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The holiday season is here, even if you wish that the Christmas season didn't truly start until after Thanksgiving. Naturally, movie studios have already begun to foist holiday movies upon the world, whether it's Hallmark-style straight-to-streaming fluff like "Hot Frosty" or the extremely big-budget action-adventure "Red One," starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans as an unlikely duo who have to team up to rescue none other than Santa Claus himself from being kidnapped and ruining the holiday altogether. But for those of us who may love films but want something a little different out of the movies that ring in the extended holiday season from Thanksgiving all the way through New Year's Day, try out these 12 movies for size. We won't get into any standard-issue "Is 'Die Hard' a Christmas movie?" debates in this list. Instead, let's just look chronologically at these 12 very different kinds of holiday movies.

The BBC and Netflix have garnered the most nods at the upcoming Royal Television Society (Rts) Craft & Design Awards with 31 and 16 nominations respectively.

BBC series “Lost Boys & Fairies” led the way with four nominations while Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” garnered three.

Other Netflix shows to be nominated including the recently-canceled mythological series “Kaos” and the adaptation of David Nicholls’ “One Day.”

The ceremony will take place on Dec. 2 at the London Hilton.

“On joining this year as chair of the awards I was extremely confident that the calibre of entries would be high,” said Emma Gormley, chair of the Rts Craft & Design Awards. “However, the submissions we subsequently received have exceeded all expectations, further demonstrating how U.K. creatives are global leaders in the television and streaming space. The nominations we have announced today highlight the incredible range of diverse, genre-defining content that is being created by U.K.

Despite Lorne Michaels’ previous promise that no real-life political candidates would show up on SNL this election season, Vice President Kamala Harris popped by Studio 8H on Saturday night, appearing in a cold open opposite Maya Rudolph’s Kamala, playing her literal mirror image.

While this one-off cameo seems unlikely to have much of an impact on Election Day, Trump supporters have been raging about the sketch online, suggesting that Trump himself is now owed airtime due to the FCC’s equal time fairness rules (although this was seemingly resolved by a NASCAR ad). They’re also complaining that Harris “plagiarized” an earlier sketch starring Trump.

It’s true that back in 2015, Trump and Jimmy Fallon performed a similar mirror bit, in which Fallon-as-Trump teed up the presidential candidate for jokes that also served to promote his campaign talking points (never forget Fallon’s role in this national nightmare...

Zeppo Marx “never killed anybody, as far as I know,” Robert S. Bader, author of the upcoming Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother, told The Guardian. But that’s about the nicest thing Bader has to say about the least famous Marx brother.

“This guy was really shady,” Bader explained. “It’s hard to believe, but he was on this driven mission to make more money than his brothers, and he didn’t care how he did it.”

By some accounts — Groucho’s for one — Zeppo was the funniest of the Marx Brothers when they weren’t on screen. But he mostly played the handsome straight man in movies like Duck Soup and Monkey Business, rarely getting the laughs except when reacting to the antics of Groucho, Chico and Harpo.

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Offscreen, Bader says, Zeppo had multiple ties to organized crime. How connected was he? He flattened one of Lucky Luciano...

The Marx Brothers – mustachioed, stogie-smoking ring-leader Groucho, chatty, Italian-accented con man Chico, silent skirt-chaser Harpo and, early on, relatively “normal” matinee idol Zeppo – first got their start as a vaudeville comedy act at the turn of the 20th century. They would go on to conquer the Broadway stage before landing in films when “talkies” took off.

Zeppo would drop out of the act after five films, becoming an engineer and a talent agent. But his older siblings would continue their frenzied verbal and visual hilarity on the big screen until 1949, when the medium of television beckoned and competed for eyeballs. Groucho would host a TV version of his radio game show, “You Bet Your Life,” for 11 seasons on NBC and appeared on Dick Cavett’s TV talk show in the late ‘60s. That is when their Marx Brothers’ anarchistic approach to humor and word-play takedowns of hypocrites and stuffy high-society...

After a busy August with the Season 2 premiere of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” which continues throughout September with new episodes through Oct. 3, “Batman: Caped Crusader,” and more, Amazon streaming services Prime Video and Freevee will have a comparably quiet September.

Most of the action for the month will come from Prime Video’s sports options. After the Sept. 5 Kickoff Game at Arrowhead Stadium with the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs going up against the Baltimore Ravens, Prime Video’s third season of Thursday Night Football begins with AFC East champs Buffalo Bills taking on the Miami Dolphins in Miami. The WNBA and Nwsl also continue their seasons on Prime Video, with matches all month long from New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury, Angel City Fc, and more top teams.

