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Warning: Spoilers for The White Lotus season 2The White Lotus season 2 accomplished the rare achievement of taking the best parts of its inaugural season and turning them into something bigger, bolder, and arguably even better. Series creator (and former Survivor contestant) Mike White moved the show from Hawaii to Sicily for the second season and, with the exception of the fantastic Jennifer Coolidge, swapped out its cast for another group of talented actors. With two Golden Globes wins and another strong Emmy showing looking probable, The White Lotus season 2 has become a firm entry in the cultural zeitgeist and a must-watch for just about anyone with an HBO Max subscription.

One of the secrets behind the success of The White Lotus is undoubtedly the very specific look and feel of the show. Although locations and casts changed between seasons 1 and 2 (and will surely change again for The White Lotus season...

The first five episodes of this season of “The White Lotus” have involved a high number of bad decisions in beautiful locations and the series’ signature angst over wealth and privilege. But it’s not until the end of Episode 5, “That’s Amore,” that the show reveals an appropriately operatic twist — spoilers ahead — with Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) discovery of expat Quentin (Tom Hollander) in flagrante delicto with his nephew Jack (Leo Woodall) in the elder’s Palermo palazzo.

To be fair, Jack was introduced to Tanya and her assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), as naughty, but this new devilry is very much in the details. So is the show’s artistry, and it took a team effort on the part of the show’s camera, sound, and music to accentuate the horror of what Tanya finds and cinematically set the stage for the final two episodes of the season,...

On the third episode of “The White Lotus” Season 2, a group of American tourists visits a location from “The Godfather,” which leads to a multi-generational debate about the patriarchy. But Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning classic isn’t the only film referenced in Sunday’s installment.

In fact, a striking moment featuring Aubrey Plaza under the steps of the Noto Cathedral is a shot-by-shot homage to a scene in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1960 film “L’avventura,” starring Monica Vitti (who was name-dropped by Jennifer Coolidge in last week’s episode). In “L’avventura,” a woman goes missing, and, amidst their search for her, the woman’s lover and best friend strike up a romance. According to “The White Lotus” creator Mike White, “L’avventura” is a “very elliptical, mysterious movie about an existential psychodrama.”

In “L’avventura” and “White Lotus,” respectively, Vitti and Plaza walk around the same courtyard and begin...

Now streaming on HBO Max, Genera+ion follows Orange County, California, high school students searching for their identities in a world of lockdowns, relentless social media, and clueless parents. The series was developed by Zelda Barnz and her father, Daniel Barnz, (a Filmmaker 2007 25 New Face). Executive producers include Daniel’s husband (and Zelda’s father) Ben Barnz and Lena Dunham. The first eight episodes began filming in September 2020. The second half of season one wrapped in early April. Four cinematographers have worked on Genera+ion, including Sean Porter for the pilot, Yaron Orbach, Xavier Grobet, and on three episodes in season one […]

The post “It Was Surreal Seeing Rehearsals with Actors Kissing While Wearing Face Shields and Masks:” Dp Laura Gonçalves on Lensing Genera+ion first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Now streaming on HBO Max, Genera+ion follows Orange County, California, high school students searching for their identities in a world of lockdowns, relentless social media, and clueless parents. The series was developed by Zelda Barnz and her father, Daniel Barnz, (a Filmmaker 2007 25 New Face). Executive producers include Daniel’s husband (and Zelda’s father) Ben Barnz and Lena Dunham. The first eight episodes began filming in September 2020. The second half of season one wrapped in early April. Four cinematographers have worked on Genera+ion, including Sean Porter for the pilot, Yaron Orbach, Xavier Grobet, and on three episodes in season one […]

The post “It Was Surreal Seeing Rehearsals with Actors Kissing While Wearing Face Shields and Masks:” Dp Laura Gonçalves on Lensing Genera+ion first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The 2020 Emmy ballots have been released by the Television Academy, so we now know which shows, actors, etc. are in contention for this year’s golden statues. HBO’s “Watchmen” accounts for eight entries on the performer ballot, including lead actors Regina King and Jeremy Irons. The uniquely timely limited series about mask-wearing and racial injustice is a loose adaptation of the 1980s comic book about vigilante superheroes, which only lasted a single volume. Tour our photo gallery above to see all of the actors who’ve been submitted for the 2020 Emmy Awards.

