Cinema News: Movies Update: ‘Scream’ and More

January 14, 2022

By Mekado Murphy

Movies Editor

Hey, movie fans!

If an awards show happens on Twitter, does it get a retweet?

And so was the case with the embattled Golden Globe Awards this year, which were not televised or attended by recipients. Instead the show was live-blogged, with the results posted on Twitter. Our Oscars expert, Kyle Buchanan, had some thoughts on how that went.

Seizing another social medium to announce their nominees, the Screen Actors Guild took to Instagram. These nominations often help to predict what may eventually receive Oscar nods in the acting categories.

Looking ahead to the Oscars, we've featured a few films and performers who may make the cut. Check out our interview with Penélope Cruz, who dazzles in Pedro Almodóvar's "Parallel Mothers." And I wrote about films whose production design is so vivid, it's like a character. The animation category has more mature film offerings to choose from. Plus, here are some great performances that shouldn't be forgotten by the academy.

If the strange and muted unpredictability of this awards season makes you want to scream, there's a movie for you. A fifth addition to the reliable Ghostface franchise, the new "Scream" updates, while also commenting on, the films that came before. Our critic Jeannette Catsoulis calls it "a slasher movie with resting smug face, so enamored of its own mythology that its characters speak of little else."

Enjoy the movies!

Brownie Harris/Paramount Pictures

'Scream' Review: Kill Me Again, Again

Neither a remake nor a sequel, this tired retread can't move forward for looking back.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

Studio Chizu/GKids

Critic's Pick

'Belle' Review: Soaring and Singing Over the Online Rainbow

In this gorgeous anime, a high school student journeys into a virtual world and finds herself amid cute, kooky and menacing fellow users.

By Manohla Dargis

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CRITICS' PICKS

Jesse Wakeman/Sony Pictures Classics

Critic's Pick

'Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America' Review: Social Studies

In a documentary constructed around a lecture from 2018, the lawyer Jeffery Robinson presents a persuasive look at United States history.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Amirhossein Shojaei/Amazon Studios

critic's pick

'A Hero' Review: Debts No Honest Man Can Pay

In the latest film from the two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, a good Samaritan comes under suspicion.

By A.O. Scott

MOVIE REVIEWS

Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation/Amazon

'Hotel Transylvania: Transformania' Review: Another Monster Mash

The plot, about a crystal-powered ray gun that can turn monsters into humans, seems to acknowledge the need to goose its characters out of their inertia.

By Nicolas Rapold

Corey Pegues/Greenwich Entertainment

'A Cops and Robbers Story' Review: Keep Your Enemies Closer

This documentary follows a police officer who rose through the ranks while concealing his criminal past.

By Teo Bugbee

Corinth Films

'Why Is We Americans?' Review: A Family Synonymous With Newark

This documentary looks at Amiri Baraka and his loved ones, who have played a vital role in arts and politics in their city and beyond for generations.

By Devika Girish

Blue Fox Entertainment

'The Pink Cloud' Review: Love in Lockdown

Iuli Gerbase's first feature film reflects a funhouse-mirror image of our present lives.

By Claire Shaffer

Laurent Champoussin/UniFrance

'Dear Mother' Review: Mamarazzi

Laurent Lafitte directs and stars in this fast-paced French comedy about a man forced to reconnect with his mother.

By Beatrice Loayza

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NEWS & FEATURES

Camila Falquez for The New York Times

The Projectionist

The Visions of Penélope Cruz

She already felt a mystical connection with the director Pedro Almodóvar. For their seventh collaboration, "Parallel Mothers," she gave her all, even collapsing after one scene.

By Kyle Buchanan

Disney

We're Going to Talk About 'Bruno,' Yes, Yes, Yes

"We Don't Talk About Bruno" from "Encanto" is a surprise chart topper and TikTok darling. Here's how Disney created its biggest smash since "Let It Go."

By Ashley Spencer

Clockwise from top left: Anna Kooris/A24 ; Netflix; Netflix; Warner Bros.; Kasper Tuxen/Neon, via Associated Press; Jessica Forde/20th Century Studios

The Projectionist

Don't Sleep on These 6 Performances During Awards Season

As various nominating groups unveil their choices, these impressive turns have been largely overlooked. But there's still time to rectify that, academy voters!

By Kyle Buchanan

Glen Wilson/Amazon, via Associated Press

The Projectionist

SAG Award Nominations 2022: The Complete List, Snubs and Surprises

"Being the Ricardos" hit big, but some likely contenders, including Kristen Stewart, were overlooked.

By Kyle Buchanan

Evening Standard/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images, left, and Universal Images Group, via Getty Images

Poitier and Bogdanovich: The Defiant Ones

Sidney Poitier and Peter Bogdanovich were geniuses of the Hollywood system who, with great success and frustration, worked to transform it in the same era.

By A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis

20th Century Studios

When Production Design Plays a Supporting Role

The visual environments of "West Side Story," "The Humans" and "Nightmare Alley" feel as alive as the actors.

By Mekado Murphy

Studio Chizu

Animation That's More Than Kids' Stuff

A handful of animated features gaining attention this awards season take a more mature approach.

By Carlos Aguilar

National Library of Norway

Critic's Notebook

It Started With a Kiss. Then Film Scholars Found More.

MoMA's series on film restorations, To Save and Project, is highlighting Black cinema, including what may be the earliest example of African American intimacy onscreen.

By Ben Kenigsberg

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STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS

Icarus Film

Stream These Three Great Documentaries

This month's picks include a personal essay on tobacco, an experimental look at pieces of the Berlin Wall and a chronicle of a revolt in Wukan, China.

By Ben Kenigsberg

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