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Despite her releasing the singles ‘The Giver’ and ‘The Subway’ this year, Chappell Roan isn’t rushing to churn out her sophomore album.

The Grammy winner has said that her “second project doesn’t exist yet” after breaking out with her 2020 single ‘Pink Pony Club’ and her 2023 debut studio album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

“There is no album. There is no collection of songs,” she told Vogue. “It took me five years to write the first one, and it’s probably going to take at least five to write the next. I’m not that type of writer that can pump it out.”

Roan explained that she isn’t putting pressure on herself to get back into the studio, even if fans are waiting on pins and needles.

“I don’t think I make good music whenever I force myself to do anything,” said Roan. “I see some comments sometimes,...

More than 2,300 members of the Writers Guild of America West and East, including no shortage of heavy hitters, have signed the union’s open letter decrying the Trump administration’s “recent threats to the free press.”

“We are members of the Writers Guild of America who speak with one voice to decry the dangerous and escalating attacks on the First Amendment, independent media, and the free press,” the letter reads in part. “[Trump] regularly calls for the cancellation of news and entertainment television shows that criticize him in late-night and, most recently, The View.”

It ends with the ominous line, “This period in American life will not last forever, and when it’s over the world will remember who had the courage to speak out.” Read the letter and list of signatories in full below.

Related: How Public Media Lost The Federal Funding Battle, And What Happens Next To Stations, NPR...

More than 2,300 members of the Writers Guild of America have signed an open letter decrying recent actions taken by President Trump and his administration that they say represent “an unprecedented, authoritarian assault.”

The WGA East and WGA West union members signing the letter include Spike Lee, Adam McKay, Ilana Glazer, Mike Schur, Liz Merriwether and Tony Gilroy.

The letter cites Trump’s “baseless lawsuits” against news organizations that have “published stories he does not like and leveraged them into payoffs”; for example, it points to Paramount Global’s agreement last month to pay Trump $16 million to settle “a meritless lawsuit” against CBS over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris that Trump alleged was deceptively edited. In addition, the letter notes, Trump has “retaliated against publications reporting factually on the White House and threatened broadcasters’ licenses,” and has regularly called for the cancelation of news and entertainment TV shows that criticize him.

The Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival has always been a space for cinema that pushes boundaries, disrupts worldviews, and leaves a slippery residue of viscera on the screen—during a festival otherwise dominated by predominantly highbrow, highly serious selections. As the fest turns 50 this September, the program’s disregard for good taste, social norms, and any semblance of staying inside the box shows zero signs of changing.

It’s no wonder TIFF’s Midnight Madness/Strange Cuts program was recently ranked first in Dread Central’s definitive list of the 90 Best Genre Fests on Earth (in a three-way tie with Fantasia and Sitges, respectively).

To prepare for this year’s lineup, I sat down with TIFF Midnight Madness lead programmer Peter Kuplowsky to break down the salacious selections—from the nastiest and most shocking titles to the grim, macabre, and everything in between. Kuplowsky is partly...

Ari Aster is known for making family dramas turned, well, horrific, but the auteur recently experienced some family drama of his own. After Aster’s third film “Beau Is Afraid” was a box office flop, Aster’s father suggested that he solely direct instead.

“When ‘Beau Is Afraid’ flopped, my dad did tell me, ‘Uh, maybe you shouldn’t write the next one,’” Aster said during the “Wtf with Marc Maron” podcast. “He might’ve been right.”

However, the director did write his next film, “Eddington,” which is now in theaters. As for his mom, Aster added, “She’s very supportive. I think, you know, certain things she likes more than others … I’m lucky in that sense.”

“Beau Is Afraid” had an estimated budget of $35 million; the A24 film grossed only a third of that at the box office.

“I was pretty sad that it was, like, so maligned,...

“Beautiful! Voluptuous! Deadly! Vicious!” As a movie star, Tura Satana was hardly prolific, but as a cult cinema icon the former go-go girl was already a legend long before her death in 2011 at the age of 72. Directed by Cody Jarrett, narrated by Margaret Cho, and perfectly timed for the 60th anniversary of her standout movie Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! — in which she plays stunning black-leather-clad badass Varla — this playful but reverent and often quite unexpectedly moving documentary offers a fascinating portrait that reveals some of the late star’s secrets while generating a few new mysteries of its own. The prime audience is grindhouse movie buffs, for sure, but Jarrett’s film has more to talk about than such kitsch as the making of 1968’s The Astro Zombies, raising serious questions about the alarming state of race and gender in postwar America.

Boldly, the film gets off to a heavy start,...

While much of the podcast industry has grown cautious and consolidated, one small independent studio is proving you don’t need a big budget to make something big.

