“Spider-Man” is #1 again for the fifth week on all three charts we follow, an unprecedented achievement and one that “The Batman” will not repeat. It’s the top-grossing film of 2022, but at $365 million that’s less than half of Marvel’s 2021 monster hit. “The Batman” also has more competition, and not just from upcoming releases like “Uncharted” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Its biggest competition is itself: Warners announced last week that the film would debut on HBO Max April 18....

It’s fine that the filmmakers want to aim the film mostly at those who are not familiar with the border crisis in order to get them to act, with a strong focus on the shame Americans should feel at this violation of human rights. The real problem: is Goldstein Knowlton already has the women who are actually affected by the policies in the film and could easily make the point themselves, but they are mostly otherized and shown only as part of a sad tale for white women to feel bad about....

Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed that Season 2 of the record-breaking Netflix series could arrive by as early as late next year, with a tentative release date of 2023 or early 2024. Korean series “Squid Game” debuted on the streamer in 2021. “Humanity is going to be put to a test through those games once again,” Hwang told Vanity Fair of what’s ahead for the life-or-death series, revealing that Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) is confirmed to return....

Head of prosthetics Chris Bridges calls “Strange New Worlds” “a love letter to the original with a slight modernization.” “And that’s what we’ve done with Spock’s makeup,” Bridges told IndieWire. “It’s an homage to the classic elements of Nimoy, but it’s been slightly modernized to fit Ethan’s face.” Bridges, who was responsible for Spock’s shaggy hair and beard on “Discovery,” was tasked by showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers with making Spock look like Spock....

“‘Star Wars’ has been so influenced by Japanese culture from Kurosawa films [‘The Hidden Fortress’] to jidaigeki [period samurai] films [from which the Jedi name is derived] to Zen Budhism and its impact on the Force,” said executive producer James Waugh of Lucasfilm. “We’ve been talking about doing [‘Star Wars’ anime] for a long time, but we couldn’t make it happen until the force of nature that’s Disney+.” On “Visions,” Lucasfilm Animation partnered with Kanako Shirasaki and Justin Leach of Qubic Pictures....

“Star Wars: Visions” is one of, if not the best, titles — television, film, or otherwise — to come out of the sci-fi franchise’s era under Disney ownership. It’s a beautifully animated and smartly written homage to everything that fans love about “Star Wars,” as well as the rare kind of installment in a multi-billion dollar IP that doesn’t feel like it was created by committee or focus-tested until all the artistry has been stripped away....

Still, White has spent ample time professionally in the Windy City and considers it “a third home” (in addition to New York City and Los Angeles) so we put a mitraillette to his head and made him name his favorite Chicago sandwich joint. “People are gonna make fun of me,” he warned IndieWire. Try us. “We didn’t shoot ‘Shameless’ really in Chicago — we shot it in Los Angeles mostly — but we would go kind of like two weeks a season,” White said....

Obama discussed a handful of his favorite television shows during a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. The former president, who published his “A Promised Land” memoir in November, noted that several recent shows helped him unwind while taking breaks from writing. “‘Better Call Saul,’ because of its great characters and examination of the dark side of the American dream,” Obama told Entertainment Weekly. ‘The Good Place’ — it’s a wise and sweet combination of goofy comedy and big philosophical questions....

“The Boys” co-creator told Vulture that while some comic book streaming adaptations (cough cough, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi”) have been described as long movies, it dilutes the art of episodic TV — and stalls the storytelling. (You may recall the debate raging back in 2019 when film publication Cahiers du Cinema named David Lynch’s 18-episode limited series “Twin Peaks: The Return” the best “film” of the 2010s....

In the first of many montages, “The Flight Attendant” opens with Cassie Bowden (Cuoco) jet-setting around the globe, mixing business with pleasure by working each flight and going out each night. The blunt opening, set to Sofi Tukker’s “The Good Time Girl,” plays into our collective presumptions about what flight crews do when they’re not enforcing sky law: hitting the hottest bars, sleeping in glamorous hotel rooms, and even inviting the most attractive passengers to sign up for a mile-high membership....

