Quested, as some of the 20 million people who tuned into the primetime hearings may recall, testified before Congress about the actions of the Proud Boys during the January 6 insurrection. A veteran documentarian who produced the Oscar-nominated “Restrepo,” Quested was on the ground at the Capitol trailing the extremist group when hundreds of them amassed in Washington. By then, he had been tracking the Proud Boys for months. The night before the riots, he even trailed Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio as he was released from jail and held a clandestine parking-lot meeting with the head of another extremist group, the Oath Keepers’ Stewart Rhodes....

VOD platforms otherwise saw ongoing success for familiar films, including “The Little Things.” The Denzel Washington action title was #1 at Spectrum, which as usual lags in reporting. Bleecker Street Noteworthy this week is the debut of three fresh titles, two of which are recent releases that went directly to standard pricing and saw immediate interest. “Together Together,” a comedy starring Patti Harrison and Ed Helms, and “French Exit” both saw traction....

Following the 2019 film “Captain Marvel,” sequel “The Marvels” is a continuation of Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel” starring Iman Vellani as the titular teen Marvel hero. “The Marvels” marks the first time Carole Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel (Vellani) have teamed up since their crossover moment in the “Ms. Marvel” finale with Larson’s post-credits cameo. The first trailer for the continuation is, appropriately, tuned to the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic Planetary....

After almost 20 years out of the directing game (his previous film was the Jude Law-starring “Alfie” remake in 2004), Shyer returns to the kind of feel-good filmmaking he made his signature, thanks to his early films, like the aforementioned hits and even “Baby Boom,” all co-written with his ex-wife, fellow comedy queen Nancy Meyers. (And, never fear, it sounds like the ex-spouses still get along swimmingly, as you’ll see in the following interview....

As documented in the oral history, “The Emperor’s New Groove” got its start at Walt Disney as a much different film titled “The Kingdom of the Sun,” which was to feature original songs by Sting. Davidson and Styler documented the making of that movie, but Disney ultimately shelved the project after “doubt-filled meetings and catastrophic screenings and arguments.” Pieces of “The Kingdom of the Sun” found their way into 2000’s beloved “The Emperor’s New Groove,” including two Sting songs and the voice of Eartha Kitt, but the documentary capturing the making and shelving of the original film was never officially released....

The “Mask” alum has a spooky cameo in The Weeknd’s latest music video for the song “Out of Time,” which debuted as part of his fifth studio album “Dawn FM” in January. The video, out April 5, follows The Weeknd singing karaoke alongside his onscreen love interest, “Squid Game” star Jung Ho-yeon. After an evening of hotel adventures and debauchery, The Weeknd’s fun-filled fantasy turns sinister before bedtime, and the decadent buckets of champagne turn to blood....

There are two things to be a little worried about and one thing to be extremely excited about when coming into “The Whale.” The first element of concern is director Darren Aronofsky, who admittedly has made exceptional films like “Requiem for a Dream” and “Pi” and gotten career-defining performances out of his leads in “Black Swan” and “The Wrestler.” But his last two films, “Noah” and “mother!,” succumbed to all his worst instincts, creating bloated self-indulgent nonsense that was actively painful to sit through....

Netflix launched reruns of “Manifest” Seasons 1 and 2 on June 10, 2021; four days later, NBC canceled its “Lost”-like missing-airplane series. On June 24, 2021, Netflix launched its weekly Global Top 10 TV and Film lists. Guess which series claimed two of the Top 5 slots? Season 1 ranked third on the streamer’s inaugural weekly ranking; “Manifest” Season 2 was fifth. The first season would go on to appear on Netflix’s Top 10 English-language TV series list 18 more times — the only other show to pull that off is a little ditty called “Stranger Things 4....

“I had lost the will to make movies,” Taylor said about enduring Marvel and “Terminator” fan backlash over the years. “I lost the will to live as a director. I’m not blaming any person for that. The process was not good for me. So I came out of it having to rediscover the joy of filmmaking.” Taylor directed several episodes of “The Sopranos” during its run, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for the sixth season entry “Kennedy and Heidi....

