Oscar Reviews: Best Live Action Short Nominees

Every year, I try to watch all of the Oscar nominees for Best Live Action short, and I can tell you with no hesitation that this crop of short films is by far the darkest, most brutal collection of Oscar nominated shorts I’ve ever seen. Below are my thoughts on each of the nominees, and my prediction of who will win. Check out these shorts if you can. They aren’t easy, but they’re all incredibly well made.

Who Will Win the Oscar for Best Actress?

The Best Actress Oscar has been a lot of fun to track this award’s season. Early on, the award seemed like a split vote between Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born) and Olivia Colman (The Favourite), but the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards all but diminished that competition, making it clear that this is Glenn Close’s award to lose. Below is a deep dive into this year’s Best Actress race, including my thoughts on the nominated performances, and the Oscars awarding performers for their careers, as opposed to a single performance. (Note: This article ran as a part of the LAMB Devours the Oscar series.)

Who Will Win the Oscar for Best Score?

When the Oscar nominations were announced last month, the Best Score category featured a glaring omission that people still can’t wrap their hands around. In this post, I’ll talk about the significance of the scores that actually were nominated, the surprising snubs that deserved inclusion, and who I think will ultimately win on Oscar night. (Note: This article ran as a part of the LAMB Devours the Oscar series.)

Top 20 Best Cinematography Oscar Winners

On Monday, the Academy Awards confirmed what many of us had feared: During the 91^st Oscars broadcast, four awards will be given out during commercial breaks, and the winners’ speeches will air sometime later in the show. For die-hard Oscar fans, this decision is complete and utter bullshit. The Academy has made some painfully dumb decisions this year, but I haven’t really been bothered by most of them. No host, fine. Three hour run time, go for it. Not performing each Best Song nominee, doesn’t seem very fair, but okay (this decision has been reversed). Creating a Most Popular Film category, ha, do your thing (this decision has been reversed).

In Character: 2018 Oscar Nominees

With the 91^st Oscars only a few weeks away, here’s a breakdown of my favorite performances by each nominated performer. Please feel free to share your favorite roles from all of the nominees as well!

Top 5 “Rotten” Movies of 2018

Every year, I look forward to publishing a list of movies I enjoyed that were deemed “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes. This was a particularly strong year for movies of this kind, so please do share your favorite “rotten” films of 2018 as well. (Note: I’m using the Rotten Tomatoes scores each film had on December 31, 2018.)

Top 20 Female Performances of 2018

Last year was such a great year for female performances that I was forced to cheat in creating this list, and lump a few of them together. This was not intended to slight the performers grouped together, but rather, make room for equally deserving ones. Enjoy!

Top 20 Male Performances of 2018

From child performers to esteemed vets, in great films or good, here are my favorite male acting performances from 2018. My list of my favorite female performances will be posted shortly. Enjoy!

Top 15 Films of 2018

Certain years are better for movies than others. In fact, there have been a few years when I’ve struggled to think of 10 worthy films to highlight in my year-end list. But 2018 started strong early, and kept delivering solid movies from talented filmmakers. And while a number of the most talked about films from this year didn’t fully work for me, here are the movies from 2018 that hit me the hardest.

Top 61 Things I Love About Die Hard (that no one talks about)

Every holiday season is a good reminder that it’s time to rewatch Die Hard. Not that we need a specific reason watch this film, as it remains one of the finest action films ever made. But here, I take a look at some aspects of the film that aren’t talked about a lot, including revelatory camera movement, audacious editing, violence depicted accurately, the joy in action, and why backdrops beat CG every time. Enjoy!

Top 15 Pure Cinema Moments That Make Me Cry

“Pure cinema” can be defined any number of ways. Lately, it seems to be an alternative meaning for avant-garde cinema, but for me, a pure cinema moment is when a movie utilizes varies aspects of production (direction, cinematography, performance, music, editing) and marries them together flawlessly. Such moments can make us sit up right. They can give us chills, and they can, in the most special of instances, cause us to cry. 

Below are 15 such moments for me. This is far from an all-encompassing list; these were simply 15 pure cinema moments that I felt like sharing. Please do feel free to share your favorite pure cinema moments as well!

Widows

I was admittedly curious to witness Steve McQueen’s approach to Widows. For my money, Steve McQueen is one of the finest filmmakers we have. He’s responsible for two movie masterpieces (Hunger and Shame), and the finest cinematic narrative document about American slavery (12 Years a Slave). Why then, I carefully wondered, would he embark on such a conventional genre like the heist thriller?

Upon seeing Widows, which is based on a British television series from the ‘80s, the answer was obvious: In order to avoid the conventions of the heist film, McQueen abandons them and creates his own unique narrative.

Reviews: 2018 Netflix Films

Netflix is determined to change the way we watch movies. According to Forbes, Netflix spent $13 billion on original content in 2018. And while most of that is for a seemingly endless string of new TV shows, Netflix seems poised to finally throw their weight toward major movies.

On the eve of Netflix dropping potential heavy-hitters like The Other Side of the Wind (which was released a few days), Outlaw King, Bird Box, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Roma, I thought it’d be fun to take a look at some recent notable releases.

First Man

When I look back at the times in my life that represent moments of proud achievement, those moments were almost always followed by a curious sense of melancholy. This used to bother me a great deal. Why do I feel sad after I’ve worked so hard to accomplish this goal? What’s missing? I’ve since learned that this is quite common. After achieving something you’ve worked so hard for, it’s not unusual to be left with a feeling of longing. What the hell do I do now? Where do I go from here? What now?

That feel of achievement-based melancholy is represented so well in Damien Chazelle’s new, appropriately thrilling and patient film, First Man.

Top 10 Sean Bobbitt Films

It’s getting harder for me to contain my excitement for the release of Steve McQueen’s Widows next month. With only a few weeks to go, I thought it’d be fun to dive into the work of McQueen’s longtime cinematographer, Sean Bobbitt. And while Bobbitt is perhaps best knows for lensing McQueen’s four feature films, his work elsewhere certainly should not be overlooked.