Oscar nom­i­nated films com­ing to the Wyo

If you are one of those who find them­selves annu­ally dis­ap­pointed in the num­ber of Oscar con­tenders that come to Laramie, there is a solu­tion.  The Wyo The­ater is offer­ing a small, but nonethe­less intrigu­ing answer to some of your woes.

Play­ing every Sun­day night at 7pm through May 2, the Wyo offers admis­sion for one night spe­cial show­ings of select films that didn’t make it to Laramie’s Fox Cin­ema.  Play­ing on re-run, many films, includ­ing every­thing from Oscar con­tenders to for­eign films to musi­cals, have become part of the Wyo’s annual Spring Film Series.  Admis­sion is $6.50 a ticket or $5.00 with the pur­chase of a $5.00 Mem­bers Card

The Oscar Nom­i­na­tions were announced Feb­ru­ary 2, leav­ing film fanat­ics every­where spec­u­lat­ing on the who will vs. who should win the awards.  Unfor­tu­nately, Laramie did not host many of the smaller films included in the nom­i­na­tions, namely those with lim­ited releases.  Fur­ther­more it’s going to be a while before the films, many of which were released in late 2009 for Oscar con­tention, will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray.  Due to this, it is nearly impos­si­ble to see these films in Laramie before their fates are decided by the Oscars on March 7^th.  It is also vir­tu­ally impos­si­ble for the aver­age Laramie cit­i­zen to ever see them in their orig­i­nal for­mat, on the big screen.

I just went to see the Best Pic­ture Nom­i­nated British film “An Edu­ca­tion” last Sun­day night, and was pleased by a sur­pris­ingly qual­ity print (con­sid­er­ing it’s been trav­el­ing around from the­ater to the­ater for months now), and a film that was both chal­leng­ing and enter­tain­ing.  Play­ing this upcom­ing Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 21 is “Pre­cious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sap­phire.”  The film has already received crit­i­cal acclaim along with gar­ner­ing five Oscar Nom­i­na­tions, includ­ing nods for Best Adapted Screen­play, Best Sup­port­ing Actress, Best Actress, Best Direc­tor, and Best Pic­ture.  Costar Mo’nique is a sure to win Best Sup­port­ing Actress and the film itself promises to be one of the most excru­ci­at­ingly potent and grit­tily authen­tic cin­e­matic expe­ri­ences of the year.

While “Pre­cious” is the only film show­ing before the Oscars take place on March 7, many more promis­ing fea­tures fol­low, all listed below with a brief descrip­tion.

Feb­ru­ary 21:
“Pre­cious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

It’s earned five Oscar Nom­i­na­tions, is the favorite to win best Sup­port­ing Actress, and fea­tures only the sec­ond black Direc­tor ever to receive a Best Direc­tor Nom­i­na­tion in Lee Daniels.

Feb­ru­ary 28:
“The Road”

This post-apocalyptic film fea­tures the gritty tale of a man and his fam­ily try­ing to sur­vive in a des­o­late land­scape.  It stars one of Hollywooa’s pre­mière tal­ents in the under­rated Acad­emy Award Nom­i­nated (2007, “East­ern Promises”) Viggo Mortensen, who many will rec­og­nize as Aragorn form “The Lord of the Rings” fran­chise.

March 7:
“Bro­ken Embraces”

Star­ring Acad­emy Award Win­ner (2008, “Vicky Christina Barcelona”) Pene­lope Cruz, this Span­ish film was Nom­i­nated for the Golden Globe for Best For­eign Film.

March 14:
“A Sin­gle Man”

Colin Firth received a Best Actor Nom­i­na­tion for his por­trayal of a man deal­ing with the loss of his long­time part­ner.

March 21:
“The Young Victoria”

This period drama about Queen Vic­to­ria received Nom­i­na­tions from the Acad­emy for Art Direc­tion, Cos­tume Design, and Makeup.

March 28:
“The White Ribbon”

This Ger­man film won the Golden Globe for Best For­eign Film, along with receiv­ing an Oscar nod in the same cat­e­gory and an addi­tional nod for Best Cin­e­matog­ra­phy.

April 11:
“The Last Station”

Helen Mir­ren and Christo­pher Plum­mer both received act­ing nods from the Acad­emy for their work in this his­tor­i­cal drama.

April 18:
“Nine”

Though crit­i­cally bashed, this remake of Fed­erico Fellini’s musi­cal “8 ½” earned another Acad­emy Award Nom­i­na­tion for Pene­lope Cruz, along­side addi­tional nods for Art Direc­tion, Cos­tume Design, and Orig­i­nal Song.

