Sports / Entertainment

One of the more intricate and exciting films released this year was Justine Triet’s French-English crime drama Anatomy of a Fall, starring Sandra Huller and nominated for five Academy Awards. With a mistrustful protagonist, an anxious setting, and an open ending, fans of murder mysteries, character studies, or psychological dramas will eat this flick up with a side salad. The film centers around the mysterious death of writer, Samuel Maleski, who falls from the second story of his chalet in Grenoble after sabotaging an interview of his wife, author, Sandra

One of the freshest stories to come from Hollywood last year (that didn’t involve a labor strike) was Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, starring Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Leslie Uggams, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Issa Rae. The film, released in December and nominated for five Oscars, is an old-fashioned intelligent comedy with a mix of social satire, telling of a frustrated writer reckoning with a shifting, ever-trivial industry, and family responsibilities. Wright plays Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an aging author and college professor in L.A. who can’t sell a new book.

Full Disclosure: I will be removing my critic’s hat in this piece and will instead write about a particular 2-day experience of working on the set of the new film Origin. Movies are still magic tricks: no matter how much the standards of visual effects, storytelling, or range of talent may expand. Likewise, the eyes of the audience are still drawn, our bodies moved to theaters even as viewing abilities try to grow more immediate and convenient. It is a deep fascination and one that is a pillar of our

Tuesday morning saw the Motion Picture Academy’s annual awards nomination announcement. We know it as the Oscars, and as previously published, when the gold season comes, people watch. The nomination rollout saw lots of surprises, lots of confirmations, and a handful of disappointments. Last summer’s “Barbenheimer” campaign paid off, with a total of twenty-one nominations for both films. Oppenheimer, as expected, led the way, with nods in thirteen categories – everything from costumes and sound effects to star Cillian Murphy, who earned his first-ever nomination for Best Actor. Whoever the

This week, Monday night to be exact, saw the Iowa’s Presidential Caucuses, which commence the 2024 election cycle (incidentally, taking place during the height of Hollywood’s own campaign season). Election nights feel somewhat like movies for the politically or socially intrigued: with results painting a picture of a shifting people while revealing strengths and weaknesses in candidates. 2020 felt more like an HBO Miniseries that wouldn’t end. Nevertheless, there are many movies where elections serve as a driving motivator for characters, a climax, or a chance to thwart the direction