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  • Brigitte Bardot, 1960s film icon turned animal rights activist, dies at 91

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    Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.”Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor. Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency. In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.” Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.”It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.”I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.”It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.” She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.”It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”“Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.”I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.” Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

    PARIS —

    Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.

    Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.

    Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.

    At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.

    Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.

    ‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.

    Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.

    “Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”

    Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor.

    Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.

    She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.

    Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”

    In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency.

    In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.

    She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.”

    Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.

    Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.

    But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.

    The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.

    The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.

    “It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”

    Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.

    Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.

    Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.

    “I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”

    In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”

    Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.

    Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).

    With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.

    “It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”

    Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.”

    She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.

    Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.

    She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.

    By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.

    “It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.

    In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.

    Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”

    “Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”

    Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.

    “I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.”

    Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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  • Mohammad Bakri, renowned and controversial Palestinian actor and filmmaker, dies at 72

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    Mohammad Bakri, a Palestinian director and actor who sought to share the complexities of Palestinian identity and culture through a variety of works in both Arabic and Hebrew, has died, his family announced. He was 72.Related video above: Remembering those we lost in 2025Bakri was best known for “Jenin, Jenin,” a 2003 documentary he directed about an Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank city the previous year during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. The film, focusing on the heavy destruction and heartbreak of its Palestinian residents, was banned by Israel.Bakri also acted in the 2025 film “All That’s Left of You,” a drama about a Palestinian family over more than 76 years, alongside his sons, Adam and Saleh Bakri, who are also actors. The film has been shortlisted by the Academy Awards for the best international feature film.Over the years, he made several films that spanned the spectrum of Palestinian experiences. He also acted in Hebrew, including at Israel’s national theater in Tel Aviv, and appeared in a number of famous Israeli films in the 1980s and 1990s. He studied at Tel Aviv University.Bakri, who was born in northern Israel and held Israeli citizenship, dabbled in both film and theater. His best-known one-man show from 1986, “The Pessoptimist,” based on the writings of Palestinian author Emile Habiby, focused on the intricacies and emotions of someone who has both Israeli and Palestinian identities.During the 1980s, Bakri played characters in mainstream Israeli films that humanized the Palestinian identity, including “Beyond the Walls,” a seminal film about incarcerated Israelis and Palestinians, said Raya Morag, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who specializes in cinema and trauma.“He broke stereotypes about how Israelis looked at Palestinians, and allowing someone Palestinian to be regarded as a hero in Israeli society,” she said.“He was a very brave person, and he was brave by standing to his ideals, choosing not to be conformist in any way, and paying the price in both societies,” said Morag.Bakri faced some pushback within Palestinian society for his cooperation with Israelis. After “Jenin, Jenin,” he was plagued by almost two decades of court cases in Israel, where the film was seen as unbalanced and inciting.In 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a ban on the documentary, saying it defamed Israeli soldiers, and ordered Bakri to pay tens of thousands of dollars in damages to an Israeli military officer for defamation.“Jenin, Jenin” was a turning point in Bakri’s career. In Israel, he became a polarizing figure, and he never worked with mainstream Israeli cinema again, Morag said. “He was loyal to himself despite all the pressures from inside and outside,” she added. “He was a firm voice that did not change during the years.”Local media quoted Bakri’s family as saying he died Wednesday after suffering from heart and lung problems. His cousin, Rafic, told the Arabic news site Al-Jarmaq that Bakri was a tenacious advocate of the Palestinians who used his works to express support for his people.“I am certain that Abu Saleh will remain in the memory of Palestinian people everywhere and all people of the free world,” he said, using Mohammad Bakri’s nickname.___AP correspondent Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

    TEL AVIV, Israel —

    Mohammad Bakri, a Palestinian director and actor who sought to share the complexities of Palestinian identity and culture through a variety of works in both Arabic and Hebrew, has died, his family announced. He was 72.

    Related video above: Remembering those we lost in 2025

    Bakri was best known for “Jenin, Jenin,” a 2003 documentary he directed about an Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank city the previous year during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. The film, focusing on the heavy destruction and heartbreak of its Palestinian residents, was banned by Israel.

    Bakri also acted in the 2025 film “All That’s Left of You,” a drama about a Palestinian family over more than 76 years, alongside his sons, Adam and Saleh Bakri, who are also actors. The film has been shortlisted by the Academy Awards for the best international feature film.

    Over the years, he made several films that spanned the spectrum of Palestinian experiences. He also acted in Hebrew, including at Israel’s national theater in Tel Aviv, and appeared in a number of famous Israeli films in the 1980s and 1990s. He studied at Tel Aviv University.

    Bakri, who was born in northern Israel and held Israeli citizenship, dabbled in both film and theater. His best-known one-man show from 1986, “The Pessoptimist,” based on the writings of Palestinian author Emile Habiby, focused on the intricacies and emotions of someone who has both Israeli and Palestinian identities.

    During the 1980s, Bakri played characters in mainstream Israeli films that humanized the Palestinian identity, including “Beyond the Walls,” a seminal film about incarcerated Israelis and Palestinians, said Raya Morag, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who specializes in cinema and trauma.

    “He broke stereotypes about how Israelis looked at Palestinians, and allowing someone Palestinian to be regarded as a hero in Israeli society,” she said.

    “He was a very brave person, and he was brave by standing to his ideals, choosing not to be conformist in any way, and paying the price in both societies,” said Morag.

    Bakri faced some pushback within Palestinian society for his cooperation with Israelis. After “Jenin, Jenin,” he was plagued by almost two decades of court cases in Israel, where the film was seen as unbalanced and inciting.

    In 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a ban on the documentary, saying it defamed Israeli soldiers, and ordered Bakri to pay tens of thousands of dollars in damages to an Israeli military officer for defamation.

    “Jenin, Jenin” was a turning point in Bakri’s career. In Israel, he became a polarizing figure, and he never worked with mainstream Israeli cinema again, Morag said. “He was loyal to himself despite all the pressures from inside and outside,” she added. “He was a firm voice that did not change during the years.”

    Local media quoted Bakri’s family as saying he died Wednesday after suffering from heart and lung problems. His cousin, Rafic, told the Arabic news site Al-Jarmaq that Bakri was a tenacious advocate of the Palestinians who used his works to express support for his people.

    “I am certain that Abu Saleh will remain in the memory of Palestinian people everywhere and all people of the free world,” he said, using Mohammad Bakri’s nickname.

