Latest news with #AkiraKurosawa
Digital Trends
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
5 best HBO Max movies to watch on Memorial Day
Memorial Day occupies its awkward corner at the end of May as a time both to honor our fallen heroes and to celebrate the unofficial beginning of summer. To that end, both war films and summer films are called for to while away the long weekend before we can start preparing our out-of-office emails. Here are five movies on HBO Max worthy of any post-barbecue evening — three movies about summer and two about war. We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Recommended Videos Mystic Pizza (1988) Mystic Pizza, the story of three waitresses at a real-life Connecticut eatery the summer before college, does everything movies of this type are supposed to do in creating an impossibly bucolic world: everyone owns waterfront property, it's perpetually a beautiful New England summer, and townies look like Julia Roberts. Also, everyone survives exclusively on pizza, though it is Connecticut-style pizza, which proves you can't have everything. With a script co-written by Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Alfred Uhry, Mystic Pizza has a pedigree far more prestigious than its (forgive me) cheesy reputation. Stream Mystic Pizza on HBO Max. Seven Samurai (1954) For any other filmmaker, Seven Samurai would be a career-defining masterpiece. For Akira Kurosawa, it was merely an entry in his impossibly illustrious 1950s, alongside Rashomon, Ikiru, and Throne of Blood. Takashi Shimura (also a co-star of Rashomon and Ikiru) leads a band of mercenaries contracted to engage in a great battle to protect a village from bandits. Seven Samurai was made in the rubble of Japan's recovery from World War II, and it is, unmistakably, a war film. It is a portrait of what makes a society both at peace and at war — its organization, discipline, fears, entertainment, and weaknesses — and its selective need for those who can protect it in a crisis, only to discard them once that crisis has passed. Stream Seven Samurai on HBO Max. Aftersun (2022) Aftersun, a Charlotte Wells film loosely based on a summer trip the director took with her own father as a child, feels like a memory. Set at a low-grade beach resort in Turkey, the film follows Wells' counterpart, 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio), and her 30-year-old father, Calum (Paul Mescal). Calum's youth gets him confused for Sophie's brother more than once, and the keen sense that his childhood was interrupted by Sophie's arrival pervades the film. Mescal received his first Oscar nomination for this achingly gorgeous memory play. Stream Aftersun on HBO Max. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Forty years of British war-making are soaringly summarized in this superb film by the prototypical British wartime filmmakers, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes). Roger Livesey is Clive Wynne-Candy, who climbs from enlisted man in the Boer War to major general during World War II, guided by a sense of stereotypically English honor that becomes more archaic as the century winds on. There is something unique about the way Powell and Pressburger use Technicolor. Their films, especially this one, have a texture and richness almost nothing can match; one wants to lick them off the screen. Stream The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp on HBO Max. A Tale of Summer (1996) Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) has a problem. He's waiting patiently by the seaside in the north of France for his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Lena (Aurélia Nolin), but he's also being pursued by Solene (Gwenaëlle Simon) and nursing a will-they-won't-they friendship with waitress Margot (Amanda Langlet). This, if you're curious, is what passes for a problem in France. Éric Rohmer's exquisitely French romance, lazy and contemplative as a perfect summer's day, never ceases to delight as the years go on. Stream A Tale of Summer on HBO Max.
