The crucial emotional response The Florida Project demands of its viewers is empathy. If you can’t find that, if you turn your nose, close your eyes, and refuse to accept that this kind of American lifestyle exists, you are missing the hard truths, the teachable moments, and the larger points being presented. onvenient Hollywood endings don’t exist in the real life Baker’s film examines. Applaud a film that dares to push that stark reality.
Read MoreLost in Paris is an exceedingly charming ditty of a comedy from the writing, directing, and starring duo of Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon. Three overlapping character-coded chapters follow a wayward character’s pratfalls and screwups through the course of their fateful intersections. Lost in Paris weaves its yarn with clever panache. It’s a surreal jaunt that juggles the cheekily uncouth with the innocently sweet inside its ever-present sense of whimsy.
Read MoreWhen standup comedians come to the big screen, they tend to stay with what works, extending their personas and bits into feature-length material within their comfort zones. Most lack creativity to make something unique out of their individuality. That is not the case with Demetri Martin making his impressive feature writing and directing debut with Dean. In 87 breezy minutes pushing against the grief of its characters, his film squeezes earnest sweetness out of bleak material that would never play on his comedy club stages.
Read MorePicture your personal influences, either worshiped or admired, and imagine being granted the opportunity to have a conversation with them. What would you talk about? What would you ask them? How would it change you? In the world of cinema, such a conversation happened between a then-neophyte auteur Francois Truffaut and the aging master Alfred Hitchock in 1962. Their documented meeting has gone on to inspire generations of future filmmakers and cinephiles.
Read MoreAlright, folks! I've done all of the research I can. I've read all of the tea leaves and broken down every race. I've made my detailed picks in seven columns and editorials over the past week. Here's my master list. In the three years of writing these Oscar nominations and following the data on my website, my prediction score has improved every year. Last year, I correctly guessed 20 of 24 awards up from 19 and 17 from the two years before. I'm gunning for another 20+ night again.
Read MoreWith the 87th Academy Award nominations being announced tomorrow morning, I'm cutting it close with my predictions of who and what names will hear their named called. I've been following the full awards season over on my Awards Tracker page, where I've been following the trends and reading the tea leaves. Using that data and a batch of hunches, here are my savvy predictions for tomorrow's nominations in the eleven major categories.
Read MoreMore and more each year, the Golden Globes have become more an a popularity contest than a true precursor to the Academy Awards. What you're watching on TV is a party thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in an effort to be loved and share some love. To its credit, the awards show still garners legitimate attention and ratings. The winners do get a pretty positive rub and the marketers gain a few more "Winner of..." graphics to put in the newspapers next to their films. Let's take a look at the film categories and pick some winners.
Read MoreAnderson's hot streak at winning me over has now extended to two films in a row with "The Grand Budapest Hotel." Richly detailed in every sense of possible style, this is a superbly entertaining little caper film that should yield more success for Wes Anderson and earn even more new fans. I know it's just March, but I'm going to go out on a limb right now and say that this is the best written film you will see all year. The script is brilliant beyond measure and a star-studded cast rarely misses a beat to make those words shine and leap off the page and screen.
Read MoreOnce one awards season ends, another one begins! The winners from last night's 86th Academy Awards can bask in the glow of immortality for a while. Meanwhile, business in Hollywood will quickly shift and move on to the 87th Academy Awards that will happen in February or March of 2015. Here are 15 films to watch for the 2015 Oscars.
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