News

AFI Fest, running in Los Angeles from Oct. 25-29, will feature a total of 141 films this year spread out over the five days, and will include 18 Best International Feature Oscar contenders, including newly minted nation choices “The Taste of Things” (France), “About Dry Grasses” (Turkey) and “The Captain” (Italy).

“Everyone on the AFI Fest team is proud to share this year’s selection of outstanding films from around the world with the audiences of Los Angeles,” said Todd Hitchcock, director of AFI Fest. “Cinema is truly a global language, and the diversity of screen artistry represented here will widen the horizons for all moviegoers.”

Moviegoers can also expect films that have become very hot on the festival circuit in 2023, including TIFF People’s Choice winner “American Fiction”, directed by Cord Jefferson, Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” starring Cooper and Carey Mulligan, Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers,” with Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal,...

David Finfer, the Academy Award-nominated film editor of “The Fugitive,” died on Monday following complications that resulted from a heart attack. He was 80.

Finfer was nominated for the Oscar as well as the American Cinema Editors and BAFTA awards for editing the 1993 film “The Fugitive,” which starred Harrison Ford.

He worked with Albert Brooks on several movies including “Real Life,” “”Lost in America,” “Modern Romance” and “Defending Your Life.”

Finfer’s career as a film editor took off with his first feature credit on “Ya Gotta Walk it like You Talk it or You’ll Lose that Beat.” He continued to work on a number of comedy and teen/family movies including “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion,” “Snow Day,” “Waiting…” and “The Tooth Fairy.”

His other editing credits include “Inside Out,” “Soul Man” and “Boxing Helena.”

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1942, Finfer...

Rob Reiner is shooting a documentary about Albert Brooks and he’s lined up some major heavyweights to wax poetic about the filmmaker, actor and all-around comic genius.

The director tells Variety that he’s already talked to or is planning to interview fellow comedians such as Larry David, Conan O’Brien, Sarah Silverman, Ben Stiller, James L. Brooks, Judd Apatow, Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes and Jonah Hill, as well as Sharon Stone, who worked with Brooks on 1999’s “The Muse.”

“Albert is my really, really close friend,” says Reiner. “I’ve already spent half-a-day with Albert, just the two of us talking and doing things.”

Brooks is an Oscar-nominee for his work in hits such as “Broadcast News” and “Drive.” He has also written and directed such classics as “Modern Romance” and “Lost in America.”

Reiner talked to Variety in advance of the Cannes Film Festival where he is screening “This Spinal Tap,...

A special two-part episode. From the movie Werewolves Within, director Josh Ruben discusses a few of his favorite movies. Then, Werewolves Within writer Mishna Wolff plays a game of “find the woman” in some of her favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode Josh Ruben:

Werewolves Within (2021)

Werewolves On Wheels (1971) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Wrath of Man (2021)

Trapped Ashes (2006)

The ’Burbs (1989) – Ti West’s trailer commentary

The Fly (1986)

To My Great Chagrin: The Unbelievable Story of Brother Theodore (2007)

Road To Perdition (2002)

Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye (1985)

Nightmare On Elm Street Part III: Dream Warriors (1987)

Flight of the Navigator (1986)

Grease (1978)

Honey I Blew Up The Kid (1992)

Big Top Pee-Wee (1988)

A History of Violence (2005)

The Dead (1987)

The Peanut Butter Solution (1985)

Irreversible (2002)

Hunter Hunter (2020)

Man Bites Dog (1992)

The Human Centipede: The First Sequence (2009)

A Serbian Film (2010)

Planes Trains And Automobiles (1987)

Lost In Translation (2003)

JFK (1991)

Home Alone (1990)

The Second Civil War (1997) – Glenn...

Writer, director, producer Nicole Holofcener joins podcast hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss some of her favorite films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Enough Said (2013)

True Romance (1993)

Coming Home (1978)

Bound for Glory (1976)

Hal (2018)

The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)

The Cowboys (1972)

Harold And Maude (1971)

Conrack (1974)

Norma Rae (1979)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Miller’s Crossing (1990)

Naked (1993)

The Short And Curlies (1987)

Short Cuts (1993)

Nashville (1975)

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

The Father (2020)

Carnal Knowledge (1971)

Sex, Lies And Videotape (1989)

Jaws (1975)

Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy (1955)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

World Without End (1956)

Boogie Nights (1997)

Blue Velvet (1986)

Goodfellas (1990)

Adaptation (2002)

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Lolita (1962)

