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Director Benjamin Caron’s crime drama, Night Always Comes, is quite topical in dealing with the discourse of survival in the present age of ever-increasing economic divide. As the downbeat narrative charts the night-spanning dangerous escapades of Vanessa Kirby’s lead, a depressive undertone emphasizes the pointless perennial struggle most of us financially crippled souls are going through. As a character-driven drama, Night Always Comes finds its core strength in a power-packed performance by Vanessa Kirby, while even in their brief screentime, the supporting characters played by the talented cast offer due assistance.

Spoilers Ahead

Lynette Played by Vanessa Kirby

British actor Vanessa Kirby started her acting career on the stage, performing in all-time classics like All My Sons, A Streetcar Named Desire, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to name a few. She rose to prominence starring in the acclaimed historical series The Crown as Princess Margaret of Sweden. Since then,...

Our decision to declare Miami Vice this century’s greatest action film some eight years ago was neither made lightly nor received unanimously, but fortune favors the bold. Part and parcel of its canonization, Michael Mann’s classic streams on Criterion this July as part of Miami Neonoir, a set boasting Larry Clark’s Bully, the recently departed George Armitage’s Miami Blues, Out of Sight, Body Heat, and John Bailey’s lesser-seen China Moon. Series-wise, films about David Lynch, Picasso, and Basquiat fill out Portraits of Artists, while Summer Romances arrives just in time for you to imagine a better life than watching movies on your laptop.

July is a retrospective-heavy month: the recently restored, totally essential films of Jacques Rozier, works directed and shot by D.A. Pennebaker, shorts by Suzan Pitt, and Lino Brocka, Moustapha Alassane, Michael Haneke, and Hou Hsiao-hsien programs are complemented by an exposition of the Rolling Stones on film.

Exclusive: Alec Baldwin has signed with UTA for representation in all areas.

Known for his four decades of work across film, television, and theater, Baldwin is a three-time Emmy winner and three-time Golden Globe winner who received seven consecutive SAG Awards for his role as executive Jack Donaghy on NBC’s Tina Fey comedy 30 Rock. He earned an Oscar nomination for The Cooler, a Tony Award nomination for A Streetcar Named Desire, and is a longtime contributor to Saturday Night Live, where his portrayal of Donald Trump earned him his third Emmy in 2017.

On the film side, Baldwin’s other credits include Beetlejuice, Miami Blues, The Hunt for Red October, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice, The Edge, The Departed, The Aviator, It’s Complicated, Blue Jasmine, Still Alice, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Framing John Delorean and Motherless Brooklyn. He also voices the title role in DreamWorks’ hit animated franchise The Boss Baby.

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

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

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

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

Are you in the mood for an underrated neo-noir that comes highly recommended by Guillermo del Toro? Well, I’ve got just what you need to scratch that very specific itch. I’m talking about a forgotten Alec Baldwin movie called Miami Blues. The Mimic director is a big fan of the film, that much is apparent from a previous Twitter (it will never be X to me) post.

Guillermo del Toro’s status update reads: “Film: Miami Blues by George Ermitage [sic]. One of the key sunny-noir movies of the end of the 20th century. High-precision acting and writing.”

Miami Blues is adapted from the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford. George Armitage takes the sole screenwriting credit in addition to helming.

The picture had a lively development phase with a couple of noteworthy near misses with talented creatives. The producers considered Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) to direct at one point,...

Just over a week ago, we had to share the sad news that director George Armitage, best known for bringing the world Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues, had passed away at the age of 82. Armitage got his start in the entertainment industry at the start of the 1970s, writing the film Gas-s-s for producer Roger Corman and then going on to write and direct Private Duty Nurses and write Night Call Nurses, also for Corman. By the end of the ’70s, he had written and directed the films Hit Man and Vigilante Force, as well as the TV movie Hot Rods, and wrote the scripts for the film Darktown Strutters and an episode of the TV series Monty Nash. Oddly, he did not earn any writing or directing credits in the 1980s – but, of course, this was not for a lack of trying. In fact, Kevin Tenney, the writer...

