Owen Gleiberman: Last News

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” is a movie that, in recent weeks, has been besieged and consumed by offscreen dramas, none of which I’ll recount here, except to note that when a film’s lead actress seems actively reluctant to publicize the film in question, that’s a sign of some serious discord. Yet it would be hugely unfair to allow this tempest in a teapot of gossipy turmoil to influence one’s feelings about the movie. If you want to talk about problems related to “Don’t Worry Darling,” you need look no further than at what’s onscreen. The film, written by Katie Silberman, with the brilliant production design of Katie Byron, is a kind of candy-colored “Stepford Wives” in the Twilight Zone meets “The Handmaid’s Tale” for the age of torn-at-the-seams democracy. In theory, this should add up to a juicy watch. Wilde, whose first feature was the witty and vivacious 2019 girls-on-a-bender comedy “Booksmart” (this is her second film), is a gifted director who knows how to set a mood. In “Don’t Worry Darling,” she does that to the max, and for a while you get caught up in it (or, at least, I did). Between the pop ambition, the tasty dream visuals, and the presence of Harry Styles in his first lead role, “Don’t Worry Darling” should have no trouble finding an audience. But the movie takes you on a ride that gets progressively less scintillating as it goes along.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic The return of Brendan Fraser — not that he ever really went away — has been a reminder of how much affection so many of us had for him back in the ’90s, when he had his moment in movies like “School Ties” and “Encino Man” and “Gods and Monsters” and “The Mummy.” Yet let’s be honest: This is not the comeback of John Travolta or Mickey Rourke. Fraser was always, in the best way, a lightweight actor: the clear blue eyes, the pin-up sexiness, the shaggy warm boyish innocence. The fact that, at 53, he’s no longer as beautiful as he once was is part of the Brendanaissance. He can no longer hold the screen as a cutie-pie hunk; he has to do it in other ways. And in “The Whale,” directed by Darren Aronofsky (who shepherded Rourke’s return in “The Wrestler”), Fraser is a better actor — slyer, subtler, more haunting — than he has ever been.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” the photographer Nan Goldin tells a woeful, revealing, and in its way rather funny anecdote about how in the 1980s, when she first gathered up her photographs — casually transgressive images of her and her friends, who were often drag queens and addicts, along with shots of the assorted other people and situations she experienced as part of the hummingly squalid East Village New York subculture — and tried to shop them around to galleries and museums, they were roundly rejected, because the arbiters of taste, who were inevitably men, favored photographs that were black-and-white and composed in elegant meticulous ways. Goldin’s photographs were in garish verité color, set in environments that were so scruffy (messy bohemian apartments, ordinary people just lolling around) that it looked, to the gallery mavens, like there was no visual organization to them, no art.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In vampire movies, from “Nosferatu” to the “Twilight” films to “Only Lovers Left Alive,” bloodsucking is usually more than just bloodsucking — it’s about sex, addiction, power — and that’s why the main event in a vampire movie doesn’t have to be the literal spectacle of watching fangs tear into human flesh. The elegance of the genre is that it has a built-in metaphorical sweep. “Bones and All,” Luca Guadagnino’s YA road movie about a couple of lost souls who happen to be cannibals (it’s adapted from the novel by Camille DeAngelis), is a film in which the characters behave very much like vampires. They blend into society, but they’re really a breed apart, with the ability to smell fresh meat (and one another) and a consuming desire to “feed.”

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” is a movie longer than its title, and maybe even more pretentious. It’s the first film that Alejandro G. Iñárritu (“Birdman,” “The Revenant”) has made in his native Mexico in 22 years, and you feel, in every scene, the sweat and ardor of his ambition. He wants to make an epic statement — about life and death, fiction and reality, history and imagination. He wants to make a confessional autobiographical fantasia about the fears and dreams hidden behind his façade as a famous and celebrated film director. He also wants to complement and compete with his fellow filmmaker and transplanted countryman Alfonso Cuarón, who in 2018 returned to Mexico and drew on his own life to make “Roma,” the world’s artiest Oscar-bait movie, getting it bankrolled by the deep pockets of Netflix. (“Bardo” is, if possible, an even artier Oscar-bait movie, also bankrolled by the deep pockets of Netflix.)

