The Academy Takes Two Steps Forward and One Step Back with the 2019 Oscar Nominations
Any batch of Oscar nominations can both delight and confound. Those this year were no exception. For every milestone like Black Panther that became the first superhero movie to receive a Best Picture nomination, there are the failures of the Academy to recognize smaller, indie fare like the heralded Eighth Grade, women directors, or actors […]
The Haunting “Cold War” Tells of Love Both Freeing and Incarcerating
In any other year, writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War would be the standout foreign language film. Unfortunately, it’s been relegated to “runner-up” status due to the overwhelming impact Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma has had on the cinema of 2018. That’s a shame because this tough, but tender, love story from Poland is in many ways equal […]
Why “Bird Box” Starring Sandra Bullock Was Such a Ginormous Hit for Netflix
Netflix said that a third of its global subscriber base watched their original horror movie Bird Box in the first week it dropped. Whether or not 45 million watched the film has come under some scrutiny, but such criticism misses the point. Why was Bird Box so incredibly popular? Sure, it was advertised and promoted […]
An Interview With James Laxton, the Cinematographer of “If Beale Street Could Talk”
A host of difficulties befall a young black couple in love in the new movie adaptation of James Baldwin’s famous novel If Beale Street Could Talk. Tish (Kiki Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James) must wrestle with an unexpected pregnancy, as well as family disapproval, housing discrimination, and even false imprisonment for a crime he did […]
Translating Sherlock Holmes to the Screen Is No Longer Elementary
The fictional character of Sherlock Holmes continues to be one that the entertainment world mines with stunning regularity. One would think that the success of Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller on the small screen this past decade might intimidate others from wading into similar waters, but in Hollywood, nothing breeds success, or excess, quite […]
