There are a lot of unique, one-off trophies to earn in Astro Bot if you’re trying to unlock the game’s platinum trophy. Some of them are worded in a way that makes you stop and think for a bit, which isn’t the most helpful for us digital completionists. For instance, if you’re stuck on the “Deep-Pocket Dragon” trophy,…
A lengthy runtime can be enough of a turn-off for people to straight-up skip a movie. Of course, they have no problem binge-watching a show for eight hours, but that’s another argument. But for some, the length itself might be the draw, a reason to shell out the money to go to the movie theater. Of course, that director better keep things interesting, lest they a “bum ache”, as Ridley Scott calls it. Scott took part in The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Director’s Roundtable session to discuss this topic, with most defending long movies.
Even though a study from last year found that a brisk 92 minutes is the ideal runtime for a movie, those participating in the roundtable – including Scott, Denis Villeneuve, Edward Berger, and Brady Corbet (the reigning king of epics this year) – agreed that the filmmaker is responsible for justifying any time that might be deemed excessive on the surface. As Scott – who hasn’t made a movie under two hours since 2013’s The Counselor – put it, “Whether it’s four hours or two hours, you better have it in that engine the reason to want to go to the next step. That’s called drama…Even though it is seen as designed to be long, it better be interesting…That’s the fundamentals of theater and film. You ain’t got a movie.” So what do we call it when Netflix purposely dumbs down their content for those who can’t sit still?
Meanwhile, Edward Berger – whose Conclave hits the so-called industry runtime of two hours – added that such an epic runtime could be part of the allure for a lot of moviegoers. “If [the audience hears], ‘There’s this guy, Brady Corbet, he made a movie that’s almost four hours. It’s got an intermission. It’s 70 mm.’ It somehow becomes, ‘I gotta go see it!’ It’s a spectacle. I don’t get that on television…If the emotionality is right, it can be two and a half hours or four, it doesn’t really matter. I think part of the selling point…of getting people to the theater will be its length.” Corbet’s possible Best Picture winner The Brutalist clocks in at 215 minutes.
Speaking of movies with long runtimes, Dune: Part Two – which is just shy of three hours – remains one of the highest-grossing movies of 2024. Adding to the conversation, its director, Denis Villeneuve, said, “There’s the physical time and the mental time of a movie,” adding that we’ve all seen scenes that felt like an eternity and epics that went by in a flash.
Do you share these directors’ sentiments about movie runtimes? What makes you think a film is too long?
The post Denis Villeneuve, Ridley Scott, Brady Corbet, and more defend long movie runtimes appeared first on JoBlo.
By and large, Nikki Glaser’s go at hosting the Golden Globes has been met with positive reception. And while many of us do miss the days of Ricky Gervais going uncensored – and with a glass of beer in hand – at the podium, we might be seeing a new regular host. While nothing has been inked, Nikki Glaser could reportedly be headed back to the Beverly Hilton next year and maybe even beyond.
Deadline is reporting that Nikki Glaser could very likely be returning as the host of the 83rd Golden Globes; and with that would come a pretty substantial – and deserved – pay raise, as the comedian took in $400,000 for her first outing. Pay would definitely be a factor, if not just to make a point. As she told Howard Stern the day after the Globes, “I feel well paid for what I do…I’m alright…This first year when you’re just trying to prove yourself, I honestly would have done it for free.” She added, “There was a past host who said how much he got paid in his monologue and I got less than that, but that’s OK. I’ll get more next year…”
Nikki Glaser added that she has no idea why anyone would bother turning down such a good gig as hosting the Golden Globes. With that, we’ve seen how stars can react to being made fun of in such a venue, their egos shattered with just one quip, so we can see why people would reject the offer if not just to cover their own butts and stay in good graces with Hollywood’s elite. While Glaser had some good zingers and I think she’d make a strong recurring host, she didn’t get anywhere near the level of carefree middle fingers that Gervais had – and would have had, as he also shared some of his own jokes he might have used. And even if you didn’t love Nikki Glaser, we can all agree she was a major step up from Jo Koy…
Having a host for the Golden Globes didn’t really become commonplace until the 2010s, when Ricky Gervais stepped in for three consecutive years (he’d return twice more). Since then, only one ceremony has been without a host.
