A raw portrayal of the porn industry and its effects on all participants, the film follows a 20-year-old woman named Linnéa (newcomer Sofia Kappel), who arrives from Sweden to Los Angeles. It’s in the glittering land of Hollywood that she assumes the identity of Bella Cherry, hoping to become an international adult movie star, but that path to fame comes with a slew of compromises and anguishes. As Bella starts to rise up in the industry, the stakes, too, are raised, and some of her shoots become increasingly harrowing, and friends and lines of trust get blurred in the process....

Chopra Jonas, who has been acting in Bollywood since 2001, revealed that upcoming Prime Video series “Citadel” is the first time her salary matches that of her male counterparts. The sci-fi series is co-created by the Russo Brothers, and comes on the heels of Chopra Jonas’ foray into Hollywood with films like “Baywatch,” “Isn’t It Romantic,” and “The Matrix Resurrections,” as well as ABC series “Quantico.” “I’ve never had pay parity in Bollywood,” Chopra Jonas said during the BBC’s 100 Women interview (via The Independent)....

But when the series debuted in 2014, it wasn’t immediately clear to some people, including myself, what kind of story the show was telling. The first six episodes — all that were made available to critics beforehand — were locked into the perspective of its eponymous lead, who, yes, was a horse man, but who on the surface appeared to be that same acerbic antihero that TV was finally growing out of....

Sordid as it might be for Nanae (Sato Honami) to offer her sex to Rei (Mizuhara Kiko) in exchange for a murder, the manipulation is so brazen that it bends all the way back around to its own kind of ineffable truth. Even as it becomes painfully clear that Nanae won’t be able to hold up her end of the bargain anytime soon (she strips naked on the bed of her Tokyo apartment to show Rei a body that’s tattooed with fresh bruises), there’s a jagged sense of intimacy to how well these two women both seem to understand the terms of their arrangement....

“That’s in process. We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Covenant,’” he enthused. “Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because ‘Prometheus’ woke it up very well. But you know, you’re asking fundamental questions like, ‘Has the Alien himself, the facehugger, the chestburster, have they all run out of steam? Do you have to rethink the whole bloody thing and simply use the word to franchise?...

Although Muslims are the fastest growing and most racially and ethnically diverse religious community in the world, the report details just how marginalized Muslim characters are in popular movies, either entirely absent or burdened with dangerous stereotypes that can lead to real-world consequences, both physical and psychological. The statistics tell a worryingly dismal tale. “I think we all knew it would be bad, but we didn’t know just how bad,” said Ahmed of the study which reveals that, out of a total of 8,965 speaking characters identified across 200 top-grossing films released between 2017 and 2019, from the U....

Simon Godwin, who worked alongside co-director and writer Emily Burns at the helm of the mid-lockdown film “Romeo & Juliet” starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley in the title roles, has long recognized not just the inherent advantages but the necessity of reshaping Shakespeare. “I find him to be a super empowering writer. We’ve both really broken free from a kind of reverence into an irreverence, which I think is more Shakespearean than than being loyal....

However, Baker also focused on bigger-picture issues related to the state of exhibition. After making a passionate case for why movies belong on the big screen, Baker explained his opposition to the day-and-date release model, and why the pandemic has changed his perspective. In the audience Q&A, he also shared a hilarious memory from the premiere of “The Florida Project” at NYFF. Listen to the full episode below. Screen Talk is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone....

As The New York Times reports: “Rogen recalled his friend Jonah Hill’s approaching him for advice after being offered a part in a ‘Transformers’ sequel. ‘I can see if Steven Spielberg’s calling you, asking you to do something, how that’s hard to turn down,’ Rogen told an interviewer, recounting the exchange. But in this case, he told Hill: ‘You want to make a movie about fightin’ robots? Make your own movie about fightin’ robots....

In the sketch, Lebowitz and Scorsese are brought onto the segment for their comments about New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing that indoor dining could resume, at limited capacity, this coming Valentine’s Day in February. A bespectacled Mooney doesn’t say much except get hysterically dumbfounded, while Yang plays up Lebowitz’s curmudgeonly disposition. “I’ve been so bored at home I was about to get married to my cufflinks,” Yang says. “I’ve done so many interviews in front of audiences, I have squatter’s rights at the 92nd Street Y....

