The Blu Spot

The Film: Over the last few years, Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos has given us quite a fascinating range of films that have also somewhat varied in quality. In 2018, he delivered the marvelous "The Favourite" that told of an intriguing rivalry for a queen's affections. Five years later, this was followed by "Poor Things," a strange tale of a young woman brought back to life who experiences everything anew. The very next year, he sadly dropped off a bit with "Kinds

The Film: When the great Daniel Day-Lewis announced his retirement from acting back in 2017, it was quite a shock to everyone. To think that the man who had given such brilliant performances in films like "Lincoln," "Gangs of New York," "There Will Be Blood," and "My Left Foot, and had earned a remarkable three Oscars for Best Actor, would no longer be gracing the screen with his presence was certainly a disappointing blow. However, hope reignited in the last couple of years

The Film: Just four years ago, Director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill unleashed "The Black Phone" in theaters, adapting Joe Hill's supernatural horror short story into a feature film. The result drew extremely mixed reviews from critics, and indeed the film was something of a mixed bag where the writers certainly could've tried a little harder to do a bit more with its premise, but that hardly stopped it from being an enormous hit at the box office. Indeed,

The Film: You've probably heard me mention a few dozen times at this point how filmmakers nowadays find it immensely difficult to break away from the oh-so-familiar formula when it comes to romances of any kind. The sad part is that they don't even seem to be willing to try doing something a little different to give the audience a surprise or two, basically causing them to be ahead of it every step of the way. That said, there are some that at least try to dress it up a bit b

The Film: As writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson quickly approaches 30 years of making theatrical features, it really is quite something to look over what a strange & eccentric filmography he's created along the way, one that has thus far earned him a remarkable 11 Oscar nominations (though curiously no wins). In a career that's included some misses like "Inherent Vice" and "Licorice Pizza," to much stronger work like "There Will Be Blood" and "Magnolia," it's been truly fas

The Film: In 1990, a most remarkable & unlikely pairing occurred when two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro, known for his dramatic roles in films like "The Godfather: Part II" and "Raging Bull," teamed with then two-time Oscar nominee Robin Williams, mostly known for being a master comedian, though he had started to turn to roles in films that included more drama like "Good Morning, Vietnam" and "Dead Poets Society." The result was the rather impressive true-life tale "Awaken

The Films: There are few things that cause a larger burst of nostalgia for my childhood than the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." It was the first phenomenon that I can remember becoming obsessed with as a kid, which had me hooked on the popular cartoon series & collecting action figures, comics, posters, and more. With the incredible success of the show, it was hardly a surprise that a feature film came to fruition within a few years, though it was a bit of a surprise to see

The Film: When Jonathan Larson's "Rent" burst onto Broadway back in 1996, it became an instant hit that not only garnered four Tony Awards (including Best Musical, Book, and Original Score), but also had it going on an incredible 12-year run. During that time, it's hardly a surprise that the idea of a film was brought up pretty quickly, leading to an adaptation being brought to theaters in 2005 from director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Stephen Chbosky that featured six of

The Film: When it comes to documentaries, there are none that I enjoy more than those that involve the creation of art, whether it's the method of recreating a painting in the astounding "Tim's Vermeer," the preparation of a film that never came to be in the fascinating "Jodorowsky's Dune," or the chaos of making a film that has everything go wrong in my favorite documentary of all time, "Lost in La Mancha." This brings us to one of the most famous docs of this kind, Fax Bahr

The Hollywood Foreign Press has just announced their nominations for the 83rd Annual Golden Globes, and it comes as no surprise to find that Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" leads the way with nine nods, followed closely by Joachim Trier's "Sentimental Value" with eight. As usual, there were a few surprises, including the shocking omission of "Wicked: For Good" in Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, where "Blue Moon" and "Nouvelle Vague" made surprise ap