    ___

    AP correspondent Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

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  • Lady Gaga to Share Harlequin Concert Film on Christmas Eve

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    A new Lady Gaga concert film will arrive on Christmas Eve. Lady Gaga in Harlequin Live: One Night Only was recorded last year during a performance at Los Angeles’ Belasco Theatre, where Lady Gaga performed Harlequin—her 2024 “companion album” to Joker: Folie à Deux, in which she starred as Harley Quinn—in its entirety. The film premieres on YouTube this Wednesday, December 24, at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST.

    Harlequin is up for Best Traditional Pop Album at the 2026 Grammy Awards. Lady Gaga has taken home that trophy twice before, in 2015 and 2022, for Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale, her collaborative albums with the late Tony Bennett. She’s nominated in seven categories total at next year’s Grammys, including Album of the Year for Mayhem, as well as Record and Song of the Year for its single “Abracadabra.”

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    Walden Green

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  • Kate Winslet on the challenges of making her directorial debut

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    Kate Winslet is one of Hollywood’s most accalimed actors, and now she’s testing her skills as a director with the new Christmas film “Goodbye June.” She sat down with “CBS Saturday Morning” to discuss the challenges of the new role after so many years in front of the camera.

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  • Watch Charli XCX Hide Inside a Giant Lighter in New The Moment Trailer

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    The official trailer for The Moment, the new A24 movie starring and conceived by Charli XCX, is here. Following last month’s teaser, the trailer further explores the movie’s light satire of the Brat era, in which Charli clings to reason amid a whirlwind of bad advice and unscrupulous interlopers. Among them are a goofball live-show director played by Alexander Skarsgård—at one point, he instructs her to hide inside a giant lighter while the crew maintains a wide perimeter—as well as various friends, suits, and influencers, played by the likes of Kylie Jenner, Rachel Sennott, Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Hailey Benton Gates, and Jamie Demetriou. Watch the trailer below.

    Directed by Aidan Zamiri, The Moment is one of three Charli XCX films showing at Sundance Film Festival, which runs from from January 22 to February 1, 2026. (The other two are Olivia Wilde’s The Gallerist and Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex.) The Moment hits theaters everywhere on January 30.

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    Jazz Monroe

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  • Watch the Trailer for Billie Eilish’s James Cameron-Directed Concert Film

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    Billie Eilish has shared the trailer for the concert film she made with director James Cameron while touring her last album, 2024’s Hit Me Hard and Soft. “No one’s shot a concert film on this scale before,” Cameron says in the clip, which cuts together footage of Eilish both on- and off-stage. “We’re using tech that’s never been used before.” Watch it below.

    Released by Paramount Pictures, Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour hits theaters on March 20. After going home empty-handed from the 2025 Grammy Awards, Eilish is up for Song and Record of the Year at next year’s ceremony for “Wildflower,” a Hit Me Hard and Soft album track that would have fallen outside the eligibility window but was re-released as a single in Feburary.

    Read about the Hit Me Hard and Soft single “Birds of a Feather” at No. 27 on “The 100 Best Songs of 2024.”

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    Walden Green

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  • Reviews For The Easily Distracted: Wicked: For Good – Houston Press

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    Title: Wicked: For Good

    Describe This Movie In One Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Quote:
    RAOUL DUKE: And a voice was screaming: “Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?”

    Brief Plot Synopsis: We’re off to … off the Wizard.

    Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3 Dark Side of the Moon albums out of 5.

    Credit: Wikipedia

    Tagline: “You will be changed.”

    Better Tagline: “This could’ve been a musical email.”

    Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: After breaking with the Wizard (Jeff Golblum) and power behind the throne Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) has become Oz’s Most Wanted. This puts her friend Glinda (Ariana Grande) in a difficult position, balancing her position as face of the regime — and impending wedding to Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) — while running interference for Elphaba as the “Wicked Witch” plots to stop the Wizard.

    YouTube video

    “Critical” Analysis: I wasn’t a fan of last year’s Wicked. The washed out palette, the forced theater kid enthusiasm, the fact that director John M. Chu snuck that “Part I” in at the very beginning, thereby assuring Universal could milk this tornado cow for another entire movie didn’t sit well. So to say my hopes weren’t high for its sequel is putting it mildly.

    So Technicolor me surprised that Wicked: For Good, while far from a perfect movie, is actually superior to the original (if mostly unnecessary). Chalk that up to the added emotional heft, bravura performances from Erivo and Grande, and — hear me out — a reduced emphasis on big-ass Broadway style production numbers.

    That same fidelity to the original musical that created such a devoted following also constrained Wicked’s potential. Chu was beholden to the big to-do of songs like an expanded “Dancing Though Life,” attempting to recapture that Broadway feeling. It also led to a real fear that a follow-up to a frontloaded Wicked wouldn’t be able to sustain that energy.

    And while that’s pretty accurate, it turns out the lack of showstoppers like “Defying Gravity” helps make Wicked: For Good more of a “real movie.” And as aggravating as it can be to hear characters drop into sung dialogue (I love you, Michelle Yeoh; but please never do that again), there’s at least some effort put into pushing the action without the constant heartfelt YEARNING of the original.

    Don’t get me wrong, because there’s plenty not to like here. Certain characters (Marissa Bode’s Nessarose, for one) deliberate inability or unwillingness to acknowledge their shittiness, or apex predators like Dulcibear’s (Sharon D. Clarke) failure to realize they could easily disembowel the fucking Wizard. For that matter, it would seem an easy task for Elphaba to dispatch a guy who’s only claim to fame is a penchant for sleight of hand (and he sings a whole song about it, of course)

    And while we’re on the subject, Jeff Goldblum morphed into playing himself (a la Samuel L. Jackson) so gradually I hardly noticed.

    The witch is back. Credit: Universal Pictures

    The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-ing of the events of The Wizard of Oz is big part of Wicked and For Good’s appeal, but it’s laid on a bit thick here, expanding on the original Dorothy silhouetting to include actual shots of the character and her entourage (courtesy of Elphaba’s well-intentioned but off-target magic). I’m not sure if Chu thought audiences were too dumb to put two and two together or Universal demanded it, but it’s unnecessary.

    Regarding that theory, the studio interference angle makes the most sense, because — again — there is no reason to expand Wicked into two movies outside of a naked cash grab*. Wicked: For Good plods along until the second act, when the action picks up, but it would have worked as well, if not better, as the climax to the first movie.

    But Chu manages some interesting non-stagey shots, juxtaposing Glinda’s walk down the aisle with Elphaba discovery of the animals caged by the Wizard (expanding on her finding Doctor Dillamond), and the parting shot of witches separated by a door (that apparently almost didn’t happen). Wicked: For Good finally gets it into gear after Elphaba and Fiyero get it on and the former embraces her devilish, no … villainous nature? It’ll come to me.

