In Netflix's never-ending quest to destroy the theatrical film model once and for all, they put forward a lot of movies in hopes of garnering some Academy hardware. In addition to the two International Feature submissions they put their marketing heft behind (Chile's In Her Place and the massively overblown exercise in missing the point … Continue reading DownStream – TUDUM! Part Three – Narrative Features
I think we can safely call it at this point, 2024 has not been a great year for film. Sure, there have been a few genuinely superlative entries here and there, but for the most part, even the best movies have been largely unmemorable. Pretty much all the major contenders for Awards Season were crammed … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – December 2024
I've mentioned in two recent posts some particular shortfalls in the adaptation process. The first, as it related to Freud's Last Session, was the fact that if you adapt a stage show to the screen, you have to make it look and feel like it's not a stage show, otherwise you lose any semblance of … Continue reading Resigned Celie, Delivered – The Color Purple
This is often a tricky category year-to-year for a variety of reasons. For one thing, it's one of the few that can still have fewer than five nominees. In 2011, only two songs were nominated, and two years later one was disqualified, giving us four. The current rules state that the category will have either … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2021 – Original Song
It's strange how in certain years, a slate of films can have a degree of connectivity that is rarely intended, but often fascinating. This is one of those years, as a good amount of the prestige fare has dealt with the American Civil Rights movement in one form or another. Two particular films made references … Continue reading The Passion of the Panther – Judas and the Black Messiah
I Actually Paid To See This 