Golden Exits Review: Brooklynites-Behaving-Badly Indie Boasts Stars, Chops

People never make films about ordinary people who never do anything.

Theyre out there

That first meta-statement comes from Naomi (Emily Browning), an Australian twentysomething with a work visa, a temp gig as an archivists assistant and the sort of youthful bloom that attracts both wanted and unwanted attention. The reply is from Nick (ex-Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz), her married fortysomething employer whos currently doling out the latter; he finishes the sentence with and I could take you to one some time, which suggests that underneath his nice-guy facade, something potentially toxic this way lies.

Theres also Alyssa (Chloe Sevigny), his therapist wife; her sister Gwendolyn (Mary-Louise Parker); a music-producer (Jason Schwartzman), who Naomi knows from way back; his wife Jess (Analeigh Tipton); and her occasional confidant Sam (Lily Rabe). All of them float around the bars, bistros and beardo enclaves of a magic-hour Brooklyn. All of them are either victims or perpetrators (or both) of the discreet harm caused by the bourgeoisie, outer-borough division. All of them are in a film about ordinary people who never do anything, including rising above their own perpetual sense of unhappy stasis.

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All of this comes courtesy of Alex Ross Perry, a writer-director whose career almost reads like an indie-filmography checklist: spare, lo-fi but highly ambitious project (the WWII movie Impolex); spare, lo-fi cringe-comedy but with a touch of Pasolini-esque provocation (The Color Wheel); mid-fi cringe-comedy but with recognizable stars (Listen Up Philip); and mid-fi woman-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown downward spiral but with a celebrity muse (Queen of Earth). Were not here to bury Perry via those descriptions, nor necessarily faint-praise him. But the 33-year-old has been one of the more interesting filmmakers to come out of the American microbudget movie scene, someone who was intent from the get-go in doing more than just masturbatory post-collegiate hang-out stories. You inherently felt that he had incredible work in him if you could simply wait out his enfant terrible phase.

Golden Exits is the first of Perrys people-behaving-badly pieces to start to make good on that promise. Shot in 16mm by cinematographer Sean Price Williams the unsung hero of independent dramas and docs over the past decade his ensemble piece feels marinated in a certain type of NYC ennui and fueled by chatty momentum. Think early Whit Stillman without the archness, or Woody Allen without the schtick, self-seriousness or need for post-screening steel-wool shower, and youre almost there. But theres also an unusual sense of lived-in malaise in the creative-class movies messy apartments and the creative-class clutter of its cramped office spaces. A dollop of maturity suits him, as does examining life beyond ones Criterion Collection shelves.

And it helps emphasize Perrys strength, which is giving actors the time and space to let scenes, reactions, resolutions (or lack thereof) play out to the fade out. The director loves his tight close-ups, often giving the whole frame to a performers face and holding on them several beats longer than expected. Whether its Horowitz, whose acting still feels like hes exploring an earnest, after-hours hobby, or Parker and Rabe, theater veterans who know when to go big and when to let a glance say everything, everyone gets their moments. Perry also has a penchant for pairing his cast members in scenes and letting them play off each other in different mix-and-match combos: Horowitz and Browning, then Browning and Schwartzman, then Schwartzman and Tipton, then Tipton and Rabe, etc. The effect can feel like watching movie-star speed-dating. It can also mine golden exchanges, and the writer-director knows when to milk them and when to cut away. You feel like hes actually listening to his characters instead of dictating them.

Dropping a sexy young stranger into the middle of established couples and social clans is, of course, its own clich, (though if it finally allows Browning to do more than punch or pout, who cares); so is pinballing between different but equally anxious, neurotic Gothamites, especially if you drop swelling symphonics over neighborhood interstitial scenes. (Check two more indie-flick boxes.) Its what filmmakers can do with such material that makes the difference, and thats where Perry and friends prove that they deserve to leave their mark. You could argue that Golden Exits exists in a bubble a Brooklyn-based filmmaker telling the stories of middle-class Brooklynites, to be picked over by critics probably living on those same brownstone-dotted blocks. But the way it translates this closed-circuit culture into a microcosm of unfulfilled potential and universal dissatisfaction, all without devolving into easy social anthropology or retro-analog tweeness, is impressive. We hope Perry keeps going down this road and stays golden.

Night School Review: Hart/Haddish Comedy Gets an F for Effort

Only a fool would say that Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish arent hilarious. But only a dumbass would argue that their new comedy, Night School, isnt the worst kind of lazy, laughless, paycheck-begging twaddle. What is it with stars who think that their responsibility to audiences stops at showing up?

Director Malcolm D. Lee, who showed Haddish in all her raunchy glory in Girls Trip, leaves her in the lurch with this PG-13 softball that nowhere near as foul-mouthed nasty as it needs to be. Has no one seen what these two comic firebrands do on stage? It took six writers to come up with a plot and dialogue that you know the two stars could have improvised better on the spot. Wait, Hart himself is one of the six writers so wed better take that back.

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Hart plays Teddy Walker, a BBQ grill salesman whos keeping secrets from his rich fiance, Lisa (Megalyn Echikunwoke). Hes just been fired and he cant get a job because wait for it hes a high-school dropout. Walker might be able to snag a spot in finance with his best friend (Ben Schwartz), but for that he needs a GED and fast. So our man secretly enrolls at a night-school class taught by Haddishs Carrie Carter. This woman takes no shit, though shes a pussycat compared to Stuart (Taran Killam), the school principal who Teddy used to rag on back in the day when they were classmates. The Principal wants revenge. Also, Stuart is a white dude who likes talking black, so you know hes going down.

There have been lamer hooks on which to hang a plot. You just figure Hart and Haddish will ignore the script and seize control. No such luck. After a promising start when Carrie calls Tiny Teddy a leprechaunand the two go at it in a verbal free-for-all, the movie starts piling on characters. On the first night of class, Carrie calls on the new classmates to introduce themselves: Theres Mary Lynn Rajskub as the overworked mom who insists her life is blessed: Romany Malco as some sort of mystic; Rob Riggle as the ultimate dork; Al Madrigal as a Mexican immigrant with dreams of a career as a dental hygienist; and Fat Joe as a jailed convict who Skypes into class. And so it goes, as Hart and Haddish disappear if they snuck off to moonlight other gigs its hard to blame them. That leaves the supporting cast to pad a movie that is already groaning from its comic deadweight.

Hart grabs a few giggles when his character takes as job a joint called Christian Chicken, and Haddish adds a dab of physical comedy when she beats up Teddy in a training session. But hardly anything in this movie makes sense. Night School reaches desperation level when Lee stages a break-in scene so the students can steal a midterm exam which wouldnt help a damn since the GED is the only test that counts. And just when you think the filmmakers couldnt stoop lower, they do, adding on unearned positive messages about learning abilities and why dont we just get along. No matter how much money this clunker makes, this is a movie that never should have happened. Save your pity for audiences who deserve better.

Mark Wahlberg Donates All the Money in the World Reshoots Salary to Times Up

Mark Wahlberg announced Saturday that he would donate $1.5 million his salary for All the Money in the World reshoots to Times Up.

The actors donation comes following reports that Wahlbergs co-star Michelle Williams was only paid a per diem of approximately $1,000 a day less than 1 percent of Wahlbergs wage for the reshoots, which were necessitated when Christopher Plummer replaced Kevin Spacey in a key role. The disparity in salary highlighted the gender wage gap that continues to plague Hollywood.

Over the last few days my reshoot fee for All the Money in the World has become an important topic of conversation, Wahlberg said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. I 100 percent support the fight for fair pay and Im donating the $1.5 million to the Times Up Legal Defense Fund in Michelle Williams name.

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All the Money in the World director Ridley Scott, who also worked for per diem for the reshoots, had said in interviews that his actors (besides Plummer) did it for nothing, although USA Today later revealed that Wahlbergs agent negotiated the actors $1.5 million fee for reshoots. Wahlberg alsoreportedly threatened to veto Plummers casting unless he was paid the $1.5 million salary.

Wahlbergs agency WME which also represents Williams, although the two stars have different agents pledged an additional $500,000 to Times Up for their role in the controversy.

The current conversation is a reminder that those of us in a position of influence have a responsibility to challenge inequities, including the gender wage gap, WME said in a statement.

In recognition of the pay discrepancy on the All the Money in the World reshoots, WME is donating an additional $500,000 to the Times Up Legal Defense Fund in Michelle Williams name, following our $1 million pledge to the organization earlier this month. Its crucial that this conversation continues within our community and we are committed to being part of the solution.

Milos Forman, Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Director, Dead at 86

Milos Forman, the Oscar-winning director behind Amadeus, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The People vs. Larry Flyntand Man on the Moon, died Friday at 86. A representative confirmed Formans death toRolling Stone, saying thatthe director died at Danbury Hospital near his home in Warren, CT.

Formans wife Martina told theCzech news agency CTK that the director died following a short illness, Reuters reports. His departure was calm and he was surrounded the whole time by his family and his closest friends, Martina said.

Forman won two Best Director Oscars, forAmadeus andOne Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest,among a slew of other awards.One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, the 1975 film starring Jack Nicholson about a revolt at a mental institution, became only the second film to win all five Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay), while 1984sAmadeus, the biopic of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, won eight Oscars, including Best Picture.

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Throughout his career, Forman gravitated to highlighting fringe members of society, humanizing creative, volatile geniuses of which he could proudly claim his own spot.

The Directors Guild of America said of Forman in a statement, Milos was truly one of ours. A filmmaker, artist, and champion of artists rights. His contribution to the craft of directing has been an undeniable source of inspiration for generations of filmmakers. His directorial vision deftly brought together provocative subject matter, stellar performances and haunting images to tell the stories of the universal struggle for free expression and self-determination that informed so much of his work and his life.

