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Full disclosure: It’s not often that a Zoom Q&A makes the back of my neck prickle. That’s what happened early in the Oscar season, when “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” star Colman Domingo revealed what really happened in a key scene with Chadwick Boseman, and how the film’s most powerful moment almost didn’t happen at all. Just before the April 22 Independent Spirit Awards, I asked the Spirit-nominated actor to share the moment that could win Boseman a posthumous Oscar, the second in history after Peter Finch’s win for “Network.” It was the sixth week of shooting. With Viola Davis wrapped, director George C. Wolfe focused on Boseman and Domingo — two band members in a basement rehearsal room. “This was rigorous, and George knows how to...

Last Year’s Winner: “Watchmen” Still Eligible: No. Hot Streak: Repeat winners aren’t the norm in Limited Series, and while they do happen (“American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson”/”Gianni Versace,” “Band of Brothers”/”The Pacific”), it’s more common to see networks go on hot streaks — albeit brief ones. Currently, HBO has won the Best Limited Series category in back-to-back years, first for “Chernobyl” and then for “Watchmen.” The premium cable giant has also won in three of the last four years and seven of the last 11. Its last win gave it more trophies for Best Limited Series than any other network in history, and yet HBO has still never won more than twice in a row. Only one network has: NBC, from 1986 – 1988. Fun Fact...

For a series dominated by a giant, ominous void stretching impossibly high and across a wide stretch of land, it would be very easy for “Shadow and Bone” to be similarly swallowed up by darkness. Yet, one thing that sets this new Netflix adaptation apart from so many similar TV endeavors is its continued acknowledgement that there is far more to this fictional world than its threats. Most of that is handled in the opening episode, a sprawling introduction to nearly every major player in this stage of the “Shadow and Bone” saga. It’s also a helpful overview of the geopolitical situation at the outset of Leigh Bardugo’s series of novels. At its most basic, there’s an ongoing source of tension between those who live in Ravka on opposite...

[Editor’s note: The following review contains spoilers for Season 2 of “A Black Lady Sketch Show.”] It’s been too long since we last saw the ladies of HBO’s sketch comedy series “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” and, as you might know, a lot has changed since September 2019. But creator Robin Thede and her team remain the best at exploring the mundane and obnoxious things women, specifically Black women, put up with. In Season 2, “A Black Lady Sketch Show” once again delivers hilarity and absurdity in equal measure. It’s the end of the world when the series starts and we meet Robin (Thede) and her friends celebrating. But when things take a turn for the weird, it causes Robin to start questioning the women around her and their intentions...

And then we came to the end. It’s been a harrowing few months but on Thursday night, the preliminary TV awards season came to a close at the 36th Film Independent Spirit Awards, with the distribution of the organization’s first ever TV awards. Now it’s just a waiting game. From here, it’s a mere five weeks until the end of the Emmy eligibility period, and coming weeks will see networks and streamers throw their awards machinations into high gear. This is particularly true for distributors who play in both the film and TV arenas. You can bet a place like Netflix will have a lot more time to focus on “The Crown” and “Master of None” once the campaigns for Best Picture nominees “Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Mank” have concluded. For...

Fitting a full, five-act Shakespeare play into a condensed time frame is always a dubious task. After centuries of both tradition and refinement, there’s a constant question of what lies at the heart of these works and what makes them essential. Any process of winnowing, especially with foundational texts, runs a risk. But the most recent film version of “Romeo & Juliet,” airing this week as part of PBS’ long-running “Great Performances” series, gains something profound in separating this cultural touchstone into its component parts. In the process, the title couple (played by incipient megastars Jessie Buckley and Josh O’Connor) and their long-ingrained tragedy play out in an elemental form. It’s a version — from director Simon Godwin...

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains potential spoilers for “Sasquatch.”] When you see animator Drew Christie’s work side-by-side, you start to see how they come from the same artist. One of the strengths of his contributions to various documentaries — from the sepia-toned inventions of Dr. John Brinkley in Penny Lane’s “Nuts!” to the eerie and ominous Mendocino forests in Hulu’s new series “Sasquatch” — is that each also ends up a key complement to the story being told around it. His sketch stylings might carry over from project to project, but as with “Sasquatch,” the process begins with ground-up research. “Each one is very much its own universe. I love doing tons of visual research. Basically, each project is a way to do...

