Trixie responds: “She thinks you’re old because you’re bald, Woody!”
The moment didn’t go unnoticed as one viewer commented: “If he is getting old, what does that mean about me?”
Another person said on X: “There was absolutely no reason to give Woody a bald spot.”
Somebody else commented: “Sad to see Woody is going bald.”
Yet another penned: “Woody having a lil bald spot is making me sad.”
While a fifth added: “It’s okay Woody. We all understand and sympathise. I too have a bald spot back there that is slowly turning into a tropical hurricane.”
The synopsis of the film reads: “The toys are back and this time, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Jessie and the rest of the gang’s jobs are challenged when they come face-to-face with Lilypad (voice of Greta Lee), a brand-new tablet device that arrives with her own disruptive ideas about what is best for their kid, Bonnie. Will playtime ever be the same?”
The fifth film was first announced back in 2023 along with sequels for Frozen and Zootopia.
Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger expressed: “I’m so pleased to announce that we have sequels in the works from our animation studios to some of our most popular franchises – Toy Story, Frozen and Zootopia.
“We’ll have more to share about these productions soon, but this is a great example of how we’re leaning into our unrivalled brands and franchises.”
Several stars from the first films are back, including Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz, John Ratzenberger as Hamm, Wallace Shawn as Rex, Blake Clark as Slinky Dog, Annie Potts as Bo Peep and Joan Cusack as Jessie.
Among the newcomers are Scarlett Spears as the new voice of Bonnie, Craig Robinson as GPS hippo toy Atlas, Shelby Rabara as excitable camera toy Snappy, Mykal-Michelle Harris as Blaze, Conan O’Brien as Smarty Pants, and Matty Matheson as tech-fearing toy Dr Nutcase.
The first Pixar film released back in 1995, followed by Toy Story 2 in 1999 and Toy Story 3 in 2010.
The fourth instalment came out in 2010 and a spin-off of Buzz Lightyear’s character was released in 2022.
Toy Story 5 releases in cinemas on June 19
The gang are back yet again for even more mischiefCredit: Alamy
Tom Noonan, a character actor and filmmaker known for playing villains in “Manhunter” and “The Last Action Hero,” died on Valentine’s Day. He was 74.
The death was confirmed by Fred Dekker, director of “The Monster Squad,” who wrote on Facebook, “Tom’s indelible performance as Frankenstein … is a highlight of my modest filmography.”
Noonan had a nearly 40-year career on TV and in film, making his mark with a role in “Manhunter,” the 1986 movie based on a Thomas Harris novel.
In “Manhunter,” which starred William Peterson of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” as an FBI agent and “Succession” star Brian Cox as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Noonan played Francis Dolarhyde, the serial killer also known as the Tooth Fairy. It was a performance that “knocked out” Dekker, who then pursued Noonan for “Monster Squad.”
Playing a killer wasn’t unusual for Noonan, who stood 6-foot-5 or 6-foot-6, depending on who you trust. On a 2013 episode of TV’s “The Blacklist,” he played “the Stewmaker,” a man with a taste for dissolving human bodies in acid. In the 1993 comedy “The Last Action Hero” he was the Ripper, a fictional nemesis who comes to life in the high-concept film-within-a-film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as action star Jack Slater.
Born in Greenwich, Conn., on April 12, 1951, Noonan was raised by his math-teacher mother Rita and a large extended family after the death of his father, John Ford Noonan Sr. He went to school at Yale Drama and later founded New York’s Paradise Factory theater with Jack Kruger at the site of the Paradise Ice Cream Factory, where the ice cream cone was invented. The two built a theater and rehearsal rooms where the condemned building stood.
Paradise Factory now bills itself as “bringing the rigor of theatrical discipline to the process of cinematic art, and bringing the intimacy and immediacy of the cinema into theatrical performance art.”
“I wish I had more success as an actor,” the New York-based actor told The Times with a dash of melancholy in 2015. “I think people call me because they’re channel surfing late at night and they see me in a movie on cable.”
In that story, about the actor and his friend and collaborator Charlie Kaufman and Kaufman’s stop-motion animation film “Anomalisa,” a Times staff writer described Noonan: “Like Kaufman, he has a dark worldview, an idiosyncratic sensibility, blackly comic thoughts and, at times, an endearing crankiness.”
In “Anomalisa,” Noonan was credited with playing “Everyone Else” — and that wasn’t an exaggeration. Jennifer Jason Leigh and David Thewlis played the leads; Noonan voiced more than 40 other roles in the film.
“Even I can’t tell if it’s me sometimes,” he told The Times in 2015 about the extensive studio-recording process. “I mean, I recognize the voice, but I’m not sure where it came from.”
“My first TV interview was with Tom Noonan for a local NYC show called MIDDAY(?),” actor Jerry O’Connell wrote early Wednesday on Instagram, including a blurry image of them on the show’s set. “I was so nervous. Tom was so kind. I saw him in every (NYC) play he was in after. He bought my brother and I tickets to Eddie Murphy’s RAW (we were too young to purchase). Btw, on this episode, I was talking about a movie about to come out (Stand By Me) and Mr. Noonan was talking about his movie (Manhunter). Rest In Peace LEGEND.”
Noonan appeared in the famous 1980 flop “Heaven’s Gate” and cast a creepy gothic shadow decades later in “The House of the Devil” (2009). He was a ghoulish host of a late-night television horror program in the 2005 vampire movie “The Roost,” then played a wagon-train missionary in the 2007 western “Seraphim Falls.”
In 18 episodes of the series “Hell on Wheels,” which ran for five seasons on AMC, he was the Rev. Nathaniel Cole. Other TV credits included episodes of Fox’s “The X-Files,” HBO’s “The Leftovers,” CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and the Louis C.K. series “Louie” (FX) and “Horace and Pete.”
Noonan’s half-dozen directing credits include the 1994 film “What Happened Was …,” which was produced as a play, then became a movie and then won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for dramatic feature. In addition to writing and directing the movie, Noonan played the lead male role opposite actor Karen Sillas. Noonan also won Sundance’s Waldo Salt screenwriting award for the script.
The next year, his feature “The Wife” — a dark comedy once again written, directed by and starring Noonan — was a nominee for the same Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Described by the New York Times as a “bleakly funny evisceration of modern marriage,” the movie co-starred Karen Young, who was Noonan’s wife from 1992 to 1999.
And Noonan’s 2015 movie “The Shape of Something Squashed” was born out of confusion and some despair after his agent called him with what initially looked like a part in one of the “Mockingjay” installments of “The Hunger Games” franchise. When he got the script, though, he saw only one role for someone his age, and that job — playing President Snow — already belonged to Donald Sutherland.
Turns out there never had been a part in the offing. Sutherland was just busy, and Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of the “Hunger Games” cast needed someone to rehearse with them for a week.
After recovering from a brief emotional tailspin, Noonan knocked out the script for “The Shape of Something Squashed” — then directed and acted in the film.
He was preceded in death by his older brother, “A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking” playwright John Ford Noonan Jr., who died in 2018 at age 77.
Former Times staff writer Steve Zeitchik contributed to this report.
“How to Make a Killing” boasts an opening so strong that it buys enough audience goodwill to coast through nearly its entire running time. That’s priceless in a screwball murder movie in which everyone’s soul is for sale.
Death row inmate Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) is four hours away from execution. A priest (Sean C. Michael) solemnly arrives to take his final confession and finds the condemned man lounging in a sleeping eye mask, griping that his last meal served him the wrong flavor of cheesecake. “Kill me now,” Becket quips.
This will be a tale of crime and punishment told in flashback, rewinding to Becket’s mother, an heiress excised from an eleven-figure fortune for giving birth as an unwed teenager. And it will be, as Becket insists, “a tragedy.”
But while the story’s framework is familiar, what gives this intro sequence zip is Powell’s sly nonchalance, the little bounce he makes on his cot when Becket pivots to give the flabbergasted priest his full attention. He has ours, too. Powell has yet to find his perfect role (this one’s close) but his confidence is why the industry is convinced that he’s the reincarnation of a classic leading man: Tom Cruise or Cary Grant if we’re lucky, or at least Bugs Bunny.
Writer-director John Patton Ford’s morally bleak comedy is itself a reincarnation of the 1949 British caper “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” which egged on an exiled sire as he avenges himself upon his royal family by murdering everyone between himself and dukedom. The 21st century American privilege that Becket is chasing in the remake doesn’t rely on formal titles. He wants cold hard cash, plus a couple of private islands, planes and ultra-luxury yachts. Besides, he’s already got a first name that sounds like a last name, signifying the American upper crust.
This Dickensian vengeance setup gives us an awful lot of people to murder, all caricatures of the elite. The original “Coronets” offed a posh feminist who scattered political leaflets across London from a hot air balloon, Ford spins that passé joke into a gag where Becket’s spoiled cousin (Raff Law) hovers in a helicopter sprinkling money over a pool party and then for good measure, cannonballs into the water to stuff bills in the crowd’s open and appreciative mouths. (For his next trick, perhaps Ford will remake Terry Southern’s outlandish satire “The Magic Christian,” which has a scene like that but five times filthier.)
Lore goes that when Alec Guinness received the “Coronets” script with an offer to play four of the ill-fated tycoons, he wrote back greedily and said, “Why not eight?” To our good fortune, Guinness did play all eight, even the suffragette. “How to Make a Killing” shares the wealth, giving cameos to a very funny Zach Woods as the scion who fancies himself a hipster artist (he takes photos of the unhoused) and Topher Grace as the Redfellow who found faith or, rather, a more sanctimonious spin on grift as a megachurch pastor. Likening himself to Jesus, Grace’s bleached blond huffs, “Don’t hate on me just because my dad’s a big deal.”
There’s a tease of real-world critique in how the preacher has decorated his office with framed photos of himself with various presidents and drug-runners, alluding to the inescapable suspicion that the world is run by a powerful club whose only admissions requirement is a bank balance with plenty of zeros. The jabs stop at allusions — they’re entertaining but as thin as a communion wafer. Still, I guffawed when Becket popped back into his present-day cell to poke fun at his audience, the Catholic priest: “The last thing the Church wanted was an investigation,” he says with a smirk. “I’m sure you know all about that.”
Like his lead character, Ford himself had to ascend in clout to direct this script, which he launched on the Black List in 2014. He instead made his debut with the much-smaller 2022 indie “Emily the Criminal,” which starred Aubrey Plaza as an art student desperate to pay off her student loans. His heart is with the strivers who find that our K-shaped economy makes it impossible to go straight.
Yet he hasn’t cracked whether the corpses in “How to Make a Killing” are victims themselves. The rich Redfellows get dispatched one by one in scenes that are fun but empty — neither cathartic nor comic, simply boxes to be checked off to great big poundings of thunder and harpsichords.
Surely, I thought, the film will figure out how it feels by the time it offs a Redfellow who’s merely ordinary-terrible: Bill Camp’s drunken, cowardly banker. But it doesn’t and the real victim of the indecision is Powell, who is rarely given a reaction to play. (Guilt? Rage? Glee?) He needs to give us an extra hint how he’s feeling — as an actor, Powell is so slick that even his regular smile comes across phony. I’d say he couldn’t be sincere if he tried, except Powell actually does try for one scene and the bleary, terrified look in his eyes is devastating.
While the promise of that gangbusters opening sequence goes a tad unfulfilled, “Killing” has two strong twists and plenty of reasons to enjoy the romp. I suspect that the movie might be too smart for its own good, or perhaps hemmed in by a cynicism that, everywhere we look lately, it appears that crime does pay. As Becket says early on, “We’re all adults here.” Ford sees all the wrong moves and isn’t sure-footed in choosing the right one, even though I think he has. Today’s crowd wants to smash Marie Antoinette’s cake and eat it, too.
At least along the way, there’s a playful love triangle between Julia (Margaret Qualley), the privileged nightmare who’s had Becket wrapped around her pinky finger since grade school, and Ruth (Jessica Henwick), a humble school teacher. Both characters stake out their polarized corners — the rich bitch versus the sweetheart — with Qualley somehow always arranging her legs to be seductively horizontal in her too-few scenes. Henwick is saddled with the more prosaic role and dialogue (“It’s scary to dream small,” she says). Nevertheless, her presence is so compelling that we root for Ruth every time she’s onscreen.
I’m glad that Ford is part of today’s guillotine crew making capers about economic inequality. But the best shot in the movie shows his promise as a romantic comedian: Becket and Ruth bump into each other in the rain and just as they make eye contact, the sun comes out and they share a smile. It’s a tiny moment of magic that gives you hope that these young lovers can work it out. Better still, it even gives you hope for humanity, even if the movie’s overall forecast for society is stormy.
‘How to Make a Killing’
Rated: Rated R, for language and some violence/bloody images
From “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Network” to “Widows,” these films capture the flinty grace of the Oscar winner, a combustible screen presence.
A new artificial intelligence video generator from Beijing-based ByteDance, the creator of TikTok, is drawing the ire of Hollywood organizations that say Seedance 2.0 “blatantly” violates copyright and uses the likeness of actors and others without permission.
Seedance 2.0, which is available only in China for now, lets users generate high-quality AI videos using simple text prompts. The tool quickly gained condemnation from the movie and TV industry.
The Motion Picture Assn. said Seedance 2.0 “has engaged in unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale.”
“By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity,” Charles Rivkin, chairman and chief executive of the MPA, said in a statement Tuesday.
Screenwriter Rhett Rheese, who wrote the “Deadpool” movies, said on social media last week that “I hate to say it. It’s likely over for us.” His post was in response to Irish director Ruairí Robinson’s post of a Seedance 2.0 video that shows AI versions of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Actors union SAG-AFTRA said Friday it “stands with the studios in condemning the blatant infringement” enabled by Seedance 2.0.
“The infringement includes the unauthorized use of our members’ voices and likenesses. This is unacceptable and undercuts the ability of human talent to earn a livelihood,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. “Seedance 2.0 disregards law, ethics, industry standards and basic principles of consent. Responsible AI development demands responsibility, and that is nonexistent here.”
ByteDance said in a statement Sunday that it respects intellectual property rights.
“[We] have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0. We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users,” the company said.
The dispute comes a month after ByteDance finalized a deal to secure TikTok’s future in America. ByteDance agreed to divest majority ownership of U.S. operations to an American-led investor group, averting a shutdown of the hugely popular social media app.
President Trump during his first term sought to ban the platform, citing national security concerns, but he shifted his views after ByteDance agreed to the new joint venture.
