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Teri Garr, the Oscar-nominated actress best known for her work in hit comedies like Tootsie and Young Frankenstein, died Tuesday, Oct. 29, at her home in Los Angeles, The New York Times reports. She was 79.

Garr’s publicist confirmed her death, saying it was caused by complications from multiple sclerosis. Garr was diagnosed with Ms in 1999 and revealed it publicly in 2002. In 2006, she suffered a brain aneurysm that left her in a coma for several days, though she eventually regained her ability to speak.

Over four decades, Garr enjoyed a wildly successful and multi-faceted career,...

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For an industry often referred to as a "dream factory," it makes sense that what constitutes a success or a failure in the film business is based largely on perception. This is because the necessary facts in judging a film's financial performance are rarely available for outsiders to peruse. As detailed in the showbiz nonfiction classic "Fatal Subtraction: How Hollywood Really Does Business" by Pierce O'Donnell and Dennis McDougal, studios go to great lengths to conceal their "creative" accounting practices — which, in this case, allowed Paramount to use the profits from the Eddie Murphy blockbuster "Coming to America" to cover the company's overall losses.

Still, some movies are such obvious flops there's no way they're actually, despite their lousy box office performance, secret hits, right?

Ask anyone with a general sense of film history to name a film that epitomizes...

The 9-1-1 cast is mourning the loss of a member of the crew after a horrific car crash. 20th Television confirmed the crew member’s death in a statement. Continue reading to learn the details of the awful accident.

Rico Priem From The 9-1-1 Crew Died Over The Weekend

Rico Priem, 66, died on Saturday, May 11. He was a beloved crew member on the set of the ABC drama series 9-1-1.

Priem worked as a grip on the set of the show. After a 14-hour overnight shift, he was involved in an accident on the highway. The accident occurred in Pomona, California.

California Highway Patrol officials reported that Priem was driving a Toyota Highlander and was headed north on the 57 Freeway. At Via Verde Drive, his vehicle left the tarmac and “went up an embankment, and flipped onto its roof.”

The studio, 20th Television, released a statement to People. “On...

A crew member on 9-1-1 died early Saturday morning in a car accident on the highway following a 14-hour overnight shift.

Rico Priem, a grip for the Fox procedural and a member of the crew union IATSE Local 80, was involved in a car crash after working Friday night through Saturday morning on a location shoot in Pomona, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. IATSE and the show’s studio, 20th Television, confirmed the death in statements on Monday after crew members began posting about the tragedy on social media over the weekend.

“We are fully committed to the safety and the well-being of all our members and express our heartfelt condolences to the member’s family,” IATSE said in its statement. “Workers have a reasonable expectation that they can get to work and come home safely. No one should be put in unsafe circumstances while trying to earn a living.

Black Forest Films, the multi-award winning team behind My Cherry Pie (2022), The Viper’s Hex (2018) and Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla (2014), and Mad Alice Productions have unveiled the first images and synopsis for their upcoming feature film, An American Masquerade.

Two failing actors and a porn star. A car full of contraband. One hell of a road trip…

Scott Mifune (Yoji Yamada) and Lenny Bulger (Dylan Heath) are two failed actors attempting to eke out an existence in Portland, Oregon. Between smoking weed and embarrassing auditions, their dreams of moving back to Hollywood are seemingly dying. That is until a change of luck finds them with an opportunity to make a large sum of money to transport drugs to LA. En route, they defend a porn starlet, Indiana Union (Elissa Dowling), from her violent manager and she joins them on their journey. Along the way, the trio meet a wild array of criminals,...

For as long as “teenager” has been a demographic, there have been stories about teens breaking free from the status quo. While a lot of the modern great teen rebellion media is confined to the world of TV — where shows like “Euphoria” attract constant buzz — the archetypal troubled teen story remains 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause.” Starring James Dean in unquestionably his defining role, a rebellious teen struggling with his demons in L.A., Nicholas Ray’s film spoke to young people at the time with its story of high schoolers struggling with, and going against, the social pressures that bring them down. Over the years it became a touchstone because its themes and its honesty transcends generations.

As the teen film has evolved and morphed as a genre, there’s always been room for stories of iconoclastic youth who don’t fit in with the status quo. Oftentimes, these...

My standard complaint about the Black Hammer comics is that they’re mostly static, locked into an initial premise that wasn’t all that exciting to begin with. I suppose that’s in distinction to “real” superhero comics, which rely on the façade of change – someone is always dying, someone’s costume is always changing, someone is always making a heel-face turn, and worlds are inevitably always living and dying so that nothing will ever be the same – but it’s not self-reflective enough to count as irony.