    I liked Wicked: For Good. Is it too long? Sure. Is it still painfully washed out? Yes. Does it stretch out subplots better left abandoned? Also yes. But the chemistry between Grande and Erivo feels more authentic, and the so-called “weaker” numbers pack more of a punch, probably because there are fewer of them. And who doesn’t love a villain origin story?

    Ask A 16-Year Old:
    RFTED: Are we leaving?
    16YO: Why would you want to watch the credits?
    RFTED: Maybe there’ll be a stinger for the next Avengers movie.
    16YO: We’re going.

    *And it worked. The movie grossed $147 million its opening weekend.

    Wicked: For Good is in theaters today.

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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    Pete Vonder Haar

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  • "Clue" stars reflect on movie 40 years later

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    The movie “Clue” was released 40 years ago, but the now-cult classic wasn’t an initial hit. Some members of the cast look back on the movie and what it was like on the set.

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  • FKA twigs, Sturgill Simpson, Bonnie “Prince” Billy to Star in New Movie The Lonely Woman

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    Boy Harsher, the darkwave electronic duo of vocalist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller, are shooting a feature film, and they’ve tapped a few striking musicians to join the cast. The movie, dubbed The Lonely Woman, reportedly stars FKA twigs, Sturgill Simpson, Will Oldham AKA Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Jake Weary, and Chloë Sevigny, among others.

    The Lonely Woman is billed as “a bleak, sensual, and atmospheric horror-thriller” featuring a score by Boy Harsher themselves. Hunter Zimny is the movie’s director of photography, while Madeline Sadowski (Good Time, Chappell Roan’s “The Subway”) is the production designer.

    Per Deadline, The Lonely Woman is set in rural New England and follows a woman who was marked by the death of her first love in a mountain tunnel. As she’s drawn into the mystery of a new disappearance, she begins confronting a seductive and terrifying presence buried beneath the town.

    This isn’t Boy Harsher’s first foray into the world of cinema. The duo penned the soundtrack to the 2022 short film The Runner, and green-lit their song “Pain” to appear in Terrifier 2 as well. However, The Lonely Woman is Boy Harsher’s first time directing a movie. Their most recent full-length album, Careful, came out in 2019.

    A few days ago, FKA twigs released EUSEXUA Afterglow, a brand new album paired with a reimagined version of her third studio album, EUSEXUA, from this past January. It includes the singles “Cheap Hotel” and “Hard.” Revisit Madison Bloom’s column “Hard Beats, Bondage, and Body Paint: What Went Down at FKA twigs’ New York Eusexua Rave.”

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    Nina Corcoran

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  • Watch Charli XCX Parody Her Brat Era in Teaser Trailer for New Movie The Moment

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    The first teaser trailer for The Moment, the new A24 movie starring and conceived by Charli XCX, has arrived. In the clip, we get a preview of the pop star’s rapid ascent to the top during her Brat era, but told through a self-parody style: rehearsing a punch-like dance move in a mirror, the physically painful effect of that bright-neon green and strobe lights, and a mannequin shattering on the floor during a show rehearsal bit she’s meant to replicate. Watch it below; scroll down for the film’s new Brat-style poster.

    In a statement about the movie, Charli XCX said, “It’s not a tour documentary or a concert film in any way, but the seed of the idea was conceived from this idea of being pressured to make one. It’s fiction, but it’s the realest depiction of the music industry that I’ve ever seen.”

    The Moment is helmed by Aidan Zamiri—marking the music photographer’s directorial debut—and features a number of other celebrities and actors in smaller roles, including Alexander Skarsgård, Kylie Jenner, Rachel Sennott, Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Hailey Benton Gates, and Jamie Demetriou. Zamiri co-wrote the film with Bertie Brandes. The Moment hits theaters everywhere on Friday, January 30, 2026.

    Charli XCX is all-in on her movie era. She recently announced her Wuthering Heights album that accompanies Emerald Fennell’s upcoming film of the same name and features her John Cale collaboration “House.” The pop star has numerous projects that are still in-the-works, too, including A24’s Mother Mary, Gregg Araki’s drama I Want Your Sex, the horror remake Faces of Death, and a Romain Gavras film called Sacrifice that also stars Yung Lean.

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    Nina Corcoran

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  • Best Bets: Houston Greek Film Festival, Birdy, and A Little Night Music – Houston Press

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    It’s National ‘Have a Bad Day’ Day, so be sure to wish your loved ones the worst as you head out the door to check out our best bets. This week, we have the return of a popular film festival, a deep dive into the life of a pioneering political figure, and quite possibly “the finest American play ever written,” according to Edward Albee. Keep reading for these and more.   

    Writer-director Antonis Tsonis has described his 2024 film Brando With a Glass Eye, about a method actor who attempts armed robbery to make his dream of studying in New York come true, as “layered like a babushka doll with meta-narratives,” acknowledging it’s “bold, risky, maybe even strange.”  The film will open the Houston Greek Film Festival at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday, November 20, at the MATCH, marking the start of a weekend featuring ten films and almost a dozen shorts. The lineup includes 14 Gulf Coast premieres, three U.S. premieres, and one world premiere. Tickets to the individual screenings are available for $15, with a $30 reception-only ticket available, along with a 5-ticket pass for $60, and a VIP all-access pass for $90. The full schedule can be found here, and tickets can be purchased here.

    The story of Barbara Jordan, Texas’ first Black state senator and the first Southern Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, began right here, in Houston’s Fifth Ward. On Friday, November 21, at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, you can learn more about the pioneer in Angela Lynn Tucker’s documentary The Inquisitor, named for the moniker Jordan earned for her questioning as a member of the House Judiciary Committee during President Richard Nixon’s 1974 Watergate hearings. Stay after the film for a discussion with special guests, including Tucker. Two additional screenings are scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, November 22, and 2 p.m. Sunday, November 23. Tickets to any of the screenings can be purchased here for $7 to $9.

    Contemporary dance, martial arts and tai chi, and Peking opera (the symbolic, stylized, and traditional Chinese performing art) come together in Lai Hung-Chung’s Birdy, a work set to electronic and Chinese classical music that will be performed by Hung Dance at the Wortham Theater Center on Friday, November 21, at 7:30 p.m. Lai founded the Taiwanese contemporary dance company, which is named for the Chinese word meaning “soar” – a theme that will also be at play in Birdy – in 2017, and Performing Arts Houston is bringing the ensemble to town as part of the Tudor Family Dance Series to make its Houston debut with the piece. Birdy will be performed a second time on Saturday, November 22, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to either performance are available here for $44.85 to $79.35.

