‘The Listener’ Review: Tessa Thompson Anchors Contemplative Story of Loneliness

Guy Lodge Film Critic In their 2018 film “The Dead and the Others,” directors João Salaviza et Renée Nader Messora turned their lens generously to the Krahô people of northeast Brazil, documenting a longstanding way of life under threat from developers and politicians, and giving their non-professional subjects ample leeway for improvisation in presenting themselves on screen. Their ambitious, formally limber follow-up “The Buriti Flower” resumes their study of the Krahô, but with an expanded scope, as it examines ideological and generational conflict within the tribe: protectively insular tradition on one side, outward-facing activism on the other. Blending candid vérité with extravagant flourishes of fiction, the film sees its helmers sharing screenwriting duties with a trio of Krahô locals, and feels more textured for their collaboration.

The Last Match (★★★☆☆), it might not matter who wins or loses the titular duel between American champion Tim Porter (Drew Kopas) and Russian upstart Sergei Sergeyev (Ethan Miller). In Alex Levy’s cleverly staged production at 1st Stage, however, the charmingly boastful Sergei clearly emerges as the more fully realized and engaging of the characters.Brilliantly embodying the young challenger’s drive, hunger, and athleticism, Miller also adeptly delivers Sergei’s trash-talking sense of humor, as the play unwinds its tale of the foes’ hard-fought match on-court, amid side glances to pivotal moments in their off-court lives.Yet, Miller rises above the script’s tendency to lean on Sergei as comic relief, and invests the guy with personality beyond his bad-boy insults, aggressive style of play, and mane of wild curls.

Lisa Kennedy Fashionista Jenna Jones (Gabrielle Union) took quite the tumble from her position in New York’s world of style. In “The Perfect Find” — Netflix’s visually vibrant, cinema-loving, if not quite perfect, rom-com — her professional and romantic plummet is documented in opening credits that cleverly use an animated collage to relate her story. So, when we meet Jenna in person ,she’s without a job, and her man (D.B. Woodside) of 10 years has moved on … or so it seems. The 40-year-old is sporting baggy sweats, and not because she’s headed to the gym. She’s been living in her parents’ home licking her wounds, for a year, when her mother calls her out on it. The scene between mother (Janet Hubert) and grown-ass daughter is amusing and promising. As are the musical and visual choices director Numa Perrier makes that evoke Old Hollywood in a film with characters decidedly not Old Hollywood.

David Benedict “What was I thinking when I made this deal?” So sings Holly Martins (Sam Underwood) towards the end of the new musical adaptation of “The Third Man.” Indeed. As it turns out, the mystery at the heart of the show is not the expected “Whatever happened to Harry Lime?” – the man of the title – but what possessed a creative team as distinguished as director Trevor Nunn and bookwriter Christopher Hampton to imagine that what Carol Reed’s still-astonishing classic film needed was to be taken offscreen and planted onstage with added songs. The dismaying production provides no answer. The opening is ominous in completely the wrong way. Yes, we’re still in Vienna in 1947 but it feels like a failure to resort to a voice-over to explain necessary information about how, in the wake of the war, the city has been divided up into sectors under the control of warring nations. The storytelling, it’s clear, is going to be bald.

Alison Herman TV Critic “You can spend all the time in the world in here,” a chef tells his eager protegé as they work in a temple of haute cuisine. “But if you don’t spend enough time out there…” There’s no need for him to finish the sentence. The mentor’s meaning is clear enough: To achieve greatness, you need to expand your horizons. This piece of advice comes close to the halfway point of the second season of “The Bear,” long after the FX half-hour has applied the insight to itself. Last year, the tale of a family-owed Chicago sandwich shop taken over by a prodigal son became a surprise summer hit by staying tightly focused on its central location. Each of its eight episodes unfolded like a stage play, as the staff of the Original Beef of Chicagoland careened through the cramped kitchen, confronting their latest crisis. This M.O. reached its apotheosis in the widely acclaimed penultimate episode, a 20-minute tracking shot that began with the Beef opening itself to online orders and ended with relationships strained to their breaking point.

What better way to come to know a public figure than to discover them in their own words, or, better yet, their own singing voice? Filmmaker Allison Ellwood seems drawn to that notion because she let it guide her as she crafted the smart and sentimental “Let The Canary Sing.” The new documentary is a colorful force of nature underscored by the fierce soundtrack of life, embodying the best parts of its subject in the name of nostalgic exploration. After all, music can tell beautiful stories, and this journey is no exception.“Let The Canary Sing” chronicles the rise of legendary 1980s rock star Cyndi Lauper and the complications that came for her career along the way.

Murtada Elfadl Taking on an expansive topic, the contribution of Black astronauts to the American space program, Lisa Cortés and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza’s “The Space Race” derives its strength from the specific and detailed stories of its subjects. Spanning almost 60 years of historical narrative and concentrating on a handful of scientists who broke barriers, the National Geographic doc is the type that makes the audience question how they have never heard of these people before. Cortés and de Mendoza interweave archival footage with the testimony of the astronauts in a fast-paced and informative way. Rapidly unraveling the fascinating story, they demand the audience’s attention and reward it. Blink or look away for a second and an interesting factoid might be missed. But their greatest asset proves to be the astronauts themselves. Their recollections are emotional and humorous, going a long way to paint such a captivating narrative. The astronauts talk of the weight of being an example and the challenges of having to navigate both white and Black spaces in order to succeed. Yet most movingly, they talk of the camaraderie born of being together in these hallowed and mostly white spaces.

