Cinema News: Movies Update: ‘Cocaine Bear’ and More

February 24, 2023

By Stephanie Goodman

Film Editor

Hi, film fans!

We're in the thick of awards season, with ceremonies for precursor prizes every weekend until the big night on March 12.

"All Quiet on the Western Front," based on the classic German antiwar novel, won big Sunday night at the BAFTAs, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars. The honors can be an indicator of the Academy Awards because of a large contingent of British voters in the American institution. But I spoke with Kyle Buchanan, our Projectionist columnist and awards season expert, and he notes that visibility is important on the campaign trail and that the drama isn't a factor at the Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild awards this weekend.

Speaking of Buchanan, he published a revealing interview with Hong Chau, up for best supporting actress for her turn as a friend of Brendan Fraser's obese writing instructor in "The Whale." Chau was last a possible contender when she appeared in the Alexander Payne film "Downsizing" (2017). She didn't get a nomination then, and the experience left her leery of awards season. It didn't help that she had long dealt with skeptical casting directors. "After a few years of trying, you think, 'Is it really worth it to try to dedicate my life to this?'" Chau told my colleague. "But what kept me going was the delusional hope that I'd get to work on a cool, weird movie, because those were the movies that I liked. I just kept hoping that something would happen and, thankfully, it did."

"The Whale" is still in theaters this weekend. Also in release is "Cocaine Bear," the Elizabeth Banks comedy based on a true story ("based" being the operative word there). Our critic Jason Zinoman writes, "Viewers with a taste for tastefulness (those weirdos) will balk. But gorehounds, myself among them, appreciate a studio playing around in the muck."

Whatever you choose to watch, enjoy the movies!

Warner Bros.

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

When the Movies Pictured A.I., They Imagined the Wrong Disaster

Instead of the chilling rationality of HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey," we get the messy awfulness of Microsoft's Sydney. Call it the banality of sentience.

By A.O. Scott

Justin J Wee for The New York Times

THE PROJECTIONIST

She's Oscar-Nominated, but Hong Chau Hopes to Stay an Underdog

Up for best supporting actress for "The Whale," she never dreamed of being a performer. But she has turned into "a force of nature," says Brendan Fraser.

By Kyle Buchanan

via Park Circus

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

Film Artists Reflect on the Movies that Left a Mark

For a retrospective series at the Berlin International Film Festival, directors and actors selected formative coming-of-age movies. Their choices show links between the cinematic past and present.

By Beatrice Loayza

DreamWorks Animation

MOOD BOARD

What 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' Owes to Samurai and Sergio Leone

The DreamWorks sequel has garnered praise for its vibrant animation, darker story and fight sequences inspired by classic films.

By Sarah Bahr

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CRITICS' PICKS

Shout! Studios

CRITIC'S PICK

'Linoleum' Review: Rocket Plan

Jim Gaffigan plays a dual role as rival scientists in this mysterious yet surprisingly effective movie.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

Final Cut for Real/Giant Pictures

CRITIC'S PICK

'A House Made of Splinters' Review: Home Is Where the Hope Is

This film, an Oscar nominee this year for best documentary feature, has an aching sensitivity for the children in a Ukraine shelter.

By Nicolas Rapold

MOVIE REVIEWS

Pat Redmond/Universal Pictures

'Cocaine Bear' Review: She Never Forgets Her Lines

The greatest joke of this blood-spattered horror-comedy from Elizabeth Banks is that it exists.

By Jason Zinoman

Netflix

'We Have a Ghost' Review: Me and My Boo

David Harbour stars as an apparition haunting a family's home in this supernatural Netflix comedy.

By Amy Nicholson

ArtMattan Films

'Dancing the Twist in Bamako' Review: Youth in Revolt

Robert Guédiguian's jaunty new film places a young romance against the backdrop of post-colonial Mali in the early 1960s.

By A.O. Scott

Greenwich Entertainment

'Juniper' Review: Bad Grandma

Starring Charlotte Rampling, this New Zealand-set drama is a portrait of intergenerational bonding with a heavy dose of cynicism.

By Beatrice Loayza

Dan Anderson/Hulu

'Bruiser' Review: Of Fathers and Fractures

A teenage boy is caught between the man who raised him and a new guiding figure in this affecting study of masculinity and coming of age.

By Brandon Yu

Film Movement

'Yanagawa' Review: Her Spell

Two brothers reconnect over a lost love in this drama from the Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lu.

By Beandrea July

IFC Films

'God's Time' Review: Saving Her From Herself

Instead of making a thriller, the writer and director Daniel Antebi opts for a boho buddy comedy, with mixed results.

By Glenn Kenny

Roadside Attractions

'My Happy Ending' Review: When Life Goes Off Script

Andie MacDowell plays a screen and stage star facing a cancer diagnosis in this film directed by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon.

By Ben Kenigsberg

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ANATOMY OF A SCENE

Photo Credit: Jonathan Hession/Searchlight Pictures, via Associated Press

ANATOMY OF A SCENE

Watch a Friendship Dissolve in 'The Banshees of Inisherin'

The writer and director Martin McDonagh narrates a scene between Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.

By Mekado Murphy

NEWS & FEATURES

DVV Entertainment

'Naatu Naatu' From 'RRR' Is a Worldwide Hit, but It Draws on Very Local Traditions

The composers and choreographer explain how they created the propulsive sequence that is nominated for best song.

By Nicolas Rapold

Benjamin Malapris for The New York Times

For a Film About Korean Adoptees, a Group Effort

In "Return to Seoul," a Parisian repeatedly visits her birth country. Neither the filmmaker nor the star were adopted, but they got help from friends.

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