movie

It turns out Zoe Saldaña was more than just emotionally drained after tearfully accepting her supporting actress Oscar for “Emilia Pérez” at this year’s Academy Awards — she was also worn out physically.

The 46-year-old actor explained Wednesday on the ABC talk show “Live With Kelly and Mark” how she had been fighting a cold and felt fully exhausted immediately following one of her career-defining moments.

“I collapsed right after. I lost my voice within an hour after I won the award,” she said. “I couldn’t stand on those heels that I had. All I wanted to do was crawl in bed and maybe cry. I don’t know why, I just needed to cry.”

The “Avatar” star noted that up until that point her body was running on all cylinders for months on end during awards season.

“Your body is running on pure adrenaline so you know that your immune system is in optimal condition, but once you tell your body that it’s over, then everything sort of collapses,” Saldaña said.

The Oscar victory capped an impressive awards season run for the “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor, having won the Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG and Critics’ Choice awards for her role as Mexico City attorney Rita Castro in “Emilia Pérez.”

While her performance was almost universally celebrated and well-regarded, the film as a whole was heavily criticized for its incomplete and offensive portrayals of transgender issues and the lack of consideration taken in depicting Mexico.

LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD declared the film is “Not Good Trans Representation.” The organization did not nominate “Emilia Pérez” for any GLAAD Media Awards.

Although physically and emotionally exhausted, Saldaña managed to make some attention-grabbing statements in the Oscars press room after a Mexican journalist noted that the movie’s presentation of Mexico was “really hurtful for us Mexicans.”

“First of all, I’m very, very sorry that you and so many Mexicans felt offended,” Saldaña said in the defense of the film. “That was never our intention. We spoke and came from a place of love, and I will stand by that.”

She went on to further disagree with the Mexican journalist’s point of view regarding the centrality and importance of Mexico in the 13-time Oscar nominated movie.

“For me, the heart of this movie was not Mexico. We were making a film about friendship. We were making a film about four women,” Saldaña explained. “And these women are still very universal women that are struggling every day, but trying to survive systemic oppression and trying to find the most authentic voices.”

Outside of the issues within the film, much of the main cast and crew of the movie was bogged down by mostly self-inflicted negative press.

Actor Karla Sofía Gascón faced backlash in January after Canadian writer Sarah Hagi resurfaced tweets dating from 2016 to 2023 that spoke negatively of Muslims’ clothing, language and culture in her home country of Spain. Additionally, Gascón caught heat for resurfaced comments about the 2020 killing of George Floyd, the ensuing racial reckoning, the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19-era Academy Awards ceremony in 2021.

Gascón later apologized for her previous online remarks and deactivated her X account.

The film’s director Jacques Audiard spoke openly on record about how little he prepped to portray Mexico and denigrated the Spanish language during his press tour.

When asked by a Mexican journalist at a red carpet event about how much he had to study up on Mexico and Mexican culture to prepare for the movie, Audiard gave a telling answer.

“No, I didn’t study that much. What I needed to know, I already knew a little about,” the filmmaker said. “It was more about capturing the little details and we came a lot to Mexico to see actors, to see locations, to see the decorations and so on.”

Speaking with the French outlet Konbini, Audiard spoke down on the Spanish language, saying, “Spanish is a language of modest countries, of developing countries, of the poor and migrants.”

Audiard later apologized for his comments after the movie received backlash from Mexican audiences.

Selena Gomez, who played a pivotal supporting role in the film, was criticized for her proficiency in Spanish. Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez was among those who called out Gomez’s performance and Spanish language ability.

Gomez has previously said her Spanish fluency waned after she started working in television at age 7. She responded to the criticism on social media, saying, “I did the best I could with the time I was given. Doesn’t take away from how much work and heart I put into this movie.” Derbez later apologized.

The PG rating has made a major comeback in Hollywood.

It’s strange to remember now, but during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — when studios were sending many of their family-friendly movies straight to streaming services — there were serious conversations in the movie business about whether youngsters and their parents would ever return to theaters in full force.

Streaming was just too convenient and affordable, compared with a Saturday outing of two parents and 2 1/2 kids, the logic went.

But in recent years, the family audience has proved to be a bulwark for the theatrical movie business.

Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” topped the domestic box office again over the weekend with $63 million in ticket sales, for a total of $280 million so far. It beat the latest “Mission: Impossible” and the new “Karate Kid: Legends,” both rated PG-13. As of Sunday, “Lilo & Stitch” had crossed $610 million globally.

Warner Bros. and Legendary’s “A Minecraft Movie,” also rated PG, has amassed $423 million in the U.S. and Canada, the best of the year so far. Adding international grosses, its global tally is $947 million.

Nine PG-rated movies have been released in more than 2,000 locations this year, up from six during the same period in 2024, according to industry estimates. Those movies have accounted for 41% of ticketing revenue in the U.S. and Canada this year, compared with 21% a year ago. (The Pixar megahit “Inside Out 2” was released in mid-June of 2024.)

Family films are a boon to studios and theaters at a time when other categories — such as comic book films and one-off dramas and comedies — have been less reliable than they were in the past.

And there’s more to come, including Universal’s “How to Train Your Dragon” remake, Pixar’s “Elio” and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Bad Guys 2.”

Importantly, many of these movies are coming one after the other, which is essential if the industry hopes to re-create the moviegoing habit for current and future generations, especially as social media, YouTube and video games claim more of young people’s attention.

“One of the things that I think the industry has struggled with over the last number of years is just having a regular cadence of movies in the theater,” said Michael O’Leary, head of the trade group Cinema United (formerly the National Assn. of Theatre Owners). “If you’re a young person, and there’s a six-month gap between movies, there’s a lot of things going on, and your attention wanes.”

The focus on PG-rated content stands in contrast with a few years ago, when the PG-13 rating was widely seen as the way to include a broad, “four-quadrant” audience: men, women, old and young. A PG rating tagged a new release as more of a kids movie. PG-13, the label for Marvel and DC movies, had more of a cool factor for teens and young adults.

O’Leary has a theory for why things have shifted, and it has to do with the media consumption habits of today’s very young, known as Generation Alpha, or those who came after Gen Z.

Kids now are more than just digitally native.

They’re aware of new movies and TV shows coming out, in part because of exposure to social media at an earlier age compared with past generations of children. Parents will naturally be more comfortable taking their 7- and 8-year-olds to something like “Minecraft,” because they’re less likely to be presented with objectionable content.

The Motion Picture Assn.’s rating system, though sometimes fraught and misunderstood, is meant as a guide for parents.

“Younger people are inundated with more and more content at an earlier age, and they’ve become, in some ways, more discriminating connoisseurs of what they want to see,” O’Leary said.

Surely there are some parents who take their kids to the movies less often now after the pandemic with the proliferation of at-home entertainment options. But overall, family movies are leading the industry. If the pandemic proved anything, it’s that if you’re a parent, you really can’t spend all your time in the house.

Gen Z — now anywhere from 13 to 28 years old — is clearly doing its part. According to a recent NRG survey, 37% of Gen Zers say they go to the movies more than six times a year, up from 29% who agreed with that statement in February 2023.

Adults, too, might be interested in seeing more PG content in theaters, particularly in the American heartland.

Angel Studios’ animated Jesus film “The King of Kings” performed well (though somewhat ironically, most of Angel’s live action movies are PG-13).

The post-pandemic recovery of the family audience hit a big milestone in 2023 with Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which grossed more than $1.36 billion worldwide. That was followed by the success of 2024 sequels such as “Inside Out 2,” “Moana 2,” “Despicable Me 4” and “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which all benefited from multigenerational appeal.

The blockbuster Broadway adaptation “Wicked” was also rated PG, which helped make it a family moviegoing event.

Now, the category is again on a hot streak. Industry analyst David A. Gross declared in a recent edition of his FranchiseRe newsletter, “the production pipeline is full and any loss of audience to streaming during the pandemic is over.”

What hasn’t come back as strongly? Most notably, superhero pictures — one of the pillars of moviegoing for the last couple decades. Before the pandemic, the industry averaged seven superhero movies a year, and those would drive billions of dollars in global revenue, Gross said. Lately, the genre has been significantly thinner and far less consistent.

R-rated horror movies are thriving (look at “Sinners” and “Final Destination Bloodlines”), but other adult-oriented movies are hit and miss.

Increasingly, when studios want to draw a mass audience, that means going younger.

Stuff we wrote

Number of the week

What’s the magic number that will allow Paramount’s $8-billion merger with Skydance to go through?

The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount was willing to part with $15 million to settle President Trump’s lawsuit against the company over edits to its pre-election “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris.

No surprise, that’s apparently not enough. Trump’s team wants more, the Journal reported. The president wants $25 million and an apology from CBS News, a source told the paper.

Trump’s critics, journalists and 1st Amendment experts say the lawsuit is basically a shakedown. Some anti-Trump lawmakers say a settlement by Paramount could amount to an illegal bribe.

Paramount is awaiting merger approval from the FCC, which is tasked with reviewing the transfer of broadcast licenses. Sources have told my colleague Meg James that the FCC approval process has been bogged down.

The company stresses that it sees the legal dispute and the FCC review as separate issues. No one believes Trump sees them that way.

On Monday, Paramount said it would add three new board members.

Finally …

There’s been an unreal amount of good TV on lately. I’ve been catching up on Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal,” and often can’t believe what I’m seeing.

Also, Marc Maron is ending his podcast after 16 years. I’ve linked to various episodes in this newsletter. Here’s one I’m looking forward to catching up with.

“Mountainhead,” a satirical skewering of tech oligarchs from “Succession” showrunner Jesse Armstrong, arrived this weekend, dropping on the final day of this year’s Emmy eligibility window.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. While we’re pondering the timeline to upload a human consciousness, let’s consider “Mountainhead” and its Emmy chances.

Another year, another late-breaking HBO movie

Early on in “Mountainhead,” tech bro and Elon Musk stand-in Venis Parish (Cory Michael Smith) uses film history to put the glitches of his company’s latest AI rollout into perspective.

“The first time people saw a movie, everybody ran screaming because they thought they were gonna get hit by a train,” Venis relates, shouting out the Lumiere brothers’ 1895 film, “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station.” “The answer to that was not stop the movies. The answer was: Show more movies. We’re gonna show users as much s— as possible, until everyone realizes nothing’s that f— serious. Nothing means anything, and everything’s funny and cool.”

In the meantime, though, Venis’ social media platform has given users the tools to create deepfakes so realistic they can’t be identified as bogus. Immediately, people all over the world are uploading videos of their enemies committing atrocities, inflaming centuries-old animosities. Reality has collapsed and, with it, global stability.

But for “Mountainhead’s” quartet of tech magnates, played by Smith, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman, everything is just fine. As venture capitalist Randall Garrett (Carell) notes, “We have plenty of calories stockpiled. Western countries have strategic commodity reserves, canola oil, lard, frozen orange juice.”

Later, Randall asks: “Are we the Bolsheviks of a new techno world order that starts tonight?”

“Mountainhead” is in many ways scarier than the zombie apocalypse of “The Last of Us” because it feels like its premise is lurking right around the corner. Armstrong came up with the idea for the two-hour movie in November, after immersing himself in podcasts and books about Silicon Valley. He shot it in March, edited it in April and delivered it in May. It captures the DOGE era, specifically in the casual cruelty expressed by its entitled characters.

“Do you believe in other people?” Venis asks Randall. “Eight billion people as real as us?”

Randall’s reply: “Well, obviously not.”

Cory Michael Smith, left, and Steve Carell in “Mountainhead.”

(Macall Polay / HBO)

“Mountainhead” aspires more directly to comedy, but because we don’t have a history with these four deplorable men, it’s often difficult to find the humor. “Like ‘Fountainhead’ Mountainhead?” Youssef jokes to Schwartzman about the estate’s title. “Was your interior decorator Ayn Bland?” There’s a procession of put-downs like that. When they’re not roasting each other, they’re trying to boost their own agendas — in the case of the cancer-stricken Randall, it’s the quest to live forever as a disembodied consciousness.

For all its Shakespearean drama, “Succession” was wildly entertaining, more of a comedy than, yes, “The Bear.” Kendall Roy performing the rap “L to the OG” at a party honoring his father’s half-century running Waystar Royco will be the funniest two minutes of television probably forever. But half the fun came from the characters’ reactions to this transcendent moment of cringe. We were deeply invested in this world.

For all their money and power, the “Mountainhead” moguls are, like the Roy children in “Succession,” not serious people. But beyond that, “Mountainhead” doesn’t have much of anything novel to say about its subjects. As good as Smith is at channeling Musk’s alien, empathy-deficient otherness, you can come away with the same level of insight — and entertainment — by spending a few minutes watching Mike Myers on “Saturday Night Live.” I don’t need to watch a movie to know that a guy sitting on a gold toilet isn’t prioritizing anyone’s interests but his own.

“Mountainhead,” as mentioned, arrives on the last day of 2024-25 Emmy eligibility, less by design than from necessity. The paint’s still wet on this film. But this does mark the third straight season that HBO has dropped a TV movie right before the deadline. Last year, it was “The Great Lillian Hall,” starring Jessica Lange as fading Broadway legend. Two years ago, it was the excellent whistleblower thriller “Reality,” featuring a star turn from Sydney Sweeney. Both movies were blanked at the Emmys, though Kathy Bates did manage a Screen Actors Guild Awards nod for “Lillian Hall.”

