News

Transforming Grown Ups and King of Queens star Kevin James into the next John Wick was never going to be easy. While the sight of James taking down baddies with expertly placed fists and bullets is something to behold, the comedic actor’s foray into the world of action has now resulted in a distinct divide among critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Written and directed by Edward Drake and starring Christina Ricci, Luis Guzman, Joey Diaz, Melissa Leo, and Timothy V. Murphy alongside James, the first reviews for the action outing Guns Up have now started to emerge, and while not enough have materialized to give Guns Up an overall score, there is now an even split between “rotten” and “fresh” reactions on the popular aggregator site.

We begin with the good, as Nicholas Bell of Fish Jelly Films found much to enjoy, heaping praise on Kevin James and Christina Ricci...

Go Go Power Rangers.

After kicking off Pride Month with John Boorman’s Deliverance (listen), and revisiting Joel Schumacher’s camptastic Batman Forever (listen), as well as Danny Boyle’s modern classic 28 Days Later (listen), it’s time to wrap up June with a look at director Bryan Spicer’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995).

This is a nostalgia trip for the ages as we dip back into the popular kids TV show, which featured six teenagers selected by alien Zordon (Nicholas Bell; voiced by Robert L. Manahan) to protect Earth from super villains like Rita Repulsa (Julia Cortez; voiced by Barbara Goodson) and Goldar.

When a power adversary named Ivan Ooze (Paul Freeman) is accidentally released back into Angel Grove and the Power Rangers are stripped of their abilities, they must travel to a distant world, befriend warrior Dulcea (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick), and battle their way to the...

Stars: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt, Richard O’Brien, Ian Richardson, Bruce Spence, Colin Friels, John Bluthal, Mitchell Butel, Melissa George, Frank Gallacher, Ritchie Singer, Nicholas Bell, Satya Gumbert, Frederick Miragliotta | Written by Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs, David S. Goyer | Directed by Alex Proyas

The name David S. Goyer may not be the most recognisable to mainstream cinema audiences, but he is responsible for the screenplays for some of the best superhero scripts in our time. He wrote the Blade trilogy (1998–2004), Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012), Man of Steel (2013), and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). He also wrote The Crow: City of Angels (1996), Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) and Hellraiser (2022).

However, in 1998 David Goyer wrote, along with Alex Proyas and Lem Dobbs, a tech noir film unlike anything the world had seen up to this point. And 27 years after this film’s theatrical release, Arrow Video has given...

Ioncinema.com’s Chief Film Critic Nicholas Bell reviewed the entire competition and more. Here is a comprehensive guide to all the feature films across all sections, including logged reviews and forthcoming ones. Our Cannes coverage continues well beyond the festival dates.

Competition

Alpha – Julia Ducournau – [Review]

Dossier 137 – Dominik Moll – [Review]

Die, My Love – Lynne Ramsay – [Review]

Eagles of the Republic – Tarik Saleh – [Review]

Eddington – Ari Aster – [Review]

Fuori – Mario Martone – [Review]

The History of Sound – Oliver Hermanus – [Review]

It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi – [Review]

La Petite Dernière – Hafsia Herzi – [Review]

The Mastermind – Kelly Reichardt – [Review]

Nouvelle Vague – Richard Linklater – [Review]

The Phoenician Scheme – Wes Anderson – [Review]

Renoir – Chie Hayakawa – [Review]

Resurrection – Bi Gan – [Review]

Romería – Carla Simón – [Review]

The Secret Agent – Kleber Mendonça Filho – [Review]

Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier – [Review]

Sirât – Óliver Laxe – [Review]

Sound of Falling – Mascha Schilinski – [Review]

Two Prosecutors – Sergei Loznitsa – [Review]

Woman and Child – Saeed Roustayi – [Review]

Jeunes mères – Dardennes – [Review]

Un Certain Regard

Aisha Can’t Fly Away – Morad Mostafa – [Review]

Caravan – Zuzana Kirchnerová – [Review]

The Chronology of Water...

If you missed Heart Eyes in theaters earlier this year or have been hesitant to rent or purchase it on VOD, you're in luck, because the rom-com slasher is finally making its way onto Netflix starting May 8, 2025. Starring Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding, the film introduced audiences to the titular serial killer on a murderous rampage who mistook the two co-workers for a Valentine's Day couple.

Per What's on Netflix, Heart Eyes will make its streaming debut on May 8, and remain on Netflix for 18 months before it heads to Hulu. The move is part of Sony Pictures' first-window deal with the streaming service that has all of their theatrical titles in 2025 debut on there a few months after their initial release. Heart Eyes is just one of many to come, as others such as Karate Kid: Legends and Until Dawn will also debut on Netflix later this year.

In addition to Holt and Gooding,...

If there is one guarantee in life, it is that a new Tyler Perry movie will find its way into the daily charts of whichever streaming platform it has landed on, and it will be absolutely crucified by both critics and audiences in its reviews. So it has proven once again with the writer/director/actor’s latest offering, Duplicity.

