“Things just turn and we go from a quite shocking or dark comic moment to quiet, loving emotive moments,” Coles said. “So in terms of aesthetic, you can’t be one or the other… It’s a real treat, actually, the writing, because I’m doing loads of different genres at once.” Because one of the abiding themes of the show is progress versus traditionalism, the wigs of those characters 21st-century audiences might find most sympathetic (such as Catherine and her mostly devoted confidante Marial) are more naturalistic, lace-front ones, with extensions deployed in the way they are worn today....

“I had no other options. I wanted it over with. And I didn’t care how it was done, I was that desperate.” Such is how Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’s intimate and informative “The Janes” opens, introducing audiences immediately to one woman, now decades removed from the period of her life in which she needed the help of the underground abortion service and feminist collective, who can still conjure the same emotions and circumstances that drove her to her choice....

Keeping true to its title in function and form, “The Last Duel” is at constant odds with itself. Alongside meticulous recreations of the late middle ages and a few of the worst hairdos ever put on screen, Ridley Scott’s lavish historical drama offers 152 minutes of dialectical tension, mirroring its climactic battle nearly beat for beat as different versions of what this film could be fight it out until only one remains standing....

A straightforward but delightful and unusually spirited love letter to the least straightforward (but delightful and unusually spirited) art pop duo in the history of British-sounding American music, Edgar Wright’s “The Sparks Brothers” is a beat-for-beat celebration of the band’s deathless creative odyssey, an irresistible invitation to join their small but devoted cult of diehard fans, and a beautifully wrapped gift to anyone who’s ever had angst in their pants about Ron and Russell Mael before....

In Alex Pritz’s “The Territory” — a documentary made in close collaboration with Brazil’s dwindling Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe — the moving image is truth, truth is power, and picking up a camera is an act of reclamation. Set at the explosive intersection of technology, politics, and indigenous persecution, the film is gorgeously and sometimes ingeniously conceived, painting an intimate first-hand portrait of joy, pain, and community, before bursting with rip-roaring intensity as it captures a high-stakes struggle for survival unfolding in the moment....

Rankin’s film has drawn comparisons to the work of fellow Canadian director Guy Maddin, as well as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and even John Waters in its grotesque look at Canadian politics and identity. “The Twentieth Century” unfolds in the style of 1940s melodramas, but blends that with tinges of wartime propaganda films, and plenty more insanity. Here’s the official synopsis, courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories: Originally, “The Twentieth Century” premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival to raves....

Based on the real-life all-women Agojie warriors who defended the West African kingdom Dahomey (present-day Benin) during the 18th and 19th centuries, “The Woman King” centers on General Nanisca (Davis) and her military regime. Davis and her fellow warrior co-stars — Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, and Adrienne Warren — underwent intense strength training, weightlifting, sprinting, and high-intensity workouts to transform into muscular fighters. Each actress additionally had two hours of weapons training with stunt coordinators....

Considering that Sebastián Lelio’s “The Wonder” is a religious mystery (of sorts) set in the Irish Midlands circa 1862, the first shot of the film is so wildly unexpected that audiences might fear that the projectionist has played the wrong file. We open, not on the foggy moors of a country still reeling from the Great Famine that had starved it to death some 13 years earlier, but rather in the cavernous space of a modern soundstage — the kind of facility that might house the sets for a period drama like this one....

As coldly drawn as an atlas yet no less capable of enflaming the imagination, Mona Fastvold’s “The World to Come” is a hard and brittle period love story that thaws into something much warmer — what its hyper-literate heroine would call “astonishment and joy” — as a merciless 19th-century winter blushes into a most unexpected spring. Tuesday, January 1, 1856. Abigail (Katherine Waterston) mourns the daughter who was taken by diphtheria a few months prior, and journals about a world that feels barren in the young girl’s absence....

Julie (Renate Reinsve) is a smart Norwegian med school student in her late 20s who looks as much like Dakota Johnson as Dakota Johnson ever has. Director Joaquin Trier underscores her allure as we first meet her, poised on a balcony above downtown Oslo in a backless cocktail dress, so strongly that he even racks focus on the city behind her until it’s just a blur. She has the world at her feet, and the rat-a-tat narration can hardly keep up with her roiling sense of youthful possibility....

