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Two-time Oscar winner Adrien Brody knows a thing (or two!) about serious dramatic acting. The actor became the youngest person to win the coveted Best Actor in a Leading Role award at the age of 29 for his part in "The Pianist" in 2003, and more recently he took the award home again for his role as László Tóth in Brady Corbet's impressive 2024 drama "The Brutalist." It might surprise fans to learn that Brody is actually quite good at lighter fare given his absolutely atrocious time hosting "Saturday Night Live," but in 2008 he starred in director Rian Johnson's most underrated film — "The Brothers Bloom."

"The Brothers Bloom" is a con-artist movie: a ridiculous caper with all kinds of meta-commentary on storytelling throughout, and Brody is the aching soul at the center of it that holds the wackiness together. Though many don't appreciate Johnson's second feature as much as his more serious debut,...

Every Rian Johnson movie ranked worst to best highlights why the acclaimed director is knwon for much more than his entry into the Star Wars franchise - and that the two Benoit Blanc' movies don't define his career either. All of Rian Johnson's movies have been mostly well-received by critics and fans alike, and he has one of the most consistent filmographies of any currently working director.

The worst Rian Johnson movie is still a great film, though it's the best that showcases exactly why he's such an esteemed director. Aside from some shorts and a handful of acclaimed TV episodes, Rian Johnson has only directed 6 movies so far — his most recent being hit murder mystery Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Even though he's certainly matured as a filmmaker, movies directed by Rian Johnson have been consistently well-crafted with meticulous attention to detail.

The Brothers Bloom (2008) A Globetrotting...

Rian Johnson has had a remarkable success story, as he went from being an “indie darling” to one of the most powerful studio filmmakers in the industry. Johnson first broke out when his independent directorial debut, “Brick,” made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. By demonstrating his ability to craft an innovative story on a modest budget, Johnson earned opportunities to broaden his horizons and tackle even more ambitious projects. While he received even more praise for his extraordinary work directing two episodes of the critically acclaimed AMC drama show “Breaking Bad,” Johnson has turned his sights to more film projects for the foreseeable future.

Johnson was able to venture into the galaxy far, far away when he signed on to direct the second installment in the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, but recently, he’s been continuing a franchise that is entirely his own. “Knives Out” proved to be a smash hit,...

Adrien Brody is known for his role in The Pianist, which fetched him the Oscar for Best Actor. Brody has since appeared in several acclaimed films, including a number of collaborations with Wes Anderson, and even appeared in the HBO series Succession.

Brody was dating Spanish actress Elsa Pataky in the late 2000s and the two shared a loving relationship until they reportedly broke up in 2009. The relationship was so intense that Brody even bought her a castle for her birthday. However, the actor had to tend to the castle alone after their breakup, which he cryptically spoke about once.

Adrien Brody Opened Up About Breakup With Elsa Pataky Adrien Brody in The Darjeeling Limited | Credits: Fox Searchlight

Adrien Brody reportedly met Elsa Pataky when they had gone to meet their mutual dialect coach. In an interview with Hello! Magazine, Brody recalled that he was spellbound when he saw her...

Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues to skirt around questions about whether he will cameo in the third Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man. The actor previously appeared in Knives Out and Glass Onion, albeit in small voice-only roles.

While speaking with Collider to promote his latest movie Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Levitt was asked whether Knives Out filmmaker Rian Johnson had reached out to him yet about a possible cameo in Wake Up Dead Man, which began production last month. "This is Tbd. I don't know the answer, but if we continue our streak, I'll appear in some way, shape or form," Gordon-Levitt coyly offered. The actor's comment comes a few weeks after he previously addressed the topic, revealing at that time that he didn't know if he would appear in the Knives Out threequel. "I dont know. But he makes only good movies. Rian Johnson is one of the best alive,...

The brilliant Nora Zehetner stars in two very different 2024 films, Boneyard and Monster Summer, both with Mel Gibson. In Boneyard, Zehetner plays a female detective in a hyper-masculine world, drawing on real-life experiences for authenticity. The fantasy drama Monster Summer, set for release in October, features Zehetner as a bed-and-breakfast owner and Mason Thames' mother in a coming-of-age tale.

Nora Zehetner could be the best actor whose name you don't recognize. Hopefully you do, though. Long before Star Wars, Rian Johnson directed her in the 2006 indie classic, Brick. She was a burning bright spot in The Brothers Bloom, and had an incredible arc in Marc Maron's underrated series, Maron. She recently starred opposite Scoot McNairy and Kit Harington in the excellent Blood for Dust, and is now in two back-to-back Mel Gibson movies Boneyard and Monster Summer (formerly known as Boys of Summer). The best thing is, she plays completely different roles.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has made cameos in both Knives Out films, but will he make yet another appearance in the franchise for the upcoming third entry, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery? The longtime collaborator of Rian Johnson recently addressed the chances of showing up in the highly anticipated third movie.

