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It’s the summer of “Blaxploitation, Baby!,” the latest festival hosted by Film Forum.

The indie theater announced the upcoming festival which will take place August 16 through August 22. The program celebrates the early ‘70s genre of Black cinema, and features films wth iconic movie stars Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree, Ron O’Neal, Tamara Dobson, Jim Brown, Vonetta McGee, Fred Williamson, Isaac Hayes, and more.

“Blaxploitation, Baby!” is dedicated to author and pioneering film historian Donald Bogle, who collaborated on Film Forum’s first Blaxploitation festival in 1995. Bogle credited Melvin Van Peebles’ filmography for helping to establish the genre. “Blaxploitation, Baby!” additionally ranges from works from directors such as Ossie Davis, Gordon Parks, and Gordon Parks Jr.

As well as the screenings, the festival will include the sales of critic and historian Odie Henderson’s “Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation” and Donald Bogle’s acclaimed TCM book “Hollywood Black” at concessions.

Foxy Brown may be the meanest chick in town and Coffy the baddest one-chick hit squad that ever hit it, but Pam Grier is one of the most down-to-earth actresses on the planet. Still going 50 years into her career, Grier has worked with some premiere directors, most of whom wanted to collaborate because they were fans of her iconic work in the ‘70s. Take John Carpenter and Quentin Tarantino, for example, who directed Grier in 1996’s Escape from L.A. and the next year’s Jackie Brown, respectively. But who does Pam Grier prefer when it comes to these genre-loving filmmakers? Oh, she knows what’s goin’ down!

Comparing both John Carpenter and Quentin Tarantino, Pam Grier said, “Quentin is more reality, John is fantasy. Because he got me to play Hershe Las Palmas, where I was a female actor playing a man who becomes a woman,” referring to her character in Escape from L.A.,...

Film icon Pam Grier has teamed with Village Roadshow Pictures to develop a project based on her bestselling 2010 memoir, “Foxy: My Life in Three Acts.”

Known as the queen of 1970s Blaxploitation classics like “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown,” plus Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar-nominated film “Jackie Brown,” Grier is enjoying her latest act thanks to movies like 2023’s “Cinnamon.” That film kicked off her relationship with Village Roadshow Pictures, which produced the title under the company’s Black Noir Cinema banner for Tubi.

“Foxy: My Life in Three Acts” details Grier’s legendary screen career; her relationships with Richard Pryor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Freddie Prinze, among others; her experience as a Black female star in an era with rampant racism and sexism; and her battle with stage-four cervical cancer, diagnosed in 1988, when she was told she had 18 months to live.

The production is in the early stages of development, so fans...

In his review of the new horror film Immaculate (you can read it Here), JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray said the movie – which reunites Sydney Sweeney with Michael Mohan, who directed her in the erotic thriller The Voyeurs and the Netflix series Everything Sucks! – is “a decent throwback to Dario Argento-style Italian horror movies.” During a recent post-screening Q&a at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Boston Seaport, Mohan also revealed that one particular scene in the movie was inspired by the work one of my favorite grindhouse era filmmakers, Jack Hill – and that same scene also had to be salvaged with the help of Saw X director Kevin Greutert!

Our friends at Bloody Disgusting shared the information from the Q&A, reporting that Mohan said, “The biggest scene that did not work and I’m still not happy with is the scene when Isabelle tries to drown Cecilia. I studied a...

The baddest one-chick hit-squad that ever hit town is brewin’ some hot coffee – or should we say Coffy? Quentin Tarantino has opened up a coffee shop next to his own Vista Theater called Pam’s Coffy, so named after both actress Pam Grier and her 1973 blaxploitation classic.

Now an official neighbor to the Vista Theater – which reopened last November thanks to Tarantino – Pam’s Coffy opened on February 14th while the iconic theater was in the middle of their Ib Tech Fest, honoring the process that is marked for having pristine colors that don’t fade. That night’s double feature was What’s Up, Doc? (1972) – which Tarantino has said will be part of the Cinema Speculation follow-up – and The War Between Men and Women (also 1972).

But enough about screenings most of us won’t be able to attend. Pam’s Coffy is an ode not just to its namesake star...

Prime Video has a fair amount in store for subscribers in November, as the uber-violent hit animated show Invincible returns for its highly anticipated second season. Based on the iconic comic book by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, season two will find super-powered protagonist Mark attempting to rebuild his life after finding out the truth about his father Nolan.

Elsewhere on the streamer, the producing team behind the James Bond movies are out to spin the franchise in a completely different direction by debuting their curious new globe-trotting adventure series, pitched somewhere between a quiz show and a treasure hunt. 007: Road To A Million features Brian Cox as the game’s “mastermind”, watching over the contestants as they try to win a million quid.

Here’s everything coming to Amazon Prime Video and Freevee this month. Amazon Originals are accompanied by an asterisk!

New on Amazon Prime...

Clockwise from top left: Batman Returns (Warner Bros.), A Good Person (MGM/United Artists), Evil Dead Rise (Warner Bros.)Image: The A.V. Club

It’s almost Thanksgiving, which means streaming services are starting to add holiday-themed movies—or just movies set on or around Christmas—to their libraries. Prime Video...

Linda Haynes, an actress in films including Rolling Thunder and Brubaker, has died. She was 75.

She died “peacefully, with her family by her side” on July 17 in Summerville, South Carolina, it was announced. No cause of death was revealed.

“As an only child, I have dreaded these times my entire life,” her son, Greg Sylvander, wrote Friday on Facebook. “I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace and had the most beautiful life these final years together with her grandchildren, [my wife] Courtney Sylvander and I. We are going to miss my mom immensely.”