Toronto-based Sonar Network, an indie podcast company founded in 2017 by a group of local comedians, is releasing its most ambitious series to date: StanLand, a five-part scripted audio comedy featuring an A-list cast including Rhea Seehorn, Bobby Moynihan, Steve Little, Jon Hamm, and John Waters. The series premieres July 29 on all major podcast platforms, with early access to the full series and exclusive bonus content available via Apple Podcasts Subscriptions.

Created and written by humorist Mike Sacks, StanLand follows a missing podcaster and a mediocre Maryland man who stumble into a once-magical kingdom now overrun by vape shops, dollar stores, and gated retirement communities. The result is a surreal, sound-rich satire of late-stage capitalism, part fantasy adventure, part cultural mirror.

“What makes...

"What a woman!" For real! Quiver Distribution has debuted the trailer for a biopic documentary film titled Tura!, made by filmmaker Cody Jarrett. It premiered at the 2024 San Diego Asian Film Festival last year, and will be opening in art house theaters starting in August. Tura! is the true story of Tura Satana, the star of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), told through conversations with Margaret Cho and others. A cult icon and burlesque legend, her bold legacy continues to inspire female empowerment worldwide. A wild ride chronicling Tura's brutal childhood, burlesque career, cult movie stardom, and impact as a female icon & cinema pioneer. The film also features John Waters, Dita Von Teese, Pamela Des Barres, Kitten Natividad, Margaret Cho, Tura's two daughters, and many others. This looks like an empowering, inspiring, & engaging look at the life of Tura and all that she achieved on and off screen. What a badass!

The cinematic influence of legendary B-movie producer and director Roger Corman cannot be overstated. The original "King of Cult" was a shrewd and thrifty operator who identified a gap in the market during the 1950s, namely among a young demographic of movie-goers who wanted cheap thrills when they went to their local fleapit or drive-in theater. And he gave them what they wanted in abundance, producing over 300 pictures and directing around 50 himself, often low-budget flicks full of sex, violence, rocket ships, monsters, hot rods, and plenty of rebellious attitude. The other side of Corman was a mogul of good taste, who distributed three Best Foreign Language Oscar-winners and brought the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, and Ingmar Bergman to wider U.S. audiences. Not only that, his films served as a launchpad for many future directors and actors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Robert De Niro,...

Quentin Tarantino would give five years of his life to collaborate with this late legend. John Waters thinks one of her films is the among the greatest features of all time. Of course, both auteurs are speaking about the one and only Tura Satana.

Late actress Satana’s history is one for the record books: An Asian American trailblazer onscreen, Satana got her start in burlesque (she went by the stage name “Miss Japan Beautiful” as a teenager) and went on to lead the iconic 1965 classic “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!,” which solidified her status as a karate master in action films.

While Satana’s life had all the glitz imaginable (she infamously dated both Elvis and Rod Taylor), her traumatic childhood in part led to her acting career. At age nine, Satana was kidnapped, assaulted, and left for dead in a race-driven hate crime post-Pearl Harbor in 1948. She vowed to take revenge on her attackers,...

Exclusive: Gluon Media, which until now has focused on releasing international movies into Latin America, is branching into U.S. distribution.

The Miami Beach-based specialty distributor will kick-off its U.S. operation with the release of The Fantastic Golem Affairs by Spanish film-making duo Burnin’ Percebes, consisting of Juan González and Fernando Martínez.

Gluon, which has acquired all North American rights will open the film at New York’s Quad Cinema on August 29, in the presence of the filmmakers, following select Fantastic Fest Presents screenings at Alamo Drafthouse locations on August 25 and 26. Gluon will release the film on digital and streaming platforms following the theatrical window.

The sci-fi comedy follows Juan, who, after a night of partying, watches helplessly as his friend David drunkenly falls from a terrace. David’s body hits a car hood on the street below and shatters into a thousand pieces.

Since no one else seems shocked by this,...

Although there has been growing enthusiasm for rising horror auteurs like Jordan Peele, Robert Eggers, Mike Flanagan, and Coralie Fargeat, no filmmaker has elicited quite as extreme of response as Ari Aster. While Aster’s talent was evident from some of his early, disturbing short films, his work within features has raised the threshold for upsetting content. There’s certainly an art to being transgressive for the sake of attention, but Aster has woven in delicate stories about human fragility and developed consistent working relationships with some of the industry’s finest actors. It’s far too early to judge whether Aster is the heir apparent to filmmakers like Tobe Hooper or Wes Craven, but he has earned enough name recognition that any of his upcoming projects has become an event worthy of anticipation.

Aster’s aptitude for prolonged, uncomfortable sequences that get under the audience’s skin may now...