While Gene Hackman and Quincy Jones received stand-alone memorial tributes during Sunday’s Oscars telecast, several other notables did not appear in the show’s annual “in memoriam” segment.

Michelle Trachtenberg, who died suddenly last week at age 39, was one prominent name not included, to the dismay of many social media users. While perhaps best-known for work on TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she also appeared in a number of films including Harriet the Spy, EuroTrip and Ice Princess.

Others excluded from the montage included British actress Olivia Hussey. She won numerous awards, including a Golden Globe for playing the female lead in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film version of Romeo & Juliet and later turned up in Black Christmas and Death on the Nile.

Hussey and her then-young co-star Leonard Whiting sued Paramount Pictures in 2023, alleging they suffered physical and mental pain as well as “extreme and severe...

Beloved director of such iconic films as Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues, George Armitage, has died at 82. A popular director in the '90s and Roger Corman protégé, known for his dark comedies, he also helmed the 1972 Blaxploitation film called Hit Man. The news was confirmed by his son, the writer-producer Brent Armitage.

Born and briefly raised in Hartford, Connecticut, Armitage's family moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s. His first job in the industry was in the mail room at 20th Century Fox, which led to him getting into production on television shows. He worked as an associate producer on the soap opera Peyton Place starting in 1967, and leveraged that experience to get in with the folks at Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Corman was a revolutionary in the industry, creating an entire ecosystem of micro-budget films that gave many Hollywood mega-talents their start.

RelatedWhy Grosse Pointe Blank...

George Armitage, the director of Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues, as well as a close collaborator of Roger Corman’s, has died. He was 82.

George Armitage entered the business in the ‘70s but it took a while to find his footing. That came with 1990’s Miami Blues, which starred Alec Baldwin as a criminal fresh out of prison posing as a cop with a stolen police badge. Armitage would develop his mixture of crime and comedy later that decade with 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack and Minnie Driver.

Even though he was a buddy of Corman’s, it does feel like George Armitage is too rarely mentioned in the list of notable directors who got their start working under him. But we can’t ignore where he got his start. George Armitage met Roger Corman at just the right time in the 1960s. In 1971, Corman hired him to write Gas-s-s,...

Armitage was also responsible for the 1972 blaxploitation remake of Get Carter, made during his time working for Roger Corman

George Armitage, director of 90s indie hits Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues, as well as Hit Man, the 70s blaxploitation remake of Get Carter, has died aged 82. Variety reported he died on 15 February in Playa del Rey in California.

Armitage started out in TV, working on the celebrated TV soap opera Peyton Place, then broke into features via Roger Corman’s micro-budget studio New World in the late 1960s. He subsequently specialised in crime films: Grosse Pointe Blank, which starred John Cusack and Minnie Driver, was his biggest commercial hit, and his final directorial credit was the Elmore Leonard adaptation The Big Bounce in 2004.

George Armitage, the filmmaker behind Miami Blues and Grosse Pointe Blank, has died at the age of 83. His son, Brent Armitage, confirmed that he passed away on February 15 in Playa del Rey, California.

Armitage’s career in Hollywood began in the 1960s and spanned decades. He directed and wrote films that combined crime, action, and humor, earning a reputation for his approach to storytelling.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1942, Armitage moved to Los Angeles in 1957. He studied political science at UCLA while developing an interest in filmmaking. His first industry job was in the mailroom at 20th Century Fox, leading to a role as an associate producer on Peyton Place in 1967.

His transition to feature films came after connecting with producer Roger Corman. Armitage wrote Gas-s-s-s or It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It (1970), a satirical youth comedy. This led to more work with Corman,...

George Armitage, who co-wrote and directed the Alec Baldwin-starring Miami Blues and helmed another 1990s black comedy, Grosse Pointe Blank, starring John Cusack, has died. He was 83.

Armitage died Feb. 15 in Playa del Rey, California, his son, Brent Armitage, announced.

As was the case with many others, Armitage got a big career boost in the early 1970s from legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman at New World Pictures.

