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“A Family Affair” is a new romantic comedy feature, directed by Richard Lagravenese, starring Nicole Kidman, Joey King, Zac Efron, Kathy Bates, Liza Koshy, Shirley MacLaine, Sherry Cola, Olivia Macklin, Wes Jetton, Ian Gregg and Sarah Baskin, now streaming on Netflix:

“…a surprising romance kicks off comic consequences for a young woman, her mother and her movie star boss…

“…as they face the complications of love, sex and identity..”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Nora Ephron’s influence is certainly felt throughout Richard Lagravenese’s new romantic comedy, in everything from the cozy sweaters and the luxuriously lived-in interiors to the cross-cut phone conversations in which our loveably neurotic characters try to figure out this crazy thing called love. And while you’d never mistake it for the real deal—the writing isn’t quite smart enough and it’s visually rizz-less in that typical “made for streaming” way—A Family Affair makes for a pleasant enough addition to the recent rom-com resurgence.

It begins with Chris Cole (Zac Efron), the self-centered star of a Greek mythology-inspired superhero franchise. The movies are crap, and he knows they’re crap, but they make him loads of money and keep him in the spotlight, so he signs on for every sequel that comes his way. However, the script for the latest project looks so bad that...

“A Family Affair” is a new romantic comedy feature, directed by Richard Lagravenese, starring Nicole Kidman, Joey King, Zac Efron, Kathy Bates, Liza Koshy, Shirley MacLaine, Sherry Cola, Olivia Macklin, Wes Jetton, Ian Gregg and Sarah Baskin, streaming June 28, 2024 on Netflix:

“…a surprising romance kicks off comic consequences for a young woman, her mother and her movie star boss…

“…as they face the complications of love, sex and identity..”

Click the images to enlarge…...

GenreBlast Film Fest has announced its lineup for the seventh year of their international independent genre film festival, beginning this upcoming Thursday, September 1st.

The four day in-person event will feature fourteen feature films and roughly ninety short films from around the world as well as the results of their annual screenplay competition. Emanating from the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia, GenreBlast continues to champion truly independent genre cinema and this year features one of its strongest lineups of cross-genre fare so far. With horror, science-fiction and fantasy, action, and even cult and midnight offerings, the fest prides itself on being an eclectic mixtape of genres and filmmakers.

Of the thirteen features selected this year, there are two world premieres, one North American premiere, one U.S. premieres, one east coast premiere, four regional premieres, and four Virginia premieres and a special advance screening.

Liam Regan’s satirical bloodbath...

(Warning: This post contains major spoilers for the series premiere of HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” reboot.)

HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” reboot deviated from its CW predecessor in the most unexpected way possible with its series premiere Thursday — an hour that not only saw the birth of a new Gossip Girl, but actually revealed her identity to viewers in the process. This unveiling is a shocking development, seeing as the original “Gossip Girl” didn’t disclose to fans that Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) was the infamous blogger (voiced by Kristen Bell) until the final episode of its six-season run.

The pilot of the new “Gossip Girl” immediately unveils our new source into the scandalous lives of the Constance/St. Jude’s students as four teachers and faculty members at the school: Kate (Tavi Gevinson), Jordan (Adam Chanler-Borat), Wendy (Megan Ferguson) and Reema (Rana Roy). We know it’s them...

(Warning: This post contains spoilers for the series premiere of HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” reboot.)

The “Gossip Girl” reboot launched Thursday on HBO Max, bringing viewers back into the world of Manhattan’s young elite and reviving the titular narrator herself. The all-knowing high-society blogger (voiced once again by Kristen Bell) would have stayed in hibernation if it weren’t for Rebecca, a teacher at Constance/St. Jude’s who leads her colleagues to the old Gossip Girl site, which hasn’t had a new post published in nine years, since its original creator, Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), retired.

But, uh, who is this Rebecca character (played by Sarah Baskin) and why don’t we remember her from The CW’s “Gossip Girl,” if she is, as she claims to be, an alum of Constance/St. Jude’s Class of ’09, the same year that Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), Serena...

There’s a joke told about a third of the way through Mac Cappuccino’s film Malaisia. It’s bad. Jay Schmidt is the one laying out the excessive amount of exposition while his compatriot (Kevin Guzewich) looks on in exasperation—at one point even interrupting his interminable drone with an interjection to break up the monotony. On and on it goes and we’re unsure what to think as viewers since we haven’t even seen these two characters since the very first scene wherein the roles were reversed and the joke marginally better. The humor takes a nosedive into melancholic introspection before a sharp left turn to a punch line as bluntly eye-roll inducing as “A pig fell in the mud.” And Guzewich inexplicably laughs anyway with genuine praise. It’s weird.

I let the scene fade away due to its seeming insignificance beyond the promise of a...