What did you think of Nikki Glaser’s Golden Globes hosting stint? Would you welcome her back for another round?
The post Should Nikki Glaser return to host the Golden Globes? appeared first on JoBlo.
By and large, Nikki Glaser’s go at hosting the Golden Globes has been met with positive reception. And while many of us do miss the days of Ricky Gervais going uncensored – and with a glass of beer in hand – at the podium, we might be seeing a new regular host. While nothing has been inked, Nikki Glaser could reportedly be headed back to the Beverly Hilton next year and maybe even beyond.
Deadline is reporting that Nikki Glaser could very likely be returning as the host of the 83rd Golden Globes; and with that would come a pretty substantial – and deserved – pay raise, as the comedian took in $400,000 for her first outing. Pay would definitely be a factor, if not just to make a point. As she told Howard Stern the day after the Globes, “I feel well paid for what I do…I’m alright…This first year when you’re just trying to prove yourself, I honestly would have done it for free.” She added, “There was a past host who said how much he got paid in his monologue and I got less than that, but that’s OK. I’ll get more next year…”
Nikki Glaser added that she has no idea why anyone would bother turning down such a good gig as hosting the Golden Globes. With that, we’ve seen how stars can react to being made fun of in such a venue, their egos shattered with just one quip, so we can see why people would reject the offer if not just to cover their own butts and stay in good graces with Hollywood’s elite. While Glaser had some good zingers and I think she’d make a strong recurring host, she didn’t get anywhere near the level of carefree middle fingers that Gervais had – and would have had, as he also shared some of his own jokes he might have used. And even if you didn’t love Nikki Glaser, we can all agree she was a major step up from Jo Koy…
Having a host for the Golden Globes didn’t really become commonplace until the 2010s, when Ricky Gervais stepped in for three consecutive years (he’d return twice more). Since then, only one ceremony has been without a host.
What did you think of Nikki Glaser’s Golden Globes hosting stint? Would you welcome her back for another round?
The post Should Nikki Glaser return to host the Golden Globes? appeared first on JoBlo.
Plot: While exploring the American West, a small group travels across the plains, experiencing violent collisions with cults, religion, and men and women fighting for control of the new world.
Review: When most people think of the Western genre, they envision actors like Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, James Stewart, and Gary Cooper playing six-shooter superheroes with leathery skin, shiny spurs, and a devil-may-care attitude. As icons of an idealized American West, these men often shine as paragons of virtue, justice, and heroism. Still, history bends to the will of the storyteller, someone who can glorify the cowboy and make their actions appear pure and righteous. American Primeval offers no such quarter to its gun-slingers. Though the series presents a fictionalized and dramatized recount of 1857, its depiction of harsh living conditions, cutthroat politics, and relentless violence is all too honest. Saddle up, folks! We’re riding along one of Netflix’s best offerings of the new year.
Because I watched American Primeval so early (mid-November), I had yet to learn what the show was about, save for a few first-look photos and a brief synopsis. I imagined something akin to Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga, but I could not have been more wrong. Directed by Peter Berg (Very Bad Things, The Rundown) from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith (Twisters, The Revenant), American Primeval knows who the monsters are and depicts them accordingly, often with malice, greed, and hatred as their motivation.
