I'm a really big fan of the Stuart Era of British dynastic history (it's probably my favourite British royal family (the Jacobites were/are still legitimate!)), so last week I finally got and around to seeing Ken Hughes' 1970 Cromwell historical drama, about the English Civil War—starring Richard Harris as the titular Oliver Cromwell, and Alec Guinness as King Charles I. It also showcases a young Timothy Dalton as Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

I can excuse the historical innacuracies, as the film treads on a lot of historical baggage—Ken Hughes overrates Cromwell's importance in the lead up the civil conflict, but that I can again excuse this, as Richard Harris is the protagonist of the drama afterall.

Both Harris and Guiness showcase Academy-worthy performances, although I understand the common and contemporary criticism that their scenes feature only one or the other in deep monologue. The set and costume designs are immaculate, and the battlescenes showcased would be difficult to pull off practically if produced in the modern day—a testament to the vigour and rigour of Hughes and his crew.

Also, as someone who's sympathetic to the Cavaliers in their war against Parliamentary Supremacy, I do undertake that the film makes no subtlety in its sympathies to Cromwell and his Roundheads' narrative—but that should be expected for a film where him and they're the protagonists.

For those who've also seen and remember seeing the film, what did you think of it?

I watched this one again tonight for the 5th or 6th time. I never get tired of this one! Great movie involving superb comedy as well as FBI drama. Sandra Bullock nails her performance in this one, both as a very tough FBI agent as well as a stunning beauty pageant contestant, which I think very few if any other actresses could pull off! I highly recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

For me, it was The Heat with Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock.

Early on in the movie, Melissa's character is arresting a John for trying to pick up a hooker. He attempts to justify it by stating his wife just gave birth and you can't imagine what's going on down there.

Melissa's character responds something along the lines of he's got a lot of nerve to dry that to the mother of his children, he's blessed, her body goes through so much and so on.

I think about this every time I'm upset with my wife, how I'm lucky to have her, and it doesn't matter what she looks like all the time after giving multiple births. Or when I'm looking at other husbands doing similar things to their wives. There are others, but this scene holds a special place in my head.

Hey all, I recently rewatched Penelope and (for all its smaller flaws) enjoyed it so much again. It felt so warm, cozy, magical, touching and whimsical.

I remember several movies of that early 2000s era that were like that: Ever After, Stardust, etc. These days, movies often tend to be a lot more gritty and realistic.

So I'm looking for more movies that have those vibes like Penelope. Something that is wholesome and feel-good, with an interesting concept and story and elicits a touch of wonder. It doesn't have to be a fantasy scenario, though.

Do you have any recs in that direction?

I just watched the trailer for a movie called Sharp Corner and I’m pretty sure it’s a movie based on the news story of a man that bought a house and then couldn’t sell it because people kept crashing into it. There are some differences between the two, like the location of the house, but I’m almost certain it’s the same story. Has anyone seen this movie?

https://literatureandreview.blogspot.com/2025/08/indiana-jones-and-dial-of-destiny-2023.html?m=1 An artefact which is called as The Dial, helps one to travel through time. It also helps to change the course of history. Indiana Jones and his troops race through time to recover the Dial and save the world.

If anyone has ever struggled with loss, depression, anxiety this movie hits so close to home. I went through a divorce a few years back and both prior to that and following I felt like I was slowly fading away. I told my therapist this, that I just felt invisible. This movie, while slow, really does a good job of showing what that feels like. At first it is comforting to forget your trauma and just walk through life as an observer. You find others like that and have these co-dependent relationships that feel good initially…but it all is just a cycle. It also demonstrates how incredibly hard it is to work through it and past that grief. It is such a thoughtful and moving movie; it’s not flashy or entertaining in the classical sense; but it is quite beautiful and honest.

Who here has watched Source Code? I watched it yesterday with my best friend and his family, and we all enjoyed it, though I'd say it's quite intense, as are many movies nowadays. In any case, I'd say it a very good movie that touches on parallel universes and alternate histories as well as what it really means to be alive and the true nature of reality. Having studied advanced physics quite a bit myself, I can definitely relate to this aspect of the movie, though I don't think they got it quite right. It looks like they set it up for a sequel, but since it's already been 14 years since this one came out, I doubt they'll make one.