Did the movies land too late for enough people see them? Perhaps. The late arrival time should mean they’d be fresh in voters’ minds when they fill out their ballots. But you have to be aware of them for that to happen.

Awareness shouldn’t be an issue with “Mountainhead.” Enough people will want to watch the new offering from the creator of “Succession,” and there’s not much else on television vying for attention right now. “Mountainhead” should score a nomination for television movie, even with the category being stronger than usual this year with audience favorites “Rebel Ridge,” the latest “Bridget Jones” movie and Scott Derrickson’s enjoyable, genre-bending “The Gorge” competing.

But actors in these TV movies are at competitive disadvantage as the Emmys lump them together with their counterparts in limited series, performers who are onscreen for a much longer time. This decade, only two TV movie actors have been nominated — Hugh Jackman (“Bad Education”) and Daniel Radcliffe (“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”). The lead actress category, meanwhile, has been completely dominated by limited series.

Not that there are any women starring in “Mountainhead” because … tech bros. As for the men, Carell, Schwartzman, Smith and Youssef are very good at conveying delusional arrogance. I despised each and every one of their characters. If hate-voting were a thing, they’d all be nominated.

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

Following its recent premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, “The Phoenician Scheme,” the new film by Wes Anderson, opens in Los Angeles this weekend. Each new Anderson picture still feels like something of an event, simply because it is so fun to see what he is up to this time, what idiosyncratic subset of the world will he explore and make his own.

Personally, I have been taken with how densely packed his last few films have become. “The French Dispatch” and “Asteroid City” had a layered approach to storytelling that took some time to fully unpack. So it is likely “The Phoenician Scheme” has yet to reveal itself, in need of some extended unraveling of its energetic story of an ambitious 1950s international businessman, Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda (Benicio del Toro, who we spoke to for our summer preview), and his estranged daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), on an a series of business deals. The cast, typical for Anderson, is packed, also including Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Richard Aoyade, Riz Ahmed, Charlotte Gainsbourg and many more. (Never fear, Willem Dafoe and Bill Murray are in there somewhere.)

Mia Threapleton and Benicio del Toro in the movie “The Phoenician Scheme.”

(TPS Productions / Focus Features)

In a review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote, “Lately, Anderson has been on a tear of using his perfectionist aesthetic to defend the act of ambition itself — to honor artisans who create masterpieces in a world of philistines. The only thing he loves more than a carved credenza (and here, they’re decorated with hieroglyphics) is the craftsperson who made it and the aesthete who bought it, instead of settling for something disposable. I was never a fan of Anderson’s until ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ clicked him into focus. It was hard to believe he knew what he was talking about when his earlier movies tried to sell us on love between human beings. But a hotelier’s love of his linens? That I’ll buy.”

Amy added, “It’s not that you have to believe that there is a force out there more powerful than Zsa-zsa, or heck, even money itself. But if that doesn’t move you, at least Anderson deserves reverence for negotiating how to get all these A-list talents to act in his movie for peanuts. He’s managed to build yet another dazzler, a shrine to his own ambition and craft. And while it sometimes feels a bit drafty in the corners, the accomplishment itself is plenty.”

‘Bleak Week’ goes worldwide

Thomas Jane in an image from the black-and-white director’s cut of Frank Darabont’s 2007 horror movie “The Mist,” coming to “Bleak Week.”

(MGM)

The fourth edition of the American Cinematheque’s “Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair” program begins Sunday with screenings at all three of its local venues through Saturday, June 7. Having already expanded to the Paris Theatre in New York last year, “Bleak Week” is now spreading to several more cities and venues: the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Ore.; the Music Box Theatre in Chicago; the Texas Theatre in Dallas; Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis; Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston; and the Prince Charles Cinema in London.

“We look to expand our never-ending film festival whenever possible,” said Grant Moninger, artistic director of the American Cinematheque, via email, of the program’s ongoing expansion.

This year’s series will open with a 35mm screening of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 “Ikiru” at the Egyptian Theatre introduced by Bill Hader. French filmmaker Claire Denis will be present for screenings of a handful of her titles, including a 35mm presentation of 2001’s “Trouble Every Day” with a Q&A moderated by Barry Jenkins.

Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold will be present for a tribute, including films they have made together and Corbet’s separate acting work. To be screened: Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games,” Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia,” Fastvold’s “The World to Come” and Corbet’s “The Childhood of a Leader” and “Vox Lux.”

Other “Bleak Week” highlights include John Hillcoat’s 2005 “The Proposition” with a Q&A with the filmmaker and cast, Michael Curtiz’s 1950 “The Breaking Point” in 35mm and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1943 “Day of Wrath” screened from a nitrate print.

What may once have seemed a slightly cracked idea has grown into one of the Cinematheque’s signature programs. And there is no end in sight.

“After year one, which had 33 films, we had the worry that maybe we would have no titles left for next year — if there even was a second edition,” said Chris LeMaire, senior film programmer, via email. “But each time we start programming the next ‘Bleak Week,’ there seem to be endless possibilities.”

“Our lineup this year in L.A. has 55 films and we probably cut another 50 titles from our initial list,” added LeMaire. “Across all the venues, ‘Bleak Week’ includes over 100 titles this year, from all corners of the world and all eras of cinema history, from as early as 1919 to 2025. We’re never going to run out because many of the greatest films deal with the human condition, which naturally leads to some difficult truths.”

Brad Pitt in the movie “Moneyball.”

(Sony Pictures)

Alan Arkin’s 1971 “Little Murders” will screen in 35mm with a Q&A with star Elliott Gould moderated by screenwriter Larry Karaszewski. A screening of the black-and-white director’s cut of 2007’s “The Mist” will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Frank Darabont and actor Thomas Jane. Filmmaker Costa-Gavras and producer Michèle Ray-Gavras will be present for a double-bill of 1982’s “Missing” and 1970’s “The Confession.” Actor Gabriel Byrne will be at a 35th anniversary screening of Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1990 “Miller’s Crossing.”

I will be moderating a Q&A with Gus Van Sant following a screening of “Last Days.” There will also be the U.S. premiere of a 4K restoration of “Christiane F.” and the West Coast premieres of 4K restorations of “Withnail and I,” “Forbidden Games,” “The Sweet Hereafter” and “Happiness.” (A Q&A for “Happiness” will feature performers Lara Flynn Boyle and Camryn Manheim, moderated by Vera Drew.)

Where downbeat entries like Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go,” Ryan Coogler’s “Fruitvale Station,” Narcisco Ibáñez Serrador’s “Who Can Kill A Child?” or Elem Klimov’s “Come and See” more obviously fall within the thematic concept of “Bleak Week,” titles such as Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” or Boaz Davidson’s “The Last American Virgin” do not make such an apparent fit.

“We work outside of academic and algorithmic models,” said Moninger. “This allows for an emotional reaction to films and a more expansive ‘Bleak Week’ program. The festival is a tapestry of bleak moments and feelings that can be presented in all types of cinema, including the occasional comedy. We are not measuring the hopelessness of each film but creating something by bonding together a wide variety of challenging, unpromising cinema, which I hope builds to something positive.”

Ivan Dixon and ‘The Spook Who Sat by the Door’

An image from 1973’s “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” directed by Ivan Dixon.

(United Artists / Photofest / UCLA Film & Television Archive)

This weekend the UCLA Film & Television Archive will be hosting “‘Going My Own Way’ Celebrating Ivan Dixon,” a tribute to the actor and filmmaker, including the local premiere tonight of a new 35mm print of the restoration of his 1973 film, “The Spook Who Sat by the Door.”

The film tells the story of the first Black CIA officer (Lawrence Cook), who leaves his token position at the organization to use what he learned there to train a Black guerrilla fighting force in Chicago. “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” which was added to the National Film Registry in 2012, had a truncated release with it first came out due to its revolutionary politics, with some accounts that the FBI became involved in suppressing it.

“It’s just one of the most powerful meditations on the meaning of freedom that I’ve ever seen,” said UCLA programmer Beandrea July. “It’s so nice to see a movie that really knows what it is and doesn’t apologize for it. It doesn’t equivocate, it’s not trying to explain itself to people who aren’t interested in really understanding. It’s so satisfying to watch because it’s like finally someone actually speaks to the thing with the same oomph that the thing demands.”

On Saturday, along with the second screening of the film, there will be a showing of Christine Acham and Clifford Ward’s 2011 documentary “Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of ‘The Spook Who Sat by the Door,’” which examines the long saga of the film, its reception and release.

Acham will be present at screenings throughout the weekend as will Nomathande Dixon, Ivan Dixon’s daughter, as well as Natiki Hope Pressley, daughter of Sam Greenlee, author of the book on which the film is based.

Dixon, who died in 2008 at age 76, was best known for his role as Sgt. James Kinchloe on TV’s “Hogan’s Heroes,” a part he left before the show had ended to move behind the camera and begin a prolific career directing for television.

Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln in the movie “Nothing but a Man.”

(Criterion Collection)

Also screening will be the 1964 film “Nothing but a Man” starring Dixon and directed by Michael Roemer, who died just last week at age 97. The film tells the story of racial tension in a small town; Dixon considered the film his favorite of his performances. The film will be paired with a 1960 episode of “The Twilight Zone” starring Dixon and Kim Hamilton.

The series will conclude Sunday with two pieces Dixon directed for television, 1983’s “Frederick Douglass: Slave and Statesman,” starring “Blacula’s” William Marshall, and an adaptation of Philip Hayes Dean’s “The Sty of the Blind Pig” starring Mary Alice and Scatman Crothers.

The Dixon family lived for many years in Altadena. What was once their home was destroyed in the January fires, a circumstance that gives the weekend an even greater emotional resonance.

“It’s special for the family because his wishes were never to have a memorial,” said Nomathande Dixon. “And this is something that feels like a tribute to him in our hometown of L.A. So we’re very appreciative of that. And I think he would’ve been thrilled.”

Points of interest

‘Michael Clayton’ in 35mm

George Clooney, left, and Sydney Pollack in the movie “Michael Clayton.”

(Myles Aronowitz / Warner Bros. Pictures)

At Vidiots on Saturday will be a 35mm screening of 2007’s “Michael Clayton” with writer-director Tony Gilroy in person. The film marked the feature directing debut for Gilroy, who previously had a successful career as a screenwriter and has gone on to be showrunner of the recent series “Andor.”

George Clooney stars in the film as a fixer for a powerful New York City law firm. He finds himself drawn into an already complicated situation involving defending an agricultural conglomerate in a class-action lawsuit when one of the firm’s top lawyers (Tom Wilkinson) has a nervous breakdown.

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, with Tilda Swinton winning for supporting actress for her role as the conglomerate’s chief counsel. In his original review of the film, Kenneth Turan wrote, “Watching this film makes you feel that Gilroy, best known for writing credits on all three ‘Bourne’ films, has poured the energy pent up during a decade and a half in Hollywood into this strong and confident directorial debut about desperate men searching for redemption in a cold and ruthless world. … As a director, Gilroy has an unmistakable instinct for the emotional jugular and a breakneck storytelling style that pulls you through his movie, no stragglers allowed.”

Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst with ‘The Virgin Suicides’

Leslie Hayman, left, Kirsten Dunst, A.J. Cook and Chelse Swain in “The Virgin Suicides.”

(Paramount Classics)

On Sunday afternoon, the Academy Museum will screen Sofia Coppola’s 1999 feature debut, “The Virgin Suicides” with the filmmaker and star Kirsten Dunst in person. (There will also be a signing for Coppola’s new book of Corinne Day’s on-set photos from the film.) The story of five sisters in 1970s Michigan who all die by suicide, the film set the stage for Coppola’s gently incisive explorations of female interiority and a recurring collaboration with Dunst.

In his original review of the film, Kevin Thomas wrote, “Sofia Coppola shows an impressive maturity and an assured skill in adapting Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel ‘The Virgin Suicides’ to the screen for her directorial debut. As the title suggests, it’s a challenging undertaking that requires a smooth passage from pitch-dark humor to a stark finish. The result is a highly affecting film unafraid to exact an emotional toll. … While subtle in the utmost, Coppola leaves us with an understanding of how things could turn out as they did.”

‘Frances Ha’ and ‘Girlfriends’

Greta Gerwig, left, and Mickey Sumner in the movie “Frances Ha.”

(Pine District Pictures)

The New Beverly will host a double feature of Noah Baumbach’s 2012 “Frances Ha” and Claudia Weil’s 1978 “Girlfriends,” two sharply insightful portraits of female friendship, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“Frances Ha” was the first screenplay co-written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, both who would (of course) go on to collaborate on the script for the mega-successful “Barbie,” directed by Gerwig. In “Frances Ha,” Gerwig plays a 20-something woman coming to grips with life as an adult while struggling to accept the end of a friendship by which she has long defined herself.

In his original review of the film, Kenneth Turan declared it “Effortless and effervescent, ‘Frances Ha’ is a small miracle of a movie, honest and funny with an aim that’s true.”

