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ear-worthy · 3 months ago

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Why Won't You Date Me Podcast: Before The Romance Comes The Dating!

"Dying is easy, comedy is hard” is supposedly a deathbed quote attributed to character actor Edmund Gwenn, who is most famous for playing Kris Kringle in the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street.

Gwenn was absolutely correct in his observation and comedy podcasting is exhibit number one. Comedy and true-crime are two of the most popular genres in podcasting. Popularity breeds imitation and comedy podcasts proliferate in the podcasting space like Tribbles in the famous eponymously named Star Trek episode.

Comedy podcasts come in all shapes, sizes, and sounds. We have the "bros" who harken back to middle school with fart jokes and tales of their boogers. We have the edgy comics who think they push the envelope when, in reality, they're just splashing around in crude observations that aren't funny.

In summary, there are many more people in podcasting trying to be funny than are truly funny. Nicole Byer belongs to the category of "just plain funny."

Nicole Byer is an actress, comedian, writer, author and podcaster, she is perhaps most well-known as the host of Netflix’s Emmy-nominated competition baking series Nailed It! In 2020, Nicole made history by becoming the first black woman ever to be nominated in the category of “Outstanding Host for A Reality or Competition Program” and was nominated again in 2021 and 2022. Nicole can be seen in her debut solo stand-up special for Netflix, Nicole Byer: Big Beautiful Weirdo, and previously on the NBC comedy Grand Crew. Nicole can most recently be seen in Focus Feature’s The American Society of Magical Negroes, a satirical comedy and the 2024 American comedy film, Thelma. Both received rave reviews during their premieres at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Why Won't You Don't Me is a comedy and relationship podcast hosted by Nicole Byer which debuted on December 1, 2017. The podcast features Byer and a guest exploring why she is single, while discussing topics related to love, life, and sex. The format of an episode typically involves Byer introducing her guest/s, as they then talk about their respective experiences with sex, dating, relationships, and love. In most episodes, the guest will critique Byer's online dating profiles, before closing the episode by discussing whether or not they would date her - and why.

While the featured guest is often another comedian, Byer has also hosted former partners and her own childhood friends. Notable guests who have appeared on Why Won't You Date Me? include Sasheer Zamata, Rachel Bloom, Jameela Jamil, Joel Kim Booster, Vicky Vox, and Trixie Mattel.

Ms. Byer even creates a new logo for every episode, as seen here with Jameela Jamil.

In 2019, Why Won't You Date Me? won Outstanding Foreign Series at the Canadian Podcasting Awards, which is "awarded to a breakthrough show – across any format and category – produced outside of Canada." In 2021, Why Won't You Date Me? won the Best Overall Host – Female iHeartMedia Podcast Award. In 2023, it won best comedy podcast in the Ambies Awards.

The show recently announced that comedy podcast network Headgum has acquired the rights to the podcast. The acquisition comes on the heels of a recent announcement that the network also added Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster, and Mae Martin’s podcast HANDSOME to its expanding lineup of comedy podcasts. Headgum is a premier comedy podcast network behind shows such as Doughboys, Handsome, The Lamorning After, Gayotic with MUNA, and Seek Treatment with Cat & Pat. As part of the deal, Nicole Byer will begin recording video episodes from Headgum’s LA and NYC studios. Headgum will also manage the show’s ad sales through Gumball, their marketplace for advertisers to buy host-read ads directly from podcasters. The first Why Won’t You Date Me? episode under Headgum is out this week, and features an interview with comedian and personal friend of Byer, Lauren Lapkus (Orange Is the New Black, Crashing, The Big Bang Theory). Other upcoming guests include Randall Park, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel, and Nick Kroll, among others. In each episode, Byer and fellow comedians, friends, and ex-flings talk romance and share their wildest dating tales, from cringeworthy first dates to jaw-dropping hookup stories.

“Nicole Byer says: "Why Won’t You Date Me? is my favorite podcast child - just don’t tell the others. I’m looking forward to bringing her back home to Headgum, where we first launched the show in 2017. I’ve hosted WWYDM for many years, and it’s scary and comforting to know that there will always be new content when it comes to dating - whether it’s fresh horror stories, new relationship scenarios, and unbelievably cute love stories - and I’m thrilled to be the host helping my listeners navigate it all every week." “There’s no question that Nicole is one of the top podcast hosts of all time - there is rarely someone who is so prolific and so consistently hilarious - and Why Won’t You Date Me? is a comedy podcast classic,” said Headgum VP of Content, Kaiti Moos. New episodes of Why Won’t You Date Me? are released on Fridays and can be found wherever you listen to podcasts, including on the Why Won’t You Date Me? YouTube channel.

#podcast #comedy #dating #relationship #romance

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lboogie1906 · 5 months ago

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Ava Marie DuVernay (born August 24, 1972) is a filmmaker, television producer, and film publicist. She won the directing award in the US dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere, becoming the first African American woman to win the award. For her work on Selma, she became the first African American woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2017, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for her film 13th.

A Wrinkle in Time made her the first African American woman to direct a live-action film earning $100 million at the US box office. The following year, she created, co-wrote, produced, and directed When They See Us. The series was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series and won the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Limited Series. In 2021, she co-created an autobiographical miniseries with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick titled Colin in Black & White.

She was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.

She was elected to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Board of Governors as part of the director’s branch.

She was born in Long Beach. She was raised by her mother, Darlene, an educator, and her stepfather, Murray Maye. The surname of her biological father, Joseph Marcel DuVernay III. She grew up in Lynwood, California. She has four siblings.

During her summer vacations, she would travel to the childhood home of her father, which was not far from Selma. She said that these summers influenced the making of Selma, as her father had witnessed the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.

She graduated from Saint Joseph High School in Lakewood. At UCLA she was a double BA in English literature and African American studies. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphakappaalpha

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littlemissidontcare · 7 months ago

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she worked for more than a month, and her last job before that was finished in February 2023😘 mentioned multiple times but once again for dense people: he didn't film after November 2021, then filmed for less than 1.5 month, then for 1-2 weeks at most. Then nothing for a year (oh sorry, entering the coffee shop for 30 seconds cameo) until November 2023. Meanwhile she filmed for almost 2 months and then for 3 weeks in 2022 + additional week in February 2023. She filmed more than him pre-Apprentice. Joke's on you, quelle surprise! //

Guuuuuys, I found the sack of Bones! She’s here! And she’s big mad that she’ll never be as talented or respected as Sebastian.

What was her last job? Yellowjackets? Some extra work that ended up being CUT by her producer bestie. I don’t count that.

And the difference between the length of his shoots and hers is that Sebastian does quality work, whether it takes him 2 weeks or 2 months.

Also, you’re a flat-out fucking liar who clearly doesn’t give a shit about him because HE FILMED A LOT IN 2022, BOO. He started with his cameo in Ghosted (actors who are a big deal get to do those kinds of things and people actually get VERY excited about it!), and then filmed A DIFFERENT MAN. He did what people are calling the best work of his career in 23 mf days and was also a producer. And people did not have a bad word to say about him. That’s on class and talent.

