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With ten years of experience in entertainment journalism and film criticism, Karen is a Los Angeles-based film critic, podcaster, and writer. She worked as a staff writer and then assistant editor for the entertainment site AwardsCircuit.com until it closed in 2020. She then spent two years as the Awards Editor at We Live Entertainment. She currently freelances with bylines at Variety and Awards Daily, in addition to her work with Citizen Dame, the podcast and website she co-owns and edits. Additionally, she co-hosts the Watch and Talk film and TV podcast.
Karen is particularly interested in the craft of filmmaking, celebrating marginalized filmmakers, and analyzing entertainment awards races. Her work has taken her to film festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Hamptons International Film Festival, AFI, and Animation Is Film, as well as red carpet events and press rooms for the Independent Spirit Awards, the Critics Choice Awards, ACE Eddies, and the Oscars.
One of the most talked-about scenes in a movie this year involves a symphony of sickness in Ruben Östlund's " Triangle of Sadness." For director of photography Fredrik Wenzel and production designer Josefin Åsberg, the planning for such a complex scene began two years before principal photography.
Interviews and Features
Main title creators Mark Bashore and Katrina Crawford were given a unique challenge in creating the title sequence for "The Rings of Power," a series from the world of J.R.R. Tolkien that would introduce fans of "The Lord of the Rings" to the much older and less familiar Second Age.
Makeup department head Zoe Hay and hair department head Michael Reitz accepted a unique creative opportunity when they joined NBC's " This Is Us" six years ago. They were tasked with aging family matriarch Rebecca Pearson, played by Mandy Moore, from age 16 to 80.
Working on " Our Flag Means Death," a half-hour comedy now streaming on HBO Max, production designer Ra Vincent was excited for the challenge of crafting "a theatrical play ... on the high sea."
Supervising sound editor Jane Tattersall, sound designer Brennan Mercer and re-recording mixers Matthew Chan and Lou Solakofski knew the stakes were high for Paramount+ series " Halo," based on the wildly popular Xbox video game, which for years had been trying to make the leap to movie theaters.
Gary Oldman has become a legend in his own time, with such iconic characters as Lee Harvey Oswald, Dracula, Sirius Black, and Commissioner Gordon. Since the early days of his career, Oldman has embraced a wide range of parts, has played in every imaginable genre, and has become one of the most recognizable actors in the business, even with his chameleon-like ability to disappear into every new role.
Delroy Lindo has graced screens big and small for years, a fascinating actor who is always a welcome face in such notable genre movies like Congo, Ransom, Get Shorty, and Gone in Sixty Seconds. His credits include celebrated films from Malcolm X to The Cider House Rules and voice work in the beloved Pixar movie, Up.
Amanda Seyfried has enjoyed a remarkable career in her first twenty years on screen. The actress got her start in soap operas before landing her breakout role in the 2004 hit Mean Girls. Before long, she was starring in such beloved movies as Mamma Mia!, Jennifer's Body, and the HBO series, Big Love.
Nicole Beharie is doing as well as anyone could during a global pandemic. From taking time for herself, training, dancing, praying, and connecting with others. The star of indie hit, Miss Juneteenth, won Best Actress at this year's Gotham Awards and we were delighted to talk with her about what it was like to hear she had won the season's first major prize.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is a very busy man these days. In just three years, he has appeared in The Greatest Showman, Us, Aquaman, and more. Last year, he took on his biggest role to date, starring opposite Regina King in HBO's epic limited series, Watchmen.
We've all heard of the big ones: Amway, Avon, Mary Kay, Primerica. Multi-level marketing companies have been around for decades and new ones appear all the time, often fading into oblivion when they fail to catch on. In 2013, DeAnne and Mark Stidham founded LuLaRoe, a clothing company that virtually exploded overnight when it began welcoming retailers to join their vision.
Renowned theatre director Phyllida Lloyd made a big impact with her first two feature films. In 2008, she made her big screen debut by adapting her hit stage musical, Mamma Mia! starring Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried. Reflecting on the longevity of that delightfully quirky film today, she says, "I feel proud that it's such a guilty pleasure for lots of people."