American Primeval literally starts with a bang as shortly after the show begins, a guide through the harsh terrain is shot dead in front of Sara Rowell (Betty Gilpin) and her son Devin (Preston Mota). The startling scene sets the tone for Rowell’s perilous journey to Fort Bridger, a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. To compensate for the loss of their guide, Sara begs Jim Bridger (Shea Whigham) to help find a suitable replacement for the dead escort. Bridger, the matter-of-fact, smooth-talking overseer of Fort Bridger, introduces Sara to Isaac (Taylor Kitsch), a gruff, tortured, and incredibly skilled survivalist living on the outskirts of town.
The electric chemistry between Gilpin and Kitsch is immediate, with both actors tapping into their character’s headstrong and authoritative nature. Part of what makes American Primeval unique, beyond its unflinching portrayal of cruel colonizers, is the show’s performances. Gilpin’s perpetual state of heightened paranoia creates an urgency as she’s given little time to rest throughout the series. There’s always a fresh horror waiting around the corner, keeping her on edge but constantly vigilant. Taylor Kitsch compliments her performance, giving Isaac an air of mystery and arrogance as his sharp instincts help protect the group from untimely ends. While Isaac begins the mission as an unforgiving killer completing a job, the odyssey along the winding trail alters him as he develops a fondness for Sara, Devin, and a mute Indigenous stowaway called Two Moons, played to perfection by Shawnee Pourier. Straight up, Two Moons is my favorite character in a series packed with stellar performances. Shawnee Pourier can convey so much emotion and unspoken language with a hard stare or sympathetic smile. She’s incredible. Preston Mota also stands out as a young actor with a bright future. Mota’s Devin is a young boy growing up in a harsh world, unsure how to navigate the danger and what kind of man he hopes to become. Mota plays Devin with an intense curiosity and willful spirit, resulting in a decent performance from an up-and-coming actor.
Other stand-out performances include Derek Hinkey as the fearless and formidable warrior Red Feather, a member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, and Saura Lightfoot-Leon as Abish, a Mormon woman whose understanding of the Shoshone evolves throughout the series. Like Sara and Isaac, Red Feather and Abish develop a special relationship that contains multitudes. Between Red Feather’s near-mythological status among the West and Abish’s defiant nature, these two headstrong characters clash in a way that brings added drama to a series already stacked with peril and dire consequences.
Not to be forgotten are Dane DeHaan as Jacob Pratt, a sincere Mormon man traveling with his wives toward his parish, and Kim Coates as Brigham Young, an actual historical figure striving to expand his influence in Utah by acquiring new land for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Coates’s Brigham Young is composed but cruel as he attempts to bargain with Jim Bridger for his territory. What few know is that Brigham is also the mastermind behind a militia of killers.
The events of American Primeval pop off when the militia launches an attack on a traveling party taking a rest in Mountain Meadows. The sudden attack (and it is sudden) gives way to a massacre that covers the soil in blood and viscera. During the attack, the militia wounds DeHaan’s Jacob Pratt, leaving him to die among the broken bodies and dashed dreams. While Pratt survives, the attack leaves him mentally and physically scarred. As he searches for Abish, he steadily slips into madness, allowing DeHaan the space he needs for a delightfully deranged performance. When the militia attempts to frame the Shoshone (and Red Feather) for the attack, the fallout ignites a war on all sides.
I showered immediately after binge-watching American Primeval, a testament to the show’s exquisitely disgusting set design and choice of filming locales. There’s a stark contrast between the finely pressed uniforms of the U.S. Army, the mesmerizing warpaint of the Shoshone, and the mud-covered frocks and furs of people trying to survive one more day in a stolen land of sin and sickness. I felt like I could contract tetanus simply by looking at my television screen as my nose curled while thinking of the ungodly smells wafting from weary animals and shit-smattered criminals.
