just took forever for mainstream entertainment to fully acknowledge it. There's one movie that walked so these movies could run, though, and that's Nicholas Ray's camp masterpiece Johnny Guitar. It's one of the finest examples of how subtext, framing, and the maintaining of a heightened reality combine to make a film in execution take on completely new dimensions compared to how it would be on the page. It's a film so brazen in its aesthetic and commitment to subversion that it's shocking that...

Joker is one of those films that, even though we saw it coming, still shook the movie world and the world at large by storm. This film from The Hangover director Todd Phillips was a crossover phenomenon. It was the anti-superhero movie about a character that is totally unredeemable. However, that didn't stop viewers from embracing Joaquin Phoenix's turn as Arthur Fleck, the man who would eventually become the Joker. So dense was this movie, so layered was it with themes and ideas about society, mental illness, and how we treat people that are different, that it often doesn't play like a film in the DC canon. And it's because of those those differences that we are able, in many respects, to get passed many of the heinous and despicable thing that the Joker does.

In fact, aside from being set in a place called Gotham City, and having...

Ron Leibman, the actor who played Rachel Green’s father on “Friends,” Dr. Leonard Green, has died at the age of 82.

His agent, Robert Attermann of Abrams Artists Agency, confirmed Leibman’s death to TheWrap.

“We at Abrams Artists Agency are saddened to hear the news of Ron’s passing,” Attermann said in a statement. “Ron was an incredibly talented actor with a distinguished career in film, TV and theatre. Our thoughts go out to his wife, Jessica, and his family.”

Over Leibman’s long acting career, which began in the late 1950s, Leibman won a Tony for his role in the 1993 play “Angels in America.” He also won an Emmy in 1979 for best lead actor in the drama series “Kaz,” on which he played the title character, Martin “Kaz” Kazinsky.

Also Read: Shelley Morrison, 'Will and Grace' Star, Dies at 83

Leibman also acted opposite Sally Field as Rueben in the 1979 film “Norma Rae,...

Major spoilers ahead for Warner Bros. new film, “Joker.”

Director Todd Phillips’ “Joker” depicts the gradual unraveling of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a troubled man who, through some very disturbing circumstances, breaks bad and transforms into the criminal who will one day become Batman’s greatest enemy.

While existing entirely on it’s own as a standalone story and unconnected to any other DC Comics films, “Joker” presents a possible origin story for the clown prince of crime connected both to the Gotham City setting and to the history of Batman as a character. In fact, it’s the second time a film has gone out of its way to connect the Joker’s origins to the Caped Crusader in some fashion, after 1989’s Tim Burton-directed “Batman,” which revealed that as a younger man, the Joker is the one who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents.

So it’s understandable...

By Todd Garbarini

The Royal Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 45th anniversary DVD screening of Peter Medak’s 1972 film The Ruling Class. The 154-minute film, which stars Alastair Sim, Arthur Lowe, Caroline Seymour, Coral Browne, Harry Andrews, and Peter O'Toole, will be screened on DVD on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 7:00 pm.

Please Note: At press time, director Peter Medak is scheduled to appear in person for a discussion about the film following the screening.

From the press release:

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.

The Ruling Class (1972)

45th Anniversary Screening

Tuesday, April 25, at 7 Pm at the Royal Theatre

Followed by Q & A with Director Peter Medak

Presented on DVD

This biting black comedy, in the tradition of such British classics as Kind Hearts and Coronets, focuses on a fierce battle for succession within an aristocratic family. Peter O’Toole plays a...

Mexican actor will play the masked adventurer in a futuristic reboot of the swashbuckling series

Gael Garcia Bernal is to take a swing at 20th Century Fox's new Zorro movie. The Mexican actor will play the masked adventurer as a vengeful vigilante in a post-apocalyptic world, according to Variety.

Zorro Reborn will see the dashing swashbuckler shifted from Spanish colonial California to a barren desert future, where presumably his mantra ("to avenge the helpless … to aid the oppressed") will apply to almost everyone.

Plot details are still masked, but Fox's new direction is a radical departure from recent adaptations. The last two films – 1998's The Mask of Zorro and its sequel, The Legend of Zorro (2005) – may have shown an ageing Zorro (Anthony Hopkins) passing the rapier to a successor (Antonio Banderas), but they stayed true to the setting and style of the early stories by the character's creator, Johnston McCulley.