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“America, I love you,” declared President Joe Biden tonight in his keynote speech at the first night of the Democratic National Convention as delegates from across the land cheered “We love Joe!” over and over.

Even with his constant evocation of Irish poetry over the decades, Biden has never been anyone’s idea of a great orator. However, on Monday, the 46th President of the United States gave one of the best speeches of his long stint in public life.

Combative, on-point, evocative and relatively succinct for Biden, the valedictory had a job for the campaign. A job that Biden obviously enjoyed. Ripping his 2020 antagonist Donald Trump as a “loser” and “a liar,” Biden went on to lament how “sad” his predecessor is “putting himself first and America last.”

“I’ve got five months left in my presidency and I’ve got a lot to do,” Biden told the crowd,...

Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios has had a winning record coming to the Berlin Film Festival since 2013, when his film Gueros took the Best First Feature prize. Five years later he was back with his second, the sensational museum-heist film Museo, and deservedly won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay. His third, A Cop Movie, which plays with the traditional docu form by using actors, won Best Documentary at Mexico’s Golden Ariel Awards.

Ruizpalacios belongs in the same league as iconic current Mexican directors Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón and particularly Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose cinematic style seems closest to what Ruizpalacios has been doing. His latest trip to Berlin, La Cocina, reinforces the thrilling talent of this singular filmmaker who for the first time has shot a film using both Spanish and English. It features American star Rooney Mara as well as a stunning, uninhibited, shoot-for-the-stars turn from Raul Briones,...

Since 2012, revered filmmaker Martin Scorsese has belonged to a select group of three-time Best Director Golden Globe winners that grew to include six members when Steven Spielberg took last year’s prize for “The Fabelmans.” Over a decade later, the ever-active octogenarian has a strong chance at rising above his fellow triple champs by achieving another directing victory for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” thus following Elia Kazan as the second quadruple honoree in this category’s 81-year history. Since this would be his 10th time competing here, he would also join Spielberg in the rare distinction of having double-digit directing mentions.

Scorsese earned his first Golden Globe Award in 2003 for “Gangs of New York” (on his sixth bid) and was then further lauded for “The Departed” (2007) and “Hugo” (2012). His remaining half dozen directing notices came for his work on “Raging Bull” (1981), “Goodfellas” (1991), “The Age of Innocence” (1994), “Casino” (1996), “The Aviator...

Years after his death in 2003, two-time Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan remains both an influential and controversial figure, respected and reviled in equal measure. Let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Kazan started his career as a stage actor, soon transitioning into directing. He mounted several landmark productions, including the original run of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Throughout his career he received three Tony awards for Best Director of a Play: “All My Sons” in 1947, “Death of a Salesman” in 1949, and “J.B.” in 1959.

He transitioned into filmmaking with “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1945). Two years later, he won his first Oscar for Best Director for “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), which also took home Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm). A taboo-shattering drama about antisemitism, the film established Kazan as a director drawn towards contemporary, hot-button topics.

Kazan scored his second Best Director...

Every breakout independent hit seems like a miracle. This delightful ‘little’ picture was fated to be ghetto-ized into ethnic theaters before its producers opted to distribute it themselves. Capturing a vibrant part of the immigrant experience, Joan Micklin Silver’s micro-production often has a big-picture look; it charmed audiences and became a sleeper success. Star Carol Kane was nominated for an acting Oscar as ‘Gitl,’ a woman with Old-Country values plus the grit and determination to win a better life. Also with fine performances from Steven Keats, Mel Howard, Dorrie Kavanaugh and Doris Roberts.

Hester Street

Blu-ray

Cohen Media Group / Kino Lorber

1975 / B&w / 1:85 anamorphic 16:9 / 90 min. / Street Date March 8, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Carol Kane, Steven Keats, Mel Howard, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Doris Roberts, Stephen Strimpell, Lauren Frost, Paul Freedman, Martin Garner.

Cinematography: Kenneth Van Sickle

Production Designer: Stuart Wurtzel

Film Editor: Katherine Wenning

Original Music: Herbert L. Clarke...

ReviewAs with most of Nagathihalli’s movies this one too juggles between two cultures and people’s acceptance of different cultures.Aravind ShwethaNagathihalli Chandrashekar is one director who has constantly juggled between genres while still managing to keep love, romance, Indian culture and patriotism as the central theme. His latest offering India vs England too has a similar tone. What’s tedious about Nagathihalli’s movies is that since the theme is recurring, there is hardly any scope for surprises. London-born Nri Kanishka (Vasishta N Simha), a vlogger who wants to make a vlog on antiques and treasures of India, contacts Bhagirath (Ananth Nag), a Malnad-based gemologist. Bhagirath invites Kanishka to India and suggests that he explore the country first and then work on the vlog, as India and its culture cannot be fit into a single vlog. Impressed by everything he hears about the country, Kanishka heads out to...

