movie review THE LAST SHOWGIRL Running time: 85 minutes. Not yet rated. TORONTO — “I think I’ve been getting ready my whole life for this film,” Pamela Anderson told a rapt crowd after her new movie Friday night. The “Baywatch” star has definitely put in the hours for the part. In “The Last Showgirl,” which … Read more
Jennifer Lopez revealed to audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival the moving reason she was drawn to her new movie, “Unstoppable.” The star, 55, got personal during an audience Q&A on Friday following the premiere of the inspiring sports drama based on the true story of Anthony Robles, the NCAA champion wrestler born with … Read more
movie review THE APPRENTICE What sensible people, whose LinkedIn accounts don’t say “movie critic” anyway, would go see a film about Donald Trump right now? The former president and current candidate dominates the news cycle, and obnoxious impressions of him are ubiquitous — whether on late-night TV or at every party that serves booze. Why … Read more
movie review THE SUBSTANCE Running time: 140 minutes. Rated R (strong bloody violent content, gore, graphic nudity and language). In theaters Sept. 20. One question repeatedly popped into my mind during “The Substance,” an outrageous and beyond bizarre horror movie that had its North American premiere Thursday night at the Toronto International Film Festival. What’s … Read more
Jennifer Lopez isn’t letting her divorce from Ben Affleck get in the way of promoting the movie she made with her estranged husband. Lopez, 55, is reportedly “excited” to go to the Toronto International Film Festival this week to attend the premiere of “Unstoppable,” a sports drama she and Affleck co-produced, in which she plays … Read more
Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal’s annual Tribeca Festival, which opened Wednesday night and runs through June 16, will look a little different this year. For the first time, Tribeca will give awards to short films generated by artificial intelligence. It’s one of the entertainment industry’s first public embraces of the new technology, which many … Read more
It’s been a chilly summer at the movies. Stories about retail products, the atomic bomb, a revisionist doll and CGI Harrison Ford have gobbled up our attention, for better or worse, but not because any of those varied titles have much heart. Then there’s the “The Holdovers,” directed by Alexander Payne, which is set during … Read more
The greatest asset of the movie “One Life,” starring Anthony Hopkins, is the harrowing true story it’s based on. You might not immediately recognize the name Sir Nicholas Winton, but you have probably seen the viral YouTube video of an old man learning on live TV that the studio audience around him is made up … Read more
It’s been a banner year for underdog movies about seemingly unremarkable real-life events. The excellent “Air” and “BlackBerry” made the genesis of the Air Jordan sneaker and the world’s first smartphone seem weighty and epic — not to mention a lot of fun. The same cannot be said of the tedious “Dumb Money,” which premiered … Read more
Every comment was walking out the front door. Alt-rock group Nickelback discussed how they dealt with nearly two decades of mockery in their tell-all documentary “Hate to Love: Nickelback,” which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival this weekend, reports Entertainment Weekly. “Nobody picks up a guitar to be the most hated band in the world,” said … Read more
Hollywood loves nothing more than a true-crime story about a serial killer, but a new movie directed by Anna Kendrick does a number on that familiar genre. Rather than being about the monster himself, or even one of his victims, the film is centered around a person he did not murder — someone who got … Read more
It was supposed to be just another silly episode of “The Dating Game.” At a taping of the popular TV show in 1978, host Jim Lange introduced three male suitors who were there to be cutely questioned by a single woman, Cheryl Bradshaw, sitting on the other side of a partition. She was looking for … Read more
“Dicks: The Musical” has an extremely useful title. Your gut reaction to those three short words will help you decide whether you can stomach this loony A24 movie, which had its world premiere Thursday at the Toronto International Film Festival — or if it’ll make you retch. Trust your instincts, because the film itself, directed … Read more
“The Boy and The Heron,” director Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated fantasy that had its North American premiere Thursday at the Toronto International Film Festival, could be the legendary filmmaker’s saddest movie. We’re distraught from the start as little Mahito’s mom is about to die in a hospital fire after a bombing during World War II, … Read more