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USA Today
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Ranking the top 25 films of the 2020s so far, from Tár to Nope
Ranking the top 25 films of the 2020s so far, from Tár to Nope As hard as it is to believe, we are more than halfway through the 2020s. A decade that started with masks on our faces and quarantines to abide by, we didn't spend nearly as much time at the movie theater as we did huddled in our living rooms for Netflix binges and movie marathons as cineplexes were closed across the globe. Thankfully, the doors opened once again for moviegoers, and we've gotten to experience some truly special films together in the years that have followed. Pinpointing this exact May 2025 moment we're in, how has the cinematic decade that was shaped up for us? While we've still got a ways to go until we look at the 2020s in the grander view of film, it still feels prudent to take a look back at the 2020s at (roughly) the halfway point and see what the best films are to this point. Certainly, this list is highly subjective to the author's preference and prone to just a bit of cheating in one spot. Also, we've seen Sinners three times now, and limiting ourselves to 2020-2024 wouldn't allow us to rank one of the best movies of the decade. So, we're going to veer just a bit into 2025 to include the singing vampires. With new insights and revised insights from past reviews we liked for what they said at the time, let's break down the top 25 films of this decade so far, a surely flawed list that will continue to ebb and flow in ranking and estimation as time goes on, as all of these lists are destined to do until the end of time. Films we regretted leaving off and might include if you asked tomorrow: BlackBerry, Dune: Part One, Bloody Nose Empty Pockets, Poor Things, West Side Story, We're All Going to the World's Fair, Asteroid City, Nomadland, Turning Red, Godzilla Minus One, You Hurt My Feelings, RRR, The Northman, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, The French Dispatch, The Power of the Dog, Licorice Pizza, Hit the Road, Hundreds of Beavers, Anatomy of a Fall, Driveways, Babygirl, The Killer, A Real Pain, David Byrne's American Utopia, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Anora, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Bad Education, The Matrix Resurrections, Annette, The Last Duel, Air, Ferrari, Past Lives, Trap, Civil War, Rap World, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Two films we love that we also understand you are upset are not on this list, but please understand the amount of films viewed for consideration here: Top Gun Maverick, Barbie Some NFSW language to follow. 25. Tár What's striking about Tár after all these years is how clear-eyed is in such a compellingly complicated portrait of a great artist who might also be a terrible person. The film takes such a comfortable moral footing in Lydia Tár's journey that the generational rigors of Cate Blanchett's brilliant performance ignite even brighter sparks. You never doubt for a second how this film feels about its central character, but you still can't help but dive into your own personal dissection into who this woman is and why she does what she does. Todd Field painted the most compelling singular portrait of the decade in Tár, a fictional character who felt so, so upsettingly real. 24. Aftersun Charlotte Wells made Aftersun a searing collective memory that transported off the screen into your subconscious, pulling out all those fragmented pains of your youth and reconfiguring them into striking revelations you can only find once you're older, wiser and so much more like those you remember. Wells' film so carefully pieces together the film's vacation vignettes into a story so unassumingly relatable that its final gut punch hits you with the unexpected jolt it hits its reminiscing main character. It's trite to say a film is unforgettable, but Aftersun is a film you quite literally can't forget because it was with you all along. 23. Megalopolis One day, the film nerds of tomorrow will reclaim Francis Ford Coppola's bedazzled, bewildering fever dream Megalopolis as a vital work of opulent genius, speaking a language that played much more clearly to the people who would eventually get it. We're going to go ahead and get ahead of the curb and give Coppola his flowers now as opposed to being caught flat-footed down the road. There might not be a film released this decade that has quite as much optimistic imagination as Megalopolis. Coppola hooked up the connector cables to his dreams and brought them to the big screen in full, technicolor wonder. Rendering his hope for the future through old Hollywood grandeur and making his societal warnings with Tim and Eric cringe-disaster, Coppola went so for broke with his passion project that he will probably never get these resources ever again to make another movie. So be it if so; this was a stargazing grand slam from an all-time auteur to celebrate. 22. Killers of the Flower Moon Martin Scorsese's only film of the 2020s was yet another one of his American masterpieces, studying the nation's original sins of racism and greed with the same urgency and precision that marks all his great films. Its ending, one of an artist conceding his film's limitations and mourning a world where this story must even be told in the first place, lingers with you. Combined with the beating heart of Lily Gladstone, the cowardice of Leonardo DiCaprio and the slithering evil of Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon is cinematic mourning. 