The first novel, for which Liu became the first writer in Asia to win the prestigious Hugo Award in 2015, is set during the Cultural Revolution when humans establish contact with an alien civilization on the edge of extinction. After the aliens invade earth, humans split off into two camps: one in favor of takeover by the superior aliens and the other determined to resist. “Liu Cixin’s trilogy is the most ambitious science-fiction series we’ve read, taking readers on a journey from the 1960s until the end of time, from life on our pale blue dot to the distant fringes of the universe....

Todd Field broke out of the American Film Institute to direct his explosive feature debut “In the Bedroom,” starrring Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, and Marissa Tomei in Oscar-nominated roles. The drama about parents grappling with the death of their son after an incident involving his girlfriend earned rave reviews and is widely considered one of the best films of the 2000s. Field then followed that film with 2006’s “Little Children,” a drama about adultery in the suburbs starring Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson that earned Winslet a Best Actress Oscar nomination, Jackie Earle Haley a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, and Field and co-screenwriter Tom Perrotta an Adapted Screenplay nomination....

The end stretch of Episode 3 of the second season of “Ted Lasso” — “Do the Right-est Thing” — finds Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) in the middle of a decision. He’s already pulled himself out of a giant ad campaign for AFC Richmond team sponsor Dubai Air after a message from his father emphasized the connection between the company and the pollution of the Niger Delta. Before the team’s next match, Sam decides to go one step further and tape over the logo across the center of his kit....

“If the wind was too strong, it would blow me off the ramp,” Cruise said about the stunt. “The helicopter [filming the stunt] was a problem, because I didn’t want to be hammering down that ramp at top speed and get hit by a stone. Or if I departed in a weird way, we didn’t know what was going to happen with the bike. I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get tangled in the bike....

While casting “Mad Max: Fury Road” took years, casting director Ronna Kress knew that Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy were the perfect actors to play Furiosa and Mad Max, respectively. Despite Hardy wowing in his audition — and beating out other actors like Michael Fassbender, Armie Hammer, Jeremy Renner, and even Eminem — Kress admitted that Hardy was not hired until she and director George Miller could witness a table read opposite Theron....

One of the most talked about moments from Season 1 of “Loki” was when it finally confirmed what many fans have long believed: Loki is bisexual. In a new conversation with Lily James as part of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Hiddleston elaborated on the reveal. The actor not only praised the choice, he said it was supported by historical evidence. “Back from my early days of researching the character in the ancient myths, the identity of Loki was fluid in every aspect and in gender, in sexuality,” Hiddleston said....

Which is why, in these closing days before the next presidential election, we need to think about which candidate serves as the best option to further the country’s interests and investment in both arts creation and education, the better to stoke the fires of American creativity that have historically burned so brightly. And listen, if this is the first thought you’ve given to the cultural implications of the upcoming election, I can’t blame you....

I can wax poetic about my socks more than stocks, but Netflix’s godawful first-quarter performance does merit a hot take relevant to the future prospects of film culture, the chief concern of this column. For Netflix, it might even present an opportunity. It was only seven years ago when Netflix elbowed into the specialty market for international cinema with Cary Joji Fukunaga’s 2015 “Beasts of No Nation.” Two years later, Netflix became the biggest spender on the festival circuit with its $12....

Any fragment of culture can be reduced to a bite-sized clip, and now it’s the standing ovation. The formal act of appreciation that dates back to Ancient Rome now dominates the news cycle at major festivals with a temporal rigor of Kentucky Derby proportions. Enough. Stop timing film festival ovations as if they’re a meaningful metric. They are not box-office dollars, or minutes streamed. Sometimes it’s an act of hospitality, sometimes it reflects the achievement that just unfolded on the big screen, and sometimes it’s desperation....

“‘After Earth’ was an abysmal box office and critical failure,” Will writes in his memoir (via People). “And what was worse was that Jaden took the hit. Fans and the press were absolutely vicious; they said and printed things about Jaden that I refuse to repeat. Jaden had faithfully done everything that I’d instructed him to do, and I had coached him into the worst public mauling he’d ever experienced....

“I’ve always avoided making films about slavery,” Smith said. “In the early part of my career…I didn’t want to show Black people in that light. I wanted to be a superhero. So I wanted to depict Black excellence alongside my white counterparts. I wanted to play roles that you would give to Tom Cruise.” It wasn’t until an offer came in from Quentin Tarantino to play the eponymous character in “Django Unchained” that Smith seriously considered joining a slavery-centered project for the first time....