Venice Film Festival officially kicked off the fall Oscar race on Thursday afternoon with Todd Field’s “Tár,” a drama starring Cate Blanchett as a famous composer embroiled in a public scandal. The film was showered with an ecstatic six-minute standing ovation as the crowds at the Sala Grande Theatre kept chanting “Bravo!“ even surprising Blanchett at times.As Venice chief Alberto Barbera took her hand, Blanchett bowed — but the clapping went on. When the applause finally ended, a misty-eyed Blanchett turned to someone on her team and said: “Let’s get a drink.”Surely, Blanchett’s work in “Tár” will be one of the most toasted performances of Oscar season. The rave reviews for the film all but guarantee the actor, who has two Academy Awards acting wins, will land her eight Oscar acting nomination this winter.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Tár,” written and directed by Todd Field, tells the story of a world-famous symphony orchestra conductor played by Cate Blanchett, and let me say right up front: It’s the work of a master filmmaker. That’s not a total surprise. Field has made only two previous films, and the first of them, the domestic revenge drama “In the Bedroom” (2001), was languorous and lacerating — a small, compact indie-world explosion. His second feature, “Little Children” (2006), was, in my opinion, a misfire, though his talent was all over it. But “Tár,” the first film he has made in 16 years, takes Todd Field to a new level. The movie is breathtaking — in its drama, its high-crafted innovation, its vision. It’s a ruthless but intimate tale of art, lust, obsession, and power. It’s set in the contemporary classical-music world, and if that sounds a bit high-toned (it is, in a good way), the movie leads us through that world in a manner that’s so rigorously precise and authentic and detailed that it generates the immersion of a thriller. The characters in “Tár” feel as real as life. (They’re acted to richly drawn perfection down to the smallest role.) You believe, at every moment, in the reality you’re seeing, and it’s extraordinary how that raises the stakes.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic As a filmmaker, Noah Baumbach has always been a dyed-in-the-wool dramatic realist, talky coastal neurotic division. He hasn’t always been as good at it as he is today; “The Squid and The Whale” (2005), the divorce drama that established his reputation and is held in supremely high regard by many cinephiles, isn’t half the movie that “Marriage Story” is. The latter film was Baumbach’s culminating achievement after 25 years as a writer-director, and it brought his strengths to a new pitch of mastery: his ability to nail the dynamics of troubled relationships in all their frayed layers, his extraordinary skill with actors, and the nimble levity of his dialogue, which emerges from the human comedy as surely it did in the great films of Woody Allen and Paul Mazursky.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Just a little over a month after its initial theater release, Jordan Peele’s highly anticipated third feature film “Nope” will me made available to purchase digitally this Friday. The official social media accounts for the Universal film publicized the news this week, announcing that the movie will hit digital services on demand (such as Amazon and Apple) on Aug. 26. Although its price isn’t listed yet, it can be assumed that it’ll cost around $30 considering the price of other buzzy digital releases such as “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Rise of Gru.” The UFO thriller stars Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya as sibling, OJ and Emerald, who discover signs of alien life — namely a giant undulating flying saucer — on their horse ranch and attempt to photograph their ominous encounters in order to sell them and get rich. In order to catch the phantom spaceship on film, they call on the analog cinematographer Antlers Holst played by Michael Wincott. All the action is told through Peele’s racially conscious lens, focusing on the siblings’ hesitancy to tell authorities about their findings because of their general mistrust of mainstream white society.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. “Get your couches ready,” Chris Hemsworth wrote Monday morning on Instagram, announcing that “Thor: Love and Thunder” will be available to stream on Disney+ starting Sept.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Buckle up.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“Day Shift” is a vampire thriller stuffed with lock-and-load ultraviolence, starring Jamie Foxx in imperious badass mode. At heart, though, it’s a knowingly eccentric goof of a movie, to the point that it’s hard, for a while, not to find it agreeable, even as you register what a preposterous piece of fluff it is. Unfortunately, it’s also an arduous piece of fluff.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“Fall” is a very good “don’t look down” movie. It’s a fun, occasionally cheesy, but mostly ingeniously made thriller about two daredevil climbers, Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), who decide to scale the B67 TV tower — an abandoned 2,049-foot communication tower that juts up in the middle of the California desert, 23 miles from Sacramento.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorThe direct-to-Hulu release of “Prey,” the action-thriller prequel to “Predator,” notched the most viewing hours ever on the Disney-owned streamer in its first three days — among all TV series and movies.Disney decided to forgo a theatrical release for 20th Century Studios’ “Prey,” which premiered Aug. 5 on on Hulu in the U.S., as well as on Disney’s Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ under the Star banner in all other territories.Disney said “Prey” also was the most-watched film premiere on Star+ in Latin America and on Disney+ under the Star banner.However, as is often the case with streaming platforms, Hulu and Disney are not releasing the specific number of hours “Prey” was viewed.

