Barry Levinson is an American director born in Baltimore, Maryland, celebrated for character-driven dramas and comedies frequently rooted in his native city and in institutional American settings. Diner, his directorial debut, established his gift for naturalistic, overlapping dialogue among ensembles of ordinary men, a style he returned to across his loosely connected Baltimore films. Rain Man, following a self-absorbed man's road trip with his autistic brother, won him the Academy Award for Best Director and became one of the defining box-office successes of the late 1980s. Good Morning, Vietnam and Wag the Dog, the latter a prescient satire of media manipulation and political spin, showed his range across biographical comedy and sharp political satire. Levinson's consistent focus on flawed institutions and everyday male friendship has made him one of the more understated but reliably substantial directors of his generation. Read more