Review: "Hillbilly Elegy" is the Worst Kind of Oscar Bait

Scene from Hillbilly Elegy

There's a certain sadness that comes with reporting the news that Hillbilly Elegy is a giant misfire, embodying the familiar lower-class struggles as mindless melodrama. Even in the hands of someone as capable as director Ron Howard, there's no understanding of what lies underneath the surface. In a time where Middle America has a crisis worth sharing, Howard has decided to stop at the problem, too scared to have compassion for his characters. The themes of socioeconomics, drug addiction, and the passive aggressiveness it produces are details that are worth sharing, but there's no bigger point here. The ending likes to think there is, but Howard fails to make it matter. It's doubtful that he's even met a hillbilly. If he did, he would've known that their story deserves something more than nonstop shouting matches. 

Composing Greatness: #7. "A Beautiful Mind" (2001)

Scene from A Beautiful Mind

Welcome to Composing Greatness: a column dedicated to exploring the work of film composers. This will specifically focus on the films that earned them Oscar nominations while exploring what makes it so special. This will be broken down into a look at the overall style, interesting moments within the composition, and what made the score worth nominating in the first place. This will also include various subcategories where I will rank the themes of each film along with any time that the composer actually wins. This is a column meant to explore a side of film that doesn't get enough credit while hopefully introducing audiences to an enriched view of more prolific composers' work. This will only cover scores/songs that are compiled in an easily accessible format (so no extended scores will be considered). Join me every Sunday as I cover these talents that if you don't know by name, you recognize by sound.

Composing Greatness: #4. James Horner - "Apollo 13" (1995)

Scene from Apollo 13

Welcome to Composing Greatness: a column dedicated to exploring the work of film composers. This will specifically focus on the films that earned them Oscar nominations while exploring what makes it so special. This will be broken down into a look at the overall style, interesting moments within the composition, and what made the score worth nominating in the first place. This will also include various subcategories where I will rank the themes of each film along with any time that the composer actually wins. This is a column meant to explore a side of film that doesn't get enough credit while hopefully introducing audiences to an enriched view of more prolific composers' work. This will only cover scores/songs that are compiled in an easily accessible format (so no extended scores will be considered). Join me every Sunday as I cover these talents that if you don't know by name, you recognize by sound.

Theory Thursday: Phil Lord and Chris Miller are Overrated

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. 

Theory Thursday: "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is the Worst Christmas Movie Since 2000

Scene from How the Grinch Stole Christmas

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. 

Super Delegates: Richard M. Nixon in "Frost/Nixon" (2008)

Frank Langella

Welcome to Super Delegates, a bi-monthly column released on Tuesdays and are done in part to recognize politics on film, specifically in regards to Oscar-nominated works. With this being an election year in the United States, it feels like a good time to revisit film history's vast relationship with politicians of any era and determine what makes them interesting while potentially connecting them to the modern era. The series plans to run until the end of this 2016 election cycle, so stay tuned for every installment and feel free to share your thoughts on films worthy of discussion in the comments section.

Why "Apollo 13" Remains One of the Best Space Films 20 Years Later

On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 known as Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. It was a historic moment in American history and one that has come to epitomize the dreamers in all of us. It is likely why outer space has always been an intriguing place for fiction to visit, whether it be Star Trek or more recently with last year's Interstellar. Yet despite the real world success, outer space remains a largely fictional place on screen where even the best films like Gravity are nitpicked by scientists like Neil Degrasse Tyson for its numerous inaccuracies. It is with this general dissent that makes it harder to argue against director Ron Howard's Apollo 13, which turns 20 today and still features one of the most accurate depictions of space and remains one of the few true stories to tackle a realm beyond our atmosphere. For that reason, and so much more, it deserves far more recognition than it gets.

R.I.P. John Forbes Nash (1928-2015)

John Forbes Nash

This past Saturday, mathematician John Forbes Nash and his wife for close to 60 years Alicia died in a car crash. With an impressive career that earned him a Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics, he influenced the the math world with his radical new ways of thinking with Game Theory. It even came to be that he earned the nickname of The Phantom of Fine Hall for his desires to scribble arcane equations in the middle of the night (a reference that made it into Rebecca Goldstein's "The Mind-Body Problem"). For a man with such a storied career going back to the 50's with a published paper on non-cooperative games, he left a valuable mark on the world that would be hard to properly summarize. This is largely because despite an amazing career with a lot of revolutionary ideas, he also developed mental illness - a notion that makes his achievements all the more interesting.

Howard Returns to Bountiful Excitement with First "In the Heart of the Sea" Trailer

Chris Hemsworth

It is hard to write for something called The Oscar Buzz without giving some consideration to director Ron Howard anytime he comes out with a new film. While this one is unfortunately not going to be eligible for this year's race, it does look really good in ways that a March release usually doesn't (here's looking at you, Serena). Packed with adventure, In the Heart of the Sea is a particularly grandiose film full of peril and rather effective looking set pieces. With Chris Hemsworth leading the film, there can only be hope that the film is so great that it overcomes its humdrum release date and becomes something far greater. At least, the first trailer would suggest the chances.

Review: "Rush" is Stuck in Second Gear

Left to right: Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl

It is an exciting time in movies, largely because we are officially in Oscar Buzz season. While we had some early trails in August, director Ron Howard's Rush kicks off endless weeks of new contenders and some that are still to surprise us. None would seem more surprising to be in the race than a Formula One Racing film that pits two rivals against each other and turns the tale of the need for speed into becoming competitive soul mates. While the automotives may make this seem like just an average racing movie, it has more going for it. 

Is "Rush" Capable of Putting Race Cars Into the Best Picture Category?

Daniel Bruhl

While I initially claimed that Oscar season began with The Butler back in August, it has seemed like a long, pointless gap between that film and the current stream of traffic. While I feel that Lee Daniel's look at American history will benefit from the earlier release, we are officially in the time when week-to-week, I will attempt to cover a lot more work than I normally do. As my predictions would imply the next few months starting this Friday will be a nonstop quest to catch them all and then speculate who will come out on top. It does seem poignant then that we begin season two of The Oscar Buzz properly with a Formula One racing movie: director Ron Howard's Rush.