Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

The 18th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards nominations were announced today. Awards will be presented on January 10, 2013 (the day Oscar nominations are announced), and be broadcast on the CW. Herein, the nominees in select categories (reviews are linked to in the first mention). For the full list of nominees, visit criticschoice.com/movie-awards : Best Picture : Argo Beasts of the Southern Wild Django Unchained Les Miserables Life of Pi Lincoln The Master Moonrise Kingdom Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty Expect to see this slate of films throughout the award season, with maybe The Dark Knight slipping in in the place of Life of Pi . Having not seen Django , Les Mis or Zero Dark Thirty yet (that is, of the nominated films I plan to see) I can't reasonably pick a favorite. Best Actor : Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln John Hawkes, The Sessions Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables Joaquin Phoenix, The Master Denz...

The Newsroom Update Season two of The Newsroom is now in production and there are three new cast members (in recurring, not regular, roles): Patton Oswalt ,  Rosemarie DeWitt and Grace Gummer ( Arcadia ). (As a side note, I think DeWitt and Kate Arrington ( Grace ) should play sisters.) Oswalt and DeWitt previously shared the small screen on Showtime's darkly funny The United States of Tara . As noted in The Hollywood Reporter , "Oswalt will play Jonas Pfeiffer, the new VP of human resources at...Atlantic Cable News, while DeWitt will portray Rebecca Halliday, a litigator brought in to defend the network in a wrongful-termination lawsuit." Sorkinese fans will see traces of Aaron Sorkin's previous TV shows in these characters and scenarios. Meanwhile, Gummer, according to Broadway.com , will play a reporter following Mitt Romney's campaign. (Remember: The Newsroom is set in the recent past.) The second season ( which will not include mention of the Gener...

The Newsroom What an incredible episode. ( Go Inside the Episode with Aaron Sorkin .) I can't wait for part two! What I found was so interesting about "Tragedy Porn" is that we're seeing this team we have come to admire do something so seemingly beneath them. We're seeing them do a big thing badly. And it elicits newly found sympathy for some real life news teams because it makes you think that some of the anchors really want to be doing News Night 2.0, i.e., good, informative stories that matter, not news as entertainment, but their hands are tied because they do, after all, have network bosses, ratings analysts and shareholders to answer to. Plus, the episode brought us some great lines, like "There's not enough bourbon in Kentucky."; "Have you been listening? Because we have."; and the show-closing punctuation, "I didn't know we had that kind of comic timing." Below, take a look at next week's episode, "The Bla...

What an incredible conclusion to a rich and expertly told story. It’s a little difficult to talk about the things I really loved about The Dark Knight Rises without giving away spoilers. Suffice it to say that fans of the Batman lore and of Christopher Nolan’s series will be rewarded in the way Nolan wraps up his Batman saga. Fans of comic book movies will likely thrill over the super hero-villain dynamics and the epic fight scenes. Fans of movies with an actual story to tell will like the social conscience and sociopolitical questions brought up (though I’m not sure I’m satisfied with what Nolan and company present as good policy). And fans of good acting will be grateful for the masterful team Nolan assembled, particularly Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Sure, Christian Bale ( The Fighter ) does his thing as Bruce Wayne; Marion Cotillard ( Inception , Nine ) seduces you with those beautiful green eyes; Anne Hathaway ( Love and Other Drugs ) is serviceable and slinky at Selina Kyle/Catwo...