He began prep for Bucky after the Emmys (actors who do good work get nominated for those sorts of things!). During that prep, he filmed Dumb Money and his Bupkiss cameo.

At the start of 2023, he promoted the final of FOUR projects he worked on in 2021, Sharper. He also attended major award shows like the Golden Globes as a respected nominee.

In this time, we now know he was ALSO (in addition to TB and possibly CA prep) getting ready to play Trump. Because unlike Annabelle, Sebastian does work that requires thought, preparation, and dedication.

THEN A STRIKE HIT. Two, actually. One that led to the other.

The SECOND that BOTH strikes ended, Sebastian was in fittings for The Apprentice. He filmed November-January. In January, he went to Sundance to promote the film he had poured his soul into as both an actor and a producer. By February, he was in Atlanta filming TB, which just wrapped.

So no, joke is still on you. He works more than she does, and the quality of his work is and always will be infinitely better.

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inapat17 · 8 months ago

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Animation shows: The art of drawing society (3/4)

Flee

Cartoons are a colorful medium that creators like to use to depict their vision of our modern world. Therefore, this series of articles will be dedicated to animated TV, internet shows and movies of this last year which humorously describes our contemporary society. The animated documentary “Flee” will be our guide for today as we examine the art of cartooning real-life events.

Animation and cartooning can be used in all cinema genres, even the most realistic ones. Flee is an animated documentary directed by Jona Poher-Rasmussen. It was first screened in 2021 during the Sundance Festival. Then, the film reached a much larger audience when it was broadcast on Arte in August 2022. It took the public one and a half hours to discover Amin’s tragic life story, it took 20 years for Jonas Poher Rasmussen to get his friend to tell the painful truth about his past. Until now Amin was telling the story that the smuggler taught him for fear of losing his refugee status. He told his best friend Jonas and his partner Kasper that his entire family had died, and that he had made the journey from Afghanistan to Denmark all by himself. In reality, his family is still alive and scattered across Europe, but Amin's story is not any less tragic.

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Amin, lying on a colorful carpet, remembers his carefree childhood in Kabul. He was dancing in the street with his walkman on the hit song “Take on me” by the band A-ha. The young boy already has his first crush: the very popular Jean-Claude Van Damme. These pleasant memories are followed by one of his dad’s arrests by mujahedin. War is about to break out and Amin's brother hides to escape conscription. The family first fled to Russia. Illegal immigrants are being roughed up by the police. Amin’s sisters are the first to escape the situation, they cross Europe in horrible conditions nearly suffocating alongside other immigrants in a container ship. Although they survived, they were left scarred for life. Amin, his brother and mother leave on a miniscule boat navigating on the Baltic Sea. After nearly drowning, they come across a cruise ship. Whereas the tourist takes pictures of the tragic spectacle, the ship crew tells them that the Estonian police are on their way to send them back to Russia. Due to the unsustainable situation in Moscow, the family decides to send Amin to Sweden alone. The smuggler, or human trafficker as Amin prefers to call them, sends Amin to Denmark instead of Sweden. Amin lies to the Danish authorities to gain refugee status and claims to be the sole survivor of his family. It was in high school that he met Jonas, the director of the movie. Amin made a lot of sacrifices in order to get a good job and support his family, now that he is on the verge of marrying his boyfriend Kasper he tells us his story.

The documentary mixes animated sequences with archive footage. Animation serves first and foremost to preserve the characters. Indeed, Amin confides to his friends his most intimate story, he recounts his first loves, his fears, and the distrust he has developed towards others who cannot fully understand how his experiences have shaped him. Animation allows the man to remain anonymous. Although his story is very personal, the writing of the film and dialogues, as well as the animation make the story almost universal as the jury of the 2021 Sundance Festival said :“This film blends the personal and the universal. It's a remarkable blend of genres that manages to raise awareness of a global issue while following an intimate narrative.”

Animation is also a way of showing personal memories in the absence of real images. Historical events are illustrated by real archival footage. The memories of Amin's daily life are portrayed in classic, colorful animation. The memories that are too hard and cruel are drawn in charcoal with blurred lines and a shaky animation. Thanks to this combination, the audience can fully immerse themselves in these memories. They are heartbreaking but conveyed by Amin with great tenderness.

The film tells the story of a man who has gone through hell to build a stable life. It's also the story of a young man experiencing his first love stories. And it's the story of a long friendship between Amin and Jonas. They have a beautiful trusting relationship that allows them to move forward in their personal and professional lives. Since the Taliban invasion in 2021, the rights of men and women in Afghanistan have crumbled. This film, resounding at the time, has lost none of its splendor. It allows the public to have a better understanding of what people fleeing from conflicts have to go through in order to be accepted and live a happy life.

#Iris Ngoumtcheu #Youtube

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greensparty · 9 months ago

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Preview: 2024 IFFBoston

Forget about Xmas, this is the most wonderful time of the year! It is now my favorite time of year in Boston! My favorite film festival in Boston, in Massachusetts and possibly the world is Independent Film Festival Boston (read my coverage here). I have a special place for this festival: in 2014 my documentary Life on the V: The Story of V66 had its World Premiere at the festival, and in 2015 I was on the Documentary Jury. The 2024 festival is at Somerville Theatre (Somerville), Brattle Theatre (Cambridge), and Coolidge Corner Theatre (Brookline) from Wed. May 1 to Wed. May 8, 2024!

2024 IFFBoston logo

Here are just some of the Official Selections that are on my radar:

Wed. 5/1/24:

The Opening Night Film is the recent Sundance hit Ghostlight, about a construction worker who joins a theater group!

Thurs. 5/2/24:

One of the most highly-anticipated movies of this year is I Saw the TV Glow about two teens who bond over their fandom of a mysterious TV show. I caught director Jane Schoenbrun's last film We're All Going to the World's Fair when it was was at the 2021 IFFBoston and while I had a mixed response to the film, I'm excited to see their follow up.

In a festival first, they are going to be doing their first episodic screening with the first episode of a 3-part documentary series Ren Faire airing on HBO later this year. While IFFBoston is very much a film festival and not a TV festival, I think it's kind of cool they are expanding their reach to include this doc about a Texas renaissance faire.

Fri. 5/3/24:

In the recent Sundance hit My Old Ass, an 18-year-old's mushroom trip brings her face-to-face with her 39-year-old self played by Aubrey Plaza (who makes everything she's in better).

Sat. 5/4/24:

In addition to all of the shorts package programs, it's always exciting to see IFFBoston do a Students Short Showcase made up of student films.

