Writings, Reviews, Cultural Criticism
I feel so dirty, like I’ve been watching porn against my will. Now it’s time to step into the shower and wash away that disgusting feeling that comes from watching a multi-billion dollar industry laud itself on making record profits during the most significant economic recession since Academy Awards were instituted.
At last I look at the 10th and final film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar by the esteemed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Up, an animated feature film from Disney’s Pixar Studios.
Lone Scherfig’s An Education is the 9th of the Best Picture nominees I consider as I gear up for the Academy Awards this Sunday March 7th. Like another nominee, The Blind Side, this film is based on a true story (Nick Hornby’s adaptation of Lynn Barber’s memoir).
The worst review I could find of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker comes from Variety. Nevertheless, it is better than the best review of The Blind Side (I am still incredulous that The Blind Side has been nominated in any category).
The Blind Side is the fifth Best Picture nominee I consider in my quest for the worst movie review of an Oscar contender. I have to confess that I made a mistake when I wrote about Avatar, suggesting that it might win an award for the most heavily dissed film. The Blind Side is the clear winner.
They’ve widened highway 69up through Parry Sound.Now perched high on outcropsand staring from their rocky ledgesare the Inukshuks,granite rubble stacked,legs, torso, arms and head.“We are here” (we think they say),a testament to thosewho set them there,a good host with arms wide,or maybe a guide to point the way. I am the bones of my mother,Laurentia,…
In my continuing quest for negative reviews of 2010 Best Picture Academy Award nominees, I turn now to the science fiction nominees. First up is James Cameron’s Avatar, the Rupert Murdoch financed 3D sci-fi extravaganza that has grossed more than $2.46 bn as of this writing.
I note three things distinctive about the writing style of Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist monk and founder of the Order of Interbeing): The first is its simplicity.
In the forward to What Is America? A Short History of the New World Order, Ronald Wright points out that his book arises from the final chapter of an earlier work, A Short History of Progress. There, he planted the seeds of a simple thesis with far reaching consequences. It is his latter book which expands upon these consequences.
This is the second in a series that looks at reviewers who diss the Best Picture Oscar contenders. While Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air, starring George Clooney and Vera Farmiga, has received favourable attention from both the New Yorker and The New York Times, not all reviewers see it as Oscar worthy.
You know you are dealing with really conservative people when they lobby for legal provisions more stringent than those proposed by the Harper Conservatives. Bill C-32 is a case in point.
With the approach of the Academy Awards ceremony on March 7th, I’ve decided to take a look at films nominated in the Best Picture category. Watching a whole batch of commercial American films is a bit like locking yourself overnight in a candy factory.
On Friday February 12th, 2010, the Vancouver Winter Olympics officially began. While half the sentient universe was watching the opening ceremonies on TV, I was reading a book.
I had never heard of Regina Spektor until my daughter asked me for a lift downtown to a concert on Queen’s Quay. I asked who Regina Spektor is and my daughter loaned me a CD called Soviet Kitsch. It was one of those odd occasions when I encountered something in pop culture without realizing it was a literary reference.
When Lois Wilson submitted a request to transfer her church membership, board members of the receiving church asked the minister: “Who is Lois Wilson?” The minister, Rev. Doug Norris, answered: “She”s 90 pounds of piss and vinegar.”