Dear Write Readers, Did you know that Ben Stiller is actually a good actor? Because I didn’t. I’m going to be very honest – I did not have high expectations when I showed up in the theatre for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. While I had seen the trailers, and they looked promising, I…
Dear Write Readers, Do you like movies with hookers and blow? If you do, The Wolf of Wall Street is the film of the year! Likely to be nominated for Best Picture for the 2014 Academy Awards, Martin Scorsese’s beast of a film has created quite a stir this holiday season. Having broken the all…
Dear “Write” Readers, It’s that time again. A whole year has gone by, and the Academy Awards are upon us once more. As you might recall, last year I wrote an entire series on all of the 2013 nominees for Best Picture. Well here I am to do it all over again. What’s that, you…
Dear Friends, Ah, here we are! The last of the last…THE FINAL film review in the Best Picture nominee series. Let’s talk about Life of Pi. It was released in September, so it’s likely that you have already seen it, but if you haven’t, it’s being shown in theaters around NYC, I assume due to…
Dear Friends, When I saw that a film starring and directed by Ben Affleck was being nominated for Best Picture, I was dubious. I mean, the man has made some bad choices in the past, what with Gigli, and some other questionable choices. I mean, okay that was a long time ago, but you know…
Hello Friends, I have to say, if there were any film that desperately deserved to win Best Picture, but was likely doomed, it would be Amour. Let me explain. Only nine foreign-language films have ever been nominated for the Best Picture category, including Amour. There have also been three partially foreign-language films that have won…
Dear Friends, I am heartbroken. I left the theater completely heartbroken. Beasts of the Southern Wild was the most artistically fulfilling (for me) of all of the Oscar nominees that I have seen so far. It was absolutely thrilling to see a piece that seamlessly merged fantasy and reality the way Beasts of the Southern…
Dear Friends, Hear ye, hear ye, all yon musical theatre buffs. Your love and passion for Les Mis (as it is most often referred) has likely already had you to the theater and back again, to see the cinematic version of this most beloved classic. And so, I assume you don’t need any more encouragement…
Hello Friends, The first thing you should do is YouTube the song “Flower”, by Moby, and press “play” while reading this review. It’s the very first song I thought of when I sat down to write this piece. It captures the vibe of Jamie Foxx walking across a god-forsaken piece of land holding a rifle…
Hello Friends, The Oscars are fast approaching, and in my push to see as many Best Picture Nominees as possible, I found myself hoofing it over to Williamsburg Cinemas, a few weeks ago, in order to catch one of the very few showings of Silver Linings Playbook that I could find anywhere below 100th St. I rushed…