You probably didn’t see it. It’s only up for one Oscar (makeup?! really?!) and though Paul Giamatti won Best Actor at the Golden Globes for his truly extraordinary performance, no one really lends much weight to the comedy/musical categories or even pays attention to the Globes if the Oscars don’t seem to agree. But here’s […]
In recent years, my wide eyed enthusiasm for the Oscars has dampened a bit. I can basically trace the moment back to 2006, when Crash beat Brokeback Mountain, and I learned that (despite what I’ve learned from thousands of Hollywood movies) the most deserving film doesn’t always win. Big shocker, I know. When The Dark […]
One of the best films to come out of Canada last year (actually, just one of the best films period) was The Trotsky, a comedy about a teenage re-incarnation of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, starring Jay Baruchel and Colm Feore. If you’ve seen the film (as all of you should have), you’ll remember […]
First let me apologize for that title, it’s inexcusably bad. But I had to come up with an excuse to talk about The Coen Brothers’ grimy and excellent western True Grit in the same article as the melancholy story of a country western singer Country Strong, which I think is just as well executed, if […]
There are two distinctly British films playing in theatres right now. The King’s Speech, one of Oscar’s top contenders, is a formal high-art story about monarchy, duty and the pressure of expectation. Made in Dagenham is a scrappy, spirited, populist film about factory workers fighting for their rights. The former’s principle plot is centered on […]
The new film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize/Tony-winning play Rabbit Hole has gotten some excellent reviews. If I were watching this film as an original story, who knows, I might agree with them. But as an adaptation of the remarkable play I saw just a few months ago, the film of Rabbit Hole is but […]
It really is a shame that The Golden Globes, one of the only major award shows that makes a point of acknowledging comedies and musicals, often does such a bad job of it. Academy pretension will most likely keep talented comedy actors like Emma Stone out of the Oscar race, so The Globes is where […]
Normally, I find the Razzies (the annual ignominious movie awards given out to the worst movies of the year) pretty accurate. But this year, they decided to nominate The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and I gotta call bullshit.