Born Linda Lee Sylvander on Nov. 4, 1947, in Miami, Haynes made her acting debut as Dr. Anne Barton in Latitude Zero (1969). She played barmaid Linda Forchet in the psychological thriller Rolling Thunder (1977) opposite William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones and Carol in Brubaker (1980), starring Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman.

Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of Rolling Thunder and Haynes.

Linda Lee Sylvander, known during her acting career as Linda Haynes, died July 17 in Summerville, South Carolina at 75, with the death only recently coming to public attention. No cause was given by her family, who said she died “peacefully”

Born November 4th, 1947, in Miami, Fl, she was immersed in show business from 1969 to the early 1980s. A life member of The Actor’s Studio, Haynes made her film debut as Dr. Anne Barton in the 1969 Japanse sci-fi monster flick, Latitude Zero.

From there, she appeared in such films as Coffy (1973) and The Nickel Ride (1974). That served as a springboard to her best work, a portrayal of a world-weary barmaid in the revenge thriller Rolling Thunder (1977). She went on to star in the women-in-prison flick Human Experiments (1979), then neatly segued to another prison film, Brubaker (1980).

She wrapped up her acting career with the made-for-tv movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones...

Linda Haynes, who notably appeared in films including “Coffy,” “Rolling Thunder,” “The Drowning Pool” and “Brubaker,” died July 17 in South Carolina — the news had not spread widely until Friday. She was 75.

“It is with great sadness that I report that my mother, Linda Haynes Sylvander has passed away, peacefully at home,” her son Greg Sylvander wrote on Facebook on Friday. She had moved to South Carolina three years ago to live with Greg. “As an only child, I have dreaded these times my entire life. I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace and had the most beautiful life these final years together with her grandchildren, Courtney Sylvander and I. We are going to miss my mom immensely.”

Haynes’ first film was 1969’s “Latitude Zero,” an international co-production directed by legendary Japanese filmmaker Ishirō Honda. The movie co-starred Joseph Cotton and Cesar Romero, among others. It was in the 1970s,...

Linda Haynes, who appeared in films including “Rolling Thunder,” “Drowning Pool” and “Brubaker,” died July 17 in South Carolina. She was 75.

Her son Greg Sylvander reported her death on Facebook.

“As an only child, I have dreaded these times my entire life. I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace and had the most beautiful life these final years together with her grandchildren, Courtney Sylvander and I. We are going to miss my mom immensely,” he wrote.

In 1977, Haynes co-starred in John Flynn’s psychological thriller “Rolling Thunder,” written by Paul Schrader and starring William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones and James Best. The film follows former Vietnam prisoner of war Charles Rane who, after surviving a violent home invasion and losing a hand, sets out on a crusade to get revenge with help from a friend. Haynes played Linda Forchet, a Southern belle who welcomes Rane back...

What would Hollywood be without a good ole Blaxploitation film? And now that “They Cloned Tyrone” has hit Netflix screens, conversations about the Blaxploitation movies that crawled so that “They Cloned Tyrone” could pimp walk have come to the forefront.

Juel Taylor’s film welcomes watchers to The Glen, a normal, everyday neighborhood where its predominately Black residents live out their lives shopping, going to church and enjoying the fruits of their labor. However, beneath the surface, but right in front of their eyes, the government is executing a plot to keep the community in an endless cycle of unhealthy behavior that ultimately blocks them from mental and financial wellness.

Like many Blaxploitation films, “They Cloned Tyrone” creatively calls out and highlights the systemic issues Black community faces while also celebrating Black culture and Black people’s perseverance.

When “They Cloned Tyrone” hit Netflix, people online began discussing the films that influenced it,...

Carol Locatell was born on December 13, 1940 – a date that happens to have been a Friday the 13th. So it seems very fitting that when she embarked on an acting career, her role in the 1985 slasher Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (watch it Here) would turn out to become the role she was best known for. Locatell delivered a hilarious performance in that film, making the foul-mouthed Ethel Hubbard someone fans have been having fun watching for nearly forty years now. Sadly, Locatell is no longer with us. She passed away recently at the age of 82. Ron Sloan, who played Ethel’s dimwitted son Junior in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, broke the news of her passing on social media last night.

Sloan wrote,

Dearest friends, fans, and Horror family,

With great sadness, it breaks my heart to announce that my Friday the 13th Part 5 Mom, (Ethel Hubbard) Carol Locatell has passed away.

Known to horror fans for her role in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Bloody Disgusting has learned the sad news this week that Carol Locatell has passed away at the age of 82.

Alongside Ron Sloan’s character Junior, Carol Locatell played Ethel (aka Ma) in the Friday the 13th franchise’s fifth installment back in 1985, delivering a scene-stealing performance that helped make her a fan favorite star on the horror convention circuit in recent years.

Sean Clark writes on Instagram, “Just got a call from Ron Sloan letting me know that our friend Carol Locatell who most of the fans know as Ethel aka Ma in Friday the 13th Part 5 A New Beginning has lost her battle with cancer. My heart goes out to her husband Greg and their entire family.

Clark’s tribute continues, “I had the great fortune of working with her for 15+ years and she was an amazing person.

Pam Grier has lived an incredible life. Her autobiography, "Foxy: A Life in Three Acts" is hopefully going to be turned into a biopic that can finally celebrate her trailblazing career. An entire generation of fans know her as the titular character in "Jackie Brown," Tarantino's follow-up to "Pulp Fiction," based on the crime novel "Rum Punch" by Elmore Leonard. Decades before that, Grier became widely known as the first female action star playing street-savvy, no-nonsense characters in "Coffy" (She'll cream you!), "Foxy Brown", and the more comedic mystery "Friday Foster." 