21. Avatar: The Way of Water Nobody makes big movies quite like James Cameron, and his second Avatar film felt like a genuine leap forward for the medium in how it transports viewers, quite literally, to another world. The underwater scenes in IMAX 3D filled the theater in a way no film ever has, as you quite literally felt like you were swimming under the sea with all of Pandora's teeming aquatic life. The story was a genuine improvement from the original, and the film's show-stopper of a climax stamped in why Cameron is a Mount Rushmore blockbuster director. 20. Spontaneous Brian Duffield made his directorial debut with 2020's unbelievably prescient Spontaneous, somehow the defining film about living in the cruel ironies and personal devastations of the COVID-19 pandemic. Duffield couldn't have had any idea how revenant his debut was, making it in a world where COVID-19 didn't even register a single infection. However, as it stands, no film quite captured the uncertainties and terrors of the invisible virus that shut our world down. Even past that, Duffield's film is a rallying cry for a defiant generation that is sick and tired of watching the vicious cycle without any answers. It's an essential high school film. 19. Challengers Luca Guadagnino revived the modern sports movie with Challengers, a bracing love triangle set against the enthralling balance of tennis. It's hard to really describe what a titanic force this film is when you get Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' strobe-light score pulsing through your veins and see Guadagnino tossing about Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connell in the winds of fierce, unforgiving competition. Seeing this in a loud theater, basking in the electricity of the final act and watching everyone quite literally crash into each other with reckless abandon ... it's why we love the movies, folks. (More here) 18. Nickel Boys "Cinema as immersion" has never been as palpable as it is in Nickel Boys, which really might be the singular filmmaking achievement of the decade so far. RaMell Ross' instant classic adapts Colson Whitehead's novel with innovation, putting viewers right behind the camera by taking a first-person view through the entire film between its two main characters. We see what they see as if it's happening right in front of us. The way Nickel Boys is made makes it impossible not to feel the warmth of childhood and shudder at the the terror of oppression. You're right there because that's how Ross intends his film to play. There is no screen; merely a window. This film is impossible to shake because of how it completely transports you. You leave this film feeling as if you've been given the memories of others, as if the ghosts in the empathy machine of cinema need you to remember them forever. That's filmmaking in the highest order. (More here) 17. I Saw the TV Glow The 2020s gave us Jane Shoenbrun, perhaps the biggest auteur to make their debut in this decade. Their stirring debut We're All Going to the World's Fair broke down loneliness and anxiety in the internet age better than any film of its class, and I Saw the TV Glow confirmed that promise with a barnburner of a masterpiece. Inviting you in with the late-night discomfort and allure of 1990s Snick-era young adult television and stunning you with the still-shock of David Lynch, David Cronenberg and Ari Aster, Schoenbrun's triumphant coming-of-age horror fantasy will serve as a life-changer for some and a fierce call for empathy for others. It's a monument of trans cinema and a breathtaking leap for Schoenbrun into auteur status. This film is a major work of the decade so far, and the closer it draws you in to its glow, the more you're likely to avoid the perils that await staying still. (More here) 16. The Fabelmans Great filmmakers got into a rhythm of making their autobiographies through their chosen medium over the last decade, but none of those were as affecting as Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans. One of Spielberg's best films of the millennium, he turned the camera back onto himself with this domestic drama and grappled with some piercing truths about his upbringing, his love for film and how they ultimately intersected. Introspection via filmmaking is nothing new, but for it to come from Spielberg in this exact way felt particularly powerful. 15. The Brutalist Brady Corbet's searing epic about art and assimilation has garnered a lot of attention for its size. It's about three-and-a-half hours with an intermission. The imagery is grand and unforgettable, particularly on an IMAX screen. The ideas are vast, about the toll of immigration in a land that may not welcome you, about the never-ending battle between creation and commerce. The performances are big and expressive, none more so than Adrien Brody's spellbinding breath of life into László Tóth. However, it's in the small details where Corbet solidifies his masterpiece. (More here) 14. Dick Johnson is Dead Few films have made you feel quite alive this decade as documentarian Kirsten Johnson's euphoric act of coping with her father's dementia diagnosis. Making a film about death so life-affirming deserved a lot of credit, but Johnson went past even that by traversing the path to the heart and to life's grandest truths through such wacky creativity and endearing gallows humor. Watching Dick Johnson "die" so many times and he and his daughter embrace his death makes you want to live and love even harder than you already do. 13. Beau is Afraid Ari Aster's epic breakdown of arrested development and paranoia is easily his best film yet, one of the towering works of the decade and yet another showcase for why Joaquin