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The Searchers is considered to be one of the greatest Westerns of all time, and the iconic movie starring John Wayne as Ethan Edwards is set to receive a major upgrade. Warner Archive has meticulously restored and remastered The Searchers from its original VistaVision camera negative and will release the film on 4K Ultra HD on December 17th. Always grateful for another VistaVision transfer on 4K.

Directed by John Ford, the 1956 film stars Wayne as “an ex-Confederate soldier searching for his niece (Natalie Wood), captured by the Comanches who massacred his family. He won’t surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his five-year search, he encounters something unexpected: his own humanity.”

The Searchers underwent an extensive restoration earlier this year and premiered at the 15th annual TCM Film Festival. The movie was “filmed using the 8-perf 35mm VistaVision process, where the negative went through the camera...

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Most Hollywood stars become synonymous with the films they star in, but every so often, a celebrity's unapologetic love of another movie becomes a part of their "brand." It's very common with directors when their styles reflect their inspirations, most notably, Brian De Palma with Alfred Hitchcock. It's not as common with actors, however, who are often cagey or diplomatic when talking about their cinematic likes and dislikes, because you never know who you're going to work with (or for) in this business. We know what films an actor like Bruce Willis loves because he's been open about it in interviews, but it's doubtful a movie fan would sit down to watch Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show" and think to themselves, "You know, Bruce Willis loves this movie."

But then there's Willem Dafoe, who might be the world's...

From 2020 to 2022, Bruce Willis cranked out a huge number of movies, most of them low-budget sci-fi/action films that all went straight-to-video, and usually playing brief, supporting roles. The many films were, by and large, panned by critics and mocked by baffled fans, all of whom wondered by Willis didn't appear to have much on-camera dialogue, or why he wasn't the lead character. In three years, he appeared in 22 movies. 

In March of 2022, it was announced that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia, a brain condition that affected his ability to speak and comprehend language. Many of the above fans expressed their deepest apologies, and even the Razzies, in a rare show of good taste, retraced Willis' Worst Actor nominations. Willis retired from acting because of his condition. In February 2023, Willis, now 69, was also diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, and he remains in the care of his family. 

Willis, of course,...

Prime Video’s October programming holds plenty of spooky, scary and surprising movies and TV shows in store ahead of Halloween like the Haunted House movies, Monster House (2006), Goosebumps (2015) and more. House of Spoils (2024) is an original that will be sure to frighten.

For the full list of Prime Video programming in October 2024, see below.

Oct. 1

Movies:

1984 (1985) 12 Angry Men (1957) 13 Going on 30 (2004) A Bridge Too Far (1977) A Haunted House (2013) – Avail on Freevee w/ Ads A Haunted House 2 (2014) – Avail on Freevee w/ Ads A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) A Monster Calls (2017) A View to a Kill (1985) The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl (2005) All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989) All The King’s Men (2006) Animal Kingdom (2010) Aquaman (2018) Arrival (2016) – Avail on Freevee w/ Ads Be Cool (2005) Before Midnight (2013) Behind Enemy Lines (2001) Body of Evidence (1993) Bruce Almighty (2003) Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012) Chappie (2015) Charlotte’s Web (2006) – Avail on Freevee w/ Ads Clueless (1995) Coach Carter...

It’s understandable that most movie and TV fans remember Maggie Smith for her dynamic work in the “Harry Potter” films and “Downton Abbey.” More recent and far more widely seen in their time, they are worthy examples of her outstanding work.

But unknown to even some of the most knowledgeable cinephiles is most of her screen work before the 1980s beyond her two Oscar wins (Best Actress for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and Supporting Actress for “California Suite”). Her passing at 89 represents a chance to look back at not only roles that conveyed her later brilliance but also, in some cases, present a broader range than what became the standard — though always with nuance and distinctiveness — Maggie Smith role of later years.

When reviewing her film career until at least 2008, it’s critical to remember that she was first and foremost a stage actor. She joined Laurence Olivier...

Charles Burn crafts a methodical masterpiece about self-discovery and main character syndrome that’s cast against Super 8 science fiction and the power of cinema.

“I didn’t know it would be like this. I thought making a movie would be a lot more fun.”

It’s hard to compare to the euphoria that’s experienced from a good graphic novel horror story. Expressive, disturbing images linger on the page and proceed at the viewer’s discretion as they set the pace, rather than vicious visuals that flash across the screen in a movie or television series. It’s easy to get lost in a graphic novel’s artwork and almost become haunted by its imagery. It’s a form of possession that can even feel otherworldly, as if the reader has left their body or become inhabited by something foreign. This isn’t an experience that’s felt with every graphic novel or comic,...

