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Claire Denis is known for her portrayal of sensuous themes in her films. The images in a Claire Denis film are filled with human bodies and tight close-ups, and the camera is positioned in such a manner that it seems to caress them softly. Additionally, Denis’ use of music enhances the visuals with an added depth of poetry. Yet, beneath this apparent tenderness lies a brutality. The interesting part is that it doesn’t serve the purpose of shock value but rather emerges as an interior desire inherent to the human condition.

Her 2001 film “Trouble Every Day” is a prime example of this seamless blending of tenderness and brutality. It consists of two separate arcs that converge midway through the film. In one arc, the story follows a newlywed American couple on their honeymoon in Paris. Despite being on his honeymoon, the husband, Shane Brown (Vincent Gallo), a scientist by profession,...

Throughout history, horror films have always been social activities -- manageable mini-adventures to be experienced in kinship with a friend, a group, a date, a significant other. There's something perennially appealing about sharing a scary and disturbing movie with someone you love, seeing them react alongside you, feeling bound by a collective sense of dread, encouraging each other to shrug off the fight-or-flight instinct, and ride it out when a scene gets too horrifying. A good horror film can even bring people closer. But horror films are seldomly family events.

To be sure, there is a certain logic to watching specific horror movies with family members. The urgency of a survival adventure like "Train to Busan" or "A Quiet Place," the simmering intensity of a creature thriller like "Jaws" or "Alien," the roller-coaster-ride excitement of a game transformed into an exercise in terror in "The Conjuring," or the unspooling mysteries...

The Church of Scientology has been accused of trying to “derail” actor Danny Masterson’s rape trials, according to legal documents filed in December 2023 and obtained by TheWrap. He was convicted in those trials for raping two women in 2001 and 2003 whom he had met through the church.

Masterson’s rape victims filed legal documents in December 2023, obtained by TheWrap, claiming the church launched a “campaign of harassment and intimidation directed at one of the prosecutors assigned to Defendant Masterson’s trial” in an effort to “derail Masterson’s criminal trial” as well as his second criminal trial.

The prosecutor’s name wasn’t revealed in the document, though the charges do match similar ones discussed in a speech by L.A. County Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller last year, according to the Los Angeles Times, which also reports that a spokesperson for the church has denied the claims.

“Defendants attempted...

(Editor’s Note – this story has been updated to reflect more information that has been presented about Leah Remini’s name on anti-Scientology websites) The Church of Scientology should be labelled a “criminal enterprise” due to its “pattern of racketeering activity,” say the plaintiffs in the civil harassment case against the David Miscavige-led organization and Danny Masterson. With three more rape claims against the incarcerated That 70s Show actor in a proposed second amended complaint, the accusers want the LA courts to allow mafia-inspired Rico charges to be included in the case now.

At almost the same time, in another lawsuit, the Church seems to have put forth weak evidence for its own argument that the one of the main reasons it harshly criticizes Leah Remini is because the former Scientologist has long been “inspiring violence” against Scientology and its leadership.

Heading toward a September 22, 2025, trial date, after various...

The retrial of Danny Masterson on three separate rape charges began Monday in downtown Los Angeles, in the same courtroom where many of the same witnesses testified late last year. That six-week affair ended in a mistrial, with jurors voting heavily toward acquitting the “That ’70s Show Star” – making prosecutors’ pursuit of a do-over something of a surprise.

But District Attorney Reinhold Mueller has reworked his approach, and will be focusing on an additional witness as well as new experts to bolster accusers’ testimony. Mueller has also said he gleaned a lot of information from speaking with jurors after the first trial, as well as while listening to a subsequent Scientology podcast interview with the jury foreperson.

Masterson was in court Monday, wearing a dark suit with red socks and brown shoes. He waved hello to prospective jurors as he was introduced but did not speak, and his attorney Philip Cohen...

Danny Masterson has opted not to testify in his ongoing rape trial, he told the court in downtown Los Angeles Monday morning.

The That ’70s Show star has been charged with three counts of forceable rape dating from 2001 to 2003. He has denied the allegations and faces 45 years to life in prison if convicted. Masterson’s decision not to testify follows weeks of intense testimonies from the three women attached to the rape charges, and from a fourth woman (Ghost Dog actress Tricia Vessey) who also alleged that Masterson raped her,...