Following such critical disasters as A Fall From Grace and A Madea Homecoming, the relentless procession of Perry-orchestrated movies and TV shows continues with Duplicity, which has debuted at the top of Prime Video’s U.S. chart and in the number two spot on the global chart. The film’s synopsis reads:

"High-powered attorney Marley (Kat Graham) faces her most personal case yet when she is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the shooting of her best friend Fela's (Meagan Tandy) husband (Joshua Adeyeye). With the help of...

Last year we got Metrograph Pictures jumping into the indie film distribution scene, and in 2025 we have 1-2 Special with topper Jason Hellerstein officially cutting the ribbon landing their first pick-up and it was one of the better films from this year’s Berlinale in Radu Jude‘s Kontinental ’25. Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay, Jude is in Hong Sang-soo mode — pretty much on a film per year pace since the beginning of the decade. Our Nicholas Bell called ★★★½ Jude’s “latest perambulating spasm from Romanian director Radu Jude, which navigates an intersection of self-accountability, property, language, and culture as precarious notions in a nation bulldozing itself into capitalism’s future.”…...

Todd Haynes’ jury awarded the 75th Berlin Intl. Film Festival’s top honors this past Saturday to Dag Johan Haugerud’s Dreams (Sex Love) but the Golden Bear winner wasn’t the consensus top choice from the critic establishment, instead it’s the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner in Gabriel Mascaro’s fourth feature O último azul that was the favorite. The Brazilian fantasy film produced by Rachel Daisy Ellis and Sandino Saravia Vinay pulled together the top culminated score on Screen Daily grid and was the first ★★★★ stamped competition film review from our chief film critic Nicholas Bell. Here are the winners, Nicholas’ competition film reviews and the grid.…...

French filmmaker Vincent Le Port and Hungarian helmer Kornél Mundruczó are receiving some Arte France Cinéma coin for future projets that are being readied for 2026 launches. After Bruno Reidal, Confessions of a Murderer (which our Nicholas Bell called “challenging arthouse horror” – read review), Le Port adapts from Un crime de braves gens by George Marbeck – set on August 16, 1870, in the last days of the Second Empire, a crowd of peasants beat and tortured a man for several hours before burning him alive. The main culprits were ordinary people. Arieh Worthalter and Antoine Reinartz will topline Hautefaye.…...

Silver screen staple Tom Cruise is one of Hollywood's most entertaining leading men and a certified action superstar, with an illustrious career spanning four decades and countless big screen knockouts. In 1996, he proved himself to be one of the industry's most fearless and devoted actors when he began portraying super spy Ethan Craft in the blockbuster Mission: Impossible franchise, dazzling audiences with his gravity-defying stunts and commitment to his craft.

2000's Mission: Impossible II proved to be a major triumph for Cruise, as the electrifying sequel dominated the box office and its competition and became the highest-grossing movie of the year, raking in more than $546 million and further cementing Cruise's status as the cinema's biggest daredevil. Though Cruise would go on to star in a slew of hits like Collateral, War of the Worlds, and Top Gun: Maverick, the celebrated performer has been unable to achieve the same feat he...

Natalie Burn Joins Anthony Hopkins In ‘Eyes In The Trees’

Exclusive: Natalie Burn (Til Death Do Us Part) has joined Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ashley Greene in sci-fi thriller Eyes in the Trees. She will play the role of Marcy, a seasoned military veteran who reluctantly agrees to join former teammates for a final mission. They are dispatched to investigate the work of Dr Moreau’s enigmatic successor, Dr. Addis, a brilliant yet mysterious geneticist. Soon, the team finds their resolve tested as they delve into a world of chilling and dangerous experiments taking place on a remote island. Shooting is taking place on location in Thailand. Burn recently starred opposite Jason Patric and Cam Gigandet in action-comedy Til Death Do Us Part and was in period action flick The Last Redemption, which stars Angus Macfadyen and Kevin Sorbo. She also completed shooting comedy Dashing Through the Snow...

Perhaps the landmark sophomore feature of 2024, Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili has found a safe space in the U.S. via newish distributor Metrograph Pictures who acquired the North American rights to the Venice Special Jury Prize winner. Hailed as the best film (tied alongside The Brutalist) to come out of Venice by our chief film critic Nicholas Bell who praised (read our 4-star review) April for how it “drifts into stagnation, every visual moment is feeding into the themes of the film, including the multiple escapes into the mercurial nature of spring, rife with blossoming fertility but also presenting a fragile landscape vulnerable to destruction.…...

