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Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix Sets Nobody Wants This Season 2 Release Date for Adam Brody Series
Netflix's hit romantic comedy series Nobody Wants This is returning for a follow-up installment, with Season 2 recently receiving an official release date. The show made its debut back in 2024, garnering rave reviews from viewers and critics alike, as evidenced by its impressive Rotten Tomatoes score. Fast forward one year, and the unconventional comedy is already getting its much-deserved sequel season. During their appearance at Netflix's FYSEE LA Emmy event on June 1, the executive producers and cast of Nobody Wants This confirmed that Season 2 of the critically acclaimed series will hit streaming on October 23, 2025. In addition to series creator Erin Foster and executive producer Sara Foster, several leading cast members also graced the aforementioned event, which occurred at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, featuring the likes of Kristen Bell, Adam Brody, Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons, and Jackie Tohn. Aside from the announcement regarding the release date of Nobody Wants This Season 2, the event also included a live recording of Erin and Sara Foster's The World's First Podcast, while the duo exchanged conversations with all the different panelists. Nobody Wants This follows the unusual relationship dynamics of an ill-tempered and agnostic podcaster, played by Kristen Bell, and an unorthodox rabbi, played by Adam Brody, who has recently embraced singlehood. Harboring conflicting ideologies, the pair attempts to embark on a romantic journey with one another, all the while tackling various roadblocks that accompany their relationship, including reservations from their family members. Season 2 of Nobody Wants This, which now has an October 2025 release date, will see Brody and Bell reprise their roles, alongside a returning cast roster, which includes Lupe, Simons, Tohn, Stephanie Faracy, Michael Hitchcock, Tovah Feldshuh, and Shiloh Berman. Meanwhile, Leighton Meester, Miles Fowler, Alex Karpovsky, and Arian Moayed have been tapped to make guest appearances in the sequel edition of the Netflix series. Originally reported by Apoorv Rastogi on ComingSoon. The post Netflix Sets Nobody Wants This Season 2 Release Date for Adam Brody Series appeared first on Mandatory.
News18
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Netflix Announces Nobody Wants This Season 2 Release Date
Last Updated: The first season of Nobody Wants This wrapped up, showing the lead characters' relationship in conflict. The much-awaited second season of Netflix's Nobody Wants This has set a premiere date and fans can't keep calm! Bringing back the beloved Joanne (Kristen Bell) and Noah (Adam Brody), the rom-com will be released globally on October 23, 2025. The premiere date was recently announced by the cast and the crew members at the Emmys FYC event at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles. Netflix has also dropped a short clip, reconfirming the same. The clip has the main cast members getting into an interesting conversation about what can happen in the upcoming season. 'Cancelling all my October 23 plans for NOBODY WANTS THIS season 2!" the streaming giant wrote in the caption. Fans instantly took to the comment section and shared their excitement. A commenter read, 'YAAAAASSSS SO EXCITED!! Truly an incredible show," while another added, 'YES at least it comes out this year! Everybody wanted this!" A fan sounded highly eager to catch the latest season, with the comment reading, 'Yessssss I'm cancelling a whole week just to re-re-rewatch it!! Can't wait, my loves!!" About Nobody Wants This Loosely based on the real-life story of creator Erin Foster, the first season focused on the unlikely pairing between Joanne, an outspoken podcaster and an unconventional rabbi, Noah, who meet at a dinner party. With their on-and-off relationship explored throughout the season, it concluded on an uncertain note after Joanne revealed that she wasn't ready to convert to Judaism. The second season is expected to pick up on the events that follow up between the couple. The original cast, along with several new faces, will join the second season. While Timothy Simons, Jackie Tohn, Stephanie Faracy, Michael Hitchcock, Tovah Feldshuh, Paul Ben-Victor, Emily Arlook, Sherry Cola and Shiloh Berman will form the main cast, guest stars like Leighton Meester, Miles Fowler, Alex Karpovsky and Arian Moayed will also make an appearance this time. In a conversation with Rolling Stone, Brody and Bell shared why they wanted to bring back another season. 'Rom-coms leaned into simplicity for a while and the reason I liked this one is there are some very complex issues at play that do harken back to Romeo and Juliet, where you want them so badly to be together, you want the world to disappear for them," Bell shared. The rom-com series was renewed not long after its premiere in September 2024. First Published:
