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TV & Streaming

Argentine Abortion Rights Historical Drama

by jummy84 November 9, 2025

written by jummy84

“Belén was never presumed innocent. She was always guilty.”

Those words, uttered by lawyer Soledad Deza (Dolores Fonzi) during a climactic courtroom sequence in “Belén,” serve as a thesis that captures the essence of the entire movie. Argentina’s official Oscar submission for Best International Feature, which Fonzi also directed and co-wrote with Laura Paredes, is a factually accurate legal drama about a precedent-setting court case that led to the 2020 legalization of abortion in the South American nation. But more than just a topical procedural thriller, the film also plays out like a Kafka novel about endless invasions of privacy and assumptions of malicious intent that converge to form a modern nightmare.

"Little Amélie or the Character of Rain"

In 2014, a pregnancy that Julieta (Camila Pláate) didn’t even know she had suddenly took a turn for the worse. After rushing to a small hospital with severe stomach pains, she suffered vaginal hemorrhage and was quickly informed that she was carrying a fetus that was no longer viable. But as she was treated for a miscarriage, the scene was interrupted with cops accusing her of having an intentional abortion. She quickly became swept up in a legal nightmare that saw her sentenced to eight years in prison.

Fast forward two years later, and the women in Julieta’s life haven’t stopped fighting for her, but their insistence on her innocence falls on increasingly deaf ears in a legal system that has moved onto other things. But Deza, a lawyer who is considerably savvier than the public defenders that her case was previously foisted upon, takes an interest in the injustice and agrees to represent her pro-bono. The rest of the film follows the court case, with “Belén” (Julieta’s pseudonym to preserve anonymity in the case) becoming a revered national figure from young women who see a chance to rewrite the nation’s laws. Deza passionately dissects the systemic flaws of a legal and medical system that, in her words, sees “cops acting as doctors and doctors acting as cops” in order to prove her client’s innocence and set a precedent that she hopes will prevent anyone else from ending up in the same circumstances.

As a director, Fonzi seems to understand the narrative power of the material and is content to let it speak for itself without added flourishes. The bulk of “Belén” is a down-the-middle piece of legal storytelling that’s made even more straightforward by the fact that the true story happened so recently. From a structural standpoint, it’s a classic Hollywood story arc of injustice that begets a passionate legal fight that leads to an eloquent courtroom speech and ends with title cards about the long term victories that followed. But that might be more of a feature than a bug. It doesn’t take a particularly close read to understand why this movie was made now, and it’s hard to imagine the passionate audience for causal storytelling faulting it for narrative predictability.

“Belén” is a film that unfolds through unspoken words and communicative glances, with Pláate, and co-stars Laura Paredes and Julieta Cardinali all giving excellent performances as women who have spent so long running into authority figures they can’t trust that it takes them a long time to open up to the first competent person who sincerely wants to help them. And while much of the film’s message lies in the fact that the anonymous Belén became a universal symbol for thousands of people who saw themselves in her, its best storytelling comes in specific moments when we see the toll that this government has taken on individual people and the gradual process of unthawing when confronted with the possibility that someone genuinely wants to help them.

Perhaps a better film would have prioritized more of the personal over the universal and formulaic, but “Belén” seems more interested in being a rallying cry than a character study. On that count, it will almost certainly succeed, and audiences around the world might soon be chanting “I am Belén” as loudly as Argentine women did in 2017.

Grade: B

An Amazon MGM release, “Belén” is now playing in select theaters. It streams on Prime Video beginning on Friday, November 14.

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November 9, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

This ‘the Best Time That Standup Comedy Has Ever Had’

by jummy84 November 9, 2025

written by jummy84

If Tom Hanks is known as the “everyman” of movies — you know, the ordinary guys, so approachable and unpretentious that just about everybody can relate to him in one way or another — then Jim Gaffigan is the “everyman” of comedy. He focuses his humor on everyday observations about universal experiences. And although most outsiders see the divisive political climate at this time in history as putting humor on trial, Gaffigan looks at it differently.

“I think this will go down in history — and it may be ending as we speak — but like, this is the best time that standup comedy has ever had,” he says. “When I started — versus even in the time of Lenny Bruce or George Carlin — comedy was a much more middle-class/lower middle-class occupation, meaning, there was not an expectation of an upper middle-class existence. Now, if you’re a functional comedian, you can make a great living. So, from a monetary standpoint, like having a kind of financial security, it would never exist. But it exists now.”

These days political humor gets comedians in hot water no matter which side of the issues they fall. But Gaffigan chooses to not go there, siting the pandemic as an example. “Take politics out of it,” he says. “There were expectations that you can address it. But, people, we’ve gone through the pandemic; we don’t want to hear too much about it. … There are comedians that will have very strong views, you know, and have a formula of bringing up this hot button issue. Their audience will stay with them. They’ll have some brilliant insights surrounding it. But I’m kind of of the opinion that, you know, people don’t wanna live in denial, but they also want a break from it.”

