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‘Ironbark’ Review: Benedict Cumberbatch Shines In This True Life Spy Drama [Sundance 2020] By Ben Pearson/Jan. 25, 2020 4:00 pm EST Dominic Cooke’s Ironbark is a sturdy, Dad-core period thriller destined to impress fathers everywhere. As the Cold War rages in the early 1960s, Soviet and American relations are so tense that the U.S. can’t risk sending an agent to make contact with a spy inside the Russian government. So the American and British governments team up to recruit a typical English businessman named Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) to make contact for them, all in the hopes of preventing all-out nuclear war....

‘No Time To Die’ Featurette: Cary Joji Fukunaga Sends Daniel Craig’s James Bond Out With A Bang, Teases Villain By Ben Pearson/Feb. 25, 2020 8:30 am EST We’re less than two months from the release of No Time to Die, the 25th movie in the long-running James Bond film franchise, and it looks like Daniel Craig’s 007 is going out in style. Today, a new featurette has arrived that’s narrated by co-writer/director Cary Joji Fukunaga, in which he showcases lots of behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the film and talks about his approach to this milestone moment in the Bond saga....

‘Quests Of Yore’ From Pixar’s ‘Onward’ Is Becoming A Real Role-Playing Game By Ethan Anderton/March 17, 2020 1:30 pm EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. USAopoly (The Op) is releasing Quests of Yore: Barley’s Edition, a role-playing game that allows fans to play the exact game seen in Pixar’s Onward. The fact that this is “Barley’s Edition” of the game would seem to indicate that Barley has made some modifications of his own to the gameplay experience....

‘Star Trek: Picard’ Featurette: Patrick Stewart Is Ready For His Close-Up By Ben Pearson/Jan. 20, 2020 3:00 pm EST Sir Patrick Stewart wants one thing to be absolutely clear: his new CBS All Access series, Star Trek: Picard, is not merely Star Trek: The Next Generation 2.0. “Almost twenty years have passed. Things have become more complex,” the acclaimed actor says in a new featurette. “The world of Starfleet, the world of the Federation, is not quite what it was the last time Jean-Luc Picard was seen in that world....

‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’ Co-Writer Explains The Opening Crawl’s Heavy Lifting By Ethan Anderton/Jan. 6, 2020 9:30 am EST Star Wars has begun every chapter of the Skywalker saga with an opening crawl accompanied by the iconic theme by composer John Williams. The crawl acts as a serial set-up to explain what has happened in the time between movies and where we find our heroes and villains. And in the case of The Rise of Skywalker, the crawl has to do some serious heavy lifting in order to catch audiences up on what’s been going on since The Last Jedi, and that includes a big plot detail about the return of Emperor Palpatine....

‘Steven Universe Future’ Took A Darker Turn In Its Two Latest Episodes By Caroline Cao/Jan. 7, 2020 3:00 pm EST After dropping two lighthearted breezers with light at the end of the tunnel, Steven Universe Future heaved out a double-feature of darker antics with its two latest episodes. As his familiar community of Beach City fades around him, Steven (Zach Callison) bottles up his turmoil instead of talking things through.In “Little Graduation,” Steven is about to celebrate Little Homeschool’s first graduating class, featuring the Off-Color Gems....

5 Ways ‘Star Wars’ Can Move Past The Skywalker Saga By Rafael Motamayor/Dec. 24, 2019 9:00 am EST It’s been 42 years, but the Skywalker saga is now finished. While The Force Awakens introduced the franchise far, far away to a new generation by mirroring what had made the franchise special 42 years ago but with new characters, and The Last Jedi dared look at a time where the franchise could move forward without legacy characters, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker tried to tie it all together in a movie that is proving polarizing....

Daily Podcast: The Fallout Of Marvel’s Comic Con Announcements, Halloween & Star Wars By Peter Sciretta/July 22, 2019 1:45 pm EST On the July 22, 2019 episode of /Film Daily, /Film editor-in-chief Peter Sciretta is joined by weekend editor Brad Oman, senior writer Ben Pearson and writer Chris Evangelista to talk about the latest film and tv news, including Kevin Feige talking about Phase 4 of the MCU, why there is no Avengers movie, the Blade reboot, Thor: Love and Thunder, The Eternals, and some stuff we missed outside of our Comic Con coverage, Halloween sequels and the last shot of Star Wars: The Ride of Skywalker....

Fantastic Fest 2019 Day Four Recap: ‘Dolemite Is My Name’ Is One Of The Best Filmmaking Biopics Ever And ‘Fractured’ Is Too Familiar For Its Own Good By Jacob Hall/Sept. 23, 2019 11:30 am EST (Welcome to The Fantastic Fest Diaries, where we will be chronicling every single movie we see at the United States’ largest genre film festival.) Welcome to Fantastic Fest 2019, day four. In this entry, Fractured is a stylish adventure in the familiar and Dolemite is My Name is the best filmmaking biopic since Ed Wood....

