News

Although the story of Andor, as good as it is, has been told multiple times, I think it bears repetition because of how mind-blowing it actually is. Rogue One was undoubtedly fantastic, and appreciation for the work done by Gareth Edwards and his team has only grown with each passing year. But I don’t think you’d look at a cast that has Felicity Jones, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, and Forest Whitaker in it and decide to make an entire show around Diego Luna’s character, especially since they all died at the end of that film. On top of that, when the show was about to be released, excitement for anything new from the franchise was at an all-time low due to the laughably bad The Mandalorian Season 2, The Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, as soon as we set foot into the incredibly...

With a legacy spanning decases, it's still inconceivable that anyone could dislike "The Princess Bride." Released in 1987, the fantasy romantic comedy was written by William Goldman (already a two-time Academy Award-winner for his work on "All the President's Men" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), directed by Rob Reiner (then best known for directing "Stand By Me" the year prior), and featured a miraculously stacked cast. Though it did just okay at the box office, the film has since become a cult classic that -- in large part through the continued success of this cast -- retroactively vindicates those who were early champions of its brilliance.

Whether senior actor or child star, veteran of the screen or relative newcomer, everyone with a role in the core ensemble of "The Princess Bride" brings something wildly unexpected to their individual role no matter how small. Incidentally, the vast majority of these...

If you've paid any kind of attention to Sylvester Stallone's film career for any amount of time, you know he's made some absolutely terrible movies. To be fair, some were out of necessity. Prior to becoming a big screen superstar in 1976 with "Rocky," a briefly homeless Stallone starred in a quickie pornographic romance called "The Party at Kitty and Stud's" (which was rereleased post-stardom as "The Italian Stallion"). Around the same time, he also appeared in the low-budget terrorism thriller "No Place to Hide," which was recut as a comedy and dumped into video stores in 1990 with the title "A Man Called... Rainbo."

For the most part, however, Stallone has been the author of his own cinematic misery. After the wild critical and commercial success of "Rocky", the star went on a decade-plus tear during which he could get anything greenlit. At first, he put his newfound box office...

After directing the legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick for legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Joseph Kosinski went right back to work with Bruckheimer to make the Formula One racing film F1, which is scheduled to reach theatres on June 27th. Last month, we heard that Bruckheimer and Kosinski would be continuing their working relationship after sending F1 into the world by collaborating on a UFO disclosure-themed film that’s being compared to a UFO-themed take on the classic 1976 political thriller All the President’s Men. At the time, Apple Original Films was looking likely to come out the winner in the bidding war over the project – and now, The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Apple has indeed closed the deal, forking over “dozens of millions of dollars” for it. At one point, there were at least nine bids on the table, as Apple was competing with the likes of Amazon,...

Art is the perfect medium for political criticism and exploration, and film is no exception. The medium has long been used as a tool for politics, whether as propaganda or contrarian outsider work. From All the President's Men to The Manchurian Candidate, some of the all-time best movies have distinct political angles in service of a more dramatic or thrilling narrative.

[This story contains spoilers from Severance season two, episode eight, “Sweet Vitriol.”]

Jane Alexander first discovered Severance because of her grandsons. “It’s very popular, I think, with young people,” she hypothesizes over Zoom.

If Alexander is right, then all those young people currently tuning in to Severance‘s season two might be too young to realize the prestige of her appearance in last week’s episode. Here’s a catch-up: Alexander is well-known for movies like 1970’s The Great White Hope (and the play, with James Earl Jones, the year before), 1976’s All the President’s Men, 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer and 1983’s Testament. She earned Oscar nominations for all of the above, won two Emmys (Playing for Time in 1980 and Warm Springs in 2005), a Tony (for the aforementioned The Great White Hope) and, from 1993 to 1997, led the National Endowment for the Arts.

“The arts have always been for everybody,” Alexander, now 85, tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Few TV shows have explored fear as effectively as The Twilight Zone. However, while the series mostly relied on supernatural threats, some of its most disturbing episodes hit closer to home. One example is Nothing in the Dark, a psychological tale that swapped physical monsters for the universal fear of death and the unknown.

This unsettling episode remains one of The Twilight Zone’s most thought-provoking. But what makes it even more memorable is a young Robert Redford. Years before he became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Redford delivered an understated performance as a Death unlike anything seen before. This role stands as an early and often overlooked moment in the career of one of the most underrated Western actors of all time.