It’s not often the case, but on paper, the 2024 edition of the Venice Film Festival appears poised to outshine the Cannes Film Festival with its lineup of potential high-grade film items. Ahead of the 81st edition’s kickoff on Wednesday, I wanted to spotlight not two dozen most anticipated film items but a curated five of my most anticipated films across the festival’s major sections: the competition for the Golden Lion, Out of Competition section, Orizzonti (Horizons), Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days), and the Settimana Internazionale della Critica (Venice International Film Critics’ Week). Our film critic in chief Nicholas Bell and I will be covering the fest from day one until award’s night — so please support the site by visiting and leaving your comments.…...

The 2024 film festival summer closed out with the prizing at the Locarno Film Festival and it’s the debut feature of a Lithuanian filmmaker who claimed to highest prize in the Golden Leopard aka the Pardo d’Oro. Our Nicholas Bell admired the “distinctive choices” made in Saulė Bliuvaitė‘s Akiplėša (Toxic) – “elevating this beyond both miserabilism or sentimental absolution, meandering like its subjects toward some ill-formed ideas about how to escape an environment they did not choose and will certainly not uplift them.” Read the full ★★★ review here. The film also landed the Swatch First Feature Award.…...

It was considered a “risky” film selection by Thierry Frémaux that divided critics but found a large swath of defenders (including our chief film critic Nicholas Bell) and now Coralie Fargeat will have its North American premiere at the fest that showcased her feature debut — Revenge (read review) back in 2017. Mubi landed the rights to The Substance prior to the film’s world premiere. In our review, Nicholas points to how it “starts out in slow, familiar territory before slamming into fever pitch for a Grand Guignol bloodbath which might just be the best bit of straight faced body horror since Cronenberg’s clutch of 1980s titles solidified its merits as a veritable sub-genre.”…...

The original Power Rangers movie is not canon, only Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie fits in the main chronology. The Power Rangers movie suits had armored designs, making them more realistic and advanced compared to the show's classic spandex. The 1995 Power Rangers movie is a standalone, nostalgic experience.

Rewatching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) almost 30 years later can be very nostalgic, but it also reveals some harsh truths about the first Power Rangers film. There have been only three theatrical Power Rangers movies since the inception of the franchise in 1993, with only one of them being canon to the main Power Rangers chronology. As a Super Sentai adaptation, the focus of the Power Rangers franchise had always been on the small screen. Still, the release of the Mighty Morphin movie in 1995 was a huge event.

The Power Rangers movie was not a box office hit, yet it found...

Ioncinema.com’s Chief Film Critic Nicholas Bell reviewed the entire competition and more. Here is a comprehensive guide to all the feature films across all sections, including logged reviews and forthcoming ones. Though Cannes might be over, we still have unpublished reviews that will be released over the next month.

In Competition:

All We Imagine as Light – [Review]

Anora – [Review]

The Apprentice – [Review]

Beating Hearts – [Review]

Bird – [Review]

Caught by the Tides – [Review]

Emilia Pérez – [Review]

The Girl with the Needle – [Review]

Grand Tour – [Review]

Kinds of Kindness – [Review]

Limonov: The Ballad – [Review]

Marcello Mio – [Review]

Megalopolis – [Review]

The Most Precious of Cargoes – [Review]

Motel Destino – [Review]

Oh, Canada – [Review]

Parthenope – [Review]

The Seed of the Sacred Fig – [Review]

The Shrouds – [Review]

The Substance – [Review]

Three Kilometres to the End of the World – [Review]

Wild Diamond – [Review]

Un Certain Regard:

Armand

Black Dog

The Damned – [Review]

Dog on Trial

Flow

Holy Cow – [Review]

The Kingdom

My Sunshine

Niki

Norah

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Santosh

September Says

The Shameless

The Story of Souleymane...

Ivan Ooze only appeared in the 1995 movie, not in the TV show or comics. Ivan Ooze's design and humor perfectly suited the Power Rangers universe. Power Rangers: The Movie remains a standalone classic, non-canon but nostalgic.

One of the most iconic Power Rangers villains of all time never actually appeared on the TV show and has only one appearance in the franchise. More than 30 years after the premiere of Mighty Morphin, the Power Rangers universe has seen countless villains between major antagonists and monsters-of-the-week. Most of them originated from Super Sentai shows, but characters like Lord Zedd or Astronema were created for Power Rangers. Even though Power Rangers continues to release new series and comic book runs, the nostalgia over the original show has shaped the franchise for years.

This is why it is quite common for Mighty Morphin characters to return in other Power Rangers projects. For example, Netflixs...

Before we put our focus on the upcoming edition of the Cannes Film Festival, we look back at our coverage of the Berlinale – a competition that many would agree was subpar and sidebar selections that did indeed offer some gems. Mati Diop’s Dahomey (read review) claimed the top prize and Behtash Saneeha & Maryam Moghaddam’s My Favourite Cake (read our ★★★★review) was the overall critical darling among critics. This year Our Nicholas Bell was also part of filmneweurope.com’s Fipresci grid (worth noting that they have a grading system that is less precise and incompatible with our grading system) and we’ve also added Screen Daily’s chart for further comparison – see after the jump below.…...