Netflix Testing Variable Playback Speeds, Presumably For Serial Killers By Chris Evangelista/Oct. 25, 2019 1:30 pm EST Hey, are you some sort of deranged maniac who wants to watch movies and TV shows at fasters speeds? Well, Netflix might have something for you. The streaming service is testing variable playback speeds which allow viewers to watch titles at faster paces. Why anyone would want to do this remains a mystery to me, but I’m sure someone out there thinks this is a great idea because we live in hell....

Revisiting “The Story Of The Animated Drawing,” Disney’s Early Look At The Evolution And Power Of Animation By Josh Spiegel/Dec. 8, 2020 11:00 am EST (Welcome to Out of the Disney Vault, where we explore the unsung gems and forgotten disasters currently streaming on Disney+.)The earliest days of the Walt Disney anthology TV series aired among the earliest days of television itself. So just as television as a medium was trying to figure out what it could be, the concept of what the show could be was equally flexible, changing from week to week....

Robert Forster’s Final Performance Will Be In ‘Amazing Stories’ For AppleTV+; Here’s What The Episode Is About By Ben Pearson/Oct. 25, 2019 2:00 pm EST Oscar-nominated actor Robert Forster (Jackie Brown) passed away two weeks ago, but it turns out he completed one final performance before his death that will make it to the screen. Forster will appear in an episode of Amazing Stories, the resurrected anthology series that will debut on AppleTV+....

Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg To Produce ‘Bubble’, Another Animated Film For Adults By Ben Pearson/May 1, 2020 5:00 pm EST In the United States, animation still has the reputation of being largely for children. But an entire medium of artistic expression shouldn’t be relegated to one demographic, and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are trying to help make that clear to audiences. The duo, who co-wrote and produced 2016’s outrageous animated feature Sausage Party, is getting back into animation by producing Bubble, an animated film based on the podcast of the same name....

By Hoai-Tran Bui/June 10, 2020 3:00 pm EST The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic put TV and movie productions around the world on hold, casting doubt on the future of dozens of ongoing TV shows. But, perhaps owing to the show’s gift with time travel, Doctor Who, won’t be one of those shows. The long-running BBC sci-fi series managed to film its upcoming holiday special, titled “Revolution of the Daleks,” right under the wire, wrapping shooting on the episode before the pandemic hit....

The 10 Cinematic Debuts That Defined The Decade By Meagan Navarro/Dec. 24, 2019 4:00 pm EST (This article is part of our Best of the Decade series.)The decade, arguably more than any other, created seismic revolutionary shifts in the way we perceive and consume film. Superheroes solidified their rank as huge box office juggernauts, and Disney continued their theatrical reign, but the rise of streaming services and VOD altered how audiences approached cinema....

The Morning Watch: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ 16-Bit Final Battle Part 2, From ‘The Shining’ To ‘Doctor Sleep’ & More By Ethan Anderton/July 13, 2020 5:00 am EST The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows....

The Quarantine Stream: ‘American Graffiti’ May Be A Studio Movie, But It’s George Lucas’ Indie Gem By Ethan Anderton/July 27, 2020 10:00 am EST (Welcome to The Quarantine Stream, a new series where the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.)The Movie: American GraffitiWhere You Can Stream It: HBO MaxThe Pitch: American Graffiti is a classic coming-of-age story set against the 1960s backdrop of hot rods, drive-ins and rock n’ roll....

The Quarantine Stream: ‘Birds Of Prey’ Is A Blast And A Breath Of Fresh Air For DC Movies By Ben Pearson/Dec. 7, 2020 7:00 am EST (Welcome to The Quarantine Stream, a series where the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.)The Movie: Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley QuinnWhere You Can Stream It: HBO MaxThe Pitch: After breaking up with the Joker, Harley Quinn suddenly loses the protective shield that the Clown Prince of Crime provided for her....

This Week In Trailers: Bias, Find Your Groove, Stray, The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show By Christopher Stipp/March 29, 2020 8:00 am EST Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising?...

Watch The Entirety Of ‘Threat Level Midnight’ From ‘The Office’, Then Do “The Scarn” By Ethan Anderton/Dec. 12, 2019 5:30 pm EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. The Office trailed off in greatness in its last few seasons, largely thanks to the departure of Steve Carell as the totally inappropriate but still lovable idiot Michael Scott. However, even in some of the less satisfying seasons, there are still bright spots....