    Visit Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, circa 1901 to 1913, to spend time with the Gibbs and Webb families in Thornton Wilder’s classic 1938 play Our Town, which 4th Wall Theatre Company will open at Spring Street Studios at Friday, November 21, at 7:30 p.m. Skyler Sinclair, who plays Emily Webb in the production, told the Houston Press the play is “almost like a magic trick,” saying that Wilder “lays everything out so beautifully,” resulting in a story that is “universal” and “transcends time.” Sinclair added that, “This play has a message that every human being needs to hear…It asks the audience if you could put a price on your most basic memory of life, what would that be.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays through December 20. Tickets are available here for $40 to $70.

    YouTube video

    Taiwanese twin brothers and percussionists Jen-Ting and Jen-Yu Chien, known as Twincussion, will end their U.S. concert tour at Asia Society Texas Center on Friday, November 21, at 7:30 p.m. with Twincussion: ‘Twin Beats’ — Melodies and Rhythms From Taiwan. During the program, presented in partnership with Taiwan Academy, the instrumentalists will play a program that includes new arrangements of Taiwanese folk melodies, such as  “Dark Sky (Tian Hei Hei)” and “Longing for the Spring Breeze (Wang Chun Feng)”; a Taipei-flavored take on Wayne Siegel’s 42nd Street Rondo; George Frideric Handel’s Passacaglia, arranged by Johan Halvorsen; Tomasz GoliÅ„ski’s Layered Elements, a piece commissioned by the brothers and premiered in 2018; and more. Tickets can be purchased here for $10 to $30.

    Director Hal Prince famously described A Little Night Music, Stephen Sondheim’s adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night, as “whipped cream with knives.” The Sweden-set musical, a romantic farce revolving around a pair of couples, premiered in 1973 and went on to win multiple Tony Awards, including Best Musical – as well as spawn the hit song “Send In the Clowns,” performed since by artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to Grace Jones – and on Friday, November 21, at 7:30 p.m., you can see it when Opera in the Heights opens a production of the show at Lambert Hall. A Little Night Music will also be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, November 22, and 2 p.m. Sunday, November 23. Tickets are available here for $35 to $85.

    In Beautiful Princess Disorder, playwright Kathy Ng’s script specifies the play’s main character, Triangle Person, “to be wearing a very geometric, triangle-shaped head and a no-nonsense navy blue swimsuit” as they wait in “the parking lot of heaven” with other inhabitants – specifically, Mother Teresa and Tilikum, the orca with three fatalities to his name featured in the 2013 documentary Blackfish. You can meet these curious characters on Friday, November 21, at 8 p.m., when The Catastrophic Theatre world premieres Ng’s 75-minute, one-act at the MATCH. Additional performances of the play are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Monday, December 1; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m. Sundays through December 13. Tickets are pay-what-you-can with a suggested price of $40 and can be purchased here.

    Clara Marsh and Lindsay Ehrhardt in Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley.
    Clara Marsh as Kitty and Lindsay Ehrhardt as Georgiana in Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley. Credit: Pin Lim, Forest Photography

    Step into the world of Jane Austen on Saturday, November 22, at 7:30 p.m., when Main Street Theater brings its holiday Pemberley play tradition back to the stage with the opening night of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley. Elizabeth Bennet’s sister, Kitty, and Mr. Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, share the spotlight in the “comedy of manners,” the third installment of Gunderson and Melcon’s Christmas at Pemberley series. Following Main Street’s 2023 production of the play, the Houston Press noted “few plays blend the antique with the new with such finesse, delicate touch, and laugh-out-loud repartee.” Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and November 26, and 3 p.m. Sundays through December 21 (with no performance on Thanksgiving Day). Tickets can be purchased here for $45 to $64.

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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    Natalie de la Garza

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  • Pope Leo XIV celebrates the power of cinema with star-studded Vatican audience

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    The Vatican shared the spotlight with Hollywood on Saturday as Pope Leo XIV hosted dozens of stars, including Cate Blanchett, Spike Lee and Monica Bellucci for a special audience celebrating the power of cinema. 

    The event, organized by the Vatican’s culture ministry, took place in a frescoed Vatican audience hall. Leo called on the attending artists to use their art to include marginalized voices and praised film to console and challenge audiences. 

    “It articulates the questions that dwell within us, and sometimes, even provokes tears that we did not know we needed to express,” Leo said. 

    The first U.S.-born pope also acknowledged the financial difficulties facing movie theaters. He said institutions should not give up, but “cooperate in affirming the social and cultural value” of theaters, drawing applause from the audience. 

    Pope Leo XIV poses with actors, filmmakers, directors, and scriptwriters during an audience at the Clementine Hall on November 15, 2025 in Vatican City.

    Simone Risoluti – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool / Getty Images


    “His speech was beautiful and very inspiring, about hope and our work in cinema. We’re glad we came,” said Judd Apatow, who attended the audience with his wife and fellow Hollywood star Leslie Mann. 

    “It was so inspiring,” Mann added. 

    Leo spent nearly an hour greeting guests and making conversation with each attendee. Lee, a basketball lover, gifted the pontiff a New York Knicks jersey that featured the No. 14 and Leo’s name on the back. Leo may be a known Chicago Bulls fan, but Lee said he told the pope that the Knicks’ current roster includes three players from Villanova University, the Holy Father’s alma mater. Lee said Leo’s words about film were “very, very moving.” 

    Pope Francis held similar audiences with artists and comedians. The audiences are part of the Vatican’s efforts to reach out beyond the Catholic Church to engage with the secular world.

    Papal Audience With The Film Industry

    Pope Leo XIV greets Spike Lee during an audience at the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace on November 15, 2025 in Vatican City.

    Simone Risoluti – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool / Getty Images / Mario Tomassetti


    A pope who “grew up with cinema”

    Leo is the first American-born Pope and grew up during Hollywood’s heyday. Earlier this week, he listed his four favorite movies: “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “The Sound of Music,” “Ordinary People,” and “Life Is Beautiful,” all classics that celebrate love and hope in the face of darkness. Leo will also be the subject of his own movie, a documentary from the Vatican that traces his life from Chicago to St. Peter’s. 

    “He is a pope who grew up with television and grew up with cinema, and it’s a natural (medium) to tell his story,” said Monsignor Paul Tighe, the Vatican’s culture secretary, in a conversation with CBS Saturday Morning. 

    Tighe said the large group of filmmakers and actors was pulled together during the last three months. Vatican officials used contacts in Hollywood, including Martin Scorsese, to help craft the list of attendees. The hardest part, Tighe said, was convincing Hollywood agents that the invitation wasn’t a hoax. Tighe told CBS Saturday Morning that he hopes the event shows that the Church embraces the arts, instead of just tolerating them. 

