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Can you believe it's April already! If only the weather here in NYC would commit to springtime (Sigh). A new month means new availabilty of streaming titles which means it's time for our streaming roulette. We spin (figuratively... it's really scrolling) and wherever the cursor lands we share that moment of the film. Do any of these screengrabs make you want to see the picture (or see it again)?

Drugstore Cowboy (1989) on Amazon Prime

Holy shit!

Holy shit is right. This is the first moment of a quadruple dissolve with a really strange comic tone. Gus Van Sant just can't help his inner cinema geek sometimes (See also Psycho, 1998). I don't remember this well (only saw it once) but was absolutely convinced at the time that Matt Dillon should have landed his first Oscar-nomination with ease. He had to make do with that year's Best Actor prize at the Independent...

Is Angela Lansbury retiring? Recently, the Murder, She Wrote star spoke with Radio Times about her legendary career and recent role in BBC's Little Women.Lansbury played amateur detective Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote for 12 seasons between 1984 and 1996. She earned 12 Emmy nominations for her role on the hit CBS series and has since gone on to star in Law & Order, Touched by an Angel, and BBC's new Little Women miniseries.Read More…...

"Sometimes, we simple have to do the bravest thing." PBS has released the first trailer for their upcoming TV series adaptation of Little Women.Based on the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott, the miniseries “follows sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March on their journey from childhood to adulthood.” The cast includes Emily Watson, Michael Gambon, Angela Lansbury, Maya Hawke, Willa Fitzgerald, Annes Elwy, Kathryn Newton, and Jonah Hauer-King.Read More…...

Your first book-club recommendation for 2018 has arrived: PBS and Masterpiece have released a trailer for their upcoming adaptation of Little Women.

The story — based on Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel — is set during the Civil War and centers on the four March sisters as they cast aside their childhood innocence and embark on their first romances. In the trailer above, we see Oscar nominee Emily Watson (Genius) as the girls’ doting mother, who wants “real love… from good men” for all of her daughters. Aunt March, though (played by the legendary Angela Lansbury) has a more cynical point of view,...

“Four small children is a recipe for heartache, headache and indigestion.” So says Angela Lansbury’s Aunt March at the opening of the first trailer for Little Women, the TV adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel from Masterpiece, BBC One and Playground. Set against the backdrop of a country divided, the story follows the four March sisters: Jo, played by newcomer Maya Hawke, Meg, played by Willa Fitzgerald, Beth, played by Annes Elwy and Amy, played by Kathryn…...

Author: Zehra Phelan

Coming to BBC One in the not too distant future is a brand new adaptation Louisa May Alcott’s universally beloved novel, Little Women and a brand new trailer is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Set against the backdrop of a country divided, the story follows the four March sisters: Jo (Maya Hawke), Meg (Willa Fitzgerald), Beth (Annes Elwy), and Amy (Kathryn Newton) on their journey from childhood to adulthood while their father (Dylan Baker) is away at war. Under the guidance of their mother Marmee (Emily Watson), the girls navigate what it means to be a young woman: from gender roles to sibling rivalry, first love, loss and marriage.

Accompanied by the charming boy next door Laurie Laurence (Jonah Hauer-King), their cantankerous wealthy Aunt March (Angela Lansbury) and benevolent neighbour Mr. Laurence (Michael Gambon), Little Women is a coming of age story that is as...

Louisa Mellor Dec 13, 2017

We’ve taken a highlighter to this year’s Christmas and New Year TV schedules and circled what we’ll be watching this festive season…

Amid the cosy repeats and cranberry-stuffed cookery shows on TV over the next few weeks are a few gems. There’s no Sherlock or Charlie Brooker’s TV Wipe this year, but there are plenty of treats, not least the return of The League Of Gentlemen for a three-part anniversary series and Peter Capaldi’s last hurrah in the Tardis in the Doctor Who Christmas episode.

See related 26 new TV shows to watch in 2017

Over on Netflix, six new episodes of Black Mirror are coming to usher in the New Year, two days into which we welcome the return of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s genius anthology Inside No. 9.

Not to gloss over a spooky M.R. James night on BBC Four,...

Is there anything better than digging into a good book? For twins Jenna and Barbara Bush, it’s reading a good book together!

