Jakes Gyllenhaal said it best this evening, pointing out that it would be the shorts that make or break our Oscar Pools. I am usually able to get half of them right by watching them and picking favorites but this year I got them all wrong. Amongst the big categories there were few surprises though, outside of Tom Hooper ( The King's Speech ) beating out David Fincher ( The Social Network ) for achievement in directing. But hey, Chris Nolan wasn't even nominated for Inception so without further

As the story moves forward it becomes clear that what Nancy wants from Louis is for him to kill her, and release her from her torturous existence. Nancy's therapist (played by Amy Brenneman) tries and tries to get through to her, but to no av

The film kind of rambles along and we meet Lewellan's grandmother (played by Piper Laurie), and some of the black folks in town including Charles, a (too?) wise old soul and fan of snakes, which he uses to create medicine. The very bad guy in the Movie Awards Games Updates|Https://Moviefestivalhub.Com/ is a new milkman in his early 20's, who comes by Lewellan's house one day and happens to see her singing a bit of her favorite song with her trademark moves, except this time while lying on her bed. He is the one who eventually rapes Lewel

There are several noteworthy performances in Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight , but the film once again demonstrates that there are few actors who know how to deliver Tarantino dialogue just right like Samuel L. Jackson does (for more proof of that, see that SLJ monologue from The Hateful Eigh

There was a short film before the main feature called Little Farm which was shot in only 48 hours. Given that constraint it wasn't bad, except for the fact the two of the three main characters gave pretty close to the worst performances I've ever seen on screen. Aside from that, although it was pretty strange, in the end it delivered some pretty good scares. I actually had a woman sitting next to me ask if that was the main feature.

One night she leaves home, leaving nothing more than a note for Albert stating that she is going to stay with friends in Baltimore. Instead she heads off to meet Louis, and their initial meeting, now in the real world seems awkw

Hounddog takes place some time in the late 50's or early 60's in the rural south. Dakota Fanning plays Lewellen, a very precocious 12 year old. It seems that right from the start the goal of the film is to make viewers uncomfortable as it opens with a scene between her and a boy that looks a bit younger that is her best friend. They're in the woods and she wants him to drop his pants and underwear for a peek in exchange for a kiss. She talks about wanting to kill her father, which led me to believe that there may have been some sexual abuse going on, but it's never alluded to ag

About 3/4 of the way through the film I was hoping for "release" almost as much as Nancy. I honestly don't understand how an actor can look at a script like this and not just say: "Damn, that is f'ed up!" and just move on to the next

Hounddog is a drama film directed by Deborah Kampmeier, starring Dakota Fanning as a young girl named Lewellen who finds solace in Elvis Presley's music while growing up in the rural South. The film delves into themes of trauma, resilience, and the transformative power of music. David Morse and Robin Wright Penn play pivotal supporting roles, contributing to the film's exploration of complicated family dynamics and personal stren

The second act shifts gears and while gory, is extremely funny. It was a wierd feeling being jerked from extreme violence directly to hysterical comedy and back again, but it worked. There was a friend who showed up about halfway through this part of the film who was absolutely hysterical, acting oblivious to what's happened and caring only about the party planned for that evening and the possibility of hooking up. The third act then shifts back to a more serious tone. One of the things I enjoyed about the approach was that I really didn't know what was going to happen next or where the film was go

Is the director saying Lewellan was inadvertantly asking for it through her behavior? I doubt that. Is she saying Lewellen should be allowed to act seductively without fear of being attacked? I don't know. My answer is obviously that there can be no justification for taking advantage of a child, but that she should be told that certain ways of acting are inappropriate and there are people out there who will respond to that behavior without giving thought to what is right and what is wr

Again, DiCaprio's in fine company in this category, but none of his competitors delivered a performance that has gotten as much attention as DiCaprio's work playing the rugged mountain man Hugh Glass. Plus, he has a long resume of credible work under his belt, so DiCaprio winning for The Revenant could be as much in recognition of that as anything e

From Melissa Leo's F-bomb, Kirk Douglas' never-ending jokes and womanizing to Hathaway's fun anti-Wolverine solo and Christian Bale actually shedding a tear, it was another long night at the Oscars defined by its little moments scattered through