Tomorrow morning is my version of Christmas. I get up early, bubbling over with anticipation, and wait nervously for the inevitable joy and pain. (The excitement of surprises and favorites, the anger of snubs or bad choices.) Arguably, Oscar nomination day is better than the awards show itself. By that time, the front-runners have already been identified; watching the same folks win over and over again is pretty boring. But tomorrow – tomorrow tells you everything you need to

Top 10 films Released in 2018 10. The Tale There’s a moment in Jennifer Fox’s The Tale that is so real and so startling, I’ll never be able to think of memory the same way again. In the film, Jennifer (Laura Dern) reexamines a “relationship” she had with an older man when she was a young girl. She flashes back to her teenage self in the first moments of thrall with her horse riding instructor (Jason Ritter) – the young actress playing her a solidly mature-looking 15-year-old.

2017: The year I was never so happy to be so wrong. When Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty announced La La Land  Best Picture, no one in the Dolby Theatre blinked an eye. It was just par for the course, the film having racked up a bunch of major awards, including Best Actress and Best Director. La La Land is the rare original musical, and one that served as an ode to Old Hollywood. It’s not a great musical, nor is it an especially moving story. But, of course, the Academy loves

Top 10 films Released in 2017 10. Battle of the Sexes Can we just pretend Emma Stone won her Oscar for this one instead of Blah-Blah Bland? Stone is warm and understated as feminist tennis legend Billie Jean King, who faces off against Steve Carrell's frustrating/charming Bobby Riggs in the famed 1970s tennis match of the title. The film is funny, moving, and boasts some of the best erotic scenes of the last decade in film. (Who knew a head massage from a hair dresser could b

I’ll be honest – 2016 was not my favorite year for film. While movies like American Honey, The Edge of Seventeen, Moonlight, and Manchester by the Sea astonished me (and Lion made me cry uncontrollably from the first five minutes until the end of the credits), I find myself less impressed with most of this year’s Oscar hopefuls. La La Land, which my fiance and I have nicknamed “Blah Blah Bland,” is just another example of Hollywood autoanilingus. (Does anyone even remember Th