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Manga artist Rei Hiroe, the creator of the original Black Lagoon manga series, recently got candid about his 15-year battle with depression. Hiroe revealed how mental illness has impacted his work since 2010, even halting production on the seinen series despite its place as one of manga's most influential action titles.

In a recent interview with Comic Natalie, Black Lagoon author and illustrator Rei Hiroe opened up about his struggles with his mental health, going into considerable depth regarding how depression has impacted his work and how he strives to continue despite the hardships that come along with it. Hiroe revealed that depression struck during work on the "Roberta Revenge" arc -- the longest-running storyline in Black Lagoon's history. Despite tireless effort and a soft spot for the material -- Hiroe considered this storyline some of his finest work -- the arc earned mixed reactions from readers. When Hiroe's father passed away after repeated hospitalizations,...

Roberta Flack, the fearless singer and pianist who made Grammy history with the sublime No. 1 hits “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” died Monday in New York. She was 88.

“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning,” according to a statement from her rep. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”

In November 2022, it was revealed that she had been diagnosed with Als, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and could no longer sing. In 2016, she suffered a stroke, and she retired from performing two years later.

The North Carolina native and accomplished classical pianist became the first artist to win the Grammy for Record of the Year in consecutive years with the haunting “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in 1973 and “Killing Me...

Seeking Sister Wife star, Garrick Merrifield is currently only accepting fertile partners. He and his wife, Dannielle Merrifield welcomed their third child together in May 2023. Now, they are still on the hunt for more sister wives but there is a main stipulation and she must be ready and raring to go when it comes to babies. Keep reading for more details.

Garrick Merrifield Only Accepting Fertile Partners

When Dannielle and Garrick Merrifield were pursuing their first potential sister wife, Roberta, she wanted a child. At the time, the Seeking Sister Wife couple had two sons and that was enough for them. Therefore, any potential sister wife would be the one to bring the babies into their family. Once it was confirmed that Roberta would be joining the family, with a few exceptions, she and Garrick started trying for a baby. Unfortunately, she opted to stay in her native Brazil and not come to America.

Is Seeking Sister Wife star Dannielle Merrifield suffering from Bell’s Palsy? Nearly every season, fans have questioned what is going on with her mouth. It appears to have a slight droop to her lower lip and slants to the side. So, what exactly is going on, is she doing okay, or is she battling something more serious? Read on for more details.

Seeking Sister Wife Dannielle Merrifield Suffering From Bell’s Palsy?

Dannielle Merrifield has been looking for a second wife with her husband, Garrick Merrifield since Season 3 of Seeking Sister Wife. They thought that they had found the right person in Roberta but after two seasons, she proved herself to be a scam artist. She had made them so many false promises, made them believe that she would be moving to America from Brazil, but it never came to fruition. They were left brokenhearted and now they are...

Que Nadie Duerma, or Something Is About to Happen, by Antonio Mendez Esparza explores a woman’s gradual descent into madness as she slowly loses the aspects of her life that make her human. In this psychological thriller, through the protagonist’s experiences, Esparza explores the darker nature of human behavior and the consequences of preying on those who are more vulnerable. This theme serves as a morbid commentary on the moral fabric of society. As the protagonist develops an obsession with another character, we see her deal with her self-image and how those around her slowly scavenge the pillars that protect her sanity. Despite its recurring theme about the disappearing line between fiction and reality, Something Is About to Happen holds a sense of realism with its similarities to the real world.

Spoilers Ahead

What Is Lucia’s Story?

Lucia, a software developer in her 30s employed by a firm in Madrid,...

New York-based The Film Sales Company has pounced on the worldwide rights to Colombian documentary feature “Igualada” by Juan Mejía Botero ahead of its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition sidebar.

Mejía Botero, whose most recent feature documentary “Death by a Thousand Cuts” won the Audience Award at Doc NYC, chronicles politician Francia Márquez’s groundbreaking journey from her start as a rural grassroot activist to her history-making campaign to become not only the first black but also the first female president of her native Colombia.

