Kathryn Bigelow

Why We Don't Need More '24': The Torture-Happy Jack Bauer Should Stay Retired

When "24" limped off into the afternoon at 4pm on its eighth and (as yet) final day/season, it did so as a shadow of the series it had been upon its debut a decade earlier. It's easy to forget, after its years of making a gradual shift from mere television show to avatar for an entire political beli...

Declassified Documents Reveal How The CIA Influenced The Script & Story Of 'Zero Dark Thirty'

Just when Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal might have thought it appropriate to move on from “Zero Dark Thirty” to whatever tense nail-biter comes next, the acclaimed actioner-drama's much-publicized production has resurfaced yet again - this time going back to the film's beginnings, as Boal was in con...

New Reviews of DVDs/Blu-Rays

You won't get any major Oscar winners in this week's batch of new DVDs, but that doesn't mean these new releases are light on acclaim. On the contrary, two of the year's best reviewed films arrive this week alongside the latest installment in a beloved franchise, making for a strong and broadly-appe...

Who Should Direct Bond 24? Take Our Poll

Now that Sam Mendes has dropped out of directing "Bond 24," who should helm the follow-up to the billion-dollar "Skyfall"? The new MI6 table's been set with M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw), and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), and with no more rites of passage or existential crises to deal with, Danie...

Senate Drops Zero Dark Thirty Investigation

Oscar Review: Seth MacFarlane's Badness Explained

Was Seth MacFarlane the victim of some terrible time-travel accident that caused him – and all his Oscar-show material – to be trapped in the 1950’s (and not in a successfully ironic way)? That’s the most generous explanation I have for his pathetically unfunny job as Os...

The Unsung Hero Behind 'Argo' and 'Zero Dark Thirty' Has Two Chances to Win Oscar Night

When William Goldenberg came to talk to Sneak Previews about editing Ben Affleck's "Argo" back in October, he was still in the throes of finishing Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," on a tight deadline to deliver a final cut in November. Sunday night Goldenberg is up for not just one but two Osca...

Predicting the Oscars: Don't Trust Me, Trust Nate Silver

I was thinking this might be the first year in recent memory when the Oscars actually held some suspense about the winners. Is anything really a lock for Best Picture? What about that wacky Best Directors race, already full of also-rans? Then I read Nate Silver’s thoroughly lucid and comp...

The 'Rejected Pitches' Oscar Special, Part 2

In  Part 2 of the 'Rejected Pitches’ Oscar special, the comedy web series gives us typical Hollywood dismissals of Les Miserables (with a perfect Tom Hooper impersonator), Life of Pi, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty.