Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak went head to head in the first televised leaders’ debate of the General Election campaign tonight (Tuesday June 4).
17.05.2024 - 15:37 / variety.com
Todd Gilchrist editor Chronicling the eponymous Navy flight squadron across a season of demonstrations, “The Blue Angels” easily ranks near the top of the many Hollywood films to be considered “military propaganda” for their glowing depiction of the activities of U.S. men and women in uniform.
Whether or not that’s a good thing may come down to one’s feelings about the U.S. military.
But in selecting for its subject an organization that performs a service that is itself public relations — and notably involves no battlefield operations — Paul Crowder’s Imax documentary feels both more honest than most in its intentions and more effective in highlighting that organization’s excellence. Framed by the sun-up-to-sundown schedule maintained by the pilots themselves, “The Blue Angels” examines the precision, resilience and especially teamwork that goes into performing a series of dizzying, extremely dangerous aerial maneuvers.
Less a celebration of the U.S. Navy’s Mavericks than its Top Guns, the film focuses on several pilots — in particular, Angels first-year flyers Chris “Cheese” Kapuschansky and Scott “Jamz” Goossens — as they learn the difficult choreography and rigorous standards maintained by the squadron.
Crowder ceremoniously drops the audience into the Angels’ world with a recitation of their creed, and then immediately shifts locations to a briefing room where Brian “Boss” Kesselring, the organization’s 2022 flight leader, uses piloting shorthand to sprint through a breakdown of the environmental conditions the team will face. It’s just the first day of preparation for the season, but the filmmaker means to mirror for the experience of those incoming pilots, creating a sense of disorientation and urgency as the
.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak went head to head in the first televised leaders’ debate of the General Election campaign tonight (Tuesday June 4).
interviews with three of Brown’s sisters. Brown’s murder, along with the murder of Ron Goldman, set the stage for the “trial of the century” as Brown’s ex-husband former NFL player O.J. Simpson stood trial for the crime.
Todd Gilchrist editor Following in the footsteps of ILM Immersive’s (formerly ILMxLAB) “Vader Immortal” game and the company’s virtual reality experiences “Star Wars: Secret of the Empire” and “Avengers: Damage Control,” “What If…? — An Immersive Story” offers fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe an opportunity not just to enter the world of their favorite superheroes, but participate in an adventure with them. Borrowing from the namesake Disney+ anthology television series (and Marvel Comics series that inspired it) that explores speculative timelines in the superhero multiverse, “An Immersive Story” uses Apple’s Vision Pro headset to create a universe where participants can interact with characters like the Watcher, Sorcerer Supreme Wong, and a handful of alternate-reality heroes (and villains).
Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Angel Studios is planning to appeal an arbitrator’s ruling that ended its relationship with the producers of faith-based TV megahit “The Chosen.” The news comes as The Chosen LLC — the company behind the production of series — announced this week that the show’s Season 4 would exclusively stream on “The Chosen” app starting with the first two episodes on June 2. In a statement, Angel Studios CEO Neal Harmon said it will “pursue the appeal provision that Angel and The Chosen agreed to as the process for resolving disagreements privately.” In a unique distribution model, “The Chosen” Season 4 was first released in theaters this February, where it scored big box office returns. But after that, the show’s TV premiere remained in limbo as Angel Studios and The Chosen LLC tussled over the season premiere plans.
Top Gun: Maverick‘.In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 80-year-old industry legend revealed that a story has been written for the third movie in the action franchise, and says it is now a case of getting Tom Cruise and the other cast members on board.“I think we have a terrific story. It’s just (a question of) how do we get everybody together and how do we get it done,” he said.“Tom’s very busy.
I am a sucker for movies about Broadway and those who spend their lives in the theatre. Of course the crown jewel of the genre is the Oscar-winning All About Eve, but there are so many others including 1933’s Morning Glory which won a young Katherine Hepburn her first Academy Award, as well as its rarely seen remake, 1958’s underrated Stage Struck. Ginger Rogers did a good one, too: Forever Female. The list goes on and on and now includes a stellar new entry, The Great Lillian Hall which gives the great Jessica Lange a challenging role worth her talents.
Tires had a promising debut weekend on Netflix.
Blue Sun Palace was one of the prize winners at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival where it took the French Touch award of the Cannes Critics week selections (Simon Of The Mountains took the Grand Prize, the other major award from the section). French “Touch” is an ironic name for an award to a film where “touch” is key in several scenes depicted in the massage parlor setting where much of the movie takes place.
Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach is celebrating its 20th anniversary with none other than the Navy’s elite flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels. It’s been a big week for the Blues — not only are they returning to New York’s airspace, but they’re making headlines in a big way thanks to a new Prime Video documentary that followed the squad during the 2022 season.“The Blue Angels,” which hit Amazon’s streaming service on May 23 after a weeklong run in IMAX theaters, is a passion project of actor Glen Powell, who produced the doc alongside J.J.
Todd Gilchrist editor Gaylen Ross has only a handful of acting credits to her name, but the first of them remains significant enough even today for her to be permanently canonized in horror film history: “Dawn of the Dead.” Playing television producer Fran Parker for writer-director George A. Romero, Ross joins what’s otherwise a boys’ club cast to combat zombies (and post-apocalyptic boredom) in an abandoned shopping mall, in the process adding to the genre’s then-nascent collection of heroines who are forced to summon strength and resourcefulness in the face of unimaginable — and deadly — circumstances.
