Fortunately, the little engine that could kept chugging right along. It is now a very important part of the filmmaking landscape in California, supporting a diverse group of filmmakers and hosting one of the most fun and celebrated awards shows around. And now the date of the show is not tied to the occurrence of the

Last year, Spears came back in a major way. She published her memoir, The Woman in Me, which was a frank, honest account of her life, including discussing the abortion she’d had while dating Timberlake. The grown-up she’d longed to be while making “Crossroads” was evident on the page. (Speaking of the film, in the

As an audience member, I am obsessed with genre. I’m a comic book nerd and Alien is my favorite movie ever. I’m drawn to genre because of how it can transport you to a whole new world which is exciting and strange. But also, genre can test characters in a larger-than-life way that pushes on

If you keep your eyes fixed on Little you can see he’s barely holding it together. As Wilder works through the lines, he gets closer to losing it. You can tell it’s a blown take because the laughter is a spontaneous eruption, a thing that clearly wasn’t supposed to happen—and because Wilder glances up at

“Cobweb” takes place almost entirely on a soundstage for a Korean horror film being shot in the 1970s by a troubled director named, of course, Kim (the amazing Song Kang-ho of “Parasite” fame, along with so many others). Kim is making what needs to be his masterpiece—he calls it that more than once—a black-and-white feature

The movie begins around a campfire, and there are stories being told there. We’re in the company of a nomadic clan, with its own alpha male, named Adem (Chuku Modu), aptly enough. He’s a commonsensical type. When the elder of this band, Odal (Arno Lüning) tries to scare young Heron (Luna Mwezi) with a tale

As perfect a film as has ever been made, the original 1976 “Rocky” has become part of the pop culture unconscious, holding its spot as tightly as “Casablanca” and “It's a Wonderful Life.” It’s also as much of a medium-realigning work as the blockbuster that came out one year later, the first “Star Wars” (eventually subtitled “A New Hope”),

“The Promised Land” is about ten movies in one. It’s a history lesson with a central figure driven by an impossible quest. There are bands of outlaws, sadistic aristocrats, and downtrodden peasants. There’s a little romance, a lot of torture, as well as a feisty runaway child. Historical epics like this really aren’t made anymore.

Throughout Conann’s multiple incarnations, one character stays consistent. Rainer (Elina Löwensohn)—a tribute to Fassbinder? Wouldn’t be surprising—is a perverse dog-faced oracle in a studded leather jacket who follows Conann all of her life, documenting her with his Instamatic camera and delivering some of the film’s juiciest lines. (“Blessed are the necrophiles, never betrayed by their

This series presents a different essay by a different writer on the first Friday of every month. Each one starts from the premise “The Future of the Movies.” The writer is free to expound on that title in whatever way they choose. It could be streaming, theatrical, AI, tech, representation, or anything else that comes to mind.