Terry Flores Variety has been nominated for nine Folio: Eddie & Ozzie Awards, including best issue for Leaving the Kingdom, which looked at Robert Iger’s long tenure at the helm of Disney, and best website for Variety.com.The Leaving the Kingdom issue was published on Dec. 12, 2021, and featured a lengthy interview with Iger by then-Variety editor-in-chief Claudia Eller. Design of the issue was overseen by design director Ted Keller and art director Elliot Stokes, with photography overseen by visual content director Jennifer Dorn.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The infamous Predator gets a fresh update and an amazing new action hero (Amber Midthunder) in the prequel film out today. “Prey,” the fifth installment of the “Predator” franchise is now available to stream on Hulu.

Zack Sharf Sony’s comic book tentpole “Morbius” is one of the biggest flops of 2022. The film, starring Jared Leto in the title role, hoped to pull in audiences on the back of record-breaker “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” as it’s set in the same extended superhero universe. And yet, critics and audiences mostly ignored “Morbius” when it opened April 1.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“Prey,” a prequel in the “Predator” series, stands as proof that Hollywood today can make a socially conscious movie out of anything. I offer an advance apology to fans of this dogged franchise when I say that over the last 35 years, it would be hard to find a strain of sci-fi action cinema more trashy or degraded than the “Predator” films. The original “Predator,” directed by John McTiernan in 1987 (the year before he made “Die Hard”), was a what-are-we-going-to-do-with-Arnold-this-time? vintage-’80s Schwarzenegger combat showdown, and in its overwrought and derivative way it was reasonably well-made.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“DC League of Super-Pets” opens with a DC Films logo sequence — the full grand corporate prelude, with shuffling dark-toned images of Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. It’s a bit of a surprise to see this super-serious logo kick off an animated caper for kids, even if the film does have “DC” and “Super-Pets” in its title.

Wilson Chapman editorLena Dunham’s medieval kids comedy film “Catherine Called Birdy” is set to make its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival this September.Based on the 1994 children’s novel by Karen Cushman, “Catherine Called Birdy” is set in England during the year 1290, and focuses on Lady Catherine (Bella Ramsey), the youngest child of Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott) and Lady Aislinn (Billie Piper). When Catherine’s parents attempt to fix their financial woes by marrying her off to a wealthy man, she counteracts by scaring off her potentials suitors, resulting in tension between the spirited and independent young woman and her traditional parents.The cast also includes Lesley Sharp, Sophie Okonedo, Joe Alwyn, Isis Hainsworth, Dean-Charles Chapman and Paul Kaye, with Dunham appearing in a supporting role.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor“Nope” director Jordan Peele thought it might be taking things a little too far when a fan proposed he could be the best horror director of all time.“I know this is a hot take but at what point do we declare Jordan Peele the best horror director of all time?” wrote comic book creator Adam Ellis Wednesday morning on Twitter. “Can you think of another horror director that had 3 great films, let alone 3 in a row? I can’t.”Though he was flattered, Peele objected to being ranked ahead of one of his favorite veteran filmmakers, John Carpenter of “Halloween,” “Christine” and “The Thing” fame.“Sir, please put the phone down I beg you,” Peele tweeted in response.