Martin Scorsese has long been an admirer of Elia Kazan, and should he win the Golden Globe for helming Netflix’s mafia epic “The Irishman,” he’d tie his cinematic hero as the most rewarded director in the group’s history.

See Martin Scorsese movies: All 25 films ranked worst to best

Kazan currently holds the record for the most Best Director wins at the Globes with four victories out of as many nominations: “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), “On the Waterfront” (1954), “Baby Doll” (1956) and “America America” (1963). Both “Gentleman’s Agreement” and “On the Waterfront” brought him Oscar wins, while “America America” earned him Academy Award bids in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (he also competed for “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1951 and “East of Eden” in 1955).

Scorsese is close behind with three wins for “Gangs of New York” (2002), “Hugo” (2011) and “The Departed” (2006), for which he also won his first Oscar. He...

Martin Scorsese could be on cloud nine when the Golden Globe ceremony is over. The icon is on track to earn his ninth Best Director nomination, for his meditative mob epic “The Irishman,” but more importantly, if his name is in the envelope, he’d tie the record for most wins in the category at four.

Elia Kazan is the sole record holder, having converted all four of his nominations into wins for “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), “On the Waterfront” (1954), “Baby Doll” (1956) and “America America” (1963). Three other directors have a perfect record from multiple bids, but they’re all from two nominations: James Cameron (1997’s “Titanic” and 2009’s “Avatar”), Alfonso Cuaron (2013’s “Gravity” and 2018’s “Roma”) and William Friedkin (1971’s “The French Connection” and 1973’s “The Exorcist”).

See Martin Scorsese movies: All 25 films ranked from worst to best

Scorsese received the first of his eight bids for “Raging Bull” (1980), but like at the Oscars,...

Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms — and there are more of them all the time — caters to its own niche of film obsessives.

From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel, and esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on Film Movement Plus and Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide will highlight the best of what’s coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Here’s the best of the best for August 2019.

Amazon Prime

There are some big new movies coming to Amazon Prime this month, but most of these recent Hollywood titles will also be available to stream on Hulu and/or Netflix.

Film editor Barry Malkin, a two-time Oscar nominee best known for his many collaborations with Francis Ford Coppola, died Thursday. He was 80.

Malkin began his career in 1963 as an apprentice to Dede Allen on Elia Kazan’s “America America.” He was first credited as an editor for his work on “The Patty Duke Show.” Through his friendship with editor and director Aram Avakian, Malkin was introduced to Francis Ford Coppola, and was hired to edit Coppola’s 1969 film “The Rain People.”

“The Rain People” began a long collaboration between the director and editor. Malkin would work either by himself or as part of the editing team on eight additional Coppola productions. Most significantly, Malkin worked on three “Godfather” projects: “The Godfather, Part II” alongside Richard Marks and Peter Zinner in 1974; “The Godfather Saga,” which edited “The Godfather” parts one and two into a chronological TV miniseries featuring scenes not included in the theatrical releases,...

Film editor Barry Malkin, a two-time editing Oscar nominee for The Godfather: Part III and The Cotton Club, has died. He was 80.

Malkin worked on more than 30 films in his lifetime and was a longtime collaborator with Godfather trilogy director Francis Ford Coppola, who he teamed with on 11 feature films.

Malkin began his career as an apprentice to Dede Allen on the 1962 film America America, directed by Elia Kazan. There he met editor Aram Avakian, and went on to become his assistant editor on 1964’s Lilith. His first full credits as an editor came on TV’s The Patty Duke Show.

The Coppola connection came through Avakian, and the director hired Malkin to edit his The Rain People (1969).

It was the start of a long association, and Malkin earned a BAFTA nomination for best film editing for The Godfather: Part II.

Malkin also had editing credits on such films as...

Film editor Barry Malkin, who was nominated for two Oscars for Francis Ford Coppola films “The Godfather: Part III” and “The Cotton Club,” died Thursday. He was 80.

Malkin’s career in film editing last more than 40 years, and he is credited for working on more than 30 films in his lifetime. Most notably, he teamed up with Coppola on 11 of his feature films.

He first worked as an apprentice to Dede Allen, one of the pioneers of auteur film editing on Elia Kazan’s “America America” in 1963. He grew up in the same Queens neighborhood as Coppola, a fact the two realized when Malkin worked with the famed director on “The Rain People” in 1969. He came on board the “Godfather” saga with “Part II” in 1974, then went on to edit “Part III” and “The Godfather Trilogy,” a TV miniseries that combined the three films. He also served as film editor on Coppola’s “Rumble Fish,...