The Knives Out movies have become synonymous with featuring incredible ensemble casts, and the upcoming third film will be no exception. Daniel Craig will return as Benoit Blanc alongside a new stacked cast that includes Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, Cailee Spaeny, Josh O'Connor, Daryl McCormack, and Andrew Scott. Johnson returns to write and direct the film, and is set to produce alongside Ram Bergman.

Related Rian Johnson Clarifies Jeremy Renner's Knives Out 3 Role After Hot Sauce Cameo

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery director Rian Johnson elaborates on Jeremy Renner's...

Time travel movies are tricky things to pull off. You want the science in your story to make a certain amount of sense, but you don’t want to put so much effort into your timelines that you start to confound the audience. If the tale being told is compelling enough, the viewer won’t feel the need to pick apart every single detail. When it comes to Looper, a terrific example of the time travel genre, director Rian Johnson said he didn’t want the audience to feel like they were doing homework. Johnson got it just right, since Looper works on its own terms, doesn’t condescend to the viewer, and uses the time travel conceit as a clothesline upon which it hangs the really important things, like its characters and the drama they’re tangled up in.

The clock is ticking and we’re going to try...

If there's any reason to be thankful for Tokyo Vice, it's that it brought Rinko Kikuchi back to American screens. While only being a fixture in Hollywood for under a decade, she covered so many bases in such a short period of time. She received an Oscar nomination for her study of the teenage communication breakdown in Babel, served as a deadly assassin in Rian Johnson's underrated movie, The Brothers Bloom, and enshrined herself in the nerd hall of fame as Mako Mori in Pacific Rim. It's the last film in her streak that has served as a unique use of her talents, being the poster child for Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter. David Zellner's charming sort-of love letter to Fargo ascends its own heights, becoming an exploration of media escapism and the disappointments of life.

After being typecast in romantic lead roles for rom-coms such as 13 Going On 30 and Just Like Heaven, Mark Ruffalo found it difficult to break into other genres - that is, until he got a "take it or leave it" offer from the team behind Zodiac.

In a recent interview with High Snobiety, Ruffalo spoke about Paramount Picture's Zodiac project and how they grudgingly gave him a unique opportunity to try something new, saying, "I’ll never forget when they were negotiating my deal [for ‘Zodiac’], the studio negotiator literally said to my manager, ‘Look, we don’t give a shit about Mark Ruffalo, we don’t even want Mark Ruffalo in this movie, so you’re going to take what we’re offering you or forget it.'"

Related: Thanos and Hulk Battle it Out in Marvel's New Miniseries

Ruffalo went from rom-com lead to playing more serious, dramatic...

A middle-aged woman forced to return home after 20 years following the death of her father. A service that provides elderly call girls to socialize with lonely Japanese seniors. A grimly hilarious look at the pressures faced by Japanese women, itself a rebuttal to the post-covid social issue films that dare not flash a smile. These three films, “Yoko,” “Tea Friends” and “Ripples” are universal in their messaging while challenging taboos about Japanese culture and society.

TheWrap hosted a three-night film festival spotlighting emerging voices in Japanese cinema. “Yoko” director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri made an in-person appearance for the post-screening Q&a while “Tea Friends” director Bunji Sotoyama and “Ripples” filmmaker Naoko Ogigami participated via Zoom. All three shared, with the assistance of translator David Neptune, poignant insights and personal stories.

‘Tea Friends’ trailer Inspirations for art

The conversations around all three films began with inquiries as to what made the filmmakers...

Mark Alan Ruffalo is a prominent American actor and producer. He is best known for his captivating performances as Bruce Banner and the Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a role that has rightfully earned him worldwide recognition.

Mark Ruffalo Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education

Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967 (Mark Ruffalo age: 55) in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His father, Frank Lawrence Ruffalo Jr., was employed as a construction painter, while his mother, Marie Rose, found work as a hairdresser and stylist. Ruffalo has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott, who tragically passed away in 2008 with a bullet wound found in his head.

Ruffalo’s father is of Irish descent while his mother is of French Canadian and Italian ancestry.

Throughout his educational years, Ruffalo studied at both Catholic and progressive schools. Despite his struggles with Adhd and undiagnosed dyslexia, Ruffalo described himself as a happy child while...

A new month means new titles coming and old titles going for streaming services, and Tubi is no different. With fall around the corner, new shows and movies are being added to the free, ad-supported platform all month, with a big drop of titles on Aug. 1. The Fox-owned platform will welcome a wide range of shows and movies next month, including “Four Weddings And a Funeral,” “Kindergarten Cop,” and entire franchises like “Jaws.”