Finally it wasn’t Bleecker, Neon, Focus or the A24 folks, but little known Ketchup Entertainment that have picked up one of the best titles coming from Venice that was without a home and/or late 2023 award seasons push/playdate. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Michel Franco‘s Memory will secure a theatrical release spot in December and it’ll likely shake up the Best Performance acting categories for the Indie Spirits, Globes and Oscars — Peter Sarsgaard won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor on the Lido. Our Nicholas Bell reviewed the film at Venice, and I interviewed Michel at TIFF.

“Tackling a pair of troubled souls each wrestling with their own state of a stifling limbo, for the first time Franco seems interested in exploring a workable sense of catharsis for two people we’re led to feel a palpable sense of compassion for.…

Continue reading.

We came, we saw, we conquered. Our Nicholas Bell was in review overdrive assessing the entire competition and much more. We’ll still have film reviews to populate the site and this page in the near future, but for the time being here is a handy quick link to the wealth of richness (and some rubbish) selections that made up all sections of the Lido this year.

Competition:

Adagio – Stefano Sollima [Review]

La Bête – Bertrand Bonello [Review]

Comandante – Edoardo De Angelis [Review]

Dogman – Luc Besson [Review]

El Conde – Pablo Larraín [Review]

Enea – Pietro Castellitto [Review]

Evil Does Not Exist – Ryusuke Hamaguchi [Review]

Ferrari – Michael Mann [Review]

Finalmente l’alba – Saverio Costanzo [Review]

Green Border – Agnieszka Holland [Review]

Holly – Fien Troch [Review]

Io capitano – Matteo Garrone [Review]

The Killer – David Fincher [Review]

Lubo – Giorgio Diritti [Review]

Maestro – Bradley Cooper [Review]

Memory – Michel Franco [Review]

Origin – Ava DuVernay [Review]

Hors-saison – Stéphane Brizé [Review]

Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos [Review]

Priscilla – Sofia Coppola [Review]

The Promised Land – Nikolaj Arcel [Review]

The Theory of Everything – Timm Kröger [Review]

Woman Of…...

Finally, it is Big World Pictures that have landed one of the best films from the 2023 edition of the Berlinale. Featuring Franz Rogowski, a winner at the festival (Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: cinematography) Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Disco Boy (per Deadline) is set to be launched in 2024 but will have some U.S fall film festival showings. Our Nicholas Bell was a fan of the film:

“Franz Rogowski headlines with another fascinating, internalized performance as a Belarusian refugee who has to sell his soul for the chance at a better life. Expectedly, the situation waxes Biblical, for even if he gains the world, what does it matter if it means losing his soul?…...

National CineMedia shares are popping today in a down market as the cinema advertising company emerged from Chapter 11 and named former top executives of NBCUniversal, HBO and Fox to a reconstituted, and pretty impressive, board of directors.

Lauren Zalaznick, formerly EVP & Chair, Entertainment & Digital Networks, Comcast NBCUniversal, is now board chair. “We on the board commend the Ncm team for navigating through this important process without disruption to its operations or customer relationships,” she said in a statement. “With the successful completion of the restructuring, Ncm is laser-focused on its best-in-class, full-funnel advertising solutions and innovative data technology, empowering advertisers to reach moviegoing audiences with scale and measurability.”

Zalaznick currently works with companies on content, marketing, sales and direct-to-consumer strategies and is a senior advisor to Boston Consulting Group’s Global Tmt Practice. She sits on the boards of Rtl Group and GoPro.

Other directors now include: Bernadette Aulestia, former President,...

We arrived. We watched. We reviewed. We lost a lot of sleep and we battled the ticketing system. Combining our efforts to bring you all the Cannes Film Festival goodness, the dust has settled and we are pleased to present a snapshot of what Nicholas Bell & I really dug at the 76th edition via our Top 10 films list plus a complete overview of the films we saw, the grades we assigned and direct links to our reviews.

Nicholas Bell:

10. Un prince – Dir. Pierre Creton

09. Anatomy of a Fall – Dir. Justine Triet

08. Man in Black – Dir.…...

Those trying to predict the ending of the Apple TV+ limited series “The Last Thing He Told Me” may have fallen into the trap author Laura Dave saw in the genre that initially prompted her to write the book.

The disappearance of Owen Michaels (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) from his wife Hannah (Garner) and daughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) doesn’t look good at the beginning of the series, especially when his tech company The Shop goes under investigation for fraud. Hannah and her stepdaughter Bailey spend the rest of the show unraveling the complicated reason for Owen’s disappearance, but Dave told TheWrap she wanted to upend the way these stories usually conclude.

“Often when I watch something or read something in the thriller genre [that] involves a love story, you either find out that the husband was bad and then the wife gets some sort of revenge and starts again, or the husband is good,...