The former first daughters, 35, tell People and EW’s “Shelf Life” series that they love to indulge together in guilty pleasure reads, especially mysteries like Nelson DeMille’s The Lion’s Game and Paula Hawkins’ Into the Water.

“We love to read a good mystery when we just want to forget about everything,” says Jenna Bush Hager.

“And we like to read at the same time, so that we have someone to talk to about where we are in the book,...

If there was an '80s It Girl who made the leap into the '90s and came out still cool on the other side, it was Winona Ryder.  She nailed the complex, layered teen roles in cult-classic movies like Lucas, Heathers, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Mermaids, all of which she had under her belt by the time she was 19. She became the poster girl for Generation X angst in the poster movie for Generation X, the Ben Stiller-helmed Reality Bites, as well as a leading lady for any era in the likes of Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Age of Innocence and Little Women. Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton lined up...

Masterpiece, BBC One and Playground have released a first-look image from the TV adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, Little Women. Set against the backdrop of a country divided, the story follows the four March sisters: Jo, played by newcomer Maya Hawke, Meg, played by Willa Fitzgerald, Beth, played by Annes Elwy and Amy, played by Kathryn Newton, on their journey from childhood to adulthood. With the help of their mother Marmee, while their father is away at…...

PBS' Masterpiece, Britain's BBC and Wolf Hall producer Playground have released the first image from their hotly anticipated new TV adaptation of <em>Little Women</em>.

Heidi Thomas, creator of BBC hit <em>Call the Midwife</em>, and director Vanessa Caswill (the BBC's <em>Thirteen</em>) have teamed up on this new version of Louisa May Alcott’s classic tale of the March sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy — as they pass from childhood to womanhood. Originally published in 1868, <em>Little Women</em> is set against the backdrop of the Civil War. With their father at war, the four girls learn to navigate love and loss ...

Little Women has some new company. Deadline reports Emily Watson and Michael Gambon have joined the upcoming BBC/PBS TV show.Based on the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott, the miniseries "follows sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March on their journey from childhood to adulthood.” The cast also includes Angela Lansbury, Maya Hawke, Willa Fitzgerald, Annes Elwy, Kathryn Newton, and Jonah Hauer-King.Read More…...

Tony Award-winnerAngela Lansbury will join Emily Watson The Theory Of Everything in a three-part television adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's, Little Women for BBC One and Masterpiece on PBS.

Angela Lansbury could finally win an Emmy after enduring a record 18 losses. She is to play the scene-stealing role of Aunt March, the grande dame of the family, in a new TV version of “Little Women.” Louisa May Alcott published this novel in two parts in 1868 and 1869 and it has been adapted for […]...

BBC One, PBS, Playground co-pro starts shoot this month.

Dame Angela Lansbury, Michael Gambon and Emily Watson will star in the BBC One drama adaptation of Little Women for UK indie Playground.

Based on the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott, the coming of age story about a family growing up in post-Civil War America, will air as a three-part mini-series adapted by the creator of Call the Midwife Heidi Thoma (Cranford) and will be directed by Vanessa Caswill (Thirteen).

Principal photography gets under way this month in Ireland. Co-producers are PBS label Masterpiece.

The series will be set during the book’s 1860’s world with the UK actors adopting Us accents.

Maya Hawke, Willa Fitzgerald, Annes Elwy and Kathryn Newton will play the March sisters alongside rising actor Jonah Hauer-King as Laurie Laurence.

Watson is set to play Marmee, the matriarch of the March family. Lansbury will play the girls’ wealthy relative – the cantankerous Aunt March...

Principal photography begins in Ireland this month on Playground Entertainment’s adaptation of Little Women for BBC One and Masterpiece on PBS. As Deadline reported last month, Angela Lansbury is playing Aunt March in the three-part miniseries. Playground has now rounded out the cast with Emily Watson as Marmee, the matriarch of Louisa May Alcott’s March family, and Michael Gambon as benevolent neighbor Mr Laurence. The March sisters will be played by an ensemble of four…...

Angela Lansbury has lost a record 18 races for acting at the Emmy Awards. But the TV academy may soon have a chance to right this egregious wrong. Word comes that Dame Angela may play a part in the upcoming TV adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic “Little Women.” She is set to take […]...