But Prime Video will welcome a few new series this month, including the highly publicized...

Oi there, listen up! Amazon Prime Video’s list of new releases for June 2024 includes another season of its biggest, bloodiest hit.

The Boys season 4 premieres its first three episodes on Thursday, June 13. Based on the trailers, The Boys is really leaning into the political side of its social satire with a presidential election underway and Homelander on trial for the small matter of killing a guy last season. The season will continue to air on Thursdays, culminating with the finale on July 18.

Amazon is really leaning into its sports offerings this month as well. Fans will get to watch the New York Yankees, the WNBA, and the Nwsl several times throughout June. That’s in addition to a couple of sports docs: Power of the Dream on June 18 and Federer: Twelve Final Days on June 20.

But if you’re looking for something even more explosive than Homelander and Roger Federer,...

Exclusive: Producers behind the BBC’s Lost Boys & Fairies are hopeful that the heartwarming show can re-spin narratives around adoption, as they reveal they are working with White Lotus star Will Sharpe and Censor director Prano Bailey-Bond on new projects.

Welsh playwright Daf James’ debut premieres Monday and This is England alums Bekki Wray-Rogers, Jessica Brown Meek and Libby Durdy, who run the show’s production outfit Duck Soup Films, said nuanced representation was integral to the story about a gay couple adopting for the first time.

Wray-Rogers is an adopter and said she wanted to turn the tables on previous representations of adoption in TV and movies.

“The trail of adoption so far has very much been about people being stolen away and that’s not really what it is,” she told Deadline. “People should know that adoption is a really great thing and there should be this...

Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" is an uproariously funny anti-war masterpiece on par with the Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup." Set at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War in 1951, but released to theaters in 1970, Altman's movie was unmistakably commenting on the ongoing meat grinder that was the Vietnam War. One second you're howling at the decidedly un-pc antics of Army surgeons Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and "Trapper" John McIntyre (Elliott Gould), and the next you're cringing as blood spurts from the wounded soldiers they're endeavoring to save.

This sui generis classic did not feel like grist for a TV sitcom spinoff (à la "The Odd Couple" or "Please Don't Eat the Daisies"), but somehow series creator Larry Gelbart was able to strike an authentic, network-friendly balance between the rebellious behavior of Hawkeye and company, and the soul-deadening savagery of war. The CBS series aired for 11 years, seven years...

With final Oscar balloting closed on March 7, we’re continuing with our sixth annual series of interviews with Academy voters from different branches for their unfiltered takes on what got picked, overlooked, and overvalued in the 2023 award season. Interview edited for brevity.

Best Picture

Well, this year is the year of the repeat for me. I watched more movies a second time to try and figure out why I didn’t like them the first time.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” I watched three and a half times. I thought it was a generational thing. But then everyone else I know loved it. So I watched it once in the theater and I go, “I don’t really get it.” And I tried it a second time on the [Academy screening] portal. And I gave up halfway. And then it won all the awards. And I said to myself, “I’m not sure,...

Amazon Prime Video has popped off with plenty of new content for March 2023 with original shows and some great catches for films to stream. “Top Gun: Maverick” will arrive March 24, and Jordan Peele’s “Nope” before that on March 21. For those anticipating “Creed III,” the first two films starring and directed by Michael B. Jordan will become available at the beginning of March along with all of the “Rocky” films as well as “Cinderella Man” for the broader boxing buff community. A theatrical release from 2022, “The Silent Twins,” starring Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrence arrives March 7.

Friday March 3 will see “Daisy Jones & The Six” rock the world when the band’s epic limited series comes out. Riley Keough, Sam Claflin, Suki Waterhouse, and more will bring Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best-selling novel to life. Other shows to look forward to on the streamer are Donald Glover’s horror series...

With its list of new releases for March 2023, Amazon Prime Video might be rolling out its most impressive monthly lineup yet.

We know that sounds like something straight out of a press release but in this case, it’s actually true! Prime Video, bless it, has some excellent original titles like The Boys and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but its monthly release updates have often been less inspiring than its TV peers. That’s certainly not the case with March 2023 though.

Prime Video gets its streaming party started early by premiering the first three episodes of Daisy Jones & The Six on March 3. This series, based on a book of the same name, tells the fictional Behind the Music-esque story of an equally fictional band. Then, on March 17, Amazon’s partnership with Donald Glover bears its first fruit with the series about obsessive fandom called Swarm. Reggie Jackson documentary Reggie premieres...

March is still winter, no matter which animal you ask, which means it’s still completely acceptable to cancel all plans and curl up under a blanket in front of the TV. Prime Video’s movie library updates throughout the month, with most of its new additions on March 1 — including the “Rocky” saga, multiple “Carrie” adaptations, “12 Angry Men,” and more.

