‘Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk Rock in NYC’ Review: A Punk Nostalgia Documentary Captures How Max’s Kansas City Was as Seminal as CBGB

Pete Rose declined to answer two reporters’ questions today about his relationship with an alleged underage girl in his first return to Philadelphia since August 1989.

Justin Bieber is among famous faces expressing shock and dismay at the imprisonment of US basketball player Brittney Griner in Russia. The pop megastar took to social media to offer his help in getting the athlete home after she received a sentence of nine years in prison for bringing cannabis oil into Russia.

Snowpiercer” and the musical “On The Twentieth Century” are other fine, very different examples.) All types of people ride them, there are clever places to hide and, for long stretches, you’re trapped on board.“Bullet Train” is a fun flick, to be sure, reminiscent of director Guy Ritchie’s better crime comedies such as “The Gentlemen” with Hugh Grant. But, as the title suggests, it’s louder and faster.

Seth Meyers returned to studio on Wednesday night after recovering from a second bout of COVID-19 – or as he joked, the virus’ “Season 2 pick-up” – and, beyond his return, he celebrated Kansas’ big win on abortion rights. Of course, Meyers also celebrated how angry it probably made Justice Brett Kavanaugh.On Tuesday night, voters in Kansas overwhelmingly rejected the idea of removing a woman’s right to an abortion from the state constitution, showing up in record highs and voting against a measure that would do just that.

Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision which affirmed abortion access as a constitutionally protected right.

Quiet by name, but quite some fame. Colm Bairéad’s Irish-language coming-of-age film “An Cailín Ciúin” (“The Quiet Girl”) bowed at the Berlinale earlier this year and has been an unstoppable force on the festival and awards circuit. It won top prizes at the Berlin, Dublin and Taipei film festivals and swept the Irish Film and Television Awards. The film opened theatrically across Ireland and the U.K. mid-May and such is the power of its storytelling that it has cinema dates booked through early September, and will represent Ireland in the Oscars’ international feature category. Nell Roddy, co-founder of Ireland’s Break Out Films, which distributed the film in the country, and Jake Garriock, head of distribution strategy and group publicity at U.K. distributor Curzon, share the film’s journey with Variety. When director Colm Bairéad and producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoi first screened “An Cailín Ciúin” (“The Quiet Girl”) to myself and my business partner Robert McCann Finn in the middle of the pandemic in 2021, we were completely floored by its searing beauty, emotional depth and heartfelt honesty.We founded Break Out Pictures to acquire titles that often need a bespoke theatrical release and, from the outset, we really believed audiences would embrace it just as much as we did.

Back out there. Brad Pitt is “casually dating” again amid his battle with Angelina Jolie over Château Miraval, an insider exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.

Right from the start, you know exactly what you are in for with Bullet Train, a non-stop mix of violence, comedy, and more violence, Japanese-style, as filtered through the lens of director David Leitch, a stuntman turned filmmaker whose past credits of Atomic Blonde, Fast & Furious: Hobbs And Shaw, and Deadpool 2 pretty much prepare you for what to expect here. However, even though this was mostly shot on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City, with some killer production design and a cool train courtesy of David Scheunemann, it undoubtedly feels we are in Tokyo where I am sure the Sony bosses were delighted with the dailies as they came in. Unfortunately, from my vantage point this just seems like a lark for star Brad Pitt, coming off an Oscar for the far superior Quentin Tarantino masterpiece, also from Sony, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and the underrated Ad Astra, both pre-pandemic in 2019. His most notable appearance since has been in a comedic supporting role in The Lost City with Sandra Bullock who returns the favor here in a mostly voiceover role as his “handler,” therapist, self help guide, guru – whatever you want to call her – who is constantly guiding him through the messes he gets himself into.

Bullet trains seem great; why don’t we have them in the United States? Will I ever get to see Mount Fuji? I wonder what flavors of Kit Kats they sell on that train?These thoughts occurred because my brain refused to engage with this glib, terminally self-satisfied blood-and-bullets extravaganza, one that feels like it was plucked from what we might call the “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead” period of American cinema, when Quentin Tarantino’s first two features emboldened far too many young filmmakers to think that they, too, could make a zippy comedy with excessive gunplay, explicit gore, pop-culture references, needle drops, and a briefcase full of cash.Having programmed a film festival from 1995 to 1999, I was subjected to more bad “Reservoir Dogs” wannabes than the average filmgoer, which might explain why this new film turned me off early and never won me back. “Bullet Train” pretty much leaves no cliché of this subgenre unturned, from swoopy, self-conscious camera moves to a shootout scored to an innocuous hit single of the past.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorFrom the private clubs and highrises of New York to the sweltering oil fields of West Texas, B.J. Novak’s “Vengeance,” in theaters July 29, dives into a fish-out-of-water story. “The Office” alum Novak, who also wrote and stars in the dark comedy, plays Ben, a writer for The New Yorker and wannabe podcaster who finds himself traveling to a remote Texas town.Cinematographer Lyn Moncrief wanted audiences to understand the sudden shift in perspective Ben is experiencing.

Not over yet. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie‘s battle over their winery is still ongoing, and it may not be finished for a while, an insider exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.

Richard Kuipers The question of what it means to be a Hong Konger is examined in Chan Tze-woo’s innovative and affecting hybrid documentary “Blue Island.” Artfully editing footage of the 2019-2020 protests with dramatic recreations of events that have shaped the British colony turned Chinese special administrative region since 1967, “Blue Island” balances its unavoidably sobering picture of the current political landscape with uplifting testimony of individuals determined to preserve the spirit of Hong Kong, no matter what the future holds. Winner of the international documentary award at Hot Docs this year, “Blue Island” will likely never be legally exhibited in Hong Kong or China, though specialty outfit Icarus Films is distributing the film theatrically in selected U.S.

Brad Pitt has reportedly splashed $40 million on the historic D. L. James House known as ‘Seaward’ overlooking California’s central coast.

British actor Regé-Jean Page is in high demand in Hollywood. Since his appearance as Simon Basset in the Shonda Rhimes Netflix show Bridgerton, which earned him an Emmy nomination, he has appeared in big budget films like The Gray Man, and his role as The Paladin in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefRising star Phoenix Raei joins Hugo Weaving as the lead of “The Rooster,” an Australian mystery drama film in which a small-town cop discovers the dead body of his best friend.The film, which has just completed principal photography in Victoria state, is directed by actor Mark Leonard Winter (“Escape From Pretoria”), making his debut as a feature director.As performers, Weaving and Winter have previously appeared together in “Measure for Measure” and “The Dressmaker.”Raei, who has recent credits in “Clickbait,” “Stateless” and “The Night Agent,” stars in “The Rooster” as the cop who confronts Weaving’s volatile character, a forest-dwelling hermit who was the last person known to have seen his pal. Other cast include: Helen Thomson (“Elvis,” “Top of the Lake”), Rhys Mitchell (“Cake,” “Upper Middle Bogan”), Bert La Bonte (“Surviving Summer,” “Five Bedrooms”), John Waters (“Offspring,” “Mystery Road”), Camilla Ah Kin (“Wakefield,” “Holding the Man”), Robert Menzies (“Little Tornadoes,” “Glitch”) and Deirdre Rubenstein (“Force of Destiny,” “Superwog”).“ ‘The Rooster’ is a gripping story about friendship and how hope can come from unlikely places.