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Fireworks, opera arias, dancers, a show-stopping turn from UK singer Emeli Sandé, smutty jokes from emcee David Walliams, and a rabble-rousing speech from Gladiator star Russell Crowe were among the highlights of a lavish and somewhat protracted closing ceremony of the third edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival (June 21-29).

At the event, which took place on the island of Fort Manoel, the filmmakers themselves were inevitably eclipsed by the performers and presenters.

Nonetheless, the festival itself, which had opened last weekend with an open-air screening of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, boasted strong attendances and a diverse range of films.

Courtesy of StudioCanal

by James Cameron-wilson

Few films in the Swinging Sixties were as much a part of their time as John Schlesinger’s Darling. Chronologically positioned between Godard’s Breathless and Antonioni’s Blow Up, it is a microcosm of the tail end of an empire that was enjoying its last twitch of cultural significance. The Darling of the title is the extremely beautiful, self-absorbed and cosseted Diana Scott played by the It girl of the day, Julie Christie, the face of Ideal Woman magazine. And she would seem, indeed, to be the Ideal Woman, beloved of cads, intellectuals and royalty. The thumbnail premise is attributed to three men, the scenarist Frederic Raphael, the director John Schlesinger and the producer Joseph Janni, and it is Raphael who has provided the sparkling dialogue. Essentially it’s a satire of Britain in the mid-1960s, with Julie Christie the Carnaby Street...

by Cláudio Alves

Juliette Binoche's jury made history when they gave Jafar Panahi the Palme d'Or.

One month ago, Jafar Panahi took the Palme d'Or at Cannes for It Was Just an Accident and thus became the fourth director to win top honors from the Croisette, the Berlinale, and the Venice Film Festival. The Iranian master joins the ranks of Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Robert Altman. However. If you exclude ties and those cineastes who won two prizes for the same film, then Panahi and Antonioni are in an exclusive club of two. Inspired by Eric Blume's musings on the Triple Crown of Acting – Oscar, Tony, and Emmy – I started to ask myself what other filmmakers are close to achieving the same Palm, Golden Lion, and Bear combo. Who's next? The answers might surprise you…...

As we continue to celebrate the 50th anniversary of "Jaws," cinema enthusiasts everywhere can wax poetic about the film's impact as the godfather of the modern blockbuster. The 1975 big screen adaptation of Peter Benchley's novel of the same name not only captivated audiences and frightened them from visiting the beach that summer, but it also served as the ultimate calling card for the filmmaker who would be king: Steven Spielberg. After making his feature-length debut with his television film "Duel" and his theatrical debut with "The Sugarland Express," Spielberg ventured into uncharted waters with "Jaws," which was a notoriously difficult production for him.

"Jaws" was a cultural juggernaut, becoming the highest-grossing film ever at the time of its release (a record that Spielberg himself would break two more times with "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Jurassic Park"). Adjusted for ticket price inflation, it is the 7th highest-grossing film in history,...

Jawsrepresented a huge leap forward in Steven Spielberg's career, but the director was disappointed at the time that he didn't receive an Oscar nomination for his work. Jaws remains one of Spielberg's best movies, even though he was just 27 years old at the time. It also made history at the Oscars, becoming one of just a handful of horror movies which have been nominated for Best Picture. The genre has historically been overlooked by the Academy, but the quality of Jaws was hard to ignore. However, the Academy's admiration for Jaws didn't extend to a Best Director nod for Steven Spielberg.

In the National Geographic special Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Story, Spielberg revealed his true feelings when he learned that the Academy had passed him over for a Best Director nomination.

"When a film is on the cusp of being considered for awards, it’s not so much...

The landscape along the road from Mellieha to the west coast of Malta is pretty sparse until you reach the sea by the old World War II pill box and look down into the bay below. There, you will be greeted with a remarkable and incongruous sight: a picturesquely ramshackle village that looks like it has sprung fully-formed from the pages of a comic book. That was, of course, the intention, as it was specially built for "Popeye," Robert Altman's notorious comedy musical based on the classic comic strips by E.C. Segar.

The Popeye Village doesn't take long to walk around, but it is a marvel of production design. Indeed, it was perhaps unnecessarily over-designed for the needs of the film. Logs were brought in from the Netherlands and wooden roof shingles were shipped all the way from Canada for the seven-month construction, which employed 165 tradespeople and required eight...

It’s a cornerstone of movie mythology that “Jaws” and “Star Wars” are forever linked, like high-concept popcorn twins. They’re the movies that, taken together, ushered in the blockbuster revolution. As the myth goes, “Jaws” and “Star Wars” launched the permanent takeover of movies by — for lack of a better word — escapism. But today, on the 50th anniversary of the day that “Jaws” was released, I’d like to take the opportunity to de-link those two movies.

