Columns
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How Politics Affects the Oscars, and Vice Versa
It’s only been five days since the Oscar nominations announcement, and campaigning for Phase 2 hasn’t kicked into gear quite yet. There have been a lot of other things to focus on: the final Park City Sundance Film Festival, where many 2027 Oscar contenders may debut (six features from last year’s festival earned Oscar noms this year, including best picture nominee Train Dreams); a massive snow storm blanketing half of the country from the Midwest to the East Coast; and the ongoing horror in Minneapolis that gets unbearably worse every day. It feels a little trite, to me at least, to […]
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“Knowing Yourself Is a Big Part of Your Package as an Actor”: Astrid Rotenberry, Back To One, Episode 377
Astrid Rotenberry has had roles on Law & Order SVU, The Four Seasons, and American Sports Story. Now she plays Catherine Kelly in the Netflix limited series His and Hers, and her performance is so authentic and affecting it runs the risk of being taken for granted. On this episode, she details what excited her about the role, and why trust is so important to her. She takes us back to her childhood and how parental encouragement impacted her, talks about some of the valuable nuggets she learned as an intern in a casting office, expounds on ways she combats self-doubt, and much more. Back […]
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What Powered Sinners‘ Record-Breaking Haul of Oscar Nominations
One of the great things about living in Los Angeles is that the awards shows start and end at reasonable hours. The trade-off is that the Oscar nominations are announced at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am Pacific Time (timed so that the east coast-based morning shows can carry the news), and I’m already thinking way too much about them before the sun has even come up. But, at last, we have our 10 best picture nominees in Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners and Train Dreams—a solid lineup if […]
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“…As Long as You’re Telling the Truth”: Jordan Lage, Back To One, Episode 376
Jordan Lage is an award-winning actor, writer, director and founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company, which celebrates its 41st anniversary this year. He studied acting at New York University under the tutelage of playwright David Mamet and actor William H. Macy and then taught acting and playwriting at the Atlantic Theater Acting School for nearly 30 years. Best known for his work performing the plays of David Mamet’s, he has acted in multiple productions of the author’s works on Broadway, off-Broadway & regionally, including American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-The-Plow, and Oleanna, among others. On this episode, he talks about how his […]
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“Real True Empowerment Is Your Own Prep”: Carolyn Michelle, Back To One, Episode 375
Carolyn Michelle is an actress, producer, educator, and entrepreneur. Her credits include: Brilliant Minds, And Just Like That, The Chi, Russian Doll, House of Cards, and the role of Vanessa, opposite Kathleen Chalfant’s Ruth, in Sarah Friedland’s celebrated indie film Familiar Touch. On this episode, she talks about her deep roots with that project, and what she told Friedland she needed to bring that character to life. She takes us back to her earliest days as an actor, and the mentor whose influence is still felt today. Carolyn has served as co-director of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab, and […]
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The Golden Globes Gave Three Serious Films a Big Oscar Boost
If awards season is useful for anything, it’s to provide a distraction. Bombarded as we are by bleak headlines, there’s something soothing about watching a lot of very famous people collect trophies and crack jokes for a few hours. At the 83rd Annual Golden Globes, host Nikki Glaser set the tone for a fun celebration. But there was substance too. Those of us looking for clues to Oscar outcomes (I don’t mean Polymarket bettors, but, hey, they’re welcome too) were left with plenty to chew on.Warner Bros.’ One Battle After Another continued its hot streak, taking best picture (musical or […]
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DP Michael Bauman on “One Battle After Another”
For the first time since 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love, Paul Thomas Anderson has made a movie with a contemporary setting. To do so, he used a film format dormant for the last half century. Anderson’s One Battle After Another continues a resurgence of VistaVision that now includes The Brutalist and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and Bugonia. The format, which uses 8-perf 35mm traveling through the camera horizontally rather than vertically to create a larger negative, gained popularity as a non-anamorphic widescreen alternative in the mid-1950s. It was used for everything from Biblical epics (The Ten Commandments) to musicals (White Christmas) to […]
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Cue the Sun: DP Steve Yedlin on “Wake Up Dead Man”
After spending the last Knives Out entry on a billionaire’s private Greek island, master sleuth Benoit Blanc’s latest mystery Wake Up Dead Man takes him to a remote parish in upstate New York to solve the murder of a priest (Josh Brolin). It’s a classic locked door mystery, with Brolin’s monsignor stabbed mid-mass in a closet a few feet from his pulpit. The suspects include a recently reassigned young priest (Josh O’Connor) and a tightly knit clique from the church’s flock (Jeremy Renner’s recently dumped doctor, Cailee Spaeny’s injured concert musician, Andrew Scott’s paranoid novelist and Kerry Washington’s lawyer). Like […]
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“Everyone Should Be After Greatness”: Kimball Farley, Back To One, Episode 374
Kimball Farley is the future. His breakthrough role in Hippo, the critically acclaimed dark comedy that RogerEbert.com called “an unholy fusion of A Clockwork Orange and Napoleon Dynamite” established him as a talented, chameleon-like actor to watch, then his performance in The Righteous Gemstones, opposite Bradley Cooper, displayed his range. And now 2026 is shaping up to be a big year for him, with upcoming releases from filmmakers like Tim Sutton, Mark H. Rapaport, and Henry Chaisson showcasing more of what he can do. On this episode, he details his “outside-in” approach to character work, and why changing his appearance […]
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Release the Beastgrip: DP Anthony Dod Mantle on “28 Years Later”
When 28 Days Later arrived on screens in 2002, it marked a leap forward for both zombie movies and digital cinema. Eschewing the shambling undead of George Romero, the film’s infected sprinted after prospective human snacks. Technologically, 28 Days Later represented one of the first wide theatrical releases to shoot on digital cameras. Director Danny Boyle and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle belatedly returned with 28 Years Later. With the British Isles quarantined from the rest of the world, the story follows a 12-year-old boy (Alfie Williams) who leaves behind the relative safety of his island community to search the infected-strewn […]
