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Love Life is a romantic comedy anthology series created by Sam Boyd. The HBO Max series revolves around a different person in each season, and it chronicles their romantic relationship from their first love to them finding the one they are supposed to be with. Love Life stars Anna Kendrick, Zoë Chao, Peter Vack, Sasha Compère, William Jackson Harper, Jessica Williams, Comedian Cp, and Punkie Johnson. So, if you loved the heartfelt romantic stories, interesting themes, and compelling characters in Love Life, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Modern Love (Prime Video) Credit – Prime Video

Modern Love is a romantic comedy anthology series developed by John Carney. Based on The New York Times’ weekly column of the same name, the Prime Video series consists of various love stories that explore love in the modern world.

It’s a brand new month, and you know what that means. New Netflix original shows and movies are on the way! On top of that, the streaming giant is also bringing a bunch of exciting licensed content to its platform throughout August. In fact, Netflix added a highly underrated licensed series to its library just yesterday that is perfect for those who are big fans of Anna Kendrick or simply enjoy lighthearted, heartfelt rom-coms. Can you guess which show it is?

If you guessed the romantic comedy anthology series Love Life, you'd be right on the money! Kendrick might be more known for starring in movies, but she also has a few notable TV roles. Her lead role in Love Life is one of them, and many people surprisingly haven’t discovered it yet. If you're one of those people, now is your chance to catch up on this charming and relatable series.

Netflix is bringing back a show many thought was gone for good. The streamer announced on Tuesday that both seasons of Love Life are now available to watch, giving fans another chance to enjoy the romantic comedy series that HBO Max canceled back in 2022.

Love Life first premiered in 2020 and took a unique approach to storytelling. Each season followed a completely different character, charting their journey from their very first romance all the way to the one that could be their last. Season one starred Pitch Perfect actress Anna Kendrick, with Zoë Chao, Sasha Compére, and Peter Vack appearing alongside her. Narration was provided by Lesley Manville.

Season two shifted to a brand-new story with The Good Place actor William Jackson Harper in the lead role. Jessica Williams, Comedian Cp, and Punkie Johnson joined the cast, with narration from Keith David. While the first season got mixed reviews, holding a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes,...

Netflix has given new life to a beloved romantic comedy series that HBO Max canceled nearly three years ago. The streamer announced on Tuesday that both seasons of Love Life are now available to watch, marking the show’s big return to a major platform.

The series first premiered in 2020 and works as an anthology, with each season following a different person from their very first romance to their very last.

The first season starred Anna Kendrick, best known for Pitch Perfect, alongside Zoë Chao, Sasha Compére, and Peter Vack. Narration was done by Lesley Manville. Season 2 brought in a new lead, William Jackson Harper from The Good Place, with Jessica Williams, Comedian Cp, and Punkie Johnson joining the cast. This time, the narrator was Keith David.

Love Life, starring Anna Kendrick in Season 1 and William Jackson Harper in Season 2, is now on Netflix in the US!

The romantic anthology...

Love Life, the anthology rom-com created by Sam Boyd and starring Anna Kendrick, had a two-season run on HBO Max before being canceled. Each season of the series followed a different lead, featuring their journey from their very first love to their last. While HBO canceled it and removed it from the platform, it was recently revealed that both seasons of the show will now be streaming on Netflix (via What’s on Netflix).

As for whether it will be renewed for a third season or not, there has been no confirmation so far. But given the fans’ enthusiasm and if viewership is promising, the streaming giant might even green-light another season. But for now, both seasons are streaming.

What Makes Love Life a Prime Candidate for a Netflix Reboot Anna Kendrick in Love Life | Credits: Netflix

A romantic comedy anthology, season one of Love Life aired in May 2020 on...

Racheal Cain’s debut feature Somnium will be released on demand in the UK and Ireland from 8 September, following a limited US theatrical rollout this summer. The sci-fi horror film, which centres on a mysterious sleep clinic that turns dreams into terrifying reality, stars Chloë Levine, Will Peltz and Stranger Things breakout Grace Van Dien.

The story follows Gemma, a small-town aspiring actress who moves to Los Angeles in the aftermath of a break-up. Trying to navigate the brutal landscape of Hollywood auditions, she accepts a night shift job at Somnium, an experimental sleep research centre promising transformative rest through untested technology. But what begins as a temporary solution quickly becomes something far more dangerous. Gemma begins to lose her grip on reality as hallucinations, paranoia and dreamlike horrors take hold, suggesting that the clinic’s procedures may be warping more than just her sleep patterns.

Filmed over several years...

Somnium will make your wildest dreams come true, but the side effects could be deadly.

