08 Jan 2014

Out of This World: The Most Enjoyable Movies of 2013

By Mike Schulz

I can't remember which Web site I read it on, but in prefacing his 10-best list, one movie-reviewing pundit expressed his wish that rankings of this sort be published 10 years after the fact, so he could have a full decade to digest, re-re-view, and potentially re-evaluate what he initially decreed were his favorite films for a particular calendar year. I love that idea, but would also be grateful for a just few extra weeks.

09 Apr 2013

The Enthusiast: On Roger Ebert

By Jeff Ignatius

Roger EbertIn 2010, at the age of 67, Roger Ebert reviewed The Human Centipede (First Sequence) ? a horror flick that seems to exist primarily to make viewers vomit. As a professional movie critic for more than four decades, Ebert could have been forgiven for skipping it altogether. Curt dismissal was another perfectly reasonable option.

A charitable senior-citizen writer might have picked the movie apart on moral, narrative, or aesthetic grounds, or used it as a launching point for a screed against the depravity of contemporary culture or the torture-porn genre.

But Ebert turned in a no-star-rating review that begins with an earnest rumination on the path to mortality: "It's not death itself that's so bad. It's what you might have to go through to get there." And he says that within the writer/director, Tom Six, "there stirs the soul of a dark artist."

25 Feb 2013

Gold Men Sunset: Notes on the 2013 Academy Awards Telecast

By Mike Schulz

Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisSeth MacFarlane, I thought, did a fine job hosting the 85th Academy Awards ceremony. He turned out to be a fine choice for the frequently thankless Oscar-emcee position, tossing in some fine jokes in between the generally fine production numbers and mostly fine acceptance speeches ... .

I'm sorry, but I am alone in thinking that last night's telecast, in the end, was just a little too "fine"?

13 Feb 2013

"Argo" Fête Yourself: 2013 Oscar Predictions

By Mike Schulz

Ben Affleck in ArgoAs I only predicted 15 out of 24 categories correctly for the previous Academy Awards, obviously I have some making up to do for my prognostic abilities to again be taken seriously.

Of all freakin' times to attempt a comeback ... !

13 Feb 2013

Oscar-a-a-aziness: Analyzing the Trickiest Categories (and They're Big Ones) in the 2013 Academy Awards Race

By Mike Schulz

Don't tell anyone. But usually, when it comes to predicting the winners of the Academy Awards' major races, it doesn't take much to look like you know what you're talking about.

10 Jan 2013

The 2013 Academy Award Nominees

By Mike Schulz

So what did we learn from this morning's announcement of contenders for the 85th Annual Academy Awards?

07 Jan 2013

Magic / Mike: Schulz's 10(-Plus) Most Enjoyable Movies of 2012

By Mike Schulz

It's incomplete, with such 2012 releases as Zero Dark Thirty, Amour, Rust & Bone, Arbitrage, The Intouchables, Not Fade Away, and Here Comes the Boom (ha ha!) still requiring my viewing. And it's certainly eclectic, as even I can't fathom a double feature of titles number one and two below. But in an all-around outstanding year for movies, the following ranking of 10 selections - with a bonus inclusion - is, as of January 6, my list of the absolute best times I had as a film fanatic this past year.

 

07 Jan 2013

Project CLX: A Ranking of 2012 Movies Beyond Mike's Top 10

By Mike Schulz

Sam Rockwell and Colin Farrell in Seven Psychopaths"So, Mike, what did you think of the other 2012 movies you saw?"

Gosh, how nice of you to ask!

In descending order of appreciation ... .

03 Jan 2013

Predicting the 2013 Academy Award Nominees

By Mike Schulz

Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark ThirtyWill it be Argo's year or Lincoln's? Affleck's or not-Affleck's? Day-Lewis' or ... ?

Well, it's gonna be Day-Lewis'.

01 Aug 2012

Politics and Morals, Myths and Hope: Reading Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy

By Jeff Ignatius

Obviously, a lot of noise surrounded The Dark Knight Rises, starting with the hype and anticipation. Then came the extreme reactions to some early negative reviews. And then the midnight-screening mass shooting in Colorado appropriately redirected attention to important matters.

The deaths of 12 people and the injuries to dozens more in that Colorado movie theatre on July 20 highlighted that neither a movie nor Batman is anywhere near as important as human lives.

Yet the arts are still integral to our existence, and whatever you think of Christopher Nolan's trilogy as films, these movies will stand as key markers in the lives of many millions of people and in the movie business, and they will be viewed as reflections of their cultural and political time. Like the original trio of Star Wars movies, we can already see them as significant pop-art artifacts.

For those reasons alone, Nolan's Batman movies deserve close scrutiny. They also reward inspection and consideration, as the writer/director has conceived and executed them with a rigor and density unusual to blockbusters. (Expect spoilers, although I've tried to be circumspect about late developments in The Dark Knight Rises until the final section.)

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