But some kinds of stories aren’t supposed to change anything – the whole point is that they don’t, and can’t, change the things we already know. Jam comics by entirely different creators tend to fall into that bucket: they’re sometimes “real” and sometimes not, but even if they’re canonical, they don’t push the canon in any direction.

Scarlett Johansson is one of the most successful Hollywood actors out there. That is to be expected from a star who has acted in a plethora of famous works, including the likes of Avengers, Lucy, Her, and Lost in Translation, amongst other famous works. But that doesn’t mean that she has not faced the odd setback. Even she has had to face numerous rejections time and again, including losing out on a role to Lindsay Lohan.

Scarlett Johansson did not have it easy

Scarlett Johansson was turned down for many roles in her early days

Before Scarlett Johansson made it big as a Hollywood star, she had her fair share of struggles in the industry. It must be difficult for fans to believe that the Marriage Story star found it difficult to catch her big break very early.

That is the the case with most stars though. It is...

Scarlett Johansson has been a star in a wide variety of films over the past thirty years. She had a prosperous early career, starring in films such as Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer (1998) and Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World (2001). However, she also had the unpleasant experience of hearing fans boo one of her career’s best films.

Yes, we are discussing Under the Skin. Despite the negative feedback, the talented actress did not let it bring her down. Instead, she sought sound advice that helped her keep things in perspective. Her career has seen critical and commercial peaks and troughs over the last 20 years, some of which are not necessarily aligned.

Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin

In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, Johansson stated that she would rather experience both the highs and lows of success and failure than “tepid” mediocrity. The audience “booed” the 2013 flick, which made...

What’s new on Amazon’s Prime Video in February 2024?

In light of Valentine’s Day, Prime Video nailed it. This February, the platform is bringing a variety of new shows and movies for you and yours. There is something for everyone — from the latest releases to classic romantic comedies to thrillers and more.

Rom-com “Upgraded,” starring Camila Mendes and Archie Renaux, hits the streamer on Friday, while a series adaptation of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s steamy spy thriller “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” is already taking the world by storm since its Feb. 2 debut with stars Donald Glover and Maya Erskine.

The platform will also debut 2015’s “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” with Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson, last year’s animated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and the well-liked 2014 indie “St.Vincent” with Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts and Chris O’Dowd.

And don’t forget about...

Prime Video’s big February drop is Mr. & Mrs. Smith! No, not the 2005 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie action movie, but a new TV series kinda based on it starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine. The set up for the show version? Glover and Erskine are two strangers who both get jobs at a shady spy agency and are asked to get married so that they can pretend to be a couple undercover, but things get more complicated when they start falling in love for real. Uh oh!

If you’re in the mood for a movie or two this month, you can also check out the Prime debuts of Strays, Bottoms, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. In the meantime, here’s everything coming to Amazon Prime Video and Freevee this month. Amazon Originals are accompanied by an asterisk!

New on Amazon Prime Video – February 2024

February 1

12 Angry Men...

Clockwise from top left: Jeff, Who Lives At Home (Screenshot); The Farewell (Photo: A24); igby Goes Down (Screenshot); Election (Screenshot); Young Adult (Screenshot); Friends With Kids (Screenshot); Ghost World (Screenshot)Graphic: The A.V. Club

Streaming libraries expand and contract. Algorithms are imperfect. Those damn thumbnail images are always changing. But...

Love is in the air this February at Prime Video! From the long-awaited espionage comedy series “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” to Jennifer Lopez’s new album companion film “This Is Me…Now: A Love Story,” the streamer is days away from adding dozens of classic and fresh titles to its seemingly endless catalog, including the premieres of many more Amazon Originals like “The Second Best Hospital in The Galaxy,” “Five Blind Dates,” and “The Silent Service.”

Check out The Streamable’s top picks for February on Prime Video, and find out everything coming to the platform this coming month!

30-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month amazon.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Prime Video in February 2024? “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” | Friday, Feb. 2

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star in the long-awaited spy comedy series about two lonely strangers who land a job working for a mysterious spy agency...

Jim Carrey once called himself the “Tom Hanks of the Golden Globes” after his second straight victory with the Hollywood Foreign Press in 2000 (for “Man on the Moon” following “The Truman Show”). He could win with that group but somehow couldn’t impress Oscar voters. And he’s not the only actor in that situation. Our photo gallery features Carrey among the 20 actors who’ve never been nominated for an Oscar.

Even Academy Awards hosts such as Billy Crystal and Steve Martin haven’t been noticed by Oscar voters other than seeing them perform on the ceremony stage. They have both received critics awards and Golden Globe nominations in their long careers. Martin has at least received an honorary Oscar, but alas no individual nomination for either one throughout their careers.

