How an iconic New York video store wound up tied to the mafia in Sicily

How an iconic New York video store wound up tied to the mafia in Sicily

For nearly 30 years, Kim’s Video and Music, across five downtown locations, was a haven for NYC movie lovers offering a trove of 55,000 often rare, otherwise unfindable titles. After the most famous location, Mondo Kim’s on St. Marks Place in the East Village closed in early 2009, the massive collection went on a wild … Read more

The 5 best movies of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

The 5 best movies of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

PARK CITY, Utah — Every January, just when we’re all sick of yakking about the same 10 Oscar movies, the Sundance Film Festival arrives like a bucket of ice water over the head. The buzzy indie fest, in the cute but eye-gougingly expensive ski town of Park City, Utah, wakes us up and sets the … Read more

Anne Hathaway hits the red carpet with snatched cheeks and jaw

Anne Hathaway hits the red carpet with snatched cheeks and jaw

Anne Hathaway looked quite fresh faced recently at the Sundance Film Festival and at Paris fashion week. But it might not just be the mountain air or good croissants that made her glow. The 40-year-old Oscar winner looked noticeably youthful — her skin glowing and face chiseled — on the film festival’s red carpets and … Read more

Sundance review: Anne Hathaway seduces and scares in ‘Eileen’

Sundance review: Anne Hathaway seduces and scares in ‘Eileen’

PARK CITY, Utah — No one likes being lied to or manipulated … unless it’s at the movie “Eileen,” which premiered Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival. Director William Oldroyd’s mouth-watering drama, based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s acclaimed novel, misleads and misdirects all the way to the shocker ending. Like some dark choose-your-own-adventure story, it’s easy … Read more

NC-17 ‘Infinity Pool’ at Sundance shocks with orgies, executions, money shot

NC-17 ‘Infinity Pool’ at Sundance shocks with orgies, executions, money shot

The Sundance Film Festival’s depraved talker this year is “Infinity Pool” by director Brandon Cronenberg.  Although reports from Sunday night’s premiere screening — appropriately in the Midnight program — said there were no major walkouts, there were ample bodily fluids. In one scene, Alexander Skarsgård’s character ejaculates, with his member in full view of the … Read more

Sundance review: ‘Theater Camp’ is an indie gem for Broadway geeks

Sundance review: ‘Theater Camp’ is an indie gem for Broadway geeks

PARK CITY, Utah — “Theater Camp,” which premiered Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival, brings to mind another comedy that debuted here years ago: “Wet Hot American Summer.” Nobody goes on a heroin-fueled rampage through town this time — too bad — but what both sleepaway movies share is that they’re more about the counselors … Read more

Michael J. Fox reminisces on 30-year friendship with Christopher Lloyd

Michael J. Fox reminisces on 30-year friendship with Christopher Lloyd

Great Scott! Michael J. Fox and his “Back to the Future” co-star Christopher Lloyd caused a blast from the past when they appeared at New York’s fabled Comic Con in October. The emotional duo chatted about their friendship and how it didn’t really take shape until the franchise’s third film, reports Variety. “Chris is a … Read more

Sundance premiere ‘Cat Person’ a cinematic litter box serving cheap ‘thrills’

Sundance premiere ‘Cat Person’ a cinematic litter box serving cheap ‘thrills’

PARK CITY, Utah — The movie “Cat Person,” which premiered Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival, should be called “Camp Person.” Because gone is the deceptively simple, resonant, viral New Yorker short story about the pitfalls of dating in the age of the internet that touched a cultural nerve in 2017, and in its place … Read more

Sundance Film Festival jury walks out over failure to provide subtitles for deaf juror

Sundance Film Festival jury walks out over failure to provide subtitles for deaf juror

This was not the standing ovation the filmmakers wanted. Jury members for the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition walked out of the premiere of “Magazine Dreams” Friday after the festival failed to provide subtitles for deaf and hearing-impaired audiences — including judge Marlee Matlin, reports Variety. Several of the judges — including Jeremy Harris, Eliza … Read more

Brooke Shields talks nude scenes at age 11, on-set abuse in ‘Pretty Baby’

Brooke Shields talks nude scenes at age 11, on-set abuse in ‘Pretty Baby’

PARK CITY, Utah — It’s easy to forget that actress Brooke Shields was performing nude scenes in major films at 11 years old. But the new Hulu documentary “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” which premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival, reveals the actress was objectified and mistreated by Hollywood and the media in a manner … Read more

How a yoga studio turned into a murderous doomsday cult that drank blood

How a yoga studio turned into a murderous doomsday cult that drank blood

PARK CITY, Utah — In the 1980s, Shoko Asahara recruited young Japanese men and women to his little yoga and meditation group. By 1995, the man had devolved into a dangerous cult leader, selling vials of his own blood for followers to drink, and acquiring and manufacturing weapons of mass destruction to prepare for the … Read more

Brooke Shields reveals post-college rape in ‘Pretty Baby’ doc: ‘I froze’

Brooke Shields reveals post-college rape in ‘Pretty Baby’ doc: ‘I froze’

In her new documentary “Pretty Baby,” Brooke Shields reveals she was raped as a young woman. In the two-part film, which premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival, Shields, 57, did not name her alleged attacker, but she shared details of the assault, which she says occurred shortly after she graduated from Princeton University in … Read more

Michael J. Fox hid Parkinson’s for years and drank to cope: ‘I was an alcoholic’

Michael J. Fox hid Parkinson’s for years and drank to cope: ‘I was an alcoholic’

PARK CITY, Utah — A powerful new documentary goes inside Michael J. Fox’s decades-long struggle with Parkinson’s disease, and depicts the “Back to the Future” star’s enormous optimism in the face of hardship. “The walking really freaks people out,” the 61-year-old actor says after a stroll on the streets of Manhattan about the difficulties he … Read more

Michael J. Fox after Sundance standing ovation: ‘It’s an amazing f–king life’

Michael J. Fox after Sundance standing ovation: ‘It’s an amazing f–king life’

Michael J. Fox received a long standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival, where a new documentary about his life, career and struggle with Parkinson’s disease called “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” had its world premiere on Friday.  The “Back to the Future” and “Family Ties” star said he was particularly moved to see … Read more

Sundance review: Sweet classroom drama ‘Radical’ will leave you sobbing

Sundance review: Sweet classroom drama ‘Radical’ will leave you sobbing

PARK CITY, UTAH — The 2023 Sundance Film Festival kicked off Thursday with the sublimely moving “Radical,” a Spanish-language gem about a real teacher’s impact on a poor Mexican border town. Yes, the professor-shaking-up-students shtick has been done on-screen many times before, from “Dead Poets Society” to “To Sir, With Love” and “Sister Act 2: … Read more

Sundance review: Emilia Clarke hatches an egg — again — in ‘Pod Generation’

Sundance review: Emilia Clarke hatches an egg — again — in ‘Pod Generation’

PARK CITY, UTAH — The Mother of Dragons becomes the Mother of an Artificially Grown Fetus in “The Pod Generation,” a wobbly new science-fiction comedy that premiered Thursday night at the Sundance Film Festival. Emilia Clarke from “Game of Thrones” stars in the satire of our increasingly close relationship with technology as Rachel, a futuristic … Read more