The Casual Critic

The Oscars are upon us February 21, 2009

In what seems to be one of the most boring competitions in years, we are only 1 day away from the Awards ceremony. Final Predictions are up as well as a brief commentary. At least we're hoping Wolverine will spice up the ceremony.

2008: Year of the Vampires? January 03, 2009

Every other year there seems to be something in the Hollywood water that causes a number of movies with very similar ideas to come out at about the same time making everyone wonder - what's up with that? I am not talking necessarily about a large number of movies it could be just a couple if they are big enough to be noticed.

1998 was the first that I remember, that was the year of the bugs. To be precise, they year of the animated movies about bugs: Antz and A Bug's Life coming out to compete for the newly found theme. For me it was also the year of the war movies with Saving Private Ryan unfortunately eclipsing the more harrowing The Thin Red Line, but war movies were not really a new theme. 2007 was the year of the critically acclaimed movies that average movie-goers have a hard time distinguishing: how many people did you encounter that confuse No Country for Old Men with There Will Be Blood? I've seen it happen at least two dozen times.

I give you then 2008: The Year of the Vampires!

Uh, oh - it's been a year! February 24, 2008

The last entry on this blog happened exactly one year ago. It's as if after the 2006 Oscars, everything faded to black. It's true, most people know that the march-april months are pretty much dead when it comes to good movies, the exception being only the Cannes festival. But this whole year, neither Cannes, nor the summer blockbusters, nor the Oscar hopefuls from fall and winter managed to get me back to writing.

Oscar Predictions February 21, 2007

The 2006 Oscar prediction pages are up. It's now or never if you still want to catch up with some of the nominated movies, now is the time to watch them.

I also have a few reviews to write as I have managed to watch After the Wedding, Half Nelson and Sherrybaby.

The Oscars are knocking January 22, 2007

I just realized (or actually been told) that while I was still updating the reviews and Oscars sections of the site, I have not really said anything about it in the main section :)

Well, January is when the Awards are afoot and lots of catching up happening with all the limited movies (and not only) which will ultimately contend for an Oscar. Nominations are announced on Tuesday morning, after which all the speculation will become more focused. And who knows, maybe we'll get some time to have a look at some early 2007 movies.

Summer draught August 25, 2006

Hmm... so what happened this summer? Did I spend all my time sunbathing on a tropical beach with no time for my movie addiction? Yeah, right. Were all summer movies so terrible that I couldn't bring myself to write about any of them? Well... there've plenty bad movies, but that's not the reason either.

I guess we'll blame it on an undefined notion of draught and try to play catch-up at a very fast pace.

2006 Cannes Festival Winners May 29, 2006

The 2006 edition of the Cannes festival announced its winners on Sunday. The Palme D'Or went to Ken Loach's international co-production The Wind that Shakes the Barley, a story about the pain and sacrifices of the Irish independence war which turned, in only a few years, into a an even more painful civil war.

The Grand Prix was awarded to Flanders by Bruno Dumont. Flanders, another movie set in time of war, takes a different approach to its story-telling: in Dumont's own words: The landscapes come first, it is as of there that the story commences. They are a determining element of inspiration.

The direction and screenplay awards went to the hispanic world this year. First off, Alejandro González IÑÁRRITU received the Best Director award for Babel, the third movie in the conceptual trilogy that includes Amores Perros and 21 Grams. "With Babel," explains Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu, "I wanted to explore the contradiction between the impression that the world has become quite small due to all the communication tools which we have, and the feeling that human beings are still incapable of expressing themselves and communicating amongst themselves on a fundamental level."