News

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Magic Hour, a new indie drama co-written, directed by and starring Katie Aselton, on the heels of its SXSW premiere, slating the film for release in theaters next year.

Starring Aselton, Daveed Diggs, and Brad Garrett, the film follows Erin (Aselton) and Charlie (Diggs) as they escape to the desert to navigate an unexpected and challenging new phase of their relationship. However, the rendezvous shows they couldn’t be further apart, revealing an even more striking turn in their marriage.

Written by Aselton and her husband and frequent collaborator Mark Duplass, the film hails from the latter’s Duplass Brothers Productions. Emily A. Neumann produced, with Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, and Mel Eslyn exec producing for Duplass Brothers Productions. We were first to report on the project in April 2024.

“I’m thrilled to be partnering with Greenwich,” said Aselton in a statement to Deadline.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall during the writing process that sparked Katie Aselton’s fourth directorial effort, “Magic Hour.” Written alongside her real-life husband (and fellow filmmaker) Mark Duplass, Aselton has made it clear in press materials that the film, about a loving if troubled married couple (played by Aselton and Daveed Diggs) isn’t explicitly about her actual marriage. But it’s also not not about her and Duplass’ long-running relationship. Still, once you see where Aselton and Duplass’ script takes their characters, the differentiation becomes easier to swallow, if not all the more intriguing.

No spoilers here, but suffice it to say, it’s thrilling to wonder at what point in their chatting Aselton and Duplass landed on the spine of the story, one that also serves as a very big twist and an ambitious swing. And, yes, this twist does come early in the film,...

Paramount’s free streaming service, Pluto TV, has revealed its March highlights. The Pluto TV March 2025 lineup celebrates Women’s History Month with powerhouse performances, legendary directors, and female-led stories in every genre. Pluto TV is also spotlighting its On-Demand section, where you can find sections specially curated by programmers.

Pluto TV is the leading free streaming television service, delivering hundreds of live, linear channels and thousands of titles on-demand to a global audience. The Emmy Award-winning service curates a diverse lineup of channels in partnership with hundreds of international media companies.

On-demand

Pluto TV offers hundreds of free live channels, but there’s even more to love with its growing on-demand section. With an expanding selection of films and TV series, audiences can dive into their favorite content anytime, in addition to tuning in live. This month, dive into new special collections:

A24 Spotlight – Stream acclaimed films like Red Rocket,...

As he entered the elder statesman phase of his career, Spencer Tracy often played men of integrity whose gruff exterior masked a noble heart. Stanley Kramer used Tracy as the moral center of well-intentioned "message movies" like Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, while comedies like Father of the Bride, Pat and Mike, and Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World utilized this persona for laughs. Yet that late-career gravitas was perhaps never put to better use than in John Sturges's Western noir Bad Day at Black Rock. At a brisk 81-minutes, it's a story of racism and injustice that employs the moral weight audiences associate with Tracy to make its message clear without being preachy.

Exclusive: Ora Duplass and Chosen Jacobs (It) will lead Their Town, a YA romantic two-hander from director Katie Aselton (Mack & Rita) and Duplass Brothers Productions.

The project is a family affair, as Aselton is Duplass’ mother and is working from a script by husband Mark Duplass. Shot in Bangor, Maine, the film centers on teenagers Abby (Duplass) and Matt (Jacobs). When Abby’s boyfriend unexpectedly drops out of the high school play, she is forced to help outlier Matt step into the role opposite her. Over the course of a long night wandering their small town, the two examine their futures and unearth surprises from their past.

Supporting cast includes Daveed Diggs (Hamilton), Jeffrey Self (Search Party), Kim Shaw (You!), Leonardo Nam (Westworld), and William Atticus Parker (Atrabilious). Producers included Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, and Shuli Harel for Duplass Brothers Productions, as well as Aselton and Mary Budd.

Created by Jeff & Jackie Schaffer, one of FX's most popular comedy series was "The League," which ran for seven seasons from 2009 to 2015. The raucous sitcom follows a group of friends in Chicago who run a highly competitive fantasy football league every year, creating their own challenges, rewards, and penalties. Along the way, the ensemble endures their own hilarious highs and lows involving romance and family life in between planning their fantasy teams. Throughout the show's run, the group is joined by several memorable guest stars and recurring characters, including the occasional real-life football player getting in on the fun.

