Jakes Gyllenhaal said it best this evening, pointing out that it would be the shorts that make or break our Oscar Pools. I am usually able to get half of them right by watching them and picking favorites but this year I got them all wrong. Amongst the big categories there were few surprises though, outside of Tom Hooper ( The King’s Speech ) beating out David Fincher ( The Social Network ) for achievement in directing. But hey, Chris Nolan wasn’t even nominated for Inception so without further
The viewer is left to draw their own conclusion and although I liked that the film did that, another part of me would have liked a definitive conclusion. Having said that, it’s probably better that it was left open-ended because too many documentaries have an obvious agenda meant to convince the viewer of some particular point of v
My Kid Could Paint That is a documentary directed by Amir Bar-Lev, exploring the story of Marla Olmstead, a 4-year-old abstract painter whose work garnered international attention and considerable market value. The film examines the ensuing media frenzy, accusations of fraud, and the ethics of exploiting a child prodigy for commercial gain, while questioning the authenticity and value of modern
Martin Scorsese’s Hugo led the way with eleven nominations, stacking up many a nod in the technical categories, while Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist was close behind with ten total. Academy members clearly love a good homage to the magic of old-fashioned cinema – be it a Hollywood flick set in Paris or a French production set in Hollywood. Moving o
The documentary has an interview with a New York Times art critic who discusses modern (or abstract) art and the reasons behind the sometimes apparently insane valuations for what looks like some paint splashed on a canvas. Part of his explanation is that the story behind the artwork contributes to the value. What has the artist gone through, for example? In Marlas’s case part of the value is due to the fact of her young age and the apparent sophistication of the w
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence ( Winter’s Bone , The Hunger Games ) jointly announced the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards this morning, on Tuesday January 24th. The actual 2012 Oscar ceremony will take place next month, on February 26th at the Kodak theater – with Billy Crystal serving as host, for the ninth time in his car
Hounddog suffers from something I’ve noticed in some other indie films: It’s boring and it’s too long. Although it’s filled with gorgeous scenery, the film just seems to go on and on and on. This was yet another hour and a half long Movie Awards Games Achievements|Https://Moviefestivalhub.Com/ that felt twice as long. The best thing about the film is Dakota Fanning’s performance. She really is amazing at the range and subtlety of emotion she can convey at such a young age. I only hope that she is one of the very few child actors who survives the transition to adulthood unscat
Jack Black stars as Jerry, a uneducated slacker with big dreams who lives in a trailer. He’s pals with Mike (played by Mos Def), a low-key guy without any big aspirations who works at one of the last few VHS video rental stores left in New Jer
They get it done in the nick of time and as it turns out she and the gang-banger friends of the young man living in her home like it as well. Jerry, Mike and a young lady (Melonie Diaz) they rope into working with them also do a version of Rush Hour 2 (no doubt better than the original) – word gets out and soon people are lining up to get their homemade versions of popular mov
Hounddog takes place some time in the late 50’s or early 60’s in the rural south. Dakota Fanning plays Lewellen, a very precocious 12 year old. It seems that right from the start the goal of the film is to make viewers uncomfortable as it opens with a scene between her and a boy that looks a bit younger that is her best friend. They’re in the woods and she wants him to drop his pants and underwear for a peek in exchange for a kiss. She talks about wanting to kill her father, which led me to believe that there may have been some sexual abuse going on, but it’s never alluded to ag
Filmmaking legend Ridley Scott has yet to win either a Golden Globe or an Oscar for directing, despite being nominated in the past for such films as Gladiator (which was crowned Best Drama at the Golden Globes in 2001). Scott not only has the benefit of an esteemed filmmaking career under his belt, but his directorial work on The Martian is widely considered to be among the best for 2015 film releases in general. For these reasons, it’s easy to imagine that the HFPA will recognize Scott for his direction on Golden Globes ni
Is the director saying Lewellan was inadvertantly asking for it through her behavior? I doubt that. Is she saying Lewellen should be allowed to act seductively without fear of being attacked? I don’t know. My answer is obviously that there can be no justification for taking advantage of a child, but that she should be told that certain ways of acting are inappropriate and there are people out there who will respond to that behavior without giving thought to what is right and what is wr
