Critics Choice Nominations Announced: How Do You Think I Should Vote?
And so it begins. The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), of which I am a voting member, has announced this year’s Critics Choice nominations for The 20th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. “Birdman” leads this year with 13 nominations. The winners will be revealed at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, which will broadcast live on A&E from the Hollywood Palladium on…
The Hobbit: The Batttle of the Five Armies Review
Like most who have read and loved Tolkien, I had mixed emotions going into The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: I was both tired of and frustrated by the exploitative expansion of a short book into three long films, but still a bit sorry knowing that this would be the final chapter and…
Woo Hoo! Another Season of the Fargo TV Series is (Partially) Cast
Anyone who is familiar with my taste in television knows how much I loved FX’s Fargo TV series, based on the Coen Brothers classic film of the same name. I was not alone–the miniseries received 18 Emmy nominations – the second highest total of any program on television this year – and won three awards, including…
Seattle Celebrates the Holidays on Snowflake Lane
Just got back from Seattle doing an HGTV.com piece on one of the greatest, biggest holiday street shows in the country, Snowflake Lane at the Bellevue Collection in Washington state. For those of you not familiar with the area, Bellevue is to Seattle what Beverly Hills is to Los Angeles. They shut down an entire street every…
Exodus Gods and Kings Review
Just in time for the holidays, a spectacular movie of Biblical proportions. I’d forgotten how entertaining it is to hunker down and watch a cast of thousands on incredibly lavish sets. I don’t care if most of it is CGI, Ridley Scott has given us a historical epic on a grand scale that we haven’t seen…
The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert
One of the best, most entertaining, and clearest books I’ve ever seen on the enjoyment of wine is Master Sommelier Richard Betts’ New York Times bestseller, ‘The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert: Take a Whiff of That.’ Betts is one of fewer than two hundred master sommeliers in the world,…
Still Alice Review
Still Alice is one of those remarkable films that elegantly treats a tragic topic without leaving you feeling fearful and depressed. This is mostly thanks to Julianne Moore’s luminous performance of 50-year-old Alice Howland, an accomplished professor, wife and mother of three who is diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s. If you’re like me, you watch Still Alice very closely, realizing…
Wild Review
Wild is a Reese Witherspoon tour de force–an adroit film adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s popular 2012 memoir of the same name, about a young woman who has lost her husband, her mother and herself, as she hikes the Pacific Crest Trail alone in an attempt at self redemption. I hope you’ll forgive me, though, for…
The Imitation Game Review
I’m a sucker for a tragic genius period film with an Oscar-worthy lead, and it’s a good thing, because there seems to be a proliferation of them lately. But the abundance in the genre takes nothing away from The Imitation Game’s dramatization of the life of the brilliant Alan Turing, whose efforts and intellect played…
The Hunger Games Mocking Jay Review
Fans of the franchise, give a sigh of relief and a squeal of anticipation — you will not be disappointed! More than a space filler between Catching Fire and the big franchise finish, Mocking Jay Part 1 is a darkly intriguing film in its own right, even though there are no Hunger Games to speak of.…