Nothing in the Dark Explores the Fear of the Unknown Image via CBS

The Twilight Zone had its fair share of horrifying aliens and creatures, but...

Adrien Brody took home his second Oscar on Sunday — Best Actor for The Brutalist — putting him in rarefied air: He is the eighth performer to boast a perfect 2-for-2 record at the Oscars.

The first seven to achieve this are:

1. Luise Rainer: Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937)

2. Vivien Leigh: Best Actress for Gone with the Wind (1939) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

3. Helen Hayes: Best Actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932) and Best Supporting Actress for Airport (1970)

4. Kevin Spacey: Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects (1995) and Best Actor for American Beauty (1999)

5. Hilary Swank: Best Actress for Boys Don’t Cry (1999) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)

6. Christoph Waltz: Best Supporting Actor for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012)

7. Mahershala Ali: Best Supporting Actor for Moonlight (2016) and Green Book (2018)

See The complete list of Oscar winners

Brody nabbed his first Best Actor Oscar for...

“If there was only certainty, and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore, no need for faith. Let us pray that God will grant us a Pope who doubts,” Cardinal Lawrence cautions his fellow cardinals in Conclave in a poignant speech at the start of the papal summit to select the next leader of the Catholic Church.

The Machiavellian machinations escalate as over 100 cardinals from around the world gather after the expected death of the current Pontiff to participate in a brutal battle of succession, pitting the liberal camp of the order—led by Cardinal Bellini—against the conservatives with Cardinal Tedesco of Venice (Sergio Castellitto). A fast-paced tale of duty, power, faith, and comeuppance, director Edward Berger’s riveting election thriller was recently anointed the Best Film of the year by BAFTA and nominated for eight Academy Awards.

Scoring his first BAFTA win for the film two weeks ago,...

Perhaps it makes sense that Alex Parkinson’s feature debut would simply be a flip of the dimensions of his usual fare. The documentarian has long made a career out of the kind of nature documentary that is more about the people said nature affects than the nature itself. As in his 2024 Living With Leopards, Parkinson employs a curious conglomerate of archival and surveillance footage, first-hand accounts, interviews and, most pertinently, re-enactments, in apparent attempt to dramatize how the natural world can inspire community, chosen family and unusually strong bonds.

So went his 2019 documentary Last Breath, co-directed with Richard Da Costa, which chronicled the strange survival story of Chris Lemons, a saturation diver who somehow lived through nearly 40 minutes of oxygen deprivation in the North Sea, off the coast of Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The 2025 Last Breath is its Hollywood mirror: a slightly fictionalized account of the same incident made with a documentary feel.

With the country in social and political turmoil in 1969, Paramount Pictures released Medium Cool, Haskell Wexler’s form-breaking, question-raising, cinematic signal-bearer to a nation going off the rails.

More than a half century later, one struggles to imagine Paramount guiding us this way again. These days, the studio grabs a lot more headlines for potentially paying off Donald Trump for 60 Minutes journalists doing their jobs, in a storyline that matches Medium Cool and its power-challenging cameraman John Cassellis in drama, if hardly in moral fortitude.

We shouldn’t pick on Paramount, of course. Studios in those years just before and after Watergate produced a host of establishment-challenging films, from All the President’s Men to Three Days of the Condor to Apocalypse Now — a nation badly in need of moral truth served by a Hollywood happy to supply it. Those movies reoriented how a country saw its leaders. In the process,...

The following contains mild spoilers about “Zero Day.”

Conspiracy thrillers can feel like a dime a dozen in this age of streaming and limited series, with everyone looking for a good binge, filled with suspense and mystery, to take them away from it all, if only for six or eight hours.

Yet amid the chaotic, unsettling nature of the current political moment, such material hits differently, and especially so with Netflix’s latest entry in the genre, “Zero Day,” which consciously leans into current events — down to its slogan, “The Truth Has Been Weaponized” — by conspicuously and self-consciously paralleling them.

In that sense, the six-episode project that premiered Friday potentially lays bare a challenge facing development executives more broadly as they look ahead, to the extent the show’s themes come across as less escapist than exhausting.

Marking his first foray into TV series, Robert De Niro heads a genuinely star-studded cast,...

Hollywood has a long history of making films about journalism, as classics like All the President’s Men and The China Syndrome presented reporters in a heroic light during a period in history when viewers desperately wanted honesty. America’s relationship with the news media has rapidly changed over the next several decades, resulting in a journalistic industry that is more divided than ever before. While reactions to news controversies can be overblown at the time that they emerge, it is often worth it to reflect on these instances and examine what the real motivations were. Truth is a highly informative examination of a major controversy on 60 Minutes in 2004 that had a significant impact on the reelection of President George W. Bush.