Led by a solid ensemble cast of talented comedians, "The League" introduced beloved, crass characters framed against the backdrop of fantasy sports. Since the show's ending in 2015, many of the cast members have gone on to continue their film and television careers, while others haven't reached the same level of success.

Quick Links Everything Coming To Paramount+ In October The Best Movies And Shows Coming To Paramount+ This Month

Paramount+ has plenty of new TV shows and movies coming in October 2024, including a lot of horror content for the month of Halloween. Paramount+ launched in March 2021 as a rebranding of the CBS All Access streaming platform, with the goal of expanding its offerings and reach. Thanks to the re-merger between CBS and Viacom in 2019, Paramount+ also has access to Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and MTV libraries. That usually means that library content is more exciting for subscribers than new content because they can binge existing series.

Unlike some of its competitors, Paramount+ has not put an emphasis on original movie programming except in the case of childrens films. However, the streaming service does have a popular lineup of exclusive original series, including the multiple-timeline and decade-spanning Yellowstone franchise. In September 2024, some of...

Exclusive: Duplass Brothers Production recently wrapped production on the Katie Aselton-directed feature Magic Hour, starring Daveed Diggs. Aselton stars alongside Diggs in the project which she co-wrote with Mark Duplass.

Details regarding the project’s plot and character descriptions are under wraps. Magic Hour is executive produced by Duplass, Mel Eslyn and Jay Duplass. Emily Neumann produced.

Aselton is a multi-hyphenate with directing credits including The Freebie (2010), Black Rock (2012) and most recently, Mack & Rita (2022) and acting credits that span both TV and film. On TV, she starred in FX’s Legion and Apple TV+’s The Morning Show; and on the big screen, in Old Dads (2023), The Unholy (2021), Bombshell (2019) and the John Lithgow and Blythe Danner feature The Tomorrow Man. She is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.

Up next for Diggs, he will star as Josh in the indie film A Tree...

From the eight-time Oscar nominee “The Imitation Game” to the Korean revenge thriller “I Saw the Devil,” free streaming service Plex is giving audiences new and varied reasons to keep coming back to its library of over 50,000 titles.

As we ring in October, check out The Streamable’s top picks and build your to-watch list from all of the titles coming to the streamer this month!

Watch Now $0+ / month plex.tv What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Plex in October 2023? “Experimenter” | Sunday, Oct. 1

The gripping biopic “Experimenter” arrives to Plex to start the month. Based on the true story of social psychologist Stanley Milgram, the film focuses on the 1961 behavior experiments at Yale University that tested the willingness of ordinary humans to obey an authority figure while administering electric shocks to strangers, as well as the aftermath of the experiments and the public outcry of their ethics.

The highly anticipated spy thriller “Special Ops: Lioness” arrives on Paramount+ on July 23. The original series from Taylor Sheridan is based on a true story and stars Zoe Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira, Nicole Kidman, and Morgan Freeman. De Oliveira plays a CIA undercover operative, a “lioness,” charged with befriending someone close to a high-value enemy target, a key member of a state terrorist organization.

Catch the “Special Ops: Lioness” trailer

Also coming to Paramount+ next month will be a reunion filled with humor and romance. New film “Zoey 102” will premiere on July 28 and reunite many of the cast members from the beloved high-school series “Zoey 101.” The gang is getting back together in Malibu to attend Logan and Quinn’s wedding, but that is not the only romance in the air. Jamie Lynn Spears, Sean Flynn, Christopher Massey, Erin Sanders, and Abby Wilde star in the sequel film.

Watch...

If the eponymous mid-’50s southwestern town in Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” resembles the iconic “Bad Day at Black Rock” (1955), it’s no coincidence. Oscar-winning production designer Adam Stockhausen (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) found John Sturges’ neo-Western, shot in CinemaScope on the edge of Death Valley, a valuable reference for planning the landscape for this Pirandello-like play-within-a-tv-show-within-a-movie conceit.

“Absolutely, that was an influence,” Stockhausen (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”) told IndieWire. “We started right with the credits introduction with the moving train and then, of course, crossing with the little white sign. Generally, we were looking at ‘Black Rock’ for overall how the town’s [located] in the landscape. But also we’d go in and look at tiny details, too. How the tar paper was nailed to the roof of the gas station, and we ended up using it for the way we wrapped the tar paper around the motel cabins.

