Top Movie News provided by Rolling Stone©

• Behind The Scenes at Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019
• See Billy Elliot Actor Flirt With Nazism in ‘Skin’ Trailer
  Filmmaker Guy Nattiv also made Oscar-winning short film of the same name
• Watch Woodstock Transform Into Countercultural Paradise in New Doc Trailer
  Barak Goodman's new film set to premiere at Tribeca Film Festival
• Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham Punch Up, Down, Sideways in New ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ Trailer
  'Fast & Furious' spin-off also stars Idris Elba, Helen Mirren
• Netflix Animates Robert Johnson’s Sinister Origin Story in New Doc Trailer
  'ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads' examines legendary blues guitarist's mysterious life and death
• Chucky Wreaks Havoc Through Smart Home System in ‘Child’s Play’ Trailer
  Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry, Mark Hamill star in modern update of classic slasher film
• ‘Penguins’ Review: Disney’s Nature Doc Celebrates Our Furry Flightless Friends
  A new Disneynature documentary from directors Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson — they also collaborated on […]
• ‘Little Woods’ Review: Tessa Thompson Saves Down-and-Out-in-U.S.A. Drama
  The actor lifts this overly familiar melodrama about sisters, opioid addictions and one last score
• ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’: Sophie Turner Savors Mutant Powers in New Trailer
  Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain also star in upcoming film
• ‘Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ Review: Terry Gilliam Tilts at Windmills and Wins
  The filmmaker's decades-in-the-making dream project is finally done — and he's somehow fought the unbeatable foe and emerged triumphant

LA Times©

• Roman Polanski sues film academy over his expulsion from its ranks
  Nearly one year after he was expelled from the ranks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, director Roman Polanski has filed suit against the organization, arguing that the academy did not follow proper procedure in ejecting him and that he should be reinstated. The academy’s board...
• What you need to know about the fight between Hollywood writers and their agents
  You’re fired! That’s what Hollywood scribes recently told the people who are supposed to find them work. Tensions between writers and their agents have been building for years and have finally boiled over. The conflict has pitted the Writers Guild of America, which has about 13,000 members, against...
• Indie Focus: Taking in ‘Her Smell’
  Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies. This is one of those weeks where a ridiculous number of new releases are opening in Los Angeles. Aside from the three main titles given the spotlight in the body of this week’s newsletter...
• Tessa Thompson and ‘Little Woods’ director Nia DaCosta are breaking down Hollywood barriers
  While pursuing a graduate degree in London, rising filmmaker Nia DaCosta was unpacking complicated feelings of homesickness when she began to conceptualize the script for her directorial debut, "Little Woods." "I missed America, but I was like, 'What does that mean?' " she said. "Especially for...
• Why Chrissy Metz prayed so hard in new miracle movie ‘Breakthrough’
  When Chrissy Metz was filming her first scenes for "Breakthrough," she prayed like she had never prayed before. She cried, she wailed, she pleaded with God. She wept over her onscreen son's unresponsive body 10 times in a row, and brought tears to the eyes of her fellow cast and crew members. "It's...
• The missing ‘Avengers’ return: Paul Rudd and Jeremy Renner are back for ‘Endgame’
  Over the course of 10 years, Marvel has built a reputation for delivering two inevitabilities: meaty post-credits scenes and spoiler-free press runs. Case in point: At the hush-hush “Avengers: Endgame” press conference in downtown Los Angeles, Paul Rudd and Jeremy Renner (who play Ant-Man and...
• Lucas Family grant to film academy museum means free admission for kids and teens
  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Thursday that the George Lucas Family Foundation has pledged a grant to support the educational mission of the soon-to-be-opened Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Museum director Kerry Brougher said the grant — which was for an undisclosed...
• Reviews: Italian thriller ‘Naples in Veils,’ puppet martial arts in ‘Yamasong’ and more
  'Naples in Veils' By the time the noirish thriller “Naples in Veils” draws you into its enigmatic web — which is pretty much from the start — you’re sufficiently invested to enjoyably coast through the rest of this hypnotic, if ambiguous, Italian import. Giovanna Mezzogiorno stars as Adriana, a...
• Review: ‘Fast Color’ is a nifty little superhero movie done a little differently
  “Fast Color” is a nifty little film, a smart, adventurous and surprising production made with visible care and considerable love. It’s also a superhero movie with strong science fiction elements, but nothing like the way we’re used to seeing them. While movies of the Marvel and DC variety are today’s...