The Illinois native has accomplished a whole lot since moving to New York in 1990 to pursue a career in comedy. It all began when a friend in an acting class dared him to attend a stand-up seminar that required the students to do a live comedy set at the end of the course. He loved it, but it began a cycle of attempting to determine — and nailing down — his style. The guy now known as the “clean comic” with the laid-back delivery tried everything from impressions to “angry comedy.” Seven years later, he found his voice, and his comedy has been evolving ever since.

Gaffigan performs onstage during the 2025 Night of Too Many Stars benefiting Next for Autism.

Some might call the quiet confidence he projects on stage courageous, but Gaffigan sees it differently. “I think it’s just mental illness, honestly,” he jokes. But on a more serious note, he compares the mental psyching up a comedian must do on stage to what parents face every day. “I see this as a parent, that we develop these kind of metaphorical calluses or scabs that make us much more resistant.”

Parenting five children, ages 13-21, has been the inspiration for much of his act and a catalyst for the evolution of his humor, because, as he says, if you have that many kids, you have to have a sense of humor. “I’ve said this for years — if your kids aren’t annoying you or you aren’t frustrated by the task of parenting, that means you’re not participating in the task of parenting,” he says. “I think the love I have for my children and the absolute fear that I’m failing colossally is shared by every parent. So the impact of parenting is so enormous on my stand-up.”

Parenting teenagers in this day and age of social media has not been easy, one that Gaffigan calls “a disaster” and “impossible” — but it certainly has resulted in both his personal growth and his growth as a comedian. “The fact that I have this approach of the ‘drowning continues’ is something that is a nice reprieve for parents. Do you know what I mean? Where they’re not alone. The struggles of being a parent and the struggles of your child are so understandably private. I have this joke right now where I talk about parents of teenagers always sound like they’re hiding something, and it really resonates.

“It’s that experience of parenting that has evolved. So people that enjoy my standup, they might be at a different point in their parental journey, but they can identify with what I’m talking about.”

Gaffigan with his wife Jeannie, left, and their children attending a ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ world premiere in 2016.
Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan

Caroline Hirsch, founder and former owner of the New York comedy club Carolines on Broadway, is known for an innate knack for identifying the next big thing in comedy… and Gaffigan was one of those comedians. “I first met Jim when he was performing and honing his craft very early in his career at my club [Carolines on Broadway] on Broadway,” she recalls. “Even then, he had such a distinct voice, literally and comedically. There was this sharp observational humor and a quiet confidence about him that stood out. He could make the everyday and the mundane feel hilarious and relatable without ever being mean-spirited.”

Hirsch also reflected on his professional evolution. “It’s been incredible to watch Jim’s growth over the years,” she adds. “His material has deepened. He’s still just as funny, but there’s a warmth and perspective that have come with his experiences as a father, husband and seasoned performer. Jim has managed to stay true to his comedic voice while continuing to evolve creatively, which is why he remains one of the most respected and beloved comedians in the industry today.”

Respected, indeed. Gaffigan is a seven-time Grammy nominated comedian, actor, writer, producer, two-time New York Times best-selling author, three-time Emmy winning top touring performer, and multi-platinum-selling recording artist. Yet, he still has an air about him that is humble, sincere and, as Hirsch put it, warm.

“I feel like if I’m humble and sincere, it’s out of necessity, you know what I mean?” he jokes, proving the point. “Like, I think, if something could go wrong or will get complicated, it will happen to me. It’s kind of an ongoing joke with my manager. But that being said, I’m also grateful and appreciative of the things I’ve gotten to do.”

November 9, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

‘Top Gear’ Host Was 68

by jummy84 November 9, 2025

written by jummy84

Quentin Willson, the British TV host known for Top Gear and Britain’s Worst Driver, has died. He was 68.

In a statement from his family shared with multiple outlets, they announced that he died “peacefully surrounded by his family” during a brief illness with lung cancer, calling him a “true national treasure.”

“Quentin brought the joy of motoring, from combustion to electric, into our living rooms,” the family said, adding: “The void he has left can never be filled. His knowledge was not just learned but lived; a library of experience now beyond our reach.”

Jeremy Clarkson and James May, Willson’s former co-presenters during his time on the original Top Gear from 1991 to 2001, paid tribute to their late friend and colleague as they reacted to news of his death.

Clarkson, who helped develop the Top Gear revival in 2002, wrote Clarkson on X, “I’m far away so I’ve only just heard that Quentin Willson has died. We had some laughs over the years. Properly funny man.”

“Quentin Willson gave me proper advice and encouragement during my earliest attempts at TV, back in the late 90s. I’ve never forgotten it. Great bloke,” May posted on X.