Milos the magnificent! est k jeho pamtce (honour to his memory) light a good cigar, raise a drink, and shout HOVNO HOVNO HOVNO, tweeted Cuckoos Nest actor Danny DeVito.

Milos was a master of his craft, and perhaps had mastered the art of living too, People vs. Larry Flynt actor Woody Harrelson added in a statement. He was a loving papa bear who would yell your name with his big Czech voice when you entered the set or restaurant and wrap his arms around you and make you feel like the center of the world. We have lost one of the great filmmakers and people today.

Forman began his career as a filmmaker in his native Czechoslovakia, a pioneering figure of the Czech New Wave movement before finding an international audience with his 1965 drama Loves of a Blonde, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Formans next film, 1967s The Firemens Ball, was a biting satire on communism that was banned forever from being screened in Czechoslovakia. Despite the controversy surrounding the movie, The Firemens Ball was also nominated for theBest Foreign Language Film Academy Award.

After emigrating to America in the late Sixties following the Prague Spring uprising and buoyed by the acclaim of The Firemens Ball, Forman directed his first English language film, 1971s music comedy Taking Off, before he was recruited to helm a planned adaptation of Ken Keseys 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. For Forman, the film was symbolic of his own life in communist Czechoslovakia.

I explained I wanted to make the film because to me it was not just literature but real life, the life I lived in Czechoslovakia from my birth in 1932 until 1968, Forman told the Directors Guild of America in 2013 when he was awarded the guilds Lifetime Achievement Award for filmmaking. The Communist Party was my Nurse Ratched, telling me what I could and could not do; what I was or was not allowed to say; where I was and was not allowed to go; even who I was and was not.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest would go on to become one of the most celebrated films of all time, landing on the American Film Institutes 100 Years 100 Movies List as well as the Library of Congress National Film Registry, while Nicholsons portrayal of the protagonist Randle McMurphy is considered one of the actors most iconic roles.

Michael Douglas, who produced Cuckoos Nest, told Rolling Stone in 1975, We wanted Forman because he is a realistic and a funny director. We knew we needed someone who could handle the comedy. He has a very delicate eye: a great ability to go from humor to pathos, sometimes in the same frame. Hes been living in the States long enough to understand the peculiarly American aspects of the book but he still has that profound Central European sensibility.

Sadly, we just lost one of the greatest directors in the history of film, Douglas said Saturday. I cherish everything he taught me. My family sends their deepest sympathies to Martine and their children.

Forman, who was raised by family members after both of his parents were killed in Nazi concentration camps, told Rolling Stone in 1975, You ask me, is McMurphy crazy? I dont want to know this. Is he a hero? I dont know this either. A modern hero is very ambiguous. I went through some very rough times in Czechoslovakia the occupation by the Germans at the end of the war. We had people going against their tanks with brooms. Are they nuts or are they heroes? Because when you see it, you say, This man is insane. When its over, you yourself who wouldnt go you call him a hero.

Forman followed Cuckoos Nest with a big screen adaptation of the musical Hair in 1979 and the epic period piece Ragtime in 1981. In 1984, Forman won his second Best Director Oscar for his work on Amadeus, a Mozart biopic of sorts through the gaze of the composers rival Antonio Salieri. The film won eight Oscars, including Best Picture.

Following 1989s Valmont, Forman received a third Best Director nomination for 1996s The People vs. Larry Flynt. Like One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The People vs. Larry Flynt focused on one mans fight against the establishment, withWoody Harrelson starring as the controversial Hustler publisher who embarked on a lengthy First Amendment battle against the government and Reverend Jerry Falwell that led all the way to the Supreme Court.

I will always be grateful to him for telling my story in The People vs Larry Flynt. He was a remarkable man with extraordinary talent. I will miss his presence on this earth, Flynt, who called Forman one of the true visionaries, said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.

In 1999, Forman fixed his camera on another outlier, the comedy legend Andy Kaufman, for the biopic Man on the Moon, which featured Jim Carrey completely immersing himself into the Kaufman role; the 2017 documentaryJim & Andy: The Great Beyond Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton highlighted Carreys difficult acting technique on the film as well as the directors attempts to rein the actor in.

Another great one passes through the doorway. Milos Foreman. What a force. A lovely man. Im glad we got to play together. It was a monumental experience, Carrey tweeted.

Forman released his final directorial feature Goyas Ghost in 2006, a film that centered on the Spanish painter Francisco Goya.

Milos Forman was our friend and our teacher, tweetedMan on the Moon and The People vs. Larry Flyntproducer Larry Karaszewski. He was a master filmmaker no one better at capturing small unrepeatable moments of human behavior. We made two movies together and every day spent with him was a unique adventure. Milos loved life. I will miss his laughter.

Very sad to hear that the great director Milo Forman has passed away. He had a tremendous filmography that documented the rebel heart and human spirit, director Edgar Wright tweeted. I have seen One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest enough times to be able to silently mouth along with the movie. RIP.

Watergate Review: Near-Definitive Doc Looks at Granddaddy of POTUS Scandals

Heres how its always worked, the traditional go-to method for diving down the barrel of the smoking gun: You film a close-up of reel-to-reel tapes, the rotating wheels moving the magnetic strips through the players gates. Maybe you focus on the spindles in the middle of the cassette, turning and turning, as well. You play the grainy, tinny voices of men over the soundtrack, as they discuss payments, political cover-ups, the media and, courtesy of one particularly gruff-sounding gentleman, the goddamned Jews. This is how the notorious Nixon White House recordings have always been handled when theyve been embedded into documentaries on the Seventies, or scandals, or our nations 37th President of the United States. You do not usually get actors to dress up as Famous Administration Officials of the Past and play-act the back-and-forth between the commander-in-chief and H.R. Bob Haldeman, or Henry Kissinger, or John Dean. It simply isnt done.

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Unless you are Charles Ferguson, a nonfiction filmmakers who usually has a tendency to stick to a Dateline-with-benefits style of docmaking (see: 2007s No End in Sight, 2010s Inside Job), and have decided you need something different to break up the talking heads and old clips. Its best to address the elephant in the Oval-Office-set room of his four-hour, intensely comprehensive look at Watergate subtitled, Or: How We Learned to Stop an Out-of-Control President from the outset, as the first of these vignettes happens early on. Yes, we start with a tape whirling through a machine, before cutting to performers reciting the exact, unedited dialogue from the trove of clandestine audio thats now become part of the public record. Its jarring at first, watching folks in 1970s executive-branch drag speak about what they knew and when they knew it.

Your first thought is that Douglas Hodge, a British stage veteran, does an extremely credible Richard Milhouse; its not an imitation, its a performance, which makes a difference. The second thought is that how to say this? not all actors are created equal, and some arent quite up to the task. The third thought is: Wait, are we in for four hours of this?

No, you are not, and its a credit to Ferguson that he not only uses these recreations sparingly but, for the most part, effectively. These scenes have an odd way of humanizing folks that have become participants in what now feels like a historical Shakespearean play of hubris, power-madness, paranoia, personal demons and a leaders downfall. And they dot what is, in essence, a long, hard, thorough look at a highly namechecked crime thats cast a massive shadow over every incident, great or small, of federal government malfeasance ever since. If the filmmaker hadnt laid down the fundamentals of how long-held grudges led to a burglary and, eventually, the first resignation of an American president, we might only see the gimmick and not the grander story. But Watergate is not the sum of its re-enactments. Its a near definitive portrait of the granddaddy of 20th-century political scandals, in all its nitty, gritty, dirty-tricks-and-Tricky-Dicks glory.

Its both impressive and slightly mind-boggling, in fact, how Ferguson & Co. lay out the details of what is a complex series of incidents, indictments, denials, bombshells and betrayals (of both the Presidential administration and American public kind). The movie delves a bit into Nixons background involving his hatred of modern aristocrats and elites, just enough to set up his early failures in politics and his ascendancy to G.O.P. royalty. Pundits weigh in, and Fergusons own narration helps guide you to the starting point. Then it begins constructing the various conversations and bad decisions that led to a team of plumbers breaking into a hotel to ransack the DNC headquarters, which became the first light shower in a bona fide shitstorm. From there, its a litany of Watergates greatest hits: G. Gordon Liddy, media attacks, Woodward and Bernstein, congressional hearings, C.R.E.E.P., Kissinger (boooo!), wiretapping, executive poppycock, the Saturday Night Massacre and the revelation of taped discussions that would ultimately unite partisan opponents in the name of impeachment votes.

Thanks to much of the historical record being highly televised the irony of TV, one of many of Nixons bte noires, being a factor in bringing him down is still stinging theres no shortage of footage of hearings, testy press conferences and news reports to use in this marathon-length postmortem. For viewers, the chance to re-view or check out for the first time these rogues-gallery moments is worth the ticket alone; its a time-capsule nocturnal emission for those who would think nothing of spending a day at the Paley Center surfing through 50-year-old broadcasts. And even if youve already read most of the books and compared notes on the Slow Burn podcasts look back, theres still plenty to dig into and/or be reminded of regarding a major Constitutional crisis that ended with 41 people convicted and Nixon retreating in disgrace to San Clemente.

Yes, the phrase Constitutional crisis sounds familiar, doesnt it? Ferguson knows that Watergate will bring to mind our current state of affairs, so he doesnt lay on the wink-nudge parallels. He doesnt need to the eerie, unsettling echoes of media attacks, POTUS aggressiveness, racial slurs, toady pole-positioning, ethics violations and administration musical chairs circa 70-74 are enough to make you nod in recognition. Rather than include a montage of our current C.I.C.s disdain for anything resembling civility or the truth, Ferguson simply gives us the quote about being doomed to repeat history if you dont know it. Watergate is an extraordinary dossier on what remains a major black mark on the republic. Its also a sobering reminder that just because we were able to stop it once doesnt mean we can relegate it to our countrys back pages. Consider this a cautionary tale.

