Mainstream Chick’s Oscar Picks for 2021
UPDATE: In what I found to be a rather boring presentation of the awards, I ended up with a score of 16/23. Not too bad all things considered. It was…
Oscar Nominated Shorts 2021
The Academy Awards show will take place this year on Sunday, April 25th, much later in the year than usual after it was pushed back 2 months because of…
Review: Quo Vadis, Aida?
Talk about a film that's hard to watch! This Oscar nominee from Bosnia and Herzegovina tells the horrifying story of the days leading up to the 1995 massacre of 8,000+…
Review: Corpus Christi (Boze Cialo)
Based on a true story, Corpus Christi is the tale of 20-year-old Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia) who, just sprung from a violent juvenile detention center and heading for a new job,…
Mini-reviews: 2020 Oscar-Nominated Short Films
If you're planning to watch the Academy Awards this weekend, chances are you haven't had a chance to catch the shorts. I mean, who does? Unless you're lucky enough to…
Review: Oscar Nominated Short Films 2019
I always look forward to watching the shorts. (Short being 40 minutes or less, so some of them aren't all that short.) This year's crop had clear winners and losers…
Live Action (Short Subject) Nominees
This is also a hard category, because the films are all so different, and the art of telling a story in a short time without either rushing it or shortchanging…
Animation (Short Subject) Nominees
The Animated shorts category is always a hard one for me to judge. Will the Academy members go with the best, most amazing animation, or will it be about telling…
Documentary (Short Subject) nominees
This has got to be the toughest group of the shorts to watch. They're usually a lot more diverse, but this year, with one feel-good exception, they are all about…
Oscar Nominees — Documentary [Feature]
I've seen all of the nominees this year, thanks to attending the AFI DOCS and Full Frame festivals and Netflix. If you're filling out your Oscar ballot, here are my…
Timbuktu
Timbuktu was a very deserving 2015 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign film. The movie was inspired by the real life events of 2012-13 when religious fundamentalists, took over the…
War Witch (Rebelle)
I really wish that films nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar were available before the awards were given out, so that just once I could fill out a ballot…
The Oscar nominated Live Action Shorts
The live action shorts are not nearly as short as the animated ones. Some even clock in at over a half hour. (The cut-off is 40 minutes.) I imagine that…
A Better Life
If there was one surprise in the 2011 Oscar nominations, it was Demián Bichir's nod for Best Actor in a really small film called A Better Life. I'm not sure…
Incendies
Incendies is a French Canadian drama that was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Foreign language film and is totally deserving of the honor. Living in small town…