    “We have to trust that the artist, even when he or she is being provocative, is trying to wake us up, grab our attention, and make us think about things that are important,” Tighe said. 

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  • Pope Leo XIV hosts Hollywood at the Vatican

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    Pope Leo XIV hosts Hollywood at the Vatican – CBS News










































    Watch CBS News



    Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV hosted stars like Cate Blanchett and Spike Lee at the Vatican as part of an effort to deepen the dialogue between creativity and faith.

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  • Opinion | What Does ‘White Guilt’ Mean in 2025?

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    Victim politics gave us pro-Hamas activism and a powerful reaction in the form of Donald Trump, argue Shelby Steele and his son, Eli.

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    Tunku Varadarajan

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  • Pope Leo XIV Is a Cinephile Who Loves It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music

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    Just because you’re the pope, that doesn’t meant mean you can’t have a little fun. The dearly departed Pope Francis had plenty of earthly passions, including soccer and cinema. Fellini’s The Road, Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Lunch, Kurosawa’s August Rhapsody, and Rossellini’s Rome Open City were among the late pope’s favorite films.

    Apparently his successor, Pope Leo XIV, is not only a White Sox fan but also something of a cinephile. Ahead of a meeting with iconic figures from the film world on Saturday, Leo XIV, the first ever American pope, shared his four favorite movies of all time via a statement from the Vatican. They include a Christmas classic, a beloved musical, an Oscar-winning drama, and an Italian film.

    The first movie on Leo’s list is Frank Capra’s 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life—where Jimmy Stewart’s despondent businessman George Bailey learns to appreciate the beauty of life on Christmas. It’s a fitting choice for the Catholic leader for obvious reasons (see: Christmas). Pope Leo XIV’s next choice also makes sense thematically: the 1965 musical The Sound of Music, directed by Robert Wise and based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical. Of course Pope Leo XIV loves the adaptation, which stars Julie Andrews as Maria, a nun-in-training tasked with looking after the seven Von Trapp children as the Nazis begin to invade Austria: singing nuns and escaping the Nazis are catnip to a pope.

    Pope Leo XIV’s next two choices veer a little bit farther from the papacy. He name-checked Robert Redford’s 1980 film Ordinary People, starring Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, and Timothy Hutton. Winner of the Oscar for best film, it follows a family of three dealing with the death of their eldest son—decidedly darker fare than either The Sound of Music or It’s A Wonderful Life. Pope Leo XIV’s fourth and final choice is the 1997 film Life Is Beautiful, directed by and starring Roberto Benigni as a Jewish-Italian waiter who is taken to a concentration camp with his young son. The Oscar-winning Italian film makes sense given Leo’s new residency in the Vatican City.

    According to a statement from the Vatican, Leo XIV “has expressed his desire to deepen dialogue with the World of Cinema, and in particular with actors and directors, exploring the possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the Church and the promotion of human values.” As such, prominent Hollywood figures such as Cate Blanchett, Spike Lee, Monica Bellucci, and Gaspar Noé, as well as Italian cinema staples Marco Bellocchio, Raoul Bova, and Sergio Castellitto, will have an audience with the pope in Vatican City this weekend.

    Perhaps on Saturday, the cinephiles will learn which films just missed the cut for Leo XIV: maybe Sister Act one or two, Doubt, or the recent hit One Battle After Another, in which nuns prominently figure. In any case, it’s clear that it’s time to get Pope Leo XIV on Letterboxd: We’d love to see his Conclave review.

    Original story appeared in VF Italia.

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    Chiara Pizzimenti

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  • Sabrina Carpenter to Produce and Star in New Alice in Wonderland Movie Musical

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    Sabrina Carpenter is gearing up to make her feature film debut; the pop star will produce and star in a new musical movie inspired by Alice in Wonderland for Universal Pictures. Inspired by the Lewis Carroll book, the as-yet-untitled film will be written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, best known for directing several episodes of Succession—for which she earned two Emmy nominations—and helming the movies Hustlers and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World as both a director and writer.

    While plot details are still being kept under wraps and a release date is not yet in sight, Carpenter’s new project does list Marc Platt as a co-producer, through his company Marc Platt Productions, as well as Alloy Entertainment’s Leslie Morgenstein and Elysa Koplovitz Dutton.

    On the strength of her new album, Man’s Best Friend, which she released this past September, Carpenter scooped up six nominations at the upcoming 2026 Grammy Awards. One of the biggest looks is her nomination for Song of the Year, with “Manchild,” marking her second time in the category, following last year’s run with “Please Please Please.” As with last time, Carpenter shares the nomination with co-writer Jack Antonoff.

    Rounding out Carpenter’s Grammy Award nominations this time are Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Man’s Best Friend, as well as Record of the Year, Best Music Video, and Best Pop Solo Performance, for “Manchild.” See the full list of nominations here. The awards ceremony is set for February 1 and will be broadcast live on CBS.

    7 Takeaways From the 2026 Grammy Nominations

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    Nina Corcoran

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  • Maude Apatow Steps Into Her Next Big Role

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    On Thursday night, November 6, in Los Angeles, Maude Apatow was recognized at the Women in Film 2025 WIF Honors with the Max Mara Face of the Future Award. Boasting an impressive list of past recipients—including Zoë Saldana, Katie Holmes, Yara Shahidi, and Lili Reinhart—the award, now celebrating its 20th year, recognizes a young actor at a turning point in her career.

    Apatow, 27, first appeared on-screen in her dad, Judd Apatow’s, 2007 film Knocked Up and has since carved out a space for herself in film and television with roles in Euphoria, The King of Staten Island, and One of Them Days. Now, she’s stepping behind the camera with her directorial debut, Poetic License, a coming-of-age film that earned strong reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

    “I’m so lucky I had the opportunity to direct,” she tells W. “There are so few female directors. I want to spend my life trying to figure out how to uplift other women.” It’s an aim very much in line with the WIF Honors ceremony. Apatow considers her fellow honorees this year—among them, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tessa Thompson, and Judy Blume—some of her personal heroes. “I do not feel worthy,” she says. “Judy Blume taught me my love for reading. Tessa’s such a badass. I actually cannot believe I’m being honored alongside them.” Another hero? Her grandmother, who, along with her mom Leslie Mann, instilled in her a love of Max Mara. “I hope my grandma gives me her coats someday. They’re forever pieces.”

    Below, Apatow discusses taking her seat in the director’s chair and the style advice from her mom that she struggles to follow.