Born July 23, 1957 in Leicester, England, Willson was a motoring journalist and former car dealer who joined Clarkson to co-host BBC’s Top Gear in 1991. He went on to host his own classic car series The Car’s the Star on BBC, as well as property show All the Right Moves.

Following Top Gear‘s original cancellation, Willson joined Channel Five’s rival show Fifth Gear as a presenter until 2005, going on to create Britain’s Worst Driver for the network. In 2015, he hosted Channel Five’s The Classic Car Show.

Willson was also an outspoken advocate for consumer parity, and he campaigned for lower government fuel duty as a national spokesman for FairFuelUK. He resigned from the lobby group in 2021.

He is survived by wife Michaela and their three children.

November 9, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

Nobody Wants This Team on Noah’s Evolution, Adam Brody’s Season 3 Hope

by jummy84 November 9, 2025

written by jummy84

Nobody Wants This season two has now been out in the world for two weeks, marking just enough time for the cast and creators to get back together and break it all down.

That’s exactly what happened on Friday afternoon, as Kristen Bell, Adam Brody, Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons and Jackie Tohn joined creator Erin Foster, co-showrunners Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan and music supervisor Manish Raval for a FYC event in L.A., as they dove into the newly released season. The show follows the unlikely relationship between agnostic podcaster Joanne (Bell) and rabbi Noah (Brody), as Foster revealed her specific intentions with Brody’s character this time around.

“Noah was such a green flag all of season one, but I do think that something we talked about in season two is — not to take it too seriously, but — you do have a bit of a responsibility when you’re making a romantic comedy in how you represent what relationships should be like. And there was something that sort of didn’t sit right with me that Noah came across like this perfect guy, because that isn’t realistic,” Foster explained, then quickly making an exception for her own husband and Brody himself.

She continued, “It was something that we talked about that was definitely important to me, to show Noah as an imperfect boyfriend, or just because he’s perfect for Joanne doesn’t mean he was perfect for the women who came before her. Sometimes the person you fall for that’s great with you wasn’t great for someone else; that’s how relationships work and I did want to show him in that light.”

The conversation also touched on bringing in Lupe’s former Succession co-star Arian Moayed as her love interest — which the actress credited Konner with coming up with as “I kind of thought Succession was off the table, like I thought we can’t have a crossover” — and about highlighting Los Angeles in the show. Foster explained shooting in L.A. actually came about as part of Bell agreeing to star, as she told the team her kids are in school and she wasn’t going to work in another city. “We’re like, ‘Oh no, we have to work from home,’” Foster joked, with Konner adding, “By the way, I hope that you inspire other actors to do that,” in using their leverage to keep production local.

Manish Raval, Jenni Konner, Bruce Kaplan, Erin Foster, Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons, Jackie Tohn, Adam Brody and Kristen Bell

Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix

The group went on to gush about Brody’s wife Leighton Meester guest starring this season, and Brody revealed some of his hopes for season three while speaking about his close relationship with Simons, who plays his brother Sasha.

“I’ve been a fan for a long time, but we’ve had the best time together,” Brody said. “When I saw the second season, I called Erin and I said, ‘I really liked it and I have just a few thoughts for maybe season three I want to whisper in your ear.’ I don’t know if they’re gonna be manifested or not, but I was like, ‘No. 1, could I have more scenes with Tim?’”

Foster teased, “And we said no,” before revealing that Bell and Brody didn’t do a chemistry read with each other, but did with the actors auditioning to play their siblings. “When it came down to who was going to play Sasha, there were a couple other people, I’m sorry Tim, that we also liked. And we were like, ‘This is hard to choose, there’s great people,’” Foster said. “I remember I said to Adam, ‘Who do you feel the most like you would be best friends with?’ I said, ‘The most important thing to me is who do you feel the most relaxing conversation, like back and forth with?’ And he was like, ‘Hands down, Tim.’” Simons didn’t know Brody has endorsed him in that way, leading Tohn to exclaim, “That’s cute as shit!”

Nobody Wants This season two is now streaming on Netflix.

November 9, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

Strictly star left “shaking” as dance of the night upends leaderboard

by jummy84 November 8, 2025

written by jummy84

Vicky Pattison and professional partner Kai Widdrington have earned their highest score to date on Strictly Come Dancing 2025, with a blockbuster Tango blowing everything out of the water tonight.

The television personality performed the dance to The Fate of Ophelia by pop superstar Taylor Swift, with Kai telling Claudia Winkleman after the performance that she was perfectly suited to the task.

“I didn’t want to tell Vicky this in the week, because I wanted to wait for this moment,” he began. “The thing is about Vicky is that she didn’t need to get into character for this dance because she is everything that this dance is about.

“Strong, independent, confident, willing, able and, to be honest, Anton was right: to dance that with Vicky felt like dancing with a professional – it was that good.”

