Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners,” “Weapons,” “Frankenstein and “Wicked: For Good” led the 13th annual Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Award nominations.

The films all three landed nominations apiece.

The makeup and hair team behind “One Battle After Another” was nominated in contemporary makeup and special makeup prosthetics. Arjen Tuiten, who was nominated in the latter category, used prosthetic pieces, contact lenses and dentures for Sean Penn’s Colonel Lockjaw in the film’s third act after he survives a horrific car crash.

For “Frankenstein,” Mike Hill, the film’s prosthetics artist, steered clear of the classic zombie, and used 42 prosthetic pieces to transform Jacob Elordi in Guillermo del Toro’s Creature.

Francis Hannon had her work cut out for her on “Wicked: For Good.” Aside from keeping Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba green, she had to work with Mark Coulier to transform Jonathan Bailey into the...

James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” remained the dominant force at the China box office over the Dec. 26–28 frame, adding RMB166.4 million ($23.4 million) to lift its local cumulative total to RMB700 million ($98.6 million), according to Artisan Gateway.

Disney’s “Zootopia 2” held steady in second place, grossing $15.2 million in its fifth weekend. The animated sequel has now amassed $558.3 million in China, cementing its position as one of the market’s highest-grossing releases of the year.

Maoyan Movie’s new release “The Fire Raven” opened in third place with $2.8 million. Directed and written by Sam Quah, the crime thriller centers on a cold case involving the murder of a student in Duma City, with a witness and a police officer drawn into a wider web of corruption and retribution. The film stars Peng Yuchang, Alan Aruna and Chang Ning.

Romantic drama “Love Is Hard,” from Ncm Television, was at No.

Actor, singer, sex symbol and style icon Brigitte Bardot, who retired from acting and became controversial for her right-wing politics in her later years, has died. She was 91.

Bardot died Sunday at her home in southern France, according to Bruno Jacquelin of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, who confirmed the news to The Associated Press. No cause of death was provided, and arrangements for funeral or memorial services have not yet been announced. She had been hospitalized last month.

In the 1950s Bardot ignited an international zeal for boldly sexual European movies, often directed by her first husband, Roger Vadim, such as “And God Created Woman.”

Though Bardot’s reign as a major box office draw was relatively brief, and she retired from films in the early ’70s, her influence was far-reaching: She made youthful, pouty, nubile blondes a staple in cinema, particularly in American movies,...

It’s the most wonderful time of the year at the box office, and the sleigh full of Christmas Day releases continued to deliver on Friday. However, it was James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” that led the pack for the second weekend in a row.

Disney’s third “Avatar” installment earned $22.6 million domestically on Friday, a roughly 39% decline from last week’s opening day. The film has grossed $46.6 million since Christmas and looks to add a total of $75 million to $80 million domestically by Sunday. North American earnings should reach $176 million by the end of the week.

Rounding out the top five were two holiday newcomers, including Jack Black and Paul Rudd’s “Anaconda” and Timothée Chalamet’s “Marty Supreme,” as well as holdovers like Disney’s “Zootopia 2” and Paul Feig’s “The Housemaid.”

A24’s “Marty Supreme” took second on Friday with $6.73 million domestically from 2,668 locations. The...

This article contains spoilers for "Heated Rivalry" and "The Long Game."

Unless you've been living under some enormous hockey puck recently, you've probably at least heard of "Heated Rivalry," the hit Crave series (on HBO Max stateside) that became one of the year's biggest sensations in the last month of 2025. So what can we expect from season 2 of the series, which has already been greenlit and will continue following the original queer romance novel series "Game Changers" by New York Times Bestseller, Rachel Reid?

As creator and showrunner Jacob Tierney recently told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview, Reid's book "The Long Game" will serve as the source material.

Arise Sir Stringer Bell!

Idris Elba is set to receive a knighthood in the U.K. after the star led the list of names in the 2026 new year honors.

Despite coming after another busy year for the actor, in which he — ironically — played both the U.S. president and British prime minister in “House of Dynamite” and “Heads of State,” respectively, Elba is being recognized for his charity work, notably an anti-knife crime campaign and the Elba Hope Foundation he set up alongside his wife.