An undeniable acting force and sought-after sex symbol, it was only a matter of time before more challenging, high-profile roles started to come Grier's way. After essentially owning the 1970s, Grier started off the '80s taking on more character-driven parts, like in the boxing drama "Tough Enough" starring Dennis Quaid, and the classic police procedural "Fort Apache the Bronx" starring Paul Newman.

"Never meet your heroes" is one piece of advice Quentin Tarantino has never listened to. His first feature "Reservoir Dogs" starred Harvey Keitel, his "favorite actor in the world." "Jackie Brown" was a vehicle for Pam Grier, star of 1970s blaxploitation films like "Coffy" which Tarantino loves. "Kill Bill," a samurai film love letter, featured Japanese genre star Sonny Chiba as sword-smith Hattori Hanzō.

There's another collaboration between Tarantino and one of his personal acting icons, one we haven't gotten to see. Who's the icon in question? Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung, who played a character cut from "Inglourious Basterds."

The hero of said film is not one of the titular Nazi-killing squad. No, it's Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), a young Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied France. The sole survivor of her family's massacre, she now poses as a Gentile cinema owner named "Emmanuelle Mimieux." When "Emmanuelle" comes face-to-face with Nazi...

Quentin Tarantino easily takes the title of the ultimate movie lover's filmmaker. Bursting onto the scene with "Reservoir Dogs" at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992, one thing was certain when his follow-up, "Pulp Fiction," came out two years later: this guy was cool. Tarantino displayed a fearlessness that movie buffs found refreshing. After all, the previous decade was filled with overstuffed franchises in the wake of Hollywood's New Wave movement at the end of the 1970s.

Known for his trademark over-the-top violence, nonlinear storytelling, and killer soundtracks, the major thing that sets the "Jackie Brown" filmmaker apart from his contemporaries is the sheer volume of homages to auteurs before him. As any die-hard Quentinphile will tell you, the writer-director was once a store clerk at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, California, and was respected for his encyclopedic knowledge of virtually any movie. Tarantino is the reason why I began diving...

As much as it rules, "Jackie Brown" has always sort of been treated like the black sheep of Quentin Tarantino's filmography. It's just not quite Tarantino's usual style — a book adaptation that lacks Tarantino's signature ultraviolent flair. The story of a flight attendant who's caught smuggling money lacks the scale and complexity of some of Tarantino's other work.

The film stars Pam Grier in her first major leading role since her time starring in blaxploitation films like "Foxy Brown" and "Coffy" in the '70s. "Jackie Brown was basically the extension of all those other characters," said Grier in a 2018 Variety interview, citing her past work's influence on her role. "Jackie Brown was an extension of having to be forceful." Along with Grier, the film starred Robert Forster, who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a bail bondsman and Grier's love interest.

Pam Grier has been in Hollywood for more than 50 years, but the screen icon almost quit acting back in the 1970s.

Grier, the subject of the fourth season of TCM podcast “The Plot Thickens,” revealed in a recent interview that she contemplated entering the field of science before “Foxy Brown” in 1974.

“When I did that film, I wasn’t sure I was going to continue making films,” Grier told Fox News. “I missed science, which was a part of my life as a child. I just didn’t know there was an audience for me.”

She continued, “But it turned out I developed an audience. It wasn’t just women, but also artists and filmmakers who loved to see a woman walk in a man’s shoes and be viewed as strong, combative. Here was a woman who freely expressed herself in a way that wasn’t portrayed…I come from the Black West,...

Click here to read the full article.

As a critic and scholar, Elvis Mitchell has spent his career writing about film. With the doc Is That Black Enough for You?!?, he tried his hand at making one himself.

The documentary, which will screen at AFI Fest before heading to Netflix on Nov. 11, is part visual essay and part academic deep dive into the Black cinema of the 1970s and the contribution of Black filmmakers and creatives to that decade of moviemaking. An achievement in archival work, the doc, which counts David Fincher and Steven Soderbergh as producers, deftly moves through works by Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks Jr. and Sidney Poitier and films including Blacula, Shaft and Coffy, among a dizzying amount of others. “For audiences quick to dismiss or asleep to the contributions of Black filmmakers,” THR‘s Lovia Gyarkye wrote in her review, “this is required viewing.”

Ahead of its AFI Fest bow,...

How can Amazon Prime Video followup the first season finale of its biggest series ever in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power? The answer lies in its list of new releases for November 2022.

Understandably, Prime Video is probably pretty tired and won’t be opting for any more Middle-earth spectacle for awhile. In its place, however, are a couple of still intriguing Amazon Original series. British Western drama series The English is set to arrive on Nov. 11 to both Prime Video and BBC Two. Emily Blunt stars as a woman who heads to the American West in 1890 looking for revenge on the man she sees as responsible for the death of her son. Cool! Speaking of the English, the James Corden-starring Mammals also premieres on Nov. 11.

On the film side of things, Prime Video has a handful of interesting options. The latest effort to make Harry Styles a movie star,...

Prime Video and Amazon Freevee are getting ready for the holiday season with a hefty lineup of original titles, seasonal selections, and much more this November. Whether you’re eager to check out the new western, The English, starring Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer, or the highly-anticipated film My Policeman featuring Harry Styles and Emma Corrin, there’s no shortage of fun content to explore. Below, scroll through the listings to see what other titles are coming to the platforms this November. My Policeman (Credit: Parisa Taghizadeh /© Amazon Prime Video /Courtesy Everett Collection) Available for Streaming on Prime Video: November Tba *Good Rivals (Prime Video Original) November 1 Los simuladores 10 Things I Hate About You 2 Days in the Valley A Belle for Christmas A Christmas Carol American Gigolo Arthur Christmas Black Rain Brown Sugar Coffy Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop Contraband Cousins Domestic Disturbance Down to Earth Face/Off Fruitvale Station Gunfight at the O.