Apple Original Films is in talks to buy an untitled high-concept UFO package that has “Top Gun: Maverick” filmmaker Joseph Kosinski directing and Jerry Bruckheimer producing, according to an insider with knowledge.

The script written by Zach Baylin is described as “a UFO disclosure-themed take on ‘All the President’s Men,’ the classic 1976 political thriller from Alan J. Pakula,” according to Deadline, which first reported the news. Baylin previously wrote the screenplay to the Oscar-winning drama “King Richard.”

Kosinski and Bruckheimer produced Brad Pitt-starrer “F1” at the streamer, which opens in theaters this June. Apple was able to land the package after it hit town last week after the streamer’s strong working relationship with both Kosinski and Bruckheimer producing on the Formula 1 film.

What is of note is that David Grusch, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and Pentagon whistleblower who gained notoriety and made national headlines...

Update: Deadline reports that Apple Original Films looks likely to come out the winner in the bidding war over the Jerry Bruckheimer / Joseph Kosinski UFO disclosure project. Their sources say, “a big reason Apple ended up winning the bid was the strong relationship that grew out of the studio’s F1 movie that Kosinski directed and Bruckheimer produced. Insiders are very high on the film and were eager to work together again after the film finished production.“

The original article follows:

After directing the legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick for legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Joseph Kosinski went right back to work with Bruckheimer to make the Formula One racing film F1, which is scheduled to reach theatres on June 27th. Now, Deadline reports that Bruckheimer and Kosinki might continue their working relationship after sending F1 into the world by collaborating on a UFO disclosure-themed film that’s being compared to...

Exclusive: The package market has been booming over the past couple weeks and here is another one that looks to have found its new home. Sources tell Deadline that Apple Original Films is in talks to land the untitled UFO package that has Joseph Kosinski directing and Jerry Bruckheimer producing. Zach Baylin penned the script, which is akin to a UFO disclosure-themed take on All the President’s Men, the classic 1976 political thriller from Alan J. Pakula.

The package hit the market last week with several bids coming in and sources say a big reason Apple ended up winning the bid was the strong relationship that grew out of the studio’s F1 movie that Kosinski directed and Bruckheimer produced. Insiders are very high on that film, which will bow in June, and were eager to work again after the film finished production.

David Grusch, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence...

Top Gun: Maverick and F1 director Joseph Kosinski and mega producer Jerry Bruckheimer are shopping a UFO conspiracy thriller, and studios are now in a bidding war. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the film is being pitched as similar to the classic movie All the President's Men, but with UFOs.

Meanwhile, the writer of the project is Zach Baylin, but no stars are attached. Interestingly, David Grusch is a consultant; he's the former Air Force Officer who testified before Congress in 2023 that the government studied UFOs and aliens and actively kept everything hidden from the public and media.

Whichever studio signs on will have to give the film a greenlight, meaning Kosinski and Bruckheimer don't want to spend years developing the film. Warner Bros., Paramount, Lionsgate, Amazon, Apple, and several others are bidding, so expect a deal to be struck soon. The pairing of Kosinski and Bruckheimer equals box office gold,...

Filmmaker Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer are making another movie together. The duo is reteaming for an upcoming sci-fi movie described as a UFO disclosure-themed take on the 1976 political thriller All the President's Men.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kosinski will direct from a script by Zach Baylin — the Oscar-nominated screenwriter behind Creed III, The Order, and King Richard — with Bruckheimer producing. After their last collaboration, Paramount's legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick, made over $1.4 billion at the box office, almost every studio wants in on Kosinski and Bruckheimer's next movie. This includes Amazon, Skydance, Lionsgate, Sony, 20th Century, Universal, Paramount, Apple, and Warner Bros., the latter two of which are set to distribute the duo's next movie, the forthcoming Formula 1 sports action film F1 this summer. Sources report that the bidding is escalating "quickly and aggressively."

RelatedMiles Teller Offers Top Gun 3 Update, Reveals How Many Months He Told...

Following his success surrounding Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, and the buzz surrounding Brad Pitt’s upcoming F1, Joseph Kosinski appears to be working on another anticipated project that will reunite him with Jerry Bruckheimer. Although little is known about the film, it has been described as All the President’s Men with UFOs.