There’s a moment in “Spider Man: No Way Home” (evidently one of the most monumental films of all time, thanks to its $1.3 billion-plus gross worldwide) when the three of the most recent Spideys bro out upon being brought together for the first time. Andrew Garfield (from the “Amazing Spider-Man” series), Tobey Maguire (from the Sam Raimi films), and Tom Holland (from the three most recent films) are all brought together after a spell issued by Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange goes awry....

Among those who used their time during the live broadcast of the Spirit Awards on IFC to champion their often-under-appreciated collaborators was Ruth Negga, who won the award for best supporting female for her role in “Passing.” Zooming into the ceremony remotely, she said she wanted to share the award with the entire cast and crew of the Rebecca Hall-directed film. “Nothing can be created in isolation without anybody else....

Q, omnipotent superbeing and galaxy-brained wit, has popped up at Picard’s chateau in La Barre, France. And it’s a surprisingly subdued appearance: you’d think this veritable trickster god would find his love of Napoleonic couture to be perfectly at home in the French countryside. He’s also aged, presumably adjusting his own appearance with a snap of his fingers so as not to make Picard feel bad about his own advancing years....

Originally scheduled for a December 22, 2023 release date, the film has not yet begun production. While Taika Waititi is currently helming his own still-untitled “Star Wars” installment with a December 2025 release date, the writer/director’s long-awaited Searchlight Pictures film “Next Goal Wins” finally is on track to be released, with an April 21, 2023 date. “Next Goal Wins” stars Michael Fassbender and Elisabeth Moss and tells the true story of a Dutch-American coach’s efforts to lead the American Samoa national football team....

Ever since it came to prominence more than 30 years ago, Sundance has been a platform for discovering new talent, from distinctive filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Ryan Coogler to acting discoveries like Parker Posey and Tessa Thompson. This time around, there were no shortage of discoveries, in addition to established talents moving into exciting new career phases. Here are the highlights. Christian Blauvelt, Jude Dry, David Ehrlich, Kate Erbland, and Tambay Obenson contributed to this article....

“While it is a deep loss to not have the in-person experience in Utah, we do not believe it is safe nor feasible to gather thousands of artists, audiences, employees, volunteers, and partners from around the world, for an 11-day festival while overwhelmed communities are already struggling to provide essential services,” the festival said in a release today. The decision is a quick about-face from two weeks ago, when Sundance announced it would move forward with plans for a hybrid festival amid a flurry of other canceled events....

“There are going to be so many movies starring women, about women, female road pictures, whatever,” Davis said. “I’m thinking, hot dog, let’s sit back and wait for all this magic change to happen. We’re still waiting. It really did not happen. It seems like every five years or so, there’s another movie starring women that’s a huge hit and people say, ‘Well now certainly everything is going to change,’ and it really hasn’t....

SXSW made history as the first festival to program episodic showcases a decade ago with the premiere of Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking HBO series “Girls” in 2012. The festival launched an Episodic section in 2014 which has included the world premieres of series like “Silicon Valley,” “Mr. Robot,” “Barry,” “What We Do in the Shadows,” and “Search Party.” “We are so proud of our rich history of showcasing both film and television, and wanted the festival name to reflect what we have been doing for a decade,” Janet Pierson, VP, Director of Film & TV, said in an official statement....

A little upgrade never hurts, especially if you’re like a lot of movie lovers and TV bingers spending more time at home. Enhancing your home entertainment setup (regardless of whether it’s your living room, bedroom, or a separate home theater) doesn’t have to be an arduous process. In fact, lighting is just about the fastest, and probably most affordable, way to change the ambiance in your home theater or game room....

Adapted from Simon Mawer’s bestselling 2009 novel “The Glass Room” and true to the fictional story it constructs atop a foundation of onyx-solid historical fact, Ševčík’s admirably peculiar movie remains a fascinating chimera of an idea even if the finished product is as empty as the house that inspired it. In this telling, the Tugendhats are recast as the ultra-photogenic Viktor Landauer (Claes Bang) and his intensely Aryan wife Liesel (Hanna Alström), and the architect they hire to build their dream house is a horny old German by the name of Rainer von Abt (Karel Roden)....