Armitage also wrote and directed MGM’s Hit Man (1972), starring Bernie Casey and Pam Grier, and United Artists’ Vigilante Force (1976), starring Kris Kristofferson and Jan-Michael Vincent. Both those films were produced by Roger’s brother, Gene Corman.

Miami Blues (1990), based on the series of Hoke Moseley books by author Charles Willeford, featured Baldwin as Frederick J. Frenger Jr., who steals the badge and gun of a veteran cop (Fred Ward as Moseley) and embarks on an outrageous crime spree with a hooker...

George Armitage, the film director best known for the 1996 crime thriller/comedy “Grosse Pointe Blank” and the 1990 neo-noir “Miami Blues,” died Saturday, his son announced Friday. He was 82; no cause of death was made public.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1942, Armitage moved with his mother to Beverly Hills at age 13 and attended UCLA. He began his career in entertainment working in the mail room at 20th Century Fox and, rising quickly, became an associate producer on “Peyton Place” in 1966 when he was still only 23 years old.

He made the jump to films later in the decade, writing the script for the 1970 Roger Corman film “Gas-s-s-s” before making his directorial debut with “Private Duty Nurses” the same year. He wrote the script for a sequel, “Night Call Nurses” in 1972 and that same year also wrote and directed “Hit Man” starring Bernie Casey.

Other films he wrote and directed include “Vigilante Force...

George Armitage, who directed, wrote and produced films including “Grosse Pointe Blank” and “Miami Blues,” died Saturday in Playa del Rey, his son Brent confirmed. He was 83.

Raised in Hartford, Conn., Armitage started out in the 20th Century Fox mailroom before becoming associate producer on the long-running series “Peyton Place” in the 1960s. He met Roger Corman on the Fox lot and moved into feature films, writing the Corman-produced 1970 comedy “Gas! – Or – It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.”

He continued making films for Corman and his brother Gene Corman, moving into directing with “Private Duty Nurses.” The 1972 Blaxploitation film “Hit Man,” which he directed and co-wrote, starred Pam Grier and Bernie Casey. Next up was “Vigilante Force,” with Kris Kristofferson and Jan-Michael Vincent, and the TV movie “Hot Rod.”

“Kaplan, Demme, Dante, Arkush and me… We were making little 45 Rpm rock ’n’ roll movies.

George Armitage, the director known for Hit Man (1972), Miami Blues (1990) and Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), has died. He was 82.

The writer, director and producer died last Saturday, Deadline has confirmed with his former agency Gersh. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

Born Dec. 13, 1942 in Hartford, Connecticut, Armitage moved to Beverly Hills with his family as a child. After majoring in political science and economics at UCLA, he found himself breaking into the film industry, working in the mail room at 20th Century Fox while waiting for his real estate license to come through.

Within a year, Armitage was an associate producer on the ABC soap Peyton Place. “It was an incredible experience,” he recalled in 2015.

“There was a producer there named Everett Chambers who would work on a number of films with John Cassavetes, he was usually helpful,” said Armitage. “This was just at the time when the fortysomething...

The classic noir genre is often associated with the rise of hard-boiled detective stories in the 1940s, which lionized iconic detective characters like Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe. Although this style of mystery cinema eventually began to fade away, there was a resurgence of films that managed to recontextualize the genre by changing its tone or genre; Blade Runner brought noir into the future, and Red Rock West was introduced as a Western-centirc mystery. The noir genre has legions of fans, but even its most ardent admirers may have to admit that there are times in which the stories can be pretty ridiculous. Miami Blues was a very dark comedy that lampooned the notion of a complex anti-hero and managed to flip the entire neo-noir genre on its head. While the film was not a significant success during its initial release in 1990, Miami Blues has established itself as a cult...

Plot: A detective (Benicio del Toro) living in New England with his wife (Alicia Silverstone) investigates the gruesome death of a local real estate magnate’s (Justin Timberlake) wife.

Review: There’s a version of Reptile that could have been a standard cop noir. After all, how many movies have we seen about a rumpled detective investigating a murder that implicates a well-connected family? Yet, director Grant Singer seems less interested in making the straight-laced neo-noir this could have been and instead turns this into a quirky, darkly comedic riff on the genre that almost functions as a spoof at times. After all, a movie that uses Bob Dylan’s ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door” for a gunfight can’t expect us to take it entirely seriously.

