Mr. Brown Versus

On Oscar Sunday, I had the honor of doing a podcast with Al Robinson, Write Out of LA's Robin Write and the other half of Awards Daily, Ryan Adams; along with fellow film fans Julia and Joel, and spent over 5 1/2 hours talking about the telecast, from host Jimmy Kimmel bringing in civilians to the show, to an ending which will be talked about for years to come. Needless to say, this will become a trend. That's right - you can now hear me now talk about movies with fellow movie nerds!

Here are just a few personal thoughts about the list of nominees for the 89th annual Academy Awards ceremony I'd thought I'd share (the full list of nominees can be found here ). * Amazing What a Hashtag Can Do: It shouldn't come as a surprise that three movies - Hidden Figures , Fences  &  Moonlight  - all centered on African-American leads which do a terrific job telling stories about the black experience in America have now been nominated for Best Picture today. All three deserved the praise and accolades they have been showered with, but let's also acknowledge that the Academy would have been slaughtered by the press and by Twitter if they went a third straight year with a lineup that was all lily white, and rightfully so. Hell, I think Twitter would be screaming bloody murder had Moonlight  not made the cut for Picture, along with its writer/director Barry Jenkins if he wasn't nominated for Director. * Oh, Amy....: I'm ecstatic to see the sci-fi dra...

With Awards Season now in our rear view mirror, I'm spending today and tomorrow putting a capper on 2014 with my thoughts on this year's Oscar telecast, and (finally) releasing my picks for the best of the year. Sunday night was the 87th annual Academy Awards telecast, and if I could sum it up in a word it would be the following: tedious.  The Oscar telecast has always been a chore to sit through as the viewer has to endure the most boring aspects of the program - the awards for the technicals (Cinematography, Visual Effects, Sound Editing & Mixing, Makeup, etc.), the films no one has bothered to watch (Documentary Feature & Short Subject, Live Action & Animated Short), the "In Memorial" segment, but the dull & yawn-inducing aspects of said broadcast can be tolerable as long as there's a host with solid material. As someone who enjoys the less-than compelling aspects of the yearly telecast, as stated earlier, was a bloody chore for me to sit throug...

What does Stephen Hawking, the godfather of computer science, a hotel manager breaking out from prison during the first World War, a young boy and his family growing up through 12 years and the battle of wills between a aspiring musician and his near-abusive professor have in common? On the surface, these are different films ranging in different subjects. But when you look at the people who stared, wrote and directed these various movies, A few patterns begin to emerge: 1. The cast is predominately white. 2. The story mostly centers on a male protagonist. 3. The filmmakers behind the project are white and male. And all of those films I've mentioned:  The Theory of Everything , The Imitation Game , The Grand Budapest Hotel , Boyhood  and Whiplash  - have all been nominated for Best Picture for this year's 87th annual Academy Awards. Before I go any further, I just want to say that this is not an attack on the films themselves. Most of the films mentioned I really...