Neither is “Lionesses,” which will likely inspire comparisons to everything from Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Mustang” (a country setting, an indifferent society, young women desperate to break free) to Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides” (deep ennui, an unsettling tremor of what’s to come, a real sense of how to film the bonds between women), all of which hints at a big career to come for Bajrami, on whichever side of the camera she chooses....

When early test audiences checked out Sony’s latest horror offering, the men had a complaint: They didn’t like the title. Originally known as “The Bride,” director Jessica M. Thompson’s sophomore feature soon became “The Invitation.” The twist: No matter the name, it’s still a feminist vampire film. “I loved ‘The Bride,’ I thought it was a great title, but it really wasn’t tracking well with male audiences, which is disappointing,” Thompson told IndieWire during a recent interview....

Puck originally reported that the HBO and HBO Max two-part documentary “The Larry David Story” was shelved mere hours before its scheduled March 1 release at 10 p.m. ET. HBO confirmed the news, tweeting, “The #LarryDavidStory on @HBOMax is being postponed. Instead, Larry has decided he wants to do it in front of an audience. Stay tuned for more info.” According to an official release, the documentary “finds the 74-year-old sitting down with friend/director Larry Charles for a peek behind the proverbial curtain, as David gets candid about his personal and professional highs and lows, from his humble beginnings as an unfunny Brooklyn kid to becoming America’s favorite misanthrope....

Young nurse Val (Rose Williams) hates the power cuts, popping out of bed each morning to turn on every light in her tiny flat, and we soon learn that her fears go far beyond the usual darkness. When we meet Val, it’s early January, cold and terribly bleak, but it’s also her first day at work at the East London Royal Infirmary, and she can’t wait to start. Precise and pin-neat, she’s an orphan who grew up in a dingy Catholic girls’ home in the same neighborhood as the infirmary, and she fervently believes that she might be able to help her patients, especially the kids....

The film’s interviewees include Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology; the co-inventor of the Facebook “Like” button, Justin Rosenstein; Tim Kendall, former President of Pinterest and former Director of Monetization at Facebook; Cathy O’Neil, author of “Weapons of Math Destruction”; and Rashida Richardson, Director of Policy at the AI Now Institute. “The Social Dilemma” is directed by Jeff Orlowski, who previously created hit nature documentaries such as “Chasing Ice” and “Chasing Coral....

Some viewers may be thrilled by this statement, and desperate to see how on earth the tyke can fulfill his literary ambitions. Other viewers may dread all the annoying aspects of this particularly precious sub-genre of the non-fiction coming-of-age comedy drama. Adapted from a memoir by J. R. Moehringer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, “The Tender Bar” has all of those annoying aspects. First, there is the inherent lack of tension: we’re watching a film based on a book, so we know that the narrator will reach his goal....

Though Fallon had been anticipated to continue working at NBCUniversal, the company renewed his show for a longer-than-expected period. “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” was once the ratings leader of late night but began to slip as competing shows began to place greater emphasis on political jokes and commentary during and after the 2016 presidential election. Regardless, Fallon is still one of most well-known faces of NBCUniversal and continues to be a ratings driver for the company....

“The Wilds,” the commerce and streaming giant’s first move into young adult series programming, debuts December 11, and it’s a big, risky, sprawling cross-genre project. In addition to Griffiths, it has a huge cast and a tricky narrative, one that shows the lengths young women have to go to in order to regain their agency under the pressures of modern life. The logline for “The Wilds” is simple: It’s “Lost” meets “Lord of the Flies,” but with teenage girls....

“The score for ‘Titane’ grows from a short theme for a scene where the protagonist leaves home in startling circumstances,” Williams said in a statement. “Initially in a contemporary popular music style with a tinge of John Barry, later this was set with metal percussion and male voice choir using the Neapolitan Minor for a scene set in a car. As the film develops the theme takes on an emotional, darker twist....

Endless words have been written about how “Top Gun: Maverick” was an undisputed triumph, earning rave reviews from critics and bringing in massive box office returns in a year where the film industry desperately needed them. The film’s success has resulted in an increased appreciation for Cruise’s commitment to practical effects and doing his own stunts, ginning up anticipation for next year’s “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part I” in the process....