Spotlight

2016 Oscar Predictions: Will Win/Should Win

2016 Oscar Predictions: Will Win/Should Win

It’s time. The 88th annual Academy Awards are upon us. To be honest, I’ve been a little checked out of the race for the last few weeks. For one, I was traveling when the race finally seemed to crystallize around my least favorite Best Picture nominee in years. And I spent a lot of time […]

When and How You Can Watch 2015’s Best Movies

When and How You Can Watch 2015’s Best Movies

John’s Top 20: The Hateful Eight “In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters.” (In theaters) Carol “An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman.” (In theaters) The Big Short “Four denizens of the […]

The Best Films of 2015

The Best Films of 2015

Looking back at my list of the best films of 2014, I led with this statement: “It seems you’re supposed to open your end-of-year favorite films list with an assessment of the movie year as a whole, but I’ve never really been interested in that. Good, bad, or somewhere in between—I have no idea what […]

Spotlight Review

Spotlight Review

RATING: (4 STARS) I wanted to open this review with some sort of flashy pun about how good journalism shines a light on the underserved or poorly treated in our society, and because this film is called Spotlight, it does a particularly good job at that. I couldn’t find the right quote, and I see […]

2015 Fall Movie Preview

2015 Fall Movie Preview

Expectations are a tricky thing. In years past, I’ve listed duds like Labor Day, Carnage, Love and Other Drugs, and various The Hobbit movies in various iterations of this very column. On the flip side, there’s something like Wild last year, which I expected to be an obnoxiously transparent Oscar play. Or Drug War from […]