Another top honor went to comedian, writer and actor Meera Syal, best known for groundbreaking TV show “The Kumars at No 42,” who becomes a dame for services to literature, drama and charity.

Meanwhile on screen, Cynthia Erivo is appointed an MBE (Member of the British Empire), with the “Wicked: For Good” star saying it was “an honor I could never have thought would happen.

Idris Elba, Cynthia Erivo and longtime former BFI communications executive Tina McFarling are among the UK film and TV luminaries who have been recognised for their service to the industry in the UK’s 2025 New Year Honours list.

Elba, an OBE, receives a knighthood in recognition of his “exceptional contributions to entertainment and tireless efforts in youth empowerment and social justice”.

The actor earned Bafta nominations for Mandela: Long Walk To Freedomand TV’s Luther, and has directed features including Yardie.

His activism has seen him champion the ‘Don’t Stop Your Future’ campaign against youth violence and knife crime,...

From Stanley Tucci’s imperious tech titan to Lex Luthor’s distractingly hot CEO and Elon Musk-esque blowhards, films this year took us inside the billionaire mindset

Between the slash-and-burn US government reboot led by a dank meme fan and the relentless pushing of AI by venture capital-backed blowhards, 2025 has felt like peak obnoxious tech bro. Fittingly, jargon-spouting, self-regarding digital visionaries also became Hollywood’s go-to baddies this year in everything from blockbusters to slapstick spoofs. Spare a thought for the overworked props departments tasked with mocking up fake Forbes magazine covers heralding yet another smirking white guy as “Master of the Metaverse” or whatever.

With such market saturation,...

This year, there are two films vying for the best international feature film Oscar which are set in Iran, following a group of people, mostly strangers to each other, traveling in a van with a person that they may have to bury in the desert.

One is Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or-winning “It Was Just an Accident,” which the Iranian regime would never consider submitting for the Academy’s consideration. Panahi is legally embattled at home for his outspoken criticisms of the government. The thriller is instead representing France. The other title with that shared premise is “Cause of Death: Unknown,” Iran’s official entry, by writer-director Ali Zarnegar, a filmmaking debut from a seasoned screenwriter which could have garnered him deserved international attention under a different set of circumstances, but did not make the category’s shortlist.

Though inevitably overshadowed, “Cause of Death: Unknown” is by no means a toothless state-sanctioned selection,...

Journalist Don Ng’s debut feature raises interesting questions about the asylum experience – but his film is too sentimental and superficial to truly answer them

This is a film made with the best of intentions – and it has some good insights into the loneliness and isolation of seeking asylum in the UK. But there are a few too many sentimental moments to properly work as social-realism, or anything close to convincing drama, which is disappointing given its creator, Don Ng, is a journalist-turned-director making his feature debut. It’s set in London, where Bosco (a sensitive performance by Yiu-Sing Lam) has arrived from Hong Kong fleeing the government’s crackdown on political freedom,...

Cary Elwes, who starred in Rob Reiner’s 1987 fantasy classic “The Princess Bride,” released a statement on Instagram Monday night in remembrance of the director and his wife, Michelle Singer, who were found dead in their Brentwood home on Dec. 14.

“Enough time has passed that I can finally put my grief into words,” Elwes wrote in the caption of his post. “I was 24 when I first met Rob Reiner on ‘The Princess Bride.’ And from that very first meeting I fell in love with him. I was already a fan of his work so meeting him in person was a dream come true. As we began spending more time together I knew this was someone I wanted in my life.”

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Elwes recalled that the first thing he noticed about Reiner was that he “wore his heart on his sleeve,” and “always tried to find the best in people.

Rodrigo Cortés's 2010 film "Buried" is a taut and stressful thriller that has maybe the smallest set of any film in history. The story follows a traveling American named Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) who is knocked out and kidnapped while traveling in Iraq. The film begins when Paul regains consciousness inside a coffin, buried alive. He has nothing on his person except for a cigarette lighter and a mobile phone. He is contacted on the phone by his kidnapper, who tells him that he is being held in the coffin for ransom. Paul has to call whoever he can to arrange the ransom, but also whatever American investigators might be...

