brightlight Archives

Jan272025 by cineverseNo Comments

Kiss of the Spider Woman’ Review: Jennifer Lopez Provides Welcome Escape From Grim World of Argentine Prisoners

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By Peter Debruge According To The variety Boundaries are constantly blurring in “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” the revolutionary mid-’80s film that became a Kander and Ebb musical, and that cunningly (and stunningly) morphs back to the big screen, courtesy of “Dreamgirls” director Bill Condon. Confined mostly to an Argentine detention facility in 1983, at the height of the country’s Dirty War, the show is the flip side of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita,” focusing on the brutal military regime that followed Eva Péron’s ouster. Bleak as that may sound, the musical finds rare shards of light — and an unlikely connection — in the most despairing of places. In every incarnation of Manuel Puig’s novel, cinema offers much-needed escapism from not only political injustice, but also the k...

Jan272025 by cineverseNo Comments

Jennifer Lopez Tears Up as Sundance Premiere of ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ Gets Standing Ovation: ‘I’ve Been Waiting For This Moment My Whole Life’

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By Rebecca Rubin, Brent Lang According To The variety Jennifer Lopez, outfitted in sparkling, webbed-up gown and sky-high black heels, fought back tears as “Kiss of the Spider Woman” was embraced at Sundance Film Festival with a standing ovation. She told the audience at Park City’s Eccles Theatre that starring in the musical adaptation fulfilled a lifelong dream. “I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” she said. “The reason I even wanted to be in this business is because my mom would sit me in front of the TV and [‘West Side Story’] would come on once a year. I was mesmerized and was like, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ This is the first time I actually got to do it. This man made my dream come true.” She’s referring to director Bill Condon, who has become a pre...

Jan262025 by cineverseNo Comments

Presence’ Writer David Koepp on That Devastating Ending, Steven Soderbergh Playing a Ghost and His Return to the ‘Jurassic’ Franchise

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By J. Kim Murphy According To The variety SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses the plot and ending of “Presence,” now playing in theaters. As with many ghost stories, the presence in “Presence” has a good reason to haunt its house. After watching on as the Payne family turns against one another, the Presence that drifts around their newly purchased, bougie abode makes a grand gesture to save its tattered residents. Looming above as the drugged Chloe (Callina Liang) is about to be murdered by her new boyfriend Ryan (West Mulholland), the ghost swoops downstairs to awaken her brother Tyler (Eddy Maday) from his own roofie-induced slumber. In a possessed rush, Tyler storms up the stairwell, down the corridor and enters the bedroom to tackle Ryan, who has already killed one of C...

Jan262025 by cineverseNo Comments

Box Office: ‘Flight Risk’ Gets Off the Ground With $4.4 Million Opening Day

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By J. Kim Murphy According To The variety Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg‘s “Flight Risk” is facing no traffic on the runway, lifting off to an easy No. 1 opening in what is turning out to be another sleepy weekend at the January box office. The Lionsgate thriller carried on $4.4 million from 3,161 locations across Friday and preview screenings. Even at that modest gross, it’ll be Lionsgate’s second No. 1 debut of the year after “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.” A three-day opening north of $11 million is now projected, though there’s potential turbulence ahead. NFL conference championships could keep a significant fraction of viewers out of theaters on Sunday, but the warning signs aren’t just outside multiplexes. Lionsgate held the review embargo for “Flight Risk” until preview s...

Jan252025 by cineverseNo Comments

Ricky’ Review: Powerful Sundance Drama About a Young Man Just Out of Prison Navigating a World of Booby Traps Establishes Rashad Frett as a Born Filmmaker

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By Owen Gleiberman According To The variety A dozen years ago, at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, I sat in the Eccles Theatre and watched “Fruitvale” (later entitled “Fruitvale Station”), Ryan Coogler’s true-life drama about Oscar Grant, a young man who was fatally shot by Bay Area police, even though he had done nothing. By the time the film ended, everyone in the audience knew that we’d seen something straight-up extraordinary, and that Coogler was a born filmmaker. When he got up on stage, he was ebullient — grateful for the response, but you could also see, as his words poured forth, that he was already bursting with the stories he wanted to tell. This, for a viewer (or critic), is the Sundance dream: to go into a film you know nothing about, and two hours later you’ve witness...

Jan252025 by cineverseNo Comments

Sterling K. Brown Is Finally No. 1 on the Call Sheet: The Actor on Hulu’s ‘Paradise,’ Turning Down ‘The Boys’ and Leaving Randall Pearson Behind

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By Jennifer Maas According To The variety Sterling K. Brown is done crying every week. Two days before Thanksgiving, Brown is sitting at a long table in a photo studio in Culver City, digging into a take-out lunch as he begins to break down the plot of his new Hulu drama series, “Paradise.” Brown chooses his words deliberately while simultaneously ramping up his energy to match his passion for the subject. It’s a significant departure from “This Is Us,” the NBC family drama that made Brown a star as fan-favorite character Randall Pearson, and was known for giving audiences a good weep. Though “Paradise” hails from the same creator and executive producer, Dan Fogelman, this series aims to provoke very different emotions in viewers. It’s a contemporary political thri...

Jan222025 by cineverseNo Comments

Abbott Elementary’ Renewed for Season 5 at ABC

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By Ethan Shanfeld According To The variety “Abbott Elementary” has made it to the fifth grade. Quinta Brunson’s scholastic sitcom has been renewed for Season 5 at ABC. Season 4 of “Abbott Elementary” is currently airing on Wednesdays on ABC at 8:30 p.m. ET and streaming the next day on Hulu. The series recently hit a viewership peak with 8.05 million people tuning in to its winter premiere, a crossover episode with “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” The show stars Brunson as Janine Teagues, Tyler James Williams as Gregory Eddie, Janelle James as Ava Coleman, Chris Perfetti as Jacob Hill, Lisa Ann Walter as Melissa Schemmenti, William Stanford Davis as Mr. Johnson and Sheryl Lee Ralph as Barbara Howard. The teachers, principal and custodian work together to educate unruly kids...