“Heated Rivalry” star Hudson Williams was tight-lipped on the Oscars red carpet, offering just one word to describe what the second season of the adored show has in store: “Sex.”   Williams, who shot to fame earlier this year for playing Shane Hollander in Crave’s steamy Canadian hockey romance, made his first-ever Oscars appearance on Sunday. […]

A queer coming-of-age story set in rural New Zealand, Paloma Schneideman’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry” is a fantastic feature debut atypical of films on awkward adolescence. Unfolding during an overcast December summer in the mid-2000s, its intentional plotless-ness comes wrapped in harsh moods and distinct visual palettes, complemented by a gentle (albeit unflinching) approach to […]

Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who was set to star in Hulu’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot as a new paranormal butt kicker, shared a video message on her Instagram Story Saturday afternoon after original star Sarah Michelle Gellar said the streamer was no longer moving forward with the sequel series. “I’m sure many of you have […]

Judy Pace, a pioneering model and actress known for her work in “Peyton Place,” “Brian’s Song,” “The Young Lawyers” and numerous films, has died. She was 83. Pace died in her sleep on March 11 while visiting family members in Marina del Rey, her family said in a statement. Pace was the first Black female […]

Josef Gatti tells us little that we don’t already know in “Phenomena,” and that’s pretty much the point. In his first feature-length documentary, the Australian takes a seductive, hyper-sensory approach to the kind of educational filmmaking that any sixth-grade science teacher would be glad to use as a classroom aid — and in so doing, […]

Adrian Grenier, who played Nate, the toxic boyfriend of Anne Hathaway’s up-and-coming fashion writer Andy in “The Devil Wears Prada,” recently told Page Six that “it was a disappointment” he wasn’t asked to return for “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” “We’re all fans of the movie, whether or not we’re in it,” he said. “Obviously, […]

One suspects the dinner table conversation about making “Family Movie” had to go a bit better for Kevin Bacon than for Jack Smith, the B-movie director he plays in this horror movie send-up. But the fear that Bacon has gathered everyone for something indulgent is quickly disabused in the silly and gory comedy where the […]

Matt Smith and Dan Gedman went to the same high school in Kansas City, but they became best friends when they joined the same fraternity at the University of Kansas. “We both loved movies,” Gedman says. “We went to see ‘Hoop Dreams’ together and there was a great art theater in Lawrence that would play things […]

Ask most celebrities what they do to get ready for the Oscars and they’ll tell you something about a visit to the gym, maybe getting a massage or having a healthy breakfast. But not Nicole Kidman. “This is crazy but I will go to church in the morning,” she told me Saturday night at the […]

Ahead of Hollywood’s Big Night, SNL’s “Weekend Update” featured “conservative commentator” Tucker Carlson, played by Alex Moffat, to talk about the “liberal politics influencing the awards too much.” “Why don’t we talk about “Sinners.’ That’s right, ‘Sinners,'” Moffatt’s Carlson says when asked his thoughts on this year’s leading best picture nominees. “Leftist woke America’s favorite […]

Harry Styles finally clapped back at the extensive criticism aimed at him for queerbaiting during his opening monologue on “Saturday Night Live.” He began the segment reminiscing about his last time hosting the show in 2019 and finishing his most recent tour in 2023. “Back then, people seemed to pay a lot of attention to […]

Between exploring new interests, engaging with new styles and making new friends, our young years are a searching pursuit of identity, and thus one of cinema’s enduring topics. That quest is very much at the heart of director Katie Aselton’s lovely coming-of-age drama “Their Town,” a familiar yet cozily comforting film about the soulful kinships […]

A documentary about citizen journalism in the digital age, Jennifer Holness and Sidney Fussell’s “#WhileBlack” uses, as its foundation, stories of police violence from the last decade — namely, the murders of Black civilians Philando Castle and George Floyd — but turns them into a scattered saga about too many disparate topics. Despite an occasional […]

While society’s unrealistic expectations for women and the impossible physical standards we are held up against are often discussed and critiqued, the similar pressures men face aren’t as widely talked about in culture. That’s understandable, since the misogynistic toxicity women deal with has age-old ramifications. But that’s not to say that men are spared from […]

Phil Campbell, the guitarist for the rock band Motörhead, died on Friday following a battle in intensive care after a major operation. He was 64.  His death was confirmed in a statement posted to the Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons Instagram account.  “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our […]

