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    ‘Fingernails’ Review: Love, Factually

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    Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed play confused lonely-hearts torn between science and emotion in this adorable near-future romance.Heartache and horror walk hand in hand in “Fingernails,” a disarmingly sweet science-fiction romance from the Greek director Christos Nikou. Opening with a brief explanation of the title — the first sign of heart disease is often noticed in the fingernails — and closing on a note of indescribable yearning, this gently humorous movie operates so smoothly you may not notice its subversiveness.Set in an indeterminate near future (the production design has a warm, slightly worn familiarity), the story follows an unemployed schoolteacher named Anna (Jessie Buckley, glowing beneath one of the most unflattering hairdos since Cameron Diaz’s scary perm in 1999’s “Being John Malkovich”). Though comfortably settled with her longtime boyfriend, Ryan (Jeremy Allen White), Anna feels strangely lost: Ryan is sweet but dull, their interaction as predictable as the job interviews she disinterestedly pursues.“Have you tested?” a friend inquires one evening. Responding to a crisis of dwindling romantic partnerships, scientists have developed a test that can determine whether you and your significant other are truly in love. Years earlier, Anna and Ryan had passed the test with flying colors; so why was she feeling so restless, and so attracted to Amir (Riz Ahmed), her handsome new work colleague?And it’s here, in the sly, dry wit of the movie’s middle section, that Nikou jabs cheekily at the wearying clichés of the rom-com, from its de rigueur tropes (wordless eye-gazing, rain-soaked encounters) to its too-easily-forecast finales. As Anna and Amir work with couples at the Love Institute, preparing them to take the test under the benign guidance of a true believer (perfectly played by Luke Wilson), the cinematographer, Marcell Rév, washes scenes in a comforting antique glaze that grounds their ludicrousness. Like eager children, loving couples perfect their romance skills — like memorizing their partner’s scent and, of course, inhaling Hugh Grant movies — before surrendering to the test. Few are thrilled to learn that this will require one of their fingernails, a pair of pliers and a clanking contraption that looks like a vintage oven.Offsetting its outlandish premise with performances of touching credibility, “Fingernails” chooses restraint over passion and silent longing over emotional declaration. The result may feel too cool for some; but Buckley and Ahmed are so naturally expressive that their scenes together have a haunting, wistful quality that’s more moving than any number of florid speeches. And watching White, currently burning hot off “The Bear,” play an unadventurous dullard is its own twisted pleasure.Like Nikou’s first feature, “Apples” (2022), “Fingernails” is absurd and more than a little dystopian. Both movies are carefully paced and mildly melancholic, their characters alienated from the common herd. This time, though, Nikou is more clearly linking belonging with pain, underscoring the foolishness of believing we can love without risk — and questioning why we would want to.Unlike too many conventional rom-coms, “Fingernails” sees love as ineffable, its ebb and flow impervious to scientific measurement or behavioral tinkering. Maybe, in the words of the unimpeachable Iris DeMent, we should just let the mystery be.FingernailsRated R for bloodied fingers and bruised feelings. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. Watch on Apple TV+. More

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      Best Oscars Red Carpet Looks: Angela Bassett, Cate Blanchett and More

