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Parker Posey, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is one of the most admired actresses of her generation. She made her name in American independent films of the 1990s — the Sundance Film Festival was essentially her second home — including 1993’s Dazed and Confused, 1995’s Party Girl and Kicking and Screaming, 1996’s The Daytrippers and 1997’s The House of Yes, as well as a quartet of mockumentaries from Christopher Guest, among them 1996’s Waiting for Guffman and 2000’s Best in Show.

But despite a stunningly prolific output over four decades, never did she find herself more at the center of the cultural conversation than she did earlier this year as a part of the third season of Mike White’s HBO drama series The White Lotus, on which she played Victoria Ratliff, a wealthy self-medicating Southern woman on vacation in Thailand with her financier...

From the South to Hollywood to Thailand, Parker Posey’s road to an Emmy nomination has been anything but predictable. The actress stars in Season 3 of HBO’s The White Lotus as Victoria Ratliff, a North Carolina matriarch navigating the chaos of a family vacation in Thailand.

Soon after the show aired, Posey made an appearance on the Today Show, where she delighted viewers with her now-iconic Southern accent channeling Victoria’s dramatic flair and lingering drawl on words like “tsunami” and “Buddhism.” The moment unexpectedly took on a life of its own.

“People were like, ‘Oh my God, you're going viral.’” she recalled. But the Internet craze came with a twist.

Sherwood Schwartz earned his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by dreaming up two sitcoms that ran forever in syndication, inspiring decades’ worth of spin-offs, reboots and TV movies. But those two mega-successful creations — Gilligan’s Island and Brady Bunch — existed in two separate Nick at Nite universes, never crossing paths into a single sitcom reality.

At least, not until 2007. When the quasi-crossover finally happened, it was thanks to Schwartz’s genius at milking cash out of new iterations of old hits. In addition to Saturday morning cartoons like Gilligan’s Planet, TV movies like The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island and a reality show called The Real Gilligan’s Island, Schwartz collaborated with his son Lloyd, daughter Hope and son-in-law Laurence Juber (former guitarist with Paul McCartney and Wings!) on the stage show, Gilligan’s Island: The Musical.

If you run a local community theater, you can still license the show,...

These days, This Is Spinal Tap is widely considered to be a genuine comedy classic, hence why we’re getting a belated sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, later this year. Not to mention the fact that it’s the rare mockumentary to get its very own pinball game.

But when it first hit theaters back in 1984, the movie wasn’t exactly a hit. Although critically-acclaimed, This Is Spinal Tap, which cost $2 million to make, earned less than $5 million at the box office. To put that in perspective, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo made $6.7 million that same year.

In a new interview with the AARP, director Rob Reiner explained that part of the problem was that hardly anyone in 1984 grasped the basic concept of the movie. “People thought it was a real documentary,” Reiner explained. “We were making fun of rock stars and documentaries. People didn’t understand it. We...

The days may be getting longer, but the darkness still descends as the Vizio WatchFree+ team delivers this list of horror films available for free in July!

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

Centuries-old vampire Count Dracula comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker’s fiancée Mina Murray and wreak havoc in the foreign land.

Cast: Gary Oldman (The Professional), Winona Ryder (Heathers), Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs)

Daniel Isn’t Real (dir. Adam Egypt Mortimer)

A troubled college freshman, Luke, suffers a violent family trauma. He then resurrects his charismatic childhood imaginary friend Daniel to help him cope, not realizing how dangerous Daniel is.

Cast: Miles Robbins (Halloween), Patrick Schwarzenegger (The White Lotus), Sasha Lane (Utopia)

Wish Upon (dir. John R. Leonetti)

A teenage girl discovers a box that carries magic powers and a deadly price for using them.

Cast: Joey King (Bullet Train...

Despite all of the idiosyncratic behavior displayed by the dog owners in Christopher Guest’s 2000 satire Best in Show, there was one moment Guest heard of as he was researching the cutthroat world of professional dog shows that he thought was too extreme to include in his film.

Specifically, Guest heard that backstage “a person came along with a clipper” and cut off part of the dog’s hair right before the show.

“That dog cannot be shown for then a year or whatever. That’s how brutal that was,” Guest said after a 25th anniversary screening of Best in Show at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. “They would come and clip huge segments out of the fur, and that’s how vicious it was.”

Seemingly surprised by the revelation, moderator Stephen Colbert asked if Guest considered including that moment in the film, which Guest said he did but ultimately demurred, thinking it was too awful.

