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The best heist movies fuse elements of many different genres. They encompass a broad range of stories and filmmaking styles because they are so adaptable. As long as a team of characters is all working together to steal something, then it falls under the category of a heist movie. The genre isn't restricted to any tone, time period, or particular style. Of course, the heist genre has more than its fair share of stereotypes, but the best filmmakers know how to use these to their benefit.

The heist genre has produced some of cinema's most gripping thrillers and some of its funniest comedies. Violence features frequently, like in Snatch and Point Break, but it isn't a necessity. Other movies use a heist as the perfect excuse to craft a slick mystery, with the criminals outsmarting their victims without them ever knowing they were there. Whichever approach a heist movie decides to take,...

Anjelica Huston has been a recognizable actress for decades now. She has appeared in some major movies over her career. Many fans know her best as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family movies. Others know her as the Grand High Witch in the 1990 classic The Witches. Now 77, Huston is still working steadily and has more movies coming out in the near future.

However, in a recent photograph of the actress, she was almost unrecognizable. Here is a look at the photo and what she has coming up.

Angelica Huston Seen In Rare Photo Outside of Movies

Angelica Huston is a third-generation star, so she knows how important it is to remain private. That is why she is rarely filmed out in public, as she has learned the importance of keeping out of the public eye as much as possible.

Angelica Huston from The Addams Family

Her grandfather is Walter Huston,...

Spoiler Alert: This interview contains details from the film Lake George

In Jeffrey Reiner’s neo-noir road movie Lake George, two unlikely strangers team up to try and take down a love-spurned mobster. The film, which marks the first reuniting of actors Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon since the pair appeared in Season 3 of Fargo, follows Don (Whigham), a reserved claims adjuster who took the fall for a mobster (Glenn Fleshler) who has just been released from prison. Upon his return to society, the mobster is ready to settle his debts and exact his revenge by tasking Don to kill his disloyal ex Phyllis (Coon) without hesitation.

Unable to pull the trigger on the obstinate, spitfire Phyllis, the guilt-ridden Don instead works with her as they travel through the mobster’s criminal network in Glendale, Goleta and the Mammoth Lakes, trying to get what they’re owed. Reiner tells Deadline that Lake George,...

Michael Mann has followed in the footsteps of Martin Scorsese and joined Letterboxd, the social media site that allows cinephiles to log and rate the movies they’ve seen. The “Miami Vice” director quietly made an account and posted his first list, which is titled “14 Favorite Films in no particular order (except Potemkin).” After singling out Sergei Eisenstein’s landmark silent epic “Battleship Potemkin” as his favorite film of all time, he highlighted 13 other films ranging from classic film noir and New Hollywood masterpieces to recent hits like “The Hurt Locker” and “Poor Things.” Mann’s 14 favorite films can be found below.

“Battleship Potemkin” (dir. Sergei Eisenstein)

“Dr. Strangelove” (dir. Stanley Kubrick)

“Biutiful” (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)

“Raging Bull” (dir. Martin Scorsese)

“Incendies” (dir. Denis Villeneuve)

“Pale Flower” (dir. Masahiro Shinoda)

“L’Atalante” (dir. Jean Vigo)

“The Asphalt Jungle” (dir. John Huston)

“Poor Things” (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

“Apocalypse Now” (dir. Francis Ford Coppola...

Michael Mann names Battleship Potemkin as his favorite film, influenced by Eisenstein's mastery of montage. Dr. Strangelove, a film he saw during university, made Mann fall in love with cinema and pursue meaningful projects. Noir films like Pale Flower, The Asphalt Jungle, Sweet Smell of Success, and Out of the Past heavily influenced Mann's style.

Michael Mann officially joins Letterboxd and names his 14 favorite films of all time. The director is best known for his sleek and stylized crime dramas, with some of his most acclaimed works including Thief, Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Ali, Collateral, and Public Enemies. His latest film is Ferrari, starring Adam Driver, and Mann has recently been discussing the idea of adapting his prequel/sequel novel, Heat 2, into a feature film with Driver as a young Neil McCauley.

Now, Michael Mann has officially joined Letterboxd and created a list...

Elizabeth MacRae, who played girlfriends of Gomer Pyle and Festus Haggen on television and a woman who seduces Gene Hackman’s surveillance expert in The Conversation, has died. She was 88.

MacRae died Monday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she was raised, her family announced.