The venture now has three managing investors: Silver Lake, Oracle and Emirati investment firm MGX, each holding 15%, with ByteDance retaining 19.9% of investments.
Ortutay writes for the Associated Press. Times Staff writer Cerys Davies contributed to this report.
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope newsletter and the guy wondering about the profit margin on a $6 churro.
In the meantime, welcome back to the newsletter as we push through to the Oscars on March 15. Have you been catching up on the nominated movies? “Sentimental Value” is a delight … though just how delightful has been the subject of some debate.
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Its primary quartet of actors — Stellan Skarsgård as a legendary director angling for a comeback, Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as his daughters and Elle Fanning as an A-list actor who becomes entangled in the family drama — all received nods. Fanning’s name was the first called when nominations were announced, signaling that Scandinavian melancholy would be notably absent that morning. Never mind the hour: Champagne glasses were raised.
The celebratory scene stood in stark contrast to the vibe just two weeks earlier when “Sentimental Value” was blanked at the Actor Awards (formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards). And it wasn’t the only international film ignored. The 2,500 SAG-AFTRA nomination committee voters also shunned Wagner Moura, the lead of celebrated Brazilian drama “The Secret Agent.” Moura went on to nab an Oscar nomination, one of four noms, including best picture, that Kleber Mendonça Filho’s drama earned.
The disparity between the choices of the motion picture academy and SAG-AFTRA could be an anomaly. Or it might be the latest evidence of an Oscar trend this decade. As the academy’s membership has become more global — 24% of Oscar voters live outside the United States — the Academy Awards have become increasingly an international affair, leading to a widening divide with the Hollywood guilds.
Is this a bad thing? It depends who you ask. If you queried the actors that SAG-AFTRA nominated who ended up being Oscar also-rans, the answer would be no. Those who believe that cinema is global, particularly now that American studios have largely abandoned making movies geared toward grown-ups, would have a different response.
“The fact that not one international film got in says a lot,” says a veteran awards consultant, who, like others interviewed, requested anonymity in order to speak freely about the industry. Indeed, one journalist tabbed SAG’s Actor Awards nominations the “‘America First’ List,” which, while technically accurate, might have taken the perceived xenophobia a bit far.
“The SAG Awards or Actor Awards — whatever they’re called now — are in danger of looking like a middlebrow affair,” another awards campaigner notes. “I know this is going to sound elitist, but it’s true. There’s a big difference between an organization where you have to be invited or apply to join versus one where, if you’re a disc jockey in Kansas City, you have voting rights.”
To be fair, DJs, Kansas City-based or otherwise, probably don’t vote for the Actor Awards’ nominations — just for the final awards. In the nominations round, 2,500 randomly selected active SAG-AFTRA members make the choices. To serve on the committee, members must be categorized as an actor/performer, dancer, singer or stuntperson in the SAG-AFTRA database. Could a DJ be classified as a performer? Probably not. In the guild’s view, actor and performer are synonymous, encompassing both principal and background players.
And sure, since only 7% of SAG-AFTRA actors and performers earn $80,000 or more a year, that means there are going to be a few full-time waiters on those nomination committees. But as the speeches at the Actor Awards remind us annually, it’s a profession where you’re just one job away from making it. Think of Connor Storrie, who worked at restaurants for eight years before getting his break on “Heated Rivalry.”
There’s still the question of why, say, SAG-AFTRA dancers and singers are voting on the merits of an acting performance, however. In contrast to the Actor Awards, nominations for the Oscars are decided by the academy’s various branches. Actors vote for actors, writers for screenplays and so on, with the general membership voting for best picture.
“Peer groups are deciding what’s worthy, and that’s the way it should be,” says an academy member from the public relations branch. “I’m not voting for visual effects.”
Not initially, at least. Academy members vote for all 24 categories in the final round, provided, per a rule change that went into effect this year, they attest to watching all the nominated work in the category.
SAG-AFTRA voters have rewarded non-English-language work over the years, but usually when a particular film or TV show — Bong Joon Ho’s 2019 masterpiece “Parasite” or Netflix’s “Squid Game” — is undeniable. Voters ignored recent lead turns from Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”), Yalitza Aparicio (“Roma”) and Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”). All three went on to earn lead actress Oscar nominations.
This year’s snubbing of “Sentimental Value” is particularly puzzling as the movie featured well-known actors like Fanning and Skarsgård, an institution from roles in blockbuster franchises like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and most recently the TV series “Andor.” It’s also a film about, among other things, the blurring of art and reality and the challenges of acting. And, in the scenes featuring Fanning, it’s in English.
What gives? Like every other contender, “Sentimental Value” screened four times for voters and was available for streaming.
“I just think people are less inclined to watch a movie with subtitles at home,” says one awards consultant, alluding to the ways that passive, multiscreen viewing has encroached upon our multitasking lives. Maybe that’s why Skarsgård, when he accepted the Golden Globe award for his work in the movie, preached that “cinema should be seen in cinemas” in his speech.
Does that sound elitist? It shouldn’t. But it does seem to be a belief from a time that’s slipping away. One certainty: With the academy nominating two international features for best picture for the third straight year, global cinema is now entrenched at the Oscars. Whether SAG-AFTRA voters decide to join the party is now a question for next year.
In this episode of The Envelope video podcast, Teyana Taylor describes the “slingshot” of success that’s come with “One Battle After Another” and shares her insights as to why fictional revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills does what she does in the film.
Kelvin Washington: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to The Envelope. Kelvin Washington, Yvonne Villarreal, we have Mark Olsen as well. Hopefully you all have been great since the last time I saw you. Everybody been good?
Mark Olsen: Of course.
Washington: Well, I tell you what, there’s a list of folks who’ve been very good because they’ve been nominated for an Oscar. And obviously, you kind of get the usual suspects, if you will. And then you get some surprises out there. Some folks you go, “Whoa!” So I want to start with you. Either of you can jump in on this. Is there someone that maybe surprised you, a film or something that you were just excited about or maybe someone said, “Them again?” or “That film again?”
Olsen: I think it was very exciting that “Sinners” got the most nominations of any film ever with 16 nominations. It was nominated in every category that it was eligible for. To see a movie that has had commercial success and felt like a cultural moment now being recognized somewhere like the Academy Awards, it’s just exciting to see that all coming together and rolling along for that film, regardless of how it turns out at the show.
Villarreal: I was very excited to see Rose Byrne get acknowledged for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” Because I was worried about that movie losing steam after all the raves it got at Sundance [in 2025] and it’s a smaller movie. I wasn’t sure, “Are people going to remember it?” But I just think she’s so great in that film.
I was sort of surprised that Chase Infiniti didn’t get nominated.
Olsen: Because of the nature of the movie, the whole lead/supporting business was tough, and also it being her first movie, it’s a little harder to get that nomination — especially in lead actress, faced with, say, Kate Hudson, someone who’s been in the business for a long time, is much beloved in the industry, has obviously family historical ties to Hollywood. It’s interesting to see even in the nominations this sort of alchemy of like, “a little of this, a little bit of that” as far as who the academy was choosing to recognize.
Washington: You know, I go back to something you said, Mark, when you go to “Sinners.” You mentioned the blockbuster feel of it, getting people’s butts to the theaters, spending money. And also kind of original. We’ve had vampire movies before, but, you know, you get the “Transformer 12’s” and “Expendable 32’s.” I think a lot of folks were excited to see something original that also had commercial success as well.
Another film that had a bunch of success is “One Battle After Another.” You had a chance to speak with a star from that film, who’s been a star in her own right musically, but now into the film world, with Teyana Taylor.
Olsen: That’s right. It’s so exciting. She’s nominated for best supporting actress. This is a long movie, it’s over two and a half hours long. She more or less exits the picture about 30 minutes in. So I think it says something about the strength of her performance that her character kind of hovers over the rest of that movie. You feel her in the movie, even though she’s actually not onscreen. So at the Oscar nominees luncheon recently, we had a chance to sit down with Teyana and she was just so vibrant, so full of energy, really has a great attitude about this moment for herself. I mean, she just recently won a Golden Globe, she hosted “Saturday Night Live.” So much is like happening for her, seemingly right now and she’s just got this real like, taking it all in, very open to it [attitude]. It was really an exciting conversation.
Washington: A culmination of all her hard work. Here is Mark’s conversation with Teyana Taylor.
Teyana Taylor.
(Ian Spanier / For The Times)
Mark Olsen: You were just at the Super Bowl. About a week before that, you were a nominee at the Grammys. About a week before that you hosted “Saturday Night Live.” About a week before that you won a Golden Globe. And you’re here today as an Academy Award nominee. I’m sure I’m leaving some things out. I would say what’s the last year been like for you, but I feel like, what’s the last month or two been like for you? It feels like the rocket ship has really taken off.
Teyana Taylor: Yeah, it’s really taken off. I’m so blessed and I’m so honored and I’m filled with so much gratitude to just see so many prayers get answered all at once, where I’m also OK with one at a time. But it’s all happening, you know? And I’m just beyond blessed. And like we were talking about earlier, just how much fun I’m having with it. I’m really having a good time and I’m taking it all in because life is short and life is so fragile. So I just try and take time to enjoy life and enjoy my blessings and enjoy just being alive and well.
Olsen: Has there been a moment that felt the most surreal, like a “What is happening to me right now” moment?
Taylor: Honestly, all of it, because it reminds me of a slingshot, you know what I’m saying? It’s just like, here’s the way, here’s the way, here’s the way, here’s the way, here’s the work, here’s the prayers, here’s the tears, just here, here, here, here, here. And then whoosh — whatever the ball hit, it knocked down everything at once. And that’s what this feels like. It feels really good because literally everything is happening at the same time. So it’s not like only one moment or only two moments that’s making me feel this way. It’s everything. The small wins, the big wins, the medium wins. Every single win and every single blessing is a big deal to me. You know what I’m saying? Even my Ls. I’m not gonna win everything and I’m not gonna get everything, and some things are not even meant for me. But even those are blessings. It’s preparation for something that is in store for me and something that is meant for me, because all of this is already written. What’s for you is for you and will be for you, because that’s just what’s written. So I have that mindset.
Olsen: You’ve been doing this since you were a teenager, at first as a choreographer and a dancer, a singer, an actor, you’re going to direct your first feature soon. What keeps you moving through all of this, through these different disciplines and pursuits?
Taylor: My babies. My support system. My village. My community. I love to make my people proud. I love to make my peers proud, my family. I just love to make everybody proud and that’s what keeps me going. Even right now, I’m also in culinary school. So it’s just juggling that, but taking out the little moments to just be quiet and cook and feed my people. So it’s a push. It’s understanding it’s a marathon and that it’s not a sprint. It’s a part of the faith walk. And I think that’s what keeps me going, to wake up and feel so blessed, how could I ever complain? How could I ever be like, “Oh, this is too much”? It is everything I’ve ever asked for. I’m never going to complain about answered prayers. What pushes me is just the reassurance from my support system, the reassurance from Father God himself, the reassurance for my babies. They keep me going. That’s who I do it for. I want to create generational wealth. So them babies are my reason. They are my why.
Olsen: To start asking you about “One Battle After Another,” your character, Perfidia Beverly Hills, she’s inspired a lot of conversation and some controversy. For you, was there something about that character that you felt you hadn’t seen on screen before?
Taylor: Yes. Perfidia is complex and she is also misunderstood. This is a woman who has been in survival mode, who has been fetishized, who has been ignored, not seen. We’re seeing this woman deal with that, where in movies we’re used to seeing us women have to be in capes all day and you see this woman rip this cape away and it’s just unapologetically herself — even in her weakness. And even like you said, with the controversy of her sexuality, I think her sexuality is her armor. It is also her power. She’ll give somebody what they want to get what she wants. And literally in the movie, she’s made selfish decisions. But if you think about her spirit and mentally and emotionally as a woman, it felt good to see a woman actually be selfish and put her[self] first, which we never really get to do because we have to be super this, super this, super this. Super mom, super wife, super woman, super chef; everything is always with a super in front of it. And you see this woman not really caring about what people think. Nobody can quiet her. And in this space of, “OK, you’re too loud, quiet down; you stand too tall, have a seat,” Perfidia is all of the things that they can’t make her do. She’s like, “I’m gonna stand tall, I’m gonna use my voice, I’m gonna use whatever I need to use to get what I want.” And she makes decisions that we don’t agree with, but I think one thing we all can agree on is that she’s a badass. And I can always respect anybody that’s unapologetically themselves.
Another thing that I feel like the controversy is proof of is how much of a nonfactor postpartum depression is. Half of the mistakes we see Perfidia make is her dealing with postpartum depression. You see the moment where they say, “Perfida, she’s a runner. She comes from a long line of revolutionaries.” That in itself is a pressure on her to feel like she gotta keep that going. The revolution is instilled in her. It’s a part of her identity. So imagine getting pregnant and you’re feeling like, “Oh, my God, does this slow down the revolution? Am I gonna play house with a person that’s ignoring me?” Nobody is really taking the time to think about what’s happening in her mind. We can’t control how a person handles postpartum depression. We hear her, through the door, cry, and then we see Bob put his ear to the door — and instead of him walking in, he walked away. And then what was the result of that? Her walking away. Even if it had to be walking away from Baby Willa, it’s something that she felt like she needed to do, and that’s what postpartum make you do sometime. And every mother handles postpartrum depression differently. But I think that’s what I love about her character, because you get to see a harsh reality that I know is hard to take in. But when you watch it a few times you understand exactly what’s happening. … I think that’s what makes the letter at the end so important. Because you hear the pain, you hear the hurt, you hear the regret, you hear the accountability, “Do you have love? Are you happy? Will you try and change the world like we did? We failed, but maybe you will not.”
And that’s another thing. This is a story that Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to tell. It was Perfidia’s job to go and anchor this boat and stay there and create the path for Willa to take on these battles, because her past haunted Willa and Bob. That’s a part of Perfidia being supporting — supporting the next steps of what is for Willa. It’s for Willa to go on and to rise. So you see Perfidia in the beginning of the movie, you see her drive this boat, you see her get to the middle of the sea and you see her anchor herself. And from there, we have to continue the story. So I’m happy that the controversy around her can create dialogue like this, can create healthy dialogue or even uncomfortable dialogue. As long as it’s dialogue and we’re conversing and we are speaking and people are speaking from their point of views, I can absolutely respect that.
Olsen: Is that a conversation you expected to have? When you were making the film, were you and Paul, or you and your co-stars talking about the depiction of Black women in the movie? Or have you been surprised that’s been such a talking point now that the movie’s out in the world?
