TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Fortunately I got to see a good handful of movies over the Thanksgiving break, Oscar contenders Whiplash and Birdman , and ginormous blockbusters that I normally would have seen opening day, Interstellar and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1 . It killed me not being able to see these two films that I've heard so much buzz and conversation about. Acknowledging these facts, and the truth that I am late to these reviews, here is my review of Mockingjay , and later, will do a joint review with my friend Aaron Haynes on Interstellar because...I'm not sure I understand it completely. There were fewer movies this year that I was more hyped about than Mockingjay Part 1 . Perhaps it is filling that young adult adaptation space that I crave, but I just can't get enough of this series, talking about it, watching those great propaganda trailers released earlier this year. What I love is that they don't really need to market these gargantuan blockbusters because the fans alread...

The Super Bowl has come and gone. Besides being devoid of football enjoyment, especially so for a guy who's not big into football, the game also had a huge cloud hanging over it even before the slaughter began. Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of the 21st century's finest character actors/actor in general overdosed on heroin at the age of 46. Media coverage of Hoffman's death has been intrusive to say the least, and I wanted it to die down a bit so I could get most of the news and think of something fitting to say in response to his death. In one of his lighter roles as Brandt It's ironic to say that I'm fortunate that I haven't seen Hoffman's finest work, which, reading from the tribute articles that have come out in droves this past week, include primarily the following five films: Capote, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Almost Famous, Doubt and Boogie Nights . They're at least the constantly reoccurring ones. I'm glad not to have seen the...