MacRae showed up as Lou-Ann Poovie on 15 episodes of the CBS comedy Gomer Pyle: Usmc during its final three seasons (1966-69). She was signed to work just one episode, “Love’s Old Sweet Song,” on the Jim Nabors starrer but impressed producers enough to stick around for more.

Earlier, she portrayed April Clomley, the girlfriend of deputy marshal Festus (Ken Curtis), on CBS’ Gunsmoke on four installments from 1962-64.

In The Conversation (1974), written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, MacRae played Meredith, who dances with Hackman’s Harry Caul in his apartment, sleeps with him and then swipes one of his audiotapes. The actress was among...

Marilyn Monroe‘s star burned brightly and briefly before her untimely death in 1962 at age 36. Yet she managed to enter the pop culture lexicon with just a handful of films, becoming Hollywood’s most memorable sex symbol. In honor of her birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1926, Monroe started off as a model before moving into acting with a series of bit parts, most notably in “All About Eve” and “The Asphalt Jungle,” both released in 1950. She became a leading lady with a trio of 1953 titles: the noir “Niagara,” the musical “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and the romantic comedy “How to Marry a Millionaire.”

She became iconic thanks to Billy Wilder‘s “The Seven Year Itch” (1955), in which she played a young woman tantalizing her married neighbor (Tom Ewell). Her image was forever burned into our memories thanks to...

Since classic films like The Great Train Robbery and John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle, crime caper and heist movies have been an adrenaline rush for film fanatics and continue to reign as a favorite film genre among audiences. The genre typically follows the formula of planning, executing, and the aftermath of a large-scale robbery or theft that almost always has a hefty payoff. Titles such as Ocean's 11, The Usual Suspects, and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, are among the many popular heist films, but with so many to name, there's bound to be a handful of crime caper films that unfortunately slip through the cracks.

Cinephiles will have plenty to celebrate this April with the next slate of additions to the Criterion Channel. The boutique distributor, which recently announced its June 2024 Blu-ray releases, has unveiled its new streaming lineup highlighted by an eclectic mix of classic films and modern arthouse hits.

Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.

New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.

Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.

Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...

Daniel Sackheim’s intriguing landscapes of Los Angeles evoke a time of classic film of the Film Noir period. His landscapes of Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood Blvd, the distant pier of Santa Monica create a moody scene iridescent of classics like Double Indemnity; Mildred Pierce, The Third Man, and Shadow of a Doubt. The seductive tones of a bygone era are visually stimulating creating a mood of mystery that captured the eyes of audiences when The Maltese Falcon was first released.

Sackheim’s directing credits include Lovecraft Country, Game of Thrones, True Detective, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Ozark to name a few. Having been a director for many years before delving into photography, he says his eye tends to land on a cinematic sensibility naturally. This perspective then informs his approach to photographic storytelling.

“There is not so much one specific film, though there are iconic images from...

April’s an uncommonly strong auteurist month for the Criterion Channel, who will highlight a number of directors––many of whom aren’t often grouped together. Just after we screened House of Tolerance at the Roxy Cinema, Criterion are showing it and Nocturama for a two-film Bertrand Bonello retrospective, starting just four days before The Beast opens. Larger and rarer (but just as French) is the complete Jean Eustache series Janus toured last year. Meanwhile, five William Friedkin films and work from Makoto Shinkai, Lizzie Borden, and Rosine Mbakam are given a highlight.

One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...

Michael Mann’s Ferrari has raced onto screens this holiday season. The director enjoyed his time working with his star Adam Driver and will even work with him again on his next film, Heat 2. Ferrari garnered a 74% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes with our own Chris Bumbray saying in his review, “While I assume Mann might have originally planned a more ambitious, sprawling Ferrari biopic, I’m not sure that one was needed. This does the trick pretty well, with it also, as usual for the director, impeccably shot. It’s a very enjoyable, entertaining look at one of the most important names in 20th-century automobiles and an often thrilling depiction of just how dangerous a sport of auto racing can be.” You can read the rest of his review Here.

While Mann’s more recent projects have been hit-or-miss by many, the director has established his own prolific...

The 1970s was an epic decade for the horror genre, particularly for films that dealt in some way with satanism or the occult. While The Exorcist can justifiably be considered the king, there are a plethora of noteworthy shockers from this era. 1971's The Mephisto Waltz is a weird, oddly captivating film from screenwriter Ben Maddow (The Asphalt Jungle). Released two years before the late, great William Friedkin's massively influential hit — still as terrifying as ever to this day — the Mephisto Waltz took the genre in a slightly different, more offbeat direction. With its soul-transferral subplot and a Jerry Goldsmith score that writhes and suffocates with melodramatic fury, it's quite the film-going experience even withstanding its baffling story beats and character choices. The film manages to remain magnetic in the face of scrutiny for the way it successfully conjures a dreamlike atmosphere; everything seems unreal for most of the...