When Rob Reiner‘s directorial debut, “This Is Spinal Tap,” opened in theaters in early 1984, it quickly became a cult classic beloved by music fans and cinephiles alike for its hilarious portrayal of the title band, a heavy metal group plagued by mishaps while on tour promoting its latest album. Told in a documentary style in which Reiner riffed on films like D.A. Pennebaker’s “Don’t Look Back” and Martin Scorsese‘s “The Last Waltz” to tell Spinal Tap’s story, the film was incredibly influential, spawning a whole series of mockumentaries by “Spinal Tap” band member Christopher Guest and television series like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.”

Yet, when Reiner tried to raise money for the movie, no one was interested — even after he shot a 20-minute reel of scenes to demonstrate what he was going for. “We went to every single studio and got turned down everywhere,...

This July, Netflix wants to help you beat the heat by giving you plenty of reasons to stay in the air conditioning while crying tears of laughter! Get ready for the streaming network’s Summer of Comedy movie collection, an event honoring actors and comedians who made their mark on entertainment over the past 50 years!

Per Netflix’s press release:

The Netflix collection features a lineup of fan-favorite movies, many of which feature SNL alumni, including Tina Fey (Baby Mama), Adam Sandler (Happy Gilmore), Will Ferrell (Old School), John Belushi (National Lampoon’s Animal House), Eddie Murphy (The Nutty Professor), Ben Stiller (Zoolander), Amy Poehler (Blades of Glory), Mike Myers (Wayne’s World), Kenan Thompson (Good Burger), Dan Aykroyd (Coneheads), Kristen Wiig (MacGruber), Chris Farley (Tommy Boy), Molly Shannon (Superstar), Dan Aykroyd (The Blues Brothers), and many more.

In addition to a collection in your Netflix Queue, the Paris Theater in New...

New films and old classics are in the lineup for July.

Horror Titles Streaming Free On Vizio Watchfree+ In July

Get your friends, popcorn, and drinks ready for July, as Vizio WatchFree+ has announced its lineup. Look for ghosts, mysterious boxes, aliens, chainsaws, and more to hit your screens at home.

WatchFree+ has thousands of free premium movies and shows that can be streamed on demand on Vizio TVs, or Anyone can enjoy titles like these and more using the Vizio mobile app! All you need is a free Vizio Account to start enjoying WatchFree+.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Centuries old vampire Count Dracula comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker's fiancée Mina Murray and wreak havoc in the foreign land.

Cast: Gary Oldman (The Professional), Winona Ryder (Heathers), Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs)

Available: July 1st

Daniel Isn't Real

A troubled college freshman, Luke,...

Spoiler Alert: This story discusses major plot developments in “The Price,” Season 2, Episode 6 of “The Last of Us,” streaming on the service currently known as Max.

When “The Last of Us” co-creator Craig Mazin called Catherine O’Hara to offer her a role in the second season of the HBO series, she was tickled by the idea that she’d be playing a therapist in a post-apocalyptic society. “In this world, that somebody’s responsible for anybody’s mental well being — what a ridiculous pressure job!” she says over Zoom. “That makes me laugh.”

O’Hara has been making audiences laugh since her days on the Canadian sketch comedy series Sctv in the late 1970s through her standout performances in films like “Beetlejuice” and “Home Alone,” the Christopher Guest comedies “Waiting for Guffman,” “Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind” and “For Your Consideration” and her Emmy-winning role on “Schitt’s Creek.” But...

Nina Conti (Family Tree) isn’t monkeying around in Collider’s exclusive trailer debut for the comedy creative’s film, Sunlight. While audiences have known her and seen her perform on stage and in front of the camera as an actress, comedian, and ventriloquist, her latest project gives her another hat to wear — that of a filmmaker. The title, which is presented by the legendary Christopher Guest, not only marks Conti’s feature-length directorial debut but also blends her famed ventriloquist act with a screenplay co-penned alongside her co-star and frequent collaborator, Shenoah Allen (Breaking Bad). The first look at the trailer reveals one woman’s attempt to leave her toxic relationship behind and move towards new opportunities. She’ll just get there in her own way — which means staying hidden underneath a giant monkey suit.

At the top of the teaser, we meet Roy (Allen), a man down on...

