The Forgaughtens: The Score (2001)
The “one last job” trope is one of cinema’s most familiar and tired. In 2001, director Frank Oz assembled a red-hot cast (De Niro! Norton! Brando!) to bring his version of this story to the big screen, and … well … it’s pretty familiar and tired. It’s hard to make a forgettable film with De […]
Sausage Party Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Sausage Party follows in the tradition of so many animated films — either starting with or primarily popularized by Toy Story — wherein everyday objects are personified and an audience gets to take a glimpse of what their day-to-day world might look and feel like. After taking that glimpse of the day-to-day […]
2015 Golden Globes Predictions
When it comes to making 2015 Golden Globes predictions, everyone knows quality shouldn’t come into the picture too much. The Globes are notorious for some decisions—most notably Zsa Zsa Gabor and The Tourist. I’m not sure why we take them seriously other than the fact that it’s a show on primetime, but to be fair, […]
The 20 Best Performances of 2014
It was a great year for acting, and I still haven’t seen some of the year’s most acclaimed performances. If David Oyelowo (Selma), Julianne Moore (Still Alice), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beyond the Lights), or anyone else bowls me over the way they have so […]
2015 Golden Globes Nominations Predictions
The ultra-prestigious and never ridiculous Hollywood Foreign Press Association is on the cusp of announcing its nominees for the 2015 Golden Globes. We should take these nominations very seriously, as the many, many dedicated and serious-minded members of this fine organization consider only the artistic merits of each film, performance, and craft achievement in a […]
2015 Oscar Predictions: First Guesses Before Fall Fests
It’s 2015 Oscar predictions time, so let’s dig the prognosticator’s hat out of the attic, dust it off, and take a look at the landscape of the 2015 Oscar race. If I’m being honest, though, I almost didn’t want to get involved with 2015 Oscar predictions at all. Last year’s Oscar season and the nonsense […]
Moonrise Kingdom Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) Moonrise Kingdom opens with a shot of an immaculately tidy room in a quaint, old-fashioned home on the New England coast. Suddenly, the camera pans right on the perfectly straight line to another such room, with three similarly—and oddly—dressed boys. They play a symphonic record and sit down in perfect symmetry. It […]
Fight Club Review
RATING: (4 STARS) The first rule of fight club (the organization) is that you don’t talk about fight club. The first rule of Fight Club (the movie) should be that you don’t try to write a review of Fight Club, for words can’t do this film justice. It’s something you have to see to believe. […]
25th Hour Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) After September 11th, films set in New York were forever changed. Any shot of the World Trade Center towers would always be thought of differently, and in some cases they were digitally removed from the film. Spike Lee’s “25th Hour†is the first film to use explicit footage of post-September 11th New […]
