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Broadway’s Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club will close on Sunday, October 19, producers announced today, ending a 14-month run that was spotty at the box office and almost certainly will leave investors short from recouping the revival’s estimated $23 million-plus costs.

Also today, producers announced that Billy Porter and Marisha Wallace will be the show’s final Emcee and Sally Bowles, with the two actors taking over the roles on Tuesday, July 22.

Producers have not revealed or confirmed the show’s capitalization amount or whether the show has recouped or is expected to recoup.

“I can think of no better way to celebrate this production’s incredible run on Broadway than by welcoming Billy and Marisha into the company for our final 13 weeks,” said director Rebecca Frecknall. “They brought down the house every night on the West End, and I cannot wait for Broadway audiences to experience the electricity they generate together.

Since Netflix bought and restored The Paris Theater, one of New York City’s last remaining single-screen movie theaters, the streaming service has used the historical venue to give a big-screen showcase to its original films. The streamer has also used The Paris to host increasingly robust retrospectives, and today IndieWire exclusively announces that Netflix has partnered with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to bring “The Wonders of Technicolor” series to New York this summer.

The retrospective series originally played this fall at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles to accompany the museum’s “Color in Motion: Chromatic Explorations of Cinema” exhibition.

Technicolor IV was introduced in the 1930s. The three-strip color technology produced saturated and vibrant colors, often described as “crisp” due to how the three-strip color negative and printing process kept the colors distinct from one another, avoiding the “bleeding” that became...

When “Kiss of the Spider Woman” opens in theaters this October, theater fans will get a chance to see another work by one of Broadway’s most iconic composing duos on the big screen.

John Kander and Fred Ebb’s classic adaptation of Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel about a prisoner who spends his time fantasizing about a fictional movie star and his cellmate who can’t stand the hallucinations, was a massive Broadway hit when it debuted in 1992 and won six Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book of a Musical. Bill Condon’s new film adaptation, which stars Jennifer Lopez, was one of the buzziest titles to debut at Sundance this year and could become a player in the upcoming Oscar race.

An official synopsis for ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ reads: Valentín (Diego Luna), a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina (Tonatiuh), a...

Netflix’s hit Wednesday released the opening scene of its highly anticipated second season — and officially announced Lady Gaga as joining the cast.

The streamer for the first time confirmed the singer-actress is joining the little monsters at Nevermore Academy, playing a still undisclosed guest role on the upcoming season of the hit series, which stars Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams as she attends a school for outcasts with unusual abilities.

The news was announced at Netflix’s Tudum fan event at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles Saturday, where Lady Gaga took the stage for a climactic — and Wednesday-themed — performance. Emerging from a coffin with the words “Here lies the monster queen” on the lid and backed by a cadre of Addams Family-esque dancers, Gaga performed “Zombieboy” from her recently released album Mayhem.

Following another dance performance — to the Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck,” which soundtracked Wednesday’s viral dance...

A federal court has confirmed an arbitration award requiring Broadway producer Joey Parnes, along with his companies Joey Parnes Productions LLC and Broadway Rhythm & Rhyme LLC, to pay $202,682.53 to United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, IATSE. The decision follows a dispute over unpaid compensation owed to designers who worked on the 2023 Broadway production of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. The arbitration award, issued on October 21, 2024, ordered the producers to pay the total amount based on a joint stipulation signed by both parties. The payment includes $148,700 in design fees and advances; $1,886.50 in additional weekly compensation; $12,078.00 in pension contributions; $22,097.00 in health contributions; $7,425.00 in annuity contributions; $3,176.55 in pension contributions on the additional compensation; $2,076.98 in health contributions...

According to Gold Derby's current predictions, the husband-and-wife team of Justin Peck and Patricia Delgado are the frontrunners to win Best Choreography for Buena Vista Social Club at the 2025 Tony Awards. If they win, Peck would be the fifth individual in history to claim this award two years in a row.

For the musical's off-Broadway run last season, Delgado and Peck both managed to win Best Choreography from the Lucille Lortel Awards, in addition to receiving a nom from the Outer Critics Circle Awards. At the Tonys, they're up against Jerry Mitchell for Boop! (in second place), Joshua Bergasse for Smash (in third place), Christopher Gattelli for Death Becomes Her (in fourth place), and Camille A. Brown for Gypsy (in fifth place).

Critics agree that Delgado and Peck are worthy of the prize for their work on Buena Vista Social Club. Frank Rizzo (Variety) felt they "stylishly choreographed" the "exuberant club dancers" in the show.

Ruth Buzzi, who was so hilarious as the lonely spinster Gladys Ormphby, the lady who swung her handbag as a lethal weapon, on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, has died. She was 88.