Given exclusive access, Mejía Botero follows Márquez as she “dares to challenge the status quo by launching a presidential campaign in Colombia, a nation beset by profound racial and socio-economic disparities,” per the synopsis.

Reclaiming the derogatory term “igualada” (used to belittle individuals asserting rights deemed beyond their position in society), Márquez propels a movement into the upper spheres of influence,...

The Changing Face of Europe, which is presented by European Film Promotion (Efp) in collaboration with Hot Docs, returns to Toronto with the sixth edition of its festival-within-a-festival program—nine features and one mid-length film—exploring themes around identity, belonging and struggle.

“Over the years, the Changing Face of Europe has become one of the more impactful programs in the lineup, and also an essential component of our festival programming,” Hot Docs artistic director Shane Smith told Variety in advance of the festival.

“Europe has a rich history of and strong connection to the art of documentary filmmaking,” he said. “We are delighted to showcase the powerful work coming out of the continent that sheds light on crucial issues facing Europeans today.”

World-premiering “A Happy Man”, written and directed by anthropologist and filmmaker Soňa G. Lutherova (“Flooded”), tells the story of Marvin, who has moved from the Czech Republic to...

Jamie Bell and Margaret Qualley will star in a biopic about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for Amazon Studios and Automatik called “Fred & Ginger.”

Jonathan Entwistle (“The End of the F—ing World”) will direct the film about the two Old Hollywood movie stars and dance icons. Arash Amel (“A Private War”) will write the script.

“Fred & Ginger” tells the untold love story between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, going behind the scenes of their stage personas and examining what drove them and how they found their creative spark as the most recognizable on-screen musical duo of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Astaire and Rogers starred in 10 films together — nine of them with Rko and between 1933 and 1939 — including such classics as “Top Hat,” “Swing Time” and “Roberta.”

Photo by Rko/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Both Bell and Qualley have deep roots in dance, either on stage or on screen. Bell...

Marge Champion, a dancer and actress known for “Show Boat” and “Give a Girl a Break,” as well the model used by Walt Disney animators for the dancing in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” has died. She was 101.

Champion died Wednesday in Los Angeles while quarantined with her son Gregg Champion, who confirmed her death to the New York Times.

At 14, Champion, born Marjorie Celeste Belcher, was hired as a model by Walt Disney Studios, dancing the part of Snow White so that animators could model her movements and enhance the realism of what would be Disney’s first animated feature film. Disney would later use her as a model for the Blue Fairy in “Pinocchio” (1940) and the hippo with twinkle toes in “Fantasia” (1940).

You can see a video of Belcher dancing to one of the songs from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” below alongside the final footage of the film.

You’re going to have to steel yourself for this monster of a content update. Between them, Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime have an obscene number of quality titles debuting this weekend.

Be it films or television shows, new releases or old classics, there’s a ton to dig into here. So if you’re ready, let’s dive right in…

Netflix

July 31st

Get Even — Netflix Original

Latte and the Magic Waterstone — Netflix Family

Seriously Single — Netflix Film

The Speed Cubers — Netflix Documentary

Sugar Rush: Extra Sweet — Netflix Original

The Umbrella Academy: Season 2 — Netflix Original

Vis a vis: El Oasis (Locked Up) — Netflix Original

August 1st

A Knight’s Tale

Acts of Violence

The Addams Family (1991)

An Education

Being John Malkovich

Death at a Funeral

Dennis the Menace

Elizabeth Harvest

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Hardcore Henry

Iron Man: Armored Adventures: Season 1-2

Jurassic Park...

HBO Max has a lot to offer in August, with titles to look forward to including the premiere of a brand new Seth Rogen movie called “An American Pickle” on Aug. 6, and Christopher Nolan’s 2008 Batman film “The Dark Knight” out Aug. 1.