Other Golden Globe film winners have included Richard Gere (“Chicago”) and Hugh Grant (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”). Our...

Thora Birch has been performing in Hollywood since she was just a tiny tyke, famously playing Dani Dennison in the cult Halloween classic "Hocus Pocus," where she becomes the target of the malevolent Sanderson sisters. But although one of her most memorable roles came in 1993, when she was just 11 years old, that was far from the end of her career as an actress. Birch has continued to work in the industry, lending her talents to television series, films, music videos, and even podcasts over the years. 

Birch's career has been defined by a few standout performances in films that captured the imaginations of audiences everywhere, but one of the most inspiring aspects of her time in Hollywood is that whenever she has been in danger of being completely subsumed by these larger-than-life roles, she shifts gears, navigating a career as a performer on her own terms. If you haven't given...

An actor's body is their instrument, and depending on one's versatility, that instrument can produce all kinds of music. To cite a pair of extreme examples, Robert De Niro famously packed on 70 pounds to play post-retirement Jake Lamotta in "Raging Bull," while Christian Bale dropped 60 pounds to play the emaciated main character of "The Machinist."

For the most part, though, actors are cast according to physical type, which means they shouldn't have to drastically alter their appearance to play a specific role (because there's a bevy of talented actors who fit a variety of types). Still, there are parts that require rigorous training, like action movies. If you're going to play a character who can take out multiple adversaries at once with their bare hands, you've got to look convincing on camera. This means loads of combat training in different martial arts disciplines. Above all, this means getting in shape.

What some might call Steve Buscemi‘s offbeat good looks combined with his prodigious acting skill has helped to build a long-lasting career that has stolen many a movie or TV show.

Buscemi’s awards history has largely centered on his work in television — he was been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards for television, including a win for “Boardwalk Empire;” eight Emmy Award nominations with a win for the short form “Park Bench with Steve Buscemi” and an impressive 11 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, which include four wins for “Boardwalk Empire.” Buscemi also earned one film Globe nom for his supporting work in “Ghost World,” one of his finest performances in any medium.

Let’s look back and rank the 12 greatest film performances of Buscemi’s career. Tour our photo gallery above, ranked worst to best, which includes “Ghost World,” plus “Fargo,” “Reservoir Dogs,” “The Big Lebowski” and more.

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

When we talk about Christmas movies and holiday classics, so often, we're talking about movies that came out decades ago, like "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), "Miracle on 34th Street" (1957), "A Christmas Story" (1983), or "Scrooged" (1988). Even "Home Alone" was released in 1990 and that feels downright modern compared to many of these films that have been in rotation for longer than a fair number of you reading this have been alive. The point is, it's tough to gain that coveted holiday classic status. But 20 years ago, Jon Favreau and Will Ferrell teamed up to give us the definitive modern Christmastime classic: "Elf."

The journey this movie traveled to eventually become the classic that it is today was not a simple one. It was in...

I Hate People, People Hate Me, a new six-episode dark comedy about two friends navigating Toronto’s queer community as outliers, will debut this November on CBC Gem.

Produced by LoCo Motion Pictures and hailing from creator and star Bobbi Summers, the series will hit the streaming service on Nov. 7, with the first two episodes set to stream globally the same day on the CBC Comedy YouTube channel. Ahead of its release, the series has also dropped a red-band trailer offering a (mature) first look at the show, which is directed by Blake Mawson and also stars Lily Kazimiera and Alden McWayne.

An exploration of queer identity as queerness has become more mainstream and commodified, the offbeat comedy is inspired tonally, in part, by films like Ghost World, Good Burger and Welcome to the Dollhouse alongside Summers’ diaries, written while in their 20s. The show follows Jovi (Summers) and Tabitha...

It’s been 30 years since Winifred Sanderson and her sisters put a spell on fans, and “Hocus Pocus” remains a Halloween classic. So, what are the witchy women up to these days? What about the kids they tormented? Well, at least when it comes to the latter, they aren’t kids anymore.

In fact, you can catch most of them at fan conventions across the country when they aren’t on-screen. Vinessa Shaw, Omri Katz, Thora Birch and Jason Marsden have reunited more than a few times at events in the last few years, as “Hocus Pocus” found its cult following later in its life cycle.

As for the Sanderson sisters, well, they’re obviously still hard at work in Hollywood too. In fact, they just reunited last year for “Hocus Pocus 2” on Disney+.

You can see what the ‘Hocus Pocus” cast looks like now in the photos below.