Exclusive: Pam Grier, the actress from such cult classics as Jackie Brown, Foxy Brown and Coffy, has inked with APA.

Grier’s five decades-plus cinematic canon includes work with filmmakers such as Roger Corman, John Carpenter and Quentin Tarantino, among many others.

Her film résumé fired up with 1971’s The Big Doll House, followed by iconic roles in such films as Foxy Brown, Coffy, The Big Bird Cage, Blacula, Scream Blacula Scream and Sheba, Baby.

During the 1980s she became a regular on Miami Vice and played a supporting role as an evil witch in Ray Bradbury’s and Walt Disney Pictures’ 1983 title Something Wicked This Way Comes. She then returned to action in 1988’s Above the Law. Grier also starred in such notable features as Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!, In Too Deep and a comedic turn in Jawbreaker.

Grier also starred in the Showtime series Linc’s and...

Stars: Brion James, Richard Crystal, Zalman King, Robert Walden, Mark Goddard, Charles Siebert, Stefan Gierasch, Alice Ghostley, Ray Young, Bill Adler | Written and Directed by Jeff Lieberman

Showing as part of this year’s Fantasia Midnights program, Synapse Films premiered their restoration of writer/director Jeff Lieberman’s cult favorite Blue Sunshine. The 1977 film about former hippies suffering from homicidal acid flashbacks will be getting a 4K release at an undisclosed future date, and the image quality is noticeably better than on my DVD. But, what about the actual film? Glad you asked…

Blue Sunshine begins at a party where one of the guests is doing an impersonation of Rodan. “The artist?” asks one of the guests. “No, the monster” But a real monster is about to show up as Frannie loses his wig and his mind and begins shoving guests into the fireplace.

Jerry narrowly avoids becoming his next...

“Jackie Brown” star Pam Grier, “30 Rock” actor Chris Parnell and “Project X” star Oliver Cooper are set to headline “As We Know It,” an independent film that unfolds amid a nuclear zombie apocalypse.

Set in Los Angeles in the late 1990s, the comedy-horror-romance movie follows a struggling writer named James Bishop, who is dealing with a messy breakup with the help of his best friend while trying to finish his latest book before the impending apocalypse.

The cast will also include Mike Castle (“Brews Brothers”), Taylor Blackwell (“Designated Survivor”) and TikToker Danny Mondello, who is making his film debut.

Josh Monkarsh is directing the film, which started production in Los Angeles at the end of July and is expected to wrap in early August. Monkarsh co-wrote the screenplay with Christopher Francis and Brandon DePaolo.

Monkarsh, Daniel Cummings (“Slayers”) and Josh Fruehling (“Mandela Effect”) will serve as producers on “As We Know It,...

Words, words, words cannot convey the meaning and emotional impact of a film and there are only so many words in the English language we can repeat over and over in our vain attempts. Only the movies themselves can convey the emotional impact of meaning in the stories we tell. Descriptions don’t convey it nor do critiques. Programmers introducing films do not, nor do the directors. Halfway through the movies I saw, none succeeded in conveying it either…However, Sundance is dynamically evolving and the success it will achieve in its new incarnation will soon be apparent.Courtesy Sundance.org

Watch the Festival Trailer here. You can also “relive” the festival day by day here.

Halfway through the online viewing of fest films I had chosen to see, I remained unmoved and impatient with words of programmers and filmmakers introducing films which gave me very little satisfaction. Add to it the cumbersome difficult process of screenings and screening times, I was ready to give up.

Beginning with the doc The Princess with all the footage repeating the usual stories we have heard, continuing with doc Fire of Love (picked up by National Geographic for the world for mid seven-figures and to go out theatrically before its debut on Disney’s streaming platform), with fabulous volcanic footage but which did not delve into psychology of the two protagonists themselves or into their relations with each other. However it did win the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award for U.S. Documentary honoring Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput, and its director Sara Dosa.

Nor did Klondike get into the characters living through the progression of the war between Ukranian separatists and pro-Russian males as the wife of one comes to full term in her pregnancy. However its director Maryna Er Gorbachdid take the prize for Directing Award for World Cinema Drama. And the film seems prescient of escalating war in Ukraine today.

Master by Mariame Diallo, an almost conventional ghost story, felt like it has been rushed through editing to be finished in time for Sundance. Riotsville Usa — well it was experimental, so its fragmentary design can be attributed to that — was good at compiling a detailed overview of the white and black versions of the riots of 1965 (Watts), ’66 Chicago, ’67 Newark and 100 other cities ending in North Florida riots but did not feel cohesively told through the use of the mockup towns built by the US military to combat urban unrest aka terrorism.

Descendant, which descended into multiple endings, ended with what seemed more like a community/ educational documentary than a theatrical feature doc. It was produced by Participant and was picked up by Netflix for the world. It also won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for its Creative Vision. It shoulda been better.

Lena Dunham’s Sharp Stick, while engaging, seemed more like a trifle indie film than a substantial drama or comedy. And the girlie-girlie nuances of Am I Ok? was standard fare and yet it was picked up for the world for nearly 7 million by HBO Max. Well the girls are very attractive and fun to watch.

Alice starting as a slave drama and morphing into an hommage to Coffy, a 1970s Pam Grier blaxploitation film almost made it but in the end still failed to make a strong emotional impact. It had been prebought before Sundance by Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions for the US. Alice (Keke Palmer), brutally enslaved on a rural Georgia plantation, restlessly yearns for freedom. She flees after a violent clash with her forced lover, plantation owner Paul (Jonny Lee Miller). Running through the woods, she suddenly sees a highway, and cars and soon discovers that the year is actually 1973. Rescued on the roadside by a disillusioned Black activist named Frank (Common), Alice uncovers the lies that have kept her enslaved and the promise of Black liberation as seen through the prism of the 1970s.