Watch Lady Gaga, Glenn Close Tie for Best Actress at Critics Choice Awards

The Oscar race for Best Actress is now even more heated. Lady Gaga and Glenn Close tied for Best Actress at the 24th annual Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, giving both an extra edge for the upcoming Academy Award nominations.

Close,who earned a statue for The Wife,was called onstage first by presenter Willem Dafoe, who announced the award would be a tie. Gaga, who won for her work in A Star Is Born, broke down in tears as she took the stage to accept the award Closes speech. Im so very happy that you won this this evening, Gaga told Close as the pair embraced. This is a tremendous honor.

Lady Gaga tears up after tying for best actress with Glenn Close #CriticsChoice https://t.co/slZIvVY9SM pic.twitter.com/vsAA75S39D

Variety (@Variety) January 14, 2019

Close recently earned the Golden Globe for her performance and thanked her fellow nominees during the Critics Choice Awards, who includedOlivia Colman and Melissa McCarthy.I was thinking that, you know, the world kind of pits us against each other in this profession and I know that from all the women in this category, and I think I can speak for all the women in this room, we celebrate each other, the actress told the audience.We are proud to be in this room together.

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Lady Gaga also won Best Song forShallow and took time during her speech to thank her director and co-star Bradley Cooper.Bradley, you are a magical filmmaker, the singer said.And you are just as magical of a human being. She added,Ive never had an experience with a director or an actor like I had with you and I will cherish it forever.You seamlessly were both the love of my life and the man behind the camera. Gagas speech ran long as music began to play her offstage. Dont worry I can still do this with a piano background, she quipped.

The duo were the second tie of the evening, following Amy Adams and Patricia Arquette, who shared the honor of Best Actress in a Limited Series for Sharp Objects andEscape at Dannemora respectively.

Cary Fukunaga to Direct Bond 25

Cary Fukunaga will directBond 25, the 25th installment of the beloved franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The films producers, Eon, also announced that production would begin March 2019 and the film would arrive in theaters February 14th, 2020 (the original release date was October 25th, 2019). Bond 25 will reportedly be the last 007 movie to star Daniel Craig, who has portrayed the famous spy since 2006s Casino Royale.

We are delighted to be working with Cary, Eons Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli tweeted. His versatility and innovation make him an excellent choice for our next James Bond adventure.

Fukunaga will notably be the first non-British director to helm a James Bond film in the franchises 65-year history. Fukunaga garnered attention for a handful of early films, including 2009s Sin Nombre and a 2011 adaptation of Jane Eyre, though he broke out after directing the acclaimed first season of True Detective. Since then, hes directed Beasts of No Nation, as well as the upcoming Netflix series, Maniac, starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill.

Danny Boyle was originally slated to direct Bond 25, but he left the film in August over creative differences. The last two Bond films, Spectre and Skyfall, were directed by Sam Mendes.

The Color Purple Broadway Musical Eyes Big Screen Adaptation

Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones will serve as producers on a big-screen adaptation of The Color Purple musical.

The musical is based on the 2005 Broadway show that put the Oscar-nominated 1985 film itself an adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel by Alice Walker to music. A 2016 revival of the musical, starring Jennifer Hudson and Cynthia Erivo, won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

Both Winfrey and Jones, along with Scott Sanders, produced the original Broadway musical; Jones also co-produced and contributed the score to the 1985 film, while Winfrey made her big-screen acting debut in The Color Purple, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

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Spielberg, The Color Purples director, has been recruited as producer to help transition the musical to the big screen, the Hollywood Reporter writes.

Sanders said of the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, Were really excited to create a film that translates the heart and emotion we found in telling this generational story on stage. This is an incredibly powerful drama that needs to be shared.

No director, writer or cast decisions for the musicals cinematic adaptation have been announced. THR leaves open the possibility that Erivo, the Widows actress who won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Celie in the 2016 revival, could reprise the role in the adaptation.

In 2016, Rolling Stone talked with Erivo about her show-stopping rendition of the musicals Im Here. I feel super proud to be able to sing that song because I feel like its not specifically just for me, Erivo said. I feel like its for all people who need a moment to check in with themselves and realize that they themselves are OK, and they dont need many things to make them OK. I feel like that isnt specifically just for Celie; I think that she sings it for everyone else as well.

Bohemian Rhapsody Loses GLAAD Award Nomination After New Bryan Singer Allegations

Bohemian Rhapsody has been removed as a nominee for the 2019 GLAAD Media Awards after new sexual misconduct allegations against director Bryan Singer surfaced, Variety reports. The news comes just before the media watchdog group unveils its official nominees list on Friday.

On Wednesday, The Atlantic published an expos detailing accounts from several alleged sexual abuse and rape victims who were underage at the time the alleged incidents took place. The new allegations follow previous accusations that the expos also covered, including interviews with Cesar Sanchez-Guzman who filed a lawsuit against Singer in December 2017, days after the director wasfired from Bohemian Rhapsodywith two weeks left of shooting and Bret Tyler Skopek, who previously opened up about his relationship with Singerto Deadlinein December 2017.

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In light of the latest allegations against director Bryan Singer, GLAAD has made the difficult decision to remove Bohemian Rhapsody from contention for a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Film Wide Release category this year, GLAAD said in a statement to Variety.

Singers response to The Atlantic story wrongfully used homophobia to deflect from sexual assault allegations, the statement continued. And GLAAD urges the media and the industry at large to not gloss over the fact that survivors of sexual assault should be put first.

Its sad thatThe Atlanticwould stoop to this low standard of journalistic integrity, Singer toldRolling Stonethrough his lawyer following the publication of The Atlantic piece. Again, I am forced to reiterate that this story rehashes claims from bogus lawsuits filed by a disreputable cast of individuals willing to lie for money or attention. And it is no surprise that, withBohemian Rhapsodybeing an award-winning hit, this homophobic smear piece has been conveniently timed to take advantage of its success.

Despite the new allegation revelations, Singer is still currently scheduled to direct the upcoming Millennium Films Red Sonja reboot.

I continue to be in development for Red Sonja and Bryan Singer continues to be attached, producer Avi Lerner said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. Lerner added, The over $800 million Bohemian Rhapsody has grossed, making it the highest grossing drama in film history, is testament to his remarkable vision and acumen. I know the difference between agenda driven fake news and reality, and I am very comfortable with this decision. In America people are innocent until proven otherwise.

Searching for Ingmar Bergman Review: One Filmmaker Pays Tribute to Another

Margarethe von Trotta remembers the first time she saw it. It was the early Sixties, and this young German woman still several years from establishing herself as an actor, and a little over a decade away before The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) would induct her into the ranks of Das Neue Kino directors was visiting Paris. Shed heard about this film that Cahiers-crowd cinegeeks had been crowing over, something about a knight whod lost his faith, a chess game and Death. So von Trotta found a theater that was playing it. The sight of the man on the rocks, the lapping of the waves, a bird hovering in the sky, the Grim Reaper in his black robes these images marked her. Many decades later, walking along that same shore with a cameraman in tow, the filmmaker can vividly remember the impact that Ingmar Bergmans The Seventh Seal left on her psyche. It was the moment, she says, that she felt a movie could be recognized as a work of art.

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Shes not the first person to feel this way after seeing one of the Swedish-cinema godheads ruminations on the human condition, and she wont be the last. In fact, the second best thing about Searching for Ingmar Bergman, von Trottas documentary (co-directed by Felix Moeller and Bettina Bhler) about the man, is that shes gathered a fraternity of fellow Bergmaniacs in an effort to exchange information and excavate first-hand impressions. Everyone from longtime collaborators like Liv Ullman to fellow arthouse giants (Carlos Saura, Jean-Claude Carriere), current Swedish auteurs to French cineastes, former assistants to family members recall the directors personal quirks and professional habits. Olivier Assayas declares that, because of Bergmans emphasis on actresses, his influence on Frances own contributions to world cinema is incalculable. Daniel Bergman, his son, recalls his sister asking why Ingmar said he missed performers but not his children. (Because I dont, Dad replied.) A grandkid talks about the director of Persona insisting on screening Pearl Harbor in his local moviehouse on the island of Fr; quickly souring on Michael Bays epic, he then proceeded to start it over and only show the action scenes.

Its an unsentimental piecemeal portrait of a giant, told with clips and testimonies and the occasional archival interview/BTS footage. But its mostly an assemblage of posthumous impressions about the man and his work, a puzzle being slowly filled in from the edges inward. (The verb in the title is not superfluous. If this movie resembles anything, its Citizen Kane structure-wise, if not remotely aesthetically.) Its also not a timeline or a history lesson, which is arguably the best thing about this look back: This is a movie thats not interested in being particularly objective or definitive. Thats not the goal. There are already numerous other looks back at Bergman, ones that offer a chronological cradle-to-grave tour of his life. Von Trottas subjective take on Why Bergman Matters note the present tense merely wants to offer a sample platter of feelings, remembrances and anecdotes. Some are fond. Other skew toward forgiveness. What youre left with ultimately, however, is one filmmakers love affair with anothers work, acting as a prism for other beams of light to shine through. See it.

Will Ferrell to Star in Netflix Music Comedy Film Eurovision

Will Ferrell will star in the upcoming Netflix music comedy film Eurovision, based on the international TV music competition the Eurovision Song Contest. The Saturday Night Live veteran will co-write the project with former SNL head writer Andrew Steele, Deadline reports.

As part of the Eurovision contest, created in 1956, each participating nation from the European Broadcasting Union enters an original song for a live TV and radio performance. Notable past winners include Swedens ABBA in 1974 and Celine Dion, representing Switzerland, in 1988.

Ferrell will also produce Eurovision alongside Jessica Elbaum for Gary Sanchez Productions, with the actors longtime writing partner Adam McKay executive producing.