Phoenix can literally do anything. Beau is Afraid is as obtuse an odyssey as you're likely to go on anytime soon, one that unpacks the painful truths about our relationships to the ways we were raised and how they might set us up to run screaming away from whatever on Earth is trying to chase us. While you have to wait until the third act to meet Patti LuPone's sneering matriarch, the entire journey is absolutely unforgettable and, perhaps, so close to home you feel like you're actually there. (More here) 12. Dune: Part Two Denis Villeneuve knew he had to go as big and bold as possible to widen the spectacle and stakes of his adaptation for the second part, but he someone managed to both outdo himself and deliver one of the definitive tentpole experiences of the decade so far with Dune: Part Two. It's a vital experience in a theater and a rigorous moral maze for the mind, one that interrogates power and freedom in the vacuum of the messiah complex. It's also got giant sandworm battles and blistering combats that rival the sheer scope and cosmic shock of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. (More here) 11. Oppenheimer Oppenheimer is a tricky film, one that recognizes its titular scientist's brilliance while openly deliberating on its immeasurable horror. Once that genie got out of the bottle, we couldn't put it back in. Christopher Nolan's Best Picture winning-film film might end on an increasingly pessimistic note to some, but it feels like an earnest plea for change, one that we can obtain if we actually try. It's the most urgent film of Nolan's career and easily one of his best. It's an all-timer in every sense of the phrase, and it really is one of the defining theatrical experiences of the 2020s so far. (More here) 10. Titane Julia Ducournau's unhinged masterpiece delivered a devastating study of how right the concept of "nature versus nurture" really is. Sure, a film about a serial killer who is attracted to cars pretending to be the missing child of a steroid-pumping firefighter might sound a little wacky, even for the most extreme corners of experimental French cinema. However, Ducournau contorts such a seemingly tasteless story into something that affects you in the grand and minutia. Titane is a tidal wave of love and grace disguised in shock and horror, a fierce testament to just how disarming it is to have even a slight ounce of genuine care and affection in your life from somebody who finds worth in you. Ducournau couples her flamethrower filmmaking talents with two generational performances from Agathe Rousselle and Vincent Lindon, giving the audience something absolutely unforgettable. Even the most twisted wayfaring strangers can change with some TLC. 9. The Holdovers The radiant, barbed warmth of The Holdovers will wear you down until you finally scoot over and let it sit right by you by the fireplace. The Holdovers is one of those once-in-a-lifetime movies, one where everything works so perfectly in unison with the cast, script, direction, setting, sentiments and aura to create a film that literally transports you to a distant holiday in your own head. The Holdovers isn't an easy film to watch around Christmastime, bittersweet in its resolution and unforgiving in its practicalities. However, it is a vital one in trying to understand ourselves in the most unusual of moments during the most sensitive time of year, those moments where we need those people we'll never forget and never would've considered if not for the season at hand. It's a perfect holiday film, one that would melt even unchanged Scrooge's heart. (More here) 8. Bo Burnham: Inside To live in the aftermath of the pandemic meant to grapple with the lingering anxieties of the age. No film did a better job of capturing the brain freeze of the COVID-19 pandemic like Bo Burnham's showstopper of an experimental standup special. Burnham mixed his penchant for comedy songs with the uneasy, ironic dread that suffocated 2020, pouring his audience a warm cider spliced with absinthe. The film plays like that lingering feeling of uncertainty you feel when you wake up from an afternoon nap right when the sun is going down, culminating in two of his finest moments as a performer: "That Funny Feeling" and "All Eyes On Me." The first perfectly encapsulates that pit in your stomach of trying to live during such unprecedented times, while the latter is a masterclass in marrying his unique storytelling ability with the confinement of the project. All eyes were on Burnham during this heart-open house concert, and he owned the moment for all time. 7. Babylon Damien Chazelle went buckwild for his acidic silent Hollywood elegy, a rip-roaring, debauched frat party of dizzying Tinseltown splendor and ruin. It's almost the anti-La La Land, a pitch-perfect flipped side of the coin of what it's like to make your way in an industry that will chew you up and spit you out all while you have the best and worst time of your life. To Chazelle, you have to be positively insane to give your life over to such a radioactive tire fire as the show business, but the eternal sparks from the flames will keep you alive long after you're gone. Anchored in Margot Robbie's finest moment as an actor, Chazelle's shirt-ripping bacchanal gives as much of a hooray as a horrified holler for the movies, cementing their on-screen glory and ghastly underbelly in equal measure. Only could humans make something so wonderful out of such ribald chaos. In an era where there is such worry about the future of movies, Babylon proves that they're just too powerful to die. 6. Red Rocket Simon Rex's Mikey returns to his small Texas town as a sordid Pied Piper, weaving tales of his adult film exploits to any listening ear all while concocting cons to stay afloat with promises of a better life he has no intentions of filling. Move over, Wicked, Sean Baker's Red Rocket is the real Wizard of Oz prequel we need. No American film has captured the Trumpian rot better than Red Rocket, with Rex delivering the decade's best performance so far in a character that perfectly encapsulates how deranged charm can make people bend over backwards for even the most derelict of actors. Weaving in the *NSYNC seminal pop stunner "Bye Bye Bye" as a nefarious bookend to Mikey's hometown gambit, Baker doesn't even need to say you know who's name to deliver the most damning portrait of his political rise and continued stranglehold over the citizenry. 