“Lost” and “The Leftovers” showrunner Damon Lindelof oversees the first season, but has gone on record saying he won’t return if the show eventually comes back for a second installment. As for creating a diverse team both in front of and behind the camera, Lindelof explained in our recent interview, “I hate using the word ‘diversity...

IndieWire reached out to the cinematographers whose films are headlining the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival to find out which cameras they used and, more importantly, why they were the right tools to create their projects.

Read More:Cannes 2017: Here Are the Cameras Used To Shoot 29 of This Year’s Films “55 Steps”

Dir: Bille August, Dp: Filip Zumbrunn

Camera: Arri Alexa Mini and Amira

Lens: Cooke Panchros S2/3

Zumbrunn: “Because of the beautiful skin tones, the good latitude of the Arri-log and the reliability of the body — especially when shooting the entire movie handheld — it was clear, that we wanted to shoot on the Arri Alexa Mini. As a B-Camera body we were using an Arri Amira. We chose the vintage Cooke Panchros S2/3 together with the Tiffen Pearlescent filters to give the movie a warm, filmic and not too clean look to transport the feeling of the early eighties. And...

I'm not sure Tina Fey was meant to be a movie star. She is, no question about it, a dazzling wit, and I think she can be very funny onstage as well. So far, though, Hollywood has not figured out what to do with Fey as a leading actress because she simply doesn't fit the cookie-cutter archetypes that so many actresses are forced to play, and it's left her in a weird place as an actress. She's obviously talented, but who's writing the roles that she could play? As it turns out, all it takes are directors like Glenn Ficarra and John Requa and a writer like Robert Carlock, who worked with Fey on 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. I like Ficarra and Requa. I don't think every film they've made is great, but they have a good eye for both character and detail. My favorite film of theirs is still I Love You,...

Fritz Lang applies rigorous realism and excellent science in the first half of his final silent film, a treat for fantasy fans and those impressed by a Nasa-like moon rocket forty years before the reality. The action on the moon is pure green-cheese fantasy, with breathable air, deposits of gold and evidence of a human civilization. Let's go! Woman in the Moon Blu-ray Kino Classics 1929 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 169 min. / Street Date February 23, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Willy Frisch, Gerda Maurus, Gustav von Wangenheim, Klaus Phol, Fritz Rasp, Gustl Gstettenbaur. Cinematography: Curt Courant, Oskar Fischinger, Konstantin Irmen-Tschet, Otto Kanturek Art Direction: Joseph Danilowitz, Emil Hasler, Otto Hunte, Karl Vollbrecht, Prof. Gustav Wolff Technical Advisors Willy Ley, Hermann Oberth Special Effects Oskar Fischinger, Konstantin Irmen-Tschet Original Music Willy Schmidt-Gentner Written by Fritz Lang, Hermann Oberth, Thea von Harbou Produced and Directed by Fritz Lang

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...

Early in the new film Focus, a veteran con man played by Will Smith teaches his fledgling grifter protégé (Margot Robbie) the tools of the trade: misdirection, deception, subliminal suggestion. They’re a few of the tools applied in Focus by cinematographer Xavier Grobet as well, who is tasked with not only making the New York, New Orleans and Buenos Aires locations sleek and alluring but also with pushing audiences alternately toward and away from the plot’s various double-crosses. Focus marks the second collaboration between Grobet and I Love You Phillip Morris directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. The Mexican cinematographer […]...

Early in the new film Focus, a veteran con man played by Will Smith teaches his fledgling grifter protégé (Margot Robbie) the tools of the trade: misdirection, deception, subliminal suggestion. They’re a few of the tools applied in Focus by cinematographer Xavier Grobet as well, who is tasked with not only making the New York, New Orleans and Buenos Aires locations sleek and alluring but also with pushing audiences alternately toward and away from the plot’s various double-crosses. Focus marks the second collaboration between Grobet and I Love You Phillip Morris directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. The Mexican cinematographer […]...