In 1977, “Star Wars” was a sci-fi fantasy so potent and square and video-game zappy, one that would prove to be so addictive to so many generations, that it effectively marked the birth of our all-fantasy-all-the-time popular culture. Its influence was beyond profound. It changed the consciousness of people. It made them want to live in other worlds. Obviously, it wasn’t the first movie or work of art to do that. To me,...

Gailard Sartain, the character actor best known for his role in “The Buddy Holly Story” and his work on variety shows like “Hee Haw,” died Tuesday, June 17, at the age of 78.

Sartain’s death was announced on Facebook by The Church Studio, a Tulsa-based recording studio where the actor and comedian’s wife, Mary Jo, is a frequent volunteer. He is survived by Mary Jo.

A Tulsa native, Sartain was born on Sept. 18, 1946. He began his entertainment career in Tulsa, working first as a cameraman at the local television station where he eventually garnered his first bit of fame for creating and starring in “The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting,” a late-night comedy show he hosted as the fictional wizard Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi. Working with fellow Tulsa natives, including Gary Busey, Sartain wrote and performed special skits in between the show’s broadcasts of old B-movies.

It was his work as Dr.

Gailard Sartain, the very funny character actor who spent some 20 years on Hee Haw, appeared in three Ernest films with Jim Varney and displayed a flair for the dramatic in The Buddy Holly Story and Mississippi Burning, has died. He was 81.

Sartain died Thursday of natural causes at his home in his native Tulsa, Oklahoma, his wife of 36 years, Mary Jo Sartain, told The Hollywood Reporter. “Actually, he died of silliness,” she said.

Sartain showed up in nine features directed by Alan Rudolph: Roadie (1980), Endangered Species (1982), Choose Me (1984), Songwriter (1984), Trouble in Mind (1985), Made in Heaven (1987), The Moderns (1988), Love at Large (1990) and Equinox (1992).

He appeared for Carl Reiner in The Jerk (1979) and All of Me (1984), for Francis Ford Coppola in The Outsiders (1983), for Stephen Frears in The Grifters (1990), for Jon Avnet in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and for Michael Mann in Ali (2001).

In 1972, Sartain joined the cast of the syndicated country variety show Hee Haw,...

Steven Spielberg, one could say, was less than pleased when he found out he was not nominated for the Best Director Oscar for his game-changing shark thriller Jaws. On Oscar nominations morning in 1976, the then 29-year-old was so confident that the blockbuster was "about to be nominated in 11 categories" that he turned the camera on himself to document his live reaction.

"You're about to see a sweep of the nominations," Spielberg boasted in the footage (watch above), which has since become legend thanks to the Media Burn Archive collection.

Along with friends Joe Spinell and Frank Pesce—both of whom were filming Rocky, which would go on to win Best Picture at the subsequent Oscars—Spielberg watched as Best Director was announced on TV. The nominees were Federico Fellini for Amarcord, Stanley Kubrick for Barry Lyndon, Sidney Lumet for Dog Day Afternoon, Robert Altman for Nashville, and Miloš Forman for...

Gailard Sartain, the character actor and comedian whose breakthrough role on Hee Haw launched a career of playing Southern good-ol’-boy that included his memorable performance as The Big Bopper in 1978’s The Buddy Holly Story, died Tuesday, June 17, following a long illness. He was 78.

His death was announced on Facebook by The Church Studio, a recording studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma where Sartain’s wife Mary Jo volunteers.

Born in Tulsa on September 18, 1946, Sartain began his show business career there, working as a cameraman at a local TV station before creating a late-night movie host in 1970 he called Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi. Dressed in wizard garb, Sartain introduced B-movies and performed comedy skits under the show name The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting.

Another Tulsa native who appeared on the late-night movie show was Gary Busey. Sartain and Busey would reunite near the end of the decade when Busey played...

When Jaws hit the beaches – that is, theaters – in the summer of 1975, director Steven Spielberg was marked as Hollywood’s next hot wunderkind. After becoming the highest-grossing movie ever at the time, it was on its way to the Academy Awards. But it didn’t exactly pan out the way Spielberg expected, as he missed out on a coveted Best Director nomination. Fifty years on, he remembers the exact moment he felt he was snubbed.

In the upcoming National Geographic special Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, Spielberg – who was 28 when Jaws was released – said that he believed so much of the hype that it was a shocking moment when he failed to land a Best Director nod. “When a film is on the cusp of being considered for awards, it’s not so much what you want for yourself — it’s what everyone else says is going to happen for you.

Jaws, the Steven Spielberg adventure thriller that revolutionized the film industry in the 1970s, is turning 50 years old. That's five decades of numerous titles and recognitions for the Raiders of the Lost Ark director whose name is synonymous with successful forms of entertainment. But despite his early achievement with 1975's Jaws, Spielberg had to earn his medals, and this included recognition from the Academy itself. Jaws was a huge commercial hit in the '70s, and many believed that it was a sure bet that the young director was going to be nominated for Best Director the following year. Unfortunately, this didn't happen, and 50 years later, Spielberg says that he was "surprised" at the snub.