The sci-fi horror film will be released theatrically in Los Angeles on August 29 and in New York City on September 6 before hitting VOD on September 9 via Yellow Veil Pictures.

After a painful breakup, small-town girl Gemma moves to Los Angeles with the hopes of making it big. To get on her feet, she takes a job working the overnight shift at Somnium – a mysterious, experimental sleep clinic where dreams are made real.

Meanwhile, Gemma throws herself into the cutthroat world of Hollywood auditions. But as the pressure to succeed mounts, she begins to experience strange and unsettling phenomena, and soon finds herself trapped in a nightmarish spiral as she discovers a darkness lurking within the clinic walls.

Somnium marks the feature debut of writer-director Racheal Cain. Fallowing a successful crowdfunding campaign, the flashback scenes were...

A new trailer has arrived for Somnium, the acclaimed horror-sci-fi debut from writer-director Racheal Cain — and it’s just as unsettling, stylish, and sharp as the buzz from this year’s genre festivals promised. Distributed by Yellow Veil Pictures, the indie thriller will open in select theaters starting August 28, beginning with an advance screening at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles, and will hit digital platforms like Apple TV, Prime Video, and Fandango at Home on September 9.

Starring Chloë Levine in what critics have called an “endearing” performance, Somnium tells the story of Gemma, a small-town actress fresh off a breakup who moves to L.A. to chase her dreams. To make ends meet, she accepts a night-shift job at a sleep clinic with a sinister twist: Somnium doesn’t just study dreams — it manufactures them. But as Gemma throws herself into Hollywood auditions by day and enters a dreamworld by night,...

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Netflix is ready with an entertainment-packed August this year. While we already know all the brilliant films and TV shows that will be leaving Netflix in the upcoming month, we will also see the premiere of many highly anticipated Netflix original movies and TV shows, including the highly anticipated Season 2 of Wednesday and My Life With the Walter Boys. Just like every month, Netflix is ready to overload you with great content. So, we’re here to tell you about the sixteen new movies and shows coming to Netflix in August 2025.

My Oxford Year (August 1) Credit – Netflix

My Oxford Year is an upcoming romantic comedy-drama film directed by Iain Morris from a screenplay co-written by Allison Burnett and Melissa Osborne. Based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Julia Whelan, the Netflix film follows Anna De La Vega,...

In the wake of Anna Kendrick’s success in the charming black comedy A Simple Favor and way before its sequel, Another Simple Favor, she was tapped to star in HBO Max’s Love Life, which unfortunately ran for a short time. Created by Sam Boyd, the rom-com premiered on May 27, 2020, but was cancelled in December 2022, a month after its Season 2 finale. Now, close to three years later, fans will be beyond thrilled to know that Love Life has found a new streaming home in the U.S. thanks to Netflix.

As confirmed by What’s on Netflix, Love Life will arrive on Netflix U.S. on August 5 for the first time with two seasons and all twenty episodes. It’s no secret that the show was one of the earliest HBO Max Originals and performed well among viewers. However, after being removed from the streamer, it became widely unavailable,...

The modern romance faces many trials, but few are as peculiar as the one presented in Eugene Kotlyarenko’s The Code. The film introduces us to Celine and Jay, a couple whose intimacy has evaporated, leaving a void they decide to fill with a creative project. Celine, an aspiring filmmaker, proposes a documentary about relationships navigating the pandemic, positioning their own troubled connection as the primary case study.

Their trip to a Joshua Tree rental is meant to be both a therapeutic retreat and a film set. The narrative finds its engine when Jay’s paranoia takes hold. Haunted by a past online cancellation, he fears Celine will weaponize the documentary against him.

His solution is not communication, but counter-surveillance. He rigs their temporary home with a web of hidden spy cameras, determined to seize control of the story. What begins as a documentary project quickly devolves into an all-out technological war,...

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

The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)

Brady Corbet’s long-gestating architecture epic looks and feels as painstakingly crafted as its lead character’s intricate architectonics. For as barren and minimalist as László Tóth’s (a terrific Adrien Brody) designs are, they pack a beautiful, mysterious, occasionally revelatory punch, much like Corbet’s winding three-and-a-half-hour (complete with built-in intermission!) story about a Hungarian architect who immigrated to New York after WWII only to be mentally and emotionally sucked in by the tide of a momentous decades-long project initiated by a ruthless Pennsylvania business tycoon. Its scope is enormous––almost impossible not to get wrapped up in. A sense of impending gravity gives this film the weight of the real, as if we’re witnessing history.

