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SXSW Days 8 And 9: ‘The Curse Of La Llorona’ And ‘Pet Sematary’ Offer One Of 2019’s Worst Horror Movies And One Of The Best (Welcome toThe SXSW Diaries, where we will be chronicling every single movie we see at the Austin-based film festival.) Welcome to SXSW 2019 days eight and nine. In this final edition:The Curse of La Lloronais the worstConjuringmovie yet andPet Semataryis one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made....

The Power Of The Dog Filmmaker Jane Campion Is The First Woman To Receive Two Best Director Nominations It’s never a good thing when a major organization like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is still dolling out “firsts” when it comes to award nominations for people based on gender, race, and/or sexual orientation. True, the Academy has made some improvements in recent years, but it’s only just begun to compensate for decades of overlooking films starring and/or made by anyone who wasn’t a cisgender heterosexual white man....

The Surprising Influence Taxi Driver Had On Unforgiven’s Script Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” have both racked up numerous accolades, including Academy Award nominations for Best Picture (in the case of “Unforgiven,” a win) as well as spots on the American Film Institute’s list of the100 greatest movies of all time. Beyond that, these two films would, on the surface, seem to be different genres and not have very much in common....

VOTD: Summer ‘78, A Short Film About A Boy And His ‘Star Wars’ Toys Summer ‘78is a short film that played at Disney’s Star Wars Weekends 2015. The filmmaker says the short film is “about the power of imagination.” At its core, the Summer 78 short film is about a young boy growing up in the late 1970s, playing with his favoriteStar Warstoys, creating short 8mm movies with elaborate recreations in his backyard....

Will Ferrell And Mark Wahlberg To Battle In ‘Turkey Bowl’ BeforeThe Other Guysbecame a surprise $120 million hit, teaming upWill FerrellandMark Wahlbergseemed like a somewhat awkward proposition. After, though, it seems like a sure fire recipe for success. Warner Bros. thinks so at least as they’ve just bought a pitch for a film tentatively calledTurkey Bowl, which will feature Wahlberg and Ferrell as rival football fans who compete in a neighborhood vs....

‘100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience’ Trailer American politicians love to decry the popularity of video games among young people in the U.S., but anyone with even a mild interest in video games can tell you that they’re a much bigger deal in certain other countries than they are here. A new indie documentary by Strata Studios,100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience, takes us to Japan, where gaming is so popular that multi-level arcades are common....

‘A Futile And Stupid Gesture’ Trailer Tells The National Lampoon Origin Story National Lampoon, the humor magazine that eventually jumped into the movie business, now has its own biopic courtesy ofWet Hot American SummerfilmmakerDavid Wain.A Futile and StupidGesture, which hits Netflix next month,focuses on National Lampoon co-founderDoug Kenney, played in the film byWill Forte. The trailer provides a look at the film and reveals that it’s not going to be your standard biopic....

‘Better Call Saul’ Season 2 Footage: Slippin' Jimmy Slips Out With exactly one month to go until its return,Better Call Saulhas finally, at long last, released the first bit of new footage from season 2. Jimmy McGill is still Jimmy McGill at this point, not Saul Goodman, but you can see a bit of good old Slippin' Jimmy slipping out. And no wonder, given what we saw of his life last season....

‘Deadpool’ Has Screened And Everyone Seems Pretty Warm On The Merc With A Mouth There’s a reason it took so much time and effort for theDeadpoolmovie to come together – this character is a tough sell to anyone who doesn’t drop too much money at their local comic book retailer every Wednesday. Although popular amongst the initiated, he’s far from a household name and his oddball combination of goofy humor and extreme violence is a hard left turn from traditional cinematic super-heroics....

‘Deep Blue Sea 3’ Is Leagues Above The Last Direct-To-Video Sequel (Welcome toDTV Descent, a series that explores the weird and wild world of direct-to-video sequels to theatrically released movies. This week, we take a second dip into the world of ‘Deep Blue Sea’ sequels.) I’m a sucker for killer shark movies, but the great ones represent a small percentage of the sub-genre overall. Most are dull, dumb, and waterlogged in their attempts to entertain and thrill, but none of those descriptors can be applied to Renny Harlin’s 1999 gem,Deep Blue Sea....

‘Die Hard’ Deleted Shot Explains John McClane’s Interest In Watches In the middle ofDie Hard, hero John McClane (Bruce Willis) meets terrorist thief leader Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), posing as a hostage. McClane suspects something is off and gets away. In the film, it could be McClane’s police instinct or Gruber’s European choice of cigarettes. ScreenwriterSteven E. de Souzahad a more specific intention, but only scant remnant are left in the film....

‘Escape Room’ And ‘Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension’ Filmmakers Are Creating New Netflix Horror Series ‘The Craving’ Escape RoomdirectorAdam RobitelandParanormal Activity: The Ghost DimensionwriterGavin Heffernan, who previously worked together on the creepy faux-documentaryThe Taking of Deborah Logan, are reuniting for a new Netflix horror series. Much like howDeborah Loganused Alzheimer’s as a springboard for a horror story, this new Netflix series, titledThe Craving, will examine “the real-world horrors of addiction through a genre lens....

‘Fantastic Beasts’ Featurette Introduces You To Hot Dumbledore The clumsily titledFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwaldis about to take audiences back toJ.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. Early reaction to the film has been positive, and the trailers look fun. But let’s be honest: the only thing we care about here is young, hot Dumbledore, played byJude Law. Long before Dumbledore became an elderly man in a flowing robe he was a handsome young specimen, fond of waistcoats and smoldering looks....