• Cannes Film Festival inches forward on gender parity, but Netflix remains shut out
  To hear it from the most vocal critics in attendance, last year’s Festival de Cannes was an event of unforgivable scarcity. There were no Netflix movies, due to the festival’s ongoing “feud” with the streaming service; there were not enough American directors or Hollywood stars; and, as usual,...
• Review: Bi Gan's time-bending noir ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ is a magical piece of filmmaking
  Divided in two parts, the second a nearly hourlong 3-D tracking shot, Chinese director Bi Gan's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is a hypnotic, technically brilliant drama of love, loss and memory.
• Review: ‘The Curse of La Llorona’ reduces horror legend to silly jumps and scares
  What we call the Conjuring Universe has become a sprawling franchise of big-budget horror-lite spookfests that pull from every urban legend, folk tale and ghost story one can imagine, usually involving vengeful feminine spirits and the women with whom they do battle. We've got hauntings, possessions...
• Review: 'Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché' sheds light on the first female film director
  The fragility and fallibility of history is on display in the illuminating documentary “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché,” directed by Pamela B. Green. Early in the film, Green asks a host of Hollywood elites — directors, producers, writers — if they’ve ever heard of Alice Guy-Blaché,...
• Critic’s Choice: ‘Suburban Birds,’ Qiu Sheng’s lovely debut, has its L.A. premiere
  Beautiful mysteries abound in “Suburban Birds,” a sharp and beguiling debut feature from the Chinese director Qiu Sheng. It begins as the story of a group of engineers working on the outskirts of a rapidly growing city, taking measurements and assessing the terrain. Before long the movie takes...
• Review: Andrew Garfield gets lost in the L.A. noir puzzles of 'Under the Silver Lake'
  In the cheerfully muddled L.A. noir “Under the Silver Lake,” Sam (Andrew Garfield), a young slacker-sleuth trying to find a missing woman, gets sprayed in the face by a skunk. It’s a rare act of animal self-defense in this sprawling detective fiction, whose critter casualties include a fallen squirrel...
• Review: Gina Rodriguez and gal pals are the real delight in Netflix movie ‘Someone Great’
  Netflix’s “Someone Great” is equally suited for a pre-Saturday night or a Sunday morning in sweats. While this debut film from “Sweet/Vicious” creator Jennifer Kaytin Robinson is a raunchy good time, don’t discount its moving message about the lasting power of female friendship. After nine years...
• Review: ‘Red Joan’ presents Judi Dench in a morally complex role
  “Red Joan” is a traditional production, polished as brass and as old-school diverting as a film starring Judi Dench and directed by Trevor Nunn would have to be. But there is also a kind of hollowness at its center, a tone that is more conventional than compelling. “Red Joan’s” time frame and its...
• Review: Elisabeth Moss galvanizes in the brilliant punk psychodrama ‘Her Smell’
  You may not see a better movie with a worse title this year than “Her Smell.” Scratch that, actually; the title’s perfect. It’s the name of the rock club where we meet the pop supernova that is Becky Something (a mesmerizing Elisabeth Moss), who fronts an all-female punk band called Something She....
• Reviews: Docs ‘Satan & Adam,’ ‘Breaking Habits’ and ‘Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise’
  'Satan & Adam' The oddball musical bromance between a black Mississippi-born blues singer and a Jewish grad school dropout who met on the pre-gentrified streets of Harlem is poignantly examined in V. Scott Balcerek’s truly soul-stirring “Satan & Adam.” Having broken up with a girlfriend, Adam Gussow...
• Review: Penny Lane’s ‘Hail Satan?’ offers cheeky insight into the Satanic Temple
  What happens when an intended one-off publicity stunt escalates into a full-blown movement? The undeniably enticing answer can be found in “Hail Satan?,” an often surprising documentary about the rise of the Satanic Temple. It all started with three guys in cheap hooded cloaks and robes congregating...
• Review: Evaluating Oscar winner ‘Get Out Your Handkerchiefs’ 40 years later
  Forty years on, Bertrand Blier’s Oscar-winning French sex comedy “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs,” in which a frustrated husband (Gérard Depardieu) seeks unusual outside help about his unhappy wife (Carole Laure), still plays like a slap on the behind, followed by a slip on a banana peel, then a finger...
