Lady Bird will likely get a lot of Oscar love… but how about in the editing category?
One of the sweetest and funniest scenes in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird lasts 47 seconds, and has six cuts between four…
Oscar This
In anticipation of the conventional wisdom the Academy will likely uphold, we’re highlighting unlikely candidates—the dark horses we’d love to see compete on Oscar night.
Personal Shopper’s awards-caliber sound effects create an eerie atmosphere
Pity the poor sound editor, forever the butt of creaky Oscar telecast jokes about how nobody really knows what…
Good Time's gritty camerawork would be a welcome rebuke to the Academy's tony taste
Cinematography is an art within an art, practiced within the limits of a director’s craft. But every once in a while,…
Sometimes the best-directed movie isn’t among the best of the year
Note: This article contains plot revelations for A Ghost Story.
In a competitive year for Best Actress, Aubrey Plaza dangles Oscar bait from outside the box
Note: This article contains major plot revelations for Ingrid Goes West.
Blade Runner 2049 brought humanity to today’s most artificial movie gimmick
Note: This article contains major plot revelations for Blade Runner 2049.
This year, the Oscars celebrate 60 years of ignoring movies from around the world
I’m not going to pretend that Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama is the kind of film that would ever be nominated for an…
Green Room’s scrappy realism doesn’t stand a chance at the Oscars—but it should
Amid all of the festival buzz surrounding Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room, one chorus emerged again and again: The film is…
Academy elitism will keep American Honey’s ragtag costumes out of the race
When it comes to awarding costumes, the Academy tends to prefer fantasy to reality and the past to the present. Last…
The Academy should consider the farty boner corpse and other frugal effects work
Swiss Army Man, otherwise known (around these parts, anyway) as Farty Boner Corpse, isn’t what people tend to think of…
The Academy won’t hear The Neon Demon’s terrific sound design over its unpopularity
Most Oscar nominees, save perhaps for those in the acting categories, are drawn from two unofficial pools. There’s that…
A small, character-based documentary isn’t “important” enough for the Academy
Back in December, the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Science announced the 15 films that’ll be competing for the…
Ones, zeroes, and a disembodied voice delivered one of last year’s best performances
Here’s something I hadn’t anticipated: Nearly a decade and a half after Andy Serkis’ revolutionary collaboration with…
The Oscar-worthy cinematography of Pete’s Dragon is anything but kids’ stuff
Definitions of genre tend to grow nebulous as exceptions to rules pile up, but none are more malleable than “kids’…
In the aftermath of an insane election year, the third Purge deserves some Oscar love
It would be easy to underrate The Purge: Election Year, to view it as simply the latest entry in a trilogy of…
In praise of Viggo Mortensen and the interdependent actor
Not to rag too much on The Revenant, but there was another man-vs.-primeval-wilderness movie that came out last year…
Why can’t the best documentary of the year be a Best Picture nominee?
A doctor, son of bereaved parents, goes village to village, confronting the murderous gangsters who killed his brother,…
The Oscars will ignore The Duke Of Burgundy’s score, but they shouldn’t
The Duke Of Burgundy unfolds like writer-director Peter Strickland’s half-remembered dream of some lost bit of softcore…
Unfriended redefines art direction for the webcam era
Unfriended won’t get within spitting distance of next week’s Academy Award nominations: As a teen-geared horror film,…
Tangerine’s all-iPhone cinematography is no cheap gimmick
Situated at the intersection between technical ingenuity and creative imagination, the Oscars’ Best Cinematography…
