The Big Picture

Click on a link below to see a list of articles in that department, or browse through the complete list of departments and articles below.

Oscars Hollywoodland Movies

DVD Extras Assessment Life  and Art

Culturebox Spoiler Specials

 ” The Oscars 2007: A pre-show chat,” by Kim Masters, Troy Patterson, and Dana Stevens. Posted Feb. 22, 2007.  ”Magnum on the Oscars: A video montage of classic movie photos.” Posted Feb. 23, 2007.  ”Smile and Say ‘Fat!’: Why does the camera add 10 pounds?” by Michelle Tsai. Posted Feb. 22, 2007. “And the Oscar for Creative Accounting Goes To …“: Can PricewaterhouseCoopers be trusted to count the Academy Awards ballots?” by Daniel Gross. Posed Feb. 22, 2007. hollywoodland

 ”None of the Above: Dispirited Oscar voters turn in blank ballots,” by Kim Masters. Posted Feb. 22, 2007.  ”Theta Testing: Will Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes revive their careers?” by Kim Masters. Posted Feb. 20, 2007.   “Democrats in Hollywood: Does the town love Hillary or Obama?” by Kim Masters. Posted Feb. 16, 2007.  ”You’ve Got 23 Annoying E-mails: The most obnoxious movie-marketing idea of the year,” by Kim Masters. Posted Feb. 12, 2007.  ”The Norbit Factor: Will Eddie Murphy’s tacky new comedy lose him an Oscar?” by Kim Masters. Posted Feb. 9, 2007.  ”War of the Words: Spielberg counters Brad Grey in the pages of the New York Times,” by Kim Masters. Posted Feb. 6, 2007.  ”Based on True Events: What exactly is ‘true’ about The Last King of Scotland?” by Kim Masters. Posted Jan. 31, 2007.  ”Brad Grey Denied: He won’t be walking up the aisle on Oscar night for The Departed,” by Kim Masters. Posted Jan. 26, 2007.  ” The Trouble With Borat and United 93: Two movies without screenplays get nominated for writing awards. Whoops,” by Kim Masters. Posted Jan. 18, 2007.  ”Golden Globes Parties: The stars, the studio intrigue, the indecipherable accents,” by Kim Masters. Posted Jan. 16, 2007  ”Say It Ain’t So, Dakota!: The child star has a new movie in which she gets raped,” by Kim Masters. Posted Jan. 12, 2007.  ”Extra! Extra!: The skinny on David Geffen and the L.A. Times,” by Kim Masters. Posted Dec. 28, 2006.   “The Oscar Race: Will Dreamgirls get snubbed because of its African-American cast?” by Kim Masters. Posted Dec. 21, 2006.

movies

 ” Battlefield Earth: Days of Glory and Grbavica explore war and its aftermath,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Feb. 16, 2007.  ”That’s the Look of Love: Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant in Music and Lyrics, by Dana Stevens. Posted Feb. 14, 2007.  ”Eurotrash Schoolboy: The young Lecter in Hannibal Rising,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Jan. 9, 2007.  ” Desperate Bureaucrats: The Lives of Others is the best surveillance movie since The Conversation,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Feb. 8, 2007.  ” Diane Freakin’ Keaton: Why can’t she find better roles?” by Dana Stevens. Posted Feb. 2, 2007.  ”Factory Reject: A tepid biopic of Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Feb. 1, 2007.  ” Men With Guns: The absurdly macho pyrotechnics of Smokin’ Aces,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Jan. 25, 2007  ” The State of the Oscar: Forget the Dreamgirls snub, what about Volver?” by Dana Stevens. Posted Jan. 23, 2007  ”It’s a Hard-Knock Life: The queasy morality of Russian adoption in The Italian,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Jan. 19, 2007.  ”Thai Feud: Imagine a Western directed by Todd Haynes and Sam Peckinpah,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Jan, 12, 2007.  ” The Movie Club: Critic vs. critic,” by Dana Stevens, Carina Chocano, Wesley Morris, and Keith Phipps. Posted Jan. 2, 2007.  ” The Top 10 Movies of 2006: A family road trip; a world without babies, and, yes, Babel,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Friday, Dec. 29, 2006.   ” Sugar and Spice: The schlocky appeal of Dreamgirls,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Dec. 21, 2006.  ” The Movie of the Millennium: Alfonso Cuarón’s fantastic Children of Men,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Dec. 21, 2006.  ” In Too Deep: A journey into David Lynch’s Inland Empire,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Dec. 15, 2006. “Flavorless Ham: A faithful, but bland, Charlotte’s Web,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Thursday, Dec. 14, 2006.”Trading Spaces: Home-swapping in Holiday. Plus, Leo DiCaprio’s turn in Blood Diamond,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Dec. 8, 2006.   “A Pre-History of Violence: Mel Gibson’s bloody, bewildering Apocalypto,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Dec. 7, 2006.”Bored in a Manger: The unceasing drabness of The Nativity Story,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Nov. 30, 2006.”Infinity and Beyond: Darren Aronofsky goes to the stars,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Nov. 29, 2006.