‘Alice’ courtesy of Sundance.org

The debut feature of writer-director Krystin Ver Linden, is inspired by true accounts of Black Americans who were kept in peonage for more than 100 years after the end of slavery, one I remember reading about myself. It is an audacious attempt to but ultimately fails to mix historical fact with contemporary fiction.

Nor did Living deliver more than the expected classic period drama. The remake of Kurosawa’s Ikiru played like a British TV period piece. Sony Pictures Classics acquired North America, Latin America, India, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Germany, South Africa, Southeast Asia, and airlines worldwide for around 5 million.

The emotional impact of these stories was never fully delivered or received. I can guess what the stories were trying to convey but will not put into words what the film should or might have been because, in fact, I could never even begin make a film approaching these noble efforts and words will not substitute for the film or its intended impact. But I was longing for emotional catharsis. In the end, they failed to convey the emotional meaning that the stories held for those telling them to the desired receptive audiences.

What did deliver however, were World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award Winner for its Excellence In Verité Filmmaking Midwives from Myanmar, directed by Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing. A surprising view of a Hindu midwife and her Moslem apprentice revealed so much about the current Royinga crisis as it filtered through their ministrations.

‘A House Made Of Splinters’ by Simon Lereng Wilmont

Along side of it, the Directing Award for World Cinema Documentary went to Simon Lereng Wilmont for A House Made Of Splinters by Simon Lereng Wilmont from Denmark, also a surprisingly positive view of the abandoned children of war in Ukraine, warm and nurturing while still terribly sad for the children. What will become of the children and the House Made of Splinters is cause for great worry.

Lucy and Desi! was a fun doc presenting America’s best loved television couple.

I finally saw one that looked like a real winner. Nanny, about an immigrant single Senegalese mother, played beautifully by Anna Diop and directed (and written) by Sierra Leononian-American Nikyatu Jusu, goes to the African roots of the horror supernatural genre. Its great opening with one sustained note and the black face half encased in shadow, the blue black of black art creates a genre of its own. Why do you suppose “black arts” means bad magic? Black arts are supernatural. Nanny is creepy even as it plays it straight. The honest feel of spontaneity in the straight parts set off the scary parts so you forget about them until they begin again, like recurring dreams or hallucinations. The husband is exceptionally creepy; something is evil in his humanity, and yet, the acting is exceptionally naturalistic. Costumes and design are also exceptional.

‘Nanny’ by Nikyatu Jusu

And when the winners were declared I felt justified in my judgements — Nanny being the Grand Jury Winner. Luckily I got to see the Festival Favorite Award as well as Audience Award winner Navalny and appreciated its directness and the proximity of Navalny himself as if we were right by his side through the insane provocations, threats and incarcerations he and his family must endure at the whim of the dictatorial Putin. Now that he has imprisoned his political opponent, he feels he can act with impunity in pursuing power over Ukraine an imprison that nation’s electorate.

Directing Award for U.S. Documentary went to Reid Davenport, I Didn’t See You There which was engrossing and endearing as it presented the physically challenged director’s direct point of view of his surroundings and his life.

‘I Didn’t See You There’ — Courtesy of Sundance.org

Also very emotionally compelling was The Janes. In light of today’s Supreme Court and states’ rulings on abortion rights, and in view of the past’s social actions which, until women got into the act, was run by men focusing on the Vietnam War and on Civil Rights; women’s rights, women’s liberation and women’s bodies were not considered worthy of any social action. Only when the women rallied to correct the omission did Roe vs. Wade become the law of this land. And the same fight continues to this day. Sundance also had Call Jane, a fiction feature about The Janes and there was much discussion (among women) about which film was the better of the two.

‘The Janes’ Courtesy of Sundance.org

In short, I found the films in this year’s Sundance fell short of what I have come to expect. Compared to those great films in Cannes: Drive My Car, Compartment №6, The Worst Person in the World, Mothering Sunday, A Tale of Love and Desire, Hero, Prayers for the Stolen, Pllayground…both the American and the international fiction features were provincial. But as ever, the documentaries excelled. I am sure more than one will appear as a nominaton for the next Oscar.

Damon Wayans (Fox’s Lethal Weapon) and Pam Grier (Jackie Brown) have signed on to star alongside Hailey Kilgore, David Iacono and Jeremie Harris in the noir thriller Cinnamon, which will debut exclusively on Fox’s free streaming service, Tubi, later this year.

The film currently in production in Atlanta follows a struggling small-town gas station attendant and aspiring singer, Jodi Jackson (Kilgore), whose life is sent into a tailspin when there’s a robbery at work. As previously announced, Iacono is playing Jodi’s fiercely devoted hustler boyfriend turned music manager, Eddie, with Harris as James Walker, a young gangster in the drug running business.

Grier will play Mama, the undisputed head of her family’s criminal organization, whose son James executes her wishes. Wayans will portray Wally, the owner of the convenience store that gets robbed. He’s a businessman who also owns a used car lot that...

The 40th anniversary screening of Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” at the upcoming TCM Film Festival will be a full-blown reunion.

The Turner Classic Movies Film Festival announced on Wednesday that actors Drew Barrymore and Henry Thomas are confirmed to appear alongside Spielberg and producer Kathleen Kennedy at the screening, which will be held on the opening night of the festival on April 21.

