‘The Lesson’ Review: Alice Troughton’s Witty, Dark Comedy Provides A Welcome, Hearty Showcase For Richard E. Grant [Tribeca]

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Had Katniss Everdeen and the “X-Men” series never gotten in the way — or, had we still lived in an era when superheroes or fantasy franchises were not seen as status symbols on the resume of a young superstar — Jennifer Lawrence would have already starred in numerous rom-coms by now, à la the Julia Roberts of the 90s. Especially after winning the Oscar for one a decade ago, with David O.

Lisa Kennedy Fashionista Jenna Jones (Gabrielle Union) took quite the tumble from her position in New York’s world of style. In “The Perfect Find” — Netflix’s visually vibrant, cinema-loving, if not quite perfect, rom-com — her professional and romantic plummet is documented in opening credits that cleverly use an animated collage to relate her story. So, when we meet Jenna in person ,she’s without a job, and her man (D.B. Woodside) of 10 years has moved on … or so it seems. The 40-year-old is sporting baggy sweats, and not because she’s headed to the gym. She’s been living in her parents’ home licking her wounds, for a year, when her mother calls her out on it. The scene between mother (Janet Hubert) and grown-ass daughter is amusing and promising. As are the musical and visual choices director Numa Perrier makes that evoke Old Hollywood in a film with characters decidedly not Old Hollywood.

David Benedict “What was I thinking when I made this deal?” So sings Holly Martins (Sam Underwood) towards the end of the new musical adaptation of “The Third Man.” Indeed. As it turns out, the mystery at the heart of the show is not the expected “Whatever happened to Harry Lime?” – the man of the title – but what possessed a creative team as distinguished as director Trevor Nunn and bookwriter Christopher Hampton to imagine that what Carol Reed’s still-astonishing classic film needed was to be taken offscreen and planted onstage with added songs. The dismaying production provides no answer. The opening is ominous in completely the wrong way. Yes, we’re still in Vienna in 1947 but it feels like a failure to resort to a voice-over to explain necessary information about how, in the wake of the war, the city has been divided up into sectors under the control of warring nations. The storytelling, it’s clear, is going to be bald.

Alison Herman TV Critic “You can spend all the time in the world in here,” a chef tells his eager protegé as they work in a temple of haute cuisine. “But if you don’t spend enough time out there…” There’s no need for him to finish the sentence. The mentor’s meaning is clear enough: To achieve greatness, you need to expand your horizons. This piece of advice comes close to the halfway point of the second season of “The Bear,” long after the FX half-hour has applied the insight to itself. Last year, the tale of a family-owed Chicago sandwich shop taken over by a prodigal son became a surprise summer hit by staying tightly focused on its central location. Each of its eight episodes unfolded like a stage play, as the staff of the Original Beef of Chicagoland careened through the cramped kitchen, confronting their latest crisis. This M.O. reached its apotheosis in the widely acclaimed penultimate episode, a 20-minute tracking shot that began with the Beef opening itself to online orders and ended with relationships strained to their breaking point.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Films about fictitious great writers often stumble when it comes to the character’s actual writing: Viewers must suspend disbelief that a lofty literary reputation has been built on the purplest of screenwriter-devised prose. A blackly comic melodrama in which writerly ego, ambition and insecurity do increasingly destructive battle, “The Lesson” gets around that trap by folding questions of authorship into its arch country-house mystery: Who is writing what, and to what extent it matters, are the questions that keep director Alice Troughton and screenwriter Alex MacKeith’s mutual debut feature interesting, even as it slides into occasional, overheated cliché. When the film’s own words don’t quite pass muster, however, a tight, tony ensemble of actors gives them some polish and punch. A big, ripe turn by Richard E. Grant — as a celebrated British novelist looking to emerge from a gloomy hiatus with one more masterwork — represents the chief selling point of this low-key Tribeca premiere, though as his wary potential protégé, it’s Irish up-and-comer Daryl McCormack (fresh off his BAFTA nomination for “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”) who carries the bulk of the film in quieter, wilier style. With a chablis-dry Julie Delpy playing intermediary in their passive-aggressive duel, this U.K.-German co-production is the kind of accessibly upscale fare more frequently served to its target audience in another European language; Bleecker Street will release it Stateside.

What better way to come to know a public figure than to discover them in their own words, or, better yet, their own singing voice? Filmmaker Allison Ellwood seems drawn to that notion because she let it guide her as she crafted the smart and sentimental “Let The Canary Sing.” The new documentary is a colorful force of nature underscored by the fierce soundtrack of life, embodying the best parts of its subject in the name of nostalgic exploration. After all, music can tell beautiful stories, and this journey is no exception.“Let The Canary Sing” chronicles the rise of legendary 1980s rock star Cyndi Lauper and the complications that came for her career along the way.