Starting with its title, “Fucktoys” announces itself as an irreverent and audacious attempt at making something different from mainstream American movies. Making her debut as writer, director and star, force-of-nature Annapurna Sriram manages to succeed in delivering a singular vision in all aspects of filmmaking, though not without its influences. The story of a Southern sex worker’s bizarre adventures trying to reverse a curse remains witty and watchable for its entire running time, juggling an abundance of strange characters and story threads en route to a surreal and unexpectedly heartfelt ending.

With its sexually frank dialogue and situations, satire of celebrity and media and drug cultures, the good-taste-defying project is guaranteed to offend large swaths of the public, though many will find enough to enjoy here to make it a cult phenomenon. Sriram commands the material from the opening frames. A long, widescreen shot of two characters on a barge floating in the bayou,...

Broadway’s original “Tracy Turnblad,” Marissa Jaret Winokur will direct 5-Star Theatricals' upcoming production of the Tony Award winning musical, Hairspray, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan and based on the John Waters film. Hairspray will open on Friday, October 10 and run through Sunday, October 26 in the Scherr Forum Theatres at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center. Further creative team and casting will be announced shortly. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the production follows teenage Tracy Turnblad's dream to dance on “The Corny Collins Show,” a local TV dance program based on the real-life Buddy...

Legendary filmmakers like John Waters can’t secure funding for new film projects, but at least we’re getting another Garfield movie.

As parents who haven’t already repressed the memory will recall, in 2024, the portly orange feline starred in a big-screen franchise reboot/glorified drone commercial known simply as The Garfield Movie. Controversially, Garfield was voiced by Jurassic World star Chris Pratt whose “jacked evangelical” energy didn’t suit the character at all.

Despite the online casting backlash, The Garfield Movie was a big hit, and is now predictably getting the sequel treatment. But instead of just announcing the next movie via a boring old press release, Pratt himself dropped the news with a social media video in which he brings home a pizza with “Garfield 2” drizzled on top — yes, you read that right, a pizza.

People were quick to dunk on Pratt for using pizza for the...

Some characters are simply embedded in the cultural bedrock. Say the name “Dorothy,” and a very specific Kansas runaway in a gingham dress comes to mind, a figure who has been a fixed point in American storytelling for 125 years.

Director Jeffrey McHale’s documentary, It’s Dorothy!, takes on the formidable task of mapping the character’s sprawling journey. The film sets out not just to retell a familiar story, but to dissect how that story has been refracted through countless adaptations on screen and stage.

It approaches its subject with a clear affection, looking to understand how a simple fairytale character became an enduring and evolving piece of our collective mythology. The documentary frames itself as an energetic and sprawling exploration of a girl who is much more than her ruby slippers.

The Women Behind the Slippers

The documentary’s narrative engine is not the tornado or the trip to Oz,...

Comedy Central has announced that Season 27 of South Park will now premiere on Wednesday, July 23, at 10:00 p.m. Et/Pt. The second season of Digman! will premiere immediately following at 10:30 p.m. Et/Pt.

South Park, the hit animated franchise that celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022, debuted on Comedy Central on August 13, 1997. Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny were first introduced in the animated short The Spirit of Christmas, and from there, they were launched into television history.

Co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (who shared their opinion about the new premiere date) are the show’s executive producers, along with Anne Garefino and Frank C. Agnone II.

Eric Stough, Adrien Beard, Bruce Howell, and Vernon Chatman are the producers. Christopher Brion is the Creative Director of South Park Digital Studios.

Season one of Digman! marked the first to be written and produced by Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor...

If you’re craving more adventures with Andy Samberg‘s Rip Digman, you’ll need to wait a little longer for the antics to begin. The release date shift for Digman! Season 2 comes after Comedy Central pushed the Season 27 premiere date of South Park from July 9 to July 23. The sophomore season of Digman! will do the same, with the animated series created by Samberg and Neil Campbell debuting on Wednesday, July 23 at 10:30 p.m.

Digman! takes place in a world where archaeologists are massive celebrities and the coolest people on the planet. Andy Samberg voices Rip Digman, the protagonist with an explorer’s spirit, Nathan Drake’s dashing good looks, and Frank Drebin’s knack for stumbling into disaster. Samberg wrote and produced Season 1, and a cast of familiar voices return for Digman! Season 2!

Digman! Season 2 stars Andy Samberg as Rip Digman, Mitra Jouhari as Saltine, Tim Robinson as Swooper,...

Where South Park goes, Digman! follows — literally.

The season two premiere of Andy Samberg’s Digman! is being pushed out two weeks to Wednesday, July 23, just like the season 27 premiere of South Park. Digman! airs in Comedy Central’s 10:30 p.m. time slot, immediately after South Park at 10.