One of the brightest bulbs in the New Hollywood marquee was former film critic and historian Peter Bogdanovich. Exploding onto the scene in 1968 with the still-topical mass-shooter thriller “Targets,” Bogdanovich followed this breakout success with a slew of successful films, including “The Last Picture Show,” which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, the screwball comedy “What’s Up, Doc?,” and the Depression-set road movie “Paper Moon.”

But for as much success as he could find early on in his career, what goes up must come down, and during the latter half of the 1970s, he struggled to keep his initial spark aflame. Finally, moving further away from the studio system, Bogdanovich scaled back his approach, shooting an adaptation of Paul Theroux’s “Saint Jack” on location in Singapore with German cinematographer Robby Müller and actor Ben Gazzara. Though the film struggled at the box office, it fared well...

“The Piano Lesson” is a showcase for Samuel L. Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler. This upcoming Netflix flick is adapted from August Wilson’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner. The story is centered on the Charles family, who have to decide what to do with a great family heirloom — a piano. Jackson plays the patriarch, Doaker Charle, who acts as a storyteller in the play and recounts detailed stories about the piano’s history. And Deadwyler plays his niece Berniece, who is a strong advocate for keeping the piano.

Jackson has a long history with this piece. He originated the role of Boy Willie at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1987 and reaped a Tony bid for his performance as Doaker in the acclaimed 2022 Broadway revival directed by his wife, Latanya Richardson Jackson. John David Washington, who played Boy Willie in that production, reprises his role here, with his brother Malcolm Washington handling helming.

September marks Marcello Mastroianni’s centennial, and the Criterion Channel pays respect with a retrospective that puts the expected alongside some lesser-knowns: Monicelli’s The Organizer, Jacques Demy’s A Slightly Pregnant Man, and two by Ettore Scola. There’s also the welcome return of “Adventures In Moviegoing” with Rachel Kushner’s formidable selections, among them Fassbinder’s Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven, Pialat’s L’enfance nue, and Jean Eustache’s Le cochon. In the lead-up to His Three Daughters, a four-film Azazel Jacobs program arrives.

Theme-wise, a set of courtroom dramas runs from 12 Angry Men and Anatomy of a Murder to My Cousin Vinny and Philadelphia; a look at ’30s female screenwriters includes Fritz Lang’s You and Me, McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow, and Cukor’s What Price Hollywood? There’s also a giallo series if you want to watch an Argento movie and ask yourself,...

Jeff Bridges made his unofficial screen debut in John Cromwell's 1951 drama "The Company She Keeps" just over a year after he was born. The son of actors Dorothy and Lloyd Bridges, he steadily proved himself a nepo baby of the finest order upon reaching young adulthood. In the 50 years and change since then, he's done it all, be it squaring off with King Kong, riding a light cycle on The Grid, or seeking compensation for the damage to his prized rug. (It really tied his living room together.) He even snagged a long-expected Oscar for playing an alcoholic country singer in Scott Cooper's "Crazy Heart," a film that arrived on the heels of Bridges portraying the first-ever Marvel Cinematic Universe villain in "Iron Man."

Trying to decide which of Bridges' movies stands out above the rest is a formidable challenge. It's also one that we, thankfully, need not...

Ah, the past! As celluloid is first and foremost a method of recording things around us, it’s no surprise that archiving and recreating history, both communal and personal, is so central to the cinematic medium. But the one thing we know about the times is that they are a’changing,...

Peter Bogdanovich's "Paper Moon" is a rip-roaring road movie with a lot of hijinks and heart, anchored by the incredible performances from real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. They play Moses Pray, a two-bit con artist who hoodwinks widows into purchasing Bibles, and Addie Loggins, a precocious nine-year-old with a permanent scowl who claims to be his daughter. With their streetwise charm, they unite to drive across the dusty Midwest, gradually increasing the stakes of their swindles. The sharp, black-and-white cinematography by László Kovács perfectly captures the sparse, unsentimental Depression-era America. But there's also a sweetness to "Paper Moon," especially in the development of Moses and Addie's complex and tenuous father-daughter bond. The film has a certain magic that can only come from the O'Neals' actual relationship, and it's something that makes "Paper Moon" such a joy to watch. Here are the main cast members still with us.

