Featured Voices
Guest Column: Trans Visibility Is More Important Than Ever
Growing up in Ecuador, the pop culture I consumed was mainly imported from the U.S. and other Latin American countries. The films and TV shows were often sexist, racist and homophobic. The limited portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters in my culture made it challenging for me to find relatable representation. For survival, I became skilled at […]
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Guest Column: Apple TV’s ‘Tetris’ is Only One Half of the Story of Soviet-Born Video Games
A friend recently sent me the trailer of a forthcoming film from Apple TV+ with this message: How much of this do you think will be true? The film in question is Tetris, about the addictive, Soviet-born video game that stormed the West in the 1980s. A film about a bunch of bars moving about […]
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Guest Column: That Last Scene in ‘Tár’ Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means
[The following story contains spoilers from the film Tár.] Well before Todd Field’s Tár opened in Thailand, I got my first review of the film from my friend, director Paul Spurrier. Paul had seen the film while in Los Angeles for the American Film Market. “So we have here a mad genius conductor, who is kicked out […]
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Guest Column: ‘Turning Red’ Writer-Director Domee Shi on Making Her “Magical Puberty Story”
In living rooms around the world, a war is raging between two formidable foes: parents and tweens. Eyes roll. Voices rise. Arguments explode. “You’re not wearing that!” “You call this music?” “You just don’t get it!” The two sides, once close, suddenly feel like they’re speaking a foreign language to each other. We’ve all felt […]
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Guest Column: Alec Baldwin’s ‘Rust’ Prosecutors Should Do Their Talking in Court
There’s gracefully admitting a mistake, and then there’s what the Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office did in late February: attacking Alec Baldwin’s lawyers for pointing out that one of the charges against him was unconstitutional. The problem with the charge was clear. It was based on a sentencing enhancement enacted after the Rust shooting — […]
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Guest Column: ‘Stranger at the Gate’ EP Malala Yousafzai on Entertainment’s “Power to Reveal Our Shared Humanity”
People often ask why I, an activist for education and women’s rights, want to produce films and TV shows. It’s because I believe in the power of entertainment to connect people — whether that’s across the living room or across the world. I’ve seen it in my own life. Growing up in Pakistan, I was […]
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Guest Column: Antonio Banderas Writes About How Puss in Boots Redefined What a Hero Looks and Sounds Like
There are defining roles that come along once or maybe twice a lifetime, and I have to say that voicing the glorious gato Puss in Boots for almost two decades has made a huge impact in my life. Of course, when I was first asked to play this beautifully imagined and animated character, I had […]
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Critics’ Conversation: A Topsy-Turvy Television Winter
Preconceived notions were flipped on their heads these past few months as reviewers rallied around a video game adaptation, Peacock piqued interest and Apple TV+ stumbled (though all hail Harrison Ford, small-screen comic MVP).
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Guest Column: From Emmett Till to Tyre Nichols, Another Wakeup Call to Take Action
It is often said, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and make no mistake about it; these words ring more true than ever. The foundation of our country was shaken once again with the Jan. 27 release of police surveillance footage of Tyre Nichols’ deadly police arrest in Memphis, Tennessee. Nichols, a 29-year-old father, […]
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Guest Column: How the Use of Open Captions Can Enhance Creativity, Not Just Accessibility
A year ago, amid CODA’s groundbreaking run on the awards circuit, writer/director Sian Heder frequently expressed her hopes that the film’s success could be one of the “rocks that starts the avalanche” of the wealth of talent that exists within the Deaf community, heralding a new wave of deaf talent in Hollywood not only in […]
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Guest Column: Topless Photo Shoots, Evading Ski Patrol and Heli-Skiing — Why Chelsea Handler Loves Whistler
There’s something very special about Whistler. Not everybody makes it up there because it’s a bit of a trek and also in a different country, and I just love that feeling. I’m from the East Coast, and you know, skiing there is ice. It’s brutal, brutal cold. Not fun at all. I didn’t know skiing […]
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Gina Prince-Bythewood on the Oscars Shutout of ‘The Woman King’: “This Awards Season Was an Eye-Opener”
When the Oscar nominations were announced in January, some of the most prominent omissions were films made by and starring Black women, including Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, with a cast led by Viola Davis; Chinonye Chukwu’s Till, starring Danielle Deadwyler; and Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, which was France’s selection for international film. Prince-Bythewood opens […]
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