A film with a fairly simple premise but rather complicated characters kicks off my Oscars Challenge. Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal stars Riz Ahmed as Ruben, a heavy-metal drummer who performs in a duo with girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke). The nomadic pair tour the country in an RV that, rather intentionally or not, serves as [...]
Welcome to the final installment of this season’s Best Picture Challenge. Check out my thoughts on films seven through nine below. Ford v. Ferrari With Le Mans 1966 as the backdrop, officials at Ford look to do the impossible. They plan to construct a race car that can compete against a thoroughbred of car racing: [...]
Welcome to part deux of my Best Picture Challenge in conjunction with the 92nd Oscars. In this post, I’m talking about The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, and Joker. // The Irishman I was stunned to discover this film had a three-and-a-half hour runtime. Good Lord! If you can get over that - and how the film [...]
The 2020 Oscars ceremony is February 9. It’s a shortened season, but I’m determined to see and review each of the nine Best Picture nominees. In the spirit of a shortened season, I’ve decided to conquer the writing portion of this challenge in three parts, publishing snippet reviews of each of the nine nominees. Let’s [...]
If there's anything I love, it's a film with a good story. While not perfect, The Art of Racing in the Rain provided just that for me. Simon Curtis' film takes us through the life of a golden retriever, Enzo (voiced by Kevin Costner), and his owner Denny Swift (Milo Ventimiglia), a race car driver [...]