For Prime users who love books and TV, March means the highly-anticipated premiere of “Daisy Jones & the Six,” based on the best-selling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The eponymous Daisy (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne’s band (Sam Claflin) make a mean match, starting with a hit single and leading to what seems like endless fame and glory. But where there is success there is peril, and both the band’s rise and an electric connection with Daisy threaten Billy’s marriage and everyone’s personal lives. James Ponsoldt,...

Director/Tfh Guru Allan Arkush discusses his favorite year in film, 1975, with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Rules of the Game (1939)

Le Boucher (1970)

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)

Topaz (1969)

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary

The Innocents (1961) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

The Earrings of Madame De… (1953)

Rope (1948) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)

The Awful Truth (1937) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Duck Soup (1933) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Going My Way (1944)

Nashville (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Dan Perri’s trailer commentary

M*A*S*H (1970)

Shampoo (1975) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Bonnie And Clyde (1967) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Nada Gang (1975)

Get Crazy (1983) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Night Moves (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) – Katt Shea’s trailer...

Exclusive: Multi-hyphenate Karena Evans has signed with CAA for representation.

Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, the director-actor hit the spotlight in 2018 by starring in the critically acclaimed Firecrackers, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. She also directed several of music videos that year for Drake, Coldplay, and Sza.

Since then, Evans helmed the pilot episode of P-Valley, the first two episodes of Gossip Girl, episodes of Snowfall and Y: The Last Man, and, most recently, Dead Ringers.

Evans won Video Director of The Year at the 2019 BET Awards and 2018 BET Hip-Hop Awards, where she also took home the Video of The Year Award for her work on Drake’s “God’s Plan.” She won Best Director at the Much Music Video Awards in 2018, and became the first woman ever to be honored with the Prism Prize Lipsett Award for her innovative approach to music videos.

She also...

I’d never join a film that would have a guy like me for a lead character.

That’s something Groucho Marx might have said about “Raised Eyebrows,” a film about the legendary comic’s later years, which is solidifying its financing ahead of the Cannes Film Market.

Oscar, Emmy, and Tony-winner Geoffrey Rush will play Groucho (born Julius) Marx toward the end of his life, in the 1970s, when he staged something of a comeback as a cranky octogenarian. Powerhouse indie producer Owen Moverman will direct the film, and has co-written it with Steve Stoliar, upon whose memoir the book is based.

Stoliar, a writer-producer (credits include episodes of “Wkrp in Cincinnati”!) came into Groucho’s orbit as a young man, and will be played by Charlie Plummer. Sienna Miller has been cast as Groucho’s young personal manager Erin Fleming who brought the increasingly frail Vaudeville and Hollywood legend back into the spotlight,...

A scrapbook collection of serene, observational moments in search of a story, “Blood” runs deep, but only with obscure meaning, so opaque at times that its essence feels unreachable. Writer-director Bradley Rust Gray’s first feature in a decade offers some modest rewards to patient viewers up for a challenge, but this good-natured study of a young widow’s new chapter in life is finally too understated to leave a memorable trace.

Premiering in this year’s U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance, “Blood” is exactly the type of unstructured, casually paced indie that requires the immersive experience of the movie theater: dark, big and distraction-free. The irony, of course, is that’s a hard sell these days to spectacle-seeking ticket buyers. Beyond the festival circuit, the film could find a small, committed audience on streaming platforms. Those captivated by the filmmaker’s previous, similarly dispositioned films like “The Exploding Girl” ought to turn up,...

Our first episode back in the studio! Robert Weide discusses a few of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

Mother Night (1996)

Woody Allen: A Documentary (2011)

Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition (1989)

Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth (1998)

Marx Brothers in a Nutshell (1982)

W.C. Fields: Straight Up (1986)

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (2021)

It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Mary Poppins (1964)

The French Connection (1971) – Dennis Lehane’s trailer commentary, Mark Pellington’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

The Magnificent Seven (1960) – Jesus Treviño’s trailer commentary

The Godfather (1972) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

The Exorcist (1973) – Oren Peli’s trailer commentary

Patton (1970) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

Mash (1970)

Short Cuts (1993) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Lenny...