5. Small Axe We're going to cheat a little here, as Steve McQueen's five-part Small Axe still feels like a gut punch in five parts, all interlocked together to create maximum impact. The astounding anthology film series takes five different looks at West Indian immigrants trying to make their way in London during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. One part, Mangrove, is a gripping courtroom drama based in racial injustice, while another, Lovers Rock, is an intoxicating house party buoyed by Shabier Kirchner's floating camerawork on the dance floor. McQueen's central thesis flows effortlessly between all five parts, as he varies his approach for the dreamlike Lovers Rock to the brutal realities of the John Boyega police study Red, White and Blue. All five parts make for a sensational whole, as McQueen's Small Axe hit with elegiac force in 2020 and sticks with us to this day. 4. On the Count of Three Jerrod Carmichael's directorial debut features two wayward souls planning to off each other after whatever would quality as the perfect last day on Earth. It's a deliriously unsettling template for any film to follow, and one that would be so, so, so, so easy to fumble without the most careful of approaches. The fact that Carmichael takes such disparate depression and literally cruel irony and morphs it into something so life-affirming cements him as one of the most promising filmmakers of his generation. On the Count of Three mines its jaw drop of a premise for some humdinger happenings and shocking pathos, as Carmichael and co-star Christopher Abbott make for the perfect odd couple to go about this ordeal together. It's as piercing a commentary on how society treats the mentally ill as we've gotten in some time, and Carmichael's filmmaking style feels like a brilliant splice between small-scale Robert Altman and early David Gordon Green. There is no possible way to remove On the Count of Three from your mind, nor do you ever want to forget what it was like to live this fateful day with these two confused souls. It's so far the independent filmmaking thrill of the 2020s. 3. Sinners Filmmaker Ryan Coogler has been building to this film for his entire career, as Sinners as the kind of rollicking jolt to the senses that makes you feel positively alive. It's hard to overstate just how important a film like this is, a wholly original film in love with its genre flourishes and reaching for the highest peaks in the craft. Only five films in, Coogler has already asserted himself as a generational talent, one of the anointed filmmakers in his class who can call himself a household name. After putting in his time with all-time franchise work, he finally made his magnum opus. This is the first original blockbuster since Nope that has a chance to reach the zeitgeist, and that's beyond worth celebrating. Also, that IMAX 70mm presentation is to bite for. (More here) 2. Tenet We really did live in a twilight world when Tenet hit theaters in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Christopher Nolan finally made his true homage to James Bond and Michael Mann's Miami Vice in one fell swoop. Tenet unfortunately came out in a year where repeat viewings for such a tangled web as what Nolans weaves were felt unwise. However, in the nearly five years since Tenet's release, it's clear that the best way to enjoy this film is to just let go and let the immaculate vibes wash over you. As wonderful and important as Oppenheimer was, Tenet was Nolan's best film this decade. That Nolan has two films in this top 20 cements what a special place he's in as a filmmaker right now, where it feels like every new project could hit masterpiece status as these two clearly have. Tenet is the true culmination of his impeccable talents crashing against his dreamworld logic, as it plays with the breathless thrill of stepping onto a new planet for the first time. You still might not fully grasp the concept of inversion, but you feel Tenet in your bones by film's end. 1. Nope Jordan Peele has as much of a pulse on the world we live in as any filmmaker working right now, and nobody in recent memory has taken their first-film clout and ran with it into such wildly original directions as he has. As hard as it is to compare to Get Out, one of the few films released in the last 10 years that automatically earns a spot in one of those "great movies of all time" montages people edit together for awards shows, Nope might be an even better movie. His scorching parable of the sensationalism era takes a clenched fist to our unhealthy obsession with tragedy-as-entertainment and our desire to turn real-world consequence into our personal blockbusters. It's a sci-fi Western horror drenched in 2020s urgency, and Peele's filmmaking is of the highest order. You'll never look at a cloud the same way again, that's for sure... all for the better, we say.
