Entertainment World

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the excellent Paramount releases of the first five “ Mission: Impossible ” films on 4K Blu-rays to coincide with the theatrical release of the best action movie of 2018, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout." Paramount continued the trend last week with the issue of a box set of 4K releases of the five Jack Ryan films , coinciding with this week's premiere of Amazon’s new series “Jack Ryan,” starring John Krasinski . We’ll have a review of that (as well as a story about working on the set from one of our Far-Flungers) later this week, but this seems like a good time to briefly look back at how we got here. First things first, watching all five Jack Ryan films reveals a sad truth—Jack Ryan is no Ethan Hunt. Neither is he Jason Bourne, or even the modern James Bonds. The Tom Clancy character, first introduced in a book in 1984 that became uber-famous after the beloved Ronald Reagan said he liked it, has been a part of pop culture for ...

One of the most essential New York playwrights of the 20 th century, Neil Simon , passed away today from complications from pneumonia at the age of 91. If you don’t know the name, you certainly know the work, and the dozens of writers inspired by Simon’s heavily autobiographical approach to humor. He won awards for his writing and influenced television, film, and, most of all, the stage, redefining an entire generation’s sense of humor with works like “ The Odd Couple ,” “ Brighton Beach Memoirs ,” and “ Biloxi Blues .” He was so big on the theater scene of the ‘60s that he once had four plays on Broadway at the same time, and most of his hit theatrical works became equally successful films, resulting in four Oscar nominations for Best Screenwriting. Simon was nominated for a Tony a ridiculous 16 times—becoming such a fixture on Broadway that there’s a theater there named after him, something that had never happened before for a living playwright. Simon wrote over 30 plays,...

Colin Minihan ’s tense thriller “What Keeps You Alive” takes the old adage of “You never know who you’ll fall in love with” and twists it into a horrifying relationship nightmare. Under the influence of a youthful and lovestruck naivete, it can be easy to look past danger signs for abuse, but in the case of this movie’s unlucky protagonist, she had no warning of the horrors to come. Minihan’s stylish film taps into our deepest fear as women, queer folks, or survivors of domestic abuse that the person we love may be the reason we end up in a body bag. To celebrate their one-year anniversary, Jules ( Brittany Allen ) and Jackie (Hannah Emily Anderson) take a retreat to Jackie’s family’s old lakeside home. But something is off with Jackie, and she begins to do things without Jules or not bother to check in with her. Jules grows frustrated and hurt by her partner’s lack of communication, and when confronted, Jackie lashes out, ultimately pushing her wife off of the edge of a cliff to try...

Finding empathy in yourself requires thinking about the lives of those around you—why they made certain choices, the cost of those choices, the weight or lightness of them and what’s likely to come next. To experience empathy is to understand and share the feelings of another person; to act with empathy demands more. It demands calm. It demands compassion. It demands foresight and patience. It is not often dramatic, but it is the core of “Support the Girls,” and in Andrew Bujalski and Regina Hall ’s extremely capable hands, empathy becomes as active and compelling as any car chase, sword fight, or knock-down, drag-out fight. A simple thing, yes, but one well worth a valiant battle. In writer/director Bujalski’s engaging, deeply-felt comedy, that’s the battle Lisa (Hall) wages over the course of a day and change—and one she seems to have been waging for years. As the manager of Double Whammies, a “family” restaurant specializing in “boobs, brews, and big screens,” she makes respect a...

Steve James ’ “America to Me” is a momentous achievement, both a statement on where we are right now in terms of race and how we need to work together to get somewhere better. As he has with films like “ Hoop Dreams ,” “ Life Itself ,” and “ Abacus: Small Enough to Jail ,” James and his team find a way to place their empathetic, individual stories against a larger backdrop of social issues across the country. James is one of our most humanist filmmakers—someone who not only knows how to draw out the most interesting aspects of his subjects’ lives but seems to honestly care about who they are and where they’re going. He’s a cinematic listener, someone who gets comfortable enough with his subjects that he allows their best selves to come out on-screen, and allows us the optimism to think that there are people like the kids and teachers in “America to Me” all around this country—people just trying to get through the day, have their voices heard, and maybe make a difference. The concept ...

We’ve seen this gimmick before: the high-wire act of setting a movie entirely within the confines of electronic devices, allowing us to feel as if we’re logging in, clicking and typing along with the characters in real time. The 2015 horror flick “ Unfriended ,” for example, pulled off this feat in lively, detailed and eventually grisly ways; before that, the 2014 Elijah Wood thriller “ Open Windows ” tried this trick with less success.  Structuring a film this way is impressive as an ambitious screenwriting exercise, if nothing else. It also gives filmmakers the opportunity to embrace technology while simultaneously making a point about the way it transfixes us and turns us into zombies. The sensation allows us to identify with these characters as they make the same kinds of decisions we would and multitask with a variety of windows and websites open at the same time. We are them and they are us and everyone needs to put down the phone or close up the laptop and go for a walk i...