We are going through all of the new offerings to present the five best things to watch on Tubi in August and then down below, you can check out the feel offerings coming to the free ad-supported streaming TV (Fast) platform next month.

Watch Now $0 / month TubiTV.com What Are the Best Movies Coming to Tubi in August 2023? “My Cousin Vinny” (1992)

Starring Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, Mitchell Whitfield, and Marisa Tomei, “My Cousin Vinny” was a ’90s...

Poker Face pulled off many things in its debut season. With its murder-mystery-of-the-week plot in a new spin on the detective genre, the Natasha Lyonne-starring Peacock series from Rian Johnson revived the concept of procedural television for streaming, saw Benjamin Bratt turn a catchy Blues Traveler song into a poetic monologue and recruited Star Wars legend Phil Tippett for one episode’s special effects. But perhaps most impressive, Poker Face assembled an eye-popping roster of guest stars.

How did they nab Nick Nolte to play opposite Cherry Jones in Hollywood saga “The Orpheus Syndrome”? Who knew that Ellen Barkin and Tim Meadows would have such fiery chemistry in theater sendup “Exit Stage Death”? How did they convince the likes of Adrien Brody, Stephanie Hsu, Ron Perlman and Tim Russ to come in for one episode just to be killed off? And, who knew that S. Epatha Merkerson and Judith Light...

Brick hails from filmmaker Rian Johnson, whose directorial debut allowed him to find later success with his Knives Out franchise, many of the best episodes of Breaking Bad (including Season 5’s “Ozymandias”), the divisively brilliant science fiction sequel Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and the brilliant sci-fi neo-noir film Looper. In his first collaboration with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Johnson explored the story of a high school loner who is searching for the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. It's a relatively low-key movie in comparison to the type of blockbusters that Johnson would come to emulate, but contains no less of his brilliance.

It’s more than apparent at this point that Johnson is one of the best storytellers of this generation, and fans of his work have been eagerly awaiting the next chapters in the Knives Out series after Glass Onion became a surprise box office hit, despite the fact that it was simultaneously available in theaters.

In a studio overlooking Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, Rian Johnson is strapped to a lie detector machine. Next to him at the controls sits Natasha Lyonne, twiddling the device’s knobs with all the sinister intent of a supervillain. This photoshoot tableau is, of course, ripped right from the Meet the Parents Ben Stiller-Robert De Niro interrogation scene. Next, in an homage to the pithiest of TV detective tropes, Lyonne will pose at a typewriter, fake-talking into a rotary-dial phone. The visual nod this time goes to Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote.

In fact, the late, great Lansbury is connective tissue for Johnson and Lyonne. Lansbury and Lyonne appeared briefly together in Johnson’s film, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, on a Zoom call playing the mystery game Among Us with Daniel Craig’s Detective Benoit Blanc.

Little did we know back when that film premiered,...

Many viewers likely missed the Joseph Gordon-Levitt Knives Out cameo that happened early on in the movie. This is because it is impossible to see the actor on the screen during his cameo. Directed by Rian Johnson, the mystery thriller Knives Out included an all-star cast and a murder mystery premise. With names like Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, and more, it was easy to miss that Gordon-Levitt cameo, especially since he wasn't advertised as appearing in the movie. The Joseph Gordon-Levitt Knives Out moment is conceptually hidden in a frame within a frame, but the audio is the primary clue.

Gordon-Levitt understands the beauty of a cameo. After starring in Johnson's feature directorial debut, Brick, he returned for a small role in the director’s second film, The Brothers Bloom (playing a shirt-and-tie bar patron). After taking on one of the starring roles in Johnson's third movie,...

This post contains spoilers for Peacock's "Poker Face."

Rian Johnson's mystery series "Poker Face" is one of the best -- and most successful -- Peacock Originals yet. The series stars Natasha Lyonne, who is always good but has never been better, as Charlie Cale -- a character that only she could play. Charlie is a whip-smart gal, living life on the open road and happening across mysteries that she solves through her uncanny ability to always know when someone is lying. Her ability to build a rapport with anyone throws her into sticky situations, which Johnson uses to craft the show's kooky-yet-dramatically-intense tone.

Lyonne is great, but one of the greatest pleasures of "Poker Face" is the show's impressive roster of guest stars. In every episode, the supporting characters who populate Charlie's world are played by recognizable actors. Famous actors like Judith Light stop by for an episode and...

Fan-favorite TV series and a host of exciting films arrive on HBO and HBO Max this month. The fourth and final season of Emmy-winning drama “Succession” kicks off on March 26, so mark your calendars. Meanwhile, the long-awaited second season of “Perry Mason” is upon us with a debut on March 6, while “The Last of Us” wraps up its acclaimed first season on March 12. And the Oscar-nominated documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” makes its streaming debut on March 19.