Fandoms everywhere can now rejoice, for in October Our Flag Means Death finally returns to our screens for its second season. Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi will be romancing the high seas once more thanks to an enormous outpouring of love and support from the show’s fans. The safety of the cult favorite is not yet known beyond season two, but if this one is as good as the first, it certainly won’t be for lack of trying.

Talking of little shows that could, Doom Patrol is back for its last ever block of episodes, having long outlasted the many of the other ill-fated DC streaming series. Season two of The Gilded Age is also streaming this month, with Bertha challenging both Mrs. Astor and the old system in this new run.

And if none of that is up your street, there’s always Jason Statham punching sharks in the face,...

With its combined catalog of HBO originals as well as titles from Food Network, Cartoon Network, the CW, Discovery, HGTV, and more, Max is starting another month with an embarrassment of riches, be it Gilded Age fortunes or pirate booty.

The Warner Bros. streamer will pull from its multiple brands for dozens of new titles, classic movies, special-interest series, and more, from 1963’s classic horror film The Haunting to the all-new highly anticipated second season of the romantic dramedy “Our Flag Means Death.”

Get ready for the new month and check out The Streamable’s picks for the best titles coming to Max this month!

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What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Max in October 2023? “Our Flag Means Death” Season 2 | Thursday, Oct. 5

Season 2 of the hit Taikia Waititi and Rhys Darby...

Rhys Darby in ‘Our Flag Means Death’ season 2 (Photograph by Nicola Dove/Max)

Max’s 2023 October lineup of series includes new seasons of Our Flag Means Death, The Gilded Age, and 30 Coins, as well as the second half of Doom Patrol season four (the final season). A documentary focusing on the notorious Bling Ring premieres on October 1st, along with all five Final Destination films.

In addition to a batch of horror films joining the network’s lineup, Max is celebrating Halloween with new seasons of Ghost Adventures and The Haunted Museum.

Series & Films Arriving On Max In October 2023:

October 1

3 Godfathers (1948)

The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)

All About the Benjamins (2002)

The Amazing Panda Adventure (1995)

Angels in the Outfield (1951)

The Answer Man (2009)

Anthropoid (2016)

Appaloosa (2008)

The Apparition (2012)

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Badlands (1973)

Be Cool (2005)

Bee Season (2005)

Beetlejuice (1988)

The Benchwarmers (2006)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Blindspotting (2018)

Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012)

Cesar Chavez (2014)

Charlie Wilson’s War...

Heist films can trace their cinematic lineage back to the earliest days of film history. Edwin S. Porter's iconic silent film The Great Train Robbery, released in 1903, features several elements that are now commonplace in the heist genre.

By the late 1940s, movies such as The Killers and Criss Cross began shaping the structure of what heist films would become. In 1950, the heist genre entered the mainstream with the release of John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle, a movie many critics consider the first official heist film. Since 1950, the heist film has emerged as one of the most popular subgenres of crime movies.

Related: 10 Best Whodunit Movies

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Quentin Tarantino burst onto the American independent film scene with the release of his ultraviolent, profanity-laced heist movie Reservoir Dogs. The film tells the story of a group of jewel thieves who commit a robbery that goes horribly wrong. Reservoir Dogs...

From left: Jon Voight, Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible (Paramount), Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg in Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One (Paramount) Graphic: AVClub Wtf is the Imf? The answer to that question, like many aspects of the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise itself, can be convoluted, elusive, frustrating, and rewarding, in equal measures.

The Imf then and now: The Mission: Impossible TV cast show (1966-1973) and the stars of Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One (Paramount).Photo: Bettmann (Getty Images)

Wtf is the Imf? The answer to that question, like many aspects of the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise itself, can be convoluted, elusive,...

Have you heard the one about the Mma fighter who helped mastermind the biggest heist in British history? Pat Kondelis did. Then the multiple Emmy winner turned the Lee Murray story into a captivating four-part documentary for Showtime. Catching Lightning, premiering April 9,is by turns sly, brutal, and quite funny, a very British crime story with a very dangerous man at its center. You might enter its cage wondering if it really needs to be four hours long, but chances are you’ll end up hanging on every bizarre turn and detail.

