Of course, it should be noted that Anna Mastro’s “Secret Society of Second-Born Royals” might skew a bit younger than any of those films — if your child can say its tongue-twister of a title without struggling, they’re already too old for it — but it’s hard to tell if it’s deliberately targeting a certain demographic or just too sloppy and unsophisticated to work on anyone who’s learned to tell the difference in quality between “Cars” and “Planes....

After parting ways with Hollywood more than 20 years ago, Duvall is set to star in “The Forest Hills,” an upcoming thriller from writer/director Scott Goldberg (“Moirai: The Drifter”). “The Forest Hills” is centered on Rico, a disturbed man (Chiko Mendez) who is plagued with nightmare visions after enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill Mountains, as Deadline reported. The cast also includes Edward Furlong and Dee Wallace. Duvall will play Rico’s mother, who serves as his inner voice....

MCU star Simu Liu, who led “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” took to social media to criticize the pronunciation in Disney+ series “Moon Knight.” The star of the upcoming “Barbie” film tweeted, “Alright Arthur Harrow needs to fire his Mandarin teacher” after the latest episode included Ethan Hawke’s character Arthur speaking Mandarin to one of his cult followers, played by Miriam Nyarko. (See the tweet below.) Liu’s Twitter followers agreed, with one fan commenting, “YES....

Emily really, really needs this meeting to go well. After all, the kindergarten teacher’s day has already been beset by problems both large (despite her many attempts, she’s still not pregnant) and small (the obviously illegal janitor at her elementary school had the audacity to do her job when children — little children! who could have slipped on her just-mopped floors! — were still around). Emily (a riveting Stefanie Estes) might not be able to control what she makes with her body or the people who come into her orbit, but in Beth de Araújo’s nerve-shredding real-time thriller “Soft & Quiet,” she’s hellbent on changing what she can, all set against the backdrop of the most terrifying film of the year....

The first show ordered under this multi-series agreement is “Silk: Spider Society,” based on the Marvel Comics superhero Cindy Moon. The show will debut in the United States on the MGM+ linear channel, currently under the name Epix. Globally, the series will stream exclusively on Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories. All of Sony’s films are set in their own separate universe away from the MCU, although a few crossovers have occurred — Michael Keaton appeared as the Vulture in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Morbius,” while Hardy made a cameo in last year’s “No Way Home....

In describing this achievement, expect to see a record use of the word “record,” especially after the initial showing for “West Side Story.” The word would be a tonic to show that theaters have a bright future. Estimates range from $120 million-$200 million. It opens on a weekend that has become one of the year’s most important: Before 2015 and the “Star Wars” franchise reboot “The Force Awakens,” blockbusters often waited until December 25 or avoided the competitive Christmas season entirely....

“TÁR” is so much more than the Great American Movie about “cancel culture” — a phrase that it humiliates with every movement — but this dense and difficult portrait of a female conductor’s fall from grace also demands to be seen through that singular lens from its very first shot. Todd Field’s thrilling, deceptively austere third film exalts in grabbing the electrified fence of digital-age discourse with both hands and daring us to hold onto it for 158 minutes in the hopes that we might ultimately start to feel like we’re shocking ourselves....

Virtual reality is the Wild West of filmmaking. Some consider it the future of the art form, a new technological development on par with the introduction of color or sound. Others see it as a gimmick that will wear out its welcome before it produces a piece of culturally significant art. The one thing everyone can agree on is that nobody knows quite where virtual reality is going, which makes it so exciting....

“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” starts strong, kicking off with the sort of haunted-house possession story that made both “The Conjuring” and “The Conjuring 2” so nerve-shredding. It’s the summer of 1981, and the Glatzel family is weeks into a horror that only paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) can address. Mop-topped David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard) has been possessed by something, an evil entity that delights in torturing the sweet kiddo and tearing apart the Glatzels’ new Connecticut home in equal measure....

“We always wanted Elizabeth to be pretty much an outsider,” costume designer Claire Parkinson told IndieWire. “She was always a bit off in style, never trend-driven, something was always askew or not quite who her mother wanted her to be. So [her high school and college style] wasn’t necessarily as trendy as the Y2K fashion of her roommates, who are in poppy pinks and teals and limes.” Additionally, Parkinson created moments where Elizabeth sticks out not just among her peers but in various situations, such as the dorm in the Chinese language immersion program where she meets Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews)....

