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Yesterday

The new Captain America Anthony Mackie may not be quite to MAGA’s liking.

Trump versus Marvel: Why Captain America has run into trouble

Disney has a lot riding on this latest Avengers film so it’s unfortunate it’s run into trouble among fervid MAGA supporters.

  • Alexander Larman

January

South Vietnamese forces follow after terrified children, including 9-year-old  Kim Phuc, center, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places on June 8, 1972.  A South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians. The terrified girl had ripped off her burning clothes while fleeing. The children from left to right are: Phan Thanh Tam, younger brother of Kim Phuc, who lost an eye, Phan Thanh Phouc, youngest brother of Kim Phuc, Kim Phuc, and Kim’s cousins Ho Van Bon, and Ho Thi Ting.  Behind them are soldiers of the Vietnam Army 25th Division.

Who really took the Vietnam War’s most iconic photo?

Photographs don’t come much more influential than ‘Napalm Girl’, the 1972 image that supposedly hastened the end of the Vietnam War. But now its provenance has been sensationally disputed.

  • Jada Yuan
Films such as ‘Megalopolis’ don’t show the reality of architecture, which is inevitably contingent; it is about working with existing realities, acknowledging the world as it is and its imperfections.

What the movies get wrong about architecture

Oscar nominee ‘The Brutalist’ and Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ perpetuate a colossal cliche: the image of practitioners as lone, tortured geniuses.

  • Edwin Heathcote
Snubbed: Pamela Anderson in “Showgirls”; Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl”, and Angelina Jolie in “Maria”.

Oscars snub as lead actresses shut out of nominations

Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman were tipped for best actress nominations, but members of the film academy had something different in mind.

  • Updated
  • Lindsey Bahr
Jonno Davies as “Robbie Williams” in Better Man from Paramount Pictures.

Better Man tanked, but Aussie filmmakers want more of its boldness

Made in Melbourne, the $110 million Robbie Williams biopic flopped, but some in the industry want taxpayer funding diverted to such chutzpah, and less to a rump of local films few people watch.

  • Michael Bodey and Michael Bailey
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Nicole Kidman.

How ‘glacial’ Nicole became Hollywood’s most sexually daring star

There are plenty of Kidman turns that give the lie to any dim notion she’s a glacial or inhibited performer, or carefully “classy” in a Grace Kelly way.

  • Updated
  • Tim Robey
Mel Gibson’s curmudgeonly persona has hardened to a point that leaves limited room to modulate.

Mel Gibson among Trump ‘envoys’ to sort out ‘troubled’ Hollywood

The president-elect announced on his social media site this week that three actors would be his eyes and ears to the movie-making town.

  • Lindsey Bahr and Jill Colvin
Guy Pearce Dec 2024

Guy Pearce: ‘People think I f---ed my career’

He’s the Hollywood actor who shrugged when stardom beckoned – and now finds himself touted for Oscar glory.

  • Guy Kelly
A still from the movie ‘Putin’ directed by Patryk Vega, featuring an AI-enhanced version of the titular character.

The wild, AI-assisted biopic Putin doesn’t want you to see

Polish director Patryk Vega’s film may well prove less controversial for what it says than for how it says it.

  • Boris Starling
“Why Hollywood keeps casting the same five actors in everything”
Paul Mescal, Jacob Elordi, Harris Dickinson, Barry Keoghan, Austin Butler

Why Hollywood keeps casting the same five actors in everything

Australian Jacob Elordi is among this famous five – although he is expected to be the only one not to play a Beatle next year.

  • Tim Robey
Francis Ford Coppola in Cannes, where his latest film debuted in May.

Why Coppola has no qualms blowing the family fortune

Francis Ford Coppola’s films have always provoked strong reactions but as he quips, the things “they fire you for are the same they give you lifetime achievement awards for when you’re old”.

  • Jada Yuan

December 2024

The extremely busy Lin-Manuel Miranda has written the music for Lion King follow-up Mufasa.

Lin-Manuel Miranda on Mufasa and the secret to a Disney hit

The Hamilton creator, who crafted the soundtrack for the new prequel to The Lion King, reflects on writing songs that have universal appeal.

  • Sarah Bahr
James Stewart sees the beauty that surrounds him and the townsfolk break into Auld Lang Syne in It’s a Wonderful Life.

It’s a Wonderful Life is a ritual, but its darkness must be dealt with

The organisers of a festival celebrating Frank Capra’s classic holiday film are finally tackling the difficult subject at its heart.

  • Erik Piepenburg
In Sean Baker’s “Anora”, Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) and Anora (Mikey Madison) are a mismatch made in heaven.

Five grown-up films for a sequel-free Boxing Day

Hollywood’s obsession with rehashes carries on to the biggest day of the year for Australian cinema owners, but there are some flicks for discerning adults.

  • Michael Bodey
Robbie Williams is played by actor Jonno Davies as a monkey in the biopic Better Man.

How the Queen’s death cost this Aussie filmmaker $1m

A Melbourne-based producer and director somehow raised $100 million to make a movie starring Robbie Williams as a CGI monkey. It didn’t all go smoothly.

  • Patrick Durkin
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Cate Blanchett with Charles Dance and Denis Menochet in Rumours.

Cate Blanchett swears she’s not Angela Merkel in zombie movie

She’s played a monstrous maestro, elf queen and bounty hunter – now the Oscar-winning actress is taking on our narcissistic world leaders.

  • Julia Llewellyn Smith

November 2024

Blackmagic Designs founder Grant Petty with the company’s URSA Cine 17k camera.

This Rich Lister has a plan to save cinema (and his business)

Blackmagic Design’s Grant Petty hopes his new camera, which shoots at 16 times the standard image quality, can lift box-office sales and those of his company too.

  • Michael Bailey

Hollywood gives thanks as blockbusters set to soar

Studios bet “Wicked”, “Gladiator II” and “Moana 2” will kick off a strong holiday season at the box office in the United States and globally.

  • Christopher Grimes
David Tennant as Lord Tony Baddingham in Rivals.

Why screen villains always play golf

Short of kicking a puppy, there’s no more reliable signifier of utter rottenness than a man – and it is always a man – playing golf.

  • Peter Swain
Robin Wright, with Tom Hanks, says Here is “about the span of life”.

AI made Tom Hanks 18 years old again. Unlike colleagues, he’s a fan

Hollywood is divided over whether artificial intelligence is a boon to creativity, or a vapid destroyer of jobs.

  • Devin Gordon

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/film-hzo