Steve Pond

Steve Pond
Steve Pond’s inside look at the artistry and insanity of the awards race, drawn from more than three decades of obsessively chronicling the Oscars and the entertainment industry.
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‘Scoob!’ Film Review: Animated Scooby-Doo Reboot Starts by Making Fun of Itself
The film determined to have its cake and eat it, too – to give the kids an animated action mystery but also keep up a steady stream of inside jokes
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Academy Allows Documentaries to Qualify for Oscars at Film Festivals
For the first time, films will be able to qualify for the Best Documentary Feature award without playing theatrically
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‘Hollywood’ Fact Check: What Really Happened at the Oscars in 1948?
Ryan Murphy’s version of the 20th Academy Awards gives Oscars to a bunch of fictional characters, but here’s who really won that night
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‘Hollywood’ Fact Check: Was Rock Hudson’s Agent a Sexual Predator?
In the Ryan Murphy miniseries, Jim Parsons plays Henry Willson, a notorious talent agent who specialized in handsome young men
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‘Hollywood’ Fact Check: Was a Gas Station Really the Front for a Hollywood Escort Service?
The genial Hollywood flesh-peddler in Ryan Murphy’s limited series is based on a real person whose claims met with some skepticism
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‘Capone’ Film Review: Tom Hardy Plays Aging Gangster in Bonkers Blood-Soaked Biopic
You haven’t seen Al Capone until you’ve seen him chomping on a carrot and wielding a machine gun while wearing a droopy diaper
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‘Have a Good Trip’ Film Review: It’s All About the Celebrity Drug Stories
There’s more to the Netflix documentary than Sting, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Bourdain and A$AP Rocky telling tales about their use of hallucinogens — but not much more
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Cannes Admits Physical Festival Is Impossible, Turns to Other Plans
General Delegate Thierry Fremaux says the Cannes selection will be announced in June, and the festival will then work to promote films that would have been included
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Little Richard Appreciation: He Summed Up Rock ‘n’ Roll in a Phrase
The first line of Little Richard’s hit “Tutti Frutti” doesn’t make a lick of sense, but it also serves as a damn good definition of early rock music
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Golden Globes Relax Rules for Foreign-Language Films
In light of worldwide theater closings, films can now qualify for the Globes even if they don’t receive theatrical releases in their countries of origin
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‘Rewind’ Film Review: Family Tale of Sexual Abuse Is Wrenching and Essential
Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s devastating film tells a story of abuse that spans generations
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‘How to Build a Girl’ Film Review: This Time, Beanie Feldstein Comes of Age as a Mean British Rock Critic
Based on Caitlin Moran’s semi-autobiographical novel about becoming a teenage rock writer, the film is like “Almost Famous” if Cameron Crowe had been British, female and much snottier
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‘Clementine’ Film Review: Indie Relationship Drama Struggles to Be Involving
The quiet film starring Sydney Sweeney and Otmara Marrero threatens to turn into a love story or a coming-of-age, sexual-awakening drama, but it’s more subdued than that
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‘Becoming’ Film Review: Michelle Obama Plays Nice in Celebratory Documentary
In the Netflix film, the former first lady reserves her harshest words not for Donald Trump but for the black, young and women voters who helped him win the presidency by staying home
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‘Arkansas’ Film Review: Clark Duke’s Black Comedy Could Really Use a Big, Weird Audience
Clark Duke’s Dixie noir with Liam Hemsworth and Vince Vaughn was scheduled to premiere at SXSW, but now it must bring its deadpan absurdities to an isolation-friendly release