Deadline has reported that Tony Award-winner, Angela Lansbury is currently in talks to join the cast of a three-part television adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's, Little Women for BBC One and Masterpiece on PBS.

Angela Lansbury is in talks to join the cast of Little Women, a three-part drama series adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's coming-of-age classic for BBC One and Masterpiece on PBS. The project, from Colin Callender's Playground, is written by Heidi Thomas (Call The Midwife) and directed by Vanessa Caswill (Thirteen). Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, the story follows sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March on their journey from childhood to adulthood. With the help…...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Kirsten Dunst, who steals the show from Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell in Cannes director-winner Sofia Coppola’s Civil War potboiler “The Beguiled” (June 23, Focus Features). It’s her fourth collaboration with Coppola.

Bottom Line: Dunst steered toward playing strong women from an early age, with films that include political comedy “Dick” with Michelle Williams, John Stockwell’s “Crazy/Beautiful” with Jay Hernandez, and Peyton Reed and Jessica Bendinger’s cheerleader sleeper “Bring It On,” shot the year she graduated from Los Angeles’ Catholic high school Notre Dame. She has never settled for The Girlfriend or romantic lead, although she made a memorable Mary Jane Watson in the “Spider-Man” franchise. “Looking back, I’m proud of the choices that I’ve made,” she said. “A...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Kirsten Dunst, who steals the show from Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell in Cannes director-winner Sofia Coppola’s Civil War potboiler “The Beguiled” (June 23, Focus Features). It’s her fourth collaboration with Coppola.

Bottom Line: Dunst steered toward playing strong women from an early age, with films that include political comedy “Dick” with Michelle Williams, John Stockwell’s “Crazy/Beautiful” with Jay Hernandez, and Peyton Reed and Jessica Bendinger’s cheerleader sleeper “Bring It On,” shot the year she graduated from Los Angeles’ Catholic high school Notre Dame. She has never settled for The Girlfriend or romantic lead, although she made a memorable Mary Jane Watson in the “Spider-Man” franchise. “Looking back, I’m proud of the choices that I’ve made,” she said. “A long career is up to you. It’s your barometer of taste and the choices you make as an actress inform how other people look at you and if they want you in their movies. So you have to be wise.”

Career Peaks: A model from the age of three, the child actress shot out of a cannon when she won a worldwide search for 11-year-old Claudia, starring opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in “Interview with the Vampire,” Neil Jordan’s fabulously kinky 1994 take on the Anne Rice classic. Dunst has long leaned into women’s subjects and directors, from Gillian Armstrong and Robin Swicord’s “Little Women” and Leslye Hedland’s raucous “Bachelorette,” to Coppola’s Cannes breakout “The Virgin Suicides,” shot when she was 16.

That film marked her segue to more adult roles. “I was sexualized,” Dunst told me, “but through her lens, which was such a wonderful way to be transitioned. There was nothing grotesque, even though I was doing things in that film that I was uncomfortable doing. I’d stress out about ‘Oh, I have to make out with that boy on the roof,’ but Sofia would just have me nuzzle into the side of their face. Even though I was blossoming, it was not something I was comfortable with yet. She really opened that door for me.”

Dunst went on to star for Coppola as a coquettish queen in the title role “Marie Antoinette,” and cameoed in “The Bling Ring.”

Assets: Beyond sexual allure, Dunst brings depth and mystery. She can play the girl next door (“Spider-Man”), a drunk bride peeing on the lawn in the moonlight in her wedding dress (“Melancholia”), an imperious 18th-century queen (“Marie Antoinette”), or a racist Nasa administrator (“Hidden Figures”). She has a steely edge, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Her career pivot came before 2010 Ryan Gosling two-hander “All Good Things,” when she started to meet with acting coach/therapist Greta Seacat (who also works with Coppola).

While Dunst always picks projects based on directors, she credits Seacat with a total game change “in terms of acting and how I approach things,” said Dunst. “And now it’s all about me. It’s cathartic for me. It’s my thing, it’s my experience, it’s nothing about pleasing anyone else but myself. And it all comes from me, so I have so much more control than anybody else; it’s all about my own inner life. By the time I get to set, I’m so prepared no one needs to direct me. No one needs to tell me anything. I feel so powerful with what I have to bring, that making movies is for myself now and it’s like getting rid of poisons. Like if you went to a therapist all the time, but I get to do it by acting out anything I want to, so that’s a powerful tool.”

