Cinema News

August 23, 2024

	By Stephanie Goodman

Hi, movie fans!

The calendar may say August, but for the film desk, fall starts next week with the opening of the Venice and Telluride festivals.

Kyle Buchanan will be in Italy beginning Wednesday to report on a raft of premieres, including the "Joker" sequel. The original won the Golden Lion when it debuted there five years ago. Will the follow-up repeat that feat? And will its star, Joaquin Phoenix, be on hand to talk to the press after his high-profile withdrawal from Todd Haynes's gay love story just five days before filming was to begin? You never know what's going to happen at Venice (remember the crazy premiere of "Don't Worry Darling"?). That's why we love to cover it.

Stateside, Nicole Sperling will be reporting from Telluride. That event typically doesn't release its lineup until the day before it opens (this year it will run Friday-Sept. 2), but we've been hearing about potential surprises. The Toronto International Film Festival follows a few days later, so there will suddenly be a lot to report in the next few weeks.

The news has been a little slow this month, though we here on the film desk were gobsmacked to learn that the trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's "Megalopolis" featured fake quotes from real critics (included Vincent Canby, once the senior film critic for The Times). Lionsgate, the studio behind the epic, pulled the spot the same day it was released and apologized. That's a first for us.

That's another fall film we can't wait to see. In the meantime, there are several interesting new releases, some more successful than others in our critics' view. Manohla Dargis recommended "Between the Temples," Nathan Silver's tale of a grief-stricken cantor, played by Jason Schwartzman, and his late-in-life bat mitzvah student (Carol Kane). But Robert Daniels panned "Blink Twice," Zoë Kravitz's buzzy debut that swirls #MeToo and class issues into a horror concoction.

Whatever you decide to watch, have fun at the movies!

A photo collage shows various stars from 1999 including, clockwise from bottom left, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Pierce Brosnan, Julia Roberts, Eddie Murphy, Toni Collette and Haley Joel Osment.

Illustration by Tala Safie; Photos: MGM; Sony Pictures; Touchstone Pictures; Spyglass Entertainment Group; Jon Farmer/Touchstone Pictures; Merie W. Wallace/Warner Bros.

Class of 1999

A Great Year for Movies. The Best Year to Start Writing About Them.

At the box office 25 years ago, hits like "Runaway Bride," "The Sixth Sense" and "Bowfinger" hint at the abundance that overwhelmed a young critic.

By Wesley Morris

A despondent man sits at a table with his hands clasped. A giant flower is in a vase.

Sean Price Williams/Sony Pictures Classics

Critic's pick

'Between the Temples' Review: A Widower Walks Into a Bar

And meets his former music teacher, upending his life, in Nathan Silver's touching comedy, starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane.

By Manohla Dargis

A woman in a white swimsuit and wrap stands next to a man in white summer clothes.

Carlos Somonte/Amazon MGM Studios

'Blink Twice' Review: Nightmare Island

The director Zoë Kravitz creates an uneasy atmosphere in her abduction horror flick, starring Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum.

By Robert Daniels

CRITICS' PICKS

A woman in scarlet scrubs, with a wound on her face, crouches in hiding in the woods.

Allyson Riggs/Magenta Light Studios

Critic's Pick

'Strange Darling' Review: Assume Nothing

In this cheeky, cunningly assembled thriller, a serial killer gets a satisfying and surprising comeuppance.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

A woman in a navy suit stands on a set of stairs across from a smiling man in a tweed suit.

Christine Tamalet / Universal Pictures

Critic's Pick

'The Killer' Review: John Woo With a French Twist

Woo's new version of his Hong Kong action movie "The Killer," starring Nathalie Emmanuel and Omar Sy, may be a remake, but it's not a retread.

By Glenn Kenny

MOVIE REVIEWS

A man sits on rocks and pours water out of a shoe.

Film Movement

'Close Your Eyes' Review: The Case of the Unfinished Film

For his latest, the Spanish director Victor Erice, known for the classic "The Spirit of the Beehive," weaves a meta tale of a director looking for an absent actor.

By Manohla Dargis

Three women smile while walking and having a conversation in a neighborhood.

Searchlight Pictures

'The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat' Review: Hungry for Drama

You'll want to pass the ketchup, and the hankies, for this buffet of tear-jerking deep-fried decadence.

By Amy Nicholson

Four boys wearing backpacks stand outside looking off at something out of camera view.

Spyglass Media Group, LLC and Artists Road, LLC/Netflix

'Incoming' Review: Not Another Teen Movie

Freshman engage in some fairly predictable debauchery in this routine high school gross-out comedy streaming on Netflix.