Yellow Veil Pictures has boarded North American distribution of the sleep clinic horror film “Somnium,” setting a theatrical release for later this year. The banner will also launch international sales of the feature at the Marche du Film amid the Cannes Film Festival market. The annual international gathering kicks off Tuesday.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Yellow Veil, whose distinct curatorial eye and art-forward approach to distribution aligns perfectly with the spirit of ‘Somnium,’ writer-director Racheal Cain said in a statement alongside the deal’s announcement. “Their focus on cinema that pushes boundaries and lingers in the imagination, and their deep care for each film’s identity — from packaging to release strategy — makes them a dream home for this project.”

“With each viewing of ‘Somnium’ we discover a new theme, that’s only topped by the performances of her cast — and the visual risk she takes to build this world,...

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2024 Fantasia coverage. The Code opens in theaters on May 9.

Ahead of its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival, The Code announced itself with several red flags. Set during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2021 with a synopsis throwing around terms like “cancel culture,” it stars Dasha Nekrasova and Peter Vack, filmmakers and divisive personalities who some might describe as reactionary trolls. This combination of hot-button issues with two leads known for pushing buttons could signal no more than empty provocation. Would The Code amount to a middle finger jabbed repeatedly in viewers’ eyes? Surprisingly, and thankfully, no. This is, first and foremost, a film by Eugene Kotlyarenko, and the choice to cast two controversial actors ties into his goals of engaging headfirst with the internet’s dominance and reshaping of culture over the past several years. While its attempts aren’t always successful,...

An integral figure in New York City’s independent film scene, having produced films by Ricky D’Ambrose, Joanna Arnow, Dan Sallitt, Matías Piñeiro, Gina Telaroli, Ted Fendt, and more, Graham Swon premiered his second directorial feature An Evening Song (for three voices) on the festival circuit. We’re thrilled to exclusively announce the film––after playing at FIDMarseille, First Look, Berlin Critics Week, and more––has been acquired by Factory 25 for a theatrically roll out beginning at NYC’s Anthology Film Archives on May 24 and 25 and at L.A.’s 2220 Arts and Archives on May 29, presented by Acropolis Cinema, with additional cities to follow. Ahead of the release, we’re also pleased to present the first trailer.

An Evening Song stars Deragh Campbell, Hannah Gross, Peter Vack, and Neil Brooks Cunningham. Here’s the synopsis: “1939, somewhere in the American Midwest: to combat former child-prodigy writer Barbara Fowler’s (Hannah Gross) debilitating agoraphobia,...

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Étoile is a comedy-drama series created by Daniel and Amy Sherman-Palladino. The Prime Video series revolves around two world-renowned ballet companies as they swap their top talents in a last-ditch effort to save their beloved institutions. Étoile stars Luke Kirby, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lou de Laâge, Gideon Glick, David Alvarez, Ivan du Pontavice, Taïs Vinolo, David Haig, Lamay Zhang, and Simon Callow. So, if you loved the hilarious comedy, intense drama, and compelling characters in Étoile, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Mozart in the Jungle (Prime Video) Credit – Prime Video

Mozart in the Jungle is a comedy-drama series created by Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, Alex Timbers, and Paul Weitz. Based on the 2005 memoir titled Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music by Blair Tindall, the Prime Video series follows Rodrigo, a genius maestro,...

Monument Releasing has acquired Eugene Kotlyarenko’s “The Code,” and is planning a theatrical release in the English-speaking world. The film premiered at the Fantasia Intl. Film Festival in Montreal and has gone on to have a strong festival run.

“The Code” will be opening at the Roxy Cinema in New York on April 23, and will be followed by a theatrical run at the Lumiere Cinema May 9 in Los Angeles. Key additional cities include Miami, Montreal, Toronto and San Francisco, with more to be added.

“The Code” is an absurd, high-concept comedy, following a sexless couple, paranoid about the status of their relationship, who embrace surveillance, spying and performance as a means to fall in love again.

The film stars Dasha Nekrasova, Peter Vack, Ivy Wolk (“Anora”) and Vish Velandy (“Wobble Palace”).

It was produced by Spacemaker Productions and lensed by Bart Cortright.

Kotlyarenko’s debut features, “0s & 1s” and “Skydiver,...

Stars: Chloë Levine, Will Peltz, Gillian White, Peter Vack, Johnathon Schaech, Grace Van Dien | Written and Directed by Racheal Cain

Somnium is the first feature from writer/director Racheal Cain after a trio of shorts, Everything Beautiful, The Clancy Family Funeral Home and Roaddog. It’s a film about dreams, both literal and figurative, following Gemma as, in the wake of a painful breakup, she decides to relocate to Los Angeles and pursue her dreams of Hollywood fame and fortune.

But, as we see in the montage that follows her arrival, that’s a dream that takes more than wishing on a star to make happen. Needing to pay the bills, she takes a job working nights at a sleep research company called Somnium as a sleep sitter, watching over the sleeping patients. It’s not glamorous, and the pay isn’t much, but it’s a job, and it...

