Nothing But the Best: "The Deer Hunter" (1978)

Scene from The Deer Hunter

Welcome to the series Nothing But the Best in which I chronicle all of the Academy Award Best Picture winners as they celebrate their anniversaries. Instead of going in chronological order, this series will be presented on each film's anniversary and will feature personal opinions as well as facts regarding its legacy and behind the scenes information. The goal is to create an in depth essay for each film while looking not only how the medium progressed, but how the film is integral to pop culture. In some cases, it will be easy. Others not so much. Without further ado, let's start the show.

Review: "Jersey Boys" is a Mildly Fun and Upbeat Dose of Nostalgic Doo Wop

Left to right: Vincent Piazza, Erich Bergen,
John Lloyd Young, and Michael Lomenda

There was a point sometime in the past 15 years when Clint Eastwood lost his bite. Basically, the man who made misanthropic epic westerns like High Plains Drifter and Unforgiven was moving on into a new phase of his career: AARP filmmaking. Despite its pejorative connotation, Eastwood has become a master at making films geared almost specifically to people in his age bracket. With limited exceptions, all of his films have in some way been harmless nostalgia flicks geared at making elderly people feel good about their contributions to society. With Gran Torino being his most iconic example of this, he continues to dominate the AARP filmmaking genre with his latest film Jersey Boys: an adaptation of a Broadway smash "musical" about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Does the elderly director do the group proud?

The 'Jersey Boys' Trailer Kicks Off 2014's Very Musical Year

Nipping on the heels of the trailer premiere for Gone Girl earlier this week is the debut of the first trailer for director Clint Eastwood's latest: an adaptation of the popular stage production Jersey Boys. Many have speculated what the veteran actor and director would bring to this subject matter, especially with his recent films being tamer, elderly fare such as Gran Torino and J. Edgar. However, from the looks of it, this appears to be another biopic in the vein of Walk the Line except with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It looks to be a fun, energetic change to the director's recent filmography and also one of the first considerable Oscar contenders for the upcoming year.