#film

#film

Inspired by scuola metafisican Giorgio de Chirico and surrealist René Magritte, Michals is known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar contexts, using irrational juxtapositions to provoke questions about the boundaries of reality and representation in nature. His new short film was shot at his New York home, and captures Elordi in black and white with props and motifs that have appeared throughout Michals' distinguished oeuvre - a convex mirror, a suspended feather, a crystal ball.

Pier Paolo Pasolini: prophet. He saw what was coming, and Salò, that apocalyptic masterpiece, was his final warning. Almost his last recorded sentence, a few hours before his brutal murder, was "we are all in danger", siamo tutti in pericolo . Wasn't he right about that? He warned that capitalism was the new fascism, he dared to say that fireflies were worth more than the industrialisation that was poisoning the Italy he loved.

"To learn what we fear is to learn who we are," Guillermo del Toro wrote last week, in an essay for The Atlantic about Mary Shelley's eternally spooky novel Frankenstein. The director, who just released a film adaptation of the classic, has made a career of investigating the depths of horror, which he considers "one of the last refuges of spirituality in our materialistic world."

Loosely inspired by Victor's own experiences, the film sees her take on the role of Agnes, an East Coast English professor who, after a shock sexual assault, begins to quietly unspool. It's a story we know well in the post-MeToo era, but Sorry, Baby is a sharp reinterpretation of the typical trauma plot: there is no violence, no gratuity, no moralising and no revenge. Instead, it's more about the strange, slippery nature of trauma, and the mundane, often unsatisfying, ways we have to stitch ourselves back together.

From one of hip-hop's most entertaining stars to a plethora of pumpkin treats, we're looking at a fine, fun weekend. So let's get to it, shall we? (As always, be sure to double check event and venue websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines or other details.) Meanwhile, if you'd like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters or www.eastbaytimes.com/newsletters.

Spike Jonze's Gucci movie The Tiger is quite something both as a film and piece of branding. With strong acting from an ensemble cast including Demi Moore, Ed Norton, and Elliot Page, it weaves contemporary themes and a White Lotus-like atmosphere with sleek cinematography and bold brand storytelling and aesthetics.

Few figures in cinema embody the word 'ongoing' quite like Tilda Swinton. For nearly four decades, she has moved through film, art, and fashion with a mercurial presence that defies category - at once avant-garde icon, Oscar-winning actor, collaborator, and fashion muse. Rizzoli's new release, Tilda Swinton: Ongoing, captures not only Swinton's prolific career but an intricate web of lifelong friendships, creative collaborations and dialogues, presenting a portrait of an artist whose curiosity and generosity remains infinite.

Warmish days be damned, because Christian Girl Autumn has officially begun. This week offers many reasons to head indoors, like Spike Lee's Kurosawa-inspired film Highest 2 Lowest, Amanda Lepore's club kid glamour, and '70s art rockers Sparks. Plus, Freddie Robins installs knitted horses at Cooley Gallery, and the storytelling show Be Gay, Do Crime centers icons of queer rebellion. Read on, and don't forget your coat.

"HIM," a sports-horror thriller directed by Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions, uses football as a vehicle to explore themes of power, obsession and mentorship gone wrong. Marlon Wayans stars as the fictional, legendary quarterback Isaiah White and former Florida State Seminole walk-on wideout Tyriq Withers brings authentic football experience to the role of his protégé, Cameron Cade. The movie pushes beyond jump scares to ask a deeper question: What happens when the pursuit of greatness turns terrifying?

For all the talk about young men in the world today -from how they act, how they think, to how they vote-few bother to ask them what they see. They are famously reluctant to talk about their feelings. So it stands to reason that cameras might be the greatest thing you can give a young man. In their hands, cameras can reveal a universe of thought. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so the cliché goes, but sometimes they say even more.

Not that we weren't already excited for Alexander Skarsgård's upcoming BDSM-romance film, Pillion, but new images have been released keeping that excitement very much alive. The "kinky" film stars the True Blood actor as the leather-clad biker daddy Ray, who entices the meek traffic warden and barbershop-quartet fan Colin ( Harry Potter 's Harry Melling) into a dom/sub relationship. What follows is a journey of self-discovery involving back-alley hook-ups, boot licking and BDSM.

Millet's new film, Ghost Trail, follows a Syrian refugee in Strasbourg as he attempts to locate the man who brutalised him in Sednaya prison, Damascus. Ghost Trail therefore joins the roll call of cerebral films that manufacture an uncanny power from what isn't depicted. But here, it's not achieved in exactly the same fashion as ones where the consequential action is cropped out of view.

Far from the Tree, Andrew Solomon's brilliant nonfiction book about parenting children different from oneself, offers the useful distinction between vertical and horizontal identities. Vertical identities are inherited a family name, an ethnicity, or a nationality; horizontal identities are qualities that define us which parents may have nothing to do with, such as the kinship people with autism feel with one another, or being gay or deaf.

Much as " The Holdovers" carved out its place in the Christmas-movie canon two years ago by finding wistful humor and aching sadness within its tale of joyous, unexpected companionship, Jay Duplass and Michael Stassner's lovely and bittersweet "The Baltimorons" (out in limited release on Friday, then expanding nationwide next week) has appeared this year as a scrappily hand-wrapped gift from an old friend you're just happy-and relieved-to hear from.

These might be the dog days of August but our tails are wagging at all the fun stuff to do this weekend. So let's get to it, shall we? (As always, be sure to double check event and venue websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines or other details.) Meanwhile, if you'd like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters or w.eastbaytimes.com/newsletters .

An awe-struck stranger has recognized Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) from the celebrity's Instagram posts, and wants some advice on how to follow in his footsteps. "You inspire me to be myself," he gushes. But sandwiched between the awkward flattery is an embarrassing admission: He has no idea what Matthew "does," exactly. In fact, he wonders - eagerly,

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline can reveal the trailer for Giulio Bertelli's directorial feature debut , co-starring Italian judo athlete and Olympic Gold medallist Alice Bellandi, ahead of its premiere in the upcoming 40th edition of Venice parallel section Critics' Week. Set against the fictional Olympic Games of Ludoj 2024, the film follows three female athletes as they prepare and then compete in rifle shooting, fencing and judo.

The setting of Honey Don't! is Bakersfield, California, where private investigator Honey navigates a world of eccentrics and mysterious deaths, starting with a suspicious vehicular fatality.

Michael Madsen's final posthumous role offers a nostalgic glimpse of a small-town theater's last days, echoing the bittersweet memories of cinema's past.

To Kill a Wolf, directed by Kelsey Taylor, is a deconstruction of 'Little Red Riding Hood' that omits traditional elements and focuses on deeper themes rather than horror or supernatural elements.