At one point in the new Apple TV+ miniseries The Big Cigar, Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton (André Holland) attends a party and recalls the time he and film producer Bert Schneider (Alessandro Nivola) tried to write a movie about his life, which would have starred comedian Richard Pryor (Inny Clemons). The key, Schneider explains: “If it’s gonna be a biopic, you have to choose a moment in Huey’s life that means something. Don’t just make it womb to tomb.”

Though The Big Cigar features...

Reader, you have been lied to! Film history is littered with unfairly maligned classics, whether critics were too eager to review the making of rather than the finished product, or they suffered from underwhelming ad campaigns or general disinterest. Let’s revise our takes on some of these films from wrongheaded to the correct opinion.

In 1972, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Coppola, and William Friedkin were three of the hottest directors in Hollywood thanks to finding the sweet spot between art and box office with “The Last Picture Show,” “The Godfather,” and “The French Connection,” respectively. With their newfound clout, the young auteurs formed The Directors Company, a partnership based at Paramount, where they were given complete creative freedom to make anything they wanted as long as they worked within modest budgets. The first movie the deal yielded, “Paper Moon,” was a hit, Bogdanovich’s third in a row after “Picture Show...

Quentin Tarantino‘s movies have a lot in common with Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, as they are all violent, funny, and intelligently crafted. Tarantino may have gone too far by saying Jaws was once the greatest movie ever made. He contrasted Jaws with films from an earlier generation.

Quentin Tarantino said ‘Jaws’ was so much better than every previous movie

In his 2022 book Cinema Speculation, the Kill Bill director had a lot to say about a certain movie about a giant shark. “When Jaws came out in 1975 it might not have been the best film ever made,” he wrote. “But it was easily the best movie ever made. Nothing ever made before it even came close.”

Tarantino’s take is provocative. Spielberg released Jaws in 1975. By that point, many of the most widely beloved films of all time had come out, including The Wizard of Oz, The Ten Commandments, and The Sound of Music.

Every year in the spring, Film at Lincoln Center honors a luminary of the film industry with the prestigious Chaplin Award. This year’s honoree is Academy Award-winning actor, beloved screen icon, and the dude himself, Jeff Bridges, the actor known for unforgettable classics like “The Last Picture Show,” “Fearless,” “The Big Lebowski,” “True Grit,” “Heaven’s Gate,” “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,” “Starman, “Crazy Heart” and more.

Continue reading ‘Tron: Ares’: Jeff Bridges Reveals He’ll Appear In Third Film & Says ‘Old Man’ Season 2 Is Done Shooting at The Playlist.

The 49th annual Chaplin Gala presenters have been officially unveiled to honor award recipient Jeff Bridges.

Bridges’ former co-stars Sharon Stone, Chris Pine, Cynthia Erivo, and Rosie Perez will all toast the Academy Award winner’s contributions to film as Bridges receives the coveted Chaplin Award on April 29.

Erivo starred with Bridges in “Bad Times at the El Royale” (2018), while Perez appeared with Bridges in “Fearless” (1993). Pine was side-by-side with Bridges in Oscar-nominated Western “Hell or High Water” (2016), and Sharon Stone acted opposite Bridges in both “Simpatico” (1999) and “The Muse” (1999).

The Chaplin Award Tribute will feature excerpts from a selection of Bridges’ work, appearances by co-stars, friends, and colleagues, and the presentation of the award itself. An acclaimed actor, producer, and musician, Bridges’ film career has spanned seven decades and features a slew of iconic roles in “True Grit,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Hell or High Water,” “Heaven’s Gate,” and “Crazy Heart,...

Pageantry. Screw ups. Touching tributes. Private beefs made public. There are plenty of reasons to watch the Oscars. But they all amount to partaking in, witnessing, movie history in its many forms — the high art, the gossip, the record-breaking moments when an arthouse director becomes a household name.

However, there are a lot of ways to set a record. There are big moments like Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King tying the record with 11 trophies or Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite becoming the first film not in English (or silent) to win Best Picture. And then, beyond those sit the oddities and records that are nearly impossible to break. Give me records like Walter Brennan winning three Best Supporting Actor awards because, as a former extra, he was popular with the Union of Film Extras, who were allowed to vote. At least, the story goes, they were allowed...