    Apatow with past WIF Max Mara Face of the Future Award honoree Lili Reinhart.

    Unique Nicole/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

    What was it about Poetic License that inspired you to make it your directorial debut?

    When I first read Poetic License, I thought it was so funny, truthful, and weird. It had a sort of timeless feeling, but it also felt fresh in the way young people were written. I understand the characters and their struggles. I wasn’t searching to direct anything, but it was always in the back of my mind. So when I read the script, I had a moment like, “Oh, I get this. I think I might be able to pull this one off.”

    Your mom, Leslie Mann, plays the main character, Liz, in the film. Was it weird directing her?

    My mom is my best friend. I’ve always admired her so much as an actress. Going into it, we were nervous, but it ended up going so smoothly. We were in sync the entire time. It felt like we could read each other’s minds. I’ve been so lucky that I’ve gotten to watch my parents collaborate. I was young, but collaborating with them, too, was a very special thing. When you know someone so well, you know what they’re capable of, so you can challenge them, and that’s pretty amazing.

    Should we expect more films from you in the future?

    Yeah. I love directing. I’d love to do a musical. I’m a big musical theater girl. I think that’s really hard to capture the magic that you get watching live theater. A few people have. I want to try too, so we’ll see.

    Apatow with the cast of Poetic License.

    Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

    Now for some Style Notes questions. Did you raid your mom’s closet a lot growing up?

    Yeah. We have the same shoe size, so that was major for me. But now she raids my closet. I’m giving back for all the years that I was stealing her stuff.

    You’ve walked a lot of red carpets during your career. Are there any looks you regret?

    I have so many weird ones. When I was a kid, I had no idea what I was wearing. I was dressing myself, and thinking, “Oh, I need a little heel,” even though I was 12. I would go to Target and buy heels because I thought it would make me look sophisticated, but it was a total flop.

    Apatow with her family in August 2012.

    Gregg DeGuire/WireImage/Getty Images

    What is the best style advice you’ve received from your mom?

    My mom always says, “Wear it.” If you buy something nice and you think, “I’ll save this for a special occasion,” you end up forgetting about it. She says, “Just wear it, use it.” I’m still like, “Can I do that?” I’ll get a purse and then I’ll just keep it on my top shelf. Then I’m like, “What am I doing? I’m just looking at it. Just use it.”

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  • Adele to Star in New Tom Ford Movie

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    For the first time, Adele has been cast in a feature film. According to reports from Deadline and Variety, the British singer will star alongside in Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Colin Firth, and others in director Tom Ford’s Cry to Heaven. The movie is mooted to come out in late autumn 2026.

    Cry to Heaven is Ford’s adaptation of American author Anne Rice’s 1982 novel of the same name. The story is set in 18th-century Italy and follows a Venetian noble and a castrated Calabrian singer who are both trying to succeed in opera. In a contemporaneous review of the novel, for The New York Times, Alice Hoffman noted the importance of music in Cry to Heaven, describing it as “bold and erotic, laced with luxury, sexual tension, music.” She continued, “Music is everywhere: in the voices of the gondoliers, the hymns of the children, the glorious chords of the opera house. Even the bees sing.”

    According to the reports, Ford’s film is currently in pre-production in London and Rome, and principal photography is set to begin in mid-January. Along with directorial duties, Ford is also producing and writing Cry to Heaven. It will be his third feature film, following 2009’s A Single Man and 2016’s Nocturnal Animals.

    Adele supported her latest studio album, 2021’s 30, with a 100-concert residency in Las Vegas and a 10-show residency in Munich. She has been on a self-described “break” since the end of the Las Vegas residency in November 2024.

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    Matthew Strauss

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  • DOC NYC documentary film festival returns with real-life stories from around the world, in-person and streaming

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    DOC NYC, America’s largest festival for documentaries, celebrates its 16th edition beginning Wednesday, with screenings held at venues in New York City through Nov. 20, and continuing online through Nov. 30 on demand. 

    The festival offers more than 115 feature-length documentaries — many making their world, U.S. or New York City premieres — as well as short films. Films span a wide range of topics: immigration, family histories, dating, gun rights, the arts, cryptocurrency, the environment, fighting for the American Dream, and more. Subjects include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump litigant E. Jean Carroll, actors Oscar Isaac and Alec Baldwin, Julian Assange, and Elon Musk’s Space X. There’s even an inside look at the industry of selling Christmas trees. 

    The festival also hosts the DOC NYC Pro Conference, examining storytelling, filmmaking techniques, funding, distribution and publicity.

    Gala presentations

    Wednesday’s opening night film is “Whistle,” which is set in one of the quirkiest of public competitions: the Masters of Musical Whistling festival in Hollywood. The closing night film is “Ask E. Jean,” a portrait of the writer and talk show host E. Jean Carroll, whose lawsuits against Donald Trump led to one of the most highly-charged outcomes of the #MeToo movement.

    The centerpiece films are “The Merchants of Joy,” a look at the competition that arises among sellers of Christmas trees on New York street corners; and “Steal This Story, Please!,” about the indefatigable independent journalist Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now!”

    Other special presentations include Rory Kennedy’s “The Trial of Alec Baldwin,” about the prosecution of the actor over the on-set shooting death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins; “Benita”, a tribute to experimental documentary filmmaker Benita Raphan, who died by suicide during the pandemic lockdown; and “Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story,” which honors the photographer, artist and activist.

    The social history of the Jewish community in the resorts of New York’s Catskills is remembered in the nostalgic “We Met at Grossinger’s.”

    Check out more of the featured offerings below.

    Screenings will be held at the IFC Center, SVA Theatre, and Village East by Angelika cinemas in Manhattan. Click on the links to individual films to find out about attending screenings, or to buy tickets to stream online. General ticket and pass information may be found here.

    Featured at the 2025 DOC NYC documentary festival (clockwise from top left): “Zelensky”; “The Balloonists”; “Ask E. Jean”; “Love, Joy & Power: Tools For Liberation”; “The Trial of Alec Baldwin”; “Farruquito: A Flamenco Dynasty”; “Reggae Girlz”; and “Shifting Baselines.”

    DOC NYC


    U.S. competition

    Among the festival’s world premieres are “Santacon,” about a raucous annual celebration of St. Nick. In “Sons of Detroit,” filmmaker Jeremy Xido reunites with his past in Motor City, and with the African-American family that “adopted” him and his family years earlier.

    “Thoughts & Prayers” reflects on the sadly familiar reaction to school shootings. “The Voyage Out” follows a hunter, a tech entrepreneur and a survival expert on an expedition into the remote wilderness in search of elk.