Amalia Ulman’s Magic Farm is in theaters beginning April 25. A New Leaf.Never have I seen one woman in whom every social grace was so lacking. Did I say she was primitive? Well, I retract that. She’s feral.—Henry Graham, of Henrietta, in A New LeafI have been dreading writing this essay because it means admitting to myself and to the world something very unfortunate: I am a loser brunette.It was 2017, and my then husband suggested we watch A New Leaf (1971) because there was a new Blu-ray restoration, which was exciting. But as I watched Walter Matthau as Henry Graham arrogantly reckoning with the fact that he had run out of money, making teary-eyed farewell visits to his Upper East Side tailor and racket club, I thought of the man sitting next to me and was shocked by the similarities. “He’s just like you,” I said to my husband,...

Don't attend your weekly session if you haven't watched "Future Days," the season 2 premiere of "The Last of Us." Spoilers lie ahead!

In the second season of "The Last of Us" — HBO's adaptation of Naughty Dog's beloved video game series — showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are introducing some characters who don't appear in the game, including Gail, a therapist living in the protected fortress of Jackson, Wyoming who's played by Emmy winner Catherine O'Hara. Gail isn't in the games, so what's her purpose in the series?

In the season 2 premiere, "Future Days," we see the typically taciturn Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) go to Gail's house, only to learn something very surprising: Joel is seeking treatment from Gail as he works through some mental health issues. According to O'Hara, Mazin and Druckmann gave her and Pascal room as performers ... and scheduled an entire day for Joel's therapy session. As...

As fulfilling as it must be to create an actual feature film, there has to be a lot of fun involved in developing the fake films that sometimes appear in movies. Think about it. You don't have to deal with all the finicky details and logistics of turning this brief concept into a fully-fledged picture -- you just get to come up with an idea, execute the best bits of it, and move on. 

Whether they add to the narrative or simply serve as an excellent punchline, fake movies can pack an out-sized punch, considering how we often only see a few minutes of them within a larger narrative. But it speaks to their quality that despite the small amount of time they're shown on screen, they tend to lodge themselves into the mind of the viewer, giving audiences a stand-out moment. And the very best of these make us all think,...

An attempt to revive a bygone television spinoff is also a novel twist on a common marketing tactic. In recent months, studios and other rights holders have started making classic films and TV shows available for free on YouTube, where a new generation of viewers can revive interest in older productions.

For years, TV networks and streamers have used YouTube as a secondary distribution window for previous episodes of returning shows. At the start of new seasons, it’s not unusual to see full-length pilot episodes show up on network-affiliated YouTube channels. The most recent example of that phenomenon brought the entire first season of the Disney+ hit Andor to YouTube ahead of the Star Wars saga’s impending return.

That move is informed by simple logic: If viewers can get free access to a hit show, they’re more likely to give it a try. If they like what they see,...

White Lotus is halfway through its third season, and the drama is finally intensifying for several characters staying at the Thailand resort. After a local celebration that found three of the privileged vacationers targeted and water gunned, and Belinda recognized Tanya’s toxic ex-husband Greg (who goes by Gary now), the danger is escalating. But we noticed that one of the actors helping drum up the drama and the comedy of the show has soap roots. Which actor is it?

Soap Opera and White Lotus Connections

If you recall, in the first memorable season of White Lotus, Murray Bartlett, formerly of Guiding Light, played Armond, one of the season’s most integral roles. For this, the soap alum ultimately won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

During the hit drama’s second season, Meghann Fahy earned an Emmy nod playing Theo James’s other half,...

New York outfit The Dazey Phase has picked up Tribeca comedy and the feature debut of US filmmaker Rachel Wolther, The French Italian, for sales.

Residents of a New York City apartment complex engage in an escalating prank war that spirals out of control. Cast includes Euphoria star Chloe Cherry, Aristotle Athari, Catherine Cohen and Ruby McCollister.

The film’s US producers are Mirmade Productions and Savage Rose Films.

Wolther said the film falls within the “genre of talky New York comedies, with homages to some of my favourite play-within-a-play classics like Waiting For Guffman, The Producers and of course...

In a bold and time-relevant move that is sure to delight movie fans, Warner Bros. Entertainment has made 31 of its full-length movies available for free on its YouTube channels, including 2000's Dungeons & Dragons, and the Jackie Chan movie Mr. Nice Guy. The refreshing approach to content distribution, however, is a strategy that aims to boost visibility and generate digital ad revenue, with the additional benefit of making a diverse range of cinematic gems accessible to a wider audience.

According to Variety, ever since 2025 began, the entertainment giant has quietly been dropping movies on its Warner Bros.-owned YouTube channels, all available to stream for free. Of course, the movies still include ads for those who do not own a YouTube Premium subscription. These movies include a mix of genres and eras, with titles like the 1935 adventure Mutiny on the Bounty, the 2002 sci-fi comedy starring Eddie Murphy, The Adventures of Pluto Nash,...