Can you believe we’re already halfway through September? The Halloween Season is underway and time is moving fast, and as always we want to make sure you’re making the most of the season by watching as many brand new horror movies as you possibly can.

This week, another Seven new ones are on the way!

Here’s all the new horror arriving September 13 – September 18, 2022.

Saban Films entered the House of Darkness in limited theaters this past Friday, and the Dracula-inspired horror movie is now available on VOD platforms beginning today.

Drag Me to Hell and Tusk‘s Justin Long and Kate Bosworth (Black Rock, Before I Wake) both star in this seductive thriller from director Neil Labute (The Wicker Man).

In the film…

“Driving home to her secluded estate after meeting at a local bar, a player out to score thinks his beautiful, mysterious date will be another casual hook-up.

With summer (unofficially) over and the Halloween Season now in full swing, these weekly roundups are about to get very packed with fresh new horrors both at home and in theaters!

Eight brand new horror movies are releasing in this first full week of September, and trust me when I say even that makes for a quiet week compared to what’s coming soon.

Here’s all the new horror arriving September 6 – September 11, 2022!

First up, Dread’s Tiny Cinema was just unleashed On Demand yesterday, a horror anthology of multiversal madness that’s also coming to Blu-ray on October 11 of this year.

Sit back, relax, and get uncomfortable…

From the makers of Butt Boy, Tiny Cinema is said to be “a twisted tale of seemingly unconnected strangers whose lives will change in incredible and bizarre ways forever. As reality unravels, each person must battle incredible challenges from a multiverse seeking...

Diane Keaton plays Aunt Rita in Katie Aselton’s Mack & Rita. Photo: Gravitas Premiere We’ve all heard the term “old soul” before. Director Katie Aselton’s Mack & Rita explores that concept literally with the story of a 30-year-old who physically becomes the advanced age she feels on the inside.

Click here to read the full article.

For the 30-year-old at the center of Mack & Rita, a repurposed tanning bed and a New Age charlatan’s mumbo-jumbo summon body-switch magic: She emerges from the gussied-up contraption as the older woman she believes she truly is. The good news for the audience is that the septuagenarian is played by Diane Keaton. For Keaton, the movie is better news than Poms, but still a hit-and-miss affair. At times disarming, at others plain silly, it takes a few daring leaps without quite avoiding middle-of-the-road sitcom territory.

This makes sense given that screenwriters Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh are vets of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Actor-turned-filmmaker Katie Aselton (Black Rock, The Freebie), who played Keaton’s daughter in Book Club, directs the material with a sunshiny SoCal sensibility and an appreciation of the terrific comic cast, though more than a few barely escape being wasted. If there’s magic here,...

Warning: This trailer (and article) contains light spoilers. After premiering at the Fantasia Film Festival, Saban Films will enter the House of Darkness in limited theaters on September 9, 2022, and on VOD platforms September 13. Drag Me to Hell and Tusk‘s Justin Long and Kate Bosworth (Black Rock, Before I Wake) both star in this seductive thriller from director Neil Labute (The Wicker Man). In […]

The post ‘House of Darkness’ Trailer – ‘Wicker Man’ Director Returns to Horror With New Spin on Classic Tale appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Exclusive: Katie Aselton (The Morning Show) has signed on to star alongside Bill Burr, Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine in the comedy Old Dads, which Burr wrote and is directing for Miramax and his company All Things Comedy.

The comedian’s feature directorial debut centers on a middle-aged father, Jack (Burr), and his two best friends (Cannavale and Woodbine), who after selling their company to a millennial, find themselves out of step and behind the times as they hilariously struggle to navigate a changing world of culture, career and fatherhood.

Aselton is playing Jack’s wife, Leah. Burr and Ben Tishler penned the script and are producing alongside Bill Block, Monica Levinson and Mike Bertolina, with production underway in Los Angeles.

Aselton is an actor and filmmaker perhaps best known for her starring role as Jenny on FX’s comedy The League. She...

ViacomCBS’ $1.85 billion sale of its CBS Studio Center lot — known in the industry as CBS Radford — represents the end of an era for the company, and a further shift away from physical properties by legacy entertainment companies as their streaming counterparts bulk up.