John Huston is one of the most celebrated directors and screenwriters in Hollywood. Born on August 5, 1906, in Nevadaville, Colorado, he was the son of actor Walter Huston and Rhea Gore. He began his career as a journalist and later worked as an amateur boxer before entering movies.

Huston’s movies were often morally ambiguous, with elements of both comedy and tragedy. He rose to fame for movies such as “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), which starred Humphrey Bogart, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948), starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston, and “The African Queen” (1951), starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. He also wrote many movies including “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950) and directed iconic movies such as “The Man Who Would Be King” (1975).

Huston was highly acclaimed by critics for his skillful direction in movies that explored complex themes such as greed and morality. Many of his movies featured actors who had trained under revered director Erich von Stroheim.

Eva Lasting (La Primera Vez) is a Colombian teen series created by Dago García starring Emmanuel Restrepo and Francisca Estévez Navas.

Eva Lasting is one of those series that finds its inspiration in great tv successes like “Those Marvelous Years” and similar ones that make memories of better times a great chance to re-live them, make us listen to songs of those times, good settings and sure-fire use of a terrain in which you either do very badly or you succeed and have an assured audience because, more than listening to this story they come to tell, what they are up to is re-living their own story.

About the Series

And, Eva Lasting series is not bad at all. It is also not a systematic repetition nor a “safe” interpretation of the Seventies: here they tell us a story and manage to create a series that is far removed from...

Few stars have cemented themselves as deeply in movie history as Marilyn Monroe. The actress wasn't just a movie star: she was hailed as an all-American sex symbol, and her legacy is still going strong to this day, 60 years after her passing. Few stars, male or female, can claim the same degree of popularity.

Yet for all her lasting success, Monroe had a rocky start to her career. Early on, the actress managed to nab a few roles here and there, but was generally ignored by film studios — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer even complained that she lacked "the sort of looks that made a movie star." It's hardly a surprise that Monroe had to bounce back and forth between acting and modeling until her film career made it big. But while her patience eventually paid off, the star was aware that her career wouldn't have become such a hit without others' support (and...

Marilyn Monroe Photo: Baron/Hulton Archive As an actor, Marilyn Monroe embodied glamour, tragedy, romanticism, and wit. And although she was dogged by gossip, speculation, and outright fictionalizations during and after her life, Monroe’s unassailable spirit remains vividly alive onscreen. From dramatic noir roles to comedic performances as a multi-faceted bombshell,...

This picture looks as modern and radical as anything from Italy in the 1960s, yet it’s a tough-talking take on hardboiled crime caper fiction. In three pictures Stanley Kubrick went from amateur to contender: now he has a like-minded producer, a top-flight cast, and the help of the legendary pulp author Jim Thompson. Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards peg the cynical film noir style, and Kubrick maintains the source book’s splintered chronology for the tense racetrack heist. All Hollywood took notice — at least that part of the industry looking out for daring, progressive storytelling. Now in 4K, Kubrick’s superb B&w images look better than ever.

The Killing

4K Ultra HD

Kl Studio Classics

1956 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 84 min. / Street Date July 26, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen,...

Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, creators of the new Showtime series The Man Who Fell to Earth, talk to hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante about the movies that inspired them.

Show Notes:

Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary

Dirty Pretty Things (2002)

Amistad (1997)

Love Actually (2003)

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)

Blazing Saddles (1974) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s Blazing Saddles Thanksgiving

Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Bad News Bears (1976) – Jessica Bendinger’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Airplane! (1980) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

Bambi (1942)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – John Landis trailer commentary

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Boy Friend (1971) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Yellow Submarine (1968) – George Hickenlooper...

In what can be called movie geek comfort food, Battle: Los Angeles and Krull have become cult favorites over the years. Why? You can watch either movie while doing other things keeping an extra eye on the screen, have devout fans who can recite the dialogue verbatim and will defend both movies to the end. Guilty pleasures, yes, cult status, definitely.

Even HBO Max has it listed as such.

The 2011 sci-fi and 1982 fantasy films have come to HBO Max and are available to stream now.

“Marines don’t quit.”

Battle: Los Angeles, starring Aaron Eckhart, and from director Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath Of The Titans), is the exciting story of a squad of U.S. Marines who become the last line of defense against a global invasion. It gets the military right than most war movies. Numerous Marine units assisted in filming and the movie contains some awesome scenes with Black Hawks,...

