Innholdsfortegnelse for 10/4/2022 i Variety

In Hollywood, beauty isn’t just skin deep — it’s a currency. So it’s striking that Harris Dickinson makes fun of his own bountiful good looks in Ruben Östlund’s satirical comedy “Triangle of Sadness,” in which he plays a spoiled male model who goes on a humbling journey. In person, Dickinson cuts a striking figure at 6’2”, with sculpted features and full, cherry lips. But ask this 26-year-old from a working-class, South London family about his own physicality, and he instantly recoils. It’s easy to understand why: to objectify him for his beauty alone is to miss him entirely. Dickinson is increasingly everywhere — not only in British cinema but also in an impressive number of Hollywood features. His may not be an overnight success, but his popularity has been simmering,…

JOE BENNETT “Scavengers” Many of Bennett’s animated shorts capture a twisted take on humanity. There’s a definite touch of Mike Judge’s dark comedy, but also a poignancy and often a melancholy — Bennett cites John Cassavetes and documentary filmmaker Sean Dunne as influences. “I’m creating something raw and natural,” says Bennett, a Georgia native, who studied painting at the School of Visual Arts in New York before realizing he was more excited by animation. Amidst those shorts, “Scavengers” stands defiantly apart: created with Charles Huettner, it’s a silent piece about humans trying to survive in an alien world, yet its tone is softer and sweeter than his earthbound works. “I’m not into sci-fi but I watch a lot of animal documentaries and loved the challenge of telling a story without…

Located 14 miles north of San Francisco with a population of just over 14,000, the community of Mill Valley has evolved into a West Coast epicenter for showcasing independent and international films. As the Mill Valley Film Festival prepares to celebrate its 45th year with screenings of films by Rian Johnson (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”), Darren Aronofsky (“The Whale”) and Alejandro G. Iñárritu (“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”), original founder and director Mark Fishkin attributes its pedigree for attracting toptier talent to its unique combination of geographic and philosophical specificities. “The Mill Valley Film Festival has the best of both worlds: the clout of an urban festival and the ambiance of the destination festival,” says Fishkin. “And this aspect of being professional but unpretentious is…

Don’t expect any drive-in screenings, virtual screenings, mask mandates or reduced capacity theaters at the 30th annual Hamptons Intl. Film Festival. This year’s edition will look and feel as it did way back in 2019. The Long Island-based fest, which runs Oct. 7-16, will screen 69 feature films and 51 shorts that are 54% female-directed and represent 34 countries from around the world. Also back at HIFF are a bevy of fancy cocktail hours and the fest’s Rowdy Talks series, which will include a conversation with director, screenwriter and producer Chris Columbus. New this year? The festival will run over 10 days. “Last year, we were seven days instead of our typical five,” says HIFF artistic director David Nugent. “We did that to see if people would be interested in…

Trevor Noah became the latest late-night host to announce his departure last week, joining an exodus including Samantha Bee, “Desus & Mero” and James Corden. Noah, who was Jon Stewart’s handpicked successor at “The Daily Show,” did not set an end date, but indicated he missed being on the road after seven years in the hosting chair. • Samantha Bee: In July, Warner Bros. Discovery pulled the plug on “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” after seven seasons on TBS. What’s next: She’s producing a kids’ sketch show called “Best Day Ever.” • “Desus & Mero”: Desus Nice and the Kid Mero decided to go their separate ways after four seasons on Showtime, announcing their series’ end in July. • James Corden: In April, “The Late Late Show” host revealed that he…

Sept. 28 ‘The Good House’ Premiere The Robin Williams Center, New York City Before Sigourney Weaver returns to the world of the Na’vi in “Avatar 2,” she plays Hildy Good, an alcoholic dealing with long-buried emotions as she rekindles a romance with an old flame (Kevin Kline). “I just jumped at the chance to play an older woman in a story that was told from her point of view,” Weaver told Variety. “Half the time she’s speaking to the audience, saying, ‘This is what’s really going on. Can you believe what’s happening in my life?’ It was so refreshing, and it was so intimate.” Sept. 28 ‘Mr. Harrigan’s Phone’ Special Screening Tudum Theater, Hollywood For actor Jaeden Martell, facing off against Bill Skarsgård’s frightening Pennywise in “It” was nothing compared…

FILM REVIEW Director: David O. Russell Starring: Christian Bale, John David Washington, Margot Robbie “A lot of this really happened,” teases the opening card of David O. Russell’s unruly ensemble comedy “Amsterdam,” a loony early-’30s social satire that goes cartwheeling through a little-remembered episode in American history when fascists tried to overthrow the U.S. government. Russell clearly sees parallels between this alarming chapter of the nation’s past and our present, as national divisions threaten to overwhelm American democracy, but the writer-director has complicated the plot — the movie’s plot, that is, not the greater conspiracy on which it turns — to such a degree that audiences are bound to be bewildered. Instead of wondering which parts are true and which ones invented, they’re likely to find themselves asking, “What the…