After my friend Michael Gill passed away in 2022, my hope was that his long in the works documentary about Billy Ruane, owner of legendary Boston rock club The Middle East (actually Cambridge, but a big part of the Boston music scene), would somehow get completed and released. I met up with Gill a few times before he moved around 2017 as I had heard about his doc and there was a lot of overlap with his doc and my doc Life on the V: The Story of V66 in terms of interviewees and subject matter. I am thrilled to see that co-director Scott Evans completed The Road to Ruane and it is finally premiering. The fact that the doc features loads of Middle East archival footage and interviews with members of Dinosaur Jr., The Lemonheads, Buffalo Tom, Letters To Cleo, Morphine has my attention too!

Sun. 5/5/24:

In the comedy Tallywacker, a two-member rock band's friendship is tested when one of them gets a gig touring with a major rock star.

My friends director Dan Habib and editor James Rutenbeck were at the 2018 IFFBoston with the great doc Intelligent Lives. Now they are back with a new doc The Ride Ahead co-directed by Dan's son Samuel about his own personal journey to becoming an adult. “But no one tells you how to be an adult,” Samuel says, “let alone an adult with a disability.” I've been hearing a lot of great things about this doc!

The always good Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a comic genius, but she's flexed her dramatic muscles in films like You Hurt My Feelings. In Tuesday she plays a mother who must confront death with her teenage daughter in the form of a talking bird.

Mon. 5/6/24:

My friend Mark Phinney's film Fat was at 2014 IFFBoston when I was there with Life on the V: The Story of V66. We've remained good friends since then and I'm super excited to see his new feature Fear of Flying about a man struggling with his anxieties while trying to maintain his relationships.

Earlier this year I got to cover the Oscar-nominated Short Films and one of the nominees for Best Documentary was Nai Nai & Wai Po from director Sean Wang. Without missing a beat, Wang is back his with his Sundance award-winner Didi.

Tues. 5/7/24:

In My Own Normal, director Alexandre Freeman turns the camera on himself: living with cerebral palsy since age two he is now an adult about to become a new father and how his parents react to this. This is produced by Friends producer Kevin S. Bright, Oscar-winner Chris Cooper and my friend Ariana Garfinkel (she's an IFFBoston alum having produced Best and Most Beautiful Things, You Don't Nomi, and On These Grounds).

Sing Sing stars recent Oscar nominee Colman Domingo as a man imprisoned at Sing Sing who is involved with a theater troupe for incarcerated men. This movie actually walks the walk and features the majority of its cast made up of formerly incarcerated members of the real life theater troupe the film is based on.

Wed. 5/8/24:

The Closing Night Film is the comedy Thelma starring Oscar-nominee June Squibb as an elderly woman who is scammed by a caller claiming to be her grandson and goes on a city-wide quest to get back what's hers. I've been hearing a lot of good things about this one!

For tickets and info to IFFBoston

#independent film festival boston #IFFBoston2024 #iffboston #ghostlight #i saw the tv glow #ren faire #my old ass #the road to ruane #michael gill #the ride ahead #tuesday #fear of flying #mark phinney #didi #sing sing #thelma #film geek #film festival #tallywacker

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screenandcinema · 11 months ago

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Coming Attractions March 2024

As usual, we present monthly previews of new movies being released. These are the movies that will be hitting your local cinemas (and streaming services) this month:

March 1st

Dune: Part Two - Return to Arrakis with director Denis Villeneuve for this adaptation of the second half of Frank Herbert’s Dune.

Spaceman - Adam Sandler is the titular astronaut on a mission to the edge of the solar system in this Netflix drama.

March 8th

Ricky Stanicky (March 7th) - Zac Efron and John Cena star in this comedy from director Peter Farrelly for Amazon Prime Video.

Kung Fu Panda 4 - Po the giant panda is back in the fourth installment of this martial arts animated series.

Damsel - Mille Bobby Brown is a damsel who can save herself in this dark fantasy coming to Netflix.

Imaginary - Think imaginary friends are harmless? Well, this supernatural horror film from the director of Truth or Dare will make you think otherwise.

March 15th

Arthur the King - Do you like movies about dogs? Well if so, then Mark Wahlberg's newest film is for you!

Irish Wish - Lindsay Lohan stars in this fantasy romantic comedy for Netflix about a maid of honor who wishes to trade places with the bride at a wedding in - you guessed it by the title - Ireland.

The American Society of Magical Negros - Justise Smith and David Alan Grier star in this satirical comedy that premiered at Sundance earlier this month to not-so-good reviews.

March 22nd

Road House (March 21st) - Doug Liman directs Jake Gyllenhaal in this reimaging of the 1989 film starring Patrick Swayze. Look for Road House on Amazon Prime Video this month.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Time to suit up, it is ghost-busting time for the Ghostbusters in this direct sequel to 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Shirley - Regina King is Shirley Chisholm in this biographical film from writer/director John Ridley that details Chisholm's historic campaign for President in 1972.

March 29th

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - Two best friends, Godzilla and King Kong, are back in action in this follow-up to 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong.

Now for a quick look ahead to February my top picks for next month are Civil War, Abigail, Challengers, and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

-MB-

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mytechbug · 1 year ago

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Kelly Mcgillis's Net Worth: From Top Gun to Present

