It’s never too late for a glow up. If you’re like a lot of people, then the last year has found you spending more time in front of a computer screen, smartphone, or tablet device. Attending one Zoom meeting after another can feel draining at times, but adding a light to your device is an easy way to brighten or soften your appearance on screen. Another benefit to ring lighting: Affordability....
Instead, in a film that was supposed to immortalize present-day Washington Heights — in a community called the Little Dominican Republic — the lack of Black and brown faces on screen was glaring. After all, 90 percent of Dominicans are of African descent. Unfortunately, as it is with “In the Heights,” colorism is pervasive in Latinidad. As a result, exhausting conversations about skin color, an entire market for skin lightening creams, and generation-long skin color preferences within families persist....
We all remember the joy of those initial ad-free Netflix experiences. Part of it came from watching shows that no longer contorted their beats to match commercial breaks; more essentially, the scripts didn’t self censor in fear of what advertisers might think — because there were no advertisers. Now, streamers have declared ad dollars essential to their platforms’ long-term health. Unlike broadcast, you don’t have to watch ads on a streamer; an advertising-supported service or tier is only one (lower-cost) option....
With eight years of growth behind her since Oscar night, Hathaway told The Sun this month that she chooses to see the positives that emerged from being the subject of extreme internet hate. The actress said the backlash forced her to build self-confidence that might not have been built otherwise. “I really don’t want to dredge up the past but I did have my monster out there, I did have the internet turn on me and hate me and it was like a whole big thing,” Hathaway said....
Denis Villeneuve’s epic “Dune” took sci-fi honors, Guillermo del Toro’s noirish “Nightmare Alley” won for period, and Cary Fukanaga’s “No Time to Die” (which closed out Daniel Craig’s James Bond saga), earned the contemporary prize. Additionally, “Encanto,” the Oscar favorite from Disney, grabbed the animated feature award. Meanwhile, “Squid Game” (Netflix), “What We Do in the Shadows” (FX), and Marvel’s “Loki” and “WandaVision” from Disney+ won the major TV prizes....
Case in point: Ben Affleck, who starred as Batman in the Warner Bros. DC tentpole. Actors like Gal Gadot (who clashed with Joss Whedon during reshoots after Snyder had to abandon the project) and Ray Fisher (who also faced Whedon’s alleged abuse) have been vocal about their unpleasant experiences. But Affleck, in a recent Los Angeles Times interview supporting his film “The Tender Bar,” threw in his two cents about his torturous time on the set....
This year’s Berlinale competition jury was made up of six former winners of the festival’s top prize, the Golden Bear: “There is No Evil” director Mohammad Rasoulof, “Synonyms” filmmaker Nadav Lapid, “Touch Me Not” helmer Adina Pintilie, “On Body and Soul” director Ildiko Enyedi, “Fire at Sea” filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, and “Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams” director Jasmila Zbanic. The Silver Bear for Best Director was awarded to Dénes Nagy for the Hungarian World War II drama “Natural Light....
Anyone who has ever set foot on a film set likely saw a half-dozen actors and crew members standing over a camera operator’s shoulder, watching the shot through a screen attached to the camera. The sweeping images we see on movie screen are first visualized by looking through a camera, but the second step before anything rolls is to view them through a larger monitor. Attaching an external monitor gives a closer approximation of how each shot will translate to the big screen, and as an added bonus, other people on set can watch the footage take shape....
It took a week for Hollywood to take a stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, but the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival stopped accepting Russian films eight years ago. Many Ukrainians track that moment as the real start of the war with Russia, when the country annexed the Crimean peninsula. “It made no sense to me to send money to Russia for these films,” said Molodist programming director Igor Shestopalov, speaking to me by phone this week....
Crudup is also absorbing his first-ever Emmy nomination (Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series) for a rare television role, the devilishly disruptive network executive Cory Ellison on “The Morning Show.” Crudup, who grew up on ’70s movies like “Fort Apache the Bronx,” “The Verdict,” and “Norma Rae,” tends to gravitate toward roles like “Almost Famous” and “Big Fish” that offer “the sociopolitical part of a fully balanced meal,” he said....