Earlier this year, Ferrell returned to host an SNL episode that included a demented sketch alongside Kate McKinnon that Rolling Stone ranked one of the 10 best from Season 43. Last year, he appeared opposite Amy Poehler in The House and alongside Mark Wahlberg, John Cena, John Lithgow and Mel Gibson in Daddys Home 2.

Producers did not reveal a release date or casting information about Eurovision, but Ferrell has stayed busy with other projects.The actor is currently working onHolmes and Watson, a comedic spin on the Arthur Conan Doyle mysteries; the dramedy Zeroville, co-starring James and Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Megan Fox and Joey King; and The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

Trailers of the Week: Shaft, Dumbo, Childs Play

Whats shakin regarding our brand new trailers this week? Weve got the return of Disneys airborne pachyderm; the return of a Stephen King fan-favorite and a pint-sized slasher-flick icon; and the return of one of Blaxploitation mother sorry, were now being told by a trio of back-up singers to shut our mouth. (Does Hollywood have any new ideas? No. No, it does not.) To be fair, theres also a peek of a fresh animated franchise thats coming soon to a theater new you. Heres your weekly trailer round-up.

Childs Play
Welcome back, Chuck! Everyones favorite two-foot tall plastic killer returns for a reboot, now terrorizing a young man (Gabriel Bateman) and his mom (Aubrey Plaza). We have no idea whether this is going to be the least bit good, but 50 bonus points for an ingenious use of the theme from The Courtship of Eddies Father (People, let me tell you about my beeeeeeeeest friennnnnd ) and 10,000 bonus points for including Brian Tyree Henry. Opens June 21st.

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Dumbo
Its a nice, slightly more extended look at this live-action take on the Disney animated classic, coming straight from the imagination of Tim Burton. We meet a few more of the surrounding circus folk, get a better sense of Lil Dumbos massive earspan, a tad more Michael-Keaton-being-evil and an overall sense of what the Alice in Wonderland director is bringing to the table here. It hits theaters on March 29th.

Pet Sematary
Stephen Kings genuinely unnerving 1983 novel has already been adapted for the screen once, and folks seem to be up in arms about some of the changes this new version is applying to the source material. Well let you see the trailers reveal of the switcheroo and regardless, were still curious to see how this 2019 take on a family, a tragedy and burial ground that doesnt exactly count as a final resting place will play out. Due date: April 5th.

Shaft
Its a Shaft for all seasons! One John Shaft Jr. (Jessie T. Usher) shows up at the doorstep of his Pops, i.e. Samuel L. Jacksons John Shaft from the 2000 remake of the 70s Blaxploitation classic. Soon, father and son are getting involved in gunplay and fisticuffs (Are there no nonviolent people in Harlem?! the kid asks after getting socked in the jaw). Then guess who else shows up? Richard Roundtree, a.k.a. Original Recipe Shaft! Holy shit, we have ourselves a Shaftiverse!!! (Technically this movie should be called Shafts, but, er, that sounds a tad nasty.) Also Regina Hall shows up as Juniors mother, and you know how we feel about Regina Hall. Opens June 14th.

Wonder Park
Suburban kids make their own amusement park with a few planks, some shopping carts and good old-fashioned moxie and verve. Then the head engineer of this endeavor stumbles across an actual abandoned theme park in the woods near her house and apparently its overrun with chimpanzombies? Also some talking animals show up and the trailer tells us that if you can imagine it, you can ride it, which translates to a rollercoaster known as the Skyflinger and a fish carousel. Jennifer Garner, Matthew Broderick, Kenan Thompson, John Oliver, Mila Kunis and Ken Jeong lend their voices. Your kids will love it. Hopefully. March 15th.

A Simple Favor Is a Sexy, Twisty Neo-Noir

As he proved with Bridesmaids, Spy and The Heat, director Paul Feig knows how to bring out the scrappy best in actresses (hes a modern-day George Cukor). And in A Simple Favor, Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively shine as they rarely have before. True, the script, adapted by Jessica Sharzer from the Darcey Bell novel, meets at a crossroads between comedy and thriller without deciding which direction to go (our vote: head for the giggles). But until an ending that flies ruinously off the rails, A Simple Favor is raunchy fun that offers an unexpected take on the twists and turns of female friendship.

Kendrick plays Stephanie, a volunteer-crazed single parent whos the living definition of a helicopter mom to grade-school son Miles (Joshua Satine), with a mommy vlog watched mostly by herself. Her husband and half-brother both died in the same car accident, and in a tantalizing and telling bit of counterprogramming to Stephanies established persona the script remains unclear about which one is Miles father. Lively takes the role of Emily, a strutting, stiletto-clad fashionista whose attitude is as cool as the gin martinis she serves dry and ice cold. The comparatively homely Stephanie does not understand why this glam diva has invited her to her sleek Connecticut mansion for a drink. Its true that Emilys son, Nicky (Ian Ho), is in the same class as Miles. But Stephanie, who wears animal-print socks from Target, and Emily, a power publicist for a couture house in Manhattan, are hardly natural BFF material. When Stephanie suggests a play date for the boys, Emily deadpans, I already have a play date with a symphony of antidepressants.From Gossip Girl on, Lively has portrayed more than her fair share of goody-goodies, so its a treat to watch her bring out her inner mean girl. Emily schools the perpetually contrite Stephanie in the art of never having to say youre sorry: Baby, if you apologize again, Im going to have to slap the sorry out of you.

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Feig distracts from the sound of plot gears grinding by giving Kendrick and Lively a real chance to make characters of the cardboard cutouts theyre playing. Loosened up by those chilled martinis in Emilys airy modern living room, the ladies are soon sharing secrets about sex and three-ways (OK, thats mostly Emily) and indulging in a Sapphic kiss. EnterEmilys author husband Sean (Henry Golding of Crazy Rich Asians), who does everything but get it on with his wife right in front of their flustered guest. Its then that Emily asks her new friend for that simple favor could she pick up Nicky from school?

Days later, when Emily still hasnt come home (Sean is busy caring for his sick mother), things take on a sinister tone. That leads Stephanie to play amateur sleuth, letting Kendrick show her flair for physical comedy. On her vlog, Stephanie shares the story of her missing friend, and her viewership starts spiking. She visits Emilys office and has a run-in with her haughty boss, fashion designer Dennis Nylon (hilariously played by Rupert Friend, having a blast on a break from gloomy roles such as Peter Quinn on Homeland). Regarding Stephanie like an insect whos crawled up his pant leg, he quips, Never wear a vintage Herms scarf with a Gap T-shirt. If you were truly Emilys friend, youd know that.

The real pain starts when the cops get involved, and the plot settles into a whodunit and a question of whether that who had help. Its Hitchcock 101 with a mechanical feel that slows the momentum built up by the characters. Its not hard to figure out where the story is going, yet Feig keeps the mystery percolating while Kendrick and Lively perfect all the plays that prove theyre a dream team of opposites. Flying over the obstacles the script puts in their way, they turn A Simple Favor into a raunchy, R-rated laughfest. Dont miss the chance to watch these live wires set off sparks.

Dark Phoenix, Latest in X-Men Series, Should be the Last

Dark Phoenix doesnt just suck big time. Its the worst movie ever in the X-Men series. Thats 12 films since the first X-Men in 2000. Even series low points thats you X-Men Apocalypse offered compensations. Dark Phoenix just lies there like a dying fish, futilely flapping about on land while it waits for the inevitable dying of the light. The degree of awfulness is surprising since the man falling into the abyss with this Phoenix is debuting director Simon Kinberg, who has served long and well as the series producer and sometimes screenwriter. Shouldnt he know these characters best? Youd think.

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Dark Phoenix, set in 1992, is part of the X-Men series (First Class, Days of Future Past, Apocalypse) in which everyone is younger and hotter. Thats James McEvoy in for Patrick Stewarts wheelchair-bound Professor X and Michael Fassbender doing the honors for Ian McKellens Magneto. And theres rising star Sophie Turner the immortal Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones showing enormous potential as Jean Grey, whose mend-bending gifts make her the most powerful mutant. In an early scene, Jean single-handedly stops a NASA space shuttle from exploding in midair.

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Such heroic skills are mightily impressive to everyone in her young crowd, including her teacher Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and students Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Quicksilver (Evan Peters) and Jeans boyfriend Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). Leading the Jean cheering section is her mentor, the blue-tinted, shapeshifting Raven, played by Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence with a strong surge of Times Up. The women are always saving the men around here, she says, suggesting a name change to X-Women. Thats so Raven. But the movie does nothing with it.

Instead, Kinberg sticks us with a series of sequences showing Jean at war with herself. She cant control her mental abilities. As a child, she caused a deadly car crash with her parents because she couldnt stand hearing mom play Glen Campbell on the car radio. Its a little extreme, but point taken. Getting close to Jean can be hazardous and in scene after grindingly repetitive scene Kingberg hammers the idea home. Tortured by guilt, Jean goes to the dark side as, yup, Dark Phoenix, prompting a lot of angst and a digital array of shockingly lousy FX.

To add spice, Kinberg introduces another dangerous woman, an alien named Yuk, played by Jessica Chastain with a look of dazed confusion that reflects what were all feeling in the audience. Presumably Yuk wants to absorb Jeans gifts for herself. The feminization of power? That would be a theme worth developing. But the film devolves into a series of crushingly dull diversions in which the two levitate and stare at each other with laser-beam eyes. Really? Thats all this botch job can come up with? Turner had way more fun sticking it to Littlefinger. So did we.

