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Freaks Controversy Explained: Was Tod Browning’s 1932 Horror Movie Exploitative Or Progressive? MGM By Caroline Madden/Sept. 6, 2022 11:18 am EST “Freaks” is one of the most impactful films ever made about humanity’s cruelty and the power of solidarity. It tells the story of a beautiful but conniving trapeze artist named Cleopatra who plans to seduce and murder Hans, a circus sideshow performer and a person of short stature, for his inheritance....

Pinocchio throughout the years New Line Cinema While the Walt Disney Company is responsible for arguably the most well-known retelling of Carlo Collodi’s novel, a variety of other creatives have tried their hand at the tale of a wooden boy with a nose that grows from dishonesty. In fact, Disney wasn’t even the first studio to try and bring the puppet boy to life. Italy has been producing Pinocchio stories since the advent of the moving picture, with Giulio Antamoro responsible for the first cinematic adaptation in a live-action silent film of the same name released in 1911....

House Of The Dragon Star Olivia Cooke Also Had Difficulty Telling Rhaenyra’s Children Apart HBO Max By Rafael Motamayor/Oct. 25, 2022 12:54 pm EST “House of the Dragon” really surpassed all expectations and ended its first season on a highly satisfying note. The “Game of Thrones” prequel is highly entertaining, with stunning production design that makes the world of Westeros feel like a lived-in place, great political intrigue that captures the best of early “Game of Thrones,” some stunning dragon violence that reminds you they are flying, sentient nuclear weapons, and even a cool anime character....

Jordan Peele’s Most Brutal Movie Moments Ranked Universal Pictures By Bee Delores/Aug. 2, 2022 12:38 pm EST With his third feature film, “Nope,” filmmaker Jordan Peele unequivocally cements his place on the Mount Rushmore of modern horror craftsmen. Alongside other notable names like Ari Aster and Robert Eggers, Peele crafts terrifying tales that both pay tribute to the past and forge a clear path ahead. He is nothing if not bold and ambitious in his approach....

Whither the Niners? Paramount The final episode of “Deep Space Nine” — “What You Leave Behind” (May 31, 1999) — was set in the year 2375. This season of “Lower Decks,” is set in the year 2383. Although an entire TV series worth of events could have happened in that eight-year span, DS9 seems to be as mellow a place as when last audiences saw it. Colonal Kira is still in charge, and Quark is still running the station tavern....

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Freshman Year: 5 Things We Learned From The Comic-Con Panel Marvel By Ryan Scott/July 22, 2022 9:53 pm EST One of the unique things about Tom Holland’s version of Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that we didn’t see his origin story. When we meet him in “Captain America: Civil War,” he has already been Spider-Man for a little bit and is being recruited by Tony Stark for bigger, better things....

One Of The Empire’s Most Diabolical Acts In Andor Is Pretending To Respect The Culture Of Others Disney+ By Marcos Melendez/Oct. 12, 2022 3:02 pm EST Spoilers ahead for the sixth episode of “Andor.” “Andor” pays off weeks of set-up in stunning fashion with a climactic, action-packed episode at the midpoint of the show’s first season. After getting to know the crew stationed at Aldhani, Cassian and this team of rebels execute the long-awaited mission to steal from the Empire, and it’s just as hectic as we expected....

Saturday Night Live Loses Three More Cast Members Before Season 48 Begins NBC By Ethan Anderton/Sept. 1, 2022 4:19 pm EST At the end of the 47th season of “Saturday Night Live” earlier this year, the late-night sketch comedy series lost some longtime key players. Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, and Pete Davidson were all given a farewell on the season finale back in May, but now The Hollywood Reporter has learned that three more cast members are leaving “SNL” before the show’s 48th season begins....

The ‘Terrifying’ Concept That Lead To Benson And Moorhead’s Something In The Dirt XYZ Films By Erin Brady/Dec. 4, 2022 3:00 pm EST In 1938, Orson Welles terrified CBS Radio listeners with his adaptation of “The War of the Worlds.” Despite clarifying before and during the broadcast that the radio drama was a work of pure fiction, Welles’ play-by-play recount of a fictitious alien invasion famously caused a brief bout of mass hysteria....

The Daily Stream: After Life Gives Life Meaning Engine Film By Witney Seibold/Nov. 21, 2022 1:00 pm EST (Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching, why it’s worth checking out, and where you can stream it.) The Movie: After Life Where You Can Stream It: The Criterion Channel The Pitch: Is there art after death? Hirokazu Kore-eda presents an afterlife that doesn’t just contain movies but is constructed entirely around their making....

