Elizabeth Weitzman

Three-fourths of the way through 2024, and it’s safe to say this has been a banner year for horror movies. In fact, it seems like all the buzziest films to come out so far aim to terrify. What’s truly great about the current horror bumper crop is that none of the standouts really resemble one another.  Cannes hit The Substance has finally landed, Osgood Perkins’ hit Longlegs mixes ’90s serial killer procedurals with the Satanic panic of the previous decade, while I Saw the TV Glow is like David Lynch directing Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Late Night with the Devil makes found-footage fun again, while In a Violent Nature invented a new subgenre that people are calling ‘ambient slasher’ – just to name a few. Below, you’ll find our ongoing picks for the scariest movies of 2024. 🎃 The 100 best horror films ever made 😱 The scariest movies based on a true story 🔥 The best films of 2024 (so far)

Saturday Night, Jason Reitman’s loving homage to the first episode of Saturday Night Live, suffers from some stage fright. Reitman knows this momentous occasion is worthy of recreation. But he and co-writer Gil Kenan also seem worried about the weight of the assignment. And so what should be an unalloyed celebration of creative chaos repeatedly shrinks into safe impersonation.  An experienced SNL staff writer might have infused the script’s basic nostalgia with deeper knowledge. But when Reitman does take chances, it’s an exhilarating success. And his best idea was to mimic the giddy terror of prepping an historic live event. So he begins at 10pm on October 11, 1975, when a bunch of young unknowns gather in NYC to create… something. And he ends just before the premiere of a show that would change culture in ways no one could have predicted.  Well, no one but our guide, 29-year-old producer Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle). Each ticking minute sees Michaels racing between floors at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, reassuring execs Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) and Dave Tebet (Willem Dafoe) while putting out incessant cast fires. John Belushi (Matt Wood) won’t sign his contract, and Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) is antagonising Milton Berle (JK Simmons). Garrett Morris (standout Lamorne Morris) is unrelievedly antsy, while head writer Michael O’Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) and host George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) are immovably obstinate. Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman (both played by Succession’s

Just how essential are appearances? It’s a question that’s asked repeatedly – and sometimes unintentionally – throughout Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man. Sebastian Stan is Edward, a self-conscious New Yorker with facially-transforming neurofibromatosis. His shyness eases, slightly, when aspiring playwright Ingrid (The Worst Person in the World’s Renate Reinsve) moves in next door. But even as they become close, he’s engaging in a secret experiment to cure the condition that’s come to define him.  Once it works (and Stan pulls off his prosthetics in haunting fashion), Edward buries his old identity: he renames himself Guy, tells a heartbroken Ingrid that ‘Edward’ died, and swiftly moves on to a new life. Too swiftly, actually; Schimberg’s script jumps forward to a barely-sketched existence in which an anxious introvert is suddenly a loft-dwelling playboy and glad-handing real estate broker. It’s an unfortunate, and curiously ironic, choice that we’re meant to accept Stan’s face – marvelous though it may be – as an automatic ticket to instant success. Regardless, the thrills don’t last long. When Edward discovers Ingrid is mounting a play about their relationship, he sees a chance to meld his two selves. She’s understandably baffled when this conventionally handsome stranger arrives to audition for such a specific role. But once he puts on a mask that resembles her late friend in uncanny fashion, she agrees to cast him. Until, that is, another actor with neurofibromatosis tur

There’s a lot of talk about what it means to be a woman in Levan Akin’s lovely drama Crossing. ‘There was a time,’ laments stern Georgian auntie Lia (Mzia Arabuli), ‘when our women were refined’. Then again, admits this refined lady about her refined existence, ‘I have no future and no plans. I’m just here until I’m not.’  Many of her assumptions – and ours – are challenged throughout Akin’s intimate tale, in which Lia crosses from Batumi, her small village on the Black Sea, over to Istanbul to find Tekla, her trans niece. Tekla was kicked out years ago by her conservative father. Local rumours have suggested that she became a sex worker before disappearing. But the last request from her recently-deceased mother – Lia’s sister – was that Tekla be found and brought back to Batumi. And a final wish must be honoured, no matter how misguided others may think it to be. Lia, an unapologetically intimidating former teacher, is joined on her quest by Achi (Lucas Kankava), a smart but aimless twentysomething determined to escape his own miserable, constrained life. He tells Lia that he has Tekla’s last known address, and off this mismatched pair go to Istanbul, where they cross paths with a range of other floating souls. Chief among these is trans advocate Evrim (Deniz Dumanli, a superstar in her first role), whose complex life is better left for viewers to discover. It’s a heartbreaker in all the best ways Actually, the same could be said for the entire movie, which writer-director A