Only a few years after Jaws, Spielberg would earn his first nomination as Best Director for his work in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And almost 20 years had to pass for him to win an Oscar for Best Director.

Gold Derby's top news stories for June 17, 2025.

The Pitt scrubs back in

Season 2 of the Max drama has started filming. The Noah Wyle-led show shoots primarily on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif., with exterior shots being filmed on location in Pittsburgh. The second season is expected to premiere in January 2026.

American Cinema Editors announce dates for Ace Eddies

The biggest awards in film and television editing have set dates for their annual awards. The eligibility window for TV runs from Nov. 2, 2024 to Dec. 31, 2025. For features, the period goes from Jan. 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2025. Submissions open on October 1, and the awards will take place on Feb. 27, 2026.

I Know What You Did Last Summer has one question for you

The legacy sequel to everyone's favorite nautically themed slasher franchise is headed to theaters on July 18, and the new trailer reveals exactly how they're getting Jennifer Love Hewitt's character, Julie James,...

Every July 4th weekend, I, like so many others, uphold a sacred tradition: watching "Jaws." It's seasonal, it's timeless, and frankly, watching a fictional town be terrorized by the inaction of a local government that cares more about profits than people is one of the few appropriate ways to "celebrate" American independence. At the center of "Jaws," and the source of multiple generations developing galeophobia, is a large, aggressive, great white shark. The success of the film invented the summer blockbuster, and 50 years later, the combination of Bruce's dorsal fin breaking the surface of the water and the resonant rumble of a John Williams-conducted tuba is enough to keep some people out of the water for good.

Like its notorious antagonist gliding into the waters off Amity Island, "Jaws" was a cinematic feeding frenzy that continued well beyond Labor Day. This wasn't just a movie; it was a moment,...

Hollywood Insider - 'The Studio'

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s 'The Studio' In-Depth Review Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s 'The Studio' is a love letter to Hollywood old school classical Hollywood, filled with comedic satire, executive in-jokes, and an energy reminiscent of Robert Altman’s 'The Player'. The series explores the power dynamics of 90s Hollywood through the lens of a contemporary setting, offering a humorous yet biting critique of the film industry’s inner workings. It's a tale as old as time, showing the ins and outs of Hollywood's execs. Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media has the responsibility to better our world – The Hollywood...

Elaine May is set to direct a feature for the first time since Ishtar, with Dakota Johnson offering a promising update on Crackpot.

Legendary writer, director and performer Elaine May is enjoying quite a time in her 90s. The media gaze when it comes to ninetysomething people in the world of world, theatre and TV might be trained on Clint Eastwood, but perhaps Elaine May should have been given more of the spotlight.

In 2019, for instance, in her late 80s, she took home a Tony award for Best Actress in a Play for her work in Broadway hit The Waverly Gallery. And these past few years, she’s been trying to realise a film project, when where she keeps coming up against hurdles.

The film in question is Crackpot, that’s had Dakota Johnson leading the cast for some time now. Sebastian Stan was also attached as of last year,...

Everybody loves to bash Hollywood, including Hollywood itself. The latest and most genially barbed takedown comes from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, longtime production partners whose Apple TV+ comedy series “The Studio” starts out by ruining Martin Scorsese’s career in its first episode. It goes on to poke knowing fun at pompous directors, feckless executives, egotistical actors, woke culture, AI, the Golden Globes, CinemaCon and oh, all sorts of other stuff, even pediatric oncologists.

The 10-episode series plays at a breakneck pace and is largely composed of lengthy, uninterrupted shots that required intricate timing between the actors and film crew. The list of notables who play themselves (or unflattering versions of themselves) includes Scorsese, Ron Howard, Sarah Polley, Olivia Wilde, Charlize Theron, Zac Efron, Ice Cube, Adam Scott, Quinta Brunson, Steve Buscemi and many more.

Seth Rogen (Arsenii Vaselenko)

Rogen, who co-directed every episode with Goldberg, plays Matt Remick,...

Chicago – “Breakfast of Champions” was a film that was critically reviled when it was released, and became one of those box office “mega bombs.” But the adapter/director of the film, Alan Rudolph, is getting the last laugh. “Breakfast of Champions” is being re-examined in a new 4K Uhd restoration through Shout! Studios and Films We Like as a film decidedly ahead of its time.