By Calum Marsh

A man in a black trench coat kisses a woman through a sheer curtain.

Larry Horricks/Lionsgate

'The Crow' Review: Resurrected and It Feels So Bad

Hoping to skate by off moody vibes, this revamp of "The Crow" comic book series seems derived from a flattened, Hot Topic image of the hero.

By Brandon Yu

In a movie scene, a grinning Elisabeth Cardonne-Arlyck is shown in close-up in a black-and-white image.

Ralph Arlyck

Documentary Lens

'I Like It Here': Aging Wistfully in the Hudson Valley

Looking back at the lives he and his friends led, the documentarian Ralph Arlyck delivers a memoir, an essay on mortality and a portrait of his community.

By Alissa Wilkinson

A man wearing an orange safety vest and a hard hat stands outside, rubble behind him.

Music Box Films

'Mountains' Review: Razing Houses, Building a Future

This feature debut from Monica Sorelle observes the tensions in an immigrant family in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami.

By Ben Kenigsberg

On public transportation, a man rests his head on the shoulder of a woman wearing a coat.

Strand Releasing

'I'll Be Your Mirror' Review: A Mourning Journey

This visually elegant indie follows a soft-spoken Swiss widow visiting Japan.

By Beatrice Loayza

NEWS & FEATURES

Against a backdrop of skyscrapers bathed in golden light, Adam Driver peers through a spyglass at something in his hand, while Nathalie Emmanuel stands behind him.

American Zoetrope

Studio Pulls 'Megalopolis' Trailer Featuring Fake Review Quotes

To promote Francis Ford Coppola's epic, the spot used supposed lines from The Times, The New Yorker and others to suggest critics were wrong about him.

By Annie Aguiar

In a darkly lit portrait, Zoë Kravitz, wearing a dark gray blazer over an all-black outfit, stands in the corner of a brown-painted room. She looks concerned.

Chantal Anderson for The New York Times

Zoë Kravitz Needed a Place to Put Her Frustrations. So She Made a Movie.

Her directorial debut, the #MeToo horror-mystery "Blink Twice," examines power dynamics between men and women.

By Melena Ryzik

Two shirtless sailors sit on a deck of a boat, looking in opposite directions.

Janus Films

Rewind

'Querelle': Fassbinder's Defiant Swan Song

Anthology Film Archives is screening Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1982 film, based on Jean Genet's novel, about a young sailor's criminal and erotic escapades.

By J. Hoberman

In a movie scene, Blake Lively, in a striped shirt over a crop top, stands amid an interior decorated with stained-glass windows and greenery.

Jojo Whilden/Sony Pictures

What 'It Ends With Us' Gets Wrong (and Right) About Domestic Abuse

Its depiction of love-bombing and psychological abuse rings true, experts say, but other oversimplified aspects could send a dangerous message.

By Annie Aguiar

A black-and-white photograph shows a view from above of an open-air movie theater in downtown Sarajevo.

Obala Art Centar

A Film Festival Founded in a War Zone, Still Going Strong

The Sarajevo Film Festival, now 30 years old, grew out of underground screenings during the siege of the city. Those roots still define the event's character.

By Beatrice Loayza

A black-and-white photo of Awkwafina against a pink and yellow background.

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

My Ten

Awkwafina Is Taking John Cena's Advice

They are co-stars in the new film "Jackpot!" with Simu Liu.

By Kathryn Shattuck

STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS

Rialto Pictures

Where to Stream the Films of Alain Delon

A look at 10 standout films featuring the actor, who died on Sunday at 88.

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

Two people, bathed in the color of streetlights, sit in a car together. One person is smoking.

Utopia

Beyond the Algorithm

'Femme,' 'The Teachers' Lounge' and More Streaming Gems

A handful of low-key but formidable dramas dominate this month's under-the-radar recommendations on your streaming subscription services.

By Jason Bailey

In close-up, a man in a green T-shirt stands on his head.

Gravitas Ventures

Five International Movies to Stream Now

In this month's picks, a yoga teacher in Argentina adjusts to life after divorce, a young woman in London struggles to move past her painful past and more.

By Devika Girish

A woman in a spacesuit helmet looks up to her right. She seems nervous and her face is lighted with an eerie glow.

20th Century Studios/20th Century Studios, via Associated Press

All the 'Alien' Movies, Ranked

With "Alien: Romulus" hitting theaters, the 45-year-old series is getting a new jolt of life. How does the latest film stack up against its predecessors?

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

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