Sometimes – especially during school holidays – your best hope for a mid-franchise kids’ flick is for ‘decent enough’ rather than ‘insultingly awful’.    Despicable Me 4 is that kids flick, a cartoon caper that falls along way short of the buoyant delights of the first two movies and even the subpar third but will do just enough to amuse the youngsters.  Does it matter? Kids will be thrilled to reconnect with Gru (voiced again by Steve Carell), his wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), and their adorable daughters (Miranda Cosgrove, Madison Polan, Dana Gaier). More important, they will delight in the extensive Minion mayhem, as frenetically silly as ever.  Let’s be honest: few kids will complain about 95 more minutes of Minions But writers Mike White and Ken Daurio seem to have stitched their screenplay together from various drafts, an unfocused approach exacerbated by disjointed direction from Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage. The general plot involves Gru’s high school nemesis (Will Ferrell) conquering the world by turning people into culture-crushing cockroaches. (Whoever decided a screen filled with roaches would be good for lighthearted animation might consider their suitability for kids’ entertainment.) Meanwhile, the family also has to adjust to a new baby, life in a witness protection program, and a villainous teen neighbor (Joey King). The disparate plot lines barely connect, though each possesses individual amusements. And the voice cast seems to be having fun, with Carell in pa

So, does The Watchers (The Watched, if you’re outside the US) boast a big reveal? It’s a fair question, considering that Ishana Night Shyamalan’s thriller was produced by her twist-king father, M Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense). And the answer is… kinda? The finale may mean to shock, but it’s so obvious that if you try to predict it, you’ll just overshoot and wind up disappointed. Dakota Fanning works hard to center Shyamalan’s shaky debut as Mina, a troubled artist who gets dangerously lost in an eerie Irish wood. She’s rescued by mysterious strangers (including Joyride’s Olwen Fouéré, a standout) who live in a glass-walled bunker, leave only during the day, and pose in front of the window at night. Why? So the forest’s ‘Watchers’ – mysterious creatures who presumably prey on humans – can, well, watch them. Much of it feels like it was patched together in post-production Abel Korzeniowski’s portentous score does pair nicely with Eli Arenson’s lush and moody cinematography. But the script, adapted by Shyamalan from AM Shine’s 2022 gothic novel, is a muddle of expository conversation, half-developed threads, and plot holes wider than the Watchers’ traps. Between the distractingly clunky CGI effects and choppily re-recorded dialogue, much of the movie also feels like it was patched together in post-production.  Fanning tries to hold everything together, but she does appear uncomfortably aware of the film’s unsteady scaffolding. Who could blame her? By the time Mina gets to t

Generations of family drama, the battle between good and evil, a precious ring to rule them all: these are the mighty themes that inspire classic trilogies. Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger), however, watched 2008's so-so horror flick The Strangers and thought: ‘What we really need is more of this.’ And so here we are with a reboot that is, as the title ostentatiously announces, merely the first in a projected trio. In other words, you may watch The Strangers: Chapter 1 with a healthy dose of skepticism. And then you will return home, check every lock twice, and sleep with all the lights on. Creepy masks, it turns out, really are all the hook one needs. Well. Creepy masks and some frankly petrifying jump scares. But let's back up, to the day roadtrippers Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) pull into a tiny backwoods town. After inadvertently offending everyone in the local diner – she's a vegetarian, he's from New York – they find that Ryan’s BMW is mysteriously broken. Then they learn the sole mechanic shop is closed. And finally, they discover there's only one place to stay overnight: a remote cabin in the woods, owned by an absent hunter. So off to that eerie outpost they go, where, um, hijinks ensue. Stairs creak, handles rattle, and this sweet but dim pair take every opportunity to put themselves in harm's way. Because the strangers – silent figures who walk softly but carry a big axe – are, of course, in the house. And damn, those blank-eyed masks they wear are u