Director Joseph Kosinski in an interview with TWiT Tech Podcast Network | image: YouTube

Currently, uncountable production companies are vying for Joseph Kosinski’s promising film which also includes King Richard screenwriter Zach Baylin. While major details are kept under tight wraps, there have been rumors about certain tantalizing elements from the film—UFO whistleblower David Grusch is said to be acting as a consultant on the project.

Joseph Kosinski and David Grusch’s collaboration might reveal dark secrets about UFOs

After recently working on Brad Pitt‘s F1 movie, Joseph Kosinski, the visionary director behind Top Gun: Maverick,...

Following collaborations on smash hit Paramount sequel Top Gun: Maverick and the forthcoming Formula 1 pic F1 for Apple and Warner Bros, director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer are eyeing a reteam on a hot new package out to the town.

We’re told that the as-yet-untitled project is akin to a UFO disclosure-themed take on All the President’s Men, the classic 1976 political thriller from Alan J. Pakula. At least nine bids for the project are in around town from suitors like Amazon, Skydance, Lionsgate, Sony, Warner Bros, Paramount, 20th, Apple and Universal.

Kosinski will direct from a script by Zach Baylin — the Oscar-nominated scribe behind The Order and King Richard — with Bruckheimer producing.

David Grusch, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and Pentagon whistleblower who gained attention in 2023 for his claims about the U.S. government’s involvement in unidentified aerial phenomena research, will executive produce and serve...

When Ben Affleck took home a best picture Oscar for his film "Argo," he was asked to weigh in backstage on awards season punditry. In a video shared by CNN, Affleck opted out of the way people closely track the race. "I don't get into the Oscarology, and the pontificating," he said, though he acknowledged that many people enjoy following the process. "I hope people are interested in the Oscars, because it helps our industry, and it helps make better films," he added, "but it doesn't help me."

If that's the case, Affleck may not know that he belongs to a relatively exclusive club: Actors who have won Oscars for something other than acting. Many actors who have spent decades on film sets eventually get the urge to try their hand at other aspects of the business, from producing to writing to directing. Many try, that is, but fewer succeed,...

The political conspiracy thriller series genre has been exploding of late, with high-action series like The Night Agent, Paradise, The Recruit, and Jack Ryan. These come on the heels of many that paved the way before them, like House of Cards, Madam Secretary, Scandal, and Bodyguard. There’s a new one coming soon called Zero Day, and it’s worth adding to the watch list.

From the timely and topical premise to the intensity of the story, the top-notch cast, and the high-tech themes, Zero Day is poised to be one of the biggest show debuts this year. With the limited series having been conceived years ago and filming reportedly stalled due to the Writers Guild of America strike, fans are hoping it will be worth the wait.

What Is Zero Day About?

The title says it all. Zero Day is an actual term used in the It world, referencing...

Films about journalistic integrity and the power of the media are, naturally in an entertainment system like Hollywood, produced for audiences nearly every year. Some, like All the President's Men,represent the best-in-class, showing journalists to be brave warriors in the fight for the truth. Others, like the classic, caustic Billy Wilderfilm Ace in the Hole, show journalists to be conniving, duplicitous, and relentless in getting their story, making true the adage that one 'shouldn't let the truth get in the way of a good story'.

Conspiracies and cover-ups are a dime a dozen in fictional movies. But when a documentary unravels a conspiracy, it can take on the kind of hushed suspense those films used to have and rarely do anymore.

“The Stringer” is a documentary mystery about a deadly serious subject: the true authorship of the famous Vietnam War photograph, taken on June 8, 1972, in the town of Trảng Bàng, that showed the aftermath of a napalm attack — a 9-year-old girl named Phan Thį Kim Phúc running, naked, toward the camera, her arms outstretched like broken wings, her mouth open in a scream of agony. She’d been burned all over her body, and the photograph, from the moment it went out into the world and was viewed by billions, became known as “Napalm Girl.” It is one of the most iconic and devastating images of the horror of war ever seen.

“Naplam Girl” is...

In September 5, the story of a 1972 news team combines the legacy of earlier journalism films. In 2025, it could hardly be more relevant.

I bloody love a good journalism movie. I’m probably biased, but I’m not sure there’s always a correlation between a person’s job and their film taste; do all bus drivers obsessively watch Paterson and Speed? For our sake, I hope they’re not obsessively watching Speed.

Regardless, there’s little more reassuring in a climate of evaporating media outlets than a movie telling you your profession (albeit the slightly more important-sounding investigative side of it) is worth having around. The Post and (improbably) Spotlight have become go-to comfort movies in my house.