Jessica Kiang Over the course of his first three features — “Ilo Ilo,” “Wet Season” and this year’s “Drift” — Singaporean director Anthony Chen has developed a signature style. It is a graceful, lucid classicism, a mode that in its straightforward sincerity is not fashionable in our abrasive moment, but can yield significant satisfactions. That is certainly true of his second film of 2023, “The Breaking Ice,” which describes, in a trio of perfectly judged  performances, the burgeoning, momentous and yet fleeting connection between three differently lonely people — a love triangle with rounded, snowdrift corners. Yu Jing-Pin’s lovely photography contrasts wintry wides and warm close-ups, as writer-director Chen carves out three characters against the frozen landscapes of Yanji, a small Chinese town in shouting distance of the North Korean border. This is the current home of Nana (Zhou Dongyu, “Better Days”) an unfulfilled bus-tour guide who switches on her ready smile for her passengers — and switches it off just as quickly when she turns away to massage her cold, cramping feet.

In 2017, we put a feature together on the burgeoning Chilean New Wave of cinema: Beyond Pablo Larraín: 6 Chilean Directors You Should Know. They included filmmakers you probably are very familiar with, including Sebastián Lelio and Sebastián Silva.

EXCLUSIVE: Nina Hoss (Tár) and Nicholas Pinnock (For Life) have closed deals to join the new film Hedda from MGM’s Orion Pictures. While details as to their roles haven’t been disclosed, they join an ensemble that also includes Tessa Thompson, Callum Turner and Eve Hewson, as previously announced.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic When you see a documentary about a game-changing pop star, you assume you’re going to get the story of the music, and also a good look at the life, and that there’ll be enough (on both counts) to go around. I was eager to see “Let the Canary Sing,” a documentary portrait of Cyndi Lauper, because it’s directed by Alison Ellwood, who made “The Go-Go’s” a few years back, and that movie had everything: the drama, the trauma, the saga of a total pop-music reset, as we watched the Go-Go’s bust down doors that had been too tightly shut for too long. Cyndi Lauper was no less revolutionary a figure, arriving in the early ’80s, along with Madonna, to announce that we were in the midst of a seismic new definition of what it meant to be a female pop star. The definition was: a star who could rule — and change — the world.

Ezra Miller’s erratic behavior that landed the star in court in Hawaii and Vermont in 2022, to the Warner Bros. shakeup in October 2022 that led to James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over the limping DC Studios.Running time: 144 minutes.

Sometimes it feels as though A.I. is already here, given the number of films resembling Garden State that pop up on the festival circuit every year. Robert Schwartzman’s The Good Half is only the latest, and his attempt to out-emo Zach Braff’s legacy film falls disappointingly short, given that his last Tribeca appearance was with the surreal and underrated comedy The Argument (2020), which channeled Charlie Kaufman in the story of a couple whose obsession with a petty fight spirals into absurdity. The Good Half, however, mostly serves as a decent vehicle for Nick Jonas, who seems to making a play to be the new Adam Driver, which is not as far-fetched as it might sound.

royals take to centre court to watch some of the best tennis players in the world battle it out for the title. From The Princess of Wales, to Sienna Miller, Tessa Thompson and Maya Jama, Wimbledon has played host to so many famous faces over the years. And if you're planning to head to the tennis tournament this year, you might be wondering what to wear.

, but if there's one product I'm always down to experiment with, it has to be . Cleansing is my top priority—as someone who has struggled with acne from a young age, I take as many preventative steps as possible to keep my skin clear.

In fifteen days, Sasha Calle makes her big screen debut as Supergirl in Andy Muschietti‘s long-awaited “The Flash.” And EW reports that, if the actress has her way, her time as the superheroine won’t be a one-off. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll reprise the role in “Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow” in the new DCU.

EXCLUSIVE: Eve Hewson (Flora and Son) is set to join Tessa Thompson in Hedda, the new film to be directed for MGM’s Orion Pictures and Plan B by Nia DaCosta, who is working from her own script. Details as to the role she’s playing haven’t been disclosed.

In the world of action cinema, the Transformers series has always been a cinematic spectacle to behold. Transformers: Rise of the Beast, the latest in this high-octane franchise, doesn’t stand out amongst the previous films as anything more than a cash grab. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and written by a team that includes Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, and Josh Peters, the film boasts a stacked cast including Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, and Lauren Luna Velez, with voice acting by Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Peter Cullen, Ron Pearlman, Coleman Domingo, Pete Davidson, Liza Koshy, MJ Rodriguez, John DiMaggio, and Cristo Fernandez.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (★★★☆☆).Diehard fans of Spidey comics, games, cartoons, and movies will have a field day trying to spot every iteration of Spider being, gathered from various storylines and product lines, some dating back decades, who pop up here. But there are far too many for our hero, Miles Morales, the bright Brooklyn teen introduced as the new Spider-Man in the 2018 animated Oscar-winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, to fully grasp.Miles (Shameik Moore) is still stuck on Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), a fabulous Spider-Woman from another dimension, who teamed with him and a loosely assembled squad of Spider-friends in the first film to defeat Kingpin and Doctor Octopus, and destroy the villains’ black hole-spawning collider.A masterpiece of style and storytelling, Into the Spider-Verse ended with the sound of Gwen’s voice ringing out from her dimension to contact Miles relaxing in his room.

Eve Hewson has joined the cast of 'Hedda'. The 31-year-old actress is set to feature alongside Tessa Thompson in the movie that is being directed by Nia DaCosta. The film is billed as an epic reimagining of Henrik Ibsen's 1891 stage play 'Hedda Gabler'.