Sunday, September 8, 2024
‘The Return’ Review: Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche Bring Grace and Gravity to This Ancient Greek Odyssey
When he introduced the world premiere of “The Return” at the Toronto Film Festival on Saturday night, director Uberto Pasolini pointed out that nobody has made a film adaptation of Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” since 1955, when Italian director Mario Camerini made a version with Kirk Douglas as Odysseus (using the Roman version of his name, Ulysses). He skipped over a couple of other versions as well as works by Theo Angelopoulos and the Coen brothers (“Ulysses’ Gaze” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” respectively) that borrowed elements from Homer’s tale, but the point remains: One of the first…
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Lou Simón Crime Thriller ‘9 Windows’ Lands at Gravitas Ventures
Gravitas Ventures acquired U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to Lou Simon’s crime thriller, “9 Windows,” the indie distributor announced Friday. The first-of-its-kind all-virtual production from producers Bryce DiCristofalo and Todd Slater of Brick Lane Entertainment is a modern day retelling of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 classic “Rear Window.” “9 Windows” is the first ever feature-length, live action film shot entirely on an extended reality film stage. It stars Independent Spirit Award nominee Michael Forsythe (“Raising Arizona,” “The Waterdance”) and Michael Paré (“Streets of Fire,” “Eddie and the Cruisers”). Gravitas is slated to release the film on digital and cable VOD on…
Friday, September 6, 2024
Pro-Palestinian Activists Interrupt CNN’s Dana Bash With Antisemitic Accusations | Video
A pair of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters interrupted a book event featuring CNN’s Dana Bash at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington D.C. on Thursday evening, making a number of bizarre claims as they attempted to confront the cable news anchor. The second speaker alleged with no evidence that Bash reported on Israeli hostages in order to receive “millions from Zionists” and the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying organization, better known as AIPAC. Video of the protesters yelling at Bash was shared on social media, taking place at the event meant to promote her new American history book…
Thursday, September 5, 2024
Chris Hayes Says ‘Trust Fund’ Republicans Can Be ‘Maladjusted Psychopaths’ Thanks to the Electoral College | Video
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Wednesday compared GOP politicians at large to “rich kids living off their parents’ largesse,” thanks to the Electoral College, which effectively frees “the Trust Fund Republican Party” from the hard work of “the hard work of persuading voters.” As a result, this means they are able to run increasingly “anti social,” “maladjusted psychopaths” without worrying about actually winning the most number of votes. Hayes kicked this line of thought off with a look at “how dysfunctional, how malformed the current Republican Party is.” But Hates didn’t just pop off, he came with actual receipts, starting with…
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Stephen Colbert Jokes the Election Is Down to 7 States: Michigan, Wisconsin, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance | Video
Stephen Colbert kicked off the new season of “The Late Show” on Tuesday with a lot of jokes about the election. And setting the tone for his monologue, he began by noting that “it’s the day after Labor Day, which means we’re in the fall, referring to either autumn or ‘of democracy.’” “Either way, either way, the colors are spectacular.” Using this to bring the election up, Colbert joked that “the last two years of watching Trump campaign have just been an appetizer… We’re exactly nine weeks from election day, and things are looking up for Kamala Harris.” Colbert noted…
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Joey Chestnut Breaks His Own Hot Dog-Eating Record for Labor Day Netflix Special
Joey Chestnut set another hot dog-eating world record on Labor Day against his rival, Takeru Kobayashi. The competitors faced off for the first time in 14 years for Netflix’s “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef” special, where Chestnut took down 83 hot dogs while Kobayashi finished 66. Chestnut bested himself on Monday, after most recently setting the world record in 2021 when he ate 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes. This time around, he hit the 76-sausage mark after only eight minutes and 45 seconds. The Labor Day special was a big one for fans of the niche sport, which typically…
Sunday, September 1, 2024
‘Martha’ Review: Don’t Expect Martha Stewart to Get All Emotional in Her New Documentary
If the money shot in a documentary comes when the subject gets so honest and personal that they begin to cry, director R.J. Cutler was in trouble when he began work on his Martha Stewart doc, “Martha.” That’s because his subject doesn’t show much inclination to get honest and personal, much less emotional. That made things difficult for Cutler, the director of “The September Issue” and “The War Room,” who is also on the festival circuit this fall with “Elton John: Never Too Late.” The filmmaker is trying to craft a film about the rise, fall and redemption of an…
Saturday, August 31, 2024
‘The Friend’ Review: Naomi Watts, Bill Murray and a Big Dog Explore Love and Loss
A balancing act that seems to enjoy feeling as if it’s about to lose its balance, “The Friend” is a lot of different things at once. It’s a dog-and-human bonding movie, which means it’s unavoidably sentimental. It’s a Bill Murray movie, which means it’s funny in a snarky way, but it’s also a character drama in which Murray is an unseen presence most of the time. It’s a movie about grief and a movie about creativity. And mostly, the new film from writer-directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee (“Montana Story,” “What Maisie Knew”) is all of those things at once,…
Friday, August 30, 2024
Chris Hayes Says Trump Gets Away ‘With Mafia Style Gangster Threats’ Because Republicans ‘Straight up Help Him’ | Video
Discussing the scandal this week concerning Donald Trump’s violation of federal law at Arlington National Cemetery, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes had a bleak assessment of the state of things for the Republican party. “Trump has gotten away with intimidation, mafia style gangster threats, because rank and file Republicans let him, or in many cases, just straight up help him,” Hayes declared. At issue, this week Trump filmed a campaign video at Arlington National Cemetery, a violation of federal law prohibiting the use of the monument for political purposes. When an employee attempted to enforce this rule, one of Trump’s associates physically…
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Chris Hayes Wonders if Trump Is Using RFK Jr ‘to Make JD Vance Seem Almost Normal’ | Video
Chris Hayes took a look on Wednesday at Donald Trump’s sudden political alliance with Robert F Kennedy Jr., declaring that the disgraced former president “and his campaign really do deserve to inherit all the baggage that comes with him.” But after running through all of the incredibly weird things associated with RFK Jr only in the last few weeks, Hayes wondered if maybe this whole thing is just a play to make Trump’s running mate JD Vance “seem almost normal.” Ouch. About Kennedy, Hayes noted that “the former independent candidate for president was, I think, widely understood to be a…