It seems I’m not alone, either – since the golden age of film noir, the intrepid journalist has become a helpful narrative replacement for the kind of chain-smoking private investigator’s we...

The state of journalism and its portrayal in movies and TV shows have always been directly proportional to each other. If journalists do their job properly, then their fictional depiction usually gets into the nitty-gritty of the profession to show what it takes to bring a piece of news into the limelight. If they don’t, well, nobody misses the chance to bash them and underscore how pivotal they are to the destruction of democracy. Now, amidst all this churning, we’ve undoubtedly gotten gems like Spotlight, Zodiac, Nightcrawler, All the President’s Men, The Harder They Fall, Network, and Ace in the Hole. However, recently, I have noticed an uptick of films and series taking potshots at journalists, which is overshadowing the comparatively positive representation of this job because freedom of press and journalistic ethics are at an all-time low. So, you can imagine the trepidation I experienced while pressing play on The Snow Girl,...

Alan J. Pakula was one of the most influential filmmakers of the “New Hollywood” era, as his work on classic conspiracy thrillers like Klute, The Parallax View, All the President’s Men, and Rollover helped to define the espionage genre as it is known today. Although there are many classical filmmakers that choose to retire early, Pakula found a resurgence in popularity in the 1990s thanks to the success of the legal thrillers Presumed Innocent and The Pelican Brief, which combined complex ethical dilemmas with dynamic performances from some of the biggest stars working in the industry. Pakula tragically passed away in 1998, but his career concluded on a high note with the underrated crime thriller The Devil’s Own, which featured strong performances from Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt.

Why do celebrities keep trying their luck in politics? It, perhaps, may be that as long as there are cameras, microphones, and eyeballs involved, celebrities will keep chasing the dream of the White House. Even someone like Frank Zappa once seriously considered running for president, hoping to shake things up with ideas like lowering taxes and sticking closely to the Constitution.

While quite a few (say Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger) have done more than just voicing their plans, but also taking public office and finishing full terms, others believed that their fame was enough to carry them all the way to the Oval Office. Has that ever been the case? Rarely.

A still from All the President’s Men | Credits: Wildwood Enterprises

Let’s look into some of the most memorable celebrity presidential bids, their platforms, promises, and, often, their pitfalls.

Ronald Reagan

Celebrity bids for the presidency prove that in America,...

Captain America: Brave New World gets an exclusive ScreenX poster to celebrate its imminent arrival in that format. The upcoming movie is the first to star Anthony Mackie as its titular character after Chris Evans retired from the role in 2018’s Avengers: Endgame. Also starring in the film are Harrison Ford as ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross/Red Hulk, Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, Giancarlo Esposito as Sidewinder, Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley, and Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph.

ScreenRant is happy to offer a first look at the ScreenX poster for Captain America: Brave New World. The poster showcases key Captain America: Brave New World characters in Sam Wilson and Red Hulk, as well as a clever star-shaped look at a cityscape. Take a look at the poster, below, and get ready to see Captain America: Brave New World in ScreenX starting February 14.

What To Expect From Captain America: Brave New World...

Plot: While covering the 1972 Munich Olympics, the team at ABC Sports find themselves covering the horrifying Munich Massacre in real-time.

Review: September 5 isn’t the first movie about the Munich Massacre. Steven Spielberg brilliantly depicted the events and their aftermath in Munich (perhaps his last truly great film). However, this movie takes a different approach in how it covers the events unravelling in real time from the studios at ABC Sports in Germany. We follow a team of sleep-deprived journalists who are supposed to be there covering the Olympics and find themselves chronicling events that they know can only end in tragedy and will have global consequences, the repercussions of which are still felt today.

For me, the film had particular resonance. Before I started working for JoBlo, I worked in radio as an “op”, which basically meant I handled the audio boards, screened the calls, and ran the operations side of live radio broadcasts.

Conclave screenwriter Peter Straughan grew up in a “devout Catholic household’ and even served as an altar boy as a child. So while he’s no longer an active church member, Straughan says he still greatly respects and appreciates the Catholic faith.

“I was never interested in coming at this from the outside with an ax to hack it down,” Straughan tells Gold Derby about his acclaimed and award-winning adaptation of Robert Harris’ novel. “The thing I found so interesting about the book was that it’s a critique, amongst other things, of the Catholic Church but from within the Church. The characters are believers who are members of the Church. I found that really interesting.”

