R.I.P. Olivia De Havilland (1916-2020)

Olivia De Havilland

On July 25, 2020 actress Olivia De Havilland died at the age of 104 in Paris, France from natural causes. She was the oldest living member from the Golden Age of Hollywood, serving a career that spanned 50 years and featured two Oscar wins. Among her lengthy career was an appearance in Gone With the Wind, which remains one of the most acclaimed and successful films from its era. She leaves behind a body of work that includes many strong-headed performances that proved her charisma, making her one of the defining voices of her generation. No matter what she did, she gave her all and she will be missed greatly. 

Review: "Harriet" Only Gets So Far With Conventional Story

Scene from Harriet (2019)

There's no biopic that has as much pressure to live up to as director Kasi Lemmons' Harriet. It's likely that those who have been in a history class anytime over the past 100 years will know the achievements of Harriet Tubman, even vaguely. She is a prime figure in the success of The Underground Railroad, and that's just the start to something more exciting and empowering about her story. There's so much ground to cover to the point that it's impossible to fathom why it took until 2019 for Tubman to receive the biopic treatment. Harriet is a film that has to be something for everybody as a result, being neither too salacious for those discovering her story nor too sentimental and false. Where does one possibly go with this material for a first outing? The answer is somewhere safe in the middle, producing a film that is satisfying but lacks any urgency that will revive Tubman's legacy to a new generation.

Review: "Judy" Finds Pain in a Charismatic Performance

Scene from Judy (2019)

There's an old adage in show business: the show MUST go on. No matter what's happening around you, if you're feeling the least bit timid, a performer puts on a show and entertains the crowd who paid handsomely to see them. That is the familiar crux of director Rupert Goold's biopic Judy, which pits one of Hollywood's most famous and tragic careers into a sympathetic lens, trying to understand what kept her going. With drug addiction and family problems spiraling out of control like her wrecked hotel suite, the story finds her backstage in London, doing everything in her power to keep going on. For as much as this follows conventional paths of a music biopic, there's something to be said for Renee Zellwegger's brittle performance as Judy Garland, whose tearful demeanor makes the many musical numbers more triumphant and saves this. For as much as it leans too heavily on conventions, one can't deny that Garland was a performer until the end, leaving the audience wanting even more when she herself had nothing left to give. It's the tragedy of art, but also the reality of Hollywood's gross past when it came to how it treated its female talent. 

Review: "Bombshell" Lands With a Dud

Scene from Bombshell (2019)

With a better director (nay, a better script), Bombshell would've been a film brimming with such an urgency, defining the current Me Too Movement with its cross-section of topics ranging from journalism to presidencies to sexual harassment. The story of Fox News anchors bringing their boss to task for his bad behavior should be something that strikes a chord with viewers so much that they leave the theater vindicated that the bad guy got his due. Instead, it's an impersonal slog of a movie and one that lacks any urgency at all. What is found here is director Jay Roach's attempt at mattering by telling the story in the most boring, clinical way possible while still missing the point. It isn't about how well you know the story, but what it means to the people most being impacted by it. In some ways, it's the perfect embodiment of trend-hopping filmmaking that quickly exposes who hasn't seen it. Those who haven't will think it's important for what it's about, those who see it know better. It should be important, but alas... it's just desperate. 

R.I.P. Doris Day (1922-2019)

Doris Day

On May 13, 2019, actress and singer Doris Day passed away at the age of 97 in Carmel Valley Village, California. Over the course of an extensive career, she recorded over 650 songs and starred in such iconic movies as Pillow Talk and Calamity Jane. While she only received one Oscar for acting, many of her biggest hits would win Best Original Song awards, including "Que Sera Sera" (from The Man Who Knew Too Much) and "Secret Love" (from Calamity Jane). She leaves behind a massive body of work both on screen and in various recordings, including several major awards distinctions that have yet to be met. With almost a century of talent to her name, she leaves behind a career that's hard to ignore and work that shows just how talented she always was.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2011)

Scene from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Theory Thursday: "Blue Valentine" is Ryan Gosling's Best Film

Scene from Blue Valentine

Welcome to a weekly column called Theory Thursdays, which will be released every Thursday and discuss my "controversial opinion" related to something relative to the week of release. Sometimes it will be birthdays while others is current events or a new film release. Whatever the case may be, this is a personal defense for why I disagree with the general opinion and hope to convince you of the same. While I don't expect you to be on my side, I do hope for a rational argument. After all, film is a subjective medium and this is merely just a theory that can be proven either way. 

Viola Davis Regrets Certain Things About "The Help"

Viola Davis in The Help

This Oscar season already has a packed schedule of potential nominees. Among them is Viola Davis, who recently won an Oscar for her role in Fences.This year she returns with a major role in the Steve McQueen-directed heist film Widows, what has already received a lot of acclaim at various film festivals. However, there's already some concern over Davis' recent past, as she has given an interview where she claims that she regretted her work in The Help. Does this mean she hates the role? Well, not exactly. What she meant it something a bit more nuanced and maybe more understandable in 2018 than it was in 2011 when the film became a late-summer sensation.

