Movies

Barry Jenkins truly is a miracle worker. The Oscar-winning director of the intimate indie “Moonlight,” the romantic period drama “If Beale Street Could Talk” and the Amazon series “The Underground Railroad” isn’t the first filmmaker who comes to mind to tackle the prequel to Jon Favreau’s poorly received 2019 remake of the beloved animated feature “The Lion King.” And yet, somehow, Jenkins and his creative team make magic.

Most Trekkies will tell you that “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” is the north star of the franchise - the 1982 sci-fi adventure that wasn’t just an audience smash, but as close as Gene Roddenberry’s utopian space epic got to Shakespeare. The legacy of “The Wrath of Khan” was further cemented Tuesday morning, when it became the first Star Trek movie selected for the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry.

Every December, there comes a hero to save us all from prestige awards-season movies. Too much thinking? Need to turn off your brain? Never fear, “Kraven the Hunter” is here, a big ol’ side of comic book beef with no contemplation required. For some, it may be just what the doctor ordered for a mid-December mind vacation.

What is it about a good news-gathering movie? The pleasure of watching skilled, doggedly determined people coming together to tell a story, to shape the chaos of the world into something comprehensible makes for evergreen cinematic fodder, from “All the President’s Men” to “The Insider” to “Spotlight.” Add “September 5” to that list, which tackles the slippery madness of live television reporting, essentially invented by the ABC Sports team during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, during the hostage situation that unfolded in the Olympic Village, which ended in tragedy.

Before 1975, the year of Spanish strongman Francisco Franco’s death, it was dangerous to make any art that criticized Spain’s government. It had been that way since the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.

Over the years dozens of movies and television miniseries have been produced about World War II in Europe and the Pacific, but of those, there are only a handful that touched upon the event that thrust the United States into the war, the attack on Pearl Harbor, 83 years ago Saturday.

“Saturday Night Live” alum Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut “Y2K” makes for a fascinating test case for Gen Z’s appetite for all things 2000s. His comedic sensibility, honed through throwback TV parodies on “SNL,” is at once broad and hyper-specific. In the nostalgia piece “Y2K,” he hits the big sign posts that will delight the younger generation craving the simpler times of a pre-9/11 world, but he also gets granular with late ‘90s music, fashion and culture in a way that one could only understand if they actually lived through it.

My love of movie scoundrels has been sorely tested this year. When I was young, I daydreamed of exotic heists, slick con artists and lovable crooks I’d seen on screen. For most of my moviegoing life, I’ve been a sucker for larceny done well. Most of us are, probably. But now it’s late 2024. Mood is wrong. It’s scoundrel time. Maybe Charles Dickens was right. In “American Notes for General ...

Uberto Pasolini tackles Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” with his intimate and muscular adaptation “The Return.” Despite the centuries-long significance of the text, not many films have tackled its events directly, and Pasolini focuses on Odysseus’ “nostos,” or his return to the island of Ithaca after years fighting in the Trojan War and his long way home.

In a recent column, Jim VandeHei – co-founder and CEO of the news website Axios – pushed back against X honcho Elon Musk’s oft-publicized statements that journalists, and journalism in general, can’t be trusted.

Walt Disney Co.'s animated sequel "Moana 2" navigated its way to No. 1 at the box office with a record-breaking domestic Thanksgiving weekend debut, a remarkable feat considering that this big-screen return to Motunui almost didn't happen.

LOS ANGELES — Part crime drama, part little-known chapter in the modern history of hate groups in America, "The Order" is by turns thrilling and chilling, featuring riveting performances by two actors at the absolute top of their games. Directed by Justin Kurzel from a screenplay by Zach Baylin based on the 1989 nonfiction book "The Silent Brotherhood" (by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt), the ...

Even under the best of circumstances, being a parent isn’t always easy. Being a good father can be, in some cases, particularly hard.

If Luca Guadagnino has proved anything in his remarkable 2024, it’s that he – and his current creative team – are the preeminent depicters of erotic desire on screen. His sexy spring sensation “Challengers” became a cultural phenomenon with its hot-under-the-collar tennis matches, and he assembled the same group of collaborators for the surreal and sweaty “Queer,” an adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novella, written in 1952, published in 1985.

The Disney musical sequel “Moana 2” is, like David Lynch’s surreal adult masterpiece “Mulholland Drive” before it, a repurposing of material originally intended for the small screen.

“May history remember that once upon a time, such cruelty was permitted against the women of Afghanistan.” These words, uttered with a piercing honesty by Afghan activist Taranom, cut through the heart of Sahra Mani’s sobering documentary “Bread & Roses.” The film itself is a testament, a tattered documentation of the horrifying oppression that women especially have suffered since the Taliban ...

Like a broomstick hurtling from the sky, here comes the “Wicked” movie (or, rather, the first installment of the “Wicked” movies; the second comes next year) — and oh, I’m still catching my breath, in a very good way. Jon M. Chu’s film of the hit Broadway musical set in the world of “The Wizard of Oz” is an absolute thrill: wonderfully cast, beautifully sung, dazzlingly designed and costumed. ...

On the face of it, you’d naturally think that a film titled “The Lost Children” would be some sort of Hansel-and-Gretel-type fairy tale. And you wouldn’t be far wrong.

Emmy-winning talk show host and comedian Conan O'Brien has been tapped to emcee the 97th Academy Awards, set for March 2, the academy announced Friday.