Noteworthy new library titles this month include the first two “Creed” films, the cult favorite “Speed Racer” and the Paul Rudd/Jason Segel comedy “I Love You Man.”

Check out the full list of what’s new on HBO and HBO Max in March 2023 below.

Also Read:

Where to Stream 2023’s Oscar-Nominated Movies Right Now March 1

A Dangerous Method, 2011

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, 2014 (HBO)

Basic, 2003 (HBO)

Beatriz at Dinner,...

[This story contains major spoilers to the penultimate episode in season one of Poker Face, “Escape From Shit Mountain.”]

After delighting audiences with his unsuspecting cameos, Joseph Gordon-Levitt finally steps back into Rian Johnson’s frame on Poker Face.

Since starring in Johnson’s directorial debut, the 2005 indie movie Brick, the actor has appeared in every movie Johnson has helmed. In addition to his starring role in 2012’s Looper, the Johnson favorite has made harder-to-spot cameos, including his secret role of Slowen-Lo in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and two voice roles in the Knives Out films — including the sound of “the Hourly Dong,” which goes off every hour in the Edward Norton-starring sequel, Glass Onion.

For the penultimate episode of Poker Face‘s first season, Gordon-Levitt was able to take on a starring guest role for the pivotal installment, “Escape From Shit Mountain,” which was written by showrunners Nora and Lilla Zuckerman and directed by Johnson.

“Finally, the schedule worked out,...

There’s nothing quite like when HBO is airing one of its trademark watercooler-worthy dramas weekly. Thankfully, we’ll get to it experience exactly that and more on HBO Max in March 2023.

The big ticket item on HBO Max this March is undoubtedly Succession Season 4 on March 26. Part prestige drama and part screwball comedy, Succession is about as fun a watch as they come. Season 4 of the series about egregious wealth will find the Roy siblings reeling after trying and failing to take down their father, Logan (Brian Cox).

HBO Max’s other major TV option this month is another weekly release from HBO. Matthew Rhys returns as the titular lawyer in Perry Mason Season 2 on March 6. Season 1 of this period piece reboot flexed the classic TV character’s detective skills. From the look of the trailer, it seems as though this is the year Perry makes his name in the court room.

HBO Max’s new additions in March 2023 will feature the season finale of a hit series, the return of another award-winning show, and plenty of classic movies for the streamer’s library. February 2023 saw the streaming premieres of Oscar nominees Empire of Light and HBO documentary All That Breathes. The month also brought the releases of the holiday special Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver season 10. Additionally, HBO Max’s February and March streaming titles include two 2023 Best Picture nominees: Elvis and The Banshees of Inisherin.

Coming to HBO Max in March 2023 is the highly-anticipated premiere of Succession season 4 (March 26). The month will also see the series premieres of Perry Mason season 2 (March 6) and the new dark comedy Rain Dogs (March 6). HBO Max subscribers will be able to watch the new comedy special Marlon Wayans: God Loves Me (March...

Before Poker Face and the Knives Out films, Rian Johnson gave us his Wes Anderson-esk caper flick, The Brothers Bloom. The director's gonzo sophomore film centers on a pair of siblings who make a living out of staging highly ornate cons. The Brothers Bloom contains elaborate set pieces and a tone that pole-vaults from lighthearted comedy to moments of serious drama. It's the wackiest film to date within Rian Johnson's filmography, and served as an intriguing gear shift for the rising director. Now 15 years old, it's a film that belies time and place, and remains a readily enjoyable, fast-paced romp that globe-trots from one exotic locale to the next.

Most filmmakers get bit by the movie bug early in life. They walk out of "Star Wars," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," or "Jurassic Park," and, like getting off a great amusement park ride, are desperate to get back in line to relive the experience all over again. At some point, they have to go home. That's where the dreaming starts. They imagine the further adventures of their big screen heroes, and, eventually, craft whole universes of their own. Sure, they'd love to add their own chapter to the "Indiana Jones" films, but what they really want is to create their own Indiana Jones. As they get older and discover other genres like Westerns, musicals, and gangster flicks, they study their tropes and unavoidably put their own spin on them.

The best filmmakers are the ones who seek not to replicate their formative experiences, but to work within different genres on their own terms.

Warning: This post contains spoilers from Thursday’s Poker Face series premiere.

Poker Face‘s Charlie Cale just solved her first case — and the man she fingered for the murder paid the ultimate price.