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Mark Wahlberg is one of Hollywood's biggest A-list actors, but a movie he made 20 years ago is finding new life on Netflix. Wahlberg remains a huge star with movies like "Uncharted" and the lowkey hit "Flight Risk" to his name more recently, but the movie in question is a gritty crime drama in the form of 2005's "Four Brothers." It is by no means one of his more discussed movies, but it has evidently captured quite a few fans two decades removed from its initial release.

As of this writing, "Four Brothers" is the fourth-biggest movie on Netflix, per FlixPatrol.

A lot of actors hate watching their own work. Adam Driver infamously walked out of an interview with NPR's Terry Gross after she played clips of his performance in "Marriage Story," and that's just a particularly dramatic example; hearing famous performers say they can barely stand watching themselves on-screen feels incredibly common at this point. That's why, ultimately, none of us should be all that surprised that Leonardo DiCaprio hasn't revisited "Titanic" in years.

During an "Actors on Actors" chat with Variety that paired DiCaprio with fellow Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence — with whom he co-starred in Adam McKay's 2021 satire "Don't Look Up" — Lawrence, who starred in the dark...

Isaac Asimov's "Robot" novels and his "Foundation" books are set in the same universe. But just because two stories occupy the same space doesn't mean they actually impact each other. I remember reading through the books for both series for a while before I realized that they connected. But by the end of reading through both, the connection wasn't just clear. It was crucial.

If you're wondering how Asimov's two series tie into one another, I've highlighted five key areas where the crossovers are not just clear. They're super important, and these connections generally go in one direction: something starts in the "Robot" novels and eventually trickles through to the "Foundation" books.

Joe Rogan is the latest industry heavyweight speaking out against Donald Trump’s repeated attacks against Rob Reiner after the director’s tragic death. Trump alleged that Reiner’s death was “due to the anger he caused others” from being outspokenly anti-Trump. Reiner’s son, Nick, has been arrested in connection to his parents’ deaths.

“The Rob Reiner thing is not funny,” Rogan said on a recent podcast featuring comedian Shane Gillis (via Entertainment Weekly). “When you see it with no empathy, that’s when it’s hard to like. Listen, there’s no justification for what he did that makes any sense in a compassionate society. It’s no different than people that were celebrating when Charlie Kirk got shot. It’s the same kind of thing.”

“Imagine if Obama tweeted something about someone after they died in this way. That this person was a deranged person that hated Obama.

There was quite a bit of romance on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," with some pretty unusual couples that ended up being some of the franchise's best. Unfortunately, for every couple as perfect as Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) and Worf (Michael Dorn), several ill-advised pairings didn't work out. The character with the worst luck in love on all of "Deep Space Nine" was Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), whose boyfriends had a habit of either dying tragically or being called to higher purposes. One proposed romance for her would have been even worse, however, as the show's writers were toying around with the idea of pairing her up with Cardassian...

In the seven months since I launched In Development, the same conversation kept showing up. Different people, roles, and career stages; powerful veterans and fresh rookies; same throughline.

I don’t know what’s going on, but this is weird, right? It’s not just me, is it?

No. It really is that weird. And no, it’s not just you.

This was the year that upended nearly every assumption about the business of storytelling. A year ago, the refrain was “Survive until ’25”; this year there’s no refrain because we realized rhymes don’t change anything.

All of which brings us to the last week of this pathological year and fresh hope for the new one. I’ll keep the predictions short, starting with the Tl;Dr: Since nothing stays weird forever, the real work can finally begin.

Movies will be made. Audiences exist. Talent is abundant. It’s...

The 1979 epic "Caligula" is just as much a Roman orgy as it is a movie. It was produced by Penthouse Magazine impresario Bob Guccione, and he infamously absconded with the movie, shot extra hardcore sex scenes, and edited them into the final cut without the participation of the director. Tinto Brass technically directed "Caligula," but he was forcibly ejected from the editing process. A slew of guest editors came in and started rearranging the entire movie without Brass' consent. Brass was so upset, he removed his name from the movie. He is credited as providing "principal photography."

