Sentinel Screen
A filmmaking tool or an existential threat: Cannes Film Festival weighs the rise of AI
CANNES, France | The Cannes Film Festival can function like a global water cooler for movies, with prevailing issues and anxieties tending to come to the surface at the event. This year, the topic du jour is artificial intelligence. The 79th Cannes may go down as the time the world’s grandest film festival for the […]
Don’t sleep on ‘Is God Is,’ a primal scream of a movie inspired by Westerns and Greek tragedy
Aleshea Harris wrote “Is God Is” with the assumption that it would never be performed as a play, let alone turned into a movie. It was simply a story she needed to get onto the page: A tale of rage and revenge, an ancient Greek tragedy melded with Spaghetti Western tropes centered on contemporary Black […]
In Cannes standout ‘Fatherland,’ Sandra Hüller stuns again
CANNES, France | For Sandra Hüller, eruptions of emotion don’t come naturally. She prefers to be quiet and calm, and often her screen presence radiates intensity when she’s simply watching. But when she explodes — whether in grief or karaoke — she can be magnificent. “It’s not something that I like to do, particularly,” Hüller […]
Jane Schoenbrun’s queer slasher movie ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ jolts Cannes
CANNES, France | “A good electric chair” is how Jane Schoenbrun describes their first Cannes Film Festival premiere. “I really felt like my body was in a state of convulsion,” says Schoenbrun. The day after the premiere of “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” a bold, bloody queer slasher film starring Hannah Einbinder and […]
The breathless Korean sci-fi monster movie ‘Hope’ leaves the Cannes Film Festival floored
CANNES, France | Sprawling action movies with aliens do not generally compete for the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or. But Na Hong-jin’s “Hope” is not your average science fiction. Few movies were more anticipated in Cannes. It’s been 10 years since Na’s last film, the well-regarded 2016 thriller “The Wailing.” While some of Na’s fellow […]
What to Stream: John Krasinski, ‘Ladies First,’ Rod Stewart, Brooke Shields and a ‘Lego Batman’ game
John Krasinski returning as Jack Ryan in “Jack Ryan: Ghost War” for Prime Video and “Stranger Things” masterminds the Duffer Brothers producing a Netflix show in which a retirement community teams up to battle monsters are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming […]
Cannes and the Hôtel Martinez await a ‘White Lotus’ close-up
CANNES, France | Though many actors are appearing at the Cannes Film Festival this week, the best role in town might be a little further down the Croisette. Season 4 of “The White Lotus” will be set around the Cannes Film Festival, bringing one the most acclaimed TV series into the heart of cinema’s French […]
Movie Review: Sorry not sorry — ‘Is God Is’ stakes a claim for unapologetic female rage
As playwright Aleshea Harris tells it, something felt missing when she first sat down to write her searing and startling play “Is God Is,” which made waves off-Broadway in 2018. Harris was writing an epic story of Black female revenge, one that drew on Greek tragedy and mythology, but also spaghetti westerns and a liberal […]
Sandra Oh, Kumail Nanjiani among ‘A List’ Asian American, Pacific Islander names in new HBO doc
Director Eugene Yi has always been interested in the term Asian American and Pacific Islander and which ethnicities it includes. “When we’re talking about Asian Americans or Asian people in the U.S., oftentimes it’s people who might look like you and me, and maybe not people who look like (New York City Mayor) Zohran Mamdani,” […]
Peter Jackson receives honorary Palme D’Or as Cannes flaunts star power despite Hollywood’s retreat
CANNES, France | The 79th Cannes Film Festival opened Tuesday with politics, artificial intelligence and the shifting priorities of Hollywood taking center stage at the film gathering on the French Riviera. The festival launched with a tribute to director Peter Jackson, handing the “Lord of the Rings” filmmaker an honorary Palme d’Or. He was introduced […]