Buzzi died Thursday of complications from Alzheimer’s at her home near Fort Worth, Texas, her longtime rep, Mike Eisenstadt, told The Hollywood Reporter. In July 2022, her husband, actor Kent Perkins, revealed that she was “bedridden and incapacitated” after suffering a series of strokes.

Buzzi appeared in the original Broadway production of the musical comedy Sweet Charity, played Marlo Thomas’ pal Margie “Pete” Peterson on ABC’s That Girl, starred opposite Jim Nabors on a Saturday morning kids show, The Lost Saucer, and spent many years on Sesame Street.

Early on in her career, Buzzi had a comedy act with Dom DeLuise in which he played the incompetent magician Dominic the Great and she his assistant, Shakuntala.

Buzzi was...

The Library of Congress will host “StageStruck! VI: Women and the American Musical,” a free three-day conference May 14-16. This conference will focus on the centrality of women to the American musical on stage and screen and showcase the role of the Library’s musical theater collections in advancing musical theater studies. The public can register to attend in person or virtually here. “StageStruck! VI: Women and the American Musical” features industry panel discussions, 25 presentations on the works and many roles women play in the history of the American musical and a display of items from the Library’s renowned musical theater collections – including from the papers of Pearl Bailey, Florence Klotz, Ethel Merman, Mary Rodgers, Jeanine Tesori and Bob Fosse/Gwen...

For Terry Knickerbocker, the call came in the dead of night.

It was Sam Rockwell, his longtime friend and client. Knickerbocker, a renowned acting coach based in New York, has worked with Rockwell on every gig since the early 1990s, helping Rockwell find the shades and contours of everyone from Chuck Barris to Bob Fosse.

So close are the two, Rockwell served as best man at Knickerbocker’s wedding and thanked Knickerbocker by name when he accepted his 2018 Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Rockwell, 56, was calling from South Africa, where for months he had been working on a grueling shoot for Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, a sci-fi feature also starring Juno Temple from director Gore Verbinski. The film requires him to recite a 10-page monologue.

“We worked on that monologue for months just to hit all the points,” Knickerbocker, 69, says.

But it was not that movie that he was calling about.

To celebrate noted actor Akshaye Khanna, Subhash K Jha revisits his brilliant performance in 2007’s Gandhi, My Father. Plus, we hear the actor’s thoughts on this role.

In Feroz Abbas Khan’s Gandhi, My Father, Akshaye Khanna was stunning as Mahatma Gandhi’s troubled son Harilal.

Father to the nation, but not to his own son. Great theme.

Huge historical resonances as the father and son happen to be Mahatma Gandhi and his little-known son Harilal. What interesting possibilities of drama open up before our eyes as we think of the father and son locked in a mutual admonition society against the backdrop of a demanding, politically anguished nation?

Gandhi, My Father attempts to convey the jumbo-sized canvas of the fight that the Father Of The Nation fought within and outside his home. The director, Feroz Abbas Khan, had his own creative battle to fight. Simply put, you can...

FKA twigs takes on the TikTok-obsessed music industry in the video for “Childlike Things,” a track from her recent album Eusexua featuring North West. The eight-minute clip, directed by twigs’s frequent collaborator Jordan Hemingway, puts a 21st-century spin on the “meet the execs” premise of Paula Abdul’s “Cold Hearted” video, which was inspired by Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz.

In the video, Kevin Smith plays a cynical label head—whom twigs cheekily refers to as simply “executive”—who visits the set of “Childlike Things” with a doting assistant (influencer Jake Shane) in tow. Characteristically mesmerizing choreography and jokes about Spotify, dwindling video budgets, and gratuitous guest rappers abound.

Watch the video below:

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Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant...

It might sound weird to draw comparisons between a heavy documentary like Johan Grimonprez's Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat and a classic Hollywood musical, and yet, there is a distinct parallel that can be traced between the Oscar-nominated film and Bob Fosse's Cabaret. In Cabaret, the music played at the Kit Kat Club serves as a soundtrack to the fall of Germany's Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party. That doesn't mean, however, that the songs performed by Liza Minnelliand Joel Grey are nothing more than background noise. Instead, they serve as a diversion, as a commentary on the events of the time, and even as downright propaganda, as brownshirts begin to fill the tables at the titular cabaret. Art, the movie says, particularly music, is not innocent. It is an actor that plays a pivotal role in the goings-on of a certain period in history.

For a musical so dedicated to celebrating and critiquing the transformative potential of cinematic fantasy, Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman brings relatively little of the kind of overwhelming star power that can truly transport audiences. This isn’t to say that the film is poorly acted or doesn’t understand how to deliver movie magic. In fact, there are few working directors who know better than Condon how to recreate the pizzazz of classic Technicolor musicals without it feeling like pastiche. But despite the material’s highly dramatic potential and handful of show-stopper moments, it too often feels like a well-meaning production that has many of the right elements but misses a cast that could bring it all to life.