The Shining (1980)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Paths of Glory (1957)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

12 Angry Men (1957)

A Serious Man (2009)

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

Capote (2005)

A History of Violence (2005)

The 400 Blows...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

58th New York Film Festival

An annual celebration in the finest cinematic offerings, the New York Film Festival has been a treasure trove of the latest work from seasoned auteurs along with new discoveries throughout its storied history. Now in its 58th year, the festival’s slate will be available to a wider audience than ever before. Due to the pandemic forcing theaters in New York to continue with their shutdown, Film at Lincoln Center has reimagined the event, offering nationwide virtual screenings with limited rentals as well as drive-in screenings in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. We’ve shared 20 films to watch and stay tuned for coverage here.

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 star, Alexandra Daddario, the writer, Alan Trezza, and the director, Marc Meyers, of the terrific new film We Summon The Darkness walk us through some of their favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

We Summon The Darkness (2020)

Burying The Ex (2015)

The Little Mermaid (1989)

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

American Beauty (1999)

Strictly Ballroom (1992)

Ghostbusters (1984)

The Sound of Music (1965)

L.A. Story (1991)

Ghost Dad (1990)

Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)

Roxanne (1987)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

The Godfather Part III (1990)

Fargo (1996)

The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Psycho (1960)

Psycho (1998)

Defending Your Life (1991)

Modern Romance (1981)

The Jerk (1979)

Jaws (1975)

Notting Hill (1999)

Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994)

When Harry Met Sally… (1989)

Love Actually (2003)

Marley & Me (2008)

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

World’s Greatest Dad (2009)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Raging Bull (1980)

Mandy (2018)

Heathers (1988)

Ed Wood (1994)

Hellzapoppin’ (1941)

Fletch (1985)

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Batman Returns (1992)

Warlock (1989)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Star Wars (1977)

Sixteen Candles (1984)

The Swimmer (1968)

Sherman’s March (1985)

Amadeus (1984)

Amarcord (1974)

Hugo Pool (1997)

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills...

Spoiler Alert: This podcast contains major spoilers about the A24 film Midsommar.

Too often awards season prognosticators will count the rebel filmmakers out in a given year, easily declaring “Oh, the Academy will never go for this.” Such a silly thought when you consider the amount of mavericks that AMPAS has lauded in the past, i.e. 4x nominee David Lynch for Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and The Elephant Man; 13x nominee and VFX Oscar winner Stanley Kubrick who was even nominated for directing A Clockwork Orange and Doctor Strangelove, and even cinematic absurdist Wes Anderson who counts seven Oscar noms. And how about the ones who broke through and won? Four-time Oscar winners The Coen Brothers who were once considered too out of the box before voters embraced Fargo and No Country for Old Men.

After surprising us last year with his horror pic Hereditary, a film many will...

“It’s a weird time to be working on jokes,” Aziz Ansari says about 15 minutes into his new Netflix standup special, Right Now. “Gotta be careful what you say, right?”

He’s not wrong. We all have to be careful what we say these days, and maybe that’s not the worst trend for us as a society. But careful is the last thing you want from a comedian. We want them to say the things the rest of us can’t say. We’re the cowards who pay to...

There are contradictions galore within “Aziz Ansari: Right Now,” the comedian’s first stand-up special in four years and first widely accessible entertainment offering since the second season of “Master of None” (which premiered in May 2017). For one, the new Netflix release isn’t all that funny — it’s a stand-up special, but it’s not really out for laughs. Framed by a sincere pseudo-apology and an earnest thank you, Ansari’s not interested in going for the joke at all costs, so much as he wants to engage again with the audience he almost lost.

The former point marks the comedian’s natural trajectory, as he transitioned from an inward-looking storyteller, finding humor in everyday conversations, to an outward-looking humor-ologist, examining modern social patterns through audience interaction while on stage and conducting actual field research when off of it. But the idea of losing his audience, which took a hit when a 2018 Babe.

Ari Aster’s sophomore feature Midsommar isn’t a horror movie in the typical sense—or, at least, that’s what the marketing campaign of its U.S. distributor A24 (to say nothing of the critical discourse surrounding the film) would have you believe. Made directly following the success of his acclaimed debut Hereditary (2018), the film reportedly started out as a slasher movie, and although it's now something quite different, it retains the general framework of one. The deaths of its principal characters are less a matter of if, but when, and are presented with enough gruesome variation to satisfy even the most avid gore-hounds. But as Midsommar unfolds predominantly under Sweden’s “midnight sun,” the film has the supposed distinction of being the brightest horror film ever made, with more than a few scenes blindingly, intentionally overexposed in a transparent bid for that superlative. It is also, we are meant to gather,...

