• Watching good 2020 Toronto Film Festival movies from home sucked

    Watching good 2020 Toronto Film Festival movies from home sucked

    I never want to sit through a film festival in my bedroom again. No, I don’t mean streaming all 24 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in a futile attempt to fill a weekend. The 2020 Toronto International Film Festival — a hugely impactful 45-year-old event — went digital. While some lucky Canadians snagged seats …
  • ‘China Has Bought Our Silence:’ Director Judd Apatow Criticizes Film Industry for Ignoring Uyghur ‘Genocide’

    ‘China Has Bought Our Silence:’ Director Judd Apatow Criticizes Film Industry for Ignoring Uyghur ‘Genocide’

    Director Judd Apatow slammed the U.S. film industry on Tuesday for what he termed the “censorship” of stories that highlight human rights abuses in China and other nations. Apatow, a director of comedies including Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, made his comments after Disney released a live-action remake of Mulan that included scenes filmed …
  • Frances McDormand’s newest premieres at Telluride drive-in

    Frances McDormand’s newest premieres at Telluride drive-in

    Recently was the Telluride Film Festival, to which practically nobody came. The thing had to come to you. Makeshift drive-in for “Nomadland,” a modern road picture thing with Frances McDormand. McDormand, under a mask, inside a golf cart, fires burning in the distance, yelled: “Get your Kleenex out. Have hamburgers and milkshakes at our sanitized …
  • Netflix defends ‘Cuties’ amid ‘cancel’ campaign, tells haters to actually watch film

    Netflix defends ‘Cuties’ amid ‘cancel’ campaign, tells haters to actually watch film

    The French film “Cuties,” or “Mignonnes,” tells the story of an 11-year-old Muslim girl who becomes involved in a dance crew despite her family’s conservative traditions — but has become hugely controversial for its perceived sexualization of little girls. More than 610,000 people have signed a Change.org petition demanding Netflix subscribers cancel their subscriptions in …
  • Mulan Set to Have Weak Premiere in China Despite Disney’s Pandering to CCP

    Mulan Set to Have Weak Premiere in China Despite Disney’s Pandering to CCP

    Disney’s live-action remake Mulan is on track to have a lackluster premiere in China on Friday, a critical market for the movie that has been the source of political controversy involving the Chinese Communist Party. Pre-sales for tickets totaled about 9.5 million yuan ($1.4 million) on Thursday, according to Maoyan Entertainment, which operates China’s largest …
  • Kate Winslet regrets working with Woody Allen, Roman Polanski

    Kate Winslet regrets working with Woody Allen, Roman Polanski

    It’s a tie between this and not moving over on that door. Kate Winslet is reckoning with some of her past work in light of the #MeToo movement, telling Vanity Fair this week, “It’s like, what the f - - k was I doing working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski?” “It’s unbelievable to me now how those …
  • Viewers call to cancel Netflix after controversial ‘Cuties’ premiere

    Viewers call to cancel Netflix after controversial ‘Cuties’ premiere

    Backlash against the French film “Cuties” continues to escalate, with objectors now demanding Netflix be canceled in response to the movie’s perceived sexualization of children. “Unbelievable that they released ‘Cuties’. So child porn is ok now Netflix? Raise your hand if you agree this is disgusting,” wrote one Twitter user, using the hashtag #CancelNetflix. The …
  • Films Will Be Required to Meet Diversity Quotas to Be Eligible for Best Picture Oscar Beginning in 2024

    Films Will Be Required to Meet Diversity Quotas to Be Eligible for Best Picture Oscar Beginning in 2024

    Ahead of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy’s fifth anniversary, the Academy has announced a new set of inclusion requirements films must meet to be awards-eligible. To be eligible for best picture, films must meet the standards of two out of four categories laid out in a press release on Tuesday: “Onscreen Representation, Themes and Narratives,” “Creative Leadership …
  • Disney Thanks Chinese Communist Party for Allowing Mulan to Be Filmed in Xianjiang, Near Uighur Concentration Camps

    Disney Thanks Chinese Communist Party for Allowing Mulan to Be Filmed in Xianjiang, Near Uighur Concentration Camps

    In the credits of Disney’s new Mulan movie, the company offers a special thanks to four Chinese Communist Party propaganda departments and a public security bureau in the region of Xinjiang where more than a million Muslims, mostly of the Uighur minority, have been imprisoned in concentration camps. Disney recently revealed that some scenes in …
  • Tilda Swinton gets creative with 2020 Venice Film Festival’s mask mandate

    Tilda Swinton gets creative with 2020 Venice Film Festival’s mask mandate

    Call it coronavirus couture. Tilda Swinton is taking the humble face mask to high-fashion heights at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, where nose and mouth coverings are required as part of the event’s pandemic-era precautions — as are temperature checks and social distancing. At the festival’s opening ceremony on Wednesday, the 59-year-old Oscar winner hit …