"In this milieu, a Cold War culture dedicated to conformity and shot through with Freudian panic about emasculation, audiences could glimpse Anybodys, a character who refuses to conform, refuses the ironclad terms of gender, in bold ways." So Tony Kushner and Stephen Sondheim went for it. - Slate
Today, the media industry has consolidated under fewer owners than ever before; its labour conditions have grown dire. The undeniable expertise of many journalists isn’t enough to restore public credibility in the press. The political problem will require a political, not merely a technical, fix. - Psyche
" new social media personalities … paint cheery portraits of life as foreigners in China — and also hit back at criticisms of Beijing's authoritarian governance, its policies toward ethnic minorities and its handling of the coronavirus." - The New York Times
There were no press releases sent en masse with statements thanking the HFPA and saluting co-stars and filmmakers. Also absent were the emotional reaction calls between journalists and nominees, still recovering from their shock at the big news. - Variety
Pedro Almodóvar's Parallel Mothers starts out with a very Almodóvar situation, two single women about to give birth, but the movie’s really about the ongoing fallout from the many extrajudicial murders committed by Franco's regime, a topic most Spaniards have spent decades avoiding. - The New York Times Magazine
He'd made some comedy-horror mashups and one arthouse hit when he set to work on the Tolkien adaptations, so he wasn't someone you'd think of giving nine-figure budgets to. The bet paid off, of course: the films took in $3 billion. Here's how they came together. - Variety
For several years, a mixture of denial and deep optimism have kept up the facade. News outlet leaders believe that, since others are perceived to have success with podcasting, their payoff must be right around the corner. - NiemanLab
Early that morning, when she tried to log in to Instagram, she found that the account had been disabled. A message on the screen read: “Your account has been blocked for pretending to be someone else.” - The New York Times
In the film categories, Belfast and The Power of the Dog got seven nominations each; on the television side, Succession received five nods, with four each for Ted Lasso and The Morning Show. - CNN
It is political not in a partisan sense but because the way we teach and protect children — and choose which children to teach and protect — is inevitably bound up in politicized ideas. - The New York Times
Peloton bounced back in a big way: It resurrected Mr. Big for a commercial featuring none other than Peter Noth and Peloton instructor Jessica King. The dramatic advertisement quickly blew up online, amassing more than 45,000 likes on Twitter and spurring a slew of headlines. - Los Angeles Times
Indeed, the Spanish "obscures the fact that the entire film and its depiction of Puerto Rican communities are still inherently mediated through the story’s original white male creators, and now, through the film’s white director, white screenwriter, white cinematographer, and mostly white producers." - Slate
As the studio pushed West Side Story back last year, allegations of assault against one of the movie's main characters burst into public consciousness. How has public perception been altered, or controlled, since? - Variety
The series is ending, but its costumes and other props will live on at the Emily Dickenson Museum, while the made-for-TV carefully recreated manuscripts are heading to join their real kin at Harvard. "It’s one legacy that blends into another." - The New York Times
And no, that's not because "Gen Z doesn't like musicals" or something like that. Instead, it's a Spielberg problem. "Over the last 20 years, he has worked, numerous times now, in a self-styled obsessive genre that I would call the Metaphorical Topical Statement." - Variety
