Innholdsfortegnelse for Awards Special 16A - May 30, 2023 i The Hollywood Reporter

Memory has always been an important topic to me as a filmmaker, starting with my first documentary. After finishing the edit, I watched it with the main subject of the film. She told me that everything in the film happened just as she’d remembered it. This was surprising to me, because in the edit, I had made a few small changes to the chronology of events to give the story more clarity. The film had replaced her actual memory with the new reality of the film. Until this moment, I didn’t truly grasp how impressionable memory is, and how people can confidently progress through their lives believing in the validity of their memory despite how vulnerable it truly is. I was transfixed when I first became aware of the story…

For Ethan Hawke, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were towering figures within the acting community — accomplished performers who not only took their craft seriously, but also supported the works of other artists in their field. But when he embarked on his five-part HBO/Max documentary series The Last Movie Stars, Hawke began to realize that his project was not just about celebrities often caught in the limelight — it was their private lives and their 50-year marriage that made the most impact. Hawke spoke with THR about why he approached his larger-than-life subjects as spouses first and celebrities second to avoid telling the fairy-tale version of the couple’s lives, careers and lasting legacy. Do you recall when you first knew who Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were? People say they…

The Anarchists (HBO/Max) This six-part series follows Anarchapulco, which began as a yearly conference in Mexico and developed into a haven for a community of “anarcho-capitalists” — and later devolved into a chaotic, never-ending party of civil disobedience that led to a gruesome and shocking murder. Murf the Surf (MGM+) Surfer and … jewel thief? Those are the descriptors one could use for Jack Roland Murphy in R.J. Cutler’s four-part series, which follows a surfing champion who participated in the biggest jewel heist in American history: the theft of 24 gems from New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence (Hulu) This three-part series unravels the unbelievable story of Lawrence Ray, who moved into his daughter’s dorm at the esteemed New York college…

If These Walls Could Sing (Disney+) Mary McCartney — daughter of Sir Paul — makes her documentary feature directorial debut with this history of Abbey Road Studios, made famous as the recording studio where The Beatles recorded most of their albums. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr appear as talking heads, as do rock icons Elton John, Jimmy Page, Noel and Liam Gallagher, Roger Waters and Nile Rodgers — plus Star Wars director George Lucas and composer John Williams — all of whom spent time in the prominent studio space across its 90-year history. Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed (HBO/Max) In 2019, director Sam Jones followed musician Jason Isbell as he embarked on his seventh album, Reunions. The recording sessions were complicated by not just the COVID-19 outbreak, but…

BEST TV MOVIE Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas (NBC) Earlier critic-proof Dolly Christmas specials were nominated in 2017, 2020 and 2021 (2021’s won). Given her popularity (there’s a reason her name is in the title), this one, shot at Dollywood with Willie Nelson among the guests, should wind up with a nom, too. Prey (Hulu) The fifth installment of the Predator franchise, a $65 million prequel, debuted at Comic-Con, registered at 93 percent on RT and attracted more views in its first three days than any other Hulu offering ever en route to best TV movie Critics Choice and Producers Guild noms. Reno 911!: It’s a Wonderful Heist (Comedy Central) The same gang from the series that ended in 2009 is hoping their third spinoff film will be their second…

There were some high stakes for the final scene of Paramount+’s The Good Fight — itself a spinoff of CBS’ long-running The Good Wife. The pressure to close out the saga of Chicago lawyer Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) was high. “The intention was to not face-plant,” co-creator and showrunner Michelle King told THR in an April interview about the show’s series finale, in which Lockhart decides to retire. Adds her writing partner and husband, Robert King: “You’re always trying to react to where the chemistries exist in the show, and there was so much between Christine and Audra McDonald [who plays Liz Reddick]. Clearly, we thought they were the last two that needed to be on that stage.” The Kings offered a behind-the-scenes look at how they crafted the final…

By the time the fifth and final episode of FX/Hulu’s Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur ends, director Allen Hughes comes from behind the camera and embraces Afeni’s sister, Glo, with a generous hug. She can no longer hold back the flood of tears recalling the harrowing yet remarkable lives of her sister and only nephew. Her voice, direct and booming throughout the docuseries, finally cracks. “We were left to tell the story,” says Glo, rising up out of frame because she’s said all she can say. Reexamining Tupac’s life, with all its attendant tragic headlines, could have been a superfluous endeavor. Through Hughes’ lens, however, to fully understand Tupac’s journey is to understand Afeni’s and how their lives inspired revolutionary spirits around the world. “You see…