April
25: “Crazy Heart”

Jeff Bridges is prac­ti­cally guar­an­teed the Best Actor statue for his work in this char­ac­ter study about a C&W singer.  Mag­gie Gyl­len­haal, of “Dark Knight” fame, also received a Sup­port­ing Actress Nom­i­na­tion, com­ple­ment­ing the film’s Best Orig­i­nal Song Nom­i­na­tion.

May 2:
“The Lovely Bones”

Peter Jack­son, Direc­tor of the infa­mous “Lord of the Rings” tril­ogy, received lit­tle crit­i­cal sup­port for his drama about a young girl’s mur­der and sub­se­quent after­life, but the film was able to snatch a best Sup­port­ing Actor nod for Stan­ley Tucci chill­ing antag­o­nist.

And the Oscar goes to…

The 82^nd Oscar Nom­i­nees have been announced, high­light­ing the final col­lab­o­ra­tion on Film Awards deemed the Best of 2009.  As always with this time of year, comes many unjust snubs, credit where it’s due, and some bizarre sur­prises too.  The Oscars, will be hosted by “It’s Com­pli­cated” co-stars Alec Bald­win and Steve Mar­tin and will air on CBS, March 7^th @ 6pm.

… Con­tinue Reading

Mel Gib­son makes a gritty and glo­ri­ous return

Mel Gib­son hasn’t acted in seven years.  Seven years of out of sight, out of mind and it’s easy to for­get what an amaz­ing actor he is. Uti­liz­ing a smart script and crisp direc­tion, Gib­son in “Edge of Dark­ness,” effec­tively returns to the revenge the­atrics that started his career in 1979’s “Mad Max.”

Thomas Craven’s (Gib­son) daugh­ter is mur­dered.  A detec­tive him­self, the rest of the cops just assume that he was the tar­get.  That’s not good enough for Craven, as he starts to inves­ti­gate the mys­te­ri­ous cor­po­ra­tion his daugh­ter worked for, and quickly real­izes he may be in over his head.  But hell, he’s got noth­ing to lose anyway.

Gib­son defines pow­er­house per­for­mances with his blend of griev­ing and anger, and his unend­ing strug­gle to solve the case of his daughter’s mur­der.  Hard yet com­plex, Gibson’s por­trayal is as riv­et­ing as the film itself, remind­ing us just how great he is.  Hold­ing a res­olute resolve and a con­trolled yet vio­lent bravado, Gib­son is mas­ter­ful in his exe­cu­tion, even sell­ing the action scenes in his older age.  … Con­tinue Reading

Golden Globe pre­dic­tions are in!

The 67^th Annual Golden Globe Awards will be broad­cast live Sun­day Jan­u­ary 17^th at 6 PM.  While cer­tainly not as large or as rec­og­nized as the upcom­ing Acad­emy Awards (March 7^th), the Golden Globes are still well respected and act as an ample pre­de­ces­sor to the Oscars, offer­ing hints on the films that may be rec­og­nized on Oscar night.

The show will be hosted by come­dian Ricky Ger­vais, famous for his work on the orig­i­nal British ver­sion of “The Office,” and star of recent films such as “Ghost Town” and “The Inven­tion of Lying.”

Below you’ll find list­ings of the major cat­e­gories and their nom­i­nated Films, with brief descrip­tions and analy­sis pro­vid­ing my per­sonal insight as a film critic, along with some gen­eral infor­ma­tion on those yet to come to Laramie.

NOTE: For other cat­e­gories and in depth reviews of some of the nom­i­nated films, see the links at bot­tom. … Con­tinue Reading

Noth­ing says Christ­mas like…Sherlock Holmes

“Sher­lock Holmes won’t be quite what you expect, and you may even be dis­mayed by the films feisty nar­ra­tive style, but more often than not you’ll be com­pletely enter­tained by the char­ac­ters onscreen in this fun addi­tion to the loaded Hol­i­day season.

It came as a sur­prise when Guy Ritchie was cho­sen as the direc­tor of ‘Sher­lock Holmes.’  Known pri­mar­ily for his work on indie crime films such as ‘Snatch’ or last year’s ‘Rock­n­Rolla,’ Ritchie had never taken on a main­stream fran­chise film. Thank­fully, Ritchie was able to mesh the two gen­res on some level, with his trade­mark style of
film­mak­ing.  The result is a film that will surely prove the most pop­u­lar take on the char­ac­ter out­side of Conan Doyle’s orig­i­nal novels.