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
What does a conductor really do? Unveiling the mystique behind the baton
If you go to an orchestra concert, it's pretty easy to figure out what most of the people onstage are contributing to the overall experience. The violinists and cellists move their bows back and forth across the strings, providing lush, sweeping carpets of sound. The flutists tootle sweetly and the percussionist gives an occasional thwack on the big bass drum. Meanwhile, everyone's attention is focused on the man or woman standing on the podium, waving a baton and contributing… what, exactly? It's a legitimate question. Classical music devotees and concert hall neophytes alike tend to take it for granted that it's the conductor, more than anyone, who lends each orchestral performance its distinctive character. The conductor has become practically a cultural archetype, the object of endless fascination and the subject of breathless biographies and Hollywood films. Recent examples include Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein biopic ' Maestro ' (2023) and the Oscar-nominated ' Tár ' (2022), starring Cate Blanchett. So when the music sizzles and soars, the conductor gets the credit. When it bogs down, or fails to cohere into a meaningful whole, the conductor takes the blame. More Information Esa-Pekka Salonen's Final Concerts Esa-Pekka Salonen & Hilary Hahn: San Francisco Symphony. 2 p.m. Thursday, May 29; 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 30; 2 p.m. Sunday, June 1. $49-$350. Salonen Conducts Sibelius 7: San Francisco Symphony. 7:30 p.m. June 6-7; 2 p.m. June 8. $49-$179. Salonen Conducts Mahler 2: San Francisco Symphony. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, June 12-14. $145-$399. All shows are at Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., S.F. 415-864-6000. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit But what are they actually doing up there? Why is the conductor so important to a performance, and what are the skills that make one conductor's work audibly better than another's? These questions are always relevant, but they've become even more urgent as Bay Area audiences prepare for the departure of San Francisco Symphony Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen after his final performance on June 14. (The search for Salonen's replacement is currently under way, according to Symphony spokesperson Taryn Lott. But the process can take several years, she added, and 'like most hiring practices, much of the process will not take place publicly to protect the privacy of those involved.') To understand what makes a conductor's contributions to any individual performance distinctive — as well as the importance of a music director's ongoing presence in the life of an orchestra — is to begin to grasp the magnitude of the impending loss. 'A music director, because they work with an orchestra for 16 or 18 weeks out of the year, has a real impact on that orchestra's sound,' said John Mangum, who served as the Symphony's artistic administrator in 2011-14 before taking on the top executive posts at the Houston Symphony and, since last year, the Lyric Opera of Chicago. 'They don't just conduct great concerts. They take the lead in shaping the orchestra's sound, and their interests define the organization's artistic profile.' But even within the more limited scope of a one-week guest engagement or a single concert, a conductor wields enormous influence over the musical outcome. Nicole Paiement, artistic and general director of San Francisco's Opera Parallèle, likens a conductor to the architect of a musical performance, and the individual musicians to the carpenters, masons and electricians responsible for their particular tasks. 'Members of an orchestra are great musicians, and they know how to play their parts better than the conductor does,' Paiement said. 'But what they don't have is the whole picture of the piece. As the conductor, you are the only one who has an image in your mind of how everything fits together. It's up to you to keep everyone together in a single vision.' Shepherding some 100 skilled artists through a performance that is simultaneously precise and expressively free, with a coherent interpretive point of view that makes an audience hear something new and lively in what is often familiar repertoire, can seem like an implausibly complicated feat. It requires an ability to track large numbers of simultaneous musical strands in real time. It calls for interpersonal gifts that can inspire musicians to do their best in the service of the conductor's vision. (Older generations of conductors leaned more heavily on tyrannical browbeating — a technique that, like spanking children, has happily gone out of fashion.) It also entails cultivating and mastering an enormous gestural language, an array of physical and facial cues that allow conductors to communicate wordlessly but unambiguously with members of the orchestra. A lot of that multitasking can be invisible to an audience, because most of the work of conducting takes place in rehearsal. That's where interpretive priorities are set, difficult transitions are ironed out and agreements are worked out in advance. 'What the audience sees at a performance is really the final touches of what a conductor does,' says Patti Niemi, the acting principal percussionist of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. 'By then, they're mostly a traffic cop. Their primary purpose is everything they do up to that point.' Historically speaking, conductors weren't always part of the orchestral tradition. Until about 1820, an orchestra's principal requirement was someone to beat time, and that task could be entrusted to a member of the orchestra — typically the concertmaster (the leader of the first violin section) or someone at the harpsichord or piano. Even today, there are ensembles such as San Francisco's New Century Chamber Orchestra that perform without a conductor. Other groups could do it if they had to. 