Focus

Written & Directed by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa

USA, 2015

The best con artists let the rube have fun while they’re being hustled. The wonderful new scam-fest, Focus, has learned this lesson well. Of course, none of the scams hold up to later scrutiny, but they’re fun as hell when you’re in the thick of it. Like a simplified Mamet thriller hopped up on Out of Sight juice, Focus breezes by on the confident charm of Will Smith and a clever script that pays off each slight-of-hand with a masterful reveal. So far, this is easily the most entertaining Hollywood film of 2015.

Nicky (Will Smith) is one cool customer. He’s a lifelong grifter who knows that emotion is the enemy of precision. “Love will get you killed in this game,” he tells his insanely gorgeous new protégé Jess (Margot Robbie). That sounds good in theory, but matters of the heart are unpredictable,...

If you've seen even an ounce of the film's marketing, before you even step into the theater you're aware Focus is a conman "thriller" and so you're going to be looking for clues as to what's really going on. Hell, the title alone is basically daring you to try and figure it out before the "big reveal". Writer/director duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are clearly aware of this and you can almost see the wheels turning as they try and set the audience up for what I assume they believe is a whopper of a finale. And, in all honesty, I would be fine with how Focus ended had it only not betrayed the character traits it establishes along the way and had it not been so lazy in setting up the relationship between its two leads. Will Smith plays Nicky, a hot shot conman that other members...

Who knew petty crime could be so much fun? Focus, a tale of charming pickpockets, con-men and confidence tricksters, treats theft as an art form. Our hero, Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith), is essentially an evil Derren Brown. Through a combination of psychological tricks, subconscious programming and old-school grifting, he manipulates his marks so expertly they only notice they’ve been taken for a ride when he’s long gone, if at all.

Focus is a film of two halves, the first taking place in New Orleans over the week of the Super Bowl. With thousands of booze-soaked tourists flocking into town, Nicky spies opportunity. He promptly assembles a professional pickpocket gang that swoops through the streets with clockwork synchronicity. One thief distracts, another removes the mark’s wallet, a third immediately scarpers with the loot. These wallets get funnelled straight to an office complex where they’re stripped of cash,...

It's a con man movie, so you know up front that there are going to be cons played on the characters and the audience alike, and sure enough, "Focus" plays out like you'd expect a con man movie to play out. It is slick and it is well-made, and there is little or nothing about it that I'd call surprising. If you know what kind of genre you're getting into and you're going to see the good-looking movie stars do exactly what you expect them to do, "Focus" will go down easy this weekend. Will Smith is in his comfort zone here as Nick, a big league con man who runs a sizable crew. When he spots Jess (Margot Robbie) one night at a bar, he knows she's got larceny in her blood right away. She's green, though, and she sees Nick as a possible mentor, someone who can teach...

IMAX Corporation and Warner Bros. Pictures today announced that Focus, the latest film from directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love), starring Academy Award nominee Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness, Ali) and Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street), will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX format and released into domestic IMAX theatres on Feb. 27, 2015.

The IMAX release of Focus will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience with proprietary IMAX Dmr (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX's customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio, create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

About Focus:

&#8232Will Smith stars as Nicky, a seasoned master of misdirection who becomes romantically involved with novice con artist Jess (Margot Robbie). As he's teaching her the tricks of the trade, she gets too...

Just before we head into the holidays, check out the latest trailer for the sexy and slick heist movie starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie, Focus.

Alongside this great new trailer Warner Bros. Pictures has released 3 new character posters.

“It’s about distraction. It’s about focus. The brain is slow and it can’t multitask.

Tap him here, take from there.”

Will Smith stars as Nicky, a seasoned master of misdirection who becomes romantically involved with novice con artist Jess (Margot Robbie). As he’s teaching her the tricks of the trade, she gets too close for comfort and he abruptly breaks it off. Three years later, the former flame—now an accomplished femme fatale—shows up in Buenos Aires in the middle of the high stakes racecar circuit. In the midst of Nicky’s latest, very dangerous scheme, she throws his plans for a loop…and the consummate con man off his game.