Malay Mail
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Spike Lee and Denzel are back: ‘Highest 2 Lowest' premieres at Cannes to six-minute standing ovation
CANNES, May 22 — Spike Lee recalled how he and Denzel Washington instantly picked up where they left off when filming their latest movie Highest 2 Lowest, almost 20 years after they last worked together. 'It was an 18-year gap between Inside Man and this film, but we were surprised because this was like it was yesterday. So we didn't lose a step,' the US director told journalists at the Cannes Film Festival, where his film premiered out of competition. Highest 2 Lowest, an adaptation of legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's High and Low, marks the fifth time Lee and Washington have worked together. Oscar-winning Washington, who received a surprise honorary Palme d'Or award ahead of Monday's premiere, was not at the news conference as he flew back to the United States for the Broadway production of Othello. Highest 2 Lowest also stars Ilfenesh Hadera and Jeffrey Wright, who is also in another Cannes film this year, The Phoenician Scheme. Rapper A$AP Rocky, who has a role in the film too, walked the red carpet with partner Rihanna following the premiere, but did not attend Tuesday's news conference. 'It's been a blessing to just have this body of work, of us doing films that people love,' Lee said, although he cast doubt on whether he and Washington would reunite for a sixth time. 'I think this is it, five,' Lee said, adding that the 70-year-old Washington has been talking about retirement even as he continues to take on new projects. The two Hollywood giants first worked together on 1990's Mo' Better Blues after Lee approached Washington following his Oscar-winning performance in Glory, and then in Malcolm X, He Got Game, Inside Man and now Highest 2 Lowest. Lee, who filmed the crime thriller in New York City, said he was not sure how President Donald Trump's proposed 100 per cent tariffs on foreign-made films could help to bring production back to the United States. 'There's a strong film community in New York City. But I don't have the answer for your question, but people are definitely hurting.' Highest 2 Lowest, which received a standing ovation of almost six minutes, is scheduled for release in the United States on August 22. — Reuters
San Francisco Chronicle
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
From $1 movies to free popcorn: The Bay Area's best movie deals
Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start to the summer movie season, and both chain multiplexes and indie arthouse theaters have reason to hope for their best summer since 2019. That's because the start of the pandemic is now five years in the past, practically a distant memory these days. And productions that were halted during the writers' and actors' strikes of 2023 have been completed, leading to a wealth of films in the release pipeline such as ' Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,' 'Jurassic World Rebirth' and 'Superman.' All systems are go, and Bay Area theaters aren't taking any chances. From $1 movies to free popcorn, they're doing anything to lure film fans back to the cinema. Many offer steep discounted tickets on Tuesdays. Elsewhere, a diverse programming slate has led San Francisco's arthouse treasure Roxie Theater to be on pace to exceed its 2019 ticket sales, the last prepandemic year. Hits have included the Oscar-winning Israeli-Palestinian documentary ' No Other Land ' and horror master David Cronenberg 's ' The Shrouds.' There's even a 40th-anniversary 4K restoration of Akira Kurosawa's 'Ran' that opens Friday, May 23. The California Film Institute 's Sequoia Cinema in Mill Valley is offering $1 classics this weekend — audience favorites such as 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (1981), the French charmer ' Amelie ' (2001) and Wes Anderson's ' Moonrise Kingdom ' (2012) — to celebrate the one-year anniversary since it reopened after a renovation. The following are some of the best deals in the Bay Area. Pro tip: Most deals offered by multiplexes require monthly memberships. Independent theaters tend to have lower base ticket prices, and their perks can further reduce an already comparatively budget friendly night out. Multiplexes AMC Theatres: The world's largest theater chain, already slashing tickets by 50% on Tuesdays, will add Wednesdays beginning July 9. The deal is available to all AMC Stubs members, including the free Insider tier. The highest tier, A-List, is $27.99 for up to four movies every week and a host of other perks. Cinemark's Century Cinemas: The Bay Area's most prolific chain offers ticket discounts of up to 50%, even for nonmembers of its Movie Rewards program (though members get extra perks). Alamo Drafthouse: The dinner and a movie chain might have the best monthly membership in the country: For $29.99 a month, you can see a movie a day. It pays for itself after two movies. The chain's New Mission theater in San Francisco has been open for 10 years; new theaters in Mountain View and Santa Clara open next month. Independent theaters San Francisco Roxie Theater: The Mission District treasure offers steep discounts for students and EBT/SNAP card holders, and relaunches its Roxie Kids series this summer, with children getting in for $5. East Bay Grand Lake Theatre: The Oakland movie palace offers $6 tickets all day Tuesday and $7.50 daily matinees — and that includes 70mm and 3D presentations. Also: no commercials. 'I have always believed that it cheapens the experience of going to a theater,' owner Allen Michaan said. Alameda Theatre and Cineplex: In addition to $6 Tuesdays, the Art Deco venue built in 1932, which also has live events at its Cinema Grill, is bringing back its Kids Summer Series on Wednesdays beginning June 11. The Chabot: The 75-year-old Castro Valley gem is the only independent, single-screen theater offering first-run films within the East Bay. It has $6 Tuesdays and often offers a free popcorn or drink size upgrade for guests who come dressed in theme with the movie. For example, if ticket buyers wear floral prints to screenings of 'Lilo & Stitch' during its run beginning Thursday, May 22, a medium popcorn becomes a large, and the normal free refills for large popcorns apply. North Bay Lark Theater: The single-screen Larkspur Art Deco venue has among the most interesting programming in the Bay Area, with an eclectic mix of first-run and classic cinema. The first movie of each day as well as Friday and Saturday late-night classics are $7 per ticket and includes free popcorn. South Bay/Peninsula
