Movies

While many of us were learning to bake sourdough during quarantine, the actors Zendaya and John David Washington filmed a whole movie — and in secret, no less. In July, Deadline broke the news that the two would star in the forthcoming romantic drama, Malcolm & Marie, written and directed by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, a project that came to life when production for the colorful HBO series was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the highly anticipated black-and-white film is headed for (computer) screens everywhere, after Netflix acquired the film at the Toronto International Film Festival marketplace, beating out HBO, Amazon, Apple, Focus Features, and more. The streaming giant paid an astounding $30 million, reportedly off promo alone. Come through, fa...

By Sara Radin “Do you have to be depressed to write a sad song?” teenager William Miller, played by Patrick Fugit, asks rock star Russell Hammond, played by Billy Crudup, backstage. “Do you have to be in love to write a love song? Is a song better when it really happened to you?” The scene in writer-director Cameron Crowe’s 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous is one of many in which William’s maturity breaks through his youthful exterior and wardrobe (think white t-shirts and misfit jeans). It’s 1973, and William has been given the opportunity of a lifetime — to profile Hammond’s rising band Stillwater for the cover of Rolling Stone. It’s a gig any writer, let alone a 15-year-old, would dream of, and William’s ditched school, along with his overbearing mother, to make it happen. ...

By Alex Gonzalez HBO Max’s latest film Unpregnant offers a timely update to the traditional road movie, which typically sees a group of friends in search of debaucherous adventures. In this case, ex-best friends Veronica (Haley Lu Richardson) and Bailey (Barbie Ferreira) set out for the former to get an abortion in secrecy. There is one particularly poignant scene about midway through the movie when, shortly before arriving at the clinic, the two get into an argument after Veronica’s classmates call her to tell her they solved the mystery of a telltale pregnancy test found in their school’s dumpster. While the test was Veronica’s, her friends insist that it’s Bailey’s. To save face, Veronica agrees — but Bailey overhears, leading her to ditch Veronica. Veronica follows, insisting that she’...

Timothée Chalamet is afraid. But he’s not letting the fear grip him. A trademark floppy-haired Chalamet anchors the new trailer for upcoming sci-fi epic Dune, wherein he broods about his future, wears a breathing tube to navigate inhospitable terrain, and even briefly locks lips with his co-star Zendaya, though it might just be a mirage. It all might be, in fact — the murky Dune epic follows Chalamet’s Paul Atreides as he navigates the interconnected politics of a new world while also coming of age. “The dream is, like, [for] the theater to be rocking,” Chalamet told MTV News’s Josh Horowitz in 2018 about then being in final negotiations for his lead role. “To work on something of that scale — I’m not afraid of the green screen-isms of it all,̶...

A little less than two weeks ago, the teaser trailer for Matt Reeves’s much-anticipated film The Batman dropped, letting fans into the gritty new world of Robert Pattinson as the titular Caped Crusader. Production shut down in March, when the coronavirus pandemic lockdown measures were first implemented, and the film’s release date was pushed back from July to October 2021. But this past week, production had resumed in studios outside London, eliciting excitement from fans. Now, though, production has reportedly been halted once again. Via Variety, Warner Bros. offered a brief explanation as to why: “A member of The Batman production has tested positive for Covid-19, and is isolating in accordance with established protocols. Filming is temporarily paused.” On Thursd...