No Gold for Leo: Or Why We Need a Best Stunt Performer Oscar Category

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant

It seems like I have been extremely harsh on one film this past Oscar season: director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's The Revenant. It started with its problematic production and continued with false allegations of bear rape and my own belief that it shouldn't even be Oscar nomianted. However, there is one reason that it bothers me more than anything else: it's Leonardo DiCaprio's worst role. For those who are quick to accuse me of underselling his sacrifices, I am not. The issue here is that we're mistaking stunts for acting. You see, there is a grand difference, and I intend to prove why DiCaprio's performance was not acting - but instead an outdoors version of Fear Factor (and you wouldn't give Joe Rogan's show an Oscar now, would you?), and that this whole facade to get him an Oscar is a great example of nonsensical favoritism.

Tarantino Reveals Why Django Was Not in "The Hateful Eight"

Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained

With the release of director Quentin Tarantino's latest film The Hateful Eight only weeks away, it feels like a great time to pull up old retrospectives about his career. With a great ear for dialogue and some of the best stylized violence in mainstream cinema, the director has slowly built his way into being one of the most definitive voices of his generation. Among his more controversial films is 2012's Django Unchained, which starred Jamie Foxx as a freed slave who seeks revenge on his white captors in a bloody, anachronistic fashion. While these two films share relations to the western genre, there's something else that they have in common. Django almost appeared in The Hateful Eight.

The Directors Project: #8 - Quentin Tarantino

Scene from Cinema Paradiso

With the many lists and essays written on the subject of film, there has been one thing that The Oscar Buzz has tried to understand: Who is my favorite of the film world? For 10 weeks this summer, I will be exploring this with a countdown of the Top 50 names based on a numerical ranking of ratings from various sources, the following is a list of directors who rank above everyone else. With occasional upsets, this is intended as both a discussion opener as well as a better understanding of me as a film critic and fan. Please enjoy and leave any comments you have regarding the entry's selection.