The Not-Oscars 2016

It’s just about Oscar time again — though for once, the Best Picture race isn’t exactly the most disappointing contest I’ll witness over the past year. At times like these, the Academy Awards feel somewhat frivolous. It’s possible that some likely winners — The Salesman, Mahershala Ali, The White Helmets, OJ: Made In America, and even […]

Animal Attraction: Monogamy Tested In ‘Bigger Splash’ & ‘Lobster’

Tilda Swinton is a rock star.

‘Starred Up’ For What: Jack O’Connell Is The New Tom Hardy

The strong, silent type is a character that goes all the way back to the beginning of cinema… but that’s mostly because those movies were silent. Still, stoic males have been front and center in countless dramas, especially those geared toward men. The grittier the movie, the quieter the antihero at the center of it […]

Not-Oscars 2012: The Year’s Best Performances

(Originally published at JustinPlusSeven on January 10, 2013.) You, dear reader, have the honor of reading this in the future, after the Oscar nominations have been announced. But I am writing from this from the near past, before we know which five contenders are fighting it out in each category. Of course, some are shoo-ins; […]

Top Ten Films: 2012

It’s Oscar time! As usual, the Academy Awards are poised to make some very wrong decisions this year. So as usual, I am prematurely correcting them by releasing my Top Ten of the year. That year is 2012, of course — real film critics release such lists at the end of December or beginning of […]

Broken Lovers: ‘The Sessions,’ ‘Amour,’ & ‘Rust And Bone’

It’s that time. Every year there are so many movies released in the latter months, fighting it out for our attention as Oscar frontrunners. Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo… to name just a few. And then there are those the average moviegoer likely hasn’t even heard of. Yet.