Breakfast of Champions

Photo credit: Films We Like/Shout! Studios

Rating: 5.0/5.0

“Breakfast of Champions’ (1999) tells the story of car dealership titan Dwayne Hoover (Bruce Willis), the most respected man in Midland City. His smiling face appears on every local channel and billboard , as a shining symbol of the American Dream. But Dwayne Hoover is not smiling inside. Nor can he be trusted. Dwayne’s shady prosperity, picture-frame family, and small mind are cracking.

His television commercial-addicted wife (Barbara Hershey) may or may not be physically...

Chicago – Alan Rudolph is a filmmaker icon from the last twenty years of the 20th Century and beyond. He had an unprecedented string of critical darlings from the 1970s through the ‘90s, a run that is acknowledged in the Criterion Channel’s June 2025 Spotlight Alan Rudolph’s Dramas of Desire.

The Criterion Channel description for Alan Rudolph’S Dramas Of Desires: “Alan Rudolph’s cinema is a constellation of dreamers, drifters, and disenchanted romantics. A protégé of Robert Altman and a singular voice in independent film, Rudolph has long been a maverick, eschewing convention in favor of elliptical storytelling, painterly compositions, and jazz-inflected rhythms. His films – including the tour-de-force Geraldine Chaplin thriller “Remember My Name” and the surreally stylish neo-noir “Trouble In Mind” – that invites us into richly textured worlds where emotional logic supersedes plot, and the ephemeral becomes eternal.”

Alan Rudolph’s Dramas of Desire

Photo credit: CriterionChannel.com...

Ridley Scott’s Alien is widely considered one of the most influential science fiction and horror films of all time. Alien received mixed reviews at the time of release but managed to find success at the box office. Scott was meticulous with the film and did everything in his capacity to bring his vision to the screen.

However, after the film, Scott largely stayed away from the franchise for the sequels. He wasn’t too appreciative of the sequel films, although he may have had a few kind words to say about James Cameron’s Aliens. Scott, who recently served as a producer on Alien: Romulus, confirmed that he will not be directing any more Alien films.

Ridley Scott wasn’t exactly a fan of the sequels to his first Alien movie Ridley Scott with Sigourney Weaver in a set still from Alien | Credits: 20th Century Studios

During his most recent interview with ScreenRant,...

Original Aliendirector Ridley Scott says he thought the franchise was done after its fourth film.

Per Entertainment Weekly, Scott recently discussed his prior concern for the Alien franchise's future, especially after the lackluster release of the fourth film, 1997's Alien: Resurrection. "I think I felt it was deadened after 4," Scott said. "I think mine was pretty d---m good, and I think [James Cameron's] was good, and I have to say the rest were not very good. And I thought, 'F--k, that's the end of a franchise which should be as important as bloody Star Trek or Star Wars.'"

Scott also recalled being offered Alien in the first place, as well as his reaction to the project. "Because designer is in my blood and DNA, I just knew what to do with it," Scott said. "I just knew what to do with it. And I was the fifth f---ing choice.

Ridley Scott said in an interview with ScreenRant that “I’ve done enough” when it comes to the “Alien” franchise, which he started 46 years ago. Scott produced last year’s well-reviewed “Alien: Romulus” movie, and he’s an executive producer on Noah Hawley’s upcoming FX series “Alien: Earth.” But it appears Scott’s days of directing “Alien” projects is over. As he summed up: “Where it’s going now, I think I’ve done enough, and I just hope it goes further.”

Scott said the “Alien” franchise is “spreading like wildfire,” which he’s more or less amazed at considering there was a time when he thought the series was as good as dead. Scott directed 1979’s “Alien” before handing the franchise to James Cameron for 1986’s “Aliens.” The series then took stumbles with divisive entries from the likes of David Fincher (“Alien 3”) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Alien Resurrection...

How many times have you walked out of a movie and exclaimed, "That was great, but what it really needs is to be a television show!" Your answer, hopefully, is never. This is no shade on the home-viewing medium, but merely an acknowledgment that what you loved about said movie is unlikely to be replicable as a TV series. There are exceptions. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau killed it as Felix and Oscar in Gene Saks' film of "The Odd Couple," but Tony Randall and Jack Klugman quickly made those roles their own on the hit ABC sitcom. Peter Berg crafted a big-screen American classic out of Buzz Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights," but the five-season series proved to be a deeper, more resonant experience. And who knew the boys club counterculture comedy of Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" could lay the groundwork for a long-running sitcom that...

Sir Ridley Scott is finished with the 'Alien' franchise.After directing the eponymous 1979 sci-fi/horror flick, the 87-year-old filmmaker walked away from the 'Alien' series until returning for the 2012 prequel 'Prometheus' and its follow-up 'Alien: Covenant' in 2017, though Scott now thinks he's "done enough" with the 'Alien' franchise.Speaking with Screen Rant, he said: " A number of years after ['Alien'], I said, 'I'm going to resurrect this',[and wrote] 'Prometheus' from scratch–a blank sheet of paper. Damon Lindelof and I sat then hammered out 'Prometheus'."It was very present and very welcome. The audience really wanted more. I said, 'It needs to fly.' No one was coming for it, [and] I went once again [and made] 'Alien Covenant', and it worked too. "Where it's going now, I think I've done enough, and I just hope it goes further."After Scott's...