Of Gerwig and Bambach’s collaboration, he noted, “For the actress, a quicksilver presence with a fluid face who couldn’t be more natural on screen, ‘Frances’ is an opportunity to build a character of unexpected complexity. For the director, having a gifted collaborator able to be so completely present adds a lightness his films have not always had and has made possible an irresistible command of the moment.”

I spoke to Baumbach and Gerwig about the film when it was premiering at film festivals in Telluride and Toronto.

“The writing of it and the acting of it were separate for me,” Gerwig said at the time. “The writing of it was such a huge thing, but the acting of it was scary. I really was worried I wouldn’t be right for it…. It didn’t feel like, ‘I wrote this great part, and I’m perfect for it.’”

“I can say I totally had Greta in my head,” Baumbach said. “I always thought, ‘I can’t wait for Greta to play this part.’”

“Girlfriends” stars Melanie Mayron as Susan Weinblatt, a young photographer in New York City, who finds her life starting to unravel when her best friend (Anita Skinner) moves out of the apartment they share together. The supporting cast also includes Christopher Guest, Bob Balaban and Eli Wallach.

Selected for the National Film Registry in 2019, the film was praised by Stanley Kubrick when it was originally released; he declared it “one of the very rare American films that I would compare with the serious, intelligent, sensitive writing and filmmaking that you find in the best directors in Europe.” Lena Dunham likewise sparked to the film, once recalling of her first viewing, “It felt eerie, in the true sense of the word, how familiar this film was to me. … I almost thought, ‘Have I seen this and been gently ripping it off for the last five years?’”

After reading about these California beaches, can you blame me for thinking about the south of France right about now? And, you know, the movies at Cannes this year were pretty good too. In fact, we might have another best picture Oscar winner from the festival.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter, which is back in your inbox after a springtime sabbatical. Today, I’m looking at the news out of the Cannes Film Festival, wondering if Neon’s publicity team will be getting any rest this coming awards season.

The Cannes-to-Oscars pipeline is flowing

Last year’s Cannes Film Festival gave us a Demi Moore comeback (“The Substance”), an overstuffed, ambitious movie musical that everyone loved until they didn’t (“Emilia Pérez”) and a freewheeling Cinderella story that became the actual Cinderella story of the 2024-25 awards season (“Anora”).

Sean Baker’s “Anora” became just the fourth film to take the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, and then go on to win the Oscar for best picture. But it had been only five years since Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” pulled off that feat, so this would seem to be the direction that the academy is going. As the major Hollywood studios have doubled down on IP, indies like A24 and Neon have stepped up, delivering original, daring films that win the hearts of critics, awards voters and, sometimes, moviegoers.

Neon brought “Anora” to Cannes last year, confident that it would make an ideal launching pad. This year, the studio bought films at the festival — among them the taut, tart revenge thriller “It Was Just an Accident,” from dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, and the anarchic political thriller “The Secret Agent” from Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho.

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi holds the Palme d’Or after winning the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize for “It Was Just an Accident.”

(Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP/Getty Images)

“It Was Just an Accident” won the Palme, making it the sixth consecutive time Neon has won the award. Despite being one of the world’s most celebrated and influential filmmakers for movies like “No Bears” and “The White Balloon,” Panahi has never received any recognition at the Oscars. That will change this coming year.

Another movie that might deliver the goods is a title Neon announced at Cannes last year, “Sentimental Value,” an intense family drama that earned a 15-minute standing ovation.

Or was it 17? Or 19? The audience at the Grand Théâtre Lumière might still be standing and applauding; who knows with these Cannes festivalgoers. I’d be long gone, heading to the nearest wine bar. The point is: People love this movie. It won the Grand Prix, Cannes’ second-highest honor.

“Sentimental Value” is a dysfunctional family dramedy focusing on the relationship between a flawed father (the great Stellan Skarsgård) and his actor daughter (Renate Reinsve, extraordinary), two people who are better at their jobs than they are at grappling with their emotions. They’re both sad and lonely, and the film circles a reconciliation, one that’s only possible through their artistic endeavors.

Norwegian director Joachim Trier directed and co-wrote “Sentimental Value,” and it’s his third collaboration with Reinsve, following her debut in the 2011 historical drama “Oslo, August 31st” and the brilliant “The Worst Person in the World,” for which she won Cannes’ best actress prize in 2021. Reinsve somehow failed to make the cut at the Oscars that year, an oversight that will likely be corrected several months from now.

Jennifer Lawrence in Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love.”

(Festival de Cannes)

But it’s not just about the prix

Reinsve could well be joined in the category by a past Oscar winner, Jennifer Lawrence, who elicited rave reviews for her turn as a new mother coping with a raft of feelings after giving birth in Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes competition title “Die, My Love.” Critics have mostly been kind to the film, which Mubi bought at the festival for $24 million.

Just don’t label it a postpartum-depression drama, for which Ramsay pointedly chastised reviewers.

“This whole postpartum thing is just bull—,” she told film critic Elvis Mitchell. “It’s not about that. It’s about a relationship breaking down, it’s about love breaking down, and sex breaking down after having a baby. And it’s also about a creative block.”

However you want to read it, “Die, My Love” looks like a comeback for Lawrence, last seen onscreen two years ago, showing her comic chops in the sweetly raunchy “No Hard Feelings.” Lawrence won the lead actress Oscar for the 2012 film “Silver Linings Playbook” and has been nominated three other times — for “Winter’s Bone,” “American Hustle” and “Joy.”

With Ramsay’s movie, which co-stars Robert Pattinson as her husband, Lawrence may well have printed her return ticket to the ceremony, which would be welcome. The Oscars are always more fun when she’s in the room.

More coverage from the festival

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

The Cannes Film Festival is winding down, with the awards ceremony happening on Saturday. Amy Nicholson and Joshua Rothkopf have been there, watching as many films as they can. In a notebook dispatch from the fest’s first week, Amy covered many early titles, including Harris Dickinson’s directing debut, “Urchin,” Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” Dominik Moll’s “Dossier 137,” Sergei Loznitsa’s “Two Prosecuters” and Oliver Laxe’s “Sirât.” A second diary is live now, covering several films including Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” and the directorial debut of Kristen Stewart, “The Chronology of Water.”

Josh spoke to filmmaker Lynne Ramsay about her long-awaited return with “Die, My Love,” a tale of the struggles of motherhood, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. So far the film has become the festival’s biggest acquisition, picked up by “The Substance’s” distributor Mubi for a reported $24 million.

Director Lynne Ramsay on the set of the movie “Die, My Love.”

(Kimberly French)

Ramsay spoke about working with Lawrence and Pattinson, who, besides being big stars, are committed performers as well.

“I think they were very willing participants,” said Ramsay. “There was a lot of trust. I try and create an atmosphere of trust and I just threw them into the fire. I did the sex scene on the first day. I thought it’s a risk. It’s either going to work or it’s going to be a disaster. But I could see there was chemistry. And when they arrived, I was getting them dancing. They were dancing together, synchronized. And it was fun. And then I think Robert was a little nervous, but then something just kind of broke the ice.”

Josh also spoke to director Ari Aster about “Eddington” and whether he set out to make his most overtly politically charged film to date with the story of a small town’s sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparring during the early days of the pandemic.

“I am just following my impulses, so I’m not thinking in that way,” said Aster. “There’s very little strategy going on. It’s just: What am I interested in? And when I started writing, because I was in a real state of fear and anxiety about what was happening in the country and what was happening in the world, and I wanted to make a film about what it was feeling like.”

‘The Sugarland Express’ and our Spielberg Summer

Michael Sacks, left, William Atherton and Goldie Hawn in the 1974 movie “The Sugarland Express.”

(Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images / Universal Pictures)

We seem to be on the verge of a summer of Spielberg. After last week’s screening of 2002’s “Minority Report,” this Thursday brings a showing of Spielberg’s 1974 “The Sugarland Express” at the Academy Museum with a conversation with the film’s star, Goldie Hawn.

There are also multiple opportunities to see “Jaws” this Memorial Day weekend in celebration of the film’s 50th anniversary, including presentations at the Egyptian, the New Beverly, Vidiots and the Frida Cinema. The film will also play at the Hollywood Bowl on July 5, with a live performance of John Williams’ score by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“The Sugarland Express,” screening in a 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative, was Spielberg’s theatrical feature debut. As tempting as it is to view it for the seeds of what was still to come, the movie is a fully formed charmer all on its own.

Lou Jean Poplin (Hawn) convinces her husband (William Atherton) to escape from prison just a few months from being released because their son is about to be placed for adoption. When the pair wind up taking a police officer hostage, their journey across Texas becomes an unlikely pursuit involving the authorities and the media.

In an April 1974 review, Kevin Thomas called the film “dazzling, funny, exciting and finally poignant. … An increasingly disenchanted portrait of contemporary America.”

Thomas added, “Spielberg and his associates are trying for entertainment rather than profundity, and ‘The Sugarland Express’ is anything but heavy. But it is incisive as it is rapid, like the more optimistic vintage Capra films it brings to mind. … When all things are considered, however, one realizes it is Goldie Hawn who gives the film its focus and dimension, making Lou Jean at once very funny and very sad, quite real, and for all her intransigence, most appealing.”

In a March 1973 report from the set, Hawn spoke to reporter Jeff Millar. She said it took a year after the film “Butterflies Are Free” to find another project that excited her as much. “I flipped when I saw this one,” Hawn said. “It’s a different kind of role for me. She’s aggressive. She’s a leader, she’s comical. But she’s still a plain country girl.

“I guess the most exciting thing is the director,” Hawn continued. “I’d never met him, but everybody knew about him, you know? ‘Oh yeah, you’re going to do a picture with Steve Spielberg. The bright young guy who’s coming up…’”

In comments that bring to mind his recent film “The Fabelmans,” Spielberg, 25 at the time, told Millar, “I’ve been making pictures in 8mm, 16mm and 35mm since I was 15. This is the fourth year I’ve had that Directors Guild of America card. I’ve been directing in television since I was 21.”

Of the movie, he added, “I wanted to shoot in Texas because it’s so big. I’m very into Americana — and Texas is a lot more Americana to me than, well, Kansas or Andrew Wyeth.”

Points of interest

Susan Sontag’s ‘Duet for Cannibals’

Adriana Asti, left, and Susan Sontag making their 1969 film “Duet for Cannibals.”

(Susan Wood / Getty Images)

In 1968, Susan Sontag, already a well-known and deeply influential writer and critic, was invited to Stockholm to make her first movie. The result was “Duet for Cannibals,” a darkly comedic satire of bourgeois values focused on two couples. The film plays at Vidiots on Wednesday.

In May 1973, Kevin Thomas wrote about the film when it had a few screenings at an art gallery and restaurant near LACMA, noting that it “demonstrates Susan Sontag is as gifted a filmmaker as she is a critic and philosopher.”

Thomas concluded, “Sontag illuminates human potential, with emphasis on its bent for destruction yet capacity to endure to a breathtaking fullness. In this bravura example of a work of art that achieves maximum of means, Susan Sontag proves she is a critic who can practice what she preaches.”

‘How to Get Ahead in Advertising’

Richard E. Grant in the movie “How to Get Ahead in Advertising.”

(Janus Films)

Writer-director Bruce Robinson followed up his cult hit “Withnail & I” with 1989’s “How To Get Ahead in Advertising,” a bitter satire of commercialization and the media. Richard E. Grant plays rising advertising executive Denis Dimbleby Bagley, who, while suffering an ethical crisis over the impact of his work, develops a boil on his neck that begins talking to him. The film will play in a new restoration at the Los Feliz 3 on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday.

In a May 1989 review, Sheila Benson called the movie “a strange piece, to be sure. It’s cruel, funny, knowing, never less than biting and occasionally brilliant. Pure fury seems to have driven Robinson to it. … There are problems in creating something as simultaneously funny and unlovely as a talking boil. It’s possible that some audiences will lose interest once they learn that the effects are good but minor; the boil, even when grown to full manhood (boilhood?) isn’t a patch on ‘The Fly.’ But then, this isn’t that sort of movie. This is a blistering broadside, a warning for the safety of our souls.”

In a set visit by Bart Mills published around the film’s release, Robinson, then 43, did an interview from his office at Shepperton Studios outside London.

He said it was his own disillusionment at “the constant stream of disinformation the media and the politicians give us” that inspired the story. “This is the kind of anger I feel all the time. All the time. It’s intolerable. The only thing that saves me, that keeps the electrodes off my head, is that, thank God, I’m allowed to make a movie about it.”

Yet, Robinson added, “I don’t believe the cinema can change anything. It’s not a teacher, it’s an entertainer. I enjoy finding a comedic way to exploit my burning rage.”

The short films of Charles and Ray Eames

The title frame for Charles and Ray Eames’ 1955 short film “House: After Five Years of Living.”

(Eames Office, LLC.)

On Wednesday, the Philosophical Research Society and the Charles and Ray Eames Foundation will host an evening celebrating the famous creative duo. There will be a program of seven of the Eames’ shorts, including 1955’s “House: After Five Years of Living,” 1964’s “Think” and likely their best-known film, 1977’s “Powers of Ten.”

The event will also include a panel discussion moderated by programmer Alex McDonald including the Eames’ grandson Eames Demetrios, art director Jeannine Oppewall and the creative pair of Adi Goodrich and Sean Pecknold, known as Sing-Sing.

