The Venice Film Festival is off and running with two big stars and potential hit movies.

Emma Stone has made yet another film with Yorgos Lanthimos. Their “Poor Things” got her her second Oscar, and now “Bugonia” seems to be setting her up for another nomination, if not win.

Jesse Plemons co-stars in what is described as another loony, off the wall tale of a kind of pleasant kook who kidnaps the head of a company. He believes she’s an alien and even shaves her head before she wakes up in captivity. From the trailer it doesn’t look like she does much to dissuage him.

Stone’s first Oscar came from “La La Land.” She makes daring choices and they pay off. “Bugona” sounds like big stuff. The first 12 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are all “fresh,” giving the movie a 100% score.

George Clooney did miss all the press for “Jay Kelly,” his Netflix film with Noah Baumbach. But he did return to the Lido for the red carpet premiere and looked swell in his tux with wife Amal on his arm. He had said he was suffering from a sinus condition, but apparently someone found some Claritin in time for the show to go on.

“Jay Kelly” so far as an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, what I’d call a B plus. It’s a very American film that may not play as well in Europe. Clooney plays, basically, himself, a movie star in his twilight years trying to find meaning in his life. There are a lot of enthusiastic reviews, and the mixed ones even sound good. As a Clooney fan, I’m intrigued to say the least.

Overheard at my desk: “If I had enough money to go to Telluride, I’d go to Paris.”

The Telluride Film Festival is this weekend, and the movie list is pretty good. It should be considering the cost of going and staying there. They even charge for the press pass.

Anyway, they’ve got a movie by Ethan Hawke and one starring him called “Blue Moon,” which is sensational.

Telluride will also debut the Bruce Springsteen movie, “Deliver Me from Nowhere.” Plus Jodie Foster in the all French “A Private Life,” George Clooney in “Jay Kelly,” as well as “Hamnet” and “Hamlet,” two different films. There’s even a documentary made by Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux!

Looks like fun. But again, for 5,000 minimum I can order groceries this week!

“A Private Life” (d. Rebecca Zlotowski, France, 2025)
“Ask E. Jean” (d. Ivy Meeropol, U.S., 2025)
“Ballad of a Small Player” (d. Edward Berger, Hong Kong/Macau, 2025)
“Blue Moon” (d. Richard Linklater, U.S./Ireland, 2025)
“Bugonia” (d. Yorgos Lanthimos, U.K., 2025)
“Cover-Up” (d. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus, U.S., 2025)
“Everywhere Man: The Lives and Times of Peter Asher” (d. Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller, U.S./U.K., 2025)
“Ghost Elephants” (d. Werner Herzog, Angola/Namibia/U.S., 2025)
“H Is for Hawk” (d. Philippa Lowthorpe, U.K./U.S., 2025)
“Hamlet” (d. Aneil Karia, U.K., 2025)
“Hamnet” (d. Chloé Zhao, U.K., 2025)
“Highway 99 a Double Album” (d. Ethan Hawke, U.S., 2025)
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” (d. Mary Bronstein, U.S., 2025)
“It Was Just an Accident” (d. Jafar Panahi, Iran/France/Luxembourg, 2025)
“Jay Kelly” (d. Noah Baumbach, Italy/U.K./U.S., 2025)
“Karl” (d. Nick Hooker, U.K., 2025)
“La Grazia” (d. Paolo Sorrentino, Italy, 2025)
“Lost in the Jungle” (d. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Juan Camilo Cruz, U.S./Colombia, 2025)
“Lumière, le Cinéma” (d. Thierry Frémaux, France, 2024)
“Man on the Run” (d. Morgan Neville, U.S., 2025)
“Nouvelle Vague” (d. Richard Linklater, France, 2025)
“Pillion” (d. Harry Lighton, U.K., 2025)
“Sentimental Value” (d. Joachim Trier, Norway/France/Denmark/Germany, 2025)
“Shifty” (d. Adam Curtis, U.K., 2025)
“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2025)
“Summer Tour” (d. Mischa Richter, U.S., 2025)
“The American Revolution” (d. Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, David Schmidt, U.S., 2025)
“The Bend in the River” (d. Robb Moss, U.S., 2025)
“The Cycle of Love” (d. Orlando von Einsiedel, U.K./India/Sweden, 2025)
“The History of Sound” (d. Oliver Hermanus, U.S., 2025)
“The Mastermind” (d. Kelly Reichardt, U.S., 2025)
“The New Yorker at 100” (d. Marshall Curry, U.S., 2025)
“The Reserve” (d. Pablo Pérez Lombardini, Mexico/Qatar, 2025)
“The Secret Agent” (d. Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil/France/Netherlands/Germany, 2025)
“This Is Not a Drill” (d. Oren Jacoby, U.S., 2025)
“Tuner” (d. Daniel Roher, U.S./Canada, 2025)
“Urchin” (d. Harris Dickinson, U.K., 2025)

