'Cockroach': Film Review

Don't be fooled by the marketing materials. Yes, Charlie Sheen, George Clooney and Laura Dern do appear in the long unseen Grizzly II: Revenge.

The affinity for urban street culture that informed Ramin Bahrani's early New York indies, Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, is all over the writer-director's mordant adaptation for Netflix of Aravind Adiga's 2008 Booker Prize winner, The White Tiger. An immersive plunge into the chasm separating the servant class from the rich in contemporary India, the drama observes corruption at the highest and lowest levels with its tale of innocence lost and tables turned.

Watch Video: 'The White Tiger' Trailer: An Indian Servant Won't Wait for a 'Slumdog Millionaire' RescueHe realizes that his only ticket out is to get a job as a driver for Ashok (Rajkummar Rao), the U.S.-educated son of the town’s landlord.

An advocacy drama that doesn't forget it needs to tell an interesting story in order to win viewers over, Alexandre Franchi's Happy Face sometimes risks going too far in its tale of a support group for disfigured people: Though Franchi and cowriter Joelle Bourjolly have thought their metaphors through, they might have picked, say, either Cervantes or Dungeons & Dragons as a window into the trials of those who feel like monsters.

World War II cartoons Warner Bros. produced for the Air Force about the mythical “gremlins” that were thought to be the source of aircraft malfunction, we follow Captain Maude Garrett (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she hops onto a B-17 bomber at the last minute, carrying with her a leather case containing what she says is classified cargo.

Rebecca Davis editorChinese director Guan Hu is riding high right now: Despite languishing in government censorship purgatory for over a year, his patriotic war epic “The Eight Hundred” has risen to become the highest grossing film in the world in 2020, with sales of $461 million. His next confirmed move? More jingoistic propaganda.

A movie can have the best intentions in the world and still not quite hit the mark. Such is the case with Ron Vignone's heartland-set drama about a woman attempting to pick up the pieces of her life after serious missteps relating to her previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder.

Also Read: 'Sylvie's Love' Review: Tessa Thompson Pursues Love and Career in Swoon-Worthy Period RomanceCassie’s avoidance routine is interrupted by the arrival of an old classmate, Ryan (Bo Burnham), who professes a longtime crush on her and asks her out. Inadvertently, his presence also brings up painful memories for Cassie, which are slowly revealed to be a traumatic event that led to the end of her dreams of becoming a doctor.

Anyone who's ever resorted to sex in an attempt to heal a fractured relationship will find something to relate to in married filmmakers Sarah Portelli and Ivan Malekin's anthology-style drama set in a variety of international locales.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefFilm industry relations between China and Europe have been kept alive throughout the coronavirus outbreak by Bridging The Dragon, an informal trade organization now in its sixth year.After its regular event held during the Berlin film festival in February, further seminars, presentations and mixers should have taken place in Cannes in May and in Beijing in November.

A likably low-rent, low-ambition entry into a genre whose standard-bearer, Meatballs, doesn't set the bar very high, Mike Stasko's Boys Vs. Girls goes to summer camp for its promised battle of the sexes.

While we may be talking about the unfortunate death of movie theaters in the US, considering they have yet to fully bounce back from being closed most of the year and 2021 isn’t looking as promising as we hoped, Chinese cinemas are not only open but thriving.

If 2020 was not exactly a banner year for art-house cinema, with festivals either cancelled or relegated to online status and theatrical releases postponed or demoted to streaming sites, this was not necessarily the case for French filmmaker Sébastien Lifshitz, who managed to put out two of his best works by December: the feature documentaries Little Girl and Adolescents, both of which saw distribution and critical acclaim at home.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran executive Brett Hogg has been promoted and made head of Sony Pictures film and television operations across Asia. He will remain at his current base in Singapore.He has been senior VP of international distribution for Sony Pictures Releasing International in the Asia region, supervising the Sony Pictures Releasing operations across Southeast Asia, China and India for theatrical distribution.

A lyrical portrait of a former political giant in his twilight years, Vitaly Mansky's Gorbachev. Heaven is an unusually intimate docu-memoir that feels like an epitaph.

The New York Film Critics Circle has unveiled its annual awards, honouring the late Chadwick Boseman with the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance in the Spike Lee-directed “Da 5 Bloods”.

do this.”Whereupon Hunter, who doesn’t speak English because he’s not from our world, gives her a blank look. “Huh?” he says.Artemis stops, realizes her schtick isn’t playing to this audience, and shrugs.

Netflix is adding fantasy film The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity to its pool of high-profile Chinese commercial movies. The feature, directed by youth-favorite filmmaker Guo Jingming, will debut on Netflix on Feb.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefGlobal streaming giant Netflix has acquired rights to “The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity,” a period fantasy action film by the ferociously talented and divisive director Guo Jingming. The film is set for a major theatrical release in mainland China on Dec.