The Ottoman Lieutenant Makes Romantic Hash Out of an Epochal Tragedy

Let’s say you had to make up a list of historical moments that might serve as grand backdrops for sweeping, old-fashioned, Hollywood-style romantic dramas. How high would you rank the Armenian Genocide? How high would you rank any genocide? Watching Hotel Rwanda, you probably never hoped that, amid the carnage,…

Pelle the Conqueror’s Familiarity Has Aged Well

Sometimes the mezzobrow film-culture deadlands of the 1980s looked like it was populated almost entirely by opal-eyed European children, spying on hayloft sex and weathering the neglect of peasant elders. That tame moment found its homogenizable directors, particularly Scandinavian teddy bears, imported to Hollywood. Such was the fate of Bille…

Rossy de Palma Wowed Her Audience at the Miami Film Festival

Not a soul in the world who has seen one of Rossy de Palma’s performances will be surprised to know that every ounce of energy and charisma the Spanish actress brings to her work is a part of her natural being. That fact was proven beautifully at Miami Film Festival’s riveting Saturday-night event, An Evening With Rossy de Palma.

King Kong Roars Again in a Suitably Silly Monster Mash

For a movie in which a major character’s death is discovered when a giant lizard-monster vomits out his skull, Kong: Skull Island is a surprisingly breezy affair. It’s not so much that the characters or situations are particularly lighthearted. The film offers up plenty of wartime atmosphere and grim backstory,…

Hot Girls Wanted‘s Ronna Gradus on Miami’s Role in the Porn Industry

In “Women on Top,” the episode of the new Netflix docuseries Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On that screens Tuesday as part of the Miami Film Festival, two women struggle with the conventions of modern pornography from their careers behind the camera. Holly Randall, daughter of the pioneering Playboy photographer Suze Randall, fights to produce glossy, traditional porn shoots on budgets that have been slashed in the wake of free online porn. Erika Lust, faced with a dearth of erotica made with women in mind, makes her own sexy films based on real women’s fantasies.

Cargo Premieres to Miami Film Festival’s “Pan-Caribbean” Crowds

There is probably no better place for the world premiere of Bahamian filmmaker Kareem J. Mortimer’s latest movie than the Miami Film Festival. With a cast and crew representing an array of islands in the Caribbean, Cargo focuses on an American exile with a gambling addiction in Nassau who takes a job smuggling Haitians to Florida in a desperate act to support his family.

Watch List: Here’s All the TV Not to Miss in March

It’s March! Time to celebrate spring by staying inside and watching more TV! National Treasure (Hulu), March 1Originally a UK Channel 4 miniseries, this is a four-hour deep-dive into rape and sexual assault allegations against a beloved celebrity comedian. Sound familiar? I have some apprehension that it’ll try too hard…

Richard Gere on Starring in Miami Film Festival’s Opener, Norman

You think of Richard Gere as the smooth Lothario in American Gigolo or the smooth tycoon in Pretty Woman. As the title character in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, Gere is a lot of things, but smooth is not one of them. The movie, which will open the Miami Film Festival this Friday, stars Gere as Norman Oppenheimer, a bumbling Jewish New Yorker with a peanut allergy who is more Larry David than Edward Lewis. The movie walks the line between comedy and drama, mixing in a bit of exploration of Israeli politics. Gere took time out from speaking on behalf of the International Campaign for Tibet to talk to New Times about portraying the ambitious, eccentric Norman, who finds himself causing an international incident.

With a Stellar Lead, Before I Fall Breaks the Life-on-a-Loop Template

There’s a reason Zoey Deutch is often “the girl” in comedies. Her face expresses multitudes, and the funny guys need a woman with priceless reactions to sell their punch lines. She’s endured dick jokes for Robert De Niro and Zac Efron in Dirty Grandpa, played oblivious straight woman to the…

Grim and Bloody, Logan Gets Wolverine Right

Logan is a punch in the gut in all the right ways. Onscreen, the X-Men series has always found ways to morph and expand, from time-traveling fantasy to social allegory to political thriller. And it’s done so as other comic-book franchises have ossified, with the DC movies (foolishly) doubling down…

Miami Film Festival 2017: The Week’s Best Movies and Events

The Miami Film Festival (MIFF), this city’s biggest annual movie event, returns Friday with 131 films, complemented by dozens of parties, talks, and special events. That’s a lot to pack into just ten days. Let New Times’ film critics guide you through this week’s best experiences. Desserts & Directors: MIFF…

Moonlight Wins Best Picture in the Weirdest Way Possible

Everyone knew this year’s best-picture contest at the Oscars came down to two diametrically opposed choices: Moonlight, a coming-of-age tale of a young, gay black man in Miami created by Liberty City natives Tarell Alvin McCraney and Barry Jenkins, and La La Land, a big-budget Hollywood musical about how awesome Hollywood is.

Punching Henry Has More Laughs Than Most Life-of-the-Comedian Stories

It’s thematically fitting that Henry Phillips’ slight, prickling Punching Henry hits theaters just weeks after The Comedian, a bloated Robert De Niro exercise also about a difficult stand-up comic grinding through bad gigs and insulting meetings with TV suits — and accidentally starring in viral videos. The Comedian was about…