In keeping with this year’s festival theme “All Together Now: Back to the Big Screen,” director Michael Schultz and stars Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris, and Steven Williams will introduce their seminal coming-of-age dramedy “Cooley High” (1975), about a group of teens in Chicago preparing for life after high school. In addition, stars Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, Steve Guttenberg and Tim Daly will celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Diner” (1982).

The festival runs from April 21 through April 24 in Hollywood, with TCM Primetime host Ben Mankiewicz...

March will see the return of a fan-favorite series, the launch of a spinoff of a fan-favorite series and a handful of noteworthy films added to Amazon Prime Video.

Below, we’ve assembled a complete list of what’s new on Amazon Prime Video in March, and it includes the highly anticipated second season of the sci-fi comedy series “Upload,” which premieres March 11. Additionally, the new series “The Boys Presents: Diabolical” premieres on March 4 and promises eight all-new animated stories set within the R-rated superhero world of “The Boys.”

Also on March 4, the Amy Poehler-directed documentary “Lucy and Desi” premieres, chronicling the relationship between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

In terms of library titles, March 1 brings the Ryan Reynolds-Sandra Bullock rom-com “The Proposal,” the classic “Dead Poets Society,” the sci-fi “Alien” prequel “Prometheus,” the comedy spoof “Spaceballs” and a number of other films to the streaming service.

Look, not every month is gonna be full of bangers. Amazon Prime Video’s list of new releases for March 2022 is extremely light but still has a couple of good options for streaming obsessives.

The biggest title this month is undoubtedly The Boys Presents: Diabolical on March 4. This series presents eight different stories set in The Boys‘ universe, all offered up by different writers. Since each of the eight mini-episodes are animated, it’s probably fair to say this is The Boys‘ Animatrix. Call it the “Anivought”.

Read more TV The Boys Season 3: Herogasm Will Be The TV Event of the Summer By Alec Bojalad TV How The Boys Pulled Off Its Wildest Episode By Bryan Cairns

Also arriving on March 4 is season 2 of the high concept comedy Upload. Set in a digital afterlife, this series created by The Office‘s Greg Daniels asks some big questions about where technology is taking us.

Alice, the debut feature of writer-director Krystin Ver Linden, has a major pacing problem. Based on true accounts, it concerns Alice (Keke Palmer), a woman enslaved on a Georgia plantation who one day escapes and finds she’s actually living in 1973, more than 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s a startling discovery, one that unsurprisingly drew more than a few comparisons to 2020’s Antebellum, a maligned horror-tinged feature with a similar setup.

While the proximity of a quite similar film has led some to besmirch Alice, the comparison actually does Ver Linden’s film a few favors. Antebellum’s use of these very real horrors as a Village-style gotcha twist cheapens the pain that film is poking at for mere shock value. Ver Linden doesn’t have any interest in playing the same kind of game with her audience. While Alice‘s first act puts in Mystery Box clues...

Krystin Ver Linden’s “Alice” is a righteous fable about a Black woman (Keke Palmer) who escapes from an isolated Georgia plantation that’s enslaved her, her husband (Gaius Charles) and her family for generations, and discovers a wonderland just outside the property line: 1973 America, where she learns she’s been emancipated for a century. “I never told anyone they had to stay,” her Bible-thumping captor Mr. Paul (Jonny Lee Miller) sputters by way of cheap justification. “I just never told them they could go.”

First, Alice sobs; then, she’s furious. All this time — through all this suffering — freedom was just a few miles away. The curvaceous yellow typeface of the opening titles promises that Alice will get her Blaxploitation-inspired revenge on the white family still imprisoning 11 of her loved ones. She even watches “Coffy” for motivation, staring up at Pam Grier with the awe of seeing her inner goddess strut the earth,...

Krystin Ver Linden’s debut movie Alice arrives with the assurance that it is based on true events, one of those vague guarantees that lingers in the back of your mind while the movie unspools and what you think you’re watching turns out to be something very, very different. Factuality is often a moot point in cinema—with his legendarily terrible 1957 space vampire flick Plan 9 from Outer Space, Ed Wood even tried reverse-psychology, asking viewers, “Can you prove that it didn’t happen?” But with a slick slave drama-slash-revenge thriller it immediately raises questions of taste and decency: is this really the proper vehicle for a meditation on Civil Rights? Surprisingly, Ver Linden’s film walks that tightrope very well. There are wobbles for sure, but the commitment from her cast keep its intentions pure even when the storytelling falters, which is often.

There is no way to...

The opening title card of writer-director Krystin Ver Linden’s feature film debut “Alice” says, “Inspired by true events,” and it could be argued that these words are more than metaphorically true, even if you don’t know the concept of the film beforehand.

Keke Palmer plays the title heroine, a woman enslaved on a 19th century Georgia plantation overseen by the viciously cruel Paul (Jonny Lee Miller). The first shot of the film sees her running for her life until she gets to a clearing, at which point her face opens up in shock and dismay, and she cries, “No!”

Ver Linden’s screenplay for “Alice” is very carefully structured. We flash back from that “No!” of hers to life on the plantation, which is given a poisonously incongruous sort of visual sumptuousness by cinematographer Alex Disenhof (Apple TV+’s “The Mosquito Coast”). We see a shot of Paul...

The writer/director returns to talk about his favorite Blaxploitation movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Trick Baby (1972)

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

The Untouchables (1987)

Predator (1987)

Purple Rain (1984) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Loved One (1965) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Live And Let Die (1973)

Enter The Dragon (1973) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Green Hornet (1974)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

The Last Dragon (1985) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Dead Presidents (1995)

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Black Caesar (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Shaft (1971) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Coffy (1973) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary

Midnight Cowboy (1969) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Taxi Driver (1976) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

Boxcar Bertha (1972) – Julie Corman...