Taylor: Honestly, I’m not surprised of any of the talking. I think one thing that I said before the movie even dropped and we were doing our press junkets, I was always very boisterous about the fact that this movie, period, not just the character, would definitely shake the table, and it would definitely spark, whether it was great debates or — I love conversation and I like when we can converse. Get it off your chest, tell me how you feel. And I’m open to receive that. So I knew that it would shake the table. I also knew that it needed to be done. Postpartum depression is a big thing for me that I feel like it needs more light. It needs light around it. We need more solutions for it. And like I said, you see this person, this woman in survival mode. You see this woman be ignored. You see this woman be fetishized. And is that not the truth? Is that not what happens, especially in this place of a Black woman feeling the least protected? So I’m really happy that Paul put wings on that to be able to spread and fly with that. And like I said, I know it’s probably tough to take in, but that’s what we got to see because everybody is not wearing capes. Everybody is not handling things the way you may handle things, I may handle the things, the way that person or this person may handle things. So we all just got to give grace and take in the film. It’s a story that’s being told.
Olsen: To me, one of the biggest surprises about the movie is considering how cohesive and complete it feels, to learn how improvisatory and collaborative the process of making the movie was. Were you surprised by that? What was it like for you entering into the process of making this movie with Paul?
Taylor: I was shocked at how collaborative it was. And I loved every bit of it because one thing about it is, again, when you are telling a story that someone wrote — he’s been working on this project for 20 years. This is something that I consider to be his baby. And when you’re trusting me to take on a job like this, I don’t ever wanna walk into any set and feel like I’m doing what I want to do. I just want to be of good support. If you tell me, “Hey, let’s find this together,” I’m gonna find it together. If you say, “This is my vision of what that is and this is how I want it to be,” it’s my job to give you that vision of what you want it be, and then add my little sauce on top of it. But to be fully collaborative, I thought it was really dope. We found Perfidia’s layers and we color-coordinated those layers. And I’m really happy that he let me be a part of that.
Olsen: What do you feel you brought to Perfidia or you were able to add to the character?
Taylor: I was able to add a lot. Paul was very, very collaborative. And again, we found her layers, which was the most important, especially with such a complex character. And you know, I just came from “A Thousand and One.” So I came from being another complex character, but this one was complex to a whole other level, where we almost didn’t understand why we never see Perfidia cry. But you see these little moments, like little details, in her face that’s just like, it’s this strength, but the strength — because I also don’t really love the term “strong Black woman” — it’s this strength that you feel like she has to have because the strength is really survival mode. And again, like I said, you hear her crack down and you hear her vulnerable, and nobody stepped through that door. So when you see a strong Black woman, there is no grace, it’s, “Oh, she’s OK, she fine, she got it all figured out.” And then you hear her vulnerable and you still feel like even at her most vulnerable, she got this, she’s strong. And it’s just like, “Step through the door. Step in early. Step in the first time. Hear me the first time, see me [this] time, wipe the first tear away. Would she have walked out that door on Baby Willa and Bob, had he walked through that door when he heard her cry?
Olsen: I’ve heard you a number of times when you’re talking about Paul, you always call him Paul “Let Him Cook” Thomas Anderson. What does that mean?
Taylor: Let him cook! Listen, because he to me is a master chef. And honestly, I’m very, very big on leadership. I respect the person that is a leader. What makes it so dope is because, with being in culinary school, I originally signed up for culinary school, of course, to learn the art of culinary, but to just cook, I love to cook and I wanted to learn the art of that. With being enrolled in culinary school, it’s a lot of writing work and a lot of discussion forums and a lot of quizzes and stuff like that. So you’re not only learning to cook, but you’re learning how to run a business. You’re learning how to navigate your staff, front of house, back of house, in the kitchen. You have to understand it’s a whole system in how you handle people in general. In the kitchen they call it like a “servant leader,” where your leader is in the kitchen with you, they’re cooking with you. They’re your mentor, they are your guidance, but they’re cooking with you. They’re not just pointing, “Do this, do that, boom, boom, boom.” And it’s just, like, his gentle servant leadership is something that I respect so much and something that inspires me as an upcoming movie director on how to handle and navigate my staff.
So it’s like the best of both worlds because I have PTA and then I have culinary school who’s teaching me how to be the best leader. Even in how we handle people, it’s bigger than just the people that work for us or with us. It’s also the people that come into this restaurant. It’s your customers. It’s just the hospitality of it all and the hospitality that he gives, it’s really amazing to see. I’m also a big sports girl. So even in regards to him being our quarterback, you know, he’s not on the side, pointing at what to do. He’s on the field with you. But he has an even bigger job because now he’s trusting that he’s going to throw this ball to you and you’re going to receive that ball. So we’re his receivers, we’re his wide receivers to take it to the touchdown. It’s all about being present. And that’s what I learned in culinary, it’s what I learned in sports, it’s just everything about being a leader as I prepare to lead my village and lead my community. That’s just so important to me. So I always respect people that are in the field with you. I become a warrior for you. You see Paul, you’re running in the battlefield, you look to your left, he’s with you. He’s not on a horse, he’s not on his high horse. He’s in the field with you. Let’s go, we got this! And it just makes you want to you want to go so hard for him. And that’s how I look at it. So I am a student. I am a teammate. I am a soldier. I am a warrior. That’s what I am with people that are great leaders.
Olsen: When you won the Golden Globe, your speech was so moving and you specifically spoke to your “brown sisters and little brown girls” and said that their light does not need permission to shine. Can you talk more about that? What was it that made you want to say that in that moment, specifically talking about this movie?
Taylor: I thought it was a very important moment on a very important stage. I wanted to use my voice and I wanted to use my platform. And in that moment, I had the voice and the platform to say just that. It’s nothing less than that. There’s nothing beyond that. Exactly what I said. We deserve space. What that night showed was that here’s the space. And I appreciated that. I was filled with so much gratitude. That moment hit hard for me because I was that little girl that sat on the floor on a TV watching the other queens onstage accept their awards. Like, “You can do it too, you can do it too.” And I knew that one day when it was my turn, I would tell my little queens, “You can do it too — all the little queens that look like me, you can do it too, you deserve space.” To know that also my daughters were watching as well, it’s everything to me. It’s everything for me to know that they embrace that as well. It’s so important. I’ve gotten so many women come up to me like, “Wow, that speech was just everything.” And that’s what it’s all about. That’s what is all about: to inspire, uplift and remind us that there is space.
Olsen: Before I let you go, you just bring it on red carpets time and time again. And the one thing I like is that you wear these really bold outfits, and it never looks like the clothes are wearing you. Do you have tips for people? What do you do for confident personal style?
Taylor: Honestly, follow your heart. Follow your heart. If you see it and you like it, put it together. You might put it together and be like, “That didn’t work the way I [intended].” Practice. Play in clothes. I love to play in clothes — but also will walk in the store and redress a whole mannequin. I’ll also be like, “I like that tie, I think it should be a little bit tighter.” I dream about certain outfits. I dream of certain moments where I’m like, “Oooh. I already know what I feel like I want my Oscar dress to look like. I already know what I want my Golden Globes dress to look like.” It’s always a vision. Or sometimes you might have a base. You might see something and be like, “I like this, but I feel it could use this.” Add it. If you feel like something can use something, add it. Because before you know it, now you done created your own thing. So don’t hesitate. When I was younger, I used to hesitate and be like, “This looked pretty cool, but now I’m not gonna do it.” And then later on, I see somebody try it, and I’m like, “Oh, I should have just…” Always follow your gut and always follow you heart.
When we decided to rank the best Los Angeles movies, we thought 101 titles would be plenty: room enough for undeniable classics, personal obsessions, even a guilty pleasure or two. Of course it wasn’t. You let us know, endorsing many of our selections but insisting we’d missed a few.
Sifting through your responses, 14 films had the most passionate advocacy. You’ll find them listed below in alphabetical order. Together they make up a perfectly valid alternate list, one that captures the glamour and romance of L.A. — as well as its lovable plasticity — just as well.
‘American Gigolo’ (1980)
Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton in the movie “American Gigolo.”
(Paramount Pictures)
Reader Cindy Simon from Pacific Palisades shares an anecdote: “I had just moved to L.A. from New Jersey. My friend and I — young mothers — ducked out of our baby-centered life to see ‘American Gigolo.’ The first scene was the incredible Richard Gere smoothly walking outside a Malibu beach house. My friend and I literally gasped!”
There is so much to recommend to this movie — an excellent choice and a regrettable omission on our part. Not only is it responsible for introducing Blondie’s “Call Me” to the world, it does so via an opening credits scene of Pacific Coast Highway cruising that all but defined L.A. hedonism as the ’70s became the ’80s.
‘The Anniversary Party’ (2001)
Jennifer Beals, Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh in the movie “The Anniversary Party.”
(Peter Sorel / Fine Line Features)
“A dysfunctional showbiz marriage in the Hollywood Hills, a party with a lost dog, what’s not to love?” asks reader Jim Ehlers of Pasadena. “It’s so iconically L.A. — the sexy mid-century modern house. When do you get Parker Posey, Gwyneth Paltrow and John C. Reilly in the same cast?”
That spectacular glass-walled home in the Hollywood Hills is the Schaarman House, designed by architect Richard Neutra. But fans know the movie for other reasons: Phoebe Cates came out of retirement to act with her “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh. Today’s audiences ogle a young Alan Cumming.
‘City of Gold’ (2015)
Jonathan Gold in the documentary “City of Gold.”
(Sundance Selects)
Junko Garrett of Eagle Rock says this documentary “captures the essence of L.A.: diversity and vibrancy, amazing food and people. I was a big fan of Jonathan Gold’s articles and looked forward them every week.”
So did we. Gold’s omnivorous enthusiasm remains a guiding light for so many Angelenos and his Pulitzer-winning food writing is easy to find. We’re still going to several of the film’s featured restaurants: Jitlada, Chengdu Taste, Guelaguetza.
‘Crash’ (2004)
Thandiwe Newton and Matt Dillon in the movie “Crash.”
(Lorey Sebastian / Lions Gate Films)
More than a few of our readers bemoaned the omission of an Oscar-winning best picture like “Crash.” Says Jim Rodriguez of Torrance, it “captures the quintessential reality that, in L.A., all the levels of social strata, at one time or another, exist side by side on our roads and freeways, separated by a few feet, metal and glass. And yet, still so isolated from each other.”
And Ian Barnard of DTLA calls the movie “a wonderful antidote to Hollywood’s whitewashed and unrealistically glamorous depictions of L.A.” It shows the city “in all its diversity, prejudices, contradictions, inequities and generosities.”
To us, “Crash” will always be the movie that stole “Brokeback Mountain’s” glory. But let’s be generous and note that Carney’s Restaurant on Ventura gets a nice moment.
‘The Day of the Locust’ (1975)
William Atherton, left, and Donald Sutherland in the movie “The Day of the Locust.”
(Paramount Pictures / Getty Images)
The Nathanael West novel is, of course, essential, so where’s the movie? Reader Andrea Hales, a San Diegan who lived in Los Angeles for 15 years, calls the film version “eerie and fascinating, capturing the essence of Los Angeles: the city of hopes and dreams, fires and riots. The setting is 1930s Hollywood but it could be today.”
One thing is certain: As a one-stop shop for classic L.A. locations, you can’t do much better than “The Day of the Locust,” which takes us to the Ennis House, Paramount’s iconic Bronson Gate and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
‘Earthquake’ (1974)
A scene from the movie “Earthquake.”
(United Archives / Hulton Archive / Getty Images)
Reader Dina Schweim, writing from Winston-Salem, N.C. (fine, we’ll allow an outsider’s perspective in this case), expressed her disappointment to not find “Earthquake” on our list: “There are few things I love more than a good disaster movie that obliterates L.A. to balance out fanciful and the corrupt — and yes, I was pleased to see that ‘Volcano’ made the list but ‘Earthquake’ really does capture the raw core of what destruction in L.A. can look like.”
The film was mostly shot on the Universal backlot and we wish it had more of an authentic L.A. feel. Still, if you harbor satisfaction at seeing the city get trashed (and who doesn’t on occasion?), we’re not getting in the way of that rumble.
‘(500) Days of Summer’ (2009)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in the movie “(500) Days of Summer.”
(Chuck Zlotnick / Fox Searchlight Pictures)
You like this one. Really like it. “It celebrates and beautifies the city in a way few other movies ever have,” says Anthony Cavalluzzi of Yorba Linda, adding, “Its absence completely invalidates the list.” And Michael Backauskas of Beverlywood writes, “I went to see it five times and I never do that.”
Any film about an aspiring architect is going to make the most of its locations. If you mourn the lovers’ bench at Angel’s Knoll Park, know that it became immortal because of this film.
‘Get Shorty (1995)’
John Travolta and Rene Russo in the movie “Get Shorty.”
(MGM)
This comedy’s dialogue was quoted in our comments twice. For reader Sean Dickerson of Beverly Grove, the movie gives us “maybe the greatest line about our city: ‘What is the point of living in L.A. if you’re not in the movie business?’” And for David Hughes of Sierra Madre, the moment comes when John Travolta’s gangster-turned-Hollywood-wannabe is asked what he knows about the movie business: “I don’t think the producer has to know much.”
There is an unforced charm to the way Travolta’s character falls in love with Hollywood — he’s already a movie geek but other elements fall into place for him. Eagle-eyed viewers will recognize both the Aero and Vista theaters.
‘Grand Canyon’ (1991)
Kevin Kline and Danny Glover in the movie “Grand Canyon.”
(20th Century Fox)
Paul Krekorian of Encino calls this one “a brilliant and underrated study of life in Los Angeles. In a deeply personal way it lays bare so many of the societal challenges Los Angeles always struggles with — economic segregation, racial division and injustice, violence, the disparity between Hollywood-created facades and the reality of ordinary life, and the struggle to find meaning and substance.”
Its writer and director, Lawrence Kasdan, was also responsible for “The Big Chill,” a similar portrait of generational flux, and there are quiet moments in “Grand Canyon” that are some of his best. It also starts with a Lakers game.
‘Knight of Cups’ (2015)
Christian Bale in the movie “Knight of Cups.”
(Melinda Sue Gordon / Broad Green Pictures)
Reader Peter Turman of Brentwood sees depth in Terrence Malick’s oblique portrait of a distracted screenwriter (Christian Bale) searching for grace but finding a lot of sex, calling it “a fever-dream meditation on Los Angeles and Hollywood, with its promises, chimeras, illusions, seductions, nightmares and disappointments, told by a great filmmaker who knows of what he speaks.”