The nascent streaming service also shares content with HBO, with new films coming like “Jojo Rabbit” out Aug. 1, “Birds of Prey” out Aug. 15, “Richard Jewell” out Aug. 8, and “Queen & Slim,” out Aug. 22. The upcoming series “Lovecraft County,” which mixes fact and fantasy and takes place in 1950s Jim Crow America, arrives Aug. 16.

Leaving throughout the month include, tragically, all eight “Harry Potter” films, which will be gone after Aug. 25. Other absolute classics like “Good Will Hunting,” “You’ve Got Mail,” and both “Kill Bill” movies will be gone after Aug. 31, so watch them while you can.

Below is the full list of everything coming and going in August.

With the end of the month ahead of us, we now have a full list of everything that’s coming to Netflix and the various other streaming services across August. The sites will continue to do their best to keep you from straying out into the sun for the rest of the summer, too, as each of them has got a whole heap of new movies and TV shows coming to their libraries that you’ll want to check out. Mostly classic films you’ll enjoy sticking on again, but also a few much-anticipated originals, too.

See below for the full line-up of titles coming to Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Prime Video, as well as our own picks for what should be on your radar.

August 1

Netflix

A Knight’s Tale

Acts of Violence

The Addams Family (1991)

An Education

Being John Malkovich

Death at a Funeral

Dennis the Menace...

HBO Max is continuing to pull from Warner Bros.’ incredible back catalogue of movies, with August bringing a huge number of new titles to the streaming service. With over 130 new pieces of content, the list of upcoming arrivals encompasses classic films of all kinds, from Oscar winners to comedies, horrors to family pics and, of course, tons of blockbusters.

A highlight for many users will probably be the glut of Batman films coming to HBO Max at the start of the month. Every cinematic outing for the Caped Crusader from 1989’s Batman starring Michael Keaton to 2008’s The Dark Knight with Christian Bale (which just celebrated its 12th anniversary this weekend) are going up on the site. Sticking in Gotham, both seasons of Harley Quinn are also coming to HBO Max, following their original release on DC Universe.

Elsewhere on August 1st, some of the more notable new titles include Before Sunrise and its sequel,...

It’s August 2020 and that can only mean one thing: HBO Max is about to enter Lovecraft Country.

Over the years HBO (and by the transitive property its new HBO Max streaming offshoot) has grown accustomed to debuting a buzzworthy new TV show or limited series every couple of months. For August 2020 that will almost certainly be Southern Gothic horror series Lovecraft Country. The J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele-produced thriller arrives on August 14 on HBO and HBO Max.

Other strong HBO Max originals arriving in August include the documentary Class Action Park (release date Tbd), Seth Rogen-starring comedy An American Pickle (Aug. 6), and finales for I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Doom Patrol, and Perry Mason.

Of course, HBO Max is designed to house much of WarnerMedia’s content across many mediums. That means some recent movies on note like Jojo Rabbit (Aug. 1), Richard Jewell (Aug. 8), and Birds of Prey (Aug.

Composer Max Steiner, whose scores for “King Kong,” “Gone With the Wind” and “Casablanca” placed him in the movie-music pantheon, isn’t much discussed today. He seems to belong to that old-school, pre-synthesizer world of orchestral scoring from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.

But as author Steven C. Smith points out in his engrossing new biography of the three-time Oscar winner, “Music by Max Steiner” (Oxford University Press), the Austrian wunderkind pioneered the art of film scoring and ranks as “Hollywood’s most influential composer.”

His music essentially saved Rko’s “King Kong,” the 1933 giant-ape-wrecks-Manhattan fantasy, forcefully demonstrating the power of dramatic underscore to create mood, propel the action and provide emotional support (and disproving the widely held studio-executive theory that audiences of the time would “wonder where the music came from”).

Steiner went on to score some 300 films over a 35-year career, mostly for Rko and Warner Bros., although...

This article marks Part 1 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the Academy Awards winners.