This push to re-edit "Caligula" and add more sex scenes was an unusual choice,...

Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" is one of the most exciting films of 2025, and one of the rare films to immediately become a major subject of conversation and actually sustain that level of broad interest over the course of several months. There are many reasons the movie is acclaimed: Coogler and his collaborators told a relevant, powerful story set in a milieu we don't often see, the film has a lot on its mind but also works as an entertaining ride from start to finish, Ludwig Goransson's score is next-level, there are meaty roles for newcomers like Miles Caton and veterans like Delroy Lindo ... and that's before we even mention the vampire component.

Right from its title, Oscar Hudson’s droll debut “Straight Circle” evokes paradoxical oddities, which the writer-director layers atop his deadpan satire on nationalism and geographical boundaries. A tale of two enemy soldiers patrolling a militarized border from inside a common outpost, the movie’s fictitious premise gradually transforms, and eventually transcends the shortcomings of its broad political scope the more it leans into abstraction.

The film arrives with a bang, introducing the fragile ceasefire between its warring (though unnamed) desert nations via a smart split-screen prologue during its first five minutes. Amid pomp and circumstance, leaders on either side of a rickety fence stand on ceremony, inadvertently interrupting one another through microphone feedback, as the dueling images — each with their own jittery, handheld camera movements and unique color timing, one warm and one cool — swap places and subjects. This tongue-in-cheek flourish aestheticizes the point Hudson hammers home ad nauseam across 109 minutes,...

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Many Trekkies know this piece of trivia: In the 1966 "Star Trek: The Original Series" episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before," Captain Kirk (William Shatner) finds himself grappling with Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) in fisticuffs. Mitchell, one of the strongest villains in the "Star Trek" franchise, has only just absorbed some kind of ineffable cosmic power, granting him godlike abilities. Deciding that this makes him a superior life form, Mitchell threatens Kirk directly, mocking the captain's newfound powerlessness. He even magically manifests an open grave, complete with a tombstone, that he intends to put Kirk in.

Infamously, the tombstone reads "James R. Kirk.

Animated television goes back to the earliest days of the television medium itself, eventually ranging from crudely drawn and rotoscoped art styles to more sophisticated and computer-generated visuals. Animated programming has become just as far-reaching and nuanced in its storytelling as its live-action counterparts, whether it's children's programming, anime, or more adult shows. And though it's an incredibly varied and extensive field, there are some shows that stand out above the rest. These are the shows that either pushed the boundaries of what animation on television could be and/or have wonderfully endured the test of time, entertaining generations of audiences.

For those wondering where the golden age of American...

Ryan Coogler appeared on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast amid his ongoing awards season press tour for “Sinners” and revealed the original story plans for “Black Panther 2.” The director was well into development on the sequel to his Oscar-winning 2018 blockbuster when lead actor Chadwick Boseman died in August 2020 from colon cancer. Boseman’s tragic passing forced Coogler to completely overhaul the sequel into what would become 2022’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

Marvel fans wondering what Coogler originally planned for Boseman’s return finally have an answer as Coogler told “Happy Sad Confused” podcast host Josh Horowitz that his original “Black Panther 2” script focused on an adventure between Boseman’s T’Challa and the character’s 8-year-old son. Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta in “Wakanda Forever,” was still the main villain.

“The big thing with the script was a thing called the Ritual of 8 where a prince is 8 years old,...

When Chadwick Boseman died from colon cancer in August 2020, the world lost one of its most talented and gracious performers just as he was beginning to show us just how great he could be. Boseman only scraped the surface of his remarkable abilities, and it's utterly heartbreaking that we'll never see how he would grow and challenge himself.

Because Boseman was very private about his illness (as was his right), Ryan Coogler and Marvel Studios had to completely overhaul their plans for their "Black Panther" sequel. Coogler had written a screenplay that, obviously, centered on T'Challa; now, they would either have to recast the part or rewrite the script to...

