Tag: Oscars
Babylon is a Bit Too Ambitious For Its Own Good
Babylon spans the pivotal era of American filmmaking in Hollywood from 1926-1952 as a host of changes were taking place both behind the camera, in the boardrooms of movie studios, and throughout American culture at large. We follow…
Read More »The Whale’s Ensemble Powers Its Emotional Themes Past an Okay Story (Middleburg Film Festival)
The Whale is a simple story packed with no simple emotions and social commentary. Charlie (Brendan Fraser) is a depressed, reclusive, online English professor who is slowly dying from obesity and resigned to his fate. As he prepares…
Read More »The Theatrical Experience Lives! You’ve Never Seen Anything Like Avatar: The Way of Water (Since the First Avatar)
After years of waiting and speculation, writer/director James Cameron and his Avatar franchise have returned to the big screen. After its monumental achievements in 2009 that included becoming the highest grossing film of all-time and a Best Picture Oscar nomination,…
Read More »Top Gun Maverick Reminds Us What Separates Blockbusters of Yesteryear From Today’s
Top Gun Maverick reunites the audience with Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) working as a test pilot of an experimental hypersonic jet that is under threat of being replaced by a drone program. In an attempt to prevent that from…
Read More »Emancipation is a Brutal Film About Perseverance and Determination
Yep, it’s another slave movie. In recent years, many consumers, of all races, have expressed fatigue over the flow of films coming from Hollywood that depict American slavery and the brutal treatment that the ancestors of African Americans…
Read More »The Fabelmans Uses Film to Teach About Family and Personal Growth
Steven Spielberg makes his return to the big screen in his most personal film yet. The Fabelmans is a semi-autobiographical film about the director’s childhood and love for film and directing. Even more than the movies, this film…
Read More »Danielle Deadwyler Paints an Emotional Portrait of Strength Through Grief in Till (Middleburg Film Festival)
Till tells the true story of the famed, brutal lynching of Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall) in 1955 Mississippi following his encounter with Carolyn Bryant (Haley Bennett) at her family’s grocery store and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s (Danielle Deadwyler)…
Read More »All Quiet on the Western Front Viscerally Updates the Horrors of War for the Modern Age (Middleburg Film Festival)
All Quiet on the Western Front of course originated as a German novel written by Erich Maria Remarque about World War I published in 1928. The 1930 American film adaptation was a landmark release both for its use of…
Read More »Cate Blanchett is Mesmerizing in Tár, a Tale of the Cost of Ego and Hubris (Middleburg Film Festival)
At points following the exposé of Harvey Weinstein and the rise of the Me Too movement, it seemed like someone powerful and/or famous was being exposed for misdeeds every other day. Some of these misdeeds were years old,…
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Holy Spider is a Thought Provoking, Topical, and Multifaceted Critique of Iran’s Theocracy
The fall of 2022 saw civil unrest and protest erupt in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody after she was accused of violating the country’s law regarding the proper wearing of hijabs. The nationwide uprising of…
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