Ridley Scott, the director behind classics like Gladiator, Blade Runner and the 1979 groundbreaking film, Alien, says that he's "done enough" for the horror sci-fi franchise. 2024's Alien: Romulus proves that the franchise does have life without Scott at the helm, and he agrees with this, saying, "Where it's going now, I think I've done enough, and I just hope it goes further."

Scott was only involved in the first film, and then took a (very long) break. Eventually, he returned in 2012 to make the prequel Prometheus, and in 2017 he made his last Alien film, Alien: Covenant. The director was only involved as a producer in Romulus, as he gave Fede Álvarez a much-deserved opportunity to try his best at making an Alien sequel. The result was a critically acclaimed blockbuster that many believed came close in spirit to what Scott had done with Alien.

In a conversation with Screen Rant...

Ridley Scott reflects on his journey with the Alien franchise and his directorial future. The filmmaker directed the groundbreaking first Alien movie, which hit theaters in 1979. While he didn't return to helm the sequels, Aliens or Alien 3, Scott later directed 2012's Prometheus, the fifth installment in the franchise, and 2017's Alien: Covenant. He also served as a consultant and producer on 2024's Alien: Romulus.

In an interview with ScreenRant for the Kingdom of Heaven's 20th anniversary, Scott talked about his future with the Alien franchise, expressing his desire to part ways with it. While he voiced praise for James Cameron's sequel, he felt like the series was "deadened after 4." He further recalled how he was hired to direct the 1979 movie in the first place and why he returned decades later to resurrect the franchise. However, regarding his future, the director believes that he has "done enough." Read...

Alan Alda, who starred on CBS’ long-running comedy series M*A*S*H alongside Loretta Swit, spoke out Friday after the news of Swit’s death at age 87.

Swit, who played Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H from 1972-1983, died at her home in New York City at age 87.

Alda played Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce also for the full run of the 14-time Emmy-winning show, which was based on Robert Altman’s 1970 feature film that starred Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye and Sally Kellerman as Hot Lips, the head nurse at the U.S. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital near the front lines of the Korean War.

“Loretta was a supremely talented actor,” he posted on X. “She deserved all her 10 Emmy nominations and her 2 wins. But more than acting her part, she created it. She worked hard In showing the writing staff how they could turn...

Loretta Swit, the Emmy-winning actress best known for her iconic role as Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the long-running television series M*A*S*H, is dead. She was 87.

Born on November 4, 1937, in Passaic, New Jersey, Swit’s career spanned television, film, and the stage, but her portrayal of the fiercely independent and compassionate army nurse during the Korean War made her a household name. She was part of M*A*S*H since the first episode debuted in 1972 and remained a central figure throughout the show’s 11-season run, winning two Emmy Awards and millions of fans. Along with Alan Alda, Swit was the only original actor to appear in both the pilot episode and the finale. Sally Kellerman, the actress who played Houlihan in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H movie, died in 2022.

“[Houlihan] was [unique] at the time and in her time, which was the ’50s, when [the Korean War] was happening,” Swit said in a 2004 interview.

Loretta Swit, who played Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the hit comedy series M*A*S*H, died today at her home in New York City. She was 87.

Her death was announced by her representative Harlan Boll, who said a New York City police report indicates Swit died just after noon today of suspected natural causes.

Swit was a mainstay on the classic and beloved comedy series for its entire 11-year run, nominated for Emmy Awards every year from 1974-83, winning in 1980 and 1982.

Born Loretta Jane Szwed on November 4, 1937, in Passaic, New Jersey, studied drama in New York City with Gene Frankel, the noted theater director and acting teacher. Swit appeared in Off Broadway productions throughout the 1960s, and in 1967 toured with the national company of the comedy Any Wednesday.

Swit made her TV debut in 1969 on Hawaii Five-o, with subsequent credits including Mannix, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, Bonanza and The Bold Ones,...

Loretta Swit, M*A*S*H's Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan, has died at the age of 87. In addition to her acting career, which earned her two Emmy Awards, Swit was also a noted animal activist. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Swit died at home of natural causes on Friday morning.

Swit was born Loretta Jane Szwed in Passaic, New Jersey, on November 4, 1937. She studied drama in New York and made her stage debut in the 1960s, appearing in a number of Broadway and off-Broadway productions. She relocated to Hollywood in 1969, and made her on-screen debut in a 1969 episode of Hawaii Five-o as the ill-fated bride of a soldier. She made guest appearances on a number of contemporary series, including Mission: Impossible, Mannix, and Gunsmoke, before landing the role that would make her a TV legend.