Filmgoers looking for something to explicitly counter August’s summer movie exhaustion should get first in line for “Makala,” a documentary about a Congolese man who makes charcoal, slowly wheels it 30 kilometers to the closest market, and then tries to sell it. The power in this story from comes from its very distilled manner: it tells a timeless story about hard work by completely immersing us in the steps of process, focusing on an act of incredible physical commitment.  “Makala” starts with a 28-year-old man named Kasongo, the main focus of debut director Emmanuel Gras ’ film, walking underneath the natural beauty of a maroon sunrise with an axe over his shoulder. The camera follows behind him, like Mickey Rourke in “ The Wrestler ,” as he heads to work: chopping down a big tree. We watch him closely as he gets into a rhythm: Thwack . Thwack . Thwack . Eventually, the tree crashes with help from the heavy breezes of the forest. A pile of branches is soon shown. A m...

One of the many important details we learn in Stephen Maing’s essential documentary “Crime + Punishment” is that the New York City Police Department has become a model for many other police departments across the United States. The NYPD is the largest police organization in America, so the precedents it sets are seen by other municipalities as expertise that should be followed. Perhaps the more controversial item on the NYPD agenda is a “broken windows” policy that allows officers to stop and frisk people that “fit the description” of a suspect under investigation. Several studies indicated that most of the people who were stopped were disproportionately Black or Latinx. This appeared to be the rule rather than the exception, or rather, “a feature, not a bug” in a system that relied on a specific number of summonses and arrests every month. Considering this particular environment is being replicated by other law enforcement departments, Maing’s film becomes crucial to the discussion o...

Here's another story of a boy and his dog—except that the dog is a robotic killing machine, developed by an amoral arms manufacturer for the United States military. What could possibly go wrong? The answer, expectedly, is a lot, and that doesn't have anything to do with the details of the plot of this strange movie. "A-X-L" wants its eponymous dog to be both cute and threatening, depending on whatever mode the screenplay by director Oliver Daly is going for at any particular moment. Daly goes through a few approaches to this story, taking it from a generic tale of a teenage dirt bike racer who feels stuck in his life and bonds with the robot, to a plot about hiding the dog from various locals and the dastardly arms mogul's mercenaries, and, at one point, to an all-out horror story, in which the robot tries to viciously murder a jerk teenager who, earlier, had attempted to kill it for a laugh and some internet views. We're introduced to AXL (pronounced, ...

When Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman made “Papillon” in 1973, they were near the peak of their popularity, and the result was a massive hit, making $53 million domestically (total, likely with re-releases, but still). Forty-five years later, a remake emerges from the brush with two stars who don’t have anywhere near the household name status of their predecessors— Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek —but sometimes lowered expectations can be a blessing. Can these two actors, primarily known for their TV work, step into the gigantic shoes of two of the most beloved actors of all time? Hunnam plays the title character, a charismatic criminal who we see briefly in Paris before he’s framed for the murder of a pimp. He is sentenced to a penal colony in French Guiana, surrounded by murderers and monsters, but he spots a lifeboat before he even gets there. While being transported to the hellhole to which he has been condemned, Papillon meets a counterfeiter named Dega (Malek), a nervous fello...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) have partnered to bring viewers The Black Experience on Film ,  a comprehensive month-long programming initiative showcasing portrayals of African Americans throughout cinematic history. Hosted by 13 different members of AAFCA from print, online and broadcast outlets throughout the country, programming begins Tuesday,  September 4th,  and continues every  Tuesday  and  Thursday  in primetime. The Black Experience on Film  provides a wide-ranging retrospective from the 1920s through the 1990s including: Exploring Black Identity  airing  Sept. 4  - AAFCA president Gil Robertson & cultural critic Ronda Racha Penrice explore films ranging from Oscar Micheaux's searing look at racial violence in "Within Our Gates" (1920) to Julie Dash ’s 1991 story following three generations of Gullah women in "Daughters Of The Dust." H...

PLEASE join me and Josh Welsh of Film Independent in celebrating JON M. CHU (director of " Crazy Rich Asians "); EFFIE T. BROWN (producer of " Real Women Have Curves ," and " Dear White People "); CHARLES D. KING (founder and CEO of MACRO); and CHERIEN DABIS (director of " Amreeka ," and supervising producer of "Empire) at a benefit dinner heralding the   25th anniversary of Project Involve on Saturday, September 22nd, at the home of Catharine and Jeffrey Soros  in Los Angeles. This joyous occasion will herald the free nine-month intensive program offering thirty up-and-coming film professionals from under-represented communities the opportunity to hone their skills and gain industry access. You may support Project Involve through a donation of any size here , or join us on the Host Committee with guaranteed VIP seating and enjoyment.   The benefit will be held as part of Film Independent's 2018 LA Film Festival. I am cha...

If you feel that the contemporary cinema isn’t serving up enough dirty-talking puppets to suit your proclivities and tastes, have I got a movie for you. “The Happytime Murders,” directed by Brian Henson under the aegis of a production company called “HA!”—for “Henson Alternative,” with an exclamation point!—is a movie in which Muppet-style felt characters (for yes, Brian is the son of Jim and Jane Henson) cuss and smoke and have sex to ostensibly comedic effect. Dirty-talking puppets are nothing new; a history of Vegas entertainments would turn up dozens if not hundreds, and the recent Broadway hit “Avenue Q” has proven that they WORK, or can work. Executive produced by human star Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone , “The Happytime Murders” is an indirect outgrowth of Henson’s “Puppet Up!” an improv show that had a prosperous run in, Las Vegas and New York a couple years back. In that show, puppeteers and their puppets presided over a traditional audience-suggestion s...