The prequel to Paramount’s 2019 horror film “Pet Sematary” has added “Jackie Brown” star Pam Grier to its call sheet.

Grier joins a cast that includes Jackson White (“Mrs. Fletcher”), Forrest Goodluck (” The Revenant”), Jack Mulhern (“Mare of Easttown”), Natalie Alyn Lind (” The Goldbergs”) and Isabella Star LeBlanc. The upcoming “Pet Sematary” will serve as an origin story to the Stephen King novel about a family that discovers a rather disturbing graveyard in the woods behind their home.

The movie, which still doesn’t have a title, begins shooting in August and will debut exclusively on Paramount Plus, the recently rebranded streaming service from ViacomCBS, on an undetermined date. It is set up at Paramount Players, a division of Paramount that specializes in genre fare.

The film marks the feature directorial debut of Lindsey Beer, who previously wrote the screenplay to Netflix’s coming-of-age movie “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser...

PBS’ American Masters documentary “How It Feels to Be Free” – which counts Alicia Keys among its roster of exec producers – salutes the careers of six Black female entertainers who used their celebrity to promote civil rights and challenge racists stereotypes.

The documentary – which premieres today on PBS and is set to become a market priority for its distributor Fremantle at NATPE this week – is directed by Yoruba Richen.

A Yap Films production in association with Itvs, Chicken & Egg pictures and Documentary Channel in Canada, it celebrates the careers of Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier.

While its premiere may seem timely in the wake of the Time’s Up and Black Lives Matters movements, PBS and Itvs first came on board five years ago – it just took years to raise the necessary finance, according to Richen.

It was only when two of the film...

Photo: Female Action Movies The action movie genre has long been dominated by men, but women in leading roles—as superheroes, assassins, and even everyday women who prove their mettle—have become more and more prevalent as the protagonists in these films. Such prevalence began in earnest in the ’70s: Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia holds her own in the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, Pam Grier came to prominence in action and blaxploitation films such as ‘Coffy’ and ‘Foxy Brown’, and Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in the ‘Alien’ series is often credited for creating the female action hero and is considered one of the most important female film protagonists. From Ripley to Rey, here are 21 kickass movies with leading women to watch in 2021. Related article: Why Queen Elizabeth II Is One Of The Greatest Monarchs | Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of United Queendom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland (Video...

” My ass may be dumb, but I ain’t no dumbass. “

This Friday, July 10th, Tarantino’s Jackie Brown will play for a week at The Galleria Cinema in St. Louis For more info and showtimes, go Here

When Jackie Brown was released 23 years ago expectations were off the charts. It had been three and a half long years since Quentin Tarantino had rocked the movie world with the one-two punch of Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994). Since then he had laid relatively low, directing a segment of the anthology Four Rooms, writing the vampire hybrid From Dusk Til Dawn, and performing several forgettable “acting” roles (remember Destiny Turns On The Radio? ……didn’t think so.) I remember my own expectations and anticipation for Jackie Brown when I first heard that Tarantino had cast ebony action icon Pam Grier in the lead. I assumed that he was going to take...

This past weekend, we lost a cult horror icon.

Sid Haig, the man best known as Rob Zombie’s murderous clown across The Devil’s Rejects and House Of 1000 Corpses, passed away at the age of 80, sending the Internet into a state of mourning. Taking to Instagram, Haig’s wife Susan L. Oberg offered what was perhaps the perfect send-off, all the while asking for privacy and respect in their time of loss.

In her statement, Olberg admitted that Haig’s death came as a shock to the entire family. The cult performer had initially suffered an accident that put him in the ICU a fortnight ago, though appeared to be making a recovery in time for the arrival of Rob Zombie’s 3 From Hell, in which he reprised his role as Captain Spaulding.

Alas, the long-in-development horror sequel will now be remembered as one of Sid Haig’s final films,...

Tony Sokol Sep 23, 2019

House of 1000 Corpses star Sid Haig was a Roger Corman regular, First Lawgiver on Star Trek, and played 8 villains on Mission: Impossible.

Sid Haig, a character actor who appeared in all genres but is best known as a horror icon, died at the age of 80. "On Saturday, September 21, 2019, my light, my heart, my true love, my King, the other half of my soul, Sidney, passed from this realm on to the next," Haig’s wife, Susan L. Oberg, announced on Instagram."

"He has returned to the Universe, a shining star in her heavens He was my angel, my husband, my best friend and always will be. He adored his family, his friends and his fans. This came as a shock to all of us. He was my angel, my husband, my best friend and always will be. He adored his family, his friends and his fans.”

Born Sidney Eddy Mosesian in Fresno,...

Sid Haig, known for his role as Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie’s “House of 1000 Corpses” trilogy, died Saturday. He was 80.

His wife announced the news on Instagram. Haig had a fall several weeks ago and suffered serious breathing complications after arriving at the hospital. He died of a lung infection.

“On Saturday, September 21, 2019, my light, my heart, my true love, my King, the other half of my soul, Sidney, passed from this realm on to the next,” Haig’s wife, Susan L. Oberg said. “He has returned to the Universe, a shining star in her heavens. He was my angel, my husband, my best friend and always will be. He adored his family, his friends and his fans. This came as a shock to all of us. “We, as a family, are asking that our privacy and time to mourn be respected. Sidney Eddie Mosesian. 7/14/39 – 9/21/19. Husband, Father, Grandfather,...

Sid Haig, a character actor whose credits extend from 1970s blaxploitation films to cult horror classics such as “House of 1000 Corpses,” died Saturday. He was 80.