More damagingly, Dark Phoenix fails to build even a hint of rooting interest in the X peeps as people. Lip service is paid to these outsiders as outcasts. Thats all. And no one seems more than mildly miffed when under threat from the barely sketched-in world outside. When a major character dies (Ill never tell), everyone gets back to business as if they were work-slaving in a bank instead of battling global annihilation. Dark Phoenix is purported to be the endgame at Fox for the X series. But is it? Disney and Marvel are poised for a takeover. The film itself stays open-ended, pointing to the release next April of Foxs The New Mutants. Plagued by delays and reshoots, the troubled production stars Turners GoT sister, Maisie Williams, as a Scottish mutant with the disturbing ability to morph into a wolf. Maybe a dash of Stephen King-type horror will help. But Dark Phoenix suggests the X-Men series is played out and beyond saving. Going through the motions is not the same thing as providing a thrilling and viable reason to go to the movies for another dose of X. Anyone for a mercy killing?

Douglas Rain, Voice of HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dead at 90

Douglas Rain, the Canadian actor who provided the voice to the HAL 9000 computer in Stanley Kubricks classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, died Sunday at the age of 90.

The Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, which Rain co-founded in 1952, announced the actors death Sunday, adding that Rain died of natural causes, CTV News reports.

Canadian theatre has lost one of its greatest talents and a guiding light in its development, Stratford Festivals artistic director Antoni Cimolino said in a statement. Douglas Rain was that rare artist: an actor deeply admired by other actors.

Kubrick cast Rain in 2001 after hearing the Canadian actors narration in the 1960 documentary Universe; that short film served as an influence on Kubrick during the making of 2001, and the director originally hired Rain to provide the planned narration for the sci-fi epic.

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When the narration was struck from 2001 and the persona of the HAL 9000 was changed from female to male, Kubrick ultimately hired Rain to provide the voice for the homicidal computer; Rain was chosen over actors Martin Balsam and Nigel Davenport, who were deemed too American and too British respectively.

We had some difficulty deciding exactly what HAL should sound like, and Marty just sounded a little bit too colloquially American, whereas Rain had the kind of bland mid-Atlantic accent we felt was right for the part, Kubrick told Newsday in 1969.

Kubrick wrote of Rains voice in a letter to a colleague (via the New York Times), I think hes perfect. The voice is neither patronizing, nor is it intimidating, nor is it pompous, overly dramatic or actorish. Despite this, it is interesting.

Rain recorded all of his HAL dialogue in a 10-hour session in the company of Kubrick. For the scene where the HAL 9000 is being disconnected and the computer serenades astronaut David Bowman (played by Keir Dullea) with the song Daisy Bell, Rain sang the 1892 love song over 50 times in different tempos and pitches; Kubrick ended up using the first take.

Douglas shared many of the same qualities as Kubricks iconic creation: precision, strength of steel, enigma and infinite intelligence, as well as a wicked sense of humor, Cimolino added. But those of us lucky enough to have worked with Douglas soon solved his riddle and discovered that at the center of his mystery lay warmth and humanity, evidenced in his care for the young members of our profession.

Dullea previously said of Rains performance, Hes the main character of the film as far as Im concerned. It was brilliant casting. Something about his voice, it was perfect. It was unusual.

Rain reprised the role of the HAL 9000 in the sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact. In addition to his voice role as the HAL 9000, Rain was also nominated for a Best Performance by Featured Actor in a Play Tony Award in 1972 for his performance in Vivat! Vivat! Regina!

Filmmaker Edgar Wright tweeted after Rains death, RIP Douglas Rain, the chillingly calm tones of HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. One of the best performances in film, with just his voice.

Watch Bruce Willis Violent Quest for Justice in Death Wish Trailer

Bruce Willis gets revenge in the new bullet-riddled trailer for Death Wish, director Eli Roths remake of the 1974 action film.

The clip opens with a grim warning that, of the 125 million families living in the U.S., one-fourth will become victims of a crime. The scene then shifts to the home of Dr. Paul Kersey (Willis), whose wife is murdered and daughter attacked during a home invasion. When the crime goes unsolved, the protagonist sets out for justice.

I love my family. I failed to protect them, Willis intones in a voiceover. Later, he adds, The men who did it are out there. Im going to hunt them down, one by one. The trailer teases some of the aforementioned hunting including grisly confrontations at an auto shop and bar.

Elisabeth Shue, Vincent DOnofrio and Dean Norris co-star in Death Wish, which hits theaters on March 2nd. The film is based on Michael Winners original 1974 project, itself an adaptation of Brian Garfields 1972 novel of the same title.

Sunset Review: Light Fades on Empires and Evil in Scathing Historical Drama

Lszl Nemes is a filmmaker who keeps his friends close and his cameras closer. The Hungarian directors devastating 2015 debut, Son of Saul, distinguished itself not just by sticking right next to its main character but virtually breathing down his neck the fact that our guide was a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz, grimly trying to survive a waking nightmare, only heightened the effect. The actor Geza Rohrigs face took up most of the frames real estate and blocked out the horror you could hear happening offscreen; it also made the sheer weight of the sorrow and the pity feel extremely personal. It was a first-person tour of hell, both aesthetically impressive at a distance and overwhelmingly immersive in the moment.

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The stakes are nowhere near as high in Nemes follow-up, Sunset how could they be, really? But there is life, glimpsed in the periphery as folks walk down a crowded street in Budapest in the 1910s, the Austro-Hungarian empire still in effect and World War I still waiting patiently on the horizon. And there is death, both the legacy of it and threat of it as an era of European history is about to come to a close. Most of all, theres the same emphasis on putting viewers claustrophobically near the facial pores of a protagonist, a young woman called risz (Juli Jakab). Its the surname of this person whos returned to the city from some place far away, however, that startled residents are focusing on: Leiter. Thats the moniker on the millinery where she tries to get hired for a job and get face time with the current boss, Oszkr Brill (Vlad Ivanov). Its a reference to her parents, the previous owners of this hoity-toity hat shop and who perished in a fire. And its become synonymous with riszs brother, the boy who allegedly started that blaze. It took me years to ensure that the name Leiter no one longer called to mind a killer, Brill tells her, sternly.

Still, risz has come back to Budapest during the jubilee week, in search of her sibling and some answers. What shell find and given that Nemes once again keeps his cameras either right over Jakabs shoulder, a few feet in front of her or right up in her face, what we will find is a decadent aristocracy high on its own exhaust fumes, a dangerously unstable mob, so many predatory men and an empire on the brink of decline but already neck-deep in moral rot. This is a movie that literally begins with a veil being lifted from someones eyes, and for as much as the filmmaker plays games with how much audiences know at any moment (we dont even find out riszs full name until close to a half hour into the 142 minute running time), hes blessed us a work filled with reminders and revelations. Many are narrative-based, especially before mystery gives way to outright tragedy and then righteousness. Some involve the notion that, as history and the present keep engaging in a conversation we too often choose to ignore, plus a change, plus cest la mme chose. And other revolve around the fact that a certain type of arthouse cinema the ambitious, vital, foreign-language kind that offers up both bleak outlooks and opulent period-piece production design is still alive and well and occasionally showing up at theaters near you.

It also underlines the idea that coming out of the gate with a film that instantly makes your name can sometimes count against you. If Sunset doesnt hit with nearly the impact that Son of Saul does and it doesnt his look back at the chaos before the storm solidly establishes Nemes as a major world-cinema voice. His notion of grafting you on to the perspective of the protagonist via extreme proximity no longer seems like a simple choice but a consistent sensibility: We are all culpable. (Give cinematographer Mtys Erdly a hand and a cigar as well.) His ability to find actors capable of handling such close-up scrutiny and emotional heavy lifting is borne out by Jakab, who keeps things moving even when story strolls into confounding detours and dead ends; you leave feeling like her face means so much to the camera, to the filmmaker, to us. (A shout-out to Ivanov as well, Romanian cinemas stalwart bureaucrat/bad guy.) When the heroine weve been doggedly following finally steps out of focus, we understand why it means something. A coda suggests risz is the ghost of old, dead Europe, slouching into a 20th century that will strip so much of it away. Evil hides behind pretty social facades and in plain sight. The sun has set on so many empires. It will continue to set on so many more.

Watch Avengers Cast Sing We Didnt Start the Fire on Fallon

Jimmy Fallon tapped the cast of Avengers: Endgame to create a new take on Billy Joels We Didnt Start the Fire, themed to the new Marvel movie. In the video, which aired on The Tonight Show, everyone from Robert Downey Jr. to Chris Evans offered lyrics about the history of The Avengers onscreen to Joels iconic melody.

The clip, fashioned like a moving comic books, recounts each of the past Avengers films, starting with Iron Man, as well as the many villains and the background of the infinity stones. Fallon lends his vocal talents to the team, which also includes Brie Larson, Paul Rudd and Mark Ruffalo. We didnt start the fire, the cast sings. But when we are gone/it will still run on and on and on and on. The video concludes with a nice tribute to Stan Lee, the man who did, metaphorically, start the fire.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters this week. The film premiered in Los Angeles on Monday night.

Stolen Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers Recovered After 13 Years

A pair of stolen iconic ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in 1939s The Wizard of Oz may soon be making their way home after being taken from a museum 13 years ago, CBS News reports. The slippers were recovered during a joint investigation between the Grand Rapids Police Department in Minnesota and the FBI.

In August 2005, a burglar broke into the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, MN, the town where the actress, who played The Wizard of Oz lead character Dorothy, was born. The burglar entered through the museums back door window and broke through the Plexiglass case housing the slippers to steal them. No fingerprints were found and the museums alarm system did not sound to a central dispatch system. The only evidence left behind was a single red sequin.

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The police department really had no evidence and no clues to work with, Grand Rapids Police Sergeant Robert Stein told CBS News. The investigator assigned to the case was fearful that the thief might destroy the slippers if he believed police were on his tail.

At the time, the slippers were on loan from private collector Michael Shaw as part of a special tour. Over the years, speculation circulated about who stole the slippers.

Therefore, when rumors developed that local wayward youth were most likely responsible for the thefts and had tossed the slippers in the Mississippi River or in one of the many water-filled iron ore pits that dot the landscape, we did little to dispel it, Stein continued. We believed that information would eventually surface and knew we were in this for the long haul.

