Film reviews: Stardust | Blithe Spirit | MLK/FBI

announced Wednesday that the 2021 edition will move from its regular late-May spot to early July, when the seaside Côte d’Azur averages a balmy 86 degrees.The summery change-up comes days after the French government announced plans to vaccinate its entire population against the coronavirus by August. Cinemas there remain closed through at least the end of January.Last year’s festival was canceled outright due to the pandemic, though cases at the time had subsided in France.

What has been hinted at and speculated about for weeks now is official — the 2021 Cannes Film Festival is officially no longer a spring event, as it moves into the middle of summer over concerns about COVID-19. According to the event’s organizers, this year’s Cannes Film Festival is no longer going to happen in mid-May and will instead begin on July 6, running until July 17.

Film Independent has unveiled its nominations for the 2021 Independent Spirit Awards, a major stop on this year's virtual awards season. Eliza Hittman's Never Rarely Sometimes Always scored a leading seven nominations, including for best feature, with Lee Isaac Chung's Minari landing six nods and George C.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeWhen Film Independent announced last fall that it would add several TV categories to this year’s Spirit Awards, perhaps the biggest question was, “What is Indie TV?”Ultimately, with no budgetary cap (unlike the $22.5 million limit in film), and with most TV projects coming from major networks and studios, Film Independent president John Walsh told me at the time that it would come down to a “smell test”: “aesthetic, original provocative subject matter,

A version of this story about “MLK/FBI” and Sam Pollard first appeared in the Documentaries issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.The documentary “MLK/FBI” delves into the years in the 1960s when the FBI engaged in a clandestine campaign to spy on and discredit civil rights activist and leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

Another awards show has shifted gears — again — amid the pandemic. Film Independent said Thursday that its Spirit Awards, which are typically held during the daytime in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica the day before the Oscars, will now "break tradition" and air in a primetime ceremony at 10 p.m.

Last year, as the second wave of COVID-19 swept through Europe, bringing many countries back into lockdown, the folks at the Cannes Film Festival revealed plans for alternative dates for the event if the typical May timeframe wasn’t a possibility. Let’s call May “Plan A” and the alternate dates in June/July were “Plan B.” Well, it appears Cannes is well past Plan A and already looking at Plan B…while drafting up a possible Plan C.

Paul Manafort; Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law; his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone; and his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.A voice of nationalist, outsider conservatism, Bannon — who served in the Navy and worked at Goldman Sachs and as a Hollywood producer before turning to politics — led the conservative Breitbart News before being tapped to serve as chief executive officer of Trump’s 2016 campaign in its critical final months.He later served as chief

Stardust. The film stars Johnny Flynn as the 'Starman' singer in 1971 as he heads to the US for a tour.

If there are any milestones worth noting this week, it’s that the Focus Features thriller Promising Young Woman crossed the $3 million in its fourth week in theaters. This weekend the Emerald Fennell-directed pic starring Carey Mulligan played in 1,333 theaters and added an estimated $430K to its box office till this weekend and is on track to earn $518K for the four-day Martin Luther King Jr.

Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.MOVIES— Regina King’s directorial debut “One Night in Miami” brings Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) gather into a Miami hotel in February 1964, celebrating Ali’s knockout of Sonny Liston.

Johnny Flynn has defended Stardust, arguing that the film avoids the “bland and safe” territory often occupied by musical biopics.Actor and musician Flynn, who portrays David Bowie in the film that did not receive the late star’s estate’s blessing, said close cooperation risks “suppressing” the story.“I think you could argue that this story told with the complicit cooperation of an estate would mean that it becomes a homogenised, slightly, sort of suppressed version of the story, and with all

The first night that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert beat The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in total viewers after his opening night, the bespectacled host sprung for pizza for his crew.

Watch Video: 'MLK/FBI' Director Risked Helping the FBI Tarnish Dr King's Legacy Because Story Was That ImportantAt the same time, these interviews fill in the blanks those files don’t cover, from King’s personal anxiety over the potential revelations of his adulterous affairs to the way that even supportive media outlets turned on the reverend when he shifted his gaze from civil rights to issues like the Vietnam war and poverty in America.We don’t see any of those interview subjects,

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentJohnny Flynn’s star has been on the rise in recent years, and will be propelled a little higher on Jan. 29 with the release of period drama “The Dig” on Netflix, in which he appears alongside Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James.

The IFC Films documentary MLK/FBI from filmmaker Sam Pollard (Two Trains Runnin’, Eyes on the Prize) makes its debut in select theaters today as well as on demand. The release aligns with Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18 and it is super relevant to America’s wild inequity and racist treatment of the Black community — specifically Black activists.

Stardust, Gabriel Range’s new David Bowie biopic, we are finally granted a glimpse of the moment the trailer promised us: Ziggy Stardust on stage in all his full glam rock glory. With the unmistakable choppy flame-hued mullet and electric blue Kansai Yamamoto-inspired cape, Johnny Flynn, who plays the musician, has transformed into Bowie the icon.

Guy Lodge Film Critic“You’ve been commissioned to write a 90-page screenplay, not ‘War and Peace.'” With these airy words, in the opening minutes of “Blithe Spirit,” exasperated trophy wife Ruth (Isla Fisher) admonishes her first-time screenwriter husband Charles (Dan Stevens) as he twitchily battles writers’ block.