The Story of Frances McDormand's Stolen Oscar

Frances McDormand

There's no denying that one of the big moments of this year's Academy Awards ceremony was when Frances McDormand won Best Actress for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It wasn't just that she had given a great performance, but her speech capped off a year of Hollywood being obsessed with equality. It featured such memorable moments as her asking female filmmakers in the audience to stand, and later the inclusion of the phrase "inclusion rider." But it wasn't the end of her Oscar story. It was briefly stolen after the ceremony, which proved to be a briefly harrowing situation.

A24 A-to-Z: #27."Room" (2015)

Scene from Room

In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for ears to come.

Casey Affleck Bows Out of Oscar Presenter Duties

Casey Affleck

It's a tradition almost as old as The Academy Awards. Every year the acting categories play a cute game in which the Best Actor winner of the previous year awards the Best Actress category of that year (and vice versa). There's been one controversy however present in an era defined by the Me Too and Time's Up movement: what are they going to do about Casey Affleck, last year's Best Actor winner for Manchester By the Sea. He has become a figure of notoriety thanks to his sexual harassment lawsuit that almost cost him the Oscar. Many wanted him to vetoed out of the role. However, today marks a different turn: Affleck himself is stepping down, breaking an Oscar tradition. It may be an expected move amid controversy, but it still is quite an odd development.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Jackie" (2016)

Natalie Portman in Jackie

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "La La Land" (2016)

Scene from La La Land

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

The Runner-Ups: Mary Elizabeth Winstead in "Smashed" (2012)

Scene from Smashed

Every Oscar season, there are a handful of actors who get tagged with the "snubbed" moniker. While it is always unfortunate to see our favorites not honored with at very least a nomination, there's another trend that goes largely unnoticed: those who never even got that far. The Runner-Ups is a column meant to honor the greats in cinema who put in phenomenal work without getting the credit that they deserved from The Academy. Join me every other Saturday as I honor those who never received any love. This list will hopefully come to cover both the acting community, and the many crew members who put the production together.

Natalie Portman, Best Documentary Short Nominees Are Not Attending the Oscars

Natalie Portman in Jackie

Even if there's plenty to look forward to on Oscar Sunday, there will be a few missing faces at the ceremony. A few weeks back, The Salesman's Asghar Farhadi and Taraneh Alidoosti announced that they wouldn't go due to the Muslim Ban. Now there's more names added to the list. While there's plenty related to the the Muslim Ban, there's one particular absence that is brought about for different reasons. Best Actress nominee Natalie Portman (Jackie) has already missed the Spirit Awards and is looking to be staying home tomorrow night as well. Read on to discover which stars won't be on the R.S.V.P. list.

R.I.P. Emmanuelle Riva (1927-2017)

Emmanuelle Riva in Amour

On January 27, 2017, actress Emmanuelle Riva died at the age of 89 in Paris, France from cancer. The French actress had a lengthy career full of great performances. She is most likely going to be remembered for her role in director Michel Haneke's Amour, in which she played a dying woman opposite Jean-Louis Trintignant. Her career featured several astounding performances that played to her strengths and helped solidify her as a unique talent. She leaves behind an impressive body of work the likes of which cannot be matched. 

R.I.P. Mary Tyler Moore (1938-2017)

Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People

On January 25, 2017 actress Mary Tyler Moore died at the age of 80 in Greenwich, Connecticut from pneumonia. Over the course of her lengthy career, she has done a lot of work in shaping the view of women in movies and specifically TV with The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She was also nominated for an Oscar with her dramatic turn in Ordinary People. As the opening song of her sitcom suggested, she could turn the world on with her smile. She did plenty work on screen as well as behind the scenes, donating time to charities related to diabetes and animal rights. She leaves behind a body of work that continues to inspire women generations later as well as fans of comedies in general.

Looking at Oscar Predictions: How Did I Do?

Scene from Hell or High Water

Well, the moment has come. The Oscars have been announced and La La Land leads the pack with 14 nominations. While we predict what's to come, why not take this opportunity to look at how things went before. I am talking specifically about my own predictions that I made yesterday regarding who was going to make the cut. As you'll see, I didn't do terribly, though betting on horses like 20th Century Women didn't exactly pan out either. The following is a rundown of the main categories as well as what I picked. 

Here's the Predictions for the 2017 Oscar Nominations

Scene from Moonlight

The big day is almost here. With Oscar Sunday approaching slowly but surely, it's time to see what the big nominations will be. Who will be in Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress? Ahead of tomorrow's nominations at 5:18 AM (check your local listings for more information), I will be doing the annual tradition of trying to predict these major fields (I'm not ambitious enough to do the entire slate). You can read my predictions after the jump, and prepare for regular coverage following the announcement. It's guaranteed to be a fun day full of highlights and snub talk. See you then.

R.I.P. Debbie Reynolds (1932-2016)

Debbie Reynolds

On December 28, 2016, actress and singer Debbie Reynolds died at the age of 84 in Los Angeles, California after suffering from a stroke. Over the course of her lengthy career, she has entertained audiences both on the silver screen as well as on TV. Best known for her role in Singin' in the Rain, she is known for performing complicated song and dance numbers effortlessly. However, she was a charismatic woman whose talents ranged into theater, film preservation, and even running an organization for mental health issues. No matter what the cause, she dedicated herself to making the world a better place. She leaves behind an impressive body of work that transcends media that will entertain audiences for generations to come.