Film

Film

The opening sequence of Bring It On is in a word unapologetic. A dozen cheerleaders scream I'm sexy, I'm cute, I'm popular to boot in synchronicity and I have yet to meet anyone (and I have tried) who has the willpower to look away. It's certainly not an exaggeration to say I wanted to be one of them that is, one of the Toros, Rancho Carne high school's premier cheer squad.

A 13-year-old aspiring journalist investigates his father's death in one of Kenya's largest wildlife conservation parks. Simon Ali, 13, finds himself in a world of mystery when his father, a respected conservation guide, is found dead under suspicious circumstances. Armed with his video camera and an unwavering desire for truth, Simon and his best friend Haron embark on a perilous journey to uncover the secrets behind his father's death.

Where do you go after you've reached the top? It's a question more than 70 filmmakers have had a noodle on over the past century after winning a best director Oscar. I mean, how do you follow that up? Some want to astound us even more with their next act. Think of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who followed up his first Oscar for the backstage satire "Birdman" with the historical epic "The Revenant."

There are many symptoms of totalitarian sickness gripping Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus. You risk being arrested for wearing red and white together, the colours of the outlawed flag of the country's opposition movement. Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four has been banned, which seems rather on the nose. But these are just some of the more farcical elements, the collateral comedy spinning from the deep repression, violence and psychological wounds charted in this sobering film that follows a trio of Belarusian activists,

No doubt Netflix is the default streaming service,

The Hong Kong born and London-based artist Lysander Wong 's inventive paper cut-out films, which merge mixed-media techniques with charming animations, may appear like they're set in an alternative universe, but Lysander's core focus is set firmly on how individuals take up space on Earth. Through the lens of Lysander's trans and queer experiences, themes of fragility, tension and humanity are playfully tackled between the visual and physical, with paper standing in as the ultimate metaphor of the flimsiness of bodies.

There's a spectre haunting modern documentary filmmaking-the eternal return of Jason Holliday, the subject of Shirley Clarke's 1967 film " Portrait of Jason." It's not the first portrait film but it's the definitive one-not least because its raison d'être is built into it. Holliday, an unsuccessful actor, gives of himself with a reckless, unself-sparing profligacy, and Clarke turns the audiovisual recording of him into a work of art in itself, one in which Holliday's presence and performance aren't merely preserved but enshrined and exalted.

Born in Beijing, in 1982, she wound up at New York University's film school, where she studied under Spike Lee. Starting in 2015, she directed three small-scale, slow-burn features set in the American heartland: "Songs My Brothers Taught Me," "The Rider," and "Nomadland." All three capture the expansive beauty of the West-in particular South Dakota, with its moonlike badlands and wide, grassy plains-while using local nonprofessional actors to achieve documentary-like naturalism.

It was a revolutionary moment in cinema. This idea of indie film was born. Soderbergh and Richard Linklater, Spike Lee. Paul Thomas Anderson a little after. My story about Boogie Nights goes like this. So, some guy sends me a script. I never heard of the guy. I called him up and I go, Bro, are they gonna even let you make this movie?

After breaking box-office records with a string of $40 million openings, the studio released Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, which just bolstered its status as the season's most formidable Oscar contender by sweeping the first week of precursor awards. And if, for some reason, One Battle stumbles before the finish line, the title that's best positioned to likely win in its stead is another Warner Bros. movie: Ryan Coogler's Sinners, which, like OBAA, has shown up everywhere it's needed to this season.

Amazon has restocked one of the most popular box sets in the Criterion Collection. Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954-1975 is in stock for $112.48 (was $225). This is great timing on Amazon's part, as the Criterion Collection half-off sale ends this weekend (December 7). At the time of writing, Amazon estimates orders placed today will arrive before Christmas. This gorgeous collection of 15 classic Godzilla movies routinely sells out during these 50% off sales at Amazon, but fortunately Amazon restocked its supply this time around.

This watch is known as Son Mài - The Deadly Watch, and there will only be 88 of them made, a nod to antagonist O-Ren Ishii's very stylish team of killers, the Crazy 88. Awake plans to release this watch in two batches: the first 30 are shipping now, with the remaining 58 set to arrive in February of 2026. The cost is €1,980 - or just over $2,300 at the current rate of exchange.

Devouring the new Nick Cave documentary on Sky, I am reminded how critics go wild for arty musicians who constantly change direction and dabble in everything. This is its own kind of myth. I know plenty of artists who keep moving one week they're sewing fish scales on to jackets, the next they're painting mirrors or putting seahorses in samovars. The problem is, no one cares.

We've been celebrating our centenary all year, and today's festivities involve "The New Yorker at 100," a new documentary that is now streaming on Netflix. Directed by Marshall Curry, the film explores how the hundredth-anniversary issue came together-following reporters, editors, cartoonists, covers editors, and fact checkers as they do their work-and what has defined each of the magazine's past ten decades. The result is a view of The New Yorker both contemporary and historical.

It is significant that the new Paramount regime's first move was to prise Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer away from Netflix. And Netflix, of course, have made their billions by upending the traditional pitch-session-to-cinema pipeline that had sustained the film industry for decades. They have signed up legions of the classiest directors, hogged nearly all the audience-friendly documentaries and premiered one water-cooler series after another.

Russell Crowe's hair-raising performance as Hermann Goring in Nuremberg is the latest example of the veteran actor's high-risk, high-reward approach. He has a knack for taking on difficult, baggage-laden roles that could have gone spectacularly badly only to deliver the goods and make you want to stand up and yell bravo! You'll struggle to find many other actors working today with an oeuvre as eclectic, varied and downright impressive as the Wellington-born star's. Here are his 20 greatest performances.

Netflix is currently on track to purchase Warner Bros., the legendary film and media company. The 82.7 billion dollar acquisition, if it clears regulatory hurdles, will position the supreme ruler of streaming services as a God Emperor of a massive TV and film catalog, as well as the properties belonging to Warner Bros. Games, which include the Lego games, as well as DC adaptations like the Arkham series of Batman games, and the Mortal Kombat games.

"Can we go again?" asks Jay Kelly (George Clooney), a movie star shooting a scene in which the tough guy he's playing dies of a gunshot wound on the soundstage reproduction of a rain-slicked alleyway. "I think I can do it better." These lines from the opening scene of Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly will become the film's wistful recurring theme.

(Yes, Fackham rhymes with a crass kiss-off to the aristocracy.) Written by British Irish comedian and TV presenter Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O'Hanlon, Fackham Hall has plenty of material to work with the historical soap's grand finale just premiered in September, 15 years after Julian Fellowes's series started going upstairs-downstairs with ludicrous portent and wastes none of it.