Featured Voices
Guest Column: Monterey Park’s Legacy Should Be Cultural Empowerment, Not Tragedy
On Jan. 21, the night before the Lunar New Year, a gunman killed 11 people and injured nine others at a ballroom dance studio in Monterey Park, California, frequented by immigrant elders. For many across the country and even the rest of Los Angeles County, the town became simply the latest American city to host […]
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WBTV Boss Channing Dungey on Navigating Regime Change, Inflated Budgets and Future of ‘Ted Lasso’
Channing Dungey spent her first two months at what was then simply Warner Media shadowing her predecessor, Peter Roth. She was coming off a short stint at Netflix, which followed a much longer stint at Disney, and Roth had two-plus decades of experience running television’s most prolific studio to impart. “I like to say I […]
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Exercising While Stoned: I Tried a Cannabis Workout Class
Being stoned can improve certain activities, such as auditioning for a Takis commercial. Other situations are best avoided, such as legal depositions or, one would think, working out. So I was suspicious when a friend told me that he prefers lifting weights when high. As does Joe Rogan. They claim that being baked helps improve […]
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Oscars Op-Ed: Why Surprise Nominee Andrea Riseborough Is Unlikely to Face Sanctions for Unusual Campaign
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Friday that it is “conducting a review” of this season’s Oscar campaigns, with the grassroots effort that resulted in a surprising best actress Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough’s performance in the independent film To Leslie almost certainly the main focus of their inquiry. The nom […]
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Farce on Top of Tragedy: ‘Rust’ Producers Escape Accountability (Column)
It’s one of the darkest tales in Hollywood memory. A group of producers — a few whose track records included opaque financing, withholding payments and dangerous on-set working conditions — mount a Western movie on which their star and fellow producer accidentally shoots to death the cinematographer midway through filming. We’ve learned he will soon […]
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Mental Health Visibility Only Goes So Far at the Oscars
Disability is usually the last identity category most people think of when we talk collectively about bolstering diversity, equity and inclusion across institutions — yet disabled people comprise the most diverse minoritized population in the world. After all, anyone can become disabled at any time. Disability is also often invisible: Think of how many people […]
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Critics Choice Awards Analysis: Five Key Takeaways
How much should Oscar-watchers read into the results of Sunday night’s 28th Critics Choice Awards? One school of thought says “not much.” After all, the Critics Choice Awards are determined by the Critics Choice Association, an organization comprising some 500 broadcast, radio and online critics and entertainment journalists based primarily in the United States — including, full […]
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Guest Essay: Screenwriting, Like Any Sport, Is All About the Long Game
In 2016, I stood on the start line of my 263rd race as a professional triathlete waiting to dive into the Costa Rica surf and swim the fastest 1 mile of my life, mountain-bike 40 kilometers through grueling jungle trails and run 10 kilometers of hills, all in 105-degree heat. I was a five-time world […]
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Guest Column: ‘Till’ Is Not Just a Movie, It’s a Movement
My mission to get Till made is a 29-year promise fulfilled. The reality of seeing something that I’ve wanted for my entire adulthood come to life has been both overwhelming and frightening. I realize the subject matter is not an easy one, and I was afraid that bringing this story out at this time of […]
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Critic’s Notebook: Highlights and Lowlights of the 80th Golden Globe Awards
Jerrod Carmichael hosted an evasive, rambling telecast featuring some passionate speeches, some awkward moments and tentative acknowledgment of recent controversies.
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Golden Globes: True Diversity Is About More Than a Winners List
Any diversity analysis of the Golden Globes should note that the “diversity controversy” it was embroiled in over the past two years was less about the results (#GlobesSoWhite was never a trending hashtag) and more about the composition of its presenting organization, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The big takeaway from the February 2021 Los […]
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What’s Driving TV’s Un-Renewal Wave
Warner Bros. Discovery took a lot of flak in 2022 for axing finished movies and series — most infamously, the Batgirl movie — and removing some legacy titles from its HBO Max streaming platform. As it turns out, the company may have been ahead of the curve. A fresh wave of cost-cutting moves at other companies, […]
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