Who Is Margaret Houlihan?

M*A*S*H was a TV adaptation of the popular...

part 2 of a piece on Short Cuts (1993) to relaunch our Robert Altman tribute. (or start with part 1 if you missed it)

Julianne Moore & Anne Archer in "Short Cuts"

by Eric Blume

Inspired by Juan Carlos’ very fun and smart examination of the actresses in Nashville, I thought it might be fun to do the same for the many actresses in Short Cuts. Here’s a report of my favorites from least to most…with the caveat that even the “least” are beautifully played by these super talented ladies.

10 Lili Taylor as Honey Bush

Taylor has possibly the least to do of any of the actresses, but it was joyful to see her again and be reminded of that fresh, weird, thrilling energy she brought to cinema in the 1990s. Hollywood never figured out what to do with her, even though she’s worked continuously. Here she’s yearning and touching,...

Illustration by Franz Lang.No official competition title unveiled in Cannes this year spoke to our troubled times with the same full-throated urgency as Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or–winning It Was Just an Accident (all titles 2025 unless otherwise noted). It was a historic award for a groundbreaking film. Panahi, who had already received the Golden Lion in Venice for The Circle (2000) and the Golden Bear in Berlin for Taxi (2015), joins Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Robert Altman as one of the four directors to have won top honors at all three festivals. And he completed the trifecta with a film that serves as an explicit, fearless response to the censorship and humiliations he has long suffered at the hands of the regime in his native Iran. In July 2022, the filmmaker was arrested by Iranian authorities for signing a petition against police violence, and subsequently spent several months in jail.

I yam what I yam – and what I yam is coked out! That may or may not be something that Robin Williams said on the set of Robert Altman’s disastrous 1980 movie Popeye, but according to Barry Diller – the iconic suit who served as CEO of Paramount Pictures at the time – the locales had far more powder than you’d expect on an island nation.

Diller recently sat down with Anderson Cooper for a lengthy interview (via EW), and Cooper couldn’t help but work in a salacious question about the most coked-up set he had visited during his run. That answer came in Popeye, which was released in the middle of his tenure. “By the way, you can watch it. If you watch Popeye, you’re watching a movie that — you think of it in the thing that they used to do about record speeds, 33 [Rpm], whatever. This is a...

a two part piece on Short Cuts (1993) to relaunch our Robert Altman tribute

by Eric Blume

It’s a joy to rewatch Robert Altman’s 1993 masterpiece Short Cuts over thirty years later. I hadn’t seen the film since seeing it in theaters, back in the sweet days where Fine Line Features was the “arthouse” division of New Line Features, a mini-studio from which so many fine films sprung.

Upon revisit, it’s easy to see how this film is a perfect illustration of Lightning in a Bottle. Among its incredible cast of actors are future Oscar winners, past and future nominees, plus some other terrific actors who are always rapturous to watch. And then pepper in Tom Waits and Huey Lewis! The talent in this movie is off-the-charts and each actor feels individually inspired. I’m not sure what Altman did to get them so invested in their small,...

No, the recently released gory slasher Popeye's Revenge isn't the incarnation of the sailor with the most chaotic production process. It has now been revealed via Entertainment Weekly that spinach was far from the strongest substance on the set of Robert Altman's notorious adaptation of Popeyeback in 1980. A wild retelling of Elzie Crisler Segar's fictional cartoon sailor that has gained somewhat of a cult following since its release, even to the untrained eye, the entire cast of Popeye seems to be enjoying their time on set, perhaps a little too much.

Starring the likes of Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, Ray Walston, and others, it is now clear from comments made by former CEO of Paramount Pictures, Barry Diller, that this star-studded ensemble were more than just visually eye-popping on Popeye. After being asked what the "most coked-up" production he'd ever seen was, Diller instantly replied, "Coked-up film set?...

Whenever a memoir is set to be released, it can usually lead to some very interesting stories from the past. Former Paramount Pictures CEO Barry Diller is currently on a book tour promoting his recently released memoir, Who Knew, and with it came a very interesting Q&a reveal about the 1980 live-action adaptation of Popeye, starring Robin Williams, and how, based on his assertion, the antics on set could maybe rival a night at Studio 54.

During a Q&a moderated by Anderson Cooper (via Variety), Diller was asked what was "the most coked-up film set" he ever visited during his tenure as Paramount Pictures CEO. It didn't take Diller long to reveal that it was Popeye, released in 1980. The former CEO said:

"Coked-up film set? Oh, 'Popeye.' By the way, you can watch it. If you watch Popeye, you're watching a movie that, you think of it in...

The combination of a 29-year-old Robin Williams, legendary filmmaker Robert Altman and a cartoon icon probably should have led to one of the greatest movies of all-time. Instead, we got 1980’s Popeye, a big budget family musical that turned out to be about as fun as a trip to the mortuary.