With her girl-next-door looks and undeniable acting talent, Kelly McGillis captured the hearts of moviegoers in the 1980s thanks to memorable roles in films like Witness, Top Gun, and The Accused. Though she stepped back from the spotlight in the 1990s, she has recently reemerged on the independent film scene, proving her versatility in horror movies and Amish-themed TV films. Now over 60 years into her impressive career, McGillis’s staying power demonstrates her broad artistic range and willingness to take on risky, complex characters. This is the story of a gifted performer who broke through playing an Amish mother, became the '80s quintessential leading lady, and continues fearlessly reinventing herself to this day. Kelly McGillis’s Bio Year Born 1957 Birthplace Newport Beach, California Ethnicity Scots-Irish, German, Welsh Education Juilliard School Breakout Role Witness (1985) Most Famous Role Top Gun (1986) Years Active 1983-present Spouse(s) Boyd Black (div.), Fred Tillman (div.) Children 2 daughters with Tillman Early Life and Education Kelly Ann McGillis was born on July 9, 1957, in Newport Beach, California, to Virginia Joan (née Snell), a homemaker, and Donald Manson McGillis, a physician. She has two younger sisters. McGillis is of Scots-Irish paternal ancestry and German maternal ancestry. She attended Newport Harbor High School and later got a GED in 1975 after dropping out of high school. McGillis then moved to New York City to study acting at the prestigious Juilliard School, graduating in 1983. Film Career Highlights McGillis started her film career playing Geneva Spofford in 1983’s Reuben. Her breakthrough came two years later with her portrayal of Amish mother Rachel Lapp in the 1985 drama Witness opposite Harrison Ford. The role earned her Golden Globe and BAFTA award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. In 1986, she starred as flight instructor Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood in the blockbuster action film Top Gun with Tom Cruise. Other notable film projects have included 1987’s romantic drama Made in Heaven, 1988’s historical drama The House on Carroll Street, and 1988’s courtroom drama The Accused. Later Films and TV Roles After stepping away from Hollywood for a few years in the 1990s, McGillis returned to acting in a string of TV movies and independent films in the 2000s. These have included a recurring role in The L Word (2007-2008), as well as parts in the horror films Stake Land (2010), The Innkeepers (2011), and We Are What We Are (2013). Recently, she has starred in several Amish-themed TV movies like Love Finds You in Sugarcreek, Ohio (2014) and An Uncommon Grace (2017). The actress returned to acting in 2006 after a five-year break. After Top Gun, Kelly McGillis' resume is vast, perhaps shockingly. Many moviegoers remember her with Top Gun, although she's had success since the '80s hit. McGillis paused acting for five years after 2001's Morgan's Ferry. In 2007, she starred in the documentary Girl 27, but McGillis returned to acting in 2006, filming Supergator, a B-horror film released the following year. The movie Supergator appears to be a turn, but the monster movie changed McGillis's career. After the film, she appeared in many horror films, including Stake Land, The Innkeepers, and We Are What We Are, which were selected for the Sundance Film Festival. Although she took a break from cinema, she appeared in archival material for the 2021 documentary Val. She had minor roles in TV episodes like Showtime's The L Word and Syfy's Z Nation. In Top Gun: Maverick, Kelly McGillis didn't return—is she retired? Look no further for Kelly McGillis in Top Gun 2. McGillis appears in Top Gun: Maverick's archive footage but not the sequel. Director Joseph Kosinski said the Maverick team carefully included legacy characters in the sequel, aiming to introduce new characters. Although Top Gun: Maverick doesn't suffer without Charlie, McGillis says she "look age-appropriate for my age, and that is not what that whole scene is about." Kelly Mcgillis's Net Worth While her exact net worth is not publicly known, it is estimated that Kelly McGillis has amassed a respectable fortune of $2-5 million as of 2023. The majority of her wealth likely comes from her extensive acting resume spanning over 40 years in the entertainment industry. Her paydays for starring in hit 1980s films like Witness and Top Gun, both major box office successes, contributed significantly to her current net worth. Kelly McGillis Net Worth Growth Year Net Worth (Million) Kelly McGillis Net Worth in 2023 $10 Million Kelly McGillis Net Worth in 2022 $9 Million Kelly McGillis's Net Worth in 2021 $8 Million Kelly McGillis's Net Worth in 2020 $7 Million Kelly McGillis's Net Worth in 2019 $6 Million Kelly McGillis's Net Worth in 2018 $5 Million TV movie roles and guest appearances have also added to her bank account over the years. Though she has not matched the fame of her 1980s peak, McGillis has enjoyed a consistent acting career since with independent films and other projects. Careful financial management throughout her working life has allowed the 65-year-old actress to accumulate her estimated net worth of $2-5 million. Conclusion Kelly McGillis has shown incredible range and talent in a nearly 40-year career spanning film, TV, and theatre. While often remembered best for her iconic 1980s roles, she has continued taking on compelling, complex characters over the decades. Her victims’ rights drama The Accused and recent plunge into horror films DISPLAY her willingness to take risks and avoid typecasting herself. With diverse credits under her belt, McGillis has certainly cemented her place as one of the most versatile actresses of her generation. FAQs What was Kelly McGillis's breakout role? Her breakout role was as Amish mother Rachel Lapp in the 1985 drama Witness with Harrison Ford. How many times has she been nominated for a Golden Globe? She has been nominated for a Golden Globe once for her supporting role in Witness. Has Kelly McGillis been married? Yes, she has been married twice - first to Boyd Black from 1979-1981 and then to Fred Tillman from 1989-2002. She has two daughters with Tillman. What was her most famous film role? Her most famous film role was that of flight instructor Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun opposite Tom Cruise. Is Kelly McGillis still acting? Yes, Kelly McGillis continues her acting career today, mainly in independent films and TV movies, including recent roles in the horror genre. Read the full article

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chillingcinemachronicles · 1 year ago

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The Top 5 Must-Watch Movies on Netflix Right Now! 🎬✨

The Social Network

Year: 2010 Runtime: 2h Director: David Fincher

One of the best movies of the 2010s has returned to Netflix after a brief hiatus to remind people how wildly far ahead of its time this movie was when it was released. With a razor-sharp screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and some of the best direction of David Fincher’s career, this is a flawless movie, one that resonates even more now in the era of constant internet than it did almost 15 years ago.

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Saving Private Ryan

Year: 1998 Runtime: 2h 49m Director: Steven Spielberg

War movies haven’t gone anywhere, a prominent part of film history from its early days through 1917. There are certain tentpoles in that history of war movies that feel like game changers, and one came in 1998 when Steven Spielberg returned to World War II to tell a different story of history, reminding everyone in the world about the sacrifices that were made that day, and the obligation we all have to make them worthwhile.

Whiplash

Year: 2014 Runtime: 1h 46m Director: Damien Chazelle

Chazelle may still be startled by the divisive response to last year’s Babylon, but he can go back to the near-universal praise for the film that really broke him, earning one of its stars an Oscar and getting a nomination for Best Picture. Damien Chazelle’s drama about a perfectionist drummer and his militaristic teacher thrilled viewers from the minute it premiered at Sundance. It was a major piece of pop culture, a film that feels like it’s being referenced more every year.

Lights, camera, VPNaction! Elevate your movie nights with NordVPN. 🎥🔒secure your connection and Download NordVPN . Click now to unlock global cinematic thrills!

Dune

Year: 2021 Runtime: 2h 35m Director: Denis Villeneuve

The directorial king of the smart blockbusters released another one in 2021 in this highly acclaimed adaptation of the Frank Herbert novels, which premiered on HBO Max along with theaters for a brief window on its way to massive worldwide acclaim and success. Timothee Chalamet stars in this sci-fi epic that was actually the most Oscar-winning film of 2021, taking home six trophies. Part Two was delayed until 2024, but the first half of this story is on Netflix to make the pain easier to take.

Gladiator

Year: 2000 Runtime: 2h 35m Director: Ridley Scott

The first Best Picture winner of the new millennium was one of the most beloved period action films of all time. Russell Crowe gives his most iconic performance a Roman general named Maximus, who watches his family murdered and his life destroyed by a vicious ruler named Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Forced into slavery, Maximus must become a gladiator, competing in arenas until he can achieve his ultimate revenge.

#top 5 #sci fi #science fiction #action movies #netflix #movies #film #animation movies #across the spiderverse #lotr

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audiovisualheritageday · 1 year ago

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The Jane Mercer Memorial Lecture: In conversation with Lizzy McGlynn and Viridiana Lieberman.

To celebrate World Day for Audiovisual Heritage this year we continue with our successful series of the Jane Mercer Memorial Lecture and are pleased to announce Archive Producer Lizzy McGlynn, alongside Editor Viridiana Lieberman have agreed to take part to discuss their work on the Emmy Awards winning documentary 'Lowndes County & the Road to Black Power', directed by the acclaimed by Sam Pollard & Geeta Gandbhir.

