Some Thoughts, Even More Mistakes
At a time when cultural sentiment about the state of cinema ping-pongs between "We're So Back" and "It's So Over" more rapidly than the ball in a Marty Mauser v. Koto Endo table tennis match, 2025 proved to be a year defined by outstanding films that rose above the surrounding chaos. As has become the … Continue reading The Top Ten Films of 2025
One word kept coming to mind when I thought about how to sum up the 2024 year in film: ambition. That may sound strange, given that this year was largely considered to be somewhat underwhelming due to a variety of reasons, most notably the impacts that the Hollywood strikes of 2023 had on the industry. … Continue reading Top Ten Films of 2024
In the simplest of definitions, Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain is a small movie with a lot of big ideas. It touches on family, loss, the weight of our past, and how we choose to deal with suffering, among other things. But, it remains grounded due in small part to its fairly simplistic, if circuitous, plot—and … Continue reading ‘A Real Pain’: A Touching Examination of the Complexities of Human Connection
The 96th Academy Awards are finally just two days away. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer has been at the center of awards season for several months now, and it seems like the main question heading into Sunday's ceremony is just how big of a night will it have. Despite how inevitable Everything Everywhere All At Once's chances … Continue reading 2024 Oscars: Predictions and Picks
The fifth annual Not A Real Person Yet awards (The NARPYs) have arrived. Only a handful of days away from the 96th Academy Awards, I am once again handing out my own list of completely made up awards—none of which exist at the Oscars—in order to honor the 2023 world of film. I do this … Continue reading The 5th Annual Not A Real Person Yet Awards
The 2023 year in film felt like, above all else, a return. A return to a time when people actually showed up to the movie theater, as evidenced by the fact that this year the domestic box office topped $9 billion for the first since 2019; a return to a time when, due to the … Continue reading Top Ten Films of 2023
Was 2022 a good year for movies? That is the question I found myself trying to answer as I thought about the best way to briefly encapsulate this past year in film before getting to my list. The most optimistic answer that I could come up with was that it was an extremely up-and-down year. … Continue reading Top Ten Films of 2022
It feels like Hollywood has been stuck in a sustained state of anxiety over box office numbers ever since theaters reopened nationally in 2021. Every time a new expensive feature debuts to a disappointing opening weekend and fails to reach expectations, pundits and Hollywood insiders share theories as to why this is happening, while lamenting … Continue reading Babylon, Box Office Flops, and How Not to Market a Movie in 2022
The third annual Not A Real Person Yet awards (The NARPYs?) have arrived. We are only a handful of days away from the 94th Oscars. But before the Academy disappoints us with their choices, I need to hand out my own—much more legitimate, prestigious, and relevant—awards. For the third year in a row, I've created … Continue reading Celebrating The Films of 2021 With Awards That Don’t Exist at The Oscars
Results of My Predictions: 80/105 (76%) As always, we received a mix of good, bad, surprising, and confounding choices from the Academy this morning. Overall, I would say I was mostly pleased with this year's nominees. There were a handful of genuinely exciting nominations that help illustrate the positive ways in which the Academy has … Continue reading 2022 Oscar Nominations: Snubs, Surprises, Winners, and Losers
Oscar nomination voting officially ended yesterday. On Tuesday, we will find out which films have been nominated in every category, including which ten will compete for Best Picture. With those announcements looming, I couldn't help but wonder what ten nominees would be the best case scenario for film fans, the Oscars ratings, and the film … Continue reading Which Best Picture Nominees Would be Best for Film Fans, Oscar Ratings, and the Industry?