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      Color was already a buzzword by the time the first stars showed up at the 95th Academy Awards, thanks to the new champagne rug that replaced the traditional red carpet.And as nominees and guests started to appear, so, too, did most every color of the rainbow: Angela Bassett arrived in purple and Dwayne Johnson in pink. Cate Blanchett went with blue; Sandra Oh with orange; and Fan Bing Bing with green. Rounding out the spectrum were gowns in yellow, worn by the costume designer Ruth E. Carter, and red, worn by the model Cara Delevingne.But it was white that might have emerged as the most popular shade of the night: Michelle Yeoh, Michelle Williams, Andrea Riseborough, Harry Shum Jr., Paul Mescal, Emily Blunt and Mindy Kaling all wore it. Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana DeBose, Zoe Saldana and Eva Longoria also wore white-leaning outfits, some of which sparkled because of liberal bedazzling.At an event that is basically the Olympics of dressing up, to ask who looked the best is something of a trick question because everyone looked glamorous. (One scroll through our full list of outfits from the carpet makes that clear.) The 21 looks that follow, though, had a little something extra — more polish or personality or panache (or all three) — that made them stand out more than most.Finishing this awards season strong and elegant.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesCate Blanchett: The Most Restrained!The actress, who took on the role of an imperious orchestra conductor in the film “Tár,” reminded audiences that she is also a maestro of the (red) carpet when she arrived in a strong-shouldered velvet top from Louis Vuitton’s archives tucked gracefully into a trim silk skirt.Distinctive and daring.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesDanai Gurira: The Most Updo!The square neckline on the actress’s gown projected strength. So did her gravity-defying hair — styled by Larry Sims — which Ms. Gurira said made her feel her most “African self.”Why wear an ordinary tuxedo?Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesHarry Shum Jr.: The Most Asymmetrical!“East meets West” is how the actor described his custom tuxedo by Adeam, a label that traditionally makes women’s wear. The looser fit, asymmetrical lapel, navy piping and sash belt were all elements that made it more fun than your average penguin suit.Taking the shirtless trend to a new place.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesRiz Ahmed: The Most Subtle Pink!The actor’s Prada look, a black suit with a pink wool cardigan peeking out (and a bare chest peeking out beneath that), was perhaps best described as Batman meets Harry Styles.The only way to capture this dress properly was from the side.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesHong Chau: The Most Party in the Back!A mandarin collar was a detail specifically requested by the Vietnamese actress for her satin Prada gown, which was adorned with a shimmering black train. The look, according to Ms. Chau, paid homage to her roots and to the brand’s 1997 show.More on the 95th Academy AwardsA24’s Triumphant Night: The art-house studio behind “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Whale” became the first studio in the history of the Oscars to capture the top six awards in the same year.Normalcy Reigns: After breathing a sigh of relief that the night went smoothly, our co-chief film critics discussed the academy’s carefully staged return to (fingers crossed?) a new normal.Oscar Fashion: Rihanna’s belly, Florence Pugh’s shorts and Cate Blanchett’s archival velvet brought new relevance to awards show dressing, our fashion critic says.After-Parties: Take a look inside the Governor’s Ball and Vanity Fair’s Oscar party, where the stars and filmmakers celebrated with moguls, musicians and models.Making it look easy.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesNicole Kidman: The Most Flowers!She might not have not been up for any Oscars this year, but that did not stop the actress from dressing (and posing) like a winner in a shiny black Armani Privé gown with giant flowers at the shoulder and the hip and a leg-revealing front slit.Sharper than a stealth bomber.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesJennifer Connelly: The Most Mach 10!The actress’s black Louis Vuitton gown had a gem-studded trapezoidal neckline that soared upward toward her jaw, like a runway lit up at night.A dress that is also a balancing act.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesJanelle Monáe: The Most Statuesque!Orange is reportedly among the least worn colors on awards-show carpets. Fitting, then, that the singer and actress known for taking style risks chose a tangerine-colored skirt to complete her custom Vera Wang ensemble.She always goes for it.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesFlorence Pugh: The Most Doing It!Shorts? At the Oscars? If anyone could make them work it would be the English actress, who sported a black pair beneath a voluminous gray-white Valentino couture gown made more edgy by her mini bangs and septum ring.Can we have this dance?Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesPaul Mescal: The Most Flared (Pants)!The internet’s boyfriend looked refreshingly retro and ready for prom in his white Gucci dinner jacket, complete with a rose on the lapel, and flared black trousers.A shape shifter, Lady Gaga always surprises.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesLady Gaga: The Most Poker Faced!The singer and actress kept it relatively simple in a sheer black Versace gown straight off the runway. (Days before the Oscars, Gigi Hadid modeled the dress at the brand’s show in Los Angeles.) And instead of incorporating red meat into the look, she went with a red lip.Getting better and better every year.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesAngela Bassett: The Most Purple!The actress’s snake-shaped necklace and soft wavy hair were two elements of a regal look that was anchored by a flowing Moschino gown in a purple shade that Ms. Bassett described as “the color of royalty.”Don’t let the sweetness fool you.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesAllison Williams: The Most Killer!Like the A.I. humanoid robot she shares the screen with in “M3GAN,” the actress slayed the Oscars carpet in her sheer crystal-encrusted dress by Giambattista Valli, which she topped with a billowing pink satin coat.A winning shade.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesDwayne Johnson: The Most Ballet!“Ballet pink” was how the actor described the color of his double-breasted Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo jacket, which he said had a wool base that brought out the piece’s “masculinity.”She went all out with one leg and one arm out.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesCara Delevingne: The Most Rosey!No red carpet, no problem. Thanks to the model and actress, who wore a scarlet one-shoulder Elie Saab dress with a high slit, the color was not totally absent from this year’s awards ceremony.Calm after the storm of “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesStephanie Hsu: The Most Spacious!“I am wearing Valentino Haute Couture and it is giving ‘taking up space,’” the actress said of her strapless ball gown, which she paired with simple — if not sparkly — jewelry and side-swept hair in loose waves.A look that says: Go your own way.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesSarah Polley: The Most Comfortable!Though the screenwriter and director of “Women Talking” may prioritize dressing practically — “I don’t ever like to be cold, and I don’t like my feet to hurt,” she said of her outfit on the carpet — her ruffle-trimmed shirt suggested that she appreciates playfulness as well.No risk of this dress blowing up over a subway grate.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesAna de Armas: The Most Marilyn!It reportedly took 1,000 hours to make the petals that formed the skirt of Ms. de Armas’s silvery Louis Vuitton gown. In it, the actress looked as much like Marilyn Monroe, whom she portrayed in the film “Blonde,” as any others who have recently tried to channel the Old Hollywood icon.Oceanic.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesHalle Bailey: The Most Disney Princess!Of the many princess dresses on the carpet, the singer’s poufy aquamarine Dolce & Gabbana gown arguably stood out the most. Why? Because of the buzz surrounding her role playing a Disney princess, Ariel, in the forthcoming live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid.”Schwing!Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesHarvey Guillen: The Most Twirl!The shape of the actor’s brocade Christian Siriano suit jacket was matched only by his beautifully swirled hair shellacked into shiny waves.No matter where he goes, there he is.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesLenny Kravitz: The Most Lenny!The rock star showed up to perform at the Oscars looking as fine as ever in a low-cut satin Saint Laurent top with lots of necklaces layered over his exposed chest. When you have a working formula, as he does, stick with it.Stella Bugbee, Sadiba Hasan, Callie Holtermann, Madison Malone Kircher, Anthony Rotunno and Wilson Wong contributed reporting. More