Condon adapted Terrence McNally’s book for the Tony-winning 1992 stage musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, which was itself based on Hector Babenco’s Oscar-winning 1985 film of Manuel Puig’s novel.

Jennifer Lopez is not one of those actresses who disappears into a role. For one, she’s too famous to allow the audience to separate artist from character entirely. Often, those characters, whether Selena or in last year’s “Unstoppable” as a sports mom, are extensions of her persona, astral projections of her stature as a global pop superstar into a fantasy movie world that depends on her song-and-dance gifts. For another, a Jennifer Lopez joint is always more about her presence — her name on the marquee, her face under the big bright lights — than her skills in vanishing inside a character.

Writer/director Bill Condon’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” a new screen version of the John Kander and Fred Ebb Broadway musical itself inspired by Manuel Puig’s novel and Héctor Babenco’s 1985 Oscar winner, could do no better casting than Lopez as Ingrid Luna, a fictional...

There can be no question the Broadway musicals of John Kander and Fred Ebb have been charmed when it comes to movie adaptations. Bob Fosse’s 1972 film reinvention of Cabaret won eight Oscars. Director Rob Marshall and screenwriter Bill Condon’s cinematic interpretation of Chicago in 2002 is still the last musical to win the Best Picture Oscar. Both made the musical format work, even for those who hate movie musicals, by integrating the songs so they don’t collide with the narrative but seamlessly fit in with it.

It’s nice to report that the stunning new film adaptation of their 1993 Tony-winning musical Kiss of the Spider Woman joins Cabaret and Chicago as a master class in how to find the cinematic soul of...

Few actors are more underrated than the late Roy Scheider. He may not have been a celebrity superstar like Harrison Ford, but his films were crucial pieces of cinematic history. After all, The French Connection wouldn't be nearly as riveting without Schieder's magnificent chemistry with Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle. Likewise, his nuanced portrayal of Jaws' Martin Brody cemented Speilberg's creature feature as the definitive summer blockbuster. The performer worked alongside several of his generation's most brilliant filmmakers, proving himself as one of Hollywood's most reliable talents. However, even Roy Scheider's most loyal fans seem to neglect his strongest performance.

Directed by Bob Fosse, All That Jazz is about a life wasted in pursuit of greatness. Scheider stars as Joe Gideon, a self-destructive perfectionist utterly consumed by his artistry. He works every second of every day, choreographing an ambitious Broadway musical while editing his directorial debut for the big screen.

It’s Liza with a Z. Not Lisa with an S. Liza Minnelli is among those rare, true living legends who seem irreplaceable. Irreplaceable both in that their talent is immense and that it literally appears nobody from a younger generation has the capacity to do as many things as well as she did them. In Liza we have an iconic singer, dancer, and actor. And let’s not forget a pioneer of fashion! One thinks of peers like Barbra Streisand and Cher as apt comparisons and very few others.

Bruce David Klein’s new documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story is an unabashed celebration of the woman as told by all of her best friends. Celebrity talking heads like Mia Farrow, Ben Vereen, Chita Rivera, and Joel Grey speak effervescently about Minnelli. Singer and good friend Michael Feinstein emerges as the central storyteller of the film, alongside Minnelli herself.

For any filmmaker, receiving a stamp of approval from Stanley Kubrick, widely considered one of the finest American directors to ever live, would be quite an honor, to say the least. It would be like being praised by Michael Jordan for your jump shot. Being the quintessential tortured and self-destructive artist, Bob Fosse would likely be unbothered by a parade of celebration. The Academy Award-winning director and Tony-winning choreographer earned the respect of Kubrick, who once claimed that Fosse's uber-personal meditation on life and death, All That Jazz, was the best film he had ever seen. It might come as a surprise that the cynical and bleak Kubrick would latch on to a musical, but Fosse, whose musicals were both sordid and intensely cerebral, operated like a song-and-dance version of Kubrick. All That Jazz, with its dreamlike formalism, pitch-black sense of humor, and a scintillating portrait of humanity on the brink of death,...

Even Margaret Qualley can’t get the haunting visuals of “The Substance” out of her mind.

The actress told IndieWire that more than two years after wrapping production on Coralie Fargeat’s Golden Globes-winning satirical horror film, she still has “nightmares” about a certain gory scene — and it’s not that bloody ending. Instead, the sequence in which Sue (Qualley) starts to fall apart quite literally ahead of her big New Year’s Eve hosting spot is what lives rent-free in Qualley’s subconscious.