DAVID A. ARNOLD 3/15/68 9/7/22 DAVID CASCI 10/19/55 8/24/22 RALPH WALLACE DAVENPORT 10/23/38 6/22/22 HEATHER GRAY 12/15/71 7/31/22 DONNA HARMAN 1/20/47 7/10/22 JAK KNIGHT 11/6/93 7/14/22 DALE MCRAVEN 3/15/39 9/5/22 BURT METCALFE 3/19/35 7/27/22 MARK MILLER 11/20/24 9/9/22  CHASE MITCHELL MISHKIN 1/22/37 7/24/22 KENNY MOORE 12/1/43 5/4/22 ROGER E. MOSLEY 12/18/38 8/7/22 BRIAN REICH 4/5/69 9/12/22 WILLIAM RICHERT 11/16/42 7/19/22  HILDA ROLFE 1/25/23 9/19/22 ROBERT W. SELF 8/5/66 8/3/22  RICHARD SETLOWE 4/21/33 8/25/22  AUBREY TADMAN 2/27/33 9/9/22  JOE E. TATA 9/13/36 8/25/22 GABRIELLE UPTON 7/6/21 9/13/22  DARYL WARNER 9/12/35 8/4/22  RON ZIMMERMAN 5/26/58 7/29/22…

Bestselling fantasy author and “House of the Dragon” executive producer George R.R. Martin is caught in the crossfire of the heated battle over inclusive casting — and some of his fans are calling for a boycott of his upcoming book due to comments by his coauthors. Out Oct. 25, “The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One” is being touted as a “deluxe reference book” for those itching to learn more about Westeros’ most powerful family. When Martin publicized it on social media last week, thousands of fans responded in outrage, many calling out the problematic behavior and “history of racism” of his coauthors, married couple Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García Jr. “I will not be buying anything with Linda and Elio attached…

AWARDS CIRCUIT “White Noise” has been a quieter Oscar hopeful: The Netflix film from Noah Baumbach, a two-time Oscar-nominated screenwriter whose most recent feature was nommed for best picture, boasts a cast that includes Adam Driver and a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, buzz is strangely muted for the first film to fill the opening-night slot of both the Venice and New York film festivals. Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s postmodern novel revolves around Jack Gladney (Driver), a professor of Hitler studies at the College-on-the-Hill. He lives with his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig), and their four children, but when an “Airborne Toxic Event” takes place in their community, the family must grapple with the universal mysteries of love and death. The resulting film evokes Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice”…

Ramsey Naito has been running Nickelodeon Animation since 2017, and in that time the programming for the flagship children’s network has exploded with a raft of both homegrown series and adaptations of external IP. “Star Trek,” “SpongeBob,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Blue’s Clues,” “Dora the Explorer,” “Rugrats”… if that seems like too much for one network to handle, well, it no longer has to. Last fall, Naito added running Paramount Animation to her docket, and since then, the scope of potential programming across the corporate-partnered Nickelodeon networks, Paramount+ and Paramount theatrical has given the network increased space to expand. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” — the Seth Rogen-produced feature spun off from Nick’s revamped “Turtles” animated series — is due out next summer. Feature films from “Paw Patrol,” “Blue’s…

The Middleburg Film Festival, running Oct. 13-16 in Virginia, will open with Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” starring Adam Driver, and the centerpiece “Knives Out” sequel “Glass Onion.” Other films announced for the 10th edition are “Whale” from helmer Darren Aronofsky and Ray Romano’s “Somewhere in Queens.” More films are expected to join the slate. So far the fest has announced it will honor Stephanie Hsu with the Rising Star Award; Baumbach with its 10th anniversary Spotlight Filmmaker Award; “Nope” composer Michael Abels with the Distinguished Composer Award; and Rian Johnson with its Distinguished Screenwriter Award. Academy Award-nominated writer, director and producer Johnson knows a thing or two about editing a film, after all he cut 2005’s “Brick.” But editor Bob Ducsay is his go-to, who he says really “taught me…

JOEL KIM BOOSTER “Fire Island” ”I’m very lucky that I had the ability to sort of see it fully realized myself,” Booster says of his first film “Fire Island,” in which he also stars. “There’s an immense amount of pressure as a creator from a couple of marginalized communities creating a story about being a marginalized community within a marginalized community,” he says, referring to LGBTQIA+ and Asian American people. “I knew that it was going to either be completely ignored or dismissed, or it would find its audience and really hit with them. And I think that a little bit of both has happened.” The Hulu rom-com received widespread critical and social media praise for its representation and fresh take on the genre. A standout moment is a rousing…