• Review: Taylor Schilling discovers crazy is the new sane in the comedy ‘Family’
  In her directorial debut, Laura Steinel uses Juggalo subculture as inspiration for her comedy “Family,” which serves as a double coming-of-age tale for workaholic mess Kate (Taylor Schilling) and her awkward pre-teen niece, Maddie (Bryn Vale). As her brother (Eric Eidelstein) and sister-in-law...
• Review: In the arresting ‘Little Woods,’ Tessa Thompson and Lily James get scrappy
  Female filmmakers, including Kelly Reichardt and Chloé Zhao, are currently making some of the most uniquely observed and trenchant films about the contemporary American West. Add Nia DaCosta, who makes her feature directorial debut with the arresting “Little Woods,” to that list. Tessa Thompson...
• ‘The Wind’ director Emma Tammi on her supernatural western horror film
  Somewhere in the vast and promising territories of the Great American West circa 1890, the quiet life led by self-sufficient frontierswoman Lizzy Macklin (Caitlin Gerard) and husband Isaac (Ashley Zukerman) is interrupted by the arrival of new neighbors. A fractured friendship develops, but then...
• Review: The medieval horror of ‘Hagazussa’ unsettles as it beguiles
  In the first segment of the four-part supernatural horror film “Hagazussa,” a 15th century Austrian farm girl named Albrun watches her diseased mother slowly die. Both women know no one will be coming to help them, because the surrounding community thinks this strange, hermetic pair of goat ranchers...

NY Times©

• ‘The Curse of La Llorona’ Review: California Freakin’, With Scares, Laughs and a Murderous Ghost
  Linda Cardellini plays a widow with two children and a curse in this amusing, old-fashioned ghost story, the latest addition to the “Conjuring” series.
• Review: ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ Brings Him Back to Life
  Terry Gilliam’s long-deferred tribute to Cervantes’s knight errant finally arrives, starring Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver.
• Critic’s Pick: ‘Fast Color’ Review: Can a Gifted Family Save a Parched World?
  Julia Hart’s wonderfully strange dystopian drama pits three gifted black women against a dried-up world and a hostile government.
• ‘Under the Silver Lake’ Review: Andrew Garfield Gets Lost in a Haze of Pop-Culture Allusions
  A little Hitchcock, a touch of noir, some ’90s indie rock, a few naked women, and yet not much to see.
• Anatomy of a Scene: How ‘The Curse of La Llorona’ Creates Chills
  The director Michael Chaves narrates a scene from this thriller about a menacing mother.
• Claire Denis Talks to Barry Jenkins About Director Anxiety and Expectations
  The French filmmaker’s approach to time and structure has long fascinated our interviewer, the American auteur of “Moonlight.”
• ‘Penguins’ Review: A Nature Documentary Veers Into Fairy Tale
  Ed Helms provides the internal monologue for a 5-year-old Adélie penguin referred to as Steve, who is about to embark on his first mating season.
• How ‘Avengers’ Was Assembled, Before Marvel Was Mighty
  Robert Downey Jr. and the Marvel Studios president, Kevin Feige, look back on a time when “Iron Man,” let alone an “Avengers” movie, was hardly a sure thing.
• Critic’s Pick: ‘Breakthrough’ Review: A Remarkable Story of Survival, Told Through a Religious Lens
  After a 14-year-old boy falls into freezing water and his pulse stops, prayers and medical workers both seem to play a role in his recovery.
• Lorraine Warren, Paranormal Investigator, Dies at 92
  She and her husband looked into that famed house of spookiness in Amityville, and their cases turned into the “Conjuring” films.
• Warren Adler, ‘The War of the Roses’ Author, Is Dead at 91
  A late-blooming novelist, he had his greatest success with a comedy about a couple in a domestic free-for-all. It became a hit movie.
• ‘Kalank’ Review: A Bollywood Love Story in the Shadow of Partition
  Abhishek Varman’s maximalist melodrama delivers spectacle (some of it mind-numbing) but fails to tell a gripping story.
• ‘When They See Us’ Trailer: Ava DuVernay’s Central Park Five Mini-Series Features Felicity Huffman
  The actress who pleaded guilty in the college admissions scandal plays the D.A. The powerful trailer also stars Michael K. Williams and John Leguizamo.