It’s been over 10 years since Speedy Ortiz shared their debut album, Major Arcana. Now, the beloved indie quartet is paying homage to the record with a 10th anniversary reissue featuring remastered versions of the songs, due out on November 17th. Listen to the first preview — a remastered version of “Tiger Tank” — below.

Major Arcana became an indie hit when it dropped in 2013, with Consequence’s Katherine Flynn writing at the time that Speedy Ortiz had masterfully utilized older sounds and styles, while still offering something entirely new and compellingly raw. “This is the real deal, ripped from notebook pages, the torn, frilly edges still hanging on,” Flynn wrote.

For her part, Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis explained that the album is teeming with the energy of the band’s early, DIY days. “Speedy made Major Arcana in a flash of momentum — four days of recording at Sonelab with our pal Justin Pizzoferrato,...

With its 30th-anniversary rerelease the family-friendly Witches of Eastwick secures its status as a sweet-natured and sometimes weirdly brutal cult favourite

Maybe it’s beside the point to have a 30th-anniversary rerelease for Disney’s Halloween witch comedy starring Bette Midler – it’s been on a kind of permanent, low-level rerelease for three decades. The persistent, annual revival on US TV since it bombed on its cinema release in 1993 is supposed to be what’s gradually turned this film into a slow-burn success and then a cult favourite. Watching it again reveals Hocus Pocus to be … well … the pretty good film that it should have been recognised as at the time, a sort of family-friendly Witches of Eastwick.

A cheeky 17th-century prologue sequence in Salem, Massachusetts establishes that – whatever Arthur Miller might claim – witches with evil power were a real thing and the menfolk of the time were entirely justified in hating and fearing them.

Over the course of 100 minutes, Lost in Translation explores the relationship between two lost souls. Romantic and well-observed, with rich performances from Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, the movie captures the longing shared by two people who don’t belong anywhere. And yet, despite the film’s many achievements, the conversation around Lost in Translation has been dominated by one question: “What did he say?”

At the end of the film, aging actor Bob Harris (Murray) hugs young grad student and newlywed Charlotte and whispers something in her ear. Writer-director Sofia Coppola puts just enough of the whisper into the mix to suggest that maybe it should be heard by a viewer who pays enough attention, but not enough to register, even with subtitles.

For 20 years, some corners of film fandom have obsessed over the question, as if hearing that brief bit of dialogue would unlock the meaning of the...

While our massive, 60-film fall movie preview gives a hint at what to expect this season, it’s time to dive deeper into September. With films from Ethan Coen, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Luca Guadagnino being ripped off the month’s release calendar because studios don’t want to pay actors and writers fairly, it means the fall’s first offerings are a bit lighter––thankfully giving some truly independent productions further room to shine.

12. The Storms of Jeremy Thomas (Mark Cousins; Sept. 22 in theaters)

What do films like David Cronenberg’s Crash, Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, Nagisa Ôshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and (many) more have in common? They were produced by Oscar winner Jeremy Thomas. A new documentary by cinephile Mark Cousins, The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, explores the making of his most notable films.

With the summer movie season now quietly winding down, the fall movie season is upon us and while we expect a handful of release dates to change as writers and actors fight for what they deserve, it’s time to look at what’s on the horizon. As we do each year, after highlighting the best films offered thus far, we’ve set out to provide an overview of the titles that should be on your radar.

Featuring 40 films, the below preview includes both the best we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the anticipated with (mostly) confirmed release dates over the next four months. A good amount will premiere over the next few weeks at Telluride, Venice, TIFF, and NYFF, so check back for our reviews. Dates below are theatrical releases unless otherwise noted.

Astrakan (David Depesseville; Sept. 1)

Astrakhan fur is unique: dark, beautiful, and stripped exclusively from newborn lambs,...

Kicking off the fall movie season, Knives and Skin director Jennifer Reeder is returning with Perpetrator, a coming-of-age, feminist horror-noir feature. The Berlinale and Tribeca selection starring Kiah McKirnan, Melanie Liburd, Christopher Lowell, and Alicia Silverstone was picked up by Shudder for a theatrical and streaming release on September 1st and now the first trailer has arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Jonny Baptiste (Kiah McKirnan) is a reckless teen sent to live with her estranged Aunt Hildie (Alicia Silverstone). On her 18th birthday, she experiences a radical metamorphosis: a family spell that redefines her called Forevering. When several teen girls go missing at her new school, a mythically feral Jonny goes after the Perpetrator.”

David Katz said in his Berlinale review, “Just when you thought filmmakers and creators had exhausted everything worth saying in American high school-set comedies and thrillers, along comes Chicago-based independent Jennifer Reeder, who seems devoted to...