South Park’s season 27 premiere was delayed on Wednesday. The news came amid a streaming-rights battle between the creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and the channel’s parent company, Paramount Global.

Parker and Stone are not happy about the delay, and they made that known.

“In response to the press release from Comedy Central about the change in premiere date for South Park Trey Parker & Matt Stone said — ‘This merger is a shitshow and it’s fucking up South Park. We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow,’” a...

The Comedy Central animated series “Digman!” is the latest show to shift its premiere at the basic cabler.

The second season of “Digman!” was slated to debut on July 9, but it will now premiere two weeks later on July 23 at 10:30 p.m. Et/Pt. The move keeps the series in line with the launch of Season 27 of “South Park,” which also recently shifted its premiere date to July 23.

No sign yet that the “Digman!” creators are planning to release a statement to address the move, but “South Park’s” Trey Parker and Matt Stone had plenty to say, particularly regarding the Paramount-Skydance merger. In a statement posted online shortly after the premiere date move was announced, Parker and Stone said, “This merger is a shit show and it’s fucking up ‘South Park.’ We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.

For a decade and a half, Blumhouse has been the industry standard for consistent horror success at the box office, yielding high concept, low-budget hits every year and spawning multiple franchises in the process.

But for the past 18 months, the studio has suffered its first extended slump, and the sequel that was supposed to get things back on track, “M3GAN 2.0,” has instead suffered a poor $10.2 million domestic/$17.1 million global opening weekend.

“I look at this opening weekend, and it’s hard to think of a more disappointing or shocking launch this year,” said Boxoffice’s SVP of content strategy Daniel Loria. “There have been bigger bombs like ‘Snow White,’ but we knew that film had problems. Even if a lower opening than the first ‘M3GAN’ was expected, because tracking was at $18-20 million, I don’t think anyone was expecting a start that’s lower than ‘Night Swim.’”

The...

Mark Brokaw, a prolific director of Off Broadway, Broadway and regional stage productions who beginning in the 1990s worked with some of the brightest emerging playwrights including Douglas Carter Beane, Kenneth Lonergan, Nicky Silver, Paula Vogel and Lynda Barry, died Sunday, June 29, following a battle with cancer. He was 66.

His death was confirmed by the actor Camryn Manheim on social media. “My beautiful friend Mark Brokaw lost his battle with cancer this morning….Today, we lost a beautiful, gifted, beloved friend, artist, husband, and son. The entire theater community is grieving today. I will miss him terribly.”

Raised in Illinois, Brokaw graduated from Yale Drama school and received a fellowship from the Drama League in New York. He soon met Carole Rothman, artistic director of the Second Stage Off Broadway theater, and was hired as her assistant director on Tina Howe’s Costal Disturbances in 1987.

His first solo job, also at Second Stage,...

“Here After” actress Elissa Middleton and “Wild District’s” Javier Fuentes-León are set to star in Daniel Talbott’s (“The Conners”) latest feature drama, “Soft Animal.”

Stephen Laughton (“One Jewish Boy”) wrote the script with Ron Cohen (“Queen & Slim”), Kirkland Tibbels, and Talbott serving as producers.

The film is a queer story that follows Noam, a thirtysomething stuck in a loving-but-stagnant relationship with his partner, Dustin (Holder). As he reconnects with a much younger ex who’s living off the grid in the desert, he’s pulled into a hot, hazy journey of sex, memory, and rediscovering desire. As Noam drifts between two lovers, two landscapes, and two versions of who he might be, he must figure out what it means to choose himself, even when it hurts.

The film is the second feature collaboration between Talbott and Holder, with the pair previously working together on Midday Black Midnight Blue,...

Rip Digman is almost back, and this time, he's bringing a lot of new friends to Comedy Central. Over 15 guest stars are unearthed in the new Collider-exclusive trailer for Season 2 of Digman!, the animated adventure comedy co-created, produced by, and starring Andy Samberg, which imagines an alternate reality where archaeologists are big-shot celebrities beloved around the world. While Season 1 didn't lack for comedic firepower with Harvey Guillén, Jason Schwartzman, and Maya Rudolph among its ranks, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine star is returning to television with a motherload of stars from Marvel's Thunderbolts*, Star Wars, Only Murders in the Building, and much more. Their voices will be heard in a few short weeks when Digman and his companions continue their adventures starting July 9.

At the beginning of the trailer, the focus is on Samberg and his returning Digman! pals. While he'll once again be voicing the washed-up Rip with a Nicolas Cage-inspired accent,...

M3GAN 2.0 is back with more AI chaos, but early reactions suggest the sequel might not live up to the original. The film had its premiere in New York on June 24, with a wider U.S. release set for June 27. While fans of the first movie were excited, critics seem divided this time around.

The Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t helping its case. As of now, only 62% of the 48 critic reviews are positive. That’s a noticeable drop from the strong response M3GAN received in 2022 when it surprised many with its mix of horror and humor.

This time around, the story jumps ahead two years. Gemma, played by Allison Williams, is now publicly speaking out on the dangers of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, she keeps the original M3GAN locked away in a smaller, harmless form.

But things get worse when a new AI-powered military robot, Amelia, becomes self-aware and threatens to take over.

M3GAN 2.0 has finally arrived, but it’s not exactly making a big splash with critics. The sci-fi horror sequel made its world premiere in New York on June 24, and it hits theaters in the U.S. on June 27. However, early reviews show that the film is getting a pretty mixed response so far.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, only 62% of the 48 critic reviews are positive. That score suggests the movie is off to a lukewarm start, especially compared to the buzz that surrounded the first film in 2022.

The original M3GAN became a viral hit thanks to its blend of creepy horror and dark humor, but some reviewers are saying that the sequel struggles to recapture that same magic.

Related: New M3GAN 2.0 Footage Shows Intense Showdown With Rogue Military AI Robot

Directed and co-written again by Gerard Johnstone, M3GAN 2.0 picks up two years after the events of the first movie.

Imagine John Waters at the helm of a Terminator 2 remake and you have an inkling of just how wild a pivot M3GAN 2.0 is from its predecessor. If anything, writer-director Gerard Johnstone’s sequel has more in common with the last two Mission: Impossible films than the original M3GAN. Even then, it’s doubtful we’ll ever see Tom Cruise trapped in a sentient smart speaker telling the Imf to “hold onto their vaginas” before taking off in a futuristic sports car after a murderbot at 235 miles per hour while the Knight Rider theme plays.

Yes, M3GAN has gotten an upgrade from horror to sci-fi action, and the sequel also has a lot more on its mind. Understandable, really, since in only three short years since the original film’s release, A.I. has infected nearly every facet of our lives, and even the first film now has moments...

Upon hearing the name “Dorothy” I, like most, immediately think of The Wizard of Oz. I remember watching the film when I was a kid, sitting on the couch with my family. I remember my parents calling it “a classic.” Dorothy Gale has become synonymous with many things over the 125 years since she first appeared in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, from Kansas to ruby red slippers, Judy Garland to a 1950s LGBTQ+ signifier.

Jeffrey McHale has made a documentary to look at the character of Dorothy Gale in her entirety. Over the last 125 years she has appeared through nearly every medium––more than 40 films, television shows, novels, and plays. It’s Dorothy! tracks Dorothy from Garland through every iteration, through each actor to portray the role, through her growing and changing cultural impact. More than anything, it’s a documentary about joy.

McHale focuses on...

Back at the end of 2023, we heard that production had wrapped on Brute 1976, a horror project described as an homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Now, Cinephobia Releasing is gearing up to release the film in the United States, and they have revealed that it will be reaching select theatres in August, followed closely by a digital and VOD release on August 26th. To figure out if this is a movie you’d like to watch in a couple of months, take a look at the trailer in the embed above.

Directed by Marcel Walz from a screenplay by Joe Knetter, Brute 1976 begins with Raquel and her girlfriend, whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere as they travel to a photoshoot in the desert to celebrate Bicentennial unity . They stumble across an abandoned mine and explore it, while the photoshoot group replace...

Nebraska director Alexander Payne will receive the Pardo d’Onore at the Locarno Film Festival.

The American filmmaker will be presented with the honorary leopard on Friday, August 15. He will also present his 2011 pic The Descendants and 2013 title Nebraska and participate in a public discussion.

Payne, a writer-director also behind the likes of Sideway and The Holdovers, has won two Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and been nominated for Best Director on three occasions.

After studying filmmaking at UCLA, Payne wrote and directed politically-charged comedy Citizen Ruth, starring Laura Dern, in 1996. It premiered at Sundance and led to a run of seven influential films, which have starred the likes of Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon and Jack Nicholson.

“Alexander Payne is an erudite auteur with an encyclopaedic cinephile knowledge,” said Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival. “Gifted with an unerring sense for the bittersweet facets of human comedy,...

A favorite nugget of Wizard of Oz lore for many of us is the sublimely funny TV guide blurb written for a 1998 TCM airing of the MGM classic: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.” The inclusion of amusing oddities like that is what pulls It’s Dorothy! back whenever it threatens to go from exhaustive to exhausting, from dissection to dissertation.

