La La Oscarland By now, we all know La La Land is my favorite film of the year and one of my favorite films of all time. I think it’s a masterpiece and deserves each and every award it garners. Is my opinion biased? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. But I think we can all agree that is not an “alternative fact” that La La Land rocks. Like or not, it’s hard to call foul on something that looks and sounds this good. The Academy Award nominations were announced Tuesday and La La Land is up for a whopping 14 Academy Awards. To beat the record held by Titanic, Lord of the Rings and... Read More

Oscar nominations will be announced January 24th and this day has always been (and still is) a little like Christmas morning for me. I love the hype, the excitement, the politics… I hate that I love it, but man oh man do I love show business. It’s totally cool to get stoked about this kind of thing! I’ve been so inspired by this year’s offerings and it safe to say this has been one of my favorite movie years since 2005-2006. Here are my Academy Award nomination predictions for the Picture, Director, Actor and Actress categories: Best Picture: Moonlight La La Land Manchester by the Sea Lion Hell... Read More

The Golden Globes are over but the nominees for the Academy Awards are coming up soon. It is time for me to alphabetically list the movies of the past year that  are the best films of the year. I’m sure there are some films, especially foreign films, that I have not seen. Still, I have listed the movies that were engrossing. I feel confident that many of these films will be surfacing again on February 26th. I decided against trying to rank order them 1 to 20 and went with alphabetical inclusion. (There will be some Honorable Mentions at the end.) Arrival:  This film either left you singing... Read More

By Tristan Tapscott The Golden Globes are well known for being, to quote Ricky Gervais, “a bit louder, a bit trashier, a bit drunker” and it typically lives up to the hype. This year? Not so much. The tone still had that air of who-the-fuck-cares but was low key, somber and all over the place. Here are some thoughts on the evening! FA FA FALLON Opening and Host The night started off with a bang featuring one of the best cold opens I’ve seen in years. Appropriately, Fallon led a star studded spoof of La La Land which included hysterical cameos from Tin Fey, Barb and the kids from Stranger... Read More

“La La Land”—that place where “they worship everything and they value nothing” (i.e., Hollywood and Los Angeles)—is the subject of Writer/Director Damien Chazell’s third film, following on the heels of his highly acclaimed “Whiplash” with Miles Teller. (Bad teacher J.K. Simmons even has a bit part in this one as Gosling’s boss in a supper club). Miles Teller was originally supposed to play the lead in “La La Land,” Chazell’s attempt to make a musical like those from “the old days.” This is where I’m supposed to sing the merits of musicals of old (“Singin’... Read More