Writer/director Stephen Chbosky discusses his favorite films with host Josh Olson.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Rent (2005)

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012)

Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

Mean Girls (2004)

Footloose (1984)

Grease (1978)

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

Wonder (2017)

Trainspotting (1996)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The Usual Suspects (1995)

The Shop Around The Corner (1940)

You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Can’t Buy Me Love (1987)

Toy Story 3 (2010)

Live Like A Cop Die Like A Man (1976)

The Wizard Of Oz (1939) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

Once (2007)

Mean Streets (1973)

Invaders From Mars (1986)

Cabaret (1972) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Heathers (1989) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary

Sing Street (2016)

Star 80 (1983)

All That Jazz (1979) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

The Sound Of Music (1965)

Fiddler On The Roof (1971)

Blow-Up (1966) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Graduate (1967) – Neil Labute’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Vertigo (1958) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Brian Trenchard-Smith...

Celine Coulson, Kathryn O’Connor will join the Leeds-based indie.

UK production company Duck Soup Films is adding former Film4 executive Celine Coulson and former Big Talk executive Kathryn O’Connor to its team as executive producers.

Coulson and O’Connor will join Duck Soup from June, reporting to the company’s founders Bekki Wray-Rogers, Libby Durdy and Jessica Hoyland.

Coulson will focus on the firm’s feature film slate, with O’Connor primarily working on TV drama. However “both will cross over as the company’s approach to development often mixes cinematic methods with TV traditions and is bespoke to each project,...

Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.

Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.

At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...

Training Day’s “King Kong” monologue stands tall among the great speeches of cinema. Denzel Washington elevates the iambic pentameter of Iago, the villain of William Shakespeare’s Othello, to syncopated street rhythms. It is on par with Marlon Brando’s reflections on the horrors of war as Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, it is the inverse of Gregory Peck’s monologues as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, and it ranks with Joe Pesci’s “Do you think I’m funny?” scene in Goodfellas or Groucho Marx’s breakdown in the middle of reconciliation in Duck Soup. But the single line of dialogue which hits it home wasn’t in David Ayer’s screenplay. It was pure Denzel.

“King Kong ain’t got shit on me,” LAPD Det. Sgt. Alonzo Harris declares in the most memorable scene in Training Day. Washington improvised the line in the heat of the moment.

Now that we’re entering Year 2 of our pandemic purgatory, here’s at least one positive takeaway: We’re coming to terms with our past — our movie past, that is. Two films circa 1951 and 1966 represent a personal case in point. Miracle In Milan (1951) starts with a lost baby and an operatic cop, but it’s touching and absurdist. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) delivers an empathetic protagonist with a Trumpian addiction to violence that seems relevant.

The fact that films like these are being re-visited and debated tells us something about our post-viral culture: A vacancy sign hangs over what passes for the movie scene. But viewing classic movies demands qualities I am deficient in –- patience, for example.

Pre-streamer filmmakers were leisurely in their pacing, which by today’s standards seems gratifying, yet soporific. “Leave lots of string between the pearls,” Billy Wilder used to advise his acolytes, which translates into...

With David Fincher’s film Mank reviving the legend of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, a descendant of the Citizen Kane scribe and his equally fabled brother, Joseph, will have his dual biography published next summer by Knopf.

Competing with Idiots by Nick Davis takes its title from a telegram Herman Mankiewicz sent after he left his career as a New York theater critic for Hollywood in 1926. “Millions Are To Be Grabbed Out Here And Your Only Competition Is Idiots. Don’T Let This Get Around,” he wrote to Ben Hecht, who would soon join the Westward migration of writing talent.

Davis, who is the grandson of Herman and great-nephew of Joe, followed in the family line and has accumulated a number of writing, producing and directing credits for television and film work. He is directing a multi-part documentary under ESPN’s 30 for 30 banner about the 1986 New York Mets and has also...

Exclusive: Award-winning director Karena Evans has been tapped to helm the pilot and second episode of HBO Max’s upcoming series Gossip Girl. Based on the popular CW show and bestselling novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, the reimagined drama finds a new generation of New York private school teens being introduced to social surveillance eight years after the original blogger’s website went dark. Production started today in New York for a 2021 premiere on HBO Max.

Produced by Fake Empire and Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Studios, Gossip Girl is written and executive produced by Joshua Safran of Random Acts. Also executive producing are the original series’ Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage of Fake Empire, and Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo of Alloy Entertainment. Lis Rowinski of Fake Empire serves as co-executive producer.

“Josh Safran has found a perfect partner in Karena to illustrate how the landscape of social media,...