Reader, you have been lied to! Film history is littered with unfairly maligned classics, whether critics were too eager to review the making of rather than the finished product, or they suffered from underwhelming ad campaigns or general disinterest. Let’s revise our takes on some of these films from the wrongheaded to the correct opinion.

The list of sequels to masterpieces that can be considered masterpieces themselves isn’t a very long one; “The Godfather Part II” is an obvious candidate, and arguments can be made for James Cameron‘s “Aliens” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” “Blade Runner 2049,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and “The Color of Money” all have their partisans, and Ingmar Bergman scored a late-career triumph with his “Scenes From a Marriage” sequel “Saraband.” One movie that almost never gets mentioned in this company is “The Two Jakes,” the 1990 sequel to “Chinatown” directed by its star,...

A lot of sci-fi films helped shape the genre into what it is today, but perhaps none of them are as underrated as the 1982 film "Tron." The original entry into a franchise that would come to span several decades was studded with soon-to-be stars like the incomparable Jeff Bridges, who would go on to earn an Academy Award.

Bridges stars in the action-adventure as Kevin Flynn, a video game developer who gets trapped inside his own software and has to interact with the programs inside his computer's main frame to escape. Digital technology was still emerging in the 1980s, and computers were relegated to those with a proclivity for science. All that is to say, the public wasn't ready for a movie filled with symbolic computer metaphors, and the film was not a success.

However, as computers began to rise in popularity, so too did "Tron." Early web users looked...

Late auteur Peter Bogdanovich is still just a handshake away per his posthumous podcast, “One Handshake Away.”

Prior to Bogdanovich’s January 2022 death, the filmmaker recorded a series of interviews with fellow directors such as Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Ken Burns, and Rian Johnson to discuss their biggest cinematic influences.

Per Deadline, Bogdanovich named the podcast “One Handshake Away” to honor the relationship between contemporary directors and pioneering filmmakers, with each filmmaker being “one handshake away” from one another in film history.

After Bogdanovich’s passing, del Toro took over the podcast and recorded the final three episodes, interviewing Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy, and Allison Anders, which included discussing the works of Howard Hawks, Fritz Lang, and Raoul Walsh.

Filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock, Don Siegel, Orson Welles, and John Ford were reexamined in episodes Bogdanovich recorded; the podcast additionally features exclusive archival interviews with Hitchcock, Welles, and Ford that have...

Among the various distinctions “Everything Everywhere All at Once” incurred by winning seven awards at the 95th Oscars was becoming the first film in a dozen years (and ninth overall) to conquer both supporting acting categories. This rare occurrence involved Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis preventing their respective “The Banshees of Inisherin” competitors from accomplishing the same goal, as the sets of featured nominees from “Belfast” and “The Power of the Dog” had both failed to do one year earlier. Now, two more pairs of cast mates – who happen to hail from the two highest-grossing live action movies of 2023 – are gunning for entry into this exclusive club.

The concurrent nominations of Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera (“Barbie”) and Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”) bring the total number of films that have ever vied for both Best Supporting Actor and Actress to 110. Although this marks the third...

Exclusive: Peter Bogdanovich, the director of Hollywood classics such as The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, may have died two years ago but he left behind a “love letter to film.”

The critic-turned-filmmaker was working on One Handshake Away, a podcast series that saw him in conversation with some of the greatest living filmmakers, including Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Rian Johnson and Ken Burns framed through a series of never-before-heard archival interviews with legends including Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and John Ford.

After Bogdanovich’s death, del Toro took over for the final three interviews with Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy and Allison Anders.

Each episode pays homage to a master and offers insight and perspective on the influence and impact the legends who came before them had on their career and filmmaking.

Bogdanovich discussed Hitchcock with del Toro, Don Siegel with Tarantino, Welles with Johnson and Ford with Burns.

Clockwise from top left: Minami Hamabe in Gozdilla Minus One/Minus Color, Harrison Ford in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road - Black & Chrome. Screenshot: Toho, Paramount, Warner Bros. Godzilla Minus One returns to theaters this weekend minus one important element: Color. Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color,...

Clockwise from top left: Minami Hamabe in Gozdilla Minus One/Minus Color, Harrison Ford in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road - Black & Chrome.Screenshot: Toho, Paramount, Warner Bros.

Godzilla Minus One returns to theaters this weekend minus one important element: Color. Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color,...