The return of fan-favorite shows, auteurs tackling new original series, new documentaries and more headline what’s new on HBO Max in April 2022.

Top of the list is the HBO Max original series “The Flight Attendant,” which returns for its second season on April 21. Then there’s the long-awaited return of Bill Hader’s “Barry” on April 24 on HBO and HBO Max, as well as Season 3 of “The Black Lady Sketch Show” on April 8.

In terms of new originals, “The Wire” and “The Deuce” creator David Simon is back with the new series “We Own This City” on April 25, which chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force. Michael Mann executive produces and directs the first episode of the neo-noir “Tokyo Vice,” which premieres on April 7. And Ben Foster stars as Holocaust survivor Harry Haft in the HBO Original Film “The Survivor,” which...

April is about to be a good month for returning HBO and HBO Max properties.

HBO Max’s list of releases for April 2022 features three hotly anticipated seasons of television. The Flight Attendant, which helped launch HBO Max as a viable spot for good dramedy in 2020, premieres its second season on April 21. That will be followed by another go-around for the sci-fi comedy Made for Love on April 28. Of course, the big ticket item this month is something that HBO Max inherited from its cable cousin. Barry season 3 will continue the story of hitman-turned-actor Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) on April 24.

The TV offerings run much deeper than just returning shows this month. April 7 sees the arrival of Tokyo Vice, a sprawling crime drama with some episodes directed by Michael Mann. The series stars Ansel Elgort as an American journalist embedding himself in Tokyo’s criminal underground in the late ’90s.

Jean-Pierre Melville in 4K? That’s an inviting idea. All of Melville crime pictures are memorable, and this is one of his best-remembered, a traditional caper drama with a wordless heist scene that lasts almost half an hour. The color production stars three big French actors and one Italian. Alain Delon and Gian Maria Volonté are the career thieves, joined by the conflicted Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop. Comedian Bourvil is enlisted in a surprise role as the completely serious and less-than-ethical police inspector on their trail. We have to admire producer-writer-director Melville’s skill — he achieves a high-budget sheen with a minimum of production resources.

Le cercle rouge

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 218

1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 140 min. / The Red Circle / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 15, 2022 / 49.95

Starring: Alain Delon, Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonté, Yves Montand, Francois Périer, Ana Douking, Paul Crauchet, Paul Amiot, Pierre Collet,...

It's hard to watch a Marilyn Monroe performance without feeling utterly enraptured by her. The actress was a total scene-stealer, a quality she embodied to a tee in the 1950 film "All About Eve." Her role as the ambitious (if not marginally air-headed) Claudia Caswell was a massive step up for Monroe, who until then had little big screen experience. She'd just had a successful turn in "The Asphalt Jungle," one of her first credited roles, so landing a part in a Joseph L. Mankiewicz project meant that her star was finally on the rise in a big way.

Caswell is first introduced in one of the...

The post Filming All About Eve Was More Than Marilyn Monroe Could Handle appeared first on /Film.

As hard as it may be to believe in light of her later fame, there was a time when Marilyn Monroe struggled to land even a small role in a major film. Her early acting career was spent as an uncredited extra in mostly-forgotten films like "The Shocking Miss Pilgrim" and "You Were Meant for Me." It wasn't until 1948 that she got her first speaking role in the musical comedy "Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!" where she was given one throwaway line and was promised a close-up shot. Although her line in the movie stayed, she never did get that close-up so many aspiring...

The post The Bizarre Deal That Landed Marilyn Monroe Her Role in Asphalt Jungle appeared first on /Film.

Sensing a potential trend in the possible nominations of three major Oscars categories — best director, actor and actress — we could see a first-time occurrence for the Academy Awards on Tuesday. However, if you read the tea leaves put forth by the nominations for the DGA and SAG, there’s a strong possibility that all three of those categories may not include a first-time nominee — a first in Oscar history.

For best actor, the SAG lineup recognized all former nominees and winners — Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”), Andrew Garfield, Will Smith (“King Richard”) and Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”). Even the ones on the bubble are once-nominated or crowned, including Mahershala Ali (“Swan Song”), Bradley Cooper (“Nightmare Alley”) and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Don’t Look Up”). The closest first-timers in the running seem to be Golden Globe nominees Peter Dinklage (“Cyrano”) and Cooper Hoffman (“Licorice Pizza...

Pencils down, pass your ballots to the front because the Oscar nomination voting is now closed.