The Watcher Trailer: A Creepy True Story Gets The Ryan Murphy Treatment Netflix By Valerie Ettenhofer/Sept. 24, 2022 3:03 pm EST It’s about time that the Watcher house got the horror series treatment. The true story of a family who moved into a New Jersey home only to be instantly plagued by creepy letters from an anonymous stalker calling themselves The Watcher first hit the mainstream in 2018, when a New York Magazine story tried to get to the bottom of the eerie phenomenon....

The Witcher: Blood Origin Review: An Entertaining Fantasy Folk Tale That Will Tickle Witcher Fans Lilja Jonsdottir/Netflix By Vanessa Armstrong/Dec. 11, 2022 7:01 pm EST “The Witcher: Blood Origin” is a folk tale, but it’s not just any folk tale set in “The Witcher” world. It’s a story a mysterious entity tells to everyone’s favorite bard, Jaskier (Joey Batey), and it’s a tale about events that took place 1,200 years before Henry Cavill’s Geralt sardonically lazed about in hot tubs....

They/Them Review: A Fright Free Slasher That Completely Misses The Mark Peacock By Barry Levitt/July 28, 2022 2:00 pm EST Welcome to Whistler Camp, whose motto is to “Respect, Renew, Rejoice.” It’s located in a quiet forest, and a group of queer teenagers has arrived. This isn’t your typical summer camp — in fact, it’s a conversion therapy camp, designed to force LGBT+ people to live inauthentic, miserable lives. “Gay people are a-ok with me,” promises Camp director Owen Whistler (Kevin Bacon), offering a different approach to the relentless cruelty normally found in conversion therapy — or is it simply a way to disarm the teens for what’s to come?...

Watch the Wendell & Wild trailer What’s cool about “Wendell & Wild” is that the story is pretty unique and special, while being packaged in quite a familiar container. When you watch the new trailer, it’s hard not to be hit directly with some serious nostalgia. Selick is responsible for two very culturally significant and heavily stylized stop motion features in the past: the classic, legendary, and iconic “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (yes, in my opinion, those adjectives are worth using) and the terrifying tale of “Coraline....

How Delphine Chanéac got her start TF1 Delphine Chanéac has been acting professionally on screen since she was a teenager, getting her start in one-off roles on television and frequently appearing in French arthouse films. Her breakthrough role came in 2002, when she played Pauline on the popular teen series, “La Vie Devant Nous.” Despite the show only lasting for one season, the series made a massive impact on French teen culture, and could be viewed as the French contemporary to shows like “Dawson’s Creek” or even “Skins....

Why On The Waterfront Needed Unknowns To Fill Its Most Important Roles Columbia Pictures By Mike Shutt/Sept. 3, 2022 6:30 pm EST There is an old adage about filmmaking that says 90% of the director’s job is casting. The reasoning behind this comes from the fact that during a fictional, narrative feature, the audience will spend the vast majority of the time looking at the faces on screen. The characters are our entry point to the cinematic world laid out in front of us....

A Disastrous Screen Test Didn’t Stop Ava Gardner From Becoming A Movie Star MGM By Sarah Musnicky/Oct. 16, 2022 8:00 am EST It’s hard to believe that Hollywood legend Ava Gardner almost didn’t make the cut as an actress. Most known for her roles in “The Barefoot Contessa,” the Ernest Hemingway-penned “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” and “The Killers,” the actress knew how to court controversy. Tabloids loved her for her messy life offscreen — not too spicy by today’s standards, but was controversial in an era when women were meant to be quiet and not ruffle any feathers....

Nancy Wilson’s own personal school of rock DreamWorks Pictures Obviously, because Nancy Wilson is a rock goddess herself — she’s the guitarist for the rock band Heart — she’s an expert on the rock-and-roll lifestyle. This is probably why, alongside writing the music for “Almost Famous,” Wilson was also tasked with making sure Billy Crudup and Jason Lee not only looked the part but knew how to behave like their characters, as well....

A natural warrior Sony Pictures Perhaps Chris Farley’s best skill was his physical comedy. For a large guy, he could move around extremely gracefully, and he would often use his physical size to the benefit of gags, like his famous “fat guy in a little coat” bit from “Tommy Boy.” It was because of this surprising agility that, when he was sent to train for “Beverly Hills Ninja,” he impressed everyone with his ninja fighting aptitude....

David Krumholtz Will Play Bernard In The Santa Clause TV Series Walt Disney Pictures By Jeremy Mathai/July 27, 2022 3:41 pm EST The year is 2050. The oceans have boiled away, humanity’s last surviving remnant of survivors roam the barren wilderness as rival gangs, and Disney is about to release the latest nostalgia-infused legacy sequel/remake/revival series in their vast library … and it’ll somehow make a billion dollars worldwide. We’re long past the point where complaining about Disney’s (lack of) imagination when it comes to greenlighting original projects vs familiar IP will do anyone any good....