Acclaimed documentarians Cynthia Wade and Sharon Liese have run the merit of short films up the flagpole — Wade even won an Oscar for one, “Freeheld,” in 2007 — and discovered that shorts are superior to feature-length documentaries for one reason above all: People lose interest fast. “We both made feature docs and series, and feature docs are just too long,” Wade said in an interview with her co-director. “Docs are the best thing in the world, but it’s a lot to ask of people....

It was May 1993 when the “Super Mario Bros.” movie was first released to a nation of very confused gamers, and it’s safe to say that Hollywood and video games have experienced a somewhat tumultuous relationship ever since. Forget oil and water, we’re talking Sonic and Robotnik, Avalanche and Shinra, “Cyberpunk 2077” and anyone who paid $60 to play it. Logic suggests there’s money to be made from crossing the streams, but almost 30 years of ostensible slam-dunks have yielded little success in either direction....

After Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2018, Pildes approached Oscar-nominated documentarian Tia Lessin (“Trouble the Water”) to co-direct; HBO Documentary Films agreed to back “The Janes,” which started filming in 2019 and debuted at Sundance 2022. It’s currently streaming on HBO Max and Hulu. Slowly but surely the filmmakers found Janes willing to speak on the record. Even though the Janes’ leaders Ruth Surgal and Jody Parsons had died, and other Janes had never come forward even to their own families, it didn’t take long for participants to jump on board....

Though the film is steeped in the iconography of DC Comics characters like Batman, Penguin, and Joker, “The People’s Joker” takes more shots at “Saturday Night Live” and Lorne Michaels than it does at the Batverse. (Okay, diehard Batman fans may bristle at seeing him portrayed as a creepy groomer, but is that such a stretch for a vigilante billionaire with unprocessed childhood trauma?) The film’s pointed jabs at commercial comedy as a propaganda machine for the billionaire class has far more bite, and any attempt by a corporate entity to silence that message only proves the point....

Jane Campion has kept busy enough in the 12 years since her last feature-length film, but her ice-blooded “The Power of the Dog” leaves the distinct impression that she spent every minute of that time sitting in a dark room and sharpening the same knife. Now, the “In the Cut” auteur returns with a poison-tipped dagger of a Western drama wrapped in rawhide and old rope; a brilliant, murderous fable about masculine strength that’s so diamond-toothed its victims are already half dead by the time they see the first drop of their own blood....

“Sometimes it’s because somebody’s so bad that they really make a dent in history,” Nancy Goldstone, author of “The Rival Queens,” a biography on de Medici, said. Goldstone talked to IndieWire via Zoom and explained that de Medici was not only a fierce strategist, but a brutal and bloody queen with a bevy of murders under her hat. “The Serpent Queen” attempts to showcase de Medici’s (Samantha Morton) ruthlessness, as well as highlight the humor in a story of an unappealing young Italian woman sent to France to become Queen....

Mere hours before the slated “Sparta” screening, TIFF withdrew the feature. German news outlet Der Spiegel previously published allegations of child exploitation against Seidl and the “Sparta” production on September 2. A statement on the official TIFF festival page now reads: “This film has been withdrawn from festival. We apologize for any inconvenience. Ticket holders will receive an email from TIFF Customer Relations with more information.” IndieWire has reached out to the Toronto International Film Festival for comment....

“It is funny to see [Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’] now, because all these memories come back of, ‘It’s too dark,’” Burton told Empire magazine in honor of the 30th anniversary of “Batman Returns.” “So, it makes me laugh a little bit.” Despite not having watched “The Batman” yet, Burton found irony in the jaded comic book superhero going darker in its modern storylines over the “wham! bam!” pop art aesthetic defined by the original comics, William Dozier’s classic TV series, and then Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin” films, which followed Burton’s two Warner Bros....

But the project soon started falling apart, with Reeves exiting the series last week. Now, the project has been hit with another creative blow, as Variety first reported that Field has now dropped out as well. It would have marked the continuation of a triumphant comeback for Field, who has been receiving glowing reviews on the festival circuit for “TÁR,” his first feature film since 2006’s “Little Children.” Hulu representatives confirmed to IndieWire that Todd Field will no longer direct the series, while declining to comment further....

In what seems like a selection of simply the most famous people on the planet regardless of profession, skateboarding icon Tony Hawk is among this year’s presenters. This week, he weighed in on reactions to his and others’ presenting gigs at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27. “If being in every ‘Jackass’ movie, ‘xXx,’ ‘Police Academy 4,’ and ‘Sharknado 5’ doesn’t qualify me to present at the Oscars, then your taste in movies needs readjusting,” Hawk tweeted, before adding, “(I’m presenting, btw)....