‘Black Flies’ Review: Saving Lives Is Hell in Brutal Sean Penn Drama

Some of Broadway’s brightest were recognized at the 2023 Drama Desk Awards!

. In a new excerpt from his memoir, , the 36-year-old actor claims he had a romantic relationship with while she was still dating actor .

Not holding back! Kelly Clarkson dives deep into her heartbreak and anger on her new single, “I Hate Love,” in the wake of her divorce from Brandon Blackstock.

Sean Perry, a veteran WME non-scripted packaging agent and partner, is leaving the agency to set up his own production company.

Not your average LBD! Kendall Jenner has Us shook over her latest fashion statement. 

a statement on Twitter Wednesday, saying that she “passed away peacefully, surrounded by family.”“Her films, books, and unapologetic push to highlight discrimination and injustices within the news and entertainment industries will remain with us,” the announcement continued. “The world through Jessie’s lens offers views of humanity that are often overlooked due to race and power dynamics.”Please read the media announcement that the family of Jessie Maple asked that we share.

McKinley Franklin editor Jessie Maple, who broke barriers for Black women in entertainment and news as both a cinematographer and director, died on Tuesday in Atlanta. She was 76. Maple’s family released a statement confirming her death via the Black Film Center & Archive.  Maple was recognized as the first Black woman to be admitted into the International Photographers of Motion Picture & Television Union in the ‘70s. Her career as a trailblazing cinematographer led her move into directing, making the 1981 independent feature film “Will.” Maple was said to be the first Black woman to direct an independent feature-length film in a post-civil rights America. 

Blake Lively is turning up the heat on social media. The 35-year-old actress recently took to her Instagram Story to share a pic of her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and express her appreciation for his physique.Reynolds started the whole exchange when he posted a photo of himself sitting outside while sporting a tank top, leaving his muscles on full display, and wearing khakis, which were rolled up at the ankles. «Summer in New York makes me sorry for the way I treated winter in New York,» he wrote alongside the pic.Lively, who took the photo in question, reposted it on her own account, adding a «caution: extra spicy» sticker and a fire-breathing emoji.The couple, who tied the knot in 2012, share four kids.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively continue to be couple goals! The pair are known for having the most hilarious social media interactions and have shown how proud they are of each other over the years, after marrying in 2012 and welcoming their four kids, 8-year-old James, 6-year-old Inez, 3-year-old Betty, and a new baby. The 46-year-old actor, who was named Sexiest Man Alive back by People in 2010, decided to welcome summer weather in a white tank and khakis, showing off his biceps and making fans go crazy for his incredible physique.“Summer in New York makes me sorry for the way I treated winter in New York,” Reynolds wrote, posing casually for the camera while wearing his sunglasses.

Ryan Reynolds‘ time at the gym is definitely paying off!

Sean Penn strongly backed the current Hollywood screenwriters strike while speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, saying the dispute over artificial intelligence is “a human obscenity.”

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In “Black Flies,” a movie that keeps working to get high on its own intensity, Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan play paramedics who spend their nights driving through hell (I mean, Brooklyn). There are countless shots of the two in their EMS van, riding along under the tracks of an overhead subway train — the exact kind of grungy Brooklyn boulevard that Popeye Doyle went smashing through in the famous “French Connection” car/subway chase. As Rut (Penn) and Cross (Sheridan) patrol the borough neighborhood of Brownsville, one of the poorest and most crime-ridden sections of New York City, those overheard tracks become part of the film’s meticulously oppressive visual design. The two have so little breathing room they can barely see the sky. After a while, though, you start to think: Don’t these guys everdrive down a side street? Like everything else in “Black Flies,” those subway tracks are stylish signifiers of doom that are a little too in-your-face.

Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan hit up the photo call for their new movie, Black Flies, during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on Friday (May 19) in Cannes, France.

Sean Penn is standing in solidarity with the writers guild, whose members are currently on strike to fight for better wages and work conditions in the streaming era. “My full support is with the writers guild,” Penn said during Friday’s press conference for his latest movie “Black Flies,” which debuted in competition at Cannes Film Festival. “There are a lot of new concepts that are being tossed around, including the use of AI. And it just strikes me as human obscenity that there’s been a pushback on that.” Penn also slammed the PGA as a “bankers guild,” saying “the first thing we should do in these conversations is change the Producers Guild and title them how they behave, which is the bankers guild. It’s difficult for so many writers and people in the industry who cannot work.”

Refresh for updates…Sean Penn, asked about the current state of big wig studio chiefs and the plight of writers and directors, said today at the Black Flies presser, “The industry has been uspending the writers and directors for a long time. I fully support the situation with writers guild, of course.”

Black Flies,” the Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan film about emergency medical first responders, smacked the Cannes Film Festival in the face with a brutal world premiere on Thursday. Splattered brains, dead dogs, an addict giving birth with a needle dangling from her arm — these and a litany of other horrors confronted Penn and Sheridan, who play veteran and rookie paramedics, respectively, at the New York Fire Department. Interestingly enough, the black-tie screening at the Grand Palais enjoyed the dose of reality, giving the film a five-minute standing ovation. “We carry the misery,” a weary Penn tells Sheridan in the film of their chosen profession. That’s an understatement, as chaos unfolds neighborhood by neighborhood in a portrait of an unforgiving city.

Beware of black flies, they are the first to smell death. That is what rookie FDNY paramedic Ollie Cross is told by a colleague as he ventures into an abandoned apartment where a swarm is buzzing around a decaying dead body in a bathtub. It is clearly a metaphor for the job of first responders like Ollie and his partner Gene Rutkowsky who are also the first to “smell death,” repeatedly, on a job that takes its toll not just on those in need of medical help, but also on those who provide it.

sold earlier this year to Searchlight for $8 million. Starring Platt, Gordon, Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Patti Harrison, Nathan Lee Graham, Ayo Edebiri, Owen Thiele, Caroline Aaron and Amy Sedaris, “Theater Camp” is produced by Galvin, Gordon, Platt, Lieberman, Will Ferrell, Erik Feig, Samie Kim Falvey, Julia Hammer, Ryan Heller, Maria Zuckerman and Jessica Elbaum.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire spent more than a year in the back of ambulances, shuttling from one gruesome trauma to the next, as he shadowed EMTs in New York City to prepare for his new movie “Black Flies.” “This immersive approach is crucial,” Sauvaire tells Variety over Zoom, a week before he travels to the South of France to premiere “Black Flies” in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “If you don’t really know the reality of this job, it’s difficult to recreate it.” Adapted from Shannon Burke’s 2008 novel, the story follows Tye Sheridan as young paramedic Ollie Cross, who dreams of going to medical school. But he struggles to study as he is thrust into the intense and mentally taxing work of responding to emergency calls in Brooklyn. Sean Penn plays a hardened veteran, who teaches Ollie the ropes as they drive through New York City.

Blake Lively is back in action.