Last week’s deal with Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management, put into motion in the summer, is the final major divestiture of the Eye network’s real estate holdings, including the 25-acre Television City, which was sold to Hackman for $750 million in 2018, and its New York skyscraper known as “Black Rock,” purchased earlier this year by Harbor Group Intl. for $760 million.

CBS Radford wasn’t as iconic as Television City or Black Rock, but its Studio City-based lot (founded as the lot for Mack Sennett and then Republic Pictures and purchased by CBS in 1967) is known for being the home base over the years...

After directing her first two features (both Sundance entires) in The Freebie (2010) and Black Rock (2012), Katie Aselton would move more into her acting career. So it was a big deal when it was announced that production on her third feature would begin in March of this year with a cast with the likes of Diane Keaton and Taylour Paige in the lead. With cinematographer Sean McElwee lensing in Los Angeles, this was written by Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh.

Gist: Mack and Rita follows Mackenzie Martin is tired of doing all the things she has to do to keep up and get ahead in her 30’s.…...

ViacomCBS is looking to part with more real estate. A week after reaching a deal to sell CBS’ former “Black Rock” New York City headquarters, ViacomCBS is looking at offloading its famed CBS Studios in Studio City, California, according to reports.

ViacomCBS has hired commercial real estate firm Jll to explore a sale, Bloomberg reported on Monday. A rep for ViacomCBS did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

First opened in 1928, CBS Studios has been home to TV series including “Gilligan’s Island,” “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Gunsmoke,” and more recently “Big Brother” and the newsmagzine show “Entertainment Tonight.”

Last week, ViacomCBS agreed to sell Black Rock to the privately owned real estate firm Harbor Group International for $760 million. The network, which has occupied the 38-story, 491-foot-tall building since it opened in 1964, plans to lease back its space on a short-term basis. The transaction is expected to close...

Katie Aselton deserves to be in the sitcom hall of fame for her role as Jenny on FX's hit sitcom The League. She created a character like no other that will stand the test of time, and often outshined the rest of her cast, which included some of the greatest improv comedians of all time. Now, she turns a more serious note in the true life tale of Dread Pirate Roberts, playing wife to a DEA agent in director Tiller Russell's Silk Road. We recently caught up with Katie for a deep dive into the life of Ross Ulbricht, as well as a look at what else she currently has on her plate.

It's been a rough time for the entertainment industry as a whole, but Katie Aselton is navigating her way through the madness. She not only appears in Silk Road, but the acclaimed actress also shows...

Editor’s Note: This post is updated regularly. Bookmark this page and come back often to see the additions to the best horror movies on Hulu.

Updated for September 2020

Horror can come from anywhere: an unfamiliar European hostel, a remote sleepaway camp in the woods or even just in the comfy confines of the human brain. Every now and then it can be fun to reconnect with that child-like portion of our minds that is truly susceptible to irrational fear. The best way is to merely just hear a good scary story.

But perhaps the best place to find horror is on your friendly neighborhood Hulu. Hulu is best known for its TV comedy offerings but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in pure terror.

Here is your list of the best horror movies on Hulu.

The Lodge

Directed by Austrian filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (the harrowing...

Following nearly 30 years at CBS, Evp Dana McClintock is heading out the door of the now merged ViacomCBS this summer.

“After 27 years in CBS Communications, I’ve had a hand in writing a variety of goodbye memos, and now it’s time for a version of my own,” McClintock said today in a memo to staff announcing his exit. (read the full memo below).

The move by the straight-shooting and longtime Black Rock employee comes as CBS boss Joe Ianiello is leaving in the next few weeks and former NBC exec George Cheeks takes over as President and CEO of CBS Entertainment on March 23. Appointed as Evp and Chief Communications Officer at CBS Corp back in October 2018, not long after the axing of Les Moonves and a surge of change at the usually staid company. With Bob Bakish consolidating his grip on the now reunited Viacom CBS, McClintock is expected...

Claiming that there’s been nothing but “deflection, denial, and spin” from CBS, Bull’s Michael Weatherly and an Ep on the drama over revelations of harassment and the $9.5 million settlement she received, Eliza Dushku today decided to tell her own side of the story – and it doesn’t read well for the already scandalized network and its long-time star.

