Since the announcement of “Best Popular Film” was made several hours ago, the general reaction has been something along the lines of “All this does is pander further to some non-existent audience at the expense of condescending to movies that make money.” Let’s take those one half at a time. First, I am generally speaking… Read More Best Popular Film: An Okay Idea Eighty-Nine Years Too Late
Dir. Jeff Nichols. Starring Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton, Nick Kroll My humble definition of a biopic is “any movie which makes months, and preferably years, of a real human being’s life into its plot.” By my own definition, I would say that Loving qualifies as a biopic of Richard and Mildred Loving (Edgerton and Negga,… Read More Loving (2016)
Dir. Bob Fosse. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner Lenny Bruce (Hoffman) is delivering his stand-up act, pulling from current events and the newspaper as is his wont. He’s intrigued by the discrepancy in pay for Zsa Zsa Gabor’s Las Vegas act ($60,000 salary) and the best-paid teachers in Nevada ($6,000). It’s “sick,” he… Read More Lenny (1974)
Dir. Louis Malle. Starring Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clément, Holger Löwenadler Lucien (Blaise) has five days off from his job mopping floors and emptying bedpans in a local hospital. He hasn’t called his mother (Gilberte Rivet) to tell her that he’s coming home for a while, and when he gets there he is more or less… Read More Lacombe, Lucien (1974)
Dir. Richard Brooks. Starring Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a competent waste of time and energy, occasionally pretty and from time to time infuriating for the right reasons. My inclination is to say that it’s not much of a movie, but I’m willing to admit I’m wrong… Read More Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Dir. Sergei Bondarchuk. Starring Ludmila Savelyeva, Sergei Bondarchuk, Vyacheslav Tikhonov Unless I manage to get my hands on Satantango or, God forbid, Out 1 at some point, I think War and Peace will probably rank as the lengthiest movie I watch this year. At 421 minutes, it is one of the giants of narrative cinema,… Read More War and Peace (1967)
Dir. John Ford. Starring Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Walter Brennan Frank Capra returned to Hollywood from military service and made It’s a Wonderful Life, a story about a man who is certain that his life, overflowing with instances of quiet sacrifice, has come to nothing. William Wyler returned to Hollywood from military service and made… Read More My Darling Clementine (1946)
In the latest edition of our conversations, Matt and I bring friend and former roommate of the podcast Josh aboard to talk about my recently completed “Better than the Oscars” project. We did chat about it, though we predictably spread the conversation a little wider than my ranking and write-ups. What follows is a lightly… Read More Baumann and Burch Conversations #7: Better than the Oscars Recap and Discussion
The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 1
The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 5-2