Reliability was probably the last thing Guy Ritchie had in mind for his filmmaking future when he unleashed his Tarantino-riffing breakthrough Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on the world. Yet 26 years on, his cheerfully amusing new wartime spy yarn is exactly that: a sturdy piece of entertainment that he and super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer have made with the ethos that sometimes it’s better to entertain than to shock.  If that early insolence has mellowed, the old Ritchie blueprint endures in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: charismatic lads having a laugh, blowing stuff up and nonchalantly dismissing calamities as ‘a spot of bother’.  The film’s wayward hero is real-life World War II spy Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill), who’s hired by Freddie Fox’s naval officer Ian Fleming (yes, that one). Fleming’s in his pre-James Bond phase here, working for an intelligence chief named – care to guess? – ‘M’ (Cary Elwes), on the orders of Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear). Gus and his maverick mates (Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer) are assigned to an apparently impossible task: destroy a German U-boat that’s sitting ominously off a Spanish island. To help, they have fellow spy Marjorie (Baby Driver’s Eiza González) and club owner Richard (Dune’s Babs Olusanmokun), who runs the local port like his own personal Casablanca. The story is based on real wartime exploits (it’s adapted from a book by Damien Lewis subtitled ‘Churchill’s Mavericks: Plotting Hitler’s Defea

The batshit fever dream that Kristen Stewart’s fans have been waiting for, Love Lies Bleeding also happens to be the best B-movie of the year. Too early for such lofty claims? Consider the evidence: a single montage includes Ed Harris’s mulleted mobster petting horned beetles, bodybuilder Katy O’Brian pumping iron in Richard Simmons shorts and a tank top adorned with the words ‘Burning Love’, and Stewart’s lost moll reading a paperback called ‘Macho Sluts’.  By now you’ll probably know whether this retro-noir fantasia is for you – and Love Lies Bleeding is definitely a matter of taste. Director Rose Glass doesn’t quite match the standards she set with her 2019 debut, the exceptional spiritual horror Saint Maud. But she once again infuses a hothouse atmosphere with wickedly unsparing insight – and just a touch more humour – to turn genre tropes inside out. Glass and co-writer Weronika Tofilska perfectly tailor their operatically pulpy romance to Stewart’s talents. We’re introduced to her lonely Lou while she’s cleaning a clogged toilet inside the grimy gym owned by her dad, Lou Sr (Harris, terrifically sleazy). Their particular corner of 1989 New Mexico isn’t much prettier on the outside, either. But her austere existence turns Technicolor when enigmatic drifter Jackie (The Mandalorian’s O’Brian, perfectly cast) walks through the door. Jackie is training for a competition in Vegas, and when she punches a meathead who won’t stop hitting on her, Lou is instantly smitten.  It’s t

Dakota Johnson proved herself an expert in outshining tarnished surroundings early, thanks to 50 Shades of Grey. But with Madame Web, her patience for sub-par material seems to be running thin. Co-written by director SJ Clarkson, Claire Parker, and Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (of 2022’s ignominious Morbius), this misguided origin story – located awkwardly on the outskirts of the Spider-man universe – feels created by committee, without a central voice or confident core. Johnson’s Cassandra is an emotionally-troubled paramedic horrified to realise she can see the future, until her friend Ben Parker (Adam Scott) reminds her that with great power comes great—well, you know. Soon she’s risking her own life to protect three equally gifted teens (Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, and miscast Sydney Sweeney) targeted by a sinister spider-hunter (a stilted Tahar Rahim). Dakota Johnson’s patience for sub-par material seems to be wearing thin Johnson tries to evoke Cassandra’s inner turmoil, and the scenes between her and Scott offer glimpses of a more promising project. But any potential gets buried early, beneath clumsy exposition, clunky special effects, and disconnected editing. Few of the other actors, including Emma Roberts, Zosia Mamet, and Mike Epps, even make an impact.    Ultimately, everyone involved is likely to appreciate Johnson’s boldly blunt attempts to head off bad reviews by declaring her industry’s lack of imagination ‘majorly disheartening’. She’s right. Creativ

So much of what we need to know about Ava DuVernay’s approach to filmmaking is in the deceptively simple title of her production company: ARRAY. She has, of course, centered a wide span of voices, stories, and experiences in her work. But she’s made a point of experimenting with different approaches, too, from indie dramas (Middle of Nowhere) to essential documentaries (13th) to cinematic television (Queen Sugar). Now she’s given us something newly unexpected in Origin, which is – meta twist – a fictional recreation of the true-life writing of a nonfiction book. Yes, the end result is as complex as that sounds, and there are times when the threads get tangled. But there is also the sense of wonder that DuVernay’s work so often inspires, as she pushes herself beyond the norm. What’s more, Origin brings us one of the year’s most stunning performances, from lead Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (an Oscar nominee for King Richard). Ellis-Taylor plays Isabel Wilkerson, author of the 2020 bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. There are fewer things more boring to watch than the process of a writer writing. So it’s a testament to the storytelling here that even when Origin temporarily loses its focus, it never loses your attention. When we meet her, Isabel is already an acclaimed author and a Pulitzer-winning journalist. She’s also quietly adrift, uninspired and exhausted from caregiving for her ailing mother (Emily Yancy). When an editor (Blair Underwood) suggests she writes about