More from TVLinePeacock Scraps Dead Day Adaptation From Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, Despite Series OrderWhy Is Dean in Winchesters Photo? Did Last of Us Lunch Look Too Good? Why Is Barney in Himyf 'Burbs? More Qs!Poker Face Review: Natasha Lyonne's Peacock Mystery Is Charmingly Retro

Thursday’s series premiere of the Peacock detective series introduced us to Charlie (played by Natasha Lyonne), a...

Rian Johnson continues to explore the mystery genre with his new series, Poker Face. While his films Knives Out and Glass Onion took a page out of Agatha Christie's style of whodunit murder mystery, Poker Face is inspired by the classic detective series Columbo, with a new howcatchem mystery at the center of every episode. Poker Face follows Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne), who has an uncanny ability to know when people are lying to her, which gets her into trouble.

Traveling across the country and below the radar, Charlie can't help but be drawn into a new mystery with a unique cast of characters each time she stops. With her lie-detecting ability and mind for puzzles, Charlie can't help but solve the case, even if it leads to more trouble. Poker Face has an impressive cast of characters in each episode, including Stephanie Hsu, Ellen Barkin, Lil Rel Howry,...

Rian Johnson's latest project, the Peacock original series Poker Face, is continuing an incredible trend for the filmmaker. After beginning his career with films like Brick and The Brothers Bloom, Johnson transitioned into Hollywood filmmaking with Looper and Breaking Bad. This led to an excursion into a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars: The Last Jedi before Johnson began his recent filmmaking trend in 2019.

This trend began with Knives Out, the murder mystery film following the exploits of Benoit Blanc in an Agatha Christie-inspired whodunnit adventure. Knives Out received critical acclaim and was a return to form for the genre and one of the best films of 2019. This only continued with its sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, before Johnson began 2023 with Poker Face, furthering his murder mystery hot streak.

Related: Won’t Rian Johnson’s Poker Face Just Be A Knives Out Copy?

Rian Johnson’s...

It didn’t take much for Rian Johnson to pitch Natasha Lyonne on the series that would become “Poker Face.” As the writer and director recalls, he said something to the effect of “What about a show in this mode, starring you?” Lyonne was in.

“The show is made for her like a bespoke suit,” Johnson told IndieWire via Zoom. “She’s not just the star of it, she’s a collaborator from the very, very beginning. She also co-wrote and directed one of the episodes and she’s very, very much… she is the show with me. The two of us really built the house together.”

The Peacock series stars Lyonne as Charlie, a woman who innately knows when someone is lying. After a mysterious discovery leads to the death of her best friend (Dascha Polanco) in Las Vegas, Charlie ends up on the run from casino boss Sterling...

Talk about a plan that even Benoit Blanc himself would have to sit back and admire. After emerging as one of the most creative and talented up-and-coming artists with a number of original films, starting with "Brick" and continuing with "The Brothers Bloom" and "Looper," Rian Johnson leveraged his experiences on both "Breaking Bad" (where he directed two of the best episodes in the entire series) and "Star Wars" to firmly establish himself as one of the most exciting filmmakers in the business right now. With both "Knives Out" and its sequel "Glass Onion" under his belt, Johnson's hold on pop culture is about to continue with the Natasha Lyonne-starring series "Poker Face."

But what about the storyteller's next big-screen outing? To nobody's surprise, the break-out success of the Benoit Blanc series has ensured that audiences will receive a steady diet of murder-mysteries starring Daniel Craig's rambunctious detective for years to come.

When Rian Johnson’s Brick arrived at Sundance in 2005, it was a bit like its namesake being thrown through a window. Here was a first-time feature, from a guy barely out of his 20s, talking about the high school experience. That wasn’t the unusual part for a Sundance indie though; the strange bit is that Johnson had made the high school experience look indistinguishable from a Dashiell Hammett novel. Brick was a full-throated, grizzled-to-the-bone noir about characters barely old enough to shave!

This has of course been the fascinating paradox of Johnson’s career as it’s unfolded over the last several decades: one of the most excitingly new, modern filmmakers cheekily and eagerly relies on the cinematic vernacular of nearly a century ago. These sometimes jarring sensibilities have found surprising harmony, too, across the writer-director’s six feature films to date. Along the way, he’s masterminded an...

Noah Segan, who appeared as Derol in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, is addressing his potential return in the next installment. A frequent collaborator of writer/director Rian Johnson's, fans of the franchise recall his role as Trooper Wagner, the police officer and admirer of Harlan Thrombey, in 2019's Knives Out. In the sequel, he portrays Derol, who Miles Bron (Edward Norton) allows to stay on his property in Greece, but is not a part of the friend group or planned murder mystery game. Much like his character in the first film, Segan quickly became a favorite among audiences, casually interrupting scenes with hilarious remarks, leading fans to wonder if the actor will reappear in Knives Out 3.

