Love or hate him, Terrence Malick has a unique style. Personally, he’s not for me.
The New World was a decent enough film, but it left me wanting more. I had such high hopes for
The Tree of Life, only for it to result in one of my most frustrating and tedious theater-going experiences ever, that I was ready to write him off. However, there is often an anomaly. For me, it was his devastatingly beautiful portrayal of World War II in 1998’s
The Thin Red Line. Rightfully or not,
The Thin Red Line will forever be associated and compared with
Saving Private Ryan, another World War II-based Best Picture nominee of 1998. And, if I’m being 100% honest, I did not know that
Malick directed the Thin Red Line until after I finished watching it.
Continue reading The Thin Red Line (1998) →
No Country for Old Men is the most well-received and critically acclaimed adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy (my favorite author) novel. There have been six. The Road is, by far, my favorite McCarthy novel and a movie masterpiece. The others are the slightly underrated All the Pretty Horses, the disappointing box office flop The Counselor, the virtually unseen Child of God, and The Sunset Limited, a film I still need to see. No Country for Old Men is the only McCarthy-adapted film to receive an Oscar, earning eight nominations and four wins, including the first nomination and win in Best Achievement in Directing for Hollywood darlings Joel and Ethan Coen.
The year 1995 got it right while getting it wrong simultaneously regarding the Oscars. I’m referring, in particular, to two movies. Dead Man Walking and Leaving Las Vegas. Each movie had knock-it-out-of-the-park performances from its lead characters, but neither film could capitalize on these performances to earn a Best Picture nomination. However, outside of Braveheart and Apollo 13, this wasn’t a particularly strong year with Babe, Sense and Sensibility, and The Postman as the other five nominees. Braveheart (the winner) continues to remain one of the most beloved Best Picture winners of all time, while many view Apollo 13 as a technical masterpiece. As a brief aside, Heat, Se7en, and The Usual Suspects deserved the other three nominees
Barbieheimer, the crafty, endearing portmanteau of 
One of the most recognizable and influential films about substance abuse in cinema history is Darren Aronofsky’s (