Not Mama Mia or My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I'm interested in movies in spoken Greek with English subtitles. It doesn't have to be filmed or take place in Greece but that would be a plus. They can be old or modern.

I've been interested in the Greek language and I know this isn't the best way to learn but it's an easy way to start immersing myself. Please give me any suggestions you can think of. Thanks in advance!

Producer here. I did a previous post on some data that I've been tracking and got quite the response! So I wanted to keep up the trend of sharing data being gathered. I'll be aiming to share some data every couple of weeks on here based off different trends being seen or crazy news coming. I started this journey to help solve my own pain point of finding new buyers, sales agents, producers etc to be reaching out to with projects.... it's taken me down quite the rabbit hole. Mainly tracking main industry sources such as Deadline, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, C21, etc. so take what you you will from the data!

Here are a few things that stood out from the last 60 days:

1. Genre momentum:

• Drama and Thriller dominate, but no surprise there.
• Comedy has quietly surged which is awesome to see, being a comedy fan, especially ensemble or character-driven comedies.
• Horror is still hot, but mid-budget horror ($5–25M) is where buyers are most active now. The “cheap horror” myth doesn’t line up with the data (mentioned this in the last post too). Perhaps though that's because they are mentioned less in the trades as it's alot more indie, so my app doesn't pick it up as much, but this is the data I'm finding.
• Romantic Comedy has made a surprising comeback, with multiple buyers circling it in trades. I have a zombie-romcom film I'm working on so this is also great data to see!
• Documentary is stronger than expected, particularly true-crime and social-impact.DramaDrama

​

Drama            ████████████████████████████████ 312
Thriller         ███████████████████████████      268
Comedy           ████████████████████             201
Horror           ██████████████████               176
Documentary      ██████████████                   142
Action           █████████████                    127
Romantic Comedy  █████████                         89
Science Fiction  ███████                           77
Animation        █████                             52
Family           ████                              41

Drama (312 mentions)
Thriller (268 mentions)
Comedy (201 mentions)
\Data represents buyer interest over the past 60 days*

2. How deals are actually flowing (pathways being tracked!):
One thing I realized is I needed to also track pathways. A system to see if there is a way to build out scenarios or options on reaching certain buyers. Obviously this is a heavily gatekept industry but as the data continues to mature I'm starting to see some really cool insight and helpful info! One thing that jumped out: hardly anything goes direct to a streamer. Most projects take 2–3 “hops.” A few real examples from the last couple months:

1. 🎬 Festival (Cleveland Int'l) ═══▶ 🤝 Sales Agent ═══▶ 📺 Distributor

2. 🏗️ Producer (5&2 Studios) ═══▶ 🏢 Amazon MGM Studios ═══▶ 🎥 Prime Video

3. 📋 The Black List ═══▶ 🏗️ Producer (Jax Media) ═══▶ 📺 Fox

4. 🎓 NYU Purple List ═════════════════════════▶ 🔥 Netflix

5. 🏛️ Village Roadshow ═══▶ 🏢 Sony Pictures ═══▶ 🎬 Studio Release

6. 🎭 Agency Rep (Brillstein/Paradigm) ═══▶ 🏢 Studio ═══▶ 📱 Streamer

Most Common Endpoints: 
Streamers (Netflix, Prime Video) - 3 chains (chains being the steps or links to getting to the final sale)
Traditional Studios - 2 chains
Network TV (Fox) - 1 chain

Shortest Path: NYU Purple List → Netflix (direct!)

So if you’re banging your head against the wall trying to cold-pitch Netflix… it’s probably not the project or script (although of course no one takes unsolicited content so that's always a given). The trade data shows those “bridges” (producers, agencies, festivals, lists) are what get projects through the door. And yes... way easier said than done! But still some interesting nuggets of info.