Andy Garcia has been tapped to star opposite Kenan Thompson in NBC’s single-camera comedy pilot The Kenan Show (fka Saving Kenan), from Universal TV. This marks Oscar nominee Garcia’s first TV series regular role.

Written by Jackie Clarke and directed by Chris Rock, The Kenan Show centers on a newly widowed dad (Thompson) determined to be everything for his kids while begrudgingly letting his persistent father-in-law, Percy (Garcia), a retired police officer, become more involved in their lives.

Thompson, Clarke and Rock executive produce with Lorne Michaels and Andrew Singer for Broadway Video.

This is a rare TV acting gig for Garcia whose biggest series commitment to date had been an arc on HBO’s Ballers. He received two Emmy nominations for the HBO film For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story.

In features, Garcia appeared in Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, Book Club, The Mule and Bent last year.

Barbara Claman, a casting director whose credits included three Albert Brooks films, the TV shows Silk Stalkings and Zorro and the soap opera Santa Barbara, died Jan. 17 in Winsted, Connecticut, her son said. She was 89.

Claman worked with Brooks on Lost in America (1985), Modern Romance (1981) and Defending Your Life (1991) and helped cast other films like Days of Heaven (1978), Boardwalk (1979), The Changeling (1980) and Iron Eagle (1986).

Her TV résumé also included the 1990s series Tour of Duty, Renegade, Sliders and Pensacola: Wings of Gold.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Claman started ...

Barbara Claman, a casting director whose credits included three Albert Brooks films, the TV shows Silk Stalkings and Zorro and the soap opera Santa Barbara, died Jan. 17 in Winsted, Connecticut, her son said. She was 89.

Claman worked with Brooks on Lost in America (1985), Modern Romance (1981) and Defending Your Life (1991) and helped cast other films like Days of Heaven (1978), Boardwalk (1979), The Changeling (1980) and Iron Eagle (1986).

Her TV résumé also included the 1990s series Tour of Duty, Renegade, Sliders and Pensacola: Wings of Gold.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Claman started ...

One of Bob Einstein’s finest moments among many was arguably the filthiest jokes ever told on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which sparked a genuine laugh out of Jerry Seinfeld when he first heard it on camera.

Einstein died Wednesday at age 76, and while many other comedians will remember him for his work as Super Dave Osborne or for his classic scene in his brother Albert Brooks’ comedy “Modern Romance,” Seinfeld will always remember Einstein for the scene he shared with him, which happened to be the first time the two ever met.

Seinfeld explained when he invited Einstein onto his talk show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” in 2012 that though he was a big fan of all of Einstein’s work dating back to an appearance on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” they’d not met until they filmed “Curb” together during the HBO show’s seventh season in 2009.

Also...

As fans paid tribute to comedian Bob Einstein after his death Wednesday, one of the most noted moments from his career was the show-stealing cameo he had in his brother Albert Brooks’ 1981 comedy “Modern Romance.”

In the scene, Einstein plays a smarmy athletic store clerk who Brooks’ newly-single character Robert encounters after he decides take up jogging and buy some sneakers. In the clip, Einstein’s clerk aggressively upsells Robert into buying hundreds of dollars worth of gear.

Einstein’s feigned indifference manages to capture aggressive capitalism and judgmental smugness all at once.

Also Read: Bob Einstein, Super Dave Osborne Actor, Dies at 76

Watch most of the clip below:

While you're mourning the loss of Bob Einstein, take a moment to savor this brilliant bit from his brother Albert Brooks' Modern Romance. pic.twitter.com/0WNoXX1Xdt

— Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) January 2, 2019

The scene was shared on Twitter multiple times, including by Brooks himself,...

Some of Hollywood’s top comedians are remembering the life and career of Bob Einstein, the comic actor known for his characters Super Dave Osborne and Marty Funkhouser on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” who died Wednesday at 76.

“Never have I seen an actor enjoy a role the way Bob did playing ‘Marty Funkhouser’ on ‘Curb.’ It was an amazing, unforgettable experience knowing and working with him,” Larry David said in a statement. “There was no one like him, as he told us again and again. We’re all in a state of shock.”