As an actor, Peter Vack is known for his work in television series such as I Just Want My Pants Back (series lead), Mozart In The Jungle, and Love Life, and recent independent films like Pvt Chat, Eugene Kotlyarenko’s The Code and his virtuoso turn as an evil version of “Peter Vack” in Actors. As a filmmaker, he has gotten a reputation for demanding an “all in” approach from his performers. His first feature, Assholes (called “the most disgusting movie ever”), won a jury prize at SXSW, and his latest, www.RachelOrmont.com, described […]

The post “Your Own Formula, In You, Is Discovered in the Petri Dish of Confidence and Belief”: Peter Vack, Back To One, Episode 318 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

As an actor, Peter Vack is known for his work in television series such as I Just Want My Pants Back (series lead), Mozart In The Jungle, and Love Life, and recent independent films like Pvt Chat, Eugene Kotlyarenko’s The Code and his virtuoso turn as an evil version of “Peter Vack” in Actors. As a filmmaker, he has gotten a reputation for demanding an “all in” approach from his performers. His first feature, Assholes (called “the most disgusting movie ever”), won a jury prize at SXSW, and his latest, www.RachelOrmont.com, described […]

The post “Your Own Formula, In You, Is Discovered in the Petri Dish of Confidence and Belief”: Peter Vack, Back To One, Episode 318 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Jack Dunphy is a writer, filmmaker, animator, actor and podcaster. His shorts have played in festivals around the world and his latest, Bob’s Funeral, won Best Nonfiction Short Film at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. As an actor, he starred in Peter Vack’s Assholes and Caveh Zahedi’s legendary, unfinished, 24-hour retelling of Joyce’s Ulysses. He can soon be seen in Paradise and Lunch, the new film from Jordan Tetwesky and Joshua Pikovsky, and Anything That Moves from Alex Phillips. His wonderful new podcast, Revelations with Jack Dunphy, in which he talks about his struggles with addiction and mental illness with […]

The post “It Might Not Be Perfect, But I Am Not Lying To You”: Jack Dunphy, Back To One, Episode 317 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Jack Dunphy is a writer, filmmaker, animator, actor and podcaster. His shorts have played in festivals around the world and his latest, Bob’s Funeral, won Best Nonfiction Short Film at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. As an actor, he starred in Peter Vack’s Assholes and Caveh Zahedi’s legendary, unfinished, 24-hour retelling of Joyce’s Ulysses. He can soon be seen in Paradise and Lunch, the new film from Jordan Tetwesky and Joshua Pikovsky, and Anything That Moves from Alex Phillips. His wonderful new podcast, Revelations with Jack Dunphy, in which he talks about his struggles with addiction and mental illness with […]

The post “It Might Not Be Perfect, But I Am Not Lying To You”: Jack Dunphy, Back To One, Episode 317 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Emily in Paris became one of Netflix’s biggest hit series upon its release but I think it was also one of the most hated shows. Created by Darren Star, the romantic-comedy series stars Lily Collins as the title character, and the series is filled with stunning scenery, glamorous fashion moments, and beautiful and delicious-looking food. The first part of Emily in Paris Season 4 was recently released on Netflix with Part 2 coming out in September this year. So, if you loved all the glamour, romance, comedy, and drama in Emily in Paris here are some similar shows you should check out while waiting for Emily in Paris Season 4 Part 2.

The Bold Type Credit – Freeform

The Bold Type is a comedy-drama series created by Sarah Watson. The Freeform series is set in New York City and it follows the story of three young friends Jane, Kat, and Sutton as they try...

The Fantasia International Film Festival returns very soon with its 28th edition from July 18 through August 4, 2024, returning to the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Montreal’s Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée. The final wave of programming has been unveiled, adding even more genre premieres to an already packed slate.

The final wave of titles, from the press release:

ABABOUINÉ

ABABOUINÉ takes us back to the 1950s, when the Catholic Church ruled over Quebec with an iron fist, and as a rowdy group of kids goes to war against the church. In his latest masterpiece, André Forcier revisits a dark period of Quebec’s history through an often shocking – yet undeniably and absurdly funny – lens. Starring Rémy Girard, Gaston Lepage (Jesus Of MONTRÉAL), Pascale Montpetit (District 31), Éric Bruneau (An Eye For Beauty), and Mylène Mackay (Nelly), the film brings together an...

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has slated two world premieres and one international premiere for its 2024 edition, which runs July 18-Aug. 4. This year’s full lineup, which will be announced June 18, will highlight the diversity of Jewish experience across the globe.