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Bridget Jones' star Renée Zellweger's emotional admission: ‘I didn't want Mark Darcy to go away'
For more than two decades, Renée Zellweger was Bridget Jones. And now, as she hangs up the diary in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, she's doing it with both laughter and tears. "I love this character,' Zellweger proclaimed during a recent FYC screening event for the film. 'I love her vulnerability, and I love to find spaces where she's just not quite feeling that she measures up, and the opportunity to meet her again in different stages of her life and to learn how she's different.' More from GoldDerby 'It's in my contract that I have great clothes, funny lines, and a lover': Christine Baranski on her surging career in her 70s 'One of the things that made it so special was that it wasn't for everyone': 'The Leftovers' EPs and cast on the show's legacy 'The Gilded Age' cast on what to expect in Season 3: feuding sisters, robber barons and a wedding? The fourth and final installment of the beloved franchise — which was streamed in the U.S. on Peacock and is in Emmy contention in categories including Outstanding Television Movie, lead actress for Zellweger, and directing for Michael Morris — offers something fans have never seen before: Bridget not only older and wiser, but grieving, growing, and still full of hope. Morris had one hope when introducing the film to the audience inside Ted Mann Theater at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. 'I hope it immerses you in her world,' the filmmaker said before the screening. 'I hope it brings you whatever feelings it brings you.' For Morris — a London native who remembers exactly where he was when that first movie came out — this fourth and final chapter in Bridget's story was more than a conclusion. It was a celebration, a meditation on love and loss, and, in his words, 'a joy to work on.' Peacock Taking the stage to join Morris for a panel after the screening, Zellweger — who has played the charmingly chaotic Bridget for just about 25 years — is finally ready, although a bit reluctantly, to let her go. The two-time Oscar winner shared a moment that made her particularly emotional on set. It was the final time she saw Colin Firth dressed as Mark Darcy. "It just got me. I didn't expect to be so emotional about the end of this shared journey with my friend ... the finality of it just really was a gut punch. ... It sounds so silly, but it felt very profound in the moment," she chuckled. "Maybe I'm crazy because maybe I love a fictional character," she said, "I didn't want Mark Darcy to go away." Zellweger also gushed over her other longtime costar, Hugh Grant. As lovable lothario Daniel Cleaver, Grant had the role before the actress even signed on as Bridget Jones. Zellweger remembers meeting him for the first time as a "fangirl," saying the chemistry was instant. She was living in a dormitory on top of a theater in Austin when she first saw Grant — on screen. "I would sneak down there and watch all of the animation festivals that would come through," she recalled. 'And here's this guy playing Chopin ... in Impromptu." She thought he was handsome. "When I heard he was in this Bridget Jones film that I was going to go and do in England. ... I think I had a heart attack.' After losing Mark Darcy, some might have entertained the thought, but Grant's rakish Daniel Cleaver was never supposed to be Bridget's endgame. However, in a roundabout way, Mad About the Boy throws fans a curveball. 'Of course, she couldn't have ended up with Daniel," Morris pointed out when posed with the question. "But she sort of did. Because he became part of her family." Photo By: Jay Maidment/Universal Pictures With Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver out of the romantic picture, this opened the door for new potential love interests, which author Helen Fielding explored by introducing the younger Roxster (Leo Woodall) and the more age-appropriate Mr. Walliker (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Morris knew exactly what he wanted in these characters and who he wanted to cast. 