“Actually, just the night before last, I had a replica nightmare of when Sue loses her teeth, and she’s freaking out in front of the mirror,” Qualley said. “I’m one of those people who’s definitely had that nightmare before where you lose your teeth, but then I had the literal scene: I was looking in the mirror with only my two teeth. It...

"There was so much expected of her." Zeitgeist & Kino Lorber revealed the official trailer for a documentary film called Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, a biopic look at the life of Liza Minnelli. This first premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival last year, and it just played at the 2025 Palm Springs Film Festival earlier this month. Actress / singer / dancer Liza Minnelli tells her own story in this fabulous salute to an iconic talent. This doc covers it all: her childhood in mother Judy Garland's shadow, her bonds with mentors Kay Thompson, Charles Aznavour, Bob Fosse, her up-and-down marriages, and the triumphs of Broadway and Cabaret. After the tragic death of her mother Judy Garland at the end of the 60s, she spent her next years seeking out extraordinary mentors: Fred Ebb, Charles Aznavour, Halston, and Bob Fosse. Her concert performances at Carnegie Hall in 1979 and 1987 and at...

French New Wave fans, rejoice. One of Jean-Luc Godard’s most colorful, joyful, and unapologetically playful masterpieces of the 1960s has received a new 4K restoration. And New Yorkers will have the chance to catch it on the big screen this February.

Godard’s 1961 musical romantic comedy “A Woman Is a Woman” will screen at Film Forum in New York City from February 7-20, which will mark the U.S. premiere of the restoration.

Released in 1961, a year after the Cahiers du Cinema veteran secured himself filmmaking immortality with “Breathless,” “A Woman Is a Woman” was Godard’s tribute to Hollywood’s Technicolor musical comedies. Featuring the bright color scheme that he would return to for films like “Contempt” and “Pierrot Le Fou,” the film stars Godard’s then-wife and frequent collaborator Anna Karina as a dancer who, eager to have a child, entertains the romantic pursuits of two men...

With its fractured narrative, complete with a gimmicky spectral figure guiding us through the proceedings, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling is Richard Pryor’s All That Jazz. Playing like a greatest hits collection of Pryor’s stand-up routines, it begins with the titular character freebasing his way into a hospital burn unit, features him pulling a starter pistol on the mafia, and shows him destroying his wife’s car when she threatens to leave him.

Jo Jo Dancer’s profession mirrors Pryor’s own, as does his backstory: The film was shot in Peoria, Illinois, Pryor’s hometown and the location of the brothel where both he and Jo Jo grew up. Columbia Pictures wouldn’t grant Bob Fosse’s wish to play All That Jazz’s Joe Gideon, but they let Pryor play himself, or “himself” as it were, creating a meta experience before meta was cool.

Australian writer-director Michael Gracey was already several years into developing “The Greatest Showman,” his grand and ambitious musical biopic that took the filmmaker eight years to realize, when his star Hugh Jackman started having cold feet.

“Hugh was losing a bit of confidence in the music,” Gracey recalled in a recent conversation with IndieWire. “When we were really close to going into production, other people started getting in Hugh’s ear about the music not being good enough.” At the time, Gracey was a respected and prolific director of music videos, with deep roots in VFX and animation, as well as music. But he had not yet made his feature filmmaking debut. Feeling like he was losing the power of his voice with Jackman, he thought, “What if it wasn’t just me telling him the songs are actually good? What if someone like Robbie Williams told him that?”

The former “Take That” superstar,...

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Margaret Qualley is one of the most talented and brilliant young actresses working in Hollywood right now. Born to actress Andie MacDowell, the actress, model, and dancer trained as a ballet dancer in her youth. She made her acting debut in 2013 with Gia Coppola‘s film Palo Alto. She recently starred in the hit satirical body horror film The Substance alongside Demi Moore. So, if you also love Qualley’s performances, here are the 10 best movies and TV shows starring Margaret Qualley.

10. My Salinger Year (AMC+ & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – IFC Films

My Salinger Year is a drama film written and directed by Philippe Falardeau. Based on the memoir of the same name by Joanna Rakoff, the 2020 film follows Joanna Rakoff, an aspiring writer working for literary agent Phyllis Westberg, as she receives some impactful personal advice from reclusive author J.D. Salinger.

Helen Gallagher, the spunky Broadway triple threat who received two Tony Awards and starred as the matriarch Maeve Ryan for all 13-plus years of the ABC soap opera Ryan’s Hope, has died. She was 98.

Gallagher died Sunday at a hospital in Manhattan, Edith Meeks, executive and artistic director at New York’s Herbert Berghof Studio, told The Washington Post. Gallagher taught a class in “Singing for the Musical Theater” there for years.

The radiant singer, dancer and actress received her first Tony in 1952 for her portrayal of showgirl Gladys Bumps in a revival of the Rodgers & Hart musical Pal Joey, then landed another in 1971 for her turn as flapper Lucille Early, another wise-cracking character, in a revival of Busby Berkeley’s No, No, Nanette.