One of the films getting its world premiere at this year’s Sf Jewish Film Festival is “www.rachelormont.com” from writer-director Peter Vack. Starring Betsey Brown, Jane Brown, Ron Brown, Chloe Cherry and Dasha Nekrasova, the film follows Rachel, a woman who doesn’t realize she has grown up in captivity working for an advertising agency where her job is to assess Mommy 6.0 – her favorite pop star. The film will screen as part of the Sfjff Next Wave program at the Roxie Theater.

“Torah Tropical” will also receive its world premiere at Sfjff. Directed by Jimmy Ferguson, Ezra Axelrod and Gloria Nancy Monsalve, the documentary follows a...

Thank You, Next is a Turkish romantic comedy-drama series created by Ece Yörenç. The Netflix series follows the story of a successful young lawyer Leyla Taylan as she finds out that her first love has been cheating on her. Through the help of her best friend, she jumps back into the modern dating scene and faces all the complexities that it brings with it. Thank You, Next stars Serenay Sarıkaya in the lead role with Metin Akdülger, Hakan Kurtaş, Boran Kuzum, Ahmet Rıfat Şungar, Meriç Aral, and Bade İşçil starring in supporting roles. If you loved the fun romantic vibes of Thank You, Next here are some similar shows you could check out next.

Girls (Max & Prime Video Add-On) Credit – HBO

Girls is a comedy-drama series created by Lena Dunham. The HBO series follows the story of four young women as they try to follow their passions in New York after finishing college.

Exclusive: Blu Hunt (The New Mutants) and Peter Vack (Pvt Chat) are in production in North Macedonia on Replay, the sophomore feature from veteran music video director Jason Lester (High Resolution), which has unveiled a first-look still.

Specifics as to the plot of the film are under wraps, though it’s been described as an unconventional romantic drama following a young couple on a trip through North Macedonia. Also starring Sara Klimoska (You Won’t Be Alone), Morgan Krantz (In the Dark), and The Ion Pack podcast’s Kj Rothweiler (Salamander Days), pic’s written by Lester and Hunt.

Manuel Inacker, Sara Ferro, Stephen Belden, Lester and Hunt are producing alongside EPs David Lipper, Robert A. Daly Jr., David Grove Churchill Viste and Jayne Sullivan.

“It’s been incredible getting to film Replay in North Macedonia, a country that could not be more thematically appropriate for the story we’re telling in the film,...

Set in 1939 and told through the intertwining perspectives of characters enmeshed in a bizarre love triangle, writer-director Graham Swon’s sophomore feature An Evening Song (for three voices) is as visually robust as it is dramatically intimate. The story revolves around married couple Richard (Peter Vack) and Barbara (Hannah Gross)—a pulpy crime writer and a prodigious novelist, respectively—who move to a rural Midwestern town after years of city living. Shortly after arriving, they hire a local young woman named Martha (Deragh Campbell) who the couple find independently alluring despite (or perhaps largely due to) her striking innocence and pious nature. […]

The post “The Frame Is a Proscenium”: Graham Swon on An Evening Song (for three voices) first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Set in 1939 and told through the intertwining perspectives of characters enmeshed in a bizarre love triangle, writer-director Graham Swon’s sophomore feature An Evening Song (for three voices) is as visually robust as it is dramatically intimate. The story revolves around married couple Richard (Peter Vack) and Barbara (Hannah Gross)—a pulpy crime writer and a prodigious novelist, respectively—who move to a rural Midwestern town after years of city living. Shortly after arriving, they hire a local young woman named Martha (Deragh Campbell) who the couple find independently alluring despite (or perhaps largely due to) her striking innocence and pious nature. […]

The post “The Frame Is a Proscenium”: Graham Swon on An Evening Song (for three voices) first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

"I was wondering if you could have me not even talk when I come over here." Magnolia Pics has revealed an official US trailer for an indie comedy titled The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, written and directed by and starring indie NYC filmmaker Joanna Arnow. This first premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight sidebar last year, and went on to play at TIFF, NYFF, Vancouver, AFI Fest, Montclair, Denver, and many others. A mosaic-style comedy following the life of a woman as time passes in her long-term casual Bdsm relationship, low-level corporate job, and quarrelsome Jewish family. Filmmaker Joanna Arnow's hilarious comedy, executive produced by Sean Baker, follows a 30-something New York woman as time passes in her relationships. Also starring Scott Cohen, Babak Tafti, Alysia Reiner, Peter Vack, and Parish Bradley. This kind of super dry, awkward humor won't be for everyone,...

Director/actress Joanna Arnow bares all for Bdsm millennial dramedy “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed.”