But at least the people making Popeye had a good time.

Per Page Six, billionaire and former Paramount Pictures CEO Barry Diller was recently interviewed by Anderson Cooper for an event at the 92nd Street Y, and he spent at least some of the talk describing just how coked out the set of Popeye was. “You couldn’t escape it,” Diller said of the rampant nose candy.

The cast and crew even came up with inventive schemes to import drugs to the filming location in Malta after producer Robert Evans was busted for possession at the airport. “Film cans...

Barry Diller’s book tour for his recently published memoir “Who Knew” hit New York City’s 92Y, where moderator Anderson Cooper asked Diller during a Q&a to reveal “the most coked-up film set” he ever visited during his tenure as the CEO of Paramount Pictures. The former studio executive had the answer almost immediately: Robert Altman’s “Popeye” (1980).

“Coked-up film set? Oh, ‘Popeye,’” Diller answered (via Entertainment Weekly). “By the way, you can watch it. If you watch ‘Popeye,’ you’re watching a movie that — you think of it in the thing that they used to do about record speeds, 33 [Rpm], whatever. This is a movie that runs at 78 Rpm and 33 speed.”

Diller served as the head of Paramount Pictures from 1974 until 1984. His illustrious tenure at the studio included the releases of hit movies such as “Saturday Night Fever,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Grease” and “Beverly Hills Cop,...

The 2025 Cannes Film Festival winners were unveiled on Saturday, with all of the major prizes going to international films, putting many potential 2026 Oscar contenders on the map and setting the stage for what will be an exciting awards derby.

Recently, as a result of the Academy’s expansion of voting members, there have been more international features in the top categories at the Oscars. The past two years have seen double the tally in Best Picture. With Cannes being the biggest kingmaker for films on the road to the Oscars, as seen with Best Picture winners Parasite and Anora and Best Picture nominee Anatomy of a Fall, below are the biggest international competitors to keep an eye on.

Palme d'Or: It Was Just An Accident, Jafar Panahi

Categories to watch: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film

Jafar Panahi becomes the fourth director to win the Palme d'Or,...

Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi has won the Palme d’Or for best film for It Was Just an Accident at the 78th Cannes international film festival.

Panahi, who just a few years ago was imprisoned in Tehran and under a 20-year travel and work ban, returned triumphantly to Cannes, accepting his award from jury president (and vocal Panahi fan) Juliette Binoche.

Panahi’s film, his first since being released from prison in 2023, is a direct assault on Iran’s authoritarian regime. The thriller follows a former political prisoner who kidnaps a man he believes to be his torturer and then debates with other dissidents whether to kill or forgive him.

The win marks the sixth time in a row a film acquired by Neon for North America has won the Palme d’Or. Tom Quinn’s indie outfit kept its Cannes streak going by picking up It Was Just an Accident earlier this week.

Yes, Cannes is still rolling. And no, the Palme d’Or winner has not been crowned (that’ll come later Saturday). Cannes has been going on for so long that “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” a film that screened early in the festival, is now playing on thousands of screens worldwide. But let’s get into the happenings before this year’s festival finally closes out.

Un Certain Regard Regarded

Everyone is always in a tizzy over what will get Cannes’ big award, the Palme d’Or, but just as interesting (perhaps more so) is the competition for the Un Certain Regard, which is run in parallel to the main competition. The goal of Un Certain Regard, which was introduced in 1998, is to give a spotlight to unusual films that take narrative or stylistic risks. And this year was no different.

This year’s top prize winner was “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,...

When it comes to ranking the best Western movie actors, Paul Newman rarely troubles the likes of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Gary Cooper at the top of all-time lists. Sure,  one of his most beloved movies was starring alongside Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," but arguably his most iconic roles were brooding outsiders like Eddie Felson in "The Hustler" and Luke Jackson in "Cool Hand Luke." Even so, Newman starred in his fair share of Westerns over the course of his career, putting in big performances for Arthur Penn in "The Left-Handed Gun," John Huston in "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean," and Robert Altman in "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson." He also made two of the greatest Westerns ever with one particularly underrated director, Martin Ritt.

Ritt is arguably one of the most unsung Hollywood filmmakers, working...

Jauntier than any of Kelly Reichardt’s previous work, “The Mastermind” packs an ironic punch. That the title need not be taken literally becomes clear right from the start, of course; that the film’s shaggy-dog tone belies something far-sadder and more allegorical takes a bit longer to set-in. Closing out the Cannes competition with a throwback crime caper set to a jazz-beat, “The Mastermind” also gives the minimalist filmmaker a new world to etch out in fine detail, sending us back to 1970 with a very millennial guide.