    Filmmaker Khoa Ha excavates the career and legacy of her grandfather, Vietnamese musician Y Vân, in “Y Vãn: The Lost Sounds of Saigon.” Colette Ghunim examines generational trauma deriving from the immigrant experiences of her Mexican mother and Palestinian father in “Traces of Home.” In “Wayumi,” a young man reconnects with his mother, who left him when he was a child in order to return home – to an Amazonian tribe.

    Also showing is the North American premiere of “Mata Hari,” about the production of David Carradine’s unfinished film based on the life of the legendary spy, in which he cast his own teenage daughter, Calista, and shot over the span of 15 years.

    More American stories

    In “The A List: 15 Stories From Asian and Pacific Diasporas,” Connie Chung, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Kumail Nanjiani, Amanda Nguyen, Sandra Oh, and others reflect on identity in America amid rising racism. Resistance to authorities over women’s reproductive rights and autonomy comes from an unexpected source — the Amish and Mennonite communities of upstate New York — in “Arrest the Midwife.”

    In “Beyond,” incarcerated men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York engage in the Beyond the Block public speaking symposium, to examine ideas, dreams and hopes. Creede, a small historic mining town in Colorado, becomes a manifestation of liberal and conservative cultural clashes in “Creede U.S.A.”

    In “Saving Etting Street,” an innovative program to rehabilitate rowhouses in a depressed Baltimore neighborhood teaches construction skills and provides self-actualization for women to revitalize their community. The grassroots organization Black Votes Matter mobilizes ahead of the 2020 election in “Love, Joy & Power: Tools For Liberation.”

    Director Tadashi Nakamura looks back on the life of his father, filmmaker and activist Robert A. Nakamura, and the legacy he left his family, in “Third Act.” In “What We Inherit,” Kacim Steets Azouz, an Algerian-American filmmaker raised in Canada, explores his personal history when he discoveries his ancestors owned enslaved people, and meets the descendants of those held captive.

    Will the American team take top prize at the Mondial du Fromage cheesemongering competition in France? “The Big Cheese” captures the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

    International stories

    “Zelensky,” by Yves Jeuland and Lisa Vapné, examines the life of the Ukrainian TV personality who became president and a defender of freedom against Russian aggression.

    A Mexican insurance adjuster trying to navigate a corrupt world seeks refuge in the art world, and is disillusioned by what he finds, in “Loss Adjustment.” To support her family, a Georgian mother turns to surrogacy in “9-Month Contract.” An activist seeks to organize poppy farmers in eastern Rajasthan in “I, Poppy.”

    Acclaimed conductor Gustavo Dudamel stages a performance of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” featuring a choir of deaf Venezuelan performers, in “El Canto de las Manos.”

    Brazilian director João Vieira Torres traces a history of violence against the women in his family in “Aurora.” Chechens form a community-in-exile in nearby Georgia in “Imago.” Globalization and assimilation threaten the traditions of northern Nepal in “The Lama’s Son.”

    “Fight the Power”

    “Fight the Power” is a sidebar devoted to stories of activism. Among them: “The Age of Water,” in which women in Mexico fight for justice after radioactive materials are found in their water supply. Suporters of the American Indian Movement activist convicted of murder seek his release in “Free Leonard Peltier.” “Misan Harriman: Shoot the People” profiles a photographer of street protests.

    Radical female filmmakers question cinematic violence and the art form’s depiction of women in “No Mercy.” In “The Six Billion Dollar Man,” director Eugene Jarecki (“Why We Fight”) chronicles the odyssey of Julian Assange, from the birth of Wikileaks, to Assange’s confinement and release. “True North” examines anti-Black racism in Canada as it documents a 1969 student uprising at Concordia University in Montreal.

    “WTO/99” uses archival footage to capture the anti-globalization sentiments in 1999, as myriad interests — from labor groups, environmentalists and human rights organizations to anarchists — were brought together to the Seattle site of a World Trade Organization conference, pitting 40,000 protesters against the National Guard.

    Stories of resilience

    As climate change affects Louisiana’s rapidly-vanishing Isle de Jean Charles, two teenagers and their uncle face forced government resettlement, in “Lowland Kids.” “Flophouse America” examines the struggles of a young boy’s family reduced by poverty to living in a low-rent motel.

    Manizha Bakhtari, Afghanistan’s female ambassador to Austria, confronts a moral dilemma when the Taliban comes to power in “The Last Ambassador.” An Iraqi family returning to Mosul sifts through the ruins of their ancestral home destroyed by ISIS in “The Lions By the River Tigris.” Six Palestinian comedians build a stand-up comedy scene in the midst of occupation and violence in “Palestine Comedy Club.”

    Central American mothers search for their disappeared children in “A Place of Absence.” A Zimbabwean immigrant in Botswana confronts generational trauma and historical violence in “Matabeleland.”

    Exposés

    Films that document investigations into some of the most challenging stories of our time include Ben McKenzie’s “Everyone Is Lying to You for Money,” about the Wild West world of crypto. “The Pink Pill: Sex, Drugs & Who Has Control” examines double standards in the medical world when it comes to pharmaceuticals geared towards female sexual health.

    “Nuns vs. the Vatican” details the efforts of survivors of abuse and their advocates to expose what they deem the Catholic Church’s betrayal. Bao Nguyen’s “The Stringer” raises questions about the authorship of one of the most harrowing and consequential images ever taken, of a little girl burned by napalm during the Vietnam War.

    “The Secrets We Bury” explores the 1960s disappearance of a Long Island man and its effect on his children. In “I Dreamed His Name,” Columbian filmmaker Ángela Carabalí investigates the disappearance of her father, a farmer and activist, when she was a child.

    New York-centric

    New York City is the subject of a selection of films celebrating the Big Apple’s history, culture and communities.

    The works of the ’70s avant-garde theatrical troupe Theater of the Ridiculous are recaptured in “Museum of the Night.” Latina trailblazing actress, Emmy-winning writer and Bronx native Sonia Manzano (who played Maria on “Sesame Street”) shares her journey in “Street Smart: Lessons From a TV Icon.”

    When COVID-19 lockdowns cancelled Lincoln Center’s production of “The Nutcracker,” unemployed New York City Ballet artists put on their own pandemic-friendly show in the Hudson Valley. “The Nutcracker at Wethersfield” documents their innovative solution to lighting a dark time.

    The intimate “King Hamlet” follows a year in the life of actor Oscar Isaac, who experiences tectonic shifts in his family life all while preparing for a stage production of Hamlet.” Directed by Isaac’s partner Elvira Lind.