Warner Bros. Discovery may not be ready to launch a free ad-supported streaming TV (Fast) service of its own just yet, but the company is on the lookout for ways to boost its digital ad revenue. Its latest tactic is to add free movies to YouTube. Wbd has put more than 30 full-length films on the social video platform to stream at no cost, as long as you don’t mind putting up with a few commercials.

Key Details: Movies featuring Kevin Bacon, Chevy Chase, Robert De Niro, and other stars are streaming free on YouTube. None of the films are currently available to stream on the company’s platform Max. Wbd licenses plenty of content to Fast platforms, but has made no public progress on its own Fast platform. Sign Up $9.99+ / month max via prime video

The list of movies from Wbd that are now available to stream free on YouTube can be seen here.

Movie lovers, rejoice! Warner Bros. has quietly made 31 full-length movies available to stream for free on YouTube. This move allows viewers to enjoy classic and lesser-known films without a subscription, though they do come with ads unless you have YouTube Premium.

Over the years, Warner Bros. has experimented with different ways to make money from its vast catalog of films. It launched FilmStruck, a subscription streaming service, in 2018, but shut it down less than a year later. Since then, the company has focused on licensing movies to free, ad-supported platforms like Roku and Tubi.

Now, Warner Bros. is trying a new approach—releasing movies directly on YouTube. This move allows the studio to generate revenue through digital ads while making films more accessible to a wider audience.

The selection of movies is quite diverse, covering different genres and decades. Some of the highlights include:

Classic films: Mutiny on the Bounty...

Over the years, Warner Bros. has tried to monetize its catalog of older movies through different subscription streaming services, including FilmStruck — which it shut down less than a year after it launched in 2018.

Now, Warner Bros. Entertainment has quietly taken a new approach to bringing its content to YouTube to farm its film catalog for digital ad revenue.

Since the start of 2025, the company has released 31 movies on Warner Bros.-owned YouTube channels, all available for free. The movies include ads, unless you are a YouTube Premium subscriber. Warner Bros. has published a YouTube playlist with the free movies, available at this link.

The titles are varied and cut across genres, with some films on the list dating back decades. The movies include “Mutiny on the Bounty” starring Marlon Brando, “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” starring Eddie Murphy, “Oh, God!” featuring George Burns in the titular role, “The Mission” starring Robert De Niro,...

In a very uncharacteristic move by Warner Bros., the studio has uploaded 31 movies to stream on YouTube for free. There is a perception that those who are watching a movie via a streaming service over going to the theater, is that it's free to do, despite paying a monthly subscription. Those streaming platforms are more costly than ever, and people are starting to make cuts to what could be a must-have service. Yet, a movie on YouTube that can be watched for free with no rental fee or any commercials, is something Warner Bros. is looking to offer movie fans with titles like the first Dungeons & Dragons, Mutiny on the Bounty, and the Jackie Chan-led Mr. Nice Guy.

Warner Bros. Entertainment's YouTube page made a playlist of movies that can be watched for free, some of which are critically acclaimed hits. These include Palme d'Or winner The Mission starring Robert DeNiro,...

Here’s a fun fact: Thanks to his lineage, writer/director/actor Christopher Guest has an inherited royal title — the 5th Baron Haden-Guest — and for three years was an active member of the British House of Lords. In his spare time, however, Baron Haden-Guest makes delightfully silly movies that make audiences around the globe very happy.

Guest largely worked as an actor in the 1970s, with stage and TV appearances mixed with occasional side gigs with the satirists The National Lampoon. His breakthrough role came in 1984 as lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel in Rob Reiner‘s classic comedy “This Is Spinal Tap,” whose improvisational style proved to be an enormous influence when Guest began directing films five years later. That technique came to full fruition in his second directorial effort, 1996’s “Waiting For Guffman,” where he gathered together a group of great comic actors who formed a loose repertory company that...

Warner Bros has released 17 of its films to watch for free on YouTube, including Critters 4 and Waiting For Guffman. Here’s the full list of titles:

YouTube has come to rival TV channels and streaming services with its extensive library of shows, tutorials and, naturally, clips of people making fools of themselves.

Warner Bros has tapped into this vast resource by releasing some of its films to watch, in full, for free on the platform. That’s music to our ears, especially as Netflix is hiking up its prices again.

