‘Allelujah’ Review: Not Enough Judi Dench In This Hospital Drama Searching For Urgency [TIFF]

K.J. Yossman BBC have unveiled their fall/winter arts and factual slate including documentaries on Elon Musk and fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who tragically died last year at the age of 41, as well as a new Louis Theroux series in which he interviews stars including Judi Dench, Rita Ora and Stormzy. “I’ve been in my new role for four months and I’ve been blown away by the sheer range, scale and quality of programming coming out of the factual, arts and classical music departments,” said Kate Phillips, director for unscripted. “From stand out documentaries like ‘The Real Mo Farah’ and ‘Freddie’s Field of Dreams’ to the BBC Proms and the launch of ‘Frozen Planet II,’ the team here are at the very top of their game, bringing audiences high impact, uniquely public service content at its very best. We’ve got plenty more to look forward to in the months ahead and I’m excited to unveil such an impressive array of diverse new content featuring big and upcoming talent, and bringing us new perspectives, incredible access and big moments for everyone.”

At a critical moment in the billionaire vs. bear thriller “The Edge” (1997), protagonist Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins) espouses a rather odd theory of what kills most people stranded in the wilderness—shame.

A versatile star! Before her role in ABC’s Alaska Daily, Hilary Swank made a name for herself with a unique selection of roles.

Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria Baldwin have welcomed their seventh child together — a baby girl named Ilaria Catalina Irena. The name seemingly derives from the baby's mother, who was originally born Hilary Lynn Hayward-Thomas and only later adopted the Spanish pronunciation of her name, in a move that sparked outrage among the masses.

The summer transfer window might have only closed for business at the start of this month but already focus is quickly switching to January's and next summer's windows.

Police are appealing for witnesses after a car was stolen with a toddler in the backseat. A two-year-old girl was still in the vehicle when it was driven off by a thief in County Durham. Fortunately the youngster was found safe and well a few minutes later, but officers are investigating the incident, which took place in Church Street, Quarrington Hill, near Durham City, at about 7pm on Wednesday night (September 21). A family had parked their silver Vauxhall Vectra outside a relative’s house to drop shopping off when a dark Nissan X-Trail pulled up in the street and drove slowly past. The engine of the Vauxhall was still running while one member of the family stood by the car door and others took items inside. The suspect vehicle then reversed back along the street to pull alongside the Vauxhall and a man, dressed in a blue hooded jacket and black joggers, jumped out and climbed into the driver’s seat, with the two-year-old strapped into a car seat in the rear.

BFI London Film Festival Adds Trio Of Titles 

Arriving at an isolated cabin late at night, Raymond (Ewan McGregor) hasn’t spoken to his half-brother Ray (Ethan Hawke) for many years. Slightly estranged but forever entwined due to their shared parentage, the brothers reconnect as they make an uneasy journey to their late father Harris’ funeral 100 miles away.

Taipei Houston – the band comprising Myles and Layne Ulrich, sons of Metallica drummer Lars – have announced their debut album.The Ulrich brothers announced the formation of their band in the summer of 2021, and played their first gig together in Long Beach, California last September.On November 4, they will release debut album ‘Once Bit Never Bored’ via C3 Records. Today (September 14), it is being previewed by new single ‘The Middle’.The track follows the band’s debut single ‘As The Sun Sets’, which was shared earlier this year.Of their new band, the brothers said in a statement: “To us, Taipei Houston is about going against the grain in every aspect.

Cobra Kai fans have been asking for the past two seasons whether or not an appearance from Hilary Swank, reprising the role of Julie Pierce from The Next Karate Kid, could be in the cards. Following the release of the hit Netflix series’ fifth season with no Swank in sight, the speculation continues.

Dame Judi Dench was given two pairs of "powerful" glasses on 'The Repair Shop' to enable her to see her late husband's watch. The 87-year-old actress - who was married to actor Michael Williams from 1971 until his death in 2001 - took a timepiece once belonging to her late husband onto the BBC One craft show, but she was unable to see the team's work until horologist Steve Fletcher loaned her his spectacles. Steve said: "She was looking at the watch and couldn’t see the engraving we’d put on the back.

Dame Judi Dench was thrilled when The Repair Shop fixed a treasured watch, but she had not expected a ­magnify-cent gift as well. For horologist Steve Fletcher gave her two pairs of his super strong specs, which meant Judi, whose eyesight is failing, could see every tiny detail in her late husband’s pocket-watch. Dame Judi, 87, recently took part in a special Repair Shop show, where Jay Blades and his team helped to repair the timepiece belonging to her late husband Michael Williams.