Alissa Simon Film Critic The intimate and naturalistic Mandarin-language drama “Blue Sun Palace” has nabbed the French Touch prize from the Cannes Critics’ Week jury, putting Chinese-American writer-director Constance Tsang on the map as a talent to watch after her feature debut. Certain to see future festival action, the drama about three working-class Chinese immigrants in Flushing, NY, the film succeeds with touching performances from Ke-Xi Wu (“Nina Wu”), Lee Kang Sheng (Tsai Ming Liang’s iconic actor) and Haixpeng Xu (“Where Echoes Never End”) that could tempt distributors in the coming months.
Todd Gilchrist editor Arriving on the heels of “The Greatest Love Story Never Told” — a true milestone of superstar transparency where Jennifer Lopez expressed a clear-eyed view of her current career status — “Atlas” feels like an underwhelming return to the kind of projects that have maintained Lopez’ place in the Hollywood firmament, but not the ones that catapulted her there in the first place. One of her few science fiction-themed films, its novelty alone should make it stand out, especially with Brad Peyton, a reliable purveyor of large-scale spectacle (“San Andreas,” “Rampage”) in the director’s chair.
Married At First Sight Australia star Eden Harper has opened up on her split with Jayden Eynaud as she said it came "out of the blue". It seemed like the pair's romance was set in the stars on the latest episode of the show, as they made it to the final vows where they chose to stay together. However, last month, they revealed that the had made the decision to part ways, with Eden recently admitting that the breakup came as a surprise to her.
Paolo Sorrentino has done a wide range of films but until his most personal, The Hand Of God two years ago (a prize winner in Venice) he had not returned to Naples, the land of his youth except for the very first feature he made, 2001’s One Man Up. Since then though he has been to Cannes with his films 6 times, and his impressive list of movies have included The Consequences Of Love, Il Divo, Loro, and his Oscar winning The Great Beauty. There have been more mixed reactions for his starry English language films as well like Youth and This Must Be The Place, but Italy seems to drive his creative mojo and may be closest to his heart is the current phase of his filmmaking career when he has found new inspiration by going back to his youth, first in The Hand Of God which closely reflected his own coming of age in Naples, and now his latest, Parthenope which reflects the youth he wished he had experienced. Instead he moved away to a whole new career in film (that was indicated at the end of Hand Of God). It had its World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival Tuesday night.
Maryam Touzani, whose latest movie “The Blue Caftan” won a flurry of awards and was shortlisted in the Oscar’s international feature race, is set to make her Spanish-language debut with “Calle Malaga.” Jean-Christophe Simon‘s Films Boutique will handle International sales on the project. “Calle Malaga” reteams Touzani and Films Boutique for the third time, having previously collaborated on arthouse hits “Adam” and “The Blue Caftan.” A character-driven film written by Touzani, “Calle Malaga” revolves around Maria Angeles, a 74-year old woman who belongs to the Spanish community of Tangier and enjoys the quietness of her life in the colorful Moroccan costal town.
MGM/Imax’s The Blue Angels lands a hefty $1.3 million on just 255 domestic Imax screens from limited showtimes in the large format exhibitor’s exclusive theatrical engagement. The Paul Crowder film, with Glen Powell and Bad Robot as producers, follows the Navy’s famed demonstration flying squadron. It also “ushers in a new era for IMAX Documentaries, or Docu-busters,” the company said. It’s no. 9 at the domestic box office
There have been countless books written about the immortal star, Elizabeth Taylor, even some credited to her as both memoir or autobiography including 1989’s “Elizabeth On Elizabeth”. But a book released on January 1, 1965 probably comes closest to a pure autobiography, and looking at the cover it simply says “Elizabeth Taylor by Elizabeth Taylor”. It is a by the numbers account of her life through her own words up until that point, but the fact is it was actually written by Richard Meryman, a journalist credited with among other things the last interview with Marilyn Monroe (published two days before her August 4, 1962 death). Meryman got Taylor to sit for some taped recorded sessions in 1964 out which he would be able to write the book as if Taylor did it herself. Now exactly 60 years later those presumed “lost” tape recordings have been found and cleared for release by Taylor’s and Meryman’s estates. They have been in fact in Meryman’s wife’s possession all these years, but now filmmaker Nanette Burstein (Hillary, The Kid Stays In The Picture) has rediscovered a treasure trove of about 40 hours of interview in order to produce the new HBO Documentary, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes“.
Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Glen Powell, Bad Robot and Imax have released a theatrical trailer in support of The Blue Angels Foundation, a non-profit created by former Blue Angels pilots that funds critical services for wounded veterans and their families. The trailer will run nationwide in anticipation of the Imax original documentary “The Blue Angels,” which starts its Imax exclusive run May 17. Opening with an introduction from Powell, the trailer goes inside the Warrior Foundation Freedom Station 1 in San Diego, Calif., a housing and support facility for those receiving care from The Blue Angels Foundation.
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic The first thing to say about “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is that it’s not like any other “Mad Max” film. The movie, which runs 2 hours and 28 minutes, is teemingly, sprawlingly, phantasmagorically ambitious. Where “Mad Max: Fury Road” was set over three days, “Furiosa” takes place over 15 years and tells the origin story of Imperator Furiosa in five chapters (which come with titles like “The Pole of Inaccessibility”).
Cannes is not lacking for glamor this year, even in the documentary lineup.