Indeed, Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke said he was “stunned” by just how good the dance was, while infamously strict Craig Revel Horwood said it was “perfect” besides a minor complaint about the placement of Vicky’s left hand.

Motsi Mabuse stood by last week’s comment that Pattison is a potential finalist, adding: “Without a doubt, you are on fire. Whatever is giving you that fire, keep it up – this was, for me, the dance of the night.”

Shirley Ballas concurred that it was the “best” of tonight’s episode, describing Pattison and Widdrington’s work as nothing short of “remarkable”.

As their glowing praise came in, Strictly presenter Tess Daly commented that Pattison was “shaking”, and the reality star’s response only became more ecstatic in the Clauditorium.

Vicky Pattison. BBC / Ray Burmiston

The four experts certainly put their scoring paddles where their mouth was, awarding the couple three 10s and a 9 (holdout Craig, of course), for a near-perfect score that became the highest of this week’s leaderboard.

Pattison and Widdrington narrowly pipped Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin (38), and pushed well ahead of last week’s top scorers Lewis Cope and Katya Jones (35).

It puts the couple in a strong position for this week’s public vote, which will lead to yet another dance off and elimination – the results of which will be revealed tomorrow night.

Strictly Come Dancing results show airs Sunday at 7:10pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One and iPlayer.

Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

Add Strictly Come Dancing to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.

November 8, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

Aryan Simhadri Talks Grover’s Big Changes and Solo Quest (Exclusive)

by jummy84 November 8, 2025

written by jummy84

What To Know

In Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2, Grover embarks on a dangerous quest to find Pan.
Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, and Tyson set out to rescue Grover and retrieve the Golden Fleece to save Camp Half-Blood from threats led by Luke and the Titan Kronos.
Aryan Simhadri teases where Grover’s Season 2 story begins, talks about Grover getting his reed pipe, and shares what will surprise fans about his story.

Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri) has been tasked with protecting demigods for years. Now, the demigods need to save him in Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 on Disney+.

“We waste no time putting Grover in danger,” Simhadri told TV Insider in our Fall Preview interview. The Percy Jackson Season 2 trailer doesn’t waste time on that front either. Grover is snatched by a sea monster’s tentacle and dragged away in the first 15 seconds of the trailer. He’s later heard saying, “Percy, you’ve got to find me,” and we see him tied up in what’s no doubt a scene with the blind cyclops Polyphemus (Aleks Paunovic), who is Grover’s biggest foe in Season 2.

After Camp Half-Blood’s protective border is breached, Percy embarks on an epic odyssey into the Sea of Monsters in search of his best friend, Grover, and the one thing that may save the camp — the legendary Golden Fleece. With help from Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn), and his newfound cyclops half-brother Tyson (Daniel Diemer), Percy’s survival becomes essential to stopping Luke (Charlie Bushnell), the Titan Kronos, and their impending plan to bring down Camp Half-Blood — and ultimately, Olympus.

So, where is Grover when the peril begins? The last time we saw him was in the Season 1 finale, when he was about to search for Pan, the god of nature. In Season 2, fans will get to see Grover on this quest. Simhadri shared what to expect in Grover’s first scenes in Season 2.

“We join him as he’s in this forest, and right away from the second we meet him, he’s already off,” the actor told TV Insider. “He stumbles upon this satyr corpse, which is very telling of what’s in Grover’s immediate future for this season.”

“We get to see a little bit of what happens to him between Season 1 and Season 2,” Simhadri continued. “He sends postcards to Percy, which was lovely, and we just pick up right alongside him.” One of those postcards is seen in the trailer (see below).

Disney+

Grover is far from the first satyr to embark on a quest to find Pan. As explained in Season 1, many have tried, but none have returned. The blind cyclops Polyphemus is responsible for many of those tragic tales. Grover comes across “a lot” of dead satyrs the closer he gets to the cyclops, Simhadri warned, and once he gets to Polyphemus’ cave, it’s a “traumatic” sight.

“If you think about the quest for Pan as a bunch of linear events that happen — if he’s at point B and we start at point A — Polyphemus’ cave is a huge roadblock that a lot of satyrs eventually had to come up against. And so far, none of them have come back alive,” Simhadri explained. “So it’s interesting. It’s a cool dynamic to see Polyphemus making light of the fact that Grover shows up in his cave. To Polyphemus, Grover is just another snack. To Grover, this is his whole life. And so seeing him step on satyr skulls and bones strewn all over the place, it’s a traumatic position for Grover to be in, let alone the fact that he’s alone from friends and family and home.”

Grover’s dangerous quest meant that Simhadri was doing stunts on his first day of filming the second season, “which was sick,” the actor raved. Another thing that excited him was Grover finally getting his reed pipe. Satyrs use reed pipes to channel their woodland magic. When they play certain songs, the musical instrument can help them do things such as capture enemies, grow plants, and more. While Grover’s reed pipe is in the first book, The Lightning Thief, it wasn’t included in Season 1 of the show.