Truth be told, I’m hard-pressed to find anything about American Primeval that I didn’t like. Allow me to lay this on the line. I bombed my history classes throughout my schooling career, and I’ve never been a fan of the Western genre. It’s simply not my bag. However, American Primeval won me over almost immediately. Peter Berg’s mini-series takes a fearless approach to its subject matter and portrayal of the American West circa 1857. Once Berg puts his foot on the gas, beginning with the Mountains Meadow Massacre, there’s little time to rest for the remainder of the journey. Despite occasional herky-jerky camerawork, the action remains frenetic while the drama lingers alongside the bitter cold. Betty Gilpin is nothing short of incredible as her eyes and body language tell the tortured tale of a woman under extreme duress, hoping to make it to her destination alive.
It’s refreshing to see such an uncompromising approach to the brutality and cruelty of colonization. As we enter an era in American history when people in power actively try to rewrite the past, it’s important to remember what was taken and who it was taken from. American Primeval is a total package experience. Every episode covers a vast ground, telling a startling, eye-opening story with complex and enigmatic characters. Whether you’re captivated by Gilpin and Kitsch’s chemistry, sickened by the violence, or riding the downward spiral of DeHaan’s encroaching madness, the show grabs hold and never lets go until the end.
The post American Primeval TV Review: A brilliant and brutal depiction of the American West appeared first on JoBlo.
While the internet continues to debate the “necessity” of sex scenes in cinema, the sickos and freaks among us are crying out for more carnal pleasure on screen. To deny the existence and power of desire is to deny a valuable (often fun!) part of the human experience – collectively we’ve been doing it since the beginning of time, but apparently it’s still considered more distasteful to simulate sex than to depict someone being violently murdered.
In Halina Reijn’s Babygirl, corporate high-flier Romy (Nicole Kidman) knows all about the power of denial. Despite being adored by husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas), she’s never once orgasmed during sex with him in 19 years of marriage – she instead sneaks off to masturbate while watching BDSM porn. Romy has convinced herself that her desire for a more dominant sexual partner is shameful, instead throwing all her energy into running her successful tech automation company. Yet when she’s introduced to Samuel (Harris Dickinson), the new, strong-willed intern, her repressed appetite comes back with new voracity.
Reijn first explored illicit desire and gendered power dynamics in her feature debut Instinct (where a prison therapist develops an infatuation with her violent, charismatic patient, who is a convicted serial rapist) and Babygirl is perhaps more palatable in a sense: the older woman still possesses the traditional position of superiority (her job) but her intrigue and infatuation with a younger man pushes her to rescind some of her hard-won control. But as Samuel – projecting boyish confidence but preternatural wisdom – points out, “I think you like being told what to do.”
What Romy discovers with Samuel is not the existence of her sexual desires, but the space to explore them. Meeting for illicit trysts in opulent hotel rooms (her choice) and grimy underground raves (his choice) they find each other again and again, despite attempts to call it off. The chemistry between Kidman and Dickinson is stratospheric but not purely sexual – Romy and Samuel are as vicious with each other as they are tender, each able to see something in the other that no one has even tried looking for. And while Kidman has long possessed a glassiness that makes her hypnotic to watch, here there is real vulnerability too, in the nervous dart of her eyes and the way she squirms as she tries to hide her naked body from Samuel’s gaze.
It’s the sort of intelligent, elegant adult filmmaking that is frequently lacking in modern cinema, approaching a complex theme not only with nuance and empathy but refreshing candour. Reijn’s wry swipes at the language of pinkwashed corporate feminism land much better than the Gen Z jokes of Sarah DeLappe’s Bodies Bodies Bodies script, and an exchange re. the “male fantasy” of “female masochism” wryly exorcises another old myth about what (some) women want. Babygirl joins a limited canon of films that takes the much-maligned subsect of female sexual desire seriously, while also serving as a compelling psychodrama about the intricacies of trust and understanding, even in a long-standing relationship.
Little White Lies is committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them.
ANTICIPATION.
Didn’t love Bodies Bodies Bodies, but do love Harris Dickinson!
3
ENJOYMENT.
Smart, sexy, sultry – the whole package.
4
IN RETROSPECT.
Cinema made for an adult audience? What a concept!
