2014 Cannes Lineup Predictions
The recent (bizarre) series of announcements that led to Grace of Monaco being named the opening night film of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the selection of Jane Campion to head the 2014 Cannes jury, caused my mind to drift toward the Croisette. It hasn’t left since, and it won’t until Cannes […]
Best Quotes from Wes Anderson Movies
Bottle Rocket Dignan: “What a lemon! One minute it’s running like a top, and the next it’s broken down on the side of the road. And I can’t fix a car like this, because I don’t have the tools! And even if I did have the tools I don’t know if I could fix a […]
5 Best Performances in Wes Anderson Movies
2014 has had its fair share of pleasures in its first month or so, but the biggest movie for cinephiles like myself to come so far this year (and for some, to come at all this year) is Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. I placed it #2 on my most-anticipated movies of 2014 list. […]
Top 10 Philip Seymour Hoffman Performances
It’s with a heavy, heavy heart I get around to finishing this post I’ve started and restarted so many times. The problem with trying to name one’s favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman performances is that a rewatch of one of the dozens of films the man was great in can shake up the entire thing. He […]
10 Documentaries to Watch From Sundance 2014
Over at Sound on Sight, I wrote about the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and ten of the many promising documentaries that debuted there. Among them are Steve James’ Life Itself (about the late Roger Ebert), The Case Against 8 (about the legal fight against California’s infamous anti-gay-marragie initiative), and Mitt (about Romney’s six-year-long fight for […]
The 5 Best Leading Female Performances of 2013
Click here to check out my 5 favorite leading male performances of 2013. On to the leading ladies! One could plausibly argue 2013 was as strong a year at the top for leading women as it was for leading men, and one couldn’t plausibly argue that most other years. It was a great year for […]
The 5 Best Leading Male Performances of 2013
I have way too many fragments of a Best Performances of 2013 list to not write something up. The idea to break apart the list by, for lack of a better term, Oscar category was born out of the desire to highlight some stellar supporting work, which sometimes gets ignored when talking about the very […]
14 Films for 2014
A yearly tradition continues. I don’t much enjoy these early-year looking-ahead lists; I’ll still be in 2013 mode until I catch up with everything that eluded me before the turn of the calendar. Nevertheless, on a day like today one can’t help survey the calendar and mark his or her most-anticipated movie days. And 2014 […]
The Best Movies of 2013
Outstanding. That’s the simplest but most appropriate way to sum up the year in movies that was 2013. Outstanding. A more interesting way would be to discuss the year in movie themes. The American dream, in one way or another, was a noticeable theme in seven of my top ten movies movies this year. It […]
10 Things I Like About 10 Bad 2013 Movies
I’m not a fan of “bottom ten” or “ten worst” lists. I don’t enjoy reading them because they typically pound the same films and are by necessity a little mean-spirited. I don’t enjoy writing them because I avoid the worst of the worst. I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually took in one […]
The Best Documentaries of 2013
It’s been said plenty—by myself and more than a few others—but 2013 has to be one of the very best years documentary filmmaking has ever seen. It’s a sentiment I seem to come back to year after year, to be honest. Part of that is me discovering the form, but I don’t think it’s an […]
2013 Movies You Should Watch Right Now
December is top-10 list month, which means most bloggers and journos will be spending the next few weeks catching up with some of the year’s smaller titles that are now available on DVD and streaming outlets. I’ve highlighted 20 movies that are worth your time and attention. 5…on Netflix Instant Three great docs and two […]
Gifts for Movie Lovers
The holidays—Black Friday and Cyber Monday, that is—are fast approaching, and if you’ve got a cinephile in your life, you’ve got plenty of possible gifts to choose from. I’ve selected some of the best—or at least most interesting—products out there (some that I own, some that I just want) to recommend whether you’re shopping for […]
2013 Fall Movie Preview
Want to know how good a movie season I think fall 2013 will be? Check out my list of honorable mentions: Blue Is the Warmest Color, Dallas Buyers Club, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Oldboy, Parkland, The Past, Prisoners, Rush. That’s a strong-ass crop of films if I ever saw one, yet none could even […]
The Best Movies of 2013 So Far
It’s been an OK movie year so far. I’ve given a number of titles 3.5 stars; just one movie earned 4 stars. Yet, when I look over this list, I can’t help but think most of these films miss out on my end-of-year top ten list. I’m just not over-the-moon about many movies this year […]
2013 TIFF Movies to Watch: #10-#1
My TIFF preview concludes today with some of festival’s heaviest hitters. I hope you enjoyed this series. I’ll be covering the fall fests extensively, so stay tuned! More TIFF Movies to Watch: 2013 TIFF Preview: Part 1 2013 TIFF Preview: Part 2 2013 TIFF Preview: Part 3 2013 TIFF Preview: Part 4 10.) The Past […]