Is the best way to survive the arena to work together or go it alone? We get both methods in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a propulsive, if somewhat formulaic, Hunger Games prequel. Directed by franchise veteran Francis Lawrence, it’s the first film in the series to go without Jennifer Lawrence, and the absence of its powerhouse star is keenly felt. Instead, Ballad appears designed as a showcase for Lawrence’s replacement, Rachel Zegler (West Side Story). To their credit, her co-stars make room for her outsized performance without ever feeling small themselves. The film is set decades before the birth of Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen, after a war has left the capitol of Panem nearly as ravaged as the districts it controls. Among those scrambling to survive is Everdeen’s future nemesis: 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (English actor Tom Blyth), who will grow up to look like a patrician Donald Sutherland and act like a more sartorial Darth Vader. But he’s still in Anakin mode here, as a naive, secretly impoverished student at the elite Capitol Academy. President Gaul (Viola Davis) and Snow’s academy dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) want to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Hunger Games – in which teen tributes are thrown into a stadium to battle for their lives – with a special twist. As host ‘Lucky’ Flickerman (Jason Schwartzman) announces to the audience, each tribute will get a mentor from Snow’s class. Snow is assigned to District 12’s feisty Lucy Gray (Zegler).

The first ten minutes of Michael Mann's ’50s-set Ferrari offer a wordlessly kinetic ode to industry: glossy racecars speed across open Italian tracks, stately trains glide into stations packed with anticipation, bedside phones jangle off hooks and onto nerves. But then the dialogue begins, and this carefully engineered movie starts its downshift into neutral. Though the movie is based on Brock Yates’ biography and Ferrari's own memoirs, Mann (Heat) narrows his focus to three months in 1957, when car magnate Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) is facing bankruptcy. He’s already weighed down by a trifecta of personal burdens: the recent death of his beloved eldest son; a complicated double life with his mistress Lina (Shailene Woodley); and the all-encompassing grief and fury of his wife, Laura (Penélope Cruz). And now, he's got competition from Maserati – also based in his hometown of Modena – stalking him both on and off the track. Over the course of 130 measured minutes, Enzo slogs back and forth between his troubles. At home, Laura – with whom he started the business – gives him hell. Though she seems far sharper than Enzo, she has to spend most of her time reacting to every public dismissal and private rejection. Lina is more compliant, but not much happier. She’d particularly like Enzo to acknowledge their young son as his heir, even if he’s not ready to tell the world about her. Work is no easier. He needs outside money but can’t stomach outside influence. He wants more high-prof

For some people, fall means apple-picking and questionable latte choices. For others, it’s time to start planning early Oscar bets. This is, after all, the season of Prestige Films, featuring big stars and bigger ambitions. Happily, the New York Film Festival—which opens September 27 and runs through October 14—is a one-stop shop for cinephiles. As always, this year’s NYFF line-up offers a little of everything, and a lot of awards potential. The entire slate is worth checking out, but you won’t go wrong by starting here: Oscar Bait These are among the top titles leading awards talk (so far): Nickel Boys RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel—which opens this year’s festival—tells the story of two Black teen boys sent to an abusive reform school in 1962 Florida. The Brutalist It’s long—215 minutes to be exact—but critics are already raving about Brady Corbet’s mid century epic, in which the life of a Hungarian architect (Adrien Brody) is redefined by a wealthy patron (Guy Pearce). Read our review Emilia Pérez The buzz is building around Jacques Audiard’s crime musical—you have to see it to get it—co starring Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Adriana Paz and Selena Gomez (all of whom shared the Best Actress trophy at Cannes).  Read our review Hard Truths Marianne Jean-Baptiste nabbed a 1997 Oscar nomination for her work in Mike Leigh’s Secrets & Lies. They reunite for an intimate drama that earned her an effusive ovation at the Toronto Film Festiv