4
Directed by
Halina Reijn
Starring
Nicole Kidman,
Harris Dickinson,
Antonio Banderas
The post Babygirl review – intelligent, elegant adult filmmaking appeared first on Little White Lies.
In a 1983 televised tribute to Maria Callas, Leonard Bernstein referred to the soprano as “the bible of opera”, such was her impact upon the art form. Before her untimely death in 1977 at the age of 53, Callas had become one of the most revered and reviled figures in music, known for her distinctive voice and temperamental personality. In a 1955 newsreel of Callas rehearsing for a production of Bellini’s Norma, the narration cuttingly states “If you want to hear Callas, don’t get all dressed up. Just go to a rehearsal; she usually stays to the end of those.” But for all her flaws and perceived dramatics, there’s a reason Callas earned the nickname ‘La Divina’ in life; her talent was transcendental.
It is with Callas that Pablo Larraín, a long-time devotee of “difficult women”, concludes his trilogy of biopics that began with Jackie and continued with Spencer. His decision to reunite with Steven Knight (one of the most inconsistent screenwriters working today, capable of delivering the highest highs and lowest lows) is ominous, given his dire work on Spencer. Remarkably, where that film fell short, Maria soars, capturing Callas’ flighty nature and vulnerability with sensitivity and grace.
Set in the final week of Callas’ life, she divides her time between rehearsals for a call time that will never come, arguments with her devoted but frustrated staff Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) and Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino), and imagined excursions around Paris with steely-eyed, sharply dressed British reporter Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee), named for the sedatives she takes despite Ferruccio’s strong opposition. Then there are flashbacks to former lives, shot in dramatic black and white, as Maria fell in love with shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer) only to watch him marry Jackie Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson, playing JFK for a third time after Jackie and Blonde, appears in a terse but amusing dinner scene that shows some of Callas’ exacting wit and disinterest in her American roots).
Both Larraín and Knight are avowed opera lovers, and this passion shows in Maria; its framing feels reminiscent of the great tragedies where a woman so often dies of a broken heart. Pulling from Callas’ incredible repertoire there are references to some of the roles she embodied so beautifully (Carmen; Cio-Cio-San; Tosca; Violetta) but the film’s greatest respect in this regard is its use of music. Jolie trained to sing opera for the role, and according to Larraín does sing a lot of the pieces used throughout, though some of Callas’ recordings were mixed with hers to create something that is not quite either woman, and the scenes appear dubbed rather than sung on-set. Perhaps opera devotees will have quibbles, but to the untrained ear, she possesses the gravitas and skill that one would expect in portraying the most famous soprano who ever lived.
In Jackie Kennedy, Natalie Portman found the role of a lifetime, and in Maria Callas so too does Angelina Jolie. It’s quite something to watch a woman as instantly recognisable as Jolie be so bewitching while playing someone else incredibly famous (always a challenge in biopics where footage of the subject exists) and without the layers of prosthetics that actors normally rely on to “transform”. Yet Jolie achieves such with a refined purr of a European accent and something equally feline in her gait. She is dainty and graceful, her magnetic gaze magnified behind stylish glasses, seeming to float through the grand rooms of her apartment, but also difficult and deceptive – a shrewd operator, an unabashed shark.
It is also difficult not to find some shades of Jolie herself in the tenderness and internal pain of Callas. Jolie doesn’t merely impersonate Callas, she embodies her – there is a radiance about her performance, determined to afford the subject the dignity and fondness that biopics often trade in favour of flashiness and hagiography. And while Knight, Larraín and Jolie clearly have much affection for Callas, this is not mere worship. Her temper and capriciousness are acknowledged, but so too is the suffering Callas endured, both as a girl and a woman. Callas herself would have hated to be thought of as another tragic heroine, so the film does not doom her to becoming another exquisite operatic corpse.
