‘Dead for a Dollar’ Film Review: Walter Hill Captures the Best and Worst of Low-Budget Westerns

The 2022 Emmys ended up being a middle-of-the-road show — nothing terribly controversial happened (no, nobody slapped anyone). But it also moved along at a brisk pace and included enough moving and funny moments that it wasn’t a bad show, either. Host Kenan Thompson played it safe, and did a solid job shepherding things along while injecting a few laughs, but nothing too distracting.

The biggest compliment we can give Done + Dusted, the production company behind the past three Emmy Award ceremonies, is that they got it in at exactly three hours and they did it without straining the proceedings. They handed out 25 awards, had some great speeches and some funny bits.

Here’s one more For Your Consideration piece before you turn your focus to Oscar season: the best and worst moments from the 2022 Emmys. Would you consider Cheryl Lee Ralph’s time on stage one of the highlights of the night? Were you as puzzled as we were when Lizzo called Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein a really big girl? And where the heck was Marcia Brady?

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Jean Smart took home the Emmy for best actress in a comedy series for her performance in “Hacks.” Smart won in a stacked category over fellow nominees Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), Kaley Cuoco (“The Flight Attendant”), Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”), Elle Fanning (“The Great”) and Issa Rae (“Insecure”). Smart won for “Hacks” Season 2, which aired on HBO Max beginning in May 2022. The show was renewed for a third season in June shortly after the second season debuted. This is Smart’s second consecutive win in the category after her victory for “Hacks” Season 1 last year. She has been nominated for 12 Emmy Awards throughout her career with five wins, counting this and last year’s win. She previously won twice for best guest actress in a comedy for “Frasier” and for best supporting actress in a comedy for “Samantha Who?”

, glimmered down the red-carpet, wearing a custom Brandon Blackwood gown, crystal-encrusted orange bag, and matching glam: a bedazzled waist-length braid and eye-framing face gems.“Black is anything but basic. It is classic, it is chic, it is timeless: it is far from basic.

Every director, it seems, has a deeply personal coming-of-age story to tell, from Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” to Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” to Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma.” And lately every Toronto International Film Festival has made one of those films a centerpiece of its lineup. Last year, it was Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” which won TIFF’s audience award and went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture; this year, it’s Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” which had its world premiere on Saturday night in the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre.Based on Spielberg’s childhood in New Jersey (briefly), Phoenix (longer) and Northern California (for a stormy stretch in high school), “The Fabelmans” is a sweet look back at a boy who was transfixed by the movies from the moment he saw “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1952, and who started his own adventures in filmmaking with the help of his dad’s camera and a Lionel train set in the basement.

At first pass, “The Woman King” recalls those classic Disney animated fables. Though inspired by real-life warriors who guarded the Kingdom of Dahomey in 19th-century West Africa, the film hits many familiar notes: Ancient mythical land! Palace intrigue! Rebellious orphan! Tough-love mentors! Coming of age! Prince charming! Wicked villain! Good vs. evil showdown! It’s just that here, the tropes aren’t metaphors at all and the story isn’t an allegory. In the Sony Pictures release that premiered on Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, Oscar winner Viola Davis stars as General Nanisca, commander of the Agojie, an all-female army, and adviser to the young King Ghezo (John Boyega), who has recently ascended to the throne.

For many years now Venice has been a respectful platform for those big-name directors of the 1970s and early ’80s who are happy to go back into the fray long after those juicy studio budgets dried up: Brian De Palma, William Friedkin, Paul Verhoeven, John Carpenter and — to a lesser extent — George Romero all found a home here for their late-period passion projects. Walter Hill, now 80, joins their ranks with an improbably youthful horse opera, and while it shows up the limitations of both writing and shooting a Western in the modern age (concessions to modern sensitivities have to be made, and digital cinematography somehow just doesn’t cut it with the subject matter), it’s nevertheless a wickedly enjoyable genre romp and full of violent surprises.

