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
In the end the family manages to at least partially gain back the trust of the art world by finally documenting on film themselves Marla creating a painting called “Ocean” from start to finish. Although that particular painting does share similarities to prior paintings, it actually seems less sophisticated than those that have come before. Since then they have documented another painting from start to finish called “Rain”, which does seem to be closer to the style of the earlier painti
The performances all around were fantastic, with Bishil effectively conveying the innocence and confusion of a 13 year old girl, and Macdissi fascinating and funny to watch as he vacillates between authoritarian tyrant and extremely dry comedian. Eckhart was great as well and IMHO took a heck of a risk playing the role of a pedoph
We meet the family, consisting of Marla, a younger brother and her parents. The first half of the documentary tells the story of what led up to the discovery of Marla’s paintings (first displayed at a local coffee shop just for fun) and the ensuing fame and eventual media blitz. The Olmstead’s introduction to the world came through a local newspaper reporter who comes across as extremely ethical on both the journalism side of things as well as the human side. Before writing her initial story about Marla and her paintings, she asked the Olmsteads very clearly whether they really wanted her to write the story, because although there was a positive side to the publicity there could also be some negative consequences down the r
Lily Tomlin won a Golden Globe as part of the Short Cuts ensemble back in 1993, but has yet to be recognized by the HFPA for a solo performance. Tomlin received two Golden Globe nominations this year – for Grandma as well as for the TV series Grace and Frankie – and it’s possible that her lauded performance as an acerbic grandmother in the former will go over better with the Golden Globes voters than those of her peers, in part thanks to her long-standing impressive body of w
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
It remains to be seen if this is something that will plague the Oscars for the next handful of years or is merely a blip on the radar. Looking ahead to 2015’s award season (I know, bear with me…), there are offerings from filmmakers including Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and David O. Russell among others that could prove to be more lucrative endeavors than the crop we just got. The Academy will spend the next 12 months figuring out how to retool their telecast, but the odds of a ratings boost are in their fa
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
Yes, Pixar’s Inside Out is nominated for Best Animated Feature, but it would have been nice to see the HFPA nominate the critically-acclaimed computer animated movie for Best Comedy too – seeing as that doesn’t carry the qualifier of being the best animated film Festival games missions|https://moviefestivalhub.com/ of the year. And if both The Martian and the decidedly serious Joy count as “comedies”, then so does Quentin Tarantino’s darkly funny single-setting western/murder mystery, The Hateful Eig
One thing leads to another and Mr. Vuoso discovers that she found his magazines. While at first he seems to try to get through to her by asking why she was looking at them and that she shouldn’t be, the expression on his face soon changes as he looks at her closely for the first t
I’m not a fan of the desperate attempts at bringing out celebrities like Taylor Lautner and Miley Cyrus for the sole reason of bringing their fanbases in for ratings rather than their accomplishments. There were quite a few shots of Lautner sitting near the front when he wasn’t nominated for anything (like we saw with Rob Pattinson last year). He has a better seat than those who were nominated or even winners of other categor