'Truth be told, any orchestra could probably play Beethoven's Fifth without a conductor,' said violinist René Mandel, who plays frequently with the San Francisco Symphony and is the former executive director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. 'You could have the concertmaster leading off, and the orchestra could do it on their own with the concertmaster guiding them through certain spots. But, he added, 'that doesn't mean you don't need a conductor.' The importance of the conductor grew steadily throughout the 19th century, as orchestras became larger and as the music written for them became more complex. At the same time, the aesthetics of the Romantic era contributed to a regard for the conductor as an exalted poetic figure, second only to the actual composer. The aura surrounding a conductor still lingers, because there does seem to be something almost other-worldly about what they do. Talk to any musician about the conductor's role, and you can be sure that a vein of vague magical thinking will surface before the conversation is more than a few minutes old. 'For me, the best conductors have an intangible quality to what they do,' said Mangum. 'It's hard to pin down, but you know it as soon as you hear it. They have a vision in mind of what they want to achieve musically, and they can convey that to the orchestra physically or verbally or both.' A conductor such as the late Bernard Haitink, according to Edwin Outwater, 'can create so much beauty just in the way they draw sound from an orchestra.' 'It's the way he moved,' continued Outwater, who heads the conducting program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 'and the way he elicited the music physically and with his eyes and face. A conductor connects a group of people and gets them on the same page so they can sound beautiful and expressive.' Mystical woo-woo aside, though, the list of hard practicalities a conductor is responsible for is strikingly long. The most basic task is simply keeping the beat so that every member of the orchestra knows where they are at any given moment. As with nearly every aspect of the craft, there are countless ways to do this, and each conductor finds a personal technique. Most use a baton so as to show a downbeat as crisply and precisely as possible; others prefer to use just their hands. Even the simple act of beating time contains multitudes from an interpretive standpoint. A sharp downward chop of the baton, for example, prompts the orchestra to play a phrase in a crisply articulated fashion, while a fluid side-to-side motion elicits something gentler and more mellifluous. The conductor also has to keep tabs on which musicians have been silent for a while, and let them know when it's time for them to resume playing. 'You don't want to cue the violins while they have the big melody,' explains Paiement. 'That's annoying to the violinists. But an oboist who hasn't played for 52 bars and suddenly enters? To acknowledge that entrance and say, 'Here we go, this is where you come in' — that's totally important.' Beyond these practical nuts and bolts lies a more elusive set of skills: the art of conveying mood, phrasing and articulation to the orchestra through silent communication. (If there's one thing conductors and orchestra musicians agree on, it's that the less a conductor talks, the better.) During a lesson at the Conservatory last spring, Outwater coached Chih-Yao Chang, a Taiwanese graduate student in the conducting program, through a tricky section of Stravinsky's ballet 'Petrushka,' while pianist Peter Grünberg served as a stand-in for the orchestra. The lesson involved an occasional correction of rhythm or timing, but most of it was devoted to helping Chang get the right response from a hypothetical orchestra. In the opening measures, which depict a country fair, Outwater demonstrated how he would conduct the passage, then prompted Chang for a description. 'What changed about the gesture?' he asked. 'What did I do differently?' 'It's lighter,' Chang said. 'Lighter, yeah, and bigger. More open. The music is energetic, but it has to have some buoyancy too,' Outwater added. Later, he urged Chang to keep in mind that 'Petrushka' is a ballet. 'The next step is not to conduct but to dance with the orchestra,' Outwater noted. 'Sometimes you direct the orchestra if you want to bring them through a phrase, but for a lot of this rhythmic music you have to create a feeling of dancing together.' Chang, who started out as a flutist, switched to conducting in the wake of a lung injury. The difference between the two pursuits, he said, is striking. 'As a flutist, you only need to care about yourself and your score. But as a conductor, you're working with 60 or 70 people who all have different characters and different abilities,' Chang observed. 'How to combine everybody is very interesting to me.' Ultimately, the conductor's job is to fuse all those disparate musical sensibilities into a single interpretive voice. Just as a violinist or a bassoonist makes expressive choices in approaching a single phrase, the conductor uses the orchestra to shape an entire work. 'Fundamentally, a conductor's purpose is to use us as their instrument,' says the Opera Orchestra's Niemi. 'They make all the fundamental choices about a piece of music.' And the range of choices is practically infinite, as Outwater likes to demonstrate by invoking the opening line of Hamlet's soliloquy. ''To be or not to be' — those are six words on the page, but there are a thousand ways to say it,' he points out. 'Laurence Olivier says it one way, Kenneth Branagh says it another way. 'The same thing is true of the beginning of Beethoven's Fifth. There are four notes, but there are a million ways to do them that have multiple possibilities and meanings.'