“When Miss Gallagher sings the blues of a lovelorn wife with piece of chiffon and a chorus of properly epicene tailor’s dummies, she makes the...

It’s Musicals Week at IndieWire. With “Wicked” about to sparkle over theaters, we’re celebrating the best of the movie-musical genre.

Bob Fosse only directed five features — “Sweet Charity,” “Cabaret,” “Lenny,” “All That Jazz,” and “Star 80” — but among filmmakers and cinephiles, his legend looms large in proportion to the abundance of his output. David Fincher, for example, frequently references Fosse as an influence alongside and equal to far more prolific directors like Steven Spielberg, William Friedkin, and John Carpenter. In “A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies,” Fosse is one of only a few post-classical studio era auteurs (alongside Stanley Kubrick and Clint Eastwood) that Scorsese deems worthy of inclusion alongside old masters like Orson Welles and Sam Fuller.

By only making a handful of movies in between stints revolutionizing American musical theater on Broadway, Fosse maintained a consistency any director would envy — he’s five...

It’s Musicals Week at IndieWire. With “Wicked” about to sparkle over theaters, we’re celebrating the best of the movie-musical genre.

The musical sometimes feels like a relic of a long-dead Hollywood studio system. But IndieWire’s picks for the 100 best movie musicals of all time show that the musical remains a genre that captures movies’ ability to create story worlds that move freely between reality and fantasy better than any other. The worst examples come from filmmakers who give license to music, color, and movement to run amok; the best transcend artifice and integrate songs that become expressions of pure character emotion. Musicals offer endless possibilities, but success demands a complete mastery of the medium.

The best movie musicals of all time have faced obstacles as varied as their creators’ styles and tastes. That’s in part because its integration of at least two art forms — music and film always,...

Who knew pop star Ariana Grande was an adept musical comedienne? That surprise discovery should land her an Oscar nomination for Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the global hit musical “Wicked”, which will prove a box-office juggernaut. On that much “Screen Talk” co-hosts Ryan Lattanzio and Anne Thompson agree; but he hates the cheesy visuals and loves Jonathan Bailey’s charismatic supporting turn as the romantic interest of both witches-in-training, while Anne admires the music, well-produced by Marc Platt and delivered with gusto by Cynthia Erivo and Grande.

“Wicked” follows Steven Spielberg’s recent “West Side Story,” which earned seven nominations in 2022 and a win for another supporting discovery, Ariana DeBose. And Rob Marshall’s film version of Bob Fosse’s “Chicago” (2002) was also one of 10 musical Best Picture winners. But we agree they were executed with more visual and technical mastery.

‘Juror #2’Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Both co-hosts...

Zack Snyder is most decidedly a divisive filmmaker, but a very popular one at that. From his feature directorial debut, a remake of George A. Romero's zombie classic "Dawn of the Dead," to the complicated DC epic that was "Justice League," he's never been afraid to do the unsafe thing, for better or worse. So, what does a director like that enjoy watching? What are the movies Snyder looks to for inspiration?

Around the time that "Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire" was debuting on Netflix in late 20223, Snyder spoke with Letterboxd and shared his four favorite movies of all time. First and foremost, without hesitation, Snyder listed George Lucas' seminal sci-fi classic "Star Wars: A New Hope" as his favorite movie. Here's what he had to say about it:

"I'm going to have to say 'Star Wars,' just because I have to. 1977. You don't...

Eddie Redmayne learned his “lesson” 10 years after starring in the 2015 biopic “The Danish Girl.” Redmayne, who portrayed trans activist Lili Elbe, a trans woman who received one of the earliest known gender-affirming surgeries, previously said in 2021 that he “wouldn’t take it on now” as a cisgender man.

In April 2024, Redmayne played the famously queer-coded Emcee character in the splashy Broadway production of “Cabaret.” During a recent appearance on Penn Badgley’s “Podcrushed” podcast, the actor explained the differences between those casting choices, adding that he knew “exactly what I was doing” by playing the Emcee after the controversy surrounding “The Danish Girl” casting.

“I have a history of parts that I’ve played, that have been problematic in some of those choices, and I’ve spent a lot of time ruminating on those things and wondering what I would do differently,” Redmayne said. “When it came to ‘Cabaret,’ I’d learned my lesson,...

In “Armand,” Norway’s official entry for the 2025 Academy Awards’ Best International Feature category, Renate Reinsve gives an amazing performance. The movie is a psychological drama about a mother dealing with a terrible school problem.

The movie, which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, is about an actor named Elisabeth whose career has been put on hold while she deals with serious accusations about her young son and another student. Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, who is related to movie legends Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman, created the part just for Reinsve.