Malick shot all over Los Angeles but his moments on the Warner Bros. lot, the enormous numbered studio buildings looming, may be his most beautiful.
‘Lost Highway’ (1997)
Patricia Arquette and Balthazar Getty in the movie “Lost Highway.”
(October Films)
Even with two other David Lynch films placing on our list, that wasn’t enough for Clark Leazier of West Hollywood, who calls the L.A. vistas and landmarks in “Lost Highway” “the most burned in my brain — particularly the Firestone Auto Shop that is now the popular All Season Brewing in Mid City. Also it captures Southern California nighttime driving in a messed up yet accurate way.”
Lynch obsessives know “Lost Highway” to be the one narrative film in which you can see the director’s own house, part of his compound on Senalda Drive in the Hollywood Hills, used as the setting for his main characters’ mansion.
‘Spanglish’ (2004)
Paz Vega, left, Téa Leoni and Adam Sandler in the movie “Spanglish.”
(Bob Marshak / Columbia Pictures )
Says Rochelle Lapides of Ventura County, “It tells one of the essential stories of our Los Angeles-bound Mexican immigrant population and the cultural challenges they face. Also, in my opinion, it’s one of Adam Sandler’s best dramatic roles.”
Agreed, especially on Sandler, whose turn in “Punch-Drunk Love” so impressed director James L. Brooks, he decided to cast him here. The film’s romantic patio scene is filmed at the Beverly Hills restaurant Il Cielo.
‘Star 80’ (1983)
Mariel Hemingway, left, Eric Roberts and Cliff Robertson in the movie “Star 80.”
(Paramount Pictures / Getty Images)
“Talk about dying for the dream,” writes William Mariano of Escondido. “It was filmed in the same spot she died.” He means Playboy model Dorothy Stratten, murdered by her sicko husband Paul Snider in a Rancho Park home that was actually used by the movie’s production while filming their dramatization of the crime.
“Star 80” does crystallize the ominous side of the L.A. myth, as a place where you’ll arrive, find success (and exploitation) and be destroyed in the process. Bob Fosse completists need to see it; it was the “All That Jazz” director’s final movie.
‘Tequila Sunrise’ (1988)
Kurt Russell, Michelle Pfeiffer and Mel Gibson in the movie “Tequila Sunrise.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Jean Clark of Manhattan Beach celebrates this thriller’s cast, cinematography and plot, which she sums up as “classic good guy vs. bad guy and the woman who loves them both, set against the dark underbelly of glamorous L.A. and its golden beaches back in the 1980s.”
And Jean would know — the movie was largely shot around Manhattan Beach. But don’t go looking for Michelle Pfeiffer’s restaurant Vallenari’s. It was entirely constructed on a soundstage.
Whether you’re already on the inside or new to the party, the Canadian meta-comedy “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie,” about a music duo’s epic undiscoveredness, shows little audience favoritism as it ping-pongs between timelines, formats, realities, cultural shout-outs and its two indefatigable lead characters. Make that four leads, since director and co-writer Matt Johnson and his composer-best friend Jay McCarrol each play themselves twice, thanks to archival footage presented in this zippy mockumentary as evidence of time travel.
Don’t be confused. Or rather, be confused but adventurously so! Especially if you aren’t familiar with the cult web series from which this film derives. Indie-savvy viewers might know Johnson’s work from the moon-landing conspiracy lark “Operation Avalanche” or the cheeky docu-dramedy “BlackBerry,” both of which he directed and acted in. But there’s no getting around the fact that if you haven’t encountered them before, then for a good while they’ll come across as Motormouth Clown in a Fedora (Johnson) and Understated Guy at the Piano (McCarrol).
With three Ns to their band name (no relation to a slightly better-known group), a dream of booking Toronto’s longstanding live venue and only a cluttered suburban home to show for it, the duo’s act seems primarily to be coming up with boneheaded ideas for exposure. Johnson’s latest bolt of inspiration is for them to parachute from the top of downtown Toronto’s 2,000-foot CN Tower into the open Rogers Centre stadium below, a plan which meets with amusingly alarmed concern from a very real employee at the hardware store. It’s the first of many encounters with unsuspecting citizens, à la the oeuvre of Sacha Baron Cohen.
Though their stunt fails — yet succeeds for us as a piece of guerrilla filmmaking wizardry — it spurs Johnson toward an even crazier notion: time traveling in an RV to 2008 to change their fates and secure their inevitable fame. Think “Back to the Future” and think about it a lot, since from here on out, that 1985 classic becomes this movie’s lodestar of structural, comedic and musical reference. (McCarrol’s enjoyably overwrought orchestral score shouts out to composer Alan Silvestri.)
That the filmmakers could play against themselves using video of the 2008 versions of their characters (when they had the web series) is undeniably clever, if not always the laugh riot it promises to be. But it also helps foster the jealousy-driven farce that takes over the current-day narrative and is genuinely funny: a rejiggered timeline in which McCarrol becomes a massive pop star and Johnson gets left behind.
Invariably these wacky scenarios will be more amusing to longtime fans, for whom a frantic climax akin to the lightning-meets-DeLorean ending of “Back to the Future” will play like nostalgia for nostalgia. To the uninitiated, though, even amid steady laughter and a sneaking concern for this silly friendship to right itself, it may come off as much ado about who knows what.
But Johnson is nothing if not a punchy ringmaster of deadpan humor and his grab-bag mindset generates enough goodwill to appreciate the DIY brashness of it all. I’m one of those who had no clue of this act’s history and I’m fairly certain I’d look forward to “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie the Sequel.”
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope newsletter and the guy answering all of the above to this newsletter’s initial question.
Everyone loves a surprise or two on Oscar nominations morning, and this year gave us the gift of Delroy Lindo, 73, finally earning his first Oscar nomination for his standout performance as bluesman Delta Slim in “Sinners.”
Some people are still smiling about the news. Lindo certainly is.
Lindo and I talked about the lessons he has learned as an actor over the course of a career that has spanned a half-century. He recalled the self-doubts that plagued him when he first played the lead in “A Raisin in the Sun,” the story of a struggling Black family dealing with discrimination in 1950s South Chicago, and how he overcame those fears when he revisited the role three years later.
“This was an absolute period of growth for me as an actor all because I learned the most important thing: preparation, preparation, preparation,” he told me.
But even when you exercise that level of care, you still deal with doubt. Actors will be the first to tell you that they’re needy, neurotic.
To play Delta Slim, Lindo read books on the blues, listened to Son House, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and immersed himself in the culture of the Mississippi Delta. Musicians helped him hone his harmonica and piano playing. He was ready.
But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t use a little affirmation for a final boost.
Lindo says there were two such “seminal moments” for him while making “Sinners.” The first came when they filmed the scene where Lindo stands as his car passes a chain gang. Delta Slim exhorts the prisoners to “hold your heads.”
“[Director] Ryan [Coogler] was very nervous,” Lindo says. “He didn’t want any accidents.”
Shortly after shooting the scene, the movie’s unit publicist, Anna Fuson, emailed Lindo’s agents, telling them how his work had moved her and the crew.
“That doesn’t happen,” Lindo says, his voice cracking with emotion.
Later they shot Delta Slim’s monologue, in which he recalls the lynching of a fellow musician, ending with Lindo breaking into a guttural humming and drumming, expressing pain that transcends words. That night Zinzi Coogler, Ryan’s wife and a producer on “Sinners,” wrote Lindo telling him how much that scene had meant to her.
“Those two moments gave me a grounding,” Lindo says quietly. “It let me know this work is impacting people. And you can’t put a value on that kind of thing.”
“When a movie is the best possible incarnation of itself, it’s a universe you fall into; as the youth says, it’s a vibe,” Del Toro says during an interview at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where he was in attendance to screen a restoration of his 1992 feature debut, “Cronos.”
Like Victor Frankenstein, who diligently selects body parts from corpses to stitch together his humanoid creation, the Mexican director carefully assembled his troupe of movie magicians. Of course, their talents mattered immensely to him, but so did their drive and their willingness to participate in the “team sport” of filmmaking.
“The cohesive personality of the film, the expressiveness of the film, depends on every aspect being orchestrated without an ego,” Del Toro says. “Each department sustains the department next to them.”
Del Toro clearly knows how to pick them. The Envelope recently caught up with makeup effects veteran Mike Hill, seasoned production designer Tamara Deverell, costume virtuosa Kate Hawley and acclaimed composer Alexandre Desplat, all Oscar-nominated for their work on “Frankenstein.”
And just like organs that constantly communicate with each other, their work is intimately intertwined. Nothing is conceived in isolation on a Del Toro film. “We all know what everyone’s doing within the different departments, so we all echo each other,” says Hawley.
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1.Tamara Deverell.2.Kate Hawley.(Lauren Fleishman / For The Times)
In casting his acolytes, Del Toro seeks the alchemy that only human minds and hands can accomplish building tangible worlds. “The audience knows when something is digital, and when something has been crafted with real materials,” Del Toro explains. “I really believe people can tell the difference. Maybe they can’t articulate it, but they can feel it.”
Hill agrees. His mandate to create the prosthetics and makeup that transformed Jacob Elordi into the Creature aimed to make him look like an artwork that Victor Frankenstein handcrafted. Every part of him was by design, with the scars on his body reflecting incisions that those studying human anatomy in the 18th century would have made.
“If the monster felt fake, we would’ve lost the movie,” says Hill. “The Creature had to feel real. Not to put down VFX, but there’s a human quality they can’t catch.”
For Deverell, “Frankenstein” represented both the continuation of a creative partnership that dates back to the 1990s and an opportunity to showcase her multi-faceted skills. “Guillermo and I speak in a language of art history, and he is steeped in cinematic history,” she says.
With a team of technicians and craftspeople, Deverell constructed breathtaking sets, including Victor’s laboratory with giant batteries that required intricate steam and lighting mechanisms.
Undoubtedly, her pièce de resistance is the full-size Arctic ship where the opening sequence unfolds. Though the production considered existing vessels, none of them measured up. “There were specific action beats that Guillermo wanted, and a look that we all wanted,” she says. “To have complete creative control, there’s only one way to do it.”
To anyone who disagreed with the need for a ship, Del Toro would explain that it was not an extravagance. “It’s actually what tells the audience the scale of the movie,” he says.
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1.Alexandre Desplat.2.Mike Hill.(Lauren Fleishman / For The Times)
The first half hour of the film, Del Toro believes, establishes its ambition and operatic quality. There are no digital doubles in that sequence, but real stunt performers aboard a ship that’s not a miniature but a massive structure that moves thanks to a giant gimbal.
It’s the way Del Toro pursues ideas by way of collaboration that brings Hawley back to his worlds (she even worked with him on his unmade version of “The Hobbit”). She’s learned to conceive her pieces considering that in his movies real water, mud, snow and fake blood might be in play.
“There’s something that happens with real materiality, real construction, there’s an alchemy to it,” Hawley says. “What a fabric does and performs is not always predictable, but the outcome and the potential you see in something then becomes the magic.”
As production timelines get shorter and A.I. utilization creeps into the filmmaking process, Hawley believes artists are trying to hold onto the craft as much as possible. “We came here to build worlds,” she says. “That’s what we did as kids. That’s what we do. This is our church.”
Del Toro admits he can be a “pain in the ass,” especially when dealing with his film’s production design and makeup effects. He atones by constantly reassuring his artisans. “They need to know that even if you are torturing them you admire them,” he says.
The only element of the film where Del Toro actively hopes to be surprised is the score. And Desplat is committed to delivering.
“Writing music is using your imagination. It’s not using references. It makes no sense to me,” says Desplat, who believes most scores today sound like work that has come before. “I hear many composers use references, but what for? That’s not what we do. We have the film to be inspired by. That’s enough.”
For “Frankenstein” — his third creature movie with Del Toro, after “The Shape of Water” and “Pinocchio” — Desplat thus avoided Gothic compositions to create a counterpoint to the images, highlighting the fragility of Elordi’s Creature, who he thinks of as the core of the film.
Also tying together the film’s craftsmanship is Del Toro’s awards campaign for “Frankenstein,” which he’s navigated to the tune of “F— AI.” The chant has resonated with those fighting to keep art made by humans for humans. “Frankenstein,” in turn, is the director’s latest monument to the beauty of imperfection.
“Art is the thing that we should never let go of, never surrender to mechanization or artificial intelligence,” Del Toro adds. “We need to grasp on it because this is the last point of contact between humans.”
Oscar nominations landed Thursday morning and you’d really have to be a curmudgeon to complain, what with the year’s two best films, “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners,” hauling in the most nods. One of these movies is going to win best picture (probably “One Battle”), continuing a nice little streak of top-shelf winners. “Oppenheimer” to “Anora” to “One Battle After Another”? That’s the best run since the early ’90s when “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Unforgiven” and “Schindler’s List” prevailed.
Of course, not everyone is celebrating this morning. “Wicked: For Good”? The complete disrespectation! The latest “Avatar” sequel? More ash than fire.
The Oscars cap their nominees at five per category (with the exception of best picture), leading, invariably, to some surprises and omissions — some egregious, some understandable. For alliteration and search engine optimization, we’ll call these “snubs,” though you’d have to be a true narcissist, say somebody who’d threaten to invade a country because he felt scorned over not winning a prize, to really take it personally.
Fortunately, Hollywood is free of ego, leaving us just to rationally contemplate the academy’s choices and examine the snubs and surprises of the nominations for the 98th Academy Awards, which will be presented on March 15.
Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in “Wicked: For Good.”
SNUB: “Wicked: For Good” (picture) The first “Wicked” earned 10 nominations last year, going on to win two Oscars. Surely, the sequel would be popular too. But the box office was down (more than $200 million globally), the reviews were mostly meh, and academy members took note. Duplicating the first movie’s Oscar haul was going to be a challenge, as some voters would naturally resist rewarding something they had just honored a year ago. And the material posed its own challenges, as the musical’s second act isn’t as fun or focused. But to go from 10 nominations to being completely shut out? What a difference a year makes.
SURPRISE: “F1” (picture) There’s a demographic in the motion picture academy affectionately known as “steak-eaters,” men in the autumn of their years who appreciate a good Dad Movie centered on old(ish) guys who most definitely know best. With membership broadening, this demo has lost a bit of its influence over the years. But the dudes can take a victory lap today, celebrating the nomination of Joseph Kosinski’s swaggering, vroom-vroom sports movie.