While Derol's role in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery did not have much of an impact on its story, the character provided humor every time he was on-screen, particularly when...

Rian Johnson's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery features a secret appearance from longtime collaborator Joseph Gordon-Levitt, continuing a long-running tradition for the filmmaker. Gordon-Levitt has actually starred as the lead of two of Johnson's movies: 2005's cult classic thriller Brick and the 2012 sci-fi action-thriller Looper. Beyond those pairings, Gordon-Levitt has had a role in all of Johnson's movies in some capacity, even if in voice only.

It doesn't come as any surprise that Glass Onion continues this old tradition, and it's one of Johnson's most creative uses of Gordon-Levitt yet. Thanks to the writer-director's work on a blockbuster movie sequel and some other phenomenal hits, a few of the biggest titles in Gordon-Levitt's filmography are those for which he has been uncredited. Between his involvement in the most minor of roles in the Knives Out series and an appearance in the Star Wars franchise, Gordon-Levitt is part of...

A new murder-mystery every episode on a weekly basis? What a concept!

Rian Johnson is currently enjoying an impossibly hot hand, turning everything he touches into gold (if you'll excuse the mixed metaphor) between his three-film run that includes "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," 2019's "Knives Out," and the highly-anticipated follow-up "Glass Onion." In all honesty, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the Daniel Craig-starring Benoit Blanc franchise has singlehandedly invigorated audience interest in murder-mysteries in general. While the rest of the industry is still working on making up for lost time, Johnson continues to spearhead these efforts with yet another story ripped from the classic genre. This time, he's taking his talents from the big screen back to television -- which, lest we forget, is where he found such great success directing two of the most acclaimed episodes of "Breaking Bad."

"Poker Face" was announced to great fanfare,...

Warning! This article contains minor Spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery!Glass Onion’s cast subtly continues the two oldest traditions and Easter eggs of Rian Johnson's movies. The 2022 sequel to Knives Out, which brings back Daniel Craig’s suave Southern detective Benoit Blanc, follows a group of old friends who are invited to a Greek island by tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) to solve a fictional murder mystery – until the game becomes real. In addition to maintaining the numerous clever twists and red herrings that made Rian Johnson’s 2019 movie Knives Out a hit, Glass Onion features more Johnson traditions that apply to each of the filmmaker’s past projects.

Like Knives Out, the success of Glass Onion is largely supported by its star-studded cast, which includes brief cameos from celebrities like Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim in their final posthumous release, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,...

Glass Onion, the sequel to Rian Johnson’s hit 2019 murder mystery film Knives Out, has finally arrived on Netflix.

Glass Onion has been warmly received by critics, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey describing it as “populist entertainment with its head screwed on right”.

It’s fair to say not everyone agrees, however.

The film sees Daniel Craig return as the ace sleuth Benoit Blanc, surrounded by a host of new characters played by Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline.

In addition to the core cast, however, Glass Onion also featured a number of high-profile celebrity cameos.

While most of these were hard to miss, there was one secret cameo that only came to light after the filmmakers gave it away.

Here’s a rundown of all the celebrity cameos in the film...

Yo-Yo Ma

Revered classical cellist...

Glass Onion, the sequel to Rian Johnson’s hit 2019 murder mystery film Knives Out, has finally arrived on Netflix.

Glass Onion has been warmly received by critics, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey describing it as “populist entertainment with its head screwed on right”.

It’s fair to say not everyone agrees, however.

The film sees Daniel Craig return as the ace sleuth Benoit Blanc, surrounded by a host of new characters played by Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline.

In addition to the core cast, however, Glass Onion also featured a number of high-profile celebrity cameos.

While most of these were hard to miss, there was one secret cameo that only came to light after the filmmakers gave it away.

Here’s a rundown of all the celebrity cameos in the film...

Yo-Yo Ma

Revered classical cellist...

Rian Johnson is a man who knows what genres he wants to work in and sticks with them. Barring his second movie, the con caper "The Brothers Bloom," all of his feature films have been mysteries or science-fiction.

"Looper" is a bit of a combination of his favorite genres. On the sci-fi end, the movie is centered around time travel and there are other genre hallmarks like hover-bikes and telekinetic superpowers. While its story doesn't involve a murder mystery, the future of "Looper" does have some film noir flavor. Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) lives in a grungy metropolis and is a hitman, killing mob targets from the future sent back in time. Like any criminal protagonist, Joe is looking to get out of the game, but first he has to do one last job: killing his future self (Bruce Willis). "Old Joe" did manage to find a normal life, but his past caught up to him.