Grover will receive his panpipe at the beginning of Season 2, Simhadri shared (you can see him with the instrument in the photo at the top of the page). This was something he talked to the writers about including in the second season.

“I’m so glad that we found a place for this,” Simhadri said. “I talked to Daphne about it, who’s one of our incredible writers, because it wasn’t there in Season 1. And we were both like, ‘Yeah, it makes sense that Grover would now have this opportunity to showcase his skills.’”

Grover feels like a “complete” character to the actor now, thanks to this addition.

“That’s his way of fighting,” Simhadri said. “It’s part of his kit, and so I feel now like it’s finally complete. Grover in Season 2 is basically the Grover that we’re going to see for the rest of the show.”

“We get to see him getting his pipes, and it’s right off the top,” he added. “It’s kind of an immediate up for him, which was selfishly awesome for me. It’s cool that he now has this physical evidence that he’s older and he’s a little more capable.”

Simhardri also shared what he thinks will surprise fans the most about Grover’s plot this season.

“I think it’s easy to forget that Grover’s on his own quest a lot of the time, because he can’t really bring it up to Percy and Annabeth. They don’t really understand in the same way that he does,” he said. “They were abandoned by their godly parents, and so was Luke. And that’s why all of this started. Grover, and kind of any satyr, has always had his.”

“He’s more vulnerable than everyone thinks he is,” Simhadri continued. “He’s portrayed as this protector who is solely there for Percy and Annabeth, but this season we see him on his own and what that does to him. The Golden Fleece is kind of the closest that he gets to Pan in a long, long time, the closest that any satyr has ever gotten to Pan. And so to see him be the one to bear that kind of, I guess, divine responsibility, I don’t want to make it sound too religious, but it’s huge for him. You get to see him lose it a little bit. He kind of just fully cracks. That’s something that we’ve never really seen from Grover before.”

Percy Jackson Season 2 debuts with two episodes on Wednesday, December 10.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2 Premiere, Wednesday, December 10, Disney+ and Hulu

November 8, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

How Prosthetic Makeup Can Hide an Actor and Enhance Their Performance

by jummy84 November 8, 2025

written by jummy84

Prosthetics can turn people into anything, from the fantastical to just other real-life people. But the ways that makeup designers create pieces, especially to change a face, are really where the art of prosthetic makeup design comes in. So, the IndieWire Crafts team reached out to three award-winning makeup designers — Kazu Hiro, Mike Hill, and Dave Elsey — about the challenge of building new faces that still allow actors to perform through the silicon.

While the process almost always starts these days with a 3D scan of an actor’s face and full mold, altering certain parts of a person’s face can create more dramatic changes than others. For instance, on “The Smashing Machine,” Kazu Hiro compared Dwayne Johnson to the real-life Mark Carr and came up with a couple of different options for director Benny Safdie — one that was slightly heavier to wear and more “picture accurate” to the real Carr and one that was that was more an “impression” of Carr that was lighter to wear and quicker to apply. For the latter, which is the prosthetics approach the team ended up going with, Hiro paid special attention to the browline.

“Along the eyes, the shape of the eyes, the position of the eyebrows, that makes a big difference,” Hiro told IndieWire. “Sometimes if I put a nose on someone, it changes dramatically, but you can tell a person by eyes, because I think most of the time when people are looking at someone, they pay attention to the eyes, rather than other areas of the face.”

So it was to the eyes and the brow that Hiro paid special attention on “The Smashing Machine.” He crafted a brow cover with a hollow core to slip over Johnson’s eyelid, creating a space in between the brow bone and the eyelid in the prosthetic piece. “If I put something there, the actor usually cannot blink because the rubber in the piece is stuck [on the eyelid]. So by having a hollow part inside, it almost works like a thin skin. He can blink in a natural way,” Hiro said. “I made that core digitally, on the computer, and then printed it out and stuck it on the mold, so that whenever the piece comes out, there’s a hollow in the back.”

Just changing the browline helped Johnson look closer to the original Mark Carr’s age, too. “The piece changed his eyes a lot. That was the most important, because Dwayne’s eyes are really distinctive and quite different compared to Mark Carr. That’s also where age tends to show up, around the eyes,” Hiro said. “So by incorporating a design to cover that part helped to make [Johnson] look younger.”

Mike Hill, prosthetics makeup designer for “Frankenstein,” had a different set of problems to solve with Jacob Elordi’s very new New Prometheus. He agreed with Hiro that changing a nose is where the most dramatic single-piece transformations can occur, but working with Elordi was much more about being strategic with the changes so that they’d play to the strengths of Elordi’s face and the sometimes childlike, sometimes vicious expressiveness he has as The Creature.