George Clooney, Noah Wyle, Julianna Margulies, and the cast of NBC’s landmark medical drama “ER” reunited this week on a Zoom call to benefit the Waterkeeper Alliance, the global clean water nonprofit. “ER” cast member Gloria Reuben serves as the president of the organization. Reuben participated in the event, which also included Anthony Edwards, Ming-Na Wen, Goran Visnjic, CCH Pounder, and more. When the conversation turned to directors struggling to vibe with the “ER” team, Margulies revealed the ingenious way Quentin Tarantino guaranteed NBC had to use his cut of the episode. “When Quentin Tarantino came to direct us, he was such a big fan of the show, he only did one take,” Margulies said. “So they didn’t have a choice to edit. We...

It wasn’t the billowy tent on the Santa Monica beach — for many one of the high points of the year, when the film community takes a breath near the end of awards season — but the indie film community nonetheless socialized, virtually, before the Indie Spirit Awards, browsing through various wine, Cinephile trivia, and the Bulleit Frontier Whiskey bar room on their way to the main event hosted by white-suited Melissa Villasenor, whose best bit on the IFC show was impersonating Owen Wilson opposite Frances McDormand in the “Nomadland” Home Depot. This year’s “arthouse awards show” was mounted at “a place familiar to independent film fans,” VIllasenor said, “a completely empty theater.” As expected, Searchlight’s American road movie...

“Mank” is the big leader at the 2021 Oscars with 10 nominations, but that wasn’t the case at the 36th Film Independent Spirit Awards. The nomination leader at this ceremony was Eliza Hittman’s acclaimed “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” which the Academy shut out from the Oscars. The same goes for other beloved Spirit Award nominees like “First Cow,” “Miss Juneteenth,” and “The Assistant.” In other words, the Indie Spirit Awards were a breath of fresh air in this elongated awards season where underdog indie contenders finally get their due in the spotlight. “Minari” also preformed strong at the Indie Spirits, earning six nominations to match its six Oscar nominations. Fellow Oscar nominees “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Nomadland” each...

In an awards season defined by dry, pre-recorded virtual ceremonies, Adam Sandler rose above the rest at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. In presenting the award for Best Female Lead, Sandler — who won Best Male Lead for “Uncut Gems” at last year’s ceremony — dubbed himself “the face of the Independent Spirit Awards” and spared the at-home audience from the kind of awkward and stale presentations that have come to define pandemic-era awards shows. “Hello, I’m Adam Sandler, the face of the Independent Spirit Awards,” the comedian said, sporting robust facial hair. “If you’re wondering why I have an extremely hip beard now, it wasn’t intentional. Last year after I won Best Male Lead for me incomparable ‘Uncut Gems’ performance, this...

The 36th Film Independent Spirit Awards made history on Thursday night, with the introduction of television categories which attempt to honor independently-spirited TV series in the same vein as the organization champions independent film. The five new categories — Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series, Best Scripted Series, Best Female Performance in a Scripted Series, Best Male Performance in a Scripted Series, Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series — had an extremely straightforward set of winners, which cynical minds might suggest is a sign that an organization that specializes in independent film might not be the right awards body to dabble in the messy business of television. Netflix took home three awards, edging out...

Con artists have captivated moviemakers almost as long as the art form has been around. Hollywood classics like “The Sting,” “The Producers,” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” had fun with their subjects, and “Catch Me If You Can,” “American Hustle,” and “The Usual Suspects” followed closely in those footsteps. There’s something distinctly American about the self mythologizing required to pull off a high stakes con; the American Dream is practically built on delusions of grandeur. These days, one need not construct a fake casino or write a ridiculous Broadway show to dupe people out of thousands of dollars. As the various crafty characters in “Generation Hustle” reveal, the internet has made scamming easier than ever: All it takes is some...