Writing about the enduring influence of the Eames in 2012, David L. Ulin said, “In our age of constant contact, it’s almost impossible to step away from the workplace even when we’re off the clock. And yet, if the Eameses have anything to tell us, it’s that we can — must — aspire to a higher integration, in which work should not only feed our stomach but also, and more importantly, our souls.”

In other news

Rolf Saxon accepts another ‘Mission’

Actor Rolf Saxon, photographed at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York.

(Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)

Fans of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise are in for a real surprise when they see the new sequel “The Final Reckoning,” which opens this weekend. Actor Rolf Saxon, who had a memorable turn in the first film in 1996, is back with a surprisingly large role in the new film.

Saxon’s character of CIA analyst William Donloe was sent to a radar station in Alaska after his computer station got hacked by Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in one of the series’ signature set pieces. In the new film, it turns out Donloe has been in Alaska the entire time and now may have vital information for the Impossible Mission Force.

The new film brought Saxon to caves in the English midlands and, most spectacularly, Svalbard, an archipelago off the northern coast of Norway.

“This was in many ways a dream job,” says Saxon. “The people I’m working with, the thing I’m working on and the places I got to go to work — it’s just like, what would you really like to do? Here it is.”

My extended feature with Saxon goes live a little later this afternoon. Stay tuned.

Hannah Gutierrez, the weapons handler in the ill-fated Alec Baldwin western movie “Rust,” has been released from prison after serving 14 months for her conviction last year of involuntary manslaughter.

Gutierrez was released Friday from a New Mexico women’s prison after completing her sentence in the accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021.

Gutierrez was one of three people charged in Hutchins’ death on the movie set south of Santa Fe, N.M., but the only one who received a felony conviction. A jury found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death following a dramatic two-week trial last year in Santa Fe.

New Mexico prosecutors faulted the Arizona woman for reckless handling of firearms and ammunition in violation of gun safety rules.

The special prosecutor also argued that Gutierrez had unwittingly brought the live bullets with her to the popular western film location, Bonanza Creek Ranch, and mingled them with inert “dummy” bullets used on film sets.

Gutierrez has denied that allegation. There was no conclusive evidence presented about the origins of the live bullets.

Actor Alec Baldwin during his 2024 trial in Santa Fe for his role in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

(Ramsay de Give / Associated Press)

Baldwin, who pointed the gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal, also was charged. He pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the shooting that killed the 42-year-old cinematographer, a rising star in the industry, and wounded the film’s director, Joel Souza.

The New Mexico judge overseeing the “Rust” criminal prosecutions, New Mexico 1st Judicial District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, dismissed the charge against Baldwin three days into his high-profile trial last July.

Marlowe Sommer found the prosecutor and Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies had concealed evidence from Baldwin’s legal team, which the judge said prejudiced the case against Baldwin. At the time, the actor-producer’s team was exploring whether prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies botched the investigation into how the bullets made their way onto the set.

Assistant director David Halls was also charged in the shooting.

Halls pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and received a suspended six-month sentence, which ended in October 2023. Halls, who has since retired from the industry, agreed to pay a $500 fine, participate in a firearms safety class, refrain from taking drugs or alcohol and complete 24 hours of community service.

Gutierrez had received the maximum sentence for her role.

She was released on parole. She also is being supervised under terms of probation after pleading guilty to a separate charge of unlawfully carrying a gun into a Santa Fe bar that prohibited firearms a few days before the fatal shooting, according to the Associated Press.

Terms of her parole include mental health assessments and a ban on firearms possession.

Gutierrez, through her attorney, declined an interview request Sunday.

“When I took on ‘Rust,’ I was young and I was naive but I took my job as seriously as I knew how to,” Gutierrez told the judge during her April 2024 sentencing hearing.

Marlowe Sommer, who also presided over the armorer’s case, gave Gutierrez the maximum sentence, saying: “You were the armorer, the one that stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone. .. You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon.”

With Gutierrez’s release, the criminal phase of the “Rust” saga has concluded.

Several civil lawsuits against Baldwin and the producers, including from Hutchins’ family members, remain unresolved.

Baldwin and other actors and crew members finished filming in Montana, 18 months after the fatal shooting in New Mexico. The movie was finally released in the U.S. this month on just a handful of screens.

The October 2021 shooting shined a harsh light on film set safety, particularly on low-budget productions.

“Rust” was racked with problems, including allegations of safety rules and hiring inexperienced crew members such as Gutierrez. “Rust” was just her second job as head armorer. She also was tasked with the job of prop assistant.

Hours before the fatal shooting, “Rust” camera crew members had walked off the job to protest safety concerns and a lack of housing near the film’s set. Crew members complained about earlier accidental gun discharges.

Gutierrez is the stepdaughter of well-known Hollywood armorer Thell Reed.

Esai Morales is on a death-defying mission to make Tom Cruise’s life impossible, yet again, in the latest installment of the “Mission: Impossible” action film franchise. Titled “The Final Reckoning,” the movie was released Friday.

Morales reprises his role as Gabriel, an assassin liaison set on carrying out a dangerous mission for Entity, an artificial intelligence system gone rogue, whose capabilities render it a danger to human society. This role dates back to the first “Mission: Impossible” film in 1996, as a murder Gabriel committed was the impetus for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) to join the Impossible Missions Force.

“I have to look at Gabriel as the star of his own movie,” said Morales in a video call. “I play these characters with as much humanity as I can.”

Although for most of the franchise Gabriel is presumably dead, audiences are introduced to Morales’ character in the 2023 summer flick, “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.” Besides shouldering responsibility as the main antagonist, which involves risky stunts opposite veteran adventurer Cruise, Morales also made franchise history as the first Latino lead in the action series.

The Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican actor is best known for his role as Bob Morales in the 1987 Chicano film “La Bamba” and as Jesus “Chucho” Sánchez in 1995’s “Mi Familia” — both of which been added to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. Morales is also known for his roles as Joseph Adama in the “Battlestar Galactica” prequel spin-off of “Caprica,” as well as Camino del Rio in Netflix’s “Ozark” and villain Deathstroke in the DC “Titans” series.

“The thing I love about ‘Mission: Impossible,’ with Gabriel, is that you don’t know he’s Latino,” Morales said. “It doesn’t focus on race. It focuses on the race to get the key!”  

Likewise, the release of the last two “Mission: Impossible” films was a dash to the finish. Directed by Christopher McQuarriel, filming spanned five years with some stops along the way due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the 2023 strikes by members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America. Additional costs due to inflation brought the total budget of the Paramount Pictures movie up to $400 million, making it one of the most expensive films of all time.

Morales considers its release a momentous occasion — and a “graduation” of sorts.

“All those obstacles are like the pressure that creates a diamond out of coal,” he said. “I hope that the audiences feel what I felt and continue to feel when I watch the film.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and shortened.

 How did you prepare physically and mentally for the role in ”Mission: Impossible”?
I was asked if I was physical and I said, “Actually, yeah.” I love playing tennis so my conditioning is really good. During the pandemic, I [would sneak] into the ocean at dusk and I would swim at night for hours at a time. It was kind of scary. Then [I got] to London and met some of the finest stunt people who do fighting, acrobatics, knife fighting, boxing. The thing is to get your reflexes in shape, because sometimes you have to do take after take and you don’t want to gas out.

Mentally it’s a lifetime of preparation. It’s not like I can study the life of Gabriel, so you apply what you can about your own character and characteristics under imaginary circumstances. Some of it comes from the ether… from the ether going after Ethan [laughs]. It’s an instinct and a lifetime of seeing movies, including the “Mission: Impossible” movies. They work hard. One of the most comforting things they instill is [that] “we’re not gonna leave until we get it right.”

Cruise is known for his gutsy live-action scenes. What was it like to join him on these scenes?
It’s thrilling. I couldn’t think of anyone else whose hands I’d want to put my well-being in, because look at his track record: He’s still alive and extremely healthy, and he doesn’t take these things lightly. He’s extremely strict about safety. Life is inherently risky. If you’re gonna take other risks, it’s best to take them with people that have survived and thrived for decades doing the same.

There’s a death-defying scene up in the air that was being teased a lot in this press run. What was going through your mind as you were up there?
After the initial prayers and thanking God, the universe and the angels, who and whatever has kept me alive and blessed me with an amazing life so far… You’ve gotta let go and let God, as they say.

What impact has this franchise had on your long-term career?
 It’s a blessing. I got the job during one of the most trying times of my life — and everyone else’s. I hope it’s not all downhill from here. I’m just grateful because I got to work on something at this scale, with these kinds of collaborators.

I am hoping that the work I continue to do leads to meaningful roles and characters that enhance the human condition for having watched it. I wanna do things that make people feel good about being human. Even if I’m the bad guy, somebody’s gotta play the bad guy. Right?

But is Gabriel really the bad guy?
Not in this actor’s eyes. For me, I have to look at Gabriel as the star of his own movie.  Wars are not fought by people who feel they’re gonna lose them.  So I play these characters with as much humanity as I can.

How did the COVID-19 pandemic and Hollywood strikes impact production of this film?
I am on the board of SAG-AFTRA. I did feel the impact of both COVID-19 and the strikes. I mean, it was not easy, it was not fun. It’s still not easy. We still have to deal with new media or new technology, speaking of AI. The production stuck together. When you struggle with adversity, it makes you stronger.

You consider yourself an honorary Chicano, particularly because of your role as Bob Morales in “La Bamba.” What memories come to mind when you think back to that role?
 So many, but the incredible irony or synchronicity or synergy that a role with my [last] name on it would be one of the most remembered. They’d say, ‘That has your name all over it.’ Well, this [role] literally did. When people wanted me to focus more on Ritchie, I wanted to bear witness and lend my pain to the role of Bob [Ritchie Valens’ brother].

I don’t know where my career would be without that film and a few others. When you have the ability to be with the person you are portraying, first of all, it’s an extreme amount of pressure because they’re there and you’re not them. And it’s like you’re gonna pretend to inhabit their being and their life. You don’t wanna mess up. But [Bob and I] were able to bond and have a few beers and really kick back, and I was able to absorb Bob’s biorhythm. I absorbed his Mexicanismo, [the same way] Anthony Quinn portrayed “Zorba the Greek.” [Whenever] he went [into] a Greek restaurant, plates would crash in honor of him and his portrayal … and he is a Mexican Irish actor.

 I think a lot of people forget that you’re Puerto Rican because you play the Mexican role so well.
I’m proud to be Puerto Rican, but I’m so secure in it that I don’t feel like I have to wear my banner on my head. I just want my work to speak for itself. We have to embrace that which has toughened us and has given us character and has given us something a little extra yearn for and live for.

There are many Latinos in sci-fi films. I’m thinking of you in “Caprica.” There’s also Diego Luna and Adria Arjona in “Andor,” Zoe Saldaña in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Pedro Pascal in “The Mandalorian,” Ricardo Montalbán in “Star Trek …” What do you think of space roles introducing Latino actors to new audiences?
 How about to their own audience? We make up 25% of the movie-going audience, at least. It’s a wise decision to include people that in the past were overlooked. We were overlooked. So to put in all the great people is serving your market and representing them. It’s long overdue but extremely welcomed.

Is outer space the gateway to more Latinos in mainstream roles in rom-coms or action?
I would like to see that. I would like to see us play more central characters, people that we can grow to learn, grow to love and feel for, because I think that’s what movies do. They let you inside the heart of your lead characters. And you just can’t help but to love them, you know?

The Avengers will return slightly later than expected.

Disney is pushing back the release dates of its next two “Avengers” movies. “Avengers: Doomsday” is now slated to hit theaters Dec. 18, 2026, and “Avengers: Secret Wars” will be released Dec. 17, 2027. Both films were previously planned for May in their respective years.

Marvel Studios initially unveiled “Doomsday,” its fifth “Avengers” film, at San Diego Comic-Con in July. The movie marks the return of Marvel Cinematic Universe stalwarts Anthony and Joe Russo — who previously directed “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) — as well as “Iron Man’s” Robert Downey Jr., as new villain Doctor Doom.

In March, Marvel revealed, in a five-plus hour livestream, 27 members of the “Doomsday” cast, which includes veteran “Avengers” stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki), as well as “Thunderbolts*” (a.k.a. New Avengers) actors Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Lewis Pullman (Bob Reynolds), Wyatt Russell (John Walker) and Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost).

“Doomsday” will also feature members of the MCU’s newest superhero team, the Fantastic Four. Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm) will make their debut in the upcoming “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which bows in theaters July 25. “First Steps” will mark the beginning of the MCU’s Phase 6. For now, Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is the only MCU film expected to be released between “First Steps” and “Doomsday” on July 31, 2026.

The MCU’s Phase 5 will officially conclude on TV with the upcoming series “Ironheart,” which premieres June 24 on Disney+.

Amid the “Avengers” release date shuffle, Disney also revealed that its “The Devil Wears Prada” sequel, which will reportedly see Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly navigating the decline of magazine publishing (too real, says this reporter), is scheduled to open May 1, 2026, while Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the post-apocalyptic “The Dog Stars” will hit theaters March 27, 2026.

The BBC will be dropping the acclaimed movie soon

The BBC is set to deliver a Regency drama that’s certain to leave viewers weak at the knees, reports Surrey Live.

