More from Matthew Jacobs
‘The Regime’ Star on Working With Kate Winslet (Again): “We’re Both Like, What Is This Mad Piece of Work?”
Matthias Schoenaerts had worked with Kate Winslet before, but never like this. Never as a lackey engaging in a psychosexual power play with a capricious dictator convinced bacteria is flooding her palace. It almost goes without saying that The Regime is far less restrained than Schoenaerts and Winslet’s previous screen romance, the largely forgotten 2014 […]
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‘Abbott Elementary”s Favorite Try-Hard Teacher on Recent Wins and That Passive-Aggressive Breakup
Abbott Elementary always spreads its wealth among the seven principal castmembers, but this has been a particularly robust year for Chris Perfetti, who portrays the lovably awkward, overeager history teacher Jacob Hill. In season three, Jacob broke up with his long-term boyfriend, Zach (Larry Owens), watched his best friend, Janine (Quinta Brunson), leave Abbott for […]
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How to Perform Pop Music History … in Drag … for 24 Hours Straight
Taylor Mac, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated performance artist and playwright, once spent 24 hours on a Brooklyn stage reexamining the American songbook while wearing ornate drag. Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music devoted one hour to each 10-year span since 1776, tracing U.S. history — particularly that of marginalized groups — through a glittering series […]
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Albert Brooks on Comedy’s Good Old Days and the “Worst Notes” Stanley Kubrick Gave Him for ‘Lost in America’
Albert Brooks: Defending My Life pays tribute to a pioneer whose irreverent humor has spanned late night TV, comedy albums, features, animated voice work and a novel. But what makes the film sing is the extended rap session between Brooks and his dear friend Rob Reiner, who directed the HBO documentary. The Hollywood legends met […]
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‘El Conde’ Cinematographer Explains His Approach to a Historical Figure When the Despot Is an Actual Vampire
In early 2022, Pablo Larraín asked esteemed cinematographer Edward Lachman whether he’d be interested in shooting a movie about Augusto Pinochet, the 20th century dictator responsible for torturing, abducting or executing thousands of Chileans during his 17-year rule. Larraín is the master of the anti-biopic, having directed unorthodox films about Princess Diana (2021’s Spencer), Jacqueline […]
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‘Four Daughters’ Director Kaouther Ben Hania Explains How Joining ISIS Is “an Extreme Act of Rebellion”
At first, Kaouther Ben Hania couldn’t figure out what Four Daughters should entail. She’d started working on the film in 2016 after seeing news reports about Olfa Hamrouni, a mother in the director’s native Tunisia whose two teenage daughters ran away from home and joined ISIS in a stunning act of radicalization. Ben Hania thought she’d […]
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‘Silver Dollar Road’ Director Raoul Peck on Doc’s Interrogation of Systemic Racism: “When Was America Great, and For Whom?”
Our ancestors left this here for us,” a member of the North Carolina-based Reels family says in the documentary Silver Dollar Road, referring to the 65-acre waterfront property that had long been their financial and spiritual haven. In the late 1970s, a relative of the Reelses cited a legal loophole to claim that he was […]
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Diane Warren on Her 14 Oscar Nominations: “My Honorary Oscar Would Love to Get a Friend”
At this point, it’s rare to see a best original song shortlist without Diane Warren’s name on it. She’s claimed 14 nominations in that starry Oscar category, and umpteen other movies have made her a contender since the early 1980s. This year, Warren has two tracks up for grabs: Flamin’ Hot’s “The Fire Inside” and […]
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‘Judy Blume Forever’ Directors on the Beloved Author’s Appeal: “People Feel Connected to Judy Blume as a Person”
At 85, Judy Blume is having one of the best years of her long, storied career. The Prime Video documentary Judy Blume Forever and a charming adaptation of her most famous novel, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, debuted one week apart in April. A flurry of corresponding media attention reaffirmed Blume’s status as […]
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Ego Nwodim on Her Favorite ‘SNL’ Characters: “I Like Playing People Who Are Strong and Wrong”
Saturday Night Live is quickly becoming the Ego Nwodim show. She didn’t get many shining moments during the two seasons she spent as a featured player after joining the cast in 2018, but SNL has more than made up for it in the years since. Her Dionne Warwick impression inspired Warwick herself, who once referred […]
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‘Queer Eye’ Turns 20 at a Critical Moment: “It’s Incumbent Upon All of Us to Have These Conversations”
Not long after Bravo canceled Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in 2007, the show’s creators thought their showbiz careers were over. Despite masterminding one of the 21st century’s seminal reality TV hits, David Collins, Rob Eric and Michael Williams — the team behind Scout Productions, founded in 1994 as a scrappy indie film outfit […]
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How ‘The Fabelmans’ Star Gabriel LaBelle Perfected Spielberg’s Smile
Gabriel LaBelle isn’t your typical awards-season breakout. Plenty of young actors have been the centerpiece of Oscar vehicles, including ones directed by Steven Spielberg — but who else can say they actually played Spielberg? The 20-year-old Vancouver native bested some 2,000 aspirants for the role of teenage Sammy Fabelman in The Fabelmans, Spielberg’s thinly veiled […]
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