Not-Oscars 2020

This year’s Not Oscars are really not the Oscars, because the Oscars aren’t happening for another three months and there’s still six weeks left in the eligibility window for new contenders to pop up. I’ve seen all the likely nominees from 2020 and several more yet to be officially released, but some buzzed about performances […]

Top Ten Films: 2020

“We are gathered here today in remembrance of The Motion Picture. To bid it adieu, and to share some of our fondest memories from its final year. Thank you very much to Netflix for providing the catering at this difficult time.” That’s how I opened last year’s top ten list — with a mock eulogy […]

Private Greatness: David Fincher’s ‘Mank’

This week, Hollywood is abuzz about HBO Max’s assault on theatrical windows. It is perhaps the greatest threat yet to cinema as we know it, in a year that had already been most unkind to older forms of entertainment, giving streaming platforms even more of an upperhand — a shot in the arm they really […]

Radical Reverence: ‘First Reformed’

A Protestant pastor in upstate New York counsels troubled youths while preparing for his church’s 250th anniversary celebration. That’s not the first narrative that comes to mind for a spiritual sequel to Martin Scorsese’s 1976 antihero landmark Taxi Driver, written by Paul Schrader. But First Reformed, both written and directed by Schrader, comes about as close as […]

Mean Women: Is ‘Bachelorette’ A Sequel To ‘Mean Girls’?

Remember Mean Girls? Of course you do. You’ve been quoting it since 2004. On Wednesdays, you say: “On Wednesdays we wear pink.” On October 3, you ask what day it is. If someone tries to make fetch happen, you snap: “Stop trying to make fetch happen! It’s not going to happen.” You will never eat […]

Hit Or ‘Mis’: Hooper’s Musical Alternately Sinks And Soars

It’s here — the ultimate intersection of Hollywood and Broadway. A musical theater-lover’s wet dream. Les Misérables: the movie musical! Early buzz was good. Like, Best Picture good. Oscars all-around to the entire cast, life-changing good. Its opening day set a best-ever record for a movie musical at the box office, and was also one […]