Is ‘The Idol’ good for Hollywood Jews or ‘torture porn’?
The pilot of the controversial HBO series is chock full of Jews — but not the noblest depictions of them
Barry Levinson
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Film & TV -
Culture Julia Garner’s dual nominations and Levinson clan kudos promise a pretty Jewish Emmys
The 2022 Emmy nominations tee up more wins for ‘Mrs. Maisel,’ ‘Barry’ and ‘Succession’
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Film & TV In ‘The Survivor,’ Ben Foster enters the Gray Zone – but doesn’t land a knockout blow
The HBO film tells the true story of boxer Harry Haft
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Culture Al Pacino Plays a Philip Roth Character Gone Literally Insane in ‘The Humbling’
It’s always a mystery why anyone would want to turn a Philip Roth novel into a movie. Despite the author’s immense talent and celebrity, his writing — rich with ideas and emotional conflict, light on concrete action — doesn’t lend itself to the big screen. Recent attempts to render his books cinematically, like “The Human…
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The Schmooze Phil Spector Brings Legends Together
“Phil Spector, Al Pacino and Keith Richards…” sounds like the beginning of a really good joke — or at least, a pretty booze-filled one. The HBO premiere of Pacino and David Mamet’s biopic “Phil Spector” proved that the controversial but legendary producer can still bring legends together. Richards — who, as The New York Post…
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The Schmooze Shifra Lerer, 95, Yiddish Star of Stage and Screen
A version of this post appeared in Yiddish. On March 12 the Yiddish theater lost one of its most beloved stars. Shifra Lerer, an Argentine-born actress who toured the world and who later appeared in films by Woody Allen and Sidney Lumet, died in Manhattan at the age of 95. I met Shifra during my…
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