Variety 12/21/2022

There’s nothing better than a little healthy debate. Fourteen moviecriticsandmorethan20editorsand reporters fought it out over which movies would be included in our list of the 100 greatest ever. And now it’s our readers’ turn to tell us what we got right — and what we missed. Does Hitchcock really deserve the top spot over Scorsese and Coppola? Are the two Spielberg movies included — perhaps not the ones you’d guess — better than “Schindler’s List” and “Jaws”? And is “Kramer vs. Kramer” really Meryl Streep’s best film? Even as we were putting this issue to bed, there were cries in the office that “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Death Becomes Her” were robbed. This issue is a celebration of cinema and the long-lasting conversations it sparks. Our staff contributed sharp…

Chief film critic Owen Gleiberman has been asked “What’s your favorite movie?” more often than he’s been asked any other question. The answer, in case you were wondering, is “Nashville” (No. 17 on our list). Chief film critic Peter Debruge spent the past six months rewatching classics he hadn’t seen since film school to help rank the masterpieces on our Greatest Movies list. His desert island movie is “The Princess Bride.” Executive editor Brent Lang can’t believe he was paid to listen to much smarter people debate the greatest movies in history. Editing these beautifully written assessments (with a big assist from Pat Saperstein) didn’t feel like work at all. Creative director Steven Banks says countless hours of Tetris helped him solve the jigsaw puzzle — 32 pages of 100…

Fasten your seat belts: Hollywood is in for another bumpy ride in 2023. With the economy once again on the brink of a recession and cutbacks hitting hard all over town, the entertainment industry is bracing for more challenges in the year ahead. Among the many question marks for 2023: Will the movie business revive to pre-pandemic levels? When will the high drama at Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery settle down? And how viable is streaming as a business model for legacy media companies anyway? In an ordinary year, Will Smith’s Oscar night slap of Chris Rock might stand out as a signature event, but that onstage incident, as shocking as it was, was soon over-shadowed by two seismic developments: In April, the Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed, paving the…

Harvey Weinstein will — in all likelihood — die in prison. He was convicted on Dec. 19 of rape and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles, meaning that he will not go free even if his New York conviction is overturned. But for a lot of observers, Weinstein’s second trial sent an ambiguous or even discouraging message. Weinstein was — and remains — the face of the #MeToo movement. Yet his conviction was no slam dunk for L.A. prosecutors. Instead, the jurors took more than 40 hours to reach a decision, and unanimously believed only one of the four accusers. “I think the #MeToo movement at one point was much stronger than it is now,” says Sam Dordulian, a former sex crimes prosecutor who is now in private practice. “The…

Most TV viewing these days takes place via streaming and other means. And yet, Nielsen’s numbers — which include time shifting and other ways people watch, not just live — are still the best barometer of who’s watching what in the linear world. And so, as another year comes to a close, it’s once again apparent that live TV — in particular, sports — is what’s driving viewership at the traditional networks. The top 31 most-watched telecasts in primetime this year are all live events — all sports, with the exception of the Oscars. Here is a snapshot of some of the highs and lows of 2022, by the numbers: WINNERS THE OSCARS The Academy Awards viewership is still a fraction of what it once was, but after a 2021…

AWARDS CIRCUIT In the eyes of cinephiles, remaking any film from Japanese giant Akira Kurosawa is sheer blasphemy. But when captivating actor Bill Nighy is at the center of the story, his angelic smile and splendid vocals do more than win you over. The Sony Pictures Classics drama “Living” — about a civil servant who decides to seize life after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis — debuted at Sundance and has since made stops at the Telluride, Venice and Toronto fests, building word-of-mouth buzz along the way. The common denominator of critical acclaim and joyful audience response is Nighy, whose submersion into the role of Mr. Williams, the tale’s central figure, delivers a compelling reminder to Hollywood that the 73-year-old thespian is long overdue for accolades. Nighy’s work is studded…