SNUB: “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (picture) The third “Avatar” movie has grossed $1.3 billion worldwide, which is impressive, though still about $1 billion behind 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water.” That movie, like the first one, was nominated for best picture. But “Fire and Ash” couldn’t even manage a nod from the Producers Guild, a group that operates from a bigger-the-better mentality. There’s a feeling of fatigue about the franchise, with even creator James Cameron giving the distinct impression that he’s ready to move on. Here’s another signal that it’s time.
SNUB: “It Was Just an Accident” (picture) The warning signs were there. Jafar Panahi’s searing (and often funny) social critique of authoritarianism did not fare well on the Oscar or BAFTA early lists. But with the current political climate and the alarming events transpiring in Panahi’s native Iran, it still felt like it’d make the best picture cut. Its absence feels like a big miss or, less charitably, a dereliction of duty.
Stellan Skarsgård, left, and Elle Fanning in a scene from director Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value.”
(Kasper Tuxen/Neon)
SURPRISE: Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value” (director) Trier seemed to be slipping down the ranks of contenders, but voters no doubt appreciated his film’s salty view of Hollywood as well as the way “Sentimental Value” subtly shifted between past and present, hope and hurt. Trier also earned an original screenplay nomination, repeating the success he enjoyed with his last movie, “The Worst Person in the World,” also starring Renate Reinsve.
SNUB: Guillermo del Toro, “Frankenstein” (director) Scorsese stumped for him, as did David Fincher, George Lucas and Jason Reitman. “It’s a remarkable work,” Scorsese said during a Q&A with Del Toro. “It stays with you. I dreamed of it.” The affable, movie-loving Del Toro has won many fans inside and outside the industry over the years, along with Oscars for directing and producing the 2017 best picture winner “The Shape of Water” and for “Pinocchio,” the enchanting 2022 movie that snagged animated feature. “Frankenstein” isn’t his best work, but Del Toro did snag a Directors Guild nod. And “Frankenstein” itself earned 9 Oscar nominations. The directors branch, though, went with Trier.
SNUB: Jafar Panahi, “It Was Just an Accident” (director) Panahi has had quite the year: He won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in May and was sentenced in December to one year in prison for “propaganda activities” related to his work. Both speak to the effectiveness of “It Was Just an Accident,” a withering critique of the cruelty and corruption of an authoritarian regime. Panahi did receive his first Oscar nomination, an original screenplay nod.
SURPRISE: Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue” (lead actress) Hudson’s winning turn in this sincere heart-warmer about a husband-wife Neil Diamond tribute act gave the actor her first nomination since her spectacular arrival a quarter-century ago in “Almost Famous.” “Song Sung Blue” had its own lane in this race, appealing to voters starved for the kind of sincere adult drama that studios once routinely made. And Hudson had a number of famous friends — Demi Moore, Reba McEntire and, of course, her mom, Goldie Hawn — hosting screenings and singing her praises. Maybe even singing some Neil Diamond songs. Who can resist? Not voters.
Chase Infiniti in “One Battle After Another.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
SNUB: Chase Infiniti, “One Battle After Another” (lead actress) Infiniti’s placement in the lead category, clearing the decks in supporting for co-star Teyana Taylor, raised a few eyebrows. She’s only in the movie for about half an hour, and though her character drives the action and ends the movie in spectacular fashion, that wasn’t enough in a category flush with weightier work.
SNUB: Amanda Seyfried, “The Testament of Ann Lee” (lead actress) For true believers in Seyfried’s frenzied work in Mona Fastvold’s story of devotion and delusion, it’s hard to shake this one off.
SNUB: Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked: For Good” (lead actress) Here’s the rub: The second half of “Wicked” no longer centers Erivo’s Elphaba. When she’s on the screen — and not wearing that sex cardigan — she’s still great, masterfully conveying Elphaba’s vulnerability and sadness. But in a competitive lead actress category, Erivo simply didn’t have the screen time to convince voters to give her an encore nomination.
SURPRISE: Delroy Lindo, “Sinners” (supporting actor) Lindo finally earned his first Oscar nomination, riding the wave of “Sinners’” record haul. His portrayal of the world-weary Mississippi bluesman Delta Slim was central to the movie’s exploration of life in the Jim Crow South and included a powerful monologue that told the story of the lynching of a fellow musician. The movie wouldn’t have been as special without it.
Paul Mescal in “Hamnet.”
(Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features)
SNUB: Paul Mescal, “Hamnet” (supporting actor) He played Shakespeare, but voters weren’t in love. How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless audience.
SNUB: Ariana Grande, “Wicked: For Good” (supporting actress) Grande functioned as a co-lead in the first “Wicked,” winning a supporting actress nomination last year, and took center stage in the sequel. But her Oscar fortunes waned as “Wicked: For Good” couldn’t replicate the spell the original cast on audiences. It’s possible too that, good as she is at light comedy, some voters didn’t buy Glinda’s transformation after spending nearly the entire movie betraying Elphaba at every turn. With friends like her, who needs enemies?
SURPRISE: Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value” (supporting actress) SAG-AFTRA voters ignored the cast of “Sentimental Value” for the Actor Awards, but the ensemble came back in a big way with the academy. Fanning, playing an A-list American actress navigating the strained family dynamics of the auteur who hired her for his comeback, joined Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Stellan Skarsgård among the nominees.
SNUB: Odessa A’zion, “Marty Supreme” (supporting actress) A’zion’s chances at a nomination seemed to rise along with the success of “Marty Supreme.” She picked up an Actor Award nomination earlier this month for playing Rachel, the film’s chaos-creating schemer. Oh well. Maybe we’ll see her at the Emmys later this year for her tumultuous turn as a Gen Z influencer in “I Love LA.”
SNUB: “No Other Choice” (international feature) Oscar voters have been resistant to Park Chan-wook in the past, ignoring the likes of “Decision to Leave” and “The Handmaiden.” But “No Other Choice,” a humane — and darkly comic — look at ugly things people can do when desperate felt like a potential breakthrough. Park will have to wait … again.
Now that the 2026 Oscar nominations are out, it’s officially binge watch o’clock.
Chances are you caught a few of the contenders upon their 2025 movie theater openings, but with the onslaught of new releases in the weeks leading up to Thursday’s nominations announcement, even some voters are surely behind. (Don’t tell the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences).
The good news is, the lion’s share of nominated films are available to stream or see in theaters (or both).
Here is a guide to where you can find all the feature-length nominees ahead of the Academy Awards on March 15, paired with some commentary from Times critics.
“The Alabama Solution”
Where to watch: HBO Max Nominated for: Documentary feature What we said: “Much of ‘The Alabama Solution,’ which reports on inhumane living conditions, forced labor and widespread violence against the state’s incarcerated population, is comprised largely of footage captured by inmates using contraband cellphones, offering one of the most shocking, visceral depictions of our carceral state ever put to film.”
“Arco”
Where to watch: In theaters Nominated for: Animated feature What we said: “The most impressive part of French animated sci-fi epic ‘Arco,’ which took the top prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, is its imaginative world-building.”
“Avatar: Fire and Ash”
Where to watch: In theaters Nominated for: Costume design, visual effects What we said: “Viewed in ultra-crisp high frame rate, ‘Fire and Ash’ feels so overwhelmingly real that it circles back around to surreal.”
“Blue Moon”
Where to watch: Apple TV, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, in theaters Nominated for: Lead actor, original screenplay What we said: “[Richard] Linklater’s movies have frequently featured affable underdogs, but by contrast, ‘Blue Moon’ is an elegy to a bitter, insecure man whose view of himself as a failure has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“Bugonia”
Where to watch: Peacock Nominated for: Best picture, lead actress, adapted screenplay, original score What we said: “‘Bugonia’ is a hilarious movie with no hope for the future of humanity. What optimism there is lies only in the title, an ancient Greek word for the science of transforming dead cows into hives, of turning death into life.”
“Come See Me in the Good Light”
Where to watch: Apple TV Nominated for: Documentary feature What we said: “‘Throughout the Festival, we saw audiences moved by Andrea Gibson’s and Megan Falley’s journeys in ‘Come See Me in the Good Light,’’ Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming Kim Yutani said to the fest’s website. ‘Festival goers embraced the humor and heartbreak of this intimate documentary directed by Ryan White, as it speaks to art and love and reminds us what it means to be alive as we face mortality.’”
“Cutting Through Rocks”
Where to watch: Not currently available Nominated for: Documentary feature
Where to watch: Disney+ Nominated for: Animated feature What we said: “‘Elio’ is a breezy Pixar adventure, the studio’s pivot back to making original, rip-roaring children’s yarns.”
“F1”
Where to watch: Apple TV Nominated for: Best picture, editing, sound, visual effects What we said: “The pleasures of ‘F1’ are engineered to bypass the brain. It’s muscular and thrilling and zippy, even though at over two and a half hours long, it has a toy dump truck’s worth of plot.”
“Frankenstein”
Where to watch: Netflix, in theaters Nominated for: Best picture, supporting actor, adapted screenplay, cinematography, costume design, makeup & hairstyling, original score, production design, sound What we said: “‘Frankenstein’ is [Guillermo del Toro’s] lifelong passion project: He doesn’t just want to make a ‘Frankenstein’ but the ‘Frankenstein,’ so he’s faithfully set his adaptation in the past. But he’s adjusted the wiring so that 1850s Europe reminds us of Silicon Valley. The result is the best movie of his career.”
“Hamnet”
Where to watch: In theaters Nominated for: Best picture, director, lead actress, adapted screenplay, casting, costume design, original score, production design What we said: “The film’s depiction of grief has rightly been at the center of the conversation around ‘Hamnet,’ with their revelatory performances resulting in immense Oscar buzz for both actors. But [Paul] Mescal and [Jessie] Buckley were almost more interested in the relationship between William and Agnes and how artists navigate the trappings of conventional life.”
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
Where to watch: YouTube, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play, Apple TV, in theaters Nominated for: Lead actress What we said: “From the moment it begins, Mary Bronstein’s ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ aims to put you inside the head of a mother in crisis, and for the next couple of hours it does so in such an exhausting, claustrophobic, anxiety-inducing manner that, as you take a journey on this cinematic endurance test, you feel many things: grudging admiration, abject terror and, finally, sweet relief when the closing credits roll.”
“It Was Just an Accident”
Where to watch: YouTube, Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, Fandango at Home, in theaters Nominated for: International feature, original screenplay What we said: “In a movie full of heightened emotions and anxious uncertainty, ‘It Was Just an Accident’ (which is France’s entry for the international film Oscar) glides between genres, too slippery to be nailed down. [Jafar] Panahi dabbles in the road movie, the revenge thriller, even the ‘getting the band back together’ comedy.”
“Jurassic World Rebirth”
Where to watch: Peacock Nominated for: Visual effects What we said: “‘Rebirth’ is a confounding title for a downbeat entry that’s mostly preoccupied by death and neglect.”
“Kokuho”
Where to watch: In theaters (Feb. 5) Nominated for: Makeup & hairstyling
“KPop Demon Hunters”
Where to watch: Netflix Nominated for: Animated feature, original song What we said: “‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ the cartoon musical about a girl group using catchy tunes to keep evil at bay, has become a viral phenomenon since it launched on the streamer June 20. With 210 million views globally so far, it’s the most watched animated movie ever on Netflix, and is expected to soon top ‘Red Notice’ as the company’s most popular film.”
“Little Amélie or the Character of Rain”
Where to watch: YouTube, Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, Fandango at Home Nominated for: Animated feature What we said: “Amélie’s rowdy approach becomes more nuanced when she is confronted with a loved one’s death, as well as her own mortality in the aftermath of two accidents. [Liane-Cho] Han and [Maïlys] Vallade also make room for her realizations about life’s unfairness and the inevitability of sorrow — all communicated via flights of fancy that only animation can materialize.”
“The Lost Bus”
Where to watch: Apple TV Nominated for: Visual effects What we said: “This time [director Paul Greengrass] mixes star heroism with you-are-there spectacle and the results can be galvanizing if awkwardly framed.”
“Marty Supreme”
Where to watch: In theaters Nominated for: Best picture, director, lead actor, casting, cinematography, costume design, editing, production design, original screenplay What we said: “The movie’s moxie makes it impossible not to get caught up in Marty’s crusade. We’re giddy even when he’s miserable.”
“Mr. Nobody Against Putin”
Where to watch: Apple TV Nominated for: Documentary feature
“One Battle After Another”
Where to watch: HBO Max, in theaters Nominated for: Best picture, director, lead actor, supporting actor, supporting actress, adapted screenplay, casting, cinematography, editing, sound, original score, production design What we said: “Paul Thomas Anderson’s fun and fizzy adaptation views its Molotov cocktail as half-full. Yes, it says, the struggle for liberation continues: ideologues versus toadies, radicals versus conservatives, loyalists versus rats. But isn’t it inspiring that there are still people willing to fight?”
“The Perfect Neighbor”
Where to watch: Netflix Nominated for: Documentary feature What we said: “‘The Perfect Neighbor’ does leave us with a patiently earned moment of justice. But it’s haunted by the notion that a lethal rage prevailed, that a crime was allowed to happen and an ordinary, trusting American neighborhood — where a loving mom unhesitatingly tells an inquiring cop, ‘All these kids are mine’ — isn’t protectable ground.”
“The Secret Agent”
Where to watch: In theaters Nominated for: Best picture, international feature, lead actor, casting What we said: “‘The Secret Agent’ isn’t tightly coiled so much as it gradually unfolds, its full meaning unclear until the filmmaker eventually hurtles forward nearly 50 years, snapping the final puzzle piece into place.”
“Sentimental Value”
Where to watch: Fandango at Home, YouTube, Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, in theaters Nominated for: Best picture, director, lead actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, editing, international feature, original screenplay What we said: “‘Sentimental Value’ is a movie for people who don’t like to cry, who may not admit that they have ever cried, who listen to Loudon Wainwright’s song ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Cry’ and say, ‘Yes, that’s me!’”
“Sinners”
Where to watch: HBO Max, in theaters Nominated for: Best picture, director, lead actor, supporting actor, supporting actress, casting, cinematography, costume design, editing, makeup & hairstyling, original score, original song, production design, sound, visual effects, original screenplay What we said: “What a blood rush to exit Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ aware that you’ve seen not merely a great movie but an eternal movie, one that will transcend today’s box office and tomorrow’s awards to live on as a forever favorite.”
“Sirāt”
Where to watch: Not currently available Nominated for: International feature, sound What we said: “‘Sirāt’ is taut and riveting and nearly all mood. You feel the exhilaration of veering off the path, the self-exile of speeding toward nowhere, the dread that this caravan has veered too far for its own safety.”