Harry Styles will serve as the host and musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” tonight, March 13. Styles, whose gig this week marks his second time pulling double duty on the NBC sketch comedy series, will sing songs from his new album “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.,” which dropped last week. The episode airs tonight […]

After honoring Michel Gondry, Joanna Quinn and Matt Groening last year, the Annecy Animation Film Festival has unveiled its first 2026 Honorary Cristal recipient.  Prolific producer, writer and animator Mike Judge, co-creator of “King of the Hill” and creator of “Beavis and Butt-Head,” will receive the Honorary Award during this year’s edition, which takes place […]

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of “The Madison” Season 1, now streaming on Paramount+. For a legendary actor like Michelle Pfeiffer, it seems unthinkable that she would accept a starring role in a TV series without even seeing a script. Then again, it’s a bit different when the offer comes […]

There’s a shamelessly bad crime procedural that Jimmy (Charlie Day) has on in the background as he awakens in a hospital from a near-death experience in “Kill Me.” Its appearance is brief, but significant as he starts to make sense of what happened to him after waking up in a bathtub full of his own […]

At this fraught moment in our culture, it comes as a small surprise that a movie called “Drag” is not about the terrors of “gender ideology,” nor the apparent threat to Western civilization of people dressing up in garb generally associated with the opposite sex. Instead, writer-directors Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer’s debut feature draws […]

A timely dark comedy wrapped in Islamophobic paranoia, Kevin Hamedani’s “The Saviors” has genre twists and turns that ultimately lose steam, but they retain enough symbolic meaning to avoid falling apart. The movie follows a suburban California couple with a strained marriage, who lease their guest house to mysterious Middle Eastern neighbors, whose behavior they […]

The Shaggs may be the unlikeliest group since the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll to have attracted a cult of hundreds of thousands or even millions of fans, all of whom take their place on different parts of the ironic-to-sincere appreciation scale. Were Dorothy, Betty and Helen Higgin, who comprised this late ’60s/early ’70s trio, […]

NBUniversal’s Peacock streamer is revving up a number of new technology innovations that will roll out on the platform, including plans for an AI-powered Andy Cohen Avatar who will guide viewers through Bravo’s big library of series as well as recommend new shows. Cohen spoke Sunday at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas on Sunday […]

Just one day after hosting and performing on “Saturday Night Live,” Harry Styles has debuted atop the albums chart with his latest “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.” Styles’ latest album becomes his fourth to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The record earned 430,000 equivalent album units, the highest debut since Taylor […]

The 98th Academy Awards are finally here, and many of the major categories are seemingly still up for grabs after a long and unpredictable awards season. Ryan Coogler’s vampire drama “Sinners” enters the night with a record-breaking 16 nominations, the most of any film in Oscars history. It will face tough competition from fellow Warner […]

All hail Ghostface. Paramount’s slasher sequel “Scream 7” is officially the highest-grossing installment in the long-running franchise with $176.9 million, overtaking the lifetime hauls of the original 1996 “Scream” ($173 million) and 1997 sequel “Scream 2” ($172 million), not adjusted for inflation. Those ticket sales for “Scream 7” include $70.4 million at the international box […]

Now it can be revealed: “Firefly” is indeed coming back, sorta. Star Nathan Fillion, who had been teasing some sort of revival of the cult hit series — which lasted less than one season, and then returned as a movie — will be an animated show. According to Deadline, which broke the news, Marc Guggenheim […]

“I’ve made many wishes, but none have ever come true.” That line, written by a teenage girl in China’s remote Liangshan region, became the starting point for “Whispers in May,” the hybrid documentary by Emmy-nominated Chinese director Dongnan Chen (“14 Paintings,” “Singing in the Wilderness,” “Sound of Vision”), which will world premiere in the main […]

Vince Vaughn stars opposite himself in the action comedy “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice,” an R-rated gangster movie that had SXSW in stitches during its Saturday night world premiere. Out March 27 on Hulu, the film, directed by BenDavid Grabinski, follows mobster Nick (Vaughn), who travels back in time so that Future Nick […]

“Saturday Night Live” has announced its latest host and musical guest, and it will be the rockin’ duo of Jack Black as host and Jack White as musical guest on April 4. “SNL” kicked off it’s 51st season in October 2025, with hosts and musical guests including Bad Bunny and Doja Cat, Amy Poehler and […]

It’s a bloody cat-and-mouse game of the most extreme kind — a spectacle of sadistic survivalism gone mad, all staged with a logistically brutal joy.