She draws the line at too much nudity, and turned down a sexy role in another Lars von Trier movie. “I would work with him again,” she said. “It just depends on the part because he loves exposing… like Charlotte Gainsbourg, she has a less curvaceous body, so it’s less assaulting to see than if someone with larger breasts and more womanly-shaped did some of the things she did in movies.”

Biggest Problem: As she has come into a strong sense of her own identity, Dunst is making career choices for herself, not her fans. She’s not looking to please anyone else or playing the movie-star game, as evidenced by her maverick choices, from “Melancholia” to “Fargo.” “Only Lars and Pedro Almodovar write these incredible, messy roles for women,” she has said.

Awards Attention: She won Best Actress at Cannes for her hilariously depressed bride in Lars von Trier’s comedic end-of-the-world tragedy, “Melancholia,” after being quick enough on her feet to survive a disastrous Cannes press conference when her director went off the rails. While she earned plaudits and a Golden Globe nomination for Season Two of “Fargo” as the deeply flawed murderess Peggy Blumquist, she’s never earned an Oscar nomination. “The Beguiled” could be her first — she’s earning raves across the board.

Next page: Dunst scribes her character in “The Beguiled”: “Edwina would be me at my worst, working on a film that I don’t want to be on.”

Related storiesHow Controversies Can Hurt Movies Before They're Released -- IndieWire's Movie Podcast (Screen Talk Episode 154)'The Beguiled' Exclusive: Here's What It's Like to Work On A Sofia Coppola Set -- WatchSofia Coppola Explains Why She Left Her Ambitious Take on 'The Little Mermaid'...

Up until a few years ago, Sofia Coppola swore she would never do a remake. Then her production designer, Anne Ross, brought Don Siegel's 1971 pulp classic The Beguiled to her attention – and the director saw a film ripe for retelling. A group of Southern belles are holed up at an all-girls school during the Civil War; suddenly, the young women and their headmistress have their isolated existence disrupted by a wounded Union soldier. Nearly half a century ago, Clint Eastwood's Corporal John McBurney behaved as if he had arrived at a brothel,...

Author: Jo-Ann Titmarsh

Don Siegel’s 1971 The Beguiled is a much loved classic, telling the story of a Union soldier holed up in a boarding school, where he beguiles each of the females and earns his comeuppance. So what would Sofia Coppola, one of a handful of female directors in competition in Cannes, bring to the story that is new by viewing it from a woman’s perspective? The answer is: very little.

Coppola remains faithful to the novel and the original screenplay, as we follow Amy (Oona Laurence) into the woods to forage for her infamous mushrooms. She’s a little red riding hood toting her basket all alone in the humid forest and she is about to stumble upon John McBurney (Colin Farrell), a wolf in Yankee clothing. As Amy helps the injured deserter back to her school, we meet the rest of the ladies: Martha (Nicole Kidman), the headmistress,...

PBS Masterpiece is teaming up with BBC and Playground to bring us one of the most beloved stories of the last 150 years... Little Women. On Friday, PBS posted the news on their Facebook page. I feel that this story is in the best of hands, as PBS has brought us such great shows and mini-series over the past few years, such as Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Mercy Street, Grantchester, and many others. 

Louisa May Alcott's semi-autobiographical novel about growing up in the Civil-War era was a tale of family, first love, poverty, being a working woman in a male-dominated industry, and most of all, it was a story of sisters. The script for the three-part series will be written by Heidi Thomas, who also scripted the acclaimed Call the Midwife. Vanessa Caswill will direct. The casting is still under wraps, but it will be exciting to see who will play the beloved characters of Jo,...

Little Women is coming to the small screen. This week, PBS announced they are teaming with the BBC for a TV series adaptation of the classic novel.Written by Louisa May Alcott, the story "follows sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March on their journey from childhood to adulthood." The series adaptation is being written by Call the Midwife's Heidi Thomas and will be directed by Vanessa Caswill.Read More…...

PBS and Masterpiece are about to take on a true masterpiece.