Reptile is a weird but wonderful surprise. The odd vibe will turn some off, and it took me about thirty minutes to finally...

“The Silence of the Lambs” executive producer Gary Goetzman has been a major player in Hollywood for the last four decades (especially after he followed that Best Picture-winner by co-founding Playtone with Tom Hanks in 1998), but many in and around the film industry were unfamiliar with his story until Paul Thomas Anderson made a movie about it. “That was some version of my story, at least,” Goetzman chuckled when I asked him about “Licorice Pizza” during a recent Zoom interview from his office in Los Angeles, where he’s putting the finishing touches on “Masters of the Air,” a high-altitude Apple miniseries in the tradition of “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific.” “So many events in ‘Licorice Pizza,’ are true, but everything around it is kind of not.”

Specifics notwithstanding, Anderson’s coming-of-age comedy — set in the San Fernando Valley circa 1973 and starring Cooper Hoffman as 15-year-old “Gary Valentine” — certainly...

A couple months after spotlighting the world’s greatest actress, the Criterion Channel have taken a logical next step towards America’s greatest actress. May (or: next week) will bring an eleven-film celebration of Jennifer Jason Leigh, highlights including Verhoeven’s Flesh + Blood, Miami Blues, Alan Rudolph’s Mrs. Parker, her directorial debut The Anniversary Party, and Synecdoche, New York, and a special introduction from Leigh. Another actor’s showcase localizes directorial collaborations: Jimmy Stewart’s time with Anthony Mann, an eight-title series boasting the likes of Winchester ’73 and The Man from Laramie. Two more: a survey of ’80s Asian-American cinema (Chan Is Missing being the best-known) and 14 movies by Seijun Suzuki.

That would be enough for one month (or two), but No Bears and Cette maison will have their streaming premieres, while Criterion Editions offers the Infernal Affairs trilogy (plus its packed set), Days of Heaven, and the aforementioned Chan Is Missing.

(Welcome to Best Actor Ever, an ongoing series where we explore the careers and performances of the greatest performers to ever grace the screen.)

There is not an actor in the history of moving pictures who has been more egregiously taken for granted by her industry than Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Critics have always had her back. The New York Times' Janet Maslin got it from the jump when she singled Leigh out as "the only thing worth seeing" in her film debut "Eyes of a Stranger." The better-than-average 1981 slasher film set the tone for Leigh's career in that she plays a victim. Her character is a blind-deaf mute whose condition was brought on by being kidnapped and raped at an early age. The 19-year-old Leigh projects sweetness and innocence, but this young woman is all serrated edges. Because she isn't just a victim. She's a survivor.

Roger Ebert was also an early admirer of Leigh,...

Fred Ward, a prolific actor best known for roles in The Right Stuff, Tremors, Miami Blues, True Detective and many others, died May 8. He was 79.

His death was announced by his publicist. No cause or place of death was disclosed.

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery

Ward, a San Diego native, began his professional career with small roles in 1970s episodic television before making a strong impression in his breakthrough film Southern Comfort, directed by Walter Hill and released in 1981. Two years later, he’d star as astronaut Gus Grissom in the hit film The Right Stuff.

Featured roles would quickly follow, including in such films as Silkwood, Swing Shift, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Tremors, Henry & June, the Robert Altman movies The Player and Short Cuts Errol Morris’ The Dark Wind and Michael Apted’s Thunderheart. He starred in and exec-produced the 1990 film Miami Blues, directed by...

Fred Ward, the versatile character actor who starred in films like Tremors, The Right Stuff and Henry & June during a career that spanned five decades, has died at the age of 79. Ward’s rep, Ron Hoffman, confirmed the actor’s May 8 death in a statement, though no cause of death was provided.

An Air Force veteran and amateur boxer before becoming an actor — his tough guy look and gruff exterior was attained thanks to a few broken noses in the ring — Ward was equally adept when featuring in dramas,...