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Highest 2 Lowest review – Spike Lee and Denzel Washington remake Kurosawa in fine style
Spike Lee has made a brash, bold, big-city movie with this pulsing New York adventure that doubles as a love letter to NYC's sports and its music. It is a remake (or maybe cover version) of Akira Kurosawa's classic downbeat noir High and Low from 1963, transplanting the action from Yokohama to New York – or rather returning it there, because the original source material, Ed McBain's novel King's Ransom, is set in a fictional city based on the Big Apple. It's got a terrific throb of energy and life, moving across the screen with the rangy grace of its superstar Denzel Washington – though a little of the minor-key sombreness and complex pessimism and cynicism of the first film has been lost and the modern technology of GPS (unknown in Kurosawa's day) has indirectly left it with a very small plausibility issue. In Kurosawa's movie, the incomparably leonine Toshiro Mifune played Gondo, the prosperous salaryman working for a shoe manufacturer who rashly mortgages the luxurious penthouse-style family apartment with its spectacular views of the city (encouraging hubris, of course) so he can he buy out a controlling interest in the firm. But just as he is about to pull off the deal of a lifetime, a kidnapper takes a boy he wrongly thinks is Gondo's son, but is in fact the son of Gondo's heartbreakingly loyal and submissive chauffeur Aoki played by Yutaka Sada. Does Gondo now have to use the money he's borrowed as ransom cash to save the son of a servant? In Lee's film the shoe executive is now gigantic music-producer legend David King, played with grinning monarchical assurance by Washington. King beamingly surveys his New York realm from his near-super-rich balcony as the sun rises, and Lee shows this with the inspired musical accompaniment of Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' from Oklahoma. His wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) is a philanthropist supporting black causes, and his teen son Trey (older and cooler than Gondo's kid) is a talented basketball player. Every square millimetre of the wall-space is covered by high-end sports-related artworks or ultra rare memorabilia (reportedly from Lee's own collection), as well as magazine covers of David's face, unironically pointing up his massive wealth, prestige and impeccable taste. The awful news about the reported abduction of Trey turns out of course to be a bungling mistaken-identity: the culprit has accidentally taken Trey's best friend and David's godson Kyle (Elijah Wright) son of David's driver and family friend Paul (Jeffrey Wright, Elijah's dad in real life), an ex-con who is now a Muslim convert. In the original, there was a distinct class or caste distinction between Gondo and Aoki, however well-meaning and conflicted Gondo was. This isn't the case here: King is no snob and has a real love for Paul – but the basic dilemma is still there. Should David throw away his business plan and risk penury to save someone who isn't family? (This great music producer rages to his imaginary heroes in his private study: 'What would you do Stevie?' etc. He amusingly addresses that hypothetical question to James Brown – and perhaps James Brown's advice on this point might not exactly provide a Hollywood ending.) Lee shrewdly injects a new note of worldliness with the police's suspicion about the obvious possibility that Paul might himself have staged the abduction – though it is the racist white cop Detective Higgins (Dean Winters, Tina Fey's boyfriend in TV's 30 Rock) who has to say this out loud. In Kurosawa's film, the paying of the ransom on the train is a classic suspense sequence; Lee for his part makes great use of a New York subway train heading out to Yankee Stadium, crammed with baseball fans chanting 'Let's go Yankees' just as they did in Lee's 25th Hour. (I'd love to see Lee restage the baseball scene from Kurosawa's Stray Dog.) The police have put a GPS tracker in the bag with the cash, so the kidnapper and his team of stunt-riding accomplices on motor scooters (where did he get all these people?) must have somehow switched the money out of the trackable bag and it's not immediately clear how they did that. But who is the bad guy? Suspicion falls on the greedy, sexist (but undoubtedly kind of cool) young rapper played by A$AP Rocky. And Lee contrives a great rap-battle-style face off between him and David. This is a big, muscular picture which aspires to the crowd-pleasing athleticism of Spike Lee's sports icons; it's very enjoyable and there's a great turn from Washington. Highest 2 Lowest screened at the Cannes film festival.
Washington Post
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Trying to analyze a filmmaking legend using Chobani yogurt
As a lover of misdirection, inconveniently elongated titles, mid-century samurai epics and high-protein dairy, I ought to be more susceptible than most to Woolly Mammoth's latest world premiere play, entitled (deep breath) 'Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (With Live & Active Cultures!)' The show comes to us from playwright and performer Julia Izumi, a likable comedian who seems to delight in the fact that her show's oddball moniker will sucker cinephiles into an evening wherein she and four other actors take turns in the title role, donning the Japanese auteur's signature blue cap and sunglasses individually, and sometimes all at once.