According to Reinsve, “This is the hardest role I’ve ever done,” which shows how difficult the role was for her physically and mentally. She cared so much about the role that she had to stay in bed for two months after shooting in 2022.

One of the best parts of the movie is a scene with a long dramatic breakdown that lasts almost ten minutes.

Over the past ten years, Greta Gerwig has cemented herself as one of the great directors of her generation, having made three of the best movies of the 2010s and 2020s. Her directing style, cinematography choices, and eye for framing interesting shots have made her one of the most visually compelling filmmakers in years, which is why understanding her influences and favorite movies is so key to appreciating her films.

Gerwig has been on the record many times to discuss the movies that have had a significant impact on her. By watching the films that have inspired her over the years, audiences can get an even better understanding of what makes Greta Gerwig one of the most influential voices in movie-making today.

This Classic From a Musical Legend Is Important to Gerwig's Style All That Jazz (1979)

Directed by:

Bob Fosse

Starring:

Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking

Rotten Tomatoes Score:...

When Marco Costa joined Luca Guadagnino‘s “Challengers,” the editor was excited because he loves tennis and plays a little himself. “But Luca said to me, ‘My movie is not about tennis. It’s about people,'” Costa tells Gold Derby (watch above). “It was right. This is not a tennis movie. This is not a sport movie, but it’s a movie about people.”

Indeed, tennis merely serves as the court (no pun intended) on which the sexual politics play out. Tashi (Zendaya) is a former prodigy whose career was derailed by a knee injury. She now coaches her husband Art (Mike Faist), a six-time Grand Slam champ who’s been struggling. To get his form back, she enters him in a Challenger, where journeyman player Patrick (Josh O’Connor), his former Bff and and her former boyfriend, looms on the other side of the draw. Their final match serves...

After a fall-off in popularity (and quality) throughout much of the 1990s, teen-skewing comedies were suddenly all the rage in Hollywood again at the turn of the millennium. The "Pygmalion"-inspired "She's All That" kicked off the craze, which included such highs as "10 Things I Hate About You" and "Dick," and more lows than I care to remember. These films were quite clearly the offspring of John Hughes' 1980s classics, but they could rarely come close to the mix of insouciance and sentimentality that made his films snap. They also weren't very funny, which didn't help.

The best film of this brief renaissance by far was Peyton Reed's "Bring It On," which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020. Working from a spiky-sexy-hilarious screenplay by Jessica Bendinger, Reed's movie kicks off with an exuberant opening cheer routine and never loses an ounce of zip on its way to a thrilling...

It’s a unique year for sequels and prequels at the Oscars. There are three films whose preceding installments won five or more trophies from the academy: “Dune: Part II,” “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” and “Gladiator II.” That opens the door for history to be made. If one or more of those films wins five times, it will be the first time in history that two films in the same franchise have won that many competitive prizes. For which film is that likeliest to happen? Scroll down to vote in our poll at the bottom of this post.

SEEExperts slugfest: ‘Gladiator II’ reactions, ‘Conclave’s’ Oscar hopes, and ‘The Substance’ in comedy

Even when you consider some of the most successful franchises of all time, none have accomplished the feat. “The Godfather” and “The Godfather: Part II” are the only film and sequel to both win Best Picture, but...

Exclusive: Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films have acquired North American rights Bruce David Klein’s feature documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story which follows the career of and life of Liza Minnelli.

The Atlas Media production made its world premiere at last summer’s Tribeca Film Festival and recently played at the Hamptons Film Festival, Provincetown Film Festival and as a Centerpiece at the NewFest LGBTQ+ Film Festival. Zeitgeist is planning a theatrical run at IFC Center in early 2025 followed by a national rollout.

The deal was negotiated by Emily Russo and Nancy Gerstman, Co-Presidents of Zeitgeist Films and Isadora Johnson of Cinetic. The deal doesn’t include broadcast rights.

Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story focuses on the Cabaret Oscar winner’s complex period during the 1970s following the tragic death of her mother Judy Garland as she confronts a range of personal and professional challenges...

“I thought I would have a strategy,” said Anna Kendrick as she peered around thousands of classic cinematic treasures. “And now that I’m here, I don’t. But that’s okay. Sometimes great things happen when you don’t have a great plan.”

So begins Kendrick’s venture into the beloved Criterion Closet. The Academy-Award nominated actress and now director took a stop by Criterion’s offices in New York while promoting her recently released Netflix film, “Woman of the Hour,” and found herself throwing plans out the window, instead letting her experience be driven by chance. Having a musical background herself, Kendrick started with a classic in the genre, Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical “All That Jazz.”

“You always want to say that you saw all these movies, like, at least a decade ago, right? But I just saw this a few years ago,” said Kendrick. “‘All That Jazz.

