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 […]

Best Of The Decade: 2010s

A decade at the movies is serious business. When the 2010s began, Avatar had just opened in theaters. It went on to top the all-time box office and spawned the short-lived resurgence of 3D, a fad that has mostly died out (again). Netflix, then known for its DVD rental services, was just beginning to expand […]

“I Am Jack’s Medulla Oblongata” (#71)

Shirts and shoes are forbidden in the latest episode of the When We Were Young podcast — and the fight will go on as long as it has to. It’s been 20 years since David Fincher’s savagely funny and brutally violent satire of Gen X male angst debuted in theaters, so we’re breaking Rule #1 […]

“Game Over, Man” (#17)

“We’d better get back, ’cause it’ll be dark soon, and they mostly come at night… mostly.”

Top Ten Films: 2007

My Top 10 for the year 2007 comes to you from the midst of the WGA Writer’s Strike of 2007-2008, when there was some doubt about whether or not a typical Oscar telecast would even be possible without those striking scribes. That would have been quite a shame, since 2007 is one of the very […]

Top Ten Films: 2014

It was a very good year at the movies… but a weird one. Reversing the trend of recent years, the summer blockbuster fare offered a surprising amount of good taste, from the goofy-fun Guardians Of The Galaxy to the surprisingly clever Edge Of Tomorrow. Even sequels like Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and […]

Gone Girls: Ranking David Fincher’s Films From Least To Most Feminist

The secret is out. If you don’t know the main twist in Gone Girl by now, then I feel sorry for you, because you will undoubtedly be spoiled any minute now, given the level of buzz the film has received. (And definitely by me, if you keep reading.)

‘Gone Girl’ Wild: Marriage & Media Are The Real Killers

Marriage is a contract. We select one person we love and trust, and pledge to continue loving and trusting them until our dying breath. We give them equal stake in all our assets. We promise to be with them and them only. We will eat, sleep, and travel with this person. Their friends become our […]

Well Played, Netflix: ‘House Of Cards’ Chapters 1-3

(Originally posted on Justin + 7.) I figured I’d be writing something about the Oscars today, as I normally would do a few days before the big show, but since I have been covering them since the nominees were announced anyway — and particularly heavily this week — I have almost nothing left to say. […]

Top Ten Films: 2008

Before I started my own entertainment-related blog, my Top Tens had to whore themselves out on my friends’ pages. This one was originally posted on Justin Plus One. As usual with my Top Tens, I have preserved them as they were, even if, in hindsight, I may disagree with some of my own choices. (Did […]