Ethiopian legend has it that khat, a stimulant leaf, was found by Sufi Imams in search of eternity. Inspired by this myth, Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi” is a spiritual journey into the highlands of the walled city of Harar, a place immersed in the rituals surrounding this plant, Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today. Through the prism of the khat trade, the film weaves a tapestry of intimate stories of people caught between government repression, khat-induced reverie, and treacherous journeys across the Red Sea, and offers a window into the dreams of the youth who long for better lives elsewhere....

“Watching horror films is a disabling experience,” Angela M. Smith, Associate Professor of English and Gender Studies for the University of Utah and author of the book “Hideous Progeny: Disability, Eugenics, and Classic Horror Cinema,” said. “It’s a controlled encounter with discomfort, with the vulnerability of our minds and bodies to images and suggestions that opens us to unwilled transformations.” The horror film revels in the world of deformity and grotesqueness and, to a disabled viewer, that can be confusing in how relatable it is....

Complete with Taika Waititi gif, Reynolds posted to his Twitter on Saturday “Aaaannnnd after 3 years messaging as an original IP movie, Disney confirmed today they officially want a sequel. Woo hoo!! #irony.” Though nothing has been revealed via official channels it is telling that both 20th Century Studios retweeted the post and director Shawn Levy responded to the tweet with “Yuuuuuuuup.” Interestingly, Levy and Reynolds have already wrapped their second collaboration together, the time-travel action-comedy “The Adam Project....

With Welles sitting just off-screen, cameraman Gary Graver sticks with Hopper’s bearded face for the duration, and the pair just go at it. The gorgeous black-and-white conversation was one of the many fragments produced for the “Wind” production, much of which takes place over the course of a long party hosted by the Wellesian protagonist and fictional director Jake Hannaford (John Huston). Hopper’s rambling thoughts only made it into a few moments of that posthumous effort, but they take on a new dimension in “Hopper/Welles,” as the camera stays with Hopper while Welles, loosely playing the Huston character off-camera, pushes actor-turned-director to get deep....

This is how it ends: An off-screen bang, and one hell of an amiable ramble around a fraying Los Angeles. As the latest in the growing ranks of pandemic-shot movies that are only kinda about the pandemic, Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones’ “How It Ends” offers the unexpected: Hope. Picking up long after Earth and its inhabitants reckoned with Armageddon — details of which are hashed out later — the pair’s latest dramedy opens on the planet’s final day....

An almost post-apocalyptic vibe hangs over the Manitoba forest, bringing to mind films like “The Road” and the video game “The Last of Us,” soon to become an HBO series. That’s because this film’s primary focus, at first glance, is the relationship between father (Sawa, as Joseph Mersault) and daughter (Summer H. Howell, as Renee) eking out a life amid the elements. For a minute, as Linden almost tenderly captures Joseph and Renee as he teaches her how to hunt and skin wild game, “Hunter Hunter” even evokes the innocence of Deborah Granik’s survival story “Leave No Trace....

The creature team worked with 14 different species and 48 total builds, but the greatest emphasis was on the newest baddie, the Giganotosaurus — the franchise’s largest carnivore and an actual dino, not a gene-spliced hybrid. According to creature FX supervisor John Nolan, director Colin Trevorrow wanted battle scars running down the Giganotosaurus’ face, approximating the look of Jack Nicholson’s Joker makeup in Tim Burton’s “Batman.” “With Giga, it was always going to be a 3D creature and ILM made it first,” Nolan told IndieWire....

“‘King Richard’ is so well-written, with complicated real-life characters,” said Martin a wide-ranging interview with IndieWire. “It was my job to tap into all of that and get it calibrated right, and to be truthful about the depiction of the Williams family.” Martin’s ability to calibrate the film’s complex real-life stories is something she feels is a direct product of her experience, both in and out of the editing room....

To create an intriguing, if imperfect, ending for an MCU TV show, all Marvel had to do was not end anything at all. On a big-picture level, that makes sense. Not ending things is what the superhero storytellers do best, even if “Loki” marks the first time one of their series embraced its own never-ending timeline. With “WandaVision,” the first episodic MCU narrative to premiere on Disney+, the finale struggled to live up to expectations in part because it was billed as a limited series, yet never fully functioned as a standalone arc (to say nothing of its issues delaying and addressing Wanda’s trauma)....

The synopsis according to HBO Max states, “Season 2 focuses on Marcus Watkins. After his marriage unexpectedly implodes, Marcus is forced to rebuild his life brick by brick, hoping to find a love that will last, once and for all.” As the first trailer shows, Marcus is coming off a divorce yet remains committed to a long-term, monogamous relationship. He’s looking for a relationship on par with what his parents had, but that comes with a host of challenges, from friendship drama to stinky feet....