Last year, production designer Kate Bunch outfitted a Staten Island mansion for the Eastern European vampires who inhabit the TV mockumentary adaptation of 2014 comedy-horror film " What We Do in the Shadows." For the FX on Hulu series' second collection of shows, though, the job got a lot tougher.
One of the year's most talked about and celebrated films is Flee, an animated documentary from Denmark. Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, the film recounts the experiences of Amin Nawabi, a refugee whose family left Afghanistan when he was young.
Not long after graduating from NYU, Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt found themselves on something of a spontaneous road trip through the middle of America. With cameras in hand, they set out to use the trip as an opportunity to capture images of summertime teen life.
Jeff Goldblum is one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood, with a film and television career that spans decades. From early work in films like "The Right Stuff," "The Fly," and "Earth Girls are Easy," to his blockbuster hits like "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World," Goldblum is a familiar face and a welcome presence on screen.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:33 - 34.4MB) | Embed "The Farewell " premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and quickly became one of the most talked-about films in Park City. Soon after the premiere, A24 bought the distribution rights to this beautiful, personal family story.
This month, Elaine May is getting an Oscar! One of Hollywood's funniest and most talented ladies will, at long last, receive an Honorary Academy Award for her long history of great work in the film industry.
Like most people, Susan Lyall didn't grow up knowing exactly what she wanted to do, career-wise. She knew she enjoyed sewing clothes for herself, and decided to take that hobby to New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, where she signed up for a one year program, studying everything from design to marketing.
Jon Hutman didn't set out to become a production designer for movie sets. At Yale, he started out in the theater department, quickly learning that he enjoyed working being the scenes far more than onstage. In the summer following his junior year, his friend Jodie Foster got him a job on the set of Hotel New Hampshire, which ultimately led him in a new direction.
Reviews
"This is going to chronicle the ultimate comeback," Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs promises at the start of Adamma Ebo's Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. But what follows is not so much the story of a comeback as it is one of peeling back layers of excess and pretense.
Arriving two years late and right on time, proves nostalgia-fueled sequels can both live up to their predecessors and reach new cinematic heights. Returning to the role that made him one of the world's biggest movie stars, Tom Cruise continues to prove he is the best of the best when it comes to adrenaline-rush action movies.
As concepts go, the idea of Nicolas Cage heading out in search of his stolen truffle pig sounds like a movie filled either with cheeky melodrama or cartoonish violence. Instead, writer/director Michael Sarnoski delivers a simple yet emotional drama that is sure to leave a lasting impact.
When it comes to disaster movies, it seems no one enjoys making them more than Roland Emmerich. Whether it's destructive alien invaders ( Independence Day), the breaking point for global warming ( The Day After Tomorrow), or the end of the Mayan calendar ( 2012), Emmerich is best known for making big, expensive, movies that are usually, if nothing else, very entertaining.
It has been more than ten years since Jane Campion directed a feature film and her latest, The Power of the Dog, was worth waiting for. The meticulously crafted adaptation of Thomas Savage's novel is a searing portrait of masculinity, loneliness, and self-imposed isolation. Set in prohibition-era Montana, The Power of the Dog tells the...
Denis Villeneuve's Dune is the latest and best effort to turn the political sci fi epic into a worthy big screen experience. Frank Herbert's groundbreaking 1965 novel has proven to be a particularly challenging story to adapt, as many filmmakers - most notably Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch - can attest.
As Marvel characters go, Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has always been a little bit more out there than the rest. Except, of course, for Thor, who is a literal god. But Strange went from brilliant neurologist to master of the mystic arts, thus setting him apart from a universe in which most of his counterparts derived their various gifts through scientific means, usually accidentally.
Stefania Rosini/Amazon Studios Danish filmmaker Janus Metz tries his hand at the spy vs. spy game with his latest film, All the Old Knives. Unlike others from the genre, this quieter, more self-reflective movie relies on conversation and a lot of wine as old wounds and lingering questions float overhead.
