Draw your own conclusions.
This year’s Oscar® nominations didn’t piss me off nearly as much as in prior seasons; there aren’t too many awful inclusions and relatively few glaring omissions. (I hope the latter [...]
We all know Hollywood’s summer blockbusters are formulaic and, sadly, this “Oscar®-worthy” trailer reminds that even award-contending films are becoming tedious, script-by-numbers affairs. (And the winner is… Ryan Thompson for [...]
If Pete Rose has taught us anything, it’s that it is never too early to place your bets. For Pete’s sake and in his spirit — that may deny him [...]
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE won the Academy Award for Best Picture because… A) It was lucky B) It was smart C) Fox Searchlight cheated D) It was written Of course, [...]
Revamp the Oscars® all you like, it’s still an awards show. And, like any other trophy-trek, it will be long, bloated, tedious and… disappointing. This year’s Academy production sported some [...]
Harvey Milk learned his lesson: You’ve got to give them Hope. Apparently, Barack Obama was listening; apparently, Danny Boyle cribbed his notes. Obama co-opted Hope as a one-word campaign slogan. [...]
Ron Howard made a SPLASH with the Tom Hanks-Daryl Hannah fish-out-of-her-mind tale. NIGHT SHIFT and GRAND THEFT AUTO are entertaining as well, if not particularly taxing, mentally. However, since the [...]
There are many things I DOUBT about John Patrick Shanley‘s adaptation of his own play. Did he do it justice? Would Cherry Jones have been even better than Meryl Streep? [...]
Truth may be stranger than fiction, but stranger still are the Academy’s annual choices for Best Documentary. How can anyone explain Oscars® failure to even recognize films such as GRIZZLY [...]
I’d like to teach the world to sing. No, no, I wouldn’t. That would take a long time and I can’t stand tone-deaf people… including myself. (Yup, I can no [...]
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. It’s a lesson as old as the Bible, cited as recently as SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. And while I curse the Oscars® for their [...]
Must we respect the dead? Heck, I’m not even sold on the living. When assessing Oscar® odds, must we automatically succumb to the notion that the dead guy deserves the [...]
If we’re willing to accept the animated Robin Williams in dramatic roles, why can’t we abide animation in dramatic competition. Pixar has been making some of Hollywood’s best films for [...]
Every year, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences stages their glitzy award show. The Oscars® aren’t just the culmination of an extremely expensive, industry-wide popularity contest, they are [...]