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      ‘Encounter’ Review: The Scenic Route

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      A volatile veteran attempts to rescue his sons from a perceived alien threat in this confused cross between sci-fi thriller and family drama.At the beginning of “Encounter,” the sophomore feature from the British director Michael Pearce, something bright and blazing crash-lands in the night and a swarm of microorganisms appears to colonize an earthly host. This body-snatching setup could not be more familiar. It could also be a feint.Using the tropes of the alien-invasion thriller to tell another, more complicated story, Pearce and his co-writer, Joe Barton, make exactly half of a good movie. For a while, it’s enough to watch Malik (an electric Riz Ahmed), a stressed-out former Marine, interact with his two young sons (Aditya Geddada and Lucian-River Chauhan) as they drive full-tilt from Oregon to Nevada. Believing he is saving the boys from an extraterrestrial threat, Malik has kidnapped them from the home of his ex-wife and her new partner. His destination is a bunker where, he explains to the children, scientists are secretly working to repel the microbial invaders.To the boys, this is initially a welcome adventure; but as Malik’s behavior becomes more volatile and unnerving — and we learn more of his history — his sons grow anxious and the movie grows too fond of its ambiguities. Malik’s trauma is clear, his invisible wounds as evident as the parasites he sees crawling in the eye of a California state trooper. Yet, after setting up a potentially powerful study of damage and delusion, Pearce (whose 2018 feature debut, “Beast,” signaled an unusual talent) remains torn between science fiction and psychological fact. And despite Benjamin Kracun’s sometimes haunting visuals — a decaying mining community in the Nevada desert; a drone shot of government vehicles gathering with insectoid purpose — the movie finally has nowhere to run but out of steam.EncounterRated R for men with guns and creepy-crawlies with agendas. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters and on Amazon Prime Video. More

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      ‘Mogul Mowgli’ Review: Rapping for Dear Life

