Category: Oscar Preview

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Grandma There are few great comediennes of the 1960’s and 1970’s still working in cinema today. One of them is Lily Tomlin, the smart, irreverent star of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Nashville, 9 to 5, All of Me and countless other…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Straight Outta Compton The Academy Awards haven’t always been a forward-thinking body. They’ve had moments of inspiration, but they generally stick to standard selection procedures that focus on prestige pictures and avoid those which are sometimes challenging. Straight Outta Compton would,…

We had four films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Shaun the Shep Movie If there’s one thing that Aardman Animations knows how to do, it’s making witty stop-motion animated films that earn Oscar consideration. Before the Academy introduced its Animated Feature Oscar, Chicken Run introduced wide release audiences to the…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation Tom Cruise and his crew have been making films since the 1990’s under the franchise Mission: Impossible, an adaptation of the classic television series about a team of secret agents, Mission: Impossible became an important spy…

We had two films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Pixels Adam Sandler hasn’t ever been Oscar friendly. His films have typically been such ludicrous comedies that no one gave them a second look. This has been true for nearly every film. This includes: his animated venture Hotel Transylvania, which should…

We had four films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Trainwreck For years, Judd Apatow has been taking the Academy to task for its complete ignorance of comedy films. Unfortunately, his type of films aren’t the ones the Academy usually recognizes. Gone are the days of Billy Wilder where smart, sensuous…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Minions In 2010, Despicable Me surprised critics and audiences with its heartfelt story of an evil villain forced to take care of three adorable little girls. In his employ were a set of pill-shaped cohorts called Minions. They barely spoke words…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Terminator Genisys With the exception of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, this franchise has been completely avoided by Oscar voters. It was expected with the original in 1984 when it was considered merely a throw-away genre piece. However, after the second film…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Batkid Begins The documentary branch like political statements. They always have. Occasionally, films about difficult subjects that create a morsel of hope can win through with the Academy. Batkid Begins, which follows the Make A Wish Foundation and its attempts to…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Inside Out Even in its worst of times, Pixar has been one of the most dominant animation studios out there. Outside of Disney’s one-shot in 1991 with Beauty and the Beast, Pixar is the only studio to ever secure Oscar nominations…

We had two films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Jurassic World Bigger doesn’t always mean better. Standing on the shoulders of the original, Jurassic World has a very high bar to live up to, something both the second and third films struggled to do. Steven Spielberg’s superb original set a…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Love & Mercy Earning strong reviews from critics, Bill Pohlad’s first film in 25 years looks into the life of Brian Wilson, lead singer of legendary band The Beach Boys. It explores his life of mental instability, the psychologist who kept…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. San Andreas The Academy has a long and loving history with the disaster genre. Several popular, all-star casts help bolster an era when films like Airport and The Towering Inferno were Best Picture nominees and others like Earthquake and The Poseidon…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Tomorrowland With two impressive films under his belt, The Incredibles and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, director Brad Bird seemed to be moving through Hollywood like the second coming of Steven Spielberg, a fantastic, inventive director with a penchant for fantasy…

We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations. Mad Max: Fury Road Before critics had a chance to see Mad Max: Fury Road, there was a decent chance that the film would show up in a number of below-the-line Oscar categories from Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup &…