Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 hours agoSilent Night, Deadly Night review killer Santa remake is overstuffed
The 2025 Silent Night, Deadly Night remake ambitiously reinvents the killer-Santa trope but overstuffed themes dilute its effectiveness.
If the phrase "military industrial complex romantic comedy" rings your bells, Hailey Gates' feature directorial debut " Atropia" just might be for you. What if we told you it's also a bit of a satire? And it's based on real events and places? And it stars Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner, whose forbidden romance really blossoms inside the confines of, well, no spoilers here, but a decidedly unsexy space?
At a gas station en route, he tells inquisitive cops he's just traveling to attend the local Carnaval celebrations. But we suspect his mission is more urgent, a threat of discovery underlined not just by the officers' casual insistence on a bribe, but by the presence of a rotting corpse on the premises. The attendant says it's just a would-be robber who failed to get away.
We're living in a time of unprecedented media availability. If you have a hankering to watch an episode of The Love Boat that aired in 1979, you don't have to wait for a rerun; you just need to pull up Paramount+. But widespread availability also highlights what isn't available at the touch of a button, and the especially obscure stuff has been dubbed "lost media."
Gael Garcia Bernal plays a sociopathic outsider threatening the apparently perfect life of his long-lost preacher father (William Hurt). In what now looks like a dry run for There Will Be Blood, Dano is the earnest son campaigning for creationism to be taught at school, and sideswiped by the emergence of his sinister half-brother. Variety labelled the film noxious. It's undoubtedly nasty, but Dano helps to lend it a pulse.
I live in Los Angeles, work in the entertainment industry when I'm not moonlighting as a semi-reputable journalist and have done my fair share of lying or, more accurately, omitting the truth. One of the least pleasant experiences in town is being asked to give honest feedback to someone who is at best an acquaintance. It's worse yet if that person is a friend, lover or family member who actually takes your opinion seriously.
There are lots and lots of people in the world whose children go into a similar family business, whether it's being a judge or a lawyer or a doctor," she said. "Part of it actually is teaching them to ignore the white noise of silly terms like nepo baby, which you can't really do anything about.
There's a new documentary about Diddy in the wake of his recent criminal trial, in which he was sentenced to 50 months in prison after being found guilty of procuring sex workers. The documentary, titled Sean Combs: The Reckoning, has gotten a lot of buzz due to the fact that it was executive produced by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, who has had a longstanding public beef with Diddy.
Nestled within that outrageousness was swift promotion of her beautiful new short film, A Friend of Dorothy. In it, she plays Dorothy, an elderly widow with limited mobility who meets young, closeted queer man JJ (played with startling fragility by newcomer Alistair Nwachukwu) after he accidentally kicks his football into her garden. A friendship blossoms, as they provide a sense of belonging and stability to one another at a time when, despite their different life stages, both are feeling cast adrift.
At a moment when independent cinemas across Europe are dimming their lights for good, Louis Denavaut breathes new life into the historic venue of the Elysées Lincoln cinema in Paris, France. The architect creates a sequence of atmospheres for this project, reflected in three distinct interior worlds that are clad in various materials and colors, from hushed velvet greens to saturated pinks and soft pastel tones.
Steven Spielberg's got his 2026 set. The still-unnamed UFO project he's been working on since 2024 is coming out in June, according to a billboard in Times Square. The billboards (there's one in LA too) are stingy with details. It's the silhouette of a bird, with the tagline "All Will Be Disclosed. Spielberg. 6.12.26." But what, exactly will be disclosed?
I find it easy to relax. I think confidence has an awful lot to do with it, and a certain degree of accomplishment. I don't mean that in a pompous sense. If I were struggling as a craftsman, I would tend to walk around with the tools of the trade in my hand. Now that I feel more wedded to my craft, I can put my tools down.
If you Google 'Madame Morrible' the browser takes you to a page of results about the character. But at the top, where it would usually provide a suggestion if you've spelt something wrong in your search terms, the web page reads: "Flip it around... Did you mean: wicked witch." Users can click on 'Wicked Witch' where they are taken to a new page all about The Wicked Witch of the West.
In the clip, the two actors sit for what appears to be an engagement photo shoot. It seems like they hardly know each other-despite a very funny Zoe Winters insisting otherwise while trying to get them to pose-and uncomfortable around each other. The few glimpses of their eventual wedding seems to be disastrous, with Zendaya's character taking swigs of liquor straight from the bottle and Pattinson's leaving the event with a bloodied face.
The three-year deal includes more than 200 characters from across Walt Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars; Mufasa to the Mandalorian, Buzz Lightyear to Black Panther. According to a statement announcing the deal, "The agreement does not include any talent likenesses or voices." This means that while you might see Elsa building an icy Death Star, you definitely won't hear voice actor Idina Menzel singing about how Princess Leia needs to let it go.
Nearly every Christmas film hinges on a seasonal, often kitschy surge of sentimentality in the final act. But for all the reunions, reconciliations and promises of renewal that occur at the end of the year, there is something to be said for the filmmakers who tap the rest of the winter months' potential as a backdrop for introspective, humanist storytelling.
The Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its massive 2026 slate, with a lineup that includes Olivia Wilde's directorial follow-up to her 2022 film Don't Worry Darling and a project starring Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega about a gallerist attempting to sell a dead body at Art Basel. Starry narrative slate, aside, the lineup also includes a small but mighty group of music projects, including docs on Courtney Love ( Antiheroine)
Perhaps the greatest difference between the 1956 Philip K. Dick novella "The Minority Report" and the 2002 film Minority Report is the fact that on the page, John Allison Anderton (Tom Cruise) is an old guy close to retirement, and in the film, he's a vibrant 40-year-old who looks 25. In fairness, Dick may have imagined a balding guy in his fourties when he wrote "The Minority Report," since, at the time, Dick was only 28.
In his recent podcast interview with the legendary controversial author Bret Easton Ellis and therefore perhaps in a mood to provoke and epater les bourgeois de la critique Tarantino unveiled his top 20 best films of the 21st century. Asked why Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood was only at number 5, Tarantino declared that Dano was the problem: [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister He's just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy.
Wicked: For Good is coming to Blu-ray after it finishes its box office run, and fans can look forward to multiple limited-edition versions, along with standard Blu-ray and DVD versions, all of which are available to preorder now. The most extravagant release is the Amazon-exclusive Wicked: For Good Gift Set, available for $230, which includes the film on 4K Blu-ray and a selection of exclusive collectibles.
In 2012, Romanian thieves pulled seven paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin and others from the walls of the Kunsthal Rotterdam. The job that seemed too easy turned out not to be. The men who were caught went to prison. The paintings, which they took to Romania, were never recovered. Investigators say the art was burned to destroy evidence.
Eilish's new concert film will be presented in immersive 3D and will hit theaters on March 20th, 2026. The trailer captures Eilish in the midst of her massive "Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour," a worldwide outing that arrived in support of her third album Hit Me Hard and Soft. With the arena concerts happening in-the-round, the trailer shows several sweeping shots of Eilish performing songs old and new from a variety of different angles, soundtracked by renditions of "bury a friend," "bad guy," and "THE GREATEST."
From Edna Clarke Hall and Sylvia Plath to Kate Bush and Lily Cole, Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë's brooding 1847 novel about destructive love - has long captivated readers and creatives alike. On February 13, 2026, the latest film adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, from award-winning writer, director, and producer Emerald Fennell, will reintroduce the classic 19th-century Gothic tale to the masses once more.
It's the most wonderful time of year, and we at Defector are proud to bring back our series discussing some of the most, uh, available holiday movies. Sabrina Imbler: Thanks so much Kelsey and Alex for trudging through this "film" with me. Alex Sujong Laughlin: I am so excited to be here to talk about one man's sexual tension with Santa. Kelsey McKinney: Hello. I am here to discuss the queer film My Secret Santa, is this the correct place?
In the trailer for The Drama, a new movie from A24, Emma and Charlie (Zendaya and Robert Pattinson) meet with their wedding photographer, who's fighting tooth and nail to try to get some chemistry between a couple about to get married. She then asks the duo what they love about each other, and in between scenes of flirting and romance, the two look at each other with sweat and horror.