Film News

TORONTO — When Donald Shebib got behind the camera for his 1970 drama "Goin' Down the Road," the director's modest expectations couldn't have foreseen its regard as one of the country's greatest films.

Quick: What’s a good adjective for Nicolas Cage’s screen presence? Mercurial, perhaps? Volcanic? Volatile? How about mundane, schlubby, average? Not the page we’d think to turn to in our Roget’s Thesaurus.

NEW YORK (AP) — There are rituals to an Alexander Payne movie.

NEW YORK (AP) — Nia DaCosta, director of the upcoming “The Marvels,” has a diagnosis for the recent struggles of superhero movies. It basically comes down to, she says, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.” Success inevitably breeds bigger budgets.

As a child of the South, actor Cailee Spaeny grew up steeped in Graceland mythology, memorabilia and Elvis Presley tunes.

The North American box office had one of its slowest weekends of the year, due in large part to “Dune: Part Two’s” absence from the lineup. Moviegoers had many other options to choose from.

Filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have given audiences thrilling and sometimes terrifying front-row seats to incredible feats of human ambition in their documentary work.

The words “For Nora” end Meg Ryan’s new film “What Happens Later.” It was a no brainer to dedicate it to the late Nora Ephron, though it did require an extra layer of approval from the Directors Guild.

On their first day sixth grade, the students of Jose Urbina Lopez Elementary School in the Mexican border city of Matamoros find their new teacher rolling on the floor surrounded by overturned desks. They’re not desks, he exclaims. They’re lifeboats.

Nature provides much of the soundtrack to “ All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt ,” a poised and occasionally transcendent debut from writer-director Raven Jackson.