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      Riz Ahmed plays a hip-hop artist who faces illness and identity crises in Bassam Tariq’s electrifying new film.We first meet Zaheen, whose rap moniker is Zed, onstage at a club in New York. Wiry and wired, with a whispery intensity and a quick sense of humor — and played by Riz Ahmed with everything he has — Zed is on the verge of a career breakthrough after years of almost-stardom. He’s also about to break up with his girlfriend, Bina (Aiysha Hart), and face an illness that will precipitate a wrenching identity crisis.But before all that, if you listen to the verses he spits, it’s clear that the puzzles and paradoxes of identity are the wellsprings of his art. A London-bred son of immigrants from Pakistan, he writes seething, witty rhymes about the complicated history of the skin he lives in. He’s a British citizen descended from colonial subjects; a Muslim who is skeptical of piety and tradition; a man of the 21st century burdened by an earlier era’s legacy of partition, displacement and war.Nothing about Zed is simple, and he revels in his own complexity. “Mogul Mowgli,” Bassam Tariq’s astute, compact fictional feature debut, is a portrait of the artist as a son, brother and patient. Not that he’s summed up by such roles, or any others. “Only a few fit those words, so I’m repping for the rest of us,” he raps.Ahmed, who wrote those lyrics (and collaborated with Tariq on the screenplay) reps the character faithfully. Zed’s illness makes “Mogul Mowgli” a companion of sorts to “Sound of Metal,” in which Ahmed played a drummer facing the existential crisis of hearing loss. An autoimmune disease, arriving midway through this movie, quickly renders Zed unable to walk or stand without assistance. Stuck in a hospital bed, he is thrown back into a difficult relationship with his father (the superb Alyy Khan) and into a series of reveries.These unnerving episodes — existing somewhere between dream and memory, fantasy and hallucination — evoke moments from Zed’s childhood and also some of the traumas of South Asian history. One recurrent figure is a wildly dancing man, his face obscured by garlands of flowers. He is identified as Toba Tek Singh, a Punjabi place name that is also the title of a short story (by Saadat Hasan Manto) about the absurdity and tragedy of the 1947 partition of British India into India and Pakistan. Rather than explain the reference, Tariq and Ahmed let Toba Tek Singh stand as a kind of avatar and warning for Zed, who does what he can to master the madness of his circumstances.The film moves briskly though the phases of his predicament. He squabbles with his manager (Anjana Vasan), deals with an obnoxious fan, and endures the admiration of a younger rap acolyte known as RPG (Nabhaan Rizwan), a fool with facial tattoos and wisdom that would make Ali G proud. (“There’s no Drake without Whoopi Goldberg. No Nelson Mandela without apartheid.”)With the director of photography (Annika Summerson) and the sound designer (Paul Davies), Tariq stitches domestic drama, satire and magical realism into a tissue of moods and meanings, held together by the shattering credibility of Ahmed’s performance. In his work, Zed tries to bring coherence to the baffling anarchy of experience. “Mogul Mowgli” accomplishes just that.Mogul MowgliNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Independent Spirit Awards Continue ‘Nomadland’ Winning Streak

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      Meanwhile, Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) and Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”) won lead acting trophies.Three years ago, as she accepted a best-actress trophy for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” at the Independent Spirit Awards, Frances McDormand mentioned all the people she hoped to work with next. Then she peered at someone in the audience. “Chloé?” she said.Few knew it then, but she was singling out the director Chloé Zhao, who had been celebrated earlier at the ceremony for her second film, “The Rider.” At that time, McDormand had just met with Zhao about directing a small independent feature McDormand planned to produce and star in. And on Thursday night, the film they made together, “Nomadland,” won top honors at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards.That continues the gentle road drama’s juggernaut journey through awards season, where it has taken nearly every major award available, including top honors from the Producers Guild, Directors Guild, and the Golden Globes. It enters the Oscars on Sunday as the decided favorite.Zhao also won the Independent Spirit Award for best director, becoming the fourth woman ever to do so. If she wins at the Oscars, as she’s expected to, she will become only the second woman to take that trophy since “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow in 2010.Some other Oscar favorites also triumphed at the Independent Spirit Awards. Supporting-actress front-runner Yuh-Jung Youn won for “Minari,” while “Promising Young Woman” filmmaker Emerald Fennell picked up another award for her screenplay.But some perpetually on-the-verge contenders finally got a high-profile victory here, including Carey Mulligan, who won the best-actress award for “Promising Young Woman” and dedicated it to the British actress Helen McCrory, who died this month. That Oscar category remains wide open: McDormand won the BAFTA award, Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) won the SAG award, and Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) won the Golden Globe.“Sound of Metal” star Riz Ahmed triumphed in the best-actor category, where he was up against actor Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), who died last year. Ahmed’s costar Paul Raci earned a win in the supporting-actor category. That’s a major victory for Raci, a 72-year-old actor who had been working as a court interpreter for the deaf for decades before he found his breakthrough role.“I’ve been a day player for thirty years here in Hollywood,” Raci said in his acceptance speech, “and I have one little piece of advice I can give to all of you people who are struggling here: Don’t quit your day job. I never did. I still have it, too!”The ceremony was held virtually and hosted by comedian Melissa Villaseñor. For a full list of winners, click here. More

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      How ‘Sound of Metal’ Star Paul Raci Went From Day Jobs to Oscar Nominee