In 2020 – for the first time in seven years – the Best Supporting Actress Oscar category saw a lone nomination, meaning that a film was recognized there and nowhere else. This achievement is attributed to Kathy Bates (“Richard Jewell”), who competed for no major precursors except the Golden Globe but still managed to bump Critics Choice, SAG, and Globe nominee Jennifer Lopez (“Hustlers”). Perhaps unsurprisingly given the length of the streak she broke, there has yet to be a lone contender in any of her category’s subsequent lineups.

Since the introduction of the two gendered supporting Oscars in 1937, there have been 57 female lone nominees and 54 male ones, with over half of the entrants on the former roster having been added before 1977. The one who directly preceded Bates was Helen Hunt, whose inclusion in her lineup was much more heavily predicted. Coincidentally, both women had the perceived advantage of being former Best Actress champions,...

Jeff Bridges has been named as the recipient of Film at Lincoln Center’s 2024 Chaplin Award.

The prestigious honor has been given to such stars as Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Streisand, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Spike Lee, Cate Blanchett and Viola Davis, who received the 2023 Chaplin Award. The Oscar-winning Crazy Heart star will be recognized at a gala event featuring excerpts of his work and appearances by co-stars, friends and colleagues at Lincoln Center on April 29, 2024.

In addition to Crazy Heart, for which he won the best actor Oscar, Bridges’ credits include The Last Picture Show, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Fearless, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, Hell or High Water, Heaven’s Gate, Tron, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Starman and The Contender.

Bridges has been nominated for seven Oscars and won a SAG Award and two Golden Globes. In 2019, he was presented with the Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Beyond his film roles,...

Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges’ contributions to film will be celebrated at the 49th annual Film at Lincoln Center gala, with Bridges receiving the Chaplin Award.

The ceremony will take place April 29 at Lincoln Center. An acclaimed actor, producer, and musician, Bridges’ film career has spanned seven decades and features a slew of iconic roles in “True Grit,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Hell or High Water,” “Heaven’s Gate,” and “Crazy Heart,” for which Bridges won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award.

The Chaplin Award tribute will feature excerpts from a selection of his work, appearances by co-stars, friends, and colleagues, and the presentation of the award itself. The Chaplin Award Gala is the major annual fundraiser for Film at Lincoln Center; proceeds support the nonprofit organization’s year-round programs, including film series, student programs, and film festivals such as the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.

The Alliance of Women Directors has chosen six directors to compose its inaugural 2024 Rising Director Fellowship class – Josie Andrews, Christianna Carmine, Angela Cohen, Julie Herlocker, Jessica Liu and Morgen Whiteman.

They were chosen from a finalist pool of 19 candidates.

For the next year, participants will now have access to education and networking opportunities, mentorship and the opportunity to create a “proof of concept” for their feature projects, with the program concluding with an “industry screening” of the shorts.

“The Rising Director Fellowship is an exciting addition to our current slate of Member Programming,” Kylie Eaton, co-chair of the board of directors and spearhead of the Rdf program, said in a statement. “These six deserving directors are at an inflection point in their career. They have done the hard work and preparation to get to this point; Awd is proud to offer them this opportunity for the exposure and guidance...

Director William Friedkin and producer/screenwriter William Peter Blatty enjoyed having fun with Warner Bros. executives during the production of “The Exorcist.” The Oscar-winning horror masterpiece celebrates its 50th anniversary Dec. 26 “We always put them on,” Friedkin told me in a 2018 L.A. Times interview “They were always concerned that we were both crazy and would eventually implode the movie. So, we staged blowups in front of them, where it looked like we were fiercely arguing over the most minute, meaningless details.”

“The Exorcist” was shot in Iraq, New York City and Georgetown in Washington, D.C. But Warners wanted the film to be made at the studio in Burbank and to “shoot day for night, so we didn’t get into night shooting,” said Friedkin, who died this past August at 87.”I I said ‘no’ to everything, I said things like ‘Why shoot day for night? Why don’t we...

The holiday season is here and that means there are lots of new releases coming out just in time to make the season bright. Below are some of the picks coming out sure to make the movie fan in your life smile. Whether it is an upgrade to a 4K edition, a reliable Blu-ray, or a special edition Box Set, this list has something for everyone!

One disclaimer: Deals as good as these can be fickle, so there’s no telling if and when a money-saving opportunity might end or if the price may change. So if you want something – snap that shit up quick! Don’t wait, only to have Festivus roll around and discover you’ve nothing to give or the price suddenly changed and you no longer have the bread. And remember that if you want to support JoBlo.com, please make all your purchases by initially clicking through our links,...