Owen Michaels in The Last Thing He Told Me is the embodiment of what people who love hard do for their loved ones. Olivia Newman’s show on Apple+, based on the novel by Laura Dave, tells the story of Hannah Hall, a woman who has to go on a mission with her stepdaughter Bailey after Bailey’s father and Hannah’s husband, Owen Michaels, go missing. We don’t see Owen for most of the miniseries, except for the memories of him that Hannah relives. It’s his memories and the time Hannah spent with him that drives her to make most of the decisions, which ultimately end up doing exactly what Owen wanted—ensuring his daughter had a good life. We see him only once at the very end, and he leaves Hannah with a cryptic message. Let’s look at Owen Michaels and explore how far a...

Olivia Newman’s The Last Thing He Told Me premiered its finale episode today, and we experienced a bittersweet ending for Bailey and Hannah. Bailey accepted Hannah as her mother, and she never went without a mother’s love again, but the women lost Owen from their lives. Hannah lost her husband, while Bailey lost her father, a hole in her life that might never be filled. The takeaway from the miniseries is the selfless attitude of Hannah, a woman who dedicated so much to keeping a promise made to her husband. Let’s take a look at Hannah and understand why she can be considered an ideal parent.

Growing up without a mother as a woman is a hardship that only the women who have had to undergo such a situation can fathom. Hannah Hall from Texas was a young girl who didn’t receive a mother’s love...

The finale of Apple TV’s The Last Thing He Told Me dropped today, and it brings a somewhat satisfying end to a mystery that’s kept the stepmother-stepdaughter duo of Hannah and Bailey on their toes for a while. The penultimate episode saw Hannah returning to Charles Smith’s bar and asking to be taken to his father, Nicholas Bell, who is Bailey’s grandfather. What happens when Hannah goes to Nicholas, and what does she want to tell the dangerous man? So, without further ado, let’s go through the detailed recap of the season finale of The Last Thing He Told Me.

Spoilers Ahead

Visiting Nicholas

How far does a stepmother really go to protect the daughter of the man who has lied about his entire life and disappeared off the face of the earth completely? That’s the question Hannah Hall was asking herself throughout the...

The penultimate episode to the Apple TV thriller miniseries The Last Thing He Told Me premiered today, and we got to meet the infamous mob lawyer to the Campano family, Nicholas Bell, played by the talented David Morse. We also have an answer to where Bailey went in the previous episode when Grady Bradford from the US Marshal’s office showed up at Hannah’s hotel. A lot of the mysteries are finally unwinding, and we’re getting closer to the answer. Here’s what happened in this week’s episode.

Spoilers Ahead

1999

Ethan Young, aka Owen Michaels, steps out of a restaurant to go on a car ride with his girlfriend Katherine Smith, and the two are truly deeply in love. In the middle of nowhere, though, a tire goes flat, and they swerve to the side of the road. Ethan considers calling Aaa, but Katherine has contacted her dad,...

Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for “The Never Dry,” the fifth episode of “The Last Thing He Told Me,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

Most people would run in the other direction if they found out their family had credible ties to the mob. Unfortunately, Bailey Michaels didn’t get the memo.

In this week’s fifth episode of Apple TV+’s “The Last Thing He Told Me,” Bailey (Angourie Rice) and her stepmother Hannah (Jennifer Garner) continued their search in Austin for answers about why her father Owen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) disappeared four days earlier.

What first seemed like a tech startup scam gone wrong has quickly unraveled the fake lives Owen and Bailey apparently have been living since she was a child. In the final moments of the episode, Hannah finds out why.

Owen and Bailey –– or rather Ethan and Kristie Young –– fled Texas after Bailey’s mother died,...

Warning: Contains minor Spoilers for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once And AlwaysWhile Rita Repulsa is a tried-and-true Power Rangers franchise villain, her evil is explained by a truly tragic backstory. Although a rushed villain redemption arc can feel unearned and ham-fisted, Rita’s eventual purification and redemption came after several seasons of villainy and history with the Power Rangers and their mentor, Zordon. While suddenly flipping Rita’s allegiance from good to evil might have felt too sudden to work well, her life makes her road to the side of right all the more compelling, especially alongside Lord Zedd.

The original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita Repulsa was an evil, intergalactic sorceress who attacked the Earth multiple times and assisted Lord Zedd with his evil plans. Rita remained an antagonist in this way for three seasons and was a major antagonist in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie...

A major break-out film outside the competition of the Berlinale’s Panorama section and a double winner of the Europa Cinemas Label award for Best European film in the Panorama, as well as the Cicae Arthouse Cinema Award (see our pics below), Ilker Çatak, couldn’t have asked for a better premiere. Now comes word that the Sony Pictures Classics folks have landed The Teachers’ Lounge aka Das Lehrerzimmer for several markets including North America. Our Nicholas Bell was praise-worthy on Çatak’s fourth feature stating:

“A contemporary portrait of how a catch-22 situation decimates the ability for a well-intentioned teacher’s ability to do the right thing, it’s also a sly portrait of displacement, navigating the experience of adhering to a host culture as an outsider.”…...