Fred Ward, iconic character actor and star of films like “The Right Stuff,” “Tremors,” “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins,” “Miami Blues,” and “Henry & June,” has died. He passed away on Sunday, May 8, as confirmed by his representatives. The Golden Globe winner was also known for starring in Robert Altman films like “The Player” and “Short Cuts.”

Fred Ward is survived by his wife of 27 years, Marie-France Ward, and his son, Django Ward.

On screens since the early 1970s after serving in the U.S. Air Force and stints as an order cook, boxer, and a lumberjack in Alaska, Ward was known for his versatility in both comic and dramatic roles. He could play author Henry Miller in “Henry & June,” the world’s first Nc-17 movie, or a dirt bike rider in “Timerider: The Aventure of Lyle Swann.” But his first major role came in Clint Eastwood’s 1979 “Escape from Alcatraz...

Fred Ward, who starred in films including “Henry and June,” “Tremors,” “The Right Stuff” and “The Player,” died May 8, his publicist confirmed to Variety. He was 79.

Among his other prominent roles were parts in “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins,” “Miami Blues” and “Short Cuts.”

There was a certain retro quality to the actor’s persona that made Ward seem more akin to Humphrey Bogart or John Garfield (although not quite with those actors’ level of charisma) than to his contemporaries, and it did not seem at all affected. He appeared to be the sort of fellow who hailed from the South Side of Chicago or Hell’s Kitchen, but he was actually from San Diego.

Ward most recently appeared in the second season of HBO’s “True Detective” as Eddie Velcoro, the retired cop father of Colin Farrell’s Det. Ray Velcoro.

He recurred on NBC’s “ER” as the...

Update, 2:12 Pm: Alec Baldwin’s attempt at indemnification over the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins may have just blown up in his face, at least morally.

The indie Western star and producer’s ill-considered inclusion of his interaction with now widower Matt Hutchins in an arbitration filing against his fellow Rust producers has now incurred the wrath of the Hutchins’ estate lawyer. “Shameful” is what Brian Panish is calling Baldwin’s legal non sequitur and disclosures of personal correspondence.

Having filed a wrongful death suit against Baldwin, other Rust producers and crew members last month, Panish | Shea | Boyle | Ravipudi attorney has put The Cooler actor on a different kind of notice – as you can see below:

Alec Baldwin once again is trying to avoid liability and accountability for his reckless actions before and on Oct 21st that resulted in the death of Halyna Hutchins, as demonstrated by...

While the other streaming services set up recurring franchises, Hulu has opted to get a bit more experimental with its original offerings in August 2021.

Hulu’s list of new releases this month is highlighted by three original series concepts with promise. Reservation Dogs premieres on August 9. Co-created by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), this story will follow four indigenous teenagers in Oklahoma as they stave off boredom and adulthood. Next up is Nine Perfect Strangers on August 18. This miniseries, based on a book of the same name, is produced by David E. Kelley and features staggering cast of Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Luke Evans, Samara Weaving, and more.

Only Murders in the Building is likely the biggest thing to look forward to in August though. Premiering on August 31, this comedy stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as three true crime-obsessed friends who stumble into a true crime of their own.

Legendary stuntman Buddy Joe Hooker joins Josh and Joe to discuss the movies that made him.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Harold And Maude (1971)

White Lightning (1974)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

White Line Fever (1975)

Bound For Glory (1976)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The Outsider (1980)

Freebie And The Bean (1978)

Sharky’s Machine (1981)

First Blood (1982)

Night Shift (1982)

Rumble Fish (1983)

Against All Odds (1984)

To Live And Die In L.A. (1985)

F/X (1986)

Tucker The Man And His Dream (1988)

Sea of Love (1989)

Miami Blues (1990)

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Demolition Man (1993)

The Crow (1994)

Waterworld (1995)

From Dusk Till Dawn(1996)

Grosse Point Blank (1997)

Django Unchained (2012)

Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park (1978)

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Kagemusha (1980)

Ran (1985)

The Fugitive (1993)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

The Bourne Identity (2002)

Casino Royale (2006)

Quantum of Solace (2008)

The Fast And The Furious (2001)

The Strongest Man In The World (1975)

The War of the Worlds (1953)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Bullitt (1968)

Robbery (1967)

S.O.B. (1981)

Vanishing Point...