I honestly never expected Steven Spielberg in a Criterion Channel series––certainly not one that pairs him with Kogonada, anime, and Johnny Mnemonic––but so’s the power of artificial intelligence. Perhaps his greatest film (at this point I don’t need to tell you the title) plays with After Yang, Ghost in the Shell, and pre-Matrix Keanu in July’s aptly titled “AI” boasting also Spike Jonze’s Her, Carpenter’s Dark Star, and Computer Chess. Much more analog is a British Noir collection obviously carrying the likes of Odd Man Out, Night and the City, and The Small Back Room, further filled by Joseph Losey’s Time Without Pity and Basil Dearden’s It Always Rains on Sunday. (No two ways about it: these movies have great titles.) An Elvis retrospective brings six features, and the consensus best (Don Siegel’s Flaming Star) comes September 1.

While Isabella Rossellini...

Comic book movies are everywhere. At the beginning of the millennium, comic and graphic novel adaptations were uncommon, with the critical failure of "Batman and Robin" putting the breaks on many studios' plans for future superhero fare. Nowadays, we are spoiled by the veritable bounty of comic book re-imaginings, from the indomitable machine of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the many spin-offs of "The Walking Dead" to the Oscar-winning success of "Joker." We live in a time where even "Madame Web" is getting a big-budget film. Truly, our cup runneth over.

Of course, the trend is currently for superheroes and hasn't expanded much beyond that limited subgenre. Comic books are like any other artistic medium: they encompass seemingly limitless potential across styles, themes, genres, and intents. There are exceptions, from the mundane realism of "Ghost World" and "American Splendor" to the rip-roaring golden age adventuring of "The Adventures of Tintin.

As an avid moviegoer, I have always been fascinated with the life and career of John Malkovich. His versatility as an actor is truly remarkable, having portrayed various characters in both theatre and Hollywood. In this blog post, I will take a closer look at Malkovich’s early years in theatre, his big break in Hollywood, his notable performances in theatre, his contributions to the fashion industry, and the future of his career. Let’s begin.

Malkovich’s Early Years in Theatre

John Malkovich was born in Illinois in 1953 and grew up in a family of conservationists. He attended Eastern Illinois University, where he initially studied environmental science, but later changed his major to theatre. Malkovich moved to Chicago after college and became a founding member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He established himself as a talented stage actor in the 1970s and 1980s, earning critical acclaim for his roles...

Director Mike Newell has set an August shoot at U.K. locations for “China Court.”

The film will be directed by Newell from a script by Brian Kinsey, based on the 1961 novel “China Court: The Hours of a Country House” by Rumer Godden.

The film centers around a house, China Court, and the family that inhabits it. The film follows generations of the family over a century, up to the death of the matriarch in 1961. Characters move seamlessly in and out of each other’s timelines as they grow up, fall in love, fall out with each other and – always – pass on to those who follow them the consequences of their actions.

“White Noise” producer Uri Singer has joined forces with Echo Lake’s Mike Marcus (“The Ward”) and U.K.-based Pippa Cross to produce the film.

Fortitude International’s Nadine de Barros and Singer’s Passage Pictures are financing the film.

The Pink Ladies of “Grease,” the most colorful Rydell High students, are back on April 6 on Paramount+. However, this won’t be the same collection of young women from the original film — or even its cult classic sequel. This round, we see how the popular clique got its start. The girls now have a show of their own: “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” a salute to 1950s teens who refuse to conform to conventional standards. The new musical series shows us Rydell High before Sandy and Danny start strutting down the halls. The show stars Marisa Davila, Cheyenne Isabel Wells, Ari Notartomaso, and Tricia Fukuhara.

Watch the “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” trailer:

Paramount+ is also producing an original series “Fatal Attraction,” based on the 1980s hit thriller. The TV version refocuses the lens, exploring a modern approach to women, infidelity, personality disorders, and coercive control. It’s...

Just when you thought filmmakers and creators had exhausted everything worth saying in American high school-set comedies and thrillers, along comes Chicago-based independent Jennifer Reeder, who seems devoted to this subgenre as if by a monastic oath. The high school movie––with its classic, standby imagery of jocks, lockers, and losers––seems to have passed through three main cycles in the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s, and in spite of its absolute specificity to the US education system, has found itself weirdly comprehensible and translatable in many different cultures. With Ghost World a notable exception, it’s also never felt especially feminist, which is what makes Reeder’s perspective fresh and novel.

Reeder––whose independence from typical US film-financing structures, art school background, and genre inclinations make her comparable to Anna Biller (The Love Witch)––has devised a nifty, sometimes gnarly little horror-thriller with Perpetrator. Indebted to the two king Davids...