'I was absolutely laser-focused on trying to get Leo and Chiwetel into the film,' he says. The thoughtful casting process carried into Bridget and Mark's children, Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic), whom Morris championed out of thousands. In fact, one of his favorite scenes is when Bridget and her children are about to release the balloons in Mark's honor. "The scene could be a terribly sad moment," the director noted. But in an unrehearsed glance between Renée and Mabel, a smile turned an act of grief into a display of love. Zellweger recalled her favorite scene as the one with the lip plumper. "I had the best time trying not to laugh … and watching (an unsuspecting) Emma Thompson's face," she said. The fourth installment is a more somber and reflective entry in Bridget's saga. Zellweger describes it as 'the most intimate' of the series, noting that Fielding drew on personal experiences to guide the story. Since 2001, Bridget Jones has matured as a mother, as a woman re-entering the workforce, as a widow, but she hasn't lost her essence, an aspect that continued to intrigue Zellweger as she factored in how life has impacted Bridget. Photo by Daniel Kroll/'How has she changed and grown? How are her values different? How are her choices different?" she mused. "I'm sure everybody feels that they see a lot of themselves in this character. I think the profound gift is that she taps into those things that we all recognize in ourselves, our humanity and feeling not enough, or our fears and all of that." Morris says he struggles to find other examples of where we've taken one character through something like this over two decades. "Occasionally, there were sequels," Morris said, "but this is a franchise set around a real woman. … She's actually just a person living her life, and we've known her for 25 years. That's a real privilege to work on something like that." For the director, it's that duality — joy and heartbreak, comedy and humanity — that defines the Bridget Jones films. His take is both visually and emotionally different from its predecessors. It evolves cinematically. It looks and feels different because Bridget is different. 'I think there's a life that [Renée] brings, and there's a joy that is there, even when her world is falling apart, and she's a fabulous catastrophe," Morris said, "but even when it's falling apart, we just lean right in, because there's so much optimism in the way that [she] brought Bridget to us." Filled with drama, humor, and Easter eggs, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy serves as a fitting sendoff for the franchise. Even the last bit of filming, Zellweger said felt like a farewell party. "I loved the dancing in the garden,' she said. 'It was one of our last days filming. And setting up as you guys saw, standing off the side for a little while and watching everybody dancing on that floor under the disco ball in that glorious garden. ... I can't think of a better way to wrap up the experience than to watch the joy because that was real with all our friends out there, with the music blasting under the stars. That was very special." Best of GoldDerby Liam Neeson movies: 12 greatest films ranked worst to best Paul Giamatti movies: 16 greatest films ranked worst to best Tony Curtis movies: 15 greatest films ranked worst to best Click here to read the full article.
Los Angeles Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Goldie Hawn shines in ‘The Sugarland Express,' plus the best films in L.A.
Hello! I'm Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies. The Cannes Film Festival is winding down, with the awards ceremony happening on Saturday. Amy Nicholson and Joshua Rothkopf have been there, watching as many films as they can. In a notebook dispatch from the fest's first week, Amy covered many early titles, including Harris Dickinson's directing debut, 'Urchin,' Ari Aster's 'Eddington,' Dominik Moll's 'Dossier 137,' Sergei Loznitsa's 'Two Prosecuters' and Oliver Laxe's 'Sirât.' A second diary is live now, covering several films including Spike Lee's 'Highest 2 Lowest' and the directorial debut of Kristen Stewart, 'The Chronology of Water.' Josh spoke to filmmaker Lynne Ramsay about her long-awaited return with 'Die, My Love,' a tale of the struggles of motherhood, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. So far the film has become the festival's biggest acquisition, picked up by 'The Substance's' distributor Mubi for a reported $24 million. Ramsay spoke about working with Lawrence and Pattinson, who, besides being big stars, are committed performers as well. 