Summer used to be the time for blockbusters, but the slow creep of all-summer-movies-all-year-long means that we know get a new Pixar film, a live action adaptation of a Disney classic and a sequel to a 2018 horror hit in…March. Also this month: a buddy film involving two frontiersmen and a cow; a sports movie doubling as a fallen star’s potential comeback vehicle; and a film deemed too hot for 2019. Here’s what’s coming soon to a theater near you.

The Burnt Orange Heresy (Mar. 6th)

The tough,...

The 37th edition of Miami Dade College's Miami Film Festival returns to downtown Miami with more than 125 feature films, documentaries, and short films from 30 countries, screening March 6-15. This year's edition opens with The Burnt Orange Heresy (pictured), directed by Giuseppe Capotondi and starring Mick Jagger, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Debicki, and Claes Bang. It's the fifth screen adaptation of the late Miami noir novelist Charles Willeford; the festival will also screen a 35mm print of another Willeford adaptation, George Armitage's Miami Blues, starring Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh, to mark the film's 30th anniversary. The festival closes with Cristina Constantini and Kareem Tabsch's documentary Mucho Mucho Amor, about the late Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado, a flamboyant figure who charmed many with his televised horoscopes....

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The Miami Film Festival will open on March 6 with “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” starring Mick Jagger, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Debicki and Claes Bang.

Miami Dade College’s festival, now in its 37th edition and running March 6-15, will screen more than 125 narrative features, documentaries and shorts from 30 countries.

“Charles Willeford’s classic 1971 art world noir thriller ‘The Burnt Orange Heresy’ has been updated by director Giuseppe Capotondi and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Scott Smith into a biting satire of the world of contemporary high art and the attendant, controversial role of art criticism that swirls around it – an apt examination for Miami’s current major destination status on the international art market,” said festival director Jaie Laplante. “The film is swanky, steamy and sexy, with Willeford’s jet-black, cruelly ironic humor firmly intact.”

A 30th anniversary screening of “Miami Blues,” also adapted from a Willeford story,

will screen during the festival,...

HanWay Films has closed out worldwide sales on “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” the art-heist film that screened in Venice and Toronto. The movie stars Mick Jagger, Claes Bang, and Donald Sutherland. It closed the Venice Film Festival.

In addition to North America, where Giuseppe Capotondi’s film will open in spring 2020, Spc has acquired rights in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Latin America, South Africa, and Thailand.

“The Burnt Orange Heresy” is based on the screenplay written by Academy Award nominee Scott B. Smith (“A Simple Plan”), which has been adapted from Charles Willeford’s cult novel “Miami Blues.” Set in present-day Italy, it follows art critic James Figueras (Bang) who has fallen from grace. Wealthy art dealer Joseph Cassidy (Jagger) summons James to his villa on Lake Como and asks him to steal a painting from the reclusive artist Jerome Debney (Sutherland).

HanWay has also...

A kooky, disposable caper that’s light on charm and heavy on nonsense, Hadi Hajaig’s “Blue Iguana” was conceived as a throwback to the golden age of VHS crime-comedies — as the kind of freewheeling late-80s’ fare in which anything could happen because everything turned a profit on home video. And maybe, if you squint really hard, you can see the faintest shades of films like “Something Wild” or “Miami Blues” mixed into this manic parade of dumb criminals and even dumber plotting. Alas, anybody who watches Hajaig’s movie that closely will be more transfixed by the enormous gap between what the writer-director was going for and what he ultimately got.

Harkening back to John Lafia’s 1988 “The Blue Iguana” (a forgotten video store treasure starring Dylan McDermott as a bounty hunter) and Michael Radford’s more recent “Dancing at the Blue Iguana” (a Daryl Hannah/Sandra Oh...

After her break out role in the ’80s classic “Fast Times At Ridgemont High,” the enigmatic and darkly charming Jennifer Jason Leigh has charted a course in film unlike any other. This month, the Alamo Drafthouse honors her varied and galvanizing career in a much deserved retrospective, aptly titled “Jennifer Jason Leigh!”

