Category Archives: Uncategorized

Two films that have zero chance in the Oscars race but which make a good case for how the Oscar Nominations can also give a boost to films sitting external to the larger discussions. Cyrano is a film that suffered greatly from being postponed multiple times during the pandemic. When it finally did release theContinue reading “Oscars Spotlight: Cyrano and Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”

Oscars 2022 Spotlight: King Richard On the surface this appears to be a stereotypical sports drama all about the power of the American dream. It doesn’t take long for King Richard to reveal itself as something decidedly different. It is, at its heart, a family drama following the trials and successes of Venus and SerenaContinue reading “Oscars 2022 Spotlight: King Richard”

It could be described that Licorice Pizza’s rise and fall in the Oscar race was as brief and fleeting as a Winnnipeg summer. It emerged as an early critical darling powered by the presence of Paul Thomas Anderson. Back when Belfast occupied frontrunner status some pundits thought the release of this much anticipated coming ofContinue reading “Oscars 2022 Spotlight- Licorice Pizza”

Oscars 2022 Spotlight: Nightmare Alley Del Toro, a self professed favorite Director of all time for me personally, is no stranger to awards season. It wasn’t that long ago that Shape of Water defied the odds, perhaps acknowledging the Director more than the film itself, winning Best Picture. Oddly enough Nightmare Alley is the moreContinue reading “Oscars 2022 Spotlight: Nightmare Alley”

Oscars 2022 Sporlight: Being the Ricardos Late in the season Amazon quietly released Being the Ricardos, a film detailing an especially harrowing time for Hollywood stars Lucille Ball and Desi Amaz. Most of the discussion around this faithful, biographical depiction of the famed couple, centered on the year 1952, surrounded Nicole Kidman’s take on Ball.Continue reading “Oscars 2022 Spotlight: Being the Ricardos and The Eyes of Tammy Faye”

Even a small awareness of film releases in 2021 likely means you have heard of Denis Villeneuve’s ambitious take on a classic work deemed to be unadaptable (save for those who actually deem Lynch’s original a success). As the story goes, the acclaimed Director kept waiting around for someone to take it on and whenContinue reading “Oscars 2022 Spotlight: Dune”

Continuing this week with some Oscar reflections, today I wanted to shed light on the documetary Flee, which is up for Animated Feature Film, Documentary Feature, and International Feature Film. Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, the official entry from Denmark is a documentary that mixes animated and live action sequences as it tells the storyContinue reading “Oscars 2022 Spotlight: Flee”

It’s Oscar week. Which means ramping up the pontificating and predictions for anyone who still cares. I’ve been on record plenty of times in the past defending the relevance of the ceremony and its importance for the industry (and yes, I know I am Canadian, but it’s near impossible to escape the shadow of theContinue reading “The Oscars: Thoughts, Best Picture Rankings, and Best Picture Predictions”

I was listening to an episode of Kingdom Roots podcast this morning titled Discipling Our Emotions speaking with scholar and theologian Becky Castle Miller, and they were unpacking the recent and revolutionary research on science of “emotions” that surfaced back around 2016 and has since been growing to become the dominant view. The shift representsContinue reading “Emotions As Construct and the the Discipling of our Emotions: Reflections on Kingdom Roots with Becky Castle Miller”

The best that can be said of Irish cinema today is that it certainly exists. Even with its strata of ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy’ films, its commercial entertainments and its dark dramas, Irish film at least now produces enough films for there to be such divisions in the first place. The identity of an Irish cinemaContinue reading “Happy St. Patricks Day: A Reflection on Irish Film History and My Favorite Irish Films”