'I think they were very willing participants,' said Ramsay. 'There was a lot of trust. I try and create an atmosphere of trust and I just threw them into the fire. I did the sex scene on the first day. I thought it's a risk. It's either going to work or it's going to be a disaster. But I could see there was chemistry. And when they arrived, I was getting them dancing. They were dancing together, synchronized. And it was fun. And then I think Robert was a little nervous, but then something just kind of broke the ice.' Josh also spoke to director Ari Aster about 'Eddington' and whether he set out to make his most overtly politically charged film to date with the story of a small town's sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparring during the early days of the pandemic. 'I am just following my impulses, so I'm not thinking in that way,' said Aster. 'There's very little strategy going on. It's just: What am I interested in? And when I started writing, because I was in a real state of fear and anxiety about what was happening in the country and what was happening in the world, and I wanted to make a film about what it was feeling like.' We seem to be on the verge of a summer of Spielberg. After last week's screening of 2002's 'Minority Report,' this Thursday brings a showing of Spielberg's 1974 'The Sugarland Express' at the Academy Museum with a conversation with the film's star, Goldie Hawn. There are also multiple opportunities to see 'Jaws' this Memorial Day weekend in celebration of the film's 50th anniversary, including presentations at the Egyptian, the New Beverly and the Frida Cinema. The film will also play at the Hollywood Bowl on July 5, with a live performance of John Williams' score by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. 'The Sugarland Express,' screening in a 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative, was Spielberg's theatrical feature debut. As tempting as it is to view it for the seeds of what was still to come, the movie is a fully formed charmer all on its own. Lou Jean Poplin (Hawn) convinces her husband (William Atherton) to escape from prison just a few months from being released because their son is about to be placed for adoption. When the pair wind up taking a police officer hostage, their journey across Texas becomes an unlikely pursuit involving the authorities and the media. In an April 1974 review, Kevin Thomas called the film 'dazzling, funny, exciting and finally poignant. … An increasingly disenchanted portrait of contemporary America.' Thomas added, 'Spielberg and his associates are trying for entertainment rather than profundity, and 'The Sugarland Express' is anything but heavy. But it is incisive as it is rapid, like the more optimistic vintage Capra films it brings to mind. … When all things are considered, however, one realizes it is Goldie Hawn who gives the film its focus and dimension, making Lou Jean at once very funny and very sad, quite real, and for all her intransigence, most appealing.' In a March 1973 report from the set, Hawn spoke to reporter Jeff Millar. She said it took a year after the film 'Butterflies Are Free' to find another project that excited her as much. 'I flipped when I saw this one,' Hawn said. 'It's a different kind of role for me. She's aggressive. She's a leader, she's comical. But she's still a plain country girl. 'I guess the most exciting thing is the director,' Hawn continued. 'I'd never met him, but everybody knew about him, you know? 'Oh yeah, you're going to do a picture with Steve Spielberg. The bright young guy who's coming up…'' In comments that bring to mind his recent film 'The Fabelmans,' Spielberg, 25 at the time, told Millar, 'I've been making pictures in 8mm, 16mm and 35mm since I was 15. This is the fourth year I've had that Directors Guild of America card. I've been directing in television since I was 21.' Of the movie, he added, 'I wanted to shoot in Texas because it's so big. I'm very into Americana — and Texas is a lot more Americana to me than, well, Kansas or Andrew Wyeth.' Susan Sontag's 'Duet for Cannibals' In 1968, Susan Sontag, already a well-known and deeply influential writer and critic, was invited to Stockholm to make her first movie. The result was 'Duet for Cannibals,' a darkly comedic satire of bourgeois values focused on two couples. The film plays at Vidiots on Wednesday. In May 1973, Kevin Thomas wrote about the film when it had a few screenings at an art gallery and restaurant near LACMA, noting that it 'demonstrates Susan Sontag is as gifted a filmmaker as she is a critic and philosopher.' Thomas concluded, 'Sontag illuminates human potential, with emphasis on its bent for destruction yet capacity to endure to a breathtaking fullness. In this bravura example of a work of art that achieves maximum of means, Susan Sontag proves she is a critic who can practice what she preaches.' 