Einstein’s brother, writer-director-actor Albert Brooks, called him “a great brother, father and husband,” but also a “brilliantly funny man.” In addition to his work on TV, several comedians also held up Einstein’s scene in the Brooks-directed comedy “Modern Romance” as a clerk at a running store calmly pressuring Brooks into spending a fortune on running gear...

Bob Einstein died Wednesday at the age of 76, leaving behind a comedic legacy that stretched across a half-century in film and TV. Starting as an Emmy-winning writer and frequent contributor on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” opposite Steve Martin, Einstein came to prominence with the creation of the character Super Dave Osborne. The fictional stuntman went on to become a cultural touchstone, spawning multiple TV series, a feature film, and a number of commercial appearances.

With a career spanning decades, some of his best-known work came in recent years, most notably as Marty Funkhouser on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The show’s leading lady, Cheryl Hines, tweeted a photo of Einstein. “We lost a friend today. Thanks for all the laughs,” she wrote. “The comedy world will miss you.”

We lost a friend today. thanks for all of the laughs on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Our love to Bob’s family. #BobEinstein #SuperDave.

Tony Sokol Jan 2, 2019

Bob Einstein, Curb Your Enthusiam's Marty Funkhouser and Albert Brooks' older brother, was part of TV comedy history.

Comedy veteran Bob Einstein, who wrote for the controversial The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour but is best known for his turn as Marty Funkhouser on Curb Your Enthusiasm, died at age 76 following a recent cancer diagnosis, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Einstein’s death was confirmed his younger brother, Albert Brooks. “R.I.P. My dear brother Bob Einstein. A great brother, father and husband. A brilliantly funny man. You will be missed forever,” posted on Twitter.

"Very sad," Curb Your Enthusiasm writer David Mandel tweeted. "Got to work with him on #Curb. Had heard he was sick. Will never forget him telling @jerryseinfeld the dirty joke about the newlyweds." Costar, actor and comedian Richard Lewis also eulogized on social media.

Since making his debut in season 4, Einstein...

Refresh for updates… Bob Einstein is being remembered by castmates, colleagues and his brother Albert Brooks as a comedian’s comedian — “excruciatingly brilliant,” as his friend and Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Richard Lewis described him.

Series creator and star Larry David said in a statement: “Never have I seen an actor enjoy a role the way Bob did playing ‘Marty Funkhouser’ on Curb. It was an amazing, unforgettable experience knowing and working with him. There was no one like him, as he told us again and again. We’re all in a state of shock.”

Lewis and David were joined by Curb castmate Cheryl Hines and writer David Mandel in praising the “Super Dave” creator. “We lost a friend today,” tweeted Hines, “Thanks for all of the laughs on Curb Your Enthusiasm…The comedy world will miss you.”

Einstein’s longtime pal Lewis tweeted: “His long career is hard to match.

Bob Einstein, a two-time Emmy winner who has recurred on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm since its launch and created the wacky Super Dave Osborne character, died today in Indian Wells, CA. He was 76 and recently had been diagnosed with cancer.

Best known to today’s viewers for playing the serious, often surly but always hilarious Marty Funkhouser on Curb, Einstein was a foil for its creator-star Larry David. He appeared in nearly two dozen episodes of the series dating from 2004 to the most recent season.

Einstein’s younger brother, actor-director Albert Brooks, tweeted today, “R.I.P. My dear brother Bob Einstein. A great brother, father and husband. A brilliantly funny man. You will be missed forever.”

A comedian’s comedian, Einstein first made his name as a writer. His career dates to the 1960s, when he won his first Emmy as part of the writing team for The...

In Modern Romance (1981), Albert Brooks plays Robert Cole, a feature film editor who impulsively breaks up with his long-term girlfriend, Mary. Feeling dejected, he skips work and spends the evening alone in his apartment, self-medicating with Quaaludes and chintzy pop music. This bravura sequence of slow-build comedy runs almost 10 full minutes, as Bob’s mental and physical faculties gradually decline while he flits irrationally between optimism, regret, rage and paranoia. Rather than using his mise en scène to enter Bob’s unstable headspace, Brooks’ camera captures Bob’s breakdown from a detached remove, framing him in a series of neutrally-angled wide shots which calmly track his clumsy motion through a series of tight, claustrophobic rooms. Brooks’ wonderfully understated performance nails the thought processes of a neurotic desperately trying to rationalize his actions while simultaneously being eaten away by self-doubt. One minute, he’s indulging in pseudo-profound, maudlin statements affirming a...