The relationship between Archive Producer and Editor is an essential one. In this webinar we hear how Lizzy and Viridiana worked closely together to seek out and use remarkable rich archive footage that tells the unfolding intense story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights in 1965, but for Black Power in Lowndes County, USA. Lizzy's exceptional work to exploring previously unreleased footage led to the discovery material. Her efforts not only played a crucial role in shaping the production but also earned her the prestigious Jane Mercer Researcher of the Year FOCAL Award in 2023.

Speakers:

Lizzy McGlynn is an NYC based Archival Producer specializing in historically immersive documentaries told through story-driven archive. In 2023, Lizzy received both the Emmy Award for documentary research and the FOCAL Jane Mercer Researcher of the Year award for her work “Lowndes County & the Road to Black Power”.

Viridiana Lieberman is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. She edited the feature documentaries The Sentence (HBO), which won the 2018 Sundance Film Festival US Documentary Audience Award and the 2019 Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking and I Am Evidence (HBO) which won the 2019 News & Doc Emmy for Best Documentary and the short documentary, Through Our Eyes: Apart (HBO Max) which won the 2021-2022 News & Doc Emmy for Outstanding Short Documentary. S

FOCAL INTERNATONAL (affiliated to FOCAL International) The Jane Mercer Memorial Lecture: In conversation with Lizzy McGlynn and Viridiana Lieberman 26 October 2023 ONLINE ONLY Zoom Online: 16:00 - 17:00hrs (BST)

#Archival Producer #documentaries #story-driven archive #filmmaking #FOCAL International #archivists #27 october #world day for audiovisual heritage #Public lectures

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captainmdhridoyhossain-blog · 1 year ago

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[ad_1] Towards the top of 2021, the excitement was once palpable. The Energy of the Canine, director Jane Champion’s Western allegory about poisonous masculinity, was once heading in the right direction to be the primary Very best Image Oscar winner for Netflix. With a whopping 12 nominations general, it was once using prime. Through March, although, issues had modified. CODA, a plucky coming-of-age drama Apple TV+ nabbed at Sundance ultimate yr, was once gaining traction. It gained most sensible honors at each the Display Actors Guild Awards and the Manufacturers Guild of The united states Awards whilst Canine appeared to chase its tail. On Sunday, it was once determined: CODA gained most sensible honors, marking the primary time a streaming provider had accomplished so.This has been a very long time coming, and that point has been fraught. Ever since Netflix and Amazon began meting out for status content material within the hopes of successful trophies (and appreciate), Hollywood has been ready, interestingly, to look if it’s conceivable for a streaming provider to win the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences’ greatest trophy. Now not everybody within the trade was once excited about avid gamers like Netflix bagging giant wins, predominantly for the reason that corporate was once instrumental in shifting motion pictures out of theaters and into dwelling rooms. When Netflix’s Roma was once creating a play for the highest prize in 2019, an Oscars marketing campaign consultant told Vulture that balloting for Alfonso Cuarón’s black-and-white circle of relatives drama was once “a vote for the loss of life of cinema through TV.” Steven Spielberg, whose West Aspect Tale was once nominated for seven awards this yr and gained one, flat-out mentioned Netflix motion pictures shouldn’t be eligible for Oscars, claiming they have been extra corresponding to TV motion pictures. Now, it sort of feels giant wins for streamers are right here to stick.Even supposing it sort of feels not possible to assume a streaming provider would by no means win Very best Image, precisely how it might occur, or must occur, was once any other level of competition. Amazon had success early on, obtaining Manchester Through the Sea at Sundance after which using it to many Oscar nominations in 2017. Netflix, even supposing it for sure shells out for motion pictures at gala's, has had higher success with its homegrown efforts like The Irishman and Roma. However that doesn’t imply each haven’t faltered. Netflix were given 35 nods and Amazon were given 12 ultimate yr, however the latter best were given one nod—for The Giant In poor health—the yr after its Manchester triumph. Neither were in a position to protected the highest prize, in spite of continuously circling it.All of which makes Apple’s win so surprising. After years of Netflix and Amazon looking to produce and obtain their solution to the highest—in spite of the Hollywood old-schoolers who appeared down their noses at it—Apple swooped in due to a film it simply picked up at Sundance. Granted, it paid a horny penny for *CODA—*reportedly round $25 million—nevertheless it nonetheless beat Energy and a slew of alternative juggernauts, like Warner Bros.’s Dune and movies from earlier Oscar winners like Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro (Nightmare Alley). For a streaming provider that, even supposing subsidized through Apple’s troves of money, best introduced in November 2019, that’s massive. One may just additionally argue that the manufacturing and free up delays led to through Covid-19 made room for smaller motion pictures to make a larger noise than they might have in years’ previous, besides that smaller movie may just’ve been from an indie studio like A24 relatively than Apple.However the Oscars are only one evening. The affects of this win shall be felt for some time, each in Hollywood and throughout the places of work of streamers. Over the previous couple of years, Netflix has run itself ragged

chasing Oscar gold—and in all probability lost some of its verve within the procedure—so what occurs now that Apple has beat them to the large award? No doubt it’ll make extra performs, however now that CODA has demonstrated what a a success run seems like, will Netflix simply mimic that good fortune? Will Amazon? Will studios? Apple TV+’s win proves that the outdated grudges in opposition to streamers are long past (or no less than waning) and that it’s conceivable one in all them can win. Audiences now know that the most productive motion pictures on the planet are a click on away. Conventional studios keep in mind that their distribution fashions can, and perhaps must, trade with out impacting how their motion pictures are won.For a very long time, the disruption of Hollywood through streamers has felt like a fight for the soul of Tinsel The town—the way it’s run, who will get to take part in it, what the definition of a “movie” even is. Honestly, there may well be one thing to that. Moviemaking, and filmgoing, has thrived for years as a result of motion pictures are an enormous piece of cultural foreign money. They’re additionally an artform that’s gotten overtaken through large companies having a look to make motion pictures which are all however assured to promote tickets and pack theaters. For years, in particular within the Nineties when Oscars viewership was once a lot upper than it's these days, Very best Image winners have been artistically-driven crowd-pleasers like Titanic and Forrest Gump, that gained over critics and killed on the field place of business. The pool of flicks, and filmmakers, that even were given a shot at just a little gold guy was once small. [ad_2] Source link #Apple #Received #Image #Oscars

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heavenboy09 · 2 years ago

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Happy Birthday to the most Distinguished Actor Of Ireland 🇮🇪

He is an Irish actor and film director. He is the recipient of three IFTA Awards, two BIFA's, and a Primetime Emmy Award and has been nominated twice for a BAFTA Award, five times for a Golden Globe Award and once for an Academy Award. In 2020, he was listed at number 18 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. He is the father of actors Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson.

