You can have prestige or you can have popularity, but you can’t have both. That’s the conclusion I come to when reading some of the think-piece alternatives to recent changes made by the Academy to the Oscars ceremony. Many of them are reflected in this worthwhile piece by IndieWire’s Tom Brueggemann, “How To Make The [...]
*** out of **** Rated TV-PG (for some language, sensuality, adult themes) Released: August 10, 2018 Runtime: 124 minutes Directed by: Mike Newell Starring: Lily James, Michiel Huisman, Katherine Parkinson, Penelope Wilton, Glen Powell, Matthew Goode, Jessica Brown Findlay, Tom Courtenay Stream it exclusively on Netflix If that long, cutesy-quirky film title sounds more like something [...]
In the wake of the changes to the Oscars telecast, the most controversial addition has been the new category “Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film”. Dubbed “The Popcorn Oscar”, it exists as a crass ploy for ratings that many fear will sacrifice the prestige of the award for the sake of (hopefully, maybe) more viewers. To [...]
The Oscars have officially gotten desperate, and it’s not a good look. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences – the producers of the Academy Awards, with a membership of Hollywood’s elite – has made some big changes to their annual telecast (although it was the Governor's Board of 57 people, not the full [...]
Episode 11 - THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: Conversations On Cinema http://thebadandthebeautiful.libsyn.com/-the-bad-and-the-beautiful-conversations-on-cinema-episode-11 Mission: Impossible - Fallout, @ 0:53 Blindspotting, @ 24:19 Three Identical Strangers, @ 33:08 Eighth Grade, @ 37:30 Outro, @ 49:50 On this episode of The Bad and the Beautiful, Charles and I have chosen to not disavow Tom Cruise but rather accept his latest mission. You [...]
Six movies. Two decades. Over that same time, numerous trilogies, franchises, and sundry cinematic universes have come and gone. Some may have been more prolific than the Mission: Impossible series, but few – if any – have been better. Indeed, as the conventional wisdom of film critics would have it, there isn’t a better current [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=135&v=k2zvPTGiJj4 The Best Picture win for Moonlight remains one of the most stunning in Academy Awards history, and that would be true even without the La La Land ballot mix-up fiasco. That low budget indie's rise to the top beat all the odds, turning writer/director Barry Jenkins into an elite auteur. Now comes the trailer [...]
***1/2 out of **** Rated R (for strong language and some sexual material) Released: July 13, 2018 limited; expands in August Runtime: 93 minutes Directed by: Bo Burnham Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan, Luke Prael, Daniel Zolghadri, Fred Hechinger, Imani Lewis My review of Eighth Grade, for The Tulsa Voice. It's a vérité look at an insecure 13-year-old [...]
The end begins. On the first day of production, writer/director J.J. Abrams has tweeted out a non-spoilery photo straight from the set of Star Wars IX, the final chapter in the Skywalker saga. The image is a close-up of the film camera. The set itself is severely out of focus, although one can glean that it's [...]
It's back. The Terminator franchise, that is. And women are leading the way. In this first look image for the still-untitled Terminator 6, Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor. She's joined by Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) and Natalia Reyes (2091) who play two new characters. Nothing is known about them, or the story (filming began in June), [...]