In a spoiler-heavy reddit Ama, “Hereditary” director Ari Aster went in depth about his acclaimed new horror film starring Toni Collette. Her character’s actions at the end of the movie have raised questions among fans, and the writer/director offered a peek behind the curtain — as well as a preview of “Midsommer,” his upcoming sophomore feature.

After admitting he “likes the idea of divine intervention” in response to a question about Annie’s sleepwalking having greater meaning behind it, Aster offers his own take: Collette’s character “knows on some buried, suppressed level that her life is not her own, and she is the victim of unthinkable, Machiavellian scheming by her mother. But she cannot look directly that this (let alone inquire about it). It would destroy too much of her inner structure.

“So, she lives in a kind of denial. But in her sleep, this part of her is acting out.

On March 15, 1985, Albert Brooks unveiled his R-rated, dark road-trip comedy Lost in America in theaters. The Hollywood Reporter's original review of the Warner Bros. film is below.

Lost in America faces an uphill route to its box-office destination. Former Saturday Night Live filmmaker Albert Brooks’ third feature (after Real Life and Modern Romance) is a wry satire of modern-day social malaise, but the deadpan cerebral humor of this Geffen Co. release through Warner Bros. is likely to leave most audiences waiting for the punch line.

Brooks (who co-authored the script with partner Monica Johnson) and Airplane’s ...

On March 15, 1985, Albert Brooks unveiled his R-rated, dark road-trip comedy Lost in America in theaters. The Hollywood Reporter's original review of the Warner Bros. film is below.

Lost in America faces an uphill route to its box-office destination. Former Saturday Night Live filmmaker Albert Brooks’ third feature (after Real Life and Modern Romance) is a wry satire of modern-day social malaise, but the deadpan cerebral humor of this Geffen Co. release through Warner Bros. is likely to leave most audiences waiting for the punch line.

Brooks (who co-authored the script with partner Monica Johnson) and Airplane’s ...

Over the weekend, “Parks & Recreation,” Golden Globe and Emmy winning star of “Master Of None,” and “Modern Romance” author, Aziz Ansari, was accused of sexual assault.

Grace, a 23-year-old Brooklyn-based photographer, who was 22 years old at the time of the incident, detailed the encounter to Babe, who first reported the allegation. According to Grace, she met Ansari at a 2017 Emmy Awards after-party, and gave him her number.

Continue reading Aziz Ansari Responds To Sexual Assault Allegation at The Playlist.

Actor and comedian Aziz Ansari has issued a statement in response to a report in which a woman recounted a date with the actor that she called “the worst night of my life.”

“In September of last year, I met a woman at a party. We exchanged numbers. We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date,” said Ansari in a statement given to People. “We went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual.”

Continued the statement, “The next day, I got a text from her...

Get out your 3-D glasses….then put them away, as director/writer/comic Albert Brooks personally hawks his debut feature in a special Hitchcockian trailer (with no footage from the actual movie) presented entirely in 3-D — Not. This is Brooks in his post-Saturday Night Live period, a funny warm up for his masterpiece, Modern Romance. One of the great trailers of our time.

A version of this article originally appeared on ew.com.

Emma Watson loves to read.

The actress has that in common with her brainy Harry Potter character Hermione as well as bookish Belle, who she plays in the much-anticipated film Beauty and the Beast, out March 17. In addition to being a bookworm, Watson is also an outspoken feminist and as well as a Un Women Goodwill Ambassador and promoter of the organization’s HeForShe movement, which is dedicated to recruiting men into the movement for gender equality. As a response to her work with the Un, she launched the feminist...

Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Albert Brooks' Modern Romance (1981) is showing February 17 - March 19, 2017 in the United Kingdom in the series The Rom Com Variations. She’s out of my lifeShe’s out of my lifeAnd I don’t know whether to laugh or cry—Michael Jackson, “She’s Out of My Life”“cras amet qui numquam amavitquique amavit cras amet”—The Magus (John Fowles) Life comes at you fast. As someone recently on the receiving end of an unexpected breakup, I was a little cool on the idea of watching Albert Brooks’ 1981 film Modern Romance—whose premise was summarized, on the one-sheets at the time, in the following terms: “Robert was madly in love with Mary. Mary was madly in love with Robert. Under the circumstances they did the only thing they could do… they broke up.” But then, in that brutal darkness of heartache,...