“The narrative propagated by CBS, actor Michael Weatherly, and writer-producer Glenn Gordon Caron is deceptive and in no way fits with how they treated me on the set of the television show Bull and retaliated against me for simply asking to do my job without relentless sexual harassment,” Dushku states in an extensive piece she penned for the Boston Globe.

This follows the expose last week by the New York Times of the multi-million-dollar payout that the Buffy alum got after complaining about rape jokes, offers of threesomes, leering, and...

The National Film Registry has announced the 25 movies that have been selected for preservation in the Library of Congress for 2018. These movies have been deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically important, and will now be preserved for years to come. The titles this year are wide-ranging and include movies such as Jurassic Park, The Shining and titles dating back to the early 1900s.

Alfred Hitchcock's first American movie Rebecca has been selected, as well as Orson Welles The Lady From Shanghai. It was a big year for iconic directors, with Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick also getting their previously mentioned classics included, as well as John Ford getting his record-setting eleventh movie, The Informer, included in the Library of Congress. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden had this to say in a statement.

"The National Film Registry turns 30 this year, and for those three decades, we have been recognizing, celebrating and preserving this distinctive medium.

The top executives of long-running CBS News show 60 Minutes created a culture where bullying, verbal abuse and sexual harassment thrived, according to an investigative report by two prominent law firms.

The New York Times reported today on a leaked draft copy of the report, detailing the allegations against the executives. It arrives as embattled CBS is still reeling more than two months after chief executive Leslie Moonves was ousted because of sexual misconduct allegations. That situation created a heightened awareness of problematic issues that later led to 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager’s dismissal.

The story hit during the CBS holiday party, adding another unusual element to the annual ritual. For the first time in decades, the party was held outside of “Black Rock,” the company’s iconic Sixth Avenue headquarters. Months ago, a decision was made to relocate the event to Brasserie 8 1/2, a restaurant on 57th Street with an appropriately Fellini-esque name.

Nearly two months after Leslie Moonves’ ouster from CBS Corp., the search for his successor has been sluggish and only now starting in earnest. But it won’t be a speedy process.

The word that the CBS board’s evaluation of candidates could take as long as four to six months speaks volumes about the challenge CBS faces in lining up a new permanent leader. The final decision will say even more about where the board sees CBS heading.

Fundamentally, the board needs to decide if the CEO is going to be tasked with piloting the ship for the long term, or whether the job will require overseeing an auction of the storied broadcaster, or the re-integration of CBS and Viacom, or the pursuit of a transformative acquisition. Those are very different scenarios that demand specific leadership skills. CBS has tapped the Korn Ferry consulting firm to help with the headhunting.

Leslie Moonves’ future at CBS is in jeopardy in the wake of a bombshell New Yorker report containing allegations of sexual misconduct by the powerful executive. With CBS shares dropping over the past two sessions, the board of directors can’t afford a misstep — leaving Moonves at a potential turning point, despite the board’s decision on Monday to take no action at the moment.

Replacing Moonves would be no small task. The company, which boasts hit shows such as “NCIS” and “The Big Bang Theory,” has already been roiled by a larger boardroom battle. Moonves has been feuding with Shari Redstone, whose family has a controlling stake in CBS, about her ambitions to merge the company with Viacom. Any potential Moonves replacement would be justified in worrying about being under Redstone’s control, and serving only as a placeholder, perhaps, before her favorite, Viacom’s Bob Bakish, moves into the top spot.

After a long and tiring legal dispute with Prajita Developers who were given the Dilip Kumar property to be redeveloped in 2010, the Pali Hill Bungalow that is owned by the actor has will now be developed by Black Rock. According to the new builders, the redeveloped property will be a multi-storeyed building which willRead More

The post Dilip Kumar’s Pali Hill bungalow goes into redevelopment and it will also have a museum dedicated to the actor appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.

A man ran into the flames of one of the burning sculptures at the Burning Man festival in Nevada, according to the festival’s organizers.

Black Rock City firefighters and other rescue crews chased the man after he broke through a safety perimeter and headed for the flames of one the burning sculptures at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, according to a statement from the festival organizers. The man was treated on the scene, transported to the on-site medical facility and “airlifted to a burn treatment center.”

The festival — which features a 50-foot wooden effigy — attracts tens of thousands of people each year.

