Editor’s note: Deadline presents the 54th episode and season finale of its video series Take Two, in which Pete Hammond and Todd McCarthy tackle the artistry of films just opening in theaters every weekend. Each has reviewed and written about the craft for decades and built a remarkable breadth of knowledge of films past and present. What we hoped for when we asked them to do this was a concise, mature and thoughtful conversation comparable to what we saw from Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel.
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For Take Two’s season finale, we offer our last thoughts on the 95th annual Academy Awards, what they got right, what they got wrong, our upbeat assessment of the show itself, the parallels between this year and past Oscars, plus a look to the future and some possible nominees lining up for next season and our general wrap-up for now. As the next Oscar season, the Cannes Film Festival, the summer movie season and the fall festivals ramp up, you will be hearing from us again. Until then, just click on the link above for our conversation and finale.
Hammond has been Deadline’s Awards Columnist for the past decade, covering what seemingly has become the year-round Oscar and Emmy seasons. He also is Deadline’s Chief Film Critic, having previously reviewed films for MovieLine, Boxoffice magazine, Backstage, Hollywood.com and Maxim, as well as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide, for which he was a contributing editor. In addition to writing, Hammond also hosts KCET Cinema Series and the station’s weekly series Must See Movies.
McCarthy is a veteran trade publication film critic, columnist and reporter who has also written several acclaimed books and documentary films. He served two stints on the staffs of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter and extensively covered film festivals internationally for both publications. His film Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography won the best documentary prizes from the New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics associations, and he won an Emmy for writing the documentary Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer. He also directed the documentaries Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient and Forever Hollywood.
