MANSON MANIA
Peacock’s gripping true crime documentary, Making Manson, premieres this month.
While Manson’s murderous spree has been covered time and time again, this docuseries offers new details about his past and fascinating insight into his psyche. There’s never-beforeheard audio, culled from more than 100 hours of conversations recorded over 20 years, up until his death in 2017.
Series director Billie Mintz is a renowned investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, and showrunner, whose series work has received recognition from true crime fans worldwide. His docuseries, Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them, garnered critical acclaim for unearthing groundbreaking new details about the murder of Selena Quintanilla, which surprisingly, has shifted the public narrative surrounding the infamous case.
His latest documentary, Portrayal, produced in collaboration with Documentary Channel, won the Schoumann Award at the Jerusalem International Film Festival and has been showcased in over 20 international festivals.
A STAR IS BORN
It’s no wonder Mikey Madison has been selected to receive the Breakthrough Performance Award at the upcoming 2025 Palm Springs Film Festival: her fearless acting in the quirky movie, Anora, wowed critics.
She plays Ani, a young Brooklyn-based sex worker whose whole life suddenly changes when she meets Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the reckless son of a Russian billionaire, at the club she works. While the script is loaded with twists and turns, it is Madison who steals every scene.
If the young actress looks familiar, you might recognize her from FX’s dramedy, Better Things, or when she co-starred with Natalie Portman in Apple TV+’s, Lady in the Lake. “Since winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Anora has been the most talked-about film this season,” said the festival’s chairman, Nachhattar Singh Chandi. “What makes this film so outstanding is Mikey Madison’s mesmerizing breakout role that serves as the heart and soul of this story.”
ALL-NIGHTER
In Nightbitch, Amy Adams plays an increasingly frustrated, tired mom who thinks she is becoming a dog. Based on the oft-comedic, best-selling book by Rachel Yoder, the veteran actress resonated strongly with the unique material.
“I first got the transcript of the book before it had been published, and I just thought Rachel had such a unique narrative. There was something I deeply identified with, the idea of loss of identity and transformation and using motherhood as an allegory for those things.”
Adams was happily immersed in preparing for the role as a busy mom.
“It was a really interesting preparatory process because a lot of times, there was no way to predict what was going to be going on, because I knew we would be working with three-year-olds,” she quipped. “So, it was really important that I had a really clear understanding of what needed to happen in any given moment so I could be very free and live in a sense of play with the children.”
RETURN TO TEXAS
Get your cowboy hats ready! Yellowstone director Taylor Sheridan has yet another spinoff series premiering on Paramount+. Billy Bob Thornton, Andy Garcia, and Demi Moore star in the West Texas oil rig drama, Landman.
In the series, Thornton plays a foreman who helps to run the business side of the company.
“Essentially I work for the head of the oil company,” he said. “He’s a rich guy who lives in an amazing mansion and makes the money. I’m the guy who makes sure that it runs right and that he makes his money.”
In doing research for the role, Thornton learned how dangerous the real-life job was. “I didn’t realize that a lot of the people who work in the oil fields are felons or ex-cons. These guys can make up to $180,000 per year, and they’re not gonna make that kind of money anywhere else. And so they’re all for it, to risk their limbs or their lives to send the money to their families that they’re trying to take care of.”
ON PITCH
Angelina Jolie gave an Oscar-worthy performance in her latest film, Maria, which profiles the life of legendary opera singer, Maria Callas.
“There’s not a lot of moments in your life where you get asked to give everything you’ve got,” she told attendees at a Q&A during the recent AFI Film Fest. “It’s one of the greatest gifts, especially as an artist, for somebody to ask for and want you to give everything you’ve got, that you don’t know that you’ve got.”
Jolie was, at first, uncertain how she would be connecting to the nuanced role. “I didn’t know how to approach this, and so I listened to her,” said the Academy Award winner. “Maria taught acting, she taught opera, she taught voice. There are so many tapes of her, and she said her process…she calls it straitjacketing. You listen to the piece from the composer as intended, exactly as intended, and you don’t put your emotion in it, your thoughts, your anything. You just have the discipline of learning it with the sound, the pitch, the breath, Italian, the words, everything with that discipline. That was the key to her and who she was.”