Five movies into his career as a director, it's clear Rian Johnson thrives on taking risks. His debut film, 2005's "Brick," is a quirky high school murder-mystery where the teenagers all talk like characters out of a hard-boiled noir detective story in the vein of "The Maltese Falcon." In his next two movies after that, "The Brothers Bloom" and "Looper," Johnson took on a pair of well-tested genre films and did his very best to flip them on their heads.

Then came 2017's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," Johnson's sequel to "The Force Awakens," and a movie that aspires to upend the very tenets of what a "Star Wars" sequel even is. Far from being discouraged by the divisive response to the film, Johnson followed up his trip to a galaxy far, far away with "Knives Out." The smash-hit 2019 murder-mystery comedy breathed fresh life into the whodunnit genre and gave...

There was really only one way for Rian Johnson to proceed with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The sequel to his 2019 whodunnit smash that introduced the esteemed Southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc had to be bigger in every way. There is indeed a larger canvas, as the film is set mainly on a private island in Greece. There is a more expansive mystery, featuring a diverse group of “disruptors”—or, as one character describes them, “shitheads”—with shared connections. There are multiple big-name cameos, one of them a cultural icon who passed away some months ago. And then, of course, there is the budget. Since the release of Knives Out, Johnson jumped to Netflix for a large payday.

The evidence of that payday is visible in nearly every shot. And why shouldn’t it be? After the success of his first film, Johnson has earned the right to strut. In addition to Knives,...

Agatha Christie may have been the best and worst thing to happen to whodunits. Her works were the blueprint for the crime genre — so much so that her name has become synonymous with that particular brand of detective fiction. But we've come to the point as readers, and audiences, that we know what to expect in an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery: The murder is committed, the suspects are gathered, and the eccentric detective slowly pieces together the clues. So in the age of the post-"Knives Out," post-post Agatha Christie era, how does one put a fresh twist on the whodunit? Well, by killing Agatha Christie.

No, that's not exactly what happens in "See How They Run," the twisty, breezy caper directed by Tom George and written by Mark Chappell. But the latest whodunit knows exactly how much it owes to the celebrated author, and as such, props Agatha Christie...

In "The Boys," Karen Fukuhara's role as the regenerative, super-strong Kimiko initially drew some criticism for how it seemed to relegate another Japanese actress to a non-speaking part, rendering her non-verbal in the manner of Rinko Kikuchi's character in both "Babel" and "The Brothers Bloom." This was not helped by scenes like the one where a white guy (Simon Pegg's Hugh Sr.) turns to another white guy (Jack Quaid's Hugh Jr.) and says, "Does the Oriental girl not talk?" (leading Jr. to correct Sr. and say "Dad ... Asian.")

Kimiko first appears in "The Boys," season 1, episode 4, "The Female of the Species," where she prefers to communicate with her hands: gouging...

The post The Boys Created a Brand-New Language to Let Kimiko Communicate appeared first on /Film.

From the old school ‘50s-era opening titles, you can feel what tone Charlie McDowell’s Windfall is going for. The director’s third feature plays up the Hitchcock aesthetic big time in its marketing, but tonally it feels even more adjacent to Rian Johnson’s bouncy recent works of mystery thrills, The Brothers Bloom and, especially, Knives Out. A three-hander confined to a single location, the film stars Jesse Plemons and Lily Collins as a tech CEO and his wife heading to their vacation home in Ojai, only to find Jason Segel’s character in the middle of robbing it. Knowing that his identity is blown thanks to a hidden camera he spots, Segel demands enough cash to be able to start a new life, and the unnamed trio enter into a tense period of waiting for the money delivery to be arranged.

It’s a quick and easy set-up for a film,...

Heist movies transcend genre. You can have frivolous, fun heist movies like "The Italian Job," or heartfelt, straight-faced ones like "Point Break." The heist itself can be meticulously planned and meditative, like the one in "Inside Man," or fall apart before it's even begun, as in "Good Time."

To be clear, this is a list of heist films, not movies about con artists. "The Sting," "The Brothers Bloom," and "Gambit" are all brilliant, but the heist tropes -- planning the mission, gathering the team, and so on -- are missing. They feel more like a magic trick than an actual heist. Similarly, the heist needs to...

The post The 20 best heist movies of all time appeared first on /Film.

The opening shot of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s 10-part “Mr. Corman,” which debuted on Apple TV+ with its first two episodes last week, finds the creator/producer/director/writer/star beating out a rhythm on his chest with his hands, a harbinger of the musical piece he will have completed by the season’s close. The eclectic soundtrack album, featuring Nathan Johnson’s jagged, instrumental score and several original songs, has been released by Kobalt Music Group’s Awal label, and is now available on major DSPs.

Music is at the heart of the multitalented star’s new series, in which he plays a thirtysomething fifth grade teacher in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley who feels like a failure because his dreams of performing in a rock band with his now ex-girlfriend have been put on hold.