Elle
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
Cate Blanchett Takes On Bootcut Flares With Aplomb — Here's How To Wear Them Now
Cate Blanchett has never been one to stand sartorially still. The Academy Award winner is as expansive with her wardrobe as she is the roles she takes on; as comfortable in a directional piece by a rising design star as a classic gown by a fashion behemoth. FIND OUT MORE AT ELLE COLLECTIVE At last night's Louis Vuitton cruise show in Avignon a new style narrative unfolded for the Australian actor as she opted to wear a pair of leather bootcut trousers by the fashion house. Bootcut trousers, much like their sisters the skinny jean, are a divisive choice. For some of us, we remain scarred by their omnipresence as the flattering choice throughout the Noughties, unable to understand how that fashion cycle has come around full circle so quickly. Or, then there's the idea that they look just a little too neat. Surely a baggier, fuller legged option would feel more modern and more comfortable to wear? These concerns clearly do not effect Blanchett. The Tár actor, who has a long standing relationship with Louis Vuitton and its creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, wore her trousers with a trailing, dramatic caped blouse that fell behind her. The printed blouse was complete with embellishments over the wide shoulders and, with the help of not one, but two belts to tuck it in, the high-pitched waistband was on display. What's worth taking note of here is the details that come together to make the bootleg trousers a convincing option for those of us not living on Planet Hollywood. Firstly, the leather fabrication gives the trousers an edge that moves them away from corporate core or anything too retro, while the choice of a strong-shouldered blouse offers a balance. But, what's most key is the width of the trouser flare. Blanchett's LV pants are just the right amount of width, as they fall neatly over the shoe rather than pooling in great volume. It's an observation worth considering should you wish to try them for yourself. Blanchett's leather trousers weren't the only pair of note she's sported this week. To attend the Chelsea Flower Show in London, the actor left the florals to the horticulturalists and instead wore louche tailoring with a mix-and-match approach. Set against a cornflower blue shirt, she wore a grey blazer over brown trousers and finished the ensemble with requisite white framed sunglasses. Another alt approach to spring to summer dressing that's worth taking note of. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE. Freelancer
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Harry Potter' Alum Begins Producing Journey; Sunrise Films Buys ‘Sunlight'; Ex-Scott Free Producer Joins UK Firms; Ajay Devgn & Son Voicing Hindi ‘Karate Kid: Legends'
'Harry Potter' Alum Ellie Darcey-Alden Makes Producing Debut In Cannes EXCLUSIVE: Ellie Darcey-Alden, who played Lily Potter in the final Harry Potter movie, is expanding into production and is headed to Cannes with UK indie romantic comedy Everything I Didn't Say. Her company, Blue Paradigm Entertainment, is making the film as part of a slate of 'emotionally-driven, character-focused' pics. Richard J. Lee is directing Everything I Didn't Say with the film exploring the emotional vulnerability of reconnection, as two former lovers reunite years after their break up. Jeremy Zimmerman (Tár, Hellboy) and Sofie Golding-Spittle (The Count of Monte Cristo) are casting directors, with casting to follow. Darcey-Alden produces alongside writer-director Lee, with support from 5ive By 5ive Studios and Joe Sisto of Sisto Entertainment & Business Law Services providing legal representation. The Everything I Didn't Say team will be at Cannes Film Festival to meet with sales agents and distributors, with producers saying conversations are already 'underway.' Darcey-Alden is known for playing a young Lily Evans (later Lily Potter) in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and has appeared in Doctor Who alongside Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman. Her Blue Paradigm label has bases in London, L.A. and Alberta, Canada. Lee is a second-time director after The Death That Awaits. He a background in commercials and branded content, but for the past five years has been exec producer on the Disney Television Discovers: Talent Showcase. More from Deadline 'Thunderbolts*' Nears $300M Global As Does 'Sinners'; 'Minecraft's Whole Lotta Lava Tops $900M WW & $500M Overseas - International Box Office 'Karate Kid: Legends' Gets Extended Look At CinemaCon 'Karate Kid: Legends' Trailer: A Kid In The City, With A Little Help From Some Familiar Friends Sunrise Films Buys Off-Beat Comedy 'Sunlight' EXCLUSIVE: Sunrise Film has acquired dark comedy love story Sunlight for the U.S. and is preparing a theatrical reelase. The film, from British ventriloquist and comedian Nina Conti, will debut in New York City in theaters on June 6 with an L.A. premiere following a week later (June 13). Additional markets will be announced later. Conti's directorial debut reimagines 'Monkey', the well-known character from her ventriloquism act, as a human-sized alter ego of a woman, Jane, on the run from a toxic relationship. Conti stars in the film as both the woman and the monkey. She co-wrote the screenplay with her long-time collaborator Shenoah Allen, who also stars as a suicidal radio host who becomes Jane's unlikely companion. Per the synopsis: 'Set against the quirky backdrop of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sunlight is a road movie with heart, humor, and absurdist flair. Jane meets Roy at a low point in both their lives. Disguised in a full-body monkey suit and eager to escape her past, Jane hits the road with Roy in his Airstream trailer. As they chase a fresh start – and hatch a risky scheme to fund it – Jane's possessive ex looms close behind. Equal parts eccentric and emotionally resonant, Sunlight is a natural, inspired extension of Conti's sell-out stage act.' Sunlight is produced by Sam Parker for Anyway Content, Will Machin for Metro International, Keagan Karnes for Inspirado, Tabitha