The gentleness of Rohrwacher and the paternal sternness of Favino balance Jolie; while the staff in Spencer were austere and cruel to the tragic heroine, here the hired help is the closest thing Callas has to family. Perhaps that sounds tragic, but the domesticity and love between Maria, Bruna and Ferruccio softens her diva persona, while the formality between Callas and Mandrax allow a fantastical element (as both Larraín and Knight are fond of) that feels more cohesive than the Anne Boleyn motif of Spencer.
Maria is a physically beautiful film, yes, with gorgeous cinematography by the reliably great Edward Lachman and exquisite costumes by Massimo Cantini Parrini, but its pleasures are not merely surface. There’s an ethereal quality to Jolie’s performance that matches Callas’ legendary persona, and despite the deep sense of melancholy that pervades the film like a ghostly veil, this is still a love story – and one where the heroine lives forever.
Little White Lies is committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them.
ANTICIPATION.
Feels like Steven Knight screenplays can go either way.
3
ENJOYMENT.
Larraín and Jolie offer up a beautiful interpretation of Callas.
4
IN RETROSPECT.
A tender eulogy for a remarkable talent.
4
Directed by
Pablo Larraín
Starring
Angelina Jolie,
Pierfrancesco Favino,
Alba Rohrwacher
The post Maria review – a tender eulogy for a remarkable talent appeared first on Little White Lies.
It helps to have some vague stylistic or thematic justification for choosing to shoot your modern film in black and white. Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle thankfully has both, in its gothic, crepuscular depiction of World War One-era Copenhagen, as well as its rogues gallery of tortured miscreants who live by an aggressively binary and personally-ascribed form of morality. This is a story in which colour, radiance and vibrancy have purposefully been sapped from the menu, lest the resolute bleakness of the lives it captures be diluted in any way.
We meet Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a ditsy but strongwilled seamstress, as she’s being tossed out of her single-room apartment for unpaid rent. It transpires that her husband went off to war and, due to an understandable communications breakdown, is now thought to be dead. A request for a supplement on her meagre income leads to a backstreet affair with the boss of the mill, yet her hopes of a new, affluent future in his arms are swiftly dashed. Her husband then returns, sporting a terrifying mask to cover newly acquired facial disfigurements. Yet she is pregnant with the boss’s child. At this point the film feels like a pointed Victoriana-gothic homage to David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, but the moment that you think it, things jackknife in an entirely different direction.
The above description covers maybe the first 30 minutes of plot, all of which is revealed to be necessary context for the film’s more baroque and harrowing second act in which Karoline seeks the services of backstreet facilitator Dagmar (a subtly imposing Trine Dyrholm), who makes ends meet by rehousing babies for a healthy fee. Though there’s certainly a tabloid intrigue to be found in its “inspired by true events” yarn, the real value of the film is to be found in its wider socio-political concern in questions surrounding female bodily autonomy and the responsibilities that are demanded from child-rearing. As such, there are nods to films such as Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake and Audrey Diwan’s Happening in how it presents a world in which a woman’s only real choice was to suffer the consequences of a man’s errant actions and a government’s violent indifference. Which, unfortunately, is very much back in the headlines.
Von Horn’s writing and direction are measured to fit the material, while the subtle, unshowy elegance of Michał Dymek’s cinematography are never ramped up to the point that they usurp the nuances of the drama. Yet it’s Sonne’s remarkable, multifarious performance that really lifts this one above the pack. She uses her face with the expressiveness of a silent film actress, so when the big emotions eventually come they hit especially hard.
Little White Lies is committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them.
ANTICIPATION.
Director Von Horn is a bit of an unknown quantity.
3
ENJOYMENT.
A staggering lead performance from Vic Carmen Sonne – robbed at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
4
IN RETROSPECT.
A desperately sad and politically-pertinent Gothic horror story.
4
Directed by
Magnus von Horn
Starring
Vic Carmen Sonne,
Trine Dyrholm,
Besir Zeciri
The post The Girl With The Needle review – politically pertinent Gothic horror story appeared first on Little White Lies.
