‘The Godfather, Coda’ Film Review: Francis Coppola Tries to Give the Corleones’ Third Act a Second Life

A lyrical portrait of a former political giant in his twilight years, Vitaly Mansky's Gorbachev. Heaven is an unusually intimate docu-memoir that feels like an epitaph.

In theory, The Stand In might sound promising. It stars Drew Barrymore, was written by Four Lions and Peep Showscribe Sam Bain and directed by Jamie Babbit (cult queer classic But I'm a Cheerleader, plus some excellent TV episodes for Silicon Valley and Russian Doll).

There should be a limit to the number of plot twists a film can spring on an audience. Sure, it's okay for fiendishly clever puzzlers like Sleuth and Deathtrap to keep us guessing from one moment to the next.

If this were a normal festive season when it was possible to have a post-prandial snuggle on the couch with older relatives, or just fans of the best in old-school movie-star glamour, then this documentary about Audrey Hepburn — out Dec. 15 on DVD and Blu-Ray ahead of a Jan.

Far from the movie viewers may expect when they hear the words "German serial killer," Effigy: Poison and the City takes a dignified, old-fashioned approach to homicidal insanity that befits its early-19th century setting.

A vivid look at what it means for populations to rise up against governments intent on curbing their liberties, Ai Weiwei's Cockroach takes us to the streets of Hong Kong in 2019, as young people violently resist measures chipping away at their independence from mainland China. The third doc Ai has released this year (following Coronation and the Sundance entry Vivos), it's among his most effective films to date —tightly focused and morally urgent.

New York City-based filmmaker Judith Helfand broke through as a filmmaker in 1997 with a highly personal documentary, A Healthy Baby Girl. This multilayered essay on maternity, medical negligence and guilt, among many other things, explored how her mother Florence's use of a drug to prevent miscarriage led to Judith having first cervical cancer and then a radical hysterectomy in her twenties.

For non-Nordic viewers who only know of Tove Jansson as a name attached to the cuddly, dumpling-shaped creatures called the Moomins— mid-20th-century comic strip trolls resembling hippopotami, composed of negative space and living in some kind of tundra-adjacent landscape— the engaging biopic Tove will offer some interesting surprises.

Since my parents inexplicably failed to instill in me a love for killing at an early age, I've never gone hunting. But I can imagine that it takes a lot of patience and exactitude before achieving the satisfaction of the final result.

Watch Video: 'Wonder Woman 1984': Cheetah Goes on the Attack in New TrailerOne of the recovered items makes its way to the Smithsonian, where Wonder Woman’s alter ego Diana Prince is employed. Diana befriends nerdy gemologist Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), who discovers that, according to legend, the gemstone has the power to grant wishes.

 Live with Kelly and Ryan  are going to be a little bit different this week, with someone we’re not used to sitting behind the table. On Monday, the morning show’s official Instagram page shared a behind-the-scenes video prior to the start of the show.

As the title suggests, the documentary “Queer Japan” is big and broad, not focused.

Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello are definitely an item now, they weren't always forthcoming about their feelings for one another. The 22-year-old «Treat You Better» singer appeared on Monday's episode of where the British host shared a 2015 clip of Mendes and Cabello denying they had ever dated or hooked up. Cringing and watching through his fingers, Mendes and fellow guest Matthew McConaughey laughed about the clip. «It's hard, it's really hard,» Mendes told Corden of seeing the clip.

There are few film genres as manipulative as the "cancer romancer." Unleashed on the world with 1970's mega-smash Love Story, starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw as a pair of star-crossed Harvardians whose nascent marriage is decimated by her terminal leukemia, this genre later flourished throughout the 2000s, with saccharine releases like Here on Earth, Sweet November, A Walk to Remember, P.S. I Love You, The Fault in Our Starsand Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Al Pacino gathered with costars Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia and George Hamilton in the screening room at Paramount recently to watch Francis Coppola’s reconstituted Mario Puzo’s The Godfather: Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. He’d long ago made peace with any shortcomings that Godfather III had when compared to the first two films of the trilogy that made him a superstar and remain two of the best American films ever made.

Will Paramount make another sequel in “The Godfather” franchise? That seems to be the question du jour, as the studio recently made a statement about the possibility as audiences brace themselves for a new version of “The Godfather Part III” hitting theaters and Blu-ray soon. Well, what we do know is that Andy Garcia, one of the stars of ‘Part III’ is down to return to his role, as well as take up the directing duties if a fourth film goes into development.

Also Read: How Lifetime and Hallmark Finally Made the Yuletide Gay With First-Ever LGBTQ Holiday MoviesIn the film, Jenn and Sol meet in a bar, where she’s intimidating and he’s tongue-tied but endearing. They jog in the park, they walk in the rain and they fall in love in what would be typical rom-com fashion if the com part weren’t so dialed-down.

Watch Video: 'Let Them All Talk' Trailer: Steven Soderbergh, Meryl Streep Reunite on HBO MaxAlice summons her nephew Tyler (Hedges) to act as her assistant on the trip, and she also invites college chums Roberta (Bergen) and Susan (Wiest) to come along, since they haven’t spent time together in decades.

As a premise for comedy, a wedding is a fairly foolproof device, allowing characters who would ordinarily never cross paths to meet in increasingly tangled plot strands. You almost have to try to mess that up.