“It was a wonderful journey finding that theme and how it related to friendship,” Casarosa said. “From day one, I could tell there was something interesting about having a kid that age with this secret — the fact that he can’t show himself.” Pixar’s chief creative officer, Pete Docter, even told Casarosa how much the theme personally resonated with him. “He said he felt that way as a kid — those years where you feel odd in your own body and you don’t fit in for many different reasons,” added Casarosa....

Nielsen’s latest report on the Top 10 most-watched streaming television shows stated that “Lucifer” was viewed for over 1.83 billion minutes from May 31 to June 6. The show’s popularity was such that its viewership exceeded that of the following three show’s on Nielsen’s list: Netflix’s “Sweet Tooth” and “The Kominsky Method” came in second and third place with 794 million and 507 million minutes watched, respectively. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Hulu’s tentpole television drama, came in fourth place on Nielsen’s list with 473 million minutes watched....

The film charts Ball and Arnaz’s romance, culminating in iconic sitcom “I Love Lucy.” Per the logline, “Defying the odds, they re-invented the medium, on the screen and behind the cameras. What Lucy and Desi couldn’t make work with each other, they gave to the rest of the world.” “Lucy and Desi” includes interviews with Ball and Arnaz’s children, Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill and Desi Arnaz Jr., as well as Norman Lear, Carol Burnett, and Bette Midler....

The Super Bowl spot reveals Isaac in the comic book character’s grey suit, and shows some of his moments of mental instability before receiving his superpowers. Isaac’s character of Marc Spector, who becomes Moon Knight, is notable for having dissociative identity disorder. His multiple distinct identities are treated as unique characters in the show. Moon Knight is known to brutally lash out at people, and often has difficulty controlling his powers....

In ‘Nostalgia’, the first love is one that forms between two 15-year-old boys Felice and Oreste, getting into trouble on the streets of Naples, and while it is never shown to be sexual, it is deeply romantic and passionate. The two teenagers ride, arms wrapped around each other, on a moped, the Italian sunshine carefree and enraptured by each other’s presence. When Felice is beaten up by a rival gang it is Oreste that comes to his aid with the fiery fury of a lifelong soulmate....

Once again, we get to settle into those stylish apartments and pavement cafes in sunny Madrid (the film is set between 2016 and 2018, so there’s not a face mask in sight); we get to admire the to-die-for furniture and the snazzy clothes which just happen to have some vibrant reds, blues, greens, and yellows; we get to hear Alberto Iglesias’s palpitating orchestral music as the plot twists and tightens; and we get to see a tousled Penélope Cruz acting up a storm, while looking superhumanly gorgeous: her flicking false eyelashes deserve an award of their own....

“Pieces of a Woman” is executive-produced by Martin Scorsese, and is currently seeking U.S. distribution. In a director’s statement courtesy of the Biennale, Mundruczó said, “Is it possible to survive if you have lost the one you loved the most? Where do you turn when you have nowhere to seemingly turn to? My wife and I wanted to share one of our most personal experiences with audiences through a story of an unborn child; with the faith that art can be the best medicine for pain....

The rapidly growing audio genre has skyrocketed in the past few years, with popular shows like “The Office,” “New Girl,” and many more dissected episode-by-episode in weekly podcasts hosted by the original shows’ stars. These podcasts are big business for companies like iHeart, where ad revenue is up, reportedly close to 80 percent, thanks to a perfect storm of nostalgia, exploration, and plain old love of TV. Will Pearson, Chief Operating Officer of iHeart Podcasts, remembers being in multiple conversations about potential rewatch podcasts when the COVID-19 pandemic hit....

“The ending wasn’t landing,” Reyes said. “We tried one version of it where we win [the Battle of the Bands competition]. We tried another version of it where we lose and that’s it. It just wasn’t hitting. The team was just like, ‘What do we do about this ending?’ And Kevin is just like, ‘It’d be cool if like, we lost and then the audience started cheering, ‘School of Rock!...

One of the few ways that Mark (Adam Scott) finds life within the cold walls of the severed wing is by reading “The You You Are,” a cheesy self-help book written by his character’s real-life brother-in-law Ricken (Michael Chernus). The book is utterly ridiculous (much like Ricken himself), and fans have enjoyed watching Mark apply the nonsensical platitudes to his very real problems. Apparently, series creator Dan Erickson does too....