While promoting the home video version of his historical blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” director Christopher Nolan recently stressed that it’s really the only way to go when it comes to watching his movies at home. Not only does he finely calibrate his films for the best home video experience (leading to the 4K Ultra HD version of the movie to sell out everywhere) but he stressed buying the movie on physical media means you can “put it on a shelf so no evil streaming service can come steal it from you.”

And while, yes, he’s joking, he is right about one thing: the only way you can insure that the movies you love will be around is by owning them on physical media. Thankfully the home video labels have been stepping up their game, with deluxe packages overflowing with extras and feature films presented in their best possible format.

Here...

While many children of famous actors follow their parents into the profession, it is pretty rare that the child equals or surpasses the achievements of their parent. A few names come to mind: Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, Angelina Jolie. And Jeff Bridges definitely belongs on that list.

His father was the highly successful actor Lloyd Bridges, who appeared in over 100 films and starred in multiple TV series including the popular “Sea Hunt.” Jeff’s brother is the Emmy Award-winning actor Beau Bridges.

Jeff’s career had an auspicious start when he earned an Oscar nomination at age 22 for his second film “The Last Picture Show.” Still regarded as a classic, the film featured an all-star cast of experienced performers and introduced a bunch of new young actors such as Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, Sam Bottoms and Bridges.

Bridges would continue to earn accolades from the Academy Awards, amassing seven nominations...

Adapted from Larry McMurtry’s bittersweet 1966 novel of the same name by McMurtry and director Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show delineates the quiet, desperate lives of the citizens of Anarene, Texas, from November 1951 to October 1952. The film is a pure Janus-headed product of the New Hollywood. Bogdanovich pours the new wine of sexual frankness available to filmmakers after the inauguration of the MPAA ratings system into old bottles borrowed from the cellars of classic Hollywood cinema, namely those older films’ expressive visual grammar and obliquely suggestive dialogue.

As an erstwhile film critic and historian, Bogdanovich drew formal and technical inspiration from his years spent programming films from Hollywood’s Golden Age at MoMA. He also solicited advice from houseguest Orson Welles when it came to shooting the film in black and white, and employing long, unbroken takes rather than break up important scenes. As Welles reportedly put it:...

This year’s awards-contending films offer a treasure trove of crafts that includes transformations, exquisite sets, lavish costumes, memorable scores and songs and immersive cinematography. The contenders range from newcomers to legends — Variety breaks down the categories below.

Makeup And Hair

Prosthetic makeup designer Kazu Hiro could very well walk away with his third Oscar for his work on Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro.” Transforming Cooper into the legendary composer Leonard Bernstein consisted of five different stages to gradually age the actor. And the guild as well as the Academy love a transformation.

Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” could be a contender in this area, following in the footsteps of the first two films that landed guild nominations. The sheer volume of prosthetics and wigs went into building the characters such as the humanimals, the hybrid of humanoid and animal, and the villain, the High Evolutionary, played by Chukwudi Iwuji.

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.

It was only a few days ago that the Criterion Collection had a surprise flash sale. The home video company’s entire catalog was slashed down to 50% off list prices. While that sale only lasted for 24 hours, there are a number of titles that are still on sale for half-off at Amazon.

We rounded up the best deals on Criterion Collection releases, including Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider,” Whit Stillman’s “The Last Days of Disco” and much more. In fact, even a few boxed sets are half off, such as Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “The Dekalog” and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology.

Ahead, check out the best Criterion Blu-ray discs currently on sale for 50% off at Amazon:

‘Do the Right Thing...

There's no question that the moviegoing experience has changed since the "The Exorcist" became a landmark cultural event when it was released the day after Christmas in 1973. Anyone that waltzed right in to see "The Exorcist: Believer" in theaters this October would have been shocked by the long lines snaking around the block to see the controversial original when it took the world by storm almost 50 years ago. It's unlikely that any other film will ever match that particular watershed moment in horror ever again.

"The Exorcist" marked the first time a genre film had ever received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Notably, the entire production garnered 10 nominations, winning two for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. In the decades since its release, "The Exorcist" has retained its well-deserved status as one of the scariest movies ever made, having left an indelible mark on generations of unassuming spectators that...

On December 26, 1973, horror fans endured long lines for the theatrical premiere of The Exorcist – a film that’s now considered by many to be the scariest movie ever made. Directed by William Friedkin and based on the bestselling novel by William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist broke box office records in its first week of release. Theater employees reported that moviegoers were passing out, becoming ill, and heading for the exits before the credits rolled because the subject matter was so disturbing and intense.