He is best known for his performance as Alastor Moody in the Harry Potter films (2005–2010). He is also known for his supporting roles in films such as Braveheart (1995), Michael Collins (1996), 28 Days Later (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), Cold Mountain (2003), Troy (2004), Suffragette (2015), Paddington 2 (2017), The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), and The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021). He is also known for his leading roles in films such as The General (1998), In Bruges (2008), The Guard (2011), Calvary (2014), Frankie (2019), and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2009 for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the television film Into the Storm. He also received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance as Donald Trump in the Showtime series The Comey Rule (2020). From 2017 to 2019 he starred in the crime series Mr. Mercedes. He received an Emmy Award nomination for Stephen Frears' Sundance TV series State of the Union (2022).

Please Wish This Outstanding Irish Actor A Very Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊

The 1 & Only

Mr. Brendan Gleeson

#Brendan Gleeson #SoundCloud

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letterboxd · 4 years ago

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Best of Sundance 2021.

From pandemic-era stories, via portraits of grief, to the serendipitous 1969 trilogy, the Letterboxd crew recaps our favorite films from the first major festival of the year.

Sundance heralds a new season of storytelling, with insights into what’s concerning filmmakers at present, and what artistic innovations may be on the horizon. As with every film festival, there were spooky coincidences and intersecting themes, whether it was a proliferation of pandemic-era stories, or extraordinary portraits of women working through grief (Land, Hive, The World to Come), or the incredible serendipity of the festival’s ‘1969 trilogy’, covering pivotal moments in Black American history: Summer of Soul (...Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Judas and the Black Messiah and the joyful Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street.

The hybrid model of this year’s Sundance meant more film lovers across the United States—a record number of you, in fact—‘attended’ the prestigious indie showcase. Our Festiville team (Gemma Gracewood, Aaron Yap, Ella Kemp, Selome Hailu, Jack Moulton and Dominic Corry) scanned your Letterboxd reviews and compared them with our notes to arrive at these seventeen feature-length documentary and narrative picks from Sundance 2021. There are plenty more we enjoyed, but these are the films we can’t stop thinking about.

Documentary features

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) Directed by Ahmir-Khalib Thompson (AKA Questlove)

One hot summer five decades ago, there was a free concert series at a park in Harlem. It was huge, and it was lovely, and then it was forgotten. The Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 brought together some of the world’s most beloved Black artists to connect with Black audiences. The star power and the size of the crowds alone should have been enough to immortalize the event à la Woodstock—which happened the same summer, the film emphasizes. But no one cared to buy up the footage until Ahmir-Khalib Thompson, better known as Questlove, came along.

It would have been easy to oversimplify such a rich archive by stringing together the performances, seeking out some talking heads, and calling it a day. But Questlove was both careful and ebullient in his approach. “Summer of Soul is a monumental concert documentary and a fantastic piece of reclaimed archived footage. There is perhaps no one better suited to curate this essential footage than Questlove, whose expertise and passion for the music shines through,” writes Matthew on Letterboxd. The film is inventive with its use of present interviews, bringing in both artists and attendees not just to speak on their experiences, but to react to and relive the footage. The director reaches past the festival itself, providing thorough social context that takes in the moon landing, the assassinations of Black political figures, and more. By overlapping different styles of documentary filmmaking, Questlove’s directorial debut embraces the breadth and simultaneity of Black resilience and joy. A deserving winner of both the Grand Jury and Audience awards (and many of our unofficial Letterboxd awards). —SH

Flee Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Flee is the type of discovery Sundance is designed for. Danish documentarian Jonas Poher Rasmussen tells the poignant story of his close friend and former classmate (using the pseudonym ‘Amin Nawabi’) and his daring escape from persecution in 1990s Afghanistan. Rasmussen always approaches tender topics with sensitivity and takes further steps to protect his friend’s identity by illustrating the film almost entirely in immersive animation, following in the footsteps of Waltz With Bashir and Tower. It’s a film aware of its subjectivity, allowing the animated scenes to alternate between the playful joy of nostalgia and the mournful pain of an unforgettable memory. However, these are intercepted by dramatic archive footage that oppressively brings the reality home.

“Remarkably singular, yet that is what makes it so universal,” writes Paul. “So many ugly truths about the immigration experience—the impossible choices forced upon people, and the inability to really be able to explain all of it to people in your new life… You can hear the longing in his voice, the fear in his whisper. Some don’t get the easy path.” Winner of the World Cinema (Documentary) Grand Jury Prize and quickly acquired by Neon, Flee is guaranteed to be a film you’ll hear a lot about for the rest of 2021. —JM

Taming the Garden Directed by Salomé Jashi

There’s always a moment at a film festival when fatigue sets in, when the empathy machine overwhelms, and when I hit that moment in 2021, I took the advice of filmmaker and Sundance veteran Jim Cummings, who told us: “If you’re ever stressed or tired, watch a documentary to reset yourself.” Taming the Garden wasn’t initially on my hit-list, but it’s one of those moments when the ‘close your eyes and point at a random title’ trick paid off. Documentary director Salomé Jashi does the Lorax’s work, documenting the impact and grief caused by billionaire former Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili’s obsession with collecting ancient trees for his private arboretum.

“A movie that is strangely both infuriating and relaxing” writes Todd, of the long, locked-off wide shots showing the intense process of removing large, old trees from their village homes. There’s no narration, instead Jashi eavesdrops on locals as they gossip about Ivanishvili, argue about whether the money is worth it, and a feisty, irritated 90-year-old warns of the impending environmental fallout. “What you get out of it is absolutely proportional to what you put into it,” writes David, who recommends this film get the IMAX treatment. It’s arboriculture as ASMR, the timeline cleanse my Sundance needed. The extraordinary images of treasured trees being barged across the sea will become iconic. —GG

The Most Beautiful Boy in the World Directed by Kristian Petri and Kristina Lindström

Where Taming the Garden succeeds through pure observation, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World relies on the complete participation of its title subject, actor Björn Andrésen, who was thrust into the spotlight as a teenager. Cast by Italian director Lucino Visconti in Death in Venice, a 1971 adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella about obsession and fatal longing, Andrésen spent the 1970s as an object of lust, with a side-gig as a blonde pop star in Japan, inspiring many manga artists along the way.

As we know by now (Alex Winter’s Showbiz Kids is a handy companion to this film), young stardom comes at a price, one that Andrésen was not well-placed to pay even before his fateful audition for Visconti. But he’s still alive, still acting (he’s Dan in Midsommar), and ready to face the mysteries of his past. Like Benjamin Ree’s excellent The Painter and the Thief from last year, this documentary is a constantly unfolding detective story, notable for great archive footage, and a deep kindness towards its reticent yet wide-open subject. —GG

All Light, Everywhere Directed by Theo Anthony

Threading the blind spots between Étienne-Jules Marey’s 19th-century “photographic rifle”, camera-carrying war pigeons and Axon’s body-cam tech, Theo Anthony’s inquisitive, mind-expanding doc about the false promise of the all-seeing eye is absorbing, scary, urgent. It’s the greatest Minority Report origin story you didn’t know you needed.

