ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY AND AWARD NEWS  SEPTEMBER 27, 2019 Renée Zellweger Is More Than a Good Comeback Story In Judy, which opens this Friday, Renée Zellweger does nearly everything you’re supposed to do to get an Oscar nomination: She plays a real person with the help of prosthetics. She sings. She cries. But as Richard Lawson writes in his essay about the performance, the buzz Zellweger is getting for Judy is not just some obligatory acknowledgment. “It’s a breathtakingly controlled performance,” Lawson writes, “big enough to fill the frame and loom like the real Judy’s legacy does, but not so outsize that it becomes awards-bait kabuki.” And though it’s thrilling to consider Zellweger’s return to the Oscars 15 years after her first win, the performance should stand on its own, he argues. “Zellweger’s is the most persuasive and arresting big-ticket lead performance I’ve seen so far this season, the kind of turn that needn’t be bolstered by an exterior narrative.” Elsewhere in HWD, Julie Miller talks to Judy screenwriter Tom Edge, who listened to tapes Garland recorded late in her life and was “outraged on her behalf” at the way she had been treated; Laura Bradley looks into how Apple might be learning from Netflix’s mistakes as it works on plans to release its movies theatrically; and Yohana Desta gets the rundown on what’s likely to be your new obsession: a period piece from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, starring Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon as a pair of scheming sisters.

Over the Rainbow As Richard Lawson writes, don’t fall into the trap of focusing on Renée Zellweger’s comeback narrative more than her towering performance in Judy. READ MORE » “I Am an Angry Lady” As she struggled to write her memoir late in her life, Judy Garland recorded searing audio tapes that captured her anger and disappointment as her career ebbed and her finances dwindled. For Judy screenwriter Tom Edge, they were an invaluable—and disturbing—resource. READ MORE » Apple Branches Out The launch of AppleTV+ may be imminent, but the tech giant is already looking at expanding to movie theaters—and maybe learning from Netflix’s mistakes. READ MORE » A Gilded Return Fresh off the box office success of the Downton Abbey movie, Julian Fellowes is returning to the past, and bringing two of the New York stage’s most beloved veteran actors with him. READ MORE » The Essential Judy Garland Nine movies, from well-known classics to underrated gems, to watch after seeing Judy. READ MORE »