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Matthew Jacobs

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Matthew Jacobs is a freelance writer who covers pop culture at New York, Vanity Fair, GQ, Town & Country, and beyond.

  1. swoon
    National Anthem Is Like a Lana Del Rey Song in Movie FormOne of the loveliest titles out of last year’s SXSW lineup is finally in theaters.
  2. role call
    Anna Faris Answers Every Question We Have About Smiley Face“I couldn’t believe that this role was for a woman.”
  3. stories from the frontline
    What It’s Like to Work With Madonna on a Movie SetSpike Lee and eight other collaborators look back on the highs and lows of the queen of pop’s Hollywood career.
  4. chat room
    Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau, the Babes Babes, on Motherhood and Poop“There is so little art out there that uses what is uniquely a woman’s experience as hard comedy.”
  5. vulture lists
    Every Laura Dern Role, RankedOften volatile and warped onscreen, immensely likable off-screen.
  6. humane
    Caitlin Cronenberg on That Time She Showed Ryan Gosling Her Buttcrack PiercingThe first-time director on getting into the family business with her debut Humane, and making conversation with movie stars.
  7. backstory
    How Civil War Pulled Off Its Vicious White House SiegeAlex Garland needed Tyler Perry’s 330-acre studio, a Navy SEAL, and a dry sense of humor.
  8. rankings
    Every Kirsten Dunst Role, RankedHas any child star of the last 40 years fared better than her?
  9. q&a
    ‘I Don’t Know How Much of It Is Immoral’Jerrod Carmichael’s surreal new HBO docuseries Reality Show puts all his relationships to the test. He’s still living with the aftermath.
  10. sxsw 2024
    The 12 Best Movies We Saw This Year at SXSWYou’ve probably heard of The Fall Guy and The Idea of You by now, but there are smaller titles that shined at this year’s film festival, too.
  11. sxsw 2024
    What Is the Civil War in Alex Garland’s Civil War?If you don’t want spoilers, but you do want answers, let us explain this movie.
  12. sxsw 2024
    Dev Patel Promises Monkey Man Is the Opposite of ‘Quick-Buck, Mindless’ ActionAt the SXSW premiere of his electric revenge saga, the first-time director nodded to all his action influences, from Bruce Lee to Jim Carrey.
  13. interview
    Oscar Winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph Never Let the Buzz Get to Her HeadThe Holdovers star poured so much detail into Mary Lamb and that extra effort helped win her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
  14. let’s go
    The 100 Fights That Shaped Action CinemaWhether the scenes featured fists, firearms, or blades, the result was always the same: The crowd was pleased.
  15. pretty statues
    Cheese: An Annotated History of the Oscar Class PhotoRevisiting 39 years of fancy midday Hollywood hangs.
  16. trending
    When a Tell-All Documentary Is Just Another Press ReleaseThese days, docs about pop stars feel publicist-approved — and they always seem to contain the same safe elements.
  17. delusions of grandeur
    Jake Johnson Turned an Existential Crisis Into His Directorial DebutInside the former New Girl star’s wild SXSW comedy about a deadly dark-web game.
  18. awards season
    A Guide to Playing Off Winners at Awards ShowsInsiders on the art of telling long-winded celebrities to please GTFO.
  19. ‘my mom’s going to kill me’
    Christine Lahti on That Time She Was in the Bathroom When She Won a Golden GlobeShe’d wandered to a faraway bathroom. Robin Williams jumped onstage to stall for time. And a stranger in the hallway became a casual hero.
  20. role call
    Diane Ladd Answers Every Question We Have About Wild at HeartOn working with her daughter Laura Dern, why Blue Velvet made her “angry,” and what she was thinking during that improvised lipstick scene.
  21. endings
    Andrew Haigh on the Song That Unlocks All of Us Strangers’ EndingThe director chose to end his new film with Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “The Power of Love” for personal and political reasons.
  22. chat room
    Alma Pöysti Saw Aki Kaurismäki’s Dog Make Strong Choices in Fallen LeavesThe Finnish actress talks her surprise Golden Globe nomination, one-take scenes, and her “very professional” canine scene partner, also named Alma.
  23. screen history
    How Has Hollywood Dealt With Age-Gap Relationships?The films critics and audiences did or didn’t rebuke tell a fascinating story about what the mainstream deems acceptable.
  24. barbie world
    The Woman Who Rescued Barbie from Development HellMattel executive Robbie Brenner, head of the toy company’s film division, tells us what it took to save the long-gestating adaptation.
  25. needle drops
    The Science of Scoring Sofia Coppola’s MoviesThe Priscilla director “has a very precise vision,” according to the band that’s helped bring her musical vision to the screen for two decades.
  26. timmy wéek
    Timothée Chalamet’s Earliest Directors Knew He’d Be a StarThe directors and casting agents who collaborated with him before his star-making role in 2017’s Call Me by Your Name look back at his early promise.