“Unwelcoming Committee”

By Raymond Benson

Although the picture takes place a couple of months after the end of World War II in the year 1945, Bad Day at Black Rock is really a western. The setting is a desert town that’s barely a whistle stop for a train that hasn’t halted there in four years; the main street looks as if it’s right out of Dodge City, and the opening credits are designed in big, colorful, bold words that spread across the wide CinemaScope screen. Even director John Sturges is primarily known for his many westerns.

Good Guy Spencer Tracy rides into town—on that train—and is met with inexplicable hostility from everyone he meets. All he wants is to find a guy named Komoko—a Japanese farmer who supposedly lives just out of town. Most of the residents seem afraid to help Tracy. The ones who...

Director, screenwriter and boatbuilder (!) Sam Kuhn is in Cannes premiering his short film, Möbius — described as “a moth-eaten tale of magic and mutation half remembered by a teen poet who’s beloved lies lifeless in a stream” — in Critic’s Week. Filmmaker asked Kuhn, who hails from the Pacific Northwest, to keep a diary of his experiences, which rapidly went from jet-lagged to deeply strange. Here is his second entry; click here for them all. Day 3 I’m now feeling foolish, and looking foolish too with my cherry red nose. Without Black Rock things went from bad to — […]...

Whether you’re recovering from Coachella, prepping for weekend two, getting psyched for that big audition, or shopping for your next project, make sure you set aside time to check out these exciting events this week in L.A. Give (feed)back.You probably already know that before a TV pilot ever makes it to the small screen, it’s tested endlessly. The iO Theater’s staged reading series, “On Its Feet,” features pilots or specs from up-and-coming television screenwriters. Each script is performed by actors, then critiqued Q&A style by the audience. On April 17, Jessie Stegner presents “Fluff Piece” in a night moderated by comedian Thea Lux. (Free.) Change your perspective on “bad kids.”Black Rock Continuation High School in Yucca Valley is often the last resort for teens who’ve failed to thrive in traditional educational environments. “The Bad Kids,” a new documentary premiering April 18, follows three teens at the school.

The Tribeca Film Festival announced programming today for its N.O.W. (New Online Works) section, an inspired array of established and emerging creators who are pushing the boundaries of online storytelling.

Read More: Tribeca 2017 Set to Open With ‘Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives’ Premiere Event at Radio City Music Hall

Top-lining the section is the premiere of “Awake, A Dream from Standing Rock,” a documentary from the Oscar-nominated team of Josh Fox and James Spione and Executive Producer Shailene Woodley. The project is a collaboration with indigenous filmmaker Myron Dewey about the Native-led resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Eli Roth’s Crypt TV will premiere “Monster Madness,” a series of several character shorts; and Op-Docs, The New York Times’ award-winning forum for short, opinionated documentaries, will screen three films at the Festival.

Read More: Tribeca 2017 Lineup: New Films From Alex Gibney, Azazel Jacobs and Laurie Simmons...

This week’s Independent Lens is titled The Bad Kids and looks at students whom the system thinks are lost causes, but that one California school still sees potential in. Spending a year at Black Rock Continuation High School for kids at risk, this documentary looks at the tricky issues that the students, teachers and the school’s principal have to deal with when trying to navigate high school when life throws some real curve balls. The wider system might have written these teens off and perhaps even most of society might look on their prospects as pretty grim but this school gives them...read more...

The documentary The Bad Kids screens at the Missouri History Museum (5700 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, Mo 63112) Wednesday January 25th at 7:00pm as part of the Indie Lens Pop-Up Film Series. A panel discussion will follow the screening with the April Brown, Director, Intern Leadership Program at Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School, Dr. Elizabeth Bender – Associate Superintendent of College & Career Readiness at St. Louis Public Schools, and Michael Maclin – Coordinator for Alternative Programming at Parkway School District. This is a Free event.

Located in an impoverished Mojave Desert community, Black Rock Continuation High School is an alternative school for students at risk of dropping out. Every student here has fallen so far behind in credits that they have no hope of earning a diploma at a traditional high school. Black Rock is their last chance. Extraordinary educators believe that empathy and life skills, more than academics, give these underserved...

Warner Archive Delivers the Best Way to Enjoy a Bad Day at Black Rock

Welcome to this week in home video! Click the title to buy a Blu-ray/DVD from Amazon and help support Fsr in the process!