“The Smashing Machine”
Where to watch: YouTube, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play, Apple TV Nominated for: Makeup & hairstyling What we said: “While ‘The Smashing Machine’ represents a step in a new direction for [Dwayne] Johnson, it also finds [Benny] Safdie setting off on a new path as a writer and director on his own after years of collaborations with his brother. Sifting through the emotional and physical struggles of [Mark] Kerr’s life, Safdie found something at its core that aligns with his own ongoing interest in what it takes to move forward despite life’s difficulties. It’s not about being a loser, he thinks, but it is about not winning.”
“Song Sung Blue”
Where to watch: In theaters, YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play, Fandango at Home Nominated for: Lead actress What we said: “‘Song Sung Blue’ couldn’t be less cool. But the Sardinas were completely sincere and [Hugh] Jackman and [Kate] Hudson honor their innocence by playing them straight.”
“Train Dreams”
Where to watch: Netflix, in theaters Nominated for: Best picture, adapted screenplay, cinematography, original song What we said: “‘Train Dreams’ is the kind of movie that people often say they want more of, but when one actually comes along they don’t quite know what to do with it. Told with an unassuming, gentle simplicity that grows into an accumulating emotional power, the film manages to feel very small and specific while also vast and expansive.”
“The Ugly Stepsister”
Where to watch: Hulu Nominated for: Makeup & hairstyling
“Viva Verdi!”
Where to watch: Not currently available Nominated for: Original song
“The Voice of Hind Rajab”
Where to watch: In theaters Nominated for: International feature What we said: “The movie is a powerfully blunt instrument of empathy. [Kaouther] Ben Hania’s insistence on close-up melodramatics — faces in anguish, a handheld camera glued to them — sometimes overshadows a thirst for something more analytical. But it’s decidedly a vision, one steeped in roiling pain.”
“Weapons”
Where to watch: HBO Max Nominated for: Supporting actress What we said: “A former sketch comic, [Zach] Cregger knows how to work a crowd. The combination of his assurance and his characters’ confusion is wonderful in the moment, as though you’re listening to a spiel from someone who sounds crazy but might be making all the sense in the world.”
“Zootopia 2”
Where to watch: In theaters, YouTube Nominated for: Animated feature What we said: “After several haphazard attempts with the ‘Frozen’ and ‘Moana’ franchises, ‘Zootopia 2’ can take the title as Disney’s most effective animated sequel yet.”
SHE is no stranger to steamy scenes, but Margot Robbie says new movie Wuthering Heights beats her previous films when it comes to passion on screen.
Out in time for Valentine’s Day, the adaptation of Emily Bronte’s classic novel sees Margot as Cathy alongside Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff.
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Margot Robbie says new movie Wuthering Heights beats her previous films when it comes to passion on screenCredit: GettyMargot says the highly anticipated film is much raunchier than the bookCredit: Alamy
And the 35-year-old star says it is much raunchier than the book’s romantic scenes, set on the sweeping Yorkshire moors.
She added: “They never really kissed in the book, but we kiss a lot. We kiss everywhere.
“And there’s so many times where he just picks me up and puts me in a tree, or picks me up with one hand.
“And I have to say, it is really nice, it makes you feel, ‘Oh I’m light as a feather, I’m a tiny little thing’.”
I think a lot of men are going to turn to their partners and be like, ‘Am I Heathcliff to you or am I Edgar?’. And I don’t know if they want to hear the answer
Margot
Before landing the role, Margot had not read the novel but has now gone through it a “bunch of times” and thinks it’s “phenomenal”.
Directed by Emerald Fennell, it hits cinemas on Friday. February 13 has become known as Galentine’s Day and celebrates female friendships.
‘Start fights’
Margot said: “It’s a great Galentine’s movie. Going with a group of girlfriends and having a couple of drinks is going to be a fun night out, and then you could go with your partner.”
Bronte’s novel follows a love triangle between Cathy, wild Heathcliff and gentleman Edgar.
And Margot said with a laugh: “I did wonder if this film will start fights, because I do think a lot of men are going to turn to their partners afterwards and be like, ‘Am I Heathcliff to you or am I Edgar?’. And I don’t know if they want to hear the answer.”
Margot rose to fame on Neighbours in 2008, aged 17, as fiery teenager Donna Freedman.
Jacob Elordi stars as Heathcliff alongside Margot as Catherine EarnshawCredit: Alamy
Since then, she has starred in blockbuster films including as Harley Quinn in 2021’s The Suicide Squad and in the 2023 global smash Barbie.
Last month, polling company Ranker named the three-time Oscar nominee as the most beautiful woman in the world, but Margot says she remains insecure about her looks.
She told Wonderland magazine: “When I was playing Naomi in The Wolf Of Wall Street it was so high-tempo sexy. I was acutely aware that the line in the screenplay was ‘the hottest blonde ever’.
I lied for a long time about the nudity [in Wolf of Wall Street]. First, I said there was no nudity. Then I said there was nudity but it was a body double
Margot
“I’m clearly not the hottest blonde ever. I was just terrified that people would see the movie and think, ‘Eugh! She’s not that great’.”
Margot also gets worried about her family seeing some of her more risque roles. When she had to strip for The Wolf Of Wall Street, she banned some of them from watching.
She said: “I lied for a long time about the nudity. First, I said there was no nudity. Then I said there was nudity, but it wasn’t me, that it was a body double with my head CGI’d on. Then I had to admit it was me.
“The grandparents flat out can’t see it. The rest of the family can watch at their own risk, but if we can’t have a relationship after that, it’s not my fault.”
Margot’s parents split up when she was five and she was raised on Australia’s Gold Coast with her physiotherapist mum Sarie. She has limited contact with her father Doug, a retired farmer and sugar cane tycoon.
The star says that acting seemed like an impossible dream and told Vogue Australia: “I got on Neighbours and I thought that was the biggest thing that was ever going to happen to me.
“Before that, the idea of being in Hollywood, I did think you had to be born into it or had to know someone in the industry.”
Margot Robbie has pulses racing at the Wuthering Heights film premiereCredit: AlamyToday, Margot lives in Los Angeles with her husband, English film producer Tom AckerleyCredit: Getty
Now she speaks out to let young girls know that if you work hard anything is possible.
Margot said: “I just want to say to young people that success is not as far away as it seems. I didn’t know anyone in the industry; it can totally happen.
“You do have to work really hard, you have to work really, really, really hard, but if you want it badly enough, you can totally make it happen.”
Today, Margot lives in Los Angeles with her husband, English film producer Tom Ackerley, and their 16-month old son — who has not been named publicly.
Alongside Tom, Margot runs production company LuckyChap, the powerhouse firm behind Barbie, Saltburn and now Wuthering Heights.
And she says life at the top is a constant balancing act.
‘Rarely go on holidays’
Margot explained: “Having a business is stressful and time-consuming, but it’s incredibly rewarding. There are obviously a lot of times where I’ll have a meltdown and go, ‘I can’t do it any more’.
“You miss out on a lot of things, like you rarely go on holidays, you miss everyone’s weddings, everyone’s birthdays. I haven’t seen my best friends, my nephew.
“So there’s that side to it where it kind of hurts to sacrifice those things, but it’s also enormously satisfying to build something and be part of something.
“The biggest misconception about me is that people think I spend all my time sitting on a yacht or swanning around at fancy parties.”
Margot added to Elle Australia: “I still feel very Australian, so I don’t really feel like I’m in Hollywood at all.
“You only get a taste of Hollywood twice a year when you go to the Oscars or you go to do a press junket or a premiere or something.”
And of her happy place, she told Vogue: “Being on a film set is my favourite place, there’s nothing better.
“And I don’t care if I’ve got three lines in the film or if I’ve got one of the lead roles.
“I hope I look back and feel like I spent my time well.
“I don’t mind if the movies that I make aren’t massive successes, as long as I know I put in everything I could and I loved the people I was working with.
“I want to look back and know I had a lot of adventures, a lot of fun with good people.”
Margot and hubby Tom in Notting Hill last monthCredit: Goff
Currently nominated for multiple Oscars, Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” traces how the immeasurable sorrow of losing a child fueled William Shakespeare to write “Hamlet” as a literary effigy to loss. That revered text, which has inspired countless adaptations (“The Lion King” among them), takes on a new form in the hands of Japanese animation master Mamoru Hosoda for his latest fantastical epic, “Scarlet.”
In a career of animated features with thematic heft and deep emotional impact, “Scarlet” may be the director’s most sobering and intense effort to date, not only given the severity of the violence on display, but because it advocates for the sometimes-impossible task of forgiving one’s foes, even when they show no remorse. Here, what’s at stake is one’s very soul. What remains is Hosoda’s investment in parent-child relationships, a recurring subject for him, always explored with compassion for both parties: the child in need of guidance and the parent struggling to be a beacon.
Gender-swapping the play, Hosoda once again centers a heroine (he seems to prefer female protagonists). The 16th century eponymous Danish princess (voiced by Mana Ashida) loses her father, King Amleth (Masachika Ichimura), to a gruesome betrayal. Her unscrupulous, power-hungry uncle Claudius (Kôji Yakusho) murders his own brother to become king. But in his final moments, as Scarlet watches, Amleth pleads a request she cannot hear. Avenging her fallen father — and finding out what he asked for before dying — becomes the young woman’s sole purpose going forward. Rage consumes her.
Hosoda’s body of work consists almost exclusively of movies that take place on two distinct planes, whether those be reality and a digital world (“Summer Wars,”“Belle”) or reality and a magical realm (“Mirai,”“The Boy and the Beast”). “Scarlet” is no different in that regard.
This time, however, he explores an afterlife with its own set of rules. Sensing Scarlet’s resolve to destroy him, Claudius poisons her. Scarlet wakes up in the Otherworld, an endless, arid landscape with an ocean for sky where a dragon roams. The deceased from the past and the present convene here. That’s how Scarlet and Hijiri (Masaki Okada), a paramedic from our present who refuses to believe he’s died, can exist in the same timeline. This purgatory essentially mirrors life: There’s conflict and suffering and if you die again here, you vanish into darkness forever. The goal is to ascend to the Infinite Land, a stand-in for heaven. But Scarlet cares not for eternal peace. She learns that Claudius is here and embarks on a trek to find him and kill him for good.
Hosoda doesn’t dwell on the differences between Scarlet and Hijiri’s realities back in the land of living. Instead, he zeroes in on their clashing worldviews. While Scarlet doesn’t think twice about slaughtering anyone who gets in her way, Hijiri protects life at all costs, so much that one can understand Scarlet’s frustration with him. After a brutal fight, for example, Hijiri bandages her enemies’ wounds with as much care as he does hers.
Multiple battles with Claudius’ henchmen pepper Scarlet and Hijiri’s journey, as does an encounter with the United Nations of this place: a group of wandering nomads from around the world who’ve come together for companionship. Even after death, Hosoda suggests, all people truly hope for is a shoulder to cry on and someone to share their burdens with.
For “Scarlet,” Hosoda ventures into uncharted aesthetic territory. When the narrative is in the Otherworld, fans will immediately notice the look differs from his previous creations. And that’s because Hosoda has opted for photorealistic, computer-generated animation in those sections. The early scenes in Scarlet’s time period are conceived using the more traditional hand-drawn technique.
Still, the characters in the Otherworld, created in CGI, retain qualities of hand-drawn animation, making one hyperaware of the relationship between the figure’s movement and the environment. The mix of visual approaches shocks the eye at first, though it comes to seem fitting.
If probed too closely, Hosoda’s high-concept interpretation of life after death may raise more questions than it can answer (have all of history’s villains been killed in the Otherworld?). But despite any narrative quibbles, the movie deserves praise for its genuine call for compassion. Scarlet’s final encounter with Claudius radiates with the complicated poignancy expected of real, difficult catharsis.
Admittedly, the film’s resolution feels naïve. Scarlet’s good intentions to end wars by way of sheer determination to do what’s right might prove insubstantial in practice. In that regard, “Scarlet” is the prayer of a director who fervently wants to believe in kindness (even for those who don’t deserve it) as the one true road to healing. That’s a tall order these days, especially in this country, but it’s hard to fault Hosoda for the sincere reminder of what could be.
ACTRESS Margot Robbie hits the Wuthering Heights of style — in a leather mini dress.
The Australian star was promoting her new movie, an adaptation of Emily Bronte’s classic love story, with a Q and A at Claridge’s in central London.
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Margot Robbie showed off her long legs in a leather minidress while promoting Wuthering HeightsCredit: GettyMargot was appearing in central London at Claridge’s for a Q and A with fansCredit: Getty
Last night, the 35-year-old appeared with co-star Jacob Elordi, 28, on The Graham Norton Show.
Jacob, who plays Heathcliff alongside Margot’s Catherine, said the couple’s obvious chemistry in the film was down to “mutual obsession”.
He said: “If you have the opportunity to share a film set with Margot Robbie, you’re going to make sure you’re within five to ten metres at all times.”
Margot and Jacob play Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, respectively, and are joined in the film by Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes and Ewan Mitchell in supporting roles.
She dazzled in a see-through nude mesh gown with gold detailing and a white corset underneath, which showed off her incredible figure.
The Barbie actress was recently named the world’s most beautiful woman in a poll.
We revealed in October how Margot is being lined up to take on the leading role in a big budget remake of cult horror film American Psycho.
Margot Robbie stunned in an ethereal gown at the Wuthering Heights premiere in LondonCredit: GettyCo-star Jacob Elordi and and Margot appeared on the Graham Norton show discussing the upcoming releaseCredit: PA
Samie Elishi dramatically stormed off during the Love Island All Stars movie night on Friday
Love Island star storms off in explosive movie night that ‘will never be forgotten’(Image: ITV)
One Love Island star stormed off in an explosive movie night that “will never be forgotten”.
The third series of the popular spin-off returned to ITV2 last month, bringing back a group of former contestants to the villa for another opportunity at finding romance.
Over recent weeks, audiences have witnessed numerous heated exchanges, surprising eliminations and several bombshell entries. The latest arrivals included six American contestants, alongside the launch of villa USA.
Tensions flared when the two villas were brought together earlier this week, with disagreements breaking out between Belle Hassan and Sean Stone, as well as Lucinda Strafford and Samie Elishi.
Tonight’s episode featured the much-anticipated return of movie night, with contestants preparing for an evening of cinema-themed entertainment. The All Star selection included Free Millie, How to Lose Leanne in Ten Days, Some like it Scott, The Sean Identity, There’s Something About Samie, Tommy Dearest and Lucinda’s Web, reports OK!.