The creators of HBO Max’s Search Party join Josh and Joe to talk about their favorite films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Tenet (2020)

Piranha (1978)

Piranha 3D (2010)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jaws (1975)

E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)

Looker (1981)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Waiting For Guffman (1996)

True Stories (1986)

Another Year (2010)

Abigail’s Party (1977)

Brazil (1985)

The Pink Panther (1963)

It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)

Network (1976)

Idiocracy (2006)

A League Of Their Own (1992)

Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

About Schmidt (2002)

Please Give (2010)

Duck Soup (1933)

The Gold Rush (1925)

The Cocoanuts (1929)

A Night At The Opera (1935)

The Terminator (1984)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Love Potion No. 9 (1992) – Sarah

The Birdcage (1996) – Charles

Mandy (2018)

Other Notable Items

Search Party TV series (2016- )

The Coen Brothers

The DGA

Jon Favreau

Garry Marshall

Christopher Nolan

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV series (2000-2015)

Jurassic Park series

Laura Dern

Jeff Goldblum

Sam Neill

Steven Spielberg

Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton...

As the coronavirus pandemic still rages on, precious few remain skeptical about going to the movies. But while your AMCs and others claim some godlike safety from Covid, there remains a chunk of people still uncomfortable hitting up theaters. To them, we bring you the September 2020 Criterion Channel lineup.

It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.

For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...

The tirelessly joke-packed 1980 film might have dated in some ways but its relentless desire to amuse still makes it an undeniable winner

Even in the anarchic heyday of the Marx brothers at Paramount Pictures, when they turned out vaudevillian free-for-alls such as Horse Feathers and Duck Soup, or Mel Brooks parodies like Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, audiences had never encountered the sheer volume of gags that hit them in Airplane!, which are so relentless that the bad ones don’t have time to develop an odor. There are puns, pratfalls, provocations, foreground/background dynamics, double entendres, references to film and TV and popular commercials, random acts of silliness and absurdity, and every possible strain of what would later be categorized as a “dad joke”. Even at 40, when a handful of the references and bits have grown whiskers, Airplane! still absolutely kills. Rarely has a film so eager to please...

Alice in Wonderland

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1933 / 1.33:1/ 76 min.

Starring Charlotte Henry, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper

Cinematography by Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod

Written by Harvey Kurtzman with art by Jack Davis, Mad‘s 1954 parody of Alice in Wonderland stands as a succinct critique of Paramount Pictures’s 1933 adaptation. The film stars crowd pleasing performers like Cary Grant and W.C. Fields yet manages to be one of the most uniquely disturbing studio pictures ever made.

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, the movie began production in 1932, the centennial of Lewis Carroll’s birth. Carroll’s classic was ripe for Paramount – the studio on Melrose was ground zero for absurdist humor in the early ’30s. McLeod had just wrapped the Marx Brothers’ sublime Horse Feathers while the Mankiewicz-scripted Million Dollar Legs was released the same year – both...

Helping you stay sane while staying safe… featuring Leonard Maltin, Dave Anthony, Miguel Arteta, John Landis, and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Plague (1979)

Target Earth (1954)

The Left Hand of God (1955)

A Lost Lady (1934)

Enough Said (2013)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Down to Earth (2001)

Down To Earth (1947)

The Commitments (1991)

Once (2007)

Election (1999)

About Schmidt (2002)

Sideways (2004)

Nebraska (2013)

The Man in the Moon (1991)

The 39 Steps (1935)

Casablanca (1942)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

The Night Walker (1964)

Chuck and Buck (2000)

Cedar Rapids (2011)

Beatriz at Dinner (2017)

Duck Butter (2018)

The Good Girl (2002)

The Big Heat (1953)

Human Desire (1954)

Slightly French (1949)

Week-End with Father (1951)

Experiment In Terror (1962)

They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969)

Ray’s Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (1987)

Airport (1970)

Earthquake (1974)

Drive a Crooked Road (1954)

Pushover (1954)

Waves (2019)

Krisha (2015)

The Oblong Box (1969)

80,000 Suspects (1963)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

It Comes At Night (2017)

Children of Men (2006)

The Road (2009)

You Were Never Really Here...

Call it the battle of the Dirty Dancing fans.

The 1987 summer sleeper smash starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey suddenly is the hottest movie on the Net. At least for today.

More from DeadlineLionsgate Teams With Fandango, YouTube & Nato To Help Furloughed Cinema Employees With 'Lionsgate Live!'Covid-19 Outbreak Appears To Be Leveling Off At New Jersey Actors Fund HomeDonald Trump Takes No Questions At Nightly Briefing After Fallout Over His Comments About Disinfectants

Lionsgate Live! A Night at the Movies has chosen the pic for their communal theatrical experience tonight, streaming for free on the studio’s YouTube page and Fandango’s Movieclips YouTube page beginning at 6 p.m. Pt/9 p.m. Et and hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis. Meanwhile AFI’s Movie Club (coincidentally?) also has made the film its choice for fans today with an announcement from Natalie Portman, who calls Dirty Dancing “the movie I have...