Takeaway (take it with a grain of salt):
These are just a few insights I pulled from the data, but based off the response of my last post (good and bad ha!) I want to keep sharing insights and hopefully they're of use to some people in this tricky industry we're all crazy enough to be in.

• Genres cycle faster than the chatter makes it seem.
• Buyers are far more specific than “we’re looking for drama.”
• The actual pathways almost always involve a bridge.

Curious what others here are seeing. For those of you who’ve gotten traction lately, was it through a rep, a festival, a producer partner, or something else? Would love to know! Also LET ME KNOW what data you would want a deep dive on for the next Industry Pulse. Budgets? Exec Movements? Sub genres? Let me know!

I just rewatched this movie, but I’ve long been a fan of it. When I mention it to folks few people have heard of it. I think it’s brilliantly made film, and I wish David Byrne had done more films.

I find the art direction, cinematography and set design to be very well done especially with how shots are framed and the color schemes. There are a lot of subtle details to add to the story or just there for comedic value. The script is filled with short narrations or one liners that have little to do with the characters or plot but provide hilarious comedic moments. Upon rewatching I saw a lot of elements that I previously missed.

Im curious what other people think of it and if there are similar films that I should check out. This movie is reminiscent of Edward scissorhands and napoleon dynamite for me.

On canadian prime and netflix. Im looking specifically for science fiction, monsters, supernatural in that order of priority. No serial killer horror please. For science fiction, i want a movie similar to event horizon or life. For monster, i would prefer ones with good monster cgi or costume. Supernatural can be anything but I also want to watch a good found footage movie. Your recommendations are greatly appreciated.

One of Ann Miller's most iconic scenes. In Kiss Me Kate (1953), a Broadway musical adaptation inspired by Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Ann Miller plays Lois Lane/Bianca. His big number is “Too Darn Hot”, where he displays his virtuosity in tap dancing with a devilish rhythm.

We movie enthusiasts often talk and discuss about countless movies, directors and actors. It occurs to me that it is like a recipe for a cake, the ingredients are the actors, the pacing is the cooking time and the storyline is the finished dish.

I am sure that deep inside we all have that one movie that, if it was made, would tick all the boxes for us.

So my question to you is, what does it look like to you?

Spider-Man 3 has some of my favorite/best scenes out of the Sam Raimi trilogy. I loved it and everything about it. I couldn’t believe it was a flop when it came out. People talked about it sooo harshly. It’s got the soul, heart and cheesiness a lot of movies, imo, are missing today. From Peter finally standing up for himself, to being emo, to the entire dance sequence, to the fight with Harry….honestly the whole thing is cinema.

How does the general collective feel about it today?

Edit: Before y’all continue to make comments about it being “high grossing”, i’m not referring to money. People didn’t and still don’t like it. Kay, thanks!

My friends and I used to get together once a month for movie night until I joined the military and no longer had the option. Fast forward a few years and I had the idea for a "virtual" movie night, but surprisingly there weren't many options for handling this idea unless we all watched from a PC. First we tried Plex which was a buffering disaster, then had a little success with Google Meet but didn't love it. Someone on Reddit recommended Hyperbeam and we've only used it once so far but I think we found our winner.

It's super easy to set up and doesn't require an account from anyone other than the host. There's also a free and premium version, and the premium is only $5 per month for higher definition streaming. We pretty much all watch on Microsoft Edge from our Xboxes and use an Xbox party chat to talk. It took me almost a year to find a service that worked well for what we wanted, so for anyone out there who's looking for a way to host virtual movie nights, I highly recommend Hyperbeam!

just started watching anime films, so far i've watched in order: spirited away, grave of the fireflies, your name, weathering with you, suzume, a silent voice.

what next? i am also thinking of watching i want to eat your pancreas and the tunnel to summer, but please give some recommendations thank you

Michael Caine naturally speaks with a Cockney accent.

In "Hannah and Her Sisters," his character lives in upper class Manhattan, so it would have been strange and out of place if he spoke with a Cockneye accent.

Did he change his accent, and speak with an upper class British accent for that movie?