Don’t expect to find Furiosa or Juror #2 on YouTube just yet, though. The playlist is made up of films ranging from the mid-1980s all the way to 2008, with gems like Critters 4, Mr Nice Guy and Waiting For Guffman. We can also guarantee you no AI was used in the making of these films, although you might...

As each new year begins, folks celebrate, sometimes with great relief, the passage of time and the cultural highs that held us aloft. Looking back means not quite being ready to look forward, which helps explain the phenomenon of bad movies that plague theaters every January, a notorious dumping ground...

Must See Unconventional Dog Movies: Researchers would list out a lot of benefits of dog ownership/companionship. I mean sometimes one’s profound sadness can vaporize when looking at the strangely appealing eyes and long drooping ears of a dog. The way your canine pal scurries away when you are angry, or the way it dashes around in little circles vying for your attention, or the look it gives you when its forelegs are on the ground and head resting between them, dogs are the picture of unconditional love and adoration. The limited lifespan of a pet dog also teaches us a thing or two about death and grief.

Stories of dog ownership in cinema tend to mostly lurch toward the cute and cuddly. Of course, we need movies like “Old Yeller” (1957) or “Marley & Me” (2008) where our furry friends are at the center of ceaseless heart-warming entertainment. But the...

It comes as no surprise to anyone that actor and comedian Aubrey Plaza is a big John Waters fan, but her favorite Waters flick has us wondering – are those, pussy willows?

When Waters announced his return to feature filmmaking after a twenty-year hiatus back in April, the professed “Pope of Trash” chose Plaza to be his newest heroine over half a century after the incomparable Divine showed the transgressive film world what it meant to be a truly obscene leading lady. Waters’ newest project is a film adaptation of his 2022 debut novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance, which told the story of a professional con artist Marsha "Liarmouth" Sprinkle as she attempts a daring heist at Baltimore/Washington International Airport (obviously) alonside her partner in crime and in passion Daryl, to whom Marsha has promised sex exactly once a year. In the film, Plaza will play Marsha, and Janet Snakehole herself...

Aubrey Plaza has been waiting to wade into John Waters’ filmography for decades, ever since she first watched his 1994 satirical film “Serial Mom.”

During a visit alongside director Sean Price Williams to Kim’s Video at Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Manhattan for its web series, Plaza credited Waters for inspiring her comedy taste in film.

“John Waters blew my mind with ‘Serial Mom,'” she said, adding that working in a video store while in high school was how she “learned about independent films.”

The “Megalopolis” actress added, “I was getting really into John Waters. I was getting really into ‘Waiting for Guffman’ and Christopher Guest movies. [But] ‘Serial Mom’ for me was like, oh my god…I was laughing so much. I thought it was the funniest shit I’ve ever seen. Of course I watch all those other movies and I just think he just doesn’t care. It...

The feature directorial debut of actress and comedian Nina Conti, “Sunlight,” reimagines Monkey, one of the characters she performs in her ventriloquist act, as the human-sized alter ego of a woman on the run from a toxic relationship. In addition to wearing multiple hats behind the scenes of the film, Conti wears two costumes, playing both the woman and the monkey.

“The monkey is much easier,” she tells Variety.

Principal photography took place in Albuquerque, N.M., just a few dozen miles from the Santa Fe International Film Festival, where the film screened on Oct. 19 with Conti and executive producer Christopher Guest in attendance. Speaking in the El Dorado Hotel lobby right after the screening, she exuded a joyful relief that “Sunlight” was well-received by festival attendees; the film’s completion and current festival run marks the payoff to a journey that began more than 20 years ago when she first...

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is bringing some beloved characters back to fans, but the sequel is also introducing a few fresh faces — relatively speaking, considering they might be dead.

Once again directed by Tim Burton, the sequel takes place 30 years after the original, bringing the Deetz family back together for Charles’ death. At this point, Lydia (Winona Ryder) is fully grown with a daughter of her own, who discovers the mysterious remnants of Beetlejuice left in the attic.

We won’t spoil anything here, but we will give you a rundown of who’s who in the “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” cast and the characters they’re playing, old and new.

Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) Warner Bros.

The juice is loose yet again, and he’s played by Michael Keaton once more. Keaton is, of course, perhaps best known as Beetlejuice and Batman, but you’ll also from “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Spotlight” and “Birdman.”

Lydia Deetz...

It’s a family reunion at the Emmys, as Eugene and Dan Levy are in talks to host the 76th kudocast on ABC, taking place Sept. 15 at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

The father-son duo, who co-created “Schitt’s Creek” and each won Emmys for it, are currently in negotiations with the Television Academy, and a deal has not yet been struck, sources tell Variety. Neither the Television Academy, nor representatives for the Levys, returned Variety‘s request for comment.