Audiences have lavished praise on the period piece, with one eager fan sharing their Rotten Tomatoes review: “Seen this in a movie theater elevates it to another level.

“The top of the top in the romance/drama/comedy genre, and one of the best movies of all times [sic].”

Another elated watcher wrote a glowing second review: “I would have to say, personally, this is the greatest movie I have ever watched.

“The story was so compelling, the characters like no other.”

Further praise came from a third delighted viewer who admitted: “I love every single minute of this movie.”

Joe Wright’s cinematically gorgeous 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice is slated for arrival on BBC iPlayer this month, just in time for its 20th anniversary celebrations and synchronising with what would have been Jane Austen’s 250th birthday.

This cinematic rendition sparked debate among die-hard Pride and Prejudice aficionados, especially as it followed a decade after the BBC’s much-cherished 1995 series featuring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle as the definitive Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.

Firth’s embodiment of Mr Darcy transcended the pages when he later mirrored the iconic role in Bridget Jones’s Diary, amassing an even wider fanbase and solidifying his portrayal as the ultimate Mr Darcy for many.

However, Matthew Macfadyen stepping into the prestigious shoes of Austen’s beloved hero for the 2005 film did stir some dissent among admirers, especially as the actor was known then for his work on Spooks.

However, his performance alongside Pirates of the Caribbean and Bend It Like Beckham star Keira Knightley, who played Elizabeth Bennet, managed to win over even the most doubtful critics.

Wright’s Hollywood rendition boasted stunning cinematography, featuring expansive shots of the English countryside, including a memorable scene of Lizzy perched on a cliff in the Peak District.

Complementing the striking visuals was the enchanting score by Italian composer Dario Marianelli.

For those unfamiliar with Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice follows the spirited Lizzy and her sisters as they navigate societal expectations to secure their futures through marriage.

Despite their mother Mrs Bennet’s, portrayed by Brenda Blethyn of Vera fame, frantic attempts at matchmaking, several of the Bennet sisters do find a match.

Amidst all this, Lizzy defies convention by seeking a marriage based on love rather than wealth.

Her initial awkward interaction with Mr Darcy sets them both on a transformative journey that challenges their preconceived notions and changes them irrevocably.

Pride and Prejudice boasted an impressive cast including Rosamund Pike, the late Donald Sutherland, Carey Mulligan, Talulah Riley, Jena Malone, Tom Hollander and Rupert Friend.

The film is certainly worth revisiting before Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which will feature Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet, Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy and Olivia Colman as Mrs Bennet.

Netflix has assured that the upcoming series will be a true-to-source, classic adaptation of the novel, with Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love, handling the scriptwriting.

Filming for Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice is set to take place in the UK this year.

Pride and Prejudice (2005) will be streaming on the BBC iPlayer from May 26

A gritty, rock-inflected comedy using the nocturnal peculiarities of Mumbai slum life as a fertile (if at times fetid) palette, British-raised Karan Kandhari’s “Sister Midnight,” about a restless young housewife’s urban malaise, easily holds your attention for long stretches when seemingly little happens, but everything feels charged.

Don’t mistake this stylish feature debut for a misery wallow, however, or some poetic character study. It’s tantalizingly oddball and indelicate: a combined daymare and night odyssey that scratches until a feral hidden strength is revealed in the misfit main character, captivatingly played by Indian star Radhika Apte.

Though the movie ultimately can’t square its episodic unpredictability with the bubbling feminist-outlaw energy at its core — not to mention the comic-book twist that shakes it all up halfway through — that’s less a bug than a feature. Like a movie DJ, Kandhari is flexing a pulpy mood of big-city dislocation, building a trippy, jarring and blackly funny experience out of a city’s stray colors, sounds and personalities.

Arriving at their one-room hovel in the dead of night, arranged-marriage newlyweds and rural transplants Uma (Apte) and Gopal (Ashok Pathak) look more like thrown-together prison cellmates adjusting to a warden’s rules than a romantic couple embracing a future together. We glean that this was a match of undesirables: the timid, sexless guy no girl wanted and the girl too outspoken to be paired.

But here they are, having to make do. Gopal at least has a job to go to, from which he often comes home hammered after drinks with colleagues. Uma, left behind in the solitude of a shack that only allows one shaft of window light, is quick to profanely protest the joyless, intimacy-challenged rut they’ve entered. Alternating between angry and exhausted, she bristles at acclimating to the domesticity that her prickly neighbor wives treat like a club handshake.

Before long, Uma’s taste for cigarettes under the moonlight turns into regular solo walks at all hours. An impulsive journey to a coastal part of town hours away leads to her taking a cleaning job in an office building (and a friendship with a glumly simpatico elevator operator). Suddenly, she’s brandishing a mop and pail everywhere like a rootless knight without a quest or a horse. Then there’s a cryptic street encounter with a goat and things get even weirder. But also, somehow, more validating.

Kandhari, with his hypnotic Wes Anderson-by-way-of-David Lynch widescreen framing and deliberate tracking shots, seems more concerned with capturing something liminal in Uma’s alternative existence, as if the city were just weird and oppressive enough to tease out any transformation that was already lying dormant. (By the time the movie introduces stop-motion creatures roaming the streets, you’ve been primed to think, “Sure, why not?”)

A mischievously off-the-wall exercise like “Sister Midnight” (which eventually embraces some gnarlier elements) needs a certain steam to keep up its deadpan wildness. Kandhari is blessed in that regard with an active visual curiosity about his cracked fable’s punk potential, helped by Sverre Sørdal’s humid cinematography and a game lead in Apte, whose middle-finger energy is sometimes hilariously offset by a wonderful silent-film-star haplessness.

One wishes it all held together a little more, instead of laying seeds that tend to sprout vibes and distractions instead of an illuminating cohesiveness. Kandhari will too often keep Uma in cartoon rebel-goddess mode, needle-dropping another classic rock cut as if daring us to accept Motorhead or Buddy Holly as the only viable soundtrack for what’s going on. But those elements are a kick, too.

Of course, the title “Sister Midnight” is an Iggy Pop staple. “What can I do about my dreams?” it growls, an apt lyric for the singularly inventive and unmanageable fever of a movie that shares its name.

The movie wowed audiences and critics alike upon release

An acclaimed Western flick, featuring the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst, is set to hit screens later this month, reports Surrey Live.

The film, which first graced cinemas in 2021, has garnered top-notch reviews from both critics and cinema-goers alike.

One glowing critique on Rotten Tomatoes stated: “A deeply symbolic movie presented through the genre of a Western.”

Another viewer enthused: “This movie may be hard to watch at times but it is worth it.”

They added: “Great atmosphere, an incredibly compelling story, amazing acting and characters that are genuinely interesting and multidimensional.”

Meanwhile, another fan described the film as: “The Power of the Dog is a slow-burning masterpiece of tension and repression.”

They continued: “Benedict Cumberbatch delivers a career-best performance as the menacing yet vulnerable rancher Phil Burbank, while Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee shine in this haunting psychological drama.

“Director Jane Campion crafts a visually stunning, emotionally devastating film that lingers long after the credits roll.”

BBC iPlayer will be adding The Power of the Dog to its roster at the end of the month, available for viewers at no extra cost.

Based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, the film promises to be a riveting experience.

The plot of The Power of the Dog delves into the tense dynamics between rugged rancher Phil Burbank (Cumberbatch), his sister-in-law Rose Gordon (Dunst), and her son Peter Gordon (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

Set in the 1920s on a Montana ranch, the film follows Rose’s spiral into alcoholism after being humiliated by her brother-in-law Phil.

Phil had previously accused Rose of marrying his brother George Burbank (Plemons) for financial gain, adding fuel to the fire.

Viewers are given a glimpse into Phil’s past as he forms a connection with Peter, who returns from medical school for the holidays.

Despite having previously ridiculed Peter, it seems the two manage to overcome their differences.

The Power of the Dog is a blend of Western family drama and psychological thriller.

Other members of the cast include Thomasin McKenzie known for The Hobbit, Keith Carradine from Dexter and Madam Secretary, Frances Conroy from Six Feet Under, Peter Carroll from Sleeping Beauty and Alice Englert from Beautiful Creatures and Ginger and Rosa.

The Power of the Dog will be streaming on BBC iPlayer from May 30

If you are only going to be in one part of a movie, it’s best if it’s the most memorable part. For example, a thrilling set-piece that sets the template for an entire franchise.

So it was for actor Rolf Saxon, who appeared as a befuddled CIA analyst in the very first “Mission: Impossible” film. The sequence, in which Tom Cruise dangles from the ceiling of a stark white vault room to infiltrate the computer system overseen by Saxon’s character, is now the stuff of action-cinema history.

From a throwaway punchline in that 1996 film — exiling Saxon’s William Donloe to a remote radar station in Alaska — comes one of the most unexpected storylines in the new “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” His part in the new film is substantially larger and provides the film with some of its emotional heft, making Saxon’s return as Donloe a triumph. (A rather memorable knife makes a comeback as well.)

For Saxon’s work in the first film, he was in the same physical space as Cruise but their two characters never interacted and had no dialogue together. So a moment late in the new film when Donloe makes a heartfelt expression to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt of what his life has been like all these years in Alaska provided relief for the character of Donloe — and for the actor portraying him too.

“It was something I was hoping for, and then it happened,” says Saxon, 70. “It’s a great scene. Working with one of the biggest movie stars in the world, that’s kind of cool too.”

Rolf Saxon in the first ‘Mission: Impossible’ from 1996.

(Paramount Pictures)

Finally sharing a proper scene with Cruise also gave Saxon some insight into the reason Cruise has been one of the world’s biggest movie stars for more than 40 years.

“There’s no question why he is,” Saxon says. “The energy that he personally brings into a room, I’ve never witnessed before. It’s focused, it’s practiced. I know this sounds like I’m supposed to say this about him, but it’s true. This guy’s unbelievable. And he does those effing stunts.”

Saxon is impressed, too, by the real-life mission Cruise is often vocal about. “His whole raison d’être is to enhance the industry that’s given him so much and bring people in, bring them back to theaters. And I just applaud that on my feet.”

Rolf Saxon as William Donloe in the movie “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”

(Giles Keyte / Paramount Pictures)

Having had a steadily successful career between his two “Missions,” Saxon lives in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California but was recently on a Zoom call from New York City the day after attending the new film’s U.S. premiere there. It was Saxon’s second time seeing the movie, having also attended a premiere in London just a few days earlier.

Born in Virginia, Saxon studied acting in England, where he would land parts in numerous British TV series as well as assorted film and theater roles. Throughout his career he has also done voice-over work for video games, including the “Broken Sword” series, and was the narrator for the American edition of the popular children’s show “Teletubbies.”

According to Saxon, much of the business of what Donloe does onscreen in the first movie directed by Brian De Palma came from an unexpected interaction on set.

“I was given the script,” he recalls, “I read it and I thought, OK, there’s not a lot to do here. And then one day I was messing around on set, joking around, there was some downtime. And I got a tap on the shoulder from the first [A.D.], who said that Brian De Palma wanted to have a word with me. And I thought, ‘Uh-oh.’

“And I walked over and he had a very stern demeanor. Great guy, but he just always looked angry and he said, ‘You’re playing around on set.’ I said, ‘Yes, Mr. De Palma.’ He said, ‘Could you do that again?’ I said, “Sure, of course.” What am I going to say to say, no? He said, ‘OK, after lunch, we’re going to have you messing around onstage. We’ll film that.’” All of Donloe’s memorable physical mishaps — the vomiting, the double take — were Saxon improvs.

The vault sequence has become one of the signature set-pieces of the first film, seemingly lifting from both the silent heist in “Rififi” and the spacewalk of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and setting a stunts-centric guide for the franchise to come. To perform the scene, Cruise spent hours in a harness suspended from the ceiling.

“I mean, it was a long time,” says Saxon. “And they’d bring him down sometimes, but he’s that guy. He does what needs to be done. I was in the room a number of times with him, while he was filming it, but [our characters] never were supposed to meet.”

Saxon recalls that while shooting the first “Mission” film, he and Cruise shared a makeup room at the studio in England. One day the woman who did Cruise’s makeup wasn’t there because her son had an accident at his school. As soon as Cruise heard the news, he called his private on-call doctor and sent him to attend to the boy.

“And he hung up the phone, said, ‘Shut the door,’” remembers Saxon. “And he said, ‘This stays between us. If this comes out, it’s somebody in this room. I’m going to find out who it is and that’ll be your last day on the film.’ He wanted no publicity. He did it for this lady and her son. And the boy was fine, he was mildly concussed. When she came back the next day, there was a massive bouquet of flowers, saying ‘Welcome back.’ And then nothing was ever said of it again. That’s the kind of guy he is. And it took me two years before I would tell that story.”

Saxon had never had reason to encounter Cruise in the intervening years, because, as he says, “I’m an actor but I’m not a star.”

Director Christopher McQuarrie, standing, gives notes to the cast, including Saxon, on the set of “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”

(Antonio Olmos / Paramount Pictures)

The call for the new film first came in January of 2022, and Saxon began shooting on the film in August of that year, finishing in July of 2024. (Saxon’s casting was announced via director Christopher McQuarrie’s Instagram in March 2023.) This time around, Donloe becomes a vital part of the team and is in the middle of the action at the film’s climax. In his years in Alaska he has even married an Inuit woman, Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk).

