cinema Archives

Feb32025 by cineverseNo Comments

Magic Farm’ Review: Acerbic Comedy About Culture Clash Follows Clueless Americans in Small-town Argentina

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By Carlos Aguilar According To The variety Cumbia music is the one grounding constant in Argentine-born Spanish filmmaker Amalia Ulman’s sophomore effort “Magic Farm,” a formally radical, biting satire about odious, privileged Americans adrift in a remote Argentine rural town. The group of foreigners works for a Vice-type media company dedicated to exploiting offbeat stories from around the world for sensationalist video content. The latest target for their culture-mining operation is Super Carlitos, a whimsical singer known for wearing bunny ears, residing in the town of San Cristobal. Unbeknown to useless producer Jeff (Alex Wolff of “Hereditary” fame), a place with that name could be anywhere in Latin America. With the same uncomfortably dry sense of humor she exhibited in her deb...

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

Mad Bills to Pay’ Review: Soon-to-Be Father in the Bronx Struggles to Stay the Course in Impressively Acted Vérité Drama

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By Carlos Aguilar According To The variety Watching a friend be berated by his mother or witnessing a couple’s heated public argument comes with the uncomfortable feeling that one is intruding in a private matter. Those outbursts of emotion, often reserved for the eyes and ears of those involved, are magnified via a potent cinematic voice in writer-director Joel Alfonso Vargas’ impressively conceived and superbly acted social realist debut “Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo).” Expanded from the short film “May It Go Beautifully for You, Rico” which premiered in 2024, “Mad Bills” opens with a title card that warns “the working man is a sucker,” a succinct adage that encompasses the verité drama’s thematic essence: the tug of war between a person’s agency over t...

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

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni Feud: ‘A Pure PR Play’ With Real Legal Stakes

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By Gene Maddaus According To The variety In footage from the set of “It Ends With Us,” Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively engage in a polite, even friendly, discussion about how to show their characters falling in love. Should they kiss? Or is it more romantic for them to talk? He smiles. She laughs. Yet, they were growing to despise each other. She thought Baldoni — the co-star, director, and studio head — was overstepping her boundaries; he felt she couldn’t take direction. That simple interaction from May 2023 — which might in other circumstances have been marked down to “creative differences” — has flourished over the last month into an all-out legal war, leading to a civil rights complaint and four lawsuits (so far). In this still-unfolding controvers...

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...