Willem Dafoe and Christoph Waltz have joined the raft of famous faces making appearances at the Venice International Film Festival. The Hollywood heavyweights were pictured in apparent good spirits, as they arrived for the event on Tuesday evening ahead of the premiere of their film Dead For A Dollar. The pair star in the Western, which is written and directed by Walter Hill, alongside actress Rachel Brosnahan.

Christoph Waltz and Willem Dafoe buddy up on the red carpet for the premiere of their movie, Dead For A Dollar, during the 2022 Venice Film Festival on Tuesday (September 6) in Venice, Italy.

WATCH: Met Gala 2022 red carpet styleWith the likes of Harry Styles, Timothee Chalamet and several Euphoria stars making appearances in Italy for the 79th Venice International Film Festival, we were guaranteed to see a few unique styling choices.From sheer styles and cut-outs, to backless numbers on men and ladies baring all in barely-there frocks, there's been so much to look at.Meanwhile rumours of feuds between certain members of the Don't Worry Darling cast and crew (Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde, to be specific) have kept all eyes on the red carpet as fans watch out for any awkward encounters.So what have we seen on the red carpet so far, which stars are acing the fashion game and why have some outfits been labelled fashion misses? Keep reading to find out - and see all the photos.Sadie Sink really can do no wrong, making her VFF debut in this divine Alexander McQueen number.The cape, the colour, the jewelled details - this dress is a statement and Olivia Wilde pulls it off flawlessly.Florence Pugh looks phenomenal in this sheer black Valentino number but it's the statement shoes that really pulls this look together.Gemma Chan in silver is something we never knew we needed but god does she look amazing.In a bold fashion move, Timothee Calamet rocked a backless red ensemble by Haider Ackermann that mad eheadlines in the fashion world. We're just glad he wasn't dressed in a boring black suit.This is how you do Barbiecore. Alessandra Ambrosio took feminine to the next level in this pink Ermanno Scervino gown.Okay, we know we just dissed plain black suits, but hear us out: if anyone can get away with this look it's Regé-Jean Page.

“I need a drink,” offers a character (who shall remain nameless to avoid spoilers) as the final line of “Dead for a Dollar,” director Walter Hill’s return to the Western. It’s a note of exasperation, not triumph, following the genre’s inevitable shootout.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic The title of Walter Hill’s “Dead for a Dollar” makes it sound like a spaghetti Western, and the picture opens with stunning vistas and a wistfully valorous neo-Morricone score that gives you the impression — maybe the hope — that it will be. It ends on a very different note: a series of titles explaining, with precise dates and details, what happened to each of the main characters, as if the film were based on a true story. It’s the “American Graffiti” gambit of treating fictional characters as though they were real, only in this case it ends up revealing something essential about the drama we’ve been watching. Namely, how it could be so avid, specific, and scrupulously carpentered…yet remote.

Dead For A Dollar stars Christoph Waltz, Rachel Brosnahan, Willem Dafoe and Benjamin Bratt pose with director Walter Hill at the film’s photo call during the 2022 Venice Film Festival on Tuesday (September 6).

Ahead of accepting the Venice Film Festival’s Glory to the Filmmaker Award this evening, legendary filmmaker Walter Hill met with the press corps here on the Lido to talk about his new western, Dead For A Dollar.

Longtime “Alien” franchise screenwriter and producer Walter Hill (“48 Hours“) has revealed that Disney isn’t too keen on his “Alien 5” spec script — or in bringing back Sigourney Weaver‘s iconic hero Ellen Ripley for a legacy sequel. The “Alien” franchise is in an interesting place at the moment.

“I made a new life for myself from flowers,” marvels the green-thumbed Narvel Roth. “How unexpected is that?” To be fair, it’s about the only plausible thing that happens in Paul Schrader’s Venice Film Festival out of competition entry Master Gardener, an incredibly silly but fitfully entertaining noir-tinged drama that follows so neatly on from First Reformed and The Card Counter that it’s almost as if Schrader has patented his own sui generis subgenre, a mix of the sublime and the ridiculous that just about works if you’re prepared to walk the line with it.