Speaking to voters over the past week, it’s been relatively clear about what voters like and who they’re supporting in a strong year for film.

Nominations will be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 8, and we have the 10 burning questions we want to be answered.

Which movie will lead the nomination tally?

There have been three films that have been nominated for 14 Oscars in history — “All About Eve” (1950), “Titanic” (1997) and “La La Land” (2016). We likely won’t see any film get near tying or beating that record. The three most likely candidates to lead the charge are “Belfast” from Focus Features, “Dune” from Warner Bros. and “The Power of the Dog” from Netflix. You could also add “West Side Story” from 20th Century Studios as a dark horse possibility, especially since its tally seems...

This creepy-crawly epic enjoyed a strong reputation on my grade-school playground! Does George Pal’s man-versus-the-elements saga hold up 68 years later? The ‘exotic’ special effects get the point across but the real appeal is the suppressed lust between Charlton Heston and his mail order bride Eleanor Parker — all heavy breathing and stern reproaches. I’m surprised nobody has fully exploited the original short story, which back in the ’60s showed up in numerous best-of collections. “Marabunta” is not a new fragrance line from Arpege.

The Naked Jungle

All- Region Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint]

1954 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date December 29, 2021 / Available from [Imprint], Amazon.us /

Starring: Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker, William Conrad, John Dierkes, Abraham Sofaer, Douglas Fowley, Rodd Redwing.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Production Designer: Art Director: Hal Pereira, Franz Bachelin

Film Editor: Everett Douglas

Special Photographic Effects: John P. Fulton

Matte artist Jan Domela

Miniatures Ivyl Burks

Optical cinematography Paul K. Lerpae...

The writing and directing races are being dominated by familiar faces, which can break some records in Oscar’s history.

Suppose the Variety awards circuit Oscar predictions charts are to be believed. In that case, eight of the top 12 candidates for director are former nominees and winners, leaving little room for first-timers, such as Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Lost Daughter”), Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”), Siân Heder (“Coda”) and Reinaldo Marcus Green (“King Richard”). If the Oscar nominees consisted of all former hopefuls, it would be the first time in 71 years that this would occur in the category. The 1950 lineup included George Cukor (“Born Yesterday”), John Huston (“The Asphalt Jungle”), winner Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“All About Eve”), Carol Reed (“The Third Man”) and Billy Wilder (“Sunset Boulevard”).

The hurdles ahead of the potential rookie nominees are significant. Except for Green, all the filmmakers also serve as writers for their movies, and...

With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.

Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.

See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020

5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952

After Migration: Calabria,...

The comedian and former The Daily Show correspondent talks about his favorite Blaxploitation movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Casablanca (1942) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Castle (1997)

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary

Pressure (1976)

Robinson Crusoe On Mars (1964) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary

Boss (1975)

Django Unchained (2012) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Thing With Two Heads (1972) – Stuart Gordon’s trailer commentary

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)

The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)

Black Samurai (1977)

Truck Turner (1974)

Schindler’s List (1993)

Black Caesar (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)

Friday Foster (1975)

That Man Bolt (1973)

Blacula (1972)

Foxy Brown (1974) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976)

Willie Dynamite (1973) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Billy Jack (1971)

John Wick (2014)

The Matrix (1999)

Cleopatra Jones...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

The Hottest August (Brett Story)

Where better than New York City to make a structuralist film? Cities are iterative, their street grids diagrams of theme and variation, and New York most of all—with its streets and avenues named for numbers and letters and states and cities and presidents and Revolutionary War generals spanning an archipelago, intersecting at a million little data points at which to measure class, race, culture, history, architecture and infrastructure. And time, too—from this human density emerge daily and seasonal rituals, a set of biorhythms, reliable as the earth’s, against which to mark gradual shifts and momentary fashions. Summer is for lounging on fire escapes, always, and, today, for Mister Softee. Yesterday it was shaved ice.

Next month’s lineup at The Criterion Channel has been unveiled, featuring no shortage of excellent offerings. Leading the pack is a massive, 20-film retrospective dedicated to John Huston, featuring a mix of greatest and lesser-appreciated works, including Fat City, The Dead, Wise Blood, The Man Who Would Be King, and Key Largo. (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre will join the series on October 1.)

Also in the lineup is series on the works of Budd Boetticher (specifically his Randolph Scott-starring Ranown westerns), Ephraim Asili, Josephine Baker, Nikos Papatakis, Jean Harlow, Lee Isaac Chung (pre-Minari), Mani Kaul, and Michelle Parkerson.

