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Box Office Sabermetrics: Can Box Office Predict the Oscars?

This is an inherently foolish question to ask. As I’m sure we’ve all learned by now, it’s foolish to try to predict the Best Picture winner for the Oscars, especially months in advance. It’s even more foolish to try to predict just based on the box office numbers of a film, just one of several …

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Seven Anti-James Bond Movies You Haven’t Seen

The Bond franchise which has been with us so long, has become so deeply entrenched in popular culture, that we often forget what it was that first distinguished the Bonds a half-century ago. Skyfall might be one of the best of the Bonds, and even, arguably, one of the best big-budget big-action flicks to come …

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10 Best Escape and Rescue Movie Scenes of All Time

If you’re an action hero, pulling off daring rescues and badass escapes is just another day at the office. The rescue has been the prototypical action scene since humans have been able to put pen to paper. From Tarzan swinging in on a vine to Iron Man flying in on his jets, a hero isn’t …

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What Role Does Film Have in the Telling of History? A Look at Denis Villeneuve’s Polytechnique (2009)

What value does fiction have in the interpretation of a historical event? This question can become central to the reception and understanding of historical films and has taken on important resonance in past years in regards to films like Ben Affleck’s Argo or Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. These films are not documentaries; however they …

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Argo and the Search for Historical Authenticity

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock since the Oscars, you’ve heard about the controversies surround Argo’s (lack of) historical accuracy. Whether it’s Iran threatening to sue Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Canada feeling relegated to postscript of history, or most recently the parliament in New Zealand motioning that Affleck “saw fit to mislead the …

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A Clever ‘For Your Consideration’ Ad, for ‘Argo’

Studios often spend a tremendous amount of money promoting films that are nominated for an Oscar, in hopes of swaying Academy members to vote for their film. There has been quite a few interesting campaigns throughout the years, but all too often, they do little to impress. Here is a perfect a example of how …

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BAFTAs 2013: Who is going to win? – part 2

Now that we are nearing the big awards of the season, it is time to revisit the nominations and predictions for the 2013 BAFTAs.  Part 2 will cover the following categories: (see part one here) Best Film Best British Film Leading Actor Leading Actress Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Actress Best Director The EE BAFTA …

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2012 and the Box Office: It Was A Very Good Year

I hate being wrong. Really hate it. The only thing I hate more than being wrong is publicly admitting I’m wrong. And, man, when it comes to how 2012 played out at the movies matched up against what I’d predicted in my end-of-2011 box office wrap-up, I couldn’t have been more wrong. “Want a prediction …

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Alexandre Desplat’s Psychological Landscapes

A soundtrack that has Chinese overtones, interspersed with Satie, and A La Claire Fontaine. Is it a Chinese composer familiar with French culture? Turns out to be a French composer, capable of adapting his music to almost any setting in the world. Whether it be ethereal tunes for golden compasses, mysterious ones for wizards, or spectral ones …

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BAFTAs 2013: Who is going to win? – part 1

With awards season truly underway, it is time to dust off the gowns and practice the speeches (not to mention the he-deserved-it-more look) and make out predictions for the BAFTAs. Part 1 will cover the following categories: – Best Documentary – Best Animated Feature – Best Film not in the English Language – Best Adapted …

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Staff List: The 40 Best Films of 2012

#20: Cosmopolis (50 points) Directed by David Cronenberg Written by David Cronenberg Canada / France, 2012 Every time Cronenberg answers the prayers of his fans with a new movie, it seems that the first reflex is to attempt to categorize it. Is this new film more like the old Cronenberg, in which very strange, very …

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Ricky D’s 50 Favourite Films of 2012 (Part Two)

  25: The Dark Knight Rises Directed by Christopher Nolan Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan 2012, USA The Dark Knight Rises feels as if it was made up of two equal halves, with the most critical moment of the film breaking the movie in half, almost literally. While the second half may have …

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Ricky D’s 50 Favourite Films of 2012 (Part One)

2012 wasn’t a bad year for movies. It was actually a great year. The problem is, the movies we were most anticipating, specifically the Hollywood blockbusters like Prometheus and The Hobbit, didn’t live up to our expectations. With that said I still managed to make a list of 50 films I loved. Maybe I just …

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‘Killing Them Softly’ a tough, spare crime drama dragged down by political underpinnings

Killing Them Softly Directed by Andrew Dominik Written by Andrew Dominik USA, 2012 Four years after the United States economic bailout, the fallout has not abated, either among those in the 1% of earners or everyone else. And now that we have a bit of distance from the immediacy of the tanking economy, we can …

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Watch THR Director Roundtable: 6 Auteurs sit down for an hour to discuss cinema

At the start of awards season, THR assembles actors, actresses and directors involved in some of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, and sits them all in one room for a roundtable discussion about their careers and their movies. Joining the directors roundup this year is Ang Lee (Life of Pi), Tom Hooper …

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‘Red Dawn’ remake feels positively regressive

Red Dawn Directed by Dan Bradley Written by Carl Ellsworth and Jeremy Passmore USA, 2012 Apparently, the original script for the 2012 remake of John Milius’ 1984 Red Dawn intended the invading forces to be Chinese, but MGM changed it to be North Koreans in post-production so as to not offend the ever-growing Chinese market; …

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‘Argo’ Movie Review

Argo Directed by Ben Affleck Written by Chris Terrio Starring Ben Affleck, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Clea DuVall, Bryan Cranston, Philip Baker Hall, Scoot McNairy, Roger Cochrane In the pecking order of the Hollywood totem pole the make-up artist would come somewhere between the key grip and caterer, an essential figure in keeping a movie meandering along during …

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‘Argo’ a crackling thriller brimming with unbearable tension

Argo Directed by Ben Affleck Written by Chris Terrio USA, 2012 Improbably, Ben Affleck has turned his career around in the last few years from the pit where such cinematic embarrassments as Gigli and Daredevil forever reside. He’s essentially transformed himself from a tabloid cover-star into a poised actor-director who subscribes to the “Hollywood doesn’t …

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‘Argo’ deftly drums up suspense but leaves character depth thin

Argo Directed by Ben Affleck Written by Chris Terrio USA, 2012 Ben Affleck’s latest directorial effort Argo is a tightly woven anecdote to history that utilizes a stranger than fiction preposterousness to strong crowd pleasing effect. The declassified true story reveals the unorthodox ingenuity involved in the unlikely coordination between Hollywood and the CIA as …

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Telluride 2012: Day One – ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’ and ‘The Masque of the Red Death’

The Telluride Film Festival is the start of my new year, when everything becomes new and exciting again. There is promise in the air and I tell myself to be completely open to any film. It’s easier said than done to put cynicism aside but TFF truly puts on a grand show- conjuring theaters from …

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