extras

  “ The Slacker Movie’s Quarterlife Crisis: Mutual Appreciation and The Puffy Chair reveal a genre stuck in a rut,” by Marisa Meltzer. Posted Feb. 22, 2007.  ”Replaying Brando: How DVD adds new depth to his greatness,” by Stanley Crouch. Posted Jan. 25, 2007  ”Children of Idiocracy: What Mike Judge’s latest comedy has in common with Alfonso Cuarón’s masterpiece,” by Dana Stevens. Posted Jan. 12, 2007.   “ The Forgotten Jimmy Stewart Christmas Classic: Forget It’s a Wonderful Life. Watch The Shop Around the Corner this year,” by Elbert Ventura. Posted Dec. 22, 2006.”The Miracle of Preston Sturges: The comic genius who Made Eight Comedies in Four Years,” by David Haglund. Posted Nov. 22, 2006.”Concrete Badlands: How the gangster film began,” by Stanley Crouch. Posted Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006.”I Queue: Judging your friends by their Netflix lists,” by Sam Anderson. Posted Sept. 14, 2006.

assessment

“Tenaciously Disappointing: The tragic squandering of Jack Black’s awesomeness,” by Sam Anderson. Posted Dec. 13, 2006.”Zach Braff: Why is this guy the voice of my generation?” by Josh Levin. Posted Sept. 22., 2006.

hollywood

 ” The Lost Baggage of Unaccompanied Minors: Can you mention divorce in a kids’ movie?” by Susan Burton. Posted Dec. 13, 2006.” The Real Kazakhstan: What does Borat get right and wrong about his native land?” by Eric Weiner. Posted Nov. 3, 2006.

cultureBox

  “Sudden Death: What Bridge to Terabithia still teaches us,” by Emily Bazelon. Posted Feb. 22, 2007.   “Quirky in a Good Way: Why all the hate for Little Miss Sunshine?” by Matt Feeney. Posted Feb. 22, 2007.  ”A Very Nasty Portrait of the Artist: How Factory Girl insults Andy Warhol,” by Jim Lewis. Posted Feb. 7, 2007.  ”World Wide Sundance: Will the Web make film festivals obsolete?” by Tim Wu. Posted Jan. 26, 2007.   “ The Power and Glory of the Rocky Montage: A video slideshow,” by Josh Levin. Posted Dec. 21, 2006.”Is James Bond Responsible for the Iraq War?: How the Middle East really got shaken and stirred,” by Richard Cohen. Posted Dec. 1, 2006.”Arbus in Furs: How Fur mythologizes the iconic photographer,” by Mia Fineman. Posted Nov. 10, 2006.”Not Very Nice. The Borat movie: They botched the joke,” by Ron Rosenbaum. Posted Nov. 2, 2006.

spoilerSpecials

WARNING: These podcasts are meant to be heard AFTER you’ve seen the movie 

  “ Music and Lyrics,” by Dana Stevens and Jody Rosen. Posted Feb. 14, 2007.  ” Factory Girl,” by Dana Stevens, Julia Turner, and Meghan O’Rourke. Posted Feb. 1, 2007.  ” Smokin’ Aces,” by Dana Stevens and Mike Pesca. Posted Jan. 25, 2007.  ”Notes on a Scandal,” by Dana Stevens and Timothy Noah. Posted Jan. 8, 2007.” Dreamgirls,” by Dana Stevens and Jody Rosen. Posted Dec. 22, 2006.” Casino Royale,” by Mike Pesca. Posted Dec. 15, 2006.  ” The History Boys,” by Dana Stevens and Timothy Noah. Posted Nov. 21, 2006.” Fur,” by Dana Stevens and Mia Fineman. Posted Nov. 15, 2006.