The creation of the classic horror film, which is the gold standard for movies dealing with possession and the devil, begins with Blatty’s novel published in 1971. Blatty’s story focused on a 12-year-old girl named Regan MacNeil who went from a happy-go-lucky, horse-loving preteen to a foul-mouthed, head-spinning nightmare after being possessed by a demon. Coming to Regan’s rescue were two Catholic priests who eventually...

When I was in college cinema courses I made a Super 8 film called Movie Girl. It was a Hollywood-set love letter to movies centered on a Musso & Frank waitress who put herself dreamily into the plots of classic films. It won an award there but was the highlight of the directing career I never had. However, I have always been partial to filmmakers who put their own early film-going experience and passion into their careers now. You may have heard of them: Kenneth Branagh won an Oscar for doing just that in Belfast. Steven Spielberg got several nominations last year for his very personal The Fabelmans. Woody Allen had his own charming take in The Purple Rose of Cairo. Peter Bogdanovich made a lasting impression with 1971’s The Last Picture Show, as did Giuseppe Tornatore with his Oscar winner Cinema Paradiso.

It is a combination of the latter two especially...

“Poor Things” looks set to be a major Oscar contender this year. It just won the Golden Lion at Venice and Emma Stone just took over the top spot on our Best Actress Oscar odds chart. Supporting players Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo look set to match an Academy Award record.

“Poor Things” tell the tale of Stone as a young woman brought back to life by a scientist in the Victorian era. Dafoe plays the eccentric scientist, complete with a peculiar Scottish accent and killer prosthetic makeup design, while Ruffalo hams it up as the scientist’s lawyer, donning a hilarious English accent and turning up the camp to 10. Both performances are now being touted as strong Oscar contenders in the Best Supporting Actor category, which could see Dafoe and Ruffalo earn their fifth and fourth nominations respectively.

Dafoe was first nominated in 1987 for Best Supporting Actor for “Platoon.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Circus Maximus

Before their collaboration Aggro Dr1ft heads to the fall festival circuit, Travis Scott and Harmony Korine’s Utopia album companion Circus Maximus is now available to stream for free. Also featuring segments directed by Gaspar Noé, Nicolas Winding Refn, Valdimar Jóhannsson (Lamb), and music-video maestro Kahlil Joseph, the release follows a brief theatrical run a few weeks back.

Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

Somewhere between greasy leftover fried chicken and stale half-finished beer cans sits Killer Joe, filmmaker William Friedkin’s fresh adaptation of Tracy Letts’ 20-year-old play. Young Chris (Emile Hirsch) has an idea: have his mother killed and collect on her insurance in order to pay off a batch of drugs that’s gone missing. Chris’ father Ansel shrugs in agreement,...

Let’s quickly skirt the sinking-stomach realization of how far into 2023 we’re getting––at least this next crop of titles arrive as Barnes and Noble hold another 50%-off sale. If I’m suggesting consumerism smother self-inspection, this of all line-ups might at least make room for compromise: November will bring 4K upgrades for Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven––among the, let’s guess, seven or eight greatest-looking films ever––and Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show, as well as an altogether new appearance for Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets. Last Picture Show is especially notable: it’ll include the lesser-seen sequel Texasville “presented in both the original theatrical version and a black-and-white version of Peter Bogdanovich’s director’s cut, produced in collaboration with cinematographer Nicholas von Sternberg.”

Almost equal to any of those films, arriving on a new Blu-ray, is Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie with Sandrine Bonnaire and Isabelle Huppert.

Willie and Me, a road movie dramedy featuring country music legend WIllie Nelson, will open this year’s Oldenburg Film Festival, one of Europe’s most acclaimed indie cinema events.

The feature directorial debut of L.A.-based German actress Eva Hassmann, who also wrote and stars, the film follows a frustrated housewife (Hassmann) who leaves her old life behind to go on a crazy journey to try and see Willie Nelson’s farewell concert in Las Vegas.

Nelson, who has turned up in cameos in films such as Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Dukes of Hazard and Wag the Dog, plays a dual role in the film and also contributed songs for the Willie and Me soundtrack.

The independently produced movie also features the last onscreen performance by iconic actor-director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, The Sopranos), who helped Hassmann develop the script.

“[Hassmann] is confident and carefree,...