Welcome humor comes also from new discoveries — at least to me — like the bizarrely kitsch spectacle of eliminated contestants on BBC talent search show Over the Rainbow removing their jeweled slippers and handing them to Andrew Lloyd Webber on a throne before being carried off the set on a cutout moon. Wtf? The winner — or survivor — of that Brit reality TV horror, Danielle Hope, went on to star in London as...

If there’s one criticism to be lobbed at Jeffrey McHale’s energetic, engrossing, and often quite loving documentary “It’s Dorothy!,” it’s that the documentarian has selected perhaps too good of a subject. The mythology and meaning of Dorothy Gale, the great hero of “The Wizard of Oz,” could easily inspire an entire series of films. While McHale somehow manages to touch on a dozen hot topics in his documentary — what the on-screen role means to the women who have played her, how and why the LGBTQ+ community so love her, how we grapple with the misdeeds of our favorite artists, and that’s literally just a small sample — that can make the actual film on offer feel a bit unfinished.

Still, McHale manages to hold all these very big topics together in an otherwise slim 97-minute running time. Packed with major talking heads, zippy animation, and a bouncing...

It might not have spelled awards hardware for Sally Field in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” at the Oscars in 2013, but Mary Todd Lincoln eventually had her day at the Tony Awards on Sunday.

Star-playwright Cole Escola won the Best Actor in a Play Tony for their riotously funny work in the outlandish comedy “Oh, Mary!,” marking the first time a nonbinary performer has scored a Tony win for any play category for acting.

Escola portrayed Mary Todd Lincoln as a boozy cabaret singer hopeful in a John Waters-style madcap production, in which she rants and raves while a queer-leaning Abe Lincoln (Conrad Ricamora) is heading toward a pre-determined assassination.

Escola has enjoyed a healthy pre-cursor awards lead-up, winning Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for their high-wire act of a performance. Recently while on a planned leave, “American Primeval” star Betty Gilpin and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” breakout Tituss Burgess...

Born to Be Offbeat Before she was dubbed “The Queen of the Indies,” Parker Posey was a precocious, premature twin from Baltimore. Born in 1968, she spent most of her childhood in Mississippi in a household that did not quite know what to do with her dreamer energy. “I was kind of strange,” a 27-year-old Posey told Index Magazine in 1996, “... very absent-minded.” Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media has the responsibility to better our world – The Hollywood Insider fully focuses on substance and meaningful entertainment, against gossip and scandal, by combining entertainment, education, and philanthropy. She eventually found a home for her creativity. She attended the State University of New York at Purchase, a training ground for...

Patricia Arquette’s Gonzo Girl starring Willem Dafoe, Camila Morrone, Leila George, Ray Nicholson, and Arquette will have a Tribeca Festival Member Exclusive Event screening.

In the second instalment of my annual conversation with Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer we discuss some more of the highlights in the 24th edition of the Tribeca Festival. In Spotlight Documentary: Jeffrey McHale’s It's Dorothy!; Ole Juncker’s Take The Money And Run, and My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay (on Jayne Mansfield). Spotlight Narrative: Stephanie Laing’s Tow and Sophie Brooks’s Oh, Hi!.

Frédéric Boyer with Anne-Katrin Titze on the German film What Marielle Knows: “Extraordinary this is. I think it's the revelation of the Berlinale in terms of German cinema.”

In Viewpoints: Frédéric Hambalek’s What Marielle Knows; Lucia Garibaldi’s A Bright Future, and Alex Ross Perry’s Videoheaven. International Narrative Competition: Paul Andrew...

The Visitor (2024) Movie Review: By the time he was mysteriously abducted and murdered mere weeks before the premiere of his final film, Pier Paolo Pasolini had cultivated for himself a reputation as a boundary-pushing filmmaker, content with critiquing the fast-tracking of consumerism and cultural dilution of his native Italy through any transgressive means necessary. Oftentimes, that transgression manifested in exploring the politics of his day through taboo sexual content, and one of his most renowned projects in that respect is the 1968 allegorical feature Teorema. Striking to audiences at the time for its dense themes and sparse delivery, Teorema would endure as one of Pasolini’s most discussed and acclaimed films, a testament to the director’s ability to push buttons while remaining firm in his conviction that something pertinent will reveal itself to us if we push back.

It’s by no means a perfect film, but the influence of...

Back at the end of 2023, we heard that production had wrapped on Brute 1976, a horror project described as an homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Now, the film has taken a huge step toward making its way out into the world, as Cinephobia Releasing has announced that they have acquired the U.S. distribution rights! They haven’t revealed exactly when they’re going to be releasing it yet, but we should be hearing that information very soon. For now, we know that they will debut the film sometime in Summer 2025 with a limited theatrical launch, which will be followed closely by an on demand and digital release.

