Photo: EPA
Chris Luckett
Left your Oscar ballot to the last minute? Want to show up your friends with a little friendly competition? Here’s my guide for what to expect tonight during the 88th Academy Awards. Continue reading
Photo: Open Road Films
Chris Luckett
There are just two days left until the Oscars. Have you had trouble finding time to catch up on all the nominated movies? Still want to be able to join in the Oscar conversations at work? Look no further than this six-part guide to the major categories. Today, I look at the nominees for Best Picture.
Photo: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Chris Luckett
Last year, in my Best Movies of 2014 article, I commented on how weak a year we’d had. If only I’d known what 2015 would be like!
For the first time since I launched The Apple Box in 2011, I don’t have 25 movies to strongly recommend. I’ve always said the only movies that deserve to be on a “Best of the Year” list are 4½- and 5-star films, and standing by that, that leaves me with 17. Just 17 movies last year, out of the nearly 150 that I saw, were good enough to write home about.
There were far more average or mediocre movies compared to great ones last year, but that doesn’t mean 2015 was a wash, by any means. These 17 movies, in fact, feel all the more special by being surrounded by weaker fare than usual. These films reminded us all that no matter how bad a year’s cinematic crop, there will always be brilliant movies. Continue reading
Photo: Warner Bros.
Chris Luckett
2015 may have been a weak year for movies, but that means nothing when it comes to a trailer. After all, even the worst movies usually have least 150 seconds of good parts to them, and awful movies can sometimes produce brilliant trailers. (See: Man of Steel.) Continue reading
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
Chris Luckett
While the nominations this year were more predictable than in some years past, the movies that did rise to the top have produced a more interesting race from the outset than we’ve had in quite a while. When the field of Best Picture nominees includes eight incredibly varied films, each quite strong as their respective cinematic goals, it’s a good sign that anything can happen over the next six weeks.
The 88th Academy Award nominees are… Continue reading
Photo: EPA
Chris Luckett
With the Golden Globe Awards taking place this past Sunday, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that nobody actually cares about them. Regardless of how they’re very on by fewer than 90 people and the fact they consider things like The Martian a comedy, The Golden Globes are just the most public awards show for movies in the lead-up to the movie awards that really matter – the Oscars!
Tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn, the world will find out the nominations for the 88th Academy Awards. But what movies can you expect to be up for the treasured trophies? Continue reading
Photo: Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Chris Luckett
The Golden Globe Awards are always unpredictable, as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association exists outside of the world of critics and other awards shows. As comparison: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (who give out the Oscars) is comprised of over 7000 film industry leaders and contributors. The HFPA is comprised of 90 entertainment journalists.
Because of that, it’s much more of a crapshoot in predicting the winners, as a single person’s vote weighs far more heavily and the group as a whole often votes emotionally rather than objectively or even politically. (Recall, if you will, the lambasting they received after the bevy of Golden Globe nominations they gave The Tourist.)
Still, that’s half the fun. People who follow film can pretty accurately predict the Oscars, but the Golden Globes are anyone’s game. Here are my dart-in-the-wall predictions. What are yours? Continue reading
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
Chris Luckett
October is typically a really good month for movies, as you get both the beginnings of Oscar hopefuls as well as usually a sleeper hit blockbuster or two. This past October was no different. Continue reading
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
Chris Luckett
One is an incident; two is a coincidence; three is a pattern.
In the fall of 2013, the sci-fi masterpiece Gravity took the world by storm. In late 2014, the spectacular Interstellar did the same. Now here we are, in the first week of October 2015, and sure enough, here comes The Martian. And lo and behold, it’s absolutely brilliant.
The Apple Box 