James Cameron has never shied away from expressing his feelings on 1992's "Alien 3," but his latest comments are as stark and candid as he's ever been. On a recent podcast appearance, the director said the decision to kill off three major characters from the previous movie was "the stupidest f****** thing."

Aside from being a general box office master, Cameron has demonstrated an uncanny ability to make some of the most undeniably awesome sequels in Hollywood history. In 1991, he accomplished the seemingly impossible by making a better movie than "The Terminator" with his sequel "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." He later gave us the culmination of every James Cameron obsession with the 2022 "Avatar" sequel,...

Sony Pictures' "Anaconda" reboot slithered into theaters over the Christmas holiday and, though it faced stiff competition from the likes of "Avatar: Fire and Ash" and "Marty Supreme," the comedic, meta creature feature managed to do quite well for itself. In doing so, it has also cemented Jack Black's status as one of modern cinema's most bankable stars.

Director Tom Gormican's "Anaconda" opened to an estimated $14.5 million domestically over the weekend, pulling in a total of $23.6 million across the full, five-day, Wednesday to Sunday stretch over X-mas. It also added another $20 million overseas, giving the movie a very respectable $43.6 million global start. That's not bad at all against a reported $45 million budget.

“Song Sung Blue” stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as real-life Milwaukee couple Mike and Claire Sardina, who made a local name for themselves with their Neil Diamond tribute act Lightning & Thunder. Licensing the use of Diamond’s music would typically be job number one for Emmy-winning music supervisor Trygge Toven (“Fallout”), but in this case, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder improbably paved the way.

“It’s crazy, but I believe Eddie initially helped get Neil on board with the documentary side to get the rights,” said Toven, referring to the 2008 Lightning & Thunder documentary, also titled “Song Sung Blue,” that inspired writer/director Craig Brewer to remake the story as a song-packed feature film.

For the scripted version, producer John Davis secured the licensing rights by calling in a big favor — from his mom. “The story I’ve been told is that John’s mother knew Neil Diamond, so he...

Holly Wheeler looks a little bit different in "Stranger Things" season 5. That's because the character was recast, with Nell Fisher stepping in to replace twins Anniston and Tinsley Price, who portrayed her in the first four seasons of the show. With that in mind, why did creators Matt and Ross Duffer choose to bring in someone new instead of sticking with the original actors?

Netflix's sci-fi horror series debuted when its younger cast members were all kids, but most of them are grown up now. This forced the Duffers and their team to de-age certain "Stranger Things" actors for season 5, but they also felt it was important to work with legitimate child performers again.

Familial dysfunction, a neurotic protagonist, and a commitment to showcasing a realistic low-income family on primetime made "Malcolm in the Middle" a defining sitcom of the 2000s. The characters fought and bickered, but somehow, they found ways to make things work while having plenty of great jokes along the way. It's hard to narrow down the best episodes of "Malcolm in the Middle," but if you're planning a rewatch, get ready for some ... unpleasantness.

Look, there's no two ways around it: "Malcolm in the Middle," like any other sitcom of its era, is a product of its time. Every so often, you'll watch an episode, and a character will casually...

Let's just say, hypothetically, that you've been watching the final season of a massive streaming series about a small town plagued by fantastical terrors. Let's also posit that maybe that show is exciting and frustrating in equal measure (and may or may not be titled "Stranger Things"), but you like the fantastical aspect and you're looking for something you can watch next. Might I suggest "From," a truly engrossing and even terrifying supernatural drama produced by none other than the Russo Brothers? Just ask Rotten Tomatoes, where it holds a near-perfect 96% score.

Anthony and Joe Russo, best known for helming huge Marvel tentpoles like "Captain America: Civil War" and the...

For anyone who still believes people don't care about "Avatar," the numbers tell you otherwise. James Cameron's original 2009 "Avatar" remains the biggest movie of all time, with more than $2.9 billion to its name. Now? Cameron gets to claim the only $6 billion movie trilogy ever as "Avatar: Fire and Ash" continued to crush it over the Christmas holiday, coming in above industry expectations.