Eugene and Dan Levy have presented together at awards ceremonies, including the 2020 SAG Awards, and once guest-hosted “Ellen” as a duo.

In their six-season CBC comedy “Schitt’s Creek,” they played father and son Johnny and David Rose, whose family, after an embezzlement scheme, is forced to move out of their mansion and into a motel in Schitt’s Creek, a town they once bought as a joke.

The series...

Who wouldve thought the healing of the planet would start behind the walls of Sing Sing? one character muses toward the end of Greg Kwedars film. Its a great line one of many uttered throughout the movies 105-minute runtime. Stories about theater are nothing new, with everything from All About Eve to Birdman to Waiting for Guffman approaching the medium in vastly different ways. Ones that take place in prison arent revolutionary either, with Shawshank Redemption, Orange Is the New Black, and Oz offering just a few of the many examples. But a film about a theater group in a prison? Now thats intriguing and is made even more so by the fact its based on a true story.

Recent documentaries about Albert Brooks and Steve Martin give the comics their rightful flowers for introducing a fresh comic persona to popular culture — the smarmy show-biz performer, polished, unctuous and self-satisfied to the point of absurdity. But Martin Mull, the accomplished musician, painter and comedian who passed away yesterday at the age of 80, deserves to be mentioned in their company.

Fernwood 2 Night, a spin-off of Norman Lear’s Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, is one of those comedies more influential than beloved — no cable network has been running repeats for years. But catch a few episodes (thanks, Internet Archive!) and you’ll hear its echoes in It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest. Mull starred as Barth Gimble, the obnoxiously hip co-host of a local talk show set in the fictional town of Fernwood, Ohio alongside Fred Willard’s clueless Jerry Hubbard.

Mull was the...

Before there was Glee, before there was Talladega Nights, Jane Lynch got one of her first starring roles in Weirdo Couple Obsessed With Frosted Flakes.

“In 1999, I did a bunch of commercials,” Lynch told Martin Short on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. “I don’t know if you remember, but it was the year of Jane Lynch. Maxium, Chevrolet, I did all sorts of stuff. A bug spray.”

Ooh, a bug spray! Those are lucrative gigs for a struggling comic, but Lynch’s big break was yet to come. “I went into a callback for a Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes commercial,” she remembered. At the audition, she found out who was set to direct the spot: Christopher Guest.

Lynch had seen Waiting for Guffman and knew Guest from his work with Short and Billy Crystal on Saturday Night Live. “You guys were just amazing, and so, I was very nervous,” she told Short.

With all the small talk, catching up, and interacting with people you hoped to never have to see again, high school reunions are a horror show. But, toss in murder and now the misery has really gone through the roof. Such is the case in Reunion, a film helmed by Chris Nelson (Date and Switch) that centers on a murder that goes down on the night of a 20-year high school reunion. In an exclusive to Collider sneak peek, eager audiences can catch a look at one of the mystery comedys laugh-out-loud scenes as a group of ex-classmates are forced to not only interact with one another but suss out the killer in their midst. Featuring just a few of the recognizable names starring in the production, the energy between Lil Rel Howery (Vacation Friends), Billy Magnussen (Road House), Jillian Bell (Brittany Runs a Marathon), Jamie Chung (Grown Ups), Nina Dobrev...

Filmmakers Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan made a big splash with their feature debut Saint Frances, which won the Audience Award at SXSW in 2019 before going on to win the John Cassavetes award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Their latest feature, Ghostlight, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it was one of the most acclaimed films of the fest.

We at FandomWire got the opportunity to speak with Thompson and O’Sullivan about Ghostlight, along with their exciting budding careers.

Ghostlight Interview

FandomWire: I think although there are certainly some similarities between your films, they’re all very different in style, tone, and theme. How do you see your approach as filmmakers evolving from your first film to Ghostlight?

Alex Thompson: I’ve always appreciated the storytellers who don’t preempt judgment on their characters and on the scenario, sort of let them be. And I think making...

Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson imbue the paradoxes of performing arts so deeply into their film Ghostlight that it even extends to the title. In a poetic sense, the light stand that illuminates an unpopulated theater isn’t for human eyes. It’s to appease or rebuff spirits, depending on who’s asked. But in a practical sense, the ghost light exists to help the living—mostly to avoid a fate like falling into the orchestra pit and joining the dead.

