Film Misery

For the first time in 10 years the Oscar nominees in the five major individual categories (director, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress) may all be white.

The Bechdel Test determines whether or not a film has any female presence. A surprising number of films do not pass the test.

OVERALL PREDICTIONS: 8 for 14. BEST MOTION PICTURE (DRAMA) Prediction: Avatar Winner: Avatar BEST ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE (DRAMA) Prediction: Carey Mulligan – An Education Winner: Sanrda Bullock – The Blind Side BEST ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE (DRAMA) Prediction: George Clooney – Up in the Air Winner: Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart BEST [...]

Gabourey Sidibe racked up a precursor from the Vegas critics today. She still has a long way to go to catch Meryl and Carey, but it could happen. Las Vegas Film Critics Awards 2009 Best Picture The Hurt Locker Best Foreign Film Red Cliff (China) Best Documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil Best Animated Film [...]

Once again, the predictions weren’t too much of a shocker. Inglourious Basterds, Precious, and Up in the Air lead the pack with three nominations a piece. Check out the nominations and how I did below: Screen Actors Guild Nominees 2009 Best Ensemble Cast An Education The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Nine Precious How I Did: [...]

The Screen Actors Guild Nominations will be announced in a few hours, so it’s time to make some predictions. The SAGs are known to throw some kinks in the acting races and their Best Ensemble Acting category has always been one of the best precursors for the Best Picture Oscar. View my full predictions after [...]

Oh, the NBR. Every year bloggers and film writers across the internet complain about how much of a joke the National Board of Review is. Most of the voting members aren’t journalists or members of the filmmaking community, but film “enthusiasts” and students. The are one of the oldest Awards bodies and they began with [...]

Of all of the major Awards precursors, the Spirit Awards are arguably the most unique. They largely differ in taste from the majority of Awards bodies, but are still considered a major precursor for the Oscars. They are ultimately looked to as a glimpse at what might be this year’s “surprise” nominations. Last year one [...]

Grade: B+ It was about halfway through the film Precious: Based on the Novel “PUSH” by Sapphire when something struck me. The title character had just survived a horrific confrontation with her mother when she arrives at school. Precious’s classmates’ reaction to seeing her clutching a baby wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket was to burst [...]

NOTE: Want to submit an article to be considered for “Of the Day”? E-mail me! Read of the Weekend: Black moviegoers are deeply divided over Precious, with some calling it a heralding triumph and others calling it the ultimate Klansmen’s fantasy. This article examines each side of the debate. [L.A. Times] News of the Weekend: [...]

The Satellite Awards are given out by the International Press Academy, and unlike most precursors who desperately want to mimic the Oscars, these guys try their darndest to look like the Golden Globes. They were formerly known as the “Golden Satellites” and they seek to award the best that film has to offer while separating [...]

Those geriatric Academy members who love to spout their opinion via online video are back again. The Reel Geezers have posted a video review of Precious in which they call it unlike anything they have ever seen. They call the acting “brilliant, brilliant” and compare Mo’Nique’s performance to Joan Crawford. They also comically mispronounce Mariah [...]

Read of the Day: Apparently sex doesn’t sell as a new study reveals that nudity or sex in films doesn’t affect their box office. [IFC Independent Eye] News of the Day: The Fido Awards, which recognizes dogs in films, were announced with Dug from Up taking home a prize. [The Guardian] Review of the Day: [...]

The Twi-hards, as fans of Stephanie Meyers’ series are so affectionately called, came out in droves this weekend to see the latest addition to the vampire franchise, New Moon. After a record-setting midnight release and Friday opening, the film came just short of the all-time weekend box office record set by The Dark Knight in [...]

Just as iconic images from the American landscape were crushed by Apocalyptic factors in the movie 2012, that film did the same to its competition at this weekend’s box office. Domestically it brought in an impressive $65 million, the largest opening of any film in the past three months. Worldwide the film made a smashing [...]

During this time of year as the buzz builds around Oscar possible films, actors, actresses, and writers, one of the big categories that consistently is ignored is Best Director. The Gurus of Gold and other Oscar pick compilations rarely consider the Best Director frontrunners. It seems to be the general attitude that Directors are judged [...]

The Holiday season jumps into gear with Robert Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol taking the number one spot at the weekend box office. The film grossed a decent $31 million, more than I had predicted largely in part to the dismal effort put forth by the wide release competition. Richard Kelly’s The Box brought in a [...]

NOTE: From now on, rather than doing a sweeping update where I make predictions in all categories at once, I will be gradually updating a few categories each week, complete with an article. The brief worries that set in earlier in the week about Precious‘s Oscar chances have quickly faded as the Metacritic reviews have [...]

Picks of the Week for November 6, 2009: 1) Precious (18 theatres) Directed By: Lee Daniels Rotten Tomatoes: 85% | Metacritic: 76 I had thought by this point almost all critics had seen the film and loved it, but apparently I was wrong. A new crop of negative reviews came out this week. However, even [...]

Read of the Day: Almost the exact same minute that I posted my rant about movie audiences, Paul Young posted a similar one. Apart from cell phones and talkative high schoolers, he also hates babies (at movies). [Screen Rant] News of the Day: Add Jeff Bridges to the Best Actor race as Fox Searchlight has [...]