The highly anticipated Wicked sequel received a new title last month — Wicked: For Good. Although fans had mixed reactions about the new title, director Jon M. Chu was quick to defend it, saying it was always the plan.
“Who wants a movie called ‘Wicked: Part Two’?” Chu told Variety. “On the script, it always said, ‘For Good,’ and so it was just a point of like, ‘Do we really want to call this “Part Two”?’ And nobody wants that.” The director added that they didn’t consider any other titles. “I mean, that’s the destination. ‘For Good,’ we know, is like, ‘Where are we going with this movie? Let’s finish this thing,’” Chu explained.
The new title takes inspiration from one of the musical’s most well-known songs, a duet between Elphaba and Glinda performed near the end of the musical as a farewell.
Jonathan Bailey, who plays Fiyero in the film, recently teased that the sequel will be a more complicated tale. “I think we understand the world and how it works [now],” Bailey said. “I’m really excited for the tonal shift. The world gets heavier and more complicated and there’s just that pumping sense of hope and joy and resilience and all the things that we love about Elphaba’s journey that I can’t wait for.“
Wicked is still playing in theaters, and despite not being much of a Broadway musical fan, our own Chris Bumbray found a lot to like. “While I’ll admit that there were a handful of moments where I felt I was missing some kind of in-joke for fans of the play, overall, I had a pretty good time with Jon M. Chu’s Wicked – Part I,” Bumbray wrote. “Certainly, it’s one of the better modern versions of The Wizard of Oz, far more entertaining than Sam Raimi’s largely forgotten Oz: The Great and Powerful. Chu seems to have a knack for movie musicals, and with Universal clearly pumping a pretty penny into it, it feels like the kind of big, broad fantasy epic that should be able to crossover beyond its core audience of Broadway enthusiasts.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
Wicked: For Good will hit theaters on November 21, 2025.
The post Wicked director defends sequel title change: “Who wants a movie called Wicked: Part Two?” appeared first on JoBlo.
As the highly destructive wildfires continue to devastate the Los Angeles area, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has sent a letter to its members to inform them of new developments. The voting period has been extended by two days, which has also pushed the announcement of the Academy Award nominations back by several days. The nominations will now be announced on January 19th.
The letter from CEO Bill Kramer reads: “Dear Academy members, We want to offer our deepest condolences to those who have been impacted by the devastating fires across Southern California. So many of our members and industry colleagues live and work in the Los Angeles area, and we are thinking of you. Given the fire situation, we want to share some updates regarding an extension to the Oscars nominations voting window as well as updated information on Oscars Shortlist Screenings, Oscars Bake-Offs, and the Academy Museum.“
Kramer continued, “Nominations voting for the 97th Oscars opened this morning at 9am PT. We will be extending the voting window by two days to give members more time to cast their ballots. Voting will now close on Tuesday, January 14 at 5pm PT. As such, our Oscars Nominations Announcement will move from Friday, January 17 to Sunday, January 19. More information on the announcement will follow soon.“
A handful of theaters in the Los Angeles area have also been closed due to the wildfires, as have the premieres of several films, including Wolf Man, The Last Showgirl, Unstoppable, and Better Man. The Critics Choice Awards have also been postponed. The event was originally planned for January 12th but will now be broadcast on January 26th on E! and streamed on Peacock the following day. “This unfolding tragedy has already had a profound impact on our community,” Critics Choice Association CEO Joey Berlin said in a statement. “All our thoughts and prayers are with those battling the devastating fires and with all who have been affected.“
The wildfires have already destroyed thousands of homes and structures and forced over 70,000 people to evacuate. Several deaths have also been reported. Our thoughts go out to all those affected by the fires. Stay safe out there.
The post Academy Award nominations announcement delayed due to Los Angeles wildfires appeared first on JoBlo.