The filmmaker directs and stars in the feature that follows 30-something New Yorker Ann (Arnow) as she navigates casual Bdsm relationships, a mindless corporate job, and her overbearing Jewish family. The trailer shows Arnow seeking purpose through ball gags and pig costumes as she dates a slew of neurotic men who have ever-increasing eccentric erotic desires.

“The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed” debuted at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight program, and went on to screen at TIFF and NYFF. The feature is executive produced by “Red Rocket” auteur Sean Baker, and co-stars Scott Cohen, Babak Tafti, Alysia Reiner, Peter Vack, and Parish Bradley.

Arnow also edited “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed.” The feature is her follow-up to 2013’s...

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

Actors (Betsey Brown)

With its central storyline revolving around a male actor (Peter Vack) adopting a phony trans identity in order to secure roles, Betsey Brown’s Actors is engineered to court controversy. But the film is more than empty provocation. Actors is about the inherent vulnerability it takes to be a working actor, and we catch glimpses of the ceaseless cycle of auditions and self-tapes listed as private on Vimeo. This includes one very funny early sequence in which Brown’s mother and father (played by her actual parents) walk her through a self-tape for a lewd part. It’s a role Brown knows she has little chance at landing, so why go through with the humiliation? Because born performers have no choice.

Museum of the Moving Image is pleased to announce the complete lineup for the 13th edition of First Look, the Museum's festival of new and innovative international cinema, which will take place in person March 13–17, 2024. Each year, First Look offers a diverse slate of major New York premieres, work-in-progress screenings and sessions, gallery installations, and fresh perspectives on the art and process of filmmaking. This year's festival introduces New York audiences to more than three dozen works from around the world. The guiding ethos of First Look is openness, curiosity, and discovery, aiming to expose audiences to new art, artists to new audiences, and everyone to different methods, perspectives, interrogations, and encounters. For five consecutive days the festival takes over MoMI's two theaters, as well as other rooms and galleries throughout the Museum—with in-person appearances and dialogue integral to the experience. Each night concludes with one of five...

"Say Anything" marked America's transition into the 1990s by sealing off the heyday of feel-good high-school rom-coms and goth rock in the '80s. It was a major and much-needed send-off that is probably still an all-time favorite among many a Gen-x-er today.

The coming-of-age hit from 20th Century Fox featured breakout stars like John Cusack and Ione Skye. Even the supporting roles were played by soon-to-be major players like Pamela Adlon or the children of mega-famous stars like Jason Gould.

But not every actor featured in the 1989 romance movie survived into 2024. Unfortunately, John Mahoney, who played Diane's hypercritical (and hypocritical) father, James Court, passed away back in 2018. The late actor was the oldest major cast member by quite a few years and was in his late 70s when he passed. Before his death, Mahoney had an incredible career in film and television — his supporting role as Martin Crane in...

In The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, writer-director-star Joanna Arnow plays Ann, a thirtysomething woman in a long-term Bdsm relationship with the much older Allen (Scott Cohen). The film opens on a naked Ann lying in bed beside a clothed Allen, before she turns and robotically dry humps him while he feigns sleep. “I love how you don’t care if I get off,” Ann coos to him. “It’s like I don’t even exist.” While this moment immediately establishing the playful rules of Ann and Allen’s sexual agreement, Arnow also hits on an apt metaphor for the existential crisis of so many modern millennials: that they’re exposed and ignored in an unforgiving social climate still dominated by older generations.

Ann’s affair with Allen is indicative of the rest of her day-to-day existence. As a “Clinical eMedia Learning Specialist” at a banal New York corporate office,...

Exclusive: Arthouse distro Circle Collective has acquired worldwide rights to Luca Balser’s (Uncut Gems) NYC anthology film What Doesn’t Float, starring and produced by Pauline Chalamet (Sex Lives of College Girls), and shot by DPs Sean Price Williams (Good Time) and Hunter Zimny (Good Time).

The film is set to make its world premiere at the Lighthouse Film Festival this month and will be released theatrically in the U.S. from September with an international fest tour planned in the fall/winter.

What Doesn’t Float stars Chalamet, genre filmmaker and actor Larry Fessenden (Depraved), and Keith Poulson (Pvt Chat) as New Yorkers at their wit’s end. Script comes from Shauna Fitzgerald and Rachel Walden (Funny Pages) also produces.

The project is the first from NYC-based production company Gummy Films, headed by Chalamet, Balser and Walden who last month attended the Cannes Film Festival with their short film Lemon Tree...

[Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Magnolia Pictures will release the film in U.S. theaters April 26.]

“I love that you never do anything for me…it’s like I don’t even exist.”

