Oscar season is in full swing and this looks like the most wide open race in years. There is no real frontrunner as of now, though some films have staked their claim as heavy favorites for nominations. Here are my most recent predictions for this year’s Academy Awards. You can watch all the trailers by clicking on the titles of films. BEST PICTURE: Spotlight played like gangbusters on the festival circuit and has…
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Room is the most emotional movie going experience I have had all year. It is a heartwarming and heartbreaking tale of hope, perseverance, and awakenings. It is filled with tension, raw emotion, sadness, and joy and features two dazzling performances from two young, talented actors. Room, adapted from the novel by Emma Donaghue, is told through the eyes of five year old Jack (newcomer Ethan Tremblay). He and his mother, Ma, (Brie Larson) are enclosed in…
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With it being Halloween, let’s talk scary movies. This list will look at specific scenes that scared the hell out of me. SPOILERS AHEAD, so be cautious if you haven’t seen any of these. You can watch each clip by clicking on the title of the movie. 5- “One of the Big Boys” – Scream 2 (Wes Craven, 1998) Knowing the ins and outs of the horror game should be able to…
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In my review for Sicario (check it out here), I wrote how it was hard for a director to follow up a masterpiece. The same can be said for a screenwriter. Aaron Sorkin’s last solo screenplay was for The Social Network in 2010. (He co-wrote Moneyball in 2011 with Steve Zaillian). The Social Network is an all-timer for me. It is expertly crafted and acted and captures the state of communication and technology in today’s…
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I grew up reading the Goosebumps books. They were fun, creepy, and well written. The idea of a Goosebumps movie had me intrigued and worried because this isn’t an exact adaptation of one specific book, which was fine because they did those very well with the television show. However, every creature from every book is in this movie and I was worried it was going to be a cheesy kids flick with Marvel syndrome of…
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Let’s pretend you hate strawberries. Now let’s pretend someone takes a bunch of strawberries and makes them look all fancy with chocolate, and some fancy sauce, and makes the strawberries look unrecognizable. You see this fancy treat and you get excited like, “Oh, that looks good.” And then you take a bite and realize it is a strawberry, becoming immediately disappointed because you hate it. You put the strawberry down and look at the others and…
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I have a slew of films I plan on seeing at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival. I can’t see all the movies I wish I could, but I have a pretty great slate ahead of me with some of my most anticipated movies of the 2015. Here are my five most anticipated movies of the 51st Chicago International Film Festival. 5 – Dheepan (Jacques Audiard) Jacques Audiard is a truly gifted director. His…
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This week, the 55th Chicago International Film Festival kicks off and it is a festival near and dear to my heart. I first attended the festival in 2008, where I got to see Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece The Wrestler I was also lucky enough to meet Mr. Aronofsky after the screening and talk to him about wrestling and filmmaking, which, for a 20 year old film student, was mind-blowing. I have attended the festival every year…
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The 2010’s have not been kind to director Sir Ridley Scott. After having a great 2000’s with films like Gladiator (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001), the underrated Matchstick Men (2003) and American Gangster (2007), Scott has made some of the worst films of his career this decade. With the films Robin Hood (2010), Prometheus (2012), The Counselor (2013), and Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), Scott has received some of the worst reviews and box office…
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It’s hard to follow up a masterpiece. After a director makes a masterpiece, everyone expects the next film to be just as great. Most of the time, the results are underwhelming. Quentin Tarantino followed up Pulp Fiction (1994) with Jackie Brown (1997), David Fincher followed up Se7en (1995) with The Game (1997), Steven Spielberg followed up Saving Private Ryan (1998) with A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), and so on. Not saying these movies are bad, but…
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