Ralph Fiennes and Judith Light are stepping out for the premiere of their new movie.

Toronto International Film Festival.Unless, of course, you holler, “Allelujah! It’s time to go home!”That’s because the dinky drama, about a struggling hospital for the elderly in England, gets steadily more depressing as it plods along. There’s nothing wrong with some silver screen sorrow, but not when it amounts to indecisive mush. Sure, it is a pleasure to see the boffo acting talent together — Jennifer Saunders, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi and more — but they deserve so much better than hospital Jell-O. The creaky film began as a play at London’s Bridge Theatre by writer Alan Bennett, who also penned “The History Boys,” and much like the 2006 screen version of that show, “Allelujah,” directed by Richard Eyre, doesn’t comfortably make the leap to cinema.

Manori Ravindran International Editor The stars descended on Soho House in downtown Toronto on Saturday for Variety and Chanel’s Female Filmmakers’ Dinner during the Toronto International Film Festival. Guests in attendance included Tilda Swinton, star of Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter”; Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of “The Woman King”; Darren Aronofsky, director of “The Whale”; and Anna Kendrick, who’s in Toronto shopping her new AGC Studios project “The Dating Game” to market buyers. Stars mingled on a packed rooftop before convening in the club’s private dining room, which gathered around 100 of the festival’s bright lights in filmmaking. They dined on a bespoke Soho House menu of beef tartare with black truffle, black cod and bok choy, and wagyu rib cap with porcini purée.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Allelujah,” Richard Eyre’s latest film, unfolds in a Yorkshire geriatric hospital, following a group of patients as they make peace with or rage against the indignities of old age. It’s a story that resonates with Eyre, a legendary stage and screen director. “I’m about to be 80,” he says. “So old age isn’t my consuming passion, but it’s a subject that has been forced on me and that has become difficult to ignore. I’m acutely aware of having outlived both my parents and many of my friends.” Perhaps unwittingly, “Allelujah,” which premieres this weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival, also serves as a showcase for a generation of English actors such as Judi Dench, David Bradley, and Derek Jacobi, who have all entered their ninth decades.

somewhere to recuperate, Lindsay heads to her mother’s house in New Orleans, where mom has a boyfriend, uncertain hours and a taste for booze that her daughter doesn’t share. Not suited to sitting at home, Lindsay gets a job cleaning pools, then befriends James (Henry), the owner of a car repair joint and a man whose marriage ended badly some years earlier.Their friendship grows slowly and moves with easy Crescent City rhythms.

A Syrian war film with a difference, Nezouh is a delicate and engrossing entry in Venice’s Horizons Extra section. Director Soudade Kaadan won Lion of the Future for 2018’s The Day I Lost My Shadow, and she continues to impress with this empathetic story of life under siege. 

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic If you’re a fan of “The Trip” and its sequels, those semi-improvised road comedies in which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play slightly exaggerated versions of their real-life selves, you’ll know that they’re about more than just two men driving through the European countryside, eating fabulous food, trying to top each other with their Al Pacino impersonations. Coogan, in particular, comes off as a fellow who, for all his larkish narcissism, is so steeped in history that it’s literally alive for him. And that’s the feeling that courses through “The Lost King,” the new movie written by Coogan and Jeff Pope and directed by Stephen Frears. They’re the team that gave us “Philomena” (2013), the sharp-tongued heart-tugger that cast Judi Dench as a real-life Irishwoman tracking down the son she’d been forced to give up for adoption 50 years before. That movie was fine (a tad too sentimental in my book), but “The Lost King” is a growth ring, a richer, stronger, and more moving piece of work, a historical detective story that carries the kick of a true-life “Da Vinci Code.”

The secret to “Weird Al” Yankovic’s estimable powers is that he’s flagrantly, proudly, irresistibly uncool. He plays the accordion, one of the few instruments that no musician in human history has ever gotten laid for mastering, and he uses it to perform polka-themed parodies redolent of cornball Borscht Belt acts far from any sector of comedy even adjacent to ‘edgy.’ His songs reflect this much in that they’re basically about nothing, riffs on relatable banalities like finishing your dinner, or absurdities like Amish hip-hop.