Highlights From Our Feb. 26 Issue

We made it! After this weekend, erstwhile nan Producers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild manus retired their highly predictive precursors, nan last style of nan Oscar title should beryllium (reasonably) clear — and nominees worn retired by months of campaigning will beryllium breathing a sigh of relief.

Before I stock highlights from this week’s issue, 1 programming note: This will beryllium my past missive from nan editor until our inaugural Cannes rumor drops successful May. (Don’t worry, I will beryllium plentifulness engaged successful nan interim catching up connected this year’s apical Emmy contenders.)

Thanks arsenic ever for pursuing along, and whitethorn you triumph successful your Oscar pool!

Cover story: Rose Byrne

(Ryan Pfluger / For The Times)

Times columnist Mary McNamara and I don’t work together connected everything, but we do work together connected this: “Damages” deserves to beryllium classed alongside “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” successful immoderate chat of nan Golden Age of TV.

That’s acknowledgment successful 1 portion to a gripping flash-forward communicative building now truthful communal it could beryllium considered a cliché, and successful different to Glenn Close’s indelible capacity arsenic ruthless litigator Patty Hewes. But it’s besides a testament to nan multifaceted talents of Rose Byrne, who went “toe-to-toe” pinch Close successful what would go her breakthrough domiciled — and past confidently pivoted to projects for illustration “Insidious,” “Bridesmaids” and “Spy.”

“Byrne is thing of a imaginative chameleon, moving easy from play to drama to horror, movie to tv to shape and backmost again,” McNamara writes successful this week’s screen story. “In galore ways, her gut-wrenching, darkly funny capacity arsenic a female pushed beyond each endurance successful “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” is simply a culmination of each nan characters she brought to life earlier it.”

Inside Warner Bros.’ ascendant Oscar haul

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Whether you travel down connected nan broadside of “Sinners” aliases “One Battle After Another” successful nan champion image title whitethorn beryllium cleanable fodder for statement pinch friends complete a fewer mini beers, but for Warner Bros. executives Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy it would beryllium akin to choosing a favourite child. After all, some projects emerged from nan pair’s desire, as contributor Gregory Ellwood writes, to make WB “a destination wherever filmmakers of each varieties, including auteurs, bring their projects for ‘white glove’ treatment.”

As De Luca explains, “Everything was original once... If you don’t refresh nan coffers pinch caller IP to create caller franchises, astatine immoderate constituent you get to Chapter 10 aliases 11 and group commencement to move on.”

The galore faces of ‘The Secret Agent’

(Ryan Pfluger/For The Times)

The infinitesimal Tânia Maria arrives onscreen arsenic Dona Sebastiana successful “The Secret Agent,” you can’t thief but inquire yourself, “Who is that?!” (Star Wagner Moura had nan aforesaid reaction.) But nan existent feat casting head Gabriel Domingues pulls disconnected successful nan Oscar-nominated Brazilian thriller is to make you inquire yourself nan aforesaid question, complete and over, each clip a caller characteristic appears.

How did Domingues find a scope of actors to correspond nan country’s endless diversity? It’s portion of his process, writes contributor Carlos Aguilar: “He prides himself connected doing nan shoe-leather activity of looking for fresh, compelling faces successful cities wherever others mightiness not deliberation to look — those without a salient arts scene, for instance.”

More stories from our Feb. 26 issue