"Fire and Ash" pulled in an estimated $64 million over its second weekend domestically, representing a mere 28% drop compared to its $89 million debut ahead of the holiday frame. Over the full, long Christmas holiday, it added $88 million to its total in North America. More importantly, it added a...

​Global luxury group Kering will screen “Hamnet” and “The Testament of Ann Lee” at the Palm Springs International Film Festival as part of its Talking Pictures program on Saturday.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Women In Motion initiative, the two screenings will be followed by Q&As with “Hamnet” director Chloé Zhao and Amanda Seyfried and Mona Fastvold from “The Testament of Ann Lee.” Variety‘s Angelique Jackson will moderate.

​Women In Motion, which was launched by Kering in 2015 at the Cannes Film Festival, honors women in cinema and across the arts, both in front of and behind the camera. The program recognizes influential figures while supporting emerging talent and fostering meaningful dialogue around representation in culture.

​Kering is also the presenting sponsor of the Palm Springs International Film Awards, which will be held on the same day. Honorees include Rose Byrne (Breakthrough Performance Award), Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio,...

“One Battle After Another” is a film littered with great moments, from the captivating prologue that Teyana Taylor dominates to the poignant “American Girl” needle drop that closes the epic out. But there’s one sequence the film that critics and audiences have singled out as a standout: the stomach-churning, incredibly suspenseful road chase along a winding desert highway path that serves as the film’s tense climax.

“The road, man,” Luke Lynch, editor of “Blknws: Terms & Conditions,” told “One Battle” editor Andy Jurgensen during IndieWire’s Editors craft roundtables. “I mean, it’s just a road, but it’s playing with lenses and movement and timing and the suspense that you’re building.”

Jurgensen and Lynch spoke about their respective films at IndieWire’s Editing Craft Roundtable, hosted by IndieWire features writer Jim Hemphill. Also in attendance were the editors behind “Hamnet,” “Dead Man’s Wire,” “A House of Dynamite,...

Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother,” now in theaters, is made up of three very different segments, each with a notable cast discussing the nature of their family relationships. One thing they have in common is a specific color: A deep red, the color of a jammy merlot, is a throughline that appears in each character’s contemporary clothing.

Set in New York state, Dublin and Paris, the three segments each revolve around an adult sibling pair. While in the first two, the siblings have somewhat uncomfortable interactions with their parents, in the third Paris section, the twin brother and sister have only memories of their late parents to excavate.

The clothes worn by cast members including Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett and Charlotte Rampling appear to be everyday items, but costume designer Catherine George explains that all the pieces seen onscreen — even Tom Waits’ very mundane hoodie — were made...

John Payson's 1996 comedy "Joe's Apartment" was the first theatrical feature put out by MTV Studios, which seems like a miscalculation. Surely MTV, still a giant in popular culture at the time, would want to put out a concert film, or something more closely related to the network's musical content. Instead, they made a feature film about a poor sap who has to share his dingy New York apartment with millions of singing, dancing cockroaches. It was based on Payon's 1992 short film that played on MTV in between music videos.

"Joe's Apartment" is plenty gross. Joe (Jerry O'Connell), a fresh-faced hayseed, moved to New York, instantly weaseling his way into a rent-controlled apartment.

A funny thing happened when Netflix put the “Stranger Things” finale in theaters: Fans bought tickets. A lot of tickets.

The AMC Kips Bay in New York City listed 11 screenings as “almost full” on New Year’s Eve alone. The 34th Street theater filled up nine screenings, and Lincoln Square had five showings nearing capacity. The same demand was seen on the opposite coast in Los Angeles, where The Grove packed the house for seven screenings, the Century City AMC had eight, and Universal CityWalk turned out 11. Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, and more cities where the finale is playing saw similar demand, and all of these sales took place days before showtime. By New Year’s Eve, Netflix’s latest “event” screenings should be even busier.

Now, this may not be surprising to some of you — “Stranger Things” is one of the most-watched properties on Netflix and has been for nearly...

Imagine a world where every day is Christmas Day. Sounds pretty jolly, right? Well, what if it's also the place where Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto), an ancient vampiric being, feeds on the souls of kids so he can stay young forever? That situation would suck for the children in question. However, it's also the horrifyingly brilliant premise of "NOS4A2," which is currently available to stream on Netflix.

