As I end up this year-long challenge on all things Oscar, I turn to a smaller movie that should have but didn't end up on the Oscar roster, as often…

An Actors Studio alum and major theatre star, Kim Stanley worked sporadically in film -- but when she did, the results were seminal. Her first Oscar nomination came for 1964's…

Massachusetts native Arthur Kennedy was a terrific character actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially…

One of the best movies of the last few years was Women Talking, Sarah Polley's adaptation of the excellent Miriam Toews novel. As I wrote before, Polley scored a triumphant…

The theatre vet-turned-back-to-back-Lead-Actor-Oscar-nominee is having the best time. And I am hear for it. This article is part of a special year-long series of anecdotes, reflections and thoughts about the…

Sean Astin, son of Oscar winner Patty Duke, is Hollywood royalty. Best known in earlier years for The Goonies, he scored three big hits as part of another ensemble with…

Melissa McCarthy's mammoth success is one of the brightest lights in twenty-first century Hollywood, and with two nominations for the comedy Bridesmaids and the drama Can You Ever Forgive Me?,…

Longtime writer-director Paul Schrader has written two of Martin Scorsese's signature films, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. But he didn't get nominated for either! In fact, his first nomination didn't…

ny Oscars ceremony where most of the big prizes go to “Anora” and “The Brutalist”—two blazingly intelligent, vividly personal movies, both encouraging signs of an American independent cinema not yet…

Happy birthday to Martin Ritt, the late, great versatile director from Hollywood's second Golden Age. Ritt was an actor-turned-director with the Federal Theater Project and Group Theatre, becoming assistant to Elia…