After landing Lila Avilés’ Tótem, Sideshow and Janus Films returned to the same Berlinale competition well and scooped up their second title in just as many days. The winner of the Silver Bear (essentially the 2nd place prize), Christian Petzold’s Afire will receive its theatrical release this summer. Our Nicholas Bell was big on the title stating in his review:

“There’s also an expression of the experimental this time around, focusing on a trio of intelligent creatives who are at a specific transitional precipice during one quiet summer soon to be consumed by a raging forest fire.…...

Winner of the Ecumenical Jury Prize and easily among the top films at this year’s Berlinale, Lila Avilés‘ sophomore feature Tótem had already racked up tons of world sales and now just before its North American premiere at the New Directors/New Films, the Sideshow and Janus Films folks swopped in for North American rights. Variety reports that the film will be released later in the year – positioning it as Mexico’s possible entry for the Oscars. We were especially big on the film with our Nicholas Bell comparing the four star film to Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders and Taiwan master filmmaker –

“Avilés injects an unexpected amount of observational humor while also channeling something like Edward Yang’s Yi Yi: A One and a Two (2000), where a child’s awareness in the situation of caring for a loved one is limited by their lack of worldly comprehension.”…

Continue reading.

A prestigious prize that has been handed out since 1951, the Jean Vigo Prize has been awarded annually to put the spotlight on one film auteur. This year, the overwhelming favorite was Saint Omer – the double Venice Film Festival winner by Alice Diop. In his ★★★★ review, our Nicholas Bell called this “eloquent examples of its kind, relayed firmly, quietly, and intensely as she makes a moving hypothesis about monsters and motherhood.” Super Ltd landed the film just after its premiere on the lido, and it is easily among the front runners of the Best Intl.…...

This week the Oscilloscope folks went shopping adding a Locarno comp title to their future slate. The company lands Ann Oren‘s Piaffe – which is also programmed in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera competition at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. Same category as Berlinale’s Robe of Gems and Cannes’ Un Certain Regard’s Godland. Oscilloscope is planning a traditional theatrical release for the film in 2023. So expect more film festival play abroad and in the U.S. Our Nicholas Bell was pleased by Oren’s feature fiction debut:

“Often resulting in sexual liberation, Ann Oren’s arresting debut, Piaffe, dives headlong into allegory.…...

Netflix will on September 22 release its long-gestating drama about the real-life rescue of 12 boys and an adult who were trapped in a cave in northern Thailand. Thai Cave Rescue will show how the Wild Boars soccer team’s afternoon exploring with their 25-year-old coach went disastrously wrong when heavy rain trapped them inside, leading to a massive international recovery mission that engrossed the world.

Netflix partnered with filmmakers across Thailand and beyond to create the six-episode series, which is filmed entirely in the Asian nation, after jointly acquiring rights to the story with Sk Global Entertainment back in 2019. The drama unfolds through the perspectives of the boys at the center of the rescue.

Created by Michael Russell Gunn and Dana Ledoux Miller, the limited series is directed by Thailand’s Baz Poonpiriya and U.S. director Kevin Tancharoen. Both also serve as executive producers alongside Jon M. Chu and Lance Johnson for Electric Somewhere; John Penotti (Crazy Rich Asians) for Sk Global Entertainment; John Logan Pierson.

Cast includes Papangkorn “Beam” Lerkchaleampote as Coach Eak, Thaneth “Ek” Warakulnukroh as Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osottanakorn, and Urassaya “Yaya” Sperbund and Manatsanun “Donut” Phanlerdwongsakul as Kelly and Pim — fictional representatives of the real-world hydraulic engineers and park rangers that made the incredible rescue possible. Supakorn “Tok” Kitsuwan is former Navy Seal diver Saman “Ja Sam” Gunan, and Bloom Varin plays army doctor Colonel Bhak Loharjun.

The boys are played by 12 young local actors, with filming taking place at the homes of the real boys and Tham Luang, where they were trapped, itself.

As with the real mission, Thai Cave Rescue international actors to portray key contributors in this rescue, including Nicholas Bell as Vern Unsworth, Nicholas Farnell as John Volanthen, Christopher Stollery as Rick Stanton, Rodger Corser as Dr. Richard “Harry” Harris, and Damon Herriman as Dr. Craig Challen.

“Thai Cave Rescue is the first opportunity for audiences worldwide to see the Tham Luang story in a new and more emotional light — centering the perspectives of the 12 Wild Boars, Coach Eak, and heroes like Saman ‘Ja Sam’ Gunan, whose lives beyond the operation remain largely outside the public spotlight,” said Poonpiriya.

Tancharoen added: “As a Thai American, I feel so incredibly fortunate to help tell this story through the lens and soul of the Thaipeople. I wanted to bring my experience of telling big superhero stories to the real world. One where real-life superheroes worked together for a common cause regardless of where they were from, and the only superpowers are the perseverance of the human spirit and what we can accomplish when we work together.”