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      After decades of struggle, the 72-year-old actor finally found his breakthrough playing a deaf Vietnam vet with addiction issues — a role with parallels to his own life.It’s been a long time coming for Paul Raci, who just earned his first Oscar nomination at age 72.“To be an actor for all these years — 40 years of just knocking around — and then to have this kind of acclaim, it’s insane, man,” Raci said recently in the backyard of his Burbank home.For most of his career, Raci has had to make do with one- or two-line roles in TV shows like “Parks and Recreation” and “Baskets.” Then the “Sound of Metal” director Darius Marder plucked Raci from obscurity and handed him the part of a lifetime: Joe, the stoic but sensitive leader of a sober-living community for deaf people who takes in a troubled punk-metal drummer, Ruben (Riz Ahmed).It’s a role with real-life resonance for Raci, who grew up in Chicago as a CODA — a child of deaf adults — and, like Joe, dealt with addiction issues after serving in Vietnam. “I always say I went into Vietnam like John Wayne, and I came out Lenny Bruce,” Raci said.A lifetime spent as his parents’ hearing interpreter had instilled in Raci a love for performance, but when he moved to Los Angeles decades ago to pursue an acting career, roles were scarce. “I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve always known what I was capable of, but nothing was happening for me out here,” he said.Still, Raci kept plugging away, working by day as a sign-language interpreter in the Los Angeles County Superior Court system and, at night, continuing to hone his craft in stage productions at the Deaf West Theater. “I would always think to myself, ‘I must be so specific that there’s nothing around here for me,” said Raci, who is small and wiry with tattoos and rocker-length hair. “I thought, ‘I’ve got to wait for that specific role.’” And then it finally came.These are edited excerpts from our conversation.Raci as a sober-community leader in “Sound of Metal,” starring Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke.Amazon StudiosWhat was the morning of the Oscar nominations like for you?Well, I don’t have an alarm clock — I have a head clock, and for some reason it was unplugged that morning. I was supposed to get up at 5 a.m., and at 5:25 a.m., my wife and I got up: “Oh, we missed it!” We run in the living room, turn on the TV and just as it came up, they were on the second guy from the supporting-actor category. And then [presenter Priyanka Chopra Jonas] goes, “And Paul Rah-ci.” I said, “No, it’s Ray-ci … and I accept!”So now it’s 5:30 in the morning, my phone starts ringing. People are showing up with wine, they’re showing up with edibles — not the kind you’re thinking about, but fruit covered with chocolate, and cupcakes. My friend Hillary, she brings over a bottle of champagne — I said, “It’s six o’clock, Hillary!” My wife is crying, my daughter is crying. It stayed like that all day long, so it was quite exciting.And what was it like after the dust settled?Six days later, I looked at my wife and I said, “Did this really happen?” But if I had to wait this long for this moment, it’s worth it, man. A very good friend emailed me two days ago and said, “Paul, this is not just a supporting-actor nomination, this is a lifetime achievement award.” I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I got a lot of work left to do here. I think this thing has added 20 years to my life.For decades, you had been doing day-player work in movies and television. How did you make those kinds of roles feel worthwhile?To be honest, it’s more of a detriment than anything, because it just shows you what an abysmal failure you are in your own head. I mean, I wasn’t able to get a series-regular audition or to even get in the room because, “They need a name.” Thank God for Deaf West Theater — if it wasn’t for them, where the hell else was I going to exercise my acting chops? I had nothing. But you go from gig to gig and hope that something’s going to happen.So how did it finally happen? When you auditioned to play Joe in “Sound of Metal,” did you have an inkling that this time might be different?I put it on tape, sent it in and then forgot about it — because listen, this never happens for me. When I leave an audition with the sides [script pages] in my hand, I rip them up, throw it in the garbage. I’m not going to dwell on stuff that’s going to break my heart. But my wife, who’s my agent, called the casting directing office and said, “Have you seen Paul’s tape?”At that point, they said: “We’re inundated with tapes. We’ve got too many that we can’t even find Paul’s tape, and we’re probably going to go with a name.” Robert Duvall, Forest Whitaker, that’s what they were looking for, name-wise. My audition tape was fairly strong, and my wife said, “Please, look for it.” Ten minutes later, the phone rings. The casting office goes, “Darius wants