The Vampire Diaries had a knack for killing its characters and bringing them back to life almost immediately. No one truly stayed dead in the Tvd universe, and for those who never returned, their spirit usually lingered in the afterlife.

One such character was Lexi Branson, who spent much of her time on the series on “The Other Side.” However, Lexi had so much to offer and should have returned from The Other Side.

Lexi actor Arielle Kebbel | Kevin Winter/Getty Images Lexi was Stefan’s best friend

Viewers first meet Lexi in season one, episode eight. She was a vampire and Stefan’s best friend who had known the Salvatore brothers for more than a century. Lexi only appeared alive in the series for one episode before Damon killed her to get the Founder’s Council off his and Stefan’s scent.

Lexi was 350 years old, and her history...

One of the most frustratingly mangled Hollywood success stories pertains to the supposed post-production salvation of "Bad Santa." Written by the then up-and-coming duo of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (based on a pitch from Joel and Ethan Coen), and directed by Terry Zwigoff (hot off the Academy Award-nominated "Ghost World"), the legend holds that Zwigoff's cut of the film was so relentlessly mean-spirited as to be unreleasable. This was backed up 13 years after the film's successful theatrical release by a selectively edited New York Times oral history, which privileges Bob Weinstein's version of the story.

You can't argue with the results. "Bad Santa" was the surprise, coal-in-the-stocking Christmas hit of 2003. Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal of an alcoholic mall Santa, who lazily participates in seasonal, criminal shenanigans with his elf helper, Marcus (Tony Cox), hit anti-consumerist notes with shocking brio. It reveled in the profane freedom of its...

Perhaps humbly anticipating a slightly less prestigious premiere than in competition at Sundance, Randall Park’s “Shortcomings” opens with an amusingly broad parody of “Crazy Rich Asians” (starring original cast member Ronnie Chieng alongside Stephanie Hsu) playing at a Berkeley-based Asian American film festival. As the credits roll, the audience hoot and holler their approval — all except for struggling Japanese American filmmaker Ben (Justin H. Min), who wears the pained expression of a man passing a kidney stone. In the lobby with his girlfriend, Miko (Ally Maki), who works for the festival, Ben is asked what he thinks by the ebullient director of the film. Struggling for a diplomacy that we soon learn does not come naturally, Ben leads with “It’s … quite the event.”

“Shortcomings,” in its way, is also quite the event. A fresh-faced, funny directorial debut from the ever-engaging Park, who starred in “Fresh off the Boat” and “Always Be My Maybe,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2022, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

When reflecting on my year in cinema, I recognize the experience of where and when I viewed the following films as inexplicably tied to how I remember them. The theatrical experience is sacred—this is no secret. But it bears repeating in the face of certain entities whose ethos revolves around its destruction (or “disruption”). Certainly the greatest cinema transcends. I did not see my number one movie of the year on a big screen, but I look forward to a future date when I can. And after years of repeat home viewing, I was finally able to catch two of my all-time favorite films: The Thin Red Line and Groundhog Day, on the big screen in 2022—on 35mm no less. Home viewing has its place. But...

In 2000, the Tony Awards added a fifth slot to acting categories (as long as there are sufficient candidates), and just five years later added one on to the directing categories. The Emmys bumped nominees up from five starting in 2009 and have included up to eight nominees to a category in recent years. The Critics Choice Awards, anxious to honor as many potential Oscar nominees as possible, went up to six acting and directing nominees a few years ago, and this year suddenly supersized the directing category all the way up to 10.

So why have the Oscars mostly stayed firm with the five-per-category stance they have employed for decades?

The Academy famously doubled its Best Picture category to 10 nominees back in 2009, shifted to a variable number two years later and then went back to a guaranteed 10 last year. Their initial move was largely due to the outcry over the snubbing of critically acclaimed,...

The possibilities are endless when it comes to who could've played a given part in a film that went on to become a classic. Many actors are often first approached for a role, only for them to turn it down or see scheduling get in the way. Warren Beatty and Elvis were famously in the running to star in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," to use an example that actually could've really worked. Normally, when we imagine another actor in a role that seemed tailor-made for them in retrospect, it's difficult to see anyone else fill their shoes. In the case of Billy Bob Thornton in "Bad Santa," it seems unlikely that anyone could have been a more perfect choice to fill the boots of an alcoholic, foul-mouthed mall Santa Claus who's actually a crook in disguise. 

It almost happened though. It's not surprising that a lot of actors...

With the holiday season fast approaching, it's that time of year when movie journalists and film critics start wheeling out their lists of alternative and anti-Christmas classics. If ever there was a film tailor-made for such picks, it is "Bad Santa."