    In the 1950s three female artists banded together and bought a house in New York City. “Artists in Residence” reflects on their pursuit of art outside traditional female social bounds. “My Sunnyside” is a portrait of the relationship between a trans man and a trans woman, whose plans for marriage and children flip gender expectations.

    The festival will also feature a 20th-anniversary screening of the classic 2005 documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom,” in which New York City fifth-graders competed in ballroom dancing.

    Portraits

    Avant-garde stage director Dimitris Papaioannou is the focus of “Bull’s Heart.” “Cast of Shadows” looks at the legacy of pioneering documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty (“Nanook of the North”) and the overlooked contributions of his wife, Frances Flaherty. The dancer Farruquito and his family have raised the art of traditional flamenco in “Farruquito: A Flamenco Dynasty”

    Afro-Cuban musician Pablo Milanés is the subject of “Para Vivir: The Implacable Time of Pablo Milanés,” while “Pretty Dirty” chronicles the trailblazing feminist artist Marilyn Minter. “TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing” is a distillation of author, editor and activist Toni Cade Bambara.

    In the years when Ghana emerged from under British colonial rule, filmmaker Chris Hesse served as the personal cinematographer of Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah and the country’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah. He explores his archive of the young nation’s history in “The Eyes of Ghana.”

    Stories of striving

    In the aftermath of China’s one-child policy, dating coaches help men of marriage age eager to find mates despite a shortage of eligible females in “The Dating Game.” In “Paul,” the film’s subject has less difficulty finding dominant mistresses as he channels his mental health struggles into domestic service.

    Filmmaker Nadia Louis-Desmarchais, the daughter of a Haitian mother and adopted by a White family in Quebec, explores race and identity in “A Thousand Colors.”

    “Always” is a portrait of an aspiring young poet in China, while “The Gas Station Attendant” is filmmaker Karla Murthy’s memorial to her father, an immigrant who pursued the American Dream. “Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie” is a portrait of the deaf bodybuilder and her battle against trauma and alienation.

    Music

    The festival “Sonic Cinema” sidebar features several world premieres. In “A Free Daughter of Free Kyrgyzstan,” a young singer, Zere Asylbek, defies death threats as she promotes her provocative music videos in a traditionally patriarchal society.

    “Fugs Film!” looks back at the ’60s New York City underground rock band, while the world of children’s music is celebrated in “Happy and You Know It.”

    The Sunset Marquis was, in the 1970s and ’80s, the epicenter for rock ‘n’ roll icons in L.A. Many of them, from Ringo Starr, Cyndi Lauper and Sharon Osbourne to Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen, pay tribute in “If These Walls Could Rock.”

    Composer and virtuoso clarinetist Kinan Azmeh talks about displacement from his native Syria and the role of art in a world divided by war in “Half Moon.”

    The environment

    John Lipscomb, a steward of the Hudson River, reflects on a life fighting pollution on the New York waterway in “The Keeper.” Access to nature and right-of-way in the United Kingdom is the fight maintained between activists and landowners in “Our Land.”

    Solar geoengineering — a hot topic in the quest to cool a heating planet — is the theme of “Plan C for Civilization,” while “The Garden of Maria” chronicles the spiritual journey of an Indigenous woman who reclaims her ancestral land in Brazil and transforms it into a forest.

    Sports

    In “Kings of Venice,” paddle tennis players try to defend their Venice Beach turf from an invasion of pickleball players. Jamaica’s soccer team, with their sights set on the 2023 Women’s World Cup, are the underdogs in “Reggae Girlz.”

    “The Balloonists” follows the 1999 attempt by Swiss adventurer Bvertrand Piccard and British navigator Brian Jones to become the first to circumnavigate the globe in a hot-air balloon, while in “3,000KM By Bike,” BMX champion Iñaki Mazza traverses a route from Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego.  

    Kaleidoscope

    A competition category celebrating “new documentary visions” features “The Foul-Mouthed Granny,” a humorous portrait of filmmaker Seung-pyo Hong’s sharp-tongued mother; “Lost for Words,” about the connection between language and imagination; “Omega Wants to Dance” speculates about an AI system seeking self-expression through art as it studies humanity’s timeless passion for dance; “Shifting Baselines,” about how the Texas town of Boca Chica has been upended by the expansion of Elon Musk’s Space X; and “Unanimal,” about the relationship between humans and animals.

          
    DOC NYC runs from Nov. 12-20 in theaters, and through Nov. 30 online. 

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  • ‘The Running Man’ Conjures a Dystopian Vision of America That’s Still Not as Bad as Reality

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    Thirty-eight years later, The Running Man is back on our screens, playing to a world that seems to have caught up with the original’s idiocy. This new one features a considerably less bulky, but no less watchable star in Glen Powell, playing runner Ben Richards. Fired from various jobs for insubordination, and tending to a sick toddler, he’s press-ganged into joining America’s favorite kill-or-be-killed game show, after a producer identifies him as “quantifiably the angriest man to ever audition.”

    The show’s premise has been tweaked a bit, too. Instead of navigating a series of video-game-like levels for the length of a TV broadcast, Richards must now survive in the real world for 30 days, surveilled by hovering network TV camera droids, pursued by armed-to-the-teeth “hunters,” private police goons, and a general public who spot and film runners using a proprietary app on their smartphones. The longer he lasts, and the more pursuers he can kill, the more money he makes. He’s cheered (and booed) by a massive audience of brain-dead oafs called Running Fans, glued to their screens 24/7. Like Schwarzenegger’s Richard before him, Powell makes the transition from onscreen villain to beloved folk hero, mugging for the cameras as his antics drive the ratings.

    If it sounds familiar, it’s because this new version of The Running Man, which is cowritten and directed by Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), draws as much from the original film and Stephen King’s source novel as it does from present-day reality. A modern-day America overseen by a game show president, where ICE squads team up with Dr. Phil McGraw to turn deportation raids into reality television, would seem ripe for a Running Man remake. But that’s the problem. Satire relies on caricature. And the new version is barely exaggerative. Does the very idea of a lethal game show seem that far off, in a world where the success of Netflix’s South Korean thriller series Squid Game (itself a variation on the The Running Man format) spawned an actual, licensed Squid Game-style competitive reality TV show? Or when a grinning zillennial YouTuber named “MrBeast” baits contestants with ten grand to sit in a bathtub full of snakes? A few weeks ago I watched live as rookie New York Giants’ running back Cam Skattebo’s ankle twisted 45-degrees, as if cranked by some invisible wrench, while a bar-full of rival fans cheered.

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    John Semley

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