The classic Louisa May Alcott novel Little Women is being adapted into a three-part miniseries for Masterpiece, PBS announced Thursday. Playground, the production company behind PBS’ 2015 Emmy nominee Wolf Hall, will produce.

RelatedHowards End First Look: Hayley Atwell Goes Full-On Costume Drama for Starz

Set in Massachusetts during the Civil War, Little Women follows the March sisters — Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy — as they develop into womanhood while their father is away at war. Call the Midwife creator Heidi Thomas will pen the three-part adaptation, with Vanessa Caswill (BBC America’s Thirteen) directing.

<em>Little Women</em> is headed to the small screen.

PBS' Masterpiece and BBC are teaming on a three-part adaptation of the beloved Louisa May Alcott book, it was announced Thursday.

Originally published in 1868,<em> Little Women</em> is set against the backdrop as the Civil War as four sisters — Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March — transition from childhood to adulthood. With their father at war, the foursome learn to navigate love and loss with help from their mother.

Heidi Thomas (<em>Call the Midwife</em>) will write the three-part miniseries, with Vanessa Caswill (<em>Thirteen</em>) set to direct. Susie Liggat will produce, with Thomas, Colin ...

Little Women: Lea Thompson (TV's Switched at Birth, above) will star in a new big-screen version of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. First published in 1868, the novel was most recently adapted in 1994. Thompson will portray family matriarch Marmee; her Switched at Birth costar Lucas Grabeel will play the supporting role of Laurie. Clare Niederpruem and Kristi Shimek wrote the script and Niederpruem will make her directorial debut. The movie is aiming for theatrical release next year. [Deadline]   Masters of the Universe: A new version of Masters of the Universe (1987 version above) has nabbed a release date, but lost its director. McG, who boarded the project early last year, has now departed and so Sony is searching for a new helmer. On the...

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Little Women: Lea Thompson (TV's Switched at Birth, above) will star in a new big-screen version of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. First published in 1868, the novel was most recently adapted in 1994. Thompson will portray family matriarch Marmee; her Switched at Birth costar Lucas Grabeel will play the supporting role of Laurie. Clare Niederpruem and Kristi Shimek wrote the script and Niederpruem will make her directorial debut. The movie is aiming for theatrical...

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Lea Thompson Set To Star In Planned Adaptation Of Little Women Switched at Birth star Lea Thompson has been cast in the lead role of director Clare Niederpruem’s Little Women. While contemporary audiences might recognize her from her role on the ABC family drama, Thompson is remembered by children of the 1980’s as [...]

Continue reading: Little Women (2018): Lea Thompson To Headline Louisa May Alcott Adaptation...

There comes a time in every actress’ life when it’s time to put away childish things and settle down into a nice, stable Louisa May Alcott adaptation. Sure, it might not be as exciting as having sex with a duck or drawing a successful comic strip, but this is 2017. No one reads comic strips anymore. Thus, Lea Thompson has been cast in the role of March family matriarch Marmee in an upcoming film adaptation of Little Women, a project she’s embarking upon with her Switched At Birth co-star Lucas Grabeel, who will play boy next door Laurie.

It remains to be seen how this particular movie will differ from previous adaptations of Little Women, which has been made into a feature film six different times thus far, most recently in 1994 with Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder. Luckily, though, it doesn‘t seem to have anything to ...

Exclusive: Lea Thompson, who just came off a successful run on ABC’s Freeform series Switched at Birth, has signed on to a modern adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel Little Women to play the lead role of family matriarch Marmee. Joining Thompson will be her Switched at Birth colleague and High School Musical alum Lucas Grabeel who will play Laurie. The independent feature, which marks the directorial debut for Clare Niederpruem, is a co-production and will be…...

This weekend, veteran producer Denise Di Novi saw her directorial debut, Warner Bros.’ “Unforgettable,” make an underwhelming box-office debut with an estimated $4.8 million for the weekend. For most women, that would be the kiss of death: Very few women get the chance to direct studio films, and underperformance means there won’t be an encore. That won’t be the case for Di Novi.