That’s what Ann, a depressed thirty-something New Yorker, tells her older on-and-off Bdsm lover in the first scene of writer-director Joanna Arnow’s “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed,” in which the filmmaker also stars as Ann. Her heroine is an existentially moribund millennial wasting away in an anonymous-feeling corporate job who passes her time with sexual debasement when not quarreling with her nagging Jewish family.

This clever and disquieting indie unfolds at a clip somnambulant enough to match its lead’s spiritual stupor, whether she’s spreading her ass for her partners (clients?) or on the phone with her needling mother insisting that, no, she isn’t running out of breath despite trudging up and down the Manhattan streets.

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Nearly three years after it was first announced, HBO Max — the streaming service from HBO and WarnerMedia — has officially become “Max“, merging their content library with Discovery+. They’re still the home of hit shows like Succession and Mare of Easttown, and films from Warner Bros. slate of premieres (think Dune and Zack Snyder’s Justice League).

But is Max still worth the price of admission? This streaming...

In The Sweet East, a high school senior take a journey through fame, exploitation, and Delaware. Working from a script co-written with the influential critic Nick Pinkerton, Sean Price Williams’ punky directorial debut boasts both the cinematographer’s signature aesthetic and Pinkerton’s idiosyncratic, roguish worldview. Premiering this week in Directors’ Fortnight, The Sweet East––seemingly taking cues from John Waters––is cinema at its most playfully facetious, infectiously puerile, and flagrantly transgressive, and an early highlight of a Cannes Film Festival that, near its midway point, has been somewhat short on provocation.

The Sweet East stars a brilliant Talia Ryder as the Californian Alice in Williams and Pinkerton’s dirty East Coast Wonderland. In her first lead role since breaking out in Never Rarely Sometimes Always, she plays Lillian (one of many nods to D.W. Griffith), a faux-ingénue with a knack for ending up in dicey situations and an...

It takes a moment to settle into the rhythm of Joanna Arnow’s droll directorial debut The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed. The beginning riffs on a familiar scene of lovers in post-coital repose before offering something so different, it’s hard not to laugh. Ann (Arnow) lays on the sheets, staring at Allen (Scott Cohen), who is asleep under the covers. She inches closer until she’s on top of him. Then, the humping begins. “I like how you don’t care if I get off,” she says, “because it’s like I don’t even exist.” To that, her lover tiredly replies: “Can you not?”

Like most of the dialogue in The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, this line is delivered without any affect or hint of emotion. Arnow’s directorial debut plays with the mundanity of existence by extracting...

When Andrea Arnold's "American Honey" debuted at Cannes in 2016, the world was ushered into a whirlwind of hopeful, harrowing, and empowering Americana that reshaped the emotional core of what it means to find yourself in a vast sea of new experiences. The next chapter in the Americana film canon, cinematographer-turned-director Sean Price Williams' "The Sweet East," takes the best of those elements and turns them on their ears, weaving a patchwork quilt of curiosity, connection, and unadulterated strangeness. It takes things, and I mean all things, a step further than past films of its type — and it makes sure its audience is along for the ride in all of its odd and audacious glory. After all, there is nothing more arduous and beautiful than living life, and there is certainly nothing stranger.

"The Sweet East" follows Talia Ryder's Lillian, a high school senior who slips away from her...

My first encounter with the work of actor, writer, director Betsey Brown was her captivating and shocking performance in The Scary of Sixty-First. Then, in her first feature film Actors, she and her brother Peter Vack play over-the-top versions of themselves in a wildly fictional, yet super-personal exploration of their relationship that boldly pulls out all the cinematic stops. It’s the kind of rare indie that gives you hope for the future of film. In this episode, she talks about the aspects of the acting craft that are central to her—patience, relaxation, fearlessness, appreciation, the importance of the present moment—plus […]

The post “The Only Thing We Have Is the Moment”: Betsey Brown first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

My first encounter with the work of actor, writer, director Betsey Brown was her captivating and shocking performance in The Scary of Sixty-First. Then, in her first feature film Actors, she and her brother Peter Vack play over-the-top versions of themselves in a wildly fictional, yet super-personal exploration of their relationship that boldly pulls out all the cinematic stops. It’s the kind of rare indie that gives you hope for the future of film. In this episode, she talks about the aspects of the acting craft that are central to her—patience, relaxation, fearlessness, appreciation, the importance of the present moment—plus […]

The post “The Only Thing We Have Is the Moment”: Betsey Brown first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Love Life is not returning for a third season. HBO Max has cancelled the romantic comedy anthology series after two seasons, per Variety. The existing episodes are also being pulled off the streaming service. The moves are due to more cost-cutting efforts following the merger of Warner Media and Discovery Inc. earlier this year. Minx was also cancelled on Monday.

