brightlight Archives

Sep152025 by cineverseNo Comments

Glenrothan’ Review: Brian Cox’s Overly Cozy Directorial Debut Needs a Good Belt of Whisky

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By Jessica Kiang According To The variety Complexity is key to the flavor profile of a good single-malt whisky. Top notes, middle notes and low notes, and different combinations of minerals, spices, smoke and salt make each sip trigger new associations before you even reach the peaty finish. “Glenrothan,” the directorial debut of Scottish actor Brian Cox, is set around a distillery nestled in the Highlands that has long produced a much-admired single-malt dram to an original recipe. So it’s unfortunate that the film itself is more like a bottom-shelf blend: easily drinkable, highly forgettable, bland. Worse still, it won’t get you even mildly buzzed. It is very quickly established, through shots of the pretty white distillery buildings and the wooded green hills made velvety b...

Sep152025 by cineverseNo Comments

Sacrifice’ Review: Virtue-Signaling Billionaires Dance on the Edge of a Volcano in Romain Gavras’ Scattershot Satire

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By Peter Debruge According To The variety How many rebellious movies about ganging up to overthrow the status quo does one need to make before uneasy governments start to put you on some kind of watch list? For Romain Gavras, son of the legendary “Z” director and political critic Costa-Gavras, the count now stands at three. First, there was his 2010 debut, “Our Day Will Come,” an unnerving call-to-action in which redheads inherit the earth, followed by the white-knuckle “Athena,” about an uprising in a Paris apartment bloc. Now comes the splashy “Sacrifice,” which takes a more satirical view of ecoterrorism and the end of days. “Sacrifice” feels like the music-video director’s reaction to Ruben Östlund’s brand of comedy, an elevated form of irony that has earned the Swedish directo...

Sep142025 by cineverseNo Comments

My litle Moon” Wins Best Film Award at the South Texas International Film Festival

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cineversedaily news Edinburg, Texas – September 13, 2025 | The feature film “My Little Moon”, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ali Atshani, has been awarded the prestigious Best Film Award at the 12th edition of the South Texas International Film Festival (STXIFF), held in Edinburg, Texas on Saturday, September 13th. The South Texas International Film Festival, founded in 2014, has become one of the most important cultural and cinematic events in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond. Over the past decade, the festival has built a strong reputation for showcasing diverse voices and innovative stories from both emerging and established filmmakers across the globe. Its mission is to provide a platform for independent cinema, bringing together artists and audiences in celebration of storytell...

Sep132025 by cineverseNo Comments

Hamnet,’ ‘Jay Kelly,’ ‘No Other Choice’ to Screen Texas Premieres at Austin Film Festival – Film News in Brief

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By Jazz Tangcay, Leia Mendoza, Andrew McGowan, Giana Levy According To The variety Austin Film Festival has announced the second wave of screenings set to premiere during this year’s festival lineup. The festival will run Oct. 23 to Oct. 30. Newly added Texas premieres will include Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler, Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice,” and the U.S. premiere of “Sacrificios.” his year’s world premieres are Kelly Kipscomb’s “Bite To Bite,” Jared Bonner and Josh Flanagan’s “Pickleheads,” following the world of pickleball, “Armadillo Man: The Trips of Jim Franklin,” the short bio-documentary about a concert poster artist who helped create the Austin musi...

Sep132025 by cineverseNo Comments

Oscar Predictions: Supporting Actress — Emily Blunt, Ariana Grande and Amy Madigan Stir an Unsettled Race

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By Clayton Davis According To The variety Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday. Oscars Best Supporting Actress Commentary (Updated Sept. 12, 2025): Any actress who feels like winning the supporting actress category, feel free. I have no i...

Sep132025 by cineverseNo Comments

Driver’s Ed’ Review: Bobby Farrelly’s Tame Throwback Exhumes, But Can’t Revive, the ’90s Teen Comedy

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By Jessica Kiang According To The variety Both an obvious product of ’90s nostalgia and the definitive cure for it, Bobby Farrelly‘s terminally innocuous “Driver’s Ed” can be described as a youth comedy, but whose youth? Though technically it is set in the current day, because smartphones exist and someone mentions Ritalin, the sensibilities of both director and screenplay (by Thomas Moffett) are so trapped in the past that the whole movie feels like a defrosted caveman sporting a pair of earbuds — which is essentially the plot of 1992’s “Encino Man,” apropos of nothing much except that after “Driver’s Ed,” all your comparisons will for a time gesture toward pre-millennial pop-cultural artifacts. It’s hard to remember that era being quite so unfunny, though, nor quite so ...

Sep92025 by cineverseNo Comments

Guillermo del Toro on Sunday Paintings With Other Directors and the Brutality and Grace of ‘Frankenstein’: ‘Both Can Exist in the Same Body

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By Clayton Davis According To The variety Guillermo del Toro doesn’t just direct monsters — he understands them. The Oscar-winning auteur behind “The Shape of Water” (2017) and “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006) has built a career elevating genre cinema through stories of misunderstood outsiders. But with his long-awaited adaptation of “Frankenstein,” the Mexican filmmaker has returned to what he calls his creative origin — and maybe his most personal film yet. “To me, the point of origin was ‘Frankenstein,’” del Toro tells Variety. “This is not a monster movie. This is a story about what it means to be human.” Del Toro’s take on Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel isn’t horror in the conventional sense — it’s myth, metaphor and opera. After decades in development, “Frankenstein” finally pr...