When writer/director Parker Finn made the inventive and terrifying horror film “Smile” in 2022, he never intended it as the beginning of a franchise. “I wrote that film to be self-contained and its own cathartic story,” Finn told IndieWire. “Also, I’m not nearly a big enough egotist to think that people were going to want a sequel.” Finn says he never thought of himself as a “sequel guy” anyway. “I think a lot of sequels get made for the wrong reasons and are incredibly cynical.”

Yet now Finn has made not only one of the best sequels in recent memory but one of the best horror films period, a rare follow-up that expands upon and deepens the mythology of its predecessor — think “Aliens” or “Terminator 2.” “Smile 2” retains the core concept of the original film, in which an unstoppable supernatural force travels from person to person and ultimately...

Is there room at the best picture table for more than one “part two?”

This year, several installments in established franchises are banging on the Academy’s door, hoping for a coveted slot in the category. With no clear frontrunner, this could be the season that more than one sequel secures a place in the race. That has happened only once, in 2022 (“Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick”).

The Oscars have long hesitated to embrace anything with a Roman numeral affixed to it. Historically, only nine sequels have been nominated for best picture: “The Bells of St. Mary’s” (1945), “The Godfather Part II” (1974), “The Godfather Part III” (1990), “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (2002), “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003), “Toy Story 3” (2010), “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015), “Avatar: The Way of Water” (2022) and “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022). Just two — “Godfather 2” and “Return of the King” — won.

Plot: Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), one of the world’s biggest pop stars, becomes haunted by a familiar curse on the eve of her new world tour, sending her life spiralling out of control.

Review: 2022’s Smile was quietly one of the most profitable studio movies of the last few years. Originally designed as a low-budget movie for Paramount Plus, a round of excellent test screenings resulted in Paramount Pictures opting to give it a theatrical release. The result was a movie that grossed over $217 million worldwide on a $17 million budget. It immediately established writer/director Parker Finn, who adapted the movie from his own short (Laura Hasn’t Slept) as a horror phenom, and the release of his ambitious sequel is one of the bigger horror events of the year.

So, how does Smile 2 stack up to its sleeper-hit predecessor? Amazingly well, it turns out. Boasting a bigger budget,...

Portraying the life of a diva pop star — or, at least, doing it convincingly — isn’t the easiest thing for a movie to bring off. There are too many real-life counterparts. The director Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”), teaming up with Natalie Portman, got about halfway there in “Vox Lux.” Lady Gaga, drawing on elements of her own legend but shrewd enough to play the heroine of “A Star Is Born” as not a version of herself, created a character for the ages. More recently, M. Night Shyamalan seemed to make “Trap” mostly to let his budding musician daughter, Saleka Shyamalan, embody a pop singer — which she did with aplomb in concert, less convincingly in the backstage scenes. So when you hear that “Smile 2,” Parker Finn’s sequel to his effective if overloaded creep-out horror film of two years ago, is centered around a pop star, you may not exactly...

“Megalopolis” is now playing in theaters, and director Francis Ford Coppola is in the Oscar hunt yet again after already winning multiple Academy Awards throughout his esteemed career. Let’s look back at his many Oscar races.

After building his credits as a screenwriter and director in the 1960s, Coppola’s breakthroughs arrived in the early 1970s with “Patton” and “The Godfather.” He wrote the screenplay to the beloved epic drama “Patton,” directed Franklin J. Schaffner and starring George C. Scott, both of whom won Oscars for the film. Coppola also received his first Academy Award for his original screenplay, which he shared with co-writer Edmund H. North. His only threat in the category that year was “Five Easy Pieces,” which got into Best Picture, but with “Patton” dominating in a bunch of categories that year, winning the Screenplay prize was all but inevitable.

See Ray Richmond: ‘Megalopolis’ trailer...

When Sean Connery opened the envelope in 2003 for Best Supporting Actress, he simply pronounced the winner as “Catherine.” Such was the expectation of her win and the sensation she had caused in the film “Chicago” that his former co-star didn’t even feel the need to pronounce her full three names: Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Zeta-Jones initially was known to American audiences for her statuesque and striking beauty. She first gained notice on these shores in a television mini-series about the Titanic. The series aired a year before James Cameron‘s film of the Titanic story swept into movie theaters. She then began appearing on the big screen in a number of ingenue roles.

What American audiences didn’t know was that Zeta-Jones was hiding a couple of secret talents, namely that she was a superb singer and dancer. She had started out on the London stage when she was just a...

While Johnny Depp’s daughter, Lily-Rose Depp seems to be making a headway in her career with the upcoming Robert Eggers horror film Nosferatu, the failure of The Idol still looms over her. The HBO show was canceled after five episodes, with many fans criticizing its themes and graphic depictions of s*x and n*dity.

