As the holiday season approaches, Netflix gifts us Peter Morgan’s stunning fourth season of The Crown, raising the curtain on the 1980s when royal, political and marital turmoil dominated the lives of Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman), Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) and Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin). With an overarching theme of proving oneself in…

Austin Abrams is a leading man in this homage to Nora Ephron

Charlie Hunnam and Jack O’Connell give understated performances as brothers in “Jungleland,” a new film from director Max Winkler. Stan (Hunnam) and Lion (O’Connell) are facing poverty, working at a sewing factory and squatting in empty homes. Lion’s skills as a bare-knuckle boxer are their only way out.  Stan ropes them into driving cross-country from…

From writer-director Thomas Bezucha, “Let Him Go” is a gripping new family drama about a couple’s journey to save their grandson from abuse and hardship. Diane Lane and Kevin Costner reunite as an onscreen married couple in the stirring film from Focus Features, based on the 2013 novel by Larry Watson. They are not Superman’s…

Season four of “The Crown” doesn’t hit Netflix until Nov. 15, but at an online event this week, new cast members Emma Corrin and Gillian Anderson discussed embodying iconic British women alongside Olivia Colman’s Queen Elizabeth. Chief TV Critic Caroline Framke interviewed the actresses as part of Variety’s Power Of Women Conversations presented by Lifetime,…

In partnership with Lifetime, Variety is presenting two days of virtual discussions with female industry leaders in several creative fields. “Variety Power of Women Conversations” will be held online Oct. 28-29; registration is free but required for access. Additional sponsors include Providence St. Joseph’s Health, Cadillac and MGO CPA. A week ahead of Election Day,…

While high expectations may be the culprit, the trifecta of writer/director Sofia Coppola, subtle and brilliant Bill Murray and equally subtle and brilliant Rashida Jones, On the Rocks, as a whole, is just too subtle for a feature-length film. Or, maybe, viewed through the 2020 lens of a pandemic where constant noise, news and vitriol…

From writer-director Brian Duffield and based on the novel by Aaron Starmer, Spontaneous is the rare teen dramedy that comes along at the perfect time. Katherine Langford and Charlie Plummer star as high school seniors whose classmates are dying in gruesome explosions for no apparent reasons. Though the filmmakers could not have foreseen opening during…

From writer-director Julie Taymor, the ambitious new film The Glorias follows the life of iconic feminist Gloria Steinem. Based on Steinem’s writing, the film intertwines different eras of the subject’s life, connecting the dots that led her to becoming the public figure, activist and writer we know today.  Four actors play Gloria at various stages…

Susan Sarandon, Sam Neill and Kate Winslet star in the moving family drama about the end of a life.