There’s Something About Samie showcased footage of the dispute between Samie and Lucinda, which started after Lucinda decided to pair up with Samie’s partner Ciaran Davies.
Matters intensified when Lucinda pied Samie during Thursday’s task, as she believed Samie doubted the authenticity of her new relationship with Sean. When the two attempted to resolve their differences, Lucinda started laughing, prompting Samie to storm off furiously.
Upon reviewing the footage, Lucinda remarked: “You weren’t there for me and Sean,” prompting Samie to immediately retort: “Are you alright? I warned you… I was actually trying to warn you… There’s me trying to have your f****** back and then you throw that pie in my face.”
The heated exchange escalated when Lucinda playfully told Whitney Adebayo not to laugh in front of Samie. An irate Samie responded: “Are you taking the p*** out of me again?”
The star continued: “I might need five minutes. This bird keeps laughing in my face, you’re p****** me off,” before storming off with Belle.
Whilst Belle attempted to calm Samie down, Whitney and Leanne Amaning became embroiled in their own dispute, just hours after Leanne had taken Whitney’s partner Yemen Sanders into the secret garden.
The movie night screening pressed on, as did the tension, moments before presenter Maya Jama made her surprise appearance in the villa. “Everyone enjoying movie night? Well, it’s time for a plot twist,” she announced, before the credits began to roll.
ITV audiences were left stunned following tonight’s turbulent episode, with one viewer posting on X (formerly Twitter): “Don’t know about anyone else but I’ve got a headache now from all the shouting. That movie night was absolute carnage!”
Another commented: “And this, is what I call a messy MOVIE NIGHT,” whilst a third remarked: “Love island all starts 2026 movie night gone but will NEVER be forgotten.”
Love Island All Stars airs Sunday to Friday on ITV2 and ITVX at 9pm
For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the newEverything Gossipwebsite
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Movies that had limited awards releases last year are seeing their full-fledged openings this week. Top among them is “Pillion,” the debut from British writer-director Harry Lighton, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling as two men who become engaged in a dominant-submissive relationship.
Alexander Skarsgård, left, and Harry Melling in the movie “Pillion.”
(A24)
In her review, Amy Nicholson writes of the film, “This fetishy adventure is a minimalist romantic comedy in which submissive meets dominant, and submissive explores his physical and emotional vulnerabilities. Marriage and a baby carriage are off the table; the journey matters, not the destination. … Lighton’s biker BDSM rom-com might sound niche, but free yourself to see it and you’ll discover it’s a universal romance.”
Emily Zemler asked Skarsgård about what has been guiding his decisions lately when choosing roles. As he said, “People think there’s this invisible ladder and you have to get to the next rung of the ladder. It’s easy to forget to check in with yourself and ask, ‘Well, what do I want to do?’ You can get swept away. I’m trying to get down the ladder to the ground.”
For most of the month of February, the New Beverly will refashion itself into the Eros, the adult movie theater it was called throughout much of the 1970s. (There’s even a commemorative T-shirt.) Married film dudes throughout the city are presumably coming up with inventive rationales and/or excuses as to why they simply must attend some of these screenings.
The programming leans into what was referred to in The Times as “porn chic” — movies that were meant to work as cinema, even appealing to couples, while also fulfilling the needs of the raincoat crowd. This Friday and Saturday will be a double bill of Just Jaeckin’s 1974 “Emmanuelle,” starring Sylvia Kristel, and Bitto Albertini’s 1975 “Black Emmanuelle,” starring Laura Gemser.
When The Times’ Charles Champlin reviewed “Emmanuelle” after it opened in 1975 at the Fine Arts in Beverly Hills, he noted, “It may be the first porno film designed for people who don’t really want to see one.”
Other notable titles during the New Bev’s Eros month include “The Opening of Misty Beethoven,” directed by Radley Metzger under the pseudonym Henry Paris, Russ Meyer’s “Vixen” (with star Erica Gavin in-person), Ingmar Bergman’s “Summer With Monica,” Roger Vadim’s “Pretty Maids All in a Row,” “The Fireworks Woman,” directed by Wes Craven (credited as Abe Snake), Nagisa Oshima’s “In the Realm of the Senses” and Gerard Damiano’s “Deep Throat.”
Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” will be playing on Fridays at midnight, which includes a knowing line about the Eros when Margot Robbie asks, “What’s happening at the dirty movie place?”
A 1976 article in The Times by Barry Siegel states that there were then 47 adult theaters operating within the city limits of Los Angeles, even while charting the rapid rise and quick decline of porn-chic movies in the wake of the success of “Deep Throat” in 1972.
‘sex, lies and videotape’ with starLaura San Giacomo
Laura San Giacomo in the movie “sex, lies and videotape.”
(Criterion Collection)
The Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. continues its 50th anniversary series at the Egyptian Theatre on Tuesday with a screening of Steven Soderbergh’s 1989 debut feature “sex, lies and videotape,” a key title in kicking off the independent filmmaking scene of the 1990s. Actor Laura San Giacomo, who won LAFCA’s New Generation Award for her performance, will be there for a Q&A moderated by Lael Loewenstein.
Soderbergh was all of 26 years old when the film premiered at what was then called the U.S. Film Festival (the precursor to Sundance), where it won the audience award before heading to Cannes, where it won the Palme d’Or. (James Spader picked up an acting prize there too.) Among the film’s many other accolades, Soderbergh would also be nominated for an Academy Award for original screenplay.
Spader plays Graham, an enigmatic wanderer who inserts himself into the lives of his old friend John (Peter Gallagher), his wife Ann (Andie MacDowell) and her sister Cynthia (San Giacomo), drawing out all manner of confessions and revelations.
In her original review of the film, Sheila Benson called the film an “electrifying psycho-sexual comedy … the funniest and saddest American movie since Jim Jarmusch landed straight in the middle of our consciousness, and it’s possibly the most compelling.”
Benson added, “What is not apparent from a thumbnail description is the film’s lacerating wit, its beautiful look and sound, and the bravura quality to each performance. Or the terrible vein of melancholy that Soderbergh touches.”
‘In the Soup’ in 35mm
Steve Buscemi and Seymour Cassel in the movie “In the Soup.”
(Factory 25)
Winner of the Grand Jury prize at 1992’s Sundance — the same year “Reservoir Dogs” premiered there — is “In the Soup.” Directed and co-written by Alexandre Rockwell, the film follows an aspiring filmmaker (Steve Buscemi) who falls in with an irresistibly charming gangster (Seymour Cassel, who won Sundance’s first acting award) as his erstwhile producer. A recently restored 35mm print of the film will be playing in L.A. for the first time Sunday at Brain Dead Studios.
The cast of the film also features Carol Kane, Jim Jarmusch and Jennifer Beals, the last married to director Rockwell at the time. Reviewing the film in November 1992, Kenneth Turan called it “a charming pipsqueak of a movie, a playful film of ragged and shaggy appeal.”
Director Michael Almereyda on the ’90s vampires of ‘Nadja’
Elina Löwensohn in the movie “Nadja.”
(Arbelos Films)
As much a survey of late-night diners, bars and 3 a.m. conversations, Michael Almereyda’s “Nadja” is very much a vampire film. It is also a wonderful example of the creative freedom of the ’90s indie boom — everything from its cast to its look to its deadpan humor.
Executive produced by David Lynch (who paid for the film out of his own pocket and appears in a small role), “Nadja” combines the 1936 horror film “Dracula‘s Daughter” with Andre Breton’s 1928 surrealist novel “Nadja.” In the movie, a New York City vampire (Elina Löwensohn) looks to avenge the death of her father at the hands of Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Fonda) while also dealing with a complicated swirl of relationships involving her brother (Jared Harris), his nurse (Suzy Amis), Van Helsing’s nephew (Martin Donovan) and his wife (Galaxy Craze).
Re-released by Grasshopper Film and Arbelos Films with a streaming and home video release to follow, the new 4K restoration of the film’s original version that premiered at the 1994 Toronto International Film Festival is a few minutes longer than what played at Sundance just a few months later. (It was there that Almereyda also made the documentary “At Sundance,” interviewing filmmakers for their thoughts on the future of movies.) This new “Nadja” is playing on Feb. 6 and 8 at the Philosophical Research Society, then at Vidiots on Feb. 21 and 22 and Frida Cinema on Feb. 25 and 26.
On the phone from Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he is prepping an adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 2016 novel “Zero K,” the thoughtful and reflective Almereyda shared some of his memories of making the film.
Peter Fonda, left, Jared Harris, Martin Donovan and Galaxy Craze in the movie “Nadja.”
(Arbelos Films)
How did you get the idea of combining “Dracula’s Dracula” with Breton’s “Nadja”?
Michael Almereyda: It was fairly spontaneous. David Lynch had offered to help me make a movie if I could come up with something that was definably genre. And I went to [NYC movie theater] Film Forum at a time when — do you remember [film historian] William K. Everson? He would show up at Film Forum unannounced to start talking before the movie. This was one time when I showed up late and he was talking and they read a raffle ticket and there was silence. And I reached in my pocket: I had won the raffle. And that was to get a book of William K. Everson’s about horror movies. And so it was kind of a gift that I read about “Dracula’s Daughter.” I’d never seen it and I liked the outline of the plot and I chased it down and it felt like I could retrofit a number of ideas I had about New York with that story. It felt like the two things talked to each other.
One thing about vampire movies is that the best ones are always about something else. For you with “Nadja,” what’s the something else?
Almereyda: It’s not really a scary movie and it wasn’t really designed to be. It’s certainly atmospheric but the emotion of it, when I saw it again recently, had to do with both the comic aspects of being in love and the miserable aspects. It’s kind of a side-winding answer, but that’s partly what it’s about. It’s about family ties, obviously. I think I made or wrote enough scripts about tangled families that I began to sort of get over it. But we all come from these families.
David Lynch in the movie “Nadja.”
(Arbelos Films)
Did David Lynch‘s presence impact the tone at all? Do you feel the movie became in any way Lynchian?
Almereyda: Well, David’s impact on me and my whole generation of filmmaking and the generation behind us is vast. And I wouldn’t want to pretend it’s not, but direct influence is kind of minimal. It might be more fair to say that David’s art school background rhymes with mine. And that we had similar influences. People don’t really talk about how much David did or didn’t know about Maya Deren and Cocteau, but it’s kind of hard to miss. And there was just a certain sensibility and attitude. I felt close to David’s Midwestern-ness, and you combine that with some fondness for and knowledge of French culture, including surrealism, and you’re halfway to David Lynch without specifically thinking about it.
I really haven’t addressed this question much, but when he died, I ended up writing a fair bit of my memories and it’s moving to me how much impact he had when he died. There was such a wave of mourning and celebration, too, that it felt more phenomenal than he could have anticipated. It was clear how famous he was — how recognizable he was — within the time I knew him. But the love of David Lynch is really moving to me and it’s still something we’re swimming in, I hope, in a dark time.
For all the difficulties of being an independent filmmaker, what keeps you doing it?
Almereyda: I’m stumped. I was just going through my head and I know you just interviewed Ethan Hawke and he’s a true comrade that I’ve been lucky to work with a few times. And he was in the interview with Rick Linklater when we did our “At Sundance” movie. They had “Before Sunrise” at the festival and Rick started by quoting Truffaut, talking about the future of film is the personal film.
Even if it’s a fantasy, even if it’s a vampire movie, you’re still relating to your experience and your sense of an emotional reality. So that feels like a candle that doesn’t go out for me. And despite all the derailments and dead ends, I don’t question continuing. It just feels like a natural path, even if it’s winding and difficult.
In other news
Timothée Chalamet, tributee
Timothee Chalamet in the movie “Marty Supreme.”
(A24)
I will leave the ins and outs of this year’s awards campaigns to my trusted colleague Glenn Whipp at The Envelope, but one event jumped out as worth noting: Announced this week and immediately selling out is an eight-film American Cinematheque retrospective of Timothée Chalamet‘s movies, with the actor in person for all screenings.
Chalamet is currently an Oscar nominee as both actor and producer for “Marty Supreme.” And he has an impressive roster of collaborators who will be appearing with him to show their support, including Edward Norton with “A Complete Unknown,” Denis Villenueve with “Dune” and “Dune: Part Two,” Christopher Nolan with “Interstellar” and Elle Fanning with “Beautiful Boy.”
If there were some murmurs last year that Chalamet didn’t do enough conventional campaigning to win for his turn as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” this year he seems to be pulling out all the stops.
ACTRESS Florence Pugh revealed her bloody face and welts on her forehead in new photos after undergoing “Botox and fillers.”
The A-list star got candid about the beauty treatments she’s endured and their shocking side effects in a series of social media posts.
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Florence Pugh shared photos of herself undergoing ‘Botox and filler’ injectionsCredit: Instagram/florencepughThe actress joked that she was being a ‘responsible adult’ by receiving the beauty treatmentCredit: Instagram/florencepugh
Earlier this week, Florence, 30 – who is set to star in the first James Bond Amazon spin-off – shared several snapshots from her recent visit with her plastic surgeon, showing herself receiving injections in her forehead and lips.
One pic captured the Oppenheimer star sticking her tongue out at the camera while her doctor smiled as she injected a needle into her forehead, which already showed multiple red bumps.
“Just mama Pugh freezing her forehead like a responsible adult,” the Thunderbolts star teasingly wrote over the clip.
A second snap showed Florence with a neutral expression as she received filler injections in her top lip.
The Don’t Worry Darling star then showed the after-effects of the injections, including visible marks on her face.
“I wasn’t stung by a bee. I repeat: I wasn’t stung by a bee. Just had some tox and fillers,” Florence jokingly clarified in her caption.
The Pretty Woman star appears to have made a habit of prioritizing herself from a young age.
Last February, during an appearance on the National Geographic series No Taste Like Home, Florence opened up about her childhood battle with severe respiratory issues.
“I wasn’t supposed to live,” the United Kingdom native revealed.
“When I was born, they told my parents that it wasn’t going to happen, and just enjoy the time whilst you have it.
“I had many struggles growing up with my breathing, constantly being ill. Going in and out of the hospital,” Florence added.
The We Live in Time star previously revealed that she was diagnosed with tracheomalacia as a baby, a condition that causes the windpipe to collapse and makes breathing difficult.
Her parents uprooted their lives to Spain when she was three years old after doctors suggested that a warmer climate would help her breathe better.
“We were in Spain because I have a breathing issue,” Florence said in a past interview.