In fact, when director Guillermo del Toro sent him a list of potential actors, Hill knew Elordi was the one as soon as he watched the first YouTube clip of Elordi he could find. “I could see him and just the way he held himself and his long limbs, his height, his big doe eyes, his strong jaw. I texted Guillermo right away and said, ‘Look, forget everything, this is our guy.’ Which was perfect because Guillermo had already made up his mind as well for it to be Jacob,” Hill told IndieWire.

What drew Hill to Elordi was as much the flexibility of facial real estate as anything. “Jacob’s got such a strong, powerful chin that I didn’t have to put a chin on him, which is very good for me because chins are a pain in the ass,” Hill said. “Anybody with real estate where you can add a change — you know, I’ve got really small eyes so they don’t work for makeup. Jacob had the big eyes, the nose that was unassuming that I could alter, the strong chin. It was perfect, and a small head for the size of him.”

Hill designed new cheeks, a new nose, a new forehead, new teeth, new eyes — enough to the point that Hill says it’s not really Elordi when you look at the creature. But he did sculpt the face directionally. “The scars make you look at the eyes, for Jacob. And then the scars are all done in such a way that when he smiles, they look natural and are not messing up his own anatomy,” Hill said. “He really made my life a hell of a lot easier than it could have been with other actors.”

FRANKENSTEIN, from left: Jacob Elordi as The Creature, Mia Goth, 2025. © Netflix / courtesy Everett Collection — ‘Frankenstein‘©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection

Dave Elsey, who has done creature and prosthetics design work on everything from the “Star Wars” prequels to “The Substance,” told IndieWire that, while each project has to be approached holistically and everything depends on the story and the characters, the fake nose is a classic way to make a big change on a face for a reason.

“You only have to look at the Pink Panther films. Peter Sellers was constantly wearing false teeth and fake noses for his disguises. It’s played for comedy, but it proves the point. Just changing the profile, the length, shape, or tilt of the nose can completely alter someone’s identity. Hooked, wide, broken, squat, every variation tells a different story,” Elsey said.

Sometimes a prosthetic head is meant to lose the actor completely, as in Mike Marino’s astonishing work with Colin Farrell on “The Penguin,” but designing prosthetics to recreate a real or recognizable face is usually a balancing act.

“Every transformation is a collaboration: the sculpt, the paint, the bone structure, the performance. You can add weight, slim the face, lengthen it. Each change tells a different story, and that’s the fun of it,” Elsey said. “You build the character together, piece by piece, until they can live and breathe inside it. When that happens, when the actor disappears into the character but their performance still shines through, that’s when you know the makeup’s doing its job.”

November 8, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

Where Have All the Indie Hits Gone?

by jummy84 November 8, 2025

written by jummy84

We’re now in the thick of the fall movie season, but you wouldn’t know it from how skimpy the box office is, or how muted the chatter. Simply put: Where have all the indie hits gone?

Not so long ago, the slate of buzzy, critically acclaimed prestige movies that opened during the fall added up to something like the indie version of blockbuster season. There’s a reason the movie calendar was arranged that way. Critically acclaimed films tended to open in the last part of the year because that’s when they did well. And the trend crystallized in the ’90s, when Harvey Weinstein transformed the old awards season into the awards-industrial complex (welcome to your life, actors and directors who now have to spend five months on the road-to-the-Oscars campaign trail).

But the days when a buzzy fall movie could be a box-office bonanza are starting to look like a weirdly distant memory. The flameout has been creeping up for a while, ever since the pandemic produced its unhappy paradigm shift in moviegoing (i.e., more and more folks don’t like going). You could see it in the disconnect between praise and popularity that greeted such films as “Tár,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” and, last year, “Anora” — which crawled its way to $20 million, though that was a sobering reminder that in the indie-film world, $20 million is the new $50 million.

This fall, however, it has seriously begun to look like the bottom is falling out. One high-profile, high-prestige film after another has opened to a deafening thud at the box office, and the failures are so varied that each movie tends to come with its own elaborately tailored excuse.

“After the Hunt“? People didn’t want to see an anti-“woke” academic thriller starring Julia Roberts as a pill of a professor. “The Smashing Machine“? People didn’t want to see Dwayne Johnson in a serious role, looking like the Hulk’s damaged cousin, in a movie that felt like a staged documentary. “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere”? People didn’t want to see an “art-house” music biopic about the making of the Boss’s most austere record. And “Christy,” which is opening to the usual so-so grosses this weekend? People were more interested in scrutinizing Sydney Sweeney’s jeans commercial than they are in seeing her acclaimed performance in a gritty empowering boxing biopic.

And then there’s “Bugonia,” the most exciting movie of the bunch. It will have earned $12.5 million at the end of its second wide-release weekend — in other words, it’s no “Poor Things” (the previous, highly successful collaboration between Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos), but just maybe it will wind up joining the $20-is-the-new-$50-million club.