The series, which began last night and continues into May, spans Leigh’s decades-long career, which includes David Cronenberg’s “eXistenZ,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Flesh + Blood,” and Joel and Ethan Coen’s “The Hudsucker Proxy.” One of her most recognizable films opened the series, Stephen King’s “Dolores Claiborne,” in which she went head to head opposite Kathy Bates in a bear of a role.

Read More: ‘Raw’ Review: This Tasty Art Horror Is David Cronenberg For Teen Feminists

Of particular note is the criminally under-appreciated “The Anniversary Party,” which she wrote, produced, and directed with her friend...

Gas-s-s-s – Or – It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen/ 79 min. / Street Date October 18, 2016 / Gas-s-s-s / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Elaine Giftos, Robert Corff, Cindy Williams, Bud Cort, Ben Vereen, Tally Coppola, Lou Procopio.

Cinematography: Ron Dexter

Film Editor: George Van Noy

Original Music: Country Joe and the Fish

Written and Produced by George Armitage

Directed by Roger Corman

Roger Corman finally accepted himself as an iconic filmmaker for this, his final show for A.I.P.. Barely released and long considered a failure, Gas-s-s-s – Or – It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It sees Corman and his writer associate George Armitage attempting a Mad magazine- like amalgam of all the counterculture trends of the late 1960s. That tactical mistake becomes eighty minutes of unfocused and unfunny satire. Armitage’s script and dialogue might occasionally hit some serendipitous notes,...

2016 is coming. No matter what your mood is when the clock strikes midnight, we've got your streaming needs covered for that cold, cold morning of January 1.  Lighthearted acceptance: "Meet the Fockers" (Netflix) I prefer to think of "Meet the Fockers" as a tag team Celebrity Deathmatch: Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner vs. Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. Whose wisecracks land hardest? Whose anxiety-inducing jabs make Greg Focker tweak hardest? It's hard to say. I feel like conventional wisdom tells you this movie is inferior to the original, but Dustin and Barbra are wholly original, hilarious characters. Along with "The Guilt Trip," this makes two times Barbra Streisand has played believable, quirky Jewish mothers who don't seem all that much like Barbra Streisand. Unthinkable devastation: "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (Netflix)   Tilda Swinton's kid is a born psychopath. I know we're supposed to find his wrath horrifying,...

The advertising promised a surfeit of sleaze -- but the film is a superior thriller about a real-life, low-rent serial killers from back in the late 1940s. Tony Lo Bianco and the great Shirley Stoler are Ray and Martha, mixed-up lovers running a Merry Widow racket through the personals ads in romance magazines. Leonard Kastle's film is dramatically and psychologically sound, while the disc extras detail the true crime story, which is far, far, sleazier. The Honeymoon Killers Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 200 1969 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 107 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 29, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Shirley Stoler, Tony Lo Bianco, Mary Jane Higby, Doris Roberts, Kip McArdle, Marilyn Chris, Dortha Duckworth, Barbara Cason, Ann Harris Cinematography Oliver Wood Film Editor Richard Brophy, Stanley Warnow Music Gustav Mahler Produced by Warren Steibel Written and Directed by Leonard Kastle  

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The ad campaign for this crime shocker...

Miami Blues: Riches’ Sophomore Effort Back Pedals

At its core, perhaps The Strongest Man could best be described as a character study concerning one man finding his voice and coming into his own. Except, we never really get to learn terribly too much about him, despite an overabundance of omnisciently shared inner thoughts. This sophomore effort of director Kenny Riches attempts to convey an alternative perspective in its depiction of growing up in the Us with immigrant parents, at least in what we’re accustomed to in these types of films about adolescent minded adults riding the fine line between fun and annoying. But the film’s tone fluctuates between buddy comedy, immigrant story, classist critique, character odyssey, and ultimately, romance, to the degree where none of these elements end satisfactorily.

Beef (Robert Lorie) works in construction with his best bud Conan (Paul Chamberlain). They’ve been friends since they were youths,...