In 2015, an anonymous donor offered a $1 million reward for information that would lead to recovering the slippers, which were insured for $1 million, but may be worth millions more at auction. The stolen pair is one of at least four known pairs to have been worn by Garland during The Wizard of Oz. The slippers are considered one of the most important pieces of Hollywood memorabilia, so much so that the 2016 documentary, The Slippers, is dedicated to exploring the ruby shoes cultural impact.

Though officers pursued several tips through the years, many of the investigations led to counterfeits or dead-ends. However, the department teamed with the FBI following a tip Grand Rapids Police Detective Brian Mattson received last summer, which involved investigating out of the state.

Police recovered the slippers in Minneapolis earlier this summer and the pair is in possession of the FBI. Though the slippers have been found, the investigation currently remains active, police said. On Tuesday, authorities will hold a news conference at the FBIs Minneapolis headquarters. Its unclear if anyone has been or will be charged in connection with the theft.

When the slippers were snatched in that early morning burglary, the thief not only took the slippers but also a piece of history that will forever be connected to Grand Rapids and one of our citys most famous children, Grand Rapids Police Chief Scott Johnson said in a statement. We knew this day would eventually come and we are grateful to the FBI and all those that worked so hard to bring this piece of cinematic treasure out of the shadows and into the light. After all, Theres no place like home!'

Overboard Review: Rom-Com Remake Reverses Roles, Still Sinks Like a Stone

What we have here is a Latin-infused remake of the 1987 romcom that starred Goldie Hawn as a bitchy heiress who take a spill off her yacht, suffers amnesia and falls for a poor carpenter (Kurt Russell) and his three kids. Who better than Anna Faris to take on the Hawn role for an update, right? Except, you see, she doesnt. This time, The House Bunny star is the one playing the carpenter or in this case, a nurse in training.

And the snotty rich bastard? That role goes to Eugenio Derbez, Mexicos biggest star, whos allowed to speak a big chunk of his dialogue in Spanish, complete with subtitles. Its the one original idea that this retrofitted Overboard has to offer. The rest of the movie wears out its welcome muy rapido.

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First of all, Faris and Derbez have zilch romantic chemistry. Hawn and Russell fell in love filming the first Overboard, and theyve been together ever since. Plus, their onscreen sparring radiated a sweet, sexy spark that has made the romantic comedy a DVD/streaming perennial over three decades. How can Faris and Derbez compete with that? They cant. And in this remake, theyre barely trying at all.

Faris, so good with Allison Janney on the TV showMom, stars well as Kate, a hard-working divorced mom of three girls. She cleans carpets to support her family and pay tuition for her nursing training. While doing a job on the yacht of Leonardo Montenegro (Derbez) whose daddy is the third richest man in the world she reacts badly to the elitist bullying of a playboy she rightly calls a condescending prick. When said prick falls off his boat and then cant remember who he is, Kate plots her revenge. Shell trick Leo into thinking hes her husband. Then shell get him a back-breaking job in construction, where hes mocked for his lady hands, force him to babysit for her kids while she studies and ultimately tell Mr. Sex-Crazed that hes sleeping in the garage (no sex for you, sir) until he gets clean and sober.

And so the laughs come tumbling down or so
youd hope. Even by the standards of disbelief-suspending comedy, the remakes plot is damn near impossible to swallow, especially when theres such an abundant lack of chemistry. Or, worse, when Leo turns good guy and starts to enjoy being a poor workslave and also, like,
everybody loves him! WTF! Director Rob Greenberg, working from a script that he and Bob Fisher adapted from Leslie Dixons
original story, lacks the sense of pacing and edgy mischief that the late
director Garry Marshall demonstrated the first time around. And Derbez, who scored a
modest hit last year with the critically-reviled How To Be a Latin Lover, lacks
the ability to go for the jugular that his role needs. Hes too busy being
charming to be a smartass. Faris could have handled the wisecracks fine, but
the script gives her male costar all the good lines, leaving the movies real MVP on the
sidelines. Big mistake.

We know, we know: criticizing
Overboard 2.0 is like firing on a marshmallow with an machine gun. But we doubt audiences with be getting together three decades from now to
remember how much we adored this lukewarm rehash. Goldie and Kurt forever. No
substitutes accepted.

Courtney Love on Milos Forman: We Have Lost a Cinema Giant

Courtney Love, who starred in Milos Formans The People Vs. Larry Flynt and Man on the Moon, paid tribute to the Oscar-winning director following Formans death at the age of 86.

He was always gentle and always brought out my best, Love wrote of filmmaker on Instagram. I was surrounded by love on both of my films with him, and other than Kurt and Frances, they remain the highest points in my life.

As Love notes, Forman cast her in Larry Flynt during a turbulent time in her life, despite the objections from the films producers.

Milos, you were my first role model for what a real man was, Love wrote. Against all odds, and a horrified studio, you plucked me from an audition and used your own money to get me bonded and insured, based on my word that I would not do drugs (I did not) Doing a good film is fun but Milos made it a joy Milos accepted me and my demons.

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Although Love had previous acting roles in indie films like Sid & Nancy, Straight to Hell and Basquiat, it was Forman who opened Hollywoods doors to the Hole singer. For The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Love earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

Playing for 100k people is awesome but its nothing compared to being directed by this tender man, who had also seen such hardship growing up his mother died in Auschwitz and his father rumored to have been killed by the KGB, Love wrote. He was once jailed for going to an Ella Fitzgerald concert along with his best friend, the young playwright (and future Czech President) Vclav Havel. He was a genuine auteur and not a baby when it came to casting zero compromise.

Love also praised Formans acclaimed works, which include the Best Picture-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Amadeus.

To all of us who he put on the map and to all of us who watch Amadeus or Cuckoos Nest over and over and over the joy that man gave was unparalleled only by the joyous way he chose to the joyous way he chose to live his life, Love wrote. Milos, Ive told you a million times, but Ive never loved a human being the way love and admire you.

Read Loves entire tribute to Forman below:

Milos, you were my first role model for what a real man was. Against all odds, and a horrified studio, you plucked me from an audition and used your own money to get me bonded and insured, based on my word that I would not do drugs (I did not) Doing a good film is fun but Milos made it a joy. I was so free, so blessed, and so supported. I discovered what being treated like a princess was for the first time. He was always gentle and always brought out my best. I was surrounded by love on both of my films with him, and other than Kurt and Frances, they remain the highest points in my life. Playing for 100k people is awesome but its nothing compared to being directed by this tender man, who had also seen such hardship growing up his mother died in Auschwitz and his father rumored to have been killed by the KGB. He was once jailed for going to an Ella Fitzgerald concert along with his best friend, the young playwright (and future Czech President) Vclav Havel. He was a genuine auteur and not a baby when it came to casting zero compromise. I recall on the set of Man on the Moon I was sent into his trailer as he dined over his steak (medium rare), his wine (always Ptrus), and cigar (illegal Cuban) to argue casting Chicago. He wanted me and Bebe Neuwirth and he wasnt budging. I was fighting for a huge popstar and he looked at me with his twinkling, crinkling, tender eyes with a flash of irony and maybe pissiness and said, You tell ME about CASTING, Miss Courtney Love? I shut my trap then and there. Milos accepted me and my demons. He introduced me to my extended family Edward, Woody, Danny and the wonderful Jim Carrey. We have lost a cinema giant, my heart goes out to his beautiful and loving wife Martina, their children Jim and Andy, and the rest of his family. To all of us who he put on the map and to all of us who watch Amadeus or Cuckoos Nest over and over and over the joy that man gave was unparalleled only by the joyous way he chose to the joyous way he chose to live his life. Milos, Ive told you a million times, but Ive never loved a human being the way love and admire you. Purely, joyously and devastated, Your Courtney

A post shared by Courtney Love Cobain (@courtneylove) on Apr 14, 2018 at 5:25pm PDT

Crazy Rich Asians Director Shares Letter Sent to Coldplay for Yellow Permission

Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu has shared the note he sent Coldplay requesting the licensing rights for their 2000 hit Yellow.

Coldplay initially rejected Chus request, and the films studio Warner Bros. remained concerned that the songs title and placement in the romantic comedy would be problematic (yellow is a derogatory term against Asians), but Chu wanted to use the song to reclaim the word. Were going to own that term, he told The Hollywood Reporter.If were going to be called yellow, were going to make it beautiful.

But Chu didnt give up. Instead he wrote a personal letter to Coldplay members Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland and Will Champion explaining why he needed Yellow inCrazy Rich Asians. [The word yellow] has always had a negative connotation in my life until I heard your song, he wrote.

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I remember seeingthe music videoin college for the first time onTRL, Chus note continued. That one shot with the sun rising was breathtaking for both my filmmaker and music-loving side. It immediately became an anthem for me and my friends and gave us a new sense of pride we never felt before.

Chu follows Greta Gerwigs lead in sending a snail mail request for licensing songs. The Lady Bird director had penned personal letters to Justin Timberlake, Dave Matthews Band and Alanis Morissette requesting the rights to Cry Me a River, Crash Into Me and Hand In My Pocket, respectively.

While Chu cant say that his letter changed the bands minds, within 24 hours of sending it, Coldplay approved the directors request to use Yellow in the film.

In Crazy Rich Asians, a Mandarin cover of the track by University of Southern California freshman and The VoiceSeason 10 contestant Katherine Ho is used.

The film had a successful North American three-day debut, earning $25.2 million and a five-day opening raking in $34 million to top the weekends box office. Read the full letter from Chu here.

Watch Weinstein Accusers Speak Out in Powerful Trailer for The Reckoning

Several Harvey Weinstein accusers open up about their experiences with the disgraced producer in the powerful new trailer for the upcoming documentary,The Reckoning: Hollywoods Worst Kept Secret. Barry Avrich directed the film, which is set to arrive on demand November 6th.