Read More: ‘Unforgettable’ Review: Katherine Heigl and Rosario Dawson Are in Two Very Different Movies, But It Almost Works

Di Novi is like very few women in Hollywood. She’s an unapologetic product of the studios: After 20 years, she still has a rare overall deal at Warner Bros, where she was Tim Burton’s longtime producer (“Edward Scissorhands,” “Ed Wood,” “Nightmare Before Christmas,” his “Batman” films) as well as the shepherd to romantic hits like “Nights of Rodanthe” and Nicholas Sparks’ “A Night to Remember.” And,...

This weekend, veteran producer Denise Di Novi saw her directorial debut, Warner Bros.’ “Unforgettable,” make an underwhelming box-office debut with an estimated $4.8 million for the weekend. For most women, that would be the kiss of death: Very few women get the chance to direct studio films, and underperformance means there won’t be an encore. That won’t be the case for Di Novi.

Read More: ‘Unforgettable’ Review: Katherine Heigl and Rosario Dawson Are in Two Very Different Movies, But It Almost Works

Di Novi is like very few women in Hollywood. She’s an unapologetic product of the studios: After 20 years, she still has a rare overall deal at Warner Bros, where she was Tim Burton’s longtime producer (“Edward Scissorhands,” “Ed Wood,” “Nightmare Before Christmas,” his “Batman” films) as well as the shepherd to romantic hits like “Nights of Rodanthe” and Nicholas Sparks’ “A Night to Remember.” And,...

Colleen Atwood (Rafael Pulido/Courtesy of Citizens of Humanity)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

When it comes to the best costume design category at the Academy Awards there are few who shine brighter than the legendary Colleen Atwood. This talented woman has been nominated 12 times — including this year — and, out of those times, has taken home the trophy three times so far. Let’s take a deep dive into Atwood’s career and see how she stacks against her peers.

As mentioned above, the 68-year-old costume designer has been up for numerous Oscars. Films for which Atwood was just nominated for include: 1994’s Little Women, 1998’s Beloved, 1999’s Sleepy Hollow, 2004’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2009’s Nine, 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, and 2014’s Into the Woods. Films for which Atwood has won, on the other hand, include: 2002’s Chicago,...

Today's magic number is 31. Can you believe it took Christian Bale 31 movies to win Oscar's love?

He debuted in the Steven Spielberg film Empire of the Sun (1987) which was nominated for six Oscars so they knew of him straight from the get-go. But nothing seemed to do it -- not literary adaptations (Little Women, The Portrait of a Lady), neither relationship dramas (Metroland, Laurel Canyon), nor glam rock epics (Velvet Goldmine). Of course it didn't happen for superheroes or serial killers (Batman, American Psycho) but even war dramas (Empire of the Sun, Rescue Dawn) didn't do it. And then suddenly The Fighter (2010) did. He crushed his competition on the way to a win.

Sometimes not being nominated but being routinely excellent is a good way to build crazy momentum for a win. Which working actor do you think is heading straight to an Oscar win as soon as they're finally nominated?...

A few members of Team Experience will be sharing posts on their favorite Christmas movies. Here's Lynn Lee

You can have your Christmas Story or your It’s a Wonderful Life. For me, my Christmas movie will always be Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women, which took its bow Christmas Day, 1994, and has kept a place in my heart ever since. Even though it faithfully adapts a literary classic, the movie’s also a perfect encapsulation of the ’90s: besides Winona Ryder, for whom Little Women was something of a pet project, it also featured a very young Kirsten Dunst, fresh off her star-making turn in Interview With a Vampire, and Claire Danes, still in her Angela Chase days, making her big-screen debut, as well as a 20-year-old Christian Bale completing his transition from child to adult actor.

None of that, of course, meant anything to me when I first saw the film.

Both established child actors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes were on the cusp of worldwide stardom when they were cast in the titular roles of director Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film adaptation of the William Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet about star-crossed lovers from opposing and volatile families.

DiCaprio, a boyish 21 at the time, was coming off critically acclaimed roles in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and The Basketball Diaries. And anticipation was already building for James Cameron’s Titanic, which wouldn’t come out until the following year.

For Danes’ part, the 17-year-old had already established herself as one of the It girls of the mid-‘90s thanks to the lead role in the short-lived series, My So-Called Life, with another up-and-comer, Jared Leto, and a child star-making role in Little Women. A year later, she would be seen in her first major adult role as Matt Damon’s onscreen wife in Francis Ford Coppola’s [link...

