‘Freedom on Fire’ Film Review: Ukrainian Documentary Faces Horror, Finds Humanity

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Jennifer Ehle is the latest addition to the cast of the “Yellowstone” prequel series “1923” at Paramount+, Variety has learned. Per the official description, the series “will introduce a new generation of the Dutton family and explore the early twentieth century when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition, and the Great Depression all plague the mountain west, and the Duttons who call it home.” Ehle will play Sister Mary O’Connor, an Irish nun that teaches at the School For American Indians in Montana. She joins previously announced cast member Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Brandon Sklenar, Darren Mann, Michelle Randolph, James Badge Dale, Marley Shelton, Brian Geraghty, Aminah Nieves, Julia Schlaepfer, and Jerome Flynn.

When September rolls around, it means one thing for many of the top filmmakers in the world – time to hit the road. Venice, Telluride and Toronto come in rapid succession, to the point of overlapping. But for documentary filmmakers eager to showcase their work, there’s another important stop to make in September: the Camden International Film Festival in mid-coast Maine.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer SPOILER ALERT: Do not read further if you have not seen the Season 2 finale of “Industry.”  Brutality came to the boardroom on Monday night, as the second season of HBO’s “Industry” delivered some brutal bottom lines for those inhabiting the international banking series.  Series lead Harper Stern (portrayed with anxious nuance by actor Myha’la Herrold) has successfully orchestrated a coup against her high-powered employer Pierpont. She’s locked up the institution’s biggest client (Jay Duplass’ Jesse Bloom) with the same aplomb that got him signed. In the end, however, a life-threatening secret from Season 1 has returned to bludgeon her — a blow dealt by her mentor Eric Tao (Ken Leung). 

could he? And even if he can sign on with a freighter taking cargo to Southeast Asia, what can he do when he gets to Saigon?He embarks on the trip at least partly because nobody he knows thinks he’ll actually do it, and he bumbles his way around Vietnam with a bag full of beer that dispenses so many cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon it starts to feel like a cross between a clown car and Jesus’s loaves and fishes. (Chickie and his pals, Catholics all, would either appreciate or be offended by the Jesus comparison.)The point of the movie, of course, is what Chickie learns in Vietnam — that it’s a quagmire, that the good guys and bad guys aren’t as clear-cut as they might have seemed back at the bar, and that Americans are being lied to about what’s happening by their government. But to learn his lessons, he’s got to find his way around a good chunk of Vietnam, hitching rides on military helicopters because the top brass figures that he must be CIA, since a civilian can’t really be wandering around in country.

Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne passed through the Toronto Film Festival Monday morning where they discussed their true-crime thriller The Good Nurse.

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.

does, relying on more dynamic, albeit repetitive, scenes of her having to address the danger in her life.Much attention has been paid to Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s executive-producing role in the film, a fitting match for a documentary on a female politician struggling against the status quo. Ghafari rages against the system in question, but one glance at her office and her peers, and it’s easy to see that her staff consists of mostly men.

The last decade has seen a plethora of movies about the crisis in Syria, most of them hard-hitting documentaries tracking the brutal effects of the war and the plight of those who’ve left and those who’ve stayed. At the same time, there’s never been a shortage of inspirational sports films where plucky athletes overcome obstacles to realize their dreams.But “The Swimmers,” which opened the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, is a rare mixture of the two: It’s an inspirational sports movie about a pair of Syrian swimmers, sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini, who fled from their home in Damascus during the Syrian civil war in 2015 to Europe, where they might have a chance to advance their athletic careers and swim in the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.TIFF has opened with sports movies in the past, though you might be forgiven for forgetting about the festival’s 2010 opener, “Score: A Hockey Musical,” or 2017’s “Borg/McEnroe,” with Shia LaBeouf perhaps typecast as the petulant John McEnroe. At any rate, “The Swimmers” is more substantial than either of those films.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, alongside her daughter Chelsea Clinton, 42, on Tuesday night.As part of the interview, the pair took part in a Mother Daughter Challenge, where they had to answer a series of questions asked by Fallon.At one point during the segment, Clinton, 74, was asked about her “craziest family vacation memory.”Taking a second to think, the mom-of-one remembered the time she and Bill managed to leave Chelsea in the Kremlin sometime during Bill’s time in office from 1993 until 2001.“I hope she [Chelsea] doesn’t remember this because it was pretty traumatic,” the former Secretary of State began. “We took her to Russia when we went on a state visit when Bill was president, and there were the formal goodbyes so Bill and I were ushered into the Beast, the big limousine, to head to the airport, not knowing that we had left her behind.

“Don’t Worry Darling” is a mixture of “The Stepford Wives” and “Get Out” is both accurate and deeply misleading. It’s accurate because Olivia Wilde’s satiric and somewhat frantic psychological thriller does borrow from films like “Stepford,” where an idealized community is one in which the women are dolls designed for male satisfaction, and “Get Out,” which uses horror trappings to grapple with timely issues of power and privilege.