William Friedkin, who won an Oscar for directing The French Connection, scored a nomination for The Exorcist and also helmed The Boys in the Band, Cruising, To Live and Die in L.A., Rules of Engagement and many others, died today in Los Angeles of heart failure and pneumonia. He was 87.

His death was confirmed by CAA via his wife, Fatal Attraction producer and former studio chief Sherry Lansing.

Friedkin beat out some serious heavyweights to win the Best Director Academy Award for The French Connection at the 1972 ceremony. Also up for the statuette that year were Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange), Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show) and Norman Jewison (Fiddler on the Roof). He would go up against more heavy hitters with The Exorcist two years later. George Roy Hill won that year for The Sting, also besting Bernardo Bertolucci (Last Tango in Paris), Ingmar Bergman (Cries & Whispers...

Tony Bennett accepted the boundaries of his universe.

In the last few decades of his life, the period of his greatest success, he never tried to do a Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash-style album of recent pop and rock hits tweaked to suit his voice. Instead, he transported the contemporary artists he worked with — Lady Gaga especially — to his preferred musical arena: the Great American Songbook classics of Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, and so many more. Without seeing the cover, you’d never even know his “MTV Unplugged” album was an “MTV Unplugged” album just by listening to it. His last studio album, “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern,” speaks to his appreciation of the craft of songwriting embodied by the entire Great American Songbook era, and how a singer can work in dialogue with that songwriter even decades after their death to create meaning.

Exclusive: The major Fall film festivals – Venice, Toronto, and Telluride especially – may be fearing more by the day that the current combined WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes are going to put a serious crimp in their plans for star-filled glorious fests that also can have an impact in launching awards season (just today MGM announced Zendaya’s Challengers withdrew as the Venice Opening Night film and its release moved to late April 2024 due to actors strike). With the clock ticking, and August just around the corner these fests have to start planning what life will look like without the buzzy boost of A-list stars and a feeling by distributors and studios that maybe they ought to second guess current (as yet mostly unnannounced) participation with their awards bait films which could be moving all over the release map. Following the shutdowns of the pandemic these festivals got their mojo back last year,...

In this article, we are taking a look at the top 10 Jeff Bridges movies. From his breakthrough film in 1971, “The Last Picture Show,” to his hit movies “Big Lebowski” and the more recent one, “True Grit,” Bridges has played several iconic roles.

Jeff is from a family of actors. His father, Lloyd Bridges, was a very successful actor with over 100 movie credits to his name. His brother Beau Bridges is an Emmy Award winner. Jeff got his first major award nomination at 22 for his major role in “The Last Picture Show” as the character Duane Jackson, a high school student. He has since followed that remarkable performance with other spectacular displays, some of which have earned him prestigious award nominations.

He is married to Susan Geston, and together they have three daughters — Isabelle, Jessica, and Hayley.

Time to take a look at the top 10 best Jeff Bridges movies as ranked on IMDb by viewers.

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...

For a man so often associated with heavy-hitting directors like Steven Spielberg and Peter Bogdanovich, producer and documentarian Frank Marshall has crafted classics of his own. From thrilling narrative features like “Arachnophobia” to intense documentaries like “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” Marshall is a storyteller who likes making films about storytellers.

Thus his latest documentary, “Rather,” which premieres Friday at the Tribeca Film Festival, is about a man who shaped the historical stories of the recent past: news anchor Dan Rather. “I like telling stories about ordinary people in extraordinary situations,” Marshall told TheWrap. “It’s so interesting to see how these people who are inspired and then passionate about what they want to do, how they achieve that success.” In this case, Marshall wanted to track Rather’s 60-year career in news and how he’s become just as embraced by the TikTok generation...

I believe Jeff Bridges is one of the most charming actors of the last 50 years, and I'm not alone. Pauline Kael went one step further by calling Jeff, in an oft-quoted line, "[maybe] the most natural and least self-conscious screen actor who ever lived." I don't know if Kael harbored any sort of attraction toward Bridges, but I can't claim that my appreciation of him is entirely platonic.

He's not only a fine figure of a leading man (with an even finer head of hair), but he also possesses an easy charisma that has bolstered his screen presence from "The Last Picture Show" in 1971 all the way to "The Old Man," his recent Hulu show. If Bridges has ever given a bad performance, please enlighten me because I have yet to find it among his many credits. Instead of any further hagiography, here is a breakdown of Jeff Bridges' best movies.