Nearly everybody knows the name Pamela Anderson, but viewers of Ryan White’s Netflix doc Pamela: A Love Story may have a new grasp of the human behind the persona. White — whose acclaimed work varies in subject matter from robots trapped on foreign planets with Good Night Oppy to murder and sexual abuse scandals within the church in The Keepers — captures a different version of Anderson than the sex symbol image for which she’s known, using hours of previously unseen footage from home video tapes as well as excerpts from Anderson’s detailed diaries. Over the course of filming the doc, the Hulu series Pam & Tommy — chronicling Anderson’s relationship with her ex-husband, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee — was released, to her surprise and dismay. She then booked…

Most episodes of FX’s The Patient stick with the perspective of Steve Carell’s Alan Strauss, a therapist held captive by a serial killer portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson. But in the seventh episode, “Kaddish,” the camera zooms out. As Alan says the Jewish prayer of mourning for both his dead wife and himself, director Gwyneth Horder-Payton photographs Carell through a rain-stained window in the basement room where he’s imprisoned. “It just felt like the time to pull back the cameras and observe this human being in his own misery,” says executive producer Chris Long. Backlit by light pouring in through glass bricks, Carell stands solemnly holding a piece of paper his captor printed out for him with the words of the kaddish. It’s an emotionally fraught moment, but Long and creators…

Arsema Thomas had not seen the Netflix hit Bridgerton before she sent in an audition tape to play young Lady Agatha Danbury in its prequel series, Queen Charlotte, while doing her master’s degree in fine arts in London. But even without having seen the show that has captivated fans globally, she knew she wanted the role. “There was something interesting or different about this type of storytelling because it’s clearly grabbing people,” Thomas tells THR. “There was something about the fact that I have never seen a character written like this for a Black woman before. Usually, if she’s supporting the main narrative, she doesn’t have a three-dimensional narrative of her own — she only exists in the realm of the lead. And to see that this woman was just…

What will I miss? I’ll miss all of it,” sighed James Corden, the host of CBS’ The Late Late Show With James Corden, as he gave THR a tour of his show’s premises ahead of its finale, which aired April 27. “I can’t quite take in the idea that next week, none of this will be here. They’re just going to take it apart, this thing that we built. You’ve certainly come at an emotional time.” Corden ended his eight-year, 1,196-episode run at the same location where it began when he took over hosting duties from Craig Ferguson: in studio 56 on the historic lot formerly known as CBS Television City (now just Television City) at the corner of Fairfax and Beverly in Los Angeles. It’s a place that became…

For many years, filmmaker Peter Berg held nothing but fond memories from his college days in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. “My memory was just one of happiness and real joy, and it felt extremely diverse and inclusive,” the Macalester College alum tells THR — until decades later, when the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin shook the nation to its core. “When I first saw the killing, I was horrified,” he says. “And I was further horrified when I realized that it was in the Twin Cities.” The aftermath caused Berg to examine how the community had changed in the decades since he’d left. Eager to do something constructive and enlightening, the director-producer of the Friday Night Lights film and TV series…

BEING MARY TYLER MOORE (HBO) I’m rather sick of “Being” in the title for both documentaries and scripted stories — as if claiming to capture the essence of a person is shorthand for profundity — but Being Mary Tyler Moore is definitely invested in this sort of clash between superficial appearances and actual “being” when it comes to one of the most beloved and decorated women in TV history. The documentary doesn’t always provide definitive answers on who Mary Tyler Moore was, but it builds a portrait of her various dichotomies — a feminist icon who didn’t always want to identify as feminist, a very public star who kept aspects of her personal life guarded, an actress who was closely associated with her roles but became the most herself when…

Showrunners Michelle and Robert King have been in the Emmy conversation for 13 consecutive years: The past six for The Good Fight, starring Christine Baranski in a role she originated on their OG legal drama, The Good Wife, which was an awards contender for each of its seven seasons. The creative and married partners first teamed in 2006 on a police procedural called In Justice for ABC, which lasted one season. In 2009, CBS picked up Good Wife, which starred Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, the wife of a state attorney (Chris Noth) who is forced to return to her law career after her husband becomes embroiled in a sex and political corruption scandal. It was judged an instant hit, with THR’s review declaring, “There could not be a better…