Steve Pond
Steve Pond
Steve Pond’s inside look at the artistry and insanity of the awards race, drawn from more than three decades of obsessively chronicling the Oscars and the entertainment industry.
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Little Richard Appreciation: He Summed Up Rock ‘n’ Roll in a Phrase
The first line of Little Richard’s hit “Tutti Frutti” doesn’t make a lick of sense, but it also serves as a damn good definition of early rock music
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Golden Globes Relax Rules for Foreign-Language Films
In light of worldwide theater closings, films can now qualify for the Globes even if they don’t receive theatrical releases in their countries of origin
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‘Rewind’ Film Review: Family Tale of Sexual Abuse Is Wrenching and Essential
Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s devastating film tells a story of abuse that spans generations
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‘How to Build a Girl’ Film Review: This Time, Beanie Feldstein Comes of Age as a Mean British Rock Critic
Based on Caitlin Moran’s semi-autobiographical novel about becoming a teenage rock writer, the film is like “Almost Famous” if Cameron Crowe had been British, female and much snottier
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‘Clementine’ Film Review: Indie Relationship Drama Struggles to Be Involving
The quiet film starring Sydney Sweeney and Otmara Marrero threatens to turn into a love story or a coming-of-age, sexual-awakening drama, but it’s more subdued than that
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‘Becoming’ Film Review: Michelle Obama Plays Nice in Celebratory Documentary
In the Netflix film, the former first lady reserves her harshest words not for Donald Trump but for the black, young and women voters who helped him win the presidency by staying home
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‘Arkansas’ Film Review: Clark Duke’s Black Comedy Could Really Use a Big, Weird Audience
Clark Duke’s Dixie noir with Liam Hemsworth and Vince Vaughn was scheduled to premiere at SXSW, but now it must bring its deadpan absurdities to an isolation-friendly release
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‘The Half of It’ Film Review: ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ Gets a Gay High School Spin
The Tribeca-winning film by writer-director Alice Wu takes the 120-year-old story to high school and mixes in emojis, diversity, immigration, LGBT issues and lots of other stuff
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‘All Day and a Night’ Film Review: Ashton Sanders and Jeffrey Wright Sing the Inner City Blues
“Black Panther” co-writer Joe Robert Cole directs an urban drama imbued with a steadfast fatalism
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‘Bull’ Film Review: Annie Silverstein Finds Signs of Life in Numb Characters
Actors Amber Havard and Rob Morgan make us feel for characters who themselves don’t want to feel
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‘My Darling Vivian’ Film Review: Lovely Portrait Tells the Missing Side of the Johnny Cash Story
The sensitive documentary focuses on Vivian Liberto, who spent much of her life struggling in the shadow of her famous first husband
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Daytime, Sports and News Emmys Move to Virtual Ceremonies
All the Emmy shows produced by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will become remote video productions
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‘Bad Education’ Fact Check: Did All of That Crazy Stuff Really Happen?
Here’s the truth about the secret lovers, the bogus expenses, the suspicious hardware-store clerk and the intrepid high school reporter
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Oscars Execs Defend Rule Change to Allow Streaming Films: ‘Theatrical Will Always Be the Academy’s Priority’
Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson say the new rule allowing streaming films to qualify for the Oscars is a temporary exception
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Oscars’ Big Rule Changes: First-Run Streaming Films Now Eligible, Sound Categories Merged
New rules also include combining the two sound categories into one and eliminating DVD screeners beginning in 2021
