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Containing multitudes is a time-honored cinematic tradition.

Sure, featuring a single actor as more than one character in your movie smells a bit like a gimmick—but at the end of the day, it’s an efficient and often effective means of showcasing the versatility of a performer. And that can hardly be faulted. We caught a whiff of it with Split this year, though McAvoy might be disqualified for being a Legion of One rather than a cast with a shared face. Personally, I had no idea the trend cast such a wide-reaching historical net — I’d stupidly assumed it was something made possible by the advent of modern makeup and digital tech. Again, stupidly.

Be it gimmick or something more nuanced (or both!) — it’s particularly fascinating that it has such a long standing history as a marketing device. Film quality aside, the main draw is often the performative tour-de-force itself. Some...

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...

The descendants of Solomon Northup, the subject of Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave and author of the book on which it's based, gathered in Rochester, N.Y.; Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., for a series of photos organized by The Hollywood Reporter. The family is divided across generations, locations and race. The oldest, Laura Linzy, is 79, and the youngest, Napathalyah Parker, is just 10-months-old. "It was hard to watch, knowing it was someone who had a hand in creating me," 28-year-old Leonard Holton Jr., a fourth great-grandson of Northup, told THR. He and Northup's other descendants gather each year in Saratoga Springs,...

This story first appeared in the March 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. It's one of the most visceral depictions of American slavery ever committed to the screen. But it's the fact that 12 Years a Slave is based on the real-life events of Solomon Northup's kidnapping and eventual escape that makes the film truly powerful -- especially for his descendants. Click the photo to view portraits of Northup's descendants.  "It was hard to watch, knowing it was someone who had a hand in creating me," says Leonard Holton Jr., 28, a fourth great-grandson of Northup who lives in Alexandria, Va. Many in Northup's direct

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The Box Of Paperbacks Book Club: The Mouse On Wall Street by Leonard Wibberley (1969) (Not long ago, A.V. Club editor Keith Phipps purchased a large box containing over 75 vintage science fiction, crime, and adventure paperbacks. He is reading all of them. This is book number 42.) When we last visited The Duchy Of Grand Fenwick in The Mouse That Roared, the tiny country had accidentally bested the world by declaring war on the U.S. in an attempt to enjoy the benefits traditionally bestowed by America on its bested enemies. In the process, Grand Fenwick inadvertently obtained a weapon of mass destruction, prompting a world-threatening stand-off that left everyone happier than before. Dry amusement ensued. Mouse’s prolific, Irish born, California-based author Leonard Wibberley returned to Grand Fenwick again in 1962 with the space-race send-up The Mouse On The Moon. That’s not in the...