Movies

Even though this year’s awards season, much like time itself over the past calendar year, has felt like it’s stretched on for eons already, it ain’t over yet! In fact, even as we’re still unpacking last night’s Grammys, the grand, glittering carousel of golden trophies spins on — Oscar nominations are now here, and they’re ready for your takes. One of the largest topics of discussion since the list went wide this morning (March 15) is the historic nature of some key nominations. Chloé Zhao, director of the beautiful and stunning Nomadland, became the first woman of color to earn a Best Director nod, and with Emerald Fennell (who penned and directed the gutsy Promising Young Woman), they represent two women in the Best Director field for the first time ev...

By Gina Marinelli As far as transformative style moments in teen-movie history go, few compare to the image of Sandy emerging from a crowd of Rydell High students in the final scene of Grease. Even before delivering her iconic line — “Tell me about it, stud” — it’s obvious she’s broken from her otherwise squeaky-clean reputation. It’s the big hair, the lit cigarette, and where Sandy’s demure cardigan sweater once sat, it’s the black leather moto jacket. The garment acts as a symbol of rebellion, just as it has on countless other film and TV characters for decades, even as definitions of and motives for resistance have changed. Take, for example, the timely flick, Moxie. Netflix’s new original movie stars Hadley Robinson as Vivian Carter, a quiet high school student who anonymously starts a...

For three hours on Sunday night (February 28), the entertainment world took part in one of its time-honored awards-season traditions: enjoying the self-aware celeb fest that is the Golden Globes. This year, though, via a hybrid East Coast-West Coast broadcast that featured a live audience as well as a fleet of Hollywood big-timers calling in via Zoom, the show was less about ego-puncturing jokes and instead more concerned with pointing out the systemic failures of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which has had no Black members in nearly 20 years. This elephant in the gilded room was brought up multiple times, including by winner Sacha Baron Cohen and co-host Tina Fey during her monologue with fellow show anchor Amy Poehler. It was even acknowledged by HFPA members themselves at a k...

By Dani Blum Billie Eilish loves The Office so much she sampled dialogue from the show on her debut album, bookending a song about desire with one of the sitcom’s in-jokes. When she first met with filmmaker R.J. Cutler, known for making profiling documentaries like the Anna Wintour-chronicling The September Issue and The World According to Dick Cheney, Eilish said she wanted any movie made about her to seem like the NBC mockumentary sitcom — with a constant, panning camera and the subtle awareness of an audience. Subsequently, Cutler followed Eilish for a year, across two global tours and the writing and release of her eventually Grammy-sweeping debut, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, which she created with her brother, Finneas. The resulting film, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Lit...