Ron Howard and MGM’s Thai cave rescue film Thirteen Lives is set for its theatrical debut on Friday (July 29). Read Todd McCarthy’s review here. The story was also told in Nat Geo documentary The Rescue last year and in indie film The Cave back in 2019.

Netflix has set a Sept. 22 release date for “Thai Cave Rescue,” its six-part mini series about the dramatic events of July 2018 when 12 boys and their football coach were trapped in flooded limestone caves near Chiang Rai.

Their plight sparked an unprecedented international rescue effort that ended with the loss of just one life and a flurry of film and TV productions.

The Netflix series is at least the fourth on-screen retelling of the rescue tale and will follow two other efforts releasing over the next weeks. Netflix touts its series as “the most authentic and expansive retelling yet.”

First into the market, in 2019, was “The Cave,” by Thai-British director-producer Tom Waller, which mixed reconstructions and news footage. It gave prominent position to Europe-based rescue diver Jim Warny playing himself. And it broke ground by clearly depicting the controversial decision to fully sedate the boys during their extraction. Despite pushback from provincial officials,...

Click here to read the full article.

Netflix’s long in the works series about the miraculous 2018 cave rescue of Thailand’s Wild Boars youth soccer team finally has a launch date. The six-episode limited series Thai Cave Rescue will release on the streaming service worldwide on Sept. 22.

Filmed entirely in Thailand, the show tells the real-life story of the 12 young Thai soccer players and their 25-year-old coach after they became stuck in a vast underground cave complex near the Myanmar border. The story unfolds from the perspectives of the boys themselves, as well as the experiences of their families and the vast global team that came together to save them.

Thai Cave Rescue is one of several screen projects to tackle the sensational story. Ron Howard’s Hollywood film version, Thirteen Lives, starring Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton is getting a limited theatrical release this Friday ahead...

Some surprising news from Variety (from one of our own in Cannes Critics Panel journalist Marta Balaga) this morning with an update on Finnish cinema — we got Aki Kaurismäki moving into production on the fourth instalment that continues the so-called Proletariat Trilogy. Dead Leaves will star Alma Pöysti (our Nicholas Bell interviewed the actress for Tove) and Jussi Vatanen. Production is expect to begin in August – so this is lining up for a possible Cannes 2023 showing. Kaurismäki’s last film The Other Side of Hope topped our Nicholas Bell’s Best of Berlinale in 2017.…...

Yesterday we took a look at Nicholas Bell’s top 5 most anticipated films for Cannes 2022. Now it’s my turn.

Competition:

R.M.N.

He usually takes about a half decade between features and so this longer than normal gestation period since 2016’s Graduation is nothing to be too concerned about. Recently picked up by the IFC Films folks, Cristian Mungiu commenced shooting on his fifth feature film in late 2022. We can expect more cerebral film realism cinema from this master filmmaker — who reteams with cinematographer Tudor Vladimir Panduru (who also has another film in Cannes with Metronom). His fifth feature film appears to be a tale about unchecked or unresolved feelings raising to the surface — amped up by small village conflict that disrupts the fragile eco-system.…...

It’s the most important film event in the world and physically it stretches from the Grand Lumiere theatre (which houses plenty of films including the Main Competition) and the Un Certain Regard section which beams out of the Debussy theatre. Further down on the Croisette we find the Directors’ Fortnight with twenty-plus offerings and the Critics’ Week section platforms about a dozen offerings. Our chief film critic Nicholas Bell gives you his top five most anticipated films for the 2022 Cannes Film Festival – four from each of the major sections plus a bonus pick. We also include our dark horse titles — films that could deliver in spades.…...

We begin 2022 with major disruptions to the film festival circuit. Berlin’s Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian and SXSW’s Janet Pierson are certainly considering options B to Z so it’s worth pondering…how will this unfortunate cloud of uncertainty alter the rollout of films that are festival ready or being readied. What we do know is that film nations learned to adapt, and whatever barriers/limitations that the pandemic brought was met with highly creative means and the sort of resourcefulness that us cinephiles will have a chock-full of future film options to be excited about.

As we so at the beginning of every year on the site, Nicholas Bell and I (Eric Lavallée) curate world cinema offerings from the four corners of the world to produce our Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of the year.…...

As our Nicholas Bell is closing out our coverage on the Lido (we’ll have plenty of more reviews), the Festival Scope folks are once again launching the Sala Web – which offers a slew of short films from Orizzonti and Out Of Competition sections from the 78th edition of the Venice International Film Festival. It’s easy to check them out – and they are pretty much available to all our readers up until the 26th. You want to click here to check out the titles listed below.