Haig’s wife, Susan L. Oberg, announced his passing via Instagram: “He was my angel, my husband, my best friend and always will be. He adored his family, his friends and his fans.”

Haig appeared in more than 50 films, from George Lucas’ “Thx 1138” to the 1971 James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever” to Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 crime film “Jackie Brown,” playing a judge in a role written specifically for him.

But he’s best remembered for his work in low-budget films, particularly horror films like director Rob Zombie’s trilogy “House of 1000 Corpses,” “The Devil’s Rejects” and “3 From Hell.” In the series, he played Captain Spaulding, the clown-makeup-wearing patriarch of the murderous Firefly family and the proprietor of a Museum of Monsters and Mayhem.

Italian director Ginevra Elkann’s directorial debut, “If Only,” about kids with divorced parents, will open the 72nd Locarno Film Festival, its first edition under new artistic director Lili Hinstin, who has assembled an edgy mix of promising titles from young auteurs and more established names.

“If Only” and the fest closer, iconic Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Uzbekistan-set “To the Ends of the Earth” will both premiere in Locarno’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande.

Also set for a launch from the Piazza Grande is Amazon’s terrorist drama “7500,” directed by Patrick Vollrath, with star Joseph Gordon-Levitt in tow; Valerie Donzelli’s comedy “Notre Dame”; and fellow French director Stephane Demoustier’s “The Girl With a Bracelet,” in which a teenager stands trial for murdering her best friend.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which premiered in Cannes, will also screen on the Piazza (without talent in...

As black filmmakers gain more traction within the Hollywood studio system, the Locarno Film Festival is putting the spotlight on black cinema around the world with a major retrospective titled Black Light set to kick off with Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” freshly restored by Universal in 4K for the landmark race drama’s 30th anniversary.

The more than 40-title Black Light retro spans from Oscar Micheaux’s 1920 silent drama “Within Our Gates,” which is the oldest known surviving film by an African-American director and portrays the struggle of a mixed-race school teacher in the Deep South, to Christopher Harris’s 2000 doc “Still Here” depicting the more recent blight of U.S. neighborhoods inhabited almost exclusively by African Americans.

Titles screening from outside the U.S. comprise Senegalese auteur Osmane Sembene’s 1966 “The black girl from …” based on a Sembene short and considered sub-Saharan Africa’s first feature...

Pam Grier co-stars on the ABC comedy Bless This Mess. Speaking with reporters after the Bless This Mess panel for the Television Critics Association, Grier discussed the biopic about her life that is in the works. Given her storied career from Roger Corman movies to landmark black action heroine movies like Coffy and Foxy Brown to […]

The post Pam Grier Wants Spike Lee to Direct Her Biopic [TCA 2019] appeared first on /Film.

The 1974 Blaxploitation Classic Willie Dynamite will be available on Blu-ray January 8th from Arrow Video

”The hands-down winner of the all-out best blaxploitation movie of the seventies,” declares author and artist Darius James in That s Blaxploitation! Willie Dynamite may not be as well-known as John Shaft, Sweet Sweetback or Super Fly’s Youngblood Priest, but he certainly deserves to be.

Who is Willie Dynamite? He s the flashiest pimp in New York he drives a personalized purple-and-gold Cadillac and wears some of the most eye-catching outfits ever seen on a cinema screen. He wants to be number one, but with the police, the D.A., fellow pimps and a tough-talking social worker on his tail, can a man as arrogant and amoral as Willie D avoid a downfall?

Willie Dynamite competes with the best of blaxploitation on all levels. Roscoe Orman dominates with his central performance a star turn...

Ooh, it’s a great week for horror fans, as this Tuesday’s Blu-ray and DVD releases are a stellar bunch of films that will make for great additions to your personal collection of movies to enjoy from the comfort of your own home. Because it is the holiday season, I’m stoked to see Scream Factory show a little love to Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 with their Collector’s Edition Blu that hits shelves tomorrow, and for those of you who enjoy your horror movies with a side of sleaze, William Lustig’s Maniac has been given the 4K treatment by Blue Underground (and the film has never looked better).

The Mangler is also getting a brand new Blu-ray this week, and Scorpion Releasing is resurrecting Death Ship with their new Special Edition release as well. Vinegar Syndrome is keeping busy with both Ice Cream Man and Beware My Brethren,...

In today’s film news roundup, Pam Grier is honored by the Tallgrass Film Festival, Paramount hires Michelle Hagen, “Hallowed Ground” has launched production, and musician Glenn Danzig is making a movie.

Honor

Pam Grier has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Ad Astra Award for the 16th edition of the Tallgrass Film Festival, held Oct. 17-21 in Wichita, Ks.

Tallgrass Film Festival’s program director Nick Pope said, “Pam Grier is someone that Tallgrass has sought to bring to Wichita and honor for the longest time. She is the iconic feminine face of urban cinema in the ’70s. A prime inspiration both for an entire genre’s mainstream success, a muse for multiple filmmakers, and an inspiration and trend-setter for many actors and filmmakers that followed, it will be the biggest thrill to welcome her and celebrate her career.”

Grier broke into films with prison movies...

Last week I made my way out of the Facebook forest and decided to take a brief hiatus from the constant barrage of input, positive as well as negative, and try to clear my head a little. I’ve already pretty much abandoned Twitter for the same reasons (How do all you Twitterers have the time to be constantly Tweeting and following other people’s feeds?), but that was never a platform I felt all that comfortable with anyway. But after only a week and change I already feel the Facebook junkie’s craving, and I wonder how much longer I can hold out before I initiate another indulgence of my addiction. The pull of the sense of community that naturally develops is, for better or worse, something I miss— though I have been lurking, I miss taking part in the discussions of posts made by my family and my smartest friends,...