From those opening moments, when the title character returns to finish his uncompleted opus,...

Next month’s Mubi lineup has been unveiled and if you can’t make it to Cannes Film Festival, they are spotlighting recent favorites from the event. As part of a Cannes Takeover series, they will show Lisandro Alonso’s Viggo Mortensen-led Jauja, the Zambian drama I Am Not a Witch, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After the Storm, plus two films from directors who have new films in this year’s lineup, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II and Nanni Moretti’s Mia Madre, plus more.

Also in the lineup will be the Mubi debut of Magnus van Horn’s Sweat, which opens in theaters today, plus series on Jean-Claude Carriére and Luis Buñuel’s collaboration and a trio of films by the prolific Chilean master Raúl Ruiz. There will also be some recent festival favorites, including Arab Blues starring Golshifteh Farahani...

Peacock has landed the rights to Poker Face, a mystery drama series from Rian Johnson and MRC Television starring Russian Doll actress Natasha Lyonne. Johnson, whose 2019 movie Knives Out earned the filmmaker a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination, is the creator, writer, and director of Poker Face. The project marks the first TV series for Johnson, whose previous work has consistently been in movies.

Johnson will also serve as an executive producer with his partner Ram Bergman for T-Street banner and the company's TV president Nena Rodrigue. Also executive producing are Natasha Lyonne for Animal Pictures with the company's Maya Rudolph and Danielle Renfrew Behrens co-executive producing.

"Rian Johnson's distinct sensibility and talent for telling edge-of-your-seat mysteries is a massive gift for Peacock, and we can't wait for audiences to delve into each case," Lisa Katz, President, Scripted Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said in a statement. "Paired with the acting genius of Natasha Lyonne,...

The fourth season of “One Day at a Time” has no problem telling its ex-network, Netflix, how it feels about them. The family sitcom that became the first Netflix-based television show to leave the streaming service and find a second life on a network starts its premiere on Pop TV with young Alex Alvarez (Marcel Ruiz) declaring, “It’s like there’s nothing good on Netflix anymore.” And for a series that has looked at tough issues like Ptsd and alcoholism, and even put on a self-financed campaign for Emmy consideration, this shot across the bow kickstarts a new world for the Alvarez family, one where there is a little more appreciation for those efforts.

Whether you’ve watched the series from the beginning — either the 1975 original conceived by Norman Lear or when this reboot premiered in 2017 — or are popping in for the first time, the premiere has you covered,...

Part of the many pleasures of Knives Out lies in its screenplay. Nominated for an Academy Award, the work twists and turns, provides and dissects its whodunit genre, and gives all kinds of old-fashioned thrills a refreshingly frank coat of paint. Now, thank the good heavens above, Rian Johnson has posted the entire shooting draft of the script online -- alongside already existing scripts of Brick, The Brothers Bloom, and Looper. https://twitter.com/rianjohnson/status/1242217365279891456?s=21 Yes, sadly, no outer space movies means no Star Wars: The Last Jedi screenplay to read (can you really imagine Disney …...

So, getting tired of the frigid ole’ February (of course you sufferin’ folks in the southern states might have to dig out a windbreaker or sweater). Here in the Midwest, it’s still more than a bit nippy, with some occasional falling flakes. What better time for a multiplex getaway to…Pyeongchang, South Korea. And while we’re at it, how about a quick jump in the “Wayback” machine and get there (almost two years ago to the day) just in time for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games? But this is not a sports documentary, but rather a two-person romantic “dramedy” with the games as a backdrop. Now, filmmakers have done this for years, shooting a story “on the fly” using a big gathering. A few flicks from the past come to mind. Elvis Presley romanced and sang his way through 1962 Seattle for It Happened At The World Fair. As for sports,...

Whiplash Oscar winner J.K. Simmons is attached to star in director Mark Palansky’s dark comedy/heist thriller My Only Sunshine from Circle of Confusion and Patriot Pictures. John Cusack is also in talks to join.

In the film, written by J.T. Petty and K. Reed Petty, Cusack plays one half of a passionately dysfunctional couple, who orchestrate a bank robbery as an unconventional act of bloodthirsty marriage counseling. Trying to make peace with the shocking mystery of their relationship throughout a violent hostage situation, is a cop hostage negotiator (Simmons), who previously investigated a past related murder.

Circle of Confusion‘s Matt Smith and Lawrence Mattis, and Michael Mendelsohn from Patriot Pictures are producing. Mendelsohn’s Union Patriot Capital Management, LLC is fully financing the project. J.T. Petty, Natalie Perrotta, and Jim Steele will be executive producing. Xyz Films and Patriot are handling global sales now at Berlin.