What, exactly, is going on? Is indie film dying on the vine? I think that’s an overstatement, but before we get to the larger meaning of it all (and yes, there are signs of hope at the end of the rainbow), let’s run through the reasons this is happening.

The rise of streaming. Speaks for itself, at this point. People no longer need to go out to the movies because the movies are coming to them.

The closing of windows. If it took longer for films to move from theaters to home viewing, there would be more incentive to see them. The collapse of the window has been a Hollywood catastrophe. But can the industry collectively reverse course?

Theaters suck. An overhyped factor, in my book. But we all know the litany of gripes (the floors are scuzzy, people are on their phones, the trailers last 35 minutes, and there’s now less of an avid populated hum to the whole experience).

TV is the new indie film. Quality television, and even not-so-quality television, now fills the space that indie films used to.

It’s part of Netflix’s business plan to rob us of hits. I think “Frankenstein,” like “Nosferatu,” would have been a major hit in movie theaters. And “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”? A no-brainer — it’s the best “Knives Out” movie yet. “A House of Dynamite”? I’m not a fan, but everyone’s talking about it. It should have been in theaters.

Does the film-festival “blast-off” still matter? This year’s slate of buzzy Sundance movies, when released, has been barely visible. (Sorry, “Sorry, Baby,” but the world hardly knew you existed.) From “Eleanor the Great” to “Eddington,” the 2025 Cannes films have been met with a meh response (though “Sentimental Value” may prove a different story). Same for the Venice titles. Yet the one major prestige hit of the fall, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” didn’t even play at a festival. Is there a message here?

I think there’s a major message nestled in all of this, but it’s not about festivals, or streaming, or any of the other factors listed above. It’s about the kinds of movies that people are making. It’s a message that should echo through the indie-film world: If you build it, they will not come — unless you build it the right way.

There have been a small handful of daring and original movies that are hits this year, and what that adds up to is a story. A story about storytelling. Those hits are Celine Song’s “Materialists,” which had the audacity to be a romantic comedy about the real live current dating world; “One Battle After Another,” which is such an up-to-the-minute X-ray of what’s happening in America that it hits you like a thunderbolt; and, I predict, “Marty Supreme” (opening Dec. 25), Josh Safdie’s existential ping-pong thriller, starring a ferociously committed Timothée Chalamet — a movie that’s like “Uncut Gems” remade as a crowd-pleaser.

Here’s the message of those films. In a world of faltering attention spans and blockbuster numbness, indie filmmakers need to start thinking more about the audience. Not in a cautious, lame, pandering way but in a bold and adventurous way. They need to meet what the marketplace is telling them. They need to start thinking like entertainers again.

It may sound like I’m making a reactionary argument, or doing one of those anti-art-film polemics. But I’m not. This is what Hollywood, at its greatest, has always stood for. This is what the New Hollywood of the ’70s stood for. This is what the ’90s indie-film revolution, incarnated by Quentin Tarantino, stood for. This is what “Materialists” and “One Battle After Another” and (mark my words) “Marty Supreme” stand for.

There needs to be a place for small and highly idiosyncratic movies. No question. But if indie film is going to save itself, it’s going to have to get busy remembering that movies, before they do anything else, need to lift us out of ourselves. They need to reach for danger, for beauty, for the third rail of reality, for a higher love. And they need to start doing it now.

The stakes are too high.

November 8, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

‘Stranger Things’ Skirted Controversy & History At Season 5 Premiere

by jummy84 November 8, 2025

written by jummy84

The world premiere of Stranger Things‘ fifth and final season Thursday night was a largely joyous affair for everyone involved (save for the time close to 1,000 invited guests had to spend cooped up in the Chinese Theatre with their phones locked as the screening started an hour late.)

The cast and creators smiled and posed for photos on the red carpet as they appeared to be enjoying each other’s company. That included stars Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour who hugged and shared a laugh in front of photographers.

The two were closely watched at the premiere, their every movement and word scrutinized, as their reunion came days after a Nov. 1 Daily Mail report that claimed that the British actress, who plays girl with supernatural abilities Eleven on the show, had filed a harassment and bullying complaint against Harbour, who portrays her adoptive father Jim.

The controversy, fueled by the silence by all parties involved and Harbour’s ex-wife Lily Allen’s recently released “revenge album,” threatened to overshadow the premiere. It didn’t happen, with the cast and creators presenting united front, Brown and Harbour arriving together, Netflix releasing video of them and Brown posting a joint photo on social.

Nobody addressed the accusations directly, with Brown and Harbour praising each other in separate interviews and co-creator Ross Duffer telling THR that “nothing matters more than just having a set where everyone feels safe and happy.”

According to sources, there was a tiff between Brown and Harbour, and she did complain about his behavior, however it may not have been as recent as the report suggested but earlier in the series’ run. It was dealt with, and there hadn’t been issues since, sources said.

After posing on the red carpet, Brown, Harbour and the rest of the cast took the stage inside the Chinese Theatre, introduced by the series’ creators, Matt and Ross Duffer.