“The feeling on this set was one of warmth and inclusivity — welcoming,” says Saxon. “I was on it for almost three years, but people were on it for over five years. This schedule for the filming was very erratic, and [McQuarrie] kept very calm. McQ and Tom, they worked very much in tandem. I loved coming to work every day. Not that I didn’t with Brian’s stuff, but this was just a joy, and I was much more a part of it than I was in the first one. I was much more part of the team, the core group that was working.”

For “The Final Reckoning,” a sequence meant to take place in Alaska, with a team of agents arriving to the remote cabin occupied by Donloe and Tapeesa, was actually shot in Svalbard, an archipelago north of Norway.

“We were staying on a ship,” says Saxon. “We went to Longyearbyen, which is the furthest most populated area in the world. Then we took a six-hour ride north on the ship, parked on the glacier. And that’s where we lived for two weeks. Polar bears, walruses, reindeer and us. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life.”

The cave sequence that is part of the movie’s action finale is set in South Africa but was shot in the Middleton mines in England’s East Midlands.

“This was in many ways a dream job,” says Saxon. “The people I’m working with, the thing I’m working on and the places I got to go to work. It’s just like, what would you really like to do? Here it is.”

Hayley Atwell, left, Simon Pegg, Tom Cruise, Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Greg Tarzan Davis and Pom Klementieff in “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”

(Paramount Pictures)

From his initial conversations with McQuarrie, Saxon knew that his part would be significantly larger than in the first film. But even then it developed over the course of production. McQuarrie informed him that some scenes Saxon initially shot were no longer going to be used and due to rewrites, the actor would now be part of the climactic finale.

“He said, ‘We really like what you did, but we’ve had a story alteration, so we can’t use that. So we’re going to put you in in other ways,’” says Saxon. “And that was kind of like, ‘Oh, no’ and ‘Oh, yeah’ at the same time. Which is kind of the way this worked the whole way through.”

Among the actors in his scenes this time out, Saxon had previously worked with Simon Pegg on the 1999 British sitcom “Hippies.” He also discovered that he and Hayley Atwell had attended the same drama school in London, though some years apart. Also returning was Henry Czerny, whose character in the initial film sent Donloe to Alaska in the first place.

NEW YORK — MAY 19 2025: Actor Rolf Saxon for the movie “Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning” posing with the knife from the original Mission: Impossible film, photographed at the Museum of Moving Image

(Justin Jun Lee/For The Times)

As to whether he had ever imagined returning to the franchise, Saxon holds his arms out wide, saying, “Just a little dream.”

He adds, “I thought about writing Chris or Tom, ‘Dear Tom, here’s what I think we could do with Donloe.’ Or, ‘What about this with Donloe?’ And at one point, after listening to a friend, I drafted a letter to him. The next day I woke up and I thought” — he mimes wadding up a piece of paper and tossing it away — ‘That’s never going to happen.’ And then years later, bang, it did.”

Saxon said he has never been recognized by anyone for the part of Donloe. (That is likely about to change.) If pressed, his favorite of the “Mission: Impossible” films has remained the first one. Up to now.

“I suppose closure is one way of putting it,” says Saxon. “It’s been much more fun, this one. The other one, I did my job and I enjoyed doing it. But this one I got to really investigate. It’s like remounting a production onstage, or coming back to a project you did 20 years ago, 30 years ago and getting to redo it with what you know now, particularly with the excitement of a larger part. It’s fantastic. It’s another reason this is such a gift.”

Terry Crews is a man of many talents. In the 1990s, he played for both the Rams and the Chargers before becoming an actor and starring in projects like “White Chicks,” “Everybody Hates Chris,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “The Expendables” franchise. Other roles on his resume? Old Spice spokesman, high-end furniture designer, accomplished painter and author of a memoir. Crews was also featured in People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive issue three times.

But the gig that has made him internationally known, he says, is hosting “America’s Got Talent” for the last six years. The show, which is celebrating 20 seasons, returns to NBC on May 27.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

For Crews, hosting “AGT” is a job that suits him. “I am a honey-baked ham,” he shamelessly admits, flashing his endearing white smile during a Zoom call. “I like the spotlight. I’ve always been a dancer, so it was like this is the vibe. But then I got in there, and I was like, now I see why I love this so much. It’s because every contestant reminds me of me.”

We caught up with Crews to discuss his ideal Sunday in L.A. It involves walking around Old Town Pasadena, catching a movie and spending time with his wife Rebecca King-Crews and their five adult children.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

6:30 a.m.: Wake up and hit the gym

I am an early riser no matter what. Even if it’s Sunday, it’s like, my body clock just kind of pops up. Like when I say I sleep in late, that’s 6:30 or 7 a.m. because I like to get up at the crack of dawn. I’m a 4:30 or 5 a.m. guy. Every Sunday, I start with a workout. It’s very light, more of cardio and active recovery, but I never miss it.

9 a.m.: Pick up breakfast from Erewhon

I’ve been intermittent fasting for almost 15 years, so I don’t eat breakfast, but I love breakfast food. So what I do — and this is a real staple — we have an Erewhon that opened near us and it has the most fabulous cooked breakfast. It’s half a store, half a restaurant. Erewhon has the best smoothies, the best pastries. Even though I don’t eat until 2 p.m., I go to Erewhon and get all their breakfast stuff. I’ll get the bacon and eggs, or the breakfast sandwiches [and] breakfast burritos. A lot of the time on Sundays, that’s when all the kids want to stop by, so I’ll bring a bunch of stuff, set it on the stove, and they go in there and I tell them, “Leave me something.”

10 a.m.: Praise break at home

My wife actually started a church. It’s called the L.A. Life Church. It’s like Tiny Desk meets church and she has a thing called Sonic Sundays. It’s online, but we record during the week, and it’s basically a half an hour with a lot of music, and then she does a lesson. We watch it together every Sunday morning when it comes out at 10 a.m. When COVID hit, it kind of changed our churchgoing habits because everybody had to do it at home, and she just decided, “You know what? Let’s just do it!”

11:30 a.m.: Hit up Old Town in Pasadena

Once that’s over, that’s when we go down to Old Town. It’s our favorite place to go. I have an office slash studio that’s right off Colorado Avenue. That’s where all the stores are, and my wife has a store, Rebeccca Crews, which is in Hugus Alley. My daughter works there too. So we’ll walk around Old Town and I’ll stop by Alfred to pick up a coffee. I get a double espresso, straight with nothing in it.

We do occasionally do brunches. We really like Soho House in West Hollywood and also LA Cha Cha Chá near the Arts District.

1:30 p.m.: Breakfast for lunch

If we decide to stay out, one place we love is Americana in Glendale, which is really close. I love this place called Egg Slut there. Crazy name, but man-oh-man, like I told you, I love breakfast food and they close at 2 p.m. So we have to time it out. We’ll do all that Old Town running around, then we’ll jump down to Glendale and usually I get there by 1:30 p.m. and I’ll be their last customer, and they know me. I have a double bacon, double egg breakfast sandwich. It comes with a little ketchup on it and I get a side salad, which is like arugula and a little Parmesan and maybe a small orange juice.

3:30 p.m.: Pop over to the Americana in Glendale

I love books. I have a library of books that is probably the most valuable thing that I own. I probably have like 10,000 books, so what I love to do is go to Barnes and Noble. You can’t find them anymore. It’s very rare and the Barnes and Noble at Americana is one of my favorite spots, because I’ll get lost. You can spend literally two or three hours there.

5 p.m.: Watch a flick

I’m a big movie guy, so usually on a Sunday, that’s when I do my theater watching. I’ve been getting tickets to throwback movies. Being at home, it’s OK, but I love the smell of popcorn and I love to experience the reactions of other people. When you’re going to see a comedy or something scary or something weird, it’s kind of like you want to feel that energy, so we go to IPIC. I’m a gold member. I’m practically a platinum member because I’m about really nice experiences. If you’re going to do a theater, do it well.

7 p.m.: Enjoy my cheat–day meal

Even though I do intermittent fasting, Sunday is my cheat day. When it’s time for dinner, that’s In-N-Out Burger time. I’ll get a couple double-doubles. You know, I’m simple. Or we’ll find a restaurant that everyone’s been talking about. But a lot of times, they aren’t open on Sunday nights. There are a few like Majordomo that my guy David Chang [owns], but other than that, it’s In-N-Out Burger time.

If there’s a sporting event on a Sunday, I’d go to SoFi to see a football game. I was on the Rams and the Chargers, so the funny thing is, when I get invited to a Chargers game, I act like I’m the biggest Chargers fan in the world, and then when I get invited to the Rams game, I do the same thing. They both ended up in L.A., so they both claim me and I’m like yep [laughs].

8 p.m.: Get ready for bed

I go to bed early and my wife is like, “What are we, in third grade?” [Laughs] That’s why I don’t like to go to the movies too late. I will never, ever go to a movie that starts at 7 p.m. cause you won’t be out of there until like 10 p.m. I’m like nope! I go to bed at the latest 8:30 p.m. and my regime — something I’ve been doing for years and it feels so good — is I close all the curtains, make sure the room is all cool. I try my best to put the phone up. I don’t want that blue light on me. I wash my face, brush my teeth, get in bed and I’ll have the book of the century — whatever I’m reading — right next to the bed and my glasses.

I look forward to this time cause you know where you left off, whether it’s a novel or an autobiography, and you’re like, I wonder what happened there? I always have to make sure I leave at a good spot. I’m the guy who gets sad at the end of a book. The same way people feel about streaming when you’ve gone through all 10 episodes. I’m reading a book called “The Weight of Air” by this guy named David Poses. Oh, my God. He was addicted to heroin for years and was in and out of rehab. It’s fascinating because he’s so transparent and it just inspires me to be that vulnerable.

The lure for music stars to cinematize their success will never grow old, and the movies — in need of high-wattage attractions as ever — always seem ready to oblige. The latest to enter that terrain is Abel Tesfaye, the artist known as the Weeknd, whose chart-toppers over the last decade-plus have painted, in club colors and through his haunted falsetto, a hedonist performer’s ups and downs.

It’s one thing to croon about the aftertaste of youthful excess to a dirty, mesmerizing dance beat, however, and another to draw the subject out to a compelling feature length, which the turgid psychodrama “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” starring Tesfaye and directed by Trey Edward Shults, mostly fails to do. But not for lack of trying from the visually vibey “Waves” filmmaker, who wrote the movie with Tesfaye and Reza Fahim, and from co-stars Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, roped into playing along in the superstar’s sandbox of tour-nightmare solipsism.

The title also belongs to the latest hit album of Tesfaye’s, released this year, which the singer-songwriter has hinted in the press to be a redemptive mic drop of sorts for his mysterious sex-and-drugs-fueled Weeknd persona. Whether you call the film a promotional tie-in or companion piece — it was filmed two years ago, before all the album’s tracks were recorded — it’s still little more than a long-form music video vanity project, straining for importance, fumbling at resonance.

A tight frame on Tesfaye’s boyish, anxious-looking face, his angry girlfriend’s breakup voice message (“I used to think you were a good person!”), and superficial pumping up from his manager (a bro-mode Keoghan), let us know all is not right backstage for this musician on the first night of a big tour. Elsewhere, a distraught young woman (Ortega) drenches a house’s interior with gasoline and sets it on fire, then drives to a gas station to refill her canister.

These tortured souls meet the night his coked-up, busted-heart malaise triggers a walk-off midperformance, and she’s there backstage to lock eyes with him and ask if he’s OK. (He’s not!) From there it’s an escapist date of air hockey, carnival rides and, once they settle in a fancy hotel room, the sharing of a sensitive new song.

In the cold light of day, though, when her vulnerabilities bump up against his reset untouchability — Ortega gets a great line, “You don’t look worried, you look scared” — this impulsive star/fan connection takes a violent turn. Anyone familiar with the HBO series “The Idol” that Tesfaye co-created will soon sense an unwelcome reprise of that short-lived showbiz yarn’s retrograde misogyny.

The germ of an edgy fantasia about an isolated pop icon’s ego death is swimming somewhere in the DNA of “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” but it’s been flattened into a superficial, tear-stained pity party. Shults and cinematographer Chayse Irvin are gifted image makers, but they seem hamstrung applying their bag of style tricks — different aspect ratios, multiple film stocks, 360 shots and roving takes — to so shallow and prideful an exercise. There’s always something to look at but little that illuminates.

As for Tesfaye, he’s not uninteresting as a screen presence, but it’s an embryonic magnetism, in need of material richer than a bunch of close-ups that culminate in a howl of a ballad. In the flimsy narrative’s pseudo-biographical contours — notably the real-life voice loss he experienced onstage a few years ago — parallels to what Prince sought to achieve with the real-life-drawn “Purple Rain” are understandable. But that film was a cannier bid for next-level success, offsetting its three-act corniness with emotional stakes that led to a crescendo of its genius headliner’s performance prowess.

“Hurry Up Tomorrow” is thinner and sloppier. It won’t slam the door on Tesfaye’s movie ambitions, but as a bid to conquer the big screen, it’s an off-putting, see-what-sticks wallow that treats the power of cinema like a midconcert costume change.