The 1934 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“Carioca” from “Flying Down to Rio”

“The Continental” from “The Gay Divorcee”

“Love in Bloom” from “She Loves Me Not”

Won: “The Continental” from “The Gay Divorcee”

Should’ve won: “Love in Bloom” from “She Loves Me Not”

The inaugural Best Original Song showdown included a mere three nominees – a far cry from the 10 nominations that would crowd this category a few years later, in 1938. Nominated were tracks from two Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers vehicles and then one, “Love in Bloom,” from an early Bing Crosby picture. None of the three songs are terribly memorable.

It certainly seems to be the year of the woman at the Academy Awards. Greta Gerwig became just the fifth woman to receive a Best Director Oscar nomination for “Lady Bird.” For the first time in the academy’s 90-year history, a woman, AFI Conservancy alum Rachel Morrison, has been nominated for Best Cinematography for “Mudbound.” And the drama’s director Dee Rees made history as the first black woman to receive a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The film’s star Mary J. Blige not only received a supporting actress nomination, but she is also nominated for Best Original Song for “Mighty River” from the film, alongside co-writers Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson.

But it’s been baby steps for women behind the camera in terms of Oscar nominations, let alone wins.

Here is a look at some of the trailblazers:

See 2018 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards...

A version of this article originally appeared on EW.com.

Thanksgiving has arrived and with it comes bingeing of all kinds — but mainly food, shopping and TV. We’ve rounded up all the movie and TV show marathons airing over the long holiday weekend so you can watch your favorite while digesting on the couch.

There’s something for everyone to enjoy, whether you’re a Parks and Recreation fan and just want to spend time with your favorite Pawnee residents or a horror fan looking for a scare-fest like those on IFC and Syfy. Perhaps you’d prefer to...

It's sweet, all right, not to mention sentimental and corny -- As Adeline Schmidt, Irene Dunne leaves her father's beer garden to sing in New York, where she falls prey to a predatory playboy. Set in nostalgic 1898, this Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical features several unfamiliar but marvelous songs. Dunne shows the film world the voice that brought her fame on Broadway -- "Why Was I Born?", "Lonely Feet" -- supported by Donald Woods, Louis Calhern and Dorothy Dare. Warners' new restoration makes this a must see for Irene Dunne fans. Sweet Adeline DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1934 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 87 min. / Street Date October 20, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 18.95 Starring Irene Dunne, Donald Woods, Louis Calhern, Hugh Herbert, Ned Sparks, Wini Shaw, Joseph Cawthorn, Dorothy Dare, Noah Beery, William V. Mong. Cinematography Sol Polito Film Editor Ralph Dawson Art Director Robert Haas Ensembles Director Bobby Connolly...

The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.

AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.

World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...

Fred Astaire ca. 1935. Fred Astaire movies: Dancing in the dark, on the ceiling on TCM Aug. 5, '15, is Fred Astaire Day on Turner Classic Movies, as TCM continues with its “Summer Under the Stars” series. Just don't expect any rare Astaire movies, as the actor-singer-dancer's star vehicles – mostly Rko or MGM productions – have been TCM staples since the early days of the cable channel in the mid-'90s. True, Fred Astaire was also featured in smaller, lesser-known fare like Byron Chudnow's The Amazing Dobermans (1976) and Yves Boisset's The Purple Taxi / Un taxi mauve (1977), but neither one can be found on the TCM schedule. (See TCM's Fred Astaire movie schedule further below.) Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals Some fans never tire of watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing together. With these particular fans in mind, TCM is showing – for the nth time – nine Astaire-Rogers musicals of the '30s,...

Irene Dunne movies: Five-time Best Actress Academy Award nominee starred in now-forgotten originals of well-remembered remakes In his August 2007 Bright Lights article "The Elusive Pleasures of Irene Dunne," Dan Callahan explained that "the reasons for Irene Dunne’s continuing, undeserved obscurity are fairly well known. Nearly all of her best films from the thirties and forties were remade and the originals were suppressed and didn’t play on television. She did some of her most distinctive work for John Stahl at Universal, and non-horror Universal films are rarely shown now. Practically all of her movies need to be restored; even her most popular effort, The Awful Truth (1937), looks grainy and blotchy on its DVD transfer, to say nothing of things like Stahl’s When Tomorrow Comes (1939), or Rouben Mamoulian’s High, Wide, and Handsome (1937), two key Dunne films that have languished and deteriorated in a sort of television/video purgatory.