• The Week’s Most Interesting Trailers: ‘Dark Phoenix’ and ‘Hobbs & Shaw’
  A blond Jessica Chastain and extensive action scenes liven up those clips, and we finally get to hear Mark Hamill as Chucky in the promo for “Child’s Play.”
• ‘The Curse of La Llorona’ | Anatomy of a Scene
  Michael Chaves narrates a sequence from the thriller.
• 6 Film Series to Catch in N.Y.C. This Weekend
  Our guide to film series and special screenings.
• Streaming Movie Review: ‘Someone Great’ Review: After a Breakup, One Last Night on the Town
  Netflix’s contribution to the “girls’ night out” genre has its clichés, but the cast has ample chemistry to pull it off.
• ‘Naples in Veils’: A Morgue Doctor Is Obsessed. The Movie Is Lifeless.
  Ferzan Ozpetek’s thriller tips its hat to the motifs of Hitchcock, only to wind up as a tedious muddle.
• ‘Little Woods’ Review: Life Is Thicker Than Blood
  Tessa Thompson holds the center in this drama about a former drug smuggler on probation who is forced to find a new life for herself and her sister.
• Almodóvar and Malick Will Compete at Cannes. Tarantino? He’s a Maybe.
  The Cannes Film Festival announced the first movies that will compete for the Palme d’Or in May.
• ‘Rafiki’ Review: Falling in Love, Illegally
  The story of a romance between two Kenyan women was shown at Cannes after being banned in Kenya.
• ‘Instant Dreams’ Review: Polaroid’s Too-Secret Ingredient
  Willem Baptist’s documentary is an impressionistic study of the end of the Polaroid camera and the “instant film” it used.
• Critic’s Pick: ‘Grass’ Review: Eavesdropping in the Coffee Shop With Hong Sang-soo
  A sense of dislocation hangs over the South Korean director’s latest feature as a young woman writer observes mostly melancholy people, old and young.
• ‘Stuck’ Review: A Movie Musical Set in a Subway Car? Stand Clear.
  Michael Berry’s film about characters on a stalled train aims to show how, yes, we’re all connected and yes, we all need one another.
• ‘Red Joan’ Review: I Spy, Reluctantly
  Trevor Nunn’s listless period drama about an English physicist who leaks atom-bomb secrets, drags when it should zing.
• ‘Family’ Review: Better Living Through Childcare
  Taylor Schilling plays a cold workaholic who improves her life by babysitting her unhappy niece.
• Overlooked No More: Aloha Wanderwell, Explorer and Filmmaker
  By 16, she was traveling around the world behind the wheel of a Model T in a life of adventure that was interrupted only by a murder mystery.
• Nonfiction: The Remarkable Ben Hecht
  Adina Hoffman’s “Ben Hecht” and Julien Gorbach’s “The Notorious Ben Hecht” examine the man’s career as both a screenwriter and a political activist.
• Streaming Movie Review: Beyoncé the Creator: ‘Homecoming’ Review
  Built around her 2018 Coachella performance, the Netflix documentary is, above all, about Beyoncé, who wrote, directed and executive produced.
• 5 Things We Learned About Beyoncé’s Coachella Triumph in ‘Homecoming’
  In the Netflix documentary, she reveals her 2017 pregnancy involved a complication and that she had a hand in every detail in the set — down to “every light.”
• The Big Twist in ‘Shazam!’ Hides Another Fun Easter Egg
  Two of the actors who cameo in the superhero movie’s secret scene explain themselves.
• Critic’s Pick: ‘Hail Satan?’ Review: Pitchforks, Black Clothes and Good Deeds
  Members of the Satanic Temple are not your average devil worshipers.
• ‘Avengers: Endgame’: Latest Trailer Is a Trip Down Marvel’s Memory Lane
  The clip runs through all the movies that have come before, starting with “Iron Man” and ending with “Avengers: Infinity War.”
• Stargazing and Whitman: Brooklyn Bridge Park Unveils Summer Events
  The array of public activities on offer will include film screenings, concerts and outdoor classes.
• Bibi Andersson, Luminous Presence in Bergman Films, Dies at 83
  Ms. Andersson, a Swedish actress, personified first purity and youth, then complexity and disillusionment, in 13 Ingmar Bergman films.
• As Hollywood Embraces Diversity, Jobs for Female Directors Remain Sparse
  After years of being called to task for sidelining female filmmakers, studios as a whole continue to rely overwhelmingly on men to lead productions.
