Thousands of protesters gathered Sunday in downtown Los Angeles to protest President Trump’s aggressive policies against undocumented immigrants and promise of mass deportations, causing traffic gridlock in the hours ahead of the Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena. The protest began in the morning and grew in number through the afternoon, per the Los Angeles Times, […]

Who let “Dog Man” out? Universal Pictures did, and the party is nice, the party is pumpin’ for the studio, as the DreamWorks Animation caper earned $10.8 million across Friday and preview screenings. That’s the biggest opening day gross yet for this still very young year. Playing in 3,885 locations, “Dog Man” is now fetching […]

In a new video produced by the White House, the Trump administration blasted Selena Gomez for posting an Instagram video in which she filmed herself crying over deportations of undocumented immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Gomez deleted the original post within hours, after drawing criticism from conservative figureheads. “Apparently it’s not ok to show […]

Unbothered, Isabelle Huppert vapes while wearing a chic dress after a night out in Paris. The actress’ requisite ferocious grace this time is lent to Sabine, an ailing French artist who refuses to waste her final days bedridden. But she is only one of the four pieces that conform “Luz,” Flora Lau’s alluring narrative diptych […]

“The Librarians” begins with a quote: “It was a pleasure to see things burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” Filmmaker Kim Snyder’s illuminating documentary — premiering at the Sundance Film Festival — offers a rattling look at coordinated efforts to ban books. More importantly, it […]

Matthew Lillard still likes scary movies. The actor, who starred in Wes Craven’s original “Scream” and did not return for future entries considering, well, narrative events, is joining the cast of the franchise’s upcoming seventh installment. Following the exit of both Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega from the “Scream” franchise after the pair led a […]

How can one tackle the effects of colonialism on indigenous African people more than half a century after most nations on the continent got their independence? In “How to Build a Library,” directors Maia Lekow and Christopher King choose a straightforward, methodical route. Their doc follows two Kenyan women as they try to transform a […]

Jake Gyllenhaal is making the visit to M. Night Shyamalan for the writer-director’s next feature, which will share a story with a new original romance novel by Nicholas Sparks. The original narrative is a collaboration between Sparks and Shyamalan, with the former writing a book and the latter writing a screenplay independently. The film marks […]

It’s worth mourning the films we’ll never get to see: the unfunded epics, the unmarketable art films, perhaps even the unengaging streaming product. Filmmaker Charles Shackleton faced that grief when his thoroughly researched project, a documentary on the Zodiac killer case, got the plug pulled after years in development. But the director’s vision was simply […]

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 […]

The Ochi exist. Furry monkey-like creatures of an orange-hued pelt with pronounced ears and huge dark eyes, the Ochi could feel just at home in the “Star Wars” universe, James Cameron’s “Avatar” realm Pandora or in Amblin classics like the “Gremlins” series. They are not real in an organic sense, but the beings in “The […]

With the snappy casualness of a “day in the life” vlog, Pavel “Pasha” Talankin, a charismatic Russian teacher who serves as planner and videographer for all of his school’s events, introduces his peculiar small town: Karabash. Known as the most toxic place on Earth due to a copper smelting plant, here the average life expectancy […]

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 […]

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 […]

Late in the incisive psychological drama “The Things You Kill,” Ali (Ekin Koç), a married man in his thirties, opens up about a traumatic episode in his childhood and the reasons why he decided to leave Turkey and study comparative literature in the U.S. The monologue is momentarily shot out of focus with his face […]

A federal jury ruled unanimously in favor of M. Night Shyamalan and Apple on Friday, ending a copyright trial that saw the defendants accused of stealing elements from an independent feature in the writing of the streaming series “Servant.” The seven-day trial in Riverside, Calif., which began Jan. 14., saw Italian-born director Francesca Gregorini seeking […]

After nearly four decades of its one-child policy, designed to curb population growth and reform the country’s economy, China has fully removed all childrearing limits in recent years. But the cultural repercussions will be felt for generations to come, even (and especially) in the swiping apps hounded by modern singles. Violet Du Feng’s documentary “The […]

In her documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” the star continues to explore the at times lonesome space she has occupied since bursting on the scene in 1986: that of being a representative for deaf people, and being herself. For more than three decades, Matlin was the only deaf performer to have won an Oscar, […]

“The Hills” stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, along with other Pacific Palisades property owners, have sued the city of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power over damage caused by the Palisades fire. The suit, reviewed by Variety, was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It alleges that the city’s […]