“I have asthma and this thing called tracheomalacia. From a young age, I’ve just had a different breathing system.”
Florence was initially on the show to trace her family’s roots through culinary creations in Oxford.
She then discovered that her 3x great-grandparents, Mauritz and Anna, who emigrated from the Netherlands to London in the mid-1800s, had a daughter, Florence, who died at just four days old.
The actress learned that her relative likely died from tuberculosis, prompting her to reflect on her own health struggles growing up.
Florence also shared a pic of her bloody face and welts on her forehead following the procedureCredit: Instagram/florencepughThe movie star previously opened up about her childhood health battlesCredit: RexFlorence revealed that she was diagnosed with tracheomalacia, which made breathing difficultCredit: Getty
Successful romances star at least one looker. I don’t mean someone attractive. I mean an actor who gazes at their scene partner with such delight that we swoon, too. Clark Gable was a looker. Diane Keaton was a looker. The combined eyeball voltage of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone is so powerful that it’s turned silly scripts into hits.
Harry Melling is a late-blooming looker. Onscreen most of his youth as the Muggle brat Dudley Dursley in the “Harry Potter” franchise, Melling is only just now getting to show off that talent in the funny-kinky “Pillion,” which puts him on his knees beaming up at Alexander Skarsgård’s 6-foot-4 biker as though this blond hunk was the sun. His Colin, a shy gay man who sings the high notes in a barbershop quartet, is so visibly infatuated licking Skarsgård’s leather boots in a dark alley that you believe he lusts for humiliation. Colin has only just discovered that fact about himself. He’s yet to even learn this man’s name. (It’s Ray.)
Perhaps you’d like to be taken to dinner first, but “Pillion” is about Colin’s needs — specifically his need to please — and first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton challenges us to root for his bliss. This fetishy adventure is a minimalist romantic comedy in which submissive meets dominant, and submissive explores his physical and emotional vulnerabilities. Marriage and a baby carriage are off the table; the journey matters, not the destination.
“Pillion” is what motorcyclists call the passenger seat, at least in suburban England where this is set. It’s a passive position compared to the driver, but still a cooler upgrade from where Colin starts the movie riding in: the rear of a sedan. Out the car’s back window, he sees Ray zoom by in white Stormtrooper-looking gear and, by happenstance, bumps into him that night at a pub where Colin’s mother, Peggy (Lesley Sharp), has set up a blind date with a nice bloke. That guy gets forgotten the instant Ray slips Colin a note with a time and place to meet.
Peggy isn’t panicked by her son’s alpha-male predilections. “I think a biker sounds exciting,” she says with a grin. His father, Pete (Douglas Hodge), just wants him to wear a helmet. Neither parent is privy to the fact that Ray simply isn’t very nice. Ray controls the gobsmacked Colin quietly, calculating the bare minimum of kindness required to have a house boy willing to cook dinner, tend to his Rottweiler and sleep on the floor. He withholds his approval to keep the paler, smaller man anxious.
That Rottweiler contended for the Palm Dog at last year’s Cannes, a prize for the festival’s best canine. Frankly, Melling himself should have won. His performance is pure puppy, from the way he silently studies Ray’s silent cues to the eagerness with which he leaps up to fetch Ray a beer. When Ray lavishes attention on another biker’s pet pillion, Kevin (Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters), Colin sulks until his master unzips his trousers and gives him a treat.
Flexing his abs in shiny Motoralls, Skarsgård uses his own appeal to expose an unattractive wrinkle in human behavior: Ray is so gorgeous that everyone just takes it as fact that Colin is lucky to be near him. When a coworker asks this scrawny geek how he bagged a hunk like Ray, Colin brags that he has “an aptitude for devotion,” which includes wearing a padlock around his neck and shaving his Byronesque curls so that he looks like a zealot — which in a way, he is.
Over and over, Colin takes stock of his own debasement. But then he looks at his model-handsome lover and calculates that his suffering is worth it. He’s good at compartmentalizing; he’s a parking violations attendant who tickets angry people all day. When he needs an excuse to cry, he finds one (and it hurts to watch).
Lately, it’s been a thrill to see queer stories confidently leapfrog over coming-out narratives to the trickier question of whether two individuals in particular are a decent match. Lighton leaps further than that — he goes full Evel Knievel by daring to ask how we feel about a relationship that’s indecent, but still has worth as a set of training wheels for a wobbly young man learning what he wants.
It’s a more optimistic take on Colin and Ray’s coupledom than was in the book that inspired the script, Adam Mars-Jones’ 2020 novella “Box Hill,” which was subtitled “A Story of Low Self-Esteem.” A study of the psychology of abuse, that story’s more brainwashed version of Colin finds him decades older looking back on the affair and pining for a relationship that reads as horrible between the lines.
Lighton isn’t oblivious to the power imbalance, but he’s made a movie about going forward, not being stuck. He trusts his naif with more agency, and so “Pillion” is freer to play its insults for laughs. You’ll giggle a lot. That gleam in Melling’s eyes makes it feel like a comic fantasy, although who knows? Perhaps there really are BDSM biker gangs hosting afternoon picnics with serving boys tied spread-eagled on a buffet table. That bucolic scene is filmed in a slow pivot around the park, cinematographer Nick Morris getting a chuckle from how the image shifts from Georges Seurat to “Hellraiser.”
Eventually, Colin’s parents will be more flinchy about his new boyfriend, leading to a beat or two that don’t land with the impact they could. Oddly, Lighton might be too restrained himself. Like his leads, he prefers to say everything with a look.
But while Melling is always endearingly open and responsive, Skarsgård stays unreadable. His Ray always seems to be hiding behind a motorcycle visor even when he’s not and when he deigns to speak, the words trail off in a huff of exhaustion. The only thing we know about Ray’s life are the names of his two previous dogs, and that’s only because he has them tattooed on his chest.
Any more personal facts about Ray — his own job or family or romantic history, even his favorite movie — would risk us clinging onto it too tightly as an explanation of what he gets out of this himself. Serving Ray’s pleasure is Colin’s focus. And our focus is on Colin’s pursuit of that.
Yet with subtle skill, Skarsgård reveals that Ray is thinking about Colin more than he’s willing to let on. Curiosity flickers across his face when his submissive surprises him. He stays gruff, of course, but you sense that Ray is as manacled by his authoritarian role as Colin literally is in his hungry, slurping devotion to his master. Puny and pathetic as Colin appears, he begins to seem like the braver of the two. It takes courage to map your own boundaries — then to cross over that line and get hurt, and get back up and out there. Lighton’s biker BDSM rom-com might sound niche, but free yourself to see it and you’ll discover it’s a universal romance.
Kristen Stewart fears the death of classic Hollywood cinema.
As the actor-turned-director drove through the streets of Los Angeles and saw beloved local theaters replaced by major retail chains, she decided to help save theatergoing in the city that started it all.
So she bought a historic movie theater in L.A.
Stewart purchased and is restoring the Highland Theatre, a cultural landmark that once hosted vaudeville acts.
“When people are desperate, they start doing desperate things,” Stewart said in an interview with Architectural Digest. “I think buying this theater feels a little desperate in like the most beautiful way.”
The theater shut its doors nearly two years ago — less than a week short of its 100th anniversary. The owner, Dan Akarakian, told The Times in 2024 that the theater was unable to recover economically from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everything that’s already living here is so beautiful. It just needs to be like taken care of,” Stewart said. “I mean, the place is falling down. We definitely need like a lot of help, but it’s worth it.”
The local film and TV industries in L.A. were struggling long before wildfires that ravaged the city early last year dealt another blow, halting production and threatening the homes of stars and crews alike.
Stewart, who first achieved international success with her role as Bella Swan in the “Twilight” saga, said movie theatergoing is becoming a lost art, as “people are watching movies on their tablets and their TVs and likely watching a couple of things at once.” She and her peers struggled to get movies off the ground.
Stewart hopes the theater can become “a space that families can go and that also filmmakers can go and so we can kind of be in service of each other,” she said. “We can be in actual communication with people and not cut off from each other.”
The three-story building has theater rooms and venue space, ideal to host screenings and public community events, she said.
The theater was designed by architect Lewis Arthur Smith, known for other local theaters like the Vista in Los Feliz and El Portal in North Hollywood.
“It’s an opportunity to make a space to gather and scheme and dream together,” Stewart told AD. “This project is about creating a new school and restructuring our processes, finding a better way forward.”
Stewart’s effort to save local cinema comes on the heels of a coalition of filmmakers, led by “Juno” director Jason Reitman, purchasing the 93-year-old Village Theater in Westwood in 2024.
Oscar-winning writer-director Quentin Tarantino bought the Vista, also designed by Smith, in 2021. The theater reopened its doors over two years later.
Stewart, who was raised in the San Fernando Valley, has been a longstanding advocate of the L.A. community. She works closely with the Downtown Women’s Center, which provides housing to homeless women.
The actor decried the lack of stories by and for women in Hollywood during her keynote speech at the annual Academy Women’s Luncheon in November.
“I absolutely f— love this city,” she said. “I like the spaciousness. You can decide how you want to fill it.”
As it turns out, ‘80s pop star Kate Bush and fictional girl group Huntr/x from “KPop Demon Hunters” have a lot in common.
Over the last several years, Netflix has positioned itself as one of the few video streaming services focused on making an impact in the music industry.
From the surprise revival of older songs like Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in shows like “Stranger Things,” to streaming the most originally produced music documentaries, there’s no doubt Netflix’s audience is musically in tune.
Last summer Netflix hit another level with the overwhelming success of “KPop Demon Hunters.” The animated movie, featuring fictional K-pop idols who fight the forces of evil, has become the most streamed Netflix movie with more than 480 million views since its release in June. But its success wasn’t limited to the viewership.
The soundtrack, full of punchy K-pop melodies and inescapable earworms, is the first to top the Billboard charts since 2022, when Disney’s “Encanto” created a similar frenzy. Huntr/x is also up for five Grammys at the awards ceremony Sunday.
The breakout single, “Golden,” which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, is nominated for song of the year, the first time a Netflix production has been nominated in one of the Grammys’ big four categories.
Music and movies always have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Think of classic tunes like “Over the Rainbow” in “The Wizard of Oz” and “My Heart Will Go On” in “Titanic” that became generational hits.
Now, Netflix and other global streaming platforms have taken the synergy to another level, creating new opportunities for recording artists to showcase their music.
“All of a sudden, people are discovering music they didn’t know before,” said Ian Eisendrath, the “KPop Demon Hunters” music supervisor. “I think that people got hooked on the film, which hooked them on the soundtrack, which led to the discovery of other music.”
Eisendrath said the movie, produced by Culver City-based Sony Pictures Animation, was not expected to be “a slam dunk commercial success. It was a risk.”
Though geared toward children, the movie drew a vast audience of all ages.
“It hit all kinds of angles, the music, the story, the characters, the visuals — [Netflix] was very interested in a film that would have wide-ranging appeal to all the quadrants of movie watchers,” Eisendrath said.
In the streaming era, music supervisors like Eisendrath play an increasingly important role in the success of projects like “KPop Demon Hunters,” said Robert Fink, the chair of music industry programs at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.
He said over the last 10 years, the role has become about more than just finding a song to match a scene.
“They nurture artists in the way that record labels used to do,” Fink said. “They have artists that nobody knows about, or can get some people to write songs for [the project], which might then become a way that those artists and those songs become successful in the industry.”
The singing voices behind Huntr/x aren’t those of the lead actors. They belong to rising musicians Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami. Ejae has written songs for major K-pop groups like Twice, Le Sserafim and Red Velvet, while Nuna and Ami have experience as solo artists.
Though they weren’t a group before the film, they have since performed together on the “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Saturday Night Live” and in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The soundtrack earned global appeal, with more than two thirds of its streams originating from outside the U.S., according to data from entertainment industry analytics firm Luminate. “Golden” scored a record 20 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Global charts. The popularity of the movie and its music helped boost music consumption on a global scale.
“KPop Demon Hunters” already is faring well this awards season: It won two Golden Globes and received two Oscar nominations for best animated feature and original song.
Justin Kamps, the music supervisor on “Bridgerton,” noticed a similar trend when new seasons of the Regency-era romance series drop. The period piece is famous for playing quaint orchestral covers of contemporary pop artists such as Billie Eilish, Pitbull and BTS. Its latest season is set to feature covers of Third Eye Blind, Coldplay and Usher.
According to Spotify, both the Vitamin String Quartet, the group behind the covers, and the original artists’ songs, like Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” and BTS’ “Dynamite,” experienced spikes in listening after the show’s release.
“Music and streaming has grown together. It’s great for artists, because the moment that a song is featured in a project, it could be an incredible boost to their streaming numbers and get them discovered,” Kamps said.
Perhaps one of the most memorable examples of this dynamic happened in 2022, when “Stranger Things” featured Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” Overnight, everything changed for both Bush and Netflix.
Nora Felder, the show’s music supervisor, called the moment “the perfect storm.”
“It exploded through the stratosphere. We didn’t expect that. We were focused on looking for something that told the narrative. It felt like it had been bigger than ever before,” Felder said.
“Running Up That Hill” received roughly 22,000 daily streams on average before it was featured in the show, according to Luminate. Following its star turn, the song it peaked at 5.1 million streams in a single day — nearly 40 years after its release. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time and hit 1 billion streams in 2022. The track then spawned viral trends on TikTok and pulled the ‘80s star into contemporary pop culture.
Throughout its five-season rollout, “Stranger Things” continued to influence what viewers were listening to. Felder said the draw of its soundtrack is a mix of nostalgia for older viewers who might have grown up in the ‘80s (the era in which the show is set) and an introduction to a new sonic world for younger listeners. According to Luminate, 28% of Gen Z discovers music through series that are exclusive to streaming.
When Felder works with other studios, she said music can feel like a “last consideration” or like “there wasn’t enough money being put in the music budget.” But with Netflix, music seems to be a priority, as she’s been able to license tracks from David Bowie and Fleetwood Mac and two Prince songs (which played in the “Stranger Things” series finale).
“Netflix is very careful, and for some projects, music is more of a main character than others,” Felder said. “I do feel like Netflix especially has been very careful to try and apply the budget accordingly and take a look at projects and [realize] that music could really be an added force.”
Netflix’s musicality will be put to the test during Sunday’s Grammys broadcast, as the girls of Huntr/x face off with Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and SZA, as well as Bad Bunny, Bruno Mars and Rosé. The Grammys will air live from the Crypto.com Arena on CBS and Paramount+.