EntertainmentStarring Vasishta Simha and Manvitha Harish as the lead pair, the film's shooting will begin on August 4. Digital NativeDigital NativeThe shooting of Nagathihalli Chandrashekar’s directorial will begin on August 4 in London and the team is preparing for it right now. The official pooja of this flick will happen near the Basaveshwara statue on the banks of River Thames in London, we hear. The film is based in London and therefore it is apt for it to begin there, say sources close to the film unit. Starring Vasishta Simha and Manvitha Harish as the lead pair, the film is yet to be titled. Earlier, Gurunandan was roped in to play the lead role, but he was replaced by Vasishta Simha owing to call sheet issues. The film will be bankrolled by Yn Shankare Gowda, along with a few of his friends through crowdfunding. Besides the lead pair of Vasishta and Manvitha,...

Presenting the Supporting Actresses of '63. Well well, what have we here? This year's statistical uniqueness (the only time one film ever produced three supporting actress nominees) and the character lineup reads juicier than it actually is - your Fab Five are, get this: a saucy wench, a pious auntie, a disgraced lady, a pillpopping royal, and a stubborn nun.

The Nominees 

from left to right: Cilento, Evans, Redman, Rutherford, Skalia

In 1963 Oscar voters went for an all-first-timers nominee list in Supporting Actress. The eldest contenders would soon become Dames (Margaret Rutherford and Edith Evans were both OBEs at the time). Rutherford, the eventual winner, was the only nominee with an extensive film history and she was in the middle of a hot streak with her signature role as Jane Marple which ran across multiple films from through 1961-1965. In fact, Agatha Christie had just dedicated her new book "The...

The Supporting Actress Smackdown 1963 Edition arrives on Monday so let's talk context since we haven't revisited as much of 1963 as we'd hoped to...

Great Big Box Office Hits: 1) Cleopatra 2) How the West Was Won 3) It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World 4) Tom Jones 4) Irma La Douce 6) Son of Flubber 7) The Birds 8) Dr No 9) The VIPs 10) McClintock!

Oscar's Best Pictures: Tom Jones (10 noms / 4 wins), Cleopatra (9 noms / 4 wins), How the West Was Won (8 noms / 3 wins), Lilies of the Field (5 noms / 1 win), America America (4 noms / 1 win) Our theory as to what was just outside the Best Picture shortlist plus more '63 goodies follow...

(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...

Fourth of July movies: A few recommended titles that should help you temporarily escape current global madness Two thousand and seventeen has been a weirder-than-usual year on the already pretty weird Planet Earth. Unsurprisingly, this Fourth of July, the day the United States celebrates its Declaration of Independence from the British Empire, has been an unusual one as well. Instead of fireworks, (at least some) people's attention has been turned to missiles – more specifically, a carefully timed North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test indicating that Kim Jong-un could theoretically gain (or could already have?) the capacity to strike North America with nuclear weapons. Then there were right-wing trolls & history-deficient Twitter users berating National Public Radio for tweeting the Declaration of Independence, 140 characters at a time. Besides, a few days ago the current U.S. president retweeted a video of himself body-slamming and choking a representation of CNN – courtesy of a gif originally created by a far-right Internet...

Robert De Niro in ‘The Godfather: Part II’ (Courtesy: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

The first few days of Donald Trump’s presidency have been filled with a slew of sweeping policy changes that have garnered plenty of criticism — but the recent changes to America’s immigration policy have topped headlines. With an executive order that has been considered a Muslim ban by many, let’s take a look at some great films about immigration to the United States. There are plenty of them, but here is just a sampling of 16 that you should definitely watch.

A Better Life (2011): This film was directed by Chris Weitz and is a drama about a gardener in East L.A. who struggles to keep his son away from both gangs and immigration agents all while trying to give him opportunities he never had. A Better Life — written by...

Bill Pullman is a familiar face that’s hard to define. The eighties found the actor taking a comedic direction with “Ruthless People” and “Spaceballs”; by early the next decade, he was heading into romantic territory in a string of studio romcoms that culminated with “While You Were Sleeping.” The late nineties epitomized the versatility of Pullman’s career, when his roles ranged from the disoriented center of a Kafkaesque nightmare in David Lynch’s “Lost Highway” to the committed U.S. president in the midst of alien invasion in “Independence Day.”

