Skip to Content

Sam Wasson


15 results

Emperor of the New Order

How a promising young director gave up a comfortable life in Hollywood—and gained true creative freedom for a new generation of filmmakers. An exclusive excerpt from The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story

Stanley Kubrick’s Waterloo

Having just tackled the end of the world and the mysteries of the universe, the obsessive director set his sights on Napoleon. Tens of thousands of index cards later, he waved the white flag

The Plains’ Greats

Alexander Payne gives the author a Hollywood master class on wheels, with stops at the childhood homes of Fred Astaire, Henry Fonda, and Marlon Brando

Big Screens, Small Pictures

The View from Here

For 95 years, the Oscar for best picture signified excellence. What will it mean when the Academy starts enforcing its new eligibility rules?

Beating the System

When every studio in Hollywood passed on Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola—the most successful movie director on the planet—became an independent filmmaker

Packages and Kings

How, amid the wreckage of Heaven’s Gate, a couple of young agents rebuilt the movie business in their own image

Go Big or Go Home

A new generation is discovering the pleasures of classic movies at Alexander Olch’s Lower East Side revival house, Metrograph

The Bike Picture

How a long-haired band of outsiders with a 16-mm. camera, $300,000, and “a hell of an idea” re-invented American movies with Easy Rider

Everybody’s Talkin’

How a disruptive new technology—sound—brought an end to the silent era and gave rise to the studio system. An exclusive excerpt from Hollywood: The Oral History

Little Gold Men, Big White Guilt

L.A.’s new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has little to say about movie history—but speaks volumes about Hollywood and our times

Wilder at Heart

Bruce Wagner’s Woke Universe

After his publisher balked at his use of a certain word, Hollywood’s master of satire posts his new novel online for free

Hollywood’s Bomb

Kvetch, Memory