The sparkling new restoration of La Piscine will also debut, along with Amores perros, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Cate Shortland’s Lore, both Oxhide films, Moonstruck, and much more.

See the full list of August titles below and more on The Criterion Channel.

Abigail Harm,...

Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is no stranger to heist movies. Remember 1998’s “Out of Sight,” 2001’s “Ocean’s Eleven” and 2017’s “Logan Lucky”? And he’s returned to the popular genre with this latest film “No Sudden Move,” which landed on HBO Max July 1 after having premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Set in Detroit in 1954, “No Sudden Move” around a group of small-time hoods who are hired to steal a document. Though they consider it to be a straightforward job, it turns out to be anything but when the gig goes wrong. While the crooks try to figure out who hired them and way, they are lead down a rabbit hole of twists and turns involving racial prejudice, corporate greed in the auto industry and even the mob. “No Sudden Move,” which stars Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Brendan Fraser, and Ray Liotta, is currently at...

Everyone loves a good heist movie. With the genre going as far back as 1950's Asphalt Jungle, heist movies have grown to become their own subgenre of crime movies. Filled with cool characters that the audiences both look up to and relate to, heist movies are a way for viewers to pretend to be outlaws on the run, imagining that they're always two steps ahead of everyone.

Related: 10 Heist Movies That Should Get Sequels

Between bank robberies in films like Now You See Me, casino heists in Ocean's Eleven, or gritty and realistic armored truck robberies in Michael Mann's Heat, movies have shown that there are a lot of different ways to steal something, and each team needs the perfect plan with every member doing their job. Planners, demolition experts, safecrackers, and more are all essential to pulling off the perfect crime.

Erin O’Brien, the singer and actress best known for starring in the pilot episode of “77 Sunset Strip,” has died at the age of 87.

Sheila O’Brien, Erin’s sister, told The Hollywood Reporter that she died at her home in Seattle on May 20.

O’Brien starred in the first episode of Roy Huggins’ detective series “77 Sunset Strip,” titled “Girl on the Run,” as a lounge singer who becomes witness to a murder. The episode, which introduced Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as one of the show’s two main detective characters, Stuart Bailey, aired on ABC in 1958.

O’Brien’s TV singing career included “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts,” “The Frank Sinatra Show” and “The Steve Allen Show.” Her album, “Songs From the Heart of Erin O’Brien” was released by Coral Records in 1958.

Her acting credits include “Onionhead,” “Sugarfoot,” “Colt .45” and “The Asphalt Jungle.”

Read original story Erin O’Brien,...

Whether it be conveying humor, heartbreak, heavy drama or a lofty song, Marilyn Monroe’s talent went far beyond her beauty.

The Asphalt Jungle

In her first important role, Monroe plays a young mistress who supplies her sugar daddy a fake alibi in this John Huston-directed film noir. TV director Michael Lehmann later went on to say, “Mm playing a bimbo so much better than anybody can these days.”

All About Eve

Monroe was a relative un-known when her agent went to get her the role in this classic Bette Davis film. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote of Monroe’s performance, “It has been observed that no matter how a scene was lighted, Monroe had the quality of drawing all the light to herself. In her brief scenes here, surrounded by actors much more experienced, she is all we can look at.”

Don’t Bother to Knock

This psychological...

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From reader Joe Elliott, Asheville, North Carolina:

It’s the birthday of someone whose work I can’t really be objective about since I love him so much: director, screenwriter and occasional actor, John Huston (1906). Huston’s last film was finished shortly before his death, The Dead (1987), based on a story by one his favorite writers, James Joyce.

Huston (below) doubtlessly offering needed guidance to one of his more emotionally fragile young actors.

"I was asked about her doing 'The Asphalt Jungle.' It was her first real role. I asked her to read for me and she did. The scene called for her to be lying on a couch. There was no couch, so she got down on the floor. Read beautifully. I said yes."...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Lynn Shelton by Fred HayesFilmmaker Lynn Shelton, best known as a pioneer of the mumblecore movement and as a gifted director of television (including the series Glow and Little Fires Everywhere), has died at the age of 54.Luca Guadagnino is set to direct a reboot of Scarface, with a shooting script written by Ethan and Joel Coen that places the story in Los Angeles. Recommended VIEWINGThe official U.S. trailer for Abel Ferrara's Tommaso, which will be arriving to virtual cinemas starting June 5. The film follows Willem Dafoe as an American artist in Rome. Read our interview with Ferrara regarding the film as "personal cinema" here.Netflix has released a trailer for Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods, the story of four African-American Vietnam war veterans who return to Vietnam in search of...