In the hierarchy of significance in what made news this past week, the sudden availability of the entirety of Albert Brooks’ output of feature films as a writer-director via Netflix Streaming may not carry the urgency of, say, the alarming continuance of African-American deaths under police fire, the attack on a peaceful protest against police violence by shooters who killed five law enforcement officers and wounded several more in Dallas, the ongoing partisan bloviating inspired by the FBI’s decision to not charge Hilary Clinton with federal crimes, or the frightening clown circus of offenses that characterizes the dawning of each new day in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. But art can, among many other things, provide a momentary respite from pain, sometimes even while examining some of the more frustrating, self-centric and petty dissonances within our own, or someone’s else’s worldview, and in this Brooks’ films at...

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 the interwebs. 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 Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

The Films of Albert Brooks

We can think of no better way to celebrate the holiday weekend then curling up with the hilarious, often touching films of Albert Brooks. All of his directorial features — Real Life, Modern Romance, Lost in America, Defending Your Life, Mother, The Muse, and Looking For Comedy in a Muslim World — have now been added to Netflix. What are you waiting for?...

Albert Brooks is probably best known to younger movie fans as Marlin in Pixar’s “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory,” but thanks to a recent deal, Netflix is reminding everyone of the comedian’s long history in film. In a humorous new clip, Brooks announces that Netflix will host seven of his movies starting July 1.

Read More: Louis C.K. & Albert Brooks Co-Writing & Starring In Animated Pilot For FX

The lineup will include “Real Life,” “Defending Your Life,” “Modern Romance,” “Lost in America,” “Mother,” “The Muse” and “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World.” Brooks wrote, directed and stars in each film.

Until now, the movies haven’t been streaming online and were only available for purchase or rental. In the promotional video, Brooks jokes that he may have resorted to unsavory means to secure the deal with Netflix. “I’m not advocating kidnapping in any situation. It is a federal crime,...

"I have seen the future, and it is a bald-headed man from New York!" Has there even been a specially-produced commercial announcing that Netflix was adding the library of a specific writer/director? I think this might be the first, and it feels appropriate that it’s done in spectacular dry Albert Brooks fashion. Tomorrow, the streaming video service will add all seven of the feature films that were written and directed by Brooks, and that is reason to rejoice whether you’re intimately familiar with all of them or new to them completely. I would argue that he’s made three perfect comedies and four films that all feature work that is smart and personal and carefully-observed. Modern Romance is a terrific movie that flies in the face of everything we know about how romantic comedy works, charting the ups and (mostly) downs of a relationship between Brooks and Kathryn Harrold.

Comedian and actor Albert Brooks had a long career before he became known as the voice of Marlin in the "Finding Nemo" films, one aspect of it that doesn't get discussed as much as it should are his efforts at directing.

Kicking off with 1979's "Real Life," Brooks penned and directed seven theatrical features which include 1981's "Modern Romance," 1985's "Lost in America," 1991's "Defending Your Life," 1996's "Mother," 1999's "The Muse" and 2005's "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World ".

Starting tomorrow (July 1st), Netflix has revealed it will make these films available to stream for the first time ever, although sadly they will be available only to Netflix's U.S. subscribers. Brooks even shot a special piece for the announcement which you can see below:...

If heaven exists, what would it look like?

It's one of life's big questions, and if you believe what you see in the movies, it's a place full of white fluffy clouds and friendly angels pining for their life back on our Big Blue Marble. But that's not how Albert Brooks sees it.

Twenty-five years ago — and less than a year after Ghost stormed the box office — Brooks wrote, directed, and starred in Defending Your Life, the story of an ad man who buys himself a Bimmer for his 40th birthday,...

Chicago – Albert Brooks’ classic film “Defending Your Life” (1991) has an “afterlife” of its own.

Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com will host a screening and discussion of the film on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. at the Studio Movie Grill in Wheaton, Ill. as part of the Chicago Film Critics Association’s “Film with a View” series.

This was the fourth feature film for writer, director and lead actor Albert Brooks, cementing his reputation after the previous “Real Life” (1979), “Modern Romance” (1981) and “Lost in America” (1985). It concerns the state of life after death, or in the case of Brooks’ newly demised character Daniel Miller, the trial that takes place through that afterlife in “Judgement City.” Besides being an exceptionally brilliant comedy, it has the bittersweet emotions of regret, doubt and fulfillment in the overview of one man’s life. It co-stars a middle career Meryl Streep, who imbues her heroic...