While some, including conservative commentator Megyn Kelly, have loudly disagreed with Straughan, the screenwriter says at its core, Conclave is exceptionally Catholic in its view. “It’s an eternal narrative that you must inspect...

There are few genres like the political thriller, the one that blends conspiracies, shocking murders, and the fundamental building blocks of society into a mélange of terror, passion, and excitement. Hollywood has produced many fine examples, like All The President's Men, The Day of the Jackal, and The Ides of March. However, many of the great thriller directors in Hollywood learned great lessons from filmmakers elsewhere, particularly in Europe as well as the films of one Costa-Gavras.

The Killer, Gone Girl, Se7en, and Alien 3 prove David Fincher's mastery of the slow-burn movie. He explained why he did the same with Zodiac's decades-spanning story.

Director David Fincher didn't want to make "another Se7en" when he pitched Zodiac to studio executives. The latter didn't like Fincher's concept at the outset. "I remember when we showed the film to Warner Brothers and they were like, 'This isn't Se7en.' I was like, 'Oh boy,'" he told Variety. Fincher helmed four slow-burn films at that point; Zodiac shared Se7en's story beats but belonged to different subgenres. "I don't even know if Zodiac really is a, I mean, certainly it's about a serial killer, but it's really, it's a newspaper movie at its marrow," he confirmed.

Related Se7en Director Finally Reveals What Was Really in That Box 30 Years Later

Director David Fincher finally revealed...

Being the president is a tough job. Looking over millions of people in the United States can be exhausting, and just like everyone else, presidents need time to unwind. Thankfully, The White House includes multiple amenities that allow presidents to relax, ranging from a bowling alley to a built-in movie theater. Quite a few presidents have spent many hours in The White House movie theater, but the 39th president, Jimmy Carter, had a greater love for the theater than the others.

Jimmy Carter, who died December 29, 2024, at the age of 100, watched hundreds of films in the presidential theater. Having established a film commission in Georgia when he was governor a few years before his presidency, Carter had quite the love for movies. He saw his favorite film, Rocky, while he was in office, and he screened many films for friends and political peers. He pushed boundaries for what kinds of...

Ben Affleck rose above his image as a blockbuster actor and became an acclaimed filmmaker with the historical drama Argo. It was not his first stint at direction, with two critically appreciated films already in his kitty, but Argo became a surprise hit and even won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Despite his award-winning vision and eye for detail, Affleck was reportedly not involved until a script was written. When he received the screenplay for Argo, Affleck apparently had one huge change to suggest and that might have just won it the Oscar.

Ben Affleck’s one note changed the way Argo was filmed A still from Argo | Credits: Warner Bros.

The Iran hostage crisis of 1979-81 is one of the most harrowing incidents in history and has had lasting effects on the diplomatic relationship between Iran and the USA. More than fifty Americans were taken hostage by a group...

When most actors win an Academy Award, it's because they've crafted a fully-realized, nuanced portrayal of a character. They've created a person out of whole cloth, bringing them to life on screen in a way that no one else could've done in quite the same way. Understandably, a lot of Oscar-winning performances take the whole movie to do that. However, things get trickier when we move into the Best Supporting categories. Actors at this level are often working with a limited amount of scenes, trying to get a portrayal across in very small chunks that may not add up to anything close to the amount of time that audiences see their co-stars.

In "Conclave," for example, Isabella Rossellini plays Sister Agnes. She's one of the most senior nuns in Vatican City, and as such, she's given a position of power that winds up influencing the course of the Church's history.

The end of the year offers ample opportunity to catch up on movies, and we’ve put together a curated list of some of the best new titles added to Amazon Prime Video this month. They include a new release from 2024 starring Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, as well as two Batman movies newly added to the streaming service that are well worth checking out, plus a bona fide classic for good measure.

Check out the best new movies on Amazon Prime Video below.

“The Bikeriders” Austin Butler in “The Bikeriders” (New Regency)

One of last year’s very best movies is now one of this year’s very best movies. After playing the fall festivals and getting a primo, made-for-awards-season slot at the end of the year, New Regency and Disney decided to table the movie, with Focus Features agreeing to distribute, with a juicier summer date. It wound up a sleeper hit.

Captain America: Brave New World's movie inspirations have been revealed, making the movie even more exciting than it was already. As the first Marvel movie releasing in 2025, Captain America: Brave New World is nearing the final stages of its marketing. The upcoming MCU movie is being teased by Marvel Studios, as well as those involved in crafting the film itself. From teases of the intriguing story of Captain America: Brave New World to the movies that inspired it, the final few months before the MCU project's release have led to many exciting reveals.

