The Frame

After the 2016 Presidential election, the singer/songwriter took a cross-country train trip and then wrote a song cycle of character sketches and personal reflections; Taylor Swift's recording contract is about to expire, giving her a world of options; Boots Riley's "Sorry to Bother You" is one of the year's biggest critical hits.

Director Chris Weitz's film 'Operation Finale' tells the amazing story of the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann; fans begin to pay their respects to the Aretha Franklin at the Museum of African American History in Detroit; and Cuban jazz pianist Dayramir Gonzalez is a rising star.

Breaking down the scene between Michelle Yeoh and her would be daughter-in-law, Constance Wu; documentary filmmaker Steve James spent a year inside a Chicago high school for the series, “America to Me”; remembering playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon, who died at the age of 91.

The former "Gilmore Girls" co-star has an Emmy nomination for her role in the dystopian world of "The Handmaid's Tale"; Harvey Weinstein's legal woes seem to be mounting; Aneesh Chaganty, director and co-writer of the film, "Searching," has created a hyper-modern day thriller.

On Today's Show:

The co-star and Emmy nominee says she isn't daunted by challenges being faced by the cast; ever seen James Corden and friends performing a musical on the streets outside CBS on Fairfax? That's the work of Emmy-nominated choreographer Chloe Arnold.

The Emmy-nominated director of "Atlanta" talks about his collaborations with Donald Glover, his love of the Coen brothers and how the show set out to accurately portray life in urban Georgia; in the documentary, "What Haunts Us," Paige Goldberg Tolmach examines multiple suicides at her prep school alma mater; director Jesse Peretz and actor Chris O'Dowd talk about their movie, "Juliet, Naked."

Sarah Paulson has a lead actress Emmy nomination for "American Horror Story: Cult" — the seventh season of the anthology series; Bing Liu's videos of his skateboarding pals turned into the intimate documentary, "Minding the Gap."

Wayne Kramer, guitarist and leader of the Detroit rock band MC5, discusses his new memoir, "The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities"; Amazon is in the running to buy Landmark Theatres.

The iconic singer has died at the age of 76. We hear from her longtime bass player, Chuck Rainey; why has a documentary about her landmark 1972 performance at a Baptist church in Los Angeles never been released?; Daphne Brooks, a professor of African American Studies and Theater Studies at Yale University on the transcendent power of Aretha's voice.

Lin-Manuel Miranda may have turned Alexander Hamilton's life into a hit Broadway show, but he tells us that passion, not politics, drives his art, "Your job as an artist is to chase what inspires you and finish it"; Gaby Moreno's fusion of R&B with Spanish lyrics has earned her a Grammy nomination; The FTC calls out Vizio for using their TVs to collect data on their users without their consent.

"Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins has gone from virtual unknown to eight Academy Award nominations; "Saturday Night Live" finds comedy gold in the Trump presidency; veteran R&B singer William Bell has two Grammy nods for his comeback album.

Zoe Lister-Smith directed “Band Aid,” a hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival that just got picked up for distribution; Fox's new “24” reboot is being criticized because the villains on the series are from the Middle East; Andrew Lockington talks about his untraditional score for the new movie, “The Space Between Us.”

For bands, landing a song in a Super Bowl ad (or any other televised event) is a HUGE pay day; how 'Jackie' composer Mica Levi created a mesmerizing score for Pablo Larrain's psychological drama; Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck could have made a conventional documentary about James Baldwin, but instead he uses only Baldwin’s words to create his powerful film, “I Am Not Your Negro."

The madcap "Billy on the Street" TV series has added a political edge; arts leaders from Western states visit D.C. to advocate for the National Endowment for the Arts; the latest Hollywood story from USC has more dire news for women in the industry.

Muslim-American writer, producer and author Reza Aslan's family fled the Iranian Revolution when he was 7-years-old — now believes that the best way to change American hearts and minds about Islam is through entertainment; Sony Pictures is reporting a $1 billion loss in its third quarter alone. The report comes as the company embarks on a new head for the studio, which executives in Japan maintain is not for sale.

How SAG Award winners used the platform to comment on Trump's executive order barring refugees from select Muslim-majority countries; one L.A.-based concert promoter had to cancel shows with Iranian musicians planning to play in the U.S.; "Cries from Syria" filmmaker wants to generate understanding and empathy for Syrian refugees with his new doc, airing on HBO in March.

"Nobody Speak" looks at free press issues through the Hulk Hogan lawsuit and the presidential election; "The Salesman" is the latest from Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi; the Wallis Youth Theater Company is breaking new ground.

How Late Night host Seth Meyers is seizing the Trump era for political commentary and comedy; rapper Roxanne Shanté's life is the basis of a new Sundance biopic "Roxanne Roxanne;" Bryan Fogel is a cyclist who set out to document his experiments with performance-enhancing drugs only to find himself making a movie that uncovers a massive doping scandal inside Russia.

Director David O. Russell remembers working with Mary Tyler Moore in his 1996 dysfunctional family comedy "Flirting with Disaster," then the married couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon turned their real-life love story into the new romantic comedy "The Big Sick" which just sold to Amazon at the Sundance Film Festival.

The Frame host John Horn reports from Sundance where he interviews Lakeith Stanfield (“Atlanta” and "Crown Heights"), and talks Oscars nominations with Vulture's Kyle Buchanan.

The Frame host John Horn reports from Sundance where he interviews Jessica Williams (“The Incredible Jessica James”), and documentary director Peter Bratt ("Dolores") and the subject of his film, activist Dolores Huerta.