There seemed to be primarily two types of film fans in the world at the beginning of 2021. Some were completely pessimistic about the direction the film industry was heading. They were anxious about the impact the pandemic would have on the future of moviegoing and could not imagine a positive resolution down the road. … Continue reading Top Ten Films of 2021
It's my second year of doing this and I still haven't come up with a clever name for these awards. On Sunday night, this year's delayed Oscar ceremony will take place. Over 14 months after Parasite's historic Best Picture win, the Academy will finally hand out their awards to the "best" films and performances of 2020, … Continue reading Celebrating The Films of 2020 With Awards That Don’t Exist at The Oscars
Much like the year itself, it's hard to look back on film in 2020 without a great deal of complicated emotions. Every aspect of our society was upended by the coronavirus pandemic, including the film industry. Movie theaters across the United States closed their doors in mid-March because of the virus, and while many of … Continue reading Top Ten Films of 2020
"Been there." Every once in a while the rare movie comes along that is not only able to capture the feelings, emotions, and thoughts of an entire generation—but actually portray them on screen in an accurate way. Shithouse, Cooper Raiff's debut film that won this year's SXSW Grand Jury Award, does just that. This film is the … Continue reading Shithouse: A Movie for People who Don’t Know What They are Doing – Review
Earlier this week, it was announced that Warner Bros. had removed Tenet from its release calendar. This news came as no surprise to film fans, as the rising Covid-19 cases across the United States continue to keep theaters shut down. Still though, this news was a major blow to the exhibition industry, since many cinemas … Continue reading What’s Going on With Tenet, And Should it be Released Online?
Netflix's claim to the title of "New Age Entertainment King" has remained as strong as ever during quarantine. Even with the recent launch of several new streaming services such as HBO Max and Disney Plus—as well as the existence of longtime competitors like Hulu and Amazon Prime Video—Netflix has found a way to maintain their … Continue reading The Top Ten Netflix Original Movies
It seems as if right after Warner Bros. announced they'd be pushing back the release date of the film that was supposedly going to reopen cinemas, Christopher Nolan's Tenet, theater companies began announcing plans to restore the theatrical experience. In fact, the three biggest theater chains in America have all announced plans to reopen their theaters … Continue reading AMC, Regal, and Cinemark Announce Plans to Open Theaters in July. Will Moviegoers Show Up?
Perhaps no single person has had a bigger impact on the comedy landscape this century than Judd Apatow. Through the absurdly high number of television shows and films that he has written, directed, and produced—Apatow has created a genre unto himself, all while helping launch some of the biggest comedic stars working today. Despite his … Continue reading Judd Apatow – Ranked
Like many Americans, recently I have been consumed by the news, conversations, and protests that have taken place throughout this country in response to the murder of George Floyd and so many others before him. Also like many Americans, I have struggled to find the right words or the right sentiments needed to find any … Continue reading My Thoughts on the Importance of the Conversations Taking Place Right Now & the Role Art Can Play in All of This – My Take
As the news media and Twitter have shown us, lots of people around the country are eager to return to public gatherings despite many of the health concerns that they bring. It's clear that spending two months in quarantine with little-to-no human contact has resulted in many people going stir-crazy, and created a need for … Continue reading Are People Actually Going to Show Up to Movie Theaters Once They Reopen? (And Top Five 2020 Films I Would Most Like to See in Theaters)
Josh and Benny Safdie's parents got divorced when the two future filmmakers were still very young. Around this time, the Safdie brother's father, Alberto, had them watch the film Kramer vs. Kramer, for the purposes of explaining the situation to his two young sons. A story like this makes it clear that, at an early age, the … Continue reading The Safdie Brothers – Ranked
Since the start of quarantine, movie theater owners have been eagerly waiting for the release of Christopher Nolan's newest film, Tenet. This is because many prognosticators have held the belief that this will be the film to reopen theaters, when its July 17th release date comes around. While many major studio releases—such as Mulan, No Time to … Continue reading Will Christopher Nolan’s Tenet Actually Reopen Theaters in July? (And Bonus List of My Top 5 Films of the Year So Far)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a tendency to, let's say, behave recklessly when it comes time to select the Oscar winners each year. It is no secret amongst film fans that the Academy usually gets things wrong more often than they get things right. This has been a problem throughout the … Continue reading The Top Ten Biggest Oscar Travesties of All Time
"I make films to explore concepts and raise questions, not to tell the audience what to think." - Yorgos Lanthimos Yorgos Lanthimos has been the mastermind behind some of the most eccentric and idiosyncratic films of the 21st century. A native of Greece, Lanthimos has been considered a pioneering voice in the so-called "Greek Weird … Continue reading Yorgos Lanthimos – Ranked
Not A Real Person Yet 