Here’s the official synopsis from Neon: “‘The Worst Person in the World’ is a modern dramedy about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo. It chronicles four years in the life of Julie (Reinsve), a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.” This looks to be Neon’s next foreign-language awards hopeful, and a likely submission from Norway for the Best International Feature Oscar....

Swinton starred opposite her Springer Spaniel for Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter,” and even considered hiring a dog psychologist to understand Louis’ innate performance. “He’s the best actor. Let’s be honest about this,” Swinton told RogerEbert.com. “He’s quite extraordinary. He will do anything I asked him to do. And so that’s my hot tip, if you’re going to work with a dog, make sure that there’s a real bond between the animals in front of the camera....

“Not right away—Legendary had the rights and was developing it—but as soon as Denis got involved, I set up a Google alert and that’s when I got the book,” Chalamet said. “In total honesty, I think my understanding of ‘Dune’ at that point was from a graphic novel I’d seen at Midtown Comics when I was shopping for ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ cards when I was about 10.” Chalamet immersed himself in “Dune” for the sole purpose of wanting to work with Villeneuve, a filmmaker he long admired....

The Oscar winner advised the Academy Award nominee to live by one simple motto: “No hard drugs and no superhero movies.” So there goes any chance of DiCaprio or Chalamet joining the MCU. Chalamet previously revealed the advice last year, but did not disclose it was none other than “Wolf of Wall Street” actor DiCaprio to tell him. “One of my heroes — I can’t say who or he’d kick my ass — he put his arm around me the first night we met and gave me some advice,” Chalamet stayed coy at the time....

According to a new survey from Preply (via The Wrap), American viewers have a harder time following Tom Hardy’s dialogue than any other actor. And “Peaky Blinders,” a show that Hardy frequently appears on, was named the hardest-to-understand TV show. Fans of Hardy will likely find the results to be unsurprising, as the actor is famous for playing roles that require him to mumble. He can currently be seen in the sixth and final season of “Peaky Blinders” on Netflix, and stars in Gareth Evans’ “Havoc” later this year....

Several of the songs flowed out faster than he could understand what they meant — the bucolic title track arrived in a single take as sharp and straight from the source as a glint of sunlight — and it wasn’t until years later that Petty realized he was actually singing an escape plan to himself (“You belong among the wildflowers / You belong in a boat out at sea”). Fans had to wait even longer to appreciate “Wildflowers” in full, as Warner Bros cut 10 entire tracks from the planned double album, the recorded versions of which didn’t get published until Petty’s family and bandmates arranged a re-release in October 2020, three years after the musician’s death from an accidental drug overdose....

“Soul” is one of the only films with a music-related protagonist to win this category since 1999’s “The Red Violin,” joining (arguably) only “La La Land” over that span. It’s fitting, then, that the team behind it has the impressive musical pedigree to match. Batiste has been the bandleader for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” since its premiere in 2015. Over that time, he’s also released multiple studio and live albums, including last month’s “WE ARE....

Prior to the 2021 Oscar nominations announcement, Davis had been tied with friend and co-star Octavia Spencer as the most Oscar-nominated Black actress in history. Spencer has three Best Supporting Actress nominations under her belt thanks to “The Help,” “Hidden Figures,” and “The Shape of Water.” Spencer won the Oscar for “The Help.” Davis was widely expected to become the Oscars’ most nominated Black actress after her performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” picked up nominations from the Golden Globes, the Critics’ Choice Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards....

Created by John Enbom, Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge, and Paul Rudd, “Party Down” focuses on employees at the titular Los Angeles catering company, largely consisting of aspiring actors or writers, as they take on new events each episode and get tangled up in the drama of their employers and guests. The first two seasons, which aired in 2009 and 2010, received critical acclaim but low ratings, and the series eventually lost Lynch and Scott to “Glee” and “Parks and Recreation,” dooming it to cancellation....

Hands shot up for a free hit of cannabis concentrate on the Montalbán Theatre’s rooftop in Hollywood ahead of Sunday’s screening of “The Empire Strikes Back.” Other people smoked joints and ate edibles as they made the rounds at weed brands’ booths, ordered gourmet sandwiches, and swayed along to a DJ’s reggae remixes. At long last: a movie theater where you can smoke weed! Any cinephile stoner will tell you cannabis and cinema is a combination on the level of peanut butter and jelly....