The saga continues, featuring Adam Rifkin, Robert D. Krzykowski, John Sayles, Maggie Renzi, Mick Garris and Larry Wilmore with special guest star Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Key Largo (1948)

I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1993)

Camila (1984)

I, the Worst of All (1990)

The Wages of Fear (1953)

Le Corbeau (1943)

Diabolique (1955)

Red Beard (1965)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Ikiru (1952)

General Della Rovere (1959)

The Gold of Naples (1959)

Bitter Rice (1949)

Pickup On South Street (1953)

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Viva Zapata! (1952)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Yellow Sky (1948)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

Wall Street (1987)

Women’s Prison (1955)

True Love (1989)

Mean Streets (1973)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The Abyss (1989)

The China Syndrome (1979)

Big (1988)

Splash (1984)

The ’Burbs (1989)

Long Strange Trip (2017)

Little Women (2019)

Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl) (2019)

The Guns of Navarone...

Movies to watch when you’re staying in for a while, featuring recommendations from Dana Gould, Daniel Waters, Scott Alexander, and Allison Anders.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Destroy All Monsters (1969)

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970)

Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971)

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes (1972)

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes (1973)

Suparpie

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Hello Down There (1969)

Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

Thirteen Days (2000)

Stalker (1979)

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

No Exit (1962)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Sleeper (1973)

The Tenant (1976)

Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)

La classe américaine (1993)

The Sex Adventures of a Single Man a.k.a. The 24 Hour Lover (1968)

The Omega Man (1971)

Soylent Green (1973)

Knives Out (2019)

The Hunt (2020)

Banana Split (2020)

The Cocoanuts (1929)

Animal Crackers (1930)

Monkey Business (1931)

Horse Feathers (1932)

Duck Soup (1933)

A Night At The Opera (1935)

The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971)

Susan Slade (1961)

My Blood Runs Cold...

Thank God for Edgar Wright. The “Shaun of the Dead” and “Baby Driver” director has teamed up with Letterboxd to publish a giant list of his 100 favorite comedy films. Wright stresses these 100 films are just a selection of some of the best comedies ever made and not his definitive list of the absolute best. Regardless, Wright has offered up an amazing list just when cinephiles need it most. The list is presented in chronological order, starting with Harold Lloyd’s 1923 silent comedy classic “Safety Last” and ending with Shinichiro Ueda’s zombie comedy “One Cut of the Dead.” Wright did not include any of his own comedies on the list.

Any Wright fan won’t be too surprised to see Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton films dominate the early side of his list. Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush,” “The Circus,” and “City Lights” all appear in the first 10 selections, as do Keaton’s “Our Hospitality,...

The great Larry Wilmore joins us to share some very personal double features.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

1917 (2019)

Animal Crackers (1930)

Duck Soup (1933)

My Little Chickadee (1940)

A Night At The Opera (1935)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

The Parallax View (1974)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Jaws (1975)

The Stepford Wives (1975)

The Party (1968)

The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

Richard Pryor: Live In Concert (1979)

Richard Pryor: Live And Smokin’ (1971)

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

Lenny (1974)

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)

Lolita (1962)

Caligula (1979)

The Night of the Iguana (1964)

The Elephant Man (1980)

What Would Jack Do? (2020)

Blue Velvet (1986)

The Apartment (1960)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Double Indemnity (1944)

The Sting (1973)

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid...

Filmmakers/authors discuss the movies they wish more people were familiar with.

Movies Referenced In This Episode

Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the ’70s (2012)

Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man (1976)

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (2014)

Top Gun (1986)

Water Power (1977)

Taxi Driver (1976)

In Fabric (2018)

A Climax of Blue Power (1974)

Forced Entry (1975)

Once Upon A Time In America (1984)

Nashville Girl (1976)

Ms .45 (1981)

Act of Vengeance a.k.a. Rape Squad (1974)

High Plains Drifter (1973)

Design For Living (1933)

Trouble In Paradise (1932)

Melody (1971)

Oliver! (1968)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

That’ll Be The Day (1973)

Stardust (1974)

The Errand Boy (1961)

Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)

The Bellboy (1960)

Which Way To The Front? (1970)

Hardly Working (1980)

A Night In Casablanca (1946)

The Cocoanuts (1929)

Duck Soup (1933)

Boeing Boeing (1965)

Confessions of a Young American Housewife (1974)

Cockfighter (1974)

The Second Civil War (1997)

I, A Woman (1965)

The Devil At Your Heels (1981)

The...