The following short films will screen in the main program:
“Last Days on Lake Trinity” (d. Charlotte Cooley, U.S., 2025)
“Sallie’s Ashes” (d. Brennan Robideaux, U.S., 2025)
“Song of My City” (d. David C. Roberts, U.S., 2025)
“All the Empty Rooms” (d. Joshua Seftel, U.S., 2025)
“All the Walls Came Down” (d. Ondi Timoner, U.S., 2025)

Guest Curator Ezra Edelman’s selection of films:
“All the President’s Men” (d. Alan J. Pakula, U.S., 1976)
“Malcolm X” (d. Spike Lee, U.S., 1992)
“Network” (d. Sidney Lumet, U.S., 1976)
“Rashomon” (d. Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1950)
“The Insider” (d. Michael Mann, U.S., 1999)

The Backlot:
“All I Had Was Nothingness” (d. Guillaume Ribot, France, 2025)
“Carol & Joy” (d. Nathan Silver, U.S., 2025)
“Chaplin: Spirit of the Tramp” (d. Carmen Chaplin, Spain/U.K./Netherlands, 2024)
“Earth to Michael” (d. Nico López-Alegría, ZZ, U.S., 2025)
“Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire” (d. Oren Rudavsky, U.S., 2024)
“King Hamlet” (d. Elvira Lind, U.S./Denmark, 2025)
“Megadoc” (d. Mike Figgis, U.S./U.K., 2025)
“Shooting” (d. Netalie Braun, Israel, 2025)
“The Golden Spurtle” (d. Constantine Costi, U.K./Australia, 2025)
“Their Eyes” (d. Nicolas Gourault, France, 2025)

Special Screenings and Festivities:
“Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D 2025: Restoration and Recreation” (d. Werner Herzog, France/Canada/U.S./U.K./Germany, 2010)
“Learning to Fly” (d. Max Lowe, U.S./France/Switzerland/Italy/China/Hong Kong, 2025)
“The New Yorker at 100: A Gallery Exhibition”
“Steal This Story, Please!” (d. Carl Dean, Tia Lessin, U.S., 2025)
4K restoration of “The Gold Rush” (d. Charles Chaplin, U.S., 1925)
Festival Poster Signing with Daniel Clowes
Truth Be Told: Journalism and Filmmaking in the 21st Century

It was a fun premiere last night for Sony’s “Caught Stealing.” I learned a lot.

Coming off the red carpet before the cast (Austin Butler, Zoe Kravitz, Bad Bunny, et al) and crew arrived, there was an army of young people. I mean, mid 20s. They were dressed up to the hilt, maybe more “Rocky Horror” than formal wear, and nearly all tattooed. The women wore low cut dresses and stiletto heels. The guys had a lot of rings on their fingers and in their ears.

This very odd gang caught my attention. Who were they? What were they doing at a big Hollywood premiere?

My friend and fellow film critic/journalist Joanna Langfield pondered this question until a light bulb went off over our heads.

“Influencers,” we said snidely, the way Seinfeld acknowledges Newman. “Let’s talk to them.”

And so we did, since we — old and experienced, over the hill — were not invited to the premiere, but they were, so why not find out their secret?

A bunch of these people revealed to us that the studios underwrite their trips to premieres, fly them in, put them up and so on. One couple was imported from Madrid. They each had about a million followers. Wow. Rock stars. Another couple, two men who live locally, also claim to millions of followers. Wow again.

All these people, and more, turned up later photographed on the red carpet as if they were celebrities. You can see their pictures on wireimage.com. It’s quite extraordinary. (See below.)

I really liked all of them. Gianna Christine from Florida, once labeled “SnapChat’s It Girl,” a petite sexy blonde who knows to flaunt it, told us she had a business degree. We asked if she felt indebted to Sony for bringing her to the premiere? “No,” she said, “I make up my own mind. I don’t like most movies anyway.” She listed some she’d seen thanks to a studio’s largesse. I’ll leave out those titles.

Alaire, a cheerful dynamo who attracted a crowd on our corner from her own fans, told me I should be posting videos. She does it all the time, on her phone, with just a tripod and one of those round lights. While we were talking, a young couple from Paris approached her and her beautiful fiancee, Jordan, like they were rock stars. (They’re on their way to Paris for fashion shows next.)

I asked them all, including an 18 year old and her friends, also fans of Alaire, a question. 

“Do any of you have cable TV?” They looked at me blankly. “I mean like HBO?”

The 18 year old said, “I have HBO Max.” On your TV, I asked? “No, streaming.”

None of them watch regular TV or cable TV. They’re getting all their information from social media and streaming. 

Finally one of them asked us, What do you do?

Joanna replied, dryly, “We’re film critics,” as if this might mean something (like when we were in awe of Andrew Sarris or in the presence of Rex Reed).

They looked at us like we were a pair of triceratops. I said, jumping in, “Like Rotten Tomatoes?”

“Oh,” said someone, and then everyone drifted away.

PS All kidding aside, I liked them all a lot. I did feel like a hundred years old. But this is the new world. The studios only want them now, and they’ll happily pay for it. The critics? We did get free popcorn and drinks. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!

Pictures c2025 Showbiz411