‘The Greatest Night In Pop’ Review: A Deeply Entertaining Music Doc About Pop Hit “We Are The World” [Sundance]

Accomplished filmmaker Bao Nguyen takes us on a trip back to 1985 and the historic recording of one of the biggest charity records of all time, ‘We Are The World’, which united dozens of A-list artists to raise money for the African famine.Produced by Lionel Richie, one of the iconic artists and co-writer of the original song, Nguyen’s film uses archive material and contemporary talking heads (some interviewed in the original studio in which the record was made), including Richie himself.Headed to Netflix one day off of the recording’s 39th anniversary, the film is a nostalgic trip back to the heyday of ’80s music, the year in which the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Prince, Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis, Billy Joel, Journey, Kenny Loggins and more were dominating the American and international charts, and all are included here in some form.

Antoine Fuqua‘s Michael Jackson biopic deviates from the director’s usual modus operandi of actioners. But with the cast he’s accrued for “Michael,” the upcoming film could be a sleeper hit.

“We Are the World,” the historic 1985 charity single — where even Bob Dylan was intimidated by the star-studded session.Surrounded by everyone from Ray Charles, Diana Ross and Paul Simon to Tina Turner, Willie Nelson and Billy Joel, the Bard was clearly out of sorts — and out of his element.But it took one particular legend to help another one find his solo mojo.“The secret agent to help him get comfortable was Stevie Wonder,” says David Breskin — one of two journalists invited by producer Quincy Jones to cover the momentous occasion — in the documentary. “Stevie is an insanely great mimic,” continues Breskin, explaining how the R&B master used his special talents to help the folk god: “Stevie sang it ventriloquially in Dylan’s voice.”It’s a dead-on impression that impresses even Dylan, who — in the only time the room is cleared to give one artist his space — finally nails his part.Such is the spirit of unity that — against all odds and egos — pulled together the recording of “We Are the World” on Jan.

Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion‘s feud is quickly escalating following the release of two new diss tracks.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic I will never forget the first time I saw Devo. It was October 14, 1978, and my college roommates and I were watching “Saturday Night Live.” The band, which I had never heard of (I would guess that was true of 98 percent of the people watching the show), came on in their yellow jumpsuits, stiff and mechanical, swiveling like angry androids as they performed their brutalist robo version of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” When the song ended, one of the band members shot up his hand in what looked kind of like a Hitler salute.

“We Are the World” was a once-in-a-generation meeting of musical giants when it was recorded Jan. 28, 1985 — and released two months later on March 7 — to benefit African famine relief.Anyone who was anyone in music at that moment — a who’s who of legends, including everyone from Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Bob Dylan to Billy Joel, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen — showed up to support the cause.Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and ’80s hitmaker Michael Omartian, the single sold a whopping 20 million copies.

Angelique Jackson Lionel Richie has been very emotional lately, but he wants to reassure everyone that he’s okay. According to Richie, it’s just been a heady experience to look back nearly 40 years and relive all the wondrous and chaotic memories of writing and recording “We Are the World” for the new Netflix documentary “The Greatest Night in Pop.” “Every segment of this journey, I cry,” Richie said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance Film Festival, where the film made its world premiere.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, the co-writers and co-directors of Aardman Animations’ musical film “Robin Robin,” which premiered on Netflix in November 2021, and was nominated for an Oscar the following year, say that a spinoff is in the cards. “We are currently working on more stories in the world of ‘Robin, Robin,’” Please tells Variety. “I think that’s all we’re allowed to say.

Coachella, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Summerfest, Pitchfork Music, etc. They all owe an enormous debt to Lollapalooza, the groundbreaking music festival that helped change the touring and music industry just as alternative music peaked in the early 90s.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In 2013, Angela Patton gave a TEDWomen talk that described a father-daughter dance for incarcerated dads and their daughters. That talk was viewed over a million times and inspired the documentary “Daughters,” which has its world premiere Monday at the Sundance Film Festival. In the film, Patton, who in the past decade has helped arrange approximately 15 Daddy Daughter Dances across the nation, and co-director Natalie Rae follow four young girls preparing for the event with their fathers in a prison in Washington, D.C.

Kobi Libii’s work on the sadly short-lived Comedy Central show “The Opposition with Jordan Klepper” always tended toward the confrontational. By donning the guise of right-wing media provocateurs, he highlighted the absurd internal contradictions of ideological hardliners.