'How to Get Ahead in Advertising' Writer-director Bruce Robinson followed up his cult hit 'Withnail & I' with 1989's 'How To Get Ahead in Advertising,' a bitter satire of commercialization and the media. Richard E. Grant plays rising advertising executive Denis Dimbleby Bagley, who, while suffering an ethical crisis over the impact of his work, develops a boil on his neck that begins talking to him. The film will play in a new restoration at the Los Feliz 3 on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday. In a May 1989 review, Sheila Benson called the movie 'a strange piece, to be sure. It's cruel, funny, knowing, never less than biting and occasionally brilliant. Pure fury seems to have driven Robinson to it. … There are problems in creating something as simultaneously funny and unlovely as a talking boil. It's possible that some audiences will lose interest once they learn that the effects are good but minor; the boil, even when grown to full manhood (boilhood?) isn't a patch on 'The Fly.' But then, this isn't that sort of movie. This is a blistering broadside, a warning for the safety of our souls.' In a set visit by Bart Mills published around the film's release, Robinson, then 43, did an interview from his office at Shepperton Studios outside London. He said it was his own disillusionment at 'the constant stream of disinformation the media and the politicians give us' that inspired the story. 'This is the kind of anger I feel all the time. All the time. It's intolerable. The only thing that saves me, that keeps the electrodes off my head, is that, thank God, I'm allowed to make a movie about it.' Yet, Robinson added, 'I don't believe the cinema can change anything. It's not a teacher, it's an entertainer. I enjoy finding a comedic way to exploit my burning rage.' The short films of Charles and Ray Eames On Wednesday, the Philosophical Research Society and the Charles and Ray Eames Foundation will host an evening celebrating the famous creative duo. There will be a program of seven of the Eames' shorts, including 1955's 'House: After Five Years of Living,' 1964's 'Think' and likely their best-known film, 1977's 'Powers of Ten.' The event will also include a panel discussion moderated by programmer Alex McDonald including the Eames' grandson Eames Demetrios, art director Jeannine Oppewall and the creative pair of Adi Goodrich and Sean Pecknold, known as Sing-Sing. Writing about the enduring influence of the Eames in 2012, David L. Ulin said, 'In our age of constant contact, it's almost impossible to step away from the workplace even when we're off the clock. And yet, if the Eameses have anything to tell us, it's that we can — must — aspire to a higher integration, in which work should not only feed our stomach but also, and more importantly, our souls.' Rolf Saxon accepts another 'Mission' Fans of the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise are in for a real surprise when they see the new sequel 'The Final Reckoning,' which opens this weekend. Actor Rolf Saxon, who had a memorable turn in the first film in 1996, is back with a surprisingly large role in the new film. Saxon's character of CIA analyst William Donloe was sent to a radar station in Alaska after his computer station got hacked by Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt in one of the series' signature set pieces. In the new film, it turns out Donloe has been in Alaska the entire time and now may have vital information for the Impossible Mission Force. The new film brought Saxon to caves in the English midlands and, most spectacularly, Svalbard, an archipelago off the northern coast of Norway. 'This was in many ways a dream job,' says Saxon. 'The people I'm working with, the thing I'm working on and the places I got to go to work — it's just like, what would you really like to do? Here it is.' My extended feature with Saxon goes live a little later this afternoon. Stay tuned.
Los Angeles Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Ang Lee and Zhang Ziyi with ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' plus the best films in L.A.