“I had this moment before we started shooting, where I just felt like, ‘This is going to be really hard and fucked up,’” Plaza said during a recent interview with IndieWire. “But there was something in me that felt like I needed to dive off the deep end. If the movie had been about anything else, I don’t know if I would have been able to put myself through that....
Yes, you can actually have a movie-night sleepover inside an actual Blockbuster, which has created a living room space amid its towering shelves of movies. The decor harkens back to the 1990s peak of the rental chain, with a pull-out couch and pastel-patterned bedspreads and pillows. Guests will be able to play VHS movies on the included 4:3 TV. Unfortunately, the sleepovers are available only to residents in Bend’s Deschutes County....
“A year ago today, I released a special called ‘Inside,’” Burnham wrote on Twitter late Monday night. “I’ve spent the last two months editing together material that I shot for the special but didn’t end up using. It will be on my YouTube channel in one hour. I hope you enjoy it.” “Inside” also doubled as a response to Burnham’s own rising fame as a stand-up comedian, as during his 2016 “Make Happy” tour, the writer, actor, and creator began to experience panic attacks onstage....
“Things for Asians in this country have been bleak for the past two weeks and all the weeks before that since forever. There’s a lot of work to do and I found some posts online with action items everyone can take to help,” he said. “Here are some that I found super helpful: six ways you can check in on your AAPI friends and tell them they’re so hot… Amplify these Asian voices who want more Paneras in north Brooklyn....
That positions Matt Reeves’ latest rendition of the Caped Crusader for a U.S./Canada opening over $100 million, with a chance to reach half of the staggering $260 million achieved by “Spider-Man.” This year has been a box-office disaster even with “Spider-Man.” The first two months grossed only $755 million, about 50 percent of the same periods in 2019 and 2020. Beyond “The Batman” — which should provide as much as $300 million this month — March won’t have much to say for itself....
Early reports suggest that the fire, the second to strike the complex in six years, was caused by a short-circuit in the air conditioning system. However, many in the Brazilian community have been quick to denounce the blaze as the fault of the government, which eliminated funding for the Cinematheque in early 2020 and caused it to remain abandoned since then. While it remains too early to ascertain the full extent of the damage, early reports from the ground show that while there were no victims in the blaze, the fire has consumed a large portion of the building where former employees say many archives were kept....
Brian Cox is getting brutally honest in his upcoming memoir, “Putting the Rabbit in the Hat.” In the autobiography, slated for release on January 18, Cox shares his thoughts on several former co-stars and colleagues, including Johnny Depp, David Bowie, Ed Norton, Keanu Reeves, and more. The 75-year-old actor also delivers a scathing critique of Quentin Tarantino, and heartwarming words about Alan Rickman, whom he called one of the “sweetest, kindest, nicest, and most incredibly smart men I’ve ever met....
With 627.11 million hours viewed, the new season of the soapy period series bested the previous version of itself; “Bridgerton” Season 1 now ranks in second place for that same achievement at 625.49 million hours viewed over its first full four weeks. The 28-day mark, which counts four full weeks of availability, is Netflix’s primary metric to determine the success or failure of a show. Remember that this claim is just for an English-language series, as South Korean-favorite “Squid Game” still holds the overall championship record at 1....
“This is the first chapter in a happy story,” the audience is told by Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Kate, her mother, and younger sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran) are new to the ton from India. Edwina hopes to make her debut and find a husband, while Kate seeks financial security for her family. Kate has her reasons for Edwina marrying well, but when her eye sets on Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), it causes problems as Kate finds herself drawn to the man who “vexes” her....
Swift’s musical talents are on display in a memorable scene where she sings with Christian Bale, an experience that clearly made an impression on the “American Hustle” star. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bale spoke about his excitement to sing with Swift and his family’s reaction to the news. “That was a real nice surprise, and I actually didn’t tell anybody about that until afterwards,” Bale said....