to talk to Paul.” A week later, he drove down to meet me and we talked and talked.A friend told Raci to consider his nomination a lifetime achievement award: “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I got a lot of work left to do here.”Michelle Groskopf for The New York TimesIt must be great to have a wife who fights for you in that regard.Listen, she’s been a small-time agent here for over 20 years, trying to compete with CAA and ICM. She has a boutique agency and she said, “I’m not going to close it until you’re a star, Paul.” She was always fighting to get me in a room, and it never happened. My mind-set was so stuck in rejection that even at the end of my conversation with Darius, I said, “Hold on a second, are you actually offering me the role?” He said, “Yes, I am.” But at first, I told them I wasn’t going to do the movie.Why not?Look, I got a house to pay for here. This is not the big movie I thought it was — it was a very small budget, and I could make more money staying here in L.A. and working in the court system than what they were offering me. I’m going to go all the way over there [around Boston] for something that’s going to put me in the hole? I can’t afford that — I don’t even have health insurance for my family. So I said to my wife, “Tell Darius I’m not interested.”Really? That takes guts.Well, it looked like a pretty good movie, but I’m a blue-collar guy like my dad and I’ve got to pay my bills. Then Darius calls me: “You can’t do this! You don’t understand what this means.” So they kind of bumped up my per diem. He was so flexible with me, and I knew his heart was in the right place — he was so respectful to my point of view, to my CODA experience, that I felt like I could trust him.After subsisting for so long on these minor roles, how did it feel to play out such long scenes opposite Riz Ahmed?Wonderful. Fulfilling. I’ve had many of those moments in a 99-seat theater, but to be able to have this captured on film is incredible to me. And to be a scene partner with somebody with Riz’s brilliance is a dream come true. In our very first scene, when he’s sitting across from me and I say, “So, how are you doing,” he’s in so much pain and he just sits there, taking a very long moment. And that was real! He just breaks my heart.I’m forever grateful to Riz Ahmed — I don’t know if I could have done it with another actor, because it was so intense. In our last scene together, I looked over in the periphery of my eye when they called “Cut,” and Darius Marder was standing there just weeping.“You go from gig to gig and hope that something’s going to happen,” Raci said.Michelle Groskopf for The New York TimesThough you’re a child of deaf adults, you’re also a hearing person. Is there a case to be made that Joe should have been played by someone who is deaf or hard of hearing?That’s an argument that some would make in the deaf community, yes. However, I would argue back, because I’m a CODA and you cannot take me out of this culture that I was brought up in. I would never take a deaf role from a deaf actor who is culturally deaf, but Joe is a guy who was late-deafened.I’m sensitive to it, and I vetted it before we went ahead. I asked Darius in the beginning, “I don’t feel comfortable having this guy be deaf. Can’t you make the guy a CODA?” He said, “That’s interesting. Let me get back to you.” He had three deaf advisers on the set, and all three told Darius, “No, it’s more compelling to have him be deafened,” to have that parallel line between Ruben and Joe, which you feel so strongly.The beautiful thing about it is I’m hooked into [“Sound of Metal” distributor] Amazon right now, and they’re coming to me and asking for content. I have other things I’ve written, I have other deaf writers I know of, and because of this connection, I think some doors are going to be kicked down, because people are interested in what I have to say right now.Have you figured out what your next project will be?Listen, I have “Team Paul” now. I’ve got a management team, I’ve got an entertainment lawyer, and Team Paul is now advising me that I have to be very careful with the next role I take. I’ve been offered — honest to God — about eight, nine, 10 things. And I’ve never been offered anything ever! I can’t wait to get started working again, but I’m going to have to be a little selective and there’s nothing wrong with that.Are any career goals now in sight?I love Bill Murray, he’s the same age as me. I don’t want to take any roles away from Bill, but I certainly would like to act with that guy. I used to fantasize and meditate on things like that, things I thought were too good to be true, because for many years my prayer has always been, “Nothing is too good to believe in. It can happen.” Even though there was a part of me didn’t even believe that, the prayer believed in me and lifted me up. You’ve got to just persevere, even when the believing isn’t in you. If it’s true for me, it’s true for everybody. More