In 2005, a San Jose woman found a human finger in her Wendy’s chili. Well, she claimed to. When it was discovered that she planted the finger in the bowl herself for financial gain, she was sentenced to nine years in prison for the scam that cost the fast-food chain millions. Edd Benda and Stephen […]

What if an American ballerina quintet was dropped into a mob flick in Central Europe? Director Vicky Jewson answers this question in “Pretty Lethal,” at first with aplomb, but eventually with all the follies this setting implies, and few of the imaginative strengths. The film does a small handful of things rather well, so it […]

Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t know she was about to take on three more “Halloween” movies when she said yes to David Gordon Green’s 2018 film, the sequel to her 1978 film. During a SXSW panel titled, “If Not Now, When, if Not Me, Who? Pivoting and Manifesting,” Curtis opened up about filmmaking and her career […]

The “Pluribus” costume designer almost had a very easy job. On a panel at SXSW, while discussing his Apple TV sci-fi hit, Vince Gilligan said he considered that the hundreds of characters that make up the hive mind should be naked. “We talked about [how] they didn’t need to wear clothes at all, but we’re […]

Now that UFC 326 has ended with Charles Oliveira winning the “BMF” title against Max Holloway, the league turns to UFC Fight Night: Emmett vs. Vallejos for up-and-coming fighters to breakout and grow in the ranks. One day, these fighters are going to be considered contenders for the UFC Featherweight Championship title belt. The main […]

The reboot of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is not moving forward at Hulu, Variety has confirmed. Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed the news on Instagram. “I am really sad to have to share this, but I wanted you all to hear it from me. Unfortunately, Hulu has decided not to move forward with ‘Buffy: New Sunnydale,'” […]

Disney and Pixar’s animal adventure “Hoppers” is holding strong in its second weekend, but it was Universal’s teary romance “Reminders of Him” that took the top spot on Friday. “Reminders of Him,” the third big-screen adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel, grossed $8 million on Friday from 3,402 North American locations. The domestic total is […]

In her sophomore feature “My Father Killed Bourguiba,” Tunisian filmmaker Fatma Riahi examines her father’s role in a failed plot to overthrow the country’s first president, exploring how his political choices impacted the family after his imprisonment and how that’s shaped the course of her life.  The film, which is produced by Riahi in co-production […]

Much has been theorized about how “Jackass,” the MTV stunt show from the early 2000s that spawned multiple movies and enthralled a generation of young people with its gross-out and pain-inducing antics, exhibits an absurdist version of hyper-masculinity and genuine camaraderie. These men hit each other relentlessly, put their bodies at risk, and reveled in […]

This is a terrific story because of how much we believe it. Rudd makes Rick a fully felt presence, a gifted musician with a dad-rock swagger about him, who's suddenly lost in the despair of seeing his dream of pop success achieved, only it's now a nightmare. Talk about a mix of emotions!

The Oscars are here, and Hollywood’s biggest stars are walking the red carpet. From couture gowns to colorful tuxedos, celebrity glam squads are pulling out all the stops. Teyana Taylor had her final dress fitting on Saturday, following one that took place earlier in the week in Paris. “Oh, my God, it’s going to be […]

A $1 billion dispute over dozens of masterpieces involving a Russian oligarch, a Swiss art dealer and one of the world’s most powerful auction houses takes center stage in “The Oligarch and the Art Dealer,” Andreas Dalsgaard and Christoph Jörg’s three-part documentary series premiering in full this week at CPH:DOX. The pilot episode debuted earlier […]

Polish filmmaker Michał Marczak’s “Closure,” which follows a father’s obsessive search for his vanished son and its devastating aftermath, won the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival on Sunday. An International Competition jury comprised of film editor Dana Bunescu, curator, programmer, producer and creative executive Caroline Libresco and producer Yorgos Papalios handed the festival’s […]

Artists4Ceasefire has a new pin badge just in time for the 2026 Oscars ceremony. With just hours to go until the 98th Academy Awards, the collective of actors, filmmakers and other artists — which as per its description has been calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis since […]