Based on Joe Hill's novel of the same name, creator Jami O'Brien's "NOS4A2" follows Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings), a teenage girl who discovers that she has special abilities that enable her to find things, which she uses to hunt down the aforementioned vamp.

The Ghostbusters and New York. Philip Marlowe and Los Angeles. Paddington Bear and London. Some beloved fictional characters are so synonymous with the cities they call home that it seems unimaginable that they could live anywhere else. One such connection is Rocky between Balboa and Philadelphia, although the Italian Stallion's creator originally hails from Hell's Kitchen in New York. So why did Sylvester Stallone choose the City of Brotherly Love for his underdog boxing saga?

We've been rooting for the loveable slugger for almost 50 years since he got his first shot at the title in John G. Avildsen's "Rocky," which pulled off an unlikely victory of its own by beating the likes of "Taxi Driver,...

Writer and director Quentin Tarantino has made a name for himself delivering violent, dialogue-heavy dramas that draw heavily from exploitation cinema. His two-part ode to revenge movies, "Kill Bill," is likewise part kung fu epic, part Spaghetti Western, and part samurai film, with some other exploitation genre references sprinkled throughout. However, the biggest inspiration for the film is probably none other than actor Meiko Kaji. 

Kaji is a Japanese action star best known for playing the title character in the 1973 samurai revenge thriller "Lady Snowblood," though she appeared in more than 100 film and television roles across her career, helping to shape 1970s Japanese exploitation cinema along the way. Those movies,...

Some comeback!

The past 12 months were supposed to turn things around for struggling cinemas. But instead of heralding a dramatic return to moviegoing, 2025 is running neck-and-neck with the middling 2024 box office, and will fall far short of the $9 billion in domestic ticket sales that most analysts expected the theatrical movie business to easily eclipse. Prior to the pandemic, North American revenues would regularly hit between $10 billion to $11 billion. The 2025 results are a massive disappointment that no amount of spin can change. (Already there’s talk of how much better 2026 will be.)

“There’s an unfortunate trend, which that we just can’t get the industry to $9 billion at the domestic box office,” says Mike Sherrill, the chief operating officer of dine-in cinema chain Alamo Drafthouse. “It looks like it’s going to be two years in a row that the industry flatlined.”

More worrisome is the reality that many of...

The western genre (for lack of a better word) is an American creation, but a handful of other countries dabbled in the genre over the years as well. The most notable, of course, is Italy, which produced hundreds of so-called "spaghetti westerns" through the 1960s and 1970s. But what exactly is a spaghetti western?

The long explanation can be found here, but the shorter answer is that while American westerns tend to mythologize "the west" and the cowboys who called it home, Spaghetti westerns are more prone to tearing down those archetypes and dissolving the line between good guys and bad guys. They're westerns made by Italians, frequently shot in Spain,...

The way of water has no beginning and no end — just like spoilers. This article discusses major plot details from "Avatar: Fire & Ash."

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" closes the second act of James Cameron's "Avatar" saga, essentially telling the second part of the story started in "The Way of Water." Despite criticisms to the contrary, the movie does a lot more than just repeat certain ideas from the previous film. This is the movie where James Cameron most overtly argues against pacifism, a movie that forever changes Na'vi and even Tulkun culture in regards to violence. "Fire and Ash" introduces an antagonistic clan with quite bloody aspirations, forever...

In 1986, James Cameron was a young filmmaker under immense pressure as the writer and director of “Aliens,” a big-budget follow-up to Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic. Although tensions were high, he formed several alliances on that movie that would serve him well for decades to come — star Sigourney Weaver, for example, became a key collaborator on later films, up to and including Cameron’s latest, “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

Even more pivotal was Cameron’s partnership with special effects artist Stan Winston, who had previously joined forces with the director on “The Terminator” but brought the collaboration to new artistic heights (and an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects) with his designs for “Aliens.” Winston and Cameron reteamed in 1991 for “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (a dual Oscar-winner for Winston in the categories of makeup and visual effects), and it was not long after that film that Cameron and Winston had a fateful conversation.

