One of the reasons David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence was the best film of 2005 was its orchestration of tension from the very first sequence. Although an entirely different film, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (also a nominee for the ‘05 Oscars) is the first film I’ve seen since that had me at short [...]
Entries from February 2007
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
February 28th, 2007 · No Comments
Tags: Biographical · Drama · Foreign Language
Marie Antoinette
February 27th, 2007 · 1 Comment
The general critical reaction to Sofia Coppola’s follow-up to the well received Lost In Translation reveals that many aren’t ready for (1) any tweaking of the period costume drama, or (2) for this filmmaker — whom it celebrated for non-convention months before — to defy the conventions of the period costume drama. And while one [...]
Tags: Biographical · Director · Drama · Romance
Flags of Our Fathers
February 22nd, 2007 · No Comments
Prior to beginning jury selection, most trial judges in Chicago deliver a stock speech to the room full of potential jurors. One particular judge, however, would infuse some drama to the otherwise dry remarks. While his comments began as welcoming and informative, the primary objective of the speech was to combat the burning question on [...]
Tags: Biographical · Director · War
The Best of 2006
February 10th, 2007 · No Comments
I have confessed that I love lists, but this one is particularly troubling to me. Although any year’s list of Oscar nominations will be far removed from my choices for the year’s top films, by the date of the Oscar broadcast I can usually claim to have seen most, if not all, of the nominated [...]
Tags: Feature
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