In a recent interview with Empire, Captain America: Brave New World's director, Julius Onah, outlined the specific movies he had in mind when crafting the MCU story. Onah also stated that he wants these inspirations to shine through in the final film, rather than be a director who names lots of movies that hold no...

In a technical sense, the archive footage of ABC Sports commentator Jim McKay is the real star of “September 5,” director Tim Fehlbaum’s gripping docudrama about the Munich Summer Olympics hostage crisis of 1972. In fact, treating McKay as one of the characters allowed for a more authentic recreation of the events. This was accomplished by blending the broadcast footage, which played in real-time on the monitors, with directed scenes in the control room set (shot at Bavaria Studios in Munich).

The Munich massacre was historic for two reasons: It was the first live Summer Olympics broadcast (thanks to satellite tech), and it was the first live terrorist attack. For 22 hours, the ABC Sports production team pivoted to news in broadcasting the killing of the Israeli Olympic team, which was taken hostage in Munich by Black September (part of the Palestine Liberation Organization).

“It was a very intuitive process,” editor Hansjörg Weißbrich told IndieWire.

The process of selecting the next pope is not the raw material of a traditional thriller. And while “Conclave” is packed with political intrigue, Edward Berger’s adaptation of Robert Harris’ 2016 book by the same name doesn’t indulge in conspiracies or the underlying fear of violence that are hallmarks of the paranoid 1970s political thrillers the director is emulating with this film.

While Berger was on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast he discussed the films of director Alan Pakula, like “Parallex View” and “All the President’s Men,” and how he used various cinemtic tools to make his story of a conclave of cardinals feel like a Paranoid ‘70s thriller.

Creeping Inside Cardinal Lawrence’s Brain

Until a new pope is selected, the pressures of administering the conclave’s proceedings fall on one man, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who has been experiencing religous doubt — we learn he even unsuccessfully attempted to...

In 1971, celebrated director Alan J. Pakula unleashed one of the grittiest films of that (decisive) decade: the neo-noir thriller Klute. Starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Roy Scheider, Klute concerns itself with the exploits of a high-end call girl who slowly gets wrapped up in a missing persons case when an out-of-state detective arrives in New York City and requests her help tracking down a former client.

Practically the definition of 70s cinema, Klute became the first entry in what would later come to be known as Alan J. Pakula's "paranoia trilogy," which also includes 1974's The Parallax View, followed by 1976's All the President's Men. But the film's legacy is far more extensive than just its director's filmography. Klute has also proven to be an extremely influential film for an entirely new generation of filmmakers, directors like Matt Reeves, who, time and time again, has pointed to...

The 1970s were a huge turning point for thriller movies. During this decade, cinema turned up the suspense. It kept us on the edge of our seats, gripping the armrests of theater chairs with white-knuckled intensity. Imagine a decade filled with psychological tension, mind-bending plots, gritty crime dramas, and raw, unpredictable action. It’s as if the decade was made for film fans who wanted intense thrills. This list of the best 70s thriller movies showcases how the decade became a turning point for suspense and action in cinema.

The 1970s film thrillers didn’t just entertain; they changed the genre by combining aspects that would impact film for decades to come. Those jump scares, heart-pounding chases, and mind-bending turns redefined the rules of suspense.

The culture zeitgeist was the center of the best 1970s thrillers’ pulse, which went beyond the plot. The political unrest, Watergate scandals, and social upheaval...

September 5 director Tim Fehlbaum is opening up about why the now-Oscar contender was the next story he wanted to tell.

“It was the conversation that we — the producers, the writer and I — had with Geoffrey Mason, the real Geoffrey Mason, the character played by John Magaro,” Fehlbaum told The Hollywood Reporter at a special screening on the Paramount lot.

The film, which counts Sean Penn as one of its producers, chronicles the ABC Sports team at the 1972 Munich Olympics as they pivoted from sports reporting to live coverage of the Israeli athletes taken hostage in the Olympic Village. Peter Sarsgaard stars as legendary ABC executive Roone Arledge, while Magaro plays Mason, a young producer for the network’s Olympic coverage.

“Listening to his stories and what he experienced during this 22-hour marathon of broadcasting on this crisis situation back then in Munich,” the director continued. “That was the moment when...

