While its ambitions seem grand, when you break the film into pieces, it's really just Jackie--by herself--which may be art imitating life.
Review: La La Land
They don't make movies like this anymore, but they certainly should.
Review: Nocturnal Animals
Like a pig in the mud, it starts low, and blissfully revels in its emptiness. Not nearly as self aware as it wants you to think, the movie magic is sparse as Ford reaches for story-within-a-story and fails on both levels.
Review: Manchester By The Sea
Nothing is heavy-handed in Kenneth Lonergan's somber meditation on family, loss and moving on. Couple the quality of the material with the veritable masterclass acting on display and the result is a gut-punch with the potential to leave you reeling.
Review: Loving
This is a film to be admired for its restraint.
Review: Rules Don't Apply
More than anything, this film just feels like a jumbled mess. The film had four editors, and it shows. The only thing that would have been more obvious is if the film had also had four screenwriters and four directors, but the deficiencies in each of those areas are solely due to Mr. Beatty.
Oscar Roundup: The State Of The Race
Who's up? Who's down? Who's in? Who's Out? It's too early to know for sure, but we can certainly have fun guessing!
Review: Arrival
The final product here could certainly be divisive. Like the underlying events of the film, nothing is one thing. But it would be hard to argue there isn't much here.
Review: Ouija: Origin of Evil
Most of its appeal is built on my second favorite Doris of 2016, but the filmmakers do their part as well and the result is a mildly satisfying horror experience.
Review: Moonlight
To say this film is a masterpiece would be an understatement. Masterpieces are the result of all involved being at their very best. With every crisp shot, immaculately delivered line and emotive thread in the breathtaking tapestry, that the people involved are at their very best quickly becomes a foregone conclusion.
Review: 13th
This feels like two films and neither is very good.
Review: The Birth Of A Nation
The Birth of a Nation is not some elevation of the form; nor is it a bastardization of it. It is instead an ambitious vanity project made without the skill necessary to really do the story justice.
Review: Snowden
While entertaining in spots, the film leaves us with a lopsided portrait of a clearly complicated man, and robs the subject matter of the tension it deserved.
Review: Blair Witch
While undoubtedly scary, nothing here is so inventive that it warrants raves.
Review: When The Bough Breaks
There is nothing here beyond what is on the screen and what is on the screen is an unbalanced, ill-conceived, melodrama that is wholly lacking anything that feels fresh or original.
Review: Hell Or High Water
It is no small feat to make something that feels authentic and Hell Or High Water feels as real as the Texas justice that drives its story.
Review: Morgan
Nothing about this is particularly smart, and yet there it is--defiantly offering scene after scene of indefensible nonsense. Its fatal flaw is that it is perfectly comfortable with how little it is saying.
Potpourri - Best Picture Contender Trailer Roundup
Check out the trailers for some early Best Picture contenders!
Review: Don't Breathe
I can't really say I blame them for not reinventing the genre. If it were easy, every movie would do it. But at the same time, I can't help but feel like they squandered an A+ idea with a C+ effort.
We Need To Talk About Nate
Oscars are extra. Wealth and fame are extra. Those are trappings we should (if we can) afford only to the best among us.