Cinema News: Movies Update: ‘Vortex,’ ‘Anaïs in Love,’ and More

April 29, 2022

By Stephanie Goodman

Film Editor

It's something of a quiet week here at the film desk. Industry insiders are keeping a sharp eye on CinemaCon, the annual gathering that gives theater owners a sneak preview of the studios' most anticipated offerings. The reaction to footage from "Avatar 2," due in December, was enthusiastic, to say the least. (Plans to rerelease the original this fall were also announced.) But it's hard to gauge a film from a few excerpts, so we'll reserve judgment.

Closer to home, we're talking about "Diva," the 1982 Jean-Jacques Beineix thriller that's been restored. The movie was a sensation when it came out, but the critic at large Wesley Morris recently watched it for the first time, praising its "ravishing, style-soaked priorities."

Another film getting a rave is "Vortex," Gaspar Noé's chronicle of the decline of an elderly couple. It's a "blunt reckoning" that's also exquisite, wrote our co-chief critic A.O. Scott. It's a Critic's Pick, as is "Anaïs in Love," a French romance. "It's surprising and touching," the co-chief film critic Manohla Dargis wrote in her review, adding that the movie upends your notions of who the character is and what a love story should be.

You can see what else is opening this week here and check out what our reviewers have to say.

Have fun at the movies!

Utopia

Critic's Pick

'Vortex' Review: A Split Screen and a Shared Fate

Gaspar Noé's new film chronicles the decline of an elderly couple in remorseless, mesmerizing detail.

By A.O. Scott

Les Films Pelléas/Magnolia Pictures

Critic's Pick

'Anaïs in Love' Review: Portrait of a Woman on the Run

A restless woman discovers herself in a seductive French romance that throws out the usual dusty script about women, desire and pleasure.

By Manohla Dargis

Continue reading the main story

CRITICS' PICKS

Brett Roedel/Hulu

'Crush' Review: A Banksy Who Might Shred Homework

A mysterious artist and a love triangle are at the center of this high-school comedy, which can't quite decide whether to be preposterous or sincere.

By Amy Nicholson

Film Movement

'Bad Roads' Review: A Wartime Anthology

The movie, with its four vignettes about Ukraine, was the country's submission for best international feature film for the Oscars.

By Claire Shaffer

Warner Bros./CNN/HBO Max

Critic's Pick

'Navalny' Review: Speaking Truth to Power in a Corrupt System

Even with its subject in prison, the documentary plays like a crowd-pleaser.

By Ben Kenigsberg

MOVIE REVIEWS

Rico Torres/Open Road Films/Briarcliff Entertainment

'Memory' Review: Getting Too Old for This

In this action thriller, Liam Neeson plays an assassin struggling with Alzheimer's disease. It's not as interesting as it sounds.

By Lena Wilson

Zeitgeist Films

'Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen' Review: Making a New Tradition

Daniel Raim's admiring documentary uses interviews and movie clips to detail the making of Norman Jewison's beloved movie musical.

By Natalia Winkelman

Greenwich Entertainment

'Hello, Bookstore' Review: A Bibliophile and His Shop in Close-Up

This documentary makes it clear why, when the pandemic threatened Matthew Tannenbaum's store, book lovers weren't ready to say goodbye.

By Lisa Kennedy

Darren Michaels/Amazon Prime Video

'I Love America' Review: The Gauche Rituals of Modern Romance

The determinedly uplifting comedy follows a 50-year-old French filmmaker as she dates in Los Angeles.

By Nicolas Rapold

Herrki-Erich Merila/Roadside Attractions

'Firebird' Review: Square Jaws and Cold Shoulders

In this clandestine romance, a Soviet soldier and pilot find love while stationed in Estonia in the 1970s.

By Teo Bugbee

Jessica Kourkounis/HBO Films

'The Survivor' Review: Clenched Fists

In this drama from Barry Levinson, Ben Foster plays a Jewish boxer who, during the Holocaust, was forced to fight his fellow Jews for the Nazis' entertainment.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Continue reading the main story

ANATOMY OF A SCENE

Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features

Anatomy of a Scene

Watch Alexander Skarsgard Battle the Undead in 'The Northman'

The director Robert Eggers narrates a scene that pits the star against a most unfriendly zombie.

By Mekado Murphy

NEWS & FEATURES

ABC ("black-ish"); Netflix ("The Harder They Fall"); HBO ("Insecure"); Paramount Pictures ("Coming 2 America")

In Films and on TV, a New Openness to Natural Black Hairstyles

The relationship between characters and their Afro-textured hair has become a focus of directors and stylists, who are mindful of Hollywood's restrictive past.

By Tiffany Martinbrough

Rialto Pictures, via Alamy

Critic's Notebook

It Took Me 40 Years to Watch the Movie 'Diva.' It Was Worth the Wait.

At a friend's urging, our critic saw the "mondo chic" 1981 film by the French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, ahead of a revival. He was thrilled.

By Wesley Morris

Jessica Kourkounis/HBO

A Boxer at Auschwitz and the Pain He Carried

Ordered to win fights or be put to death, Harry Haft, the subject of a new film, was haunted by the fates of his opponents.

By Joseph Berger

Photo Illustration: The New York Times. Photo: Paramount Pictures

Where'd All the Method Acting Go?

The Method taught actors to channel the complexity and messiness of human emotion into a performance. Why is that so hard to find in the movies today?

By Wesley Morris, Elyssa Dudley, Hans Buetow and Sasha Weiss

Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

An Heir, a $25 Million Giveaway and 30,000 Unopened Letters

In 1970, Michael James Brody Jr. announced he would give away his fortune to anyone who asked. The letters he received are a time capsule of the setting of the Age of Aquarius.

By Jennifer Schuessler

Continue reading the main story

STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS

Dawson City Museum, Library and Archives Canada, and the Library of Congress/Kino Lorber

Stream These Three Great Documentaries

This month's nonfiction picks include one about uncovering a treasure trove of silent films and one that aims to uncover the methods of Kenny G.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Shudder

Five Horror Movies to Stream Now

This month's picks include demented cultists, zombies with pause buttons, hellish stays at a hotel, an unsettling home share and a killer named Oopsie.

By Erik Piepenburg

How are we doing?
We'd love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to moviesupdate@nytimes.com.

Like this email?
Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up here.

Continue reading the main story