• ‘Shazam!’ Keeps Box-Office Lead as ‘Hellboy’ Flounders
  “Little,” a comedy in the kid-adult switcheroo tradition of “Big” and “Freaky Friday,” came in second place.
• Elisabeth Moss Has a Reputation for Darkness. ‘Her Smell’ Is No Exception.
  The actress has been beaten down in “Us,” “The Handmaid’s Tale” and much more, but her new film, set in the world of ’90s rock, may be even bleaker.
• Streaming Movie Review: ‘Guava Island’ Review: Donald Glover’s Island Getaway Is a Casual Charmer
  The star, along with Rihanna and his “Atlanta” collaborators, crafts a freewheeling paean to the pleasures of taking it easy.
• Donald Glover’s ‘Guava Island’ Debuts After Coachella Set as Childish Gambino
  The musician and TV creator’s new project, a 55-minute film with Rihanna, is available now to stream on Amazon.

NPR©

• 'Fast Color' Celebrates A Supermom Who Literally Moves Heaven And Earth
  Moms perform heroic tasks every day, but they rarely get portrayed as superheroes. Fast Color tells the story of three generations of black women and the supernatural powers they inherit.
• 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' Astonishes With Technical Achievement
  Chinese writer-director Bi Gan's new film centers on a former casino owner haunted by the memory of a woman from his past. It features a 59-minute sequence, shot in a single take and converted to 3-D.
• In 'Someone Great,' The Greatest Someone Might Be Your Best Pal
  Gina Rodriguez stars in Someone Great, a Netflix comedy that follows three friends trying to have one last adventure before everything changes for good.
• Wisconsin Man Breaks Record By Watching 'Captain Marvel' 116 Times
  Chiropractor Steve Ruppel told TV station WSAW in Wausau, Wis., that it was the "most insane thing ever." That means something coming from Ruppel, who's broken other Guinness records.
• In 'Her Smell,' Elisabeth Moss 'Turned It Up To 11,' Then Turned It Up Some More
  In her new film, Moss plays a punk singer struggling with addiction. "The only mistake we could make was not going far enough," she says.
• 'Hail Satan?': Documentary Examines Protest Group That Bedevils Religious Conservatives
  The film spotlights the Satanic Temple, an organization that stages wry publicity stunts to underscore the separation of church and state. The doc "makes for an electric modern theological debate."
• 'Little Woods' Is Grimly Lovely — Dark And Deep
  Two sisters (Lily James, Tessa Thompson) struggle to navigate the opioid crisis in their small town. Nia DaCosta's first film is a "quietly feminist thriller" that's "modest but intensely empathetic."
• In Pulpy L.A. Noir 'Under The Silver Lake,' A Man Chases Signs And Portents
  There's a lot of flash and less substance in writer/director David Robert Mitchell's tale of a young man (Andrew Garfield) who sees hidden clues everywhere. But that flash is lovingly executed.
• Documentarian Stanley Nelson Showcases The Legacy Of Black Entrepreneurs
  Nelson has had more documentaries featured at Sundance than any other filmmaker. We talk with him about his latest work.
• The Writers Guild Of America Is Suing Hollywood's Biggest Talent Agencies
  At issue are packaging fees — deals that allow agents to be paid by studios, rather than receiving a standard 10 percent of writers' income. The writers say such deals create conflicts of interest.
• Pixar's SparkShorts Set Out To Ignite More Diversity in Animation
  The animation studio has launched a series of short films intended to increase leadership opportunities for women and people of color — populations historically underrepresented in the field.
• We Stan: Real Person Fan Fiction Comes To Life
  The movie "After" has catalyzed a debate over the ethics of RPF.
• 'Our Planet' Nature Documentary Addresses The 800-Pound Gorilla — Human Impact
  The new Netflix series takes a hard look at the effects of our behavior on the natural world. Series producer Alastair Fothergill says that this is a different, more urgent type of show.
• Breaking Down The Hollywood Dispute Between Writers And Agents
  NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Kim Masters, editor-at-large for The Hollywood Reporter, about the ongoing dispute between writers and agents.
• 'Stockholm': A Hostage Situation And How 'Stockholm Syndrome' Came To Be
  NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer talks to Noomi Rapace about her latest film, Stockholm, which covers the hostage situation that coined the term "Stockholm syndrome."