Directed by Marcel Walz from a screenplay by Joe Knetter, Brute 1976 begins with Raquel and her girlfriend, whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere as they travel to a photoshoot in the desert...

While it largely flew under the radar in Prime Video’s adult animation catalogue — which includes the uber-popular Invincible and Hazbin Hotel — Cirocco Dunlap’s The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy was lucky enough to get a renewal. With a star-studded cast and genuinely sharp writing, season two of The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy uses its wacky premise to deliver both great humor and moving character moments.

The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy Season 2 Review

The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy follows best friends Dr. Klak and Dr. Sleech: alien doctors who work in a hospital that serves intergalactic patients. After they achieve the success they have spent their lives fighting for, they find that their careers might be getting in the way of their friendship — and vice versa.

One of the best things about the first season of The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy was its queer representation.

Cinephobia Releasing Acquires US Rights To The Texas Chainsaw Massacre & The Hills Have Eyes Homage Brute 1976 From Raven Banner: "Cinephobia Releasing announced today that it has acquired US Rights to director Marcel Walz’s and writer Joe Knetter’s (George A. Romero’s Twilight of the Dead) latest feature Brute 1976 from Tornonto-based genre sales specialist Raven Banner Entertainment. An homage to ‘70s horror cult classics The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Cinephobia Releasing acquired rights to the film in a deal negotiated between Cinephobia President Raymond Murray, and Cecilia A. Brush, Head of Sales and Distribution of Raven Banner Entertainment.

”Brute 1976 is bloody and sexy, with a deranged family so demented they make John Waters’s Pink Flamingos look like a paradigm of family values,” said Murray. “Brute 1976 restored my faith in horror that shocks.”

The film takes place in 1976, when Raquel and her girlfriend...

Cinephobia Acquires U.S. Rights To ‘Brute 1976’

Exclusive: Cinephobia Releasing has bought U.S. rights to Marcel Walz and Joe Knetter’s Brute 1976 from Canada’s Raven Banner Entertainment. The film, which Walz (That’s a Wrap) directed and Knetter (Twilight of the Dead) wrote, is billed as an homage to 1970s horror classics such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Cinephobia plans to debut the film over the summer with a limited theatrical run followed closely by an on-demand and digital release. It takes place in 1976 and follows a woman and her girlfriend whose car breaks down on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. At the same time, a group of people in the desert for a photoshoot stumble upon an abandoned town where a family of masked psychopaths reside. ”Brute 1976 is bloody and sexy, with a deranged family...

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Iggy Pop turned 78 years old in April, and the legendary punk rocker is busier than ever, with a headlining slot at the upcoming Cbgb Festival and a new collaboration with Dom Pérignon.

The latter features Iggy and six other “iconic creators” partnering with the champagne brand for its “Creation Is An Eternal Journey” campaign, which reveals how Dom Pérignon has been a “source of inspiration for artists and visionaries” over the years,...

There’s something undeniably appealing about subversive, boundary-pushing horror cinema. It’s cathartic to see filmmakers deal with heavy themes in a safe space. The Richard Bates Jr. film Excision very much fits that mold. This brutal, under-seen indie is a grisly nightmare of a film I’ve only watched a handful of times to date, but it’s imprinted in my brain like I just watched it yesterday.

Writer/director Bates juxtaposes violent imagery and sexually explicit themes alongside the blackest of comedy, all wrapped in the guise of a coming-of-age film about a deeply disturbed high school student. The film takes the kind of body horror for which beloved director David Cronenberg is so well known and pairs that with themes of loneliness, teenage sexuality, and mental illness. Bates’ direction and script are on point, as is AnnaLynne McCord’s jarring turn as lead character Pauline.

The setup...

Season 2 of the animated science fiction comedy TV series “The Secomd Best Hospital in the Galaxy”, created by Cirocco Dunlap, stars Stephanie Hsu, Keke Palmer, Kieran Culkin, Sam Smith, Maya Rudolph, Natasha Lyonne, Tracee Ellis Ross, Abbi Jacobson,Andrew Dismukes, Bowen Yang, Gary Anthony Williams, Lennon Parham, Jay Ellis, Kemah Bob and John Waters, streaming 8 new episodes, May 27, 2025 on Amazon Prime Video:

“…daring surgeons (and inseparable best friends) ‘Dr. Sleech’ and ‘Dr. Klak’…

“…frequently risk everything to take on the most dangerous cases in the universe.