The Marx Brothers made 13 feature films throughout their one-of-a-kind career, but one they didn’t make continues to capture the interest of devoted fans. “Giraffes on Horseback Salad,” a would-be movie for the cinematic siblings written by none other than Salvador Dalí, was considered lost after being rejected by MGM. Josh Frank, artist Manuela Pertega, and Tim Heidecker have taken it upon themselves to adapt the story into a graphic novel.

The trio will unveil the project after a “Duck Soup” screening at the Quad later this month, and IndieWire has an exclusive excerpt to whet your appetite in the meantime.

Here’s the synopsis: “A businessman named Jimmy (played by Harpo) is drawn to the mysterious Surrealist Woman, whose very presence changes humdrum reality into Dalí-esque fantasy. With the help of Groucho and Chico, Jimmy seeks to join her fantastical world — but forces of normalcy threaten to end their romance.

The Marx Brothers – mustachioed, stogie-smoking ring-leader Groucho, chatty, Italian-accented con man Chico, silent skirt-chaser Harpo and, early on, relatively “normal” matinee idol Zeppo – first got their start as a vaudeville comedy act at the turn of the 20th century. They would go on to conquer the Broadway stage before landing in films when “talkies” took off.

Zeppo would drop out of the act after five films, becoming an engineer and a talent agent. But his older siblings would continue their frenzied verbal and visual hilarity on the big screen until 1949, when the medium of television beckoned and competed for eyeballs. Groucho would host a TV version of his radio game show, “You Bet Your Life,” for 11 seasons on NBC and appeared on Dick Cavett’s TV talk show in the late ‘60s. That is when their Marx Brothers’ anarchistic approach to humor and word-play takedowns of hypocrites and stuffy high-society...

The Awful Truth

Blu ray

Criterion

1937 / 1:33 / 91 Min. / Street Date April 17, 2018

Starring Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy

Cinematography by Joseph Walker

Written by Viña Delmar

Edited by Al Clark

Produced and directed by Leo McCarey

Thanks to Louis Armstrong and his fellow geniuses, the Jazz Age transformed a generation and dominated pop culture for close to two decades; Vanity Fair and Life recorded the nightlife of hot-to-trot sophisticates while early risers followed the seesaw romance of a willowy flapper named Blondie Boopadoop and her paramour Dagwood Bumstead, a lovesick Dick Powell wannabe.

It was Powell who helped popularize the uptempo rhythms pervading the fast and loose musicals of the era, in particular Paramount’s raucous output which flaunted hot jazz on the soundtrack whether it starred Crosby as a college crooner or W.C. Fields as a double-dealing misanthrope. Even Norman McLeod’s Alice In Wonderland began with a bouncy...

The Notebook is the North American home for Locarno Film Festival Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian's blog. Chatrian has been writing thoughtful blog entries in Italian on Locarno's website since he took over as Director in late 2012, and you can find the English translations here on the Notebook as they're published.Appreciated and admired though he was by the greatest American filmmakers of his time (Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch), Leo McCarey isn’t held in the same regard today. While far from an obscure director, he isn’t considered a master of comedy by critics and audiences. The man who launched the careers of Laurel & Hardy and Cary Grant, and let the Marx Brothers make their zaniest film (Duck Soup), is not as well known as the performers he worked with. This lack of recognition may be due to the difficulty in finding a through-line in his work. While...

By Jacob Oller

The Marx Brothers operate within a tight set of rules, irreverent as they may be. e closely tie the wacky happenings of the brothers Marx with the word ‘anarchy’ because of the madness they wreak on screen surrounded by tight-lipped buzzkills. But what a new video argues is, maybe we shouldn’t? The brothers operate in […]

The article Replacing Anarchy With Satire In ‘Duck Soup’ appeared first on Film School Rejects.

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:   FX Breakdown of the Day: Framestore shares the visual effects work they did for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (via io9):   Mashup of the Day: It's pulp hero versus pulp hero in Stryder HD's trailer for a movie pitting Michael Keaton as Batman against Alec Baldwin as The Shadow:   Movie List of the Day: CineFix names Blade Runner 2049 Dp Roger Deakins one of the 10 greatest cinematographers of all time in this chronological video list:   Video Essay of the Day: This video essay from One Hundred Years of Cinema uses the Marx Brothers and Duck Soup to show how satire works:   Film Studies Lesson of the...

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Armando Iannucci is one the world’s greatest living satirists. His hilarious depictions of governmental dysfunction give a cartoonish gloss to the hectic nature of real-life leadership. The British satirist’s two rambunctious TV shows — BBC’s “The Thick of It” and HBO’s “Veep” — along with his Oscar-nominated “In the Loop,” show a consistent knack for exposing deranged bureaucracies and the power-hungry, backstabbing lunatics who think they own the place.