In the true spirit of seasonal generosity, screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa created a script gleefully intended to offer offense to all comers, and everyone involved looks like they're having plenty of fun working their way onto Santa's naughty list. Yet the key to the film's longevity is that it remains firmly on the side of clever-offensive; if it was simply another bland gross-out comedy, it probably wouldn't have become an instant cult classic that, despite its potty mouth and all-round vulgarity, still warms our cockles after repeat viewings.

As the instantly forgettable sequel proved, you can be crass, foul-mouthed, and gross, but to pull it off and...

Celebrated cartoonist and screenwriter Daniel Clowes discusses his favorite formative films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Baxter (1989)

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1966) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Ghost World (2001) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Art School Confidential (2006)

Help! (1965) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s review

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966) – John Landis’s trailer commentary,

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Mudhoney (1965) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers! (1968)

Common Law Cabin (1967)

Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Seven Minutes (1971)

Black Snake (1973)

An American Werewolf In London (1981) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray reviews

Lady In A Cage (1964) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Wild One (1953)

Hush…...

Jim Carrey once called himself the “Tom Hanks of the Golden Globes” after his second straight victory with the Hollywood Foreign Press in 2000 (for “Man on the Moon” following “The Truman Show”). He could win with that group but somehow couldn’t impress Oscar voters. And he’s not the only actor in that situation. Our photo gallery features Carrey among the 20 actors who’ve never been nominated for an Oscar.

Even Academy Awards hosts such as Billy Crystal and Steve Martin haven’t been noticed by Oscar voters other than seeing them perform on the ceremony stage. They have both received critics awards and Golden Globe nominations in their long careers. Martin has at least received an honorary Oscar, as has Donald Sutherland, but alas no individual nomination for either one throughout their careers.

SEETop 20 greatest living actresses never nominated for an Oscar

Other Golden Globe film winners have...

With an acting career that goes back nearly twenty years, Scarlett Johansson is no stranger to being typecast. But EW reports that, when the actress sat down to talk with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on their “Armchair Expert” podcast, Johansson opened up about how taking on more mature roles earlier in her career led her to be “hyper-sexualized” for most of her career.

Read More: First Look: Kristin Scott Thomas’ ‘My Mother’s Wedding’ With Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller & More

Shepherd led to the topic when he said Johannson “got labeled 15 going on 30” in her early breakout roles like 2001’s “Ghost World” and 2003’s “Lost In Translation.” Johannson admitted that thanks to her career and upbringing in Manhattan, she “definitely was in different situations that were not age-appropriate.” However, her mother was “really good about protecting” her from “a lot of that stuff, but she can’t do that for everything.

Scarlett Johansson opened up about feeling “hypersexualized” when she was a teenage actress, and how that left her fearing she’d be typecast in those type of roles.

Johansson appeared in the 500th episode of actor Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast on Monday, where she got candid about her early experiences as an actor.

“You got labelled ’15 going on 30′ early and I can imagine that being this really wild blessing and then this really weird curse in some way,” Shepard told Johannson, via People, confessing he was surprised to learn how young she was in some of her early screen roles.

Read More: Russo Brothers Say Disney’s Treatment Of Scarlett Johansson For ‘Black Widow’ Rollout Was ‘Disturbing To Us As Artists’

Revealing that she began filming her first movie at age seven, she noted how old she was when she shot some of her best-known early movies, such...

Saruul is studying to be an engineer when she agrees to take the last job her cosmopolitan but still relatively conservative Mongolian parents would ever imagine their daughter doing: selling intimacy aids in a basement-level sex shop. Technically, Saruul’s just filling in for a shy friend at school who trusts her to be discreet, but this temporary gig has a subtle yet life-changing impact on the title character, who looks like she could be 14 years old at first, but blossoms into a more self-aware young woman over “The Sales Girl’s” slightly overlong running time.

The top prize winner of the New York Asian Film Festival, veteran director Sengedorj Janchivdorj’s umpteenth feature takes a frank, sex-positive approach to the titillating world in which it’s set. But that doesn’t make this an erotic film. Instead, “The Sales Girl” focuses mostly on the unlikely friendship between Saruul (Bayartsetseg...

Child actors often grown up to become veteran actors, but Thora Birch was always different: She wanted to be the one who had the answers. Birch made her mark in “Hocus Pocus,” “American Beauty,” and “Ghost World,” but she had her eye on being the person who told the actors what to do. After producing indie films “Petunia” and “The Competition,” she’s now got that opportunity as the director of Lifetime movie “The Gabby Petito Story,” in which she also takes a role as Gabby’s mom, Nichole.