Pick of the WeekBad Day at Black Rock [Warner Archive]

What is it? A one-armed man arrives via train in a remote western town, and the populace reacts with suspicion and violence.

Why buy it? Spencer Tracy excels as the polite but mysterious stranger whose presence sets everyone on edge, and the more he probes the harder they push. The film explores threads of America’s deep-seated racism and small-town insulation, and it pairs that commentary with a steadily increasing suspense. The themes and actions here are still sadly relevant, even now, and it makes for an important watch that still manages to entertain. Tracy’s potential adversaries include Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Brennan, and...

Placed deep in the secluded landscape of the Mojave Desert, Black Rock High School isn’t your typical institution for American teenagers. A continuation school designed specifically for trouble students for whom Black Rock is their last chance at academic redemption, the men and women frequenting these halls face a daily struggle of balancing their studies with often toxic home lives (and fearing that the destructive family cycle could repeat itself over the next generation). As society appears ready to deem them unworthy of fitting in, the title characters in the documentary The Bad Kids work increasingly hard to fight against their stereotypical image. As the […]...

Don’t mess with the one-armed man — did you know that at 56 years, Spencer Tracy could whup Ernest Borgnine to a frazzle? John Sturges knocked this one out of the ballpark and booted his career into high gear. It’s well remembered… but does anyone remember that the subject is the murder of a Japanese-American? It’s a combo social issue film And a tough guy western.

Bad Day at Black Rock

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1955 / Color / 2:40:1 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date January 17, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Russell Collins, Walter Sande, Robert Griffin, Harry Harvey.

Cinematography William C. Mellor

Film Editor Newell P. Kimlin

Original Music André Previn

Written by Millard Kaufman, Don McGuire story by Howard Breslin

Produced by Dore Schary

Directed by John Sturges

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Warning to...

At a Mojave Desert high school, a group of committed teachers and a principal leave no struggling student behind. The new documentary “The Bad Kids” follows a group of students and faculty at the continuation school Black Rock High School as they contend with daily frustrations on the road to a more fulfilling life. The film follows three students: Joey, an aspiring musician with a drug-addicted mother; Lee, a young father balancing his own education with parental responsibilities and Jennifer, an abuse survivor. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.

Read More: Meet the ‘Bad Kids’ About to Take Sundance By Storm in Exclusive Poster

The film is directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe. The two have directed two prior feature-length documentaries: The first is the 2002 film “Lost in La Mancha,” about director Terry Gilliam’s doomed attempt to get his version of “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote...

The American public education system is a vital institution, making sure that every citizen—no matter how disadvantaged—has an opportunity for self-improvement. But it’s a rough tool at best, and not always suited to the finer points of molding young minds. The juniors and seniors in the documentary The Bad Kids all attend Black Rock Continuation High School, an “alternative” school in the Mojave Desert. They’ve been accepted there because of their ongoing struggles in regular classes. Some are habitual truants. Some are teen mothers or fathers. Some fell behind on their grades as freshmen and then felt too overwhelmed to catch up. And in nearly every case, the students are dealing with a complicated world outside of Black Rock, managing poverty, abuse, and broken homes in drug-ravaged neighborhoods of dusty San Bernardino County towns like Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree. For a lot of these children...

Female horror fans are hardly unicorns. Quite the opposite – we go to the movies to get scared, often in greater numbers than men. Female horror directors aren't mythical beings either, even though it can sometimes feel this way. But in fact, the last few years have seen an exciting wave of horror films helmed by women who haven't merely joined the rank-and-file as encouraging statistics. Instead, movies like Jennifer Kent's The Babadook or Karyn Kusama's The Invitation have helped elevate the genre by opening it up to stories that unsettle audiences in new,...

"How many other people have been through this?" FilmRise has debuted a trailer for the documentary The Bad Kids, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to quite a bit of buzz earlier this year. The doc has also played at True/False and Hot Docs, which I'm mentioning only to show it's worthy of attention. The Bad Kids is about a group of teachers at a Mojave Desert high school who take an unconventional approach to improve the lives of their struggling students. It's a powerful film about recognizing there are alternatives to helping educate at risk teens other than giving up on them or locking them up. From the trailer, this looks like one of the most important docs all year - and I'm definitely interested in watching it. Get a look below. Here's the trailer (+ poster) for Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe's documentary The Bad Kids, from...