Considering today’s Hollywood seemingly has little room for adult-focused dramas that don’t appeal to every quadrant, Michael Mann has had to find other ways to tell his stories. As the pandemic hit, he was in production on the pilot for his HBO Max series Tokyo Vice, a crime drama starring Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, and Rinko Kikuchi. While he continues to edit that project with an eye to finish production when it’s safe, he thankfully also has plans to return to the big screen.

Speaking to Deadline, he revealed that his long-planned prequel novel to Heat, set to arrive later this year, won’t just stay on the page. When asked about how the novel is going, he said, “It’s a stack about 10 inches high on my desk right now. We’re on it, and I’m putting time into that and a screenplay I can’t tell you about.

Sporting one of cinema’s most varied filmographies, American born Joseph Losey is one of the few blacklisted success stories of McCarthy’s witch hunt in the 1950s, who rose to significant international acclaim after fleeing to the UK. It wasn’t exactly a smooth transition, wherein Losey directed several titles under a pseudonym for the protection of actors who were afraid to be punished for starring in a Losey production. But by the end of the 1950s, Losey began to hone a more pronounced style across a variety of genres.

Like many auteurs, Losey had a flair for tinkering with gutting the mechanics of expected formulas, and such is the case with his 1961 crime thriller The Criminal, which seems to be less interested in its narrative than the sociological implications of its protagonist in this particular milieu.…...

Josip Elic, remembered for his performance as the confused, constantly tired asylum inmate Bancini who carries Jack Nicholson’s rebellious, basketball-dunking McMurphy on his shoulders in 1975’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, died Monday at a rehabilitation facility in New Jersey. He was 98.

His death was announced by his friend, manager Matt Beckoff, in a Facebook post. Elic had been in failing health since suffering a fall at his New York residence several years ago; he lived with friend and caretaker, the actress Lee Meredith, and her husband at their home in River Edge, New Jersey, before transferring to a nearby assisted-living residence, according to a 2018 North Record newspaper profile.

After early TV roles in 1950s series such as Kraft Theatre, The Phil Silvers Show, Peter Gunn and The Asphalt Jungle, Elic made appearances in two Twilight Zone episodes. Soon came roles in the 1964 camp classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, a 1966 TV adaptation of Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory, and, in 1967, Mel Brooks’ The Producers. In the latter, he was featured in a memorable scene as the violinist who gets a bottle of champagne dumped down his pants by Zero Mostel.

He’ll best be remembered for his role as Cuckoo‘s befuddled Bancini, a near-catatonic patient who repeatedly mutters an exhausted “I”m tired,” only once rising in anger during a group therapy session shouting “I’m tired! And it’s a lot of baloney!” His major moment, though, was an improvised basketball court scene in which Nicholson’s McMurphy climbs atop the towering Bancini’s shoulders to teach the other asylum inmates how to dunk a basketball – all under the watchful, scornful eye of Louise Fletcher’s sadistic Nurse Ratched.

In the North Jersey Record interview last year, Elic and Meredith spoke of their long friendship and Elic’s recent health problems.

“He was living in New York all by himself,” Meredith said. “He had these steep stairs he was going up and down. His doctors said, ‘You can’t be alone any more.’ So Joe came here, and things worked out pretty well. We’re kind of his family now.”

Said Elic, “They were wonderful to me. Took care of me right and left. Changed my sheets, wouldn’t let me go into the kitchen to wash my cup or anything.”

His friend and caretaker survives him, as does a sister.

They’re ‘The Men Who Broke the Bank and Lost the Cargo!’ Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway shine in one of the funniest crime comedies ever, Ealing Studios’ tale of a pair of nobodies who take the Bank of England for millions. Guinness’s bank clerk follows his dreams into a big time bullion heist, and the joke is that his ad-hoc mob is the most loyal, ethical band of brothers in the history of crime. This being a caper picture, the suspense is steep as well — just what is going to trip up these brilliantly gifted amateurs?

The Lavender Hill Mob

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1951 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date September 3, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass, Audrey Hepburn.

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Film Editor: Seth Holt

Original Music: Georges Auric

Written by T.E.B. Clarke

Produced by Michael Balcon

Directed by...