Life subsumes legend for O’Sullivan and Thompson in a worthy follow-up to their previous collaboration on the small-scale humanist triumph, 2020’s Saint Frances. Their ambition broadens significantly in Ghostlight, though their firm footing in sincerity and simplicity isn’t diminished in the slightest. The creative and life partners deliver a moving apologia for the value of theater by exploring its central contradiction: a performance is an act of honesty,...

This Is Spinal Tap is one of the most quotable films in cinema history and defined the genre of film known today as the mockumentary.

Rob Reiner’s 1984 directorial debut about an aging English metal band chronicled fame, groupies and their fateful tour and would set the bar for the style of film to satirize a subject depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. They often use the conventions of traditional documentaries, such as interviews and narration, to tell a fictional or exaggerated story.

Christopher Guest, who portrayed Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap, would go on to direct and star with an incredible ensemble cast in many of his productions that included Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge in the classic mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration and Mascots.

Jemaine Clement...

This Is Spinal Tap is one of the best mockumentary movies ever made with hilarious quotes that still hold up today. The cast members, who are also writers, contribute to the movie's memorable quotes through their improvisation skills. The movie satirizes rock documentaries, pretentious musicians, and record label meddling with pitch-perfect humor.

The many hilarious This is Spinal Tap (1984) quotes help the movie maintain its status as one of the best mockumentary movies ever made. It is also one of the first real mockumentaries, setting the stage for co-writer Christopher Guest’s later directorial work, including Waiting For Guffman (1996) and Best in Show (2000). The movie’s satire of rock documentaries, pretentious musicians, and record label meddling was so pitch-perfect that U2’s The Edge said that when he first watched it, “I didn’t laugh, I wept” (via GQ).

This is Spinal Tap has four listed writers, and three of...

Eugene Levy got support from family and friends at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony!

The 77-year-old Canadian actor and comedian received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday (March 8).

Guest speakers at the event included Eugene‘s Schitt’s Creek co-star Catherine O’Hara and the actor’s daughter Sarah Levy.

If you didn’t know, Eugene also shared the screen with Catherine in 1980′s Nothing Personal, 1996′s Waiting for Guffman, 2000′s Best in Show, 2003′s A Mighty Wind, 2006′s Over the Hedge, and 2006′s For Your Consideration.

Eugene‘s American Pie on-screen son Jason Biggs was in attendance as well!

Find out who else is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2024!

Last year, Eugene Levy spoke about the possibility of a Schitt’s Creek reunion!

Browse through the gallery to see more photos from Eugene Levy’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony…...

Actress and standup comedian Kate Berlant is always sure to remind people she didn’t get where she is by taking classes. “I was rejected from acting school,” she tells Rolling Stone. “I have no formal training.” But her one-woman show, Kate, which came to Los Angeles last month (well, technically Pasadena) after previous runs in New York and London, is deeply concerned with questions of artistic lies and emotional truth. It’s also brutally funny.

“It’s my favorite place the show has been,” Berlant says of the Pasadena Playhouse,...

Chelsea Peretti is a comedic actor who often lights up any project she’s in. Just ask those devotees of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” So, you have to be excited by the prospect of “First Time Female Director,” a feature she wrote, directed, and stars in.

Read More: ‘First Time Female Director’ Review: A Dire ‘Waiting For Guffman’-Esque Disappointment From Writer/Director/Star Chelsea Peretti [Tribeca]

As seen in the trailer, “First Time Female Director” follows the story of a woman who takes on the role of director at a local theater.

Continue reading ‘First Time Female Director’ Trailer: Chelsea Peretti Enlists An All-Star Comedic Ensemble For Her Directorial Debut at The Playlist.

Catherine O’Hara has been cast in “The Last of Us” Season 2 at HBO, Variety has learned.

Details on the character O’Hara will be playing are being kept under wraps. She joins returning series leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in the hit series alongside new cast members Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, and Kaitlyn Dever as Abby.

O’Hara is one of the most celebrated comedic actresses in modern times, having first broken out during her time on the acclaimed sketch comedy series “Sctv.” She is best known most recently for her starring role in the comedy series “Schitt’s Creek,” on which she played Moira Rose throughout the show’s six-season run. She received two Emmy nominations for the show, winning the award for best actress in a comedy in 2020 for the final season. O’Hara is also known for her work in the films of...