Augmented by Dan Deacon’s electronic soundscapes and Keaver Brenai’s lullingly robotic narration, All Light, Everywhere proves to be a captivating, intricately balanced experience that Harris describes as “one part Adam Curtis-esque cine-essay”, “one part structural experiment in the vein of Koyaanisqatsi” and “one part accidental character study of two of the most familiar yet strikingly unique evil, conservative capitalists…”. Yes, there’s a tremendous amount to download, but Anthony’s expert weaving, as AC writes, “make its numerous subjects burst with clarity and profundity.” For curious cinephiles, the oldest movie on Letterboxd, Jules Jenssen’s Passage de Vénus (1874), makes a cameo. —AY

The Sparks Brothers Directed by Edgar Wright

Conceived at a Sparks gig in 2017 upon the encouragement of fellow writer-director Phil Lord, Edgar Wright broke his streak of riotous comedies with his first (of many, we hope) rockumentary. While somewhat overstuffed—this is, after all, his longest film by nearly fifteen minutes—The Sparks Brothers speaks only to Wright’s unrestrained passion for his art-pop Gods, exploring all the nooks and crannies of Sparks’ sprawling career, with unprecedented access to brothers and bandmates Ron and Russell Mael.

Nobody else can quite pin them down, so Wright dedicates his time to put every pin in them while he can, building a mythology and breaking it down, while coloring the film with irresistible dives into film history, whimsically animated anecdotes and cheeky captions. “Sparks rules. Edgar Wright rules. There’s no way this wasn’t going to rule”, proclaims Nick, “every Sparks song is its own world, with characters, rules, jokes and layers of narrative irony. What a lovely ode to a creative partnership that was founded on sticking to one’s artistic guns, no matter what may have been fashionable at the time.” —JM

Narrative features

The Pink Cloud Written and directed by Iuli Gerbase

The Pink Cloud is disorienting and full of déjà vu. Brazilian writer-director Iuli Gerbase constructs characters that are damned to have to settle when it comes to human connection. Giovana and Yago’s pleasant one-night stand lasts longer than expected when the titular pink cloud emerges from the sky, full of a mysterious and deadly gas that forces everyone to stay locked where they stand. Sound familiar? Reserve your groans—The Pink Cloud wasn’t churned out to figure out “what it all means” before the pandemic is even over. Gerbase wrote and shot the film prior to the discovery of Covid-19.

It’s “striking in its ability to prophesize a pandemic and a feeling unknown at the time of its conception. What was once science fiction hits so close now,” writes Sam. As uncanny as the quarantine narrative feels, what’s truly harrowing is how well the film predicts and understands interiorities that the pandemic later exacerbated. Above all, Giovana is a woman with unmet needs. She is a good partner, good mother and good person even when she doesn’t want to be. Even those who love her cannot see how their expectations strip her of her personhood, and the film dares to ask what escape there might be when love itself leaves you lonely. —SH

Together Together Written and directed by Nikole Beckwith

Every festival needs at least one indie relationship dramedy, and Together Together filled that role at Sundance 2021 with a healthy degree of subversion. It follows rom-com structure while ostensibly avoiding romance, instead focusing on how cultivating adult friendships can be just hard, if not harder.

Writer-director Nikole Beckwith warmly examines the limits of the platonic, and Patti Harrison and Ed Helms are brilliantly cast as the not-couple: a single soon-to-be father and the surrogate carrying his child. They poke at each other’s boundaries with a subtle desperation to know what makes a friendship appropriate or real. As Jacob writes: “It’s cute and serious, charming without being quirky. It’s a movie that deals with the struggle of being alone in this world, but offers a shimmer of hope that even if you don’t fall in fantastical, romantic, Hollywood love… there are people out there for you.” —SH

Hive Written and directed by Blerta Basholli

Hive, for some, may fall into the “nothing much happens” slice-of-life genre, but Blerta Basholli’s directorial debut holds an ocean of pain in its small tale, asking us to consider the heavy lifting that women must always do in the aftermath of war. As Liz writes, “Hive is not just a story about grief and trauma in a patriarchy-dominated culture, but of perseverance and the bonds created by the survivors who must begin to consider the future without their husbands.”

Yllka Gashi is an understated hero as Fahrjie, a mother-of-two who sets about organizing work for the women of her village, while awaiting news of her missing husband—one of thousands unaccounted for, years after the Kosovo War has ended. The townsmen have many opinions about how women should and shouldn’t mourn, work, socialize, parent, drive cars and, basically, get on with living, but Fahrjie persists, and Basholli sticks close with an unfussy, tender eye. “It felt like I was a fly on the wall, witnessing something that was actually happening,” writes Arthur. Just as in Robin Wright’s Land and Mona Fastvold’s The World to Come, Hive pays off in the rare, beaming smile of its protagonist. —GG

On the Count of Three Directed by Jerrod Carmichael, written by Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch

It starts with an image: two best friends pointing guns at each other’s heads. There’s no anger, there’s no hatred—this is an act of merciful brotherly love. How do you have a bleak, gun-totin’ buddy-comedy in 2021 and be critically embraced without contradicting your gun-control retweets or appearing as though your film is the dying embers of Tarantino-tinged student films?

Comedian Jerrod Carmichael’s acerbic directorial debut On the Count of Three achieves this by calling it out every step of the way. Guns are a tool to give insecure men the illusion of power. They are indeed a tool too terrifying to trust in the hands of untrained citizens. Carmichael also stars, alongside Christopher Abbott, who has never been more hilarious or more tragic, bringing pathos to a cathartic rendition of Papa Roach’s ‘Last Resort’. Above all, Carmichael and Abbott’s shared struggle and bond communicates the millennial malaise: how can you save others if you can’t save yourself? “Here’s what it boils down to: life is fucking hard”, Laura sums up, “and sometimes the most we can hope for is to have a best friend who loves you [and] to be a best friend who loves. It doesn’t make life any easier, but it sure helps.” Sundance 2021 is one for the books when it comes to documentaries, but On the Count of Three stands out in the fiction lineup this year. —JM

Censor Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond, written by Bailey-Bond and Anthony Fletcher

The first of several upcoming films inspired by the ‘video nasty’ moral panic over gory horror in mid-’80s Britain, Prano Bailey-Bond leans heavily into both the period and the genre in telling the story of a film censor (a phenomenal Niamh Algar—vulnerable and steely at the same time) who begins to suspect a banned movie may hold the key to her sister’s childhood disappearance. Often dreamlike, occasionally phantasmagorical and repeatedly traumatic, even if the worst gore presented (as seen in the impressively authentic fictional horrors being appraised) appears via a screen, providing a welcome degree of separation.

