2012: For Your Consideration, Part 3

For Your Consideration: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

This is really my area of expertise

To hell with an intro! I tried writing some sort of eloquent piece on movie making and the direction Hollywood is going. Well, that was a boring and crappy intro, so I decided to write about the actual movie-going experience and how I prefer to watch movies in the theater because I can't get distracted by my phone or the internet. But I hated that as well. So here I am - my top three movies this year. One of them was for sure going to be a favorite of mine when I made last year's list, but the other two I really was surprised at how much they affected me. On to the list!

2012: For Your Consideration, Part 2

For Your Consideration: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Your average Academy member

I just don't understand the Academy lately. I get the decision to open up the Best Picture category. But to not do the same with Best Director? Those two categories are intrinsically tied together more than any other two categories. So you know that whoever wins director is going to win Best Picture 90% of the time. It's only happened 7 times in the past 63 years. This takes all the excitement out of the buildup from the nominations announcement to the actual show. Right now you can eliminate four of the contenders for Best Picture. Part of this also has to do with the actual number of nominees: 9 pictures is just too much. They need to make the threshold a tiny bit smaller. I'd go with 7 nominees for Best Picture and Director - that way you can still acknowledge big time movies like Django Unchained while still not losing all credibility by nominating a movie like Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Plus I don't just get their nominations these past three to four years - they're all over the place. But that's another long post which I won't bore you with (at least, not now).

2012: For Your Consideration, Part 1

For Your Consideration: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

 2012 was an amazing year for movies. There were so many great movies that I had a hard time coming up with just 10. In fact, there a couple dozen movies I consider worthy of watching at least once if you haven't already. So instead of doling out a top 10, I'm offering up 9 Best Picture nominees (like the 9 nominated this year) that the Academy didn't and probably wouldn't even consider because they're all a bunch of grumpy old men. I'll then compile an actual top ten list that will include some Best Picture nominees that I thought were amazing. I figured this was the best way to compile all the great movies I've seen that came out last year!