BEST DIRECTOR
Frontrunners and Their Challengers on the Eve of the Critics Blitz
"Well it's a mess, ain't it Sheriff." "If it ain't, it'll do til the mess gets here." The awards watching...
Best Director – How Many Masterpieces Can the Category Take?
No one likes the word "masterpiece" anymore. No one in the industry likes it. Critics don't particularly like it. The...
Sam Mendes’ Masterpiece 1917 – What’s In the Frame and What’s Out
I think we are in rats’ alley Where the dead men lost their bones. “What is that noise?” The wind...
Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and the ‘Once’ Team Hold Q&A at Packed Screening
Every so often I am reminded of why I love the job - and this was one of those nights....
Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates and Clint Eastwood Land in the Oscar Race
It's a shocker that, even at this late date, there are movies that can still wildly shift the race. One...
Pain and Glory – All Hail Antonio Banderas and Pedro Almodovar
The collaboration between actor and force of nature Antonio Banderas and auteur and force of nature Pedro Almodovar goes way...
Waves Opens Today – Don’t Miss It
Manohla Dargis, who names Waves as a critics pick, writes about Waves: The camera doesn’t just move in “Waves,” it...
Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio and Santa Barbara Fete the Great Martin Scorsese
It sure was nice to spend an evening in a room full of people who there to toast one of...
Best Director – Our World and Its Monsters and Those Who Rescue Us from Them
The best films this year or any year are films that serve two functions -- they offer us the truth...
The State of the Race – Shortened Calendar Could Bring Surprising Results
For the first time ever, the major guilds will be announcing at the same time the Oscar ballots are turned...
Dear Martin Scorsese – No Explanation Necessary
In his wildly brilliant op-ed for The NY Times Martin Scorsese endeavors to explain his point of view to those...
Predictions Friday: Can Joker Also Get in for Best Picture or Best Director?
There is no doubt that Todd Phillips' Joker has struck a chord. Where people say it's dark and nihilistic at...
Beautiful New Trailer Drops for Waves, one of the Best Films of the Year
Waves hit big in Telluride but has been riding under the radar. It is a deeply moving story, with vivid...
Predictions Friday – It’s Not What WE Think, It’s What THEY Think
I've been saying it for a long time now, so long that I assume everyone already knows this -- but...
Best Picture – Ford v Ferrari and the Art of the Stealthy Oscar Campaign
There are three styles of launching a Best Picture contender that I know about from my *cough cough* two decades...
Predictions Friday: The Fog of War
The Oscar story for 2019 isn't yet told. The big stories from last year would probably be what happens when...
Great Pretenders: How Many of the Best Films this Year Are about Artifice
The State of the Race: Duplicity in the Best Films of the Year So Far The best films of the...
Greta Gerwig on Little Women, and Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet
Luscious photos of Timothee Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan, who team up again with Lady Bird's Greta Gerwig for Little Women....
Best Director – How the DGA and Oscar Differ
Anne Thompson's theory about how you build a Best Picture contender is that it's done "branch by branch." This was...
Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell Will Play AFI Fest
Like American Sniper before it, Clint Eastwood's Richard Jewell will get a gala premiere at the AFI Fest this November....