Karen Peterson reviews "Deep Water," a lifeless psychological thriller that can't live up to Adrian Lyne's previous work. It has been 20 years since Adrian Lyne last directed a film and sadly, his adaptation of Deep Water doesn't live up to the particular brand of sexy thriller upon which he once built his career.
Kogonada's "After Yang" goes beyond the question of defining humanity to explore the connection that draws us to one another. They are age-old questions: what is life? And what does it mean to be human?
There's a strange sort of reverence for any Paul Thomas Anderson film, but the discussion surrounding his newest, Licorice Pizza, is one of the more troubling. It has become almost disallowed to criticize or question the artistic choices of a so-called master, as if someone expressing concerns over a film's more disturbing plot elements somehow invalidates their opinion.
Is suffering required in order for art to be great? This is a question not asked explicitly but flirted with in Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut, Tick, tick...Boom! The film opened this year's AFI Fest in Hollywood to an enthusiastic crowd whose joyful cheers almost made it possible to overlook its many flaws.
Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul redefines cinema with the enigmatic Memoria, a Columbian drama that plays more like a moving art installation than a film. It is not necessary or possible to fully describe the plot of a film like this. It isn't particularly story-driven, and it's not exactly a character study either.
When "Pirates of the Caribbean" hit theaters in 2003, it took audiences by surprise. Not only did it give pop culture a new anti-hero in Captain Jack Sparrow, but it exceeded expectations all around. The success of "Pirates" led to a franchise with sequels that could not live up to the original.
Awards
It seemed like this was finally their year. With the most nominated film, and the most nominated film ever from a female director, Netflix was on the verge of taking home their first Best Picture trophy. And not just their first, streaming 's first.
Year after year, certain words and ideas get tossed around throughout awards season. Some have become meaningless through overuse, while others have started to take on different definitions entirely through misuse.
Twitter was abuzz Sunday with a mix of delight, confusion, and outrage as the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) announced their Best Film of 2020 as Steve McQueen's Small Axe. A collection of five separate films, , Lovers Rock , Red, White, and Blue , Alex Wheatle , and were released on Amazon Prime as a limited series.
We love it when our favorite films win big at the Academy Awards. It validates our tastes and proclaims - how ever artificially - a stamp of quality on the movies we adore.
Please note: This article includes spoilers for Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed with caution. In these waning days of the awards season, it's a good time to take one more look at a film that truly was one of the best of 2021: Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog.
The fire burned hot, bright and fast on Twitter yesterday when the news broke of the film Academy's latest attempt to tighten up the Oscars telecast and lure viewers back to their TV sets.
With 24 Emmy nominations this year, The Crown is an almost unstoppable force heading toward its own coronation next month. In its first three seasons, the period drama about Britain's royals garnered 39 nominations (including three Outstanding Drama Series nods) and 10 wins.
Another Oscar night is in the books and CODA 's name is forever emblazoned on the pillars of the Dolby Theater. In a night with very few surprise wins, it still managed to be a night full of surprises. And not just because of THAT moment. So let's recap just a few, shall we?
The finish line is in sight, Oscar voting is now closed, and there's nothing to do but sit and wait and overthink all our predictions. As is the norm when the season stretches to the end, the race for Best Picture has boiled down to two camps.
In the two weeks before the Oscars, the best and worst place for awards fans is social media. It is entertaining to talk out scenarios with like-minded folks. But the narratives that emerge can be a confusing mix of wishes and dreams and grasping at the oddest of stats to "prove" theories.
It's always a risky endeavor to proclaim something a likely winner until it actually happens. There are so many ways things can go and absolutely nothing is a lock until the votes are tabulated.
We know the oft-repeated stats. Five women have been nominated for Best Director. The first was Lina Wertmüller in 1976 when she was recognized for the mostly forgotten but no less brilliant Italian film, Seven Beauties.
Hello, friends! I am so delighted to be joining you today and bringing you all the action from the Interview Room. Many thanks to Sasha, Clarence, and the entire Awards Daily team for allowing me to be here on this momentous occasion. Whatever happens tonight, it's sure to be unforgettable.