Oh, and by the way: John Horn‘s 8.30 story in the L.A. Times was incorrect, apparently, in announcing that Adrienne Shelly‘s Waitress, a drama with Kerri Russell as a pregnant, unhappily married waitress in the deep south who falls into an affair with a visitor, would be showing at Telluride. No sign of it so far, according to what I’ve been told. Same deal with Susanne Bier‘s After the Wedding, which I expect will be as precise and penetrating as Bier’s Brothers and Open Hearts. No Telluride sightings, I mean. Maybe it’ll turn up as a surprise sneak sometime today.
Peter O’Toole‘s performance in Roger Michell‘s Venus (Miramax, 12.15) is an absolute lock for a Best Actor nomination, says Oscar prognosticator Pete Hammond after catching the British-made comedy-drama yesterday afternoon at the Telluride Film Festival. This is also the view of several others who caught the film yesterday as well, he reports. I’ve been flagging this development for a while now, and trying to see Venus since I first heard about some research screenings last April. Michell admitted to being nervous about the reaction to yesterday’s showings, which were the very first for the final finished print. Venus will be screening at the Toronto Film Festival, and Michell, O’Toole and various other team members will show up also.

“Not happening…way too laid back…zero narrative urgency,” I was muttering from the get-go. Basically the sixth episode of White Lotus Thai SERIOUSLY disappoints. Puttering around, way too slow. Things inch along but it’s all “woozy guilty lying aftermath to the big party night” stuff. Glacial pace…waiting, waiting. I was told...
I finally saw Walter Salles' I'm Still Here two days ago in Ojai. It's obviously an absorbing, very well-crafted, fact-based poltical drama, and yes, Fernanda Torres carries the whole thing on her shoulders. Superb actress. Fully deserving of her Best Actress nomination. But as good as it basically is...
After three-plus-years of delay and fiddling around, Bernard McMahon's Becoming Led Zeppelin, an obsequious 2021 doc about the early glory days of arguably the greatest metal-rock band of all time, is opening in IMAX today in roughly 200 theaters. Sony Pictures Classics is distributing. All I can say is, it...
To my great surprise and delight, Christy Hall's Daddio, which I was remiss in not seeing during last year's Telluride Film Festival, is a truly first-rate two-hander -- a pure-dialogue, character-revealing, heart-to-heart talkfest that knows what it's doing and ends sublimely. Yes, it all happens inside a Yellow Cab on...
7:45 pm: Okay, the initial light-hearted section (repartee, wedding, hospital, afterlife Joey Pants, healthy diet) was enjoyable, but Jesus, when and how did Martin Lawrence become Oliver Hardy? He’s funny in that bug-eyed, space-cadet way… 7:55 pm: And now it’s all cartel bad guys, ice-cold vibes, hard bullets, bad business,...

The Kamala surge is, I believe, mainly about two things — (a) people feeling lit up or joyful about being...
Unless Part Two of Kevin Costner's Horizon (Warner Bros., 8.16) somehow improves upon the sluggish initial installment and delivers something...
For me, A Dangerous Method (2011) is David Cronenberg's tastiest and wickedest film -- intense, sexually upfront and occasionally arousing...