All week long our writers will debate: Which was the greatest film year of the past half century. Click here for a complete list of our essays. How to decide in the grand scheme of things which film year stands above all others? History gives us no clear methodology to unravel this thorny but extremely important question. Is it the year with the highest average score of movies? So a year that averages out to a B + might be the winner over a field strewn with B’s, despite a few A +’s. Or do a few masterpieces lift up a year so far that whatever else happened beyond those three or four films is of no consequence? Both measures are worthy, and the winner by either of those would certainly be a year not to be sneezed at. But I contend the only true measure of a year’s...

Bernie Casey strides purposefully through Hit Man, his flamboyant hat tilted at a rakish angle over a graying Afro, his ex-professional-football player frame squeezed into a series of tight trousers. If he emerges as Hit Man’s hero, it’s only because his brutally efficient enforcer qualifies as marginally less evil than the human parasites around him. Miami Blues and Grosse Pointe Blank director George Armitage directed this 1972 blaxploitation adaptation of Jack’s Return Home, the Ted Lewis novel that previously inspired the seminal British gangster film Get Carter. He strands Casey’s grittily charismatic protagonist in some of ...

For an actress who's been working regularly for more than 35 years (since the age of 9), and who comes from a Hollywood family (her father was actor Vic Morrow and her mother is screenwriter Barbara Turner), the great Jennifer Jason Leigh seems severely taken for granted. It's possibly fitting that outside her Best Villain win at the 1992 MTV Movie Awards, her most prestigious non-critic or non-festival-based awards have come through being part of ensembles. Unlike some great performers regularly likened to chameleons, she's more comparable to a camouflaging lizard for her ability not to stand out too much while doing her job perfectly -- I don't consider it bad that I forgot she's in Synecdoche, New York, for instance.

Try to name her best performance, or her best movie. It's not easy, whether because she's consistently brilliant or because she's not exactly in many truly brilliant films. And honestly, I may...

Neil Labute will write and direct an adaptation of "The Burnt Orange Heresy," Charles Willeford's crime novel set in the world of modern art, with William Horberg ("The Kite Runner") producing.According to Variety, the project re-teams Labute with Horberg after the duo worked on the remake of "Death at a Funeral."Willeford's novel, set in Palm Beach, centers on a corrupt art critic's attempts to arrange an interview with a legendary but reclusive French painter.Horberg noted that he was an associate producer on "Miami Blues," another Willeford adaptation, bringing the project to Jonathon Demme and George Armitage at the start of his career. He was an executive producer on "Milk" and is currently executive producing "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark"...

Neil Labute will re-team with his Death at a Funeral producer William Horberg to direct an adaptation of Charles Willeford's art world crime novel The Burnt Orange Heresy, according to Variety. This isn't the first time Willeford's work has made it to the screen; he scripted Cockfighter (Monte Hellman! Warren Oates!) from his own novel, and Horberg previously produced an adaptation of Willeford's Miami Blues, starring a young Alec Baldwin. The Burnt Orange Heresy, published in 1971, was Willeford's first hardcover original after a string of pulp paperbacks. Not that the book isn't lurid; "crossing the art world with the underworld!" is from one description. Story follows a womanizing art critic, Jacques Figueras, who advances his art career with shady dealings: blackmail, burglary, assassination. Figueras gets into trouble when he begins to work for an art collector who has no boundaries when it comes to how his pieces are collected.

• Indie producer William Horberg is going full circle. Commencing his career as a producer with Alec Baldwin pic called Miami Blues, which I never saw, but distinctly remember the cover box because of Alec Baldin's chest hair, Horberg is returning to American author Charles Willeford source material for his next producing gig. Variety reports that Horberg is re-teaming with his Death at a Funeral director Neil Labute on a book you could probably find in the 99 cent bins at your local used bookstore. Horberg produced the distinctly Brit version (Frank Oz) and the upcoming African American comedy due out next year.  The Burnt Orange Heresy is set in Palm Beach and centers on a corrupt art critic's attempts to finagle an interview with a legendary but reclusive French painter. I know that some folks in my circle of friends have given up hope the director who once gave us

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