Cinema News: Movies Update: ‘Emancipation,’ ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ and More

December 2, 2022

By Mekado Murphy

Movies Editor

Hey, movie fans!

The big chatter in the movie world this week is about the new poll released by the British magazine Sight and Sound on the greatest films of all time. The once-a-decade survey has a new No. 1. Move over "Vertigo," an international group of critics has given the top spot to the 1975 film "Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles," written and directed by the Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman. It is the first time a movie directed by a woman has topped this list, one that is widely regarded as canon to cineastes.

Have you seen it? Have you heard of it? Stephanie Goodman wrote a great explainer to get you up to speed and tell you why the movie matters. It's streaming both on HBO Max and the Criterion Channel.

Will Smith returns to theaters, in his first film after slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony (and also winning an Oscar), with the Apple TV+ drama "Emancipation." The critic Manohla Dargis wrote that Antoine Fuqua's Civil War-era film about an enslaved man "sets out to show the barbaric price that slavery exacts on human beings, both individually and collectively." But, she wrote, "it is also very much a propulsive, Hollywood-style action-fueled adventure."

Over on Netflix is a new adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover." While the book was controversial in its day for all of the sex in it, the critic A.O. Scott wrote in his review that with this film, the drama now lies "in the systems of power that trap Oliver and Constance and in the lovers' rebellion against them." He concluded that the movie "is faithful to the novel, while also revealing how safe, how domesticated, it has become."

Enjoy the movies!

Chantal Akerman's 'Jeanne Dielman' Named Greatest Film of All Time in Sight and Sound Poll

The drama is among several by female and Black directors in the respected once-a-decade survey, last conducted in 2012.

By Reggie Ugwu

Netflix

'Lady Chatterley's Lover' Review: When Connie Met Ollie

The new Netflix adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's once-controversial novel is both steamy and decorous.

By A.O. Scott

Mengxin Li

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

We're Out of Movie Stars. Whose Fault Is That?

There are fewer films now that allow an actor to grow a persona and a Tom Cruise level of stardom. It's a crisis, and the movies know it.

By Wesley Morris

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CRITICS' PICKS

Sandro Kopp/A24

CRITIC'S PICK

'The Eternal Daughter' Review: Two Glorious Sides of Tilda Swinton

The actress astonishes in two roles in Joanna Hogg's haunting film set in a creaky castle in Wales.

By Manohla Dargis

Thomas Favel/Aurora Films/Sony Pictures Classics

CRITIC'S PICK

'Return to Seoul' Review: Found in Translation

On a whim, a Frenchwoman goes to visit South Korea, the country of her birth, in Davy Chou's drama.

By Amy Nicholson

Greenwich Entertainment

CRITIC'S PICK

'Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power' Review: A Movement That Changed America

With arresting interviews and archival footage, this documentary looks back at a 1960s voting-rights campaign in Alabama that gave rise to a national movement for Black power.

By Devika Girish

Yonathan Weitzman/Reel Peak Films

CRITIC'S PICK

'Tantura' Review: Unearthing the Past

Revisiting a graduate thesis that caused controversy in Israel two decades ago, this documentary examines evidence of a possible massacre in 1948.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Netflix

CRITIC'S PICK

'Sr.' Review: The Downeys, Father and Son, Compare Notes

This documentary highlights Robert Downey Sr.'s charisma and curiosity even when it shows him in decline.

By Glenn Kenny

ANATOMY OF A SCENE

Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures, via Associated Press

ANATOMY OF A SCENE

Watch Santa Throw a Punch in 'Violent Night'

The director Tommy Wirkola narrates an action sequence from his new film, which stars David Harbour as Santa Claus.

By Mekado Murphy

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MOVIE REVIEWS

Focus Features

'Spoiler Alert' Review: Perfect Strangers Form Family Ties

Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge star in this tear-jerker romance adapted from the memoir by the television journalist Michael Ausiello.

By Amy Nicholson

Showtime

'2nd Chance' Review: Just Shoot Me

Ramin Bahrani's first documentary feature profiles Richard Davis, the irrepressible inventor of a modern bulletproof vest.

By Nicolas Rapold

Allen Fraser/Universal Studios

'Violent Night' Review: Yucks, Not Yule

Tommy Wirkola's film tries to pass off sadism as comedy.

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

IFC Films

'Four Samosas' Review: A Romp Through Little India

This snappy indie comedy by Ravi Kapoor sees a group of Indian American teenagers hatch a harebrained plan to steal a bag of diamonds.

By Beatrice Loayza

20th Century Studios

'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules' Review: Oh, Brother

The beloved children's book series receives another film installment.

By Calum Marsh

Stephanie Owens/Kino Lorber

'Framing Agnes' Review: Transition, Center Stage

The documentarian Chase Joynt stages re-enactments of midcentury medical interviews with transgender people.

By Teo Bugbee

Marcos Cruz/20th Century Studios

'Darby and the Dead' Review: Sixteen With a Sixth Sense

A high school junior talks to dead people in this familiar but good-natured tale of adolescent female friendship.

By Natalia Winkelman

TaleBox/Netflix

'Farha' Review: A Most Brutal Coming-of-Age Story

Set in the early days of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this drama depicts the upheaval of Palestinian society from a 14-year-old girl's perspective.

By Beatrice Loayza

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NEWS & FEATURES

Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, via Associated Press

THE PROJECTIONIST

Could Theatrical Movies Shut Out Streamers for the Top Oscars?

A year after Apple's historic best-picture win, the lead categories could be filled entirely by big-screen films. But don't call it a comeback just yet.

By Kyle Buchanan

Paradise Films

'Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles': A Guide

Here's everything you need to know about the film that a poll of critics crowned the greatest film ever made, including why it's important and where you can watch.

By Stephanie Goodman

A24	QUICK QUESTION Big Feelings at the Premiere of 'The Whale' More than 100 actors, singers and creative professionals attended the New York premiere of Darren Aronofsky's new film at Alice Tully Hall this week. Some of them shared their thoughts. By Sarah Bahr

Josefina Santos

For Emma Corrin, Identity Is an Ever-Evolving Project

Onscreen and off, the nonbinary star of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and "The Crown" has been exploring gender and the cost and responsibility of being heard.

By Melena Ryzik