The Duffer brothers, the series director/executive producer Shawn Levy and Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Chief Creative Officer Bela Bajaria spoke before the screening of the Season 5 premiere episode, all becoming emotional as they did.

“I was in a magical place 10 years ago when Stranger Things was pitched to Netflix,” Sarandos said, noting that while House of Cards put the streamer on the original series map, “our real moment was when we put on Stranger Things,” a show that “moved the culture.”

Stranger Things was the first hit produced and fully owned by Netflix (earlier standouts like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black came from outside studios), and its massive popularity turned it into a lucrative brand and merchandizing bonanza for the tech company.

The Duffer brothers thanked the people they considered to have played a crucial role in Stranger Things‘ success, including Dan Cohen, the former executive at Shawn Levy’s company who was the first to champion their script after many rejections, Levy who embraced it, Sarandos, who got it on the platform, and the fans who helped to make it into a world phenomenon. They also acknowledged Bajaria for her support of the show over its last two seasons.

The speeches made it seem like Sarandos was the one who took the Stranger Things pitch and greenlighted the series. As Chief Creative Officer at the time, Sarandos did have ultimate greenlight authority, and his role in Stranger Things‘ success is undeniable. There were others, too.

Several years ago, the Duffers presented a different version in an essay for Time Magazine about Cindy Holland, Netflix’s former head of English-language scripted originals under Sarandos.

“When we pitched Stranger Things to Netflix, we were told Cindy Holland was the key,” they wrote in 2018. “As it turns out, she’s also extremely difficult to read in a room. We left the pitch certain of only one thing: Cindy hated it. One day later, she greenlighted our show, and our lives changed.”

There was no mention of Holland in any of the on-stage remarks at the premiere. That is not unusual — it is standard Hollywood practice for executives to be erased once replaced. Still, an occasion such as the end of an extraordinary successful show could call for an exception.

Another detail from the on-stage remarks was not lost on the attendees. The Netflix executives made a point to introduce the Duffer brothers — who are set to leave the streamer in April for a film and TV deal at Paramount that will allow them to make theatrical features and reunite with Holland and another former Netflix exec involved in Stranger Things‘ ascend, Matt Thunell — as being “a big part of the Netflix family.”

Season 5 of Stranger Things premieres Nov. 26 with Part 1, followed by Part 2 on Dec. 25 and the finale on Dec. 31.

November 8, 2025 0 comments

TV & Streaming

Theresa Nist Says Gerry Turner Joked About Killing Her

by jummy84 November 8, 2025

written by jummy84

As the feud between Golden Bachelor stars Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist continues to heat up amid the release of the former leading man’s memoir, Nist is making a shocking new claim.

During a recent interview on the Dear Shandy podcast, Nist recalled a specific conversation she had with her ex-husband, which she feels represented his “underlying feeling” of “animosity” towards her.

“I finally went to his house and we took a walk around this lake called Pretty Lake and we were coming to the end of it and he said — this is really bizarre — He said, ‘You see that shed up there?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Well, that’s where I’m going to hide your body after I kill you and chop you up,’” she claimed. “And he wasn’t laughing. I said, ‘Well, if this was his idea of a joke, that was pretty dark humor.’”

Nist added, “I just felt like there was animosity in that statement that was underlying. Like, maybe if he could have gotten rid of me somehow. I don’t think he would have killed me. No, I don’t think that was true. It’s not true, but it just spoke to an underlying feeling about me.”

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Turner’s rep for comment.

Though Turner and Nist left the first season of ABC’s The Golden Bachelor engaged in 2023 and tied the knot in a televised ceremony a few months later, their love story was short-lived. In 2024, only a few months after their nuptials, the pair announced they were divorcing.

“Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we’ve looked closely at our situation, our living situation, so forth and — and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s probably time for us to — dissolve our marriage,” Turner said, sitting next to Nist, in an interview with Good Morning America in April 2024.

However, in Turner’s new book, Golden Years: What I’ve Learned From Love, Loss, and Reality TV, new details have emerged about what really went down between the couple, at least from the former Golden Bachelor’s perspective. In the memoir, he reportedly claims that he had doubts about their relationship prior to their wedding and that a lack of intimacy led to their divorce.

On Dear Shandy, Nist said she’s been “extremely upset” about what she’s read in his memoir. “Anytime I talk about anything that I read that he said about any interaction we had, I just go, ‘That’s not how it was,’” she admitted, noting that she never intended to comment about their relationship until now.

“I never planned on saying anything about what happened between us. So many people asked me and I would just say, ‘You can’t really know a person in the amount of time, like in four weeks,’ and I would leave it at that,” she added. “Honestly, it was really a matter of if you have nothing good to say, just don’t say anything. And I didn’t want to hurt him.”

November 8, 2025 0 comments

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