Drive-In ‘Lovers Rock’: A NY Film Festival Unlike Any Other Honks Opening Horn

Jill Goldsmith Co-Business Editor“I’m getting some pretty meaty offers in the past few days that I am going to attribute to Loy Cannon,” said Chris Rock, who plays the head of the eponymous Cannon crime syndicate in the fourth season of Fargo.“Yeah, I am ready to do more stuff like this. More meaty roles,” the standup comic-actor-director announced at the New Yorker Festival in a Tuesday night virtual session.

Patrick Hipes Executive Managing EditorNewFest is hosting a reading of Ang Lee’s groundbreaking Brokeback Mountain at its New York LGBTQ Film Festival on October 18, employing an all-trans cast for the event that commemorates the film’s 15th anniversary.The cast features Leo Sheng (The L Word) as Ennis, Brian Michael Smith (911: Lone Star) as Jack, Jen Richards (Tales of the City) as Alma, Alexandra Grey (Empire) as Lurleen and Disclosure director Sam Feder as the narrator.The original film

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThe 58th edition of the New York Film Festival is unlike any of the previous 57 iterations. Coronavirus restrictions on public gatherings forced the festival’s organizers to overhaul their usual approach to highlighting the best of cinema.

Global’s “Saturday Night Live” is returning home to 30 Rock.

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorNew York Comic-Con, taking place virtually Oct. 8-11, has announced a number of key film and TV panels including early looks at Universal/Blumhouse’s Nov.

Andrew Barker Senior Features WriterJust judging by the slate, last year’s New York Film Festival offered a testament to the nearly six-decade-old fest’s place in the fall awards circuit firmament, and in New York filmgoing culture.

Also Read: New York Comic Con 2020 Schedule: Here Are All the Must-See 'Metaverse' Virtual PanelsGames were first partially included in the Tribeca awards roughly a decade years ago, the organization said, when Rockstar Games’ detective thriller “L.A. Noir” was the first video game to be an official selection in the festival.

Janet W. Lee NewFest, New York’s LGBTQ film and media organization, has announced its program for the 32nd New York LGBTQ Film Festival.

Patrick Hipes Executive Managing EditorThe hybrid in-person/virtual New York LGBTQ Film Festival will kick off October 16 with the Kate Winslet-Saoirse Ronan movie Ammonite as its opening-night film.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Keeping intact its long relationship with filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, Sony Pictures Classics has acquired The Human Voice, the 30 minute short film that stars Tilda Swinton and will be unveiled during the New York Film Festival.

Since its founding, the New York Film Festival has been intertwined with Lincoln Center. But, as with the entertainment industry at large, the coronavirus pandemic has shaken up long-standing traditions.

BTS ARMY absolutely adores Jimmy Fallon and how welcoming he is of their idols whenever they grace their presence on The Tonight Show. During Map of the Soul: 7's promotions, in particular, an entire episode was dedicated to BTS with the septet even joining Fallon for an interview inside the New York subway.

“If you are the big tree, we are the small axe,” this is the Jamaican proverb that has inspired filmmaker Steve McQueen‘s, “Small Axe,” a collection of five films inspired by real-life events about ordinary people showing courage, belief, and resilience to overcome injustice and achieve something transformative in their West Indian community.

Earlier in the week, the 2020 incarnation of the New York Film Festival got underway officially, with one part of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology, Lovers Rock, serving as the Opening Night Selection. Having seen it, the movie serves as both a strong start for NYFF this year, as well as a smaller and far less awards friendly selection.

Jimmy Fallon has been loving life with his family of four since becoming a father in 2013.The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon host and his wife, Nancy Juvonen, first welcomed daughter Winnie, and she became a big sister the following year when Frances arrived.After their eldest child’s arrival, the New York native opened up to Savannah Guthrie about why he and Juvonen opted to use a surrogate for both baby girls.“My wife and I had been trying a while to have a baby,” the Saturday Night Live

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticIn the most transporting scene of Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock,” we’re at a London house party that has just hit its smoky seductive dirty-dancing groove. It’s 1980, and most of the revelers have West Indian roots.

Todd McCarthy Watching Lovers Rock is akin to going to see Romeo and Juliet and only staying through the first act, to departing a basketball game after the first quarter, to sipping the soup and skipping the rest of the meal. A mere wisp of a thing, Steve McQueen’s 68-minute feature, the only fictional section of a five-film anthology called Small Axe about London’s West Indian community between the late 1960s and 1980, steeps you in the atmosphere and music of the latter date.

Also Read: Steve McQueen's 'Lovers Rock' Set as New York Film Festival Opening Night FilmCinematographer Shabier Kirchner (“Skate Kitchen”) gets us so close to the action that we’re reminded of why students at Catholic high-school dances are always admonished to leave room for the Holy Spirit.This is very much an ensemble piece, introducing us to various members of London’s West Indian community, but our protagonist is Martha (Amarah-Jae St.

Chris Rock recently revealed that he wasn't offended by Jimmy Fallon's 2000 sketch in which the then-Saturday Night Live star wore blackface to impersonate the Black actor. Back in May, Fallon, 45, apologized for a resurfaced clip of a 20-year-old SNL skit where he did an impression of Rock while wearing race-changing makeup.

canceled altogether, while this month’s New York Film Festival will mix mostly online viewing with a few outdoor screenings in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx. Only Venice has been totally brick-and-mortar.The pandemic has taught us a few things: For starters, more straight-to-digital releases from major studios will come in the future and many of us will work from home indefinitely.