Nevertheless, Censor is definitely not for the faint of heart, but old-school horror aficionados will squeal with delight at the aesthetic commitment. “I’m so ecstatic that horror is in the hands of immensely talented women going absolutely batshit in front of and behind the camera.” writes Erik. (Same here!) “A great ode to the video-nasty era and paying tribute to the great horror auteurs of the ’80s such as Argento, De Palma and Cronenberg while also doing something new with the genre. Loved this!” writes John, effectively encapsulating Censor’s unfettered film-nerd appeal. —DC

CODA Written and directed by Siân Heder

A film so earnest it shouldn’t work, with a heart so big it should surely not fit the size of the screen, CODA broke records (the first US dramatic film in Sundance history to win all three top prizes; the 25-million-dollar sale to Apple Studios), and won the world over like no other film. “A unique take on something we’ve seen so much,” writes Amanda, nailing the special appeal of Siân Heder’s coming-of-ager and family portrait. Emilia Jones plays Ruby, the only hearing person in her deaf family, at war between the family business and her passion for singing. While Heder is technically remaking the French film La Famille Bélier, the decision to cast brilliant deaf actors—Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin and Daniel Durant—makes this feel brand new.

But it’s not just about representation for the sake of it. A sense of authenticity, in humor as much as affection, shines through. With a script that’s 40 per cent ASL, so many of the jokes are visual gags, poking fun at Tinder and rap music, but a lot of the film’s most poignant moments are silent as well. And in Ruby’s own world, too, choir kids will feel seen. “I approve of this very specific alto representation and the brilliant casting of the entire choir,” Laura confirms in her review. Come for the fearless, empathetic family portrait, stay for the High School Musical vibes that actually ring true. —EK

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun

Perhaps the most singular addition to the recent flurry of Extremely Online cinema—Searching, Spree, Host, et al—Jane Schoenbrun’s feature debut ushers the viewer into a haunted, hypno-drone miasma of delirium-inducing YouTube time-suck, tenebrous creepypasta lore and painfully intimate webcam confessionals. Featuring an extraordinarily unaffected, fearless performance by newcomer Anna Cobb, the film “unpacks the mythology of adolescence in a way that’s so harrowingly familiar and also so otherworldly”, writes Kristen. Not since Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse has there been such an eerily lonely, and at times strangely beautiful, evocation of the liminal spaces between virtual and real worlds.

For members of the trans community, it’s also a work that translates that experience to screen with uncommon authenticity. “What Schoenbrun has accomplished with the form of We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is akin to catching a wisp of smoke,” writes Willow, “because the images, mood and aesthetic that they have brought to life is one that is understood completely by trans people as one of familiarity, without also plunging into the obvious melodrama, or liberal back-patting that is usually associated with ‘good’ direct representation.” One of the most original, compelling new voices to emerge from Sundance this year. —AY

Judas and the Black Messiah Directed by Shaka King, written by King, Will Berson, Kenneth Lucas and Keith Lucas

It was always going to take a visionary, uncompromising filmmaker to bring the story of Fred Hampton, the deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, to life. Shaka King casts Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton, and LaKeith Stanfield as William “Wild Bill” O’Neal, the FBI informant whose betrayal leads to Hampton’s assassination. Both actors have never been better, particularly Kaluuya who Fran Hoepfner calls “entrancing, magnetic, fizzling, romantic, riveting, endlessly watchable.”

Judas and the Black Messiah is an electric, involving watch: not just replaying history by following a certain biopic template. Instead, it’s a film with something to say—on power, on fear, on war and on freedom. “Shaka King’s name better reverberate through the halls of every studio after this,” writes Demi. A talent like this, capable of framing such a revolution, doesn’t come around so often. We’d better listen up. —EK

Pleasure Directed by Ninja Thyberg, written by Thyberg and Peter Modestij

A24’s first purchase of 2021. Ironically titled on multiple levels, Pleasure is a brutal film that you endure more than enjoy. But one thing you can’t do is forget it. Ninja Thyberg’s debut feature follows a young Swedish woman (Sofia Kappel) who arrives in Los Angeles with dreams of porn stardom under the name ‘Bella Cherry’. Although Bella is clear-eyed about the business she’s getting into, Thyberg doesn’t shy away from any of the awfulness she faces in order to succeed in an industry rife with exploitation and abuse. Bella does make allies, and the film isn’t suggesting that porn is only stocked with villains, but the ultimate cost is clear, even if it ends on an ever-so-slightly ambiguous note.

Touching as it does on ambition, friendship and betrayal in the sex business, Pleasure is often oddly reminiscent of Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls. Or rather, the gritty film Showgirls was claiming to be, as opposed to the camp classic it became. There’s nothing campy here. Kappel is raw and fearless in the lead, but never lets the viewer lose touch with her humanity. Emma puts it well: “Kappel gives the hardest, most provocative and transfixing performance I’ve seen all festival.” “My whole body was physically tense during this,” writes Gillian, while Keegan perhaps speaks for most when she says “Great film, never want to see it again.” —DC

Coming Home in the Dark Directed by James Ashcroft, written by Ashcroft and Eli Kent

A family camping trip amidst some typically stunnin—and casually foreboding— New Zealand scenery is upended by a shocking rug-pull of violence that gives way to sustained terror represented by Daniel Gillies’ disturbingly calm psychopath. The set-up of this thriller initially suggests a spin on the backwoods brutality thriller, but as Coming Home in the Dark progresses and hope dissipates, the motivations reveal themselves to be much more personal in nature, and informed on a thematic level by New Zealand’s colonial crimes against its Indigenous population. It’s a stark and haunting film that remains disorientating and unpredictable throughout, repeatedly daring the viewer to anticipate what will happen next, only to casually stomp on each glimmer of a positive outcome.

It’s so captivatingly bleak that a viewing of it, as Collins Ezeanyim’s eloquent reaction points out, does not lend itself to completing domestic tasks. The film marks an auspicious debut for director and co-writer James Ashcroft. Jacob writes that he “will probably follow James Ashcroft’s career to the gates of Hell after this one”. Justin hits the nail on the head with his description: “Lean and exceptionally brutal road/revenge film … that trades in genre tropes, especially those of Ozploitation and ’70s Italian exploitation, but contextualizes them in the dark history of its country of origin.” —DC

The World to Come Directed by Mona Fastvold, written by Ron Hansen and Jim Shepard

Mona Fastvold has not made the first, nor probably the last, period romance about forbidden lesbian love. But The World to Come focuses on a specific pocket in time, a world contained in Jim Shepard’s short story ‘Love & Hydrogen’ from within the collection giving the film its name. Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby are Abigail and Tallie, farming neighbors, stifled by their husbands, who find brief moments of solace, of astonishment and joy, together. What shines here is the script, a verbose, delicate narration that emanates beauty more than pretence. “So beautifully restrained and yet I felt everything,” Iana writes.

And you can feel the fluidity and elegance in the way the film sounds, too: composer Daniel Blumberg’s clarinet theme converses with the dialogue and tells you when your heart can break, when you must pause, when the end is near. “So much heartache. So much hunger. So much longing. Waves of love and grief and love and grief,” writes Claira, capturing the ebb and flow of emotion that keeps The World to Come in your mind long after the screen has gone silent. —EK