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Cillian Murphy knew transforming into the “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer wouldn’t be a sprint, but rather an epic marathon. Murphy leads Christopher Nolan’s WWII period piece epic alongside Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., and Matt Damon, who recently praised Murphy’s dedication to the weighty role. “When you are at the center of a movie at that scale, shooting seven scenes in a day, it takes a different focus and concern and commitment,” Damon said of Murphy to The New York Times. “It’s beautiful to watch someone give themselves to it fully.” Damon, who plays U.S. Army lieutenant general Leslie Groves, called the role of Oppenheimer a “marathon” for Murphy. In the Times interview, Murphy also spoke...

There is something to be said for a simple dish made with the best ingredients by a trusted hand. Just as a perfect omelet made by a lover is more satisfying than an eight-hour feast laid on by a Prince, so it follows that a film like “The Pot-au-Feu” works, not in spite of, but because it focuses on executing its basic premise with enrapturing attention to detail. This is a story about love and food, which it presents as the same thing. Sight unseen, it was always a mouth-watering prospect: two delicious French actors – Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel – feeding each other in Tran Anh Hung’s adaptation of a 2014 graphic novel reputed to be food porn. The promise of this set-up is delivered with gusto as the kitchen of a 19th...

Disney, we know, has problems. There’s streaming, the contentious relationship with 2024 Republican presidential candidate/Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the fates of Hulu and Searchlight, layoffs — but as the dominant film distributor for the last decade, its film slate is known as a reliable source of strength. In 2023, that’s no longer a sure thing. In the summer of 2019, Disney films represented 43 percent of the season’s $4.3 billion domestic take. Some box-office analysts have suggested that it’s possible that we could see a $4 billion summer — up $600 million from a resurgent 2022. However, May’s shortfalls make this is unlikely — and much of that falls to Disney. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” opened May 5; the live-action...

May 23, 2023 is a day for the streaming history books; the day Warner Bros. Discovery launched “Max,” and the purple hued king that was HBO Max was taken from the public forever, lost to the web archives of the world. Sort of. Although WBD promised that today would be the day that the Max streamer replaces the original HBO Max, for a few hours after Max launched, it was still possible to access its predecessor via the internet. That’s since been fixed, and going to HBO Max’s website now redirects you to a page imploring you to go to Max.com, but it gave us ample opportunity to compare the changes between the two streamers, and what has and hasn’t changed. So HBO Max isn’t available anymore? In the hours it was still up, HBO Max still...

Amidst the daily glamor of the Cannes Film Festival red carpet, two faces are fixtures at the top of the staircase. Artistic director Thierry Fremaux has held his perch there for years, greeting filmmakers as they make their way into the Palais des Festivals. This year, however, he got some new company with festival president Iris Knobloch, who stepped into the role previously filled by Pierre Lescure. Fremaux’s new boss is a different kind of Cannes leader than her predecessors, and not only because she’s the first woman to occupy the position in the festival’s 78 years. While Fremaux is a diehard cinephile who runs a film museum in Lyon, Knobloch is a seasoned industry executive with a law degree from NYU who served as the president...

“Kubi” has been on Kitano Takeshi’s (AKA Beat Takeshi) mind for so long that Kurosawa Akira was still alive to comment on it. In 1993, the legendary filmmaker predicted: “When Kitano directs this film, it will surely rival my own ‘Seven Samurai’.” Unfortunately, it’s one of the few times in his later life that Kurosawa was flat-out wrong, though Kitano’s long-in-the-works “Kubi” isn’t entirely without merit. A re-imagining of real events in the late 16th century, the film’s eye-popping, blood-soaked vistas are a marvelous sight, as are a number of its era-specific details, and its handful of striking moments of queer samurai imagery. However, for the most part, Kitano’s tale of ambition and beheadings — many, many beheadings — loses...