Descente (4 Am) Mehdi Fikri | 2021 | 11min (Available in Italy only)

Don’T Get Too Comfortable Shaima Al Tamimi | 2021 | 9min

Evening Prayer (Diary Of A Promenade)

Fall Of The Ibis King Josh O’Caoimh, Mikai Geronimo | 2021 | 10minGiuseppe Piccioni | 2021 | 17min (Available in Italy only)

Hair Tie, Egg, Homework Books Luo Runxiao | 2021 | 15min (Available in Italy only)

Heltzear Mikel Gurrea | 2021 | 17min

New Abnormal Sorayos Prapapan | 2021 | 15min

Sad Film...

Julia Ducournau landed in the 2016 edition of Critic’s Week section with her debut film Raw (she previously had shown her short Junior as well) and it quickly made ripples into waves – with a global reach that one would hope for. Her follow-up Titane which was acquired by Neon features an almost six pack version of Vincent Lindon and introduces first-time actress Agathe Rousselle in a mostly physical performance (not much dialogue with her character). We even have Raw‘s Garance Marillier in a memorable minor role. Marillier is also in her 2011 short.

Our Nicholas Bell calls this “bizarre, to say the least, sometimes off-putting and strangely enchanting, Titane is cold as chrome, hot as fire, securely nestling in the nexus of metal and flesh,” this is being championed by critics and there is some serious murmurs about this winning the Palme.…...

What an extraordinary year for Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Earlier in 2021, he was at the Berlinale with Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (read our Nicholas Bell’s review), and now Drive My Car becomes his second Palme d’Or competing film after 2018’s Asako I & II. It’s his fifth feature in 2015’s Happy Hours (Locarno entry) that brought he the most acclaim. We have a feeling this will change with this Murakami adapted tale clocking in at 60 second shy from 3 hours. This stars Hidetoshi Nishijima and Masaki Okada.

Day 6 is one of the rare days to have three competition entries unveiled – a bit tricky to schedule but for those who did manage to catch the film (approximately half our jury) – it is easily top of our charts and will likely be cemented once more grade come in.…...

Today is a special day for us at the site. Our chief film critic Nicholas Bell will see his first screenplay brought to the big screen with the likes of Fanny Ardant, Haaz Sleiman, Omar Sharif Jr., and Adam Davenport. Titled Personal Trainer the erotic thriller will be Stephen Riscica‘s directorial debut. Nicholas worked in collaboration with Davenport and Riscica. Production is set to take place in Serbia. The film is being produced by Martine Melloul of Kali Pictures and Davenport and Marko Ckonjevic for Fame Solutions, with Dragan Djurković of Vision Team overseeing production in Serbia. Lee Filipovski is associate producing, while Chris Myers of Global Resource Advisors and Gato Scatena and Jordan Rosner of Scatena & Rosner Films are on board as executive producers.…...

Erotic thriller “Personal Trainer” has chiseled out its cast.

The feature debut for director Stephen Riscica has cast legendary French actor Fanny Ardant, as well as “Visitor” star Haaz Sleiman, Omar Sharif Jr. and Adam Davenport in lead roles. Scatena & Rosner Films is handling international sales for the feature, kicking things off at the Cannes Film Market.

Described as being like Rob Reiner’s “‘Misery’ on steroids,” the film focuses on the relationship between an obsessive personal trainer and his client, and the extremes they are pushed to. It centers around Claude (Sleiman), an American expat who has used his privilege to sexually manipulate men, and has relocated to Serbia during the pandemic to avoid looming legal troubles following the accidental death of a man he spent an evening with. Claude moves into the estate of his mother Gwen (Ardant), a half-Serb, half-French retired entrepreneur with powerful connections.

Although committed to her son’s well-being,...

She premiered her feature debut The Sleepwalker at Sundance back in 2014, and has been busy as a co-scribe working on all three of her partner’s features in The Childhood of a Leader, Vox Lux and The Brutalist. With Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby toplining, Mona Fastvold‘s sophomore film was in the official competition at the Venice Film Festival. Bleecker Street Media landed the rights to The World to Come and have pegged it with a February 12th release which means Sundance could be the lieu of the North American premiere. In his review, our Nicholas Bell called this “a period piece which blazes with fierce intelligence and intention as much as it waxes poetically before dangling precariously into despair.”…...

One of the brighter notes in world cinema circa year one of the pandemic, Dea Kulumbegashvili‘s directorial debut (an official entry for Georgia for the 2021 Oscars) which our Nicholas Bell describes as “a grueling masterwork which oscillates between strident peaks of frustration and anxiety, meditation and poetics,” managed to make quite the statement on the film festival circuit.

Selected as a Cannes Label selection (if included in the official competition in a regular year it would have been one of the rare film debuts in the running for the Palme d’Or), Beginning technically began it’s film festival tour at TIFF (winner of the Fipresci award) to move onto sweep a quartet of awards at San Sebastián and would close out the year with a pair of showings at NYFF and an appointment on the Croisette for what would be a three-day physical event.…

Continue reading.