The clip opens with a montage of prominent actors and actresses thanking Weinstein while accepting Academy Awards before cutting to interviews with several Weinstein accusers. These women including Katherine Kendall, Melissa Sagemiller and Laura Sivan are candid about their encounters with Weinstein, as well as the Hollywood power structures that allowed him to prey on women for decades.

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It was allowed to go on because he had so much power, Sivan says. If he was some schmuck in a mailroom, hed be in jail.

Avrich began making The Reckoning, distributed by Vertical Entertainment,after the Weinstein scandal broke in 2017, though hed already spent years working on another documentary about the show business mogul. In a statement, Avrich said that while making his first film, he heard vague whispers about Weinsteins sexual misbehavior, but nothing close to an outright accusation. Nevertheless, Avrich claimed that Weinstein tried to intimidate him and his interview subjects, and the filmmaker even alleged that Weinstein convinced IFC to purchase and bury his film.

When the scandal broke in October 2017 and widened to include many other Hollywood players, I knew I had to make a film that examined the scandal in great detail and the abuse of power, Avrich said. Just days after the scandal, I received 178 interview requests; five of them from fake journalists, who I believe worked for Harvey. So it continues Given my history with Harvey and the recent allegations that have come to light in the industry, I felt it was necessary to give a voice to a movement that will be immortalized in film. I feel that it was necessary to explore this historical movement to provide a balanced view to the alleged victims and how it changed our culture forever.

Hear Arnold Schwarzenegger Say Scuba Tank Slowly

Arnold Schwarzenegger extols the beauty of the briny deep in the new trailer for the upcoming documentary, Wonders of the Sea, which arrives digitally and on video-on-demand June 4th.

Wonders of the Sea was directed by Jean-Jacques Mantello and Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of legendary French oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau. In the film, Cousteau and his children, Celine and Fabien, explore oceans all around the world, from Fiji to the Bahamas, offering a unique look at rarely-seen sea life while also touting the importance of protecting the worlds oceans.

Schwarzenegger served as a producer on the film, as well as its narrator. In the trailer he says of Wonders of the Sea, When I saw the footage, I realized right away this is a visual feast. It was not just entertaining, but it was also from an environmental point of view, a message: Lets keep our ocean clean, and lets keep our world clean.

Private Life Director Tamara Jenkins Always Looks on the Bright Side

Its the morning of the New York Film Festival premiere of Private Life, and Tamara Jenkins is positively buoyant. Dressed in a goldenrod floral-print dress and loafers, the 56-year-old writer-director arrives at a Lincoln Center caf smiling broadly. She is warm, chatty, effervescent which is somewhat surprising since her film work has tackled such dark topics as dysfunctional parenting, dementia, death and, now, infertility.

As she did with her 1998 feature debut, Slums of Beverly Hills (about a teenager growing up poor among rich kids in the care of her divorced dad) and her 2007 follow-up The Savages (which depicts a brother and sister coping with their estranged fathers last days), Jenkins mined her own life for the bones of Private Life. The film stars Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti as Rachel and Richard, an artsy New York City couple in their forties hes a former theater director who now sells artisan pickles; shes a novelist of modest success who are desperate to have a child. They have tried IUI (intrauterine insemination), IVF (in vitro fertilization) and various routes to adoption, all to no avail. Their life is a parade of injections, doctors appointments, applications and evaluations, and they have nearly blown their baby budget. Rachel is a tangle of frayed nerves and spiky, hormonal energy, while Richard is exhausted to the point of seeming almost limp.

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While Jenkins is circumspect about exactly which paths she and her husband, screenwriter Jim Taylor (Sideways, The Descendants), walked before she gave birth to their daughter Mia eight years ago, she casts a wry eye on their journey to parenthood, an outlook that clearly shaped the screenplay she honed over some five years. At one point during what she calls their fertility hell, Jenkins and Taylor decided to see a movie between doctors appointments. The only viable option at the Upstate New York multiplex they visited: Judd Apatows Knocked Up, in which Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen have a drunken one-night stand that results in ta-da! a baby.

We were sitting in the audience like, Oh my god, people have sex to get pregnant, we totally forgot that part! Jenkins recalls. Then we were joking as we left the theater: Theirs was called Knocked Up, what would ours be called? And I said, Knocked Down. We were just pummeling ourselves into unconsciousness.

The brutality of the process the sheer emotional and physical toll it takes accounts in part for the 11-year gap between this film and The Savages, the indie darling that earned Jenkins an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay (as well as a Best Actress nom for star Laura Linney). But family planning alone cannot entirely explain the decade-plus lag. The fact is, films like this featuring hyper-articulate characters living complicated, specific lives that a hyper-intellectual filmmaker examines on a granular level are simply not made very often these days. At best, theyre stretched and flattened into TV shows that overstay their narrative welcome. (Although this movie is distributed by Netflix and was released in select theaters on October 5th, it otherwise will be consumed via small screens.) The other fact is, its not easy for female filmmakers to get money from the movie business mostly male rainmakers. Even after theyve been smiled upon by the Academy. On this particular day, Jenkins bypasses the chance to rail against the inherent sexism of the Hollywood machine. But shes recently noted some curious observations: 14 years passed between Patty Jenkins directing Charlize Theron to an Oscar in Monster (2003) and her next film, a little box-office-buster called Wonder Woman; writer-director Debra Graniks Winters Bone received four Oscar nominations (including Best Picture and a nod for her adapted screenplay), but it was eight years until her big-screen follow-up; Mary Harron helmed I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) and American Psycho (2000) to great acclaim but has worked almost exclusively in television for the last two decades.

That Jenkins films are not about superheroes or cops and robbers, that they dont project us into a dystopian future or revisit some monumental historical event, may be part of the problem. But her microscopic looks at human beings in all their complexities and vanities are vital to the cinematic landscape. Her stories are not didactic. They are observational and communal a hug, not a finger-point. She is scrupulous not just with the female character closest in age to her; Jenkins takes years to write a script because she wants to walk in the shoes of every character until she gets them right. (As Philip Seymour Hoffman, Linneys costar in The Savages, once said, Jenkins is not a compromiser.)

A pivotal player in Private Life is Sadie, Richards 25-year-old step-niece, who enters the picture as a potential egg donor for the aunt and uncle she idolizes. (A Bard College dropout with aspirations of becoming a writer, Sadie sees Rachel and Richards life through hazy, rose-colored glasses.) Played with pitch-perfect breeziness by breakout Kayli Carter, she brims with youthful conviction, idealism and naivet. These are qualities Jenkins did not simply tap into from her own youth. Terrified that the character would feel stale and obviously written by someone twice Sadies age, she says she spent months essentially stalking women in their twenties around New York. My pores were so open, Jenkins says. Anyone on the street, my babysitter, anyone in that age range was a subject for study. Her husbands niece, visiting on a break from college, unwittingly donated a line when she bent over to pull something from her bag and apologized for totally whale-tailing.

Richard, too, is finely drawn in a film in which the husband could easily be positioned as a less than sympathetic male archetype. A scene of Giamatti sitting in a fertility clinic collection room, attempting to summon the goods on demand with the help of clinic-provided porn, will be rehashed at cocktail parties for years to come.

They have to sit in these rooms! Jenkins marvels. That somebody had to go out and buy porn, what a weirdwho has to run that errand? In her mind, it is not just Rachel who must endure the indignities of trying to get pregnant; its an unsettlingly unnatural process that batters both partners. I remember writing down, Is this a biological battle of the sexes? she says. Because they turn on each other at certain points. Theyre both sort of falling apart in their own way his sperm is blocked, her eggs are old. Its just really demoralizing. Its bizarre to turn your body into a laboratory experiment.

Its an experience shared by a growing number of couples, but Rachel and Richards particular struggles are also largely informed by their position in a socioeconomic class that is in some ways unique to New York City. As Jenkins puts it, Theyre kind of like middle-class artists, holding onto the city by the grip of their little fingers because they have a rent-stabilized apartment. It is not what some might call relatable. But Jenkins bristles at any suggestion that the movie is too, for lack of a better way to say it, New Yorky.

As a writer or a filmmaker, to become general is not good, she says. The specificity is the art. The true, fine-grain texture of a place and it doesnt matter if its New York or Paris or South Africa the commitment to the sense of place is very important to me.

Hence a dreamy sequence where Rachel, Richard and Sadie pick up dinner at a street cart while out walking their dogs, Jenkins camera lingering on the griddles sizzling meat and the vendors quick hands as he wraps up their food. Does it drive the plot? Not at all. Is it necessary? Absolutely.

At heart, Private Life is not only about infertility, it is a tender but unflinching portrait of a couple in the throes of a midlife crisis. Rachel and Richard are staring down not just their inability to have a child but their stalled (or abandoned) creative ambitions, their stagnant earnings, their bohemian lifestyle that probably once seemed chic but now feels a little sad. The movie swirls around the notion of expectations, and the gut-punch that comes when you realize that the life you imagined for yourself is not the one youre living. Their pursuit of parenthood is so single-minded perhaps because it allows them to be hopeful. And as much as they are tested by the process, it also keeps them bonded to one another.

At the end of the day, its not about a baby. It really is about a kind of existential crisis in a marriage and who we are together, Jenkins says. And you know, when people have babies theyre very distracted from their marriage. Theyre running around cleaning up spittle and figuring out how to pick their kid up from school. Theyre not really sitting across the room staring at this person going, OK, its you and me, babe. She cites a keen comparison Giamatti made during filming: He said, This isnt about the baby; this is Waiting for Godot. Its about the survival of a marriage.

The effect of the film and, in particular, its final note is not dissimilar to The Savages, another portrait of two people floundering in some state of arrested development who find a way to press on. In some sense, Jenkins says, they are both coming-of-age stories, with trying experiences like the death of a parent or the inability to conceive as the potent backdrop. So what major life event Jenkins will tackle next and how long it will take her to get it onscreen?