Hello! I'm Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies. Hollywood was shocked last weekend with the announcement by President Trump of a plan to impose a new 100% tariff on films produced outside the United States. The exact logistics of the plan were unclear; determining which projects would be subject to the tariff would itself be extremely complicated. As one film executive said in a story by Meg James and Samantha Masunaga, 'Nobody knows, and I don't suspect we will for awhile. Is it on domestically funded foreign productions? Is it on foreign-funded ones? Is the tariff on film revenues or film costs on those projects, or both?' Though many seemed to disagree that a tariff was the solution to Hollywood's problems concerning runaway production, as the week went on there was a turn toward hoping that this could nevertheless be the start of something positive. 'It's great that the president is starting to pay attention,' producer Jeffrey Greenstein said to Ryan Faughnder. 'So let's have a real conversation about it and figure out the best way to start bringing movies back.' One thought is that perhaps some kind of federal tax incentive could get things moving in the right direction. In a separate story, Masunaga and James looked at California Gov. Gavin Newsom's efforts to create such a program. 'Right now the industry is teetering,' UCLA professor George Huang said. 'This would go a long way in helping right the ship and putting us back on course to being the capital of the entertainment world.' Tonight the Academy Museum will host a 35mm screening of 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' with director Ang Lee and star Zhang Ziyi present for a conversation with Academy president Janet Yang. Released in 2000, the film still holds the distinction of being the highest-grossing, non-English-language film of all time in the U.S. and also won four Oscars. Set in 19th century China, the movie kicks off with a warrior (Chow Yun-Fat) giving his sword to his lover (Michelle Yeoh) but it is soon stolen, setting them on a journey to retrieve it. In his original review of the film, Kenneth Turan wrote, 'Films we can categorize, that's what we're used to. Good or bad, fiascoes or masterpieces, we put them in their place, every one. What we're not used to, what we haven't had much of at all, are films that transcend categorization, that remind us — simply, powerfully, indelibly — what we go to the movies for. Ang Lee's 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' is that kind of a picture. 'A delightful one-of-a-kind martial arts romance where astounding fight sequences alternate with passionate yet idealistic love duets, 'Crouching Tiger' is a fusion film from top to bottom,' Turan added. 'By joining emotional sophistication to the most thrilling kind of Hong Kong-style acrobatic action, by having classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma and preeminent fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping in the same film, 'Crouching Tiger' brings a specific national cinema fully into the world spotlight. It can do all this so successfully because Lee reconciles these opposites in his own life and work.' Scarlet Cheng spent time on the set of the film as it was shooting in China, capturing the scene as Chow was prepped to perform one of the film's dazzling wire-work stunts. Action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping explained why it was worth the extra effort to do the stunts for real rather than assisted by computer effects, saying, 'It never looks quite right. It still requires people doing it.' Writing about the film in 2023, Justin Chang said, 'If you were among those who saw the movie on its initial release, lured by reports that Lee had made the most kick-ass action picture in years, you might have felt a twinge of impatience at those first 15 minutes of dialogue-rich, action-free scene-setting. Or perhaps you were drawn in by the classical refinement of the filmmaking, the understated gravity of the performances, the realistic sense of grounding in an utterly fantastical world. Operating by his own laws of cinematic physics, Lee must first establish gravity before he can defy it.' The American Cinematheque is paying tribute to versatile genre director Ted Kotcheff, who died recently at age 94. Though 'First Blood,' the film that introduced Sylvester Stallone's character of John Rambo, has already screened in the series, there are still some delights to come. Tonight and tomorrow, the Los Feliz 3 will screen 35mm showings of 1989's 'Weekend at Bernie's,' starring Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy as two low-level salesmen who get invited for the weekend to the luxury house of their shady boss, Bernie (Terry Kiser). When Bernie winds up dead, they concoct a scheme to convince people he is still alive, in part to keep the party rolling. (Kotcheff has a cameo as father to one of the boys.) In his original review of the film, Kevin Thomas wrote, 'It can't in fact be accused of possessing so much as a shred of subtlety, but as a broad farce its not only cleverly sustained but frequently hilarious. What's more, a weekend among the rich, the jaded and the corrupt is just the right cup of tea for an acid social satirist as Kotcheff.' 