The Tribeca Festival has long prided itself on having something for everyone. But what it has most of all is, well, everyone: A-listers dotting intimate indies, career conversations delving deep, professional panels packed with celebrity insights. This year’s festival begins on June 5 with the biographical documentary Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge—to be followed, through June 16, by a tremendous lineup of streaming, gaming, podcast, music, and design events. That said, Tribeca Festival really does remain a film festival at heart. What’s more, the added bonus is where TF forever excels. Want some standup with your screening? Judy Gold, Margaret Cho, and Joel Kim Booster will deliver exactly that before the documentary Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution, about the cultural influence of queer comics. How about a live concert after your concert movie? Consider one of the festival’s many music docs: premieres about Ani DiFranco (1-800-On-Her-Own), Melissa Etheridge (I’m Not Broken), and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Satisfied) will be followed by performances from their very subjects. Photograph: courtesy of 1-800-ON-HER-OWN and Tribeca Festival And that’s just for starters. Michael Angarano, who directed and stars in the road trip dramedy Sacramento, acknowledges that “audiences have a lot of ways to view something these days. But seeing a film at a festival is like going to an off-Broadway play: it’s appreciating the art form, rather than just pure commerce. It’s also excitin

Over the last decade, the vast majority of nonfiction Oscar nominees—and nine out of 10 feature winners—have stopped off at DOC NYC before continuing their red carpet tours. This isn’t exactly a surprise, considering that the 14-year-old event is now the biggest documentary film festival in the country. But it does make things awfully easy for anyone who wants to get a jump on awards season. Even more convenient? Lots of this year’s entries can be seen on the big screen or from the comfort of your couch. While the in-person festival runs from November 8-16, many of the films will also be available online through November 26.  Nonfiction films often tend to tackle big issues, but right now they may feel even more impactful than ever. “The films in this year’s program,” says artistic director Jaie Laplante, “reassure us that problems can be addressed, that human creativity and kindness can find a way forward through the darkness, that connection remains possible and that hope for better times is palpable.” You’ll find this admirable mission throughout nearly two dozen thematic sections, which focus on subjects ranging from international to local, universal to intimate. And yes, choosing among 243 films can be, as Laplante notes, “a lot to wrap your head around.” So you may want to start with the prestigious, buzz-heavy Short List and Winner’s Circle sections, which hold many of the likeliest nominees. Here you’ll find the North Korean escapees of Beyond Utopia, Estonian secret-

You may have noticed that the film industry is, shall we say, experiencing a touch of turmoil these days. While the inescapable successes of Barbie and Oppenheimer balance one side of the scale, an upended system battling multiple strikes and stoppages sits pretty heavily on the other. Which makes the latest edition of the New York Film Festival more essential than ever. Then again, while the details may change from one year to the next, the festival's objectives have remained remarkably steady throughout its six decades. NYFF has always been thoughtfully curated, with a sensibility that is simultaneously current and timeless. “I hope that [this year’s] festival does what it has done every year since 1963,” affirms artistic director Dennis Lim. “Which is simply to make a case for cinema as a vital art form, and prove that the art of film is in robust health despite the disruptive changes that have always been part of its history.”  RECOMMENDED: A guide to the New York Film Festival 2023 Photograph: Francois Duhamel | Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman in ‘May December’ He and his team at Lincoln Center have more than achieved their goal, with an impressively strong slate that’s likely to serve as a substantial sneak preview for the upcoming awards season. Many of the movies at NYFF will be making their North American premieres, after having screened to ovations at international festivals. Among the high-profile films already drawing rave reviews is Todd Haynes’ May December

Here’s the secret truth about film festivals: unless you’re starring in a premiere yourself, most of them inspire a lot of work at best, and soul-sucking FOMO at worst. Either you have to pay a fortune to get there and spend half your time trying to land on the right list (hi Sundance!), or you’re stuck at home scrolling through TikTok just to catch a five-second glimpse of Leo on a red carpet (looking at you, Cannes). In 2002, the Tribeca Film Festival broke into this entrenched world as a deliberately brash newcomer. Intent on crafting a festival by and for New Yorkers, creators Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff upended every annoying element that keeps most fans on the outside peeping in. The festival has grown like ivy in the decades since, and now offers options for everyone. RECOMMENDED: The Tribeca Festival 2023 guide “We pride ourselves on being a storytelling festival, so the breadth of the kinds of events you can find at Tribeca is quite unique,” festival director Cara Cusumano says of this year’s line-up. She’s not kidding. You want to be the first to see a big-buzz movie? Sit in on conversations between A-listers? Attend live performances, bring the kids, try out new immersive experiences? At Tribeca, you don’t need to know anyone, pull any strings, or get on any lists to spot stars and sneak peeks.  How to attend Tribeca Festival Honestly, the biggest issue you’re going to face is figuring out how to pare down your options. Cusumano has a couple o