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

This year’s edition of the Cannes Film Festival launched this week. The winner of last year’s Palme d’Or, Sean Baker’s “Anora,” went on to win five Oscars including best picture. Numerous other Cannes premieres from 2024, such as “The Substance,” “The Apprentice” “Emilia Peréz” and “Flow,” went on to successful awards season runs as well.

This year’s lineup features many titles we could be talking about all year long, including Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,” Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind,” Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” and Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest.” The festival will world-premiere the feature directing debuts of Kristen Stewart and Scarlett Johansson, with “The Chronology of Water” and “Eleanor the Great” respectively. Read all of our coverage as it unfurls right here.

The festival also saw the premiere of Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” the fourth movie he has made in Tom Cruise’s venerable action-espionage franchise. Amy Nicholson was at the film’s world premiere, writing, “Cruise is the reason audiences will, and should, see “Final Reckoning” on a large and loud screen. His Ethan continues to survive things he shouldn’t. … Yet, what I’ve most come to appreciate about Ethan is that he doesn’t try to play the unflappable hero. Clinging to the chassis of an airplane with the wind plastering his hair to his forehead and oscillating his gums like a bulldog in a convertible, he is, in fact, exceedingly flapped.”

‘Minority Report’ in 35mm

Samantha Morton and Tom Cruise star in the movie “Minority Report.”

(DreamWorks LLC / 20th Century Fox)

As audiences prepare themselves for the upcoming release of “Final Reckoning,” folks may want to revisit not only other films in the “Mission: Impossible” series but also other titles from the now nearly 45-year career of Tom Cruise.

On Sunday, the Egyptian Theatre will have a 35mm screening of 2002’s “Minority Report,” which paired the star with director Steven Spielberg for the first time. Adapted from a novella by sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick and set in 2054, the story finds Cruise as an officer for a “pre-crime” unit that uses clairvoyant humans to stop crimes before they occur. When he discovers possible faults in the system and finds himself accused of a crime he has yet to commit, Cruise must go on the run.

In a review at the time, Kenneth Turan wrote that the film “finds Hollywood’s preeminent director more convincingly at home with unapologetically bleak and unsettling material than he was with Kubrick’s ‘A.I.’ ‘I wanted to make the ugliest, dirtiest movie I have ever made,’ Spielberg told cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and there’s little doubt he’s succeeded. … But the road to self-knowledge can be an uneven one, and as impressive as this disturbing, even haunting film can be, it does not feel all of a piece.”

Turan added, “A word must be said for Cruise. Though his is the starring role, it is in some ways a thankless one, needing him to be the tireless turbine that powers this expensive cinematic machine and nothing more. It’s not the kind of work that wins awards, but without Cruise’s intensity almost willing our interest in Spielberg’s unrelentingly dark world, ‘Minority Report’ wouldn’t have nearly as much life as it does.”

More ‘Old Man’ films from ‘You Must Remember This’

Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen on set of the movie “Rich and Famous” in 1981.

(Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)

The American Cinematheque has a series underway to celebrate the recent season of the podcast “You Must Remember This.” A few months ago, I featured an interview with the show’s writer, producer and host Karina Longworth to talk about “The Old Man Is Still Alive,” a season examining the late careers of filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Vincent Minnelli, Billy Wilder and others who had enjoyed decades of success only to find themselves floundering amid the cultural changes happening in Hollywood during the 1960s and ’70s.

The Cinematheque series, playing Tuesdays throughout July at the Los Feliz 3, features some of the most intriguing titles from that podcast, many of them rarely screened and all worthy of the reappraisal Longworth invites. This Tuesday will be Howard Hawks’ 1965 film “Red Line 7000,” about young stock car racers.

In a published transcript from the episode covering Hawks, Longworth said the film was “a bizarre, low-budget experiment that grafts Hawks’s longstanding interest in gender warfare onto a semi-documentary sports movie about low-rent race car champions, starring a very young, very hot James Caan. Hawks’ ’60s romantic comedy, ‘Man’s Favorite Sport?’ could have been made in the 1930s and ’40s as basically the same movie. The same goes for each of the other films he made in his last decade as a filmmaker, none of which took place in contemporary America, except for ‘Red Line 7000.’ ‘Red Line 7000’ is a movie that could have only been made in 1965.”

Kevin Thomas reviewed the film on Nov. 26, 1965, writing, “‘Red Line 7000’ takes off like a streak of lightning, zooms through a thicket of romantic entanglements and winds up a winner at the finish. … Plenty of action plus a cast of attractive unknowns assures another success for veteran director Howard Hawks.”

That will be followed on May 27 by a 35mm screening of George Cukor’s 1981 “Rich and Famous,” starring Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset as friends who become competitive over their literary careers. Noting Pauline Kael’s withering New Yorker review of the film, Longworth added, “What Kael sees as reason for derision, I see as worthy of praise.”

Thomas spent time on the set while the film was in production. Cukor told him, “It’s a great pleasure to read a really good script. And with such wit and style. It’s very contemporary and devastatingly accurate, with a bold, impertinent wit and gaiety. There are two extraordinary parts for women, and the man has a good one, too. So it’s up to us to make it work. I don’t think wit is the coin of the realm right now — it’s ‘Star Wars’ and all that.”

In an October 1981 profile of the film’s writer, Gerald Ayres, who also did Adrian Lyne’s 1980 “Foxes,” the writer says of Cukor, “He put bite and energy into it. His work survives so well because of that squeeze of lemon he puts in his films.”

James Coco and Dyan Cannon in the movie “Such Good Friends.”

(American Cinematheque)

On June 17, there will be a screening of Otto Preminger’s “Such Good Friends,” a satirical dramedy about middle-class sexual escapades starring Dyan Cannon (nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance) that featured a screenplay worked on by the likes of Joan Micklin Silver, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion with Elaine May receiving final screen credit under a pseudonym.

On the podcast, Longworth said of the film, “In the midst of a cultural moment that was obsessed with the idea of a sexual revolution but at the same time refused to acknowledge the ways in which that revolution mostly benefited men while imposing on women a whole new set of impossible standards, ‘Such Good Friends’ is the rare Hollywood movie of its time to portray the imbalance between men and women in terms of acceptable levels of desire and anger.”

A January 1972 Times profile of Preminger by Wayne Warga found the journalist tagging along to Preminger’s tastefully luxurious office on the Paramount lot (which the filmmaker would soon be losing), as well as to local TV appearances hosted by Tom Snyder and Regis Philbin. Cannon canceled a promotional tour for the film due to a dispute with Preminger and said for the record, “I have absolutely no words for him. I will come up with a word for him one day. It hasn’t been invented yet.”

Lola Falana and Roscoe Lee Browne in the 1970 movie “The Liberation of L.B. Jones.”

(American Cinematheque)

Other films in the series include Alfred Hitchcock’s 1972 “Frenzy,” Billy Wilder’s 1964 “Kiss Me, Stupid” in 35mm, Vincente Minnelli’s 1962 “Two Weeks in Another Town” in 35mm and Stanley Donen’s 1967 efforts “Two for the Road” and “Bedazzled.”

Among the most exciting titles in the series is a 35mm screening of William Wyler’s 1970 “The Liberation of L.B. Jones,” starring Roscoe Lee Browne, Lee J. Cobb, Anthony Zerbe and Lola Falana in a story of a successful Black businessman who finds his life complicated by his wife’s affair with a local white police officer.

Longworth called the film “uncompromising and unforgiving,” adding that, “‘The Liberation of L.B. Jones’ feels like Wyler leapfrogging over the ’60s entirely, skipping straight from a nostalgic cinematic universe in which nothing very bad ever happens to a ’70s of disillusionment and failed ideals.”

In a review from the time of the film’s release, Charles Champlin echoed those sentiments when he wrote the film was “unsentimental, unsparing, unforgiving, also brutal, credible, powerful, deeply disturbing and depressing and superbly well-acted. It reaffirms — not that it needed reaffirming — the immense power of the film as a social document. It will enrage as few pictures this year will enrage, and we’ll all have to hope that truth is its own purgative.”

Points of interest

‘Going Down’

A scene from the 1983 Australian film “Going Down.”

(Muscle Distribution)

The first theatrical re-release from the new company Muscle Distribution, 1983’s “Going Down” from Australian filmmaker Haydn Keenan will play in a 4K restoration on Friday and Saturday at Vidiots. The film has never had a U.S. release until now and is just the kind of off-beat, undiscovered title the current rep-revival scene is set up to embrace.

“Going Down” is similar to the early Susan Seidelman films “Smithereens” and “Desperately Seeking Susan” for the way it serves as a snapshot of a specific time and place — the clothes, the décor, the music — as well as being a portrait of a series of personalities. Capturing the early ’80s alternative scene of Sydney, the film follows four young women (played by Tracy Mann, Vera Plevnik, Julie Barry and Moira Maclaine-Cross) as they are all trying to establish their own identities and launch their lives, while also making their way across the city to find an envelope of missing money.

U.S. premiere of Chung Mong-hong’s ‘The Embers’

A scene from Taiwanese filmmaker Chung Mong-hong’s “The Embers.”

(American Cinematheque)

This weekend American Cinematheque is launching a series on the Taiwanese filmmaker Chung Mong-hong, including the U.S. premiere of his latest film “The Embers.” Aside from writing and directing all of the films in the series, Chung is also his own cinematographer. The filmmaker is scheduled to appear in person at all the shows.

Writing about him in 2022, critic Carlos Aguilar called Chung “one of the most infuriatingly underappreciated storytellers of our time.” This series should help bring his work to a broader audience.

“Parking,” from 2008, tells the story of a man trying to win back his estranged wife and is screening in 35mm. 2016’s “Godspeed” finds a cab driver mixed up with a drug dealer, while 2019’s family drama “A Sun” was Taiwan’s submission to the Academy Awards.

On Sunday, Chung will also introduce a 35mm screening of Jim Jarmusch’s 1984 “Stranger Than Paradise.”

Lars von Trier’s ‘Nymphomaniac’

Charlotte Gainsbourg and Jamie Bell in “Nymphomaniac: Volume II.”

(Christian Geisnaes / Magnolia Pictures)

On Wednesday, Brain Dead Studios will be screening both volumes of Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” combined as a single 242-minute experience. The films were released separately but both tell a continuing story, as Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) recounts to Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) the story of her sexual awakening and ongoing struggles as a sex addict. The cast also includes Stacy Martin, Shia LeBeouf, Jamie Bell, Mia Goth, Willem Dafoe and Uma Thurman.

When the films were initially released in 2014, I reviewed both “Volume 1” and “Volume II” separately. As I said at the time, “Few other filmmakers are capable of quite the same walloping power, though the film’s digressive, chaptered style gives it an offhand quality that asks for easy dismissal. Von Trier is such a masterful filmmaker that every new project comes on with the expectation and air of a totalizing masterwork, [creating] the unsated sensation of having too much and wanting more.”

In another piece I wrote that considered the films within Von Trier’s larger body of work (noting the filmmaker’s turn toward pranksterish provocations such as his now-notorious Cannes news conference appearances), I added that with the “Nymphomaniac” films, “he further questions both himself and his audience, asking what we want from cinema and what cinema is capable of giving us back. … What the ‘Nymphomaniac’ project may represent most of all is Lars von Trier burning down his own house, clearing a path to get out of his own way. Provocative in every sense of the word, stirring the loins, the head and the heart, the cinema of Lars von Trier is not to be dismissed. And that’s no joke.”

In other news

Summer movie preview

Mia Threapleton and Benicio del Toro in director Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme.”

(TPS Productions / Focus Features)

As part of our summer preview, the LAT published an interview wth Benicio del Toro, star of “The Phoenician Scheme.” Del Toro’s unpredictable screen presence has long made him one of my favorite actors and it is exciting to see him in a lead role. Wes Anderson wrote the part specifically for Del Toro, playing a 1950s industrialist tycoon known as Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda.

As Del Toro said to Carlos Aguilar, the actor couldn’t quite believe what he was reading in the script pages Anderson would periodically send him. “I didn’t know if it was going to be another film like ‘The French Dispatch,’ where my character ends and then another story rolls up,” he said. “Little by little, I understood that it was the whole thing.”

Allison Williams and an animatronic M3GAN in a scene from the movie “M3GAN 2.0,” directed by Gerard Johnstone.

(Universal Pictures)

Joshua Rothkopf spoke to Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse, the creative team behind Morot FX Studio, who along with several puppeteers, technicians and 15-year-old actor Amie Donald bring the film’s unnerving robot doll to life in the upcoming “M3GAN 2.0.” (Morot and Tse also won an Oscar for their work on “The Whale.”) The doll for the new film has been altered somewhat to keep up with Donald’s own growth.

“In my naiveté, I never quite understood just how much this was basically an elevated Muppet movie,” said the film’s director Gerard Johnstone. He added, “I thought, Why are we making something that looks like a toy when these guys can make things that look human? Wouldn’t that be really fun if we went further into the uncanny valley than we’ve ever gone before? And Adrien and Kathy were the perfect people to partner up with on that.”

There is also a handy list of 18 films to look forward to this summer, including Celine Song’s “Materialists,” Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby,” Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing,” Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later,” James Gunn’s “Superman,” Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” Joseph Kosinski’s “F1,” Akiva Schaffer’s “The Naked Gun,” Michael Shanks’ “Together” and Nisha Ganatra’s “Freakier Friday.”

