Trauma Queen: Isabelle Huppert Leads The Rest Of The Best Actresses

In the movies, if not so much in life, 2016 has turned out to be a very good year for the ladies. While the Best Actor race is suffering from a dearth of truly exciting performances in 2016, the Best Actress race is stacked. You could fill the Best Actress category twice before you come […]

Top Ten Films: 2002

I made this Top 10 list early in awards season, before I’d seen a number of films that factored into the race that year — including Talk To Her, The Hours, 25th Hour, Bowling For Columbine, 8 Mile, and The Pianist, some of which came away with major Oscar wins (Best Director, Best Actress, and […]

Nice Is Different Than Good: ‘The Babadook’ & ‘Into The Woods’

Into the woods To sell a film They don’t care how The time is now.

‘August’ Of Wind: Pot Smoking, Pill Popping & A Lot Of Bluster

It’s hot in Osage County in the summertime — likely because of all the star wattage you’ll find there. Let’s take a tour. Here we have the Oscar Queen, Meryl Streep, peerless amongst all actresses who ever lived. And over here is Julia Roberts, one of the biggest and brightest movie stars of the past […]

Top Ten Films: 2009

Continuing my retrospective Top 10 lists… Okay, so this was the year the Oscars got on my nerves for announcing ten Best Picture nominees. (And judging by what was included in those ten, I think we can all agree that I was right to be irked… which is some vindication, at least.)

Hard In The City vs. The Oscars: Live Blog & Winners 2011

Since my live blog of the Golden Globes this year was surprisingly popular (really, I didn’t think anyone would care what I have to say), I am again live-blogging and tweeting up a storm for the Academy Awards this evening. Should you need them, here are my predicted winners.

Gold Rush: Oscar Predictions 2012

Though so many of us take the Oscars very seriously (guilty as charged), really, it’s just a game. It’s no different than the Super Bowl, except there are about five teams playing in every “quarter” and it’s actually quite embarrassing to be wearing the same outfit as anyone else. No jerseys on the red carpet. […]

‘Iron’ Deficiency: A Supernatural Thriller About Margaret Thatcher

(Films discussed in this post: I Don’t Know How She Does It, The Arbor, Colombiana, The Iron Lady.) In 2011, there were plenty of movies about scheming, boozing bad girls like the out-of-control flock of Bridesmaids or the self-destructive prom queen in Young Adult (see my post on “The Chicks”). Fun, right? To counterbalance this, […]

Gold Rush: Academy Award Nominees 2012

At this point, what else is there left to say, but: Oscars… Extremely Lame & Incredibly Disappointing.

Gold Rush: Oscar Nomination Predictions 2012

Predicting the Oscars is useless. Sure, it can be fun guessing the winners when the big night is nigh, but what’s the use of predicting nominees? I’m telling you, there is none. And yet, people do it. I use the term “people” to refer to that small handful of folks like myself for whom the […]

Hard In The City vs. The Golden Globes: Live Blog & Winners 2012

It’s the Golden Globes! And because I currently have nothing better to do, I am watching and blogging about them. (Nominees here, FYI.) I’ll be doing some sort of live-blogging/recap as we go on, so… enjoy!

Gold Rush: National Society Of Film Critics Winners 2012

And you thought it was all about the Oscars, didn’t you? Nope. The Academy Awards are basically the last group to have their say about which films are the year’s most esteemed, and their picks don’t necessarily (or even often) reflect the feelings of the critical community, which is why you’ll see a lot more […]