It will not be another 10 years, she says with a laugh, because if I keep doing that at this age, its gonna get really critical. Ill have to wheel myself onto the set and thatll be uncomfortable.

Wine Country Review: Amy Poehler and Friends Big-Screen Punch-Drunk Sitcom

It may be damning with faint praise to say that Wine Country goes down easy. But its hardly a crime against cinema that this amiable ramble with six female friends on a weekend break in Napa Valley does not feel the need to color outside the box. Making her feature directing debut in an ensemble comedy with notes of sweet and melancholy, Amy Poehler doesnt show off with flashy tricks, preferring to stick close to women, mostly her best friends from Saturday Night Live, who refuse to go gently into Hollywood obsolescence.

Drawing on real life for inspiration, Wine Country is based on an actual trip Poehler and friends took to Napa two years ago to celebrate the 50th birthday of Rachel Dratch. Along for the ride were Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer, Paula Pell and Emily Spivey, who wrote the script with Liz Cackowski. Wheres iconic iconic partner-in-crime Tina Fey? Shes there, too, playing Tammy, the Airbnb host who rents her home to this wild bunch. Of course, everyone is playing a fictional version of herself, which is too bad. Its clear that a verit, fly-on-the-wall record of these SNL livewires on vacation would have made a hilarious documentary.

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What we have instead follows the Sitcom 101 formula. Poehler plays Abby, a control freak trying to adjust to life changes by organizing every day in Napa like a military battle plan. (Think Leslie Knope from the Parks and Recreation, but without the optimism.) Dratch is Rebecca the birthday girl, a therapist with a husband the other women not so secretly hate. Gasteyer is Catherine the workaholic who cant get off her devices. The ever-astonishing Rudolph is Naomi, the one with the kids and a secret. Spivey is Jenny, the one who always has an excuse not to leave home and wishes she had made an excuse for this time. And Pell is Val the lesbian who should know better about the triumph of hope over experience when she hits on a young Napa waitress (Pen15 creator and star Maya Erskine).

Job loss, marital strife and health crises are thrown into the mix. So is sex. The long, long pause Poehler gives Jason Schwartzman as Devon, the cook who comes with the house, when he asks Abby if she wants to have sex is a dynamite display of Poehlers priceless comic timing. Still, its clear that the ensemble comedy doesnt have the time or inclination to give each character more than one readily identifiable trait.

Youd be wrong to think that Wine Country is too smart to let the women interrupt their lockstep series of arguments and reconciliations to rock out to 90s nostalgia tunes. Of course they do. And when boredom creeps in, Poehler simply instructs each member of her cast to roll down a hill. It sounds like a recipe for disaster. That it isnt (quite) is thanks to Poehlers unquenchable affection for the women shes acting with and directing. She seems to think that the pleasure of their company is enough. Shes right.

Is Hollywood Ready for Boots Riley?

As Occupy protests spread in the fall of 2011, rattling elites and offering a brief, tantalizing vision of grassroots uprising, the most uncompromising and confrontational arm of the would-be revolution was in Oakland. At its center was Boots Riley, the longtime radical activist and frontman of the hip-hop group the Coup. While covering Occupy, I accompanied Riley to a foreclosed Fannie Mae house that had been taken over by squatters from the youth-led Tactical Action Committee and watched as he addressed the crowd during a march that shut down the Port of Oakland, sabotaging an estimated $4 million in business. To his slight chagrin, Riley had become a prominent face in a leaderless movement; with his prodigious Afro and mutton-chop sideburns, he could have been repping his hometown circa 1967, when the paint was still drying on the Black Panther Partys headquarters.

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Over lunch that week, Riley mentioned that hed been working on a screenplay. A dark comedy with magical realism inspired by my time as a telemarketer, he said. Riley, who had done theater in high school, was planning to play the lead, although he was concerned about upsetting the careful balance of art and activism hed struck in his music career. Im already somewhat known, so of course the cameras come to me, Riley said. But that kind of makes Occupy look smaller than it is. Its this weird thing where increasing my celebrity hurts what Im doing here.

Seven years later, that film, Sorry to Bother You, is one of 2018s buzziest indie movies, with Atlantas Lakeith Stanfield starring and Riley in the unlikely role of 47-year-old debut filmmaker. The title tips off the setting a dreary telemarketing cubicle farm but doesnt begin to hint at what Riley has in mind. After setting up his audience for a familiar workplace comedy in the vein of Office Space, he proceeds to madly derail all expectations, producing, instead, a surreal racial satire and pointed capitalist critique with startling plot turns that veer toward dystopian science fiction. Its formally eccentric, politically charged and very, very funny.

Fans of Rileys past work wont be surprised. Presto! Read the Communist Manifesto! went the first line on the Coups 1993 debut, Kill My Landlord. By the end of that verse, hed referenced Che Guevara, Mao Tse Tung, the Ghanaian revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah and George H.W. Bushs racist Haiti policy. By the next verse, wont get no callouses was rhyming with Cause Im spitting dialectical analysis. The music sounded as if George Clintons Mothership had beamed up a Marxist study group; the secret weapon was Rileys humor and self-awareness.

He brought a similar philosophy to Sorry to Bother You. Stanfield who, as the philosophical stoner Darius in Atlanta, manages to steal every one of his scenes in slow-motion stars as Cassius, a broke, underachieving depressive who lives in his uncles garage and tries the patience of his performance-artist girlfriend (Tessa Thompson) by obsessing over existential conundrums such as the fact that one day the sun will explode. When he lands the telemarketing job, his cubicle neighbor, Langston (Danny Glover), teaches him to channel his white voice in order to win over customers on his call list. We expect Glover to pay homage to the old Richard Pryor bit and begin talking through his nose, but in one of the films first surrealistic touches, the jarring sound of a voice that sounds uncannily like Steve Buscemis emerges from Glovers mouth instead, in the manner of a crudely dubbed kung-fu movie. (The voice actually came from a temp engineer on set that day.) Cassius soon masters the technique (hes voiced by David Cross), and as his star begins to rise in the company, things only get weirder.

When I started working on the script, Riley tells me, I was like, OK, Im going to write a one-location thing that we can make for $30,000. And I will lie and tell the record label that were going to spend all that on music videos, and make a movie with it instead.

Its a balmy spring night in Manhattans Chinatown, and Riley has arrived at an outdoor cafe looking more or less unchanged from the Occupy days: kente-cloth shirt, blue blazer, olive cargo pants, white sneakers, over-ear headphones. Same hair. He was born in Chicago, but his parents, who met during a student-led strike at San Francisco State University, returned to the Bay Area when he was six. By high school, he was helping organize farmworkers in Californias Central Valley. As an undergrad at San Francisco State, he studied film, hoping to be the next Spike Lee; instead, the music he wrote for his Super 8 shorts ended up becoming demos for the Coup. Released as an EP in 1991, these songs caught the attention of the hip-hop label Wild Pitch, and soon Rileys dreams of filmmaking had been sidetracked by a record deal.

From the beginning, Riley had a habit of upending genre conventions. At the height of 90s West Coast gangsta rap, the Coup tweaked one of Snoop Doggs biggest hits, releasing an album called Genocide & Juice. And on the great early single Not Yet Free, Riley complicates the macho posturing not only of hip-hop but of certain strains of revolutionary politics including the Panthers with the line, I got a mirror in my pocket and I practice looking hard. Gunshot sound effects ring out at the end of the song, not as a commodification of violence, but as a backdrop to a series of mock-political assassinations.

Fats Cats, Bigga Fish, a single from Genocide & Juice, began getting radio play, but after EMI bought Wild Pitch, Riley says the new label management quickly lost interest. Fuck, he recalls thinking. I am putting myself in a position where I have no control over anything. So, in an even more heretical swipe at the success-oriented ethos of mainstream hip-hop, he quit. Riley spent the next couple of years working as a telemarketer. I was so good at it, I could just work one day every two weeks, he says. The rest of his time went to the Young Comrades, a community organizing group hed co-founded.

Riley revived the Coup in the late Nineties, having decided music offered him a larger platform to spread his ideas, only to run into one of the worst cases of timing in show-business history: Their album Party Music, originally set for a September 2001 release, featured an edited cover image of Riley holding a guitar tuner like a detonator as the Twin Towers exploded behind him. (The cover, which Riley said at the time was a metaphor for destroying capitalism, was swiftly withdrawn.)

Riley had given up on getting his script for Sorry to Bother You produced when he ran into the novelist Dave Eggers on the street in 2014. Theyd never met, but Eggers recognized Riley from the Coup, and he ended up releasing the screenplay through his book-publishing house. Hollywood noticed: Jordan Peele and Donald Glover both expressed interest in starring, but were sidetracked by, respectively, Get Out and Solo. Riley was admitted to the prestigious Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, and eventually decided to direct Sorry to Bother You himself.

Shot mostly in Oakland in 2017 61 locations in 28 days the movie has an appealing handmade quality, reminiscent of early Spike Lee joints and dark satires like Hal Ashbys The Landlord and Robert Downey Sr.s Putney Swope. Perhaps as karmic payback for the 9/11 image debacle, with this project, Rileys timing couldnt be better. Theres this zeitgeist happening, and people are more open to Sorry to Bother You being a hit with Get Out being out there, he says. But that zeitgeist is also happening because of the movements going back to Occupy and Black Lives Matter. Usually, film is years behind. It just so happens that this time, everything is lining up.

The promising early response to Sorry to Bother You has already landed Riley a television
development deal; its also led to the first Coup album in six years, The Sun Exploding, due out as the films soundtrack this summer. Citing a recent survey commissioned by a right-wing think
tank that found 44 percent of millennials would prefer to live in a socialist
country, Riley chuckles. If the film industry doesnt put my politics in
there, even just on an opportunistic level? Theyre missing out.