After Christopher Guest starred in Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap, he was bitten by the mockumentary bug himself: He wound up making five of them, including Best in Show, the Oscar-nominated A Mighty Wind, and Waiting for Guffman. Guffman was the first of Guest’s mockumentaries and, at the time the film was released, he talked to us about the process of “writing” the movie on the spot through improvisation. (Click on the media bar below to hear Christopher Guest) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Chistopher_Guest-Waiting_For_Guffman_.mp3

Waiting for Guffman is available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and most digital platforms.

The post Christopher Guest Couldn’t Wait To Try Improv Approach With ‘Guffman’ appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

Here’s hoping that “Yellowstone” fans have a comfortable chair this weekend! Paramount’s free streaming servicePluto TV is gearing up to stream the first four seasons of the show on its More TV Drama channel.

Season 1 will start streaming Friday, Sept. 1 at 4 p.m. Et. Seasons 2 and 3 will begin airing at the same time on Saturday, Sept. 2 and Sunday, Sept. 3 respectively, and the fourth season will start streaming at 2 p.m. Et on Monday, Sept. 4.

Watch the Trailer for ‘Yellowstone’ Season 4:

There’s also new content coming to Pluto’s Game Shows channel, with shows like “Pictionary” and “25 Words or Less” debuting there this month. More kids titles will also head to Pluto thanks to the addition of the Nickelodeon Zoom! Zoom! channel, with lightning-fast series like “Blaze and the Monster Machines” and “Top Wing” available.

There are lots of other marathons and themed events coming to Pluto TV this month,...

Theater Camp is a quirky comedy film directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, they also worked on a screenplay with Noah Galvin and Ben Platt. The comedy film is set in a theater camp in upstate New York, and it follows the quirky teachers and the budding as the threat of financial ruin looms over the camp because its indomitable founder Joan falls into a coma and her clueless brother is now in charge. Theater Camp also stars Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Jimmy Tatro, and Ayo Edebiri. So, if you loved Theater Camp here are some similar movies you should watch next.

Wet Hot American Summer (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – USA Films

Synopsis: It’s the last day of Camp Firewood’s season, but there’s still time for the big talent show, a little romance… and for everyone to be wiped out by the piece of NASA...

There is no name more synonymous with the mockumentary style than Christopher Guest. He was the director who shot the genre into the public eye.

His first film, Waiting for Guffman, was groundbreaking in its intention and a light-hearted look at small-town life and the strange world of local theater. It remains his best.

Who Is Christopher Guest?

Christopher Guest is the leader of an informal troupe of actors whose focus is long-form, character-based improvisation. Guest himself has been involved in this type of acting since starring in director Rob Reiner’s 1984 opus This Is Spinal Tap. Guest played Nigel Tufnel opposite soon-to-be long-time collaborators Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. The three portrayed 1980s British rock stars whose careers have not been going according to plan.

Related: Christopher Guest: Every Great Mockumentary, Ranked

The film had a basic script but was largely improvised by the three main actors. Their goal...

Being involved in a theatrical stage production on any level takes hard work and flexibility. The people who audition and volunteer for crew positions are often some of the most passionate, eccentric people in their community, and the antics that go on during the rehearsal process often reflect that eccentricity. The release of Theater Camp takes a hilarious look into the process as the counselors and their young campers work to save their camp from being closed down, joining the plethora of other movies about putting on a play. The absolute pinnacle of comedies showcasing the process of putting on a play, however, is Waiting for Guffman. This movie is stacked with a brilliant cast of the most talented improvisational comedians, and their collaborative efforts produced the most realistic and hysterical behind-the-scenes look into community theater that everyone should watch before seeing a more modern take on the experience in Theater Camp.

Of all the films screening at the Galway Film Fleadh on the West Coast of Ireland, one stands out as having the sort of wild premise that should instantly pique the interest of anyone with a penchant for comedy of the more ridiculous variety.

Apocalypse Clown — getting its world premiere on Friday before screening at Canada’s Fantastia Festival later this month and ahead of its U.K. and Ireland release on Sept. 1 — may even boast the most “Wtf?” film plotline of the year, with a story set in the aftermath of a mysterious blackout that plunges Ireland into anarchy and following a group of washed-up clowns, brought together following a mass brawl at a funeral, who traverse the country in chaotic and sometimes bloody fashion for one last shot at their (far-fetched) dreams. A quiet arthouse drama, this is not.

From director George Kane — who has spent the last...

Jimmy Tatro and Ayo Edebiri in Theater Camp. Photo: Searchlight Pictures We’ve got one week before Barbenheimer arrives to suck up all the oxygen in the room and all the spare theaters at the multiplex. So, in this calm before the pop-culture storm, let’s talk about a smaller...