1.) Albert Brooks is returning to voice Nemo's father, Marlin, in Finding Nemo 2. Ellen DeGeneres is also expected to return as the forgetful Dory with Andrew Stanton set to direct. At this point there are no plot details, though a 2016 release date is expected. Deadline 2.) Safe House director Daniel Espinosa is attached to direct an adaptation of John Grisham's "The Racketeer" for Fox and New Regency. The book sees a federal judge murdered at a lakeside cabin and the contents of his safe emptied. The only man who knows the whos and whys is a former attorney serving time in federal prison who hopes to parlay that into getting revenge on the people who put him there. THR 3.) More Twilight fan fiction is targeting a big screen adaptation while Universal tries to figure out what they're going to do with Fifty Shades of Grey. Constantin Film has acquired movie...

Discerning filmgoers aghast at the prospect of paying good money to see new releases "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" or "Movie 43" have better option right at their fingertips: "Supporting Characters," Daniel Schechter's winning indie comedy about two 20-something film editors (played by "Girls" star Alex Karpovsky and Tarik Lowe) navigating life and love in New York.

With "Supporting Characters" out on VOD now, Schechter spoke to HuffPost Entertainment about the inspirations for his film, the pros and cons of the current indie film landscape, and what fans can expect from his adaptation of "The Switch," Elmore Leonard's novel about Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, the characters Leonard later featured in "Rum Punch," which turned into the 1997 film "Jackie Brown."

On Twitter you wrote that the reviews of "Supporting Characters" have been "reluctantly positive." I like that.

It's the perfect way to describe the response to the movie.

After doing the rounds on VoD for a few weeks, where many of you will have seen it, Sarah Polley's "Take This Waltz" starts to roll out in theaters from tomorrow, and we can't recommend it enough; it's a messy, sometimes frustrating film, but a deeply felt, beautifully made and wonderfully acted one, and we named it last week as one of the best of the year so far. It is not, however, recommended as a date movie, fitting into a long cinematic tradition of painful examinations of broken, decaying, collapsing or dead relationships.

After all, it's one of the more universal human experiences; unless you get very lucky, everyone who falls in love will at some point have the wrenching experience of falling out of it, or being fallen out of love with. And when done best in film, it can be bruising and borderline torturous for a filmmaker and an audience,...

As films about film go, Daniel Schechter‘s Supporting Characters is relatively low-fi stuff. Concerning an editor named Nick (Alex Karpovsky), his assistant editor Darryl (Tarik Lowe) and the duo’s attempt to save a film as well as their personal relationships, the film, while a tad recycled, slowly grows into a comfortable, relatable piece.

Taking severely from Albert Brooks’ seminal rom-com Modern Romance, Schechter knows what works and what doesn’t. The majority of the film relies of Karpovsky’s natural knack for comedic timing, Lowe serving as a more-than-capable sidekick who longs to be much more than that.

We watch Nick navigate long-term girlfriend Amy (Sophia Takal) and the idea that a more attractive, more famous girl – the star of the film to be exact (played by Arielle Kebbel) - might be interested in him. Meanwhile, Darryl is too excited about a new relationship with a domineering girlfriend...

For those of us who are fans of "Drive," no nomination was more important this morning than Albert Brooks in the best supporting actor category.   However, after Brooks surprisingly failed to land the equivalent SAG Awards honor, many began worrying he wouldn't make the Oscar cut.  That sadly came to pass as Max Von Sydow was the surprise fifth nominee for "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."   Brooks, whose films and performances in "Modern Romance," "Defending Your Life" and "Mother" have won him a legion of fans, became a twitter star last year with his witty under 140 character tweets....

Albert Brooks, the noted stand-up, writer, director, actor, and novelist, recently sat down to talk about the latest film he’s acting in, Drive, as well as…well…everything he else he puts a hand to. During this round table interview, he discusses the process of making his own films against the creation of a novel, which Drive cast member does the best Johnny Carson impression, how he handled the expensive (not to mention dangerous) knives his character Bernie cherished so, and how playing such a terrifying character could be a useful parenting tool (excluding the knives, natch).

The following is a transcript from our roundtable interview. My questions, along with those who sat in on the table, will be in bold. Mr. Brooks’ answers follow.

The Film Stage: You’re a very prolific filmmaker in your own right. How was the experience of just acting?

Albert Brooks: I...