While that film and its rousing speech remain Pullman’s best-known achievement, they hardly begin to epitomize the sheer range of performances in the actor’s roster. Even as Pullman returned this year to play that character for “Independence Day: Resurgence,” he remains nimble as ever, preparing to star in the independent western “The Ballad of Lefty Brown” while developing a play.

The "show biz" in Donald Trump's Republican National Convention fell considerably short of A-list on Monday, kicking off the first of four nights with reality TV hunter Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty, in a flag-motif head scarf, declaring Trump "will have your back." He was followed in rapid, prime-time succession by actor Scott Baio of Happy Days and Charles in Charge. Baio, who campaigned for Ronald Reagan in his youth, built on Trump's "Let's make America great" rallying cry with this: "Let's make America America again." Robertson, whose family has amassed millions through hunting ventures

read more...

“Are you cheering because we’re ugly?” laughed Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson, kicking off primetime coverage of the 2016 Republican National Convention.

RelatedAsk Ausiello: Spoilers on Bones, Homeland, The 100, Once, Tvd, Younger, The Mindy Project and More

The conservative reality staple was joking about his looks — and the face of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — in relation to their spouses, “intelligent wives who are much better looking than we are.” In addition to that parallel, Robertson noted he and Trump are both successful businessmen who’ve toplined hit reality programs, “though I flew commercial here,” he added.

Robertson also zinged...

Los Angeles – At the 2013 Chicago International Film Festival awards ceremony at the Ambassador East, an older man started shooting me with a video camera in the bar area. Later that same man, Haskell Wexler, picked up a lifetime award at that ceremony. Haskell Wexler died on Dec. 27, 2015, at the age of 93.

Haskell Wexler, Oscar Winning Cinematographer

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Wexler won two Oscars for his cinematography, for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” – the last separate Oscar given for Black & White cinematography – and “Bound for Glory,” which was also notable for the first use of the Steadicam. The rest of his resume isn’t too shabby either, with Best Picture winners or nominations for “In the Heat of the Night, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” “America America” and “Coming Home.” Wexler had five Oscar nominations, including his wins, during his career.

Jose here. As a non-American, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite Us holiday because it's the time of the year when it's socially acceptable for people to put marshmallows and cranberries on everything. A practice which I refuse to stop during the other 364 days of the year, but which for 24 hours helps me bond with the people I love, as I argue about why movies with subtitles are as nourishing as turkey and gravy.

Other than complex carbs, I'm also thankful for

...J.Law away from Dior's gold and diamond shackles. She has rarely looked better than in the black Ralph Lauren she wore to one of the Mockingjay: Part 2 premieres.

...Charlotte Rampling's skinny jeans in 45 Years.

...3D movies that challenge everything I thought about the medium (thank you Gaspar Noe and Wim Wenders)

...for world cinema, and for the opportunity I've had to talk to so many international filmmakers this year.

(Haskell Wexler, 1969; Eureka!, 15, Blu-ray)

One of America’s greatest cinematographers, Haskell Wexler made his name as a socially committed film-maker, working largely on features and documentaries produced outside the heavily unionised Hollywood film industry. This gave him the opportunity to innovate and to engage with explicitly radical themes. His first major feature was Elia Kazan’s autobiographical America America. He was later to win Oscars for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, the last year there were separate prizes for black-and-white and colour) and In the Heat of the Night (1967) starring Sidney Poitier, one of the first Hollywood films in which a cameraman lit a colour movie with proper consideration for an African American’s skin.

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The new 24th issue of The Seventh Art features a video interview with Matt Porterfield, Hannah Gross and Deragh Campbell, the director and stars of I Used to Be Darker and a video essay on Ann Hui's Boat People. Also in today's roundup: The Paris Review on Better Call Saul and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Tales of Hoffmann, Criterion's Michael Koresky on Yasujiro Ozu's Walk Cheerfully, That Night’s Wife and Dragnet Girl, Salon on Elia Kazan's America America, the best of Carl Theodor Dreyer, David Thomson on Marlon Brando, news of forthcoming work by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Marco Bellocchio and more. » - David Hudson...

The new 24th issue of The Seventh Art features a video interview with Matt Porterfield, Hannah Gross and Deragh Campbell, the director and stars of I Used to Be Darker and a video essay on Ann Hui's Boat People. Also in today's roundup: The Paris Review on Better Call Saul and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Tales of Hoffmann, Criterion's Michael Koresky on Yasujiro Ozu's Walk Cheerfully, That Night’s Wife and Dragnet Girl, Salon on Elia Kazan's America America, the best of Carl Theodor Dreyer, David Thomson on Marlon Brando, news of forthcoming work by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Marco Bellocchio and more. » - David Hudson...