Innholdsfortegnelse for Award Special 40A, November 29, 2021 i The Hollywood Reporter

Since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements gained traction in 2017, the entertainment industry has gradually worked not only to tackle its sexualized internal culture and historical exclusion of women, but also to reframe how sex and sexual power are depicted throughout film and television. The post-Harvey Weinstein landscape has thus seen revolutions in how women’s bodies and bodily functions are portrayed onscreen and the means by which we evaluate and elevate female talent. Four years later, these shifts have led to a boom in nuanced representations of the so-called “world’s oldest profession.” Hollywood has always been obsessed with the business of sex — one reason why “the hooker with a heart of gold” remains an awards-magnet archetype to this day — but in 2021, it appears that the progressive cultural…

In Bleecker Street’s Mass, the impact of a school shooting on two sets of parents — those of a victim (played by Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton) and those of the perpetrator (Reed Birney and Ann Dowd) — meet for a raw and emotional conversation years after the shooting took place. Throughout the course of the film, which unfolds in real time, the group attempts to find healing — even if that process dredges up plenty of grief and pain. The intimate drama is an acting masterclass featuring four veterans delivering some of the best performances of their careers. Anchoring it is a thoughtful and compassionate script from writer-director Fran Kranz. Dowd and Kranz spoke to THR about the powerful drama, how actor-turned-helmer Kranz allowed his cast space to deliver…

In the Heights had all the elements to be a smash hit: an adaptation of a Tony-winning musical from Lin-Manuel Miranda, an incredible cast of Latinx performers with backing from Warner Bros. and a final product that earned critical acclaim. And yet, its theatrical release, which grossed $44 million worldwide, was underwhelming, likely because it premiered during the pandemic and also on HBO Max. But director Jon M. Chu notes that the lackluster box office performance is not something to harp on, because the film achieved something much greater. “This is the new face of leading men and women in Hollywood, and they’re all people of color,” Chu tells THR. “The biggest accomplishment [is] putting joy out into the world with a movie that has not existed before, that shows…

Director Pablo Larraín and production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas coined the term “elegant prison” to describe Sandringham House, the setting for much of Neon’s Spencer. Kristen Stewart stars as Princess Diana in the intimate drama that takes place during the period toward the end of her marriage to Prince Charles. “This was going to be an exploration into somebody’s psyche and the way they feel,” says Dyas. “For me, how to enhance the feeling of that character [was] through the sets and the environment, the things she was eating, that synergy and connection with costumes and makeup.” Dyas — a two-time Oscar nominee for Inception and Passengers who worked with Larraín on the helmer’s Apple TV+ series Lisey’s Story — says they created a “complicated jigsaw puzzle” of sets and…

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY Johnson’s breakthrough leading role came with this big-screen adaptation of EL James’ erotic novel, the first in a trilogy. The actress plays the naive Anastasia Steele, who falls for a mysterious businessman named Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), who introduces her to the world of BDSM. A BIGGER SPLASH This drama from director Luca Guadagnino sees Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes as former lovers unexpectedly reunited on the Italian island of Pantelleria. Johnson plays Fiennes’ daughter, whose true nature is more than it seems as the film veers into psychological thriller territory. SUSPIRIA Johnson collaborated with Guadagnino (and co-star Swinton) a second time on his remake of the 1977 Italian horror classic from auteur Dario Argento. She plays an aspiring American dancer who joins a prestigious Berlin…

Mike Mills’ black-and-white film C’mon C’mon is a gorgeous exploration of a relationship between a boy named Jesse (played by Woody Norman) and his uncle Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) while the kid grapples with growing up and his complicated family dynamic. Mills’ screenplay was inspired by his relationship with his own child, says the filmmaker, while star Gaby Hoffmann was drawn to the script due to her experience as a mother — and because she thought it is a rare story that leans in on “the things that I think about all the time.” Mills and Hoffmann spoke to THR about how the A24 movie came into fruition, the young Norman’s incredible talent and why Phoenix — at first — thought he couldn’t deliver what the script was asking of him.…

In Neon’s Spencer, Kristen Stewart gives a beguiling performance as Princess Diana of Wales. Taking place over three days during the Christmas holiday as the royal family gathers to enjoy extravagant meals and throw shooting parties in the country, the film sees Diana falling apart at the seams. With rumors of Prince Charles’ infidelity looming over her — as well as the crushing weight of royal tradition that leaves the princess losing any semblance of control over her life and body — Spencer resembles a psychological thriller about the dissolution of a marriage and a woman on the verge of a breakdown. For director Pablo Larraín, who explored a similar interiority with his 2016 film, Jackie (which starred Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy immediately following her husband’s assassination), the concept…

In June 2018, Denis Villeneuve and his production designer Patrice Vermette were soaring through the sky in a rented helicopter, high above Jordan’s majestic Wadi Rum desert, when they spotted a caravan of black SUVs snaking through the vast, rocky landscape below them. “Is that another scout?” Vermette remembers shouting as politely as possible over the helicopter’s roar. “No, no,” their guide, a representative from Jordan’s film commission, assured them. “No one else is shooting here now.” Known in Arabic as “The Valley of the Moon,” Wadi Rum is one of the world’s great deserts, famous to film history as the principal shooting location for Lawrence of Arabia. Villeneuve had visited the desert a decade earlier, while scouting his breakthrough French Canadian feature Incendies (2010), which earned a foreign-language Oscar…

Navigating a busy Saturday night at The Grove, the ultra-popular outdoor shopping mall in the heart of Los Angeles, can easily make or break any relationship. Luckily for the young stars of King Richard, Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton, it was the former. “We’d go to The Grove every weekend,” remembers Sidney, 15, who plays tennis superstar Venus Williams in the Warner Bros. movie about the early lives of the Williams sisters (Singleton plays Serena) and the unrelenting drive and vision of their father, Richard (Will Smith). The duo would brave the crowds for weekly dinners and trips to the movies before and during the film’s early 2020 shoot. Says Singleton, 14, “It was really important not only to us but our director, Mr. Rei [Reinaldo Marcus Green], that our…

JUDE HILL Belfast One of the year’s biggest breakouts is 11-year-old Hill, who makes his movie debut leading the ensemble of writer-director Kenneth Branagh’s film as a young boy in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. SYDNEY KOWALSKE Blue Bayou Kowalske plays a girl caught up in a family crisis when her stepfather (writer-director Justin Chon), a Korean American adoptee, is threatened with deportation after an altercation with her biological father. WOODY NORMAN C’mon C’mon Norman holds his own against Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix, who stars in this tender comic drama from Mike Mills about a documentarian who learns about parenthood when he takes his nephew into his care. DANIEL RANIERI The Tender Bar Ranieri makes his film debut in director George Clooney’s adaptation of J.R. Moehringer’s memoir about growing up…