Growing up is hard, but when faced with the challenges of teenage pregnancy, homelessness, substance abuse, and more, it can feel nearly impossible. But at Black Rock Continuation High School in California, teenagers who face tremendous difficulties in their personal lives are given the space to thrive and the hope for a better future, and it’s all captured in the upcoming documentary “The Bad Kids.”

Read More: Sundance Review: Documentary ‘The Bad Kids’ From ‘Lost In La Mancha’ Directors Keith Fulton And Lou Pepe

Directed by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe (the duo behind “Lost In La Mancha”), their film, which won a Special Jury Award Winner for Vérité Filmmaking at Sundance, takes an observant look at the students at Black Rock and the guidance they receive from Principal Vonda Viland, who has an unflappable devotion to her students.

Continue reading ‘The Bad Kids’ Get Another Chance In Trailer...

Hillary Clinton’s race to the White House has hit a bump in its final stretch with WikiLeaks’ latest email dumps.

Over the past week, the anti-secrecy organization has rolled out more than 12,000 internal emails illegally obtained by hackers from the private account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

Here are the five biggest revelations from the email dumps:

1. Apparent transcripts of Clinton’s paid speeches to Goldman Sachs (We say ‘apparent’ because the Clinton campaign will not authenticate the documents, suggesting some could be fakes planted by the hackers) revealed she was on friendly terms with Wall Street executives.

Hard Days at Black Rock The Black Rock Mill is a centuries-old brick building, one of many fun historical features to be found in Seneca State Park in Germantown, Maryland. It sits along a rocky river, probably a quarter-mile downhill from a… Continue Reading →

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The genre event will host a five-strong line-up of Malaysian projects; Ivanhoe, Huayi, Blumhouse, Cj among Bifan attendees.

Asia’s largest genre film fest, the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) has announced a five-title line-up for a Project Spotlight on Malaysia in this year’s Network of Asian Fantastic Film (Naff).

Celebrating its 20th edition, Bifan last month in Cannes launched the Bifan Industry Gathering (Big), a newly expanded industry programme which takes Naff under its umbrella.

Bifan will run July 21-31 with Big taking place between July 22-28 and NAFFrunning July 25-28.

Companies set to attend this year include Ivanhoe Pictures,...

Dakota Johnson is joining Andrew Garfield in David Robert Mitchell‘s crime thriller “Under the Silver Lake.” On Thursday, it was announced that A24 has acquired the domestic rights, and production will begin in Los Angeles this summer. The noir crime thriller set in L.A. is writer-director Mitchell‘s follow-up to his critically acclaimed indie horror film “It Follows,” which premiered at Cannes in 2014. Also Read: Andrew Garfield's 'Under the Silver Lake' Picked Up by A24 Michael De Luca (“The Social Network,” “Moneyball,” “50 Shades of Grey” trilogy) is producing. Chris Bender and Jake Weiner (“A History of Violence...

A24 has acquired the U.S. rights to the Andrew Garfield thriller “Under the Silver Lake,” TheWrap has learned. The noir crime thriller set in Los Angeles is the writer-director David Robert Mitchell‘s follow-up to his critically acclaimed indie horror film “It Follows.” Michael De Luca (“The Social Network,” “Moneyball,” “50 Shades of Grey” trilogy) is producing, with filming scheduled to start at the end of this summer. Also Read: Andrew Garfield to Star in 'It Follows' Director's Crime Thriller 'Under the Silver Lake' Chris Bender and Jake Weiner (“A History of Violence”) and Adele Romanski (“Black Rock”) are also producing.

Reviewed by Jesse Miller

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Welcome to Black Springs, a small idyllic town perfect for the summer vacation. Between the lakes, hot springs and mountain hiking, it's perfect for any tourist looking to escape to paradise.

And yet, beneath the surface, the town harbors an ancient curse.

Katherine Van Wyler, an ancient spectre, walks the streets of Black Springs freely. Chained around the body, eyes and mouth sewn shut and reeking of decay, she enters the houses of the people at any given time of day.

For the people of Black Springs, this is every day life. Surveillance is installed throughout the town, monitoring Katherine and the town has it's own app just so the people know where she is at all times.

Everyone knows about the Black Rock witch that cursed the town when being burnt at the stake. Everyone knows that you can't leave the town once...