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Opinions vary, but it's generally accepted that 2017's "Thor: Ragnarok" is one of the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to date. Thanks to the refreshing, funny direction by Taika Waititi, it made for a welcome rebound from "Thor: The Dark World," which helped set a low bar for the MCU. And though she was largely a one-and-done villain, the movie also benefited from Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett's presence as Hela, the Goddess of Death and a villain whose appearance was actually inspired by the McU's fans themselves.

In a 2017 interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Blanchett explained how she and her collaborators...

"The Testament of Ann Lee," directed by Mona Fastvold — partner of fellow director Brady Corbet, with whom she worked on "The Brutalist" and who co-wrote this historical musical epic with her — depicts the founder of the Shaker movement, portrayed by Amanda Seyfried. As Fastvold and some of her colleagues (including Seyfried) discussed over a variety of interviews before the film's wide release on Christmas, the director and her composer, Daniel Blumberg, detailed how they ensured that real Shaker hymns were a part of the film.

Speaking to IndieWire, Blumberg — who won an Oscar for his score for "The Brutalist" — said that he found himself fascinated by "the early formation of the Shakers,...

Editor’s Note: This review originally ran during the 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival. “The Dutchman” opens in select theaters on Friday, January 2, 2026.

André Holland continues his streak as one of the sharpest dramatic actors working today — and I’m not just talking about “Moonlight,” have you seen TV’s “The Knick”? — as a New York businessman in marital freefall in Andre Gaines’ “The Dutchman.” Gaines and co-writer Qasim Basir lift Amiri Baraka’s classic 1964 play out of its midcentury Civil Rights Movement context and transplant the text to present-day Manhattan, where Clay (Holland) is going mad over his wife Kaya’s (Zazie Beetz) recent admission of an infidelity.

So launches a dark night of the soul through the city that echoes “Eyes Wide Shut” — in which mysterious women also tempt a spiraling Tom Cruise over an evening after Nicole Kidman confesses to extramarital thoughts — and even “After Hours” with...

The Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild (Muahs) has announced the nominations for the 13th annual Muahs Guild Awards. On the film side, nominees are led by the usual suspects of the 2025-2026 film awards season: “Frankenstein” and for its prosthetic work by Mike Hill and Megan Many, plus “Sinners,” “One Battle After Another,” “Wicked: For Good,” and “Weapons” — all in three categories.

Television series were also nominated for the awards, with a voting tie in the Best Contemporary Make-up in a limited series or made-for-tv movie, resulting in six nominees. See the full list below. Other films nominated throughout the categories included “Bugonia,” “Eddington,” “The Smashing Machine,” “Marty Supreme,” “Superman,” “The Naked Gun,” and more.

Winners will be honored at the Valentine’s Day awards gala on Saturday, February 14, 2026, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. The announcement was made by Julie Socash, President of Muahs, IATSE Local 706.

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When you ask who the most powerful superhero is, the go-to answer for most would be Superman. He's the most famous superhero there is and across his almost century-long existence he's been depicted with practically every power you can think of. It helps that Superman's most obvious power is his strength and invulnerability. Short of some green kryptonite, little slows Superman down, and in some stories he's even powerful enough to move whole planets.

But might there be a DC Comics superhero even more powerful than Superman? A leading contender is Aquaman. Arthur Curry's powers have historically been reduced to breathing underwater and talking to fish. But his strength and endurance is,...

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" franchise hasn't always hit home runs, but Tobe Hooper's original 1974 cannibalistic nightmare is widely regarded as one of the best horror films of all time. For many fans, "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is a gritty, realistic, unrelenting exercise in pure terror — and that's what it makes it awesome. However, naysayers like influential critic Roger Ebert argue that Hooper's sweat-drenched slaughterfest lacks any real vision or merit in terms of storytelling. As Ebert wrote in his review:

"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is as violent and gruesome and blood-soaked as the title promises — a real Grand Guignol of a movie. It's also without any apparent purpose,...