Secrets & Lies: Mike Leigh's Engaging Tale of Family Connections (Criterion Blu-ray)
The Film: Mike Leigh is not your typical filmmaker. Whereas most writer/directors will work on a script for months, maybe even years before shooting begins, Leigh approaches it quite differently. He'll have a general idea of the story and characters, but instead of churning out a screenplay beforehand, he'll extensively workshop every scene with his actors to flesh out the story and characters. From this concept has come several acclaimed films, including "Naked," "Topsy-Turv
The Winners of the 32nd Annual Producers Guild of America Awards
The Producers Guild of America has just finished handing out their awards for 2020 with the entirely expected result of Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland" taking the top prize. With this big win, it now seems quite inevitable that it will be winning the Best Picture Oscar next month, especially given its strong lock on Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Other major winners this evening included "The Crown" for Drama Series, "Schitt's Creek" for Comedy Series, and "Soul" for Ani
The Undoing: An Intriguing Mystery with Curious Execution (Blu-ray)
The Show: David E. Kelley has had quite the extraordinary career, having created such smash hits as "Picket Fences," "The Practice," and "Boston Legal," resulting in him having racked up a very impressive haul of 11 Emmys. Recently, he's even gotten into Limited Series, giving us the remarkable "Big Little Lies" (based on the novel by Liane Moriarty), which won him one of those Emmys. For his latest project, he's once again delving into the same realm of television with "The
The Winners of the 73rd Annual Writers Guild of America Awards
The Writers Guild of America has just finished announcing their awards for 2020, with Emerald Fennell cementing her frontrunner position for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar with a big win this evening for "Promising Young Woman". Sadly they decided to embarrass themselves spectacularly by awarding "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" their Adapted Screenplay award. It's unfortunate that they decided to treat the award as a complete and utter joke, but apparently they had no intere
Nominations for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has just announced their nominations for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards, and, as usual, there were a few unexpected inclusions and snubs. As predicted, leading the way is David Fincher's "Mank" with ten nominations, including Picture, Director, Actor, and Supporting Actress. It was followed with a six-way tie between "The Father," "Judas and the Black Messiah," "Minari," "Nomadland," "Sound of Metal," and "The Trial of t
Film Nominations for the 73rd Annual Directors Guild of America Awards
The Directors Guild of America has just announced the remainder of their film nominees for 2020, with no real surprises to be found. After the bizarre BAFTA shakeup this morning, where four of the six nominees were rather random, the DGA has chosen five nominees for its main award that were pretty much expected, including presumed winner Chloe Zhao for "Nomadland". That being said, many thought Bong Joon Ho was going to win this last year for "Parasite" after his domination d
Nominations for the 2021 BAFTA Awards
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has just finished announcing their nominees, and it's certainly fair to say that it's not exactly what was expected. Leading the way are "Nomadland" and "Rocks" with seven nominations each, followed by "The Father," Mank," "Minari," and "Promising Young Woman" with six. Where to even begin? The acting nominations were all over the place and included multiple surprises, including Alan Kim for "Minari," Adarsh Gourav for "The Whit
Film Nominations for the 32nd Annual Producers Guild of America Awards
The Producers Guild of America has just announced the remainder of their nominations, including those for their biggest award, Theatrical Motion Picture. The PGA has been known to throw us a curveball every now and again, and this year, it's sadly in the form of one of the worst films of 2020: "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm". As to why they would want to embarrass themselves by including it is anyone's guess. Other than that, we basically have what was expected, including frontr
The Winners of the 26th Annual Critics' Choice Awards for Film
The Critics' Choice Association has just finished announcing their annual awards, with the entirely predictable result of Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland" taking the top prize. The film also won awards for Direction (Zhao), Adapted Screenplay (Zhao), and Cinematography. This would usually be the point where I would point out the surprises from the ceremony, but there weren't really any to be had this year. In fact, the biggest news here was the shameful way in which the CCA treated h
Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-4: A Fantastic Collection of the Show Thus Far (Blu-ray)
The Show: There seems to be very little that I could add to my review of the fourth season of "Rick and Morty" in regards to my thoughts on the show as a whole. That being said, I would reiterate its genius in how the various writers are able to take a couple of very basic set-ups (a brilliant inventor/scientist and his nephew going on adventures, with other family members providing much of the b-story material) and turning it into one of the most wild, unpredictable, and hil
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