The film has an impressive 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and has been described as “impeccably cast and smartly written”.

A chilling horror movie that’s been dubbed a ’10/10′ must-watch by fans is now streaming at no charge. The film has garnered accolades for featuring the ‘best plot twist ever’ – and it’s hitting BBC iPlayer for free this weekend.

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies boasts an impressive 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and has earned glowing reviews for being “impeccably cast and smartly written”, as well as “an uncommonly well-done whodunit”.

The plot centres around: “When a group of rich 20-somethings plan a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, a party game goes awry in this fresh and funny look at backstabbing, fake friends, and one party gone very, very wrong.”

With a young and talented cast, the film features stars like Amandla Stenberg from The Hate U Give, Rachel Sennott from Shiva Baby, and the comedian Pete Davidson.

Horror enthusiasts believe this film is grossly underrated, with many voices on Rotten Tomatoes comments section singing its praises, reports Surrey Live.

One fan remarked: “What initially seemed like a typical teen horror flick turns out to be a fun and surprisingly well-crafted film.”

Another added their voice stating: “Bodies Bodies Bodies is a sharp, satirical take on Gen Z culture wrapped in a murder mystery.

“The dialogue is witty and self-aware, capturing the internet-fueled language of the TikTok generation. It’s not your typical slasher flick; it’s more of a psychological whodunit with a cheeky twist.”

Several viewers found themselves entirely gripped by the “insane” twist of the tale, with one confessing: “Best plot twist ever. Be prepared to be amazed.”

One viewer enthused: “A well done fun guilty pleasure murder mystery film with sure some cheesy lines but some good acting and scenes that hooks you in with twists and a wow of an ending.”

Another fan raved: “Another A24 masterpiece, insane plot twist, hilarious, it just has it all.”

However, some viewers were left unimpressed, with one dismissing it as “pure dribble” and another criticising: “Highly annoying, unlikeable characters. I regret watching this.”

In contrast, professional critics were largely full of praise, with The Times’ Edward Porter noting: “In general the film crackles with life. It has a caustic script, a stormy atmosphere and a talented cast.”

The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey observed: “It’s peak nihilistic entertainment, watching these souls try, in vain, to keep their fragile reputations intact while they’re drenched head to toe in blood.”

Empire Magazine’s Ella Kemp concluded: “Tense when it needs to be and awfully good fun throughout. Stupidity reigns supreme for these rich kids, but the filmmakers are smart enough to make Bodies Bodies Bodies stick the landing.”

The Financial Times’ Danny Leigh also commented: “The title could hint at either sex or death, and both end up with roles to play in a movie carefully stuffed with rising stars du jour.”

Bodies Bodies Bodies is streaming tonight at 11.30pm on BBC One and will be available on BBC iPlayer after broadcast.

The TV industry and buyers of commercial time were able to breathe a little easier going to their annual week of presentations known as the upfronts.

Not long before the curtain went up Monday at Radio City Music Hall for NBCUniversal’s event, President Trump announced he would hold off on tariffs on China, easing some of the economic uncertainty going into the selling season for television networks.

But the messaging from media executives throughout the week acknowledged that advertisers will be under pressure to get more from their marketing dollars. Between performances by Lizzo, Lady Gaga and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, ad buyers heard about the new artificial intelligence-powered tools for targeting specific audiences.

While traditional TV still commands the bulk of U.S. advertising spending, advertisers’ increasing comfort with streaming was apparent.

Seven years ago, YouTube executives had to reassure sponsors that the company would work harder to keep their ads from running in user-created videos that pushed conspiracy theories or hate speech.

But at the Google-owned platform‘s gathering at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, the audience saw a glowing testimonial video from Marc Pritchard, chief branding officer for Procter & Gamble, a company known for being meticulous about its marketing and media decisions.

Netflix and Amazon marched into the week buoyed by the growing number of streaming subscribers who see ads. Netflix said its service carrying commercials now reaches 90 million subscribers worldwide while Amazon’s Prime Video is now at 130 million in the U.S.

The week of parties and parade of celebrities offered a glimpse into the current state of the TV business. Here’s what stood out:

Live sports rule, especially the NFL

Walt Disney Co.’s TV lineup is packed with big-name talent. But the company kicked off its upfront with an opening number by an unlikely singing duo — former NFL quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning.

The audience at North Javits in Manhattan saw two more NFL stars, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, before a single actor appeared on stage. It was a sign of the NFL’s vital importance to the company and the TV business writ large.

Disney — where not too long ago Chief Executive Bob Iger mused about spinning off ESPN — wasn’t alone in touting its commitment to the league.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell did a walk-on at the YouTube presentation to announce the platform’s first exclusive livestream of a league game, the Los Angeles Chargers season opener against the Chiefs in Brazil on Sept. 5.

Roger Goodell speaks onstage during Netflix’s Upfront 2025 on Wednesday in New York.

(Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Netflix)

On the Netflix stage, Goodell was joined by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to plug a documentary series on the franchise and announce this year’s two Christmas games that will be carried on the platform.

Jason and Travis Kelce promoted their Wondery podcast at Amazon’s show. Former tight end Rob Gronkowski showed up at two upfront presentations, one for Fox where he is part of the network’s NFL coverage and later at YouTube because, well, why not?

NFL games accounted for 95 out of the top 100 most-watched TV programs last year and is now setting records on streaming. Netflix had its most watched Christmas Day in history when 65 million U.S. viewers streamed some portion of its NFL double header. (Goodell wore a Santa Claus suit for his announcement of this year’s Netflix games).

For TV industry veterans, the emphasis on live sports was surprising. “Traditionally entertainment was the driver of the upfront,” Ben Silverman, co-CEO of production company Propagate, told CNBC.

Or as ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel put it during his annual Disney upfront roast: “This is all sports. What happened? We used to be so gay.”

But as the audience continues to be atomized by the growing number of streaming options, sports are more valuable than ever for advertisers who want to reach a mass audience.

Executives at Netflix, long on the leading edge of providing niche offerings to fit every consumer’s taste, now extol the virtues of the mass audience viewing experience now that it carries NFL games.

Live sports have become a lifeline to traditional TV, as most young viewers have turned to streaming for scripted series and movies. The trend was reflected in NBCUniversal’s presentation, which emphasized the arrival of the NBA on the network that will cost $2.5 billion a year.

“Tonight” host Jimmy Fallon may have summed it up best when he said, “Good morning, I’m glad to be at the NBA upfront — I mean NBC upfront.”

Planning for life after cable

Warner Bros. Discovery stunned the crowd at the Theater at Madison Square Garden with the announcement that its streaming service Max will once again be called HBO Max. The company stripped HBO from the name in 2023, believing the HBO brand name was too exclusive for the service’s ambitions to broaden its audience.

Dropping the prestigious HBO logo from the name of the service was a dubious decision from the start. But restoring it was a recognition of an undeniable fact: the future belongs to streaming, so why relegate a familiar and respected brand name to the waning cable box?

CNN and ESPN announced that their direct-to-consumer streaming services rolling out later this year will use the network names that have been familiar to cable viewers for more than four decades. The monikers will not carry a plus sign or any other designation that suggest the product differs from what’s on TV, and that’s by design.

Younger viewers may be forgoing cable subscriptions, but they know the CNN and ESPN brand names through their digital content. For those viewers, streaming isn’t an add-on, it is the way they watch TV

Movies are open for ad business, too

Not so long ago, seeing a movie star on stage at a network upfront presentation was a big deal.

But streaming has blurred the line by offering both series and original movies, and media companies are using that to their advantage when pitching to advertisers. The trend has given the platforms a bit more sizzle in their pitches.

Charlize Theron speaks onstage during Netflix’s upfront presentation Wednesday in New York.

(Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images for Netflix)

Arnold Schwarzenegger riffed at length about his upcoming Christmas film for Amazon, “The Man With the Bag.” The moment got added mileage when the former California governor’s “True Lies” co-star Jamie Lee Curtis joined him on stage.

Charlize Theron took the stage at the Perelman Performing Arts Center to plug her upcoming Netflix feature “Apex.”

NBCUniversal teased the sequel to “Wicked,” which will eventually run on its Peacock streaming service.

Warner Bros. Discovery touted its sponsor partnerships for the theatrical blockbuster “A Minecraft Movie” and brought out James Gunn and Peter Safran, keepers of DC Studios, to say there will be opportunities for the upcoming Superman movie and other projects.

Spiritually, Gabby Windey is all about Sundays in a hardcore, no-exceptions, day-of-rest sort of way. The “Long Winded” podcast host became the breakout star of “The Traitors” this year after winning the reality TV competition with a series of bold outfits and stereotype-smashing strategic moves. Her stream-of-consciousness podcast monologues continue to boost her star, frequently going viral on Instagram and TikTok for their vocal fry realness. Now she’s booked and busy beyond belief, a mixed bag for Windey.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

“You know I’m always begging for a break,” Windey says. “It’s things that I want to be busy with, so I can’t really complain. But yeah, I’m always looking for my next nap.”

That makes Sundays feel like a “special occasion” for her, especially since it’s when she gets slow, quality time with her wife, comedian Robby Hoffman. Together, Windey and Hoffman spend their Sundays in the most relatable way possible: scrolling the internet, watching TV and movies, getting high with friends and snacking.

Sundays are also the ultimate example of Windey’s famous “business hours,” the time after 3 p.m. in which Windey’s confidence plummets and she’d rather “gouge my eyes out with a dull chopstick” than FaceTime for work. Woe to anyone who would bother Windey on a Sunday.

“God forbid, if anyone emails you on a Sunday, block and delete, fire them all,” Windey says. “On Sunday I am closed for business. You will not hear a peep from me.”

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

9 a.m.: Get out of bed, get back into bed

We’ll sleep in until, like, hopefully 9 or something. Robby works nights, you know, she’s a stand-up comedian. I’m like blaming [sleeping in] on her, but I can easily get 10 hours of sleep a night. So yeah, we like a lazy morning.

We’ll go get coffee. We’re right next to Lamill now. Then we’ll come back home and do the New York Times crossword, Connections, Wordle in bed.

Normally, when Robby’s had her fair share of like showing me YouTube clips or Reels, then I’ll start to get antsy. I’m like, “Enough of this. Let’s go.”

11 a.m.: Groceries and tamales

We’ll walk to the Silver Lake Farmers Market. Robby does a lot of the grocery shopping, and I’ll just, like, get a tamale. They’re $5, and they’re huge. I like a red sauce and a green sauce, so it’s like beef with the red sauce and chicken with the green sauce, but I also like a dessert tamale, a sweet tamale. I’m half Mexican, and my mom did not cook except for tamales. So it’s a very comforting food.

Robby’s really good at grocery shopping, so I just kind of let her go. But we get fresh berries. We’ll make veggie sandwiches throughout the week, which is like romaine lettuce, mushrooms, tomatoes and cucumber. We’ll get those ingredients and whatever weird food there is, you know, there’s always like some hippie fermented thing that’s supposed to be good for you.

Noon: Back to bed.

I have to take a break.

1 p.m.: Prerolls in the park

For [the weed holiday] 4/20, we met up with friends in Silver Lake Meadow. First I went to Botanica to get some snacks. They have good snacks, so I got this really good carrot hummus. It’s like sweet. I got some good crackers, some goat cheese wrapped in tea leaves. It sounds better than it actually was. And I’m exploring NA [nonalcoholic] options. So I got some Ghia. People die for it. But I’m like, I don’t know. I wasn’t quite sold. It’s not giving me a buzz. Surprisingly — there’s nothing in it! But I still want a buzz of some sort, which in comes the weed. So then we went to the park to just like get high on Edie Parker prerolls, talk s— with some friends for like three hours and eat good snacks. (Note: Windey has a partnership with fashion and cannabis brand Edie Parker).

4:30 p.m.: Catch a movie

Then we’ll go see a movie. We’ll f— with the Americana [at Brand] hard. We love the popcorn, love the ease. We’ll like sneak food in and out, you know, I don’t even think you need to sneak it in anymore. We haven’t gotten caught, but we always have the backstory of like that we’re gluten-free, or that we’re kosher, because Robby grew up Hasidic. So she knows what it’s like to be kosher, and I guess it’d be a good excuse for sneaking in food to the movie theater.

7:30 p.m.: Eat special-occasion sushi

After the movies, we’ll probably go out, like on a date night. I love sushi, obviously, who doesn’t? So we’ll either go to Sugarfish, because it’s like you get the same thing every time. You know, it’s so reliable. Or Kombu Sushi in Silver Lake. They have a great baked crab roll that I literally crave. But I like to save it for a special occasion, for Sunday.

9:30 p.m.: Call it a night

Back home, I’ll maybe do some skincare if I have any energy left, which after this Sunday it sounds like I won’t. Other than that, we might just watch a show, or I’ll do like a face mask. I’ll read on the Kindle — I’m reading “Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents.” I can’t wait to be done with it. I’m like, “OK, I just need to get through this. And then I can start fun reading again.” I didn’t get much of the American lit category in school. So I’m trying to kind of move my way through that. I just read Joan Didion’s “Slouching Towards Bethlehem.” I might go to the other book that people think is her best one next.