So this isn't normally the kind of thing we would post on FEARnet, but ballet hasn't been this scary since Black Swan. Artist Javier Perez filmed ballerina Amelie Segarra dancing en pointe on knives. Pointe shoes take months just to learn to stand in; imagine doing it on the tip of a knife. 

There are a few reasons I thought that FEARnet readers would be interested in this. First, it sounds like it would make an amazing Saw trap. Second, the short film - only three and a half minutes long - is loaded with danger. I'm sure there were plenty of safety measures in place, but it looks like she could fall and kill herself at any second. I sure didn't want to see that happen, but there was a morbid curiosity there. And third, the film is beautiful and tense. The cavernous theater, the quick edits that ramp up the longer she dances,...

I Love You Phillip Morris

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

Screenplay by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

2009, USA

I Love You Phillip Morris opens with a disclaimer of sorts, assuring us that “This really happened. It really did.” Such a blunt beginning not only establishes the film’s overall tone, but also serves as writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s license for outrageousness. There is certainly enough material in the true story of Steven Jay Russell, con artist and multiple prison escapee, to make for a riveting psychological drama. But this is not that movie. The film’s first ten minutes-where Steven, as played by Jim Carrey, narrates (in a voice as suspiciously wholesome and happy-go-lucky as that of Ned Flanders) his transition from family man/police officer to affluent gay man/con artist-play out as pure screwball dark comedy; and Ficarra and Riqua, who also co-wrote...

Chicago – With all the creatively bankrupt, audience-repelling dreck clogging up theaters these days, it’s easy to see why a comedian would sign up for a challenging art house satire rather than pick up a fat, unearned pay check. Robin Williams delivered his best work in years in Bobcat Goldthwait’s “World’s Greatest Dad,” and now Jim Carrey adds to his streak of woefully underrated performances in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s “I Love You Phillip Morris.”

First-time directors Ficarra and Requa may hardly seem like art house material, especially after helming the scripts for pictures such as “Bad Santa” and “Cats & Dogs.” Yet after a long delay, “Phillip Morris” was relegated to an extremely limited theatrical release, primarily for its decidedly risqué and uncommercial subject matter. In other words, the story is a gay romance that doesn’t portray its characters in a tragic light. The film is a flat-out comedy,...

Chicago – No director treasures silence more than Rodrigo García. He doesn’t want anything to get in the way of the audience’s connection with his characters and the extraordinary actors who play them. With the invaluable assistance of cinematographer Xavier Pérez Grobet and composer Ed Shearmur, García has made some of the most brilliant and probing character studies in recent memory.

From the magnificent feature-length collection of vignettes, “Nine Lives,” to the addictive therapy sessions of HBO’s “In Treatment,” García has cemented his reputation as a master of intimate human drama, often involving female characters. As the son of celebrated Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, García has succeeded in his efforts to fuse literary sensibilities with visual storytelling. With elegant subtlety, García makes the nuances of his actors cinematically riveting, instead of simply framing a series of talking heads.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

His latest film, “Mother and Child...

Giving the type of performances worthy of year-end-awards, co-stars Annette Bening and Naomi Watts will bring plenty of attention to filmmaker Rodrigo García's engaging melodrama “Mother and Child”, due for release this May from Sony Pictures Classics. While a melodrama in the best sense of the word, a tale of mothers, daughters and family relationships, Garcia also creates stand-out roles for Samuel L. Jackson and Jimmy Smits as key men who share the lives of the film’s fascinating women. Thanks to Jackson and Smits, “Mother & Child” becomes a film for everyone, not just a tale for women. Rodrigo also makes beautiful use of Los Angeles’ diverse communities (with the help of cinematographer Xavier Pérez Grobet and production designer Christopher Tandon). Receiving positive audience response at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it screened in the Spotlight section, ‘Mother & Child’ earns comparisons to L.A.-set ensemble dramas from Paul Thomas Anderson...