Innholdsfortegnelse for 12/21/2022 i Variety

Harvey Weinstein will — in all likelihood — die in prison. He was convicted on Dec. 19 of rape and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles, meaning that he will not go free even if his New York conviction is overturned. But for a lot of observers, Weinstein’s second trial sent an ambiguous or even discouraging message. Weinstein was — and remains — the face of the #MeToo movement. Yet his conviction was no slam dunk for L.A. prosecutors. Instead, the jurors took more than 40 hours to reach a decision, and unanimously believed only one of the four accusers. “I think the #MeToo movement at one point was much stronger than it is now,” says Sam Dordulian, a former sex crimes prosecutor who is now in private practice. “The…

I’VE ALWAYS thought Cassavetes, Kerouac and Bukowski carry a great responsibility for inspiring some of the most insipid work of the last half-century. They make it look too easy. With his first two films, “Slacker” and “Dazed and Confused,” Rick Linklater immediately joined this illustrious crew. Through a haze of pot smoke, spilt keg beer and ’70s rock ’n’ roll, he made everyday life profound. I first saw “Dazed and Confused” in 1993, a couple of weeks before its release. Steve Zahn and I were doing a play with fellow actor Anthony Rapp, and he invited us to some advance screening to check out his new film. We snuck a six-pack into the movie theater, and immediately from the opening Aerosmith cue — “Sweet Emotion” — to the end-credit scroll,…

THOUGH NOW considered one of the major artistic works of the 20th century, in 1968 Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” detonated on-screen — that is to say it bombed. At its New York premiere somewhere around 250 people walked out. Many critics had difficulty reading the film. Kubrick knew it demanded repeat viewings, and through sheer will managed to convince the MGM brass to keep it in theaters. After a few months “2001” took root in America’s burgeoning counterculture. People were getting high in the theater and returning to see it again and again. Once the debris field cleared, “2001” was all anyone was talking about. The critics returned to reappraise the film, and it went on to turn a huge profit. Most importantly Kubrick’s “2001” allowed audiences and…

T’S AN IMAGE that is so powerful it’s now seared into our collective memory — a skinny teenage girl in a baby pink prom dress, bathed from head to toe in blood, her eyes wide with cold fury as the school burns around her. In my estimation, few films have reached the heights of Brian De Palma’s classic tale of psychic vengeance. I can’t exactly remember the first time I saw “Carrie,” only that I was young enough for it to be one of those films that gets under your skin and stays there. It was so beautifully and audaciously filmed, a testament to the boldness and vision of De Palma, where every moment is staged with operatic style. But just as crucially, Stephen King’s story tapped into something primal…

FILM REVIEW Director: Damien Chazelle Starring: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva With brash and bawdy “Babylon,” director Damien Chazelle blows something between a poisoned kiss and a big fat raspberry at the same town he so swoonily depicted in “La La Land.” Separated by nine decades and nearly an ocean of cynicism, the two Tinseltown-set films seem unlikely to have sprung from the same head; we might never suspect they had, were it not for musical collaborator Justin Hurwitz’s busy, hyper-jazzinated score. Here, Chazelle rewinds the clock to Hollywood’s raucous early days — specifically, the transition from silent filmmaking to talkies, when the industry was still fresh and figuring out what it could be. Reuniting “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” stars Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, alongside newcomer…

HENRY HILL, Jimmy the Gent, Tommy DeVito, Paulie, Karen, Billy Batts, the Lufthansa heist … all someone has to do is mention some of these names and I get the sudden and irresistible urge to watch Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” again. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve experienced this epic cinematic masterpiece, which includes a brilliant screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and one of cinema history’s greatest acting ensembles: De Niro, Pesci, Liotta, and some of the most memorable supporting roles ever — from Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Imperioli, Chuck Low and Tony Darrow to Catherine and Charles Scorsese … there are no background performances in “Goodfellas.” ‘Everyone has a favorite Scorsese picture, and this is the one for me.’ It’s no longer a guilty pleasure to sit…

HOW DO YOU pick the greatest movies of all time? What are the requirements? How about a movie that you have watched a hundred times? How about a movie that stars all of your favorite funny people being as funny as they have ever been? How about a comedy that is gentle, riotous and infectious? I’ve never understood why that wasn’t as important as “Citizen Kane” when making these lists. Well, “Waiting for Guffman” is my “Citizen Kane.” Has anyone watched “Citizen Kane” more than three times? Maybe eight people. Does anyone think Orson Welles’ performance is better than Eugene Levy’s in “Guffman”? If you were feeling down about the state of the world, what would you watch, “Waiting for Guffman” or “Citizen Kane”? They need to move “Waiting for…

HEN I discovered “Vagabond,” I was the same age as Sandrine Bonnaire in the film, about 20 years old. The character of Mona claims only one value: freedom. Whatever the cost, despite hunger, thirst (lack of cigarettes too). Even if it means giving up her life. She categorically refuses the codes that society wants to impose on her. In writing the film, Agnès Varda, as often, mixes genres. We alternate between Mona and a police investigation looking for traces of the deceased young vagrant, an unfortunate woman whose remains no one claims. It’s an unpredictable chronicle because of the character’s habits. And there’s a documentary flavor, because the director likes to build her fictional stories by making reality a raw material, malleable clay, inviting it into the frame alongside her…