Jb Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is what we would call a failson. Married, with his own pair of precocious boys, this art-school-dropout turned-of-work-carpenter (in both instances more by than choice than misfortune) gets by on his family name and money. Not that either go particularly far – his dad (Bill Camp) is just a small-town judge in Framingham, Ma, while his wife (Alana Haim...

The Italian-u.S. co-production Heads or Tails? starts with a re-enactment of an actual historical event: Buffalo Bill (played here by John C. Reilly) and his traveling rodeo show’s early-20th-century visit to Italy. But this freewheeling neo-anti-quasi-western, with its fictional yarn about young lovers (Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Alessandro Borghi) on the run from bounty hunters who encounter revolutionaries and train robbers, eventually goes well beyond printing the legend and wanders off into the realms of magical realism.

The project — directed by Matteo Zoppis and Alessio Rigo de Righi (whose previous effort was The Tale of King Crab) — is nothing if not ambitious, even if its big swings don’t always connect. Nevertheless, there’s a freshness in seeing this kind of horse opera set in Europe itself, as opposed to having southerly locations on the continent pretending to be American landscapes, like they did back in the spaghetti...

Over 40 years after its release, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" remains one of the funniest stoner comedies ever made. Helmed by first-time director Amy Heckering (over a decade before she would direct "Clueless") from a screenplay by then-newcomer Cameron Crowe (before his work on "Almost Famous" and "Jerry Maguire"), the 1982 film followed a group of slacker kids as they navigate the socially volatile waters of sophomore year at Ridgemont High School.

"Fast Times" famously boasts an ensemble cast that includes several actors who would go on to become massive stars, some in tiny roles you may not remember. We took a look back at the "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" cast to see where their careers took them after they graduated from sneaky hooks up and joints to Academy Award-winning roles in major feature films.

Here's what happened to the "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" cast.

Read more: The Greatest Character Actors Of All Time,...

In the modern Streaming Age, you’re never lacking options when it comes to what to watch. The sheer number of films that are available at your fingertips right now, though, can make it hard to actually choose one movie to watch sometimes. That is especially the case when none of the recommended films on your favorite streaming platform are catching your eye or appealing to you.

That is what this list is for. Here are the seven best hidden gem movies that you can stream on Max right now.

“Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” (Warner Bros. Pictures) “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” (2010)

A film so underrated and forgotten to time that most people do not even realize it was directed by “Man of Steel” filmmaker Zack Snyder, 2010’s “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” works far better than it should. Based...

When I spoke to Alan Rudolph a couple months ago, he confirmed that Criterion had sought to release his Remember My Name but were held up by music rights––a situation so complicated that a lawyer hired by the director himself simply gave up. I like to think something’s changed in less than 60 days: the Criterion Channel will stream Remember My Name as part of a quartet featuring Afterglow, Trouble In Mind, and Breakfast of Champions, the latter recently given a 4K restoration. It’s part of a retrospective-heavy month that also includes a 12-title Johnnie To series, numerous films by René Clair, highlights of Amy Holden Jones and Ougie Pak, and Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip saga in both television and theatrical editions. Meanwhile, Gene Hackman is celebrated with six titles.

One of those, Night Moves, gets a Criterion Edition; so do Les Blank’s A Poem Is...

Three-time Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Robert Benton, who helmed the 1979 best picture Oscar winner “Kramer vs. Kramer” as well as such films as “The Late Show,” “Places in the Heart” and “Nobody’s Fool” and collaborated on the screenplay for “Bonnie and Clyde,” died Sunday in Manhattan. He was 92.

His death was confirmed to the New York Times by his assistant and manager Marisa Forzano.

Benton, who started out as an art director at Esquire magazine, was partnered early on with fellow Esquire alumnus David Newman. They penned the innovative, award-winning 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde,” which launched both their careers. They gradually diverged as Benton expanded into directing starting with “Bad Company,” starring Jeff Bridges.

After “Kramer,” he continued to turn out dramatic films, which he often wrote as well as directed. He brought Oscar fortune to actors including Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Sally Field, John Malkovich, Jane Alexander and Paul Newman,...

The simple version of Sylvester Stallone's rise to fame has it that the young actor wrote "Rocky" and cast himself in the lead role, thus becoming a star overnight. Indeed, a 1978 Playboy interview began by recalling how, with that 1976 movie, Stallone had "burst upon the American movie scene like a Roman candle." As is so often the case with these things, however, Stallone hadn't simply transformed his life overnight -- he'd been struggling to break through for some time.

That very same interview with Playboy also detailed how Sly had "spent many years waiting in the wings for his career to take off," which wasn't just a metaphor. Stallone's acting career prior to "Rocky" consisted of him playing what he termed in a 1977 BBC interview to be "atmosphere." That is, after moving to New York in 1969, he spent years as an extra, playing "the guy that was being the...