McDonald and Conti, with Christopher Guest serving as executive producer. Cinematography is by James Kwan, with editing by Riaz Meer, composition by Christoph Bauschinger and music by Radiohead, Aphex Twin and The Pixies. The U.S. distribution deal was negotiated by Andrew Nerger on behalf of Sunrise Films and Will Machin, CEO of Metro International. Finite Films & Shoni Team To Hire Ex-Scott Free Producer EXCLUSIVE: UK producers Finite Films & TV and Shoni Productions have been working together on several co-developments and have now jointly hired former Playground Entertainment and Scott Free Productions exec Aaron Anderson. He will act as Head of Scripted Development for both companies, working alongside Finite founder and exec producer Amy Gardner (The End) on a portfolio of projects. Finite's slate currently includes Nadia Fall feature Brides, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. Over at Dana Høegh's Shoni, Anderson will head up scripted development. Høegh was the co-producer on Ruthy Pribar's What is to Come alongside Gum Film in Israel last year, and was an exec producer on The Black Sea and upcoming releases Titanic Ocean and Apart from Her. She also worked on The End, and is currently developing multiple feature films and high-end TV shows. Anderson was most recently script producer on Starz period drama Dangerous Liaisons and exec producer on 5 drama All Creatures Great and Small. He held roles as Creative Executive at Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions and Development Producer at The Ink Factory, and led the film and television development team at MobLand firm Archery Pictures. 'With such depth of experience in high-end scripted storytelling, Aaron is an invaluable addition,' said Gardner and Høegh in a joint statement. 'His appointment marks a significant moment for us and we are looking forward to expanding our scripted slates with Aaron at the helm.' Ajay Devgn & Son Voicing Hindi 'Karate Kid: Legends' Ajay Devgn and his son, Yug Devgan, will unite for the first time on screen in the Hindi-language dub of Karate Kid: Legends, the upcoming Jackie Chan martial arts film from director Jonathan Entwistle and writer Rob Lieber. Ajay Devgn will lend his voice to Mr. Han, the lead character played by Chan, while Yug Devgan will make his voiceover debut as Li Fong, played in the film by Ben Wang. For Devgn Sr., the film marks the first time he has recorded a voiceover for an international film. Having appeared in well over 100 films, he is known for the likes of Raid, Singham, Singham Returns, Tanhaji and The Legend of Bhagat Singh. Set in New York City, Karate Kid: Legends follows a kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Wang) as he adjusts to life in a new school and is drawn into an intense showdown with a local karate champion. Under the guidance of his teacher Mr. Han (Chan) and the legendary Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Li embarks on a transformative journey. It releases in India on May 30 in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Ari Aster's 'Eddington' So Far Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More
Metro
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Cate Blanchett splashes her millions on snazzy eco mansion in 'Hollywood-on-Sea'
With an estimated net worth of $95million (£71.4m), it's not surprising that Cate Blanchett has splashed the cash on a super snazzy eco home. The Australian actress is best known for her roles in films such as Carol, Tár, Ocean's 8, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, having received two Oscars, four Baftas, and four Golden Globes for her work over the years. But when she's not performing on stage or screen, the 55-year-old, who is widely regarded as one of the best talents of her generation, likes to relax by the sea. Although it might surprise you to learn that by 'sea,' we don't mean an Australian bay, but instead… Cornwall. Cate has had a spectacular new abode built in Mawgan Porth, which has been dubbed 'Hollywood-on-Sea' due to the rich and famous residents it attracts. The likes of David Beckham, Kate Winslet, Stanley Tucci, and Jason Statham have all been spotted on the beach there, so it clearly came highly recommended to Cate and her family. New photos show the stunning property in all its glory, having transformed the area of the Cornish coastal village. Cate's mansion is part of a stretch of properties along the seafront, sitting beside other multi-million-pound developments from A-listers and business moguls. Its build comes after Cornish locals initially feared being priced out of the area by the developments. The designs of the new houses are certainly futuristic, boasting solar panels on the roof and floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the idyllic view. Cate's specifically boasts five bedrooms, and it's reported she was the first celeb to buy a home in the village in 2020 before purchasing a £1.25million plot of land directly above the following year. This comes after she was granted planning permission to knock down her £1.6million cottage she bought with husband Andrew Upton. And it seems Cate might be spending even more time in her sprawling mansion, having recently said she wishes to 'retire' from acting. The movie star has a string of films still to come, but admitted to Radio Times that she feels uncertain about branding herself an 'actress' now. More Trending 'It's because I'm giving up,' she declared. She added: 'My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting … [There are] a lot of things I want to do with my life.' Cate's first role was in 1992 in the David Mamet play Oleanna for the Sydney Theatre Company. She recently finished working on a new Jim Jarmusch-directed movie called Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, which is slated for release this year. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Easter and Good Friday UK weather forecast as 'changeable' conditions roll in MORE: Sunny weather to heat UK up to 22C today – but bad news for hay fever sufferers MORE: The UK's longest train journey with 36 stops and 'breathtaking countryside' cancelled