A quarter-century ago, Disney gave book-lovers a leading lady they could really relate to. Belle became an immediate favorite for any girl who, like Belle, would rather have her nose stuck in a book than doing just about anything else. Beauty and the Beast is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a new home video release of the film. On that edition, there are over five hours of bonus materials from previous releases and a handful of new featurettes — including a couple that the folks who are bookworm Disney fans will particularly enjoy. One featurette spotlights Walt Disney’s two-month trip to Europe in 1935, where he bought 335 books; many of them are those tales as old as time: fairy tale collections that are still in Disney’s archives and that inspired later Disney films. In another featurette, called “Menken & Friends: 25 Years of Musical Inspiration,” Beauty and the Beast’s...

Bryan Cranston’s Howard Wakefield seems to have a great life. He is a successful New York City lawyer, is married to a loving wife, has two teenage girls, and owns the ideal house. However, problems do lurk beneath his psyche and, before we could even get to know him a little better, he decides to disappear from his own life. He hides in the attic, where his family never really cares to go, and observes how his loved ones deal with his disappearance.

Writer-director Robin Swicord isn’t interested in just the act itself, but more importantly in what led to it happening in the first place. Swicord adapts a short story by E.L. Doctorow into an original and thoughtful gem of a movie Wakefield.

While it’s not a reasonable and intelligent way to deal with life’s problems, walking away from it all is a feeling most...

Few questions feel as stale as the following: Is the Disney Princess feminist? It's become profoundly boring to scavenge for an answer, so common is this refrain that arises each holiday season since Peggy Orenstein’s barnstorm of an essay. It will no doubt be a talking point upon the release of Moana later this year. The "Disney Princess" has congealed into a homogenous, lumpen unit of capitalist excess, so much that each character’s particular idiosyncrasies often become obscured in such discussions.Belle, the heroine of Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale’s Beauty and the Beast (1991), is a headstrong bibliophile with a peripatetic mind; she spends the beginning of the film longing to be elsewhere. “There must be more than this provincial life,” she screams in the film’s opening number, which economically introduces us to the townspeople who fawn over her. Belle, voiced by Paige O’Hara, occupies...

Like so many indie movies, “Wakefield” was something of a miracle for writer-director Robin Swicord. It’s been more than eight years since “The Jane Austen Book Club” (an average statistic for women directors); in the meantime she received an Oscar nomination for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (she shared story by credit with Eric Roth). But for “Wakefield” to happen required infinite patience and no small amount of luck.

Swicord sent “Wakefield” over the transom to Telluride co-director Tom Luddy. “He loves the interesting movie,” she said. “He has broad taste, a love for European movies. I felt when I was cutting ‘Wakefield,’ ‘We are making an interesting, strange movie.'”

Read More: Telluride and Tiff’s Oscar Tea Leaves: How Two Key Festivals Could Predict This Year’s Winners

When she arrived to world premiere the film on Friday for her first Telluride, Swicord had just finished...

Like so many indie movies, “Wakefield” was something of a miracle for writer-director Robin Swicord. It’s been more than eight years since “The Jane Austen Book Club” (an average statistic for women directors); in the meantime she received an Oscar nomination for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (she shared story by credit with Eric Roth). But for “Wakefield” to happen required infinite patience and no small amount of luck.

Swicord sent “Wakefield” over the transom to Telluride co-director Tom Luddy. “He loves the interesting movie,” she said. “He has broad taste, a love for European movies. I felt when I was cutting ‘Wakefield,’ ‘We are making an interesting, strange movie.'”

Read More: Telluride and Tiff’s Oscar Tea Leaves: How Two Key Festivals Could Predict This Year’s Winners

When she arrived to world premiere the film on Friday for her first Telluride, Swicord had just finished...

Chicago – When meeting an interview subject for the third time, and remembering him as the first professional interview I ever did, results in a comfortable familiarity. Director Ira Sachs is the subject, and his latest film is “Little Men.” Taking on adolescent friendship, adult passive-aggressiveness and gentrification all in one film, it also spotlights the expansiveness of this talented filmmaker.