Early in Yance Ford’s visual essay “Power,” he tells the audience that the film to come either requires “curiosity” or  “at least suspicion” from the viewer. It’s the type of bold claim that might pack a punch as a rhetorical hook, especially for a documentary that dives into the cultural, social, economic, and political history of policing in the United States.

Within minutes following the opening fade-in of “Gaucho Gaucho,” a trio of individuals can be seen dashing across a barren landscape, each sitting astride their own majestic-looking horse bathed in a sea of black and white with a South American backdrop beautifully framing the moment. It’s an appropriate setup to this documentary about gauchos, the colloquialism used to describe Argentinian cowboys and cowgirls, as the 84-minute runtime serves as little more than an exercise in striking photography mixed with a series of vignettes that’s as slice of life as one’s likely to find.

PARK CITY – It’s 2024. Are you ready for a movie set in the pandemic summer of 2020? Or, like September 11th, another historical event that was hard for Americans to stomach on screen for a good while, do you need a decade or so to process? Your answer to those questions will likely, for better or worse, determine your opinion of Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions” which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Given the current dismal political and cultural climate as well as streaming services’ massive appetite for celebrity driven content, it comes as no surprise that the 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival is chock full of portrait documentaries. Frida Kahlo, Christopher Reeve, Luther Vandross and Tammy Faye are just a few of the boldface names that are being examined in various docus featured in the Sundance nonfiction lineup. The festival is no stranger to star-driven docus.

Taylor Swift, new figures have shown.New data from Billboard shows that 49.61million vinyl records were sold in the States last year, of which Swift accounted for a huge 3.484million of those, or 7 per cent.The new numbers come after it was revealed that one in every 78 song streams in the US last year was also a Taylor Swift track.In results from the BPI in the UK, female musicians were shown to have dominated the best-selling albums and singles over the past 12 months, however, concerns were raised about new talent finding it harder to emerge on the charts.Elsewhere, Swift’s concert film The Eras Tour has officially become the highest-grossing concert movie of all time – overtaking Michael Jackson‘s This Is It with an overall global taking of $261.6million (£206m) – and a course on Taylor Swift at Harvard University has proved so popular that the institution is seeking more teaching assistants to help deliver it.Matthew Vaughn, the director of upcoming spy action comedy movie, Argylle, has also had to deny the theory that Taylor Swift is responsible for the book on which the movie is based.On January 9, a novel titled Argylle was released, written by a pseudonymous author going by the name Elly Conway. The book involves a spy novelist who gets roped into the world of espionage, assassins and feuds, all accompanied by her cat, Alfie.Some fans of Swift have been theorising that the mysterious novel was written by the US singer.

Michael Jackson is about to begin principal photography, with a release date now locked in.The film will be titled Michael, and it will star the musician’s nephew Jaafar Jackson, 27, in the title role.The production company behind the film, Lionsgate, has confirmed that the film will receive a theatrical release in the United States on April 18, 2025.Michael will be directed by Antoine Fuqua, who is known for films including Training Day, The Equalizer and Brooklyn’s Finest. It will also be written by John Logan, who has previously written on films including Gladiator, The Aviator, Skyfall and Spectre.Given the connection to the Jackson estate, it is unclear whether the film will explore the most controversial aspects of his life, including the allegations of child sexual abuse.In other Michael Jackson news, in December, it was announced that the audio from Jackson’s first ever studio session would be released as part of a limited-edition package.The recording was made 56 years ago, when Jackson was aged just nine and entered the One-derful studios in Chicago for the very first time with his brothers.In the session – which took place on July 13, 1967 – The Jackson Five produced a song titled ‘Big Boy’, and it has been confirmed that this was the first time that the iconic singer’s voice was put on tape.Visit here for more information and to purchase the track.

After a month of party dresses, sequins and tailored suits, January is all about comfort over everything when it comes to what we’re wearing. Although we’d love nothing more than a month of staying home after so many parties and events, there’s no avoiding the fact that at some point of another, we’re going to have to leave the house, which is why we’re on the hunt for the perfect pieces to add to our wardrobes that manage to combine comfort and style.

Max Martin had written that song for TLC. He wrote it as, like, an R&B record,” Barry Weiss — who was then president of Spears’ label, Jive Records — told The Post.

Alison Herman TV Critic Looking back, 2014 was truly a different time: Obama was in office, skinny jeans still reigned supreme and “True Detective” established itself with an unabashed emphasis on masculinity. Three years earlier, Ryan Murphy had revived the anthology series with “American Horror Story,” but it took the imprimatur of HBO, massive movie stars and a “serious” genre like crime to give the format real prestige.