  27. person vs. persona
    Dream Scenario’s Kristoffer Borgli Has a Few Things to Say About Viral FameWith Dream Scenario and Sick of Myself, director Kristoffer Borgli has made two films that might leave you wanting to log off forever.
  28. taxonomies
    Making Up MadonnaDance-floor ringmaster, sex provocateur, Earth mother — Madge’s four decades of shapeshifting have been both a blessing and a curse.
  29. ‘it’s giving student film’
    Fights, Sex, and Self-Laceration: Inside Rotting in the SunSebastián Silva and Jordan Firstman play themselves in this hyper-meta satire, and had what Firstman calls “blowout fights” in the process.
  30. anonymous in hollywood
    How Much We Make in HollywoodAs the strike stretches on, 19 writers, actors, and crew members shared their hopes, fears, frustrations — and salaries.
  31. here we go again
    The Battle of Barbenheimer Is Mamma Mia! vs. The Dark Knight All Over AgainVeterans of the last time a long, brooding thriller by Christopher Nolan faced off against a colorful, pop-tune-heavy romp weigh in on the parallels.
  32. sanctuary
    Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott on Their Dominatrix ThrillerThe friends talk about their highly choreographed psychosexual farce Sanctuary and their roles in Yorgos Lanthimos’s forthcoming Poor Things.
  33. leveling up
    Trace Lysette Wishes She Had Something More Hopeful to SayThe actress has spent years hoping to land (or just audition for) roles like the one she has in Monica. But it’s been a struggle.
  34. role call
    Kathleen Turner Answers Every Question We Have About Serial MomOn defying her agents, hitting Patty Hearst with a pay phone, hating Barry Manilow, and watching Shirley MacLaine eat a staggering number of crabs.
  35. sxsw 2023
    15 Movies We Loved at SXSWThese are the ones you’ll want to see later this year.
  36. sxsw 2023
    SXSW Doubles Down on Rachel Sennott With I Used to Be Funny and BottomsSennott’s bawdy, chill-girl persona and Kate Berlant–like physicality are a perfect match for the unpretentiousness of SXSW.
  37. sxsw 2023
    Problemista Is So Very Julio TorresThe ex-SNL writer’s directorial debut is the latest A24 crowd-pleaser to light up SXSW.
  38. sxsw 2023
    Lukas Gage and Zachary Quinto Made a Riotous Gay Comedy About a Dead BodyLukas Gage promises “the world is going to be so shook” when it sees Zachary Quinto in Down Low.
  39. role call
    Debbie Harry Answers Every Question We Have About VideodromeThe Blondie legend on the “sticky” consequences of dyeing her hair, how James Woods annoyed David Cronenberg, and her work on Tron — whatever that is.
  40. awards season
    Joyce Carol Oates Sure Tweets About The Fabelmans a LotFor reasons surely unrelated to awards season, the Blonde author has become Twitter’s staunchest critic of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated movie.
  41. role call
    Billy Zane Answers Every Question We Have About TitanicThe ever-quotable Cal Hockley on flipping that table in front of Kate Winslet, the props he took from set, and inspiring so much hatred.
  42. strange trip
    25 Years Later, No One Knows Who Spiked the Titanic ChowderRevisiting the great PCP mystery of 1996 with one of James Cameron’s former crew members.
  43. role call
    Frances Fisher Answers Every Question We Have About TitanicOn the perils of corsets, the doily she borrowed from Prince Charles, and how one really can have too much caviar.
  44. ‘a damn good story’
    Inside Avatar’s Losing Battle to Beat The Hurt Locker for Best PictureThe 2010 Oscars pitted two famous exes against each other in a race studio sources remember as a David-versus-Goliath battle.
  45. jingle bell bop
    35 Musicians Confess Their Favorite Christmas SongsAnnie Lennox loves the Pogues. Santigold loves Otis Redding. Kacey Musgraves loves Kacey Musgraves.
  46. role call
    Sandra Bernhard Answers Every Question We Have About The King of ComedyOn beating out Meryl Streep for her part, improvising a kidnapping scene, and why Jerry Lewis wrote her an apology letter.
  47. 100 days of avatar
    The Unprecedented Marketing Gambit That Set Up Avatar’s SuccessRemember when thousands of us lined up to watch 16 never-before-seen minutes of Avatar at Imax?
  48. role call
    Isabella Rossellini Answers Every Question We Have About Death Becomes HerOn using a body double, her critique of Madonna’s Sex book, and why she’s glad she missed out on a role in a certain “exploitative” film.
  49. 100 days of avatar
    The Surprising Way Madonna Influenced AvatarTurns out James Cameron’s lucrative blue world got some indirect help from the singer of “True Blue.”
  50. chat room
    Naomi Watts Wasn’t Sure Whether She Should Do Yet Another Horror Remake“While I end up in multiple horror films, I’m not an obsessive fan,” says the Goodnight Mommy star.
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