Screen Test

  Lending their voices to USA for Africa:  Dan Akkroyd,  Bette Midler ,  Harry Belafonte ,  Bob Dylan ,  Michael Jackson ,  Phil Collins ,  Billy Joel ,  Lionel Richie ,  Smokey Robinson ,  Diana Ross ,  Dionne Warwick ,  Stevie Wonder ,  Lindsey Buckingham ,  Kim Carnes ,  Ray Charles ,  Sheila E. ,  Daryl Hall ,  James Ingram ,  La Toya Jackson ,  Marlon Jackson ,  Al Jarreau ,  Cyndi Lauper ,  Huey Lewis ,  Kenny Loggins ,  John Oates ,  Steve Perry , Anita Pointer ,  June Pointer ,  Ruth Pointer ,  Kenny Rogers ,  Paul Simon , Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner.  Photo via IMDB. OK, here's a challenge.  Try watching “The Greatest Night in Pop” without getting chicken skin and putting the hairs on your neck into a frenzy. For about an hour. That's the effect of watching Bao Nguyen's music documentary about the creation of ...

  “ Oppenheimer” poster art via IMDB Apart from the buzzy excitement of the ceremony itself, when it comes to Academy Awards I've long believed that the nominations were better than the wins.  Being acknowledged as one of five great artists in your field, or one of 10 mighty movies, is a different proposition from actually winning the prize – especially in a contest that moves the goal posts every time it's played. Let us not forget that the greatest field general of modern Oscar campaigns was probably Harvey Weinstein, when he wasn't otherwise preoccupied. The nominations were announced Tuesday; winners will be named Sunday, March 10. Oscar nominations mark the beginning of the end of another movie awards season. My personal nod to the year's  best movie  gets on the  “Oppenheimer” bandwagon. It wins on the basis of degree of difficulty among other things. It's about the beginning of the end, too. Christopher Nolan's biography of the “father of the A-bomb,” J. ...

     Teo Yoo and Greta Lee in "Past Lives." Photo via IMDB.com Its intentions are more modest and perhaps more pure than some of the epics it's pitted against, but watch for “Past Lives” when the Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow. After being in the running for Golden Globes, its star Greta Lee was just named Best Actress by the Hawaii Film Critics Society, and writer-director Celine Song won in the group's Original Screenplay and Best New Filmmaker categories. Hollywood likes to display its fondness for Asian perspectives on American culture at Oscar time. Chloé Zhao's “Nomadland” won three of the awards including Best Picture in 2020. Last year “Everything Everywhere All At Once” brought home seven more of the little gold guys, sweeping most of the major categories. “Past Lives” can't match “Everything Everywhere's” great, one-size-fits-all title, but it does have an equally cosmic guiding principle. It's  In-Yun,  an ancient Korean Buddhist c...