Surprisingly, neither Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin nor Disney's 2D animated critical darling, Winnie the Pooh , is a contender for Best Animated Feature. However, despite Stephen Daldry's critic-dividing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close landing a Best Pic nod over a more universally-beloved title like, say, Warrior , that selection was (unfortunately) expec

Yes, there is sex and nudity in the film, but it's used to hammer home the wrongness of what's going on. The way it's used makes the audience extremely uncomfortable in a good way. Of course we all know that what is happening in the film is wrong on an intellectual level, but this film makes you see and feel the wrongness of it. You can't help but be affected by

Like many films shown at Sundance this year, Towelhead combined different styles (humor and drama), but does it more successfully than most. It's the story of a thirteen year old girl who is half Lebanese / half WASP whose physical development is quite ahead of her age. Towelhead (aka Nothing is Private) was written, directed and produced by Alan Ball , the same fellow who wrote the screenplay for the similarly themed American Beauty a few years

In the absence of Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson has stood up and taken hold of the series to legitimize it beyond it's love of excess and spectacle. She has been afforded a slightly different character to the one she usually plays in Ryan Murphy's aging series and the result is a commanding performance that deserves to be singled

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence ( Winter's Bone , The Hunger Games ) jointly announced the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards this morning, on Tuesday January 24th. The actual 2012 Oscar ceremony will take place next month, on February 26th at the Kodak theater - with Billy Crystal serving as host, for the ninth time in his car

While he may be Catholic, he still has the ultra-strict personality of a Middle Eastern father. The next morning when Jasira shows up for breakfast wearing pajamas but obviously without a bra - he promptly slaps her across the face and tells her to put on something dec

One thing leads to another and Mr. Vuoso discovers that she found his magazines. While at first he seems to try to get through to her by asking why she was looking at them and that she shouldn't be, the expression on his face soon changes as he looks at her closely for the first t

Carvel turned in an exceedingly exuberant performance during one of the more enjoyable miniseries on TV in 2015. His Jonathan Strange held his own against Eddie Marsan's Mr. Norrell, to bring the dynamic duo of Susanna Clarke's weighty tome to life. The show came and went without much recognition, but Carvel's lively performance deserves a bit of the spotlight h

Martin Scorsese's Hugo led the way with eleven nominations, stacking up many a nod in the technical categories, while Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist was close behind with ten total. Academy members clearly love a good homage to the magic of old-fashioned cinema - be it a Hollywood flick set in Paris or a French production set in Hollywood. Moving o

We meet the family, consisting of Marla, a younger brother and her parents. The first half of the documentary tells the story of what led up to the discovery of Marla's paintings (first displayed at a local coffee shop just for fun) and the ensuing fame and eventual media blitz. The Olmstead's introduction to the world came through a local newspaper reporter who comes across as extremely ethical on both the journalism side of things as well as the human side. Before writing her initial story about Marla and her paintings, she asked the Olmsteads very clearly whether they really wanted her to write the story, because although there was a positive side to the publicity there could also be some negative consequences down the r

It's a sure sign that there's too much good television when a series as terrific as Wolf Hall basically goes unnoticed come awards season. The historical miniseries starring Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis was impeccably made and filled top to bottom with thoughtful, passionate performances. If the series is going to pull off the upset, it might do it h

My Kid Could Paint That was the last film I saw at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and is a fascinating look at the story of four year old Marla Olmstead, who a couple of years ago took the art world by storm by rocketing from lower middle class obscurity to international fame through the sale of her paintings. This documentary by director Amir Bar-Lev is extremely well done and is about as close to neutral as I think one could

Eventually he violates her, with her at first going along but then being physically hurt by him. She is confused and doesn't know what to do with her feelings, both physical and emotional, and simply click Moviefestivalhub she cannot turn to her cold father for comfort or adv