With the Oscars Sunday night, it’s time to get your viewing plans in order. The 98th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 15, at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET at the Dolby Theater at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles. Conan O’Brien returns for a second year to host the awards ceremony.  The ceremony […]

Colleen Hoover is once again proving her box office prowess. Universal’s romantic drama “Reminders of Him,” the author’s latest best-seller to land on the big screen, impressed with $18.2 million from 3,402 North American theaters. Those ticket sales are notably above pre-release expectations of $10 million to $12 million. The film earned $10 million from […]

When Oscar-nominated director Richard Rowley (“Dirty Wars”) first set out to make a documentary about the Russian state-funded private mercenary faction The Wagner Group, he believed he was chronicling a specific phenomenon. As his research progressed, he realized the film was about something much bigger: how the crumbling of our modern notion of democracy has […]

In “Hokum,” a new supernatural horror outing from Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy, an American writer, Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott), finds himself on the verge of finishing his popular book series about a conquistador with a bleak ending. McCarthy opens the film in the desert with the conquistador from Ohm’s imagination about to commit murder. The […]

Donald Trump stormed the cold open of “Saturday Night Live” this week as a family attempted to manage rising gas prices on a road trip. The segment in the March 14 episode began with Mikey Day, Ashley Padilla, Marcello Hernández and Sarah Sherman as a family on a road trip looking at the rising gas […]

The catchy premise motoring “Sender,” a story about a harried woman who moves into a rental home and quickly becomes inundated with packages she didn’t order, transforms beyond its simple, straightforward hook. Writer-director Russell Goldman re-fashions the puzzle box constraints of his short “Return to Sender” into an intricately-faceted feature, making way for a deep […]

Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas rocked SXSW with “Power Ballad,” the latest music-themed comedy film from “Once” and “Sing Street” director John Carney. The movie follows Rick Power (Rudd), a wedding band singer who stumbles into a late-night jam session with former boy band star Danny (Jonas) and reignites his passion for songwriting. But Danny […]

Paramount Pictures and Hasbro are not moving forward with a take on a new G.I. Joe movie from screenwriter Max Landis, multiple sources told Variety. Landis, son of “Trading Places” director John Landis, was engaged by the studio and the toymaker earlier this year for a script treatment surrounding the iconic action figures. New film […]

FCC chairman Brendan Carr wrote on X Saturday that broadcasters need to “correct course” or risk losing their broadcasting licenses, citing Donald Trump’s recent displeasure with the mainstream media’s coverage of the Iran War. “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to […]

As Spain’s Malaga Festival rounds its final bend, its verdict on business is coming into focus: Spanish films sparked solid buyers’ interest while the festival MAFF co-production forum hinted at a maturer pipeline of arthouse projects now emerging from Latin America. A handful of titles have surfaced more consistently than others in festival conversation, among […]

Variety’s Publisher and Co-President Dea Lawrence and SimpliSafe’s Chief Product Officer Hooman Shahidi took to the stage to talk about proactive protection at Variety’s inaugural True Crime Summit presented by Investigation Discovery at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, on Friday.  During the panel, aptly titled “Stopping the Story Before It Starts,” Lawrence and Shahidi […]

Dolly Parton gave a keynote speech on Friday at the opening day of her Tennessee theme park, Dollywood, during which she gave an update about her health and her life following the death of her husband of 58 years, Carl Dean. “I’ve not been touring, as you know,” Parton said in a video of the […]

Hailed by Variety as a standout at this year’s Panorama program at Berlin, Joaquín del Paso’s “The Garden We Dreamed” took best picture, direction, cinematography (Gökhan Tiryaki) at the Malaga Festival, which closes Saturday night with an Awards ceremony. Further top plaudits went to Spain’s“I Won’t Die For Love,” a Golden Biznaga for best Spanish […]

During his final season with the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan won his sixth NBA Championship after defeating the Utah Jazz. At the height of his career in Chicago, Jordan retired from the NBA for the second time in his career. For his “last dance” with the Bulls, MJ was wearing a pair of Nike Air […]

Ice Cube’s “War of the Worlds” dominated at the 46th Razzie Awards, (reluctantly) taking home the dishonors for worst picture, worst actor and more. Ice Cube beat out Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye (“Hurry Up Tomorrow”), Dave Bautista (“In the Lost Lands”), Scott Eastwood (“Alarum”) and Jared Leto (“Tron: Ares”) for the undesirable worst actor award. […]