The daughter of pornographic performers, Birch started acting at four and snagged major commercials before turning to films with “Purple People Eater” at age six. Her three-decade career also includes a recurring role on “The Walking Dead” and starring in the sci-fi podcast “Overleaper.”

Along the way she’s earned BAFTA, Emmy, and Golden Globe nominations and she’s worked with...

During Et’s visit to the set of “The Gabby Petito Story”, Lifetime’s true-crime film about the van life murder, director Thora Birch opened up about her involvement in two other anticipated projects, “Hocus Pocus 2” on Disney+ and Netflix’s “Wednesday” series.

“I was just a little dismayed I wasn’t able to make it,” Birch said of the sequel to “Hocus Pocus“, in which she originated the role of 8-year-old Dani Dennison, one of the Salem, Massachusetts, kids who gets caught up in the mayhem after the resurrection of the Sanderson sisters.

Nearly 30 years later, Midler, Najimy and Parker have reunited for a new tale about the three witches, with Doug Jones reprising his zombie role. However, the original film’s young stars, Omri Katz and Vinessa Shaw, are not among the cast returning for the sequel.

“I was working on something else when they were filming,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

The series “Woman as Witch” offers 35mm prints of von Sternberg’s Dishonored and Alan Rudolph’s rarely screened Remember My Name.

Bam

In advance of her debut feature The African Desperate, Martine Syms has curated a series of influences—among them Spike Lee’s Girl 6, Paprika, and Happy Together.

Film Forum

A Miloš Forman retrospective celebrates the filmmaker’s 90th birthday; “Loving Highsmith” has its second weekend with Purple Noon, Strangers on a Train, and The American Friend; restorations of Alain Resnais’ The War Is Over and Carnal Knowledge continue.

Film at Lincoln Center

Three Colors: Blue, Three Colors: White, and Three Colors: Red all play in new 4K restorations.

Museum of the Moving Image

One of Johnnie To’s best films, Vengeance, screens on Friday as part of a retrospective on The Story of Film, while...

Exclusive: Sean Ryan Fox (Henry Danger) and Catherine Daddario (Oak) will lead the cast of the indie high school drama The Midway Point, marking the feature directorial debut of writer-director Lucca Vieira, which has wrapped production in Los Angeles. Others in the ensemble include 2019 Honorary Academy Award winner Wes Studi (The Last of the Mohicans), Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Thora Birch (Ghost World) and Julie Benz (Dexter).

The coming-of-age film said to be in the vein of Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade follows the introverted and highly creative high school senior Jake (Fox) as he experiences his first love with Alice (Daddario), a brash and outgoing classmate. As the two open up to one another, the seemingly opposite pair find they have more in common than meets the eye. Studi plays Jake’s teacher, with Birch as his mother, and Benz as the school’s guidance counselor who helps him with his social anxieties.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

“Working Class Musicals” examines the most lavish expressions from a ground level, featuring Cherbourg, Chantal Akerman, West Side Story x2, and more.

Roxy Cinema

The series “Woman as Witch” offers 35mm prints of Johnny Guitar, Jennifer’s Body, and Woman in the Dunes.

Film Forum

“Loving Highsmith” begins with Purple Noon, Strangers on a Train, and The American Friend; Alain Resnias’ The War Is Over continues and Carnal Knowledge, restored, begins a run.

Japan Society

Kihachi Okamoto’s Kill! plays on 35mm this Friday.

Film at Lincoln Center

As the Three Colors: Red restoration continues, The Wiz has a free outdoor screening this Friday on Governor’s Island.

Paris Theater

Kurosawa’s Ran plays exclusively through the weekend.

Museum of the Moving Image

Streets of Fire, Licorice Pizza, Tron and Sleeping Beauty play on 70mm this weekend, while a series of zombie films screen.

In a world where politicians use mental health as mere talking points when discussing gun violence and suicide rates, Steve Buscemi’s “The Listener” addresses the crisis head-on. Written by Alessandro Camon, the Oscar-nominated scribe of “The Messenger” (2009), the film follows a helpline volunteer named Beth, played by Tessa Thompson, who is an integral part of the small army of counselors who field calls from all kinds of people who feel lonely and broken. The film unspools at the Venice Festival’s Giornate degli Autori and is the closing film of Venice Days on Sept. 9.

Buscemi can sympathize with anyone who feels lost and broken, especially as he is still reeling from losing his wife Jo Andres in January 2019; they had been married for over 30 years. While in pre-production, the director and producer called a helpline number. “At first, it was in the name of research,” Buscemi told Variety. “I...