Part of a series by David Cairns on forgotten pre-Code films.

"Crime must not pay" is one of the most debilitating rules the Hays Code imposed on Hollywood. It's relatively easy for a filmmaker to work around crazy bans on words ("pregnant"), body parts (gone, all those extreme-longshot buttocks) or gestures (Frank McHugh raises a finger in Parachute Jumper), but when a philosophical ideal is given the weight of narrative law, cinema is forced back into the nursery. The filmmakers operating under this draconian blue pencil developed devious skills to bypass rulings and imply rather than say the unsayable, and it arguably helped their craft, but at the same time, certain kinds of stories just become impossible to tell honestly.

And certain kinds of fun were ruled out too, like much of what happens in Sing and Like It, directed by the lightly likable William A. Seiter, who clocked up well over a hundred films,...

Howard Keel on TCM: Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate Callaway Went Thataway is a pleasant comedy in which Keel has two roles: that of a cowboy star who spends most of his time wasted and a naive hick hired to impersonate said cowboy star. Keel is fine in both comedic roles, and so is Dorothy McGuire as the Hollywood slicker who falls for him. Fred MacMurray, as usual, is just there; also there are Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, and Esther Williams playing themselves in brief cameos. Charles Walters' Texas Carnival (1951) is a disappointingly flat Esther Williams musical. Not even Ann Miller manages to save this one. Robert Alton's Pagan Love Song (1950) uses the song and the setting — but not the story — of the 1929 Ramon Novarro blockbuster The Pagan. Nacio Herb Brown and future producer of MGM musicals Arthur Freed wrote the hit song "Pagan Love Song,...

Call me old-fashioned, call me an insanely committed movie dork; hell, call me an insanely committed, old-fashioned movie dork but there's nothing I like better on Valentine's Day than a quiet night in with my wife, a home-cooked meal and great old films. Our favorites are the classic MGM musicals. You can't go wrong with Gene Kelly, of course, but I think Valentine's Day belongs to Fred Astaire, who produced many of his best onscreen moments with a woman at his side. The air of romance in Astaire's best films is so thick it's beyond intoxicating: it's positively infectious. Here are five of his most insanely romantic dance numbers.

"I'll Be Hard to Handle"

From "Roberta" (1935)

Featuring Astaire and Ginger Rogers

The first image we think of when we think of Astaire is the elegant gentleman in top hat and tails, squiring Ginger Rogers to some impossibly lavish Depression-era ball.

Ramona and Beetlejuice? Now that would.ve been interesting. However, Beverly Cleary.s rambunctious creation Ramona springs to life in this big screen adaptation. It.s a great time for the whole family. Ramona Quimby (Joey King) is a rambunctious third grader, the bane of her teacher Mrs. Meacham (Sandra Oh), living on Klickitat Street. She lives with her older sister Beatrice .Beezus. (Selena Gomez), baby sister Roberta (Aila and Zanti McCubbing), mom Dorothy (Bridget Moynahan), and dad Robert (John Corbett). Beezus was the unfortunate nickname bestowed upon Beatrice by the baby Ramona and there.s no love lost because of it. Beezus is always trying to impress Henry (Hutch Dano) but Ramona seems to accidentally sabotage those encounters. The Quimby.s live next door...

Cowboy film pin-up Virginia Carroll has died at the age of 95.

The model-turned-actress passed away of natural causes last week (23Ju09).

Carroll made her film debut in 1935's Roberta and she went on to appear alongside cowboy stars including Roy Rogers and Gene Autry in movies such as The Masked Rider and Overland Trail. She was also a regular on The Roy Rogers Show.

Her first husband was actor Ralph Byrd, who played Dick Tracy on the big and small screen.