Flames pour from section of Superdome roof in New Orleans

Ingmar Bergman’s influential 1973 television series about the breakdown of a long-term relationship, lives or dies on the chemistry of its leads. Luckily Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, drama school pals who studied together at Juilliard in New York, have that in buckets.

Madonna’s rebel heart is as strong as ever.

Was Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (director of the , which won best screenplay at Cannes) referencing the tarot when he wrote his Berlinale Silver Berlin Bear winning, and 2021 New York Film Festival selection, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy?

Marilyn Stasio Theater CriticHere’s a treat: a restorative evening of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s loving recollections of growing up in an upstate New York boarding house run by a life force known as Nanny.When Nanny made her appearance, I wanted to climb up on stage and crawl into her lap.

Larenz Tate, who recurred in Season 1 of Starz’s Power Book II: Ghost, has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming second season of the spinoff series. Tate, an original cast member on the mothership series Power, portrays New York City Councilman Rashad Tate.

South Korean film director Hong Sang-soo is cinema’s reigning poet of strained politeness, awkward confrontation, and space-filling chatter. In film after film—there are two Hongs at this year’s New York Film Festival, which is about average for the prolific South Korean—characters meet in the street or on a beach, in restaurants or hotels, and talk about the weather or the food in front of them, in banal and repetitious dialogue.

Kodi Smit-McPhee, Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst are celebrating their new project.

Michael Appler On Friday evening, halfway through the march of this year’s New York Film Festival, the legendary director and writer Jane Campion joined Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos in premiering her newest film, “The Power of the Dog,” to a New York audience. Friday’s event spilled over into Central Park’s Tavern on the Green for an intimate after party.

Premiering this week at the New York Film Festival, filmmaker Jane Campion’s mesmerizing neo-Western “The Power Of The Dog” is one of the year’s most anticipated films. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the cruel and fiercely repressed rancher Phil Burbank, it gracefully lays bare the emotion and agony of those living alongside him on a Montana cattle ranch in the 1920s.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticThe “Welcome to the Blumhouse” series of horror features has done well so far in showcasing diverse emerging talent, if not in hitching relevant social themes to stories that are actually scary.

Kirsten Dunst, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Benedict Cumberbatch gather around Jane Campion at the premiere of their new film, The Power Of The Dog, during the 2021 New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on Friday (October 1) in New York City.

The Paley Center for Media has hired Elizabeth Rojas Levi as SVP Communications and promoted Rene Reyes to VP Public Programming and Festivals.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeA day after a New York Times article revealed that Ozy Media chief operating officer Samir Rao impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with potential Goldman Sachs investors, the company has announced that the exec will take a leave of absence.Also as part of the news, Ozy’s board of directors has hired a law firm to review the company’s practices.

Britney Spears’ former assistant is back with more harrowing details from inside her conservatorship.

Lorde joined the worldwide Global Citizen Live event yesterday, performing ‘Solar Power’ and delivering a strong message on climate change.The charity gigs, which aim to “unite the world to defend the planet and defeat poverty,” took place in numerous cities across the world during a 24-hour broadcast and livestream yesterday (September 25).In the New York leg, Coldplay were the headliners, and were joined by Billie Eilish and Finneas to share a touching rendition of ‘Fix You’.Lorde opened up

Sam Asghari is hopeful that new documentaries about his fiancé Britney Spears will depict her in a “respectful” manner. But he’s also wary.

On Friday, FX aired the new documentary “The New York Times Presents: Controlling Britney Spears”, which presented more shocking allegations about Britney Spears’ controversial conservatorship, controlled by her father, Jamie Spears.

Richard Kuipers The familiar story of a new recruit rising through the ranks of organized crime is given a punchy female Asian twist in “Snakehead.” A gritty and grimy tale set way down deep in the underbelly of New York City’s Chinatown, this first narrative feature by documentary maker Evan Jackson Leong (“Linsanity”) is highlighted by outstanding performances by Shuya Chang as the fearless newbie and Jade Wu as the matriarch of a family specializing in the nasty business of human smuggling.

Clayton Davis Two early and critical precursors to the awards season have announced their voting dates and annual galas. First, the National Board of Review will reveal its 2021 honorees on Tuesday, Nov.