Paramount+ and Showtime are coming together precisely one quarter earlier than expected. Paramount+ with Showtime will launch on June 27, Paramount Global said on Monday. Previously, the timing for the combination and rebrand was end of September — or the end of Q3, not Q2. How much is one quarter worth? Well, in the first quarter of 2023 alone, this merger of services cost Paramount Global nearly $1.7 billion. In other words, it could be quite meaningful. The Showtime OTT (over-the-top) app will be shuttered by the end of the year, Paramount said this afternoon. The linear channel will wait for that timing to rebrand with the same — though more confusing for the format — name: Paramount+ with Showtime. As previously reported...

Quentin Tarantino is expanding the Rick Dalton lore in the remembrance of the late (and invented) movie star. The “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” auteur announced May 19 that Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2019 film, died at the age of 90. Dalton’s 1969 exploits alongside stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) were captured in Tarantino’s “Hollywood,” during which Dalton saves Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) from the Manson family would-be serial killers. During Tarantino and “Pulp Fiction” co-screenwriter Roger Avary’s recent entry in the “Video Archives Podcast,” Tarantino remembered the late fictional action star. “Dalton was beloved by fans of ‘Bounty Law,’ where he played bounty hunter Jake Cahill for five seasons and also...

After months of speculation and rumors of on-set dysfunction, Sam Levinson and Abel Tesfaye’s long awaited HBO series “The Idol” made its triumphant Cannes premiere on Monday night. The first two episodes of the music industry drama debuted in a special screening that essentially amounted to the length of one feature film. The first two episodes made no attempts to shy away from controversy, with many attendees commenting on the shocking amount of sexual content. The first episode opens with Lily Rose-Depp’s character doing a half-nude photoshoot while her agent (played by Jane Adams) tells an onlooker that “Mental health is sexy… stop trying to cockblock America.” The first episode primarily focuses on Depp’s Jocelyn, a world famous...

Few new TV shows in recent memory have generated more mystique than “The Idol.” The music industry drama from Sam Levinson and The Weeknd (working under his real name Abel Tesfaye) attracted plenty of attention for its expensive reshoots and reported creative clashes, but its creators have always stood by their vision and insisted that the extra work was worth it. The series stars Lily Rose-Depp as the world’s biggest pop star whose relationship with a sleazy guru (Tesfaye) leads her down a dark, cult-like path. In a recent interview, Levinson and Tesfaye explained that the show was inspired by the dark side of celebrity that Tesfaye had experienced when he rose to prominence as The Weeknd. “Abel came to us with a pitch,” Levinson...

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is twirling offstage and “The Crown” finally got to The Revenge Dress, so it has not exactly been a low-key television season when it comes to costuming. (Not to mention the genius Easter eggs hidden in Tanya’s costumes on “The White Lotus.”) But no one is surprised when shows with fabulous costumes continue to exhibit their skill at crafting fabulous costumes that serve as eye candy and character development. Here are five series that premiered during the 2022-2023 season that deserve attention from the 2023 Emmys for their costumes. “1923” (Paramount+) “1923”Emerson Miller/Paramount+ The latest addition to Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” universe is a fascinating study of a society in transition from the...

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Succession” Season 4, Episode 9, “Church and State.”] When the Roy family stepped inside a church, the surrounding city erupted out of sheer indignation. It’s unfair, really. Under different circumstances, Logan Roy’s funeral would be met with celebration; the proletariat he stepped on to secure his place atop the patriarchal pile are rid of their tormentor. His empire is on the verge of collapse and his legacy along with it. But Logan’s influence outlives him, robbing the people of their long-awaited party. We see it in the streets, as protesters march in anger over an election hijacked by his offspring, and we hear it in the church, when those same kiddos proselytize their...

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Barry” Season 4, Episode 7, “A Nice Meal.”] For all the shows that “Barry” shares DNA with — crime dramas, black comedies, metaphysical treatises on morality — as the end nears, it’s easiest to see “Barry” as basically a more dangerous version of “The Other Two.” Hollywood satire, over-confident narcissists plummeting to depths of their own digging, relationships shredded in a heartbeat. Add a few extra corpses to the Dubek family’s peaks and valleys and you get something roughly approximating where “Barry” finds itself now: desperation, death, and jokes. Writer Liz Sarnoff has long been helping “Barry” deliver some hard truths and difficult fates in second-to-last episodes...