Sher­lock Holmes and his part­ner Dr. Wat­son have been suc­cess­fully solv­ing cases through­out Eng­land for years.  Their most recent case was that of Lord Black­wood, a man who mur­dered in the name of his black magic.  Finally hanged for his crimes, it comes as an unpleas­ant sur­prise when he lit­er­ally rises from the grave.  It is up to Holmes and Wat­son to find and stop him before his killing spree devours Eng­land. … Con­tinue Reading

Jim Car­rey breaths new life into a Christ­mas classic

We all know the story behind Charles Dick­ens clas­sic story, “A Christ­mas Carol.”  Here, Screen­play Writer and Direc­tor Robert Zemeckis intended to por­tray the story with its full visual poten­tial, not seen in early adap­ta­tions.  The result is just that, giv­ing a true and heart­felt take on famil­iar tale, and gladly revis­its by way of mod­ern filmmaking’s stun­ning motion cap­ture tech­nol­ogy and thrilling 3-D.

The tale of Ebenezer Scrooge is as potent as ever in Zemeckis’ adap­ta­tion Audi­ences are once again treated to the story of Scrooge, an angry and greedy old man with no reser­va­tions about his lifestyle or his irrev­er­ent atti­tude towards the 25^th of Decem­ber.  That is until one Christ­mas Eve night, when Scrooge finds him­self vis­ited by the ghost of an old friend, who tells of three spir­its to visit Scrooge; the Ghosts of Christ­mas’ Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

Jim Car­rey plays a total of eight char­ac­ters in the film, includ­ing the three Christ­mas Ghosts and the film’s pro­tag­o­nist, Ebenezer Scrooge.  Uti­liz­ing the same motion cap­ture tech­niques of Zemeckis’ pre­vi­ous films “Beowulf” and “Polar Express,” the tech­nol­ogy allows a blend of the actor’s facial expres­sions with altered appear­ances and ani­mated envi­ron­ments.  Here, Car­rey avoids his rou­tine seen count­less times in come­dies through­out the years, and plays a gen­uine, hard-bitten Scrooge, with only traces of Carrey’s humor seep­ing through in appro­pri­ate scenes.  Per­haps a bit more lik­able in his early min­utes as Scrooge than is tra­di­tional for the tale, Carrey’s trans­for­ma­tion is
gen­uine nonethe­less.  He also stars as the Ghosts; at times sub­tly and bla­tantly resem­bling Car­rey.  Another ben­e­fit of the motion cap­ture tech­nique is seen in the film’s abil­ity to per­fectly con­ceive younger ver­sions of Scrooge’s appear­ance, all revolv­ing around the altered like­ness of Car­rey. … Con­tinue Reading

Uncov­er­ing unique Hal­loween movies, and masks

Inde­pen­dent film direc­tor Seth Lan­dau is offer­ing up the mask that made his 2008 hor­ror film ”Bryan Loves You” a new cult clas­sic, giv­ing any­one a chance to get their hands on authen­tic movie mem­o­ra­bilia. Hal­loween ush­ers in the sea­son of hor­ror in Hol­ly­wood.  From cult clas­sics like “Fri­day the 13^th” to shock­ing new gore fests like the “Saw” series, Octo­ber offers a wide vari­ety of hor­ror enter­tain­ment.  Cos­tumes add a whole other dimen­sion to the hol­i­day.  Peo­ple are always search­ing for new and unique ideas to be the cen­ter of atten­tion at the next Hal­loween party.  Noth­ing says new and unique like offi­cial Hol­ly­wood movie memorabilia.

LOS ANGELES (CA) Oct 1, 2009  “BRYAN LOVES YOU,” the con­tro­ver­sial Anchor
Bay Enter­tain­ment release and tabbed one of horror’s Top 10 of 2008 by
MovieWeb’s Steve Ander­son and called by JoBlo.com’s Jim­myO the film to
make you won­der ‘am I being watched?’”, is giv­ing away authen­tic Bryan
cult masks seen in the movie.

Any­one with a US or Cana­dian mail­ing address is eli­gi­ble to win. To enter, just com­ment on the video here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YryUHHhD-Q
. Win­ners will be cho­sen at ran­dom Hal­loween 2009 and Hal­loween 2010,
one mask given away per Hal­loween. “BRYAN LOVES YOU” rock concert-style
t-shirts will be given to the run­ners up.

“BRYAN
LOVES YOU” is the true 1993 story of a cult that takes over an Ari­zona
town and stars Tony Todd, George Wendt, Tiffany Shepis, Brinke Stevens,
Lloyd Kauf­man, Daniel Roe­buck and fea­tur­ing a DVD audio com­men­tary with
a ghastly end­ing. MovieWeb says “if Oscars were given to
direct-to-video hor­ror, then ‘Bryan Loves You’ would be on the Best
Pic­ture list”, David Carter of FILM FANADDICT! sug­gests “this one will
likely slip under the radar of most – make sure it doesn’t do the same
for you” and film critic Louis Fowler enthuses “’Bryan’ is per­fect 2
a.m. freaky fare that will leave you look­ing over your shoulder.”