woody allen

Corey Stoll or to many, Rep. Peter Russo, is one of the coolest actors in the business who sort of recently has become pretty popular.

Members of the motion-picture academy could begin voting for the Oscars as early as Dec. 27, and today marks the final day on which they can turn in their ballots. In other words, nothing that happens after today – save for some kind of technical glitch with the electronic voting

Forgive me for cribbing that movie quote, a line you couldn’t escape – believe me, I tried – upon the release of Despicable Me in 2001. It aptly describes the film: not much in the way of story, little more than an excuse for androgynous yellow creatures to spew gibberish.

The movie world is all about the actors, though the occasional director, like Peter Jackson, George Lucas, or Steven Spielberg, gets lucky every now and then. Among the cinematic minds who almost always the short end of the stick, however, are the writers, but The Hollywood Reporter gives them the

The Oscars are quickly approaching, and Blue Jasmine is drawing a ton of awards buzz!

Before heading into this week’s analysis, one should note that six films we assume are Oscar contenders remain unseen: American Hustle, Lone Survivor, Out of the Furnace, Saving Mr. Banks, and The Wolf of Wall Street. (The lattermost might not arrive this year, but distributor Paramount hopes it will be

Cate Blanchett got a tribute on Wednesday, Oct. 2 at the New York Film Festival. That and Blue Jasmine director Woody Allen’s personal shout-out surely gave more credence to her already-strong best actress campaign. Of course, Blanchett’s perceived rival for the Oscar, Sandra Bullock, got a boost of her own

Yet another episode of The BastardCast for you. This time, we’re talking Daniel Day Lewis in STAR WARS, Dinosaur erotica, moon beer, and the end of BREAKING BAD

As if it needed another boost, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave won the Toronto International Film Festival’s audience award. The runners-up were Stephen Frears’ Philomena and Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners. Expect the latter to be the big ticket this weekend as its only new competition comes in the form of

We Oscar obsessives discuss the Academy Awards throughout the year, but the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off what we refer to as the Oscar season – and with good reason, as we have lots of ground to cover this week. Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate kicked off the fest with

The Telluride Film Festival came to a close on Monday. Of course, the festival didn’t end without showcasing a number of potential Oscar contenders. Films like J.C. Chandor’s All is Lost, the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, and Alexander Payne’s Nebraska already played at Cannes; the stateside premieres led to

Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity kicked off the Venice Film Festival earlier today. By all accounts, it’s a great film that looks like one to beat at the Oscars, particularly for Cuarón in the director race, Sandra Bullock in the best actress race, and DP Emmanuel Lubezki in the cinematography category. Stephen Frears’ Philomena could

The strong opening for Lee Daniels’… Lee Daniels’ The Butler came as less than a surprise, but what does it mean for the Oscars? If nothing else, expect Oprah Winfrey to be competitive for the supporting actress Oscar. She could easily win the Golden Globe, but she might have difficulty

This week’s big releases are Taken 2, Won’t Back Down, To Rome with Love, and Being Human: Season 4. An interesting mixture of genres! Here’s a clip from Taken 2: [springboard type=”video” id=”644507″ player=”scin001″ width=”560″ height=”315″ ] And as usual, please don’t hesitate to share what Blu-Rays and DVDs you’ve bought recently, or plan to

Future criminals pay attention, this week Video Vault stakes out Woody Allen‘s 2000 crime-comedy Small Time Crooks.  This is a very simple and fun movie that I have always enjoyed, but nobody else seems to have seen.  Allegedly, it is a remake of 1942’s Larceny, Inc., but Allen has never