‘Veni Vidi Vici’ Review: Dark Billionaire Satire Asks: Do Consequences Exist For The Filthy Rich? [Sundance]

Sam Rockwell is back on movie screens in Matthew Vaughn‘s latest spy romp, “Argylle,” but what’s next for the actor? A return to a certain MCU role, maybe? Jimmy Fallon addressed rumors that Rockwell will reprise his “Iron Man 2” character Justin Hammer during the actor’s interview on “The Tonight Show” last night. And while Rockwell couldn’t confirm anything, he said he’s “in” if Marvel Studios wants him back.

Twenty years ago, Ondi Timoner’s rock doc “Dig!” the wildly entertaining, sensationalistic portrait of the dysfunctional indie rock bands the Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols and their strange love/hate relationship and rivalry, was a smash hit, at least critically, winning the Sundance Prize Grandy Jury Prize for Best Documentary and squarely landing the filmmaker on the map.

EXCLUSIVE: The Ford Foundation is coming through for documentary filmmakers in a big way.  

Some movies are Irish. “Kneecap” is Ireland.

As one examines the abundance of cultures worldwide, to see the marginal way women continue to be treated on a global scale remains infuriating to take in during the era of #MeToo and the fact that seemingly little progress has been made even as our society makes its way into 2024. Though gains can undeniably be acknowledged on the political front and numerous other fields, it’s still apparent that an ocean exists in the way of real change, with “Black Box Diaries” a stunning example of the heavily outdated customs in which parts of our minuscule planet find themselves stuck and the women who suffer as a direct result.

Jesse Moss’ chilling and engrossing documentary “War Game” begins ominously, moves with urgency, and never lets up. The film begins with two suspicious men surveilling the capitol building in Washington D.C.

Angelique Jackson Lionel Richie has been very emotional lately, but he wants to reassure everyone that he’s okay. According to Richie, it’s just been a heady experience to look back nearly 40 years and relive all the wondrous and chaotic memories of writing and recording “We Are the World” for the new Netflix documentary “The Greatest Night in Pop.” “Every segment of this journey, I cry,” Richie said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance Film Festival, where the film made its world premiere.

An exploration of the generational trauma surrounding the “stolen generations” of Aboriginal children by the Australian government, Jon Bell’s feature debut “The Moogai” fits all the criteria of what we would, perhaps pejoratively, describe as “elevated horror.” A fraught term, and one that would need more than the length of this review to dive into, it nevertheless seems apt for a film that so blatantly makes its subtext into text.

Benedict Fitzgerald, best known as the screenwriter of The Passion of the Christ, died at home in Marsala, Sicily after a long illness on January 17, 2024. He was 74 and no cause of death was given by his family.

Caroline Brew editor Lena Waithe, who is a juror at Sundance, believes the festival “really sets the tone for the year,” citing “Past Lives” as an example from last year. “Obviously, ‘Past Lives’ has done really well, surprisingly so to the business. It’s a quiet movie about home, friends, what would’ve happened if you would’ve stayed in one place versus going somewhere else,” Waithe said.

It all seems so idyllic at first and sensible, too. Mother of four Maria Gros Vatne narrates the opening minutes of “A New Kind of Wilderness” as the documentary shows videos and still photographs of her husband and kids romping through Norway’s unassuming fields, streams, and woods.

“These are the tales, the freaky tales,” repeatedly intones Oakland rap legend Too $hort over the interstitials of writer and directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s “Freaky Tales.” This Bay Area anthology film takes its title from the over nine-minute song, which is itself an extended chronicle of prominent personalities the rapper encounters. While the directing duo occasionally approximates something wild in their headrush of 1987 nostalgia, they do not earn the second line of the rap.

the Hollywood Reporter.The outlet added that the project centers around a grieving son who received a dying request from his late mother.“The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret, but I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in those things,” Malia revealed in an interview about the project.“We hope you enjoy the film and it makes you feel a bit less lonely, or at least reminds you not to forget about the people who are.”The film was previously screened at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado back in Sept. 2023, as well as the Chicago International Film Festival in Oct.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Hailing from the country that gave us such grim social critics as Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl (fittingly, the latter serves as a producer here), Vantablack Austrian satire “Veni Vidi Vici” opens with a senseless homicide. It’s a startling scene, no less upsetting than the Scorpio killing that kick-starts “Dirty Harry” — except that in this case, the incident is calibrated as the darkest sort of comedy.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “Veni Vidi Vici” — a jaw-dropping Austrian shocker that’s part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival – came, saw and conquered at its Thursday premiere. The film follows a ruthless and charismatic billionaire family whose patriarch guns down innocent citizens in his free time, and left many speechless at the Egyptian Theater in Park City. Directed by Daniel Hoesl and Julia Niemann, the movie features intensely provocative moments including infanticide and brutal public shootings.

Gay cinema certainly has turned a corner lately, in the wake of films as varied as Cassandro, Rustin and All of Us Strangers, stories in which the lead character’s sexuality might form a crucial part of the tapestry of the drama but isn’t the be-all and end-all. Leading the vanguard for the next generation is this confident debut from 33-year-old British-Iraqi director Amrou Al-Kadhi, a frank and emotionally honest portrait of someone who falls outside society’s boxes and steadfastly refuses to conform to them. This emphasis on the positive is sometimes counterintuitive (more on that later), but, thanks to its core cast, Layla is an engaging study of love in the pronoun era.

Marta Balaga Veni, vidi, vici: “I came, I saw, I conquered,” reportedly said Julius Caesar after an especially swift victory. Now, his words echo in Daniel Hoesl and Julia Niemann’s satire about a family so powerful it can get away with murder. Literally.

Criminal Minds: Evolution fans apparently will be saying goodbye to longtime cast member Josh Stewart. The actor today posted on X (fka Twitter) that “sadly, my days of playing Will LaMontagne Jr. are over,” adding “You guys have been the absolute best.”

Hannah Waddingham, the Emmy-winning Ted Lasso star, says the words of a teacher helped fuel her ambition to become a star of the screen.

There were rumors that the cast of Friends would show up at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards to pay tribute to the late Matthew Perry, but that didn’t happen.