The series follows the love life of one person across each season. Anne Kendrick led the series during season one, and season two featured William Jackson Harper. Others in the cast include Zoë Chao, Sasha Compère, Peter Vack, Jessica Williams, Punkie Johnson, and Chris “Comedian Cp” Powell.

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And just like that, TVLine has another contender for TV’s Best Two-Season Shows.

Love Life has been cancelled at HBO Max, TVLine has confirmed. The news comes more than a year after the release of the Season 2 finale, which dropped Nov. 11, 2021.

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Each season of the rom-com anthology followed a different protagonist on a journey from their first love to their last. In Season 1, executive producer Anna Kendrick starred as lovelorn Darby Carter. Zoë Chao,...

“Love Life” has been canceled at HBO Max after two seasons.

The anthology romantic comedy series was originally ordered in May 2019 before HBO Max even had a name. The first season was released in May 2020 and Season 2 was released in October 2021. Anna Kendrick led the first season, while William Jackson Harper starred in the second. Both seasons will be pulled off of HBO Max.

Sam Boyd created the series and served as co-showrunner and executive producer on both seasons. Bridget Bedard was also the co-showrunner and executive producer on both seasons, with Rachelle Williams joining as co-showrunner and executive producer in Season 2. Kendrick, Harper, Paul Feig and Dan Magnante also executive produced. The series was produced by Lionsgate Television and Feigco Entertainment.

Along with Kendrick, the cast of the first season also included Zoë Chao, Sasha Compère, and Peter Vack. In Season 2, Harper starred with Jessica Williams, Punkie Johnson and Chris “Comedian Cp” Powell.

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Venetia Stevenson, a model, actress and daughter of Hollywood luminaries who appeared in films including Darby’s Rangers, Island of Lost Women and Horror Hotel after being labeled “the most photogenic girl in the world,” has died. She was 84.

Stevenson died Monday at a health care facility in Atlanta after a battle with Parkinson’s disease, her brother, actor and photographer Jeffrey Byron, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Stevenson’s parents were Robert Stevenson, the Oscar-nominated director of Mary Poppins who earlier helmed King Solomon’s Mines and Jane Eyre, and her mother was Anna Lee, who starred in How Green Was My Valley and portrayed the matriarch Lila Quartermaine for a quarter-century on General Hospital.

The screen siren was married to actor Russ Tamblyn from Valentine’s Day 1956 until their divorce in April 1957 and to Don Everly of The Everly Brothers from 1962-...

Todd Field’s TÁR simulates ethical complexity to “call into question” cancel culture, which—no matter what Gina Carano, Peter Vack et al. have to say about it—is not an unprecedentedly bold or unthinkable move; millions of Americans are waiting to nod in vociferous agreement. The titular Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) first speaks at the New Yorker Festival, in onstage conversation with the magazine’s Adam Gopnik as himself. This prolonged opening (somewhere around 15 minutes) provides an excuse for a lot of expository background: Tár is an Egot honoree, a revered modern conductor, a lesbian who’s also the first woman appointed to lead a […]

The post Venice Film Festival 2022: TÁR first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Exclusive: Grammy-winning singer Sza and Euphoria breakout Chloe Cherry have signed on to star alongside Eddie Huang (Boogie) in Tuna Melt, an off-beat dramedy that he wrote and will direct for Sb Projects and Ryder Picture Company.

Tuna Melt is likened to an updated Pulp Fiction meets High Fidelity. Huang will lead the darkly comedic feature as a hitman who unexpectedly meets the love of his life soon after he completes a job. This all transpires in the aftermath of a break-up. While Sza will play Huang’s love interest, details as to Cherry’s role are being kept under wraps.

Scooter Braun and James Shin will produce for Sb Projects, along with Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett for Ryder Picture Company. Huang is also producing, with Scott Manson serving as exec producer.

Huang is a writer, director, actor, chef and television personality who made his feature directorial debut with...

Dasha Nekrasova, Chloe Cherry and Betsey Brown have been cast in “www.RachelOrmont.com,” a sci-fi drama currently in production.

The film, the second feature from writer and director Peter Vack, is described as a “psychedelic technosatire about growing up in captivity.” The project is produced by The Ion Pack in association with Gummy Films, Simone Films and Fast Rainbow Films. Previously, Vack helmed “Assholes” in 2017.

Vack is also known for his work as an actor on shows such as “The Bold Type,” — where he memorably played web editor Patrick, who managed “The Dot Com” of the show’s fictional magazine — “Love Life,” “I Just Want My Pants Back” and “Mozart in the Jungle.”

Nekrasova made her film debut with “Wobble Palace” in 2018, which she co-wrote with director Eugene Kotlyarenko, and also appeared in “The Ghost Who Walks” and “Pvt Chat,” the latter of which also featured Vack. Last year...