“True story” movies have always been popular. Three of the last four Best Picture-winners were based on true stories. Nonetheless, I feel like there have been a lot more than usual this year. We’ve got The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Foxcatcher, Selma, American Sniper, Big Eyes… uhm… Exodus (?), and the movie I’m…
Gentle, charming, indie comedies. This is an oft-abused, difficult-to-master art form. Do you even know how easy it is to mess up while attempting to make one of these things? It’s easier to ruin than an adaptation of a beloved fantasy novel. As such, when people get it right, and hit every note with delicate…
I was recently thinking back to last year and all the good movies that came out then: 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, Her, Captain Phillips, Prisoners, Mud, Much Ado About Nothing, Pacific Rim, American Hustle, Inside Llewyn Davis, and many others. This year has not been as good, especially as far as Oscar movies are…
Peter Jackson has spent some time in Middle-earth, producing six movies and oceans of profit, and fostering more childhoods than he could have anticipated. The Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters in 2001, thirteen years ago. Feel old yet? If you don’t, that’s because you’re too young, and you missed The Lord of the Rings…
A lot of critics hate Ridley Scott. A lot hate blockbusters. A lot hate religious movies. Some hate a combination of the three. What can I say? In the immortal words of President Thomas Jefferson, “Haters gonna hate.” Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) The Plot: Moses (Christian Bale) has lived his whole life as a…
The Golden Globe nominations came out today, and that was really the only surprising thing about them. Seriously, the nominations themselves are pretty much what you’d expect them to be, but did anyone know that the announcement was going to happen today? I didn’t. Let’s all be honest with each other. The only reason anyone…
Production studios are weird, and I gather involve a good deal of politics. Film festivals are also weird, and also heavily political. Things like the Cannes Film Festival are nice for indie filmmakers (the high-profile and non-indie indie filmmakers like the Coens and Wes Anderson) to screen their films and get picked up by major…
Rooster Illusion 