Ghost Dog actress Tricia Vessey stepped forward at Danny Masterson’s serial rape trial in Los Angeles Wednesday and gave her first public testimony claiming the That ’70s Show star forced himself on her twice in 1996 when she was too inebriated to consent to sex.

The actress, who gave Rolling Stone permission to use her name, told jurors the first alleged incident happened the night of a wrap party for the movie she filmed with Masterson and fellow actor Justin Pierce that year. She said Masterson rattled her with an...

With Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai newly released by Criterion Collection today, Filmmaker is publishing online for the first time Peter Bowen’s interview with Jarmusch and actor Forest Whitaker from our Winter, 2000 print issue. In Jim Jarmusch’s latest adventure, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, the title character, played by Forest Whitaker, is set on a collision course with the mob after a local boss’s daughter (Tricia Vessey) witnesses him making a hit. Soon, Ghost Dog is declared a “liability,” and a hit is ordered on him as well. Naturally, this mysterious urban samurai easily eludes […]

The post "The Violence in the Film is Simply a Reflection of the History of Human Beings": Writer/Director Jim Jarmusch and Actor Forest Whitaker on Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

With Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai newly released by Criterion Collection today, Filmmaker is publishing online for the first time Peter Bowen’s interview with Jarmusch and actor Forest Whitaker from our Winter, 2000 print issue. In Jim Jarmusch’s latest adventure, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, the title character, played by Forest Whitaker, is set on a collision course with the mob after a local boss’s daughter (Tricia Vessey) witnesses him making a hit. Soon, Ghost Dog is declared a “liability,” and a hit is ordered on him as well. Naturally, this mysterious urban samurai easily eludes […]

The post "The Violence in the Film is Simply a Reflection of the History of Human Beings": Writer/Director Jim Jarmusch and Actor Forest Whitaker on Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

A woman necks passionately with a man in a car. On a plane, a husband kisses the forearm of his wife. A disfigured body is found in a field. In the opening minutes of Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day (2001), we are offered the three things that make life worth living: sex, love and death. This is nothing new, but leave it to Denis to make the conventional challenging. Unspooling in a particularly Denisian elliptical manner, it is revealed the woman making out in the backseat is Coré (Béatrice Dalle), the sick wife of Doctor Léo (Alex Descas). The nature of her illness isn’t clear, but has something to do with that corpse. Shane (Vincent Gallo) is the wooing husband, who is taking his nymphet bride, June (Tricia Vessey), to Paris on their honeymoon—and also to investigate his increasingly disturbing urges to nibble at her flesh. In an ode...

A woman necks passionately with a man in a car. On a plane, a husband kisses the forearm of his wife. A disfigured body is found in a field. In the opening minutes of Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day (2001), we are offered the three things that make life worth living: sex, love and death. This is nothing new, but leave it to Denis to make the conventional challenging. Unspooling in a particularly Denisian elliptical manner, it is revealed the woman making out in the backseat is Coré (Béatrice Dalle), the sick wife of Doctor Léo (Alex Descas). The nature of her illness isn’t clear, but has something to do with that corpse. Shane (Vincent Gallo) is the wooing husband, who is taking his nymphet bride, June (Tricia Vessey), to Paris on their honeymoon—and also to investigate his increasingly disturbing urges to nibble at her flesh. In an ode...

NEW YORK --Formerly titled "Life During Wartime", Evan Dunsky's debut film has the studied artificiality of the kind of off-Broadway play (by Keith Reddin) from which it was adapted.

A quirky black comedy about a security systems salesman who gets in over his head both professionally and personally, the film is a would-be allegory about American business that reveals more than a little Mametian influence. It is ultimately too clever for its own good, but some very funny dialogue and a beautifully nuanced performance by Stanley Tucci are redeeming features.

The film, which screened at the Toronto and Sundance festivals, stars David Arquette as Tommy, a young salesman who's just started work at a home-security company owned by fast-talking, slick, supersalesman Heinrich (Tucci). Heinrich talks a great game, but, as Tommy soon finds out, he doesn't just rely on his persuasive sales techniques to grow his business. To fuel his potential and current customers' paranoia, he breaks into their homes in order to demonstrate their need for his systems.

During his first day on the job, Tommy visits prospective client Gale, a beautiful older widow (Kate Capshaw) who turns out to be both his first client and a willing lover. The two begin a torrid affair, complicated only by the unexpected arrival of Gale's teenage son Howard (Ryan Reynolds). Tommy attempts to be a counselor to the young man, but it's Howard who teaches Tommy a thing or two.