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      Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun Make History at the 2021 Oscar Nominations

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Awards SeasonOscar Nominations HighlightsNominees ListSnubs and SurprisesBest Director NomineesStream the NomineesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyRiz Ahmed and Steven Yeun Make History at the 2021 Oscar NominationsFor the first time, two men of Asian heritage are up for best actor. Their films, “Sound of Metal” and “Minari,” are also up for best picture.March 15, 2021Updated 5:19 p.m. ETRiz Ahmed in “Sound of Metal.”Credit…Amazon Studios, via Associated PressSteven Yeun in “Minari.”Credit…David Bornfriend/A24, via Associated PressIt’s been nearly 20 years since a man of Asian heritage notched a best actor nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.But this year, for the first time in the 93-year history of the Academy Awards, there are two: Steven Yeun (“Minari”), who was born in South Korea and raised in the United States, and Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), who is a Briton of Pakistani descent. Both Ahmed and Yeun are first-time nominees.Their inclusion is especially notable because despite a spate of Asian-led films in recent years, including last year’s best picture winner, “Parasite,” the academy had failed to recognize the performers.Just two actors of Asian heritage have ever been nominated in the category: The Russian-born Yul Brynner (“The King and I”), and Ben Kingsley (“Gandhi,” “House of Sand and Fog”), whose father is Indian. Brynner and Kingsley each won the award once.Yeun and Ahmed have some tough competition: The other three nominees this year are Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), who won a posthumous Golden Globe for best actor in a drama, Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) and Gary Oldman (“Mank”).The New York Times’s co-chief film critic A.O. Scott called Yeun’s performance in “Minari,” as a Korean immigrant father who moves his family to the Ozarks, “effortlessly magnetic.” Scott praised his proclivity for finding “the cracks in the character’s carefully cultivated reserve, the large, unsettled emotions behind the facade of stoicism.”Ahmed won acclaim for his performance as a drummer who loses his hearing in “Sound of Metal,” which the Times critic Jeannette Catsoulis praised for its “extraordinarily intricate” sound design. She singled out Ahmed for his “tweaking urgency that’s poignantly credible — he’s a study in distress.”Even though only four men of Asian heritage have ever been nominated for best actor, the situation is far more bleak in the best actress category, where only one woman of Asian heritage has ever been nominated (Merle Oberon for the 1935 drama “The Dark Angel”), and none has won.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Riz Ahmed on Being the First Muslim Nominated for the Best Actor Oscar

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Awards SeasonOscar Nominations HighlightsNominees ListSnubs and SurprisesBest Director NomineesStream the NomineesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyRiz Ahmed on Being the First Muslim Nominated for the Best Actor OscarThe star of “Sound of Metal” is also part of another academy record: with Steven Yeun of “Minari,” it’s the first time two men of Asian descent are up for best actor at the same time.Riz Ahmed in a scene from “Sound of Metal.” He learned both American Sign Language and drumming for the part.Credit…Amazon Studios, via Associated PressMarch 15, 2021, 12:14 p.m. ET More

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      Theater to Stream: Revisiting ‘Rent’ and ‘Angels in America’

