Here are my picks for every category at this year's Oscars!
No Reason To Board - The 15:17 To Paris
Eastwood is making a habit of taking events that took just a few minutes and stretching them into feature length films. He achieves this by showing the event over and over and filling the runtime with backstory that only loosely relates. The 15:17 to Paris represents the very worst of this habit, coupled with production values that feel more like the efforts of a high school drama class than a four-time Oscar winner.
Wakanda Forever - Black Panther
Black Panther is not the first Black superhero movie. But with predecessors like Catwoman and Blade, the film universe had been hungry for a film of this caliber that does the things it does.
Get Me Out Of Here - The Cloverfield Paradox
It is weighed down by just enough blah, blah science this, blah, blah science that it never quite gets off the ground.
Top 10 of 2017
Here are my 10 favorite films of 2017!
One Indeed - A Fantastic Woman
At their most basic, our deepest desires are the same. We want what we need—safety, survival and love.
The Unseen - Phantom Thread
The film is undoubtedly a slow burn, but that burn is so satisfying, it's hard to imagine it won't get to you.
Nothing To Be Proud Of - Proud Mary
Everyone's work here is truly objectionable. If there were sanctions that could be given for poor filmmaking, this movie would deserve all of them.
Overflowing - The Shape of Water
The visual intrigue is on full display, but you would be hard-pressed to conjure up an argument that this is a world you want to stay in.
Running Through The Temple - Star Wars: The Last Jedi
If The Force Awakens was a re-tread bridge to the past, this is a bold, new bridge to the future and I am here for it.
The Past We Repeat - The Post
This is peak drama and Spielberg not only makes sure you feel the stakes; he also makes sure you understand they are just as high today.
Just Don't - Call Me By Your Name
I can't say I don't understand what they were trying to do here, but I can say that it didn't quite work for me.
On Thin Ice - I, TONYA
I, TONYA comes together in an almost manic fashion, with changes in tone, time and perspective. It was adapted, at least in part, from interviews with the characters involved and thus ducks in and out of crisscrossing, and even conflicting, anecdotes. The end result is as dizzying a triple axel and as sharp of the blades it rests on.
A Beautiful Disaster - The Disaster Artist
The extent to which James Franco channels what is hilarious about him, while also maintaining the humanity to make this a fully formed character, makes this one of the best comedic experiences in quite some time.
Half Mast - Last Flag Flying
It's something like a cross between American Sniper and The Bucket List. But on whatever level these three are having fun, it never really feels like fun for the audience.
Night of the Dead Living - Coco
Absentee fathers, career expectations, racial identity. It is par for the course for Pixar to include themes that reach adults, but these are all tackled in a way that feels accessible to kids as well. In a way only Pixar can, they somehow seem to speak on multiple levels with each scene.
Down Here Together - Mudbound
These characters circle one another on rails; their orbits well-defined by centuries of oppression. Rees manages to beautifully capture both the broad strokes and small contours that take shape when people fail to realize we are down here together.
This Is My Stop - Murder On The Orient Express
Updated racial politics and slick aesthetics keep it on the rails, but you would be hard pressed to find something to really love about it.
An Even Grungier Juno - Lady Bird
There’s a world in which this movie is made without Saoirse Ronan and it’s not one I want to live in. She single-handedly takes Lady Bird from being a character I had no use for to one with just enough complexity to keep me engaged.
Harvey's Not Alone
This conduct and these people are totally unacceptable and it shouldn't take their best days being behind them for them to be rebuked.