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‘Django’ Fuck Yourself: Oscar’s Also-Rans
Well, I finally saw Django Unchained, and where to begin? I avoided it for quite some time because it seemed most everyone had already seen it, and a Tarantino film is not a thing I like to embark on...
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Reel Breakers: A Single Cinephile’s Recipe For A Blue Valentine
(Originally posted on Justin + 7.) How important is cinematic compatibility in a relationship? For most, it’s probably nowhere near the top of the list. Intelligence, looks, hygiene, values,...
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Flip ‘Side’: Soderbergh Turns Genre On Its Head Again
Is Steven Soderbergh one of Hollywood’s least appreciated filmmakers? On the one hand, the man has achieved his share of success. He won an Oscar for Traffic, he helmed the commercially successful...
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Well Played, Netflix: ‘House Of Cards’ Chapters 1-3
(Originally posted on Justin + 7.) I figured I’d be writing something about the Oscars today, as I normally would do a few days before the big show, but since I have been covering them since the...
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The Tens: Best Of Film 2012
It’s Oscar time! As usual, the Academy Awards are poised to make some very wrong decisions this year. So as usual, I am prematurely correcting them by releasing my Top Ten of the year. That year is...
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Not-Oscars 2013: The Year’s Best Performances
(Originally published at JustinPlusSeven on January 10, 2013.) You, dear reader, have the honor of reading this in the future, after the Oscar nominations have been announced. But I am writing from...
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The Year I Gave Up On The Oscars
(I know, it’s Thursday, and your tolerance for Oscar discussion was likely exhausted by Tuesday morning. But I’m still detoxing, so just let me get this out of my system.) It used to be like Christmas,...
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Return To ‘Oz’: A Minor Desecration Of My Childhood
I saw Oz The Great And Powerful earlier this week, and I am pleased to report that it is only a minor desecration of my childhood. As a child, I was an Oz fanatic. I’m not even talking about the MGM...
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Mean Women: Is ‘Bachelorette’ A Sequel To ‘Mean Girls’?
Remember Mean Girls? Of course you do. You’ve been quoting it since 2004. On Wednesdays, you say: “On Wednesdays we wear pink.” On October 3, you ask what day it is. If someone tries to make fetch...
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Pigs &‘Mud’: The Kick-Off To A Sundance Summer
Summer is the season for blockbusters, of course, but there also must be a little counter-programming for those of us less inclined to see Fast & Furious 6 or Star Trek Into Darkness. Nearing the...
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The Great ‘Beyond’: Gosling & Cooper Go For An Epic Triptych
Is there a male star more objectified than Ryan Gosling? One or two, maybe, but none with as much cred. Ryan Gosling is an Oscar nominee — but possibly not as many times as he should be, in roughly the...
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Zoinks!: Those Meddling Kids In One Direction As The ‘Scooby Doo’ Gang
Zoinks! You’d think One Direction would be too busy performing these days to also solve mysteries, but seeing as they’re about to be riding around in a Scooby Van, they better make time for a little...
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‘Behind’ Every Great Man…
Behind The Candelabra is fabulous. I ordinarily wouldn’t call a movie “fabulous,” but it certainly applies here. Everything from the sets to the costumes to the performances to the title is just...
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After The Sunset: Jesse & Celine Get Dark In ‘Before Midnight’
The Before trilogy is maybe the most unlikely trilogy of them all — if you can even call it one. The word “trilogy” conjures an epic vibe, as if Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy should be running around in...
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M. Night Shyamalan’s Plot Twists, From Mind-Blowing To Face-Palming
This is a round-up all the plot twists in M. Night Shyamalan’s movies. Or is it??? M. Night became a household name back in 1999, when The Sixth Sense’s twist ending proved so sensational that it...
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‘Nothing’ Really Matters: Is Joss Whedon Our Shakespeare?
I have yet to see a single blockbuster this summer. No Iron Man, no Gatsby, no Fast & Furious, no Star Trek. It’s not that these movies are totally unappealing, just that there’s always been...
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Hollywood Bluths: An All-Star ‘Arrested Development’
There have been rumors of an Arrested Development movie for ages, but no confirmation from the creators or cast, especially because their busy schedules make it near-impossible to get them all in one...
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Faking & Entering: ‘The Bling Ring’ Is Like ‘TMZ: The Movie’
United 93. The Social Network. Zero Dark Thirty. And now… The Bling Ring. Not many movies are made so directly after the true events in them took place, and often a “too soon” haze lingers over them —...
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#1 Club: ‘Dogville’
“If there’s any town this world would be better without, this is it.” It’s been nearly ten years since Dogville debuted in theaters. I remember wrestling with where to place it in my Top 10 back then,...
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‘Orange’ Juicy: Netflix Is The New Showtime
Yes, I’m talking about it too. If you’re a twenty- or thirty-something with access to the internet, I find it hard to imagine that you’ve escaped hearing anything about Orange Is The New Black, the...
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