'Fun With Dick and Jane,' the director's 1977 film starring George Segal and Jane Fonda as a middle-class couple who turn to crime when they find themselves out of work, will screen on Thursday and May 17 at the Los Feliz 3. 'The Magnificent Ambersons' in 35mm On Sunday afternoon, the American Cinematheque will screen Orson Welles' 1942 'The Magnificent Ambersons' in 35mm. Adapted from a novel by Booth Tarkington, the film concerns a wealthy Midwestern family who see their family's fortunes diminish as time passes them by. The cast included Joseph Cotton, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt and Agnes Moorehead. On July 8, 1942, Edwin Schallert wrote in the paper, 'Whatever Hollywood powers-that-be have in mind about the future of Mr. Orson Welles as a picture-maker, there could be no outcome more ghastly, to my way of thinking, than to let him slip away from these purlieus and back to the confines of the stage. 'The Magnificent Ambersons' is proof positive that he should be retained in active service. Whatever values it might lack in humanness — and I'm sure I don't know what they are — it is a splendid technical achievement — indeed, one all but justifying the re-use of the 'magnificent' of its title.' However, on Aug. 24, 1942, Norbert Lusk wrote, 'Apparently there is a desire on the part of some to hail Mr. Welles as the savior of the screen or at least one of its most brilliant trailblazers, but he refuses to come through quite. Actually, his picture is a dull, pretentious bore which in essence states nothing except the folly of scoffing at new inventions like the automobile and that if one is arrogant to one's fellow man one is bound to get his 'come-uppance.'' 'Vox Lux' Now might be a good moment to revisit the early works of Brady Corbet, with his recent 'The Brutalist' having won three Oscars. On Wednesday, Brain Dead Studios will be screening Corbet's 2018 film 'Vox Lux.' Natalie Portman gives a wickedly unhinged performance as an aging pop star trying to navigate her faltering career while also raising her teenage daughter in a world increasingly marked by senseless violence. I spoke to Corbet and Portman, along with actors Jude Law and Raffey Cassidy, for a story about the film when it was initially released. Perhaps hinting at the even grander ambitions to come in 'The Brutalist,' Corbet said at the time, 'And I think that we actually have to reach for bigger ideas in order to move anyone, because we're all just so accustomed to seeing the same thing over and over and over again. It's rare that something really shoots for the moon. And since things are so tough right now, we should really attempt to try and make stories better and be bolder.' Keep an eye out for a tribute to Corbet and his partner Mona Fastvold as part of the upcoming 'Bleak Week,' including another screening of 'Vox Lux' on Thursday, June 5. 'Pavements' at the Nuart The new documentary 'Pavements' is opening in Los Angeles this weekend. Directed by Alex Ross Perry, the film captures the spirit of the '90s indie rock pioneers Pavement by including documentary footage of their 2022 reunion tour along with a stage musical, a museum and a biopic all created just for the project. The result is genuinely unique, all the parts of the film coalescing into a vibe that a more straightforward telling of the band's story could never approach. There will be Q&As at multiple weekend shows at the Nuart with Perry, band member Scott Kannberg, actors Jason Schwartzman, Tim Heidecker and Logan Miller. John C. Reilly will moderate a Saturday night Q&A. I wrote about the film and its unconventional approach to the rock doc. In explaining the film's overall strategy, Perry said, 'I wanted to make a movie from the perspective of Pavement [being] — as we say onscreen in the film — the world's most important and influential band, because that is literally true to 100,000 white Gen-X nerds. So what if the movie takes that not as a premise but as a fact? And builds a fictional world where this music has inspired these other things people build as shrines to their favorite musicians — a museum, a Broadway show, a crappy biopic? Let's just do that and presume that is the cultural footprint of Pavement.' The film plays well to longtime fans and newcomers alike. But for anyone hung up on what is true or not from the film, band member Bob Nastanovich offers, 'If it confuses people, then I'm pretty easy to contact. I can tell them what's real and not real.' Reviewing the movie for The Times, Scott Tobias wrote, 'At a little over two hours long, 'Pavements' can feel a little like the band's notoriously misshapen 1995 opus 'Wowee Zowee,' a double album with only three sides. Yet the perfectly imperfect shape of 'Pavements' is similarly tailored to those who appreciate the band's creative unruliness. It also feels like an apt companion to Perry's last fiction feature, 2018's 'Her Smell,' which strongly alludes to the life of Hole lead singer Courtney Love and pays off a chaotic two-hour drama with a breathtakingly lovely final act.'