“Little Men” features Greg Kinnear in one of his best performances, as a guilty and conflicted property inheritor named Brian who now lives in Brooklyn, in the midst of the hottest real estate markets in America. His late father owned the property, which included a dressmaker’s shop run by Leonor (Paulina García), who cared for her landlord more than his heirs. Meanwhile, Brian’s son Jake (Theo Taplitz), has found a friend and fellow traveler in Tony (Michael Barbieri), who happens to be Leonor’s son. Property, negotiations and...

New York City has been the home base and preferred story setting for many talented film makers, from Woody Allen to Noah Baumbach to Spike Lee. Each has given audiences a unique look at this very familiar metropolis. With this new release, another writer/director joins that roster: Ira Sachs. His last film, the charming, heart-breaking family drama Love Is Strange took us all around the area, and included a major source of conflict and anxiety for those residents, in general, real estate. Characters mulled over many real life concerns of the NYC populace, rent control, leases, tenant rights, landlords. Sach’s new film also delves into this, but it’s also a family drama, this time about two very different families. Real estate connects them initially, but a friendship further joins them. Don’t be misled by the literary title. This is not another adaptation of Louisa May Alcott...

Rebecca Miller’s new witty romantic comedy “Maggie’s Plan” charmed audiences and critics when it premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and then later when was it released in theaters this past May. Now, it soon will enchant audiences when it hits home video.

Read More: Toronto Review: With ‘Maggie’s Plan,’ Greta Gerwig Officially Owns Her Own Genre

The film follows Maggie (Greta Gerwig), a vibrant and independent New Yorker, decides to become a single mother with the help of a former college acquaintance (Travis Fimmel), but the initial plan comes up against fate when she meets and falls for “ficto-critical anthropologist” John (Ethan Hawke), whose marriage to Columbia University professor Georgette (Julianne Moore) is falling apart. Years later when Maggie finds herself falling out of love with her now husband, she devises a new plan to reconnect John with Georgette. The film also stars...

7 more must-see films at this year's Toronto International Film Festival7 more must-see films at this year's Toronto International Film FestivalAdriana Floridia8/16/2016 10:52:00 Am

Every Tuesday, we are showered with more film announcements for this year's Toronto International Film Festival, and therefore become that much more excited and overwhelmed.

Lucky for you, we're helping you narrow down which films you absolutely must-see at the festival if you're attending, and those that you should keep your eye out for when they hit Cineplex theatres if you're not.

Today, Tiff announced their programs for Contemporary World Cinema, Wavelengths, Masters, and topped up their Galas and Special Presentations. It's a lot of information to process, and there is a wide variety of films here for everyone. We've chosen seven stand-out films from today's announcement that we think you should definitely have on your radar.

Here are seven more films to watch at the...

Fans of Stranger Things have had fun picking through all of the Netflix hit's retro references, from the copious E.T. homages to that John Carpenter-esque synth score. But the best nod to the past isn't the hairstyles, the marathon Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, or even the soundtrack full of New Order and Echo & The Bunnymen songs. No, the real stroke of nostalgic genius is the casting of Winona Ryder as distraught single mom Joyce Byers. From the moment the actress appears, the pulse of every 1980s kid starts to quicken.

This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

Feeling fatigued by summer movie season's emphasis on loud and flashy but ultimately empty spectacles? You're in luck. Little Men, now playing in limited release, is the perfect antidote: quiet but insightful, memorable and substantive. It's not a spectacle by any means but you should still see it inside the movie theater because it's the kind of careful storytelling that benefits from being fully inside of it. Getting lost in a story is much easier to accomplish in the pages of a great novel or the dark of a movie theater than if you wait around to Netflix and chill. The movie comes to us from one of our best Lgbt directors, Ira Sachs. The New York based writer/director made his feature debut 20 years ago with The Delta (1996) but recently he's been on quite a roll.

Little Men is...

The Frances Ha star and screenwriter is taking over the Louisa May Alcott remake from Sarah Polley

Greta Gerwig is rewriting Sarah Polley’s script for the upcoming adaptation of Little Women.

According to the Tracking Board, the actor, who also co-wrote Frances Ha and Mistress America, will take over from Sarah Polley, who was previously on board. Polley’s writing credits include her two films as director: Take This Waltz and Stories We Tell.

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