Murtada Elfadl Taking on an expansive topic, the contribution of Black astronauts to the American space program, Lisa Cortés and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza’s “The Space Race” derives its strength from the specific and detailed stories of its subjects. Spanning almost 60 years of historical narrative and concentrating on a handful of scientists who broke barriers, the National Geographic doc is the type that makes the audience question how they have never heard of these people before. Cortés and de Mendoza interweave archival footage with the testimony of the astronauts in a fast-paced and informative way. Rapidly unraveling the fascinating story, they demand the audience’s attention and reward it. Blink or look away for a second and an interesting factoid might be missed. But their greatest asset proves to be the astronauts themselves. Their recollections are emotional and humorous, going a long way to paint such a captivating narrative. The astronauts talk of the weight of being an example and the challenges of having to navigate both white and Black spaces in order to succeed. Yet most movingly, they talk of the camaraderie born of being together in these hallowed and mostly white spaces.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic When you see a documentary about a game-changing pop star, you assume you’re going to get the story of the music, and also a good look at the life, and that there’ll be enough (on both counts) to go around. I was eager to see “Let the Canary Sing,” a documentary portrait of Cyndi Lauper, because it’s directed by Alison Ellwood, who made “The Go-Go’s” a few years back, and that movie had everything: the drama, the trauma, the saga of a total pop-music reset, as we watched the Go-Go’s bust down doors that had been too tightly shut for too long. Cyndi Lauper was no less revolutionary a figure, arriving in the early ’80s, along with Madonna, to announce that we were in the midst of a seismic new definition of what it meant to be a female pop star. The definition was: a star who could rule — and change — the world.

Ezra Miller’s erratic behavior that landed the star in court in Hawaii and Vermont in 2022, to the Warner Bros. shakeup in October 2022 that led to James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over the limping DC Studios.Running time: 144 minutes.

After all of the hype and the incredibly long wait, Terry Gilliam’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” came and went with only a bit of an impact. The film earned mixed-to-positive reviews, but it really just marked the end of a long filmmaking journey for Gilliam.

Sometimes it feels as though A.I. is already here, given the number of films resembling Garden State that pop up on the festival circuit every year. Robert Schwartzman’s The Good Half is only the latest, and his attempt to out-emo Zach Braff’s legacy film falls disappointingly short, given that his last Tribeca appearance was with the surreal and underrated comedy The Argument (2020), which channeled Charlie Kaufman in the story of a couple whose obsession with a petty fight spirals into absurdity. The Good Half, however, mostly serves as a decent vehicle for Nick Jonas, who seems to making a play to be the new Adam Driver, which is not as far-fetched as it might sound.

Elizabeth Hurley celebrated turning the big 5-8 by rocking an itsy-bitsy string bikini. The British model, actress and swimwear designer, who celebrated her birthday on June 10, took to Instagram and shared a photo of herself jumping for joy while at the beach. The star wore a sapphire-hued two-piece, featuring a triangle top with silver sequins and matching side-tie bottoms.

Though it doesn’t exactly have the same warm, melancholic charm, Alice Troughton’s elegant literary thriller The Lesson could give star Richard E. Grant the kind of late-career bump that last year’s Living afforded Bill Nighy. An Oscar nom might be a little fanciful at this stage, but a Bafta shot is a no-brainer, with Grant on top form as a mercurial, narcissistic British author. Co-star Julie Delpy might also find new offers coming in, showing a stiletto-sharp new side to herself as his enigmatic wife.

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Alice Troughton is a British TV director with credits under her belt like “Doctor Who,” “Atlantis,” “The Flash,” and “A Discovery Of Witches.” But for her feature directorial debut, “The Lesson,” in theaters next month, she spins a noir thriller that takes the adage of “don’t meet your heroes” to its most dangerous conclusion. Continue reading ‘The Lesson’ Trailer: Literary Noir Thriller With Richard E.

“The Kardashians” may have an even longer TV lifetime left.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse has received overwhelming praise from critics, who have described it as “in the running for the best superhero film ever”.Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, the animated superhero film is the sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.In the follow-up, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is launched on another adventure into the multiverse alongside Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld).A synopsis reads: “Miles Morales catapults across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence.

Criminal profiling introduced new monsters into the cultural lexicon in the 1970s when the “serial killer” concept entered the conversation. Television has long been fascinated by these types of criminals, from the long-running “Criminal Minds” to David Fincher’s brilliant “Mindhunter.” Now, Apple TV+’s latest limited series, “The Crowded Room” is taking a stab (excuse the pun) at psychological thriller territory.

The BBC has appointed an acting replacement for departing Chairman Richard Sharp, with Dame Elan Cross Stephens set to take over for up to 12 months.