However, the show seems to have received one feather in its cap as it recently earned the Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography. The series centered around a troubled pop star who gets swayed by a cult leader. With the Emmy win, Lily-Rose Depp seems to have surpassed her father in the TV space.

Lily-Rose Depp Surpasses Johnny Depp, Whose 21 Jump Street Never Won An Emmy Johnny Depp in 21 Jump Street | Credits: Fox

Before he became famous as Captain Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands, and a wide variety of characters, Johnny Depp had...

The career of Bob Fosse encompassed more than just cinema, yet he was able to establish himself as one of the greatest directors of his era through the five movies he made between 1969 and 1983. Every single one of these has something to offer, none are anywhere close to bad, and the best films Fosse directed can even be considered among the greatest of all time. He was also renowned for being a stage director and a choreographer, leading to him inevitably directing musicals, but not all his films belonged to that genre (and he was an actor in the years prior to him becoming a director).

Michael Gracey’s wildly inventive musical biopic of superstar British entertainer Robbie Williams rolls the dice on a unique star casting decision to play Williams that separates it from every showbiz biopic that has come before. A CGI monkey (actor Jonno Davies) plays the singer in what is otherwise a recognizable cradle-to-comeback story so familiar to those who rise to the top, only to fall and rise again. This is the equivalent to casting Lassie to play Frank Sinatra.

Ok, maybe not that crazy, but close enough. So guess what? It really works, even if in America the subject of this major studio film (Paramount picked up the independently produced production) is not widely known, but an icon who has sold over 80 million albums across the rest of the globe, and was recently the subject of a four-part Netflix docu series. It had its world premiere this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival.

Kubrick's admiration for All That Jazz as the best movie is unusual, but actually makes a lot of sense. All That Jazz's legacy stems from its chaotic yet emotionally compelling narrative, mirroring the turbulent life of Bob Fosse. Despite being a departure from Kubrick's usual style, the dark and introspective nature of All That Jazz resonated with the filmmaker.

Throughout his career, Stanley Kubrick became known for his intense and often dark films, so at first glance, the movie he deemed to be the best may come as a surprise. Considered one of the greatest film directors of all time, Kubrick made movies from 1952 until his death in 1999. Stanley Kubrick's best movies are all lauded as classics, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Shining. The director's unique style and innovative filmmaking have had long-lasting effects on Hollywood. Not only did Stanley Kubrick make stand-out movies, but his influences were also rather distinct.

Initially, ‘Joker’ (2019) was conceived as a standalone film with no sequels planned. Warner Bros. intended it to kick off DC Black, a series of darker, experimental films separate from the DC Extended Universe. Despite this, director Todd Phillips showed interest in a sequel, and by November 2019, the sequel was officially in development. As of 2023, James Gunn confirmed that ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ will not be part of the mainline Dcu but will instead be released under the ‘Elseworlds’ label, alongside Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’ franchise.

Early on, it was revealed that ‘Joker 2’ would feature musical elements, a bold and unconventional choice that sparked significant debate among fans.

A few weeks ago, Variety provided insights into the musical elements of ‘Joker: Folie à Deux.’ The film is set to be a jukebox musical, featuring approximately 15 covers of popular songs, including the classic ‘That’s Entertainment’ from the 1953 musical The Band Wagon,...

‘Joker’ (2019) was initially meant to be a standalone film without sequels. However, Warner Bros. planned for it to inaugurate DC Black, a series of darker, more experimental films separate from the DC Extended Universe. Director Todd Phillips expressed interest in a sequel despite the original intention. By November of 2019, the sequel was confirmed in development, and in 2023 Gunn confirmed that ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ will not be a part of the mainline Dcu, it will instead be released under ‘Elseworlds’ label, consistent with Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’ franchise.

Early on in the development, we learned that ‘Joker 2’ would be a musical, which is a brave choice in my honest opinion, however, the fandom was extremely polarized by this announcement.

A couple of weeks ago Variety reported on some details regarding the “musical” parts of the movie. The movie is primarily a jukebox musical, featuring around 15 covers of well-known songs...

Liza Minnelli has packed so much into her life already. The daughter of Hollywood icons Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, she was surrounded by show business from the very beginning. With a talent like her mother’s, it was surely destined that Liza would find her way to the spotlight too. But her path was not easy, facing high expectations and private struggles along the way.

Now, audiences can get an inside look at Liza’s journey with the new documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, directed by Bruce David Klein. Through interviews with Liza herself, as well as those who know her best, we learn how she navigated losing her mother at a young age and then battled to make her own name.

We also see rare archival footage of the early years. It’s clear Klein wanted to craft a fitting tribute to this legendary performer...