Even after over 40 years in the business, Albert Brooks isn't done surprising people. The comic, actor, and filmmaker rose to prominence in the 1970s with groundbreaking appearances on "The Tonight Show" where he demonstrated such offbeat gags as how to use a Speak and Spell toy as a ventriloquist's dummy and achieving the perfect Clark Gable impersonation by sucking on a lemon.He broke into movies when Martin Scorsese, a fan, cast him as a campaign worker in "Taxi Driver." But Brooks often eschewed other acting roles to pursue writing and directing his own films—cerebral comedies such as "Modern Romance," "Lost in America," and "Defending Your Life"—whose respectable but hardly blockbuster box office didn't fully reflect the enormous cultural impact his work had. (Anyone who has ever called someone a "little brain" owes a debt to "Defending Your Life.") Outside of his own projects, Brooks has flourished. He earned an.

It's not a great week for new movies in Austin. The two big Hollywood movies are getting mixed-at-best reviews and only one arthouse film is opening (but it does have Kevin Kline in it). Frankly, I think a better option that would let you enjoy Zookeeper actress Leslie Bibb in a dark comedy about horrible bosses would be Miss Nobody, which played Austin Film Festival last year and is now available on Netflix Watch Instantly.

If none of the new movies grab you, there are not only lots of carryover options from previous weeks but special screenings galore. I am most excited that the Paramount is showing Brazil on Sunday -- twice, although I plan to see it only once. The Paramount also has an Albert Brooks double-feature of Modern Romance and Broadcast News on Tuesday and Wednesday; check their calendar for specifics. And if you're a Sam Peckinpah fan,...

One more reason to be super jealous of our friends in Austin, the announcement of the Paramount’s Summer Classic Film Series 2011 would make any classic film lover think they had died and gone to heaven. Celebrating 36 years and going strong, the place to be during the summer is Austin (as usual). And of course, when there’s classic films being announced at a repertory theater, there’s always a few Criterion connections.

Peter Bogdanovich, who recently entered the Criterion collection himself with his magnificent film The Last Picture Show (which will be screening July 27th – 28th, hosted by Sam Beam of Iron & Wine), will be there at the kick off, on May 20th, where he will be discussing Hollywood history which then is followed by a screening of Casablanca and a film of his choosing. That alone is worth your anticipation, because if anyone has great stories about film,...

Now that the big show is behind us, it’s time to highlight a lesser-publicized tradition of each year’s Academy Awards: the fudging of the “In Memoriam.” Oscar producers usually explain away this not-so-glamorous custom as being a result of time constraints, honoree career technicalities, or – at times – simple forgetfulness.

We’re still scratching our heads about how – and why – in previous ceremonies, greats like Farrah Fawcett and George Carlin have been forgotten. This year’s omissions proved no less perplexing – here are four of the biggest snubs.

Corey Haim

Haim’s teen idol status skyrocketed in the 80’s thanks to starring roles in “Lucas,” “Dream a Little Dream” and “License to Drive.” Arguably, his most memorable role was as Sam Emerson in the 1987 vampire horror film “The Lost Boys,” where he shared screen time with the other half of the now-infamous “Coreys” – Corey Feldman. Haim was a notorious bad boy,...

Updated: So who was this year's Brad Renfro, Farrah Fawcett, and Bea Arthur? Forgotten dead Hollywood types included Oscar-nominated Don Peterman, Director of Photography for Splash, Cocoon, Flashdance, Star Trek IV, Point Break, Get Shorty, Men In Black, and many others. Marty Baum, the longtime CAA motion picture talent agent. Eric Rohmer, the arthouse French filmmaker and screenwriter who was one of the key figures of the post-war New Wave cinema movement and who made 24 films. Corey Haim, the teen film actor who died last March at age 38. Maria Schneider, from 1972's Last Tango In Paris who died of cancer this month. Monica Johnson, co-writer of the Albert Brooks films Real Life, Modern Romance, Lost in America, The Muse, and Mother. Lisa Blount, who not only was an Academy nominee for An Officer And Gentleman but also a winner as producer of the Best Short Film in 2002. More coming in.

Hey peeps! February is Women in Horror Month and you all are invited to celebrate with the lovely ladies!

From the Press Release:

This year we are excited to announce

The Second Annual Women In Horror Month Celebration

At Dark Delicacies In Burbank, CA February 12th, 2011

We would like to officially invite you to the second year’s festivities for Women In Horror Month celebrations in Burbank, California at Dark Delicacies!

Dai Green and Reyna Young have teamed up with Sue and Del Howison to bring this exciting event to the friends and fans of women in the horror genre and to celebrate our strides in the industry throughout the years while also meeting up for two great causes!

February 12th, 2011 we will be having a food drive to benefit the Burbank Food Bank and a clothing drive to benefit The Covenant House whose mission is to reach out to...