Gwendoline Christie Discusses The Appeal And Challenge Of Playing Captain Phasma Gwendoline Christieplays one of the most mysterious characters inJJ Abrams’sStar Wars: The Force Awakens— she’s Captain Phasma, the unique stormtrooper commander in the chrome armor and flowing cape. Christie’s presence in the film is intriguing and exciting, and it offers her a chance to further explore some of the same ideas we see in her Game of Thrones character Brienne of Tarth: a woman who is powerful and interesting because of her personality and skills....

Hacks Showrunners Tease What’s Next For Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance In Season 2 HBO Max’s “Hacks” is one of the best new comedies on television, and theEmmy-winningseries is set to return for a second season sometime in the (hopefully near) future. Now, in an extensive interviewwith Variety, the series' showrunners dropped hints about what legendary comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) will be up to when the show returns. As a refresher, season 1 of “Hacks” ended with Deborah heading on tour for the first time in years after losing her Las Vegas residency....

How ‘BoJack Horseman’ Transformed From A Talking Animal Comedy Into The Best And Most Devastating Show On Netflix BoJack Horsemanis a comedy built on incongruity. It’s an inexplicable mashup of genres and styles that absolutely should not work. As the show’s final season begins its portioned-out arrival, it’s worth celebrating howBoJack Horsemangradually became not just the best show on Netflix, but arguably one of the most incisive, emotionally raw, and darkly funny shows of the new century....

James Mangold Explains Why Caliban Was In ‘Logan’ And ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ When it comes to theX-Menfranchise, this year’sLoganand last year’sX-Men: Apocalypseare completely on the opposite ends of the spectrum.Loganis a much more intimate, grounded character piece whileX-Men: Apocalypseother is a loud, bright, hollow tentpole. However, they do have one thing in common: the mutant known as Caliban. InX-Men: Apocalypse, Caliban is played byTómas Lemarquis, and he’s seen working as a black market dealer who helps Mystique find Nightcrawler....

Jeff Bridges Update: New ‘True Grit’ Photo; Won’t Appear In ‘Great Hope Springs’ I don’t think there’s any argument thatJeff Bridgesis great enough to warrant his own little update once in a while. So here you go: a new on-set photo from theCoen Brothersversion ofTrue Grit, for one. Sadly, the other update negates a previous bit of casting supposition, as it looks like Bridges won’t play alongsideMeryl StreepinGreat Hope Springs....

Kimberly Peirce To Direct Holocaust Drama ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’ We wish we saw more movies from writer-directorKimberly Peirce. One would guess following her excellent directorial debut, the highly acclaimedBoys Don’t Cry, we would’ve seen her direct more features, but it took nine years for us to see her sophomore effort,Stop-Loss. Five years later, she directed theCarrieremake, a movie she hada disagreementor two with studio executives on. After working in television, including directing episodes ofHalt and Catch Fire, Peirce may have found her next film project: an adaptation ofViktor Frankl’s memoirMan’s Search for Meaning....

Lamb Review: Noomi Rapace Shepherds A Gentle Folk Horror Film There’s a certain expectation that comes with an A24 horror film. Haunting. Creepy. Eerie. Unsettling. But while these words can be used to describe the latest A24 horror outing, “Lamb,” none of them wholly encompass this strangely gentle Icelandic folk tale about motherhood. Directed and co-written by Valdimar Jóhannsson, “Lamb” is as curious a creature as the weird hybrid lamb at the center of its story, like a fantastical tale dreamed up by Jóhannsson in the odd hours of the morning....

Michael Rooker Asked James Gunn To Put Jason Mewes In ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy 2’ There’s plenty to enjoy in the surprising Marvel Studios hitGuardians of the Galaxy. Most of the praise for the flick goes to directorJames Gunnand the primary cast of characters who play the titular ragtag team of misfits. But there’s one actor who deserves some more recognition, and that’sMichael Rooker, who plays the sort-of redneck (or blueneck) Ravager named Yondu....

MoviePass Will Finally Offer Unlimited Movies With No 3D/IMAX Restrictions, But It Will Cost You MoviePassis a great idea, a monthly membership (starting at $30) that gives you access to see up to one movie a day in one of its 33,000 qualifying screens nationwide. It has basically been marketed as Netflix for movie theaters, and if it worked that simply it would be amazing. Unfortunately, I have found there are many sticking points in using this service....

New On Blu-Ray: Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits From The Criterion Collection Normally, I devote this column to several new releases. But the Criterion Collection release ofBruce Lee: His Greatest Hitsdeserves its own special consideration. There are five films included, and a hefty amount of special features. But more than that, this box set is a great introduction to what madeBruce Leesuch a special performer, and why his legacy lives on to this day....

Official Plot Synopsis Released For Jason Reitman’s ‘Young Adult’ Paramount Pictures has released the official one-pager forJason Reitman’s upcoming filmYoung AdultstarringCharlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, andPatrick Wilson. I’ve heard good things coming out of the test screenings in Southern California, including praise for Theron, Oswalt andDiablo Cody’s screenplay (which has been described as completely different than any of her past work). No release date has been announced, but I would assume that the film will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September, as that has been the debut venue for Retiman’s last couple films....

Rango Movie Trailer A couple weeks back, Paramount Pictures releaseda teaser trailerforPirates of the CaribbeanhelmerGore Verbinski’s computer animated feature filmRango.Well actually, the teaser trailer wasn’t really a trailer at all — it was actually a video announcement piece for the website –RangoMovie.com. The website featured the same open road location seen in the announcement piece, with not much else (but did reveal some of the film’s characters). But it wasn’t until yesterday thatwe got a lookat the film’s title character – Rango....

Release Dates: ‘The East’, ‘Spring Breakers’, ‘Vampire Academy’, ‘Untitled Illumination Entertainment 2015 Project’ Winter is slowly but surely inching to an end, so let’s look ahead to what the next season has in store for us. The next few months promise to be an interesting one for indie releases, as bothSpring BreakersandZal Batmanglij’sThe Eastare slated to open. Further down the road, The Weinsteins are getting into the paranormal YA game next winter withVampire Academy, and Universal’sUntitled Illumination Entertainment Project(not the final title, obviously) has been slotted for summer 2015....