Things turn darker in the film's second half, when a brutal murder occurs and Tommy becomes increasingly convinced that Heinrich was responsible.

"The Alarmist" is a genuinely offbeat effort, distinguished by funny and perceptive dialogue, sharp performances and a fresh subject matter. But it ultimately veers off in too many directions at once, with writer-director Dunsky not fully able to handle the many shifts of tone. Although it might have been effective onstage, the material merely seems awkward when transferred to the more realistic film medium.

Still, it does display much more imagination than most indie efforts, and the acting is superb. Tucci, one of the most vital and reactive actors working today, is compelling as the boss who is as strangely lovable as he is creepy. Arquette is the personification of awkward naivete, and Capshaw is appealing and surprisingly funny as the widow -- although, between this and "The Locusts", she might want to stay away from the older woman/younger man thing for a while.

THE ALARMIST

Lions Gate Releasing

Credits: Director-screenplay: Evan Dunsky; Producers: Dan Stone, Lisa Zimble; Executive producers: Beau Flynn, Stefan Simchowitz, Matthias Emeke, Thomas Augsberger; Director of photography: Alex Nepomniaschy; Editor: Norman Buckley; Music: Christopher Beck. Cast: Tommy: David Arquette; Heinrich: Stanley Tucci; Gale: Kate Capshaw; Sally: Mary McCormack; Howard: Ryan Reynolds; April: Tricia Vessey. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 93 minutes.

Having already conquered half the moviegoing world, "Bean" is finally ready to take on fickle American audiences.

Given the gales of laughter that rocked a recent preview screening, expect an immediate and unprecedented surrender.

Simply put, "Bean" is the hands-down funniest picture in recent years -- an all-ages blast that will keep Gramercy bean counters beaming for weeks to come.

That probably won't be news to those who have already been Beaned by Rowan Atkinson's side-splitting series of small-screen adventures, but even so, the transition to features could have been a tricky one. Fortunately, with "Mr. Bean" co-creator Richard Curtis ("Four Weddings and a Funeral") and fellow series writer Robin Driscoll on board along with director Mel Curtis ("The Tall Guy"), the move couldn't have gone more smoothly.

Of course, Atkinson deserves most of the credit. His Mr. Bean is an irresistible combination of wide-eyed troublemaker and eternal naif. He's a man of few words and fewer social graces whose every movement has young and old alike screaming with giddy laughter.

Not that he really needs one, but the plot concerns itself with London's National Art Gallery sending "Whistler's Mother" to the Los Angeles gallery that has just purchased it. Accompanying the masterpiece is none other than the British gallery's shiftless employee, Mr. Bean, who the board members, eager to be rid of him, pass off as an esteemed art expert.

The charade doesn't exactly go without a hitch. Initially flattered to have the newly dubbed Dr. Bean staying at his home, Grierson Gallery curator David Langley (Peter MacNicol) ultimately loses his family and a good chunk of his mind when his guest's antics culminate in the devastating (and hilarious) destruction of one of the most recognizable works in American art history.

While the film itself dips a little in the middle, Atkinson's brilliant, seemingly effortless brand of physical comedy sustains the buoyant pace. And although the concept of supporting performances would appear to be superfluous here, MacNicol more than holds his own as Bean's quietly flappable host, as does Pamela Reed as MacNicol's no-nonsense wife.

Also fun in a smaller part is Burt Reynolds as the gung-ho Gen. Newton, a man who admits to knowing nothing about art but realizes the patriotic value of reclaiming American property from "the Frenchies."

BEAN

Gramercy Pictures

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment

presents A Working Title production

in association with Tiger Aspect Films

A film by Mel Smith

Director: Mel Smith

Producers: Peter Bennett-Jones,

Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan

Screenwriters: Richard Curtis, Robin Driscoll

Executive producer: Richard Curtis

Director of photography: Francis Kenny

Production designer: Peter Larkin

Editor: Christopher Blunden

Costume designer: Hope Hanafin

Music: Howard Goodall

Casting: Ronnie Yeskel

Color/stereo

Cast:

Mr. Bean: Rowan Atkinson

David Langley: Peter MacNicol

Alison Langley: Pamela Reed

George Grierson: Harris Yulin

Stingo: Johnny Galecki

Kevin Langley: Andrew J. Lawrence

Jennifer Langley: Tricia Vessey

Gen. Newton: Burt Reynolds

Running time -- 87 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...