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTheater to Stream: Revisiting ‘Rent’ and ‘Angels in America’Presentations include the 30th anniversary of George C. Wolfe’s “The Colored Museum”; Andréa Burns in “Bad Dates”; and a solo show by Riz Ahmed.From left, Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Anthony Rapp in “Rent,” whose anniversary is being celebrated with a reunion presented by New York Theater Workshop.Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesFeb. 17, 2021A pair of game-changing shows are celebrating big anniversaries, so now is a good time to revisit them and their legacies.George C. Wolfe’s “The Colored Museum,” an anthology of sketches about Black culture (called exhibits), felt like a bolt of lighting when it premiered in 1986. At its heart, as Frank Rich said in his New York Times review, was the question “How do American Black men and women at once honor and escape the legacy of suffering that is the baggage of their past?”From left, Reggie Montgomery, Vickilyn Reynolds, Tommy Hollis and Suzzanne Douglas in the streaming production of “The Colored Museum,” filmed in 1991.Credit…Nancy LevineThanks to Crossroads Theater Company — where the show originated before moving to the Public Theater, and which is streaming the “Great Performances” capture from 1991 — we can confirm that while a few details have aged, “The Colored Museum” retains much of its satirical charge.It’s fascinating, now, to see how playlets in the show — such as “Git on Board” (about welcoming guests on a “celebrity slaveship”) and “The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play” (a blistering take on “A Raisin in the Sun” — have influenced contemporary works like Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s “An Octoroon” and Jordan E. Cooper’s “Ain’t No Mo.’” Through Feb. 28; crossroadstheatrecompany.comWhen Jonathan Larson’s “Rent” opened at New York Theater Workshop in 1996, its young, often queer and racially diverse characters felt new in musicals; it also dealt with the HIV/AIDS crisis, one of the biggest issues of the day. The show immediately found a passionate audience, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and transferred to Broadway, where it remained for over 12 years. Hindsight makes it clear that “Rent” has endured because a fairly conventional heart beats under its edgy demeanor, and that this “rock” musical is built out of zhuzhed-up show tunes; those are solid bones.New York Theater Workshop is revisiting the phenomenon with the tribute “25 Years of Rent: Measured in Love,” in which Eva Noblezada, Ben Platt, Billy Porter and Ali Stroker join original cast members, including Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp and Daphne Rubin-Vega. March 2-6; nytw.orgNathan Lane in the National Theater’s production of “Angels in America” on Broadway.Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesCatching up with British productionsThe National Theater’s streaming arm, National Theater at Home, has just made available its acclaimed production of “Angels in America,” which stars Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane and Denise Gough Some of us in the United States were lucky enough to see it when the production traveled from London to Broadway three years ago. Perhaps even more exciting, then, is the opportunity to discover older shows that didn’t come to New York, like “Antigone” starring Christopher Eccleston and Jodie Whittaker; “Medea,” with a pre-“I May Destroy You” Michaela Coel as the nurse; and Lucy Kirkwood’s “Mosquitoes,” in which Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams play sisters. ntathome.comAndréa Burns in Theresa Rebeck’s “Bad Dates.”Credit…via George Street Playhouse‘Bad Dates’A good rule of thumb: Whenever the wonderful Andréa Burns (“In the Heights,” “On Your Feet!”) pops up in something, just check it out. In this case it’s Theresa Rebeck’s one-woman play “Bad Dates,” presented by the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey, which should provide good opportunities for Burns to flex her considerable comic muscles as a divorced woman looking for love. Feb. 23-March 14; georgestreetplayhouse.orgMichael Guagno stars in the Kafka-inspired “Letter to My Father.”Credit…Eileen Meny‘Letter to My Father’In 1919, a 36-year-old Franz Kafka penned, but did not send, a long missive to his father, Hermann. The text (published in English as “Letter to His Father”) was an impassioned of indictment of a domestic tyrant, the now-grown son still possessed by fear, his wounds still fresh. The M-34 company, captures the live show with multiple cameras, offering various perspectives to the audience. The show is directed by James Rutherford, and performed by Michael Guagno. Feb. 19-March 28; m-34.orgRiz Ahmed in his solo show “The Long Goodbye.”Credit…Kelly Mason‘The Long Goodbye’The British actor Riz Ahmed, whose performance in “Sound of Metal” recently earned him a Golden Globe nomination, is also a rapper. A solo show expanding on themes explored on his album of the same name, “The Long Goodbye” was livestreamed in December and is now available on demand from the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Manchester International Festival, which jointly commissioned it. Recording himself on a cellphone, the charismatic Ahmed prowls the empty Great American Music Hall in San Francisco while blending hip-hop and spoken word, autobiographical accounts and pointed insights. Through March 1; bam.orgTelling someone else’s storyTwo of the most storied performers you could dream of seeing are appearing in a solo biographical shows they also wrote. First, Lillias White, a Tony Award winner for “The Life,” pays tribute to the jazz great Sarah Vaughan in “Divine Sass” (Feb. 18-20). Then André De Shields, who stole the show every night in “Hadestown,” portrays an abolitionist and social reformer in “Frederick Douglass: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory” (Feb. 26-28). Both will be presented on Flushing Town Hall’s virtual stage, flushingtownhall.orgWendell Pierce, left, and Charlie Robinson in “Some Old Black Man.”Credit…Doug Coombe‘Some Old Black Man’One of the greatest actors of his generation, Wendell Pierce (“The Wire,” “Treme”) is fiercely committed to theater. In 2018, he starred in the James Anthony Tyler two-hander “Some Old Black Man” in New York; last fall, he quarantined in Ann Arbor, Mich., to participate in a virtual, fully staged version of that play for the University of Michigan’s University Musical Society. Pierce plays a middle-aged college professor who reconnects with his father (Charlie Robinson) as the two men confront their experiences with racism. March 1-12; ums.org‘The Past Is the Past’Manhattan Theater Club revisits some of its past productions in Curtain Call, a new reading series. Ron Cephas Jones — a captivating stage actor despite being most famous for the series “This Is Us” — and Jovan Adepo (“Watchmen”) lead Richard Wesley’s “The Past Is the Past.” The New York Times called the play “a poignant evocation of families and generations in conflict” when the company presented it in 1975, a year after its premiere at the Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn (Feb. 18-28). Head over to Manhattan Theater Club’s YouTube channel to watch the playwright John Patrick Shanley and Timothée Chalamet discuss the 2016 production of “Prodigal Son” — with generous excerpts from the show, which just predated Chalamet’s stardom. manhattantheatreclub.com‘48Hours in … El Bronx’For this year’s digital edition of Harlem9 and Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater’s “48Hours in …” festival, the playwrights Julissa Contreras, Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Alisha Espinosa, Andres Osorio, Alejandra Ramos Riera and Andrew Rincon looked to the work of photographers from the South Bronx collective Seis del Sur to create six 10-minute plays. Feb. 18-22; harlem9.veeps.comAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More