News

Mubi’s U.S. lineup for next month has been unveiled, including some essential recent releases, notably James Vaughan’s Friends and Strangers, Radu Muntean’s Întregalde, Alice Diop’s We (Nous), the Isabel Sandoval-led short The Actress, Ougie Pak’s Clytaemnestra, and the new restoration of Hong Sangsoo’s Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors.

As part of Pride month and fitting as his latest film arrives, Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night is among the selections, alongside And Then We Danced, Being 17, and Lilting. Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, a pair of films by Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Kim Bora’s House of Hummingbird are also in the lineup.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

June 1 – Wet Sand, directed by Elene Naveriani | Viewfinder | Pride

June 2 – And Then We Danced, directed by Levan Akin | Pride Unprejudiced: LGBTQ+ Cinema

June 3 – Friends and Strangers, directed by James Vaughan | Mubi Spotlight

June 4 – Final Set,...

Toni Collette (Knives Out) and Monica Bellucci (Spectre) will star in Catherine Hardwicke’s comedy (Twilight) Mafia Mamma.

Hardwicke has also tapped Rob Huebel (The Descendants) to star alongside Collette and Bellucci.

Pic is a comedy about a suburban American woman who inherits her grandfather’s Mafia empire, and guided by the Firm’s trusted consigliere defies everyone’s expectations, including her own, as the new head of the family business.

Cornerstone will handle international sales and begin deal-making at next month’s virtual American Film Market. CAA Media Finance is overseeing the U.S. sale.

The film is a Vocab Films, Idea(L) and New Sparta Production based on an original idea by French novelist, screenwriter and filmmaker Amanda Sthers. Producers are Collette (United States of Tara) under her Vocab Films banner together with Sthers (Madame) through Idea(L) and New Sparta’s Christopher Simon (The Killing of a Sacred Deer...

Toni Collette has been cast in “Mafia Mamma,” an action comedy about a suburban mom who unexpectedly inherits her grandfather’s Mafia empire.

Catherine Hardwicke, the filmmaker of “Twilight” and “Thirteen,” is directing the movie, which is expected to begin production in Italy in late spring 2022. Debbie Jhoon and J. Michael Feldman wrote the screenplay. The cast also includes Monica Bellucci and Rob Huebel.

Collette is best known for her Academy Award-nominated turn in “The Sixth Sense,” as well as “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Hereditary” and “Knives Out.” In “Mafia Mamma,” she channels her comedic roots as Kristen, a mom who unwittingly finds herself as the new boss of the fiercest Mafia family in Southern Italy.

The logline reads: “Kristin is facing a slew of challenges. Her only son is desperate to leave for college, her boss is a sexist pig, and she just caught her unsuccessful, musician husband (Huebel) cheating with a groupie.

Exclusive: In an industry where change is a near constant, even top Hollywood law firms are not immune – even by their own inclination.

Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler & Feldman has now become Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler Feldman & Clark. The West Hollywood-based firm has made the leap to add long-time partner Stephen P. Clark to the masthead, so to speak.

“We are thrilled to add Stephen’s name to ours,” said managing partners Jamie Feldman and Peter Grossman today of the change, which is taking place immediately. “He is an outstanding lawyer and an integral part of our firm’s future.”

Before joining the firm nearly two decades ago, Clark had stints at MGM/United Artists as theatrical business-affairs executive and the Greenberg Glusker law firm.

Lgnaf&C today also promoted lawyers David Jelenko and Jeff Springer to partner.

Formed back in 1992, the now Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler Feldman & Clark has...

Rodents the size of large raccoons, sporting webbed feet and large orange teeth. Sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but the animal in question, nutria, prove surprisingly endearing in Chris Metzler, Jeff Springer and Quinn Costello's documentary that recently received its world premiere at Doc NY. Depicting the resilience of both the nutria and the Louisianans who've endured their presence for many years, Rodents of Unusual Size proves enjoyably quirky and informative.

The nutria were imported to Louisiana during the Depression because it was thought that their fur would prove desirable and provide income. Unfortunately, the animals escaped the fur...

Plagues & Pleasures On The Salton Sea

This documentary reveals the troubled history of Salton Sea, which was once the site of a wonderful resort in the California desert, but soon turned into a fetid, largely abandoned area. Narrated by John Waters.

Director: Chris Metzler, Jeff Springer

Starring: John Waters, Leonard Knight, Petre Melvin

Streaming: Amazon | iTunes

Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea photo gallery:...

Titling this particular documentary Everyday Sunshine serves multiple purposes. First, of course, is that “Everyday Sunshine” is the name of one of Fishbone’s most well-known songs. However, the title is also at once both an ironic counterpoint on the punk fusion band’s tragic career, as well as a commentary on the band’s core members’ undying struggle to see the silver lining that’s continually just out of their sight.

Yes, filmmakers Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson are forced to follow the same trajectory as other music documentaries: An upstart young band quickly become superstars only to be derailed from a promising career thanks to an uncaring music industry and turmoil from within its own ranks. The band then hits its lowest point, only to begin its long, difficult struggle to get back on top.

That storyline is impossible to avoid because that’s exactly what happened to Fishbone.

Co-directors Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler screened a world premiere of their film Everyday Sunshine – The Story of Fishbone at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival. Now in October 2011, the film is enjoying theatrical release in New York, Los Angeles, and other select cities. While we weren’t able to sit down with Lev and Chris, we sent them some questions about their film and how it all came together. Here’s what the directors had to say.

Have you always been a fan of Fishbone? What made you want to make a documentary about the band?

Yep, we were fans of the band and we thought Fishbone would be a fun story to tell. Looking at how the group met while being bussed from South Central to Woodland Hills in the late 1970s as part of desegregation efforts and through their career, we knew we could tell a parallel story...

Mike Everleth, editor of Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, has recently returned to the American Film Institute to do more research work for AFI’s Catalog of Feature Films, an extensive database of every American film that has been released theatrically in the U.S.

Mike was originally hired by AFI back in 2010 to work on a 10-month long project to add basic records for films released in the U.S. between 1975 and the present. After the successful completion of that project, now Mike has been asked back to the AFI Catalog to assist in expanding those records to contain more detailed historical data. More information on how the Catalog is being currently developed can be found on the AFI website.

Regular readers of Bad Lit will be pleased to know that many underground films are contained in the catalog, from George Kuchar’s The Devil’s Cleavage...

Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer’s 2004 documentary Plagues & Pleasures On The Salton Sea covers the strange history of the manmade body of water in southern California, and how it sustained a vibrant tourist industry in the 1950s until excessive salinity made the region hostile to wildlife. Alma Har’el’s documentary Bombay Beach doesn’t bother establishing much context for its study of one run-down town on the shores of the Salton Sea; it’s more impressionistic, splicing together images of extreme poverty and decay while peeking in at the lives of three Bombay Beach residents. Har’el spent ...