In Zoe Saldaña, a Choreographer Finds His Dream Dancer

Jalet, who choreographed Luca Guadagnino’s horror movie “Suspiria,” knew Saldaña only from the movie “Avatar.” When he discovered “Center Stage,” he grasped that she would take movement seriously. “It was such an amazing relief to feel that, “Oh, she’s a dancer,” he said. In the original conception, Saldaña had just one dance scene: Rita walks … Read more

3 Video Games You May Have Missed in February

If you’re the sort of person who feels nostalgia for picking out CDs from your dashboard visor, making long-distance calls on your Nokia brick phone or scarfing down a slice of pizza while tinny rock music blares into the quiet night, the appeal of a game like Keep Driving is obvious. Set in the fantasized … Read more

Slaying Monsters With Swords and Sympathy

Gigantic reptiles are lounging on warm rocks as yellow grass sways in a gentle breeze. You may be a monster hunter, feller of beasts with a razor-sharp sword, yet a companion has encouraged you to first stop and observe this flora and fauna. Press a button to gaze intensely at these lustrous creatures, learning that … Read more

8 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week

The jokes might not land, but the drama hits hard. ‘My Dead Friend Zoe’ Directed by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, this film follows Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a veteran who returns home from Afghanistan and must adjust to civilian life and grapple with the death of her friend Zoe (Natalie Morales). From our review: After World War II, … Read more

Oscar Nominees Makeup Got Real in 2025: “The Substance,” “Wicked” and More

Actors may deliver impassioned speeches about achieving their “childhood dreams,” but we don’t often hear about how those sculpting wounds with clay and bubbling skin with latex are fulfilling their lifelong fantasies. “Teenager treats” is how Pierre Olivier Persin, the special effects designer nominated for an Oscar for makeup and hairstyling for “The Substance,” described … Read more

Oscars 2025: There’s Something Weird About the Best Picture Nominees

Then, there’s “Dune: Part Two,” a movie so expensive looking, so smoothly, tastefully, artfully done that it’s easy to remain passive in the face of all that’s weird about it. But look! It’s Stellan Skarsgard, plumped, pursy and a-vape, as a baron whose kink, in part, arises from stadium-size gladiatoring. When this series is complete, … Read more

How Oscar-Nominated ‘I’m Still Here’ May Hold Brazil’s Military Accountable

“I’m Still Here” — the Oscar best picture nominee about the murder of a Brazilian congressman by the country’s military dictatorship — concludes with a single sentence that delivers a gut punch of historical reality: The five soldiers charged in the killing were never punished because of laws granting them amnesty. Now the film could … Read more