WHY CITE “Casablanca” as one of the best 100 films? My reason is very simple. It has so many of the elements I tend to find myself storytelling with: creatures of the underworld, a tragic love at the center and a sacrifice. It manages to be this grand romance, but it’s truly political at the same time. If you look at what’s going on right now in Ukraine, there’s a lot of worlds like Casablanca that people are escaping into in the same way that the characters do in that film. It has a new relevance. I grew up in a small country town. We only had one television station. We got a lot of old movies, but that period of filmmaking wasn’t revered in the same way it is…

GRAY’S GOLD If you’re a creative person plagued by insecurity, you’re in good company. Bill Nighy is an actor’s actor and a likely Oscar nominee this year (finally!) for “Living,” yet he says matter-of-factly, “I am traditionally besieged by self-doubt.” He adds dryly, “I don’t know if it’s different from anybody else because I’ve never been anybody else.” Whenever Nighy lands a role, “I invented a hostile parallel universe where I’m about to be fired. Which is sort of a joke, but it’s tragically true. But I didn’t do it on this one.” That’s because Nighy knew that he was part of the package when the film was born. On a panel with Nighy and “Living” director Oliver Hermanus, scripter Kazuo Ishiguro said he’d been “obsessed” with Akira Kurosawa’s 1952…

Fasten your seat belts: Hollywood is in for another bumpy ride in 2023. With the economy once again on the brink of a recession and cutbacks hitting hard all over town, the entertainment industry is bracing for more challenges in the year ahead. Among the many question marks for 2023: Will the movie business revive to pre-pandemic levels? When will the high drama at Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery settle down? And how viable is streaming as a business model for legacy media companies anyway? In an ordinary year, Will Smith’s Oscar night slap of Chris Rock might stand out as a signature event, but that onstage incident, as shocking as it was, was soon over-shadowed by two seismic developments: In April, the Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed, paving the…

AWARDS CIRCUIT In the eyes of cinephiles, remaking any film from Japanese giant Akira Kurosawa is sheer blasphemy. But when captivating actor Bill Nighy is at the center of the story, his angelic smile and splendid vocals do more than win you over. The Sony Pictures Classics drama “Living” — about a civil servant who decides to seize life after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis — debuted at Sundance and has since made stops at the Telluride, Venice and Toronto fests, building word-of-mouth buzz along the way. The common denominator of critical acclaim and joyful audience response is Nighy, whose submersion into the role of Mr. Williams, the tale’s central figure, delivers a compelling reminder to Hollywood that the 73-year-old thespian is long overdue for accolades. Nighy’s work is studded…

I REMEMBER distinctly seeing “Bridesmaids” for the first time at The Grove in Los Angeles. At one point, I had laughed hysterically at something and was doubled over. The thought came to my head of how striking it was to be looking up on the screen and seeing this group of women, how rare it was. It was like this hunger I didn’t even know I had. I was blown away that I could literally be doubled over and then later tearing up because of the beauty of the story of fighting for friendship as you get older. It is the perfect alchemy of humor and emotion. Because at the heart of it, it’s two best friends trying to renegotiate what their relationship is when you’re in two different places…

AND HERE WE GO,” a simple line spoken like a prayer from one of the most complex characters to ever grace the silver screen, Heath Ledger’s Joker, in Christopher Nolan’s film “The Dark Knight.” Let’s paint the picture: 2008, Dallas, Texas, 18-year-old me, my high school sweetheart, and her very, very cool father. The three of us, popcorn in hand, Cokes and candies in tow, and lest I forget to mention, it’s a midnight showing and my very first midnight showing ever. We settle in, get cozy, and what transpires between that screen and my 18-year-old self to this day is remembered and recalled with the vigor of youth and tenacity of self-exploration. So, “here we go.” ‘The film asks what it is to be alive and to participate fully…

WHAT I’VE always loved about movies is the way one can take over your brain for two hours in a way that no other medium can. I have never been as possessed by paintings or music or books the way I have been by movies. And no movie has possessed me with such precision and craft and intensity as “Vertigo.” That the movie is itself about someone being possessed by his own strange obsession makes it all the more impressive. In fact, one of the things that I so admire among filmmakers I’ve worked with, whether it’s Night Shyamalan, or Jordan Peele, or David Gordon Green, is the way they use tools of cinema to show a character’s desire, even (and especially) when that desire is inscrutable to me personally.…

A decades-in-the-making sequel to a critically dismissed landmark of ’80s schlock-buster culture. A wild speculative-fiction odyssey from two directors whose previous feature centered on a flatulent corpse. A cannibal love story. A three-hour Telugu-language action epic. A Bresson-inspired Polish art film whose protagonist is a donkey. For most of Oscar history, it would have been unusual to see any films with the above descriptions in contention for the night’s biggest prize. And yet it would hardly be a major surprise to see any one of them land a nomination when the best picture Academy Award slate is announced next month. Even more so than the pandemic-era Oscar years, which always felt contingent and ad-hoc, a system in crisis doing its best to hold the line, a look at the 2022…