TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

I just watched The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1  yesterday, and I have to say it is the polar opposite of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman or (The Virtue of Ignorance) . Despite the pretentiously long name (just pick one or the other!) Birdman  is the movie with the Hollywood cast that's very Broadway, very independent, and very...alive. Of course, anyone who has seen it knows that Michael Keaton's Riggan berates a critic, saying that he takes risks being an actor, but what does she have to lose? This in effect makes this movie critic proof...but Inarritu and his brilliant cast need not worry, this movie is fantastic, and will surely pick up a trophy or two come Oscar time. Mid-life crises, putting on troubled plays, family dysfunction are all themes here that have been explored to death in other movies, but Birdman has a way of taking them, flipping them on their head and analyzing them in a way that feels fresh and electric. The closest thing I can say it is co...

The summer of 2012 marks a successful return of popular actors!  In May, we got the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air back, Mr. Smith, himself, and with "Moonrise Kingdom," the comeback of Edward Norton and Bill Murray.  Murray was last heard in director Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" back in 2009, and even though his character is a bit of downer, it's still a treat to see him on the cinema.  Norton, who's played many menacing, unpredictable roles in films like "American History X" and "Fight Club," has turned, shall we say, softer, by playing a nervous, smoking Khaki Scout Headmaster. Welcome back, Norton If all of this is an overabundance of quirkiness, you're in for the mother-load as "Moonrise Kingdom" finally got a wide release.  The film's already broken a record, it only opened in 4 theaters initially, but still hauled in an impressive $167,000.  Anderson has now produced a cult following if nothing else!  As ...