“The best antidote for a bad election is a good movie,” Richard M. Nixon once proclaimed, and for many filmgoers this week Conclave helped blot out the political noise. A papal thriller with a shock ending, Conclave’s impact again raises the question of whether serious adult fare can again command a strong market niche.

The setting of Conclave is itself a departure: The Pope is dead. The Vatican’s prayerfully powerful College of Cardinals is locked in its sanctorum, weathering intrigues about a potential new leader.

Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), a regally robed cardinal, Ralph Fiennes, struggles to sustain calm in the face of sexual and political challenges raised by Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, among others.

The Focus Features unit of Comcast once provided a major dent in...

The Amateur star Rami Malek and director James Hawes explain how the upcoming espionage thriller pulls from Slow Horses, which the latter directed episodes for. Based on a 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell, The Amateur follows a CIA cryptographer who, after losing his wife in a London terrorist attack, blackmails his agency into training him and letting him pursue the people responsible. The film will mark the latest espionage-themed project for Hawes, who directed all six season 1 episodes of Slow Horses, Apple TV+'s acclaimed spy show.

In a recent interview with Screen Rant, both Malek and Hawes explain how The Amateur draws from the spy movies that have come before, while also putting a very modern spin on its subject matter. Though the Jason Bourne films and classics like Three Days of the Condor (1975) are inspirations, Hawes affirms that it's also a "a very 2025 movie." Check...

The world of politics has long served as the basis for some of Hollywood's best films, from All the President's Men to JFK. Whether based on true stories of fictional events, these films can offer audiences a window into the world of government, tackling topics like corruption and war. Typically focusing on politicians, government agents and reporters, these films show how even the smallest of characters can make a big difference and challenge the highest rungs of power.

Political thrillers can cover anything from presidential assassinations to investigations into scandals, exploring the best and worst of government. The world of politics is practically defined by conflict, so making a thriller out of the genre often comes naturally, and appeals to fans of all ideologies. Ranging from conspiracies to the true stories behind key events in world history, these movies remain some of the most compelling of the genre.

The Sentinel...

Small Things Like These (2024) is a film that is intended to disturb, but not because of what it shows. Tim Mielants’ latest historical drama is not the first film about the infamous Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, as it was a major subject in Peter Mullan’s underrated drama “The Magdalene Sisters” and the Oscar-nominated Judi Dench vehicle “Philomena.” However, “Small Things Like These” avoids being derivative by presenting its exploration of the controversy as a mystery of sorts. The sad fact is that the abuse and enslavement of thousands of young women in Ireland is still a relatively unknown moment in history, and one that has certainly been forgotten when compared to other religious controversies.

“Small Things Like These” is perhaps more ambitious in the fact that it doesn’t attempt to summarize the extent of this generational abuse into a broadly accessible tragedy. It is a rather straightforward drama...

In 1998, Robert Redford starred in The Horse Whisperer, a Western that had the potential to be a huge hit, yet the movie's shocking ending put it at a severe disadvantage. Since the 1960s, Redford has been a significant presence in Hollywood. He quickly rose to fame after starring in films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, and All the President's Men. Later, Redford pivoted towards directing, and earned several Academy Awards and nominations. Thus, by 1998, Redford was established as both an actor and director, putting The Horse Whisperer in a good place for success.

The Horse Whisperer follows a young girl named Grace who gets into a traumatic accident with her horse. Determined to heal both her daughter and the horse, Grace's mother, Annie, decides to move them to the ranch of a "horse whisperer" named Tom. Over time, Grace begins to recover while Annie and Tom grow closer.

William Goldman was an American author and screenwriter who wrote dozens of stories across various genres. He is best known for his novel The Princess Bride, which he adapted into the beloved 1987 film, as well as the thriller Marathon Man. On the screenwriting side, his credits include iconic movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men, both of which won him Oscars.

Wow, November got here fast. This year’s election cycle seemed shorter than usual. The presidential candidates were all but a foregone conclusion, until they weren’t. Now with election season finally here, things continue to be tense. Are smooth transitions between administrations a thing of the past, or has the fever from last cycle broken?

Despite the strange reality we live in now, politics have always been fertile ground for nerve-fraying anxiety. Whether that’s the paranoia of being under the all-seeing eye of the Nsa today, the tragedy of the assassinations in the 60s, or the scandals of the 70s, politics have never been for the faint of heart. Struggles for power rarely are.

Here’s some of our favorite political thrillers to put you in the right mood for election season:

War Room

For better or for worse, the documentary War Room defined ‘90s politics. Unlike the ‘80s,...