Theory Thursday: Bill Murray the Actor (Not the Person) is Overrated

Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

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. 

Birthday Take: Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" (2003)

Bill Murray in Lost in Translation

Welcome to The Birthday Take, a column dedicated to celebrating Oscar nominees and winners' birthdays by paying tribute to the work that got them noticed. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive retrospective, but more of a highlight of one nominated work that makes them noteworthy. The column will run whenever there is a birthday and will hopefully give a dense exploration of the finest performances and techniques applied to film. So please join me as we blow out the candles and dig into the delicious substance.

The Oscar Buzz Celebrates Its Second Anniversary!

Clint Eastwood

I am proud to announce that The Oscar Buzz has survived another year. It is quite an achievement that while the second wind wasn't nearly as strong as the first year, I continued to expand my audience and find new readers to interact with. I even ran The Directors Project, which for better or worse brought in new readers and helped the reader to better understand my interests as a whole. So, how do we celebrate the second anniversary? I have decided that in order to continue with the thematic elements that make these occasional lists so unique is to go with something that is not often thought of: the second films. While directorial debuts get a lot of clout, there's still some magic to be had with filmmakers on their second go. They need to prove themselves as more than just a lucky move. The following is a list of 15 films throughout history that I have enjoyed as the second go around for many fine filmmakers.

The Directors Project: #22 - Sofia Coppola

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.