In Iannucci’s tilted world of feuding diplomats and narcissistic leaders, scathing one-liners meet the bitter pill of lost causes. He anticipated the modern era of political corruption and remains its greatest truth-teller, so it was only a matter of time before he applied that same uncompromising humor towards earlier periods hobbled by the same authoritarian problems.

Enter “The Death of Stalin.” Iannucci’s first adapted work culls from French writers Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin’s graphic novel (Nury has a screenwriting credit,...

On Monday, August 28, 2017, Turner Classic Movies will devote an entire day of their “Summer Under the Stars” series to the late, great Louis Burton Lindley Jr. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, well, then just picture the fella riding the bomb like a buckin’ bronco at the end of Dr. Strangelove…, or the racist taskmaster heading up the railroad gang in Blazing Saddles, or the doomed Sheriff Baker, who gets one of the loveliest, most heartbreaking sendoffs in movie history in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

Lindley joined the rodeo circuit when he was 13 and soon picked up the name that would follow him throughout the length of his professional career, in rodeo and in movies & TV. One of the rodeo vets got a look at the lank newcomer and told him, “Slim pickin’s. That’s all you’re gonna get in this rodeo.

“Well, nobody’s perfect,” may be the last line of “Some Like It Hot,” but BBC Culture’s newest list of the 100 greatest comedies of all time comes pretty darn close. Billy Wilder’s cross-dressing buddy comedy earned the most votes, but the rest of the list is as robust and varied as one would hope, containing slam dunk smash hits as well as lesser known hidden gems.

Read More:The 25 Best Comedies of the 21st Century, Ranked

The survey included responses from 253 film critics internationally, with freelancers writing in from Syria, Azerbaijan, and Montenegro. For a deeper dive into your favorite critics’ comedic tastes, each individual top ten list is also available for perusal. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn, David Ehrlich, and Kate Erbland participated; their number one picks were “City Lights,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” respectively.

Read More:Jerry Lewis, King of Comedy, Dies at 91

“Dr. Strangelove,...

After polling critics from around the world for the greatest American films of all-time, BBC has now forged ahead in the attempt to get a consensus on the best comedies of all-time. After polling 253 film critics, including 118 women and 135 men, from 52 countries and six continents a simple, the list of the 100 greatest is now here.

Featuring canonical classics such as Some Like It Hot, Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall, Duck Soup, Playtime, and more in the top 10, there’s some interesting observations looking at the rest of the list. Toni Erdmann is the most recent inclusion, while the highest Wes Anderson pick is The Royal Tenenbaums. There’s also a healthy dose of Chaplin and Lubitsch with four films each, and the recently departed Jerry Lewis has a pair of inclusions.

Check out the list below (and my ballot) and see more on their official site.

100. (tie) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Adaptation (Spike Jonze)

It’s almost depressing to rewatch Adaptation in 2016, because it’s a reminder of how strong an actor Nicolas Cage is when he actually invests himself in good projects. It was soon after this that his career went off the rails, but he’s remarkably impressive here, playing the dual roles of Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother, Donald. As much a mind-fuck as any other Kaufman screenplay,...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Tuesday, August 1

Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train

Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.

It’s clear from the opening minutes of “Despicable Me 3” that the popular Illumination Entertainment franchise has lost the thread on what makes the series so appealing to its target audience (you know, kids). The latest film in the expanding canon of “Despicable Me” features — which has grown to include a Minion-centric spinoff, plus more to come — gamely opens with a fart-laden studio logo before introducing the series’ newest villain, a cast-off has-been television star literally named Evil Bratt. Voiced by Trey Parker, the balding Bratt is a weirdo riff on classic ’80s TV characters like Small Wonder and Punky Brewster, complete with a sassy robot friend and a keytar he uses to play such jams as “Sussudio” and “Take on Me,” a role entirely dependent on the audience’s knowledge of the kind of roles he’s skewering. He seems unlikely to appeal to — or amuse — the younger set,...

A video essay examines our most private moments.

Strap on your thinking caps for this one, film fans, because it’s a doozy.

According to director Nicolas Roeg (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Don’t Look Now, The Witches), mirrors are cinema in all its glory and in fact the essence of the medium. See, mirrors are the only time we truly look at ourselves; photographs of us are from other perspectives, for other people or posterity, and as such we don’t show our real faces in them, we show projections of who we think we should be or how we think we should feel in a certain situation. But the mirror isn’t public, it’s private, it is us alone with ourselves and thus the way we look into mirrors, into ourselves, is different from every other face we show the world.

The mirror is an eye, Roeg...