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One of the best films of 2020 — and the last one I’ll get to see in a theater for who knows how long — Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” (Lionsgate) sees the director once again turning to the American frontier to tell a story about America now. John Magaro and Orion Lee play two men in pioneer-era Oregon who go into business selling fried-dough “oilycakes” to homesick miners, but find themselves in the crosshairs of the plutocrat who owns the territory’s only source of fresh milk. It’s gorgeous, elegaic, witty, and powerful — and you’ll crave some funnel cakes.

Also available: Director James Sweeney, who also wrote and starred, makes an impressive feature debut with “Straight Up” (Strand Releasing), about a gay man whose lack of relationship success drives him to give women one last shot; two siblings try to fulfill their grandmother’s dying wish in...

Bruce Campbell will be the voice of President Richard M. Nixon in an indie thriller and dark comedy set in the Watergate era called “18 1/2” as directed by Slamdance Film Festival co-founder Dan Mirvish, Bugeater Films announced Friday.

The film’s live-action cast was also unveiled and stars Willa Fitzgerald, John Magaro, Vondie Curtis Hall, Catherine Curtin and Sullivan Jones. And alongside Campbell in the voice cast are Ted Raimi as Gen. Al Haig and Jon Cryer as H. R. Haldeman.

“18 1/2” is a historical fiction film about the 18 1/2 minutes of audio erased from President Nixon’s Oval Office voice recording system that led to the unraveling of the Watergate scandal. It made the audio’s erasure one of the worst incidents of evidence destruction by a presidential administration and something that’s been ripe for conspiracy theories. Campbell has previously played another President, playing Ronald Reagan on “Fargo,” and his voice...

Actress Ellen Toland spoke to uInterview about the challenges of playing a sex worker in the new movie Inside The Rain. The movie follows a young man, Ben, played by Aaron Fisher (he’s also the writer and director), who suffers from bipolar disorder and has been kicked out of college. He enlists the help of […]

The post Ellen Toland Reveals The Challenges Of Playing A Sex Worker In ‘Inside The Rain’ appeared first on uInterview.

“I have some big news,” the Los Angeles Times lead film critic Kenneth Turan tweeted on Wednesday. “After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.’ Looking forward to what’s to come.”

The outpouring of praise for Turan, who is 73, was intense and immediate. “The maestro takes a bow,” responded The New York Times lead film critic A.O. Scott on Twitter, who himself stepped down from full-time daily criticism on March 15 for one year, leaving that task to his fellow lead critic Manohla Dargis. In his case, taking the title of Critic at Large as he writes “bigger, cross-topic essays,” per The Nyt,...

Concerns over Covid-19 have continued to increase and the effect on the global box office has been felt. This weekend's top ten combined for an estimated $50.35 million, which is the lowest, week eleven combined gross for the top ten since 1995 with all holdovers dropping -60% or more compared to last weekend. With all new wide releases postponed until April 10, things are unlikely to improve.

At the top of the weekend box office is Disney and Pixar's Onward with an estimated $10.5 million, dipping an unheard of -73% compared to opening weekend. The film's domestic cume now stands at $61 million after ten days in release. Internationally, the animated feature added an estimated $6.8 million from 47 markets bringing the international cume to $41.4 million for a worldwide total that now stands at $101.7 million.

Lionsgate Lionsgate's release of I Still Believe debuted in second place, bringing in an estimated $9.5 million. Like all of the weekend's new releases,...

The overall box office this weekend has fallen 25% or more, which is partly due to a weak slate of titles. But the specialty business is a site of carnage. That’s because the core older arthouse audience is avoiding theaters during the current pandemic, despite the presence of compelling films at varying levels of release.

Specialized theaters have one advantage: The films they play aren’t as likely to be pulled, and can roll out more gradually and even hold. And if the big circuits shut down, surviving arthouses might pick up extra business. But the grim reality is their patrons shouldn’t be going out, even if low attendance, super-sanitizing and seat spreading limits the risk. That makes more shutdowns a likelihood.

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When asked to diagnose himself early in “Inside the Rain,” Benjamin Glass, a college film student played by Aaron Fisher, cheerfully runs down a checklist: “I’m bipolar, Adhd, Ocd, borderline personality disorder… You name it, I’ve got it.” It’s a moment that is at once both amusing and unsettling — even more so if you’re aware that Fisher, who also wrote, directed and co-edited this offbeat indie dramedy, is describing his own real-life medical condition.

Indeed, knowing all that inevitably influences your response to the entire film, much of which plays like an engagingly freewheeling mix of autobiography and wish-fulfillment. Fisher, an ingratiatingly ordinary-looking fellow who could be plausibly cast as Jason Biggs’ taller and beefier kid brother, commendably refrains from making his cinematic doppelganger easily likable. Especially but not exclusively during Benjamin’s frequent manic episodes, he comes off as almost unbearably obnoxious, if not downright scary.

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? This week […]

The post This Week In Trailers: Beanpole, Inside the Rain, Goldie, Most Likely to Succeed, Mike Birbiglia: The New One appeared first on /Film.

In today’s film news roundup, Warner Bros. is giving an earlier date to “Tom and Jerry,” “Inside the Rain” gets distribution, Lionsgate is launching a crime drama, and the Napa Valley Film Festival annnounces its honorees.

Release Dates

Warner Bros. has moved its live-action hybrid comedy “Tom and Jerry” forward by four months to Dec. 23, 2020.

The cat and mouse story, directed by Tim Story, was initially slated for release on April 16, 2021. The studio said Friday that it will fill that slot with a yet-to-be titled “event” film.

“Tom and Jerry” stars Chloe Grace Moretz, Michael Pena, Ken Jeong, Jordan Bolger and Pallavi Sharda. The story centers on Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse getting kicked out of their home and relocating to a fancy New York hotel where Moretz’s character is an employee who will lose her job if she can’t evict Jerry.

Warner Bros. also...