“They relish the fame of their recent success until a cyborg journalist starts digging…

“…a little too deep into Sleech's past…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

"Can I borrow your space pirate ship?" Yes! Prime Video has unveiled an official trailer for Season 2 of the animated series called The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy, created by Cirocco Dunlap. It's also executive produced by Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne. The first season debuted last year streaming on Prime Video, and the second season will be out for streaming this May in just a few weeks. The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy follows daring surgeons (and inseparable best friends) Dr. Sleech & Dr. Klak, where they frequently risk everything to take on the most dangerous cases in the universe. In Season Two of The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy, doctors Sleech and Klak relish the fame of their recent success until a cyborg journalist starts digging a little too deep into Sleech's past. Featuring the voices of Stephanie Hsu, Keke Palmer, Kieran Culkin, Sam Smith, Maya Rudolph,...

The beloved annual Provincetown International Film Festival (Piff) is having a big moment with its buzzy 2025 lineup. IndieWire can announce that leading horror auteur Ari Aster will be honored with the Filmmaker on the Edge title at the festival, which will take place from June 11 to 15 in Provincetown, Ma.

Aster will be in Provincetown to receive the award and participate in conversation with resident artist John Waters on Saturday, June 14, ahead of the nationwide release of his new film “Eddington” on July 18. The secretive 2020-set dark comedy “Eddington” will debut at Cannes; the feature reunites Aster with his “Beau Is Afraid” star Joaquin Phoenix, as well as Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Luke Grimes, Clifton Collins Jr., and more.

“Ari Aster’s films weave grief, beauty and dread into unforgettable cinematic experiences,” Anne Hubbell, Piff’s Executive Director, said in a press statement. “We’re excited to welcome Ari...

Exclusive: Paris-based Luxbox has boarded Radu Jude’s Dracula and will kick off sales for the Romanian writer-director’s spin on the vampire tale at Cannes.

Now in post-production, the comedy drama is shot and set in Transylvania where the original myth originated and blends several takes on the Dracula story.

“The film is made with a lot of joy – a joy for cinema and storytelling – and despite the fact that our world is full of vampires, I hope this joy will be felt and shared by those who will watch the film. Make Dracula great again!” Jude said.

He...

Could Chappell Roan follow in the footsteps of many other musical artists and start acting?!

The 27-year-old “The Giver” singer recently revealed in an interview that she met one of her idols, the legendary John Waters, and he asked about her possibly venturing into another side of the entertainment industry.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I met John Waters last night, which was insane. One of my idols! And I was talking about how there are only so many ‘firsts’ you can have with your career. And he said, ‘No, no, no—there are all the firsts to go through when you become an actress!’” she told W magazine.

“And I said, ‘I’m not an actress—what are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Every singer is an actress!’ And I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I am! Damn! If John Waters says I’m an actress, maybe I am!

In the pop-star tradition of Cher, Madonna and Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan might add actress to her resume.

The Grammy winner revealed that she recently met legendary cult filmmaker John Waters, who encouraged Roan to embrace her inner thespian and give acting a try.

“I met John Waters last night, which was insane,” she told W Magazine. “One of my idols! And I was talking about how there are only so many ‘firsts’ you can have with your career.”

Roan continued, “And he said, ‘No, no, no—there are all the firsts to go through when you become an actress!’ And I said, ‘I’m not an actress—what are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Every singer is an actress!’ And I was like, okay, maybe I am! Damn! If John Waters says I’m an actress, maybe I am!”

After breaking out with her 2023 debut studio album The Rise...

The cinematic universes of Marvel and Star Wars have been struggling critically — and even in viewership — for awhile now, but “Thunderbolts*” and Disney+’s “Andor,” respectively, are restoring faith to desperately treaded I.P. On this week’s episode of IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast, co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio dive into the merits and demerits of each.

Disney’s “Thunderbolts*” co-starring Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan is about to dethrone “Sinners” at IMAX theaters, though Warner Bros. is prepping to re-release the latter hit film in premium venues. And on 70mm. For now, this weekend’s best box-office bet looks to be “Thunderbolts*,” which has garnered better-than-usual reviews for a Marvel movie and promises something different and more character-driven than simply movie chess pieces across a board, as so many MCU movies tend to be doing.

Anne praises the character work and Pugh’s performance especially, while Ryan...

Chappell Roan is still riding the high of her lesbian country hit “The Giver,” but the Grammy-winning recording artist apparently has a fan in John Waters — and he thinks he’s got her next career move pinned.

In a wide-ranging interview with W Magazine, Roan, covering the fashion publication’s Pop Issue, was asked if her overnight blast to fame led to film offers flooding in.

The “Pink Pony Club” singer didn’t exactly answer the question, but she did recount a meet-cute she had with the prolific Waters just the night before.

“I met John Waters last night, which was insane. One of my idols! And I was talking about how there are only so many ‘firsts’ you can have with your career,” Roan said. “And he said, ‘No, no, no — there are all the firsts to go through when you become an actress!’ And I said, ‘I’m...