By John C. Exactly six months ago, we were in the midst of the Toronto International Film Festival, and in exactly that much time we will be in the midst of screening this year’s crop of small gems and awards contenders. With the wonderful dramedy Jeff, Who Lives at Home opening this Friday after being one… Read More The Films of TIFF: Where Are They Now?
By John C. Even as we reach the end of Monsieur Lazhar, we never know why an elementary teacher would hang herself in the classroom of a Montreal school “with her blue scarf from the big pipe on a Wednesday night,” as a student matter of factly explains. There are so many things that can’t be… Read More The Quiet Power of “Monsieur Lazhar”
By John C. How much can you really say about a telecast that was hosted by Billy Crystal for the ninth time and saw the triumph of a wonderful black and white silent film? Silence was golden and entertainment prevailed at the 84th Annual Academy Awards, with a fun and relaxed feel injected into much… Read More Silence is Golden at the 84th Annual Academy Awards
By Erin V. With the 84th Academy Awards being announced tonight, I wanted to give my brief thoughts on the two categories I’m always watching. Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Enjoy! ___________________________________________ The nominees for Best Original Score are: The Adventures of Tintin – John Williams The Artist – Ludovic Bource Hugo… Read More The 84th Academy Awards: A Look at the Song & Score Nominees
By John C. At this point in time, what more can we say about the forthcoming Oscars that hasn’t already been said? The simple truth is, there isn’t all that much commentary to add with the Academy Awards just under a week away and most predicting a clean sweep from the wonderful silent film, The Artist. … Read More Turning the Last Page on This Year’s Awards Season, Before the Oscars on Sunday
By John C. With the Academy Awards just under two weeks away, there is surprisingly little commentary or opinion to add at this point in the race. As many of the top categories appear easy to predict, all that we can really do is wait it out until we see who takes home the gold… Read More The Five Directors who will be Competing at the Oscars
By John C. When you look at the box office numbers for the nine Best Picture nominees, The Help made the most money by a large margin, and The Artist is second only to The Tree of Life as the least profitable of the films. Compare this to last year when Best Picture winner The King’s… Read More For “The Artist,” Silence is Golden
By John C. Last night, the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards seemed to be indicative of what we might end up seeing come Oscar night on February 26th. Christopher Plummer was once again confirmed as the frontrunner when he took home Best Supporting Actor for Beginners. Jean Dujardin shot to the front of the race when… Read More The Best Performances of the Year: Will the Screen Actors Guild Influence the Oscars?
By John C. With the nominations for the 84th annual Academy Awards set to come bright and early tomorrow morning, it might be the only time throughout this awards season that we get a proper surprise. I expect to see several nominations for The Artist, The Descendants and Hugo, which are the films that make… Read More Predictions and Dreams for Tomorrow’s Oscar Nominations
By John C. Hosting the Golden Globes for the third year in a row, Ricky Gervais opened last night’s telecast by saying to the room full of nominees “nervous? Don’t be. This isn’t about you.” Despite the usual sort of snarky comments from the British comedian, the show was less cynical and in better taste… Read More Oscar Frontrunners are Crowned at the 69th Annual Golden Globes
By John C. Some critics have said that 2011 wasn’t an overly great year for movies. But if this is true, then why were there so many that had an undeniable impact on me? Last week I shared my picks for the worst movies of 2011, and now it’s time for the ten best movies… Read More The Best Movies of 2011
By John Corrado With the new year freshly upon us, it’s time to rank the movies that were released over the past year. My picks for the best of 2011 will be coming next Monday, but first I have to get these bad movies off my mind once and for all. These were the films… Read More The Worst Movies of 2011
By John C. When I wrote about the box office success stories of 2010 this time last year, I noted that the top ten moneymakers were all films that got at least a passing grade, with the year topped off by Pixar’s masterpiece Toy Story 3. It is hard to believe a year has passed… Read More The Box Office Success Stories of 2011
By John C. One of my greatest memories from last May’s Hot Docs documentary film festival was meeting Jack Sanderson while standing in line waiting for a movie. Sanderson is the writer and subject of the wonderful documentary Becoming Santa, where we watch as he has his beard bleached white and dons the iconic red… Read More Talking to Jack Sanderson About “Becoming Santa”
By John C. Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human raised by Santa’s elves at the North Pole, Elf is is a heartwarming Christmas classic and one of my personal favourites to watch every December. It will be honoured later this week as part of our Christmas Countdown. It is… Read More Have Yourself A Very She & Him Christmas
By John C. The last few weeks have brought us several movies that remind us why we fell in love with movies in the first place. Great ones always have the potential to do that and we’ve gotten several of those, but I’m specifically talking about the recent films that take place in the world… Read More Recent Movies Have Reminded Us Why We Love Movies
By John C. What do The Muppets, Arthur Christmas, The Descendants and Hugo all have in common? These were the four movies that we reviewed last week and they all got my highest rating of 4-stars. For a film critic, this is a pretty great run, especially in the wake of several disappointing movies. This… Read More Four Great Movies in a Row Lead to Talk of Oscars
By John C. Disney’s marketing for The Muppets is some of the best that I have ever seen. I don’t say this because you can’t go a single day without seeing the film advertised, but because of the genuine inventiveness with which it has targeted a certain audience. The marketing of a movie is rarely… Read More Parodies Make Disney’s Marketing for “The Muppets” Some of the Best I’ve Seen
By John C. One of the things that film critics are always told is that we have the best job in the world. This might sound like a complete humblebrag, but this isn’t always true. The last few weeks have been pure chaos, with the disorienting “Oscargate” turning into a complete clustercuss of a situation and… Read More Disney’s “The Muppets” Restores Order to the Chaotic World of a Film Critic
By John C. Even with over $25 million at the box office and a mostly positive critical response, Tower Heist isn’t the sort of film that gets recognized when it comes to receiving Oscar nominations. Yet the incredibly entertaining action comedy will be intrinsically linked to this year’s Academy Awards, with several members of the… Read More (Three Updates) Will “Tower Heist” Talent Steal Back the Oscars?
The Joy of Movies 